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Here's to hoping you have an awesome start to your weekend!
Urban Outfitters dress
H&M lace moto jacket
Forever 21 belt
HUE tights
Jeffrey Campbell Litas
(^^ Get 20% off your Karmaloop.com order with the code KAELAH)
Gorgeous! The scenery and you miss! Those shoes really set off the outfit. Good luck with the ABC license!ReplyDelete
I love those shoes! AMAZING! xoxReplyDelete
you're so beautiful ♥ReplyDelete
I love this outfit it's super cute! Your shoes are amazing, I'm not much into heels since I sprained my ankle, but I'm sure I would try these on to see how they look! Wishing you a great weekend! Xo Sarai
colors are gorgeous!! love this on ya!!:)
You look great! I love those burgundy tights with the pink shoes! :) -LoReplyDelete
LOVE the foliage... You make your Tennessee look delightful. Vermont is pretty spectacular this time of year too... though we are about done with colorful leaves, onto the stark winter sky.
cute outfit doll!
xx britt
I think it is a great outfit!! It is colorful, and very nicely put together. And, of course, you DO stick out from the gorgeous yellow trees in the background. Those are so pretty! I'm sad that almost all the leaves are gone now. :( Also, I wore a pair of tights yesterday that were the same color as those! I had an interview session and felt like sticking out. It was POURING rain, though, so I had to lug my non-matching umbrella around downtown. What made me happy is when someone on the street stopped and complimented me. Good day.
Now go out and strut (as much as you can, anyway) in those lovely shoes of yours. :)
Gorgeous as always! And good luck on the test.ReplyDelete
I don't know if I'd classify this as out-there...but I suppose you're not wearing a plaid shirt and cowboy boots, so you might stand out :)
I really really freaking love that dress. The print is so pretty! I have to say, Tennessee trees are very pretty in the Fall. I especially love the area where you did the pictures...absolutely gorgeous.
Lovely outfit and wonderful pictures!
kisses from your follower! ♡
I'm so into the color of those tights with the color of your shoes!ReplyDelete
I really love this outfit.ReplyDelete
That lace jacket is to die for! You look beautiful & what a pretty backdrop.
girl, your shoes are craaazy!! i wish i could be so bold. i used to do really high heels too, but nyc walking has ruined them for me :( highest i can go anymore is about 2"
i'm new to your blog just wanted to tell you how much i am enjoying it! and that i would die for your hair color :)
the colors of this outfit with the background colors of the trees is so beautiful!
Good luck with your test!
The colour of those trees combined with what you're wearing is stunning! Really nice post!
Loulou @ Loulou Downtown
omg.. the trees are beautiful and so are you!! =)ReplyDelete
Oh goodness! I'm so in love with this dress! I love the colors and pattern - it's just perfect, and it looks amazing with those tights. <3
Ugh. Getting your license renewed sounds like loads of fun! I'm 2hrs away from finishing my 30 hrs class room drivers ed time, so I can relate. :-P Hope the time passes quickly!
I am pretty jealous of your pink Litas. They are very cute!ReplyDelete
Everything about this post is absolutely stunning.ReplyDelete
I love the Natchez Trace any time of year. It's so pretty! Good luck on your test! :)ReplyDelete
Stunning. That burgundy red tights go really really well with that pink Litas!! Way to go ♥ReplyDelete
I'm loving the colors in this outfit so much. The tights and shoes look great together. I'm really loving your pretty lace jacket too.ReplyDelete
Absolutely adore that lace jacket - will have to find a version of it here! Dress is beautiful too. XxReplyDelete
this is such a lovely post. I love your dress, its gorgeous! And the scenery is so so beautiful!
i know its a nightmare when shoes are too tight, but as we all say 'no pain no gain'.. they look so prettttyyyy if it helps!
omg that dresse's fabric is amazing. well like every fabric from which you have dresses!!! omg if you have some ooold and destroyed dresses I would love to take them to sew something from them hehe :)
love this look and pretty colorsReplyDelete
wow you look so gorgeous!!!
love your blog ♥
The colors in these photos are to die for! Do you or any of your readers have tips for getting your dresses and tights to get a long? Some of my dresses tend to stick the the tights then ride up.
The colors in these photos are to die for! Do you or any of your readers have any tips for getting your dresses and tights to get along? Some of my dresses stick to my tights, then ride up :/ReplyDelete
I am so envious of your wonderful natural ability to mix colors together so effortlessly! I really love this look, if only I wasn't so tall, maybe then I could buy a pair of Lita's too. Eek, I would be 6'3 in them haha.
I am also a bit jealous that you can get your boyfriend to take pictures for you, does he do it on his own? Perhaps I just have a lazy boyfriend...
Keep up the lovely outfits miss,
Wild Flower
love that blazer!
I love the print of this dress, I say that in almost every comment I leave to your posts but it is still true.
The trees look so lovely, I too want to get married in the Fall. I love the way the trees look but it is some fickle weather.
Good luck with your ABC license.
Oh no! Aren't you allowed to return the shoes?! Or did you just not want to give them up? :p I do that ALL the time. It's quite awful actually haha.ReplyDelete
Damn, now you made me go a bit paranoid about when my RSA expires... Anyway, what I really wanted to compliment is the amazingly beautiful color of your hair against those fairytale yellow leaves!ReplyDelete
So pretty (both the scenery and you!) I love the colour of the tights with the pink of the shoes - so girly and lovely.
Katie x
You are amazing! Nobody could pull off the rosé Litas liek you do :)
I always love your colourful cheerful looks <3
I love it! You look so pretty! That dress and jacket is great!!
I love the contrast of the pinks with the firey yellow trees!
haha I like that you said this was an out there outfit for public. I always feel bad compared to some bloggers bc I know if I wore some outfits in my town people would stare and it'd be annoying. The Natchez Trace is beautiful!
The trees are so amazing--living among evergreens, it blows me away to see such vivid colors. & love your outfit, too, of course!ReplyDelete
Those shoes are magnific! The whole outfit is overall wonderful! You look superb! Bravo! :)
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California and Utah National Parks - June 2012
June 2012 trip through Death Valley, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Yosemite, and Zion National Parks.Read More
All Images © Copyright, Steve Rucci. Unauthorized use or duplication is prohibited without prior written permission. All rights reserved. For usage information, please E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
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subset: commoncrawl


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DRESDEN, February 17 (RIA Novosti) – A retired Soviet lieutenant colonel whose self-control prevented a nuclear war from being triggered by a long-classified accident in 1983 was honored with a German anti-war prize on Sunday.
Stanislav Petrov, 73, won the fourth Dresden-Preis (Dresden Prize), which comes complete with a check for 25,000 euro ($33,000). The awarding ceremony, which marks the anniversary of the Dresden bombing in 1945, was held in the Dresden Opera Theatre (the Semperoper).
One of the organizers, Director General of Friends of Dresden Deutschland, Heidrun Hannusch, said Petrov had "averted a third world war" and his heroic deed will go down in history as one of the most significant events of the past few decades that contributed to the preservation of peace.
Petrov has stubbornly denied all attempts to label him a hero. "I did nothing heroic, I don't feel like a hero. I just did my job and I like the way I did it," Petrov told the audience.
Ironically for a military officer, Petrov shot to fame for ignoring his direct responsibilities. The officer served at a command center of the Soviet nuclear early-warning system outside Moscow, which reported the launch of five nuclear missiles from US territory on Sept. 26, 1983.
Cold War tensions were riding high at the time, boosted by the Soviet Union's fears about the US Strategic Defense Initiative – "the Star Wars program" – and the international incident caused by the Soviet air defense shooting down a Korean passenger plane earlier in September that year.
Petrov's duty was to report the incoming missiles to his superiors, who were likely to order a snap retaliatory strike. However, he chose to ignore the report, ruling it an equipment malfunction and reckoning five missiles insufficient for a proper war.
His guess was right: an investigation proved the warning to be a false report by a monitoring satellite confused by sunlight reflecting off high-altitude clouds.
Petrov was neither promoted nor disciplined and continued his service, while the story remained classified until 1998. He later said he was denied an award because the incident was investigated by the officers responsible for the malfunction.
The annual Dresden-Preis was incepted in 2010 and is awarded for anti-war effort. Recipients include the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, pianist Daniel Barenboim, active in promoting Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation, and US war photographer James Nachtwey.
This is the third award Petrov received after the story was made public. In 2006, Petrov was the recipient of the World Citizen Award and six years later he was given the prestigious international award Deutscher Medienpreis.


