Tag: Irish Republican Army
Martin Meehan verses CoCo McAuley – Crumlin Star Social Club – Ardoyne November 1996
Battle of Belfast 1996 1&2
Battle of the Ardoyne Giants
Both remembered with pride
With many thanks to: Eamon McAuley for the original posting on YouTube
Óglach Martin Meehan states the aims of the IRA
Follow this link to find out more: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2477861312299173&id=167239363361391
(2)-: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8p6lY3u6X8k&feature=share
With many thanks to: TheDave1916 for the original posting on YouTube and Saoirse na hÉireann for her very fine tribute to my late father GRMA mó chára
Óglach Brendan ‘The Dark’ Hughes remembered – born 16th October 1948 – Died 16th February 2008 RIP
“Welcome to my cell,” says ex-IRA prisoner, Brendan Hughes, as he opens the door of his tiny, threadbare flat on the Falls Road. “Sometimes, I’ve sat here crying for a week. I think of all my comrades’ suffering and I don’t even want to go out. You never really leave prison.”
Hughes killed and saw his friends die too. A former ‘officer commanding’ the Belfast Brigade, he’s a living legend among republicans. Small and swarthy with a mop of black hair, he was known as ‘the Dark’.
His bombs reduced the city to rubble; his gun battles with the British entered republican folklore; he spent 13 years in jail and 53 days on hunger-strike. His best friend was Gerry Adams. Hughes, 57, now lives on disability benefit in Divis Tower – the only part of the flats’ complex not bulldozed.
Over the past 35 years, around 15,000 republicans have been imprisoned on both sides of the Border. On release, those close to the Sinn Féin leadership usually fare best. A minority secure paid community jobs; the rest are employed in IRA owned or supporting bars and taxi-depots.
While some ex-prisoners start businesses independently, the IRA gives others businesses to run. But many former prisoners who – for personal or political reasons – are outside the loop, face greater difficulties.
Last week, an ex-IRA prisoner was one of three men charged in connection with the hijacking of a vodka lorry in Co Meath. Former security force members and prison officers received generous retirement and redundancy payments from the state. “We were decommissioned with nothing,” says Hughes. “IRA men and women, who gave everything to this struggle, got poverty, premature death, and mental problems in return.”
It’s the untold story of the Troubles, he claims: “People stay quiet out of loyalty to the movement.” Money never mattered to him, he says: “I was offered £50,000 to become an informer. I told them £50 million wouldn’t sway me. But it’s hard to see ex-prisoners destitute when the leadership are so wealthy and have holiday homes.”
Hughes mentions Kieran Nugent, the first IRA man on the Blanket protest in Long Kesh. “Kieran died in 2000. They called him a ‘river rat’ because he spent his last days drinking by the river in Poleglass.
“Why didn’t somebody in the movement not see he’d problems and help him? He was the bravest of the brave. The screws ordered him to wear the prison uniform and he replied, ‘You’ll have to nail it to my back.'”
Research suggests a third of prisoners suffer broken relationships. Hughes had a baby daughter and his wife was pregnant with their son when he was arrested. “My wife became involved with another man while I was in prison. The lads inside told me to give her a hard time.
“I called her to the jail and told her there was no problem – she was young and deserved a bit of happiness. She always said the war was my number one priority and she was right. I was selfish. I neglected my family. When I got out of jail, I went to her house and shook her partner’s hand.” Hughes is close to his grown-up daughter but has no relationship with his son.
He was released from prison without skills or qualifications. He began labouring. “A big west Belfast contractor paid us £20 a day. I tried to organise a strike but the other ex-POWs were so desperate, they wouldn’t agree. One of the bosses said ‘Brendan, we’ll give you £25 a day but don’t tell the others’.
“I told him to stick it up his arse, and I never went back. I wrote an article about it for ‘Republican News’ but it was heavily censored. People we’d fought for exploited us, and the movement let them.” Hughes never considered crime – “I’m not a thief” – but doesn’t blame those who do “so long as they target only big business”.
Prison left him with arthritis and weakened his immune system. He’s had pneumonia and heart problems, and suffers depression. “After jail, no-one mentioned counselling. I’d to arrange it myself. They say I’ve post-traumatic stress. The hunger-strikers’ faces are always before me.”
He speaks of dislocation after jail: “Everything was different. I went for a walk, just to be on my own. The old streets were gone and I got lost in the new streets. A man had to bring me home. Everything was noisy. I hate crowds. I only go to the pub in the afternoon when it’s quiet.”
