Slugger O'Toole

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IRIA has commented 87 times (0 in the last month).

1. Comment on “He was just following orders…”
   on 15 April 2010 at 11:03 pm

   Didn’t Tohill become a devout religious man since the “event”?

   If Rainey’s on the run, how did Tohill become friends with him, Instant Messages?

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2. Comment on ‘united, resolute and in defiance’
   on 6 April 2010 at 7:44 am

   Why do you call him Sammy?

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3. Comment on “What kind of eejits do [these] people take us for?”
   on 2 April 2010 at 8:31 pm

   Pete “the Para”:

   New leadership, under Gerry Adams, has regrouped the I.R.A. into smaller cells and tightened screening against informers. It has negotiated alliances with the Palestine Liberation Organization, which supplies arms, money and training, and the Libyan government of Muammar Gaddafi, which, McMullen says, provides loans, arms and transportation.

   The new leaders and new connections give the I.R.A. enough muscle to risk a long planned series of hits against members of the British royal family. The assassination of Lord Mountbatten last month, says McMullen, was only the first. Future targets include Prince Philip, Princess Margaret and Princess Anne. McMullen predicts bombings of both Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, among other royal residences.

   McMullen says he disliked the I.R.A.’s random terrorism and as early as 1974 tried to “resign.” He was soon arrested in Dublin on gun-possession charges and spent 2% years in Portlaoise prison; he suspects the I.R.A. set him up. After getting out of jail in 1977, he returned to New York on his own, but was pressed back into I.R.A. service. He says he was ordered to kidnap Dan Flanagan, who owns the chain of Blarney Stone bars in Manhattan, and hold him for ransom. He told the I.R.A. that he had agreed only to gather intelligence on Flanagan. Then McMullen heard that the I.R.A. planned to send a squad from Belfast to kill him, and he went into hiding.

   How much of McMullen’s story can be believed? Although Blake says he checked whatever he could, TIME sources found some parts of McMullen’s story credible, other portions improbable. New York City police can see no reason why the I.R.A. would want to kidnap Flanagan, an unpolitical type; any ransom it might collect would hardly be worth the danger of provoking a police crackdown. David Blundy, a London Sunday Times writer who interviewed McMullen extensively before Blake did, says McMullen’s accounts of two bombings in Ireland checked out in every detail, but that his stories of his U.S. adventures were a little dubious. U.S. authorities say that whatever may have been the case in 1972, the I.R.A. in the U.S. now limits itself to fund raising.

   Skeptics think McMullen has at the least exaggerated portions of his tale to help peddle an eventual book. But it is indisputable that the British want him extradited for the bombing of a barracks near Liverpool. A San Francisco federal magistrate turned down the request on the ground that the bombing was a “political” act. U.S. authorities are now trying to deport him, and McMullen presumably will surface in San Francisco on Sept. 28 for a hearing.

   http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,920650,00.html

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4. Comment on “What kind of eejits do [these] people take us for?”
   on 2 April 2010 at 8:24 pm

   I don’t really understand why GA doesn’t just admit to being in the IRA, but on the flip side, I don’t understand the obsession over what we already know.

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5. Comment on Talking ill of the dead
   on 2 April 2010 at 6:05 pm

   Wasn’t McConville kidnapped on one occasion and seen walking back to her place in a “dazed state”, only to be kidnapped again a few days or weeks later? Whatever happened was terrible, but the idea that she was in the wrong place or mistaken identity seems misplaced.

   Neither disappearing her or murdering her and leaving her on the side of the road is a pleasant thought. I’m guessing(like everyone) that if they stripped her and left her on the side of the road, the Brits would say she was raped/sexually abused, etc.

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6. Comment on Talking ill of the dead
   on 2 April 2010 at 6:58 am

   It should be said that Hughes didn’t show remorse for her killing.

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7. Comment on ‘Up like a bird and over the city’
   on 1 April 2010 at 6:47 am

   USA: I’m with you, but it has to be considered that on SOME occasions, “half way” meetings or video isn’t an option.

   A McGregor post usually comes down to this:

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX7wtNOkuHo

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8. Comment on “Some time I hope to get the space to reflect on my life with Brendan…”
   on 1 April 2010 at 1:14 am

   I believed Delours Price got the “ill” treatment a few weeks back.

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9. Comment on “Some time I hope to get the space to reflect on my life with Brendan…”
   on 1 April 2010 at 12:14 am

   Didn’t Hughes suffer from the effects of the Hunger Strike? Kidney issues and such, mixed with a love of the booze? Being what he went through, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had some PTSD as well. But, like everyone, I’m speculating.

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10. Comment on The MI5 problem is real
    on 31 March 2010 at 10:09 pm

    Not sure why it would be hard to believe they would reach out in that manner.

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