Posted by Jim on January 26, 2013
The passing of Dolours Price, a republican legend, has come as a deep shock to the entire community, regardless of politics or allegiance.
Dolours was a mother of two sons and former wife of leading actor Stephen Rea. She was found dead at her Malahide home on Wednesday night.
Her death has seen an outpouring of sympathy and respect on social networks, and hundreds of messages have been posted in tribute.
Dolours suffered profoundly from post-traumatic stress disorder relating to her time on hunger strike in 1973/1974, and had previously attempted to commit suicide.
In July last year, she said she was “completely distraught” with anxiety for the wellbeing of her sister, who is younger by three years.
Marian Price was interned without trial by British decree almost two years ago, and is still under prison guard in hospital.
“We formed bonds in English prisons and in Irish prison that can never be broken,” she said. “I hope and trust she will find the strength and courage to keep on going.”
She had been a harsh critic of Sinn Fein in recent years and had repeatedly clashed with its leader, Gerry Adams, over his alleged role in the IRA and his party’s ‘sell out’ of republican principles.
The Belfast native had also come under pressure in recent months as a result of interviews she gave in confidentiality with researchers associated with a ‘conflict archive’ funded by Boston College.
The taped recordings were subpoenad by the PSNI police as part of their historical investigations into the IRA — potentially implicating Mr Adams and others — but have since become mired in legal wrangles on both sides of the Atlantic, including a potential US Supreme Court challenge.
Mr Adams said yesterday he was “profoundly saddened” by Price’s death and extended his sympathies to her family.
“I have known Dolours for a very long time. She endured great hardship during her time in prison in the 1970s, enduring a hunger strike which included force feeding for over 200 days,” he said.
“In more recent years she has had many personal trials. I am sure all of those who knew Dolours will be very sad at the news of her death.”
Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly, who fought alongside her in the IRA, said he was shocked by the news. “A life cut short. She will be sadly missed by her family and friends.”
The 32 County Sovereignty Committee offered their condolences to the Price family. “An unbowed and unapologetic Republican, she will be remembered fondly by all within the Sovereignty Movement.”
In a statement, the two Boston College journalists, Ed Moloney and Anthony McIntyre, also expressed their sadness at her death.
“Throughout the last two years of our fight to prevent her interviews being handed over to the police in Belfast, our greatest fear was always for the health and well-being of Dolours,” they said. “Now that she is no longer with us perhaps those who initiated this legal case can take some time to reflect upon the consequences of their action.”
A TROUBLED LIFE
Dolours was one of the IRA’s most prominent members during the early years of the recent conflict.
Her father Albert Price was a veteran IRA man, a survivor of the 1940s campaign. She recalled how her father would recount his years in the struggle, and said of her family that Republicanism was “part of our DNA”.
Grammar-school-educated, she was in her final year of teacher training at St Mary’s College on Falls Road in west Belfast when she was arrested for her part in an IRA’s campaign on British soil.
She joined the IRA following internment in 1971. Before that she had been a member of the left-wing People’s Democracy.
Attractive, well-spoken and university-educated, she was part of a new breed of articulate IRA members. She was the first female IRA member.
Until that point women were recruited into the Cumann na mBan.
At just 22 years of age Dolours had already risen rapidly through the ranks of the IRA and was privy to the most secret of information as part of an elite unit.
She was the leader of a nine-member IRA team which included Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly, and brought the war in the north of Ireland back to its source — London.
Her role in a 1973 attack on the Old Bailey courts complex, one of the headquarters of the British injustice system, led her to be dubbed ‘the Old Bailey bomber’ by the Tory tabloid press.
She never doubted her actions in that campaign, in which only one person died. She said in her memoir: “In Belfast we gave 15 minute warnings, in London we’d given them an hour.”
Following her arrest and trial at Winchester Castle in November 1973, she was jailed for life, and immediately began a 206-day hunger strike, demanding to be transferred to prisons in Ireland.
“Make no mistake about it, when I made the decision we’d be on hunger-strike, I had a vision we’d starve to death, it was that simple.”
But her senior role in the IRA and her years of incarceration in England, took a toll on her mentally.
She very rarely spoke of her 206 days being force-fed and physically abused by English gaolers. Her sister Marian described the force-feeding
thus:
“Four male prison officers tie you into the chair so tightly with sheets you can’t struggle. You clench your teeth to try to keep your mouth closed but they push a metal spring device around your jaw to prise it open. They force a wooden clamp with a hole in the middle into your mouth. Then, they insert a big rubber tube down that. They hold your head back. You can’t move. They throw whatever they like into the food mixer – orange juice, soup, or cartons of cream if they want to beef up the calories. They take jugs of this gruel from the food mixer and pour it into a funnel attached to the tube. The force-feeding takes 15 minutes but it feels like forever. You’re in control of nothing. You’re terrified the food will go down the wrong way and you won’t be able to let them know because you can’t speak or move. You’re frightened you’ll choke to death.”
