FARE – Fare Are Rangers Enemies – A Summary

FARE – Fare Are Rangers Enemies – A Summary

As more and more evidence emerges of the sinister nature of the workings of the group who successfully reported Rangers for alleged sectarian chanting twice, I feel it my duty to summarise in one place and in one article, exactly why FARE are not fit for purpose, and why FARE as an organisation should be suspended from all activity involving Rangers and Celtic Football clubs with immediate effect.

What follows is a summary of the findings against FARE by investigative Journalist David Leggat, and some communications between users of rangersmedia.com, thebluenose.co.uk, vanguardbears.co.uk and the editor and users of followfollow.com and FARE.

Firstly, with regards to the links of FARE Chief Piara Power to Celtic Football Club.
On the 15th April 2011 a poster the bluenose.co.uk, a website or the Rangers Supporters Assembly posted some very interesting information.

http://www.thebluenose.co.uk/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=54&func=view&catid=5&id=116041


http://www.milestonegroup.co.uk/licence-agreement-issue-of-equity--total-voting-rights-08-april-2011.html


“Licence Agreement, Issue of Equity & Total Voting Rights
Milestone Group Plc

(“Milestone” or the “Company”)

Licence agreement with BGP Global Services Limited and launch of OnSide

AIM quoted Milestone Group PLC (AIM: MSG), the digital solutions provider, announces that it has signed an agreement with BGP Global Services Limited (“BGP”) for the exclusive licence of its Facilitated Electronic Data System (“FEDS”) within UK community sports programmes (the “Licence”).

BGP will issue a perpetual licence of FEDS, an innovative and bespoke web application that can be currently run on portable networked computer systems, to OnSide Limited (“OnSide”), a newly incorporated Company and a wholly owned subsidiary of Milestone, for use in the UK community sporting sector, initially to be launched in football, but to be extended to cover other community sports.

……..

Paul Elliott MBE, the former Chelsea and Celtic player, Piara Powar, the Executive Director of FARE (Football Against Racism in Europe), and Bob Quick, the former Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner, will be the ambassadors for OnSide.

-----
Deborah White, CEO of Milestone, commented:

“The creation of OnSide through the relationship between Milestone and BGP will bring together state of the art software and our strong skill set in mobile devices to deliver a revolutionary platform for sporting coaches throughout all sports and communities. OnSide will dramatically reduce the costs associated with sports coaching and create a safer environment for sports to take place. I am grateful to Paul Elliott, Piara Powar and Bob Quick for the passion and dedication they have given to this new venture and look forward to working with BGP going forward.”

So far as the Company is aware and subject to any new notifications received, the following persons will have a notifiable interest in the issued share capital of Milestone following this issue of Ordinary Shares:

Current percentage holding Resultant percentage holding

Deborah Jane White 34,883,774 (15.21%) 34,883,774 (14.63%)

HBS 049 Limited 30,000,000 (13.08%) 30,000,000 (12.58%)

Cormac Crawford 18,954,772 (8.26%) 18,954,772 (7.95%)

Brett J. Desmond (all held by
Aurum Nominees Ltd) 15,729,204 (6.86%) 15,729,204 (6.60%)

Martin King 13,667,049 (5.96%) 13,667,049 (5.73%)

BGP Global Services - 9,090,909 (3.81%)

Lynchwood Nominees Ltd 9,083,489 (3.96%) 9,083,489 (3.81%)

For further information, please contact:

Milestone Group Plc
Deborah White, Chief Executive Tel: 020 7929 7826

Strand Hanson Limited, NOMAD
Richard Tulloch / David Altberg Tel: 020 7409 3494

Hybridan LLP, Broker
Claire Louise Noyce Tel: 020 7947 4350

College Hill, PR
Jamie Ramsay Tel: 020 7457 2020

David Leggat reported this on the 23rd June 2011 when the report started reaching a wider audience.

http://leggoland2.blogspot.com/2011/06/fares-piara-powar-and-celtic-exclusive.html

