John Geraghty

On this day in 1963 JFK made the first visit of any President to Ireland. He visited Dublin, Cork and of course his ancestral home of Dunganstown in Wexford.

Thousands lined the streets to see the President, many hanging out of windows.

http://www.kennedyhomestead.com/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/s...000/4461115.stm

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resou...and+Ireland.htm

In any Irish bar from Dublin to Bratislava I have seen photos of JFKs visit to Ireland, it was one of Irelands and John Kennedys proudest moments.

The rumour was that JFK wanted to become ambassador to Ireland following his second term and live in the land of his ancestors.

If anybody ever has a chance, I suggest that you pay a visit to Dunganstown and take a look around and also view 'The Dunbrody', the ship that took Patrick Kennedy to the United States.

Take a look at the photos on the JFK library website.

There are many good quotes from JFKs time in Ireland, I will leave it up to the members to add their favourites.

Heres a good quote from playwrite Sean O'Casey from after the assassination.

"What a terrible thing has happened to us all! To you there, to us here, to all everywhere. Peace who was becoming bright-eyed, now sits in the shadow of death; her handsome champion has been killed as he walked by her very side. Her gallant boy is dead. What a cruel, foul, and most unnatural murder! We mourn here with you, poor, sad American people. "

I'm sure some will call this thread off-topic and glorifying JFK, but its part of the history of Ireland and his visit is a historical fact that I choose to celebrate.

All the best,

John Geraghty

what a goal!

I would just like to say that I have been thoroughly enjoying my time here in D.C. and EVERYONE has been very courteous and generally lovely towards me.

If anyone wishes to discuss politics I suggest that they discuss it in a relevant thread.

I will no longer be responding to any of a certain persons messages as they serve no purpose other than to agrivate myself and other members.

I advise others to do the same.

Thank you to everybody on the forum and I will as always give my input as I see fit, but I will no longer waste my time on useless topics.

Don't waste your time everyone, I mean that.

I have had the privilege to live in this country this past while and will continue to live here and spend my time as I see fit.

I reside here legally and will continue to do so.

Thank you Bill and everyone else, I urge you not to respond to any attacks by anyone that does not raise a VALID point.

I have learned not to be lured into pointless debates.

You are all doing your part and now I'm trying to do mine.

All the best,

John

Hello all,

I thought that activist type members of the forum might avail of this.

I received an email from the Nader/Camejo team with an offer.

24 copies of 'Cruel and Unusual' by Mark Crispin Miller. Mr. Miller is a professor of media studies at New York University.

Here is the blurb from the publisher.

A mordant and passionate exposé of the right-wing threat to American democracy and freedom. Read a newspaper or catch the news on television, and you might get the impression that America's current leadership is "mainstream": perhaps a bit more conservative and in its foreign policy more belligerent than its predecessors, but still a federal authority that functions within America's political traditions.

But as Mark Crispin Miller argues here with great clarity and effect, we are in fact living in a state that would appall the Founding Fathers: a state that is neither democratic nor republican, and no more "conservative" than it is liberal. He exposes the Bush Republicans' contempt for democratic practice, their bullying religiosity, their reckless militarism, their apocalyptic views of the economy and the planet, and—above all—their emotional dependence on sheer hatefulness.

Abraham Lincoln once observed that, if the United States should ever be subverted, "it will be conquered from within." And that is exactly what has happened.

I'm counting my pennies to see if I can spare the cash. My only problem is that I have to give them all out by the time I leave D.C. for Ireland in August.

I think that buying these would come under the title of public service.

Of course you must first trust Mr.Naders judgement of the book, which personally, I do.

Here is the link.

http://www.independencegear.com/Merchant2/...tegory_Code=BKS

All the best,

John

Hitting JFK in the head with the first shot probably would have constituted "the luckiest act in the history of the world," but let the record show that it took three attempts to hit Kennedy's big bulbous noggin. That's about what we'd expect from a rusty ex-Marine like Oswald. Slow car + rigid, upright target + military-trained sniper = death. Not too complicated. Sounds like you're laying the groundwork for a "patsy" defense. No sale.

