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IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST
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Subject: Seamus Doherty case: Call For Forensic Laboratory Inquiry
Date: July 30, 2004

Derry Journal
Friday 30th July 2004

Call For Forensic Laboratory Inquiry

A member of the legal team defending Derry man Seamus Doherty, currently on remand in Maghaberry Prison on explosives charges, has called for a public inquiry into the workings of the Forensic Science laboratory.

The comments came during a press conference called to launch a campaign to secure the release of Mr. Doherty.

The Derry man is being held on the basis of DNA evidence which the prosecution allege links him to a bomb found on the Omeath Road outside Newry.

However, two other men charged in connection with the same offence were later released when it emerged that British soldiers interfered with forensic evidence and that the PSNI had asked forensic scientists to modify their statements to protect an informant.

Campaigners for Mr. Doherty have claimed that the evidence against the Derry man was planted and demanded his immediate release.

At this week's launch Marion Price, of the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association, said that the evidence against Seamus Doherty was "a blatant frame-up".

Calling for the beginning of a camapign to highlight the case Ms Price said that they would take to the streets if necessary to secure the Derryman's release.

A former Sinn Fein councillor from Newry, Martin Cunningham, described the case as a "human rights issue".

Mr. Doherty, he said, remained "languishing" in prison despite "clear proof" of interference with evidence.

Mr. Aidan Carlin, a member of Mr. Doherty's legal team, said it was not the only case in which nationalists and republicans had been framed. He cited the case of four Tyrone men recently found not guilty on weapons charges.

He further called for an inquiry into the workings of the Forensic Science Laboratory.

Seamus Doherty's family also revealed that, in an apparent new turn of events, the PSNI now admit visiting the Brandywell man's flat - something they previously denied.

The family allege that this visit was used by the police to collect a DNA sample that could be used to "frame" Mr. Doherty.

Meanwhile the Irish Republican Socialist Party have demanded Mr. Doherty's immediate release.

In a statement the group said that they have in the past demonstrated along with Seamus Doherty's family and that they wil continue to do so.

They added: "While this is undoubtedly a classic case of injustice it has always been our view that the British never had and never will have the right to imprison people no matter what the reason."

The IRSP added: "The now well documented intrusion into the forensic lab by members of the British Army to plant evidence on clothing belonging to arrested republicans is nothing new.

"This activity has been going on for decades and does not surprise us but it will come as a surprise to those who have bought into the British pacification process and the associated propaganda that continually tells us that the Brits are honest brokers in the Irish conflict "This case alone proves they are not."


The Irish Freedom Committee® 
www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST
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Subject: IRISH REPUBLICAN POW BIRTHDAYS - AUGUST
Date: Thursday, July 29, 2004

Please send birthday cards to the following Irish Republican prisoners
whose birthdays are in the month of AUGUST:

Kieran McDonagh, August 19, 1961, Married, 10 years, from Dublin,
Portlaoise Prison (E-2/E-3)   

Liam Campbell, August 26, 1962, Married, 5 years, from Dundalk,
Portlaoise Prison (E-4)

Sean Gerard Hoey, August 13, 1969, held on Remand, Maghaberry Prison

Gerard Moyna, August 26, 1954, Single, 7 years, from Belfast,
Portlaoise Prison (E-2/E-3)


Cards to POWs at Maghaberry are particularly appreciated at this time,
as things are at their worst since before the 1981 hunger strikes for
Irish republican prisoners held there.

Prison addresses are printed below. Airmail postage for a card from the
United States costs 80 cents.

For more information please contact us at:
IFCPOWDept-at-irishfreedomcommittee.net  Please substitute"@" for "-at-"

+++++++++++++++++++++

PRISON ADDRESSES:

PORTLAOISE PRISON, Dublin Road, Portlaoise, Co. Laois, Ireland (indicate wing #)

MAGHABERRY PRISON, Upper Ballinderry Road, Lisburn, Co. Antrim, BT 28, Ireland

Go raibh maith agat;

The Irish Freedom Committee®
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Subject: Provo police to punish republican resistance
Date: July 18, 2004   

------------------

Sunday Life Home > News 
18 July 2004 

Ard lessons 
Riot ringleaders sought by cops AND Provos 


NATIONALIST rioters who clashed with the police and Army in north 
Belfast on the Twelfth fear they may be targeted by punishment gangs. 

