In the Name of the Father Release Martin Corey
international | crime and justice | news report 
Wednesday June 26, 2013 07:17
by Brian Clarke - AllVoices 
Release Martin Corey
On 9 February 2005, then Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a public apology for the miscarriages of justice known as the Guilford 4, saying that he was "very sorry that they were subject to such an ordeal and such an injustice", and that "they deserve to be completely and publicly exonerated." If all this injustice happened in an open court, what chance does a 63 year old Irishman like Martin Corey have in a secret court, with secret paid evidence, where he has no idea of charge or length of sentence and is not allowed to defend himself? Giuseppe Conlon went to London, to simply help his son, as any good father would do on hearing of his son's wrongful arrest for terrorist offences, below is the nightmare that followed
To cut a long story short Giuseppe Conlon on his arrival in London was arrested, tortured, framed and very quickly found himself in an English prison. Giuseppe's health deteriorate in Wormwood Scrubs prison where he was eventually serving his sentence for possession of explosives. He died on Jan 23rd 1980, the same day Home Secretary William Whitelaw decided to grant him parole.
Giuseppe maintained his innocence to the end of his life.
On December 1979 Giuseppe’s health who had a chronic chest condition became so serious that he was moved from Wormwood Scrubs prison in London to Hammersmith Hospital. Just over a week later, despite being on oxygen and a drip feed in hospital, he was returned to prison. The British authorities informed his incredulous family, they were afraid that the Irish Republican Army (IRA) would kidnap him. Giuseppe Conlon was again on his return to prison so sick that he was again moved from prison back to hospital as his health continued to worsen. He died on Jan 23rd 1980. On the same day he died, Home Secretary William Whitelaw granted him parole.
Over the years, the cases of the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven came under increasing legal scrutiny and within range of those seeking human rights, demanding a review of the convictions. On 17 October 1989 it was announced that corruption proceedings would be taken against the police involved in the conviction of the Guildford Four. The Court of Appeal decided that the DPP in 1975 had suppressed scientific evidence, which conflicted with the confessions. On 26 June 1991 the Court of Appeal overturned the sentences but all the family by now had completed their sentences. Afterwards many criticized the court for dismissing most of the grounds of appeal and had simply concluded that the hands of the convicted could have been innocently contaminated with nitro-glycerine.
Gerry Conlon says, "My ordeal goes on. For others the nightmare is just starting,
I am often asked if a grave miscarriage of justice like the Guildford Four's could happen today. Shamefully, it could and it does.
I suffer from nightmares and have done so for many years. Strangely, I didn't have them during the 15 years I in spent in prison after being wrongly convicted, with three others, for the 1975 Guildford and Woolwich pub bombings. It was almost as if I was in the eye of the storm while I was inside, and everything was being held back for a replay later in my life.
Our case is well known now as one of the first of the big miscarriage of justice stories, and I am often contacted by people who, like me, spent many years in jail for something they did not do. People ask whether a case like ours could happen today. Of course it could. I know of innocent people still behind bars and I know there are echoes of what happened to us in cases that are still coming to light today.
What happened to us, after all, is not dissimilar to what happened to Binyam Mohamed, the British resident held for many years in Guantánamo Bay. Like him, we were tortured – guns put in our mouths, guns held to our heads, blankets put over our heads. The case against us was, like his, circumstantial. And like him, we tried to get people to listen to what had happened to us, and it took years before our voices were heard outside.
What has been happening in Britain since 2005 has created the same sort of conditions that helped to lead to our arrest. The same procedures are being followed – arrest as many as you can and present a circumstantial case in the hope that at least some of them will be convicted. The one difference, so far, is that juries seem less inclined to convict. But if there is another series of bombs, who knows if that will still apply?
It is still hard to describe what it is like to be facing a life sentence for something you did not do. For the first two years, I still had a little bit of hope. I would hear the jangling of keys and think that this was the time the prison officers were going to come and open the cell door and set us free. But after the Maguire Seven (all also wrongly convicted) – my father among them – were arrested, we started to lose that hope. Not only did we have to beat the criminal justice system but we also had to survive in prison. Our reality was that nightmare. They would urinate in our food, defecate in it, put glass in it. Our cell doors would be left open for us to be beaten and they would come in with batteries in socks to beat us over the head. I saw two people murdered. I saw suicides. I saw somebody set fire to himself in Long Lartin prison.
