GERRY ADAMS IS A LIAR

Gerry Adams is a liar. This article in the Irish Times Mon, Apr 22, 2013, @ 14:42 describing Mr Adams giving evidence in Belfast Crown Court in relation to the case of sexual assault charges against  his 57-year-old brother Liam Adams from Bernagh Drive in west Belfast, proves it.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams denied in court today that he told lies to a television journalist about his brother Liam. He said he “took exception” to the accusation.

Mr Adams was giving evidence in Belfast Crown Court in relation to the case of sexual assault charges against 57-year-old Liam Adams from Bernagh Drive in west Belfast.

Liam Adams denies ten charges against him involving his daughter Aine– three or rape, three of gross indecency and four of indecent assault. It is alleged the assaults took place over a six year period beginning in 1977 when Aine Adams was aged four.

During today’s hearing Gerry Adams said that in 2000 his brother Liam admitted to him that he had molested Aine Adams. This happened during a “walk in the rain” inDundalk.

Ms Eilis McDermott, QC, acting for Liam Adams, put it to him that her client never made such an admission. “I don’t accept your submission,” said Mr Adams, insisting his brother had made an admission of guilt.

Mr Adams also referred to a meeting in Buncrana, Co Donegal with his brother in 1987 where he confronted him about the allegations made by Aine Adams. He spoke to him in the company of Aine Adams and her mother Sarah Marie, and he also spoke to him alone.

On both occasions at that meeting Liam Adams denied the allegations. The court has already heard that on that occasion it was alleged that Mr Adams threatened to hit Liam Adams with a hammer. Mr Adams said he never made such a threat.

Ms McDermott then referred to a television interview the Sinn Fein president gave in 2009 where he said that after the 1987 meeting his brother left the country and that Liam Adams thereafter “was more or less out of his life for the next 15 years”.

Ms McDermott said both assertions were lies. Mr Adams said he took exception to this accusation and that he was not lying. Asked where his brother went, Mr Adams said he went to Canada.

Ms McDermott however said that Liam Adams went to Canada for a period in 1983 but apart from occasional holidays in Spain did not leave the country after that. Mr Adams said he was providing evidence that was to “the best of his recollection”.

Ms McDermott in relation to her allegation that Mr Adams was lying about putting his brother out of his life for 15 years then put several photographs up on screen that showed Mr Adams in the company of Liam Adams on various dates and in various places. The dates included 1991, 1996, 1997 and 1998. She also showed an inscription to Liam Adams that Mr Adams signed on the flyleaf of one of his book, “An Irish Journey” in May 2001.

This all served to demonstrate, said Ms McDermott, that far from being out of his life he was in regular contact with Liam Adams. Mr Adams said he had never denied he had been in contact with Liam Adams.

Ms McDermott suggested Mr Adams was trying to create distance between him and the defendant. “That is not the case; I love my brother,” said Mr Adams.

BOSTON BOMBING BRITISH TYPE FALSE FLAG

London’s 7/7 and now the Boston bombing were both “Black Ops False Flag” 

The Pattern Of A False Flag? Boston Bomb ‘Drill’ Exercise

If whistleblower Ali Stevenson is correct, it appears that yet again a terrorist attack, this time the Boston bomb, occurred at the same time as an official exercise was taking place.

The Norwegian attack, the London 7/7 bombings and the 9/11 attacks all turned out to be running in tandem with exercises which were eerily similar to the real terrorist attacks.

According to Stevenson, a sports coach, there were bomb sniffing dogs at the start and finish lines. ‘They kept making announcements on the loud speaker that it was just a drill and there was nothing to worry about,’ he told a local TV channel.

In the case of 7/7 in London, retired police terrorist expert Peter Power, clearly in a state of shock, initially told radio listeners that the exercises he had helped organise even specified the same tube stations as the real attacks.

Washington  philosopher Webster Tarpley, is one of the first to draw attention to the links between Barack Obama, the CIA, the British and the bankers, has explained why anti-terror exercises can be useful to false flag terrorists, in the dark corners of a military industrial complex in Britain that has a vested interest in war and terror in places Like British occupied Ireland. Yjis is why the Tory Government in Britain ,has ended the irish Peace process without Due Process, now introducing internment again, which started a 40 year war last time in Ireland.British experiment in Occupied Ireland demonstrated thatanti-terror exercises  provide both a cover story if things go wrong and an explanation to colleagues not in the know, if they should chance upon a plot. An anti-terror exercise running in parallel with a major terror attack is not proof of collusion but, say sceptics, it is grounds for further investigation of British involvement in Boston to discredit the irish.
The London Bombs, The  Rogue Network And Iran
By Webster G. Tarpley
7-12-5

 

