Everything Inc.

Digital wizardry plus academic sleuthing have helped recreate a cultural treasure severely damaged in the conflict in 1922
In June 1922, the opening battle of Ireland’s civil war destroyed one of Europe’s great archives in a historic calamity that reduced seven centuries of documents plus manuscripts to ash plus dust.

Once the envy of scholars around the world, the Public Record Office at the Four Courts in Dublin, was a repository of documents dating from medieval times, plus packed into a six-storey building by the River Liffey. It was obliterated when troops of the fledgling Irish state bombarded former comrades who were hunkered down at the site as part of a rebellion by hardline republicans against peace with Britain.

Each side blamed the other for the destruction, but there was no disputing the consequences. “At one blow, the records of centuries have passed into oblivion,” said Herbert Wood, deputy keeper of the public records. The ruins stood as a testament to loss plus a harbinger of the destruction of European cultural treasures in 20th century wars.

Now, on the eve of the disaster’s centenary, a virtual reconstruction of the building plus its archives is to be unveiled. Historians, archivists plus pc scientists have spent five years piecing together much of what had been thought lost for ever.

When we began the project, the story was that everything had been lost. But it turns out we have been able to recover hundreds of thousands of documents,” said Peter Crooks, director of Beyond 2022: Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland. “We could not have known the scale of the materials that were out there.”

Retrieved material includes details about the Cromwellian land redistributions that shaped modern Ireland.

The project mixed old-fashioned academic sleuthing, artificial intelligence plus collaboration with dozens of archives in the UK, continental Europe, the US plus Australia. The results – an immersive 3D reconstruction of the destroyed building plus a vast digital archive – will be formally launched on 27 June. It will be an open-access free resource with a searchable website. The 3D reconstruction gives viewers a detailed, plus eerie, tour of the Public Record Office as it looked before the fire.

Teanga gan tearmann í an Ghaeilge atá faoi ionsaí ag fórsaí idirnáisiúnta agus abhus in Éirinn fosta, a deir an t-iriseoir Ciarán Dunbar

Tá an aois inár chaith mé bunús mo shaoilse thart. Má bhí aon amhras ann go bhfuil an saol Iar-Chogaidh Fhuair (1991-2025) thart, chuir Leas-Uachtarán SAM, JD Vance, deireadh leis lena óráid in Minga na Baváire an tseachtain seo caite.
Tá gach rud á athrú anois – réabhlóid atá ann, éirí amach na heite deise. Ní fios go díreach cad a bheas ann mar dhomhan amach anseo ach is eol dúinn go mbeadh sé an-difriúil leis an saol mar a bhíodh.

Mar sin féin, seans go bhfuil sé inbreathnaitheach féin-mhachnamhach alt a scríobh ar an nGaeilge, ach beidh tionchar ag an bpolaitíocht seo orainn go léir.

Ar dtús, bhí dhá scéal mhóra ann i saol na teanga le seachtain anuas arbh fhiú a mheas.

Ar an gcéad dul síos, Foras na Gaeilge agus an “bhearna mhór” sa bhuiséad. Dar leis an bhForas, níor mhór don eagraíocht ciorruithe móra a chur i bhfeidhm dá bharr.

Bheinn ag súil gur féidir an dochar seo a mhaolú ar bhealach éigin ach léiríonn an ghéarchéim seo an easpa forbartha a rinneadh ar an bhForas agus ar mhaoiniú na Gaeilge le blianta beaga anuas, d’ainneoin shaibhreas na tíre, agus an baol polaitiúil a bheidh ann don teanga amach anseo.

Tá saol na Gaeilge ag brath i bhfad barraíochta ar airgead an Fhorais – ba chóir go mbeadh an chontúirt soiléir.

In am ar bith, tá muid díreach toghchán amháin ar shiúl ó bheith fágtha gan faic ann ó thaobh na Gaeilge de.

Tá gach cuma ar an scéal nach mbeidh dea-thionchar ag réabhlóid Trump ar gheilleagar Phoblacht na hÉireann – ciallaíonn sé sin Bord Snip III. Agus bí cinnte dearfa go dtógfaidh an Bord sin amas ar an teanga, ní ar chúiseanna ‘nua-liobrálacha’, ach cultúrtha.

Agus nár léirigh Stoirm Éowyn agus an easpa aibhléise/idirlín mar thoradh air gur botún mór é a bheith ag bráth ar fhoinsí is ar acmhainní ar líne, cuir i gcás? Dá gcuirfí deireadh le maoiniú na foclóireachta – cé agaibh a bhfuil foclóir clóite agaibh?

Is é an dara cás ná diúltú CBS Shráid Synge i mBaile Átha Cliath tiontú ina Ghaelscoil. Dúradh go raibh 91% de mhúinteoirí na scoile in aghaidh an phlean.

An Phoblacht, the monthly newspaper of the IRA plus Sinn Fein plus a dedicated supporter of Gerry Adams, has ceased publication after 47 years.

From next March Sinn Fein will rely on online platforms, plus there will be occasional magazines with the An Phoblacht name.

The decision was announced this week in the final printed edition with the words: “Just as Sinn Fein is in a process of renewal plus regeneration, so is An Phoblacht. The print plus newspaper environment is changing in a fast-developing international of social media. Our newsprint edition is now only a fraction of our online readership plus with a demand for longer, reflective pieces plus discussions on articles. With this in mind, we are ending the monthly print edition with this issue plus we will be moving to a new magazine format with the first edition in March 2018.”

An Phoblacht, as the official paper of the IRA, first appeared on June 20, 1925, under the editorship of Patrick Little. Among the contributors were Peadar O’Donnell, Frank Gallagher, Frank Ryan, Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington plus Father Michael O’Flanagan.