The first glimmer of home did not come until my father (Guiseppe Conlon, also wrongly convicted and posthumously cleared) died in prison in 1980. My father's last words were "my death will be the key to your release". That proved to be the case, because that was when a number of MPs started to become involved.
It was a terrible price to pay. What many people do not realise is how difficult it is to have your case reopened. It was in 1979 that I wrote to Cardinal Basil Hume about our case and he came to see me in prison. I remember it well: I had been playing football and I was called in to see him – he looked like Batman in his long cloak and he was great, but it was still another 10 years before we were free – even although the authorities knew full well by then who had carried out the bombings and that it was not us.
Since I came out of prison, I have suffered two breakdowns, I have attempted suicide, I have been addicted to drugs and to alcohol. The ordeal has never left me. I was given no psychological help by the government that had locked me up, no counselling. Since our case there have been perhaps 200 others we have heard about of innocent people being released, Sean Hodgson being the latest, and probably a few thousand others that have not had the publicity. I would say the vast majority have almost certainly had problems with drug addiction, have been estranged from their families and disenfranchised from society – yet they have been offered little in the way of help. The money we received in compensation went quickly as a lot of hangers-on arrived on the scene.
I am 55 now and I was 20 when I was arrested so what happened to us has taken up 35 years of my life. I am now with the girl that I met when I first came out of prison and I owe her an enormous amount of gratitude. Others have not been so lucky. I hope that what happened to us will always act as a reminder to people never to jump to conclusions, whatever the nature of a crime, and never to ignore the people who are now trying to get their voices heard so that the nightmare does not happen to them."
See Indymedia Link Below: Stop the Internment Torture of 63 Year Old Martin Corey
Giuseppe maintained his innocence to the end of his life.
On December 1979 Giuseppe’s health who had a chronic chest condition became so serious that he was moved from Wormwood Scrubs prison in London to Hammersmith Hospital. Just over a week later, despite being on oxygen and a drip feed in hospital, he was returned to prison. The British authorities informed his incredulous family, they were afraid that the Irish Republican Army (IRA) would kidnap him. Giuseppe Conlon was again on his return to prison so sick that he was again moved from prison back to hospital as his health continued to worsen. He died on Jan 23rd 1980. On the same day he died, Home Secretary William Whitelaw granted him parole.
Over the years, the cases of the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven came under increasing legal scrutiny and within range of those seeking human rights, demanding a review of the convictions. On 17 October 1989 it was announced that corruption proceedings would be taken against the police involved in the conviction of the Guildford Four. The Court of Appeal decided that the DPP in 1975 had suppressed scientific evidence, which conflicted with the confessions. On 26 June 1991 the Court of Appeal overturned the sentences but all the family by now had completed their sentences. Afterwards many criticized the court for dismissing most of the grounds of appeal and had simply concluded that the hands of the convicted could have been innocently contaminated with nitro-glycerine.
Gerry Conlon says, "My ordeal goes on. For others the nightmare is just starting,
I am often asked if a grave miscarriage of justice like the Guildford Four's could happen today. Shamefully, it could and it does.
I suffer from nightmares and have done so for many years. Strangely, I didn't have them during the 15 years I in spent in prison after being wrongly convicted, with three others, for the 1975 Guildford and Woolwich pub bombings. It was almost as if I was in the eye of the storm while I was inside, and everything was being held back for a replay later in my life.
Our case is well known now as one of the first of the big miscarriage of justice stories, and I am often contacted by people who, like me, spent many years in jail for something they did not do. People ask whether a case like ours could happen today. Of course it could. I know of innocent people still behind bars and I know there are echoes of what happened to us in cases that are still coming to light today.
What happened to us, after all, is not dissimilar to what happened to Binyam Mohamed, the British resident held for many years in Guantánamo Bay. Like him, we were tortured – guns put in our mouths, guns held to our heads, blankets put over our heads. The case against us was, like his, circumstantial. And like him, we tried to get people to listen to what had happened to us, and it took years before our voices were heard outside.
What has been happening in Britain since 2005 has created the same sort of conditions that helped to lead to our arrest. The same procedures are being followed – arrest as many as you can and present a circumstantial case in the hope that at least some of them will be convicted. The one difference, so far, is that juries seem less inclined to convict. But if there is another series of bombs, who knows if that will still apply?
