Dieter Reinisch clarifies the thinking of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh on the 1981 hunger strike. Dieter Reinisch is Researcher at the European University Institute. His analysis initially appeared on his blog.
Newly released British Government Papers reignited the debate on the 1981 Hunger Strikes in the H-Blocks of HMP Maze/Long Kesh. This debate started a few years ago with Richard O’Rawe’s publication of Blanketmen. O’Rawe is a Belfast Republican, former POW in the H-Blocks, and PRO of the 1981-Hunger Strikers. In his publications, O’Rawe claims that, in July 1981, after the death of four hunger strikers, there was a British offer on the table that could have ended the hunger strike and saved the lives of six more Hunger Strikes. However, the prisoners, O’Rawe claims, were not informed and the Hunger Strikes continued.
Since these revelations, a fierce debate ignited among Republicans, academics, and commentators. There a roughly two opposing camps in this, oftentimes vicious debate. On the one hand are those who believe O’Rawe and point a finger at, among others, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams and former Sinn Féin PRO and writer Danny Morrison for sabotaging this deal. On the other hand there are those who stick to the traditional narrative that there was no such deal whatsoever.
While reading the recent coverage in Irish media and comments from both sides on various online blogs, I stumbled over a comment made by Brian Patterson on the website of the Bobby Sands Trust and later repeated on the blog of Jude Collins. He wrote:
While I hold no brief for Adams or Provisional SF I think it significant that the late Ruairi O’Bradaigh (in his later years no friend of Adams or SF) flatly rejected O’Rawe’s version of events and denied that a deal had ever been offered by the British Government. Effectively he corroborated Adams’ version of events.
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was a leading figure within Irish Republicanism since the late 1950s, serving as Chief-of-Staff of the IRA during Operation Harvest and, later, on the IRA Army Council. From 1970 until 1983, he was President of (Provisional) Sinn Féin. Therefore, he is indeed an authority for all events related to Irish Republicanism and the conflict in the North of Ireland during this time. For this reason, it is important to put it on record what Ó Brádaigh actually said.
At the heights of the Hunger Strike Deal Controversy, he was interviewed by the Belfast-based Irish News. The article reads:
Recalling events in 1981, Mr O Bradaigh, who was banned from entering the north, described Dr FitzGerald’s claim that a deal was scuppered by the leadership outside the jail as “completely wrong”.
“I must reject what is being said. Sinn Fein at the time were not involved in making settlements,’’ he said.
“I don’t believe either that the [IRA] army council was aware that there were terms on offer either.”
“Sinn Fein felt their job was to get out there… I was galloping all over the country and was in touch with people, at home and abroad trying to get support,” he said.
The article is headlined: “Deal claims ‘completely wrong’: O Bradaigh.” One month later he was again interviewed by Irish News journalist Allison Morris and Ó Brádaigh replied with a letter to the Irish News which reads:
About half a year later I interviewed Ruairí Ó Brádaigh in his house in Roscommon Town. During a lengthy interview on 5 March 2010 I asked him about the controversy over the July-81-Deal and he said:
This question arose with Richard O’Rawe and his book. He was attacked for a few points. I said at that time that I wasn’t aware of any such proposed deal. There was a committee in Belfast which was dealing with the day-to-day situation of the hunger strikes. What they may have known I don’t know. I know that the Ard Chomhairle of Sinn Féin and I, as a President of Sinn Féin, knew nothing of the terms of such a deal. And I don’t believe that the military leadership [of the IRA] knew of it either.
Asked if he thinks that there was a section of the Republican Movement in Belfast hiding information from the national leadership of Sinn Féin and the Army Council of the IRA, he replied: “I just don’t know.”
An edited and shortened version of this four-hour interview was later published in the Republican monthly Saoirse.
His answer to my question on the alleged July-1981-Deal is in accordance with his statement given to the Irish News. There is no reason to dispute his account.
To conclude, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh neither strengthened the claims made by Richard O’Rawe, nor did he dispute them. All he said was that the Southern leadership of the then Republican Movement was not aware of all developments in the North.
Ó Brádaigh died on 5 June 2013. In his interviews and statements he said what he thought was necessary to say. Instead of using the dead to interpret past events, we should stick to available facts. The ongoing Hunger Strike controversy is too important to be used as necromancy.
While quoting Brian Patterson Dieter Reinisch may have missed the fact that I replied to Brian twice on Jude Collins' blog, the 2nd time I wrote....
"Brian, with due respect to Ruairí O’Brádaigh and I have the greatest respect for the man, but he didn’t see what Adams and McGuinness were doing behind his back on the run up to the 1986 Ard Fheis and their eventual take over of both the Army Council and SF. This was happening in the five years following the Hunger Strikes so it stands to reason that there was a movement within the Movement and that was the Adams’ Kitchen Cabinet, the same group which ran the Hunger Strikes from outside the jail.
