Web layout by SAOIRSE -- Irish Freedom
June 13, 1998
Send links, events notifications, articles, comments etc, to the editor at: saoirse@iol.ie marked "attention web-editor".
Those lifelong activists chosen to represent the four provinces and the US in 1998 were Paddy Duffy (Cavan), Síle Heneghan (Mayo), Willie Walsh (Kerry), Séamas Mac Suain, (Wexford) and Peter and Ellen Farley (New Jersey).
The proceeds of the Testimonial Dinner go to the organisers, CABHAIR, the Irish Republican Prisoners Dependants Fund, to assist the relatives of political prisoners incarcerated in the Six Occupied Counties and in Portlaoise and Limerick jails in the 26 Counties.
I have more good news for you, folks! It is OK to speak, and even to sing, the songs of ’98 again this year, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary. After all, did RTÉ itself not produce a very fine CD in association with those involved in the commemoration. And whatever else you may say about our national broadcaster, they are past masters at promoting their own musical and video productions, and are already not behind the door when it comes to sing again about ’98, now that Section 31 is no more!
Dr Conor Cruise O’Brien has done the decent thing and deserted the Labour Party for a seat as a UK Unionist in the North, and people are rapidly trying to turn the story of the 1798 Rebellion into some kind of newly-found cultural tourism product that is tied, in some strange way, with the “peace process”.
Let us clear up a few things immediately about this year of ’98. It is right and fitting that we re-visit, re-evaluate and if we believe in that sort of thing, commemorate proudly the Republican legacy of 1798 – one of the key turning-points in modern Irish history. It is also true that several dedicated committees and individuals were working for up to a decade particularly in Wexford and in Belfast in order to ensure a significant “Memory of the Dead” when the year 1998 came about. This was a brave and difficult thing to do in the early ’90s. Because the 1798 story is both sad and glorious and complex.
So is the sad reality that some 30,000 persons, at least, were slaughtered during those short summer months – an appalling number by any standards and certainly a terrible loss to a country where the population was still less than five million.
The military issues and wider international aspects of the Rising are all issues that need to be tackled in the commemorative months ahead.
I mention this here not only because Cumann Mherriman, the wonderful collection of ageing Irish language figures, who learned to use the language mainly at school in the pre-EU era when the teaching of Irish was at least as successful as anything we have seen since “we joined Europe”, selected Oidhreacht ’98, the legacy of 1798, for the theme of their annual Winter School in Westport, Co Mayo earlier this year.
I have over the past 30 years always been more partial to the Merriman winter occasion – be they at Nenagh, Killarney, Kilkenny, or Galway – than the Summer School in English which is firmly rooted in Co Clare. And while people in the west are delighted that Westport – at the end of yet another CIE single-track railway line, so beloved of those Dublin-based Merrimen who do not drink and who always comment on the poor quality of the rail services of the Scoil Gheimhridh in recent times, that it has been selected again this year, it is particularly appropriate that the Mayo voice of ’98 should be raised at this early stage of the year.
There are all sorts of related issues, connected with the uniquely Irish nature of the revolt that need to be looked at again – in the context of the age. The simple military strategy of the British to goad the people into a revolt they could put down before it had really got organised is an issue even for modern strategists.
So is the real fear in Britain of this, the first “all-out” war, where the French revolut-ionaries were leading an “international crusade” against despotism in the cause of “long down-trodden man”. (Women did not figure in the Republican vocabulary at that time though women, as protectors of their families and communities here in Ireland did play a valiant and under-written role.)
Then there was the further “strategic” argument that Ireland would be used as a “back-door” to undermine British interests. That Ireland might become a nineteenth century “Cuba” as the Americans saw that island in the twentieth century. From what we know of the reaction of O’Connell and other rich landlords in the South, who looked to the Cork garrison to “protect” them when the French made their first unsuccessful attempt to land in Bantry Bay in December 1796, London need not have worried.
