Saturday, January 10, 2004

DOROTHY MACARDLE -- Irish Republican , Historian , and Novelist : 1889 - 1958 .......


....... Ireland , April 1923 - at least thirteen-thousand Irish Republicans were held in Free State jails in bad conditions ; the only 'weapon' they could fight back with was their body .......


A mass hunger-strike began ; the Free State Administration were determined to present themselves to their British bosses and to the international community as a 'new broom' , capable of 'sweeping clean' . Irish Republican organisations , however , were equally determined to remind the Free Staters and the Brits that the British were continuing to claim jurisdiction in this country and the struggle to end that jurisdictional claim was on-going .

A hunger-strike began , and continued until late November that year(1923). In December , most of the prisoners and internees were released , including Dorothy Macardle . She put pen to paper a few weeks later and wrote down her experiences of that last year and other incidents as told to her by Republican activists and friends in the county of Kerry ; the manuscript she produced was entitled ' The Tragedies of Kerry ' ....... (MORE LATER).



WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :

war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.

By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.

THE MOUTH OF THE GLEN ........


".......on their way to Mass , Johnny Lynch and his wife were passed on the road by a well-armed RIC patrol . Their weapons could be put to better use by Johnny's ' D Company IRA ' ......."


" The couple then met Tadhg Twomey , who was bound for Coolea . Johnny instructed him to get one or two Volunteers , on his way , or at the aeriocht , and to be at his own house at the glen , in good time to intercept the police on their return .

Johnny met Liam Twomey , Tadhg's brother , in the village . Liam readily volunteered to take part . In the meantime , a large crowd of people were assembling at Coolea , about five miles north-east of the glen . Strong forces of British military and police were converging on Coolea also . The IRA Volunteers were watching their movements , and instructing the people accordingly .

Finally , the British military and police took up positions in and around Coolea , while the people all moved further west into the mountains of Cumuiclumhain . There an enjoyable aeriocht was held , while IRA Volunteer scouts watched the enemy......." (MORE LATER).




NUKING THE IRISH , and the world .......

[from ' The Sunday World ' , 5th June , 1988 , pages 10, 11, and 12].


Thirty ' bullet points ' regarding Windscale/Sellafield -- re-published here , three at a time .......



10... We may never know the full extent of what exactly took place in what became known as The Windscale Fire in 1957 , but the scientific world had described the incident as the worst nuclear accident in the world , up until Chernobyl . The amount of radiation released in 1957 was up to one-thousand-times greater than the Three Mile Island accident in the USA. The 1957 fire burned for twenty-four hours , and sent a huge cloud of radioactivity drifting out over the Irish Sea . Possible links to Downs Syndrome births in Dundalk in County Louth were raised , just as the British Government placed a thirty-year 'gagging order' on the incident (ie from 1957 - 1987) to prevent criticism of Britain's nuclear industry .

11... Pollution from Windscale/Sellafield has been found in all forms of marine life locally , and identified in fish caught in The Irish Sea and landed at ports along the east coast of Ireland .

12... A small but measurable dose of radiation from Windscale/Sellafield is received by everyone in Britain -- and the people of Ireland receive a slightly higher dose again .


....so what if that fish you bought in the market has two heads ; sure are'nt ya just gettin' better value for your money .......

.......eighteen more 'bullet-points' from 1988 on the way ...


Friday, January 09, 2004

DOROTHY MACARDLE -- Irish Republican , Historian , and Novelist : 1889 - 1958 .......


.......between November 1922 and March 1923 , Dorothy Macardle and about 13,000 other Irish Republicans were locked-up by the Free Staters ; also , in March 1923 , she was sacked from her teaching job .......


Dorothy Macardle was one of thousands of Irish Republicans that lost their jobs and , in a good number of cases , their families , houses and friends due , in the most part , to pressure applied to the employers , local councils etc by the politically-motivated Special Branch , themselves following orders (with relish , it must be said) from their political paymasters in Leinster House .

