Martina Anderson joined the IRA in 1979 with a number of other teenage girls, initially hanging around in a small unit of older men some of whom – friends of mine – had already served prison sentences. At that time, they were all reporting to a well-known IRA Commander in Derry, nicknamed “Ducksie”. Her older brother, Peter, had been a prominent republican a few years … Continue reading Martina Anderson, the IRA and her Disappeared Victims
El movimiento disidente del “IRA Provisional” surge desde la mayoría marxista existente dentro del IRA en 1969. Este movimiento, que había reevaluado Irlanda del Norte después de la fallida “Campaña Fronteriza” acometida por el IRA entre 1956-62, decidió que la guerra de clases y la agitación no sectaria podrían funcionar mejor que las actividades armadas que habían fracasado recientemente. La posición del IRA Oficial cambió … Continue reading Paradojas de “la lucha armada” del IRA
The BBC’s former great, Brian Rowan, has developed into a sorry peddler of two or three threadbare tenets these days, repeating them ad nauseam “like a stuck record” (if anyone is old enough to remember vinyl records): “You can’t have a peace process that releases prisoners and a past process that sends people to jail.” “Paramilitaries must not suffer “a parade of shame” over legacy … Continue reading Brian Rowan – “No Parade of Shame for Paramilitaries”
I passed the dreaded 11-Plus examination in 1966 and was sent to St. Columb’s College ‘grammar school’ in Derry as a day-boy where students of the calibre of poet Seamus Heaney, singer Paul Brady, playwright Brian Friel and politician John Hume had lately preceded me. Two ‘dead’ languages were obligatory at St. Columb’s College in those years, Latin and Irish. By ‘dead’ I mean that … Continue reading The Irish Language in Derry in the late 1960s/70s
Much of the international reportage of 29-year-old Lyra McKee’s murder centred on descriptions of her as a ‘ceasefire baby’, a woman whose early years were brightened by what was promised to be peace during the post-Belfast Agreement period when the IRA movement was supposed to end all hostilities. Much of the international reportage of 42-year-old Thomas Ashe Mellon has centred on his leadership of the … Continue reading Thomas Ashe Mellon III – the new Martin McGuinness
It is no surprise in 2019 that Derry City nurtures the nascent IRA, as it nurtured the nascent IRA in 1969. In the late 1960s there was a certain novelty about the Civil Rights’ Movement in Derry because the Civil Rights’ movement had to be imported into Derry City from outside. There was a palpable feeling abroad in middle-class Derry that the Civil Rights’ movement … Continue reading The Town That Loves the IRA So Well
Witness ‘O’ gave what purported to be ‘evidence’ to the Birmingham Pub Bombings’ Inquest recently. There were some rather obvious inconsistencies in his strange tale. Firstly, he said he was on remand in Winson Green prison at the time of the Birmingham Pub Bombings awaiting trial on what must have been prior IRA bombing charges. He was billed as a convicted IRA bomber – so … Continue reading The Strange Case of Witness ‘O’ at the Birmingham Pub Bombings’ Inquest
Kieran Conway was billed as a former IRA GHQ Director of Intelligence who was willing to participate in the Birmingham Pub Bombings’ Inquest on various conditions: He would only speak via video link from an unidentified location (presumably in Dublin) hiding behind the Irish border he fought so hard to remove. He would not identify any living IRA volunteer related to the Birmingham Pub bombings. … Continue reading Kieran Conway – Credible Witness at the Birmingham Pub Bombings’ Inquest?
Having cheerfully murdered members of the RUC, of An Garda Síochána and of the Metropolitan Police for some thirty years, it does not sit easily with the IRA movement to support police forces in general and its lumpen rank and file has never actually been converted to love for ‘peelers’. On January 29, 2007, at an extraordinary Ardfheis (party meeting) at the Royal Dublin Show, … Continue reading IRA vs PSNI
Martina Fitzgerald, RTE’s recently-axed political correspondent, published an analysis piece in July 2018 stating that Mary Lou McDonald was “a strong media performer and has no links to the IRA”. Is it credible to declare that Mary Lou McDonald has “no links to the IRA”? Forget all about embittered former SDLP commentator Brian Feeney writing in “The Irish Times” in August, 2015 that the IRA … Continue reading Mary Lou McDonald – No Links to the IRA?
