AOH Home of the Brooklyn Irish
Baile na nGael
Friday, June 6, 2025
Posted by Jim on May 23, 2025
You are now with Joan and Mary again
Lost a great friend and top Hibernian. I’ve known Jimmy for 25 yrs and we fought many a battle together. Its now your time for some rest, God bless you, Jimmy, we are all better to have met you.
Posted by Jim on May 21, 2025
Zack Gallagher
May 21, 2025
This Irish whiskey BBQ sauce recipe will have your guests licking their fingers with delight. Getty
Irish whiskey and BBQ sauce are a match made in heaven for beef, chicken, ribs, lamb, kebabs, burgers, sausages… anything you fancy!
Happy barbecue season! I thought that I’d give you my special BBQ sauce and basting sauce recipes, which will help turn your barbecue into something really special.
Both sauces can be used for beef, chicken, ribs, lamb, kebabs, burgers, sausages – everything really except fish (you can if you wish – but I wouldn’t).
The first thing to note is that you should not coat your meat with your barbecue sauce until it is almost finished cooking. The reason for this is that the sugars and tomatoes in a BBQ Sauce will caramelize and burn on the outside of the meat before it is actually cooked on the inside.
Instead, you use a basting stock while it is cooking to keep it moist and add flavor. Use a 1” paintbrush to coat the basting sauce over the meat as it is cooking.
When your food is cooked, brush the BBQ sauce over the meat and then give it another few minutes on the grill to glaze and finish the flavoring.
2
Time to get grilling! (Getty Images)
Ingredients:
Method:
Simply put everything in a pot and bring to the boil. Turn off the heat and let it cool completely before using it to moisten your meats as they cook.
Ingredients:
Method:
Chop all the vegetables roughly and put them into a large pot.
Add all the other ingredients. Bring everything to the boil.
Turn down the heat and simmer the sauce for 30 minutes.
Blitz the cooked sauce in a food processor and it’s ready to use straight away or, if you have the time, put it in the fridge overnight to help the flavors develop.
Simply brush the sauce over your meat (when it is cooked to your liking) and give it another few minutes on the barbecue to let it add that shiny, crispy, tasty glaze that will have your guests licking their fingers with delight.
Both sauces can be used for beef, chicken, ribs, lamb, kebabs, burgers, sausages – everything really except fish (you can if you wish – but I wouldn’t).
My BBQ Sauce is also excellent for rubbing on Chicken Wings for roasting in the oven.
Coat them well and cook, uncovered, in a pre-heated medium oven (around 150°C or 300°F) for about 25 minutes.
Both sauces can be made in advance and kept in the fridge for up to a week.
Enjoy!
Posted by Jim on
Patsy O’Hara (Irish: Peatsaí Ó hEadhra; 11 July 1957 – 21 May 1981[1]) was an Irish republican hunger striker and member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). O’Hara was one of 22 Irish republicans (in the 20th century) who died in the 1981 hunger strike.[2]
O’Hara was born in Bishop Street, Derry, Northern Ireland. He joined Official IRA-aligned faction of Na Fianna Éireann in 1970, and in 1971, one of his brothers Sean was interned in Long Kesh.[1] In early 1971 he joined the local Official Sinn Féin cumann in the Bogside.[3] In late 1971, at the age of 14, he was shot and wounded by a soldier while manning a barricade.[1][4] Due to his injuries, he was unable to attend the civil rights march on Bloody Sunday but watched it go by him in the Brandywell, and the events of the day had a lasting effect on him.[1]
In October 1974, O’Hara was interned in Long Kesh, and on his release in April 1975 he joined the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and INLA.[4] He was arrested in Derry in June 1975 and held on remand for six months.[1] In September 1976, he was arrested again and once more held on remand for four months.[4]
On 10 May 1978, he was arrested on O’Connell Street, Dublin, Republic of Ireland under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act, and was released 18 hours later.[4] He returned to Derry in January 1979 and was active in the INLA. On 14 May 1979, he was arrested and was convicted of possessing a hand grenade. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in January 1980.[4]
He became Officer Commanding of the INLA prisoners at the beginning of the first hunger strike in 1980, and he joined the 1981 hunger strike on 22 March.[5] During the hunger strike, O’Hara and other hunger strikers were given golden crucifixes by Pope John Paul II.[6]
On Thursday, 21 May, at 11:29 pm, he died after 61 days on hunger strike, at the age of 23.[3][7] Despite a plea from his mother two days before his death, O’Hara expressed his desire not to receive the medical intervention needed to save his life.[7] His corpse was found to be mysteriously disfigured prior to its departure from prison and before the funeral, including signs of his face being beaten, a broken nose, and cigarette burns on his body.[3][5] Raymond McCreesh, a member of the Provisional IRA, also died on 21 May 1981 during the hunger strike.[3] Following his death, INLA member Kevin Lynch took his place on the hunger strike.[7]
