REPUBLICAN MARTYRS OF 1957…….
From ‘The United Irishman’ newspaper, January 1958 .

PATRICK PARLE came from Wexford Town , from where one of his friends had shown the Republican Movement a certificate of voluntary blood donation which stated : ” This certificate is granted in recognition of the fact that Patrick Parle gave blood voluntarily for the benefit of others…” . That friend had added his own post script to the certificate - “…Patrick Parle gave the last drops of his blood voluntarily for the benefit of others on November 11 , 1957 , at Edentubber…”

MICHAEL WATTERS from County Louth added his blood too , to all the blood that has been spilled in Ireland so that we would be one nation and one people and one country with full control over our own affairs . He rests in the Republican Plot , Dundalk , beside his young comrades Paul Smith and Oliver Craven .

The greatest monument we can build to those seven martyrs is a free Irish Republic . The way we do it is by combining the strength of all our people to defeat an enemy with the resources of an Empire behind him and agencies of terror at his beck and call . Be proud of the risen nation and of the men and women who died for it !

[END of ‘ REPUBLICAN MARTYRS OF 1957′]
(Next : ‘ Derry - A Strategy Of Neglect’ , from 1983)

TOXIC WASTE IN KILL,COUNTY KILDARE .
From ‘The Phoenix’ magazine , May 1983.

Most of Ireland’s toxic waste has been dumped into a huge quarry near Kill , County Kildare. The place is known as ‘Gavins Quarry’ and it covers an area of about ten acres not far off the Nass dual carriageway . The principal depositor at this site has been Willie O’ Brien , who is probably the largest disposer of industrial waste in the country .

Nobody knows for certain what toxic materials have been dumped here over the past fifteen years , but they do know that Willie O’ Brien has been disposing of most of the toxic effluent from the principal chemical manufacturers in Ireland . Now , local residents are beginning to worry about the danger of living in the lee of this huge depository of poison . In March 1983 , after two years of court proceedings , Kildare County Council finally achieved the closure of the dump at Gavin’s Quarry , Arthurstown , Kill , when a Patrick Gavin lost his appeal against a previous court order to close the pit .

The court heard the details of a report commissioned by the County Council from An Foras Forbartha which disclosed that traces of highly toxic chromium , cyanide and other heavy metals were found on the site . Properties up to a half-mile from the core of the pit were affected by serious pollution . Any further dumping of any kind would endanger local water supplies and rivers as the dump at this stage was full , the court was told…….
(MORE LATER).

REPUBLICAN MOURNERS DEFEAT RUC…….
Between December 1983 and May 1987 , over 25 republican or nationalist funerals were systematically attacked by the RUC as a matter of deliberate British policy . The objective was to drive mourners off the streets so that later Britain could claim dwindling support for republicanism as ‘evidenced’ by the small numbers attending IRA funerals . As Jane Plunkett reports , the opposite happened . More and more people came out to defend the remains of republican dead , the RUC were exposed as being as brutal and sectarian as ever , and these two factors , combined with damaging international news coverage , eventually forced the British government to reverse its policy of attacking republican funerals .
From ‘IRIS’ magazine , October 1987.

The British government desperately wanted to stamp their ‘authority’ on nationalist areas , to make nationalists feel powerless against the might of the imperial state and thus to demoralise the struggle . That strategy was also to result in the murderous attack on the 1984 internment march , when John Downes was killed by a plastic bullet , in unprecedented heavy RUC shows of strength at recent Bloody Sunday commemorations in Derry and in restrictions , via the new Public Order Order, on rights to protest .

It had its counterpart too in the now-discredited use of paid-perjurers which aimed to demoralise nationalists by the de facto reintroduction of internment without trial and by the spreading of ‘black propaganda’ about the PIRA . So , in accordance with the new British strategy , there began to be a change in the situation which had held from the early 1970’s , whereby the right of the bereaved , even in war , to bury their dead with dignity , was recognised by the PIRA and , on the whole , by the crown forces .

As late as November 1982 , at the funerals in Lurgan of PIRA Volunteers Gervase McKerr , Sean Burns and Eugene Toman, the RUC were nowhere in sight as a ten-member PIRA Colour Party in battledress flanked their comrades’ coffins , or later when a Volunteer fired a single shot in tribute . That funeral service passed off peacefully and with dignity , as did a Republican funeral a little over one year later which passed an RUC Barracks with no attempted interference from those inside the structure…….
(MORE LATER).