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Penn St. attacks claims by McQueary
Penn State's lawyers asked a judge Tuesday to throw out a whistleblower and defamation lawsuit filed by a former assistant football coach who testified he saw Jerry Sandusky attack a boy in a school shower more than a decade ago.
Mike McQueary's lawsuit is too vague and does not meet legal standards to support claims of defamation and misrepresentation, the university wrote in a court filing.
McQueary has sued the university for millions of dollars, claiming in an October complaint that then-president Graham Spanier made him a scapegoat in 2011 after Sandusky, a retired assistant football coach, was arrested on child molestation charges.
''It is not enough that the alleged victim of a statement be embarrassed or annoyed, he must have suffered the kind of harm which has grievously fractured his standing in the community of a respectable society,'' wrote Penn State attorney Nancy Conrad.
A phone message seeking comment from McQueary's lawyer, Elliot Strokoff, was not immediately returned.
Sandusky, who spent decades at Penn State under longtime coach Joe Paterno, was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse and is serving a lengthy state prison sentence. He maintains his innocence.
Last week, he appeared in a central Pennsylvania courthouse for a hearing on his claim that he did not get a fair trial, in part because his lawyers lacked time to prepare. A judge has not yet ruled in that matter.
Conrad's new filing said that a Nov. 5, 2011, news release by Spanier, in which he expressed ''unconditional support'' for outgoing athletic director on leave Tim Curley and retired vice president Gary Schultz, did not relate to McQueary and did not defame him by innuendo.
McQueary alleges he lost his job because he cooperated with prosecutors, and that Spanier's statements suggested McQueary had lied about the 2001 shower attack. He is seeking reinstatement, a bowl bonus, back pay and benefits, among other things. His salary had been $140,000.
McQueary's ''claimed innuendo can only be obtained by means of a tortured and unreasonable construction,'' Conrad wrote.
Curley and Schultz were arrested along with Sandusky, charged with perjury and failing to properly report suspected abuse. The state attorney general's office recently added more counts against them, and charged Spanier for an alleged cover-up of complaints about Sandusky. All three men deny the allegations and await a court hearing.
McQueary told jurors in the Sandusky case that he arrived in a team locker room late one Friday night and saw Sandusky with a naked boy in the shower, leading him to conclude Sandusky was raping the child. He said he heard a ''skin-on-skin smacking sound'' and described the encounter as extremely shocking.


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Anti aging supplements can help you receive a youthful body. They can also make you look more youthful. There's so lots of anti aging supplements in the kind of vitamin pills, energy boosters etc.,
Trust me, living like an elderly & aged person is no fun. Age can affect the way your body functions & looks. Not this, it can also adjust your behavior & affect mental concentration.
Trust me, living like an elderly & aged person is no fun. Age can affect the way your body functions & looks. Not this, it can also adjust your behavior & affect mental concentration.
hgh releaser pills and get the best result to be feel age free. Pain in the soft tissues in your body is a condition that is called Fibromyalgia & it is linked to a drop in HGH production in your body. In fact all the aging effects that you experience can be linked to a drop in the growth hormone production in your body.
Aging not only affects your looks by giving you a wrinkled skin but also makes you more susceptible to infections & diseases by weakening your immune technique. Lots of people experience pains & aches as they get older for no apparent reason.
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There are thousands of HGH supplements being sold online. However, it is the quality & the choice of ingredients that set apart nice supplements from the rest.
Top of the line HGH pills contain ingredients such as l-arginine, l-valine, bovine colostrum, rhodiala rosea, green tea extract, resveratrol, astragalus, 5HTP etc.,
A number of the above ingredients are clinically proven to make your body produce more HGH of its own.
However, nice supplements come with a greater potency to make sure faster benefits. Not only this, they also contain Bioperine, which is expensive but can such a supplement work faster.
Though such ingredients can be highly effective in stimulating HGH production in your body, you need to have them in the necessary strength to make sure proper results. This is where most supplements lack.


text:
Professional Java for Web Applications by Nicholas S. Williams
This guide shows Java software developers and software engineers how to build complex web applications in an enterprise environment. You'll begin with an introduction to the Java Enterprise Edition and the basic web application, then set up a development application server environment, learn about the tools used in the development process, and explore numerous Java technologies and practices. The book covers industry-standard tools and technologies, specific technologies, and underlying programming concepts. Java is an essential programming language used worldwide for both Android app development and enterprise-level corporate solutions As a step-by-step guide or a general reference, this book provides an all-in-one Java development solution Explains Java Enterprise Edition 7 and the basic web application, how to set up a development application server environment, which tools are needed during the development process, and how to apply various Java technologies Covers new language features in Java 8, such as Lambda Expressions, and the new Java 8 Date & Time API introduced as part of JSR 310, replacing the legacy Date and Calendar APIs Demonstrates the new, fully-duplex WebSocket web connection technology and its support in Java EE 7, allowing the reader to create rich, truly interactive web applications that can push updated data to the client automatically Instructs the reader in the configuration and use of Log4j 2.0, Spring Framework 4 (including Spring Web MVC), Hibernate Validator, RabbitMQ, Hibernate ORM, Spring Data, Hibernate Search, and Spring Security Covers application logging, JSR 340 Servlet API 3.1, JSR 245 JavaServer Pages (JSP) 2.3 (including custom tag libraries), JSR 341 Expression Language 3.0, JSR 356 WebSocket API 1.0, JSR 303/349 Bean Validation 1.1, JSR 317/338 Java Persistence API (JPA) 2.1, full-text searching with JPA, RESTful and SOAP web services, Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP), and OAuth Professional Java for Web Applications is the complete Wrox guide for software developers who are familiar with Java and who are ready to build high-level enterprise Java web applications.
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Harold Lambert
You don't really thank your parents for meeting the demands you made of them. You pay off the debt you owe to your own children and one day they will do the same. It's the same with teaching. The debts you owe to your teachers you repay to your students.
Teachers don't get rewarded. Not in this life anyway. Good researchers do but good teachers have to wait for heaven. Just occasionally teachers will get thanked by their students. Dr Grumble hopes he thanked his teachers. Sometimes he definitely did. Probably he often didn't. One teacher he cannot remember ever thanking was Harold Lambert. Harold Lambert taught Dr Grumble about infectious diseases. He was a very clear-thinking teacher. Most good teachers are.
When Dr Grumble was a student he thought of Harold Lambert as an old man though he would have been way younger than Dr G is now. He was amazed that he had managed to live so long working alongside all those nasty infectious diseases. Dr Grumble can still remember going to see a case of open TB with him. The young Grumble held his breath in the corner of the room trying not to inhale. Today Dr Grumble's students also retreat to the corner of the room when they meet infectious patients. With time this fear passes to the extent that seasoned doctors risk becoming complacent about infection control. It's better that way. When Dr Grumble knows the patient is not really as infectious as the protocols say he often takes off his mask to help put both patient and students at ease. You cannot work well if you are fearful for your own safety.
It was this 'flu business that led to Dr G thinking about his former teacher. Here are some video clips from the People's Archive of Harold Lambert reminiscing. Notice how well he speaks and how clearly he thinks:
University College Hospital: developing an interest in clinical medicine (Part 1)
Communication with patients: a story about denial
Beginnings of my interest in infectious diseases: doing research in the Army
The importance of cleanliness in hospitals
The hospital environment; St Georges Hospital garden
Thank you, Harold Lambert, for teaching Dr Grumble. He appreciates your teaching to this day. Dr Grumble always hoped that one day he would become a good teacher like you. Whether he has or not is not for Grumble to say but he has tried to repay the debt he owes to his teachers by teaching those that follow. When you get to a certain age that is, perhaps, your most important role. It's a shame that the powers-that-be don't recognise that.


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Hi everybody ?
We continue to discover for you. Our container house on today's tour is from Chile.
Text description provided by the architects.
This prefabricated house for an art collector and his family was built in the outskirts of Santiago in a new suburban residential area. In order to reduce construction time and costs, second hand shipping containers were used as follow: Five 40 "standard containers, Six 20" standard containers and one 40" open top container for the swimming pool.
The first one was to integrate it to the territory of this part of the city where the presence of the Andes Mountain is extremely strong both visually and tectonically. Therefore the presence of the Andes was considered as an obvious background worst to be highlighted and also as a sloped ground needed to be negotiated.
The second one was to allow the external air to run smoothly and easily through the all house and its different parts In order to avoid mechanical cooling.
With regard to the former, the strategy to achieve the proposed integration to the territory, consisted in placing the volumes of the house as if they where resting on the slope and allowing the volumes, lets say; to be blended by the slope. As a result of this tide adjustment of the house to the natural ground; there are generated the entrance to the house and the children sleeping rooms having each one an inclined inner space which is both the skylight and the bed place in the room.
