The Land of Saints & Dollars

Former Blanket columnist and Radical Unionist commentator Dr John Coulter maintains the dollar replacing the euro could help Ireland out of its financial crisis.

An historic gathering of Irish clans next year could well see the dollar replace the euro as the most influential currency of the European Union. Realistically, the eurozone needs a massive and unified austerity injection across all EU member states to avoid the euro becoming merely a Franco-German financial package.

There has always been a money lobby in the United States wanting to see the dollar as the preferred EU currency. Greek abandonment of the single currency will see that economy re-introduce its former drachmas, not the dollar.

At first reading, the dollar dominating the EU may seem like American wishful thinking. But that was before the Irish government launched a last-ditch tourism drive to kick-start its severely battered economy, once dubbed the Celtic Tiger because of its world-wide reputation for rapid expansion.

In The Footsteps Of Anne

Guest writer Simon Smith with a review of a book detailing the experiences of women republican prisoners.

In the Footsteps of Anne is a compendium of stories of recollection by Irish Republican women describing their experiences of imprisonment.  The length of the book may be daunting to some but perseverance will reward.   All the women are/were ex-prisoners and these are the stories of the young and older alike: 17 year old girls dancing to the Monster Mash during their internment; practical jokes and mischief to wile away the boredom; stories of grief from the outside being delivered, often heartlessly by the authorities. These stories are vital to any understanding of women’s roles during the conflict.  The informal, conversational-style reminiscences are accompanied by a short political narrative and although slanted, as all political narratives of “The Troubles” tend necessarily to be by any author, they are not as biased as one would expect by a book written entirely by Republican ex-prisoners.    

The stories themselves can be funny, tragic or heart-warming and they are always interesting whether you are reading about a unique reminiscence or several accounts of the same event.  The excitement felt by the capture and imprisonment of the Governor or the attempted escape from Armagh gaol is palpable and the different accounts never fail to communicate this.  The concern by the Armagh female prisoners for the male prisoners at Long Kesh during the camp burning and associated reprisals by the authorities shows how close you can be in ideology, mindset and experience yet be so far apart.

Screw With A Conscience

If true, the allegations could not be more disturbing. We have seen a debate over pharmacies and religious organizations opposed to supplying contraceptives. However, this is a state employee with a woman who is in custody. Had she given birth, it would have created a bizarre “wrongful birth” case where the defendant is the state. Even without a birth, if these allegations are true, this woman was put through a harrowing experience - Jonathan Turley

Most people who have been through jail have met the type: a born again Christian screw prattling on about Jesus, being saved, hellfire and the like. Crow like, their droppings are to be found in a range of locations: silly Christian mini comics replete with images of hell and guys called Lucifer. The ones with a good memory are the worst: they can quote line and verse from the bible as if it has some special otherworldly properties that they, the elect, know something about and must share with we plebs, solicited or not.  The thought of them, or anybody else for that matter, being the recipeint of divinely reveal truths, is laughable. And they always love the Book of Revelations with all its violence. That seems to be their favourite. It helps their sense of sadism achieve fulfilment, the thought that somebody else might writhe in agony for ever. Nice people so long as they don't live next door to you.

Americans’ 1st Amendment right to know trumps foreign treaty agreements

Lawyers James J. Cotter III and Eamonn Dornan write about the Boston College subpoena. It originally appeared on Irish American News

First Circuit

A recent US Federal Appeals Court decision upholding subpoenas of research by two Boston College scholars into “The Troubles” has grave implications for political stability in Northern Ireland but it also highlights the threat to Americans’ rights to free speech, a concern that will be shared, we believe, by the Irish people and all who value this most sacred and basic of human rights.

Academics - and journalists - take considerable risks in providing the American public with insightful information into the thoughts and processes of combatants in the world’s trouble zones. They deserve protections that the Court’s recent ruling denies.

Martin Corey: Psychological Torture

Radio Free Éireann interviews Cait Trainor of Republican Sinn Fein about the internment of Lurgan republican Martin Corey


WBAI 99.5 Pacifica Radio
New York City
Saturday 14 July 2012

John McDonagh (JM) - Sandy Boyer (SB) - Cáit Trainor (CT)

(2:20 PM EST)

SB:  Now, we are going to go across the water to Lurgan, County Antrim (Ed Note: Armagh) to talk to Cáit Trainor from The Release Martin Corey Campaign.

Martin Corey served nineteen years in prison for IRA activity.  He was out for nineteen years.  Then they came one morning, (Ed note: 16 April 2010) in the early morning and took him away.  Took him back to prison on the basis of secret evidence he's never been allowed to see, his lawyers aren't allowed to see it.

But Cáit, this week something very important happened with the case.  Can you tell us about it please?

CT: Yes. This week there's been a lot of happenings and to-ing and fro-ing.

An Ode To Brother John

Tonight guest writer Satan O'Sullivan pens an ode for his dear friend John

For our dear friend, Brother John
who daily prays that we have gone
to a site that has an acrid smell
of burning flesh, a place called hell

The kiddies, for having seduced the priests
must too spend eternity with the beasts
for leading good Christian gentlemen astray
they will burn forever, the Catholic way

So are we really to fry on the forks of demons
the air replete with our anguished screamings
without hope of an eleventh hour reprieve
for having the audacity to disbelieve?

So Obvious it is Undeniable

Ed Moloney, Belfast Project Director, updates Radio Free Eireann on the Boston College case. Thanks as ever to our indefatigable transcriber.

First Circuit

99.5 FM WBAI Pacifica Radio

New York City
Saturday 14 July 2012

John McDonagh (JM) and Sandy Boyer (SB) speak to Ed Moloney (EM), the former Director of The Belfast Project, who provides updates on the court case concerning the subpoenas issued to Boston College for the archive.

