Victim of British Torture Tells of Life of Suffering

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/victim-of-british-torture-tells-of-his-life-of-suffering-1722454.html

Victim of British torture tells of his life of suffering

Rebel talks to the IoS about the Mau Mau court case against the UK Government

By Emily Dugan
The Independent ( London).Sunday, 28 June 2009.

Wambugu Wa Nyingi is smiling. He has survived torture, been crippled and left for dead. Now he is jubilant. "I'm happy that I'm coming to seek justice from the people who took away my life," he says, his 81-year-old crumpled cheeks crinkling into a single-toothed grin.

After a lifetime of suffering, Mr Nyingi is finally able to hope. He and four other elderly Kenyans have begun a landmark legal battle with the Government in Britain that goes to the heart of one of the dirtiest secrets of the British Empire. Leaving Kenya for the first time last week, they filed a case in the Royal Courts of Justice.

Like many others who sympathised with and took part in the Mau Mau uprising – a struggle that ravaged Kenya for nearly a decade as Britain clung to its colony – Mr Nyingi was left with a fragment of a life when independence came in 1963.

"Everywhere, there was torture," he says, counting on his fingers the detention camps he had endured: "Kia Riowa; Mageta island; Athi River; Mwea..." he says, before coming to an abrupt halt. The next on the list is Hola, where he witnessed 11 detainees beaten to death because they refused to dig their own graves. He too had refused and was left for dead, only to be discovered three days later when he regained consciousness.

"That is my worst memory. My closest friend in the camp died in front of me. He was beaten so his private parts were completely destroyed before he died. I think it would have been better for them to shoot us than torture us the way they did.

"After the beating, it was years before I was able to stand by myself. My back is still covered in scars, but I never wanted to give up. The more I was beaten, the more urge I had to intensify the struggle. I did not fear death because I had seen people die."

But unlike Jomo Kenyatta, who inspired him to become a trustee of the KAU (Kenya African Union), Mr Nyingi got no recompense for the suffering he had endured. "When I came out of prison, I found my land had been taken by the same men who had beaten us. They still live there. I lost everything, and I have never been able to work because of the injuries I got."

The Kenyan and British governments have been accused by lawyers involved in the case of a "quiet conspiracy" to continue classifying the Mau Mau as a terrorist group, which made it impossible for victims to come into the open and demand compensation until the label was lifted in 2003.

"There must have been a deal that was done," explains Mr Nyingi. "We who fought tirelessly and were not the elite did not get anything, but those that tortured us got land, and some are still very rich. I see the people who tortured me, but I can do nothing. But we got independence, which was more important than land."

Not long after he was released from prison, Mr Nyingi met his wife and settled down. They have children. He was one of the lucky ones. Most of his friends who survived that era suffered brutal castration and were never able to have a normal family life.

It has taken more than six years for their lawyers, Leigh Day & Co, to gather enough evidence to bring the case, and many believe it will be a long time before they see an outcome. If successful, it could cost Britain millions by paving the way for thousands of Kenyans to file similar claims.

Does Mr Nyingi believe he will get justice before he dies? "I know I'll see that day. It has taken a lot of trouble and tribulation to reach here, but I believe justice will be done."

Fr. Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
Capitol Hill
PO BOX 15128
Washington, DC 20003-0849
Tel. 202-544-0568
Fax 202-488-7537
sean@irishnationalcaucus.org

Fermanagh Priest Meets Victims' Campaigner

http://www.nwipp-newspapers.com/FH/free/361264980581670.php

Fermanagh priest meets victims' campaigner

A Fermanagh-born priest is to join forces with a life-long Loyalist in a bid to lobby senior politicians in America for their support.

Father Sean McManus, the president of the Irish National Caucus which is based in Washington, has extended an invitation to Victims' campaigner Raymond McCord, whose son Raymond Jnr was beaten to death by the Mount Vernon UVF in 1997.

Mr McCord will visit the US next month where he will speak with Democrat and Republican politicians.

Fr McManus explained the background to the invitation: "Despite the tragic divisions in Northern Ireland, there is still a strong Ulster bond, which asserts itself when the Protestant and the Catholic each experiences British injustice."

For his part, Mr McCord stated: "All my life I have been a staunch Loyalist Protestant who believes in the Union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

"I used to dismiss claims of Catholic mistreatment as mere Republican propaganda.

"So, I could not believe that my British Government and my police could be guilty of political assassinations, brutality and deadly cover-ups until it all happened to my own beloved son.

"Since Raymond Jr. was murdered, I have encountered stonewalling and obstruction from the British Government and Northern Ireland police. I can only turn for justice to Fr. Mc Manus and his many friends in Congress.

"He has assured me that the US Congress will fight for my rights as hard as they have fought for the rights of Catholics in Northern Ireland".

Fr McManus said he had been touched by Mr McCord's profound love for his son and was deeply impressed by his bravery and fearless integrity.

"I can pay him no higher respect when I call him, "The Protestant Pat Finucane of Northern Ireland".

Priest & Victims' Campaigner Lobby US Politicians

http://www.irishnews.com/appnews/540/5860/2009/4/14/615138_378394758045Priestand.html

Priest and victims’ campaigner to lobby US politicians

By Barry McCaffrey
Irish News. Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Irishnews.com

A lifelong loyalist and a nationalist priest have formed an alliance to lobby senior politicians in the US.

Victims’ campaigner Raymond McCord has accepted an invitation from Irish National Caucus president Fr Sean McManus to visit the US next month.

Mr McCord, whose son Raymond jnr was beaten to death by the Mount Vernon UVF in 1997, will meet senior Democrat and Republican politicians in New York and Washington.

“There was a time when it would have been impossible for Raymond McCord snr to have believed that a campaigner for the rights of mistreated Catholics in Northern Ireland on Capitol Hill would become his best ally in seeking justice for his own murdered Protestant son,” Fr McManus said.

“I have been touched by Raymond’s profound love for his son and deeply impressed by his bravery and fearless integrity.”

Mr McCord said he also saw the irony in the new partnership.

“All my life I have been a staunch loyalist Protestant who believes in the union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

“I used to dismiss claims of Catholic mistreatment as mere republican propaganda.

“I could not believe that my British government and my police could be guilty of political assassinations, brutality and deadly cover-ups until it all happened to my own beloved son.

“I can only turn for justice to Fr McManus and his many friends in Congress.

“He has assured me that the US Congress will fight for my rights as hard as they have fought for the rights of Catholics in Northern Ireland.”

Fellow Protestant Back Mc Cord

Fellow Protestant Backs Mc Cord
Gives Full Backing to Capitol Hill Visit

Capitol Hill. Tuesday, April 15, 2009 ----- Well in advance of Raymond Mc Cord’s dramatic visit to Capitol Hill, his visit has received strong backing from fellow Protestant and fellow victim’s campaigner, Paul Mc Ilwaine.

Mr. Mc Cord’s visit to Washington (May 3 to 14) is being sponsored by the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus.

Mc Ilwaine’s son, David, was murdered by Loyalists in 20000. One of the first persons to contact him and to offer solidarity was Raymond Mc Cord, whose own son was murdered in 1997.

Mr. Mc Ilwaine has issued a two -page testimony bearing witness to the integrity of Raymond Mc Cord, pointing out that Mc Cord’s long struggle has had “influence on the judicial system and policing in Northern Ireland”.

Mc Ilwiane also says he was let down by Unionist politicians,” It must be noted that of the 9 years I have known Raymond, the lack of support to both of us from the Unionist politicians has been abysmal. They have consistently buried their heads in the sand and have chosen to ignore the facts.

Despite promises of meetings with Ian Paisley Jr. on at least 6 occasions, he has failed to keep one promise. Indeed, at the last policing board meeting when asked to raise questions about known loyalist killers being paid to work on police premises, he said he would not raise that question ever. He is just one of a long list of unionists i.e. Jeffrey Donaldson, Nigel Dodds and, not least, Peter Robinson.

Raymond McCord and I are both Protestants from the Unionist community. We both sought help from the Unionist politicians. To say we were let down would be a gross understatement. The Unionist politicians in this country should hang their heads in shame and are not fit to walk the streets of Northern Ireland”.

Fr. Sean Mc Manus explained that McIlwaines’s testimony is being hand-delivered to key Members of Congress today. “I think Paul Mc Ilwaine and Raymond Mc Cord are two Protestant heroes, brave Ulstermen with whom I’m proud to associate. True reconciliation is Protestants and Catholics not just coming together, but coming together to work for justice”.
-----

Testimony of Paul Mc Ilwaine

April 9, 2009
Email: pmcilwaine04@aol.co.uk

I am writing this to describe and emphasize the importance of Raymond McCord’s influence on the judicial system and policing in Northern Ireland.

Raymond McCord is a close personal friend of mine and has been instrumental and invaluable in regards to the campaign surrounding the murder of my son, David.

David was murdered on the 19th of February 2000, along with another young teenager, Andrew Robb. Within the first weeks after the two murders, Raymond McCord, unknown to me at the time, other than through media coverage, contacted me and gave me vital information in regards to a number of individuals involved in these two murders.

Police Cover-Up

This information was passed on to the police. Their response was to disregard anything Raymond said as of no significance. Much to my shame, I disregarded Raymond’s advice and took the advice of the police authorities.

One of the names Raymond gave me was that of Mark Haddock. It has since emerged that this man was a paid agent of the State, allowed to carry out murders with the full knowledge of the security forces. These revelations were substantiated by the Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde and uncovered by Nula O Loan, the then Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. Not only that, they were also acknowledged by the then British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

Mark Haddock’s significance in my son’s case was that he was questioned 12 times by the intelligence service within the police. Despite this, the police stated that he was not involved in the case, in anyway.

Haddock’s Role

Haddocks, first involvement in murder goes back to 1993. When he murdered Catholic taxi driver Sharon McKenna, a 27-year-old mother, who was in a Protestant friend’s house on a Good Samaritan visit when he shot her in the back with a shot -gun, and as she lay on the ground shot her again and again. The next day he went to his agent handlers within the police force and admitted his role as one of the murderers. Instead of being arrested and charged with this brutal murder he was given a pay raise and financial assistance to go on a foreign holiday. This murder and the subsequent murder of Raymond’s son went unpunished, and to this day no one has been brought before the court in regards to these.

Let Down By Unionist Politicians

It must be noted that of the 9 years I have known Raymond, the lack of support to both of us from the Unionist politicians has been abysmal. They have consistently buried their heads in the sand and have chosen to ignore the facts.

Despite promises of meetings with Ian Paisley Jr. on at least 6 occasions, he has failed to keep one promise. Indeed, at the last policing board meeting when asked to raise questions about known loyalist killers being paid to work on police premises, he said he would not raise that question ever. He is just one of a long list of unionists i.e. Jeffrey Donaldson, Nigel Dodds and, not least, Peter Robinson

Raymond McCord and I are both Protestants from the Unionist community. We both sought help from the Unionist politicians. To say we were let down would be a gross understatement. The Unionist politicians in this country should hang their heads in shame and are not fit to walk the streets of Northern Ireland.

The Measure Of The Man

Raymond McCord has fought with paramilitaries most of his life. He has single-handedly changed the judicial system in Northern Ireland for a great many years to come. He has dedicated his time and efforts to helping anyone and everyone who asks for assistance, regardless of their religion or their background. I have close personal knowledge of some of those who have asked for his help. In fact, one person, an elderly woman asked for help in regards to the controversial killing of her son -- admitting that her son was a UVF loyalist killer himself. And without giving it a thought, he agreed. This is the type of man he is.

Over a great many years a number of killers have been allowed to operate with impunity and rewarded with large amounts of cash with the full knowledge of the higher authorities within the security forces and the British government. When Police Ombudsman, Nula O’Loan, exposed these actions, as a direct result of Raymond McCord’s complaints, it changed completely the way the security forces in this country were allowed to operate.

To many Raymond McCord, on the surface, would seem to be a rough and ready character. But my experience is that he is a honorable and dedicated father, who hasn’t been allowed to grieve and has been denied justice. In the past few months eleven men were arrested and charged and await trial for the murder of Tommy English. This was also as a direct result of Raymond McCord’s campaign.

As has been the case with too many others in this country, if you don’t seek justice yourself you will find it very difficult to get any. I will always be grateful for the help he has given me and he will always remain a friend.

Fr. Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
Capitol Hill
PO BOX 15128
Washington, DC 20003-0849
Tel. 202-544-0568
Fax 202-488-7537
sean@irishnationalcaucus.org

Loyalist McCord: Brits Betrayed, Befriended by Priest

Raymond Mc Cord Sr. - Protestant Loyalist Betrayed by British State; Befriended by Irish Priest on Capitol Hill

CAPITOL HILL. April 14, 2009 --- There was a time it would have been impossible for Raymond Mc Cord Sr. to have believed it: that a veteran campaigner on Capitol Hill for the rights of mistreated Catholics in Northern Ireland would become his best ally in seeking justice for his own murdered Protestant son.

But from May 4 to May 14, 2009 Fr. Sean Mc Manus, president of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus, and Raymond Mc Cord Sr. of Belfast will be pounding the halls of Congress and singing from the same hymn-sheet – a human rights sheet that is neither Protestant nor Catholic.

“Despite the tragic divisions in Northern Ireland, there is still a strong Ulster bond, which asserts itself when the Protestant and the Catholic each experiences British injustice”, explains Fr. Mc Manus. “Raymond’s son, Raymond Jr., was brutally murdered by a Loyalist Protestant paramilitary group in 1997 (the first betrayal) and the leader of the gang was protected in a sinister cover-up because he was a British Government agent and police informer (the second betrayal)”.

Raymond, Sr. adds: “ All my life I have been a staunch Loyalist Protestant who believes in the Union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I used to dismiss claims of Catholic mistreatment as mere Republican propaganda. I could not believe that MY British Government and MY police could be guilty of political assassinations, brutality and deadly cover-ups. Until it all happened to my own beloved son. Since Raymond Jr. was murdered, I have encountered stonewalling and obstruction from the British Government and Northern Ireland police. I can only turn for justice to Fr. Mc Manus and his many friends in Congress. He has assured me that the US Congress will fight for my rights as hard as they have fought for the rights of Catholics in Northern Ireland”.

Fr. Mc Manus added: “ I have been touched by Raymond’s profound love for his son and deeply impressed by his bravery and fearless integrity. I can pay him no higher respect when I call him, “ The Protestant Pat Finucane of Northern Ireland”. END.PS. Below is a letter that Fr. Mc Manus is sending to key Members of Congress, plus a Fact Sheet on Mc Cord Case.

************
The Honorable Richie Neal
2208 RHOB
US House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

April 14, 2009

Dear Richie,

From May 4 to May 14, 2009 the Irish National Caucus is sponsoring a visit to Capitol Hill by Raymond Mc Cord, Sr. –- the intrepid Protestant Loyalist from Belfast.

He is most anxious to meet with you to bring you up to date on his heroic campaign to bring to justice those who killed his 22-year-old son, Raymond, Jr., in 1997.

The leader of the Protestant Loyalist gang that killed his son has been protected by a sinister cover-up because he was a British Government agent and police informer. (That is something which Catholics have more usually complained about). For more details please see attached Fact Sheet and News Release.

In the past critics of your involvement, and mine, in the Irish issue tried to claim our concern was only for the rights Catholics in Northern Ireland.

