Irish National Caucus

NC AOH BACKS STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE

2012-01-23T10:05:00.007-06:00

New North Carolina State AOH President, Bill Keely, with new North Carolina AOH State Treasurer, Tim Whelan.

Janice Donahue, NC State LAOH President, with Bernadette Bradie, President of The Ladies of the Lough, Division 2, Huntersville County.
Barbara with Dick Morrison, AOH President, Nacara Division 1.

Capitol Hill. Monday, January 23, 2012 --- The North Carolina AOH, and the Ladies AOH, came out in strength on Sunday to back Fr. San Mc Manus' Memoirs : My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland.

The book-launch was held in Greensboro's Our Lady of Grace Cafeteria.

SOUTH CAROLINA IRISH BOOK LAUNCH

2012-01-21T19:52:00.006-06:00

Joseph M. Deehan, President of the Harp and Shamrock, Greenville AOH and Barbara.
Len Byrne, AOH National Director, and the Sullivans are part of the the

active listening Greensboro audience.

Enthusiastic South Carolinians gathered at Fitzpatrick's Pub, Greevnille, to hear Fr. Sean explain his struggle for justice in Northern Ireland. Father emphasized, "The people who helped me the most were non Irish and non Catholic and non Christian. Speaker Tip O'Neill banned Congressional Hearings on Northern Ireland for ten years (1977-1987), but Speaker Newt Gingrich (then a Protestant) allowed Hearings."

My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland clearly and factually elaborates on what the American Congress did for justice in Northern Ireland. There is no other book like it, and no other person, and certainly no other Catholic priest has done what Fr. Sean has done for forty years for Ireland. And he is still at it--working on yet another Congressional Hearing.

CELEBRATING MY AMERICAN STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND

2012-01-08T16:11:00.013-06:00

Fr. Sean, Barbara and Fr. Jim Mc Manus celebrate My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland.

Fr. Mc Manus' Memoirs, My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland, has been widely acclaimed .

"This is a hugely important book"--The Washington Irish Committee
It is a Masterpiece.
It is a Classic.
It is a great book.

"In 'My American Struggle', the author gives us more detail than the average reader might care for on the background to the birth and meteoric ascent of the MacBride campaign across the United States. But the meaty detail of the hearings is truly revelatory stuff, never properly recorded in book-form by an Irish American leader. Until now.
In fact, if there’s one fault in this riveting and eminently readable book, it is that too much of Fr McManus’s story remains untold."-- Mairtin O'Muilleoir Publisher of The Irish Echo.

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Fr. Mc Manus Takes His " Struggle" to South Carolina

2011-12-29T05:41:00.012-06:00

Capitol Hill. Thursday, December 29, 2011 --- Fr. Mc Manus, now that winter is here, is taking his book-launches south --- kicking off his Southern book-tour in South Carolina on Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 12 Noon in Fitzpatrick’s Pub,1565 Laurens Road, Greenville, SC 29607

"I am so grateful to the Greenville AOH for sponsoring my book-launch. And I am greatly looking forward to it. They have a fine group of dedicated Irish-Americans in Greenville, and indeed throughout the great State of South Carolina".

Joe Deehan, President of the Harp and Shamrock AOH Division in Greenville, said:“The AOH in Greenville is proud to welcome Fr. Mc Manus. The AOH nationwide has strongly supported his work over the past 40 years. And we in South Carolina look forward to this book-launch of his Memoirs”.

Fr. Mc Manus' Memoirs, My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland, has been widely acclaimed.

For example, former Mayor of Boston says: "Fr. Sean knows the history of the struggle for justice in Northern Ireland as well as anyone -- he lived it. A very important book". One reviewer has declared: "It makes one want to stand up an cheer".

Noted Dublin journalist and broadcaster Vincent Browne said: "Fr. Mc Manus stood out against powerful forces in a fight for justice and fairness. I didn't always agree with the causes he supported but I admired his persistence, his courage and his relentlessness. And admiration that one person, almost alone, could make such impact on public policy in the United States."

MY AMERICAN STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND

2011-12-20T15:17:00.004-06:00

THE NEW PRESIDENT OF IRELAND KNOWS HOW TO

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ENTHUSIASTIC CLEVELAND WELCOME FOR FR. MC MANUS

2011-12-05T12:26:00.012-06:00

PHOTO 1: BARBARA WITH PAT DOWD, PRESIDENT OF THE IRISH AMERICAN CLUB
PHOTO 2: BRIDIE JOYCE, LONG TIME SUPPORTER OF THE IRISH NATIONAL CAUCUS

THE SUPER EFFICIENT PAT DOWD DID A SUPERB JOB OF ORGANIZING THE CLEVELAND LAUNCH OF MY AMERICAN STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND.
FR. MC MANUS SAID, " IT WAS SO NICE SEEING OLD FRIENDS AGAIN, IN PARTICULAR, MRS. BRIDIE JOYCE, WIFE OF THE LATE TERRY JOYCE WHO IN THE 70S DID VERY IMPORTANT WORK FOR THE IRISH NATIONAL CAUCUS. TERRY RALLIED CLEVELAND TO STAND UP FOR IRISH JUSTICE AND PEACE. ADDITIONALLY, IT WAS A PLEASURE TO SEE TERRY OG, WHOM I HADN'T SEEN SINCE HE WAS A CHILD. I AM DELIGHTED NOW TO SEE HE IS FOLLOWING IN HIS FATHER'S FOOT STEPS AS AN IMPORTANT LABOR LEADER AS SECRETARY/TREASURER OF LABORERS' INTERNATIONAL UNION OF NORTH AMERICA LOCAL 310. I AM GRATEFUL TO THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE OF CLEVELAND WHO TOOK THE TIME TO COME TO THE EVENT TODAY."

Maine to Ohio – The Struggle Continues

2011-11-26T12:12:00.001-06:00

Capitol Hill – November 21, 2010 --- From the Irish Heritage Center in Portland, Maine to the Padraic Pearse Center in Euclid, Ohio, Fr. Sean Mc Manus promotes his Memoirs, My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland.
The Fermanagh-born priest appeared at the Maine Irish Heritage Center on last Saturday, November 19; on Saturday, December 3 he will be hosted by the Padraic Pearse Center of the Irish American Club - East Side 22770 Lake Shore Blvd. Euclid, OH 44123. Contact : Pat Dowd: 440-354-7012
Euclid is just outside Cleveland and the event is at 2 PM.
On Sunday, December 4 he travels to Youngstown, where the AOH hosts his book-launch at 2 PM, AOH Hibernian Hall 5110 Southern Blvd. Youngstown, OH 44512. Contact : AOH Division President, Jim “Mugsy” McGinniss 330-788-7320.
The President of the Padraic Pearse Center, Pat Dowd, said: “When a person has the courage of his convictions, nothing will stop him from pursuing what he believes is right and just. Fr. Sean McManus is such a person. He has steadfastly devoted the greater part of his life to obtaining a peaceful resolution to the strife in Northern Ireland. The Padraic Parse Center is pleased to welcome Father Sean as he shares with us his memoirs at the Cleveland launch of his book.”

Well known Youngstown native and lifelong campaigner for Irish Justice, Tim Mulholland, said, “Twas a pleasure to know Fr. Sean during the darkest hours of the strife in the north of Ireland. His unwavering commitment and tireless efforts to achieve a peace with justice through the mobilization of Irish America and others have been remarkable.”

Regarding his visit to Maine last Saturday, Fr. Mc Manus said: “ I was deeply impressed by the Maine Irish Heritage Center in Portland. These great Irish-Americans in 2008 rallied to “protect, preserve and restore” the famous landmark that was formerly St. Dominic’s Church. www.maineirish.com They deserve huge credit”.

PORTLAND, MAINE WELCOMES FR. MC MANUS

2011-11-20T17:00:00.008-06:00

MATT JUDE BARKER, MAINE IRISH HERITAGE CENTER'S RESIDENT GENEALOGIST/HISTORIAN, INTRODUCES FR. MC MANUS
MAUREEN COYNE-NORRIS, FOUNDER OF THE MAINE IRISH HERITAGE CENTER, WITH BARBARA

FR. MC MANUS POINTS OUT IMPORTANT FACTS.

Ballymurphy Thanks Fr. Mc Manus and Congress

2011-11-15T11:13:00.015-06:00

The Ballymurphy Massacre Committee has expressed special thanks to Fr. Sean McManus, President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus, and to CongressmanChris Smith ( R-NJ) for the help they gave in highlighting the case. The Chairman of the Massacre Committee, John Tegart, offered his thanks after the decision by the Attorney-General to re-open 10 inquests relating to the Massacre in 1971. Mr. Teggart said : “ In desperation we went to Washington in December 2010 to see Fr. Mc Manus. He dropped everything to help us, and promised he would do all in his power to get us a Congressional Hearing. He even held up the publication of his Memoirs, My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland, so as to get our photo in the book. And then on March 16, 2011 we got our Congressional Hearing before the Helsinki Commission, Chaired by Congressman Smith, who is devoted to human rights around the world. It is certain that the Congressional pressure has played a significant role in forcing the reopening of inquests into our case. We are deeply grateful to Fr. Mc Manus and Congressman Smith.” John Tegart

****** STATEMENT BY THE BALLYMURPHY MASSACRE FAMILIES - INQUESTS RE-OPENED The Ballymurphy Massacre families welcomethe decision by the Attorney-General to re-open 10 inquests relating to the death of our loved ones 40 years ago. We commend the Attorney-General for showing leadership and credibility in announcing that the inquests will be re-opened. We feel that when he considered the facts surrounding the sham inquests which tookplace 40 years ago, his decision was the correct one. We regard the original shaminquests as a serious neglect of duty by everyone involved and leave a lot of questions to be answered. A question that should be answered is why did the Coroner not compel the soldier’s to give evidence in person to the Coroner’s Court? In 1971 an agreement was reached between the GOC of the British Army and the Chief Constable of the RUC, whereby the interviewing of soldiers involved in murdering our loved ones was carried out by the Royal Military Police, another branch of the army ‘family tree’. How could any investigation have credibility when the people in the dock are investigating themselves? The soldiers involved were helped to fabricate their accounts of what happened. There was no attempt to contrast these accounts with the evidence of numerous eye witnesses, particularly in relation to their justification for firing live rounds. The soldiers’ statements were simply accepted without question. Key civilian evidence and inconsistencies between the soldier’s accounts were withheld from theCoroner. The lack of pre-inquest disclosure to the families or our legal representatives and the inability of the Coroner’s court to reach ‘findings’ is another indication of serious flaws with the original inquests. All of these shortcomings mean that the original inquests into the deaths were so flawed that they could be regarded at best as a sham and at worst as a shameful cover-up! There are a number of changes to the Coroner’s court in recent years which influenced the family’s decision to apply to the Attorney-General to re-open the inquests and provide the family with hope that the inquests will reach credible findings. These changes include the fact that: · the inquests will have to comply with Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR); · the British soldiers involved in the killings can now be compelled to give evidence in person; · the House of Lords has made it clear that the Coroner dealing with an inquest has a generous discretion in relation to the remit of an Inquest; and · a jury will now be in a position to reach ‘findings’; The families believe that that these inquests must be held without delay, with sufficient resources and funding provided to the Coroner and the families legal representatives to ensure that all of the facts are known. The inquests will be re-opened into the deaths of Fr Hugh Mullan, Francis Quinn, Daniel Teggart, Joan Connolly, Joseph Murphy, Noel Phillips, Edward Doherty, John Laverty, Joseph Corr and John McKerr. We are extremely disappointed that the death of Pat McCarthy will not be covered by these inquests. The death of Pat McCarthy was not investigated by the Coroner in 1971 because in all of the confusion and misinformation surrounding the Massacre, his death was recorded as a heart attack. However, we now know that Pat’s heart attack occurred as he was subjected to a cruel and terrifying mock execution, and what’s more, he was denied access to medical help which could have saved his life. We will continue to gather evidence and locate and record witness evidence to assist a furtherapplication to the Attorney-General in relation to the death of Mr McCarthy. We will continue in our quest to have the truth about Pat’s death to be a matter of historical record. The families regard the re-opening of the inquests as a very important step on ourjourney for truth. But even a fully resourced and effective inquest will have limitations. It will be able to provide facts and gather crucial forensic, logistical and witness testimony evidence, but it will not be able to examines the causes, context and consequences of the Massacre and answer so many of the questions that must be answered. We believe that only an International and IndependentInvestigation can facilitate the discovery of the facts and provide an accurate historical account of the events of August 1971 on the streets of Ballymurphy.

TIMONIUM IRISH FESTIVAL

2011-11-15T09:29:00.003-06:00

PHOTO 1: FR. SEAN EXPLAINS HIS STRUGGLE

PHOTO 2: PHILADELPHIA ROSE CHATS WITH BARBARA AND BUYS MY AMERICAN STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND.

MY AMERICAN STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND

2011-11-01T20:54:00.002-05:00

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GRACIOUS SEATTLE WELCOME

2011-10-31T21:17:00.013-05:00

SEATTLE COMMITTEE
AUTHOR WITH SEATTLE CHAIRMAN, JOE MARTIN
HUBIE Mac MORROW WITH FR. SEAN

Seattle Irish-Americans demonstrated enthusiastic support for My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland.

Father commented, "I was impressed with the graciousness and sincerity of the Seattle people. God bless America, God save Ireland."

GREAT PHILLY WELCOME

2011-10-16T10:43:00.024-05:00

Photos: 1. Jim Lockhart, President, AOH Division 87,

Port Richmond speaks

2. Fr. Sean explains his "Struggle".

3. Eileen Smith LAOH Division President, Tom O'Donnell, AOH Pennsylvania State President, Fr. Sean and Jim Lockhart

4.Sergeant Michael Houck, Fr. Sean and
Philadelphia Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffrey

The Port Richmond Ancient Order of Hibernians Division 87 gave a grand welcome to Fr. Sean Mc Manus. Their beautifully decorated AOH hall, which they themselves built years earlier, provided the perfect setting to host the Philly book launch of My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland.

The gracious, full-house crowd actively listened as Father explained his Struggle. Many expressed amazement that Father's most formidable opposition came from high placed Irish politicians and the American Catholic Bishops.

Many participants flocked to the table to buy the Memoirs, and to have Father Sean personalize their copy. Indeed, several purchased two or more books--even returning to buy yet another at the close of the event. One person comment that she was buying more books to give as Christmas presents.

Father expressed his gratitude to the AOH, and to the entire audience for their warmth and support.

Finucane Assassination Went to Top of Government

2011-10-13T10:52:00.001-05:00

Statement by Fr. Mc Manus
Capitol Hill. October 13, 2011 – It would be a mistake to think that British Prime Minister, David Cameron, was just being gratuitously cruel in his treatment of the Finucane family. He had raised hope he would allow a Public Inquiry into the state-assassination of Pat Finucane in 1989. He even invited the Finucane family to 10 Downing Street on Tuesday, October 11 to announce his decision to them… only to tell them that there would be no Public Inquiry.

Why would he do that? Because at the last moment, the spooks – those who really run all things to do with Ireland – told him to back off … that a Public Inquiry would expose to the world that the British Government, at the highest political, military and security level , ordered and facilitated the assassination… that it was just the tip of the iceberg… and that it would be shown that state-assassination and collusion were an enduring, fundamental and systematic policy of the British Government in Ireland.

There is no other possible explanation because I am sure David Cameron is not personally a sadistic person.

And that is why the U.S. Congress now more than ever before must stay focused on Northern Ireland.

WOODLAWN WELCOMES FR. SEAN

2011-10-10T15:50:00.019-05:00

October 8, 2011

The Woodlawn launch was held at the Rambling House owned and operated by the Joe Carty family.

Fr. Sean (pictured above) with Kerry born Chris O'Sullivan who proudly commented, "I have read the book five times. It is just that good, and I plan to read it again"

Barbara, Fr. Sean, Jim Kilkenny and Peter Mc Manus (no relation to Fr. Sean). Peter said, "The work that Fr. Sean has done throughout his lifetime is a very important contribution supporting the ultimate sacrifices made by Ireland's patriots for hundreds of years before us".

HOW THE HORSEMEN GALLOPED THE WRONG WAY

2011-08-26T18:27:00.006-05:00

EDITORIAL. Irish Echo. AUGUST 24TH, 2011
By Fr. Sean McManus
In responding to the Irish Echo editorial, ” The Last Horseman” on the death of former New York governor Hugh Carey I have to bear in mind the maxim I was reared to take most seriously, “De mortuis nihil nisi bonum” (Speak no ill of the dead).
However, it is also important that we tell no untruths about Irish history, as did the quote from Carey (on the death of Teddy Kennedy): “As one of the Four Horsemen, along with Tip O’Neill, Pat Moynihan and myself, he helped turn the struggle in Northern Ireland away from violence and onto the path of political settlement, with a pivotal statement in 1977 and many occasions since.”
As I carefully document in my recently published memoirs, “My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland,” the 1977 statement to which Carey refers did not “turn the struggle in Northern Ireland away from violence,” but rather sabotaged – and was meant to – President Carter’s ground-breaking initiative on the North.
The Irish National Caucus met with presidential candidate Jimmy Carter on September 27, 1976. This was just six days before he was elected. I gave the welcoming statement and Carter gave us this key response: ” … We see, or come on the evening television news, and in the national headlines every now and then, specific instances where human rights are subjugated and where quite often our nation, as was pointed out by Father [McManus], stands mute and doesn’t speak… it is a mistake for our country’s government to stand quiet on the struggle of the Irish for peace for the respect of human rights and for unifying Ireland.”
This was a huge breakthrough. We had not only gotten Carter to speak up, but also to frame the Irish issue as a human rights issue. The British and their media went berserk. But not only the British.
The Boston Globe would later report: “Irish embassy officials protested vehemently to Carter aides. Carter, under pressure, agreed to send a telegram of clarification. Carter, the next day, telegrammed Irish foreign Minister FitzGerald: “… I have been informed that certain news reports concerning my meeting yesterday with Irish-American leaders have misrepresented both my position and my statements… I do not favor violence as part of a solution to the Irish question.”
No one, of course, had reported that Carter had favored violence. But this was the favorite tactic of the Dublin government of that time: scare people from speaking out for justice in Northern Ireland lest they be accused of supporting violence. It was unconscionable to do that to Carter. Yet the political and media establishment in Ireland never objected to FitzGerald’s inexcusable and disgraceful actions.
Just six months after that huge breakthrough, the Four Horsemen – set up by the Dublin government – made the statement from which Carey quoted. It was classic counter-insurgency sabotage: not a word about British violence, repressive legislation or mistreatment of political prisoners. Not a whisper about how British security forces and the RUC were colluding with, arming and controlling, Protestant murder gangs. Not a scintilla of mention about the deep-seated all pervasive anti-Catholic discrimination and sectarianism. It was a blatant cover-up, indeed, collusion.
Reflect on the monstrosity of it all. The Irish National Caucus had gotten Jimmy Carter to see Northern Ireland as a human rights issue. Garret FitzGerald, then Irish foreign minister, got the Four Horsemen to present the IRA and Irish Americans who supported them as the only problem.
By saying they appealed to Irish Americans to “renounce any action that….provides support or encouragement for organizations engaged in violence,” the Four Horsemen gave precisely that support and encouragement to the British army and the RUC.
They, in effect, said to the British, do what you like to the Catholics in Northern Ireland, and we won’t say a thing because the Dublin government only wants us to condemn the IRA.
The Four Horsemen, well versed in how the media operated, had to know how their statement would play. The headline at the time in the New York Times proves my point: “Four Top Democrats Urge Halt in support for the IRA.”
In fact, the statement did nothing to stop those who were supporting the IRA.I never met an Irish American who stopped supporting the IRA because of Tip O’ Neill, or Teddy Kennedy. The statement just gave the British carte blanche.
Years later, when Candidate Bill Clinton, on April 5, 1992, in New York City, made promises to a group of us (some who also had been at the Carter meeting in Pittsburgh), the huge difference was that taioseach Albert Reynolds, God bless him, welcomed Clinton’s statement. And the rest is history.
Still, I am haunted by this thought: had FitzGerald welcomed Carter’s statement (as Reynolds had welcomed Clinton’s) how much sooner the peace process could have started, how many lives might have been saved, and how so much suffering could have been spared.
And I am not alone in thinking this way. Irish author and journalist Tim Pat Coogan says in his memoirs, “During the 1974-7 coalition period the voice of the Dublin component of the Toffs’ Brigade [pro-British elite] was particularly strong, powerful and continuous. I would blame Dublin’s attitude in these year for helping to create a mindset that deepened the political vacuum and helped to prolong the Troubles.”
Fr. Sean McManus is president of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus. Signed, personalized copies of his memoir, “My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland” are available at irishnationalcaucus.org.

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RETURNING TO BALTIMORE

2011-08-14T10:28:00.003-05:00

Almost 39 years from arriving in Baltimore in October 1972,

 Fr. Mc Manus was back promoting his book at

The Irish Railroad Workers Museum--A Shrine.

