title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: Shortly after it was founded, the INLA/IRSP came under attack from their former comrades in the Official IRA, who wanted to destroy the new grouping before it could get off the ground. On 20 February 1975, Hugh Ferguson, an INLA member and an Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) branch chairperson, was the first person to be killed in the feud. One of the first military operations of the INLA was the shooting of OIRA leader Sean Garland in Dublin on 1 March. Although shot six times, he survived. After several more shootings (according to the RUC the feud had claimed two lives and wounded nineteen others up to this point) a truce was arranged, but fighting started again. The most prominent victim of the restarted feud was Billy McMillen, the commander of the OIRA in Belfast, shot by INLA member Gerard Steenson. His murder was unauthorised and was condemned by Costello. This was followed by several more assassinations on both sides, the most prominent victim being Seamus Costello, who was shot dead on the North Strand Road in Dublin on 5 October 1977. Costello's death was a severe blow to the INLA, as he was their most able political and military leader. The Official and Provisional IRAs both denied responsibility and Sinn Féin/The Workers' Party issued a statement condemning the killing. Members of an opposing INLA faction in Belfast also denied the killing. However, the INLA eventually deemed Official IRA member Jim Flynn the person responsible, and he was shot dead in June 1982 in the North Strand, Dublin, very close to the spot where Costello died.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: It has been claimed by some in the Republican Socialist Movement that one of their members killed in 1975, Brendan McNamee (who was involved in the killing of Billy McMillen), was actually killed by Provisional Irish Republican Army members. The Officials had denied involvement at the time of the killing and had instead blamed it on the Provisionals, who also denied involvement.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: The inter-republican violence had a negative effect on the growth of the fledgling IRSP; its first Ardfheis, scheduled for the end of March, had to be cancelled. Bernadette McAliskey and others left the IRSP in late 1975 after a dispute over a number of issues, most urgent being the question of whether the armed wing should be subordinate to the IRSP's political leadership. After her resignation McAliskey accused the IRSP of "being objectively indistinguishable from either wing of the republican movement and possibly combining the worst elements of both". At the end of its first year in existence the IRSP had not progressed as Costello had hoped; ten members of the Ard-Chomhairle had resigned, the organisation in Derry had lost many members, Belfast was at odds with the leadership, and recruitment overall had been hurt by the bloody feud with the Official IRA.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: In February 1976 a press statement was released by "Irish National Liberation Army, Department of General Headquarters" claiming that a new organisation had been created as a result of a merger between the "National Liberation Army" and "People's Liberation Army". Both were cover names for the INLA and this statement was an effort to hide the fact that INLA had been in existence for over a year at that point.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: Newspapers had already noted the emergence of the Irish National Liberation Army as the military wing of the IRSP by late 1975, although the IRSP would only admit that they had accepted "protection" from "armed groups" in their feud with the Official IRA.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: The INLA from its inception adopted a republican-paramilitary structure similar to the IRA. Under a chief of staff was an eight-man army council, the ultimate decision-making body of the organisation. All major operations were supposed to be sanctioned by the army council. Under the army council was "general headquarters staff" (GHQ). They acted as couriers, supplying INLA units with what they dubbed "gear" or "logistics" - weapons and explosives. In return GHQ received information on potential targets and proceeds from robberies. Next came the "brigades", which were generally much smaller than those of the Provisional IRA. The INLA didn't re-organise its brigades into smaller cells as the Provisional IRA did in the late-Seventies, which proved extremely damaging during the supergrass trials of the mid-Eighties. The INLA leadership later admitted that their failure to do this was a serious weakness, but argued to maintain recruitment and pursue its political ambitions it had to stay in touch with the "civilian" population. In January 1983 the INLA leadership said they hoped to implement a more cellular system throughout the year but it's unlikely this plan to came to fruition in the wake of damaging police penetration.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the INLA developed into a modest organisation in Northern Ireland, operating primarily from the Divis Flats in west Belfast, which, as a result, became colloquially known as "the planet of the Irps" (a reference to the IRSP and the film "Planet of the Apes"). They also had a large presence in Derry and the surrounding area, and all three of the INLA prisoners who died in the 1981 Irish hunger strike were from County Londonderry. Northern County Armagh reportedly had a significant INLA/IRSP presence also. In the Republic of Ireland the INLA/IRSP was primarily based in Dublin and Munster. From 1982 onwards the INLA also established units in Newry, Downpatrick and several rural border areas. The first member of the security forces to be killed by the INLA was an RUC officer, Noel Davis, killed on 24 May 1975 by a booby trap bomb left in a car in Ballinahone, near Maghera, County Londonderry. During this period, the INLA competed with the Provisional IRA for members, with both groups in conflict with the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The INLA leader in Belfast, Ronnie Bunting, called in claims of responsibility to the media by the code name "Captain Green".


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: The first action to bring the INLA to international notice was its assassination on 30 March 1979 of Airey Neave, the British Conservative Party's spokesman on Northern Ireland and one of Margaret Thatcher's closest political supporters. Through the 1970s Neave, an influential Tory Member of the House of Commons, had been advocating within British political circles for an abandonment of the British Government's strategy of a containment of Irish paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland against the British State, and for the adoption of strategy of waging a military offensive against it seeking its martial defeat. This brought him to the attention of both the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the INLA as a potential threat to their organisations and activities. A political source in Westminster hostile to Neave's statements on the security situation in Northern Ireland is believed to have passed on information to the INLA which gave it the means to carry out the assassination attack upon him within the precincts of the Palace of Westminster. The information it had received gave it a means of access to the House of Commons' car park, and INLA decided to use a bomb with a mercury-tilt switch detonator which would explode when the device was at a certain acute angle on the House of Commons' car park ramp, as it lacked information on Neave's movements with the car to allow the effective use of a time bomb device. The INLA issued a statement regarding the attack in the August 1979 edition of its publication "The Starry Plough":


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: The attention the INLA received following the death of Airey Neave led to it being declared an illegal organisation in Britain and Northern Ireland. However, despite the "success" of 30 March action the INLA was facing internal turmoil. IRSP chairperson Miriam Daly threatened to resign over policy disagreements and perceived failings of the IRSP to raise funds, run in elections, and enact policy. Senior IRSP member Michael Plunkett was arrested after Gardai found bomb-making equipment in his flat in Dublin and later jumped bail and fled to Paris. A series of botched Middle East arms importations attempts precipitated tensions between Belfast and Dublin representatives to the INLA GHQ and Dessie Grew considered assassinating the leader of the Belfast faction opposed to the INLA chief of staff. Before the conflict broke out there were attempts to recruit veteran Provisional IRA leader Seán Mac Stíofáin as INLA chief of staff in the hope he would help stabilise the organisation. He was interested and met with INLA Army Council representatives on several occasions between 1978 and 1979 but nothing materialised. The unauthorised kidnapping of a Dublin bank manager from his home in January 1980 led to further internal anger and an operation in England was planned to demonstrate that the INLA was still capable of carrying on its war. An INLA Active service unit planted two 10 lb bombs at Netheravon British Army camp in Salisbury Plain. Although only one bomb detonated & caused damage starting a fire, injuring two soldiers, this action helped bind the organisation together.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: The INLA lost another of its founding leadership in 1980, when Ronnie Bunting was assassinated at his home. Noel Little, another Protestant member of the INLA, was killed in the same incident. The Ulster Defence Association, an Ulster loyalist paramilitary, claimed responsibility for both killings. Another leading INLA member, Miriam Daly, was killed by loyalist assassins in the same year. Although no group claimed responsibility, the INLA claimed that the Special Air Service (SAS) was involved in the killings of Bunting and Little.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: IRA and INLA prisoners convicted after March 1976 did not have Special Category Status applied in prison. Defending paramilitary prisoners right to special category status i.e. political status was an issue the IRSP and INLA advocated for from the outset, both within the prisons and on outside, when others, including the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin, seemed reluctant to do so. This could be partly attributed to IRSP/INLA prisoners being immediately forced into confrontation with prison staff as soon as the movement was formed. Because IRSP prisoners were not members of the Official IRA or Provisional IRA they were denied political status while it was still granted and in summer 1975 twenty IRSP prisoners went on hunger strike for the right to wear their own clothes, to associates freely, refuse to do prison work, and to elect their own spokesmen. These would later become the core of the five demands of the H-Block protest and 1981 hunger strike was fought. As the 1 March 1976 deadline for the removal of special category status approached the Northern Ireland Office met with a council of representing all paramilitary organisations, loyalist and republican, inside Long Kesh prison. The British offered concessions in return for the removal of special category status. Only the IRSP would go on to flatly refuse the offer. On 14 November the first IRSP/INLA prisoner, James Connolly Brady of Derry, joined the blanket protest. Both the INLA and IRA attacked prison staff outside the prison. However unlike Sinn Féin, the IRSP engaged in popular agitation on the streets in Dublin, Belfast, Cork, and elsewhere. Behind the public rhetoric there was deep concern within the IRSP about the commitment of the IRA/Sinn Féin to the H-Block protest; Sinn Féin had voted at its Ard Chomhairle to prohibit cooperation with the IRSP in protest activities in the South and in June 1978 Sinn Féin protests stopped as it emerged the IRA were in secret negotiations with mediators. According to Holland and McDonald, "as conditions inside the H-Blocks deteriorated, so did relations between the IRSP and the Provisionals." The Sinn Féin Ard-Chomhairle put out a directive in September 1978 banning any IRSP speaker from sharing a Provisional speaker, and at a meeting held in Liberty Hall to discuss the prison crisis all the Provisionals walked out when Mick Plunkett stood up to speak. The IRA regarded the prisons campaign as a distraction the armed struggle and were reluctant to get too involved in any protest movement they couldn't control. However, hunger strike publicity events in continental Europe received an enthusiastic reception.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: On 27 October 1980, republican prisoners in HM Prison Maze began a hunger strike. One hundred and forty-eight prisoners volunteered to be part of the strike, but a total of seven were selected to match the number of men who signed the Easter 1916 Proclamation of the Republic. The group consisted of IRA members Brendan Hughes, Tommy McKearney, Raymond McCartney, Tom McFeeley, Sean McKenna, Leo Green, and INLA member John Nixon. This hunger strike ended a week before Christmas. In January 1981, it became clear that the prisoners' demands had not been conceded. Prison authorities began to supply the prisoners with officially issued civilian clothing, whereas the prisoners demanded the right to wear their own clothing. In addition the militancy of INLA blanket men, who were refusing to withdraw from the protest, was causing problems. On 27 January INLA prisoners rioted because the INLA Officer Commanding Patsy O'Hara was not permitted by the authorities to see his own men. The stage was set for another confrontation and in March the 1981 Irish hunger strike began. Three INLA members died during the latter hunger strike – Patsy O'Hara, Kevin Lynch, and Michael Devine, along with seven Provisional IRA members. The hunger strike leader Bobby Sands and Anti H-Block activist Owen Carron were elected to the British Parliament, and two other protesting prisoners were elected to the Dáil. In addition, there were work stoppages and large demonstrations all over Ireland in sympathy with the hunger strikers. It was reported the turnout for Patsy O'Hara's funeral was equal to that of Bloody Sunday. There was a bitter clash over the IRSP's share of money raised in an American fund-raising tour undertaken by three of the hunger-strikers' relatives, Liz O'Hara, Malachy McCreesh, and Seán Sands. The tour had been organised by Noraid, the Provisional IRA's support group in the United States. Noraid had objected to O'Hara being on the tour because her brother Patsy was a "communist" and would sully the image republicans had in the United States. However, the other relatives refused to go unless she accompanied them. There were disputes over the exact amount of money raised but the only certainty is INLA prisoners received none of it. IRSP member Seán Flynn travelled to New York where he met Martin Galvin a leading Noraid spokesman. The meeting devolved into a shouting match with Martin denouncing Flynn as a communist and having him thrown out of the house. Flynn toured the United States as representative of the H-Block committee but Noraid was told to stay away from any meeting he was speaking at. A wealthy Noraid supporter who did attend a meeting was so disgusted by Flynn's sympathy for Native Americans and African-Americans that he tore up a previously promised cheque for $10,000. He allegedly told Flynn "I don't like niggers".


