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Showing posts with label Ancient Order of Hibernians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ancient Order of Hibernians. Show all posts

Ancient Order of Hibernians  ✒ Hilary Benn’s refusal to comply with court orders directing a Public Inquiry into the murder of Sean Brown, has sparked a new crisis in legacy justice. 

FREEDOM for ALL IRELAND
 

The British Secretary was ordered to commence a Public Inquiry into the murder of the Bellaghy Gaelic Association manager after crown agencies, including the PSNI Constabulary and MI5, forced a halt to Sean Brown’s Inquest by refusing to hand over crucial materials about the part played by British state agents. His daughter Clare Brown Loughran, will join with Daniel Holder, of the Committee for the Administration of Justice and an Irish government representative in a live webinar broadcast hosted by the Ancient Order of Hibernians on Saturday May 31st at 11am Eastern time, 4pm Irish time, to discuss the Brown case and its meaning for hundreds of other victims’ relatives, who believe they could never get justice through the ICRIR Commission.

Background

Sean Brown was abducted and murdered as he locked up the Bellaghy Wolfe Tone Gaelic Athletic Club on May 12, 1997. No one has ever been convicted of this sectarian assassination, in which multiple British agents played a part. The Brown family sought justice through civil suits against both the British Ministry of Defense and Chief Constable, winning damages and a formal Court apology for the RUC’s inadequate investigation. They learned additional details from an Ombudsman Report. All legal attempts to answer questions about collusion have been frustrated by the British.

More than 25 years after the murder, an Inquest hearing began. However the Coroner was forced to close the Inquest because the British withheld crucial documents about crown agent involvement. The Coroner said that a Public Inquiry would be the only way for the Brown family to get the truth, and made a formal written request to then British Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.

Both the High Court and Belfast Court of Appeals ordered a Public Inquiry, holding that the ICRIR was incapable of providing a hearing that met the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Current British Secretary Hilary Benn, has thus far refused to comply with these Court orders and plans to go to the London Supreme Court, in hopes a London Court would favor the ICRIR.

Links

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Panelists

Sean Brown’s daughter, Clare Brown Loughran, will speak about the heartbreaking impact of the ongoing denial of justice on the Brown family, especially her mother Bridie Brown, 87, as they continue to fight for truth.

Daniel Holder of the Committee for the Administration of Justice will discuss the defects the ICRIR set up by the Conservatives but now advocated by the governing Labour Party, and why victims’ families do not believe the commission can deliver justice.

The Irish government will have a representative to state its position on the Sean Brown case, the status of the European Court case and where the issue of legacy justice stands.

Britain’s Legacy Crisis And Sean Brown Murder

Ancient Order of Hibernians ✒ The British Labour Party and new Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to “repeal and replace” the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act which was imposed by the Conservatives despite overwhelming opposition from Irish victims’ relatives, human rights campaigners, the Irish government and all major six county political parties. 🟐

FREEDOM for ALL IRELAND
 
Now, three months after taking office, there are growing concerns that the new Labour government will keep the Independent Commission on Reconciliation and Information Retrieval (ICRIR) created by the Tories to replace legacy mechanisms that were bringing justice to victims. Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, will join victims’ relative Pola Cairns, civil rights lawyer Padraig O’Muirigh, Irish Parliament representative Peadar Tobin, and justice campaigner Mark Thompson, in a live webinar broadcast, hosted by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, (AOH) this Saturday, October 12th, at 11 AM Eastern Time, 4 PM Irish time. 

YouTube Live or here. 

Panelists


Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, recently awarded the John F. Kennedy Memorial Medal by the AOH, has been one of the leading Washington voices on Irish issues and a driving force on a series of bipartisan Congressional initiatives, House Resolutions and Briefings on legacy justice. Most recently he co-sponsored a strongly worded letter to new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, urging him to fully replace the amnesty legislation and return to the principles of the Stormont House Agreement to give victims’ relatives a real opportunity for justice.

Pola Cairns’, two brothers Gerard (22) and Rory (18) were gunned down by Mid-Ulster UVF loyalists, near Craigavon on October 30, 1993, following frequent sectarian taunts and harassment by the RUC and the RIR, the former Ulster Defense Regiment. A BBC documentary revealed, that several of those involved in planning and carrying out these murders were RUC special branch and/or British intelligence agents. The Cairns family believe the Legacy Act and ICRIR Commission were created to shut down all routes to truth and justice because of the campaign for an inquiry into the activities of the Mid-Ulster UVF during the 1990’s.

“Civil rights lawyer, Padraig O’Muirigh has represented families in the Ballymurphy Massacre Inquest and many other legacy cases. He will explain the legal implications of recent court rulings about the ICRIR, and how the Commission sidelines family legal representatives who have played a huge role in advancing legacy truth.

Peadar Tobin, Teachta Dála (TD) or representative to the Irish Parliament is the leader of Aontu, and an influential member of the Joint Committee for the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. He will discuss the case filed on behalf of Irish legacy victims by Ireland in the European Court on Human Rights.

Mark Thompson, of Relatives for Justice, will explain why families who have waited decades for truth have no faith in the ICRIR and the importance of American help in the continuing political and legal battle for legacy justice.

