This address was distributed as leaflets in unionist districts of Belfast by IRA Volunteers. Largely written by Peader O’Donnell, it had been circulated with a covering letter from the IRA’s Adjutant General, Donal O’Donoghue, on 8th July 1932 to newspaper editors. Most, including the Belfast Newsletter, published abridged versions as early as 11th July 1932. The text is as quoted by the Treason Felony blog, following the formatting published in the Kerryman.
Fellow Countrymen and Women, It is a long call from the ranks of the Irish Republican Army to the marching throngs that hold the 12th July Celebrations in North East Ulster. Across the space we have sometimes exchanged shots, or missiles or hard words, but never forgetting that on occasions our ancestors have stood shoulder to shoulder. Some day we will again exchange ideas and then the distance which now separates us will shorten. For we of the Irish Republican Army believe that inevitably the small farmers and wage-earners in the Six County area will make common cause with those of the rest of Ireland, for the common good of the mass of the people in a Free United Irish Republic. Such a conviction is forming itself in an ever increasing number of minds in North East Ulster. The Irish Republican Army – within North East Ulster as well as in the rest of Ireland – believe that the mass of the Working-Farmers and Wage-earners must organise behind revolutionary leadership if they are to rescue themselves from a system within they the few prosper and the many are impoverished. It is our opinion, a conviction driven in on our mind by the facts of life around us, that capitalism and imperialism constitute a system of exploitation and injustice within which the mass of the people can know no freedom. The burdens of to-day’s bad times are falling with increasing weight on Working Farmers, who must surrender an increasing part of their produce to meet rents, taxes, bank interest, etc, while their incomes diminish The unemployed workers are being torn at with economies in social services – adding daily to the destitute. The wage earners are finding their conditions _s of employment and standard of living steadily worsening. We can see no permanent solution of these evils except by the transfer of power over production, distribution and exchange to the mass of the people. The power to produce what the many require exists; the Organisation and its distribution presents no insoluble difficulty. But the vested interests of a privileged minority are across the road and progress is impossible, unless we are prepared to clear away these obstacles. These interests that deny their rights to the many are those on which the Empire rests. Touch or threaten these privileged interests and the whole force of the Empire is invoked for their protection. Thus it is that we see and say that the freedom of the mass – of the Irish People is impossible without breaking the connection with Imperial Britain and with all the Imperial system connotes. Do you see any other road to freedom for yourselves and your families? You must realise that the chief industries on which the former alleged prosperity of North East Ulster rested are gone beyond hope of being revived; that the same thing has occurred in Great Britain; that everywhere the pinch grows tighter on those who are unemployed as a result of this breakdown in the whole structure of capitalism. Can the British people help you while their own workers and industries are struggling desperately to exist and are not succeeding in these days? Where do you see any hope? Working-farmers and Wage-earners of North East Ulster. You surely must see that your future is bound up with the mass of the people in the remainder of Ireland. To preserve yourselves from extinction, you and they must combine and go forward to the attainment of A Free Irish Nation within which life and living will be organised and controlled by you to serve your needs and thus end the present economic and social injustices for ever. The industrial capacity, and training of you industrial workers, of North East Ulster ensure you a leading influence and place in the economy and life of a Free Irish Nation. EXPLOITATION OF RELIGIOUS PREJUDICES To prejudice you it is emphasized that we of the Irish republican Army and the mass of Republicans are mainly Catholic, and that your religious beliefs would not be respected in a free Ireland! It is quite true we are mianly Catholics, but in Southern Ireland the same political and economical interests and voices that tell you we are Catholics, tell the Catholic population of the South that we are Anti-God fanatics, and yearning for an opportunity to make war on the religion to which the majority of us belong! The fact is we are quite unaware of religious distinctions within our Movement. We guarantee you, you will guarantee us, and we will both guarantee all full freedom of conscience and religious worship in the Ireland we are to set free. This is the simple truth, and just now when Imperial interests are attempting to conceal themselves behind the mad fury of religious strife you and we should combine to make certain that no such escape should be provided them. In the process of exploitation of the