Posted by Jim on September 1, 2017
John McDonagh and Martin Galvin co-host.
RADIO FREE EIREANN will broadcast this Saturday September 2nd on WBAI 99.5 FM radio or wbai.org at 12noon New York time or 5 pm-6pm Irish time or listen any time after the broadcast on wbai.org/archives.
Tyrone AOH President and former Republican political prisoner GERRY McGEOUGH will explain the controversy surrounding the upcoming Hibernian Day Parade with special honors to families of the 1981 Hunger Strikers.He will also talk about the connection between the Irish and the Carribean and why a new statue to Irish patriot,Henry Joy McCraken is going up in Dublin rather than locations where he was born or executed by the British.
KATE NASH , the sister of one of the innocent Civil Rights Marches killed on Bloody Sunday in Derry will speak about why families of the Bloody Sunday victims are protesting at the Free Derry Museum
MICK O’BRIEN of the DRIUDS Irish rebel band will talk about their upcoming American tour and documentary on the band and why an appearance by the band in Belfast has sparked calls to stop government funds for festivals where Irish rebel music is played.
RADIO FREE EIREANN can be heard live in New York on 99.5FM or on wbai.org on Saturdays noon-1pm New York time or 5pm to 6pm Irish time or listen any time after the broadcast on wbai.org/archives (programs are listed in date and time order)
Radio Free Eireann is heard Saturdays at 12 Noon-1pm New York time on WBAI 99,5 FM and wbai.org
It can be heard at wbai.org in Ireland from 5pm to 6pm or anytime after the program concludes on WBAI.ORG/ARCHIVES
Posted by Jim on August 31, 2017
John Manley. Irish News. Belfast. Thursday, August, 31, 2017
A former senior Ulster Unionist who helped negotiate the Good Friday Agreement has claimed northern nationalists are not equal to unionists.
John Taylor, now cross-bench peer Lord Kilclooney, told The Irish News that a unionist majority meant nationalists could not claim equality – though they were entitled to equality of opportunity.
On a day when five Stormont parties voiced their support for an Irish language act, he defended his controversial remarks – originally made on Twitter – and said Sinn Féin was “dictating terms” with calls for standalone language legislation.
The former UUP deputy leader, MP, MEP and Stormont minister has previously called for Scotland to be re-partitioned in the event of a vote for independence.
His comments on equality are likely to fuel debate about a perceived lack of respect from unionists for Irish nationalist culture.
Speaking from his home in Armagh, Lord Kilclooney said he found Twitter’s 140-character limit “restrictive”, which meant tweets were “sometimes misconstrued”.
However, he said he was standing by his assertion that nationalists and unionists “are not equals”.
“What I’m saying is that all people, nationalists in particular, must have equal opportunity with everyone else,” he said.
“But when it comes to equality, which is the word used by Sinn Féin, they are a political minority in Northern Ireland.”
Asked whether it was merely an issue of meaning or one that had real political implications, Lord Kilclooney responded: “I get worried when Gerry Adams talks about equality – and I make the distinction between equality of opportunity and equality of political support.
“The distinction is to ensure that each individual in Northern Ireland is equal in life’s opportunities, whereas politically it means nationalism is a minority political force.”
He claimed Unionism had increased its majority in June’s general election because “Michelle O’Neill went to Loughgall and praised the IRA murder gangs”.
“That really roused the Unionists and they came in greater force and they voted DUP,” he said.
The former minister in the old Unionistbut they had to “recognize they are a minority and can’t dictate terms”.
Lord Kilclooney also said it was “increasingly evident in my opinion” that support for The Union among the Catholic population was growing.
Posted by Jim on August 30, 2017
“Several documents refer to the government’s difficulties combating the influential MacBride Principles, an anti-discrimination campaign in the USA that acted as guidelines for US companies doing business in Northern Ireland.”
Mark Devenport . BBC-NI. Belfast.Friday, 25 August 2016
…A series of documents from the 1980s reveal the Northern Ireland Office’s attempts to promote political dialogue against a backdrop of continuing IRA and loyalist violence.
They cover events in the 1980s running up to 1989.
The files come from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI).
They have been released under what is known as the 30/20 rule, which refers to the phased release of files that used to be kept secret for 30 years but will in future be released after 20 years.
Throughout this period the government struggled with how to address deprivation in areas like west Belfast, where Catholic male unemployment was running at 47%.
Dr. Phoenix came across one strongly worded document from April 1987 written by Sir Ken Bloomfield, the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service.
Difficulties
Sir Ken spoke of west Belfast’s “ghetto mentality” and alienation “from normal civilized behavior.”
He feared that if the government engaged in efforts to regenerate West Belfast, Unionists might respond “on the lines of “do you have to kill British soldiers… to benefit from a cornucopia of assistance?”
Despite these concerns, the government signed off on a major development programme for deprived areas in Belfast in 1988.
