CROSSMAGLEN POLE DANCING

The main purpose of free speech, is to fight an authoritarian state peacefully. Currently, there is rampant censorship in Ireland, justified on the basis "that it's only purpose, is to offend." The Orange Order State has the veto on all freedom, so do battle against authoritarianism peacefully often requires the unorthodox. Now metaphorically speaking, the fiefdom of Conor Murphy, MP/Warlord of South Armagh is a good example of this. Everyone knows free speech is not allowed in South Armagh, after the execution of Paul Quinn, who tried to exercise that right, in opposition to the Murphys. 


So an Irish Blog reporter, took a trip over to a secret shebeen in Mullaghbawn, to investigate for himself, what the reality was, in the wake of all of the pole-dancing controversies there. Now as an Irishman from a Lily white background, the moment, he walked in the door, Jesus, Mary and Joseph he was mortified. There was a woman on stage called Orange Lily, pole dancing almost nude in her oily skin. The place was full and it was clear that everyone was from all over Ulster. He was going to to ask them, how many pence on the price of a litre of petrol, people were prepared to pay, in order see Orange Lily but thought better of it.

When she finished her gig, he made an appointment with her for an interview, for which she demanded a hundred pounds sterling, for her services for two hours. Now the place was full of the fumes of the people's duty-free whiskey, as opposed to the British Governments, pricey tainted stuff, which Murphy is currently protecting. It was unavoidable to inhale the ether of the wacky baccy, that engulfed the place. When he mentioned this to a fellow guest, he was reminded, that he did not have the right to demand, that South Armagh, throw away the principles of enlightenment, to kowtow to the outrageous, arrogant and risible demands of British Occupation and was politely asked, if I didn't like freedom of speech and it's practice, why he had I gone there in the first place? Fortunately at that point, Orange Lily arrived for her appointment and they retired to her chambers.


Her boudoir was well perfumed, with a very large bed. She ordered him to strip, shower and basically told him to roll onto his back and expose his genitals. While she worked on his resurrection, h interviewed her. She told him that Orange Lily, was not in fact her real name. It was in fact Lily Frazer, as baptized by the Pentecostal Church and that she had learned her pole-dancing in London's West End. She had been invited to return to South Armagh by Provo politicians, who used her services in London, when they came over to claim expenses, as MPs of the House of Commoners, and she was promised protection. She worked as a professional lobbyist by day and as a part-time pole dancer by night, in both London and South Armagh. She said most of the Provo politicians used her services in their extensive free time as a result of a point of principle, while not attending the House of Commoners, officially. She confided, that after the Queen's banquet for compliant Irish politicians, she had developed many new professional relationships in Ireland.


Asked if Gerry engaged her services, she replied, that he preferred his dog and tree show. When asked, if Marty engaged her services, she replied, that he was inspired by certain fetishes with royalty. So as he continued to ask her specific questions, the picture emerged, that most of theIrish establishment, used her services, which was perfectly legal, in her capacity as a lobbyist. Asked, if the British Secret Services employed her, she refused to comment, other than to say that she had a stick and carrot approach, with regard to the Irish establishment and that they were all feeding from the same trough in London. Lily said most of them were gobshites, who generally paid her for permission to lick her. 


Now at this point, our reporter being a paradigm of virtue, was forthright and asked her, if she had an assistant, explaining he preferred a sandwich. She told him, that unfortunately, she hadn't but she would be travelling up the Sinn Fein Party conference in Derry and would bring her assistant, if he cared to avail of their services, there. At this point, they were rudely interrupted by two heavies, wearing balaclavas, who apparently were listening, with some bugs in the bed. He was told, to pack his bags and fuck off. To which he replied, grow a pair and take off the balaclavas, or words to that effect. Now at this point, I must add, that our friend did not intend offence, to the fascist feminists, for the phrase 'grow a pair,' who regard it as misogynistic,  but our colleague was under stress.


The current situation in South Armagh, for most people, is horrendous and miserable, thanks to a bunch, of vile fascists political administrators, mentored by British Military intelligence, to extend Her Majesty's writ over South Armagh and collect taxes, from the Irish on the artificial, British border, they created. South Armagh today is much the same as it was 50 years ago. The people of South Armagh are regularly beaten, jailed and murdered for daring to express, differing opinions, in what is clearly a pseudo, peace process, environment. 


The majority of decisions in Ireland, whether in Stormont ot Leinster House, are made by a small group of people, who censor the views of large parts of the population. This is how the repressive Stormont Junta administers corrupt law and state-sponsored violence for the British. What protects people’s rights to say things objectionable, are precisely what protects the right to object. The “assassin’s veto, is the ultimate threat of murder, to silence any of those with whom we disagree. The attack and murder of Paul Quinn in South Armagh, was the ultimate censorship, by fascist hands, not republican ones. Censoring all debate, free expression, for one or the other, based on the absence of offence, results, not in less offensive speech, but no speech at all. It is the same intolerant Blueshirt fascism, that murdered more than 80 brave Irish republicans, overtly in the south of Ireland and approximately 50 covertly, in the north, during this phase of Struggle. British heavy weaponry, used by Blueshirts, bombarded the four courts in Dublin, starting the Irish Civil War in the south. Incidents like Loughgall, were used, in what the British term, "to sanitize" the republican movement, which in reality, was eliminating any opposition, to a neoliberal agenda, that facilitates Corporate Fascism.


What The BRICS Plus Germany Are Really Up To?

By Pepe Escobar

March 05, 2015 "ICH" - "RT" - Winston Churchill once said, “I feel lonely without a war.” He also badly missed the loss of empire. Churchill’s successor – the ‘Empire of Chaos’ – now faces the same quandary. Some wars – as in Ukraine, by proxy – are not going so well.

And the loss of empire increasingly manifests itself in myriad moves by selected players aiming towards a multipolar world.

So no wonder US ‘Think Tankland’ is going bonkers, releasing wacky CIA-tinted“forecasts” where Russia is bound to disintegrate, and China is turning into a communist dictatorship. So much (imperial) wishful thinking, so little time to prolong hegemony.

The acronym that all these “forecasts” dare not reveal is BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). BRICS is worse than the plague as far as the ‘Masters of the Universe’ that really control the current - rigged - world system are concerned. True, the BRICS are facing multiple problems. Brazil at the moment is totally paralyzed; a long, complex, self-defeating process, now coupled with intimations of regime change by local ‘Empire of Chaos’ minions. It will take time, but Brazil will rebound.

That leaves the “RIC” – Russia, India and China - in BRICS as the key drivers of change. For all their interlocking discrepancies, they all agree they don’t need to challenge the hegemon directly while aiming for a new multipolar order.

The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) – a key alternative to the IMF enabling developing nations to get rid of the US dollar as a reserve currency – will be operative by the end of this year. The NDB will finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects not only in the BRICS nations but other developing nations. Forget about the Western-controlled World Bank, whose capital and lending capacity are never increased by the so-called Western “powers.” The NDB will be an open institution. BRICS nations will keep 55 percent of the voting power, and outside their domain no country will be allowed more than 7 percent of votes. But crucially, developing nations may also become partners and receive loans.

Damn those communists

A tripartite entente cordiale is also in the making. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in China next May – and ‘Chindia’ will certainly engage in a breakthrough concerning their bitter territorial disputes. As much as Delhi has a lot to benefit from China’s massive capital investment and exports, Beijing wants to profit from India’s vast market and technology savvy. In parallel, Beijing has already volunteered economic help to Russia – if Moscow asks for it – on top of their evolving strategic partnership.

The US “pivoting to Asia” – launched at the Pentagon – is all dressed up with no place to go. Bullying Southeast Asia, South Asia and, for that matter, East Asia as a whole into becoming mere ‘Empire of Chaos’ vassals – and on top of it confronting China - was always a non-starter. Not to mention believing in the fairy tale of a remilitarized Japan able to “contain” China.

Isolating the “communist dictatorship” won’t fly. Just watch, for instance, the imminent high-speed rail link between Kunming, in Yunnan province, and Singapore, traversing a key chunk of a Southeast Asia which for Washington would never qualify to be more than a bunch of client states. The emerging 21st century Asia is all about interconnection; and the inexorable sun in this galaxy is China.

As China has embarked in an extremely complex tweaking of its economic development model, as I outlined here, China’s monopoly of low-end manufacturing – its previous industrial base – is migrating across the developing world, especially around the Indian Ocean basin. Good news for the Global South – and that includes everyone from African nations such as Kenya and Tanzania to parts of Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Of course the ‘Empire of Chaos’, business-wise, won’t be thrown out of Asia. But its days as an Asian hegemon, or a geopolitical Mob offering “protection”, are over.