We always knew that was not true: that our concern is for human rights and equality for all the people on the island of Ireland, irrespective of class or creed.

And our solidarity with the remarkably brave Protestant Raymond Mc Cord, Sr. clearly testifies to that.

We will be in contact with your office to arrange a meeting, which hopefully you can schedule.

Thank you so very much.
God bless America and God save Ireland.
Shalom.

Fr. Sean Mc Manus
President.

***********

FACT SHEET
RAYMOND MC CORD’S STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE
April 14, 2009

Raymond’s son, Raymond Jr., a 22-year-old Royal Air Force member, was brutally beatento death in a quarry near Belfast in November 1997 by members of the Protestant Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) based in the Mount Vernon area of that city.

The leader of the gang who ordered the murder was a government agent and police informer. He, therefore, has been protected by a sinister cover-up by the British government and the Northern Ireland police.

Raymond, Sr. has waged a heroic battle -- despite death threats and intimidation --- to bring the killers to justice. His fearless campaign led to a special investigation by the then Police Ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan. In a major 2007 Report she confirmed that the leader of the Mount Vernon gang, Mark Haddock was a “protected species”, despite being implicated in 16 murders, 10 attempted murders, 23 paramilitary-style shootings and beatings, drug-dealing, extortion, arson and intimidation.

The Ombudsman declared there was a “pattern of work by certain officers within Special Branch designed to ensure that [Haddock] and his associates were protected from the law”.

However, despite some progress, Raymond’s quest for justice has met with stonewalling, obstruction and cover-up. He looks to America for help.

Fr Mc Manus Attacks Religion Satire Film as Bigoted

http://www.tribune.ie/news/home-news/article/2009/apr/05/priest-attacks-religion-satire-film-as-bigoted/

Priest attacks religion satire film as bigoted

Ken Sweeney Entertainment Editor
Religulous: personal take

A veteran Irish-American campaigner against anti-Catholic bigotry in Northern Ireland has slammed a new Borat-style film on religion which opened in Ireland this weekend.

Fr Sean McManus, president of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus, has described Religulous, a documentary on religion by US satirist Bill Maher, as "superficial, sneering and insulting".

In the US the film has outraged Catholics who claim they are unfairly targeted by director Larry Charles, who is also behind the film Borat and TV show Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Speaking to the Sunday Tribune this weekend, Fr Sean McManus said he hoped that Religulous – its title a provocative mix of the words 'religion' and 'ridiculous' – would fail at the Irish box office.

"You would expect a documentary about religion to raise profound questions about life or death or justice and peace but this film does not. It might have a shock impact in Ireland but only for a very short time," he said.

But it's the controversial film's writer and star for whom Fr McManus reserves most of his anger.

"Even Northern Ireland has not produced worse bigots than Bill Maher and the fact that he was raised Catholic only makes his ugliness more offensive," he said.

Host of HBO's late-night talk show Real Time, Maher has described Religulous as his own personal take on religion.

It shows the comedian confronting a believer in each faith with what he sees as the apparent contradictions and idiocies of their belief systems, be it Christianity, Judaism, or Islam. These include the director of a Christian Church for "ex-gays", and an actor who plays Jesus in the "Holyland USA" theme park.

The film also ridicules the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus and the biblical account of the talking snake in the Garden of Eden.

"He didn't pick one normal serious, sensible, informed person to speak about their faith in God. Another part of the documentary I object to is him scoffing at 'a young Jewish woman having sex with a space God'. Well the entire Christian tradition is that Mary was a virgin. That is why she is called the Blessed Virgin Mary," said Fr McManus.

April 5, 2009

Ireland's Pulling Power in the USA

http://www.belfastmedia.com/

Ireland’s pulling power in the USA

Andersonstown News Thursday 20th of March 2009

By Máirtín ó Muilleoir in the White House

When you enter the White House, the security guards advise you to watch the step outside the east entrance.

Good advice for all of us who entered the Obama homestead on Tuesday evening for the St Patrick’s Day reception, but especially useful to those of the unionist persuasion who find themselves stepping into another universe.

For in Washington D.C. on St Patrick’s Day, there is only one Ireland. Diverse, certainly, modern, definitely, but also fiercely Irish. First Minister Peter Robinson couldn’t rise to wear the green this special day, eschewing the Kelly Green ties for a more sober red variety, but even a colourblind man galloping past on a horse would have seen the pulling power of Ireland in the capital of the world’s most powerful country.

And now they’re talking Irish in the White House too. Taoiseach Brian Cowen said Barack Obama had made a good fist of his first Irish lesson, learning to say “Is féidir linn” – “Yes, we can” — over lunch. And yes, Obama’s first Irish words are on tape; he’s a fast student. In the White House, Vice-President Joe Biden recited the old Irish proverb “Unity is strength” (“Ní neart go cur le chéile”).

It’s not that the Americans aren’t aware of the ‘special relationship’ with Britain. It’s just that on St Patrick’s Day, everyone with Irish heritage enjoys beating up on the Brits a little. Vice-President Biden got into the mood. He told the White House audience that “St Patrick” was the password used by Washington’s men when they forced the British to evacuate Washington on our Patron Saint’s Day in 1776!

President Obama was clearly revelling in his new-found status as Ireland’s favourite son. He only discovered last year that his great-great-grandfather was from Co Offaly — pity I didn’t know that when I was standing in Chicago’s famously Irish southside, he lamented — but his effusive demeanour spoke of a man who saw only benefits in forging closer links with Ireland. He will not only stand with the peacemakers as we face our latest assault on the peace process, but he wants to take the Irish experience of moving from war-war to jaw-jaw and use it elsewhere.

Be sure that the experience of the Irish peace process will be factored into all America’s foreign forays from here on. And this is an engaged White House, back in the control of the traditionally pro-Irish unity Democrats, which plans to build the peace process after eight years of ennui under George W. Expect a Special Envoy on Northern Ireland to be appointed next week, working to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but watch out also for the selection of a Business Envoy to the North, someone who will have have learnt from the Irish experience in the USA — one which sees discrimination as the enemy of progress. Or as President Obama put it: “Through tragedy and triumph, despite bigotry and hostility, and against all odds, the Irish created a place for themselves in the American story.”

That’s a message which resonates with the A-list of politicians who raised a glass to St Patrick in the White House and who now find themselves back on the equality and justice beat and raring to go. And, of course, whatever Irish issues Obama gets, he gets equal opportunity.

At times, the reception was like Madame Tussauds. In one corner Senator John Kerry stood talking to Hillary Clinton, in another Barack Obama was signing autographs, at the banquet table Congressman Donald Payne — a frequent visitor to Garvaghy Road — was stabbing the corned beef and cabbage rolls with a fork, while posing for photos with Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness was the most powerful union leader in Irish America, John Sweeney. And blessing the entire congregation was that lion of Irish America, Fr Sean McManus of the Irish National Caucus.

Heady stuff. In fact, mesmerising for someone like me who believes Irish America can unlock the true potential of our peace process to ensure dividends flow to those who suffered the most during the years of warfare.

Which is probably why, as I left the White House chatting with Congressman Peter King, who first came to West Belfast to attend the funeral of Kieran Doherty, that I almost slipped on the step. Until the guards reminded me to watch my step, just as they reminded everyone else.

Finucane case central on Capitol Hill

http://apublishersblog.blogspot.com/

Finucane case central on Capitol Hill

I had breakfast this morning with the legendary civil rights campaigner Fr Sean McManus and was heartened to hear that he is continuing to raise the case of Raymond McCord, shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries working for the state.

Fr McManus met with President Obama yesterday and was at the White House last night for the raucous St Patrick's Day reception. When President Obama joked he wanted to take "a pleasure trip" to Ireland — apparently when JFK's advisors told him he would be accused of taking a pleasure trip to his ancestral homeland, he retorted, "That's exactly what I want" — he got lots of cheers. He said he wanted to enjoy a pint there before noting that Guinness tasted better in Ireland. "You guys are keeping the good stuff for yoursleves," he said. "This could lead to a trade dispute."

It was great to see Geraldine Finucane at many of the events in Washington over St Patrick's. Fr Sean McManus tells me that last year, at the Speaker's Lunch on Capitol Hill, she was only one of two people President Bush spoke to on the way to his table. And most members of Congress are now on first-name terms.

With her son John, she ensured the Finucane case can't be brushed under the table as the Obama Presidency kicks off.

Geraldine (right) is pictured at the Ireland Fund gala with Taoiseach Brian Cowen, her son John and West Belfast Partnership ceo Geraldine McAteer.

Soldier's Killing Terrible Development

http://www.irishnationalcaucus.org

Soldier's Killing Terrible Development

Capitol Hill Sunday, March 8, 2009 ---

The killing of the two British soldiers at Massereene Barracks in Antrim on Saturday, March 8, 2009, was a “ terrible development”.

That is how the president of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus reacted to the news.“

I was so hopeful that Stephen Restorick, whose parents have shown such fortitude and dignity, would have been the last British soldier to be killed on Irish soil”.(Lance Bombardier Restorick was killed by an IRA sniper in Bessbrook, County Armagh on 12th February 1997).“

It is so wrong and so crazy to have that happen now, as if there were no peace-process. There is certainly no support among Irish-Americans for this terrible development.”
END

Fr. Sean Mc Manus
President Irish National Caucus
Capitol Hill
PO BOX 151
28Washington, DC 20003-0849
Tel. 202-544-0568
Fax 202-488-7537
sean@irishnationalcaucus.org

Call on DUP to Join Irish National Caucus

Call on DUP to Join Irish National Caucus

In Addressing True Roots of Sectarianism

Capitol Hill. Monday, February 9, 2009 – Irish-Americans have called on the DUP to join the Irish National Caucus , well at least in spirit .

Fr. Sean Mc Manus, president of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus, has called on a leading member of the DUP to join him in calling for the repeal of the anti-Catholic provisions of The Act of Sttlement.

In a letter to the Irish News of Belfast Fr. Mc Manus writes : “DUP Foyle Assembly Member, William Hay, is to be congratulated for his call to an end of sectarianism, “
‘Root sectarianism out of our society’ says DUP man” (February 9).

However, the roots of sectarianism lies not in the personal anti-Catholicism of the extremist individual Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist (however sad that is) but in the British Constitution, which enshrines, entrenches and ensures anti-Catholic sectarianism.

And I here call on Mr. Hay to join the Irish National Caucus in calling for a repeal of this State-sponsored sectarianism.

Imagine had there been a provision in the US Constitution forbidding an African-American being president, or forbidding the president to marry a black person… imagine how that would have stoked the flames of racism and the sick ideology of white supremacy. And imagine how the supposedly liberal British and Irish media would have denounced it.

Well, The Act of Settlement, 1701 – and integral part of the unwritten and uncodified British Constitution – contains provisions that decree only a Protestant can succeed to the British throne and that if the Monarch becomes a Catholic, or marries a Catholic, he/she forfeits the Throne and “the people are absolved from their allegiance”.

While this law may mean little to the average Englishman in the street, it has always been of the utmost importance to Protestant/Unionist/Orange extremists in Northern Ireland. It provides the ideological and philosophical underpinnings for their bigotry and sectarianism. For you see, the spurious but deadly logic goes, if a Catholic by law can't get the top job, then Catholics are inferior to Protestants, therefore it's okay to discriminate against them.

When Irish National Caucus launched a campaign way back in 1980 to repeal the anti-Catholic provisions of The Act, some thought it was quaint if not downright silly. That shows how “conditioned “ and desensitized people had become – even Catholics in The North were virtually unaware of this state-sponsored religious hatred at the heart of the British Establishment and the foundation stone of the Royal Family.

I welcome the growing awareness that something must be done to repeal this constitutional bigotry. However, the excuses offered for delaying effective action only serves to compound the original offense: “ it is complicated, requires a lot of work, etc.”

The “ultimate” excuse is, of course, “ but the Anglican Church would have to be dis-established”… Well, so be it. Church and State should be separate, anyway – as the U.S. Founding Fathers so wisely knew.

Finally, to get back to how will British propaganda had “conditioned” people: throughout The Troubles the British Government lamented the “ theocratic” nature of the 26 County State! And got away with it, except for the Irish National Caucus – and now, perhaps, Mr. Hay?”

END

Fr. Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
Capitol Hill
PO BOX 15128
Washington, DC 20003-0849
Tel. 202-544-0568
Fax 202-488-7537
http://us.mc831.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=sean@irishnationalcaucus.org

Not 'Fit to Print' - Fr McManus' Response to NY Times

Not "Fit To Print"

The famed motto of the New York Times is, "All the News That's Fit to Print." That has not always been true of it's coverage of Northern Ireland, with the exception of a few journalists.

Here is a letter of Fr. Mc Manus that The Times saw not fit to print.New York Times (SEE NYT ARTICLE BELOW FR Mc MANUS' LETTER)

Letters to the EditorJanuary 29, 2009

Dear Editor,

It is quite ridiculous, especially at this stage, for Times to explain the Northern Ireland Troubles thus: “The struggle cast Protestant paramilitaries loyal to Britain against armed groups with roots in the Roman Catholic minority, including the Irish Republican Army, that campaigned for a united Ireland”. (Payment Plan for Northern Ireland Reconciliation Provokes Outrage. January 28 - SEE BELOW).

What about the British Army and the virtually all-Protestant police, the sectarian Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC)?

Most informed people know that the British Army made a calculated decision to militarize the situation on Bloody Sunday, January 30, 1972, by killing 13 unarmed, innocent Catholics at a non-violent Civil Rights march in Derry City --- because the British could not deal with thousands of non-violent Catholics marching for basic rights, denied since the undemocratic state of Northern Ireland was established in 1920.

And everyone surely knows that the basic conflict was between the IRA and the British Army. British security and intelligence forces funded, trained and in some cases totally controlled Protestant murder gangs who targeted, not the IRA, but innocent Catholics --- the well-known counter insurgency tactic that the British have used the world over.

What is it that The Times doesn’t get?

Fr. Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus

Capitol Hill PO BOX 15128
Washington, DC 20003-0849

Tel. 202-544-0568
Fax 202-488-7537

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/world/europe/29ireland.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

January 29, 2009

Payment Plan for Northern Ireland Reconciliation Provokes Outrage

By JOHN F. BURNS

LONDON — A long-awaited reconciliation plan for Northern Ireland provoked a wave of anger across the province on Wednesday — and in the House of Commons in London — with a provision for payments of about $16,800 to families of all of the 3,700 people killed during 30 years of sectarian violence, including paramilitaries killed by their own bombs.

A news conference accompanying the release of the plan in Belfast, Northern Ireland’s capital, became the stage for an eruption of the anger and grief still burning among those who lost relatives in the sectarian violence. The struggle cast Protestant paramilitaries loyal to Britain against armed groups with roots in the Roman Catholic minority, including the Irish Republican Army, that campaigned for a united Ireland.

As the authors of the plan prepared to speak at a crowded Belfast hotel, Protestant hard-liners jumped up to shout insults and trade recriminations with others in the audience with links to the I.R.A. Those involved in the protests included men and women who lost relatives in the violence, or were wounded in the I.R.A. attacks that accounted for more than 60 percent of the deaths in the strife.