Nevertheless, when he was still in the Labour Party, and before he became a formal UK Unionist, Dr Conor Cruise O’Brien used to remind fans of the annual Humbert Summer School in Killala that the French landing there in August 1798 was “the last European invasion of these islands”.
Roger Casement, it seems, did not figure in this matter, presumably because it was a failure. So, of course, was the Erin’s Hope landing at Ring, Co Waterford in Fenian times. Not to mention a similar attempt to land arms by the modern IRA during O’Brien’s period in government.
It is worth recalling too that at that time the Irish Catholic bishops almost came to agreeing a British government veto on the appointment of bishops only it was stubbornly opposed by layman Daniel O’Connell, who had, of course, been educated himself in France at the time of the outbreak of the Revolution. It is said that it was the excesses and the bloodshed he saw in Paris at that time that convinced O’Connell that not a drop of Irish blood should be spilt at home in causes which he advocated. Even the abolition of the 1800 Act of Union and the demand for the return of an Irish Parliament to College Green.
We need, too, to discuss the degree to which secularism, or modern “Godlessness” had any validity in the pre-Darwin, pre-Marx, pre-Freud days of 1798. We need to ask what political programme, if any, had the rebels in place, if they actually had some success in the three-pronged revolt effort.
Is it not possible to imagine that a country as predominantly Catholic and Protestant as Ireland was at the end of the eighteenth century, would tolerate the type of anti-religious secularism that grew up in France through the severe curtailment of church involvement in the schools throughout the nineteenth century.
Not to mention the terror they instilled into the rural peasant sub-nations like Brittany, which were not only predominantly Catholic but also, of course, more concerned with freeing their own independent national being from the centralising clutches of Paris than any theoretic “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity”.
Let me hasten to add that I do not share the UK Unionist line that if the French had taken over Ireland at the time of Napoleon that we would have had an even rawer deal than we got from the British in the nineteenth century. For one thing the whole strategic evolution of the North and Eastern Atlantic at a time when a victorious Britain cut off Ireland entirely from Europe for a century, would have been different.
But the question of just how welcome French rule in Ireland would be if it were established as Napoleon came to power is a question that needs to be raised also.
Ar aghaidh leis an gcomóradh – agus leis an bplé!
— Nollaig Ó Gadhra/
Contents
CHE Guevera wrote “It is not always necessary to wait for revolutionary situations to exist, sometimes the instructional forces can create them.”
By the early 1970s the British State had recognised the threat posed to political and civil stability in Britain by revolutionary events occurring in Ireland, and their potential to act as an inspiration for other oppressed groups.
At a counter-insurgency seminar organised by the ‘Royal Institute for Defence’ in April 1973, one chairman stated “if we lose in Belfast we may have to fight in Brixton or Birmingham”.
With this threat in mind Brigadier Frank Kitson was given the green light to use the nationalist population as guinea pigs on which to test his theories of counter-insurgency.
The French investigative journalist Roger Faligot was later to note the techniques advocated by Kitson in his book Britain’s Military Strategy in Ireland.
By assigning Kitson to the north, not only was the British state sanctioning a ruthless clampdown on a popular uprising. They were exploiting an ideal situation with which to test largely untried tactics ranging from ‘psychological warfare’ to methods of ‘mass population control’ which by 1975 would be adopted as standard British and NATO counter-insurgency techniques.
Because of its demographics, Ireland provided an ideal military laboratory in which Kitson could test out his theories.
As white, English-speaking Europeans, the nationalist population presented themselves as an ideal model ‘domestic enemy’, yet because their history and culture was distinguishable from Britain and Europe, their repression wouldn’t cause as much concern as it would had they been resident in mainland Europe or in Britain.
As part of an attempt to portray the conflict here as apolitical and the role of the British as ‘peacekeepers’, SAS groups were used to gun down civilian Catholics in a way that looked like loyalist attacks, portraying the conflict as sectarian and senseless.