The Chinese remix of Go West, Young Man – in fact go everywhere – started as early as 1999. Of the top 10 biggest container ports in the world, no less than 7 are in China (the others are Singapore, Rotterdam, and Pusan in South Korea). As far as the 12th Chinese 5-year plan – whose last year is 2015 – is concerned, most of the goals of the seven technology areas China wanted to be in the leading positions have been achieved, and in some cases even superseded.

The Bank of China will increasingly let the yuan move more freely against the US dollar. It will be dumping a lot of US dollars every once in a while. The 20-year old US dollar peg will gradually fade. The biggest trading nation on the planet, and the second largest economy simply cannot be anchored to a single currency. And Beijing knows very well how a dollar peg magnifies any external shocks to the Chinese economy.

Sykes-Picot is us

A parallel process in Southwest Asia will also be developing; the dismantling of the nation-state in the Middle East – as in remixing the Sykes-Picot agreement of a hundred years ago. What a stark contrast to the return of the nation-state in Europe.

There have been rumblings that the remixed Sykes is Obama and the remixed Picot is Putin. Not really. It’s the ‘Empire of Chaos’ that is actually acting as the new Sykes-Picot, directly and indirectly reconfiguring the “Greater Middle East.” Former NATO capo Gen. Wesley Clark has recently “revealed” what everyone already knew; the ISIS/ISIL/Daesh fake Caliphate is financed by “close allies of the United States,” as in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Israel. Compare that with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon admitting that ISIS “does not represent a threat to Israeli interests.” Daesh does the unraveling of Sykes-Picot for the US.

The ‘Empire of Chaos’ actively sought the disintegration of Iraq, Syria and especially Libya. And now, leading the House of Saud, “our” bastard in charge King Salman is none other than the former, choice jihad recruiter for Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, the Afghan Salafist who was the brains behind both Osama bin Laden and alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad.

This is classic ‘Empire of Chaos’ in motion (exceptionalists don’t do nation building, just nation splintering). And there will be plenty of nasty, nation-shattering sequels, from the Central Asian stans to Xinjiang in China, not to mention festering, Ukraine, a.k.a Nulandistan.

Parts of Af-Pak could well turn into a branch of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh right on the borders of Russia, India, China, and Iran. From an ‘Empire of Chaos’ perspective, this potential bloodbath in the “Eurasian Balkans” – to quote eminent Russophobe Dr. Zbig “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski – is the famous “offer you can’t refuse.”

Russia and China, meanwhile, will keep betting on Eurasian integration; strengthening the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and their own internal coordination inside the BRICS; and using plenty of intel resources to go after The Caliph’s goons.

And as much as the Obama administration may be desperate for a final nuclear deal with Iran, Russia and China got to Tehran first. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Tehran two weeks ago; stressing Iran is one of China’s “foreign policy priorities” and of great “strategic importance.” Sooner rather than later Iran will be a member of the SCO. China already does plenty of roaring trade with Iran, and so does Russia, selling weapons and building nuclear plants.

Berlin-Moscow-Beijing?

And then there’s the German question.

Germany now exports 50 percent of its GDP. It used to be only 24 percent in 1990. For the past 10 years, half of German growth depended on exports. Translation: this is a giant economy that badly needs global markets to keep expanding. An ailing EU, by definition, does not fit the bill.

German exports are changing their recipient address. Only 40 percent - and going down – now goes to the EU; the real growth is in Asia. So Germany, in practice, is moving away from the eurozone. That does not entail Germany breaking up the euro; that would be interpreted as a nasty betrayal of the much-lauded “European project.”

What the trade picture unveils is the reason for Germany’s hardball with Greece: either you surrender, completely, or you leave the euro. What Germany wants is to keep a partnership with France and dominate Eastern Europe as an economic satellite, relying on Poland. So expect Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy to face a German wall of intransigence. So much for European “integration,” it works as long as Germany dictates all the rules.

The spanner in the works is that the double fiasco Greece + Ukraine has been exposing. Berlin as an extremely flawed European hegemon – and that’s quite an understatement. Berlin suddenly woke up to the real, nightmarish possibility of a full blown, American-instigated war in Europe’s eastern borderlands against Russia. No wonder Angela Merkel had to fly to Moscow in a hurry.

Moscow – diplomatically – was the winner. And Russia won again when Turkey – fed up with trying to join the EU and being constantly blocked by, who else, Germany and France – decided to pivot to Eurasia for good, ignoring NATO and amplifying relations with both Russia and China.

That happened in the framework of a major ‘Pipelineistan’ game-changer. After Moscow cleverly negotiated the realignment of South Stream towards Turk Stream, right up to the Greek border, Putin and Greek Prime Minister Tsipras also agreed to a pipeline extension from the Turkish border across Greece to southern Europe. So Gazprom will be firmly implanted not only in Turkey but also Greece, which in itself will become mightily strategic in European ‘Pipelineistan’.

So Germany, sooner or later, must answer a categorical imperative - how to keep running massive trade surpluses while dumping their euro trade partners. The only possible answer is more trade with Russia, China and East Asia. It will take quite a while, and there will be many bumps on the road, but a Berlin-Moscow-Beijing trade/commercial axis – or the “RC” in BRICS meet Germany - is all but inevitable.

And no, you won’t read that in any wacky US ‘Think Tankland’ “forecast.”Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT and TomDispatch, and a frequent contributor to websites and radio shows ranging from the US to East Asia.



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MURPHY'S BLUESHIRT FASCIST COALITION IRELAND

In 1933, Fascist Eoin O'Duffy made a speech in South Armagh in which he ordered the Murphy's "Give 'em the lead !"