In April 1923 , the thousands of Irish Republican prisoners and internees decided to fight back with the only 'weapon' they had - their bodies . A mass hunger-strike began in the jails and prison-camps in the Free State , and the three-hundred-and-forty Republican women in Kilmainham Jail and the North Dublin Union Jail joined in the protest -- it was the last thing that the new British-supported Free State Administration needed ....... (MORE LATER).



WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :

war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.

By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.


THE MOUTH OF THE GLEN ........


"....... Ireland , 1918 : on their way to Mass in Ballingeary , Johnny Lynch ( Captain of 'D Company', IRA ) and his wife met with an armed RIC patrol ....... "


" In each tunic pocket was a notebook . This would be used whenever the disaffected , to H. M. King George V , used only his tongue . As the horse slowly climbed the slope to historic Acharus , the police may have ruminated thus --

-- " Ah well , O'Sullivan Beara passed on through the glen , well over three hundred years ago . Good job , too . Trouble-some fellow , he was , by all our records . Not much doing since he left . Of course , there was that Ceimaneigh business , and a fair share of moonlighting , anything to keep the ball rolling . And that 1916 outbreak lately . The Government made a good job of that . Of course , those Volunteers are drilling again . But they have no arms. Who are those down the road ? Lynch and his wife . That fellow is no great 'iontaoibh' ,as those Irish speakers say . They are going to second Mass now . "

" The Peelers (RIC) are going to Ballyvourney , " said Johnny Lynch to his wife . " The aeriocht at Coolea has been proclaimed , and this is the contribution from the barracks below . " Johnny's keen eye had noted the Lee-Metford carbines , but his further thoughts were forestalled by his wife's remark - " I'd like to see those fellows come back empty-handed . "

Johnny made no comment , as he was working out those same details in his head ....... " (MORE LATER).



NUKING THE IRISH , and the world .......

[from ' The Sunday World ' , 5th June , 1988 , pages 10, 11, and 12].


Thirty ' bullet points ' regarding Windscale/Sellafield -- re-published here , three at a time .......


(7)-- The (as far as we know) first major crisis happened in 1955 when vital scanning systems inside the reactor broke down , necessitating the management looking for volunteers from amongst the workforce to go inside the highly-radioactive interior to repair the damage . This activity was kept secret for one year .

(8)-- At some points along the local estuaries , the mud is so radioactive that if you dug up a bucketful and put it in your dustbin , you could technically be prosecuted for illegally disposing of low-level nuclear waste !

(9)-- After an incident in 1983 when a radioactive slick was deliberately flushed into the sea from Sellafield , the resulting debris on the beach was so highly dangerous that it could actually cause radiation burns to the skin !


.....twenty-one more of the above on the way ----> but don't sit so near that bloody screen .....


Thursday, January 08, 2004

DOROTHY MACARDLE -- Irish Republican , Historian , and Novelist : 1889 - 1958 .......


.......active in 1916 , a member of ' Inghinidhe na hEireann ' and ' The White Cross ' , and working with ' The Gaelic League ' and Sinn Fein , Dorothy Macardle was adamant in her rejection of the 1921 Treaty of Surrender .......


She continued her work with the Republican Movement during the Civil War . As with so many others of that time , Dorothy Macardle was now being 'tracked' by former comrades , now working for the British-imposed Free State ; at a meeting of the ' Women Prisoners Defence League ' (WPDL) [a pro-Republican organisation which raised funds and campaigned for families of Republican prisoners] in November 1922 , in Maud Gonne's house , Dorothy Macardle was arrested by Free State forces and imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail in Dublin .

Within the next few months (ie between November 1922 and March 1923) thousands of Irish Republicans (approximately thirteen-thousand in total) were 'rounded-up' by the Free Staters and imprisoned in various prisons and prison-camps in the State . Also , in March 1923 , Dorothy Macardle was sacked from her teaching job at Alexandra College for " not attending to her duties ......." (MORE LATER).



WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :

war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.

By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.


THE MOUTH OF THE GLEN .