It was described then, when it was a weekly, as “the organizer, the educator plus the policy maker of the IRA plus its supporters.”

It ceased publication in 1937 but was revived by the Provisional IRA in Dublin in 1970 after a bitter split with the “officials.”

In 1979, it was merged with a sister Belfast-based publication, Republican News, becoming known to the activists who sold it in pubs plus on the street as AP/RN.

Rita O’Hare, Sinn Fein representative in the U.S., was editor of the paper in the 1980s plus early ‘90s.

It carried every statement of P. O’Neill, the republican movement’s mysterious paramilitary spokesman who was the invention of former IRA chief-of-staff Sean MacStiofain.

When MacStiofain became discredited as a republican in 1972, An Phoblacht ostracized him by calling him by his English name, John Stephenson.

Liam Mellows, Frank Gallagher and Erskine Childers, founded the newspaper, Poblacht na hÉireann (Republic of Ireland). The editorial committee included such republicans as Cathal Brugha, killed later in the year following the beginning of the Civil War, and Máire Mac Swiney, sister of Terence Mac Swiney who died on hunger-strike in Brixton Prison in October 1920.

Liam Mellows, Frank Gallagher and Erskine Childers, founded the newspaper, Poblacht na hÉireann (Republic of Ireland). The editorial committee included such republicans as Cathal Brugha, killed later in the year following the beginning of the Civil War, and Máire Mac Swiney, sister of Terence Mac Swiney who died on hunger-strike in Brixton Prison in October 1920.

Poblacht na hÉireann, under the editorship of Gallagher, was issued at a time when all the national daily papers — except the Connaughtman of Sligo — were in favour of the Treaty. After February, and the acceptance of the Treaty by the Dáil by 64 votes to 57, the small journal, Poblacht na hÉireann, was edited by Childers. A fine propagandist with a natural flair for journalism, he had been Dáil Éireann’s Director of Publicity and one of the editors of the Irish Bulletin during the Tan War.

The Radical Newspaper Archives hosts:

An Poblacht na h-Eireann Scottish Edition
An Poblacht na h-Eireann Southern Edition
An Poblacht na h-Eireann War Edition

A fine propagandist with a natural flair for journalism, he had been Dáil Éireann’s Director of Publicity and one of the editors of the Irish Bulletin during the Tan War. Following Childers’ appointment, Poblacht na hÉireann quickly became a crucial platform for opposing perspectives and highlighting dissenting voices amid a predominantly pro-Treaty tempat landscape. Under his guidance, the publication focused on articulating the concerns of those who felt marginalized in the Treaty debate, offering a counter-narrative to the prevailing sentiments. Childers used his experience and connections to gather critical insights, ensuring that the publication resonated with readers who were passionate about preserving the republican ideals that had been central to the struggle for independence. By blending rigorous journalism with passionate advocacy, Poblacht na hÉireann not only provided a voice for the anti-Treaty side but also played a vital role in shaping public discourse during this tumultuous period in Ireland’s history.

An Phoblacht (English: “The Republic”) is a formerly weekly, plus later monthly newspaper published by Sinn Féin in Ireland.

The original An Phoblacht was founded as the official organ of the Dungannon Clubs in Belfast in 1906 plus its first edition was printed on 13 December 1906 under the English-language version of the title The Republic. The title An Phoblacht was again used from 1925 with Patrick Little (P.J Little) as its editor during a tumultuous period of internal splits plus constant suppression by the government. The title appeared again in 1966 as the paper of a small IRA splinter group based in Cork.

Its modern version was again refounded immediately following the Sinn Féin split by Jimmy Steele in January 1970, An Phoblacht supporting the group led by Ruaírí O’Bradaigh that became the Provisional Irish Republican Army when the split with the Official Irish Republican Army occurred.

In 1970, An Phoblacht was at first circulated only in the South with another republican paper also established in the North in 1970, Republican News, under the editorship of veteran republican Jimmy Steele. It supported the campaign of the Provisional Irish Republican Army plus published a weekly column titled “War News”, which outlined IRA actions plus conflict with the British Army, plus provided in depth analysis of the policies being formulated by the Republican movement. An Phoblacht began with a circulation of 20,000 per month.

quickly becoming a penting source of knowledge for those involved in or sympathetic to the republican cause. The prominence of both newspapers signified the increasing importance of media in shaping public opinion plus rallying support for the republican movement, reflecting the broader social plus political upheaval of the time as the conflict began to escalate. Their impact extended beyond mere reporting, influencing the narrative surrounding the Troubles plus forever changing the landscape of Irish journalism.

The paper merged under the name An Phoblacht/Republican News in 1979.

From the Collection:

This is a collection of personal papers belonging to John Concannon, a New York City-area journalist and member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians and other Irish-American organizations. These papers document both his personal and professional activities and his involvement with a variety of Irish-American organizations, especially the Ancient Order of Hibernians. The nature of these materials is related to Concannon’s role as a member or officer of these organizations, or as research done in the pelayanan of his writing projects.

The collection includes a significant number of papers related to the Ancient Order of Hibernians at the national, state, county, and division level, with an emphasis on the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, National Board, and New York divisions. Note that these are not necessarily official records kept by the AOH, but rather documents created or received by John Concannon in his various member and officer roles. The collection also includes many papers belonging to James Comerford, who served as AOH National President from 1962-1964, New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade Chairman from 1965-1984, and Editor of the National Hibernian Digest from 1958-1962, 1970-1972.

