Posted by Jim on October 19, 2018
BRONX N.Y.C.F.D. FLORIAN’S KNIGHTS RUMBLE FOR RONALD
Florian’s Knights invites you to close out the riding season by helping those that need it most with the holiday season fast approaching. Please join in tomorrow, October 20, at the Toy Drive and Fundraiser for the Ronald McDonald House of the Hudson Valley and Rockland Homes for Heroes. Registration is from 9:30 – 10:45 am, KSU at 11:00 am. The police escorted ride will start at Ronald McDonald House of the Greater Hudson Valley, 80 Woods Road, Valhalla, NY 10595; ride end point is at Hudson Valley Harley Davidson, 33 Route 304, Nanuet, NY 10954. Donations are $20 per rider with unwrapped gift, $40 per rider with no toy and $10 per passenger. There will be raffles, 50/50, silent auction and live music by The Remedy. From 12:00 – 4:30, an after party with food and drinks will be open to all families. Admission is $10 for those 18 and over and children are free. Additional toy donations are encouraged. There will be free pumpkin painting and a costume party for the kids. Rain date 10/21. Weather and more info can be found at www.floriansknights.com.
FDNY HOLY NAME SOCIETY – MID-WEEK RETREAT
The FDNY Holy Name Society will be holding the Captain Timothy Stackpole Annual Mid-Week Retreat at the Bishop Molloy Retreat House in Jamaica, Queens. The retreat will start with dinner at 7 pm, Tuesday, October 23rd and end with breakfast on Thursday, October 25th. For this short period you will be away from the stress of everyday life and enjoy the peace of a safe and serene environment. We want you to come to relax, rest, and find some peace in the presence of God and each other. You may want to come for a “24”, stop by for the day, or enjoy a meal and spend some time with your friends in the Department. We pray that Tim’s life will be a sign of hope to you as you strive to continue on with your lives in these difficult times. Please call the retreat house at 718-739-1229 to make arrangements.
On Sunday, October 28, the FDNY Anchor Club is sponsoring a “Visit to Calvary Hospital” located at 1740 Eastchester Road, Bronx, NY. The visit will start at 10:00 am – 12:00 pm. Lunch will follow. The event will resume from 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm. The outline for the day includes visiting patients, distributing candy and flowers, and providing some light entertainment. All off-duty members and their families and friends are invited to participate. For additional information, please contact William Greco, Engine 68, at 917-575-1012.
Join the FDNY Foundation with friends and family at Madison Square Garden to see the New York Rangers take on the New York Islanders on Wednesday, November 21, at 7:00 pm. Discounted tickets are available to all FDNY members if you purchase tickets online via the link https://fevo.me/2P2aeOQ. A percentage of ticket sales purchased through the link will benefit the FDNY Foundation. For more information, please contact the FDNY Foundation at 718-999-0383 or email wippers@fdny.nyc.gov or gregory.insana@fdnyfoundation.org.
Posted by Jim on
“God bless John McDonnell, an English politician that Irish-Americans can love!
How great is John McDonnel, longtime supporter of equality, justice and peace in all of Ireland? Despite still some imperialistic/colonial leanings in England, McDonnell represents the future thinking of most English people—when they think at all about The North/Northern Ireland.
The Unionists/Loyalists/Protestants surely must realize this—despite the temporary boost Prime Minister May has given them because she depends on the DUP to cling to power.
The Unionists should concentrate on building up the Beloved Community in The North—based on equality, solidarity, and justice— because a United Ireland is now inevitable .”—Fr. Sean McManus
British shadow chancellor John McDonnell says he longs for united Ireland
Sam Lister, Press Association. Irish News. Belfast. Wednesday, October 17, 2018.
BRITISH shadow chancellor John McDonnell has told how he longs for a united Ireland, but insisted he recognises the democratic will of the people.
Mr McDonnell dismissed suggestions his dream would be realised as a result of the Irish backstop row that has stalled Brexit talks.
He went on to joke that he would put his application in for the Orange Order, however, if the next election led to a hung parliament.
The DUP’s ten MPs currently prop up Theresa May’s minority administration.
At a lunch with journalists in Westminster, he said: “I’m a republican. I long for a united Ireland, but I recognise democracy.
“Ireland will not be united on the basis of some contortions around the issue of the relationship with the EU.
“It will only be reunited on the basis of the popular support of the Irish people, and that’s what I respect.
“Nothing in these discussions should in any way cause any damage to the Good Friday Agreement and its implementation.”
He added: “There will be some curious relationships that come out of a general election.