" Sunday , the eight day of July , 1918 , was a fine day and a historic one for Ireland . For the first deliberate and armed attack on enemy forces , since 1916 , was carried out on that date . It was a small but completely successful operation , and this is how it happened --


-- Johnny Lynch was Captain of ' D Company ' IRA , in the district of Ballingeary . He left his house at Beal a' Ghleanna to travel the winding downhill road to Ballingeary , about three miles distant . With him was his wife . Behind them at home was their four-months-old son , Dinny . Their objective was second Mass at half-past eleven .

For the first two miles of their journey they went over the road trodden by O'Sullivan Beara and his people , three-hundred and fifteen years before . They passed by his first camp at Acharus , and by Poul na Circe , where he lost his horse , An Chearc . Johnny and his wife would have been glad to meet Donal and his mighty warriors . But , alas , what were they fated to meet instead ?

A grey horse and sidecar , the driver on the box-seat , and two armed RIC men , one on each side . Each had a carbine between his knees , a spiked helmet on his head , a sling of ammunition across his shoulder and a baton hanging from his waist-belt ......." (MORE LATER).



NUKING THE IRISH , and the world .......

[from ' The Sunday World ' , 5th June , 1988 , pages 10, 11, and 12].


Thirty ' bullet points ' regarding Windscale/Sellafield -- re-published here , three at a time .......


(4)--- The discovery - by accident - and subsequent repair of basic flaws to the structure of the reactors during the construction stage . A near-explosion was caused by " unforseen chemical reaction " during the plant's trial run .

(5)--- Every single day , a million gallons of waste flow down the two-mile pipe , spewing out more than thirty different radioactive substances (one can only imagine how many new "radioactive substances" have been put to use by BNFL since 1988 , when the article was penned).

(6)--- As a result of the above-mentioned flow of waste , the coastline around Sellafield is more contaminated than any other spot except the remains of Chernobyl , and the actual sites of nuke explosions .


....twenty-four more bullet-points on the way ---------> : in the meantime , watch that micro-wave .........


(NOTE - The right-hand side of this site should be back as it was prior to 2nd January last ; the HTML code in the 'Templet' section had been tampered with and changed slightly (not by anyone connected to ' 1169.... ') to forbid access unless that section of the HTML code was re-adjusted . Thanks to Sharon for finding and repairing the damage . ' BLOGGER ' has been notified and the access codes have been changed .)


Wednesday, January 07, 2004

DOROTHY MACARDLE -- Irish Republican , Historian , and Novelist : 1889 - 1958 .......


....... Ireland 1910- groups and organisations had been established in the country to express and campaign for certain political objectives ; the people were polarised . Dorothy Macardle admired other women who had plainly stated their pro- Republican viewpoint .......


Maude Gonne MacBride , Helena Moloney , Mrs. Sheehy Skeffington , Madam Despard(the latter was , in future years , to donate a house in Eccles Street , Dublin , to be used as a 'Workers' College' , only for it to be burned to the ground by an anti-Irish mob).

In 1910 , Dorothy Macardle joined ' Inghinidhe na hEireann ' , a women's Republican support group , and worked with the Gaelic League and Sinn Fein as well . She was active in the 1916 Rising and continued her involvement with (militant) Republicanism in the years following same . Dorothy Macardle was one of the many Irish Republican women who traversed the island as a representative of the ' White Cross ' organisation (established 1921) providing whatever assistance it could to the thousands of people who had been made homeless and jobless by , amongst others , the Black and Tans (and other tools of the ' British Empire ') as those forces carried out their instructions from Westminster to terrorise the population away from supporting the Irish Rebels .

In December 1921 , Dorothy Macardle remained true to her Republican principles and , with the majority of Irish Republican women , rejected the ' Treaty of Surrender ' ....... (MORE LATER).



WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :

war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.

By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.


1917-- A NOCTURNAL EXPEDITION .......


".......the 'ghost' in the graveyard turned out to be a friend of ours , dressed-up in an old military tunic and cap to play a joke on us ......."