(1:55 PM EST)

John McDonagh (JM):  …But because this topic is so important and it’s going to affect all the universities throughout the United States and probably throughout the United Kingdom and in The Twenty-six Counties that we want to head to Ed Moloney and get the latest update about the tapes that we’ve been covering here, the tapes of IRA Volunteers and Loyalist paramilitaries, that were taped and not to be released until their death. And we have the Police Service of Northern Ireland subpoenaing Boston College and trying to get these tapes off Boston College. And Ed, we thank you for coming on and maybe you can give us the latest update at two o’clock here in New York City on WBAI 99.5 FM on Radio Free Éireann.

Ed Moloney (EM): Hello, John.

Sandy Boyer (SB): Yeah…this is Sandy.

EM: Hi, Sandy.

Hicksville Hickey

It is invariably funny when some crusty auld conservative stands up in one of those funny bishop’s hats to hector people on how to conduct the sexual dimension of their lives. They don’t seem to get it that on issues of morality they are paid as much attention as circus performers. Who would have their sex life prescribed by Bongo the Clown? As Valerie Tarisco intimated, ‘if paedophile payouts weren’t enough to convince you the Catholic leadership is often anything but moral ...’

Australian bishops seem not to like their foreign colleagues hogging all the ridicule and occasionally go in search for a piece of it themselves. Georgie Boy Pell, the Aussie cardinal exemplified this by explaining to the world how Jews were intellectually inferior to the Egyptians and that the Germans were punished like no other people in history. During a televised interview the audience clapped as the presenter cut the tripe out of him.

Now Ireland has seen another one that has escaped from the circus. Barry James Hickey is Archbishop Emeritus of Perth in Western Australia. The Aussies can produce them for sure.  Internationally renowned for the didgeridoo, the dingo, and the dinosaur – the latter embodied by the Young Earth Creationist looper Ken Ham – convicts and others were often sent from Ireland to Australia. Now it seems the Aussies are sending them back.

Shake Hands With Injustice

Guest Writer Martin Galvin writes an extensive piece on the history of the Gerrry McGeough case.

One former IRA commander was presented for a “royal handshake” while one suspected former Volunteer was presented with a more customary brand of royal invitation for carrying out IRA commands. Gerry McGeough found himself on a dubious honours list. His royal invitation, engraved by three Queen’s Bench appeals judges, “invited” the Tyrone Republican to remain a guest of their “gracious queen” at HMP Maghaberry. It was an offer he could not refuse.

The Stormont Agreement says that credit towards 2 year early release must be accorded those “sentenced outside Northern Ireland” on pre-1998 conflict related offenses. The crown nullified these terms and summarily dispensed with the 7 1/2 years McGeough had spent on IRA charges in German and American prisons.

Those who choreographed the “do-able” handshake did not permit inconvenient topics like Republican prisoners or crown murder victims, to intrude on their discussions. Such matters were relegated for mention after the jubilee tour, when neither Cameron nor his queen need take note. The week began with a queen’s handshake symbolizing change and ended with a queen’s bench meting out the same old injustice.


Context

Few legal battles embodied so many issues and inspired so much emotional reaction as that of Gerry McGeough. Dail deputies and Stormont MLAs have journeyed to Maghaberry and urged his release. Americans have given help to his family that once would have been provided by Green Cross, An Cumann Cabhrach and Tyrone PDF.

Meanwhile DUP members, who scarcely conceal contempt for Republicans with whom they sit in partnership at Stormont, attended his trial to spew venom at someone they see as an unrepentant Republican.

Nigel Dodds called it “outrageous” that anyone was “demanding the release of such a person from prison.” Arlene Foster decried any “special treatment” while demanding McGeough serve his 20 year sentence “in full”, apparently without normal remission, much less the two year early release accorded to other prisoners. Maurice Morrow whinges about public monies paid for McGeough’s legal defense, while collecting public monies as Councillor, Lord and MLA triple-jobber.

In order to understand the issues and emotions running through this case, it is important to begin with the crucial political debate that foreshadowed McGeough’s imprisonment.


Debate

The March 2007 election climaxed a watershed period. Sinn Fein had stamped party approval on the re-named Royal Ulster Constabulary, and urged supporters to ratify this move at the polls. The vote would launch a new era of justice.

Patten, they claimed, had opened the constabulary ranks to nationalists. Future chief constables and someday even justice ministers would take up their posts subject to a Sinn Fein veto. Constabulary boards and district partnerships were touted as controls which Republicans would work to “put manners on the RUC.” A widely quoted Andersonstown News editorial predicted it would be “fun” bringing the RUC to heel. Calls to “trust the leadership” swayed many doubters.

Other equally sincere veteran Republicans, Brendan Hughes and John Kelly among them, felt a moral duty to say no. The RUC was the cutting edge of British repression. RUC hands were bloodstained by shoot-to-kill, or murders carried out in collusion with loyalists. Hundreds had been locked in British prisons, on confessions taken under torture and whitewashed with perjury in Diplock courts. The re-badged RUC-PSNI would merely dress up British law and rule in new insignias and uniforms. The constabulary would be commanded, trained and deployed by RUC veterans.

These skeptical Republicans feared that familiar nationalist faces on constabulary boards would become cosmetic fronts allowing the British to camouflage repression behind the mask of powerless public talking shops.

Gerry McGeough was among those veteran Republicans who stood against any nationalist endorsement for the British constabulary. Without party machinery or funding, he took the debate against the RUC to the same Fermanagh-South Tyrone venues where he had once campaigned for Bobby Sands MP.

McGeough said this battle for Republican hearts and minds was really about future elections, when dreamers of fun putting manners on the RUC had awakened to the dawn of continuing British repression.

With his votes cast but not yet counted, McGeough walked out to retrieve an item from his car. He never returned. The renamed constabulary had pocketed its mandate and was about to take a historic first step in its version of a new era of justice. The candidate was surrounded in a premeditated arrest by waiting RUC-PSNI officers.

Gerry McGeough, over fifty, married and settled with four young children, was charged with joining the Provisional IRA in 1975, and, taking part in a 1981 IRA ambush of an armed member of the UDR, in which both were seriously wounded.

The new era had begun with the new constabulary making an old fashioned retaliatory arrest of an Independent Republican whose real offense seemed to be campaigning for election against them.