A LANDMARK BOOK THAT LEAVES READERS WANTING MORE

2011-08-04T18:20:00.010-05:00

Mairtin O'Muilleoir

Irish Echo-August 4, 2011

They say no man is a prophet in his own land, and that’s certainly true of Fr. Sean McManus, a fiery crusader for Ireland who has rattled more cages than circus king Billy Smart.

Fortunately, of course, Fr. Sean, as is the case with all Irish Americans, is blessed with two lands.

So while the great and the good of official, abbreviated Ireland, led by the late Garret FitzGerald (Grásta ó Dhia air) lashed the clergyman for voicing fears over the treatment of abandoned Northern nationalists, he had always the warm, appreciative embrace of Irish America to fall back on. How mad is that? A Kinawly, Co. Fermanagh native washes up in New York in the 1970s, shines a light on horrendous human rights abuses by Britain against Irish citizens north of the border at a time when neither the New York, nor Irish Times would acknowledge their plight and, for his troubles, gets treated like public enemy number one by the Irish diplomatic corps.

For its insight into that disturbing period of our recent history alone, Fr. McManus’s no-punches-pulled memoir “My American Struggle for Justice in Ireland,” is a must-read.

But, in fact, there’s much more here to recommend to the discerning reader. For the first time, we have the inside story of a protagonist in the battle with the Four Horsemen of Irish America – led by the nose by the same Dublin authorities who branded the Birmingham Six terrorists. This protagonist, Fr. Sean, delivers a blow-by-blow account of his fight for Ireland on Capitol Hill.

When it came to the key campaigns for peace, fair employment and justice in the North of Ireland, Fr. McManus contends, in this unanswerable indictment, that the big names fell short in those crucial years when the descent into the darkest pits of violence could have been averted.

Instead, deluded by plámás from Dublin, and empty pledges from London, the greatest Irish American politicians of the late 20th Century called it wrong. If they had taken their lead from Fr. McManus and his struggle for justice and against violence, perhaps peace could have been won long before a new generation of American leaders, led by President Clinton, sealed the peace deal of 1998.

But, as this stirring autobiography attests, pitting a stubborn Fermanagh man against a couple of governments and the most powerful Irish American politicians of their time is unfair – on them.

For Fr. Mac went on to inspire a series of key hearings in Congress into human rights abuses in the Six Counties, and raised the standard for Irish civil rights in North Ireland through the MacBride Principles campaign, the single most powerful instrument for change ever deployed by Irish America.

In “My American Struggle,” the author gives us more detail than the average reader might care for on the background to the birth and meteoric ascent of the MacBride campaign across the United States. But the meaty detail of the hearings is truly revelatory stuff, never properly recorded in book-form by an Irish American leader. Until now.

In fact, if there’s one fault in this riveting and eminently readable book, it is that too much of Fr McManus’s story remains untold.

He reveals at one point that he was the first white Catholic priest to go to jail for picketing the apartheid-era South African Embassy in Washington, D.C. Now there’s a chapter on its own, yet it gets but a passing mention.

Similarly, his heroic work to expose the plastic bullet killings of children on the streets of Derry and Belfast barely features.

Then again, this may be just the first salvo. If we’re lucky, Fr. McManus may be saving some of those stories for part II, and, fingers crossed, part III, of his memoirs.

“My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland” is published in Ireland by The Collins Press and is available on from the Irish National Caucus--which is the only way to get a signed copy.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. BOOK LAUNCH

2011-07-19T17:08:00.002-05:00

PART ONE
FILMED BY BILL PRIBYL

WASHINGTON, D.C. LAUNCH

2011-07-19T16:49:00.002-05:00

PART TWO
FILMED BY BILL PRIBYL

NY Ladies AOH and Men’s AOH Convention

2011-07-16T16:42:00.005-05:00

RENEWED DEDICATION TO THE IRISH CAUSE

Barbara Flaherty enthusiastically shows off My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland
Ray O'Hanlon--Editor of Irish Echo and Gifted author of The South Lawn Plot-- with Barbara
Denise Sobus, in-coming NY State President of LAOH , proudly holds Memoirs

Friday, July 15, 2011 --- Nobody knows how to put on a Convention like the Ladies AOH and the Men’s AOH of the great State of New York.
That was amply demonstrated on July 13 and Thursday, July 14 as the State Convention opened (to continue until Sunday, July 17). The over 200 delegates gave an inspiring display of their continued dedication to the cause of Ireland both in America and in Ireland: maintaining the Catholic faith and culture here, and supporting justice and peace on the entire island of Ireland.
Fr. Sean Mc Manus was invited to address the delegates on his recently published Memoirs: My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland (Collins Press. Cork).
Fr. Mc Manus applauded the Ladies AOH, and their National President, Margaret Hennessy. He singled out for special praise, the National Secretary, Mary Hogan, a strong promoter of his book.
He explained: “ I was deeply honored to be invited to speak by the great Chip Mc Lean, NY State AOH President. I am deeply grateful for his leadership and dedication”.
Mr. Mc Lean’s term of office expired at the Convention. He wlll be succeeded by another excellent leader, Michael Mc Nab. Michael a nephew of the legendary AOH leader, Tom Mc Nabb, National President from 1978-1980. Tom has also been National Secretary for many years.
Fr. Mc Manus explained : “ As I state in my book, Tom Mc Nabb – with the late Jack Keane -- is one of the most important AOH leaders since the 1920’s. He showed great strength and leadership at a very tough time. He was put under huge pressure to withdraw his support of the Irish National Caucus. But he stood firm. I will never forget him for that. He deserves huge credit. I know his nephew, Michael, will continue the great Mc Nab tradition: dedication to the Catholic faith and to Irish-American tradition and culture – and to justice and peace in Ireland”.
Tom Mc Nabb’s son, Tom Jr, is President of Division # 1 in Auburn NY.
Equally, with the Ladiies AOH there will be changes in leadership. The new State President will be Denise Sobus, and the new National Treasurer will be Patricia O’ Connell, and the new National President will be Maureen Shelton. All three ladies expressed strong enthusiasm for Fr. Mc Manus’ book.
One of the speakers at the Convention was Sean Pender, New Jersey AOH State President.Fr. Mc Manus said: “ Sean is a new forceful leader on the Irish-
American scene, with whom I will be working closely. We are both committed to keeping Congress involved in the whole human rights area in Northern Ireland. Sean will do great work over the coming years. He is very well informed, has a lot of key contacts in Ireland and visits there regularly”.
Fr. Mc Manus continued:“ Dan Dennehy is another key man in the NY AOH. Like his father before him, Dan is a totally committees Irishman. A great guy who will also do great things in the years to come”.

CLIPS FROM THE CONVENTION

2011-07-16T16:20:00.007-05:00

Fr. Sean enjoys the LAOH.

"The Book is the Mission and the Mission is the Book"
Fr. Sean informs LAOH/AOH

AOH to Present Mc Manus Memoirs to Congress

2011-07-16T13:31:00.010-05:00

FR. Mc Manus addresses Ladies AOH and Men's AOH

July 15, 2011 --- The New York State Board of the AOH has formally announced it will present to every Member of the New York Congressional Delegation (29 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives two U.S. Senators) a signed copy of Fr. Sean Mc Manus’ Memoirs : My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland ( Collins Press Cork).

The outgoing President of the NY AOH, the popular and widely respected Chip Mc Lean, announced the initiative at the Ladies AOH and Mens’ AOH convention in Pearl River, NY, on Thursday, July 14, 2011. The announcement was greeted with sustained applause.

When Fr. Mc Manus was introduced to give a keynote speech, he was given a resounding standing ovation by the 200 hundred guests.He praised the Ladies AOH, singling out the National Secretary, Mary Hogan who has given strong support for Fr. Mc Manus’ work and is an enthusiastic promoter of his Memoirs.

Barbara Flaherty – the main publicist for the book – said : “ It was wonderful to see how Fr. Mc Manus’ speech was received. The delegates were clearly very moved, and kept saying so throughout the day as they bought signed-personalized copies of the book”

She continued: “ This is a very important initiative by the AOH. Presenting the book to all the NY Congressional Delegation sends a very clear message to Congress: The AOH expects their Representatives and Senators to be fully informed on the struggle to get the U.S. Congress to stand up for Irish justice. And this book is the perfect tool for that. Fr. Mc Manus gives the real story on what Congress did, or failed to do over the past 40 years. It’s a cautionary tale for the U.S. Congress. And Irish-Americans must never allow Members of Congress to turn a blind eye( as some did in the past) to equality, justice and peace in Ireland. Therefore, promoting this special, unique book is the very best way to promote the Irish cause. In that sense, we can accurately say : “The book is the mission, and the mission is the book”.

LIAM MURPHY REVIEWS MEMOIRS

2011-07-12T19:28:00.000-05:00

“ It is a very important book. It would be equally important even if it were not so entertaining a read at the same time… a virtual treatise on how to make Congress do the right thing, often against seemingly insurmountable odds, and then a President. It should be required reading in Political Science classes, right up there with Edwin O’ Connor’s The Last Hurrah, with Allen Drury’s Advise and Consent, and with William L. Riordan’s Plunkitt of Tammany Hall (especially the 1995 edition, with an introduction by Peter Quinn). In 130 minutes Jimmy Stewart tells the story of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”, a crusading story, spanning less than one year. In 261 pages Father Seán tells a story that spans almost 67 years, some 37 or so spent crusading on Capitol Hill, against opposition far more complex, and devious, that that faced in Frank Capra’s classic motion picture….

This review is entitled “Mo Scéal Féin” (My Own Story) because Father Seán is telling his own story - but his story is greater than himself, it is the story (with 15 pages of endnote documentation, for which future historians will be thankful) of making the American political system work, it is the story of mobilizing the forces of good to achieve a greater good (against seemingly impossible odds) in the non-violent quest for Peace with Justice for All Ireland. Go saoraidh Dia Éire!

Liam Ó Murchadha, do scrí

( Liam Murphy) NY.

Great Chicago Welcome for Fr. Sean

2011-07-11T18:21:00.013-05:00

Dick Stanton and Mary Gorski
Jim Mc Donnell
Fr. Sean and Maureen O'Looney

Shannon Rovers Band

Monday, July 19, 2011—Chicago was true to form in its welcome for Fr. Sean Mc Manus.
In the Windy City for the launch of his widely hailed Memoirs, My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland ( Collins Press. Cork), Fr. Mc Manus was given a wonderful, generous welcome.
He spoke and signed books for two days, Saturday, July 9 and Sunday, July 10 at the huge Irish Fest held at the Irish American Heritage Center.
The Fermanagh-born priest, President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus, said: “ I simply could not have asked for nicer or more friendly and helpful people. They made me feel totally welcome as if I were a Chicago resident”.
He went on to explain: “ The legendary Maureen O’ Looney, whom I have known for almost 40 years, got me the” best seat in the house – the most centrally located stall in the entire outside area, where our big book –banner was totally prominent .A very special moment came when the most impressive men and women of the Pipers and Drummers of the Shannon Rovers Band came and played Amazing Grace right in front of my book stall.( See photos).
Fr. Mc Manus went on to thank Mrs. Peig Reid, Librarian, of the Irish American Heritage Center, for inviting him to speak. He also paid special thanks to his long-time associate, Chicago arbitration- attorney Dick Stanton. “ Dick has a passionate interest in the Irish struggle for justice, and a keen intellectual awareness of all its history and complexities. He and Betty were a wonderful help”.

The intrepid Jim Mc Donnell, visiting from Division 1 AOH in Rockland County NY, (and known as “ The Voice”, because of his great speaking voice) was my pitchman. Sounding like Ed Mc Mahon of the famed Johnny Carson Show, Jim was constantly announcing on the public address system, “ Come on over and say hello to Fr. Mc Manus. He has written a great book. You all should read it”.
Fr. Mc Manus, who in the early years of his campaigning, had been to Chicago many times, but had not been back for about 15 years, recalled: “ Chicago had the reputation of the most fractious city on the Irish issue --- splits, counter- splits, then more splits. But on this occasion I did not meet with one negative reaction from among the thousands of people attending the Irish Fest. There was, however, one funny “ pretend-negative” response. An elderly Irish-born woman wagged her finger at me and in feigned indignation said, “ Fr. Mc Manus I have a most serious complaint about your book.” “What is it”, said I, playing along. She replied : “ My husband bought a copy yesterday and sat up reading it until 4 AM. You ruined my sex life”. I shot back, “ You should be thanking me for keeping that old Irishman from bothering you”. She doubled over laughing and ran off to tell her husband what I said.
There was also a somber, moving moment. A big quiet, shy, guy came up and asked me to sign a book to his parents. Then he paused, and said, “ Could you write something else on it, Father?” I said sure. “ Please write, “ Tom (not his real name) will be fine”.
I said that sounds like a prayer and a blessing “ Tom”.
He said it was and that his parents were very worried about him because he was going back on his fourth mission to Afghanistan – and on the previous three missions he had last a third of his team.
Sitting next to me was a very spiritual lady and she immediately asked him was he wearing a St. Michael medal (the defender against principalities and powers).
He immediately dug under the neck of his shirt, and, producing a medal, said, “ No. I am wearing a St. Gerard medal”. Being a Redemptorist, that immediately got my attention, and I pointed out the Redemptorist saint was the Patron Saint of pregnant mothers. He said, “ That’s why I am wearing it. When my mother was pregnant with me, the doctors told her she would lose her baby. She prayed night and day to St. Gerard and I was safely delivered”.
When I told him I was a Redemptorist, he was quite overcome and said, “ My Mother will now know God brought me here today”. I said a prayer with him and he went off with a spring in his step.
For some reason I found the moment most poignant. Whatever one thinks of wars or why they happen, on the ground -level there is the individual soldier/civilian who is trying to do his duty, and hoping he will come out of it alive”.
END.

MC Manus Memoirs Goes into Second Print

2011-07-07T15:56:00.003-05:00

Thursday, July 07, 2011

Collins Press, Cork, is going into a second print of, My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland.

The author, Fr. Sean Mc Manus, President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus, expressed his pleasure at the news: “ This is good news. I am very pleased.

I hoped the book would be appreciated once the word got out. Indeed, I have been surprised by all the positive and enthusiastic response”.

Barbara Flaherty – the main publicist for the book – said: “ I am delighted. We can hardly keep up with the demand for the book. We are getting numerous requests for more book launches nationwide – as have been held in Washington, Boston, New York City. And over the next week there will be the Chicago launch, and the Pearl River, NY, launch during the State AOH Convention…And then it’s on to Philadelphia, etc. etc.

This is a wonderful book.There is simply no other book like it. I am extremely pleased for Fr. Mc Manus that the book is being so well received. Indeed, I have always believed it will be made into a movie”.

Fr. Sean Mc Manus Goes to Chicago

2011-07-03T13:20:00.007-05:00

FR. SEAN MC MANUS WILL HOLD THE CHICAGO LAUNCH OF HIS BOOK, MY AMERICAN STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND (COLLINS PRESS, CORK), ON SATURDAY, JULY 9, AND SUNDAY, JULY 10, AT THE IRISH AMERICAN HERITAGE CENTER--4626 NORTH KNOX AVENUE, CHICAGO, IL.

FR. MC MANUS WILL SPEAK, LECTURE AND SIGN HIS BOOK AT THE FAMOUS IRISH FEST HOSTED BY THE IRISH AMERICAN HERITAGE CENTER OVER THE TWO DAY PERIOD.

THE BOOK IS AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM, BUT SIGNED COPIES ARE ONLY AVAILABLE THROUGH THE IRISH NATIONAL CAUCUS.

THE BOOK IS HAILED AS " A MASTERPIECE", "A CLASSIC", "A MUST READ" AND "HUGELY IMPORTANT".

THE WASHINGTON IRISH COMMITTEE HAS STATED: "IT IS PROBABLY THE MOST SIGNIFICANT MEMOIRS IN THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF IRISH-AMERICAN NATIONALISM SINCE RECOLLECTIONS OF AN IRISH REBEL BY JOHN DEVOY (1929).

Among New York's Best Supporters of Fr. Mc Manus

2011-06-30T20:05:00.003-05:00

Ernie Falconer and Jacinta Winters help celebrate the NY Launch

MEMOIRS INSPIRE PRAISE

2011-06-27T20:14:00.047-05:00

McManus’s book is a lightly written account of his campaigns, and he

emerges as an energetic and skilled lobbyist....[a] very readable
book...". --Irish Times.

"[Fr. Mc Manus] is modest about his success in knocking on and

getting through the doors of the great and the good in American

politics. "It was the song and not the singer; the song being the

message," he said about his forthcoming book " -- Impartial

Reporter (Fermanagh).

" A widely hailed book". -- Irish Echo.

"A hugely important book." --The Washington Irish Committee.

" I could not leave the book down since getting my hands on it, and it ranks as

one of the greatest books ever written for Irish freedom. Fr. Mc Manus is unique

in his courage and struggle against all odds particularly as St.Paul says 'false

brethren'! " -- A priest who worked in Rome, now retired in Ireland.

"A compelling book and story."
Ray Flynn
Former U.S. Ambassador to The Vatican, Mayor of Boston.

"Fr. Sean's book, My American Struggle is A MONUMENTUM AERE PERENNIUS:

a monument more lasting than bronze — a phrase used in Horace, Odes, Book

Three of an immortal work of art or literature.

In his case, I believe, the book is BOTH art and literature."

Tom Halton, Retired Prof. of Greek and Latin, The Catholic University of America.

Successful New York Launch of Fr. Mc Manus’ Memoirs

2011-06-25T19:14:00.008-05:00

Fr. Sean explains "The Struggle"
Barbara Flaherty and Mary Hogan
Ray O'Hanlon

Capitol Hill--Friday, June 24, 2011 ------ The organizers of the New York City Launch of Fr. Mc Manus’s Memoirs can be proud of their work.

A large crowd of “New York’s and New Jersey’s finest” -- dedicated Irish-American activists of long standing – assembled on Thursday evening, June 23, in O’Lunney’s Pub Times Square , to greet and congratulate Fr. Mc Manus on this Memoirs, My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland (Collins Press, Cork).

Apart from Fr. Mc Manus, the speakers were Mary Hogan, National Secretary, Ladies AOH and Ray O’ Hanlon, the Irish- born editor of the Irish Echo.The event was coordinated and chaired by New York based Tyrone-man Owen Rodgers.

Mary Hogan is a rising star in the AOH galaxy. She gave an excellent speech.She pledged solidarity with Fr. Mc Manus’ mission, and stressed that his book should not just remain on the shelf but be studied and used as an essential tool to promote and advance the cause of Irish unity, justice and peace.

Ray O'Hanlon --a natural at speaking as well as writing -- declared he found the book fascinating and expressed admiration at the length and effectiveness of Fr. Mc Manus' work. O’Hanlon is also the author of the recently published South Lawn Plot (Gemma Media, Boston).

Among the distinguished, enthusiastic audience were Leslie Cassidy, relentless promoter of the Irish cause; Mary Elizabeth Bartholomew, First Vice President, Brehon Law Society; Bill Flynn, Chairman Emeritus of Mutual America and Chairman, National Committee for American Foreign Policy; Pat Doherty, Director of Corporate Governance, State of New York, Office of the Comptroller; Larry Downes, Chairman of the Friends of Sinn Fein; Ciaran Staunton. President, Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform; Chip Mc Lean, AOH New York State president; Sean Pender, AOH New Jersey State president; James Cullen, Brehon Law Society; Bob Bateman, a long-time associate of Fr. Mc Manus; and ardent Fenians Liam Murphy and Sandy Boyer.

Barbara Flaherty, who also traveled from Washington with Fr. Mc Manus – and who is the prime promoter of the book – said: “ It is gratifying to see strong, informed women, like Mary Hogan and Leslie Cassidy, take the lead both in promoting the book and advancing the cause of equality and human rights for all of Ireland”.

Fr. Mc Manus expressed his deep appreciation to all concerned: “ It was a wonderful event. I am deeply grateful, and, as always, inspired by the New York and New Jersey Irish ”.

Fr. Mc Manus, Reps. Gilman and Wolff:Together again on Capitol Hill

2011-06-16T11:12:00.025-05:00

Fr. Mc Manus, Congressman Lester Wolffe and the Great Ben Gilman
Gilman introduces H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III ( yellow robes) to Fr. Mc Manus ( back to camera)
Congressman Ben Gilman, Georgia Gilman, B.J. Flaherty and Fr. Mc Manus

For many years, Fr. Sean Mc Manus, President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus, visited Congressman Ben Gilman (R-NY) who was in office from January 1973 - January 2003. And on June 14th, the two old Capitol Hill friends were together again. June 15, 2011

The Fermanagh-born priest said “ a prayer for ’' for the former Chairman of the House International Relations Committee.