Several documents refer to the government’s difficulties combating the influential MacBride Principles, an anti-discrimination campaign in the USA that acted as guidelines for US companies doing business in Northern Ireland.
Secretary of State Peter Brooke wrote to cabinet colleagues that the implementation of what he called tough and radical new fair employment laws would be crucial to the success of the government’s Northern Ireland policies and to perceptions abroad, especially in the United States
Posted by Jim on
[“At no point in Unionist history has courageous political leadership been shown; instead, encouragement of insurrection and sedition.”]
Brian Feeney. Irish News. Belfast. Wednesday, August 30, 2017.
ANOTHER summer is over: another Unionist defeat. This time it’s bonfires. Statues and emblems will follow close behind.
Not at all you say. There will be plenty of bonfires next summer and statues and emblems will remain in place.
True, but that’s not the point. It’s part of a long slow inexorable process with many stops and starts.
The process is two-fold. First, Unionists are being compelled to obey the law and , secondly, they’re being compelled to recognize the existence of an Irish Ireland in the north.
Both changes are being achieved by legal means, unusual in The North.
Take the first point. Every place has its origin- myth, often invented to bolster self-confidence and esteem, rarely based on fact.
For example, heroic French resistance in the last war, though historical research indicates now the phrase ‘French resistance’ is an oxymoron.
There’s the origin -myth of modern Britain based on the ‘Dunkirk spirit’ and the D Day landings, even though they were a sideshow. The Red Army won the war while the Americans concentrated on the Pacific.
The Unionist origin -myth is based on a much more dishonorable claim. The origin of The North, given to Unionists in 1921[ by the 1920 Government of Ireland Act] was based on lawlessness, sedition and defiance of the British government.
As a result, their belief developed that they could do anything they liked and get away with it.
That was reinforced in 1974 when Unionists – political, paramilitary and civilian – defied the British government successfully once again.
Unionists passed laws that suited them, and openly disobeyed any laws they didn’t like, but the game’s up.
They tried a repeat unsuccessfully in 1985 with the Anglo-Irish Agreement and got nowhere.
They’re still at it. They profess loyalty to Britain but still, after 20 years, refuse to accept the Parades Commission and its rulings.
The difference is that without their own Administration they no longer control the legislation nor, more importantly, the courts, the police and the councils.
As usual, buoyed up by their origin -myth, they have been defying a whole range of laws with bonfires but they are literally hoisted by their own petard.
The bigger the bonfire the more likely Unionists are to be stopped legally. Belfast councillors led the way and next year all across The North dangerous intimidating towering bonfires will be blocked.
Oh yes, of course there will be some, but they will be the exception. It’s the beginning of the end.
On the second point, statues and emblems, Sinn Féin have craftily proposed erecting Nationalist versions rather than demolishing Unionist ones.
Across The North, councils have the power to do it – and they will. Exclusively “Unionist space “ will vanish. Unionists no longer own The North nor have the power to exclude any vestige of Irishness.
In all this, Unionist politicians have consistently played their graceless, cowardly role.
They’ve played on the gullibility of the wilder elements of their supporters as they always did, but at the same time stabbing them in the back.
Unionists publicly supported dangerous toxic bonfires but secretly voted against them, then denied they had.
At no point in Unionist history has courageous political leadership been shown; instead, encouragement of insurrection and sedition.
Before this year the worst recent example was during the infamous ‘fleg’ [flag] protests in 2013.
The terms of trade in politics have changed and Unionist politicians know it, but they won’t tell their supporters, and still use them in their traditional role as cannon fodder.
Voices like Rev Harold Good’s appealing for generosity and the need to discuss the future of Unionism and a Unionist society now faced with rapid demographic change, at best fall on deaf ears, at worst are received with vituperation.
Sammy Wilson’s latest appeal for direct rule, in itself no surprise from perhaps the most thoughtless Unionist MP, speaks volumes.
At bottom, it’s an appeal to restore some system of administration here which doesn’t involve sharing power with Nationalists.
Individual DUP [Democratic Unionist Party] members find it distasteful to have to share power with Sinn Féin but that party represents the overwhelming majority of northern Nationalists.
The reluctance to share power on equal terms with their fellow citizens is nothing new for Unionists.
They wouldn’t [even] share power with the SDLP [Social Democratic snf Labor Party] who were harmless.
Posted by Jim on August 29, 2017
WTC related death
Retired Firefighter Michael O’Hanlon
Engine Company 68
Wake:
Thursday, August 31st from 2pm-4pm and 7pm-9pm
Yorktown Heights Funeral Home
945 E Main Street
Shrub Oak, NY 10588
914-962-0700
Funeral:
Friday, September 1st at 10am
Church of the Assumption
920 1st Street
Peekskill, NY 10566
914-737-2071
All Off-Duty Members should attend in Class A Uniform.
Fraternally,
Gerard Fitzgerald, President
Robert Eustace, Recording Secretary