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: The INLA unit who operated in the Lower Falls area of Belfast, led by Gerard Steenson, were particularly active at this time. However the Belfast INLA was increasingly at odds with the Dublin leadership for personal and political reasons. By the beginning of 1982 this faction had shot and wounded the INLA's northern organiser Jackie Goodman, IRSP Belfast city councillor Sean Flynn and Flynn's brother Harry Flynn, hiding out in Dublin after escaping from the Maze prison in 1976. Steenson's faction claimed they were the true INLA. In response the old Dublin INLA leadership declared they be shot on sight.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: In summer 1982 in a "rare moment of tactical expediency" what was left of the INLA's Belfast leadership, a group with close contacts with the Lower Falls gang, patched up their differences with the old INLA leadership and agreed on the composition of a new army council, chief of staff and Belfast commander. In early 1982 IRA veteran Dominic McGlinchey was released from Portlaoise Prison having served five years. McGlinchey had defected to the INLA in prison and after he was freed quickly rose up the ranks to become director of operations. He made an immediate impact, ruthlessly putting an end to dissent within the organisation and recruiting new members. His release coincided with the theft of of Frangex commercial explosives from the Tara mines in County Tipperary, enabling the organisation to carry out an "intensive" bombing campaign. Throughout 1982 the INLA stepped up its attacks on Unionist leaders with a swathe of bomb attacks on their homes and offices. Attacks against British security forces continued also, but a number of operations killed Catholic children, with three dying in Belfast as a result of INLA explosions in a five-month period. These were propaganda disasters for the INLA, and, say authors Holland and McDonald, "gave the INLA a reputation for recklessness". Other offensive INLA actions at this time included the bombing of the Mount Gabriel radar station in County Cork, which the INLA believed was providing assistance to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in violation of Irish neutrality, although this was disputed by the Irish government. Their deadliest attack came on 6 December 1982 – the Ballykelly disco bombing of the Droppin' Well Bar in Ballykelly, County Londonderry, which catered to British military personnel, in which 11 soldiers on leave and 6 civilians were killed. Shortly afterwards, the INLA issued a statement of responsibility:


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: We believe that it is only attacks of such a nature that bring it home to people in Britain and the British establishment. The shooting of an individual soldier, for the people of Britain, has very little effect in terms of the media or in terms of the British administration.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: On 20 November 1983, three members of the congregation in the Mountain Lodge Pentecostal Church, Darkley, (near Keady, County Armagh) were shot dead during a Sunday service. The attack was claimed by the Catholic Reaction Force, a cover name for a small group of people, including one member of the INLA. The weapon used came from an INLA arms dump, but Tim Pat Coogan claims in his book "The IRA" that the weapon had been given to the INLA member to assassinate a known loyalist and the attack on the church was not sanctioned. The INLA's then-chief of staff, Dominic McGlinchey, came out of hiding to condemn the attack.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: On 17 March 1984, Dominic McGlinchey and three other INLA members were surrounded by armed Garda detectives at a safehouse in Newmarket on Fergus safehouse, County Clare. Over one hundred bullets were exchanged in a shootout before Gardai of the Special Branch task force made their way into the farmhouse, subsequently causing McGlinchey to call for a priest in surrender. On going into jail McGlinchey handed over his position as Chief of Staff to a Newry ally; the INLA Army Council was not consulted on this decision.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: In the mid-1980s, the INLA was greatly weakened by splits and criminality within its own ranks, as well as the conviction of many of its members under the supergrass scheme. Harry Kirkpatrick, an INLA volunteer, was arrested in February 1983 on charges of five murders and subsequently agreed to give evidence against other INLA members.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: The INLA kidnapped Kirkpatrick's wife Elizabeth, and later kidnapped his sister and his stepfather too. All were released physically unharmed. INLA Chief of Staff Dominic McGlinchey is alleged to have killed Kirkpatrick's lifelong friend Gerard 'Sparky' Barkley because he may have revealed the whereabouts of the Kirkpatrick family members to the police.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: In May 1983, ten men were charged with various offences on the basis of evidence from Kirkpatrick. Those charged included IRSP vice-chairman Kevin McQuillan and former councillor Sean Flynn. IRSP chairman and INLA member James Brown was charged with the murder of a police officer. Others escaped; Jim Barr, an IRSP member named by Kirkpatrick as part of the INLA, fled to the US where, having spent 17 months in jail, he won political asylum in 1993.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: In December 1985, 27 people were convicted on the basis of Kirkpatrick's statements. By December 1986, 24 of those convictions had been overturned. Gerard Steenson was given five life sentences for the deaths of the same five people that Kirkpatrick himself had been convicted of, these included Ulster Defence Regiment soldier Colin Quinn, shot in Belfast in December 1980.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: Holland and McDonald argue the "frenzy of activity generated under the rule of Dominic McGlinchey" had "masked the seriousness of the situation facing the IRSP and INLA. By 1984 the movement had "degenerated into a loosely knit group of often mutually suspicious fiefdoms." The IRSP took a more rigidly Marxist/Leninist line than that ever previously adopted by the movement in an attempt to delineate the IRSP/INLA more clearly from the Sinn Féin and the Provisional IRA. The adoption of this rigid line meant the effective abandonment of the broad front strategy as initially conceived by Seamus Costello. Widespread criminality and ruthless racketeering by the INLA in Belfast after the imprisonment of key activists following the supergrass trials brought the movement into further disrepute and the INLA leadership moved against the new Officer Commanding (OC) of the Belfast INLA. The INLA carried out a number of bomb attacks in 1985 but the INLA was more concerned with the internal battle for control of the disintegrating organisation. John O'Reilly, former OC of the Markets area of Belfast, emerged as the winner and usurped the Dundalk man McGlinchey had appointed to become chief of staff. John O'Reilly was regarded with suspicion by some within the INLA, he was dismissed from the organisation by Ronnie Bunting in the late 1970s after an internal inquiry into allegations of O'Reilly being a police informant.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: In jail the INLA began to break up in warring factions. By late 1984 they could be divided into three broad groupings; one centred around Gerard Steenson, a second who opposed him, and a third that associated with Tom McAllister. Steenson's men, who included Jimmy Brown, were angry and disillusioned at the way the INLA had developed since their arrest. Incidents such as the Darkley killings and the police penetration and corruption in Belfast convinced them that the INLA was beyond reform. Those opposed to Steenson were the de facto INLA leadership including Ta Power and John O'Reilly. Their priority was to preserve the INLA as an organisation. McAllister at first leaned towards O'Reilly but later veered towards those opposed to him.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: O'Reilly saw the remnants of the original INLA organisation based in Dublin and Munster as a threat to his legitimacy as chief of staff. Harry Flynn and Gerry Roche were released from Portlaoise Prison in 1984 and set about trying to reconstruct the organisation founded by Costello. Gerry Roche won agreement by a very narrow majority, on the Ard Comhairle of the lRSP to publish a newspaper. He wanted to call the paper "The Broad Front" and although permission wasn't granted he went ahead anyway, calling the paper "Freedom Struggle". In the editorial in the first and only issue, Flynn made reference to the tradition of Connolly, Mellowes and Costello but no mention was made of Marx, Engels or Lenin; this was viewed as a reflection of his disagreement with the new Marxist/Leninist line. In response, the O'Reilly faction tried to assassinate both Flynn and Roche. The old arms links were re-activated by the Dublin-Munster grouping as part of an effort to either create a new republican socialist movement or reform the existing INLA; between 1984 and late 1986 they held meetings with Al-Fatah and other Arab sympathisers in Prague, East Berlin, Warsaw, and Tunisia. In 1984 guns started coming into Ireland against in modest amounts; Škorpion machine pistols, VZOR pistols, and grenades were smuggled, as well some "remotes" for bomb detonators. Seamus Ruddy from Newry joined the INLA in Dublin in the 1970s. He was arrested in 1978 for smuggling arms but was acquitted. After dissension among local members, Ruddy drifted away from the main organisation and in 1983 went to Paris where he taught English. He disappeared in late May 1985, after a meeting with three leading members of the INLA, one of them being John O'Reilly. The three were searching for arms and believed that Ruddy knew where they could be found. At the time, the INLA denied that it was involved with his disappearance and resisted pressure from the Ruddy family to help it locate his whereabouts. In late 1993, a former high-ranking member of the INLA, Peter Stewart, finally admitted that the INLA had killed Ruddy in Paris. Ruddy's remains were found there in 2017.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: In 1987, the INLA and its political wing, the IRSP came under attack from the Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO), an organisation founded by disaffected INLA members centred around Tom McAllister, Gerard Steenson, Jimmy Brown and Martin "Rook" O'Prey who had resigned or been expelled from the INLA. The IPLO's initial aim was to destroy the INLA and replace it with their organisation. Five members of the INLA were killed by the IPLO, including leaders Ta Power and John O'Reilly. The INLA retaliated with several killings of their own. After the INLA killed the IPLO's leader, Gerard Steenson in 1987, a truce was reached. Although severely damaged by the IPLO's attacks, the INLA continued to exist. The IPLO, which was heavily involved in drug dealing, was forcibly disbanded by the Provisional IRA in a large scale operation in 1992.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: Directly after the feud in October 1987, the INLA received more damaging publicity when Dessie O'Hare, an erstwhile INLA volunteer, set up his own group called the "Irish Revolutionary Brigade" and kidnapped a Dublin dentist named John O'Grady. O'Hare cut off two of O'Grady's fingers and sent them to his family in order to secure a ransom. O'Grady was eventually rescued and O'Hare's group arrested after several shootouts with armed Gardaí. The INLA disassociated itself from the action, issuing a statement saying O'Hare "is not a member of the INLA". O'Hare later rejoined the INLA while in prison.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: On 14 April 1992, the INLA carried out its first killing in England after the death of Airey Neave, when they shot dead a recruiting army sergeant in Derby while he was leaving a British Army recruiting office. In June 2010, Declan Duffy was charged with the killing, although he was released in March 2013, under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: Dominic McGlinchey was killed in 1994 by unknown assailants after being released from prison the previous year.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: On 16 June 1994 the INLA's Belfast Brigade shot dead three members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF); high-ranking UVF Belfast Brigade figure Trevor King and two other UVF members, on the Shankill Road in west Belfast, close to the Belfast headquarters of the UVF.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: In 1995, four members of the INLA, including chief of staff Hugh Torney, were arrested by Gardaí in Balbriggan while trying to smuggle weapons from Dublin to Belfast. Torney, with the support of two of his co-accused, called a ceasefire in exchange for favourable treatment by the Irish Government. Since Torney, who was chief of staff, under the INLA's rules lacked the authority to call a ceasefire (because he was incarcerated), he and the two men who supported him were expelled from the INLA.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: Torney and one of those men, Dessie McCleery, as well as founder-member John Fennell, did not wish to surrender the leadership of the organisation. Their faction, known as the INLA/GHQ, assassinated the new INLA chief of staff, Gino Gallagher. After the INLA killed both McCleery and Torney in 1996, the rest of Torney's faction quietly disbanded.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: INLA gunmen opened fire on British soldiers in the Ardoyne area of North Belfast on 7 July 1997, when the Drumcree conflict triggered six days of fierce riots and widespread violence in several nationalist areas of Northern Ireland.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: Billy Wright was the founder and leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF). Since July 1996, the group had launched a string of attacks on Catholic civilians, killing at least five. In April 1997, Wright was sentenced to eight years in the Maze Prison. On the morning of 27 December 1997, he was assassinated by three INLA prisoners – Christopher "Crip" McWilliams, John "Sonny" Glennon and John Kennaway – who were armed with two pistols. He was shot as he travelled in a prison van (alongside another LVF prisoner, Norman Green and one prison officer) from one part of the prison to another. Kennaway held the driver hostage and Glennon gave cover with a .22 Derringer pistol while McWilliams opened the side door and fired seven shots at Wright with his PA63 semi-automatic. After killing Wright, the three volunteers handed themselves over to prison guards. They also handed over a statement, which read:


