1169 And Counting.....

Friday, December 12, 2008

VOTE 'NO' to Lisbon Two!

"Ní hea, No, Nein, Non, Nyet, Nope, Not, No Means No ..."
What part of that don't they understand ?

"The meeting and dinner heard how Ireland’s “intellectual mediocrity and lack of political courage” led to the rejection of the Lisbon treaty and included discussions of how to “cuddle and pamper” the Irish voter ahead of a new vote while at the same time “making pressures on them”.
(From here.)

This video gives an apt description of the type of morally and politically corrupt politician and system that are now demanding we vote 'the right way' on the already failed Lisbon Treaty. And this video shows what those bent career politicians stand to loose if we don't vote the way they want us to . As Republican Sinn Féin have stated - "The decision to re-run the referendum on the rejected Lisbon Treaty in the 26-Counties next October represents an attempt to subvert the sovereign will of the people.All kinds of pressure is being applied to those allowed to vote to ensure that they arrive at the result Brian Cowen and the EU 'élite' demand....."
(From here.)
Once again, this blog will be campaigning for a 'NO' vote on the Lisbon Treaty , for the same reasons : the "guarantees" which Brian Cowen has received have been given to him by similar unprincipled characters and , even if they were to be written in blood , would still be worthless . VOTE 'NO!' and help keep the lifts and corridors of the EU building free of more political rats , who scurry around trying to find the 'Sign In' book before they head back home to the political brothels they come from .
Sharon.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

THE IRA : the new IRA is younger , more radical and has seen little of life other than violence.......
By Ed Moloney.
From 'Magill' magazine, September 1980.

Visiting Irish Republican guest-speakers in America were instructed by NORAID never to refer to socialism , and one such guest speaker can recall discovering unopened bundles of 'Republican News' lying dumped in dustbins outside NORAID's Bronx headquarters : some aspects of republicanism were always thought to be too radical for the Irish-Americans . There are traditional , conservative forces within the Provos ranged against the 'radicals' within the same organisation and , although there have been symbolic victories for them , notably the fusion (or takeover as some see it) of 'Republican News' with the Dublin-based 'An Phoblacht' , the real political debate has centred on the Provos 1972 policy docement , 'Éire Nua'.

That document is identified in most people's minds with two traditional leaders , Sinn Féin President Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and Vice President Dáithí Ó Conaill : at Sinn Féin's last Ard Fheis held in January 1980 , but actually 1979's Ard Fheis , that document was changed for the first time since the new policy document which was adopted 'Éire Nua - the Social , Economic and Political Dimension' , was more a change in emphasis than substance .

The language was more socialist than the 1972 document but some controversial clauses , especially relating to the right to land ownership , were merely changed or deleted by Sinn Féin's ruling body , the Ard Comhairle . But what that document did do was to set in motion a series of moves which the radicals hope will turn the Provisionals leftwards . A women's committee was set-up to devise a policy document to be debated at the next Ard Fheis - that policy will reflect the difficulties the radicals are having converting their more conservative and Catholic sisters . Women who have had abortions are not condemned but the system that forced them to is . Moral issues like contraception and divorce should , the committee decided, be left to individuals to choose.......

(MORE LATER).

BLACK PROPAGANDA AND BLOODY MURDER.......

British Army Captain John Colin Wallace.

First it was the Maguire family - claiming they had been wrongly convicted of bombings in London on faulty forensic tests and circumstantial evidence . Then the Birmingham Six were shown to have been the victims of another miscarriage of British 'justice' . Now , in the most bizarre case of all , a former British Intelligence officer , who served in the North of Ireland , has claimed that he was framed for a killing he didn't commit .
British Captain John Wallace , now serving ten years for manslaughter , claims that his conviction was part of a plan to destroy his credibility because he knew too much about covert operations in Ireland - on both sides of the border . Frank Doherty talked to Wallace and to another former British Intelligence officer , Captain Fred Holroyd , who is lobbying politicians to re-open a case which is as potentially embarrassing for the British Secret Service as the Wright case in Australia has proved to be.
From 'MAGILL' magazine , December 1986 .

British spy John Colin Wallace was charged in August 1980 with the murder of Jonathan Lewis , whose body had been removed from the River Arun . The charge was reduced to manslaughter after the trial judge , Mr Justice Kilner-Brown, said it was doubtful if he knew Lewis was dead as the body slipped into the water .

Wallace proclaimed his innocence from the beginning and his ex-MI6 wife , Eileen , has always agreed with him . Wallace himself says - " The whole thing has been a nightmare . I'm not saying that Jonathan Lewis was killed to frame me and get me put in jail , but I believe that sinister forces who wished to discredit me took advantage of the situation which arose when a friend of mine died a violent death . You have to remember that I know about a lot of skeletons in the cupboard left there by British Intelligence in Ireland . Just as they tried to smear Peter Wright, the MI5 officer whose book they are trying to suppress , and John Stalker, who got too near the truth in the North of Ireland , they seized a chance to smear me . It was successful . Few people would be prepared to believe the word of a convicted killer about anything . " ('1169..' Comment : 'alleged convicted killer' or not , that is not the main reason why people would doubt his 'word' or , indeed , the 'word' of any Brit spy.)

After 45 hours of evidence and a four-and-a-half hour absence by the jury , Colin Wallace was found guilty of manslaughter and sent to jail for ten years in 1981 . For nearly five years he kept his belief that he had been framed under wraps . When there were changes in the top in British Intelligence he hoped against hope that he would be freed and that the nightmare would end quietly , with him being slipped from prison the way he had seen other prisoners released in Belfast on the say-so of the men who control the shadowy world in which Wallace once worked . His wife , now employed as personal assistant to the British 'Duke of Norfolk' - another old Intelligence hand - kept up discreet pressure to have her husband's conviction investigated by British Secret Service bosses .

After five years , Wallace gave up hope that the British Intelligence mafia of which he had once been part would do anything for him ; in Lewes Prison one night he watched a Channel Four 'Diverse Reports' programme which featured Captain Fred Holroyd, a former British Military Intelligence Officer who had worked with MI6 in Lisburn , County Antrim . Wallace remembered meeting him in the British Secret Service office on the second floor of military HQ in Lisburn years before and decided to contact him , asking for help.......

