Friday, 12 December 2025
Wednesday, 10 December 2025
Tuesday, 9 December 2025
Monday, 8 December 2025
From Galway to Aqaba. Galwayman [ LTC ] Pierce Charles Joyce [ CONN Rangers ] , DSO, 1878-1965, [ CAPT ] TE Lawrence , FAISAL and WEIZMANN
Instead of the endless and utterly destructive mantra of BDS - *Boycott and DEMONISE and Sanction* ONE Tribe in the Middle East, and also no other People on earth, Ireland [ NGOs, campaigners, academics, media and Govt ] could make known - and build on - the buried story of the 6 foot 1 inch Galwayman, in 1 Bn, CONN Rangers, Boer War veteran LTC Pierce Charles Joyce 1878-1965 DSO, [ who, as LTC, was to become a life-long friend and admirer but also OUTRANKED and formally commanded the arguably over-famous and flamboyant *Lawrence of Arabia* - Welsh-born Oxfod grad CAPT Thomas Edward Lawrence -1888-1935 - whose father was Irish - Chapman - who had eloped with TE's mother ].
Joyce was the Intermediary and Interpreter at the FIRST Meeting on June 4, 1918 at Wahida near Aqaba of the Arab Leader Emir FAISAL 1885-1933 and the Jewish Leader the Russian-born chemist, Dr Chaim Weizmann 1874-1952 and later first President of the new UN-mandated State of Israel 1949-1952 [ the precursor of their historic but tragically never-achieved 1919 Joint Declaration for JOINT Arab-Jewish collaboration ]. Faisal wanted Jewish investment in an Arab State - scientific, indstrial, agricultural as well as financial - but his goodwill towards *a Jewish National Home* was depending on the UK delivering all they had already promised in the 1915 McMahon-Hussein correspondence; for Faisal, the implementation of the UK Nov 1917 *Balfour Declaration* [ prefigured in the Aug 1917 *War Aims* adopted by the then united industrial+political Labour & TUC movement in UK - and also supported in USA by the AFL trade union umbrella body ] depended on whether the UK dropped or enforced the notorious and utterly imperialist Anglo-French *Sykes-Picot Agreement* - to carve up the ME Region between them. The cynical and gross betrayal by the UK Govt - once again *Perfidious Albion* [ as the then-former IRISH Unionist Leader the Dublin-born lawyer and MP Edward Henry Carson 1854-1935 finally grasped - but only in 1922 ] of the legtimate claims and aspirations of the Arabs whom they had used to combat - and defeat - the Ottomans in WW 1 - killed the prospect of Arab-Jewish partnership before it could even begin.
Yet in WW 2, not only 30,000 Jews but also maybe 10,000 Arabs from Palestine still volunteered for the UK Forces. As did a Dublin-schooled son of the Chief Rabbi, Chaim Herzog, 1918-1997, in *Hagaanh* in Israel at 16, Col in BA Intel Corps by 1945, later IDF MG and Dir *AMAN* Mil Intel, Labour Party MK in Israel and 1983-1993 6th Pres of Israel.
And Moshe Dayan 1915-1981 - future IDF Chief of Staff and Labour Party Defence Minister [ in the *Palmach* f/t elite strike force = Irish 1920-1921 *Flying Columns* - of the *Haganah* Jewish citizens army ] lost his left eye in 1942 fighting near the Litani River in South Lebanon, to liberate Vichy Franch-Occupied Lebanon and Syria - leading a MIXED Arab-Jewish Recon Platoon to guide the Austalian 7th Inf Div. Irish Rugby Intl Cap, Boxer, and poetry lover, Blair Robert Mayne 1915-1955 DSO from Newtownards was fighting nearby, then with the Scots Cdo and later in SAS.
Dayan, Foreign Minister from 1977, resigned in 1979 from the Govt of Menachem Begin 1913-1992 in protest at the refusal to negotiate with the Palestinians [ 1942-1948 Begin had led the extemist *Irgun* who had broken away from the mainstream *Haganah* but in 1978, along with Pres Anwar Sadat, won the Nobel Peace Prize ] .