Despite the fact that the third shot would have been the hardest.

John

Sherry Gutierrez's presentation on Bullet Trajectory indicates a shot from the South Knoll area.

Sherry has given this presentation at both Lancer and Dealey Plaza UK Conferences.

The presentation is available on the web, though whenever I try to locate it I am unsuccessful.

When I first heard Sherrys preentation I immediately thought 'This fit with the account of William Plumlee'

I think Sherry is a member of the forum, perhaps someone could request her expertees.

Could someone please provide the link also.

All the best,

John

Mr.Slattery,

It is quite rich that you are telling me to grow up, when it is you who posts caricatures on a debate forum to get your point accross.

I'm sure you could find several Bush parodies around the net, but tell me, when have I ever posted such parodies?

You are generalising and assuming that I am a through and through democrat and that I must be completely anti-republican. This assumption would be incorrect, I hold no party allegiance. I have respect for any politician who stands up for the little guy, regardless of their party.

Its not black and white, in a partisan sense or racial.

Being Irish has nothing to do with this, why bring it up?

I don't like confrontational postings and I admit that I have made a few in this thread, but only to rebut what Brendan has claimed, which is most likely a waste of time.

I think we both have a bit of growing up to do Mr.Slattery.

John

P.S. Has McKinney been indicted yet?

No Brendan, nor will she ever be. The coverage by Fox was nothing short of despicable. They actually ran an article last Thursday that likened the McKinney case to that of the LaCrosse player accused of raping a protestute. Of course Fox favours the young rich white man.

They also ran a story saying that the Congresswoman had entered into a 'sweetheart' deal in order to get her exhonoration, yet they site no soure or any information to back this up.

These slurs are a complete disgrace.

Brendan, It seems to me as though you lack analytical thought.

Ciao,

John

I'm curious: were you assigned to McKinney randomly, or did you specifically request her? If the latter, I fear for your sanity (and politics). What's your infatuation with left-wing politicians and message boards? Are you unaware of McKinney's connections to CAIR and other radical Muslim groups? Are you unaware of her serial, disturbing run-ins with Capitol Hill law enforcement?

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?Stor...30-120057-3228r

Just how was the Fox coverage "despicable"? Are you saying it's okay to assault a policeman and use race and gender as a defense?

The Duke case? Um, in case you haven't notice, it's quickly going down in flames:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13392547/site/newsweek/

You see, even "rich, white boys" have rights in this country. If exhonorated, a lot of people should lose their jobs over this fiasco, starting with the race-hustling DA. Of course, you're working for a shameless race hustler this summer, so I don't expect you to "get it."

I don't think I need to add to that.

What Brendan has written speaks volumes.

Maybe just one small bit more.

Here are another few cartoons from the site Brendan took this 'Race Card'.

Lessons in ignorance, Volume 2.

John

P.S. Has McKinney been indicted yet?

No Brendan, nor will she ever be. The coverage by Fox was nothing short of despicable. They actually ran an article last Thursday that likened the McKinney case to that of the LaCrosse player accused of raping a protestute. Of course Fox favours the young rich white man.

They also ran a story saying that the Congresswoman had entered into a 'sweetheart' deal in order to get her exhonoration, yet they site no soure or any information to back this up.

These slurs are a complete disgrace.

Brendan, It seems to me as though you lack analytical thought.

Ciao,

John

Since this article was published there has been a report issued by the Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog stating that 14 European States have colluded with the CIA in the transprtation of detainees. It also states that Poland and Romania are likely sites of detention camps.

Ireland is named among the 14 countries, with Shannon airport acting as a stopover for US aircraft and most likely, CIA opeations.

The very fact that the US military uses Ireland as a stopover point on its way to Iraq is a violation of Irelands neutrality.

Inspections of us flights landing in Irish territory are not allowed.