“I can get my application for the Orange Order and order my bowler hat and sash for the marching season. You never know.”
He apologised in 2015 for previously saying the IRA should be honoured for its role in bringing the British government to the negotiating table.
Mr McDonnell said Labour “could be in government within months” and claimed a general election was increasingly likely because Conservative MPs “hate each other more than they hate us”.
“We are ready for that and we are prepared for that, staffed up, budgeted up, prepared, planned up, all ready for it whenever it happens,” he said.
He said that if there was balanced broadcast coverage, “I think we will pick up the necessary points to take us into government”.
Mr McDonnell compared Mrs May’s Brexit approach to Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler.
He said he expected the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier to make an offer to the UK for “fear of Boris and others”.
“It will be a fudge and it will be a delay and no matter how much Theresa May dresses herself up as Churchill when she comes back it will be Neville Chamberlain,” he said.
“It will be a Neville Chamberlain moment – peace in our time.”
He said Labour would support a deal that protected jobs and the economy.
“If it doesn’t, we will vote against it and call for a general election,” he said.
“If there isn’t a general election we will have the fallback position, we’ll look to see whether there’s another option there and it might well be a people’s vote of some sort.”
Mr McDonnell urged the government to plough money into children’s services in the upcoming budget, saying there was a £2 billion funding gap otherwise that must be filled or the “most vulnerable” youngsters would be “at risk”.
Posted by Jim on October 15, 2018
2018 FIRST RESPONDERS NIGHT
The UFA and MSG have partnered up for the 2018 First Responders Night with the New York Rangers. The Rangers are pleased to provide special access to tickets to first responders and their families and friends for Rangers First Responders Night, tomorrow, Tuesday, October 16th, as the Rangers host the Colorado Avalanche at 7:00 PM at Madison Square Garden. For savings off of individual game tickets, please visit https://www.fevo.com/edp/2018-First-Responders-Night-nM1xRta. Additionally, $10 from every ticket purchased through this link will be donated to the UFA Widows and Children’s Fund. For questions or more information, please contact Evan Doyle at evan.doyle@msg.com or 212-465-3915.
52ND ANNIVERSARY OF 23RD STREET FIRE
On Wednesday, October 17, 2018, at 1100 hours, the Department will commemorate the 52nd Anniversary of the 23rd Street Fire, at which twelve members of the Department made the Supreme Sacrifice on October 17, 1966. The ceremony will take place at the location of the fire, 4 East 23rd Street (corner of Broadway). All off-duty members and their families are invited to attend. Members are requested to attend in dress uniform.
SSG CHRIS ENGELDRUM FDNY VFW POST 12033
The SSG Chris Engeldrum FDNY VFW Post 12033 will be holding its monthly meeting on Tuesday, October 30th. The meeting will be held at Randall’s Island, Building 11 Cafeteria at 8:00 PM. All Military Veterans who have served overseas during time of war are eligible to join. For additional information, see the Post website at www.FDNYVFW.com.
MAYOR’S GRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
The Mayor’s Graduate Scholarship Program (MGSP) provides City government employees the opportunity to continue their education in graduate study. The program, administered by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), provides full or partial scholarships for graduate study in a wide variety of fields. To be eligible, you must be a full-time New York City government employee and have an undergraduate degree from an accredited college/university or will have completed your undergraduate degree by the fall of the academic year for which you are applying. You must remain a full-time City employee throughout your course of study. Applications are now being accepted for the 2019/20 academic year. All applications must be sent to Jacqueline Merveil, FDNY Registrar, Bureau of Training/Fire & Life Safety, 401 Murray Avenue, Ft. Totten, NY 11359, no later than Wednesday, November 28th, 2018. No extensions will be granted nor will any application be processed unless it goes through the Office of Fire & Life Safety screening. All applications must be typed. Information about the program including the application process and a list of participating institutions is available on the web at www.nyc.gov/mgsp, or you may contact Jacqueline Merveil at 718-281-8465
Posted by Jim on October 13, 2018
A letter to the Irish News, published 4th October, from Sean Bresnahan, calling for the Irish Republic to be mounted as the basis of a future United Ireland.
Today in Ireland, the top 1 percent are not paying their way — that being their rightful contribution to the tax base and public purse. This, notwithstanding the pillaging of the Troika, is fundamental to the financial shortages hollowing out our public services.
Under the Irish Republic, there must and will be a real change in this regard, for the notion of the rich freeloading off the people is an anathema to its fundamental basis: equal rights and equal opportunity, with the ownership of Ireland for the people of Ireland.