What the user on the bluenose didn’t mention, and what Leggat didn’t mention is that the firm named against Brett J Desmond in the Milestone announcement “Aurum Nominees Ltd” isn’t the only link to Brett Desmond’s shares in Milestone.
These shares are owned by IIU Nominees Limited

http://www.milestonegroup.co.uk/issue-of-equity-and-total-voting-rights-25-nov-2010.html

“MILESTONE GROUP PLC
(“Milestone” or the “Company”)

Issue of Equity
AIM quoted Milestone Group PLC (AIM:MSG), the digital solutions and technology agency, announces that it has agreed to issue 24,408,061 ordinary shares of 0.1 pence each in the capital of the Company (“Ordinary Shares”), at a price of 1.13 pence per Ordinary Share, raising £275,811.07. Of the Ordinary Shares being issued, 15,929,204 Ordinary Shares are being issued to IIU Nominees Limited on behalf of Brett J. Desmond, representing 9.41 per cent. of the enlarged issued share capital and 5,309,735 Ordinary Shares are being issued to Bryan Lynam, representing 3.14 per cent. of the enlarged issued share capital.”

This is where it get’s really interesting.

The board of IIU Nominees Limited is as follows

IIU NOMINEES LIMITED
R/O Address : Ifsc House Registered No : IE241141
Custom House Quay Legal Form : Private Limited
Dublin 1
Co. Dublin

Current directors
1. Mr B. O'Sullivan Brian 11/08/1963 Director

2. Mr D. Desmond Dermot 14/08/1950 Director

3. Mr J. Bateson John 8/07/1963 Director

4. Mr M. Walsh Michael 2/10/1951 Director

5. Mr N. O'Dwyer Noel 14/01/1971 Company Secretary

So, the link between FARE’s Piara Power and Celtic Football Club is even stronger than first imagined.

Which brings me nicely on to the latest revelations on FARE.

2 days ago, 4 Rangers fans who had reported Celtic for Sectarian Singing in an SPL Match via the FARE reporting form were surprised to find letters to their home from Celtic Chief Executive Peter Lawwell.

One fan posted a scan of said letter to Rangers Media, who subsequently put on the front page of their site. The scan also appeared on the Vanguard Bears and Follow Follow forums.

The recipient of said letter was rather alarmed that their personal details including their home address, home phone number and mobile phone numbers had been passed on to a third party or parties without their consent.

What happened then was startling. the Editor of Follow Follow, Mark Dingwall sent a brief and to the point email to FARE.

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Dingwall [mailto:byerley_turk@cqm.co.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 2:07 PM
To: info@farenet.org
Subject:

Hello,

Called the Kick It Out office and they gave me this email address to
write to.

I edit a Rangers fans messageboard. www.followfollow.com

Today I had two users say that they had written to FARE to lodge
complaints about the behaviour at the end of season Hearts v Celtic
match. They both said that today they had received letters
concerning their FARE complaints from the Chief Executive of Celtic
Football Club. One of them posted a graphic file of the letter.

Would it be possible for you to confirm that the this is indeed how
the complaints were handled as some fans are skeptical about it.

Yours faithfully,

MARK DINGWALL

I think even he was surprised at the quick response

From: info@farenet.org
Subject: RE:
Date: 29 June 2011 14:20:48 BDT
To: byerley_turk@cqm.co.uk
Reply-To: info@farenet.org

Dear Mark,

Thank you for your email.

We received many complaints about Celtic FC earlier this year. We informed
the club and the SFA about this and asked them to reply directly to those
who had complained as FARE's specific focus is to look at issues that arise
within the international arena, in matches covered by UEFA or FIFA.

Kind regards

FARE PO Box 67536 London EC2P 2HY UK
www.farenet.org

If you think I deleted the respondent from the reply to Mr Dingwall, you’d be wrong.
They never put their name to the email.

The topic was again picked up on Leggat’s blog

http://leggoland2.blogspot.com/2011/06/fare-face-prosecution-threat.html

It’s all there in black and white.

To Summarise, FARE, or an agent of FARE advised Celtic Football club of the private details of Rangers fans who had complained about Sectarian Singing by the Celtic Support.

They then admitted on an email they had done so.

