Saturday, October 17, 2009

BEER MATS - FOUR FOR A FIVER !

The Beer Mats in action : catch them in Dublin on Saturday 17th October 2009....


In their more-than 15 years together ,they have performed with groups like The Dubliners,The Fureys, The Wolfe Tones, The Dublin City Ramblers and Tommy Sands , in countries such as Ireland , Britain , Switzerland , Spain and America.

.....in a Ballyfermot pub!

The Beer Mats gig will be taking place tonight (Saturday 17th October 2009) in the 79'r pub in Ballyfermot , Dublin ; doors open at 9pm , admission is €5 per person and the usual raffle will be held , with raffle tickets selling for five for two Euro and/or fifteen for a fiver. The organisers have reported that all distributed entry tickets have been returned , sold, and that they have held back 30 such tickets for sale at the door on the night so , as we say here in Dublin - " First up, best dressed..." / "Longest arm, best fed..." In other words - if you're going to the gig , but haven't got a pre-paid entry ticket , be there between 9pm and 9.30pm and you should still get in!
Thanks!
Sharon.






Wednesday, October 14, 2009

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 gave 'evidence' about a post office robbery in 1980 in which he claimed to be involved ; he said he wore a scarf and his companion wore a mask , but witnesses contested this. So Kirkpatrick changed his 'evidence' saying that he was wearing nothing on his face and that the second man was wearing the scarf !

One woman claimed that one of the robbers had put his arm around her neck and that the burglar alarm had gone off , yet Kirkpatrick never mentioned these incidents - so British Judge Carswell ruled that the woman was mistaken. Gerard Steenson and two other men , Conway and McGrann , were nevertheless convicted.

Kirkpatrick said that the Carroll brothers and Oliver Grew were involved in the killing of a British Army 'Territorial' soldier in Armagh in 1980 , but then Kirkpatrick forgot all about the involvement in this incident of Oliver Grew in subsequent statements he gave to the RUC and, when this was brought to his attention, he simply said that he forgot about his involvement! The forensic evidence did not tally with the account given by Kirkpatrick of that incident , but Gerard Steenson was still convicted , while Oliver Grew was acquitted.......
(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.

The original refusal to give Mairin de Burca a visa to enter America is understandable in the light of the information in her file , on which that decision was based . It would appear, from this file, that as a danger to society as we know it , de Burca ranks about equal with the destruction of the ozone layer !

The file lists , from information supplied by the Gardai, a number of convictions - all minor and stemming from demonstrations against the Vietnam War , the housing scandal and other such occasions of 'sin' . Given the contemporary view of that period, such convictions can be proudly regarded as 'campaign medals' in the fight for a less murderous world , but in that file they amounted to 'proof' of the "moral turpitude" of a person who was "...a well known fanatic agitator who was once described in a local press interview as "sracastic (sic) , sharp tounged (sic) , stubborn gritty and sometimes severe..." "

"Sracastic" and sharp "tounged" , and even 'sarcastic' and sharp 'tongued' , Mairin de Burca may be on occasion but anyone with more than a gnat's knowledge of Irish politics knows that she was never involved with the militarist aspects of republicanism. It is interesting , however, to see how a case is built up by the 'spooks'.......
(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 is very clear , however, is that Barry Desmond's 'concern' with the heroin crisis, like the 'concern' of many other establishment politicians , has cynically manifested itself only in the wake of the establishment's very real concern about (P) Sinn Féin's growing popularity within Dublin's working-class communities.

Barry Desmond has consistently directed his hostility against the Concerned Parents Against Drugs group and what he terms republican/'subversive' involvement in the fight against heroin. Instead of genuinely trying to combat a problem that has killed young people and ruined the lives of hundreds more, and torn families and whole communities apart , Barry Desmond has instead played party politics and refused to meet delegations from the various 'Concerned Parents' groups which contained individual (P) Sinn Féin members.

The 'CPAD' movement, representing groups in 24 Dublin communities , has identified the importation of drugs as the key problem to be dealth with ; individual CPAD groups can rid their own communities of drug pushers , but as long as heroin is available the problem will only shift elsewhere. The State Customs service is aware of that fact , but the politicians in Leinster House will not listen to them , either.......
(MORE LATER).







Tuesday, October 13, 2009

BEER MATS.....AND DEALING WITH SLOP.



As well as other spot prizes to be raffled off at the ballad session this weekend, the two items pictured - a Bodhrán , made this year by the Republican POW's in Portlaoise Gaol and a framed Irish National Anthem - are bound to be two of the most sought-after prizes. And, as with the low cost of entry to the gig (€5 per person) , the price of the raffle tickets has been kept down by the organisers - five raffle tickets for €2 or fifteen for a fiver! 30 entry tickets have , as usual , been held back for sale on the night , and all entry tickets which were distributed have been returned paid in full : see you in the 79'r pub in Ballyfermot , Dublin, on Saturday 17th October 2009 . Doors open at 9pm , and all are welcome!



THE SLOP :



One down , 165 more to go. Because there are 166 political wasters , robbers and useless tax fleecing non-productive time-servers in Leinster House , not just the one who resigned today. However - par for the course for this pig ignorant waster, Lord O'Donoghue couldn't just admit that he had been caught with his hand deep in the taxpayers pocket : amongst other claps on the back that he gave himself , he declared that he had "...no regrets..... I am not guilty of any corruption, I never took money or have used my office for my own enrichment......" Like Hell you didn't, O'Donoghue - the only people who gave you a round of applause today were your crooked colleagues in that corrupt institution , and they done so because they recognise that there but by the grace of God , go I. Our only regret is that you were not forced to pay the stolen loot back to the taxpayers and then imprisoned alongside other common criminals.
Sharon.