WASHINGTON, DC -- Last week's London explosions carry the characteristic features of a state-sponsored, false flag, synthetic terror provocation by networks within the British intelligence services MI-5, MI-6, the Home Office, and the Metropolitan Police Special Branch who are favorable to a wider Anglo-American aggressive war in the Middle East, featuring especially an early pre-emptive attack on Iran, with a separate option on North Korea also included. With the London attacks, the Anglo-American invisible government adds another horrendous crime to its own dossier. But this time, their operations appear imperfect, especially in regard to the lack (so far) of a credible patsy group which, by virtue of its ethnicity, could direct popular anger against one of the invisible government's targets. So far, the entire attribution of the London crimes depends on what amounts to an anonymous posting in an obscure, hitherto unknown, secular Arabic-language chatrooms in the state of Maryland, USA. But, based on this wretched shred of pseudo-evidence, British Prime Minister Tony Blair who has surely heard of a group called the Irish Republican Army, which bombed London for more than a decade has not hesitated to ascribe the murders to "Islam," and seems to be flirting with total martial law under the Civil Contingencies Act. We are reminded once again of how he earned his nickname of Tony Bliar.   SCOTLAND YARD KNEW IN ADVANCE   That the British Government knew in advance that blasts would occur is not open to rational doubt. Within hours of the explosions, Israeli Army Radio was reporting that "Scotland Yard [London police headquarters] had intelligence warnings of the attacks a short time before they occurred." This report, repeated by IsraelNN.com, added that "the Israeli Embassy in London was notified in advance, resulting in Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu remaining in his hotel room rather than make his way to the hotel adjacent to the site of the first explosion, a Liverpool Street train station, where he was to address an economic summit." This report is attributed to "unconfirmed reliable sources." At around the same time, the Associated Press issued a wire asserting that "British police told the Israeli Embassy in London minutes before Thursday's explosions that they had received warnings of possible terror attacks in the city," according to "a senior Israeli official." This wire specifies that "just before the blasts, Scotland Yard called the security officer at the Israeli Embassy to say that they had received warnings of possible attacks."   According to eyewitness reports from London, BBC claimed between 8:45 and some minutes after 10 AM that the incidents in the Underground were the result of an electrical power surge, or alternatively of a collision. Foreign bigwigs, presumably not just Netanyahu, were warned, while London working people continued to stream into the subway. These reports have been denied, repudiated, sanitized, and expunged from news media websites by the modern Orwellian Thought Police, but they have been archived by analysts who learned on 9/11 and other occasions that key evidence in state-sponsored terror crimes tends to filter out during the first minutes and hours, during the critical interval when the controlled media are assimilating the cover story peddled by complicit moles within the ministries. These reports are not at all damaging to Israel, but are devastating for British domestic security organs. An alternative version peddled by Stratfor.com, namely that the Israelis warned Scotland Yard, is most probably spurious but still leaves the British authorities on the hook. Which Scotland Yard official made the calls? Identify that official, and you have bagged a real live rogue network mole.   Another more general element of foreknowledge can be seen in the fact reported by Isikoff and Hosenball of Newsweek that, since about November 2004, the US FBI, but not other US agencies, has been refusing to use the London Underground.   Operations like these are generally conduited through the government bureaucracies under the cover of a drill or exercise which closely resembles the terror operation itself. So it was with Amalgam Virgo and the multiple exercises held on 9/11, as I show in my 9/11 Synthetic Terror Made in USA (Joshua Tree CA: Progressive Press, 2005). So it was with the Hinckley attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan, when a presidential succession exercise was scheduled for the next day, as I showed in my George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography (1992; reprint by Progressive Press, 2004). An uncannily similar maneuver allows the necessary work to be done on official computers and on company time, while warding off the inquisitive glances and questions of curious co-workers at adjoining computer consoles.   THE COVER STORY TERROR DRILL   Such a parallel drill was not lacking in the London case. On the evening of July 7, BBC Five, a news and sports radio program, carried an interview with a certain former Scotland Yard official named Peter Power who related that his firm, Visor Consulting, had been doing an anti-terror-bombing drill in precisely the Underground stations and at the precise times when the real explosions went off. Peter Power and Visor had been subcontractors for the drill; Power declined to name the prime contractors. Small wonder that Blair, in his first official report to the Commons on July 11, went out of his way to rule out a board of inquiry to probe these tragic events.   Tony Blair may be eyeing the advantages of emergency rule for a discredited lame duck like himself, but the British people may have a different view. The alternative is clear: on the one hand is the American response after 9/11, marked by submissive and credulous gullibility in regard to the fantastic official story of what had happened. On the other hand is the militant and intelligent Spanish response after March 11, 2004, marked by powerful mass mobilization and righteous anger against politicians who sought to manipulate the people and sell a distorted account of events. Which way will the British people go? Straws in the wind suggest that the British response may be closer to the Spanish, although it may develop more slowly because of the lack of mass organization and related factors. If this is the case, Tony Blair, Jack Straw, and the rest of the malodorous "New Labor" crypto-Thatcherites will be out the window.   My thesis is that the London explosions represent a form of communication on the past of the transatlantic Anglo-American financier faction with Bush, Blair, and the heads of state and government assembled at Gleneagles, Scotland for the G-8 meeting on the day of the blast. The London deaths were designed to deliver an ultimatum in favor of early war with Iran. Here a word of clarification may be necessary. The demonization of Bush by his many enemies, while understandable, risks blurring the basic realities of power in the US and UK. Since the Bay of Pigs and the Kennedy assassination (to go back no further than that), we have been aware of a secret team. During the Iran-contra era, the same phenomenon was referred to as an invisible, secret or parallel government. This is still the matrix of most large-scale terrorism. The questions arises for some: do Bush and Cheney tell the invisible government what to do, or does the invisible government treat the visible office holders as puppets and expendable assets? To ask the question is to answer it: Bush, Cheney & Co. are the expendable puppets. The explanation of terror is not Bush MIHOP, as some seem to argue, but rather invisible government MIHOP, an altogether more dire proposition.   How then does the invisible faction communicate with the public mouthpieces? Given the violence of the power relations involved, we can be sure that it is not a matter of sending out engraved invitations announcing that the honor of Bush's presence is requested at the launching of an attack on Iran. Rather, the invisible and violent rogue network communicates with Bush, Blair, and others by means coherent with their aggressive nature as they did on 9/11. Bush, of course, is a weak and passive tenant of the White House whose instinct is to do virtually nothing beyond the day-to-day routine.   We therefore need to note that the London blasts come after two months of vigorous and impatient prodding of Bush by the invisible government. On May 11, a small plane almost reached the White House before it was turned away, while the Congress, the Supreme Court, and the White House (but not the Pentagon, the Treasury, etc.) were evacuated amid scenes of panic. The White House went to red alert, but Bush was not informed until it was all over, and was riding his bicycle in the woods near Greenbelt, Maryland. Flares were dropped over the Brookland district and Takoma Park, MD. The resemblance of all this to a classic coup scenario was evident. On May 18, a live hand grenade, which turned out to be a dud, landed near Bush as he spoke at a rally in Tbilisi, Georgia.   On June 29, the approach of another small plane led to an evacuation of the Congress and the Capitol, again with scenes of panic. On the afternoon of July 2, no fewer than three small planes came close to Bush's Camp David retreat in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland; this story was suspiciously relegated to the local news page of the Washington Post. The details of these incidents are of little interest; what counts is the objective reality of a pattern. These incidents also provide background for Bush's unbalanced behavior on July 5 at Gleneagles, when he crashed into a policeman while riding on his bicycle. Then came the London blasts on July 7.   What is it that the invisible government wants Bush and Blair to do? Scott Ritter announced last January that Bush had issued an order to prepare an attack on Iran for the month of June. According to a well-informed retired CIA analyst I spoke with on July 3, this order actually told US commanders to be ready to attack Iran by the end of June. This project of war with Iran is coherent with most of what we know about the intentions of the US-UK rogue faction, and thus provides the immediate background for the London explosions. The Bush administration and the Blair cabinet have failed to deliver decisive military action, and the invisible government is exceedingly impatient.   One way to increase the pressure on Iran would be to implicate a group of Iranian fanatic patsies in the London bombings. This would not be difficult; in fact, as I show in 9/11 Synthetic Terror, the British capital, referred to during the 1990s as Londonistan, is home to the largest concentration of Arab and Islamic patsy groups in the entire world in such infamous locations as Finsbury mosque and Brixton mosque; these groups are known to have enjoyed de facto recruiting privileges in Her Majesty's Prisons. But perhaps an Iranian patsy group would be too obvious at this time. More likely may be the sinking of a US warship in the Gulf by a third country, duly attributed to Iran.   In a recent speech, Dr. Ephraim Asculai of Tel Aviv University made two main points: first, that there is no military solution to the Iranian nuclear issue, and second, that there is no such thing as a point of no return in nuclear weapons development. Dr. Asculai showed that South Africa, Sweden, and other nations had turned away from deploying A-bombs well after having acquired the ability to produce them. Dr. Asculai is evidently arguing against widespread tendencies in the US-UK-Israeli strategic community who are whipping up hysteria around the notion that Iran is now indeed approaching exactly such a point of no return.   For her part, Miss Rice of the State Department has now declared that it will no longer be sufficient for Iran to turn away from nuclear weapons production; the entire Iranian program for nuclear energy production will also have to be dismantled, in her view. Such maximalism makes a negotiated solution impossible as long as the current Washington group holds power.   SCO: US GET OUT OF CENTRAL ASIA   The US, UK and Israel have been on the brink of war with Iran for at least a year, and the rogue network is generally aware that time is not on its side. There is also an important new development which threatens the ability of the Anglo-Americans to wage war. On July 5, the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which brings together China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Krygyzia, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan plus new members India, Pakistan, and Iran, issued a call for the United States to vacate the bases seized in the autumn of 2001 under the cover of the 9/11 emergency and the looming invasion of Afghanistan. The parties to this call represent about half of the world's population. This demand was immediately rejected by the State Department, but veteran Russian Eurasian expert Yevgeny Primakov crowed that for the first time a formula had been agreed to by which the US would be ejected from this region. The US presence goes back to the Bush-Putin emergency hotwire talks of September 11, 2001, when Putin, seeing that the madmen had seized control in Washington, dropped Russian objections to a US intrusion into the former Soviet republics of central Asia. The US-UK can attack Iran from Iraq in the west, from Afghanistan in the east, and from Qatar in the south, but without the Uzbek and Kyrgyz bases, the Anglo-American ability to attack from the north as well will be severely limited. The SCO states are also concerned about US-backed "color revolutions" on the recent Georgian and Ukrainian models, traditionally known as CIA "people power" revolutions, being used to destabilize their governments. To make matters worse for Washington and London, Kazakhstan is a few months away from opening an oil pipeline to China, which will diminish the US-UK ability to use their Gulf presence to blackmail Beijing. Washington and London are also dismayed by the pro-Iranian overtures in various fields being made by their Shiite puppets in Baghdad.   