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: That night, LVF gunmen opened fire on a disco in a mainly nationalist area of Dungannon. Four civilians were wounded and a former Provisional IRA volunteer was killed in the attack.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: The nature of Wright's killing led to speculation that prison authorities colluded with the INLA to have him killed, as he was a danger to the peace process. The INLA strongly denied these rumours, and published a detailed account of the assassination in the March/April 1999 issue of "The Starry Plough" newspaper.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: The INLA opposed the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and continued to carry out attacks during the talks process that preceded the agreement and the confirmatory referendum that followed. The INLA claimed responsibility for a car bomb which exploded on 24 June in the Armagh border village of Newtownhamilton. The bombing was interpreted as a "protest attack" as it happened the day before the election for the new Northern Ireland Assembly that took place on 25 June 1998. The RUC believed the Real IRA supplied the INLA with semtex commercial explosive which was thought to have been used as a component in making the bomb. INLA members assisted the bombing campaign being carried out by the dissident republican groups the Continuity Irish Republican Army (CIRA) and Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA) by providing stolen cars that could be transformed into car bombs. On 15 August 1998 the RIRA exploded a car bomb in the centre of Omagh, County Tyrone killing 29 people and injuring 220 others, in what became the deadliest attack of the Troubles inside Northern Ireland.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: The INLA declared a ceasefire on 22 August 1998. When calling its ceasefire, the INLA acknowledged the "faults and grievous errors in our prosecution of the war". The INLA admitted that innocent people had been killed and injured "and at times our actions as a liberation army fell far short of what they should have been". The INLA went on to accept the large vote in favour of the Good Friday Agreement – which it had opposed during the 1998 referendums – by the people of both parts of Ireland. It said "The will of the Irish people is clear. It is now time to silence the guns and allow the working classes the time and the opportunity to advance their demands and their needs."


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: Although the INLA does not support the Good Friday Agreement, it does not call for a return to armed struggle on behalf of republicans either. An INLA statement released in 1999 declared, "we do not see a return to armed struggle as a viable option at the present time".


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: The INLA maintains a presence in parts of Northern Ireland and has carried out punishment beatings on alleged petty criminals.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: The Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), which monitored paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland, stated in a November 2004 report that the INLA was heavily involved in criminality. In 1997, an INLA man named John Morris was shot dead by Garda Síochána (the Republic's police force) in Dublin during the attempted robbery of a newspaper distributor's depot in Inchicore. Three other INLA members were arrested in the incident. In 1999, the INLA in Dublin became involved in a feud with a criminal gang in the city. After a young INLA man named Patrick Campbell was killed by drug dealers, the INLA carried out several shootings in reprisal, including at least one killing. Journalist Paul Williams has also stated the INLA, especially in Dublin, is now primarily a front for organised crime. The IRSP and INLA deny these allegations, arguing that no one has been simultaneously convicted of membership in the INLA and of drug offences. The IRSP and the INLA have both strongly denied any involvement with drug dealing, stating that the INLA has threatened criminals which it stated have falsely used its name.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: The October 2006 IMC report stated that the INLA "was not capable of undertaking a sustained campaign [against the United Kingdom], nor does it aspire to".


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: In December 2007, disturbances broke out at an INLA parade in the Bogside in Derry between spectators and Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers attempting to arrest four of the marchers.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: In the Seventeenth and Eighteenth IMC reports the INLA was said to remain a threat, with a desire to mount attacks that could well be more dangerous in the future, but was characterized as being largely a criminal enterprise at that time. The INLA killed Brian McGlynn on 3 June 2007 during the span of the first of these reports. This killing was said to have occurred because the victim used the INLA name in the drug trade. On 24 June 2008, the INLA was said to have committed the murder of Emmett Shiels, although the IMC report did indicate the investigation was continuing.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: It was also said to be partaking in "serious crimes" such as drug dealing, extortion, robbery, fuel laundering and smuggling. Furthermore, the INLA and Continuity IRA were stated to have co-operated.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: On 15 February 2009 the INLA claimed responsibility for the shooting death of Derry drug dealer Jim McConnell.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: In March 2009 it was reported that the INLA had stood down its Dublin Brigade in order to allow its army council to carry out an internal investigation into allegations of drug dealing and criminality. The INLA denied it as an organisation was involved in drug dealing and went on to say that "As a result of evidence presented to us, we are investigating the activities of people associated with us in [Dublin]. Pending that outcome, we have stood down several people." A short time later the INLA's Dublin Commander, Declan "Whacker" Duffy, publicly disassociated himself from the organisation. Duffy criticized the INLA leadership stating that "You would imagine if there was a thorough investigation being carried out by the INLA they would have at least came and spoke to me." He went on to state that: "I can't deny that I'm disappointed with the way the INLA has handled things but at the same time I'm not going to get into a sniping match with them."


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: On 19 August 2009 the INLA shot and wounded a man in Derry. The INLA claimed that the man was involved in drug dealing although the injured man and his family denied the allegation. However, in a newspaper article on 28 August the victim retracted his previous statement and admitted that he had been involved in small scale drug dealing but has since ceased these activities.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: In October 2015 the Assessment on Paramilitary Groups in Northern Ireland, commissioned by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on the structure, role and purpose of paramilitary organisations reported the structures of the INLA remain in existence but there is little indication of centralised control from the leadership. Some members are active in politics through the IRSP however INLA members are "heavily involved" in criminal activity including extortion, drug dealing, distribution of stolen goods, and fraud. The INLA also continues to carry out punishment attacks. Although the INLA's leadership recognises the futility of a return to armed struggle, there is cooperation between INLA members and dissident republicans, including provision of weaponry and "paramilitary-style assaults."


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: On 11 October 2009, speaking at the graveside of its founder Seamus Costello in Bray, the INLA formally announced an end to its armed campaign, stating the current political framework allowed for the pursuit of its goals through peaceful, democratic means. Martin McMonagle from Derry said: "The Republican Socialist Movement has been informed by the INLA that following a process of serious debate ... it has concluded that the armed struggle is over. The objective of a 32-county socialist republic will be best achieved through exclusively peaceful political struggle".


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: The governments of Britain and Ireland were informed before the announcement. Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams was doubtful but added: "However, if it is followed by the actions that are necessary, this is a welcome development". On 6 February 2010, days before the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) was due to disband, the INLA revealed that it had decommissioned its weapons over the preceding few weeks. Had the INLA retained its weapons beyond 9 February, the date on which the legislation under which the IICD operated ended, then they would have been treated as belonging to common criminals rather than remnants from the Troubles.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: The decommissioning was confirmed by General John de Chastelain of the IICD on 8 February 2010. On the same day INLA spokesman Martin McMonagle said that the INLA made "no apology for [its] part in the conflict" but they believed in the "primacy of politics" to "advance the working class struggle in Ireland".