Pictures of Che Guevara – laughing, smoking, drinking coffee – dot the living-room. “My brother is taking me to Cuba. The revolution improved ordinary people’s lives there. It was a waste of time here.”
Beneath a picture of the Sacred Heart, is a photo of two tanned, smiling young men in Long Kesh, arms around each other – Hughes and Adams. “I loved Gerry. I don’t anymore, but I keep the photos to remind me of the good times.”
Willie Gallagher from Strabane joined the Fianna at 13. Two years later he joined the IRA – “I lied about my age”. At 15, he was arrested with a gun. He spent 18 of his next 20 years in jail.
“I don’t feel I lost out because I’d no life to lose. I was the youngest in jail and my comrades spoilt me rotten. I remember digging a tunnel for an escape and thinking it a great adventure.” By now, Gallagher was with the INLA.
“At 20, he embarked on a 50-day hunger-strike after beatings by prison officers: “I lost my eyesight. It took me 18 months to recover. Then, I watched the 10 hunger-strikers die. Such brutality damaged me emotionally. I left jail at 25 and wasn’t interested in a normal life. I was full of bitterness. There was no point in killing Brits in ones and twos – I wanted to kill lots of them.
“I planted a no-warning bomb in a pub the security forces frequented. Then I went home, got washed and headed into town. Twenty people could have been killed and it wouldn’t have fizzed on me.” No-one died but 30 people were injured.
Gallagher went back to jail. His first marriage broke up when he was inside but he remarried within a year of his 1993 release. “My heart never hardened in my personal life, but my reputation means my wife’s friends think I’m aggressive. ‘Would Willie hit you?’ they ask.”
Compared to other prisoners, Gallagher, 48, is lucky. His wife owned her own home – they now have two children – and he secured a paid community job. It’s also harder for those whose don’t come from a republican family, “but my brothers were involved – two did 10 years – so I’d a lot of support.”
He runs a prisoners’ group, Teach na Failte. Funding has been suspended pending an official investigation amidst allegations of criminality which the group denies.
Gallagher has been arrested and questioned following a bank robbery in Strabane. The getaway car was bought under the name Robin Banks. “I wasn’t involved but if ex-prisoners were, good luck to them. I’ve no problem with cigarette or alcohol heists either. People who made enormous sacrifices in jail were left with nothing.
“I know one guy who was very fit and always training before he went into jail but he turned to drink and drugs on release and was found dead at 40. If former political prisoners’ records were expunged, they’d have far better employment opportunities and life wouldn’t be so hard for many.” Gallagher has no doubts about his own past: “It’s better to fight and lose than not to fight at all.”
Tommy McKearney from the Moy, Co Tyrone, served 16 years for a UDR man’s murder. One of his brothers was shot dead by the SAS, and another brother and an uncle were killed by loyalists while he was in jail.
“When I got out my father took me to see my brothers’ graves. But what struck me was the graves of the post-mistress and the baker. I couldn’t believe all the changes in our small community. The world had moved on without me. Many prisoners feel lost for so long.”
McKearney now runs Expac, a Monaghan-based group for ex-prisoners in Border areas. “There’s no ideal time to go to jail, but it’s probably best in your mid-20s. Jail stunts teenagers’ emotional development and prison is very hard in your 40s or 50s because you realise how little time is left.
“Serving more than four years affects people. They start to lose contact with the outside world and all but close relatives. After 10, they’re institutionalised. It’s like marathon runners ‘hitting the wall’. After a certain distance, the battle gets too much physically and psychologically.”
Ex-prisoners often feel their relatives are strangers and they left their real ‘family’ in jail. Those who were single when they went to jail, then “play catch-up” with children and mortgages in their 40s and 50s, McKearney says. “At retirement time, when life should be easing, they’re up to their necks in mortgages and debt.”
The situation has improved since the ceasefire, but ex-prisoners still face employment discrimination, he says. They’re officially barred from civil-service jobs and unofficially from many others. “How many become teachers or journalists?” McKearney asks. “I mightn’t reasonably expect to be able to join the gardai but I think I should be eligible for a job as local librarian.”
Even if ex-prisoners slip through the door, “it’s just like with women – there’s a glass ceiling”. Neither the Equality Authority nor the North’s Equality Commission recognise ex-prisoners as a vulnerable group, he says. “An employer can bin an ex-prisoner’s application form, admit it, and the law provides no protection.”