Eoin O¹Duffy ... his life and legacy Probably one of the most controversial Irishmen of all time was born at Cargaghdoo, near Lough Egish, in the parish of Aughnamullen East, on 30th October 1892. He was Eoin O¹Duffy, later better known as general Eoin O¹Duffy, and he would become one of the most prominent figures in the history of the GAA, not just in Co. Monaghan, but throughout Ulster, and also the ŒLeading Light¹ in the ŒStruggle for Independence¹ of the 1919-21 period in his native Co. Monaghan. By Seamus McCluskey. Completing his primary, secondary and third level education, O’Duffy became an engineer and worked as a surveyor for Monaghan County Council in the Clones area. Following the formation of the Volunteers and the 1916 Rising, he became one of the movement’s most active members, and his organisational abilities were soon to become very evident during the ensuing War of Independence. By September 1918 he was already a Brigade Officer in the IRA and became the foremost organiser in the county. Jailed in 1918, he was released in 1919, and soon threw himself completely and wholeheartedly into the work of gaining independence for his country. He had already been very active in GAA circles and he would now use that organisation as a recruiting ground for his Volunteers. Starting with his GAA activities, Eoin O’Duffy became secretary of the Monaghan Co. Board in 1912, when he was a mere youth of twenty, and his organisational abilities here led to his then being elected Secretary of the Ulster GAA Council the following year. He would remain as Ulster Secretary right up until 1923, and would then become Treasurer from 1925 until 1934. During all this period his GAA and Volunteer activities went hand-in-hand. One of his most unusual exploits in 1918 was on the occasion of ‘Gaelic Sunday’, 4th August of that year. The 1918 Ulster Final on 7th July had had to be cancelled when British soldiers occupied the Cootehill venue and banned the playing of Gaelic Games. To defy the ‘ban’, all nine counties organised challenge matches for Sunday 4th August, and the GAA Central Council followed suit. No permits were applied for anywhere. It would be called ‘Gaelic Sunday’ and over 100,000 took part, leaving the authorities totally helpless. The ‘proclaimed’ game at Cootehill on 7th July had a unique sequel. Ulster secretary O’Duffy, along with Dan Hogan of Clones, who was to have refereed the Final, and about thirty others, all cycled home from Cootehill towards Newbliss, but were followed by a party of RIC men on their heavy bicycles. O’Duffy knew they were being followed and led the unfortunate RIC men on a fifteen miles wild-goose chase over the by-roads around Newbliss. The sweltering heat and the heavy official uniforms, made matters extremely unpleasant for the pursuers, who must have lost a lot of sweat trying to push their cumbersome machines in such conditions. The first major event of the War of Independence in the county, in which O’Duffy was involved, was the ‘Siege of Ballytrain’ RIC barracks on 13th February 1920. O’Duffy himself led the attack, in which thirty Volunteers formed the assault party, drawn from companies in Monaghan, Donagh, Clones, Wattlebridge and Corcaghan. The other companies of the county were involved in blocking roads and dismantling telephone wires. The RIC garrison eventually surrendered and O’Duffy’s pattern of attack was soon imitated in later attacks on several other RIC barracks throughout the country. On the following 17th March (1920) the Ulster GAA Convention was held in Conlon’s Hotel in Clones and O’Duffy, now very much a ‘wanted man’ by the British Authorities, had to enter the meeting in disguise, as RIC spies were waiting outside to arrest him. However, O’Duffy had already departed when the police eventually raided the hotel. The ‘Adjourned Convention’ was held in Armagh on 17th April 1920 and O’Duffy, now even more wanted by the police, again attended, but this time without a disguise. Quickly arrested, it became obvious that O’Duffy actually wanted to be arrested on this occasion as it was his intention to organise a hunger-strike among the Monaghan Prisoners then being held in Crumlin Road jail in Belfast. This he duly did, and very successfully too, and all the Monaghan prisoners were later released. O’Duffy realised the importance of getting arms for his Volunteers and, consequently, he organised a major raid on several Unionist houses throughout North Monaghan to obtain them. Many guns were captured in these raids but four Volunteers lost their lives that same night, while several others were wounded when stiff resistance was offered. The ‘Night of the Raids’, as it became known, took place on 31st August 1920 and was the brainchild of O’Duffy. Because of these activities and the continuing ’Troubles’, as they were called, all GAA competitions in Ulster fell very much into arrears. The 1921 Ulster Final was not played until October 1923, as several of the Monaghan players had been arrested by ‘B Specials’ at Dromore, Co. Tyrone, when on their way to play Derry, in Derry, for the original fixture. All of them were ‘O’Duffy Men’, and O’Duffy was instrumental in obtaining the later release of all ten. The 1922 Final was not played until April 1923, and the 1923 Final on 2nd September. The 1923 Ulster Convention had been held in Clones on 17th March, when O’Duffy was replaced as secretary. One of the great memories of that same year, however, was the Official Opening of Breifne Park in Cavan on 22nd July, the name having been suggested by Eoin O’Duffy. Following the cessation of hostilities and the Treaty of 1921, O’Duffy rose in the ranks of the Irish Free State army, becoming chief-of-staff in 1922. Fortunately, there was very little activity in Co. Monaghan during the unfortunate Civil War that then ensued and lasted for ten months in 1922-23. Now O’Duffy could concentrate more on his GAA activities but, unfortunately, he was unavoidably absent from the 1929 Ulster Convention held in March 1929. With the setting up of the new Irish Free State and the establishment of the Garda Siochana in 1922, O’Duffy was put in charge with the rank of Commissioner. Here he again showed remarkable ability in the establishment of our first national police force, and was Chief Marshall at the Catholic Emancipation Centenary celebrations in 1929 and again at the Eucharist Congress of 1932. However, he then incurred the disfavour of the new Taoiseach, Eamon DeValera, and was dismissed from his post on 22nd February 1933. The Army Comrades Association was founded in 1933 and was basically a welfare organisation for former members of the Irish Free Stage army. Political meetings of Cumann na nGaedheal, the pro-Treaty party, were frequently disrupted by IRA and the Association adopted the role of protecting these meetings from interference. Members wore a blue shirt and black beret, and became known as ‘The Blueshirts’. Eoin O’Duffy joined the Blueshirts in 1933 and was soon promoted to the post of Leader of the movement, which then became known as the ‘National Guard’. A proposed ‘March on Dublin’, however, was banned by the Government of the day, and the name was duly changed again, this time to ‘Young Ireland Association’. Rallies were held throughout Ireland, one of the largest taking place in Monaghan town on 20th August 1933. O’Duffy’s recruiting abilities continued and the ranks of the Blueshirts duly swelled. He held a parade of over two hundred in Ballybay in November 1933 and another two hundred in Newbliss three months later. His greatest show-of-strength, however, was in Monaghan on 18th February 1934. O’Duffy had come to Monaghan as President of Fine Gael on 19th November 1933, and the aforementioned rallies and parades then followed. O’Duffy’s unquestionable popularity in the county since his Sinn Fein days, and the fact that he was a native of the county, probably accounted for the remarkable rise of the Blueshirts throughout the county. Despite his absence from Ulster Convention in February 1934, O’Duffy was still the central figure. He had been the most tireless worker for the GAA in Ulster for the previous twenty-two years, first as secretary, and later as Ulster Delegate on the Central Council, where he proved himself a fearless fighter for the Ulster cause, particularly since the National Games were so vehemently opposed by a majority in the northern province. However, when he became embroiled in party politics, and with his involvement as leader of the Blueshirts, this created a position where many of his former associates now became his enemies. GAA rules also make it quite clear that involvement in controversial politics would preclude him from membership. By 1933 it was generally accepted that O’Duffy had resigned, but by the time of the 1934 Convention, this resignation had still not yet been officially received. No wonder there was a record attendance, and there was a tense atmosphere throughout the entire proceedings. A letter from O’Duffy proved somewhat ambiguous and did not clearly indicate that he was withdrawing from the post of Treasurer, so his name had to be allowed to go forward. Even Co. Monaghan had nominated an opponent to O’Duffy in the person of Michael Markey, while Gerry Arthurs of Armagh also allowed his name to go forward. Arthurs proved a decisive victor in the ensuing vote at this unique Convention, which heralded the end of O’Duffy’s official association with the GAA, and it was held in Dungannon on 28th February 1934. In 1936 Eoin O’Duffy recruited and formed an ‘Irish Brigade’ to go to the assistance of General Franco in the Spanish Civil War. 700 strong, they contributed to the success of the Catholic leader of Spain and were even blessed by Irish bishops prior to their departure for what was a most unusual expedition, and which has been vividly described by O’Duffy’s himself in his ‘Crusade in Spain’. Eoin O’Duffy was later elected President of the NACA, the body controlling Irish athletics, and held this post until his death on 30th November 1944. On the 2nd December 1944, Eoin O’Duffy was given a full military funeral and was then laid to rest in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, alongside his friend and ally, Michael Collins. Taken from Monaghan's Match December 2004 Eoin O'Duffy Becomes Leader In January 1933, the Fianna Fáil government called a surprise election, which the government won comfortably. The election campaign saw a serious escalation of rioting between IRA and ACA supporters. In April 1933, the ACA began wearing the distinctive blue shirt uniform.Eoin O'Duffy was a guerrilla leader in theIRA during the Irish War of Independence, a National Army general during the Civil War, and the police commissioner in theIrish Free State from 1922 to 1933. After de Valera's re-election in February 1933, Valera dismissed O'Duffy as commissioner, and in July of that year, O'Duffy was offered and accepted leadership of the ACA and renamed it the National Guard. He re-modelled the organisation, adopting elements of European fascism, such as the Roman straight-arm salute, uniforms and huge rallies. Membership of the new organisation became limited to people who were Irish or whose parents "profess theChristian faith". O'Duffy was an admirer of Benito Mussolini, and the Blueshirts adopted corporatism as their chief political aim. According to the constitution he adopted, the organisation was to have the following objectives: To promote the reunification of Ireland. To oppose Communism and alien control and influence in national affairs and to uphold Christian principles in every sphere of public activity. To promote and maintain social order. To make organised and disciplined voluntary public service a permanent and accepted feature of our political life and to lead the youth of Ireland in a movement of constructive national action. To promote of co-ordinated national organisations of employers and employed, which with the aid of judicial tribunals, will effectively prevent strikes and lock-outs and harmoniously compose industrial influences. To cooperate with the official agencies of the state for the solution of such pressing social problems as the provision of useful and economic public employment for those whom private enterprise cannot absorb. To secure the creation of a representative national statutory organisation of farmers, with rights and status sufficient to secure the safeguarding of agricultural interests, in all revisions of agricultural and political policy. To expose and prevent corruption and victimisation in national and local administration. To awaken throughout the country a spirit of combination, discipline, zeal and patriotic realism which will put the state in a position to serve the people efficiently in the economic and social spheres. Because of the later attraction of the group's leader Eoin O'Duffy to authoritarian nationalist movements on the European Continent, the Blueshirts are sometimes compared to the MVSN(Blackshirts) of Italy and to some extent performed a similar function.