Posted by Jim on May 9, 2017
For over 160 years McSorley’s Old Ale House in Manhattan has stood sentry over all. A democratic haven for locals, tourists, working men, artists, poets, politicians, writers and dreamers, it’s seen out the Civil War, the Great Depression, two World Wars and September 11.
A glance at the walls tells the story of the rise and rise of the Irish here in the American century, from the teeming immigrant hordes to the White House. The Kennedys have all been though its doors, and allegedly so has Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. McSorley’s a storied bar, but its stories have rarely been this well told.
Author Rafe Bartholomew learned his craft early on, paying close attention to the gifted storytellers who frequented the place, people as skilled at an anecdote as they are at a good-natured insult.
Two and Two is his love song to the place that has represented much of the best of New York City life to him since his childhood. His father Geoffrey – known to one and all as Bart – has worked there continuously since 1972 and later introduced Rafe to men with unforgettable nicknames like Frank the Slob, Fat Sal, Johnny Wadd, Dead Eddie and the Buggerman.
Taken to the bar because he was too young to be home alone, his Saturday mornings were spent listening to the banter that helped shape his writer’s life. Some people find their home after a lifetime and a long journey, but Bartholomew was born into his, he writes.
We were here before you were born, the legend has it at McSorley’s, and for once it’s true. Bartholomew tells the story of the current owner, the legendary Mattie Maher, and how an act of kindness long ago in Co. Kilkenny changed the course of his life.
It’s another true story. Maher gave a lift to one of the Kirwans who then owned the bar during a trip back to Ireland in 1964.
“If you ever make it to New York I’ll give you a job at the bar,” the man told Maher.
In a matter of months the enterprising Maher presented himself at the front door, and within a decade and a half he owned the place (and still does).
To read about McSorley’s now is to read about New York and the Irish who have made their homes here for the last three centuries. As the bar resists change so too does it stand alone, bearing witness to all changes.
In Bartholomew’s book he reminds us of its greatness, and in a real sense, our own.
Posted by Jim on
by JOHN MANLEY
09 May, 2017 01:00
Arlene Foster: Unionism needs votes to counter nationalism’s surge
DUP leader Arlene Foster and deputy leader Nigel Dodds with former special adviser John Robinson at yesterday’s campaign launch. Picture by Hugh Russell
NATIONALISM’S electoral resurgence makes it essential for the DUP to maximise its vote in next month’s Westminster election, Arlene Foster has said.
Speaking yesterday at the launch of her party’s general election campaign, the Fermanagh-South Tyrone MLA said June 8 was not a border poll but was “inevitably a referendum on Northern Ireland’s place in the UK”.
Mrs Foster’s party is hoping to successfully defend its eight Westminster seats, while also targetting potential gains in South Belfast and South Antrim.
The DUP has unilaterally stepped aside in Fermanagh-South Tyrone, where former Ulster Unionist leader Tom Elliott is defending the seat he won two years ago with the help of a unionist pact.
However, hopes that a more extensive unionist pact could be brokered ahead of next month’s election have been dashed with a joint statement from Mrs Foster and her Ulster Unionist counterpart Robin Swann saying they were unable to “conclude any formal pact arrangements on this occasion”.
The two leaders have pledged to continue to discuss better unionist co-operation beyond next month’s election.
The DUP will contest all but one of the north’s 18 constituencies on June 8, with former MLA Emma Little-Pengelly standing in South Belfast. Accountant Diane Forsythe will run in South Down, where DUP veteran Jim Wells has been his party’s Westminster candidate on the past four occasions, while Paul Girvan will seek to unseat Danny Kinahan in South Antrim.
Mrs Foster said the March 2 assembly election was a “wake-up call for many”.
“At this election we must sound the alarm bells and make sure that each and every person in Northern Ireland is aware of what is at stake – the choice is clear,” she said.
“This Westminster election gives unionism an early opportunity to put things right and to get back on the right track.”
The DUP leader said that to in order to redress nationalism’s gains, unionism needed to “think and to act strategically”.
She described the DUP as “the voice for unionism” and the party who secure the best post-Brexit deal for the north.
“Our job now is not to re-fight old battles but to use our mandate and our influence to get the best deal for Northern Ireland,” she said.
“The United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union inevitably brings with it challenges as well as opportunities – whichever way people voted in the referendum last June, and whatever concerns they may still have we can all unite to ensure Northern Ireland’s interests are promoted.”