Repeal Or Renew Injustice

The issue of legacy justice is at a critical point. Throughout the 1969-98 conflict, hundreds of families, particularly in killings committed directly by or in collusion with British crown forces, were systematically denied truth and justice about the murder of their loved ones. The Good Friday Agreement promised victims’ relatives a new beginning and the Stormont House Agreement offered legacy mechanisms which appeared capable of delivering justice.

Despite delaying tactics and denials, victims’ relatives began to uncover the truth through proceedings such as the Ballymurphy Massacre Inquest, or Ombudsman Investigations such as Loughinisland, Operation Greenwich or Operation Achille, or in civil actions.

The Conservative Party government responded by devising the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act, and creating the ICRIR Commission to replace legitimate independent investigations, mandated by Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and despite the opposition of victims’ relatives, the Irish government and Irish political parties.

Will Labour keep its pledge to repeal and replace or will it retain the Commission designed by the Tories to deny justice?

Starmer's Labour Government And Irish Legacy 🟐 Will We See A New Chapter Of Injustice?

John Crawley 🎤speech delivered to an American AOH delegation in Derry on 15 February. John Crawley felt that while received warmly by the majority of delegates there was a small, but influential, minority of Sinn Fein supporters among them who took great exception to what he had to say, going as far as threatening to boycott any event he spoke at in future. He left feeling that, apparently, for some ‘Uncomfortable Conversations’ are far too uncomfortable.’

It seems barely a heartbeat ago that Liam Ryan and I were sharing coffee and having a laugh at the corner restaurant near his apartment in the Bronx. It’s hard to believe 41 years have slipped by, and Liam has been dead for nearly 35 of them.

I remember, around that time, being in Liam’s kitchen with a number of Tyrone men. One of them was Lawrence McNally, who would later be killed in action along with Liam’s cousin Pete Ryan and Tony Doris at Coagh. Five ordinary men in an extraordinary time. Within a few short years, every man in that room was dead or in prison. Killed by Crown forces or incarcerated in various prisons throughout Britain and Ireland.

I often think of that moment when I think of Liam. Little did he or those other men know what awaited them - and yet I don’t believe they would have altered their course had they known. When it came to Irish freedom, they clearly had what a British government official during the 1798 rebellion called ‘an enthusiasm defying punishment’.

I liked Liam a lot. He was funny, down to earth and immensely generous and helpful.

He was proud to be an Irishman, proud to be a Tyrone man, and prouder still an East Tyrone man. He had tremendous respect and admiration for the Volunteers of the Irish Republican Army and a special place in his heart for the courageous fight put up by the men and women of his home area. His cousin Pete Ryan, who I would later be in prison with, was a particular hero to him. And rightly so.

Liam was acutely aware that County Tyrone had been at the centre of Irish resistance to English rule for hundreds of years. It was Tyrone man Hugh O’Neill who inflicted the heaviest defeat on an English army in Irish history when he crushed Sir Henry Bagenal’s force at the Battle of the Yellow Ford, killing up to 2,000 English soldiers, including Sir Bagenal himself.

It was precisely because of the intense resistance put up by Tyrone that it was one of the areas chosen by England to be planted by loyalist settlers in an act of ethnic cleansing known as the Plantation of Ulster, which formed a significant part of Elizabethan counter-insurgency strategy.

Liam Ryan took great pride in the knowledge that patriots from Tyrone were prominent throughout the struggle for Irish freedom. A strong Tyrone contingent had been assembled in Coalisland to take part in the 1916 Rising, although, through no fault of their own, they were forced to stand down again due to Eoin MacNeill’s countermanding order. Tom Clarke, one of the principal driving forces of the rebellion, had been reared in Dungannon from an early age.

I first met Jim Lynagh at a wedding in Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim, 44 years ago. I had just walked into John Joe McGirl’s pub, where he sat singing Sean South of Garryowen. He would have been about 24 years of age at the time and already a former prisoner of Long Kesh and a highly experienced IRA operative who had been seriously wounded while on active service. Jim was friendly and personable. I got to know him better in Portlaoise Prison, where he was the first man into my cell on the morning the heavy steel door opened to reveal the first of my many days as a Republican prisoner. Jim had been imprisoned again, this time in the South, and was the Unit Intelligence officer who debriefed all new prisoners on issues relating to their capture and other matters. I was delighted Jim remembered me, and he put me immediately at ease with his open and approachable manner. Although one of the IRA’s most dedicated and experienced Volunteers, Jim Lynagh had none of the conceit or arrogance of lesser men. Extremely intelligent, with a cheeky and irreverent sense of humour, he did not suffer the pretentious gladly. He had a deep affinity with the underdog and a sincere social conscience.

Politically, Jim was to the fore in discussions, debate, and education in prison. So much so that after his death, Republican prisoners in Portlaoise inaugurated, in his honour, a yearly ‘Jim Lynagh Week’ consisting of political and historical lectures. He took his politics seriously but viewed political activism exclusively as an instrument for serving the struggle and not, as others were to prove, as a vehicle for servicing a political career.

Militarily, Jim epitomised the concept of tip of the spear leadership, leadership by example. Highly motivated, dedicated, and courageous Jim was constantly to the fore on active service against the foreign forces of occupation and their native hirelings. He was greatly and rightly feared by the enemy, and the British Crown forces kept their spies and informers very busy in unrelenting efforts to track him down.