[8][9] Some of the Blueshirts later went to fight forFrancisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War and were anti-communist in nature, however historian R.M. Douglas has stated that it is dubious to portray them as an "Irish manifestation of fascism". March on Dublin The National Guard planned to hold a parade in Dublin in August 1933. It was to proceed to Glasnevin Cemetery, stopping briefly on Leinster lawn in front of the Irish parliament, where speeches were to be held. The goal of the parade was to commemorate past leaders of Ireland,Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins and Kevin O'Higgins. It is clear that the IRA and other fringe groups representing various socialists intended to confront the Blueshirts if they did march in Dublin. The government banned the parade, remembering Mussolini's March on Rome, and fearing a coup d'état. Decades later, de Valera told Fianna Fáil politicians that in late summer 1933, he was unsure whether the Irish Army would obey his orders to suppress the perceived threat, or whether the soldiers would support the Blueshirts (who included many ex-soldiers). O'Duffy accepted the ban and insisted that he was committed to upholding the law. Instead, several provincial parades took place to commemorate the deaths of Griffith, O'Higgins and Collins. De Valera saw this move as defying his ban, and the Blueshirts were declared an illegal organisation. Fine Gael and the National Corporate Party[edit] In response to the banning of the National Guard, Cumann na nGaedheal and theNational Centre Party merged to form a new party, Fine Gael, on 3 September 1933. O'Duffy became its first president, with W. T. Cosgrave and James Dillonacting as vice-presidents. The National Guard changed into the Young Ireland Association, and became part of a youth wing of the party. The party's aim was to create a corporatist United Ireland within the British Commonwealth. The 1934 local elections were a trial of strength for the new Fine Gael and the Fianna Fáil government. When Fine Gael won only 6 out of 23 local elections, O’Duffy lost much of his authority and prestige. The Blueshirts began to disintegrate by mid-1934. The Blueshirts floundered also on the plight of farmers during theEconomic War, as the Blueshirts failed to provide a solution. Following disagreements with his Fine Gael colleagues, O'Duffy left the party, although most of the Blueshirts stayed in Fine Gael. In December 1934, O'Duffy attended theMontreux Fascist conference inSwitzerland. He then founded the National Corporate Party, and later raised an "Irish Brigade" that took General Francisco Franco's side in the Spanish Civil War. Eoin O'Duffy - A Cautionary Tale Eoin O'Duffy - A Self-Made Hero by Fearghal McGarry, Oxford University Press, Fearghal McGarry first made his mark as a historian with Irish Politics and the Spanish Civil War (1999), described by me as "the definitive textbook on the subject" in the Fall 2003 issue of Irish Literary Supplement. This was in the context of a review of his second book, Frank Ryan (2002), a biography criticised as both disappointing and sensationalist, with little evidence of the depth of research and analysis required to do justice to its subject. The hope was nonetheless expressed that the author's future work would demonstrate a return to the "high standards of scholarship, balanced presentation and conscientious evaluation" that he had previously shown. How then does McGarry's third book, a biography of the Irish fascist leader Eoin O'Duffy, measure up to such hopes? The author states that he has attempted to explain rather than condemn such a life, but that he has uncovered little to warrant revision of previous negative assessments of O'Duffy. But this is not for the want of trying. In contrast with his previous biography, this work is meticulously researched. It is the story of a one-time avowed champion of democracy who had fought to vindicate the will of the Irish people in the 1918 election, being transformed into a convinced fascist who sought to crush the will of the Spanish people after their 1936 election; of a highly disciplined and impressive military leader who had led by selfless example during the War of Independence, becoming the high-living commander who selfishly abandoned his own troops during the Spanish Civil War. McGarry begins by portraying the younger O'Duffy's devotion to duty through tireless work on behalf of the Gaelic Athletic Association. His leadership qualities would subsequently come to the fore as IRA leader in his native County Monaghan during the War of Independence. In contrast with much latter-day writing of Irish history, it is to the author's credit that he begins by clarifying the essential character of that war: "Established by democratic means, the Republic would be defended by violence". And when O'Duffy personally led the attack on Ballytrain RIC barracks in February 1920 he took the opportunity to give the police the following lesson in democracy: "At the general election the people had voted for freedom. The police were acting against the will of the Irish people. He appealed to them to leave the force and join their brother Irishmen." A year later, in January 1921, there was a sharp escalation in the Monaghan war. McGarry conscientiously chronicles the complexity of such a war in an Ulster border county that not only had a 25 percent Unionist minority, but also a sullen hardcore of defeated Redmondites, which ensured that local hostility to the Republic amounted to as much as a third of the population. The minority was furthermore a very powerful one, in terms of property, influence and guns. McGarry describes the town of Clones as "a Protestant stronghold", while there were as many as 1,800 UVF members throughout Monaghan county as a whole. In such a frontier society it was inevitable that there would be an inter-ethnic aspect to the conflict. McGarry, however, does himself an injustice by comparing his own detailed narrative of the war in Monaghan with Peter Hart's earlier approach to Cork in The IRA and the Enemies (1998), although he does acknowledge that other historians have questioned the accuracy of Hart's research. But it should also be pointed out that Cork was no border territory. The minority of Cork Loyalists who supported Britain's war against the Republic were against self-government for any part of Ireland. In contrast, the two Ulster communities involved in a conflict of nationalities in County Monaghan can be viewed, at least in retrospect, as having been engaged in creating their own de facto Boundary Commission, through a struggle to determine on which side of a future border they would lie. That this was essentially a conflict between two national allegiances rather than a religious war was underscored by O'Duffy's willingness to embrace an Ulster Protestant like Ernest Blythe who had crossed over from his own community in order to give his allegiance to the Irish independence struggle. It was, of course, a conflict that could very easily have degenerated into something far more ugly. McGarry writes that "Republican violence in Monaghan was inevitably more sectarian than much of the rest of the country", but he also gives credit to O'Duffy for "the relative restraint demonstrated by the IRA during this period." In terms of the ruthless pursuit of informers, the author recognises that "order could not be maintained without discipline." He concedes that notwithstanding the high proportion of Protestant targets, "few, if any, people were shot solely because of their religion." And where he does speak of "questionable murders", it is to his credit as a historian that he presents the pros and cons of each individual case surveyed, allowing the reader to come to different conclusions than his own. For this reviewer there is just one such killing that remains questionable as to whether the motivation might have been less a suspicion of informing and more a desire to eliminate a vociferous political opponent who had disrupted a local authority vote of sympathy on the death of Cork Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney. However, that particular victim had not been some Unionist opponent but rather a Redmondite Hibernian one; not at all a Protestant Orangeman but a Catholic "Molly Maguire". Eoin O'Duffy emerged from the War of Independence with a well-deserved reputation that his Civil War opponent Ernie O'Malley described as "energetic and commanding". How then, in the years before his death in 1944, did O'Duffy end up being described in intelligence reports as the "representative of the Axis powers in Ireland" and a "potential Quisling, suffering from acute alcoholic poisoning"? McGarry retells the story of O'Duffy's disastrous 1937 intervention on behalf of the fascist side in Spain that "cost Franco a small fortune - and killed more of his own soldiers than the enemy." He presents some new research in this area, notably O'Duffy's recently found diary of that escapade, and he quotes the description of O'Duffy as an "Operetta General" penned by one of Franco's own generals. McGarry concludes that Spain destroyed O'Duffy's reputation as a man of action, as previously "the General's reputation as a politician had been destroyed by his leadership of Fine Gael." But how had this degeneration come about? McGarry devotes a lot of attention to O'Duffy's position as a protégé of IRB President Michael Collins, who would eventually promote him to Treasurer of that body's Supreme Council. While the IRA itself was a democratically structured organisation, the continued existence within its ranks of a secret society like the IRB was to have a profoundly destabilising effect, both North and South. Collins hailed O'Duffy as "the coming man", proceeding in July 1921 to pull off a stunt behind the back of Minister for Defence Cathal Brugha by unilaterally making O'Duffy Deputy Chief of Staff of the IRA for the post-Truce period. Collins brought O'Duffy with him to London for the start of the Treaty negotiations and it was O'Duffy who would obtain the artillery from Britain's General Macready in order to commence the Civil War in July 1922. Meanwhile the IRB leadership was the behind-the-scenes manipulator of another little war. In the summer of 1921 O'Duffy had already explicitly criticised deValera for suggesting that counties with a Unionist majority should be allowed to opt out of a unified Ireland if Britain would agree to a Republic for the rest of the country. With Collins by his side, O'Duffy delivered an inflammatory speech in Armagh in September 1921 in which he threatened the majority of people in Belfast that, if they were not going to accept being part of the Irish nation, "they would have to use the lead against them." Such bombast only had the effect of intensifying the horrific Orange pogroms against that city's Catholic minority, just as in the post-Treaty month of March 1922 the murder of the McMahon family followed a Collins/O'Duffy military offensive in West Ulster. Without the knowledge of the Free State cabinet, O'Duffy and Collins were to be responsible for yet another failed Northern offensive during the month of May that ended in further disaster for Northern Ireland's Catholic minority. O'Duffy had indeed subdued the Unionist minority in his native Monaghan, but to ham-fistedly dream of similarly taking on the Unionist majority in Antrim and Down was quite a different proposition. During the course of the Civil War, as well as in his capacity as Commissioner of the Garda Síochána for the first decade of its existence, O'Duffy continued to employ the rhetoric of democracy in his public utterances. McGarry, however, also highlights O'Duffy's cultivation of a highly orchestrated personality cult on his own behalf, at the same time as the Commissioner's private reports to Cabinet were complaining that "the Irish public is rotten." The General even began to alarm his own ruthless Minister for Home Affairs Kevin O'Higgins who, in the months prior to his 1927 assassination, had been on the point of sacking O'Duffy. Knowing the threat that O'Duffy had come to pose to their own regime makes the Cumann na nGaedheal leadership all the more culpable in their attempt to bring down the Fianna Fáil Government in 1933 with a strategy of installing Blueshirt leader O'Duffy as the first President of Fine Gael. McGarry provides chapter and verse to demonstrate just how thoroughly fascist-minded and anti-democratic O'Duffy's own personal philosophy had become at this stage. And while quibbling with a statement of my own in a 1984 study - that anti-semitism had also come to form an integral feature of O'Duffy's personal ideology - he nonetheless provides year-by-year examples of such anti-semitism that actually confirm my conclusions. But McGarry does not always get his facts right. When he quotes Seán MacEntee's accusation that one particular Blueshirt had personally murdered a Dublin Jew, he states in a footnote that this had occurred during the Civil War. It had not. It had occurred six months after the conclusion of that particular conflict, in November 1923, and the subsequent escape to America of the army officer charged with that murder had been facilitated by both Garda and Free State Army authorities. The very last words of McGarry's narrative sum up O'Duffy's biography as "a cautionary tale". What makes it all the more so is the author's determination to demonstrate that O'Duffy was not just some solitary freakish individual. He highlights how the Cumann na nGaedheal leadership's own virulent propaganda had already begun to publicly question the legitimacy of the Fianna Fáil Government's election victories of 1932 and 1933, before they ever came a-courting O'Duffy to become the leader of their blueshirted second coming. But McGarry also says a lot more. In the first history of that movement, The Blueshirts (1970), Maurice Manning of Fine Gael had expressed some disquiet at one or two of Ernest Blythe's 1933 utterances. Blythe's importance as an ideologist of the corporate state was more specifically highlighted by Mike Cronin in The Blueshirts and Irish Politics (1997). McGarry, however, takes research in this area very much further by providing a systematic narrative of the highly racialist and violently anti-democratic hate-propaganda penned by Blythe throughout the course of 1933 and 1934. O'Duffy's own personal pietism has sometimes led to a far too simplistic classification of Blueshirt fascism as being little more than an excess of Catholic zeal. Blythe, of course, also knew how to opportunistically play the Papal encyclical card, but he himself never ceased to be an Ulster Protestant. Blythe's fascism was profoundly political and was in many ways much more alarming than that of O'Duffy, because it was all the more coherently thought out. McGarry notes that Blythe's fascism continued unabated throughout the war years and that Irish military intelligence also viewed him as another potential Quisling. Blythe surely merits a biography in his own right. Having produced such a comprehensive biography of O'Duffy, one hopes that Fearghal McGarry might be motivated to do just that. Manus O'Riordan

