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Tribunal to probe garda plot in murder of RUC men
11 March 2005
By Louise Hogan
A TRIBUNAL to investigate allegations of garda collusion in the murder of two senior RUC officers 16 years ago is to be established, it was confirmed yesterday.
A motion to establish a tribunal of inquiry to examine the IRA ambush of RUC Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Robert Buchanan will be brought before the Oireachtas on March 23.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said: “A motion will be brought before the Houses of the Oireachtas at the end of the month. They still have to establish the tribunal, no one has been appointed yet.”
In 2003, Justice Minister Michael McDowell announced there would be a public inquiry into allegations of garda collusion surrounding the IRA murder of the two senior officers.
The two men were shot dead on March 20, 1989, at an IRA checkpoint near Jonesborough, Co Armagh, as they returned from a security meeting with gardaí in Dundalk.
Canadian Judge Peter Cory, who was appointed to investigate allegations of collusion between British and Irish security forces and paramilitaries surrounding six cases in the North, recommended an inquiry be held into the deaths of the two men.
Mr Justice Cory said an investigation should be opened to delve into allegations of garda collusion in the deaths. He examined claims a garda based at the Dundalk station passed on information to Provisionals on the movements of the two senior officers after the cross-Border security talks.
He found that evidence was revealed that, if accepted, could be found to constitute collusion.
The judge noted that a garda investigation and a statement from the RUC in to the deaths had found no evidence of collusion.
Girdwood: Base of Brutality
With Girdwood barracks due to close, Andrea McKernon investigates the end of a gruesome chapter in the history of North Belfast…
The announced closure of Girdwood army base will be the end of a horrific and gruesome chapter of the British army’s presence in North Belfast.
For three decades the installation was the focal point of a reign of terror inflicted on the nationalist population in Belfast.
A look back at the history of the base shows it was connected to some of the most notorious episodes in the brutal history of the conflict.
But many soldiers and police were also killed in retaliation for outrages committed by the RUC and British military leaving victims from all sides of the community.
Within one square mile of the New Lodge Road with a population of 6,500 over 635 civilians were killed and over 2,500 injured during the conflict. Some 1,300 children were affected by the imprisonment of one or both of their parents.
In that same period, the conflict around Girdwood barracks claimed the lives of some 30 RUC men and 60 British soldiers.
Many of the bloodiest and most controversial incidents in the conflict are linked to the base.
The base provided the backdrop for the infamous torture of internees, the killing of six men in the New Lodge in the early ‘70s, to riots and plastic bullet killings, to collusion murders by the UDA and UVF with files supplied from the intelligence hub of North Belfast and the murder of a New Lodge teenager by two Scot Guards men on patrol from Girdwood. The base was taken over by the British army in 1970 and almost immediately crown forces began a campaign of murder, torture and cruelty against the nationalist people of North Belfast.
Some of the first raft of 300 local Catholic men rounded up on the morning of August 9, 1971 announcing the introduction of internment without trial were taken to Girdwood.
The RUC’s Special Branch and British military intelligence dished out horrific brutality and torture, including sensory deprivation, ‘white noise’ and electric shocks to local men brought into the horror of Girdwood.
Men were forced to stand for days without sleep on tiptoes and holding onto walls with the tips of their fingers. The outrages were documented in Fr Raymond Murray and Fr Denis Faul’s report in 1972 about torture in Girdwood and Palace Barracks.
In 1978 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the so-called five techniques used in interrogation, usually by RUC Special Branch officers trained by the British Army, constituted inhumane and degrading treatment in breach of Article 3 of the convention on human rights.
Veteran republican Martin Meehan recalled how men ran the gauntlet of vicious dogs and police with batons in “the tunnel” that ran under Girdwood into Crumlin Road jail.
Detainees were also taken in helicopters from Girdwood and dropped blindfolded out of the aircraft craft at six to 12 feet. The tortured men thought they were being dropped hundreds of feet to their deaths.
