Remember Our Volunteers

As most republicans have, I have a strong sense of pride for those Volunteers and activists from my own area and areas I have connections with.
Due to this reason, I will regularly update this blog with details of the anniversaries of the deaths of Volunteers from the Ballymurphy area of West Belfast during the coming months.



FIAN SEAN DOYLE

10TH APRIL 1928 - 10TH APRIL 1944

Sean Doyle was born in Belfast in 1928. He came from a republican family, his father had been interned during the war years and his older brother Liam, aged 18 was serving a ten-year sentence for republican activity at the time of Sean’s death.
A member Fianna Eireann, Sean was attending an arms lecture with a few comrades from his Sluagh on April 10th 1944, when a gun was accidently discharged. Sean was shot in the head and died instantly. He was only 16 years of age.
Sean is buried in Milltown Cemetery, where a memorial was erected to his memory.

Easter Lily Campaign Launched In Liverpool

St. Michael’s Irish Centre was the venue on Sunday last for the launch of a local campaign to promote the wearing of the Easter Lily in recognition of the men and women volunteers who took part in the Easter Rising of 1916, and more importantly to raise awareness of the contribution made by members of the Liverpool Irish community who travelled to Dublin to take part in the fighting that week.
Among the notable speakers at the launch included lifetime Irish community activist, writer and GAA stalwart Tommy Walsh; Bernard Morgan, local historian and member of the Connolly Association, whose own mother took part in the Rising as a member of Cumann na mBan, Liverpool; and Jeff O’Carroll of Cairde Na hÉireann Liverpool. All speakers provided a personal reflection on the Rising and the importance of remembering and paying tribute to the sacrifices made by both women and men.
Neil Doolin, one of the organisers, stated: “In launching this local campaign all speakers noted the fact that 2016 will mark the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising. For ourselves in Cairde, this will be a very important event to mark both for us as a community in Liverpool and in terms of consciousness raising amongst our community on the part played by the volunteers who travelled from Liverpool to take part in the Rising and those who also took part the war for independence that occurred from 1919 to 1921.
“Our speakers today have shared much knowledge and information on the names of the individuals involved. It will be important over the next five years that some form of recognition is given to those women and men of our community who played their part in the struggle for Irish freedom. The onus will be on ourselves as a community that fitting tribute is made to their sacrifices. Raising the importance of wearing a Lily is a first step in this process”.
Easter Lilies are available from St Michael’s Irish Centre in Liverpool.

Easter 1916 Events - 2010 (Sinn Féin)

ARMAGH
Saturday
1pm Portadown, Speaker: Cathal Boylan

Sunday
10.30am Crossmaglen, Speaker: Sean Murray
11.30am Derrymacash, Wreath Laying Ceremony
2pm Ballymacnab, Speaker: Paul Butler
2.30pm Lurgan, Speaker: Declan Kearney
4.30pm Cullyhanna, Speaker: Conor Murphy

Monday
2.30pm Armagh City, Speaker: Conor Murphy
4pm Camlough, Speaker: Sean Hughes



BELFAST
Saturday
2pm Whitewell, Speaker Gerry Kelly

Sunday
1pm Beechmont Avenue, Main Commemoration, Speaker: Gerry Adams

Monday
1pm New Lodge, Speaker: Gerry Kelly

Tuesday
1pm Ardoyne, Speaker: Gerry Kelly
2pm Ballymurphy



CAVAN
Monday
1.30pm Ballinagh, Speaker: Sean Lynch



CARLOW/KILKENNY
Saturday
12 noon Mooncoin, Speaker: Kathleen Funchion

CLARE
Sunday
2.30pm Ennis, Wreath Laying Ceremony



CORK
Saturday
8pm Bantry, Wreath Laying Ceremony

Sunday
11am Youghal
12.30pm Bandon, Speaker: Mary Lou McDonald
12.30pm Clonakilty, Wreath Laying Ceremony
2pm Cork City