Responding to questions from journalists, the DUP leader said she had not ruled out the possibility of an Irish language act.
Mrs Foster has previously insisted her party would never agree the nationalist demand.
She indicated yesterday that she was more amenable to an Irish language act, as long as there was also respect for the Ulster Scots, the Orange and the British cultures.
“If there are to be moves forward in terms of cultural tolerance and respect then it has to be in the context of doing that and we are very clear in relation to that,” she said.
Deputy leader Nigel Dodds said more important issues, such as health, education and public service, need to be addressed first.
“We are ready to go into government today,” he said. “It is Sinn Féin putting up red lines for issues that for most people of Northern Ireland are not the most important issues.
“Sinn Féin is holding (power-sharing) up for narrow partisan reasons. That’s a tragedy for Northern Ireland and a disgrace for Sinn Féin.”
Posted by Jim on May 8, 2017
by Connla Young
A member of an IRA unit who survived a deadly SAS ambush at Loughgall which claimed the lives of eight republicans has broken his silence for the first time on the 30th anniversary.
The republican, who does not want to be named, was one of three IRA members who escaped the SAS ambush in the sleepy Co Armagh village that night.
The IRA man, who we have called Scout One, describes in remarkable detail how he and another member of the IRA team came face to face with the SAS but lived to tell the tale.
A third IRA man, Liam Ryan, also escaped the lethal ambush.
In an unprecedented interview the former IRA man provides the inside story on the republican movement’s single largest loss of life during the Troubles.
Scout One also reveals that members of the IRA unit debated whether to go ahead with the attack at the roadside but at the last minute decided to proceed with the plan.
While plenty has been written about the Loughgall ambush in the intervening three decades, little detail of what actually happened in the village has ever been made public.
Eight IRA men and civilian Anthony Hughes, who unknowingly drove into the area, were shot dead in the ambush which took place 30 years ago today.
There have been suggestions that informers provided information to the security forces about the IRA’s plans.
However, last year a member of a British army intelligence unit claimed in a book that they found out about the planned Loughgall attack after spotting a known IRA man scouting diggers to steal in the area.
Some now believe that a combination of many threads of information allowed the security forces to conclude that Loughgall barracks was a target and to be ready and waiting to take out the IRA team.
On the night of the ambush the IRA had planned to storm the police station with guns and a bomb placed in the bucket of a digger driven by Declan Arthurs, who was from Galbally, near Dungannon.
The unit had hoped to reach the station as three RUC officers were expected to clock off duty.
Sources say the IRA had been watching the police station in the run up to the attack and had established the officers left the station at the same time each night.
The plan was to kill the RUC men and demolish the station immediately on entering the village.
Scout One reveals how he drove with other members of the IRA team into the village from the Portadown direction, passing the police station to a point at the opposite end of the village.
After the attack was carried out the IRA team was supposed to make its way to him and another IRA man at the pick-up point where they were to be driven from the area to a safe house.
“We were to sit there until the boys came back around again, until the bomb went off and they had shot it (the station) up,” he said.
“The point of the operation was to get in before they left, to take them (the RUC men) out.”
He explained that Arthurs unexpectedly appeared at the pick-up point in the digger minutes after the two getaway vehicles.
The other IRA men arrived quickly behind him in the Toyota Hiace.
It later emerged that Arthurs had spotted the police car which was supposed to be in the RUC station while he drove the bomb into the village and “decided not to go ahead” with the attack.
Scout One says that after having a discussion about what to do a second member of the IRA team, who also survived and is referred to as Scout Two, drove Arthurs back into the village in another car.
“They were away for three or four minutes and there was still a discussion about what to do,” he said.
Scout One said he was then told by Paddy Kelly, who the most senior IRA member in east Tyrone, to drive into Loughgall and bring the other two IRA men back after a collective decision was taken to go ahead with the planned attack.
The survivor says that when he located Declan Arthurs and the other scout they were sitting on the roadside monitoring the police station, which at this time (unknown to them) was manned by six SAS men and three officers, including two members of the specialist Headquarters Mobile Support Unit (HMSU) and a local officer in case a member of the public arrived at the barracks door.
He said that although Arthurs had a bad feeling about the operation he didn’t question the request to carry out the attack.
