THE FALSE NARRATIVE THE PENSIVE QUILL

Monday 9th March 1981

I have left this rather late tonight and it is cold. The priest Fr Murphy was in. I had a discussion with him on the situation. He said he enjoyed our talk and was somewhat enlightened, when he was leaving.

On the subject of priests, I received a small note from a Fr S. C. from Tralee, Kerry, and some holy pictures of Our Lady. The thought touched me. If it is the same man, I recall him giving a lecture to us in Cage 11 some years ago on the right to lift arms in defence of the freedom of one’s occupied and oppressed nation. Preaching to the converted he was, but it all helps.

It is my birthday and the boys are having a sing-song for me, bless their hearts. I braved it to the door, at their request, to make a bit of a speech, for what it was worth. I wrote to several friends today including Bernie and my mother. I feel all right and my weight is 60 kgs.

I always keep thinking of James Connolly, and the great calm and dignity that he showed right to his very end, his courage and resolve. Perhaps I am biased, because there have been thousands like him but Connolly has always been the man that I looked up to.

I always have tremendous feeling for Liam Mellowes as well; and for the present leadership of the Republican Movement, and a confidence in them that they will always remain undaunted and unchanged. And again, dare I forget the Irish people of today, and the risen people of the past, they too hold a special place in my heart.

Well, I have gotten by twenty-seven years, so that is something. I may die, but the Republic of 1916 will never die. Onward to the Republic and liberation of our people.      
Bobby Sands

THE GREEN BOOK

The recruit is also made aware of the importance of another tenet forced on the I.R.A. by harsh experience: motivation. Mindful of the splits and informers which grew out of both internment and more particularly the I.R.A.'s own blanket style of recruiting, he is warned.

The Army as an organisation claims and expects your total allegiance without reservation. It enters into every aspect of your life. It invades the privacy of your home life, it fragments your family and friends, in other words claims your total allegiance.All potential volunteers must realise that the threat of capture and of long jail sentences are a very real danger and a shadow which hangs over every volunteer. Many in the past joined the Army out of romantic notions, or sheer adventure, but when captured and jailed they had after-thoughts about their allegiance to the Army. They realised at too late a stage that they had no real interest in being volunteers. This causes splits and dissension inside prisons and divided families and neighbours outside. Another important aspect all potential volunteers should think about is their ability to obey orders from a superior officer. All volunteers must obey orders issued to them by a superior officer regardless of whether they like the particular officer or not.

This motivation is not merely expected to carry the volunteer through vicissitudes such as capture, interrogation and prison; it is expected to sustain him to the Movement's ultimate political goal - a socialist Republic. It is dinned into him that military action is an extension of political action, therefore the military campaign of the I.R.A. is in effect a political campaign. The recruit is told bluntly: 'people with no political concepts have no place in the Army.' Furthermore, those concepts must be of a particular type: 'All potential volunteers must be socialist in outlook.' The recruit is given a very clear eyed vision of the facts.

Before any potential volunteer decides to join the Irish Republican Army he should understand fully and clearly the issues involved. He should not join the Army because of emotionalism, sensationalism, or adventurism. He should examine fully his own motives, knowing the dangers involved and knowing that he will find no romance within the Movement. Again he should examine his political motives bearing in mind that the Army are intent on creating a Socialist Republic.

" Life in an underground army is extremely harsh and hard, cruel and disillusioning at times. So before any person decides to join the Army he should think seriously about the whole thing."  
_

Green Book

THE FALSE NARRATIVE OF THE PENSIVE QUILL

... only to end up ourselves beneath the blade of a Committee of Public Safety or some Dictator of the Proletariat … Nicos Poulantzas


When Bobby Sands died on hunger strike 32 years ago today, for a short time he pushed republicanism into a moral stratosphere from where it could gaze down on its critics, detractors and opponents. It was a commanding height, attained courtesy of interminable suffering, that was never going to be held for long despite the enormous selflessness of the Sands action.  The exigencies of armed conflict, the persistently ebbing support for armed struggle, the relentless attrition and unremitting war fatigue all combined to paint armed republicanism into a corner where strategic versatility was heavily circumscribed. Yet for all of that Bobby Sands and the nine comrades who followed in his wake left a footprint which has never been erased from public consciousness.