In a conventional army, he would have made an outstanding Special Forces officer. The Brits considered Jim Lynagh to be a dangerous adversary. Brave and intelligent, he couldn’t be frightened, and he couldn’t be bought off — a bad combination.

I remember shaking hands with Jim the night before his release from Portlaoise prison and watching the blonde head of him disappearing down the stairs to his cell on the landing below. I wondered if I would ever see him again, not doubting for a moment that he would again be leading from the front. Sadly, within a week of his release in April 1986, he was attending the funeral of his comrade and fellow Monaghan Volunteer Seamus McElwaine, who had been killed in action in a British Army ambush near Roslea. Just over a year later, Jim himself would be dead, killed in another Crown forces ambush with seven other Volunteers from the East Tyrone Brigade at Loughgall, Co. Armagh. I am proud to have known Jim Lynagh as a friend and comrade.

During the most recent phase in Ireland’s long struggle for freedom, County Tyrone played a key role. East Tyrone, in particular, paid a heavy price for its resistance to British rule and for its loyalty to the aims and ideals of the Irish Republic.

The East Tyrone Brigade suffered the highest rate of Crown force ambushing activity in the North against the IRA during the whole of the Troubles. The Brits pursued a killing strategy as opposed to an arresting strategy in County Tyrone.

The overriding strategic consideration of Crown attacks on Tyrone Republicans was to destroy any potential opposition to an internal settlement on British terms. The British state murdered Liam Ryan, and Jim Lynagh and his comrades were killed in action as part of Britain’s campaign to achieve that objective.

Mourners were told by the Provisional leadership at Jim’s funeral that Loughgall would be the tombstone for British rule in Ireland. Thirty-seven years later, the Brits are going nowhere, and the same leadership now boasts that they have buried the IRA. Nor do they miss an opportunity to announce that from the Good Friday Agreement onwards, Ireland unfree shall be at peace.

British strategic objectives were outlined at the Darlington Conference in 1972 when the British government published what it called some ‘unalterable facts’ about the situation and ‘some fundamental conditions . . .  which any settlement must meet’.

These included recognition and legitimisation of the Unionist Veto, nationalist buy-in to the Northern state via a cross-community executive, support for the British security forces (especially the Crown constabulary), and Dublin government endorsement of the settlement, leading to increased security collaboration between the two governments. Since then, in order to disguise its profoundly undemocratic origins, the Unionist Veto has been benignly re-christened ‘the consent principle’. A principle Britain never granted Ireland as a whole. Since partition, Britain has ensured that no electoral mechanism exists to test Ireland’s national will as a single democratic unit.

Don’t let anyone try to convince you IRA volunteers died for the Good Friday Agreement. Between Jim Lynagh’s death in 1987 and Liam Ryan’s death in 1989, the Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said in 1988:

Since Sunningdale in 1973 the British have repeatedly attempted to establish an internal governmental arrangement involving unionists and nationalists. Our struggle and strategy has been to close down each option open to the British until they have no other option but to withdraw . . . Sinn Fein is totally opposed to a power-sharing Stormont assembly and states that there cannot be a partitionist a solution. Stormont it is not a stepping stone to Irish unity.

Republicans believed that then, and republicans believe that now.

You will often hear the term Nationalist and Republican used interchangeably. They are not the same thing. Irish nationalists are concerned primarily with local autonomy and can be reconciled to British sovereignty. Their principle opponent is Unionism. Irish republicans are focussed on sovereignty, on the principle that constitutional authority in Ireland lies exclusively with the Irish people. Their enemy is the Union.

One of the greatest crimes in the current political climate is to be perceived as opposing the British pacification strategy known as the Irish Peace Process.

I know of no Republican who opposes peace, but we are entitled, indeed duty bound, to be critical of a process that cannot lead to the objectives Republicans fought for so long and sacrificed so much to achieve.

The Good Friday Agreement is a snare and a delusion. It entangles us in a web of terms and conditions regarding Irish unity that only Britain can interpret and adjudicate. It invites the delusion that British legislation will pave the way to a national democracy within an All-Ireland republic. A political outcome Britain has strenuously rejected and sabotaged at every opportunity.

An example of this delusion was articulated by then Taoiseach Bertie Ahearn, who said of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998:

The key thrust of these changes is to reinforce the principle that in Ireland, North and South, it is the people who are sovereign. There is no longer any question of an absolute or territorial British claim to sovereignty, without reference to the wishes of the people. For the first time, a precise mechanism has been defined - and accepted by the British Government - by which a united Ireland can be put in place, by the consent of Irish people and that alone.

It seemed to have slipped Bertie’s attention that the supremacy of the United Kingdom Parliament was preserved in the new constitutional arrangements he endorsed in Britain’s 1998 Northern Ireland Act.

Section 5 (6). This section does not affect the power of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to make laws for Northern Ireland, but an Act of the Assembly may modify any provision made by or under an Act of Parliament in so far as it is part of the law of Northern Ireland.

Running through every piece of British legislation is the fundamental principle of British sovereignty and the primacy of British law. At the core is the assertion that Britain will define the parameters of Irish democracy and set the boundaries within which Irish opposition to British rule must operate.

