Anthony McIntyre's Blog, page 1218

Having Nun Of It

Anthony McIntyre has some thoughts on the National Maternity Hospital controversy.

Right now the only thing that can be said of the Irish health system with any accuracy is that it is a mess -  Irish Times.
As it stands Holles Street Maternity Hospital is a “dilapidated, antiquated building not fit for purpose” in which health professions "are practising 21st-century medicine in a building that is crumbling.” That a plan to move and modernise has for the past fortnight been the source of a voluble and contentious public discussion seems incongruous in a modern society. As the Irish Times  Opinion Editor put it:

It is strange state of affairs when a former president of the High Court has to come out and publicly declare that a new maternity hospital will not be run by nuns. But such is the level to which the debate about the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) moving to the St Vincent’s hospital campus has descended.

Women in Ireland have a right to the best medical care available and have justifiable fears about it being compromised in deference to an authoritarian religious institution. More progressive countries in the Global North and Central and Eastern Asia will likely look on aghast that there is even a suggestion that pregnant women in the 21st Century risk having their health care dictated to by women whose attire and attitude is more akin to a bygone age.  The image nuns project – or which is manipulated and manufactured by their critics – through their formal dress and religious opinion is one of witches, rather than health professionals, who favour magic over medicine.

Having a teenage daughter who might at some point need to avail of maternity services, I took to expressing the view that hospitals should be a safe space for Irish women by prioritising patients over priestcraft. I was amused to find myself treated to the accusation that I was an anti-Catholic bigot. That at least was a fresh addition to the repertoire of pejoratives I have experienced over the years.

In spite of this blinkered buffoonery, the debate should not, however, descend into one of exercising bragging rights over the Catholic Church where virtue signalling becomes a form of reverse discourse employed to allow some self-indulgent expression of Schadenfreude. The focus should remain firmly on asserting the rights of women to have their health care safeguarded from any form of superstition, religious or otherwise. Many who are happy for The Sisters of Charity to own a maternity hospital would howl if the same privilege were to be bestowed on the Islamic Centre. 
Doubtless, the sharp, at times strident, tone that has emanated from opponents of the move has been fuelled by the recent exposé of The Congregation of the Sisters of Bon Secours in Tuam, where:

No one, apart from a handful of Catholic extremists, denies that conditions in the home were grim, and that the women and children who lived and died there were gravely wronged.

Consequently, if as a result, "nuns in Ireland have been so stereotyped in Irish public debate that they have been reduced to the role of the villain in an old-fashioned Hammer horror movie", they have provided their detractors with an abundance of ammunition. 

No society should allow pregnant women to fall into the hands of religious institutions when there is  a serious conflict between religious teaching and best health care practice and where the religious opinion of nuns is considered more important than the health of women.

Capricious, Mean-Minded, Stupid God

Stephen Fry at his brilliant best, cutting through the God myth with clinical logic.

The Edge Of Empire

Steve Ricardos, who frequently post comments on TPQ , shares his thoughts on life down under.

As a few of you on TPQ are aware I emigrated to the colony of Australia a while ago looking for work and a better life for my wife and two weans. 

What I found was a most extraordinary place, full of diversity, awe-inspiring scenery and locals who display absolutely no notion of ‘Britishness’ despite having the Union Flag jammed in a corner of their own standard and allegedly Mrs Windsor as their ‘Queen’.

England is far removed from their lives, the empire is no more and save the odd (and rather boring) game of cricket not one Australian I have encountered really cares about this state of affairs. Many here would struggle to name the British PM and All really do think that ‘Poms’ whinge a lot, though I do think this is a tad unfair given the vast difference in weather and sensible way the Australians have organised themselves as a society who work to live rather than live to work.

Australia, for the most part, minds its own business and as long as the beer/wine is cold and they have sport they are a merry bunch. They are most definitely a nation obsessed with sport, however, and who can blame them? The weather here is great 85% of the year and a huge part of everyone’s lives is spent outside. From the stereotypical ‘barbie’ for dinner after work (with beer), to watching their kids play for their local soccer/rugby/AFL team (with more beer) and following all this with a few ‘cold ones’ with mates watching more sport on TV… mainly on the weekends though. (Rules firmly laid down by Mrs Steve!).

I have started to get my head a little around the politics here, and it seems to be set up based loosely on a mix of UK and US legislature with both an upper and lower house. The two main political parties of note are ‘Labor’, spelled inventively without the last vowel, and the other is a coalition of conservatives from the Liberals (in name only, notoriously homophobic/xenophobic) and the Nationals ( crazy redneck farmers). 

Interestingly, the previous Liberal Prime Minister before he got shafted was a man by the name of Tony Abbott, a one-time trainee Priest who, aside from being a batshit crazy alcoholic, reinstated the archaic ‘Knighthood’ system of honours in Australia then proceeded to award the old racist ‘Prince Phillip’ a ‘Knight of the Order of Australia’… I would have loved to have seen the look on Mrs Windsor and Old Phil’s face when that news dropped! Castle Catholics have nothing on our PM’s!