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: Obtaining arms was one of the greatest difficulties faced by the INLA in its early years. Their avowed Marxism made them beyond help from Catholic Irish-America, who had traditionally been a lifeline for funds and weapons for Irish republicans engaged in armed struggle. Lack of weapons in the mid-Seventies led to numerous internal rows, and Costello himself was even threatened by INLA members for his failure to provide guns. At a time when the IRA seemed replete with Armalites, the INLA was mainly armed with shotguns, which the rank and file wryly took to calling "Costello-ites" after their leader. The INLA's main source of arms early on was from sympathizers in the Middle East, from where they imported a contingent of AK-pattern rifles in 1978. An arms smuggling network was later established where guns would be channelled from a Palestinian source based in Lebanon via West Germany (and later Switzerland) to a left-wing sympathiser in France and then to Ireland. The first shipment arrived in July 1979 consisting of six FN pistols, 35 automatic pistols, and 4 Uzi submachine-guns. In later years Palestinian sources would provide the INLA with hundreds of Czechoslovak VZOR pistols as well as Chinese-made SKS rifles, Rhodesian submachine-guns and Browning pistols. The INLA also acquired Škorpion machine pistols from Fatah free of charge. The INLA also acquired Soviet-made plastic explosives, which was used in the assassination of Airey Neave. Later smaller-scale arms smuggling was carried out through a new conduit linked to the French far-left terrorist group Action directe. This new network was established by the INLA faction loyal to Gerard Steenson, the original Middle East arms route remained in the hands of the older Dublin-based leadership. In July 1983 INLA member Colm Murphy was arrested in the US after attempting to buy a consignment of M60 machine guns to be shipped to Ireland.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: By the mid-1980s, separate INLA factions were trying to acquire arms. The old arms links were re-activated by remnants of the original INLA organisation based in Dublin and Munster as part of an effort to either create a new republican socialist movement or reform the existing INLA. Between 1984 and late 1986 they held meetings with Fatah and other Arab sympathisers in Prague, East Berlin, Warsaw, and Tunisia. In 1984, modest amount of arms started flowing into Ireland again, including, Škorpion machine pistols and VZOR pistols; grenades were smuggled as well, as were remotes for bomb detonators. The 1986 United States bombing of Libya generated an anti-Western mood in the Arab world that led to a breakthrough for INLA arms procurement efforts. A large arms haul was secured through a Palestine Liberation Organization contact in Prague which included a hundred man-portable anti-tank weapons, forty AK-47 rifles, three 12.7mm heavy machine guns, and two 80mm mortars. However four INLA members (amongst them Harry Flynn) were arrested in France as they prepared to receive the shipment. The judge at their trial was sympathetic and recognised they were acting on political motives. By 1988 though the weapons were still available for import neither the INLA nor the IPLO splinter group had the means to do so.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: Between 1977 and 1983 the INLA received weaponry from a sympathiser in Australia. The network had been activated by Seamus Costello and the shipments consisted of shipments of rifles of several types; Ruger Mini-14s, a Springfield Armory M1A, M1 Garands, Egyptian Mauser rifles, and SKS rifles. In late 1983, however, the Australian network was exposed after Gardaí found Seamus Ruddy in possession of a document that led to the discovery of the fourth (and last) Australian guns shipment which contained five M14-type rifles, one M1 Garand, three Mini-14's, an SKS, and over 1,700 rounds of ammunition. An Irish immigrant who had lived in Australia since 1968 and had become an Australian citizen in 1973 was arrested and convicted of arms running in 1984.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: According to Malcolm Sutton's "Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland", part of the Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN), the INLA was responsible for at least 120 killings during the Troubles, between 1975 and 2001. This includes those claimed by the "People's Liberation Army" and "People's Republican Army". According to the book "Lost Lives" (2006 edition), the INLA was responsible for 127 killings.


title: Irish National Liberation Army

text: The CAIN database says there were 39 INLA members killed during the conflict, while "Lost Lives" says there were 44 killed.


title: Christian VII of Denmark

text: Christian VII (29 January 1749 – 13 March 1808) was a monarch of the House of Oldenburg who was King of Denmark–Norway and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein from 1766 until his death in 1808. For his motto he chose: ""Gloria ex amore patriae"" ("Glory through love of the fatherland").


title: Christian VII of Denmark

text: Christian VII's reign was marked by mental illness and for most of his reign, Christian was only nominally king. His royal advisers changed depending on who won power struggles around the throne. From 1770 to 1772, his court physician Johann Friedrich Struensee was the "de facto" ruler of the country and introduced progressive reforms signed into law by Christian VII. Struensee was deposed by a coup in 1772, after which the country was ruled by Christian's stepmother, Juliane Marie of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, his half-brother Frederick, and the Danish politician Ove Høegh-Guldberg. From 1784 until Christian VII's death in 1808, Christian's son, later Frederick VI, acted as unofficial regent.


title: Christian VII of Denmark

text: Christian was the son of King Frederick V and his first wife Louise of Great Britain. He was born in the Queen's Bedchamber at Christiansborg Palace, the royal residence in Copenhagen. He was baptized a few hours later the same day. His godparents were King Frederick V (his father), Queen Dowager Sophie Magdalene (his paternal grandmother), Princess Louise (his aunt) and Princess Charlotte Amalie (his grand-aunt).


title: Christian VII of Denmark

text: A former heir to the throne, also named Christian, had died in infancy in 1747, and he was thus crown prince from birth; therefore, hopes were high for the future of the new heir apparent. Christoph Willibald Gluck, then conductor of the royal opera troupe, composed the opera "La Contesa dei Numi" ("The Contention of the Gods"), in which the Olympian Gods gather at the banks of the Great Belt and discuss who in particular should protect the new prince.


title: Christian VII of Denmark

text: At birth, Christian had two elder sisters, Princess Sophia Magdalena and Princess Wilhelmina Caroline, and the family was joined by another daughter, Princess Louise in 1750. In 1751, almost three years after Christian's birth, his mother Queen Louise died during her sixth pregnancy, just aged 27 years. The following year, his father married Duchess Juliana Maria of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, who gave birth to Christian's half-brother, Prince Frederick in 1753.


title: Christian VII of Denmark

text: After the early death of his mother, the prince was largely denied parental affection. His stepmother Queen Juliane Marie showed no interest in him, preferring her biological son Prince Frederick. Prone to debauchery and increasingly affected by alcoholism, the father himself became increasingly indifferent to the shy, sensitive child, who was also prone to epileptic seizures. Nonetheless, early historians state that Christian had a winning personality and considerable talent, but that he was poorly educated and systematically terrorized, and even flogged, by a brutal tutor, Christian Ditlev Frederik Reventlow, the Count of Reventlow. He seems to have been intelligent and had periods of clarity, but had severe emotional problems, possibly schizophrenia, as argued by Doctor Viggo Christiansen in "Christian VII's mental illness" (1906).


title: Christian VII of Denmark

text: After a long period of infirmity, Frederick V died on 14 January 1766, just 42 years old. At the death of his father, Christian immediately ascended the thrones of Denmark and Norway as their sixth absolute monarch, a few weeks before his 17th birthday. Later the same day, Christian was proclaimed king from the balcony of Christiansborg Palace. Christian's reign was marked by mental illness which affected government decisions, and for most of his reign, Christian was only nominally king. His court physicians were especially worried by his frequent masturbation. His royal advisers changed depending on who won power struggles around the throne.


title: Christian VII of Denmark

text: Later the same year, the young king married his first cousin, the just 15-year-old Princess Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, in a dynastic marriage. They had been betrothed already in 1765. Her brother, King George III of Great Britain, was anxious about the marriage but not aware that the bridegroom was mentally ill. They were married in a proxy wedding ceremony on 1 October 1766 in the Chapel Royal of St James's Palace in London, with the Princess's brother, Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany, acting as the representative of the groom. After her arrival in Copenhagen, another wedding ceremony took place on 8 November 1766 in the royal chapel at Christiansborg Palace. Marriage celebrations and balls lasted for another month. On 1 May 1767, Christian VII and Caroline Matilda were crowned King and Queen of Denmark and Norway in the royal chapel of Christiansborg Palace.


title: Christian VII of Denmark

text: After his marriage, he abandoned himself to the worst excesses, especially sexual promiscuity. In 1767, he entered into a relationship with the courtesan Støvlet-Cathrine. He ultimately sank into a condition of mental stupor. Symptoms during this time included paranoia, self-mutilation, and hallucinations.


title: Christian VII of Denmark

text: The progressive and radical thinker Johann Friedrich Struensee, Christian's personal physician, became his advisor and rose steadily in power in the late 1760s to "de facto" regent of the country, where he introduced widespread progressive reforms. Struensee was a protégé of an Enlightenment circle of aristocrats that had been rejected by the court in Copenhagen. He was a skilled doctor, and having somewhat restored the king's health while visiting the Schleswig-Holstein area, he gained the king's affection. He was retained as travelling physician ("Livmedikus hos Kong Christian VII") on 5 April 1768, and accompanied the entourage on the king's foreign tour to Paris and London via Hannover from 6 May 1768 to 12 January 1769. He was given the title of State Councilor ("etatsråd") on 12 May 1768, barely a week after leaving Altona. The neglected and lonely Caroline Matilda entered into an affair with Struensee.


title: Christian VII of Denmark

text: From 1770 to 1772, Struensee was "de facto" regent of the country, and introduced progressive reforms signed into law by Christian VII. Struensee was deposed by a coup in 1772 after which the country was ruled by Christian's stepmother, Juliane Marie of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, his half-brother Frederick, and the Danish politician Ove Høegh-Guldberg.


title: Christian VII of Denmark

text: The king divorced Caroline Matilda in 1772 after they had produced two children: the future King Frederick VI and Princess Louise Auguste. Struensee, who had enacted many modernising and emancipating reforms, was arrested and executed the same year. Christian signed Struensee's arrest and execution warrant under pressure from his stepmother, Queen Juliana Maria, who had led the movement to have the marriage ended. Caroline Matilda, retaining her title but not her children, eventually left Denmark and passed her remaining days in exile at Celle Castle in her brother's German territory, the Electorate of Hanover. She died there of scarlet fever on 10 May 1775 at the age of 23.


