The Good, The Bad And The Óglaigh

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Garda Commissioner Drew Harris (left) has agreed with the assessment of Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan that the IRA never disbanded and Sinn Féin is run by the ‘army council’.

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The Continuing Story of Óglaigh na hÉireann

All around the snot-nosed parishes of Ireland
small people of both genders, and neither,
are flapping open
copies of The Sunday O’Duffy
getting worried
about the continued existence
of the Citizen Army, Fenian Brotherhood,
Official IRA.

We can’t have
parties who perspire to government
secretly controlled by cabals
of men (and ladies) whose faces
we never see; apart from those
faces prescribed by prevailing winds
and the agreed rules
of the European Union,
which we need never see
but rest eternally assured
are there. Or thereabouts.

The only weaponry allowed
those seeking elected office
are five piece suits to help little
men appear substantial,
and no more than six
plastic chairs on which the faithful can
every other month gather
to recite the Our Father,
or discuss the rising
price of sewage. Even

the Social Democrats must come clean
about the continued non-existence
of their army council, and what role precisely
Fintan O’Toole plays in its
military high command.

A mature democracy like ours
needs parties whose manifestos
political correspondents
with excellent haircuts (and none) can safely
spread across their living room floors
and roll around naked on
without fear of being interrupted
by men and women wearing
illegally held
balaclavas.

Kevin Higgins

Previously: Drew The Same Conclusion

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29 thoughts on “The Good, The Bad And The Óglaigh

  1. Rob_G

    It’s hard to believe that the author is a grown man in his middle-years, rather than a 19 year-old sociology student.

    1. bisted

      …hard to believe the last mention of public meetings on here were on posters proclaiming that FinTan O’Toole was guest speaker on behalf of Broadsheet contributor Anne Marie McNally…great headline…19yo student might not get it though…

  2. V

    Ah come on

    The message is sound – and he’s not even the first one around here saying it

    Just cause the writer has presented it differently – so what
    Its premise is real
    And I don’t see any harm in it being repeated again and again in all sorts of ways
    By whoever

    So I’ll take another go meself, tis a bit rich for blueshurts to be cribbing about shadowy figures behind the Sinn Fein backdrops
    When they’ve been pandering to all sorts of shadowy shady sorts who keep themselves behind closed doors
    Same with the eFfers,
    And I might as well mention Mara and Prone as well

    the FF FG Axis is falling asunder in broad daylight here lads

    If we go to another election it will be under a joint FF FG manifesto for Government
    Betcha

    so leave the poet at it ffs
    he’s harming no one

  3. Ringsend Incinerator

    PSNI Stasi make politically motivated claim backed up by Gardai Stasi and trumpeted by Irish Times and RTE agitprop – sounds familiar.

    Plus ça change:

    How is it that we do not see any of these Acts directed against the Jews, who crucified Our Saviour nineteen hundred years ago, and who are crucifying us every day in the week? How is it that we do not see them directed against the Masonic Order? How is it that the I.R.A. is considered an illegal organisation while the Masonic Order is not considered an illegal organisation? […] There is one thing that Germany did, and that was to rout the Jews out of their country. Until we rout the Jews out of this country it does not matter a hair’s breadth what orders you make. Where the bees are there is the honey, and where the Jews are there is the money.
    — Oliver Flanagan, Dáil Éireann, 9 July 1943.

    1. Rob_G

      I always see these equivalences from shinnerbots whenever anyone says anything negative online about SF: Oliver J Flanagan is dead 30 years. Eoin O’Duffy is dead 70 years; from the FF side, Haughey, possibly the last remnant of physical force republicanism from that party, is dead almost 20 years, out of office 30 years.

      Dessie Ellis was reelected last week. He was convicted of terrorism charges for being in possession of some explosives from the same cache that was used to set a bomb off in a department store, killing innocent civilians; to the best of my knowledge, he has never came out and said that the IRA bombs targeting civilians were in any way wrong.

      1. bisted

        …of all the abominations in the 20th century, the most heinous crime was anti-semitism that led to the death of millions within living memory…to see anti-semitism weaponised and used casually to demonise people is to demean the memory of those that perished in the Holocaust…to see anti-semitism used by zionists who snipe from behind the walls of their apartheid state is particularly galling…

        1. Rob_G

          I’m not sure what you’re talking about – yes, the Holocaust was awful; I’m not sure what this has to with SF putting unrepentant bomb-makers forward for election in 2020.

          1. Rob_G

            Caught the highlights on TV.

            Not really sure the situation in your link was equivalent: O Cuiv merely makes the odd show of support for terrorists, whereas the SF has actual convicted IRA bombers in elected office.

          2. D

            tell me more about how O’Cuiv is something other than ‘the last remnant of physical force republicanism from that party’

          3. Rob_G

            No-one in FF has (as far as I know) actually blown anyone up; SF cannot say the same about their membership. I don’t know why it is so hard for you to comprehend this.

          4. D

            Is the past in the past, or is it not? What’s your statute of limitations? One generation once removed, twice, grandad, great grandad? Very sanctimonious opinions concerning Civil War political parties.

          5. Rob_G

            Well, it’s hardly “in the past” if they still have unrepentant bombers in their ranks, still shout “Up the ‘RA” at their meetings, and still have Mary Lou and Michelle attend commemorations of dead bombers now, is it?

          6. D

            and yet FF would go into government with them, they were at Haughey’s funeral too, and you watched it on TV.

            Really I do wonder how you got up on the high horse. Did you use a ladder?

            Anything to be said for an RIC commemoration?

          7. Rob_G

            “and yet FF would go into government with them….”
            -who? SF? Apparently not, we would already have a government if they would. Your point is becoming more oblique and incomprehensible by the minute.

          8. D

            ah it’s very straightforward Rob, let me spell it out: you or FF are no better than SF and their candidates.

          9. Rob_G

            Yes, and you have demonstrably failed in proving that point; I never went to pick up a Garda murderer from prison. I never organised a kangaroo-court. I never trolled a rape-victim.

        2. Cian

          Don’t forget (in the 21st century) Sinn Fein’s newly elected TD Réada Cronin whose tweets included numerous remarks that were critical of Israel. They included a claim that European wars were instigated and funded by banks and the retweeting of a message that Hitler was a pawn for a bank owned by the Rothschild family.

          Stay classy SF.

          1. D

            Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone:

            TODAY’S DECISION TO reinstate the former mayor of Naas to the Fine Gael party has angered a migrant charity.

            The Integration Centre CEO Killian Forde says that Councillor Darren Scully, who stepped down as mayor of Naas after declaring he wouldn’t take representations from black Africans, should not have been accepted back into the party fold.

            Party General Secretary Tom Curran told KFM today that Scully had “paid the price” for his comments, but Forde says that the party has made a “strategic mistake”.

            with apologies to the churnal

          2. Rob_G

            The comment that that mayor made were wrong, and FG did the responsible thing and made him resign

            Did SF take the high road and make Gerry Adams resign for tweeting the n-word, or did I miss it at the time?

          3. Rob_G

            Kind of conveniently ignoring my point: he had to serve his penance, and was then allowed to run again. The same can’t be said for Gerry Adams (or indeed Réada Cronin).

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