our collective grief's symbol was fresh then

These are my initial published thoughts on the terrorist attack I and my partner survived and endured 17th August 2017.
Fadó Fadó, long time ago, when many more readers came to this corner of the internet, I published a series of articles in reaction to a terrorist attack on Madrid, the 11th of March 2004. I promoted a simple design back then, to my surprise the idea found traction and was accepted by countless people. i had thought my suggestion was easy to reproduce and helped people express collective mourning, to show publicly their fellowship with a community in shock. My design was a black ribbon, one which was easy to knock up variations upon and print out. I admit the ribbon idea was based on my much younger years when I had worn a green ribbon in support of a complex idea back then : the inclusion of political prisoners in a tentative British Irish peace process. Am I turning some off the provenance? OH talk to me about my youth why not? The idea of a black ribbon took off the weekend of March 11th, 2004, whilst the then government of Spain falsely attributed an attack by Salafists in the ambit of Al Qaeda on Madrid by blaming the Basque armed seperatist group ETA. IT was a few days before a general election. An estimated 80,000 people took to the streets of Spain and the Spanish state and camped out in front of government offices and the offices of the ruling party demanding the truth... I was one... the ribbon was a moment in my life... I never wanted to see it used again In the last hours the city of my home where I have lived almost 20 years has been victim of a long anticipated terrorist attack. Even google now puts a black ribbon. I return to indymedia ireland to indulge POV reflections.

Related Links: Barcelona Attack : Black Ribbons (again) | Black Ribbons. (March 12th 2004)

To help highlight the case of the Jobstown 18 we are republishing an open letter by Irish Writers.

We write as writers concerned with the impact of proposed jury restrictions in the case of the Jobstown 18 on freedom of expression in Ireland.

Related Links: Stand With Jobstown - Sat 6th May @ 2pm in Tallaght | 'March for Justice' in solidarity with the Jobstown Not Guilty campaign - Apr 22nd | Violence And The Jobstown Anti-Water Charges Protest. | Free the Jobstown 4! - Socialist Party Press Release | Hundreds protest conviction of Jobstown teen following Burton sit in |
See also: Jobstown Trial as it happens | Twitter #JobstownNotGuilty | Jobstown-Not-Guilty -Facebook

Garda Ombudsman, under fire
from forces of corruption?

It was suspected that offices of the GSOC (garda siochana ombudsman commission) were being bugged. Shrouded in secrecy, they brought in specialists from the UK under advice from their equivalent body in the UK, the IPCC. These specialists did a high tech sweep of their offices under cover of darkness and a report was created which suggests that it was extremely likely that highly sophisticated bugging of the office had occurred. Government and high ranking gardai have closed ranks and are trying to spin this as a problem with GSOC instead of addressing the strong possibility that GSOC was bugged and who would want to do that and have access to do so except the gardai themselves. If true this is a grave issue. It is believed in some circles that this bugging may be related to investigations by GSOC into the case of large scale heroin importer Boylan who it is alleged has been working with gardai and has "magically" evaded conviction in the face of overwhelming evidence of trafficking huge amounts of drugs. This affair may go right to the top and has the potential to sink this government

External Links: Black Ops Being Run Off The Books | The Gardaí And The Drug Dealer | The Appalling Vista | PoliticalWorld.org thread on GSOC preparing report on drug case collusion | IMSI-Catcher | Court Report On “rape-tape” Sergeant Being Awarded €33,0000 | Garda shell booze controversy airs at Belmullet court | Sullivan: Ombudsman investigation 'about protecting Gardaí' | Jail! | gardai denigration of McKenna funeral must be condemned | Release of Garda exposes Corrupt Two - Tier 'Justice' System | Students Occupy Department Of Finance | 600 March Against Garda Violence at Student Demo Last Week. | An Undercurrent of Malpractice and Deceit | Lies, Lies And More Lies - Garda Corruption Systemic | The ministry of injustice, administering injustice near you sometime soon | The McBrearty Tapes | Terence wheelock case - interview with family member | Another death caused by Garda Hospitality? - The parents of John Moloney demand an independent inquiry

Drumm: Wanted by the people for High Treason

The astonishing tapes show senior manager John Bowe, who had been involved in negotiations with the Central Bank, laughing and joking as he tells another senior manager, Peter Fitzgerald, how Anglo was luring the State into giving it billions of euro. Mr Fitzgerald had not been involved in the negotiations with the Central Bank and has confirmed he was unaware of any strategy or intention to mislead the authorities. Mr Bowe, in a statement last night, categorically denied that he had misled the Central Bank.

The audio recordings are from the bank's own internal telephone system and date from the heart of the financial crisis that brought the State to its knees in Sept 08.

Anglo itself was within days of complete meltdown – and in the years ahead would eat up €30bn of taxpayer money. Mr Bowe speaks about how the State had been asked for €7bn to bail out Anglo – but Anglo's negotiators knew all along this was not enough to save the bank.

Related Links: Police Draw Batons on Bank Bailout protestors | Ireland and the shadow Banking System - A Talk by Dr. Conor McCabe| The Recession, Bank Bailout or our Deficit? | Audio from Conor McCabe on Banker and Rancher Interests in the Modern Irish Economy | Anglo Irish Bank Protesters to Plead Not Guilty -Here we have a case where the govt tries to convict people protesting against the bankers but not the actual bankers themselves. | Banner Protest outside Anglo Irish Bank | Eirigí Protest at Anglo Irish Bank - 13 Photos Essay | Why the Fianna Fail Party wants to avoid bank nationalisation. | Workers Party Press Release Dec 2008 on Anglo Irish Bank | Initial Thoughts on the Govt's Guarantee to Irish Banks and Its Wider Implications | Communist Party Demand the sacking of all CEO's of Irish banks

Commemoration Event Poster

A wreath-laying ceremony to honour and remember the three busmen who were killed will take place in Sackville Place on the 4th of December at 11.30 am at the site of the pavement memorial: ‘A Fallen Bouquet’.
All welcome

Forty years have passed since that dark winter evening of Friday, 1st December 1972, when at 7.58 pm, the first ever car bomb exploded in the Republic of Ireland. It occurred beside the famous Dublin landmark, Liberty Hall, where the ITWGU had its headquarters. There were no fatalities but many people were injured. Several minutes later, a second explosion occurred at Sackville Place, off O’Connell Street, killing bus driver George Bradshaw, aged 29 and bus conductor Tommy Duffy, aged 23. Both of them were married men. George and his wife Kathleen had two young children. Tommy and his wife had a daughter and Monica was pregnant with their second child.

Three minutes before the first bomb exploded, an anonymous telephone call was made to the 'Belfast Newsletter', giving a warning that bombs planted at Liberty Hall and behind Clery’s would explode at 8.05 pm. The person who received the warning told Gardaí that the caller had spoken with a ‘Belfast English-type accent’. The warnings came too late as was almost certainly the intention. The result was devastating, two men dead and 127 people injured. Damage to property was extensive.

Related Links: Justice For the Forgotten |
Answers still outstanding about the Dublin and Monaghan bombings |
Wikipedia page on the bombings |
An Phoblacht article on the unveiling of the memorial to the three CIE workers |