There have been a few moves towards making Australia a Republic, however. Our current PM is a member of the Australian Republican Movement but by and large nobody really seems to care here. There apparently was a National vote in 1999 that was soundly defeated in every state. But I am led to believe that is because the people did not like the structure of the alternative, rather than some dearly held loyalty on the edge of empire.

Thus pervades a complete lack of interest in a Republic lately too. Ask an Australian what concerns them and they will invariably mention the price of electricity and gas firstly, and the absolutely insane prices for houses in the current market. Raise the notion of a Republic and expect raised eyebrows. The people want a roof over their heads and food in their stomach first and everything else is commentary.

The more things change, the more they stay the same!

Palestine's Nelson Mandela

The Uri Avnery Column praises Marwan Barghouti.

I Have a confession to make: I like Marwan Barghouti.


This was not a secret agreement: Barghouti has repeated this proposal many times, both in prison and outside.

I also like his wife, Fadwa, who was educated as a lawyer but devotes her time to fight for the release of her husband. At the crowded funeral of Yasser Arafat, I happened to stand next to her and saw her tear-streaked face.

This week, Barghouti, together with about a thousand other Palestinian prisoners in Israel, started an unlimited hunger strike. I have just signed a petition for his release.

Marwan Barghouti  is a born leader. In spite of his small physical stature, he stands out in any gathering. Within the Fatah movement he became the leader of the youth division. (The word "Fatah" is the initials of "Palestinian Liberation Movement, in reverse),

The Barghoutis are a widespread clan, dominating several villages near Ramallah. Marwan himself was born in 1959 in Kobar village. An ancestor, Abd-al-Jabir al-Barghouti, led an Arab revolt in 1834. I have met Mustafa Barghouti, an activist for democracy, in many demonstrations and shared the tear gas with him. Omar Barghouti is a leader of the international anti-Israel boycott movement.

Perhaps my sympathy for Marwan is influenced by some similarities in our youth. He joined the Palestinian resistance movement at the age of 15, the same age as I was when I joined the Hebrew underground some 35 years earlier. My friends and I considered ourselves freedom fighters, but were branded by the British authorities as "terrorists". The same has now happened to Marwan – a freedom fighter in his own eyes and in the eyes of the vast majority of the Palestinian people, a "terrorist" in the eyes of the Israeli authorities.

When he was put on trial in the Tel Aviv District Court, my friends and I, members of the Israeli peace movement Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc), tried to demonstrate our solidarity with him in the courtroom. We were expelled by armed guards. One of my friends lost a toenail in this glorious fight.

Years Ago I called Barghouti the "Palestinian Mandela". Despite their difference in height and skin color, there was a basic similarity between the two: both were men of peace, but justified the use of violence against their oppressors. However, while the Apartheid regime was satisfied with one life term, Barghouti was sentenced to a ridiculous five life terms and another 40 years – for acts of violence executed by his Tanzim organization.

(Gush Shalom published a statement this week suggesting that by the same logic, Menachem Begin should have been sentenced by the British to 91 life terms for the bombing of the King David hotel, in which 91 people – many of them Jews – lost their lives.)

There is another similarity between Mandela and Barghouti: when the apartheid regime was destroyed by a combination of "terrorism", violent strikes and a world-wide boycott, Mandela emerged as the natural leader of the new South Africa. Many people expect that when a Palestinian state is set up, Barghouti will become its president, after Mahmoud Abbas.

There is something in his personality that inspires confidence, turning him into the natural arbiter of internal conflicts. Hamas people, who are the opponents of Fatah, are inclined to listen to Marwan. He is the ideal conciliator between the two movements.

Some years ago, under the leadership of Marwan, a large number of prisoners belonging to the two organizations signed a joint appeal for national unity, setting out concrete terms. Nothing came of this.

That, by the way, may be an additional reason for the Israeli government’s rejection of any suggestion of freeing Barghouti, even when a prisoner exchange provided a convenient opportunity. A free Barghouti could become a powerful agent for Palestinian unity, the last thing the Israeli overlords want.

Divide et impera – "divide and rule" – since Roman times this has been a guiding principle of every regime that suppresses another people. In this the Israeli authorities have been incredibly successful. Political geography provided an ideal setting: The West Bank (of the Jordan river) is cut off from the Gaza Strip by some 50 km of Israeli territory.

Hamas got hold of the Gaza Strip by elections and violence, and refuses to accept the leadership of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), a union of the more secular organizations which rules the West Bank.

This is not an unusual situation in national liberation organizations. They often split into more and less extreme wings, to the great delight of the oppressor. The last thing the Israeli authorities are willing to do is release Barghouti and allow him to restore Palestinian national unity. God forbid.

The Hunger strikers do not demand their own release, but demand better prison conditions. They demand, inter alia, more frequent and longer visits by wives and family, an end to torture, decent food, and such. They also remind us that under international law an "occupying power" is forbidden to move prisoners from an occupied territory to the home country of the occupier. Exactly this happens to almost all Palestinian "security prisoners".

