Up Coming events for the AOH

Posted by Jim on August 14, 2016

Tyrone AOH Press Release

Posted by Jim on August 11, 2016

 Silly Season Morrow

Maurice Morrow is lending a whole new dimension to the term “Silly Season”, a reference to media stories during the slow news days of the summer months.

Anyone who bothers to listen to the American radio show in which our President gave an interview will acknowledge that it bears no correlation whatsoever to Morrow’s accusations. He needs to get his facts right. His statement is not only off the wall, but we feel should also be investigated for its slanderous hate-filled content.

We suspect that Morrow’s real gripe is with the up-coming “Hibernian Day” parade in Kinturk, Co Tyrone on September 11th in which the Ancient Order of Hibernians will honour the 400th anniversary of the death in exile of the great Gaelic Irish leader Hugh O’Neill. Our pride in recalling the events of that time is leaving the likes of Morrow deeply uncomfortable.

Lawyers for Gerry McGeough Press Statement

Posted by Jim on

Lawyers for high-profile Republican Gerry McGeough have confirmed that an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has been accepted and is under active investigation.

Solicitor Aiden Carlin explained: “If successful this case will be referred back to the Court of Appeal in Belfast. To that end we are instructed to make a plea for responsible and accurate media reporting. In recent days there have been a number of misleading articles which contain significant inaccuracies about a United States radio interview our client gave last weekend.”

Aiden Carlin Solicitor continued: “Contrary to press standards, no journalist contacted Gerry McGeough requesting his comments on the interview before reporting on it. Instead, articles have been published in newspapers and online which are not based on the facts. By way of example, Maurice Morrow MLA stated in a press release ‘it should be noted at no time he had the courage to take the stand himself.’ The truth is Gerry McGeough and the late William Plum Smith both give evidence during his Crown Court trial in support of an abuse of process application by the defence. Questions remain unanswered as to why none of the six Judges here who heard evidence and made rulings on various aspects of our client’s case received the ‘On The Runs’ material made public through John Downey’s case. Instead calls for full disclosure by Gerry McGeough’s defence were met with silence from the NIO, PPS, PSNI and Sinn Fein.”

Solicitor Aiden Carlin concluded: “Our client stood for election in 2007 on a manifesto for freedom, justice and peace. He instructs that the interview he gave to a United States radio station should be listened to in its entirety. The interview covers a plurality of subjects including Irish and Scottish history, poetry and prison memories, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, 9/11and Brexit. Our client has always maintained his innocence and is working closely with his lawyers to assist the CCRC’s investigation.”

Carlin Solicitors
2 Church Lane
Belfast
BT1 4QN

Arlene Foster should repudiate Free P rant

Posted by Jim on August 9, 2016

News Letter (Belfast). Monday, August 8, 2016

I respect First Minister Arlene Foster. She is a smart and strong leader and, naturally, I am proud she is a Fermanagh woman.

Arlene recently chastised me in the media because our Internet Animated Video (IrishNationalCaucus.org) states that – despite the welcomed progress of the peace process – “there is still deep-rooted anti-Catholic bigotry in Northern Ireland” (‘Arlene Foster’s fury at US video’ Belfast Telegrap , January 29).

Well, as if to prove my point, Rev John Gray, minister, Enniskillen Free Presbyterian Church, Co Fermanagh, issues in the News Letter a 17th century-type of a letter full of contempt for the “blasphemous Mass”. (‘Free Presbyterians warned of Catholic canons in CoI’ August 3).

Nothing could be more offensive than such an attack on The Eucharist, which is “the source and summit of the Christian life,” and one Christ’s most sacred commands and commissions.

The Rev Gray cites Martin Luther (one of my heroes, apart from his awful anti-Semitism and theological errors) but fails to note that Luther deeply believed in the Eucharist and in the Real Presence (although he explained things differently).

The Rev Gray also seems to be unaware of the wonderful agreements that have been reached between the Catholic Church not only on the Eucharist but also on Justification by Faith – the two wedge issues of the Reformation.

However, the issue here is not just about theology. The Rev Gray has deeply offended the Catholics of Fermanagh in his sacrilegious contempt for the Mass.

It is now incumbent on First Minister Arlene Foster to show she is the leader of all the people in Fermanagh – Protestants and Catholics alike – by publicly repudiating the Rev Gray’s hateful rant.

This is particularly relevant because it was Paisley’s Church, the Free Presbyterian Church, that brought the DUP and Arlene into power (even though she is not a member of the Free Presbyterian Church).