Hundreds of youths and older males got stuck into the cops and 
soldiers after Orangemen and UDA hangers-on - including senior UDA 
figure, John 'Bonzer' Borland - were allowed to pass the shops at 
Ardoyne Road. 

They now fear a 'double whammy' punishment, as both the police and 
Provo enforcers single out the ringleaders involved in the 
disturbances. 

Trouble broke out as loyalists and nationalists pelted each other 
with missiles. 

Several top Provos were in the nationalist crowd, joining Sinn Fein 
MLA Gerry Kelly in calls for calm as the rioters turned on the police 
and Army. 

Among them was Shankill bomber Sean Kelly. 

He was spotted close to the Sinn Fein MLA as he spoke to the media, 
just before the Orange march was due to pass back in front of the 
Ardoyne shops. 

The Irish Freedom Committee®
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For more see:

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Subject: Pro-Treaty collaborators escort British troops thru Ardoyne!
Date: July  15, 2004   

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In stark contrast to ongoing republican resistance to British occupation forces; collaborator and British minister GERRY KELLY yesterday sustained a broken wrist while PREVENTING Nationalist protest of Orange Order parades in their community. 

PROTECTING THE PARAS

Yesterday a massive show of military force descended on the Ardoyne in advance of hated and unwanted sectarian marches down Nationalist streets.  The community was out in force to resist both the troops and the racist parades.  However as the events unfolded, out of the crowd rose collaborationist elements in the form of GERRY KELLY, BIK MCFARLANE, and a number of other prominent Provo police/ GFA Enforcers-- not to protect the community from this unwanted and continuously resisted invasion -- but to PROTECT THE BRITISH MILITARY and PREVENT COMMUNITY RESISTANCE to the incursion.

"But there was one element in the riot that perhaps showed how far along the road to peace Northern Ireland has gone. The two men holding back the crowd as the paratroopers withdrew were Sinn Fein's security spokesman, Gerry Kelly, and Brendan McFarlane, both of whom escaped from the Maze prison in 1983 while imprisoned for IRA terrorist offences." (Belfast Telegraph 'Cornered Paras were prepared to shoot at mob' July 14 2004)

The Irish Freedom Committee®
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Subject: Astounding! IRA men shield Brit soldiers from rioters
Date: July 15, 2004   

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Astounding! IRA men shield Brit soldiers from rioters
By Jim Dee/ Special to the Herald
Tuesday, July 13, 2004

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - A Protestant march through a Catholic area of North Belfast triggered sharp rioting yesterday before members of the outlawed Irish Republican Army intervened to stop violence from spiraling out of control. No serious injuries were reported. 

In scenes unimaginable before the 11-year-old Irish peace process began, top IRA men rushed to rescue a dozen besieged British soldiers from a stick-wielding mob of pro-Irish nationalists. 

Many of the IRA men, along with top officials of the Sinn Fein party, endured heavy verbal and physical abuse from the angry crowd as they struggled to quell the intermittent rioting. 

The trouble began when police and soldiers swamped the Catholic Ardoyne district to shepherd through a Protestant Orange Order march. Heavily armored jeeps and 200 yards of 12-foot metal barriers were used to create a secure corridor through which Orangemen marched. 

The march, commemorating the 1690 Battle of the Boyne that helped secure the Protestant ascendancy to the British throne, was OK'd by the British-appointed Parades Commission. But Orange supporters were forbidden from accompanying marchers up the contested stretch of road. 

Nonetheless, about five minutes after 60 Orangemen were rushed through the steel corridor, about 100 of their supporters were also guided through by riot police - a clear breach of the commission's restrictions. That's when angry nationalists, who'd already traded brief barrages of rocks and bottles with Orange backers on the other side of the wall, exploded. 

``How you stop all this is simple: Stop anti-Catholic marches going through Catholic areas,'' Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly, a former IRA prisoner who was hit in the face by a nationalist while trying to shield soldiers from attacks, told the Herald after the rioting had subsided. 