Both Price sisters were given early release from prison in the 1980s on health grounds.
MARIAN PRICE BAILED?
It is not yet known if Marian will be permitted to attend her funeral.
In court on Friday there was confusion as to whether or not the 58-year-old was already on bail, as she was granted bail in 2011, shortly before she was interned.
While Judge David McFarland (again) granted bail, he added that it will now be a decision for the Parole Commissioners whether or not the grieving woman is actually released.
The funeral is likely to take place at St Agnes’s Church in Andersonstown, Belfast, on Monday, followed by burial at Milltown Cemetery.
Posted by Jim on January 24, 2013
Veteran republican Dolours Price, sister of Irish political prisoner Marian Price, has died.
Dolours remained a significant force in Irish republicanism until her untimely death in Dublin last night.
Following the introduction of internment in 1971, when hundreds of nationalists were arrested and imprisoned without trial, she approached Sean MacStiofain, one of the founders of the Provisional IRA and said she wanted to be a “fighting soldier”. She campaigned to join the IRA, not part of Cumann na mBan, the women’s wing of the republican movement.
An IRA Army Council was convened and Price was sworn into the organisation, followed by her sister. Both played a significant role in the IRA’s armed struggle.
In 1973, she and her sister were sentenced to life imprisonment in England, and immediately embarked on a 200-day hunger strike seeking their repatriation to a prison in Ireland.
During the hunger strike, which was called off in 1974, the sisters were force fed.
Following her release on compassionate grounds in 1980, Dolours returned to Dublin and she married Belfast actor Stephen Rea in the early 1980s.
The couple, who divorced in 2000, have two sons.
Her sister Marian Price was interned in 2011 by an order of the then British Direct Ruler Owen Paterson. Marian continues to suffer serious ill health as a result of her hunger strike and remains the subject of a worldwide campaign for her release.
Their brutal treatment in English prisons continued to affect both sisters’ mental health, and Dolours has received treatment for post traumatic stress disorder.
In recent years, she was highly critical of the Sinn Fein leadership of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness and of the peace process. She has made a number of statements denouncing Mr Adams for allegedly denying his IRA past, and her involvement in a historical archive project for Boston College became the subject of a PSNI subpoena and multiple legal actions.
It is understood she died peacefully at her home last night in Malahide, County Dublin. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam.
Posted by Jim on January 23, 2013
ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANS
BREHON LAW SOCIETY
IRISH AMERICAN UNITY CONFERENCE
IRISH AMERICAN GROUPS SEEK VOICE OF B. C. PRESIDENT
IN OPPOSING HOLDER SUBPOENAS; CITE
JESUIT ASSASSINATIONS IN EL SALVADOR
Denver, CO & NY, NY & Wash. D. C. January 23th The largest Irish American activist groups in the nation including the oldest Irish Catholic organization in America, the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) , have appealed to Boston College President William P. Leahy S. J. to voice his misgivings about Attorney General Holder’s subpoenas to Secretary of State Clinton and members of Congress. The college is fighting Holder in the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals but it is the political arena where President Leahy’s voice is being sought.
“We believe,” stated Thomas J. Burke Jr., President of the Irish American Unity Conference, ” that the request for these subpoenas are part of a broader effort to destabilize the Irish peace process by ‘deep State British security forces.’ These forces are like those in El Salvador that in 1989 killed Jesuit priests and staff at Universidad Centroamericana in El Salvador. What’s the connection? Prime Minister Cameron admitted in Parliament last month that he was “shocked” and “appalled” by the collusion of security and intelligence forces in the murder in 1989 of Irish civil rights attorney Pat Finucane. Like the government in El Savador in 1989, the British government today holds no one accountable.”
“President Leahy’s predecessor, the Reverend J. Donald Monan S. J.” stated AOH National President Brendan Moore, “became an advocate for justice in the El Salvador murders. Speaking truth to power he pressed Members of Congress and in particular Representative Joe Moakley to fight for justice for the victims. The chosen method to get at the truth for the El Salvador killings was to withold aid from and not cooperate with the government. We believe President Leahy’s voice could transform the Holder subpoena issue in the same way. Why should Holder cooperate until Finucane’s killers are brought to justice?”
