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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Dissident IRA making major new push for support in USA--- Hoping Orange week riots will help them in America

Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 10:58 PM
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Dissident IRA groups are seeking a foothold once again in America and are making a major push according to reliable sources.

In recent months they have focused on Irish American civil rights activists, many of whom have attended at nationalists events aimed at stopping Orange marchers going through their neighborhoods.

For the first time there is real concern in Republican circles in the US that the dissidents are getting some traction.

They are also focusing on Northern nationalists who now live in America

"We have no doubt they are making major efforts at present. we are well aware of it," said a Republican source. 'They have had people on the ground."

"They want the rioting to continue, arrests to happen, to create sympathy in America for them," said another source referring to recent riots in the North.

As a result the dissidents have stepped up the pressure in nationalist areas in Northern Ireland, aimed at setting off confrontations and focusing on getting irish American sympathy for their cause.

Senior republicans are suddenly fearful that they may be succeeding as the images of Orange marches through nationalist neighborhoods were flashed worldwide this week.

Riots by young people in nationalist areas of the North were widespread over the Orange marching season.

It is believed that dissident groups were behind many of the standoffs.

In many cases they came in from outside.

"They are trying to portray Sinn Fein as being part of the establishment, part of the state that is arresting these young nationalists and putting them away." said the source. "They want to portray this in civil rights terms, young people being arrested and abused by the state."

Since the peace process began the dissidents have had very little luck in getting any support from America.

But two separate sources now confirm that they are making a renewed push for Irish American sympathy in America.


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87 Comments

15 - 87 | See all comments

Snowdrop | Jul 20, 2011, 05:11 AM EDT
Sig 'em on AlQuida.

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ancavker | Jul 19, 2011, 04:30 PM EDT
Joycean: Your first mistake is to try and understand the Irish. As a realative of mine always says, "ahh now sure we are are an odd bunch".

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themurphia | Jul 19, 2011, 12:28 PM EDT
Eddiebhoy:That's ok...if you are on Facebook/twitter maybe you can raise awareness on those sites...just picking up on the 'bhoy'...isn't there a QC and Scottish Assembly member in Glasgow who are a Celtic supporters...who might if you haven't contacted them already be willing to help? ...bhattmurphy solicitors phone number 02077291115...All the best let us know how you get on...slan agus beannacht

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EddieBhoy | Jul 19, 2011, 12:09 PM EDT
Re - themurphia , thanks for taking the time to reply , will fight on and try anything and everything to try and get this poor man released , again many thanks

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themurphia | Jul 19, 2011, 11:48 AM EDT
Eddiebhoy:try emailing this firm: mail@bhattmurphy.co.uk they specialise in prisoners rights..no relation btw..I've emailed Liberty Human Rights Campaigners.. but it's an online form so whether they'll pick it up I don't know suggest you phone them...they are in London also

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themurphia | Jul 19, 2011, 11:20 AM EDT
Unfortunately the decision to revoke lies with the Home Office...the license can be revoked and the licensee returned to serve the unexpired period of license on the grounds of an allegation of further criminal activity/wrongdoing even if that is later dropped... if as you say approaches to Govt ministers have fallen on deaf ears then it needs someone with political clout to make representations on your behalf...sooner rather than later...I expect that is why you have contacted Niall's paper...given the urgency you should perhaps contact the News media and campaingning organisations such as Liberty or Prisoners Rights Campaign Howard League...Maybe someone in N/Ireland can help you with names of broadcasters...?

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EddieBhoy | Jul 19, 2011, 09:32 AM EDT
Being from Glasgow , I would not wish to comment about so called Dissident activity , the word in my eyes being of British design and derogatory to Irish Men & Women , and also designed to alienate one section of the community from another . I am here to raise the gravely important issue of a man called Brendan Lillis , who currently lies dying in the Hospital Wing of Maghaberry Gaol , who had his Licence revoked on charges which were later dropped , Brendan is critically ill , his partner cas campaigned & lobbied tirelessly for his release on compassionate grounds . The Doctors have intimated a few days ago that he has as little as 10 days to live . All avenues have been exhausted NI Secretary Of State , Justice Minister , various other Govt officials all emailed . All to no avail , no replies or pass the buck to the next official . This man & his family are fast running out of time . His detention is in contravention and breach of legislation set out by the European Convention Of Human Rights on several different counts ! Is this publication prepared to highlight this man's agonising quickly approaching death . This is no trivial matter and surely is news worthy , - E.Travers concerned humanitarian Glasgow

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themurphia | Jul 18, 2011, 06:34 PM EDT
Here's a little meterological joke for you...Q:Why is the Irish summer like a Muslim country...?A:Because it's Sunni in places but mostly it's Shiite...!Well it makes me laugh!