It is still hard to describe what it is like to be facing a life sentence for something you did not do. For the first two years, I still had a little bit of hope. I would hear the jangling of keys and think that this was the time the prison officers were going to come and open the cell door and set us free. But after the Maguire Seven (all also wrongly convicted) – my father among them – were arrested, we started to lose that hope. Not only did we have to beat the criminal justice system but we also had to survive in prison. Our reality was that nightmare. They would urinate in our food, defecate in it, put glass in it. Our cell doors would be left open for us to be beaten and they would come in with batteries in socks to beat us over the head. I saw two people murdered. I saw suicides. I saw somebody set fire to himself in Long Lartin prison.
The first glimmer of home did not come until my father (Guiseppe Conlon, also wrongly convicted and posthumously cleared) died in prison in 1980. My father's last words were "my death will be the key to your release". That proved to be the case, because that was when a number of MPs started to become involved.
It was a terrible price to pay. What many people do not realise is how difficult it is to have your case reopened. It was in 1979 that I wrote to Cardinal Basil Hume about our case and he came to see me in prison. I remember it well: I had been playing football and I was called in to see him – he looked like Batman in his long cloak and he was great, but it was still another 10 years before we were free – even although the authorities knew full well by then who had carried out the bombings and that it was not us.
Since I came out of prison, I have suffered two breakdowns, I have attempted suicide, I have been addicted to drugs and to alcohol. The ordeal has never left me. I was given no psychological help by the government that had locked me up, no counselling. Since our case there have been perhaps 200 others we have heard about of innocent people being released, Sean Hodgson being the latest, and probably a few thousand others that have not had the publicity. I would say the vast majority have almost certainly had problems with drug addiction, have been estranged from their families and disenfranchised from society – yet they have been offered little in the way of help. The money we received in compensation went quickly as a lot of hangers-on arrived on the scene.
I am 55 now and I was 20 when I was arrested so what happened to us has taken up 35 years of my life. I am now with the girl that I met when I first came out of prison and I owe her an enormous amount of gratitude. Others have not been so lucky. I hope that what happened to us will always act as a reminder to people never to jump to conclusions, whatever the nature of a crime, and never to ignore the people who are now trying to get their voices heard so that the nightmare does not happen to them."
See Indymedia Link Below: Stop the Internment Torture of 63 Year Old Martin Corey
Giuseppe is dead man
Gerry Conlon Talks About His Father Giuseppe
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Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Retweet to Release Martin Corey Political Prisoner of Conscience British Occupied Ireland.
Peace Process Without Due Process
In the previous article this was mentioned in the following: Last time 10 died and I really don't want to go through that again!
Gerry Adams, A Question of Honour, Martin Corey?
Sun Jun 23, 2013 08:46
Gerry Adams was interned in March 1972 and released in June to take part in secret talks in London. An IRA delegation met with British Home Secretary, William Whitelaw in Chelsea. The delegation included Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Sean Mac Stiofain, Daithi O'Conaill, Seamus Twomey, Ivor Bell and Dublin lawyer Myles Shevlin. The IRA insisted Gerry Adams be included and he was released from internment to participate.
He was re-arrested in July 1973 and interned at Long Kesh internment camp along with Martin Corey who served almost 20 years at that time. Martin Corey has, after serving almost 20 years as a political prisoner, since his unconditional release in 1992, been interned again over three years ago without any reason, charge or sentence given to him.
Gerry Adams after taking part in an IRA organised escape attempt, was sentenced to a period of further imprisonment. During this time, he wrote articles in the paper An Phoblacht under the pseudoynm "Brownie", where he often criticized strategy and policies of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and Billy McKee. He was extremely critical of McKee who decided to assassinate members of the Official IRA from whom they split and were on ceasefire since 1972.
Many still believe that Gerry Adams denials of membership of the provisional IRA, are based on the fact that he was in fact always a member of the Official IRA only, never formally joining the Provisionals. After his release in 1976, he was again arrested in 1978 for alleged IRA membership, the charges were subsequently dismissed.
A long standing Irish Republican principle claims that the only legitimate Irish state, is the Irish Republic, declared in the Proclamation of the Republic of 1916, which they consider to be still in existence The legitimate government of Ireland was vested in the IRA Army Council, with the authority of that Republic in 1938 by the last remaining anti-Treaty deputies of the Second Dáil, while others see the death of O'Bradaigh as the last in that link.
