Web layout by SAOIRSE -- Irish Freedom
April 3, 1998
Send links, events notifications, articles, comments etc, to the editor at: saoirse@iol.ie marked "attention web-editor".
A Swedish company, with the backing of Donegal Airport and Údarás na Gaeltachta has applied for planning permission to erect hangers and “other buildings” for a paint stripping and repainting of aircraft business.
Industrial development of this area has only been proposed as an artificial means of generating income for Donegal Airport, which has proved to be a financial disaster due to its remote location. Despite this, Gaeltarra Éirinn, and their successors Údarás na Gaeltachta have continued to pour public funds into this speculative Airport venture in Donegal.
If it had been shown that there was an on-going demand for an airport at this location one could understand the point of ongoing subsidies. But it is completely inappropriate to try and manufacture demand for an airport by turning a scenic rural area into a remote industrial estate, reachable only by air or a very inferior road network.
The area is a special area of conservation (SAC) and should be protected by the EU National Habitat Regulations. Industrialisation of this area would be unthinkable.
The areas of Sand Dunes and Machair Grassland along the Blue Flag beach are of a kind only to be found in sections of coastline from Galway to Donegal and nowhere else in Europe.
The Swedish group who have formed themselves into an Irish Company Avipant Teo have produced an Environ-mental Impact report that does not mention how they will dispose of the extremely toxic waste from this operation. This type of paint stripping process has been used in space shuttle operations and on military aircraft.
The Braade Carrickfin conservation group represents the vast majority of local residents in Braade Carrickfin and adjoining areas.
The group was formed in April 1998 because of fears that the airport company intended to carry out industrial expansion to the detriment of the local environment and recreation and sports facilities.
The local people want to maintain the natural beauty of this area and do not want second rate jobs that will destroy a beautiful part of county Donegal — which is still visited by dolphins. Efforts to uncover the background of this Swedish group have proved difficult so far.
Objections to planning permission can be sent to Donegal Co Council, Lifford, Co Donegal. Ref. no 98/2687.
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In a statement on March 26 Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, President, Republican Sinn Féin said that the ever-expanding NATO “has usurped the role of the United Nations in the world by its military action against Serbia”.
He went on to say: “The UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has stated in this context that ‘under the UN Charter, the Security Council should be involved in any decision to resort to force’.
“In an address to the French National Assembly to mark the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights last December, he also said that military intervention without UN Security Council consent ‘would not be far from a return to the system of spheres of influence founded on the specific interests of states rather than the principle of shared responsibility’.
“This is the type of situation the leading political parties at Leinster House want the 26-County State directly involved in through the decision to join the NATO-led “Partnership for Peace” later this year.
“Fianna Fáil has done a U-turn and reneged on its 1997 election manifesto and the people will not be consulted by referendum. Gradually and steadily the policy of neutrality is being whittled away without direct reference to the public and a line-up politically and militarily with the Big Powers is being taken on.
“The Irish people do not want to be a cat’s paw for a power bloc but neither do they approve of nor wish to stand by while a war of ethnic cleansing and genocide is being again pursued by the Milosovic régime — this time against Kosovo.
“As Mr Annan said in Paris ‘some are tempted to act without Security Council consent. This would create an unfortunate precedent and put into question the first article of the UN Charter’ regarding collective measures.
“Is the world slipping down the slope to greater conflagrations and ignoring the United Nations at the behest of the Great Powers? Is the 26-County State assisting in this process and without reference to the people?
“Republican Sinn Féin believes it is time to cry ‘Halt’ and to get this whole process of collective responsibility back on track with the UN,” the statement ended.
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That was then, this is now
— Mary O’Rourke, Fianna Fáil Dublin minister, explaining last January why Fianna Fáil’s 1997 election manifesto promise not to join the NATO-led PFP can be thrown out in 1999 without any vote of the electorate.
Deliberately vague language, that can be interpreted in different ways, is the key to a solution [in the Six Counties].
— Editorial column, Sunday Tribune, March 7, 1999.
This vote represents a significant gain (for Unionists) which should allow partition to persist for several more decades.
