Interview with Dixie Elliott

Peace Processing the Memory of the Conflict

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Amnesty International: You keep getting it wrong

Maryam Namazie with piece critical of Amnesty International which originally featured on her own blog. Today, there will be a demonstration against Amnesty International for its disproportionate support of the Islamist perpetrators of crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes. I am also vehemently opposed to the death penalty in all cases (it’s nothing short of state-sponsored murder), but Amnesty could do much more to support the victims and the demand for justice. Of course,...

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Mural For Marian Price

From Free Marian Price Now! A Chairde, a new mural for Marian has been painted on the International Wall on the Falls Road in Belfas...

Bates and Wilkes Central

Occasionally The Pensive Quill, like most other blogs and websites probably, gets visits from racists, Nazis, cranks, crackpots, fetishists, trolls, sockpuppets, hate merchants, obituary defacers, obsessive stalkers and a sundry of others whom we generally ignore, just hitting the delete button the minute a comment from them appears without even reading the content. TPQ hosts a wide range of discussion which is sometimes heated as perspectives and opinions clash. It is not a gable wall where the parade of the pariahs is asked to assemble with a...

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Fran McNulty speaks to Ed Moloney and Anthony McIntyre

This Week with Fran McNulty RTE Radio 1 Boston College case   Transcript: Fran McNulty speaks to Ed Moloney and Anthony McIntyre on what is next for the Boston College Archives RTE Radio 1 27 January 2013 Downloa...

Monday, February 25, 2013

Far from Powerless

Guest writer Sean Matthews with an anarchist take on the recent flag protests. If there is anything we can take from the continuing street protests in loyalist heartlands is that we are far from powerless if we utilise direct action rather than constantly lobbying our politicians and peacefully marching from A-B...

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Touché

Guest writer Alec McCrory with an account of his experiences at the lower levels of the North's British justice system. More than two years ago we buried a dear friend and comrade, Peter Skeet Hamilton after his brief though doomed battle with a highly aggressive form of cancer. He had spent many years on the run in Dundalk, a town he loved as a second home. Skeet was well known by republicans the length and breadth of the island. His popularity was acknowledged by the hundreds of people who turned out on both sides of the border to see him off...

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Dáil Questions

Wednesday's debate in the Dáil focused on the issue of the internment of Marian Price and Martin Corey. The transcript of the exchanges follows.  Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Priority Questions Northern Ireland Issues 5. Deputy Clare Daly (Ind) asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the steps he has taken in his dealings with the Northern Ireland and British authorities to highlight the wide-spread concern that exists in relation to persons (details supplied)...

Friday, February 22, 2013

Martin Galvin Interviewed

Radio Free Éireann WBAI 99.5FM Pacifica Radio New York City 2 February 2013 John McDonagh (JM) interviews Martin Galvin (MG) via telephone from the home of Gerry McGeough in Dungannon, County Tyrone about the recent events he attended in Ireland. Thanks to our transcriber. JM:  Martin, before we get into your itinerary I just wanted to reminisce a little bit about (former New York City Mayor) Ed Koch.  I told the story about how Ed Koch tried to stop the NYPD Emerald Pipe Band from marching in Bundoran, County Donegal on behalf of...

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Where's Our Piece Gerry?

Guest writer Marty Flynn, a regular contributor to discussion on TPQ, pens a satirical piece which takes a duck's eye view of the world by peering up the Great Leader's fundament as he lies in the bath to get a better sense of his ideas. Dear Gerry, Martin too if you want to listen in, My wife turns 60 this year."so what!" says you, as you no doubt lie in your perfumed bath, adorned with gold taps, playing with your ducks, alone these days amongst living things that believe you. Well, her family wanted to bring her to Las Vegas (no the showgirls...

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Hang, fry, or 'bin Laden' any and all cop-killers

Former Blanket columnist and Radical Unionist commentator, Dr John Coulter, is a strong advocate of the death penalty for convicted cop-killers. In this controversially written article, he sets out his case for the return of the rope and electric chair. This article appeared in the 4th February 2013 edition of the Irish Daily Star. Hang ‘Em High! The famous Clint Eastwood Western title should be the new joint policy of the Dail and Stormont for convicted vermin who murder police officers, such as Detective Garda Adrian Donoho...

From Lord Edward to TV Mike

Tommy McKeareny with a piece on the upcoming Mid Ulster by-election which initially featured on his own blog. The mighty party Edward Carson once led with iron-fisted certitude is now stumbling, drunkenly towards an inglorious end. Surveying turmoil around him, Mike Nesbitt, the current leader of the once all-powerful Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), might now think he would have been better advised to try reality television than attempting to fill the position once occupied by men like James Craig and John Andrews. In his desperation to succeed, Nesbitt...