Last week Barghouti set out these demands in an op-ed article published by the New York Times, an act that shows the newspaper's better side. The editorial note described the author as a Palestinian politician and Member of Parliament. It was a courageous act by the paper (which somewhat restored its standing in my eyes after it condemned Bashar al-Assad for using poison gas, without a sliver of evidence.)

But courage has its limits. The very next day the NYT published an editor's note stating that Barghouti was convicted for murder. It was an abject surrender to Zionist pressure.

The man who claimed this victory was an individual I find particularly obnoxious. He calls himself Michael Oren and is now a deputy minister in Israel, but he was born in the USA and belongs to the subgroup of American Jews who are super-super-patriots of Israel. He adopted Israeli citizenship and an Israeli name in order to serve as Israel's ambassador to the USA. In this capacity he attracted attention by using particularly virulent anti-Arab rhetoric, so extreme as to make even Binyamin Netanyahu look moderate.

I doubt that this person has ever sacrificed anything for his patriotism, indeed, he has made quite a career of it. Yet he speaks with contempt about Barghouti, who has spent much of his life in prison and exile. He describes Barghouti’s article in the New York Times as a "journalistic terror act". Look who's talking.

A Hunger Strike is a very courageous act. It is the last weapon of the least protected people on earth – the prisoners. The abominable Margaret Thatcher let the Irish hunger strikers starve to death.

The Israeli authorities wanted to force-feed Palestinian hunger strikers. The Israeli Physicians Association, much to its credit, refused to cooperate, since such acts have led in the past to the deaths of the victims. That put an end to this kind of torture.

Barghouti demands that Palestinian political prisoners be treated as prisoners-of-war. No chance of that.

However, one should demand that prisoners of any kind be treated humanely. This means that deprivation of liberty is the only punishment imposed, and that within the prisons the maximum of decent conditions should be accorded.

In some Israeli prisons, a kind of modus vivendi between the prison authorities and the Palestinian prisoners seems to have been established. Not so in others. One gets the impression that the prison service is the enemy of the prisoners, making their life as miserable as possible. This has worsened now, in response to the strike.

This policy is cruel, illegal and counter-productive. There is no way to win against a hunger-strike. The prisoners are bound to win, especially when decent people all over the world are watching. Perhaps even the NYT.

I am waiting for the day when I can visit Marwan again as a free man in his home in Ramallah. Even more so if Ramallah is, by that time, a town in the free State of Palestine.

Darling Buds Of May

Tyrone Republican Sean Mallory shares some thought's on the upcoming British general election.


While refusing to appear on any live television leader debates, leading to her possibly being represented by the more thought provoking ‘empty chair’, May's inner circle of high-profile advisors and aids began to dwindle in numbers as her disgruntled director of communications, Katie Perrior, followed her press secretary Lizzie Loudon, out the front door of Number 10.

May and the Tories in Great Expectations, believe that they will secure a huge majority and put Labour to the sword once and for all. Thus allowing her and her Home Secretary Amber Rudd, free to replace/repeal as many civil liberties as possible while simultaneously imposing much more draconian and Dickens era like authoritarian laws. In the process also lancing that current putrid carbuncle of her reliance on DUP support in the House of Commons. A view touched upon by Fionnuala O Connor in the Irish News – 21/04/2017.

Fresh from his backing of a referendum on Irish unification, Jeremy Corbyn, already written off as a loser and as the person to lead the Labour Party through highly predicted and historically expected, their worst election defeat ever, is optimistic that he can run May a close race. The same media had him written off twice before during Labour Party leader challenges, only for him to be returned with huge majorities.

Back across the water, several seats are up for grabs and as is usual, when the Union is under a Unionist perceived threat, Foster and her motley crew of siege mentality bigots, ditching all social issues as irrelevant, and focusing on May's announcement, immediately set about reissuing their only election manifesto ever of keeping the Union while demanding that the UUP and they work together to strengthen such a bond. 

The SDLP's Margaret Ritchie reiterated the Party's mantra of no sectarian pacts. Even though her seat, like Alasdair McDonnell's, is up for grabs and it is highly debatable if she or Alasdair will hold on to it without some form of a pact of sorts. Eastwood, the SDLP party leader, has hinted that election pacts could be formed along anti-Brexit lines and thus saving perhaps at least one of them.

Sinn Féin are in favour of such a pact and are hotly tipped to excel in this election with 4 extra seats for them to contest as definite possibilities. Two of which are currently held by Unionists. Gerry Kelly is tipped to topple Diane ‘empty head’ Dodds’ husband Nigel in North Belfast and Michelle Gildernew is hoping to topple Tom ‘interesting’ Elliot in Fermanagh/South Tyrone.

And so as Khalid Masood's old blind driving school instructor takes on another new pupil, we can rest easy in our beds knowing that while May dithers away at counting her election eggs before they hatch, she and the remnants of her inner circle can rest easy knowing that tax-payers money is continuing to be spent frugally and certainly not foolishly on the Royal Navy’s new 60,000 tonne aircraft carriers currently under construction.

Costing £7 billion, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince Charles, which are due to enter service around 2020, and unfortunately unlike the real royals, have been rendered obsolete by the new Russian Zircon hypersonic missile (travels up to 4,600 mph).

