Great Republicans I Have Known Who Know Me Fanny Garrison www.fannygarrison.com I was reminiscing this week about all of the great republicans I have known, and was considering how I could get as many of their names in my column this week as possible. I was interrupted in my thinking by a phone call from my good friend, Jim Gibney, a wonderful ex-prisoner with whom I spent many years devising political strategy and who now currently is a very powerful man in Sinn Fein, a party of which I am not a member, who reminded me that our mutual friend, Pat Magee, a stellar man who is also an ex prisoner that I knew while I was in prison, has just released a book. What I like about great republicans like my friends who I have already mentioned and others, who I have yet to mention, but will, such as the Derryman Mitchell McLaughlin, who everyone knows started the Fianna in Derry, is how humble they are. Far be it from them to trumpet their own successes and blow their own horns. That is what this column is for, after all, and they are such good friends of mine they don't want to deprive me of a job. But aside from all that, I haven't even begun to speak of the dead great republicans who I had the pleasure of being close personal friends with, such as Bobby Sands and the late Jimmy Drumm, husband to the great Maire Drumm. It is because these people were my friends that I am who I am today. There are countless other republicans who go unnoticed, the little people who no one knows, who in my column will remain nameless because their great courage speaks for itself. Pat Magee would never speak out loud of his own book and how important it is. He is far too modest for that, to his credit. I, however, wrote the introduction, and think that everyone should buy his book just for that. It is a landmark study. It reminds me very much of the many books I have written and the one I am currently thinking about writing as you read this. I hope if you take anything away from my column this week, it is that I know a lot of people in the IRA and they owe me favours. Pat Magee's book is out now and you can buy it at your local Eason's. It is recommended reading for everyone. Fanny Garrison can be reached at his website, www.fannygarrison.com

not a member of Sinn Féin

Fanny Garrison "I'm a Writer"