Specific Incidents of the 1867 Fenian Rising.
The Battle of Tallaght



Though this particular engagement is not deserving of the title "Battle" that is how it is remembered. The image above was the scene of the engagement known as the Battle of Tallaght which occurred during the Fenian rising on 5th March 1867. Thanks to a well-developed network of informers, the British establishment knew very well the plans for that date and still allowed the men to collect their arms and come together with rebellion in their hearts.

They rebels moved out that night to a spot on Tallaght Hill previously assigned. The large number of armed men heading toward this one point from all over the area alarmed certain "loyal" elements within the area and local barracks were alerted of this happening.

There were 14 constables and a head constable under Inspector Burke at Tallaght Police Barracks, and these men took up positions outside their barracks (above) from which they commanded the roads from both Greenhills and Templeogue.

The first contingent of Fenians (numbering about 40) to come into contact with the police came under immediate and heavy fire. They were quick to retreat dragging with them a wounded comrade who was bayoneted by a constable after the Fenian made an attempt to strike him with a sword. They left behind a cart of cartridges and other ammunition supplies.

The second probing attack by the Fenians was comprised of nearly 500 men. They approached the barricaded police and came within 20 metres of the fortified spot before they were driven back by a hail of bullets from the peelers. Inspector Burke called on them to surrender "in the name of the Queen"; and said that there were a large number of police with him behind the barricades. The Fenians halted and hesitated. They fired a few potshots at the barracks and then the whole lot of them ran away down the same road from which they approached. Again, around half-twelve, a similarly sized number of Fenians approached the barracks. Once again, upon being ordered to surrender by Burke, they turned and fled.

Finally, a contingent of Fenians numbering around 1,000marched with military precision toward the police position. Again they were told to surrender or they would be fired upon. On hearing this, the rebels opened fire on the peelers. Not a single shot hit its target and the police returned fire; wounding several Fenians. The Fenians fled, many leaving their weapons behind. The police picked up numerous arms, consisting of rifles, bayonets, pikes, and daggers, as well as a large amount of ammunition.

In 1963, almost a hundred years after the "battle", a skeleton was found in a hollowed out tree near the badminton club in Terenure armed with a sword. This man must have taken refuge in the tree after one of the number of retreats during that night. He could have died from wounds, or the exposure to the terrible blizzard and temperatures that blustery March night.

This is the shameful story of how 14 peelers defeated an estimated 5,000 armed Fenians. The leadership that was expected on Tallaght Hill that night never showed to lead the battle. The men, like headless chickens, ran about in disarray, inflicting NO casualties and never taking the police barracks.  ¶ 7:34 AM

  The Fenian Uprising - 1867

The arrests and convictions of the key Fenian leaders threw American and Irish IRB circles into chaos. In America, John O'Mahoney was deposed from his position as leader of the US Fenians and a split in the organisation occurred gradually. The majority of the American Fenians fell under inexperienced and unwise leadership and wasted their resources on a pointless and badly timed invasions of Canada.

James Stephens remained in Ireland until John Devoy was captured. This event signalled to Stephens that it was a prime time to flee. He landed in America in March of 1866 and made an attempt to heal the rift in Fenian Brotherhood abroad. He promised action by the end of the year and when nothing happened, the split re-ensued.

The date for the looming Rising was fixed for Februrary 11th, 1867, but as this date approached leadership decided to push it further to March 5th. Two large contingents of armed Fenians failed to received this second notice and attacked on the 11th of February. In Kerry, Fenians captured police barracks and a coast guard station. They found transmissions of intercepted telegraph messages setting the rising date on the 5th. The men were then ordered to disperse back to their homes. In the North of England, near Chester, John McCafferty led a sizable number of Fenians to launch a surprise attack on a large arms store in Chester Castle. If it were not for a last-minute informer, this attack would have been brutally effective; instead it was shamefully abortive.

These events mixed with other informers and blunders doomed the rising planned for March 5th to failure. The British forces were on full alert and the weather was not on the Rebels side as a blizzard set in. Many men turned out for the rising (many thousands across the island and in England), but were forced to turn back home because they were not prepared to face the weather. A large amount of these men were arrested as they made their way home and remanded without charge or trial.

The failure was sealed when General Massey of the Fenians was captured at Limerick Junction, after an informer supplied the British Army with information about the Rising. Massey too spilled his guts about everything he knew, and the day was lost.

*Soon: Tallaght, Manchester, Clerkenwell, and the aftermath of revolt.

Rising in Limerick
Rising in Cork
Rising in Kilbaha
  ¶ 3:08 PM

  Excerpts from the speeches from the dock of the Fenian leaders Luby, and O'Leary.

Thomas Clarke Luby upon hearing his sentence of 20 years of penal servitude:

"Well my lords and gentlemen, I don't think any person present here is surprised at the verdict found against me. I have been prepared for this verdict ever since I was arrested, although I thought it my duty to fight the British government inch by inch.
. . .I know, that no man ever loved Ireland more than I have done - no man has ever given up his whole being to Ireland to the extent that I have done. From the time I came to what has been called the years of discretion, my entire thought has been devoted to Ireland. I believe the course I pursued was right; others may take a different view."

Luby continues in saying:
"I believe the majority of my countrymen this minute, if, instead of my being tried before a petty jury, who, I suppose, are bound to find according to British law - if my guilt or innocence was to be tried by the higher standard of eternal right, and the case was put to all my countrymen - I believe this moment the majority of my countrymen would pronounce that I am not a criminal, but that I have deserved well of my country. When the proceedings of this trial go forth into the world, people will say the cause of Ireland is not to be despaired of, that Ireland is not yet a lost country - that as long as there are men in any country prepared to expose themselves to every difficulty and danger, in its service, prepared to brave captivity, even death itself, if need be, that country cannot be lost. With these words, I conclude."

Next in the dock was John O'Leary. He continued to build and expand on what Luby said earlier:
"I have been found guilty of treason, or of treason-felony. Treason is a foul crime. The poet Dante consigned traitors to, I believe, the ninth circle of hell; but what kind of traitors? Traitors against king, against country, against friends and benefactors. Engliand is not my country; I have betrayed no friend, no benefactor. Sidney and Emmet were legal traitors, Jeffreys was a loyal man, and so was Norbury. I leave the matter there."

  ¶ 9:48 PM

  Continued from yesterday. . .


When the Civil War ended in the United States in April of 1865, 200,000 battle-hardened men were now free to participate as members of the Fenian movement. The bulk of that number had been sworn in during the course of the War between the States, but with the end of the conflict, many more decided to join.

Those involved within the British and American armies waitied for "the word" from Stephens to initiate rebellion. But the Fenian leader held back. The general consensus amongst historians as to the reason why is that the Fenian leaders had not formulated a real military plan.

Shortly after the end of the Civil War, British "authorities" in Ireland made a number of swoops on Fenian "hotspots," including the headquarters of the Irish People. James Stephens, Thomas Clarke Luby, and O'Donovan Rossa were apprehended in these arrests. Stephens, the leader of the group, made a daring escape not long after being incarcerated in Richmond Prison, Dublin.

