Charlie Kerins Remembered.

Eddie Carmody Commemoration

Eddie Carmody Commemoration
Oration
Ballylongford 2010
Marion Price


A chairde, when Collins was negotiating the partition of our country Lloyd George told him that the Six County Statelet would be an economically unviable region. What a massive irony it is that we now see the Twenty Six County region falling under this description. The vindication of those who opposed the 1922 Treaty is complete. The vindication of those who opposed the creation of Fianna Fáil and its direction is also complete.

This State has betrayed its own people. It has betrayed the Irish nation. It has betrayed our patriot dead. And it has betrayed even those who once viewed this state as a stepping stone to independence. This state took the lives of Irish people in defence of what it called its sovereign legitimacy. It used British guns and British hangmen against Irish people to preserve its existence. It imprisoned thousands more who argued that self determination was a right for all the people of Ireland. And now, as a result of greed, corruption and incompetence it now cedes this so called sovereignty to the highest foreign bidder. Indeed even Westminster has placed a bid to buy back the treaty it imposed under threat of violence. The state is now under the control of foreign financiers.

It gives us no pleasure in standing at the grave of Eddie Carmody and reciting these facts. Even the graves of those who upheld the treaty are sullied by these actions. Every ideal, every principle, every act of resistance has been set aside to facilitate this grotesque state of affairs. They have lied in the face of overwhelming exposure to the truth. They have misled the people again and again to cover for their misdeeds. And now that their legacy is laid bare the task remains to undo the damage left in their wake.

Comrades, Irish sovereignty is not for sale. Irish sovereignty does not stop at the border. The restoration of Irish sovereignty is the only viable starting point in rebuilding the Irish nation. This is the argument republicans must bring to our people. The Free State is dead, 88 years too late.




We need to bring a new vision to our people. Only republicans working together can realise this effectively. This is not a time for self imposed isolation or factionalism. It is a time to grasp the nettles of reality as to the immensity of our task. Our arguments are solid. Our perspective is rational. The current calamity vindicates what we have being saying all along. The real problem we face is that our voice is not strong enough to be heard. We must change this.

At our recent Ard Fheis the issue of the republican goal and the labour movement was addressed. We are not asking labour to wait but we are asking labour to act in a concise manner. We are reminding them of Connolly’s assertion that the cause of labour is the cause of Ireland. This is even more evident today. We now call on the labour movement to address the issue of Irish national sovereignty and the ending of its violation. We put it to them that the interests of the workers you represent can only be fully realised in a 32 County Sovereign Ireland. That sovereignty represents the returning of ownership and control to the people.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions will be organising a series of protests in the coming weeks. We welcome this. But we also state it clearly; if you do not protest for fundamental change you are protesting for nothing. You cannot say to the workers of Ireland, thus far and no further, leaving them enslaved as before. You cannot call on Irish workers to protest for a better arrangement with the financial elite. You must lead them against partition, against the mindsets that partition engendered, against the outside forces that care more for balance sheets than they do the welfare of people.

Every county in Ireland holds patriot graves. These should be the focal point of our protests. We should assemble at these hallowed spots and march in protest for what they gave their lives for. We need to bring their sacrifice into the heart of where this country now finds itself. These are the people we need to turn to for guidance and inspiration. It is from graves such as Eddie Carmody that a new national narrative must emerge.

The Proclamation and Declaration of Independence must now replace the failed treaties which kept this state on life support. These are the words that the labour movement must now embrace. No more double talk. No more seeking petty arrangements with the status quo. No more looking after sectional interests. It is time for national thinking. It is time to realise the republic Eddie Carmody gave his life for.

Kerry says No To Royal Visit

32CSM Bodenstown 2010

As we predicted the Dublin Government has extended an invitation to the British Queen to visit the Twenty Six County State. Brian Cowen declared that no obstacles remain preventing the British royal from an official visit. What he failed to explain was that the obstacle as far as London were concerned was Dublin’s territorial claim over what the Queen determines to be sovereign British territory. Now that that claim is relinquished, and the Irish are back in their place, Her Majesty can descend amongst us.

There will be those who will welcome this development. There are those who will feign indifference but will secretly welcome it. And there are those who will maintain a strategic low profile lest their hypocrisy is exposed by what they signed up for.

This visit is not merely symbolic but an affirmation of political intent. This State is declaring to both our history and our future that the issue of British sovereignty in Ireland is finally settled. This is how they will celebrate the centenary of the Easter Rising. For these people the abandonment of the Proclamation is not an obstacle. The continuation of partition is not an obstacle. The abuse of our people by British police officers is not an obstacle. The deliberate and systematic abuse of republican prisoners is not an obstacle. The enslavement of future generations to financial institutions is not an obstacle.