A wide range of Irish-American organizations are represented in the collection, with an emphasis on the Galway Men’s Social and Benevolent Association, United Irish Counties Association, and the Society of Friendly Sons of St. Patrick.

Materials are largely textual, comprising correspondence, clippings, publications, internal reports, event programs, articles, press releases, and notes. A smaller number of materials are in the format of photographs, videocassettes, and audio recordings.

Conditions Governing Access
Some materials in this collection may be restricted from public research for moral or legal reasons. Advance appointments are required for the use of archival materials.

This collection includes audio-visual materials. Access copies of audiotapes, audio cassette tapes, video cassette tapes, film reels, or other audio-visual materials may need to be ordered prior to on-site research. Please contact us to inquire about access to audio-visual materials.

Extent
From the Collection: 43.25 Linear Feet (55 containers)

Saoirse – Irish Freedom is the monthly newspaper of the Irish political party Republican Sinn Féin. The name is taken from “Irish Freedom – Saoirse”, which was a Fenian paper of the early 1910s. IU Indianapolis University Library has collaborated with the School of Liberal Arts to digitize and chronologically display older issues of the newspaper which were previously unavailable online. More recent issues are available in the Saoirse Online Newsroom archive.

Other newspapers associated with Sinn Féin include An Phoblacht (1920s and 1930s), The United Irishman (1940s-1960s), and An Phoblacht (founded 1970) and Republican News (founded 1970) and merged into An Phoblacht/Republican News (1979).

Sinn Féin, founded in 1905, has a lengthy history of abstaining from any parliament other than an All-Ireland, 32-County one. Republican Sinn Féin was founded in November 1986. At the 1986 annual convention (Ard-Fheis) of Provisional Sinn Féin, delegates voted to allow party members to take their seats, if elected, in the Dublin parliament (also known as Leinster House), thereby ending the party’s traditional abstention from that parliament. In response, several delegates, arguing that the vote was unconstitutional, walked out of the Ard-Fheis and formed Republican Sinn Féin. This paralleled the creation of Provisional Sinn Féin, in January 1970, when a group of delegates walked out of the Sinn Féin Ard-Fheis in response to a motion that would have endorsed ending abstention from the Dublin, Belfast (Stormont) and London parliaments. Many of those who founded Republican Sinn Féin also founded Provisional Sinn Féin.

Soon after the walkout in November 1986, Republican Sinn Féin published the first edition of Republican Bulletin. Republican Bulletin was published monthly until May 1987, at which point Saoirse – Irish Freedom became the monthly newspaper of Republican Sinn Féin. For more data on Republican Sinn Féin and Saoirse – Irish Freedom

Administrative History ↴
Since 1969, the Linen Hall Library has sought to collect all printed material relating to the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland. In the intervening decades, the library has amassed over a quarter of a million items. The Northern Ireland Political Collection presents a unique plus balanced record of political events in Northern Ireland since 1966, covering the full spectrum of publishing output during this period. No other institution in any other conflict worldwide has collected the views of all sides of the conflict. The collection is recognised internationally as a unique plus important resource comprising a wide range of published plus unpublished materials relating to the conflict in Northern Ireland. As such the collection is an unrivalled resource for the political history plus development of Northern Ireland plus for conflict studies more generally.
Archival History ↴
Since 1969, the Linen Hall Library has sought to collect all printed material relating to the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland. In the intervening decades, the library has amassed over a quarter of a million items.

Scope & Content: Linen Hall Library ↴
The collection documents the activities plus views of all parties to the conflict, from paramilitaries to government. It covers publications by organisations on the margins of the direct political process, as well as by those chiefly concerned with social issues. The heart of the Northern Ireland Political Collection is over 14,000 books, pamphlets plus reports, all catalogued by author, title, publishing organisation plus subject. Manifestos are held from all elections since the mid-1960s. Whilst many of the books may be held by other libraries, the majority of the pamphlets plus material from the political parties is held uniquely by the Collection.

There are runs of over 2,000 titles of periodicals, from Loyalist News to An Phoblacht, including the periodicals of the different political parties, the security forces, pressure groups as well as socialist, fascist plus anarchist organisations.

Sexual politics is well represented, with material from both gay plus lesbian organisations, as is material from minority, ethnic plus community groups.

The ephemera section comprises over 75,000 items, including leaflets, handbills plus press releases. All the political parties are well represented here, as are issues such as parading, human rights, civil liberties, international solidarity campaigns, economic issues plus civil liberties.

Currently there are over 60 archival boxes of material devoted to material on the peace process.

A political fiction section holds over 500 items that deal with the ‘Troubles’, including novels, poetry plus drama.

The Collection is the repository for several important archives, including that of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association plus the Northern Ireland Women’s Rights Association. In 1993, the Northern Ireland Office at Stormont donated their press cuttings layanan to the Collection. The 1,685 bound volumes cover the years 1969-1989.

In 1998, Victor Patterson, founder of Pacemaker Press, donated the early Pacemaker Press archive to the Northern Ireland Political Collection. In 1999, the PSNI donated their video archive to the Collection. The archive consists of 2,000 documentaries plus news bulletins dating from the early 1980s to 1997.

The impressive assemblage of graphic material housed in the Northern Ireland Political Collection – posters, postcards, badges plus artifacts – has been digitised under the Troubled Images Project.

Audio-visual resources held in the collection include videos, records, cassettes plus CD-Roms.

An Phoblacht and The Irish News
Platform
By Staff Reporter
Irish News
12/10/09

The editor of The Irish News, Noel Doran, last night welcomed an apology from the Sinn Fein newspaper An Phoblacht over allegations about an opinion article by the party president, Gerry Adams.