A ‘United Ireland’ that fails to uphold, though, the sovereignty and unity of the Irish Republic would stand to continue the counterrevolution, which has held us in its thrall since the days of the Treaty.
As a revised continuum of the current system, which elevates capital over the common wealth, such an arrangement would be outside of Republicanism. It would ensure that the standing order, whose primary function is to shield wealth from its obligations, would have forward status into a ‘new dispensation’.
Only a fresh start mounted on the 1916 Proclamation — which the constitutional process serves to usurp — can establish an Ireland as that now required. While constitutionalism offers the notion of change, it intends on preserving the established order on and into a supposed ‘new Ireland’, this at the expense of the Irish Republic.
There remains, then, no viable route to the Republic through the employ or internalising of established constitutionalism, of its political theory or its political means. There remains no other route to the Republic than to stand by its right to proceed — which is fundamental.
The constitutional process and the constraints it seeks to legitimise — which provide for the façade of change, not the means for its actuation — cannot deliver on equal opportunity in an Ireland belonging to her people, as was intended upon the formation of the Republic.
It cannot make good the grievous reality that the Ireland of today is an Ireland for the powerful, where ordinary people and communities must suffer that the rich and the privileged can go free. It is intended, instead, towards a further bulwark between the Irish Republic and vested power, whose roots lie in British imperialism. We must, thus, resist its allure.
A century forward from the founding of the Republic, there can be no disregarding of its political basis if we are seriously intent upon change — not if the Ireland we are set toward is to differ, in real terms, from that we already reside in.
Posted by Jim on
The Voice of the Irish in America
FREEDOM for ALL IRELAND BULLETIN
October 2018
A chairde:
FFAI ISSUES UPDATE
A-Bradley admits sent to rule with no clue about north- Karen Bradley, picked by Prime Minister Theresa May to administer British rule in the six counties, said she had no understanding of the north when picked for the post. Bradley made her frank admissions to House magazine, a weekly parliamentary magazine giving Westminster MPs puff piece interviews. Bradley confessed she had did not understand basic facts of the north’s politics, elections and deep-rooted issues saying it was all “a very different world from the world I come from.” She said:
“I didn’t understand things like when elections are fought in Northern Ireland people who are nationalists don’t vote for unionist parties and vice-versa… Unionist parties fight the elections in unionist communities and nationalists in nationalist communities… I was slightly scared of Northern Ireland because of my impression and images from 20 years ago…
I freely admit that when I started this job, I didn’t understand some of the deep-seated and deep-rooted issues.”
Bradley age 48, never visited the six counties until going to preside as British Secretary. Elected to Westminster in 2010, she learned little from debates, discussions of new laws, or party briefings and conferences in eight years. Like most British secretaries, she apparently views the north as a place to audition for some other post she would rather have in some other place she would rather be.
Bradley will judge the Legacy Consultation. Having admitted she had no understanding how elections are fought in the north, she seems to have no understanding of how British troops fought
there by shooting down civilians in places like Ballymurphy.
B-No deal Brexit and hard border disaster threatened -Due to exit the European Union on March 29,2019, Britain has offered no acceptable deal with the EU to avoid a disastrous hard border across Ireland. The biggest obstacle is Theresa May’s dependence on 10 DUP votes at Westminster. The Irish, British and EU want to avoid a hard border across the island. Without a deal, the six counties becomes an external EU border, requiring customs, immigration and tariff controls. There are 300 border crossings. The EU and Ireland have offered to permit the north to remain in the EU customs union. Customs, immigration controls etc could then begin in the Irish sea, meaning at entry points into England, Scotland or Wales. This would be beneficial for the north. However the DUP fears preferential regulations for the north as a slippery slope towards a united Ireland. They say they will topple Theresa May and veto any deal in which they are not exactly the same as England, Scotland and Wales. The EU will not offer permanent customs union preferences to Britain. Theresa May is now caught with Tory hardliners, led by Boris Johnson, calling for a hard Brexit and the DUP’s “blood red lines” against preferential arrangements for the north. French President Emmanuel Macron summed up the EU’s reaction to May’s latest proposals saying “Brexit is the choice of the British people, pushed by those who predicted easy solutions… Those people are liars.”
C-AOH Leaders meet Ballymurphy Massacre Campaign Families-
Saying they came “to pledge American support for Ballymurphy in its battle for truth and justice,” National AOH Vice-President Danny O’Connell, and National Secretary Jere Cole met Ballymurphy Massacre families on Sunday September 23rd. The AOH leaders were escorted by family members to the murder scenes and given a moving account of each killing. The fact-finding visit was also attended by Relatives for Justice. Danny O’Connell said:
“Both Jerry Cole and I have visited Ballymurphy before and were familiar with the events, but hearing the deep pain in the voices of family members as they spoke of the murders of their loved ones, while standing in the spots where these murders were committed, was deeply moving. Eleven innocent people including a priest and mother of 8 were murdered. Their families are entitled to truth about the killings of their loved ones”.