(MORE LATER).

THE UNDAUNTED WOMEN IN ARMAGH.......

The full story of the republican prisoners in Armagh Jail has yet to be told. It has yet to be sung , and properly described , other than as an after-thought in public speeches - "...and of course the women in Armagh.." Republicans have a right to be proud of those women who, from the Divis Flats grandmother doing six months for what an Orange judge called "riotous behaviour" to the young IRA Volunteer inside for the second time and not yet 25-years-old , have managed, whether they numbered 12 or 120 , to maintain their resistance to the most vicious prison system in Europe. The words that follow , says writer Patricia Collins , were written to encourage more of those women to come forward and tell their story , and are based on conversations with several
ex-prisoners , and on visits and letters from those women presently imprisoned. They were written in the hope of jogging the memory of all those women who wrongly think their contribution to Ireland's future peace is not worth mentioning.
From 'IRIS' magazine , August 1984.

Charges of 'breaches of prison discipline' were made against the prisoners on the flimsiest excuse . Prisoners were left in their cells for hours after asking to go to the toilets . In May 1978 male Screws were used to baton-charge female remand prisoners engaged on a protest action against the removal of political status . ('1169...' Comment : How ironic that some of those protesting against the removal of political status would 'evolve' into constitutional anti-republican salaried puppets for Westminster and would themselves , in later years, remove political status from republican prisoners by calling for supprt for , and helping to implement , the 1998 'GFA'/Stormont Treaty! )

Such violence was an indication of things to come . Less than two years later , as tension had been slowly building up in the North's jails , the protesting prisoners were savagely attacked by male and female Screws . February 7th 1980 marked the escalation of the protest as the Armagh women POW's embarked on the 'no-wash' protest.

The prison administration's pretext was a Wing search for the black uniforms that had been used some days earlier by the protesting prisoners for a commemoration in honour of dead IRA Volunteer 'Dee' Delaney. The prisoners were set upon as they were queuing up to get their dinner ; they were beaten , trailed by the hair , thrown downstairs and finally dragged in front of prison Governor George Scott who punished all of them by putting them on complete lock-up - this attitude left the women prisoners with no alternative other than to call a complete 'no-wash' protest : all 32 women in that Wing were in agreement with that course of action . The 'no-wash' protest lasted 13 months , during which more attention was focused on Armagh Jail than at any other time during the decade . But the cost to the prisoners was high.......

(MORE LATER).

Monday, December 08, 2008

Front of 2009 Republican Calendar.

2009 REPUBLICAN CALENDAR : AN ALL-YEAR-ROUND GIFT !

Back of 2009 Republican Calendar.

In the last few weeks of each year ,the Republican Movement issues a calendar for the new year : this year is no exception . The 2009 Republican Calendar features a series of hard-to-get and/or seldomn seen Republican prints and , judging by sales so far , looks set to become a collectors item . Priced at €5 each , these calendars are available from the local Cumann or paper-seller in your area or by contacting the RSF Office in Dublin (223 Parnell Street , Dublin 1 , fón 8729747) or the Belfast Office (229 Falls Road , fón 90319004) : so keep up-to-date with the Republican Movement and stay 12 months ahead of the 'establishment' - order your 2009 Calendar today !

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

FAT CATS : No money for our pensioners or for our school-kids , but €400 billion found for the Banks!

On Saturday , 6th December 2008 , Republican Sinn Féin held it's monthly protest at the GPO in O'Connell Street , Dublin , in support of POW status for republican prisoners : half of the approximate thirty-strong group of protesting republicans stayed on that protest whilst , as pre-arranged, the other half joined-in with the 70,000-strong crowd that were protesting against State education cuts . The following five photographs were taken by an RSF member on that protest march -

"Our kids can't afford it - and neither can we...!"

Small kids , bigger classes...

"Don't punish our kids for your incompetence..."

School kids , parents and teachers - united in their demand: "No Education Cut-Backs...!"

" Hey ! Cowen ! Leave our kids alone....!"

"The development of the race depends on the development of the individual , and where self-culture has ceased to be the ideal , the intellectual standard is instantly lowered and , often, ultimately lost..."
(Oscar Wilde)
Congratulations and "Well Done!" to all those who took to the streets of Dublin on Saturday December 6th last , whether in protest against the Education cut-backs or to highlight the POW issue : both are honourable Causes!
Sharon.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

THE IRA : the new IRA is younger , more radical and has seen little of life other than violence.......
By Ed Moloney.
From 'Magill' magazine, September 1980.

The bulk of Provisional supporters , especially in the rural , border areas are traditional Republicans : small farmers or country town merchants , what one Belfast member calls 'Fianna Failers with guns' . Their support which is reflected in the vote for the 30 or so Sinn Fein councillors is vital for the war effort , as they provide the training camps , the dumps and the safe houses . Many of them stayed with the Provisionals precisely because they thought the Officials were too leftist or Marxist .

Much the same can be said for the older veterans of the Movement : the men of the 'forties and 'fifties , many of whom sit on the IRA Executive , the body that acts as the repository of Republican faith and which in war time appoints the IRA Army Council . One such man , a Northerner in fact , who has spent 13 years in prison or in internment camps summed it up like this - " I don't like this word socialism . I wish they could find another word for it..." Others , like Billy McKee, a former Chief of Staff and Belfast Brigade Commander , have dropped out altogether . When McKee last came to Belfast in May 1979 to speak to a welcome home rally for released blanket-man Ciaran Nugent he was reportedly horrified at the number of foreign left-wing posters and pamphlets in the offices of the 'Republican News' newspapeer , the voice of the Northern left .

Another group whose dollars at least are vital to the Provos are the Irish-Americans and notably 'Irish Northern Aid', headed by veteran Irish Republican Michael Flannery. But even in the early days the Irish-Americans were a standing joke with Belfast Provos . It was common then for visiting Irish Republican speakers from Ireland to be taken by Michael Flannery for a new outfit of sober suit , tie and shiny shoes before being let loose on the Irish-American faithful.......

(MORE LATER).

BLACK PROPAGANDA AND BLOODY MURDER.......

British Army Captain John Colin Wallace.