While Lawwell’s reply was laughable, this time it’s not the content of the letter (and it is a letter not an email) that is causing concern, it’s not only FARE apparently admitting to breaching certainly their own privacy promises, but possibly breaching Data Protection laws, and certainly raising eyebrows over their handling of personal data when the party being complained about was Celtic Football Club, while protecting the identity of the FARE Complainant at the PSV-Rangers Matches.

What is most alarming for the senders of the FARE Forms is the alleged shadowy links between FARE and Kieron Brady’s CICI organisation, and that organisation’s links to extremist Irish Republican Celtic Supporters’ Group “The Green Brigade”, and Brady’s friendship with Irish Republican Phil MacGiollaBhain.

Have they seen these details?

If so, who passed on those details?

They must be punished.
As the first link in that communication chain is FARE, it’s there that the authorities need to look at first.

DJM

Excellent Piece in "The Spectator"

A Bill That Shames Scotland

Alex Massie

Tuesday, 21st June 2011

Here's a clue for politicians: when you're asked if you've just criminalised the national anthem and all you can do is say "Er, maybe, it all kinda depends on the circumstances" the chances are that you've produced a bill that tests even the patient, hard-to-exhaust, limits of parliamentary absurdity and you should probably put it through the shredder and start again. If, that is, you should even be legislating in these matters at all.

More Here, and please follow the links within the article.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/alexmassie/7043055/a-bill-that-shames-scotland.thtml

Wasting Taxpayers’ Money – Superficial Nonsense Politics

As the dust settles after the SNP published their bill on Sectarianism on Friday the only conclusion that can be drawn from said publication is that it is a waste of time, energy and resource by a Government lacking imagination and courage.

The government have employed the most influential legal brains in Scotland to create a bill covering a range of “crimes” already covered within Scottish law.

Existing laws could easily have been amended.

This new bill should be read, in full by all Scots, in order that they too can see how their tax contributions are being wasted.

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s4/bills/01-offbehfoot/index.htm

Each document should be read in its entirety, in order that you see the sheer scale of work put in to this, including estimated costing of prison sentences.

As for the bill itself, it is worthy of some detailed analysis.

Firstly, there are 3 specific areas of interest that the bill directs itself at

1) Offensive behaviour at regulated football matches

2) Threatening communications

3) Offences outside Scotland

Area 1 is further explained thus

1) A person commits an offence if, in relation to a regulated football match:

(a) the person engages in behaviour of a kind described in subsection (2)

(2) The behaviour is—

(a) expressing hatred of, or stirring up hatred against, a group of persons based on

their membership (or presumed membership) of—

(i) a religious group,

(ii) a social or cultural group with a perceived religious affiliation,

(iii) a group defined by reference to a thing mentioned in subsection (4),

(b) expressing hatred of, or stirring up hatred against, an individual based on the

individual’s membership (or presumed membership) of a group mentioned in any

of sub-paragraphs (i) to (iii) of paragraph (a),

(c) behaviour that is motivated (wholly or partly) by hatred of a group mentioned in

any of those sub-paragraphs,

(d) behaviour that is threatening, or

(e) other behaviour that a reasonable person would be likely to consider offensive

1 Continued

and

(b) the behaviour—

(i) is likely to incite public disorder, or

(ii) would be likely to incite public disorder.

As we address Area 1, it becomes apparent that this is a “catch all” bill that will most likely be interpreted by the Police and/or the Procurator Fiscals as directed specifically by Roseanna Cunningham and Frank Mulholland, as the wording on actual offences appears to be deliberately ambiguous.

I’ve heard some observers state the wording is in said manner due to the rushed timescale of the Bill. I beg to differ.

There can be no other reason than to hide the specific interpretation of certain phrases, in order that this gets cross party support with as little opposition as possible.

As the first section continues, the bill adds the following sub sections

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2)(a) and (b) it is irrelevant whether the hatred is also

based (to any extent) on any other factor.

(4) The things referred to in subsection (2)(a)(iii) are—

(a) colour,

(b) race,

(c) nationality (including citizenship),

(d) ethnic or national origins,

(e) sexual orientation,

(f) transgender identity,

(g) disability.

