A woman member of the party who declined to be named for fear of reprisal spoke of British police sitting back in their jeeps as a gang of 30 loyalists had thrown her cousin to the ground and were dancing on his head.

“And when they started dancing on his head I ran over to the police jeep and told the policewoman to get out of the jeep and get some help before running back and just lay over him,” she said. “I was just afraid and shocked that I just lay over him, so that they couldn’t beat him anymore.There was nowhere for me to run to anyway.”

The woman was in the company of her sister, her sister’s husband and her cousin when they were attacked. The women were trying to shield the men from an avalanche of blows from the fascist mob.

“If I hadn’t been there they could have killed the two of them. I’m glad that the two of us were there because they would have been killed, the hatred was in their eyes. They kept shouting ‘Die you bastard, die you Fenian bastard’ . . . I just kept my head down and kept talking to him to try and get him to regain consciousness.”

She said the British police refused to intervene until the ambulance arrived. “I begged the police to get out of their jeeps. They finally came over when the ambulance arrived.”
Contents

Scots Guards Mark Wright and James Fisher were jailed for life for shooting 18-year-old Peter McBride dead in the New Lodge area of Belfast in 1992. He was shot twice in the back as he ran from an army patrol.

The two will have spent five years in jail by the time of the review, although most life prisoners have to wait ten years before their cases can be referred to the Board.

The Life Sentence Review Board has two options when reviewing a case – to set a release date for the men, or decide to review their case at another time, probably after one or two years.

If a prisoner is given a release date, they are usually freed one year after the decision.

Patrick Mayhew said the decision to refer the case to the Review Board a full year ahead of the due date was taken because of “exceptional mitigating factors”.

The real reason is Tory electioneering and the campaign for the British killers release by the British political and military establishment.

Jean McBride, the mother of Peter McBride said she was disgusted at the decision.

“There were no exceptional circumstances,” she said. “There was no rioting, they were under no attack.”
Contents

We trust that his acknowledgement will be accepted by all in grateful appreciation. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is being offered for your intentions. Le gach beannacht.
Contents

The journal is comprised of articles written by members of the Connolly Society along with contributions from Anthony McIntyre, Fr Des Wilson and Ruairí Ó Brádaigh.

Spirit of Freedom is an important achievement in that it provides a platform from which Irish Republicans can articulate their views on a broad spectrum of issues, from British State strategy to the message of Liberation Theology, issues which are central to the definition and application of any revolutionary struggle.

The importance of the role which Spirit of Freedom fulfils in providing such a platform can be gauged from a reading of three articles published in the journal: “British State Strategy Since the [Provisional] Republican Ceasefire” by Anthony McIntyre, “Defending the Unarmed Strategy” by Seán McGrogan of Ollscoil Béal Feirsde and an interview with Ruairí Ó Brádaigh.

McIntyre offers a critique of the Provisional ceasefire and McGrogan defends it while Ó Brádaigh offers Republican Sinn Féin’s analysis of the Irish freedom struggle. In his article, McIntyre defines Britain’s achievement as its success, from the imperialist point of view, in bringing the Provisionals’ military wing to “the intellectual position, the logic of which would cause the organisation to undermine its own existence, “that position being the acceptance of the necessity of the consent of the unionists to a United Ireland.

In making this point McIntrye contextualises the totality of the Provisionals’ surrender to Britain, most recently manifested in their recognition of the imperialist parliament at Westminster by Martin McGuinness’ promise to attend (Sunday Tribune, April 13, 1997).

While McIntyre’s analysis serves as a pertinent critique of Provisional strategy, Seán McGrogan’s “Defending Unarmed Strategy” reads rather like an apologia for it. Accepting that the Provisional’s ceasefire of August 1994 effectively terminated their campaign “before the stated aims of Republicanism had been achieved”, McGrogan goes on to state that, by necessity, Provisional policy involves the acceptance of “a political agreement falling short of the traditional Republican goal of immediate withdrawal from Ireland”.

However, in completely Orwellian fashion, McGrogan goes on to state that “we have no intention of ever again allowing our identity to be sacrificed and suppressed within a contrived state for the convenience of the Unionist leaders, Free State politicians and British policy makers”. A reformist subtext is thus betrayed by the author’s own doublethink (saying one thing while meaning another).

The ultimate failure of “Defending the Unarmed Strategy” lies in its lack of vision, encapsulated in McGrogan’s belief that the “need to convince unionists of the benefits of a united Irish Republic is greater than the reasons for continuing armed struggle”.

This argument is identical to that offered by the Stickies in the 1970s and reflects colonial deference on the part of the author who goes on to suggest that Irish people held within the six occupied counties should wait for the attainment of a Catholic majority there which should occur “as soon as” 2020! McGrogan’s thesis is further weakened by sweeping generalisations, such as: “The present leadership of the [Provisional)] Republican Movement have proven their commitment to the Republican cause over the past three decades and for some well before that”.

In making such generalisations, McGrogan appeals to emotion rather than to Republican ideology in the same manner as the Free Staters did — the “if it’s good enough for Mick Collins then its good enough for us” syndrome. While McGrogan makes excuses for the Provisional capitulation and while McIntyre examines its results, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh offers the way forward in an interview with the Connolly Society. Ó Brádaigh’ defines the Republican Movement in its historical context as a movement in struggle against the forces of occupation as well as native manifestations of counter-revolution.

Ó Brádaigh analyses the situation in which Irish Republicans currently find themselves. Pointing to a recurring British strategy of purchasing and subordinating a section of the Republican Movement which then brought counter-revolution to bear.

This has occurred in “due recurrent season” Ó Brádaigh argues, in 1922, 1927, the late ’40s, 1970 and in 1986, and was politically manifested in Cumann na nGael (now Fine Gael), Fianna Fáil, Clann na Poblachta, the Workers’ Party and finally the Provisionals.

Ó Brádaigh states, “they claimed to be the Republican Movement, they claimed that they were Sinn Féin and they claimed that they were the IRA, but an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit”. As for the Provisional “peace process”, Ó Brádaigh maintains: “there can never be peace in Ireland as long as the British government tries to rule here. There may be a smothered war, but it always breaks out again.

“This is a lesson that Irish history has taught us and Irish history did not come to a halt on August 31, 1994”. Indeed, this elementary fact is supported by Anthony McIntrye, who points out that, contrary to McGrogan’s theory of armed strategy as being inherently insufficient and outdated: “armed Republicanism cannot be explained away as the organisational expression of some mere archaic tradition. It is more the structured response to British strategies of political marginalisation and dis-placement employed against nationalists.

Ó Brádaigh also emphasises the malevolent influence of the Clinton administration, pointing to the language used by the White House:

“In their vocabulary we have a truncated Ireland. We have a 26 county State which is Ireland and a colonial State carved out of the body politic of Ireland, which is baptised Northern Ireland.” Ó Brádaigh goes on to discuss the efforts of globalisation on Ireland, the role of youth in the Irish freedom struggle, Drumcree and Republican Sinn Féin’s policy documents — ÉIRE NUA, SAOL NUA, and Towards a peaceful Ireland.

By facilitating a debate from such a diffuse field of opinion the Connolly Society has performed a revolutionary function. Spirit of Freedom is a necessary addition to existing Republican literature. No doubt the Republican struggle will be strengthened by this journal.

Spirit of Freedom also has a subversive role. Emanating from the academy traditionally perceived by Irish people in the Six Occupied Counties as a symbol of unionist rule, its publication has seriously undermined that perception.
— Seán Bearna
Contents