NEWRY IRA TWILIGHT ZONE

In the twilight years of Provisional Sinn Fein, when liasing with the IRA, started to become a feature of local political activity in Newry, I was always impressed by the way it was conducted from my own personal experience. Primarily for security reasons, it was logical that we would always go south of the border for any important meeting, which was kept to a minimum at that time. Newry for various reasons, was not a good location for such an event. 

There was always considerable reconnaissance of the adjacent territory, prior to such a meeting. The IRA eliminated telephone line bugs and wiretaps, using wiretap detection sweeps, computer data line taps and bugs. i.e., telecommunications security line sweeps and bug swept the conference room, using electronic room bug sweeping and electronic detection. Their equipment could detect electronic espionage, identifying and locating those bugging devices. Each participant, regardless of status, was body searched and batteries of all electronic equipment, such as mobile phones were removed.

Despite all of these precautions, we have since that time, become aware, of the considerable extent of British infiltration of the IRA, up to it's most senior level. Since then, there has been considerable advancements made in surveillance technology, such as drones, listening devices designed for long distance stake-outs, with built in monoculars, to allow spies, watch everything from a considerable distance.  

The revival of the IRA in the early '70s, generally caught the British unawares and gave the Provisionals a head start. However since that time, the British were sufficiently established and prepared for all subsequent splits in the Republican movement, which enabled them to not alone be aware of the details, but to infiltrate all subsequent groups and place their agents in key positions. Most seasoned republicans are aware of most of these details. However it would appear, many younger idealistic ones are not.

I personally volunteered for the IRA, on three separate occasions, fully aware of the dangers, as a personal reaction, to events around me at that time. With the wisdom of hindsight, I can see, that reactionary politics does not have any future in the long term in Ireland. While the essential problems in Ireland remain the same, the sea, that fish of a successful guerrilla army swim in, is simply not there presently. The high price, that many of highly idealistic youth are currently paying, such as long years of political internment and early graves, I believe is not justified in the present context. There are other avenues for committed Irish republicans to achieve their goals, other than violence.

As Terence McSweeney taught us, morals and ethics are a very important part, of the proper motivation and justification for taking up arms. All other avenues must be exhausted. I personally believe, we will have a united Ireland, albeit not meeting the ideals of most people but a sufficient basis, to realize the dreams of martyrs like Bobby Sands. In fact, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion, that all paramilitary organizations, are currently more of a hindrance, than an asset to achieving our goals and are wide open to abuse in our present materialistic culture, which is degrading this noble tradition. Traditional republicans did not wear masks, neither Che Guevara, in fact he stated that a genuine revolutionary, gird themselves on the inside.

If I appear to be preaching, please forgive me, my analysis may be wrong. This article again will make many enemies but I do have a responsibility to younger people of the next generation, to speak from my own experience. No I do not support Sinn Fein or belong to any political organization or party but I do support Republican Sinn Fein, as founded by Ruairi O'Bradaigh and his colleagues, of which I knew a sufficient number, to be aware, that they were genuine people of considerable integrity, who inherited a noble tradition, who persevered without personal gain at considerable personal cost. Their characters obviously cultivated in adversity, which puts my own selfishness to shame.

 A news article, as reported by the Belfast Telegraph, prompted this article, which raised many questions with myself personally, in the context of this preamble. There are far more qualified people than myself, who would have a far better insight on these matters. This is simply the best I can do for now from my own experience, primarily for the benefit of any young people, considering their political alternatives. I would also add, that Father Raymond Murray, was of considerable help to myself, many years ago, when I found myself in a Catch 22, situation, related to the above matters, at the end of my political activity in Newry. I found him to be a trustworthy man of integrity, whom I would recommend to anyone in a similar situation.

Secret recordings reveal 'plot'

18 NOVEMBER 2014
A dissident republican plot to target judges and police officers in Northern Ireland has been exposed by a covert MI5 operation, a court has heard.


Listening devices placed in a house in Newry, Co Down at the direction of the Security Services has provided the evidence to charge seven men who appeared in court in the city accused of a range of terrorist offences, a police officer told the judge.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) detective sergeant said "somewhere close to 70 hours" of material gathered in the property in Ardcarn Park over a three month period from August included a series of meetings involving "leading key figures of a proscribed organisation".