“My brother was an innocent man defending this whole community,” said Hazlett Lynch, whose brother, a police officer, was killed in a 1977 I.R.A. ambush, according to a report by Britain’s Press Association. “When I.R.A. men died while launching cowardly attacks on this community, they actually received justice. The families of those murderers should not be consoled with a single penny today.”

At one point, the gathering threatened to descend into violence amid the welter of jabbing fingers and virulent insults. One of those singled out in the tirades was Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the I.R.A. One protester shouted, “This is the man who was in charge of the I.R.A. on Bloody Friday,” the name given to a series of I.R.A. bombings on July 21, 1972, that killed nine people, including two British soldiers, and injured 130 civilians.

Others defended Mr. Adams, who was a central figure in the negotiations that brought most of the violence to an end with a power-sharing agreement that emerged from the 1998 Good Friday agreement. “You should be arrested,” one of Mr. Adams’s supporters shouted back amid the din. “Leave him alone. Why don’t you get out?”

The outbursts appeared to shock the two authors of the reconciliation plan, the former Anglican archbishop of Northern Ireland, Robin Eames, and Denis Bradley, a former Catholic priest and journalist who is vice chairman of Northern Ireland’s police board. At one point, the Very Rev. Eames appeared to offer a qualified apology. “Maybe this gesture, for those outside our group, is too sudden,” he said.

Appointed by the British government to head a panel called the Consultative Group on the Past, the two men spent 18 months preparing their 190-page report on steps to help Northern Ireland move toward a lasting peace. The report contained more than 30 proposals, including the establishment of a body to be known as the Legacy Commission, similar in some ways to South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation panel after the collapse of apartheid, which would seek to bind the wounds of the past by investigating unresolved killings.

The new commission would take over existing efforts to investigate the hundreds of ambushes, assassinations and bombings whose perpetrators were never caught, encouraging I.R.A. militants and Protestant paramilitaries to come clean about their pasts. It would also look into some of the killings by the British Army and the province’s Protestant-dominated police force, and encourage meetings behind closed doors at which perpetrators and victims could seek reconciliation.

By far the most controversial of their proposals was the recommendation for what they called “recognition payments” to the families of all of those killed in the years of violence, even perpetrators of the violence.

Even before the report’s release, the proposal was bitterly denounced by spokesmen for the main Protestant groups, including Peter Robinson, who serves as Northern Ireland’s first minister under the power-sharing arrangement. Mr. Robinson said the Democratic Unionist Party he leads has “consistently opposed any equation between the perpetrator of the crimes during the Troubles and the innocent victim.”

“Terrorists died carrying out their evil and wicked deeds while innocent men, women and children were wiped out by merciless gangsters,” he said, but suggested that the recommendations needed further study.

Martin McGuinness, a former I.R.A. paramilitary leader who serves as deputy first minister in the Belfast government, called for careful reflection by all those involved. “I think that obviously dealing with the past is something which is of tremendous importance and significance for all,” he said, “but I think that once the report is published for all to see, it should be studied and I think we can make more definitive comments after that.”

The idea of payments to the families of those who died while carrying out attacks led to bitter outbursts in the British House of Commons during the prime minister’s weekly question time. Nigel Dodds, who represents the party led by Mr. Robinson, asked Prime Minister Gordon Brown to “acknowledge the deep hurt and offense that has been caused by the obnoxious proposal,” which he said “effectively does away with the distinction between murderers and those who they went out to murder and kill.”

Mr. Brown hinted that the government might not endorse the plan, at least as far as perpetrators of violence are concerned. “I know that you speak for the whole community in Northern Ireland when you say we must respect the fact that innocent people lost their lives and that should be something that is never forgotten,” he said.

Irish Urge Obama to Keep Promise on Spicer

IRISH URGE OBAMA TO KEEP PROMISE ON SPICER

Rescind the $293 million security contract

CAPITOL HILL. Thursday, August 28, 2008 -- Irish-Americans are urging the Democratic Presidential Candidate, Senator Barack Obama, to act on his previously expressed concern about the United States funding the infamous Tim Spicer in Iraq : “...As you know, the CEO of Aegis Defense Services Tim Spicer has been implicated in a variety of human rights abuses around the globe. Given his history, I agree that the United States should consider rescinding its contract with his company. Several of my colleagues have contacted the Pentagon expressing their concerns about this issue. I will be in touch with their offices to see how I can be of assistance in their efforts…” (Senator Obama, letter to constituent, December 2005. See below article by the London- based Irish journalist, Tom Griffin,” New questions over Iraq contract”).

“I now call on Senator Obama to give flesh to those words”, said Fr. Sean McManus, president of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus

The Irish National Caucus has lead the campaign in the United States to get the United States to rescind the Aegis contract because of Spicer’s role as commander of the Scots Guards in Belfast in 1992, when two of his men murdered 18-year-old Peter McBride.

Fr. Mc Manus reminded President Bush of his own words, “If you fund terrorism, you are a terrorist” and he successfully lobbied Senators Teddy Kennedy(D-MA),Hillary Clinton( D-NY) Chuck Schumer (D-NY), John Kerry ( D- Ma) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) to back the campaign.( See below article by Ray O’ Hanlon “Irish-American Anger over Iraq defense contract” and the Senators letter to Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld).

Fr. Mc Manus has written to Senator Obama and contacted his campaign headquarters. .

“I have to believe that Senator Obama as a lover of justice will do the right thing. If he becomes President, he must stop the United States subsidizing Tim Spicer, who has shown such cruel disregard for the murder, by his military unit, of young, unarmed and innocent Peter Mc Bride. The Aegis Contract has Irish blood on it and it must be rescinded.”

END.

----

New questions over Iraq contract

by Tom Griffin. Irish World. December 15, 2005.

tom@tomgriffin.org

A leading US Senator has backed calls for the Pentagon to reconsider its contract with the company run by former Scots Guards officer Tim Spicer.

The move by Illinois Senator Barack Obama, a rising star of the Democratic Party, comes as documents obtained by the Irish World raise new questions about the decision to award the $293 million security contract in Iraq to Spicer’s firm Aegis Defence Services.

“The CEO of Aegis Defense Services Tim Spicer has been implicated in a variety of human rights abuses around the globe,” Senator Obama said in a letter to a constituent last week. “Given his history, I agree that the United States should consider rescinding its contract with his company.”

”Several of my colleagues have contacted the Pentagon expressing their concerns about this issue. I will be in touch with their offices to see how I can be of assistance in their efforts.”

The Pat Finucane Centre and the Washington-based Irish National Caucus have campaigned against the Aegis contract, because of Spicer’s role as commander of the Scots Guards in Belfast in 1992, when two of his men murdered 18-year-old Peter McBride.

The campaign won support last year, when five leading Democratic Senators, including Hilary Clinton, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, called for an investigation of the contract.

In response the head of the US Army Contracting Agency, Sandra Sieber, stated: "It is significant that the British Ministry of Defence was apprised of our intention to award the contract to Aegis, and did not object to or advise

against the action.”

However, documents obtained by the Irish World under US freedom of information laws show that the Ministry of Defence warned the Americans about the financial status of Aegis.

In a letter on 11 May last year, an official at the MOD’s Pricing and Forecasting Group wrote: “We would draw your attention to the financial strength of this company. In the year to 31 December 2003 its operating loss before tax was £170k on a turnover of £542k. It had a negative net worth. The company is wholly supported by a £1m loan repayable over five years. It is also a holding company for 3 subsidiaries, the two significant subsidiaries both traded at a loss in the year to 31 December 2003 totalling £91k, on a turnover of £438k. The trading results of the third company, whilst in profit was insignificant (turnover below £12k).”

Commenting on the document, a spokesman for the Pat Finucane Centre suggested it showed that the award to Aegis “had little to do with the perceived ability of the company to fulfill the contract, but was in fact the payback for British support for the US in the war itself.”

The contract has come under renewed scrutiny in recent weeks, with the emergence on the internet of a series of videos appearing to show private security contractors shooting at Iraqi civilian cars. A new video has appeared within the past few days on www.aegisiraq.co.uk, a site maintained by a former Aegis employee.

The company is expected to announce the results of an internal investigation of the footage this week.

Sources within the private security industry have defended the scenes shown. “The video (it ain't clear if it’s an Aegis video yet) certainly does raise some questions,” one industry insider told the Irish World. “The main thing it brought home rather graphically is what the level of insecurity is in Iraq - the fact that rules of engagement requires that kind of graduated use of force in such instances. Two of the incidents are clearly within ROE norms, the other two are more questionable. Hopefully we'll see the full videos at some point and be in a better position to judge if the gunners were operating appropriately considering the threat.”

----

Irish-American Anger over Iraq defense contract

Irish Echo. August 4-10, 2004

By Ray O'Hanlon

rohanlon@irishecho.com

President Bush is being urged to cancel an Iraq security contract that involves a onetime British army officer linked to the death of a man in northern Ireland.

The death of Peter McBride, shot dead by two members of the Scots Guards regiment, remains one of the most controversial during the troubles.

The regiment was commanded at the time by Lt. Col. Tim Spicer.

Spicer, since retired from the military, now heads a private security company, Aegis Defense Services, which was recently awarded a $293 million contract in Iraq.

Fr. Sean McManus, president of the Washington D.C.-based Irish National Caucus, wants President Bush to scrap the deal.

"It has Irish blood on it," McManus said of the contract in a statement.

"This (contract) could undo any credit you gained from Irish-Americans for your support of the Irish peace-process," McManus said in a letter to Bush.

"U.S. dollars should not subsidize such a person as Lt. Col. Spicer. And long-suffering Iraq needs him no more than Northern Ireland needed him," McManus added.

McManus said that the INC was "determined" not to accept what he described as a "terrible insult" to the McBride family and Irish Americans.

"I cannot believe that President Bush would have approved such an outrageous contract. He has got to undo this great wrong. This is going to be an election issue.

McBride, who was 18, was shot twice in the back by Scots Guards soldiers as he ran from a checkpoint in Belfast on September 4, 1992. McBride was unarmed. Two soldiers were jailed for McBride's murder in early 1995 but were released in August, 1998.

In a letter to the Times newspaper of London, Spicer defended the actions of his men stating that they had been involved in a terrorist incident and had acted in accordance with the law and their military.

----

Irish National Caucus News Release

More Trouble for Spicer Contract

U.S. Senators Join Caucus Campaign to Block Deal

CAPITOL HILL. August 30, 2004 --- Presidential Candidate John Kerry, Senators Teddy Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd and Charles Schumer have lent their support to a campaign launched by the Irish National Caucus to have the U.S Department of Defence cancel a contract it, incredibly, gave to Timothy Spicer, former commander of the British Army unit that murdered unarmed and innocent Peter Mc Bride in Northern Ireland in 1992.

The five powerful Senators have written to Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, urging him direct the Inspector General to investigate how the contract came to be awarded.( See their letter at the end).

"I am very grateful to these five Senators", said Fr. Sean Mc Manus, President of the Irish National Caucus, who had written to all of them asking for their support." They are showing sensitivity to the family of Peter Mc Bride, and a concern for basic human rights and decency. President Bush must do likewise . He must cancel this contract. President Bush must decide if he wants the respect of Irish-Americans or the gratitude of Timothy Spicer for the fat contract. He cannot have both."

----

August 25, 2004

Honorable Donald Rumsfeld

Secretary of Defense

Room 3E880

The Pentagon

Washington, D.C. 20301

Dear Secretary Rumsfeld:

We are writing to request you to ask the Inspector General to investigate a $293 million Iraq security contract given troubling concerns that recently have come to light.

The contract, which we understand is the largest yet awarded for security in postwar Iraq, was granted to a British company, Aegis Defense Services Ltd., in May to provide security teams for the Project and Contracting Office, the body responsible for overseeing $18.4 billion in U.S. reconstruction funds for Iraq.

The company is led by Tim Spicer, a former lieutenant colonel in the Scots Guards. The Boston Globe has reported that Mr. Spicer has “a reputation for illicit arms deals in Africa and for commanding a murderous military unit in Northern Ireland.” Two soldiers in the unit shot and killed Peter McBride, a Catholic teenager in Belfast in 1992 while under Mr. Spicer’s command. The two soldiers were convicted of murder. Even after he retired from the military, Mr. Spicer defended the two soldiers, who shot Mr. McBride in the back. He argued for their release, which occurred in 1998, and the soldiers were inexplicably reinstated in the British Army.

The United States Government requires all contractors to be "responsible bidders". Contractors have to "have a satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics" (48 CFR 9.104-1(d)). We would like to know whether the government considered human rights abuses – or an individual who vigorously defends them – as part of this record.

Additionally, the United States Government requires consideration of the contractor's "past performance" (48 CFR 15.304(c)(3)). We would like to know whether the contracting team adequately reviewed the contractor's record, identified past human rights abuses or defense of abuses, and whether the contractor received a poor past performance rating on that basis.

We would also like to know the extent to which these factors were evaluated in awarding this contract to Aegis. If they were evaluated, we would like to know the rationale for awarding the contract.

In light of the recent revelations of abuses of detainees in Iraq, it is important that U.S. actions, whether by military personnel or contractors, have respect for the law. It is troubling that the Government would award a contract to an individual with a history of supporting excessive use of force against a civilian population.

Certainly we understand the urgent need to establish a secure environment, but the United States Government is also working to create a democracy in Iraq in which respect for fundamental human rights is guaranteed.

We appreciate your consideration of this request, and we look forward to the results of the Inspector General’s review.

Sincerely,

Edward M. Kennedy

Christopher J. Dodd

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Charles E. Schumer

John F. Kerry

Patrick Mc Manus Remembered

IRISH PATRIOT 50 TH ANNIVERSARY
PATRICK MC MANUS REMEMBERED

CAPITOL HILL. MONDAY, JULY 21, 2008 ----- Recently the president of theCapitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus, Fr. Sean Mc Manus, returned to hisnative Fermanagh for a series of events marking the 50th. Anniversary of hisbrother Patrick’s death on July 15, 1958.

Patrick Mc Manus was a leading IRA man in the 1956-1962 campaign. He wasthe OC for South Fermanagh and shortly before his death he was appointed to theIRA Army Council.

Mc Manus was killed in a premature explosion a few miles outside of Swanlinbarin County Cavan. A native of the townland of Clonliff, Kinawley parish (which isdivided by the Border). Mc Manus had been on the run since the beginning of theIRA campaign, December 12, 1958.What made his death at 29 all the moretraumatic for the Mc Manus family was that he was killed on the same day hissister was married – the first marriage in the family of ten children.

There were a series of events commemorating the young Irish patriot.

On Sunday, July 6, Sinn Fein led a parade from the town of Swanlinbar to McManus’s grave in Killaduff cemetery, two miles away. Michelle Gildernew, MP forFermanagh and south Tyrone, a constituency represented by Patrick’s brother,Frank, from 1970 to 1974, was one of the two main speakers. The other was theTD for Cavan and Monaghan, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin. (Photo attached).

On July 15, the surviving Veterans of the 56 Campaign laid wreaths on themonument that marks the spot where Mc Manus was killed.

On July 12, the Kinawley GAA Club unveiled a new, striking sign, with Patrick’sphoto superimposed, at the Patrick Mc Manus Memorial Park, so named in 1982.(Photo attached).