Anti-censorship picket on RTE Studios in Dublin, Saturday December 1st , 2007 , from 12 Noon to 1.30pm .
As a publicly-funded institution , RTE leaves a lot to be desired : the coverage it provides could be said to be based on the political ‘prevailing winds’ of the day . It has consistently and spectacularly failed to either report on what it apparently views as ‘delicate’ issues or will cover same in a light which is favourable to its own administration and the administration-of-the-day in Leinster House .
Regardless of the importance of the issue - whether it concerns the political situation in the north-east of this isle, the ‘Shell To Sea’ issue or the State Health Service (or lack of same) , RTE , it seems , will do its utmost to spare the blushes of its political colleagues and part-paymasters in Kildare Street .
With this in mind , an anti-censorship picket will be placed on the RTE Studios in Donnybrook , Dublin , on Saturday 1st December 2007 , between the hours of 12 Noon and 1.30pm . If you can’t make it on the day , check-back here on this blog on the following day where we will publish a piece on how the picket went . Just don’t expect it to be covered on RTE…..

REPUBLICAN MARTYRS OF 1957…….
From ‘The United Irishman’ newspaper, January 1958 .

PAUL SMITH was from Bessbrook , County Armagh , and he knew that force of British arms have kept our country divided and unfree . He knew that only by force of Irish arms could Ireland be restored to her rightful owners , the Irish people . He died at Edentubber on November 11 , 1957 .

OLIVER CRAVEN was from Newry , County Down and , out of his own experience , he knew that by force of arms the usurper maintains his rule in our land and that there was no other way to win independence for our nation . He gave his life at Edentubber on November 11 , 1957 .

GEORGE KEEGAN was from Enniscorthy , County Wexford . He followed the path his father had trod 40 years before him , and he followed it through all the way to his death at lonely Edentubber , overlooking the Gap of the North on November 11 , 1957 . He died for the Republican faith which once united Wexford and the North in the days of William Orr and Fr. John Murphy…….
(MORE LATER).

KING OF THE YUPPIE HEARTLAND……. !
Dessie O’Malley would expect to draw his support almost exclusively from middle-class areas , but if he is to succeed in getting the twenty seats he hopes for that support base would also have to include working-class areas , especially in Dublin . On the evidence of one day spent with PD leader O’Malley ,that working-class support is unlikely to be forthcoming.
From ‘IN DUBLIN’ ELECTION SPECIAL , 1987.
By Derek Dunne.

In Kilbarrack , Dublin , Dessie delivers himself , in response to a question , of the opinion that he is against capital punishment . PD party workers are good on the ground here , and a good crowd is out and about . Dessie tells all that coalition is now a possibility , and states that whether the PD’s enter into such an arrangement or not “will depend…” , but he doesn’t say on what it will ‘depend’ .

A woman replies that she will not vote for him on that ‘depend’ answer , while another voter did not like the PD policies on privatisation . And so on it goes . As he prepares for his next stop , Dessie says - once more - that if he was doing the whole election again , he would run more candidates .
[END of ‘KING OF THE YUPPIE HEARTLAND’]
(Next : ‘TOXIC WASTE IN KILL , COUNTY KILDARE’ - from 1983)

REPUBLICAN MOURNERS DEFEAT RUC…….
Between December 1983 and May 1987 , over 25 republican or nationalist funerals were systematically attacked by the RUC as a matter of deliberate British policy . The objective was to drive mourners off the streets so that later Britain could claim dwindling support for republicanism as ‘evidenced’ by the small numbers attending IRA funerals . As Jane Plunkett reports , the opposite happened . More and more people came out to defend the remains of republican dead , the RUC were exposed as being as brutal and sectarian as ever , and these two factors , combined with damaging international news coverage , eventually forced the British government to reverse its policy of attacking republican funerals .
From ‘IRIS’ magazine , October 1987.

For many nationalists , the RUC’s use of plastic bullets between the years 1983 and 1986 was reminiscent of the way they were used during the 1981 hunger-strike* (* 29,665 fired) , when they were fired at the heads of people taking part in street-corner Rosary groups , at young children such as Julie Livingstone and Carol-Ann Kelly, and at mourners at the funeral of Joe McDonnell.

The RUC’s aim at that time was to terrorise protestors off the streets and crush nationalist resistance . That was to be their futile aim , too , when attacking republican funerals .