In this tense atmosphere the nationalist population along with the international community were put under pressure to support the saturation of nationalist areas by the British army and RUC.
Up to 120 Catholic civilians were murdered either directly or indirectly by these pseudo-groups in 1972 alone.
In the presence of Frank Kitson the men were subjected to experimental interrogation techniques previously rehearsed at Marsefield intelligence centre.
For the next eight days they were forced to wear hoods in order to restrict their oxygen intake, they were frequently beaten and made stand in the spread-eagle position for lengthy periods of time, in addition to this they were subjected to a range of disorientating noises, and deprived of sleep and sufficient food.
By depriving the men of sensory stimulation and their brains of sugar and oxygen hallucinations were induced and great discomfort experienced.
Instead of facilitating interrogation, this ‘sensory deprivation’ actually made man incapable of co-operating. In some cases men had forgotten their own names so great was their disorientation and discomfort.
He also worked alongside Colin Wallace in campaigns aimed at discrediting the IRA with false stories of KBG gun-running and faulty bombs in national newspapers.
In one of Kitson’s stranger projects, PSYOPS teams were sent out to ‘depoliticise the ghettos’. In Belfast and Derry groups of men set out armed with buckets and rollers, whitewashing the wall murals of Connolly and Pearse and replacing them with posters of teen pop idols. Where once ‘Brits Out’ adorned gable walls now was sketched ‘Jane loves Séamus’ etc.
The women’s peace movement, contrary to popular belief was founded not by Máiréad Corrigan and Betty Williams, but was the brainchild of Kitson and his PSYOPS teams in the counter-insurgency community.
The movement was launched long before the tragic deaths of Danny Lennon and the Maguire children, but these events were used (some say engineered) to revamp and redirect the movement which was later used as a smokescreen with which to cover up both violence committed by the State and the incoming ‘Ulsterisation’ policy.
Although the first baton-round (wooden) was used in Hong Kong, the rubber and plastic versions were designed specifically for use in Ireland.
Between 1970 and 1974 during Kitson’s time here, 55,688 rubber bullets were fired. These weapons were considered by the State to be ‘non-violent’. In fact there were lethal, especially when replaced with batteries or doctored with nails or razor blades. Water cannons, crowd (Paddy) pushers, as well as faster vehicles like the Saracen and the helicopter used for internal security and rapid response were all advocated by Kitson.
In 1970 alone, 10,000 canisters and 2,500 grenades of CS-gas were thrown into the nationalist ghettos of the North. The British army had to christen it ‘CS-smoke’ so as not to contravene the 1925 Geneva Convention which proscribed their use as chemical weapons.
In August 1976, 2 3 5 Trichlorophenol, defoliants with lethal potentialities, similar to those used in Vietnam were sprayed over large areas of South Armagh in an attempt to demobilise IRA movement through bracken and make tracing by helicopter easier.
Kitson’s theories and tactics help us to recognise the true nature of British policy in Ireland and its long term strategic, political and imperial interests here.
They have rubbished the claim by Britain that its role here is to protect and show clearly that in fact it is to contain.
While the enthusiasm and arrogance shown by these men in carrying out their tasks exposes the irreformably imperialist nature of British rule in Ireland, their advocated methods speak for themselves.
“Contain discontent by indiscriminate means and make the life of the local population so miserablethat their overriding wish is for a return to normality.” (Brigadier Frank Kitson)
— Ciarán Ó Cuinneagáin
Contents
Now, on June 7, the Swiss electorate will vote on an Initiative to abolish the political police. The demand for a vote was contained in the Initiative deposited with 105,664 signatures. The number of 100,000 is sufficient to ensure that the matter be put to a popular vote.
Right-wing politicians are opposing the proposal, which seeks to abolish the political police and insert a paragraph in the Constitution declaring that no citizen should be watched and reported on in the exercise of his or her rights to hold opinions and the exercise of political rights.
