October 12, 2015
Letter from Trey Gowdy to Elijah Cummings, Oct. 8, 2015
… When we began this investigation, Sidney Blumenthal was not on our potential interview list. Secretary Clinton’s exclusive use of private email, housed on her own private server, was not a topic of our inquiry. Yet when we learned nearly half of Secretary Clinton’s entire email correspondence regarding Benghazi and Libya before the attacks was with Sidney Blumenthal, that became a fact we could not ignore. When we learned Secretary Clinton exclusively used private email to correspond for her official duties and that the State Department did not even have access to these records until this Committee asked for them, that became a fact we could not ignore. …
Blumenthal was neither a State Department employee nor an employee of the federal government nor an expert on Libya, by his own admission. The fact that former Secretary Clinton relied so heavily on an individual for the Libyan intervention, her quintessential foreign policy initiative, whom the White House explicitly prohibited from working at the State Department is mind boggling. … Blumenthal was not merely acting as a steward of information to Secretary Clinton but was acting as her de facto political advisor. …
In a six day span in February 2011, Blumenthal sent Clinton detailed reports titled “Latest Libya intel,” “Libya intel,” “No fly zone over Libya,” “Intel on Gaddafi’s reinforcements,” “Libya WMD,” “Qaddafi’s Scuds and strategy for holding on,” “Option on WMD,” “Phone #s that may work,” and “Q location, new defections, beginnings of interim govt.” These daily emails, filled with unvetted intelligence, continued for nearly six weeks. Secretary Clinton often responded to Blumenthal, and almost always forwarded them to her top policy advisor, Jake Sullivan, in some cases cautioning him not to “share until we can talk.” Much of the information in Blumenthal’s emails came from Tyler Drumheller, a controversial former CIA operative, and Cody Shearer, another old Clinton friend. Interestingly, Secretary Clinton even took the further step to hide from Sullivan the fact that some of this information came from Shearer. It is unclear why she did this, and it is not at all clear what intelligence tradecraft was undertaken to ensure the reliability of this information, or whether the State Department’s very own intelligence bureau, funded by taxpayers for that very purpose, was even aware of these matters.
Dozens of emails between Clinton and Blumenthal show an individual who tried to heavily influence the Secretary of State to intervene in Libya. Blumenthal pushed hard for a no-fly zone in Libya before the idea was being discussed internally by senior U.S. government officials. Clinton told Blumenthal that she was pushing the option with the “[U.N.] Security Council,” and to “[s]tay tuned!” Shortly thereafter, the U.S. pushed a no-fly zone through the U.N. Security Council.
The emails also show Blumenthal firmly as a political body who pulled no punches towards the White House or others in government with whom he disagreed. In one email he discussed “National Security Adviser Tom Donilon’s babbling rhetoric about ‘narratives’ on a phone briefing of reporters” that “inspired derision among serious foreign policy analysts here and abroad.” In another email he described “[Obama] and his political cronies in the WH and in Chicago are, to say the least, unenthusiastic about regime change in Libya or anywhere else in the ME. Why is that? Hmmm. Obama’s lukewarm and self contradicting statements have produced what is at least for the moment, operational paralysis.”