It was not long before the word got out about Stephens' escape and its details. Apparently, John Devoy, the leader of the Fenians within the British army informed two prison warders who happened to be Fenian supporters of the situation. Stephens was whisked away to a safe house in the country.

While Stephens was away from Dublin, Devoy attempted to make a move towards violence that many believe would have been very effective. TA Jackson's Ireland Her Own seems to believe that any sizable uprising at that point in time would have secured a large a part of the island saying: "There is a weighty reason for believing that if John Devoy's advice had been taken, the result would have been to secure for Ireland as much as was secured by the Treaty of 1921, without Partition".

The trials of the remaining incarcerated Fenian leaders (Kickham, Rossa, O'Leary, Luby) caused great uproar throughout the country when renowned (and widely hated) conservative Catholic judge William Keogh was appointed to try their cases. Called "the solo-trombone in the Pope's brass band," his appointment meant a completely unfair trial for those accused.

Their counsel, Isaac Butt, presented a case full of love of country and culture. He said the men desired greatly to see Ireland an independent state from Britain and they viewed armed uprising as the only means of attaining this objective.

*Tomorrow's bit will include excerpts from some of the prisoners speeches from the dock.   ¶ 9:34 PM

  *note: this is not finished. I was invited out while I was typing it and published it on the spot. I apologise, and I will finish it tomorrow once I wake up feeling awful. Slan anois.

The American Civil War and the rise of the Fenian Brotherhood

The Civil war between the Union and the Confederacy gave many Irish immigrants the opportunity to become familar with various arms and battle tactics. On each side of the Mason-Dixon line, there were brave Irish Brigades, though the New York "fighting" 69th with its 2nd (Irish) Brigade was by far the more famous. These brave men were led by 1848 Young Irelander, Thomas Francis Meagher.

Fenian leaders John O'Mahoney and James Stephens took a pragmatic stance on the Civil War. They understood the large number of Irish immigrants across the Atlantic and instructed Fenian supporters in America to encourage men to join the Northerners. They even began to encourage young nationalist-minded to join the British Army in order to learn arms and war tactics for later use against the oppressive Crown.

With Britain supporting the South's attempt at independence, the Fenian leaders took the usual stance of "Britain's enemy is Ireland's ally".

Following the Union victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg in 1863, the Fenians in Ireland decided it was time to open a political forum in the form of a rebel journal; the Irish People. The major figures behind this revolutionary media were Thomas Clarke Luby and John O'Leary with regular contribution by Finton Lalor and Charles Joseph Kickham. Later, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa would join the staff as the business manager and was in charge of the journal's circulation.

The Irish People fought a fierce battle against less political and more constitutionalist periodicals that had the backing of priests and the middle class. Due to the great power the Church held over the common citizen of Ireland, the People was forced to build its support chain in the "underground".  ¶ 11:28 PM

  Historical Summary Account - The Funeral of '48 Rebel TB MacManus

Terence Bellew MacManus was born to a traditional Fermanagh family who immigrated from Ireland to Liverpool. He would return to Ireland in 1843 to join the Repeal Association and the Young Irelander Party. During the Young Irelanders' short uprising in 1848, MacManus joined Smith O'Brien and John Blake Dillon at Ballingarry, County Tipperary, where the only sustained combat took place. For his part in the Rising, he was sent to the British penal colony of Tasmania. Within two years of his arrival, he had his escape planned. He and a few comrades, including a future American Civil War hero, Thomas Francis Meagher escaped via a ship headed for the coast of California. Upon arriving in San Francisco, he settled in the large Irish community and lived out his days.

When MacManus died towards the end of November of 1860, the Irish community of San Fran, who had grown to respect and love this man, funded his trip back to the land he loved most: Ireland. His extended funeral procession was the most effective fundraising means imaginable at that time. Any town with a sizable Irish population demanded the funeral pass thru on its way to Boston.

These stops along the train tracks and dusty roads of rural America fed the Fenian Brotherhood and Clann na Gael with both funds and fresh recruits. The demand to hold memorials for this man in every town along the way was so great that it took nearly 10 months for his coffin to reach Boston harbour.

Arrangements for further processions once the body reached Ireland were made. The Church made a failed attempt to stop these memorials from happening, but the Fenian show of strength and support in Cork City was breathtaking and quashed any hope of shutting them down. Nearly the entire population of the city and surrounding areas showed up to be a part of this man's funeral procession.

The coffin then traveled north to Dublin, where the major procession had been planned. On November 10th, 1861, an estimated 200,000 people showed up for the final trip of the Young Irelander. 50,000 men marched in military formation while a greater number lined the streets. Included along the way were numerous stops to tell the tales of hallowed spots of great fallen Irishmen. These included the church in front of which Emmet was hanged, the house where Tone's body was prepared before its burial, and the house where Lord Edward Fitzgerald was shot.

The church again tried to quell this open spurning of its authority and refused to allow the body to rest in any church or to give the dead man any funeral rites. But Father Patrick Lavelle, a previously secretive Fenian, defied Archbishop Cullen and openly performed the funeral ceremony. It was dark by the time MacManus' coffin was laid in the ground in Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery.

This funeral helped to cement in the minds of many the true case for Irish independence from Britain. It also helped to expose the large amount of support at home and abroad for the cause of Irish nationalism. It was very much akin to the funeral of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa.


The quote below taken from The Wild Geese website:

"I think it no exaggeration to say that the funeral seems to me to be something in its kind unparalleled, or, at least, only to be compared with the second burial of the great Napoleon. But, in the last-named pageant, the power and resources of a great nation were called into action, while the MacManus funeral was the unaided effort of a populace trampled on or expatriated."

-Fenian Thomas Clarke Luby

  ¶ 5:41 AM

  From the letters of John Mitchel

1. "In plain English, my Lord Earl, the deep and irreconcilable disaffection of this people to all British laws, lawgivers, and law administrators shall find a voice. That holy hatred of foreign dominion which nerved our noble predecessors fifty years ago for the dungeon, the field or the gallows (though of late years it has worn a vile nisi prius gown, and snivelled somewhat in courts of law and on spouting platforms) still lives, thank GOD! and glows as fierce and as hot as ever. To educated that holy hatred, to make it know itself and avow itself and at last fill itself full, I hereby devote the columns of the United Irishman."

2. "I will not believe that Irishmen are so degraded and utterly lost as this. The earth is awakening from sleep: a flash of electric fire is passing thru the dumb millions. Democracy is girding himself once more like a strong man to run a race; and slumbering nations are arising in their might, and 'shaking their invincible locks.' Oh! My countrymen, look up, look up! Arise from the death-dust where you have long been lying, and let this light visit your eyes also, and touch your souls. Let your ears drink in the blessed words, 'Liberty! Fraternity! Equality!' which are soon to ring from pole to pole! Clear steel will, ere long, dawn upon you in your desolate darkness; and the rolling thunder of the people's cannon will drive before it many a heavy cloud that has long hidden from you the face of heaven. Pray for that day; and preserve life and health, that you may worthily meet it. Above all, let the man amongst you who has no gun sell his garment and buy one."

