Sands relatives in 25th anniversary snub to Sinn Fein

by saddened Fri May 05, 2006 15:04

Its a disgrace that the corporate shinn feinn have hijacked a grieveing families/ nations anniversary. Bit like the young bucks at ogra claiming 3 INLA members as some of their own. Where next for the shinners?

by Paul. B Fri May 05, 2006 16:40

It was the INLA who were brave enough to take on LVF godfather Billy Wright in the Maze Prison in 1997. He was one of the most treacherous loyalist leaders in the 1990's.

by ok Fri May 05, 2006 22:09

Brendan McLaughlin sits jack-knifed in his wheelchair, a knot of gathered anger, and snaps the filter off another cigarette. He hasn't been able to taste tobacco, or much else, since the stroke he suffered seven years ago, so breaks the tips off before smoking them . . . 40 a day . . . right down to his kippercoloured fingers.
Photographs and republican paraphernalia wainscot the walls of his council bungalow . . . photographs of volunteer graves, pictures of famous IRA men, a bodhran made in Portlaoise jail. But it's a pencil sketch of the 10 men who carried their protest right to the end that draws his eye.
"You see them boys up there?" he says. "They died for nothing."
He's angry about a lot of things . . .
Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness ("scum bastards"), the peace process ("a sell-out") and the Brits ("no business being here . . . never had, never will").
"They're all getting ready to sit in Stormont, " he says, "when there's still a war to fight."
Paralysed down one side, he's no longer capable of prosecuting that war, but it goes on in the theatre of his head.
"I haven't changed, " he says. To him, it's a badge of honour. "See the rest of them . . . all them other boys you're talking to . . . they have changed.
They're supporting what's going on.
McGuinness and Adams . . . accepting the 26 counties! Accepting the six!
They're sitting in Dail Eireann. Now they're sitting up in Stormont.
"The next thing they're going to do is go on the police board and you know what that means. They're following the same lines as Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera. It's Irish history repeating itself, that's what it is. What did Michael Collins do? He turned the gun on his own men in Dublin. De Valera . . . what did he do? He got into power and done the same thing in the '40s. IRA men killed. The same thing will happen when they go on this police board. You can take it from me."
His two teenage boys come in and out at regular intervals. He's separated from their mother, who lives just a few doors away.
"We still get on okay. I'm easy-going.
I try not to get down, " he says, anxious not to sound like an ornery old man trapped not only in a wheelchair but in a perpetual past.
To him, the Troubles were part of a long continuum that started eight centuries ago and will only end once the last British soldier has left and Ireland is unified. Ten or 15 years ago just about every republican he knew believed this. Now, all he sees is compromise and fudge. "Money, big jobs, big houses . . . that's all it's about, " he says.
In 1981, he was 29 and well into a 12year sentence for possession of a pistol when he was chosen to replace Francis Hughes, the second man to die, on the hunger strike. But less than a week into his fast he was rushed to hospital suffering from a perforated ulcer and internal bleeding.
The aim of the hunger strike was to crank up the moral pressure on the British government by way of a series of drawn-out, highly publicised deaths. A sick hunger striker was a liability. The doctors said that a combination of gangrene, blood loss and oxygen starvation to the brain would have killed McLaughlin within 48 agonising hours. The IRA took him off the protest.
"I'd have gone the whole way, " he says. "I'd have done it. They [the prison authorities] were putting the food in the cell every day, hoping I'd have a nibble. I was too f**king hard for that. I'd no fear of death. I've been around too many corners in my time."
Would he have gone on hunger strike had he foreseen where the republican movement would be 25 years on? "Probably not, no. It's sad that 10 men died. And for what? See, I knew the best of them boys. Joe McDonnell was in the cell next to me. I knew Bobby Sands as well. I think they'd turn in their graves, them 10 there, with the way things are now."
His voice rises an octave. "Hit them in England, that's what I say. Forget about this country. I said that over 30 years ago. Hit them in their own country, where it hurts."
Some of his old comrades, who ask about him and still think fondly of him, say that it's being largely housebound and cut off from the mainstream of republican thinking, that has him still thinking about the conflict in abstract terms.
"No, it's just that they've changedf and I haven't, " he adds, flashing a proud smile, then twists a cigarette in the bottom of the ashtray and lights another.

by Joe Morgan Sat May 06, 2006 13:43

Ten Brave Men Will Never Be Forgotten

SANDS LIVES ON FOR EVER

HUGHES LIVES ON

REMEMBER THE TEN, REMEMBER THE MEN

GOVAN PROVISINALS WILL NEVER DIE.???

Editor's Note: The above comment is taken from the Sunday Tribune, April 30th, 2006.

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Sat May 06, 2006 15:15

Men died on Hunger Strike but their pain died with them. They provide an incentive to continue but surely not to seem men, like Brendan McLaughlin, to live out protracted, angry and a embittered lives without proper respect to their allegiances, the sentences they served, the impact on their health. This applies to Unionists also....their losses; their suffering....

