Posted by Jim on June 28, 2018
Friday, June 29th., 2018
8:00 P.M.
THE PLAYERS CLUB
16 Gramercy Park South, New York, NY
10003
10003
BARD AT THE BAR is an environmental performance collage of Shakespeare scenes, songs, music and dance
featuring current studio members, alumni & special guests from the film, Broadway & London stage worlds.
“Mr. Simon and his team’s years of work have made THE SIMON STUDIO the most reputable studio in the business. This studio provides a performance of the Bard’s work to which all future shows must Measure For Measure.” – STAGE BUDDY
“ a ‘60’s style street theatre environment where strict homage was paid to the Bard’s language with vivid, highly physicalized portrayals by all. Director Roger Hendricks Simon is to be congratulated for his dedication to all types of talented actors, and the large, enthusiastic crowd obviously agreed.” – OFF-OFF BROADWAY REVIEW
Admission: $10.00 donation to the James Leaf Scholarship Fund 2018
Dress Code: Business casual
For reservations E-mail:
alboygunior@gmail.com
www.thesimonstudio.com
www.youtube.com/SimonStudioPresents
Posted by Jim on June 27, 2018
A statement by the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton opposing any royal visits to Ireland.
The upcoming visit by two members of the British Royal family to Dublin on July 10 and 11 is yet another example of the ongoing normalisation of British rule in Ireland. Coming as it does only a matter of weeks after a similar visit, it shows that the issue of the British imposed-border and British Occupation of the Six Counties remains high on the political agenda.
With the chaotic Brexit negotiations ongoing between the British government and the EU, it is obvious that the British Establishment is intent on normalising their occupation of the Six Counties to ease pressure around the question of the British-imposed border in Ireland. The slavish willingness of the 26-County Administration to facilitate this is shameful. At a time when there is an international focus on the issue of partition and an opportunity to further the argument for a New Ireland, the Leinster House political class instead seek to reinforce the status quo. Their actions are those of a vassal state.
There can never be normal relations between Britain and Ireland while part of the Irish nation remains under British occupation. Republican Sinn Féin will be protesting at this visit and are calling on all those who believe in Ireland’s right to national sovereignty and independence to join us. We must send out a message that the British occupation of part of Ireland is neither normal nor acceptable.
Posted by Jim on June 26, 2018
Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889-1975) one of the most eminent English historians explained how England used the Bible in its genocidal, racist, and —after the English Reformation— anti-Catholic oppression of Ireland.
Sadly, today there is still a residue of that deep-seated anti-Catholic bigotry in a significant section of the Protestant community in Northern Ireland. (Can any informed, objective person really deny this?) And —since the Six Counties of Northern Ireland were torn away from the other 26 Counties of Ireland by the 1920 British Government of Ireland Act— every time any Unionist/Loyalist/Protestant leader makes a gesture of reaching out to Nationalists/Republicans/ Catholics, the Bible is sacrilegiously deployed to reject that gesture.
Some might see the latest melancholic example of this as being Ballymoney Councilor John Finlay’s over-the-top attack on Arlene Foster’s attendance at the Fermanagh-Donegal GAA game on Sunday, June 24.( See article below :’’DUP councillor berates Arlene Foster for ‘publicly flouting Lord’s Day’ ”. News Letter, June 25).
Was this attack out of concern for the Lord’s Day —which, by the way was changed from Saturday to Sunday by the Catholic Church at the Council of Laodicea in A.D. 364— or could it be seen as a dog whistle? Might some, with good reason, see Councilor Findlay’s attack as a not too subtle attempt to rally the extreme, fundamentalist, ultra-Orange base of the DUP: to show disrespect not only to Catholics, but also to all things Irish (as personified by the GAA)? Just like Gregory Campbell’s disgraceful attack on the Irish language?
A few misguided individuals may think the best way to counter anti-Catholicism, anti-Semitism, or anti-Black racism is to ignore it—just don’t acknowledge it and it will disappear. History and human nature prove otherwise. Right now, Blacks in the United States quite correctly call out anti-Black racism. And I back them one hundred percent. Same as I back Jewish-Americans who are not silent about some re-emergence of anti-Semitism in the United States.