And what of the report in the Washington Post of July 11, which claims that US and UK planners are now contemplating a sharp reduction in the US forces in Iraq? The most plausible explanation is that this is pure disinformation, similar to news blips issued by both Hitler and Stalin in May and June of 1941. It should also be noted that the British plan explicitly provides for most of the forces now at Basra to go to Afghanistan, where they would be positioned for operations against Iran, or into central Asia.   Generally, the invisible government appears dismayed by its loss of momentum and the constant erosion of the political position of its asset, Bush. 110,000 US factory workers lost their jobs in June, the worst total in a year and a half: auto and textiles are collapsing. The housing bubble may also be nearing its end, with the bankruptcy of Fannie Mae on the near-term agenda. World derivatives have officially reached $300 trillion, with JP Morgan Chase holding the largest single portfolio. The one virtuoso performance of July 7 was that of the Federal Reserve, Bank of England, and European Central Bank, which flooded equity and capital markets with liquidity through such vehicles as the Plunge Protection Team (PPT), turning a big Wall Street loss into a small gain.   During the recent Reopen 9/11 tour of 8 European cities, Jimmy Walter repeatedly forecast that the general predicament of the Bush regime and the US financier faction would lead to another large-scale terror attack before the end of 2005; this has now occurred, and there is no end in sight. The tide of US public opinion has now definitively turned against the Iraq war and to some degree against Bush, as all major polls demonstrate. Notable is the 42% affirmative response to the Zogby International question as to whether, if it could be proved that Bush lied to launch the Iraq war, he should be impeached. Larry Franklin of the Wolfowitz-Feith neocon apparatus has been indicted for divulging US secrets, and the American-Israeli Public Affairs Council has been raided twice; further indictments are expected. Karl Rove has now been revealed as the source of the Valerie Plame leak, making Rove and perhaps other White House officials fair game for federal indictment. The Niger yellowcake forgeries and the Chalabi state secrets cases are still pending to say nothing of two stolen elections and the 9/11 Septembergate itself. All these factors incline the rogue network to seek an improvement in their situation through a flight forward to a wider war in Iran. Those who stand to lose most by such an Iranian adventure must now mobilize to make Mr. Bush's second term as eventful as Nixon's second term turned out to be in 1974. MI5's False Flag Operations in Northern Ireland Britian's MI5's 'False Flag' IRA OPERATIONS  The influence of spooks on Irish Politics has recently largely gone unnoticed as public attention concentrated on significant financial developments. But with competing British spy groups clashing head-on in a battle for government funding and influence in both the UK and US through control of events in Ireland. The arrival in early November in Derry of Lord Carlile, independent advisor to the British Government on the activities of the Security Service (MI5), to investigate SDLP not Provisional claims that MI5 were involved in the shooting dead of leading Real IRA member Kieran Doherty outside Derry city exposing what has been happening on both sides of the Border, where MI5 has been running what is known in the spook business as «false flag» operations. Carlile, a Liberal Democrat barrister of Polish Jewish background, has a reputation as an expert on hush hush matters. In various former posts he was «briefed by MI5» as he says – while as a member of the Athenaeum Club, he rubs shoulders regularly with senior Secret Service (MI6) officers in London. These are at loggerheads with MI5 over funding and conflicting policies on Ireland. Carlile was, therefore, well-placed to find out what is happening undercover in Ireland. To underline he meant business, he responded within days to requests that he investigate, presumably, as Security Adviser, with Downing Street approval. He even went for a photo-op with the Doherty family members and SDLP man Mark Durkan to the spot on a country road outside the city where Doherty (31) was found tied and naked, shot in the head. According to the BBC, MI5 has «increased the proportion of its budget spent on counter-Irish terrorism to meet the growing threat from the Real IRA and Continuity IRA. More staff has been sent to work at MI5's large Irish HQ at Loughside, in Palace Barracks, Holywood, Co. Down». MI5 boss Jonathan Evans, according to The Sunday Times, ordered the allocation of £20 million from the anti-al-Qaeda budget to the struggle against Irish republicans in British occupied ireland.  According to the newspaper, which speaks with authority when it comes to British Intelligence, MI5 currently spends 18% of its budget on the traditional republican groups threat – up from 13% two years ago. The Irish republican threat» have been well-reported by the MI5 publicity machine. The misgivings of the British Special Services are well-grounded,» reported the Russians. «Suffice it to say that this year, there have already been 33 terrorist attacks and attempted attacks compared with 22 in the whole of 2009. In this connection, it is a small wonder that the British.... are concentrating on the escalation of violence in Ulster rather than on the struggle against Moslem terrorism.» (Radio Moscow, 24 Aug 2010) Al Jazeera carried similar reports quoting the same figures from Evans, telling the Commons' Intelligence and Securtiy Committee on 13 Sept 2010 that his organisation « had not anticipared  the way in which the securtiy situation had deteriorated in Ireland.» MI5 Case Officers and Analysts at Loughside  have been increased by 33%, it was reported (Belfast Telegraph, 13 Septembe 2010. They got their enhanced annual budget for 2011 some weeks ago. While Moscow may appear to accept MI5's word that the «escalation of violence in Ulster is a major threat,» people closer to events, who are outside the far-reaching media influence of the spooks, like Lord Carlile, take a different view. Interestingly, David Cameron approved Carlile's flying visit to Derry with the same alacrity that the accepted the Bloody Sunday findings. Many of the less that 50 «security incidents» reported by MI5 during 2010 relate to petrol bombs and pipe bombs. The former are bottles filled with petrol ignited by a lit rag when thrown: the latter are glorified fireworks made from a small pipe hammered closed at one end  and filled with shotgun cartridge powder or material scooped from Chinese bangers bought at any back-street shop – hardly the weapons of a well-equipped guerilla force of the sort MI5 says it is fighting. Occasionally, these munitions» are supplemented with cardboard boxes left on the rail line near Lurgan to disrupt Dublin-Belfast travel. Anyone who sees street demonstrations inevitably must understand the real strength and limited importance of the varied dissident groups: without question, they are fewer in number than the 400 MI5 spies deployed against them.  But then, out of the blue in 2010, incidents happened which were hugely different from the «pipe bombs» and «petrol bombs» of schoolboy sophistication – displaying quite separate skills, and access to different resources, including Semtex and TPU (Timing and Power Unit electronic fuses). The dissidents also showed sudden  signs of organisational ability previously thought by Garda (Irish Republic Police Force) Intelligence (CSB) to be beyond their capabilities. There had been an example fo this earlier, in 2009, when on one night alone, two reportedly different dissident factions (the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA) coincidentally or otherwise, shot dead two soldiers at Antrim and a PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) community policeman in Lurgan within hours – and then faded into the background, going back to making petrol bombs and fireworks pipe bomb bangers. In 2010, several mysterious incidents occurred: in February a large car bomb blasted Newry courthouse, while in Derry, a vehicle bomb was parked outside a bank. No one was injured in these explosions, or by an under-car booby trap found by a police dog handler at this home. Again, they were out-of- character with previous actions by dissidents. It's at this point that Lord Carlile's arrival in Ireland should be seen as significant. He will have been told, if not by Mark Durkan then by others in Derry, that many well-informed persons believe that much of the present dissident «military acitivity» results from «false flag» operations run by MI5. He may also have been told how, as secret talks are going on to bring maverick former IRA members into the peace process, a campaign to disrupt this – and to improve MI5 funding and importance as the premier spook organisation in Britain – is the reason for the MI5 strategy. False Flag operations are as old as espionage for the colonial British  in many memoirs by former counter-insurgency honchos – like to claim that they have been pre-eminent in the field since their colonial times. Basically, the controlling force (MI5 in this case) recruits, through blackmail or bribery, one or more agents within a target group. These are then moved into a position in the command structure (by virtue of arrests or assassination of rivals who might threaten this arrangement) where they can control the group's actions, without being questioned by comrades. The gangs whiich killed solicitors (attorneys) Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson, and loyalist Billy Wright, were MI5 false flag units, as events have shown. The Derry group which murdered Kieran Doherty is a false flag gang, as Carlile will have been told, not only in Derry, but probably in London by his Secret Service (MI6) contacts. They are aware of what has been going while they in MI6 are orchestrating «Parallel» negotiations (which mirror the old Back Channels of Martin McGuinness (deputy leader of provisional Sinn Fein) fame) with groups, but find it hard to prove. Paradoxiacally, David Cameron seems less influenced by MI5 than his Labour predecessors – as shown in his approval of a high-profile visit by his representatives to meet relatives of Doherty, identifed publicly at this funeral as a Real IRA leader. The three false flag gangs operate independently in the North and are used by MI5 for different purposes. A Derry city gang uses the name Real IRA. It funds itself through protection payments from nightclub drugs dealers. It has occasionally planted bombs and is run by a Strabane man who has worked for MI5 since the 1990s. In 1999, he was abducted by Provo security, but a suggestion that he be removed permanently or given a one-way ticket to leave Ireland was turned down by the Provo leadership, who thought MI5 would use whatever happened to destroy the peace process. The Belfast false flag gang is based in Beechmount and calls itself the Real IRA or occasionally Oglaigh na h-Eireann. It has fewer than ten members and raises funds through protection rackets for brothels and drugs dealers. The Beechmount leader – claiming to be the «Chief of the Real IRA» - gave that recent Guardian interview in which he claimed that his group was going to target British bankers for assassination. This implausible story went around the world, and gained considerable publicity for the false flag gang – and kudos for MI5 in London, where they were still battling to win Treasury support for their Irish operations. Recently, the Beechmount Brigade (also called disparagingly the Cardboard Box Command, because of a penchant for leaving  fake box bombs at road junctions to disrupt traffic) created a link  with one of the two factions in the Limerick criminal feud through a female relative. The gang is also involved in a continuing scandal in which a Belfast VIP loyalist has gone  on the run in England with PSNI assistance, much more of which willl emerge in early 2011 and on which Lord Carlile (and in turn David Cameron) will have by now been briefed. The most active of the dissident false flag gangs uses the Continuiity IRA name and is based in Lurgan. It has links with a crooked Portadown loyalist whose shop-front office premises are paid for by indirect government funding possibly arranged by MI5. Set up initially to smuggle Chinese counterfeit cigarettes, the Lurgan «Continuity» false flag is so sure of immunity from arrest that several of its members drove in two vehicles to Manchester earlier this year to threaten a rogue English solicitor with death at the hands «of the IRA « if he did not hand over money they believed they were owed. They had paid a deposit to buy a small cigarette factory in Pristina in the Balkans, where they intended to produce fake cigarettes for the English market. How much of this information will have got into the hands of Lord Carlile as a result of his investigation of the Kieran Doherty killing is not known. Certainly, at least some of this would have been available from the Secret Service (MI6). Significantly, the MI6 spooks have publicly taken a quite different line from MI5 on the dangers posed by Irish republican dissidents. But more is likely to emerge in 2011. ______________________  I believe it's unlikely that the sole reason for  the false flag incidents is increased Treasury funding and naive in the extreme to suggest that Lord Carlile, with close links to the Intelligence services,  will report publicly that British Intelligence services are engaged in false flag operations in British occupied Ireland. Such a report would lead the wider public to start asking uncomfortable questions re 7/7 and the indeed Boston bombing.