Naval sources have apparently described hypersonic missiles as virtually unstoppable thus making the basis for a carrier task force redundant.

The British MoD responded with: "We do not comment on force protection measures but keep threats constantly under review.”

Which in layman's terms translates as ‘piss off’.

Mass Grave In Dungannon

Chris Fogarty, a Chicago writer and activist, writes on mass graves in Ireland, and argues that "discovery" is an inappropriate term to describe unearthing of a mass grave in Dungannon last week.


The “discovery” is not shocking; what is truly shocking is that the mass grave is referred to as “discovered.” What caused Dungannon people to forget the genocide inflicted upon their relatives and neighbors in 1845-1850? Though Ireland’s workhouse inmates were almost exclusively Catholic, some Northern workhouses were anomalies, e.g., Ballymena and Magherafelt had many Protestant inmates.  

Dungannon workhouse “footprint” totaled approximately 1.8 acres leaving approximately 4.2 acres of grounds on its six acre site. The practice of workhouses in Ireland was to pile their dead into pits dug within their grounds. Where the grounds became completely full of those pits, the Union Board of Guardians acquired an additional burial site nearby. The Carland Road reconstruction site is obviously within part of the workhouse’s 4.2-acre mass burial site – a desecration.  

To help eliminate genocide as governmental policy we must openly discuss why many hundreds of 1845-1850 mass graves dot Ireland. It took more than half of Britain’s army to starve Ireland; to remove, at gunpoint, Ireland’s abundant agricultural production; livestock, meats, dairy- and poultry-products, grain, oatmeal, flour, etc. Where the combined constabulary and landlords’ militia regiments met too much resistance from the people, the nearest British army regiment was summoned. The latter never failed to remove the food. The regiments available nearby to enforce the Dungannon area food removal were the 27th, 44th, and 74th of Foot. 

Various Tactics And Subterfuges

Writing in Organized Rage prior to British Prime Minister Teresa May announcing General election Mick Hall highlighted the skullduggery afoot in the British Labour Party. He writes:




One of the main reasons for the damaging shenanigans which has hit the British Labour Party since Corbyn became party leader is clearly illustrated in the piece from Skwawkbox below. While Corbyn and John McDonnell gained and maintain the support of the majority of party members, the party bureaucracy is still controlled by the Blairites and Labour's right wing.
This small unrepresentative group have done all they can to sabotage Corbyn's attempt to turn the party away from its adherence to neoliberal economics and austerity, which have proven disastrous for many of the party's core working class support.
Loyal party members have found their membership suspended for no better reason than they have challenged the politics and policies of the former leaderships. Some have been members for decades others joined in 2015. In parts of the country the situation is even worse with whole CLP's being suspended, Wallasey, Gorton , and Brighton and Hove, the largest CLP in the country are just three.
During the ongoing Unite leadership contest serious allegations have been made about the LP membership lists being given over to Gerard Coyne, who is campaigning on an anti Corbyn ticket. According to Unite member Ian Allinson who is also standing for the leadership:

Unite members are complaining about the volume of unsolicited emails they are receiving from Coyne. One member suggested that this would-be “union baron” should be called Sir Spamalot. Has Coyne got these details from the Unite membership system? Or are the suggestions that right-wing elements of the Labour Party machine have provided him with membership data correct?

Tom Watson the deputy leader of the LP who appears to have lost all reason in his attempt to damage Jeremy, has been touring the country and TV studios thrashing about in the undergrowth stirring up demoralisation and hatred. Len McCluskey, the incumbent general secretary of Unite, called Labour’s deputy leader a backstabber who lives in a “world of skulduggery, smears and secret plots.” He accused Watson of trying to get Gerard Coyne elected as the next head of the union.
He went on to write on the Huffington Post:

For the last three months I have been touring the country meeting working men and women as I campaign to be re-elected as Unite’s General Secretary.

They are - every last one, no matter whether they support me or not - decent people, committed to doing their best for their families, their workplace and their communities in a troubled world. They are the sort of people who make me proud to be a trade unionist, and proud to be able to help them in their daily struggles.

But there is another world in our movement, alas. A world of skulduggery, smears and secret plots.

That is where you will find Tom Watson. When Labour has needed loyalty he has been sharpening his knife looking for a back to stab. When unity is required, he manufactures division.

The Corbynites have welcomed Len McCluskey's intervention as the attacks on the party leader have been obscene, underhand, unending, and down right cowardly.
The Skwawkbox advices ordinary party members how they can win the party back to a system of democratic accountability where all members are held equally accountable for their actions.

Gifford-Plunkett Society Armagh Easter Commemorations

From the 1916 Societies a report on some of its Easter commemorations.

Last Saturday evening the Gifford/Plunkett 1916 Society, Armagh City held a very well attended wreath laying ceremony at the graveside of Loughgall Martyr Volunteer Gerard O’Callaghan in Tullysaran Co.Armagh.


Chaired by Armagh man Raymond Murray, proceedings began with the reading of the Proclamation and the Roll of Honour. Following that Gerard’s brother Francie laid a wreath on behalf of the O’Callaghan family, further wreaths were laid on behalf of former comrades, Tyrone national Graves Association, the 1916 Societies and The Loughgall Truth And Justice Campaign.