The British government decided to systematically attack republican funerals as a direct response to the upsurge of nationalist consciousness which took place through the hunger-strike and which was expressed in October 1982 in the success of five Sinn Fein candidates in the Assembly elections. In June 1983 , Gerry Adams was elected MP for West Belfast , the first republican* ever to hold that ‘honour’…… ( * ‘1169…’Comment - ….which philosophy he abandoned in 1986.)
(MORE LATER).

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO….?
On A Walk Through Rebel Dublin with the Patriot and Heroine Anne Devlin and Charles Stewart Parnell ,
Charlie Kerins , Charlotte Despard, and Che Guevara , we talked ,with A Servant of the Queen , about A Compact History of Ireland .
It was a Courious Journey, this Oral History of Ireland’s Unfinished Revolution and many of the Milestones in Irish History were discussed , as we passed through Dublin Tenement Life . We had No Faith in the System , so we agreed on a Secret Map of Ireland but promised that , despite the Partition of Ireland and all of the ensuing Raids and Rallies , we would not strive for same On Another Man’s Wound….
…..see what else is available here!
Finally - in answer to the question asked at the top of this post -
keep an account of next years time with one of these -
(Front[right] and back of the RSF 2008 Calendar)
- a 2008 Republican calendar,available from here for a fiver (Euro or Sterling) !
Calendars, books, pamphlets, CD’s, tapes, T-Shirts etc - all of a Republican ‘flavour’ - make great ’stocking fillers’ and , indeed , make great presents all year round. Visit the Dublin shop at 223 Parnell Street (’phone 01-8729747) or the Belfast shop at 229 Falls Road (’phone 90319004) to make your choice .
Thanks !
Sharon.

REPUBLICAN MARTYRS OF 1957…….
From ‘The United Irishman’ newspaper, January 1958 .

Sean Sabhat was from Limerick . One of the last things he wrote before going north to join his fellow-countrymen in the battle for national liberation was that ” …the time for foolish talk is past . “ He died manning a machine-gun at Brookeborough in Occupied Ireland some weeks later , on January 1,1957 .

Feargal Ó hAnnluain was from Monaghan . He too died at Brookeborough in County Fermanagh (where the majority of the people want an Ireland united and free) on New Year’s Day , 1957 .

(MORE LATER).

KING OF THE YUPPIE HEARTLAND……. !
Dessie O’Malley would expect to draw his support almost exclusively from middle-class areas , but if he is to succeed in getting the twenty seats he hopes for that support base would also have to include working-class areas , especially in Dublin . On the evidence of one day spent with PD leader O’Malley ,that working-class support is unlikely to be forthcoming.
From ‘IN DUBLIN’ ELECTION SPECIAL , 1987.
By Derek Dunne.

One of the last stops of the day is at a bakery where there are 500 workers : Mr O’ Malley , however , does not meet them . Instead , he goes up to the office and is introduced to management . There are twenty-four people in the room - journalists , ‘handlers’ , hangers-on , ’suits’ . But there is an enbarrassed silence surrounding the visit , with darting looks of ‘ What is he doing here..?’

At around 5.30pm , Dessie is reported as having gone home ‘for a bit’ . The remainder of the PD entourage is dropped off at the Marino Hotel , where the party itself was founded . The hotel boasts , amongst other things , an indoor swimming pool . A ‘High Tea’ is laid-on for the PD people , and it is during this that Dessie walks in - he ‘has words’ with one of his candidates over some personal differences , and the shouting can be heard far and wide . When he comes back to the table he looks very angry .

The working-class area of Kilbarrack is next on the agenda…….

(MORE LATER).

REPUBLICAN MOURNERS DEFEAT RUC…….
Between December 1983 and May 1987 , over 25 republican or nationalist funerals were systematically attacked by the RUC as a matter of deliberate British policy . The objective was to drive mourners off the streets so that later Britain could claim dwindling support for republicanism as ‘evidenced’ by the small numbers attending IRA funerals . As Jane Plunkett reports , the opposite happened . More and more people came out to defend the remains of republican dead , the RUC were exposed as being as brutal and sectarian as ever , and these two factors , combined with damaging international news coverage , eventually forced the British government to reverse its policy of attacking republican funerals .
From ‘IRIS’ magazine , October 1987.

Funerals became massive , intimidatory displays of British military might , with hundreds of heavily armed , riot-clad RUC men, two or more British Army helicopters and scores of armoured Land Rovers. During the burial of Volunteers Charlie Breslin and Michael and David Devine, Strabane resembled nothing so much as Red Square on May Day - except that this was a funeral . Journalists counted at least 130 RUC Land Rovers parading the streets , sent in from as far afield as Belfast .