3. "For me, I abide my fate joyfully; for I know that, whatever betide me, my work is nearly done. Yes: Moral Force and 'Patience and Perseverance' are scattered to the wild winds of heaven. The music my countrymen now love best to hear is the rattle of arms, and the ring of the rifle. As I sit here and write in my lonely cell, I hear, just dying away, the measured tramp of ten thousands marching men - my gallant confederates, unarmed and silent, but with hearts like bended bow, waiting til the time comes. They have marches past my prison windows, to let me know there are ten thousands fighting men in Dublin - 'felons' in heart and soul.

I thank God for it. The game is afoot at last. The liberty of Ireland may come sooner or later - but it is sure; and wherever between the poles I may chance to be, I will heart the crash of the downfall of the thrice-accursed British Empire."

4. "Neither the jury, nor the judges, nor any other man in this court presumes to imagine that it is a criminal who stands in this dock.

I have sown what the law is made of in Ireland. I have shown that, her Majesty's government sustains itself in Ireland by packed juries, by partisan judges and by perjured sheriffs."

5. "I have acted all thru this business, from the first, under a strong sense of duty. I do not repent anything that I have done, and I believe that the course which I have opened is only commenced. The Roman who saw his land burning to ashes before the tyrant, promised that three hundred should follow out his enterprise. Can I not promise for one, for two, for three, aye for hundreds?"  ¶ 10:41 PM

  Republican Immigrants Face US Injustice System

Recently a slew of former Republican activists have faced the wrath of a country that was in part built upon the backs of Irishmen and women. After a period of calm following the signing of the GFA, the persecution of Irish Republican ex-pats in America has resumed with renewed fervor.

These are men who are wanted by loyalist murder squads in their own country and fled to an apparent safe-haven in the US. They raised or continued to raise their families until the Bush Administration swooped into power. They have since been exploited and subjected to injustice at the hands of the United State's immigration services.

In November of 2003, after living for almost a decade as a residents of New Jersey, former member of the INLA Malachy McAllister and his family were denied an appeal against their deportation from the United States.

That same month, Ciaran Ferry's asylum appeal was denied. Ferry, a former member of the Provisional IRA, has been living in the US for a number of years with his wife Heaven. He was released from Long Kesh as a part of the Good Friday Agreement. A site detailing his persecution and status can be found here.

John Eddie McNicholl, a former member of the INLA was deported from the US in the summer of 2003. McNicholl, according to a statement made by the Department of Homeland Security Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement was a member of the "Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), a terrorist organization in Northern Ireland". Truth is that the INLA has NEVER appeared on the United States' list of recognised terrorist groups. This is a violation of mandates of Congress regarding the procedure of identifying a "terrorist."

The hypocrisy of the current US Administration is sickening. It's stranglehold on Irish nationalists within the American Irish communities is ever-strengthening. Fears of being labeled a terrorism supporter keep people sitting back while people are unjustly ousted from a country that was founded with ideals of justice and freedom as its building blocks.

The US/UK Extradition Treaty is just another stake in the heart of democracy and a huge threat to Irish Republicans living in America. Do not let this "Treaty" be silently enforced.

SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE FASCISM  ¶ 4:51 AM

  Desecration of Milltown Republican plot.

Last night numerous headstones and memorials of high profiles Republicans were desecrated in Milltown Cemetery, Belfast. Memorials included in this DESPICABLE act of cowardice were those of recently deceased Gerry Adams Sr, hungerstrikerBobby Sands as well as Gibraltar shoot-to-kill victims: Mairead Farrell, Sean Savage and Daniel McCann.

This is not the first time that these gutless bastards have vandalised the Republican plot at Milltown. As recently as 3 years ago, in late 2000, twenty headstones were damaged in another chicken-shit attack.

In this attack sixteen separate memorials have been destroyed and a pipe bomb was left behind. This device was found during the clean up earlier today. Provisional Sinn Fein are blaming loyalists for the attack.

Estimated damage is soaring towards the 15,000stg mark.

As is usually the case, the RUC/PSNI will most likely make their promises about catching those responsible and then no results will ever be seen.

PSF Statement  ¶ 9:05 PM

  Here are a few very good posts that were made yesterday by a member of the IRBB.

Mental Toll of Revolution
Irish Women and Revolution
  ¶ 9:01 PM

  Ireland Her Own
- Fintan Lalor

Ireland her own, and all therein, from the sod to the sky. The soil of Ireland for the people of Ireland, to have and hold from God alone who gave it — to have and to hold to them and to their heirs forever, without suit or service, faith or fealty, rent or render, to any power under Heaven. Not to disturb or dismantle the Empire, but to abolish it utterly forever — not to fall back on '82, but to act up to '48 — not to resume or restore an old constitution, but to found a new nation and raise up a free people, and strong as well as free, and secure as well as strong, based on a peasantry rooted like rocks in the soil of the land — this is my object, as I hope it is yours; and this, you may be assured, is the easier as it is the nobler and more pressing enterprise.
  ¶ 8:17 PM

  The following is an excerpt from Ireland Her Own authored by TA Jackson in 1947. Jackson essentially builds upon and expands Connolly's Labour In Irish History.


To End Partition

Englishmen, during the war, paid in added peril from the crimes committed in Ireland by the rulers of England (and Ireland) for nearly 800 years. But for that evil legacy - for which every honourable Englishmen recognises the obligation to make reparation - we could have counted on the invaluable aid a free and united Ireland could give. We must pay our debt - if only to earn, thereby, the right to applaud, as fellow fighters from Freedom, the men whose deeds and struggles are recorded in this book.

Partition - a crime and an insult in one - was imposed from England. In England, the work of undoing Partition must be, and will be, begun.

Partition was imposed by the rulers of England to serve their class ends. The common people of England, impelled by their class deeds, must struggle to end Partition as a part of the process of winning their own emancipation.

Partition has established vested interests, on either side of its dividing line. It is reinforced on either side by a mass of inculcated prejudices. Because of that it is not possible to end Partition in a merely formal fashion by a simple repeal of the laws which instituted "Northern Ireland". It must be ended by the common agreement of all parties concerned - THE COMMON PEOPLE in the Six Counties, the Twenty-Six and in England.

The English democracy has the duty, as well as the privilege, of so cultivating the friendship of the common people on either side of the Boundary that this concrete embodiment of an evil past will fall before the combined assault of the three democracies operating in concert.

In this effort we can, and will, realise the prophecy of James Connolly:
"In our movement North and South will again clasp hands, and again it will be demonstrated, as in '98, that the pressure of a common exploitation will make enthusiastic rebels out of a Protestant working-class, enthusiastic champions of civil and religious liberty out of Catholics, and out of both a united Socialist democracy."

And we can make Patrick Pearse's words also come true:
"Let no man be mistaken as to who will be Lord in Ireland, when Ireland is free. The People will be Lord and Master."
  ¶ 4:14 AM

  The following is an excerpt from Ireland Her Own authored by TA Jackson in 1947. Jackson essentially builds upon and expands Connolly's Labour In Irish History.