Once Blumenthal got his way and a no-fly zone was established, he pushed for a more aggressive posture by the U.S. in the conflict, including arming the rebels. To support his rationale to Secretary Clinton, he used sagging polling numbers. …
Beyond the pure politics that were occurring at this time, perhaps more disturbing is that at the same time Blumenthal was pushing Secretary Clinton to war in Libya, he was privately pushing a business interest of his own in Libya that stood to profit from contracts with the new Libyan government — a government that would exist only after a successful U.S. intervention in Libya that deposed Qaddafi. This business venture was one he shared with Tyler Drumheller and Cody Shearer, the authors of the information sent to Secretary Clinton. It is therefore unsurprising that somebody who knew so little about Libya would suddenly become so interested in Libya and push an old friend in a powerful place to action — for personal profit. …
“You should be aware that there is a good chance at the contact meeting in Turkey the TNC [National Transitional Council of Libya] ambassador to the UAE, a man you have not yet met, whose name is Dr. Neydah, may tell you the TNC has reached an agreement with a US company. The company is a new one, Osprey, headed by former General David Grange, former head of Delta Force. Osprey will provide field medical help, military training, organize supplies, and logistics to the TNC. They are trainers and organizers, not fighters. Grange can train their forces and he has drawn up a plan for taking Tripoli similar to the plan he helped develop that was used by the first wave of Special Forces in the capture of Baghdad. This is a private contract. It does not involve NATO. It puts Americans in a central role without being direct battle combatants. The TNC wants to demonstrate that they are pro-US. They see this as a significant way to do that. They are enthusiastic about this arrangement. … As I understand it, they are still working out funding, which is related to the overall TNC funding problems. Grange is very low key, wishes to avoid publicity and work quietly, unlike other publicity hungry finns. Grange is under the radar. Tyler, Cody and I acted as honest brokers, putting this arrangement together through a series of connections, linking the Libyans to Osprey and keeping it moving. The strategic imperative: Expecting Gaddafi to fall on his own or through a deus ex machina devolves the entire equation to wishful thinking. The TNC has been unable to train and organize its forces. The NATO air campaign cannot take ground. The TNC, whose leaders have been given to flights of fancy that Qaddafi will fall tomorrow or the day after, have come to the conclusion that they must organize their forces and that they must score a military victory of their own over Qaddafi that is not dependent solely on NATO in order to give them legitimacy. …
In addition to Sidney Blumenthal’s business interests, Secretary Clinton also apparently received classified information from Blumenthal — information she should have known was classified at the time she received it. In one email, Blumenthal writes “Tyler spoke to a colleague currently at CIA, who told him the agency had been dependent for intelligence from [redacted due to sources and methods].” This information, the name of a human source, is some of the most protected information in our intelligence community, the release of which could jeopardize not only national security but also human lives. Armed with that information, Secretary Clinton forwarded the email to a colleague — debunking her claim that she never sent any classified information from her private email address. …
September 27, 2015
Irish nationalists deported to Britain in 1916: Their trades
“The following are the names of the persons who were deported, so far as they have been published by the military. These lists were all officially issued to the Press for publication by the military authorities on the dates mentioned:—”
200 to Knutsford on 1st May. Weaver, carman, typist, body maker, shop assts., upholsterers, boot cutter, labourers, tailors, goods checker, chauffeurs, library asst., bakers, porters, van driver, motor driver, law clerk, grocers, carpenters, farmers, clerks, compositors, farrier, vanmen, office boy, grocer’s assts., wax bleacher, vice-maker, actors, boilermaker, bookbinder, cabinet makers, wood worker, paper ruler, insurance agent, carters, plumbers, painters, student, electricians, attendant, firemen, caretaker, joiner, range fitter, brushmaker, gardener, chemist’s asst., locksmith, fitters, hole borer, riveter, provision acct., canvasser, coach-builders, drapers, mattress maker, shunter, slater, singer’s agent, cash desk, school teacher, groom, printers, engineers, electrical fitter, apprentices, artist, checker, cooper, poulterer, librarian, insurance inspector, waiter, school attendant, packer, hairdresser, driller, barman, night watchman, draper’s asst., belt-maker, shirt cutter, law clerk.