“The easiest task imaginable – praying for the Great Ben Gilman,’’ said Fr. Mc Manus." Because in the entire history of the US Congress no body has a better record
in fighting for Irish justice. Without Ben, I could never have gotten Congress to pass the the Mac Bride Principles. This Jewish-American is my Irish hero. He will never be forgotten in Irish history. Irish-American owe this wonderful, special man
an everlasting debt of gratitude".
Congressman Gilman was given the Evangelical World Peace Prize award. He requested Fr. Mc Manus to give both the opening and closing prayer. The event was held in the
Gold Room of the Rayburn House Office Building (one of the Congressional buildings on Capitol Hill).

“What made the occasion extra special for me,” explained Fr. Mc Manus, is that the Chairman of the event was Chief Judge of the World Peace Prize, former Congressman Lester Wolff (D-NY) – 1965 – 1973. Lester, like Ben, is a champion of
Irish justice. In early 1972 disguised himself, assumed an Irish identity and brogue, and succeeded in penetrating security at Long Kesh, to get first-hand view of the flagrant injustice of that British internment camp in Northern Ireland”.

The other recipient of the World Peace Prize was H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III (“the leader of all Buddhists and the highest and greatest Buddha in the dharma realm”).
Buddhists believe him to be “the incarnated Buddha … the primordial and highest Buddha according to the lineage charts of all Buddhist sects”).

Fr. Mc Manus added: “It was a beautiful, spiritual and ecumenical event: Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Protestants and Catholics , all celebrating
their common humanity, religious faith and desire for peace, which the fruit of justice”.

When Congressman Gilman spoke, he singled out Fr. Mc Manus for special praise, mentioning his 12-day Hunger Strike outside the British Embassy in April-May, 1981.
And he also urged everyone to, “read Fr. Mc Manus’ wonderful new book” – My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland, which will have its New York launch on
Thursday, June 23 (O’ Lunney’s Pub, Times Square. 7 PM; and its Chicago launch on Saturday, July 9 and Sunday, July 10 at the Irish American Heritage Center Irish Fest.

The book is for sale at irishnationalcaucus.org --- the only place one can order signed, personalized copies.

Opposition to Irish justice in DC was – Irish!

2011-06-07T18:59:00.003-05:00

Andersonstown News Monday 14th of April 2011 By Gráinne McWilliams

PROTESTANT politicians in America did more to advance the cause of Irish human rights than their Irish-Catholic counterparts, according to a new book by the founder of a leading US Irish lobby group. Father Sean McManus, head of the Irish National Caucus lobby on Capitol Hill, Washington DC, was speaking during a visit to West Belfast as part of the Irish launch of his memoirs, entitled ‘My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland’. The Belfast launch, which took place in Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich on the Falls Road, was sponsored by Relatives for Justice and supported by the Ballymurphy Massacre families, who took Fr McManus on a tour of the spots where their 11 loved ones were gunned down by the British army in 1971. The Fermanagh-born priest first came to the USA in 1972 and founded the Irish National Caucus the following year to help advance the cause of Irish human rights at the heart of American government. One of the major achievements of the caucus was the introduction into US law of the MacBride Principles – a corporate code of conduct in fair employment and affirmative action for US companies doing business in the North. It has gone on to become the Congressional standard for all US aid to or for economic dealings with the North. “I’ve always felt that the only thing that the British government really would be concerned about when it came to human rights violations in Northern Ireland would be public opinion on Capitol Hill,” said Fr McManus. “So that is why I’ve spent so much of my life pushing the issue there. We started off without a penny, we had no big money behind us, we were never supported by rich Irish Americans and yet we somehow succeeded against huge odds.” Fr McManus spoke of how obstacles to their lobbying came from the most unlikely quarters. “From 1974 to 1995 US Congressional hearings on British violations of human rights in Northern Ireland were banned, mostly by Irish Catholic speakers of the House of Representatives,” he said. “Tip O’Neill, Tom Foley and others absolutely banned them. We pushed and pushed, but they were banned. The Dublin government and London government had convinced these speakers that anything that would embarrass the British would help the IRA, ergo that’s a bad thing. To me, that’s collusion. “The great irony is that it took a right-wing, conservative Protestant Speaker of the House of Representatives to allow these human rights’ hearings – Newt Gingrich – whereas Irish Catholic speakers of the House had banned hearings,” he continued. “A Protestant from Georgia – non-Irish, non-Catholic – allows them to start.” But the most vehement opposition to the work of the Irish National Caucus was to come from the Republic of Ireland. “The Dublin government was ferociously opposed to what we were doing and set out to demonise every person who tried to raise the issue of human rights in American government,” said Fr McManus. “Our campaign was always non-violent and yet they opposed us tooth and nail as if we were urging US Congress to invade London. They opposed us on the Finucane killing, the Birmingham Six, the Guilford Four and on discrimination in Shorts.” Fr McManus explained how the biggest fight came with the campaign for the implementation of the MacBride Principles. “We launched that campaign in November 1984 and it was studiously and vigorously opposed by the British government, the Dublin government and even by John Hume (the former leader of the SDLP), God bless him,” he said. “At one stage it was opposed by nearly every political interest in Ireland, North and South. Yet thank God we got it passed into 18 US states and it made US law. When people read this book they will be surprised by the opposition we were up against, and very powerful opposition it was too.” On the Ballymurphy Families’ ongoing campaign for justice, Fr McManus said they had made a “powerful impact” during their March address to the Helsinki Commission on Capitol Hill. “It’s very important that they get justice, and that’s why I was so pleased to see them in Washington,” he continued. “They did an excellent job and made a powerful impact.” Despite expressing his satisfaction at how far human rights issues have come in the North since the dark days of the Troubles, Fr McManus said the killing of Catholic PSNI Constable Ronan Kerr showed that there were still very serious issues to address. “My book ends on a positive note ,” he said. “In it I conclude: ‘I am hopeful for the future of Ireland – the whole island of Ireland. Even though, I think, we have still a long way to go. I believe the Union will die on the vine. The only way it can be saved is if the IRA came back into business. One of the great Irish ironies! But it is an irony I hope that patriotic young Irish men and women take heed of: No young Irish person need be killed – or kill – for full Irish freedom.’ “But I’m very grieved by the killing of Ronan Kerr. It should never have happened, it was a terrible act – the wrongness of it, the horror of it. A totally useless, totally futile, totally absurd act. I appeal to those who did the killing to quit their campaign and to embrace the peace process, as the only way forward,” added Fr McManus. ‘My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland’ is available to buy at £15 from all local bookshops and online at www.amazon.co.uk

Father Sean McManus returns to Boston to launch memoir

2011-06-07T16:53:00.004-05:00

By Toni Earls

President of the Irish National Caucus Father Sean McManus will be in
Boston to launch his memoir My American Struggle for Justice in
Northern Ireland on Wednesday June 8th. The event will be hosted by
the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) and will take place at the AOH
Hall in Watertown, MA.

Fr. McManus’ memoir has been launched in Dublin, Belfast, Bellaghy,
and Washington to a wonderful reception, being called: “probably the
most significant memoir in the historiography of Irish-American
nationalism since Recollections of an Irish Rebel by John Devoy” by
the Washington Irish Committee.

Fr. McManus came to the United States in October of 1972 and went on
to effect momentous change working within his Special Ministry as part
of the Irish National Caucus and laboring to involve the US in the
Northern Ireland peace process. Speaking to the Irish Emigrant, Fr.
McManus said that the US relationship to the peace process was never
easy, but it was vital to its success:

“From the beginning, American involvement has been tricky, but it was
integral to the process. I don’t believe it would have succeeded
without American intervention. I think that is why the British
government was so resistant to it at first. Now they’re pleased with
it though.” He went on to say that although things have absolutely
changed for the better, the process of reconciliation is by no means
over: “we still have a long way to go.”

Fr. McManus, a native of Kinawley, Co. Fermanagh, was born in 1944,
the tenth of twelve children. He grew up in a place divided by the
border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Talking
about his separation of his hometown, Fr. McManus told the ‘Emigrant,
“You can imagine how seeing such a division as a small child affected
me. It wasn’t just a division of my country; it was a division of my
town, of my home.”

From an early age, Fr. McManus was keenly aware of the effect that
the division had on his town, his country, and his life. He lost his
brother Patrick in 1958 when the IRA bomb he was transporting
exploded. Later, when Fr. McManus was serving in Scotland, he went
back to Northern Ireland to take part in an anti-internment
demonstration and was arrested for his activity in 1971.

Fr. McManus is looking forward to returning to Boston, the city in
which he served in a parish for his last three years before moving to
Washington, D.C. He told the ‘Emigrant: “As you know, it is impossible
for an Irishman to feel out of place in Boston.”

Remembering his last visit to Boston, Fr. McManus said: “Well,
surprisingly, it was quite a while ago. The last time I was up in
Boston I was organizing a protest against Boston College awarding
Maggie Thatcher their Ignatius Medal [in 1995]. I don’t know if they
posted it to her but it she didn’t come over here anyway!”

Fr. McManus enjoyed the time he spent serving in Boston immensely: “I
served at Mission Church from 1975-1978. I loved Mission Church.” He
worked as prefect of the school and was particularly pleased with the
way the parish was “totally integrated…it wasn’t just Irish. People of
all sorts were there together.”

This togetherness is incredibly important to Fr. McManus, who believes
in equality for all people above all and has shown that through his
tireless efforts against injustice. He told the ‘Emigrant, “I believe
that racism/sectarianism is a form of mental disease that causes
otherwise normal folk to do stupid things.” He believes that through
education and helping people to overcome their fear, things can
continue to change for the better in the US, Ireland, and around the
world.

In Quiet Contemplation

2011-05-29T17:44:00.001-05:00

Queen's Visit

2011-05-26T10:12:00.003-05:00

Letters to the Editor
Irish News
Belfast
Thursday, May 26, 2011

Jim Gibney’s column pretty much reflected my own attitude, “ Queens Visit Showed Mc Aleese at Her Best” ( May 26).
I fully understand the valid reasons why some protested the Queen’s visit – and those reasons should not be dismissed or disrespected.
My own attitude was that I felt a bit more secure about the visit because Mary Mc Aleese is President. Had someone like, say Garret FitzGerald been President (not meaning to speak ill of the dead ) -- or some other southerner not noted for standing up to British injustice in Northern Ireland – I would not have felt as secure about the visit.
Now some may say that is a superficial distinction because the Queen is still the Queen no matter who receives her on Irish soil: that the Queen is still the Commander of the British Armed Forces, that the visit was on the anniversary of the Dublin/Monaghan bombings, that the anti-Catholic and sectarian Act of Settlement 1701, is still the foundation stone of the Royal Family, barring as it does a Catholic from being monarch or even marrying a Catholic… etc. , etc.

Still in all, there is the reality of The Good Friday Agreement. ( Only Republican dissidents and extreme Orangemen claim The Agreement makes no difference).And with regards to the North , context is everything . By accepting the Irish Peace Process, one must also accept that certain protocols will naturally follow. And I say this as the one who lead the protest against the Queen’s visit to Boston in 1976, as explained in my recently published Memoirs, “ My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland”.

Nonetheless, the fact that Mary Mc Aleese is President meant that it would be clear to all that there would be no “southern forelock tugging”, that she would meet the Queen as an equal, that she would be seen as representing the Irish nation, not just three quarters of it, i.e. 26 Counties.
Moreover, as to the actual visit itself, the sight of the Queen paying her respect to all who sacrificed their lives for Irish freedom has to mean something very profound – granting the significance the British attach to such solemn actions by the Queen.
Yes, indeed, we must continue with unfinished business – and I certainly shall on Capitol Hill – but we are missing a profound paradigm shift if we spurn the Queen’s visit as meaningless or harmful to the Irish cause. It is not. And I give Her Majesty a lot of respect and credit for that.

Fr.Sean Mc Manus

RESPONSE TO RICHARD ENGLISH'S REVIEW OF MY AMERICAN STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND

2011-05-21T23:06:00.000-05:00

The Editor
The Irish Times
Dublin
Saturday, May21, 2011
Dear Madam,
If Oscar Wilde’s maxim is right – “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about ”--
then , I guess, from the point of view of my book, I should not be too concerned about Richard English’s review of my Memoirs, My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland.
The main thrust of his review, “Righteously right in Irish America”(May 21) is that my book, “really focuses on human-rights abuses only as practiced by the UK and the unionists. It does not dwell, for example, on the IRA’s abuse of humans and violation of their rights in the Troubles”.
Get real, Mr. English. The IRA was not a government, with which the US had diplomatic relations. Mr. English would be the first to argue that the IRA actions were criminal and the police must handle crime. Why, then, should I spend 40 years lobbying the US Congress on crime? What could the Congress do about the IRA?
Ban the sale of US weapons to them as we had done to the RUC in 1979? Vote to refuse FBI training to any IRA member who had been involved in human rights violations – as we had done to the police? Could Congress, perhaps, have recalled the US Ambassador to the IRA?
One only has to raise these hypotheticals to show the invalidity of Mr. English’s position. My job was to get the US to put pressure on the British government. When the IRA becomes the government of Ireland, and violates human rights, then I will lobby the US to put pressure on them. Hope that keeps Mr. English happy.

Mr. English also claims “McManus’s book also displays no sense of respect for the political rights of unionists…” Yet informed readers have remarked that my book does not contain one sectarian sentence, and that they are impressed that I devoted the entire last chapter to the “ political rights” of the brave Unionist/Protestant, Raymond Mc Cord of Belfast.

As regards Mr. English’s barb that I present myself as, “ righteously right”. Let me first say that only God is righteous. And for all my many faults, self-righteousness is not one of them. Maybe Mr. English is here feeding into the stereotype that anything to do with America is fundamentalist and self-righteous. He writes, “ Mc Manus’s book is a lightly written account of his campaigns”. “ Lightly” hardly computes with self-righteousness, which is heavy and moody. But that aside, he is correct that my book gives an account of my campaigns: to get President Jimmy Carter to speak up for Irish human rights, to ban the sale of US weapons to the RUC, Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, visas for Irish Republicans, the MacBride Principles, etc. My format for giving the account of all those “campaigns” is, naturally, to also mention those who opposed them -- otherwise the accounts would be totally lacking, and I would have had no “ struggle”.
However, Mr. English then unfairly goes on to conflate that into: “As a result, My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland ends up being less persuasive than it might have been. And it tends to present other Irish people as having been repeatedly wrong during the past 40 years, while McManus himself emerges again and again as having been righteously right. Unionists are (of course) presented as misguided. But so, in many of the pages of this very readable book, are Irish governments, the republican movement, John Hume and the SDLP, the Irish Catholic Church and the Irish Embassy in the US, as well as many individuals within Irish America”.

I was simply putting on record those who opposed our “campaigns”, for whatever reason. Surely there is a difference between prevailing against all odds and saying, “ I was right and all the others are wrong”.
That is simply a caricature of my carefully documented book, as I am sure objective readers will recognize.

Finally, I think Mr. English shows his hand when he uses the following to question my basic analysis of how and why the State for Northern Ireland was set up by the (British) Government of Ireland Act 1920 : “…his own politics have leaned very much towards the republican, as is evident from his analysis of Northern Ireland: ‘This artificial state had a twofold purpose: to ensure a continuation of Britain’s foothold on the island of Ireland, and to place the unionists/loyalist/Protestants in a permanent position of supremacy’ ”.

Why should he claim this is only a “republican” view?
Who really can question it? And that in no way, diminishes my support for The Good Friday Agreement ..

Righteously right in Irish America

2011-05-21T22:39:00.007-05:00

Fr Seán McManus with Bill Clinton on his campaign trail in 1992

Righteously right in Irish America
Richard English

NORTHERN IRELAND : My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland By Seán McManus The Collins Press, 280pp. €14.99

A 27-YEAR-OLD Irish republican, deeply opposed to British rule in the North, takes part in a violent campaign against the Northern Irish police. There is little support among the nationalist population for such violence, but a small band committedly maintains the attacks and occasionally manages to kill police officers as it does so. Then one night the 27-year-old himself is killed, as the gelignite bomb that he is transporting prematurely explodes.

It is July 1958, and the dead IRA man is Patrick McManus. His death was an understandably terrible event for his brother Seán, Redemptorist priest, long-time campaigner on Northern Ireland and author of this spirited book. The discovery that his brother had died “remains to this day my most vivid, traumatic moment”.

Fr Seán McManus himself remained proud of his brother, “the quintessential Irish patriot”, and his own politics have leaned very much towards the republican, as is evident from his analysis of Northern Ireland: “This artificial state had a twofold purpose: to ensure a continuation of Britain’s foothold on the island of Ireland, and to place the unionists/loyalist/Protestants in a permanent position of supremacy.”

McManus originated in Co Fermanagh. Born in 1944, he was ordained in 1968 and based in the US after 1972. He made clear in the early 1970s his view that Northern Ireland was illegitimate: “I do not, I never have and I never will, recognise the colonial state of British-occupied Ireland.”

He formed the Irish National Caucus (INC) in February 1974 as an Irish-American lobby group, with the aim of providing a strong Irish presence in political Washington DC. The INC formally adopted non-violent methods, as it aimed to get Congress more involved in Northern Irish affairs from a nationalist angle. Most famously, the INC espoused the MacBride fair-employment principles, a campaign aimed at combating anti-Catholic discrimination in the North.

McManus’s book is a lightly written account of his campaigns, and he emerges as an energetic and skilled lobbyist. But the narrative seemed to me less persuasive for its rather simplistic one-sidedness of emphasis. My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland really focuses on human-rights abuses only as practised by the UK and the unionists. It does not dwell, for example, on the IRA’s abuse of humans and violation of their rights in the Troubles.

So the denial of human rights in the cases of the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six are quite rightly highlighted, just as they should be. But McManus’s book offers no reflection on the IRA’s violation of human rights in the bombings themselves. It killed five people in no-warning bombings in Guildford in October 1974, and followed this up the next month with the horrific injustice of killing 21 civilians and injuring many more in Birmingham. Attention in his book to those human-rights abuses would, in my view, have made McManus’s arguments on behalf of Catholic victims in the North much more effective.

McManus’s book also displays no sense of respect for the political rights of unionists, even though nationalist Ireland has (surely rightly) recognised, in the Belfast Agreement and beyond, that such respect forms one necessary part of creating a truly just and balanced new politics in Ireland.

In the end the book implies an unproblematic association of justice with the Irish republican cause, and hints at a straightforward equation of Catholic under-representation in Northern employment simply with discrimination. In both cases, matters are almost certainly more complex. As a result, My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland ends up being less persuasive than it might have been. And it tends to present other Irish people as having been repeatedly wrong during the past 40 years, while McManus himself emerges again and again as having been righteously right. Unionists are (of course) presented as misguided. But so, in many of the pages of this very readable book, are Irish governments, the republican movement, John Hume and the SDLP, the Irish Catholic Church and the Irish Embassy in the US, as well as many individuals within Irish America.

ENNISKILLEN LAUNCH

2011-05-13T12:20:00.007-05:00

With brother Frank and sister Mary Kate

Hundreds attend book launch

Fermanagh Herald. Wednesday, April 27, 2011

HE walked into the hall where hundreds were seated like a champion boxer to the
ring, preceded by a lone piper, Gerry McManus, a member of the Mountain Road Pipe
Band.

As one, they stood and saluted one of their own, Fr Sean McManus, described by Peter
Quinn as, ‘Fermanagh ‘s greatest human export’ for the recent official launch of his
autobiography.

‘My American Struggle For Justice in Northern Ireland’ is now available at £13 a time.

Readers will be familiar with the author’s main claim to fame, as founder of the
Irish National Caucus based on Capitol Hill in Washington. It was through this lobby
group that Fr Sean got successive US administrations to push for rights for
beleaguered Catholics back home and clipped the wings of those agencies that ignored
those rights.

His younger[sic] brother, Frank was fear a tí of what was a memorable night in
Enniskillen Library. He quipped that, while a prophet is never a prophet in his own
land, ‘it is heartening to see he is popular in his own land.’

Peter Quinn, despite the devastating news earlier that day relating to Quinn
Insurance and the Quinn Group, delivered his usual articulate, witty and elegant
address on occasions like these. He was followed on stage by the local MP, Michelle
Gildernew and then came a surprise: Donal Donnelly whose lasting claim to fame is
having escaped from Crumlin Road Jail at the height of the IRA’s 1956 campaign.

Omagh-born, he was sentenced to 10 years but, he was never recaptured. He now lives
with his wife in Dublin. His book, ‘Prisoner 1082’ is his recall of an eventful
life.

He was clearly a fan of Fr McManus: “Not only did he take on the British government
but, in fact, the Irish government and, with his colleagues in the Caucus, he
managed to get President Carter to band the sale of guns to the RUC.

“It was the first time that an American President had done anything of substance for
the Irish.”

It was obvious that all three speakers had read the book (Donal Donnelly twice), and
all three referred to the death of the author’s brother, Patrick in 1958 whilst on
active service, and also Fr Sean’s stickability and tenacity.

