| DECEMBER 2006
IS IT HISTORY OR NEWS?
It is often said that those
who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. If that be true, the
questions raised by Sinn Fein regarding their acceptance of the Police
Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) show they know their history. The
questions follow the recent published results of an international
investigation which uncovered considerable and credible evidence of
British Army and police collusion in 74 sectarian murders during the
1970s. The murders are history, but Republicans today are concerned that
history could repeat itself, especially if there remain senior officers
in the PSNI who were involved in the collusion reported. They argue that
these officers need to be identified and removed from the PSNI if there
is to be a new beginning to policing in the North.
The investigation was done
by a panel of human-rights experts from around the world, headed by
University of Notre Dame human rights law Professor Douglass Cassel who
registered shock at the extent of collusion uncovered. They found that
senior officers of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (now renamed the PSNI)
were aware of, and approved of, collusion with Loyalist paramilitaries
while officials in London had enough information to intervene, but
didn’t. The panel’s report called on the British Government to appoint
an independent inquiry to examine how high up the chain of command
collusion went. Professor Cassel said, “Personally I was shocked. The
British Government has a reputation around the world as one of the
leading democracies and one of the longest histories of the rule of law.
To find this extent of collusion in murders we investigated was
shocking.” Among the incidents investigated were the May 1974 Dublin
Monaghan bombings which claimed 33 lives and the Miami Showband massacre
in July 1975.
While Sinn Fein leader Gerry
Adams told Irish-American supporters in New York on Nov 9 there was
still more work to be done on the policing issue, DUP leader Ian Paisley
insisted Sinn Fein's attitude is a “major stumbling block”. “I have
conveyed to the prime minister”, he said, “the view that there will have
to be delivery from Sinn Fein on supporting the Police Service of
Northern Ireland, courts and the rule of law. Until this happens there
will be no progress made.” Apparently the reverend wouldn’t object to
repeating the history of Loyalist violence! So you see, knowing your
history is important. Check the Washington-based Irish American
Information Service at www.iais.org
for more information.
In a classic example of
history getting its due, Britain pardoned 26 Irishmen executed during
World War I. According to the Irish Shot At Dawn campaign which sought
this pardon, the men were “brutally gunned down by British military
authorities, not in the name of justice, but as a stupid, spiteful and
shameful example to others; most were clearly suffering from shell
shock. Treatment of enlisted men tended to be harsher and more punitive
and were seldom used on officers whose treatment consisted of rest and
encouragement usually accompanied by withdrawal from the war zone for a
period of rest and rehabilitation.” Many were stubbornly refused the
mercy of a pardon by the British Government until Mr. Justice Anthony
Babington, an acclaimed expert and the first to gain access to official
records in the early eighties, observed that the military courts hadn't
the foggiest idea how to sentence, and that their decisions were
arbitrary, inconsistent and irregular. On November 30th 2000 he publicly
urged the British Government to look again at some 300 of these cases.
In June 2002 the Shot at Dawn Campaign (Irl) was founded in Dublin to
lobby the Irish Government and to invite Irish communities at home and
abroad to pressure the British Government to grant pardons to these
soldiers who were executed for minor military offences which ceased to
be punishable by death in 1929. Some were only guilty of disobedience
but were executed as an example to enforce discipline. The pressure
worked. As a result, relatives of the 26 Irish of the 300 pardoned
gathered for a wreath-laying ceremony in the War Memorial Gardens at
Islandbridge, Dublin on November 12. They praised the work done by The
Shot at Dawn campaign, led by Peter Mulvaney. Foreign Affairs Minister
Dermot Ahern welcomed the pardon saying it showed the men met a fate
they did not deserve. The names of the 26 Irish volunteers will be added
to the Irish National War Memorial Records. See
www.shotatdawncampaignirl.org for more information.
Congratulations to Bill
Kreamer of AOH Div 7, E. Islip, Suffolk who was presented with the
Legion of Honor Award by the Chapel of the Four Chaplains, named for
four chaplains – one Jewish, two Protestant, and one Irish Catholic –
whose selfless courage saved four sailors when they gave their life
jackets away on a sinking ship torpedoed by a Nazi sub in 1943. See
www.fourchaplains.org for the
full story. The Legion of Honor Award publicly recognizes persons who
exhibit the selfless service to community, nation, and neighbor so
dramatically exemplified by the Four Chaplains. Some notable recipients
have been Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Carter, and Reagan as well as
Bob Hope, John Glenn, Martha Raye, James Michener, Marian Anderson, C.
