St George Colley & Myths From 1916 Woodrow Wilson the Blessed Geraldine Manus O'Riordan Brendan Clifford Labour Comment page 7 page 18 back page IRISH POLITICAL REVIEW March 2008 Vol.23, No.3 ISSN 0790-7672 and Northern Star incorporating Workers' Weekly Vol.22 No.3 ISSN 954-5891
The Mischief-Making Party The long search for a centre-ground in Northern Ireland was finally successful last year when the DUP and Sinn Fein came together in a devolved government. The equally long attempt to constitute the margins. into a hegemonic centre was given up as deference collapsed on both sides. Respectable Protestants no longer found it necessary to make obeisance to the fur-coat brigade, and they accepted—reluctantly perhaps—that Paisley expressed the substance of what they were. Paisley, for his part, overcame the fundamentalist Unionist urge to humiliate Sinn Fein and struck a deal with it—humiliating the fur-coat brigade instead, which had spent a quarter of a century havering to no purpose. And Catholics freed themselves from the spell—the mirage— of ‘constitutional nationalism’, took rational account of the predicament that Partition put them in, and backed the party which had been the means of improving their position through warfare.
DUP / SF devolution has been working so well that there is now talk of police powers being devolved in the Autumn. And the fringe parties are desperate. There is now a de facto coalition against the functioning Executive by the SDLP, the UUP, a group of dissident Paisleyites, and a group of dissident Provos, supported by the Irish Times, whose London correspondent, Frank Millar (Wee Frankie) is headlining a campaign to retire Paisley. (Millar was Secretary of the UUP in the 1980s, when he lost out to Molyneux in inner-party struggle and was given a plum job by the Irish Times.) The SDLP and UUP are, of course, both members of the devolved government, but they are trying to act as an Opposition. But there is no role for an Opposition in the system introduced in 1998, which the SDLP itself claimed to be the architect of. It might be said that that is not democratic. Of course it isn’t! Anything resembling democracy is what had to be got away from it, if a functional settlement was to be made in Northern Ireland. That is why the SDLP devised a system in which all parties, above a very small base, would be in government as of right. It assumed when doing so that it would be one of the dominant parties in the Government. Now that it isn’t, it feels a wrecking urge. The UUP wanted (or said it wanted) to form a Coalition with the SDLP when they were the top two parties, and to opt for a kind of democratic local government in a weighted majority system. The SDLP flirted with the idea, but rejected it, fearing that it would lose out heavily to SF if it accepted. It lost out heavily anyway, as did the UUP to the DUP. It still rejects it, even though it has little left to lose. The Southern Star reports the death If SDLP / UUP want normal adversarial politics in something that of last Kilmichael veteran on looks a bit more like a democracy, they might possibly get it it by refusing to take part in government, and acting as an opposition to the 18 November 1989. Peter Hart claimed system which they set in motion ten years ago. And then what? And to have interviewed a Kilmichael then nothing. The SDLP is as bereft of realisable purpose today as it ever was. (John Hume’s intensely purposeful activity for a few years, veteran on 19 November 1989 in conjunction with Gerry Adams, was a solo effort, kept up in the face of hostility in the party.) See article by Niall Meehan on page 12 C O N T E N T S Callaghan Government told off the Stormont administration in headmasterish This Mischief-Making Party. Editorial 1 fashion. And the Civil Rights/SDLP Kilmichael And Peter Hart. Southern Star 1 leaders called off the agitation and urged Readers' Letters: History Ireland Correction. Tommy Graham 3 the people to settle down. ——Or did Editorial Digest. (Northern Bank Robbery Revisited; Ian Paisley Jnr Resignation; they? We were carried away for a moment Brendan Huges RIP; Mairead Farrell; Dromore By-Election; New SDLP History; by the image which they are currently Informers; Flags & Emblems; Price Of History; Victims' Industry; David projecting of themselves. Burnside; Green Poppies?; Bono & Israel) 3,24 The Lisbon Treaty. David Morrison 5 What we recall of the SDLP on its First Eu Referendum Group; Stop Blair Petition; Israel In Europe 6 Coming is that it was itself carried away by the groundless expectations attached The St. Geroge Crusade Against Low Standards. Manus O'Riordan 7 to the One Man, One Vote! slogan—though Shorts from the Long Fellow (Casino Capitalism; "What Friends Are For"; it must have known them to be Re-Alignment; The EU; Social Partnership; A "Very Flawed Human Being" 9 groundless—and that nothing that was Scribbled Recollections. Tim O'Sullivan (Part 3 of Casement Report) 10 realisable would satisfy it. Cathal O Searcaigh & Casement. Tim O'Sullivan (report of two letters) 11 "Why We Should Not Recognise Kosovo". Report of Tom O'Donoghue letter 11 We recall the slogan British Rights For Supporting Lá Nua. Áund Durkin 11 British Citizens. This was a demand that The War Of Independence And Peter Hart's 'Sectarian Argument. the normality of British political life should Nial Meehan 12 spring up in Northern Ireland and displace Israel: Serial Violator Of UN Resolutions. David Morrison 15 “sectarian head counting”. We pointed Israel And Trade Union Boycott. Report of Jewish Chronicle article 17 out that the normality produced by British politics was not to be had without British Myths From Easter 1916. Brendan Clifford 18 politics, but that was dismissed as Does It Stack Up? Michael Stack (Erskine Childers; Irish Militarism?; EU pessimism. Referendum; British Embassy; Lobus Globus Pocus; Dick Spring; Guantanamo The SDLP programme, devised in 1970, Trials; Church And State; O B N) 21 had two contradictory aims—reform on DUP Veto On The 11+ ? Mark Langhammer 23 British lines and the ending of Partition. Impact And Palestine 24 We indicated that we would support the Israel & Palestinians. Report of Raymond Deane letter and Benny Morris views 25 SDLP if it chose one or the other of those Labour Comment, edited by Pat Maloney: aims and was willing to adopt realistic Woodrow Wilson: A Love Scorned preconditions for realising it, but said that (back page) the two together were impossible. But it insisted on having the two in a self- The campaign to destabilise the DUP / The slogan, as played in the British, contradictory programme. SF combination had a minor success with Irish, and international media, suggested the resignation of Paisley junior on a that the Northern Catholics were deprived In 1971 Premier Faulkner made it an nothing issue hyped by the media for want of voting rights en masse, as were blacks offer for participation in Stormont which of anything else to do. in South Africa and the Southern USA. bowled it over. It did not see how it could The Civil Rights leaders must have known refuse it, in the light of what it had been The SDLP is now projecting an image very well that this was not the case, and saying. It coped with the dilemma by not of itself as the Civil Rights Party, as distinct that the element of disfranchisement was returning to Stormont, instead setting up from Sinn Fein which was something else. trivial, and was not one-sided. But the an Alternative Assembly at Dungannon. In those days Sinn Fein did not exist—it obtuseness of the UUP made it an effective In 1972 it declared for “United Ireland or was another party that went under that wedge for splitting the whole Northern nothing”. In 1973 Willie Whitelaw oozed name. Provo Sinn Fein was formed after situation open. all over them, seduced them back to the the ‘Northern Ireland State’ had been The major disfranchisement issue was conference table at Sunningdale, and set subverted by the Civil Rights agitation, the Derry City gerrymander. But that was up a kind of voluntary but obligatory and political life was thrown into flux by a highly particular case with no general power-sharing system of devolution for the pogrom. implications. them at Sunningdale. Nor did the SDLP exist then. They took office in January 1974, with It is true that the founders of the SDLP When the situation was split open by our support for what it was worth. By had been leaders of the Civil Rights the Civil Rights wedge in August 1969, March it was obvious that power-sharing agitation. some of the future founders of the SDLP had been endangered by events in Dublin The great Civil Rights slogan was One went to Dublin looking for guns, and they under a Fine Gael/Labour coalition, and Man, One Vote! It played well on the were promised guns, and guns began to we warned of this. Michael Dwyer wrote international media, but it was actually flow into West Belfast before the Provo to the Minister for Social Welfare (Paddy much ado about nothing. What it mainly IRA had ever been heard of. Devlin) suggesting a meeting to discuss referred to was not voting in either the At the critical moment in mid-August how the power-sharing Executive might state or the Stormont elections, but an 1969 the Dublin Government, in the shape be saved. He received an abrupt reply element of plural votes in Local Govern- of Jack Lynch, played a crucial role in saying that everything was well in hand ment elections which had been ended in radicalising Northern Catholic and the SDLP needed no advice from a Britain some years earlier. Conceding that expectations by making an inflammatory group that could hold its annual general demand would have changed next to noth- speech, deploying his little Army on the meeting in a phone box. ing. The astonishing thing is that the UUP Border,and promising guns to Gerry Fitt Two months later the Executive fell did not concede it the instant it was made. and Co. and the whole Sunningdale system was When it was conceded, in 1969, it was The Civil Rights demands were quickly scrapped. It might have been saved if the treated, by those who had raised it, as implemented, and scarcely noticed. The SDLP had been willing to negotiate on the being of no consequence. B Specials were disbanded. The Wilson/ establishment on the Council of Ireland. 2 25 years passed before there was another Agreement. And now the SDLP is intent LETTERS TO THE EDITOR · LETTERS TO THE EDITOR· LETTERS TO THE EDITOR· on destroying that too! It is not the Civil Rights party. (The History Ireland Correction Provos have stretched Civil Rights far beyond anything that was imagined forty Read the latest Irish Political Review with great interest. It's not my intention to years ago, both as ideals and realities.) respond except to say that like any publication we're fair game for criticism. However The SDLP is better described as the I must take issue with the statement in ‘Does It Stack Up?' that "History Ireland is totally mischief-making Party. financed by taxpayers of this country". Now where did you get that idea? HI is "totally financed" by retail sales, subscriptions & adverstising, nothing else. It's true I was on a FAS scheme in the early days but that's a long time ago now. Perhaps you could be good enough to point this out to your readers? Maybe one or two might be inspired to buy the magazine or even take out a sub. Tommy Graham, Editor