" The interruption proved to be the end of the adventure . Our lecturer made a fresh appeal and this time succeeded . We repaired the small damage done to the greensward and retired . It was now very late and we went to bed .

The following day , my brother , my uncle , the Brigade Officer and I met again . " Dan," said our visitor , " was it to show me that ye were not afraid of ghosts that you insisted on carrying on with last night's job ? " " No , " answered Dan , " but I was thinking of our lack of money . With it we could manage to buy a few guns now and again . " " How would last night's job enrich us ? " , asked our guest .

" Well , I'll tell you , " said Dan . " Those old fellows in that tomb were very rich , and liked to carry the world's goods as far as they possibly could with them . The devil a fear but they have at least a lot of jewellery in there ..... " Here , Dan winked at Pat and myself . " Dan , " I said , " would you take the rings off a dead man's finger ! "

" I'd pull them off his old nose , bedammed , " he replied .


[END OF 1917-- A NOCTURNAL EXPEDITION .......].



NUKING THE IRISH , and the world ....... (PART THREE).

[from ' The Sunday World ' , 5th June , 1988 , pages 10, 11, and 12].


.......but plutonium is not the only radioactive filth which the Brits dump in the Irish Sea .......


The Windscale/Sellafield pipeline also discharges a substance called ' CAESIUM 137 ' , which is an artificial radionuclide with a half-life of approximately thirty years : it is classed as a " nuclear fall-out " similar to that released into the stratosphere by the testing of " above-ground " thermonuclear weapons !

The newspaper article ended by stating that one million gallons of the above-mentioned waste pours out of the pipe every day - again , that was 16 years ago . Have the Brits cleaned-up their act , and were they really in all those other countries simply to stop the natives from wiping each other out ? Yeah , thought so ....

Finally , the article also listed thirty 'bullet-points' of interest re Windscale/Sellafield -- Here's three of them ---->


<---- * Construction of the plant itself was kept so secret that newspaper editors faced jail for even mentioning its existence or purpose . The first 'photo's of the buildings were issued only after seven years !

* More radioactive waste has been pumped out through the Windscale/Sellafield pipeline than from any other nuclear plant on earth , making the Irish Sea the most radioactive in the world .

* Over the past thirty years (ie 1958-1988) , the discharges from the plant have often been greater than the output from all the world's nuclear plants put together .

...twenty-seven more of these beauties to come ------- -----> (MORE LATER).


Tuesday, January 06, 2004

DOROTHY MACARDLE -- Irish Republican , Historian , and Novelist : 1889 - 1958 .......


.......at twenty-one years young in 1910 , and living in Dublin , Dorothy Macardle witnessed the extreme poverty in that city .......


Twenty-thousand families were living in one room each and the infant mortality rate was 142 per thousand (103 in London). However , the desire to express their own identity was strong amongst the people , and a number of what the British described as " Irish Ireland Societies " were gaining ground - the Gaelic League and the Gaelic Athletic Association being the most prominent at the time .

In the North of the island , those loyal to the British Crown had formed an ' Ulster Unionist Council ' , with Edward Carson MP (a Dublin lawyer and former Solicitor General in a Conservative government at Westminster) as their leader . The 'UUC' was opposed to any form of ' Home Rule' for Ireland ; powerful groups were at play on the island , pulling in different directions .

Dorothy Macardle admired other women who had made their mind up in regards to the British claim of jurisdiction over Ireland ....... (MORE LATER).



WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :

war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.

By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.


1917-- A NOCTURNAL EXPEDITION .......


".......We were just starting to dig in the graveyard when we heard a noise from the far end of it . There was something there , moving towards us ......."


" Sometimes it disappeared only to re-appear again . At length it resolved itself into the figure of a man , a tall man , a military-looking man . Sure enough , a man in uniform . The moon shone on some metal object above his face . A cap badge . Slowly he came , now concealed by the elm trunks , now revealed . Now he was quite near . His buttons shone .