First it was the Maguire family - claiming they had been wrongly convicted of bombings in London on faulty forensic tests and circumstantial evidence . Then the Birmingham Six were shown to have been the victims of another miscarriage of British 'justice' . Now , in the most bizarre case of all , a former British Intelligence officer , who served in the North of Ireland , has claimed that he was framed for a killing he didn't commit .
British Captain John Wallace , now serving ten years for manslaughter , claims that his conviction was part of a plan to destroy his credibility because he knew too much about covert operations in Ireland - on both sides of the border . Frank Doherty talked to Wallace and to another former British Intelligence officer , Captain Fred Holroyd , who is lobbying politicians to re-open a case which is as potentially embarrassing for the British Secret Service as the Wright case in Australia has proved to be.
From 'MAGILL' magazine , December 1986 .

In around 1979 , British Army Captain John Colin Wallace , whilst working for the local council in Arundel , in Sussex , England , became involved in preparing a BBC 'It's A Knock-Out!' TV programme which was to be screened from the seaside town of Arundel . While the show was being organised he became friendly with Jane Lewis , who worked in the council office . " Jane and her antique-dealer husband , Jonathan , went out several times with my wife , Eileen , and I , " says Wallace , " Later , the police said I had been having an affair with Jane..."

On 5th August 1980 , Jonathan Lewis phoned Wallace and asked to meet him at 6.30 that evening for a chat before both couples went to a small dinner party in a local hotel , which was being held to celebrate the ending of the filming for the 'It's A Knock-Out!' programme . The former British Intelligence man agreed , and drove over to pick-up Lewis in a white Austin Princess which he had on loan from the BBC while helping to make the show . The police version of what happened next is that Lewis and Wallace had an argument about the relationship between Wallace and Jane Lewis and that Wallace hit Jonathan Lewis with an expert karate chop to the face , knocking him unconscious . Wallace , say the police , then dragged Jonathan Lewis outside , put him in the boot of the Austin Princess car and drove to the hotel , where he joined the dinner party .

According to the police , Wallace then pretended to be ill , slipped away from the party at about 10.15pm and drove to the River Arun , into which he dumped the still unconscious Jonathan Lewis . Four days later , the antique dealer's body was found downstream . He had been drowned .

Wallace's version of what happened that night differs dramatically from that of the police : he admits that Lewis and he talked at the Wallace home , that Lewis confessed he was worried about the rocky state of his marriage and that they had one drink each - Wallace had a beer and Lewis had a gin and tonic . Then , said Wallace , he drove the antique dealer back to his car at about 7.15pm and that , he claimed , was the last he saw of him alive . At around ten that evening , Wallace left the party because he had stomach trouble ; for the police , that was a crucial piece of evidence.......

(MORE LATER).

THE UNDAUNTED WOMEN IN ARMAGH.......

The full story of the republican prisoners in Armagh Jail has yet to be told. It has yet to be sung , and properly described , other than as an after-thought in public speeches - "...and of course the women in Armagh.." Republicans have a right to be proud of those women who, from the Divis Flats grandmother doing six months for what an Orange judge called "riotous behaviour" to the young IRA Volunteer inside for the second time and not yet 25-years-old , have managed, whether they numbered 12 or 120 , to maintain their resistance to the most vicious prison system in Europe. The words that follow , says writer Patricia Collins , were written to encourage more of those women to come forward and tell their story , and are based on conversations with several
ex-prisoners , and on visits and letters from those women presently imprisoned. They were written in the hope of jogging the memory of all those women who wrongly think their contribution to Ireland's future peace is not worth mentioning.
From 'IRIS' magazine , August 1984.

The protesting female republican prisoners managed to pass a statement out from Armagh Jail : " At Easter 1978 , the then prison governor , Ernest Whittington, was replaced by George Scott. Unlike Whittington , who held an indifferent attitude towards the non-conforming stance , Scott , upon his arrival, immediately introduced measures to increase the hardships republicans were experiencing . He was determined to break the backbone of republicanism in the jail - the (IRA) company structure , which was by then firmly established among the increasing number of protestors. "

In an attempt to break the protest , George Scott decided by late 1978 to move most of the protesting prisoners to 'B' Wing , leaving only four short-term prisoners in 'A' Wing - Roisin Rouse (3 years) , Roisin Black (2 years) , Rita Bateson (3 years detention) and Maureen Gibson (4 years) . They were left in 'A' Wing , along with common law prisoners and some loyalists , while the rest of the protesting women POW's were moved to 'B' Wing along with four long-term loyalist prisoners .

However , the four POW's in 'A' Wing continued the protest in spite of their isolation and , 10 months later , after two had been released, George Scott conceded defeat and moved the other two women POW's back with their comrades in 'B' Wing . But the Governor and his staff were sore about having to give in , and petty vindictivness was soon back on their agenda.......

(MORE LATER).

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

(From here.) [Click to enlarge]

AN GORTA MÓR.

"An Englishman applauds and assists insurrection in countries where they profess to have for their object the freedom of the individual or of the nation; he imprisons and stifles it at home, where the motive is precisely similar, and the cause, in the eyes of the insurgents at least, incomparably more valid...."

" You have heard, no doubt, of wholesale evictions; they are of frequent occurrence in Ireland—sometimes from political motives, because the poor man will not vote with his landlord; sometimes from religious motives, because the poor man will not worship God according to his landlord's conscience; sometimes from selfish motives, because his landlord wishes to enlarge his domain, or to graze more cattle. The motive does not matter much to the poor victim. He is flung out upon the roadside; if he is very poor, he may die there, or he may go to the workhouse, but he must not be taken in, even for a time, by any other family on the estate. The Irish Celt, with his warm heart and generous impulses, would, at all risks to himself, take in the poor outcasts, and share his poverty with them; but the landlord could not allow this. The commission of one evil deed necessitates the commission of another. An Irish gentleman, who has no personal interest in land, and is therefore able to look calmly on the question, has been at the pains to collect instances of this tyranny, in his Plea for the Celtic Race. I shall only mention one as a sample. In the year 1851, on an estate which was at the time supposed to be one of the most fairly treated in Ireland , the agent of the property had given public notice to the tenantry that expulsion from their farms would be the penalty inflicted on them, if they harboured any one not resident on the estate. The penalty was enforced against a widow, for giving food and shelter to a destitute grandson of twelve years old. The child's mother at one time held a little dwelling, from which she was expelled; his father was dead. He found a refuge with his grandmother, who was ejected from her farm for harbouring the poor boy...."
(From here.)

