1981 remembered

[Jim_Murphy_74]

Also the IRA at the time were involved in bombing commercial premises and it didn't matter what the religion was of the owner.

Stepping over the official line lie there Glens.  You are supposed to say that the IRA were involved in bombing commercial premises at the time and while it didn't matter what the religion of the owner was, they had to avoid Catholic business to protect their support base.   So while there was a sectarian element to their campaign, they hadn't a sectarian bone in their bodies.

At least the 76 attack was at night, not like the 71 attack on the company's other premises on the Shankhill.  There 4 customers died (including 2 babies) but given that one of them was a Catholic, we can console ourselves that the bombers probably hadn't a sectarian bone in their bodies.

/Jim.

[glens abu]

If you read through the works of Bobby Sands it is clearly to be seen that he is a poet and scholar. His work is one of the finest this country had ever seen but due to the fact that he was a Republican during this time of struggle his true place in Irish literature history will never be accepted.

Arra now, I know young Bobby et al. have been raised to sacred cow status long since but now we are to say he is one of the finest poets and scholars we ever had?

Part of the great work at elevating Saint Bobby.

It is strange though that his own comrades initially baulked at nominating him as lead hunger striker due to the sectarian nature of the offence for which he was convicted.   Indeed it is no surprise that in retrospective republicans' questioning of the actual conviction grew to questioning of him being actually involved, to complete denial at this stage.  This no doubt motivated by the fact that targetting the Balmorral store is a hard one to "pretty up".  It is difficult because it was such an overtly sectarian act (Not once but twice) to target a business for being owned by Protestants in a loyalist area. 

Being willing to die for a cause isn't the only measure of a man or his cause.

/Jim.

Load of balls Murph,Bobby Sands was sentenced to 14 years for possession of a gun allegedly used in a gun battle with the RUC after the bombing in Dunmurry,he was never charged with any bombing.Also the IRA at the time were involved in bombing commercial premises and it didn't matter what the religion was of the owner.There was not a sectarian bone in his body.

What was that about? (Serious question)

Well probably the thinking behind it at the time was to bankrupt the state and put as much financial pressure as possible on the British to get them to the negotiating table,if it had been possible it would all have been carried out in England but that was impossible.

[glens abu]

Also the IRA at the time were involved in bombing commercial premises and it didn't matter what the religion was of the owner.

Stepping over the official line lie there Glens.  You are supposed to say that the IRA were involved in bombing commercial premises at the time and while it didn't matter what the religion of the owner was, they had to avoid Catholic business to protect their support base.   So while there was a sectarian element to their campaign, they hadn't a sectarian bone in their bodies.

At least the 76 attack was at night, not like the 71 attack on the company's other premises on the Shankhill.  There 4 customers died (including 2 babies) but given that one of them was a Catholic, we can console ourselves that the bombers probably hadn't a sectarian bone in their bodies.

/Jim.

thats your opinion and your entitled to it,but please try and tell the truth and dont make up stories about Bobby Sands as your lies will be found out.

[Jim_Murphy_74]

thats your opinion and your entitled to it,but please try and tell the truth and dont make up stories about Bobby Sands as your lies will be found out.

I never said he was convicted of the bombing, you just accused me of that. 

The reference to the discussion about the linkage between Sands and the Dunmurry bombing was in the book "Ten Men Dead" and may also have been in Taylor's book on the Provos. 

My opinion that the incident was sectarian is as valid (and no more/less a lie) than yours that it wasn't.

/Jim.

[glens abu]

It is strange though that his own comrades initially baulked at nominating him as lead hunger striker due to the sectarian nature of the offence for which he was convicted.

So you were trying to say that possession of a gun allegedly used in an attack on the RUC was sectarian. ;DYeah right.

[Jim_Murphy_74]

It is strange though that his own comrades initially baulked at nominating him as lead hunger striker due to the sectarian nature of the offence for which he was convicted.

So you were trying to say that possession of a gun allegedly used in an attack on the RUC was sectarian. ;DYeah right.

The gun that was in the car was used in a gunfight by a gang that bombed a furniture store. I see a linkage, not three stand alone incidents.  If that's lying then good man you nailed me.

Or are you saying I am lying about the discussion happening?

/Jim.

[glens abu]

It is strange though that his own comrades initially baulked at nominating him as lead hunger striker due to the sectarian nature of the offence for which he was convicted.

So you were trying to say that possession of a gun allegedly used in an attack on the RUC was sectarian. ;DYeah right.

