Saturday, March 24, 2007

RSF Easter 2007 : New Arrangements .

Republican Sinn Fein in Dublin has re-arranged its main Dublin Commemoration , from Easter Sunday (8th April) to Easter Monday (9th April) .
Apologises to those who had already made arrangements to travel to the main RSF Easter Commemoration in Dublin - the day on which that event will be held has been changed .


An Coiste Cuimhneacháin Náisiúnta (the National Commemoration Committee) has requested that the Dublin Republican Sinn Fein organisation change its main Easter Commemoration from Easter Sunday (8th April) to Easter Monday (9th April) and , after consultation , the Dublin Comhairle Ceantair (Executive) of RSF agreed to do so .

The new arrangements are as follows :

Easter Monday (9th April) - assemble outside the Garden Of Remembrance in Parnell Square at 12.45pm , for the parade to the GPO .

Easter Sunday (8th April) - Assemble at the gates of Deansgrange Cemetery at 1(one)pm .


Once again , apologises to anyone inconvenienced by this change of date .

Go raibh maith agat , agus slán go fóill anois ,

Sharon .







Friday, March 23, 2007

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GERRY ADAMS.......

The recent strike by BBC journalists over the 'REAL LIVES' programme and the dispute at RTE over the interview with NORAID representative MARTIN GALVIN have focused world attention on Sinn Fein once again .MICHAEL KELLY spoke to Sinn Fein president GERRY ADAMS at interviews in Dublin and Belfast , conducted over the course of the past month .

From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine, August 1985 .

MICHAEL KELLY : " Many commentators say that the Sinn Fein vote in Dublin is just the voice of the disillusioned and has no loyalty to your policies . Do you believe this ? "

GERRY ADAMS : " Not at all . I have no doubt that there is an element of that vote , but to see the Sinn Fein vote as disillusioned is to disregard the success of Christy Burke, where the vote was built up over four years . I mean if it had been a cynical note it wouldn't have come out a second time and a third time . But it did , indicating the work that Sinn Fein were doing there . "
(MORE LATER).



THE ACCUSING FINGER OF RAYMOND GILMOUR.......
By NEIL McCAFFERTY.
From 'MAGILL' magazine, August 1983 .

It might take weeks to persuade the British magistrate to let the Gilmour family back into the courtroom , the solicitors informed them on the roadway . The forlorn little bunch , beaten by the RUC , ignored by their son , Raymond , ignored by some prisoners and relatives and ignorant of their father's fate , trailed off to the cars for the journey home .

The rest of the Derry people moved up the road to a portacabin, set on a concrete base , surrounded by protective fencing , pitched in the middle of a wasteland directly opposite Crumlin Road Jail. Inside the cabin , merrily decorated and spotlessly clean , and muggy with warmth , children played with toys . The cabin and its little canteen and its staff , offering voluntary service , was set up by an international children's organisation so that people can leave their children somewhere safe while they visit relatives in jail or in the court , or simply call in for tea and sausage-rolls and soup and biscuits , while awaiting developments . The staff were wonderful , handing out the cup that cheers !

How had those relatives who did not resent the Gilmours maintain composure while the RUC assaulted the Gilmour family ? " You think of RUC members being killed by the IRA , someday , somewhere . You keep that in your mind while you sit absolutely still , and you're not sorry at the prospect..." , said a mild Derrywoman , sitting in a Belfast wasteland , who normally spends the summer days sitting with her family on a Donegal beach.......
(MORE LATER).



GLOSSARY OF THE LEFT IN IRELAND : FROM 1960 TO 1983.......
These notes attempt to record the left-wing organisations which have existed in Ireland since 1960 . No attempt has been made to record purely local organisations outside Dublin and Belfast , or microscopic groups which never reached double figures . The larger organisations have been presented in more detail .
From 'GRALTON' magazine, 1983.
By John Goodwillie.
(NOTE : Links in the following article are as accurate as possible - not all the groups mentioned left a discernible 'footprint' .)

IRISH MARXIST SOCIETY: Formed in 1976 when advocates of Eurocommunism broke away from the Communist Party Of Ireland. This organisation ceased to function after most of them joined the Labour Party in 1977 .