Editorial Digest News 23.2.08). Mr. Bicker is a member office which was in a house owned by of the Military Heritage of Ireland Trust his wife. What was seldom mentioned Northern Bank Robbery Revisited On which helped set up the national museum was that the "house" was a proper shop- Saturday 9th February it was announced in Collins Barracks, Dublin. The Irish front type office. The OUP and the that the Cunningham company Phil News says that he is the first Unionist to SDLP have been having great fun over Flynn was associated with in Farran, Co. join a republican party, but Fianna Fail these matters. It is noticeable that most Cork had been given a tax clearance said that there have been several. Fianna press and TV stories about Ian Og are certificate. This absolved them of any Fail also says that its youth movement, tied to speculation about the future of his wrong-doing and showed they were Ogra Fianna Fail, now has more the 150 father. Perhaps it should be remembered certainly not recipients of money from members in the North. Ulster Unionist that it is second nature to the British the Great Northern Bank Raid. The self- Party leader, Sir Reg Empey, said: "He State to destabilize everything it touches proclaimed journal of record, the Irish is a member of President McAleese's and there are hundreds of British secret Times, did not report on it for a couple of Council of State and has been for a policemen in the Six Counties with little days and then in a way that kept number of years so he was always else to do. suspicions as alive as possible. Remem- obviously interested in that sort of thing." ber the wheely bins of millions of pounds, That sort of thing!!! Interestingly, Mr. Brendan Hughes, former OC IRA pounds being burned in back gardens Bicker was opposed to the Good Friday prisoners in Long Kesh, died in Belfast and notes flying out of chimneys all over Agreement. 16th February 2008. Though he Passage West? It was international news disagreed with recent Sinn Fein policies, with all the dramatic spin that was pos- Ian Paisley Jnr resigned on February he remained on good terms with all sible to extract. What was not so well 18th as a Stormont Minister (but not as Republicans. Gerry Adams and Fra reported was the number of small busi- an MLA) amid controversy over his McCann helped carry his coffin. Mem- nesses who were practically ruined by dealings with businessman Seymour bers D Coy, 2nd Battalion, Belfast having had dealings with the suspect Sweeney and others (see IPR passim). Brigade formed a guard of honour. In Cunningham. And all for what? It was Paisley had lobbied Tony Blair and the 1973 he escaped from Long Kesh in a but another journalistic feeding-frenzy Assembly when Sweeney wanted to rolled up mattress but was caught in orchestrated by the Government as part build a private visitors' centre at the May 1974 and sentenced to 15 years. of the peace process! The fact now rem- Giant's Causeway. It emerged that While inside he was sentenced to another ains that the only Northern Bank money Sweeney was a member of the DUP. 5 years and, as this was done after 1st ever found was in an RUC leisure centre. Paisley says that he lobbied on behalf of March 1976, the British were able to We have pointed out before that many people because they were constitu- transfer him to the H blocks where he Cunningham was a legitimate ents. He added: "Personal criticism, lost his POW status. He organized the businessman with a good reputation for unfounded allegations, innuendo and "dirty protest" in 1978 and was on hunger giving a better deal to entrepreneurs attacks on me personally—followed by strike for 56 days in 1980. His health than banks. He stood in an election to ombudsman's reports that have cleared never properly recovered from this and make his point. Hardly the behaviour of me—this relentless period of criticism he was just 59 when he died. On Saturday a dodgy character. A couple of million by those who have decided on this path 23rd November some of his ashes were pounds is small change in the has been unrelenting." Indeed, the whole scattered at the IRA war memorial on international property market between thing seems to have been much ado the Falls Road and a firing party (or what Cork and other parts of the world—it about very little. An Phoblacht only the Irish News choose to call 'gunmen') could be the deposits on a few local says "his business affairs had the whiff fired in tribute. houses. On this occasion Cunningham of unreliability about them…!" There Mairead Farrell is due to be commemor- was facilitating Bulgarian investors in seems to be a campaign to undermine ated at Stormont's Long Gallery on Irish business and property. And would the DUP from diehard Unionists, and March 8th, International Women's Day. you keep that type of money in a safe in resentful OUP supporters allied with She was assassinated, along with Sean your house to make it easy for robbing? elements of the SDLP. But even a Whiff Savage and Danny McCann, by British A used plastic bag is well known as the can cause a problem with the DUP soldiers at the Spain-Gibraltar crossing safest place to keep a million or two. Do members. It is probably the straightest point on March 6th 1988. The three Irish journalists live in another planet or party around. As some wit said—if were unarmed and attempted to surrender do their expense accounts make them members want to get up to serious at the time. It was at their funeral that mesmerised by the sight of real money? skullduggery they should go across the water and join New Labour! Michael Stone shot dead three mourners, Unionist Joins FF. Harvey Bicker, former possibly with the support of the RUC Ulster Unionist Councillor and British Gregory Campbell, the DUP MLA and and certainly with their help after the army officer has joined Fianna Fail (Irish MP, was slated for claiming rent for his shooting. Danny Kennedy, Deputy 3 Leader of the UUP said: "It would be the Paul Stewart DUP 1,069 in 1968, we find no other Sinn Feiner in equivalent of hosting a reception in Carol Black UUP 912 the old news reels. The Civil Rights Drogheda for Oliver Cromwell" (News Keith Harbinson TUV 739 movement was a broad coalition Letter 23.2.08). Jennifer McCann, Sinn David Griffen Alliance 357 seeking democratic reforms within Paul Gribben Sinn Fein 350 Northern Ireland… The Provisional Fein MLA in West Belfast said: "I believe John Drake SDLP 290 movement… was formed by a group that in the constituency I represent Helen Corry Green Party 59 violently opposed to any reform which Mairead Farrell is an icon, particularly With transfers, Carol Black of the they saw as 'propping up' Stormont… for young women, and basically I'm not UUP won the election. After the fifth By Summer 1970 the main aims of the asking people to agree with that but I'm count it was UUP 1,571 and DUP 1,505. Civil Rights movement had been asking people to respect that." Nelson But whose transfers? The TUV votes achieved or conceded… That was the point at which a number of leading McCausland of the DUP said: "People were split almost equally—377 to the like Farrell and her fellow terrorists in people in that movement decided that a UUP and 327 to the DUP, which gives as new party, the SDLP, should be formed the IRA killed hundreds of innocent good a clue as anything else as to where women throughout the course of their to work politically in the new, more the TUV votes came from in the first democratic conditions…. It was also campaign of terror. To hold such a place. The crucial factor in the UUP the point at which the Provos, having person up as a role model demonstrates retaining its seat was the transfer of 182 deposed the progressive republican some of the warped thinking which exists votes from the Alliance Party to the leadership, launched their bomb and inside Sinn Fein." It has to wondered UUP. We have been able to find only bullet campaign." what the Gibraltar Three themselves one other even passably realistic All very neat. So the SDLP was would have made of the location for the assessment of the election—albeit from never a nationalist Party. The 1969 memorial! an anti-SF standpoint—that was in a pogroms never happened. But though The Dromore By-Election result has been letter to the Irish News on 22nd February this history may be false it gives a good welcomed by the Unionist columnist, from Sean Swan in Baltimore, Co. Cork. insight into how the SDLP now sees Roy Garland, in the Irish News, as a Here are extracts: itself—a peaceful sectarian Party want- victory for the Ulster Unionist Party. "It was sad to see Roy Garland ing to run the Northern Ireland statelet The Party Leader, Reg Empey said on celebrating the Dromore by-election just like its other side of the coin, the television that the result showed that his results. It was only technically a victory Ulster Unionist Party. It has devised a party can win elections and the DUP can for the Ulster Unionist Party - their nice simple history for itself to support lose elections. The vote was on 13th share of the vote actually fell from its present position. February. Here's how the Irish News 2005. What Dromore means is the rise Informers. Possibly having run out of of the Traditional Unionist Voice as an reported it two days later: "A surprise Republicans to 'out' as informers, MI5 is Ulster Unionist victory in the Dromore electoral force. If it is repeated in Westminster and European elections, now getting informers who the Repub- by-election has sent shockwaves through lican Movement have themselves the unionist community in what has been Sinn Fein—whose share of the vote increased in Dromore—will emerge as discovered but have let alone, to 'out' described as a 'Black day' for the DUP". the largest party in Northern Ireland by themselves. The latest is Roy McShane, A 'Black day' for the DUP was what was far. This is a strange outcome for a a former associate of Freddie Scappaticci hoped for and predicted before the unionist like Roy to celebrate. In fact and one of the leadership's former drivers. election. It was not what actually it's not something for anybody to MacShane's treachery was discovered happened. But the Irish News and the celebrate as destabilizing Unionism almost 20 years ago, as was that of media in general are determined to means destabilizing the Good Friday others. Neighbours of his suspected Agreement—and nobody should promote the UUP against the DUP as the him. But on February 8th his old handlers 'moderates'. Facts are neither here nor pretend that they know where that would lead… We all know what the Paisleyites took him into protective custody and there. The UUP itself gives the details were in the press. Doubtless impression that the power-sharing and the Provos were—it's what they are now that matters. Trimble and Mallon there are a few more who were internally Executive has nothing to do with it. failed…" exposed in the 80s and 90s to be re- Never mind that it and the SDLP have New SDLP History. The SDLP has been exposed drip by drip to undermine Sinn Ministers on the Executive. 