ANNUAL EVE OF ALL-IRELAND RALLY,DUBLIN, Saturday 19th September 2009.

“One of the largest public rallies seen in Dublin for years was held by Sinn Féin at the GPO on the eve of the All-Ireland Football Final . Headed by a Colour Party and a pipe band , a parade of more than 2,000 people marched from Parnell Square through the main city thoroughfare as a protest against the continued unjust imprisonment of Irishmen without charge or trial .
Contingents from all over the country took part and many carried banners and placards including groups from England and Scotland . In the Ulster section was a strong representation of the Derry supporters who thronged the capital city for the Final . One placard they carried asked - ‘ Why are Six-County Nationalists interned in the Curragh?’ …..”
(From ‘An tÉireannach Aontaithe/The United Irishman’ newspaper , November 1958)

The Annual Eve Of All-Ireland Rally will be held this year on Saturday 19th September : those attending are asked to assemble at the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square at 12 Noon from where the parade will leave for the GPO. All Welcome!
Thanks!
Sharon.

THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY…….
Twenty-six men were convicted on the word of Harry Kirkpatrick. On their appeal against those convictions could well rest the future of the ‘Anglo-Irish Agreement’
(’The Hillsborough Treaty’) . Based on a full transcript of the Kirkpatrick trials , the story of how these convictions were obtained shows why the ‘Supergrass System’ is a pale shadow of justice.
By Derek Dunne. From ‘MAGILL’ magazine, February 1986.

RUC Detective Superintendent Mitchell and Detective Chief Inspector Meeke came into the room in Castlereagh Interrogation Centre where Harry Kirkpatrick was being held : Kirkpatrick told them he knew more than Jackie Goodman or John Grimley would know , that he “…could put a lot of people away..” but wanted immunity before he would give ‘evidence’ . The RUC said they couldn’t do that , to which Kirkpatrick replied that not only did he want immunity but he also wanted to get out of the country.

The RUC then told him that the question of immunity would be in the hands of the Director of Public Prosecutions and asked Kirkpatrick what exactly he was involved in - Kirkpatrick hesitated , then opened-up and spent three days making statements , at the end of which he signed a form saying that he had told the RUC everything . That , too , was a lie. That was on 26th March 1982 - the date Harry Kirkpatrick ‘officially’ turned ‘Supergrass’ .

Kirkpatrick was then charged with the killing of RUC man Lyndsay McDougall and was put into the annex of Crumlin Road Prison, the ‘home of Supergrasses’ . Then, acting on his ‘word’ , the RUC went out and made wave after wave of arrests across Belfast . Men were taken from New Barnsley , Ballymurphy , Springhill , the Falls , the New Lodge Road , Andersonstown , the Marklets and Divis Flats . Most of them ended up in Castlereagh Interrogation Centre , but only one of them made a ’statement’ ; naming only himself ! According to Kirkpatrick , the people he had put away comprised the entire Brigade Staff of the INLA , including the Officers Commanding of many areas…….
(MORE LATER).

CIA SLAMS IRISH JUDGE.
A Dublin District Justice was accused by American embassy intelligence personnel of encouraging left wing agitators and tolerating hostile acts against the United States.
From ‘MAGILL’ magazine, ‘Christmas Special’ 1980.

A Dublin District Justice was accused by American embassy intelligence personnel of encouraging left wing agitators and tolerating hostile acts against the United States. The accusation was carried in a confidential telegram to the Secretary of State in Washington in November 1970 .

The telegram also informed the Secretary of State that the embassy “…badly needs the means to combat..” the activities of the ‘agitators’ and those who “encourage” them - in this case State District Justice Robert O hUadhaigh.

Traditionally , foreign diplomats who conspire to , or seek the means to, intervene in the internal affairs of their host country would , if exposed, be declared persona non grata and ejected from that country . In this case , however , its just the CIA - paranoia , incompetence and an ability to make mountains out of molehills being their trademarks . But what else can you expect…….?
(MORE LATER).

THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST HEROIN IN DUBLIN……. The drugs crisis is one of the major problems facing young people in Dublin today. In large areas of the city it has now reached massive proportions , while in the inner city there is estimated to be a higher percentage of drug addicts and drug abusers than in Harlem in New York . But it has been only recently - 5 years after this epidemic began in earnest - that any notice has been paid to the problem. And even now the Free State government has failed to confront the crisis in a meaningful way . Tony Barry of Na Fianna Eireann has been looking at the issues for ‘IRIS’ magazine.
From ‘IRIS’ magazine, December 1984.

Some of the drug pushers moved their operation to nearby pubs , chip shops , pool halls and hotels , but more often than not local people followed them there and bluntly told the owners and managers that the community would oppose their licence when it came up for renewal if they didn’t clear the pushers out .