DERRY
Saturday
Wreath Laying Ceremonies:
4pm Glens; 6pm Moneyglass; 6.30pm Glenravel; 6.30pm Cargin


Sunday
12 noon Dungiven, Speaker: Carál Ní Chuilín
2.30pm Westland Street, Derry City, Speaker: Martina Anderson
2.30pm The Loup, Speaker: Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin
Wreath Laying Ceremonies:
10am Rasharkin; 10.30am Glen, Maghera; 10.45am Coolcalm; 10.45am Newbridge; 11am Creggan, Central Drive; 11am Bogside, Lecky Road;11am Shantallow, Racecourse Road; 1pm Waterside, Rose Court; 11.30am Dunloy; 11.40am Lavey; 11.45am Bellaghy; 12.15pm Loughgiel; 12.30pm Kilrea

Monday
2.30pm Swatragh, Speaker: Martin McGuinness



DONEGAL
Sunday
10am Drumkeen, Wreath Laying Ceremony
11.30am Glencolmcille, Wreath Laying Ceremony
12 noon Drumoghill
12 noon Castlefinn, Speaker: Cora Harvey
12.15pm Gweedore, Speaker: Pearse Doherty
12.45pm Buncrana, Speaker: Pádraig Mac Lochlainn
1pm Letterkenny, Speakers: Mick Quinn and Gerry MacMonagle
2.30pm Drumboe, Main Commemoration, Speaker: Pearse Doherty

Monday
3pm Pettigo, Speaker: Pearse Doherty
12.30pm Carrigart, Speaker: Pádraig Mac Lochlainn
3pm Fanad, Speaker: Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

DOWN
Sunday
12 noon Patrick Street, Newry, Speaker: Conor Murphy
1.15pm St Patricks Avenue, Downpatrick, Speaker: Caitríona Ruane
3.15pm Down Road Car Park, Newcastle, Wreath Laying Ceremony
4pm Lower Square, Castlewellan, Speaker: Caitríona Ruane



DUBLIN
Friday
11.30am Arbour Hill, Speaker: Ruadhan MacAodháin

Saturday
11.30am Ballyfermot, Speaker: Aengus Ó Snodaigh
2.30pm Crumlin, Speaker: Aengus Ó Snodaigh


Sunday
11.30am Glasnevin Cemetery, Wreath Laying Ceremony
2.30pm Main Commemoration: Garden of Remembrance, Speaker: Gerry Kelly



FERMANAGH
Sunday
2.30pm Derrylinn, Speaker: Michelle Gildernew



GALWAY
Sunday
1pm Ballinasloe, Speaker: Bairbre de Brún
3pm Erye Square, City Speaker: Bairbre de Brún

Monday
12 noon Ros Muc, Conamara, Speaker: Seanna Walsh
3pm Cliften, Conamara, Speaker: Seánna Walsh
5pm Tullycross, Speaker: Seánna Walsh



KERRY
Sunday
3pm Tralee, Main Commemoration, Speaker: Martin Ferris



LAOIS
Sunday
2pm Portlaoise, Speaker: Aengus Ó Snodaigh



LEITRIM
Sunday
3pm Aughnasheelin, Ballinnamore, Speaker: Raymond McCartney



LIMERICK
Saturday
3pm Athea Village, Speaker: Martin Ferris

Sunday
12.30pm Limerick City, Speaker: Maurice Quinlivian



LONGFORD
Sunday
2.30pm Longford Town, Speaker: Paul Hogan



LOUTH
Saturday
12 noon Quay Street, Dundalk, Wreath Laying Ceremony
2pm Knockbridge, Wreath Laying Ceremony

Sunday
12 noon St Peter’s Church, Drogheda, Speaker: John O’Dowd
2.30pm Market Square, Dundalk, Speaker: John O’Dowd



MAYO
Sunday
10.30am Achill, Speaker: Mitchel Mc Laughlin
3pm Westport, Speaker: Mitchel Mc Laughlin



