Fifty members of the Ancient Order of Hibernianswill begin a ten-day fact-finding mission to the north ofIreland on Tuesday, April 19.The mission will include what a release describedas “crucial talks with legacy victims’ relatives onpending British amnesty measures,” as well as briefings with Irish party leaders and Irish government representatives.Stated the release: “The delegation, which includessenior national officers from both the Ancient Orderof Hibernians (AOH) and Ladies Ancient Order ofHibernians (LAOH), will also present more than$100,000 in Freedom for all Ireland grants from theHouben Centre located on the grounds of Holy CrossChurch Ardoyne.”The fact-finding mission follows one month after Hibernians spearheaded the passage of House Resolution888, in which Congress said it ‘Opposes any attempt bythe British Government to implement amnesty orstatute of limitation laws that would end or inhibit investigations and prosecutions of crimes committedduring the Troubles, including on Bloody Sunday.’In Tyrone, the release continued, “Hibernians willjourney to the Battery Bar Ardboe where Americancitizen Liam Ryan was murdered by off-duty members of the British Army’s Ulster Defense Regimenton November 29, 1989.”Here they will join with family and friends of thelong time Bronx resident to launch a special Relativesfor Justice case study in collusion in this murder, andcall for an Ombudsman Report on the Royal UlsterConstabulary’s failure to investigate.”The delegation will also meet Relatives for Justice,EALU (Escape), an organization supporting ex-prisoners and Tyrone National Graves. Well known IrishRepublicans like Gerry McGeough, Malachy McAllister and John Crawley will also be speaking to thedelegation.” travel to Belfast and visit the scene ofthe Springhill-Westrock Massacre,”where on July 9th 1972, British troopers following a ceasefire, shot five people including Catholic priest Fr. NoelFitzpatrick, Paul Butler, Margaret Gargan 13, John Dougal 16, and David McCafferty 16. Their families have waitedyears for a new inquest, which is nowthreatened by new British amnesty proposals.”This will be followed by a fulloverview of legacy issues from familyrepresentatives of the New Lodge 6,victims named in recent Ombudsmanfindings from South Belfast and CountyDerry killings, and Plastic Bulletkillings of children.The Hibernians will also receive a presentation from veteran Irish Republicans,Tom Hartley, Fra McCann, Bik McFarlane, Joe Austin and Danny Morison.Continued the release: “One of the keyevents of the tour will be the presentations of more than $100,000 dollars inFreedom for all Ireland grants to 15 approved applicants. The presentationswill be made during a live webinarfrom the Houben Centre, despite thefact that loyalists recently disrupted apeace lecture by Irish Tanaiste and Foreign Minister Simon Coveney.”The Hibernians will spend their finaltwo days in Dublin, where they will receive a briefing from Sinn Fein Partyleader Mary Lou McDonald, an updateon the Ireland’s Future campaign fromSenators Francis Black and Niall Donnghaile, and additionally receive abriefing by officials from the Irish Department of Foreign Service.Hibernians are also arranging briefings with senior party representativesfrom Fianna Fail and Fine Gael in advance of the Irish visit, said the release..Author Robert Collins and ProfessorRuan O’Donnell will provide the delegation a special preview of a new booktitled ‘Noraid and the Northern IrelandTroubles 1970-94,’ which is expected toexamine a key chapter in Irish American history, including the role and impact of AOH, during this period ofconflict.AOH Freedom-for all-Ireland ChairMartin Galvin said: “The fight for Irishlegacy justice is at a critical point. TheAOH and other Irish American organizations are believed to have played acrucial role in delaying the British proposals for an amnesty whitewash.However Britain’s plans to take awaybasic rights to Inquests, OmbudsmanInvestigations and civil action are stillon the table.“Victims’ relatives fear that Britainmay impose this new injustice soonafter the Stormont elections are over.We are bringing a high level AOH/LAOH delegation to the north to highlight American support for thosefighting for legacy truth.”It is crucial now more than ever thatwe bring the facts back across Americaand do more nationally to supportthose still denied justice and freedom.”
Saoirse – Irish Freedom is the voice of the Irish Republican Movement. The monthly newspaper of the Republican Movement, it takes its name from Irish Freedom – Saoirse, a Fenian paper which first appeared in November 1910 and continued as a monthly publication until December 1914 when it was suppressed by the British authorities. Among the contributors to that paper were Bulmer Hobson, PS Hegerty, Terence McSwiney, Pádraig Pearse, Ernest Blythe, Piaras Beaslaí, Pat Devlin, Fred Cogley, JW Good and Roger Casement.
Irish Republicans have always attempted to produce a newspaper, as a means of speaking to the people. As revolutionaries we have had to rely on our own resources to counter-act the status quo message promoted by the Establishment media.
More than 200 years ago, on January 4, 1792, the first number of the Northern Star appeared. The paper, produced by the Belfast Society of United Irishmen, promoted unity among Irish people of all religions. It was a popular target for the opponents of Irish unity and freedom. The proprietors of the Northern Star and its printer, John Rabb, were charged with sedition in January, 1793. Its offices were again raided on September 16, 1796 in a general clamp-down on the United Irishmen in Belfast. The presses of the Northern Star were smashed by a pro-British militia on May 19, 1797.
A new paper, The Press, appeared on September 28, 1797.
In a short article in the first issue of The Republic, on December 13, 1906, produced by the Dungannon Clubs, Bulmer Hobson wrote:
Ireland today claims her place among the free peoples of the earth. She has never surrendered that claim, nor will ever surrender it; and today forces are working in Ireland that will not be still until her claim is acknowledged and her voice heard in the councils of the nations.