It is understood the 21-year-old was concerned by the lack of activity by members of the public in Loughgall on what was a sunny May evening.
“He said at the start ‘there is no point in doing the operation, the target is away’,” said Scout One.
In total 24 SAS men had been strategically deployed at different points around the station and had set up a ‘kill zone’.
Republicans say this also involved establishing a three point triangular formation designed to eliminate everybody in the ‘kill zone’ while reducing the risk of friendly fire.
The SAS men were armed with an array of automatic weapons including two general purpose machine guns (GPMGs) located within sight of the police station.
Scout One says that once the decision was taken to go-ahead with the attack, little time was lost.
“We came back to the point where the rest of the boys were and Paddy Kelly said we are going to go in and blow the barracks up and fire a few rounds,” he said.
“Declan went into the digger and the boys followed him.”
After sweeping past the station one more time, the IRA team turned both the digger bomb and van before returning to the front of the police station.
Around this time it is believed Arthurs used a lighter to ignite a fuse leading to the bomb and aimed it at the heavy security doors of the station.
It is believed members of the IRA team travelling in the Hiace van leapt from the vehicle and sprayed the station with gunfire.
The SAS also opened fire from various vantage points, including from within the station itself.
After coming under heavy fire, it is believed Arthurs collided with a blast wall at the entrance of the barracks before jumping from the digger.
Seconds later the bomb exploded causing extensive damage to the station and injuring some of those inside.
An unarmed Arthurs, who was wearing a white jacket, sweatshirt and blue jeans, was shot multiple times a short distance away as he tried to escape along a nearby laneway which led to a locked gate.
His body was later found with a lighter in his hand.
While the attack was taking place Scout One and Two waited a short distance away at the pick-up point.
“We were at the pick-up point and then there was a rip as the bomb went up,” he said.
“There was a rattle of stuff (gunshots) and then there was a rattle of heavy stuff (British army GPMGs)
“I tuned to (Scout Two) and said: ‘They are giving her some rattle here.’
“It went on and on and on, for what seemed like three or four minutes, it was fierce firing.
“Then out in the distance I saw a helicopter and I turned to (Scout Two) and said ‘there’s something badly wrong here’.
“At this stage we were waiting on them (the IRA team) to come down and get away.”
The IRA man says that when members of his unit failed to appear he and his colleague became concerned.
He said as they made their way into Loughgall in separate vehicles to see what was happening they came face to face with members of the SAS ambush team close to the village.
“Another couple of cars with civilians came behind us and two SAS men jumped out and they turned their weapons on us,” he said.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen.”
The IRA man said several other SAS members lept from behind a wall and ran towards the bomb team’s Hiace van, which was a short distance away.
Scout One said that during the incident an SAS soldier stood two to three feet in front of his vehicle and pointed an M16 Armalite at him.
“I know for a fact to this day, when you look in someone’s eyes, they knew we were involved.
“The other boy had a gun on (Scout Two).
“They knew we were involved. They had observed us for 20 minutes before it.”
He said that as he sat “frozen” in the cross hairs of the SAS man’s sights he could see the blue Hiace van and the bodies of his IRA colleagues lying around it.
He said that while the SAS men he encountered were calm, others were “dancing” around the van.
“At that stage there was an odd isolated shot,” he said.
“I knew they were wiped out at the time.
“I could see the carnage down at the van.
“At the same time it was a shock to know everybody was away.
“The boys (SAS men) who were with us were in control, but the boys around the van were in a frenzy.”
The IRA man believes there was ample opportunity to arrest the bomb team.
“I have no doubt it was a shoot to kill operation, it was a Turkey shoot,” he said.
“They could have rammed the van, the boys were sitting in a vulnerable situation, crammed in the van.”
“There was a ten-minute window from the lads going through the village the first time to when they went back in again,” he said.
“They let the bomb through and they waited ten minutes because they wanted them in the kill zone,”
“There was ample time for arrests to be made.”
Scout Two said that within minutes a large number of ‘regular’ British soldiers jumped from the helicopter he had spotted earlier and made their way to the road where he was sitting in his vehicle.
He said the SAS men then “disappeared”.
“We sat there frozen,” he said.
“There was an auld pair behind us and at this stage there was five or six Brits around.
“I swore I was going to be dragged out.”
Scout One said that suddenly he, the elderly couple and the other IRA men were ordered to turn their vehicles and leave the area by a British soldier.