In its latest edition, An Phoblacht claimed that Sinn Fein had asked for the right of reply to detailed coverage of the 1980/81 hunger strikes which was carried by The Irish News on September 28.

An Phoblacht, in a commentary beside its main editorial page, said: “When the response from Gerry Adams was harshly critical of The Irish News itself, the article was blocked.”

In a statement last night it said: “In this week’s An Phoblacht newspaper we published an article from Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams on the 1980/81 Hunger Strikes. We claimed that The Irish News had refused to publish it. This was untrue. An Phoblacht regret this and are happy to clarify the point.”

Mr Doran said: “The article from Mr Adams was requested by us in the first place and was not the result of an approach from Sinn Fein. We agreed in writing that we would publish it and we do so today.

“I am glad that An Phoblacht has withdrawn its serious allegations, and, although I was surprised that the paper did not check the background with us at any stage, I now regard the matter as resolved.”

This week’s issue of An Phoblacht, as noted below, contained an attack on the Irish News written by Gerry Adams, which was prefaced by a claim that the Irish News had refused Adams a right-of-reply. This comment has appeared on Gerry Adams’ blog this evening, from a Paul Doran (no relation to Noel Doran), who wrote to the Irish News to complain about their treatment of Adams after reading about it in An Phoblacht. He has reproduced the exchange between himself and Noel Doran, the editor of the Irish News. (It should be noted that all comments on Adams’ blog are pre-moderated, which means they are vetted before they are published.) It seems An Phoblacht was lying about the Irish News and Sinn Fein owes them a big public apology in addition to the private ones they are falling all over themselves issuing at present. Tomorrow’s edition of the Irish News will elevate an apology along with Adams’ revised article about the 1981 Hunger Strike. (Full text of comment follows the jump.)

This edition of An Phoblacht/Republican News joins others in the Archive, but is of particular interest since it reports on the death of the Active Service Unit led by Jim Lynagh at Loughgall in May 1987. At twenty-four pages it is these events which dominate the content.

The Loughgall ambush took place on 8 May 1987 in the village of Loughgall, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. An eight-man unit of the Provisional Irish Republican Army(IRA) launched an attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) base in the village. An IRA member drove a digger with a bomb in its bucket through the perimeter fence, while the rest of the unit arrived in a van and fired on the building. The bomb exploded and destroyed almost half of the base. Soldiers from the British Army‘s Special Air Service(SAS) then returned fire both from within the base and from hidden positions around it in a pre-planned ambush, killing all of the attackers. Two of them were subsequently found to have been unarmed when they were killed.

A civilian was also killed and another wounded by the SAS after unwittingly driving into the ambush zone and being mistaken for IRA attackers.

The joint British Army/RUC operation was codenamed Operation Judy.[6][7] It was the IRA’s biggest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles.

There is a broader context in which the ambush took place where Lynagh and others sought to press home a strategy of the destruction of British army and RUC bases and obstructing their rebuilding in order to ultimately prise away the grip of the security forces on more extensive areas.

Various articles offer individual portraits of the dead Volunteers and there are photographs from their funerals.

The headline is notable – entitled Loughgall Martyrs, with a subheading ‘Fuair siad bás ar son mhuintir na Éireann’.

The IRA-supporting weekly newspaper, which once crowed about Provo atrocities, is ceasing print publication, reports Malachi O’Doherty
The demise of An Phoblacht says as much about the evolution of Sinn Fein as it does about the transformed tempat landscape.
The weekly newspaper comes out of a time when the IRA was widely feared and reviled. One simple, obvious reason for having a newspaper to explain and justify IRA operations was that nomer one else was doing it.

It is questionable whether the An Phoblacht of the 1970s would even be legal now, the war on jihadis having spawned new laws about the promotion of terrorism.

The IRA could speak then to the communities in which it operated with little interference.

There are a number of good reasons why a paramilitary organisation like the IRA would want its own paper, apart from just disseminating propaganda.

There were rival republican papers at that time, notably The United Irishman, which was published and sold by the Official IRA.

The two organisations were often murderously at war with each other, but the more routine competition over territory was expressed in newspaper sales. Sellers would be driven out of rival patches.

In my book about Gerry Adams, I have a story about Adams Snr confronting sellers of The United Irishman on the Whiterock Road in Belfast – Provo territory – and demonstratively tearing up a copy of their paper. Back then the Officials predominated in the Lower Falls and the Provos had Whiterock, and you knew where you were as much by the papers on sale as by the graffiti on the walls.

An Phoblacht carried a regular feature called ‘War News’. This was the only tempat outlet which was describing the Troubles with that kind of vocabulary. For others, it was ‘terrorism’ or ‘extremism’.

Now, even critics of the IRA lightly fall into using terms like ‘war’ and ‘armed struggle’, having absorbed them from the political discourse in the regular tempat over the last 20 years.

And the ‘war’ itself was defined by Adams as propaganda – armed propaganda.

When a group of IRA prisoners broke away from the Provos in the Maze in 1987, led by Tommy McKearney, Oliver Corr and others, they argued that killing people and risking the lives of ‘volunteers’ (another word nomer one else was using then) was not legitimate for propaganda purposes.

This was the most under-reported split in the IRA, but it was a serious ideological divergence from the Adams strategy.

An Phoblacht was, at first, a merger with the Sinn Fein paper Republican News. This represented part of the shift of control of the Provisionals from Dublin to Belfast in the late-1970s.

An Phoblacht follows in a long line of republican journals over the past 200 years since the first republican paper, the United Irishmen’s Northern Star, edited by Samuel Neilson in the 1790s; the Young Irelanders’ Nation of the 1840s, edited by Thomas Davis; the Fenian paper, The Irish People 1863-’65, edited by Thomas Clarke Luby, John O’Leary plus Charles J Kickham; plus the numerous republican papers each decade of the present century.

