Friday, October 05, 2007

THEY ARE HELD IN BELFAST JAIL .......

From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1958 .

HELD WITHOUT CHARGE OR TRIAL :

M. McBurney , 56 Durham Street , Belfast .
M. Murray , 14 Beechfield Street , Belfast .
T. McGrogan , 40 Commedogh Drive , Belfast .
L. McParland , 63 Ballymurphy Road , Belfast .
Art Rox , 23 Kilroad Street , Belfast .
Séan O' Cearnaigh , 26 Pound Street , Belfast .
J. Madill , 31 Oakman Street , Belfast .
John McNeill , Glendun , County Antrim .
J. Dullaghan , 4 Clyde Street , Belfast .
P. Doyle , 45 White Rock Crescent , Belfast
(Interned after three months sentence) .
G. Robinson , 23 Vulcan Street , Belfast .
K. O' Kane , 45 Princes Park , Whiteabbey , Belfast .
W. Kennedy , 24 Balaclava Street , Whiteabbey , Belfast .
G. McCotter , 27 Upton Street , Belfast .

(MORE LATER).




ECONOMY IN CRISIS - An Historical Perspective.......

By any standards the economy of Ireland , North and South , can be described as being in a sorry mess with crisis , recession and imminent bankruptcy the most constant themes of economic discussion , intermittently over the last decade and ceaselessly in the last three years . In this article , Peter Graham surveys the factors which have produced this economy , and the historical role of foreign and native Irish capital.

From 'IRIS' magazine , November 1982.

In arriving at the two partitionist states it was more the independent power of Irish nationalism , rather than economic forces , which were at work . Although the early twentieth century had seen , under James Larkin and James Connolly, a major upsurge of trade union membership and working-class militancy in the 1913 lock-out, it was the middle-class (which had condemned the 1916 Rising) which speedily re-assessed the force of nationalism .

So that by 1918 middle-class influence had already infiltrated into a Sinn Fein which , within three years , would sell-out the Republic for the Treaty , whilst labour had to accept that it must wait and stand out of the political arena .

For the Irish capitalist class in the 26-Counties , the establishment of the Free State in 1922 achieved its aims . The victims on the republican side in the Civil War were overwhelmingly the small farmers , agricultural labourers and city workers , fighting on for a Republic which embraced the socialist principles of James Connolly, Padraig Pearse and Liam Mellows- not necessarily a politically-conscious struggle , but one which intuitively recognised that the Republic must mean the wealth of Ireland for the people of Ireland.......
(MORE LATER).



DIVIS FLATS : Building Towards A Demolition Campaign .......
Divis Flats , at the bottom of the Falls Road in West Belfast , have acquired a reputation for 'trouble' - of all kinds - and social deprivation ever since they were built in the 1960's . They have also endured some of the severest British repression meted out during the past 14 years , and replied with some of the fiercest resistance . Local resident and community activist Jim Faulkner examines the new resurgence of morale in the flats complex and the prospects it faces in its biggest battle yet - for total demolition .
From 'IRIS' magazine , November 1983 .

The Divis Residents Association was set up towards the end of the 1981 hunger-strike by Father Pat Buckley, a curate of St Peter's parish , and with the assistance of some local women organised a successful 'clean-up campaign' to repair the environmental devastation of that riotous summer .

The new Association restored relationships with the Housing Executive which had been curtailed by its more militant predecessor , the Divis Demolition Committee, and met the Tory housing minister at Stormont , David Mitchell, to discuss total demolition . Mitchell praised the Association for their efforts but made no firm commitment to any additional demolition over and above the two blocks - Whitehall and Farset - already scheduled to be knocked down because of their proximity to the new Westlink motorway .

In August 1982 Fr Pat Buckley's residents' association organised a festival in Divis Flats to restore community morale - and it too was a great success , with games and open-air concerts which woke everyone up and brought neighbours out to socialise in a way which had not been seen since the high-rise complex replaced the old terraced streets of the Pound Loney neighbourhood in the 1960's . But that 'success' was short-lived.......
(MORE LATER).