Significantly , Finbarr McKenna’s funeral was by no means the first at which plastic bullets were used . Those bullets , fired by the RUC during the funeral of Ciaran Fleming in December 1984 inflicted serious head injuries on two people , one of them a BBC Radio Foyle journalist .

In three years of attacks on funerals , many scores of nationalists have been injured by RUC batons , plastic bullets or jackboots . And the sight of scores of RUC men , plastic-bullet guns held at the ready , has been an ever-present threat…….
(MORE LATER).

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO….?
On A Walk Through Rebel Dublin with the Patriot and Heroine Anne Devlin and Charles Stewart Parnell ,
Charlie Kerins , Charlotte Despard, and Che Guevara , we talked ,with A Servant of the Queen , about A Compact History of Ireland .
It was a Courious Journey, this Oral History of Ireland’s Unfinished Revolution and many of the Milestones in Irish History were discussed , as we passed through Dublin Tenement Life . We had No Faith in the System , so we agreed on a Secret Map of Ireland but promised that , despite the Partition of Ireland and all of the ensuing Raids and Rallies , we would not strive for same On Another Man’s Wound….
…..see what else is available here!
Finally - in answer to the question asked at the top of this post -
keep an account of next years time with one of these -

- a 2008 Republican calendar,available from here for a fiver (Euro or Sterling) !
Calendars, books, pamphlets, CD’s, tapes, T-Shirts etc - all of a Republican ‘flavour’ - make great ’stocking fillers’ and , indeed , make great presents all year round. Visit the Dublin shop at 223 Parnell Street (’phone 01-8729747) or the Belfast shop at 229 Falls Road (’phone 90319004) to make your choice .
Thanks !
Sharon.

REPUBLICAN MARTYRS OF 1957.
From ‘The United Irishman’ newspaper, January 1958 .

They gave their lives for you and me and the generations yet unborn . May they be remembered forever -

SEÁN SABHAT of Limerick City . Gave his life for Ireland on January 1 , 1957 .
PATRICK PARLE of Wexford Town . Gave his life for Ireland on November 11 , 1957 .
GEORGE KEEGAN of Enniscorthy , County Wexford . He gave his life for Ireland on November 11 , 1957 .
PAUL SMITH of Bessbrook , County Armagh . He gave his life for Ireland on November 11 , 1957 .
MICHAEL WATTERS of Edentubber , County Louth . He gave his life for Ireland on November 11 , 1957 .
OLIVER CRAVEN of Newry , County Down . He gave his life for Ireland on November 11 , 1957 .
FEARGAL Ó hANNLUAIN of Monaghan Town . Gave his life for Ireland on January 1 , 1957 .

These are the men who gave their lives for freedom in Ireland in 1957 , one-hundred-and-sixty-seven years after the first Irish Republican martyr , William Orr, was hanged for the ‘crime’ of wanting his country separated from Britain .

Except for Michael Watters , who was 55 years of age , the rest were young men under 30 . Paul Smith was only 19 , Oliver Craven was 19 , Feargal Ó hAnnluain was 20 , Patrick Parle was 26 , George Keegan was 27 and Sean Sabhat was 28…….
(MORE LATER).

KING OF THE YUPPIE HEARTLAND……. !
Dessie O’Malley would expect to draw his support almost exclusively from middle-class areas , but if he is to succeed in getting the twenty seats he hopes for that support base would also have to include working-class areas , especially in Dublin . On the evidence of one day spent with PD leader O’Malley ,that working-class support is unlikely to be forthcoming.
From ‘IN DUBLIN’ ELECTION SPECIAL , 1987.
By Derek Dunne.

Back on the election bus , Dessie explains that he was once told never to say a ‘billion’ when he was appearing on television - that it is better to say ‘one-thousand-million’ , rather than a ‘billion’ , because “people have no understanding of that kind of money .”

The next stop are the Sisters Of Charity old folks home in Dublin Four : Dessie is shown around by a nun and looks clearly out of place and uncomfortable , especially when a nun takes him into a corner for a private talk . But there are at least one-hundred votes and he thinks he might swing them . ” I want to talk to you very privately over here…” , says the nun , and Dessie spends at least five minutes in the corner with her .