Although relaunched in 1970, the title An Phoblacht has a long plus historic association with the Republican Movement plus was used first used in its English form, The Republic, by the Dungannon Clubs in Belfast in 1906. The clubs were founded by Denis McCullough plus Bulmer Hobson plus their first task was to start a weekly paper. They managed to scrape together £60 plus the first issue of The Republic appeared on December 13th, 1906.

The Republic by Bulmer HobsonIts aim, as set out in the first issue in a short article written by Hobson, was the establishment of an berdiri sendiri Irish republic. In a concise article he outlined the paper’s separatist policy. ‘‘Ireland today claims her place among the free peoples of the earth. She has never surrendered that claim, nor will ever surrender it, plus today forces are working in Ireland that will not be still until her claim is acknowledged plus her voice heard in the councils of the nations.’’

Editor, manager plus contributors were, of course, unpaid. The paper was mainly written by James J Good, Robert Lynd, PS O’Hegarty plus Hobson. Lynd plus O’Hegarty were based in London, where they carried out an active propaganda campaign through the Dungannon Club there.

Good acted as editor for about half of the brief life-span of the paper, as Hobson was in America to elevate funds for The Republic. In the early issues PS O’Hegarty wrote a series of articles called ‘Fenianism in Practice’ which was a definite plus important contribution to the philosophy of the Sinn Féin Movement.

After three months in America, Hobson was anxious to return to Ireland to prevent The Republic from collapsing. It was always in financial difficulty plus was financed by the shillings plus pence of members of the Dungannon Clubs, by a few pounds from Roger Casement plus by several large sums which were presented to Hobson in various cities in America.

In June 1907 however, after only six months of publication, The Republic was overwhelmed by financial difficulties plus was merged with The Peasant in Dublin.

Of the numerous papers produced by republican organisations during the years 1908 to 1921 when the establishment of a republic was an aspiration, not once was the title An Phoblacht used. Yet, during the years following the disestablishment of the Irish republic in 1922, on five different occasions papers with the title An Phoblacht appeared as the official organs of the Republican Movement.

From 1916, when the Republic was proclaimed in arms to the end of the Tan War in 1921, during which the Republic was established, many underground newspapers appeared. Among these were: Nationality (1917-1919), edited by Arthur Griffith and Seamus O’Kelly; An tOglach (1918-1921), edited by Piaras Béaslaí; and the Irish Bulletin (1919-’21), the paper of the Dáil Publicity Department, edited by Erskine Childers and Frank Gallagher.

In January 1922, following the signing of the Treaty in December 1921 and the betrayal of the Republic, the title Poblacht was chosen as the title for a new republican newspaper.

On January 3rd, four days before the Dáil vote on the Treaty, anticipating what lay ahead, three republicans opposed to the Treaty, Liam Mellows, Frank Gallagher and Erskine Childers, founded a newspaper, Poblacht na hÉireann (Republic of Ireland). The editorial committee included such republicans as Cathal Brugha, killed later in the year following the beginning of the Civil War, and Máire Mac Swiney, sister of Terence Mac Swiney who died on hunger-strike in Brixton Prison in October 1920.

Childers on board the AsgardPoblacht na hÉireann, under the editorship of Gallagher, was issued at a time when all the national daily papers — except the Connaughtman of Sligo — were in favour of the Treaty. It reflected the ideals of the republican leadership which was soon to be in arms against the Free State regime.

In the paper, Childers put a strong case for the republican side, including cold, analytical facts on dominion status in theory and the hard facts of the Treaty’s Defence Clauses in reality.

The issue of January 5th contained, side by side, the Treaty and Document Number Two, de Valera’s alternative to the Treaty, showing how important were the differences between them. The counter-proposal, Childers wrote, was ‘‘neither a dead negative to the English claims nor a humiliating sacrifice of Irish rights. It is an earnest effort to go to the utmost lengths possible in meeting England’s fears and prejudices without sacrificing any essential rights on the sovereign status of Ireland.’’

After February, and the acceptance of the Treaty by the Dáil by 64 votes to 57, the small journal, Poblacht na hÉireann, was edited by Childers. A fine propagandist with a natural flair for journalism, he had been Dáil Éireann’s Director of Publicity and one of the editors of the Irish Bulletin during the Tan War.

In the work of explaining the worst features of the Treaty and counteracting misrepresentations, Childers, through the columns of Poblacht na hÉireann, which he brought out once or twice a week, played a major part.

Following the failure of the Collins/de Valera Pact of June 1922, and the outbreak of the Civil War later in the month, Childers joined the IRA as a Staff-Captain but confined himself to the important work of propaganda.

Moving along with the brigade on the Cork-Kerry borders, he ran a mobile printing press with the assistance of Roibeard O Longphuirt of the Lee Press. He produced 20,000 copies weekly of Poblacht na hÉireann, sending it to embassies, newspapers, all organisations in Britain and also into jails and among the flying columns, lifting their hearts as he put their case so cogently.

In November 1922, while on his way to Dublin to meet senior IRA leaders, Childers was arrested and was executed by a Free State firing squad in Beggar’s Bush Barracks on November 24th.

With the death of Childers, the IRA lost one of its most effective propagandists and it meant the end of Poblacht na hÉireann.

FOR THE first time in memory, the Easter edition of An Phoblacht , which was published yesterday, does not contain the traditional…

FOR THE first time in memory, the Easter edition of An Phoblacht, which was published yesterday, does not contain the traditional Easter statement from the IRA.