This dignified ceremony was brought to a close with the reading of an Eamonn Ceannt poem and the piper playing the national anthem.

The following day Easter Sunday, Republicans from far and wide gathered in a windswept graveyard in Armagh City at the Grew family plot to pay their respects to Volunteer Dessie Grew and I.N.L.A volunteer Seamus Grew.

The large crowd in attendance heard Chair Raymond Murray pay tribute to the bravery and steadfastness shown by Dessie and Seamus throughout their lives and how in death their memory continues to live on in song and story.

The Gifford/Plunkett Society would like to express our sincere gratitude to the families for entrusting us to pay homage to their loved ones, an honour we do not take lightly.

Also the families would like to thank all those in attendance at both ceremonies as your continued support will ensure that these fallen soldiers who were very much part of the cutting edge of Irish Republicanism will be forever remembered and appreciated. Go raibh mile maith agaibh.

Today's Journalists ... Or Are They?

Pat Greene from Direct Democracy Ireland hits out at the media and Citizens' Assembly.


The vacuum left when "main stream media" ignore and actively attack any views that oppose the powerful or question the journalists own beliefs will be filled by reports in the realm known as the "alternative" media.

The film crew from the recent RTE programmes on the housing crisis followed supporters of the National Land League of Ireland and a number of people who are defending their homes from the banks as lay litigants: ordinary people with no legal background and basic education, successfully holding the line against the banks' well paid barristers and their legal teams.

This is the story of David v Goliath, with people who may not have the petrol money to get to the court holding onto their home against the odds. These people picked up the courage to go on TV and bare their soul only to be told two hours before airing that their entire contribution was pulled, insulting their humanity destroying further any trust in the system. This scenario repeats itself all to often, leading to the alienation of the people by the government run RTE.

Assassinating the character of the people who stand in the courts day after day, without charge, defending families homes, while at the same time failing to question the highly paid legal profession's part in the sacking of our country by vulture funds! With RTE and the rest of MSM questioning the results of NAMA after the contracts have been signed, not before the contracts were signed,  leads to alternative media and social media picking up the pieces and defending the people with support and knowledge: the knowledge that MSM refuse to disseminate.

So what were the MSM doing during this window of opportunity before the signing of the NAMA and pillar bank sell off of our homes?

The MSM were busy destroying those who were warning of the unfolding catastrophic effects of corruption. They were defending the political class and pandering to foreign entities while blocking any dissenting voices from access to their news papers, radios stations and TV stations. Arrogance and ignorance with a large dose of laziness, blinding them from the reality of this politically contrived assault on our society. Sadly there seems to be no end in sight to the levels of dysfunction todays journalists will fall to.

But If they want to, they can repair the damage!

A good start would be to highlight and repair the damage done to the characters of the Davids of this world who champion and fight side by side in the corner of the under dogs against the colossus that is the government backed corner of the banks.

I live in hope of a new era a new Ireland governed with Direct Democracy ... This hope will not die before me ... for hope dies last.

When 100 people in an "assembly" can decide for 4,000,000 people, I sometimes despair at ever having a democracy in this country. I believed that the Dáil was the Citizens' Assembly where our representatives represented our wishes. Yet not one journalist questioned this time bomb placed under our democracy. And as bad as our representative democracy is we need to hold on to what is left. All of the MSM accepted this time bomb without question and propagated this acceptance among the populous.

Journalism can redeem itself ... if it wants to. But will our new Citizens' Assembly-led "democracy" allow it time to do so?  I fear not.

Significant Effort By Irish Establishment To Be Unpatriotic

Via The Transcripts ,  John McDonagh and Martin Galvin speak to Dr. Ruán O’Donnell, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Limerick, via telephone about Irish-America’s contribution to the 1916 Rising.
WBAI 99.5FM Pacifica Radio
New York City
listen on the internet: wbai.org Saturdays Noon ESTAudio Player
(begins time stamp ~ 31:24)


Martin: And with us on the line we have a premier Irish historian and University of Limerick lecturer, Dr. Ruán O’Donnell, who’s actually in the midst of an American tour. He had one last year on the 1916 Centenary and he’s doing a tour now on the influence of America, the Fenians, and Irish freedom beginning in 1867. Welcome back to Radio Free Éireann.

Ruán: Hi, Martin.

Martin: I have to ask you – we’re going to get into a number of things about the American contribution – about how important America was to 1916 and The Rising that would occur – but while we have you on I have to ask you one thing that we are constantly asked, that’s constantly put to us: Why is it that in Ireland, particularly with official government commemorations of 1916, it seems like there’s so much concern about not offending the British? People here do not understand why there are walls where the names of those killed in 1916 would be put along side British troopers who were killed – as if those who fought against Irish freedom should be remembered and cherished equally with those who fought for Irish freedom and were executed. We had commemorations last year, there was an official government commemoration, I did not attend it, but somebody from Belfast called me and said they did not mention England, they did not mention Britain, much less mention anything to do with the part of Ireland that was still under British rule. Why is it there seems to be such a reluctance to really be proud of or celebrate 1916 and the fight for Irish freedom? Why is there such a reluctance about doing that and how it may offend British sensitivities?