To his brother, Frank, it was ‘he is just born stubborn’.

The author himself was brief, as if overwhelmed by the turn-out. However, he was at
pains to point out that the people in the US Congress who had helped him the most
‘were not Irish, they were non-Catholic and non-Christian’. And, that was going back
40 years.

“What do you think of that?”, he asked. “Many Irish-American members of Congress
were blackmailed into silence by the Dublin and London governments.”

Washington Launch of Fr. Mc Manus’ Memoirs

2011-05-03T16:29:00.009-05:00

Chairperson Barbara Flaherty elaborates on the importance of the Book--No other book like this!

Fr. Sean explains his Struggle
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Bob Blancato recalls the early struggles

Danny Costello praises the Book!

Capitol Hill --- Tuesday, May 3, 2011 – The Washington-Baltimore Irish community turned out in force to mark the Washington launch of Fr. Sean Mc Manus’ Memoirs , My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland ( Collins Press, Cork).

Held in the Phoenix Park hotel on Capitol Hill, the event was Chaired by Mrs. Barbara Flaherty, Chairperson of the Washington Irish Committee, which was formed specifically for the launching of the book. The speaking program was kept within thirty minutes. Apart from Mrs. Flaherty and Fr. Mc Manus, the other two speakers were Bob Blancato, former long -time Chief of Staff for Congressman Mario Biaggi, and Daniel Patrick Costello, Vice President for Advancement, Gonzaga College High School, Washington, DC, author of the Rag Tree: A Novel of Ireland (2009).

Mrs. Flaherty set the scene in her opening remarks:
“We are here to celebrate this book—My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland—a book that is hugely important. It is probably the most significant memoir in the historiography of Irish-American Nationalism since “Recollections of an Irish Rebel” by John Devoy. It is destined to be a classic, and given its correct place among Irish historical books. It is thought provoking and stimulating. Moreover, it is the definitive book on the only Irish Lobby on Capitol Hill. It is a factual presentation of what happened in Washington. Additionally, the book clearly, and sequentially chronicles the work of the Irish National Caucus. It is replete with primary sources illuminating how the U.S. Congress dealt with the Irish Issue.
What is essentially important to understand is that there is no other book out there like this. Nobody else could have written such a book because no one else -- and certainly no other Catholic priest -- has done what Fr. Mc Manus has done on Capitol Hill for equality, peace and justice in Northern Ireland—and for almost 40 years. To quote the great Congressman Ben Gillman, former Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, “No one has done more than Fr. Mc Manus to keep the U. S. Congress on track regarding justice and peace in Ireland.”

Mrs. Flaherty then quoted what well known Dublin journalist, Vincent Browne, said at the recent Dublin launching of the book :“… Sean had stood out against powerful forces in a fight for justice and fairness. I didn’t always agree with the causes he supported but I admired his persistence, his courage, and his relentlessness. And admiration that one person, almost alone, could make such impact on public policy in the United States”.
Bob Blancato fondly reminisced about the mighty battles Congressman Mario Biaggi and Fr. Sean fought for Irish justice in the 70’s – when it was by no means fashionable.
Danny Costello enthusiastically praised the book as being very well written, with a compelling narrative – a must-read for all concerned Irish-Americans.
Fr. Mc Manus emphasized his well-known theme :
“The thing that has made the most vivid impression on me regarding my work with the U.S. Congress is that in the early years those who helped me most were not Irish and often not Catholic. They were Italian-Americans, Jewish-Americans and African-Americans.
Congressman Mario Biaggi (D-NY) is the great Italian example. Congressman Ben Gilman (R-NY) is the perfect Jewish example. The late Congressman Hamilton Fish IV (R-NY) was the fine Protestant example. And Congressman Don Payne (R-NJ) is the prime African-American example. (Later on, in the 1980’s, there were a number Irish Catholic Members of Congress who would be very helpful to me --- Congressmen Chris Smith (R-NJ), Ritchie Neal ( D-MA) , Tom Manton ( D-NY), Jimmy Walsh (R-NY), and Joe Crowley(D-NY), among others).
And, of course, without the support of ordinary, decent and hardworking Irish-Americans all across America, I could not have done a thing”.

Further book-launches are being planned in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, etc., because as Chairperson Flaherty said , “This book is the perfect tool to educate Irish Americans on American involvement with Irish issues, and to reinvigorate their interest in the Irish Cause. There is no other book like it”.

VINCENT BROWNE ON FR. SEAN

2011-04-23T09:30:00.001-05:00

“… Sean had stood out against powerful forces in a fight for justice and fairness. I
didn’t always agree with the causes he supported but I admired his persistence, his
courage, his relentlessness. And admiration that one person, almost alone, could
make such impact on public policy in the United States”.

-- Vincent Browne

A SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH

2011-04-22T18:06:00.003-05:00

IN THE LION'S DEN

2011-04-19T20:09:00.002-05:00

FR. SEAN ELABORATES

2011-04-19T19:48:00.002-05:00

Michael D.Higgins Greets Fr. Sean

2011-04-19T19:33:00.003-05:00

Michael D. Higgins former TD, and now running for Irish Presidency.

THUMBS UP TO ATTENDEE RAYMOND McCORD

2011-04-19T19:18:00.004-05:00

THE PUBLISHER--CON COLLINS

2011-04-19T17:56:00.003-05:00

Con Collins, Collin's Press, addresses the guests.

MANHATTAN AND BARCELONA

2011-04-19T16:45:00.008-05:00

Fr. Sean with twin nephews Brian and Crosby O'Hare and Brian's son Liam. Brian and family traveled from their home in Barcelona, and Crosby journeyed from Manhattan.

UNDERSTAND THIS!

2011-04-19T13:39:00.004-05:00

FR. SEAN EXPLAINS THE "STRUGGLE".

Human Rights Champion Set for West Belfast Book Launch

2011-04-11T16:33:00.016-05:00

Andersonstown News Monday

West Belfast-based victims’ group Relatives for Justice are hosting the launch of Fr Sean McManus’s memoirs in Belfast next week.
‘My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland’ is the new book by the founder of the Washington DC Irish National Caucus.
Fr McManus, who will be in West Belfast for the launch, has dedicated his life to championing the cause of truth, justice, equality and peace in Ireland by using his influence on American political and social life for positive change in Ireland.
Speaking in advance of the launch, which takes place in the Cultúrlann on Saturday, April 9 at 1pm, RFJ Director Mark Thompson said for four decades Fr McManus has worked tirelessly and campaigned on key justice, equality and human rights issues relating to the North of Ireland.
“Despite being at times a lone voice, and facing a British government with endless human and financial resources at its disposal in Washington DC, Fr Sean never faltered or was deterred in his work,” he said.
“This is a credit to his character and resilience, for it could never have been easy against these odds. Irish people the world over have tremendous admiration for his work, his energy, his drive and passion to right wrong.
“The counter-challenge of his work by the British in Washington DC was met head-on by Fr Sean where he regularly took on and exposed the propaganda and misinformation of the British government by shining a light – the light of truth – creating awareness and providing a voice for those affected by British policy in Ireland who were also marginalised.
“He has worked closely with key influential members of the US Congress and Senate securing Congressional hearings and political interventions, many of which were, and are, a catalyst for progressive change.”
Mark said for the families, who have lost loved ones at the hands of the British state Fr Sean was the people's champion and a person of great integrity on whom they could always rely to fight their corner.
“Importantl,y Fr Sean ensured our representation and participation at key events, and hearings down the years on Capitol Hill (Washington),” he continued.
“Fr Sean ensured that impunity for human rights violations in the North was and is challenged.
“Fr Sean has built alliances, partnerships, and through his dedicated work forged close friendships with the great and the good of America and Irish-Americans, all the time bringing to the attention of the American public the cause of equal rights, justice and peace in Ireland.”
RFJ Chairperson Clara Reilly recalled the first time she met Fr Sean, in the 1970s in Washington with the younger sister of Martin Forsythe, who was killed by the RUC.
“Fr Sean facilitated a meeting for us with members of the US Congress and Senate where we also raised the issue of rubber and plastic bullets and the killing of young Brian Stewart,” recalled Clara.
“I was a member of the Association for Legal Justice (ALJ) and over the years the link between the ALJ and Fr Sean's work in Washington DC proved to be of vital importance.
“Along with the late Fr Brian Brady, from St Joseph's Training College based at Trench House Andersonstown, with Fr Raymond Murray, the prison chaplain at Armagh, and the late Fr Denis Faul, one of the chaplains at Long Kesh, a formidable team of clerics and lay-people networked across the Atlantic to Irish America.
“Fr Sean was a beacon of hope in Washington's Capitol Hill where he raised the issues of brutality and torture within the prisons and interrogation centres across the North.
“Saturday, April 9, therefore, is an important day on which we can show our appreciation and support to Fr Sean McManus and his work when he visits Belfast for the launch of his book.
“This book will be a testimony to all that work and a record of those years and thus both historically and currently an important illustration of the journey – the struggle for justice.”

_

US Support Cited by Priest

2011-04-09T06:03:00.001-05:00

Irish Times. Wednesday, April 6, 2011

The greatest support in the US on issues of injustice, rights and
discrimination in Northern Ireland came from outside the Irish-
American community, campaigner Fr Seán McManus has said.

“Those who helped me most were not Irish and often not Catholic,” Fr
McManus said. “They were Jewish-Americans, Italian-Americans and
African-Americans.”

His book, My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland, was
launched last night at Dublin Castle. Fr McManus has lived in the US
since 1972 and he founded the Irish National Caucus lobby group in 1974.

“Congressman Mario Biaggi is the great Italian example,” he said last
night, “and Congressman Don Payne is the prime African-American
example.”

Fr. Sean and Donal Donnely

2011-04-06T12:56:00.006-05:00

Two famous authors!

Fr. Sean's Brother Frank Calls the Meeting to Order!!

2011-04-06T12:14:00.004-05:00

Frank Mc Manus, Chairman of the Committee for the Dublin Book Launch and older brother of Fr. Sean, calls the Meeting to order.

DUBLIN BOOK LAUNCH HUGE SUCCESS

2011-04-06T08:43:00.014-05:00

Vincent Browne, Fr. Sean and Bobby Bellagh

Fr.Sean and Derek Warfield

Fr. Mc Manus’ Dublin launch of his Memoirs, “ My American Struggle
for Justice in Northern Ireland “ (Collins Press, Cork) was a
resounding success.
Held in Dublin Castle -- once the seat of British administration for
the whole of Ireland –it attracted over three hundred guests. Apart
from Fr. Mc Manus, the two speakers were noted journalist and TV
personality Vincent Browne and well-known artist and activist, Bobby
Ballard.Fr. Mc Manus expressed his deep appreciation for each esteemed
speaker

Entertainment was provided by Derek Warfield – Young Wolfe Tones.

“ I am so deeply grateful for the great Derek Warfield for offering to
perform for us. He has been a good friend for many years. He is not
only a great balladeer but most importantly a great Dublin patriot who
has never forgotten his roots or his duty to speak up for (not just
sing) for Irish justice”.

Referring to the size of the crowd, Fr. Mc Manus expressed
amazement. : “I could not believe it. It speaks volumes for the
ability of the organizing Committee, headed by my brother, Frank and
Donal Donnelly -- and composed of, among others, Tom Cooper of the
Irish National Congress, Sean Sherwin, John O’ Mahoney, Paddy O’
Regan, Charlie Murphy and John Mc Kay”.

Donal Donelly is the author of the recent book, “ Prisoner
1082” (Collins Press, Cork) about his great escape in 1960 from the
infamous Crumlin Road Jail, Belfast. This is a very important book,
especially for Irish-Americans who want to learn more about the
1956-1962 period.

Fr. Mc Manus’ Speech in Dublin Castle on the Launching of his Memoirs

2011-04-06T08:01:00.001-05:00

When I first went to America on October 2, 1972, I assumed that there
were two basic constituencies I could appeal to: The left wing of the
Democratic Party (especially the prominent Irish-American members) and
the Social Gospel wing of the Catholic Bishops Conference.

I knew I had my work cut out for me when Tip O’Neill—in response to my
pressurizing—would put his big hand on my shoulder and say with
evident glee, “Now Fr. Sean, how can you expect me to be more
patriotic than Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave or Taoiseach Jack Lynch?”

But as Speaker (1977 – 1987 )Tip’s collusion with the British
Government would go to extraordinary and appalling lengths.

We got the famed Jack Anderson Column – nationally syndicated and
carried in nearly 1, 000 papers – to expose Tip’s collusion three
times within one year, 1977-1978.

(1) “ Speaker Thomas (Tip) O’ Neill, the big beloved boss of the
House, is as Irish as anyone who ever kissed the Blarney stone. But he
quietly squashed a congressional hearing on alleged British outrages
against the Irish…To dig up atrocities, the speaker pleaded, would
only inflame the already emotional issue. It would be an
“inappropriate” time to stir up trouble over Irish rights, he said”.
(“ Irish Politics”. Jack Anderson and Les Whitten. New York Daily
News. October 21, 1977).

(2) “ Under pressure from two foreign governments, President Carter is
betraying a campaign promise to speak out against human rights
violation committed by British authorities in Northern Ireland. He
made the pledge to…[the Irish National Caucus] in Pittsburgh six days
before the 1976 election, in exchange for their endorsement. Shortly
after Carter took office… the Irish National Caucus… supplied the
White House with 10 documented cases of alleged torture perpetrated by
British security forces against suspected IRA members or sympathizers…
A move to air the charges on Capitol Hill is being thwarted by House
Speaker Tip O’Neill at the behest of the Irish government…An aide told
us that the Speaker, a Carter confidant, was told by prominent members
if the Irish government that an investigation would be
counterproductive. In Dublin’s view, the Irish National Caucus is pro-
I.R.A., and a congressional hearing would signal U.S. support of the
terrorist IRA gunmen”. (“White House Policy”. Jack Anderson.
Washington Post, June 17, 1978).

(3) “ Human rights violations, reported to us by a number of reliable
sources, have put Northern Ireland on an unenviable par with some of
the most barbarous regimes of communist commissars or tinhorn Latin
American dictators. The British are trampling on the rights of Irish
citizen in a manner reminiscent of Oliver Cromwell’s iron-fisted rule
more than three centuries ago…An Ad Hoc Committee of 119 members has
been formed in congress. But the committee’s attempts to publicize the
outrages being committed in Northern Ireland, along with the efforts
of the Irish National Caucus, have been blocked by House Speaker Tip
O’ Neill and other congressional leaders who are reluctant to offend
our British ally”. (“Carter Pressured on Northern Ireland”. Jack
Anderson. Detroit Free Press. October 29, 1978).

Congressional Hearings on British violations of human rights were
banned from 1974 to 1995. If that is not collusion, what is? However,
we must not fail to mention here that that Garret FitzGerald has also
proudly claimed credit for the ban on the Congressional Hearings.

How do you think history is going to judge that collusion?

Now, to my second parable: the collusion of the American Catholic
Bishops

The Office of International Justice and Peace is the department of the
U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops that would deal with the Northern
Ireland issue.

On January 6,1978, I met with that office. Afterwards I said, “ It was
just like being at the British Embassy. The Office of Justice and
Peace has become the ecclesiastical arm of British propaganda”. As if
to prove my point, that Office would release the following letter:“ It
is the Provos who are mainly responsible for the violence in Northern
Ireland and this is recognized by every careful and impartial
observer… after due consultation with the Irish bishops, and in
recognition of the efforts being made by the governments and church
bodies directly concerned, we [the US Catholic Conference] had
concluded that there is no appropriate basis for public intervention
in the problems of Northern Ireland, either by this conference, or any
branch of the United States government…" (October 17, 1979).

Do you think for a moment the Office of Justice and Peace would have
made such a statement without checking with the Irish Embassy, and
probably with the British Embassy too? Although Irish diplomats may
deny it, I regard that statement as the clearest, most accurate
expression of the policy of the Dublin governments of that time :there
no basis for United States intervention.

In August 1979 the Irish National Caucus led a successful campaign to
have a ban put on the sale of U.S. weapons to the RUC. Well, later on,
in January 1981, Archbishop Hickey of Washington and Bishop Thomas
Kelly, Secretary General of the US Catholic Conference, visited The
White House to urge President Reagan to continue the ban on military
aid to El Salvador.

I wrote to them, urging them to also urge President Reagan to continue
the ban on the sale of US weapons to the RUC.

Archbishop Hickey responded to me saying, "… Bishop Kelly and I will
be in touch with our counterparts in Northern Ireland to seek their
advice in this vexing question. Our intervention will depend on their
response". And Bishop Kelly replied "… We have known of your position
[on the RUC] for some time… In the case of El Salvador, we have been
encouraged to take what action we have taken by the local hierarchy.
We have not, at this time, received such encouragement from the Irish
hierarchy on the subject you have brought to our attention…” (Hickey’s
letter, February 6, 1981; Kelly’s letter, January 29, 1981).

How do you think history will judge that ecclesiastical collusion?

The thing that has made the biggest personal impression on me
regarding my work with the U.S. Congress is that – at least in the
early years -- those who helped me most were not Irish and often not
Catholic. They were Jewish-Americans, Italian-Americans and African-
Americans.

Congressman Mario Biaggi ( D-NY) is the great Italian example. And
Congressman Don Payne( R-NJ) is the prime African-American example

Many Irish-American Members of Congress were blackmailed into silence
by the London and Dublin governments! “Thou shall not condemn the
Brits, lest you be seen as helping the IRA.”

Here is a simple statement of fact. Big name Irish-Americans did not
lead the charge in pressurizing the British government on injustice in
Northern Ireland.

• Not on the torture of political prisoners

• Not on the shoot-to-kill policy

• Not on anti-Catholic discrimination

• Not on the Birmingham Six or Guilford Four

• Not on the State assassination of Pat Finucane

Indeed, big name Irish-American politicians tried to block our efforts
on these campaigns and tried to sabotage the Mac Bride Principles.

That is a simple statement of fact. The compliant media never
challenged those in Ireland—North and South—who advised those American
politicians to oppose our non-violent campaigns.

And yet, despite this huge opposition, we prevailed. Once the House of
Representatives was no longer controlled by Irish-Catholic Speakers we
got our Hearings and we got the Mac Bride Principles passed, not only
into State law, but also U.S. law. It took a Protestant Speaker, the
conservative Newt Gingrich, to lift the ban on Hearings; and it took a
Jewish-American -- the great Congressman Ben Gilman as Chairman of
the House International Relations Committee -- to schedule many
Hearings. And it took a good Baptist from The Bible Belt, Bill
Clinton, to end the immoral policy of, “ hands off Northern Ireland
lest we offend jolly old England”.

Here is another thing about my American struggle: I was never
supported by big money. No big foundations helped us. No famous
Irish -American rich people helped us significantly. My support came
from the ordinary working class people. That makes me feel good
because with big money comes big strings. And I had no big political
or ecclesiastical strings to hold me down.

God bless America, and God save Ireland.

Fr. Mc Manus on Killing of Policeman

2011-04-04T11:44:00.001-05:00

Fr Mc Manus, in Dublin for the launch of his Memoirs, released the following statement :
"I conclude my book , My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland, with this :” I am hopeful for the future of Ireland – the whole island of Ireland. Even though, I think, we have still a long way to go. I believe “the Union” will die on the vine. The only way it can be saved is if the IRA came back into business. One of the great Irish ironies! But it is an irony I hope that patriotic young Irish men and women take heed of: No young Irish person need be killed – or kill -- for full Irish freedom”.

That is why I am now so deeply grieved by the recent death of the young policeman. It was a terrible act, should not have happened and is to be totally condemned.
I appeal to those who did the killing to quit their campaign and to embrace the peace-process, as the only way "forward".

Ireland's not-so-silent witness in the United States

2011-04-03T13:51:00.008-05:00

Fr Sean meets "the greatest" Muhammad Ali.

IMPARTIAL REPORTER.

Friday, 1st April, 2011 9:30am

by Sarah Saunderson

It was the ultimate irony that a Kinawley priest moved to America in the early 1970s to keep him quiet ended up walking the most powerful corridors of the world to see laws passed there as a result of his work.

The Kinawley-born priest Father Sean McManus was sent to the States in 1972 and within years the Irish National Caucus, the lobby group he founded, was based at the heart of the American administration on Washington's Capitol Hill. His name is synonymous with the fair employment code the MacBride Principles which have become enshrined in American legislation.

His record in getting the US to take notice of what is happening this side of the Atlantic has seen him organise for Congressional Hearings for the both Catholic and Protestant families seeking justice.

Born in 1944, he was one of a family of 12 of Celia and Patrick McManus. It was at 16 that he moved to a Junior Seminary in England to train for the priesthood. "Most people in their life receives that call, not necessarily to the ministry but a call to dedicate one's life to a cause greater than their own immediate concern," he said. His move to Shropshire in 1960 came just two years after his 29-year-old brother Patrick, a leading member of the IRA, was killed when a bomb he was transporting exploded prematurely on July 15, 1958.