It is from the likes of the above that republicanism was born : not to seek ‘revenge’ , but to obtain Justice. That same quest for true justice continues to this day and will continue - for as long as necessary - until the root cause of the injustice is removed .
Please help us, if you can : we are a small but significant organisation , as politically determined as we always were but we need your help...
Go raibh maith agat!
Sharon.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

32 YEARS UNDER WATER........

....or 'A SWIM FOR EVERY COUNTY!'

It began - properly structured and organised - in 1976 ,as a ‘fundraiser with a difference’ combined with the need to gain extra publicity for a situation which was then - as now - making world headlines . Those that sat down together in early September 1976 to tighten-up the then ‘hit-and-miss’ affair were a dedicated team who fully understood that to fail in their business would not only bring derision on them and the issue they sought to highlight , but would give their enemy a publicity coup which they would exploit to the fullest extent . With that in mind , the team persevered - favours were called-in , guarantees were secured , provisions obtained and word dispatched to like-minded individuals in the near-locale . At the appointed time on the agreed day - 12 Noon , Christmas Day 1976 - a soon-to-be 32-years-young event was ‘born’…….

The CABHAIR Christmas Day Swim is , thankfully , still going strong and will be , as mentioned , 32-years-young on December 25th next!
Photographs of last years event can be viewed here and , if you can’t make it to the actual swim itself , you might consider posting a donation to the following address (please note that all monies raised goes to the republican prisoners themselves and to their families - no expenses or admin fees etc are removed) :
CABHAIR
Irish Republican Prisoners Dependants Fund
223 Parnell Street,
Dublin 1,
Ireland.
Thank You,
Go Raibh Maith Agat.
Sharon.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

THE IRA : the new IRA is younger , more radical and has seen little of life other than violence.......
By Ed Moloney.
From 'Magill' magazine, September 1980.

" The most successful radicalisation of the Republican Movement since the Republican Congress, and it didn't cause a split..." - that's how Sinn Fein Vice President Gerry Adams, the man most identified with that radicalisation , now describes the recent political changes in Sinn Fein .

The move to the political left hasn't , it's true, caused a split in the Provisionals but it has come very close to it : there is undoubtedly a division within the Provo ranks , and that organisation can be said now to be roughly divided between North of Ireland and South of Ireland , old and young , traditional and revolutionary , but essentially between political 'right' and 'left' .

The impetus for the move leftwards has come from a small group of Northern and especially Belfast radicals whose influence far outweights their strength . One Belfast leftist puts their numbers at no more than 30 or 40 , but it is almost entirely because the present 7-person IRA Army Council is like-minded , and are responsible for the military re-vitalisation of the IRA , that the leftists have exerted as much influence as they have . Realistically , the Provisionals have yet to move much further to the left before the radicals can say that they have successfully turned it into a socialist organisation . More so than most political organisations , the Provisionals consist of a delicate balance of differing interest groups - move them one way and the balance is upset . Most political organisations can withstand those sort of stresses and strains but less so an organisation that is also fighting a war of national liberation . The leftists have been able to tip the balance so far and even then only a little at a time.......

(MORE LATER).

BLACK PROPAGANDA AND BLOODY MURDER.......

British Army Captain John Colin Wallace.

First it was the Maguire family - claiming they had been wrongly convicted of bombings in London on faulty forensic tests and circumstantial evidence . Then the Birmingham Six were shown to have been the victims of another miscarriage of British 'justice' . Now , in the most bizarre case of all , a former British Intelligence officer , who served in the North of Ireland , has claimed that he was framed for a killing he didn't commit .
British Captain John Wallace , now serving ten years for manslaughter , claims that his conviction was part of a plan to destroy his credibility because he knew too much about covert operations in Ireland - on both sides of the border . Frank Doherty talked to Wallace and to another former British Intelligence officer , Captain Fred Holroyd , who is lobbying politicians to re-open a case which is as potentially embarrassing for the British Secret Service as the Wright case in Australia has proved to be.
From 'MAGILL' magazine , December 1986 .

British Army Captain John Colin Wallace claims that he was shifted from the North of Ireland to England because he was one of a team of black propaganda experts organised by the Secret Service chief in the North , Craig Smellie. According to Wallace , his title of 'Head of Production Services' was a meaningless cover for his real job as senior officer in the secretive 'Information Policy Unit' , a propaganda group run jointly by MI6 and the British Army.

" Most of the propaganda was directed against the IRA . Some of it was used on targets like Ian Paisley, Bill Craig and some Southern politicians, " says Wallace . He claims that he leaked information to 'The Times' newspaper after being instructed to do so by a 'a senior officer in [British] intelligence' . Files and papers concerning a special unit set up at Stormont Castle to discredit politicians were dropped through the letterbox of a Queen's University professor's home in 1975 - " It was me who delivered those papers, " Wallace says , " but I was acting on instructions from higher authority . Later , the reporter was visited at a Dublin hotel by a British Embassy official and threatened with prosecution under the Official Secrets Act if he used the information in the documents I had left with him."

The whole affair was part of the feud which had blown up between rival British spy agencies in Ireland . " I ended up with a civilian job in Arundel, Sussex, as Information Officer with the local council . Other members of the MI6 team in Lisburn were sent elsewhere when MI5 took over responsibility for intelligence on both sides of the Irish border . The head of the Secret Service team , Craig Smellie , was sent to Athens . He died there....... "

(MORE LATER).

THE UNDAUNTED WOMEN IN ARMAGH.......

The full story of the republican prisoners in Armagh Jail has yet to be told. It has yet to be sung , and properly described , other than as an after-thought in public speeches - "...and of course the women in Armagh.." Republicans have a right to be proud of those women who, from the Divis Flats grandmother doing six months for what an Orange judge called "riotous behaviour" to the young IRA Volunteer inside for the second time and not yet 25-years-old , have managed, whether they numbered 12 or 120 , to maintain their resistance to the most vicious prison system in Europe. The words that follow , says writer Patricia Collins , were written to encourage more of those women to come forward and tell their story , and are based on conversations with several
ex-prisoners , and on visits and letters from those women presently imprisoned. They were written in the hope of jogging the memory of all those women who wrongly think their contribution to Ireland's future peace is not worth mentioning.
From 'IRIS' magazine , August 1984.