The Irish Freedom Committee®
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Subject: Republican Resistance Commandeered Occupation forces Equipment
Date: July 14, 2004   

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The NewsLetter
Wednesday 14th July 2004

Republican Resistance Commandeered Occupation forces Equipment
 Exclusive By Gemma Murray Security Correspondent


Youths who resisted the occupation forces commandeered thousands of pounds worth of equipment from the back of Army vehicles during Twelfth night violence in Ardoyne, Belfast.

The News Letter can reveal that, during fierce resistance hand to-hand fighting between occupation soldiers and youths, the rioters ceased Army Land Rovers and commandeered a range of equipment.

Soldiers from the 3rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment became isolated for a short time during which they came under attack - until they were rescued by two police back-up units, and collaborators from the Provisional movement.

They had been deployed in the area to provide back-up for the huge police operation surrounding a contentious Orange parade.

But while the soldiers tried to restore order, rioters broke into the back of a Land Rover and escaped with 20 baton rounds, radio equipment, shields and batons among other items.
And some batons and shields were ripped out of soldiers' hands during the fighting.

The incident has been described as "very unusual" by Army sources and it is likely they will launch their own inquiry into the circumstances.

The Irish Freedom Committee®
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Subject: RSF, CIRA added to US State Dept. proscribed list
Date: July 13, 2004   

The US State Dept. ruling can be read here

  • Continuity IRA added to U.S. terror list - Rueters
  • CIRA added to US terror list - BBC News

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Reuters
July 13, 2004   

Continuity IRA added to U.S. terror list
  
The U.S. State Department has expanded its list of foreign terrorist
organisations to include the Continuity IRA, whose sporadic attacks
aim to drive Britain from Northern Ireland.

The designation of the group as a foreign terrorist organisation, announced
in the U.S. federal register, makes it illegal under U.S. law for anyone in the
United States or under US jurisdiction to provide material support to the group.

It also requires U.S. financial institutions to freeze the group's assets and
allows the State Department to deny visas to its members.

The mainstream IRA called a cease-fire in its campaign against British rule
in Northern Ireland in 1997, a year before the U.S.-brokered Good Friday
Agreement brought an imperfect peace to the province of 1.7 million people.

The accord ended the worst of sectarian bloodshed that cost 3,600 lives in
the previous three decades as IRA guerrillas fought to unite the province with
the Republic of Ireland to the south.

But two small, breakaway factions, the Real IRA and Continuity IRA, have
continued to mount sporadic attacks.

According to the State Department's "Patterns of Global Terrorism"
report, the Continuity IRA is active mainly in Belfast and the border areas
of Northern Ireland, where it has carried out bombings, assassinations and
kidnappings.

The department said the group is also known as Continuity Army Council and
Republican Sinn Fein and has estimated its strength at fewer than 50
"hard-core" activists.
* * * * * * *
BBC News
July 13, 2004

CIRA added to US terror list
  
US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, made the decision
The US State Department has added the Continuity IRA to its list of foreign
terrorist organisations.
It will be illegal for anyone in the US or under US jurisdiction to provide
material support to the dissident Irish republican group.

The designation, announced on Tuesday, also means American financial
institutions must freeze the group's assets, and allows the State Department
to deny visas to its members.

The dissident republican groups are opposed to the Good Friday Agreement and
the current political process and continue to launch attacks on the security
forces in Northern Ireland.

The Continuity IRA has been responsible for bomb attacks across Northern
Ireland.

Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement: "As part of
ongoing US efforts against terrorism, the Secretary of State has designated
the terrorist group Continuity Irish Republican Army, along with its aliases
Continuity Army Council and Republican Sinn Fein, as a foreign terrorist
organisation under the Immigration and Nationality Act."

He added: "As President Bush has made clear, the United States sees no place
for paramilitaries nor their violent activities in a democratic society like
Northern Ireland."

The decision was taken by US Secretary of State Colin Powell in consultation
with the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury.

DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said the move would restrict their operational
capacity and ability to grow.