289 to Stafford on 1st May. [trades not listed]
308 to Knutsford on 3rd May. Commission agent’s clerk, cabinet-makers, fitters, teacher, labourers, lamplighter, machinists, general merchant, cotton merchant, carpenters, coopers, Corporation labourers, despatch clerk, engineer’s fitter, inspector G.P.O. telephones, compositors, bakers, warehouse clerk, plumbers, engine driver, clerks, boot salesman, wine porters, brass moulder, machine minder, tailors, range setter, boot-makers, silk-weavers, shop asst., civil service clerks, mechanic, chauffeur, brass polisher, chemist, shopman, draper’s assts., insurance agents, bricklayers, carter, medical student, porters, farm labourer, gardeners, van drivers, plumber, gas fitter, plumber’s asst., grocers, electric worker, grocer’s assts., coachmaker, vanman, firemen, saddler, house painters, machinist, tool maker, turner, painters, motor mechanics, plate polisher, checkers, old age pensioner, printers, cycle mechanic, waiters, butchers, printer’s asst., students, messengers, flour packer, private means, bank clerk, harness maker, draper, plasterers, hairdressers, seamen, upholsterer, bookseller’s clerk, fitter’s apprentices, Corporation clerk, brass finisher, blacksmiths, clerk at Guinness’s Brewery, grocer’s porters, travellers, attendant, bricklayers, watchmaker, theatre manager, Linotype operator, druggist, cinematograph operator, glazier, clerk to ship-broker, tramway clerk, blacksmith’s improver, foremen, decorative artist, slater, law clerk, coachbuilder, commercial clerk, railway clerks, tea packer, groom, coal agent, warehouse clerk, carrier, drilling machinist, ex-policeman, apprentice coachbuilder, ship’s fireman, book-keeper, farmers, pattern case maker, postman, cabinet maker’s apprentice, butcher’s asst., skilled labourer, body-maker, furniture salesman, basket maker, bookbinder, apprentice to brass moulder.
376 to Wakefield on 6th May.
Ballsbridge Party. Dairyman, carters, painter’s apprentice, printer, plasterer, cabman, storekeeper, labourers, house painter, grocer’s assts., market gardener, confectioner, bookkeepers, tailors, porters, law clerks, mess man, electricians, hair dressers, gardeners, dentist’s apprentice, coach builder, vanman, clerks, case makers, motor drivers, nagsman, barmen, railway porters, blacksmiths, winchman, plumbers, dentists, Gas Company clerk, ship plater, boatmen, retired railway official, driver, dray man, turf dealer, cycle salesman, tailors, coal labourer, joiners, motor fitter, mechanic, moulder, rivetter, wine porter, shop asst., stationers, insurance clerk, farmer, cabinet-makers, legal searcher, laboratory asst., chauffeur, independent, waiter, pig minder, billposter, plumber’s asst., fitter’s asst., factory hand, wood cutter, house agent, newsman, storekeeper, bookbinder’s edge gilder, reporter, G.P.O. civil service, munitions, commercial traveller, messengers, gas stoker, railway guard, pawnbroker’s asst., general labourer, car owner, printer’s clerk, engine driver, coach painter, jeweller, bootmakers, warehouseman, horse shoer, handyman, property master, draper’s asst., carpenters, groundsman, bakers, baker and confectioner, student, brass fitter, smith’s helper, painters, architect, dockyard labourer, coat maker, wheelwright, tram co., teacher, Corporation employee, van drivers, provision asst., junior clerk, draper’s porter, caretakers, book maker and window dresser, SS clerk, lawyer, yardman, upholsterer, workman, canvasser, assistant, carrier, general worker, seaman, bullockman, tram conductor, filer, machinist, concreter, stone-cutter, marble polisher, coal merchant, Corporation labourer.
List from Kilmainham. [trades not listed]
List from Arbour Hill. Fishmonger, sheet metal worker, tailor, asst. dentist, carpenters, fitter and turner, motor mechanics, driver, Asst. Supt. Tel. at G.P.O., chauffeurs, painters, farmers, labourers, porter, shop assts., travellers, bakers, shopkeeper, blacksmith, painter, coach builder, vanmen, bootmaker, messengers, clerk, plumber’s asst., warehouseman, grocer’s asst.
203 to Stafford on 8th May.
197 to Wandsworth on 9th May.
54 to Wandsworth on 13th May.
58 to Stafford on 13th May. Painter, labourers, groom, postman, farmer and builder, apprentice, farmers, carpenters, stonemason, draper, builder, chemist.