Young women from Nationalist ghettos would be thrown into Armagh Jail , just like Brenda Murray was : Rita Bateson , from the Bone area of Belfast , arrested in November 1976 , then aged 16 : Peggy McCormack , sentenced to two years in 1978 , then aged 14 . In contrast to those teenagers , there were also women like Rose McAllister , from Ardoyne , who had done six months in prison for wearing a combat jacket in 1971 . Later , in 1976 , she spent a few months on remand which ended with her charges being dropped and , finally , in 1978 , she was sentenced to two years , which she did on the protest . She was then aged 40 and had four children . With these women a whole community was being criminalised .

Brenda Murray was on her own in the sentenced part of 'A' Wing for three or four weeks . Eileen Morgan , from Newry , then joined her and the two engaged in a 'no work' protest and , as a result , were put on 21-hour lock-up , with only one visit a month , loss of all privileges and loss of remission .

Other women were soon to follow : Roisin Rouse from Craigavon , then Mairead Farrell . By February 1977 , there were five protesting prisoners and two are still inside - Eileen Morgan and Mairead Farrell . By March 1979 , the numbers of protesting Irish republican female prisoners stood at 38.......
(MORE LATER).

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

HAVE SOME OF US LOST THE SENSE OF 'RIGHT AND WRONG' ?
HAVE SOME LOST THEIR MORALS ?

(Photo from here.)

On Wednesday, November 12, 2008 , an Irishman was killed in Afghanistan : Robert McKibben (32), from Westport in County Mayo , died wearing the uniform of the British Army . He joined the Royal Marines at 27 and trained as a commando before joining J Company 42 Commando based in Plymouth. Marine McKibben, known to most on his unit as 'Frank', was serving on Operation HERRICK 9 with the Brigade Reconnaissance Force (BRF), 'United Kingdom Landing Force Command Support Group', as a reconnaissance operator. He was buried yesterday (Monday 24 November 2008) in Aughavale Cemetary in Westport and six uniformed British Army Marines carried his coffin – draped in a Royal Marines flag . That particular group of savage bandits has a bloody track record on this isle , which they attempt to pass-off as 'a jolly-good caper' on behalf of the 'empire'. It is nothing of the sort , as we Irish , amongst other peoples, are all too aware : that British Army Unit , and its members , represent the same 'tradition' as Cromwell did and should be seen as representing that 'Thug Tradition' .

The British political leadership themselves are , as expected , being extremely hypocritical regarding the deaths of 'their boys' :
'Two weeks ago, it was revealed that a British commander with the elite Special Air Service (SAS) had resigned, blaming the failure to provide his troops with heavy armoured vehicles for the deaths of some of his soldiers. Major Sebastian Morley, commander of SAS (Special Air Service) troops in Afghanistan, had "resigned in disgust"....'
(From here.)
They'll tell you it's 'your duty' , that you owe it to those that have gone before you , that it's for 'justice and world peace' ....or even that it's "for the freedom of small nations" : and some Irish people apparently still consider that to be the case. In doing so , they ignore not only their own history but that of 'The Great British Empire' as well . More fool they.

This.....

....is NOT our flag . Let's not make it so.

Robert McKibben died representing a foreign army of occupation . He is not the first Irishman to have that wrote about him and probably won't be the last : voices like ours on this blog are in the minority in highlighting that fact and , while we understand the grief his family are going through , we can only hope - sincerly - that his death may at least give others a reason to think twice before they go off , fully armed and kitted-out in an occupiers uniform , to foreign climes to 'keep the peace between the natives' .
Sharon.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

NO WELCOME HERE FOR BRITISH 'ROYALTY'!

In the last few weeks there has been increased speculation by the establishment media that the present English 'queen' is planning to visit her loyal subjects in Stormont and Leinster House : the Irish Republican position on any such visit is clear -

'When the english robbed our language
and gave us theirs instead,
they gave us leave to cheat them
in the things we left unsaid,
when they robbed us of our claymores
and thought our pikes absurd,
we fashioned brand new weapons,
with each new fangled word.'

Anne Windsor was the Colonel-in-Chief of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment of the British Crown Forces (29th/45th Foot) until it became the 2nd Battalion of the Mercian Regiment (Worcesters and Foresters) last August. In 1916, the 178 (Forester) Brigade was sent to Dublin in an attempt to suppress the Easter Rising. The same women is presently associated with British political and military imperialism by virtue of the following positions which she holds :
* Colonel-in-Chief, The King’s Royal Hussars
* Colonel-in-Chief, The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment (29/45 Foot)
* Colonel-in-Chief, The Royal Corps of Signals
* Colonel-in-Chief, The Royal Logistic Corps
* Colonel-in-Chief, The Royal Army Veterinary Corps
* Commandant-in-Chief, The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal’s Volunteer Corps)
* Colonel, The Blues and Royals
* Royal Colonel, The Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland
* Royal Colonel, The 52nd Lowland Regiment, 6th Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland
* Rear Admiral and Chief Commandant for women, Royal Navy
* Honorary Air Commodore, RAF Lyneham
* Honorary Air Commodore, University of London Air Squadron
* Royal Honorary Colonel, University of London OTC
* Commodore-in-Chief, Portsmouth.
Irish Republicans will be opposing the presence on this island of Anne Windsor : details of the intended protest will be announced nearer the date concerned .
Sharon.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

THE IRA : the new IRA is younger , more radical and has seen little of life other than violence.......
By Ed Moloney.
From 'Magill' magazine, September 1980.

At the same time there are indications that the IRA could be conserving its resources for the 'long war' ; to hit when and where it hurts . " We could bomb all round us for three months and cause millions of commercial damage but we'd lose 40 or 50 men and maybe kill 9 or 10 civilians in the process . What would be the point of that ? " , asks one Northern IRA leader .