All seven accused, aged between 30 and 75, were arrested in a raid in Ardcarn Park last week by heavily armed police investigating the activities of the Continuity IRA.

They were all remanded in custody by the district judge at the close of today's short hearing.

Four of the accused are from the Republic of Ireland and three from Northern Ireland.

All have been charged with membership of a proscribed organisation, while six face charges of conspiracy to possess explosives with intent to endanger life, conspiracy to possess firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life and preparation for acts of terrorism.

Five of the men are also charged with directing terrorism.

As all seven watched on from the crowded dock, a prosecution lawyer asked the detective sergeant to confirm details of the operation that led to the arrests.

"MI5 arranged for a device or number of devices to be placed within an address at Ardcarn Park, Newry," he said.

"A number of meetings were recorded at which the defendants were present."

The officer said those statements were correct.

She also answered "correct" when asked by the lawyer if topics discussed during the meetings included membership of a proscribed organisation; weapons training; funding terrorist activity; plans to commit acts of terrorism; and plans to procure firearms and ammunitions.


The lawyer then asked: "Specific individual police officers were discussed with a view to targeting them?"

The detective sergeant answered: "That is correct."

Asked if "members of the judiciary" were also discussed at the meetings, she again answered in the affirmative.

The lawyer then asked had there also been talk that a dissident member be "taken out" for apparently posting material on the internet.

"That is correct," replied the officer.

The policewoman, who said she had listened to a "substantial proportion" of the 70 hours of recordings, said she could connect all seven to the charges they face.

The five men facing a count of directing terrorism along with the four other charges are Patrick Joseph Blair, 59, from Villas One, Dundalk; Liam James Hannaway, 44, from White Rise, Dunmurry on the outskirts of Belfast; Joseph Matthew Lynch, 73, from Beechgrove Avenue, Limerick; Sean O'Neill, 75, from Quinn's Cottages, Limerick; and Colin Patrick Winters, 43, from Ardcarn Park, Newry.

The man facing four charges is John Sheehy, 30, from Clounmacon, Listowel, Co Kerry.

Seamus Morgan, 58, from Barcroft Park, Newry, faces the solitary charge of membership of a proscribed organisation.

None of them spoke when asked to confirm their identity at the outset of the hearing, which took place amid a significant police presence inside and outside the court.

Some stood while others sat during the legal proceedings that followed.

Lawyers for all seven accused said they did not wish to ask any questions of the detective sergeant.

A lawyer for Morgan said a bail application would be made before the same court on Wednesday. The other six accused were remanded in custody to appear again in four weeks.

As the men were led away at the end of the hearing there was some sporadic applause from supporters in the public gallery.

Five other men detained in the swoop on the property in Ardcarn Park last Monday were subsequently released pending police files being sent to prosecutors for assessment.

VOTE FATHER MURRAY MP MID ULSTER !

It is the humble opinion of this blogger, that Father Raymond Murray, in the absence of Marian Price, Martin Corey or Gerry McGeough, should stand for the Mid-Ulster vacancy, left by Martin McGuinness MP. Raymond Murray's record is a very long and consistent, humanitarian, trustworthy voice, to speak for the Irish people of no property, in the house of commoners in London, especially those voices that have already been silenced, in political internment and assassination by the British Government in Occupied Ireland.

McGuinness and Co., came to power on the back and shroud of Bobby Sand's blanket, that was initially BORROWED in Fermanagh/South Tyrone. It is time once again to remember and respect all those who gave their lives for  a non-sectarian PEACE WITH JUSTICE ! THE INCARCERATED SPIRITUAL VOICE OF THE IRISH PEOPLE OF NO PROPERTY.

UNITE BEHIND THE POLITICAL PRISONERS OF THE PEOPLE OF NO PROPERTY !

UNITE BEHIND FATHER RAYMOND MURRAY !

VOTE FATHER MURRAY MP MID-ULSTER !