Ruán: Well, that’s a very good question and it would take a very involved answer to answer fully but I suppose, to cut to the chase, there’s been a very significant effort made by the Irish Establishment, in other words the government and the civil service and the state controlled media, to basically nationalise Ireland, to be unpatriotic, by American standards, to discourage any assertion of Irish national self-determination due to the conflict in The North of Ireland. When Dublin was not in the position, or seemed to be incapable of resolving the matter, they tried to ‘contain the problem’, inverted commas, in The North itself. So we have considerable state censorship and manipulation of the national curriculum in schools and discouragement of Republican lines of analysis at third level effectively to keep us, as they would say, in a progressive, forward-looking programme and not dwelling on the past and not dwelling on the unfinished business of 1916 which, of course, is when we declared our Republic. Now to this very day, only twenty-six counties are part of the Republic of Ireland and six remain under British sovereignty so they’re causing huge trouble now with the Brexit controversy. So coming forward to the commemorations: There was a mistaken belief, and this is factually untrue, that the fiftieth anniversary of The Rising in 1966, obviously which did have a major state role, including military parades and all of that, led to a heightening of I suppose feelings that helped ignite The Troubles of 1968. That is a complete myth, completely different forces were at work, but this misconception has been widely portrayed.

One thing that’s considered absolutely untenable in modern Irish discourse, officialdom, is any criticism of the British at all in any capacity. So we’re not allowed to talk about imperialism, colonisation, expropriation, subjugation of our people in The North – none of that is considered politically correct. And it became quite clear in the advent of The Centennial that the government’s going to have a major programme of sanitising all these issues. Now I have to say: In fairness to what was originally planned, far more events took place at different levels of society than I even envisaged and overall the commemoration was very well and widely observed by people in all walks of life all over Ireland. I don’t think that had been planned in 2014-2015 but that was net result. Our events, the British Ambassador was present for many of the most important ones, including the state’s commemoration, which took place at religious Easter, quite deliberately, and not on the actual centennial, which some idiot referred to as the ‘calendar anniversary’ where in actuality the 24th of April 1916 to the 24th of April 2016 – that’s the centennial. Easter is used for commemorations but the official one is the 24th of April. A (inaudible) of this I might say before I give it back to you, there’s reluctance to declare the 24th of April Republic Day – it is something I was personally engaged in. I spoke on the matter and had the great honour to do so outside the GPO at The Centennial itself. They don’t want to do that (inaudible)

Martin: Okay. Ruán, are you still with us?

Ruán: I am.

John: Try to get to an area where you can get at least get three bars.

Martin: He’s all choked up and so are we from listening. Okay. Ruán, we want to talk about – you’re on a tour now and one of the things that we really were impressed by last year – you were on a tour, a centennial tour, and in that tour you mentioned something that is very seldom mentioned or not as mentioned as often as it should be about the impact, a leading role, a driving force played in America. Britain had this whole generation that they thought they’d gotten rid of. They thought at one time they solved the ‘Irish problem’ – you had the great hunger, you had the massive emigration to the United States, you had generations of people coming out to the United States – and the British figured they were done with them, these people were now, literally, beyond the pale, they were beyond The Atlantic and you’d never hear from them again. And that generation, many of them joined in the American Civil War, they used the leadership, the training they had gotten and became a driving force. They recognised that there would never be true peace and justice and economic sovereignty in Ireland without an end to British rule and they started to work in the 1860’s to make that a reality even when there were many people in Ireland who thought that that was an impossible dream. What’s your reaction to that statement that I made?

Ruán: You’re absolutely correct. Where the British miscalculated was the size and strength and prominence of the Irish community in the United States was a major, major asset for their countrymen.

Joe McGarrityAnd from, as you said, the 1850’s into the 1860’s it was legal and possible and feasible to coalesce here as a revolutionary movement. And that from, I suppose potentially, from ’58 this formal kind of alliance between the Fenian Brotherhood, aka Clann na Gael, and the Irish Republican Brotherhoodin Dublin. 

Luke Dillon in his later yearsAnd in that intervening years, the generation between the Civil War veterans who were very active in many capacities in this country and abroad, you have people like John Devoy in New York, Joe McGarrity in Philadelphia, later Luke Dillon in Philadelphia, J.T. Keating in Chicago and many others who basically realised that they were in a position to force the pace of events in Ireland.

J.T. Keating
And the catalyst for this was 1907, when Tom Clarke, a naturalised US citizen and ex-Fenian prisoner, was sent back to Dublin by Devoy to represent the American dynamic and that led to the bringing together of a more assertive and militant and coherent IRB leadership who launched 1916. And this is why, amongst other reasons, Clarke had the honour of being the first signatory of 1916 The Proclamation, which declared Irish independence from Britain.

