Posted by admin on October 11, 2013
The Museum is honored to have been selected by the government of Ireland to present an exhibit and related programs honoring James Connolly, the Irish labor movement, and the Dublin lockout of 1913. At 11 a.m. on Friday, November 1, join the Museum and very special guest, the Ambassador Consul General of Ireland Noel Kilkenny, for a rededication of the James Connolly Memorial at the Riverfront Park in Troy, NY, at River St. & 2nd St. — assemble behind the Uncle Sam statue.
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| James Connolly |
On Saturday, Nov. 2, at 12 noon, “Labor & Dignity: James Connolly in America” will open to the public for an extended presentation after being on view at the Irish Consulate in New York City. The Museum’s public exhibit hours are Wednesday-Friday, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday, 12 Noon – 4 p.m. Metered parking on Albany streets weekdays, free on weekends. Connolly, who lived briefly in Troy, NY, was not only a labor organizer, but also one of the seven signatories of the 1916 Easter Proclamation who paid for his patriotism with his life when all seven were executed for their roles in seeking Ireland’s independence. The Museum is part of the team that helped plan the exhibit curated and produced by Glucksman Ireland House at New York University, in conjunction with Hofstra University, Rutgers University, the AFL-CIO, the National AOH, International Union of Operating Engineers, Irish American Labor Coalition and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
Posted by Jim on October 7, 2013
Sinn Fein First Minister Martin McGuinness has challenged unionists to confront the paramilitary UVF in east Belfast, who he accused of being closely linked to the anti-Catholic Orange Order. He was speaking out amid increasing violence by the loyalist organisation, including the shooting of a woman six times last week in an apparent revenge attack. Mr McGuinness said that had republicans been involved in the gun attack on 24-year-old Jemma McGrath last Wednesday there would not have been silence from unionist ranks in the assembly. Citing his own condemnation of republicans in the past, he said there was a need to “stand by the agreements that we have made”. “It is about the commitment of all of us to face down violent extremists, whether they be so-called dissident republicans or extreme loyalists,” Mr McGuinness said. “That is the test for this assembly and that is the test for this executive and I think thus far serious questions have to be asked about the commitment to stand by the PSNI.” Mr McGuinness again said the Orange Order and the PUP (Progressive Unionist Party) were “indistinguishable” from the UVF in north Belfast. In response, an Orange Order spokesman rejected the comments. He said were a “cynical attempt to increase tensions”. The PUP claimed the “unity of purpose” among unionists over flags and parades had “unnerved” Sinn Fein. But links between the organisations appeared to be in evidence again this week as masked paramilitaries attempted to march into a nationalist area of north Belfast to ‘complete’ a July 12th Orange Order parade. Repeated attempts to stage a sectarian parade through Ardoyne and other nationalist areas has been refused by the Parades Commission since the summer. Members of all three organisations were also busy last weekend when they joined thousands of other hardline unionists and loyalists to mark the founding of the UVF in west Belfast. Last weekend the Orange Order again sought permission to allow a loyalist parade through Ardoyne this Saturday — as a precondition for future talks. But this was again refused by the Parades Commission. North Belfast Sinn Fein assembly member Gerry Kelly said the Orange Order’s so-called ‘Twaddell initiative’ — named after the ten-week old loyalist encampment at the interface between the two communities — was an attempt to undermine the Parades Commission. “The Orange Order has announced its intentions through the media without discussing things with or providing prior notification… If they really wanted to assist community relations or the Haass process an initiative might be to move their protest off the interface at Twaddell,” he said. “What needs to happen is direct dialogue, without preconditions in place, between the local residents and the Orange Order.” The Greater Ardoyne Residents’ Collective also denounced the idea “as there is nothing cultural or religious about sectarian marchers demanding to coat-trail through our community where they are clearly not welcome,” they said. “Any attempt to force them upon greater Ardoyne will be resisted by any means necessary.”
Posted by Jim on
Last Call
In early November 2014, exactly 25 years after our first gig, Black 47 will disband.