In relation to the latter; the strategy for improving air movement through the house consisted in organizing the program along stripes and keeping interstitial spaces among them for the circulation of both; the inhabitants and the cool air that comes from the mountains. At the same time, the proposed interstitial spaces increases the house perimeter which allows most of the times to have light and air entering the spaces from at least two opposite sides. As a consequence of this will, windows and doors are aligned along axes that cut the stripes, easing therefore air movement and also creating visual integration
Construction phases consisted in: firstly; placing the retaining walls to create a horizontal plane to place the public areas of the house. Secondly; in mounting the containers and ensemble them on top to place the private areas and thirdly; to wrap the containers with a unitarian material which at the time that integrates the parts also creates a ventilated façade that temperate the interior spaces.
The material palette was chosen having in mind not only low cost materials but low maintenance as well. In the election of materials it was also important to analyze their capacity to age well an to incorporate time passing as something that adds value to material.
Architectonic elements such as windows, doors, and skylights are rationalized and repeated all over the house not just to reduce cost but also in order to create and integrated architectonic peace.
Living in a Container explores projects made with shipping containers around the world and shares them for you.
Don't forget to take a look at the structures made with other amazing shipping containers on our site!
We invite you to send in your story and container homes photos too so we can re-share and inspire others towards a simple life too. Thank you!
You can share this using the link and social media re-share buttons below. Thanks!
» Follow Living in a Container on Social Media for regular shipping container house updates here «
Source : archdaily


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Enjoy all the colors and textures of fall with this fabulous bundle of Autumn. Our design team will deliver a stylish mix of hay bales, corn, and multi-sized novelty pumpkins to your doorstep. You'll have the fun opportunity to mix and layer until the perfect fall scene is created. (How to inspo videos on our Instagram @MiamiPumpkins)
Delivery will be on Oct 26 at 11am
By purchasing this item you agree to allow staff of Kitanim, Miami Pumpkins, and @AllThingsJWM to enter your home property for the purpose of delivering and/or styling your fall decor. You also allow permission for your fall setup installation to be photographed and used for promotional material.


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Interview with new Saoradh chairperson Brian Kenna
At their third Ard-Fheis (AGM) on 17/18 November in Dundalk, Co Louth, the Irish republican party Saoradh elected a new chairperson. Brian Kenna from Dublin succeeded Davy Jordan from Co Tyrone who chaired the party since its formation two years ago. Kenna, such as Jordan, is a former republican prisoner. In this interview, Kenna speaks, among other issues, about the development of Saoradh in the past two years, its future, Brexit, the relationship with the IRPWA, the Dublin drug gangs feud, and how he became disillusioned with Sinn Féin.
Saoradh is the youngest and, together with the IRSP, arguably the most visible Irish republican organisation opposed to the Good Friday Agreement settlement. The formation of Saoradh needs to be understood as a direct result of the merger of the various paramilitary organisation to form the so-called "New IRA" in summer 2012.
The election of Kenna from Dublin indicates a shift in the party policy. With Kenna as chairperson and Ger Deveraux as general secretary, the party which has been seen as a largely Northern Ireland based movement, is now headed by two Dublin men while the vice chairperson remains Mandy Duffy from Lurgan, Co Armagh; the new national PRO is Paddy Gallagher from Derry.
Kenna, 57, is originally from north Dublin but lives in Crumlin. He became involved with Irish republicanism in the 1980s, joining Sinn Féin and the Dublin-based Concerned Families Against Drugs. In 1990, he was first arrested, sentenced and spent the following five years in Portlaoise Prison as a member of the Provisional IRA. He was released together with a group of P-IRA prisoners in 1995. This was a goodwill sign of the Republic of Ireland government during the negotiations that led to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
Following his release, Kenna appeared in newspapers as a spokesperson of the prisoners. He remained in Sinn Féin after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and stood in local elections as their candidate. However, critically of the peace process since his release, he left Sinn Féin and became active in the IRPWA. In recent years, he was arrested again and spent another 16 months as a republican prisoner in Portlaoise until he was eventually released in May 2018. Kenna worked as a social worker in the field of rehabilitation and integration with the "Drug Addiction Service Ireland" and served as CEO of the "Inner City Regeneration Project".
I met Kenna around lunchtime in a Dublin inner city hotel. I was a few minutes early, but Kenna was already there. When I arrived, he was reading through a small pile of political documents that were lying on the table in front of him, on top of it the printed copy of the new Saoradh policy "Brexit in the context of Ireland". Kenna is obviously well-prepared for the interview.
Against any rules of behaviour in interview settings, Kenna, the narrator, insists to pay for the tea of the interviewer. I try to change his mind but miserably fail in doing so.
As soon as tea is served he starts talking about Brexit. The proposed Brexit deal has not yet been published. Kenna is well-versed on Brexit and British politics. He closely follows the developments, knows all the morning news and has a strong opinion on Brexit despite insisting that he, as an Irish republican, does not care what Theresa May and the British government are doing. He is obviously dishonest with me on that matter, for no one who would be as well-informed as he can claim not having an interest in the topic.
Our conversation is lively and interesting. I suspect it might have gone on for the whole afternoon, but I came for an interview and I had to reach my train to Belfast for a number of appointments there. Kenna changes the topic, he talks about an upcoming protest against the Special Criminal Court in Dublin and the need for a broad campaign against the SCC. I struggle to interrupt him. While the conversation remains lively, the recording device is not on. Yet, eventually, I manage, and the interview starts.
DR: It's only a couple of days since you were elected chairperson at the recent Saoradh Ard-Fheis. How does it feel?
BK: It is a huge task. I understand that Saoradh is a vibrant, revolutionary, socialist republican organisation. It is very much under pressure from the Crown Forces in the 6 Counties and the political police in the 26 Counties. We are fully intent to become a grown-up party, becoming stronger, more vibrant, more representative of the republican perspective. Because of that, the establishment is fearful of any attack on the status quo. So, it is a huge task but one that I am looking forward to.
DR: Most people who are familiar with your name would solely know your background as a republican prisoner in Portlaoise, but they would know little about your politics. Why are you the right person for this job?
BK: I would have said this at the Ard-Fheis that when I looked around, I saw many faces of people who would have a huge political credential to lead the party. We tried to avoid any cult of personality within Saoradh. We don't want to make any of these mistakes that other organisations made where you had a leader who stayed on for 10, 15, 20, 25 years because it is inward taking, it can be elitist, it can be a clique. We encourage a grassroots-up participation in party structure and consistency of that we were looking to change the leadership this year.
The outgoing chairperson Davy Jordan had done a tremendous job in being its first chairperson, giving the party a direction and stabilising the organisation. We felt that it was time to bring in someone new and it was felt that, because I am from the South, from Dublin in particular, there is huge potential in Dublin and in the South of Ireland. I suppose consistent with grassroots involvement and leadership, people are looking for a change. It could have been anyone in the party. I was picked but it obviously could have been anyone. We wouldn't be fixated on a strong and dynamic leader, we want to make sure that there will be as much participation from a grassroots level as possible in every level of the organisation.
From Sinn Féin to Saoradh, out of Portlaoise and back in
DR: How did it happen that you became a republican activist in the first place?
BK: My family was deep in republicanism. Five of my uncles were interned in the Curragh military camp during the Second World War. They were arrested and interned without trial for the duration of the Second World War and longer because they were Irish republicans and they were seen to be a threat because England's difficulties are always Ireland's opportunities. So they rounded up many republicans during the early '40s and kept them almost to the '50s, that was my father's side and his brothers.
When I was a teenager, I grew up in Dublin and I got involved in the anti-drugs campaign in Dublin against the scourge of heroin and I was also interested in Irish nationalist politics and so I joined Sinn Féin. I was very active in the anti-drugs movement "Concerned Parents Against Drugs" and in Sinn Féin and, eventually, I found myself in prison in 1990 and I served a 10-year sentence at that time.
I remained in Sinn Féin for a couple of years afterwards but then I felt: What has since the Good Friday Agreement happened? Sinn Féin went into Stormont and also accepted the police informers and I felt that I no longer have views consistent with that ideology and I left.
I remained in Sinn Féin for a couple of years afterwards but then I felt: What has since the Good Friday Agreement happened? Sinn Féin went into Stormont and also accepted the police informers and I felt that I no longer have views consistent with that ideology and I left. I then got involved in the Irish Republican Prisoners' Welfare Association and I worked on behalf of the Irish republican prisoners. I was then involved in the formation of Saoradh but, unfortunately, I was arrested again, so I could not participate in Saoradh for a year and a half because I was on bail.