"Their supporters will be prevented from fund raising and helping this
illegal terrorist organisation through providing arms," he said.

"Obviously if the Continuity IRA is to expand its base, it will need funds
and to find supplies of arms.

"At least this closes off one potentially lucrative avenue of support."

There are two main dissident republican factions, the Continuity IRA and the
Real IRA. The Real IRA is already on the US list of foreign terrorist organisations.

The Irish Freedom Committee®
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Subject: RUC/PSNI USE OF CS GAS A 'SERIOUS CONCERN'
Date: Monday, July 12, 2004

British colonial RUC police used a new and extremely toxic form of CS gas yesterday on civilians in Derry; badly burning one man, and seriously affecting many others including the victim’s infant child. The following statement is from ANDY MARTIN in Belfast:

“Events in Derry city centre yesterday morning have further highlighted the unacceptable nature of the RUC/PSNI in nationalist and republican areas of the six counties.

“At around 1:30 am yesterday morning (Sunday11th) two police land rovers tailed one young man aged 23 and his partner through Derry City centre. When the young man was out of sight of the many CCTV cameras in the city he was pounced on by the police and physically man handled. The man was then handcuffed by the police when he resisted their attempts to beat him and he was arrested for disorderly behavior. During this assault by the RUC/PSNI a number of passers by witnessed the events and challenged the police, the police reacted by covering the area with CS gas. The man the police arrested was saturated with the gas and as a result was very badly burned. A number of other people were then arrested by the RUC/PSNI when they tried to defend themselves against Police aggression. Some of those arrested have commented on the fact that many of the RUC officers appeared to be suffering the after affects of the use of this CS gas. More worryingly, a number of those affected by the gas noticed that for a period of up to 24 hours after the attack anyone they came into contact with also began to suffer the symptoms, including the initial victim’s infant child. 

“(We) challenge the RUC/PSNI to reveal exactly what type of CS gas was used in Derry on Sunday morning and explain the extreme symptoms suffered by the public. We also question the necessity for arresting these people in the first place, the RUC/PSNI seem intent on provoking the nationalist community at every opportunity. It has not been lost on the people of Derry that over three and a half decades after the Battle of the Bogside their streets are still being choked by CS gas from RUC guns. Little has changed from the days of the B-Specials except the name.

“Finally we ask the SDLP’s Pat Ramsey to justify his comments in today’s Irish News in which he condemns the violence directed at the RUC without condemning RUC violence directed at the community. Mr. Ramsey also defends the use of CS gas against his own constituents, something for which he will no doubt pay for when next he stands for election. In his rush to justify the RUC’s actions Mr. Ramsey has accepted the statements from the RUC press office as fact and not once has he asked anyone involved in the incident what really happened. It is interesting that at a time when Ramsey’s party colleagues, Danny O Connor and Martin Morgan are questioning whether or not the police have actually changed he should accept their version of events without question. 

“(We) again reiterate to Republicans across the six counties, what the people of Derry already know, that the RUC are Sectarian, Partisan, anti-republican, anti-equality and anti-human rights and have changed little since their inception. Their main reason for existing is to uphold Britain’s illegal Sovereign claim to the North of Ireland.
“Reject the RUC/PSNI, the Policing Board and the District Policing Partnerships.”

(ENDS)

The Irish Freedom Committee®
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Subject: Rummaging - Dolours Price
Date: July 9, 2004   

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The Blanket 
 9 July 2004 

Rummaging
 Dolours Price 

I spend a considerable amount of time rummaging through my head. I come up with bits and pieces, some make me happy, others make me sad, and some make me downright angry, and I mean angry. The reader will know; I think we all rummage. 

Last night, when sleep eluded me, I came up with a memory of the night we, as "the Republican Family", were called to meet in the Roddy Mc Corley club to be told why the ceasefire was to be. I say 'to be told' because it was being 'told', no-one had ever asked me to cast my vote 'yea' or 'nay'. We were to be given the opportunity to ask questions after the telling; it would not change the already made decision but it was probably supposed to make us feel that we had in some way 'chosen' what was foregone.