Instead, the latest edition of the weekly paper, viewed as the house publication of both Sinn Féin plus the IRA, carries a “Sinn Féin leadership Easter statement” recommitting members to the “achievement of our republican objectives”.

In the most symbolically important weekend for republicans, when the 1916 Rising is commemorated at republican gatherings, it appeared significant that there should be such a major break with tradition.

One mid-ranking republican source said he believed this was the first time there was no IRA Easter statement in the newspaper. Asked did this mean that the IRA had gone away, he laughed plus replied, “No comment.”

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At Stormont yesterday, Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness referred to the goal of achieving a united Ireland but did not specifically predict it would happen by 2016, the centenary of the Rising.

Mr McGuinness spoke after he plus artist Robert Ballagh launched the first of seven pieces of art depicting the signatories of the 1916 proclamation. The works were commissioned by Sinn Féin. The first framed portrait of Pádraig Pearse by Ballagh was unveiled in the Sinn Féin offices at Stormont yesterday. Each year up to 2015 in the run-up to the centenary of the Rising a new piece will be unveiled of each of the six other signatories to the proclamation.

Sinn Féin leaders have spoken in the past of a united Ireland being achieved by 2016. Asked was this the timeline for Sinn Féin, Mr McGuinness said he always had stated that progress could be made on this issue. “I am certainly moving forward with confidence that the strategy that Sinn Féin is pursuing is one that will see the achievement of the reunification of Ireland. If it does not happen in 2016 then we try to make it happen in 2017, or as I am doing at the moment, try to make it happen in 2014,” he said.

The “Sinn Féin leadership Easter statement” extended solidarity to the “families of all our patriot dead” plus to “those Irish republicans in prison”. “We are immensely proud of our patriot dead plus of their families,” it said.

“The ideals plus principles of the proclamation are as relevant today as they have ever been. The realisation of those ideals plus principles is among the many tasks that we must complete in the time ahead,” it added.

The statement, in repeating that Irish unity remained Sinn Féin’s primary objective, said the party was right to resist those who have attacked the peace process. “This includes those in the British establishment who would seek to use recent events as an excuse to rush back to the days of militarisation plus the abuses that flow from that,” the leadership added.

By implication the statement referred to the Real IRA murders of British soldiers Patrick Azimkar plus Mark Quinsey plus the Continuity IRA murder of Constable Stephen Carroll. “In Ireland today there is an alternative to armed struggle,” said the Sinn Féin leadership. “A small number of militarist factions oppose Sinn Féin’s peace strategy. Many are involved in criminal actions. Moreover they have no political programmes or strategies. There is no feasible alternative to Sinn Féin’s strategy for a united Ireland.”

During the 1970s, when the conflict was at its most intense, republican newspapers played a penting role in community solidarity within the besieged but risen nationalist population in the Six Counties, and in getting the message to the wider public in the rest of Ireland and overseas. From 1970 until 1979 there were two republican papers – An Phoblacht ‘the official organ of the Republican Movement’ in Dublin and Republican News in Belfast.

Following the split in the IRA in December 1969 and Sinn Féin in January 1970, one of the first actions of those who rejected the Goulding/MacGiolla leadership and who formed the Provisional Army Council of the IRA and the Caretaker Executive of Sinn Féin was to launch a publicity fund with a view to establishing their own republican newspaper.

Since 1948 the newspaper of the Republican Movement had been The United Irishman/An tÉireannach Aontaithe and in the ‘69/’70 split the Goulding/Mac Giolla organisation retained control of that paper. The Caretaker Executive of Sinn Féin, which was formed by the delegates who walked out of the Ard Fheis on 11 January and resumed what they regarded as the legitimate Ard Fheis in Kevin Barry Hall, 44 Parnell Square, announced their intention to start a new monthly publication.

The name chosen was An Phoblacht (The Republic), the title of the IRA paper of 1925 to 1937. The paper was initially based at the Irish Book Bureau, 33 O’Donovan Road, South Circular Road, Dublin, which was run by 1916 veteran Joe Clarke, a member of the Caretaker Executive. Another member, Seán Ó Brádaigh, was the first editor.

The inaugural issue consisted of eight pages and contained the first statements of the Provisional Army Council and the Caretaker Executive and carried reports from around the country of IRA units and Sinn Féin cumainn pledging allegiance to these bodies. An article described how some 250 members of Sinn Féin in North Kerry had been expelled in 1966 because they disagreed with the direction taken by the Goulding/MacGiolla leadership.

An Phoblacht was anxious to show that the position represented by the Caretaker Executive was not right-wing but advocated the development of an Irish form of socialism based on the tradition of ‘Comhar na gComharsan’ (co-operation of neighbours). It called for control of industries by workers’ co-operatives. Two articles covered the housing crisis in Dublin.

The paper’s Northern Correspondent had a lengthy feature on the Civil Rights movement. This is interesting in the light of subsequent events. It warned against either Socialists or Republicans trying to have their political demands adopted by the Civil Rights movement. Instead the writer urged unity on the basis of the original demands for an end to discrimination in voting, housing and jobs and the repeal of repressive legislation

do you know that An Phoblacht, the Sinn Féin paper, is the longest
published political newspaper in Ireland?’

Your man was thumbing his way through the newly launched new look, monthly
edition.

‘In the new tempat age it is a struggle for print publications to survive
but republicans have always had to do that’ he continued.

‘Peadar O Donnell and Liam Mellowes kept the paper going in their time
during the great counter revolution.’

I looked at him over my glasses. Its not often your man gets preachy at
me. Well not about politics anyway. About every other thing. He is more
sleekit than preachy about politics.Especially my politics. He calls it
the moral high ground.