Let us not forget that 51% of those who survived the 2nd World War encountered mental health problems while in Vietnam the victims to mental health problems, suicide and alcholism were a lot higher.

We need to address Trauma; we need to call it Trauma because that is the best way of covering all manifestations of disturbance to physical emotional and mental health problems.

We need centres, we need investment, we need inclusive person centred treatment, we need family counselling, we need reconcilliation and so much more. We need perhaps Chuck Feeney's - Atlantic Philantropics for the Island of Ireland. Think of an Amish quilt, the squares, all individual but they make up the whole. Novels have been extracted and supported families this way, in the Deep South of America.

We live longer but please let us limit the possibility of festering anger, bitterness, divisiveness and let us have a United Ireland in a way best expressed by John Hume 'Diversity in Unity'. It is beginning to happen....Let us also remember that the emotion Anger can be controlled. A good start is to look at Anger Management with
and then gets some counselling around it. Anger is afterall an incentive to do.....

There is a little introductory book about self realisation written by a Priest with a variety of degrees but a good insight to living. His name is Fr. Powell - the title is: 'Why am I afraid to tell you who I am.........? The answer is because if I tell you who I am, you may not like who I am, and that is all that I have. For all people facing demolisation in effect.....this should be like a little Green Book....Not any one person is perfect and you will realise from the book, that perfection itself creates its own problems.

I, with mental problems, had a great advtantage bestowed upon me when I gained access to Trinity College - Dublin, to a pscychologist, to a PA, Ivor, to lecturers therein, and interesting subjects and people and environment. I am an essay!! short of a BESS Degree due to to Chronic Fatigque Syndome but the experience changed my life and people who have experienced trauma ought to have the opportunity to seek out new and enlightening talents that may be hidden therein. I was under the people with dsiabilities group and this again opens up such horizons to difference. Does anyone every listen to Outside the Box on the radio? Next week I hope to be strong enough to attend the Arts and Disabilities day on creativity in Juries.....These are rich opportunities......

Bacon said 'Reading maketh the full man'.......this helped me greatly. Second hand book shops tend to be the best; the intrigue, the underlining, the comments........the mystery

Trauma Centres, Peace and Reconciliation and back to the Proclamation ideals for a fair and just Island of Ireland. We are all capable of working towards this.

Did anyone see the BBC programme with Fergal Keane as producer.
Desmond Tutu and two women involved in Peace Conflict Studies.....put forward a challenge. It is not easy, it is not for all, but it a way.......to Hope.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
'The true artist will let his wife starve, his children go barefoot, his mother drudge for his living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art'

Art; Artists; Creativity; Illusion;
To those who have died on Hunger Strike for the Cause of a United Ireland.................................

Michelle Clarke

by Rebel Scouser Sat May 06, 2006 18:30

Im with Brendan Mcloughlin!!!
Unlike him, I can wait another 10 or 20 years until the wheel rolls round again and the Traitors are dead.
Remember Bobby and the others!
"Our revenge will be the laughter of our children."-Tiochfaid ar la !

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Tue May 09, 2006 21:58

All I ask is why? What is the motivation? Do you believe that the Proclamation has been abandoned in its aspirations?

If so, war and its casualties surely is too high a cost and for 'your children'.

Gandhi is my inspiration. What he achieved I must admit I cannot really say. I hold two particular quotes that I believe will sustain people on a path to equality.....Equity....tolerance.....compassion......nature's hidden treasure

'You have to be the change you want to see in the world'........It comes back to each person acting in a responsible way and to some degree taking responsibility for their own lives and the fight against corruption, and the work towards equality.

The other:

'I live as if I am going to die tomorrow and I learn as if I am going to learn for the rest of my life'

Brendan McLoughlin, I am with him because I believe he is on a journey that has peaks and troughs but I hope people like Brendan will be treated with respect, provided with services that help them to cope with their lives and empower others.

To those who died on Hunger Strike or those who almost did ---- my respect for their passion and commitment to civil rights at the time.......
I suggest a song of which I do not have the words ..... but that make me stop and think and hope........Imagine by John Lennon (former Beatle). Simply: Imagine all the people living life in peace........

Michelle Clarke

by Blanketman Tue May 16, 2006 18:02

Like the 1916 uprising the gallant sacrifice of the 10 Hunger strikers was a failure, not because they took on and won a victory over the might of the British Empire, but because they have been betrayed by a weak leadership who were corrupted by the taste of power. This betrayal is far more vile than that of Scap or Donaldson because they have taken so many with them on their journey of betrayal. [ Those unquestioning fools who accept every word that they are told] They may stand in silent memory of our selfless heroes or they may make speeches about their sacrifice, but what these commemorations really are, are propaganda platforms for participation in a six county state parliament led by Paisley.

by Hebert Woods Tue May 16, 2006 18:45

A blanketman would tell us his name.

by Blanket man Tue May 16, 2006 19:21

What! and get a visit from the Baseball Bats telling me to shut my mouth or else?

by Hebert Woods Tue May 16, 2006 19:43

You are a phoney, more likely a branch than a blanket man - go on tell us your name then.

