SAOIRSE32

Irish Democrat

David Granville reviews Blood on the Streets: the battle of Mount Street Bridge by Paul O’Brien, Mercier Press, ISBN 978 1 85635 5766, € 12.99 pbk

Blood on the Streets

MAKING USE of a wide range of Irish and British military archives Paul O’Brien tells the story, and debunks some myths, of what he describes as “one of the bloodiest and perhaps the most successful engagements fought by the Irish Volunteers during Easter week 1916.”

Occupying strategic positions in and around Northumberland Road and Clanwilliam Place, around 30 Irish Volunteers led by lieutenant Michael Malone fought a fierce battle against numerically superior British troops intent on crossing Mount Street bridge over the Grand Canal.

Although eventually overwhelmed by sheer numbers and superior firepower - a decision by British army commanders to deploy machine guns and explosives was critical to British efforts to dislodge the rebels - the Volunteers inflicted heavy casualties on inexperienced British soldiers from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire regiments.

Despite their eventual defeat, the Volunteers also achieved their main objective of delaying British troops sent to reinforce those engaged in the fighting in the centre of Dublin.

O’Brien demonstrates that, from a tactical standpoint, the newly recruited British forces of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire regiments were ill-equipped to deal with the rebel’s defensive strategy. The British forces were inexperienced in the art of urban warfare. They had also failed to learn the lessons provided by London Metropolitan Police efforts to dislodge three well-armed Latvian anarchists from a building in east London in 1911.

British reliance on superior numbers and frontal attacks aimed at ‘overwhelming’ opposition forces proved exceedingly costly in terms of lives and injuries. Two-hundred-and-forty British soldiers were either killed or wounded in the battle. Put simply, the fight in Dublin bore no relation to the conditions British troops were trained to face in the French and Flanders trenches.

On the controversy concerning de Valera’s decision not to send reinforcements from his HQ at Boland’s Mill, O’Brien insists that criticism of the 1916 leader has been “unfair”. The 3rd battalion was already seriously under strength due to the countermanding order issued by O’Neill. O’Brien concludes that, had de Valera sent reinforcements to Mount Street bridge, it would have jeopardised his troop’s ability to hold the mill.

O’Brien’s short, highly readble account of the events at Mount Street bridge is both even-handed and informative. It also includes the only written account by a British army officer of the executions at Kilmainham jail in the aftermath of the rising.

Why the Stormont executive proved a washout in a crisis

Henry McFonald
Guardian
22 August 2008

After last weekend’s biblical deluge in Northern Ireland comes the political storms.

Following a week when floods filled a Belfast underpass on the arterial link to Dublin with 26ft of water and the unseasonal monsoon-like downpour caused millions of pounds of damages to homes and businesses, the forecast for the power-sharing executive’s survival is as gloomy as the ones for the north of Ireland’s weather.

Senior Irish and British officials currently sound like prophets of doom when you speak to them about the durability of the coalition headed up by Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionists. The two main parties are engaged in an increasingly nasty form of shadow boxing and the other politicians at Stormont jibe that the inability of the devolved government to meet even once since June is evidence that the two main forces in the cabinet can’t even bear being in the same room as each other.

In fact there is a direct link between the appalling weather Northern Ireland has experienced over what used to be known as “the summer” and the menacing clouds looming over the political settlement in Stormont. Because even though the region suffered the worst floods in living memory the Northern Ireland executive failed to hold a cabinet meeting to respond to the crisis. Instead of joined-up government we had, to quote the SDLP MP Alasdair McDonnell, individual ministers on solo runs ringing up DUP finance minister Nigel Dodds to ask him for money. McDonnell was entirely accurate yesterday when he claimed that the executive “is doing no corporate business”.

So why can’t the first minister, Peter Robinson, call a meeting of all his ministers?

The answer is that relations between his party, the DUP and Sinn Féin are as febrile and unstable as the physical atmosphere above Northern Ireland at present. The reasons for this are due to a number of outstanding and unresolved issues that still threaten to destabilise and possibly bring down the power-sharing deal worked out at St Andrews just under two years ago.

The man in charge of handling two of the critical issues – the proposed multi-sports stadium on the former Maze prison site and and Irish Language Act – is the DUP MP Gregory Campbell. The minister of culture, arts and leisure is known to be adamantly opposed to building the Maze stadium and with it some kind of commemorative centre in homage to republican prisoners who died on hunger strike.

In addition Campbell, along with the DUP, is deeply sceptical about enshrining an Irish Language Act in law which would put Gaelic on par with English. Apart from increasing unionist alienation, any such act - the hard-headed thrifty DUP ministers believe - could run up an unnecessary public bill in the tens of millions as all government and official documents would have to be translated into Gaelic by law. Yet both the act and the Maze are key Sinn Féin demands as part of their continued presence in the executive.

Most critical of all is the question of policing and justice and when it will be devolved from London to Belfast. Unionist insiders say the DUP is getting increasingly nervous over the prospect of a local minister, especially a Sinn Féin one, controlling either the police or judicial matters. They say Robinson and co are fearful of an electoral backlash come the European elections next June when they try to unseat the ex-DUP MEP Jim Allister, who opposes the St Andrews agreement.

Sinn Féin too have their own fears and concerns as they face charges from their republican critics that the power-sharing deal is securing partition rather than undermining it. If they can’t even deliver an Irish language, the dissidents argue, how can Sinn Féin use a parliament that still flies the union flag to drive Northern Ireland towards fusion with the Irish Republic?

Both governments are steeling themselves for a showdown between the main parties in early September. One of the first major decisions will be taken in the first or second week of next month when Campbell rules on the Maze’s future. If, as is highly likely, he comes out against the former prison as the site of a “national” stadium, this will trigger the first of at least three major rows between the Big Two.