“I turned the vehicle thinking we were going to get emptied (shot),” he said.
Having just survived the encounter with the SAS, both IRA men made their escape in different directions.
Scout One revealed that despite his near shave he has no regrets about driving towards the ‘kill zone’ in a bid to rescue members of the bomb team after they were ambushed.
“If someone had made a go for it, I could have lifted him,” he said.
“And I am glad I did that.
“I don’t think I could have lived with myself if I had not.”
Seconds after escaping the area Scout Two met Liam Ryan on a country road a short distance away and told him what had happened.
Ryan had been in radio contact with the bomb team seconds before the attack.
He was later killed in an attack claimed by loyalists more than two years later at his bar in Moortown, Co Tyrone.
At the time of his death he was one of the most senior IRA men in Co Tyrone and sat on the organisation’s ‘Brigade Staff’.
Scout One says he doesn’t know why he and the other IRA man were allowed to leave the area but believes the elderly couple who were also being held at the roadblock may have been viewed by the soldiers as witnesses.
“I would say a big part of it was the auld pair,” he said.
“They just had their weapons trained on us, they never even looked at the other boys running down the road.”
Scout One’s feelings of relief at escaping death were quickly dampened when seconds later he drove straight into an RUC checkpoint a short distance away.
“Again I was stopped and taken out of my vehicle,” he said.
“I had a load of clothes belonging to the lads in the back.
“I said to myself ‘this is it this time’.
“They asked me what I was doing in the part of the country and I told them I was working.
“I gave them a false name.
“I had false plates and they had to be coming up wrong (in the police computer system).”
“I thought I had rode our luck the first time.
“I was waiting to be cuffed.”
Despite his worst fears he said that after about five minutes an RUC officer told him he was free to leave.
“I got into the vehicle again very slowly, I didn’t know what was happening, was I being set up for something?”
The IRA man, who had by this time slipped the net for a second time, then made his way to a safe house.
He confirms that Scout Two and Liam Ryan both made their way to Monaghan, while several other members of the IRA unit who were in the wider area, but not in the village, also managed to escape.
He said that after the Loughgall ambush the IRA in Tyrone reorganised and went on to kill eight British soldiers using a roadside bomb between Ballygawley and Omagh in August 1988.
While he said he had no involvement in that operation it brought about a sense of settling a score.
“It was eight for eight,” he said.
The Loughgall ambush represented the largest single loss of life suffered by the IRA during the Troubles.
Among those killed was Paddy Kelly, the IRA ‘Officer Commanding’ in East Tyrone at the time.
Other senior republicans to die included Jim Lynagh and Padraig McKearney, who were both seasoned veterans of the IRA’s campaign.
Scout One, who is no longer involved with the republican movement, said that despite the passing of 30 years, he still thinks about what happened at Loughgall.
“I still think about it every day,” he said.
“You always felt something hanging over you.
“There was nothing resolved, there was no conclusion.”
Posted by Jim on
Chris Fogarty with more on his claims about a mass grave in Dungannon, Co Tyrone.
The live-and-let-live people of Dungannon and district are as powerless today as their murdered relatives were during An t-Ár Mór (Nakba/Slaughter/Holocaust) of 1845-1850 when more than half of Britain’s army removed Ireland’s abundant foods at gunpoint.
When a courageous Dungannonite recently informed me of the finding of multiple human remains alongside Carland Road, Dungannon, between Drumglass High School and South Tyrone Hospital I contacted Tyrone and other northern newspapers urging the obvious first step; a publicly-visible layout of the perimeters of the two or three known mass graves of the old Dungannon workhouse to ensure that these, at least, were not affected. Community leaders could then proceed with an investigation of the source of the remains.
So I thought. The local councilor and reporters who wrote and phoned did not publish my letter but did act mystified; all but The Pensive Quill which did publish. Now it is clear why the perimeters of the known mass graves were not visibly-marked to protect them; the desecrated remains were Within those historically-significant mass graves.
Thus, their obliteration of a mass grave that was filled during a genocide serves to conceal the genocide itself. Has their desecration of Dungannon’s main mass grave of An t-Ár Mór completed the job, at least in Dungannon, of erasing it from history?