The rule of law is central to British policy. That law must be British law because the Crown claims jurisdiction over this part of Ireland, and the exclusive authority to make laws within a particular territory is the very definition of sovereignty. The supremacy of the Westminster parliament over an Irish electorate has been demonstrated on a number of occasions, including the suspension of Stormont by British government ministers without reference to anyone in Ireland, North or South. In court cases taken over the Brexit issue, both the Belfast High Court in October 2016 and the UK Supreme Court in January 2017 confirmed that it is Westminster parliamentary supremacy and not the will of the Irish people that reigns supreme in the Six Counties.

The claim that there is ‘no longer any question of an absolute or territorial British claim to sovereignty, without reference to the wishes of the people’ couldn’t be more wrong.

Furthermore, the so-called ‘united’ Ireland defined by the Good Friday Agreement is not the republic we fought for. We were the Irish Republican Army. We were fighting to establish a national democracy with an all-Ireland Republic. The Good Friday Agreement is a pacification project based on the principle that the model of Ireland as one nation is a discredited concept. It annuls the republican concept of national unity across the sectarian divide. It strives to ensure that unionists will remain forever in Ireland but not of it. It bakes in the British/Irish cleavage in national loyalties. It enshrines the sectarian dynamic. Thus, it guarantees that the political malignancy through which Britain historically manipulated and controlled Ireland will remain intact. Consequently, many supporters of this strategy propose a continuing and symbolic role for the British royal family as an institutional point of reference for the loyalties of those who, although born and raised in Ireland, would prefer to view themselves as a civic garrison for Britain. That is why you will see nationalist politicians tripping over themselves to meet and greet British royalty on Irish soil. They are sending out an unambiguous message that Ireland is not one nation but two and that the British royal family represents one of them. A message that Britain has a legitimacy in Ireland and a role to play in influencing the political trajectory of our country. A genuine republic recognises and tolerates diversity but should never encourage and embrace conflicting national loyalties within its territory.

What became of the Republican project to break the connection with England and assert the independence of our country? To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic, and Dissenter?

When Irish nationalist politicians speak, not of uniting our country, but of ‘Sharing this island,’ they mean sharing in Britain’s analysis of the nature of the conflict as primarily internal, as a tribal dispute between sectarian factions. They mean sharing in the colonial legacy of sectarian apartheid and sharing in the imperial project of divide and rule. They also mean sharing in Britain’s analysis of how to end the conflict by lowering the bar from the secular Republic to some nebulous entity called ‘This Island’ – where the sectarian scaffolding comes pre-assembled by the British government.

In so doing, they internalise the conditions, parameters and political architecture of the united Ireland demanded by Britain, should it ever come to pass – a ‘New’ Ireland that may one day contain no international border but will remain fundamentally partitioned between Planter and Gael, a ‘New’ Ireland predicated on all the old divisions.

The British have a long tradition of shaping Irish democracy in their interests and co-opting the political classes that emerge. They have displayed a remarkable capacity to channel Irish political trajectories in a particular direction, harness Irish leaderships to drive the strategy, and make the Irish believe it was their own idea. James Connolly wrote, ‘Ruling by fooling is a great British art. With great Irish fools to practice on.’

A relentless campaign is being waged to encourage the Irish people to accept and legitimise a British constitutional component as an essential ingredient of a united Ireland. To inculcate in the Irish people a herd immunity against the Irish Republic proclaimed in 1916 and democratically endorsed and ratified by the First Dáil Eireann in 1919. Debates and discussions are taking place on changing the Irish national flag, discarding the Irish national anthem, and re-joining the British Commonwealth. Instead of breaking the connection with England, we are being conditioned into becoming more closely incorporated into a British sphere of influence on a national level.

For a Republican, reaching out to unionists does not mean reaching out to them as foreigners who happen to live here. Foreigners are born in another country. The vast majority of Ulster Unionists were born in Ireland and live their entire lives here. They must not be treated as the civil garrison of an alien state. That is not pluralism; that is submitting to the social and political modelling of colonial conquest. Robert Emmet did not request his epitaph be withheld until his country had taken its place as two nations among the nations of the earth.

Ulster Unionists vow they will not be forced into a united Ireland. Yet, they lived in a united Ireland for hundreds of years. A united Ireland they were not forced into, but their ancestors forced themselves upon during the plantation of Ulster. An Ireland united in the sense that until the early 20th century England treated our country as one political unit. Unionists never had an issue with a united Ireland per se. The Orange Order is an all-Ireland institution. The Presbyterian and Methodist churches are all-Ireland ministries. And, of course, the Church of Ireland is not the Church of Northern Ireland. Their real objection is becoming subject to the majority decision-making of an Irish national electorate.

The issue of policing has been the cornerstone of Britain’s counter-insurgency strategy - a strategy designed to legitimise the British state in Ireland and keep the British gun at the heart of Irish politics. The Brits know that if they can’t police us, they can’t govern us.

So, what does it mean to be an Irish republican? Although we may have articulated it in different ways, most IRA volunteers who fought during the armed struggle understood what was meant by ‘the Republic’. It was Ireland unfettered by foreign control or domestic divisions cultivated by the foreigner. It did not defer to Britain for terms and conditions regarding its unity and independence. The Republic was a thirty-two-county sovereign and secular state to which Irish citizens of all traditions gave allegiance. It stood for freedom, civic unity, and social justice.