Before Richard O’Rawe came along and began his lonely endeavour of chipping away at the block lie, a narrative was set in stone that helped keep the public misinformed. In addition to mediator Brendan Duddy two groups of people knew how fallacious the narrative was and for different reasons these two bodies had little incentive to be forthcoming about the events of 1981. The Committee for Prisoner Safety that ran the hunger strike, to the exclusion of the prisoners on strike, banked all the capital that accrued from ten men dead, using it to promote the political career of its leader to whose wagon it was firmly hitched.  It wasn’t going to rain on its own parade. Until lately the British maintained radio silence although it is inconceivable that they did not put their wealth of  knowledge to major strategic use even though the public might have to wait a while yet to discover the finer details of whatever nefarious transaction occurred there.

The false narrative depicted the British Prime Minister of the day as the Iron Lady who would neither yield nor turn, her intransigence tactile rather than tactical:  despite their best efforts the hunger strikers had failed to break the woman and in the end her malevolence won the physical battle while their victory was a moral one

Since the 2005 publication of Blanketmen, clarity has displaced the manufactured clouds that shielded the false narrative. The Committee has fulminated and fumed against O’Rawe but was possessed of neither the punching power to take him out nor the ring craft to evade his hand speed. Now the ring is his to discourse freely from without any fear of serious challenge. As the late Springhill republican Harriet Kelly was fond of saying, there is a hundred ways to lie but only one way to tell the truth. It has been the one way with O’Rawe since his counter narrative emerged. Assailed by a barrage of lies from the managers of mendacity it has withstood everything hurled at it.

Margaret Thatcher outlived Bobby Sands by almost 32 years. Yet there is a certain irony in that she of all people, the bane of the hunger strikers, has posthumously acknowledged their victory though the release of her archive. She has restored to them the victory the Committee robbed them of. The lady who was not for turning was forced to turn by the moral force of the hunger strikers combined to British state strategic acuity which was even at that juncture moulding a leadership that in the language of diplomacy it could do business with or, in the language of counter insurgency, bring to heel and co-opt.

What is galling about documentation that has been making its way into the public domain is that the British interlocutors dealing with the Committee were ‘appalled’ that the Committee men would continue to refuse an offer that would have ended the hunger strike and saved six lives. The prisoners had already accepted the offer and transmitted this to the Committee which overruled them and sabotaged the transmission of their acceptance to the British, thus ensuring only one outcome: coffins on the streets. The Committee had objectives other than saving prisoners’ lives on its agenda.

Richard O’Rawe, comrade of the hunger strikers, foil of the Committee of slayers, no longer requires vindication. His case is proven beyond all doubt. The Committee cannot even take shelter behind the Scottish legal verdict of 'not proven'. Exposed in its disgusting betrayal of great men its own sorry lot could never hope to match, it can claim its rightful spot in the Hall of Shame.

It is a place where Bobby Sands will never be afforded space. 

REPLY TO A PENSIVE QUILL FASCIST CENSOR

Gethsemane

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Five years ago today, a Saturday, our old friend Brendan Hughes died in a Belfast hospital after a short illness. For over a week this redoubtable leader of the H-Block blanket protest had lain beyond the reach of any human help other than the palliative. Sometimes he rallied. The previous Saturday in the company of another former prisoner I made my way to the hospital in fear of the worst.  Upon arriving we were relieved to learn the moment had passed and for a while Brendan seemed to pick up. But it was a temporary respite.

