Hockey Fights Cancer Night: Virtual Chat with Eddie Olczyk Presented by Northwell HealthOn behalf of the New York Rangers, Madison Square Garden and the Garden of Dreams Foundation invites members to attend the Rangers virtual Hockey Fights Cancer Webinar on Tuesday, March 16, 2021 from 5:00 PM – 5:30 PM. If you would like to participate in this virtual event, please register in advance of the event at the link listed below and choose ‘Garden of Dreams’ from the Affiliation list. https://msg-wmzqo.formstack.com/forms/chat_with_eddie_olczyk About the Webinar:Four years ago, Eddie Olczyk was in a fight for his life. He was diagnosed with Stage 3 Colon Cancer in 2017 and went under heavy chemotherapy immediately. With support of family, doctors, the hockey community and NHL fans, the commentator and member of the Rangers ‘94 Stanley Cup Team beat the disease. Helping those who are fighting cancer is now a big part of Olczyk’s life and he’s helping the NHL with their “Hockey Fights Cancer” initiative. Join Eddie, the New York Rangers and Northwell Health to hear his story about beating the odds.
Burning Issues: Online Support Group for FDNY Virtual meetings every Monday from 10:00 AM – 11:00 AMBurning Issues is a confidential, firefighter-led drop-in support group serving active and retired New York City firefighters. The group meets every Monday from 10:00-11:00 AM. At the helm is Victor D’Aquino, a 26-year veteran of the New York City Fire Department. Burning Issues is supported by the Center for Human Development and free of charge for active and retired FDNY firefighters. For more information and to receive the Zoom link, please contact Friends of Firefighters at 718-643-0980 or email info@friendsoffirefighters.org.
On the 40th anniversary of the 1981 hunger-strike, John McNally from California tells the remarkable story of Dr Frank Forster who was persecuted in the United States for supporting the Irish prison struggle
AN Irish-born physician in Southern California was arrested as an alleged felon on the eve of Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Santa Barbara in 1983. Dr. Frank Forster was singled out because US President Ronald Reagan had invited the Queen to his Western White House, and it was feared the outspoken Irish Nationalist had planned a protest.
Using methods deemed illegal today, law enforcement went to extremes to entrap the doctor. His medical offices were bugged, and undercover officers posing as patients attempted to trick the doctor into illegally prescribing drugs. Dr. Frank Forster was charged with 18 felonies in a chilling case of persecution and injustice, bureaucratic bungling, and malice.
Born in 1928 in Tipperary, Ireland, Francis John Patrick Forster won a scholarship to University College Dublin in 1947 and graduated in 1954 with a Doctoratus in Medcina (MD). After working for several years in a hospital in London, England, and three years as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps with the British Army in Germany, he emigrated to the United States in 1965 and became a US citizen. Frank settled in Santa Barbara with his wife Maidie and three children, where he was a popular and well-respected physician of internal medicine.
During the Vietnam War, Frank observed young men being drafted who could have received medical deferments. So, in 1970, he published A DOCTOR’S GUIDE TO THE DRAFT explaining the legal, medical exceptions to the Selective Service in easy-to-understand language, which he claimed saved thousands of young men’s lives. This made Frank unpopular with the conservative ruling class that cities like Santa Barbara have under their facade of liberal politics.
After Bobby Sands died on hunger strike, Frank started an Irish Northern Aid chapter in Santa Barbara to counter British propaganda by informing his fellow Americans of the true nature of the Anglo-Irish conflict and Irish political prisoners’ suffering. He ran an ad in the local paper using ‘Captain Moonlight’ as his nom de guerre and quickly had over 100 members and supporters. Dr. Forster was an effective writer and compelling speaker, holding numerous public talks, promoting letter-writing campaigns, guest spots on local radio shows, and led protests outside British-owned businesses. On Tuesday evenings, he hosted Irish language classes at his Junipero Street home.
Frank was most pleased with his Irish Northern Aid Saint Patrick’s Day blood donation drive in 1982, netting 27 pints of blood and the party that night at his house, which attracted scores of guests. During Frank’s initial legal proceedings, as many as 200 supporters crowded into Santa Barbara’s courthouse to whom Forster, wearing his Easter Lily pin, would address in Irish.
Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980 as president saw Santa Barbara teeming with Secret Service agents. Frank was at the top of the list of security risks whenever President Reagan was in town, and it wasn’t unusual to discover the guy next to me at the bar was an agent.
After one of many letters to the editor penned by Frank condemning the British injustices in the North of Ireland, he was warned by a writer for the SB News-Press that someone at the Sherriff’s office was out to get him. The police and courts, the real levers of power, were staunch conservatives who targeted Forster for his liberal politics but claimed their investigations of the doctor were merely coincidental. Years later, I asked a senior Santa Barbara police official why they went after Frank Forster. He said the word on the street was the doctor gave narcotics to anyone in a response typical of upholding the police blue line. The primary local orchestrator of the conspiracy against Frank was Santa Barbara County Sherriff John Carpenter, whose obituary states, “one of the highlights of his career was the time he spent getting to know Former President Ronald Reagan while providing security at the Reagan Ranch.” Forster had been under investigation for over two years before the Queen’s visit, so although the catalyst for his arrest, they were already out to get Frank who had long been a vocal supporter of liberal causes. In 1980 the Sherriff and the Medical Quality Assurance Board repeatedly sent undercover agents into Dr. Forster’s medical office posing as patients attempting to trick the doctor into illegally prescribing drugs using deceptive undercover tactics that today are expressly illegal. The unsubstantiated arrest warrant was signed by one of California’s worst Judges, according to an investigative magazine California in 1984.
And District Attorney Tom Sneddon (who also failed to convict Michael Jackson) was relentless. The case against Dr. Forster was so weak his defense attorney used the undercover agent’s own recordings to prove his innocence. Frank won each case, but the District Attorney appealed, sending the doctor to three courts for over two years. After his arrest, Frank hired an electronics expert to sweep his offices for bugs, and two sophisticated devices were found of the type not generally used by local law enforcement, the expert told him. These were the ones the CIA and FBI employ.
The Medical Board took Dr. Forster’s name off the list of doctors who receive referrals and put him on a list of doctors who had “Accusations” against them, making his career in medicine tenuous. An Irish-speaking spy infiltrated his Irish Northern Aid Chapter. The Immigration and Naturalization Service questioned his son Peter’s citizenship status, and a car tried to run Frank down when leaving his office one evening. His private practice closed because he had to spend so much time in court. He used up his retirement savings and had to sell his house to pay attorney’s fees, and the only job he could find was at a prison hospital over 100 miles from Santa Barbara. But still, the DA and Medical Board hadn’t completely cleared Forster, possibly to frustrate Forster’s counter lawsuit.
The winter of 1983 was one of the worst on record, and Santa Barbara’s harbor silted up, preventing the Queen’s yacht Britannia from entering. Low clouds full of rain minimized visibility to where she couldn’t see the lovely coastal mountains for which Santa Barbara is famous. Nevertheless, Reagan insisted she makes the harrowing drive up a windy road in the middle of a downpour to his Rancho del Cielo (Ranch in the Sky).
Although under investigation for years, Frank’s arrest a few weeks before the Queen’s scheduled visit in 1983 was probably to thwart any embarrassment to President Reagan from protesting Irish radicals.
No protests were planned for the Queen in Santa Barbara anyway, Frank organized a vigil outside the Sheraton Hotel where the press were staying to demonstrate to the news media the bias of the reporting on the Anglo-Irish conflict. But this, too, was pretty much a wash-out because of the torrential rain. Helen Thomas from UPI felt sorry for Frank and invited him in for a cup of coffee.
Forster sued the US Government for $10,000,000, was offered a $50,000 settlement which he turned down, and in the end, lost his case because he missed a filing date, according to his son Peter.
Soured by the experience, Frank left public politics but continued to show support for the Irish people. In 1992 he took out a full-page ad in the Irish American Unity Conference’s program for our annual convention in which Bruce Morrison was a keynote speaker. Morrison played an integral part in President Clinton’s involvement in the Irish Peace Process, and we hope President Biden selects him to be our US Special Envoy to Ireland.
As a lifelong member of Alcoholics Anonymous, he helped hundreds of others obtain sobriety, but Frank was, unfortunately, a smoker, dying of emphysema at his home in Ojai, California, in 2004. His family spread his ashes in his favorite place in Ireland, Miltown Malbay’s Spanish Point.