The Evil of Partition

That Partition is an evil - that it was inflicted upon Ireland expressly to twart the national aspirations of the Irish people - we have in this book abundantly prove. Forced to abandon the Act of Union - and "Protestant Ascendancy" - the ruling class of England retorted by re-establishing the Pale in a new geographical location.

The excuse for Partition was the pretence that the "Protestants" of N.E. Ulster might be penalised and discriminated against by a Catholic majority. That this was a pure pretence is proved by the abandonment to the Catholic majority of the Twenty-Six Counties of a 6 per cent Protestant minority; and by the enforced inclusion in "Northern Ireland" of a 33 per cent Catholic minority which has been insultingly and injuriously discriminated against ever since.

There are many things in the constitution and practice of "Eire" which deserve drastic condemnation from the standpoint of (say) James Connolly, Patrick Pearse, or Theobald Wolfe Tone. But they are matched and surpassed at their worst by the gerrymandered representation and the all-but Fascist adminstration of "Northern Ireland".

Even if this were not so, the war-situation and its outcome shows how very much the enemies of the people of England and of their true interests have been those ruling classes who, the better to be able to exploit the people, have for nearly eight centuries sought to destroy Irish Nationality and to hold Ireland in permanent subjection, directly or indirectly.

On the ground that the English workers can never be free while they consent to the holding of the Irish people in subjection, it is our case that Partition must be ended to make possible free and fraternal co-operation between England and Ireland.

A free Ireland would have taken its rightful place in the Liberation War of Humanity as a matter of course. A partitioned and insulted Ireland was morally forced to occupy the less honourable, but necessitated, position of neutral.


**Tomorrow will include a section entitled "To End Partition" from the same text.
  ¶ 2:01 AM

  Na Fianna Eireann Attacked in the Evening Herald.

The Republican Youth Movement, Na Fianna Eireann were libelled earlier this week by the Free State gutter paper, the Evening Herald (the evening release of the Irish Independent). Scans of this trash article in its entirety can be viewed here.

A statement made on this topic on Newstalk radio by the NFE PRO can be read here.

A Saoirse news release on this topic can be found here

Letters commenting on this article can be sent to this address: herald.letters@unison.independent.ie
or
Phoned into: Free phone 1-800 733 733 (Monday To Friday)

Don't let this typical garbage press carry on attempting to discredit a respectable and hardworking organisation!  ¶ 3:22 AM

  (PART TWO)
After re-reading portions of "Killing Rage" by Eamon Collins, I have a bit of commentary on certain interactions and points from the text.

The book is a biography of a Newry area IRA operator and eventual member of the greatly feared Nutting Squad who becomes a supergrass. He would later be killed in a breach of the Provos ceasefire (aka SURRENDER) in January of 1999. It gives information on many operations and known figures within the Provisional movement.

The parts I wish to discuss and paraphrase today are those dealing with the alleged "Stakeknife" of the Provisionals. As a member of the Nutting Squad for the border area, Collins had a great deal of contact with Freddie Scappaticci and therefore gives a decent, though vague, character assessment of the man.

He is displayed as a brutal and ruthless killer who takes some amount of joy from seeing people die at his hands. The two short pieces of dialogue I am going to take from Collins' book are in reference to an alleged informer that was court-martialled in abstentia and executed by Scap.

Scap told him to keep his blindfold on for security reasons (i.e. he didn't want him to know the car he was riding in and also the direction from which they came).

"It was funny watching the bastard stumbling and falling, asking me as he felt his way along the railings and walls 'Is this my house' and I'd say, 'No not yet, walk on some more....'"

Then Scap's superior officer and head of the Nutting Squad, John Joe Magee threw in his memories of the occurrence saying "and then you shot the fucker in the he back of the head." They both had a good laugh at the reminiscing and at the touts expense.

The Nutting Squad is a grim necessity of a revolutionary group at war with a empire with almost endless intelligence resources. Also, I don't really have a big problem with the execution of touts, but to express extreme glee at the sight of a pathetically helpless person is just completely sickness.

Even at this stage of the game, Collins and other members of the security squad suspected a tout within their ranks, as operation after operation was spoiled. The text never came to a conclusion as to who should be suspect, so Scap was keeping a low profile with his touting. Collins seems to respect his ruthlessness as a necessary evil in an organisation such as the IRA and I very much doubt that he believed Scap to be the tout.

Sooner or later, the books will be written on the Stakeknife issue and some amount of truth will be known. Just recently, it was exposed that the real Stakeknife's voice as heard on security recording will be released to the public in the near future. On that day, things may clear up a bit. People who knew and know Scap personally will know the truth of the collusion claims.

  ¶ 9:26 PM

  After re-reading portions of "Killing Rage" by Eamon Collins, I have a bit of commentary on certain interactions and points from the text.The book is a biography of an IRA operator and member of the greatly feared Nutting Squad who eventually becomes a tout from the Newry area. He would later be killed in a breach of the Provos ceasefire (aka SURRENDER) in January of 1999. It gives information on many operations and known figures within the Provisional movement.

One of the most outstanding parts in the books is Collins' recollection of an encounter at a funeral with Gerry Adams in which he essentially calls Adams a Stick. Adams was attempting to quell a confrontation between a group of mourners and the RUC.

The nationalists were stamping their feet in protest to the RUC's prescence at the IRA Volunteer's funeral and Francie Molloy (now head of PSF's Tyrone office) was trying to get them to stop. Collins was egging the crowd on; telling them to ignore the PSF councillor's plea.

"Stop, stop" Molloy said. "This is not helping our cause."
Collins was disgusted with this attempt to hinder the natural feelings of disgust being displayed by these people in mourning. He told them "don't listen to him. Bang your feet if you want. Don't listen to him. Show the RUC you're not afraid. Show solidarity with the dead Volunteer!"

Molloy ran like a little child to tattle-tale on Collins. Adams, who had already stopped a few of these disturbances during the day, moved in quickly to talk his sort of sense to the people. They eventually stopped at the beckon of this man, who's position demanded a sort of respect amongst nationalist people.

When asked how the funeral "went," Adams said "No, it went quiet will. Nos erious incident, apart fromt his man here."

Collins asked him "What incident was that?"

Gerry replied "the incident when you encouraged the crowd to stomp their feet after they had been asked to stop."

"There was nothing wrong with that," Collins shot back, "They were showing their support for a dead volunteer."

Adams shook his head "To me it smacks of militarism and fascism. I -"

Collins cut him off and thru clenched teeth said "That's like something the Sticks would come out with."

It had been said before and has been said many times since then, but that is just about the worst insult you could have said to the Provisional president. Adams is often criticised because of his rejection of the military operations that thrust him into the political arena in the first place. No matter what the man says, it was not his involvement in anti-internment and civil rights protests that gave him recognition; it was the fact that he was the head of the Belfast leadership of the Provos from after the Sunningdale Agreement(perhaps before) that gave him his noteriety and his rise thru the ranks of both Sinn Fein and the PIRA. His constant denial of his PIRA involvement and status within that organisation has just become an old and boring dance.