"Obviously it had a huge effect on the family. Clearly everybody responded differently to it. By itself it would not necessarily explain the call. A lot of people have gotten that call without a traumatic experience. But it certainly meant I had to serve a cause greater than myself. I think that was the essence of a calling. You put your own interest second, third or fourth," he recalled.

Sean was 14 years old when Patrick died. Tender years for such an experience. "Oh yes. Now when I talk to other folk at home, Protestant and Catholic who have experienced traumatic events in their life, it does not really matter what age they were at. It was still a profound experience. You speak to any victim of the Troubles in Northern Ireland Protestant or Catholic they all tell you that you never really recover, you learn to deal with it and keep on going. You never really recover fully on one level. It always haunts you. Having said that as one who believes in everlasting eternal life, I do not see death as the ultimate disaster. I do not have any great fear or hang-up about death itself," he said.

It was in England that he trained and worked before going to the United States in 1972. "That explains my perfect English accent," he laughed. The move across the Atlantic was not entirely of his own volition. "I was removed in a nice combination of Church and State action. I was speaking out about the situation back home," he said. "That was an absolute taboo in those days. In England you could not do that as an Irish priest. I could have gone into Hyde Park [to Speaker's Corner] and talked about anything and everything but one thing you could not talk about was the North. That was a long tradition that an Irish priest will not say anything about the Government," he said.

He got courage to say the unsayable was due to a "commitment to justice". "I wasn't concerned about my ecclesiastical career. In my mind I never wanted to be a Bishop or a Cardinal. I was free because I had no shackles," he said. But looking back 40 years ago, he admits as a young member of a religious order there was a "huge pressure to toe the line and not rock the boat".

The move to America was "absolutely, exclusively and specifically" to keep him quiet.

"In trying to shut me up they sent me to the one place on the planet where I would never be silent or could be silenced," he said.

His interest was not so much politics, but "justice and peace". "Doing justice is an absolute Biblical imperative:

'This is what Yahweh asks of you: only this, to do justice, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God'," he said quoting Micah 6:8. "I have always based my work on the fundamental premise that justice and peace are Gospel issues. One cannot be truly Catholic or Protestant unless she or he is committed to social justice," he said.

He is modest about his success in knocking on and getting through the doors of the great and the good in American politics. "It was the song and not the singer; the song being the message," he said. In his forthcoming book "My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland", the photo section captures him speaking to a range of influential figures including Bill Clinton.

Two years after he arrived in the States he had set up the lobby group the Irish National Caucus. By 1978, the Caucus had set up its headquarters on Washington's Capitol Hill.

"Every exile feels a bit guilty in leaving his homeland, especially if it is a very turbulent time. Then he feels strongly committed to do something. I felt a compulsion to do something," he said.

He was not without his critics. "At one stage every political interest in America and everyone in Northern Ireland and southern Ireland, every political party and every group practically opposed me".

"The US government position was hands off Northern Ireland because it is under the British sphere of influence. The Irish government of those times had no policy," he said. "I knew what was going to happen. You cannot take on the British government without expecting to be whacked on the head many, many times" he said.

And how he took them on was through the initiation of the MacBride Principles, a fair employment code of conduct for companies doing business in Northern Ireland named after Sean MacBride. The success of his Caucus with the Principles, which became enshrined in US Law, he admits has been his greatest achievement. "The US must not subsidise discrimination and injustice in Northern Ireland. That is what the MacBride Principles are all about," he said.

"The MacBride campaign really started to come into its own when the British government ceased using the phrase 'mind your own business'. Even Maggie Thatcher stopped using that. When Americans mind what their own money is doing, they are minding their own business".

He recalls stormy meetings at companies like Shortts in Belfast. The link between the States and Northern Ireland was the billions of US dollars invested in companies in Northern Ireland. "Their business was coming from America. This was America's business," he says.

Doors are still opening for Father McManus. He has facilitated a Congressional Hearing for the Ballymurphy group representing the families of 11 people killed by the British Army in 1971. He has also arranged for Raymond McCord to tell his story. His son, Raymond McCord junior, was murdered by the UVF in 1997. His father has lead a campaign to expose police collusion between the British government and police informers.

He talks about the impact Raymond McCord's story had in Washington. "I walked into the Chairman's office Bill Delahunt [Chairman of the House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight], and said I have been going on and annoying you guys about Catholics are mistreated by the British government. This morning I am bringing you a Protestant from Belfast who has had much the same experience. That makes a powerful impact on Capitol Hill".

Raymond McCord's Relatives for Justice group is sponsoring his book launch in Belfast. "I think he is one of the bravest men I have met in my life. There is not a sectarian bone in his body. That impresses me greatly. We would disagree totally on the Union but on the issues that he and his family have been treated badly and there is a need for justice to be done, he has my 100 per cent support," he said.

Looking back over his decades of work, he noted: "The people who have helped me most are non Catholic and non Irish. The biggest example of all is Bill Clinton, a Southern Baptist from the Bible belt. Go figure. In that there is the important message of religious groups helping each other. When people of different faiths come together to work for justice that is when ecumenism becomes its most meaningful self".

There was no "grand design" in writing his book. "I always knew that if I didn't get it down a lot of the stuff would be lost. No-one has done the stuff I have done, whether you believe I have done it well or poorly, nobody has been at it as long as I have and done this work of Capitol Hill. I felt an obligation to get it out there," he said.

His work he now does with a "lighter heart" than in the past. "Thank God the horrible violence to a great degree has stopped. I hope to God it will never come back," he said.

The St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Washington mark the changes. "It is nice to see here on St. Patrick's Day all the people out from home. There was one time the entire Unionist tradition and all Unionist leaders in effect boycotted America. Now I have met them all. I met Tom Elliott on St. Patrick's Day. As you would say in Kinawley, he is a fine Protestant man. I had a nice chat with him. There is nobody on the Unionist side I haven't met. I have always had a friendly relationship with Rev. Ian Paisley," he said.

His sister is also in America, two other siblings live in Britain and two remain in Fermanagh including his brother, the Lisnaskea solicitor Frank, who was Unity MP for Fermanagh/south Tyrone from 1970 to 1974. Six of the McManus siblings have passed away. "Death has been creeping up on the family over the last few years," he said.

Due to "brave men and women" like Tony Blair, Mo Mowlam, the Clintons, for the first time in years there is a sense of "contentment and hope" about home,

Because of his work, he feels very connected with the place, taking all the daily and weekly local papers.

Indeed the accent he jokes about still sounds very local. "I am still a Kinawley man. I hope, please God, my bones will rest in Kinawley when the time comes," he said.

Father Sean McManus' book "My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland" (Collins Press) is to be given its Fermanagh launch on April 14 at Enniskillen Library.

Derek Warfield to Perform for Fr Mc Manus

2011-04-03T06:07:00.000-05:00

The legendary Irish ballad singer , Derek Warfield – for many years

leader of the Wolfe Tones and now leader of the Young Wolfe Tones –

will provide entertainment for the launch of Fr. Mc Manus’s Memoirs in

Dublin Castle on Tuesday, April 5 at 6:30 PM.

“ I am honored and humbled Derek would do this for me,” said Fr. Mc

Manus. “ He is not only a legend and a great Irish patriot but also a

dear friend”.

Fr. Mc Manus’ Memoirs, My American Struggle for Justice in Northern

Ireland ( Collins Press, Cork) has just been released. Besides the

launch in Dublin Castle, Fr Mc Manus is also launching the book at

several other venues : Belfast : Saturday, April 9 at I PM.

Cultúrlann 216 Falls Road;Bellaghy : Sunday, April 10 at 7 PM. Wolfe

Tones, GAA grounds;Enniskillen :Thursday, April 14 at 8 PM. Library.

Fr. Mc Manus to Launch Memoirs in Ireland

2011-03-24T12:12:00.002-05:00

Capitol Hill. Thursday, March 24, 2011—“ There was a time the only way Fr. Mc Manus would have gotten into Dublin Castle was in chains, in the dungeon.”

Thus spoke an Irish-American journalist when told Fr Mc Manus would be launching and signing his newly published Memoirs in Dublin Castle on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 at 6:30 PM.
The Dublin Castle event is the first in a series of launches of My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland (Collins Press. Cork).
The others are as follows:
Belfast: Saturday, April 9, 2011 at 2 PM. Cultúrlann 216 Falls Road.
Bellaghy: Sunday, April 10 at 7 PM. Wolfe Tones, GAA grounds,

Enniskillen: Thursday, April. 14, 2011. Library. 8PM.

While Belfast and Enniskillen are obvious venues, some have expressed surprise at the Bellaghy venue -- a rather small area.
“ That’s because I have a special connection to Bellaghy -- the home of two dead Hunger Strikers: Francis Hughes (May 12, 1981) and Tom Mc Elwee (August 8, 1981) who were first cousins to each other,” explained Fr Mc Manus. “ On May 30,1981 the Irish National Caucus brought Francis’ brother Oliver to Washington and later brought out Mrs. Mc Elwee, Tom’s mother”.

Fr Mc Manus continued: “When Oliver, now an Independent Republican Councilor, heard about my Memoirs, he did me the great honor of sponsoring my visit to Bellaghy. I greatly look forward to seeing the Hughes and the Mc Elwees”.

The Belfast launch is being sponsored by Relatives for Justice. Fr. Mc Manus expressed great appreciation for Mark Thompson and Clare Reilly,two leaders of the sponsoring group. One of the speakers will be Raymond Mc Cord. The event is also being strongly supported by the Ballymurphy Massacre Committee. Fr Mc Manus recently helped to arrange their participation in a Congressional Hearing.
END

CONGRESSMAN SMITH PROMISES TO INCREASE PRESSURE ON BRITS

2011-03-16T20:25:00.003-05:00

Four witnesses : John Finucane, John Teggart, Ciaran Mc Airt and Jane Winter

CAPITOL HILL –Wednesday, March 16, 2011—At the end of a particularly powerful Congressional Hearing, Chairman Chris Smith (R-NJ) pledged that he would escalate Congressional pressure on the British Government to end its “ obfuscation” on the four individual Northern Ireland cases before his Committee.

The four cases were : the Pat Finucane case, on which Pat’s son, John testified; the Ballymurphy Massacre, on which John Teggart testified; the Mc Gurk Bar bombing, on which Ciaran Mc Airt testified; and the Raymond Mc Cord Jr case, on which Raymond Sr ( who was unable to travel) submitted written testimony.

Congressman Smith pointed out that he was not only the Chairman of the Helsinki Commission (which held the Hearing) but also chairman of the House Human Rights Committee. He promised that he would continue to hold more hearings before both committees.

“ Congressman Smith is a real blessing to everyone who cares about human rights in Northern Ireland”, said Fr. Sean Mc Manus, president of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus. “ He has given the families of the four cases great hope and encouragement that their cases will remain a top priority in the new Congress, where the Republicans control the House of Representatives”.

Fr. Mc Manus concluded by praising all the witnesses, including Jane Winter of the British Irish Watch. “ John Finucane and Jane Winter have testified many times before and are thus seasoned witnesses. But it was the first time for John Teggart and Ciaran Mc Airt. I was very proud of both of them. They did their families proud and have made a huge contribution to the justice of their cause. By her presence at the hearing, Briege Foyle – daughter of Joan Connolly , one of the eleven murdered in the Ballymurphy Massacre – added further dignity and urgency to the cause. As did, of course, the presence of Mrs. Geraldine Finucane, who has faithfully attended so many of these hearings on her late husband, Pat.

Fr. Sean Mc Manus

President

Irish National Caucus

P.O. BOX 15128

Capitol Hill

Washington, DC 20003-0849

Tel. 202-544-0568

Fax. 202-488-7537

sean@irishnationalcaucus.org

Irish-Americans Welcome Hearing

2011-03-15T17:38:00.003-05:00

Fr. Sean Mc Manus ( center) with two Witnesses at Hearing : Ciaran Mc Airt( left) and John Teggart. Ciaran testified on behalf of the victims of Mc Gurk Bar bombing and John on behalf of the Ballymurphy Massacre Committee.

Praise Chairman Smith’s Record

Capitol Hill—Wednesday, March 16, 2011--- Irish-Americans welcome this Congressional Hearing on Northern Ireland: “Northern Ireland: Why Justice in Individual Cases Matters” before the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (commonly known as The Helsinki Commission) Chaired by Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ).

“ This will be the twelfth hearing Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) has held on human rights in Northern Ireland. Nobody has ever come near that remarkable record in the entire history of the U.S. Congress”, said Fr. Sean Mc Manus, president of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus.

Fr. Mc Manus – who has been pushing Hearings on Northern Ireland for almost 40 years – added:“ And to think that under Speakers Tip O’Neill and Tom Foley -- and others -- all human rights hearings on Northern Ireland were once shamefully banned -- from 1974 to 1995”.

“ I greatly welcome this Hearing”, Fr. Mc Manus continued. “ It is so wonderful to see the Ballymurphy Massacre Committee and the families of the Mc Gurk Bar bombing getting to bring their case before the U.S Congress. I am sorry that my good fried, Raymond Mc Cord, the Belfast Protestant who has waged a heroic battle for justice, was unable to travel”.

Then referring to the other case before the Committee, Fr. Mc Manus explained : “

The Pat Finucane case has long been of the highest concern to Irish-Americans. Solidarity with Mrs. Finucane and her family is an enduring Irish-American value and a top priority”.

Returning to the excellent record of Congressman Smith, Fr. Mc Manus said: “ In my just released Memoirs, My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland”(Collins Press, Cork), I write this about him: “[In January 1995] Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, became Chairman of the Human Rights Subcommittee. He would go on to hold eleven hearings on the Pat Finucane case and other human rights issues. Chris is the quintessential good guy – dedicated, courageous, and committed to human rights everywhere”(page 240). [The book is now available at (British )Amazon .co.uk and soon will be available at Amazon.com

“ Incidentally”, Fr. Mc Manus concluded, “ at the last moment I was able to get a photo of the Ballymurphy Massacre Committee included my Memoirs, which further illustrates just how important I regard this case”.

END

Fr. Sean Mc Manus

President

Irish National Caucus

P.O. BOX 15128

Capitol Hill

Washington, DC 20003-0849

Tel. 202-544-0568

Fax. 202-488-7537

Washington Committee Formed for Launching of Fr. Mc Manus’s Memoirs

2011-01-09T21:49:00.006-06:00

Co-Sponsored by Irish Echo
Capitol Hill. Sunday, January 9, 2011 --- The Irish in the greater Washington, DC area have rallied together to form the “Washington Irish Committee” for the launching and signing of Fr. Mc Manus’s Memoirs: My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland.
The Memoirs will be published in Ireland in March by Collins Press, Cork, and the Washington launching is on Sunday, May 1, 2011 • 2-4 PM • Phoenix Park Hotel • 520 North Capitol St. NW • Washington, D.C. 20001 (across from Union Station, which also has ample parking).
Chairperson of the Washington Irish Committee, Mrs. Barbara J. Flaherty, said: “This is a hugely important book. It is probably the most significant Memoirs in the historiography of Irish-American nationalism since Recollections of an Irish Rebel by John Devoy (1929).

Indeed, the former Chairman of the House International Relations Committee (Foreign Affairs) Ben Gilman stated before leaving Congress in 2003, “I believe historians will record that no one since John Devoy (1842-1928) has done more to organize American pressure for justice in Ireland. (The only difference being that Father Mc Manus – in keeping with his priestly calling - is committed to nonviolence).”
Mrs. Flaherty explained:“Fr. Mc Manus’s Memoirs is replete with primary sources, illuminating insights into how the United States Congress dealt with the Irish issue, and fascinating details on how-- against all odds-- he persevered and prevailed. Nobody else could have written such a book because simply no one has ever done what Fr. Mc Manus has done (for almost 40 years) on Capitol Hill for justice in Ireland”.
Mrs. Flaherty stressed she was proud that the Irish Echo is the co-sponsor of the event, and quoted the Editor, Ray O’ Hanlon and the Publisher, Mairtin O’ Muilleoir, whom both issued statements about the upcoming Memoirs.
Mrs. Flaherty concluded by expressing deep appreciation for all the excellent DC-area men and women who are serving on the Executive Committee, whose quotes appear in the accompanying document: “ Enthusiastic Anticipation For Fr. Mc Manus’s Memoirs”.

The Committee’s first meeting will be January 17, 2011 – by invitation only.

Washington Irish Committee. P.O.BOX 15128, Washington, DC. 20003-0849.

Tel. 202-544-0568(day); 301-651-3623(evening); Fax: 202-488-7537

barbara@irishnationalcaucus.org

****************
ENTHUSIASTIC ANTICIPATION FOR FR. MC MANUS’S MEMOIRS

Irish Echo

“Ireland’s had Red Knights in times gone by but for the past two generations, it has had a White knight on Capitol Hill, Fr. Sean Mc Manus. He has fought the good fight for peace and equality at the very heart of the U.S. administration, enduring barbs and brickbats from the elites but earning the reward money can’t buy: the heartfelt gratitude of Northern nationalists. He has been a beacon for seekers after justice from all backgrounds, and hisMemoirs is a must read.” -- Mairtin O’Muilleoir, CEO Belfast Media Group

“Fr. Mc Manus, from his Capitol Hill office, has been a prominent and influential figure in the quest for progress and peace with justice in Northern Ireland, blending knowledge of his native land with experience drawn from his years of dealing with the intricacies of the political system in his adopted one. His has been a unique role. Long may it continue.”—Ray O” Hanlon, Editor.

Executive Committee of Washington Irish Committee on Book Launching

In alphabetical order

Rich Aleksy, President VA. AOH: “From the inception of the Irish National Caucus, 1974, the AOH has been proud to support Fr. Mc Manus’s vital work. As the state president of the Virginia AOH, I, too, express my admiration for and solidarity with his great work.”

Bob April, President, D.C. AOH: “I am proud to continue the long DC-AOH history of supporting the great work of Fr. Mc Manus for justice in the North of Ireland. His book will of historic importance.”

Keith Carney, a National Director of the AOH and justice in Northern Ireland, Editor of Hibernian Digest: “There is simply no other book like this. It provides an unequaled account of how the Congress was kept on track … on opposing anti-Catholic discrimination in Northern Ireland, the Mac Bride Principles, and a host of other issues”.

Daniel Patrick Costello, Vice President for Advancement, Gonzaga College High School, Washington, DC, author of the Rag Tree: A Novel of Ireland (2009): "From the streets in the North of Ireland to the hallways of the United States Congress, Fr. Sean McManus for the past 40 years has walked the front lines of Ireland's quest for justice. Any study of Irish politics is incomplete without considering Fr. McManus's unique perspective gained from working both sides of the Atlantic.”

Ralph Day, President, Division #1, AOH: “Fr. Mc Manus’s Memoirs will make a huge contribution to Irish American history. It will be an essential read for all Americans dedicated to justice in Northern Ireland.”

Peggy Dee, D.C. LAOH:“For almost 40 years, Fr. Mc Manus has been working for peace and justice for Northern Ireland. He is to be admired for his dedication and devotion to this Cause. I enthusiastically look forward to his Memoirs and consider this a valuable read for all interested in Irish politics.

Gail Dapolito, President, D.C. LAOH: "The LAOH had the privilege of being addressed by Fr. Mc Manus. We were inspired by his wonderful work for justice and peace in our beloved Ireland. We greatly look forward to his Memoirs."

Tom Halton, Professor Emeritus, The Catholic University of America, “The word I always associate with Fr. Sean Mc Manus is adamantine—having the hardness and luster of a diamond. I have seen him in action countless times on Capitol Hill, so I can fearlessly proclaim that his book will gleam with the luster of a diamond.

Tim Harvey, President, MD AOH: “How wonderful that Fr. Mc Manus is blessing us with his Memoirs. What a story he has to tell. We all need to learn this vital part of Irish-American history.”

Andrew Healy, longtime GAA promoter: “ Fr. Mc Manus reveals in his Memoirs the central role the GAA played in his family’s life in Fermanagh, telling us that “ the GAA was in the blood”. May the GAA be in the blood of all Irish-Americans in the greater Washington area, and may we all celebrate the publishing of his Memoirs”.

Bill Hughes, Internet Commentator and author: “ I have known Fr. Mc Manus since he first made landfall in my native city of Baltimore in 1972. I have been proud to stand with him in many battles for Irish justice. I regard his Memoirs of singular importance – an essential slice of Irish-American history”.

Kathy Lay, President¸ MD LAOH: “The LAOH has always supported the outstanding work of Fr. Mc Manus. He has championed peace and justice for Catholics in Northern Ireland in the U.S. Congress for nearly 40 years. His Memoirs are of great importance.

Peggy Nicholson, Irish activist, MD: "As an ardent supporter of the Irish
Cause, I greatly look forward to F. Mc Manus's Memoirs. This book is
going to become a vital part of Irish American history.'