Any time the Word of God is used directly or by dog whistle to cause division and hurt, we can be certain it is not God’s will. As I said recently in a speech at the headquarters of the AFL-CIO (the federation of 55 national and international labor unions that represent 12.5 million working men and women): “People of faith can be certain that working for justice is doing God’s work on earth. And people of no faith can be certain that working for justice is doing the decent and loving thing. And all of us can be certain that anything that does injustice —anything that marginalizes, demeans, devalues and disrespects human beings— cannot be God’s work, or cannot be the decent and loving thing to do.”
Time to build up The Beloved Community in Northern Ireland—and that, we can all be certain, is God’s will.
DUP councillor berates Arlene Foster for ‘publicly flouting Lord’s Day
John Finlay said Arlene Foster had caused ‘deep hurt’ within the DUP grassroots
Stephen Gamble.News Letter. Belfast. Monday, June 25, 2018.
A DUP councillor has spoken of his “deep sorrow and indignation” at his party leader’s decision to attend a GAA match on a Sunday. In a strongly worded letter to Arlene Foster, Alderman John Finlay accused her of “publicly flouting the Lord’s Day”.
The Ballymoney [a small town in County Antrim] councillor also claimed that Mrs. Foster had caused deep hurt within the grassroots support of the party by attending the Ulster GAA final in Co Monaghan on Sunday. In his letter to Mrs Foster, which the News Letter has seen, the Causeway Coast and Glens representative added: “You said that you realized there are some people who may be uncomfortable with you [sic] being at the GAA match on a Sunday, but you then went on to say: ‘But let me tell you this, I am the leader of a political party that wants to have a shared society in Northern Ireland’. I regard those comments as dismissive and patronizing, and I wonder if you have any appreciation of the depth and extent of the hurt you have caused across the party membership and its support base.”
Mr Finlay said the party has always held the Lord’s Day “to a high view”, adding: “It is extremely upsetting that you feel that you can suddenly sweep that aside because you regard it as politically expedient to do so. How you treat the Lord’s Day in your own personal life is a matter for you, but as leader of my party, you have no right to publicly flout it on the grounds that it is necessary to do so on the basis of promoting a shared society.”
Arguing that Biblical standards are “absolutes and therefore non-negotiable”, Mr Finlay continued: “I commend the current leadership of our party for its stand on key areas such as abortion and same-sex marriage, and I believe that God will bless our continued adherence to Biblical principles on these issues.
Posted by Jim on
Drew Harris, a current Deputy Chief Constable of the PSNI police in the
Six Counties, is to become the new Garda police commissioner in the 26
Counties, it has been confirmed.
Mr Harris has worked in the RUC (later PSNI) more than 30 years and has
been intimately involved in some of the most controversial aspects of
policing in the North.
He has been directly linked to a number of cover-ups as the head of PSNI
legacy affairs, and previously headed C3/Special Branch, the agency
responsible for directing, arming and protecting state agents within
loyalist death squads.
His appointment as the first ‘outsider’ to head the Gardai came as a
shock to Sinn Fein, who have yet to comment, but he has faced
condemnation from the party in the past.
When he was promoted to his current PSNI role in 2014, Sinn Fein’s
Caitriona Ruane withdrew from the Policing Board panel to fill the post,
saying she believed the process had been compromised.
Human rights groups in the North had demanded his resignation from the
PSNI over his refusal to release documents on collusion killings. Mike
Ritchie, of Relatives for Justice, described Harris’s role in the
cover-up of the Glenanne killings as “the last straw”. He described
Harris as “a reminder of the political policing of the past and the
contamination of current policing by the cover up of the past.”
His new post attracts a salary of a quarter of a million euro a year
following a pay increase designed to bring outsiders to the post. The 26
County Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said he was pleased that the
“rigorous selection process”, which lasted 10 months, had come to a
conclusion.
“Drew takes up office at a time of major reform and investment which
will redefine An Garda Siochana as an organisation. As we approach the
centenary of the establishment of An Garda Siochana, the organisation is
on the cusp of significant change,” he said.
Saoradh said the appointment of Harris as Garda Commissioner wasn’t a
surprise. It described the police forces in both parts of the island as
“counter revolutionary” and “violently opposed” to republican ideology.
Condemning Harris as “a relic of colonialism”, it said his appointment
would mean that the “corrupt” activities of the Gardai in recent trials
of republicans would continue unabated.
The party also raised what it said were significant questions over his
involvement in British intelligence and collusion:
“Harris, under the terms of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act,
has been operating under direction from MI5 for some time now.