Delays

McGeough’s solicitors filed for dismissal based on decades of delay. The Tyrone Republican could have been arrested 20 years earlier, simply by lodging an extradition warrant during his 4 year confinement in a notorious German bunker prison, or during his 3 years in an American jail on IRA weapons charges.

McGeough lived openly in Tyrone, joined in BBC studio debates, attended public rallies, and gave speeches outside constabulary barracks with his campaign posters prominently displayed.  Instead the crown moved against him only in March 2007, outside the polling centre where his votes were being tallied.

A British judge had refused to charge RUC members for Nora McCabe’s murder on July 9, 1981, and for perjury during the cover-up which followed, even after television film belied their cover story of rioting and petrol bombers. Too late, the judge said. Charges delayed so many years would be a clear abuse of process and inevitably dismissed.

Somehow this same judge applied different rules to Gerry McGeough, for an incident which occurred four weeks before Nora McCabe was murdered by the RUC.

Human rights observers from British-Irish Rights Watch and the Committee for the Administration of Justice were ordered out of the courtroom. British pledges that McGeough was free to return to Tyrone were disavowed. McGeough was blamed that no extradition warrant was lodged or that no attempt was made to bring charges when he returned home. RUC-PSNI members were blameless for the ongoing cover-up of Nora McCabe’s murder.

If the heralded new era meant anything how could the same judges still bend the same rules in favor of the RUC-PSNI and across the backs of nationalists?


Undeclared Amnesty

Soon after Gerry McGeough’s arrest, the British began to admit a litany of state force murders and murder cover-ups of innocent nationalists.

Cameron euphemistically called the Bloody Sunday murders, “unjustified and unjustifiable killings”. These are polite words for murder or manslaughter. Cover stories given under oath by these troopers before Widgery or Saville must accordingly be perjury. No arrests of any of these troopers have yet been made, including named troopers identified in multiple killings.

Many fear that the newly announced 4 year constabulary investigation will deliver more years of delay and disappointment for these courageous families. Will this inquiry end in judicial terminations like Nora McCabe’s murder, or sham trials like those which whitewashed the murders of John Downes and Majella O’Hare?  Will the constabulary be more interested in pursuing IRA membership charges than British Army murder charges?

The families of some other victims received apologies but no arrests. In more politically sensitive cases, such as the Ballymurphy Massacre, Pat Finucane’s assassination, or the Dublin-Monaghan Bombings, the crown refused or stonewalled any inquiry.

No one predicts arrests of any members of the British Army or RUC who colluded in murders by their loyalist agents or tortured nationalists at interrogation centers and then sent them to Long Kesh or Armagh, with perjured accounts of voluntary confessions.

The crown seems to have bestowed an undeclared amnesty on members of the British Army and RUC which does not apply to those Republicans like Gerry McGeough who speak against the British administration.


Diplock Court

A Diplock trial was ordered. Those who design repressive British laws choose their terms with deliberate irony. Words like ‘temporary’, ‘emergency’ or ‘prevention of terrorism’ invariably create provisions and powers which are permanent, lasting and routinely used to terrorize nationalists.

These non-jury courts replaced Internment, with show trials that could be counted upon to dispose of unwanted Republicans. Diplock courts were “abolished” which meant never to be used except in every case where the crown deems them useful.

Only a Diplock court would entertain, much less credit, the testimony against McGeough. There was no identification by any witness. McGeough was forcibly stripped and photographed after his arrest. Photos of an old wound were displayed as the crown speculated that it might possibly be a bullet wound, and possibly sustained as far back as 1981.

A bullet fragment with no forensics or DNA link to McGeough was introduced. The smashed fragment may or may not have been the same caliber fired by then UDR member Sammy Brush.

A key Garda witness, known as the “The Badger”, was named by former MI6 officer Fred Holroyd as someone linked to British intelligence.

Pages from a fictional novel authored by Gerry McGeough were read into the record as evidence of intent. Finally a political asylum application, whose confidentiality is a cornerstone of international law, was admitted without hesitation.

During the trial McGeough suffered two heart attacks. The judge ordered constables to monitor McGeough’s treatment at the hospital where he was confined, and to retrieve his medical records.

In 1916, British commanders ordered Army doctors to keep James Connolly alive until British troopers could shoot him. Nearly a century later, it seemed a British judge feared Gerry McGeough might die from a heart attack before the crown could jail him.

The verdict was a foregone conclusion. The flimsy evidence somehow was pronounced inescapable proof of guilt. The crown judge refused to wait for medical documents and directed that McGeough be taken forthwith to Maghaberry.  Senior DUP members celebrated outside the courtroom.


Maghaberry

McGeough was jailed for an IRA ambush that took place on June 13, 1981. Republican prisoners, in June 1981, were in the midst of a Hunger Strike, forced upon them by years of beatings and brutality, much of it accompanying mirror searches or strip-searches. Today in Maghaberry the same sort of brutal strip-searches are being inflicted, despite the agreement of August 2010, to halt the practice.

On his sentence date McGeough was subjected to such a search. He ended up in a hospital instead of court. His solicitors noted that brutality of this type could be life threatening.

David Ford’s appointment, with Sinn Fein backing, brought no protection to Republican prisoners from the same sort of callous brutality that Brendan Hughes and Bobby Sands resisted.

The judge imposed a twenty year sentence, angry that Gerry McGeough made no apologies for the IRA.


Reviews And Appeals

The Diplock judge’s verdict and sentence did not end McGeough’s legal fight. The Stormont Agreement mandates early release for those imprisoned 2 years on pre-1998 offenses. The carefully crafted document specifically referenced those “sentenced outside Northern Ireland” for qualifying offenses and noted that the rights of individual prisoners must be protected under international law.

The provision might have been drawn up with McGeough’s case in mind. In August 1988 McGeough had been arrested on the Dutch-German border and charged with actions arising from the IRA campaign. He remained in a notorious German bunker prison until 1992.He was then transported under an extradition warrant to America on charges that he had supplied weapons for the IRA in 1982. Gerry McGeough was imprisoned approximately 7 1/2 years outside northern Ireland, on charges that would have been qualifying IRA offenses in the six counties. He was entitled to early release but was denied by the crown.