The only obstacles to stand in their way are republican separatists. And our ability to be effective at this depends on our ability to work together. This visit must be strenuously opposed by all republicans and it must be done so publicly and on the streets. The terms under which this visit is taking place screams to the world that Wolfe Tone, Robert Emmet, Thomas Davis, Padraig Pearse, James Connolly and all our great patriot dead were wrong. Our country remains occupied by an army of which this Queen is Commander in Chief.

She held this position whilst her army slaughtered our people on Irish streets for thirty years. Her Secret Service detonated car bombs in Irish cities and towns to ensure repressive legislation was introduced against those who fought to remove her army. She pinned medals on the perpetrators of these acts and stood over the lies of these soldiers when the world demanded the truth. She imprisoned thousands in her gaols and allowed brutality and murder to be committed in her name. We cannot welcome her. We cannot move on until she and her Parliament move out. This is the connection which Wolfe Tone sought to break. This was the starting point through which our people could be truly unified. And this commemoration is a fitting venue to once again rededicate ourselves to Tone’s ideal.

As National Chairperson of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement I am placing all our activists on notice: our preparations for opposing this visit begin now. As an Irish republican I am putting all other republicans on notice: go back to your organisations and prepare likewise. If we fail to make an impact on this visit we have no right to march to the GPO in 2016. These are how high the stakes are.

Our immediate attention is once again drawn to Her Majesty’s Prison at Maghaberry. Without question political direction from Westminster is behind the brutality against republican POW’s. It’s not a case of rogue officers or random occurrences but a systematic and strategic assault on the prisoners.

We must match the prisoners resolve when we campaign on their behalf. There is a momentum gathering around this issue as can be seen by the size, frequency and diverse areas where protests are held. We need to do more.

The prisoners are engaged in a dirty protest. They are demanding an end to strip searches, free association and an end to controlled movement.. But they are acting in the capacity of political prisoners and the resolution to the dispute must begin with the recognition of their political status. We welcome all assistance but we make it clear that concessions in return for acceptance of criminalisation is a non starter. Just as we refused to horse trade our sovereignty for a better partition we also refuse to horse trade on our prisoner’s political status for short term gain.

The momentum that is growing behind the prisoner’s struggle will attract attention from various quarters; some friendly, some hostile and some that will attempt to neutralise this momentum as a political force. This is why we must make it absolutely clear that political status is the starting point. The first question we must ask of them is where do you stand on this central issue?

There are many protests planned for the future and I urge all republicans to both attend these protests and to organise similar protests in their own areas. All ideas for advancing political status are welcome. Raise it in the media, at work, on the internet; raise it where ever people gather. The prisoners resolve will be our strength and the justice of their cause our motivation.

The 32 County Sovereignty Movement welcomes the Saville Report in so far as it vindicates the victims of Bloody Sunday. But it remains fundamentally a British Inquiry into British war crimes in Ireland. Its provenance stems from the horse trading which led to the Good Friday Agreement. This establishes its credentials not as an independent inquiry into events in 1972 but rather as part of a wider political agenda. Even on the day of its publication those who gathered in Derry were described as supporters of the so called peace process. This is the drum which establishment nationalists were permitted to beat. Its din was designed to drown out the fact that these same drumbeaters were recognising the Parachute Regiment as the legitimate armed forces in the Six Counties. The British Prime Minister’s apology exacted a heavy price.

Now there are calls for inquiries into other similar events. Our political analysis tells us that Saville is as far as London is prepared to go. Their absolute refusal to cooperate with the inquiry into the Dublin Monaghan Bombings is very telling. The British establishment will only engage in such matters if there is a political benefit for them. They will not countenance an international dimension because as far as they are concerned such issues are internal matters to be dealt with internally.

In truth the only relevant inquiry should be one which examines the British presence in our country. The Sovereignty Movement set out our stall with our submission to the United Nations. True closure for the victims of our long conflict must surely be the final resolution of that conflict. Our legacy to them must be a sovereign Irish Republic, free to determine its own future and free to deal with its own past. We struggle for that republic. We struggle for closure.

No Royal Welcome in the Kingdom

The North Kerry 32 County Sovereignty Movement wish to express their utter disgust at the prospect of a visit from the unelected Queen Elizabeth of England to County Kerry. The invite from inconsiderate Killarney businessmen has been seen as a greedy opportunistic plot to add to their already overflowing barrels of cash, and has sparked outrage amongst the Kerry people. To add insult to injury the sitting Minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport Mary Hannifin, and the rest of the Free-State government, have said they would support the venture.