In July 1970 over 1,000 women marched on Girdwood to protest at the shooting dead of unarmed Catholic man Danny O’Hagan.
It marked the end of the so-called “honeymoon period” when the soldiers turned on Catholics who had earlier welcomed them as saving them from the RUC and loyalist paramilitary pogrom of 1969.
The 19-year-old was gunned down by a high-velocity bullet fired by a British soldier during disturbances in the New Lodge. .
That murder was followed with the murder of Christie Quinn in November 1971.
The 39-year-old father-of-five, a member of the St Patrick’s branch of the Catholic Ex-Servicemen’s Association was taking part in vigilante duties when a British soldier shot him near his home on Peter Hill.
In July 1972 unarmed IRA volunteer Seamus Cassidy was shot dead by the British army on the New Lodge Road.
Louis Scullion was shot by soldiers also in disputed circumstances in the same month.
The 27-year-old IRA man was killed near Unity Flats, a few yards from his home.
Royal Marines based at Girdwood also gunned down 27-year-old civilian Michael Hayes not far from his Spamount Street home in September 1972. He was shot nine times despite a forensic report finding no lead residues that would have indicated he was holding a gun.
Seamus Duffy was 15 when he was shot by an RUC plastic bullet close to Girdwood on the anniversary of internment in 1989. No member of the security forces ever stood trial for the killings
The massacre of six men in the New Lodge in February 1973 became known as the New Lodge Six murders.
The six unarmed men were gunned down on the night that British troops used for the first time SUIT or Sight Unit Infantry Trilux, giving night vision. Their introduction immediately prompted the plan to begin the shooting on the New Lodge to draw out the IRA, a community inquiry heard 30 years later.
IRA man James Sloan (19) and fellow IRA man James McCann were shot dead by loyalists in a drive by shooting outside Lynch’s bar on the corner of the New Lodge and Antrim Road. There were claims of collusion when witnesses reported seeing the car come out of Girdwood.
Immediately afterwards troops killed Volunteer Tony Campbell (19) and civilians John Loughran (35) Brendan Maguire (32) Ambrose Hardy (26) and James McCann (18) in the street which ran red with blood, according to the inquiry witnesses.
Claims that the men were killed in a shoot out with the IRA caused fury among their families at the time of their deaths.
The army was later forced to withdraw its first statement in the wake of the killings after outrage from relatives, but it never apologised to the relatives or formally retracted its first statement.
Instead as witnesses reported, grieving families were hounded and harassed by British squaddies who gloated about the murders.
“We believe it would have been an officer in charge of North Belfast or further in charge of stationing and placing troops in a large-scale operation,” said Ed Lynch, US litigator and New Lodge Six community inquiry member who looked at who was responsible for the murders.
He also said the killings had to be planned and orchestrated by high ranking officers within the British forces.
British military and RUC personnel in the base also colluded with loyalist paramilitaries in the murders of local nationalists.
Using intelligence files from Girdwood on former internees and republican prisoners, the army’s Force Research Unit (FRU) unleashed the loyalist death squads of the UFF onto the nationalist community in North Belfast.
Those murdered included Catholic man Terry McDaid in a case of mistaken identity in 1988.
Three people working for the British army were implicated in Terry McDaid’s murder, including British agent Brian Nelson. All walked free from the courts.
The first was Corporal Cameron Hastie, a British soldier attached to the Royal Scots Regiment. It was Hastie who first passed on to crown forces details regarding a North Belfast republican to Joanne Garvin, a member of the UDR, in full knowledge that the information would be passed by her to the UDA and used to assist a loyalist death squad to target its victim.
Neither Hastie nor Garvin was charged with conspiracy to murder, despite the fact that their actions had directly led to the UDA killing of Terry McDaid. Instead the two were charged with making the document available to a third person.
Hastie received a conditional discharge and was allowed to return to his regiment in Scotland as a training instructor, a position he continues to hold today. Despite Garvin admitting she knew the information would be used to kill Catholics, she was given an 18-month suspended sentence.