Framed photos of him adorn our mantle piece, as they have since the day he died. They were placed there that very evening five years ago and have remained there since. The by-now well-known photo of Brendan and Dolours Price was put there the same night. Dolours was in our home at the time awaiting the inevitable. Now she too no longer graces our company.

Two great fighters from the republican battle fields died in the full knowledge that the armed struggle they participated in had been comprehensively defeated, their energy, effort and endurance hijacked and traded in by others in ignominious exchange for political careers.  It caused them no small measure of regret as did many of their own actions. Yet they took responsibility for what they did and never sought to shift culpability away from themselves and onto the shoulders of others.

Brendan and Dolours were quintessential Provos: and the Provos were the antithesis of anything that smelt even remotely of compromise and capitulation. They arose in part as a reaction against kowtowing and forelock tipping to the British state and its unionist allies.  Yet the greatest about turn in the history of republicanism was made by the Provos who now stand four square with the DUP against the republican tradition. That sort of four square orientation would never have resonated in the minds of either Brendan and Dolours. For them four square would have conjured up imagery of the IRA attack on the Four Square Laundry operation in October 1972 when the Belfast Brigade inflicted a considerable intelligence coup on the British Army.

Both felt badly let down by the Gethsemane stance of Gerry Adams, their one time military commander, who has since taken umbrage at CNN for having described him as a military commander. No chance of Brendan and Dolours having found it shameful to learn of themselves being referred to as former IRA commanders. They would have seen it as an accolade to be worn like a badge.

St Peter only did the denial trick three times during the course of one evening, whereas Gerry has done it on countless occasions over a thirty year period, denying Brendan and Dolours and every other IRA volunteer he commanded as his comrades-in-arms. But they are not alone in being on the receiving end of that denial. Bobby Sands, who they share the good company of, is another whose comrade-in-arms status is routinely denied as well. Bobby is just someone Gerry met while the latter was imprisoned for civil rights activities. An IRA comrade – never. Merely somebody he met on his journey of peace.

The cock would be hoarse by now if it were to crow at every denial from the Great Denier. But Peter is certainly crowing and cackling with delight each time the DUP boss sees the stalwarts of IRA armed struggle disowned and effectively disdained by the man who made more categories of legitimate targets than Barney Hughes made baps.

Above is the content the blog provided. If incomplete, read the original here.

Brendan  What you say is the truth but bitterness does not travel well, neither is it a friend of the Republican Movement in general in Ireland. We need to remember the lessons but learn to forgive to make a reality of the Republican Proclamation. UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL ! Division is Britain's first trick!

CONVERSATION CENSORSHIT IN A FASCIST STATE

FREE MARIAN PRICE

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2012  AM  14 COMMENTS

FREE MARIAN PRICE

Her 'Internment' by Government constitutes corruption of Law, Denial of Justice, avoidance of trust, and absence of compassion for a very ill woman.

Mgr. Raymond Murray, former chaplain Armagh Prison. 

Marian's health has continued to deteriorate as a consequence of many months of solitary confinement and neglect. She is being treated for several chronic illnesses and despite six months of medical intervention Marian remains gravely ill under guard in an isolated hospital unit.

Medical experts have stressed that her condition will not improve in an environment that is not conducive to recovery.

BLIND SHOTS AT A HIDDEN TARGET 

Marian McGlinchey's health deteriorates whilst held in isolation even though not convicted of any offence.


British officials rely upon an alleged breach of licence conditions. Those conditions were removed by a Royal Pardon. She is unable to challenge the legitimacy of her detention as government officials assert that in 2010 they destroyed the only known copy of the Pardon. Marian was adamant that the RPM covered all offences BEFORE it was discovered that the document was missing from Buckingham Palace and Government archives.

As long ago as April 1980 she was released from prison as she was suffering from anorexia and mental health issues and freedom was granted to save her life.

The police rely upon secret information to justify her detention. The Defence will never have this evidence and she cannot make effective representations in respect of it.