McGeough filed for a judicial review to challenge the British. His solicitors cited more than a dozen comparable cases where prominent Republicans had been accorded early release credit for jail time spent in other jurisdictions through a British legal device, termed a Royal Prerogative for Mercy (RPM).

Ironically the matter was assigned to Seamus Treacy. While an idealistic young barrister a quarter century earlier, Treacy had traveled to Germany as a human rights observer and adviser at the request of McGeough’s co-defendant Gerry Hanratty. Treacy expressed genuine anger at the conditions and injustices which Hanratty and McGeough suffered. Now donning the wig and robes of a British judge, Treacy atoned for his youthful idealism by wiping out those years from the crown ledgers. The “change agenda” had struck again.

McGeough appealed again. Within days after the royal handshake, McGeough got the brand of royal invitation conferred on many Republicans. His appeal was denied and he was kept at HMP Maghaberry.

The crown court redefined the words “outside northern Ireland” to mean only Britain and Ireland, without explanation why more expansive terms had deliberately been written into the agreement. Subtle technical distinctions between McGeough’s case and the dozen comparable cases introduced by his solicitors were contrived. For good measure, Britain’s Weston Park pledge that those wanted on pre-1988 offenses would not be pursued, was hastily discarded as nothing more than an unfulfilled wish, with no legal effect.

Ironically one of the first Republican prisoners to commiserate with McGeough was Martin Corey, who within days would find himself the recipient of his own “royal invitation”.


Settled

It is said that Gerry McGeough will only serve 2 years with little more than 6 months to go. To paraphrase the old saying made famous by IRA author Ernie O’Malley, it is easy to sleep on another man’s 2 years.

However the early release provided by the Stormont deal is by no means guaranteed. Ford and his parole commissioners inspire little confidence. If released McGeough would remain on British license well into his 70s. Martin Corey and Marian Price are even now examples of internment by license. No one would be surprised if still more injustice awaits Gerry McGeough.

This case began more than 5 years ago with a soul-searching debate amongst Republicans. Many believed that endorsing the re-named RUC-PSNI and joining British constabulary boards would enable Sinn Fein to housetrain the British constabulary away from injustice. Other Republicans feared that the British would tout Sinn Fein’s backing and constabulary board seats, to make the party accomplices in British injustice. For Gerry McGeough, Marian Price, Martin Corey, and so many other victims of British oppression imposed in the queen’s name, the photograph of the royal handshake has forever sealed and settled that debate.

The Crippling Power of Silence

Guest writer Mary Elizabeth Marshall, who describes herself as an ex-Catholic, recounts something from personal experience of Clerical abuse.

The video that goes with this is titled VileVaticanVille

My fear is that the anger/disgust at the crimes of the Vatican and the the call for Justice will dissolve as the general public grows weary of gross revelations of more abuse of minors repeatedly in the media worldwide. What is in the media is only the tip of the iceberg of the crimes. Long after myself and others have shuffled off our mortal coils there will undoubtedly be more atrocities revealed. I was born into a fiercely Catholic family which ensured decades of my silence coupled with my own misplaced shame. Hence I understand the crippling power of silence on many victims/survivors. I also want to state that there were Catholic nuns who were as sexually sick and perverted as Catholic priests. Both priests and nuns sexually abused children.

I am 53 years old and experienced physical and psychological abuse within the constructs of Catholicism from aged 7 years through to 14 years of age. The sexual abuse on me occurred at 14 years of age. All I can add is that I died but my heartbeat kept on. Nothing was ever the same again – something died forever in me.

Emasculation

Alan Lundy is a 33 year-old Ardoyne man who was recently remanded to jail on charges that many suspect were contrived to remove him from the streets where his republican worldview had been causing problems for those sentinels of partition, Sinn Fein and the PSNI. In the public discourse of those campaigning on his behalf there has been no attempt made to portray the imprisoned man as a disinterested member of the local community. His family are quite candid about his politics, stating:

Alan is an unrepentant Republican, and does not hide his perfectly legitimate beliefs from anyone. He is involved in numerous Republican projects such as commemorations and Prisoner Welfare, and also takes part in community initiatives including anti-drug projects and opposing sectarian parades.

At the time of his arrest he was also vice chair of the local Seán Mac Diarmada 1916 Society, which indicates he was walking in the republican footsteps of his late republican father. He was further involved in the Greater Ardoyne Residents Committee (GARC ) which Sinn Fein, copying what the British used to do to it, has been trying to demonise, something even the most rudimentary bullshit detector is easily capable of picking up:

This continuing saga has delivered the anti-peace elements both an issue for building on and an unwelcome level of influence within the Greater Ardoyne Residents' Collective (GARC). This and other similar groups, like the Rasharkin Residents Collective, are clearly opposed to our peace process and the new policing dispensation.

Community Awakening

Guest writer Sean Doyle of the IWU and Clann Eirigi County Wicklow writing on exploitation and social inequality.

People are reluctant to accept they have been sacrificed and discarded by their chosen elected representatives without any obligation of care or understanding of the hardship endured by their cutbacks.

Decimating whole communities and breaking up and destroying families. We are thrown to the wolves without hesitation by our elected to continue paying the gambling debts of banks, bondholders and speculators at home and abroad.

We in our communities have been too passive and trusting. Some born of a mindset over years engraved in their brain through years of class distinction that somehow our lives, that of our children and community are secondary to the aspirations and greed of the monetary class.

North's Political Boss Interviewed

Today TPQ features a transcript from RTÉ Radio 1 Today with Pat Kenny broadcast on Thursday 19th July 2012. As always thanks to our transcriber who does so much to provide this service.

Pat Kenny (PK) interviews Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Owen Paterson (OP).