[edit]
His mother Peggy O’Hara, was an independent candidate in the 2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election in the Foyle constituency.[8] She was not elected, but she was one of the more successful dissident republican candidates opposed to the new policy of the Sinn Féin leadership of working with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), and won 1,789 votes. On the eve of the election, over 330 former republican prisoners wrote a letter to the Derry Journal endorsing her campaign.[9][10][11]
O’Hara’s brother, Anthony O’Hara, was also a prisoner in Long Kesh[12] and stood as a candidate during the 1981 general election for the Dublin West constituency. He received 3,034 votes (6.49% of the vote) but failed to take a seat.[13][14]
His sister, Elizabeth O’Hara, took part in a tour in the United States by NORAID. Some in NORAID objected to O’Hara’s involvement stating her brother was a “communist” and that it would tarnish their image among Irish-Americans at the time. However, Malachy McCreesh and Seán Sand, relatives of other hunger strikers, refused to participate unless O’Hara was allowed to accompany them.[15][16] A meeting of the IRSP Ard-Chomhairle following the tour revealed that all the money collected was distributed to Provisional prisoners families, with none going to INLA prisoners families.[15] O’Hara also allowed filmmaker Mickey Rourke to use the story of her brother in a film to help NORAID, however Denis Donaldson disrupted this effort and ultimately the film ceased development.[17] She later married Kevin Kelly and became a multi-millionaire.[18]
Posted by Jim on
Raymond McCreesh
A quiet, good-natured and discreet republican
THE THIRD of the resolutely determined IRA Volunteers to join the H-Block hunger strike for political status was twenty-four-year-old Raymond McCreesh, from Camlough in South Armagh: a quiet, shy and good-humoured republican, who although captured at the early age of nineteen, along with two other Volunteers in a British army ambush, had already almost three years active republican involvement behind him.
During those years he had established himself as one of the most dedicated and invaluable republican activists in that part of the six counties to which the Brits themselves have – half-fearfully, half-respectfully – given the name ‘bandit country’ and which has become a living legend in republican circles, during the present war, for the courage and resourcefulness of its Volunteers: the border land of South Armagh.
Raymond’s resolve to hunger strike to the death, to secure the prisoners’ five demands was indicated in a smuggled-out letter written by Paddy Quinn, an H-Block blanket man – who was later to embark on hunger strike himself – who was captured along with Raymond and who received the same fourteen year sentence: “I wrote Raymie a couple of letters before he went to the prison hospital. He wrote back and according to the letter he was in great spirits and very determined. A sign of that determination was the way he finished off by saying: Ta seans ann go mbeidh me abhaile rombat a chara’ which means: There is a chance that I’ll be home before you, my friend!”
Captured in June 1976, and sentenced in March 1977, when he refused to recognise the court, Raymond would have been due for release in about two years’ time had he not embarked on his principled protest for political status, which led him, ultimately, to hunger strike.
FAMILY
Raymond Peter McCreesh, the seventh in a family of eight children, was born in a small semi-detached house at St. Malachy’s Park, Camlough – where the family still live – on February 25th, 1957.
The McCreeshes, a nationalist family in a staunchly nationalist area, have been rooted in South Armagh for seven generations, and both Raymond’s parents – James aged 65, a retired local council worker, and Susan (whose maiden name is Quigley), aged 60 – come from the nearby townland of Dorsey.
Raymond was a quiet but very lively person, very good-natured and – like other members of his family – extremely witty. Not the sort of person who would push himself forward if he was in a crowd, and indeed often rather a shy person in his personal relationships until he got to know a person well. Nevertheless, in his republican capacity he was known as a capable, dedicated and totally committed Volunteer who could show leadership and aggression where necessary.
Among both his family and his republican associates, Raymond was renowned for his laughter and for “always having a wee smile on him”. His sense of humour remained even during his four-year incarceration in the H-Blocks, as well as during his hunger strike where he continued to insist that he was “just fine.”