An article detailing the report and its full contens can be found here. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5056614.stm

Not only is the US conducting the illegal torture of detainees, it is also dragging neutral nations into its foreign policy.

John

he way in which Pepper selects his facts to prove the existence of a conspiracy can be no better highlighted than by his description of Jowers’ trial witness Sid Carthew who you refer to as ‘a British man’.Carthew was important to Pepper as the ex-British merchant seaman recalled meeting a gunrunner by the name of ‘Raul’ in Montreal in 1967.During the trial and in his book, Pepper described Carthew as a ‘British Nationalist’ probably aware that most Americans would think nothing of this except he was simply a patriotic Englishman.Pepper does not, however, inform his readers of Carthew’s real political activities in Britain.For many years Carthew has been a committed racist from West Yorkshire, an activist who supported the racist British National Party, a political organisation which has established close links to neo-fascist terror groups like ‘Combat 18’

I just thought that I would revisit this particular piece.

After re-reading Dr.Peppers book he does indeed at first describe Sid carthew only as a member of the BNP, he does, however later in the book describe Carthew as involved in racist activity that Mel has described.

I will transcribe the exact wording later in the day.

I just though that it was worth correcting this in case somebody reads this in the future.

John

Jeez, you idiots can't commemorate a simple speech without throwing in some sleazy Bush hatred. And is this a Kennedy assassination site or a Kennedy idolatry site? Can't tell the difference sometimes. You do realize your "hero" attempted to overthrow and assassinate foreign heads of state, not to mention wiretapped civil rights leaders, right? I thought only Bush and the eeeeeevil Republicans did those things. Hmmm. Oh, and trotting out senile Schlesinger to sing the praises of his old boss? Priceless.

P.S. Has McKinney been indicted yet?

Brendan,

I think that you have demonstrated in this post better than any other how closed minded you really are. I don't doubt that you are an intelligent man, this is why I have such trouble with the fact that you prefer to degrade the tone of the conversation. Why must you do so?

I can accept that you don't like the Deomcrats or that you have differing beliefs to myself, but why must you be so confrontational about it?

I suppose some people just go out looking for a fight.

John

Hi Michael,

I met the congresswoman on Friday briefly. The food is much as it is at home, I'm surviving on the students diet...pasta and the canteen in the Longworth building.

The accommodation is great, I'm staying with four others and 3 cats. We are all about the same age and share similar political beliefs, though I am only now introducing them to the JFK assassination and they are giving me some new insight on US politics.

I'm trying to get a lot of reading done while I'm here, but its hard because I only get hme at 7 and I usually have something or another to do.

The district itself is great, its public transport is very handy, though a bit expensive.

My next stop is Arlington Cemetery, for obvious reasons.

John

If anyone wants to go there themselves, the store is Olsens bookstore near Gallery Plaza metro station.

John

Hi,

I found a good bookstore in D.C. that has a few second hand rare books on the JFK assassination. I'm pretty sure that the same person sold them all to the store as they all have some notes written on them.

I bought 'Deadly Secrets' by Warren Hinckle and William Turner for $12 and a book on Richard Helms for $16.

I found a few others, If anybody wants them I will gladly get them and send them onwards, though you must pick up the tab obviously! I know how hard it is to get some of them so I though that I would do a public service.

2 copies of The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence by Victor Marchetti $26

1 copy, Inside the Company by Philip Agee $38

1 copy The CIA and congress: The untold story from Roosevelt to Kennedy $40

There are more CIA books there, but I'm not sure if they are rare.

If anybody wants me to pick them up, give me an email at wereallgoitaheavenlads@hotmail.com

By the way, they are the store prices, I'm not putting anything on top of that.

All the best,

John Geraghty

James,

Good on you for digging out this old post and breathing a bit of life into it. I concur with Dawn that this photo does bear a great deal of resemblance to Lois Gibsons sculpture.