Does wanting to see a united Ireland mean you are republican? Not necessarily. England struggled to unite Ireland as a single polity under their control and jurisdiction for centuries. England governed a united Ireland for hundreds of years.

If the struggle for Irish freedom was merely about ending partition, then what was the 1916 Rising about? There was no partition in 1916. What were Wolfe Tone and the 27 other Protestant founding fathers of Irish republicanism determined to achieve when they formed the United Irishmen in 1791? What did they mean by a united Ireland? There was no partition in 1791. Their objective was to break the connection with England and to embrace national unity across the sectarian divide.

That objective was echoed over a century later by the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation who called for us to be . . . ‘oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past.’ The signatories were not claiming these differences did not exist, nor were they saying they could be dismissed as irrelevant. They were saying that these differences should never be used to shape the political architecture of Ireland.

In contrast, those who support the Good Friday Agreement are determined that these differences will be permanently embedded in our national fabric.

Thanks to the Good Friday Agreement, the future of the Northern state rests securely in a political and legal framework of terms and conditions comprehensively safeguarded within an intricate web of constitutional constraints controlled exclusively by the British government. No Irish citizen, elected or otherwise, can call an Irish unity poll in Ireland. That decision lies firmly in the hands of an English politician who doesn’t have a single vote in Ireland.

Why is it that the United States, a nation of nations with a population of over 300 million, can be a united national republic, India, with a population of 1.2 billion containing two thousand ethnic groups and 15 official languages, can be a united national republic. But Ireland, with a population half the size of metropolitan London, containing two principal traditions cannot. Is there an intrinsic defect in the Irish national character, or could it be that those other republics don’t have a more powerful foreign government in the mix politically, militarily, and economically, underwriting a particular minority interest over those of the majority? Should we pander to these contrived divisions for the sake of peace or continue the struggle to end them for the sake of peace?

The men and women of the Fenian tradition would have only one answer to that question.

John Crawley is a former IRA volunteer and author of The Yank.

Uncomfortable Conversations

Dixie Elliot ✍ Big Richard O'Rawe invited me to a talk that himself and John Crawley were giving to a delegation from the AOH in America, in Derry's Maldron Hotel last night. 

The talk was meant to be about their respective books, Stakeknife's Dirty War and The Yank.
I was very reluctant to go because of the AOH but it was a chance to meet up again with Richard, Bernie and their two lovely daughters, Berni and Stephanie, as well as John and his wife Debbie, so I agreed.
 
Last night myself and Sharon turned up at the hotel, as did Danny McBrearty. The receptionist had told us that everyone was having a meal in the dining room so we waited.
 
When they began to trickle out I noticed that Martin Galvin seemed to be in a state of panic. Then the O'Rawe family came out and we greeted each other warmly. When John and Debbie emerged, John was like a man who had lost his phone or his wallet, he was clearly distracted.
 
John then told me that he and Martin Galvin had a row in the dining room over what he could or could not say about the GFA.
 
"I'm damn sure," he told me, "that I'm going to be told what I can nor can't say!"

As it turned out I would have really regretted not turning up when I heard how the talk went. Richard gave an excellent outline of his book and talked about the dirty war.
 
Then John took to the stage. To cut a long story short, he gave the AOH a lesson on the history of Irish Republicanism, then proceeded to tear the GFA to shreds. The admiration I already had for John Crawley was increasing by the minute.
 
I was surprised to see that many in the AOH delegation were clapping him as he spoke. But what I didn't realise was that John was causing a few arses to open and close up front.
 
After John had finished saying what he had to say, Danny McBrearty rowed right in behind him telling of the surreptitious moves by McGuinness, in particular, to suss out who would be relied upon to tow the leadership line and who had to be pushed out.
Before anyone else got a chance to speak a big guy at the front got up and put an end to things, saying that it was time to move out of the conference room. It reminded me of Séanna Walsh silencing the Palestinians at the Europa Hotel meeting.
 
The ordinary members of the AOH were then milling among us thanking us for our service and wanting photos taken. I wondered what they'd think when they eventually got round to reading both books.

Afterwards we gathered in the hotel bar for a few drinks. Sharon and myself, Richard and his family, John and Debbie and Danny McBrearty. When I say a few drinks, for the most part they were non-alcoholic drinks. There wasn't a member of the AOH delegation to be seen, they had clearly been ushered off to their rooms before anymore damage could be done. Only Martin Galvin remained and he appeared to be suffering from PTSD.
 
After a while I noticed that John and Debbie had disappeared from our company and when I asked, Martin Galvin told me that they had gone to a bar around the corner. That was rather strange, I thought, they didn't even tell us that they were going.
 
Come 10.30 we were going our different ways, the O'Rawe family, as well as John and Debbie had been booked into the hotel by the AOH delegation and we were going home.

Then, when I got outside, I was told what had really happened to John and Debbie. The two guys who were in charge of the AOH delegation - Martin Galvin was not one of them - had pulled John aside and told him that they weren't welcome at the breakfast table the next morning. John and Debbie went to their room got their belongings and took the long journey home.
 
Neither I nor Richard had known a thing about it and I believe that it was held back from us knowing what our reactions would be should we have found out while inside the bar.
 
