Posted by Jim on August 28, 2016
A priest has spoken about God’s “perfect timing” after he officiated at
the joint funeral mass of a man murdered by British soldiers and the
wife who campaigned in his memory, despite them dying exactly 45 years
apart.
Joseph Murphy, who was buried with his wife Mary on Thursday, was one of
the 11 victims of the Ballymurphy Massacre which happened during the
introduction of internment without trial in August 1971.
Ten people, including Mr Murphy, a priest who had gone to the aid of one
of victims and a 50-year-old mother of eight children were shot dead by
British soldiers in west Belfast. Inquests have yet to be concluded into
the killings.
An eleventh victim, who does not come under the terms of the inquest,
Paddy McCarthy, died from a heart attack after a soldier allegedly put
an empty gun into his mouth and pulled the trigger.
It is believed that most if not all of the killings were carried out by
members of the British Parachute Regiment. The incident took place
months before the same regiment was involved in the Bloody Sunday
killings, which resulted in the deaths of 14 innocent civilians.
Last October, as part of the Ballymurphy inquests, the coroner ordered
that Mr Murphy’s body be exhumed so that an investigation could be
carried out into his family’s belief that he was shot on two occasions
by the British army.
In hospital before his death, Mr Murphy told his family he was first
shot in the upper thigh on the streets of Ballymurphy, but soldiers then
brought him into the nearby Henry Taggart barracks and shot him again
through his open wound.
A suspected bullet fragment found among his remains after his exhumation
supported his dying comments, and this will be a factor in the inquests
into his killing.
With other members of the Ballymurphy families, his widow Mary
campaigned for decades to establish the truth behind the killings. It
had been her hope that a second funeral Mass could be heard for her
husband before he was re-interred.
However, Mrs Murphy died from cancer on August 22nd, the same date that
Mr Murphy died from his injuries in 1971.
“Little did she think that he would be buried 45 years to the day when
he was first buried,” said officiating priest Fr Darach Mac Giolla
Cathain.
“More than that, that she would have the grace when she died that they
would be side by side in the church and be laid to rest together,” he
added. “God’s timing really is perfect.”
Their daughter has spoken of her mixed emotions that her beloved parents
were laid to rest together.
Janet Donnelly, said that the family had found out only the day before
her mother’s funeral that the Coroner’s Office were releasing their
father’s remains to them.
“The original plan was to have daddy buried and for our mummy to be
there. Our mother was a woman of great faith. When our daddy’s body was
exhumed in October she insisted that there was a priest present and that
there were prayers at the graveside. She wanted him to have a proper
funeral when the time came for him to be reburied. Little did we know
that he would be waiting for her in the chapel 45 years from the day of
his original funeral.”
After her husband’s death Mary Ellen Murphy was left to raise nine
children alone – three of her children have already passed away. She
remained in the same house in Ballymurphy Parade until her own death.
“After daddy passed away our mummy raised us on her own. She did what a
lot of women back then had to do: she just got on with it, she worked
non-stop. She had a house shop, she sold candy apples and she took any
work she could get, that’s what people did back then. Her faith carried
her through those hard years, she said her Rosary every day.
“It is bittersweet.. we’re happy because she always wanted to see him
buried again and we promised her it would happen.”
Janet says all the Ballymurphy families know the truth about their loved
ones, but it’s vital that the truth is put on record.
“We want an inquiry, we need for the rest of the world to know what
happened to the victims of the Ballymurphy Massacre. It’s about
justice. In years to come when people look back on history we want it
stated clearly in black and white that our loved ones were innocent
victims.
“Now that mummy has passed away it’s even more important for the
inquests to be heard as our witnesses are dying… there’s money sitting
there for inquests, it needs to be released.”
Posted by Jim on
A dispute over a sectarian loyalist parade through the mainly
nationalist town of Rasharkin last week is being linked to the “leak” of
private messages targeting Sinn Fein Assembly member Daithi McKay.
Loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson is being accused of taking revenge against
Mr McKay, who was forced to resign his post earlier this month, after he
helped lobby the Parades Commission to prevent a notorious loyalist band
from taking part in the County Antrim parade.
According to the Sunday Life newspaper, Bryson reportedly told his
cronies that by leaking private messages from Mr McKay about his
appearance before a Stormont committee, he could end his political
career and also bring pressure for a full public inquiry into the
scandal over the sale of properties in the north of Ireland.
The controversy over the Rasharkin parade began when independent
councillor Padraig McShane was spat at and taunted by masked loyalists
during a parade in nearby Ballycastle on July 12. Mr McShane suffered a
serious head injury when he was violently arrested in the subsequent
scuffle.
Last week, after coming under nationalist pressure, the Parades
Comission refused permission for the band involved, the ‘Dervock Young
Defenders’, to march in last week’s Rasharkin parade. That march passed
off relatively peacefully on Friday, August 19th.
Bryson is a prominent loyalist marcher and ‘flags’ protestor who has a
reputation as a publicity-seeker. His insistence that he was not
responsible for the transcript ‘leak’ won few believers, and he lost
further credibility when he claimed some messages he received from McKay
had been removed from the transcript, a claim he then failed to
substantiate.
Refusing to comment further, he says: “My focus is on the legal
preparation for the pending application to the Secretary of State asking
for a full public inquiry into NAMA (the Dublin government’s National
Asset Management Agency).”
Mr McKay was forced to resign last week because the messages showed that
he communicated inappropriately with Bryson on how to present his
testimony to the Stormont Finance Committee investigating NAMA’s
dealings in the North. Through the account of another Sinn Fein member,
Bryson was advised how to present his evidence of corruption against the
DUP leader Peter Robison without being interrupted or blocked by DUP
committee members.
The loyalist was called to the committee after making a number of online
allegations relating to 7 million pounds in an offshore bank account
linked to the deal which had allegedly been earmarked for a politician
in the Six Counties.
Bryson told the committee that former DUP leader Peter Robinson was to
receive a payment upon its completion. Robinson, who has since quit
politics, continues to deny that he was to profit from the sale of the
portfolio to the American company Cerberus.
Sinn Fein has made clear that Mr McKay had been acting on his own
initiative and had “paid the price”. Speaking in Derry’s Bogside, Mr
McGuinness blasted McKay’s actions as “profoundly disturbing” and also
derided allegations that he was part of a conspiracy to damage the
former DUP leader.
“Does anybody think for one minute that I would even contemplate being
involved in anything that would involve someone like young Bryson, who
has effectively got his own agenda which is about ill will towards Peter
Robinson,” he said.
Sinn Fein’s current Finance Minister in the Six Counties, Mairtin O
Muilleoir, also issued a statement making clear he had “absolutely no
knowledge” of the communications, and rejected calls to step aside while
Stormont’s Finance Committee holds an investigation into the ‘back
channel’ communications.
Although the current DUP leader Arleen Foster said the messages were a
“disgraceful attempt to impugn and discredit” her former colleague, her
party has indicated it is ready to move past the controversy.
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein has selected Daithi McKay’s predecessor at Stormont
to replace him. Philip McGuigan returns to the assembly, having
previously served as a Sinn Fein Assembly a decade ago, representing
North Antrim at Stormont from 2003-2007. The father-of-four is currently
a Sinn Fein representative on Causeway Coast and Glens Council.
Posted by Jim on
Columbus Council 126
Address: 3051 Nostrand Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11229
Greetings LAOH & AOH. On Saturday September 03, 2016 @ 7:00 PM, Columbus Council #126 will be having an “Impromptu BBQ & Get Together” in the council yard & hall. The cost will be $10.00 PP for the food & soft drinks. The Tap Room will also be open and has 2 new air conditioner units for your comfort & they work very well, so you may need a light jacket or sweater.
If you are interested in attending, please contact me by 11:00 PM Thursday September 01, 2016 as I will be picking up the food on Friday. Please include number of guest attending with you. I am only picking up enough food for those folks who have responded as attending.