title: Christian VII of Denmark

text: Christian was only nominally king from 1772 onward. Between 1772 and 1784, Denmark-Norway was ruled by his stepmother, the Queen Dowager Juliane Marie, his half-brother Frederick, and the Danish politician Ove Høegh-Guldberg. From 1784, his son Frederick VI ruled permanently as prince regent. This regency was marked by liberal, judicial, and agricultural reforms, but also by disasters of the Theatre War, French Revolutionary Wars, and the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars, also at the same time the Norwegian separatist movement was on the rise.


title: Christian VII of Denmark

text: Christian died at age 59 of a stroke on 13 March 1808 in Rendsburg, Schleswig. Although there were rumours that the stroke was caused by fright at the sight of Spanish auxiliary troops which he took to be hostile. Ulrik Langen, in his biography of the king, did not indicate that there was any external cause. He was buried in Roskilde Cathedral and was succeeded by his son Frederick VI.


title: Christian VII of Denmark

text: In 1769, Christian VII of Denmark invited the Hungarian astronomer Miksa Hell (Maximilian Hell) to Vardø. Hell observed the transit of Venus, and his calculations gave the most precise calculation of the Earth–Sun distance to that date (approx. 151 million kilometres). Hell's companion János Sajnovics explored the affinity among the languages of the Sami, Finnish, and Hungarian peoples (all members of the Finno-Ugric language family).


title: Christian VII of Denmark

text: Christian VII, the story of his marriage, and his wife's affair with Struensee has featured in many artistic works:


title: Drambuie

text: Drambuie is a golden-coloured, 40% ABV liqueur made from Scotch whisky, heather honey, herbs and spices. The brand was owned by the MacKinnon family for 100 years, and was bought by William Grant & Sons in 2014.


title: Drambuie

text: The name "Drambuie" possibly derives from the Scottish Gaelic phrase "an dram buidheach", "the drink that satisfies", a claim made by the original manufacturers of the drink.


title: Drambuie

text: After the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Prince Charles Edward Stuart fled to the isle of Skye. There he was given sanctuary by Captain John MacKinnon of Clan MacKinnon. According to family legend, after staying with the captain, the prince rewarded him with this prized drink recipe. This version of events is disputed by historians who believe it to be a story concocted to boost sales of the drink.


title: Drambuie

text: The legend holds that the recipe, which at that time had no known name, was given by Clan MacKinnon to John Ross in the late 19th century. James Ross, his son and a local business man, ran the Broadford Hotel in Broadford on Skye. It was he who, after the death of John in 1879, began to experiment with the recipe at the hotel.


title: Drambuie

text: Drambuie is a sweet, golden coloured 40% ABV liqueur made from Scotch whisky, heather honey, herbs and spices.


title: Drambuie

text: In the 1880s, Ross developed and improved the recipe, changing the original brandy base to one of scotch whisky, initially for his friends and then later for hotel patrons. Ross named the concoction 'Drambuie' and sold it further afield, eventually reaching markets in France and the United States. As the drink became better known, Ross registered the name as a trademark in 1893.


title: Drambuie

text: When Ross died, his widow Eleanor was obliged to sell the recipe to pay for their children's education, by coincidence to a different MacKinnon family. The latter MacKinnon family produced the drink until 2014, when the company was sold.


title: Drambuie

text: Drambuie was first commercially produced in Union Street in Edinburgh in 1910. Only twelve cases were originally sold. In 1916, Drambuie became the first liqueur to be allowed in the cellars of the House of Lords and Drambuie began to ship worldwide to British Army officers' messes.


title: Drambuie

text: About 1940, the company moved to bonded premises in Dublin Street Lane where the liquor was compounded (the process of flavouring and sweetening the whisky spirit). The bottling plant was in the same lane while the company office was in York Place. After a short period at nearby Broughton Market, in 1955 the operation was moved to premises at the foot of Easter Road in Leith. Further expansion led to a move to purpose-built premises on the western edge of Kirkliston in 1959. These premises were vacated in 2001 and thereafter production was contracted out, in the first instance to the Glenmorangie bottling plant at Broxburn and, in 2010, to Morrison Bowmore Distillers.


title: Drambuie

text: Since 2007, work has been done to strengthen the reputation of the brand after a downturn in popularity and sales.


title: Drambuie

text: In 2009, Drambuie launched "The Royal Legacy of 1745", an upscale malt whisky liqueur. The 40% alcohol by volume spirit won the Drinks International Travel Retail Award for Best Travel Retail Drinks Launch at the TFWA, Cannes, France in October 2009.


title: Drambuie

text: To celebrate the centenary of Drambuie's being bottled in Edinburgh, the makers launched a new style of bottle and embarked on a television and print advertising campaign in 2010. The new bottle, which is clear, allows the colour of the liqueur to be seen. It has a new interlocking "DD" Drambuie icon behind the brand name which also appears on the neck.


title: Drambuie

text: In September 2014, Drambuie was sold to the makers of Glenfiddich, William Grant & Sons, for an estimated price of about £100 million.


title: Drambuie

text: It was produced under contract at the Morrison Bowmore Distillers facility at Springburn Bond, Glasgow, from 2010 until 2019 when production was transitioned to the William Grant and Sons bottling facility.


title: Drambuie

text: Drambuie received the highest possible score, a "96–100", in the "Wine Enthusiast"s 2008 spirit ratings competition.


title: Nick Gage

text: Nicholas William Wilson (born September 22, 1980), better known by his ring name Nick Gage, is an American deathmatch wrestler. He is signed to Game Changer Wrestling (GCW), where he is the current GCW World Champion in his record-setting third reign. He also wrestles for various other promotions on the independent circuit. He is the only man to win the "big three" of American deathmatch tournaments: the CZW Tournament of Death, the IWA Mid-South King of the Deathmatch, and the GCW Tournament of Survival.


title: Nick Gage

text: Along with being the first-ever CZW World Heavyweight Champion for Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), until early 2011, Gage wrestled at nearly every CZW show and competed in more CZW matches than any other wrestler. In addition to these accomplishments, he has held the World Tag Team, Iron Man, Ultraviolent Underground, and Death Match championships during his CZW career. Gage's late brother, Chris Wilson, was also a professional wrestler; he performed in CZW under the ring name Justice Pain. The brothers even joined a stable known as “The H8 Club” with fellow CZW talent Matt Tremont, Nate Hatred, and Wifebeater.


title: Nick Gage

text: In April 2011, Gage was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree bank robbery. He was ultimately released in 2016. After his release later on in his career, he became an infamous name in the deathmatch indie scene and gained a cult following known as the Murder-Death-Kill Gang (often shortened to MDK). In his entrances, he is introduced as "representing The M.D.K Gang, The H8 Club, and all his comrades in prison, eastern block". His infamy as a "folk hero" of both independent American wrestling and of the deathmatch scene led him to be the subject of a 2021 episode of the docuseries "Dark Side of the Ring". John Pollock of "POST Wrestling" describes Gage as a "cult figure" of professional wrestling.


title: Nick Gage

text: Nicholas William Wilson was born in National Park, New Jersey, on September 22, 1980. He was raised by his mother. As a child, he idolized NFL player Lawrence Taylor. He wanted to be a professional wrestler at a very young age, and later recalled watching NWA as a kid and calling WWF "corny". In the early 1990s, he was starting to lose his love for wrestling when ECW got him back into it. He would begin wrestling in backyard hardcore matches, making makeshift rings out of barbed wire, and wrestling his older brother Christopher and their friends. He and Christopher trained as professional wrestlers together. Christopher would become known by the ring name Justice Pain, though he retired in 2007 and died by suicide in 2020 when he jumped off the Walt Whitman Bridge.


title: Nick Gage

text: Gage is known for being the first ever CZW World Heavyweight Champion and for being part of the H8 Club tag team. Before teaming with Nate Hatred as the H8 Club, Gage won the CZW World Tag Team Championship with Zandig. Gage would also find great success in his run for the CZW Ironman Title, which he had several brutal matches with the likes of LOBO, The Wifebeater, Nick Mondo & Mad Man Pondo. One of the most notable matches from the time period was the first ever, 200 Light Tubes Death Match against The Wifebeater. He would later team up with Hatred and wrestle such teams as The Briscoe Brothers, VD, and The Backseat Boyz. Together, they won the tag team championship from the original H8 Club of Wifebeater and Justice Pain. Gage and Hatred would break up in 2003 when Hatred joined Messiah's stable, the Hi-V. Gage and Hatred would embark on a bloody feud against one another, competing in a Tables Match, Cage Match, Dog Collar Match, as well as a 200 Light Tubes Death Match. The two would trade the Big Japan Death Match Title between one another. Gage would take part in Cage of Death V: Suspended, as a part of Team Zandig, to take on the Hi-V.They feuded for nearly one year, and met in the Cage of Death match at "Cage of Death V". At the end of the match, Hatred turned on Messiah and rejoined Gage. After reforming, they regained the tag championship, but lost it to The Blackout. At "Cage of Death VI", The H8 Club of Nick Gage and Nate Hatred faced the H8 Club of Wifebeater and Justice Pain, with the winners winning the right to the H8 Club name. That night, Nick Gage and Justice Pain turned on their partners joined each other. They would then win the tag team championship and hold it for many months before losing to Necro Butcher and Toby Klein.