The intelligent comments of a Ms. Kilgallen on The Pensive Quill enabled me to acquire the 1910 Ordnance Survey Map showing the footprint of the Dungannon workhouse within its grounds (totaling 6-acres). After printing it, I accessed present-day Dungannon on google maps; both the streets map and the satellite map. Both are clear. The desecration was reported to be beside Carland Road between Drumglass High School and the South Tyrone Hospital.
So I asked google maps for the route between that school and hospital. It mapped two possible routes, one of 443 feet, the other of 475 feet; both walks of two minutes, and both are Through The Old Workhouse Grounds Where, As Workhouse Policy Islandwide, Deep Pits Were Dug, Into Which The Bodies Were Piled; with only a thin layer of soil over the topmost bodies.
A grave moral crime is underway; and it is abetted by the institutions of Dungannon town and Tyrone and other northern counties. Please take your own stands along with others against genocide and its cover-up.
Exercise whatever shred of power you have; demonstrate some respect for justice and for your own tragic history. Install (or get official permission for Mary and me to install) a reverent, truthful monument over the yet-undesecrated remnant of the Dungannon workhouse mass grave.
Perhaps concealment of genocide was to be expected, seeing that the same entities had similarly winked at the murderers of twenty-nine in Omagh much more recently. MI5/FBI Agent Patrick “Ed” Buckley had spent years in Ireland until demobilized the evening of 15 August 98. He had previously gotten the news media to falsely report IRA involvement in the Langert family murders in a Chicago suburb. Agent Buckley had assumed investigatory authority of that atrocity and had prohibited the police from pursuing their sole suspect, the murderer David Biro (whose 357 Magnum murder weapon belonged to FBI Agent Lewis who suffered no repercussions). There is no official nor new media interest in my offer of documented evidence of Agent Buckley’s earlier crimes that were repeated in Omagh; and I know why.
The same pattern of cover-up has transformed An t-Ár Mór (Holocaust) of 1845-1850 into a false “famine/gorta mor” slander of those murdered. Here-below is further proof that it was genocide; not famine. The people of Tyrone had produced an abundance of non-potato food crops in those years. There was no shortage of food; no famine.
Also, between 1900 and 1910 the British government bought out its landlords of Ireland (at above-market prices) and those not already domiciled in England, repatriated. Until the 1960s my father and all of his neighbors in Co. Roscommon (and the rest of Ireland?) were forced annually to amortize the landlords’ pay-offs.
Digitized copies of The (London) Times reported increased English landings of Irish food during the Holocaust; thus Christine Kinealy and other “famine” writers have ceased denying them. What is now kept concealed is the food removal and the evidence available within Ireland of that non-potato foodstuff. Below you will learn of Tyrone’s abundant foods while its people starved.
This is also a test to learn how adamantly the Tyrone and other news media conceal a genocide of their people. By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them.
1) Below are the names of 344 Tyrone townlands that contained processors of non-potato foods.
2) The first line of armed food removers were the constabulary totaling 12,900 island-wide. Their arms consisted of a short carbine with a spring-bayonet. The mounted constabulary also carried a brace of pistols in front of their saddles.
3) When the constabulary met significant resistance from the people, the local militia was summoned to enforce the removal. “Tyrone: During the 1st quarter of 1847 the 755-strong (650 pvts.) Royal Tyrone militia was headquartered in Caledon. Its Commander, The Earl of Caledon, signed “Caledon,” residing in Caledon, near the post town of Caledon, Co. Tyrone. Its Adjutant, William Lundie.” (WO Records, National Archives, Kew, Surrey).
4) When combined constabulary/militia forces met significant resistance the nearest army regiment was summoned. During those years (in approximate sequence) the 44th of Foot was available from Newry, the 92nd from Belfast and Enniskillen, 39th from Belfast and Enniskillen, 1st from Newry, 9th from Newry, 13th from Belfast, 35th from Enniskillen, and 39th from Belfast and Newry. (WO Records, National Archives, Kew, Surrey).
They removed livestock and meats; and other Tyrone crops grown and harvested by its people. Proof of Tyrone’s abundant foods are listed here-under.