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Brian Mór

Remembering cartoonist Brian Mór on the first anniversary of his death.  The Death of Brian Mór - 2012 BRIAN MÓR Ó BAOIGHILL View Brian's cartoons on The Pensive Quill  to scroll through all of them, use the "Older Posts" link at the bottom of each page. A small selection of his work: ...

Monday, February 18, 2013

There at the Creation

Radio Free Eireann interview with Anthony McIntyre and Ed Moloney: The Death of Dolours Price Boston College case, Dolours Price Radio Free Eireann WBAI 99.5 FM Pacifica Radio New York City 26 January 2013 John McDonagh (JM) and Sandy Boyer (SB) interview via telephone Ed Moloney (EM) and Anthony McIntyre (AM), the director of the Belfast Project and the lead researcher of the Belfast Project respectively, about the recent passing of former IRA Volunteer Dolours Price. Thanks as ever to TPQ's transcriber....

Thank you for standing with me

Below is the bulk of an email from Bayli Silberstein, a 14-year-old student in Florida. Bayli has been trying to form a student group called a Gay-Straight Alliance to combat the homophobic name-calling and bullying she and her friends face at school. She reached out to the American Civil Liberties Union for help. The email was sent to me through the ACLU and included an appeal for ACLU members to  sign a petition. It is worthwhile sharing. Without the work of the ACLU over the decades in the US, many current freedoms would not be available...

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Disastrous and Irresponsible Decision

Dr John Coulter with a his piece which first featured in his Ireland's Eye column in Tribune Magazine on 10th February 2013 The British and Irish Labour parties have made a disastrous and irresponsible decision not to contest elections in Northern Ireland in a last ditch bid to save their floundering so-called sister party, the moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party....

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Gethsemane

Five years ago today, a Saturday, our old friend Brendan Hughes died in a Belfast hospital after a short illness. For over a week this redoubtable leader of the H-Block blanket protest had lain beyond the reach of any human help other than the palliative. Sometimes he rallied. The previous Saturday in the company of another former prisoner I made my way to the hospital in fear of the worst.  Upon arriving we were relieved to learn the moment had passed and for a while Brendan seemed to pick...

Friday, February 15, 2013

Unionist appetite for domination and imposition is insatiable

Guest writer David McSweeney with a piece that addresses among other things the likelihood of Irish unity. We are confronted with a vast, confusing and obscure tableau of processes and committees and sub groups which pretend to solve common problems, from terrorist financing, to avian flu and the Middle East Peace process. Now working on the side of those subjected to these processes, rather than those designing or running them, it is clear that the existence of such processes can have in itself a debilitative effect: the mere existence of...

Maghaberry – the reality of strip-searching

Stephen Murney is a Republican Prisoner in Roe 4, Maghaberry. He penned the following article on 4th February 2013. It initially featured on the éirígí website. In occupied Ireland today many Irish Republicans find themselves in the unfortunate position of being arrested charged and imprisoned purely as a result of their opposition to the on-going British occupation and for campaigning for national and social liberatio...

Thursday, February 14, 2013

What Now For the Prisoners

Tonight The Pensive Quill carries an article by Guest Writer Alec Mc Crory.  Yesterday David Ford rejected the suitability of a new body scanner for use in the prison estate based on a highly dubious report. According to the findings of the pilot the new technology was found wanting in the detection of contraband. The report claims the state-of-the-art equipment failed to detect items as varied as mobile phones, knives, drugs and pens secreted on the persons of members of the prison staff. A likely story, if you ask me. This report should...

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Death in Derry

Philippa Reynolds is not a name that I was familiar with up until Sunday. I don’t think I ever recall knowing anyone called  Philippa. It is not the type of handle that I would have heard used too often having lived my life between jails and Northern nationalist areas. Not many in either called that. A Reynolds here and there but not a  Philippa....

Welcome Home Gerry

Guest writer Helen McClafferty with a short piece on Gerry McGeough's homecoming after some years in a British prison. It was such a pleasure to be in County Tyrone to celebrate Gerry’sfreedom and to finally meet the co-chairs of the Free Gerry McGeough campaignwho have done such a fantastic job in keeping Gerry’s plight in the forefront of the media and never stopped lobbying politicians in the Dail, Stormont, Westminster and the Government of Cataloni...

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Moloney & McIntyre on US Government’s Decision To Pursue BC Archive Despite Death Of Dolours Price

Boston College case, DOJ, First Circuit Press Statement From Ed Moloney & Anthony McIntyre On US Government’s Decision To Pursue BC Archive Despite Death Of Dolours Price: We are not parties to the appeal which Boston College has brought to the First Circuit Court of Appeals (Docket number 12-1236), but our case before the Supreme Court of the United States argues that we are entitled to be heard on these matters which involve the First Amendment rights of academics and journalists to the confidentiality of sources and materials in opposition...