by Blanket Man Tue May 16, 2006 20:04

You should watch what you say about the Branch as you don't know who's working for them....Scap the informer hunter or Denis who used to weed out and remove anyone who asked awkward questions. Wonder who's next?

by H3er Tue May 16, 2006 20:21

Go to http://lark.phoblacht.net the website decated to the memory of the HUNGERSTRIKERS by former BLANKETMEN

by Blanket man Tue May 16, 2006 21:46

Who was the ex Blanket man who died in the gutter in Athlone 2 weeks ago and why was he not mentioned in any of the commemorations? He was a comrade of Bobby, Frank and the other Hunger strikers after all wasn't he?

by Herbert Woods Tue May 16, 2006 21:58

Just a bunch of cops. Talks like a cop, thinks like a cop, is a cop. Only the gullible are taken in by these retards. Go and read the Morris Tribunal report and tell us if you still think McBrearty is guilty.

by Padraig Tue May 16, 2006 23:32

Ógra Shinn Féin

by Herbert Woods Tue May 16, 2006 23:42

"To all Ogra Sinn Fein Members by Blanket man Tue May 16, 2006 20:46
Who was the ex Blanket man who died in the gutter in Athlone 2 weeks ago and why was he not mentioned in any of the commemorations? He was a comrade of Bobby, Frank and the other Hunger strikers after all wasn't he?"

No republican wrote that. No republican thinks like that. Only a thick cop could write that. If you are not a cop, what is your name? Come out from behind the blanket you never wore.

by Sean Tue May 16, 2006 23:48

Did Denis Donaldson work for them? He did a good job removing any dissident voices both here and America with the blessing of the SF Leadership......Padraig who?

by Herbert Woods Wed May 17, 2006 00:13

'Sean' and 'blanket man' have been using the same 'ex blanket man dying in the gutter' taunt on various threads. They are the same cop or part of the same cop group.

Make up a new name - you are too thick to come up with a new argument.

by Give it a rest Wed May 17, 2006 00:28

Herbert Woods:
"To all Ogra Sinn Fein Members by Blanket man Tue May 16, 2006 20:46
Who was the ex Blanket man who died in the gutter in Athlone 2 weeks ago and why was he not mentioned in any of the commemorations? He was a comrade of Bobby, Frank and the other Hunger strikers after all wasn't he?"
No republican wrote that. No republican thinks like that. Only a thick cop could write that. If you are not a cop, what is your name? Come out from behind the blanket you never wore.

"There are many people who have gone through this whole struggle and have gone off their heads. Kieran Nugent, one of the first blanket men, finished up with people calling him a water rat, drinking wine at the side of a river. Loads of others have just died off," [Brendan Hughes] said. (quoted by Niall Strange in the Sunday Tribune)

Hughes mentions Kieran Nugent, the first IRA man on the Blanket protest in Long Kesh. "Kieran died in 2000. They called him a 'river rat' because he spent his last days drinking by the river in Poleglass.

"Why didn't somebody in the movement not see he'd problems and help him? He was the bravest of the brave. The screws ordered him to wear the prison uniform and he replied, 'You'll have to nail it to my back.'" (quoted by Suzanne Breen in the Sunday Tribune)

Unless Brendan Hughes is not a Republican? Or are you suggesting the Dark is a thick cop? What block were you in, anyway?

by Herbert Woods Wed May 17, 2006 01:03

The taunting words I referred to were not written by a republican, they were written by a cop. Brendan Hughes did not write taunting nonsense here and the words you quote from a newspaper have no relationship to the cop-talk taunts on this thread. Do you really think a republican worthy of the name would use the death of a blanket man as a means of taunting others with sick questions?

Anyone who falls for this is a victim of "ruling by fooling".

by cop talk Wed May 17, 2006 01:19

In a few weeks when they join the cops themselves theyll need to know the lingo .

by Big Mac Mon Aug 14, 2006 19:11

Correct me if I'm wrong or was there a distinct shortage of hunger Striker's families at Yesterdays Commemoration in Belfast? It seemed as if others were stepping in to plug the gaps in the line up of families reading their son's Autobiographies?

by Pete Brickette Mon Aug 14, 2006 20:27

While yesterdays event was to be highly praised I felt that there was something missing. Perhaps it was the solidarity of the Blanket protest and comradeship felt amongst the Men and Women of Armagh. I felt that we were no closer to the objectives of the 10 Hunger Strikers than we were in 1981.
I thought of those who had died since then, of those who had parted ways and had fallen on hard times. Most of all I looked at the platform and thought how well certain people were doing in the New Republican Movement and how cosy they looked.
Most of all it was those unanswered questions which niggled me. Had the Movement been manipulated into going in a certain direction? Was there a deal on the table in 1981? Were people using the Movement to Profit financially? etc.

Time has a way of answering questions and someday I know they'll be answered.

by Phil Mon Aug 14, 2006 21:59

How many of the Hunger Strikers families were really there? I was also wondering this yesterday.