(about one minute into podcast)

PK: As Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Owen Paterson has overseen the recent visit of the Queen to Northern Ireland and the historical handshake with Martin McGuinness.  He also sits at the British Cabinet table on the eve of the London Olympics which have been recently mired in controversy over the security arrangements requiring both the British Army and the police service to fill the gaps left by a private firm.  He's lots of things on his plate but he's also with me in studio.  Owen Paterson, Good Morning and welcome!

OP:  Good Morning!  Thank you very much for asking me on.

PK:  Nice to see you again.  Let's talk first of all about the McAreavey murder trial in Mauritius. 

I can play a clip for you if you haven't heard Martin McGuinness' contribution this morning on “Morning Ireland” already and this is just some of what he had to say:

     From the interview Martin McGuinness (MMG) and Morning Ireland (MI):

    (MMG): there's a very strong view on the island of Ireland and I know (it's) shared by both the McAreavey and Harte Families that they didn't get justice during the course of the trial.

     (MI): but when you say the perverse view of the jury are you saying you essentially disagreed with the verdict of the jury?

     (MMG): I did disagree with the verdict of the jury and I think that the fact that the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Mr. Rangoolam, said just recently that his government is considering all options concerning further actions in this matter with a view to bringing the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice clearly shows that there are people within political authority in Mauritius who share my view.

Shattering that sense of Entitlement

The slow demise and relevance of the Catholic Church in Ireland has the religious right clutching their rosary beads praying for a return to the good old days - Harvey Walnut

The Irish Defence Minister Alan Shatter has been the subject of some criticism this week over his decision to respect the republican principle of secularism by refusing to approve a request for the Irish Army to provide a guard of honour for a religious parade during last month’s Eucharistic Congress in Dublin.

The Iona Institute in its commentary was considerably more measured than the other strident voices from the Catholic right but still appeared to hanker after the good old days when both peasants and Protestants knew their place, and where ignorance of their lowly status could be brought back into their minds by a whack of the crozier:

The last time that the Eucharistic Congress was held in Dublin, in 1932, members of the then Free State army were central to the event. Since then, members of the Defence Forces have provided honour guards at numerous religious events ... The move ... raised concerns that military personnel will be forbidden from taking part in such events again.

Christians must fight atheist giant: Causeway furore is alarming

Former Blanket columnist John Coulter with his creationist take on the Giants Causeway dispute. This piece first featured in the Irish Daily Star http://www.thestar.ie/ on the 16th July 2012.

Well done the National Trust for having the guts to face down militant atheists and humanists and have Biblical Creation as part of the famous Giant's Causeway Visitor Centre display in north Antrim.

Evangelical Christians across the North should take heart from this recognition and now campaign for a Creationist point of view to be given equal status in Belfast 's Ulster Museum and Armagh Planetarium. And with Stormont Education boss John O'Dowd launching his review of school reforms, now is the time for Christian Churches to ensure Creationism is a fundamental part of the curriculum.

McGuinness Meets Monarchy: a Missed Opportunity

The Left activist Tommy McKearney argues in Organised Rage that by refusing to meet the English queen, Martin McGuinness missed an  opportunity to not only explain a republican position but also raise questions about the very nature of the British monarchy and whose interest it serves.

Britain’s monarch recently visited Belfast and shook hands with Martin McGuinness, Deputy First Minister in the local devolved regional assembly. Throughout Northern Ireland the level of unemployment is as high as it was prior to the royal visit, security walls to keep neighbours apart are as permanent as they were before Elizabeth arrived and Northern Ireland’s local media has returned to reporting the usual tensions generated by the Orange Order in the run-up to the annual battle of the Boyne celebration on 12 July. In other words and in spite of the media ballyhoo, it is business as usual in this most westerly region of Mrs Windsor’s kingdom.

Of course it was a remarkable and notable media moment when Britain’s head of state (and commander in chief of the country’s armed forces) met with a former chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army. Undoubtedly, it was gripping drama to have the queen meet a reformed rebel. At the same time, there has been many similar memorable moments on British television and most receive their due recognition at the annual British Soap Awards. The handshake was of no greater significance than any other pointless gesture and contributed nothing to improving the quality of life for the masses.

Respecting Derisory

This is not a case of censorship. We do not question the right of creationists to hold or expound their views, to write pamphlets and books, hold meetings, or set up websites; nor would we for our part demand to distribute articles on the scientific evidence of the age of the Earth in church halls. But we profoundly disagree with any suggestion that creationist views should be given space in publicly-funded museums or visitor centres that explain natural history, or in school science lessons or science textbooks -  Geological Society

It was with a lame parry of criticism, thrust its way for including aspects of creationism at its newly opened Interpretive Centre on the Giant’s Causeway, that the National Trust sought to defend its howler of a decision. To treat seriously, rather than something for display in the myths and legends section of some public project, a narrative that holds the world to be around 6000 years old is as daft as Young Earth Creationism itself. This rubbish has no claim to a run on the same track as geological science or evolutionary biology both of which trace the Cambrian explosion to about 530 million years ago, long, long, long ... ad infinitum before the 6000 life span that a former Northern Ireland culture minister ascribes to the planet. Run it as part of a circus by all means where its advocates would be indistinguishable from the honest clowns but never as a component of an educational facility.

Lundy Family Statement

Tonight TPQ carries a statement from the family of Alan Lundy, who was charged with riotous assembly after a prolonged period of PSNI harassment. 


Today our father, son and brother Alan Lundy was unjustly remanded in custody on two dubious charges of riotous assembly. The first of these charges relates to an incident that occurred seven years ago in 2005, and with the length of time between this incident and Alan being charged means we are very sceptical about the strength of the case against him. The second charge relates to Alan allegedly throwing a missile while stewarding a Residents’ parade against unwanted sectarian marches through his home district of Ardoyne on 12th July 2012. This second charge is even more dubious, based on just one PSNI officer’s testimony, an officer who was tasked with videoing events on the day, but somehow failed to film this incident. That is because it is our view, and the view of the 2000 people that were present, that no such missile throwing took place. At that parade, along with all the other stewards and GARC representatives, Alan was responsible for calming the situation and ensuring the safety of his people as they came under attack from a Loyalist mob while the PSNI looked on.