MEATH
Thursday
1pm Navan Town Hall, Civic Reception

Friday
6pm Longwood, Wreath Laying Ceremony

Saturday
12.30pm Oldcastle, Wreath Laying Ceremony
4pm Navan, Main Commemoration, Speaker: Arthur Morgan

Sunday
12 noon Ardbraccen, Wreath Laying Ceremony
12 noon Slane, Wreath Laying Ceremony

Monday
12 noon Drumree and Ashbourne, Wreath Laying Ceremony

MONAGHAN
Saturday
2.30pm Inniskeen, Wreath Laying Ceremony
3.30pm Monaghan Town, Speaker: Francie Molloy

Monday
11pm Scotshouse, Wreath Laying Ceremony
2pm Clones, Speaker: Claire McGill


OFFALY
Monday
2.30pm Edenderry, Speaker: Brendan Killeavey


ROSCOMMON
Monday
3pm Ballintubber, Speaker: Martin Kenny


SLIGO
Sunday
3pm Sligo Town, Speaker: Seán Mac Brádaigh


TIPPERARY
Sunday
3pm St.Johnstown, Fethard, Speaker: Michael Moroney


TYRONE
Saturday
3pm Coalisland, Speaker: Michelle O’Neill

Sunday
3pm Carrickmore, Speaker: Martin McGuinness
11.15am Dunamore, Speaker: Martin McGuinness
5.30pm Loughmacrory, Speaker: Sean Hughes

Monday
2pm Ardboe, Speaker: Barry McElduff


WATERFORD
Saturday
3pm Waterford City, Speaker: David Cullinane

Sunday
11.30am Portlaw, Speaker: Declan Clune
3pm Stradbally


WEXFORD
Saturday
3pm Arklow Town
6pm Ballymore, Wreath Laying Ceremony

Sunday
1pm Wexford Town

Monday
2.30pm Enniscorthy, Speaker: Mary Lou McDonald
12 noon Murrintown, Speaker: Mary Lou McDonald

IRSM Easter Event - Milltown

RNU Easter Event - Derry

Sinn Féin East Commemorations - Carrickmore

Sinn Féin Easter Commemorations - Tyrone

Maoists: A Doomed Revolution?

Comrades,
Below is an article from the BBC News website regarding the current insurgency by Maoist guerilla's in India.
I wouldn't normally post articles from the BBC, but as it is written by someone based in India, I found out very interesting and informative.

It is India's most bloody, intractable and shadowy war in recent history.

Today 223 districts - India has 636 districts - in 20 states are "Maoist affected", up from 55 districts in nine states six years ago. Ninety of the affected districts, according to the government, are experiencing "consistent violence". PM Manmohan Singh calls it the country's "greatest internal security challenge".

As Maoist activity has expanded over a vast swathe of mineral-rich jungles and countryside where most of India's tribespeople - its poorest of the poor - live, the cost of the conflict has been huge.

The government says 3,457 civilians were killed in 11,642 incidents of rebel-related violence between 2003 and 2009. Nearly 1,300 security forces and 1,350 rebels have died in the war, it says.

As the toll rises, the conflict provokes a sharply polarised debate.

On the one side are the city-bred romantic revolutionaries. One perceptive analyst calls them a "Maoist-aligned intelligentsia vicariously playing out their revolutionary fantasies through the lives of the adivasis [tribespeople], while the people dying in battle are almost all adivasis". They protest against the government's plans to smoke out the rebels.

On the other, are supporters of strong state action who believe the security forces should annihilate the rebels and wrest back areas under their control. Collateral damage, they believe, is par for the course.

So India's Maoist rebels, in the words of another commentator, are either "romanticised, eulogised [or] demonised". It depends on which side you are on.

It is time to ask some basic questions.

What do the Maoists want?