On Saturday July 19, Republican Sinn Fein unveiled a new roadside monument toMc Manus, James Crossan and John Duffy near the spot where Crossan waskilled by the RUC in 1958 – just across the Border in County Cavan, outsideSwanlinbar. (Duffy was killed in Derry in 1960 while training with the IRA). RuairiO’Bradaigh was the main speaker.

Fr. Mc Manus said: “ My family and I attended all the events to honor our brotherPatrick, a noble Irish patriot, of whom we are deeply proud. Our attendance doesnot imply endorsement of any particular group, only the endorsement of ourbrother. We all strongly support the Irish peace process, which should ensure thatno other young man or woman will ever have to sacrifice their lives for Ireland.”

END

Fr. Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
Capitol Hill
PO BOX 15128
Washington, DC. 20003-0849
202-544-0568
http://us.f831.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=sean@irishnationalcaucus.org

Don't Blame Orangemen For Bigotry

Don’t Blame The Orangemen For Bigotry

Irish News. May 15, 2008

Fr Sean McManus, President,
Irish National Caucus,
Capitol Hill, Washington DC

OBSERVER, Newcastle (May 13) identifies the source of anti-
Catholic bigotry as the Orange Order.

But one has to go deeper than that.

The Orange Order merely reflects the anti-Catholicism that is
enshrined, justified and practiced in the British constitution
through the Act of Settlement 1701. Provisions in that act –
still in force today – bar a Catholic from succeeding to the
British throne and decree that if the monarch becomes a Catholic,
or marries a Catholic, he/she forfeits the throne and “the
people are absolved from their allegiance”.

Imagine if there were provisions in the United States
constitution barring a black person from being president – or
decreeing that the president could not marry a black person.

Imagine how that would have justified and inflamed white
supremacy and racism. And there would be no point in condemning
the yahoos of the Ku Klux Klan while ignoring the pernicious
provisions in the constitution.

So far the only thing the British government has done is to say
that changing the anti-Catholic law would be complicated, time-
consuming, involve a lot of paperwork, etc.

Such specious excuses only confound the problem and are deeply
offensive.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965
were ‘time- consuming’ but had to be done if America was to hold
its head up in the world.

Ending segregation in the US – and ‘Jim Crowe’ laws in the
American south – was ‘complicated and involved a lot of paper
work’.

But justice and human decency demanded it – and it was done.

The British government’s pledges on equality hold no credibility
as long as its (unwritten and uncodified) constitution is
formally and de jure anti-Catholic.

How can the Orange Order be blamed as it is only being faithful
to the British constitution?

Always go to the source, Observer.

Fr Sean McManus
President, Irish National Caucus
Capitol Hill, Washington DC

'British Isles' References Leave Irish Eyes Frowning

'British Isles' References Leave Irish Eyes Frowning

Sunday Tribune (Dublin) Sunday, January 27, 2008
Conor McMorrow

THE globally renowned National Geographic organisation has
changed the way it refers to Ireland . . . no longer
calling it a "British Isle".

National Geographic, which is one of the largest non-profit
scientific and educational institutions in the world, took
the decision to change the way they refer to Ireland after
receiving a complaint from an Irish-American lobby group.

Fr Sean McManus, president of the Irish National Caucus
group, complained when he noticed that the print and online
version of National Geographic's 'Travel Catalog 20082009'
had a page advertising its May and July guided tour
"Exploring the British Isles" that listed Ireland as part
of the British Isles.

After spotting the "absurd error" McManus said: "Who wants
to go with a travel company that is so geographically
confused and disoriented?

National Geographic claims Ireland is in 'the British
Isles', and proceeds to list the places on its tour of
Ireland: Skellig Rocks/Dingle Peninsula, Aran Islands,
Cliffs of Moher and Co Donegal.

"Northern Ireland is not even mentioned thereby making it
impossible for National Geographic to try to make the
argument that the North 'is British'. Therefore, they have
simply no excuse for its absurd error."

McManus also complained that the catalogue had been
introduced by the National Geographic president "who bears
the proud name of John M Fahey".

The Sunday Tribune has learned that on 23 January, Fahey
replied to McManus informing him that National Geographic
had "revised" the way it referred to Ireland in its online
information and would make similar changes in future print
editions. It will now refer to 'the British and Irish
Isles'.

He concluded his letter to McManus: "It's our sincere hope
that National Geographic Society can quickly be restored to
your good graces, as well as those of St Patrick, and
anyone else who was concerned we had lost our way. It would
warm my heart!!"

McManus told the Sunday Tribune, "John Fahey is a classy
guy. I commend him on his quick and appropriate action.

"Now Irish-Americans can continue to admire National
Geographic without cognitive dissonance."

The latest furore over the term "British Isles" comes
little over a year since Irish school book publishers,
Folens, decided to omit all references to "the British
Isles" from its widely-used school atlas.

Until last year, the glossy world atlas had a section of 31
pages with maps and information, all of which showed
Ireland under the heading of the British Isles.

In the past the term has been used in a purely geographical
sense to make clear Ireland's proximity to Britain.

In October 2005, after Folens announced that they were
scrapping the term, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot
Ahern stated: "The term 'British Isles' is not used by the
Irish government and has no official status . . . the term
was not recognised in any legal of intergovernmental
sense."

It was also reported at the time that the Irish Embassy in
London had been urged to monitor media in Britain for "any
abuse of the official terms as set out in the Constitution
of Ireland and in legislation".

Fr. Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
Capitol Hill
PO BOX 15128
Washington, DC. 20003-0849
202-544-0568





sean@irishnationalcaucus.org
http://www.irishnationalcaucus.blogspot.com/
http://www.irishnationalcaucus.org/index.htm

National Geographic FInds Its Way With Grace & Class

CAPITOL HILL. Wednesday, January 23, 3008 ---- National
Geographic has mended its ways --- changing the way it
refers to Ireland, no longer calling it
a “ British isle”.

In its print Travel Catalog 2008-2009, and in its on-line
version, National Geographic had a page advertising its May
and July guided tour,” Exploring the British Isles”,
listing Ireland as part of the British Isles.

Fr. Sean Mc Manus, president of the Capitol Hill-based
Irish National Caucus (not a British organization) took
exception to this bad geography, and on January 10 wrote to
John Fahey, President and CEO of National Geographic,
urging him to correct the faux pas, and to “ assure Irish-
Americans that National Geographic is still committed to
excellence and geographic sensitivity”.

On January 15, Mr. Fahey replied to Fr. Mc Manus informing
him that National Geographic had “revised” the way it
referred to Ireland in its on-line information and would
make similar changes in future print editions. It now
refers to the British and Irish Isles.

Mr. Fahey concluded his letter: “ It’s our sincere hope
that National Geographic Society can quickly be restored to
your good graces, as well as those of St. Patrick, and
anyone else who was concerned we had lost our way. It would
warm my Irish heart!!”

Fr. Mc Manus said , “ John Fahey is a classy guy. I
commend him on his quick and appropriate action. Now Irish-
Americans can continue to admire National Geographic
without any cognitive dissonance”.
END.

Fr. Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
Capitol Hill
PO BOX 15128
Washington, DC. 20003-0849
202-544-0568
sean@irishnationalcaucus.org
http://www.irishnationalcaucus.blogspot.com/
http://www.irishnationalcaucus.org/index.htm

National Geographic Loses Its Way on Ireland

IRISH NATIONAL CAUCUS

National Geographic Loses Its Way on Ireland

Capitol Hill. Thursday, January 10, 2008 - In its Travel Catalog 2008-
2009 National Geographic gets lost even before it embarks on its guided
tour of Ireland, May 11-24.

"Who wants to go with a travel company that is so geographically
confused and disoriented?" asked Fr. Sean Mc Manus, president of the
Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus.

He said, " National Geographic claims Ireland is in " the British
isles", and proceeds to list the places on its tour of Ireland: Skellig
Rocks/ Dingle Peninsula, Aran Islands? Cliffs of Moher, and county
Donegal. Northern Ireland is not even mentioned thereby making it
impossible for National Geographic to try make the argument (specious
though it would be) that the North " is British". Therefore,National
Geographic has simply no excuse for its absurd error."

"And to make matters worse," Fr. Mc Manus continued, " the catalog is
introduced by National Geographic president, who bears the proud name
of John M. Fahey, Jr. Surely he should know that Ireland is not a
British isle but an Irish isle? If someone wants to give it a name, it
is usually called the Emerald Isle, Mr. Fahey".

Fr. Mc Manus has written to Mr. Fahey urging him to correct his error
and reassure Irish-Americans that National Geographic is still
committed to excellence and to geographic sensitivity. " Surely in
marketing terms alone, it does not make sense for National Geographic -
as we approach St. Patrick's Day - to be so insensitive in its
advertising? It could make its point simply - and far more accurately
and sensitively - by advertising a tour of Britain and Ireland".

END

Mc Manus Rips Rudy

Mc Manus Rips Rudy
IRISH VOICE. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2007

SPEAKING of the presidential race, Father Sean McManus had some
choice words for Rudy Giuliani this week, making it clear that
the Irish National Caucus will strongly oppose the former New
York mayor, currently the front-runner for the GOP nomination.

"Rudy Giuliani recently went to London to pander to the extreme
right, speaking at the inaugural Margaret Thatcher Memorial
Lecture, which, according to the American Conservative magazine,
was attended by many of the Iron Lady's most dedicated admirers,"
McManus said.

"In other words, Giuliani kissed up to the same type of Brit who
increased anti-Catholic oppression and discrimination in Northern
Ireland, promoted state terrorism and torture and prolonged the
Irish Troubles by at least 20 years. That is much worse than
George W. Bush's ill-advised speech to Bob Jones University, for
which he had the good grace to apologize.

"Irish Americans may have wanted to forget how Giuliani viciously
pursued political refugee Joe Doherty," added McManus, president
of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus. "But how can
they possibly ignore the fact that Giuliani travels to London to
offend Irish Americans?"
END

Father Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
P.O. Box 15128
Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C. 20003-0849
202-544-0568

US Group Calls for End to UK's Absurd Catholic Monarchy Ban

US Group Calls For An End To UK's 'Absurd' Catholic Monarchy Ban

By Conor McMorrow
Sunday Tribune(Dublin) Sunday, September 23, 2007

An Irish-American lobby group has invited each US Presidential
candidates and members of Congress to pledge their support for a
new campaign to repeal the 1701 British Act of Settlement.

Fr Sean McManus, President of the Capitol-hill based Irish
National Caucus group, launched the campaign to repeal the
"archaic" eighteenth century act last week.

The Act of Settlement decrees that only a Protestant can succeed
to the British throne and that if the monarch becomes a Catholic,
or marries a Catholic, they forfeit the throne and "the people
are absolved from their allegiance."

In a statement issued to the Sunday Tribune, McManus said, "While
this absurdly anachronistic law may mean little to the average
Englishman in the street, it has always been of the utmost
importance to Protestant/Unionist/Orange extremists in Northern
Ireland.

"It provides the ideological and philosophical underpinnings for
their bigotry and sectarianism. If a Catholic by law can't get
the top job, then Catholics are inferior to Protestants,
therefore it's okay to discriminate against them."

McManus claims that if the US Constitution had a provision
forbidding African-Americans from being president that it "would
have stoked the flames of racism and the sick ideology ofg white
supremacy."

The campaign has now issued each member of the US Congress with a
"Roll Call on the Act of Settlement, 1701" where they can call
for the repeal of the Act and support the Irish Peace Process.

Above the space on the Roll Call form where each Senator signs
their support for the campaign a statement reads "God bless
America and God save

Ireland".

The Irish National Caucus was founded by McManus and it is best
known for its work in lobbying for the MacBride Principles, which
are a corporate code of conduct for US companies doing business
in Northern Ireland, in the 1980s and 1990s.

Meanwhile, a 2001 backbench bill proposed in the House of Commons
by Hull MP Kevin McNamara seeking an end to the bar on Roman
Catholics succeeding the British throne came under fire from DUP
leader Ian Paisley.

Speaking of his proposal, McNamara claimed "I am looking, in this
bill, to strike at discrimination and intolerance in our society.
I am looking to assist the process of inclusion."

However Paisley accused McNamara of trying to "underwrite the
constitution" and said the link between religion and the monarchy
had served the country well.

He argued that several other European countries, such as Sweden
and Spain, kept the constitutional link between religion and
monarchy.

Paisley was unavailable for comment when contacted by the Tribune
this weekend but a DUP spokesman indicated that his position on
the 1701 had not changed.

-ends-

Father Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
P.O. Box 15128
Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C. 20003-0849
202-544-0568

AOH Backs Caucus Campaign To Repeal Act of Settlement

IRISH NATIONAL CAUCUS

PRESS RELEASE

Washington AOH Backs Caucus Campaign To Repeal Act of Settlement.

Capitol Hill. Sunday, September 23, 2007---It did not take long
for the Irish National Caucus to pick up influential support for
its campaign to repeal the anti-Catholic provisions in the
British Act of Settlement, 1701.

The campaign was launched in an OP-Ed piece by Caucus president,
Fr. Sean Mc Manus, in the Irish Echo, which appeared on
Wednesday, September 22, 2007. Just three days later, on
September 22, the Washington AOH, in convention assembled, passed
a unanimous resolution endorsing in "solidarity" the Caucus
campaign and urging the US Congress to call upon," the British
Parliament to repeal this affront to human rights and to
eliminate any all state-sponsored bigotry and sectarianism"

Fr. Mc Manus expressed delight appreciation at the AOH
resolution: "This will clearly send the message to Congress
that a united Irish-American community, whether Democratic or
Republican, wants them to sign our "Roll Call", declaring their
support for Repeal."

The Irish National Caucus wrote to all Members of Congress, House
and Senate, asking them to sign an enclosed document, "Roll Call
on Act of Settlement", which states they," do hereby declare my
support for REPEAL.I join the growing number of leaders of both
Church and State in Britain, Ireland and the United States in
calling for the repeal of the sectarian and anti-Catholic
sections of the Act of Settlement, 1701.

And I pledge to Irish-Americans to continue supporting the Irish
peace-process, based on nonviolence, equality, justice and peace
in Northern Ireland". (See letter and Roll Call below).

Fr. Mc Manus concluded by congratulating the Washington AOH for
their swift and decisive action. He also praised AOH National
President, Jack Meehan. "Jack's presence added strength to the
Washington AOH resolution. He assured me he would make certain
that Hibernians all across America would throw their weight
behind the Caucus campaign".

END OF PRESS RELEASE
----

LETTER AND ROLL CALL FOLLOWS

The Honorable ___________
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC. 20510

September 18, 2007

Dear Senator/Representative_________,

This letter -- which asks you to state your position on repealing
the anti-Catholic sections of the British Act of Settlement of
1701-- has overwhelmingly support among Irish-Americans.
Furthermore, it is supported by the main Irish organizations that
have been working for over the years for equality, justice and
peace in Northern Ireland.

The sectarian and anti-Catholic Act of Settlement 1701, which is
still law today, decrees that only a Protestant can succeed to
the British throne and that if the Monarch becomes a Catholic,
or marries a Catholic, he/she forfeits the Throne and "the
people are absolved from their allegiance".

While this absurdly anachronistic law may mean little to the
average Englishman in the street, it has always been of the
utmost importance to Protestant/Unionist/Orange extremists in
Northern Ireland. It provides the ideological and philosophical
underpinnings for their bigotry and sectarianism. For you see,
the spurious but deadly logic goes, if a Catholic by law can't
get the top job, then Catholics are inferior to Protestants,
therefore it's okay to discriminate against them.

