Social Items

TPQ
Sandy Boyer with the latest from Radio Free Eireann.

Radio Free Eireann will concentrate on the St. Pat's for All parade this Saturday, March 1st, from 1-2 pm New York time.

Parade Co-Chair Brendan Fay and Brian Fleming of De jimbe will be live on stage at Rocky Sullivan's of Red Hook, 34 Van Dyke Street in Brooklyn.

Radio Free Eireann @ St. Pat's for All parade

Socialism 2014

A Conference of Radical Ideas


Saturday 1st of March @ Queens Student Union, Belfast

Tickets £5 Waged £3 Unwaged

A Conference of Radical Ideas

Pauline Mellon with a piece on a Sinn Fein failure to deliver.  Pauline Mellon is a blogger, rights campaigner and community activist in her native Derry. This piece initially featured on her blog Diary of a Derry Mother on 22 February 2014.

Belfast Comedian Jake O'Kane Speaketh the truth!
 
Today began just like any other Saturday morning with the exception of my latest attempt at a diet which normally occurs on a Monday morning. There I was laid out in mismatched pyjamas struggling to eat a poached egg and at the same time trying to forget my usual Saturday morning iced turnover (cake) when I heard the letter box rattle. What I found lying in the hall was the distraction I needed ... political propaganda entitled Glor Dhoire (Derry Voice) courtesy of Sinn Fein. If ever there was literature to distract you!

However in all fairness to Sinn Fein when it comes to propaganda they are the masters, as they claim credit for everything but the virgin birth.

Dun do bheal (Shut your Mouth)


This short piece with my memories of the escape of Danny Keenan initially featured in Magilligan POW Memories.

It was a dark night early in 1975. Cage F had been locked up for the evening which was usually around 9. A skip had been brought into the cage to take away debris from work that builders were doing in either the wash room or the study hut. It was parked outside our middle hut and the half hut.

Skipping to Freedom

  • Beware the politician who calls himself/herself a conservative and leaps at the first opportunity to spend money across the continent while neglecting his fellow citizen. Frankly this looks all too much like Iraq in 2003 and Vietnam in 1963 – Steve Massey

I didn’t pick Syria: The Case for Non Intervention up because I expected it to be particularly informative and certainly not in anticipation of it being definitive. The decison to buy was decided by the small price coupled with the instant accessiblity provided by Kindle.

US interference in the affairs of other countries under the guise of so called humanitarian intervention has become one of the great foreign policy issues of our time. The US does a lot of this in addition to spying on the heads of state of its allies not to mention its own citizens.

Syria: Better out than in


Dee Fennell Election Fundraiser

Pauline Mellon with a piece urging a vote for Independents in the North's upcoming local government elections. It initially featured in Diary of a Derry Mother on 19 February 2014. Pauline Mellon is a community activist and rights campaigner.

Selflessness, Integrity, Objectivity, Accountability, Openness, Honesty and Leadership.
These are the seven principles of public life also known as the Nolan principals. Following last nights BBC Spotlight programme I am confident that members of our local council would know more about the Nolan sisters than they do of these principles.

The BBC Spotlight programme broadcast on February 18th 2014 featured an interview with the SDLP's environmental stalwart Shaun Gallagher. Mr Gallagher who was a member of the North West Waste Management group joint council committee was questioned on whether or not he knew that one of the preferred bidders for a FIVE HUNDRED MILLION POUNDS incineration plant was the same company (Brickklin Waste management) accused by Derry City Council of dumping illegal waste. Brickkiln was also found in 2013 to be in breach of it's waste management licence.

Mr Gallagher denied all knowledge despite the case ending up in the High Court, a process that took 18 months. The journalist continued to tell Mr Gallagher, that producers had been assured by Derry City Council that ALL elected members had been informed of the case against Brickklin waste management company.

The programme then saw Mr Gallagher insist the interview come to and end with him accusing the presenter of an ambush. Mr Gallagher later wrote to Spotlight asking that his interview be removed from the programme.