The information “leaked” by Hastie and Garvin was finally to fall into Brian Nelson’s hands in his role as intelligence officer for the UDA. Nelson, while still acting as a British army agent, targeted republicans and passed details on to a UDA assassin.
Despite details of the planned killing of Terry McDaid being passed to the British army by their agent Nelson, no action was taken to prevent the killing.
The most high-profile murder was that of North Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane in his Fortwilliam home in 1989 during the collusion terror. A 15-year campaign is still raging for an independent inquiry into his death, a demand ignored by successive British governments.
Another victim Billy Kane was murdered in his New Lodge home by the UVF. His mother claims information was passed to her son’s killers from soldiers at Girdwood who had been watching his movements.
His mother Bridget said it was collusion from Girdwood that led to the murder of her son in Upper Meadow Street in January 1988.
“I have always said there was collusion in the murder of my son,” she told the North Belfast News in 2002.
“An eyewitness said they saw his name in a UDR notebook in Girdwood barracks. I believe the army were watching him from an observation post. Billy was never in the house at the time he was shot. They saw that he had not come out of the house, unlike his usual movements, and tipped off the UVF. He came home at 4.15pm and the gunmen arrived at 5.45pm,” she said.
Collusion between the British army and RUC Special Branch and the UDA resulted in more than 80 shootings, 29 of those fatal – all sanctioned by the state.
But the full story of the base’s involvement in collusion has never been revealed because 15 of the 34 charges against the British army agent loyalist killer Nelson, including the two charges of murder, were dropped by the crown in return for guilty pleas on lesser charges.
The deal prevented the full details and extent of crown forces’ collusion with loyalist death squads coming out in court. Had the case been contested, the British authorities would have been faced with the possibility of Nelson’s `handlers’ in the crown forces and others in ‘sensitive posts’ being cross-examined.
Nelson, a former convicted paramilitary and former British soldier served only four years in jail for his catalogue of crimes.
The soldiers who gunned down New Lodge teenager Peter McBride were stationed in Girdwood and it was there they returned on the day the 18-year-old was murdered in 1992.
Later found guilty of murder the Girdwood soldiers James Fisher and Mark Wright were later released from their life sentences and rejoined the British army. During their time in prison the convicted murderers remained on the MoD payroll. Peter McBride’s mother Jean is still seeking the sacking of the pair from the army.
The British army also had their victims during the Girdwood reign as well as the RUC.
William Kenny, a 28-year-old UDR man was abducted from his home at Mountcollyer Street in March 1973 by members of the IRA. The father-of-one was found 12 hours later shot in the head.
The full-time soldier had been on his way to Girdwood barracks when he was abducted.
Damian Shackelton a Scots Guardsman from Blackburn was shot by the IRA as he rode in a Landrover at Duncairn Avenue in 1992.
The last victim linked to the bloody legacy of the base was a kitchen porter working at Girdwood.
David Cupples was mistaken for a Catholic and brutally murdered as he walked to work in December 2002 along Clifton Park Avenue.
The 25-year-old from east Belfast died on Christmas Day after a four-day fight for life.
andrea@irelandclick.com
Journalist:: Andrea McKernon
WHITEWELL DEFENDERS APPLY TO MARCH INTERFACE FOR CHARITY
The Whitewell Defenders Flute Band is to apply to march a North Belfast sectarian interface again for a charity collection, it has been revealed.
And the new plan has been blasted by a nationalist community worker in the area.
Loyalist sources confirmed this week that just over £500 was raised in the last tsunami march and they said it would be going to a group of health workers making a trip to the afflicted region.
But Paul McKernon said a plan for the band to march again along a route that was banned by the Parades Commission last month was “absolutely ridiculous” and “a pittance” towards delivering a play park in White city that would cost £300,000.
“If they raised another £500 on their march for this playpark every month, then they’ll have to have one every month for the next 50 years,” he said.
He was speaking after White city community worker Brian Dunn revealed plans were in motion for another loyalist parade for charity to raise funds for a new play park.
