Wednesday, March 02, 2005

'THE PRESS' Newspaper , October 1797 - March 1798 .
Too Radical for the Radicals .......

... the Irish Rebel newspaper 'The Press' was founded in 1797 by two of those in the leadership of the United Irishmen organisation - Arthur O'Connor and 'Lord' Edward Fitzgerald .......


Others in the leadership of that organisation (notably Thomas Addis Emmet and Dr. William James MacNeven) were worried that 'The Press' newspaper was promoting too militant an agenda .

Emmet and MacNeven were concerned that the revolution being openly called-for in the pages of 'The Press' would only encourage the political 'establishment' (ie Dublin Castle ) to investigate with a renewed vigour the organisation with which that newspaper was associated - the United Irishmen .

The more 'moderate' (if you like) leadership of the United Irishmen considered it preferable to , as they put it , " calm the peasantry ... " while the Rebel Army was being recruited and organised . Thomas Addis Emmet convinced the leadership that the French were prepared to assist the Irish Rebels in an armed rising and it was agreed that one of those in leadership position in the United Irishmen be sent over to France to enter into liaison with the French Administration .

Arthur O'Connor packed his bags - but it was not to be .......

(MORE LATER).


LIGHTS , CAMERA , REAGAN .......!
By John Dean.
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , October 1980 , pages 30, 31, 35, and 37.
Re-published here in 20 parts .
(10 of 20).

After the war , as newly elected President of the Screen Actors' Guild , Ronald Reagan had to grapple with labour problems that threatened to shut down Hollywood ; Reagan believed that the problems were instigated by the communists who were trying to " .. take over the motion picture business for a grand , world-wide propaganda base . "

His liberal friends' opposition to the McCarthyism exposed to him , he later said , the " seamy side of liberalism . " Most accounts give his growing absorption in Guild politics as the reason for his divorce from Jane Wyman in 1948 .

In 1951 he met a young starlet named Nancy Davis ; they were married a year later . Her father was a prominent Chicago surgeon and a staunch right-wing Republican , and Reagan's friends say Dr. Davis was a strong influence on him .......

(MORE LATER).


DEATH LIST 1989 .......
Two RUC Officers and two British soldiers , one based in West Germany , were killed by the IRA since mid-May , while a Catholic barman was shot by the UFF bringing the total death toll to 39 this year .
No by-line.
From 'MAGILL' magazine , July 1989 , pages 22 and 23 .
Re-published here in 14 parts .
(6 of 14).

7th March : Leslie Dallas (39) , Ernest Rankin (72) and Austin Nelson (62) were killed when an IRA Unit attacked a garage in Coagh , County Tyrone , which they claimed was being used by the loyalist UVF to prepare sectarian attacks on Catholics in the area and specifically on Republican supporters .

8th March : British soldiers Private Miles Daniel Amos (18) and Private Stephen Jeffery Cummins (24) died after a massive landmine blew their landrover off the Buncrana Road in Derry near the Donegal border checkpoint . The second of two vehicles in the British Army patrol was completely destroyed and six other British soldiers were injured , two seriously .

10th March : Mr. James McCartney (39) was shot dead outside the Orient Bar on the Springfield Road in West Belfast where he worked as a security man . Another man was seriously injured when the loyalist attackers shot into the crowded bar in one of a number of attacks on nationalists over a twenty-four hour period in Belfast .

(MORE LATER).