Republican Sinn Féin will be marking the 90th anniversary of the death of Commandant Neil ‘Plunkett’ O’Boyle at the hands of Free State forces with a commemoration in Knocknadruce, Co Wicklow on Sunday May 12 at 3.00pm. read full story / add a comment

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 Inchicore Friends of the International Brigades is a local group dedicated to remembering those who volunteered to defend the Spanish Republic against the forces of international fascism and capital. As part of the Friends of the International Brigades in Ireland (FIBI), the group is affiliated with the International Brigades Memorial Trust. Future projects include the erection of a memorial to Jim Prendergast in Temple Bar in September 2013 and the continuation of a second-level schools’ essay competition, launched successfully in 2012. read full story / add a comment

Wolfe Tone to be commemorated in Bodenstown on Sunday 16th June 2013. read full story / add a comment

Between the years 1917 and 1981 , 22 Irish republicans died on hunger-strike. read full story / add a comment

Revisionists given a hammering by John Borgonovo . They are searching for an ouija board to contact Peter Hart for advice. Full text at link.

UCC historian John Borgonovo casts doubt on some claims made in the TV3 series ‘In The Name Of The Republic’
TV3’s TWO-PART documentary series, In the Name of the Republic has created a stir among historians, though perhaps not in the way the filmmakers intended. The programme illustrates the danger of accepting local folklore as historical fact, especially during this much-heralded “decade of centenaries”.

In the first episode, viewers met an aged Co Laois man who related his boyhood encounter with a neighbouring farmer, who claimed he had dug up a body while ploughing his field, one of three corpses supposedly buried there by the IRA. Series host Prof Eunan O’Halpin (of Trinity College Dublin) told the audience hisresearch had uncovered two civilians abducted by the Tipperary IRA and “never seen again”. The rest of the episode attempted to prove his theory that they were interred in this Laois field. The episode concluded with O’Halpin opening the sealed files, only to learn that both had survived the conflict. They were never killed by the IRA, much less secretly buried in Laois. The obvious lesson here is: Finish your research before you rent the JCB.

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Free Walking Tour, visiting the main locations of the Easter Rising.
Meeting at Liberty Hall, 1pm on Good Friday.
All very welcome. read full story / add a comment

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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Easter Monday Commemoration at the GPO , O'Connell Street , Dublin. read full story / add a comment

Easter Sunday Commemoration in Deansgrange , Dublin. read full story / add a comment

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

GPO , Dublin , 12 noon to 2pm. read full story / add a comment

Annual Sean Sabhat Commemoration 2013

The annual Sean Sabhat Commemoration, organized by Limerick City Sinn Féin, will be held on Sunday 6th January. The parade will assemble at Bedford Row at 2.45pm and proceed from there to the Republican Plot, Mount St. Laurence Cemetery.

The main speaker will be Dublin City Councillor Michéal MacDonncadha. Cllr. MacDonncadha is a long standing member of the Sinn Féin Árd Chomhairle, a former editor of the Republican newspaper An Phoblacht and a published historical author. A fluent Irish speaker, he also presents a traditional Irish music programme on a local Dublin radio station.

All are welcome to attend.
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Assemble at Glasnevin Cemetery Gates , Tuesday 1st January 2013 , at 12.45pm. read full story / add a comment

Kildare Republican Sinn Féin will be marking the 90th anniversary of the execution of seven soldiers of the Irish Republican Army with a commemoration in Kildare Town on Sunday December 16. The Free State Army executed the men in the Glasshouse on the Curragh on December 19 1922. The seven were: Patrick Bagnall and Patrick Mangan, Fairgreen, Kildare; Joseph Johnston, Station Road, Kildare; Bryan Moore and Patrick Nolan, Rathbride, Kildare; Stephen White, Abbey St. Kildare and James O’ Connor, Bansha, Co. Tipperary. This was the single biggest execution of the civil war or counter-revolution of 1922-23. read full story / add a comment

Rory O' Connor , Liam Mellows , Dick Barrett and Joe McKelvey to be commemorated in Dublin on Saturday 8th December 2012. read full story / add a comment

The Communist Party of Ireland 1921 – 2011
Volume I: 1921 – 1969

by Dr. Matt Treacy
Author of The IRA 1956-1969, Rethinking the Republic

Launched by
Paddy Prendiville - Editor The Phoenix
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Seolfar
MÍCHEÁL Ó MEALLÁIN
le Séamus Ó Mealláin
i gClub Chonradh na Gaeilge, 6 Sráid Fhearchair, Baile Átha Cliath
Déardaoin 22 Samhain ag 8 pm 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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