There are no fights, differences over musical policy, or general skulduggery, we remain as good friends as when we first played together. We just have a simple wish to finish up at the top our game after 25 years of relentless touring and, as always, on our own terms. The last gig we played at the South Buffalo Irish Festival was as good as any we’ve ever performed. Our goal now is to play another full year plus and dedicate all of those gigs to you who’ve supported us through thick and thin.Rather than just running out the clock we will be recording “Last Call,” an album of new songs in November and as usual will be working out the material onstage. We would like to say goodbye to you all personally and will make every effort to come play in your city, town, college, pub, club, performing arts center and should you wish to alert your local promoter you can download booking particulars. Black 47 has always been more than a band, we’ve spoken out for the nationalist population in the North of Ireland, against the war but for the troops in Iraq, for our gay brothers & sisters, immigrants, legal and undocumented, as well as for the voiceless of 1845-47; but in the end it all comes down to the music, the songs, and the desire to give audiences the time of their lives and send them home smiling and, perhaps, with a question on their lips. We look forward to seeing you all at the upcoming gigs. Thanks for the support and the memories – lets make many more over the next year.
Posted by Jim on September 30, 2013
In October 1981, at the end of the Hunger Strike, the British government
announced the defeat of the republican prisoners in the H Blocks of Long
Kesh. Less than two years later, 38 of those ‘defeated’ republicans
smashed their way out of what had been claimed as the “most secure jail
in Europe”, inflicting a major political and military defeat on the
British.
The 1983 escape was a major undertaking for the Irish Republican Army,
both inside and outside the jail. The organisation outside the prison
devoted time and resources to the breakout plan during a period of
intense pressure by the British. Inside Long Kesh, the republican POWs
spent countless hours in preparation – the painstaking collection and
collation of intelligence, the meticulous planning of each stage of the
operation, the continuous briefing of people on their roles and the
acquiring and safekeeping of weapons vital to success.
It was Ardoyne tactician Larry Marley who established the bold and
expansive objective of getting the maximum number of men possible out of
the jail. He led a specialist team of five men selected by the camp
leadership and entrusted with the business of organising escapes.
He masterminded the escape plan that would revolve around a weak link
identified in prison security, the lorry used to deliver meals to the
different blocks. Of particular interest was the fact that the lorry was
never searched on its way round the camp.
The escape committee next turned their attention to seizing control of a
H Block. They realised the key to such an ambitious plan was gaining
control of the central crossbar of the ‘H’, which serves as an entrance
hall and administrative area and is known, in a throwback to Victorian
jails, as “the circle”.
In order for their plan to succeed, the prisoners realised that they had
to lull the staff into a false sense of security. The ending of the
‘no-work’ protest aided this plan, as it meant the prisoners were out of
their cells for long periods, aiding the psychological battle against
the screws, who now found themselves outnumbered. The prison
authorities, eager to publicise the ‘normalisation’ of the prison, were
happy to put prisoners to work as orderlies cleaning all over the block,
including the circle.
The end result of this was a situation whereby some of the most renowned
republican prisoners in Long Kesh became apparently eager to do prison
work and made concerted efforts to become pally with screws. The
prisoners in H7 carefully nurtured a relaxed atmosphere until it became
the norm and the screws viewed security breaches by the prisoners as
innocuous.
A number of the prisoners ordered to befriend the screws were not aware
of the escape plan and swallowed this bitter pill on trust. Other
prisoners, also unaware of the escape plan, were upset at what they
witnessed, not surprising given the brutal history of previous years,
and there was a constant rumbling of discontent below the surface.
The camp leadership appointed Bobby Storey as OC of the operation and
Bik McFarlane as his adjutant. Both were already members of the escape
committee.
Finally, Sunday 25 September was chosen as the appointed day, and the
plan was put into effect. As the day approached, more prisoners were let
in on the plan and those on the list to escape were informed. Other
prisoners would play a vital role in taking the Block and guarding the
screws but would not be escaping.
In the event, the Block was taken according to plan. One screw was shot
and injured when he attempted to shut the door of the control room and
raise the alarm.
The next stage of the plan also went well. The food lorry was
successfully hijacked and the driver was forced at gunpoint to take his
now human cargo out of the prison.