Exhibit D2: Details of Exhibit D. (From my book))
These Ordnance Survey map data show the extent of non-potato foods in Ireland prior to the Holocaust. Each survey sheet covered 4 miles North/South by 6 miles East/West. See Exhibit D1 to learn that each county’s survey starts at the western side of its northernmost point and works eastward in 4-mile “thick” belts to the eastern boundary of the county upon completion of which it resumes at the western boundary, repeating the process until completion at the east side of its southernmost point. Bolded sheet nos. below indicate the start of a new West-to-East line of sheets. Before starting below see how the map of Co. Donegal (Exhibit D1) relates to Co. Donegal below. The reader can ascertain the location of each place-name below by its relative position between the survey’s start and end. In all cases “corn” means grain. “Shambles” were then market stalls for meat and other foods and goods. The following abbreviations are used: c = corn mill, k = corn kiln, f = flour mill, t = tuck mill, m = mill, b = brewery, d = distillery, wnd = windmill, c.store is where some grain was stored prior to shipment, store = storehouse, p = pound (impoundment of livestock), m = malt kiln (where grain that was wetted to induce germination is redried for use in brewing or distilling. Pounds and woolen mills are significant in that they indicate the local existence of livestock as a rich source of food. Map sheets show “0” if no such facilities exist on it. Map sheets are separated by the divider “|”.
TYRONE: 68 Sheets. Data as of 1833,34.
Sheet 1: old m in Magheramason|2:c in Milltown, and in Tullyard, k in Loughneas, old m in Coolermoney|3: c in Bunowen, old m in Binnelly|4: 0|5: 2c in Leckpatrick, c, 2k Knockabrack, b in Strabane, p in Woodend|6: 2c in Rousky, c in Aghafad, m in Ballynamallaght|7: c & k, t, p in Stranagalwilly|8: old still house (2) each isolated and high on mountain side|9: c in Clady, and in Donnygowen, k in Cladyhood|10: k in Edymore, in ligfordrum, in Knockiniller, and in Sessagh or Gallan|11: c in Glencoppogagh, and in Eden, 3k in Castledamph, 2k in Lower Drumnaspar, k in Meenagorp, in Meenagarragh, in Aghalane, and in Lisnacreaght|12: c & k in Cranagh, 4k, p in Glenroan, 4k in Lower Barnes, 2k in Glenchiel, k in Meenacrane, in Upper Barnes, in Quiggy, and in Garvagh|13: c, p in Sperrin, k in Carrowoaghtra|14: k in Croagh|15: malt k in Laughtfoggy, t in Mournbeg|16: c & k in Castlesessagh, 2c, p in Magheracreggan, c in Crew Upper, k in Killeen, p in Castlederg, and in Ballyfolliard|17: c, 2k in Ballyrenan, c in Killymore, k, p in Newtownstewart, k in Urbalreagh, and in Ballykeel, t in Birnaghs|18: c & k in Glenmacoffer, c, d in Gorteen, 2k in Dunbunrower, and in Meenadoo, k, p in Beltrim, k in Droit, in Liscabble, in Learden Lower, and in Lenamore|19: c, 3k in Teebane, c & k in Aghnamirigan, 4k in Gorticashel, 2k in Carnanransy, t in Attagh, k in Garvagh, in Drumlea, in Fallagh Lower, in Gorticashel Upper, in Altacamcosy, in Liggins, in Oaghmnicroy, and in Aghascrebagh|20: malt k in Broughderg|21: 0|22: k in Meenanoran, in Meenafergus, in Tullynashane, in Crighshane, and in Crighdenis|23: k in Gortnagross, and in Binnawooda, old malt k in Shanaghy, p in Killeter|24: c & k in Drumleggagh, c in Binnawooda, 2k in Meencargagh, k in Ardbarren Upper, in Aghasessy, and in Archill, m in Coolnacrunaght|25: c in Lisnacreaght, 2k in Envagh, k in Byturn, in Legland, in Cashty, in Beragh, and in Castletown|26: c, 3k in Dunbreen, c in Golan, and in Killins, 2k in Eskeradooey, k in Castleroddy Glebe, in Tirmurty, and in Glenawna|27: 2k in Formil, k, old k in Creggan, k in Crockanboy, old k in Aghalane|28: c in Corvanaghan|29: c, p in Gortin, c in Corchoney, in Knockaleery, and in Kildress, m in Tamlaght, p in Drumnacross Lower, and in Cookstown|30: w in Mullaghwotragh|31: c in