Everett Koop, Tommy Lasorda and Shirley Chisolm. And now, Bill Kreamer.
Walk proud, Bill, walk proud!
|
| MARCH 2006
IT’S YOUR HERITAGE – DEFEND IT!!!
Have you seen the advertisement in an Italian
newspaper for a Racketeering Convention where the price of admission is
four stolen hubcaps? No? Per-haps you’ve seen the ad in Ebony magazine
for a Martin Luther King Memorial Water-melon Eating competition? No?
How about the open invitation to our Jewish brethren to attend a Nazi
Barbeque? No? And I hope to God that you never will! That is vulgar and
degrading ethnic stereotyping at its tasteless worst. But brace
your-selves, for the season of Paddy Bashing is upon us and we are about
to be assaulted by similar tasteless and insulting slander aimed at our
heritage in the name of freedom of cultural expression.
One sad example is the release of a new whiskey bearing the name of one
of Ireland’s greatest heroes – Michael Collins. Not only is the product
not Irish, but the firm promoting it knows little or nothing about the
glorious name it chose to degrade. Shame on the member of the Collins
Clan who sold the rights to that name, for that name was not his to
sell; it be-longs to the Irish people!
Another classic example of
ethnic slander can be found in the insulting Irish Music 'Drinkfest
Weekend' presented by the Villa Roma Resort on March 31 – a 3-day dip
into debauchery with such attractions as body art and pint-drinking
contests amid the advertised safety of No Driving. Sadly, the ad does
not mention the dangers of binge drinking or the drive home. As host Ed
Ryan is quoted as saying, “If you can’t find me drunk, I’m out drinking
somewhere!” The sad part of this one is that it is Irish – at least some
of the bands are Irish, and they’ve made a decent living from Irish
audiences, but then it has been said that if you put an Irishman on a
spit, you can always find another to turn him. In history, we know such
characters as Gombeen Men who take advantage of their own to benefit
themselves. The only thing green that they value is the almighty dollar.
None of this is new for history shows that in order to subjugate the
Irish, the Crown had to destroy their culture. The powerful nature of
that culture drove England to mock its expression, parody it
significance, and ridicule its supporters. Enter the comic lush known as
the stage Irishman – an individual so captivated by booze that no one
could take him seriously. When that image followed them across the ocean
to America, the Irish opposed it, as they could not do in their
British-dominated homeland. One N.Y. Times article dated May 7, 1902 was
entitled, “War on the Irish Comedian: AOH starts a crusade against
publications which cartoon Irishmen.” It reported that, “John T.
Keating, National President of the Irish organization, brought the news
to Chicago when he came back from the East today (that a) crusade will
be directed against newspapers and other publications which cartoon the
Irish-man.” Among the Stage Irish who were chased off the burlesque
boards with fruit and vegetable missiles were the Irish-American Russell
Brothers who portrayed Irish maids as bumbling buffoons always into the
master's liquor cabinet after which they would dance a jig or perform
some other nonsense. The anti-defamation campaign was soon picked up by
other Irish groups and continued for years. As late as 25-years later
the N.Y. Times noted on Oct 5, 1927 that the American Irish Vigilance
Committee was filing charges against MGM for producing several
anti-Irish films. Would that we had such Irish in our midst today! But,
we can dream.
We can dream of Michael Collins Whiskey going bankrupt, or at least
changing its name. And while I pray that no one gets hurt there or on
the way home, I can dream of a massive clean-up effort required by the
Villa Roma to repair the damage caused by the riff-raff to whom they are
catering. I also dream of Irishmen writing bags of letters: letters to
the Villa Roma to express their out-rage; letters to the entertainers
appearing at the 'Drinkfest Weekend' putting them on notice that they
will no longer be supported by the Irish community – no more concerts
and no more record sales; and letters to our Irish radio programs urging
no more air play for these of-fenders.
Somehow this always seems to happen around the feast of our Patron Saint
whom some still insist on calling St. Paddy. The truth of the matter is
that the difference between Paddy’s Day and St Patrick’s Day is the same
as the difference between the office Christmas party and Midnight Mass.
There’s a lot more I could say on this subject, but I have some letters
to write. Won’t you join me; IT’S YOUR HERITAGE – DEFEND IT!!!
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