'Moderate' referring to itself as the Civil Rights Fein. is a strange term for a Party which seems Party in recent months as we head determined to wreck the present set-up Flags & Emblems. There are strong towards the 40th anniversary of the in the name of traditional unionism and protests by the Orange Order and other famous Civil Rights march that was is delighted that MEP Jim Allister has Protestant bodies against the decision battoned off the Streets of Derry on 5th set up the Traditional Unionist Voice by Banbridge District Council to remove October 1968. The notion is that things (TUV) against the DUP. (It is said that commemorative items from public would have been fine if the movement the OUP would prefer to withdraw from display on Council property under its was left alone but the Provos came along the Executive if the SDLP would join it, 'flags and emblems' policy. Final and spoiled it all. And this is a position but that the SDLP is unwilling.) decisions will be taken after consulta- given every publicity by the Irish News. The Irish News version of Dromore tions. The items proposed for removal A flavour can be seen in a letter by SDLP was the version peddled by the UUP and include: paintings of an Orange Lodge MLA, Alban McGuinness, in the Irish the SDLP. On the Internet there were and an RAF checkpoint as well as plaques News on 9th February 2008, under the several pages about the by-election, but presented to the Council by: the RUC headline Free At Last: none of them printed the actual results. Male Voice Choir, the Royal British And most said or implied that there was "Francie Molloy is right when he Legion, the Ulster Defence Regiment, a UUP gain from the DUP. In fact the states that republicans were closely the Ulster Special Constabulary, the seat had been held in the last two local involved in setting up the Civil Rights Royal Irish Rangers, the Royal Irish elections by Tyrone Howe for the UUP. movement. The involvement of the Rifles, the Royal Irish Fusilliers, The founders of the SDLP—John Hume, Howe, a former Irish international rugby RAF Irish Guards and, for some reason, Ivan Cooper, Austin Currie, Paddy the Hampshire Constabulary. The player, resigned in November 2007. The O'Hanlon, Paddy Devlin and others— following are the figures for first prefer- present composition of Banbridge is a matter of history, as is the party's District Council is: DUP 6, UUP 5, ence votes which this column finally got subsequent record. Apart from Francie, from Banbridge District Council: who stewarded the Coalisland march continued on page 24 4 that each state will retain a veto on foreign affairs, but that is not the whole truth. Qualified majority voting by Ministers The Lisbon Treaty will apply in a number of areas in foreign affairs. For example, when the EU General On 29th January 2008, Gordon Brown under the Lisbon Treaty, which merely Affairs and External Relations Council entertained German Chancellor, Angela forbids the President of the Council from asks the EU foreign minister for a proposal Merkel, French President, Nicolas Sarkozy holding "a national office", that is, a on a particular subject, once s/he has made and Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, governmental position in one of the EU a proposal the Council will accept or reject in Downing Street. This was Gordon states. Earlier drafts of the Constitution the proposal by qualified majority voting. Brown's first big EU initiative, his spin forbad the President of the Council from Furthermore, all decisions with regard to doctors told the world. After complaints being "a member of another European the diplomatic service will be taken by by other EU states, Jose Manuel Barroso, institution" as well, but that bar was later qualified majority voting. EU Commission President, was invited— removed and the President of the The balance between the Union and to represent the "small countries" of the Commission can now be elected President individual states has shifted in other ways EU, it was said. of the Council. as well. The states' right of veto has been Was this the way that the EU was going abolished in some 60 areas by the Lisbon to be run in future, I wondered, with the A FOREIGN MINISTER Treaty. Qualified majority voting is to be big EU states agreeing positions in There are other ways in which the made officially the norm—the "ordinary advance, as the five veto-wielding Lisbon Treaty will enhance the role of the legislative procedure". And the system of members of the Security Council do these Union at the expense of member states, qualified majority voting is to be altered days, having given up any pretence that notably in the area of foreign affairs. The so that it will be more difficult for the views of the ten temporary members Constitution provided for the creation of individual states to block legislation. In of the Council matter? If so, there would Minister of Foreign Affairs, formed by future, to pass legislation at least 55% of have to be a seat at the table in future for merging the functions of the High EU states (that is, at least 15 out of the the permanent President of the Council of Representative for the Common Foreign present 27) must vote for it and the states Ministers, a post which will be created by and Security Policy (CFSP) and the that vote for it must have at least 65% of the Lisbon Treaty. External Relations Commissioner, the the EU population. The net result will be posts currently held by Javier Solana of that the ability of individual states to block A PERMANENT PRESIDENT Spain and Benita Ferrero-Waldner of legislation will diminish, and the smaller This proposition in the Treaty has been Austria, respectively. The Treaty creates the state the more it will diminish. Other presented as a kind of tidying up exercise, a post with the same role, but is to be thing being equal, the influence of the made necessary by the fact that the EU has named the High Representative of the larger states within the EU will rise at the 27 members. It is inefficient to have the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security expense of the smaller states. presidency rotating around 27 states every Policy (HRUFASP)—which will, of six months, it is said. In fact, the rotation course, be known as the EU foreign WHY HAS THE UK RETREATED? is no more or less efficient with 27 states minister. It's likely that the new permanent Early in the negotiations on the than it was with 6. However, the drawback President will also spend most of his time Constitution (which began in 2002), the for big states is that they get to hold the representing the EU in the world. You can UK resisted much of this ceding of states' presidency every thirteen and half years see why Tony Blair is angling for the sovereignty to the Union. It was instead of every three years—and so do Presidency. particularly vociferous in defending states' Luxembourg and Malta. Like the permanent president, the EU rights to an independent foreign policy, Now there is to be a permanent foreign minister will be appointed by for example, it initially opposed the EU President, initially for two and a half years qualified majority voting by Ministers, foreign minister (a) taking over the role of and renewable further two and a half years. and individual states won't have a veto. the External Relations Commissioner, (b) Significantly, individual states will not The foreign minister will be a member of being a member of the Commission, (c) have a veto over who becomes President, the Commission and will chair meetings chairing the General Affairs and External who will be elected by qualified majority of EU foreign ministers in the EU General Relations Council, and (d) speaking for voting by Ministers. Affairs and External Relations Council. the EU at the Security Council. It also Gordon Brown could have Tony Blair Furthermore, when the EU has a defined opposed the creation of an EU diplomatic imposed upon him by other states. Blair policy on a subject on the agenda of the service. But, during the negotiation of the seems to be angling for the job. He went Security Council, EU states who are Constitution, the UK has retreated from to the UMP conference in January at the members of the Security Council will be all these positions. invitation of Nicolas Sarkozy and obliged to request that the EU foreign My guess is that this retreat is a product described himself as a "socialist", which minister be allowed to attend and speak of the fact that in recent years the EU has is a sure sign that something is afoot. for the EU. (From this, it follows logically generally been persuaded to support US/ The rotating presidency was a symbol that there should be a single EU veto in the UK foreign policy, for example, on Iran that the EU, in its current and earlier Security Council, instead of the UK and and Palestine. In the light of this, the UK's forms, was an association of states with France having one each, but it can be reluctance to cede sovereignty to the Union each state taking a turn at running it, while guaranteed that the neither the UK nor on foreign affairs has diminished and it the permanent European Commission was France will agree to give up its veto.) has accepted that the establishment of the unifying mechanism acting for the For the first time, there is to be an EU what amounts to an EU foreign ministry Union as a whole. With the appointment diplomatic service—its official title is the and diplomatic service is necessary if the of a permanent President, this balance European External Action Service— EU is to be effective in support of US/UK will shift away from individual states and bringing together the External Relations foreign policy. towards the Union. Commissioner's staff working in Brussels The Lisbon Treaty is currently before This shift will be more pronounced if (less than 1,000) with the 5,000 or so staff the House of Commons. Given its history the roles of President of the Council of in the Commission's "delegations" around of opposition to ceding sovereignty to the Ministers and the President of the the world. EU, one might have thought that the Commission are merged. This is permitted The British Government keeps saying Conservative Party would be manning the 5 barricades to resist the measures men- Stop Blair ! have led to an unprecedented decline in civil tioned above. But it is not. Yes, it is liberties. This is in contradiction with the opposing the Treaty, but not with the Petition against the nomination of terms of the European Convention of Human fervour one would expect, given the Tony Blair as "President of the Rights, which is an integral part of the treaty. significance of what is being proposed. It European Union" The European Charter of Fundamental appears that the penny has also dropped Bookmakers are offering 2/1 odds on Rights formalises the founding values of the with the Conservatives that it is Blair being elected the first President of European project and is one of the pillars of the European Union. Second favourite is the new treaty. Tony Blair fought its inclusion advantageous to Britain to have an EU Luxembourg's PM, Jean Claude Junker Foreign Ministry, when there's a good in the Treaty of Lisbon, and eventually at 3/1. Bertie Ahern comes in at 5/1. managed to secure an exemption for the chance of Britain being in a position to Several thousand people have already drive it. UK. signed an Internet Petition against Rather than move European integration (The Conservative Party's main attack 'President' Blair sponsored by the group forward, the former British Prime Minister below on the Government is that the Labour set a series of so-called red line during the Party promised, in its 2005 election Sign the Petition! Lisbon negotiations, with the intent of manifesto, to hold a referendum on the at blocking any progress in social issues and Constitution and it is now refusing to hold [email protected] tax harmonisation, as well as common a referendum on the functionally defence and foreign policy. equivalent Treaty. Since the Liberal We, European citizens of all origins and Furthermore, it seems unthinkable that Democrats, who also promised a of all political persuasions, wish to express the first President of the European Council referendum in