Rob Dunne, President of the Brehon Law Society explained : “Britain’s decision to re-hire retired Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers without vetting them was the key to getting some back inside who may even have been involved in Finucane’s murder. To what end? Certain of these returned retirees have worked to cover up the security forces collusion in the killing of hundreds of innocent Catholics, to interfere in the Irish political process and to literally shred the justice provisions of the 1998 Irish peace pact i. e. the Dublin-Monaghan bombing inquiry, the Pat Finucane public inquiry and the Historical Enquiries Team (HET).”
The leaders pointed out that the murky origins of the British subpoena request can be traced to the return of these retirees some of whom served in the lawless and corrupt special RUC unit that has been so cited in the Stevens and Stalker Reports and now the de Silva Review. They pointed out that no college in the nation has a longer association with Ireland and Irish Americans than Boston College and President Leahy’s voice would cause many to reconsider the wisdom of turning over any records to the British at this time.
For more info contact Thomas J. Burke at 303-478-8473, Brendan Moore at 845-712-5463 or Jim Cullen at 914-907-5480 os Mike Cummings at saoirse64@hotmail.com.
January 16, 2013
William P. Leahy S. J.
President
Boston College
Botolph House
140 Commonwealth Avenue
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467
Dear President Leahy:
In August of last year we sent a letter to you regarding the attempt by the British government to secure records from the Irish Archives of the Burns Library (see attached). Indeed the College and, seperately, the researchers who compiled those records, have fought Attorney General Holder’s subpoenas and this misuse of the U.S.-U.K Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT). We welcomed the move by the College.
We had hoped that, in addition to the litigation, the College would express its views to Members of Congress regarding the threat to academic independence and constitutional freedoms. The Writ of Certiorari currently being considered by the Supreme Court in that litigation was accompanied by amicus briefs from respected national and international journalist advocacy groups and social scientist researchers. If Boston College were to share
its concerns with other Jesuit academic institutions like St Joseph’s in Philadelphi, PA, Fordham, Loyola, MD and St Peter’s in Jersey City, perhaps the Attorney General would reconsider his action. Over 20 Members of Congress from the states where those schools are located have followed the leadership of Senator Kerry in opposing these subpoenas not only for their threats to academic inquiry but for their flawed issuance pursuit to the MLAT. Your voice in a meeting with State congressional leaders could complement the litigation which may or may not address the core issues.
As you may know, we filed one of the amicus briefs and focused our arguments on why the Attorney General should cooperate with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) whose record of lawlessness and human and civil rights violations is well documented. Prime Minister Cameron recently released a report which admits the forces of law and order there conspired with loyalist terrorists to kill attorney Patrick Finucane. Not one PSNI officer was held accountable. It is difficult to grasp why the Attorney General of the U. S, the nations chief law enforcement officer would, in this instance, issue subpoenas for records sought by the PSNI. It is a travesty of justice, a misuse of America’s treaty and a threat to the Irish peace process. Your voice is reflected in the court battle. We ask that you also join this political struggle to defend the rule of law and seek justice. This is not unprecedented . Boston College, with the aid of the Representative Joe Moakley, helped expose tyranny in El Salvador and fought for justice for the victims of the Jesuit assassinations there in 1989.
Sincerely,
Brendan Moore Natl President A.O.H. 845-712-5463
Robert Dunne Esq. President Brehon Law Society 212-278-1565
Thomas J. Burke Jr. Esq. Pres. Irish Amer. Unity Confernce 303-478-8473
Cc: Ms. Kathleen McGillycuddy, Chair
Board of Trustees
Boston College
Posted by Jim on January 21, 2013
Friday, January 18, 2013 AM GARC have issued the following statement regarding the PSNI handling of protests.
For the past six week Loyalists, led by the UVF and various factions of the UDA, assisted by the Loyal Orders and Unionist politicians have been engaged in illegal roadblocks across the Six Counties with the vast majority taking place in the Greater Belfast area.
These roadblocks have been deemed as “peaceful” despite the presence of armed masked men, including paramilitaries, who have denied members of all communities access to their homes and essential services, while in one shameful episode an elderly man was denied entry through a Loyalist roadblock in order to visit his dying wife and jeered as he was forced to turn back, in full view of the PSNI.
In addition to these roadblocks, Loyalism has again demonstrated its willingness to attack vulnerable Nationalist and Republican Communities, with the Short Strand, as it has for generations, facing the brunt of these incidents with unprovoked incursions and attacks on the homes and residents of that area. In effect the Short Strand is once more under siege from the UVF in East Belfast, and as before it is with the passive approval of both the Ulster Unionists and the DUP. The Greater Ardoyne Residents’ Collective fully supports the residents of the Short Strand in their plight and their right to defend their homes, Church and Community.