Prisons for the future..?

Today the Pensive Quill features an article from Emmet Doyle who writes in a personal capacity and blogs regularly at A Wee Simple Man


The Prison Service have released the Outline Estates Strategy for the period 2012-2022 and it makes for rather interesting reading, to say the least. In this entry I want to outline the main provisions, in my opinion, within the document, with a concentration on Maghaberry Prison.

I want to ensure I get the information across, reading a 100+ page document is not something most people want to do or have the time to do, but I think it is a crucial issue that we should all be educated on, so I hope to give a brief - very brief background, then outline the short and medium term plans outlined in the Strategy with commentary. Some of the issues raised will be of some concern, which is why I have waited to write this entry after Pat Ramsey MLA had asked some important questions in relation to separated prisoners and physical facilities outlined in the Strategy.

Three and a half seconds that shook ... very little.

Guest writer Sean Matthews, an anarchist activist, paints a backdrop to the recent visit by monarchy to the North of Ireland. It was written on 6th July 2012.

The handshake that lasted 3.7 seconds kept the broadcast media on knife-edge as the crowning moment of the so-called peace process. However, beneath the carefully choreographed piece of political theatre is a settlement built on sand, on managing sectarianism and regulating division, rather than confronting and removing the causes of conflict in our society.

As former IRA member Tommy McKearney summed up:

Therein lies the real difficulty many of us have with this contrived handshake. It was merely a piece of theatre, which does nothing to address the real problems faced by the people of Northern Ireland. If anything, this type of symbolic posturing is actually harmful. It displaces and/or prevents mature and necessary debate and reflection on the unequal nature of our society and the detrimental impact of Britain’s ruling class upon the public’s wellbeing. (1)

Systematic Campaign of Police Harassment

Tonight The Pensive Quill runs a transcript of Derry republican Gary Donnelly being interviewed on Radio Free Éireann  WBAI 99.5 FM Pacifica Radio New York City USA Saturday 9th June 2012. The interviewers are  John McDonagh (JM) and Sandy Boyer (SB).


JM:  And now we head over to Derry.  There was a certain segment of Derry that made the world-wide news there during the week.  The Olympic torch, which is going around the world and is heading to London, made its way through Derry/Londonderry during the week and there were people protesting or trying to highlight what exactly is going on in The Six Counties. And Gary, maybe you could explain.  What happened and why was there a protest about the running of the Olympic torch?

GD:  Hello, how are you doing?  Basically, over the last number of weeks there has been a systematic campaign launched by the British police in Derry.  There were a large number of what I would describe as “punishment raids” where dozens of armoured Land Rovers (and) heavily armed British police officers seal off areas and kick in doors, searching properties and abusing whoever happens to be in that home. Things were brought to a head last weekend and local women decided that they would hold a protest.  So they done a bit of a text around on mobile phones and within two hours, maybe two hundred people turned up on the streets of Creggan.  There was a lot of anger, a lot of frustration. So it was suggested that rather than protesting in neighbourhoods where you wouldn't get a lot of publicity that the Olympic torch was due to travel through the city the next day so it was suggested that there would be a peaceful protest, mainly by women and children, to highlight the on-going raids by the British police. 

Inexplicable

The PSNI have raided the home of Derry’s Sinn Fein mayor Kevin Campbell. Party colleague Raymond McCartney stated that it was 'inexplicable'. Only if he fails to understand what his party signed up to when it agreed to legitimise and give political cover to British policing operations in the North of Ireland.

So why did the PSNI target the Sinn Fein mayor of Derry? Because they can, and because Sinn Fein can’t stop them. Gerry Adams in seeking to dupe the party faithful into supporting a fully armed British police force promised 'if this motion goes through at the ard fheis, it is about putting manners on the police.' He succeeded. The force seems full of bad manners and Derry people in particular, although not exclusively, appear to be bearing the brunt of that. When Mayor Campbell charges that the PSNI raid transmitted the 'completely wrong signal' about policing in the area, did he regret not heeding the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller after earlier PSNI aggression to which his response reportedly was that the cops were only doing their job? They are still doing it. That job is to pursue those – apart from state actors – who break British laws.

Lamentable

Richard O’Rawe here with a letter that appeared in the Irish News on 11th of Juy 2012 highlighting the emascualation of Northern nationalism in the face of British state repression.

Truly, it is a lamentable state of affairs when nationalists and republicans cannot, through peaceful and democratic protest, secure the release of the internees, Marian Price and Martin Corey. 

What does that cruel reality tell us about the value that the British government currently places on nationalist/republican opinion? Dare I say that it effectively illustrates that we have no real political power, that our influence is peripheral, that we are valuable only so long as we diffidently accept the current British political agenda, that to rock the political ‘boat’ at Stormont may see us sink in a sea of unionist intransigence? 

New Human Rights: Sausages & Beer for Bigots

Below is a transcriptof an interview carried out by Seamus McKee with Nigel Dodds. It featured on BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra on Monday 9th July 2012. Nigel Dodds, a member of a party that has a history of viweing human rights like a disease, has suddenly become reconciled to the concept when it is a question of sausages and beer as much needed energy for feet that badly want to trample over ... well, the rights of others.

Host Seamus McKee interviews Nigel Dodds of the Democratic Unionist Party concerning the Parades Commission's recent decision concerning the time frame imposed on the Orange Order feeder parade in Ardoyne.

SM: It's one of the most contentious Orange Order parades here – the return leg of the North Belfast Twelfth parade passing the Ardoyne shop fronts.

This year the Parades Commission has ruled the parade must be completed by four in the afternoon. The decision's been critcised by the DUP and Sinn Féin. And this afternoon Nigel Dodds led a DUP delegation to meet the Assistant Chief Constable, Will Kerr.