title: Nick Gage

text: Even after the loss of the Tag Titles, Gage and his brother would continue to feud with The Tough Crazy Bastards. Gage would find himself in the finals of the annual, Tournament of Death, along with the Necro Butcher and CZW owner, John Zandig. In this match, Gage would, figuratively, get set on fire, due to a botched Suplex, which saw Gage deliver it to Zandig, over the top rope and off the apron, onto a flaming board, which incorporated other Ultraviolent qualities. Gage would ultimately lose the match, as a result of being driven through several Panes of Glass, as well as a table, by Necro and his use of the Death Valley Driver. At the following show, Gage would interfere in Necro's No Rope Barbed Wire Match with one, J.C. Bailey. Gage, and his brother, Justice Pain's feud with Klein and The Butcher, would carry on all the way until Cage of Death 7. At "" in the Cage of Death match, with Justice Pain and Zandig on Gage's team and Joker and Toby Klein on Necro's team. After Cage of Death, Gage and Necro Butcher fought in a triple threat no rope barbed wire match with J.C. Bailey for Bailey's Ultraviolent Underground Championship, which Gage captured that night. Gage later became color commentator for CZW DVDs, replacing Eddie Kingston. On July 29, 2006, Nick Gage won Tournament of Death 5 defeating Brain Damage, JC Bailey, and Drake Younger in the final round. After this, Gage began exhibiting strange behavior. He attacked LuFisto after she won the Iron Man title, had incidents with Zandig and Justice Pain, and insulted the fans on many occasions, most notably on commentary. He has since been removed from his commentary position. At Last Team Standing on October 14, he and Justice Pain made it to the finals of the tag team tournament. However, he left the arena before the last match. The next night, he lost the Ultraviolent Underground Championship to Drake Younger.


title: Nick Gage

text: At "Night of Infamy 5", problems between Gage, Lobo, and Zandig continued, leading to a Cage of Death match between the three, which called for the loser of the bout to hang up the boots and retire. Before the match started, Gage's enemy LuFisto came to the ring and entered herself in the match. Gage won by pinning Zandig, forcing the CZW owner into retirement. The next month, Gage was scheduled to face LuFisto in a one on one match, but LuFisto was injured and the match was canceled. Gage would end up facing his brother, Justice Pain, for Pain's CZW Heavyweight Championship at CZW's eight anniversary show, H8. The match ended early due to the result of Gage receiving a stinger, as a result of a botched Pain Thriller from his brother. Nick Gage would remain out of action until the end of the year.


title: Nick Gage

text: Gage made his return to CZW at the ninth annual Cage of Death event on December 8. He defeated Messiah and Ruckus in a Triple Threat Match to become a three time CZW World Heavyweight Champion. Gage's third reign as the Heavyweight Champion would last seven months, as he successfully defended his title against the likes of Drake Younger, Danny Havoc, Devon Moore, Ruckus & Eddie Kingston. However, Gage's run would come to an end at A Tangled Web, in which he lost to Drake Younger in a Tangled Web Death Match, due to interference from Notorious Inc. member, Devon Moore. Gage would face Moore at the following show in a No Ropes Barbed Wire Taipei Death Match. Gage would soon take up arms with his old tag team partner, Nate Hatred, to reform the infamous H8 Club. The H8 Club would go on to face Notorious Inc. at Down With The Sickness, as well as BLKOUT at Cage of Death X. Gage and Hatred would then move on to a bloody feud with Billy Gram's Cult Fiction, Brain Damage & Deranged, which, ultimately, culminated at CZW Tournament of Death 8, when Nick Gage defeated Deranged in a No Ropes Barbed Wire Fire Match. At that very same event, Gage would end up defeating Jon Moxley and Scotty Vortekz in the second round, advancing to the third, and final, round, against Thumbtack Jack. Gage would have to be airlifted to hospital after taking a bump onto a light tube, which resulted in a laceration severing an artery in his arm. Gage had made a full recovery and was back at CZW Best of the Best (only 1 week later) and participated in an attack on Thumbtack Jack.


title: Nick Gage

text: Following his injury at TOD, and his attack on Thumbtack Jack at Best of the Best, Gage, along with Nate Hatred, would feud with The Best All Around in their hunt to regain the CZW Tag Team Titles. However, the hunt would prove to be a failure as they did not win the titles. The H8 Club would go on to turn heel, as they took up arms with the Switchblade Conspiracy, and attacked the new CZW owner, D. J. Hyde. In response to the attacks, Hyde would replace himself in the upcoming Tournament of Death: Rewind, and in his place would be Nick Gage, who would take on the former owner of CZW, John Zandig. Gage would defeat Zandig in the opening round in a Panes of Glass Match, but would come up on the losing end to MASADA in the second round in a Home Run Derby Death Match.


title: Nick Gage

text: "The Future of Hardcore" would cross paths with Thumbtack Jack once more before the end of the year, as they faced one another for Jack's Ultraviolent Underground Championship, in a No Ropes Barbed Wire Match at Cage of Death XI. Jack would come out the victor in the contest, only to be attacked by a returning, J.C. Bailey. In May 2010, Gage went to Japan and wrestled for Big Japan Pro Wrestling after an interval of nearly 10 years. Gage, as a member of the stable CZW Japan originally created around 2000, competed at BJW 15th Anniversary Show, teaming with Jun Kasai and D. J. Hyde.


title: Nick Gage

text: Apart from his performances in CZW's Tournament of Death, Gage has also taken part in the IWA Mid-South King of the Deathmatch tournament, having competed in four of them. During 2003, Gage entered the tournament during the CZW vs IWA-MS angle, which was going on at the time. Gage was able to take out Dysfunction in the first round, by defeating him in a 4-Corners of Pain Match, followed by defeating "Mean" Mitch Page in a Barbed Wire Canvas & Light Tube Ropes Match in the second round. However, Gage would end up on the losing end during the third round when he lost to Mad Man Pondo in a Bed of Nails & Caribbean Spider Web Match.


title: Nick Gage

text: After his return to professional wrestling in December 2007, Gage would return to the IWA-MS for their 2008 King of the Deathmatch. The Future of Hardcore, along with Danny Havoc, would defeat the former photographer, Whacks, in a first round Light Tubes & Ladders Match. The following night, Gage would defeat Freakshow in a Taped Fist Texas Death Match, but would be defeated by Devon Moore, his rival in CZW at the time, in a third round Pyramids of Pain Death Match, which featured Moore, Gage & "Diehard" Dustin Lee.


title: Nick Gage

text: Less than a year later, Nick would find himself at the 2009 King of the Deathmatches. Nick Gage would lose in the opening round against Thumbtack Jack in a Deep Six Death Match, which consisted of Chains, Fish Hooks, and a No Ropes Barbed Wire stipulation.


title: Nick Gage

text: "The Man" has also competed in two consecutive Carnage Cups. At Carnage Cup 2008, Gage defeated Devon Moore in a Fans Bring The Weapons Match in the first round, followed by defeating Prophet in an Ultraviolent Boards Match. However, Nick Gage would lose in the finals to Danny Havoc, in a 4-Way 200 Light Tubes Death Match also involving Freakshow and Corey Shaddix.


title: Nick Gage

text: At the 2009 Carnage Cup, Gage would pick up a victory over Insane Lane and Freakshow in the first round, advancing himself to the second round. Gage would be defeated, once again, by Thumbtack Jack, in an Ultraviolent Boards & Thumbtack Cinderblocks Death Match.


title: Nick Gage

text: During Tournament of Death 13 in 2014, D. J. Hyde announced that Nick Gage would return and be the first entrant into Tournament of Death 14. At CZW's Tangled Web on October 18, 2014, Matt Tremont challenged Gage to a match when he is released from prison.


title: Nick Gage

text: Gage made his in ring return at Proving Grounds 2015 against Drew Gulak. At Tournament of Death 14, Gage returned to Tournament of Death, losing to Conor Claxton in the first round.


title: Nick Gage

text: On April 10, 2015, Nick Gage made his first appearance in wrestling after being released from prison at Jersey Championship Wrestling's Tag Team J-Cup Tournament. Gage interrupted a promo by The Rogues, Jeff Cannonball and Brandon Kirk, hitting Cannonball with a chair and then his boot scrape and giving Kirk a chokebreaker. Gage and Lucky 13 would then lose in the first round to the Beast Squad, consisting of Monsta Mack and Kyle the Beast. After the match Gage turned on Lucky with a series of chokebreakers.


title: Nick Gage

text: With Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) being his new main home since 2015, Nick Gage has declared Absolute Intense Wrestling his 2nd home for professional wrestling debuting in 2015. In 2017 Gage entered a feud with Tim Donst. On November 24, 2017 at AIW Hell On Earth 13, Gage defeated Donst to win the AIW Heavyweight Championship. Gage would retain against Donst in the rematch at GCW Rulers Of The World on December 29, 2017.


title: Nick Gage

text: On January 14, 2018 Nick Gage made his Style Battle debut in Episode 8 of Season 1. Gage faced Walter in a no-contest which spilled outside of the ring when both men refused to listen to the Referee. The brawl ended when Keith Lee joined the fray and Clocked Gage in the face with a forearm.


title: Nick Gage

text: July 28, 2018 Nick made his debut in Nova Pro Wrestling, losing a street fight to Tim Donst. The fight saw chair shots, a suplex through a closet door and a pack of light tubes over Gage's head ending the match.


title: Nick Gage

text: On June 3, 2017, Nick Gage won the Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) Tournament of Survival 2, defeating Matt Tremont in the finals in the start of what would be a trilogy of matches between the two. On September 16, 2017, Tremont defeated Gage in the 2nd match of the trilogy in the finals of the Nick Gage Invitational II. Gage won the 3rd and final match, along with the GCW Heavyweight Championship, at GCW's 2nd anniversary event "Ready To Die" in a Three Layers Of Hell Match on December 16, 2017.


title: Nick Gage

text: On April 5, 2019, Nick Gage defeated Shinjiro Otani at GCW's Joey Janela's Spring Break 3 Part 1. On April 6, at GCW Orange Cassidy's Doing Something, Nick Gage defeated UltraMantis Black in a Christmas-themed Deathmatch. At the end of the match, Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF) interfered and attacked Gage. The host of the event, Orange Cassidy, spat mist at MJF's face with Gage doing his finisher to MJF after.


title: Nick Gage

text: During his title reign Gage became the longest-reigning GCW Heavyweight Champion with a record of 722 days, with his reign ending on December 8, 2019 after losing to AJ Gray. Due to his work as GCW World Champion, Gage was named by "Sports Illustrated" as the 10th ranked Wrestler of the Year in 2019. At the Spring Break event in April 2021, Gage defeated Rickey Shane Page to win the GCW World Championship for the second time, making him the only person to hold the championship more than once. On July 24, 2021, Gage lost the title to Matt Cardona at GCW Homecoming.


title: Nick Gage

text: In January 2022, Gage and Matt Tremont defeated The Briscoes in the main event of The WRLD On GCW to win the GCW Tag Team Championships. On August 13th, 2022, The Briscoes won back the Tag Team Championship from the so called “New H8 Club”.