“What has the extent of these contacts been? Has Drew Harris ever been
in the pay of MI5? Does he remain in the pay of MI5 or an agent of
British Intelligence?
“Harris has also been part of the RUC/PSNI leadership that has withheld
information from families affected by state murder and collusion, and
their legal teams.
“This includes victims of British State murder within the 26 Counties,
including the Dublin/Monaghan bombings. Given the prominent role Harris
has played in the suppression of information, how appropriate is it that
the 26 County administration has appointed him to this position?
Posted by Jim on
A secret MI5 report that resulted in the RUC (now PSNI) police
protecting its agents and informers regardless of their role in the
conflict has been made public after 38 years.
The author of the report, Patrick Walker, was a former colonial
administrator in Uganda. He went on to become head of
‘counter-terrorism’ at MI5 and served as the head of MI5 between 1987
and 1992. He was knighted in 1992.
The Committee for the Administration of Justice (CAJ), a Belfast-based
human rights organisation, is understood to have obtained a copy under
the Freedom of Information Act after going before an information
tribunal.
Daniel Holder, the deputy director of CAJ, told the Guardian newspaper:
“In our view the Walker report was the blueprint for making RUC special
branch a ‘force within a force’. It radically altered the structures of
the RUC, centralising enormous power within special branch which
controlled everything from forensics to who was arrested and charged.”
Walker’s report in 1980 resulted in Crown force police being ordered
never to arrest a loyalist or republican without consulting Special
Branch (police intelligence). Detectives were told that anyone who was
arrested could be recruited as a British agent.
As a consequence, a number of loyalists were given free reign to kill
Catholics to terrorise the nationalist population into submission, while
IRA informers such as ‘Stake Knife’ were allowed to kill genuine
republicans.
The Walker report, named after the senior MI5 officer who drafted it,
was commissioned in January 1980 at the height of the conflict, shortly
after the IRA killed 18 British soldiers in a single attack. British
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was said to fear the IRA was gaining
the upper hand. Walker’s strategy brought scores of killers into the pay
and protection of Special Branch.
“All proposals to effect arrests, other than those arising directly out
of an incident, must be cleared with SB [Special Branch] to ensure that
no agents, either RUC or army, are involved,” he wrote.
“If an individual has made an admission and the CID [Criminal
Investigation Department] officer considers he may have intelligence of
value to give, SB should be allowed to question the individual on more
general matters. It is important that CID should not proceed immediately
to a charge whenever an admission has been obtained.
“If a CID officer decides that an individual being interviewed is not
going to make an admission but may have intelligence of value, he should
arrange for the interview to be taken over by SB.”
After the implementation of the Walker report, a number of loyalists and
republicans became widely known as “protected species”.
One such man was Gary Haggarty, who was jailed for six-and-a-half years
last January after admitting to over 500 crimes including five murders,
five conspiracies to murder and others. Haggarty had been a Special
Branch double agent with the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force.
A controversial cover-up is continuing in the case of Freddie
Scappaticci, who has been accused of being ‘StakeKnife’, an agent for
the British Army within the IRA’s internal security unit, who executed a
number of genuine republicans as informers.
Official inquiries into the murder of the Belfast defence lawyer Pat
Finucane in 1989 have found that Brian Nelson, the man who targeted
Finucane and handed information about him to his loyalist killers, was
also an agent in the pay of the British Army, as were others in the
murder gang. The inquiries found that Walker did not wish to see Nelson
prosecuted, telling the attorney general that he was concerned that it
would damage the morale of agents.
The 1982 report of John Stalker, who investigated ‘shoot-to-kill’
(political executions) found crime detectives were told the cases were
“out of bounds” to CID. Stalker was not told about the Walker report,
but he guessed at “high-level endorsement” of killer agents.
The CAJ’s Daniel Holder said today: “Our concern has long been that the
approach to informant-handling in the past was outside of the law and
violated human rights. The system established by the Walker report not
only fuelled and prolonged the conflict, but left a poisonous legacy
that makes dealing with the past more difficult in the face of
relentless attempts to conceal the impact of such practices ever since.”
News of the release of the report today is extraordinary — it came as
it was announced by the Fine Gael government in Dublin that it is
appointing PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris, a former head of
Special Branch, as Commissioner of the 26 County police.