RTE ran a number of major documentaries on what was happening which focussed public attention on the crisis , but RTE’s desire to sensationalise every aspect of the campaign led to the community action being portrayed as mob rule and vigilante violence , and as being a ‘front’ - which it clearly wasn’t - for the IRA.

This attitude so infuriated some local people that in many areas documentary makers were not allowed to film in those areas . The IRA’s attitude to pushers and the drugs crisis was in fact spelt out in an interview given to a local newsletter produced by a Sinn Féin cumann in Dublin’s inner city . An IRA spokesperson stated - ” We do not believe that the solution to the problem lies in our hands. It lies with the people in the areas affected by heroin. In situations where drug pushers are living amongst the people in the areas affected we would see it as the work of those people to make life unbearable and unprofitable for the pushers.” Then that spokesperson went on to issue a warning…….
(MORE LATER).

On Tuesday , 18th August 2009 , a ‘Battle Honoured’ (Belgian Coast 1914-1915, ‘Konigsberg’ 1915) British warship , the ‘HMS MERSEY’ , docked at John Rogerson’s Quay , in Dublin. Republican Sinn Féin issued a statement on the unwanted presence of that ship , a protest was organised and, afterwards, a brief report and some photographs regarding the protest were published.

We have recently received some more photographs of the republican protest that was held, which we publish with this post :

Thanks!
Sharon.

Na Fianna Éireann recently held two celebrations to mark its 100th Anniversary - one in Dublin and the other in Limerick , both taking place on the same day - Sunday 16th August 2009. Those celebrations were announced here, amongst other places , and reports on both of those Anniversary events were carried here and here.
This blog has recently received a number of photographs of the Dublin event , which we publish with this post -

Congratulations to Na Fianna Éireann on reaching their 100th ‘birthday’ and on celebrating same in such a public fashion. This is one republican organisation which will continue to grow, as those that know its membership and leadership will agree : they have held steadfast to their republican principles through thick and thin and will continue to so!
Thanks!
Sharon.

PICKET ON BRITISH WARSHIP HMS MERSEY , WED 19th AUGUST ‘09 : Brief report and photographs.

Irish Republican picket on British warship , Dublin , Wednesday 19th August 2009.

Between approximately thirty and forty Irish Republicans held a three-hour picket today , Wednesday 19th August 2009 , on John Rogerson’s Quay in Dublin , at the presence of a British warship , the HMS Mersey , which is docked here until tomorrow .
The protestors , comprising members and supporters of Republican Sinn Féin Poblachtach and the 32csm, demanded from a member of the ships crew that they be allowed make a verbal protest to the Captain of the ship , a Lieutenant Commander Carl Wiseman, but were told that he was “unavailable” . Eight Special Branch operatives , some using cameras , were present throughout the 3-hour picket (as were six uniformed members of the State police) and , as usual , names and addresses of the protestors were taken. The Special Branch operatives maintained a vigil for the duration of the picket at the ship’s gangplank , ensuring that the protesting Republicans could not board the ship. The banners and flags carried and displayed by the protestors drew a continuous and loud level of support from passing motorists and from those on foot , with cheers and clenched-fist salutes the order of the day!

RSF and the 32csm and , indeed , all who took the time to attend this picket are to be congratulated for highlighting the fact that there will never be ‘normal relations’ between Britain and Ireland whilst Westminster continues to claim political and military jurisdiction over six Irish counties. And whether Captain Wiseman or his like are ‘available’ or not , that is the message that Irish Republicans will continue to deliver to both Westminster and Leinster House.
Thanks!
Sharon.

BRITISH WARSHIP IN DUBLIN : PICKET ORGANISED.
British warship ‘HMS Mersey’ , docked in Dublin at John Rogersons Quay and will be there untill Thursday - a Republican picket as close as possible to the ship will be held on Wednesday 19 August 2009 , beginning at One pm.

This ship , which boasts of Armaments consisting of one 20mm British Manufacturing and Research Company (BMARC) KAA Gun and two General Purpose Machine Guns also carries a complement of 30, plus a Royal Marine boarding party. It takes its military orders from the same institution (Westminster) which continues to claim jurisdiction over six Irish counties and , as such , it is not welcome.

A picket against this ship and what it represents….

…will be held as close as possible to it , on Wednesday 19th August 2009, at One pm.

All Welcome!
Thanks,
Sharon.

THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY…….
Twenty-six men were convicted on the word of Harry Kirkpatrick. On their appeal against those convictions could well rest the future of the ‘Anglo-Irish Agreement’
(’The Hillsborough Treaty’) . Based on a full transcript of the Kirkpatrick trials , the story of how these convictions were obtained shows why the ‘Supergrass System’ is a pale shadow of justice.
By Derek Dunne. From ‘MAGILL’ magazine, February 1986.

