In memory of I.R.A Volunteer Joseph O’ Connor. Executed this day in 2000 by the British agents of the British Crown in collaboration with the Provisional Republican movement.

In memory of Oglach Joe O’Connor

R.I.P comrade #TAL

As now exposed British agents helped establish the Good Friday Surrender, many Republicans stood resolutely opposed, realising what we know as fact today, that it would not eradicate sectarianism, it would not remove British rule and it would therefore not lead to a Socialist Republic.

To oppose this the 32 County Sovereignty Movement was formed. Around this time, the Irish Republican Army also reformed as the Provisional movement was now in direct contradiction of its own aims. Instead, the provisional movement began to carry out the wishes of the British establishment by trying to silence Republicans by any means. To carry out what then British Secretary of State Mo Mowlam refereed to as “internal house keeping”.

However, there was one young, idealistic and fearsome I.R.A Volunteer these agents of British rule could not silence or intimidate. Joseph O’ Connor publicly challenged these alley rats and stoops of British rule.

After leaving his mothers house on the 13th October 2000, two of these agents approached I.R.A Volunteer Joseph O’ Connor and shot him dead.

To further the aims of British intelligence they also tried to plant the weapon near the office of another Republican organisation to stoke division. The old British mantra of divide and conquer was not lost on these agents. However, a local republican spotted these agents and realised their intent.

Joseph is forever remembered by his comrades throughout Ireland who like him, have never and will never accept any false right of Britain to remain in Ireland.

R.I.P Oglach Joseph O’ Connor, Belfast Brigade, Irish Republican Army.

Beir Bua!

With many thanks to the: 32 County Sovereignty Movement Co Cork and McKelvey Steele Cumann (RSF) for the original postings.

Remembering Volunteers Ronnie Bunting & Noel Little, Belfast Brigade, (INLA) Irish National Liberation Army.

Remembering with pride Volunteers Ronnie Bunting & Noel Little, Belfast Brigade, Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) who were murdered by Loyalist paramilitaries, on the 15th of October 1980.

Ronnie Bunting was a staff officer in the INLA and the commander of its Belfast Brigade, as well as a member of the IRSP’s Ard Chomhairle (national executive) and a member of the National H-Block/Armagh Committee, formed to support the struggle of prisoners of war within British prisons in the North of Ireland.

He grew up in a middle class Protestant family, and because of this background, pro-British loyalists considered him to be a “renegade Protestant.”

His father was Major Ronald Bunting, a British Army officer who became an aide to Ian Paisley and organized attacks on civil rights marchers in 1969.

He began his political activism while an arts student at Queen’s
University of Belfast. He was briefly a member of People’s Democracy before joining Official Sinn Féin and the Official Irish Republican Army in 1970. He was interned without trial by the British government in its Long Kesh prison camp from 1971 to 1973.

He was expelled from OSF and the OIRA in 1974 because of his support for Seamus Costello. When Costello formed the IRSP and the INLA on 8 December 1974, Bunting was there with him.

Ronnie Bunting was only 32 when he was assassinated in his home in the Turf Lodge area of West Belfast. Although a pro-British death squad known as the Ulster Freedom Fighters took credit, a unit of the British Army’s Special Air Service was suspected of carrying out the assassination. Three previous attempts on Bunting’s life had been made between 1975 and 1978.

Noel Little, a fellow member of the IRSP and the INLA, was also killed in the attack. Ronnie’s wife Suzanne survived being shot in the head.

A memorial to Bunting and Little was unveiled in the Gransha/Turf Lodge area of West Belfast on 13 October 2002.

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Noel Little began his political activism in the 1960s as a member ofthe Northern Ireland Labour Party before becoming involved in theNorth’s civil rights movement and helping to found People’s Democracy.

Opposition within People’s Democracy to the growing armed struggle eventually led Little to leave and join the small Red Republican Party. After discussions with members of the IRSP in Belfast, he joined the IRSP and the INLA in 1980. He was also a member of the National H-Block/Armagh Committee.

He was 44 when he was assassinated along with Ronnie Bunting by what was suspected to be a unit of the British Army’s Special Air Service, although a pro-British death squad known as the Ulster Freedom Fighters took credit.
A memorial to Little and Bunting was unveiled in the Gransha/Turf Lodge area of West Belfast on 13 October 2002.

With many thanks to: Stephen Codd for the original story. 

Óglach Micky Kearney – Belfast Brigade, Irish National Liberation Army (INLA).

Micky Kearney, aged 33, and a father of five, was from West Belfast and was highly respected among his comrades in the Republican Socialist Movement.

Micky had been an active Volunteer within the INLA and a committed Activist with the IRSP since joining the Movement. After a spell in Prison, he was released just before Christmas 1986.

https://johnfcaba.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/inla20kearneycampbell20-20new20barsnsley20parade2020061.jpg

Upon his release from Gaol, Micky immediately reported back to duty with his local INLA Unit. The loss of Micky was hugely felt by all who knew him.

http://irishistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/oglach-kearney-assassinated-by-iplo-on.html?m=1

With many thanks to: Cara O’Shay.

Remembering Óglach Larry Marley, 3rd Battalion, Belfast Brigade, Irish Republican Army (IRA) who was shot dead by a pro British death squad at his home in Ardoyne, on April 2nd 1987.

His funeral was delayed for three days due to attacks from the RUC.

There was a massive demonstration of popular resistance to British injustice on Wednesday when thousands upon thousands of people took to the streets of Belfast for the funeral of IRA Volunteer Larry Marley.

Two previous attempts to bury Volunteer Marley, who had been murdered by loyalist assassins at his Ardoyne home almost a week earlier, were frustrated by the heavy-handed actions of the RUC who did everything in their power to prevent a dignified funeral taking place.

Far from intimidating the Marley family, the actions of the RUC merely strengthened their resolve to ensure that their husband and father was buried with proper respect. For two days and nights, the eyes of Belfast, the rest of Ireland and beyond turned towards Ardoyne and to the bravery of the Marley family in the midst of their grief. That bravery inspired others. The number of mourners outside the Marley home grew and, at short notice, major demonstrations against the activities of the RUC and in support of the family were held in Andersonstown and Ardoyne itself.

Yet it was not until the actual funeral that the full measure of popular feeling could be properly gauged. Ignoring the vast array of plastic-bullet guns, helmets, armoured cars and rifles which are part and parcel of the machinery of repression seen at every republican funeral in recent years, the people came out in a spontaneous and moving gesture of solidarity and defiance.

Efforts by the RUC to impose its sectarian control over the funeral were frustrated by the sheer number of people, young and old, who turned out to join the procession or to line the route.

With many thanks to: Clan na Gael.