 

IRELAND ; A Ray of Anglo Irish Sunshine : Percy French

My introduction to the music of Percy French by Brendan O'Dowda as a child, left a big impression on me. While certainly sad, his music was my ray of sunshine, to rise above the darker side. While many Irish interpreted him as laughing at them, it is clear from the details of his work he was laughing with us. He is also a very bright light from the complex Anglo-Irish heritage. He is still very much loved In Ireland... brian

Percy French From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 1 May 1854 – 24 January 1920, born in Cloonyquin House, near Elphin, County Roscommon, the son of an Anglo-Irish landlord is one of Ireland's leading songwriters and is recognised for his watercolour paintings. He was educated at Foyle College, Derry, and wrote his first successful song while studying at Trinity College Dublin in 1877 for a "smoking concert". The song Abdul Abulbul Amir was sold for £5 to an unscrupulous publisher. The song later became hugely popular and was falsely claimed by other authors.

He graduated as a civil engineer in 1881 and joined the Board of Works in County Cavan as an Inspector of Drains. It is said that he wrote his best songs during this period. He also painted: he was a prolific painter of landscape watercolours and during this period considered art to be his true vocation. In fact, when he became well-known later in his life, his paintings from his time as a civil engineer became fashionable and sought after. When the Board reduced its staff around 1887, French turned to journalism as the editor of The Jarvey, a weekly comic paper.^[2] When the paper failed, French's long and successful career as a songwriter and entertainer began. Around this time he married Ethel (Ettie) Kathleen Armitage-Moore (b.1871), second daughter of William Armytage-Moore, brother of Countess of Annesley, (wife of the Third Earl). But she (and her daughter) died in childbirth at the age of 20.

He became renowned for composing and singing comic songs and gained considerable distinction with such songs as "Phil the Fluther's Ball", "Slattery's Mounted Foot", and "The Mountains of Mourne". (This last was one of several written with his friend, stage partner and fellow composer, Dr W. Houston Collisson.)^[2] But perhaps one of French's most famous songs is "Are Ye Right There Michael", a song ridiculing the state of the rail system in rural County Clare. The song caused such embarrassment to the rail company that it led to a libel action against French, though this ultimately failed. (It is said that French arrived late for the libel hearing at the court, and when questioned by the judge on his lateness, he responded "Your honour, I travelled by the West Clare Railway," resulting in the case being thrown out.)

French took ill while performing in Glasgow and died some days later (from pneumonia) in Formby at the home of his cousin, Canon Richardson of Green Lea, College Avenue on 24 January 1920, aged 65. His grave is to be found in the churchyard of St. Luke's Parish Church, Formby in Merseyside. A statue of him sits on a park bench in the town center of Ballyjamesduff in honour of him and his famous song, "Come back Paddy Reilly to Ballyjamesduff".

Search Results

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   'Celestial Painting (Sunset at Renvyle)' 
   When painters leave this world, we grieve 
   For the hand that will work no more, 
   But who can say that they rest alway 
   On that still celestial shore? 
   No! No! they choose from the rainbow hues, 
   And winging from Paradise, 
   They come to paint, now bold now faint, 
   The tones of our sunset skies. 
   When I see them there I can almost swear 
   That grey is from Whistler's brain! 
   That crimson flush was Turner's brush! 
   And the gold is Claude Lorraine.
   
   
   

   A TRIBUTE TO GREATNESS. What a shame that Brendan O’Dowda is gone, He had a great voice, sure ‘twas second to none. The style of his singin’ for sure it was grand, When he told the stories of Erin’s fair land. In praise of his talents, let’s say it out loud, The songs of Percy French, sure, he did them proud. With a laugh in his voice he sang the humorous ones, But with tenderness, he sang of Erin’s lost sons. Of poor ould Irish mothers, whose childer are gone, Their beautiful daughters and fine manly sons. Some who’d emigrated to lands o’er the foam, And some who died for freedom, ne’er to come home. So let’s keep the mem’ries of Ireland alive, As we struggle along in this world to survive. For many years now sure, people will talk, Of this fine Irish tenor, your man from Dundalk. John Keogh, Ard File na hEireann, 15th May 2011

   Larry Mick McGarry lyrics by Percy French

   
   
   

   Oh Larry Mick McGarry,

   
   

    was a torment in the town,

   
   

   A lad, a woman glad o'
   Rut a man would like to drown;

   
   

   With a smile he would beguile away

   
   

   A girl from her boy,
   An' before he got a mile away

   
   

   He tired of his toy.

   
   

   
   

   CHORUS:-
   Titheryah the doodle ah

   
   

   No marryin' for me!

   
   

   Titheryah the doodle ah

   
   

   As far as I can see.

   
   

   Bright by the candle light

   
   

   An' pourin' out the tea;
   But yer glad ye lidn't ax her

   in the mornin'.

   Oh, Larry played , old Harry;

   With the girls about the place.

   At the dancin' they'd be glancin'

   At the features: of his face.

   But he never would endeavour

   To be lover-like until --.,
   Mary Carey, she's a fairy,

   Had him going like a mill.

   
   CHORUS:
   Titheryah the 'doodle ah .

   He met her in the street,

   Titheryah the doodle ah
   Sez he, "Yer lookin' sweet, .:.

   A walk an' .:a talk wid ye'

   I think would be a treat.
   But all he got from Mary was

    "Good Morning".
   _

   The dancin' down at Clancy's

   Brought in all the neighbourhood,

   Though the roof wasn't waterproof,

   The floor was fairly good,

   An' Larry Mick McGarry

   He could handle well the leg,

   But mary light and airy,
   Oh, she took him down. a peg.

   CHORUS:
   Titheryah the, doodle ah

   She footed it with Flynn

   Titheryah the doodle ah
   An'all the other min. ..;

   But Larry Mick McGarry

   Oh! he hadn't a look in

   Faith he had to go and find her .'
   In the morning.

   Oh, she taught him till she brought

   Up to where she had designed.

   Sez Larry, "Will ye marry me!"

   Siz she, "I wouldn't mind".
   He kissed her an' carrissed her

   Which is quite the proper .thing

   Then together,: hell for leather,

   They were off to buy a ring.

   CHORUS:
   Titheryah the doodle ah

   "No marrin" sez you.

   Titheryah the doodle ah

   Ye may escape the 'flu.

   Wait till you meet yer mate

   An' all there is to do
   Is to go an' buy the licence In the morning.
   

   
   

   Later On lyrics by Percy French
   When we're children at our lessons, it is beautiful to think
   Of the good time that i's coming later on;
   When we've done with silly copybooks "and 'horrid pens and ink,
   What a.. lovely time is coming later on!
   The rivers of New Zealand, the mountains of Peru,
   The watersheds of Europe, and the tribes of Timbuctoo,
   All the facts without the fancies, all the tiresome and true,

   
   

   Will be nowhere in that lovely later on..
   We'll forget the foolish fables that were written by Fontaine, In the pleasant time that's coming later on;
   At those twelve times twenty 'tables we will never look again, In the lazy time that's coming later on;
   The date of Magna Carta, the plot they called "the Rye,"
   The counties that are bounded by the Humber and the Wye,
   We may not quite forget them, but we mean to have a try
   In the lazy time that's coming later on.

   
   Oh' my optimistic hero, there are lessons you must learn,
   In the queer time that is coming later on;
   And the masters and examiners you'll find at every turn,
   In the hard times that are coming later on.
   Miss Fortune is a governess who'll teach you many things,
   A tutor called Experience will moderate your flings,
   You'll learn how men make money, and you'll learn that it has wings
   In the strange times that are coming later on.

   
   Then you'll meet the radiant vision who is all the world to you (You'll attend her mother's lectures later on);
   You'll learn that what's enough for one is not enough for two,
   Nor enough for half-a-dozen later on.
   No, the work is never ended, though for holidays you crave,
   There are pop-guns to be mended for the Robbers in the Cave.
   You fancy you're the master, but you find that you're a slave
   To a curly-headed tyrant later on.

   And so through all your lifetime you are longing for the day,
   The lovely day that's coming later on;
   When pens and ink and copybooks will all be laid away,
   And that day is surely coming later on.
   For when you're really tired, having done your level best,
   When the story's nearly ended, and the sun sets in the West,
   Then you'll lie down very gently, and the weary will find rest,
   And I fancy we'll deserve it -- later on.

   
   Later on, later on,
   Oh what many friends have gone,
   Sweet lips that smiled and loving eyes that shone
   Through the darkness into light,
   One by one they've winged their flight And perhaps we'll play together —later on.

   
   

   Little Bridget Flynn lyrivs by Percy French

   I've a nice slated house and, a. cow or two at grass,

   I've a plant garden running by ,the door;
   I've a shelter for the hens and. a stable for.,the ass,..,

   And what: can a man want more.
   I dunno; maybe so,
   And °a bachelor is , easy and he's free,
   But I've plenty to look after,
   And I'm living all alone,
   And there's no one looking after me.