They want to establish a "communist society" by overthrowing the country's "semi-colonial, semi-feudal" form of rule through an armed struggle. The say they are fighting for the rights of the neglected tribespeople, an unquestionably laudable goal in a vastly iniquitous land.

So are they revolutionary Marxists? Are they anarchists? Or are they India's equivalent of historian Eric Hobsbawm's "social bandits", peasant Robin Hood outlaws? It is difficult to say.

Who is suffering the most in the seemingly unending war?

The same tribespeople for whom the Maoists say they have picked up the cudgels.

They are caught in the crossfire between the rebels and security forces. They are hounded by state-sponsored militias hunting for rebel sympathisers. (In Chhattisgarh, the rebel heartland, nearly 50,000 villagers have been forced from their villages by a state-sponsored militia and are now lodged in some 20 camps.)

The rebels end up killing poorly paid, poorly armed policemen, small businessmen and low level political workers. Analysts find it odd that their "class enemies" do not include big businessmen and companies, presumably because many of them cough up protection money.

What has been the track record of India's Maoists?

Not very inspiring, say most commentators, apart from a few exceptions of getting a fairer deal for the poor by intimidating the state.

They point out that the Maoists never questioned the partition of India. In 1971, during the war with Pakistan, they supported the Pakistani president Yahya Khan and even advised revolutionaries in East Pakistan - now Bangladesh - to defend Pakistan. Analysts say the rebels were taking their cues from China.

Another criticism is that the rebels have never really tackled or taken on the rising tide of communalism that swept the country in the 1980s and 1990s. They have shown little interest in taking a stand against Hindu or Muslim fundamentalism.

Are the rebels the only ones fighting for India's poor?

No way. There are hundreds of civil society movements working tirelessly - Medha Patkar's movement against people displaced by dam projects is a stand-out example.

But the rebels succeed in grabbing attention, many believe, because they practice violence.

"Violence [has] the potential to make news and attract attention... satyagrahas [passive resistance], non-violent actions and human chains have been made completely ineffective and delegitimised by the state and the media," says political scientist Aditya Nigam.

So what do the Maoists end up doing?

Operating in a binary world of "either you are with us or against us" - eerily reminiscent of a recent "war on terror" - the rebels, many analysts say, have taken an awkward, simplistic position on how people behave and society operates.

"We are not yet in a completely Orwellian universe. Some things are neither Hindu nor Muslim, neither proletarian nor bourgeois. There is no war to end all wars, no ultimate death penalty that will put an end to all death penalties," says independent scholar Dilip Simeon.

"Hindu Rashtra [Hindu polity] is not the final solution to the so-called 'minority problem', nor is the 'people's war' the final answer to class exploitation."

In the absence of such understanding, the bloody war grinds on, reaping its grim harvest.
Do the deaths of tribespeople, policemen, rebels, traders and political workers have any meaning? Does the displacement of tens of thousands of people suspected to be sympathising with the rebels make any sense? Or are some right to view these as wasteful deaths and futile displacements?

It is the Maoists' apparent indifference to life that worries Dilip Simeon. "The indifference," he says, "is the mark of nihilism that has overtaken the revolutionary spirit." That is why Maoism in India, many believe, will remain a doomed revolution

Colin Duffy London Event

Comrades,

On 22nd March 2010 a meeting will be held in London to highlight the injustice of Colin Duffy, over his current arrest and the unrepentant victimisations he has received for many years.
My prayers and thoughts are with the Duffy family and his friends at this difficult time and although our work may be small, we hope that this meeting will act as a springboard which may help toward awareness of the issue, and help towards Colin's release.
We hope this event can plan and implement a strategy to publicise and organise the campaign across Britain, and put pressure on the British Government to release Colin, because although we may soon have devolved justice, MI5 and others are not accountable to the assembley, only to themselves.
Anyone who is wanting to attend this event, or can organise one of their own please contact me through here so I can pass on the message to the group.

PRO,
London Friends of Colin Duffy