**Tomorrow, I'll go thru Collins involvement with Scap and the Nutting Squad.  ¶ 8:47 PM

  Here are a few quotes relating to my recent hungerstrike articles:


Among the best traitors Ireland has ever had, Mother Church ranks at the very top; a massive obstacle in the path to equality and freedom.
-Bernadette Devlin McAliskey

In a physical contest on the field of battle it is allowable to use tactis and strategy, to retreat as well as advance, to have recourse to a ruse as well as open attack; but in matters of principle there can be no tactics, there is one straight forward course to follow and that course must be found and followed without swerving to the end.
-Terence MacSwiney, 1920

If our last bullet had been fired, our last shilling spent & our last man were lying on the ground with his enemies howling round him with the bayonets raised ready to plunge into his body, that man should say – true to the tradition handed down – if they say to him “Now, will you come into our Empire” – he should and he would say “No, I will not.”
-Cathal Brugha, 1921

You have got your pound of flesh, now give us our rights, Do not for one minutes think that we will allow you to rob us of our principles. There are more Bobby Sands in these Blocks and we will continue to die if need be to safeguard these principles.
-Republican Prisoners in Long Kesh, May 7th, 1981

Let the fight go on.
-INLA Vol. Patsy O'Hara  ¶ 1:07 AM

  The aftermath of the 1981 Hungerstrike: An article of some sort of closure.

Having exhausted all means of protest, the brave men suffering in the H-Blocks called an end to the second Long Kesh strike in as many years. On the 3rd of October, the prisoner spokespersons released a statement stating an end to the death and mourning.

The many reasons cited in this statement and elsewhere include Church deception in trying to push the strikers' families into breaking the Volunteers' wishes not to be brought off strike. They attempted to guilt the loved ones into believing the mens' souls would be damned to hell for their stand. It is typical of the treachery of the Catholic Church in Irish history.

After this deception, it was apparent that many of the men still on strike following the death of Micky Devine would be pulled off in light of any immediate danger to their lives. With this in mind, it was decided by the prisoners' that the strike was at a point where it would be pointless to carry on.

Their statement had been made with the murder of the ten Volunteers between May 5th and August 20th by the indifference and ignorance of the Conservative British government. Another thing that spoke loudly for the prisoners' cause was the large number of votes received by prisoners in elections both in the Six Counties and in the Free State.

Paddy Agnew topped the poll in Louth, Bobby Sands was elected as MP for the Fermanagh/Tyrone constituency, and Kieran Doherty was elected for the Cavan/Monaghan constituency. First preference votes received by prisoners and prisoner representatives were as follows: Kieran Doherty polled first preference 9,121 (15%); Paddy Agnew, Louth, 8,368 (18%); Joe McDonnell, Sligo/Leitrim, 5,634; Martin Hurson, Longford/Westmeath, 4,573 (10%); Sean McKenna (1980 hungerstriker), Kerry North, 3,860; Kevin Lynch, Waterford, 3,337; Tony O'Hara (Patsy's brother), Dublin West, 3,034; Mairead Farrell (later killed on Gibraltar), Cork North Central, 2,751 and Tom McAllister, Clare, 2,120. Also, later Owen Carson, a prisoner representative, won the Westminster by-election to replace the murdered Bobby Sands in Fermanagh/Tyrone.

The determination of the prisoners to see their cause through until their last breath captivated the people of Ireland. This was shown both by the above mentioned election results and also by the strength of the pan-nationalist front forged by the H-Block/Armagh Committees. Such unification was not seen since internment and the civil rights marches.

After 217 days of hunger striking between the two protests, the blanketmen called off their death fast. Many Volunteers were still in the ready to take their place, but with no indication that the demands would be met, the prisoners and the movement as a whole felt that more dead Volunteers would accomplish very little.

In a purposely late move by the Hell-Bitch Thatcher's government, political status was granted. It was granted at a time when the negative publicity would have been at a lull for the British. The concession that 10 men died and thousands suffered for was nothing more than a black eye for Thatcher's Conservatives. The Brits played the hardline and watched good men die only later to give the remaining brave men what they had long fought for.

All historically minded people need to remember the facts of this tragic event. It was the turning point that the new Belfast-based leadership of the Provos was waiting for. They began to shift Sinn Fein to a more nationalist and less republican position. They entered candidates into the 1982 Assembly elections and pulled more than 10% of first preference vote. But this was not was those men died for. They died to see Ireland free of British tampering.

By running Provisional SF members in the Six County statelet's elections, the Adams' leadership of the Provos were doing nothing more than reinforcing the illegal border that hundreds of men died to abolish. It needs to be known that the Provos are not a Republican party. They are still on a shift that will ultimately see them joining the ranks of Parnell's Irish Party and Fianna Fail. They are replacing the Stoops as the constitutional nationalist party of the Six Counties.   ¶ 11:31 PM

  "This war is to the end. There will be no interval where we put away our guns, Britain will be out of Ireland and an Irish democracy will be established in the 32 counties with a national government."

- from the PIRA New Year Message 1984

There are many of us still waiting for this dream. It isn't looking like the Provos are helping it much. All they are doing is reinforcing the concept of an illegal border and a military occupation by the "perennial oppressor" mother Britain. Provisional Sinn Fein are betraying the memories of many good men on that Roll of Honour they like to espouse.

The are giving up weapons that are not theirs to relinquish. The arms dumps that they are turning over to the enemy are property of the Irish people; a contingency the Provos no longer represent.

I hope that some day in the future, some of those mesmerised by the power of the Provos will wake up and realise the path of treachery that the new Fianna Fail has undertaken.   ¶ 7:53 PM

  INLA Volunteer Micky Devine

Michael Devine was born May 26th, 1954 on the former American army base, Springfield Camp, outside of Derry City. Unlike his comrades on hungerstrike, Micky did not come from a typically extended family. His father died when he was only 11 years old and his mother when he was a teenager. He grew up fast and fiercely nationalist.

Springfield Camp showed the true side of housing available to poor Catholics in the Derry area. It was meant only for short term living but this soon became extended indefinitely. It was actually into Micky's sixth year that the family finally moved to the newly built Creggan ghetto.

Micky took part in the original Derry riots in 1968 and there he developed his hatred for the RUC. He also participated in the Battle of the Bogside in the summer of '69. Twice in the month in a half, Micky ended up in the hospital after savage beatings from the RUC riot squads.

In 1970, Micky became involved with the civil rights movement as well as the Young Socialists and Labour Party. He became a member of the James Connolly 'Republican Club' and then, shortly after internment, a member of the Derry Brigade of the 'Official IRA'.

1972 was a terrible year for him. Micky was a part of the civil rights march turned bloody on January 30, 1972. Bloody Sunday was a day that he would remember forever. His mother also died that year from a brain tumor.

Micky became disillusioned with the Sticks in 1973 and their unilateral ceasefire. With the founding of the IRSP in 1974, Micky had finally the outlet for his socialist convictions. He joined up as one of the Irps and was one of the founding members of the PLA (People's Liberation Army, later to become the INLA).

Towards the end of 1973, Micky, then age 19, got married. His wife, Margaret, was only seventeen. They lived in Ranmore Drive in Creggan and had two children: Michael, and Louise.