THE ANGLO IRISH JUDAS KISS

Songs sung by songwriter Dominic Behan, brother of author Brendan Behan.


The Tory Bluenose is the work of generations of the British class system. The civil rights movement in Ireland didn't become mediagenic until the 1960s. Women only gained a modest degree of physical autonomy in the 70s. Neither of those were slumbering before that. The two paranoid, bluenose, bigoted Anglo Irish security states, are embellished with a further layer of mentored Orange Order sectarianism, coupled with Fascist Blueshirts in the south, being still the norm of governance in John Bull's other island. All Blueshirt Bluenose male dominated pyramid hierarchies tend in that direction.


A traditional Tory Bluenose started each day by eating a poor person for breakfast, served to him by a stable of butlers and attendants. Before his round of morning polo (in which the head of a homeless man was used for a ball), an the Irish Tory Bluenose (including our Orange Order brethren) spends half an hour, in the Blueshirt, Blue Nose family room, where he and his father, reaffirm their ancestral connection to blue-blooded British types, who either owned slaves or coveted them.


If you are worried that Blueshirts might try and bring back slavery in Ireland, we will do absolutely nothing to allay your fears. A Blueshirt from Irish Water, recently paid an exorbitant sum, for a colon operation, that made his gas smell like daisies. When asked a difficult question by an Irish Water shareholder, as a diversion, he will break wind and ask, "My gosh. Do you smell daisies?" Its a typical case of the stiff upper nose, as opposed to the the former British stiff upper lip.


The Devil's Dictionary Pronouces - NOSE, n. The extreme outpost of the face. Getius, whose writings antedate the age of humor, calls the Fine Gael blueshirt nose, the British organ of quell in Ireland. It has been observed that Fine Gael Blueshirt noses, are never so happy, as when thrust into the affairs of public amenities, like health care or public water, from which some physiologists, have drawn the inference, that the Blueshirt nose is devoid of any natural human sense of smell, other than the smell of blood, cultivated over many generations, since they were first blooded with cruel intent, and smeared with the fox blood of Anglo Irish hunts, as young children, at the their first traditional Blueshirt, Bluenose, Irish foxhunt.

There's a Blueshirt with a Nose,
And wherever he goes
The people run from him and shout:
"No cotton have we
For our ears if so be
As Enda blows his interminous snout!"

So the lawyers applied
For injunction. "Denied,"
Said the Judge: "the defendant prefixion,
Whate'er it portend,
Appears to transcend
The bounds of this court's jurisdiction."


Below is and article from the Irish Times, concerning a previous Irish Blueshirt Prime Minster, of the same Blueshirt Party as present Prime Minister, Enda Kenny.

Former taoiseach John Bruton criticised for comments about Easter Rising

Ex-Fine Gael leader failed to take account of the context of Rising, commemoration told

Former taoiseach John Bruton: the Kilmichael Ambush Commemoration was told at the weekend that his comments about the Easter Rising and the War of Independence marked the most extreme articulation of a particular view of Irish history. Photograph: Aidan Crawley


Barry Roche



First published:Mon, Dec 1, 2014, 01:00

Former Taoiseach, John Bruton has been accused of failing to recognise the context in which the 1916 Easter Rising took place when he said the rebellion was not justified and Ireland could have achieved freedom through the Home Rule Bill.


Historian and pamphleteer Jack Lane told the annual Kilmichael Ambush Commemoration in west Cork at the weekend that Mr Bruton’s comments about the Easter Rising and the War of Independence marked the most extreme articulation of a particular view of Irish history.


“It is mind-boggling to hear an ex-taoiseach condemn the founding fathers of this state of which he was a leader. Can you imagine a US president denouncing George Washington for their War of Independence or a French president denouncing the French Revolution?


“It is unimaginable and there was a lot more war and bloodshed in establishing these and other states than was the case here where overwhelming popular support for independence minimised the bloodshed,” he told the crowd of about 800 people who gathered at the ambush site.


The annual commemoration marks the victory by Tom Barry and members of the Flying Column of the West Cork Brigade of the IRA over a contingent of Auxilaries from Macroom in the War of Independence


Mr Lane of the Aubane Historical Society said that when Mr Bruton feels the need to claim that Easter 1916 and the War of Independence were misguided and seeks to promote that view, then it is necessary to examine very closely the merits of his arguments.


Mr Bruton had argued that Volunteers of 1916 should have trusted in the Home Rule Bill as it was on the statute and would have evolved into a republic and that there was therefore no need for war and bloodshed, he said.


However this view ignored the fact that the Home Rule Bill was immediately suspended and that volunteers of 1916 had for a period trusted in the Home Rule Bill as evidenced by Padraig Pearse sharing a platform with John Redmond in support of Home Rule in 1912.


However Pearse and others had changed their minds when they witnessed a very real rebellion against the British government’s plan for Home Rule when Tories and unionists “organised themselves to set up an alternative provisional government to prevent Home Rule” in 1912.


An illegal army, the Ulster Volunteer Force, was set up and arms were imported which led to the establishment of the Irish Volunteers “to support the government in implementing Home Rule – to assist in implementing the law not to break it as the UVF were planning to do.”


The British army supported this unionist rebellion with the Curragh Mutiny of 1914 when officers refused to enforce the law on Home Rule and the British government allowed all this to happen and conceded all along the line, he said.


Mr Lane said critics of the Easter Rising say that the organisers had no mandate but the same point could be made about the British government, as it failed to hold an election as it should have done in 1915 and instead did a deal to invite Tories and unionists into government.


“The unionists had their own army, with plenty arms, they had British army support and now they were in government. They had won and it was absolutely clear that Home Rule or any form of Irish independence was off the agenda,” Mr Lane added.


