'ANGELA'S BONES' - New book on Arms Trials -- Stormont Watch

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Date Posted: Sat, May 09 2009, 18:38:35 PDT
Author: Forum Admin
Subject: 'ANGELA'S BONES' - New book on Arms Trials

PRESS RELEASE � TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN � T- R of I � 048 North / UK 028-71-286359

� Angela�s bones� �New book on Arms Trials
The Captain Kelly Justice Campaign, created in 2003 after the death of Capt. James Kelly, has welcomed the publication of a new book which deals with the highly controversial Arms Trials. These proceedings in Dublin ended in �Not Guilty� verdicts months after British troops were employed on the streets of the North in August 1969.
The book appears only a few months after the death of Sheila Kelly, the widow of Capt. Kelly. Despite battling with cancer over recent years she continued, right up to her last days on earth, to campaign vigorously for the full facts to be acknowledged by the Dublin government. During her terminal illness she also took the campaign to Government Buildings where she and family members met with advisors to the last Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. They had hoped to explore further and build upon a statement issued by Ahern, within hours of the Captain�s death, which many political observers viewed as being highly sympathetic to the on-going �Justice Campaign�.
This latest publication comes on the heels of �Our National Games�, a drama, written by Gerard Humphreys, in which Capt. James Kelly, an Irish army intelligence officer is the central character. It was staged in various parts of the country and focused on the interrogation of Kelly, taking the audience behind the scenes during this enigmatic era in Irish history so as to explore the concepts of loyalty, leadership and the power of the state.
This new book, which runs to over 700 pages, is viewed as another welcome boost to the campaign. It was established by a co-founder in 1967 of the N. Ireland Civil Rights Association, a Derry-based author and historian Mr. Fionnbarra O�Dochartaigh. Additional details on the book, and contact details for the author can be obtained from the campaign�s office via rights.civil@googlermail.com Its website is located at www.captainkelly.org
END
Footnote to potential reviewers, editors, radio presenters et al
A copy of the book can be e-mailed if requested. Thanks to all recipients for their kind attention to this communication.
VIEW BELOW, LAUNCH SPEECH GIVEN BY ONE OF CAPT. KELLY�S DAUGHTER.
Launch of The Arms Conspiracy Trial (Author: Angela Clifford) by Suzanne Kelly on Friday 8 May 2009 at 7.30pm at the Teacher�s Club, Parnell Square
There is a forensic detective programme on TV called Bones, where a group of hip anthropologists, when presented with a very old corpse, keep prodding it and analysing it and allowing the corpse to tell it�s story.
The Arms Crisis is almost a forty-year old corpse, and there are still rich pickings to be had in prodding and analysing it, so as to allow the old corpse to tell it�s true story.
In simple terms, the Irish Government decided to import arms. The Irish Government changed its mind. In the process the Irish Government sought to cover up any attempt to import arms by alleging a covert conspiracy on the part of what are called the accused. The accused were found not guilty by the Irish courts.
The Irish Government decided that it did not like the outcome of the court case. So, it started a campaign to politically overturn the court�s verdict. In an attempt to explain away the verdict journalists and historians were briefed with the real story; You know the jury was got to! A not-guilty verdict does not mean innocence! You know it is all about money! and so on. Even the original official court report of the trial was destroyed whilst in Government hands. The tapes of the trial which the judge ordered to be kept disappeared whilst stored in the Department of Justice.
Angela Clifford, like the Bones anthropologist has prodded, pulled, dragged and analysed the Arms Trial corpse in an attempt to get at the truth of what actually occurred. She has crawled through all the minutia of the underlying paperwork and notes. It is a fascinating piece of detective work, made all the more fascinating for me, because my father Captain Jim Kelly was one of the accused and because most of the characters, I either knew directly or indirectly or I knew their children.
Just as fascinating as it is, it is also frightening for me as a lawyer to see the lengths the Government did go to destroy individuals. It is as if the Government or some of the politicians of the day were more comfortable hiding the truth than revealing it. The maintenance of the official lie became an end in itself.
The story of the Arms Trial is a story of a massive Government cover-up, where all the resources of the State were used to achieve that objective. It was such a big lie that it was difficult for many to believe the extent of the cover-up for years. Each new fact, as it emerged was disputed by the Government with the same intensity as if it was fighting a war. Fortunately, time passes and the deaths of various parties allowed for the exposure of facts which were previously kept hidden.
Most of the Arms Trial characters are now dead, with the exception of Mr. Dessie O�Malley. It is said that he still holds trenchant views that the Government of the day, of which he was a member, was right to prosecute the Arms Trial although his audience of believers have diminished in numbers.
Angela Clifford has done a fantastic job in unearthing a lot of the lesser known facts. She forensically examines them in encyclopaedic detail. It means that you cannot speed read The Arms Conspiracy Trial. You have to read it slowly. You are forced to consider it.
There are two companions, slimmer volumes of interest,
August 1969 � Ireland�s only appeal to the UN and
Military Aspects of Ireland�s Arms Crisis of 1969/70.
It is kind of eerie for me, as a daughter, to watch my father moving from parent to historical figure, in my own life time. My mother�s recent death has underlined that process. It was her lifelong ambition to have my father�s name cleared and have him posthumously promoted to the rank he would have achieved if his army career had not been cut short. The problem was that she required courageous politicians to assist her, where the nature of the politician in power is to maintain the status-quo and do nothing. Moral courage and politician are not happy bed fellows in the one sentence.
In the end, I am quite convinced that history will get it right! Angela�s books will add to all other books including Kevin Boland�s and my father�s, for future interested parties. The interested will get to know the truth. The corpse will have told it�s story.

THE END

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