Posted by Jim on September 29, 2018
A damages payment to a survivor of the British Army’s Bloody Sunday
massacre is being seen as a step towards the goal of achieving real
justice for the victims, rather than compensation.
Thirteen people were shot dead when British Army paratroopers opened
fire on civil rights demonstrators in the city in January 1972. One of
the others wounded on the day died later.
The payment was the first of four test cases in the civil damages
claims. Michael Quinn’s injuries were singled out to represent the
surviving injured.
The court acknowledged that Mr Quinn and “all the victims were innocent
victims”. It also noted that no attempt was made to defend the soldiers
responsible.
Michael Quinn was just 17 years’ old when he was shot through the mouth
with a high velocity bullet. He suffered terrible injuries which
resulted in a lifetime of pain and difficulty. He told the court how he
felt an “explosion” of bone and blood when was hit while trying to run
for cover.
The payout also includes recognition of the “oppressive, arbitrary and
unconstitutional” cloud of suspicion which was maintained by British
officials over Mr Quinn and the other victims for decades, until the
Saville Inquiry established the innocence of all those killed and
wounded.
In 1972, the Bloody Sunday families were paid a small amount in
compensation. Paid “ex gratia without admission of liability,” the small
payments were considered an insult by the families. Some gave the money
away to charities in Derry.
In the coming days, the cases of Peggy Deery, Michael McDaid and Gerry
McKinney will be heard. The families have been at pains to stress that
the current court action is not about money.
Now aged 63, Dublin-based Mr Quinn recalled in his evidence being a
17-year-old A-level student who had gone with friends to the march. But
after the British Army started firing he fled from the Rossville Street
area amid growing fears at the unfolding events. He told of seeing a
soldier emerge from behind flats, looking in his direction and place a
bullet in the breech of his rifle. He then crawled and ran into Glenfada
Park North in an attempt to take shelter.
While there he saw the body of Michael Kelly, one of those fatally
wounded, being carried. As others began to surge into the area, shouting
that soldiers were coming in, Mr Quinn headed, crouched down towards an
alley. He had just made it over a raised area when the bullet hit him.
“It felt like someone had given me a very hard punch to the face,” he
told the court. “Just below my eye I could physically see droplets of
blood and bone and skin exploding from my face.”
He continued: “It felt like slow motion as it was happening, I could see
also that someone else was falling beside me. I saw his head hit the
pavement, he hadn’t put out his arms to break the fall.”
That man turned out to be James Wray, another of those killed, who had
asked Mr Quinn to help carry the civil rights banner earlier in the day.
Mr Quinn managed to stumble on until he was brought to a first aid post
and then taken to Altnagelvin Hospital.
Ahead of the start of the hearings, the families were disappointed that
they had to go to court and relive the events of the day before securing
a settlement, despite their complete exoneration by the Saville Inquiry
and the subsequent apology by the then British Prime Minister, David
Cameron
Outside court, Mr Quinn’s lawyer, Fearghal Shiels, said: “No amount of
money could compensate Mr Quinn for the physical and mental scars that
he has carried with him every day since 1972.
“This action, and the apology by David Cameron, was an inevitable
consequence of the Saville Report and the unambiguous declaration of
innocence of all of the victims of Bloody Sunday.”
The families believe that the next logical step in acknowledging the
absolute innocence of the victims is the prosecution of those
responsible for the deaths and injuries
Posted by Jim on
RADIO FREE EIREANN will broadcast this Saturday September 29th on WBAI Radio 99.5FM or WBAI.ORG at 12 noon-1pm New York time or 5pm-6pm in Ireland or anytime after the program on WBAI.ORG – Archives (scroll back to 12 noon Saturday)
Singer, songwriter,historian and political analyst DEREK WARFIELD, now leading The Young Wolfe Tones will discuss his music,the import of patriotic ballads in keeping hopes for freedom for all Ireland alive and his own unique analysis of the colonial ideology behind British rule,as he prepares to play at the Hudson Valley Festival.
PETER KISSEL of the Irish American Unity Conference will discuss a special commemoration of Robert Emmet,his organizations” national conference this week and his encounter with Karen Bradley. who oversees British rule in the north of Ireland.
JOHN McDONAGH will give a full report on his just concluded visit to Ireland.
.We will also have the latest announcements on Irish Festivals and events.
.
John McDonagh and Martin Galvin co-host.
Jump to Toolbar
Posted by Jim on September 27, 2018
COLUMBUS CIRCLE WREATH LAYING CEREMONY
Sunday, October 7th, 9am – 12pm, 10 Columbus Circle, NY NY 10019. In conjunction with the Columbus Citizens Foundation, the Columbia Association supports The National Council of Columbia Associations as it attends a wreath laying ceremony located at 10 Columbus Circle NY NY 10019. For more info on the wreath laying visit www.thenationalcouncil.com. Join the Facebook Group: National Council of Columbia Associations https://www.facebook.com/groups/NATIONAL.COUNCIL.OF.COLUMBIA.ASSOC/
Monday, October, 8th, 11am. Formation will assemble at West 44th Street & 5th Ave. Join us for the pre and post parade activities. Breakfast Reception: 9:00-10:30am, The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesman of the City of New York, “IN THE LIBRARY” @ 20 West 44th St., between Fifth and Sixth Ave. Immediately Following Parade: Post Parade Gathering: St. Jean Baptist Roman Catholic Church, 184 76th St. between Third and Lexington Avenues, “DOWNSTAIRS” in the Community Center. Food, Drinks, & Raffles. FRIENDS AND FAMILY ALWAYS WELCOME!!! For further information, please contact Columbia Association Treasurer/Parade Chairman Joseph DePaola, 845-558-4410.