This statement is a principled objection to an offensive and provocative undertaking by the fat cats who have allowed themselves to be bought and sold for English gold.
Sean O’Driscoll, of the Kerry Branch of the Irish Hotels Federation, offered a brief history lesson of how 2011 is going to be the 150th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria’s visit to Killarney in 1861. He mentions how he feels it would be appropriate for Queen Elizabeth to visit on the anniversary.
Perhaps we could offer Mr. O’Driscoll another history lesson, the part of our history he, the other business men and the free-state government seem intent on ignoring.

Some objectors may wish to recall the centuries of murdering and maiming of Irish people by British monarchs and their armies; others might recall the plundering of our lands, some of which to this day remain in the ownership of British aristocrats; perhaps some will object to a visit as we still await publication of the Saville inquiry into Bloody Sunday; while others wish to object because of the instances of British obstruction in investigating such crimes as the Monaghan bombings of 1974 and the Miami Showband massacre of 1975.

Today, Queen Elizabeth is not only head of state in Britain, she is also Commander in Chief of all United Kingdom armed forces. This includes the 5000 British troops still occupying 6 counties in the North of Ireland. How a visit of a British Monarch could even be contemplated at this time is beyond those of us who oppose the visit.

Sean O’Driscoll said a €20m marketing campaign could not generate the publicity that a visit by the Queen would. This is the one thing we tend to agree with. If such a visit did take place, it would cause such uproar in the Kingdom and the country as a whole that the event would not be forgotten for years.

Honor our patriot dead. Honor those who died at the hands of the Queens army in Kerry and in the rest of the country. Do not insult their memory by allowing their murderers descendant parade the Irish roads which they died defending.

There will be no welcome for English royals in Kerry.

Tralee POW Protest 29/05/'10

There were over 400 information leaflets handed out on the day. We got a great response with many people returning after reading the leaflet and asking questions about the situation in Maghaberry and the occupied 6 in general. Even the Sinn Fein van beeped the horn in support! We would like to especially thank the Cork and Fermanagh Cumanns for their support.

POW Protest

Gortaglanna Commemoration

Speech by John Connolly:

I am happy to be here today. I want to thank especially the North Kerry Cumann of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement for inviting me to say a few words at todays commemoration in Gortaglanna. Today we remember 3 brave soldiers of Ireland and IRA volunteers Paddy Walsh, Paddy Dalton and Jerry Lyons who were brutally murdered at the hands of 3 lorry loads of drunken Black and Tans on the 12th of May 1921. I am sure those of you who are here today know the story of what happened to these brave republican soldiers. This is merely one example of a grave injustice suffered by the local inhabitants here in the Co. of Kerry.

Today however we are facing injustice of a different kind. Both the British and Freestate governments have shamefully adopted a criminalisation policy against all Anti Agreement Republicans, starting with our POWs. As I speak our comrades in Maghaberry gaol are suffering at the hands of an old enemy. I believe it is incumbent for all republican groups irrespective of political differences to come together in unity for our POWs.

Recently Republican prisoner Harry Fitzsimmons from Belfast was stripped and beaten, and dragged to the punishment block where he was handcuffed naked to a bed. It is up to us comrades to tell the people of the inhumane conditions and degrading treatment these men have to withstand on a daily basis.

The media have been absolutely deafening in their silence about this torturous campaign waged against our incarcerated republican comrades by another arm of the British occupation. It is up to us as republicans to take to the streets to protest for our imprisioned comrades. We owe them that much.

Over the coming weeks and months we will be stepping up our campaign in support of the POWs.

It is heartening to see here today comrades that the republican flame is still burning strong in the hearts of Kerry men and women, and that they are holding strong the ideals and objectives of the three men we are commemorating today.



Beir Bua

Getting The Republican Message Out

Nth Kerry 32CSM Attend National 1916 Commemoration

Clashmealcon Remembered

The last great struggle of ther Civil War took place down by the Shannon shore at a place called Clashmealcon. It is a treacherous, rugged coastline stretching from Kerry head to Kilmore.Here stands a tall isolated turret of rock guarding a horse-shoe shaped creek whose base has been bitten in far under the cliff. In summer, the south coast of Clare, Loop Head and Ballybunion can be seen.

Commandant Timothy "Aero" Lyons from Garrynagore, Lixnaw was in Causeway in the Spring of 1923 when Free State troops came to make a round up. He and his men fought them off on every occasion. A comrade og his, Captain James McEnery, a native of Ballyduff, had a house a mile or so from the cliffs where he lived with his wife and his son.