" The Captain ! " someone whispered . Now we could see his face . " Halt there ! " I heard near me . It was my brother who spoke . A revolver gleamed in his hand . It was levelled at the intruder . My uncle held another levelled gun . The figure coming on so surely stopped . "Oh, for mercy's sake , lads !" he cried out . We laughed with relief . It was not 'The Captain'.

It proved to be a friend of ours , who kept a shop in the village . Coming home late , he had met one of the Volunteers who told him of the expedition . Thinking that he would frighten the expeditionary force by appearing as the ghost of The Captain ,he had donned an old military tunic and cap , and had followed . As he was crossing the graveyard wall , remote from us , he was tripped by a briar , and fell heavily . That was the noise we had heard .

" Had I known " , said he , " that ye carried guns , I would now be in bed ! " . (MORE LATER).



NUKING THE IRISH , and the world ....... (PART TWO).

[from ' The Sunday World ' , 5th June , 1988 , pages 10, 11, and 12].


.......the plutonium poison from Windscale/Sellafield soon found its way on to grazing lands , vegetable fields and even into houses .......


Analysis of the contents of vacuum-cleaner bags in seven homes near Sellafield showed that the natural house-dust in all seven buildings contained plutonium , which could easily have contaminated food . The deadly plutonium particles were also in the air -in one local holiday town (not named in article) it was found that residents and tourists were exposed to seventy per-cent of the safety limits for workers inside the Windscale/Sellafield Plant itself ! Just by breathing ....

Plutonium is also carried into the food-chain through shellfish and fish which , though it might be news to British Scientists, happen to live in the oceans . Autopsies carried out on a dozen Cumbrians in 1986 detected plutonium in their bodies . But plutonium is not the only radioactive filth which the Brits pump into the sea ....... (MORE LATER).

(NOTE to ' Sean M ' - Thanks for the comments , a Chara ; that information will be published here shortly ....stay tuned !)


Monday, January 05, 2004

DOROTHY MACARDLE -- Irish Republican , Historian , and Novelist : 1889 - 1958 .


If , in the early 20th Century , a certain British Gentleman in Dundalk , County Louth , 'took to the bottle' (ie hit the booze !) he would have done so for two reasons ;

* He was Sir Thomas Macardle , the owner of the well-known brewery that produced ' Macardles Ale ' , and

* Because of his daughter , Dorothy .......

Born in Dublin in 1889 , Dorothy Macardle grew up to become an English teacher at Alexandra College , where she herself had been educated , before she moved-on to complete her education at University College Dublin .

In 1910 , at twenty-one years young and from a privileged background , she could not ignore the poverty and hopelessness she witnessed in Dublin ....... (MORE LATER).



WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :

war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.

By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.


1917-- A NOCTURNAL EXPEDITION .......


"........ The seven of us were in the graveyard and decided to send for old Pad , who knew the best way to gain entry to the tomb where the supply of lead was ......."


" My uncle greeted Pad , then in a few words explained what we required . Pad nodded gravely , walked slowly to one side of the vault , and , starting from the middle point of that side , walked away from it at a right angle . About eighteen feet from the wall he stopped and pointed to the ground .

" Dig there ," he said . " Take Pad home , lads , " said my uncle . Immediately work was started . Scarcely had the first blow from a pick broken the silence , when our lecturer spoke - " That will do , lads . I thought ye would never venture it . I owe ye an apology . " My uncle spoke up : " We will see it through now then , " he said .

A noise from the far end of the graveyard focused our attention . Something was moving there . It seemed to be coming nearer without making any further noise ....... " (MORE LATER)>



NUKING THE IRISH , and the world ....... (PART ONE)>

[from ' The Sunday World ' , 5th June , 1988 , pages 10, 11, and 12].


Plutonium is among the most toxic substance known to man . Even the tiniest speck can cause cancer if it enters the body , yet the Windscale/Sellafield pipeline has pumped an unbelievable three-quarters of a ton of plutonium into the Irish Sea (Note- this article was penned in 1988 ; sixteen years ago !).