The Bill then adds further Sub Sections:

(5) For the purposes of subsection (1)(b)(ii), behaviour would be likely to incite public

disorder if public disorder would be likely to occur but for the fact that—

(a) measures are in place to prevent public disorder, or

(b) persons likely to be incited to public disorder are not present or are not present in

sufficient numbers.

(6) A person guilty of an offence under subsection (1) is liable—

(a) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years, or

to a fine, or to both, or

(b) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or

to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or to both.

There are, of course, two supplementary documents on the link above. As recommended, these are worth a read.

It should be cautioned that they should only be read in order to establish just how ridiculous the bill is, as you will read both documents and find no further clarity on just what will be defined sectarian, or how it will be interpreted that the recipient, or intended recipient of hate mail or worse is the victim of a sectarian crime.

Let me start with section 1, where the target group of offenders is at a football match.

On the face of it, all bases are covered, and many politicians at Holyrood will have difficulty arguing against the bill, without putting their own interpretation on the sub sections.

The volume of words throughout the 3 hefty documents belies the fact that the key aspects are covered between pages 3 and 4 of the Bill itself, with all of that element reproduced above in italics.

So what does each element mean in that key sub section 2?

(2) The behaviour is—

(a) expressing hatred of, or stirring up hatred against, a group of persons based on

their membership (or presumed membership) of—

(i) a religious group,

This is where the scratching of heads begins.

To all intents and purposes, this is indeed a statement no sensible person could disagree with, until you start to analyse each word very carefully. This will be “the law”, unless enough people mobilise against it, so one should not scan the bill, nor ignore the “small print”.

What then does “expressing hatred of” mean exactly, and what does “stirring up hatred against” mean?

Is there a different approach to constructive criticism of any group, to some hate filled fan ending every reference with “bastards”, or “scum”, or such like?

Despite the clear effort at closing legal loopholes to cover any offence the legal fraternity wish to deem sectarian, they didn’t appear to put the required time and effort in to explaining what this actually means.

How do you “stir up hatred”, and how is it measured if someone has actually stirred up hatred? Is it measured by the volume of expressions of anger on extremist websites? We really should be told.

What this means is that there can still be a level of interpretation put on test cases, which could well be inaccurate and most probably unfair.

While the disgraceful behaviour towards Neil Lennon will be covered (which it was anyway, or there would have been no arrests) either by an offender being of a different nationality or religion, it would remain to be seen how a regular victim of hatred such as Nacho Novo would be tackled?

Does this Bill cover all bases for certain expressions of hatred but not cover Catholics who play for Rangers?

The sub section lines “colour”, “race”, and “nationality including citizenship”, are very interesting indeed.

Will expressions of hatred of nationality include hatred of being British or English?

Will booing the UK national anthem be classified as such an expression?

Will the Anti-English songs of the tartan army also be addressed?

Does the addition of “citizenship” mean anything in particular or refer to specific cases in the past?

The most disappointing aspect of this bill is that it does not offer that clarity up front that could genuinely have an immediate impact on the most obvious displays of sectarianism at football matches.

It does not list songs, chants or phrases that are unacceptable, with explanations and case studies or test cases to explain why.

Why not?

Why not just state in plain language that songs or chants that are derogatory about Catholics or Protestants, or their derivative slang nicknames are captured within the bill, and state what those derivative nicknames are.

Why not just state in plain language that certain definitions as claimed by certain groups are NOT sectarian?

Why not state once and for all that the term “Hun” is sectarian?

Why not address the term “fenian”? Why has it got two Dictionary definitions, and who decides which one that an alleged offender means?

Why not address the Sectarian “Old” IRA, and the Sectarian Provisional IRA, and both subliminal and obvious support for these organisations?

Given the man hours already put in to this Bill; the effort required to implement the bill, and the effort to manage the bill on an ongoing basis, I state today that unless these issues are addressed, and some assurances given to the good people of Scotland that this Bill is a) fair, and b) of value to Scottish Society as a whole.

At a time of desperate financial woes, it is entirely inappropriate to spend in the region of £250K+ for many of the individuals who are likely to find themselves hauled up in court.