Switzerland, at the centre of Europe, has its own problems with money laundering, drug-trafficking, espionage and counter-espionage and thousands of refugees from Easter Europe and the East seeking to enter the country. Nevertheless, the 1989 files scandal has undermined the credibility of the federal police. Left-wing politicians and activists, ecologists and feminists are campaigning for the Initiative.
The Federal Government has already drawn up a Plan B. If the Initiative fails they have a draft bill ready to put before parliament which would put the secret services on a proper legal footing for the first time. Police spokespersons have already declared that this measure would limit their powers of investigation and that, by comparison with other European countries, it would be too restrictive.
The Initiative may fail, but there is a healthy debate on the issue, and in the event of failure, the government’s proposals will obviously improve the situation, by carefully defining the powers of the secret services.
The right of Initiative provides a healthy opportunity for debate and voting on issues of the day. The Republican Sinn Féin ÉIRE NUA programme includes provision for the citizens’ right to the Initiative in a New Ireland.
This is being pushed by environmentalists and apparently has a lot of popular support. The idea is that four Sundays in the year will be declared “car-less” days. There will be exceptions of course, such as public transport, health and police services, taxis and vehicles for handicapped persons. Otherwise, private cars would be banned on these days.
The Swiss are very environment conscious and heavy lorries have already for many years been banned from Swiss roads between ten o’clock at night and six o’clock in the morning.
The rows and interminable negotiations between Switzerland and the EU concerning permission for 40-tonne trucks to pass between Germany and Italy are almost legendary. The Swiss want to put the trucks on railway wagons and haul them across the country, for a fee. In any case, before the vote on banning the cars, the city of Berne will have a Sunday without cars on September 13, during the celebrations of 150 years of the Confederation, 1848-1998.
John Leo O’Reilly (Leo to his friends) had lived and worked in Coventry, England since 1962, he had no criminal record and had never been in trouble with the police.
On the evening of July 2, 1994 Leo was baby-sitting with his wife when he lost his footing and banged his head hard against the hall floor. An ambulance was called but instead of being taken to hospital, Leo O’Reilly was arrested by the West Midlands police on a charge of being ‘drunk and disorderly’, when in fact he was suffering from a serious hear injury.
He was found 15 hours later in a Coventry cell by ambulance staff and was described by paramedics who took him to hospital as being “deeply unconscious – semi-dressed, shaking and lying in a pool of urine and vomit, his hair was matted with sick”. The Leo O’Reilly Support Group asked: “How could the police allow Leo to get into such a condition? Was Leo stereotyped as a drunken Irishman?
A tape-recording revealed a custody sergeant had referred to him as a “horrible stinking drunk”. Yet tests showed no trace of alcohol in O’Reilly’s blood. Neither were these lies and insults deemed serious enough to warrant disciplinary action.
The police doctor was not called to see the Irishman until he had been in custody for over 11 hours. When asked why he had not noticed the man’s head injury after a medical examination, the doctor gave the pathetic reply that the cell in which the examination took place was “dimly lit”.
The officers in charge had told him to examine the prisoner in the cells rather than in the well-lit medical room, he maintained. Furthermore this doctor had not even heard of the Glasgow Coma Scale which the paramedics and other doctors said was the standard and accepted way of discovering if someone had a head injury. Leo O’Reilly suffered an excruciating death after 15 hours in British police custody, shivering and lying in his own vomit.
A police officer claimed at the original inquest that she checked Leo every 15 to 20 minutes and that at 1.15am Leo had spoken to her.
At the second inquest, Dr Chocksey said that given the nature of his brain injuries this was a near impossibility. Somebody is clearly not telling the truth.
The Support Group is demanding:
1. That the police hand over all original documents pertaining to Leo’s death to the family’s solicitor.
2. That there be a fully-funded public inquiry into Leo’s death which is independent of the police.
3. That officers who were responsible for neglecting Leo be subject to the law and answerable before the law.
4.That the family be entitled to Legal Aid.