"Red Mick," as he was known both for his ginger hair and his political leanings, was eventually arrested in September of 1976 and charged for his part in an INLA weapon seeking operation. Also a part of this operation was a comrade and friend of Devine's, fellow hungerstriker Patsy O'Hara. Micky was on remand for nine long months in Crumlin Jail. Eventually he was brought to trial and convicted for the operation. Sentenced to 12 years, Micky immediately joined the blanket protest in the H Blocks.

After four years on the blanket, on the 21st of June, 1981, Micky joined the hungerstrike as the seventh man actively striking (3 having already died, Sands, McCreesh and O'Hara).

Micky Devine refused to be labeled a criminal and for this and for Ireland he gave his life. He died on August 20, 1981, after 60 days on hungerstrike. He would be the last of the now revered ten. God rest his soul.  ¶ 11:18 PM

  IRA Volunteer Thomas McElwee

Thomas McElwee was born on 30th of November, 1957 in Tamlaghtduff in the Bellaghy parish of south Derry. Born into a large Catholic family, Tom was the fifth of twelve children. His family lived in a small white-washed house that the father, Jim, built with his own hands.

Thomas and his brother Benedict along with their cousin Francis Hughes, who lived right down the road, went to school together. They grew up together as friends and developed their ideas of nationalism together as well.

Thomas is remembered by the people of Bellaghy as being sincere and quiet. He liked to help his mother around the house. He also loved the outdoors and he and Benedict would get themselves into many predicaments in the woods and on the country roads.

Thomas also had a very acute sense when it came to engines. He loved working with cars and his interest was even further fueled once he got his driver's license. He enjoyed playing records too, very often of republican ballads, at a time when the 'troubles' had barely begun. Even before 1969, the McElwees, including Thomas, would sometimes go to folk concerts in the village where many of the ballads recalled the tradition of resistance to British injustice.

At fourteen, Tom joined na Fianna Eireann and began his activism to remove the British presence from Ireland. It was not long before he also joined Francis Hughes' independent unit of Volunteers operating in the South Derry area. When this entire unit was incorporated into the Provisional IRA, Tom became one of the youngest Volunteers in the area.

He was very active over the next few years; Tom took part in dozens of successful operations with his brother and cousin around the towns of Magherafelt, Bellaghy, Castledawson, and Maghera. These attacks consisted of booby-traps, ambushes, hit-and-run gun fights and landmine attacks. Their unit became one of the most successful and feared of the early 1970's.

Thomas had the reputation of a principled republican who knew what he was fighting for. He had a great appetite for history, especially local history. He was constantly reading about Republican events and happenings in the Bellaghy area over the last century.

Both because of good luck and his quiet nature, Thomas was never forced to go "on the run" like his famous cousin Francis. He continued to be harassed though, both by the Brits and the RUC. The McElwee home was raided on a number of occasions and Thomas and Benedict both were arrested.

On the 9th of October 1976, Thomas and Benedict were involved in a pre-mature bomb explosion. Tom lost an eye while Benedict was comparably lucky, suffering only superficial burns and shock. There were two other Volunteers in the car as well; Colm Scullion, losing several toes and Sean McPeake, losing a leg.

After six weeks in RVH in Belfast, Thomas was transferred to Musgrave military hospital, joining his brother. A week before Christmas, they were both remanded to Crumlin Road jail. After eight months, they were brought to trail. The charged brought against them included: murder and possession of explosives. They were convicted of both charges and sentenced to twenty years.

The charge of murder was a sham. A girl had been killed in Ballymena the same day the bomb prematurely exploded in the car carrying the IRA Volunteers. Nearly half a dozen other Volunteers arrested in the South Derry area were also charged with this death. Tom and Benedict both appealed the charge and it was later knocked down to manslaughter.

Imprisonment was particularly harsh for the McElwee brothers who were often singled out by prison warders, angry at the brothers' refusal to accept any form of criminal treatment. For a while they were able to keep in touch with each other as they were both in H6 , but they were eventually split up and had hardly any opportunity to see each other at all for over two years.

After years on the blanket, the brothers joined the thirty strong hungerstrike in December of 1980 to stand up for the rights of the prisoners. As Sean McKenna neared death, the strike was called off as an apparent deal was struck with the British. It would not be known until mid January that this deal was a sham and the Brits had backed out.

Thomas and Benedict put their names in for the 1981 strike but Tom was the one chosen to make the sacrifice. The determination he showed and his youth together made a statement. He died on August 8th, 1981 after refusing food for 62 days. He remained determined and unbroken. His statement had been made. God bless his soul.

McElwee's Farewell, a song
Tribute to Tom McElwee on Ireland's Own  ¶ 10:15 PM

  The questionably historical account of Bertie Murphy of Castleisland

Bertie Murphy was seventeen years old when he was shot by the Free State amadans at the beckon of the Crown. During the war against the Black and Tans, Bertie's mother tried like hell to keep him at home and in school but he'd hear nothing of it. He was all for the ideal of the thirty-two county Republic and joined na Fianna Eireann.

His superior officer in the Fianna, "Hickey," joined the Free Staters "Army" and Bertie took his place as Captain of the Fianna in his area. Eventually, after the outbreak of the Civil War, Hickey came after his former comrade. Using some of the training he received along with his knowledge of the area, Bertie evaded the Free State lackies for nearly six months.

One day in September of 1922, he was walking with his rifle on his shoulder down a bohereen in Dysart by himself when he came upon a patrol of Staters. He was taken prisoner and the bastards threatened to shoot him on his mother's doorstep while she watched.

As they passed by his mothers home, he signaled her to go inside the house to prevent the terror the heartless shites had promised. What she saw as they passed was her son beaten and pale. His face was bruised and his hands were tied behind her back. The Free Staters with Hickey amongst the pack of traitors took him to the local hotel and kept him captive. His mother was allowed to visit him there.

The next morning Bertie's mother heard word that the Free State soldiers had taken her son to Scartaglen to remove a barricade that was feared booby-trapped. In a frenzy, Bertie's mother rushed to the local IRA contingent and pleaded with them to confirm or deny the danger of that specific road block. The officers present promised her that he would be fine if he removed that blockade.

A friend of Berties later saw him walking down a road near Scartaglen with a heavy bag on his back. He was taken from there to the Great Southern Hotel, a recently converted barracks. There were a number of other prisoners in the guard-room with him, a number of whom knew him personally.

traveling with the traitor Hickey and his consort of Irish traitors, Bertie was drug along like a worthless sack of garbage. Eventually, the group encountered an ambush and Hickey took his chance to seek his twisted notion of revenge on Bertie. He grabbed the young man by the throat and threw him down a set of steps. He proceeded to fired numerous rounds into Bertie's body which lay crumpled at the bottom of the flight of steps.

Bertie lived long enough to be given his last rites by the local priest. When the Free State authorities submitted their report of the incident it read: "killed in the ambush in Brennan's Glen." This was just the beginning of a long and terrible history of Free State injustice and brutality amongst Republicans.