“There was no two ways about it. If that government had its way, we would still be waiting for Home Rule. It was already suspended on the day it was passed on 18th September 1914 and that is where it would remain.”


It is true that those who organised the Easter Rising had no mandate but neither had the British government nor had the unionists for their rebellion other than what they gave themselves. “There were no mandates all around,” he said.


Similarly, Redmond committed the Irish Parliamentary Party to a British war on Germany and Turkey without an electoral mandate as he never put to the Irish electorate that he would take Ireland into an imperial war if the empire gave him Home Rule.


“The Irish Volunteers decided that a rebellion was the only way to get the government to respond to what had been proved by the success of the Unionists and this is the political and moral case for the 1916 rebellion,” he said.


Unfortunately, this narrative had been twisted and was not articulated in either academia, the media or by mainstream politicians, which is why commemorations such as Kilmichael offered a valuable opportunity “to put the record straight about 1916 and the War of Independence”.

CORPORATE BLUESHIRT FASCISM IRELAND Right2Water

The Nazi's first concentration camp was filled with social democrats, socialists, trade unionists while smashing democratic discourse among the people. It is also true that Fascism, in all its forms, attacks science and intellectual life, espousing ignorance and superstition, to obfuscate its political reactionary nature. Fascist Censorship in all it's guises, still governs the superficial public, discourse, of the Irish people of no property, to the point that it is accepted as the norm, even among their own.

The early twentieth century Italians, invented the word fascism. They also had a more descriptive term for the it ;estato corporativo or the corporatist state. As a result of its history in Germany and Spain, we have come to equate fascism with its symptoms, not with it's structure. The structure of fascism is corporatism, or the corporate state. The structure of fascism is the union, marriage, merger or fusion of corporate economic power with governmental power. Failing to understand fascism properly, as the consolidation of corporate economic and governmental power in the hands of a few, is to completely misunderstand what fascism is. The consolidation of this power, produces the demagogues and regimes we understand to be fascist.

The suppression and corruption of genuine organized Labour, is critical for corporations, who are the most important check on corporate power, other than authentic government, with a legal system, that prioritizes a nation's citizens, ahead of corporate lobbyists. This is not the case in any part of Ireland.
In both Orange and Green states In Ireland, the supremacy of the military state, is underpinned with extra judicial powers, military style courts, without juries are necessary, not to protect people but to protect corporate profits, with threats from abroad.

Cronyism and governmental corruption is the norm in Ireland, with ex-corporate employees running state agencies and creating legislation that are the norm in Ireland, which replace legislation, that is supposed to regulate or check corporate power. Controlling the media for Corporate propaganda, is also standard in both parts of Ireland.All of these characteristics have an obvious corporate component and produce obvious corporate benefit, which is on full display in Ireland currently, in the water protests.

People in Ireland, are starting to resist the Blueshirt State of Fine Gael, with their peaceful protests of waving signs and chanting slogans, but the overreaction of the Blueshirt state, to the oppressed plain people of Ireland, is leading to even more resistance. Eventually Irish commerce will shut down from the extreme Blueshirt measures. The money still being blown by Leinster House, will speed the bankruptcy of Ireland again. Older Irish people may disagree but the young people of Ireland,will have to live through the consequence of this horror for generations to come, if the Blueshirts remain in power, creating further revolt and suffering, as they did previously in Ireland's horrific history.

Fascism Anyone? Fascism’s principles are alive in all parts of Ireland today, masquerading as something else, preventing real democracy and the self determination of Ireland's communities. The article below by Laurence W. Britt, is placed in a an Irish context Ireland continues to fail to learn from history, or draws the wrong conclusions. Sadly, historical amnesia is the norm in Ireland and elsewhere. We are three generations removed from the horrors of Nazi Germany, although constant reminders jog the consciousness. German and Italian fascism form the historical models that define this twisted political worldview. Although they no longer exist, this worldview and the characteristics of these models have been imitated by protofascist1 regimes at various times in the twentieth century. Both the original German and Italian models and the later protofascist regimes show remarkably similar characteristics. Although many scholars question any direct connection among these regimes, few can dispute their visual similarities. Beyond the visual, even a cursory study of these fascist and protofascist regimes reveals the absolutely striking convergence of their modus operandi. This, of course, is not a revelation to the informed political observer, but it is sometimes useful in the interests of perspective to restate obvious facts and in so doing shed needed light on current circumstances. For the purpose of an Irish perspective, we will consider the following regimes: Fine Gael (Blueshirts) Ireland, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco’s Spain, Salazar’s Portugal, Papadopoulos’s Greece, Pinochet’s Chile, and Suharto’s Indonesia. To be sure, they constitute a mixed bag of national identities, cultures, developmental levels, and history. But they all followed the fascist or protofascist model in obtaining, expanding, and maintaining power. Further, all these regimes have been overthrown, so a more or less complete picture of their basic characteristics and abuses is possible. Analysis of these seven regimes reveals fourteen common threads that link them in recognizable patterns of national behavior and abuse of power. These basic characteristics are more prevalent and intense in some regimes than in others, but they all share at least some level of similarity. 1. Merger of Corporate Power and State Power. Although the personal life of ordinary citizens was under strict control, the ability of large corporations to operate in relative freedom was not compromised. The ruling elite saw the corporate structure as a way to not only ensure military production (in developed states), but also as an additional means of social control. Members of the economic elite were often pampered by the political elite to ensure a continued mutuality of interests, especially in the repression of “have-not” citizens. 2. Disdain for the importance of human rights. The regimes themselves viewed human rights as of little value and a hindrance to realizing the objectives of the ruling elite. Through clever use of propaganda, the population was brought to accept these human rights abuses by marginalizing, even demonizing, those being targeted. When abuse was egregious, the tactic was to use secrecy, denial, and disinformation. 3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause. The most significant common thread among these regimes was the use of scapegoating as a means to divert the people’s attention from other problems, to shift blame for failures, and to channel frustration in controlled directions. The methods of choice—relentless propaganda and disinformation—were usually effective. Often the regimes would incite “spontaneous” acts against the target scapegoats, usually communists, socialists, liberals, Jews, ethnic and racial minorities, traditional national enemies, members of other religions, secularists, homosexuals, and“terrorists.” Active opponents of these regimes were inevitably labeled as terrorists and dealt with accordingly. 4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism. Ruling elites always identified closely with the military and the industrial infrastructure that supported it. A disproportionate share of national resources was allocated to the military, even when domestic needs were acute. The military was seen as an expression of nationalism, and was used whenever possible to assert national goals, intimidate other nations, and increase the power and prestige of the ruling elite. 5. Rampant sexism. Beyond the simple fact that the political elite and the national culture were male-dominated, these regimes inevitably viewed women as second-class citizens. They were adamantly anti-abortion and also homophobic. These attitudes were usually codified in Draconian laws that enjoyed strong support by the orthodox religion of the country, thus lending the regime cover for its abuses. 6. A controlled mass media. Under some of the regimes, the mass media were under strict direct control and could be relied upon never to stray from the party line. Other regimes exercised more subtle power to ensure media orthodoxy. Methods included the control of licensing and access to resources, economic pressure, appeals to patriotism, and implied threats. The leaders of the mass media were often politically compatible with the power elite. The result was usually success in keeping the general public unaware of the regimes’ excesses. 7. Obsession with national security. Inevitably, a national security apparatus was under direct control of the ruling elite. It was usually an instrument of oppression, operating in secret and beyond any constraints. Its actions were justified under the rubric of protecting “national security,” and questioning its activities was portrayed as unpatriotic or even treasonous. 8. Religion and ruling elite tied together. Unlike communist regimes, the fascist and protofascist regimes were never proclaimed as godless by their opponents. In fact, most of the regimes attached themselves to the predominant religion of the country and chose to portray themselves as militant defenders of that religion. The fact that the ruling elite’s behavior was incompatible with the precepts of the religion was generally swept under the rug. Propaganda kept up the illusion that the ruling elites were defenders of the faith and opponents of the “godless.” A perception was manufactured that opposing the power elite was tantamount to an attack on religion. 9. Powerful and continuing expressions of Nationalism as opposed to Self Determination of the island of Ireland. From the prominent displays of flags and bunting to the ubiquitous lapel pins, the fervor to show patriotic nationalism, both on the part of the regime itself and of citizens caught up in its frenzy, was always obvious. Catchy slogans, pride in the military, and demands for unity were common themes in expressing this nationalism. It was usually coupled with a suspicion of things foreign that often bordered on xenophobia. 10. Power of labour suppressed or eliminated. Since organized labor was seen as the one power center that could challenge the political hegemony of the ruling elite and its corporate allies, it was inevitably crushed or made powerless. The poor formed an underclass, viewed with suspicion or outright contempt. Under some regimes, being poor was considered akin to a vice. 11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts. Intellectuals and the inherent freedom of ideas and expression associated with them were anathema to these regimes. Intellectual and academic freedom were considered subversive to national security and the patriotic ideal. Universities were tightly controlled; politically unreliable faculty harassed or eliminated. Unorthodox ideas or expressions of dissent were strongly attacked, silenced, or crushed. To these regimes, art and literature should serve the national interest or they had no right to exist. 12. Obsession with crime and punishment. Most of these regimes maintained Draconian systems of criminal justice with huge prison populations. The police were often glorified and had almost unchecked power, leading to rampant abuse. “Normal” and political crime were often merged into trumped-up criminal charges and sometimes used against political opponents of the regime. Fear, and hatred, of criminals or “traitors” was often promoted among the population as an excuse for more police power. 13. Rampant cronyism and corruption. Those in business circles and close to the power elite often used their position to enrich themselves. This corruption worked both ways; the power elite would receive financial gifts and property from the economic elite, who in turn would gain the benefit of government favoritism. Members of the power elite were in a position to obtain vast wealth from other sources as well: for example, by stealing national resources. With the national security apparatus under control and the media muzzled, this corruption was largely unconstrained and not well understood by the general population. 14. Fraudulent elections. Elections in the form of plebiscites or public opinion polls were usually bogus. When actual elections with candidates were held, they would usually be perverted by the power elite to get the desired result. Common methods included maintaining control of the election machinery, intimidating an disenfranchising opposition voters, destroying or disallowing legal votes, and, as a last resort, turning to a judiciary beholden to the power elite.

