Happy and Peaceful Easter
Posted by Jim on April 16, 2022
AOH/LAOH Fact Finders to visit Ireland
Posted by Jim on April 13, 2022
The Irish Echo By Ray O’Hanlon
Fifty members of the Ancient Order of Hibernianswill begin a ten-day fact-finding mission to the north ofIreland on Tuesday, April 19.The mission will include what a release describedas “crucial talks with legacy victims’ relatives onpending British amnesty measures,” as well as briefings with Irish party leaders and Irish government representatives.Stated the release: “The delegation, which includessenior national officers from both the Ancient Orderof Hibernians (AOH) and Ladies Ancient Order ofHibernians (LAOH), will also present more than$100,000 in Freedom for all Ireland grants from theHouben Centre located on the grounds of Holy CrossChurch Ardoyne.”The fact-finding mission follows one month after Hibernians spearheaded the passage of House Resolution888, in which Congress said it ‘Opposes any attempt bythe British Government to implement amnesty orstatute of limitation laws that would end or inhibit investigations and prosecutions of crimes committedduring the Troubles, including on Bloody Sunday.’In Tyrone, the release continued, “Hibernians willjourney to the Battery Bar Ardboe where Americancitizen Liam Ryan was murdered by off-duty members of the British Army’s Ulster Defense Regimenton November 29, 1989.”Here they will join with family and friends of thelong time Bronx resident to launch a special Relativesfor Justice case study in collusion in this murder, andcall for an Ombudsman Report on the Royal UlsterConstabulary’s failure to investigate.”The delegation will also meet Relatives for Justice,EALU (Escape), an organization supporting ex-prisoners and Tyrone National Graves. Well known IrishRepublicans like Gerry McGeough, Malachy McAllister and John Crawley will also be speaking to thedelegation.” travel to Belfast and visit the scene ofthe Springhill-Westrock Massacre,”where on July 9th 1972, British troopers following a ceasefire, shot five people including Catholic priest Fr. NoelFitzpatrick, Paul Butler, Margaret Gargan 13, John Dougal 16, and David McCafferty 16. Their families have waitedyears for a new inquest, which is nowthreatened by new British amnesty proposals.”This will be followed by a fulloverview of legacy issues from familyrepresentatives of the New Lodge 6,victims named in recent Ombudsmanfindings from South Belfast and CountyDerry killings, and Plastic Bulletkillings of children.The Hibernians will also receive a presentation from veteran Irish Republicans,Tom Hartley, Fra McCann, Bik McFarlane, Joe Austin and Danny Morison.Continued the release: “One of the keyevents of the tour will be the presentations of more than $100,000 dollars inFreedom for all Ireland grants to 15 approved applicants. The presentationswill be made during a live webinarfrom the Houben Centre, despite thefact that loyalists recently disrupted apeace lecture by Irish Tanaiste and Foreign Minister Simon Coveney.”The Hibernians will spend their finaltwo days in Dublin, where they will receive a briefing from Sinn Fein Partyleader Mary Lou McDonald, an updateon the Ireland’s Future campaign fromSenators Francis Black and Niall Donnghaile, and additionally receive abriefing by officials from the Irish Department of Foreign Service.Hibernians are also arranging briefings with senior party representativesfrom Fianna Fail and Fine Gael in advance of the Irish visit, said the release..Author Robert Collins and ProfessorRuan O’Donnell will provide the delegation a special preview of a new booktitled ‘Noraid and the Northern IrelandTroubles 1970-94,’ which is expected toexamine a key chapter in Irish American history, including the role and impact of AOH, during this period ofconflict.AOH Freedom-for all-Ireland ChairMartin Galvin said: “The fight for Irishlegacy justice is at a critical point. TheAOH and other Irish American organizations are believed to have played acrucial role in delaying the British proposals for an amnesty whitewash.However Britain’s plans to take awaybasic rights to Inquests, OmbudsmanInvestigations and civil action are stillon the table.“Victims’ relatives fear that Britainmay impose this new injustice soonafter the Stormont elections are over.We are bringing a high level AOH/LAOH delegation to the north to highlight American support for thosefighting for legacy truth.”It is crucial now more than ever thatwe bring the facts back across Americaand do more nationally to supportthose still denied justice and freedom.”