their election manifesto, our total opposition to the nomination of should be the former head of a government have also reneged on their promise, there Tony Blair to the Presidency of the European that kept its country out of two key elements won't be a referendum and the Treaty will Council. The Treaty of Lisbon provides for of the construction of Europe: the Schengen be approved by Parliament, perhaps after the new post of President of the European area of free movement of people and the Council, to be elected by the Council for a a hiccup or two in the House of Lords.) Euro zone. mandate, renewable once only, of two and a At a time when one of the priorities of the * * * * * half years. European institutions is to reconnect with its I haven't said anything about the Under the terms of the Treaty: "The citizens, we believe it is essential that the possible social and economic impact of President of the European Council shall President of the European Council should the Lisbon Treaty, because I don't know chair it and drive forward its work" and be a person with whom a majority of citizens enough about those aspects of the Treaty "shall ensure the preparation and continuity can identify, rather than one rejected by a to judge. I cannot say whether there was of the work of the European Council". majority. Therefore, we declare our total real substance to the proposition advanced Further, "The President of the European opposition to this nomination. by the French left that the Constitution Council shall, at his level and in that capacity, would have set the EU unequivocally on a ensure the external representation of the neo-liberal economic path, which was a Union on issues concerning its common European Union major reason why the French referendum foreign and security policy". Israel joins the on the Constitution was lost. Certainly, The future President of the European Competitiveness and Council will therefore have a key role in Britain has no longer any reason to fear determining the policies of the European Innovation Programme (CIP) that its neo-liberal economic system is Union and its relations with the rest of the The vice-president of the European Com- going to be subjected to regulation from world. This first Council Presidency will mission Gunter Verheugen and Israeli Deputy Brussels. also have a major symbolic weight for both Prime Minister Eliyahu Yishai recently signed Britain has therefore nothing to fear in citizens of the European Union and for the the Memorandum of Understanding on the domestic affairs from a more integrated image of the Union in the rest of the world. Competitiveness and Innovation Programme EU—and it reckons it can make use of a In this perspective, we believe it is essential (CIP) in Tel Aviv. Israel is the first neighbouring more integrated EU in foreign affairs. that the first president embodies the spirit country to access the CIP. It will join the first Unfortunately, small states are unlikely to and values of the European project. pillar of the Programme, called Entrepreneur- stand up against Britain's designs for the For some time now, increasingly insistent ship and Innovation (EIP). The aim of joining EU in foreign affairs, since their popula- news reports have made evident a wish, in is to foster the competitiveness of enterprises, tions are unlikely to object, as they may to some quarters, to see Tony Blair appointed especially small and medium ones. Thanks to do to the prospect of Directives from the first President of the European Council. the EIP, Israeli business providers and innov- Brussels affecting their everyday life. This appointment, were it to take place, ation services will be able to be part of the David Morrison would be in total contradiction with the 26 February 2008 values professed by the European project. European networks. www.david-morrison.org.uk In violation of international law, Tony Israel has expressed its interest in participat- Blair committed his country to a war in Iraq ing in the other two pillars of the CIP— that a large majority of European citizens Information and Communication Technologies opposed. This war has claimed hundreds of (ICT) and Intelligent Energy Europe Prog- Irish European thousands of victims and displaced millions ramme—in the future. Related Links: European of refugees. It has been a major factor in Commission—press release: Referendum today's profound destabilisation of the < http://www.europa.eu/rapid/ Middle East, and has weakened world pressReleasesAction. do?reference=IP/07/1643& Group format=HTML&aged=0&language= security. In order to lead his country into EN&guiLanguage=en > The anti-EU socialist grouping war, Mr Blair made systematic use of More information on the CIP: fabricated evidence and the manipulation of http://www.ipr-helpdesk.org/controlador/ campaigning for a "No" vote on the resources/showDocument EU Reform Treaty have a website information. His role in the Iraq war would ?idFicha=0000006582&formato=xml_html&nomF with a lot of material on it. The weigh heavily on the image of the Union in ichero=ES_cip_nutshell&idFichero=01&len=deRelated the world, should he in fact be named its
The Debate On Workers' Control. From Discussion To Denial. From Failure To Fallout. From 1975 To Now.
New from Athol Books: a magazine detailing the ins and outs of the debate on workers' control in the seventies that centred on The Bullock Committee Of Inquiry Into Industrial Democracy. The first issue includes: Introduction by Jack Jones; Jack Jones on Ernie Bevin: Trade Unionist; Reflections on the Campaign for Workers' Control in Britain by Conor Lynch; Threee Issues of the polemical paper Workers & Industry. And more. Copies of this issue are available from Athol Books, 33 Athol Street, Belfast, BT12 4GX, Northern Ireland. Price £4.00; €6.00. Subscriptions to an electronic version of the magazine in PDF format are available online from http://www.atholbooks.org/Shop/ main.php. Price per issue: £1.00; €1.50.
10 the appearance of the ink deposits. I them watching him watching them. If and the disputed diaries, with their have therefore noted the physical they had discovered the, then illegal, anomalies and discordances, were difference, appearance and differences "sordid sex with a series of young men" explained as propaganda. Casement and between inks as appropriate, leaving Harris referred to, they could have used it those like him earnestly hoped an Ireland the question of possible further against him and terminated his would emerge which one day could think destructive analysis to be considered investigation. That this did not happen for itself. Interestingly and ironically, the further." suggests the "sordid sex" allegation is derivative way the memory of the man Yet a number of sources including the hollow. himself is treated demonstrates vividly manufacturers of the equipment; Foster When Casement arrived in Berlin in this has not happened. Freeman, and even lately the website of late 1914, due to relatively recent research the Giles Laboratory itself, refer to the in German archives we now know he was technique as "non-destructive". shadowed by German spies trying to REPORT In an effort to obtain clarification on ascertain if he was a double agent. They this anomaly I wrote by email to Dr. Giles reported no evidence of a clandestine Why we should not on Dec 6th last. To date (Feb 23rd), I have homosexual lifestyle. not received a reply. Harris used the well known allegations recognise Kosovo about Casement's conduct as a human A BLÜCHER LETTER BLUNDER rights investigator in the early 20th century Extracts from a letter appeared on the AND KEVIN MANNERINGS to construct, if not a justification, at least new state of Kosovo appeared in the Irish In the Roger Casement Symposium an excuse for the sexual exploitation of Examiner of 22nd February article Scribbled Recollections I which young people in less developed countries. appeared in January's Irish Political But these allegations about Casement are The reaction of our newspapers… Review I referred to the contribution of a matter of opinion and are still very much seems to be that as a small nation, we Casement Diaries sleuth Kevin Manner- in dispute. Only facts which are nailed should welcome the emergence of this ings. It has been brought to my attention down with ample evidence should be used new 'state'. that Kevin had pointed out at the outset as a basis for views on such a serious Common to almost all the coverage is a that much investigative work needed to be matter as sex tourism in the less developed cursory analysis of the motives of those done yet on the matters he was to talk world. Tim O'Sullivan countries that have chosen not to recognise about. What he was about to say, then, was this unilateral declaration. a matter of interpretation into which few Editorial Note: An Irish Times editorial So the Cypriots are concerned about final and definite conclusions could be (Feb 23) on the Cathal O Searcaigh contro- the Turkish north of the island, the Spanish read. versy also included Roger Casement are worried about the Basques and the Regarding the letter from Blücher, the amongst Irish "famous pederasts": Tim Catalans, and so forth. route has not been deliniated by which it O'Sullivan also took issue with that view However, nobody seems to have found its way to eventually end up in the in a letter submitted on 26th February: thought it worthwhile to examine the National Library in Dublin. So, unlike motives of those countries supporting the what was stated in the January article, we Irish Provincialism and Irony ethnic Albanians in their separatist can not take it as having been definatively ambitions—the US, Germany, France and I have to thank you for placing before established that the letter passed through Britain in particular. us an interesting irony contained in your the hands of British Intelligence. Kosovo cannot survive without a editorial (Feb 23) on the Cathal O Tim O'Sullivan massive input of aid from the so-called Searcaigh controversy. international community. In return, it has You included Roger Casement among offered itself as a convenient foothold in Eoghan Harris on your list of Irish "famous pederasts" in the Balkans for the strategic interests of that article. Indeed, you might do that, if it the US and NATO. Already, the territory Fairytale of Kathmandu is your wont to accept the standard received is the site of Camp Bondsteel, the largest version of the history of the First World The following letter was submitted to the US military base constructed since the War as peddled and promoted by the Sunday Independent on 13th February Vietnam war. British state and its supporters and agents. 