Gerry Adams continued with this claim of republican political legitimacy, until his 2005 speech to the Ard Fheis, when he rejected it in his typical duplicitous manner, by saying : "But we refuse to criminalise those who break the law in pursuit of legitimate political objectives. .. Sinn Féin is accused of recognising the Army Council of the IRA as the legitimate government of this island. That is not the case. .... we do not believe that the Army Council is the government of Ireland. Such a government will only exist when all the people of this island elect it. Does Sinn Féin accept the institutions of this state as the legitimate institutions of this state? Of course we do."
Bearing all of this in mind and the politically sensitive issue of policing and justice in British Occupied Ireland, where the Provos surrendered their arms without, any supposed promised real power sharing in the devolved Assembly, makes their participation look hollow indeed, bearing in mind Mr Adams promises of power sharing to IRA members, as the basis for the Peace Process.
During the internment of Marian Price the nominal bi-party agreed, Justice Minister lied to an Assembly debate about her internment. All the powers of policing, internment without trial, MI5, lie with the English Viceroyal who is heavily compromised to the Secret Services or the Hidden British State. Indeed many believe, that almost all of the elected politicians in British Occupied Ireland have over time, been compromised to creepy Secret Service blackmail.(See; Britain's Spy Agency Taps Fibre-optic Cables for Secret Access to World's Communications)
Meanwhile interned traditional Irish Republican Martin Corey still maintains he still has absolutely “no idea,” why he is being interned without trial more than three years.Speaking from a hellhole in Maghaberry gaol, the Lurgan man says he believes he has been interned strictly because of his political belief in a United Ireland. In other words 'an Irish prisoner of political conscience' in Gerry Adam's negotiated British Occupied Ireland????
Martin says “I have been interned for three years now and I still haven’t been given a reason. They have put forward a number of allegations against me, and for three years, I’m not able to defend myself against any of them.They say I have been seen speaking to known republicans, and that I visited a number of houses in Lurgan Tarry but almost every house in my Town is Irish republican. What does that matter? It doesn’t mean I’ve done anything wrong. They have absolutely nothing on me, and that’s why they haven’t charged me. When I went to court, I end up being ordered to be released by the Judge, but without a a shred of evidence against me the English Viceroyal again overruled the judge and interned me again.”
Martin Corey continued: “When I was arrested, I was taken to Lurgan police station. None of the police officers in the station knew why I had been arrested. I was then taken to Maghaberry. When I got here, even the prison officers were surprised to see me. One of them asked me, what I was doing here, and I replied, ‘You know as much as I do’. I was thrown into a cell and I have been here ever since.The fact that I’m in here and haven’t been given a reason, makes the whole thing even worse. If they have anything on me, they should charge me and send me to a proper trial. If not, I should be released.”
Martin a 63-year-old man, losing his power with age and the mental torture of indefinite internment, worked as a grave digger in the town for twelve years before he was interned, further stated: “When I was released from Long Kesh internment camp originally, after serving almost 20 years, I did not get involved in anything. I would have attended the odd white-line protest picket, things like that. But that is definitely the most I would have been involved with. I have held down a steady job for more than a decade, and even got a character reference from Monsignor Hamill. To accuse me of posing a threat is just ridiculous.”
Mr Corey has previously said: “A hunger strike is looking like a very real possibility. The agreement is not being implemented. Omniously he added: “There are plenty of volunteers for a hunger strike. That’s one thing there’s no shortage of.” The unelected English Viceroyal was
un-available for comment, a spot of fox hunting like her previous ancestral Viceroyal, perhaps?
Neither was Gerry Adams available, who has done nothing of substance, other than stating publicly, after the recent release of the interned Marian Price: “The logic of today’s release is that Martin Corey should also be freed.” However many Irish Republicans including his own supporters believe this is no longer good enough or acceptable, bearing in mind his position as President of his party, his undertakings of power sharing, when selling the Peace Process to IRA volunteers, the surrender of arms without direct input in matters like core policing, internment without trial, the reluctance to hold the 'Justice' ministry at the Assembly to account and his own history of non-accountability, on critical issues of public importance.
What is causing further scrutiny of Gerry Adams, in the instance of Martin Corey, is that not alone were they both comrades in defending their own community from ethnic cleansing and from the collusion of the British State, with sponsored British sectarian death squads, which included up to a hundred British soldiers and their own British paramilitary police. They were also comrades, when both were interned without trial, in what became known as Long Kesh Concentration Camp. They were tortured together in the British invented Concentration Camps which Hitler used with such infamy. Will the British succeed in dividing them, as they did previously with De Valera and Irish republicans?
