A Maze of 'cut through' alleyways and entries.

Guest writer Davy Carlin takes us through the maze of streets that made up the Ballymurphy of his childhood

The Carlin family was a large family like many in those days. One of my uncles was killed though when he was a child. For me I was lucky even to be born. I was the result of a vacuum birth where a large dent covered by hair remains in my skull. I had less than a 5% chance of living. I had always thought though that I had been born in the Royal Victoria Hospital in West Belfast like the rest of my stepbrothers and sisters but in fact I was actually born in the Belfast City Hospital in South Belfast.

55 Hours: Wednesday 8 July 1981

Tonight the Pensive Quill carries the last of a four part series by guest writer Carrie Twomey that takes readers through a day-by-day account of the events of early July, 1981.

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Sunday ● Monday ● Tuesday ● Wednesday

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Using the timeline created with documents from ‘Mountain Climber’ Brendan Duddy’s diary of ‘channel’ communications, official papers from the Thatcher Foundation Archive, excerpts from former Taoiseach Garrett Fitzgerald’s autobiography, David Beresford's Ten Men Dead, Padraig O’Malley’s book Biting at the Grave, and INLA: Deadly Divisions by Jack Holland and Henry McDonald, Danny Morrison’s published timelines, as well as first person accounts and the books of Richard O’Rawe and Gerry Adams, the fifty-five hours of secret negotiations between British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Gerry Adams’ emerging IRA leadership group are examined day by day.

Pushing Al Qaeda to Take on Hezbollah

Franklin Lamb in Beirut with a piece that first featured on OEN.

'This is one damn fine idea, what took us so long to see a simple solution that was right in front of our eyes for Christ's sake', Senator John McCain of "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" and "no-fly zones for Syria" notoriety, reportedly demanded to know from Dennis Ross during a recent Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) brain storming session in Washington DC.

Chris Bray: Belfast Project - Boston Prosecuting Irish Politics

This piece initially featured on Letters Blogatory on 6th May 2013. It can also be read at Boston College Subpoena News.

The Supreme Court has turned aside a legal appeal from Belfast Project researchers Ed Moloney and Anthony McIntyre, and IRA interviews will likely soon be transferred from the archives at Boston College to the Police Service of Northern Ireland. (A more limited appeal from BC, still pending, relates to only some of the subpoenaed interviews.)

Bloody Murdah

We have never accepted or used the word murder. We would regard it as legislative language and aggressive language. It was the sort of language was always used against us. It would be like acknowledging that we were ‘criminals’ or ‘terrorists.’ - Michael Culbert, Irish News, 4th October 2011.

55 Hours: Tuesday 7 July 1981

Tonight the Pensive Quill carries the third of a four part series by guest writer Carrie Twomey that takes readers through a day-by-day account of the events of early July, 1981.

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Sunday ● Monday ● Tuesday ● Wednesday

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Using the timeline created with documents from ‘Mountain Climber’ Brendan Duddy’s diary of ‘channel’ communications, official papers from the Thatcher Foundation Archive, excerpts from former Taoiseach Garrett Fitzgerald’s autobiography, David Beresford's Ten Men Dead, Padraig O’Malley’s book Biting at the Grave, and INLA: Deadly Divisions by Jack Holland and Henry McDonald, Danny Morrison’s published timelines, as well as first person accounts and the books of Richard O’Rawe and Gerry Adams, the fifty-five hours of secret negotiations between British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Gerry Adams’ emerging IRA leadership group are examined day by day.

Sorry Initiatives and Prime Time Apologies

Martin Galvin with a letter to the Irish News on the emergence of the Margaret Thatcher papers. It featured on the 14th May 2013 under the title 'Sinn Fein should walk away from hard won privileges.'


A chara,

GARC calls on Loyal Orders to Cease Unwelcome Marches Through Nationalist Communities

Greater Ardoyne Residents Collective steering committee held a meeting on Friday May 10th 2013 in relation to the proposed/leaked talks in Cardiff, Wales to be held sometime next week organised by O.F.M.D.F.M and the PSNI re: contentious parades/protests and flag issues. We in GARC after lenghthy discussion around the above development.

National Republicanism and the International Stage

Guest writer Dr John Coulter is a Radical Unionist commentator and a former columnist with The Blanket. He is currently writing an e-book about republicanism as an outsider looking in. The e-book is entitled ‘An Saise Glas (The Green Sash) The Road to National Republicanism.’ The chapters are being published exclusively on The Pensive Quill. In this latest chapter, he examines how republicanism can build a new international basis to its ideology rather than simply the old, out-dated concept of raising funds to buy guns and explosives. The chapter is entitled ‘National Republicanism and the International Stage’ and develops the concept of a pro-active foreign policy for republicanism.

55 Hours: Monday 6 July 1981

Today the Pensive Quill carries the second of a four part series by guest writer Carrie Twomey that takes readers through a day-by-day account of the events of early July, 1981.

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Sunday ● Monday ● Tuesday ● Wednesday

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Using the timeline created with documents from ‘Mountain Climber’ Brendan Duddy’s diary of ‘channel’ communications, official papers from the Thatcher Foundation Archive, excerpts from former Taoiseach Garrett Fitzgerald’s autobiography, David Beresford's Ten Men Dead, Padraig O’Malley’s book Biting at the Grave, and INLA: Deadly Divisions by Jack Holland and Henry McDonald, Danny Morrison’s published timelines, as well as first person accounts and the books of Richard O’Rawe and Gerry Adams, the fifty-five hours of secret negotiations between British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Gerry Adams’ emerging IRA leadership group are examined day by day.

The Nightmare of the H Blocks: What the British Knew in 1981

Former blanket man Thomas Dixie Elliot with a letter that featured in the Irish News on the 9th May under the title 'Nightmare of the H Blocks' and in the Derry Journal on the 10th May under the title 'What The British Knew in 81'.

The recently released Thatcher Foundation Papers reveal that Humphrey Atkins in a communiqué to Thatcher on July 6th, two days before the death of Joe McDonnell, indicated that:

Ardoyne White Line Vigil