Well, there is one little correction to our prisoners' list from
last week. You needn't send Christmas cards to Liam Averill in H8
because he has popped out to enjoy the festive season in more
comfortable surroundings.
Don't spend your money on a stamp and card - instead, buy a drink
and toast one of the cheekiest escapes in the long history of
republican wall jumpers. And spare a thought for those poor
screws who are still scratching their heads wondering how the
Maghera Houdini managed it.
My little piece last week about the `Tiocfaidh ár lá lá' T-shirt
has provoked the worst in our native tabloids. Dublin's Evening
Herald carried a report on Monday that we were advertising the
``ProvoTubby'' T-shirts for sale at £5 each. Scandalously cheap and
a complete lie, of course. The BBC's merchandising and licensing
department have raised the matter with trading standards officers
in Belfast and so the hunt is on for the elusive TeleChuckies.
I understand that David Ervine is taking a healthy interest in
republican history. He was spotted on a flight to London last
weekend reading Tim Pat Coogan's biography of Michael Collins.
Today a Sinn Féin delegation will be the first republican leaders
since Collins to visit a British Prime Minister in Downing
Street, so you can expect a weighty, learned soundbite from the
always entertaining Ervine.
It is amazing that newspapers will waste lots of money on
sometimes totally meaningless opinion polls. Take this headline
from Wednesday's Irish Times: `Poll finds most voters believe
Budget will favour those on high incomes'.
I think it's fair to say that the result came out that way
because the Budget did favour those on high incomes.
They're so predictable. In the week before Gerry Adams and a Sinn
Féin delegation meets Tony Blair at Downing Street, British
Intelligence (nowadays better known as the securocrats) went on a
media briefing frenzy. So we had BBC Spotlight last week claiming
that Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Martin Ferris are on the
IRA Army Council. And of course the rest of the media ran this
tired old story as headlines for a day or two.
Then on Wednesday of this week the Daily Telegraph tells us in a
front page headline: IRA `preparing to call off truce'. Quoting
``Intelligence officers in Northern Ireland'' they tell us that
``several RUC officers have been forced to move home after
intelligence warnings of planned attacks''.
You could nearly write their script yourself.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)