Despite temporary or long term setbacks the IRA remains essentially a product of an abnormal society in the North of Ireland , what Tim Pat Coogan calls a 'faecal society' . The IRA is not the problem in the North , it is only a reflection of the problem . And as long as the problem remains unsolved the IRA and its bloody campaign will persist . In that context it is worth quoting British General James M. Glover's conclusion to his 1978 assessment of the IRA : " The Provisional IRA's campaign of violence is likely to continue while the British remain in Northern Ireland (sic) ." ('1169...' Comment : not only was the Brit General wrong in his forecast , but he also failed to predict that the Provos would one day be assisting his type in enforcing their administrative 'controls' in the Six Counties!)

(MORE LATER).

BLACK PROPAGANDA AND BLOODY MURDER.

THE UNDAUNTED WOMEN IN ARMAGH.......

The full story of the republican prisoners in Armagh Jail has yet to be told. It has yet to be sung , and properly described , other than as an after-thought in public speeches - "...and of course the women in Armagh.." Republicans have a right to be proud of those women who, from the Divis Flats grandmother doing six months for what an Orange judge called "riotous behaviour" to the young IRA Volunteer inside for the second time and not yet 25-years-old , have managed, whether they numbered 12 or 120 , to maintain their resistance to the most vicious prison system in Europe. The words that follow , says writer Patricia Collins , were written to encourage more of those women to come forward and tell their story , and are based on conversations with several
ex-prisoners , and on visits and letters from those women presently imprisoned. They were written in the hope of jogging the memory of all those women who wrongly think their contribution to Ireland's future peace is not worth mentioning.
From 'IRIS' magazine , August 1984.

March 1st 1976 was the beginning of the battle of wills between republican POW's incarcerated in six-county jails and the British government : the first women to be charged under the 'new system' was Mairead Farrell from Andersonstown in West Belfast - arrested on April 5th 1976 , she was sentenced to 14 years after several months on remand , most of it spent on her own . However , Mairead was not the first to experience criminalisation .

In December 1976 , an 18-year-old girl from the Short Strand in Belfast , Brenda Murray , was sentenced to 15 years for her alleged part in the bombing of the Babalu Boutique : the 'evidence' against Brenda was so unsatisfactory that she eventually obtained a retrial and , after over two years spent in Armagh Jail , a British judge finally admitted that she could not possibly have done what another British judge sent her to prison for 15 years for !

Brenda Murray was one of many innocent young women who were put through the infamous conveyor belt of criminalisation and , like the many young men who were to fill the H-Blocks of Long Kesh, Brenda was brought to Castlereagh Interrogation Centre, threatened with further beatings and forced to sign a prepared 'confession' , imprisoned for months on remand and finally processed through a Diplock Court, where a British judge found her guilty , not because of the 'evidence' put forward but because she was from a nationalist ghetto.......

(MORE LATER).

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

SAME SHIT.....

.....DIFFERENT DAY !

Today , Tuesday 18th November 2008 , is , yet again , another "Historic Day" in the troubled annals of this wee island : the usurpers in Westminster have decreed that their newish-found rebel pets in the 'Province' can be trusted to have a bigger input into how the Occupied Six Counties is 'policed' . However , the trained pets will be keeping a close eye on the Provisionals , on behalf of Westminster , to make sure that Gerry , Martin and the rest of the Muppets don't lose the run of themselves and forget that it is in fact British 'law' that they are being 'allowed' to implement!

And this is being presented as a 'Victory' : an "Historic Day" for us Irish - when in actual fact what it is is a step further on the 'Normalisation' Road , aided and abetted , yet again, by the usual anti-republican elements in Leinster House and Westminster .
Irish Republicans will not be 'celebrating' today , nor did we celebrate on any of the previous days when similar 'historic' announcements were made : we will , however, truly celebrate when the day comes that Westminster announces her intention to finally fully withdraw , politically and militarily , from this island . Until then, we hope the muppets enjoy their false dawn.....
Sharon.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

AN ENGLISH REDCOAT -

- a 'tribute' to those 56 countries which Westminster has sent 'peace-keeping' troops to , and in memory of the six million native people murdered in those countries for resisting the 'efforts' of those 'peace-keepers' :

" I joined the Redcoats then – mo lein! – what would my father say?
And I was sent in one short year on service to Bombay.

I thought to be a pauper was the greatest human curse
But fighting in a robber’s cause I felt it ten times worse!
I helped to plunder and enslave those tribes of India’s sons
And we spent many a sultry day blowing sepoys from our guns.

I told these sins to Father Ned, the murder and the booty.
These were no sins for me, he said, I only did my “duty” ...

No sin to kill for English greed in some far foreign clime
How can it be that patriot love in Ireland is a crime ?
How can it be, by God’s decree, I’m cursed, outlawed and banned ?
Because I swore one day to free my trampled native land."
(From 'A FENIAN BALLAD' [aka 'Sweet Iveleary'] by Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa)

Remembrance of Genocide -

In Mein Kampf, Hitler stated his plans, his motivation, and the precedents for the policies which, when he implemented when achieved power with the assistance of Britain.

Extermination or genocide was the norm in the British Empire, providing Hitler with the model for his East-land colony or Lebensraum. Many British authorities and writers stated this plainly, from Edmund Spenser and Cromwell through to the twentieth century. Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke was a prominent Liberal, expected to become party leader and Prime Minister until he was scuppered by a divorce case. Here is what he said about Empire in his book Greater Britain (1894): “The Anglo-Saxon is the only extirpating race on earth. Up to the commencement of the now inevitable destruction of the red Indians, of the Maoris and of the [native] Australians, no numerous race has ever been blotted out by an invader.”

What this means was demonstrated across the British Empire which projected itself by brute force and conquest around the world. Here is what happened in Tasmania:

"In 1830 Tasmania was put under martial law, a line of armed beaters was formed across the island, and an attempt was made to drive the aborigines into a cul-de-sac." (Moorehead, The Fatal Impact.) "The final extermination [of the Tasmanians] was a large-scale event, undertaken with the co-operation of the military and judiciary. Soldiers of the Fortieth Regiment drove the natives between two great rock formations, shot all the men and dragged the women and children out of fissures in the rocks to knock their brains out." (Ziehr, Hell in Paradise.)

