De Valera Bond Drive Subscribers Sought

July 3, 2004

Dear Editor:

An Irish documentary film maker, Mint Productions, have been commissioned by Irish television broadcaster, RTE, to produce a one hour documentary on de Valera and The Irish Press. As part of setting up The Irish Press, shares were sold amongst the Irish American community in the late 1920s early 1930s.

Mint Productions are trying to get in touch with some American shareholders - or children or grandchildren of shareholders.

In 1919 Eamon de Valera visited America on a bond drive for the Irish Republic. The money collected from the Irish American community was held in bank accounts in New York. However, disagreement over the lawful claimants of this money sparked a lawsuit. In 1927, Judge Curtis Peters ruled that the bond money should be returned to the original subscribers.

Eamon de Valera and his team canvassed these subscribers asking them to sign over their bonds to Eamon de Valera personally in order for him to set up The Irish Press Newspaper. At the time, Ireland was dominated by British publications and The Irish Press was to be the true voice of the Irish people.

Many sighed their bonds over and were given share certificates. Although some received shares in the Irish Press many were given shares in a Delaware company called Irish Press Corporation. Little is known about the exact structure of this company.

Today, The Irish Press titles are no longer published - but The Irish Press Corporation still exists.

Mint Productions is trying to get in touch with people who may still have original share certificates in The Irish Press or Irish Press Corporation - these may have belonged to parents or grandparents who signed up to help the cause and perhaps are left to hang, half forgotten and faded on a wall.

If you have such shares, or know of anyone who does, please respond to news@iais.org to be put in contact with Mint Productions.

Thank you, 
Irish American Information Service
 

Irish Republican Socialist Party Solidarity With Free Luers

Dear Editor:

On the fifth anniversary of his incarceration, the international department of the Irish Republican Socialist Party sends greetings of the party's solidarity to American Prisoner of War Jeff "Free" Luers, his friends, and his comrades.

The sentenced handed down to Free for burning three SUVs at Romania Chevrolet in Eugene, Oregon -- 22years and 8 months -- is yet another reminder of what the law in the United States is designed to protect; not human liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but property. Free's real crime wasn't the destruction of three oversized, petrol-guzzling automobiles, it was daring to suggest that the health of the planet might be worth more than private property.

There is something obviously missing in the story of Jeff Luers confrontation with the law--justice. Justice is wholly lacking in the tale. Instead there are a list of hypothetical rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, each lined out in deference to the only right that only matters within the American system of jurisprudence: the right to private property.

The IRSP is aware that Free has continued to follow the course of a revolutionary since his incarceration, speaking out on the concerns of political prisoners, prisoners in general, the environment, and issues concerning the broader anarchist and activist communities and applauds him for his continued activism.

To those struggling to win Free's release, the IRSP extend our solidarity and encouragement. To all those struggling on behalf of the environment, to ensure the survival of ourselves and all other species against the inhuman degradation of the earth witnessed under the system of capitalism, we extend our solidarity as well.

We must rid the world of the capitalist system, which sacrifices everything on the altar of profit and replace it with a system which puts human needs--including the need to have unpolluted land, sea, and air, a preserved ozone layer, no excess of greenhouse gases, and the biodiversity necessary to the survival of humankind, and comrades, there is no time like the present.

Peter Urban
International Department Co-Secretary
Irish Republican Socialist Party
irsp@netwiz.net

Same Old Police In Northern Ireland

Editor:

The Irish American Unity Conference strongly condemns the usual activity of the Northern Ireland police force (PSNI) which once again showed their contempt and distain for the Irish people, this time at Ardoyne during a riotous, drunken Orange Order parade.

After a recent Orange (Unionist) parade through a Catholic neighborhood, Fr. Donegan and two other priests from Holy Cross School were trying to act as peace monitors when the crowd became unruly. The police acted violently and without any rational order, according to local news reports. 

As a result of the police action, Fr. Donegan was left bruised and battered.

Despite all the British assurances, this is the same sectarian police force that has run rampant in Northern Ireland for over 70 years. 

They have changed their hats, they have changed their name, but they are the same sectarian police force which refuses to protect the Irish and remain the armed wing of the Unionists, Somers a retired American Judge declared. Judge Somers went on to say "that there never will be justice and peace in Northern Ireland until, a new and real police force begins to serve the needs of all, and not just the few."

The Irish American Unity Conference salutes the bravery of priests like Father Donegan and his colleagues who stand up against unionist and police violence every day.

Andrew Somers, 
National President, Irish American Unity Conference. 
Email: iauc@iauc.org
 

 Aug. 14, 2004

IAUC Outraged At Award Of Contract!

At a time when our country is attempting to convince our own citizens and indeed the rest of the world of our good intentions in Iraq, it grants the largest contract yet awarded for the reconstruction of Iraq to a company headed by a known abuser of human rights. 

The company in question, Aegis Defense Services LTD., was recently granted a security contract by the Department of Defense reputed to be worth $293,000,000.00. Aegis is headed by former Lt. Col. Tim Spicer of the Scots Guards, a unit of the armed forces of the United Kingdom.

In 1992, soldiers under the command of Spicer shot and killed Peter McBride, 18, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In what can only be described as a rarity for Northern Ireland, two of Spicer's soldiers were actually charged and convicted of murder in this incident. Spicer not only worked for their early release from prison but for their reinstatement to the army. 

His position has always been that young Peter McBride probably had a bomb, thus was responsible for his own death and that his soldiers were blameless. Such an excuse is sometimes valid in war time situations. It is not in this case since it is well known that Peter McBride was shot in the back and more importantly had just been thoroughly searched by members of the same unit that killed him. 

The soldiers knew that Peter McBride did not possess any weapons and presented no danger to them yet they killed him in cold blood. And Lt. Col. Spicer not only gets them out of jail but he gets these convicted murderers reinstated to the army. By the way, the murder convictions have never been overturned. It is shocking that convicted murderers could be taken back into the army but then Peter McBride was just another Irish kid whose life apparently means nothing to the British military.

Lt. Col. Spicer leaves the army but like a tiger his stripes do not change. He forms a company named Sandine International which almost brought down the British government because of its sale of weapons in Sierra Leone in violation of international arms embargoes and was then involved in the brutal suppression of a rebellion in Papua, New Guinea.

Mr. Spicer is a human rights disaster and the Irish American Unity Conference is outraged that our Department of Defense would award such a critical and sensitive contract to a company headed by such an individual. It calls on the Department of Defense to immediately rescind this contract and award it to a company that will be cognizant of the human rights of the Iraqi people. To leave the contract in the hands of Spicer means that we face the danger of a scandal that would make the prison abuse incident look like a garden party.

Jerry Lally, National Political Action Chair
Irish American Unity Conference, National Office
611 Pennsylvania Ave, SE # 4150
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 1-800-947-4282
Email: iauc@iauc.org