Government officials revoked her licence after the Courts had deemed her fit for release.
This cannot continue.

Marian's Solicitor Peter Corrigan 

'True peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice' 

- Martin Luther King Jr. 

Sponsored on behalf of Republican Ex-Prisoners, the wider Republican Family and friends. 

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Saturday, May 19, 2012

Marian Price should be released immediately.

Today The Pensive Quill features guest writer Mick Hall who blogs atOrgansied Rage. Here he takes issue with the ongoing internment of the Irish republican political prisoner Marian Price.

After the British Viceroy in Ireland Owen Paterson revoked her licence last year, Irish republican Marian Price has now been held without trialfor over a year. Never mind from day one this decision was surrounded in controversy as the British government were unable to provide the license claiming it has been lost. This is not a small matter as her lawyers claim it no longer stands having been revoked, expressing his concern Daniel Holder, Deputy Director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) had this to say about Marian Prices case: 

The case of Marian Price is particularly striking, as on the same day a Judge released her on bail in May 2011, a government Minister returned her to prison. There are other due process issues in relation to this case, not least the fact she was given a pardon under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy. The NIO claims this document only related to Marian Price’s fixed term and not life sentence for which a licence applied. Her family contest that the pardon related to both, and hence believe that the NIO had no licence to revoke. It would seem a relatively simple matter for the NIO to produce the document to settle the matter. However, apparently the pardon and all copies of it have gone ‘missing.’ Given that it could possibly change a decision as to whether a person is deprived of their liberty, one would think an investigation would have taken place as to how and when the information disappeared. CAJ has been told that the NIO have decided not to investigate this on the grounds that the pardon is ‘not relevant’ to this case.

Whatever the truth of this, the charges on which Marian was first arrested have now been dismissed, as the British judicial system in Ireland failed to submit the necessary papers that would have allowed the judge hearing the case to consider its merits. Judge McElholm reached the conclusion the prosecution had long enough to produce the necessary papers to the defence, yet failed to do so and threw out the case against Ms Price and her co defendants.

Yet still the Tory Viceroy Owen Paterson refuses to release Marian from prison. She remains imprisoned without charge or trial, which is internment by most civilised people's standards. To make matters worse she has been held in solitary confinement since she was first arrested and imprisoned, first at the top security Maghaberry jail and since February this year in Hydebank prison.

Understandably aged 57, solitary confinement without a tariff;  and a lack of exercise have taken its toll on Marian, according to her husband Jerry McGlinchey his wife's health has deteriorated rapidly since she arrived in Hydebank:

Marian is so ill that she had to be taken to a recent visit in a wheelchair. Her hair is falling out, she has lost a lot of weight, and her arthritis has got worse. She is suffering from severe depression after a year in solitary without any release date. The doctors in Hydebank have told us she's not fit to be in jail, according to them she should either be in hospital or at home.

To oppose her continued imprisonment and call for her release does not mean one is a supporter of Marian’s political beliefs, nor the organisation she belonged to at the time of her arrest. Her detention is a travesty of justice and harks back to the dark days of British rule in Ireland. You cannot have one law for some and a different law for political opponents. Such is the road to hell. If the history of the British in Ireland proves one thing, for justice to succeed it must be conducted before a judge and jury and in open court for all to see, not behind closed doors on the signature of a British politician's pen.

If the British governments representatives in the six counties believed Marian Price had committed a crime they should have processed the charges in the appropriate time period and left it for court of law to decide. This they failed to do as was clearly demonstrated by Judge McElholm when he threw out the case last week.

It is high time Marian Price was released from prison, she would not be going any where but home, if at a later date the judicial authorities in the six counties conclude they have a viable case against her, all they need do is knock on her door, something they had no difficulty doing a year ago.

To keep this sick and ageing woman in jail any longer is a judicial obscenity which reeks of bad law. Marian Price should be released immediately.

Cead Mile Failte, A Hundred Thousand Welcomes