The Campaign for the Right to Truth Oral Submissions to the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation, Father Raymond Murray, Dublin Castle, April 1995 A Chathaoirligh, a dhaoine uaisle, is mór an phribhléid dúinne, lucht feachtais um lorg fírinne agus gaolta ar son na cóire bheith i láthair ag an bhFóram agus bheirmid buíochas daoibh as an fhaill seo a thabhairt dúinn labhairt. Madam Chairperson and members of the Forum, Thank you for the privilege of addressing the Forum as Chairperson of Relatives For Justice and Chairperson of the Campaign for the Right to Truth. This Campaign is an umbrella group of eight organisations. There are six speakers on this panel and there are some 30 members present at the Forum. You will meet many of them informally and hear their stories. We are happy that you are willing to listen to poor, humble and vulnerable people who have suffered at the hands of the state in the past 25 years. You will have heard, and doubtlessly will hear more testimonies from victims and their relatives who have suffered grievously at the hands of the paramilitaries. We sympathise with these victims and encourage you to do all you can for them. Today we are focusing narrowly on a section of people, victims and their relatives who feel they have been neglected and ignored. The ghetto poor have to a great extent been a voiceless people—although they can be eloquent—voiceless because they are without power. Government officials, religious people and academics were not always willing to listen to them, and so their lack of human rights and civil rights and justice went unredressed. They found it difficult to get their story told. The people represented here, Madam Chairperson, have been the victims of the corruption of law. Such a problem is worldwide. We are focusing here on Northern Ireland and Britain but we have also a speaker here to challenge governments and politicians in the Republic of Ireland whose silence on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings is as deafening as the explosions themselves. The agents of the law in Northern Ireland and Britain, people in charge of the law, have violated the law to use it as a weapon to torture men in interrogation centres, to send some innocent people to jail for life, to kill and injure civilians with plastic bullets, to shoot citizens with army guns, to act in collusion over 25 years with the murderous intents of the loyalist paramilitaries. A second hurt, added to the injuries, is that the law has provided no adequate remedy for proper investigation, no truth or justice for the Relatives for Justice. Hence the appreciation of our groups to have a voice here today. The British Government does not hold the high moral ground. Like the paramilitaries it should also acknowledge and repent for its crimes, the deaths and suffering of innocent people it has caused. Truth helps a peace process and has healing effects. Justice and charity flow from it. Our submission to the Forum outlined 16 classifications of the violations of human rights. The headings are: Murder and unjust killings by the security forces. 148 members of paramilitary organisations and 138 innocent civilians have been killed by the RUC and the British Army; some of these can be classified as murder and some as unjust killings. Prosecution and conviction of members of the security forces has been avoided in most cases. Collusion of the British intelligence system, members of the UDR and RIR, members of the RUC, with loyalist paramilitaries leading to the murders of hundreds of Catholics. Widespread and deadly use of rubber and plastic bullets resulting in severe injuries and the deaths of 17 people, of whom 8 were children and one was a woman. Internment of 2000 Catholic men and 30 women under special powers and the cruel ill-treatment of same. Inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees in Hollywood and Girdwood Barracks, Belfast 1971-2. Torture of 14 hooded men by sensory deprivation in Ballykelly Barracks in 1971. Duress: Arrested people in the 1970s were forced to sign statements admitting crimes the police wanted to connect them with. Corrupt courts for many years accepted these statements. Harassment: For 20 years nationalists were subjected to arbitrary house searches, house-wrecking, beatings, verbal harassment, census taking by security forces. Ill-treatment of arrested persons in RUC stations 1972-75. Ill-treatment of arrested persons in the interrogation centres at Castlereagh and Gough Barracks 1976-77. Alleged verbal statements of accused given out by the police were accepted on their word in the Diplock Courts; beating, thumping and kicking prisoners and interrogating them for long periods and putting them in positions of stress, were not accepted as cruel and degrading treatment and statements taken after these forms of ill-treatment were accepted in court. There followed great disparity in sentences and some of the sentences were inhuman. After the Bennet Report in 1979 ill-treatment centred on beatings designed not to leave marks, on psychological torture and threats, blackmail and the use of supergrasses. Severe punishments were inflicted on prisoners who refused to do prison work and wear prison clothes in the 1976-81 period. Degrading stripping naked of the women prisoners in Armagh prison 1982-86. 18 innocent Irish people were imprisoned for long years by police action and judicial procedures in Britain which were contrary to human rights. Some Irish political prisoners in British prisons were treated with cruelty. The Prevention of Terrorism Act brought great suffering to many thousands of Irish in Britain. When those charged with upholding the law appear to violate it with impunity in this way, the foundations of respect for law and order disappear. The question is: will the new northern Ireland with a radically restructured police force, with strict regulations re appointment of judges, magistrates and coroners avoid political prejudice, guarantee the human and civil rights of all citizens, provide independent modes of investigation of police and legal abuse? And will citizens in positions of power show concern for justice regarding security, legal justice and social justice? We hope so. Murray was accused of sectarianism  0 35 82 Friday, 28 December 2012 Repulican prisoners' representive Father Raymond Murray was criticised by the Northern Ireland Office, 1981 papers have revealed  ENLARGE Related Articles Paramilitary prison ship planned Northern Ireland Office (NIO) officials accused republican prisoners' representative Father Raymond Murray of sectarianism during heated exchanges over the hunger strikes, the archives have revealed. Fr Murray voiced criticism of alleged lack of work or education opportunities in Armagh women's prison. An NIO official said his letter written in December 1981 was disappointing and predictably negative. "It is narrow, sectarian and gratuitously offensive to the prison administration," he said. Fr Murray said: "Your government's attitude to the hunger strike was barbarous in its cruelty, not only to the prisoners and their relatives but to the Catholic community as a whole. We find your attitude not helpful in the political sphere. Your continued intransigence helps the IRA. More humanity and compassion would help us to remove relatives from the influence of paramilitaries." A separate NIO briefing document would appear to support this, warning a new generation of children had been infected with rampant Anglophobia following the hunger strikes. It said some believed public morale was at an all-time low, with new recruits for the IRA and people becoming more anti-British. "New heroes and myths have been created and new wounds opened which will take years to heal," the document said. "For their part, Protestants will never easily forgive or forget Sands' election or the trimming statements by the Catholic leaders, lay and clerical." In a separate report, officials expressed forthright views on another of the key republican go-betweens. Monsignor Denis Faul was an "unguided moral missile" and a "considerable thorn in our flesh", an NIO analysis of the clergyman said during the dispute. An official from the department said the priest was sympathetic to the aims of republicans but had come to believe the hunger strikes were hopeless and tried to persuade their relatives to help end the protests. "He was largely responsible for the revolt of the relatives in July that led to pressure being put on Gerry Adams to order the prisoners off their fast," said the NIO civil servant. 1. self obsessed individual from the irish language me fein (my self) see snedge a me feiner will allways put themselves first, allways. and dont you forget it! by captain snedge pants Jan 1, 2004 share this add a video 2. Me feiner 21 up, 8 down A self absorbed person. Irish slang from the Irish for 'myself' - Me fein. Pronounced 'may fain(like rain)-err' I can't stand Eric, he's such a me feiner. irish gaelige irish language ireland selfish myself by spinme Nov 15, 2009 share this add a video