HISPANIC HERITAGE CELEBRATION
On Tuesday, October 9th, from 1200 to 1400 hours, a Hispanic Heritage Celebration will be held in the Auditorium at 9 Metrotech, hosted by the Hispanic Heritage Society and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. All are welcome to attend. Come celebrate with your fellow employees, enjoy live music and great food. To RSVP, please email diversity.inclusion@fdny.nyc.gov.
Posted by Jim on
New York State Fallen Firefighters Memorial
Ceremony Transportation Details
The 21st Annual New York State Fallen Firefighters Memorial Ceremony will take place on Tuesday, October 9th, 2018 at the memorial site on the Empire State Plaza in Albany, NY, and will honor any and all firefighters who gave their lives in the line of duty over this past year. The UFA is willing to provide buses to Albany for the NYS Fallen Firefighters Memorial. If any Company, House or Battalion gets a group of 30 people or greater, The UFA will Sponsor the Bus. We are asking Delegates to poll their respective members and get back to us with a group of 30 or greater. Delegates are to contact their respective Borough Trustees no later than noon on Monday October 1st.
We will not be sending buses to random locations as done in the past. Only those that contact us with groups of 30 or more will be granted transportation.
Bus Trip Disclaimer: All buses will depart at 7AM SHARP. They will leave Albany and return to NYC with the intention of being back by the 6×9 tour. The length of the Ceremony and traffic conditions are unpredictable, and we cannot guarantee that the buses will be back in time. We are asking all Firefighters to contact their respective Delegates if they have any questions regarding this subject. Any Delegates with questions of their own should contact their Trustees.
Posted by Jim on September 26, 2018
Brian Feeney. Irish News. Belfast. Wednesday, September 26, 2018
May has been using the DUP most cynically
AFTER the Salzburg debacle the Sunday Times political editor, Tim Shipman, tweeted that most people in Britain “don’t give a monkey’s” about The North.
He added: “They think it’s a strange sectarian place and feel more at home in Cork, Washington or Paris than Belfast. Theresa May doesn’t share this view but she might have to come round to it to get us out of this mess.” You know all that, but the DUP doesn’t.
May has been using the DUP most cynically since last December as a way to crowbar her government into the customs union and single market. May’s preposterous high-horse speech on Friday was part of that same strategy but her political posturing in the speech laid bare what she’s up to. Let’s spell it out.
Last December, she signed up to the backstop which would keep The North in the single market and customs union. Within 48 hours David Davis was claiming on the Andrew Marr show that what May had agreed would allow the whole UK to remain in a common regulatory system – in fact the opposite of what she’d agreed.
There’s nothing unusual in what the EU is proposing. There are loads of EU anomalies, states and parts of states having different internal customs and VAT arrangements.
There are the Canary Islands, an integral part of the Spanish state, but with different VAT and customs from mainland Spain. There’s Greenland, an autonomous territory in the kingdom of Denmark but not in the EU. There’s Gibraltar, a dependent British territory with an English MEP, but not in the EU VAT area. Not to mention strange anomalies in French overseas territories.
Now here’s where the DUP come in as useful idiots. May had to get round acknowledging such anomalies as normal in the EU and therefore available to The North.
Her DUP hypocrites, with the grateful connivance of the British government, politicized the issue. The backstop for The North would have, `constitutional implications’ howled the DUP. “There can be no difference between the north and GB.” And then, the pièce de résistance, “it infringes the Good Friday Agreement and the principle of consent.” The DUP opposes the GFA and the principle of consent only applies to the north-south border, not to whatever the DUP dislikes. All complete balderdash.
Tell the Spanish having different VAT and customs in the Canaries has constitutional implications and see what they say. The DUP were asking for a different rate of corporation tax here from GB; apparently that’s OK. There are different laws here covering all sorts of different matters as there are in Scotland which is still part of GB. Scotland can have different income tax rates. Despite all the differences the UK remains sovereign, unfortunately. Both Theresa May and the DUP know that fine [very well] but it suits their political purposes to pretend otherwise.
May knows the practical and logistical case for checks on animals, plants and some goods entering The North is unanswerable but she desperately needs to find a way to keep the UK surreptitiously in the customs union and part of the single market. After all, she’s a remainer. Chequers was her cunning plan but it was a non-starter, a pipedream.
The DUP’s intransigence was her get out, her way of explaining to her own Brexiteers why she had to stay aligned with the EU, and her way of pleading a special case to the EU for staying half in and half out. Both ridiculed her.
On Friday she wrapped herself in not one, but two Union Jacks and took refuge in nationalism and the chancer’s last refuge, patriotism. “I will not break up my country”, which no one is asking; deliberately, mischievously, confusing the definition of country, nation and state. Would the people of the Bone and Beechmount, of Creggan and Camlough [places in The North] be part of May’s country? Thought not.
That posture may go down well with the Daily Mail and the Sun but it won’t wash with Brussels or her Brexiteers. She’s caught out. Now she’s up a cul de sac. Pleading,” the DUP made me do it,” hasn’t worked, especially when the EU has offered a perfectly reasonable plan to operate what she signed up to last December.