Retired Army Commandant Ed Horgan

by redjade Sun Sep 28, 2003 16:05

Retired Army Commandant Ed Horga

by redjade Sun Sep 28, 2003 16:06

Retired Army Commandant Ed Horgan

by Lone gunman Sun Sep 28, 2003 20:36

He is plain old Mr Ed Horgan now.So it is now wrong to address him as Commandant.
Beats me why if he had such an attack of peacenickness,why he ever joined a body of people whose main primary job is to kill other people as efficently as possible.That is an armys job not "peace keeping" or "peace enforcing".Ok it was an intresting soundbite that got everyone happy.But it changes nothing.

by Drbinoche Sun Sep 28, 2003 21:20

The man is a disgrace to the uniform he wore. I don't think he should have ver reached the post of commandant. I am surprised he is being discribed as honourable. The man needs to wake up, but then again I odubt if many of you will get to read this as the last post I made about thei 'honourable man' was removed shortly afterward. Very polite of Indymedia, rather than presenting a counter-argument, lets just remove that with which we disagree.

by Aidan Sun Sep 28, 2003 21:28

You suggested that he do something deeply offensive, you can dislike him but when you breach our editorial guidelines a post will be removed.

by Ciaron O'Reilly - Dublin Catholic Worker Sun Sep 28, 2003 22:23

Good going Ed. You're part of a wonderful crew -the late Phil Berrigan ( WW2 combat vet - 11 years in U.S. prisons for nonviolent resistance to the U.S. war machine), Charlie Litkey (returned his Congressional medal of Honour at the Viet Vet war memorial in protest at US wars in Central America/jailed repetitivel for nonviolent resistance), Fr. Roy Bourgeois (Viet Vet Combat Vet/ years in jail for nonviolent resistance at the School of Americas/Assasins), the late Admiral Eugene Carrol (testified as a defence witness at numerous plowshares trials), Les Gibbons (3 tours from Crossmaglen with the British Marines/arrested blockading the HMS Ark Royal heasding off to massacre Iraqis), Goerge Vesey (disabled Viet Vet/ plowshares activist)Brian Wilson (Vietnam Vet/lost both legs blockading an arms shipment form US to El Salvador junta) et.al.

It was a privilege to witness the event.

by Eoin Dubsky Sun Sep 28, 2003 22:54

Thanks to the photographer too who posted these photos on indymedia -- I couldn't make it to Dublin yesterday for the demo.

by Geert Mon Sep 29, 2003 02:12

Ark Royal was not heading off to "massacre Iraqis". You know perfectly well the purpose of that mission, which was accomplished with astonishing skill and extremely low levels of civilian deaths.

As for this character, well, he's only been waiting for an opportunity like this to make a name for himself. Ireland's neutrality in WW2 was morally dubious, our obstruction of the efforts to remove Saddam Hussein would have been reviled, and rightly so by all decent people.

by Anonymous Mon Sep 29, 2003 12:10

Utmost respect to Ed Horgan.

redjade just keeps the photos coming in and capturing these moments. Great report on Afganistan too which I totally agree with and I think which should have been included in this protest.

The opium trade there is up and running again, run by the very same warlords that the U.S. installed. Our very own sons & daughters lives are being destroyed by this same trade.

by redjade Mon Sep 29, 2003 19:58

thanks all, could someone who can read irish please translate the gist of what the plaque says?

thanks :-)

by fáinne gheal an lae Mon Sep 29, 2003 21:50

The document in Irish is Ed Horgan's letter or certificate of commission or whatever it is called in the language of officialdom, i.e. the official document confirming his appointment as a commissioned officer of the permanent armed forces (na Buan-Oglaigh).

The document is dated 15 Sept. 1965 and bears the name and seal of the then President (Eamonn de Valera). Acting on the recommendation of the government, the President confirms the appointment of Mr. Horgan to the rank of Second Lieutenant effective as from 27 Sept. 1965. There then follows a summary of the duties etc. expected of him in his position as an officer, i.e. that he will be responsible for training those placed under his command and that they will be bound to show due respect and obedience; as a commissioned officer he will be expected to obey without question the orders issued to him from time to time by the Minister of Defence or by his superior officers.

Just a rough summary of the content.
Hope it does the trick ....

:-)

by kokomero Tue Sep 30, 2003 10:04

To the best of my knowledge is to follow orders to the best of his/her ability. If those orders involve peace-keeping then our record as a country, and that of Ed Horgan is exemplerary.

It is a great pity that the US and Israelis to name but two do not take a leaf out of our book.

They should concentrate on peace-keeping rather than enforcing for no other reason than that peace-keeping works (Cyprus, Lebanon, Sinai etc.), and enforcing obviously does not as a look at the West Bank, Afghanistan or Iraq shows to all but the blind!