wage-earners and small producers, do you not realise how little religion matters to the exploiters? Orangemen and Catholic, Catholic women and yours toil side by side in the factory and mill, all equally victims Those who thus exploit mercilessly your labour and energies, would outside set you at one anothers throats, because it is to their advantage to divide you and lead you into conflict by arousing religious issues and inflaming passions. Do yon not find yourselves queued shoulder to shoulder outside the Unemployed Exchanges waiting for the ‘Dole’, that crumb which the exploiters throw to the exploited of different religions? In these vital matters jour religion or your membership of the Orange Older counts for little, nor does Catholicism to the unemployed and starving Catholics in Southern Ireland. The fact is that the religious feelings of the masses of both Orangemen and Catholics are played on and exploited by the Imperialists and Capitalists the more surely to enslave them. THE VICTORY OF THE BOYNE! You celebrate the victory of the Boyne. This battle was a victory for the alliance of the then Pope; and William of Orange; strange alliance for you to celebrate; strange victory for Catholics to resist! History has been muddled to hide the occasions when your forefathers and ours made common cause, and passions are stirred to manufacture antagonisms. If William of Orange and His Holiness could achieve an alliance, there is hope that “NO SURRENDER” may come up from a throng which also roars “UP THE REPUBLIC”. Your stock were the founders and inspiration, the North East Ulster the cradle, of the modern Revolutionary Movement for National Independence and Economic Freedom. Your illustrious ancestors and co-religionists, the United Irishmen, by their gallant struggle in 1798 set aflame the ideals of Republicanism which never since have been extinguished. We ask that you should join us to achieve their ideals — National Freedom and religious toleration. It was John Mitchel, a Newry man of your stock, who addressed these words to your forefathers: “In fact religious hatred has been kept alive in Ireland longer than anywhere else in Christendom. Just for the simple reason that Irish landlords and British statesmen found their own account in it, and so soon as Irish landlordism and British domination are finally rooted out of the country it will be heard of no longer in Ireland any more than it is in France or Belgium, now.” Fraternally, Your Fellow Countrymen, The Army Council, On Behalf of the Irish Republican Army
Barbara Flaherty, Dr. Everett Kelley, Fr. Sean McManus
The National Secretary-Treasurer of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the latest World Peace Prize laureate. AFGE is the largest federal employee Union proudly representing 700,000 federal and D.C. government workers nationwide and overseas. Dr. Everett Kelley, a native of Alabama and a Baptist Minister, was honored with the Prize on Tuesday, July 9, 2019, in a ceremony appropriately held in the George Meany Room of the hallowed AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, DC. The late World Leader and Master Planner, Rev. Dr. Han Min Su, founded the World Peace Prize in Seoul, South Korea, in 1989.The World Peace Prize Awarding Council consists of 14-member Board of International and Interfaith judges. The Board is comprised of representatives of the world’s nine major religions: Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Russian Orthodox, and Zoroastrianism.
The presentation was made by Fr. Sean McManus—Chief Judge of the World Peace Prize and President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus—and the ceremony was chaired by Barbara Flaherty, a Judge of the World Peace Prize Awarding Council, and Executive Vice President of the Irish National Caucus. Fr. Mc Manus explained: “Working for peace, locally or globally, means, in effect and of necessity, working for social justice. Therefore, members of the Labor Movement are ideally qualified to be recipients of our World Peace Prize.Dr. Kelley eminently deserves this Prize. As Pope John Paul II has said, ‘peace is the fruit of solidarity.’ And the American Labor Movement is dedicated to solidarity, which Pope John Paul II raised to the status of a virtue in his Encyclical: Sollicitudo rei socialis (“Solicitude for social concerns”) 1988.” Dr. Kelley spoke beautifully and humbly about being honored and thrilled to receive the World Peace Prize, the meaning and purpose of which is fully aligned with his own religious view and Labor convictions.Fr. Mc Manus said:“Dr. Kelly is a most impressive man and is deeply respected in the AFGE. The National President of the AFGE, J. David Cox, Sr., attended the Presentation Ceremony and spoke very movingly about his admiration for Dr. Kelley.”
WTC Retired Firefighter Lloyd W. Stuart Engine Company 3
WAKE Wednesday, July 10, 2019 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM & 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Casey McCallum Rice South Shore Funeral Home 30 Nelson AvenueStaten Island, NY 10308 FUNERAL Thursday, July 11, 2019 11:00 AM St. Clare’s Church 110 Nelson Avenue Staten Island, NY 10308
All Off-Duty Members should attend in Class A Uniform.