   
   
   Me father often tells me I should go and have a try,

   To get a girl that owns a bit of land;
   I know the way he says it that there's.; someone; in his eye

   And me mother has the., whole thing. planned;
   I dunno, maybe so, .,,

   And 'twould mellify them greatly to -agree,
   But there's' little Brigid Flynn,  " Sure its her I want to win,

   Though she never throws an eye on me.

   Oh! There's a little girl who is worth her weight in gold'

   An' that's a dacent dowry don't you see;

   And I mean to go and ax her as soon as I get bold,
   If she'll come and have an eye to me.

   I dunno — will she go,
   But I'd like to have her sitting on me knee,

   And I'd sing like a thrush,
   On a hawthorn bush
   If she'll come and have an eye to me.

   My Darlin' Girl From Clare lyrics by Percy French

   We were sittin' on the wall upon a Sunday

   To watch the girls go by,
   And thinkin' we'd be marrit to one one day,

   When Kate Flynn caught our eye.
   Oh, man! she was the makin's of a fairy,

    And it made each boyo swear,
   "There's not one girl in the wide, wide world

   Like the girl from the County Clare!"

   CHORUS:
   And ev'ry man had got the finest plan

   You ever see now — barrin' me now,

   Ev'ry day there's one of them would say

   That she'll agreed now — you'll see now;

    All night they'd fight,
   As to which o' them was right,
   In the colour of her eyes and hair,
   But not a word from me was ever heard,

   About the darlin' girl from Clare!

   Says Casey: "Tis the father I'll be plazin',

   I'll tell him of the land I've tilled,
   I'll tell him of the cattle I have grazin'

   And the house I mean to build;
   And whin he sees the arable' and `pasture'

   And the fat stock feedin' there,
   An' the hens an' the chickens,
   Ye may go to the dickens
   For the girl from the County Clare."

   
   

   CHORUS:
   So every man had got the finest plan

   Ye ever see now— barrin' me now,

   Ev'ry day there's one of them would say

   That she'll agree now —you'll see now.

   Says I to meself
   Though I haven't got the pelf,
   Of brass I've got my share,
   And so I know the way they ought to go

   About the darlin' girl from Clare."

   Says Sweeney,"she'll be coming to the shop here

   To buy some sort of thing,
   I'll ax her if she has a mind to stop there,

   And should I buy the ring:
   An' whin she sees the curtains on the windas,

   An' the clock on the stair
   Keepin' time to the minit,
   No one else will be in it
   With the darlin' girl from Clare!"
   CHORUS:

   So every man had got the finest plan
   Ye ever see now — barrin' me now,
   Ev'ry day there's one of them would say,

   That she'll agree now — you'll see now;

   Thinks I "ye may stop

   Till yer dead in yer shop,

    An' not a hair she'll care, Wid all yer gold
   Yell never hold a hold
   Upon the darlin' girl from Clare."

   I never said a single word about her,

   But I met the girl that day,
   I told her I could never live widout her,

   An' what had she to say?
   She said that I might go and see her father:

   I met him then and there,
   An' in less than an hour
   We war fightin' for the dower
   Of the darlin' girl from Clare!

   CHORUS:
   So ev'ry man had got the finest plan

   Ye ever see now — barrin' me now,

   Ev'ry day there's one of them would say

   That she'll agree now — you'll see now;
   But late last night
   When the moon was bright
   I axed her if she'd share
   Me joy an' me sorra' -
   An' begorra! on to-morro'
   I'll be married to the girl from Clare!

   Eileen Oge Lyrics by

   or the Pride of Petravore)
   Eileen G Oge! an that the darlin's name is,
   Through the Barony her features they were famous;

   If we loved her who was there to blame us,

   For wasn't she the Pride of Petravore?

   But her beauty made us all so shy,

   Not a man could look her in the eye,

   Boys, 0 boys! sure that's the reason why

   We're moumin' for the Pride of Petravore.

   CHORUS:
   Eileen Oge! me heart is growin' grey
   Ever since the day you wandered far away;

   Eileen Oge! there's good fish in the say,
   But there's no one like the Pride of Petravore.

   Friday at the fair of Ballintubber,
   Eileen met McGrath the cattle jobber,
   I'd like to set me mark upon the robber,
   For he stole away the Pride of Petravore.
   He never seem'd to see the girl at all,
   Even when she ogled him underneath her shawl,

    Lookin' big and masterful when she was lookin' small,

   Most provoking for the Pride of Petravore.

   CHORUS:
   So it went as it was in the beginning,
   Eileen Oge was bent upon the winning;
   Big McGrath contentedly was grinning,
   Being courted by the Pride of Petravore.
   Sez he "I know a girl that could knock you into fits."

   At that Eileen nearly lost her wits,
   The upshot of the ruction was that now the robber sits

    With his arm around the Pride of Petravore.
   CHORUS:

   Boys, 0 Boys! with fate 'tis hard to grapple,
   Of my eye 'tis Eileen was the apple,
   And now to see her walkin' to the Chapel
   Wid the hardest featured man in Petravore.
   Now boys this is all I have to say;
   When you do your courtin' make no display,
   If you want them to run after you just walk the other way,

   For they're mostly like the Pride of Petravore.
   CHORUS:

   Rafferty's Racin' Mare lyrics by Percy French

   You've not seen Rafferty round this way?
   He's a man with a broken hat,
   His tie and his collar are all gone astray
   And his coat for the matter o' that!

   We're racin' Rafferty round the place
   Since Rafferty raced his mare,
   He's a man with an anxious look on his face
   And a partially murdered air!

   CHORUS:
   Oh! Rafferty's racin' mare
   We met him at the fair,
   Says he: "She'll win, so keep your tin,

   For backin' the racin' mare."
   We thanked him then and there,
   And every lad in Ballinafad
   Went backin' the racin' mare.
   I was the jockey they chose to ride -
   And often the owner he sware
   That there wasn't a leap in the world too wide

   To baffle the racin' mare.
   Over hurdle and ditch she went like a witch,
   Till she came where the water shone
   I gave her her head, but she stopped at it dead:
   She stopped — and I went on!
   CHORUS:

   Oh! Rafferty's racin' mare

   I whirtled through the air
   Like a beautiful bird, but never a word

   From Rafferty's racin' mare!

   Oh! Rafferty's racin' mare -

   The boys cried out "take care!"
   I took all I could, but it wasn't much good

   To me or the racin' mare.

   "Get up, you lad," says Ballinafad,
   "You'll win the race for us yet."
   But I didn't care for the look of the mare,
   Nor the way that her legs were set.
   Says they: "The horse'll stay the course,
   She'll stay it — ivery foot."
   "You're right," says I — "I don't deny
   She'll stay just where she's put."

   CHORUS:

   Oh! Rafferty's racin' mare!

   We danced around her there,
   With stones and sticks, and bits o' bricks

   We hit her fare and square.

   Oh! Rafferty's racin' mare!

   The field they leapt it there,
   But on the brink she'd stand and --- drink,

   Would Rafferty's racin' mare.

   But where was Rafferty all the time?

   Oh! Rafferty! he's the lad.
   There in the ring — he stood like a king,

   Cheerin' the mare like mad.
   His brother was there, disguised, of course,

    As a Roosian millionaire;
   Giving the odds against every horse
   And the longest against the mare.

   CHORUS:

   Oh! Rafferty's racin' mare!
   'Twas more than we could bear,
   When a bookie revealed
   he was backin' the field,
   Instead of the racin' mare.
   We've got the day to spare,
   We've got the millionaire;
   And we're havin' a race around the place,

   And Rafferty — he's the hare!

   Whistling Phil McHugh lyrics by Percy French

   Oh! Whistlin Phil McHugh,
   Has come over from Bunlaghy,
   An we don't know what's come to

   Little Mary Ann Mulcahy,
   For ever since the day
   That Phil he came a whistlin',

   She stands in the doorway
   An' she's waitin' an' she's lishnin'.
   CHORUS:
   Oh ! Mary you're contrary
    Come in and shut., the door;

   Phil's a rover, sure 'tis over,
   And he'll not come back, asthore.

   But she's lishnitf for the whistlin'

   And she's waitin' by the shore,

   For that arrun warrum

   Round her waist once more.

   There's Thady of the Cows,
   Sure you know "Ten-acre Thady,"

   Wid his fine new slated house

   He'd make her quite a lady.
   But Thady needn't stay,
   And there's no use his inthragin'.

   For her heart is far away
   'Tis wid Phil McHugh stravagin'.

   CHORUS:

   There's Danny Michael Dan,

   Who is six fut in his stockin's,

   A very proper man,
   But she never heeds his knockin's.

   She'll keep him standin' there

   For three quarthers of a minit,

   But she's racin' like a hare
   When she thinks that Phil is in it.

   CHORUS:

   'Tis wisdom's golden rule

   I do teach her till I tire,

   That every girl's a fool,

   Ay, and every man's a liar.

    What's that you say you hear,

   What's set you all a thrimbly? '

   Tis but the wind, I fear,
   That is whistlin' down the chimbly.

   CHORUS:

   Oh! Mary you're contrary,
   Come in and bar the door;

   What's that scufflin'?
   Phil, you ruffian!
   Sure I knew he'd come, asthore.