The AOH are heading off to Belfast this morning, I believe, with their check books. The two big guys will be hoping that their money can buy a rebuttal of the truth they didn't want their members hearing in Derry. 
Thomas Dixie Elliot is a Derry artist and a former H Block Blanketman.
Follow Dixie Elliot on Twitter @IsMise_Dixie

Ancient Order Of Censors

Ancient Order of Hibernians ✒ Despite overwhelming opposition by victims’ relatives, human rights campaigners, the Irish government and six county political parties, the British government rammed through its Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill, designed to cut off legal channels for justice.

FREEDOM for ALL IRELAND
 
Relatives of victims have vowed they are ‘never giving up’ their fight for truth, and appealing for vital American support. Congressman Mike Lawler, will join victims’ relative Seana Quinn, civil rights lawyer Kevin Winters and New York Irish Consul General Helena Nolan to discuss the next steps in the political and legal battle against the British amnesty bill in a live webinar broadcast, hosted by the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) this Saturday, September 16th at 11 AM Eastern Time, 4 PM Irish time.


The British amnesty bill discards the Stormont House Agreement on legacy mechanisms made with the Irish government, and ends criminal cases, Historical Investigations, Inquests, civil suits or Ombudsman investigations which could give the truth in hundreds cases including British crown force or collusion killings. Instead the British are setting up a so-called Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) which victims’ relatives fear will bury the truth along with the victims. The British have already announced the appointment of retired Chief Judge Declan Morgan to head the Commission, which is neither independent (since appointments are made directly by the British) or likely to achieve truth and reconciliation.

Zoom Registration: Northern Ireland Legacy Justice Webinar - Where do we go from here?

YouTube. 

Congressman Lawler

Congressman Mike Lawler, a member of the AOH, has just returned from Ireland, where he and other members of a Congressional delegation met high ranking British officials and expressed strong opposition to the legacy bill directly to them. The delegation was also briefed on the issue by Irish Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin, and heard the emotional objections made by bereaved family members.

A member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Lawler is becoming an important voice on Irish Congressional initiatives, and recently co-signed a strongly worded bipartisan Congressional letter to British Secretary Chris Heaton Harris, expressing deep disappointment with the amnesty bill.

Tyrone Inquests

Seana Quinn, is the sister of Dwayne O’Donnell, one of four men murdered at Boyle’s Bar in Cappagh, East Tyrone on March 3, 1991. Only last month Attorney General Brenda King ordered new inquests into his murder and four other mid-Ulster killings, citing intelligence that British state agents/bodies played a role in the murders, ballistic evidence linking the weapons used, and wider evidence of collusion.

These inquests are expected to implicate the British Army’s Ulster Defense Regiment 8th Battalion, with direct links to other mid-Ulster murders, and a pattern of crown collusion around the six counties. The same weapons were used in the murder of American citizen and former Bronx resident Liam Ryan. The bereaved families now face a race against time and British amnesty shut-down deadlines.

European Court

Civil rights lawyer Kevin Winters, one of the leading solicitors involved in many legacy cases will explain the legal implications of the amnesty law and how badly the law will impact families who have waited decades for truth. He will outline the strategy for legal challenges that are expected to begin a long legal battle to the European Court of Human Rights.

New York Consul General Helena Nolan will represent the Irish government. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, and Tanaiste Micheal Martin have said that the Irish government is considering indicting Britain in the European Court of Human Rights. If Ireland, as a party to the European Convention on Human Rights, brought an action on behalf of Irish citizens, it would save individual families from years of going through the British High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court before getting to the European Court.

The Fight For Legacy Justice Continues

Ancient Order of Hibernians ✒ “Republicans and Democrats in Congress are not going to sit back and allow the British government to whitewash history and deny justice to victims!”

FREEDOM for ALL IRELAND
 


Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, made this pledge of Congressional opposition to Britain’s Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill during a live webinar broadcast, where he was joined by victims’ relative Patsy Kelly Jr, civil rights lawyer Niall Murphy, and leading legacy justice campaigner Andree Murphy. The program, hosted by the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), was hailed as the first broadcast analysis of the bill since publication of new Amendments by British Lord Caine in the House of Lords, which made a bad bill even worse.

Bipartisan Leadership

Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick together with Congressman Bill Keating, recently sent a strongly worded letter, to British Secretary Chris Heaton Harris, expressing disapproval of the amnesty bill which they said would ”deny justice and conceal the truth from victims.” Both Congressman Fitzpatrick on the House bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, and Congressman Keating on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, have been leading voices on the legacy justice issue in Congress and are in leadership positions in the House.

The British amnesty bill, discards Britain’s Stormont House Agreement on legacy mechanisms with the Irish government, and would end criminal cases, Historical Investigations, Inquests, civil suits or Ombudsman investigations which could give the truth in hundreds cases including British crown force or collusion killings. The British want to set-up an Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) which victims’ relatives fear will bury the truth along with the victims.

Congressman Fitzpatrick said:

we intend speaking from these leadership positions to make clear to the British government that this bill would undercut the Good Friday Agreement, be a major impediment to justice and we are not going to sit back and let it happen.

The Congressman also noted that he has been a long time member of the AOH and like a number of other Congressmen grew up feeling very personally about the Irish issues. He said that he and other members who take Irish issues very personally are “not going to allow an amnesty designed to protect British military to be swept under the rug despite the opposition of nationalist and unionist victims”.