From personal experience it is clear Mr Gallagher does not take too kindly to being asked questions. In October 2010 on behalf of the Galliagh Concerned Residents Group I wrote to Councillor Gallagher seeking clarification on his membership of the Outer North Neighbourhood Partnership.
You can read the letter to Councillor Gallagher by clicking here




The next morning Mr Gallagher who at that point was not a happy camper paid me a visit at 10am, he was very belligerent, irate and I felt quite intimidated by his demeanour. This visit led to my husband launching a formal complaint with the SDLP's chief executive over Councillor Gallagher's conduct. When I met with the SDLP accompanied by a leading Trade Unionist, a member of our residents group and our groups legal advisor I was met by a veiled threat of legal action against myself on behalf of Mr Gallagher through the SDLP Chief Executive Mr Michael Savage. When it became evident that no matter what Councillor Gallagher had done or the evidence presented supporting my case the SDLP would not reprimand him I decided to end the meeting.

 

I received this response from Mr Gallagher on October 15th 2010:



You can read Councillor Gallagher's response letter in full by clicking here.



The response from Councillor Gallagher contained quite a number of inaccuracies and the residents group I was part of wrote to the SDLP to highlight these. 
You can read the full response by clicking here.



In May 2011 I stood as an independent candidate in the Shantallow ward of the city to highlight how residents in my area including myself were being treated appallingly by our local councillors, council officers and their lackeys. I knew at that point I would have difficulty getting elected having done a few calculations. However I proceeded to prove that I could stand in the election and to highlight that people were fed up with being ignored and walked over.

I am delighted that this year people from many areas, North and South of Ireland, have decided to stand as independent candidates in the local government elections. I am further overjoyed at the prospect of an independent candidate standing in every council ward in Derry.

If recent revelations aren't enough to wake people up to the farce that is local government then I ask what will???? These revelations including the handling of the Social Investment Fund with the refusal to fund Foyle Search and Rescue and Hurt. The fact that politicians are happy to put more funding into building football pitches than employment schemes despite Derry being an unemployment blackspot. The fact that a current Sinn Fein Councillor was given a job by another party member and former Sinn Fein Mayor without any interview process taking place, a job funded from the public purse. The fact the the only Catholic Secondary school in the Waterside area of the City will be closed without every measure being put in place to keep it open. And these are only a few examples of how the political parties are failing the people.

It would be quite easy in light of the Spotlight programme to lay blame solely at the feet of the SDLP. However it must be noted that Sinn Fein Councillor Colly Kelly was Derry City Councils other representative on the North West Waste Management group joint council committee. I would like to hear Mr Kelly's position on the Brickklin scenario and I would suggest Raymond McCartney should do the same.

VOTE ONCE- VOTE INDEPENDENT- DON'T TRANSFER!

It would be quite easy to do the same old thing and follow your usual voting pattern and just put your 1,2 or 3 beside the party representatives standing in your area. But as you can see the politicians have a lot to answer for, as do their parties. The party will come first and that's why this election time I would ask you to consider the Nolan principles I listed above and measure the current representatives against them. If you're honest with yourself you'll agree they don't marry up. Maybe then it's time to vote for one of the independent candidates standing in your area.

VOTE ONCE- VOTE INDEPENDENT- DON'T TRANSFER

Don't WASTE your vote - Vote independent!

Radio Free Eireann will focus on Margaretta D'Arcy, the 70 year old artist who is imprisoned in Dublin's Mountjoy Jail for attempting to block US warplanes at Shannon Airport, as we broadcast  from 1-2 pm New York time on Saturday February 22. D'Arcy is currently being treated for cancer. We will speak with Niall Farrell who, like her, is soon to be tried for attempting to block the runways a second time.

Radio Free Eireann Highlights Imprisonment of Margaretta D'Arcy,

Warren Buffet's comment on the relationship between sea level and visible nudity is an apt one for Boston College. Now that the tide of deceit has gone out the College narrative in respect of the Belfast Project stands pretty much naked: one high, dry lie which College spokesman Jack Dunn tries vainly to breathe life into. Putting a smile on the face of a corpse is pretty much what Jack does these days for a living. Hardly something that would encourage the average punter to have faith in his friendship.

For all of its conflict resolution posturing over the years  Boston College today stands knowing, although hardly admitting, that its irresponsible handling of the Belfast Project from its inception, as outlined in the Chronicle for Higher Education, has fueled the type of controversy that conflict feeds on. Much of the brouhaha bubbling around Haass, for example, draws on the type of knowledge that BC falsely promised it could keep safe from the type of people who want to use it for purposes of conflictual recrimination rather than peaceful reconciliation.