Imagine had there been a provision in the US Constitution
forbidding an African-American being president, or forbidding the
president to marry a black person imagine how that would have
stoked the flames of racism and the sick ideology of white
supremacy.

Tony Blair, who has done so much good work for justice and peace
in Northern Ireland, declared the Act was "plainly
discriminatory". Furthermore, an increasing number of people in
Britain itself are shamed and embarrassed by this archaic and
anti-Catholic law -- which is clearly incompatible with the Human
Rights Act 1998 -- and are demanding its repeal.

Here is a partial list: the British Attorney General, more than
150 MPs, the Cardinal of Scotland, the Cardinal of England and
the Guardian Newspaper.

We now ask you to join this growing list of concerned people in
the US, Britain and Ireland, by declaring your support for
repealing the sectarian and anti-Catholic sections of the Act of
Settlement, which fans the fires of religious bigotry in Northern
Ireland.

Please find enclosed our "Roll Call on Act of Settlement, 1701",
which polls all Members of the House and Senate on whether they
are for or against Repeal. (A similar poll will be sent to
Presidential Candidates and others seeking public office). Your
response, or lack thereof, will be disseminated among the Irish-
American community, which according to the last US census is over
30 million.

I look forward to your early response.
Thank you.

Sincerely,
Fr. Sean Mc Manus
President
********

ROLL CALL ON ACT OF SETTLEMENT, 1701

I, Senator (Representative)_______________________________ do
hereby declare my support for REPEAL.

I join the growing number of leaders of both Church and State in
Britain, Ireland and the United States in calling for the repeal
of the sectarian and anti-Catholic sections of the Act of
Settlement, 1701.

And I pledge to Irish-Americans to continue supporting the Irish
peace-process, based on nonviolence, equality, justice and peace
in Northern Ireland.

God bless America and God save Ireland.

SIGNED _________________________ Date________

Irish National Caucus,
Capitol Hill, PO BOX 15128, Washington DC, 20003
Tel. 202-544-0568; Fax 202-488-7537;
Email sean@irishnationalcaucus.org

Campaign To Repeal Hateful Act

CAMPAIGN TO REPEAL HATEFUL ACT

Here is a copy of letter sent to all Members of Congress, House
and Senate, lobbying them to state their support for repealing
the anti-Catholic sections of the British Act of Settlement,
1701.

We urge all concerned Americans to lobby their Senators and
Representatives. After all, what decent American could possibly
defend this anachronistic and sectarian law?

********************************ß***

The Honorable ___________
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC. 20510

September 18, 2007

Dear Senator_________-,

This letter -- which asks you to state your position on repealing
the anti-Catholic sections of the British Act of Settlement of
1701-- has overwhelmingly support among Irish-Americans.

Furthermore, it is supported by the main Irish organizations that
have been working for over the years for equality, justice and
peace in Northern Ireland.

The sectarian and anti-Catholic Act of Settlement 1701, which is
still law today, decrees that only a Protestant can succeed to
the British throne and that if the Monarch becomes a Catholic, or
marries a Catholic, he/she forfeits the Throne and "the people
are absolved from their allegiance".

While this absurdly anachronistic law may mean little to the
average Englishman in the street, it has always been of the
utmost importance to Protestant/Unionist/Orange extremists in
Northern Ireland. It provides the ideological and philosophical
underpinnings for their bigotry and sectarianism. For you see,
the spurious but deadly logic goes, if a Catholic by law can't
get the top job, then Catholics are inferior to Protestants,
therefore it's okay to discriminate against them.

Imagine had there been a provision in the US Constitution
forbidding an African-American being president, or forbidding the
president to marry a black personŠ imagine how that would have
stoked the flames of racism and the sick ideology of white
supremacy.

Tony Blair, who has done so much good work for justice and peace
in Northern Ireland, declared the Act was " plainly
discriminatory"

Furthermore, an increasing number of people in Britain itself are
shamed and embarrassed by this archaic and anti-Catholic law --
which is clearly incompatible with the Human Rights Act 1998 --
and are demanding its repeal.

Here is a partial list: the British Attorney General, more than
150 MPs, the Cardinal of Scotland, the Cardinal of England and
the Guardian Newspaper.

We now ask you to join this growing list of concerned people in
the US, Britain and Ireland, by declaring your support for
repealing the sectarian and anti-Catholic sections of the Act of
Settlement, which fans the fires of religious bigotry in Northern
Ireland.

Please find enclosed our " Roll Call on Act of Settlement, 1701",
which polls all Members of the House and Senate on whether they
are for or against Repeal. (A similar poll will be sent to
Presidential Candidates and others seeking public office). Your
response, or lack thereof, will be disseminated among the Irish-
American community, which according to the last US census is over
30 million.

I look forward to your early response.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Fr. Sean Mc Manus
President

ROLL CALL ON ACT OF SETTLEMENT, 1701

I, Senator _______________________________
do hereby declare my support for REPEAL.

I join the growing number of leaders of both Church and State in
Britain, Ireland and the United States in calling for the repeal
of the sectarian and anti-Catholic sections of the Act of
Settlement, 1701.

And I pledge to Irish-Americans to continue supporting the Irish
peace-process, based on nonviolence, equality, justice and peace
in Northern Ireland.

God bless America and God save Ireland.

SIGNED _________________________ Date________

Irish National Caucus, Capitol Hill, PO BOX 15128, Washington DC,
20003

Tel. 202-544-0568; Fax 202-488-7537; Email
sean@irishnationalcaucus.org

************************

Father Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
P.O. Box 15128
Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C. 20003-0849
202-544-0568

Irish-American Campaign To Repeal British Act of Settlement, 1701

Irish-American Campaign To Repeal British Act Of Settlement, 1701

CAPITOL HILL. SEPTEMBER 20, 2007 ------ The US Congress and all
Presidential Candidates are being pressured to take a stand
against the British Act of Settlement, 1701, which contain anti-
Catholic provisions.

The Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus is spearheading the
campaign. Its president, Fr. Sean Mc Manus, launched the campaign
in an Op-Ed piece in this week's Irish Echo. In his letter to all
Members of Congress House and Senate, Fr. Mc Manus tells them:

"The sectarian Act, which is still law today, decrees that only a
Protestant can succeed to the British throne and that if the
Monarch becomes a Catholic, or marries a Catholic, he/she
forfeits the Throne and "the people are absolved from their
allegiance".

While this absurdly anachronistic law may mean little to the
average Englishman in the street, it has always been of the
utmost importance to Protestant/Unionist/Orange extremists in
Northern Ireland. It provides the ideological and philosophical
underpinnings for their bigotry and sectarianism. For you see,
the spurious but deadly logic goes, if a Catholic by law can't
get the top job, then Catholics are inferior to Protestants,
therefore it's okay to discriminate against them.

Imagine had there been a provision in the US Constitution
forbidding an African-American being president, or forbidding the
president to marry a black personŠ imagine how that would have
stoked the flames of racism and the sick ideology of white
supremacy. Tony Blair, who has done so much good work for justice
and peace in Northern Ireland, declared the Act was "plainly
discriminatory"

Furthermore, an increasing number of people in Britain itself are
shamed and embarrassed by this archaic and anti-Catholic law --
which is clearly incompatible with the Human Rights Act 1998 --
and are demanding its repeal. Here is a partial list: the British
Attorney General, more than 150 MPs, the Cardinal of Scotland,
the Cardinal of England and the Guardian Newspaper.

We now ask you to join this growing list of concerned people in
the US, Britain and Ireland, by declaring your support for
repealing the sectarian and anti-Catholic sections of the Act of
Settlement, which fans the fires of religious bigotry in Northern
Ireland.

Please find enclosed our "Roll Call on Act of Settlement, 1701",
which polls all Members of the House and Senate on whether they
are for or against Repeal. (A similar poll will be sent to
Presidential Candidates and others seeking public office). Your
response, or lack thereof, will be disseminated among the Irish-
American community, which according to the last US census is over
30 million."

Fr. Mc Manus predicted that the Repeal Campaign would be very
effective. He pointed out: " It took Irish-American pressure to
effectively raise the issue of anti-Catholic discrimination by US
companies in Northern Ireland through the Mac Bride Principles,
to get Candidate Bill Clinton to make his Irish promises, to get
Special Envoy appointed, etc. Now we have the Act of Settlement
in our sights, and we are not going to go away, you know. It is
pointless to complain about the sectarianism of Orange extremists
if we don't first attack the foundation of that extremism, the
Act of Settlement --- and the Orangemen did not make that law.
The British Monarch and the British Parliament did.

END

Father Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
P.O. Box 15128
Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C. 20003-0849
202-544-0568

Fr. Mc Manus on Harris's Appointment to Seanad Éireann

Fr. Mc Manus on Harris's Appointment to Seanad Éireann

There have been a number of ridiculous articles in the papers in
Ireland praising the equally ridiculous appointment of Eohan
Harris to Seanad Éireann.

Years ago I promised myself to stop reading Harris's rants and
egomaniacal ravings, but I still scan his articles just to see if
they are still as extreme as ever and he never disappoints.

Every time I think of Harris, I think of James Meredith. In so
doing, I mean no offense to Meredith a genuine hero of the Black
Freedom Struggle in America, despite his subsequent and peculiar
flip flops.

On September 27, 1962, James Meredith heroically integrated Ole
Miss - the University of Mississippi-while mobs of white racists
howled for his blood.

In August 1989, Meredith would go to work in the Capitol Hill
office of Senator Jesse Helms, renowned for his race baiting
tactics and obstructionism, only to resign in the Fall of 1991
because Helms was "too liberal". Then a short time later Meredith
endorsed the former Imperial Wizard of the KKK, David Duke, for
Governor of Louisiana and President of the U.S.

No doubt, Harris would consider Meredith's subsequent behavior as
consistent.

Father Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
P.O. Box 15128
Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C. 20003-0849
202-544-0568

Fr Mc Manus on President Woodrow Wilson

FR. MC MANUS ON PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
IRISH ECHO
MAY 21, 2007

Dear Editor,

I am a big fan of Edward T. O'Donnell's column, "Hibernian
Chronicle", which I read religiously.

His May 16 column, "President slams 'hyphenated Americans'" was
of special interest because it dealt with the attitude of Woodrow
Wilson (who was President from March 4, 1913 to March 3, 1921) to
the Irish Cause and it's Irish-American supporters.

Wilson --- indulging in his own bigotry and pandering to the No
Nothings of the times --- reprimanded Irish-Americans for being
"Irish-American" and not just "American", thereby implying that
they had divided loyalties. That, of course, was the Big Lie.
Irish-Americans, quite rightly, wanted the United Stated to adapt
a fair and honorable foreign policy on justice and freedom in
Ireland, with and end to English rule oppression.

Wilson, for all his talk about "national self-determination"
refused to apply that principle to Ireland. He was an Anglophile,
which is okay. But why was he anti-Irish? His bigotry was
classically demonstrated by the way he treated Hanna Sheehy
Skeffington in the white House on January 11, 1918. (Hanna's
pacifist husband, Francis Sheehy Skeffington, although he was not
involved in the Easter Rising of 1916, had been executed without
a trial by a British firing squad). When Hanna reminded President
Wilson of his own Irish ancestry, he snapped back, "Scotch-Irish,
Madam!"

So why was President Wilson anti-Irish? The simple answer was
because he had a racist/sectarian/segregationist mindset and
consequently and logically he was anti-Black, anti-Semitic and
anti-Catholic. (All three go hand-in-hand, as is illustrated by
the fact that those three groups were historically the targets of
the KKK).

Wilson dismissed a number of Black federal employees, replacing
them with Whites and further segregated the Federal workplace,
stating, " I do approve of the segregation that is being
attempted in several of the departments" And, most notoriously of
all, on March 21, 1915 Wilson put on a special screening in the
White House of Birth of a Nation, directed by D.W. Griffith and
based on the novel The Clansman by Thomas Dixon. The movie
distorted history, glorified the KKK and denigrated and demeaned
African-Americans. Instead of denouncing that racist and vicious
propaganda, President Wilson waxed lyrically about it: "It is
like writing history with lightening, and my only regret is that
it is all so terribly true".

Is it, therefore, any surprise that President Wilson would
support British policy in Ireland that was based on racist
English superiority and Protestant supremacy? He was simply being
true to his own perverted beliefs.

Father Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
P.O. Box 15128
Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C. 20003-0849
202-544-0568

Press Release IRISH NATIONAL CAUCUS

Senator Casey Joins Irish National Caucus

CAPITOL HILL. MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2007 ---- The recently elected US
Senator from Pennsylvania, Bob Casey Jr., has become a
"Congressional Friend" of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National
Caucus.

"We are honored and proud to have Senator Casey as a
Congressional Friend", said Caucus president, Fr. Sean Mc Manus.
"The Casey family is very special to us. Bob's father, the late,
great Robert Patrick Sr., was the 42nd Governor of Pennsylvania
from 1987 to 1995.As Governor he signed the Mac Bride Principles
into law in the State of Pennsylvania. I had the honor of meeting
him when I was the keynote speaker at the Friendly sons of St.
Patrick Dinner on St. Patrick's Day in Scranton in the 90's".

The "Congressional Friends" are listed on the stationery of the
Irish National Caucus and are updated after each election.
Currently 61 Congressional Friends are listed; including names
like Senators Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman and Arlen Specter.
And from the House side, names are listed like Representatives
Richard Neal (D-Ma) Chairman of the Friends of Ireland, Peter
King (R-NY) Joe Crowley (D-NY) and Eliot Engel (D-NY) --- the
Co-Chairs of the Congressional Committee For Irish Affairs.

The motto of the Irish National Caucus is " Neither Democrat nor
Republican but Dedicated to Getting Both Parties to Stand Up for
Justice and Peace in Ireland". "It's a motto we have religiously
adhered to", Fr. Mc Manus emphasized.

In signing up as a Congressional Friend, Senator Casey wrote to
Fr. Mc Manus say, "It is with great pride and honor that I join
the esteemed Irish National Caucus. Your organization's
commitment to advancing the cause of peace, justice and equality
among the Irish people have long inspired the support of the
Casey family"
END

Father Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
P.O. Box 15128
Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C. 20003-0849
202-544-0568

Raymond Mc Cord - The Protestant 'Pat Finucane'

Photo Shows Fr. Mc Manus And Raymond Mc Cord, Sr,
Outside White House, Wednesday, March 14, 2007

The Protestant "Pat Finucane"
The Raymond Mc Cord Case

CAPITOL HILL. ST. PATRICK'S DAY, 2007 --- The Raymond Mc Cord
case is going to become the Protestant version of the Pat
Finucane case.

That is what the President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish
National Caucus, Fr. Sean Mc Manus, has told Chief Constable,
Hugh Orde.

With Mc Cord's father, Raymond, SR, standing by his side, Fr. Mc
Manus told the Chief Constable in Washington that the Mc Cord
case was resonating powerfully in the Congress and the White
House because of the power of its narrative, and the impact of
the O'Loan Report --- and that it was not going to go away.

