Another oustandingly successful event

Melanie with the Connolly Heron family

Mel and Frank Martin

Eamon, Mel, Malachy. Sean

First two speakers; Hassan and Dan
A full account will soon be posted

First, here's Gearoid on Saturday


Gearóid O' Colmáin, journalist

Poland suppressed insurgency in Russia. New version in U.S.— Poland as point of attack against Russia. Was Militarization of Poland and Ukraine as Polish-Lithuanian-Uktranian Commonwealth. Turkey- U.S. used against Russia, and U. S. in conflict with Turkey over Kurds. Balkans - former colony of Ottoman Empire. Turkey - a conduit for mass immigration to Europe.

When Libya was bombed into the stone age this lead to mass migration and from Turkey, migrants and refugees fled from areas at war— Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Pakistan, millions moving. Used as weapons to press EU to join US policy against Russia so U.S. doesn't suffer and US banks can profit. Turks gained consensus from EU - but there will be a major problem, huge % of migrants have false passports, because US spreads so much disinformation.  Only 20% of immigrants were Syrian, but US said Syrians could get in, so a lot of fake passports were made, printed in France, now there are a lot of fake Syrians. Will be thousands of fake passports.

Turkey openly supported Islamic State. Joe Biden admits this, and Trump said everybody knows Saudi banking terrorists. Turkey is a Terrorist State. NATO knew consequences of destabilization of Libya - Khadafy did deals for EU. He integrated sub-Saharan Africans into the LIbyan economy, they needed workers. Weapons of Mass Migration, Kerry Greenberg's phrase.

Pentagon's map for 21st century : will be 3 major global power— U.S., India, China. Need to use EU to get Russia out of the picture. Europe will go through decline, stagnation and violence. Ukrainian crisis could spread; we're in a period of low-intensity war.


There are over 56 examples since WWII using migrants as weapons,  e.g. Burundi since April 2015 for geopolitical reasons, caused massive refugee crisis, turned to soldiers and forced them to fight,  similar in Syria where men are blackmailed into fighting because.
example of man whose baby was kidnapped by the Free Syrian Army, the baby's head was cut off and the body thrown in front of the house. The man was warned that if he didn't join the army the same would happen to his whole family. US press calls these moderate rebels. Syrian government had to declare amnesty for people forced to fight.

Threat to Macedonia, borders were closed, fears of collapse because of refugees. US tried to take over. Labor laws abrogated, turns everybody into a refugee. e.g. Marseille. This is why no Labor Party exists in the U.S., because of mass immigration.  Bosses import new cheap labor whenever unions try to organize for worker's rights. Including the Irish. In the 90s organized labor was Black workers. They were supplanted by Mexican immigrants. Blacks couldn't compete. Migration is used by the  ruling elite.

Germany is having population replacement, the problem is migrants don't have skills the economy needs to grow, this is a form of sabotage against Germany. Hans Kuntz, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations. His book. on German Economic theory. Germany's market is China. Russians are constructing infrastructure. Europe is being used against Russia. But if Europe refuses to follow the US plan then it falls apart. Angela Merkel has no idea what she's doing.

Czech Republic is in negotiation with Syria. cooperation on anti-terrorism means cooperation with Russia. Rand Corporation studies about Czech Republic— they're worried.  The Czech's are not happy with NATO bombing Yugoslavia. See them (Czechs) as new members, unreliable. Brussels is talking to Russians, there is lost credibility as hegemon  of Europe.

Sean: What should Ireland do?

We have no leaders, we should be proud we aren't in NATO. We have no backbone, we should stand up, and we have an obsequious craven political ruling class.  We do a dance for the US president on St. Patrick's Day. Lack statesmen. e.g. water charges, obscenely corrupt. Michael Higgins  has not done much since he spoke out against the Iraq War. Oligarchs don't need a government, the power is taken over from politics. corporations and banks have supplanted democracy, government is on autopilot. Global institutions are not elected, not accountable to anyone, we live in think-tank-land. assault on values replaced by commodity fetishism.

Eamon: essentially Fianna Fail wants to have its cake and eat it, won't join coalition, rebuilding themselves, don't want to concede to Sinn Fein, non-establishment parties won a majority, a ragtag group. Sinn Fein won't be different. Republican Party is in bed with the government. Evangelical tea party style, imposing Tory agenda on a fragile post-crisis economy.

Gearoid: Khadafy admired Sinn Fein, they could've used the resources to at least speak in favor of peace in Libya. it was a terrible betrayal  of Khadaffy, the Irish Republicans who died in the Hunger Strike would've been ashamed. They have clout, everybody knows Gerry Adams, but most people see cynics.

Sean: in 24 hours before the troika "Ireland and Default" appeared in... Google search (1 million unique pages appeared within 24 hours).