Brandishing the arrogance seemingly afforded by wealth, college staff attired in their sable fur coats were able to block out the cold house political temperature of the North. It was probably on the basis of such aggressive indifference that they felt they could risk hoaxing their way through legal protocol and set up the Belfast Project. A we are Big Boston and nobody in begging bowl Belfast will dare challenge us' type thing.’ And if they do we will mobilize our law faculty, which was monumentally ignorant of the existence of MLAT, to deal with them. Bravo Big Boston.

Dunn and Dusted


Guest writer Simon Smith reviewing one of the latest books on the American War in Vietnam.

Kill Anything that Moves - The Real American War in Vietnam is a compelling and fascinating account andexplanation of why and how the American war machine killed so many Vietnamese civilians by design rather than by accident. It is a history book written about the atrocity which was the Vietnam War and the countless smaller atrocities which were part of the bigger picture. It is a book written in simplified, layman’s terms which doesn’t test your concentration but taxes your ability to soak up details of horror and atrocity.

Kill Anything That Moves


Day of Action for Dee Fennell

Guest writer Mary Marshall with a piece critical of how some academics seek to depict or explain culture and history.
 
Segment from Mary Marshall's painting Our Ned is dead.

Australia - An Aboriginal man once told me how it riles him up having clueless, non-Aboriginal lecture him on what his culture and history is.

The ‘Mad Irish’ you want to see

"Q: What do you say to those people who are unhappy but are pulled the other way by feelings of loyalty?

A: Examine their consciences. Take a good look at what is going on. If they agree - ok. If not then speak out." - Fourthwrite interview with Brendan Hughes

Gemma Murray with the latest in her series discussions with a number of former republican prisoners where armed republicanism is explored. Here she spoke to Martin McAllister. It initially featured in the News Letter on 13 February 2014.

'Dissident Republicans Must Learn From What Happened’, says ex-IRA Man


Remembering Rocky Burns

Anthony McIntyre ✒ Over 20 years ago I read a book called Mercy, a pulsating psychological thriller penned by David Lindsey. 

 
This one of the same name is written by Jussi Adler-Olsen and is every bit as good. Crime thrillers that manage to come close to the standard set of Lawrence Saunders in The First Deadly Sin or Michael Slade in Headhunters have to go to crime fiction’s best reads list. 

Mercy is another from the burgeoning market of Scandicrime where the shelves are so well stacked that the reader is simply spoilt for choice. With the quality of Scandinavian crime fiction showing no sign of tapering off it will be hard to displace the phalanx of literary entrepreneurs that ply their trade to massaging our minds with their well honed craft. Had the battling prisoners been provided with this one literacy concession during the blanket protest the soul destroying ennui that so lengthened the days would have been much less able to suffocate its host.

Mercy

Pauline Mellon with a piece which initially featured on her blog Diary of Derry Mother which Wednesday, 12 February 2014.

..
Mark goes green!
Environment Minister Mark H Durkan has said he is considering a ban on election posters. Mr Durkan said it was due to their impact on the environment. Now he does say his review would not take place before the Giro bike race in mid-May, but could occur before the forthcoming Westminster and Northern Ireland Assembly elections.For more info click here 

This is interesting on a number of fronts, firstly it limits the ability of independent candidates to promote themselves as an alternative to the parties. After all whilst an independent can deliver leaflets or issue press statements they're not going to be in the position to get a party political broadcast. Secondly there seems to a certain amount of irony in an SDLP Minister wanting to ban election posters on environmental grounds when his party are spearheading plans to build an incinerator in Derry.

A few facts about party political broadcasts:

Each of the main parties is allowed to have party political broadcasts. 

  •  Each of the main parties is allowed to have party political broadcasts. 
  • There are rules about their length and when they can be shown. 
  • Party political broadcasts show the voters what each party will do if elected – they are like adverts. 
  • Smaller parties can also show party political broadcasts as long as they are standing for one sixth of all the seats available.

With the SDLP on the wane over the past number of years and with the number of independent candidates standing for election could there be another agenda?

Ian Paisley Jnr.
And on the subject of pollution, there's a current debate happening in light of legislation being enacted in England that will make it illegal for someone to smoke in a car with children present. Now I would agree that people should not smoke in cars when children are present, it should be common sense if nothing else, but I would be concerned at the advancing nanny state.

I am not a smoker or pro smoking lobby, however I would be one to advocate a common sense approach and educate people. Yet common sense is something that seems to be lacking when it comes to the thinking of some politicians. The dangers of smoking and passive smoking are well documented yet the DUP voted against this legislation. Not only did they vote against it, Ian Paisley Jnr accused 'Nationalist' politicians of attacking jobs at the Gallagher tobacco firm in his constituency.