“We’ve been doing a lot of fundraising for the park and we’ve raised around £2,000,” he said.
The Whitewell Defenders, led by UPRG member and Tiger’s Bay loyalist John Montgomery, organised a parade for victims of the Asian tsunami two weeks ago.
Astonishingly it included members of the far right extremist group the Ulster British Alliance staging a “street party” in the area.
Despite being banned from parts of their intended route by the Parades Commission, the loyalist marchers were allowed to walk up the nationalist Whitewell Road in what became a day of confusion and outrage.
The PSNI say they are investigating an alleged breach of the permitted route, while loyalist organisers claimed they were forced up the Whitewell Road even though they made no application to walk it.
Paul McKernon said the nationalist community would not tolerate loyalist marches “masquerading” as charity benefits.
“They flouted the conditions last time and then the PSNI made a mess of the day in forcing them along the Whitewell Road.
“They said they weren’t going to follow the decision. They wasted about £120 on a bus they didn’t use and they put kids on it.
“This new parade will not be accepted by nationalists and no one can seriously believe this is a serious attempt at fundraising, but rather to intimidate their nationalist neighbours,” he said.
Meanwhile John Montgomery said he was organising a meeting with the Parades Commission today in opposition to an application for a Republican Easter parade on the Whitewell.
However, a spokesman for the Parades Commission said this morning: “The Parades Commission is not scheduled to meet today.”
Journalist:: Staff Reporter
SPY CAMERAS REPLACE BASE MASTS
Observation posts will be replaced by spy cameras at Girdwood and Oldpark
Security force spy posts will go up near Girdwood army barracks and Oldpark PSNI station to replace observation posts earmarked to be taken down, it has been revealed.
The British army and PSNI announced two weeks ago that Oldpark sangar would be dismantled and Girdwood army base removed.
In a carefully planned media operation the announced dismantling came just four months after the PSNI announced it was installing a raft of cameras in the north of the city.
At first it looked like the iron grip of security on nationalist North Belfast was loosening and a new era might begin when the news came a fortnight ago.
But a community leader in Oldpark said she was visited before Christmas by the PSNI “community officer” to be told there were CCTV cameras going up at the junction of Hillview Road and Oldpark Road.
Christine Beattie from Marrowbone Community Centre said she was told by the officer that it was to stop burglaries on the Oldpark Road.
“So I asked him was this coming from the business community in the area and he admitted it wasn’t,” she said.
“There hasn’t been any attacks in years here because the houses on the protestant side of Manor Street are all empty now. The last attacks were at the top of Rosapenna Street about three years ago.
“This was a paper ticking exercise to show they had consulted with the community, but this community doesn’t want to be spied on any more,” said Christine Beattie.
Two cameras are also to go up at Clifton Park Avenue causing fury with Manor Street community worker Malachy Mulgrew.
One camera is also going up on North Queen Street, one at Peter’s Hill and one on Workman Avenue
“This has all been planned and no one has been consulted about this. We’ve just been told it’s happening,” said Malachy Mulgrew.
“There has been no trouble around Clifton Park Avenue for almost two years. This is to replace what’s going down at Girdwood and the police will be able to see up and down the Oldpark Road and from the top of Rosapenna.”
Last November security minister Ian Pearson said he was in favour of the cameras at flash points.
“The government fully supports PSNI in its use of this technology to counter interface violence,” he said.
Malachy Mulgrew said homes in the Cliftonville area would be receiving leaflets seeking the views of residents.
“We are genuinely asking people if they would feel safer with cameras going up. It’s more than the PSNI has done,” he said.
But in a statement today the PSNI insisted it had consulted with the community.
“The role out of the CCTV system continues following consultation with local representatives in an effort to efficiently police interface areas,” said a spokesman.
Sinn Féin councillor Margaret McClenaghan condemned the PSNI.
“The installation of PSNI spy cameras is not acceptable.
“Generally the mood is upbeat with the removal of Girdwood and Oldpark – military installations that should have been dismantled long ago, but people will be very angry at the maintenance of intelligence gathering cameras on these sites.