Victims

Patsy Kelly Jr, is one of hundreds of victims’ relatives. His father Patsy Kelly was a veteran of the civil rights movement, elected as an Independent Councillor. Recently for the first time, the number of nationalist councilors elected surpassed the number of unionist councilors. However fifty years ago there were only a few nationalist councilors, and those who stood faced death threats and intimidation.

In July of 1974, Councillor Patsy Kelly disappeared while returning home from work in Trillick County Tyrone. There had been a checkpoint on the road manned by the British Army’s Ulster Defense Regiment. Friends and family immediately suspected he had been abducted by the UDR patrol, working with loyalist paramilitaries.

His body was found three weeks later, when it was discovered by fishermen in a lake in County Fermanagh. Patsy Kelly had been shot 6 times, his body had cuts and bore signs of strangulation. There were many evidentiary leads and an anonymous letter sent with information about the murder. However no one was ever charged.

The family has been fighting for justice for more than 50 years, believing the truth is that members of the UDR planned and carried out the murder, but that it was covered up by the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

A recent Ombudsman report upheld many of the Kelly family’s claims. The Ombudsman found there had the RUC had failed to check the alibis of UDR members or record detailed witness statements; a failed to investigate links with other murders; and forensic failings including failure to make inquiries about footwear marks.

The RUC also failed to recover a boat at Lough Eyes, had no record of fingerprint inquiries, and also failed to make inquiries about an anonymous letter, said the Ombudsman.

The family has now applied for an Inquest which would investigate and make findings about the circumstances of the murder.

Patsy Kelly said “we believe my father was murdered by servants of the British state and his murder was covered-up by other servants of the British state”. A recent Ombudsman Investigation upheld charges that there had been collusive behavior by the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Now the Kelly family’s 50 year fight for justice is threatened by the proposed British amnesty bill. Patsy Kelly said the mere:

threat of the bill passing is traumatic but if it passes it will be the British government saying that the lives of victims killed during the troubles were meaningless and that the rights of victims’ relatives to justice are meaningless.

Closing The Courts For Victims

Civil rights lawyer, Niall Murphy outlined the legal implications of the amnesty law saying the bill had been bad but that the new amendments proposed by British Lord Caine “had done the near impossible in making the law worse.” It had been thought that Inquests which had been awarded or at least opened would be allowed to continue to verdict. However the new amendment would cut off any inquest that was not ready for verdict by May 2024.

The solicitor gave the example of the inquest into the murder of prominent Gaelic Athletic Association official Sean Browne, whose 83 year old wife had testified. The British Ministry of Defense and crown agencies had been ordered to submit discovery and identify witnesses by June 12th. They simply ignored the deadline. “The British can simply delay and run out the clock on inquests for the Browne family and others”.

He termed the bill “terrifying a death sentence for rights to access to the Courts” and would force families who have waited decades for truth to begin a long legal battle to get to the European Court of Human Rights. This would mean exhausting domestic remedies going through the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court before going to Europe.

Mr. Murphy predicted that it would take at least 5 years for families to go through the Courts in the north before starting a European Court action. He urged the Irish government to initiate a case directly.

We Don’t Have The Time

Andree Murphy the Deputy Director of Relatives for Justice, said “the law had been weaponized against victims’ relatives to make the lives of their loved ones meaningless". She said:

the new amendments were traumatic for victims’ relatives who had been granted court ordered inquests, but now find British authorities, who already delayed them for decades could deprive them of inquests simply by delaying and refusing to cooperate.

Ms. Murphy said there are more than 500 murders scheduled for investigation by the Ombudsman, 1100 hundred civil cases and a large number of Inquests which will now be shut down.

Ms. Murphy gave examples of the Springhill Road Massacre or killings of t5he New Lodge 6 which could be closed without a verdict.

She made a heartfelt appeal to the Irish government to take a case directly to the European Court saying when the Good Friday Agreement was signed the wives of many of the victims:

We do not have any more time for failed mechanisms for victims. Relatives who were 40-50- or 60 at the time of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement are now in their 70s or 80s fighting for justice. We do not have time for them to be dragged through the Courts before they can even get to Europe. The Irish government should stand up for these Irish citizens and take Britain to Court!

Representing the AOH during the broadcast were National President Danny O’Connell, Vice-President Sean Pender and Freedom for all Ireland Chair Martin Galvin.

Congress Will Not Sit Back On Amnesty Coverup

Ancient Order of Hibernians ✒ will be hosting a webinar to discuss the British government's plans to press ahead with its legacy bill. The webinar is scheduled to take place on Saturday June 10 @ 10 AM Eastern Time, 3 PM Irish time.


FREEDOM for ALL IRELAND
By its appointment of former Chief Justice Declan Morgan to head its new legacy commission, the British government is clearly signaling its intention to move ahead with the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill, despite overwhelming opposition by victims’ relatives, human rights campaigners, the Irish government and all major six county political parties. 

With British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arriving in Washington, victims’ relatives are making an emergency appeal for American help, as their best hope to stop a bill designed to cut off legal channels for justice. Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick will join victims’ relative Patsy Kelly, civil rights lawyer Niall Murphy, and justice campaigner Andree Murphy in a live webinar broadcast, hosted by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, (AOH) this Saturday, June 10th, at 10 AM Eastern Time, 3 PM Irish time.