Contents
ON May 8, 1987 an execution-style operation, sanctioned at the highest level, was carried out by the SAS and RUC at Loughgall, Co Armagh. This operation resulted in the murder of nine persons, eight Provisionals and one civilian.
New independent evidence proves that at no stage were preventative measures taken either to procure arrests or to deter the attack. The operation, according to independent experts, was to ensure that the Provisionals unit was eliminated.
Kenneth J Cummings, an expert in paramilitary operations, has concluded that there is no evidence to suggest that the operation at Loughgall was an operation to prevent an attack or to prevent loss of life or injury. He states that “It is clear to any reasonable prudent professional involved in paramilitary matters that a classic elimination plan of these eight IRA individuals was executed by the SAS on May 8, 1987.”
Cummings has received extensive training and was involved in active service with the United States military forces. He has trained with British Special Operations Groups and has been briefed by members of 14IN.
An independent pathologist rules that nine men at Loughgall were murdered with excessive force and sustained mortal wounding whilst lying on the ground. Men were shot at close range and there is unquestionable evidence of “an extraordinary amount of head shots” to critically wounded men.
The Loughgall Truth and Justice Campaign is now calling for the British and Dublin governments to open a full and independent inquiry into the murders of the nine men at Loughgall and to hold those responsible accountable for their actions that night.
Contents
The 21-year-old machine operator had just alighted from a taxi and was heading from home when the loyalist gang leaped out from behind bushes and launched into him, beating him several times over the head and body. They left their victim covered in blood, presuming him to be dead.
The victim’s father who branded the fascist gang “mindless scum” said “That’s the only reason for him being here today, they left him for dead”.
The victim managed to stagger to a friend’s house, where he lost consciousness. From there he was rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital and treated for open wounds to the head and bruises to the body
“The real agenda of the recent referendums on the Stormont Agreement is now beginning to emerge and it seems that we are being urged back into the British Commonwealth.
“Already the economic forces are at play reducing our country to a mere consumer unit for British multi-national companies. A proposal that the Queen of England visit Dublin masks the real intent of this latest Agreement which is simply to reinforce British rule in Ireland.
“The Queen is head of the British armed forces and a visit by her to our country would be an insult to generations of Republicans who have struggled to gain national self-determination.
“People who voted ‘Yes’ are now beginning to realise they are not only strengthening but prolonging and extending British rule in Ireland.”
Declan Curneen chaired the event. Wreaths were laid on behalf of the Republican Movement and Republican Sinn Féin Cumainn by John Branley, Glenade, Jim Mannion, Manorhamilton and Michael Kennedy, Gorvagh.
The 1916 Proclamation was read by Thomas Kelly, the Leadership statement by Michael John McCabe and a decade of the rosary by Séamus McGowan. The Chairman spoke of the sad situation prevailing while faithful Republicans were gathered in tribute at the birth place of Seán Mac Diarmada former comrades were assembling in Dublin preparing for their role in running the occupied Six Counties for the British government.
The 1916 Proclamation was read by Thomas Kelly, the Leadership statement by Michael John McCabe and a decade of the rosary by Séamus McGowan. The Chairman spoke of the sad situation prevailing while faithful Republicans were gathered in tribute at the birth place of Seán Mac Diarmada former comrades were assembling in Dublin preparing for their role in running the occupied Six Counties for the British government.
Cllr Joe O’Neill in his oration spoke of the carefully planned English inspired referendum that would see a new reinforced Stormont as the logical outcome of a ‘Yes’ vote.
People were being lambasted with the promise of peace without end if a ‘Yes’ vote was the outcome. Joe quoted Pearse’s immortal words at the grave of O Donovan Rossa when he said “Ireland unfree shall never be at peace”.
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Web layout by SAOIRSE -- Irish Freedom June 13, 1998 Send links, events notifications, articles, comments etc, to the editor at: saoirse@iol.ie marked "attention web-editor". |