Low-paid jobs are no better: “A supermarket can draw up a list of 20 candidates for shelf-stackers and cashiers. Its head of security, an ex-Special Branch man, says ‘get rid of numbers one and seven’.”
The Special Branch also visit employers, demanding ex-prisoners are sacked, he says. “I was labouring and they ordered my boss to get rid of me. He told them to get lost, but 99% of employers wouldn’t be so principled.”
Still, it’s easier in Border areas than in parts of country where there’s hostility to republicanism and a smaller black/illegal economy. Ex-prisoners are usually barred from the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where many would like to begin new lives.
Anthony McIntyre, who served 18 years imprisonment, says: “I laugh when I hear about an ‘IRA pension plan’. The IRA offered me a Christmas loan and nothing else when I was released. I’d two kids and, I’m not ashamed to say, I had to shop-lift to feed and clothe them.”
Today, Brendan Hughes won’t attend any 1916 parade but he’ll privately pay tribute at the IRA Belfast Brigade monument. “I keep wondering ‘what it was all about?'” he says. “The doctors tell me not to drink but I do. It eases the pain, it doesn’t kill it.” A picture of the hunger-strikers hangs in Hughes’ hallway. ‘Soldiers of our past, heroes of our future’, it says. Somehow, it doesn’t seem that way.
Follow this link to find out more: https://goo.gl/images/cUYJAc
https://stairnaheireann.net/2017/02/16/2008-death-of-brendan-the-dark-hughes-aged-59/
With many thanks to: Antaine Mac Cathmhaoil for the original posting.
UK AMBASSADOR: “USING LIBYA’S FROZEN FUNDS IS NOT BRITISH GOVERNMENT INTENTION
The ambassador of the United Kingdom (UK) to Libya, Frank Baker has confirmed that only few MPs at the British House of Commons, mainly representing Northern Ireland, are the ones who spoke of using Libya’s frozen assets to compensate victims of the Irish Republican Army (IRA.)
This statement came as Baker met with the Head of the High Council of State (HCS) Khalid Al-Mishri in Tripoli where both officials reviewed the issue of the frozen funds among other talks, HCS media office reported.
“Those MPs are few and it is difficult for such a decision to pass at the House of Commons. The Gaddafi-backed IRA attacks’ victims were compensated before his death through the United States.” Baker said.
He added that the UK did not decide upon this matter and the rumors surrounding the UK’s stance of it are false, pointing out that such an issue could be resolved with the Presidential Council Head and Foreign Minister, away from the “media’s provocation.”
“We do reject using Libya’s frozen assets in that way and we do confirm that the case has been solved at the time of Gaddafi’s regime. The funds are for all Libyans and are frozen by a UN Security Council resolution.” Al-Mishri said.
He also reviewed the free economic zone in Sirte and was backed by Baker that such a project is very vital for both countries.
UK House of Commons was set to vote for allowing the government to use Libya’s frozen assets in Britain to compensate IRA victims.
With many thanks to: The Libya Observer and Abdulkader Assad for the origional posting.
‘UP THE IRA’ – Graffiti daubed on Sheffield postbox in support of terror group
Graffiti has been daubed on a Sheffield postbox in support of a terrorist group.
The message of ‘UP THE IRA’ – which stands for the Irish Republican Army – was spotted outside Upperthorpe Road post office, in Upperthorpe yesterday.
Irish Republican Army, also called the Provisional Irish Republican Army, is a republican paramilitary organisation seeking the establishment of a republic, the end of British rule in Northern Ireland, and the reunification of Ireland.
The group have been responsible for a number of bombings in the UK since the 1970s and have clashed with British armed forces and Loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland for several decades.
The IRA are on a Government list of proscribed groups linked to Northern Ireland related terrorism.
The graffiti comes a week after a sticker saying ‘Multiculturalism is Genocide’ was stuck on a lamppost in Convent Walk in Sheffield city centre.
The Star understands a request has been lodged for Sheffield Council to remove the graffiti.
With many thanks to: The Star for the origional story.
Remembering Lieut. Denis Carey, No1 Tipperary Brigade, Irish Republican Army, who was murdered by British Crown Forces, on the 26th November, 1920.
Denis Carey of Loughnane, Templederry was one of two brothers who worked in two shops in Nenagh; Denis worked at McCurtain’s (now Sheahan’s Hardware); his brother, Gerry, worked at McCormack’s. Denis would stay in Nenagh for the week, sleeping at McCurtains, and would return to his family home at weekends. He was a volunteer and was deeply involved in the republican court system.