Harry Kirkpatrick tells how he used his father’s driving licence to hire cars for military operations , and names his sister as being involved . And also names his brother-in-law and his best friend Gerard Barkley. For more than twenty days the namings go on , followed by court examinations and cross-examinations , during which Kirkpatrick refuses to turn around to look at his questioners . But occasionally he smirks.

He describes the most appalling killings with a casualness that is unreal but , again and again he is caught out for telling lies . He again and again refuses to accept that he said certain things to the RUC but , when documents are produced to prove otherwise he accepts the contents of those documents and claims that he remembers very little about the interviews he had with the RUC but states that the only thing he is really clear about are the events themselves .

But , again and again, he is wrong about crucial details - for example , when he names Henry McNamee as being involved in a ‘job’ , McNamee was actually in jail when it was supposed to have taken place . Overall , his ‘evidence’ is far from satisfactory . The nervous twitch he has in his right eye gets worse as the ‘trial’ wears on , and it is noticable that he claims to remember very little from the time of his arrest to now…….
(MORE LATER).

THE HOWARD MARKS AFFAIR…….
Customs Officers in England have arrested a man who could blow the lid off an embarrassing British Intelligence operation against the Provisional IRA , when he answers drug smuggling charges in London later this year.
From ‘MAGILL’ magazine, July 1980.
By James Curtis.

In March 1974 , the Littlejohn brothers broke out of Mountjoy Prison : Kenneth fled to Holland where he gave his famous interview to the BBC which caused such a rumpus. Shortly afterwards , Howard Marks disappeared . A man who claimed to be with ‘Customs and Excise’ called at his Oxford lodgings where Marks was babysitting while his girlfriend was out . He handed the child to his landlady and , without even taking a jacket , fled the house.

He went to the USA and then Canada , where he was caught up in deportation proceedings . Whilst his appeal was on-going , he surfaced in France and , in April 1978 , was arrested there by French police near Cannes . He now faced extradition.

Then the West German government announced that they wanted him for questioning over the bombing of a British Army computer centre at Moenchengladbach in September 1973…….
(MORE LATER).

THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST HEROIN IN DUBLIN……. The drugs crisis is one of the major problems facing young people in Dublin today. In large areas of the city it has now reached massive proportions , while in the inner city there is estimated to be a higher percentage of drug addicts and drug abusers than in Harlem in New York . But it has been only recently - 5 years after this epidemic began in earnest - that any notice has been paid to the problem. And even now the Free State government has failed to confront the crisis in a meaningful way . Tony Barry of Na Fianna Eireann has been looking at the issues for ‘IRIS’ magazine.
From ‘IRIS’ magazine, December 1984.

A few drug treatment centres do exist , but their already overstretched facilities are painfully inadequate to deal with the growth of the problem. The Jervis Street unit in Dublin has only nine beds available in the detoxification ward so that the vast majority of people it deals with are forced into the position of being ‘outpatients’ .

Jervis Street Hospital is due to move to a new site at Beaumont , on the north side of Dublin, where there will be ten beds in the new detoxification ward . In addition , the Task Force report has said that the drugs unit at Jervis Street will be maintained and a further unit set up at St James’ Hospital, but has given no concrete outline of how and when this will be done.

The only residential treatment centre in the State is the Coolmine Therapeutic Community : its importance lies in the fact that while centres like Jervis Street can try to wean addicts off heroin by administering smaller and smaller quantities of less addictive drugs over a period of weeks , the psychological dependence on heroin runs so deep in addicts that they additionally need the supportive counselling and full-time care that only a residential centre can provide . Coolmine , however, has limited facilities and a long waiting list…….
(MORE LATER).

THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY…….
Twenty-six men were convicted on the word of Harry Kirkpatrick. On their appeal against those convictions could well rest the future of the ‘Anglo-Irish Agreement’
(’The Hillsborough Treaty’) . Based on a full transcript of the Kirkpatrick trials , the story of how these convictions were obtained shows why the ‘Supergrass System’ is a pale shadow of justice.
By Derek Dunne. From ‘MAGILL’ magazine, February 1986.

At 11.40am on the first day of proceedings , Harry Kirkpatrick turns around and identifies Seán Tumelty: (and here) he claims that Tumelty was involved in criminal acts and , pointing at him , declares - ” He is sitting facing me , third row , and second from my left hand side beside the prison officer.” Kirkpatrick does the same for the other twenty-six men.