Some of my conditions were very, very draconian bail conditions. I could not attend any meetings, I could not speak to any people involved in politics, I could not attend any demonstration, I had a curfew and I had to be in at 11 pm every night. I also could not be in the company of anyone who had been in prison before, so I was not involved in the first Ard-Fheis and then I was jailed for 16 months on the word of an assistant Garda commissioner who said he believed that I was a member of an illegal organisation. There was little to no evidence against me. It is the Special Criminal Court, once you go to this court it is very, very hard to come out innocent. I was released in May this year and I got back involved in Saoradh.
DR: You were one of those who were released as part of the peace process in the late 1990s and you are quoted as a spokesperson of the prisoners in papers from that time. You later remained active in Sinn Féin. How does a prisoner who gets released during the peace process eventually end up in Saoradh?
BK: Those releases were meant to be confidence-building measures. It was a measure brokered by the London, Dublin and American governments to encourage republicans to embrace the peace process. Like all republicans at that time, I did, and I had a certain amount in belief in it. I was led to believe that it would lead us to a United Ireland. But over the years, I realised that this was not going to happen and so, like any individual, I felt that I had the right to retain my own political ideology and I found that my ideology didn't fit with Sinn Féin and so I left Sinn Féin. I thought we were bringing about a United Ireland but Sinn Féin's policy was never bringing us to that point
The formation of Saoradh
DR: Let us talk about Saoradh. It is a new party only found two years ago. Why was it formed?
BK: Because of the vacuum. There was no organisation credibly active in seeking to bring about Irish reunification that I could see. There was no organisation with people that had the political credibility, a revolutionary experience that could install any confidence in republicans to continue the fight for Irish reunification. Saoradh is absolutely necessary. Once there is an occupation of your country, Irish people have the right to oppose this occupation by whatever means necessary.
There was no organisation with people that had the political credibility, a revolutionary experience that could install any confidence in republicans to continue the fight for Irish reunification. Saoradh is absolutely necessary. Once there is an occupation of your country, Irish people have the right to oppose this occupation by whatever means necessary.
Saoradh, although it is a new organisation, there are a lot of older republican socialists involved in Saoradh. That doesn't mean they were all in prison in the past, but they would have consistently opposed imperialism in Ireland right down the years. We have people in their 70s, but we also have éistígí which are a youth wing if Saoradh. So, we have people from their early teens right into their 70s. We have a person in prison at the moment who is 70 years of age, Kevin Hannaway, who would have been involved with Provisional Sinn Féin and the IRA down the years. He is one of the Hooded Men. We have people of that credibility. It is not just a new party. It is a new party with people who have been involved in the anti-imperialist struggle in Ireland.
DR: People from other organisations would answer me the same about their organisations. There are several other organisations around, some since 1986, some since 1997. Let me phrase it a bit more provocative: Who needs Saoradh?
BK: Those who are intent to removing British influence in our country need Saoradh because no other organisation has this credibility. There are individuals who are strongly socialist, republican and anti-imperialist and I have a lot of time for them. There are small groups of individuals who come together at various different times who come together to oppose issues that arise in Ireland but there does not appear to be any consistency with these groups. So, while I admire other anti-imperialists in Ireland and I wish them well, they stop short of confronting British occupation.
The first two years of Saoradh
DR: Before we talk about the future of Saoradh, let's talk about its past. I was in Coalisland at the Unfinished Revolution Easter Commemoration in 2016 which was a big success for the organisers but then not all those who were involved in the organisation of this march were not involved in the formation of Saoradh. Then, less than one year into the existence of Saoradh, you witnessed your first split in Belfast. How would you assess the first two years of the existence of Saoradh? Because you mentioned that Davy Jordan was a stabilising factor. What do you mean with that?
BK: Saoradh is a new party. There was a war weariness in Ireland because of the long 30-year campaign against British occupation which was dominated mostly by Sinn Féin and the Provisional IRA. But when they moved towards the centre and when they gave up the notion of physically confronting the British occupation of our country, there was a huge war weariness and people drifted away. So, it needed a new organisation for the people to continue the struggle for Irish national self-determination.
We are trying to bring forward the best and the finest and the most willing and able to continue the fight for Irish freedom.
Davy Jordan would have huge credibility on the ground and he managed to put a shape on Saoradh in its first two years and that was very important. But regarding the splits and all that. You need to consider that it is a new organisation. Any party has a level of personality. People from one area might not have a different ideology but a different idea of the pace of things or the direction things are going, so you will also have a natural fall-off of people from time to time and that can happy at any time in every single organisation.
Sinn Féin has lost senior party figures including elected representatives every so often. They would be a very strong, some would say dictatorial organisation. While it is regrettable, it does happen. Just because people leave the party does not mean they give up their aspirations for a United Ireland. We think that some people who leave still have a political ideology that is consistent with ours. We have to accept it. Being involved in a revolutionary republican socialist organisation like Saoradh is very time-consuming. We are trying to bring forward the best and the finest and the most willing and able to continue the fight for Irish freedom.
Developing Saoradh in the Republic of Ireland
DR: Saoradh held their first manifestations all in the 6 Counties. The first Ard-Fheis was in Newry, then in Derry, all the Unfinished Revolution commemorations were in the 6 Counties, Coalisland, Derry, Belfast and also the most well-known activist come from this area, namely Paul Duffy, Patrick Carthy, Stephen Murney, Dee Fennell, Davy Jordan, they are all from the 6 Counties. Why a Dublin chairperson?
BK: Thankfully the people in the 26 Counties stand up and the party has been very conscious of the fact that we encourage people from the 26 Counties to reclaim Republicanism and the struggle for national self-determination. While the major commemorations took place in Coalisland and Derry, over the past two years there have been other commemorations. There was another Easter commemoration in 2016 which took place in Dublin. It was very well supported and surprised the establishment down here. This hastened the 26 Counties administration desire to arrest people. There is a constant flow of people appearing in court.
We realised that it is an anti-imperialist struggle that we are involved in and the Dublin government are very capitalist and imperialist in their makeup and unless we bring this notion to people and get them to understand that capitalism is the enemy of the people, we will go nowhere. This is the path we are going now.
There was also the Wolfe Tone commemoration which had not been a factor of Irish political life for many years. This was restarted by Saoradh two years ago, in 2016. They were well attended and not just by people in the South but the people in the North very much support it to make it a national commemoration. You see an end of this partitionist thinking that it is all 6 County-based.
As I said before, it could have been anyone. We had an incredible wealth of people at our Ard-Fheis last week in County Louth. But I was elected, and the general secretary is Ger Deveraux who is also from Dublin. The vice chairperson is Mandy Duffy from Lurgan. So, you have a stronger engagement of people both from the North and the South and our intention was to develop the party in the South. One of the reasons why we know this is happening is because we got ourselves involved in a lot of the political, economic and social issues that affect the people in the 26 Counties.
We realised that it is an anti-imperialist struggle that we are involved in and the Dublin government are very capitalist and imperialist in their makeup and unless we bring this notion to people and get them to understand that capitalism is the enemy of the people, we will go nowhere. This is the path we are going now. We see the growth in the South, not because the chairperson is from the South, but the people realise that life for, particularly, the working class will not get any better under a capitalist society. When these people become involved in activism they quickly realise that the partition is a huge hindrance in making our lives better.
DR: Will the inclusion of members from the South into the leadership reflect a political change of Saoradh?
BK: No, it is not a shift in the power within the organisation. It is an embracement of more people from the South and this has to be welcomed. We are a 32 Counties organisation. We are uniquely placed to harness the collective energy of people from both the 6 Counties and the 26 Counties. We do not see a border, we don't accept a border, we don't have a partitionist mindset. It is not strange for us that people from Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Dublin sit in a room with people from the 6 Counties and give directions to the party.
Nor does it mean that, because the chairperson is from the 26 Counties, we are less militant. We still want to see the last British soldier leaving this country. Everyone in the party in the 26 Counties is steadfast that we should not be governed by Britain, nor should we be governed by an imperialist European Union.
With Provisional Sinn Féin, in the earlier years since the 50s and the 60s, you had an organisation that was dominated from the South, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and Dáithí Ó Conaill and those people. But when the explosion of the conflict happened in the late 60s and early 70s you saw a new leadership emerging including the likes of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness and all them. You saw a shift in the power. But for Saoradh, we do not see a shift in the power from the 6 Counties to the 26 Counties. We see the combined Irish people standing up for themselves, but people can read into it what they want to read into it.