Ballinderry|32: old k in Scraghy|33: c in Drumown, 2k, m in Coolavannagh, k in Drumnamalra, in Carrick, in Drumscragh, in Drummenagh, Legphressy, and in Carony, m in Drumquin|34: 2c, k in Gillygooly, c & k in Dunwish, c in Cloghog, 2k in Dressoge, k in Claraghmore, in Corlea, and in Cavanacaw Upper|35: b in Omagh, c & k in Ballynamullan, k in Killybrack, in Boheragh, in Crosh, in Lisboy, in Recarson, in Deroran, and in Faccary, p in Campsie (E of Omagh)|36: c & k in Faccary, and in Tiroony, c, 4k in Bracky, c, 2k in Loughmacrory, 3k, t in Drumnakilly, k in Mullanbeg, in Sulton, and in Granagh, p in Merchantstown Glebe|37: c in Killey, t in part of Gortindarragh, old c, old k in Tremoge|38: c in Mullynure, in Desertcreat, and in Tullywittan, m in Coolnahavil, p in The Sand Holes/Killyneedan, and in Tullyhog|39: c & k in Templereagh, c in Leck, and in Carnan, 2m in Edernagh|40: 0|41: c & k in Knocknahorn, k in Lettery, in Corbally, in Curraghamulkin, in Derrynaseeer, in Oughterard, in Aghadarragh, and in Dressoge|42: c in Tattysallagh, and in Shannaragh, 4k in Cornavarrow, and in Aghadulla/Harper, 2k in Tattymulmona, k in Drumlish, in Corrasheskin, in Knockaraven, in Mullenboy, in Aghadarragh, in Garvagh, in Aghadulla, in Blacksessagh, and in Fallaghearn|43: c & k in Ranelly, c in Moylagh, 2k in Dervaghroy, k in Tullyrush, in Donaghanie, in Raw, in Tattykeeran, and in Bancran, m in Blackfort, and in Edenderry|44: c & k in Cloghfin, c, p in Beragh, c in Foremass Lower, k, p in Sixmilecross, k in Ballintrain, and in Drumlester, old k in Derroge, p in Radergan|45: c in Dernaseer, k in Galbally|46: c & k in Lisnagowan, c in Crossdermot, b, m in Donaghmore, 2m in Drumreagh Otra, m in Dungorora, and in Kilmore|47: f in Gortnaskea, and in Gortin, m, p in Clintycracken, m in Meenagh, old m in Back Upper|48: 0|49: c, 2k in Tummery, c & k in Scallen, and in Shanmullagh East, 3k in Feglish, and in Esker, 2k in Moorfield, k in Drum, in Shanmullagh West, Brackagh, in Doocrock, in Lettergash, in Lisdoo, in Gargadis, in Moorfield, in Aghalarragh, in Aghee, in Cornamuck, in Newpark, in Dergany, in Crossan, in Keenoge, in Drumskinny, and in Glasmullagh North|50: c, 2k in Drumconnis, and in Rakeeranbeg, 3k in Rahony, 2k in Drumskinny, in Aghnamoe, in Lissaneden, in Meenagar, and in Cornamucklagh, k in Gardrum, in Ballyard, in Curly, in Glengeen, in Drumderg Glebe, in Tattycor, in Tullyclunagh, and in Stranisk, m in Tannagh More, p in Aghadarragh, and in Dromore|51: c & k in Seskinore, c in Lackagh, k in Letfern, and in Tatnadaveny, 2m in Kilnaheery, m in Belnagarnan, in Garvallagh, and Raveagh, p in Tamlaght|52: c & k in Artcloghfin, c in Garvaghy, k in Roscavey, and in Fallaghearn, p in Ballygawley|53: c in Farriter, m in Ballyreagh|54: d, p in Dungannon, c SE of Dungannon, wnd SW of Dungannon|55: old m in Tempanroe|56: 2c, k, p south of Trillick, c, 2k in Corlea, and in Golan Glebe, c & k in Drumsonnus, in Cordromedy, c, p in Corkragh, c in Derry, 2k in Cabragh, k, p in Cloncandra Glebe, k in Relaghguinness, in Carran, in Dreigh, and in Effernan Glebe|57: c & k in Tattymoyle Upper, 4k in Lifford, 3k in Moneygar, k, sheep fold in Killyblunick Glebe, k in Greenan, in Derrylea, in Carryglass, and in Stranisk|58: m in Carntallbeg, p in Aghintain, in Killaney Lower, and in Clogher Tenements|59: c, p in Augher, c in Cleanally, in Roughill, in Lisdoart, and in Ballygawley, m in Annagarvey, t in Culnaha, p in Durless White|60: c, p in Aughnacloy, c in Lisconduff, and in Mullyroddan|61: c in Kilnacart, in Brossley, in Syerla, and in Drummond, m in Benburb, p in Derrylappen|62: c in Moy, m in Tullydowey|63: m in Corcreevy demesne|64: c, m in Fivemiletown, m in Nurchossy Scotch|65: 0|66: 0|67: c in Dyan, f, p in Caledon|68: 0| End (Mary and I used magnifying glasses in perusing the Ordnance Survey Maps but are bound to have missed some mills, etc.)