Dear Friend of the Liturgy Office, The Office of Liturgy is inviting qualified liturgical musicians to apply for membership and service on the Archdiocesan Liturgical Music Commission. This Commission develops and promotes policies related to liturgical music in the Archdiocese of New York. It also serves as a point of contact for pastors and musicians seeking employmentt Application materials should be submitted before August 31.
Simon Coveney.Irish Times. Dublin. Monday, July 8, 2019. (Simon Coveney is Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs)
We are 115 days away from a potential no-deal Brexit. That leaves us with just in excess of 16 weeks to finish preparing, as best we can, for the serious disruption of the UK deciding to become a third country overnight after 46 years of EU membership. The chances of a disorderly Brexit have never been higher and the Government now considers the risk of this outcome on October 31st as “significant”.
Therefore, on Tuesday I will bring to Cabinet a detailed update on our contingency planning across all Government departments and State agencies. Once agreed by Cabinet we will lay the document before the Oireachtas and publish it in full ahead of a Dáil debate on Brexit preparations later this week.
This updated Contingency Action Plan will build on its predecessor published last December and the noteworthy cross-party effort that went into passing the Brexit Omnibus Act in March. It refines and improves on all the actions that were already in place for the March 29th and April 12th Brexit deadlines. This work will continue to be prioritised across Government in the weeks ahead.
The UK is, and will remain, the Republic’s closest neighbour and friend regardless of Brexit. At the same time, the State is, and will remain, a fully committed and proud member of the European Union.
In recent weeks we have observed and listened to some inaccurate utterances about ourselves, the EU and the backstop.
Of course people can have their own opinions, but they cannot have their own facts. The facts are that Brexit is a British decision, triggering article 50 on March 29th, 2017 was a British decision, and the red lines laid down for the negotiation are British red lines.
The Withdrawal Agreement was a hard-won deal between the EU and the UK; the “Backstop” is an integral part of that deal, and the Withdrawal Agreement will not be reopened.
The “Backstop” is a creative, negotiated solution to protect Northern Ireland, the part of these islands that will be most damaged by a no-deal Brexit, and in turn the peace process. It recognises the uniqueness of Northern Ireland. It is an insurance policy and we hope it doesn’t need to be used. But the “Backstop” gives us certainty now, certainty that is essential to protect stability on this island.
Any other arrangements agreed in the future must deliver the same outcome. The “Backstop” is much more than just avoiding physical infrastructure. It is also about avoiding related checks and controls, protecting North-South co-operation and the all-island economy, conditions that created tens of thousands of jobs, normalized relations on this island and sustained peace. The backstop is also about protecting the EU’s single market and the Republic’s place in it. The Irish people did not vote to leave the EU. The State has not caused this problem and we cannot be expected to compromise our place in the EU and our single market to fix it. The Republic accepts the decision of the UK and we have negotiated in good faith as part of the EU for an orderly Brexit. Our country has pulled together and will need to do so even more if UK politics decides on a disorderly Brexit. I make no apology for protecting the Republic of Ireland through Brexit.
Some claim Northern Ireland won’t hurt too badly in a no-deal scenario. To them I say read the stark warnings and bleak reports of the Northern Ireland civil service. Listen to farming and fishing groups as well as the diverse business lobby. They all strongly support the backstop.
Biggest dangers
We hope sensible evidence-based politics prevails over slogans in the UK, but we cannot bank on that. One of the biggest dangers Ireland faces in the weeks ahead is the “boy who cried wolf” effect, whereby people and business assume that because a disorderly Brexit was averted in March and April the same will happen in October. To assume this would be a serious error.
The Government isn’t the only player in this. Businesses will need to ensure that they are prepared. Major multinational firms have done so, as have many Irish companies, but given the amount of small and medium enterprises in Ireland, not to mention their exposure to the UK market, we need to see concerted efforts by them in the weeks ahead.
The Government has helped and will continue to help small businesses, but we need those same businesses to realize that they are exposed and need to act. There is a range of supports already in place and tomorrow’s updated Contingency Action Plan will detail how the Government will continue to offer supports over the next 115 days.
Our no-deal planning work with the European Commission will continue in the weeks ahead to achieve the shared twin goals of preventing a hard Border while also protecting the EU’s single market. However, no deal means we lose the “Backstop” and elements of the all-island economy are particularly vulnerable in this scenario.