2008 but was not published …I find it disquieting that the What a blessing too it is that all we need to Government appears to be slavishly Last Sunday Eoghan Harris, in his do to understand that period of history, or following the lead of the big powers in this column, tackled the difficult matter of the indeed any other matter, great or small, is matter. I urge the cabinet not to recognise sexual exploitation allegations made to crane our necks eastwards and wait for this illegal state. Tom O'Donoghue against the poet Cathal O Searcaigh in the a cue, a nod or a pointer in the appropriate new documentary Fairytale of Kath- direction. It certainly is far easier than the mandu. The result was something both long and demanding slog which is required bewildered and bewildering. to develop an intellectual and cultural Supporting He claimed Roger Casement's reputa- sensibility of one's own, be it a matter of Lá Nua tion "would have been ruined if a film the individual or communities. crew had followed all his activities in the Casement, in British eyes was a traitor, Cuidiú de dhíth! An t-aon pháipéar laethúil Congo and Brazilian jungles". The South and a bad one at that. Worse, he was a as Gaeilge atá againn! Sínigh le bhur dtoil American jungles involved in his human decorated knight of the realm. His betrayal ag rights investigations were in fact in Peru, begged an explanation which the bizarre http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ln0502/ not Brazil. sexual narrative of the Black Diaries Casement had something more threat- helped provide. Casement's own view that agus "Tar i gcabhair ar Lá Nua/Support ening to contend with than a film crew. the British Empire bore a great part of the Lá Nua". Scaip an scéal más These were the gang members of the responsibility for the outbreak of that war mian libh. murderous slaving network he was was not welcome. He needed to be investigating and confronting in Peru. His demonised. Áine Durkin mission was no mystery and his photo had From an Irish Nationalist point of view appeared in the local press. It was a case of Casement had no need to be demonised 11 Property worth £3 million was destroyed." The War Of Independence "Anti-Catholicism in the new state of Northern Ireland existed in its pure And Peter Hart's 'Sectarian Argument' form, operating at the levels of ideas, behaviour and social structure as it came In the Irish Political Review (February I am currently looking at the emergence to shape the society whose state Protest- 2008), Jack Lane commented on a recent of revisionist historiography in the 1970s, ants now… The ascendancy in the North RTE Hidden History documentary on the and its use to reframe the conflict between was effected immediately by means of July 1921 IRA execution of the Pearson 1919-21 in ethnic or purely sectarian terms. the Protestantisation of the administrat- Brothers at Coolacrease, Co Offaly. Jack Some of the research may be relevant in ion and personnel of the state" (Anti- observed, "The devil is in the detail" response to some of the points raised by Catholicism in Northern Ireland, 1600- provided by researchers Pat Muldowney Jack Lane. An enquiry into Peter Hart's 1998: The Mote and the Beam, 1998, p92-93). and Philip McConway, but largely ignored revisions of his own account may also be by the Hidden History programme makers. instructive. In 1992 Hart completed a PhD Wilson was killed at the height of anti- Jack goes on to comment on later kill- thesis in TCD. It was also named, The IRA Catholic violence. Immediate threats of ings of loyalists in Dunmanway between And Its Enemies. British re-invasion prompted Michael 27-29th April 1922, while the Truce Collins' June 28 1922 Free State attack on between Irish and British forces was in NORTHERN SECTARIANISM the Republican Four Courts garrison, the force. The killings took place four months Catholics suffered sectarian oppression start of the Irish Civil War and subsequent after the republican split over the terms of in the North. In July 1920, 8-10,000 victory of conservative forces in Irish the Anglo Irish Treaty, two months prior Catholics and socialists were expelled society. Ironically the pretext for the attack, to the outbreak of the Irish Civil War. The from the Harland and Wolff shipyards the killing of Wilson, was more likely killings are important to those who suggest and from other workplaces by unionist linked to Collins than to Anti-Treaty that the Irish War of Independence was a mobs. Unionism was directly implicated, forces. Collins had been exercised about largely sectarian or 'ethnic' conflict. Jack while the leadership of the main Protestant the daily attacks on Catholics in Northern correctly points to the pivotal role of Peter churches in the North acted as apologists. Ireland. Dunne and Sullivan were under Hart's The IRA And Its Enemies (1998) in Sectarian attacks intensified after the the command of Sam Maguire, who was promoting this view, one shared by the Northern Ireland State was set up in June in turn Michael Collins' man in England. historian Roy Foster and a couple of jour- 1922. They were even more one sided The Civil War disrupted a combined pro nalists who assiduously promote it. The than what went before. Nationalists had and anti Treaty IRA attack on the state of April 1922 killings in Cork are used to begun to offer some resistance. Lloyd Northern Ireland, whose consolidation give the impression that the same thing George wrote to Churchill: contributed to the long-term isolation of happened elsewhere, for instance the Cool- "It is true that several protestants northern nationalists from political forces acrease killings in Offaly in July 1921. have been murdered, but the murders in the South. However, while correctly pinpointing the of Catholics went on at a rate of three or April 1922 events as "the elephant in the four to one for some time before SOUTHERN SECTARIANISM parlour", Jack engages in speculation in Catholic reprisals attained their present The 26 County state did develop which the 'detail' is left behind. dimensions and even now the sectarian traits, but there is no legitimate proportions are two Catholics murdered Jack raises the possibility of agent to one protestant although the comparison with the North. In the South provocateurs being responsible for the population is two Protestants to one no organised, systematic attacks on April killings and speculates on a role for Catholic" (in Jim McDermott, Northern Protestants took place. In fact the physical the fanatical unionist MP Field Marshal Divisions, the old IRA and the Belfast coercion of nationalists in the North, on Sir Henry Wilson. Wilson led opposition pogroms 1920-22 2001, p191). the basis that they were Catholics, was to the British withdrawal from the 26 mirrored by ideological control, based on Counties, encouraged sectarian pogroms Brewer and Higgins observed: Catholic social teaching, of nationalists in against defenceless Catholics in Northern "the orgy of violence in 1922 once the South. Protestants were not persecuted Ireland, and called for the re-occupation Protestants controlled the state saw because, aside from other considerations, of the 26 Counties. Catholics alone as victims… [I]t was it made no political sense. The Catholic In raising the possibility of British agent illegal for Catholics to possess weapons, Church's cruel Ne Temere decree issued provocateurs, speculation is mounted on while Protestant mobs engaged in in Rome did deplete Protestant numbers massacre. The paradox was not lost on speculation in suggesting that Wilson the English press. The Manchester in mixed marriages in the South. However, might have been responsible. It is also Guardian commented in March 1922: relative Protestant social and economic suggested that Wilson's assassination on “whilst envenomed politicians in the privilege was maintained. 22nd June 1922 by IRA volunteers, Ulster parliament are voting themselves The South developed a functioning civil Reginald Dunne and Joseph O'Sullivan, powers to use torture and capital society that generated internal secular might have been prompted by suspicion punishment against citizens whom they reform. The state was forced to abandon about Wilson's role in the April killings. It forbid to defend themselves, whilst they its use of the Church to run education, can reasonably be surmised that Sam Mag- scarcely attempt to protect them from health and social services. In the sectarian uire, a Dunmanway Protestant and member massacre, some of their own partisans state of Northern Ireland reform was not of the IRA in England, 'knew the in Belfast carry wholesale murder to possible. Nationalists were the victims of refinements of barbarity”." [Dunmanway] victims personally'. But coercion and of unrelenting economic and Jack continued, "He [Maguire] suspected After partition came into effect in June political discrimination for over 50 years. the reasons they were killed was a 1922, However, in The IRA And Its Enemies provocation orchestrated by Wilson". Jack "Virtually all the 232 victims were (1998) Peter Hart attempted to suggest a also suggested that IRA leaders, 'Tom Catholic, and 11,000 were made jobless degree of republican sectarian reciprocat- Barry, Sean O'Hegarty, Tom Hales, could and 23,000 homeless as Protestants ion in Cork for events in Belfast between not figure out who did it and were always protected their access to socio- 1920-22. convinced that it was a provocation. Where economic resources. Over 4,500 In the interregnum after the Treaty split, is the evidence for these thoughts? Where Catholic-owned shops and businesses in the first six months of 1922 up to the is the 'detail'? were burned, looted or wrecked. onset of civil war, there was a breakdown 12 of civil control. Kee's The Green Flag, conclusions. Meda Ryan pointed out in Auxiliaries as they evacuated Dunmanway Volume III, (1972, p163), reports, "In the History (April 2007) that Hart Workhouse. I pointed out that it was Hart three weeks from 29 March to 19 April, misrepresented her account of the himself who noted (1998, p129) that it 323 post offices were robbed in the South Kilmichael Ambush in The Tom Barry was published in The Southern Star in of Ireland; and forty consignments of Story (1982). I have come across other 1971, with informers' names removed out goods were seized from the Dublin and examples in Hart's account of the April of deference to local families. A similar South-Eastern Railway between 23 March Killings. For example, Hart stated that consideration informed Tom Barry in his and 22 April, though in only thirty of the Clarina Buttimer, wife of James, one of Guerrilla Days In Ireland. cases was the seizure even stated to be 'by the first victims, "seems to have recognised I went on order IRA'". at least one of her husband's attackers". "Hart claimed that, apart from the In rural areas some who had not yet No source was given for the claim. The name excisions, this “invaluable series received land seized it. They also drove or Southern Star (April 29 1922) and The of articles reproduces the complete stole livestock. There were also cases of Irish Independent, (May 1 1922) report text”. However, despite not possessing farm occupations by those claiming to Clarina Buttimer as stating, "Though there a key piece of the jigsaw, Hart made have been previously evicted. This activity were a number of men there, she only saw speculative assumptions about the tended to affect Protestants disproportion- one, whom she did not recognise". This is victims of the April killings. The ately because Protestants were dispropor- one of a number of areas where the assumptions turn out to have been wrong. The publicity Peter Hart gained tionately large landowners. Some of this published record contradicts Hart's claims. for his sensational findings caused a activity appears to have been for personal response in which the linked names gain. It was sometimes accompanied by ETHNIC CLEANSING from the Auxiliary diary were published the sending of threats to Protestants, claim- In 2006, in response to my commenting in 2003." ing to be in response to the pogroms in the in The Irish Times that the Orange Order Hart had only partial knowledge of the North. Both sides of the IRA, which was cited Hart as an authority on 'murders' of in favour of regulated land reform, actively Protestants, Hart surprisingly, somewhat Auxiliary intelligence material, informa- opposed this sectarian opportunism. irrelevantly