"For over 30 years", Fr. Mc Manus explained," Members of Congress
have heard me go on and on about collusion - about how the
British security forces and the Northern Ireland police
cooperated with Protestant death squads to assassinate Catholics.
What is dramatically different now is that the Mc Cords are a
Protestant family - a loyal Ulster family, proud of their British
heritage. And when people see Mc Cord's father, Raymond. Sr.,
walk the halls of Congress and the White House with a Catholic
priest like myself, it makes a powerfully compelling statement."
(Paul Mc Illwaine, father of David murdered in 2000, is also
Protestant and he too was in Washington lobbying).

Fr. Mc Manus went on to say: " Just as Irish-Americans have stood
in solidarity with the Finucanes we will stand with the Mc Cords,
and we will not let any case of collusion slip through the
cracks. Both the Finucanes and the Mc Cords are the first to
emphasize that their cases are merely the tip of the iceberg and
both want all the other cases give due attention, as do we".
END

Father Sean Mc Manus
President Irish National Caucus
P.O. Box 15128 Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C. 20003-0849
202-544-0568

Banished Priest Who Has the Ear of Top US Politicians

Banished Priest Who Has Ear Of All America's Top
Politicians

EXCLUSIVE:

Sunday World. Sunday, March 18, 2007
By John Cassidy, Capitol Hill, Washington DC

FR Sean McManus may have the swagger of John Wayne but he
is no high noon gun slinger who shoots his mouth off before
he speaks.

For almost four decades the USA has been the home of the
Ulster-born priest where he has been a thorn in the side of
politicians with Irish blood running through their veins.

After being "transported'' out of London 1972, the Catholic
bishops sent him to far-flung America where he hitched up
his horse in the state of Washington DC.

They thought it was a safe enough place to banish him after
he attacked the British Government and its policies in the
UK in the early 1970s.

But how wrong the Catholic Bishops were.

For it was the start of a new challenge for Fr McManus who
viewed the human rights' abuses in Northern Ireland as
equal to the discrimination meted out to the blacks in
America's deep south.

And it was here in the late 1980s that he got US
legislatures to pass the McBride Principles aimed at giving
the same rights to nationalists as unionists, turning their
workplace into a neutral environment, and ensuring all
posts were openly advertised for all to apply.

Some political observers in America say he was light years
ahead of his time when he set up the Irish National Caucus
to fight for justice and rights for nationalists back home
in Northern Ireland.

And so much so that former SDLP leader John Hume, Sinn Fein
chief Gerry Adams, and Senator Ted Kennedy from the wealthy
Kennedy dynasty wouldn't talk to him.

"I suppose I stole their thunder,'' chuckled Father Sean
this week as the Sunday World chatted to him over a dinner
in one of his favourite Thai restaurants just a few blocks
from Capitol Hill.

He reflected on the early days he went to Belfast to talk
to the leaderships of the UDA and the UVF, events which
were scary at the time but now he can afford to raise a
smile and even a gentle laugh.

"I remember staying in the Park Avenue Hotel in east
Belfast in 1978. The UVF even posted a bodyguard outside my
door! Can you imagine that, the UVF protecting a Catholic
priest?

"And I remember them paging me over the tannoy system:
'Phone call for Fr McManus, phonecall for Fr Sean McManus
please!' It was scary times.''

He remembers a UVF killer coming to his room, breaking down
in tears at what he had done.

But when he left that room, Fr McManus knew the contrition
would soon be gone and the man would be back killing again.

"I knew them all in those days. I got to know the UDA
leadership of Andy Tyrie, John McMichael and Tommy 'Tucker'
Lyttle. I had them in Washington once but Sinn Fein
wouldn't come. It was about the time there was a power
struggle at the top of Sinn Fein between Gerry Adams and
Ruairi O'Bradaigh.''

This year's drowning of the shamrock takes place against
the backdrop of the Police Ombudsman's report into
collusion between RUC Special Branch and the drug-dealing,
tout-ridden killing machine of the UVF's 3rd battalion
Mount Vernon gang in north Belfast.

To Fr McManus, collusion is nothing knew and points to a
long history of collusion in the US between the FBI and the
white supremist movement of the Ku Klux Klan.

"A 1980 Justice Department report stated that J Edgar
Hoover blocked the prosecution of the KKK in 1965, and in
1968 shut down the investigation without filing charges,''
explained the president of the Irish National Caucus.

"One of the reasons Hoover shut down the investigation was
that the FBI had an informant in the KKK who worked
directly under Bob Chambliss, the lead bomber in the 1963
attack on the Sixteen Street Baptist Church which killed
four young girls aged 11 to 14.

"The informant was called Gary T Rowe and Hoover described
him as the best undercover agent 'we've ever seen''.

It is almost a carbon copy of what Nuala O'Loan found when
she investigated the murder of Raymond McCord jnr in 1997.

"It all sounds very familiar to what was happening in the
1960s between the FBI and the KKK,'' says Fr McManus.

As the Northern Ireland parties move towards the March 26
deadline for reaching agreement and forming a new
powersharing executive, Fr McManus remains optimistic that
his homeland is close to a new dawn.

"I very much hope. It is something I have prayed for and
worked hard for on this side of the Atlantic.

"Sadly sectarianism is still rife in Northern Ireland. So
my work is not done. I think the Irish National Caucus has
still a lot more work to do in combating this
sectarianism.'

"It is my hope that the PSNI can prove to the Catholic
community that it can be trusted, that the bad old days are
over, that collusion is gone root and branch.

"And that means the British Govermennt must come clean on
collusion, something that has now been made harder by the
key role given to MI5 in Northern Ireland and by the
gutting of the Public Inquiry Legislation into the murders
of Pat Finucane, Rosemary Nelson and Robert Hamill.''

As he sits on the granite stone walls that ring Capitol
Hill, Fr McManus bemoans the way the building has been
turned into a fortress of security since the 9/11 bomb
attacks.

"I use to come here every New Year's eve, rain, hail or
snow. There wasn't a person here at all and it was
beautiful when the snow had fallen . I was alone with my
thoughts. It was so peaceful and I just loved it.

"It has been destroyed. It was one of the most open parts
of this country, the seat of democracy that was open to
all.

"Now look at it - snipers on the roof, policemen
everywhere.

"Isn't ironic that as Northern Ireland moves closer and
closer to peace, America is going in the opposite
direction?''

McCain & Northern Ireland

McCain and Northern Ireland


Fr. Sean Mc Manus, President, Irish National Caucus


February 8, 2007 ---I was pleased to see in Ray O'Hanlon's
article that British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has asked
U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) to urge the Reverend Ian
Paisley to share power with Sinn Fein. ("McCain asked to
intercede with Paisley". Irish Echo. February 7-13).


I have a great deal of respect for Senator McCain, a
genuine American hero, irrespective of what one thinks of
the Vietnam War.


However, it is ironic - and maybe not too politically
advantageous -- that McCain's first very public foray into
Irish politics would be high-profile association with the
one person who more than anyone else is the personification
of anti-Catholic sectarianism and bigotry in Northern
Ireland over the past 60 years. It could evoke the specter
of George W. Bush's campaign- visit to Bob Jones University
- Paisley's main American sponsor for the past 60 years.


GOP and Northern Ireland


Over the past 30 years, The Republican Party, in general,
has not distinguished itself by opposing anti-Catholic
sectarianism in Northern Ireland although, by a delicious
irony, it was the Republican-controlled Congress that
passed the Mac Bride Principles.


For that we have to thank the great Ben Gilman (R-NY),
former Chairman of the House International Relations
Committee.


There are, of course, other Republican Members of Congress
who have stood up for justice and equality in Northern
Ireland: Jimmy Walsh, Peter King, Chris Smith, the late
Hamilton Fish, to name some of the more prominent. But to
my knowledge-- and I've been working on this issue for
almost 35 years in America; twenty nine of those years on
Capitol Hill - Senator McCain has never been significantly
involved in opposing British injustice and Orange anti-
Catholic sectarianism in Northern Ireland. He has been
silent on anti-Catholic discrimination, collusion, State-
sponsored terrorism, etc., etc. He did not even raise his
voice against the torture of political prisoners in
Northern Ireland (when his voice would have been the most
eloquent, granting his own experience, which he heroically
endured.


Anti-Catholic Sectarianism


Here, let me explain something that surprisingly is often
missed.


When we talk about anti-Catholic sectarianism in Northern
Ireland, we are not talking about some obtuse theological
difference between Catholic and Protestants. Rather, we are
talking about a Government- sanctioned policy for keeping
Catholics oppressed. So when Paisley ranted and raved about
"Popery" he was not making some nice theological point but
rather shoring up the status quo and making sure that
Catholics (not the Pope or the Cardinals, but the poor,
unemployed Catholics) would be kept " in their place" --at
the back of the bus. In much the same way the
segregationists in the Deep South had shored up Jim Crow.
(Sectarianism is but the flip side of the racist coin).
Anti-Catholicism has been the State religion of the
Northern Ireland state. Now, thank God - and thanks to Tony
Blair - all that can change because of the peace-process.
But let no one be in any doubt - vicious, dangerous anti-
Catholic sectarianism is still deeply embedded in Northern
Ireland, ever ready to be stoked into flames by Paisley-
like demagoguery. If one does not understand that, one
fails to grasp the most fundamental reason why historically
the 1920 British Government Act Of Ireland created the
State of Northern Ireland. The deal was: British rule
through Protestant supremacy, and Protestant supremacy
through British rule. (None of which had anything to with
the many valid points raised by Martin Luther and his
Reformation).


So while I welcome John McCain's growing involvement in
Irish affairs, I think it is incumbent on him to use his
powerful and rightly respected voice to oppose anti-
Catholic sectarianism in Northern Ireland.


A Good Place for McCain to Begin


A good place for him to start is to convince Ton Blair to
abolish the inherently anti-Catholic Act of Settlement,
1701 under which no Catholic can become King or Queen of
England and which states that if the Monarch becomes a
Catholic, or marries a Catholic, he/she forfeits the Throne
and "the people are absolved from their allegiance".


While this law may mean little to the average Englishman in
the street, it has always been of deep importance to
Protestant/Unionist/Orange extremists in Northern Ireland.
It provides the ideological and philosophical underpinnings
for their bigotry and sectarianism. For you see, the
spurious but deadly logic goes, if a Catholic by law can't
get the top job, then Catholics are not equal to
Protestants, therefore it's okay to discriminate against
them. Can you imagine how the flames of racism would have
been stoked in the United States had there been a
Constitutional ban on a Black person becoming President?
(And, please, let no one say, " but that's different",
because it's not).


Quite amazingly, while there is a growing groundswell in
Britain itself against this anti-Catholic Act, Tony Blair,
who has done so much good in Northern Ireland, has refused
to move to repeal it, even though he has admitted it is
"plainly discriminatory".


Maybe the distinguished Senator form the great State of
Arizona can convince Blair to do the right thing.
END


Father Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
P.O. Box 15128
Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C. 20003-0849
202-544-0568

Is This Anti-Americanism, or What?

IS THIS ANTI-AMERICANISM, OR WHAT?
By Father Sean Mc Manus
President, Irish National Caucus

CAPITOL HILL. Saturday, December 30, 2006--- There has been
concern among Irish-Americans that the people in Ireland
were becoming increasingly anti-American. I think that
concern is over-blown a bit. My own experience is that
there is an anti-Bush feeling in Ireland, but it is not
anti-American. Big difference.

However, a fascinating piece of apparent anti-Americanism
has emerged from Belfast, all the more interesting in that
it is not new but 30 years old. And it comes from our old
friends in British Intelligence.

The just released 1976 British Cabinet Papers - published
after the 30-year confidentiality rule - reveal that the
SDLP had conflicted - feelings about America. Yet it was
America that helped to make John Hume and international
statesman.

The Irish News, Saturday, December 30, 2006, in a story
headlined "Fitt shunned dinner over SAS gaffe" says:" The
former SDLP leader, Gerry Fitt who died in 2005 failed to
turn up at a dinner party at Stormont 30 years ago because
he was embarrassed over a highly public gaffe concerning
the SASŠMr. Hume said that the real reason for Mr. Fitt's
absence from the dinner was that he was licking his wounds
after his statement comparing the SAS to the CIA. This had
brought ridicule from outside down upon the party and many
of their own supporters had been complaining that they
could not take this statement seriouslyŠ"

My, my, Saint John apologizing for his leader comparing the
"bad" CIA to the" good" SAS!

Now, I'm no fan of the CIA, despite DeNiro's new, excellent
movie, "The Good Shepherd", filmed in part right next door
to my old office, 413 Capital St. SE,
(In the movie Matt Damon is seen coming out of the
drycleaners, Capitol Hill Valet, 409 East Capital St. SE).

However, I find it extraordinary that John Hume would make
excuses for the notorious SAS that assassinated Catholics,
carried out State-sanctioned acts of terrorism and colluded
with Protestant death squads.

If that's not anti-Americanism, what is?

Father Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
P.O. Box 15128
Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C. 20003-0849
202-544-0568

RUC Killing of Irish-American

RUC Killing of Irish-American

To Become Issue in New Congress
Capitol Hill. December 2, 2006----

The 1998 RUC-killing of an American- born Belfast man is
set to become a hot issue in the New Congress
that will convene in early January 2007.
John Hemsworth was born in Kearney, New Jersey,
on November 13, 1958 and after a few years the
family moved back to Northern Ireland. As a
young man, John would return to work in New Jersey
for several years at different times. And
in 1998, John had planned to return permanently
to America, with his wife and young daughter.
But police violence and anti-Catholic
sectarianism destroyed this young
Irish-American's dream. On January 1, 1998 John
died in Belfast as a result of brutal and
unprovoked beating by the now defunct RUC.

Arouse Conscience of Irish-America
" We must arouse the conscience of
Irish-Americans. It is a disgrace that the
killing of this Irish-American has received such
little attention, and it is an outrage that his
family has received no justice", said Fr. Sean
Mc Manus, President of the Capitol Hill-based
Irish National Caucus.

Fr. Mc Manus revealed that he was stricken with
guilt when he received a letter in September
from John's 72-year-old father, Michael, in
Belfast imploring help: "Š The British Attorney
General promised the family that we would have
an inquest into my son's death but eight years
have passed and nothing has happened. I wrote
many, many letters to American politicians but
not one gave me the courtesy of even an
acknowledgement. It is hurtful that some of
these politicians and the President's envoy can
meet relatives of victims of the violence but
never had the time to meet me. You would think
that being the Father of a natural born American
would be enough to give me preference. President
Clinton once said, ' America looks after its
own' but sadly this is not the case for my sonŠ"

Haunting Words
Fr. Mc Manus expressed regret that he had not
received the letter sooner but vowed to now take
up the issue:" Can any self-respecting
Irish-American read these haunting words of
Michael Hemsworth and not feel compelled to do
justice for his son? Irish-Americans have done
many fine things for Ireland, now they must do
justice for one of their own. And shame on us if
don't".

Fr. Mc Manus is launching a campaign in the US
Congress - with special attention to the New Jersey
delegation - and will also pursue the
issue with Dr. Mitchell Reiss, Special Envoy for
Northern Ireland.

Plan of Campaign
Fr. Mc Manus explained the plan: " (1) We want
American pressure to make the British Government
keep its promise to hold an inquest; (2) we want
the Northern Ireland Ombudsman Office to re-open
the case (to which it previously gave
insufficient attention, according to the
Hemsworths); (3) we want all Irish -American
groups to rally to this cause, and we ask the
international human rights community to take up
the issue."