Please contact me via this email, phone text or call.
Thank you,
Eddie Velinskie
347-210-1249
Posted by Jim on August 27, 2016
‘DON’T TAKE THEM DOWN’
The chairman of a County Antrim Gaelic sports club has resigned after it
voted to remove entrance gates dedicated to the memory of two Irish War
of Independence martyrs in order to secure a grant from a
unionist-controlled council.
Eddie Haughey quit after members of Oisin Glenariffe hurling club took
the decision in a secret ballot at a special meeting last week. It is
understood the managers of two of the club’s teams have also resigned.
The club’s grounds are named after two IRA men, Charlie McAllister and
Pat McVeigh, who were killed during a gun battle with B-Specials near in
Glenariffe in May 1922 – months after the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed.
The Glens of Antrim club had sought 180,000 pounds from Causeway Coast
and Glens Borough Council to help build a new community centre on its
land. Unionist councillors moved to block the funds as part of an effort
to remove the erase the memory of the two local heroes. The DUP claimed
that the gates leading onto the site would “re-traumatise” people.
On Tuesday night, following the club’s decision to submit to the DUP
demands to remove the gates, the council narrowly approved the funding
when it met in Coleraine.
Sinn Fein councillor Cara McShane noted the council approval placed no
conditions, such as the gates having to be moved. She accused the DUP of
“political posturing” and seeking to use “any means possible to treat
people in this part of the borough as second class citizens.”
She said there is no political agenda in the building of the centre.
“The last thing anyone wants is for this facility, which is a
much-needed in a rural community, to be used for political
point-scoring. People are very emotional,” she said.
There have already been calls for the club’s decision to be reversed.
Ballycastle based councillor Padraig McShane accused the council of
“intransigence”
“The club members should not have been put in that position,” he said.
“They were put in this position because of the unrelenting anti-Irish
sentiment of Causeway Coast and Glens council.”
Mr McShane urged the GAA community in the Glens to stay unified.
“I wish Glenarriffe and all the fellow Gaels the very best,” he said. “A
unity of purpose will see us rise a monument fitting to the two
volunteers
Posted by Jim on August 26, 2016
Éamon Phoenix. Irish News (Belfast). Thursday, August 25, 2016
Seán MacBride
THE success of the campaign for the MacBride Principles in the US encouraged the British government to introduce a new Fair Employment Act in 1989.
Named after Nobel Peace Prize recipient Seán MacBride, the fair employment principles act as a corporate code of conduct for US companies doing business in Northern Ireland.
State papers show how Sir Antony Acland, the British Ambassador to the US, wrote to Northern Ireland secretary Tom King in 1987 about continuing controversy in the US around fair employment in Northern Ireland.
Acland said US interest in Northern Ireland had declined following the signing of the Anglo- Irish Agreement and was “no longer anywhere near the top of most American politicians’ agenda”.
But he said among several areas for concern fair employment was “the most difficult” and “finally, and most important, MacBride”.
Acland welcomed King’s decision to “shift the emphasis of British efforts [in the US] away from the Principles” and to the MacBride campaign’s impact on investment in Northern Ireland.
On the MacBride campaign, the ambassador’s view was that “even with increased resources, we would have little or no chance of halting the campaign altogether. We shall still be dealing with legislators who see no reason to change their embedded view of NI”.
David Fell, head of the Stormont Department of Economic Development, circulated a confidential memo on MacBride commenting on the British ambassador’s remarks.
He acknowledged that in face of the mounting campaign, “the credibility of HMG’s commitment to fair employment is now a major objective”.
“An important consequence”, he wrote, “has been the need to secure real progress on fair employment on the ground”.
But he added: “It must be pointed out that, for whatever reasons, there has been no new US investment in NI since 1984.”
In his view, a political decision was required whether to adopt a laissez-faire approach to MacBride or continue resistance which would be very costly.
In reply to Acland in November