Where the escapers ran into problems was at the tally lodge at the
prison’s main entrance. The plan was to seize control of the lodge, hold
the screws inside hostage while the lorry was driven through the
‘airlock’ at the main gate. Everyone was then to rendezvous with a
heavily armed force of IRA Volunteers who were waiting a few miles from
the jail.
But by this stage the escape was running 20 minutes late and the lorry’s
arrival coincided with a shift change for the screws. Those prisoners
who took control of the tally lodge were soon knee-deep in screws, as
they arrested more and more as they came on duty.
Eventually the prisoners’ hand was forced when more screws coming on
duty realised that something was wrong and two of them blocked the
gateway with their cars.
Bik saw this as he opened the main hydraulic gate and he and Bobby
quickly conferred, realising that the general alarm was about to be
sounded. The prisoners had no option but to leave the lorry and rush the
main gate in numbers.
Thirty-five prisoners managed to breach the prison perimeter
successfully. In all, 19 of those on the escape were quickly recaptured,
but the other 19 successfully managed to evade capture, by a variety of
means and routes. One screw, who was stabbed in the struggle at the
tally lodge, later died, but the coroner subsequently ruled he had
succumbed not to his wounds but to a heart attack.
Back in the prison, when the screws retook H7, the rearguard were strip
searched and were then made to run a vicious gauntlet of baton wielding
screws and dogs, as they were moved to H8.
* In July of this year, it emerged how deeply the 1983 escape affected
the Thatcher regime. Concerned about the huge boost to republican
spirits, Thatcher said she regarded the escape “most seriously”. After
learning it had involved scores of prisoners, the so-called ‘Iron Lady’
privately admitted the breakout was “even worse than we thought”.
Posted by Jim on September 21, 2013
Robert Emmet, hero of the 1803 rising, was executed 210 years ago today.
The following is the speech he made on the eve of his execution.
——————————————————————-
My Lords:
What have I to say why sentence of death should not be pronounced on me
according to law? I have nothing to say that can alter your
predetermination, nor that it will become me to say with any view to the
mitigation of that sentence which you are here to pronounce, and I must
abide by. But I have that to say which interests me more than life, and
which you have labored (as was necessarily your office in the present
circumstances of this oppressed country) to destroy. I have much to say
why my reputation should be rescued from the load of false accusation
and calumny which has been heaped upon it. I do not imagine that,
seated where you are, your minds can be so free from impurity as to
receive the least impression from what I am going to utter–I have no
hopes that I can anchor my character in the breast of a court
constituted and trammeled as this is–I only wish, and it is the utmost
I expect, that your lordships may suffer it to float down your memories
untainted by the foul breath of prejudice, until it finds some more
hospitable harbor to shelter it from the storm by which it is at present
buffeted.
Was I only to suffer death after being adjudged guilty by your tribunal,
I should bow in silence and meet the fate that awaits me without a
murmur; but the sentence of law which delivers my body to the
executioner will, through the ministry of that law, labor in its own
vindication to consign my character to obloquy–for there must be guilt
somewhere: whether in the sentence of the court in the catastrophe,
posterity must determine. A man in my situation, my lords, has not only
to encounter the difficulties of fortune. and the force of power over
minds which it has corrupted or subjugated. but the difficulties of
established prejudice: the man dies, but his memory lives. That mine may
not perish, that it may live in the respect of my countrymen, I seize
upon this opportunity to vindicate myself from some of the charges
alleged against me. When my spirit shall be wafted to a more friendly
port; when my shade shall have joined the bands of those martyred heroes
who have shed their blood on the scaffold and in the field, in defense
of their country and of virtue. this is my hope: I wish that my memory
and name may animate those who survive me, while I look down with
complacency on the destruction of that perfidious government which
upholds its domination by blasphemy of the Most High-which displays its
power over man as over the beasts of the forest-which sets man upon his
brother, and lifts his hand in the name of God against the throat of his
fellow who believes or doubts a little more or a little less than the
government standard–a government which is steeled to barbarity by the
cries of the orphans and the tears of the widows which it has made.
[Interruption by the court.]