By Sean Bresnahan (seanbres.wordpress.com)In South Armagh Republican folklore, the lives and tragic deaths of two young Irishmen will be forever intertwined, with the names of Brendan Moley and Brendan Burns — ‘The Two Brendans’ as they are popularly remembered — writ large into the story of the struggle for a sovereign and free Ireland.
On February 29th 1988, they were killed on Active Service with the South Armagh Brigade, Óglaigh na hÉireann, in preparation for an impending attack on the forces of British occupation. Lifelong friends and comrades, they died for Irish Freedom. We who remain salute their courage and pay tribute to their sacrifice.
Brendan Burns is fondly remembered as a determined IRA Volunteer, whose commitment to his country was total. Growing up in Cregganduff, not far from the town of Crossmaglen, he joined Óglaigh na hEireann at 16, going on to engage British enemy forces in a series of daring and well-planned attacks throughout the South Armagh area. By 1984 he was on the run, using his intimate knowledge of the Border to evade capture. Arrested by Gardaí on foot of an extradition warrant, he spent two years in Portlaoise before eventually beating the case. He returned to the armed struggle, seeing his family where and when he could while committing himself full time to the IRA.
Brendan Moley from Dorsey, just outside Cullyhanna, was likewise considered a steadfast Volunteer who would not shirk in the face of adversity. Strong and resilient in his determination to force the British state from Ireland, he played a central role in the many attacks carried out by his local Brigade. Brendan was an experienced Volunteer whose field craft and soldiery were second-to-none, respected by all who knew him. For men like Brendan Moley, the armed struggle offered only reward — be it in an end to British rule or in a Martyrs’ death in pursuit of that noble objective.
‘The Two Brendans’ fell victim to an accidental explosion, when the bomb they were preparing exploded prematurely as they loaded it into a van in border country, near Crossmaglen. Plans to mount an attack on the infrastructure of Britain’s military occupation, of a kind long-seen in South Armagh down through the years, were at an advanced stage but sadly resulted in the tragic passing of these young men — a terrible loss to the fight for freedom.
We’re a special kind of people here, we breed defiance never fear And we’ll still be here when the tide ‘gainst England turns. For in our hearts we know we’re right, and never will give up the fight; We owe that much to Moley and to Burns
Brendan Moley and Brendan Burns — born only weeks apart, growing up only a stone’s throw from the other — were buried on the same day, 3rd March 1988, their funerals bearing witness to a savage display of brutality by state forces, in line with a longstanding policy of violently intimidating Republican funerals. Riot-clad officers and soldiers attacked the processions, threatening and insulting family members while physically assaulting mourners, all in a futile effort to trample on the dignity of the South Armagh Republican community. They did not succeed. Both were laid to rest by their families, friends and comrades, as thousands of people from near and far stood in support and solidarity.
History will recall their courage. The tremendous sacrifice of Brendan Moley and Brendan Burns — a source of inspiration and pride — demands that we work for a full British withdrawal from our country, that the Irish Republic, for which they gave their lives, be restored. They have lit a path for us to follow, a path to that Republic — a path to freedom and peace. We will be the generation that rebuilds the Republic. We owe that much to Moley and to Burns.
On the anniversary of the murder of four men in County Tyrone 30 years ago this week, new information has emerged which appears to confirm long-held suspicions that British-trained soldiers were involved in the ambush.IRA Volunteers Malcolm Nugent, Dwayne O’Donnell and John Quinn were shot dead along with civilian Thomas Armstrong at Boyle’s Bar in Cappagh on March 3, 1991.
The three were killed after they drove into the pub car park as a loyalist death squad lay in wait. Although wounded, a fourth man who was travelling in the vehicle escaped with his life.
The attack was later claimed by the UVF, but in December 1991 three part-time members of the British Army’s UDR (Ulster Defence Regiment) were among four suspects arrested. A fourth man, a relative of one of the UDR men, was also detained.
However, all those arrested were later released without charge.
Now a document, believed to have been produced by the British Army’s ‘Weapon Intelligence’ section, dated seven days after the murders, provides details of how the gun attack was carried out and the weapons used.
According to the document unearthed by the Irish News, military chiefs described the killings as “professionally carried out” and dissimilar to other loyalist actions.
They wrote: “From investigation of the scene it was found that the groupings of the bursts of fire were quiet exceptional for a PPM shoot and the targets had been well acquired.”