His house was raided on Sunday and he and Volunteer James McGrath were arrested but McEnery escaped and ran to seek refuge among the cliffs. Volunteers Patrick O'Shea, Edward Greaney and Reginald Hathaway, (an Englishman who deserted the British Army and joined the IRA), were in a nearby house and when they saw the troops surrounding McEnery's house they opened fired. Meanwhile, McEnery was spotteed and pursued. Volunteer Tom McGrath saw this and opened fire on the Free State troops thus giving McEnery the chance to escape. Free State reinforcements from Ballyheigue came under the crossfire and they scattered.

That evening when the countryside was at peace again, Lyons and his men returned to McEnery's house: he was in delight over the days work. McEnerys sister Catherine spoke to him that night and asked what he was going to do. "I don't know," He said doubtfully. She then met with her brother and Volunteer Edward Greaney who told her that they were gong to a safe place. Three other members of the column were wary and went elsewhere but the six men, Lyons, McEnery, McGrath, O'Shea, Hathaway and Greaney went into Dunworth's cave.

Meanwhile, Volunteer James McGrath, Tom's brother was being interrogated in Ballymullen barracks by inhuman methods. Eventually he broke down and promised he would take the Free Staters to the cave. He thought the cave was empty at the time.

Early on Monday morning he came out with the Free Staters to Clashmealcon and they watched him as he clambered down theperilous path along the shingle to the mouth of Dunworth's cave. The Volunteers didn't blame him and took him into the cave. Lieutenant Pearson, a Free Stater from Dublin climbed down after him shouting "Come out!" but a shot was fired from the cave and he fell into the sea. Another came after him, O'Neil, and he too was shot, mortally wounded.

The Free Staters got hay and turf from nearby houses ans set fire to them and threw them down to the cave, trying to smoke the Volunteers out. Trucks came out from Tralee with petrol, tar and sulphurous liquid. They made poisionous fumes from dousing sheets and thowing them down but the wind changed and blew the flames out to sea.

During the night when the bombardment died down, they crawled out of the cave, one by one and climbed onto a ledge and into another cave. They were not noticed by the Free Staters above, their ruse successful. Volunteers Patrick O'Shea nad Tom McGrath volunteered to try and go further to seek help but in the darkness they were washed away and drowned.

On tuesday morning trucks came from Tralee with bombs, grenades, ammunition and reinforcements. An armoured car was driven to the cliffs edge and a machine gun and a searchlight were positioned overlooking the cave. The bombardment went on all day. The crackle of machinegun fire and the explosion of grenades shook the nearby houses.

On the 18th of April, the third day of the siege, a scout was ordered to go down. At around 10 o'clock as the scout was preparing to descend the cliff a shout was heard from below. Lyons had come out and put his hands up. Notes were passed from below as Lyons tried to negotiate a surrender. He would give himself up on condition that the others would go free. At about mid-day a rope was lowered and Lyons began to climb up and when he neared the top a Free Stater cut the rope and he fell 100 feet onto the rocks below. There was a dreadful cry of pain from below and a cry of triumph from above. Lyons was then riddled with machine gun fire which lasted for about ten minutes when a local priest, Father Chill stood at the cliffs edge and shouted "Savages! Stop shooting!" Lyons' body was washed away by the incoming tide.

The others were brought up shortly after and brought to the jail in Ballymullen barracks where they were almost beaten to death before being executed on the 25th of April.

On May 5th "Aero" Lyons' body was washed up on a nearby beach. He was buried in the Republican plot in Kilflynn alongside his local comrades Captain George O'Shea and Vol Tim Tuomey who both died at Ballyseedy.

Captain Jim McEnery and Vols Edward Greaney and Reginald Hathaway were buried in Ballymullen barracks but reinterred in the Republican plot in Ballyduff in 1924.

The bodies of Vols Patrick O'Shea and Tom McGrath were never recovered.

Vol James McGrath lived with the memory of the siege until the day he died, 29th January 1972.


In loving memory of the Volunteers of the

3rd Lixnaw Battallion

Kerry No. 1 Brigade

IRA

Easter Function

The North Kerry 32 CSM held a function in Finucanes Bar, Ballylongford on Easter Sunday night. During the function the Carmody family (whose relative was Lieutenant Eddie Carmody who was murdered by Crown Forces in 1921) were presented with a personalised mirror made by Portlaoise POW's.

A raffle also took place which brought in more than enough funds to cover the cost of the night and the prison crafts which were raffled.

A local comrade was also celebrating his birthday that night so he was presented with a canvass depicting Kilmainham Jail and a quote from the Proclamation.

The night was a huge success and there was plenty of craic agus ceol.

Kerry 32CSM Remembers 1916