Saying you know Ruairí doesn’t mean you know what he knew…. And more importantly what he didn’t know."
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I would like to discuss ways to better balance JA2's hireable mercenaries, including A.I.M., M.E.R.C. and RPC's.
The assumption is, that some mercs are imbalanced. Either, they're too good/cheap or too bad/expensive. As a result, some mercs are way more "attractive" to hire than others.
Of course, I think that JA2 is a game, that is not all about numbers when it comes to the characters. It's about personalities, composed of the picture, the voice, the bio, the disabilities, the likes/dislikes and so on...
Furthermore, some mercs are simply better than others. There are good mercs and mercs, who are not that good. (talking about Magic vs. Biff)
Balancing the mercenaries can/shall not change this. The idea of this project is just, to encourage the player to hire mercs, he's never hired before. maybe, Because his usual pick suddenly is a bit less effective (worse/more expensive) or because the ones he's always neglected are suddenly a bit more attractive (better/cheaper)
I don't want to discuss the pros and cons of balancing the stats as a concept but the balancing itself.
After some thinking about it, I made up the following rules, to which I would like to stick (more or less). However, the rules themselves are also open for discussion.
No merc should ne changed too drastically. E.g. Fox shouldn't be turned into a sniper, Bull shouldn't be turned into an explosives-expert, Razor shouldn't be turned into a long-sleeping prof. dr. phil... you get the idea.
The discount, mercs from A.I.M offer when being hired for 1 or 2 weeks should be limited to ≤15% for 1 week and ≤25% for 2 weeks. In Vanilla, some mercs offered up to 40%, which made them too cheap.
Exception here are possible. (E.g. Dr. Q, because his bio implies, that he offers an extraordinary deal.)
The max. difference between the discounts for 1 and 2 weeks is 15%. (E.g. 100% for 1 day, 95% for 1 week and 80% for 2 weeks.)
No more than three individual stats should be altered per merc. Every stat that is altered has a max. variation of
Wisdom was raised by 5. He still has least wisdom of all A.I.M. mercs. I think he should have more than 55, because he can at least speak properly. Steroid with wisdom 62 sounds way more dumb.
Also, his marksmanship was lowered by 5. He is supposed to be a brawler (his bio and skill traits imply it). Marksmanship increases fast anyway. Even more, with his improved wisdom.
I added a crowbar. While cheap and almost useless in combat, it allows him to open quite a few doors with his high strength.
His base price remains the same. However, his discount was changed to 85% for 1 week and 75% for 2 weeks. No merc should work for less than 75% if hired for 2 weeks.
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In the first half of their shock Champions League defeat by Lyon, I described Manchester City as being a “rabble” – and they really were that bad.
When I said that, just after they had gone 2-0 down, I meant they were a team that appeared disorganised and did not look like they were together, which was also conceding possession unnecessarily.
Normally that is the state that City reduce other teams to, but at Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night the brilliant side we saw last season was barely recognisable.
Why? I think it was down to a combination of things, but it is important to remember this is a bad result for City, but not a catastrophic one.
They have got plenty of time to recover and qualify comfortably, which I think they will do. In fact, I would be staggered if they don’t still win Group F.
But this result should act as a reminder that it does not matter how good they are, if their standards drop then they will get beaten in this competition.
I don’t know why City were so lethargic at the start of the game, but it was maybe because they underestimated the opposition.
Lyon have had some exceptional sides over the past 10 to 15 years while I have been covering the Champions League, but on paper this was not one of them. They were facing a team everyone thought they would beat, myself included.
Yes the atmosphere was flat in the opening minutes but you cannot blame the fans for that, because it is normally the team who get them going.
Look at the way Liverpool started their game against Paris St-Germain at Anfield on Tuesday night, by tearing into them and getting the crowd on their feet straight away.
I have seen that happen at Etihad Stadium before, in fact I have been there many times when the atmosphere has been absolutely electric.
I was there the day they won the Premier League against QPR in 2012, for example, and it was unbelievable, so it can happen.
But instead of the fans sparking the players, or vice versa, there was a bit of expectancy present against Lyon, as if everyone thought, “Someone will make something happen and we will get this done”.
The first 10-15 minutes of the game were pretty unconvincing by City but things got worse instead of better.
Midway through the first half they had none of their usual intensity in their play, and were so sloppy in possession they were making mistakes that encouraged the French side to come into the game.
What I witnessed out there was something I have been through many, many times as a player myself, where individual errors spread through the team.
You find yourself giving your team-mates a rollicking to try to sort things out – and then, all of a sudden, you get the ball and do something stupid.
Even their most consistent players were at fault, and Fernandinho made errors that led to both Lyon goals.
I was singing his praises before kick-off when I was talking about how important he is to this City side because they don’t have anyone else like him to play in midfield, but this game was probably the poorest I have seen him play – he was passing the ball to thin air.