Northern Ireland Conflict Archives Should not fall into Police Hands

The following article appeared in the Guardian’s Comment Is Free site on 10th July 2012

In 2001, three short years after the Good Friday Agreement had seemingly drawn the curtain on the violent political conflict in the North of Ireland the Belfast Project took its first breath. It was devised in Boston College by specialists in the study of Irish affairs and the archiving of matters flowing from such study. Its specific purpose was to enhance knowledge about the Northern Ireland conflict through tapping into the minds of those who were involved, and whose narratives would be lost forever were some effort not made to retrieve them for posterity and wider society.

Last year the PSNI launched a fishing expedition through the US Justice Department which aimed at plundering the fruits of that research stored in the Boston College archive. It sought material that it claimed may be of use to it as prosecution evidence.  Its raiding foray focussed on the 1972 killing of Jean McConville which prompted this from Chris Bray in the Irish Times:

the PSNI and its predecessor agency, the RUC ... ignored the murder of Jean McConville for nearly 40 years. The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland told us precisely that in a 2006 report that found almost no paper trail at all connected to that murder.

Historic Handshake has Fired the Starting Gun

Guest Writer ex-Blanket columnist and Radical Unionist commentator Dr John Coulter maintains the historic handshake has fired the starting gun on a new Irish peace process which will see a peaceful Home Rule for the entire island.

Old republicanism is dead, long live new nationalism! That’s the clear message Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness’s handshake with Queen Elizabeth has sent across Ireland.

This change will not come about this morning magically as if McGuinness was the political version of the youthful wizard Harry Potter. Rather than the Provisionals’ long-war strategy, this will be a long-term tactic of symbolism eventually leading to a new relationship with Britain.

Just as the Good Friday Agreement peace process began in 1998 and effectively concluded with the queen laying a wreath at Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance, the latest historic handshake will start the ball rolling on a new phase of the peace process – one which will see the South form a closer link with Britain through the much-favoured Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

Hillary and Holder Now Free to Stop Boston College Subpoenas

Today TPQ features Ed Moloney with a piece on the judgement of the First Circuit Appeal Cout in Boston.It first featured on his ownn blog The Broken Elbow and also at the Boston College Subpoena News.

In the wake of what was otherwise a disappointing and intellectually unimpressive judgement from the First Circuit Appeal Court on the PSNI subpoenas for the Boston College oral history archive, it is now clear that any obstacles in the way of Hillary Clinton and Eric Holder stopping this foolish and counterproductive move by the PSNI have been removed.

First of all, the First Circuit has delivered its verdict. No matter that it was not the verdict we wanted to read, nonetheless the Obama White House can no longer say that their hands are tied because the matter is still being considered by the courts.

The second reason comes at the end of this distinctly unimpressive and unconvincing verdict. The last four pages are taken up by what might be called a semi-dissent from the first Hispanic to sit on the the First Circuit bench, Judge Juan Torruella whose view was that while he disagreed with the other two judges’ reasoning, he reluctantly went along with the judgement, if only because of Supreme Court precedent.

If you care, you’ll be there!

Featured in TPQ today is a statement from the Greater Ardoyne Residents’ Collective Statement in respect of the Orange Order parade on the 12th July 2012.

GARC is a non party-political residents’ group that is there to serve and give a voice to all the people of Ardoyne, Mountainview and The Dales, in terms of opposing unwanted bigoted parades through our community by Loyal Orders. GARC is committed to peaceful, radical action in order to bring an end to triumphalist parades that are open manifestations of sectarianism and that result in massive disruption to the lives of people in this community, the militarization of our community and the criminalisation of our community.

This 12th July once again the Greater Ardoyne community faces the reality of two unwanted sectarian marches by the Orange Order being granted permission to take place through our area by the Parades Commission and facilitated by the PSNI. This is despite the fact that the people of Ardoyne, Mountainview and The Dales have consistently voiced their legitimate opposition to such marches. The whole ethos of the Loyal Orders is one of Protestant supremacy over the Catholic, Nationalist and Republican people, and they see these marches as the best way in which to assert that supposed supremacy over the Ardoyne Community. All such expressions of naked sectarianism are totally unacceptable to the vast majority of residents within our community and will remain so until all Loyal Order marches are banned from taking place through Ardoyne.

Press Statement On Verdict of First Circuit

From Ed Moloney & Anthony McIntyre

July 8th, 2012

After consulting with our attorneys, Eamonn Dornan and JJ Cotter we have agreed to consider a motion for a re-hearing of the case en banc* because there are issues of exceptional importance raised in the judgement of the First Circuit Federal Appeals Court which the court did not properly address. Not least of these are our constitutional right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment including the protection of academic research; our rights, not least to life, under the Fifth Amendment and the fact that this is the first time in US legal history that a Federal Appeals court has dealt with the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) under this particular section 18 USC 3512.

In the Sewer With Der Stürmer

In the Sewer With Der Stürmer

This page is reserved for comments from racists, bigoted Jew baiters, misogynists, and hate purveyors of whatever hue – you know the type – who sometimes insinuate themselves into web discussion before firing off the hate salvo against the scapegoat of choice, which seems to be their real agenda. The Pensive Quill facilitates a wide range of critical views but it is not its purpose is to serve as platform for those with a particular perverse fetish.

An American View of Harassment of the Irish People.

Tonight TPQ welcomes guest writer Mary Barnes Price with her view on ongoing British state harassment of Irish citizens.


As an American, watching from afar, I find myself increasingly shocked at how the Irish people are still being treated as of today. There are a lot of Americans who believe that the peace process actually worked. They do not hear about the things that are still happening to this day.

When I read the article in which Davie Hyland, was himself searched and harassed by the PSNI while trying to help other people who were being harassed at the same time, I just shook my head. I cannot believe that these things are really happening in the little towns in Ireland, where soldiers around the towns and the police search men, women and children, terrifying them and not finding anything.