title: Nick Gage

text: On the 29th of July episode of AEW Dynamite, Gage made an appearance when MJF announced him as Chris Jericho's second "labour" for Fight For The Fallen in a No Disqualifications Match. At the event, Gage would lose to Jericho, who wrestled under the guise of his NJPW persona "The Painmaker."


title: Nick Gage

text: In an interview in early 2010, Wilson stated he had been addicted to oxycontin and other painkillers for at least a decade. At the time of his bank robbery in 2010, he was homeless after being evicted from the house where he had lived with his girlfriend and her mother.


title: Nick Gage

text: In an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Wilson noted that he is a Christian and that he prays fairly often.


title: Nick Gage

text: Wilson was arrested in 2005 for possession of stolen property. He pleaded guilty and paid a $250 fine as well as court costs.


title: Nick Gage

text: On December 30, 2010, New Jersey authorities announced that they were seeking Wilson for robbing a PNC Bank in Collingswood, New Jersey on December 22. During the robbery, Wilson, known for wearing a bandana to the ring, unmasked, handed a note to a female employee at the bank demanding money, and got approximately $3,000. Following the robbery, Wilson and his girlfriend went to Atlantic City to gamble. Wilson surrendered to authorities on December 31, 2010. On March 15, 2011, Wilson pleaded guilty to second degree robbery and on April 29 was sentenced to five years in prison. His guilty plea was part of an agreement for a lesser sentence. He was eligible for parole on March 31, 2015, after serving 85% of his five-year sentence. He was released on parole in April 2015 but violated parole and was re-incarcerated. He was released again in November 2016. Wilson was also ordered to pay compensation to both the bank and the female employee from whom he had demanded the money.


title: Ephedra (plant)

text: Ephedra is a genus of gymnosperm shrubs. The various species of "Ephedra" are widespread in many arid regions of the world, ranging across southwestern North America, southern Europe, northern Africa, southwest and central Asia, northern China and western South America. It is the only extant genus in its family, Ephedraceae, and order, Ephedrales, and one of the three living members of the division Gnetophyta alongside "Gnetum" and "Welwitschia."


title: Ephedra (plant)

text: In temperate climates, most "Ephedra" species grow on shores or in sandy soils with direct sun exposure. Common names in English include joint-pine, jointfir, Mormon-tea or Brigham tea. The Chinese name for "Ephedra" species is "mahuang" (). "Ephedra" is the origin of the name of the stimulant ephedrine, which the plants contain in significant concentration.


title: Ephedra (plant)

text: The family Ephedraceae, of which "Ephedra" is the only genus, are gymnosperms, and generally shrubs, sometimes clambering vines, and rarely, small trees. Members of the genus frequently spread by the use of rhizomes.


title: Ephedra (plant)

text: The stems are green and photosynthetic. The leaves are opposite or whorled. The scalelike leaves fuse into a sheath at the base and this often sheds soon after development.


title: Ephedra (plant)

text: The plants are mostly dioecious: with the pollen strobili in whorls of 1–10, each consisting of a series of decussate bracts. The pollen is furrowed. The female strobili also occur in whorls, with bracts which fuse around a single ovule. Fleshy bracts are white (such as in "Ephedra frustillata") or red. There are generally 1–2 yellow to dark brown seeds per strobilus.


title: Ephedra (plant)

text: The genus "Ephedra" was first described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus, and the type species is "Ephedra distachya". The family, Ephedraceae, was first described in 1829 by Dumortier.


title: Ephedra (plant)

text: The oldest known members of the genus are from the Early Cretaceous around 125 million years ago, with records being known from the Aptian-Albian of Argentina, China, Portugal and the United States. The fossil record of "Ephedra" outside of pollen disappears after the Early Cretaceous. Molecular clock estimates have suggested that last common ancestor of living "Ephedra" species lived much more recently, during the Early Oligocene around 30 million years ago. However, pollen modified from the ancestral condition of the genus with branched pseudosulci (grooves), which evolved in parallel in the living North American and Asian lineages is known from the Late Cretaceous, suggesting that the last common ancestor is at least this old.


title: Ephedra (plant)

text: Ephedraceae are adapted to extremely arid regions, growing often in high sunny habitats, and occur as high as 4000 m above sea level in both the Andes and the Himalayas.


title: Ephedra (plant)

text: The "Ephedra" alkaloids, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine constituents of "E. sinica" and other members of the genus have sympathomimetic and decongestant qualities, and have been used as dietary supplements, mainly for weight loss. The drug, "ephedrine", is used to prevent low blood pressure during spinal anesthesia.


title: Ephedra (plant)

text: In the United States, ephedra supplements were banned from the market in the early 21st century due to serious safety risks. Plants of the genus "Ephedra", including "E. sinica" and others, were used in traditional medicine for treating headache and respiratory infections, but there is no scientific evidence they are effective or safe for these purposes.


title: Ephedra (plant)

text: Alkaloids obtained from the species of "Ephedra" used in herbal medicines, which are used to synthetically prepare pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, can cause cardiovascular events. These events have been associated with arrhythmias, palpitations, tachycardia and myocardial infarction. Caffeine consumption in combination with ephedrine has been reported to increase the risk of these cardiovascular events.


title: Ephedra (plant)

text: The earliest uses of "Ephedra" species (mahuang) for specific illnesses date back to 5000 BC. Ephedrine and its isomers were isolated in 1881 from "Ephedra distachya" and characterized by the Japanese organic chemist Nagai Nagayoshi. His work to access "Ephedra's" active ingredients to isolate a pure pharmaceutical substance led to the systematic production of semi-synthetic derivatives thereof is relevant still today. Three species, "Ephedra sinica", "Ephedra vulgaris", and to a lesser extent "Ephedra equisetina", are commercially grown in Mainland China as a source for natural ephedrines and isomers for use in pharmaceuticals. "E. sinica" and "E. vulgaris" usually carry six optically active phenylethylamines, mostly ephedrine and pseudoephedrine with minor amounts of norephedrine, norpseudoephedrine as well as the three methylated analogs. Reliable information on the total alkaloid content of the crude drug is difficult to obtain. Based on HPLC analyses in industrial settings, the concentrations of total alkaloids in dried "Herba Ephedra" ranged between 1 and 4%, and in some cases up to 6%.


title: Ephedra (plant)

text: For a review of the alkaloid distribution in different species of the genus "Ephedra" see Jian-fang Cui (1991). Other American and European species of "Ephedra", e.g. "Ephedra nevadensis" (Nevada Mormon tea) have not been systematically assayed; based on unpublished field investigations, they contain very low levels (less than 0.1%) or none at all.


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: How Green Was My Valley is a 1941 American drama film set in Wales, directed by John Ford. The film, based on the best-selling 1939 novel of the same name by Richard Llewellyn, was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and scripted by Philip Dunne. It stars Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, and a very young Roddy McDowall.


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: It tells the story of the Morgans, a hard-working Welsh mining family, from the point of view of the youngest child Huw, who lives with his affectionate and kind parents as well as his sister and five brothers, in the South Wales Valleys during the late Victorian era. The story chronicles life in the South Wales coalfields, the loss of that way of life and its effects on the family. The fictional village in the film is based on Gilfach Goch, where Llewellyn spent many summers visiting his grandfather, and it served as the inspiration for the novel.


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: It was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning five, famously beating "Citizen Kane", "Sergeant York" and "The Maltese Falcon" for Best Picture, while Ford won for Best Director, Donald Crisp for Best Supporting Actor, Arthur Miller for Best Cinematography, and Richard Day, Nathan H. Juran and Thomas Little for Best Black-and-White Art Direction-Interior Decoration. In 1990, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The Academy Film Archive preserved "How Green Was My Valley" in 1998.


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: The film begins with a monologue by an older Huw Morgan (voiced by Irving Pichel): "I am packing my belongings in the shawl my mother used to wear when she went to the market. And I'm going from my valley. And this time, I shall never return." The valley and its villages are now blackened by the dust of the coal mines that surround the area.


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: A young Huw (Roddy McDowall), the youngest child of Gwilym Morgan (Donald Crisp), walks home with his father to meet his mother, Beth (Sara Allgood). His older brothers, Ianto (John Loder), Ivor (Patric Knowles), Davy (Richard Fraser), Gwilym Jr. (Evan S. Evans), and Owen (James Monks) all work in the coal mines with their father, while sister Angharad (Maureen O'Hara) keeps house with their mother. Huw's childhood is idyllic; the town, not yet overrun with mining spoil, is beautiful, the household is warm and loving, and the miners sing as they walk home (in this case "Bread of Heaven" in Welsh). The wages are collected, the men wash then eat together. Afterwards the spending money is given out. Huw is smitten on meeting Bronwyn (Anna Lee), a girl engaged to be married to his eldest brother, Ivor (Patric Knowles). At the boisterous wedding party Angharad meets the new preacher, Mr. Gruffydd (Walter Pidgeon), and there is an obvious mutual attraction.


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: Trouble begins when the mine owner decreases wages, and the miners strike in protest. Gwilym's attempt to mediate by not endorsing a strike estranges him from the other miners as well as his older sons, who quit the house. Beth interrupts a late night meeting of the strikers, threatening to kill anyone who harms her husband. She and Huw head across the fields in a snowstorm in the dark to return home. Later on their way home the strikers hear Huw calling for help. They rescue Beth and Huw from the river. Beth has temporarily lost the use of her legs and the doctor fears that Huw, who has also lost the use of his legs, will never walk again. He eventually recovers with the help of Mr. Gruffydd, which further endears the latter to Angharad.


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: The strike is eventually settled, and Gwilym and his sons reconcile, yet many miners have lost their jobs. The exceptionally beautiful Angharad is courted by the mine owner's son, Iestyn Evans (Marten Lamont), though she loves Mr. Gruffydd. Mr. Gruffydd loves her too, to the malicious delight of the gossipy townswomen, but cannot bear to subject her to the hard, spartan life of an impoverished churchman. Angharad submits to a loveless marriage to Evans, and they relocate out of the country.


