Friday, February 06, 2004

JOSEPH DENIEFFE , 1833 - 1910 : 'Irish Republican Brotherhood' Founder .......



.......in the mid-1850's , Joseph Denieffe assisted in the establishment of branches of the 'Emmet Monument Association' in Ireland and America ; another Irish Rebel , James Stephens , was interested in the new organisation .......


James Stephens had taken part in military action against the British in 1848 , with William Smith O'Brien , in the town of Ballingarry in Tipperary , and had fled to Paris to escape an English jail sentence, or worse . He returned to Ireland and , by 1857 , had set-up a branch of the Emmet Monument Association in Dublin .

The leadership of the Emmet Monument Association in America , John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny , then sent one of their most trusted men - Owen Considine - to Ireland to assist in organising a fighting-force in the country . In December 1857 , Joseph Denieffe returned to America on a fund-raising mission ; he stayed there until about March in 1858 and , having raised eighty pounds - a good sum of money in those days - he came back to Ireland .

On St Patricks Day that year (17th March , 1858) , Joseph Denieffe made his next move ....... (MORE LATER).



WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :

war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.

By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.


A QUIET PERIOD.......





".......At the meeting to discuss the up-coming raid on three RIC Barracks , I met Donncadh MacNeilus for the first time ......."


" He was on the run from the British . He had worked in Cork City as an engineer and had been an active Volunteer . One morning , the RIC came to arrest him . They almost surprised him in bed but he resisted fiercely . He used an automatic pistol , wounding a head 'constable' . The weapon jammed and he was over-powered and taken to Cork county gaol . The Cork Volunteers effected his rescue in a brilliant daylight coup on 11th November 1918 .

Since then he had moved about the western half of the Brigade area , fully armed , and was now staying with us . He was welcome for his splendid personal qualities as well as for his capabilities as an engineer . During the remainder of the summer and until late autumn , I was to see much of him . The barrack attacks were to take place on a date in September and he was busy with us on the details of preparation .

The RIC had , at this period , a special technique of patrol which they practised in the day time - four of them would leave a barracks , sometimes by the back door , and go across country on foot . They carried only revolvers ........" (MORE LATER).



FERDINAND and IMELDA MARCOS ;

A specially-blended , gold-scented lifestyle in the PHILIPPINES .

(From a 'Hot Press' magazine article by Gordon Thomas , 1988 .)

(12 of 12).



The Marcos library is a testament to their vanity . Its shelves are filled with leather-bound books ,none of which have been opened since they came from the printer .

Imelda's bedroom is at the opposite end to her husband's rather sinister sleeping quarters , with its paraphernalia of medical equipment and , incongrously , a toy motor car...

Her bedroom is , said my guide Mario Garcia , " designed for seduction . An endless parade of lovers came and went to this room , trying to satisfy the world's saddest little rich girl . " That they failed to succeed seems absolutely certain .


[END of ' FERDINAND and IMELDA MARCOS ..... '].

.....Such was , and is , the life of the idle rich - "power corrupts .." etc : millionaire life-styles , best of everything and no shortage of anything (except the cop-on to play their cards right) - had they 'filtered-down' a little bit of 'their' wealth , they could ,perhaps, still be enjoying that position today - who knows .......