(£40K per year, plus legal costs conservatively estimated at 50K for a routine hearing)

For Area 2 of the bill (Threatening Communications), it seems simply that this is just an addition of “sectarianism” to the physical sending of hate mail, or the sending of (or posting of) offensive electronic communication either indirectly or directly at a group or individual.

Like Area 1, it will be the interpretation of the Sectarian element which will define if this is a fair bill, or an unjust one.

Many of the questions above apply here. What defines the motivation being sectarian, racist or “anti” anything?

Is it simply if the recipient, or intended recipient, or their advisors say so?

It’s at area 3 though that you start to question both the sanity and the agenda of the bill

Sections 1(1) and 5(1): offences outside Scotland

(1) As well as applying to anything done in Scotland, sections 1(1) and 5(1) also apply to

anything done outside Scotland by—

(a) a British citizen, a British Overseas Territories citizen, a British National

(Overseas) or a British Overseas citizen,

(b) a person who under the British Nationality Act 1981 (c.61) is a British subject,

(c) a British protected person within the meaning of that Act, or

(d) a person who is habitually resident in Scotland.

(2) Section 5(1) also applies to a communication made by any person from outside Scotland

if the person intends the material communicated to be read, looked at, watched or

listened to primarily in Scotland.

(3) Where an offence under section 1(1) or 5(1) is committed outside Scotland, the person

committing the offence may be prosecuted, tried and punished for the offence—

(a) in any sheriff court district in which the person is apprehended or in custody, or

(b) in such sheriff court district as the Lord Advocate may direct,

as if the offence had been committed in that district (and the offence is, for all purposes

incidental to or consequential on the trial and punishment, deemed to have been

committed in that district).

The obvious glaring hole in this policy is that it is only legally workable to chase British Citizens overseas, so Citizens of other nations outside of the UK can effectively state what they like online, or anywhere else, with impunity.

The thought that Scotland will be sending Police to Australia or Canada or the USA to pick up someone for calling someone else a term ending in Bastard (enter your own prefix as applicable) is absurd, and failure to adhere to this strand of the bill would be hypocritical and would smash any credibility that any subsequent act would carry.

There are already dissenting voices in Scotland at credible levels, and I’d ask that you join these people, while also raising specific concerns with your MSP.

If you don’t, then this bill will pass in its current state, and the interpretation of these ambiguous sub sections will be down to unelected legal people who may not share your interpretation of the key points here.

You have been warned.

DJM

http://www.takealiberty.blogspot.com/

Boys of the Old Brigade – The Myth

Today, the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland shocked many of its flock, by apparently sanctioning an article in the Scottish Catholic Observer, who share an office with the Scottish Catholic Media Office, that condoned support for the IRA by the Celtic Support.

The article cited an ill informed statement by an unnamed Sheriff in a case recently reported in the Scottish Media, where said reports also did not name the Sheriff.

http://www.sconews.co.uk/feature/9624/anti-sectarian-law-must-be-enforced/

“Bizarrely, prior to the Rangers vs Celtic match at Ibrox in April, Chief Superintendent Andy Bates, divisional commander for Glasgow South and East Renfrewshire, in his promise to ‘blitz the bigots,’ brought Celtic supporters into the equation when he said: “If you sing Boys of the Old Brigade, we’ll arrest you… If you sing anything derisory about the Pope or the Queen, we’ll consider that an arrestable offence.”
Leaving aside the fact that on the second point—singing an anti-monarchist song would see singers such as John Lydon of The Sex Pistols and Billy Bragg arrested, the first point again suggests a lack of knowledge of what is and what isn’t sectarian.
Defining sectarianism
Chief Superintendent Bates and his colleagues would have been wise to heed the outcome of a court case, in which Professor Tom Devine was called as an expert witness.
The accused in that case had been charged under Section 74 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003, with committing a breach of the peace aggravated by singing Irish Republican songs, which mentioned, in their lyrics, the IRA, in much the same was as the Boys of the Old Brigade does.
However, the sheriff concluded that doubtless some members of the public might take offence at the songs being sung in support of an organisation, which the UK Government considered to be a terrorist movement. Nonetheless, he ruled that the IRA was a military organisation, was not sectarian in intent and that those who showed support for it, real or rhetorical, were not showing ‘malice or ill will towards members of a religious group.’
“To my knowledge, little of this case was reported in the press, which is a pity because its results have significant legal implications as to how Scottish law officers and the police respond to fan behaviour at these matches,” Professor Devine said.
The equality group Celebrate Identity, Challenge Intolerance was also critical of the police in this regard. It commented: “From an equality perspective, there are no reasons whatsoever for supporters attending football matches to be arrested for singing this particular song, or any other patriotic songs that are a reflection of legitimate pride in one’s cultural, national or ethnic identity…the song Boys of the Old Brigade is a legitimate song relating to nationhood.”