I AM OF IRELAND
Posted by Jim on April 11, 2022
By William Butler Yeats
I am of Ireland,
And the Holy Land of Ireland,
And time runs on,’ cried she.
‘Come out of charity,
Come dance with me in Ireland.’
One man, one man alone
In that outlandish gear,
One solitary man
Of all that rambled there
Had turned his stately head.
‘That is a long way off,
And time runs on,’ he said,
‘And the night grows rough.
‘I am of Ireland,
And the Holy Land of Ireland,
And time runs on,’ cried she.
‘Come out of charity
And dance with me in Ireland,’
‘The fiddlers are all thumbs,
Or the fiddle-string accursed,
The drums and the kettledrums
And the trumpets all are burst,
And the trombone,’ cried he,
‘The trumpet and trombone,’
And cocked a malicious eye,
‘But time runs on, runs on.’
‘I am of Ireland,
And the Holy Land of Ireland,
And time runs on,’ cried she.
‘Come out of charity
And dance with me in Ireland.
Saoirse Newspaper
Posted by Jim on
Saoirse – Irish Freedom is the voice of the Irish Republican Movement. The monthly newspaper of the Republican Movement, it takes its name from Irish Freedom – Saoirse, a Fenian paper which first appeared in November 1910 and continued as a monthly publication until December 1914 when it was suppressed by the British authorities. Among the contributors to that paper were Bulmer Hobson, PS Hegerty, Terence McSwiney, Pádraig Pearse, Ernest Blythe, Piaras Beaslaí, Pat Devlin, Fred Cogley, JW Good and Roger Casement.
Irish Republicans have always attempted to produce a newspaper, as a means of speaking to the people. As revolutionaries we have had to rely on our own resources to counter-act the status quo message promoted by the Establishment media.
More than 200 years ago, on January 4, 1792, the first number of the Northern Star appeared. The paper, produced by the Belfast Society of United Irishmen, promoted unity among Irish people of all religions. It was a popular target for the opponents of Irish unity and freedom. The proprietors of the Northern Star and its printer, John Rabb, were charged with sedition in January, 1793. Its offices were again raided on September 16, 1796 in a general clamp-down on the United Irishmen in Belfast. The presses of the Northern Star were smashed by a pro-British militia on May 19, 1797.
A new paper, The Press, appeared on September 28, 1797.
In a short article in the first issue of The Republic, on December 13, 1906, produced by the Dungannon Clubs, Bulmer Hobson wrote:
Ireland today claims her place among the free peoples of the earth. She has never surrendered that claim, nor will ever surrender it; and today forces are working in Ireland that will not be still until her claim is acknowledged and her voice heard in the councils of the nations.
To that end The Republic has been started. It has not been brought into existence to make a party among the political parties of Ireland, nor to carry on a party propaganda nor to waste time quarreling with any political party. It has been started to gather together all that is best and greatest, most progressive and far-seeing in Ireland round the Republican banner and to build up, not a Republican party, but an independent Irish Republic.
We stand for an Irish Republic because we see that no compromise with England, no repeal of the Union, no concession of Home Rule or Devolution will satisfy the national aspiration of the Irish people nor allow the unrestricted mental, moral and material development of our country. National independence is our right; we ask no more and we will accept no less.
An independent Irish Republic, then, is our aim – governed by the whole people of Ireland in the interests of the whole people, without let or hindrance, supervision or interference on the part of any other power under heaven. We owe allegiance to no country save Ireland, and we will yield none to any other.
The old hate and the old bigotry that have kept Catholic and Protestant divided – the old grovelling spirit of Toadyism must be killed and forgotten by the people. The ineffective and outward political movements, Unionist and Nationalist, must be superseded and silenced and, in their place, a national movement, virile and militant, that recognises no creed save that of Irishman, and no party save the nation, must be established.