The British amnesty bill, aims to discard Britain’s Stormont House Agreement on legacy mechanisms with the Irish government, and end criminal cases, Historical Investigations, Inquests, civil suits or Ombudsman investigations which could give the truth in hundreds cases including British crown force or collusion killings. Instead the British want to set-up an Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) which victims’ relatives fear will bury the truth along with the victims. 

Although the amnesty bill has not yet been passed at Westminster, the British have already announced the appointment of retired Chief Judge Declan Morgan to head the Commission. 




Panelists



Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, has been one of the leading Washington voices on Irish issues and a driving force on a series of Congressional initiatives, House Resolutions and Briefings on legacy justice. Most recently he co-signed a strongly worded letter to British Secretary Chris Heaton Harris, expressing deep disappointment at the moves to push ahead with an amnesty bill despite the opposition of nationalist and unionist victims.

Patsy Kelly Jr., is the son of Independent Councillor Patsy Kelly who was abducted from work in County Tyrone and murdered in July 1974. The family has always believed the murder was carried out by members of the British Army’s Ulster Defense Regiment and a recent Ombudsman Investigation ruled that there had been collusive behavior by the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Now the Kelly family’s 50 year fight for justice is threatened by the proposed British amnesty bill.

Civil rights lawyer, Niall Murphy will explain the legal implications of the amnesty law and how badly the law will effect families who have waited decades for truth and would be compelled to begin a long legal battle to the European Court of Human Rights.

Andree Murphy, the Deputy Chair of Relatives for Justice, will discuss the importance of American help in the continuing political and legal battle for legacy justice.

AOH Hosts Emergency Legacy Justice Appeal Webinar

Ancient Order of Hibernians ✒ will be hosting a webinar to discuss the British judicial system's conviction of a British soldier for shooting dead Aidan McAnespie. 


Una McCabe, a niece of Aidan McAnespie, whose murder, resulted in a historic guilty verdict against a former British Grenadier after 34 years, will be making special appeals to the Irish government and American Congressmen, on behalf of families whose hopes for justice are threatened by the pending British amnesty law. She will be joined by Fergus O’Dowd TD, chair of the Irish Committee for the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), and civil rights attorney Niall Murphy, to discuss the verdict and its meaning for legacy justice, in a live webinar broadcast hosted by the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) on Saturday, December 10th, at 11 AM Eastern Time, 4 PM Irish time. The broadcast comes as the British government pushes ahead with its Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill, designed to take away legal rights to get criminal prosecutions, inquests, Ombudsman reports or civil suits in legacy killings.


Historic


The guilty verdict against former British Grenadier Michael Holden, is considered historic because only four British soldiers have been convicted of killing Irish civilians during the entire period of the Troubles. No British soldier was convicted for Bloody Sunday murders or the Ballymurphy Massacre. The McAnespie verdict undercuts claims by British officials that criminal prosecutions for Troubles killings were now impossible because of the passage of time.


Aidan McAnespie was shot in the back by British Grenadier Michael Holden, firing a machine gun. McAnespie, walking to the local Gaelic football grounds, had just been passed through the Auchnacloy British Army checkpoint, near the County Monaghan border. Holden claimed “his hand had slipped.” His claims were rejected by trial Justice O’Hara rejected as “a deliberately false account of what happened”. 

The British government responded to the verdict with a pledge by British Cabinet Veteran’s Affairs Minister, Johnny Mercer, of full support of the Ministry of Defense for Holden, and promise to pass amnesty legislation which is opposed by both nationalist and unionist political parties in the six counties as well as by human rights groups.  


Zoom registration:

 

AOH Webinar on McAnespie Verdict and Amnesty Bill


Or


AOH Webinar on McAnespie Verdict and Amnesty Bill


YouTube:


 Or


 AOH Webinar on McAnespie Verdict and Amnesty Bill - YouTube


European Court 


Una McCabe, was 7 years old when her mother’s brother Aidan said goodbye to her and began his final journey. She will talk about   the toll her family’s thirty-four year campaign for justice, took on her mother Eilish, and other family members who did not live to see the verdict. She wishes to make a special appeal to the Irish government and Irish Americans for hundreds of other families, who have also been fighting for truth about the murder of loved ones, but now fear British amnesty legislation. 

    

Fergus O’Dowd, a Fine Gael party member of the Irish parliament or Dail from County Louth, chairs the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement Committee (GFA Committee) which includes Irish Dail and Seanad members, plus British Parliament MPs elected from the six counties.  O’Dowd, with approval from the full GFA Committee has made formal written requests calling upon Attorney General Paul Gallagher, to examine the British amnesty bill ‘with a view to taking an interstate case should you determine that the legislation contravenes the UK’s obligations under Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.’

An Irish government case at the European Court, would spare victims’ relatives years of legal delays spent exhausting local remedies in Crown and Appellate courts, before the European Court could consider the case. 

Niall Murphy, is one of the civil rights lawyers who are being vilified for efforts to get justice in legacy cases derided as lawfare. He will talk about the British amnesty bill and why a European Court case by the Irish government or American Congressional pressure are so crucial to victims’ families hoping for justice.

GFA Committee Chair Joins McAnespie Webinar

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