“Past history shows both Oldpark and Girdwood, with their plethora of surveillance cameras throughout the conflict, were completely inadequate of stopping any form of attack against the nationalist community.
“The sole purpose of the cameras as everybody knows is simply to watch and gather intelligence on the nationalist community.”
The last attempt to install cameras looking onto Estoril Park in Ardoyne two years ago led to the mast being toppled by locals.
Journalist:: Andrea McKernon
Police defend ‘joyriding’ efforts
Thieves are selling videos of stolen cars being raced
Police efforts to stop so-called joyriders in west Belfast have trebled, a senior officer has said.
A group of residents in the lower Falls area have said that their lives are being made a misery by gangs who are terrorising the community.
The police had been criticised by some residents in the area for not responding to reports of car crime.
However, Chief Inspector Peter Farrar said police remained determined to deal with the problem.
“We have trebled the amount of operations in west Belfast even last month, and we will continue to put significant resources into lower Falls purely to combat this crime,” he said.
“We need help from the community, we need evidence, we are making arrests, we have remanded some of the top car criminals, but we need more evidence from the community and other statutory agencies.”
Car crime
The police have said there has been a 28% reduction in car crime in west Belfast over the last three years.
In the past, police, fire and ambulance crews have been attacked during operations.
The PSNI’s auto crime team said that since July 2002, it had arrested 656 people suspected of car crime, and in the last two months had recovered 116 vehicles in the lower Falls area.
On Thursday, it emerged that car thieves in the area have made a video of stolen vehicles being raced around the streets of the city.
The half-hour film shows cars racing around the west of the city and is being sold on video and DVD.
The home-made movie came to light when community workers were given copies.
It is believed the video, which was shot from a house and in the back of a stolen car, was made in December 2004.
Real IRA leader ‘to clear hurdle’
Michael McKevitt was jailed for 20 years</i.
Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt seems set to clear the first hurdle in challenging a government donation to the Omagh bomb victims.
More than £750,000 was given to fund their £14m civil claim against him and four others.
The Real IRA carried out the 1998 atrocity in which 29 people died.
In the High Court in Belfast, Mr Justice Weatherup said he was "not minded" to refuse leave for an application for judicial review.
However, he said he required more detailed information dealing with delay in bringing the case.
During Friday's hearing, he adjourned McKevitt's application so lawyers could visit him in Portlaoise prison in the Republic of Ireland to draft an affidavit.
The Lord Chancellor authorised the payment in February last year, but McKevitt's lawyers claim the Access to Justice Order passed in 2003 is unlawful.
A defence lawyer said the funding decision impacted on McKevitt because the compensation case against him was state funded, yet the state had refused him legal aid.
McKevitt, 54, from Blackrock in County Louth, Seamus Daly, Seamus McKenna, Liam Campbell and Colm Murphy – have been refused legal laid to defend the case which led to their lawyers deciding to pull out.
In August 2003, McKevitt was jailed for 20 years in the Republic of Ireland after being found guilty of directing terrorism and membership of an illegal organisation.
His appeal is due to be heard in June.
Sinn Fein motion causes council row
By Nevin Farrell
11 March 2005
A row has flared after a council meeting had to be abandoned in Co Antrim after a unionist walk-out ahead of a proposed Sinn Fein debate on the subject of a united Ireland.
Around eight DUP and Ulster Unionist councillors, including the meeting chairman, DUP deputy mayor councillor Ian Stevenson, left Ballymoney Borough Council before Sinn Fein councillor Philip McGuigan had the chance to raise his motion.
With only Mr McGuigan and two SDLP councillors present, the meeting had to be abandoned as a quorum of four councillors was required to enable it to continue.
Mr McGuigan claimed council rules now mean that his motion must be the first matter under discussion at the next meeting of the council and said, if unionists continue to walk out “ad infinitum”, it would mean council business could grind to a halt.
“This walkout shows a lack of political courage from unionists that they could not discuss this matter,” said Mr McGuigan.