Of course "intelligent Irish republicans" as Gerry's colleague Martin McGuinness often says, know that Gerry Adams has not put all his political cards on the table, with regard to this issue or indeed any of the issues mentioned above. However bearing in mind Martin Corey's 63 years and the current fragile state of the 'peace process' the last thing people need or want is another Hunger Strike by a Long Kesh, H-Block internee, bearing in mind the history of Bobby Sands and the total of the 10 hunger strikers, who already died by this last resort of non-violent protest.
Irish republican loyalty in the interest of unity, which has extended over so many years of giving Gerry Adams the benefit over considerable doubt, will hardly extend to letting a fellow volunteer and elderly internee die interned in a British hellhole. Statements as Gerry the pragmatist would himself know, at this stage are hardly enough. .As President of Ireland's largest political party and partner in a negotiated peace agreement and recent event around taking responsibility, he would now know that both his political and moral responsibility are to cease with the use of an elderly Irish internee being used as stick, to wave at the many Spartans, who survived Martins current ordeal, who have serious misgivings about the implementation of promises made. Martin has considerable support in his native Lurgan and indeed most of the British created, sectarian 'murder triangle.'
One of the last recording, made of the previous late President of 'Sinn Fein', who was criticized so much By Mr Adams, Ruairi O Bradaigh quoted, "The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep." Ruairi kept his promises, Will Gerry Adams keep his prosmises to the people who have learned from bitter experience, is that they rely on people like Martin Corey to defend them and simply cannot trust British Paramilitary police or a disarmed IRA that let them down so badly last time. This is the harsh reality that many new political careerists ignore but which Gerry Adams dare not forget..
Sparta
It is infantile to regard questions such as these as personal or undermining Irish Republican Unity which is impoertant. The fact is that an innocent 63 year old man who has now served 22 years in a sectarian state is currently a political prisoner of conscience in peace process negotiated by Mr Adams. It is inexcusable in any civilized state and unacceptable. It is time for Mr Adams to exercise the power entrusted to him originally, by the blood, years of internment, gaol, hard work of genuine Irish republicans and take the necessary ACTIONS, to effect the release of Martin Corey immediately.
Someone Remind Gerry Adams of this Song !
There's[G] a place just[C] outside[G] Lisburn
It's a place that's[D] known to[G] few
Where a[C] group of[D] Irish re[G]bels
Are[C] held by[D] Faulkner's[G] crew
They are forced to[D] live in[G] cages
Like the inmates[D] of Belle[G]vue
But the sperit of[D] 19[G]16
Will always[D] see them[G] through
The men in this vile place
They come from far and near
Some from the Derry Bogside
And Omagh town so near
And some of them from Belfast
From the markets and the Falls
From the narrow streets of Ardoyne
And all around Tyrone
On that black day in August
When Faulkner showed his hand
He thought that by internment
He could break our gallant band
But the boys from Ballymurphy
How they showed the way that night
How they thaught those English soldiers
How Irish men could fight
Long Kesh it's known to everyone
The system must be broke
Ardoyne the New Lodge and the Falls
Will see the system choke
No more the special powers act
The means will envoke
And Long Kesh will be the U stone
Of which the system's broke
A word now Irish people
No matter where you are
Remember our brave rebels
In Long Kesh this year
And by civil disobeience
Or any other way
We'll make a stand until the day
Each one of them are free
ni neart go cur le cheile,
brionOcleirigh
Peace process Without Due process
Bearing in mind the current brutal treatment of Irish political prisoners, in the wake of the Peace Process and hunger strikes, Gerry Adams' party's apparent detachment or covert involvement with due process, the critical question for the Irish Republican Movement today, must now surely be the following. Would a Sinn Fein Government led by Gerry Adams in the Free State, rely on special courts, military tribunals and draconian legislation like De Valera (Sinn Fein/ Fianna Fail) previously did, in attempts once again to crush Irish Republicans. and more worryingly a coalition with Fiann Fail deliver even greater repression than the current Zionist Blueshirt axis.
In 1936, De Valera’s Fianna Fáil government introduced special courts to imprison republicans and three years later, in August 1939, during the IRA’s English Campaign, it also established special military tribunals which were empowered to return only one the death sentence, from which there was no appeal. During the early 1940s, hundreds of republicans were interned by De Valera and sentenced to long periods of imprisonment by special courts. Six IRA Volunteers, Paddy McGrath, Thomas Harte, Richie Goss, George Plant, Maurice O’Neill and Charlie Kerins – were tried by military tribunals, found guilty and executed.