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Mé Féin nó an Pobal: Social Processes and Connectivity in Irish Volunteering Marie Claire Van Hout, Waterford Institute of Technology Hilery Tarrant, Waterford Institute of Technology Michelle Foley, Waterford Institute of Technology Abstract Irelandhas a longstanding history of diverse volunteer action (Volunteering Ireland, 2010a). Ireland’s current economic recession has impacted on the community and voluntary sector, with frequent contraction in staff numbers and incomes, and increasing reliance on volunteer participation (Harvey, 2012). This study utilised social capital theory to garner a phenomenological understanding of the contribution of volunteering to perceived social capital amongst Irish volunteers and host organisation representatives. A convenience sample of 28 participants (17 volunteers and 11 organisation representatives) was interviewed. A shift in personal and social definitions of volunteering were described, with informal volunteering increasingly replaced by structured, formalized and regulated volunteer placements. Volunteers described their experiences as contributing to increased personal well being and sense of purpose, development of friendships and meeting new people. The volunteer participants identified volunteering activity as a specified community need, providing work related experiences, fulfillment in free time and opportunity for up-skilling. Integration of volunteers into the organisation’s workforce was described as dependent on duration, intensity of interaction and scope of volunteer contributions. Power differentials and a lack of trust between volunteers and staff, was described, as was a lack of volunteer recognition staff. Subsequently, some volunteers identified and aligned themselves within the wider social volunteer network rather than their host organisation. The research reflected an emergent consumerist approach to volunteering and underscores the need to preserve informal social networks of community volunteers, alongside the development of more formalized work specific routes for volunteering inIreland. Recommended Citation Van Hout, Marie Claire; Tarrant, Hilery; and Foley, Michelle (2011) "Mé Féin nó an Pobal: Social Processes and Connectivity in Irish Volunteering," Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies: add via rss or google calendar

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