Hello All - Here is my review of the controversial TV3 Irish War of Independence documentary "In the Name of the Republic" which was presented by Prof. Eunan O'Halpin of Trinity College which has just been published in the May/June issue of History Ireland Magazine. Enjoy:

IRA leader, Tom Barry, once likened the more unsavory aspects of the War of Independence to being dragged “down into the mire”. The two-part documentary, 'In The Name of The Republic', presented by Professor Eunan O'Halpin, explored that mire by examining the uglier aspects of the period. These included the assassination of RIC men, the killings of unarmed British soldiers and the execution and secret burial of alleged British spies.

The first episode focused on Ashbrook Farm, Laois. The owner of the farm related how a predecessor, Jack Walpole, told him that three bodies were dumped there in the 1920's. Walpole, who was described as “a bit eccentric”, claimed to have buried one of the bodies himself. The supernatural was a strong feature of Walpole's tale and he stated his horse could sense the location of the graves, refusing to draw a plough over them.

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The political agenda regarding foreign policy,is to continue to spend American resources on what is still far too much for Israel’s objectives (such as war with Syria and Iran), ; as these goings-on continue to motivate more dismantlement of American Constitutional liberties here at home (in order to get away with their forms of betrayal (treason) to our founding fathers’ American Creed (which is not protecting the Holy Land) and to true interests of the American peoples. We now continue to live within a tyranny of corrupt betrayal. So to ban the personal right to own rapid-fire weapons here in the United States could happen within this significant context of an ever-evolving totalitarian reality that continues to wrap its dangerous tentacles around our quickly dying freedoms.
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Celebrating Slane as the home of St Patrick and the Lighting of the Pascal Flame in 432 AD is the central theme of The Flame of Slane Spectacular.
This event was first run in 2012 on Easter Saturday and was a great success. It is fair to say that the audience of about 2000 people were astonished with the show.
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Regarding Anthony Coughlan’s latest attempt to denigrate my books.

The books stand on their merits and I have no need to repeat what is in them. They stand or fall on their own merits. However a number of points in Coughlan’s ‘review’ do need to be addressed.

First of all, the production issues relate to a small number of books sold at the time of the launch. All of these have been corrected and the index is now fully accurate.

He claims the book is ‘thoroughly nasty’. I take it that is a reference to it’s critical analysis of the pro-Soviet Communist movement. I make no more apology for being anti-Stalinist than I do for being anti-Nazi. It is also clear that one of the features of the CP book most upsetting to the inheritors of Irish Stalinism is its exposé of the dishonesty and intellectual gymnastics that were employed to justify the Stalin/Hitler Pact between 1939 and 1941. read full story / add a comment

On Oct. 3rd, 2012 Wired.Com’s (or Wired Magazine’s) Danger Room came out with Spencer Ackerman’s story of a leaked although unclassified U.S. Army “chart” that lists indicators and behaviors for identifying people who are supposedly becoming radicalized to terrorist potential. But what is so startling about this Army’s presumptively rational analysis (more like propagandic analysis) is its broad categorization of symptoms for identifying those thought alienated enough to become potential terrorist material.
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Public Talk and launch of booklet on the 1913 Alternative Ulster Covenant.

Video of the event at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAof_fzvaIY read full story / add a comment

Che Guevara's daughter will be attending the All-Ireland final tomorrow supporting Galway. She is a descendant of both the Lynch and Blake tribes of Galway. read full story / add a comment

The 28th September 2012 will be the centenary of the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant against Home Rule.

Far less well known is the ‘Alternative Ulster Covenant’, signed in October 1913 by some twelve thousand Protestants from County Antrim in support of Home Rule and against partition.

The Alternative Covenant was written by Rev JB Armour and Roger Casement.