British scientists stated that the dumped plutonium would disperse into the oceans of the world ( as if that in itself was acceptable !) but they were wrong - ninty-five per cent of the plutonium particles just sank heavily into the seabed around the end of the pipeline . The same British scientists then forecast that it would remain there , trapped in the sludge ; they were wrong again !

The dumped plutonium was swept to various shores by the tides and currents that prevail in that area . Between the contaminated seaspray and the plutonium dust from the polluted estuaries , the poison ended up in grazing lands , vegetable fields and even in houses ....... (MORE LATER).


Sunday, January 04, 2004

REPUBLICAN LAW AND ORDER ; THE COURT SYSTEM 1920-1922.......



....... British mercenaries had arrived in Ireland ; sent by Westminster to "return control" of society to them , approximately eight-thousand-five-hundred armed thugs were on the streets . They came into conflict with the Republican Police .......


In one encounter between the British mercenaries and the Republican Police , in June 1920 , a number of Republican Policemen were shot dead and their prisoners released . But the Republican Courts , legal system and Police Force continued to operate until late 1921 / early 1922 when the ' Treaty of Surrender' was signed and enacted , which lead to a split in the Republican Movement . The Black and Tans and The Auxiliaries were then disbanded and sent back home on 18th February 1922 .

The Brits now had 'home-grown' mercenaries in Ireland to do their bidding . As , indeed , they have today , thanks to the Stormont and Leinster House ' Parliaments' .

Plus ca change , plus c'est la meme chose .......


[END].



WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :

war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.

By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.

1917-- A NOCTURNAL EXPEDITION .......


".......Seven of us set out that night , with spades and other tools , to acquire an amount of lead from the local graveyard ......."


" We easily found the tomb . The moonlight shone directly on it . It was a large structure with high iron railings on top . Someone put the question of how we would get in ; an answer came - " Through or over the railings . " My uncle spoke - " I would not say so . I have some recollection of hearing old people talking about a burial here . I got the impression that the entrance was outside the vault altogether , that you dug out here somewhere and went down a stairway and entered underneath the ground level . "

" Old Pad would know about that , " someone ventured . Pad's son , Tadhg , was with us . He was sent with a companion to get old Pad out of bed to show us where to dig . This evoked a protest from our organiser . It was a pity , he said , to disturb an old man and bring him out of bed at that hour . " Yeh , not at all , " said all the others . " He is a hardy old lad and as sound as a rock . "

The morale of our visitor appeared to be getting a little frayed . Indeed we had noticed , when the project had passed the discussion stage , that he appeared to regret his over- enthusiastic sponsorship . However , it was now too late . Pad presently appeared between his two custodians . His silvery beard and patriarchal mien were in themselves awe-inspiring . The place , the time , the moonlight , the nature of the venture , did not help to dispel that feeling ....." (MORE LATER).



AVOIDABLE 'ACCIDENTS' AT SEA ---->

[from ' New Hibernia ' magazine , June 1986 , page 7]


<---- In an article on Irish fishing boats that have been either dragged backwards or sunk by foreign subs , the following were listed --


* 'The Sharelga', which was sunk in 1982 ; days later , the British Government claimed responsibility , admitting that one of their subs , ' The Porpoise ' , was involved in the incident .

* 'The Discouri', from Kilkeel , which netted rubbish from the U S Nuclear Sub ' Henry Clay ' .

* ' The Oriel', working off Clogher Head in 1984 , when it was pulled backwards for three miles .

* ' Galvamor ', a French trawler , which was fishing off the West Coast of Ireland in the summer of 1982 when it disappeared - the six crew have not been seen since .

* ' Cite D'Aleth ', another French trawler : the entire crew of ten drowned in January 1983 when it sunk while fishing six miles off the Tuskar Rock on the Wexford Coast .

* ' Ami de Mouttes ', French - was dragged backwards in March 1983 while fishing off Ireland's West Coast .


The BIG BOY'S continue to play with their toys in Irish waters and elsewhere ; and may your God have mercy on your soul if you happen to be trying to earn a living in 'their' playground at the same time .......