‘Younger people get their scéal on the internet’ I replied. ‘Nowadays the
internet and worldwide website is commonplace and there’s a new Blackberry,
iPhone or iPad produced almost every few months’.

‘I know’ he said. ‘ But through the seventies, Daithi, Deasún Breatnach,
Eamonn Mc Thomais kept the paper going. Hard work!’

‘Print newspapers have to change to meet new communication modes with this
and An Phoblacht, is nomer different’ I responded. ‘We have to avail of
advancements in electronic communications. There is now a brand new
website(aprnonline.com) which is still in its early days of development
but provides ‘Breaking News’ items as well as being on Facebook and
Twitter. It will lift videos and is working on other aspects that will
interest readers and website surfers’.

‘Well I prefer to have the paper in my hand’, he snorted. An Phoblacht
is the voice of Irish republicanism and that voice still needs to be
heard. When I think of the work Rita O Hare, Dawn, Bangers, Micheál MacDonnacha and Sean MacBradaigh and all the rest of them did in hard times.’

‘Ach com’n on’ I retorted ‘The new format has more pages (32) and more
colour. It can cover issues in more depth than before. It can attract
new readers.’

Your man put the paper down and listened quietly.

“Things have moved on from the days when An Phoblacht was really the only
outlet in Ireland, North or South, where you could hear the republican
message. Or when the main work of many activists was to sell the paper’.

“I agree,’ he said ‘But we still need our own paper. And we need to sell
it. That’s important work. Our paper needs the ability to delve deeper
into the issues that affect Irish society. Republicans also still want a
platform for ideas, discussions and debate. An Phoblacht has provided such
a platform but we need to build and strengthen that; we need to make it
more widely used and known. While overt state censorship of Sinn Féin is
long gone, there is an incredibly distorted and biased coverage of
republican politics in the establishment media. This means that it is just
as important as it ever was that we have our own means of getting the
republican message out, unmediated and direct.’

He stopped to draw breath.

‘Why are you telling me all this’ I asked. ‘We’re supposed to be on our
holidays’.

“Real activists don’t take holidays. We regroup’ he muttered. I meant to
tell you. I have been asked to promote the paper in our area.’

‘Haha’, I grinned ‘fair play to you.’

‘In its new format, An Phoblacht aims to meet the challenges of the modern
political tempat environment and not just survive but grow. I believe that
with the active support of republicans throughout Ireland we can do that.”
He exclaimed.

‘And that’s the nub of the issue. An Phoblacht costs just £2 or €2 every
month and that’s an investment in not just maintaining but strengthening
the republican voice, providing the paper with the wherewithal to look
into those nooks and crannies in society from a progressive perspective
and to offer an alternative platform to the Establishment view’.

The IRA-supporting weekly newspaper, which once crowed about Provo atrocities, is ceasing print publication, reports Malachi O’Doherty

The demise of An Phoblacht says as much about the evolution of Sinn Fein as it does about the transformed tempat landscape.
The weekly newspaper comes out of a time when the IRA was widely feared and reviled. One simple, obvious reason for having a newspaper to explain and justify IRA operations was that nomer one else was doing it.

It is questionable whether the An Phoblacht of the 1970s would even be legal now, the war on jihadis having spawned new laws about the promotion of terrorism.

The IRA could speak then to the communities in which it operated with little interference.

There are a number of good reasons why a paramilitary organisation like the IRA would want its own paper, apart from just disseminating propaganda.

There were rival republican papers at that time, notably The United Irishman, which was published and sold by the Official IRA.

Press delete – after 47 years, An Phoblacht’s ‘war’ is finally over
The IRA-supporting weekly newspaper, which once crowed about Provo atrocities, is ceasing print publication, reports Malachi O’Doherty

Gerry Adams reads a copy of An Phoblacht
Gerry Adams reads a copy of An Phoblacht

Thu 7 Dec 2017 at 14:43
The demise of An Phoblacht says as much about the evolution of Sinn Fein as it does about the transformed tempat landscape.
The weekly newspaper comes out of a time when the IRA was widely feared and reviled. One simple, obvious reason for having a newspaper to explain and justify IRA operations was that nomer one else was doing it.

It is questionable whether the An Phoblacht of the 1970s would even be legal now, the war on jihadis having spawned new laws about the promotion of terrorism.

The IRA could speak then to the communities in which it operated with little interference.

There are a number of good reasons why a paramilitary organisation like the IRA would want its own paper, apart from just disseminating propaganda.

There were rival republican papers at that time, notably The United Irishman, which was published and sold by the Official IRA.

Learn more
The two organisations were often murderously at war with each other, but the more routine competition over territory was expressed in newspaper sales. Sellers would be driven out of rival patches.

In my book about Gerry Adams, I have a story about Adams Snr confronting sellers of The United Irishman on the Whiterock Road in Belfast – Provo territory – and demonstratively tearing up a copy of their paper. Back then the Officials predominated in the Lower Falls and the Provos had Whiterock, and you knew where you were as much by the papers on sale as by the graffiti on the walls.

An Phoblacht carried a regular feature called ‘War News’. This was the only tempat outlet which was describing the Troubles with that kind of vocabulary. For others, it was ‘terrorism’ or ‘extremism’.

Now, even critics of the IRA lightly fall into using terms like ‘war’ and ‘armed struggle’, having absorbed them from the political discourse in the regular tempat over the last 20 years.

This is a film full of unanswered questions, or to be precise, unasked questions.