The same De Valera Government also allowed another three Republicans, Jack McNeela, Tony D'Arcy and Sean McCaughey die on Hunger-Strike. So the question now is; Would Gerry Adams bearing in mind his current record of collusion, interning innocent people like Martin Corey be another Eamon De Valera disaster? Are Provisional Sinn fein secretly enabling this odious activity with their President's private religious blessing?
An example of this duplicity, is that on 16 September 1953 De Valera met with Churchill for the first and only time, at 10 Downing Street. He surprised the UK Prime Minister by claiming that if he had been in office in 1948 Ireland would not have left the Commonwealt. While Churchill reprimanded De Valera as he would no doubt reprimand Adams today when he said, “The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law and particularly to deny him the judgement of his peers is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist.”
At the general election of 1957, De Valera, then in his seventy-fifth year, won an absolute majority of nine seats, the greatest number he had ever secured. This was the beginning of another sixteen-year period in office for Fianna Fáil. A new economic policy emerged with the First Programme for Economic Expansion. In July 1957, again in response to the Border Campaign (IRA), Part II of the Offences Against the State Act was re-activated and he ordered the internment once again without trial of Irish republican suspects, an action which De Valers claimed, did much to end the IRA's campaign.
But it didn't did it ? Neither did internment in the early '70s with Adams himself interned along with Martin Corey. The central question currently with regard to the political prisoner of conscience Martin Corey Corey is whether Gerry Adams is going down the De Valera route or does he or his party, actually have anything progressive to offer the extremely dysfunctional island of Ireland? The omen are not good without any actual current activity other than a few prayers by Adams on the release of Marian Price. Like the banketer farce, words are simply not good enough at this stage, action is now required. Provisional Sinn Fein have been given the same mandate that the SDLP were given 40 years ago when they withdrew from Stormont and a nominally republican Irish party, has no business there while administering internment. There is no grey area with regard to this, they cannot run with the hare and hunt with the British hounds on this issue any longer. Hiding in prayer, while ignoring Martin Corey's reality is not good enough at this stage.
Duplicity Prayers
What is even more shocking, is non attendance by the nominally republican party of provisional Sinn Fein and more particularly Gerry Adams. This is a disgrace and the type of lazy parliamentry oversight, that allowed the banks to rob the Irish people. It gives me no pleasure and makes me particularly sad, as a former chairperson of provsional Sinn Fein, to say these people have absolutely nothing progressive to offer Ireland, other than more of the same old Fianna Fail.version of Irish republican ideals.
Clare Daly on the other hand is a good example, of what a real parliamentarian of the people is like and Ireland desperately needs this type of politician, to take it out of the utter mess it is in.Provisional Sinn fein are the biggest political party on the island of Ireland and part of the British administration in British Occupied Ireland. It is simply not good enough for them at this stage, to pick and choose what part they play in the administration of policing and injustice after the lengthy peace processing.The process was sold to families who lost loved ones,volunteers, activists, the Republican Movement on the basis of power sharing. The internment without trial of innocent traditional Irish republicans is the antithesis of the most basic form of republicanism, there is grey area in this matter.
They cannot hoodwink the people of Ireland any longer on this issue. If they believe that the Irish people accept that their 'negotiators' gave up the armed struggle and all of the arms dumps in return for no say or input in policing and injustice they must think we all came down the Boyne in a bubble. They cannot hunt with the British hounds and run with the fox any longer. You are either with us or against us, we demand the immediate release, of the interned, political, prisoner of conscience, Martin Corey immediately or your withdrawal from Stormont, like the SDLP previously did 40 years ago, as a matter of democratic principle.
AWOLnation (1)
Adams gave several examples of commitments reneged on by the British, including inquiries into the murder of lawyer Pat Finucane, the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, the 1971 Ballymurphy Massacre, in which 11 people were massacred by British soldiers in Belfast.
Gerry Adams has further claimed that Prime Minister Cameron had stepped away from the peace process since coming into power, a very polite way of saying the British reneged on the Peace Agreement, an extremely serious political matter with regard to an International Peace Agreement of such significance, where the Americans are meant to be guarantors.