The mother of all DUP-Sinn Féin battles to come remains the policing and justice question. According to reliable sources Peter Robinson and his team met a senior delegation of Ulster Unionists at Westminster last week during which the first minister spoke in rather hardline, belligerent terms about the issue.

He, and indeed Gerry Adams (who has also hardened his rhetoric over what he regards as DUP intransigence) could be bluffing. Both parties enjoy the limited power they exercise and in all likelihood know that it is the only show the British and Irish governments will tolerate.

But, like politicians and economists accused of talking their countries into a recession, the two parties are in danger of sleepwalking Northern Ireland into another crisis - which would only add to the woes of a population already enduring the miseries of the credit crunch, rising food and fuel bills, and a rain-sodden, damp-soaked summer.

Derry Journal
22 August 2008

Earlier this week it was reported that on one particular night there were only eight police officers available to cover the whole of Derry City. Now this revelation came about after police answered a call to the Fountain and will be shocking news to most people living here.

Commonsense alone would tell anyone that eight officers is nowhere near enough to properly police a city this size. If this is the number on duty then it is no wonder that we also had reports of the police not responding to calls from local people for help during various other incidents. Policing has become a lot less contentious in recent years but one question that has to be resolved is that of proper resources. It seems that there are simply not enough police officers on duty to deal with the level of incidents in the city.

Now who is to blame for this state of affairs remains to be seen. The Policing Board should be closely questioning the Chief Constable to see where the problem lies. Is it in rostering for duty? Is it a matter of more resources needed? Or what is the problem?

There is no chance, even with the best will in the world, of eight police officers being able to provide the policing this community deserves and needs. From being a society that was too heavily policed we seem to have moved to one that is not being policed enough. There has to be a happy medium that will see proper policing provided with adequate resources.

BBC

A leading republican has said he has no confidence in the Police Ombudsman to investigate a case in which he was cleared of fraud.

Mr Hutchinson is Nuala O’Loan’s successor

Brian Arthurs, who is from Dungannon, County Tyrone, was charged last year in relation to a multi-million fraud investigation.

The case was thrown out earlier this week.

But he has said he sees no point in asking Al Hutchinson’s office to investigate the matter.

“Two major incidents happened and not one thing came out of the ombudman’s office,” he said.

“I went to the office in relation to being arrested for the Northern Bank (robbery) four times.

“I also went to them in relation to the last arrest, but they just wrote back and said it was all part of procedure.”

Belfast Media
North Belfast News
Editor

We learn this week that Fr Aidan Troy is to take his leave of the area to begin a new life at a parish in France. The Wicklow-born priest received a baptism of fire on his arrival in North Belfast seven years ago, walking into the onslaught of the Holy Cross blocade.

Through the vicious sectarian protests against innocent schoolgirls and when tensions were at their highest, Fr Troy provided steady words and a calming influence, his quiet determination a huge factor in the ending of the dispute.

But it was not only in the global media spotlight, which was turned on the area at that time, that Fr Troy did his work. The blight of suicide in his parish, and the desperation of some of our young people, a further spur to his efforts. His fight for the future of St Gabriel’s, ultimately ignored by CCMS chiefs, was nevertheless an indication of his passion for his parishioners and a desire to see their future set right.

A man of faith, Fr Troy reignited a belief in the clergy, and the good work carried out within its ranks, at a time when attitudes towards the Catholic Church were at their most severe. One of the men also carrying out that good work is Fr Gary Donegan, who has been by Aidan’s side through it all, and who will take over the reins at Holy Cross. We know he will continue the massive efforts in which he has already been involved and we wish him good luck. To Fr Aidan, simply our thoughts, our prayers and our thanks.

Belfast Telegraph

Simmering discontent in Ulster Unionist ranks over the potential impact of increased links with the Conservatives on relations with the Orange Order could surface today.

Senior sources said UU chief whip David McNarry would be facing “serious questions” at a meeting of the party’s MLAs after recent remarks were interpreted as critical of party leader Sir Reg Empey.

But Mr McNarry said: “It is not on the agenda, as far as I am concerned, and I will be chairing the meeting.”

It comes after he demanded a public apology from the Conservatives for an “offensive” remark about the Orange Order which appeared on, and was later withdrawn from, a Tory website.

Uncovered by the DUP, the comment — made back in March by local Conservative Jeffrey Peel — described the Order as a “backward facing history obsessed parish pump society”.

Mr McNarry, who is also Assistant Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, called it “a slur on the members of the Orange Institution” and insisted “the honourable thing for the Conservative Party to do would be to apologise to Orangemen.”

The DUP, however, argued the comments amounted to evidence of a split within UU ranks over a working party, announced last month, which is examining the possibility of closer working linkes between the UUP and Conservatives.

Former DUP Culture Minister Edwin Poots asked: “Does Reg Empey now think that the Order is a “backward facing, history obsessed, parish pump” society? If not why has he refused to condemn these remarks? Does the Orange family mean so little to the UUP now?”

BBC

A man questioned about an attack on police officers in County Fermanagh has been released without charge.

Police officers were attacked while on foot patrol

The man, in his early 30s, was arrested on Wednesday by gardai in County Cavan, near the border with Fermanagh.

Two police officers were treated for shock and one for minor injuries following Saturday’s attack on a PSNI foot patrol in Lisnaskea.

An attempt was made to fire an improvised rocket-propelled grenade, but it failed to leave the launcher.

Dissident republicans were blamed by the PSNI for the attack.

Police said it was the first time dissidents have used Semtex, a commercial explosive previously used by the Provisional IRA.