One handler refers to the whole idea of being among the nuns as ‘a good move’ . By now , Dessie has tired of the bus and prefers to take the car . Michael McDowell has been in the crowd surrounding O’ Malley , and is introduced to all not as being a member of the PD’s , but as being ‘belonging to Dessie O’ Malley’s party..’…….
(MORE LATER).

REPUBLICAN MOURNERS DEFEAT RUC…….
Between December 1983 and May 1987 , over 25 republican or nationalist funerals were systematically attacked by the RUC as a matter of deliberate British policy . The objective was to drive mourners off the streets so that later Britain could claim dwindling support for republicanism as ‘evidenced’ by the small numbers attending IRA funerals . As Jane Plunkett reports , the opposite happened . More and more people came out to defend the remains of republican dead , the RUC were exposed as being as brutal and sectarian as ever , and these two factors , combined with damaging international news coverage , eventually forced the British government to reverse its policy of attacking republican funerals .
From ‘IRIS’ magazine , October 1987.

RUC Chief John Hermon claims that the RUC are present at republican funerals to prevent any appearance by a (P)IRA firing party, but the RUC were aware , as everyone was aware , that the (P)IRA had already paid their last respects to their fallen comrade with a volley of shots the previous Sunday , and had made it clear that they would be playing no formal part in the funeral .

And John Hermon’s excuse cut no ice with those who recalled that the RUC had already attacked several other republican funerals on the same pretext , again though they were well aware that (P)IRA firing parties had already paid their last tribute .

Since December 1983 , a period of little more than three years , more than a score of republican or nationalist funerals had been attacked as a matter of British policy : sometimes the RUC’s pretext was to demand the removal of beret and gloves from the coffin or , when there was no beret , the Tricolour , but they also attacked private funerals , such as that of Volunteer Jim McKernan (in September 1986) , where no flag was on display . The RUC attacked the funerals not just of Volunteers who died on active service but also those of republican veterans . On rare occasions when the RUC gave undertakings to bereaved families that they would allow a dignified burial , they broke those undertakings…….
(MORE LATER).

Anti-censorship picket on RTE Studios in Dublin, Saturday December 1st , 2007 , from 12 Noon to 1.30pm .
As a publicly-funded institution , RTE leaves a lot to be desired : the coverage it provides could be said to be based on the political ‘prevailing winds’ of the day . It has consistently and spectacularly failed to either report on what it apparently views as ‘delicate’ issues or will cover same in a light which is favourable to its own administration and the administration-of-the-day in Leinster House .
Regardless of the importance of the issue - whether it concerns the political situation in the north-east of this isle, the ‘Shell To Sea’ issue or the State Health Service (or lack of same) , RTE , it seems , will do its utmost to spare the blushes of its political colleagues and part-paymasters in Kildare Street .
With this in mind , an anti-censorship picket will be placed on the RTE Studios in Donnybrook , Dublin , on Saturday 1st December 2007 , between the hours of 12 Noon and 1.30pm . If you can’t make it on the day , check-back here on this blog on the following day where we will publish a piece on how the picket went . Just don’t expect it to be covered on RTE…..

Almost 12 months since it was ‘only’ thirty years…..
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 31-years-young event was ‘born’…….
The CABHAIR Christmas Day Swim is , thankfully , still going strong and will be , as mentioned , 31-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 :
CABHAIR
Irish Republican Prisoners Dependants Fund
223 Parnell Street,
Dublin 1.
Ireland.
Thank You,
Go Raibh Maith Agat,
Sharon.

THE COALISLAND STORY : British Torture In Ireland…….
From ‘The United Irishman’ newspaper, January 1958 .

The London ‘Observer’ newspaper on December 15 , 1957 , carried an article on brain-washing in which this statement appeared : ” The real tortures are isolation and solitary confinement , prolonged interrogation , humiliation…” Now read the story of the Coalisland youths again and see if the description fits .

Britain may have gotten away with torture in Cyprus and other places , but she won’t get away with it in Ireland . This isn’t Kenya . There are Irish exiles with powerful voices in every corner of the globe and they will see to it that this story is told in full . The Irish people at home will not stand for it either . Our job now is to expose British atrocities in Ireland and tell the world the full story .

[END of ‘THE COALISLAND STORY : British Torture In Ireland’]
(Next : ‘Republican Martyrs of 1957′ - from the same source)

KING OF THE YUPPIE HEARTLAND……. !
Dessie O’Malley would expect to draw his support almost exclusively from middle-class areas , but if he is to succeed in getting the twenty seats he hopes for that support base would also have to include working-class areas , especially in Dublin . On the evidence of one day spent with PD leader O’Malley ,that working-class support is unlikely to be forthcoming.
From ‘IN DUBLIN’ ELECTION SPECIAL , 1987.
By Derek Dunne.