   She's been settin' there and frettin

    But now her grievin's o'er;
   And the singin' will be ringin'

   In her heart once more!
   

   
   

   Fighting McGuire lyrics by Percy French

   Now. Giibbon has told the story of old,
   Of the Fall of the Roman Empire,
   But I would recall the rise an' the fall
   Of a man of the name of McGuire.
   he came to our town as a man of renown,
   And peace was, he said, his desire,
   Still he'd frequently state what would be the sad fate

   Of the man who molested McGuire.

   Well, we all were afraid of this quarrelsome blade,

    An' we told him to draw near the fire,
   An' laughed at his jest, tho' it wasn't the best,

   An' swore there's no man like McGuire.
   An' when he came up with the neighbours to sup,

   His friendliness all would admire

   And he'd have the best bed, for we'd sleep in the shed,

   for fear of insulting McGuire.

   But Macgilligan's Dan — who's a rale fightin' man,
   Said: "Of all this tall talkin I tire,

   I'll step in an see whyever should he
   Be called always Fightin' McGuire,

    I'll step in and say, in a casual way,
   That I think he's a thief an' a liar.
   Then I'll hit him a clout, and unless I misdoubt,
   That's a way of insulting McGuire."

   Then onward he strode to McGuire's abode,

   His glorious eye shootin' fire,
   An' we thought as he passed we had all looked our

   On the man who. insulted McGuire;
   Then we listened with grief while we heard him called thief 

   An' abused as a rogue an' a liar;
   Oh! we all held our breath, for we knew it was death

   To give any chat to McGuire.

   Well, the row wasn't long, but 'twas hot an' 'twas strong

   An' the noise it grew higher an' higher,
   Then it stopt! — an' we said, "Oh, begorra, he's dead

   He's been kilt out an' out be McGuire!
   Then out like a thrush from a hawthorn bush

   Came something in tattered attire,
   And after it fled the man we thought dead

   The man who malthreated McGuire.

   'Twas Macgilligan's son, the victory won,
   An' we crowded around to admire
   The bowld-hearted boy who was first to destroy
   The Yoke of the Tyrant McGuire.
   An' altho' it's not true, we all said that we knew
   From the first he was only a liar,
   An' we'd all had a mind to attach — from behind
   That cowardly scoundrel — McGuire.

   The Oklahoma Rose lyrics by Percy French

   All round de moon clouds are hangin' high an' hazy;

   On de lagoon moonbeams are lyin' lazy.
   Dat's when dis coon's g'wine to meet ma Maisie,

    An' I'm singin' de same old song.
   It's not about ma Dinah 'way down in Carolina,
   Ma latest love is finer, dan any flow'r dat blows.
   In fact, she don't remind me of gals I'v left behind me,
   For true love's chains dey bind me to Oklahoma's Rose.

   CHORUS:
   She can trip like moonbeams on de water;
   Ev'ry step dis colour'd coon he taught her.

   Just one clip around her waist I caught her
   When de band play'd "Mumbling Most".

   She's ma rose, ma lily an' ma daisy;
   Where she goes the coloured coons go crazy.

   All I knows is ma Aminta Maisie

   All through de day she keeps lookin' down demurely, '

   Much as to say, "I can't.be a woman surely!

   I still can play with ma doll securely,
   For dis ain't' de time to spoon."
   But when de sun am sinkin her eyes begin a winkin'
   An den I know she's thinkin' of dis yer colour 'd coon.
   Oh! ain't I glad I found her. In love chains I have bound her.
   Her face is rather 'rounder — it's rounder dan de moon.

   CHORUS:
   She hears me call an she comes a-creepin', creepin'.,

   Over de wall she see me leapin', leapin', leapn',

   Big folks an' small quietly are sleepin',
   When I meet ma lily belle.
   Up an' down de ladder I'm slippin' like a shadder,
   No one could be gladder dan me, I don''.t suppose.
   I'm coaxin'her an' teasin', I'm kissin' her,and squeezin',
   It seems to me it's pleasin' to Oklahoma's Rose.

   The Four Farrellys

   THE FOUR FARRELLYS
   In a small hotel in London I was sitting down to dine.
   When the waiter brought the register and asked me if I'd sign.
   And as I signed I saw a name that set my heart astir —
   A certain "Francis Farrelly" had signed the register
   I knew a lot of Farrellys and out of all the crew
   I kept on "sort of wonderin' " which Farrelly were you.
   And when I'd finished dinner I sat back in my chair,
   Going round my native land to find, what Farelly you were.

   SOUTH

   Were you the keen-eyed Kerryman I met below Kenmare,
   Who told me that when Ireland fought "the odds were never fair?"
   If Cromwell had met Sarsfield, or Owen Roe O'Neill,
   It's not to Misther Gladstone we'd be lookin' for repeal.
   Would have Ireland for the Irish, not a Saxon to be seen,
   And only Gaelic spoken in that House in College Green. 

   Told me landlords wor the Divil! their agints ten times worst,.
   And iv'ry sort of government for Ireland was a curse!
   Oh! if you're that Francis Farrelly, your dreams have not come true,
   Still, Slainthe! Slainthe! Fransheen! for I like a man like you!

   NORTH

   Or were you the Francis Farrelly that often used to say
   He'd like to blow them Papishes from Derry walls away?
   The boy who used to bother me that Orange Lodge to join,
   And thought that history started with the Battle o' the Boyne —
   I was not all with ye, Francis, the Pope is not ma friend,
   But still I hope, poor man, he'll die without that bloody end. -
   And when yer quit for care yerself, and get to Kingdom Come,
   It's not use teachin' you the harp — you'll play the Orange drum!
   Och! man, ye wor a fighter, of that I had no doubt.
   For I see ye in Belfast one night when the Antrim Road was out!
   And many a time that evenin' I thought that ye wor dead,
   The way them Papish pavin' stones was hoppin' off yer head.
   Oh! if you're the Francis Farrelly who came from North Tyrone -
   Here's lookin' to ye, Francis, but do leave the Pope alone!

   EAST

   Or were you the Francis Farrelly that in my college days
   For strollin on the Kingstown Pier had such a curious craze?
   D'y mind them lovely sisters — the blonde and the brunette?
   I know I've not forgotten, and I don't think you forget!
   That picnic at the Dargle —' and the others at the Scalp —
   How my heart was palpitatin' — hers wasn't — not a palp!
   Someone said ye married money — any maybe ye were wise,
   But the gold you loved was in her hair, and the d'monds in her eyes!
   So I like to think ye married her and that you're with her yet,
   'Twas some "meleesha" officer that married the brunette;
   But the blonde one always loved ye, and I knew you loved her too,
   So me blessin's on ye, Francis, and the blue sky over you!

   WEST

   Or were you the Francis Farrelly I met so long ago,
   In the bog below Belmullet, in the County of Mayo?
   That long-legged, freckled Francis with the deep-set, wistful eyes,
   That seemed to take their colour from those ever-changing skies,
   That put his flute together as I sketched the distant scene,
   And played me "Planxy Kelly and the "Wakes of Inniskeen."
   That told me in the Autumn he'd be Bailin' to the West
   To try and make his fortune and send money to the rest.
   And would I draw a picture of the place where he was born,
   And he'd hang it up, and look at it, and not feel so forlorn.
   And when I had it finished, you got up from where you sat,
   And you said, "Well, you're the Divil, and I can't say more than that."
   Oh' if you're that Francis Farrelly, your fortune may be small,
   But I'm thinking — thinking —Francis, that I love you best of all;
   And I never can forget you — though it's years and years ago -
   In the bog below BeImullet, in the County of Mayo.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   
   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

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   A Lecture given by Berrie O’Neill
   of the Percy French Society at the Second International
   Percy French Summer School
   at Castlecoote House, Castlecoote, Co.Roscommon,
   17th July 2010.

   When I reflect on what I call my journey with Percy French it sometimes appears to me that in the matter of promoting appreciation of Percy French some outside invisible force is at work – just when we in our Percy French Society in North Down began a focus on the more literary side of Percy French up pops this Summer School and then a few months ago a lecture at St Patrick’s College in Dublin looked at ‘Comic Scenes of Edwardian Ireland: Somerville & Ross and Percy French’. – putting Percy French in the context of more established Irish literary figures I hesitate to think that Percy French himself in some unearthly form but still with a metaphorical twinkle in his eye may be orchestrating these events. but some mysterious experiences are on record. Doors opening unexpectedly during concerts, pictures of Percy French falling from display almost on cue and so on. On one occasion, while preparing the Samuel Beckett Theatre at Trinity College, Dublin for a performance by our Percy French Concert Party, our talented director, Wilfie Pyper while taking a breather in College Park came upon a student dancing towards him while singing Percy French’s very tuneful melody The Oklahoma Rose – It is a song certainly not to be found in the normal student’s repertoire or in the hit parade of the day.
   So in responding to Kevin Finnerty’s invitation to speak here today I may be just another part of some heavenly conspiracy!

