A chara
I was very pleased with your reporting of the launch of Michael Flannery’s memoirs which took place recently in New York City. The occasion was a success and it was great to have Seán Ó Brádaigh as guest speaker.
Seán did a fine job also as Consulting Editor and without him the book might not be published as it is today. I recall the frustration I experienced, as well as the hostile responses I got from publishers in Ireland and America when I was trying to get the book published during the last year of Michael’s life. Michael was anxious to see the book in print before he died but this was not to be. It is a personal regret of mine. However it is now available in an excellent production, both hardback and softback, and Michael, always modest, would be pleased. It is a book which is a statement of record, given not by an academic of history but by a maker of history.
It was my objective to avoid corrupting either Michael’s written or spoken word with any of my ideas. Hence the book is pure Michael Flannery, in voice and content, as I pointed out in my introduction.
I also mentioned in my introduction that the phrase Accepting the Challenge was Michael’s idea for the title, so there may have been a slight misunderstanding of what I said during the launch in New York, as was reported in SAOIRSE. This is a normal mistake but I just want to correct it. What I said was that the title echoed, as you reported accurately, Erskine Childers’ response to Lloyd George. Having made this small correction, I am grateful to SAOIRSE for the recent review and favourable references to Michael’s memoirs, long overdue in print.
DERMOT O’REILLY
New York
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A chara
Living here in Greater Manchester it is impossible to not notice the recent disorder in Oldham between citizens of Asian extraction and right wing Loyalist Neo-Nazis.
Having watched the TV news bulletins I saw that petrol bombs and stones were thrown at the Manchester police on Saturday, May 26.
In the Six Counties, the Guidelines for the use of plastic bullets are that they should only be used when a police officer’s life is endangered. If a petrol bomb being thrown at a person is not endangering his/her life then I do not know what is.
The same day many plastic bullets were fired at nationalists on the Garvaghy Road, the media stating that 57 RUC were hurt. Perhaps the reason that plastic bullets were not fired was because this was
England and not Ireland the rioting was occuring in, not that I would like to see plastic bullets fired anywhere and at anyone.
Bryan O’Hanlon
Manchester
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A chara
Harry McGee’s article (Sunday Tribune, Sunday, May 6 – ‘Pro and anti-agreement sides commemorate hunger strikers’) quoted Joan Byrne from the ‘Dublin 1981 Committee’ as saying, “I firmly believe that if Bobby Sands were alive, he would be involved in the peace process . . . I am convinced that Bobby Sands and other hunger strikers would be standing here today if they had lived.”
Sure thing, Joan, we all know how Pearse stood outside the GPO in 1916 and demanded a so-called “inclusive negotiated settlement”, much the same as Wolfe Tone urged us to “work the connection with England”.
Twenty-two Republicans died on hunger strike between 1917 and 1981: had they compromised on their principles they would have lived – what does that tell you, Joan?
JOHN HORAN
PRO
Comhairle Ceantair Átha Cliath
Republican Sinn Féin
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Danny Bangers Morrison now tells us if Bobby Sands was alive today and the other hunger strikers they would be behind the Belfast Agreement.
I can’t say what Republicans who gave their lives for Ireland would do if they were alive but I can tell you they died to end British rule while Danny Bangers is living to implement British rule.
I would say to Danny and the Provo leadership, when ye are in you’re holiday homes in Donegal think of all the ex-POWs nursing their pint in the Felon’s Club.
A ballot box in one hand and a bank book in the other, Danny.
NEWRY REPUBLICAN
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Dear sir
I am writing to you in opposition to the [US] government’s policy of denying visas to Irish Republicans who are opposed to the Good Friday Agreement. American citizens and us Irish in particular are being denied in hearing political solutions that are alternatives to the GFA that is slowly falling into the abyss. By not granting visas to my Irish Republican comrades to promote alternatives such as ÉIRE NUA the US government is actually hampering the peace process. I urge you to look again at the discriminatory practice of excluding Irish Republicans from the US to engage and debate through the exercise of free speech a fair and honest approach to ending the war in Ireland.