— Damien Kiberd, Sunday Business Post, March 7, 1999, writing on last year’s vote to scrap Articles 2 and 3 of the Free State Constitution.
The Belfast Agreement represents a refined version of the Sunningdale Agreement . . . it represents a superb achievement for the UUP’s negotiators, and David Trimble did a superb deal for his side on Good Friday 1998: indeed, it seems most unlikely that he or any other UUP leader could hope for better.
— Damien Kiberd.
You can stick your apology which I’m sure is totally insincere anyway. When did you English ever apologise for anything — not the Famine, not Bloody Sunday — nothing.”
— Paul Regan, after winning a court appeal against the English-based car clamping company in Dublin, Control Plus, Evening Herald, March 11,1999.
Dear Gerry Adams, You seem to expect the Dublin papers to behave like An Phoblacht. These southern hacks are not on message: they don’t fancy Shinners: they’ll shed no tears if David Trimble finds an excuse to freeze you out of the executive and, incidentally, they’re prepared to say you’ve sold out on the Republic to settle for what was on offer all those years ago at Sunningdale, ie, a couple of Taigs in government as part of an internal Northern Ireland partitionist settlement.
— Tallyman, Sunday Tribune, March 14, 1999.
Also, don’t believe Bertie or Mo Mowlam — there’s always a plan B — so do whatever you have to do to get Sinn Féin backsides into cabinet seats before they go for it, Otherwise, you’ll wind up out there in no man’s land being picked off from all sides.
— Tallyman.
Some Republicans (sic) recognise a central irony, the struggle for admission as of right to a form of government they would have denounced not long ago as partionist. But then depicting it as a struggle helps to sell the compromise involved — “our people have no attachment to Stormont”, a veteran [PSF] official says, “if it folded tomorrow, I know no-one who would weep”. Tears no. But some comrades have already invested effort in what they hope might be their ministerial briefs.
— Journalist Fionnualla O’Connor, Magill magazine, March 1999.
In fact the six (cross-border) bodies will cost £56 million in annual expenditure and will have a total staff of 880 people ... [the 26-County taxpayers] will fork out £42 million to underpin the project.
— Stephen Collins, Sunday Tribune, March 14, 1999, writing on the Stormont cross-border bodies.
The latest trade figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) point to a growing economic dependency on multi-national chemical, pharmaceutical and computer firms.
— Journalist Tom Golden, Sunday Business Post, March 21, 1999.
There are times when the use of force may be legitimate in the pursuit of peace.
— Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General, Irish Times, March 25, 1999.
A lot of political families now find themselves considerably enriched as a result of the huge salaries and perks (from Stormont) — not only is the unaccustomed money being greatly welcomed, but the power and respectability that accompany it are being grabbed with both hands.
— Journalist Mick McConnell, Kerryman March 26, 1999.
While [Provisional] IRA leaders have repeatedly assured their grass-roots that weapons will never be given up, there are signs that “voluntary” decommissioning could be possible given the right political developments, the most significant of which is [Provisional] Sinn Féin entry to the new executive.
— Ed Moloney, Sunday Tribune, March 28, 1999.
Bertie Ahern in the FF 1997 general election manifesto specifically ruled out PFP (Partnership for Peace) involvement “We oppose Irish participation in NATO-led organisations such as Partnership for Peace.”
— Tallyman, Sunday Tribune, March 28, 1999.
The most disturbing aspect is that it now seems the big four, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour and the PDs, are intent on steamrolling approval for PFP through the Dáil without the holding of a referendum. Three years ago, Ahern declared that any attempt to join without a referendum would be fundamentally undemo-cratic. Now, apparently with opposition compliance, he is reneging on that pledge, and it is just not good enough. The people must be trusted to decide.
— Tallyman.
To note how suddenly Dublin 4 has become silent on the topic of Rule 21 . But the President will remain vigilant; knowing that, even as Dublin 4 slinks shamefacedly away from its attempt to ram the armed wing of British racism down the throat of the GAA, Dublin 4 is ruminating upon new ways of misdirecting and enervating the GAA.