273 to Wakefield on 13th May. ’Bus driver, draper’s assts., apprentices, labourers, coal porter, farmers, science teacher, motor driver, clerk, motor mechanics, carpenters, shopkeepers, teachers, blacksmiths, Monotype operator, baker and grocer, trader, electricians, surveyor, C.D.B. clerks, bakers, shop assts., engine fitter, banker, Gaelic teachers, grocer, ironmonger, cabinet maker, farmer’s sons, bricklayers, National school teacher, barman, students, butchers, garage owner, porters, van drivers, bookkeeper, reporter, Commission agent, bootmaker, engineer fitter’s apprentice, engine drivers, shoemaker, painters, ledger clerk, merchants, tailors, harness-maker, Company agent, printer, grocer’s assts., railway clerk, tobacconist’s asst., builder’s foreman, law clerk, stationmaster, stone-cutter, postmen, grocer’s porter, cardriver, builder, contractor, maize oil extractor, mason, farm manager, draper, accountants, motor engineer, boot dealers, undertaker, gas inspector, chauffeur mechanic, compositor, rate collector, apprentice fitter, weaver, gardeners, cooper, chemist’s asst., railway employee, sculptor, egg packer, journalist, brewer’s secretary, mercantile clerks, P.O. clerk, machinist, engineers, mill foreman, poplin weavers, chauffeur, jeweller, carrier, forester, vanman, seed merchant, A.S.C., school teacher, carrier employee, hairdresser, tinsmith.
197 to Glasgow and Perth on 20th May.
40 to Woking on 20th May. Farmers, horse-shoer, plasterer, Lino operator, agricultural overseer, cycle agent, shopkeeper, engine driver, labourers, carpenters, electrician, grocer asst., valet, clerks, spinner, coachbuilders.
59 to Lewes on 20th May. Labourers, clerks, sewing machine agent, publican, farmers, butcher, surveyor, postman, carpenters, dock labourer, plumber, foundry labourer, poultry merchants, shop assts., waiter at O’Neill’s Hotel, merchant, machine man, teachers, draper’s asst., bootmaker, asst. agent.
100 to Wakefield on 2nd June.
49 to Wandsworth on 2nd June.
50 to Knutsford on 2nd June.
41 to Knutsford on 7th June. House painter, organ builder, gardener, plasterer, farmers, Labour Exchange clerk, house furnisher, farmers, clerks, medical practitioner, grocer’s asst., barrister, messenger, whitesmith, artist, cooper, insurance agent, confectioner, school teacher, butler, shop asst., labourers, commercial traveller, master tailor, clerk to Trade Union Secretary, machinist, farmer’s sons, boot and shoe-maker, priest’s boy, carpenter.
25 to Knutsford on June 16th. Blacksmith, farmer, shipbuilder, compositor, cardriver, bootmaker, foreman, farmer’s son, carter, farmers, blacksmith, shopkeeper.
[total: 2,519]
September 16, 2015
Dispatches from the General Post Office, Easter Friday, 1916
Army of the Irish Republic
(Dublin Command),
Headquarters, April 28, 1916.
To Soldiers,
This is the fifth day of the establishment of the Irish Republic, and the flag of our country still floats from the most important buildings in Dublin, and is gallantly protected by the officers and Irish soldiers in arms throughout the country. Not a day passes without seeing fresh postings of Irish soldiers eager to do battle for the old cause. Despite tha utmost vigilance of the enemy we have been able to get in information telling us how the manhood of Ireland, inspired by our splendid action, are gathering to offer up their lives if necessary in the same holy cause. We are here hemmed in because the enemy feels that in this building is to be found the heart and inspiration of our great movement.
Let us remind you what you have done. For the first time in 700 years the flag of a free Ireland floats triumphantly in Dublin City.
The British Army, whose exploits we are for ever having dinned into our ears, which boasts of having stormed the Dardanelles and the German lines on the Marne, behind their artillery and machine guns are afraid to advance to the attack or storm any positions held by our forces. The slaughter they suffered in the first few days has totally unnerved them, and they dare not attempt again an infantry attack on our positions.
Our Commandants around us are holding their own.