And here is how Hitler put it in Mein Kampf:

"We will select the best settlement areas as land for German settlement ...we will deal with the population. ...we don't need to give ourselves any pangs of conscience about this ...after all we don't think of [Red] Indians when eating Canadian wheat. ... England ... was free to ... eat its frozen mutton [from Australia] without looking too closely into how they were produced. ... One task lies ahead: Teutonisation by bringing in Germans and regarding the original inhabitants as [Red] Indians. ... We will have to have a razzia [extermination war], square kilometre by square kilometre and constantly stringing people up. This is to be a real Indian War."

A Real Indian War: The Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado, November 29, 1864:

In 1858 white settlers poured into Colorado, where the Southern Cheyenne and Arapahoe lived after they had been ethnically cleansed by the settlers from the Great Lakes area a century or so previously, in a pattern repeated over and over again across the continent.

The conquest of the Irish took about a century (late 16th to late 17th century), the conquest of the Indians started a little later (early 17th century) and took nearly three centuries to accomplish. The parallel between these two conquests was fully obvious to settlers such as the genocidal Edmund Spenser and Walter Raleigh. Cromwell’s chaplain, the Rev Hugh Peters, was familiar with both Ireland and America: "The wild Irish and the Indian doe not much differ, and therefore would be handled alike … [Rather than] spend time about Castles and Forts, [we should] burne up the Enemies provisions every where." In other words, extermination by famine, disease and scorched earth.

An element among the settlers recognised the attractions of Indian life, and a few actually became Indian. Thomas Morton’s sympathetic 1637 account of the Indians includes: "Of their Houses and Habitations: The natives of New England are accustomed to build themselves houses much like the wild Irish."

A campaign of extermination was waged against the Colorado Indians after they were falsely accused of stealing 175 cattle, after they had attempted to make peace, and after they had handed over most of their weapons. The kind of scenes described below were replicated over and over again through the centuries, in America as in Ireland.

When a junior officer, Lieutenant Cramer, protested to Colonel Chivington against his attack on an Indian band (that means families of men, women and children), Chivington said: "I have come to kill Indians, and believe that it is right and honourable to use any means under God’s heaven to kill Indians."
According to Cramer, Chivington ordered his troops to: "Kill and scalp all, big and little; nits make lice."

Chivington, a former Methodist minister, commanded a force of 700 soldiers against 500 Indians at Sand Creek, of whom about 100 were men of fighting age. The rest were women, children and old men.

Robert Bent, Chivington’s guide, reported:
"After the firing the warriors put the squaws and children together, and surrounded them to protect them. I saw five squaws under a bank for shelter. When the troops came up to them they ran out and showed their persons, to let the soldiers know they were squaws and begged for mercy, but the soldiers shot them all.There were some thirty or forty squaws collected in a hole for protection; they sent out a little girl about six years old with a white flag on a stick, she had not proceeded but a few steps when she was shot and killed. All the squaws in that hole were afterwards killed, and four or five bucks outside. The squaws offered no resistance. Every one I saw dead was scalped. I saw one squaw cut open with an unborn child, as I thought, lying by her side. Captain Soule afterwards told me that such was the fact .I saw quite a number of infants in arms killed with their mothers."

First Lieutenant James D. Connor, New Mexico Volunteers:
"About day break on the morning of the 29th of November we came in sight of the camp of the friendly Indians aforementioned, and were ordered by Colonel Chivington to attack the same, which was accordingly done. The command of Colonel Chivington was composed of about one thousand men; the village of the Indians consisted of from one hundred to one hundred and thirty lodges, and, as far as I am able to judge, of from five hundred to six hundred souls, the majority of which were women and children; in going over the battleground the next day I did not see a body of man, woman or child but was scalped, and in many instances their bodies were mutilated in the most horrible manner – men, women, and children’s privates cut out, etc. I heard one man say that he had cut out a woman’s private parts and had them for exhibition on a stick - according to the best of my knowledge and belief these atrocities were committed with the knowledge of J.M. Chivington, and I do not know of his taking any measures to prevent them; I heard of one instance of a child of a few months being thrown in the feed-box of a wagon, and after being carried some distance left on the ground to perish; I also heard of numerous instances in which men had cut out the private parts of females and stretched them over the saddle-boxes, and wore them over their hats while riding in the ranks. "

Lieutenant Cramer:
" We arrived at the Indian village about daylight … Colonel Chivington moved his regiment to the front, the Indians retreating up the creek, and hiding under the banks. White Antelope ran towards our columns unarmed, and with both arms raised, but was killed. Several other of the warriors were killed in like manner. The women and children were huddled together, and most of our fire was concentrated on them . The Indian warriors, about 100 in number, fought desperately; there were about 500 all told. Our force was so large that there was no necessity of firing on the Indians. They did not return the fire until after our troops had fired several rounds . I told Colonel Chivington that it would be murder in every sense of the word, if he attacked those Indians. His reply was, bringing his fist down close to my face, ‘Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians’ -he had come to kill Indians and believed it to be honourable to kill Indians under any and all circumstances."

Ashbury Bird, Company D, 1st Colorado Cavalry:
"I went over the ground soon after the battle. I should judge there were between 400 and 500 Indians killed . Nearly all, men, women, and children were scalped. I saw one woman whose privates had been mutilated."

Corporal Amos C. Miksch, 1st Colorado Cavalry, Company C:
" Next morning after the battle, I saw a little boy covered up among the Indians in a trench, still alive. I saw a major in the 3rd regiment take out his pistol and blow off the top of his head. I saw some men unjointing fingers to get rings off, and cutting off ears to get silver ornaments. I saw a party with the same Major take up bodies that had been buried in the night to scalp them and take off ornaments. I saw a squaw with her head smashed in before she was killed. Next morning, after they were dead and stiff, these men pulled out the bodies of the squaws and pulled them open in an indecent manner. I heard men say they had cut out the privates, but did not see it myself."

Sergeant Lucien Palmer, 1st Colorado Cavalry, Company C:
" The bodies were horribly cut up, skulls broken in a good many; I judge they were broken in after they were killed, as they were shot besides. I do not think I saw any but was scalped; saw fingers cut off [to get the rings off them], saw several bodies with privates cut off, women as well as men."

David Louderbeck, 1st Colorado cavalry:
" The dead bodies of women and children were afterwards mutilated in the most horrible manner. I saw only eight. I could not stand it; they were cut up too much- they were scalped and cut up in an awful manner. White Antelope’s nose, ears and privates were cut off."