*this is a paraphrasing of a piece of Dorothy MacArdle's Tragedies of Kerry of 1923  ¶ 9:03 PM

  Fiction and Non-fiction books that are worth a look:

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle

A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle

Republican Voices by Kevin Bean and Mark Hayes

The Tain

The Crock of Gold by James Stephens

Opened Ground by Seamus Heaney

Belfast Confetti by Ciaran Carson

Killing Rage by Eamonn Collins

How the Irish Saved Civilisation by Thomas Cahill

Bold Robert Emmet by Seán Ó Brádaigh  ¶ 5:07 PM

  IRA Volunteer Kieran Doherty

Kieran was born the 18th of 1955 in the Andersonstown district of West Belfast. He was one of six children to a large working class family. Having a normal childhood, Kieran excelled in sport. He received an Antrim minor metal for GAA while playing for St. Theresa's GAC.

Kieran and his brothers took up cycling and formed a club within their church. St. Thomas' cycling club would later be ruined by internment. There would be so many of Andytown's boys behind the wire that Brendan Dohery would ask his mother when it would be his "turn to go where the big boys go."

In the summer of 1971, Kieran began an apprenticeship as a heating engineer but never finished because the firm he was working with closed down only months after he had begun. After that, he joined his father as a floor tile worker.

Following the hardest wave of internment, Kieran became disgusted with the treatment of his peers and family members at the hands of the Brits. He had never before been interested in politics, but in 1971 he joined Na Fianna Eireann, the Republican youth movementt. He soon excelled as a member of that organisation and put him self forth to be recruited by the IRA.

The Provisional IRA members in his area did take notice to Kieran but so did the Brits and soon his family became a constant target for harassment. In October of 1972, he was drug away in the middle of the night by the British who ignored pleas by his parents that he was under 17. They later took a copy of his birth certificate down to the local barracks and forced the Brits to release him.

The Brits were ten days to early; but they were promptly back on the 16th to intern Kieran. He was warned by relativess in the area on his way home from work and hitched a ride to Limerick until the heat came down a bit. He hated being away from Belfast and was back on active duty after Christmas.

Less then a month back, he was arrested and taken to Castlereagh for questioning. After the typical three day questioning period, Kieran was interred in Long Kesh. He would be one of the last internees released in 1975, spending nearly two full years in the cages.

Seething at his imprisonment, he spent his time in lock up fine-tuning his military mind. He took part in the burning of a number of buildings and huts in the concentration camp in October of 1974. Released in November 1975, he immediately reported back to his unit. He joined up with a team of Volunteers from around Rossnareen which gave the Brits in Andytown many sleepless for a full six months until a wave of arrests nearly wiped out the whole unit.

Known by his comrades and friends as "Big Doc," Kieran helped to grind down the Brits in his area. As an active operator, he is remembered as a careful perfectionist who gavehisi comrades a feeling of safety during operations.

Kieran was picked up in August 1976 after an operation against the RUC, completely unarmed. He was alter charged with posession of firearms and explosives and auto theft. The first two charges had no legal merit at all, and the man testifying against Kieran perjured on both counts to see Big Doc convicted in the juryless courts.

Put on remand in Crumlin Road Jail, he met and became friends with Francis Hughes. Each had great admiration for the other and friends remember the striking similarities in their personalities. They were always defiant and never would give up.

He was sentenced to 18 years for the charges brought against him. Upon entering Long Kesh in January 1978, he immediately joined the blanket and no-wash protests. He spent nearly 3 years on the blanket and only came off when the hungerstrike began. In the H-Blocks he is remembered as being ever defiant to the warders; refusing to acknowledge them as having any authority.

Not surprising to anyone who knew or fought alongside Kieran, he joined the hungerstrike following the deaths of Patsy O'Hara and Ray McCreesh on May 22nd. On June 9th, Kieran stood as a candidate for the Cavan/Monaghan constituency and was elected as a TD. On August 2nd, 1981, Kieran Doherty died after 73 days refusing food. He died for his belief in justice for all Irishmen. He died defiant and unbroken by British oppression.

Hungerstrike Commemorative Page  ¶ 1:57 AM

  INLA Volunteer Kevin Lynch

Kevein Lynch was born in the village of Park, not far from the town of Dungiven as the youngest of a large Catholic family. Dungiven in 1981 was a small town of a few thousand people but its citizens were predominantly nationalist. Large contingents of both British soldiers and RUC were present in the area.

Kevin had a normal childhood and was very active in GAA. He excelled in both Gaelic football and hurling and played on championships teams in both sports. He also had a short stint as a boxer at St. Canice's and reached the Co. Derry final. He is remembered as a great athelete.

At age fifteen, Kevin left school and began to work with his father as a builder. After a year or so with his father, he joined his brothers to work in Bedford, England in 1973. Shortly after he returned home, he and nine other lads were stopped by a unit of Brits and put against a wall. They were given a bad kicking and two of them were drug away to the barracks.

It was around this time that Kevin joined the INLA, most likely with this event in mind. His brother Michael recalls that "he would never let himself be walked on." He decided to stand up for his rights as an Irishman.

His active service was short, less than six months. He was involved in an ambush in which an RUC man was badly wounded in November of 1976. The RUC decided to make a move against suspected INLA activists in the Dungiven area beginning in December. On the 2nd of that month, the RUC came to drag Kevin from his home. A number of other INLA men were arrested in the local area during that swoop.

After a thre day interrogation period at Castlereagh, a string of charges were brought against Kevin; including conspiracy, taking part in a punishment shooting and taking "legally" held shotguns. After a year on remand in the Crum, Kevin was tried in the Diplock courts and sentenced to ten years on all charges.

He immediately joined the blanket men in H3 on protest and found himself in a cell with his childhood mate Liam McCloskey. They stayed together until the hungerstrike of 1981. Kevin and Liam both took part in the 34 man fast that took place towards the end of the 1980 hungerstrike.

INLA prisoners took a large amount of abuse from the screws and Kevin was no exception to the rule. He was "put on the boards" on a number of occasions. This brutal practice could last up to a fortnight.

He spent four and a half years on the blanket and the day after the deaths of Ray McCreesh and Patsy O'Hara, he joined the hungerstrike. He was resolute in his strike and died after 71 days on strike on August 1st, 1981.

Follow up information:
Ireland's Own Hungerstrike Page
Hungerstrike Commemorative
IRSM Fallen Comrade: Kevin Lynch  ¶ 4:42 PM

  IRA Volunteer Martin Hurson

Edward Martin Hurson was born 13th September 1956 in Cappagh near Dungannon as the 8th of nine children to a traditional Catholic farming family. Growing up in the predominantly Catholic and nationalist area of Tyrone, Martin experienced the feeling of close-knit communities and of national pride.

He was a fun-loving typical country boy who was very close with his siblings. A devout Catholic and a generally quiet person, everyone remembers Martin as a hard-working and likeable man. He lived a relatively innocent youth; away from the every day British repression. He would not experience the horror of this terrorism until he was nearly 20 years old.

He met the love of his life, Bernadette Donnelly, in the winter of 1975 at her sister's wedding in which Martin was the best man. She would later be a key figure in the hungerstrike campaigns in 1981.