FLIUCH OFF IRISH WATER Jobs For the Blueshirt Boys

A Dirty fight of Sindymedia Disinformation and Bullying - AD in Indymedia Ireland



Date Listed 21/09/2014
Location
Dublin,
Advertised By Agency
Job Type Contract

Experienced Security Officers wanted for assignments within the greater Dublin area.

This role will involve the protection of Irish Water contractors as well as the safeguarding of Irish Water/GMC Sierra equipment and vehicles. The protection of Irish Water contractors and their equipment has now been safeguarded as a result of a recent High Court injunction.

This role involves security personnel adhering to/complying with this injunction in order to ensure that all Irish Water staff & contractors are allowed work in a safe and secure environment - free from violence, threats, hindrance and obstruction

This is a role which will involve much conflict and all applicants for this role must have completed formal and accredited training in conflict management and resolution.

He/she should be able to resolve conflicts in a passive manner using one's words and body language. When this option cannot be utilized; physical force may become necessary, therefore the ideal candidate must have completed accredited training in self defence and control & restraint.

All applicants must have at least 5 years of full-time experience in the Irish or British security industry and must be licensed by the Private Security Authority as both a Door Supervisor and Static Guard.

All applicants must have completed intermediate level (or higher) first aid training and must be prepared to undertake additional training in first aid as part of the 3.5 day induction training program for this position.

Individuals with prior police and/or military experience will be given primary consideration.

We currently require 28 personnel to provide a protection service for Irish Water contractors in areas of the country where there will be hostilities from organized protest groups.

All applicants must be physically fit and will have to undertake a medical examination by a doctor (this should only take an hour or so and will include blood samples)

Excellent communication skills (verbal, non verbal and written) are required for this specialist role.

Personnel will work in team of between 5 and 10 depending on the risk potential.

The hourly rate ranges from 15.50 to 21.50 euro (depending on experience and whether you will be working as a team leader) and this is in conjunction to additional pay for the surpassing of targets.

Please understand that this is a highly complex role and it is not for the faint-hearted.

Apply now with your CV & covering letter in the strictest confidence privacy is expected by both the applicant and the recruiter


News, FLIUCH OFf,  IRISH WATER, Jobs For the Boys, Blueshirt, #irishwater, Ireland,

BLUESHIRT McGUINNESS COALITION TO DISAPPEAR MORE IRISH YOUTH

“Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see.” ― Benjamin Franklin.

Below are two articles about current Irish political leadership's part, in the Irish disappeared. Whatever the rights and wrongs of it all, nobody has a monopoly on the truth but they would deny us our voice with their brand of Nazi Blueshirt censorship. There are at least two sides to every story and from my own experience of Irish politics, I cannot truthfully speak ill, of the vast majority of the Irish volunteers of the IRA, that I have known, not out fear, but simply in the interest of my truth and experience. Quite the opposite in fact, they are in fact generally, the most idealistic and brave of Irish youth. 

However, like every group of people world wide, there are always a few rotten apples. The problem in Ireland, is that it is in Britain's interest, to mentor those, into leadership positions, with vast sums of money and intelligence resources, weeding out the best with, political assassination, coupled with dictatorial media censorship and political internment, without a proper trial, of the most talented and genuine freedom fighters, who demand change, which is also those in many cases, who advocate it by peaceful means. 

Yes armies in war, are forced to execute traitors but riddle me this, what can Irish youth do, when their generals and leadership, come from a  British tradition of cultivated traitors, that is intergenerational. Ireland is so weary of eight centuries this, that many just simply leave, while the others are politically interned, in both parts of Ireland. A Settlement Process not simply a peace process, must be found sooner rather than later.

The last century of Irish politics, drips with blood from Fascist Blueshirts and their loyalist counterparts in British Occupied Ireland. I believe that the religious word evil, is simply the reality word live, spelled backwards. Riddle me this my fellow Irish women and men, what choices do your Irish youth have, when they learn too late in the day, that their leaders are ruthless fascists or even worse, who speak out of both sides of their mouths?

The IRA is responsible for a very limited freedom, attained in Ireland thus far, but no one person, has the right to enforce limits on freedom in Ireland, and certainly not at the behest of a foreign entity, no more than they have the right, in any other real country in the world. A Settlement must be inclusive, not exclusively the domain of the pacified, to be a genuine enabler of all Irish youth, Orange and Green, to realize their dreams in their own island. This certainly is not the case currently, people are voting with their feet and their fight.

Informer 'murdered on orders of SF man'

 Irish News

Frank Hegarty was found shot dead by the side of an isolated border road near Castlederg, Co Tyrone, on May 25 1986. The 45-year-old's eyes had been taped shut and he had been shot several times before his body was dumped at the roadside by his IRA killers, who executed him because he was an informer.
The IRA claimed that Hegarty, who had been the organisation's Derry quartermaster, had revealed the location of a consignment of arms from Libya discovered by security forces in the Republic in January 1986.
He was afterwards taken to a safe house in England but, anxious to come back to his native Derry city, Hegarty returned to his Shantallow home that May after being assured he would not be killed.
On May 27 1986 the Irish News reported: "People who knew Frank Hegarty in Derry have confirmed that he was missing from his home following the arms find on January 26.
"He was a well known figure in the city and regularly associated with known republicans.
"At the time of his disappearance a number of people thought that he was about to become the latest republican supergrass.
"Most people who knew of his disappearance were baffled by his decision to return home to Derry three weeks ago, despite knowing that the IRA suspected that he had been involved in the Sligo and Roscommon arms find.
"It is felt that he must have been motivated by homesickness as he had been in almost daily contact with his family while in England and was known to be very close to his mother."
The IRA alleged that Hegarty had been responsible for a January 1974 Official IRA bomb attack at Ebrington barracks, Derry, in which two cleaners were killed.
The security forces used their knowledge of Hegarty's involvement in the bombing to coerce him into informing against the IRA, it claimed.
He worked first as a British army agent but was later recruited by the Force Research Unit (Fru).
Allegations that Derry Sinn Féin leader Martin McGuinness had played a role in persuading Hegarty to return to Derry were made by his mother in a 1993 edition of The Cook Report.
Mrs Hegarty said Mr McGuinness had assured her son that he would be safe.
During a House of Commons debate on December 18 2001, DUP leader Ian Paisley said that Hegarty had been "murdered on the instructions of Mr McGuinness".
Speaking during a debate on whether or not Sinn Féin MPs should be allowed to enjoy Parliamentary privileges, Mr Paisley said: "We have established that Martin McGuinness was, to all effects, leading the IRA army council and was busy in Londonderry.
"Members should know for what type of people they are proposing to bend the rules.
"One of the saddest calamities in Londonderry was the death of Frank Hegarty, who was murdered on the instructions of Mr McGuinness.
"Mr Hegarty had worked for military intelligence and knew where some of the IRA's most important arms and explosives were hidden in the Irish Republic.
"When the Irish police raided them the army, fearing that Mr Hegarty's cover would be blown, pushed him away to England.
"Mr McGuinness then arrived on the doorstep of Rose Hegarty and told her that he wanted to talk about her son and how he could return.
"Twice a week for 13 weeks, Mr McGuinness dropped by, the family met him and they drank tea together.
"He assured the mother, Rose, that if Frank came home, he could sort the matter out and all would be well; a firm assurance for a mother's heart torn about her son. She persuaded her boy to come home.
"A rendezvous was arranged by Mr McGuinness. Afterwards the body was found in a roadway in Tyrone, a bullet through the head."