The gun that was in the car was used in a gunfight by a gang that bombed a furniture store. I see a linkage, not three stand alone incidents.  If that's lying then good man you nailed me.

Or are you saying I am lying about the discussion happening?

/Jim.

Twist all you can Murph but Sands was not charged or sentenced for any sectarian offence so your arguement is a lie.Then again that is the norm for Lundys like you.

[LondonCamanachd]

It is strange though that his own comrades initially baulked at nominating him as lead hunger striker due to the sectarian nature of the offence for which he was convicted.

So you were trying to say that possession of a gun allegedly used in an attack on the RUC was sectarian. ;DYeah right.

The gun that was in the car was used in a gunfight by a gang that bombed a furniture store. I see a linkage, not three stand alone incidents.  If that's lying then good man you nailed me.

Or are you saying I am lying about the discussion happening?

/Jim.

Twist all you can Murph but Sands was not charged or sentenced for any sectarian offence so your arguement is a lie.Then again that is the norm for Lundys like you.

As Bobby Sands' death predates the charge of "religiously aggravated hatred" by quite a few years, nobody was guilty of sectarian crimes at the time.

[Jim_Murphy_74]

Twist all you can Murph but Sands was not charged or sentenced for any sectarian offence so your arguement is a lie.Then again that is the norm for Lundys like you.

I'm not twisting anything.  I'm saying that I believe that firebombing that furniture store was sectarian.  You are jumping from saying it wasn't to Sands had nothing to do with it (or least wasn't charged/sentenced for it) to saying it wasn't sectarian.

I'm also saying that I read the book "Ten men dead" where the author said that there was discussion among the IRA leadership as to whether Sands would be a good candidate for strike leader because the Dunmurry incident was seen as sectarian and he was seen to be associated with it. 

The former a belief/opinion the other a statement of what I read. 

Where am I twisting things?

I know how republicans see Sands but why can't you open your eyes to other peoples perceptions?

/Jim

[glens abu]

Monday 9th

I have left this rather late tonight and it is cold. The priest Fr Murphy was in. I had a discussion with him on the situation. He said he enjoyed our talk and was somewhat enlightened, when he was leaving.

On the subject of priests, I received a small note from a Fr S. C. from Tralee, Kerry, and some holy pictures of Our Lady. The thought touched me. If it is the same man, I recall him giving a lecture to us in Cage 11 some years ago on the right to lift arms in defence of the freedom of one's occupied and oppressed nation. Preaching to the converted he was, but it all helps.

It is my birthday and the boys are having a sing-song for me, bless their hearts. I braved it to the door, at their request, to make a bit of a speech, for what it was worth. I wrote to several friends today including Bernie and my mother. I feel all right and my weight is 60 kgs.

I always keep thinking of James Connolly, and the great calm and dignity that he showed right to his very end, his courage and resolve. Perhaps I am biased, because there have been thousands like him but Connolly has always been the man that I looked up to.

I always have tremendous feeling for Liam Mellowes as well; and for the present leadership of the Republican Movement, and a confidence in them that they will always remain undaunted and unchanged. And again, dare I forget the Irish people of today, and the risen people of the past, they too hold a special place in my heart.

Well, I have gotten by twenty-seven years, so that is something. I may die, but the Republic of 1916 will never die. Onward to the Republic and liberation of our people.

[glens abu]

Tuesday 10th

It has been a fairly normal day in my present circumstances. My weight is 59. 3 kgs. and I have no medical problems. I have seen some birthday greetings from relatives and friends in yesterday's paper which I got today. Also I received a bag of toiletries today.

There is no priest in tonight, but the chief medical officer dropped in, took my pulse, and left. I suppose that makes him feel pretty important.

From what I have read in the newspapers I am becoming increasingly worried and wary of the fact that there could quite well be an attempt at a later date to pull the carpet from under our feet and undermine us — if not defeat this hunger-strike — with the concession bid in the form of 'our own clothes as a right'.

This, of course, would solve nothing. But if allowed birth could, with the voice of the Catholic hierarchy, seriously damage our position. It is my opinion that under no circumstances do they wish to see the prisoners gain political status, or facilities that resemble, or afford us with the contents of, political status.

The reasons for this are many and varied, primarily motivated by the wish to see the revolutionary struggle of the people brought to an end. The criminalisation of Republican prisoners would help to furnish this end.

It is the declared wish of these people to see humane and better conditions in these Blocks. But the issue at stake is not 'humanitarian', nor about better or improved living conditions. It is purely political and only a political solution will solve it. This in no way makes us prisoners elite nor do we (nor have we at any time) purport to be elite.