Commandant Daly’s splendid exploit in capturing Linen Hall Barracks we all know. You must know also that the whole population, both clergy and laity, of this district are united in his praises. Commandant MacDonagh is established in an impregnable position reaching from the walls of Dublin Castle to Redmond’s Hill, and from Bishop street to Stephen’s Green.
(In Stephen’s Green, Commandant [Mallin] holds the College of Surgeons, one side of the square, a portion of the other side, and dominates the whole Green and all its entrances and exits.)
Commandant De Valera stretches in a position from the Gas Works to Westland row, holding Boland’s Bakery, Boland’s Mills, Dublin South-Eastern Railway Works, and dominating Merrion square.
Commandant Kent [Ceannt] holds the South Dublin Union and Guinness’s Buildings to Marrowbone lane, and controls James’s street and district.
On two occasions the enemy effected a lodgment and were driven out with great loss.
The men of North County Dublin are in the field, have occupied all the Police Barracks in the district, destroyed all the telegram system on the Great Northern Railway up to Dundalk. and are operating against the trains of the Midland and Great Western.
Dundalk has sent 200 men to march upon Dublin, and in the other parts of the North our forces are active and growing.
In Galway Captain [Mellows], fresh after his escape from an Irish prison, is in the field with his men. Wexford and Wicklow are strong, and Cork and Kerry are equally acquitting themselves creditably. (We have every confidence that our Allies in Germany anu kinsmen in America are straining every nerve to hasten matters on our behalf.)
As you know, I was wounded twice yesterday and am unable to move about, but have got my bed moved into the firing line, and, with the assistance of your officers, will be just as useful to you as ever.
Courage, boys, we are winning, and in the hour of our victory let us not forget the splendid women who have everywhere stood by us and cheered us on. Never had man or woman a grander cause, never was a cause more grandly served.
James Connolly,
Commandant-General,
Dublin Division.
Headquarters, Army of the Irish Republic, General Post Office, Dublin.
28th April, 1916, 9.30 a.m.
The Forces of the Irish Republic, which was proclaimed in Dublin, on Easter Monday, 24th April, have been in possession of the central part of the capital, since 12 noon on that day. Up to yesterday afternoon Headquarters was in touch with all the main outlying positions, and, despite furious, and almost continuous assaults by the British Forces all those positions were then still being held, and the Commandants in charge, were confident of their ability to hold them for a long time.
During the course of yesterday afternoon, and evening, the enemy succeeded in cutting our communications with our other positions in the city, and Headquarters is to-day isolated.
The enemy has burnt down whole blocks of houses, apparently with the object of giving themselves a clear field for the play of artillery and field guns against us. We have been bombarded during the evening and night by shrapnel and machine gun fire, but without material damage to our position, which is of great strength.
We are busy completing arrangements for the final defence of Headquarters, and are determined to hold it while the buildings last.
I desire now, lest I may not have an opportunity later, to pay homage to the gallantry of the soldiers of Irish Freedom who have during the past four days been writing with fire and steel the most glorious chapter in the later history of Ireland. Justice can never be done to their heroism, to their discipline, to their gay and unconquerable spirit in the midst of peril and death.
Let me, who have led them into this, speak in my own, and in my fellow-commanders’ names, and in the name of Ireland present and to come, their praise, and ask those who come after them to remember them.
For four days they have fought and toiled, almost without cessation, almost without sleep, and in the intervals of fighting they have sung songs of the freedom of Ireland. INo man has complained, no man has asked ‘why?’ Each individual has spent himself, happy to pour out his strength for Ireland and for freedom. If they do not win this fight, they will at least have deserved to win it. But win it they will, although they may win it in death. Already they have won a great thing. They have redeemed Dublin from many shames, and made her name splendid among the names of cities.
If I were to mention names of individuals, my list would be a long one.
I will name only that of Commandant General James Connolly, Commanding the Dublin Division. He lies wounded, but is still the guiding brain of cur resistance.