The reference to PPM is believed to be military shorthand for Protestant Paramilitaries.
The report also suggests “a lot of ground recce must have occurred before this shoot as the perpetrators struck deep at the heart of a republican area”.
It suggests that John Quinn, who was driving, had only recently bought the car the victims were travelling in.
“It must also be assumed that ‘dickers’ [lookouts] were used to confirm the impending arrival of Quinn and his vehicle, supporting theories that he was an intended target,” it states.
Lawyer Gavin Booth, of Phoenix Law, said: “It’s wholly inadequate for families to find that information is available in the public domain about their loved ones but has never been provided to them.”
Briege O’Donnell, mother of Dwayne O’Donnell, said her family has been failed by the state.
“We are now seeking a full independent investigation and have issued civil proceedings to achieve this to get justice for our loved ones and we will continue to do that in their memory,” she said.
Malcolm Nugent’s sister Siobhan Nugent said the families of those killed in Cappagh “have always suspected collusion” in the case.
“Now on the 30th anniversary of the murders each one of the families remain as determined as ever to discover exactly what happened that night,” she said.
“We will not be found wanting, either now or in the future, in our pursuit of the truth.”
Loyalists paramilitaries are acting in concert with hardline Brexiteers to try to intimidate the European Union with the potential of violence in the north of Ireland.The Loyalist Communities Council, which represents the UVF and UDA paramilitary groups, wrote to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week to announce that they were “withdrawing their support” for the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and its political institutions.
The UDA/UVF letter to Johnson said they were withdrawing their support for the peace deal “until our rights under the Agreement are restored”.
That is understood to be a reference to their claimed “right” to veto political change, including new safety inspections of meat and other Brexit-related checks on trade at ports in Larne and Belfast.
It comes amid increasing tension over a loyalist campaign against those deemed to be behind the new regulations on trade across the Irish Sea. More loyalist graffiti and banners denouncing the ‘Irish Sea Border’ have appeared across the North, many of which are threatening.
The letter argues the Irish protocol of the Brexit deal “gives effect to the Irish nationalist position at the expense of the unionist position” and warned that this “undermines the basis on which the Combined Loyalist Military Command agreed their 1994 ceasefire”.
It adds, ominously: “If the EU is not prepared to honour the entirety of the [Good Friday Agreement] then it will be responsible for the permanent destruction of the agreement.”
In practical terms, the threat to end UDA/UVF support for the peace process means little in the context of their ongoing and indiscriminate violence.
More disturbing is the fact that the letter was accorded the status of a diplomatic intervention by the British establishment.
The British Direct Ruler Brandon Lewis himself treated the UDA and UVF paramilitaries as virtual dignitaries, describing a recent meeting with their representatives as “important” and a chance to “talk to people across communities”.
His officials met with the group less than a fortnight after its drug-dealing gangs shot up two homes and a mob invaded an estate to intimidate the family of a murdered rival.
The sympathetic nature of media coverage accorded to the loyalist umbrella group also contrasted sharply with the treatment of moderate republican parties and organisations.
One young loyalist paramilitary was gently interviewed and thanked on Newstalks’s Pat Kenny Show after he made direct threats against nationalist politicians, including Tánaiste Leo Varadkar. He described a range of political parties as “legitimate targets” because of their support for the Protocol, without criticism from the interviewer.
Few in the British political establishment have challenged the statements of the LCC group, and they were even defended by the PSNI police chief Simon Byrne who branded their statement a “political move”.
Instead, the implied threat of violence should have raised questions about revoking the release licence of the former UDA and UVF prisoners who are still active within those organisations.
But Byrne, who has presided over the intense oppression of the nationalist community and has previously vowed to ‘go after’ the families of republican activists and remove their children, said the PSNI were “prudently looking at an assessment of what [the letter] means in terms of a policing response”.
Sinn Féin’s response was cautious but critical. The party’s deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill questioned the ongoing existence of the loyalist groupings.
“I think the question that needs to be answered is, 23 years after the Good Friday Agreement, why loyalist paramilitary groups still exist, way they’re still carrying out organised crime, racketeering and extortion, holding communities to ransom,” she said.
“I think everybody in political leadership has a responsibility to encourage and to tell these groups to leave the stage. There is no place for them in today’s society.”
TARGETED BY FEDS: Dr. Frank Forster