Seán Tumelty has a steel plate in his head and , several times during the hearing, he lets out a scream and collapses from the pain , at which point the court adjourns and resumes again when Tumelty has recovered. He was hit by a plastic bullet at point blank range in 1981 and was in a coma and on a life support machine . He takes a lot of sedatives nowadays , but refuses assistance when dressing etc , preferring to do it himself . Kirkpatrick is saying that Tumelty was involved in making up a bomb .

Barbara (nee-Tumelty ?) , wife of one of the accused, Hugh Torney, is sitting in the public gallery . Harry Kirkpatrick calmly explains that she was a courier for the INLA. It’s the first time her name has been mentioned by Kirkpatrick and she is visibly shocked - she may now be arrested on his ‘word’ . Day after day , the ‘evidence’ goes on like this . Harry Kirkpatrick’s father cries in the public gallery , sitting alone…….
(MORE LATER).

THE HOWARD MARKS AFFAIR…….
Customs Officers in England have arrested a man who could blow the lid off an embarrassing British Intelligence operation against the Provisional IRA , when he answers drug smuggling charges in London later this year.
From ‘MAGILL’ magazine, July 1980.
By James Curtis.

In February 1974 , the Dutch Justice Minister ordered a stop to the surveillance , then British newspapers alleged that James McCann was smuggling drugs to buy arms for the IRA ; McCann denied any involvement and , whilst in Dublin , gave an interview to the ‘Sunday Independent’ newspaper in which he detailed several British intelligence operations .

He described a special joint unit of police , MI6 , special branch and customs officers , set up to combat arms smuggling and named the building , Tintagel House by the River Thames , where it was based and named the senior customs officer posted there . He also named a West German diplomat co-ordinating intelligence against the IRA in Dublin and also said British intelligence was using ‘front’ companies for arms deals to see who used them.

British Customs were appalled at those disclosures . The named officer was sent immediately on ’special leave’ to get him out of the way . The intriguing possibility is that Howard Marks gave James McCann that information…….
(MORE LATER).

THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST HEROIN IN DUBLIN……. The drugs crisis is one of the major problems facing young people in Dublin today. In large areas of the city it has now reached massive proportions , while in the inner city there is estimated to be a higher percentage of drug addicts and drug abusers than in Harlem in New York . But it has been only recently - 5 years after this epidemic began in earnest - that any notice has been paid to the problem. And even now the Free State government has failed to confront the crisis in a meaningful way . Tony Barry of Na Fianna Eireann has been looking at the issues for ‘IRIS’ magazine.
From ‘IRIS’ magazine, December 1984.

What reaction has there been from Leinster House to this spiralling drug addiction and despair ? Where has its elected members been , its agencies , the State gardai , RTE , the various Youth Councils ? The straightforward answer is that until very recently there was no reaction whatever from the State and its institutions .

Even so , when the Free State administration’s ‘Task Force on Drug Abuse’, which was established in 1983 , issued its report in September 1983 , it was universally condemned by all those involved with young people and by those active in the campaign against drug pushers .

In essence , while it waffled on about setting up more committees , sponsoring a degree course in the study of drug abuse and other largely irrelevant and half-hearted gestures , it almost totally failed to recommend the allocation of extra money and resources needed to combat the symptoms of the crisis , let alone to tackle the underlying causes…….
(MORE LATER).

‘MOBILE CAR PLACARD’ - VOTE ‘NO!’ TO LISBON TWO!

‘Updated’ car number plate , Dublin!

‘VOTE NO!’ - mobile placard !

A reader of this blog spotted the above number plate ,on a car parked near O’ Connell Street , in Dublin , and kindly sent it in to this blog : thanks ,Louise!
Incidentally , a tax imposed on ‘imported vehicles’ (whatever happened to the EU ‘promise’ that ‘Europe’ will be “one big market” ?) by politicians here in this State was actually deemed , in 2002 , by the EU , as “…illegal under the EU treaty…” who called for its abolition but , in typical ‘cherry-picker’ mode , the wealthy elite in Leinster House have ignored that instruction - because that illegal tax is worth approximately over €900million a year to them! And they ‘need’ it to maintain the lifestyles they have become accustomed to .

There is a huge amount of information on the EU and its various faults onthese two ‘11 Sixty Nine And Counting…’ posts - especially in the ‘Comments’ thread attached to each of those posts (thanks , ‘Phoenix One UK’ !) : “faults” , that is , for those of us that have to pay for the sheer extravagant waste that the Brussels Monster has become , and a waste that the political elite want to ensure will continue for their own financial gain, which is what the Lisbon Constitution/Treaty will guarantee .
We don’t ‘owe’ them and we can’t afford them - VOTE ‘NO!’ on 2nd October 2009.
Thanks!
Sharon.