"Roscommon-born Professor Coilin Owens, a Joyce scholar: ‘When the history of Irish-American engagement in bringing the Troubles to a just conclusion is written, it will have to weigh the persistent and fearless efforts of Fr. McManus. His account of how the Irish National Caucus worked for decades to shape Irish-American opinion and persuade the U.S. Congress on the real issues in Northern Ireland is an important part of the story.

George Rogers, Immed. Past President DC AOH:"Fr. Sean McManus has been a fixture on the front lines in the fight for TRUE peace and justice in the North of Ireland. His unwavering work and support have been invaluable to the Catholic/Nationalists in the North and his work on educating and informing folks here in the USA has gained much American support for the cause of justice in the North of Ireland".

Washington Irish Committee. P.O.BOX 15128, Washington, DC. 20003-0849.

Tel. 202-544-0568(day); 301-651-3623(evening); Fax: 202-488-7537

barbara@irishnationalcaucus.org

Great News for Human Rights in Northern Ireland

2011-01-05T21:37:00.002-06:00

Rep. Chris Smith is Back as human Rights Chair

CAPITOL HILL. Wednesday, January 5, 2011 --- One important consequence for Ireland of the Republican takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives is that Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) is again going to Chair a Subcommittee on Hunan Rights -- as he has done before when he held a total of eleven Hearings on Northern Ireland.

There has been a slight renaming and re-configuring of subcommittees in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. This time Congressman Smith will chair the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights. He will,therefore, be able to hold Hearings on Northern Ireland.

“ This is the best possible news for those concerned about Human Rights in Northern Ireland,” said Fr. Sean Mc Manus, President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus. “ No one could be better than Chris Smith. He has an outstanding record. Irish-Americans – whether Republican or Democrat – can take great comfort in this. And they can rest assured that no pressure from any government will deflect Chris from his commitment to human rights in Ireland and around the globe”.
END

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

Ballymurphy Campaign Comes to Capitol Hill

2010-12-10T17:59:00.001-06:00

Capitol Hill. December 9, 2010 – Three relatives of the eleven people slaughtered by the British Army in the Ballymurphy Massacre have taken their campaign for justice to Capitol Hill. The Massacre took place in the immediate aftermath of Internment, August 9,1971.
Fr. Sean Mc Manus, President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus, said: “ I was delighted and honored to meet with John Teggart and his sister, Alice Harper, son and daughter of Daniel Teggart and Briege Foyle, daughter of Joan Connolly”.
Daniel Teggart (44) father of 13 and Mrs. Joan Connolly (50), mother of 8 were both murdered on August 9, 1971. The nine other victims were killed over the next two days, August 10 and 11. [For more details please see below].
Fr. Mc Manus called on all Iris-Americans worth their salt to fully support the campaigners just demand: an independent, international investigation into the Ballymurphy Massacre: “ I promise the full support of the Irish National Caucus. We will do all we can to promote their cause in the U.S. Congress”.
He concluded :”I was deeply touched listening to these three noble souls and I was inspired by their devotion to their loved ones and their dedication to finding the truth”.
END OF PRESS REEASE. PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS.
*************
Chronology of the Ballymurphy Massacre

At 3.40 a.m. on Monday 9th of August 1971 Internment without Trial was introduced by the British Government. This policy was directed and implemented by the British Army with the stated aim – “shock and stun the civilian population”. In the Ballymurphy area of West Belfast, three regiments of the British army were posted, including the Parachute Regiment who over a 3 day period killed 11 innocent civilians – ten men, including a local priest, and a mother of eight children. All eleven were unarmed civilians. The killings left 46 children without a parent. There was no proper criminal investigation. Not one member of the British Army was held to account. It is believed that had justice been administered and those held to account charged, the events of Bloody Sunday would not have happened. The terrible events in Ballymurphy for too long have remained in the shadows. Here we put the spotlight on how eleven innocent people met their deaths over a three day period in August 1971.

With the introduction of Internment, riots broke out on the street, homes were being smashed up, and there were arrests of both males and females. The community was in turmoil. The Ballymurphy parish priest Fr Hugh Mullan lived in Springfield Park and amid all the chaos attempted to calm the situation by contacting the army and members from Springmartin Flats asking them to cease their attacks on the estate. With his plea ignored local men and residents’ escorted Catholic families from their homes in Springfield Park to places of safety. One of the men, Bobby Clarke, took a baby across a field at the back of the house to safety in Moyard. On his return he was shot in the back by a parachute regiment sniper positioned on top of Springmartin Flats. In desperation, people began to shout out to get a Priest. Fr Mullan rang through to the British army again and informed them he was making his way from his home to the injured man, who he believed to be dying in the field. Fr Mullan ran carrying a white flag to the aid of Bobby Clarke, on his knees he began anointing him and assuring him he would assist him to the hospital. On straightening up he was shot and with an attempt to get away Fr Mullan was shot again. He died and lay there for 3 to 4 hours before anyone could take his remains away.

On the night he died he was due a visit from his father and mother, brother Patsy and his sister-in-law Mary. Fr. Mullan however rang them and deterred their visit knowing the unsafe circumstances Internment had brought. Listening to the news later that night they had heard that a Priest had been shot in Ballymurphy. It was then that Patsy knew it had been his brother Hugh. Knowing his brother’s caring nature and hand-on approach to helping people, he was sure his brother had been present. When Patsy’s worst fear was confirmed they asked the doctor to break the horrific news about her favourite son to their mother. They were devastated and still are to this day, finding the unjustified incident unbearable to talk about.

Fr Mullan came from a close- knit, working-class home in Portaferry, Co. Down. He was educated in St. Mary’s Belfast and after his senior exams went to sea for a year. Returning home he desired to be a Priest and so went to Maynooth. His love was people and loved to see everyone including all religions getting on and his interests included sailing, swimming and music.

One of the families’ fondest memories of Fr Mullan as a child was around their home in Portaferry. An 8 year old boy was drowning in the Strangford Lough. Fr Mullan ran 50 or 60 yards and jumped fully clothed into the water. He brought the boy back to the shore and a doctor who had arrived on the scene brought him back to life. It was later revealed that this young boy he had courageously saved was in fact Fr Mullan’s first cousin.

Fr Mullan had only been in Ballymurphy for 6 months before his undeserved murder. His last Parish in Dunloy he instigated the building of a new Parochial Hall, encouraging all who helped in the building to do so voluntary and in effect bettering the situation for Dunloy’s parishioners. Arriving in Ballymurphy his intended vocation was to motivate the community to self- enhance their lives and achieve their full potential.

Local father of two, 19 year old, Frank Quinn who lived in Moyard Park was one of the crowd assisting and escorting those being attacked in Springfield Park. When he saw his parish priest being shot and ran out from his place of safety to help him and the others injured. He took of his shirt to wrap around Bobby Clarkes shot wound in attempt to relieve the bleeding. Eye witnesses heard a shot and seen Frank jolt and then drop. He was shot once in the head by the same sniper and died instantly. The two bodies lay for hours. A few brave people removed the bodies from the field and brought them into their houses, keeping them safe all night until the ambulance arrived the next morning. However, this was not without harassment from the loyalist mob who shouted at the ambulance, “…the stiffs are in there”.

Before the news hit home Frank’s mother had heard a Priest and another man had been killed. Unknowing of her own fate she made the comment, “Some mother has a sore heart tonight” and the hours that followed revealed it was her own heart to be broken. Frank’s murder had such a damaging effect on the Quinn family household. Living in a mixed area in Stranmillis the relationship they had formed with neighbours broke as a result of the negative press given to anyone killed in Ballymurphy. They were harassed by the army and house raided on many occasions furthering damage. The house their father had put so much work into was ruined. He lost his job, then his house but the worst of all losses was his son.

Frank is remembered by his family by his popularity, huge smile and good looks. He was well known in all parts of Belfast and could adapt anywhere with anyone of any religions. He met his wife Anne when he was fifteen and was married at seventeen. At nineteen he and Anne had two children and a thriving family life. Before this he never had any problem getting the girls around the dances, but this was maybe due to the fact he was very much into his appearance. He was renowned as always keeping one on a mirror at all times and making sure his mother kept his wrangler jacket and jeans crease-free. Above all he was very generous always throwing a pound or two to the rest of his family if they were short and making sure he had enough money at the dances for a few cokes and two burgers for himself and Anne.

Frank was very close with his family both working and socialising with his father and brothers. Their Friday night ritual was to go together to Keenan’s bar for a drink and go across the street to Graham’s bookies to put a bet on the horse’s and dogs. Frank helped his Dad work as a home repairer. One of his families’ fondest memories of Frank occurred a year before he died, when he was carrying out a job beside Friars Bush graveyard on Stranmillis. Frank was in great form and had the best laugh and banter with his brothers and father. This great day is now tainted with the sad fact that Frank was to end up in a grave here only one year later.

The RUC and Parachute Regiment personnel immediately released statements to the effects that they had shot gunmen in cross fire. This was patently untrue and disproved within hours by the scores of eyewitnesses who all stated the same thing – including Bobby Clarke who survived. There was shooting from only one place – on top of Springmartin Flats. To this day the verdicts on both these deaths remain open and no one has been questioned or held to account.

The sound of bin lids echoed throughout Ballymurphy, and Joan Connolly, a mother of eight got up and went to see what was happening in her neighbourhood. She and her sister Kathleen proceeded to the Army Barrack to plead with the soldiers to let those they had arrested free. However, they were not to delay when one of the soldier’s had menacingly pointed his gun at Joan and said, “There is a bullet in here for you”. He had frightened the two sisters so much they went straight home where Joan made breakfast for her children. This was to be their last breakfast with their mother.

After she got her housework done and children sorted an exhausted Joan went to sleep. While napping Joan’s two girls, Joan and Briege left their house to see what was going on in the streets. When wakened and on realizing their absence Joan went out again with her neighbour Anna Breen to collect her girls. She was afraid there was to be more trouble that night. Joan and Anna found the girls a bit of a distance away from the Army Barracks. As they were returning home a commotion broke out, with gas bombs and plastic bullet shooting from the Henry Taggart. Briege was separated from Joan in all the commotion. Leaving Joan with Anna, Joan set off to look for Briege, going to her nephew’s house in Springfield Park. Her nephew pleaded for her to go home to her safety and that he would look for Briege, so Joan left for her home once again.

18 year old Noel Philips had been playing cards on the street that day along with his brother Robbie and a few friends. They heard word Catholic residents from Springfield Park were being attacked and needed help. Noel made his was over with a crowd to give his assistance to the families.

Danny Taggart, father of 13 had visited his daughter Alice’s house at Turflodge to check if she and her son were ok. It was at this time Danny was delighted to find out he was going to be a grandfather again as Alice was three months pregnant. Knowing Alice and his grandson was safe he returned to his own house at New Barnsley Crescent, stopping off at the shop to buy some groceries for his wife and children. This was to assure their safety so they would not have to leave the house.

It was at this time he chatted with his brother Gerard who was concerned about the excessive shooting at Springfield Park. Shots had gone through his window and he felt his family was in danger. Always helpful, Danny returned to his daughter’s home and arranged for Gerard and his family to stay with Alice where things were safer. He asked his daughter to give his hair a trim at this time, and she obliged, keeping his charismatic curls.

Exhausted Danny returned home to sleep. When he wakened he left for Gerard’s house to tell him to go-ahead over to Alice’s. The two brothers then walked to the top of Springfield Park. During the day a threatening loyalist mob had formed at Springmartin, with the crowd getting bigger and bigger as the day went on.

Danny was talking to Gerard at the corner when the first shots were fired. Gerard ran back to the house whereas Danny run down towards the Henry Taggart Army Barracks where he met people he knew including Dessie Crone, Wooly Ward, Davy Callaghan and Joseph Murphy. Noel, Joan and Danny along with others who were standing talking met the Parachute regiment running out of the army barracks, they began to shoot indiscriminately and a scene of slaughter materialized

Noel Phillips was shot in the backside and lay screaming for his mother. Seeing this Joan walked over to him and said to him, “It’s alright son, be quiet, I’ll help you, don’t be crying, they’ll not shoot again…” But they did. Joan was shot one or more times in her head. She was shot on her shoulder with the bullet traveling down her arm and out her hand. Part of her thigh was blown away too. She was heard screaming, “I am blind! I cannot see.” Eyewitnesses from a nearby house saw Joan Connelly and saw she had half her face blown off as she looked up at their house. Joan subsequently bled to death. Her autopsy reports had stated that if Joan had received medical attention she would have survived. Danny and the other men ran into a field, called the Manse, where they hid behind pillars for protection. There was a short lull in the shooting and Danny took this as an opportunity to run to safety. The paratroopers opened fired and shot him 14 times. Eyewitnesses said Danny spun and fell to the ground with his body jumping everytime he was shot.

Soldier’s started to pick up the dead and wounded and piled all bodies into a British Army Saracen. The wounded party stated they were all beaten immediately including the dead with batons. The wounded were further beaten in cells in the barracks. One of them Gerard Russell who was badly injured and very weak described how the cell he occupied had a bunk bed which the soldier’s jumped off on top of him. They poked their rifles into his open shotgun wounds to heave him up, and beat him back down again. Soldier’s then threw a naked body into the cell where Gerard heard his last gasp of breath. This was Danny Taggart, the only body later brought to the morgue without clothes.

The next morning, their families searched for their loved ones. Joan’s eldest daughter Denise frantically searched the community centres for their mother. Her husband, Dennis, rang around all the hospitals to see had anyone been admitted, describing Joan by her bright red hair. The awful news he was to receive there was a woman in the morgue with bright red hair. Dennis and his son Paul went to identify the body, taking them three attempts to identify their wife and mother.

The doctor went to the house to the aid of Joan’s heartbroken family and a car arrived to take the children away to refugee camps, not even allowed to attend their loving mother’s funeral. The Connolly family’s trauma was furthered with the vicious rumor was told that Joan had been a gun woman. No evidence or statement ever confirmed this.

Similarly, Lily Philips, Noel’s eldest sister worriedly searched the streets, in the schools and C.D.C. centres to locate her brother who hadn’t returned home. The family had heard the rumours people had been shot that night but with no names given out, they were unaware Noel had been the unlucky one. In the early hours the destructive news had reached Noel’s mother Margaret, breaking her heart and resulting in her near taking a nervous breakdown. Lily and her husband Ricky went to identify Noel’s body. His autopsy showing he had by the time of his death been shot behind the ears. The family was left devastated, shocked and angry with the unnecessary murder of their young brother.

In the same way, after a sleepless night Danny Taggart’s wife arrived at her daughter Alice’s house concerned that her husband had not come home. Alice went to the army post to inquire had her father been arrested. She was here taunted by a solider that, “…they had no time for arrests, only killing”.

They phoned around the Northern and Southern hospitals looking for Danny. They went to the local self-help organisation (Citizen Defence Committee) on the Fall’s Road for assistance and phoned anywhere they could think of. On the way back, Alice returned to the army post where she received the same statement as before, however this time some soldiers cruelly sang at her, “Where’s your Papa gone…”

After more hours of searching Alice returned to the army post for the third time. On her way she met a neighbour who confirmed her father had been shot but didn’t know if he was dead or alive. The soldiers at the army post cruelly told Alice only then that there was an unidentified body in the Lagan Bank morgue and to try there, while continuing to taunt and sing at her. Hearing what the paratroopers had said a nearby citizen offered Alice a lift. Meeting her uncle Gerard on the way they left for the morgue with the singing and taunting from the paratroopers echoing in the background.

It was at this time the shocking information of Danny’s death had hit home where his devastated wife broke the news to his children saying, “Your father has been shot, he’s dead.”

Alice and Gerard arrived at the Lagan Bank morgue on Tuesday 10th where they both identified the naked remains of Danny and to this day do not understand what happened the clothes he was wearing. He had left the house wearing a dark suit with a white, yellow and blue striped shirt. Alice insisted for his naked body to remain covered to maintain her father’s dignity.

With the continuing troubles, Danny’s remains were delayed from coming home until Thursday. Alice, the eldest of 13 was only 23 when she took it upon herself to look after her Mum who couldn’t come to term with the tragedy. The younger children were taken away to safety to refugee camps and remained away for a long period of time.

In his short lifetime, Noel Phillips worked as a bar man in the Four and Hand bar on the Lisburn Road. Here he worked for a Protestant man and made friends with people of all faiths. He never drank or smoked as he was a football enthusiast and very talented at the game. His family describes him as “happy-go-lucky” he was popular with plenty of friends, always happy and a good guy. His unfair murder left his family distraught which they have never got over.

Joan Connolly is described as a brilliant mother, loving wife, good neighbour and as the backbone of her family - always attending to them 24/7. She always looked out for others, often bringing home those more unfortunate than herself, feeding them and putting them up in comfort for a night or two. She always lent a helping hand in the chapel and in particular protecting it when the troubles began. She never took a drink, but enjoyed the occasional smoke and a game of bingo. To her dismay all her eight children did not share her bright red hair and a fond memory daughter Briege has of her late mother is the day a telegram arrived to their house telling Joan her first grandchild had inherited her bright red locks. She screamed and jumped for joy at their front door.

With the murder of their wife, mother and backbone the Connolly family had to fight for survival. Their lives deteriorated and they experienced bouts of poverty, at times not having enough money for food. They had to live their lives in deplorable conditions, which they did not deserve and which could have been prevented.

Danny Taggart’s family remembers him as devoted husband and loving father. He was a joker and the heart and soul of the house with his playful banter and wind-up nature. One of their fondest memories was when he always avoided his father-in-law everytime his wife exchanged the news she was expecting again. He was known as a diligent provider for his family and never seen them go without. In his first job he trained as a butcher for Browns in Belfast and later worked as a window cleaner, a ragman and even chopped sticks and sold them door to door. He also worked the night shift in N.I. carriers; some night’s accidentally and unknowingly dropping boxes which contained sweets and chocolate which he brought home for his children. He also loved a bet and playing practical jokes on his friends, colleagues and family. His nickname was ‘Blessed Martin’ as he had tight black curls and swarthy skin. He was a huge loss and sorely missed by a wife and 13 children who needed him and loved him dearly.

Joseph Murphy, known as Josie was shot in the leg in the Manse. Josie had left his house to look for his children knowing the trouble that had been brewing that day, but he never had the chance to return. Word reached his wife Mary that night that Josie was shot in the leg and he was ok. At 5.30 a.m. Josie’s wife Mary and a neighbour went to the Henry Taggart barracks where they were told the dead and wounded were in the hospital. She found her husband in the Royal hospital and was met by a porter who knew Josie and had been sent home for this reason. An armed guard stood at his room door.

At this time Josie explained the series of events that occurred in the Manse. The army had run out of the Henry Taggart barracks and began shooting. They had trailed those who had been shot into the Army Saracen, describing their treatment as harsh as the Nazis toward the Jews, and threw the bodies on top of each other. With Josie, they kicked and beat him repeatedly, they fired a plastic bullet into his open wound, they deprived him of medical attention and of a Priest – they only thing he asked for. He told his wife that at one point a solider lent over him to pray for him but another solider hit him on the head with the bottom of his rifle and told him not to pray for a “fenian bastard”.

When in the hospital, Josie’s kidneys started to fail and required dialysis. His autopsy reports later revealing such kidney failure was the result of the severe bruising to his torso and private area, where the soldiers had beat him repetitively.

On the 18th August, nine days after he was shot, Josie was returning from his dialysis treatment when a main blood vessel in his leg burst. He slipped into unconsciousness and the doctor confirmed Josie needed his leg amputated. Mary asked why his leg had not been amputated when he first arrived in hospital, with the doctor replying as a result of his other injuries and that her husband had more injuries than a gunshot to his leg. On the 20th August, Josie’s leg was amputated leaving him with no more than a stub. Gangrene had set in as a result of the delay in treatment and beating he received. To add to the trauma, a nurse unnecessarily and cruelly brought the amputated leg into the hall to give to the family, leaving Mary in an awful state. Josie had chatted on other occasions about the ill-treatment from the medical staff in the hospital. At one point he woke to find a nurse playing with his life-surviving equipment.

On Saturday 21st August, under the advice of hospital nurses, Mary went home from the hospital she had never left for last few weeks. She took her children to mass and was met by a neighbour as she left the chapel telling her she needed to call the hospital. When she did she was insensitively and harshly told her husband had died. Joseph Murphy died on Sunday 22nd August, on his twin boy’s Jim and Thomas’ 16th birthday.

The day of Josie’s funeral two paratroopers came down to the Murphy household and laughed at the family. From then on the family home was raided on a daily and nightly basis. It ruined the Murphy family, leaving them all devastated and never allowing them to properly grieve for their husband and father. Regardless of the soldiers ill-treatment for their family, Mary remained courteous and caring for those who were injured, often tending to them, many of the soldiers she had helped returning to their house years later to thank her. She strived to steer her own children away from bitterness and anger and acted in the way she felt God would want her to. God was for Mary the only thing that got her through her ordeal.