Tapes allege McGuinness's IRA roleLast night's BBC Panorama programme restated the allegation that west Belfast builder Freddie Scappaticci was the British army agent known as Stakeknife.
It also presented evidence, in the form of transcripts made by journalists working on The Cook Report documentary programme, that Scappaticci had revealed the extent of Sinn Féin MP Martin McGuinness's involvement in the IRA.
"Nothing happens in the Northern Command that McGuinness doesn't OK – and I mean nothing," he is quoted as saying.
"You look at every British soldier shot, every policeman shot, every booby trap, or whatever.
"McGuinness is ultimately responsible for all of it. It's all under his control. He's the type of person you don't get side by side with.
"He doesn't have friends within the IRA. He has what he calls comrades. He frowns on womanising, he frowns on drinking... (he is) a very moralistic person."
The secret recording also details Scappaticci's view of the role played by Mr McGuinness in persuading IRA informer Frank Hegarty to return to Derry after he had told his British handlers the location of an IRA arms dump.
According to Scappaticci, Mr McGuinness befriended Mr Hegarty's mother after he fled the country in January 1986.
"He befriended her, as I understand it. He ate in the house, meals were prepared by the Hegarty family – basically Martin McGuinness sold himself to the Hegarty family," Scappaticci is quoted as saying.
"Martin portrayed himself as a friend: I'm someone who can deliver. Yes, you can trust the IRA, no harm will come to your son. He just has to come back and he just has to talk to a couple of people and he'll know one of them and everything will be fine."
Scappaticci claimed that Hegarty agreed to come and was driven to a secret location for an IRA debriefing, in which Mr McGuiness was part of the Army Council who interrogated him, "court martialled him and ordered him to be shot".
"It's not important who pulled the trigger. McGuinness wouldn't dirty his hands with that," Scappaticci said.

Quickly but quietly, Ireland is disappearing its young people

Fintan O'Toole: There are good reasons to be browned off in Ireland if you’re young and well-educated

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Electric Picnic is now a bucolic frolic for those on the verge of middle age — which makes it a microcosm of austerity Ireland.’ Above, the crowd at the main stage at Electric Picnic. Photograph: Dave Meehan


Fintan O'Toole


So Electric Picnic is now a bucolic frolic for those on the verge of middle age — which makes it a microcosm of austerity Ireland. A century on from theIrish revolution, the equivalent of the generation that made it is being squeezed out of existence in the State it created. If the young revolutionaries were around now, they wouldn’t be around here. WB Yeats turned out to be wrong – this is no country for young men, or for young women either.

Very quickly but rather quietly, Ireland is doing a remarkable thing. It is disappearing its young people. In April 2009, the State contained 1.423 million people aged between 15 and 35. In April 2014, there were 1.206 million in the same age group. That’s a reduction from one generation of more than the entire population of Limerick city and county. This is the age group of rebellion, of adventure, of trying it out and trying it on. It’s the generation that annoys its elders and outrages convention and challenges accepted wisdom. It is demography’s answer to the stultification of groupthink. It is not always right but without its capacity to drive everyone else up the wall, smugness settles over everything like a fine grey dust.

Emigration

The biggest reason for this loss of nearly a quarter of a million young people in five years is emigration. People of my age remember the 1980s, the Donnelly visas and the flight of the Ryanair generation, and assume that what’s happening now couldn’t be as bad. They’re right – it’s not as bad, it’s much worse.

In the entire, miserable decade of the 1980s, net emigration was 206,000, a figure seen at the time as a shocking indictment of political and economic failure. In the last five years alone it is 151,000. And most of this emigration is of people between 15 and 44: in 2012 and 2013 alone, we lost 70,000 people in this age group. The percentage of 15- to 29-year-olds in the population has fallen from 23.1 per cent in 2009 to 18 per cent in 2014. And it’s not just that the young generation is physically shrinking. Many, even those who have stayed, have emigration in their heads as an active option. They are, mentally, half here.

Why are they going? Largely because they’re browned off. It’s been clear for quite some time now that most of those who are leaving are not, in a simple sense, economic refugees. Unemployment is certainly a factor: it is very bad for the very young and it’s not getting much better. While overall employment has risen significantly between the first quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2014, it has actually dropped sharply for the under-25s, from 154,000 to 142,000. The economic crisis has hit young people disproportionately hard and there’s no doubt that many of them leave simply to find work. But the majority of emigrants are actually in employment – every year since the crash somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 people who have jobs have given them up and left the country.


This doesn’t mean, however, that leaving is just a self-indulgent “lifestyle choice” — if it was it would not have increased fourfold since the bust. Having some sort of a job is one thing. Having a sense that you have a career and a future is something else. We know from the UCC Emigre research project last year that “an enormous proportion of emigrants [previously] employed in Ireland did not feel content with their professional careers before moving”.

And this is not because they’re pampered whingers. There are really good reasons to be browned off in Ireland if you’re young and well-educated and trying to get a job that gives you self-respect in the present and hope for the future. Low pay, insecurity, part-time hours, the absence of a career path — these are not uniquely Irish conditions but neither are they universal. The obvious truth for a lot of young Irish people is that they can do better elsewhere. And we’ve raised them to expect better — people of my age are the ones who told our kids to have a sense of their own worth and not to put up with being treated like dirt. We taught them well — and we’re paying the price through their absence.

Human wealth

That price is large. Economically, of course, there’s a vast loss of human wealth in the export of expensively educated young people and in some cases, like doctors, importing substitutes. Young emigrants are significantly more likely than the rest of the population to have a third-level degree. But there’s also a loss of texture, of buzz, of go. Look anywhere in Ireland that is not a specific redoubt of youth culture, and the place is heavy with middle-age. From the civil service to the media, from politics to the arts establishment, you find demographic landscapes that have been largely frozen for the last six years. The thinning ranks of the young have been unable to mount any sustained challenge to the self-serving orthodoxies of their elders. Which would be fine if the place they leave could afford the consequent culture of stasis and complacency.




BREAKING NEWS ! END OF THE IRISH PEACE PROCESS

OTR letters: IRA suspects to lose immunity from prosecution

U-turn is a victory for justice: DUP

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Secretary of State Theresa Villiers

BY JOANNE SWEENEY – 03 SEPTEMBER 2014

A leading unionist MP has given a "cautious welcome" to the news that hundreds of immunity letters given to IRA members will be rescinded.

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DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said of the move, expected to be announced by the Secretary of State Theresa Villiers today: "If this is confirmed, this is indeed very welcome news for those who have suffered at the hands of the IRA.

"We have made it clear all along that these letters were unacceptable and called on the Secretary of State to rescind them.

"It's unacceptable in a democratic society that anyone could be deemed in any sense to be above the law in terms of their involvement in terrorist activity."

He added: "We hope that the NIO will send out a very clear message that victims are entitled to justice and there is no question of an amnesty being granted for a terrorist crime."

Mrs Villiers will tell MPs on the Northern Ireland select committee today that the letters granted to terrorist suspects have been annulled and are "not worth the paper they are written on".

The existence of the "comfort letters" has become one of the most controversial outcomes of the Good Friday Agreement, which only came to light earlier this year.

They were granted to individuals suspected of terrorist crimes committed before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. They told suspects whether they were being sought by police over any past offences.

A government source said: "What the Government is determined to do is make sure that nobody in receipt of one of the original letters should be in any doubt that they cannot rely on those letters to protect them from prosecution should new evidence emerge or a re-assessment of existing evidence lead the PSNI and prosecuting authorities to a different conclusion from their original one."

Mrs Villiers is expected to restate the Government's view that the original letters never constituted an amnesty, immunity or an exemption from prosecution.

She will set out plans to formally notify those who received the letters that the documents are worthless.

A source said the terror suspects in receipt of the original "comfort letters" will be left in "no doubt that they are not worth the paper they are written on".

New letters are now likely to be issued telling terrorist suspects that police will be prepared to mount a prosecution should officers believe there is enough evidence against them.

Story so far

The existence of the so-called "comfort letters" was discovered during the prosecution of suspected Hyde Park bomber John Downey which sensationally collapsed in February when it emerged he had been sent one of the letters. Mr Downey (62), from Donegal, had been arrested last year in connection with his alleged role in the 1982 Hyde Park bombing in London.