To that end The Republic has been started. It has not been brought into existence to make a party among the political parties of Ireland, nor to carry on a party propaganda nor to waste time quarreling with any political party. It has been started to gather together all that is best and greatest, most progressive and far-seeing in Ireland round the Republican banner and to build up, not a Republican party, but an independent Irish Republic.
We stand for an Irish Republic because we see that no compromise with England, no repeal of the Union, no concession of Home Rule or Devolution will satisfy the national aspiration of the Irish people nor allow the unrestricted mental, moral and material development of our country. National independence is our right; we ask no more and we will accept no less.
An independent Irish Republic, then, is our aim – governed by the whole people of Ireland in the interests of the whole people, without let or hindrance, supervision or interference on the part of any other power under heaven. We owe allegiance to no country save Ireland, and we will yield none to any other.
The old hate and the old bigotry that have kept Catholic and Protestant divided – the old grovelling spirit of Toadyism must be killed and forgotten by the people. The ineffective and outward political movements, Unionist and Nationalist, must be superseded and silenced and, in their place, a national movement, virile and militant, that recognises no creed save that of Irishman, and no party save the nation, must be established.
DUP leader in too deep to wiggle out of ‘unpredictable’ rallies
In it together: Sir Jeffrey Donaldson (right) with Jim Allister (centre) and Jamie Bryson. Credit: Liam McBurney/PA
April 11 2022 05:55 AM
You’d have to wonder about the mentality of someone who saw fit to put a noose around the neck of an election poster of UUP leader Doug Beattie.
The image of Jeffrey Donaldson and Jim Allister removing the poster is one that perfectly sums up the negativity around this election to date.
It is a depressing picture, and nothing to help their cause, whether that be in relation to the protocol or in terms of preserving the Union.
Instead of talking about the rally, the story of the weekend was the poster and the growing split within unionism.
Since pulling out of the anti-protocol rallies in response to the UVF hoax bomb at a peace event attended by Simon Coveney, Doug Beattie has been the target of negative commentary from some sections of loyalism.
The former soldier isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. He’s not a natural politician, he is not even a typical UUP leader, and I’m pretty sure that’s something he’d agree with.
But he is at least honest about his feelings and at times his failings.
I imagine all the media training in the world wouldn’t be able to soften his edges, but that’s also why so many people have taken to him.
This includes a new team of younger party members who are delighted to be out knocking doors selling his more progressive style of unionism.
The issue with the poster and who was responsible for it is interesting though, in terms of where unionism and loyalism is at — a relevant topic of debate on a weekend that marked the 24th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
Anti-protocol rally in Lurgan pleads for ‘Unionist unity’ with ‘noose’ posters of Doug Beattiesource: Ben Tucker, Belfast Telegraph00:0002:38720p720p480p360p high360p lowShare this video
The Sunday Life reported that the poster was the work of the shadowy fringe group, the Orange Volunteers. Last year, members of the group were involved in promoting protests at volatile interfaces using the social media platform Facebook.
At least one of those protests resulted in violence with very young men engaged in disorder at the Lanark Way peace line, with plastic baton rounds being fired by police.
I find myself wondering, if the organisers of the anti-protocol protests want them to be peaceful and unifying for unionism, why are groups such as the Orange Volunteers not being told to stay away? All of this will just reinforce the decision of the Ulster Unionists to abandon the protests ahead of the election as the right move.
The rallies started to vent anger at what was being called at the time the ‘Boris Betrayal’.
The Prime Minister now barely gets a mention.
They turned from anger at the Withdrawal Agreement to verbal attacks on local politicians who opposed Brexit, to the EU and now the Irish government.
It is a scattergun of anger that is hard to understand or explain given the randomness of the targets.
It then changed to protests about the Good Friday Agreement itself.
People like Jim Allister and Jamie Bryson, who never agreed with the terms of the peace accord, see the changes to the Act of Union as a result of Brexit as a vehicle to start the discussion around the future of the agreement.
Jeffrey Donaldson has been around since those early days, first with the UUP and later the DUP.
This is not his first rodeo; he should be able to step out in the next few weeks to a logical conclusion.
Instead, he has been reduced from being the leader of the largest unionist party, to a supporting actor in the Jim Allister show.
The rallies have morphed yet again into Trump-style election rallies for the TUV, and it’s hard to understand so close to unionism’s most important election in a decade what is still in it for the DUP.
The protocol and any changes to it will not be as a result of a gathering in Lurgan or anywhere else in Northern Ireland, but rather diplomacy and negotiation at an international level.
Jeffrey Donaldson knows this but appears in too deep to wiggle his way out of the large gatherings.
Even after removing a poster of a fellow unionist leader with a noose around the neck, he still couldn’t just walk away and find an alternative and less potentially perilous way to get his point across.
The rallies are increasingly unpredictable, it just takes a handful of people to sway them from peaceful to disorder, and the problem for the DUP is that they have no control over them either way.
Doug Beattie may be the target of some loyalist anger but Jeffrey Donaldson is at the mercy of it, and that it would seem is a much worse place to be.
Saoirse – Irish Freedom is the voice of the Irish Republican Movement. The monthly newspaper of the Republican Movement, it takes its name from Irish Freedom – Saoirse, a Fenian paper which first appeared in November 1910 and continued as a monthly publication until December 1914 when it was suppressed by the British authorities. Among the contributors to that paper were Bulmer Hobson, PS Hegerty, Terence McSwiney, Pádraig Pearse, Ernest Blythe, Piaras Beaslaí, Pat Devlin, Fred Cogley, JW Good and Roger Casement.