and also mistakenly, tion he gleaned from publication in The Southern Star in 1971. In fact there was responded, "Niall Meehan, as usual, Peter Hart asked the following question misrepresents my work. I have never more material relating to loyalist in an effort to explain a "polarisation of argued that 'ethnic cleansing' took place intelligence agents or assets he did not encounter, though he did read of its exist- perceptions" on revolutionary violence: in Cork or elsewhere in the 1920s—in "If a Protestant farmer was attacked, was fact, quite the opposite". ence. This was clear from a prominent it because of religion or politics or his land article by Peadar O'Donovan on page 47 I had not accused Hart of using the of the 1989 Southern Star Centenary or all three". One contemporary observer term, 'ethnic cleansing'. However, I Supplement. It referred to "documents, felt competent to state in 1921: "If replied that it would not have been Protestant farmers are murdered, it is not including a small pocket sized diary". misrepresentation had I stated what Hart cites the article and page number in by reason of their religion, but rather Peter Hart denied. After all, in 1996 The IRA And Its Enemies, but unfortunately because they are under suspicion as Loyalist. The distinction is fine, but a real Hart wrote wrote: missed this important information. one". He asserted, correctly, "Protestants "Similar campaigns of what might The April killings were exceptional. This was recognised by those assumed at in the South do not complain of persecution be termed 'ethnic cleansing' were waged on sectarian grounds". This account also in parts of Kings and Queens Counties, the time to be the intended targets, Irish South Tipperary, Leitrim, Mayo, noted, "when a brave prelate", Cork's Protestants. A highly significant Irish Limerick, Westmeath, Louth and Cork. Protestant Convention was held on 11th Bishop Colohan, spoke out, "his flock Worst of all was the massacre of 14 May 1922 in Dublin's Mansion House. It have turned their back on him" with the men in West Cork in April [1922], after rejoinder, "we take our religion, but not resolved, "apart from this incident, hostility an IRA officer had been killed breaking to Protestants by reason of their religion, our politics, from Rome". He wrote, "to into a house."… has been almost, if not wholly unknown, conceive the struggle as religious in Hart republished this view in 2003. In character is… misleading". The observer in the 26 counties in which they are a addition, Hart's Memorial University minority" (The Irish Independent, The was Lionel Curtis, Lloyd George's imperial History Department's web page states, Irish Times, May 12 1922; also, see The advisor, writing in 1921 after a tour of under 'Research', that Hart researches Ireland on behalf of the British Cabinet. Irish Independent May 3 1922). Hart failed 'ethnic conflict and cleansing in Ireland'. to mention the event that occupied copious This competent witness directly I continued, contradicted his own Government's amounts of newsprint. propaganda on this point. We should take "The evidence in fact suggests that these maverick, post-Treaty, pre-Civil On an almost daily basis in The Irish Curtis's opinion seriously. Not only was War killings targeted loyalist British Times and Irish Independent Protestants he there at the time, the evidence supports agents, in which close relatives were denied that they had ever suffered the conclusion, and the conclusion is shot dead in two cases. They were systematic sectarian discrimination in the inimical to the case Curtis would otherwise stamped out locally by the IRA, but South. Supporting the resolution at the have wished to put on behalf of his were “motivated by political and not Protestant Convention, Archdeacon Daly government. sectarian considerations”, to quote of Clonfert, "bore testimony to the historian Brian Murphy's disagreement unfailing kindness always experienced at with Hart on this point." The killings in late April 1922 in West the hands of his fellow Catholic fellow Cork were not motivated by either land An historian who cannot remember his countrymen, who had elected him to many agitation or by sectarian considerations. own conclusions is perhaps not the most public bodies in Co Galway. He asked if Evidence from Brian Murphy (1998, 2006) reliable guide to the past. any instances of a parish priest in any of and Meda Ryan (2003) suggests that the the Six Counties being similarly treated victims were shot because of their previous In 2006, I also responded to Hart's by his Protestant fellow countrymen" could intelligence role on behalf of Crown forces. assertion that: "there is no publicly be produced—clearly confident that they The main problem with Peter Hart's available evidence" that those shot were could not (The Irish Independent, May 12 analysis is that it uses mixed up and loyalists or informers. I referred Hart to an 1922). These and many similar utterances misquoted evidence, leading to unjustified intelligence diary left behind by cannot be squared with Hart's assertion 13 that "Southern Protestants… were targeted INITIAL PROBLEMS about who committed the April killings, with rising vigour by the IRA from the As the 1992 initials were the real initials but more about who did not (in that the summer of 1920 onwards". If that was the (sometimes reversed) of the veterans Busteed speculation was excluded in the case, Southern Protestants would have concerned, I have deducted that AA/EY 1998 book). This should have resulted in said so. In fact they stated the opposite was Ned (Edward) Young, a veteran of more circumspect conclusions on Hart's while condemning unionists in Northern the Kilmichael ambush, while AE/CD part about responsibility for the killings. Ireland. appears to be Dan Cahalane, a member of Unfortunately, it did not. Tom Barry's Flying column. AA/EY is WHO DID IT: THEORY BUSTEED Ned Young because he was the only However, whatever about the April While Hart's 1998 account was ambush veteran alive at a time when Hart killings speculation, Busteed's admitted celebrated as a forensic expose of the reported interviewing two Kilmichael activities are directly relevant to Hart's April 1922 killings and of the killers it veterans. investigation of sectarianism in the War contains remarkably little hard evidence. A problem with Hart's use of Young is of Independence. Frank Busteed admitted The addition by Hart of anonymous that Young's health was severely impaired involvement in revenge killings after the Protestant informants to the 1998 book some time before Hart reported July 1921 Truce. The significant evidence adds very little to the original narrative in interviewing him, as Meda Ryan reported. is in Execution (1974), a book Hart said Hart's 1992 thesis. Surprisingly, there is Meda Ryan (2003) also pointed out, Hart was "substantially accurate". The author, commentary in the 1992 thesis not carried reported interviewing one of his two the late Sean O'Callaghan, reported that over into the 1998 book. veterans on 19th November 1989, six Busteed's help was "invaluable" and that Hart identified a particular individual days after the last Kilmichael veteran, he "corrected my manuscript". as possibly being involved in the April Young, died. In 1998 Hart reported that killings in his 1992 thesis, on page 377 one of these veterans gave him a tour of On 12th March 1921 British intelligence footnote 47: the Kilmichael ambush site, without saying officers reportedly threw the elderly "Frank Busteed, the Blarney IRA which one. In the 1992 thesis this mother of Frank Busteed down the stairs leader who killed Din Din O'Riordan Kilmichael veteran was identified as HJ of her home and broke her back. She died (see Chapter 1) and, notoriously, Mrs (AF in the 1998 book). It is difficult to put one day later. Hart stated, "his mother's Lindsey, was quoted by Ernie O'Malley a name on this AF/HJ because he is the death after a British raid only increased as saying 'We shot four or five locals, mysterious Kilmichael veteran Hart [Busteed's] passion for revenge, which he then we could move anywhere' in the reported interviewing six days after the took out on a considerable number of Civil War. He also said that 'we shot five to six loyalists, Protestant farmers, death of the last Kilmichael veteran, Ned suspected 'spies' and 'informers', both as reprisals' in the same period Young. In addition, whereas this AF/HJ before and after the Truce". Hart then (O'Malley Papers, P17b/112). As these was identified simply as an ambush veteran referred to Busteed killing two actual killings certainly did not take place in the 1992 thesis, he became, informers, Mrs Lindsay and her chauffeur. after July 1922, the only events which mysteriously, an unarmed scout in Hart's They had informed British forces of an fit this description are those of April 1998 book. The Southern Star, a newspaper IRA ambush in Dripsey in January 1921 (his memory has already been shown to Hart researched, carried a prominent article that lead to the capture court martial and be fallible in Chapter 1). headlined, Ned Young—last of the 'Boys then execution of five IRA volunteers. "Nevertheless, these remain cryptic of Kilmichael' on November 18, 1989. It The IRA had forewarned that Mrs Lindsey remarks. Does the 'we' in the second would have been hard for an inquisitive and her chauffeur would be killed if the statement refer to his unit, which was part of the 1st Cork Brigade, or to the historian researching the subject to miss (I British executions were carried out. IRA in general? Does the 'locals' in the reproduce it with this article). first statement mean the Hornibrooks These findings give rise to other The chauffeur and Mrs Lindsey were or other of the April victims? difficulties in Hart's narrative, that space executed on March 11th, prior to Busteed's Ballygroman lay very close to Busteed's considerations preclude going into here. mother's injury on March 12th and death usual territory." on March 13th 1921, and so were hardly in The above 1992 thesis footnote is not in BACK TO BUSTEED response to it. More likely the British the 1998 book. Neither is the following, Let us for the moment leave these attack on Busteed's mother was a British "Frank Busteed of Blarney, the hardest of particular difficulties aside, and continue response to suspicion that Busteed was die-hards, also seems to have claimed a the Busteed discussion. responsible for the original abduction of share of responsibility". This is significant, AA/EY and AE/CD are withdrawn as Mrs Lindsey (if not her unpublicised as is, in the context of Hart's overall argu- source supports in the 1998 book on execution on March 11th) and possibly to ment, an observation that is in the 1998 republican responsibility for the April Frank Busteed burning Mrs Lindsey's book and 1992 thesis. Hart stated: killings and in relation to Busteed's alleged house in the early hours of March 12th "Busteed's deceased father had been responsibility. 