D-“Hooded Men” court fight on torture-The “Hooded Men” vowed to win their legal fight to brand Britain guilty of torture in British Courts, even as the European Court of Human Rights declined to review its 1978 judgment holding Britain guilty of inhuman and degrading treatment. The torture case goes back to August 9,1971,and the start of Internment. Men picked up without charge were used as human guinea pigs and subjected to sensory deprivation torture techniques. They were hooded, made to stand in strained positions for hours, deprived of sleep, water and food, alternated with beatings and threats. Some were made to run gauntlets etc. Ireland took a case on their behalf. The European Commission ruled that the British were guilty of torture. The European Court modified the finding to guilty of inhuman and degrading treatment. English tabloids ran headlines “Britain Not Guilty!” omitting that they had been convicted of inhuman treatment.RTE Irish television in June 2014, did a program ‘The Torture Files’ which uncovered proof Britain lied to the European Court and withheld files that Britain approved the torture techniques at the highest level of government. Ireland attempted to have the torture ruling reinstated based on this evidence but the European judges said it was too late. The men are already pursuing a separate legal case in the Belfast High Court and have won legal rulings that Britain subjected them to torture. That case is expected to end with Britain in the dock of its own Supreme Court in London.
BALLYMUPHY MASSACRE TOUR CALL TO ACTION
Carmel Quinn, whose brother John Laverty was a Ballymurphy Massacre victim, is coming to America to the AOH. She will speak on Sunday November 11th at a Philadelphia FFAI event organized by Gerry McHale, and Pearse Kerr; Monday in New Jersey organized by Sean Pender and Malachy McAllister; Babylon AOH Hall on Tuesday; going to Washington DC on the 14th-15th with event by Jim McLaughlin returning Thursday night 15th for event at O’Lunneys in Manhattan; Friday in Albany organized by John Levendosky and Dolores Desch. National VP Danny O’Connell will bring Carmel Quinn to Cleveland Ohio on Saturday before she is honored Sunday in the Bronx together with Congressman Joe Crowley and ECHO Editor Ray O’Hanlon. More events may be announced.
CONGRESSIONAL CALL TO ACTION
Last April sixteen Members of Congress joined a breakthrough bipartisan letter sponsored by the AOH to the British Ambassador about legacy truth.
Both the British Ambassador and colonial British Secretary Karen Bradley had to reply. FFAI is calling upon AOH members across the country to contact your local Senators and Congressmen, and ask will they make time to hear Carmel Quinn in Washington D.C. on November 14th or 15th.
CHRISTMAS APPEAL
The Christmas Appeal mailing will arrive shortly. The need is obvious. Today Britain still denies truth and justice to the families of victims murdered by the crown or loyalist agents in places like Ballymurphy. Brexit threatens catastrophe .They even refuse an Irish Language Act. Instead of opening the door to national freedom, Britain and the DUP want to nail that door shut. America can make a difference, but only if the AOH and LAOH, as the voice of the Irish in America, lead the way. Our donations to carefully chosen charities through monies raised by the FFAI Annual Christmas Appeal, alongside our political and educational campaigns, are a cornerstone of our FFAI initiative.
This year our National Officers have begun new FFAI education and information programs about British injustices in the six counties. They are implementing many of your ideas to enhance the Appeal. Our National Officers are asking for a commitment from everyone to participate and support FFAI with a donation or fundraising event. Please donate and help the AOH and LAOH make the difference. Help make Freedom for all Ireland, not an aspiration or endeavor but the reality for those Irish people still denied it!
FFAI MONTHLY BULLETIN
The monthly FFAI Bulletin is now available on the New York State and National AOH web site by clicking Reports and FFAI. We want to give you monthly updates on key events in the north with short analysis and explanation.
REMEMBERING IRISH PATRIOTS WITH PRIDE
Ruan O’Donnell, of Limerick University gave the Hibernian Lecture at Notre Dame: “America and the Irish Revolution 1916-22”.Professor O’Donnell says that our work for FFAI is part of a long history and without America no part of Ireland would be free! You can see this great Hibernian Lecture by going to the National AOH web site and clicking on it.
Please contact me at MGALVINESQ@AOL.COM.
Slan
Martin Galvin