— Kevin Cashman on the minimum commitments of a new GAA president, Sunday Tribune, March 28,1999.
Should the RUC be allowed to continue to police Portadown at all?
— Tom McGurk, Sunday Business Post, March 28, 1999.
Two weeks ago Lord Justice Kerr adjudicated in the Lee Clegg case on the murder of Karen Reilly. Astonishingly, despite the fact that paratroopers fired high velocity shots at 10 yards range into a speeding car, lied in court about the circumstances (as the judge admitted) and carried out this action in clear breach of their legal firing instructions, the judge himself decided that not only Clegg himself but none of the patrol was guilty of murder.
— Tom McGurk.
“Gerry Kelly was jeered out of it, the night before Rosemary [Nelson’s] burial,” recalls Brendan MacCionnaith. Kelly who consults IRA prisoners about decommissioning, went on the Garvaghy area on St Patrick’s night to try and stop rioters who were enraged by alleged Orange celebrations of the feast. In the process, Orangemen had spilled out of Cocrain Orange Hall - which is marooned in a Catholic area - put a Catholic family out of their home and shouted insults about the dead woman. MacCionnaith and Duffy were batoned by the police, Kelly was told by the rioters to go back to Belfast.
— Sunday Tribune report, March 28, 1999.
All right, so I have changed my mind, what about it?
— Bertie Ahern on Fianna Fáil’s U-turn on joining the NATO-led Partnership for Peace. Irish Times, March 30, 1999.
Northern Ireland is a quasi-fascist statelet policed by a standing army loyal to one community
— John Waters, columnist, Irish Times, March 30, 1999.
It is clear now that certainly the UUP, probably the British government, and possibly also the Irish government, saw the Belfast Agreement as an opportunity to move Irish republicans (sic) beyond a line which they could not re-cross.
— John Waters.
In an action which may affect negotiations, the [Provisional] IRA last night released details of nine of its victims whose graves have been located.
— Irish Times, March 30, 1999.
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The death took place on March 10 of Veteran Republican and hurler Willie Walsh of Derha West, Listowel, Co Kerry. At his death he was Kerry President of Republican Sinn Féin.
Willie Walsh was born in 1913 in the townland of Keel, Crotta, Lixnaw, Co Kerry. From an early age nationalism, love of hurling and patriotism was instilled into him by his parents. His granduncle Ned Walsh was drowned by British forces and thrown overboard in Belfast, and his mother’s brother, Garrett Stack, frequently trafficked arms for the Fenians and subsequently had to emigrate to America.
When Willie was 19 years he joined the IRA and became involved in the Kerry No 1 Brigade which operated in Abbeydorney, Crotta and Kilflynn, Tralee. In June 1940 he was arrested and imprisoned in Cork jail. From there he was taken to the Curragh Concentration Camp and was placed in Hut C6, an all Irish-speaking hut. He attended the classes of Máirtín Ó Cadhain and Seán Ó Tuama, and transcribed the books Idir Súgradh agus Dáiríre and Ag Caitheamh Tabac for Máirtín Ó Cadhain.
Due to difficult conditions and starving men, the internees decided to burn the huts and they succeeded in the burning of seven huts. For punishment for these offences the internees were left out in the rain, with no dinner and no Mass on Sunday. Willie witnessed the shooting of Barney Casey whom he personally lifted to safety after he had been shot. He remembered asking for a priest for the young lad but no priest came until the boy was dead. Willie was the last Kerry internee to be released from the Curragh and a train brought him home to Abbeydorney. In 1972 he was jailed in Limerick for the selling of Easter lilies and remembers hearing of Bloody Sunday on the radio in Limerick jail.
Willie worked for Kerry County Council, in the Monument in Lixnaw, Co Kerry and won nine County Championship medals with the Crotta O’Neills Hurling Club.
He attended Bodenstown and other commemorations all his life. After the split in 1986 he remained loyal to the leadership of Republican Sinn Féin and accepted no settlement or stepping-stones but only a total withdrawal of the British from Ireland.