Fr. Mc Manus concluded by saying: " I have a lot
of confidence in Special Envoy, Mitchell Reiss.
He has shown great interest in individual cases,
like Pat Finucane, and I'm sure once he is fully
aware of the John Hemsworth case he will give it
due attention and hopefully help to fulfill
President Clinton's words, " America looks after
its own".
END

US Election and the Irish Cause

US Elections and the Irish Cause

IRISH NATIONAL CAUCUS
PRESS RELEASE
CAPITOL HILL. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9-------

The fact that Democrats have taken power can only
mean positive change for the Irish Cause, but
that has not always been the case.

Back in 1994, when the Republicans seized control
of both he House and the Senate some
Irish-Americans were worried, but not Fr. Sean Mc
Manus, President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish
National Caucus. He knew something that many
seemed not to be aware of.

"To me the Republican victory meant one thing: my
good friend Congressman Ben Gilman would now be
Chairman of the House International Relations
Committee (HIRC), the key Committee as far as the
Irish cause
is concerned.", Fr. Mc Manus explained.

" Because I had worked, by that time, with Congressman
Gilman for over 20 years
I knew his Chairmanship would mean everything
would be changed: that we would now be able to
break the ban that had been imposed on all
Hearings regarding Northern Ireland by big Irish
Catholic namesŠ And so it proved. In quick order
we had Hearings on the Mac Bride Principles, the
RUC, Collusion, etc. Therefore, in one of those
delicious ironies that the Irish cause is full
of, we had the perfect combination: Bill Clinton
in the White House and Ben Gilman in the HIRC
Chair -- a Protestant from the Bible belt and a
Jewish-American from New York. It took a
Protestant and a Jew to turn the US Government
around, whereas many famous Irish Catholics had
sat on their hands, too scared to offend Mother
England. God bless the Jews and the Protestants".

GOOD RIDDANCE TO HENRY HYDE

But Fr. Mc Manus went on to explain that the HIRC
after Chairman Gilman was not the same: " In
January 2001, Congressman Henry Hyde (R- Il)
became Chairman, and this super Catholic (more
Catholic than the Pope) is no Ben Gilman.
He made the HIRC a cold house for Irish
CatholicsŠ he tried to use his Committee to
publicly lynch the Colombian Three, but we beat
him back very badly. But the horrific thing is
that his vicious action could have set up the
Colombian Three for assassination while in
prison, similar to the way Pat Finucane had been
set up by a British government figure. So
Irish-Americans and all friends of the Irish
peace-process can say good riddance to Henry
Hyde."

Fr. Mc Manus concluded by saying: " Now while
there are many Republicans who are excellent on
Ireland, none were in line to take over the HIRC
Chair. So had the Republicans held the House
there would have been no positive change there.
That is why I welcome the Democratic victory,
simply because it will now make the House
International Relations Committee friendly
territory again for the Irish Cause. The Irish
National Caucus is not partisan, neither Democrat
nor Republican, only dedicated to getting both
Parties stand up for Ireland.
END

Father Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
P.O. Box 15128
Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C. 20003-0849
202-544-0568

Fr Mc Manus On His Visit to Garnerville PSNI Training Center

FR. MC MANUS ON HIS VISIT TO GARNERVILLE PSNI TRAINING CENTER

Thursday, September 7, 2006

On Thursday, August 17, 2006 I spent three and a half hours
visiting the Garnerville PSNI Training Center.

My visit was urged, and arranged, by the Special Envoy for
Northern Ireland, Dr. Mitchell Reiss.

Dr. Reiss made the argument to me that, since I have been a long
time critic of Northern Ireland policing, I ought to hear in
person the PSNI point of view.

Because of the intrinsic merit of his argument, and because of my
respect for Dr. Reiss and his Office, I consented to the visit.

I met with Deputy Chief Constable, Paul Leighton and three of his
male colleagues. Deputy Leighton immediately apologized on behalf
of Chief Constable Hugh Orde who could not be present as he was
on vacation.

I raised all the tough questions. And they answered in an upfront
and business-like manner. I was impressed by their openness,
professionalism and their evident concern to convey their
commitment to a " new beginning '' to policing in Northern
Ireland. They struck me as fine, decent men. I found myself, I
must confess, wanting to believe that they accurately and
authentically reflect the new approach to policing -- both
institutionally and individually.

I was also given the opportunity to speak privately (without
supervision or recording, I was assured) to about nine recruits,
men and women. I was impressed by their caliber and enthusiasm.

We all know that an acceptable police service -- "Š effective and
efficient, fair and impartial, free from partisan political
controlŠ'' as envisioned by the Good Friday Agreement -- is
absolutely essential if the peace-process is to succeed. It is my
hope that the PSNI can prove to the Catholic community that it
can be trusted, that the bad old days are truly over, that
sectarianism and collusion are gone, root and branch. That means
that the British Government must first come clean on collusion,
something that has now been made harder by the key role given to
MI5 in Northern Ireland and by the gutting of the Public Inquiry
legislation.
ENDS.

Father Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
P.O. Box 15128
Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C. 20003-0849
202-544-0568

Fr Mc Manus on the Death of Fr Faul

IRISH NATIONAL CAUCUS
PRESS RELEASE

Father Mc Manus on the Death of Fr. Faul

CAPITOL HILL. THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 2006 --- Fr. Denis Faul was the
classical old-style Irish Catholic priest: very educated and
erudite, doctrinally orthodox and socially conservative
He was tailored made to become a leading Bishop? Why, then, did
that never happen?

There is only one possible answer: Because he took on Her
Majesty's Government, and rightly accused it of injustice against
Catholics in Northern Ireland. He, therefore, violated the one
taboo. He could have criticized any other government in the world
and still have gotten the Miter (think of how Bishop Casey could
criticize United States policy in South America, while never
opening his mouth about British injustice in the North).

In the late seventies and early eighties when both the London and
Dublin governments (with the compliant help of much of the Irish
and British media) were doing all they could to demonize the
Irish National Caucus, Fr. Faul fearlessly stood up for us,
publicly identifying with us , twice coming to the United States
on a Irish National Caucus - speaking tour and lobbying-effort of
the U.S. Congress.

Fr. Faul was a human rights champion. He was a most effective
communicator. Indeed, maybe even death does not stop his
communication :On the very day he died, I found myself thinking I
should telephone him as I hadn't talked to him in a while. The
next thing I knew he was dead! May his noble Irish soul rest in
God's eternal peace.

Father Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
P.O. Box 15128
Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C. 20003-0849
202-544-0568

UDR Collusion Exposed; Not Only Brits Covered Up

IRISH NATIONAL CAUCUS
PRESS RELEASE

UDR COLLUSION EXPOSED
AND NOT ONLY BRITS COVERED-UP

CAPITOL HILL. WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2006 ---"We have been saying it
on Capitol Hill for over 30 years. And it is important to stress
that it was not only the Brits who covered-up".

That is how Fr. Sean Mc Manus, president of the Capitol Hill-
based Irish National Caucus, reacted to the dramatic reporting of
the Irish News on the how the Ulster Defense Regiment (UDR) -- a
locally recruited regiment of the British Army -- colluded with
loyalist paramilitaries, helping them to assassinate Catholics.
Fr. Mc Manus said: "The Irish News has done a great service to
the truth by its expose of UDR collusion, and on how the British
Government knew all about it".

In its ongoing expose the Irish News reveals : "The 'Subversion
in the UDR' document was written in August 1973 by military
intelligence and Ministry of Defense officials ... The document
is a summary of a meeting where the prime minister at the time,
Harold Wilson, and his secretary of state for Northern Ireland
Merlyn Rees, brief the leader of the opposition, Margaret
Thatcher, on political and security matters ... a key section on
the security situation confirms that Downing Street was aware of
the UDR subversion and reveals additional concerns over the
RUC... Unfortunately there were certain elements in the police
who were very close to the UVF and who were prepared to hand over
information, for example, to Mr. Paisley..." (Files confirm
suspicions .Collusion: Subversion in the UDR Reports: Steven
McCaffery s.mccaffery@irishnews.com IRISH NEWS. WEDNESDAY, MAY 3,
2006)

In recounting his efforts over the years to expose collusion by
the security forces, Fr. Mc Manus explained: " In 1977, I met
with Tip O' Neill, House Speaker from 1977 to 1987, and briefed
him on collusion by security forces. He said he had checked it
out with the Irish and British embassies and that both denied
there was any truth in it.( O'Neill as Speaker absolutely forbade
all Congressional Hearings on human rights violations in Northern
Ireland -- a policy strongly backed by both Embassies).

In 1975 I met for the first time a journalist( now dead) who
later on became well known on both sides of the Atlantic. He
had a special interest in Loyalist paramilitaries. When I told
him the UDR was complicit in the killing of Catholics he erupted
in real bitterness and accused me of fronting for the IRA.
In 1979 I briefed a very prominent writer for the New York Times
about RUC/UDR collusion yet his front-page story was about false
accusations that the Irish National Caucus was linked to the
IRA.I tried to get the famed liberal journalist Mary Mc Crory to
write on the UDR. She said she had checked it out with Sean
Donlon -- Irish Ambassador to the US, 1978 to 1981 -- and she
wouldn't write about it.

Even John Hume never publicly raised the issue when he visited
the US, certainly never before the IRA cease-fire in 1994. That
is one of the major criticisms I've had of Hume."

In one of its articles, the Irish News gives the following
report : "NATIONALIST communities who believed security forces
were conspiring with loyalists demanded that their elected
politicians raise the alarm.

But now two sets of documents reveal - for the first time - how
questions on paramilitary crime inspired 'sterile' political
answers.

Frank McManus was elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone in
1970, having successfully stood as a nationalist 'unity'
candidate.

In August 1972 he asked a parliamentary question of the minister
for defense, and a written record has emergedŠ Mr. McManus, who
still works as a solicitor in Fermanagh, said he asked his
question against a background of concerns over the UDR.

Surprised to hear of the file's existence, he said it was clear
that important information had been kept from him.

"Everyone knew that there was collusion and of course the
government was always at pains to cover up," he said yesterday.

"A number of very close friends of mine were killed and it was
common knowledge that it was men in uniform who did it."

He added: "Technically the answer I received is, in some
respects, correct but the real point is that they were concealing
the essential parts. They wanted to conceal it." (Politicians
kept in the dark Collusion: Subversion in the UDR Reports: Steven
McCaffery May 3, 2006)

The Frank Mc Manus mentioned here by the Irish News is a brother
of Fr. Mc Manus. Said Fr. Mc Manus, " Is it any wonder I've been
constantly going on to Dr. Reiss, Special Envoy for Northern
Ireland, about collusion by the police and security forces in
Northern Ireland, and how the British government covered it up --
just like how the FBI colluded in the KKK's attacks on Dr. Martin
Luther King and the Black Freedom Struggle".

END

The Legacy of the Hunger Strikes

The Legacy Of The Hunger Strikes

Bobby Sands and nine other republican prisoners died on hunger
strike in Long Kesh 25 years ago. What became of those who
survived? Melanie McFadyean finds seven of them and asks: was it
all worth it?

Saturday March 4, 2006
The Guardian

In a layby on a country road a few miles outside Belfast are some
high, padlocked gates. Beyond the gates, the deserted compounds
of Long Kesh jail stretch bleakly into the distance. These days,
you can push your way through brambles and disconnected barbed
wire and climb into its eerie, grey expanses. The jail is empty,
closed in September 2000, its maximum-security fence breachable,
its searchlights dismantled. But its fearsome reputation lives
on.

For many years, this was the epicentre of the Northern Irish war,
the front line where 53 republican prisoners engaged in two
hunger strikes, the second of which, in 1981, resulted in the
deaths of 10 men.

But what of those who survived? As they look back on its legacy,
a quarter of a century on, they say the strikes paved the way for
the republican movement's shift from militarism into electoral
politics and peace. The catalyst was the Fermanagh and South
Tyrone byelection on April 9 1981: Bobby Sands, then in his sixth
week of hunger strike, stood as an Anti-H-Block/ Armagh Political
Prisoner and won with more than 30,000 votes. He died 26 days
later, but the nationalist community, identifying with the
prisoners' cause, had taken a crucial step towards electoral
politics.

Perhaps Sands had an intimation of the reverberations his
election and subsequent death would set off. It was a turning
point in Northern Ireland's war that culminated last April when
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams called on the IRA to commit to
"purely political and democratic activity", a resolve he
underlined two weeks ago at the party's annual conference. But
the sense of achievement felt by the survivors is tempered by
regret. One, Laurence McKeown, says, "Time numbs little of the
sorrow and sense of loss we experienced as, one by one, our
friends and comrades died on the hunger strike."

In 1969, when British soldiers were drafted on to the streets of
Belfast, they were welcomed fleetingly by some nationalists. That
mood soon changed. The Provisional IRA came to the fore and
stepped up the campaign against the Northern Ireland security
forces and British troops. A country whose jail population had
been less than a thousand suddenly found its numbers swelling
exponentially and Long Kesh, a former RAF base, was opened as a
jail in 1971. By 1976 it had expanded into eight H-shaped blocks
with a capacity for nearly 800 men. When it closed 24 years
later, 10,000 prisoners had been through its gates.

All the prisoners were connected to the armed struggle - or were
assumed to be - and republicans always heavily outnumbered
loyalists. In 1972, Billy McKee, an IRA prisoner at Long Kesh,
initiated the first hunger strike. He was determined not to be
treated as a criminal: he won - the then Tory government granted
"special category status", PoW status in all but name. In 1976,
as the H-blocks were filling up, the Wilson Labour government
reversed this decision. Kieran Nugent, a 19-year-old republican,
in September 1976 was the first to be denied special category
status. He refused to wear prison uniform, saying they'd have to
nail it to his back. He was left naked but for a blanket; so
began the "blanket protest".

The protest escalated in March 1978 when prisoners were told to
remove the towels wrapped around them when they went to slop out.
They refused. When prison officers kicked over slop buckets in
the cells, the men began to throw their faeces through the bars
of the windows. This was the "no wash", or "dirty" protest as the
outside world called it. Each prisoner had only a blanket and a
sponge mattress, no reading or writing materials, radios,
letters. Unless they put on prison clothes, they didn't get their
monthly visit. For every day on the blanket, one was added to
their sentence. In December 1979, prime minister Margaret
Thatcher made her position clear: the prisoners, she said, wanted
to establish "that their crimes were 'political', thus giving the
perpetrators a kind of respectability, even nobility. This we
could not allow."

On October 27 1980, the first hunger strike began. It ended 53
days later, on December 18, following an appeal from the Catholic
Primate of Ireland, on the assumption that the British government
would make some concessions to the prisoners. It didn't. Nothing
was to change.

Three months later, on March 1 1981, Bobby Sands, OC of the IRA
in Long Kesh, began the second hunger strike; the blanket protest
was called off the day after, to avoid detracting attention from
him. Sands died on May 5, 100,000 attended his funeral and his
name is now known internationally. The nine who died after are
not, but their faces look down from murals in republican Belfast.
There were 13 other prisoners who survived that hunger strike
(two, Pat McGeown and Matt Devlin, have since died). Seven agreed
to be interviewed: Laurence McKeown, Paddy Quinn, Pat Sheehan,
Jackie McMullan, Brendan McLaughlin, Gerard Hodgins and Brian
(not his real name - his workmates know nothing of his past and
his job takes him to loyalist areas). They pass unnoticed in the
street; they have slipped into ordinary lives.