On the 26th of November, 1920, the night of his murder, a group of three masked Black and Tan soldiers raided McCurtain’s around midnight; Denis and another worker, Jim Moore, were dragged from their rooms. As they were being marched outside, Moore stepped back and slammed the front door shut as a means of escape. He stumbled against a table and fell to the ground; this had the fortunate consequence of protecting him from shots fired through the letter-box. Shortly afterwards, he heard more shots. About an hour later, a man named Mike Geaney of Wolfe Tone Terrace arrived at the premises and said that Denis had been gravely wounded near his house. A priest and Dr. Louis Courtney were in attendence but Denis died later that day in Nenagh Infirmary. Theories about his killers abound: on posited that 2 named constables were responsible; another claimed that a man Denis had exiled as part of his republican court duties had returned as a Black and Tan and had exacted retribution. According to an account of the shooting, after Denis had been shot, one of the Blank and Tan soldier’s unmasked himself and asked “Do you know me now, Dinny?”. While Denis was being treated in hospital, family members and volunteers pleaded with him to name his attacker but he refused, saying “One death is enough”.
It is also noteworthy that this brother, Gerry, had resided in McCormack’s shop which had received a tip off about a raid on their premises that same night but had escaped it. Gerry was later wounded fighting with republicans in the Civil War.
With many thanks to: Clan na Gael
Remembering Volunteer John Starrs, 1st Battalion, Derry Brigade, Irish Republican Army, who was killed by British soldiers during operation in Chamberlain Street on May 13th 1972.
John Starrs was born in Hamilton Street in the Brandywell where he lived with his parents and brothers.
At the time, the 19 year-old was not living in Derry and was a member of the Irish army. In fact the Brandywell man was a trained marksman.
When he heard about what happened in Derry on Bloody Sunday, John decided to return to Derry and join the Republican Movement and became a member of ‘B’ company of the 1st Battalion of the IRA’s Derry brigade.
His military training was quickly utilised by the IRA in Derry and he was soon on ‘active service’ on the streets of the city.
When he was killed, John was part of a four-man unit operating on the edge of the Bogside looking for British soldiers.
The group were ‘floating’ – an IRA term for volunteers travelling around looking for targets – and were armed with two .303 bolt action rifles, a Garrand rifle, and a sterling sub-machine gun.
They decided to spilt up and John and another volunteer, Gerry Doherty, went to Chamberlain Street. The pair were preparing their weapons close to the junction of Chamberlain Street and William Street when British soldiers, who were hiding on the top floor of a nearby building, opened fire on them.
John was hit in the chest while Gerry was shot in the arm. Despite the hail of bullets, passers-by intervened and dragged Gerry to safety but John was already dead. The civilians who came to their aid also managed to recover their weapons and get them out of the area.
Rioting broke out in the area shortly after the shooting and the building from which the soldiers opened fire from set on fire by the crowd.
The Derry Command of the Provisional IRA released a statement after the shooting describing the 19 year -old as “a very fine volunteer”.
“We hope that his death will inspire the people of Free Derry to continue the fight for Irish freedom and help to realise the dreams of the dead youth,” the IRA said.
The statement also quoted the words of Patrick Pearse; “They shall be spoken of among our people and generations shall remember them and call them blessed.”
With many thanks to: Clan na Gael.
Never forget the “Evil and Hatred of the ‘Black and Tans’ to anything that was Irish !!!
“When the Black and Tans behaved in such an excited and unsoldierly way by endangering my daughter’s life when she was playing in St Stephen’s Green, I resolved to give all the help in my power to the resistance movement headed by Michael Collins. … I also gave Batt O’Connor a latch key of my house, 15 Ely Place, and prepared that apparently impassable cul de sac so that Collins, if hard pressed, could use my garden and appear in St Stephen’s Green.”
– The War of Independence, 1919-1921: Oliver St John Gogarty, Dublin.
With many thanks to: Life And Times of The “big Fella”.
Submission to the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižniks, concerning the shooting dead of sisters Dorothy Maguire & Maura Meehan by British Soldiers, October 23rd 1971, West Belfast.
A follow-up to a previous story concerning the murder of Maura Meehan and her sister who were murdered by the British Army:
With many thanks to: Geard Meehan, Meehan and Maguire family’s, https://www.facebook.com/groups/174928556038780/.
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