Monday, February 11, 2013

Rally For Marian Price

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It Has Been 21 Months

A statement from the Price McGlinchey Family A Chairde, It's been 21 months since Marian was arrested and imprisoned - we hope to step up the campaign for her release in the coming weeks. As Marian’s family we are grateful both for your continuing support and your respect and understanding of the pressures we are unde...

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Excellent turnout at Welcome Home Function for Gerry McGeough

Guest writer Helen McClafferty with her take on the return home from prison of republican activist Gerry McGeough A great night was had by all at the welcome home function for Gerry McGeough.  The venue was packed.  Several hundred people from East Tyrone, across Ireland and overseas gathered for what was a truly upbeat and energy packed night.  The craic, as they say, was absolutely fantasti...

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Home Again

John  McDonagh (JM) and Sandy Boyer (SB) interview Gerry McGeough (GM) via telephone from his home in Dungannon, County Tyrone in his first interview since his release from Maghaberry Prison last Monday. Mick O'Brien (MO) of The Druids also joins the conversation. Radio Free Éireann WBAI 99.5FM Pacifica Radio New York City 2 February 2013 GM: Well you can't beat that for an introductio...

Friday, February 8, 2013

The State we are in

Pauline Mellon with a few thoughts on the internment of Marian Price, whioch appeared as a letter in the Irish News on the 7th February 2013. In 1998 here in the north we were promised a 'new beginning.' The Good Friday Agreement voted for by the people was to bring that 'new beginning.' The agreement promised 'measures compatible with a normal peaceful society' and an era in which justice would be done and would be seen to be done. Nearly 15 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement Marian Price McGlinchey is the victim of administrative...

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Mindset of the English Ruling Class

The following is an unpublished letter written by Moya St Leger to the Irish News.  Dear Sir, At a public meeting chaired by John McDonnell MP at the House of Commons on 20 Nov 12 to present the cases of the prisoners Gerry McGeough, Marian Price and Martin Corey, Conor Murphy SF pointed out that their imprisonment is an abuse of the legal process. He demanded their immediate releas...

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

National Republicanism

In the latest of a series of exclusive articles for debate, former Blanket columnist, guest writer Dr John Coulter, outlines the key points of his new non-violent ideology for Irish nationalism known as National Republicanism. The readers of The Pensive Quill, and The Blanket before that, were never under any illusion as to what I am and where I stand on Biblical Christianity, the Union and British Commonwealt...

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Unprepared For College

The following infograph has been submitted to TPQ by Alexandra Campbell of the College@Home group which campaigns on education. It initially featured on the College@Home site.  "Give it the ol’ college try.” We’ve all heard it. Whether from a coach, a parent or other authority figure, the phrase is often used as encouragement when one is faced with a seemingly insurmountable task. It instructs us to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and do our best, even in the face of possible, or even likely, defeat. ...

Monday, February 4, 2013

Just Another Weapon in the Government's Arsenal

Tonight TPQ features a talk delivered by Monsignor Raymond Murray at a meeting in London on 20th November 2012. Appreciation as always to our transcriber. We are reminding ourselves this evening of the importance of every human being – the concrete historical, live individual, the person with a name. The name today is Marian Price. All morality, Christianity and human rights, at least a person’s commitment to these things, can be summed up in our attitude to this man or woman with a name – not some abstract man or woman. A person with dignity...

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Cruel Britannia

Tommy McKearney has penned a review on his own blog of Ian Cobain's book Cruel Britannia. A Secret History of Torture. Britain's public and its government are currently devoting significant attention to the behaviour of the nation's broadcast and print media. Both Parliament and the people are, understandably, concerned to ensure that the powerful Murdoch News Corporation and the equally influential BBC are conducting their affairs properly and with decency. The British people are entitled to know, and indeed demand, that newsgathering is done...

Via Dolorosa

Last Monday when we placed Dolours Price in the cold forbidding clay of a Belfast cemetery, I had no sense that the earth was enriched by absorbing her, just that we had been impoverished by relinquishing our grip on her as she passed into the ground. It marked the final goodbye in stark contrast to first hello that heralded a friendship 14 years earlier. Comradeship had long preceded friendship. People don’t need to know each other to be comrades, merely to be part of the same insurrectionary...

Friday, February 1, 2013

Adapting to changing times.

Guest writer Davy Carlin, a Belfast activist, with his views on the G8 summit.  Today’s world is a far different place than that of the beginnings of the recent Irish War, better known today, as the ‘Troubles’. Yet, within such a local insurrection it is nevertheless important to acknowledge the global and historical context in which that insurrection had taken plac...

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