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: Huw begins school at a nearby village. Abused by other boys, he is taught to fight by boxer Dai Bando (Rhys Williams) and his crony, Cyfartha (Barry Fitzgerald). After a beating by the cruel teacher Mr. Jonas (Morton Lowry), Dai Bando avenges Huw with an impromptu boxing display on Mr. Jonas to the delight of his pupils.


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: Bronwyn learns Ivor has been killed in a mine accident. The shock causes her to go into labor and she gives birth to a son. Later, two of Morgan's sons are dismissed in favor of less experienced, cheaper laborers. With no job prospects, they leave to seek their fortunes abroad. Huw is awarded a scholarship to university, but to his father's dismay he refuses it to work in the mines. He relocates with Bronwyn, to help provide for her and her child.


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: When Angharad returns without her husband, vicious gossip of an impending divorce spreads through the town. It is eventually announced there will be a meeting of the Deacons - the governing council of the local Calvinistic Methodist chapel - to discuss, denounce and excommunicate Angharad. This prospect enrages Mr. Gryffudd, for he knows she has done nothing other than return home from Cape Town without her husband. After condemning the Deacon's small-mindedness, he storms out before the meeting intent on leaving the town.


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: But that evening, the alarm whistle sounds, signalling another mine disaster. Several men are injured, and Gwilym and others are trapped in a cave-in. Mr Gryffudd catches sight of Angharad, who has rushed to the mine for word of her father; and we know from his expression that he will never leave now. As she looks pleadingly at him, he calls, "Who is for Gwilym Morgan and the others?"


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: Young Huw, Mr. Gruffydd, and Dai Bando then descend with other volunteers to rescue the remaining miners. Gwilym and his son are briefly re-united before he succumbs to his injuries.


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: Above, in the cold of light dawn, the women of the family - Angharad, Bronwyn and Beth Morgan - have stood vigil all night; when Beth says, just after Gwilym's death, "He came just now. Ivor was with him. He told me of the glories he had seen!" Then the sound of the pulley announces the lift is returning from the depths of the mine. Huw is cradling his father's body, his coal-blackened face devoid of youthful innocence.


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: Narration by an older Huw recalls, "Men like my father cannot die. They are with me still, real in memory as they were in flesh, loving and beloved forever. How green was my valley then." The movie ends with a montage of family vignettes showing Huw with his father and mother, his brothers and sister.


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: The script was written by Philip Dunne. He later recalled reading the original novel "in horror, turgid stuff, long speeches about Welsh coal miners on strike."


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: William Wyler, the original director, saw the screen test of McDowall and chose him for the part. Wyler was replaced by John Ford. Fox wanted to shoot the movie in Wales in Technicolor, but it was impossible to do so during World War II. Instead, Ford had the studio build an 80-acre authentic replica of a Welsh mining town at Brent's Crags (subsequently Crags Country Club) in the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu, California.


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "How Green Was My Valley" held, , an approval rating of 93% based on 84 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Though it perhaps strays into overly maudlin territory, this working-class drama is saved by a solid cast and director John Ford's unmistakable style." Tim Dirks of Filmsite.org lauded the film as "one of John Ford's masterpieces of sentimental human drama."


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: While the opinion among the Academy Awards committee that it was 1941's Best Picture has been disputed by some later critics, "How Green Was My Valley" continues to be well received in its own right and, in 1990, was added to the American National Film Registry. Academy Award-winning actor and director Clint Eastwood named it as one of his favorite movies.


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: "How Green Was My Valley" was adapted as a half-hour radio play on the March 22, 1942 broadcast of "The Screen Guild Theater", with Sara Allgood, Donald Crisp, Roddy McDowall, Maureen O'Hara and Walter Pidgeon.


title: How Green Was My Valley (film)

text: It was also adapted for three one-hour broadcasts of the "Lux Radio Theatre": on September 21, 1942, with Allgood, Crisp, O'Hara, McDowall and Pidgeon; on March 31, 1947, with Crisp and David Niven; and on September 28, 1954, with Crisp and Donna Reed.


title: Versailles, Yvelines

text: Versailles () is a commune in the department of the Yvelines, Île-de-France, renowned worldwide for the Château de Versailles and the gardens of Versailles, designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Located in the western suburbs of the French capital, from the centre of Paris, Versailles is a wealthy suburb of Paris with a service-based economy and is a major tourist destination. According to the 2017 census, the population of the city is 85,862 inhabitants, down from a peak of 94,145 in 1975.


title: Versailles, Yvelines

text: A new town founded at the will of King Louis XIV, Versailles was the "de facto" capital of the Kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789, before becoming the cradle of the French Revolution. After having lost its status of royal city, it became the "préfecture" (regional capital) of the Seine-et-Oise département in 1790, then of Yvelines in 1968. It is also a Roman Catholic diocese.


title: Versailles, Yvelines

text: Versailles is historically known for numerous treaties such as the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution, and the Treaty of Versailles, after World War I. Today, the Congress of France – the name given to the body created when both houses of the French Parliament, the National Assembly and the Senate, meet – gathers in the Château de Versailles to vote on revisions to the Constitution.


title: Versailles, Yvelines

text: The argument over the etymology of "Versailles" tends to privilege the Latin word "versare", meaning "to keep turning, turn over and over", an expression used in medieval times for plowed lands, cleared lands (lands that had been repeatedly "turned over"). This word formation is similar to Latin "seminare" ("to sow") which gave French "semailles" ("sowings", "sown seeds").


title: Versailles, Yvelines

text: During the Revolution of 1789, city officials had proposed to the convention to rename Versailles "Berceau-de-la-Liberté" ("Cradle of Liberty"), but they had to retract their proposal when confronted with the objections of the majority of the population.


title: Versailles, Yvelines

text: From May 1682, when Louis XIV moved the court and government permanently to Versailles, until his death in September 1715, Versailles was the unofficial capital of the kingdom of France. For the next seven years, during the "Régence" of Philippe d'Orléans, the royal court of the young King Louis XV was the first in Paris, while the Regent governed from his Parisian residence, the Palais-Royal. Versailles was again the unofficial capital of France from June 1722, when Louis XV returned to Versailles, until October 1789, when a Parisian mob forced Louis XVI and the royal family to move to Paris. Versailles again became the unofficial capital of France from March 1871, when Adolphe Thiers' government took refuge in Versailles, fleeing the insurrection of the Paris Commune, until November 1879, when the newly elected government and parliament returned to Paris. During the various periods when government affairs were conducted from Versailles, Paris remained the official capital of France.


title: Versailles, Yvelines

text: Versailles was made the "préfecture" of the Seine-et-Oise "département" at its inception in March 1790 (at which time Seine-et-Oise had approximately 420,000 inhabitants). By the 1960s, with the growth of the Paris suburbs, the "Seine-et-Oise" had reached more than 2 million inhabitants, and was deemed too large and ungovernable, and thus it was split into three "départements" in January 1968. Versailles was made the "préfecture" of the Yvelines "département", the largest chunk of the former "Seine-et-Oise". At the 2017 census the "Yvelines" had 1,438,266 inhabitants.


title: Versailles, Yvelines

text: Versailles is the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese (bishopric) which was created in 1790. The diocese of Versailles is subordinate to the archdiocese of Paris.


title: Versailles, Yvelines

text: In 1975, Versailles was made the seat of a Court of Appeal whose jurisdiction covers the western suburbs of Paris.


title: Versailles, Yvelines

text: Since 1972, Versailles has been the seat of one of France's 30 nationwide "académies" (districts) of the Ministry of National Education. The "académie de Versailles", the largest of France's thirty "académies" by its number of pupils and students, is in charge of supervising all the elementary schools and high schools of the western suburbs of Paris.


title: Versailles, Yvelines

text: Versailles is also an important node for the French army, a tradition going back to the monarchy with, for instance, the military camp of Satory and other institutions.


title: Versailles, Yvelines

text: Versailles is located west-southwest from the centre of Paris. The city sits on an elevated plateau, 130 to 140 metres (425 to 460 ft) above sea-level (whereas the elevation of the centre of Paris is only 33 m (108 ft) above sea level), surrounded by wooded hills: in the north the forests of "Marly" and Fausses-Reposes, and in the south the forests of Satory and Meudon.


title: Versailles, Yvelines

text: The city (commune) of Versailles has an area of 26.18 km (10.11 sq mi, or 6,469 acres), which is a quarter of the area of the city of Paris. In 1989, Versailles had a population density of 3,344/km (8,660/sq mi), whereas Paris had a density of 20,696/km (53,602/sq mi).


title: Versailles, Yvelines

text: Born out of the will of a king, the city has a rational and symmetrical grid of streets. By the standards of the 18th century, Versailles was a very modern European city. Versailles was used as a model for the building of Washington, D.C., by Pierre Charles L'Enfant.


title: Versailles, Yvelines

text: Versailles has an oceanic climate (Köppen: "Cfb"). Summer days are usually warm and pleasant with average temperatures between , and a fair amount of sunshine. in the winter, sunshine is scarce; days are cool, and nights are cold but generally above freezing with low temperatures around . Light night frosts are however quite common, but the temperature seldom dips below . Snow falls every year, but rarely stays on the ground. The city sometimes sees light snow or flurries with or without accumulation.


title: Versailles, Yvelines

text: The name of Versailles appears for the first time in a medieval document dated 1038. In the feudal system of medieval France, the lords of Versailles came directly under the king of France, with no intermediary overlords between them and the king; yet they were not very important lords. In the end of the 11th century, the village curled around a medieval castle and the Saint Julien church. Its farming activity and its location on the road from Paris to Dreux and Normandy brought prosperity to the village, culminating in the end of the 13th century, the so-called "century of Saint Louis", famous for the prosperity of northern France and the building of Gothic cathedrals. The 14th century brought the Black Death and the Hundred Years' War, and with it death and destruction. At the end of the Hundred Years' War in the 15th century, the village started to recover, with a population of only 100 inhabitants.


title: Versailles, Yvelines

text: In 1561, Martial de Loménie, secretary of state for finances under King Charles IX, became lord of Versailles. He obtained permission to establish four annual fairs and a weekly market on Thursdays. The population of Versailles was 500 inhabitants. Martial de Loménie was murdered during the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (24 August 1572). In 1575, Albert de Gondi, a man from Florence who had come to France with Catherine de' Medici, bought the seigneury of Versailles.