1921. Protestant, although Busteed himself was raised a Catholic and later become an Hart omitted the Busteed information The elderly Mrs Busteed reportedly outspoken atheist". on the April killings in 1998, instead of spoke her dying words to her other son, explaining how or if this evidence was no Bill, a Protestant recently de-mobbed from The 1992 thesis (only) repeats this longer valid or germane. It appears unlikely the British Army. She said, "Tell Frank information, again on page 379, and then that Frank Busteed, with a Protestant one of them was a man with one arm". The adds "Two of the [IRA] veterans I father, who was later to proclaim himself one armed British officer became an interviewed thought that the killers were an atheist, was particularly antagonistic unwitting fugitive from Busteed family very likely Volunteers acting on their toward Protestants. This datum, if justice. Bill Busteed reportedly rejoined own." Hart interviewed these veterans included, might have undermined the the British Army, was posted locally, and anonymously. However, between the 1998 sectarianism explanation of the April set about discovering the killers, three of book and 1992 thesis, Hart also identified killings. whom he identified in April 1922 as going them differently. An interviewee who was on a drinking spree in Macroom. Bill EY in 1992 became AA in 1998; whereas Exclusion of the Busteed speculation passed the information to Frank Busteed, one who was CD in 1992 became AE in implies that Hart knew less in 1998 than who acted on it. As O'Callaghan put it 1998. he claimed in 1992, however tentatively, "Frank Busteed broke the Truce to kill the 14 three men". Subsequently, therefore, Busteed appears to have taken out his 'revenge' on British officers he believed responsible Israel: Serial violator of UN resolutions for killing his mother, not on unspecified victims, as Hart implies, carelessly. Israel is violating over 30 UN Security The Fourth Geneva Convention (on the Council resolutions, dating back to 1968, Protection of Civilians Persons in Time of This intimate tale of 'tit for tat' killers resolutions that require action by Israel War) bans the planting of settlers on and killing did not appear in The IRA And and Israel alone [1]. territory captured in war. Article 49, Its Enemies. Despite Hart's acceptance That very important fact is entirely paragraph 6, of the Convention says: that Busteed was involved in anti-British absent from reporting on Palestine by the violence after the Truce, his escapades, as "The Occupying Power shall not British and Irish media. If any other state reported, do not fit a stereotype of Catholic- deport or transfer parts of its own in this world were guilty of such persistent Protestant antagonism. Perhaps that is why civilian population into the territory it refusal to obey the will of the "international they did not appear in Hart's narrative. occupies." community", it would be subject to contin- Interestingly, Busteed captured the Israel's failure to comply with this reso- uous threats of economic and/or military British officers on 26th April 1922, the lution prompted further resolutions—452 sanctions by the US and the EU—and we same day as a Captain Woods and Samuel on 20th July 1979 and 465 on 1st March would never hear the end of it from the and Thomas Hornibrook disappeared. 1980—demanding that Israel cease colon- British and Irish media. They were taken at 8am that morning, in ising the territories it occupied in 1967. The Security Council resolutions being an area in close proximity. The Hornibook violated by Israel are listed in the Appendix and Woods disappearance, after they had (3) RESOLUTION 487 below. Four of them are very significant: shot dead IRA officer Michael O'Neill in This resolution, passed on 19th June if Israel chose to take the action demanded the very early hours of April 26th, set off 1981, was prompted by the Israeli air in them, the political landscape in Palestine the April killings from April 27-29th, in attack on the Osirak nuclear reactor at the would be transformed. These are: which the 11 more were shot dead. Al Tuwaitha Nuclear Center near Baghdad on 7th June 1981. The resolution (1) RESOLUTION 252 LOYALIST AND BRITISH TERROR "strongly" condemned "the military attack This resolution, passed on 21st May By refusing to admit evidence that by Israel in clear violation of the Charter 1968, demands that Israel reverse its pointed to the April killers being loyalists, of the United Nations" and says that "Iraq annexation of East Jerusalem. It states: Hart was in a position to deny that there is entitled to appropriate redress for the was an organised group of loyalists, an [The Security Council] destruction it has suffered, responsibility Anti-Sinn Fein Society (or equivalent), "2. Considers that all legislative and for which has been acknowledged by working in tandem with British forces. He administrative measures and actions Israel". insisted that its use was only as a cover taken by Israel, including expropriation Crucially, in paragraph 5, the Security name for British forces' activity. of land and properties thereon, which Council tend to change the legal status of "calls upon Israel urgently to place Jerusalem are invalid and cannot change its nuclear facilities under IAEA Curiously, Hart referred to Tom Barry that status; [International Atomic Energy Agency] in 1919 being "in touch with the Anti-Sinn 3. Urgently calls upon Israel to safeguards". Fein Society in Bandon… The society in rescind all such measures already taken Bandon consisted of the loyalists and the and to desist forthwith from taking any By refusing to allow IAEA oversight of Essex Regiment". This 1992 thesis further action which tends to change its nuclear facilities, Israel is violating this information is not included at the same the status of Jerusalem…" resolution. point in the 1998 book. In other words, in Israel's failure to comply with this reso- 1992 Hart had evidence that the loyalists (4) RESOLUTION 497 lution prompted further resolutions—267 were involved with the British military, This resolution, passed on 17th Decem- but the evidence expired in the interim on 3rd July 1969, 271 on 15th September ber 1981, demands that Israel reverse its between publication of thesis (1992) and 1969 and 298 on 25th September 1971— annexation of the Golan Heights, which demanding the reversal of its annexation book (1998). In his IRA pension statement were captured from Syria in June 1967: of East Jerusalem. in the 1930s Barry stated that he was [The Security Council] engaged in intelligence work prior to full (2) RESOLUTION 446 "1. Decides that the Israeli decision immersion in the IRA. Hart suggested (in to impose its laws, jurisdiction and 1992 and 1998), implausibly but typically, This resolution, passed on 22nd March 1979, demands that Israel cease building administration in the occupied Syrian that this activity indicated that Barry could Golan Heights is null and void and have gone 'either way'. Jewish settlements in the territories it has without international legal effect; occupied since 1967, including in Jerusa- 2. Demands that Israel, the occupying lem, and that it remove those it has built. NOT SECTARIAN Power, should rescind forthwith its Hart's revised view of Irish history has It says: decision…" been accepted unthinkingly by sections of [The Security Council] It is important to emphasise that these the media. For the latter history is a 'man "Calls once more upon Israel, as the four resolutions (and the others in the bites dog' scenario as applied to the past, occupying Power, to abide scrupulously Appendix below) place obligations on an account of the unusual and the by the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel, and Israel alone. It is therefore exceptional. For some it is a way of pursu- to rescind its previous measures and to within Israel's power to carry out those desist from taking any action which obligations without negotiation with the ing their current political agenda. would result in changing the legal status Hart's Taking it out on the Protestants and geographical nature and materially Palestinians or with any other state in the chapter in his The IRA And Its Enemies is affecting the demographic composition region. It doesn't need to negotiate with flawed at many levels. It is unreliable as of the Arab territories occupied since anybody before undoing the annexation history and should not be used to back up 1967, including Jerusalem, and, in of East Jerusalem or of the Golan Heights. other assertions that the War of Independ- particular, not to transfer parts of its Nor does it need to negotiate with anybody ence was a sectarian event. own civilian population into the before dismantling the Jewish settlements Niall Meehan occupied Arab territories…" in the West Bank. Had it wished to do so, 15 each of these resolutions could have been ALL CHAPTER VI RESOLUTIONS NON-BINDING? 252 (21 May 1968) implemented at the time they were passed So, Israel regards all Chapter VI Urgently calls upon Israel to rescind by the Security Council, and all could be resolutions as non-binding recommend- measures that change the legal status of implemented now, without any process of ations that don't have to be obeyed? Well, Jerusalem, including the expropriation of land negotiation. no—only those that demand action by it. and properties thereon. Israel takes a different view of Chapter VI 262 (31 December 1968) RESOLUTION 242 resolutions that demand action by other Calls upon Israel to pay compensation to In that respect, these resolutions are states. In particular, it justified its military Lebanon for the destruction of airliners at very different from the well-known reso- assault on Lebanon in the summer of 2006 Beirut International Airport. lution 242, the so-called "land for peace" in part because of Lebanon's failure to 267 (3 July 1969) resolution. It requires action by other implement Security Council resolution Reiterates the demand that Israel rescind states and non-state actors, as well as Israel. 1559, which "calls for the disbanding and measures seeking to change the legal status of Resolution 242 was passed on 22nd disarmament of all Lebanese and non- occupied East Jerusalem. November 1967, a few months after Israel Lebanese militias" [2] 271 (15 September 1969) had acquired large swathes of territory Here's Dan Gillerman, Israel's Ambas- Reiterates the demand that Israel rescind (the West Bank and Gaza plus Sinai and sador to the UN, on the subject, addressing measures seeking to change the legal status of the Golan Heights) by war, contrary to the Security Council on 11th August 2006: occupied East Jerusalem and calls on Israel to Article 2 of the UN Charter. One might "The way to avoid the crisis between scrupulously abide by the Fourth Geneva have thought that the Security Council, as Israel and Lebanon has been clear: Convention regarding the responsibilities of the guardian of the UN Charter, would implementation of the unconditional occupying powers. have required Israel to withdraw uncondi- obligations set out in resolutions 1559 298 (25 September 1971) tionally from the territory it had recently (2004) and 1680 (2006), which set out Reiterates the demand that Israel rescind acquired by war, contrary to the UN issues for resolution between Lebanon measures seeking to change the legal status of Charter, as Iraq was required to do after it and Syria. The clear path forward occupied East Jerusalem. invaded Kuwait in August 1990. required the disarming and disbanding of Hizbollah and other militias, and the 446 (22 March 1979) But, in reality, 242 didn't require Israel Calls on Israel to cease, on an urgent basis, to do anything. It merely stated its opinion exercise by Lebanon, like any sovereign State, of control and authority over all the establishment, construction, and planning that "withdrawal of Israel armed forces its territory. But the will to implement of settlements in the territories, occupied since from territories occupied in the recent this way has been lacking, and over the 1967, including Jerusalem. conflict" should