8 October 1998 Edition
Editor's desk
From the Internet comes thrilling news. From the site of the European Institute of Protestant Studies we learn that ``a new project is currently in the works to edit, digitally re-master and compile a collection of the best of Free Presbyterian preaching sermons from the 1960s to the present. Our hopes are to air these sermons on the radio as well as produce a distributable multimedia CD-ROM.''
Interested? Then hotfoot it to http://www.ianpaisley.org
Among the delights which await you is a sermon under the heading Marching Orders which was preached by the Reverend Doctor in the Martyrs Memorial Church on 27 July 1969. It lasts 41 minutes and 28 seconds and is undoubtedly fascinating.
On a similar theme comes this little story from our friends in the Irish People in the US. A couple of weeks ago the Bobby Sands Division of the AOH in rural Pennsyvania took part in the McLain Celtic Festival sponsored by the Cumberland County Historical Society. This is a fun day out for the family; dance, music and bit of craic.
They set up a booth to attract new members. What they got was a headache and a legal bill.
Enter Richard K MacMaster, a retired history professor in a bible school and a member of the Scotch-Irish Society in the USA which has links to the DUP-style of loyalism.
In letters to two newspapers he claimed members of the AOH were raising funds for Noraid, prompting one paper, The Sentinel, to write a story headlined `Festival revises rules to ban IRA boosters'.
Fundraising is now banned from future festivals. Trouble is, MacMaster was wrong - on all counts.
There was no fundraising and the sign and the collection bucket MacMaster said was there, did not exist.
After an extensive interview with The Irish People newspaper MacMaster conceded that he might be wrong. Seems he was a ``good distance from the table'' and didn't actually see this himself.
Now he says, ``a friend'' spotted the collection plate, and, as MacMaster puts it, ``he's a devout Catholic and would have no reason to lie.'' When asked if his friend could be reached, he said that was not possible.
The members of the Bobby Sands Division of the AOH fired off a letter to the editor of The Sentinel, threatening legal action if a retraction was not published. A retraction was published last Friday.
Hours before publication, a chastened MacMaster called to say this was not some great Paisleyite conspiracy and that he'd worked with a number of peace groups in ``Northern Ireland'' over the years. He also said he'd ``never met Ian Paisley or been in a room with him for that matter,'' and that he once had a ``conversation with Gerry Adams in Clonard Monastery.''
Interested? Then hotfoot it to http://www.ianpaisley.org
Among the delights which await you is a sermon under the heading Marching Orders which was preached by the Reverend Doctor in the Martyrs Memorial Church on 27 July 1969. It lasts 41 minutes and 28 seconds and is undoubtedly fascinating.
On a similar theme comes this little story from our friends in the Irish People in the US. A couple of weeks ago the Bobby Sands Division of the AOH in rural Pennsyvania took part in the McLain Celtic Festival sponsored by the Cumberland County Historical Society. This is a fun day out for the family; dance, music and bit of craic.
They set up a booth to attract new members. What they got was a headache and a legal bill.
Enter Richard K MacMaster, a retired history professor in a bible school and a member of the Scotch-Irish Society in the USA which has links to the DUP-style of loyalism.
In letters to two newspapers he claimed members of the AOH were raising funds for Noraid, prompting one paper, The Sentinel, to write a story headlined `Festival revises rules to ban IRA boosters'.
Fundraising is now banned from future festivals. Trouble is, MacMaster was wrong - on all counts.
There was no fundraising and the sign and the collection bucket MacMaster said was there, did not exist.
After an extensive interview with The Irish People newspaper MacMaster conceded that he might be wrong. Seems he was a ``good distance from the table'' and didn't actually see this himself.
Now he says, ``a friend'' spotted the collection plate, and, as MacMaster puts it, ``he's a devout Catholic and would have no reason to lie.'' When asked if his friend could be reached, he said that was not possible.
The members of the Bobby Sands Division of the AOH fired off a letter to the editor of The Sentinel, threatening legal action if a retraction was not published. A retraction was published last Friday.
Hours before publication, a chastened MacMaster called to say this was not some great Paisleyite conspiracy and that he'd worked with a number of peace groups in ``Northern Ireland'' over the years. He also said he'd ``never met Ian Paisley or been in a room with him for that matter,'' and that he once had a ``conversation with Gerry Adams in Clonard Monastery.''