The telling was brief and none too coherent, I still have the picture of the three representatives sitting at the table before us. Funny the seemingly insignificant things that stick in the mind, like the "boys" sitting observing at the back of the room. There was talk about the need to get our people out of prison, the enormous number of Volunteers and innocent people who had died. The usual talk from a tired and confused leadership convinced by their meetings with British diplomatic experts, with rich and sincere and impressive Americans, a President here a Taoiseacht there and a British Prime Minister thrown in for good measure. The Republican leadership were thrown in way out of their depth. Then the truth told as if it were an achievement. 

"No deal has been done with the Brits".

I remember thinking,'what? We got nothing?!'

Question-time came and I raised my hand. "Are we being told that with hindsight we should never have undertaken an Armed Struggle, that we should rather have infiltrated (infiltrate was the word I used) the SDLP and taken it over? After all we had no prisoners back then and only a few people had as yet lost their lives? Would that have been the better course of action, was it all a mistake?" I got no answer that night.

Sinn Fein (and I do wish they would change their name just as they have changed their ideology) by their conduct since have given me my answer... a resounding YES.

Yes to Constitutional Nationalism, reformism not revolution (another of those forbidden words!). Yes to joining the establishments, British and Free-State -- remember that the Free-State government are still sending Irishmen to Portlaoise Prison on the word of a Garda Inspector for being members of Oglaigh na hEireann otherwise known as The Irish Republican Army otherwise known as the I.R.A.. I watch it in Green Street Court regularly.

The haste with which Sinn Fein are attempting to jettison their armed past was well illustrated by Mary Lou Mc Donald when she haughtily declared, "there is no whiff of cordite on me!" while being interviewed before the elections. Mary Lou, I also use Chanel no 5.

Do Sinn Fein (you will change the name soon, won't you?) really believe that men died on Hunger-Strike for this defeat? That men walked to the scaffold for seats in Stormont, Westminster (when will you be taking your rightful place there, boys?) and Dail Eireann? That my own aunt lived without hands or eyes with quiet dignity and without complaint for forty years to hear that the tri-colour is lodged in the corner of some office in Stormont. Stormont! The symbol of Republican defeat in 1921? I defy anyone to tell me they did because I will call them liars and hypocrites. 

Admit it, lads -- you lost the war; some of us see it as only having lost another battle. You can lose all the battles but only when you surrender do you lose your Soul.

The Irish Freedom Committee®

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Subject: Don't Buy A British Lie - Andersonstown News
Date: July 8, 2004   

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The Blanket 
Don't Buy A British Lie 
"Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets." - Napoleon Bonaparte 
Geraldine Adams • 8 July 2004 


"Don't buy a British lie" was the call of republicans in the 1980s in their campaign against the gutter press. The Sun, the News of the World and other rags should be boycotted, the community was told. They were the enemy of those fighting oppression. 

They lied day and daily about republicans and the war. They demonised those who challenged the status quo - hunger-strikers, IRA volunteers and their supporters, anyone who rebelled against the system. They distorted or silenced radical voices. 

They were despicable yet dangerous. They fed the masses a diet of tits and trash to numb their minds. They served the establishment's agenda in their squalid, slimy way. People were urged not to buy these newspapers. 

Today 'Don't buy a British lie' applies to the Andersonstown News. It has just been revealed that the British government has funded the Andersonstown News Group to the tune of £560,000. Yes, that's right - over half a million pounds. 

The details were released not in the Andersonstown News - unsurprisingly it never made them into a front page exclusive - but in the House of Commons. It is the unlikely figure of Lady Sylvia Hermon - not the Andytown News' intrepid hacks - we have to thank for bringing these figures into the public domain. 

She asked a question of the British Secretary of State about the newspaper group's funding. The money has come from, among others, the Stormont Department of Finance and Personnel and the Stormont Department of Social Development. No wonder the Andersonstown News has been so keen to bring back Stormont! 

Greed is running amok at Teach Basil. Rather than being grateful for what they've got, it was revealed the Andersonstown News Group has made further applications for almost £500,000 of British state funding. If granted, it will make them British government millionaires. 