From the outset of these series of events there seems to be confusion around what Loyalism is actually protesting about. Are they protesting against a vote by Belfast City Council to fly the Union Flag on certain days a year? Against social deprivation in Loyalist areas? Against supposed equality for Nationalists/Republicans in the Six Counties? Against Inquiries into State Collusion and Murder? Against the use of Gary Haggerty as a supergrass in a trial implicating most, if not all, the UVF leadership? To unite Loyalism and Unionism, interestingly by having two politically exclusive forums?
Unfortunately it seems that the spokespeople for those organising these protests don’t know themselves, as clearly demonstrated in the media and most shambolically on a recent edition of the Nolan Show on BBC television. However where there can be no confusion is around the role of the PSNI in Loyalist protests, with the authority of the State. First Minister Peter Robinson stated in relation to paramilitary led protests that,
nobody but a tyrant would suggest that there should be an end to peaceful protest in public. Who on earth would suggest that it is appropriate that people cannot peacefully and publicly protest about decisions that they do not agree with?
Additionally, in recent days PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott stated that:
There is speculation about why doesn’t the PSNI do this [sweep protesters off the road]. The reality is we put safety first and make sure that people’s rights for peaceful protest are upheld wherever possible.
It is important to note these comments when comparing the actions of the State, propped up by Robinson’s OFMDFM, and their armed militia, the PSNI, when nationalist Residents have exercised their right to peaceful protest. In Ardoyne in 2010 GARC staged a sit down protest on the Crumlin Road to prevent an unwanted sectarian march from passing through our community. A sit down protest that took place on a road already blocked by the PSNI to facilitate this march, and as such was causing no further hindrance to the already disrupted lives of local residents. The PSNI response was not to “sweep” Residents away, but to use dogs, armed men’s fists and batons to remove people. 29 Residents and supporters were subsequently charged, taken to court and prosecuted, with many going to jail and others currently being pursued under live arrest warrants to be taken to Maghaberry. Compare that to the complete inaction of the PSNI when it comes to facilitating a handful of Loyalists blocking main and secondary arterial routes in Belfast and elsewhere and ask has there really been a new beginning to policing in the Six Counties.
Unbelievably, while Loyalist paramiltaries and elected Unionist representatives laugh and chat with officers from Tennent Street PSNI Barracks as they block roads surrounding Ardoyne, at Hesketh, Twaddell and Cambrai. Officers from the same Barracks have for the last month been calling to Residents homes in Ardoyne and cautioning them for “illegally protesting” against an Apprentice Boys parade on 1st December 2012. This is despite the fact that no GARC protest was called. All of those cautioned were standing on an open footpath beside a functioning bus stop and outside shops that were open for business. None were holding placards or banners, none made any noise or gestures as the parade passed, none obstructed the parade or road and none were masked. Four Residents were actually cautioned prior to the Parade passing after local “community reps” were witnessed pointing them out falsely as “organisers” to a police officer they attend local Interagency meetings with, while others have been cautioned as the PSNI called to their home. As a result, one Resident has already instructed his solicitor to initiate legal proceedings to have his caution withdrew, with a judicial review to follow if this is refused and the other Residents are in the process of starting the same legal proceedings.
The actions of the PSNI, both in terms of facilitating Loyalists in their protests that have caused huge distress to their own and neighbouring communities, massive disruption to the local economy at a time of recession and directly led to the violent life threatening attacks on the Short Strand, and in terms of persecuting Residents opposed to sectarian parades while refusing them the same right to peaceful protest, clearly demonstrates that they are a sectarian force with the same sectarian mentality of their RUC forerunners.
It is time for people in Ardoyne, and other communities that are victims of their harassment and persecution, to make a stand and demonstrate that they are not welcome or acceptable as a politically unionist police force. Apologists for this armed militia within our community should also cease and withdraw their support for the PSNI, and instead show support for their neighbours, and in some cases friends and family, who are constant victims of PSNI intimidation and harassment.
Posted by Jim on
In late 2012 leaders of Irish American groups spoke of getting together to organize and prioritize our objectives for 2013. It has taken longer than expected to set up this initial meeting but with 2013 firmly upon us let us dive in.
On Monday January 28th Rita O’Hare will be in NYC Dan Dennehy and I thought this would be a good opportunity to have our initial meeting.
We have reserved the 2nd floor of the
Black Sheep @ 583 3rd Avenue (at 38th Street)Manhattan for 6pm.
Rita can give us an update from Ireland and we can start our discussions about 2013. For those that can not make it, we will set up a conference call number to call in.