What you can take from this is clear, that the Scottish Catholic Media Office, and therefore the Church itself view sectarianism as a one way street, and want the Police to clamp down on one community only. Not only that, but they are happy to re-write history and paint the IRA of the period as non sectarian, and are happy to quote serial anti Rangers activist Kieron Brady to do so.

Truth is, like the Provos, the Official IRA that the song “The Boys of The Old Brigade” refers to was a sectarian violent terrorist gang.

Respected journalist and writer Gerard Murphy wrote of the sectarian ethnic cleansing of Protestants in Cork by the IRA. The Review by fellow Roman Catholic Kevin Myers of the Irish Independent newspaper was controversial.

Both writers are clear in their condemnation of this disgusting organisation and their killing campaign against Protestants.

It is this “Old Brigade” that Celtic fans sing, and that is being condoned today by the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, and “Equality” organisation CICI.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/kevin-myers/kevin-myers-the-ira-campaign-in-cork-against-protestants-and-nonrepublicans-was-on-a-truly-vast-scale-2417300.html

By Kevin Myers


Friday November 12 2010

GERARD Murphy's “The Year Of Disappearances -- Political Killings In Cork 1921-2” is very properly causing a major stir. Even more than Peter Hart's account of the IRA in the county, this book is revealing the terrible horror that befell the Protestants of Cork.

Moreover, it finally destroys any claim that a non-sectarian Republic could have resulted from the violence of 1916 onwards. In a society as confessionally divided as Ireland then was, with the general Catholic-nationalist and Protestant-unionist divide, political violence would inevitably lead to sectarian war.

Yet not merely does this State still celebrate the 1916 Rising as if it were a fine and noble thing, it is planning a swaggering bonanza in 2016 -- just as the remains of this pathetic, broken Republic are divided up between German banks and Chinese property dealers.

I've been writing a dissenting narrative about this period for most of my life and the response has been for me to be largely ignored by Official Ireland.

No matter. I can truthfully say that I invented the entire subject of historical journalism for the period 1914-23. Yet despite my work on the Irish and the Great War, I was not (of course) invited to participate in Sean O Mordha's acclaimed television series 'Seven Ages'.

Indeed, my exclusion by the 'Irish Times' from its supplement to mark the 90th anniversary of the Rising was one of several reasons why I resigned from that newspaper.

I say all this to establish my credentials here. Despite my knowledge, I've been astounded by Gerard Murphy's revelations, which clearly show that the campaign in Cork against Protestants and non-republicans was on a truly vast scale.

Most Belfast nationalists know of the terrible things that befell Catholics in the city in 1922. What happened in Cork was actually worse because it was accompanied by almost no chaotic street violence. It was a planned assault on a unionist community and executed with abominable method.

This villainy has been matched by the supine silence of Irish historians, to match their previous silence on Ireland the Great War. For Irish historiography has long been the academic wing of party-political republicanism, even though the main villains in Cork -- Corry, O'Donoghue and O'Hegarty -- who are at the centre of Gerard Murphy's book, should be well known to historians of the period.

The most sobering revelations concern Martin Corry, Fianna Fail TD for 40 years, a cheery psychopath and much-loved killer. How much the people of Cork knew about this vile Leeside Robespierre I cannot say. Many men -- and it is impossible to say what number -- were shot and buried at Corry's farm after being imprisoned in a nearby vault in Kilquane graveyard, which Corry called Sing Sing. As TD in the 1930s, he even jeered at James Dillon TD in Dail Eireann: "Come down and I will show you. I will show you a lot of things you never saw before. I would nearly show you Sing Sing. I am sure the Deputy would have to be very fascinating before he'd get out of it."