Mr Paisley actually went as far to say 'It amazes me that the only people who come on and attack these jobs are from the nationalist lobby'. I don't know how Mr. Paisley can equate trying to limit the effect of passive smoking on children with a perceived attack by nationalists on jobs. But I suppose when MLA's pension funds have been invested in a number of companies who have been accused of human rights abuses and the nuclear weapons industry nothing would surprise me.

This is what the NHS has to say on children and passive smoking.

Breathing in secondhand smoke is particularly harmful for children. Children who breathe in secondhand smoke have an increased risk of:

  • cot death (sudden infant death syndrome or SIDS)– this is twice as likely in babies whose mothers smoke
  • developing asthma– smoking can also trigger asthma attacks in children who already have the condition
  • serious respiratory (breathing) conditions such as bronchitis and pneumonia– younger children are also much more likely to be admitted to hospital for a serious respiratory infection
  • meningitis
  • coughs and colds
  • middle ear disease, such asotitis media (a middle ear infection), which can cause hearing loss

Children who grow up with a parent or family member who smokes are three times as likely to start smoking themselves.

If you’re a parent who smokes, it will be hard to explain to your children why they shouldn’t start smoking. Try to lead by example and quit. As well as improving your health and theirs, your children may be less likely to start smoking later in life.

For the Good of your Health ... Allegedly

Mick Hall with a piece on Scottish Independence which initially featured on his blog Organized Rage on 10 February 2014.


Forced evictions by English landlords

By Oppression's woes and pains!
By your sons in servile chains!
We will drain our dearest veins,
But they shall be free!


Lay the proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty's in every blow!
Let us do or die!”

The Scottish Independence Referendum: You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately... Depart I say.

Sandy Boyer detailing what is on Radio Free Eireann this weekend.

Not even a blizzard will stop Radio Free Eireann from broadcasting live this Saturday, February 15th, from 1-2 pm New York time as we attempt to raise funds to keep WBAI and Radio Free Eireann on the air.

Not even a Blizzard

"Q: What do you say to those people who are unhappy but are pulled the other way by feelings of loyalty?

A: Examine their consciences. Take a good look at what is going on. If they agree - ok. If not then speak out." - Fourthwrite interview with Brendan Hughes
Strabane republican, former political prisoner, and IRSP activist Eddie McGarrigle recently spoke to the Strabane Chronicle where he aired his views on a range of issues germane to republican activism in the North.

The paper approached Mr McGarrigle upon hearing that he had, along with others, intervened to prevent a threat against two local youths coming to fruition. The threat was purported to have been made by a local group that, for purposes of menace, tagged itself with a republican handle. Guest writing In TPQ he elaborates on those views and and provides a context for their articulation.

New Strategies Have to be Explored

Ed Moloney & Bob Mitchell with a piece throwing light on the nature of British Irish relations after the war crimes of Bloody Sunday. It initially featured on The Broken Elbow on 26 January 2014.



The British government’s archive at Kew has, thanks to the ferreting of my colleague Bob Mitchell, produced a document that sheds fascinating light on the nature of the relationship between the British and Irish governments a year or so after Bloody Sunday, when the killing of fourteen unarmed civilians at a civil rights demonstration in Derry by the 1st Parachute Regiment pitched Anglo-Irish relations into their gravest crisis since the creation of the Irish state.

MI6, The Spy In The Irish Police Force, Jack Lynch And Britain – An Insight Into Ango-Irish Relations A Year After Bloody Sunday

From I was very young I recall pet dogs about the house: Sisco, Master McGrath or whatever name my father chose to gave them, they were a regular enough feature. Nor did any of them have to be trained to bark at British soldiers. Like many Belfast dogs they seemed to have an instinctive dislike for aggressive foreigners.

On my first short stay at home in 1989, on a 3 day temporary release after thirteen and a half years in prison, I was introduced to Caesar, my mother’s pet dog. During the work out scheme it was often dog out day, with me taking him for ten mile walks. When I made it home for good I had a succession of dogs, Cu, Trimble and Rhonda. Now we have Cleo who nominally belongs to my daughter but is in fact the constant companion of my son. 
From childhood I recall reading the book Old Yeller by Fred Gipson. In prison it was Cujo by Stephen King, Watchers by Dean R Koontz, or Fluke by James Herbert. So, in one sense or another I have been dogged by the canine. 