Also, I would like to make you aware that once again the powers in Ireland (that being the British) are again denying political status to current POWs held in jails. Twenty years ago this policy led to the deaths of ten brave men who gave their lives for Irish freedom. Let us not see a repeat of this murderous policy. What they and we demand is (1) separation of Republican prisoners; (2) recognition of Republicans as a group; (3) the right for Republican prisoners to have their own spokesperson; and (4) a wing or space of their own. I feel this is fair treatment that should be accorded to the POWs. By the way Tommy Crossan, a POW is running for election in west Belfast for the Westminster elections on June 7 to highlight the fight again for political status.
Any influence you could provide as to resolving the above problems would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you, an Ohio voter.
Ó LÚBHAIGH
NW Canton
Ohio, USA
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A chara
It was reported that Bertie Ahern at an Easter commemoration stated that those who disagree with the present process were irrelevant and should wither away. Can he really believe that the ten hunger strikers and others gave their lives in such a torturous way for this current situation. As for withering away, perhaps he should reflect the WB Yeats poem, The Rose Tree:
O words are lightly spoken, said Pearse to Connolly,
Maybe a breath of politic words has withered our Rose Tree
Or maybe but a wind that blows across the bitter sea.
It needs to be but watered James Connolly replied,
To make the green come out again and spread on every side
And spare a blossom from the bud to be the garden’s pride.
But where can we draw water, said Pearse to Connolly, when all the wells are parched away?
O plain as plain can be, there’s nothing but our own red blood
Can make a right Rose Tree.
SÉAMUS WALSH
London
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Constitutionalism leads nowhere,
Only one path is clear to see,
No compromise on principle,
The way forward written in history,
Integrity in the cause,
Never wavering come what may,
Undeniable our rights,
Inevitable our victory,
The patriots all remembered,
Your country united and free.
JOHN SMITH
New York, USA
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A chara
The fact that all Republican principles held dearly by true Republicans today have been dropped, walked over by the Provisionals shows just how bankrupt and low they have come to. These people see only one thing, jobs for their big boys and don’t ever mention ‘Brits Out’ — might annoy David and Tony, you see.
BELFAST READER
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A chara
Travelling from Cork to Dublin I read an interview in the Irish Examiner with a former comrade of mine, Martin Ferris, who said that in forming a government with Fianna Fáil he would like the job of Minister for Justice.
As an ex-POW with Martin I would like to help him by telling him there are up to 50 political prisoners on E2-E3 landings in Portlaoise prison. None of them allowed out to watch their son playing football.
Fianna Fáil has always said there are no political prisoners. Now Martin is saying it. Martin walked from Kerry to Portlaoise one time for political status, now it’s from Kerry to Leinster House to end political status.
What a u-turn.
FORMER POW
Still a Republican
Dundalk
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The “peace process” is in cold storage or is it in Limbo, that strange place mentioned in Dante’s Inferno on the journey to hell.
Dante started his journey on Good Friday fittingly, travelling down many levels to the abyss. The lowest levels being for the worst sinners, closest to the inferno but this was a place for those who were regarded as traitors to country, city or party.
Needless to say Gerry and Martin won’t wear their overcoats come this winter.
S BOTTICELLI
London
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A chara
The art world has recently seen record prices achieved for Irish works of art. Sales by the leading auctioneers Sotherbys, Christies, Bonhams have exceeded all expectations, including the well-known work by Kernoff Davy Byrne’s back snug, Dublin.
The buyers? The young new rich from the burgeoning economy, the old colonial families purchasing pictures of their ancestors reminding them of their dubious roots, the Americans acquiring artifacts, pictures, rekindling thoughts of the old country, bathing in nostalgia.
While applauding the recognition of Irish art perhaps the purchasers should reflect on whether at this time their wealth would be better spent supporting those who continue to struggle for the national identity because until the National Question is resolved, the very essence of Irishness is impugned.
Then and only then will all things Irish truly take their place amongst the nations of the earth.
CATHAL Ó SÉ
England
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