Boston Brahmin Globe: Irish debate meaning of IRA leadership split Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source: "Boyle, Francis" "According to security sources, the key defectors are..." Dear Friends: You will note that this article in the Boston Brahmin Globe was written in cooperation with British "security sources." So you must be extremely skeptical of what it says and why it is in there.Ditto for anything appearing in The Boston Brahmin Globe relating to the Irish and Ireland. The Boston Brahmin Globe (now owned by the New York Times) has always been anti-Irish. Not only did I live in the Boston area for seven years as a student at Harvard, but I went to work for a Boston Brahmin Law Firm that represented the Boston Brahmin Globe. The Boston Brahmin Law Firm had me doing tax litigation for the Boston Brahmin Globe. The irony did not escape me. Here the anti-Irish Boston Brahmin Globe was exploiting Irish brain power in order to make more money by keeping it from the US government.To paraphrase something John Kennedy once said:Eventhough he was President, there were still Boston Brahmin clubs that would not have him as a Member because he was Irish. Those clubs are still alive and well at Harvard and in Boston.I remember sitting at the Common Table at the Harvard Club of Boston for lunch one day while the turkey at the head of the table told everyone how much he hated Catholics--and this was as recently as 1977-1978. He was quite proud and vocal about his anti-Catholic bigotry at the Harvard Club of Boston. Those people have no shame. So beware of what you read in the Boston Brahmin Globe. Francis Boyle PS. For the record, that Boston Brahmin Law Firm treated me very well and wanted me to stay. And I still stay in touch with my old tax partner, who is Irish himself. Two Irish guys doing their tax litigation for them. > Boston Globe > 8 November 1997 > > Irish debate meaning of IRA leadership split > Some see exit by militants as lifting peace talks > > By Kevin Cullen, Globe Staff, 11/08/97 > > DUBLIN - A collective shudder ran through this island Thursday when the > Irish Independent published a story saying that senior members of the Irish > Republican Army had resigned from the group, threatening the nearly > four-month-old cease-fire. > > But security sources on both sides of the border, and political allies of > the IRA, see it the other way: The resignations may have strengthened the > truce, as those who oppose the peace process step quietly to the > sidelines rather than lead a violent split of the republican movement. > > While Irish newspapers have not named the dissidents, their identities > are crucial to determining whether their resignations are hurtful or > helpful to the peace process. According to security sources, the > key defectors are Kevin McKenna, the IRA's reputed former chief > of staff; Mickey McKevitt, allegedly the organization's quartermaster; > and McKevitt's wife, Bernadette Sands, the sister of IRA hero and > hunger striker Bobby Sands. > > Police on both sides of the border say McKenna was one of the seven men on > the IRA's ruling Army Council, while McKevitt and Sands were members of the > IRA executive board, which is second to the Army Council in setting IRA > strategy. > > McKenna, arguably the hardest of the IRA's hard-liners, led opposition to > the 1994 cease-fire, eventually swaying opinion to abandon it in February > 1996 on the grounds that the British government was not serious about > convening negotiations. > > As quartermaster, McKevitt is in charge of the IRA's arsenal and, if so > predisposed, could arm a breakaway group, police say. But there is no > indication he wants to, according to detectives in the Garda Siochana, > Ireland's national police force, and the Royal Ulster Constabulary in > Northern Ireland. > > As sister of the IRA volunteer who led the IRA's 1981 prison hunger strike, > Sands has an opinion that counts. > > But security officials say they doubt that the dissidents would join up > with the breakaway group that bombed a police station in Armagh in > September and tried to blow up a British government office in Derry last > week. Instead, McKenna and the others are expected, one detective said, to > ''sit on the sidelines and watch what happens.'' > > Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, whose party has close links to the IRA, on > Sunday expressed unprecedented confidence in being able to ''sell'' to the > IRA any compromise that emerges from the ongoing negotiations. Adams's > stated confidence was unusual, and was accompanied by a warning that the > British government needed to pull more troops from the streets to show > grass-roots republicans that the peace process would pay dividends. > > Security sources think Adams's confidence had something to do with knowing > that the IRA had shed some of its biggest internal critics. > > Also telling, say detectives, is that the three key defectors are > southerners, although Sands is originally from Belfast. During the first > cease-fire, those clamoring loudest to break the truce were members of the > IRA's southern command, who operate inside the Republic of Ireland. > Those IRA members live in areas that have not suffered much violence, a > distance that police believe makes them more militant than the bulk of the > IRA's leadership, who are from Belfast. > > On Thursday night, 12 members of Sinn Fein quit the party during a meeting > in Dundalk, a border town in the Republic of Ireland, saying they had not > been consulted on the Mitchell Principles, which commit Sinn Fein to > strictly democratic methods. The principles, named after George Mitchell, > the former US senator from Maine who is chairman of the Belfast talks, > have not been accepted by the IRA, convincing some that the IRA will revert > to violence if it rejects the outcome of the negotiations. Mitchel > McLaughlin, Sinn Fein's chairman, said he was disappointed by the > defections, but said ''they are entitled to their opinion.'' > > In Sinn Fein's opinion, however, a peaceful environment will bring about > the republican ideal of a united Ireland much sooner than violent struggle. > > This story ran on page A02 of the Boston Globe on 11/08/97. > > > North American Coordinator > Irish Republican Socialist Committees > 2057 15th Street, Suite B > San Francisco, CA 94114 > irsp@netwiz.net > http://irsm.pair.com/irsm/irscna/ ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-11.15.97-01:57:08-20357