Swiper The Dog

Derry blogger and rights campaigner, Pauline Mellon, with a piece that initially featured on her blog Diary of a Derry Mother on 5 February 2001.
  • I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician - Charlie Chaplin
I despair at times, I really do despair! So what do I despair about you may ask? Well as you might guess from the above Charlie Chaplin quote, 'politicians'.

Just Doesn't Pass Muster!

Chris Bray wrote to Boston College PR man Jack Dunn, cc'ing the college's administration and faculty, on 1 February 2014 in amazement after listening to Dunn lower the share value of Boston College's reputation.

From: Chris Bray

Sent: Saturday, February 01, 2014 4:50 PM

Embarrassed for Jack Dunn ... Yet Again

Last week’s in-depth report in the Chronicle for Higher Education by Beth McMurtrie has finally nailed Boston College for its wholly irresponsible approach to the Belfast Project. Its criminal negligence, while concealed during the life of the project, has been exposed as present from the embryonic stages of the exercise.

Since the onset of the subpoenas, Boston College, rather than fully commit to the battle on behalf of its research, sought to shaft both its researchers and research participants, through lies, 'obvious and dangerous lies'. 

Jack in Dunn's Corner

Mick Hall with his perception of the current state of play within Irish Republicanism. Mick Hall blogs at Organized Rage where this article initially featured on 3 February 2014.




"The greatest argument against armed struggle is that anti-Treaty-republicanism cannot afford to lose strong political minds to English jails."

 Over the last couple of months, a number of former members of Óglaigh na hÉireann
(PIRA) and Sinn Féin have made public statements about the outcome of the struggle they gave much of their lives too. These men were not bit players. After being arrested they served long prison sentences and most returned to the PRM when they were released from prison. They finally left the movement for what they regarded as insurmountable differences with the leadership of Sinn Féin. It's important I point out these differences had nothing to do with the ending of the armed struggle.

All retain their core Irish republican beliefs. Despite all being opposed to the outcome of the Good Friday Agreement they recognise armed struggle has run its course and welcomed the end of the Provos' armed campaign.

 The men were mainly interviewed by the News Letter journalist Gemma Murray, which in itself caused an amount of controversy as it's a Unionist newspaper which circulates in the north. However it's what the men say which I wish to comment on. 

 Whilst the mainstream media mainly concentrated on the men's claim the armed campaigns of today's Republican groups were"futile", with Anthony McIntyre (4) also claiming the Provisional campaign had been defeated, while Richard  O'Rawe (1) said it was not “worth one life.” 

 Tommy McKearney (2) pointed out 'While there was nationalist support and momentum for the Provisional IRA campaign. There is nothing similar today, in fact it is quite the opposite." (ie lack of support for armed dissident groups-MH).

 Few could argue logically with this, for the votes cast for Sinn Féin in the six counties do not lie. It's clear within the working class nationalist communities which once formed the bedrock of the PIRA core support - there is still overwhelming support for Sinn Féin and the decision to end the military campaign. 

 However, I feel to accept this, and then conclude the PIRA were defeated is far too simplistic. Those who were around at the end of the IRA's 'border campaign', which ran between 1956-62, remember much the same sort of talk. In all probability some folk also felt this way in the immediate aftermath of the Easter Rising, and countless other attempts to free Ireland from the British yoke. 

 Yet within a number of years, depending on the scale of the setback, the freedom baton was passed to another generation who continued the struggle. The 800 year struggle to remove the English crown from Irish affairs has always been a case of two steps forward and one step back; and I can see no reason why the ending of the PIRA campaign should be judged any differently.

 It is true, unlike previous generations of armed insurgents, the Provos agreed to allow the British State to oversee the decommissioning of their armaments, something which still cuts deep with former volunteers. Whether the leaders of the PRM gave the British an accurate account of the weapons they held, only they know. 

 Nevertheless the decommissioning of arms has had a significant impact on how many dissidents feel and think. Not least because the victors of most conventional wars demand it of their vanquished foe. 

 Why could the army not simply have dumped arms like previous generations of armed Republicans is the question one often hears, and it is difficult to ignore. 