SCHOOL
Raymond went first to Camlough primary school, and then to St. Coleman’s college in Newry. It was at St. Coleman’s that Raymond met Danny McGuinness, also from Camlough, and the two became steadfast friends. They later became republican comrades, and Danny too then a nineteen-year-old student who had just completed his ‘A’ levels was captured along with Raymond and Paddy Quinn, and is now in the H-Blocks.
At school, Raymond’s strongest interest was in Irish language and Irish history, and he read widely in those subjects. His understanding of Irish history led him to a fervently nationalist outlook, and he was regarded as a ‘hothead’ in his history classes, and as being generally “very conscious of his Irishness”.
He was also a sportsman, and played under-sixteen and Minor football for Carrickcruppin Gaelic football club as well as taking a keen interest in the local youth club where he played basketball and pool, and was regarded a good snooker player.
When he was fourteen years old, Raymond got a weekend job working on a milk round through the South Armagh border area, around Mullaghbawn and Dromintee. Later on, after leaving his job in Lisburn, he worked full-time on the milk round, where he would always stop and chat to customers. He became a great favourite amongst them and many enquired about him long after he left the round.
RESISTANCE
During the early ‘seventies, the South Armagh border area was the stamping ground of the British army’s Parachute regiment, operating out of Bessbrook camp less than two miles from Raymond’s home. Stories of their widespread brutality and harassment of local people abound, and built-up then a degree of resentment and resistance amongst most of the nationalist population that is seen to this day.
The SAS terror regiment began operating in this area in large numbers too, in a vain attempt to counter republican successes, and the high level of assassinations of local people on both sides of the South Armagh border, notably three members of the Reavey family in 1975, was believed locally to have been the work both of the SAS, and of UDR and RUC members holding dual membership with ‘illegal’ loyalist paramilitary organisations.
Given this scenario and Raymond’s understanding of Irish history, it is small wonder that he became involved in the republican struggle.
JOINED
He first of all joined na Fianna Eireann early in 1973 and towards the end of that year joined the Irish Republican Army’s 1st Battalion, South Armagh.
Even before joining the IRA, and despite his very young age, Raymond – with remarkable awareness and maturity – became one of the first Volunteers in the South Armagh area to adopt a very low, security conscious, republican profile.
He rarely drank, but if occasionally in a pub he would not discuss either politics or his own activities, and he rarely attended demonstrations or indeed anything which would have brought him to the attention of the enemy.
It was because of this remarkable self-discipline and discretion that during his years of intense republican involvement Raymond was never once arrested or even held for screening in the North, and only twice held briefly in the South.
Consequently, Raymond was never obliged to go ‘on the run’, continuing to live at home until the evening of his capture, and always careful not to cause his family any concern or alarm.
Fitted in with his republican activities Raymond would relax by going to dances or by going to watch football matches at weekends.
WORK
After leaving school he spent a year at Newry technical college studying fabrication engineering, and afterwards got a job at Gambler Simms (Steel) Ltd. in Lisburn. He had a conscientious approach to his craft but was obliged to leave after a year because of a fear of assassination.
Each day he travelled to work from Newry, in a bus along with four or five mates who had got jobs there too from the technical college, but the prevailing high level of sectarian assassinations, and the suspicion justifiably felt of the predominantly loyalist work-force at Gambler Simms, made Raymond, and many other nationalist workers, decide that travelling such a regular route through loyalist country side was simply too risky.
So, after leaving the Lisburn factory, Raymond began to work full-time as a milk roundsman, an occupation which would greatly have increased his knowledge of the surrounding countryside, as well as enabling him to observe the movements of British army patrols and any other untoward activity in the area.
ACTIVITY
Republican activity in that area during those years consisted largely of landmine attacks and ambushes on enemy patrols.
Raymond had the reputation of a republican who was very keen to suggest and take part in operations, almost invariably working in his own, extremely tight, active service unit, though occasionally, when requested – as he frequently was – assisting other units in neighbouring areas with specific operations. He would always carefully consider the pros and cons of any operation, and would never panic or lose his nerve.
In undertaking the hunger strike, Raymond gave the matter the same careful consideration he would have expended on a military operation, he undertook nothing either a rush, or for bluff.
CAPTURE
The operation which led to the capture of Raymond, his boyhood friend, Danny McGuiness, and Patrick Quinn, took place on June 25th, 1976.
An active service unit comprising these three and a fourth Volunteer arrived in a commandeered car at a farmyard in the town land of Sturgan a mile from Camlough – at about 9.25 p.m.