IRISH REPUBLICAN SOCIALIST PARTY: Formed in 1974 as a breakaway from Official Sinn Fein, advocating a more radical socialism . It has become more noted for the battles between the Irish National Liberation Army and the Official IRA, and for the assassionations of its successive leaders Seamus Costello and Miriam Daly, than for its political activities , though it has won seats on Belfast Corporation.

IRISH REVOLUTIONARY YOUTH MOVEMENT: Youth movement of the Irish Communist Movement (Marxist-Leninist).
(MORE LATER).







Wednesday, March 21, 2007

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GERRY ADAMS.......

The recent strike by BBC journalists over the 'REAL LIVES' programme and the dispute at RTE over the interview with NORAID representative MARTIN GALVIN have focused world attention on Sinn Fein once again .MICHAEL KELLY spoke to Sinn Fein president GERRY ADAMS at interviews in Dublin and Belfast , conducted over the course of the past month .

From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine, August 1985 .

MICHAEL KELLY : " What about particular policies ? To make an inroad into Dublin you need policies to deal with the city's problems . "

GERRY ADAMS : " What happens nationally cannot be divorced from what happens in a city the size of Dublin . The reason why Dublin is so big is because of the breakdown in agriculture as an industry and the whole crumbling of the rural population , the dependence along the Eastern seaboard upon Britain .

This means that some people come to Dublin for work or to live or for some sort of opportunity . Then you have all the housing estates - I mean , the Ballymun mistake was repeated in Tallaght, except on a two-storey level . No facilities , no opportunities for young people , the lack of an attempt to create employment on the basis of building infrastructure , and the dependence on borrowing . What we have been saying is that the administration of local government should include more accountability to local people and a move towards labour-intensive industries . There are cuts in education which means that there are teachers on the dole . There is a need with a young population for more schools and hospitals , for roads - all of which can be used to provide jobs as well as a service .

I think that in many of the deprived areas people are quite justified in being cynical . Probably the most telling thing about Dublin was that only forty per cent of the population actually voted : the system of clientelism quite surprised me - I mean , I'm an MP in West Belfast and I deliberately don't send people letters saying ' Dear Mrs Smith , I enclose a letter from the city manager about your complaint about your gutters...' (See 'New Departures...' , here) I am surprised by the extent to which it goes on here . "
(MORE LATER).



THE ACCUSING FINGER OF RAYMOND GILMOUR.......
By NEIL McCAFFERTY.
From 'MAGILL' magazine, August 1983 .


People are informing against Raymond Gilmour and Michael Quigley now . Word went out that defence solicitors needed to know everything there was to know about the two men in order to mount a cross questioning assault , along the lines of character assassination , and information came back in abundance . The kitchen sink was thrown at the informer Michael Quigley in court : things that would not have been said publicly against any Derryman or Derrywoman a decade ago , have been dredged up and 'touted' aloud .

Why did you not enquire too closely into who sent those Christmas presents to your children , the defence enquired of Quigley ? Was it because you knew one of the two children was not fathered by you ? Do the names of these three women mean something to you because you had affairs with them after you married ? ('The Irish News' newspaper, incredibly , printed the names of the women , one of whom is herself married) Did you , who claim a moral conversion against 'terrorism' , consider it immoral to beat your wife ? Weren't you in the remedial class at school ? And so it went .....

Michael Quigley's parents and brothers and sisters , still living in Derry , have to live with this expose of their son . The Gilmours are being prepared for similar , and 'worse' , revelations about Raymond : information is flowing in and spilling over - private reticence abouit other people's family life has been awesomely sundered . It is almost merciful that the Gilmours have been thrown out of court and will not be there to hear it . Except that they must try to get back in , and sit silently , as the shameful flood bursts over them , in the hope of reaching Raymond's heart and saving the father.......
(MORE LATER).



GLOSSARY OF THE LEFT IN IRELAND : FROM 1960 TO 1983.......
These notes attempt to record the left-wing organisations which have existed in Ireland since 1960 . No attempt has been made to record purely local organisations outside Dublin and Belfast , or microscopic groups which never reached double figures . The larger organisations have been presented in more detail .
From 'GRALTON' magazine, 1983.
By John Goodwillie.
(NOTE : Links in the following article are as accurate as possible - not all the groups mentioned left a discernible 'footprint' .)

IRISH COMMUNIST MOVEMENT (MARXIST-LENINIST): Maoist organisation , formed in 1969 as a development of the Internationalists. This group sponsored the formation of the Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist) in 1972 .