   In the early eighties I was manager of a bank in Belfast – and among my customers was one Oscar Rollins……………. (these were the days when Bank Managers were identifiable and when some people liked them!)

   Oscar Rollins, a business man and a councillor in the Borough of North Down had as a young man been impressed by Percy French’s famous recitation the Four Farrellys. As you may know in this well known recitation Percy French is reflecting with humour and pathos about the common humanity shared by 4 very different individuals with the same name, Francis Farrelly. They represented, shall we say, a variety of Irishnesses

   50 years later, on a golf trip to Lancashire, an unplanned coming upon the grave of Percy French in Formby was a life changing experience for Oscar Rollins. It turned out to be on Percy French’s birthday and an unknown admirer had left a bunch of bluebells in a simple but moving tribute. Oscar Rollins became acutely aware that here was a great Irishman lying almost forgotten away from the land of his birth. The experience ignited within Oscar Rollins a crusading determination to make the name and works of Percy French properly appreciated in Ireland and to establish a permanent collection of his life‘s works.

   Oscar’s belief in his mission and his naked determination had him bring together to North Down at the outset such inspiring characters as Percy French’s daughters, Ettie and Joan French, the famous tenor Brendan O’Dowda, the local mayor, Albert Magee (now our president), an enthusiastic BBC TV producer of Percy French material, Alan Tongue and believe it or not his bank manager – a kind of life changing experience for him also!

   I was unable to handout the exorbitant amount of money that Oscar and his cohorts felt that his bank should subscribe towards a museum location to honour Percy French and I suggested, that he formalise a Percy French Society and trying to avoid damaging a valued customer relationship I added lamely and fatefully that I might give a hand with such a creation. A society followed in 1983 – guess who was treasurer and chief fund raiser?

   In addition to being a man before his time in the promotion of Percy French it can be seen, in the context of recent banking revelations, that Oscar was also 30 years ahead of his time in seeking a very large amount of money from his bank without any strings or other pay back!

   Anyway with the strong backing of North Down Borough Council and a number of commercial sponsors there followed a ground-breaking 8 day Festival with some 40 events. It was directed by Alan Tongue and made a huge impact in the North Down and Belfast area, I found myself gradually becoming more and more drawn into the story of Percy French and in the fate of the Society and I have covered many miles in a journey with Percy French ever since those exciting days…..

   Nowadays, 27 years later in North Down Oscar Rollins has departed, as Percy French might say, to Kingdom Come and we have an active Society with a membership of 200 + 60 enthusiastic ‘Friends’ from further afield. We have regular concerts, monthly dinners and musical evenings. There have been many exhibitions and festivals. Our quarterly newsletter reaches some of you in Roscommon and also enjoys a small but enthusiastic readership in USA, Canada, New Zealand, Holland and Australia.

   The Percy French Collection

   But In terms of achieving our founder’s ambitious and optimistic objectives, most important of all is what we call the Percy French Collection. We have amassed some 90 watercolours and approx. 600/700 pieces of other memorabilia

   Much of this magnificent archive was donated by Percy French’s daughters and other family connections but it also includes other significant bequests and a number of paintings purchased by our Society. The archive reflects the extraordinarily varied and versatile output of Percy French as poet, journalist, watercolorist, songwriter and entertainer – all illustrating a huge range of artistic, musical and literary talents. To these can be added a subsidiary list of other abilities and accomplishments as engineer, composer, parodist, humorist, banjoist, tennis aficionado and cycling enthusiast.

   This Percy French Collection which is cared for by the North Down Museum in Bangor will be our bequest to posterity and will hopefully encourage and help sustain other developments like this exciting Summer School. It is a wonderful insight to the life and times of Percy French – it is also a store of social history and above all a monument to our founder, Oscar Rollins.

   Here I should mention a major project carried out by our Society led by David McShane. That has been the cleaning and conservation treatment of the 80/90 watercolors in the collection by specialist conservators at Marsh’s Library Dublin – an expensive project which was 90% funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund with a grant of £40,000.

   I must mention here that
   It really is astonishing that a hugely researched publication like The Encyclopaedia of Ireland fails to mention that Percy French was an outstanding watercolorist.

   I should also mention that the said Oscar Rollins himself had for long owned a large Percy French watercolour entitled ‘Evening in Achill’ in which he took much pride. Achill was Percy French’s “Island of my Dreams” -

   Here some verses….. read by Gladys O’Neill

   Having established contact with Percy French’s homeland here in Roscommon some 20 years ago Oscar presented this painting to Father Beirne for the Strokestown Heritage Centre – a gesture typically made in the spirit of Percy French and demonstrating that Oscar took a wide and far reaching view of his mission.

   MAIN FOCUS TODAY

   I would like to focus today is on Percy French the writer, journalist and poet. This literary aspect of his talent has not as yet had anything like the study and research and understanding that it deserves and I note with satisfaction Father Beirne’s mention of it in his greeting printed in the excellent brochure for the Summer School.

   Percy French was involved in creative writing from an early age – with other family members he produced the handwritten, hand illustrated and tongue in cheek, Tulsk Morning Howl – Tulsk of course being the nearest village / parish to Cloonyquin . Later they provided a more comprehensive and equally amusingly named Trombone of Truth – these titles suggesting perhaps that journalism was no less loud and aggressive then than at the present time!

   At Trinity College Dublin in the 1870s he had acquired a banjo and with the Russian/Turkish war in full swing he wrote the famous song Abdallah Bulbul Ameer for a smoking concert. He imagined a duel between a brave but truculent Russian count and a heroic but sensitive Turkish gentleman.

   Now sung by NORMAN CAIRNS with banjo

   This song would travel far and indeed became the party piece of General Dwight D. Eisenhower

   The banjo became an ever present feature of Percy French the entertainer for the rest of his life and Norman Cairns has brought that essential and colourful aspect of Percy French to our Society for many years.

   Just to illustrate the vital importance of the banjo in French’s career it is recorded that after his unexpected appointment as Inspector of Loans to Tenants in Co Cavan in 1873 he prepared for the heavy demands and responsibilities ahead – he went out and bought a tennis racket and some spare strings for his banjo!

   Actually he had been about to emigrate to Canada before his Cavan appointment and taking his usual amused look at his new job he wrote in humorous verse

   The Inspector of Drains. – here a verse or two from Gldys O’Neill

   In Cavan as ‘Inspector of Drains’ he developed a passion for cycling using the most up to date bicycles and tricycles. It was an interest that enabled him to contribute articles for the Irish Cyclist magazine – here again we note his propensity for writing and journalism

   THE JARVEY YEARS

   And so when after five well paid years his post as Inspector of Drains in Cavan was dispensed with his writings for The Irish Cyclist and Athlete led to him being made editor of a new comic weekly published in Dublin. It was called The Jarvey. This was in the years 1888/90. Despite its clever content and high quality artistic illustrations it failed to achieve sufficient sales to overcome the very strong competition, undeservedly lasting only two years. Interestingly Michael D. Higgins last year mentioned the then fashion of English products being sought after to the detriment of equally good or even more authentic things produced in Ireland.
   Anyway shortage of cash and profit meant that by necessity he was unable to pay other contributors and he had to write much of the material himself for The Jarvey.

   The only remaining full set of 104 original issues of The Jarvey is kept in the National Library of Ireland in Dublin – in fragile condition they are not available to the public. Some 10 years ago our Society in North Down purchased a CD Rom of the 104 issues from the Library and with help from the National Lottery we have succeeded through modern computer technology and immense effort by my colleague, David McShane, to have the 104 issues of THE JARVEY splendidly repaired and reproduced in facsimile style. Now In pristine condition without tears, stains or other marks these have been bound into 10 volumes embellished with gold embossed lettering . One set has been formally presented for public access and research to the same National Library of Ireland. A further set has been given to Belfast’s famous Linenhall Library and our association with these two great institutions must surely enhance our desire to have the literary importance of Percy French more fully recognised

   Last year Michael D. Higgins also made the point that in addition to tribute and celebration there are many themes to be explored and studied in historical and cultural terms by this and future summer schools. Personally I am intensely interested in the complications and nuances of local and social history rather than the more simplistic versions often emerging on a national scale. For instance Michael mentioned the many varied gradations in Irish Society in post famine Ireland, a context in which Percy French can perhaps be seen to cast a more realistic light than the more romantic and simplistic landlord/peasant society espoused by Yeats and Lady Gregory

   In our Percy French Society in North Down we had amongst our members at one time the late and learned Derek Collie from that much under estimated town of Ballymena. His knowledge of the local geography, topography, social history and culture of all of Ireland was exceptional by any standards – mention any town land or village in any part of Ireland and Derek would immediately reveal the most detailed picture of its history and landscape….. I am pleased to quote Derek: “Percy French had an acute ear for the local idiom – an ability not given to all great poets – patterns of speech and thought revealing the character and expression of the people”.
   Derek compared Percy French to the fine English novelist, George Eliot and to Ireland’s famed Myles na Gopaleen.

   This is a long way from one of the old criticisms directed at Percy French that his work was ‘stage Irish’.