Ed Horgan and our other soldiers who helped keep the peace are a credit to our nation and given what they have seen it is they who should be heeded when they express opinions on such matters, not the ignorant politicians who have never been to a war zone, or who have run a mile from it like cowards in the case of Bush.

Bush's cowardice was also abundantly evident following the 9/11 attacks when he hid in his bunker for days!

by Ciaron Wed Oct 01, 2003 11:35

Ark Royal, British Navy, US Navy, Australian Navy all central in enforcing a genocidal sanctuions regime as described by Denis Hallyday and others.

The U.S. has given up counting the dead.

by Justin Morahan - Peace People Thu Oct 02, 2003 01:24

I too was privileged to witness the event.
It takes courage and integrity to stand up and say "I renounce these honours that I have for so long cherished" because of conscience.
Ed's name goes into the roll of honour and let the anonymous Drbinoche sign his name with Bertie Ahern, Mary Harney, and spineless Government ministers and TDs who voted us into war. That was the disgrace.
Well done Ed. As a pacifist, I salute you (in a non-military way!).

by Justin Morahan - Peace People Thu Oct 02, 2003 01:33

Eat your heart out. For Ed it changes everything.
Now he is a hero.
His example shines brightly. All is changed -changed utterly.
You might imitate him some day.

by No way Thu Oct 02, 2003 03:59

Anybody who opposed the removal of the Baathists needs to seriously sit down and think about what they really believe in.

Did everybody who marched against the invasion really want to condemn 22million Iraqis to decades more living in a concentration camp of a country?

While you all toddle off to your nice middle class homes and feel very satisifed that you thwarted Bush.

I hate you people for what you tried to do.

by BlackPope Thu Oct 02, 2003 16:24

Well, hohoho, as the once-great Adolf Hitler was so fond of saying, "I don't care if they hate me - just as long as they FEAR ME!!"

Yes indeed, 'No Way', me old chum, we can all feel your growing pain and smell your steaming fear. Your hate is however totally irrelevant, best keep it to yourself and feed it regularly.

As the Empire begins to crumble under the weight of its own lies, fear and heat-flashes are a natural response amongst its brainwashed devotees - if there is any way we can help reinforce these problems just let us know, OK?

Schalom Buddy, BlackPope

by BlackPope Thu Oct 02, 2003 16:40

Why has the bold Spondeen not yet managed to stain this page with a blast of his inimical, Kevin-Meyers-flavoured whinge-extract?

You'd almost miss his obligatory disparaging spout of nonsense.

But then again, actually, NOT!!

Goodbye, Sweet Prince, and fare ye well on that far shore of the Irish Times. I am unworthy to write your epitaph.

In Loving Memory, BlackPope

by Deirdre Clancy - Pitstop Ploughshares Thu Oct 02, 2003 20:57

Thanks to Ed Horgan for a courageous and noble action, and one which I know would not have been taken lightly.

The sceptics and critics who 'hate' those of us who oppose the Bush administration's foreign policy, should read their history books to find out why Bush, Rumsfeld, and co. suddenly fell out with their former best friends in the Hussein regime, a regime they could have 'decapitated' years ago had they really wished to, which they didn't. Instead they chose to subject the ordinary Iraqi population to a grindingly brutal sanctions regime, which further undermined its ability to resist a repressive goverment independently. Bush senior encouraged an uprising which he then helped to crush. It suited them in 1991 to keep Saddam in power; it just didn't happen to this time around. Get real, 'No Way' - you need an education. This war was about resources for the West; we all know that the WMDs don't exist and that the main 'liberation' they had in mind was that of the oil fields and the lucrative contracts to rebuild the country, whose infrastructure they so effectively have undermined. Why else would the US have propped up, and indeed helped to install, other dictatorships at *least* as bad as Saddam's in the past?

by EmpireWatch - EmpireWatch.org Sat Jun 26, 2004 03:07 NYC

- - - The man is a disgrace to the uniform he wore. I don't think he should have ver reached the post of commandant. I am surprised he is being discribed as honourable. The man needs to wake up, but then again I odubt if many of you will get to read this as the last post I made about thei 'honourable man' was removed shortly afterward. Very polite of Indymedia, rather than presenting a counter-argument, lets just remove that with which we disagree. - -


"disgreace"????

dont even try it redneck (what ever u r called in Ireland). As a former US Marine I can say as does any thinking person that it is FACT that no standing Army has EVER fought for freedom or peace. They fight and die stupidly so a few get rich!

Being a US marine was the most stupid thing i did in my life. I signed away my own "freedom"

By the way.... I am also a NYer and 9/11 survivor! Stupid insance society is "who" did 9/11... NOT 19 angry arab men!

by Bilbo Sat Jun 26, 2004 03:18

You will find that 9/11 was actually done by 19 Muslim fanatics, if you check carefully.

by funny business Sat Jun 26, 2004 10:49

Yes indeed as I seem to recall most of them from Saudi Arabia .... a close ally of the USA ........