A Public Talk on the Alternative Covenant will be held on 3rd October in the Belvedere Hotel, Denmark Street, Dublin, at 7pm. Speakers to include Rev David Frazer and Bill O'Brien. All Welcome. (See http://www.indymedia.ie/article/102491 )

A historical pamphlet discussing not only the Alternative Covenant but also what James Connolly predicted would be a ‘carnival of reaction’, north and south, will be launched on the night. read full story / add a comment

Historian Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc examines the decision by former members of the Gardaí & RUC to hold a commemoration in Dublin for the members of the RIC / Black and Tan killed during the War of Independence. read full story / add a comment

a rant about the titanic frenzy in northern ireland featuring a critisism of "heritage" and slightly covert sectarianism read full story / add a comment

In the run up to our 21st birthday celebrations, Anti-Fascist Action Ireland are undertaking a major historical survey of the Irish Far-Right from 1945 – 1991. read full story / add a comment

THE North Inner City Folklore Project is honouring Local man Irish Volunteer Captain Sean Heuston who was born in 1891 at Lower Gloucester Street now (Sean McDermott Street). Heuston was executed by a British firing squad in Kilmainham Gaol on the 8 May 1916 at the age of twenty-five years. read full story / add a comment

Eoghan Harris regularly rants about terrorism both real and imaginary. While he still checks under his bed for Trots his main fear is that we are in a Weimar Republic stage and Sinn Fein are on the verge of seizing power. He fails to notice that his beloved Blueshirts are the one party in Ireland with a Fascist past. read full story / add a comment

On the 15th October 2011 the Ireland Institute on Pearse Street played host to the second annual Raymond Crotty lecture, which was sponsored by the People’s Movement. The topic of this year’s lecture was Rancher and Banking interests in the modern Irish Economy and was delivered by Conor McCabe. McCabe’s recent book, Sins of the Father, is an examination of the Irish economy from the Anglo – Irish Treaty up to the present day. http://www.theirishstory.com/2011/10/21/review-conor-mc...ITBIH read full story / add a comment

7 members of National Clarion Cycling Club are visiting memorials to the Int Brigaders in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin, Wales and onto London to mark the 75th Ann of the Spanish Civil War. read full story / add a comment

TG4 to show documentary of War of Independence veteran and Vietnam War protester. read full story / add a comment

Two previous articles, 'Of Cups, Rings and Cultural Heritage' & 'Cultural Heritage and the Economy'  (Indymedia, August 1, 2011) dealt with recent research on the Hill of Tara and Bend in the Boyne that could open a new chapter in their history, as well as that of hundreds of additional archaeological sites throughout Ireland, the UK and other Atlantic/Mediterranean European countries.  More importantly, they discussed the apathy on the part of the politicians, government agencies and archaeologists in Ireland towards that research, and its potential cultural and economic benefits.  In all fairness though to the aforementioned, what of the European Union and UNESCO World Heritage Centre, who are just as responsible for protecting the cultural heritage and economies of countries within the Euro Zone. read full story / add a comment

Considering the dismal economic state of a growing number of EU nations, it is more important than ever for them to protect their cultural heritage, as it is firmly linked to their economies in the form of tourism.  Though one tends to think of cultural heritage as something taught in schools and preserved in museums, it goes well beyond that, as evidenced by the attraction of archaeological and cultural World Heritage Sites to millions around the world. Though sites such as the Bend in the Boyne and Stonehenge play a significant role in our understanding of who we are and where we came from, every site, however small, is just as important, and they deserve to be indentified, excavated, restored and preserved for future generations. read full story / add a comment

The following is the first of three articles regarding cultural heritage and its potential benefits to the economies of Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and other Atlantic/Mediterranean European countries, which given the ever growing number of EU nations seeking bailouts, canʼt be ignored any longer. There are those whoʼve questioned why the cultural heritage of Ireland for example, is of such importance to someone who is a 4th generation Irish-American. The bigger question is why those whoʼve been ʻchargedʼ with protecting the cultural heritage of a nation; the archaeologists, politicians, government agencies, EU and UNESCO, have turned a blind eye to the issue. read full story / add a comment

AN IMPORTANT BOOK

This is an important book on Irish republican and leftwing politics in the 1960s, on the background to the destruction of Ulster Unionist political hegemony by the Northern civil rights movement of that decade, and the formation of the Provisional IRA.

Dr Treacy gives us much new information on a relatively neglected period. His book will be a significant source for those seeking to understand the explosion caused by the Partition of Ireland half a century after David Lloyd George’s Government of Ireland Act sundered Ireland into two parts in 1920.

Unfortunately it will not be the definitive work on its subject. This is because Dr Treacy seems somewhat divided over what one might call “the conspiracy thesis” which has been subscribed to by sundry previous writers on this topic. This is that there was an attempt at some form of communist takeover-bid of the 1960s Republican Movement which contributed significantly to the 1970 split which gave rise to the Provisional IRA. read full story / add a comment