Nor does it mean that, because the chairperson is from the 26 Counties, we are less militant. We still want to see the last British soldier leaving this country. Everyone in the party in the 26 Counties is steadfast that we should not be governed by Britain, nor should we be governed by an imperialist European Union. It doesn't matter where the chairperson is from, we are a united party.
DR: What are the immediate tasks for Saoradh?
BK: The main tasks are consolidating our position, put the question of the partition at the centre stage into Irish politics. Partition hinders the working class to rightfully take ownership of the wealth of the country. The fight against partition and the involvement of imperialism in Ireland is what unites us in our struggle.
Brexit in the context of Ireland
DR: Saoradh published their Brexit policy documents a few weeks ago. This is the first political document Saoradh has published. Can we expect more policy documents in the future?
BK: Yes, very much so. Specifically focusing on Brexit in the context of Ireland it has, currently and will have in the future, a huge impact on Irish life. In compiling this document, we travelled wide around the country and seeking an opinion from people, getting their approval for writing this document and explaining to them why we are moving into this direction and in doing so we got the feeling of people right across the country. Basically, what we find is that people are affected in social and economic ways the same way they are in Belfast as they are in Cork, the same in Dublin as they are in Galway. We realised that we need to develop policies on a whole range of issues.
We have a desire and a need to produce policies and explain why imperialism is holding this country back. So, I would that by mid-2019 we should have a number of printed policies in place.
At our recent Ard-Fheis, we decided to hold conferences in the early part of 2019 on a range of issues including homelessness, housing, drugs, the legalisation and decriminalisation of drugs, drug treatment and rehabilitation and a whole range of social issues. We have a desire and a need to produce policies and explain why imperialism is holding this country back. So, I would that by mid-2019 we should have a number of printed policies in place.
DR: Can you sum up your Brexit position?
BK: We say that: Brexit in the context of Ireland highlights the failure to address the root cause of conflict between Britain and Ireland, that is partition and the usurpation of Irish national sovereignty. We also say that addressing this issue by debating a hard or a soft border misses the point because it does not address the cause of conflict. Our main task is to highlight the root cause of the conflict and that is partition and that may entail a direct challenge to whatever mechanisms that may be implemented as a result of Brexit.
For instance, a hard border will increase hardship on people whether this is social life or economic life. It will impact once you put a physical infrastructure on the so-called border which is a British border. This will reawaken people that Britain still rules the 6 Counties of Ireland and this is going to lead to renewed conflict. Physical infrastructure will be resisted. There is no doubt about that. What we say is that Britain out of Ireland and Ireland out of the EU makes political, economic and strategical sense.
So, the people reacted in a xenophobic way. They say its immigration and people coming into their country and stealing their jobs. It was the Tory policy that lost the people their jobs and gave people in the north of England a substandard life and fewer opportunities for work, housing and other services. It has nothing to do with immigration. It was the mismanagement of the British economy that causes the mindset.
Britain has dug a hole for itself with this Brexit policy. I believe that the capitalist people in England were used against the people in the north of England. The people who hold the power are all in the south of England. So, the people reacted in a xenophobic way. They say its immigration and people coming into their country and stealing their jobs. It was the Tory policy that lost the people their jobs and gave people in the north of England a substandard life and fewer opportunities for work, housing and other services. It has nothing to do with immigration. It was the mismanagement of the British economy that causes the mindset. People like Nigel Farage and Boris Johnston acted as agent provocateurs. They have the British bulldog attitude. Because of that arrogant attitude they cannot see the wood for the trees, they are stuck in it. I personally believe that Theresa May would love to say that they made a mistake.
If they had a new vote tomorrow, they will reject Brexit, but they are too arrogant to admit that. That is fine, that is their decision, I have no desire to influence the thinking of the British people. They are stuck with Brexit and they have no way out, so it is Ireland's opportunity. Saoradh intents wholeheartedly to exploit this opportunity.
DR: Are you advocating a second referendum?
BK: No, from a British perspective I imagine that most people will say: "Let's have another referendum." If you look at the survey, more than 50% plus people would go for it but I am not advocating it. It is not my concern; the British government can do whatever they want to do. Jeremy Corbyn is just sitting back, doing nothing and waiting that the government will implode so he can walk in. He is trying to be populist even among his own so-called left support. But he is also not prepared to grasp it and say: "We were wrong, we want a second referendum." I am not advocating it, it is their choice, but they are too arrogant to admit it.
We would leave the EU, but I believe that the British people voted to leave the EU for the wrong reasons.
If they would have a second referendum tomorrow, for us it would make no difference because the British would still illegally be occupying the 6 Counties of Ireland. And it doesn't change the position of Saoradh towards the EU. We want to leave the EU. We want to prepare a situation when the whole country will have the opportunity to make a decision what kind of government we want to have. I believe it should be a socialist government and this government will then be in a position to negotiate with other governments around the world and stand as a united nation and enter any agreement they all agree to. But that cannot come about if you have an imperialist imposed state in the 6 Counties and a neo-colonial state in the 26 Counties. Until the Irish people can vote as a whole what government they want, I have no interest in what the British do.
DR: What if it comes to a second referendum, how would Saoradh position itself in it?
BK: We have no interest in it. It is a British referendum. We would leave the EU, but I believe that the British people voted to leave the EU for the wrong reasons.
Violence and the Irish border
DR: Will Brexit increase political violence in Ireland?
BK: I think it is inevitable. It depends what kind of deal will happen but if there is a no-deal, I know it is very fluid and it is changing day-by-day, there is a requirement that a physical hard border is established and this physical hard border is manned by British security forces, that increases the opportunity and the motivation for violence in that area and this will most likely happen.
DR: I remember Paul Duffy said the same in the BBC documentary with Peter Taylor. Why would security forces along the border increase the likelihood of attacks? There are British security forces all over Northern Ireland, why would border posts make any difference?
BK: Because there will be a physical manifestation of British rule in Ireland. People will see it on a daily basis. People will be subjected to sectarian harassments and abuse at border checkpoints. That is not a feature for everyday life of ordinary people. It is a feature of life for republicans. But republicans are at present in a minority. But the border will, as it was in the past, a feature of life for ordinary citizens, North and South. People who are travelling and people could have land on this side of the South Armagh border and they can also have land on the other side and it will affect their daily business, like moving the cattle, or just going shopping or to the bank. They will find themselves in long queues at border checkpoints with personal checks, cars being searched, buses stopped, belongings searched, and sectarian comments being made, and threats being issued. All these things happened in the past. As that becomes a normal feature of Irish life, people will naturally become more emotive and react to it and this will reignite the notion that this is an artificial border enforced by a foreign occupation army.
And this will happen again because it is unavoidable, and it will awaken nationalism again in Ireland. The British presence will be resisted, it just follows naturally.
If we go back to the late 80s when Aidan McAnespie was shot dead as he crossed from Aughnacloy, County Tyrone, into Monaghan and he went through the border checkpoint there. He was a young GAA footballer and that would have been a normal thing for him to do going to football training. And then when he had a match on a Sunday, he physically had to walk a couple of hundred yards from the occupied 6 Counties to the 26 Counties. On a regular basis like many young people of his age, he would have been subjected to racist abuse, sectarian abuse, threats of violence, harassment. On the same day, he was shot dead, it was said that he got the same level of abuse. He was shot from the border post in the back and died. That was just an extreme version of what was going on for people of all ages. And this will happen again because it is unavoidable, and it will awaken nationalism again in Ireland. The British presence will be resisted, it just follows naturally.
Unionism and Loyalism
DR: In the last couple of days you heard a number of comments by Loyalist figures like Jamie Bryson, calling for mobilisations against the Brexit deal that is on the table. A situation similar to the Flags protests a few years ago might occur. How will Saoradh react to a Loyalist backlash to Brexit?
BK: As republicans had to do it in the past. Republicans always defended their areas against British sponsored Loyalist death squads. Unfortunately for loyalists, there is an area of schizophrenia. They want to be British, but the British do not see them as British. In Britain, they say Paddy's, use a lot of derogative terms and see them as Irish. As could be seen with the Brexit deal, last week Theresa May and Dominic Raab were quite prepared to ditch the DUP and the rest of unionism right across the 6 Counties to have an enhanced trade relationship with the EU. So, the unionists think they are British, but the British have no time for unionism in the 6 Counties.
But we might have to be prepared to defend Irish nationalist areas from any incursion from loyalist in these areas. As night follows day, this will follow, and we will be up for that task.
There was always a very small number of unionists in Britain who had a relationship with unionists in Ireland and that is where the whole Plantation of Ulster came from. But the ordinary people in England would not see the ordinary working-class unionist in the 6 Counties as British and would ditch them tomorrow. They are in a catch 22 situation. But we might have to be prepared to defend Irish nationalist areas from any incursion from loyalist in these areas. As night follows day, this will follow, and we will be up for that task.
