‘War on all fronts’ says IRA after ceasefire breakdown

AS an order went out from the Army Council of Óglaigh na hÉireann instructing all units that the ceasefire order given to them on December 20 last had been rescinded, an official spokesperson for the Brigade Staff of the IRA in Belfast told Andersonstown News: “The war will now be continued on all fronts.”
And in a comment on the breakdown, he said: “We have been forced into this position by the British Government. We offered them peace – but they were determined to carry on with war.”
Asked if the resumed campaign would follow a similar pattern to pre-truce activity the spokesperson said: “Tactics are changed constantly. No one knows what to expect next. That is the secret of successful guerilla warfare.”
And in a comment on British press reports following the ceasefire that the IRA has lost a lot of its strength, the Brigade officer said: “These reports all came from one source – the British Army in Lisburn. On five separate occasions in the last twelve months the British Army command claimed that the Belfast Brigade of the IRA had been wiped out.
“They based these claims on the fact that tactics were changed with a reduced number of strikes against economic targets.
“But while there were fewer operations, the effectiveness of them was considerably greater than before, with IRA volunteers penetrating maximum security screens in the centre of Belfast to hit any chosen target at will.”
The IRA spokesman went on to say: “The IRA has proved its complete effectiveness over the past five years.
“There is no reason to believe that it will not continue to be as effective as it has in the past.”
And in a final comment he gave an ominous warning to the British military leaders in Lisburn.
“You have brought war back to the streets of Ireland. You will be hearing from us in the near future.”
News that the IRA Army Council had called off its ceasefire reached Andersonstown on Thursday afternoon and minutes later Seamus Loughran explained why the ceasefire was off.
“Merlyn Rees,” said the Sinn Féin leader, “must bear the responsibility for the situation which has arisen now.
“During the ceasefire all of the peace initiatives have come from the Republican Movement. Yet those initiatives were regarded by the British as a sign of weakness.
“It has been made quite clear that the British government wants war not peace in Ireland.”

New American ‘pro-IRA’ group

The Irish National Caucus – a new and apparently influential pro-IRA group – has emerged in the United States. It contains a number of Democrats and Republican Congressmen.
At a press conference in New York given by the group, Lester Wolff, a Democratic Congressman for New York, called for a ban by the US on arms sales to Britain while Benjamin Gilman, a New York Republican member of Congress, referred specifically to a need to ban shipments of American-made rubber bullets for British Army use in Northern Ireland.
Congressman Wolff told the press conference how he visited Long Kesh internment camp in 1972 under a false name. Mr Wolff visited Ireland again a few weeks ago and a gave a press conference in Dublin with prominent Provisional Sinn Féin members – including Ruairí Ó Brádaigh.
At the New York press conference Congressman Wolff said that he would be introducing legislation early in the New Year instructing the US Ambassador at the United Nations to demand an end to internment.
The group would also, he said, be bringing witnesses from Ireland for the House Foreign Affairs Commmittee hearings on Northern Ireland which are due to begin in late February.

The day Sean Lemass came to Milltown

IT was a cold November day in Milltown. Rain came in gusts from the Bog Meadows and plucked at the black soft hats which the trench-coated honour guards wore as they stood to attention beside the Celtic Cross and the mound of red clay.
The oration was long, loving and passionate. The quest of Pearse, the dream of Connolly, the ideal of Tom Clarke were recounted. The people of the Falls listened as the speaker told them of treachery and complacency in Dublin, of traitors and quislings who had sold out their country.
The speaker stepped aside and volunteers from the Belfast Brigade marched forward to lay their martyred leader in his final resting place. The speaker was Seán Lemass. The leader Lt General Joe McKelvey.
Joe McKelvey was born in Stewartstown, Co Tyrone at the turn of the century. His father was a member of the RIC. When Joe was in his early teens his father was posted to Springfield Road barracks and the McKelvey family went to live in a house at Cyprus Street.
He was a founding member of O’Donovan Rossa Gaelic Athletic Club and later became prominent in Na Fianna Éireann. During the Black and Tan War he rose to the position of OC of the 3rd Northern Division.
After the Treaty was signed in 1922 Joe became assistant Chief of Staff of the IRA and for a short period in June 1922 he took over as acting Chief of Staff from Liam Lynch.
In June 1922 he was taken prisoner by Free State forces after the Battle of the Four Courts in Dublin.
Five months later on the 8th of December 1922, Joe McKelvey was taken with three comrades, Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows and Richard Bennett, into the jail yard at Mountjoy where they were shot to death.
They were killed without charge or trial. They had been held as hostages – and they died as hostages.
Two years later Joe McKelvey came home to Belfast. At the GNR station his former comrades in the Belfast Brigade met his remains and carried them to St Mary’s Church in Chapel Lane.
The following day, as the coffin of the greatest republican Belfast had produced since Henry Joy McCracken was carried from the church, RUC men sneaked forward in an attempt to snatch the Irish flag from it.
But despite the RUC Lt General McKelvey was brought to Milltown where in the presence of the people of the Falls he was finally laid to rest.

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A FULL-PAGE advertisement calling for an end to internment greeted former Prime Minister Edward Heath when he visited the Bahamas at the weekend. The advertisement was placed by Richard Harris, the actor, and Kevin McClory, the film producer, both of whom have homes in Nassau.
The advertisement was printed in the Nassau Tribune.
Replying to journalists later, the British Tory leader, said: “If these gentlemen would ask their friends to stop murdering people, no one would be more pleased than any British government, or any British party.”