IRISH COMMUNIST ORGANISATION: Formed in 1965 as a Stalinist breakaway from the Irish Communist Group. As a result of the developing situation in the North it formulated its 'two nations theory' and changed its name to the British and Irish Communist Organisation in 1971 .

IRISH DEMOCRATIC YOUTH MOVEMENT: Youth movement of Official Sinn Fein, later Sinn Fein The Workers Party.
(MORE LATER).







Monday, March 19, 2007

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GERRY ADAMS.......

The recent strike by BBC journalists over the 'REAL LIVES' programme and the dispute at RTE over the interview with NORAID representative MARTIN GALVIN have focused world attention on Sinn Fein once again .MICHAEL KELLY spoke to Sinn Fein president GERRY ADAMS at interviews in Dublin and Belfast , conducted over the course of the past month .

From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine, August 1985 .

MICHAEL KELLY : " Even though it (the difference between Sinn Fein election results North and South) doesn't match the vote in the North ? "

GERRY ADAMS : " Oh no . But we didn't expect it to . I mean if you look back on what we said when we launched the campaign it was that we have a difficult job - we have a small organisation , we suffer from isolation - some of it self-inflicted * - and we want to use this election as a recruiting and organisational campaign . I mean we don't expect to form a government tomorrow , we're fairly realistic . " ('1169...' comment * ...by which he meant the republican policy of not taking seats , if elected , in partitionist [Leinster House and Stormont] or foreign [Westminster] parliaments , a policy which led to Adams and his followers leaving the Republican Movement in 1986 .)
(MORE LATER).



THE ACCUSING FINGER OF RAYMOND GILMOUR.......
By NEIL McCAFFERTY.
From 'MAGILL' magazine, August 1983 .


Punish Raymond Gilmour , punish the Gilmours , punish somebody for what is being done to us . There are fewer and fewer jokes around Derry about how the 62-year-old father is having the time of his life somewhere in Donegal , in the company of 'the lads' . Fewer jokes about how it does a man good to get away from the wife .

If Mr Gilmour is shot now , the reasoning goes , it will only stiffen Raymond Gilmour's resolve . There's no point shooting him after the trial , either , since the damage will have been done . There is a point , though , to shooting him dead , anyway , as a warning to other informers . Unless the Gilmour family can draw Raymond back from the brink . That family , isolated now , draw emotional sustenance from Sinn Fein , because few others will speak to them , and live in dread of what the Provisional IRA will do . This deadly scenario has become a commonplace of casual discussion in Derry .

No one has come to Raymond Gilmour's public defence : 'officially' , he's doing what the Catholic Bishop of Derry and the SDLP (...and , now , the 'Please Stoop Furthers', too..) have repeatedly called for - he's giving information about killings and such - but neither the Bishop nor the SDLP have defended his stance . This has not gone unnoticed : in the absence of authoritative moral guidelines - from those who claim to know - people have wandered into a moral maze . The mental savagery of the Belfast courtroom has seeped like a virus across the land and into the streets of Derry.......
(MORE LATER).



GLOSSARY OF THE LEFT IN IRELAND : FROM 1960 TO 1983.......
These notes attempt to record the left-wing organisations which have existed in Ireland since 1960 . No attempt has been made to record purely local organisations outside Dublin and Belfast , or microscopic groups which never reached double figures . The larger organisations have been presented in more detail .
From 'GRALTON' magazine, 1983.
By John Goodwillie.
(NOTE : Links in the following article are as accurate as possible - not all the groups mentioned left a discernible 'footprint' .)


INTERNATIONALISTS: Formed in 1965 , initially broad-based , but soon becoming openly Maoist. This group established the 'Irish Communist Movement (Marxist-Leninist)' around themselves in 1969 .

IRISH COMMITTEE FOR A SOCIALIST PROGRAMME: Formed in 1976 as a left-wing and anti-militarist breakaway from the Irish Republican Socialist Party, this group was replaced later-on in 1976 by the Independent Socialist Party .

IRISH COMMUNIST GROUP: Formed in 1964 mainly among emigrants , as a successor to the Irish Workers' Union . Following the secession of the Stalinist section in 1965 to form the Irish Communist Organisation, the Trotskyist remainder changed their name to the Irish Workers' Group.
(MORE LATER).