Martin: Okay. I want to ask you about a few other individuals: We heard just a few minutes ago, there’s going to be a commemoration and it is going to be at the grave in the Bronx, in Woodlawn, actually a stone’s throw from where you’re speaking on April 19th, of Colonel Thomas Kelly. Who was Colonel Thomas Kelly and why is he so important to the issue, the whole driving force for Irish freedom?

Ruán: Well Kelly was a very significant figure and it’s actually remarkable how little known he is today. He deserves much more prominence.

Colonel Thomas J. KellyBut for a thumbnail sketch: Irish born. A Fenian. Rose to the rank of colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Went back to Ireland in 1867 to participate in the Fenian Uprising which did, unfortunately, misfire in March of 1867 and effectively assumed control of the organisation when much of the domestic leadership had been arrested or forced to go on the run. He himself, when visiting Fenian Circles in Manchester, was arrested along with Captain Deasy, another Irish-American veteran of the Civil War, and they were then dramatically rescued from a prison van in Manchester. This resulted in two things: One was the escape back to America of Kelly, where he remained prominent in such matters, and the other is the execution of Allen, Larkin and O’Brien, the people who gave us the famous phrase ‘God Save Ireland’ – the motto of the Fenians and the subject of a very famous rebel song that was one of Ireland’s unofficial national anthems and certainly not ‘God Save the King’. So Kelly was a key figure. He survived into old age and he represented the continued, direct involvement of the Irish-American diaspora in the revolutionary aspirations of the Irish people themselves.

Martin: Okay. And one of the things that was remarkable – I was reading about the Manchester Martyrs, who you’re going to be talking about, was the presence of so many Corcaigh-born Civil War veterans. Timothy Deasy, who was rescued along with Kelly, was a captain in the American Civil War. Edward O’Meagher Condon, who was the organiser of the rescue, was another Corcaigh-born American Civil War veteran and one of the three people who you’ve just mentioned: O’Brien, who was executed – one of the three Manchester Martyrs, was another Corcaigh-born American Civil War veteran. It’s amasing the impact of people who had come to the United States, involved in the American Civil War and were so prepared, after that struggle, to try to work for the freedom, to get the freedom for Ireland that they had seen and enjoyed in the United States.

Ruán: Well you have to remember, Martin, and it’s something you know very well, we’re talking here about deeply ideological people that a set-back or even (inaudible) to the end that they would never receive until final victory. ‘Not for Nothing’ was the Fenian motto ‘Beir Bua’, which basically means ‘we will win’ and in more recent times it was re-articulated by Bobby Sands as ‘Tiocfaidh ár lá’ – ‘our day will come’. It’s certainty of final victory because there can be no regression, or let up or abandonment of the principle until it (inaudible) so it’s perfectly consistent for men like Kelly to have more than one campaign in them if that is the only way forward. And they lived it. They risked their lives for it. And they were prepared to fight and die. It’s not something that’s often articulated because it’s a little bit seditious but nonetheless it’s the truth of the matter. And we can see this as a factual record.

Martin: Okay. I want to ask you about a name you mentioned, somebody that I think has been neglected by history to a great degree – somebody that I think of the same way, he’s like the Michael Flannery of this generation in America, he was for many years had the same sort of impact in terms of leading to the Irish Rebellion and that’s John Devoy. How important was John Devoy in terms of there being a 1916 Rising?

Ruán: John Devoy was absolutely crucial. He was the single most powerful figure in the Clann na Gael organisation in the US and he was one of the three-person Revolutionary Directorate, the ‘Triangle’ as such. 

John Devoy as a Young Man             Now the Clann had a public presence across the United States and would frequently hold their, every second year, it would hold their convention in Atlantic City, which was convenient for many of the east coast resident persons but people from as far away as Portland Oregon would come in person to attend. But the Revolutionary Directorate itself was the inner circle that was plotting the revolution in Ireland. Now Devoy, after a number of scuffles with others, emerged as the clear, prominent figure by the early 1900’s. He was able the bear the full weight of the national platform of the IRB’s secret revolutionary leadership in Ireland which whom they were basically a natural – they were tied, and had been, for decades. This is why as soon as Clarke is sent back by Devoy Clarke immediately became the treasurer of the Supreme Council of the IRB. And in that capacity he received from Devoy in excess, certainly, of one hundred thousand dollars for clandestine purposes in addition to other funds raised publicly and disbursed in a public manner. So it’s hard to envisage the successful creation of the Irish Volunteers by the IRB without the direct involvement of Devoy. Moreover, in the early first months of 1914 several key people were sent by Clarke back to the US to represent the new leadership of the Irish Volunteers, aka Óglaigh na hÉireann aka the Irish Republican Army, and this represented the fruition of decades, and in fact many decades, of assiduous work by men like Devoy of whom he, himself, was the single most important.

John: Ruán, I wanted to talk about the easy access of everyone going back and forth – I just finished a book there about the wives of the revolutionaries or the signatories and it was amasing with Connolly and everyone else the ease of which they were just getting on boats and going back and forth all the time – that they weren’t stopped in the United States. England? They were going in through Liverpool or coming in through Corcaigh or Queenstown and into Dublin – how was this allowed because we know the British had informers all over the place within the Clann na Gael and with the Irish Republican Brotherhood but it was the ease that everyone was traveling, even bringing back the body of O’Donovan-Rossa from New York for the funeral in Dublin. Why was all this allowed because, years on, you just couldn’t see this happening – that some government would have blocked it.