Lady Sylvia is of course outraged. But in her reactionary, unionist response she completely misses the point. The British government is not funding a radical republican newspaper. It would never be writing cheques for the Sovereign Nation or Saoirse. It's funding the Andersontown News Group because these papers, their management and journalists, have been bought off. 

They're no threat to the British state or its agents. They're totally tame. 

If the Andersonstown News ran an editorial saying it supported the right of any Irish man or woman to challenge British rule in Ireland by any means necessary, would the Brits still fund the paper? 

If the Andersonstown News called for a radical campaign of civil disobedience in support of republican prisoners in Maghaberry, Portlaoise and English jails, would the British continue to pay up? 

If the Andersonstown News said that "dissident" republicans had a point - the Belfast Agreement was never what republicanism was about and Stormont is no place for the inheritors of 1916 - would the cheques still be in the post? 

If the Andersonstown News stopped presenting all those who oppose the Agreement and the so-called peace process as loonies or scum, would the Brits keep making the lodgements? 

If there was even a faint hint of genuine republicanism or radicalism about the Andersonstown News, the Brits wouldn't give it a penny. Because the Brits haven't changed. They're every bit as keen to destroy those who oppose them today as they were in the 1980s. 

The Andersonstown News, like the rags that went before it, demonises and censors those the Brits hate. It feeds working-class nationalists a diet of inane news stories, advertisements, and pictures mainly of people in drinking clubs. 

It helps ensure the Brits have nothing to worry about. It's the peace process in print. It's called the Andersonstown News Group. But it carries advertisements for the British military forces - the PSNI - and it's funded by the British government. How more British can you get? 

Newspapers are meant to be about transparency, openness and accountability. Yet the Andersonstown News has hidden its half-a-million Brit dosh from its community. What does a 'principled' columnist like Father Des Wilson think of that? Will his resignation letter be in the post? 

The Brits don't throw good money at nothing. They haven't made a misjudgement. A wily Andytown News hasn't conned them out of cash. They aren't funding this enterprise because of its riveting reporting, crusading journalism, or contribution to community life - (they don't exist anyway). 

They're funding this newspaper group because it's doing a very good job in preserving the political status quo. It helps makes life easier for the Brits. It ridicules anyone who would even entertain the idea of rearranging London. 

Forget its meaningless denunciations of securocrats etc., etc. Who really makes the Andytown News' blood boil? For whom does it reserve its most vicious and malicious words? Who does it regularly slant stories against? 

The Andersonstown News' real enemies are the Brits' enemies - those who want to smash this rotten little state and its rulers, those who oppose the pacification process, those who speak out against the illegal and immoral occupation of our country. 

The gutter press never went away, it's just been renamed. The slogan of the 1980s still stands - "Don't Buy a British-(funded) Lie". It's time to again shout and paint it all over West Belfast. 

The Irish Freedom Committee®

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Subject: Brendan O'Connor refused bail after 3 other releases
Date: Thursday, July 01, 2004 

Despite the releases last week of his co-accused on the grounds that the ‘RIRA’ is not a proscribed organization, Irish POW Brendan O’Connor continues to be held on charges of conspiracy. 

Brendan and his three co-accused had Membership charges dropped, and then charges of conspiracy cleared, in a historic Belfast court ruling last month.

However despite having spent well over 2 years interned at Maghaberry gaol, Brendan was not released with his co-accused, and he was charged today with membership and causing an explosion at Stewartstown Barracks in 2000.

Brendan was refused bail in the high court in Belfast after an unsuccessful attempt at having the charges dismissed because of lack of evidence.  A similar legal move in relation to the first charges was also unsuccessful.

Brendan will probably have to spend another nine to ten months in prison before he can have a trial date.

Please take a moment to send a card or letter to Brendan O Connor and let him know he is in your thoughts.

BRENDAN O'CONNOR
Maghaberry Prison
Roe House 1 + 2,
Upper Ballinderry Road, Lisburn, Co. Antrim, BT 28 2PT,
North of Ireland 

The Irish Freedom Committee®

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Subject: Can You Hear Ho Chi Minh Laughing? - Eoghan O’Suilleabhain  
Date: July 1, 2004

Commentary by Irish Freedom Committee member Eoghan O’Suilleabhain, in the Blanket 


The Irish Freedom Committee® 
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The Blanket 

Can You Hear Ho Chi Minh Laughing?