All of them grew up amid the civil rights campaign of the 1960s
and were in their early teens when the British troops arrived.
The army was on their streets, they were regularly searched and
their homes raided.

Laurence McKeown is from Randallstown, outside Belfast. He is an
intelligent man of great presence. His father was a van driver,
an SDLP voter. In his teens, McKeown had ambitions to be an
architect and at 15 got a job in a quantity surveyor's office. He
grew up with Protestants: "It was a mixed area and we had
excellent relations with them. I still did, in jail, in later
years." When the Ulster Defence Regiment was set up in April
1970, as a successor to the hated B-Specials, it was, recalls
McKeown, "just a larger Protestant militia... Suddenly one side
of the community was armed and had the power to harass me, which
they did."

McKeown didn't join the IRA lightly. "I was 16. There was a lot
of soul-searching. It's not like joining a state army, where
someone signs their name, gets a uniform and rifle, and the
chaplain blesses them." In 1976, aged 19, McKeown was charged
with causing explosions and the attempted murder of a Royal
Ulster Constabulary man; he got life.

Pat Sheehan's experience was similar. On the street where he grew
up, there were only three other Catholic families. One day, two
men came to look for him and fired a revolver. The family moved
out. After that attack Sheehan joined the Fianna, the IRA youth
wing, and then the IRA. Like McKeown, by the age of 19 he was
behind bars after taking part in a bombing - there were no
casualties - at a cash-and-carry.

The street where Jackie McMullan lives, near where he grew up, is
quiet now; but, as he dandles his baby on his knee, he remembers
when the nearby Falls was burning, Kashmir and Bombay Street were
torched by loyalists, and he watched as troops put up barricades
around the blackened streets. In August 1971, 2,000 people were
interned without trial, all but 107 of them from the nationalist
community. It made a deep impression on McMullan. "In my teens I
was arrested maybe 20 times. Every male aged 13 to 65 would have
been arrested, the vast majority for screening. And every single
one of my friends joined the Fianna. We'd be scouting; you
wouldn't have participated in firing guns or in ambushes. After
school there were riots. The Brits, probably bored out of their
skulls, used to drive down the Glen Road every day as schools
were getting out."

McMullan arrived in Long Kesh in September 1976. He got life for
attempted murder. Like many others, he had refused to recognise
the no-jury, special Diplock courts.

Brian joined the IRA at 16. "Every day the army was there, stop,
up against the wall, slapped about. I had been reading books my
grandfather gave me about Michael Collins and James Connolly." At
19 he was convicted of attempted murder.

In his childhood, Gerard Hodgins was burned out of his home by
loyalists. The family moved. He left school at 16 with no O-
levels. When he joined the IRA, he was given a warning: within a
year, or two, he would be dead or in jail.

You'd imagine a 20-year-old facing a life sentence would be
devastated. That's not how McMullan recalls it. "It was September
1976 and the longest anyone was in was five years. You had no
conception of life. You were young and full of beans, all your
friends were going to jail. There was an air of rebellion, and
everybody thought it'd be over in a couple of years." For
McKeown, being taken to prison was "that moment when teenage
things were gone for ever".

All these men went on the blanket and dirty protests. "The circle
[the administrative centre in each block] was where the officers
would beat you," says McMullan. "You're made to strip naked, you
have eight screws telling you to put your uniform on, you get a
slap in the face. You're naked, humiliated, cornered and getting
beaten up by these big men in uniform while other screws
watched."

Paddy Quinn remembers buckets of scalding water and Jeyes fluid
thrown at him in his cell; others describe forced washes in
freezing water with hard brushes. Every two weeks, cells and
prisoners were forcibly hosed down. "What made it possible to
live like that," says McMullan, "was that we were in it together.
It was powerful. It was unbreakable in spite of the no wash, and
it was absolutely freezing. We had no windows." They smashed them
so they could communicate and later to throw out the faeces. Amid
the repulsive surroundings of shit-smeared walls, says Quinn,
"You'd be sleeping on the sponge mattress on the floor, you'd
wake up in the morning and maggots would be stuck to you. You'd
have to pull them off. Then they'd turn into flies."

The prisoners looked out for each other. There was bingo and
quizzes, shouted through the gaps in the doors. They taught each
other Gaelic, gave history lectures, sang songs, recited stories.
Bobby Sands relayed the whole of Leon Uris's novel Trinity. It
took him eight days.

Every day when McMullan woke up, he would speculate on whether he
would get a beating. And there was the nightmare of the monthly
visits. He did not see his family for the first 30 months of the
protest, because he refused to wear the uniform. "The screws
standing beside you, hating you, hating your relatives. Your eyes
are bulging because you're locked in a cell 24 hours a day, you
have matted hair, you're filthy, you look like a deranged maniac.
You go out and try to act normal to your family, putting on a
brave face, and so are they."

On the next due visit, he waited to see his mother, Bernadette,
who supported the men - she had chained herself to the railings
in Downing Street. A priest came instead to tell McMullan she had
died.

The pressure was intense and some cracked. These seven endured.
The prison officers, Sheehan says, had no restraint. "If a screw
was fair, he'd get abuse from his own people. They had orderlies
who brought the food round and one who was sympathetic squeezed a
half-ounce of tobacco through the door. The screws caught him and
gave him a beating. Another orderly was told to do his 'party
piece', and got on the table and urinated into the tea urn."

Outside, republican and loyalist groups took revenge - between
1974 and 1993, some 29 prison service employees were murdered.
During the Long Kesh years, 50 prison service employees committed
suicide. The pressure, recalls one warder, led to "irrational
behaviour and heavy drinking". "You could smell it on their
breath," Quinn says.

The first hunger strikers had what became known as the Five
Demands: the right not to wear prison uniform, the right not to
do penal work, the right to associate freely with other
prisoners, the right to get one visit, one letter and one parcel
a week, and the restoration of the remission lost on protest.
Quinn joined the fast in June, by which time four men were
already dead - Sands, Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh and Patsy
O'Hara.

On his 19th day, Quinn was taken to the prison hospital. There he
heard Joe McDonnell dying and his wife, Goretti, weeping. He
remembers Martin Hurson's death on July 13: "I could hear his
brother shouting, 'Martin! Martin!' I could hear Martin saying
that the lights were out. Then it went quiet. The next day they
put me into Martin's cell."

By that time Quinn couldn't keep even water down. "Maybe it
crossed your mind to go off the hunger strike, but I wouldn't
give up. You always had this thought - Maggie Thatcher wasn't
going to criminalise me. Some time around then I came round in
the intensive care unit. My lips were swollen, chapped and cut.
They said I'd been biting them. I remember hyperventilating, my
heart was going that fast, I could hear the scraping and
screeching of the blood on the back of my brain, I could feel
this terrible pain. A medical orderly was helping me to breathe,
but I was hallucinating that the screws were trying to kill me, I
could hear the noise in my throat, gasping for breath. You were
watching the deterioration of your own body, thinking, 'I have to
do this; I'm going to keep going.' It was just pain, day after
day. Then one day I went for a shower, I collapsed in the shower,
then there was the sickness.

"I remember looking at the jug of water and repeating to myself,
'I'm going to keep it down.' And it did stay down. That's when
the walking stopped, I was in a wheelchair. My eyes had gone, all
I could see were shadows. I had reached that point that I was
looking forward to death. I felt a real sense of contentment. I
had accepted I was going to die and I was happy with my decision.
That was maybe after 43 days, in and out of consciousness at that
stage."

Quinn had told his mother not to take him off the hunger strike
when he lapsed into coma: "I says, 'You either back me or you
back Maggie Thatcher.' I was weak, it was hard to talk, and she
said there was no point going on with it."

McKeown describes the moment when he thought his death was a
certainty: "It's like someone who has been on their feet for days
without sleep and then gets the chance to lie down but is
awakened to be told the house is on fire. They don't want to
know, they just want to sleep."

Encouraged by the Catholic clergy, the families intervened,
Quinn's mother and McKeown's relatives among them. Quinn thinks
his mother was deliberately brought into the hospital when he was
close to death. "She heard me roaring. [They] thought I had a
couple of hours to live." When he went into a coma, she ordered
that he be saved. A few days later he met his mother - he was
blind and angry. He's never discussed it with her.

McKeown joined the strike two weeks after Quinn, on June 29. It
was a time of waiting, he says. He was hoping someone would
materialise with a resolution to the demands. "Nobody on the
hunger strike wanted to die," he says. "This martyr notion is
nonsense, we were caught in circumstances where we were going to
resist to the death rather than capitulate to the
criminalisation." When he became unconscious after 70 days, his
family took him off the strike.

On July 4, when four men had died and McDonnell was four days
from death, the hunger strikers sent out a document. They were
not asking for privileges, it said, their five demands should
apply to all prisoners. It sparked renewed contact between a
representative of the government, known as the Mountain Climber,
and the IRA leadership. A source close to the events of that
weekend told me that the Mountain Climber was "a high-ranking,
unelected Tory".

Thatcher held the public line - "We are not prepared to consider
special category status." Meanwhile, the Mountain Climber told
Adams that if the hunger strike ended, there would be
concessions.

Despite their refusal to negotiate openly, the British wanted an
end to the hunger strike. As Sir Ian Gilmour, a minister at the
Foreign Office, put it, the hunger strikes were "a great
propaganda coup for the IRA". Under Secretary to the Northern
Ireland Office Sir Kenneth Stowe said, "Northern Ireland is not a
place to grow martyrs if you can avoid it. We were anxious to try
to find some way of enabling the hunger strikers to get off the
hook."

The Mountain Climber had insisted on secrecy. However, Adams felt
compelled to tell the Catholic bishops, who were themselves
trying to broker an end to the hunger strike. Once again, there
was no deal. The deaths continued.

In his book, Blanketmen, published last year, former prisoner and
hunger strike public relations officer Richard O'Rawe maintains
that the IRA army council wanted the hunger strike prolonged
until the second Fermanagh and South Tyrone byelection, to be
held on August 20 and to be contested by a Sinn Féin man. There
is no corroboration of O'Rawe's assertion, and other senior
republicans deny it.

The strike went on. On August 10, Sheehan refused food. "The
hardest part was starting it," he says. "There's all kind of
self-doubt... You had to be focused on your own hunger strike,
nothing else matters - what's going on in the outside world, what
happens within your own family. You have to blank out
everything."

Four days before the hunger strike was called off, when Sheehan
was on his 51st day, a doctor told him he was jaundiced and might
not live even if the strike ended. By the time McMullan began his
hunger strike on August 17, nine men had died. "With each death,"
he says, "we became more angry, more steely. You knew those guys,
you were close to them. Closer to them than you would be to your
own brothers." For the first 20 or 30 days he was alone in his
cell. "There were people on either side, so you'd be up talking
at the window or you'd lie down on the floor and speak into the
pipe that ran from cell to cell - the sound carried."

By the end he was in the prison hospital, wasting away, sleeping
more, always lucid, warding off fear with memories of those who
had died and his reasons for going on the strike. He had been on
the strike for 48 days when it ended on October 3.

Brian, whose ebullience suggests he could survive anything,
joined the strike because he didn't see why "someone else should
do something for me if I wasn't prepared to do it myself". He
wasn't alone. "You'd be surprised that about 100 put their names
forward." But how could he give his life away? "Ask my wife -
she'd say it's because I'm bloody thick."

In retrospect, these men say the hunger strikes and the
sacrifices were worth it. "If the British had succeeded in
criminalising us, we would never have got over it," says Quinn.
"If Sinn Féin had remained hard-line and military, then I think
the sacrifices made on the hunger strike would have been a
complete waste. It was Sinn Féin going into politics that made it
worthwhile."

Only one of the men fails to welcome the political path taken by
the republican movement. Brendan McLaughlin is still fighting the
war in his head. He was on the hunger strike for 20 days, but had
to abandon it due to a perforated ulcer. He is confined to a
wheelchair in his council house in Gobnascail near Derry after a
stroke six years ago. His fresh-faced 12-year-old son comes in
and out. McLaughlin's former wife lives a few houses along but
they're barely speaking. He's not complaining about that, he's
complaining about Gerry Adams. "The Brits have no right to be in
this country, never have, never will. McGuinness, Adams, I know
'em all - scum bastards. I fought for a 32-county republic, a
united Ireland. They're selling out. I'll never change. The war
will never end."

Sheehan disagrees. "There is no need for the IRA any longer. I
grew up in a state that was unjust and oppressive. I was
vulnerable to attacks because of the area I grew up in. I am
proud that I took up arms; I believed it was the right thing to
do. The situation is a lot different now." Sheehan got a first in
philosophy from the Open University during a second stint in
jail. He now runs a small business and is married with a young
child.

McKeown works for a national network of republican ex-prisoners.
He got together with a woman who visited him during his last
years in jail and they have two children. He got a social science
degree in jail, and 10 years after the hunger strike compiled
numerous prison testimonies. Since then, he's written plays and
screenplays, made a documentary, and writes a newspaper column
for Daily Ireland. I bumped into him at the opening night of the
Belfast Film Festival (which he co-founded), glass in hand,
standing beside one of the Corrs, a world away from the seven-
stone skeleton he was after 70 days on hunger strike; he was
rescued from death by his family, against his will.

Paddy Quinn can't work - he's had a kidney transplant. He lives
in a farmhouse in County Down with his wife and their two little
girls. His eyesight was permanently damaged by the hunger strike.
Has he regrets? "I remember somebody saying to me once, 'You lost
10 years.' I said, 'In those 10 years I probably had more
experience than you'll ever have.' "

Gerard Hodgins lives in a flat that looks for miles across
Belfast to the hills. When the hunger strike ended, he had been
on it for 20 days. He looks back on the four years of protest as
a "terrible, despairing time". He occasionally has flashbacks. In
and out of jail, he says, "I had hatred and a desire for payback,
for revenge against the whole system - screws, RUC, the British
army." In 1995, when the prisoners got 50% of their remission
back, two years were chopped off his sentence and he was due a
week's parole. It was then he met Lorraine, who is now his wife.

After his release in 1996, he got into community work, which led
to a post with the Department of Learning and Education as a
mentor in a job assistance scheme for people who lack basic
skills.

When Jackie McMullan left Long Kesh in 1992, he said it was like
arriving from Mars. He found it hard to be in company. He was
most at ease with former prisoners. As for women, in his head he
was still 20, and women his age - 35 - were married with kids. He
was in and out of relationships, couldn't settle. He's not
complaining, though. "I've had a brilliant time since I got out,"
he says, chuckling. Four years ago he met his partner, a teacher.
He worked with Sinn Féin on education programmes for ex-prisoners
and is still involved with community work.

The hunger strike is always with them, but they have survived,
even flourished. "Winning leaves you OK," says McKeown. "They
tried to criminalise us but failed - they politicised us." Within
days of the end of the hunger strike, James Prior, Northern
Ireland secretary, announced a series of measures that went a
long way to meeting the five demands.

A Long Kesh mission statement published just before it closed
reads: "We will operate a secure, safe and humane regime which
recognises the individual and the organisations to which he or
she claims allegiance." If that had been the mission in 1976,
many lives would have been saved.

Father Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
P.O. Box 15128
Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C. 20003-0849
202-544-0568