Josie Murphy is remembered by his family as a provider, popular and caring, religious and hard – working. He worked in the Corporation, every morning getting up and making breakfast and starting a fire for his twelve children going to school. He was a successful amateur boxer and is survived in the tradition with his two sons taking on his skills. He would have always helped those more unfortunate than himself. His murder left his family and wife devastated and has never got over his mistreatment and subsequent death to this day.

The policy of internment encouraged heightened fear and panic in the Ballymurphy community especially with the unjust murders of the previous night, including a priest and a mother of eight. The Ballymurphy community realized the Parachute Regiment was out to take innocent lives. Fully aware of this Eddie Doherty, a young father of four sent his wife Marie and four children to safety in Ardglass. In truth he never stopped to rest until he made sure all his family connections were safe. At 4.35 p.m. on the 10th August, Eddie went to his sister Theresa’s house to ask her not to go to work. As he left Theresa had called him back to listen to the breaking news on Internment and a statement from Brain Faulkner, but he declined as he wasn’t interested. His only concern was his family safety and this he knew. As he walked home he past a barricade erected on the Whiterock Road. A digger driven by members of the Parachute Regiment approached with a view to dismantle it. A petrol bomb was thrown at the barricade and a sniper emerged from the bucket of the digger and shot Eddie as he had turned to run away from the emergent situation. At 4.55 p.m. Eddie Doherty died almost instantly from the bullet wounds he received to the back. All eye witnesses stated explicitly that he had just been passing by and was clearly running away from the situation. It was a clear case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time and lost his life by protecting others.

But his innocence was soon to be taken away from him when the Newsletter reported Eddie had been a petrol bomber and the BBC gave out wrong details that he was a gunman shot in Ardoyne the night before and dumped in Whiterock. Forensic evidence disproved both reports however the family never received any apology or attempt to rectify the tainting it caused which furthered their pain and anguish.

His family remembers him as devoted son, brother, husband and a very loving father. He was a joker and the heart and soul of the house. At only 31 when he was killed, he never got to see his three boys and only girl grow up. His first priority was to provide for his family. He worked hard in his job in the Corporation and on pay day every Thursday he gave his entire wage packet to his wife Marie. He was a pioneer and always kept himself well dressed and presentable wearing suits on his days off from work. He was a huge loss and sorely missed by a wife, 4 children, brothers and sisters, and a mother who died 7 years later from a broken heart.

In the early hours of the 11th August the Parachute Regiment ran into Ballymurphy. As was the norm, bin lids rattled to alert the local community. Joseph Corr, known as Joe and John Laverty went out to see what was happening, unaware it was the army.

Joe and his eldest son, also called Joe, went to the bottom of the mountain (Upper Whiterock Road) and started to make their way up it with a crowd of 40-50 others. The crowd heard shots which they presumed to be plastic bullets only. However, they seen sparks come off the metal railing at the bottom of the mountain and realized it was live ammunition the army were using. In fear the crowd dispersed. Joe and his father were separated and this was the last time Joe was to see his father alive. Joe was missing for three days, and five of his seven children were sent away to Dublin as refugees. Joe’s wife Eileen was to find her husband in the military wing of Musgrave, shot by members of the Parachute regiment. Joe Corr died without regaining consciousness. Mrs. Corr was not allowed to speak to her husband by the army personnel guarding him. She was a mother of six with the youngest still in nappies and was subjected to horrendous abuse and searches as she watched her husband die.

For John Laverty’s family, they were to find their beloved brother and son the next day in the morgue, shot and killed by members of the Parachute regiment. John’s brother Terry was assaulted by members of the Parachute Regiment that same night and still walks with the psychological injury caused to him by the torture he survived. His family continues with questions never answered about the murder of John Laverty. They do not know where he was killed or precisely how he was killed, but are sure of his innocence. Like Joe Corr’s family they only know that the Parachute Regiment claimed that Joe and John were engaged in armed actions. Neither man was involved in any organisation. Neither man received military funerals. The statements by the soldiers who claimed responsibility are inconsistent and do not match autopsy findings.

Eileen Corr brought the case to court twice. The judge asking, “If Joe Corr was a gunman then why was he shot in the back?” However, her husbands name was never cleared and never received any compensation. The families torment was continued with harassment and insensitive gestures from outsiders. On the morning of Joe’s funeral a letter was delivered to his wife saying, “May your husband and sub-human pals rot in hell”

Before his life was taken from him, Joe Corr worked as a machinist in the predominantly Protestant Shorts and Harland, working the nightshift. He would often come home from his night shift and put on a pot of porridge for his children, seeing them well fed and prepared for their day at school or work. After a few hours sleep he would have got up and went back out to work as a window cleaner with his eldest son Joe, not to the approval of his wife Eileen who thought Joe worked too hard. But he determined to provide for his family. He took them away every year to Butlins and to a cottage in Carlingford. They were one of the only families to have a television. All in all he worked to provide the best for his loved ones.

The Corr family lived to regret never having moved to Australia, a dream of their fathers and one that was on the cards. They would have then survived to see their father live and prevented the detrimental effects Joe’s death had on his wife Eileen’s health and in effect her death, as well as his three sons Sean, Redmond and Kieran, who all died prematurely with illnesses including Cancer. The effect of trauma is for researchers and specialists strongly correlated with cancer

John Laverty too came from a happy household, one that was full of love, singing, dancing and happiness. He is described by his family as a gentle giant; at 6 ft tall, attractive and always smiling. He had an infectious laugh which would have shaken the household and put a smile on everyone’s face. He had a friendly and accepting nature and got along with everyone. He was adored by the locals and their children and in his 20 years of life he never had an argument or fight with anyone. To his mother’s delight he was a pioneer which she was very proud of. He did however enjoy the occasional smoke, never bringing himself to enlighten his mother and dint her pride for him.

John worked hard in the Belfast Corporation with people of all faiths. His generosity showed every Thursday on pay-day when he dropped a coffee cake into his mother. He would have also put money aside every week, saving for his families Christmas presents. A fond memory for his sister Rita was the sneak preview he gave her of the present he had bought her and to this day has kept the present of coloured pens as a sentiment of her big brothers generosity. John was also full of jokes and had a playful nature. One of the last memories his youngest sister Carmel has is her 8th birthday, only a week before he died, where John had encouraged his little sister’s bully for entertainment value to sing in the party and show off her bad singing voice. He always made sure he protected his family and seen his sisters to safety when the troubles started. He enjoyed a flutter on the horses, sometimes encouraging his brother Terry to a bet also. However, Terry’s bets were always unsuccessful or so John would have told him. In fact John would have reaped the benefit of Terry’s winnings. He loved music and playing the guitar and had aspirations of starting his own band.

With his death the happy household of singing and dancing was silenced. Their torment and harassment continued at Christmas of the same year with the army returning and putting Terry into jail on 18th December. Such ill-treatment seen a detrimental effect on the whole families health and well-being, especially that of John’s mother and father and Terry. All in all the family have never got over the brutality they experienced by the British Army and the loss of their gentle giant.

Local youth worker Paddy McCarthy was an English Quaker. He had been working in Ballymurphy establishing their first youth club and supporting the local residents association. While this oppressive military action was taken place from 9th August the estate, already deeply deprived, had no access to bread or milk. The youth club had both as it had become a type of refuge for families who had been displaced. Paddy decided to try and share this resource with mothers who were confined to their homes. As he walked out he was surrounded by members of the Parachute Regiment. They performed a mock execution by putting a rifle in his mouth and pretending to fire. Paddy McCarthy took a massive heart attack and died.

John Mc Kerr, father of eight was a carpenter who worked for the local church Corpus Christi. He was working on a door in the chapel as a funeral was brought in of a young boy who had died in a drowning accident. Before he had left his home that day, John’s wife Maureen had asked him not to go, as it was not safe. However, John declined believing he was in no danger when working in the church.

John Mc Kerr walked away from the church with the intention of coming back when Mass was over. As he walked he was shot in the right temple, with one bullet, by a sniper from the Parachute Regiment.

Local people who witnessed the shooting called for medical attention. Parachute Regiment embers surrounded the dying Mr. Mc Kerr, not allowing entry by the ambulance. Local women would not allow them to take him away, their fears being justified by the killing of their priest by the same soldiers. Eventually the soldiers allowed John Mc Kerr to be taken to the hospital; he died later that week having never regained consciousness. Mrs. Mc Kerr found out about her husbands death the following morning when their daughter Maureen was reading the newspaper before work and seen her fathers name. However there was confusion as the paper had printed his name as William Mc Kerr but give their home address. The police then arrived at their home in Anderstown and Maureen was taken to the hospital where she identified her husband. She was heartbroken and her trauma was extended when she was never given the war widow pension. The family never received any aid or relief.

John Mc Kerr was born in Scotland, and with the death of his parents had moved to Belfast to live with his aunts on the Antrim Road. He met his wife and mother of his eight children and worked as a carpenter for P&F Mc Donald Carpentry. Before he took up carpentry John had served in the British Army and was a World War Two veteran. During his service he had damaged his right hand and taught himself to write with his left hand and learn a new trade to support his family. He is remembered by his family as friendly, caring and always helpful, often bringing sailors and others to his home for some traditional Irish food and comfort.

John Mc Kerr was never forgotten by his family and wife. They always remembered and celebrated anniversaries, birthdays and special dates. The only way the Mc Kerr family could cope with the unjust murder of their father and husband was to remember the good things.

The horrific events in Ballymurphy between 9th and 11th August 1971 have remained hidden from public knowledge and focus for over 30 years. With the holding of the public inquiry into Bloody Sunday it has become clear that, had the Parachute Regiment been held to account for the murders in Belfast they could not have gone on to murder 14 more civilians with impunity six months later. These families have survived without public recognition or legal redress for all this time. With a process of transition from conflict to peace now underway they demand:

• Independent international investigation examining all of the circumstances surrounding all of the deaths.

• The British government to issue a statement of innocence and a public apology.

The sought after outcome of the families of the 11 murdered include the recognition of the injustice they have all experienced as a result of near 40 years without accountability to this massacre. They appeal for the British Government to admit accountability for their horrendous crime and cover-ups, hoping to grant a sense of healing and closure.

FR. MC MANUS ON THE NEW CONGRESS

2010-11-27T10:51:00.000-06:00

FR. MC MANUS ON THE NEW CONGRESS
Irish Echo
November 10, 2010

The American democratic system is undoubtedly the finest in the world.

However, every two years it causes the Irish National Caucus to “ reinvent the
wheel” – or at least the Caucus stationery.
You see, since 1980, we list on our letterhead the names of the “Congressional
Friends of the Irish National Caucus”– Members who, in writing, endorse our work and request to join. And there are so many that they cannot fit them on the front of the letterhead, so we have to also use the back.
Thus, every two years we have to update this list to reflect the changes wrought by the Congressional elections.
Because Republicans have won a majority in the House of Representatives, all
Committees will be Chaired by Republicans (and remember it is the Committees that really run the Congress).
This could really mean a huge change in policy – both domestic and foreign,
including Ireland.
For example, in the last twelve months the Irish National Caucus succeeded in ha two Congressional Hearings on Northern Ireland. That by any criterion is effective lobbying. (Just ask any of the big-money lobbying firms in Washington t give their right arm for such attention to their issues).

Needless to say, because the House of Representatives was controlled by the
Democrats, the Chairmen of those two Hearings were Democrats – the excellent Bill Delahunt (D-MA), now retiring, and the excellent Russ Carnahan (D-MO) who was re-elected but who will, of course, lose his Chairmanship of the House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Oversight and Human rights.

So what does this mean for the Irish issue?

Well first of all, it must be remembered that Republicans have a good record wcomes to Congressional Hearings on Northern Ireland.

Indeed, one of the great shames of the Congress is that when Irish Catholic
Democratic Speakers controlled the House of Representatives, Human Rights Hearings
were banned from 1974 to 1995 so as not to embarrass the British Government.
Collusion by any other name!

It took a non-Irish, non-Catholic, Member of Congress, the great and beloved Ben
Gilman (R-NY), to break this disgraceful ban and restore the integrity of the House International Relations Committee (Foreign Affairs).

Chairman Gilman banished the “ no Irish need apply” policy and immediately scheduled Hearings before the Full Committee – leading to passage of the Mac Bride Principles and strictures on the police system in Northern Ireland.

Indeed, one of the most enduring ecumenical and spiritual lessons I take from my almost 40 years of dealing with the U.S. Congress is this: when some Irish Catholic Members of Congress conspired to cover up British torture and murder of Catholics in Northern Ireland, it was a Jewish Congressman who came to the rescue. This is a lesson Irish-Americans must never forget.
Once Chairman Gilman had cleared the way, allowing formerly banned Hearings, the admirable Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) would proceed to hold eleven

Hearings before his Subcommittee – on the British assassinations of Pat Finucane, Rose Mary Nelson, and on police collusion.

And now, gentle reader, you will clearly see the wisdom of the motto of the Irish National Caucus: “Neither Democrat or Republican, but dedicated to getting both parties to stand up for Ireland”.

So what will the new 112 th. Congress mean for Ireland?

We will have to wait and see… Well, hell no, we must not wait. We must be proactive.
All Irish-Americans must act to ensure the Republican- controlled House of
Representatives continues the Ben Gilman policy on Northern Ireland: active
involvement, principled concern for human rights and resolute opposition to all
anti-Catholic discrimination and sectarianism.

God bless America and God save Ireland.

Fr. Sean Mc Manus

The writer is the president of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus. His Memoirs will be published in March 2011

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

LETTER TO AMERICA MAGAZINE

2010-11-26T12:41:00.004-06:00

Editor in Chief, Fr.Drew Christiansen, claims to,“ bear psychic scars inflicted by the organized defenders of injustice”. (“Of many things”. November 22).

It’s a pity he didn’t get some of those scars from exposing and opposing British injustice against Catholics in Northern Ireland.

As the former Director of the Office of International Justice and Peace of the
US Catholic Conference (1998-2004), he continued the abysmal record of that
Office in colluding (by silence) with British torture, systematic violations of
human rights and endemic anti-Catholic discrimination in Northern Ireland.

Indeed, the Office of International Justice and Peace since the early 70’s has
been in effect the “ ecclesiastical wing of the British Embassy in Washington”. It never seriously, or proportionately to its power, took on the British government.
... “Not respectable to do so, old boy, lest you be seen as sympathetic to the
IRA.”

Indeed, the Office of International Justice and Peace in 1993 tried to sabotage the most effective campaign ever against anti-Catholic discrimination in Northern Ireland – the Mac Bride Principles, launched by the Irish National Caucus in November 1984 to be a code of conduct for American companies doing business in Northern Ireland. That Office conspired with “fronts” for the British Government to host a conference in the U.S., whose purpose was to change the Name of the Principles, neutralizing them and making them acceptable to the British Government. When we got wind of their machinations, we stopped them cold. Imagine the downright cheek and arrogance of that: they never lifted a finger to support The Mac Bride Principles, yet they had the effrontery to assume the right to change their name! Surely another example of the rampant clericalism and ecclesiastical hubris that have brought the Church into so much disrepute.

After almost forty years of struggling to get America to stand up for justice and peace in Northern Ireland, I can say from considerable experience and with
documented evidence that the U.S. Bishops (with a few exceptions) and The Office of Justice and Peace have exhibited a shocking and shameful indifference to the oppression of Catholics in Northern Ireland. And to make it worse, they have never shown any sense of shame over that betrayal. Something psychic may explain that betrayal, but it ain’t psychic scars.

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

CAUCUS IMAGINES PRESIDENT O'MALLEY

2010-11-12T16:35:00.003-06:00

By Irish Echo Staff

The Irish National Caucus seems to like governors whose names begin with the letter "O." The president of the Capitol Hill-based D.C. lobby group,
Fr. Sean Mc Manus, showed up at a fundraiser in Washington last Sunday to show support for Governor Martin O'Malley of Maryland, who is running for re-election on Tuesday, November 2.
"Martin has always showed solidarity with the Irish cause, and I wanted to show my appreciation, " said Mc Manus.
"I have know Martin since he was 17. Even then he was an ardent believer in justice and peace for Ireland, wanting America to take a principled stand. And I don't just mean governor of Maryland, but president of the United States. He is the best and brightest of his generation," said Mc Manus.
Mc Manus said that O'Malley had played "a key role" as a member of Baltimore City Council in passing the Mac Bride Principles legislation in 1993.
"And way back in 1983, Martin was instrumental in getting presidential candidate U.S. Senator Gary Hart to issue a pivotal statement on Ireland. Martin O'Malley is a great American and a very fine Irishman. Irish Americans can be rightly proud of him," said Mc MManus.

GOVERNOR O'MALLEY AND FR. MC MANUS

2010-10-30T06:11:00.002-05:00

Governor O’ MALLEY and Fr. Mc Manus

Capitol Hill. October 25, 2010 -- The President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus, Fr. Sean Mc Manus, showed up at a fundraiser in Washington on Sunday, October 24 to show support for Governor Martin O’Malley of Maryland who is running for reelection on November 2.
“ Martin has always showed solidarity with the Irish cause, and I wanted to show my appreciation”, explained Fr. Mc Manus.
He continued: “ I have known Martin since he was about 17. Even then he was an ardent believer in justice and peace for Ireland, wanting America to take a principled stand. I always felt if he went into politics he could go to the top. And I don’t just mean Governor of Maryland, but president of the United States. He is the best and brightest of his generation.
Martin played a key role as a member of Baltimore City Council in passing the Mac Bride Principles in 1993. And way back in 1983, Martin was instrumental in getting Presidential Candidate U.S. Senator Gary Hart to issue a pivotal statement on Ireland: ‘ The best way, and in fact, the only way to establish a lasting peace is within a democratic All-Ireland context. Regardless of long fostered socio-economic divisions, the fact must be recognized that Ireland is essentially one nation…’(December 27, 1983).
Martin O’ Malley is a great American and a very fine Irishman. Irish-Americans can be rightly proud of him”.
END

Fr. Mac puts pen to paper

2010-10-09T20:17:00.004-05:00

Fr Sean McManus, Fermanagh native and founder of the Irish National Caucus, will publish his memoirs early next year, and they should make for a fascinating read.

For almost four decades, he's been at the very heart of the US administration, influencing American policy on Ireland from his Capitol Hill office.

When we met in Washington DC on St Patrick's Day 2009 (I saw him again this year), I urged him to finish his long-awaited autobiography as this is one Fermanagh man whose story we have to hear. With Pat Doherty of the New York Comptroller's Office, he made the MacBride Principles on fair employment a reality, in the process launching a global boycott of Ford (that's Fr Mac, not Pat).

Latterly, he has helped Raymond McCord snr. bring his fight to justice to the Congress and Senate, casting fresh light on the legacy of collusion between state forces and paramilitaries. About three years back, he also delivered a memorable lecture on the similarities between the black civil rights movement and our own civil rights and justice struggle.

One of his great allies in his many battles for justice was Congressman Ben Gilman of New York (who has no family links to Ireland). Together, the pair were the scourge of those who permitted or defended discrimination in the North of Ireland. This is how Congressman Gilman sums up Fr McManus: “No one has done more than Father Mc Manus to keep the U.S. Congress on track regarding justice and peace in Ireland. Indeed, I believe historians will record that no one since John Devoy (1842-1928) has done more to organize American pressure for justice in Ireland”.

There will be launches of the new book in Dublin and Belfast next spring.
POSTED BY MÁIRTÍN Ó MUILLEOIR AT 1:38 PM

Hearing Focuses on North funding, rights

2010-10-08T17:06:00.000-05:00

By Susan Falvella Garraty
Washington, D.C.—At a House International Relations Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight hearing last week, the re-emergence of violence in Northern Ireland was examined along with the continuing U.S. commitment towards sustaining stability in the province.
Subcommittee chairman Russ Carnahan (D-MO) led the hearing arguing that the U.S. needs to “see our commitments through” in both the peace process in Northern Ireland and also in Bosnia, the committee’s other focus during the proceeding.
Carnahan said that where he’s from in St. Louis, neighbors looked out for one another, and that’s what the U.S. could continue to do in both Northern Ireland and Bosnia. He said both have come a long way from days of daily sectarian armed conflict and U.S. assistance accounted for some of their successful transitions.
The ranking Republican on the subcommittee, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)voiced concerns about further U.S. government funding for Northern Ireland.
“How much have we spent there, 500 million dollars? “ he queried.
Since 1986, Congress has authorized $500 Million in support of the International Fund for Ireland.
It was time for the European Union to take the lead with Bosnia and Northern Ireland Rohrbacher asserted.
“We’ve drained our resources and we are vulnerable,” he said.
The testifying deputy director of the Belfast based Committee on the Administration of Justice, Aideen Gilmore did not underline the need for U.S financial support in her testimony to the committee. She instead asked for the U.S. to continue in a leadership role fostering political stability and in oversight of human rights.
“We believe that the U.S., as a close friend of both the United Kingdom and Ireland, the two sovereign guarantors of the (Good Friday) agreement is uniquely placed to provide such vigilant support,” testified Gilmore. Congressman Rohrabacher suggested that any lingering issues or a potential return to violence in the North could be avoided with a simple up and down vote to remove partition.
“I may say there are counties in Northern Ireland that would like to be a part of greater Ireland as opposed to a part of Great Britain. Perhaps if there’s a county there that votes that way, maybe they should be permitted to go in that direction.”
“Just a thought” he added.