Gerry Adams has further stated “Since the election of the Tory/Lib Dem coalition the British prime minister has detached himself from the continuing promotion and development of the peace and political processes.” That is now more than three years ago and Mr Adams and his party have demonstrated considerable weakness by allowing this to run, permitting the internment and the arrest of several of its volunteers, meant to be protected under the agreement.
In 2001, the British agreed to give IRA fugitive volunteers an amnesty, so they could return to British Occupied Ireland without fear of arrest and prosecution, but the British government later reneged on its promises, citing lawmaker refusal to back the deal thus in reality violating all of the Peace Process.
Now all competent negotiators know, the devil is in the detail and you negotiate up not down, something obviously the experienced British are aware of but which the leadership of the Provisionals have seriously neglected. Now this is no small matter in such an Agreement
Last month British prosecutors charged a 61-year-old Irishman with the 1982 IRA attack on the queen's cavalry in Hyde Park that left four soldiers and seven horses dead. The surprise arraignment of John Downey in a London court, came on the 15th anniversary of the supposed ratification of the Good Friday Peace Agreement for British Occupied Ireland, which has tried to end four decades of bloodshed, in the British Occupied Irish territory. The British have failed to explain why they arrested John Downey at this particular time, after he arrived at London's Gatwick Airport, almost 31 years after the attack.
Provisional Sinn Fein naturally demanded Downey's immediate release, that is the least they could do for one of their own. The Irish nationalist party and former republicans, accuse Britain once again of violating an agreement to not pursue John Downey, who had been on a list of IRA suspects "on the run" from the British for years. Gerry Kelly called Downey's arrest "vindictive, unnecessary and unhelpful" and an act of "bad faith" by the British government to be still pursuing Irish Republican Army volunteers, in keeping with the spirit, if not the letter, of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
These continuous arrests of IRA veterans, with Sinn Fein connections, have raised tension in the peace process, which is still incomplete all these years later which local Councillor Murray for Mr Downey said he "should never have been arrested"."In 2007, he received a letter from the British Government, informing him that he was not wanted by any British police force. He then traveled to Britain numerous times without any problems.
"John has been a long time supporter of the peace process and as a peace worker he regularly engaged with unionists. He always put his head above the mark in promoting a new republic. I don't think the British government is going to wake up tomorrow and say Donegal County Council has told us what to do, but it was Donegal County Council laying out quite clearly that the Good Friday Agreement should be defended."
Mr Downey has been remanded at a preliminary hearing at the Old Bailey. A motion calling for his release was passed at a meeting of Donegal County Council. Mr Downey is being held in London's Belmarsh prison. This case along with the internment without trial of several other Irish republicans, including 63 old Martin Corey, who has been interned more than 3 years without trial, clearly demonstrates bad faith by the Tories, since their election three years ago and considerable secret service input from MI5, who have much money and power to lose, with a successful peace process in British Occupied Ireland.
With systematic dismantling of the process over more than three years now, the obvious question is why would the provisional leadership give up their armed struggle and their tons of armaments without having a serious input into power sharing in these essential matters. The agreement was sold to everyone on the basis of power sharing. Which takes us to the next obvious question of why the Provisionals are not exercising their considerable political empowerment under the process, to protect former comrades and volunteers, who helped put them in power in the first instance?
Which takes us to an even more fundamental and basic question, which is on the minds of most genuine Irish republicans. It is a very uncomfortable question, but after three years of political internment without trial of aging brave volunteers, there is no diplomatic way of phrasing it, other than in a blunt manner. Is the majority of the Provo leadership compromised to the British secret services. In other words are MI5 who have always traditionally blackmailed anyone of influence in their former colonies, to politically control them, pulling all of the Provo strings, within the political leadership of provisional Sinn Fein.
The last time I raised this subject, I was physically threatened not by Sinn Fein I might add but in the absence of ACTION rather than weasel words and with senior figures having gone AWOL on the subject, it is an obvious and basic question to ask. As someone who has come to reluctantly accept, that the peace process has been a reality for some time and that successful armed struggle is not realistic in the long term within such a small population, there are however, plenty of other options for Irish republicans.
The most obvious one starting with Provo withdrawal from Stormont along with a properly organized peaceful campaign of civil disobedience, like the non-republican SDLP last time. It is long overdue, it is time to call these Supremacist Tories in London to account, along with their sectarian Orange Order friends. The Provos did have commendable input in the release of the long suffering Marian Price and that is the sort of Republican Movement unity that will bring these warmongering Tory racists and Orange fascists to account.
Spartans