Gearoid:  Engineered that German banks would look for money in Greece and Ireland. Ireland done more for EU than opp., we sold massive amounts of water rights to EU, look at Iceland. In France people love Irish salmon. Why don't we have a huge fishing industry?
 Sunday

 Sunday, 24 April
1916 anniversary

Cathal MacSwimey-Brugha read the 1916 Irish proclamation and talked about his grandfathers, Cathal Brugha and Terence Macswiney. Cathal Brugha read the proclamation in Irish at the first Dail sitting in 1919. Cathal described how his grandfathers and many of those executed following the 1916 Rising, such as Thomas Kent were poets and artists interested in social and cultural concerns. Kent was the Boston editor at a publishing house, who became aware of the British Empire's economic and linguistic dominance over the Irish, as well as their involvement with a triangle of corruption. Terence MacSwiney's character can be seen in the books on his shelves, including a book he authored, "Principles of Freedom," Longfellow's poems, and "Leabhar Chlainne Suibhne." In addition to using Irish people as canon fodder at a time when Ireland lost some 50% of its population from the 1800's to the 1900's, slave trading and opium deals weakened the British Empire's perceived moral authority. Terence MacSwiney battled for the soul of Ireland, asking guiding questions such as, "What would you do if you were free?" Terence battled for the soul of Ireland by attacking the British Empire's presumed moral authority and credibility, to show people had been unaware of immoral activities being carried out without the knowledge of most Irish or English people.

Dr. Malachy Ó Néill gave a presentation, "Recalling a Trio of O’Neills in 2016,"  that reviewed the lives of three O'Neills from different centuries: Earl of Tyrone Aodh Mór Ó Néill (1550-1616), Irish Harper Arthur O'Neill (1734-1816), and one of the "Children of the Rising,"  William O'Neill (1900-1916). Reviewing details from the lives of these three Irish men provides us with insights regarding the Irish culture 400 years ago, 200 years ago, and 100 years ago. A letter intercepted during the nine year war, dated 20 May 1555 shares insights about the linguistic struggle at that time to preserve the Irish language. Two centuries ago, Irish harper, Art O'Neill, blind since childhood, won prizes for his harp playing, trained James McDonnell to play the harp, and influenced harpists and harp music for generations. With a playful nod recognizing the significance of O'Neill contributions to Irish culture and history, Art O'Neill famously once commented, "it's no matter where an O'Neill sits, and let it be at what part of the table I am." A century ago, young William O'Neill was just sixteen years old when he was killed at Constitution Hill when he'd gone to look for his father, hearing he may have been injured there. William was one of 11 children, whose mother had died when he was just 13. He was buried with two of his siblings, though five of his siblings had already died at that time (some may have died very young or in childbirth). 

Éamonn Ó Cíardha presented thoughts about 1916 as ‘The Last Jacobite Rebellion.’ Many Irish were Jacobites, yet during the 1600's when there was a succession of King James, the Irish faced military loss, but kept their Catholic faith. The pope recognized the Catholic Stuart king as the King of Three Kingdoms, and Jacobitism was viewed by the Irish in the late 1600s as being a means by which Irish language, history, and culture could be promoted in ways that could restore Irish lands and Catholic heritage. There had been quite a bit of amnesia in Ireland about Irish history and Jacobitism, which has continued. By the mid 19th century, Jacobitism had been largely successfully removed from the Irish political and literary works. Jacobitism has crossed over to English literature, and now is enjoying some resurgence thanks to the revival of the Irish National Theater. Lyrics of the song, "Óró, sé do bheatha 'bhaile" were described, and the song sung.

Melanie O'Reilly talked about her experiences growing up in a family devoted to Irish culture and the arts, with an uncle who founded the Dublin Theater Academy, and a mother who was an actress with the Abbey, and who later worked as an RTE broadcaster in the 1960's. Melanie learned after her mother passed away that she had performed in a Lady Gregory piece in the Youth Theater, dressed wearing cultural revival hair and clothes. Cultural revival is important for feeling a sense of Irish culture; as Melanie's father once said, "You can only truly be welcoming to other people when you know who you are," emphasizing the importance of respecting one's own culture for the way it provides us with foundation and bearings. Melanie described how she became interested in jazz for its internationally recognized language, and how she lived and worked in Scotland for fifteen years, cowriting with a Scottish musician, and putting melody to Gaelic poems. Her music sold well following Riverdance, with strong album sales and many gigs. Without Melanie's knowledge or permission, her Irish record label took songs off her album and put them on musical compilation albums with some 250,000 illegal occurrences found in 1998 when an internet search was run. Melanie was one of many Irish artists whose music was stolen, with a change of just one letter sometimes made in song titles. Melanie came to the United States of America in 2003, and subsequently won legal action against those who had stolen her music.

Mary Steiner talked about the United Nations and Indigenous Peoples of Ireland, describing a right of language as a possible path to peace. Mary Steiner's Irish ancestry on her mother's side (McDonnell, Murphy, Fitzpatrick) helped inspire her interest in preservation of language as the bloodline to culture through songs and stories. Mary Steiner's shared the UN's "Universal Declaration of Human Rights," pointing out how this document is the most translated document in the world, translated into some 463 of the world's 6,000 or so current languages. The United Nations Association founded in 1943 is dedicated to preserve language, along with human rights. The 1916 Proclamation includes the right to keeping the Irish language--and there may be some advantage for the Irish people to investigate whether they can be defined as Indigenous, defined by territory (not sovereignty). There may be a strong case for this, as Seán Ó Nualláin pointed out that recently an Irish man with only Irish ancestral names was found to have 13% unique DNA strands. There is a European Court of Justice with a human rights convention that mirrors the UN declaration of Human Rights-- and if the Irish explain that keeping their language is a cultural right, there is a chance this approach could be successful--with the UN recognizing Ireland with Indigenous representation in addition to as a Nation State, with additional cultural heritage protections ensured as cultural rights.