Comments on The Pensive Quill: The Thatcher Intervention

Anonymous, re post 12:04 AM, April 11, 2009:I beli...

2009-04-12T13:47:00.000+01:00

Anonymous, re post 12:04 AM, April 11, 2009:

I believe I heard Danny Morrison last week on radio saying at the time of the hunger strike he had no idea of an electoral strategy. I might have picked him up wrong, however. Generally, there are few I imagine who would dispute that SF had electoral ambitions. Joe Austin in an 1980s interview made the claim that the hunger strikes brought the

Anonymous, reference your observations from ten Me...

2009-04-11T06:13:00.000+01:00

Anonymous, reference your observations from ten Men Dead, there is a similar but longer piece in Yesteday's Irish News from former prisoner Sile Darragh

anonymous wrote:The one problem that I have is giv...

2009-04-11T00:04:00.000+01:00

anonymous wrote:
The one problem that I have is given the pressures of the HS and what was a stake, could Adams and Hartley really see the political payoff for the rep mov in getting Carron elected? They couldn't really think that Sands' seat was worth risking the lives of the six -- right? Was this a terrible miscalculation or is Adams really that devious?'
If you go to the Irish Times,

Anonymous there was always organisational tension ...

2009-04-09T20:29:00.000+01:00

Anonymous there was always organisational tension of sorts between the IRA and INLA within the prison despite the close personal friendships formed between members of both.

Anonymous, 'the leadership killed more than Thatcher'

I think we are a long way off from being able to say that. It is certainly not one of Richard O'Rawe's allegations. He lays the blame at the door of the

From Ten Men Dead, 1987: "The Foreign Office, in i...

2009-04-09T08:25:00.000+01:00

From Ten Men Dead, 1987: "The Foreign Office, in its first offer..." (p293); "a vague offer" (p294); "The Mountain Climber also offered..."(p294); "parts of their offer were vague" - Bik McFarlane (p295); "nothing extra on offer" (p295); "offer" (p296); "what was on offer" (p297)etc., etc., etc.,

I read that article myself Séamas MacB... and I wa...

2009-04-08T19:20:00.000+01:00

I read that article myself Séamas MacB... and I was asking myself the same question. If I recall correctly, Danny Morrison also made this point at the time of the original Ó Rawe 'revelations'... he seemed to suggest that Richard O' Rawe was blurring the lines between the toing and fro-ing of negotiations and offers and actual real deals and agreements. That said, I don't recall any talk even of

You would need to have a degree in semantics to fi...

2009-04-08T18:10:00.000+01:00

You would need to have a degree in semantics to figure all this out. Yesterday in the Irish News, Danny Morrison "seemed" to suggest that there was an "offer" but no "deal". By "deal" he "seems" to mean that the hunger strikers wanted a representative from the Brits to appear in the jail and make an offer in writing. They, the Brits, were not prepared to do that. So there was "offer" but no "deal

When I first read O'Rawe, I thought his account wa...

2009-04-08T03:03:00.000+01:00

When I first read O'Rawe, I thought his account was plausible. But there seemed to be enough wiggle room for competing interpretations. AM's interview with O'Rawe, and O'Rawe's subsequent exchanges with the many defenders of the faith closed that door somewhat. Clarke's documents seem to slam it shut.

The one problem that I have is given the pressures of the HS and what was a stake,

Mackers, a name leapt out at me from the new docum...

2009-04-08T00:06:00.000+01:00

Mackers, a name leapt out at me from the new documents. Phillip Woodfield was included in all the discussions. I take him to be the same PJ Woodfield who met with Adams and O Conail in June 72 to settle terms for the July 72 ceasefire. There's a boy would have a few stories to tell.

I don't think they are discrediting each other, I ...

2009-04-07T21:21:00.000+01:00

I don't think they are discrediting each other, I think a certain narrative was put out at the time about a situation that was not only fluid but very emotional, and that particular narrative is now being challenged. It has every right to be challenged, not only for the families, but for everyone in the north and elsewhere that helped - or believed in - or gave support to the republican struggle

I agree that all information pertaining to this pe...

2009-04-07T20:20:00.000+01:00

I agree that all information pertaining to this period needs to be made public, and at the very least made available to the families. It is so unfortunate that this event, which had such a seminal influence on my own politicisation, and which seemed to be beyond any besmirching, has now become a battleground between various shades of republican opinion. If ever there was evidence of the implosion

the leadership killed more than thatcher

2009-04-06T22:17:00.000+01:00

the leadership killed more than thatcher

It seems incredible to believe that the INLA army ...

2009-04-06T22:00:00.000+01:00

It seems incredible to believe that the INLA army council had no input on the hunger strike committee surely with their men on hunger strike they should have had more control on the negotiations