Ruán: Well, you’re quite right and O’Donovan-Rossa is an interesting case in point. If it was possible to have direct shipping links with Ireland, normally Cobh – in other words the greater Corcaigh area – that was relatively straightforward even though there was, of course, a major police intelligence representation in all those ports. However in 1914-1915, the British government was attempting to divert the trans-Atlantic liners from Cobh to Southampton and other English ports. That was a major cause célèbre in Irish-America and was seen almost as a act of war against the Irish people here who required the capacity to cross in both directions with frequency and ease. Now, we have to remember something important: The British did not know the relative importance of the individuals we’re discussing. They would have known, of course, that Clarke must have been important as an ex-prisoner – they were watching his premises night and day and following him everywhere – but they weren’t watching Pearse very closely and Pearse was the Director of Military Organisation of the IRB. They didn’t know he was. The upper leadership was not penetrated to any significant extent that we can see and if it was they didn’t utilise operation intelligence. They didn’t make a difference. They didn’t interfere in any way that mattered. Now in the case of couriers, many of the liners had men on that whose job was was to transfer coded messages in both directions. And as far as I’m aware none of them were ever unmasked or intercepted. Certain persons, like Seán Mac Diarmada, would, on occasions, travel under an assumed identity. In some cases they would, and I don’t specifically mean him, but one of the methods was to assume a role working on the ship or impersonate another individual. Checks and balances were taken. And as you say, a large quantity of American war material, including revolvers and shotguns, was illegally smuggled into Ireland in small packages and various ruses were used to do this. I’m not aware of any (inaudible) port but the appearance of American weaponry in Dublin did excite the interest of the Special Branch, the political police. However despite all of this, money flow was the most important thing and besides the diaspora and those who were supporters were such that they effectively bank-rolled the Irish Republican Movement and that made it that much more easy for the people of the fighting side, if you’d like, to concentrate on the task at hand and not have to worry about you know, robberies and forgery and things like that.

John: How was the money going back and forth – or heading in one direction – how did that happen? Was it through banks or individuals bringing the money over in cash?

Ruán: Individuals would carry, believe it or not, quantities of gold and cash and cheques. I wouldn’t be an expert on this aspect of it – I don’t know how some of those cheques were negotiated but remember – this was legal money. This was money raised here openly. The Irish Volunteers had a fund you could deposit money in at Manhattan. Most major American cities would have had legal funds for the – it was called ‘the Equipment Fund’ of the Irish Volunteers and that was money especially meant for weaponry. And had matters gone differently, in other words if the First World War had not broken out, my expectation is that large quantities of modern weaponry would have been purchased here and imported into Ireland which at various times was actually not illegal. The UVF for instance, the Ulster Volunteer Force who were created by the British government to basically stymie the aspirations of eighty percent of the population, they were able to equip themselves quite readily by buying and importing German weaponry. Then an arms embargo was placed to stop the Irish Volunteers emanating it but that did not work. An American-backed shipment – monies raised in London but backed by Devoy was of course the famous importation into Howth and then Kilcoole in 1914 – fifteen hundred rifles were purchased but much larger sums would have been shipped had the war not broken out.

Martin: Okay. Just – you mentioned John Devoy – just recently there was a monument put up in Kildare and just like the money for The Rising, the money for that monument was put up – Mike Flood, the Kildare Association here, was the driving force behind that monument and again, it seems to be another example about how America has to be a driving force in terms of being proud of its Irish patriots and the Irish government – an individual who did this so much, who was in American for decades, who never gave up on getting an Irish Republic until a rising had occurred in great measure because of money and efforts that he had contributed and it had to be Americans, the Kildare Association in the United States, particularly in New York, which was the driving force financially before that individual, John Devoy, being memorialised in his own home town of Kildare.

Ruán: Yes, you’re quite right and earlier the very, very fine statue of James Connolly – that was primarily an Irish-American project – I know Joe Jamison of the AFL-CIO (The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) and many other figures were tremendously involved in getting that to happen. And sometimes the moral support and financial support of the American diaspora has been the critical factor. For instance, it’s a bit difficult to get planning information for such memorial in Ireland – and again, it’s that sort of ‘don’t mention the war’ situation and even ‘don’t mention the last war’ situation so I’ve been involved fund raising memorials myself. I’ve published a number of items where the proceeds went to the National Graves Association and I got in trouble for it! I mean I’ve been criticised on the front page of the Irish Times for financing an IRA memorial in Wexford. Well it is an IRA memorial but it is a memorial to the 1950’s campaigners. So on the one hand you sing (inaudible) and The Patriot Game but once you start putting things into stone the reactionary elements get very het up. It’s easier in a way if the stimulus is for (phone line evaporates)

Martin: Um, Ruán, are you still with us?

John: Well, we’re going to have to wrap it up anyway. There’s only two or three few minutes left.
(ends time stamp ~ 52:18)