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themurphia | Jul 17, 2011, 01:26 PM EDT
walter: What are you on/about...? where have I mentioned Mountbatten...?I think it's a bit rich if I may say so to use the O'Dowd's site to promote your own work after the tenor of your IT piece about him...For those who wish to read an alternative memoir of the 'Troubles' I recommend Seamus Deane 'Reading in the Dark'..no connection just a very moving well written book of many written about growing up in the 'Troubles'...

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Sparklet | Jul 17, 2011, 09:59 AM EDT
It might do, Walter. But if I could change it, I'd drop the T altogether. I dont care that much if people think Im a man. Unless I'm meeting them face to face. :) I sometimes think I shouldnt come here either as I get wound up. You wouldn't know it from some of the things I say, but I used to be very passionate about the six counties, and I still do refer to Ireland as a 32 county nation. But I've become a little more logical and practical, especially since civil rights is no longer the huge issue it was. I despise the British history in Ireland, but the key word there is history. Things still aren't perfect, but I think they're going in the right direction, and you can't change the past. Anyway, don't be a stranger!

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WalterEllis | Jul 17, 2011, 05:59 AM EDT
Sparks: No problem. Just one of those things. But here, while talking to someone reasonable, let me make a confession. I have become more than a little addicted to IrishCentral in recent weeks. I can't seem to stop commenting ... and it's mostly over-the-top stuff that does nobody, least of all me, any good. It's not as if I don't have other things to do. So I'm going to TRY to make a clean break. From now on, unless someone says something obviously outrageous, I shall do my very best not to say anything. Can I keep to this? I hope so, but we'll have to see. Anyway, good luck with whatever you're doing. Meantime, wouldn't "Sparklette" (with the extra -te) clear up the gender issue? Just a thought ...

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Sparklet | Jul 16, 2011, 06:54 PM EDT
Walter, I realised as soon as I posted that it made it look like it was you who had referred to Mountbatten as a rat. If only there was an editing option! Anyway, my apologies.

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WalterEllis | Jul 16, 2011, 05:46 PM EDT
themurphia: I didn't raise the Mountbatten issue. It was you and Sparklet who dragged me into it. Sparklet, no doubt unintentionally, even managed to make me appear to have been the one who said Mountbatten was a "rat" (see below), when the slur was, of course, put forward by "Patriot". In the circumstances, it seemed only fair to point out my somewhat mellower, if tenuous, connection to someone directly affected by those terrible events. In your case, tm, you challenged me to deal directly with Patriot's abusive comments on Mountbatten. Then, when I did just that, you denounced me as crass. I try to be fair in these columns. I apologise when I make mistakes or go too far. But, with a few honourable exceptions, the rest of you prefer to sling mud from behind your pseudonyms. I think you owe me an apology, but I'll not be holding my breath. By the way, my book is long out of print. So I won't make a cent. Thank gawd for that, eh?

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themurphia | Jul 16, 2011, 05:13 PM EDT
Never waste a crisis eh Walter...Crass...opportunism...!

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WalterEllis | Jul 16, 2011, 04:45 PM EDT
Sparklet: This gets worse and worse. Sorry for the gender assumption. If anyone's interested, Timothy Knatchbull, who survived the 1979 bomb blast that killed his twin brother Nicholas along with Lord Mountbatten, Mountbatten's sister-in-law and a young Fermanagh boy Paul Maxwell, had this to say of my childhood memoir, The Beginning of the End, published in 2006: "I adored accompanying Ellis down the byways of his early life, and relished the laugh-out-loud stories and his lovely writing. To those not possessed of a happy Irish childhood, the book offers insight, colour and its fair share of shocks. Northern Ireland during the Troubles was evidently both a wonderful and an awful place in which to grow up. It’s up to the reader to decide which was uppermost."

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