“It further reinforces our argument that it is Unionism that is opposed to power-sharing; it is their representatives who walk away from the table.”
Mr Stevenson hit back, saying: “I don’t need to answer for my actions to Councillor McGuigan. By my own actions I stand or fall. His notice of motion was a blatant election stunt.”
McCartney family renew appeal for witnesses
11/03/2005 – 07:34:04
The family of murdered Belfast man Robert McCartney has issued a fresh appeal for witnesses to come forward after meeting with Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams.
Mr McCartney, a 33-year-old father-of-two, was beaten and stabbed to death outside a pub in Belfast on January 30. The murder was blamed on senior IRA members.
The murder led to a backlash against the republican movement in the nationalist Short Strand area, with the McCartneys accusing the IRA of shielding the killers and intimidating witnesses.
The IRA responded by expelling three of its members, encouraging witnesses to come forward and even offering to shoot those it believes were responsible for the murder.
However, the McCartneys claim people are still too afraid to provide evidence and the message from the IRA is not getting through to people on the ground.
Speaking after last night’s meeting with Mr Adams, Catherine McCartney said it was frustrating that nobody had been charged in connection with the murder.
Sinn Fein tested in by-election
Votes in the Meath by-election will be counted on Saturday
A by-election in the Irish Republic is being seen as the first test at the polls for Sinn Fein’s popularity following recent controversies.
The party has come under pressure over allegations about IRA involvement in the Northern Bank robbery and the murder of Belfast man Robert McCartney.
Its candidate in the County Meath poll, Joe Reilly, narrowly missed out on a seat in the 2002 general election.
He said he would regard anything above that in Friday’s election as a victory.
BBC Northern Ireland’s Dublin correspondent, Shane Harrison, said it would be a poor result for Sinn Fein if the former IRA prisoner, who polled 9% of the vote three years ago, finished below third place.
Mr O’Reilly said Sinn Fein’s recent difficulties had hardly featured in his campaign.
“Ninety seven per cent of the issues raised on doorsteps have been local. Three per cent have been about issues regarding the six counties,” he said.
“We deal with them, we engage with them and explain things to people.”
Voting for the five-seat constituency takes place on Friday, with ballots being counted one day later.
High security for raid note swap
A major security operation is to oversee the delivery of new notes
A major security operation is taking place across the north of Ireland to ensure the replacement of £240m of Northern Bank notes goes smoothly.
Police said a special command room has been set up in Belfast and extra police resources deployed across the province.
Old Northern Bank money is being exchanged for notes with a new design in the wake of the £26.5m robbery from the bank’s Belfast headquarters.
New notes will be delivered to 95 branches over several weeks.
Police on both sides of the border believe the IRA was behind the robbery, which the republican paramilitary group has denied.
On Wednesday the Northern Bank unveiled the new designs for all £10, £20, £50 and £100 notes.
They will have new colours, logos and the serial numbers on the notes will also be changed.
Members of the public have been urged to watch out for criminals trying to exploit the situation.
The new look £20 which will be in circulation from next week
Inspector Philip McCullough, a senior PSNI crime prevention officer, said people should “look out for themselves and those who may be vulnerable”.
“Anyone who would like further information can contact the crime prevention officer at their local police station,” he said.
The old Northern Bank money will only be exchanged in banks and people have been urged to contact police if someone claiming to be from the bank calls at their home offering to collect money.
They were also asked to ensure older relatives and friends are accompanied to the bank with cash.
People were also advised not to immediately rush to Northern Bank branches on Monday to have their notes replaced as the operation will run for several weeks.
During the replacement period, old notes can still be used in the normal way in shops, restaurants, bars and for paying for services.
If there is a queue outside the bank, people are also advised not to wait, but to return to that branch another day.
Republicans in ‘pub threat’ probe released
10/03/2005 – 21:31:06
Two republicans who were being questioned after a couple were threatened by a drunken gang claiming to be from the IRA were tonight released without charge.