   Apart from Percy French’s self taught ability as an artist the remainder of his many talents can to some extent at least be encompassed by an exceptional ability to use words – his abilities as songwriter, poet, author, journalist and humorist can be understood and enjoyed because of his way with words – sometimes poignant or sometimes comic but always colourful. His eldest daughter, Ettie, (herself an accomplished entertainer under her professional name, Ettie Percy French) has summed up her father’s basic key to greatness under the heading of his exceptional ability as a ‘wordsmith’ -
   In the poem/song ‘An Emigrant’s Letter’ for instance he combines poignant metaphor with typical west of Ireland understatement as “the waves hid the last bit of ould Donegal’ and the young emigrant lad with tears in his eyes says to his friend “I think the salt wather’s got into me head” – I feel that the understatement makes the line even more powerful and more poignant

   Many of French’s best loved songs such as the Emigrant’s Letter and Gortnamona are of course poems put to music by other composers and collaborators. It often seems as if an inherent musicality in the poem demands to be formalised. Take for instance the not very well known Road to Ballybay — first as a poem

   GLADYS O’Neill recites…

   “Is this the road to Ballybay?” sez I to Miss Magee,
   “You’re leaving it behind you” sez Mary Ann to me
   So I turned and walked beside her, and ‘tis only fair to say,
   It was very pleasant walking on the road to Ballybay.

   and then with music composed by Percy French’s musically gifted daughter, Mollie

   NORMAN CAIRNS repeats the song.

   In these lines the poet is reflecting wistfully on and describing a youthful memory of boy and girl in the early and playful stages of getting to know one another.

   Hiberno English according to Terence Patrick Dolan in his ‘Dictionary of Hiberno-English’ is the language in which Irish people have for long communicated on a day-to-day basis.
   The native Irish brought emphases from the Irish language in its structure, pronunciation and musicality to the English language and with a mixture of old English and more modern English combined with borrowings and phonetic translations from the Irish language created an almost new language – Hiberno English

   Indeed many of the words picked up and recorded by Percy French as spoken are from old Elizabethan English introduced and kept alive here – there is a reference in the poem Ach I Dunno ‘To ax for my hand’ and from The Emigrant’s Letter ‘ … ‘And Katie forninst me a wettin’ the tay’ . In the song McBreen’s Heifer there is mention of Jamesy O’Burn being in a horrid ‘namplush’ – much more descriptive of his mathematical dilemma I feel than the the French/English ‘Non Plus’

   And according to the Oxford Companion to Irish literature: “Percy French’s songs have an alluring appeal and charm because of their affectionate use of Hiberno-English and a satiric edge”

   Here again there is emphasis on the words of Percy French’s songs which I personally believe are best delivered in such a manner. I am also happy to note the word ‘affectionate’ describing his use of Hiberno-English – clearly he loved the language as spoken and recorded it as he heard it.

   It is also important in my opinion to note the reference to what is described as a ‘satiric edge’ -

   I believe that much of French’s work, what is commonly known as his ‘comic songs’, has a satirical quality albeit a gentle but probing one. Percy French was himself the most self effacing of men and it seems to me that in his songs he often deflated the pompous or pretentious or looked beneath what Michael D. Higgins colorfully described last year as the ‘layers of pretension’ that were evident in the growing acquisitive and property owning society that was emerging from the land clearances .

   Humour I think is an essential part of the understanding and appreciation of Percy French – he puts people and events into a more realistic and down to earth perspective through his sense of the absurdities and frailties of human nature —- Again reflecting on a point made by Michael D. Higgins last year that in the society that was emerging in 19th Century Ireland seriousness was the appropriate presentation of self and family. For instance Percy French’s song The Night that Miss Cooney Eloped . (Sung by Norman Cairns)

   Sometimes the satirical or the ironic emerges in Percy French’s parodies – Around 1890 for instance the appointment by Queen Victoria of one of her Lord Lieutenants, Lord Zetland, to represent her in Ireland was an opportunity for some down-to-earth satirical poking of fun. Percy French imagines the Queen giving advice to the Lord Lieutenant about how he might behave in his new job in Ireland. This French relates in the Dublin idiom as if it was overheard by an Irish waiter, Larry Flynn, who happened, if you don’t mind, to be eavesdropping on the conversation, ………

   The Queen’s Advice – (Gladys O’Neill)

   Grace Neill’s pub cum restaurant in Donaghadee, Co Down is aged 400 years – it is the oldest inn in Ireland. I was delighted to find that a more recent extension has its large beams imprinted with the names of 4 famous Irishmen, James Joyce, W.B.Yeats, Oscar Wilde and for my delight …wait or it……Percy French! The owner or architect must have had a deep understanding of the major 19th century figures in Irish literary history. Never mind that Shaw, Synge and Beckett were not included!

   I suspect that an academic study of Percy French and all his writings can be as enlightening as the study of James Joyce – Indeed I should mention that there are a number of mentions of Percy French songs in Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake.

   it is my belief that Percy French has a right to be included and it is the object of all Percy French Societies and this summer school to make the tribute that is set at Grace Neill’s pub in Donaghadee more commonplace in the Ireland of today.

   (In case any of you get to Donaghadee Grace Neill’s is no mean establishment – Welcomed such famous figures as Peter the Great of Russia, composer Franz Liszt and, more recently, singer Tina Turner. At the shortest point between Scotland and Ireland the inn opened in 1611 as the King’s Arms. It was renamed in honour of a famous proprietor Grace Neill who is said to have welcomed her customers with a kiss between puffs on her clay pipe.) I used to wonder were the clay pipes made here in Roscommon but I discovered recently that there was once a clay pipe factory in the centre of Belfast – so it is maybe they were of unionist/protestant manufacture!

   Today we cannot touch on everything that caused Irish and Belfast- born novelist, George Bermingham to write:

   ‘The genius of Percy French as entertainer, artist and author was a national asset, and the fact that his words and phrases had become family bywords was a mark of real greatness’ -

   Again I draw attention to the focus by George Bermingham on Percy French’s ‘words and phrases’

   Adding to that is the comment of Walter Love of BBC NORTHERN IRELAND who speaks of Percy French’s songs and gentle humour bringing timeless qualities of colour and rhythm. I am thinking here of the colour and rhythm of the railway, its uneven movement and of the conversations recorded in the famous ‘Are ye Right there Michael? and of the colour and rhythm of the song ‘Sweet Marie’ conveying the movement of the horse at the races as mentioned by Michael D. Higgins last year.

   NORMAN CAIRNS sings ‘Sweet Marie’

   Sweet Marie was in fact a parody on an American musical hall song – parodying being a major ingredient of Percy French’s humour and creativity.

   As I have said we have not touched on very many other fascinating aspects of Percy French – his short plays and sketches, his many years as an Edwardian entertainer in London, his ability to relate to children, his collaboration with his great friend and classical musician, Dr William Houston Collisson – their comic operas, their joint entertainment ‘Humours of Art and Music’ that travelled from the London stage to Canada, USA and West Indies, their activities in the winter sports centres of Switzerland

   But at all costs we must not appear to be too earnest or solemn in our analysis – Even in his own kind of epitaph – written in the visitor’s book at Glenveagh Castle in Donegal you find a touch of the ironic

   Remember me is all I ask,
   And yet, if the remembrance prove a task – Forget!

   I started by recounting the vision and inspiration of our founder, Oscar Rollins.
   A new mantle of vision and drive has now been assumed by Kevin Finnerty inspired as he is by by his father, John and the Flanagan family of Cloonyquin. Now what interests me there is the Cloonyquin side – this gives the summer school the most authentic of foundations — and there are others like Michael J. Cunnane and the late Seamus De Nash from the homeland of Percy French who have also kept alive the honoring of Percy French. To give further authenticity to this summer school is the fact that the very first Percy French Festivals were held at Cloonyquin House in 1957/58. We in North Down have performed minor miracles of our own but after 27 years these initiatives by Kevin Finnerty, so strongly mirrored by Richie Farrell of Roscommon Library and by the Co. Roscommon Percy French Society present an outcome that we in the Percy French Society welcome as an important enhancement of what has gone before

   The school has emerged at the right time and more importantly in the right place – the home land of Percy French.

   Finally it is surely the ultimate tribute to Percy French that there is a spirit of friendship and goodwill that pervades all activities and meetings. On his gravestone in the said Formby can be read the following quotation “Write me as one who loved his fellow men”. I believe that Percy French, his life and extraordinary prolific output adds a very special dimension to our understanding of our various Irishnesses

   His life and the breadth of his literary, musical and artistic output is best articulated by the poet, Katherine Tynan: “Percy French was so versatile, so extraordinarily accomplished in such a variety of ways, so sensitive to human and natural appeals, that one must think of him as having a touch of that quality by which talent is dull, the quality of genius … he was incapable of vulgarity: and he had a unique gift of making his audiences love him”.

   

   Berrie O’Neill, North Down Percy A Lecture given by Berrie O’Neill
   of the Percy French Society at the Second International
   Percy French Summer School