I appeal to the immaculate God–I swear by the throne of heaven, before
which I must shortly appear–by the blood of the murdered patriots who
have gone before me that my conduct has been through all this peril and
all my purposes governed only by the convictions which I have uttered,
and by no other view than that of their cure, and the emancipation of my
country from the superinhuman oppression under which she has so long and
too patiently travailed; and that I confidently and assuredly hope that,
wild and chimerical as it may appear, there is still union and strength
in Ireland to accomplish this noble enterprise. of this I speak with the
confidence of intimate knowledge, and with the consolation that
appertains to that confidence. Think not, my lords, I say this for the
petty gratification of giving you a transitory uneasiness; a man who
never yet raised his voice to assert a lie will not hazard his character
with posterity by asserting a falsehood on a subject so important to his
country, and on an occasion like this. Yes. my lords. a man who does not
wish to have his epitaph written until his country is liberated will not
leave a weapon in the power of envy, nor a pretense to impeach the
probity which he means to preserve even in the grave to which tyranny
consigns him.
[Interruption by the court.]
Again I say, that what I have spoken was not intended for your lordship,
whose situation I commiserate rather than envy-my expressions were for
my countrymen; if there is a true Irishman present. let my last words
cheer him in the hour of his affliction.
[Interruption by the court.]
I have always understood it to be the duty of a judge. when a prisoner
has been convicted, to pronounce the sentence of the law; I have also
understood that judges sometimes think it their duty to hear with
patience and to speak with humanity. to exhort the victim of the laws.
and to offer with tender benignity his opinions of the motives by which
he was actuated in the crime, of which he had been adjudged guilty: that
a judge has thought it his duty so to have done. I have no doubt–but
where is the boasted freedom of your institutions. where is the vaunted
impartiality, clemency. and mildness of your courts of justice, if an
unfortunate prisoner, whom your policy, and not pure justice. is about
to deliver into the hands of the executioner. is not suffered to explain
his motives sincerely and truly. and to vindicate the principles by
which he was actuated?
My lords, it may be a part of the system of angry justice, to bow a
man’s mind by humiliation to the purposed ignominy of the scaffold; but
worse to me than the purposed shame, or the scaffold’s terrors, would be
the shame of such unfounded imputations as have been laid against me in
this court: you, my lord [Lord Norbury], are a judge. I am the supposed
culprit; I am a man, you are a man also; by a revolution of power, we
might change places, though we never could change characters; if I stand
at the bar of this court and dare not vindicate my character, what a
farce is your justice? If I stand at this bar and dare not vindicate my
character. flow dare you calumniate it? Does the sentence of death which
your unhallowed policy inflicts on my body also condemn my tongue to
silence and my reputation to reproach? Your executioner may abridge the
period of my existence. but while I exist I shall not forbear to
vindicate my character and motives from your aspersions: and as a man to
whom fame is dearer than life, I will make the last use of that life in
doing justice to that reputation which is to live after me, and which is
the only legacy I can leave to those I honor and love, and for whom I am
proud to perish. As men, my lord, we must appear at the great day at one
common tribunal. and it will then remain for the searcher of all hearts
to show a collective universe who was engaged in the most virtuous
actions. or actuated by the purest motives-my country’s oppressors or–
[Interruption by the court.]
My lord, will a dying man be denied the legal privilege of exculpating
himself, in the eyes of the community, of an undeserved reproach thrown
upon him during his trial, by charging him with ambition and attempting
to cast away, for a paltry consideration. the liberties of his country?
Why did your lordship insult me? or rather why insult justice. in
demanding of me why sentence of death should not be pronounced? I know,
my lord, that form prescribes that you should ask the question; the form
also presumes a right of answering. This no doubt may be dispensed
with–and so might the whole ceremony of trial, since sentence was
already pronounced at the castle, before your jury was impaneled; your
lordships are but the priests of the oracle, and I submit; but I insist
on the whole of the forms.
I am charged with being an emissary of France An emissary of France? And
for what end? It is alleged that I wished to sell the independence of my
country? And for what end? Was this the object of my ambition? And is
this the mode by which a tribunal of justice reconciles contradictions?