On St Patrick's Night in 1922 -- ie after the Truce and before the Civil War -- six members of the Young Men's Christian Association in Cork were abducted and executed at Corry's farm. That same week, half a dozen loyalist farmers were similarly disappeared in west Cork.

OVERALL, from the summer of 1920 to the start of the Civil War, 33 Protestants were shot in Cork city proper, while another 40 were killed nearby -- a total of 73 Protestant victims from a small minority community. From around 1921, IRA units murdered or "disappeared" at least 85 civilians. Some 26 were killed after the Truce, thereby making a mockery of the date that this State now chooses to commemorate the dead of all our wars -- July 11. As chilling as anything has been the toxic legacy amongst middle-class Cork Catholics, who until recently thought it chic to make jibes about a Protestant community which has never properly recovered from these terrible days. What you might call An Interim Solution.

We might have learnt all this long ago. A farmer bought some of Corry's land in the 1960s and dug up several skeletons in a mass grave. These were handed over to the local gardai at Watergrasshill, after which they vanished without trace. What a surprise.

Look. You cannot use violence in a divided society without militarising politics, after which, society's psychos and zealots feel authorised to kill their political opponents. The fundamental issue is not the dead of Cork or west Belfast: it is the use of violence to achieve political ends. It doesn't work. It kills people, but it doesn't get you what you want.

Moreover, killing innocents is not some aberration that only occurs at the end of a prolonged period of violence. The first victims in the opening minutes of 1916 -- which this Republic is dementedly determined to pretend was a poetry festival and for which it is preparing another grisly jamboree in 2016 -- were all innocent unarmed Irish people, killed in their native city. But then why not? Killing Irish people in their native cities is, after all, what our "republicans" do best of all. Step forward, Cork, 1921-22.

kmyers@independent.ie

- Kevin Myers

Myers and Murphy are not alone in exposing the real history of the Official IRA.

Eoghan Harris also wrote in the Independent of this hidden history of the Sectarian IRA.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/digging-up-the-other-hidden-ireland-134151.html

Tuesday, 05 September 2006

IF YOU have want an insight into the intimacies of Irish history, into how the foul deeds of the past are only a few fields away, into how hard it is to tell the truth that sets us free, then I have a tale to tell. It started a few weeks ago when I got a phone call from an old school friend, Robert Kearney, whom I had not seen for over 50 years.

Robert had read my column about how The Wind that Shakes the Barley - in which, by some serendipity, his son Damien plays the Flying Column commander - had stirred memories of the April massacres of 13 West Cork Protestants in the Bandon Valley in 1922. Robert wondered if I would be interested in his researches into Ballygroman House, where he had lived from 1991-98, and which had featured in a prelude to that hard history.

We met at a fine pub in Innishannon, perfect for lunch, apart from the Wolfe Tones on the music track. After they changed the track we consumed the best bacon and cabbage outside the Sibin in Rath and Annie May's in Skibbereen. But Robert and I still kept our voices low as we reviewed the history of Ballygroman House, which stood between between Cork and Bandon, overlooking the beautiful valley of the River Bride.

Robert was not aware of the history of Ballygroman House when he bought it, but he later did some local research. What he found out largely tallies with what the historian Peter Hart learned from IRA veterans in the Seventies. Needless to say, Robert is not responsible for my account and the commentary on the atrocity which follows.

At about 2.30am, on the night of April 26, 1922, a party of anti-Treaty IRA officers from the Bandon Battalion, under the command of Michael O'Neill, broke into Ballygroman House, the home of Thomas Hornibrook, his son Samuel, and daughter Matilda, members of a respected family of Cork Protestant merchants. Also in the house was Matilda's husband, Captain Herbert Woods, a Bandon Protestant.

Given that this was the dead of night, in the middle of a civil war, with no police to call and armed men raiding Protestant farms far and wide, it was not surprising that armed intruders should strike fear into the family huddled upstairs, or that Captain Woods should have fired a shot to frighten them off - a shot which fatally wounded Michael O'Neill who was carried away by acting commander Charlie Donoghue and his men.