John S. Smith, interpreter:
" All manner of depredations were inflicted on their persons, they were scalped, their brains knocked out; the men used their knives, ripped open women, clubbed little children, knocked them in the head with their guns, beat their brains out, mutilated their bodies in every sense of the word - worse mutilated than any I ever saw before, the women all cut to pieces , children two or three months old; all ages lying there, from sucking infants up to warriors."

In celebration, Denver Opera House strung Indian scalps across the stage during intermission, to standing applause. A few months later, in July 1865 Senator James Doolittle of Wisconsin addressed the Denver audience, and said that the choice was to put the Indians on reservations or to exterminate them. Doolittle wrote that the audience gave "...a shout almost loud enough to raise the roof of the Opera House – ‘Exterminate them! Exterminate them! Exterminate them....!"
(Doolittle’s proposal was for mere ethnic cleansing as opposed to genocide. Early photographs show the concentration camps or death camps – stockades guarded by military watchtowers – into which the Indians were sometimes herded to rot, starve and be murdered.)

Like the anti-Hitler resistance, the Indians often displayed spectacular heroism. Hitler was defeated by his intended victims in Russia within a few short years. The Indian ordeal went on for three centuries....
(By Pat Muldowney ,on this thread. )
And they dare to call us 'terrorists....'
Sharon.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

THE IRA : the new IRA is younger , more radical and has seen little of life other than violence.......
By Ed Moloney.
From 'Magill' magazine, September 1980.

The IRA has so far spent most of this year (1980) killing 'soft' targets like so-called 'off-duty' UDR men and the campaign against prison warders has been halted to await the out-come of the H-Block negotiations .

But it is Charlie Haughey's tough policy and legal moves against IRA operations in the Border counties which has done more to impair the IRA in the last year than the RUC and British Army combined in the last three years . Cross-border 'co-operation' between the Garda and the RUC at regional commander and ground level combined with meticulous Free State Task Force searches of Border farms have seriously disrupted IRA logistics and produced a number of significant arms and explosives dumps .

Those tactics are described by one IRA leader as "devastating" and things could get worse for the Provos if Haughey's attempt to activate the dormant 'Criminal Law Jurisdiction Bill' for cross-border offences succeeds.......

(MORE LATER).

RESISTANCE ON ALL FRONTS.......
IRIS talks to a spokesperson authorised to speak on behalf of the Irish Republican Army.
From 'IRIS' magazine , July/August 1982.

IRIS : " If you were to specify one particular need which you consider the highest political priority for republicans at this time , what would it be ? "

IRA : " To organise support and structure it . And to ensure that opposition to British rule is not restricted to military actions but that people's opposition is channelled into resisting in whatever way they are able."

[END of 'RESISTANCE ON ALL FRONTS.......']
(NEXT : ' Black Propaganda And Bloody Murder' - from 'Magill' magazine 1986)

THE UNDAUNTED WOMEN IN ARMAGH.......

The full story of the republican prisoners in Armagh Jail has yet to be told. It has yet to be sung , and properly described , other than as an after-thought in public speeches - "...and of course the women in Armagh.." Republicans have a right to be proud of those women who, from the Divis Flats grandmother doing six months for what an Orange judge called "riotous behaviour" to the young IRA Volunteer inside for the second time and not yet 25-years-old , have managed, whether they numbered 12 or 120 , to maintain their resistance to the most vicious prison system in Europe. The words that follow , says writer Patricia Collins , were written to encourage more of those women to come forward and tell their story , and are based on conversations with several
ex-prisoners , and on visits and letters from those women presently imprisoned. They were written in the hope of jogging the memory of all those women who wrongly think their contribution to Ireland's future peace is not worth mentioning.
From 'IRIS' magazine , August 1984.

As prisoners with political status were being released , their numbers rapidly dwindled : in August 1979 there were only 7 left , a month later , 4 - the Price sisters, Chris Sheerin and Pauline Deery . The first three were eventually released on compassionate grounds for extreme ill health . As the women got fewer , the prison screws got more aggressive - " They were trying to get us to give up our political status..., " says Kate McGuinness, released in August 1979 , " ...in petty ways they were trying to take away our rights."

Pauline Deery writes - " By 1980 , education classes for republican prisoners were almost non-existent , and exercise time has also been substantially reduced from 1976 . In 1976 we could stay in the exercise yard all day but , by 1980 , it was down to two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon . In 1983 I was moved to a unit on 'B1' on my own , and my exercise time was halved . Food parcels are now strictly limited , as are handicrafts .

Political papers and film shows have been stopped and cell searches , in the absence of those occupying the cells , have been introduced , as have strip-searches . I am unable to see my brother or my fiance , who are both in Long Kesh prison, because I won't take the strip-search . A remand prisoner was charged for talking to me through her window last year , and she was locked up for it..."

(MORE LATER).

Sunday, November 09, 2008

104th Ard Fheis of Republican Sinn Féin , 8-9th November 2008.

Some pics from the opening session of the 104th Ard Fheis of Republican Sinn Féin , which is being held in a Dublin city-centre venue over this weekend , Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th November 2008. I'll have to let the pics speak for themselves as I'm trying to help organise one of these as well as doing a wee bit at the Ard Fheis . Much too busy to tell you of the large crowd present , the extra helpers needed at the Book-In table and the extra people roped-in to work the Ard Fheis shop . You'll just have to make do with these few pics for now!

The above two pics were taken within a half hour of the opening of the Ard Fheis.

'British Withdrawal' Banner .

'Eire Nua' Banner .

'Hunger Strikers' Banner.

'ILPS' Banner.

'Unbroken Continuity' Banner .

CABHAIR 2008 Swim Leaflet.

Ard Fheis Shop items.

Shop items.

Ard Fheis Shop items .

And finally...

....one of the Special Branch cars used by the State to spy on the proceedings of this Ard Fheis . That red car was parked in a side lane beneath a fire escape landing used by those stepping-out of the Ard Fheis hall for a cigarette : it is believed an on-board camera was monitoring those on the landing as they had their smoke . Also , note the absence of insurance , tax and/or NCT discs ; State cut-backs , perhaps...
That's all for now - back to the monthly raffle work for me !
Thanks,
Sharon.