Their objective was to ambush a covert Brit observation post which they had located opposite the Mountain House Inn, on the main Newry – Newtonhamilton Road, half-a-mile away. They were not aware, however, that another covert British observation post, on a steep hillside half-a-mile away, had already spotted the four masked, uniformed and armed Volunteers, clearly visible below them, and that radioed helicopter reinforcements were already closing in.
As the fourth Volunteer drove the commandeered car down the road to the agreed ambush point, to act as a lure for the Brits, the other three moved down the hedgeline of the fields, into position. The fourth Volunteer, however, as he returned, as arranged, to rejoin his comrades, spotted the British Paratroopers on the hillside closing in on his unsuspecting friends and, although armed only with a short range Stengun, opened fire to warn the others.
Immediately, the Brits opened fire with SLRs and light machine-guns, churning up the ground around the Volunteers with hundreds of rounds, firing indiscriminately into the nearby farmhouse and two vehicles parked outside, and killing a grazing cow!
The fourth Volunteer was struck by three bullets, in the leg, arm and chest, but managed to crawl away and to elude the massive follow up search, escaping safely – though seriously injured – the following day.
Raymond and Paddy Quinn ran zig-zag across open fields to a nearby house, under fire all this time, intending to commandeer a car. Unfortunately, the car belonging to the occupants of the house was parked at a neighbour’s house several hundred yards away. Even then the pair might have escaped but that they delayed several minutes waiting for their comrade, Danny McGuinness, who however had got separated from them and had taken cover in a disused quarry outhouse (where he was captured in a follow-up operation the next day).
The house in which Raymond and Paddy took cover was immediately besieged by berserk Paratroopers who riddled the house with bullets. Even when the two Volunteers surrendered, after the arrival of a local priest, and came out through the front door with their hands up, the Paras opened fire again and the Pair were forced to retreat back into the house.
On the arrival of the RUC, the two Volunteers again surrendered and were taken to Bessbrook barracks where they were questioned and beaten for three days before being charged.
REMARKABLE
One remarkable aspect of the British ambush concerns the role of Lance-Corporal David Jones, a member of the 3rd Battalion, the Parachute regiment. According to Brit statements at the trial it was he who first opened up on the IRA active service unit from the hillside.
Nine months later, on March 16th, 1977 two IRA Volunteers encountered two Paratroopers (at the time seconded to the SAS) in a field outside Maghera in South Derry. In the ensuing gun battle, one SAS man was shot dead, and one IRA Volunteer was captured. The Volunteer’s name was Francis Hughes, the dead Brit was Lance-Corporal David Jones of the Parachute regiment.
In the eighteen months before going on hunger strike together neither Raymond McCreesh or Francis Hughes were aware of what would seem to have been an ironic but supremely fitting example of republican solidarity!
After nine months remand in Crumlin Road jail, Raymond was tried and convicted in March 1977, of attempting to kill Brits, possession of a Garand rifle and ammunition, and IRA membership. He received a fourteen-year sentence, and lesser concurrent sentences, after refusing to recognise the court.
In the H-Blocks he immediately joined the blanket protest, and so determined was his resistance to criminalisation that he refused to take his monthly visits for four years, right up until he informed his family of his decision to go on hunger strike on February 15th, this year. He also refused to send out monthly letters, writing only smuggled ‘communications’ to his family and friends.
The only member of his family to see him at all during those four years in Long Kesh two or three times – was his brother, Fr. Brian McCreesh, who occasionally says Mass in the H-Blocks.
HUNGER STRIKE
Like Francis Hughes, Raymond volunteered for the earlier hunger strike, and, when he was not chosen among the first seven, took part in the four-day hunger strike by thirty republicans until the hunger strike ended on December 18th, last year.
Speaking to his brother, Malachy, shortly after Bobby Sands death, Raymond said what a great loss had been felt by the other hunger strikers, but it had made them more determined than ever.
And still managing to keep his spirits up, when told of his brother, Fr. Brian, campaigning for him on rally platforms, Raymond joked: “He’ll probably get excommunicated for it.”
To Britain’s eternal shame, the sombre half-prediction made by Raymond to his friend Paddy Quinn – Ta seans ann go mbeid me abhaile rombat – became a grim reality. Bhi se. Raymond died at 2.11 a.m. on Thursday May 21st, 1981, after 61 days on hunger strike.