 Overseeing decommissioning was the quid pro quo the British government demanded of the republican leadership if they wanted the movement's volunteers freed from British prisons. Undoubtedly on this issue they had the Adams leadership by the cojones, for without the release of prisoners they knew they could never sell the Peace Process to their membership. 

Nevertheless, despite this unpalatable fact, the corpse of Irish republicanism I do not see.

 If we wish to witness a real defeat of a revolutionary movement then look to the Tamil Tigers, leadership, members and core support base smashed into smithereens. Within Sri Lanka what is left of the movement cannot raise its head above the precipice without getting it shot off. It's core support base has been terrorised into submission. Decades of nation building and hard military slog are no more. Open debate about the future for those who survived is not a luxury they possess, let alone any hope of playing a role in their nations affairs. The best most activists can hope for is exile in some foreign land.

 Look at Irish republicanism today, from Sinn Féin to Continuity, 32 County through to Éirigí and the IRSP. There are intelligent and at times ferocious debates taking place and as readers to The Pensive Quill, An Phoblacht and other republican outlets like the 1916 Societies can observe, they are not only about picking over the bones of the past. 

 Today Sinn Féin is a major player in both the north and south of Ireland, and no matter what their dissident critics have proclaimed down the years, it remains as it has always been, an all Ireland, left reformist, nationalist organisation. With its elected public officials living within their constituencies, with little sign of personal wealth beyond the average person they represent. 

 Few if any of the national liberation movements which exploded onto the world's political stage in the middle of the last century had revolutionary socialist politics at their core. Within most it was bolted on as an afterthought for tactical reasons, and the PRM were no different. Although unlike the ANC and many of these movements, Sinn Féin has not been swept to the right on the neoliberal tide of the last three decades. Despite at times wobbling above the neoliberal precipice, its politics remain what they have always been - left reformist and nationalist.

 There has always been a culture of finger pointing in Irish history, and of course it's not unique to Ireland, but when it raises its ugly head it rarely serves any useful purpose. And when political differences turn into personality clashes it plays into perfidious Albion's hands, as they are past masters at stirring this type of pot. 

 Before history condemns the Provo insurgency as a dismal failure, it's worth looking back to 1969 and asking were there any viable alternative avenues of struggle which would have enabled the nationalist working class peoples of the six counties to get out from under the unionist hammer.

 Tommy Gorman (5) one of Sinn Féin most strident critics thinks not:
At the time when I was in the IRA I could not see any alternative. 
They tried the force of argument and that failed, so they tried the argument of force. At the time I saw no other way.
But today even Tommy recognises the ending of the PIRA military campaign has opened avenues of struggle which did not exist when he signed on.
The dissident campaign had little support in the nationalist/republican community and should be stopped with immediate effect. A group of us have been making this point about dissidents for a long, long time,” he said. “We would prefer they [the dissidents] used any energies they have towards demolishing Sinn Fein’s argument
I tend to agree with Tommy McKearney, one of the more reliable heads on the Irish left, when asked what happened to the Provo's  How did they go from militant opponents of British rule to being an integral part of a Stormont administration? He replied:
I have come to view this as part of a dialectic process rather than as an act of dishonesty.  Much of the Provos’ momentum came from popular discontent with the old Stormont state rather than a deep desire for an all-Ireland republic and when the ancien regime was abolished and replaced with administration-sharing, allowing Sinn Fein into office, much of the Provo momentum dissipated.  However a new set of circumstances demand new responses that can only be answered by a socialist republic and hence the dialectic wheel turns and leaves some behind and others moving on to other areas of struggle.
To those republicans who say Sinn Féin should not be within the six country political system and by being there they have sold out, I would ask these questions.

 1/ Do the nationalist working class need, and have a right to political representation ? 

 2/ Whether Republicans should be helping to govern the Stormont administration is more contentious, especially for men and women who spent a good part of their lives trying to smash the British protectorate in the north. But I would pose this question, if SF move aside and either leave the Assembly or become the opposition; how long would it be before the Unionists, with British government collusion, reverted to their old ways?

 3/ If this were to happen and the lid blew off, would an armed republican campaign be any more successful than that of the PIRA?

Armed Struggle

Whether armed struggle is a viable option today or at some time in the immediate future, is not for me to say. Although I would add if the Provo's could not achieve their core aim by armed struggle then it is doubtful if the various varieties of armed dissident groups will. At best, even if they managed to unite, which seems doubtful, all they can achieve is propaganda by deed. And if you think it through, to send men and women out to kill and maim for such a paltry return is to display a despicable immorality with other peoples lives. 