Dublin drugs feud
DR: Coming back from Brexit and the 6 Counties to Dublin. Particularly here in Dublin, you have the ongoing drug gangs feud. Not too long ago one member of the IRA, Michael Barr, was killed as a result of this feud. In newspaper articles from the 1990s, you were described as an anti-drugs activist, you were in "Concerned Families Against Drugs". What role plays the anti-drugs activism in the Republican Movement and what role does the Republican Movement play in the anti-drugs activism.
BK: My own involvement in anti-drugs activism was born out of the need to defend our areas from the scourge of heroin. The epidemic of heroin came in the early 1980s, then ebbed out and came back in the 1990s and has continued since then. I would have seen my involvement in the anti-drugs movement as a necessary thing to defend my own community from major drug dealers and also trying to protect those who were falling into the circles of drug dealers and becoming addicted.
The vast majority of the people involved in these feuds are just ordinary people, unfortunately, caught up in the drugs scourge and I have huge sympathy for all of them.
Myself, personally, I worked as a drugs counsellor for the health service executive in Ireland. That was the Dublin government's help board. I worked with people affected by drugs, addicted to drugs. I see that as absolutely consistent with my attitude towards drugs. I have no time for drug dealing but I understand that particularly young people in socially deprived areas who do not see a future for themselves and who would have been denied standard education that everyone can benefit from. I was prepared to work daily with people affected by drugs and also looking at issues of rehabilitation and treatment and trying to reduce the impact of drugs on the individual. Saoradh is the same. We are republicans and we are against the scourge of drug dealing and the effects it has on working class communities but also rural communities. We have a much more involved attitude towards the reasons for the drugs scourge in Ireland.
As regards to drug gangs. There is a feud, okay. But the feud is probably being controlled by a handful of people on the one side and a very small handful of people on the other side. It appears that there are massive numbers, that there are two drug gang armies, like a Mexican cartel or a Colombian cartel. But that is not the case in Ireland. There is a small number of people who are making a huge amount of money on the one side and a small number of people making a huge amount of money on the other side. What they are making is, they are basically using young people, drug addicts, as guns for hire. When these people are caught and go to prison, they are not supported by any drug cartel or any drug organisation. In most cases, they have nothing to gain from. The vast majority of the people involved in these feuds are just ordinary people, unfortunately, caught up in the drugs scourge and I have huge sympathy for all of them. The problem is that it is affecting everyday life here in Dublin.
I would say all the 20 people shot dead in this feud are victims of the policy of the 26 Counties government in relation to drug issues.
The Dublin government did not react to the drugs scourge until it became a major issue and that is why a couple of innocent people were shot. There was an innocent man shot in Spain and just recently a couple of hundred yards from here, near Connolly Station, there was another innocent man shot dead, again because he wore the same jacket as the intended target. When that happened, the government said they are kicking in. But I would say all the 20 people shot dead in this feud are victims of the policy of the 26 Counties government in relation to drug issues. People are caught with a small amount of Cannabis and given a conviction and that conviction means that they cannot get jobs, or they cannot travel to America, Canada or Australia. Young people who out of boredom or low self-esteem are using drugs, then find themselves ostracised by the state itself. And then when they are on drugs, the level of rehabilitation or treatment is virtually zero. So, they continue in a spiral of drug use and misuse and then they have no options but to get involved in the activities of drug gangs. Yes, there are two drug gangs involved in this feud, but the government has a huge part to play in this as well.
We have an understanding that drugs do not start with the individual. They start with the social conditions that bring people towards a belief that they have no other escape but to use drugs.
Republicans are anti-drugs, anti-drugs gangs and against the selling of illegal drugs and the flooding of our communities with illegal drugs but we have an understanding that drugs do not start with the individual. They start with the social conditions that bring people towards a belief that they have no other escape but to use drugs. Like the Brexit document, I think later that year in 2019 we should have a very well-developed position paper on drugs in Ireland. All the people that died in the drugs feud in the past 2 years, every single one of them is a victim. Just because they might have been involved in a drugs gang does not mean it did not bring hardship to their families, their partners, their children, their parents and their siblings. The government have continuously failed in dealing with it and that is where the blame lies.
Contesting elections
DR: Brian Leeson from éirígí just launched his campaign for the local elections here in Dublin. You contested elections for Sinn Féin in the late 1990s. Will Saoradh contest future elections?
BK: First of all, we are an abstentionist party. That means if elected we do not intend to take our seats in any of the partitionist parliaments of Stormont of Leinster House. Our constitution says that we would need to consider our request to stand in council elections and we will do that on a strategic basis. We are not rushing to become populist and to sell ourselves to the electorate just for a sniff of power. We have no intention of doing that. Currently, we have no intention of standing in any elections, but we will consider the possibility if and when this situation arises.
The notion of standing in elections would not be just to get elected. If we consider standing in elections that will be a strategic overview of where a number of elected Saoradh representatives would fit into the wider Irish political scene. It would not be that, let us say an individual like yourself could be successful in one single constituency, that would not be justification enough for standing in elections. It has to fit into an overall socialist, anti-imperialist strategy. But the party will sit down and discuss it if this situation arises.
IRPWA and the Saoradh POW Department
DR: There is a great number of republican prisoners currently in jail in Portlaoise, Maghaberry, Hydebank…
BK: …and Mountjoy.
DR: The majority of these prisoners is supported by the IRPWA but Saoradh has recently established their own POW Department which raised a few eyebrows among people. Has the relationship with the IRPWA and the role of the IRPWA changed?
BK: People have said to me that there was a bit of confusion and I understand that. Anybody who wonders about that, I have no problem with that. What I would say to you is this. The IRPWA, and I am a member myself, is predominantly a welfare body to look after the interest of prisoners and their families. I do not want to put an emphasis on the financial part because finances are a very small part of the dependents of the republican prisoners, their families and their children. It is a welfare body and we do what we can to support the families in the difficult situations they find themselves in. The IRPWA as an organisation supports republican prisoners. The important thing about the IRPWA is that it supports any republican prisoners who find themselves in prison and is not supported by any particular organisation. You are either with the IRPWA or you are not with anybody and you seek support from the IRPWA. The IRPWA will support you but it is predominantly a welfare organisation.
Most people in Saoradh are involved with the IRPWA and we will continue to do that. But you could be a supporter of the IRPWA and not necessarily a member of Saoradh. Within the IRPWA the ideology is not a mandate, you do not have to be of a particular persuasion to be in the IRPWA.
When Saoradh was established we felt that we need to develop a department within Saoradh to look at the other issues that would include policy issues in the jails, advice of people in court and so on. We would encourage prisoners to develop policies themselves. This might influence republicans outside and often it does. Some of the most insightful documents that we have seen in Irish republican history have developed inside the prisons and made it outside. So, Saoradh felt that there is a need of a specific POW Department that looks at policy between Saoradh as an organisation and republican prisoners who are aligned to Saoradh. It is not binding to anyone who is not in Saoradh. The IRPWA will still work on behalf of any republican prisoner who seeks their support and it will support the families regardless, even if the move away. Say, if a prisoner is aligned to Saoradh and he moves away ideologically from Saoradh, the IRPWA still has a responsibility to support his families and his dependents. The difference is that it is now more clearly identified as a welfare body while the POW Department has a responsibility to discuss policies with prisoners aligned to Saoradh.
You heard it yourself, the whole debate and I understand it. Someone said to me: "Oh, you are ditching the whole IRPWA thing." No, nothing of that sort. Most people in Saoradh are involved with the IRPWA and we will continue to do that. But you could be a supporter of the IRPWA and not necessarily a member of Saoradh. Within the IRPWA the ideology is not a mandate, you do not have to be of a particular persuasion to be in the IRPWA.
DR: I am one of those who was surprised when I saw a statement from the Saoradh POW Department.
BK: It is a necessary distinction because you cannot have a welfare body influencing the political decisions of the prisoners. Decisions are made in prison and they can have enormous implications. It is now very similar to the kind of POW Department Sinn Féin had many years ago when there were many prisoners inside. But there is no rift. If you are an independent republican no matter what ideology you have, you will have a right to seek support from the IRPWA and you and your family will be given support. There is no takeover or any attempt to dominate any organisation.
The future of Saoradh
DR: That brings me to the final two questions. How long will you be the chairperson of Saoradh?