But Arlene is not the only one who must repudiate the Rev Gray’s awful bigotry. Tom Elliot, MP, must do likewise. Interested folk in Washington and in the U.S. Congress will be carefully watching to see if the two top Unionist/Protestant leaders in Fermanagh condone the Rev Gray’s anti-Catholicism.

Fr Sean McManus, President, Irish National Caucus

Controversy surrounding new Bobby Sands documentary ‘Bobby Sands: 66 Days’

Posted by Jim on

Deaglán de Bréadún @irishcentral . August 06,2016

Political campaigner and hunger striker Bobby Sands.

An emotionally powerful new documentary on the life and death of Irish Republican Army hunger-striker Bobby Sands is receiving widespread praise, but also criticism from different ends of the political spectrum in Ireland. The movie, which is 105 minutes in length, went on general release last Friday, August 5th.
Titled “Bobby Sands: 66 Days” and directed by Brendan J. Byrne, the film centers on the Belfast IRA activist’s fast to the death at the H-Blocks in the Maze Prison-Long Kesh. Sands began refusing food on March 1st, 1981, shortly before his 27th birthday, and died 66 days later on May 5th.
A few weeks earlier, on April 9th, Sands made world headlines when he was elected on an abstentionist basis to the British House of Commons, filling a vacancy created in the Fermanagh- South Tyrone constituency by the sudden death of the independent nationalist Member of Parliament, Frank Maguire.
Some Unionists expressed outrage that public money was used in funding the documentary project. Financial backers of the film included Northern Ireland Screen, a state-supported agency for the promotion of the film, television and digital content industry, which contributed £76,000

(approximately $90,000) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which also provided support but did not disclose the amount given.
Former Northern Ireland finance minister Sammy Wilson of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) objected to the funding and described Sands as a convicted criminal who took his own life in order to encourage others to commit similar crimes.

Another former DUP minister, Nelson McCausland, wrote in the Belfast Telegraph that the film was being used as part of a concerted effort to “try to turn a terrorist into a freedom-fighter, poet, author and philosopher”.
In a review for the Belfast-based News Letter, the Member of Parliament for East Londonderry, Gregory Campbell of the DUP, described the film as “in effect a video-diary” of the hunger- strikes in which Sands and nine other republicans died.

He added that the documentary “makes good dramatic viewing, if overly long, but it is a million miles away from an accurate depiction of what happened during those harrowing days in 1981”. However, film critic Donald Clarke gave the movie four out of a maximum five stars in the Irish Times and described it as “a comprehensive, balanced, gripping tale of terrible times”.

There was mixed reaction at a question-and-answer session after the film was shown at the Irish Film Institute in Dublin last Friday, August 5th.
The audience, which included a small number of Sinn Féin party workers, gave the movie modest applause after the viewing and, although there was strong praise for the production, a number of questions and objections were raised about the content.

The director, who is himself a native of Belfast, said the project, which also received support from the Irish Film Board, “took about three years from start to finish”. He said the BBC “were initially a bit nervous, naturally” but this was overcome.
Sinn Féin’s Dáil Deputy for Cavan-Monaghan, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said the film “struck a hugely-emotional chord with me” and was “a powerful work that should be seen by people of all views”.

However, he dissented from some of the opinions expressed by interviewees in the movie and there was applause from some members of the audience when he added that he “would take exception with some of what [Irish Times columnist and literary editor] Fintan O’Toole would have had to say”.

A question was raised from the floor as to why no members of the Sands family were interviewed and the director said they had not taken part in such interviews since 1985 and had “very politely declined” to participate in his documentary.
“They were the women’s voices, including his mother, who I would have wanted in the film, as well as Bernadette McAliskey, who I also approached, and she refused to be interviewed.”
He continued: “There was no other women’s voices that I managed to capture, through the course of making the film, that ended up earning their right to be in the film.” He added that he wasn’t seeking to underplay the role played by women in the story.
Regarding the prominence given to Fintan O’Toole, the director explained that this was done on the basis of the latter’s analysis that Sands had changed people’s perceptions of the republican movement, as well as the fact that O’Toole had regularly challenged “the core IRA mission” and his presence would make the film more balanced.
“I think what the film is trying to say is that, without the 1981 hunger-strikes, there wouldn’t have been a democratization of Sinn Féin, there wouldn’t have been the Good Friday Agreement and there wouldn’t have been the self-governing parliament at Stormont.”

Byrne added: “I think what Fintan is saying at the end is that you don’t win by inflicting violence, you win by enduring suffering and you win by capturing the public imagination.”