Tuesday, September 24, 2002

<%itemTemplate%> <%itemText%> <%when%>  <%permalink%>  <%editButton%> <%enclosure%> Sean Smyth For the last thirty plus years the local and international press has been full of articles and letters about sectarianism in Ireland. Many of them have been written by members of the various socialist parties (for those socialists who are paranoid about anything which is written the 'capitalist press' I mean all socialist party's) who have been very keen to tell us the only way to tackle sectarianism is their way and that the trade unions are letting down the working class. [Full Article] 6:36:39 AM

<%itemTemplate%> <%itemText%> <%when%>  <%permalink%>  <%editButton%> <%enclosure%> Liam O Ruairc Sinn Fein has reached a new low by claiming that the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is failing to clamp down on the `Real IRA' in south Down. The Sunday Business Post reported Sinn Fein MLA Mick Murphy as saying that "There is a lot of dissident activity in the area, but the PSNI has done nothing about it." [Full Article] 6:34:38 AM

Saturday, September 21, 2002

<%itemTemplate%> <%itemText%> <%when%>  <%permalink%>  <%editButton%> <%enclosure%> Anthony McIntyre David Trimble faces yet another challenge this weekend from his opponents, not all of whom can so easily be slotted into Paul Bew's 'stupid unionism' pigeon hole. Some harbour leadership ambitions within their heads rather than vast amounts of nothingness. And with an election only months away the antagonisms will be sharpened and fashioned into stilettos. It is the ninth such 'crisis' for Trimble. For Jeffrey Donaldson it is the ninth turning point at which he will have failed to turn for the ninth time, if he keeps faith with past performances. That would leave Trimble out-doing those legendary cats in terms of lives, acquiring a record tenth. [Full Article] 4:15:47 PM

Friday, September 20, 2002

<%itemTemplate%> <%itemText%> <%when%>  <%permalink%>  <%editButton%> <%enclosure%> Brian Kelly Billy Mitchell has drawn the parallel recently in the Blanket between the so-called 'poor white trash' of the American South and the Protestant working class here in the north. And in many ways it is an analogy that fits: callously abandoned in social and economic terms by the rulers of a society to which they have so enthusiastically proclaimed their loyalty over many, many years; sneered at, manipulated by, and regarded with a mixture of pity and contempt by "respectable" elements in their "own community"; and diverted from pursuing joint struggle alongside their fellow workers from the Falls or the Short Strand by their entanglement in a deep-rooted, reactionary historical tradition, like the Southern white working class during the civil rights era they are too easily held up as "the culprits" in the recent upsurge of sectarian barbarism. [Full Article] 6:27:59 AM

Wednesday, September 18, 2002

<%itemTemplate%> <%itemText%> <%when%>  <%permalink%>  <%editButton%> <%enclosure%> Terry O'Neill I live in Albany, New York, something of a hotbed of Irish-American culture and the place where the first man sworn in as a member of the Garda Siochana in 1922 lies buried. It is also the place where, in December 1986, I met the man who then-Governor Mario M. Cuomo had just nominated as top man for our respected New York State Police -- Tom Constantine. You have heard of him, no doubt. I took a liking to the man on the spot and have followed his subsequent career since as an admirer, critic and even, some would say, symbiote. [full article] 6:33:50 AM

Tuesday, September 17, 2002

<%itemTemplate%> <%itemText%> <%when%>  <%permalink%>  <%editButton%> <%enclosure%> Brian Martin From The Blanket Direct suppression occurs when: A person makes a public statement or does something that is seen as a threat to the powerful interest group. The group most commonly is a government, industry or profession, but could be, for example, a trade union, church or environmental organisation. 7:27:56 AM

Friday, September 13, 2002

<%itemTemplate%> <%itemText%> <%when%>  <%permalink%>  <%editButton%> <%enclosure%> Anthony McIntyre From The Blanket 'The instruments of liberation tend to become means of manipulation.' - Rolando Gaete Walking through Armagh city with an hour or two on my hands, having just missed my bus, a driver tooted his horn at me as I crossed at lights. When I approached the car and spoke to him, he - having recognised me from somewhere else - asked if I would highlight some problems he was experiencing at the hands of the local Provisionals. It was not the first time that such an appeal had come my way simply in the course of travelling. On one occasion disembarking from a bus in Belfast, having just arrived from Cookstown, the driver asked if I could help his family circle acquire more information from the Provisional IRA about the circumstances of his nephew[OE]s death. Easier getting blood from a stone. 6:26:18 PM

Thursday, September 12, 2002

<%itemTemplate%> <%itemText%> <%when%>  <%permalink%>  <%editButton%> <%enclosure%> Davy Carlin From The Blanket As David Trimble took the 'impartial' decision as the leading elected representative of the peoples of N. Ireland to do his walk-about in Cluan Place I and several other trade union activists co-incidentally took up the invite to visit Clandeboye Drive on the same day. We spent approximately two and a half hours there on which I shall give an objective account of those hours 4.30pm-7pm. The last time I was in the Short Strand was in answer to the call for an anti-sectarianism rally in which we witnessed both a person being shot and the rally attacked. Yet on that evening's televised news coverage I watched media revisionism in full flow in which the portrayal of the ' two warring tribes' were at it again. Yet my perception is that there was a deliberate attempt by some to portray a non-reality that evening. Yet again the media scrum accompanying Trimble's visit into Cluan Place and his unrepresentative approach on that day said nothing for the reality on the ground. 6:50:09 AM