I'm trying to locate Rogers and Craig and hopefully I can get in contact with them while I'm here in the States.

John

Hi guys,

Thanks a lot for your encouraging responses. I will in fact be giving tours of capitol hill in a weeks time! People will come from Georgia to Washington to hear an Irishman give a tour of THEIR main political building!

Your right about the journal. I got here last Thursday and have been quite busy ever since, so I might update my journal tonight.

I have so far seen the White house, The Capitol Building (seeing as how I work there), I got to see the pres outside Tom DeLays office on Friday!, Washington monument, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam memorial, ww2 memorial and a few other areas. I have yet to visit the Smithsonian and most crucially of all...The Spy museum.

I met John Judge for the first time today and hes quite a nice guy and I look forward to working with him.

I'm right beside the library of congress, so If anyone thinks it would be a good idea to do some research thereor knows of any books, let me know.

I would love to meet up with anyone in D.C. so please just let me know, its always good to have a good political discussion and I'm here to learn.

I will of course post up a few photos, hopefully including the Watergate building, JFKs grave and possibly Bethesda hospital.

If anyone knows any other good spots please let me know.

Cheers,

John

I'm pleased to say that I made it to this congregation last Saturday. We had a good discussion at the site of the speech and then moved on for some intelligent debate in a local chicken house!

I had the good fortune of meeting a few very nice and well informed people, who I'm sure would find this forum quite useful.

Dan Alcorn spoke about JFK's legacy of peace and that although we should not seek to make a saint of him, we must realise his true aims for the United States and the world.

Perhaps we could get Dan ( a former COPA lawyer) to discuss his sentiments here on the forum.

It was a most enjoyable day even though I had a bit of trouble getting there.

All the best,

John

Unfortunately conspiracy theories do tend to attract some people of less than sound minds, however in the case of JFK it does attract some of the most inspired debate I have ever come accross. Most of us do not see a conspiracy in everything, as you can see from the limited crossover between the JFK forum and the 9/11 section.

This post I found interesting.

What distinguishes JFK conspiracy 'research' from 9/11 conspiracy 'research' ?

Hi Andy,

What I was implying here is that people who believe in a conspiracy to assassinate JFK are not hell bent on believing any conspiracy that comes along and only a few seem to participate in the discussion on 9/11. I haven't done a great deal of reading on 9/11 and only view some of the back and forth between Ron Ecker, Jack White and Len Colby who is doing a good job rebutting some of the claims, being a level headed individual (not that Ron and Jack aren't). I was not really implying any 'differences' between JFK and 9/11 research so I can't really answer that question with any definitive reply.

I know you are skeptical with regard to some of our beliefs (though they have a basis in fact), but I feel John Simkin is going down the right path by questioning historians on their beliefs on the assassination. People like Peter Dale Scott and Gerald McKnight are prime examples or level headed individuals who have somewhat combined the roles of Historian and investigative reporter.

Some of the criticism given to JFK research is that it is undertaken by retired policemen, civil servants and others not familiar with regular historical analysis. Their information is often discounted due to its selectivity of evidence and testimony, relying on word of mouth evidence. I would argue that the research of such individuals is often paramount to understaning this and other cases. I would cite Ian Griggs 'No case to Answer' as an excellent example of meticulous research that no historian should turn their noses up at. Ian covers all the angles, states only fact and draws conclsuons based on the fact and makes it clear that any specualtion he may offer is to be taken as such and not fact.

I know John has discussed similar themes to these in his interviews with historians section.

I hope that this goes some way in answering your question, if not sorry for rambling!

All the best,

John

I'm going with Argnetina. Riquelme and Messi.

John

The US are ranked 5th in the world if I'm not mistaken, do they deserve it...................?

Nonetheless I will be throwing support their way as I will be living there. Why Not eh?

John

Not a hope my friends. I'm sorry but its just not your year...again. As somebody wrote in an Irish paper a few days ago as one of the top 50 reasons why it would be bad if England won the world cup "They won it on the 50th anniversary of the 1916 rising, it would be horrible if they won it on the 90th".