Republican Sinn Féin members in Kerry provided a Guard of Honour as his coffin, draped in the National Flag, was taken to the church and on the following day as he was taken to Listowel New Cemetery. Crotta O’Neills hurling club also provided a Guard of Honour as this great Republican soldier was laid to rest.
The oration was delivered by Emmet Walsh of Offaly.
The staff of SAOIRSE extend deepest sympathy to Willie’s wife Phil, his daughters Siobhán and Eilish and son Liam and to all his family and friends.
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There was much sadness in West Cavan, South Leitrim and South Fermanagh at the deaths of Hugh and Molly McGovern, Corlough, Co Cavan.
Molly passed away after a long illness on February 10 and her husband Hugh died on February 14. Molly and Hugh were great friends of many Republicans who had to leave their homes on Occupied Ireland in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Hugh, like his late brothers Charlie and James, was a Republican all his life. Molly and Hugh were in their eighties and were two of the most popular people you would like to meet.
At his removal the coffin was draped in the National Flag by Co Cavan Republican Sinn Féin. The removals and funerals were two of the largest ever seen at Corlough Church. The sincere sympathy of the Republican Movement is extended to their sons Hugh and Éamonn and to their daughters Josie, Kathleen and Maureen and to all their relatives and friends.
The Special Branch political police and uniformed police mingled among the mourners at both funerals and took down the numbers of cars attending the funerals.
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A stalwart lifelong Republican died in Toronto on February 5, 1999. Bill O’Connor, from St Brendan’s Park, Tralee, Co Kerry, was 83 years old.
Bill came to Canada in 1957 when he was already 42 and the father of a growing family. After a brief return to Ireland, he came back to Canada and settled into a long and productive working career as a plastics moulder. He was an expert at his trade who remained in demand until he finally retired at the age of 75.
The unemployment which drove him first to England in his twenties and then to Canada produced a characteristic response. His daughter Dolores remembered the hard times the family faced when Bill, then the father of growing teenagers, lost his job in Ireland in the mid-fifties. His neighbours advised him to pull the children out of school so they could supplement the family income, but Bill steadfastly refused, telling his children to “get an education, because once you have it they can never take it away from you”.
Bill is remembered in the Irish community in Canada and beyond for his unfailing generosity and assistance to other Irish immigrants. Many families recall Bill as the benefactor who found jobs and a place to live for many newcomers.
Most of all, however, Bill will be remembered for his unswerving attachment to the Republican Movement. Bill O’Connor joined the Republican Movement as a Fian in his native Tralee during the hard times that Uinseann MacEoin calls “the twilight years”. He was a model Fian and Volunteer, a comrade and close friend of John Joe Sheehy, who learned early and never forgot, “whatever you say, say nothing”. Even when friends and comrades, including the late Denis Leyne, urged him to record his memories, Bill refused. He always said it was nobody else’s business to know what he had done for the Movement.
At the beginning of World War II, while Bill was working in England, his wife Colleen became ill and he had to return home.
Bill and several companions were arrested by Special Branch political police in Tralee on trumped-up robbery charges and held in Ardfert for several weeks.
His son Sam recalls riding on the handlebars of his mother’s bicycle to visit his father in jail, where several weeks had produced a big, bushy beard. When the charges were finally dropped and they were to be released the police came in with clean clothes and a razor but Bill, typically, refused them, saying he would walk out an innocent man in his own clothes and he’d shave at his leisure in his own bathroom.
All through the period of the 1956-62 Border Campaign and in the fallow years in the early 1960s, Bill was “the man” in Toronto. He initiated and organised fund-raising plays and dances for Republican Prisoners’ dependants.
At one stage, it is said, Bill and his handful of comrades were raising more money for the Movement in Toronto than anywhere else in North America. And when the freedom struggle in the North broke out again, Bill was the vital link in Toronto, the man who kept his head down and did the work, providing material and moral aid to the beleaguered nationalists in the Six Counties.
One friend recalled “his fancy footwork”. “Bill was adept at changing hats, and the names of the committee, so the work would continue”.