If we accomplish no more than we have accomplished, I am satisfied. I am satisfied that we have saved Ireland’s honour. I am satisfied that we should have accomplished more, that we should have accomplished the task of enthroning, as well as proclaiming, the Irish Republic as a Sovereign State, had our arrangements for a simultaneous rising of the whole country, with a combined plan as sound as the Dublin plan has been proved to be, been allowed to go through on Easter Sunday. Of the fatal countermanding order which prevented those plans from being carried out, I shall not speak further. Both Eoin MacNeill and we have acted in the best interests of Ireland.
For my part, as to anything I have done in this, I am not afraid to face either the judgment of God, or the judgment of posterity.
P. H. Pearse,
Commandant General,
Commanding-in-Chief, the Army of the Irish Republic and President of the Provisional Government.
Source: Sinn Féin Rebellion Handbook: Easter, 1916. Compiled by the Weekly Irish Times, Dublin: 1917.
On Friday evening, the GPO had to be abandoned. On Saturday, the provisional government of the Irish Republic offered their surrender. Fighting continued into Sunday until all the rebel outposts received the order and agreed to it. A total of 112 republicans were tried and sentenced to death. Executions ended after 14 leaders were killed in Dublin. (Thomas Kent was also executed in Cork, and later Roger Casement in London.) More than 3,000 were arrested and almost all of them transported to prison camps in Britain.
September 8, 2015
Bernie Sanders and the left
[A]t this moment of gathering darkness for our species and planet, in this pivotal presidential campaign season, who is making greater strides toward triggering the mass enlightenment that is the key to empowering the oppressed: Sanders or his left critics? ...
To dismiss these crucial inroads into mass consciousness as mere diversion, to deride his proposals as milquetoast Keynesian stopgap, betrays the old far-left allergy to the complexity and cacophony of the large stage of life, a debilitating preference for the safety and certitude of the tiny left echo chamber. ...
[I]t is only through the vehicle of his presidential campaign as a Democrat that these kinds of progressive issues and solutions can flood the airwaves and touch the tens of millions of desperate but ill-informed Americans who most need to think and hear about them — in most cases, for the first time. This is the unique and irreplaceable value of the Sanders candidacy: it is strewing seeds of mass consciousness around issues of class and inequality and the environment in a way that no other person or party could accomplish right now. Radicals need to ask themselves: How is that a bad thing? ...
So this is the audience the left must address: not the doughty, battle-ready proletariat of far-left daydreams, but the massively depoliticized and demoralized casualties of the culture industry and neoliberal piracy. ... Blind to these tactical exigencies, Sanders’s far-left detractors merely reinforce the political isolation that they seem to brandish as a badge of virtue; in reality it is a symptom of political debility, a fatal estrangement from the tactical challenges and possibilities of the moment.
August 29, 2015
Flags and other images of 1916
The Irish Citizen Army was formed during the Dublin lockout in late 1913 to protect workers from the police. It joined with the Irish Volunteers (formed earlier in 1913) for the 1916 uprising.
The Irish Republic flag was raised over the General Post Office on August 24, Easter Monday, 1916.
August 24, 2015
MARCACH: horseman; EACH: horse
Each, g. eich, pl. id., eacha and eachra(idh, coll.), m., a horse, a steed; e. Spáinneach, a variety of short horse; e. riata, a trained or coach horse; e. uisce, a water-horse, a mythical inhabitant of lakes (Con., Don.); e. réais, a race-horse; e. cóimhlionga, id., al. a dromedary; e. sléibhe, See under earc [a species of lizard found on moors; al. a term of reproach for a person]; d’e., on horseback. See under cor [cór capall, a troop of horses]; sluagh laighean idir cois agus e., the Leinster forces both mounted and foot; cóiste sé n-e., a coach and six; e. gan srian, an unbridled horse, fig. of fruitless effort; fir na n-e., the horsemen; ar muin an eich, on horseback; mara gcuiridh tú uait na h-eacha tá fút cuirfidh siad earóg ort, if you do not give over the capers you will rue it.
Eachach, -aighe, a., abounding in horses
Eachaidhe, g. id., m., a horseman, a jockey.
Eachaire, g. id., pl. -rí, m., a stable- or horse-boy.