The match against Hungary was a good result for a an average sgowing, though some might say that its a god sign when a team plays badly and still wins.

Good team on paper, but the prayers of most Irishmen will be against you I'm afraid.

There are a few who will support England over here, such as the labour leader Pat Rabitte.

Most people seem to be supporting Poland due to the fact that there are 100,000 poles living here at the moment.

Crouch the dancing robot is a good coat stand, but I'm afraid he's not up to the task.

I ask you to please disregard the fact thatIreland didn't qualify!

John

George,

An excellent post, I was just about to spring in to defend Ken Loach when you came to the rescue. As it hapens my father had an audition for this film, needless to say he didn't get it.

At present I can still not decide whether I like Cilliam Murphy as an actor, although I am good friends with his cousin and when I am in his company I have to sing his praises!

Neil Jordans film 'Michael Collins' also had similar sentiments towards the black and tans, though I can't remember the media reaction at the time, having been only 11 or so.

Here is another small piece of trivia, Ben and Jerrys, the ice cream manufacturer had planned to bring out a flavour called 'black and tans' in Ireland, but wisely decided against it.

I look forward to seeing Ken Loach's film, though I may not be in the country when it is released.

I think the references George made to Tim Luckhurst and Simon Heffer show that some elements of the media are still unwilling to come to terms with the fact that the British empire was not always as civil as it professed to be.

All the best,

John

Hi Andy,

I thought that I would make a quick post here before people start throwing the kitchen sink at you!

I would just like to say that I am satisfied that the assassination of JFK occured as a result of a conspiracy. Unfortunately conspiracy theories do tend to attract some people of less than sound minds, however in the case of JFK it does attract some of the most inspired debate I have ever come accross. Most of us do not see a conspiracy in everything, as you can see from the limited crossover between the JFK forum and the 9/11 section.

With regard to conspiracy theories being untestable and unproveable, I would tend to disagree with this statement. One particular conspiracy that has been proven in a court of law is the assassination of Martin Luther King. The King family supported Dr.William Pepper in his prosecution of Lloyd Jowers and other un-named parties in a civil trial for participation in the assassination of Dr.Martin Luther King junior. The fact that the King family supported this action would suggest that they genuinely believe in a conspiracy. One only has to read Dr.Peppers book 'An Act of State' to realise the great injustice that occured in having James Earl Ray locked up for some 25-30 years.

I would agree that some tend to generalise with regard to 'good and evil', as you put it, and lack objectivity. I think as you can see in the JFK assassination forum each relevant character is given analysis in their own right and then subsequently as part of larger organisations such as operation 40. I would disagree that generalisations are used widely in conspiracy research. Seldom does someone say "well it was the CIA and everybody working for the CIA", you only have to look at the sheer amount of threads on this forum referencing the actions of so many people to realise that we do not generalise, in fact we are quite specialised.

I don't see John Simkin, Peter Dale Scott or Gerald McKnight as having psychological needs to be met by proposing theories. Saying that conspiracy theorists (I hate that I am branded as such!) generalise is in fact a generalisation in itself.

I'm sure you will receive several more strongly worded responses than this so I wish you good luck.

Opinions on forums can always be misread so let me just say that I have no problem with Andys view, I have an opposing view, but I don't think Andy should be jumped upon for expressing his opinion.

All the best,

John Geraghty

Lance,

Welcome,

I must confess that I have not read your book, but I have a question nonetheless. Are you familiar with a documentary made for channel four some months back dramatising Tony Blairs decision to go to war in Iraq. The documentary received a good deal of coverage in the press. The information presented was taken from interviews of those close to or working in some capacity with Tony Blair. My question is (If you are familiar with the Documentary) do you feel that it accurately portrayed Tony Blairs approach to the war in Iraq and that his sense of obligation to George Bush and the United States was his primary motivation in going to war?

All the best,

John Geraghty