RTE interview Dessie O’ Malley walking around ; he now believes that the PD’s can get more than twenty seats . One on-looker remarks that he has his work cut out for himself to get that number of seats . Dessie shakes hands with a travelling woman who is standing minding her own business . ” Would ya dance with that woman…? “ , asks a passing cyclist , which prompts Dessie’s handlers to make snide remarks and jokes about the woman’s appearance . Of such are the PD’s made.

There are ten minutes to spare now , and Dessie is clearly not too enthusiastic about getting on the bus again . It is also clear that he is getting fed up , but they eventually move off . In Ranelagh , the PD’s are in the heart of ‘Yuppieland’ : there are enough middle-class voters here who know the local candidate Michael McDowell and who will vote for him , although it is unlikely that he will be elected.

Dessie , it emerges , believes in diagnostic medicine more than most - he believes that you can have better medical services with less money being involved. One journalist remarks that Dessie O Malley sounds exactly like Margaret Thatcher before she came to power in Britain - that she rose on a middle class vote and proceeded to screw everyone on social welfare . Dessie looks to be heading the same way , and he is the ‘Man Of The Moment’ . Then he made a comment about people’s lack of understanding where money is concerned…….
(MORE LATER).

REPUBLICAN MOURNERS DEFEAT RUC.
Between December 1983 and May 1987 , over 25 republican or nationalist funerals were systematically attacked by the RUC as a matter of deliberate British policy . The objective was to drive mourners off the streets so that later Britain could claim dwindling support for republicanism as ‘evidenced’ by the small numbers attending IRA funerals . As Jane Plunkett reports , the opposite happened . More and more people came out to defend the remains of republican dead , the RUC were exposed as being as brutal and sectarian as ever , and these two factors , combined with damaging international news coverage , eventually forced the British government to reverse its policy of attacking republican funerals .
From ‘IRIS’ magazine , October 1987.

The May 1987 attack by the RUC on the funeral of (P)IRA Volunteer Finbarr McKenna was the pre-planned and bloody culmination of a strategy launched by the British government over three years earlier . But , paradoxically , Finbarr McKenna’s funeral also signalled that strategy’s defeat .

Once again , thousands of mourners , and in particular a bereaved family , had shown to the world that - despite escalating repression - the determination of nationalists in the occupied Six Counties to bury their dead with honour and dignity was as strong as ever . On May 6th , 1987 , the world’s TV cameras recorded scenes reminiscent of South Africa as steel-helmeted RUC men batoned and kicked peaceful mourners .

Outside the Royal Victoria Hospital, in full view of horrified staff , the RUC fired at least five plastic bullets at head height into the crowd , on the pretext of a few stones being thrown . Several people were carried into the hospital with blood streaming from head wounds : at least 19 people altogether received hospital treatment and one of them had his shoulder broken by one of the bullets . Many more were too afraid of RUC harassment to seek hospital treatment . Gerry Adams stated that the aim of the RUC attack was “…purely to terrorise the nationalist people off their own streets..” (’1169…’ Comment : ….which is not the job of the ‘PSNI’ , of course..)
(MORE LATER).

Anti-censorship picket on RTE Studios in Dublin, Saturday December 1st , 2007 , from 12 Noon to 1.30pm .
As a publicly-funded institution , RTE leaves a lot to be desired : the coverage it provides could be said to be based on the political ‘prevailing winds’ of the day . It has consistently and spectacularly failed to either report on what it apparently views as ‘delicate’ issues or will cover same in a light which is favourable to its own administration and the administration-of-the-day in Leinster House .
Regardless of the importance of the issue - whether it concerns the political situation in the north-east of this isle, the ‘Shell To Sea’ issue or the State Health Service (or lack of same) , RTE , it seems , will do its utmost to spare the blushes of its political colleagues and part-paymasters in Kildare Street .
With this in mind , an anti-censorship picket will be placed on the RTE Studios in Donnybrook , Dublin , on Saturday 1st December 2007 , between the hours of 12 Noon and 1.30pm . If you can’t make it on the day , check-back here on this blog on the following day where we will publish a piece on how the picket went . Just don’t expect it to be covered on RTE…..