Sinn Féin confirmed that two of its members were among the six men arrested by Gardaí in connection with the incident in O’Mahony’s Bar in Manorhamilton, Leitrim.
Gardaí said all six men had been released after questioning and a file on the incident was being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
A Sinn Féin spokesman said: “Apparently this relates to an exchange of words between two groups of people on Monday night and on face value appears to be a minor issue. We are awaiting the outcome of Garda inquiries.”
A group of men, who claimed to be members of the IRA, burst into the pub last Monday at around 8pm, and accused a couple inside of being drug dealers. One of the men was carrying a hurley.
They told the couple that they had only days to to get out of town.
However, a staff member at the bar said the men had been intoxicated when they entered.
“They just had too much to drink. It was only verbal and there was no actual fighting. It’s the end of it here as far as everyone is concerned.”
The men were ejected from the bar afterwards.
The couple, who are in their early 40s, were regular customers in the bar and are believed locally to be innocent of the allegations.
“I was chatting to them this morning. They were fine, they’re just a bit shaken about it,” said the staff member.
Two of the men were being questioned in Sligo Garda Station, two in Manorhamilton and two in Carrick-on-Shannon.
The Chief Superintendent for the Sligo/Leitrim area, Michael Staunton, said the men had been questioned about public order offences under the Criminal Justice Act, as opposed to the Offences Against the State Act, which is used to question those suspected of IRA membership.
“That indicates the direction the investigation is going,” he said.
There are around 10 bars in Manorhamilton, a small town of around 1,400 people.
It has experienced rapid population growth in recent years due to tax incentives for housing developments and its proximity to Sligo town.
**Bobby’s diary – 11th day
Wednesday 11th
I received a large amount of birthday cards today. Some from people I do not know. In particular a Mass bouquet with fifty Masses on it from Mrs Burns from Sevastopol Street. We all know of her, she never forgets us and we shan’t forget her, bless her dear heart.
I also received a card from reporter Brendan O Cathaoir, which indeed was thoughtful. I received a letter from a friend, and from a student in America whom I don’t know, but again it’s good to know that people are thinking of you. There were some smuggled letters as well from my friends and comrades.
I am the same weight today and have no complaints medically. Now and again I am struck by the natural desire to eat but the desire to see an end to my comrades’ plight and the liberation of my people is overwhelmingly greater.
The doctor will be taking a blood test tomorrow. It seems that Dr Ross has disappeared and Dr Emerson is back…
Again, there has been nothing outstanding today except that I took a bath this morning. I have also been thinking of my family and hoping that they are not suffering too much.
I was trying to piece together a quote from James Connolly today which I’m ashamed that I did not succeed in doing but I’ll paraphrase the meagre few lines I can remember.
They go something like this: a man who is bubbling over with enthusiasm (or patriotism) for his country, who walks through the streets among his people, their degradation, poverty, and suffering, and who (for want of the right words) does nothing, is, in my mind, a fraud; for Ireland distinct from its people is but a mass of chemical elements.
Perhaps the stark poverty of Dublin in 1913 does not exist today, but then again, in modern day comparison to living standards in other places through the world, it could indeed be said to be the same if not worse both North and South. Indeed, one thing has not changed, that is the economic, cultural and physical oppression of the same Irish people…
Even should there not be 100,000 unemployed in the North, their pittance of a wage would look shame in the company of those whose wage and profit is enormous, the privileged and capitalist class who sleep upon the people’s wounds, and sweat, and toils.
Total equality and fraternity cannot and never will be gained whilst these parasites dominate and rule the lives of a nation. There is no equality in a society that stands upon the economic and political bog if only the strongest make it good or survive. Compare the lives, comforts, habits, wealth of all those political conmen (who allegedly are concerned for us, the people) with that of the wretchedly deprived and oppressed.
Compare it in any decade in history, compare it tomorrow, in the future, and it will mock you. Yet our perennial blindness continues. There are no luxuries in the H-Blocks. But there is true concern for the Irish people.
SAOIRSE32 
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