CONGRESSIONAL PANEL CONVENES THURSDAY

2010-10-04T19:34:00.002-05:00

By Irish Echo Staff
For the second time in a year, a congressional committee in Washington will examine the present state of affairs in the Northern Ireland peace process.
The hearing is set for Thursday, Sept. 16 before the House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight.
“Irish Americans are delighted for the second time within twelve months there will be a congressional hearing on Northern Ireland.” Said Fr. Sean McManus of the Washington, D.C- based Irish National Caucus.
The North will be paired with Bosnia in a session that entitled: “Fulfilling the Promise of Peace: Human Rights, Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and Bosnia.”
The hearing will take place at 9:30 a.m. before the subcommittee in Room 2122 Rayburn House Office Building, Independence Avenue and South Capitol St. SW.
The hearing will be aired live via the webcast link on the committee website at http:/www.hcfa.house.gov. The hearing is expected to last two to three hours.
“Subcommittee chairman, Congressman Russ Carnahan is a man of his word. Last St. Patrick’s Day he promised me he would hold a hearing on Northern Ireland.” Said Fr. McManus.
The following day I brought along Aideen Gilmore, deputy director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice in Belfast to meet him. Aideen will now be the witness on Northern Ireland, and an entirely excellent one at that.” McManus said.
“Just last October we had a hearing before the same subcommittee. Congressman Bill Delahunt was then chairman.” Added McManus.
That hearing, he said, was “on British Government collusion in the murder of the young Protestant, Raymond McCord, Jr. in 1997 in Belfast by Protestant paramilitaries. Raymond Sr. was the witness.
“Now within twelve months of that, we have a second hearing. This demonstrates that the U.S. Congress maintains a high interest in Northern Ireland.”

Irish-Americans Welcome Carnahan- Hearing

2010-09-17T07:32:00.000-05:00

September 16, 2010 -- “Human rights must be the heart and soul of
the Irish Peace Process. And a strong Bill of Rights must take center
stage in Northern Ireland—an area that never showed much respect for
human rights. Nor was it ever meant to because it was artificially
engineered to be a sectarian State by the British in their Government
of Ireland Act of 1920”.

That is what Fr. Sean Mc Manus, president of the Capitol Hill –based
Irish National Caucus, said regarding today’s Hearing before the House
Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and
Oversight -- Chaired by Congressman Russ Carnahan (D-MO). Fr. Mc Manus
continued:

“However, the Good Friday Agreement 1998, followed by the power-
sharing executive have dramatically changed things for the better.

Sadly and ironically, Protestant paramilitaries -- supposedly on
ceasefire—are terrorizing some Protestant families. And the British
Government and elements in the PSNI seem to turn a blind eye. Some
dissident Republicans are trying to start up the conflict again but
have little support.

The United States has played a key role in combating discrimination in
Northern Ireland through the Mac Bride Principles, which the Irish
National Caucus launched in November 1984. However, there is still
reason for concern, and still much work to be done.

A recent Report by the NY State Comptroller’s office (with which the
Irish National Caucus works closely) states that, “the Government
economic development agencies… continue to steer outside investment
toward Protestant areas, most especially those in and around Belfast”.
(Report on Northern Ireland Investment. 2010).

This helps to highlight one of the most profound and fundamental
problems in Northern Ireland: the deep, historic anti-Catholic
sectarianism upon which the State was founded.

However, there is little point in criticizing that sectarianism
without repealing the Act of Settlement 1701, an integral part of the
British Constitution, which institutionalizes and justifies that very
sectarianism.

For all these and other reasons, it is still vital for the U.S.
Congress to stay actively involved in promoting unity and peace, human
rights and equality, nonviolence, and reconstruction on the island of
Ireland.

Irish Americans congratulate Chairman Russ Carnahan for his commitment
to human rights in Ireland and across the globe. He deserves great
credit”. END.

Statement for the Record

2010-09-16T22:53:00.000-05:00

Fr. Sean Mc Manus, President, Irish National Caucus.
“Fulfilling the Promise of Peace: Human Rights, Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and Bosnia.”
House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight.
September 16, 2010.

Human rights must be the heart and soul of the Irish Peace Process. And a strong Bill of Rights must take center stage in Northern Ireland—an area that never showed much respect for human rights. Nor was it ever meant to.
The British Government by its 1920 Government of Ireland Act carved out and tore away six small counties (roughly the size of Rhode Island) from the rest of Ireland, partitioning that ancient country, and setting up the new artificial state as the largest area their Unionist/Protestant allies could control for the British Crown and for Unionist supremacy. Noted commentator Brian Feeny of the Belfast Irish News recently explained: “Talking about the north as an economic success gives credence to the notion that Northern Ireland emerged because it was a viable unit instead of carved out as the biggest chunk on the island unionists could control, a place where they could try to avoid living on equal terms with the rest of the people on the island”.1
However, the Good Friday Agreement 1998 and the power-sharing executive have dramatically changed things for the better:
. The sectarian anti-Catholic police militias have gone. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is making significant progress in becoming an acceptable police service to the Catholic community.
. Naked anti-Catholic discrimination has decreased.
. The IRA is no longer active. The British Army is off the street. Some Republican dissidents are still active, but with hardly any support.
. Loyalists deaths squads have ended their once systematic assassination campaign of innocent Catholics.
COLLUSION
However, sadly and ironically, Loyalists paramilitaries—supposedly on ceasefire—are beating up and terrorizing some Protestant families. And the British Government and elements in the PSNI seem to turn a blind eye.
My Protestant, Unionist friend -- the heroic Raymond McCord Sr. of Belfast—last October testified before this Subcommittee on how the British Government and the Northern Ireland police colluded in the murder of his son Raymond Jr. in 1997. 2 Still, to this day, no arrest has been made—even though the British Government and the police know those responsible. The murder of young Raymond was ordered by a British agent and police informant as revealed by the Northern Ireland Ombudsman Report 2007. 3
ANTI-CATHOLIC DESCRIMINATION
The United States has played a key role in combating discrimination in Northern Ireland through the Mac Bride Principles, which the Irish National Caucus launched in November 1984. However, there is still reason for concern, and still much work to be done.
A recent Report by the NY State Comptroller’s office (with which the Irish National Caucus works closely) states that, “the Government economic development agencies… continue to steer outside investment toward Protestant areas, most especially those in and around Belfast”. 4
This helps to highlight one of the most profound and fundamental problems in Northern Ireland: the deep, historic anti-Catholic sectarianism upon which the State was founded.
However, there is little point in criticizing that sectarianism without repealing the Act of Settlement 1701, an integral part of the British Constitution, which institutionalizes and justifies that very sectarianism.
Would there have been any point in condemning racist Whites in the Deep South of America for their attitudes towards African-Americans without changing the laws and structures that justified racism?
In the same way, it does not make sense to just condemn Orange extremists who see themselves as faithfully upholding the letter, and logically fulfilling the spirit of the British Constitution, which requires of its subjects the acceptance of anti-Catholic discrimination and bigotry. The Act of Settlement 1701 is an integral part of the unwritten and uncodified British Constitution. It determines succession to the Crown of England, and is, therefore, a fundamental constitutional statute. Indeed, the very foundation stone of The Royal Family.
The Act of Settlement 1701 – still in force today -- bars a Catholic from succeeding to the British throne and decrees that if the monarch becomes a Catholic or marries a Catholic, he/she forfeits the throne and ‘‘the people are absolved from their allegiance’’.
The Act, therefore, enshrines and condones anti-Catholicism – officially establishing the principle that it is legitimate to discriminate against Catholics because under the law, they are not equal to Protestants.
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 little point in condemning the members of White racist organizations without first condemning – and organizing to repeal -- the pernicious provisions in the Constitution.
Orange bigotry merely reflects the anti-Catholicism that is enshrined, justified and practiced in the British Constitution. It was not the Orange Order that originated the sectarian Act of Settlement --- it was the British Monarchy and Parliament.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who did so much good work for justice and peace in Northern Ireland, declared the Act was “ plainly discriminatory”. Yet, even he, did not move to repeal the Act.
CONCLUSION
For all these reasons --and others besides -- it is still as important as ever for the U.S. Congress to stay actively involved in promoting unity and peace, human rights and equality, nonviolence, and reconstruction on the island of Ireland.
Irish- Americans congratulate Chairman Russ Carnahan for his commitment to human rights in Ireland and across the globe. He deserves great credit.
God bless America, and God save Ireland.
1 “SDLP displaced by Sinn Fein”. Brian Feeney. Irish News. Wednesday, August 11, 2010.
2 Hearing before the House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight: “ Concerns Regarding Possible Collusion in Northern Ireland: Police and Paramilitary Groups”, on October 22, 2009.
3 “The Statutory Report -- sometimes referred to as “Operation Ballast” or “The O’Loan Report” -- was published on 22 January 2007, and can be found at www.policeombudsman.org”
4 Report on Northern Ireland Investment
[Prepared for the New York State Common Retirement Fund Pursuant to New York State Retirement and Social Security Law, § 423-a]. Thomas P. DiNapoli.New York State Comptroller. 2010.
IRISH NATIONAL CAUCUS. PO BOX 15128. WASHINGTON, DC. 20003-0849
TEL. 202-544-056I8; FAX: 202-488-7537. EMAIL : sean@irishnationalcaucus.org

CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ON NORTHERN IRELAND GREAT SUCCESS

2010-09-16T15:21:00.008-05:00

Senator Russ Carnahan (D. Mo.) and Father Sean Mc Manus
At Hearing before the House Sub committee on International Organizations,
Human Rights and Oversite.

Capitol Hill. September 16, 2010 ------ The House Human Rights
Hearing on Northern Ireland has been rated a “great success”.

The president of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus, Fr.Sean Mc Manus, who has spent a lifetime promoting Congressional Hearings, observed:“The Hearing was a great success. The witness on Northern Ireland, Aideen Gilmore,Deputy Director Committee on the Administration of Justice, was entirely excellent”.

Ms Gilmore told the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, Chaired by Congressman Russ Carnahan (D.MO): “While a lot of progress has undoubtedly been made in Northern Ireland … We would urge continued vigilance and support for the protection of human rights and equality in Northern Ireland as a means of embedding and sustaining peace.”

Fr. Mc Manus lavished praise on Congressman Carnahan. “He deserves great credit. Irish-Americans are deeply grateful for his support of human rights and equality in Northern Ireland.”

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

Aegis founder Spicer has not left the building

2010-09-14T20:38:00.001-05:00

SEPTEMBER 1, 2010
By Susan Falvella Garraty

Earlier this month, Aegis Defense Services set up a non-operating holding company in Basel, Switzerland. Aegis has an estimated 20,000 employees involved in private security efforts around the world; it formed the new holding company in the neutral European nation’s more hospitable tax environment.
Several media reports indicated Tim Spicer, the controversial founder of Aegis, was leaving the company after its move out of the United Kingdom.
“He has most definitely not left Aegis,” responded Sara Pearson, publicist for Aegis, when asked if Spicer had left the company.
Spicer is, according to Pearson, the Group Chief Executive and Director of Global Operations.
That has the Swiss government a little nervous.
Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, said in a radio interview this week that private military firms must respect international humanitarian law and human rights, and following Aegis’ move to Basel, commissioned an investigation into how the presence of such a security firm might impact the perception Swiss military neutrality around the world.
“The Swiss have every reason to be nervous,” says Fr. Sean McManus, the president of the Irish National Caucus.
Contacted while he was home in Fermanagh for the summer holidays, McManus says wherever Spicer goes, trouble follows.
In 1992, two members of the Scots Guards killed an unarmed teen named Peter McBride. Tim Spicer defended the men that shot Peter McBride in the back and who were later found guilty of murder. Their murder conviction has never been overturned, but the pair were allowed to return to active duty after their release under the terms of the Good Friday Accord.
Spicer was then involved in arms for hire controversies in Papua New Guinea and Sierra Leone. In 2004, Spicer and Aegis received one of the largest security contracts from the US government for more than 293 million dollars.
Then senator Hillary Rodham Clinton joined other senators including Edward Kennedy (D-MA,) Charles Schumer(D-NY,) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT,) in protesting the awarding of the contract to Aegis because of Tim Spicer’s connection to the McBride murder and other incidents. The senators sent a letter to then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asking the contract to be rescinded.
When a then new senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, was apprised of the situation, he joined with those fellow Democrats in targeting the Spicer contract for removal.
“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…”
The Aegis contract was never rescinded, and the Aegis legacy of controversy continued when in 2005 there emerged “Trophy Videos” of Aegis employees allegedly shooting arbitrary civilians in Iraq.
Yet now under the Obama administration, Tim Spicer stands to continue to make millions of dollars in new contracts. Even as President Obama makes a prime-time speech to the nation from the Oval Office about the draw down in combat troops in Iraq, the role of private security firms becomes more prominent. The role of how the US will bolster security in Iraq and Afghanistan will become more in the hands of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Will she continue the practice of awarding Aegis and Tim Spicer more US dollars for private security services?
“I am a great admirer of Hillary Clinton, but I would hope that she would take a strong position and oppose the use of these soldiers of fortune,” says Fr. McManus.
The Echo contacted both the White House and the State Department of comment on the new Aegis contracts, but received no reply.
The contract, obtained by the Echo, shows Aegis charges the U.S. government any where from $500 to almost $1,200 a day for services for hundreds of their employees. The contract is good from May 2009 till May 2014.
Examining the whole process of military and civilian contracts for the Iraq and Afghan wars is the bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting. This past spring, the commissioners held hearings on Capitol Hill to investigate whether best practices were being employed as the US government paid hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to large and small defense and civilian contractors.
Professor Charles Tiefer, a law professor at the University of Maryland, is a commissioner and he had some questions for Aegis’ US president, Kristi Clemens Rogers when she appeared before the commission. Tiefer asked if Tim Spicer was a mercenary.
Clemens did not deny that Spicer had been a mercenary, but explained repeatedly that he had only acted on behalf of “governments that were Western-allied governments.”
“I was less than reassured than I had hoped to be at the hearing,” explained Tiefer in a telephone interview with the Echo.
“Congress charged the commission to pay especially close attention to private security contractors whose work arouses more public concern than say the suppliers of bulk food or gasoline,” he added.
The commission already recommended that Aegis be stripped of some supervisory powers over itself and other private security contractors it had been acting upon within the Iraqi theater.
But will the commission be another paper tiger and cog in the bureaucratic wheel where many have circuitous relationships between government and contractors?
Kristi Clemens Rogers, the Aegis US president, is married to Congressman Mike Rogers (R-Mi.) She was a Homeland Security official under the Bush administration, and started out as – a contractor for her husband.
“We’re not doing this because we like the cafeteria food,” said Tiefer.
He hopes that he and his fellow commissioners will make sure precious budgetary resources are allocated fairly and to firms of integrity.

Irish-Americans Welcome Another Congressional Hearing.

2010-09-11T12:16:00.003-05:00

CAPITOL HILL. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2010 --- Irish-Americans are delighted that -- for the second time within twelve months – there will be another Congressional Hearing on Northern Ireland: “Fulfilling the Promise of Peace: Human Rights, Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and Bosnia.” Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 9: 30 AM. Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight. Room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Independence Ave & South Capitol St. SW. (and available live, via the WEBCAST link on the Committee website at http://www.hcfa.house.gov) Expected to last 2-3 hours.

Fr. Sean Mc Manus, President of the Capitol Hill based Irish National Caucus said: "Subcommittee Chairman, Congressman Russ Carnahan (D. MO.) is a man of his word. Last St. Patrick’s Day he promised me he would hold a Hearing on Northern Ireland. And the following day, March 18, I brought along Ms. Aideen Gilmore --Deputy Director, Committee on the Administration of Justice, (CAJ) Belfast -- to meet him. Aideen will now be the witness on Northern Ireland – and an entirely excellent one at that. ’’

Fr. Mc Manus continued: “ Just last October 22 we had a Hearing before the same Subcommittee (Congressman Bill Delahunt of MA. was then Chairman ) on British Government collusion in the murder of the young Protestant, Raymond Mc Cord Jr in 1997 in Belfast by Protestant paramilitaries.Raymond Sr. was the witness. Now within twelve months of that, we have a second Hearing. This demonstrates that the U.S. Congress maintains a high interest in Northern Ireland. The Irish National Caucus is determined to keep it so. Human rights must be the heart and soul of the Irish peace –process. Irish-Americans are deeply grateful to Congressman Carnahan for his commitment to human rights in Ireland, and across the globe. He deserves great credit”.

END.

Irish National Caucus

NC AOH BACKS STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE

SOUTH CAROLINA IRISH BOOK LAUNCH

CELEBRATING MY AMERICAN STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND

Fr. Mc Manus Takes His " Struggle" to South Carolina

MY AMERICAN STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND

ENTHUSIASTIC CLEVELAND WELCOME FOR FR. MC MANUS

Maine to Ohio – The Struggle Continues

PORTLAND, MAINE WELCOMES FR. MC MANUS

Ballymurphy Thanks Fr. Mc Manus and Congress

TIMONIUM IRISH FESTIVAL

MY AMERICAN STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND

GRACIOUS SEATTLE WELCOME

GREAT PHILLY WELCOME

Finucane Assassination Went to Top of Government

WOODLAWN WELCOMES FR. SEAN

HOW THE HORSEMEN GALLOPED THE WRONG WAY

RETURNING TO BALTIMORE

A LANDMARK BOOK THAT LEAVES READERS WANTING MORE

WASHINGTON, D.C. BOOK LAUNCH

WASHINGTON, D.C. LAUNCH

NY Ladies AOH and Men’s AOH Convention

CLIPS FROM THE CONVENTION

TOP TEN SUMMER READS

AOH to Present Mc Manus Memoirs to Congress

LIAM MURPHY REVIEWS MEMOIRS

Great Chicago Welcome for Fr. Sean

MC Manus Memoirs Goes into Second Print

Thursday, July 07, 2011

Fr. Sean Mc Manus Goes to Chicago

Among New York's Best Supporters of Fr. Mc Manus

MEMOIRS INSPIRE PRAISE

Successful New York Launch of Fr. Mc Manus’ Memoirs

Fr. Mc Manus, Reps. Gilman and Wolff:Together again on Capitol Hill

Opposition to Irish justice in DC was – Irish!

Father Sean McManus returns to Boston to launch memoir

In Quiet Contemplation

Queen's Visit

RESPONSE TO RICHARD ENGLISH'S REVIEW OF MY AMERICAN STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND

Righteously right in Irish America

ENNISKILLEN LAUNCH

Washington Launch of Fr. Mc Manus’ Memoirs

VINCENT BROWNE ON FR. SEAN

A SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH

IN THE LION'S DEN

FR. SEAN ELABORATES

Michael D.Higgins Greets Fr. Sean

THUMBS UP TO ATTENDEE RAYMOND McCORD

THE PUBLISHER--CON COLLINS

MANHATTAN AND BARCELONA

UNDERSTAND THIS!

Human Rights Champion Set for West Belfast Book Launch

US Support Cited by Priest

Fr. Sean and Donal Donnely

Fr. Sean's Brother Frank Calls the Meeting to Order!!

DUBLIN BOOK LAUNCH HUGE SUCCESS

Fr. Mc Manus’ Speech in Dublin Castle on the Launching of his Memoirs

Fr. Mc Manus on Killing of Policeman

Ireland's not-so-silent witness in the United States

Derek Warfield to Perform for Fr Mc Manus

Fr. Mc Manus to Launch Memoirs in Ireland

CONGRESSMAN SMITH PROMISES TO INCREASE PRESSURE ON BRITS

Irish-Americans Welcome Hearing

Washington Committee Formed for Launching of Fr. Mc Manus’s Memoirs

Great News for Human Rights in Northern Ireland

Ballymurphy Campaign Comes to Capitol Hill

FR. MC MANUS ON THE NEW CONGRESS

LETTER TO AMERICA MAGAZINE

CAUCUS IMAGINES PRESIDENT O'MALLEY

GOVERNOR O'MALLEY AND FR. MC MANUS

Fr. Mac puts pen to paper

Hearing Focuses on North funding, rights

CONGRESSIONAL PANEL CONVENES THURSDAY

Irish-Americans Welcome Carnahan- Hearing

Statement for the Record

CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ON NORTHERN IRELAND GREAT SUCCESS

Aegis founder Spicer has not left the building

Irish-Americans Welcome Another Congressional Hearing.