 The more so when it would take building an army from scratch in a hostile climate: when nationalist support for armed struggle does not exist, and the British security services have the means to spy on insurgents which would have been unimaginable during the Provisionals insurgency.

 Besides the Red Brigades tried this tactic in 1970s Italy and all they achieved was to allow reactionary forces within the Italian State machine to manipulate to their own advantage the self sacrifice of the young members of Brigate Rosse.

Echoing what Tommy McKearney said; Gerard Hodgins (3) a former PIRA member and hunger striker said this in a recent interview: 
The tactics and strategy the armed dissidents are trying to develop are tactics and strategy that we tried, but which failed: the British can deal with these frames of reference. There is also no popular support for armed insurrection and, without a support base, armed insurrection is irresponsible.
Just as Hitler could not cower the British people in the Blitz, it must be said the PIRA could not blow the Unionist community into a thirty two county Republic, nor the British army back across the Irish sea. However what they did achieve is prove a generation of Irish people who had the misfortune to be born under British Unionist rule, were no longer prepared to be second class subjects of a foreign monarch. If they had to remain temporarily within the six county British protectorate they would do so as equals of their unionist neighbours.

 This might not seem much for those who lack empathy or have never felt the oppressor's heel, but for me it is a considerable feat which has undoubtedly echoed around the world. To turn this David and Goliath struggle into defeat is like saying Spartacus was just one more criminal whom the Romans rightly nailed to a cross. The Haitian revolt led by Toussaint L'Ouverture was just a bunch of uppity workers getting above their station who deserved to be crushed because they failed to understand the natural order of things; and the Warsaw Uprising was nothing more that a group of local corner boys who had nothing better to do.

We know none of this is true, they were all part and parcel of humanities unquenchable thirst for a world in which Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity are more that mere words on Theobold Wolfe Tone's memorial stone.

 Of course the British ruling class will chip away at any gains they have been forced to concede: it's what they do. The only question for Republicans today is how best to defend these gains, and move forward to complete the national revolution. Do they continue the struggle in the traditional way with dynamite and bullets, or carve out a new strategy which challenges politically the occupying power at every turn.

The veterans of the Provisional Republican Movement's forged a unified organisation which tenaciously fought a war with the UK state for almost three decades. I refuse to believe it is beyond the ability of these men and women to devise a strategy which learns the lessons of the past and incorporates the democratic avenues which their own struggle released. 

It's for them to decide whether they do this as members of Sinn Féin; or if that bridge has been well and truly burned, within a newly created republican organisation, but what I will say is finger pointing is not the way for Irish republicanism to achieve its historic goal.

 Mick Hall
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The full interviews with the men below and Paul Little, Tony O'Hara and Dominic McGlinchey can be found at The Pensive Quill

(1) Richard O’Rawe: IRA public relations officer in the H-Block during the 1981 hunger strike, shared a cell throughout this period with Bik McFarlane, the IRA prisoners OC. He has written two authoritative books on this subject, Blanketmen; An untold story of the H-Block hunger protest, and After Lives; the hunger strike and the secret offer that changed Irish history. He was amongst the first to publicly point out the lady was for turning.

(2) Tommy McKearney: A former OC the IRA’s Tyrone Brigade. He lived underground from the start of internment in August 1972 until his eventual capture in October 1977. After being imprisoned for life he joined the blanket protest and the first hunger strike, spending 53 days without food. He and his immediate family have paid a very high price in the struggle for a 32 county socialist republic. Today he is a trade union activist and one of Irelands most respected socialists.

(3) Gerard Hodgins, Maze prisoner and Blanket protester, hunger striker and former Sinn Féin press officer, a free spirit who tells it as he sees it. Admired for his honesty.

(4) Anthony McIntyre, former volunteer, sentenced to 18 years for IRA activity, on the Blanket for 4 years, co edited the Blanket e-magazine, writer and journalist who blogs at the Pensive Quill

(5) Tommy Gorman; A senior member of the PIRA engineering department, interned twice, in the Crumlin Road jail and on the Maidstone prison ship in Belfast Lough. He was one of the Magnificent Seven who escaped from the Maidstone prison hulk. Eventually he was  rearrested and charged with possession of ammunition and explosives and was released in 1986.

Finger pointing is not the way for Irish republicanism to advance.

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