His lasting legacy is the Emerald Isle Social Club, which Bill organised in the early 1960s, and which continues to this day to sponsor the annual Toronto commemoration of the Easter Rising.
We may have great men, but we’ll never have better.
When the split came in 1986 Bill remained true to the Republican cause.
Deepest condolences are extended to his children Sam, Dolores, Regina and Liam and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dilís.
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Republicans were deeply grieved by the death in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin on March 14 of life-long Republican Paddy Harney of Athlone.
There was a huge turn-out at the removal from his home at Cloonrullay Beálnamullia, Co Roscommon to Drum Church, Athlone. The coffin was draped in the Tricolour and Guard of Honour of Republican Sinn Féin comrades escorted the hearse.
A piper and a concert flautist played during Mass next morning and also accompanied the funeral to the local cemetery. Seosamh Ó Maoileoin, Co na h-Iar-mhí led the immense attendance in a decade of the Rosary in Irish.
“Paddy Harney, affectionately called Packey, was an honourable and uncompromising Republican whose principled stand all his life involved much sacrifice for himself and his family”, said Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, President, Republican Sinn Féin at his graveside in Drum cemetery, Athlone on March 16.
He went on; “Packey joined the Athlone Unit of the IRA in the early 1950s while he was still in his twenties. After returning from the funeral of Seán Sabhat in Limerick in January 1957 he was arrested for taking part in a Guard of Honour at the funeral of veteran Republican Paddy Givern of Monksland, Athlone.
“He was sentenced to three months imprisonment in the political wing of Mountjoy jail. On his release he found his employment as a railway man with CIE taken from him.
“Three months later again he was taken in the internment swoop of July 1957 and held without trial in the Curragh Concentration Camp.
“He had but to sign a form undertaking to secure immediate release and the return of his job with CIE.
“Packey refused and he and his wife Teresa and four young children suffered much distress and privation as a result.
“A year and three months later he was released unconditionally and resumed activities with Republican Sinn Fén. He found work in Dublin, returning to Athlone at weekends, and after some years his job as a railway man was restored to him.
“In the late 1960s he was among those who set up a public meeting locally for Civil Rights leaders from the Six Counties. Later he assisted families suffering distress and helped refugees from the North.
“In 1969 and ’70 he stood firm against the Workers’ Party attempt to divert the revolutionary Republican Movement into a reformist party in Westminster, Stormont and Leinster House.
“He worked in elections for — among other Republican candidates — the hunger-strike Martin Hurson from Tyrone who fasted to death for political prisoner status in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh Camp.
“Again in 1986 he was uncompromising against the Provo move to accept the 26-County and later the Stormont assemblies.
“He and Teresa were among those who voted unanimously at the local Seán Costello/Martin Hurson Cumann to stand by Republican Sinn Féin.
“Packey was steadfast and persistent as a Republican activist all his life. He was direct and straight in his dealings with others and an example to youth in his selflessness.
“Until his last illness he collected funds, sold Republican literature and distributed the lillies every Easter.
“He has gone to join his close comrades of the internment camp who have predeceased him, Liam Fagan of Dundalk and Jim Columb of Cavan. Also linked with him are local Republicans Victor and Una Fagg, Paddy and Tommy Mulvihill, Billy Dowling and the Fitzpatrick brothers — all of whom he admired greatly for their service and sacrifice.
“By truth and honour, by principle and sacrifice alone (words of Liam Mellows when facing the firing squad) would Ireland be free. That is how Packey Harney lived his life. His comrades will be inspired as they cherish his memory,” he said.
Sincere sympathy is expressed to his wife Teresa and family: PJ, Séamus, Martin, Francis, Michael, Damien and Mary. Mourners at the funeral re-called how the local parish priest attempted to have Teresa pressurise Paddy to sign the form while he was in the Curragh.
“His first duty is to his wife and family”, said the PP. “No”, replied Teresa, “his first duty is to God and his country.” End of encounter.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis cróga.
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Web layout by SAOIRSE -- Irish Freedom April 3, 1998 Send links, events notifications, articles, comments etc, to the editor at: saoirse@iol.ie marked "attention web-editor". |