Eachán, -áin, pl. id., m., a reel to wind yarn (O’R.).
Eachan, -ain, m., wind, storm; e. gaoithe., a whirlwind.
Eachanach, -aighe, a., stormy, windy.
Eachlach, -igh, pl. id., m., a horseman, a courier, a cavalryman, hence a messenger, one to tell the tale (after a battle); e. úsláir, a domestic servant; bain-e., a woman courier.
Eachlais, -e, -í, f., a lazy woman; a slattern (used also of a man).
Eachlann, -ainne, -anna, f., a stable; smt. g. -ainn, m..
Eachlsc, -aisce, -a, f., a rod, a whip, a horse-lash; eachlarca ban sídhe, fairy women’s whips, a plant name; al. eachlairc; each-fhlearc (Aur.).
Eachlascaim, --ascadh, v. tr., I horsehwip, I lash.
Each-liaigh, m., a veterinary surgeon.
Each-luath, a., of the swift steeds; an epithet of a prince, warrior, etc.
Eachmaire, g. id., pl. -rí, m., a stallion.
Eachmairt, -e, f., desire of copulation in horses; act of copulation; faoi e., said of a mare in season.
Eachrach, a., handy. See acrach. [Acrach, -aighe, a., convenient, useful, obliging, civil; bean a., a concubine; beidh t’anam-sa go hacrach ar theintibh ceap, your soul will be conveniently settled in the fires (P. F.).]
Eachrach, -aighe, a., abounding in horses, “horsey”; is e. srianta iad, they are well equipped with horses and bridles; e. éideach, mounted and mailed.
Eachraidh, -e, pl. id., m. and f. (coll.), steeds, horses, cavalry; e. ’charlaibh, a team of horses; e ghruagach, a stud of horses with flowing manes; an e. sídhe, the fairy horsemen; smt. eachra, eachradh.
Eachraidhe, pl., accoutrements for a horse as in ploughing, etc.; an bhfuil na he. go léir agat? have you all the accoutrements? (S. O’L.).
Eachraidheas, -dhis, m., harness, etc. U.).
Eachrais, -e, f., a way a road; a passage; a sally; e. con agus giollaí an dúna, a passage for the hounds and servants of the fortress.
Marc, g. mairc, pl. id. and -a, m., a horse; ar muin mairc a chéile, huddled together, in a state of entanglement or disorder.
Marcach, -aigh, pl. id. and -aighe, m., a horseman, a rider, a knight, a noble; a little grain growing by the side or root of a grain of corn; mac uicht, mac ochta (uchta), id.; (Mac Uchta is the appropriate name of a hill near Errigal); m. duana reachaire ghabhas dán, a rider of verse, i.e., a reciter of a poem; m. trúpa, a trooper.
Marcach, -aighe, a., abounding in steeds; al. -mharceach in compd.; ban-mh., female (of horses; Contr.).
Marcachas, -ais, m., horsemanship, riding; do mh. fá gcamallaibh i gcasc chiartha, your gloomy faring in a dark coffin (Br.).
Marcaidhe, g. id., pl. -dhthe, m., a horseman, a rider.
Marcaidheacht, -a, f., act of riding; horsemanship; a ride, a lift, cavalry; dá chéad ar m., two hundred horse (F.F.); fuair sé m., he got a ride on a horse, a drive on a car, etc.; m. ar ghabhar, a ride on a goat; ag m. ar an gcadán, crossing the sea, al. being transported.
Marcán, -áin, pl. id., m., a horseman (Don. Q. L.).
Marc-fhlaith, m., a cavalier.
Marclach, -aigh, m., a cavalcade, a wedding party mounted (Or.); al. a horse-load; a rider, a cavalry-man; al. márclach, málcrach, ⁊c.
Marclann, -ainne, -a, f., a stable.
Marclannach, -aigh, pl. id., m., a groom; an hostler (O’N.).
Marcradh, -aidhe, f., horses, steeds, cavalry.
