Rusty Nail

UPDATE: SINN FEIN issues statement calling for a cover-up. Wednesday night in Gulladuff, South Derry, Gerry Adams, Danny Morrison and Bik McFarlane met with some members of some of the families of the 1981 hunger strikers. Anyone having any hopes of Sinn Fein supporting and honestly participating in a Truth and Reconciliation Commission should just go home now. It was a complete farce from beginning to end. Goons from West Belfast patrolled the parking lot and guarded the door to …

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This week in South Derry, bowing to pressure from recent revelations that have reduced aspects of the standard Provisional narrative of the 1981 hunger strike to self-serving propaganda, Gerry Adams and members of the 1981 PIRA sub-committee for the Hunger Strike will meet privately with members of hunger strikers’ families. This comes as a former hunger striker and other Blanketmen, and the families of hunger strikers Patsy O’Hara and Mickey Devine, have made public calls for a full inquiry into …

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Inch by inch, the truth is coming out. In a major concession, now that Richard O’Rawe’s account of the July Thatcher offer and prison leadership acceptance has been vindicated, Bik McFarlane has changed his story. Suddenly regaining his memory, he recalls a conversation with O’Rawe and comes up with never-before-revealed details of a conversation he held with the hunger strikers. This is a major about-face from where he started, going from “That conversation did not take place, there was no …

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CAPTION:Sinn Fein Election Cheer: ‘Tell me lies!’Sinn Féin election workers rally in front of their bus shouting their election cheer Drawing in a breath, this morning on Dublin radio, as reported by the Sunday Life, in a pre-election interview, Gerry Adams exhaled, relating a very detailed and sweet little story about his time in prison, when he and a 100 other prisoners would sing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life“ to each other in order to keep their …

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Gerry Adams’ refusal to attend the Derry debate follows below the foldThe invitation: To Gerry Adams I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to either participate or send a representative to sit on the panel for a debate which will be entitled “What is the truth behind the Hunger strike?” This has been organised by the Republican Network for Unity and we hope to host panellists and guests from across the political spectrum. The venue for the …

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Saturday evening’s meeting in Derry could be described as a grassroots Truth Commission – clearly, the public’s desire for truth and expanded knowledge of the events of the Troubles is overwhelming, enough so that people are not waiting for officialdom to create yet another useless quango in order to get to it. They are, despite all the odds stacked against them, doing it for themselves. They aren’t seeking compensation or appointed positions: they merely want those who were there to …

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Last night in Derry a significant meeting was held examining the events of the 1981 hunger strike, specifically looking at the negotiations between the British and the PIRA around the time of hunger striker Joe McDonnell’s death. He was the fifth hunger striker to die; five other young men died of starvation after him. Since the publication of the book, Blanketmen, by Richard O’Rawe, a horrible question has been raised: were the deaths of those 6 men a betrayal of …

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Briefly: This Saturday, 7:00 at the Gasyard in Derry, an open meeting organised by Republican Network for Unity is to be held examining the events of the 1981 hunger strike, specifically the contention that the prisoners accepted a deal that was overruled by the outside leadership, after which six further men died on hunger strike. Confirmed speakers include Brendan Duddy, Willie Gallagher, Richard O’Rawe, and Liam Clarke. Danny Morrison refused to participate. Invitations were also issued to Bik McFarlane and …

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The questions over the July 5th hunger strike deal still go on. Danny Morrison is very disappointed Liam Clarke did not have a full story about the issue in this week’s Sunday Times (don’t worry, Danny, this story is one that is set to run and run, as long as answers aren’t forthcoming; just because it may have been quiet one weekend does not guarantee silence the next!). He uses his position as the secretary of the Bobby Sands Trust …

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The Sunday Tribune website now has all today’s articles, mentioned earlier on Slugger, available online, including the admission of responsibility for the killing of Provisional informer Denis Donaldson. Suzanne Breen has the scoop. 1. Óglaigh na hÉireann (RIRA) Easter Statement 2. On Taking the Campaign to Britain 3. Massereene, Plans, Tactics and Beliefs 4. How Real IRA Killed Denis Donaldson 5. Analysis 6. Editorial: Terrorism has no place in modern Ireland Rusty Nail

Liam Clarke follows up on last week’s story about the 1981 hunger strike and secret deals in today’s Sunday Times. This week, it is members of the IRSP, including one former INLA hunger striker, whose memories of the time cast more doubt on the Sinn Fein denials and Morrison narrative of the hunger strike offer/deal. This follows the direct rebuttal earlier in the week from Kevin McQuillan clearly refuting Danny Morrison’s suggestion on Radio Foyle that he had told McQuillan …

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The Sunday Tribune reports on the RIRA’s Easter message, which includes an admission to the shooting of Denis Donaldson. Text to follow when the Tribune website is updated. Reuters has a summary. Rusty Nail

Richard O’Rawe today responds to Danny Morrison’s statement earlier this week with more questions. Statement and response follow the jump. Danny Morrison, Secretary of the Bobby Sands Trust: “I welcome the release of documents by the British government under the Freedom of Information Act, though I believe that their withholding of one or two particular documents is deliberate and mischievous. “What is of interest is that a close reading of the documents supports not the sensationalist construction that the ‘Sunday …

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The question over the deaths of the last six hunger strikers still remains. The debate has moved on since the publication of Richard O’Rawe’s Blanketmen, which raised the point that the prisoners had accepted an offer from the British which the outside Republican leadership overruled. When his book first came out, denials from the Sinn Fein camp abounded: there was no offer, there was no deal, there was no conversation, O’Rawe made it all up to sell books. Since then, …

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So asks the Sunday Times headline this morning, after accessing NIO papers which confirm Richard O’Rawe’s account of an offer being made via an MI6 back channel approved by Thatcher that the prisoners accepted and could have saved the lives of 6 hunger strikers. So why did the Adams team scupper the deal? Because they didn’t like Thatcher’s ‘tone’? Was that reason enough for six men to die? Former hunger striker Gerard Hodgins says, “If I had had the full …

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Ed Moloney writes today of the position SF is now in with regards towards dissident republicans. John Ware offers similar analysis from another perspective. Martin McGuinness, as reported by Sky News, is now calling those involved in the current actions as “traitors to the island of Ireland”. This kind of language inflames tensions and can lead to a feud within Republicanism. Those who do not agree with the resumption of armed struggle but who also do not agree with the …

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If you did not watch it at 7:30, be sure and catch it at the repeat. Adams does not fail to deliver. Well, that is a matter of opinion. But the truth is. You know the truth. And all the dissidents are friends of his. Really. Oh, just watch it, you’ll see. Vintage Adams at his very, very best. Or worst. Depending on your opinion. Rusty Nail

In the second article from Newshound today, Stephen King looks dismally upon SF’s electoral prospects down south in his review of Martyn Frampton’s book, The Long March. Sacrificing the political legitimacy of the hunger strikers for an apology in Stormont may be all for naught as SF’s gains down south continue to evaporate. Given the problems SF faces, King observes: “The question for delegates this weekend [at SF’s Ard Fheis], though, is: why should the leadership’s latest strategy be any …

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In the first of two from Newshound today, Liam Clarke acutely observes the endorsement of criminalisation by SF at Stormont. Republicans have to laugh or they’ll cry – it does not get more farcical than this. Accuse Gerry Adams of having been in the IRA and you accuse him of engaging in criminal activity – so the party asserts. Didn’t 10 men die protesting that very label? “Ten men died to prove they weren’t criminals and now Sinn Fein is …

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