“The challenge then must be working towards the type of a united Ireland that best suits unionists." 
- Gerry Adams in the Belfast Telegraph 28 June 2004 
(Article by Noel McAdam.)

“Now, some think that the (Provisional) movement's new-found openness has more to do with smothering suspicion in the officers' mess that the toutery goes higher up - much higher up!” 
- Article by Gail Walker in the Belfast Telegraph 29 June 2004.

Eoghan O’Suilleabhain • 1 July 2004 

Gerry Adams is no Ho Chi Minh. He’d rather live on his knees. In fact, he’d rather we all lived on our knees. Says Gerry: "The challenge then must be working towards the type of a united Ireland that best suits unionists." Right, let’s have the tail wag the dog for a few more centuries. The Cruiser couldn’t agree more. 

The type of a united Ireland that best suits unionists is the one where the 26 counties joins back up with the United Kingdom. Short of that, direct rule will do unionists for now even if it means having to deal with the noxious possibility of intermittent indirect rule with co-opted croppies to preserve the British colonial status quo in Northern Ireland. And ex-Republicans can have “parity of esteem” (because it’s just a whole lot of nothing anyway) but not Republicanism…because well it is a Kingdom after all. 

Now imagine the response of Ho Chi Minh if Lyndon Johnson or Richard Nixon said to him: “Now listen hear Uncle Ho, there’ll be no Plan B (United Vietnam). Either we directly rule South Vietnam from Washington or we let our gerrymandered majority Catholic allies in Saigon rule it indirectly for us until a majority of them say otherwise”. 

Can you hear Ho Chi Minh laughing? Even now after all these years. 

National liberation requires a great command of will on both a micro and macro scale. The Vietnamese have it in spades. The Irish do not...for a lot of different reasons historical and otherwise. But to be fair, the Vietnamese also had a lot of outside foreign government assistance to help them fight their fight…and the Irish never really ever had much of that. But this is not a call to Irish arms. Nor though is it an invitation to unionist utopia working towards total British rule here because Gerry wants to be friends with Gusty.

When Catch-22 author Joseph Heller wrote the Pimp’s retort that it’s always better to live on your knees than to die on your feet, Heller was offering a reasonable alternative to a stark contrast: live or die. “Choose life. Always choose life”, said the old Italian pimp to the naive Nately. It beats fighting and dying if that’s the only alternative. 

Give the devil his due. Tony Blair and his conniving Irish cohorts (with Bill Clinton egging them on) were able to convince most of the population on this island that there was only the choice between British pacification (indirect rule) in El norte… or violent chaos. 

This manufactured illusion ought to go down in history as another major British propaganda coup…right up there with the sinking of the Lusitania and the Maximilian Letter. 

If no one voted for the Belfast Agreement of 1998 how does that necessarily mean more violence? By 1998 most Republicans were happy to be on a cease-fire with no end in sight. However, the successful government and mass media manipulation of the population and political parties then caused a further cleavage of Irish Republicans that in turn enflamed subsequent internecine feuding and reactionary violence. 

Radical rejection in the form of boycotts and a general refusal to engage with the invader anywhere would have prevented further factionalism and fostered a far better culture of Irish independence than the usual Brit tit dependence we are seeing now making 2016 no nearer than 3016. 

“It is time for Republicans to reclaim the honour and integrity of the cause which sustained our beliefs”. This is a truism. It is time for all of us to gather together on at least an annual basis to recharge our batteries and to validate our perspectives. But not like some dour Alcoholics Anonymous meeting where someone gets up and says: “Hi, I’m Joe. I’m a Republican.” After all, who said politics couldn’t be a good time with music, debate and enlightenment for all? 

The American populist Jim Hightower says it best: "For too long progressives have walked fearful of their shadows, whimpering and whining about what's wrong and fighting amongst themselves over crumbs. That time is over." 

Check out his Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour as a possible Irish Republican template at http://www.rollingthundertour.org.

And let the revelry if not the revolution begin!


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