No, I am no emissary; and my ambition was to hold a place among the
deliverers of my country–not in power, nor in profit, but in the glory
of the achievement!…
Connection with Prance was indeed intended, but only as far as mutual
interest would sanction or require. Were they to assume any authority
inconsistent with the purest independence. it would be the signal for
their destruction: we sought aid, and we sought it, as we had assurances
we should obtain it–as auxiliaries in war and allies in peace…
I wished to procure for my country the guarantee which Washington
procured for America. To procure an aid, which, by its example, would be
as important as its valor, disciplined. gallant, pregnant with science
and experience; which would perceive the good and polish the rough
points of our character. They would come to us as strangers and leave us
as friends, after sharing in our perils and elevating our destiny. These
were my objects–not to receive new taskmasters hilt to expel old
tyrants: these were my views. and these only became Irishmen. It was for
these ends I sought aid from France; because France, even as an enemy.
could not he more implacable than the enemy already in the bosom of my
country.
[Interruption by the court.]
I have been charged with that importance in the efforts to emancipate my
country. as to be considered the keystone of the combination of
Irishmen; or, as Your Lordship expressed it, “the life and blood of
conspiracy.” You do me honor overmuch. You have given to the subaltern
all the credit of a superior. There are men engaged in this conspiracy,
who are not only superior to me but even to your own conceptions of
yourself, my lord; men, before the splendor of whose genius and virtues,
I should bow with respectful deference, and who would think themselves
dishonored to be called your friend–who would not disgrace themselves
by shaking your bloodstained hand–
[Interruption by the court]
What, my lord, shall you tell me, on the passage to that scaffold. Which
that tyranny. of which you are only the intermediary executioner. Has
erected for my murder. that I am accountable for all the blood that has
and will be shed in this struggle of the oppressed against the
oppressor?–shall you tell me this–and must I be so very a slave as not
to repel it?
I do not fear to approach the omnipotent Judge, to answer for the
conduct of my whole life; and am I to be appalled and falsified by a
mere remnant of mortality here? By you. too. who, if it were possible to
collect all the innocent blood that you have shed in your unhallowed
ministry, in one great reservoir. Your Lordship might swim in it.
[Interruption by the court.]
Let no man dare, when I am dead. to charge me with dishonor; let no man
attaint my memory by believing that I could have engaged in any cause
but that of my country’s liberty and independence, or that I could have
become the pliant minion of power in the oppression or the miseries of
my countrymen. The proclamation of the provisional government speaks for
our views; no inference can he tortured from it to countenance barbarity
or debasement at home, or subjection. humiliation. or treachery from
abroad; I would not have submitted to a foreign oppressor for the same
reason that I would resist the foreign and domestic oppressor: in the
dignity of freedom I would have fought upon the threshold of my country,
and its enemy should enter only by passing over my lifeless corpse. Am
I, who lived but for my country, and who have subjected myself to the
dangers of the jealous and watchful oppressor, and the bondage of the
grave, only to give my countrymen their rights, and my country her
independence, and am I to be loaded with calumny and not suffered to
resent or repel it–no, God forbid!
If the spirits of the illustrious dead participate in the concerns and
cares of those who are dear to them in this transitory life–oh, ever
dear and venerated shade of my departed father. look down with scrutiny
upon the conduct of your suffering son; and see if I have even for a
moment deviated from those principles of morality and patriotism which
it was your care to instill into my youthful mind, and for which I am
now to offer up my life!
My lords, you are impatient for the sacrifice-the blood which you seek
is not congealed by the artificial terrors which surround your victim;
it circulates warmly and unruffled, through the channels which God
created for noble purposes. but which you are bent to destroy. for
purposes so grievous. that they cry to heaven. Be yet patient! I have
but a few words more to say. I am going to my cold and silent grave: my
lamp of life is nearly extinguished: my race is run: the grave opens to
receive me, and I sink into its bosom! I have but one request to ask at
my departure from this world–it is the charity of its silence! Let no
man write my epitaph: for as no man who knows my motives dare now
vindicate them. let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them
and me repose in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed,
until other times, and other men, can do justice to my character; when
my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not
till then, let my epitaph be written. I have done.