We wish to be treated 'not as ordinary prisoners' for we are not criminals. We admit no crime unless, that is, the love of one's people and country is a crime.

Would Englishmen allow Germans to occupy their nation or Frenchmen allow Dutchmen to do likewise? We Republican prisoners understand better than anyone the plight of all prisoners who are deprived of their liberty. We do not deny ordinary prisoners the benefit of anything that we gain that may improve and make easier their plight. Indeed, in the past, all prisoners have gained from the resistance of Republican jail struggles.

I recall the Fenians and Tom Clarke, who indeed were most instrumental in highlighting by their unflinching resistance the 'terrible silent system' in the Victorian period in English prisons. In every decade there has been ample evidence of such gains to all prisoners due to Republican prisoners' resistance.

Unfortunately, the years, the decades, and centuries, have not seen an end to Republican resistance in English hell-holes, because the struggle in the prisons goes hand-in-hand with the continuous freedom struggle in Ireland. Many Irishmen have given their lives in pursuit of this freedom and I know that more will, myself included, until such times as that freedom is achieved.

I am still awaiting some sort of move from my cell to an empty wing and total isolation. The last strikers were ten days in the wings with the boys, before they were moved. But then they were on the no-wash protest and in filthy cells. My cell is far from clean but tolerable. The water is always cold. I can't risk the chance of cold or 'flu. It is six days since I've had a bath, perhaps longer. No matter.

Tomorrow is the eleventh day and there is a long way to go. Someone should write a poem of the tribulations of a hunger-striker. I would like to, but how could I finish it.

Caithfidh mé a dul mar tá tuirseach ag eirí ormsa.

(Translated, this reads as follows):

Must go as I'm getting tired.

[glens abu]

Wednesday 11th

I received a large amount of birthday cards today. Some from people I do not know. In particular a Mass bouquet with fifty Masses on it from Mrs Burns from Sevastopol Street. We all know of her, she never forgets us and we shan't forget her, bless her dear heart.

I also received a card from reporter Brendan O Cathaoir, which indeed was thoughtful. I received a letter from a friend, and from a student in America whom I don't know, but again it's good to know that people are thinking of you. There were some smuggled letters as well from my friends and comrades.

I am the same weight today and have no complaints medically. Now and again I am struck by the natural desire to eat but the desire to see an end to my comrades' plight and the liberation of my people is overwhelmingly greater.

The doctor will be taking a blood test tomorrow. It seems that Dr Ross has disappeared and Dr Emerson is back...

Again, there has been nothing outstanding today except that I took a bath this morning. I have also been thinking of my family and hoping that they are not suffering too much.

I was trying to piece together a quote from James Connolly today which I'm ashamed that I did not succeed in doing but I'll paraphrase the meagre few lines I can remember.

They go something like this: a man who is bubbling over with enthusiasm (or patriotism) for his country, who walks through the streets among his people, their degradation, poverty, and suffering, and who (for want of the right words) does nothing, is, in my mind, a fraud; for Ireland distinct from its people is but a mass of chemical elements.

Perhaps the stark poverty of Dublin in 1913 does not exist today, but then again, in modern day comparison to living standards in other places through the world, it could indeed be said to be the same if not worse both North and South. Indeed, one thing has not changed, that is the economic, cultural and physical oppression of the same Irish people...

Even should there not be 100,000 unemployed in the North, their pittance of a wage would look shame in the company of those whose wage and profit is enormous, the privileged and capitalist class who sleep upon the people's wounds, and sweat, and toils.

Total equality and fraternity cannot and never will be gained whilst these parasites dominate and rule the lives of a nation. There is no equality in a society that stands upon the economic and political bog if only the strongest make it good or survive. Compare the lives, comforts, habits, wealth of all those political conmen (who allegedly are concerned for us, the people) with that of the wretchedly deprived and oppressed.

Compare it in any decade in history, compare it tomorrow, in the future, and it will mock you. Yet our perennial blindness continues. There are no luxuries in the H-Blocks. But there is true concern for the Irish people.

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Are you copying entire extracts from a book or something Glens and not a reference or acknowledgement in sight.

[Lar Naparka]

Are you copying entire extracts from a book or something Glens and not a reference or acknowledgement in sight.

It's from the Diary of Bobby Sands.
I thought you knew that all along.

[glens abu]

Are you copying entire extracts from a book or something Glens and not a reference or acknowledgement in sight.

Sorry Mayo thought you knew that I was copying Bobby Sands diary as you will see on page 15 when I copied the 1st page.