Posted by Jim on May 6, 2017
By Brian Feeney (for Irish News)
Last Saturday’s formal statement of the EU’s negotiating position is of
enormous importance for Ireland north and south.
While Enda Kenny has been careful to avoid any public display of
triumphalism Irish government sources are cock-a-hoop at the brilliant
success of Ireland’s diplomatic offensive led by their man in Brussels,
Declan Kelleher, ambassador to the EU and one of Dublin’s most important
diplomats.
Donald Tusk, the European Council president stated in shorthand three
priorities for negotiation: people, money and Ireland. That is a
formidable reaffirmation and endorsement of Ireland’s nationalism but
also in practical terms places a satisfactory political and economic
outcome for the island at the centre of negotiations with the
floundering British.
You can gauge its importance because Ian Og and Jeffrey Donaldson were
both out of the traps instantly to say it wasn’t important and made no
difference to anything, proof if proof were needed of just how
significant Tusk’s statement and the unanimity of the EU 27 were. The
unionist reaction is also an indication of how closely wedded the DUP
MPs are to the idiotic catastrophe that Brexit is for the whole of the
UK but particularly for the north. Why are you not surprised?
The support for the Irish government’s position that the north will
rejoin the EU if we vote for Irish unity cannot be underestimated. It
changes the question. From now on there is an attractive option for
everyone here. It’s not, would you vote for a united Ireland, an entity
so far unspecified, but would you vote to join the EU? As Britain sinks
further into the mire in the 2020s and disaster overwhelms the north’s
agriculture industry when the Conservatives sacrifice farming for
sweetheart deals with the motor manufacturing industry there remains an
alternative.
What the Irish government has succeeded in doing is to separate the
north from the UK negotiating position. Only here do people have the
automatic option to vote to join the EU, an option the Scots would love
to have. The bottom line is it’s a crushing defeat for the Unionist with
a capital ‘U’ concept that all parts of the UK leave the EU together.
The north can return any time it wants. A referendum here is different
from anywhere else in the UK. Let that sink in.
Already the disastrous impact of what Lord Heseltine has called the most
stupid decision Britain has made since the 1930s has begun to take
effect. The newly resurrected Tony Blair, returning Lazarus-like to the
political fray, points out that the reason the pound is down 15 per cent
is because international finance decided immediately last summer that’s
how much poorer Britain will be as a result of the Brexit policies the
gormless Theresa May is pursuing. That 15 per cent is their cold
calculation, not whether international financiers agree or disagree with
Brexit. They don’t care.
Saturday’s EU statement of guidelines puts the tin lid on the gloating
of the Paisleys and Donaldsons that northern nationalists are trapped in
an isolated UK fenced off by a hard border. Are these guys nuts? Do they
really imagine destroying what passes for an ‘economy’ here is a good
idea or even something worth gambling away just to get one over on
nationalists?
The question is, how many unionists will agree with them that it’s a
good idea to sink into a diminishing, xenophobic, Empire 2.0 fantasy
Little England in squalid isolation or opt for a modern, outward-looking
European-wide society with human rights and equality for all guaranteed
by law?
As EU subsidies which underpin the peace process and keep agriculture
here viable vanish after 2020 and Conservative cuts destroy the NHS and
welfare system it may well occur to unionists across the board that when
they run out of grass to eat it might be a good idea to vote to join the
EU.
Of course by that time it may also have dawned on Theresa May and her
right wing crew that there is no pot of gold outside the EU and they
might decide to crawl back into the customs union and single market.
Who’d have thought the north would ever yearn to join a more prosperous
south?