Post Archives for Rusty Nail
This user has not yet written a description
Rowan, Duddy, Morrison
The Belfast Telegraph and the Irish News both feature articles on the hunger strike issue – more on those later today or tomorrow, time permitting. A comment by Dixie Elliott in the “and ‘Soon’ would have known this” thread is worth highlighting in regards the debate over Danny Morrison’s new claims that he brought nothing [...] more »
Further to Morrison’s attempted revisionism
While Danny Morrison is now claiming that the British had not formulated a position nor proposed a deal at the time of his specially arranged July 5 visit to the hunger strikers and Bik McFarlane, both Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams, in the Irish News in 2009, wrote of Morrison going into the prison to [...] more »
Danny Morrison’s Position
Danny Morrison outlines his position to Brian Rowan in today’s Belfast Telegraph: “At the time of my visit to the prison on the afternoon of Sunday July 5, 1981, the British Government had yet to even formulate its position, never mind proposing a ‘deal’.” This is quite different from what is already well documented, both [...] more »
National Archives 30 Year Papers – July, 1981
The 30 year papers for 1981 are being released, and they include many documents covering the hunger strike. Here are some quick notes about file PREM/19/506, which covers the period of the early July offer. Specifically, this is a quick sketch of pages 13-26 of the PDF, a telegram that comprehensively details the conversations the [...] more »
The Smoking Gun
Four documents – 2 double sided pages – have been made available from NUI Galway’s Brendan Duddy archives that are relevant to the Mountain Climber/Thatcher offer of early July, 1981. They are Brendan Duddy’s notes of the messages he was ferrying between the Adams Committee and the British Government. The first two pages are dated the [...] more »
Blogging Benghazi from Belfast
Malachi O’Doherty has a direct line to Benghazi, interviewing “an activist in Benghazi who was witness to the protests and the progress of the revolution there”. “Last night, for instance, he told me that he was recommending to protesters that they return the weapons they had captured from the army and trust the local commandos [...] more »
How do you solve a problem like Gerry, part 2
Gerry Adams jumped out of the frying pan of Morning Ireland into the fire at LM/FM. Adams’ follow-up performance on the local Louth/Meath station is so noteworthy that Fianna Fáil have actually issued it as a press release. Have a listen. Adams on LM/FM more »
“We on the outside finessed…”
In today’s Belfast Telegraph, Liam Clarke observes Danny Morrison’s admission that “we on the outside finessed the sequence of events for the sake of morale” at the end of the 1980 hunger strike. This is a major admission, as it changes the whole narrative that had been pushed for years, and also removes the main [...] more »
The “Top Secret” Press Release
One has to admire the sheer chutzpah of Brendan McFarlane. He was in Saturday’s Irish News trying to pass off a 1981 press release as a secret comm reflecting the personal viewpoint of Richard O’Rawe. Mr McFarlane said yesterday he would break five years of silence by producing secret IRA comms written by Mr O’Rawe [...] more »
Voices from the Grave
Coming up to the Halloween holiday, some people might be frightened of the idea of Voices from the Grave – but for others, the chance to hear an oral history of the Troubles from the mouths of two (in)famous protagonists, PUP leader and former UVF member David Ervine, and Brendan “The Dark” Hughes, is not [...] more »
The Shadow Peace Process
Malachi O’Doherty had a very powerful piece on Sunday Sequence this morning; the story of Terry Herdman, a young man shot by the Provisional IRA, whose loved ones are seeking answers. Malachi O’Doherty speaks with Libby Abrams and her daughter, Lisa, Professor Richard English and former IRA Volunteer Tommy Gorman. (Right click, save as for [...] more »
Killing Joe O’Connor
Ten years have passed since the Provisional IRA murdered RIRA Volunteer Joseph O’Connor in Ballymurphy. It was 1999 that Mo Mowlam gave a green light for the Provos to maim and murder their own people, when she classified the murder of young Charles Bennett – alleged to have been killed to keep him from exposing [...] more »
When Talking to Dissidents is Not So Good
UPDATED 16:35 The PSNI is again attempting to use journalists to gather evidence, this time confiscating the phone of freelancer Eammon MacDermott, over allegations he spoke with dissident Republican Gary Donnelly, a spokesperson for the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, recently released from Maghaberry prison and this morning back in court in what seems to be [...] more »
Now you want to hear from them?
The calls for dialogue with dissidents currently being made in support of Sinn Fein’s desire to meet with representatives of dissident groups are audacious in their chutzpah, their breathtaking guile. Brian Rowan and the Andersonstown News, both now supportive of this new initiative of Sinn Fein’s, write as if the recent past, and their participation [...] more »
The King Is Dead…
[Original picture removed by request of the copyright holder] Long Live the King? more »
“Some time I hope to get the space to reflect on my life with Brendan…”
Cartoon by Brian Mór Adams, signaling ‘Poor Gerry’ mode with his choice of blog title, ‘The ides of March?’, folksily expands on his earlier press release regarding the publication of Voices from the Grave. One wonders how the contents of the book are reduced to a schoolyardish tug-of-war over who was a better friend to [...] more »
FRU the Looking Glass
The Belfast Telegraph reports that “calls have been made for a specialist police unit to deal with dissident incidents”: Sinn Fein Policing Board member Daithi McKay warned that people’s lives could be put at risk, and has called for a specialist unit to deal with difficult incidents. “These are dangerous situations,” he said. “We saw [...] more »
Adams’ Palin moment
Gerry Adams’ appearance on the Late Late Show was notable for his Palinesque answers. • Well I have to say, even yet, and I know an awful lot more about these issues now, it still, beyond, uh, part of my, I can understand it to a certain degree, you know, intellectually and because I’ve learnt [...] more »
An open appeal to all Republicans from Ms Cahill
This statement comes to Slugger from Ms Cahill. It is carried in full. Over the last number of weeks, there have been several allegations circulating – alleged to have been perpetrated by members of the Republican Movement. There has been mixed reaction to this within the Republican Community, but particularly those within the Provisional republican [...] more »
Advertise
-
Books
-
Sunday Supplement
It being Sunday, we’ve all got time to consider and ponder things at greater length than during the working week, yes? If it’s good enough for the Sunday papers, it’s good enough for this guest blogger. So here’s the review section… Actually, it’s my introduction to a book published last year, Goin’ Down Slow: selected [...] read our review » -
“It was a trivial problem that… occurs every year”
Just your average family gathering at Christmas, with a bit of an argument about the seating cleaning arrangements… Scuffles have broken out between rival groups of Greek Orthodox and Armenian clerics over a turf war in Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity. Bemused tourists looked on as about 100 priests fought with brooms while cleaning the [...] read our review » -
The Imperfectionists (Tom Rachman) – an insight into a newspaper that’s maybe not so fictional
‘news’ is often a polite way of saying ‘editor’s whim’ Given the shift from print to online and e-ink, maybe Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists was a suitable first first book for me to finish reading on the Kindle. Considering the economic pressures on the newspaper industry, his novel perhaps captures the spirit and soul of [...] read our review »
-