In the words of Peter Hart, "Revenge was swift and complete. Charlie Donoghue drove back to Bandon and returned with reinforcements - and rope." The reinforced republicans laid siege to the house until eight o'clock the next morning, when the two Hornibrooks and Captain Wood agreed to surrender on condition their lives were spared.

Charles O'Donoghue and Michael O'Neill's two brothers confronted the helpless men and asked who had fired the fatal shot. Captain Woods without ado, admitted responsibility. "I fired it." He was beaten badly - the details are dire - and the three men were taken by car towards the hilly country of Templemartin. On the way, Woods was tied to the car and dragged a few miles along the road until he died.

The next day the two Hornibrooks were told they were to be shot and were forced to dig their graves. Thomas Hornibrook threw his stick into the grave, drew himself up to face the firing squad, and told them to go ahead.

The bodies of the three men were buried secretly - but of course the location was no secret to the the large number of men from Bandon and Kilbrittain who took part - or indeed to some of their descendants today.

Neither was there much secrecy about the share-out of the spoils. Ballygroman House was looted, then burned, the plantation of trees was cut down for sale, the fences flattened and the land seized. In sum, scores of people took part in the atrocity or the aftermath.

Now for the frightening part. Nothing about the murders appeared in any Irish newspaper. No attempt was made then, or later, to look into the murders. It was as if the three men had been taken away by aliens.

And no attempt has ever been made to find the three bodies and give them a Christian burial.

It must not be assumed that the families of the three men had no feelings about what happened. But the smears about "spies" and the muddying of the waters by republican apologists which always followed such sectarian murders - and which still go on - created a climate of secrecy and shame that would have made it difficult to go digging in that area.

Even so, I was astounded to learn from Robert that Daniel Corkery, author of The Hidden Ireland, had moved into Ballygroman house in 1931, only nine years after the murders. How did he live so happily with that other Hidden Ireland? How did any of us live with it?

The answer is that there is a amnesia about the atrocities against Irish Protestants, mostly in provincial Ireland, in the period 1920/21. Apart from the propaganda of republican apologists, the silence of Irish Protestants has also protected us from some terrible truths. West Cork Protestants have told me many stories of severe suffering. But none of them is prepared to go public.

Dublin Protestants and Catholics listen to these stories with disbelief. How could such things have been hushed up, they ask.

Clearly they have no idea of how vulnerable a Methodist family can feel in the middle of remote rural area. Or how reluctant to raise the murder of a relative when the descendants of his murderers might now be good neighbours.

The amnesia has also been assisted by Irish Protestants in three other areas. First, the Church of Ireland, in the name of an empty ecumenism, has failed to call for a full accounting of what happened to southern Protestants in 1921/22.

Second, those who call themselves Protestant republicans have also played a part in the cover-up. Anytime I write about these events I can be sure that some Protestant republican will surface and tell me that he is perfectly happy, and that "it doesn't help the peace process" to look back at these things.

Finally, some Irish Protestants put the soft life before their duty to the dead. On previous form, my mailbag next week is sure to bring anonymous letters from Dublin Protestant blow-ins to West Cork telling me how well they get on with their RC neighbours and signed Blissfully Happy.

Let me make something clear to empty ecumenists, Protestant republicans and blissfully happies alike. This has nothing to do with you. Most of us digging for truth are from Roman Catholic republican backgrounds. We are digging because justice must be done even if the heavens fall.

Right now, the unholy alliance of Protestant republicans and republican apologists is keeping the Hornibrooks buried. But, as Yeats said:


Though grave-digger's toil is long,/Sharp their spades, their muscles
strong,/ They but thrust their buried men/ Back in the human mind again

Let’s be clear. Singing “The Boys of the Old Brigade, is to sing support of the Sectarian IRA, which was responsible for the Ethnic Cleansing of Cork and beyond.

There is no excuse to condone anyone singing this song, unless you condone ethnic cleansing and murder on the basis of someone’s religious beliefs.

DJM