In the spring of 1976, the RUC began to set up what the called "Regional Crime Squads" which were really just crack units of the sectarian police force. Their primary mission was to ensure that convictions were made for all unsolved republican operations in their respective areas. Their only responsiblity, as then Deputy Chief Constable Ken Newman is quoted as saying, was to "clear the books" and "get results."

Martin was arrested in East Tyrone and taken to the Omagh RUC barracks on 11th November 1976. He was brutally tortured for two days and nights. Beaten beyond any description that could do justice, Martin received repeatedblows to the head and back and was slapped, punched and kicked by multiple RUC officers. Men in adjoining rooms heard his terrible screaming. To avoid anymore of the terrible beatings, he signed documents that admitted his involvement in numerous republican operations in the East Tyrone area.

He was then transferred to Cookstown barracks where he filed a complaint about the treatment he received in Omagh. He was again beaten and threatened to state that the documents he signed at Omagh were valid. Under great duress, he did so.

Martin was charged along with five other young men for a landmine explosion that occurred at Galbally in November 1975. He was able to beat this charge but the ensuing list of charges were ridiculous. They included: IRA membership, possesion of the landmine that caused the Galbally explosion, conspiracy to murder, and causing an explosion in Cappagh in fall of 1975. The Brits hadn't one shred of physical evidence to support their claims but Judge Rowland said that Martin's statements made at Omagh were enough to satisfy him. He chose to ignore the reports by prison doctors that documented the extensive beating Martin took at the hands of the "police."

Martin was sentenced to twenty years for possession of landmines and conspiracy to commit murder. An additional 15 years was added to the IRA membership charge and five more for an explosion that he had no part in. Martin appealed his conviction which was denied, but a retrial was scheduled.

In this trial, the Omagh statements were ruled inadmissable in the court but the Cookstown statements were accepted. This was a complete contradiction seeing as both sets were signed under heavy pressure. Martin's sentence was not even shortened and he went to Long Kesh and straight onto the blanket. In prison, the British brutality did nto end for Martin. He was beaten on a number of occasions and was one of the POWs singled out for forced bathing during the no-wash protest.

At the end of May 1981, Martin joined the hungerstrike after Brendan McLaughlin suffered a severe stomach ulcer that immediately threatened his life after only 3 weeks on strike. Already weakened from spending the last 5 years in and out of prison, Martin's condition deteriorated rapidly and after only 45 days refusing food, he died on July 13th.

Martin Hurson's death hit the Irish people especially hard coming so shortly after Joe McDonnell's death and after only 45 days on protest. His body just could not take anymore abuse and he left this world as an unbroken Irishman. He and his comrades had shown the British policy of criminalisation to be a farce. This was proven by the resolve of the blanket men and the hungerstrikers as well as by the large amount of votes received by prisoners in both Free State and Six County elections.

The British policy of criminalisation was wrong then and will never be right. Do not let Republican POWs be treated as common criminals.


Martin Hurson bio on Ireland's Own
Irish Political Status Committee
Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association
  ¶ 4:01 AM

  Earlier history of hungerstriking as a tool for bringing about justice
Part 2.

Fianna Fail, the Republican Party[SIC!!!], in 1939 proscribed the IRA and the jails of the Free State soon swelled with political prisoners. In 1940, prisoners wallowing in the appalling conditions of Mountjoy Gaol began a strike. The strikers included Tony D'Arcy, Sean McNeela, Thomas Grogan, Jack Plunkett, Tomas MacCutrain and Michael Traynor. A week into the protest, the prisoners were mercilessly beaten by the Free State screws.

Tony D'Arcy and Sean McNeela paid the ultimate price for their participation in this protest. They died on April 16th and 19th respectively. Shortly after, the hungerstrike was called off when the prisoners were informed that a deal had been struck with the Free State government. This apparent deal was short lived and Free State exploitation of Republicans continued.

The last hungerstriker to perish in a Free State jail was Sean McCaughey. He was a Belfast native who was O/C of the IRA's northern command in the early 1940's. He was arrested in Dublin for holding an informer (actually the COS of the IRA!). The charges were common assault and unlawful imprisonment. He was sentenced to LIFE!

An original blanketman, McCaughey refused to wear the prison clothes of Portlaoise Jail and spent nearly 5 years naked except for a blanket. He commenced his hungerstrike on April 19th, 1946 and after five days began a thirst strike as well. Under these conditions, one cannot live long. Sean died after 17 days on strike. He was rightfully buried in the Republican plot at Milltown in Belfast.

Michael Gaughan was one of the first Provisional IRA members to be imprisoned in England. He was tried and sentenced for his part in a bank raid at Old Bailey in December of 1971. Frank Stagg was tried and sentenced in November of 1973 in Coventry on an vacuous charge of conspiracy to commit explosions.

Also in November 1973, the "Belfast Ten" were tried and sentenced to life for bombings that occurred earlier in the year in England. These ten included Marian and Dolours Price, Gerry Kelly, and Hugh Feeney. These four commenced hungerstrike upon entering prison. They were brutally force-fed for two hundred and six days.

Gaughan and Stagg joined the strike on March 31st, 1974 primarily to show support for their comrades already on strike and secondly for repatriation. After 23 days refusing food, they were force-fed. This brutal practice involves sticking a thick greased tube down a person's throat and into the stomach. Often the tube enters the windpipe and it was because of this that Michael Gaughan died. He became ill after the tube punctured his lung, caught pneumonia and died on June 3rd, 1974. This death caused the British establishment much shame and led to the abandonment of force-feeding as a tactic for countering hungerstrikes.

The four strikers of the "Belfast Ten" ended their strike shortly after and Stagg's ended on the 7th. Having his demands for repatriation ignored, Stagg began a second strike after being transferred from Parkhurst to Worcestershire. 10th October 1974 was the first day of Stagg's second strike. Thirty one days later he was told that he would be transferred to Long Kesh by March of 1975. He ended his strike in lieu of this deal.

In March of 1975, Gerry Kelly and Hugh Feeney were transferred to the cages of Long Kesh and the Price sisters were repatriated to Armagh Jail. But Frank Stagg remained in England. Now in Wakefield Prison, Frank commenced a third hungerstrike on the 14th of December 1975. He was to die after 62 days refusing food, February 12, 1976.

Free State officials had Stagg's body diverted from Dublin to Shannon airport to prevent a show of Republican sentiment in the city. The Special Branch thugs then seized his coffin and kept it in the airport for 48 hours before flying it by helicopter under guard to Robeen Church in Co. Mayo. The Special Branch prevented it from being buried in the Republican plot. Stagg was instead buried 10 metres away and his coffin was covered over top by cement to prevent it from ever being moved. Also, for six months there was a constant Special Branch presence in the cemetery.

This didn't stop the rightful thing from happening. On November 8th, 1976 a group of IRA Volunteers accompanied by a priest tunneled down under the grave and removed the coffin. They buried it in the Republican plot and held a short religious service.

Follow up information:
Overview of the 1981 Hungerstrike
Hungerstrike Commemorative Project
Overview of the 1980 Hungerstriker
Ireland's Own's Hungerstrike Page   ¶ 2:07 AM