Historic Hand Job

No sooner had the queen shook the hand of Martin McGuinness, and scarpered, outsprinted by Prince Philip who had already beaten her to the exit, than the fanfares were being trumpeted again in some quarters. Not quite pitched at the same decibel level, it was clear that signs of media fatigue were emerging. For sure, there was a pun in the UTV headline, 'Giant step' as NI leaders shake hands: making use of the site of the latest magnificent, awesome, resplendent, tremendous, important, novel (truly a MARTIN moment) handshake, the Giant's Causeway. That said, such occurrences continuing to make headlines suggests a puerile focus on the trivial.

How a handshake between two colleagues, who have long stopped fighting, and who have already shaken hands in private continues to excite the media, is a mystery of the peace process. Is there a media superstition that is fearful of not reporting on such mundane events in case it puts the hex on the peace process?  Perhaps the Northern handshake is subliminal political sex that titillates or offends audiences. There is no dearth in the North of those eager to be either titillated or offended.

It is unlikely that UTV was making use of another even better pun, this time for the purpose of a swipe at Sinn Fein, when it reported that:

Mr McGuinness later appeared to have caught the handshake bug, when he headed to the Irish Open at Royal Portrush and joked that he thought he had shook hands with every one of the sell-out crowd.

That type of language does not go down well with the peace process lot. They love words like gigantic, massive, multitudinous, but sell out, nah.

Chris Bray: Boston College Subpoenas Challenged in Belfast Courts Judicial Review

Former Belfast Project researcher Anthony McIntyre has filed a new legal challenge in Northern Ireland against the Boston College IRA subpoenas. While the long fight against the subpoenas has so far taken place in American courts, this effort opens a new front, challenging the subpoenas in the UK. The initial brief in this new lawsuit appears at the bottom of this post.

Most immediately, the brief asks the court to issue an interim injunction that would forbid the PSNI or the government of the UK from “taking custody” of the subpoenaed materials while the court considers the legal issues in the case. The outcome of that request should be clear in a very few days, while two legal appeals remain pending in the US — one of which won’t even be argued before September.

But the separate appeal filed by Belfast Project researchers Ed Moloney and Anthony McIntyre was heard back in May, and should decided any day, now. It’s a broader appeal than the one filed by Boston College, covering a wider range of subpoenaed material. So the immediate issuance of a temporary injunction in the UK could become significant in the very near future if Moloney and McIntyre lose their appeal in Boston — it would mean that the Department of Justice would get confidential IRA interviews on behalf of the UK that officials in the UK would be forbidden to accept.

Flagging it Up

'What is history? Any thoughts, Webster?'


'History is the lies of the victors,' I replied, a little too quickly.


'Yes, I was rather afraid you'd say that. Well, as long as you remember that it is also the self-delusions of the defeated ... - Julian Barnes


The British these days are no longer as coy about flashing their long haul but conclusive victory over the Provisional IRA. In spite of the eye candy optics and the melodic media discourse that swathed the British Queen meeting Martin McGuinness, the British establishment sketched a backdrop to that meeting which reinforced the image suggested by one commentator that McGuinness was in fact ‘presented’ to the queen.

In a week that saw Sinn Fein make what party chair Declan Kearney described as serious compromises - the massaging of a rout to make it appear as an orderly retreat - the British were victoriously waving the Armed Forces Union Flag from Belfast City Hall for six days. Normally it is only one day but then nothing like rubbing the noses of the vanquished in the sour smell of an adversary’s triumph. And to rub salt into the wounds the party of the Justice Minister joined in. If ever justice had a British state inflection it is here.

Frighteningly Familiar

Martin Galvin in a letter to the Irish News on 2nd July responds to D Moore regarding the ongoing imprisonment of Irish republicans by the British state.   

 A chara,

It was frighteningly familiar to read D Moore’s claim that campaigners for Republican prisoners are “worse than the British holding people as political prisoners”, and invoking the H-Blocks to make his point. British officials in 1981 claimed I treated the Hunger Strikers as “pawns” to raise money for those they termed “criminal godfathers of the IRA.” It was a laughable British ploy to defend indefensible policies by blaming Thatcher’s H-Block victims and their supporters. It is not laughable to see any Republican stoop to British ploys to divert us from backing Republican prisoners.
 
I agree with D Moore that Republican prisoners deserve a “broad spectrum of support” and commended the Sinn Fein ex-prisoners who marched for Marian Price, as a step in that direction. I again acknowledge Sinn Fein statements for prisoners during its Ard Fheis, in Stormont and at Maghaberry.

Parsimony Hiding Behind Legalese

Peadar Heffron was a member of the PSNI in January 2010 when armed republicans inflicted serious injuries on him as he drove his car to work at Woodbourne PSNI station in West Belfast. It was a calculated attempt to end his life. That he survived was due to surgical skill rather than frail intent on the part of those who attached the booby trap device to his vehicle.

As convoluted as the thinking behind the attack was, it is not isolated from equally illogical companions, two of which were on display in the media today. If the ELO were to put a musical backdrop to it they might call it Strange Logic.

The first challenge to common sense came courtesy of the Industrial Injuries Tribunal. It seems cruel enough that Peadar Heffron should lose a leg at the hands of people who regard him as an enemy but to lose compensation at the hands of those who ostensibly regard him as a friend seems to have callousness written all over it. For the body to use the excuse that he was not on duty at the time seems parsimony hiding behind legalese. He was driving to work when the explosion that deprived him of his limb occurred. Technicalities being conjured up to avoid forking up.

Bitter Medicine the Only Cure

Former Blanket journalist, Dr John Coulter, maintains that it is only through a spiritual awakening that the Irish Catholic Church can have any future meaning among the nationalist working class.

The Irish Catholic Church needs a spiritual rebirth, not institutional tinkering, if it is to have any meaning among Ireland’s working classes. The same debate is taking place in the Protestant community where the loyalist working class largely feels abandoned by the various mainstream Unionist parties.
 
The clerical abuse scandals, allegations of cover-ups and increasing secularism in society have hit both attendances at Mass and confidence in the Catholic hierarchy not just in republican heartlands, but right across the entire island.
 
The scene from the film, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, where the Catholic priest is hearing confessions of IRA members and blessing their cause before they attack the Black and Tans is now merely mythology.