BK: That's a good one. (laughing) We reject the cult of personality. We do not want people in a dictatorial-type of role, telling the organisation what to do and leading it into one particular way. We very much encourage grassroots support. We passed a motion that recommends that a chairperson might serve a 4-year term, but it is a recommendation. I just repeat what I said earlier on about the Ard-Fheis. There really is a wealth of political potential amongst the membership of Saoradh. It is not a question if I am up for the task or I was not good enough of the task. If I am not good enough, I will be replaced but that is not relevant. If people come up and it makes good strategical sense to set up next year or the year after that will happen. There is no restriction on it and there is no hard or fast rule on it. We are encouraged to maintain stability but look you can be replaced at any time. So long as I am asked to do the job I will do the job but if there is somebody better identified I am prepared to step back. I don't know how long that will be, but I am very happy to go for it now. (laughing)
We should be involved in more community groups, trade union movements, housing associations, anti-imperialist groups, we should be involved in campaigns like "Take back the city", we should be standing beside the working class, unemployed people, people who suffer from the effects of the kind of society we are living in, people who are disadvantaged, disenfranchised.
DR: No matter how long it will be. When you then stepping down, how should the organisation look like when you hand it over to your successor?
BK: I would envision that the organisation gets more involved in major social and economic issues across Ireland that affect Irish people in all 32 Counties. We should be involved in more community groups, trade union movements, housing associations, anti-imperialist groups, we should be involved in campaigns like "Take back the city", we should be standing beside the working class, unemployed people, people who suffer from the effects of the kind of society we are living in, people who are disadvantaged, disenfranchised. We should have encouraged more and more people to revisit our republican ideology. We should make huge strives to bring these people into the party, so we can harness their collective contribution and present it in a much more unified way. This is not a bigger party with more members but a more effective party, making real inroads into Irish political life and selling the idea of a revolutionary socialist Republic to the citizens around Ireland on a 32 Counties basis.
* * *
I switch off my recording device and thank him for the interview and the time. Kenna immediately switches to the topic of the upcoming protest against the Special Criminal Court in Dublin. He invites me to the protest and I promise that I will come if I have the time. Now, I am a bit dishonest. I already had tickets for Linfield against Cliftonville (supporting the latter, of course). Yet, I was too hesitant to tell him that I skip a political protest for a football match. I finish my tea and we leave the hotel, me trying to catch my train to Belfast. On the way out, Kenna says to me: "I hope that was okay. I think that was the first proper interview I have ever done." I stop for a while before I reply: "It is not up to me to judge but I think there is no reason to worry about any future interviews."
This article originally appeared on my old blog on 1 December 2018.
New Saoradh mural in Newry, Co Down.
dieterreinisch - 19:47 @ Interviews, Irish Republicanism | Add a comment


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Cons of Wind Power
-Wind is a fluctuating energy source, In order for wind energy to be a smart and useful investment some sort of storage must be used. e.g. batteries
-Wind turbines produce a noise and vibration that many turbine neighbors have reported as disturbing and annoying.
-The production of wind turbines is a very large upfront investment many cannot afford to pay up front.
-Wind turbines are a serious threat to animals such as birds, the birds are also a threat to the turbines as they could potentially cause damage to the turbine.
-Many people find the turbine looks to be disturbing and ugly.
Mathias Aarre Maehlum. "Wind Energy Pros and Cons." Energy Informative. December 6, 2013.Web. <http://energyinformative.org/wind-energy-pros-and-cons/>.


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Retro Pink Atomic Starbursts and Boomerangs MCM Shower Curtain
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- Size: 71" x 74"
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Watch the Solar Eclipse Live
Northern Hemisphere observers can watch the event via live feed.
Sky-watchers took to Twitter today to share their experiences watching the solar eclipse, which was visible from Australia and parts of the Pacific.
Tweeted @xoxoalbertxoxo: "Instead of studying for my AP tomorrow, I'm just gonna watch the #SolarEclipse tonight." Advised @Pandabattlemode, "Something awesome is happening BUT DON'T LOOK AT IT. EVER."
Others found the eclipse obscured from their vantage point. "It seems there's no #SolarEclipse today, clouds are blocking the sun. How am i suppose to see that stuff?" tweeted @KarlAlocada. Noted @PaoloAnota: "5:56AM—The sun sneaks thru a break in the cloud formation."
The "ring of fire" will darken skies on Thursday as the black silhouette of the moon appears to glide across the face of the sun until only a bit of sunlight is visible. (See annular eclipse pictures.)
Though the celestial phenomenon will be visible mostly in remote areas in the Pacific, armchair astronomers can watch a live feed of the eclipse, thanks to the Coca Cola Space Science Center.
The Georgia-based center will webcast the annular eclipse via a telescope from Cape York, Australia, starting on May 9 at 5 p.m. ET (21:00 UT). (See a list of cities and times along the path of the eclipse, and find out when the eclipse will occur in your time zone.)
"It is always astonishing to see the moon apparently cut bites out of the sun," said eclipse expert Jay Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor at Williams College in Massachusetts and a National Geographic explorer. (Related: "Eclipse Expert Makes Hot Finds in Sun's Darkest Hour.")
"And it is a wonder of modern science and mathematics that you can travel halfway around the world, arriving on a normal day with blue sky, but then, on schedule, the lunar silhouette breaks up the sunlight."
What is an annular eclipse?
A solar eclipse occurs when the Earth, moon, and sun line up so that the moon's shadow is cast on the Earth. (Video: Sun 101.)
A total solar eclipse occurs when the sun's entire disk is covered by the moon.
During an annular eclipse, the new moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the visible disk of the sun, making the covered sun appear for a few minutes as a striking annulus (ring)—otherwise known as the ring of fire. (Also see "'Ring of Fire' Solar Eclipse Coming Sunday [2012].")
Why do we get two kinds of solar eclipses?
Two types of solar eclipses—total and annular—occur because the moon's path around the Earth is egg-shaped, so over a course of the moon's one-month orbit, its distance to our planet can vary. For sky-watchers, this means that the moon's apparent diameter in the sky will change too.
If the moon is near its farthest point from Earth during a solar eclipse, it will appear to sky-watchers to be smaller than the sun's disk, allowing a ring of sunlight to peek out around the moon. (Also see "Solar Eclipses Can [Slightly] Change Weather on Earth.")
However, if the moon happens to be at its closest point to Earth during a solar eclipse, it will appear to cover the sun completely.
Who will see Thursday's ring of fire?
The 140-mile-wide (225-kilometer-wide) track of the moon's shadow starts in western Australia on Friday morning, May 10, at 6:32 a.m. local time, goes over Australia's Northern Territories and Queensland, and sweeps across to Cape York Peninsula (map) at 8:44 a.m. local time.
The shadow reaches the eastern shores of Papua New Guinea at 9 a.m. local time and then races across the Pacific Ocean, making its last major landfall on the Solomon Islands at 10:15 a.m. local time.
Unfortunately for most avid sky-watchers, the full shadow path cuts across some of the more remote and unpopulated areas of the Pacific region.
"The only other land in the path of annularity is the Pacific Island group of Kiribati," said Pasachoff.
For most viewers who can see the event, the eclipse will last three to five minutes.
Where will the partial eclipse be visible?
Partial phases of the eclipse—where only a percentage of the sun is covered by the lunar disk—will be visible across a much wider area, including Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Hawaii.
While the entire event will be invisible for all of mainland U.S., a partial eclipse will be visible for observers in Honolulu, Hawaii, with up to 44 percent of the sun covered at 3:48 p.m. local time (1:48 UT on May 10).
How best to watch this event?
For observers along the path of the eclipse, astronomers recommend using either a professionally manufactured solar filter in front of a telescope or camera, or eclipse-viewing glasses that sufficiently reduce the sun's brightness and filter out damaging ultraviolet and infrared radiation. (Check out a DIY alternative: Build an eclipse viewer).
What if I miss this one?
The next solar eclipse will occur on November 3, with the shadow path crossing the open Atlantic Ocean and central parts of Africa.


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April 2, 2018
Atlanta, GA - - (March 29, 2018) - - An in-depth analysis of 2016 U.S. drug overdose data shows that America's overdose epidemic is spreading geographically and increasing across demographic groups. The report, from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), appears in today's issue of MMWR.
Drug overdoses killed 63,632 Americans in 2016. Nearly two-thirds of these deaths (66%) involved a prescription or illicit opioid. Overdose deaths increased in all categories of drugs examined for men and women, people ages 15 and older, all races and ethnicities, and across all levels of urbanization.
CDC's new analysis confirms that recent increases in drug overdose deaths are driven by continued sharp increases in deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone, such as illicitly manufactured fentanyl (IMF).