Todays people across the the ME Region need - more than ever - to learn of their REAL history - and be liberated by the possibilities suggested by the stories of Weizmann, Faisal, and Dayan - and of what Egypt's Pres Sadat 1918-1981 dared to do in 1977 - address the Israeli Parl, and then got back every inch of the Occupied Sinai, with the civilian Settlement at Yamit in NE Sinai and all IDF being withdrawn - in return for recognition of Israel and a substantially de-militarsied Sinai. Tho' he in Cairo - like ex-IDF Chief of Staff, Labour PM Rabin 1922-1995 in Tel Aviv - paid with his life for his statesmanship. Both murdered by violent fanatics from their OWN Nation [ Egyptian Army Arty Lt Islambouli and Yigal Amir ]. Like Collins in Aug 1922 in his native West Cork
Joyce led the UK *OP Hedgehog* - to train, fund and equip Faisals Arab Army liberating OCCUPIED ARAB land from the Turkish Ottoman EMPIRE. After WW 1 Faisal became King of the new State of Iraq - Joyce was seconded as his Military Advisor. Iraq was arbitrarily cobbled together [ by UK ] in 1921 from 3 totally distinct Ottoman Provinces - Sunni KURDS in the North, Sunni ARABS in the middle [ Baghdad ] - who completely dominated Iraq until the brutal tyrant Saddam was overthrown in 2003 ] - and in the South SHIA Arabs.
Saturday, 6 December 2025
Irelands DUTY in NE Atlantic - to both itself & its 2 closest neighbours & to Sea +Air traffic over that vast zone
1. Ireland has a vast EEZ [ Exclusive Economic Zone ] in the central NE Atlantic of 343,750 Square Miles = 21.82 % of EU area of 1.575557 M Square Miles, or 12.67 TIMES its own sovereign land area
2. At Ballygirreen in County Clare, North of Shannon Intl Airport, is the Radio to serve the vast central NE Atlantic *Oceanic Air Traffic Control Zone* of 700,000 Square Miles = 44.43 % of EU area, or 25.8 TIMES the Irish sovereign land area. This Zone runs half-way across the central NE Atlantic towards Canada.
3. Ireland therefore has a DUTY to not solely provide but - alongside its 2 closest neigbours in that Zone, FRANCE and UK - to CONTRIBUTE its own [ small but propoprtionate ] SHARE to both [a] the provision of both Air Sea Search and Rescue Services, plus [b] Security in that area [ with absolutely vital Cables from North Amercia to Europe ], as well as [c] to interdict unlawful activity, such as Drugs, People or Weapons smuggling, and to also [d] police its own EEZ.
4. Ireland - totally unlike comparable smaller lands like Denmark or NZ - has completely and shamefully neglected each of those duties. Thus damaging its own interests and self-respect as well as needlessly endanering its neighbours and indeed all our EU Partners.
5. That 4 large military Drones [ no doubt from Putinland ] appeared near Dublin Airport exactly when Pres Zelensky was DUE to land is extremely sinister. No weapons were needed on those Drones in order to to murder him - just crash 1 or more into his aircraft. He escaped - this time - but only because he landed 4 mins before scheduled.
It echoes Sept 1961 when a French-built Fouga Magister Jet of the *Union Miniere* mining giant-funded , breakaway Tshombe regime in Katanga, flown by a Belgian WW 2 RAF Pilot, and a Mercenary in the Congo, shot down the aircraft with the Swedish UN Sec-Gen Dag Hammarskjokd, before landing at Ndola Airport.
Will this sinister episode finally wake up Irish Govt, media and people to the very real - and indeed increasing - threats which we ALL face across Europe - not just in our FRONT LINE, Ukraine, from our COMMON enemy, Putin ?
6. From July to Dec 2026 Ireland is DUE TO again host the rotating 6-month EU Presidency. With minimal secruity capacity - of its own. Will the 26 other EU PMs and Foreign Ministers have to travel to Dublin by train and boat - for their own security ? Or will the Irish Govt - at last - take its own responsibilities seriously ?
7. Latest poll shows that [ excluding Dont Knows ] 52.38 % of people sampled now want Ireland to join NATO. This was also a poll taken BEFORE the 4 sinister Drones appeared near Dublin Airport.
8. Cost of finally funding serious National Security is not a problem - it is nothing compared to the costs - for Ireland and all of Europe - if Putin wrecks the vital Cables in the NE Atlantic, off our SW Coast - his SPY Ship *Yantar*, Warships, Subs and Nuclear-capable Long Range *Bear* Bombers regularly prowl off our SW Coast, and hover over those vital Cables.
9. In addition, since Ships and Aircraft will serve for 30 years, the Capital Cost of funding them can be spread over that period - as an essential long-term Investment.
Tom Carew