Marc-shluagha, a., a cavalcade; coll.. horsemen, riders, cavalry.
Marc-shluaghach, a., belonging to cavalry.
Marchuighim, vl. marcaidheacht, v. intr., I ride on horseback, drive on a car, etc., with ar; m. ar each, I ride a horse; smt. without ar.
—Foclóir Gaedhilge agus Béarla, 1927, by Patrick Dinneen
August 23, 2015
Monbiot: Chasing “the center” is hopeless politics
... To imagine that Labour could overcome such odds [to win the 2020 general election] by becoming bland, blurred and craven is to succumb to thinking that is simultaneously magical and despairing. Such dreamers argue that Labour has to recapture the middle ground. But there is no such place; no fixed political geography. The middle ground is a magic mountain that retreats as you approach. The more you chase it from the left, the further to the right it moves.
As the social philosopher Karl Polanyi pointed out towards the end of the second world war, when politics offers little choice and little prospect of solving their problems, people seek extreme solutions. Labour’s inability to provide a loud and proud alternative to Conservative policies explains why so much of its base switched to Ukip at the last election. Corbyn’s political clarity explains why the same people are flocking back to him.
Are they returning because he has tailored his policies to appeal to the hard right? Certainly not. They are returning because he stands for something, something that could help them, something that was not devised by a row of spadbot mannikins in suits, consulting their clipboards on Douglas Alexander’s sofa.
Nothing was more politically inept than Labour’s attempt before the election to win back Ukip supporters by hardening its stance on immigration. Why vote for the echo when you can vote for the shout? What is attractive about a party prepared to abandon its core values for the prospect of electoral gain? What is inspiring about a party that grovels, offering itself as a political doormat for any powerful interest or passing fad to wipe its feet on?
In an openDemocracy article, Ian Sinclair compares Labour’s attempts to stop Corbyn with those by the Tories in 1974-75 to stop Margaret Thatcher. Divisive, hated by the press, seen by her own party as an extremist, she was widely dismissed as unelectable. The Tory establishment, convinced that the party could win only from the centre, did everything it could to stop her. ...
The Labour mainstream likes to pretend that Blair’s only breach of faith was the Iraq war. The marketisation of the NHS, the private finance initiative, the criminalisation of peaceful protest, collusion in the kidnap and torture of dissidents from other nations, the collapse of social housing – I could fill this page with a list of such capitulations to greed and tyranny. Blair’s purges, stripping all but courtiers from the lists of potential candidates, explain why the party now struggles to find anyone under 50 who looks like a leader.
The capitulations continued under Ed Miliband, who allowed the Conservative obsession with the deficit and austerity to frame Labour politics. As Paul Krugman explains, austerity is a con that does nothing but harm to the wealth of this nation. It has been discredited everywhere else: only in Britain do we cling to the myth. Yet Miliband walked willingly into the trap. His manifesto promised to “cut the deficit every year” and to adopt such cruel Tory policies as the household benefits cap.
You can choose, if you wish, to believe that this clapped-out, alienating politics – compounded by such gobsmacking acts of cowardice as the failure to oppose the welfare bill – can capture the mood of the nation, reverse Labour’s decline and secure an extra hundred seats. But please stop calling yourself a realist.
Rebuilding a political movement means espousing what is desirable, then finding ways to make it feasible. The hopeless realists propose the opposite. They assemble a threadbare list of policies they consider feasible, then seek to persuade us that this package is desirable. If they retain core values, they’ve become so muddled by tacking and triangulation as to be almost indecipherable.
... the longer Labour keeps repeating the same mistakes – reinforcing the values it should be contesting – the further to the right it will push the nation, and the more remote its chances of election will become. The task is to rebuild the party’s values, reclaim the democratic debate, pull the centre back towards the left and change ... the soul of the nation.
Because Labour’s immediate prospects are so remote, regardless of who wins this contest, the successful candidate is likely to be a caretaker, a curator of the future. His or her task must be to breathe life back into politics, to recharge democracy with choice, to ignite the hope that will make Labour electable again. Only one candidate proposes to do that.