"No area of the United States is exempt from this epidemic—we all know a friend, family member, or loved one devastated by opioids," said CDC Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat, M.D. "All branches of the federal government are working together to reduce the availability of illicit drugs, prevent deaths from overdoses, treat people with substance-use disorders, and prevent people from starting using drugs in the first place."
CDC's analysis, based on 2015-2016 data from 31 states and Washington, D.C., showed:
- Across demographic categories, the largest increase in opioid overdose death rates was in males between the ages of 25-44
- Overall drug overdose death rates increased by 21.5 percent.
- The overdose death rate from synthetic opioids (other than methadone) more than doubled, likely driven by illicitly manufactured fentanyl (IMF).
- The prescription opioid-related overdose death rate increased by 10.6 percent.
- The heroin-related overdose death rate increased by 19.5 percent.
- The cocaine-related overdose death rate increased by 52.4 percent.
- The psychostimulant-related overdose death rate increased by 33.3 percent.
IMF is mixed into counterfeit opioid and benzodiazepine pills, heroin, and cocaine, likely contributing to increases in overdoses involving these other substances.
Overdose death rates differ by state
Opioid death rates differed across the states examined in this study:
- Death rates from overdoses involving synthetic opioids increased in 21 states, with 10 states doubling their rates from 2015 to 2016.
- New Hampshire, West Virginia, and Massachusetts had the highest death rates from synthetic opioids.
- Fourteen states had significant increases in death rates involving heroin, with Washington D.C., West Virginia, and Ohio having the highest rates.
- Eight states had significant increases in death rates involving prescription opioids. West Virginia, Maryland, Maine, and Utah had the highest rates.
- Sixteen states had significant increases in death rates involving cocaine, with Washington D.C., Rhode Island, and Ohio having the highest rates.
- Fourteen states had significant increases in death rates involving psychostimulants; the highest death rates occurred primarily in the Midwest and Western regions.
"Effective, synchronized programs to prevent drug overdoses will require coordination of law enforcement, first responders, mental health/substance-abuse providers, public health agencies, and community partners," said the report's lead author, Puja Seth, Ph.D.
How to coordinate the public-health and public-safety response to overdose deaths
Today's report highlights the continued need for public health and law enforcement to work together in preventing overdose deaths and taking action to:
- Protect people with opioid use disorder (OUD) by expanding treatment capacity and naloxone distribution.
- Support programs that reduce the harms of injecting opioids, including programs offering screening for HIV and hepatitis B and C in combination with referral to treatment.
- Improve coordination among law enforcement and public-health agencies to reduce and improve detection of the illicit opioid supply.
- Improve opioid prescribing to reduce unnecessary exposure to opioids and prevent addiction by training providers and implementing CDC's Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain.
- Improve access to and use of prescription drug monitoring programs.
CDC is also working with High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) on the Heroin Response Strategy to increase uptake of community interventions that address the impact of illicit opioids. In March 2016, CDC released the Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain to provide recommendations to providers on the prescribing of opioid pain medication for patients 18 and older in primary care settings. Learn more at www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose.
CDC continues to work closely with other federal agencies to support the Department of Health and Human Services' five-point strategy to fight the opioid overdose crisis by:
- Improving access to prevention, treatment, and recovery services, including the full range of medication-assisted treatment.
- Better targeting availability and distribution of overdose-reversing drugs.
- Strengthening surveillance activities through timely public health data and reporting.
- Supporting cutting-edge research on pain and addiction.
Courtesy: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention


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by Ludwig Bemelmans : Madeline
ISBN : #0670445800 | Date : 1967-01-01
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TORONTO — Ukrainian-Jewish community leader Josef Zissels was in Toronto last week to urge Canadian Jews not to fall for Russian propaganda that paints Ukraine as a fascist, anti-Semitic country and implored them to lobby the Canadian government to impose aggressive economic sanctions against Russia or risk paying a "very high price" later.
During a visit to The CJN office, Zissels, the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress' chairman, explained that a little more than two months ago, 40,000 Russian troops invaded the Crimean peninsula.
"They came, based on their propaganda, to save the Russian [-speaking] population [and to protect Jews] from the fascists. And for two months, 40,000 Russian soldiers have been looking for fascists and they have not been able to find one," he said, tongue placed firmly in cheek.
Speaking through a translator, Zissels, who was invited by the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter – a non-profit cultural group that promotes stronger ties between Ukrainians and Jews – to talk about what is really happening in Ukraine, said Jews in the west have so easily accepted the Russian propaganda because of Ukraine's "dark" history with anti-Semitism.
"But Ukraine has changed significantly. The changes happened not only since the Soviet Union broke up, but the changes began in the '50s and '60s," Zissels said, adding that it's hard for people who have not lived in Ukraine for the past 30 or 40 years to understand that.
"When Russian propaganda says that there are fascists in Ukraine, it's hard for those who are not able to check the facts not to believe the propaganda."
Zissels went so far as to "guarantee" the new Ukraine is safe for Jews.
"I'm not saying [anti-Semitism] doesn't exist. It always exists," he said. "But we see in the new Ukrainian government that they battle against xenophobia and anti-Semitism… But if they at some point move away from this direction, we will be the first to criticize them."
Zissels, who was once jailed for six years in Russia as a political prisoner, spoke about the skepticism he faced when he was the first Jewish leader to endorse the Maidan movement, the anti-Russian protest that succeeded in toppling the government of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yankovych.
Many Jews who opposed the Maidan movement were wary of the support it received from a party called Svoboda, which used to hold anti-Semitic views.
"In Svoboda, some of the leaders did make anti-Semitic statements in the '90s, but they were a marginal group at the time… In recent years, they've completely moved away from anti-Semitic propaganda, and because of that, they won places in Parliament, because people stopped being afraid of them," Zissels said.
He added there are people in the party who are anti-Semitic and have posted disparaging content on their personal blogs, but they're in the minority and don't represent the party's official views.
Zissels also downplayed the significance of leaflets distributed in Donetsk urging Jews to register or risk deportation, saying that it was nothing more than a "provocation."
"Even the Donetsk Jews aren't panicking over the flyers, because they understand that it is a provocation, and these flyers didn't add much to the anxiety, because there is already anxiety because of the militarized situation."
Rather than focus on the perceived threat of anti-Semitism in Ukraine, the international community should focus attention on Russia's obsession with "renewal of the empire," Zissels said, adding that it's imperative to "find a mechanism to stop this aggression. If we don't stop this in time, then we will have to pay a very high price for this like this we did in the 1940s. In 1935, it was easier to stop, but to stop in 1945, we had to kill 50, 60 million people."
He said stronger economic sanctions need to be put in place against Russia, which is already struggling economically.
He emphasized the importance of western governments putting pressure on Russia, but said Canada "has done actually quite a lot, because I think Canada understands the situation better than the United States."
In late February, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Canada stands "on the side of the Ukrainian people" and offered economic, technical and political support. Last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper recalled the Canadian ambassador to Moscow and urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to withdraw troops from Ukraine.
"Ukraine today, with this new government is able to solve almost all of its questions, except for one: the Russian aggression. And on this everyone needs to unite. Only together can we stop this and not allow bloodshed."


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September 27, 2015
God gave Daniel a glimpse into the ultimate conflict that lies beneath all of the human conflicts that we see: man in prideful rebellion against the God who reigns and rules. Alistair Begg reminds us that Daniel's vision is recorded not to spur our curiosity but to provide real relief and encouragement to troubled saints. Like the exiles who encountered opposition and oppression when they returned from captivity, God's people can find encouragement to stand firm and stay faithful in the knowledge that God is in control.
1In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first. 2And I saw in the vision; and when I saw, I was in Susa the citadel, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was at the Ulai canal. 3I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns, and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. 4I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great.
5As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. 6He came to the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath. 7I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power. 8Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.
9Out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. 10It grew great, even to the host of heaven. And some of the host and some1 of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them. 11It became great, even as great as the Prince of the host. And the regular burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown. 12And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression,2 and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper. 13Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, "For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot?" 14And he said to me,3 "For 2,300 evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state."
15When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it. And behold, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. 16And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai, and it called, "Gabriel, make this man understand the vision." 17So he came near where I stood. And when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face. But he said to me, "Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end."
18And when he had spoken to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and made me stand up. 19He said, "Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end. 20As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. 21And the goat4 is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king. 22As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his5 nation, but not with his power. 23And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise. 24His power shall be great—but not by his own power; and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints. 25By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many. And he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes, and he shall be broken—but by no human hand. 26The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now."
27And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king's business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it.
Copyright © 2023, Alistair Begg. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Text provided by the Crossway Bibles Web Service.