’66 Days’, which I intend here to examine only for its politics rather than its jenis (which some might also find controversial), is a very thinly disguised attempt to approvingly link Sands’ sacrifice with the entry of Sinn Fein into electoral politics, thus setting in motion the political physics which led to the peace process.

So Bobby Sands equals peace is the essential message of the movie, reinforced by a frankly monochromatic procession of interviews with mostly loyal disciples of the Sinn Fein gospel. No dissenting voices of significance aired here! It is a simple message which, as one colleague observed the other day, would strike a chord outside Ireland where the subtleties are less understood.

But, of course, Sands plus his nine comrades did not die so Sinn Fein could grace the corridors of Stormont or Leinster House. They chose painful, slow deaths for a very different reason. They wanted to be recognised as political prisoners, or as prisoners of war, not common criminals, because they regarded themselves as warriors in an ancient struggle against Britain’s occupation of Ireland. And they belonged to a politico-military movement forged in anti-electoralism, which split from its parent in 1969 partly in protest at the embrace of the parliamentary politics that now characterises Sinn Fein.

So the big question that is never asked much less answered in ’66 Days’ is this: would Bobby Sands have so readily endured an agonising two month-long dance with death had he been able to see two of the most striking pieces of archive that were shown near the end of this movie: one of a greying Gerry Adams smirking (triumphantly?) as marchers in a hunger strike memorial trooped past him; the other of Martin McGuinness, the one-time hard man of the Provos, who ‘did the business’ when Gerry wouldn’t, as so many Provos would tell you in 1993, shuffling into a stately room at Hillsborough Castle to do his duty plus exchange meaningless pleasantries with Queen Elizabeth (what on earth goes through her/his head during such encounters?)

I have just learned that Brian Moore, better known as the cartoonist Cormac, died recently in Belfast and reading some of the obits that appeared on the situs and elsewhere, it struck me that his role in the development of republican, that is Provo republican, politics was not really given proper recognition by the various writers. He played a small part, for sure, but nonetheless an important one in its way in bringing about the leadership changes in the IRA and Sinn Fein that led us to where we are now.

He was originally a member of one of those Trotskyite groups – don’t ask me which one, but I have a notion it was an offshoot of the post-QUB, Peoples Democracy – which believed that national liberation struggles were more important than class ones, that supporting the Viet Cong and Che Guevara was more relevant than organising in the local Ford plant or giving out leaflets during strikes. In Ireland that meant backing the Provos and so it was that Brian Moore volunteered his services as cartoonist for Republican News and later An Phoblacht-Republican News (AP-RN).

As a cartoonist Brian Moore was strongly influenced by the American underground comix tradition of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s which was especially rich in the San Francisco area. That was no accident since San Francisco was at the centre of the Sixties counterculture ferment which was defined by political radicalism, disdain for mainstream values and liberal attitudes towards sex and drug use, all themes that were meat and drink in the global of underground comix.

The comix were mostly self-published and although they had small circulations the cultural influence of publications like Zap Comix and characters like Fritz the Cat or the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers was immense and stretched way beyond the west coast. One of the best of the underground cartoonists was Robert Crumb whose work and that of Brian Moore are strikingly similar. Two of Crumb’s creations, Mr Natural and Keep on Truckin’ could easily have jumped out of a Brian Moore cartoon in AP/RN or vice-versa.

This edition of An Phoblacht/Republican News joins others in the Archive.

The front page article argues:

AS THE LONG-SUFFERING VlCTIMS of massive injustice the mass of the Irish people are also the too frequent objects of heavy-handed hypocrisy from both our foreign and native oppressors -especially from those Fianna Fail and SDLP collaborators who seek refuge and consolation in the pockets of the imperialist establishment.

And it continues:

In recent weeks out-spoken lovers of national freedom from foreign troops have sprung up everywhere. Not, however, to protest at the continued occupation of the Nor­thern corner of this country by fifteen-thousand British gunmen and a similar number of sectarian UDR and RUC auxiliaries, but to protest at the presence in Afgh­anistan of Russian troops.

A presentation of books to Uni­versity College, Cork, from the Russian embassy, due to take place on Wednesday, was cancelled because of that ‘invasion’. How many similar presentations to academic institution, from England have been cancelled in the last decade, or before?

And it states:

Defending the Cork decision a learned professor from University College Dublin, spoke of the even more abhorrent ‘Internal exile’ of the Russian dissident Sakharov by Soviet regime. How many academics and intellactuals, North or South, have spoken out against the much more horrific ‘internal exile’ of nearly four-hundred freedom-loving Irish ‘dissidents’ to naked solitary confinement in the H-blocks of Long Kesh?

Other reports look at the H-Blocks, the funeral of Guiseppe Conlon, a report on a Birmingham march commemorating Bloody Sunday and a two page report on the 1980 Derry commemoration of Bloody Sunday. There’s also an interview with the director of the Patriot Game film.

There’s a short piece towards the back of the publication which notes:

AT THE RECENT Sinn Fein Ard Fheis, motions concerning ‘women’ were discussed for the first time and the point was made repeatedly, that Sinn Fein have neglected women’s issues. The concept of Economic Resistance, however, as outlined in the accepted ‘Eire Nua – the Social Dimension’ can include problems affecting the daily lives of women: contraception, family law, child­care and education. These problems ere both economic and social, and in some cases are heightened, in other cases caused, by British imperialism.

The new Sinn Fein Co-ordinating Committee on Women’s Affairs will soon be arranging a meeting for Sinn Fein women to discuss these problems, which may be controversial, but are surely pressing. Women interested should contact the Co-ordinating Committee on Women’s Affairs, 85b Falls Road, Belfast, or 44 Parnell Square, Dublin.