be conditional on the past month the peoples of Israel and "termination of all claims or states of 452 (20 July 1979) Lebanon have paid a heavy price for Reiterates the demand that Israel cease, on belligerency and respect for and acknow- that inaction. an urgent basis, the establishment, construction, ledgment of the sovereignty, territorial "In the face of the failure to ensure and planning of settlements in the territories, integrity and political independence of that the obligations set out in those occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem. every State in the area and their right to resolutions were implemented, Israel live in peace within secure and recognized has had no choice but to do what 465 (1 March 1980) boundaries free from threats or acts of Lebanon has failed to do." [3] Reiterates the demand that Israel cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction, force". As such, 242 has provided the So, according to Dan Gillerman, resol- and planning of settlements in the territories, perfect excuse for Israeli prevarication ution 1559 (and resolution 1680) contain occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem. about withdrawal from the territories it "unconditional obligations" which took over by force in 1967, contrary to the 471 (5 June 1980) Lebanon must obey. 1559 is a Chapter VI UN Charter. Demands prosecution of those involved in resolution (as is 1680). So, applying the assassination attempts of West Bank leaders Gillerman principle and compensation for damages; reiterates CHAPTER VI RESOLUTIONS demands to abide by Fourth Geneva (1) resolution 252 contains an It has been frequently said by Israel Convention. (and by others on Israel's behalf) that the "unconditional obligation" upon Israel Security Council resolutions concerning to reverse its annexation of East 484 (19 December 1980) Israel are merely non-binding recommend- Jerusalem Reiterates request that Israel abide by the (2) resolution 446 contains an Fourth Geneva Convention. ations that don't have to be obey—because "unconditional obligation" upon Israel they are all Chapter VI resolutions— to cease building Jewish settlements in 487 (19 June 1981) whereas those concerning Iraq in the past the territories it occupied in 1967, Condemns Israel's attack on Iraqi nuclear and Iran today, are almost all Chapter VII including Jerusalem, and to remove reactor and calls upon Israel to place its nuclear resolutions and are therefore mandatory. those it has built. facilities under the safeguard of the UN's In a sense, this is true since Chapter VI (3) resolution 487 contains an International Atomic Energy Agency. resolutions do not contain enforcement "unconditional obligation" upon Israel 497 (17 December 1981) measures, that is, economic or military "urgently to place its nuclear facilities Demands that Israel rescind its decision to sanctions, and therefore the chances of under IAEA safeguards". annex the Golan Heights. Israel obeying them are next to nil. (4) resolution 497 contains an "unconditional obligation" upon Israel 573 (4 October 1985) To give effect to its decisions, the Secur- to reverse its annexation of the Golan Condemns the Israeli attack on the PLO in ity Council may impose economic sanct- Heights Tunisia and calls on Israel to pay compensation ions under Article 41 of the UN Charter for human and material losses from its attack and may authorise the use of military force APPENDIX and to refrain from all such attacks or threats of under Article 42. Both of these Articles There follows a list of 32 resolutions attacks against other nations. are in Chapter VII of the UN Charter and being violated by Israel, resolutions which 592 (8 December 1986) hence resolutions with such enforcement require action by Israel and Israel alone. Insists Israel abide by the Fourth Geneva measures are referred to as Chapter VII This list does not include resolutions that Conventions in East Jerusalem and other resolutions. The Security Council has were violated for a number of years but occupied territories. never passed a Chapter VII resolution have now been implemented, such as those authorising economic or military sanctions 605 (22 December 1987) dealing with Israel's 20-year occupation Calls once more upon Israel, the occupying against Israel. of southern Lebanon. Power, to abide immediately and scrupulously 16 by the Fourth Geneva Convention, and to 1405 (19 April 2002) front in the boycott Israel battle has been desist forthwith from its policies and practices Calls for UN inspectors to investigate opened by Northern Ireland’s biggest that are in violations of the provisions of the civilian deaths during an Israeli assault on the union, which unanimously adopted five Convention. Jenin refugee camp. strongly worded pro-boycott resolutions at its annual conference in Derry. 607 (5 January 1988) 1435 (24 September 2002) Reiterates calls on Israel to abide by the Calls on Israel to withdraw to positions of Delegates at the meeting, last month, Fourth Geneva Convention and to cease its September 2000 and end its military activities instructed the 46,000-strong Northern practice of deportations from occupied in and around Ramallah, including the Ireland Public Service Alliance to place territories. destruction of security and civilian an embargo on Israeli produce and ban a infrastructure. range of investments in companies and 608 (14 January 1988) pension funds that had connections with Reiterates the demand that Israel cease its Note: Since 1972, the US has used its veto in the country. deportations of Palestinians from the occupied the Security Council 42 times in order to territories. This week a member of the union’s prevent the passing of resolutions critical. See general council, Michael Robinson, said 636 (6 July 1989) [4] for details. that its next step would be to persuade Reiterates the demand that Israel cease its David Morrison 23 February 2008 unions across the border in Eire to join the deportations of Palestinians from the occupied campaign. "We want to extend it into an territories. www.david-morrison.org.uk References: all-Ireland boycott," he said. 641 (30 August 1989) [1] All UN Security Council resolutions on Palestine At the conference there had not been a Reiterates the demand that Israel cease its can be found at domino.un.org single speaker opposing the resolutions, deportations of Palestinians from the occupied /UNISPAL.NSF/vCouncilRes he noted. "There has been a wave of territories. [2] www.david-morrison.org.uk/scrs/2004-1559.pdf [3] www.david-morrison.org.uk/scps/20060811.pdf opinion against Israel partly because of 672 (12 October 1990) [4] www.globalpolicy.org/security/membship/veto/ the TV coverage of what Israel did in Reiterates calls for Israel to abide by vetosubj.htm Lebanon and Gaza. People can see exactly provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention what is going on." in the occupied territories. Report: Jewish Chronicle NIPSA, which represents workers in a wide range of public services in the 673 (24 October 1990) Insists that Israel come into compliance "NUJ backs down, but province, including hospitals, local with resolution 672. government and the civil service, is a Ulster launches ban" sister union to Unison, which itself recently 681 (20 December 1990) passed a boycott motion at its Brighton Reiterates call on Israel to abide by Fourth A rank-and-file rebellion, spearheaded conference. Geneva Convention in the occupied territories. by BBC staff, has forced the National Among the demands—which had the 694 (24 May 1991) Union of Journalists to abandon its support of the union’s leadership—was a Reiterates that Israel "must refrain from decision to boycott Israeli goods. The call for an investigation into its investments deporting any Palestinian civilian from the climbdown was approved by a narrow "to determine whether these are contribut- occupied territories and ensure the safe and majority at its annual delegates’ conference ing to the oppression of the Palestinian immediate return of all those deported". in April. people". 726 (6 January 1992) The decision was seen this week as a Accusing Israel of adopting policies major setback for the campaign to encour- Reiterates calls on Israel to abide by the "akin to that practised under the apartheid Fourth Geneva Convention and to cease its age trades unionists to take sanctions regime in South Africa", the conference practice of deportations from occupied against Israel, and coincided with signs of called on its leadership to "actively and territories. internal dissatisfaction within other unions vigorously promote a policy of divestment 799 (18 December 1992) that have passed boycott motions. from Israel’s companies, recognising that Reaffirms applicability of Fourth Geneva Leaders of UCU, the lecturers’ union, this is one of the most effective ways to which voted to consider boycotting Israeli Convention…to all Palestinian territories ensure that the Israeli government is made occupied by Israel since 1967, including universities, have expressed misgivings aware of the extent of opposition to its Jerusalem, and affirms that deportation of against the policy, with its general crimes against humanity". civilians constitutes a contravention of its secretary Sally Hunt telling members in obligations under the Convention. It also pinpointed investments in an email that she was "saddened" that the Caterpillar and Irish Cement Roadhold- 904 (18 March 1994) issue had overshadowed campaigns to ings, which it said directly supported save jobs. Calls upon Israel, as the occupying power, "Israeli occupation and the destruction of to take and implement measures, inter alia, … Palestinian land". confiscation of arms, with the aim of preventing Rumblings of discontent were also illegal acts of violence by settlers. heard from anti-boycott members of Doreen Gerson, executive vice chair of 1073 (28 September 1996) Unison, which passed a strong boycott the Trade Union Friends of Israel, told the Calls on the safety and security of Palestinian motion at its conference, and there were JC that TUFI was aware of plans to spread protests that the Transport and General civilians to be ensured. the boycott campaign on both sides of the Workers Union had approved an embargo 1322 (7 October 2000) border. "We are arranging to hold meetings against Israeli goods after a severely with the Irish TUC and we have contacts Calls upon Israel to scrupulously abide by truncated debate at its annual meeting last in Ireland who will be taking a close look the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the week. responsibilities of occupying power. at what is happening." …The NUJ decision came in the face … of protests by members, including an 1402 (30 March 2002) Foreign Secretary David Miliband… Calls for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian online petition organised by the BBC’s [said] that the government was strongly cities. technology correspondent Rory Cellan- opposed to the boycott. The UCU move in Jones, which was signed by more than 400 particular, he said, "could damage" Britain. 1403 (4 April 2002) journalists, many of them from the BBC. Demands that Israel go through with "the … implementation of its resolution 1402, without … By Bernard Josephs and Leon Symons delay". But it may be too early to cheer. A new Jewish Chronicle, 13 July 2007: extracts 17 check up on something in the (London) Times and was told that the entire file of the paper had been given over on an indefinite loan to a Loyalist Research group, organised I think by Gusty Spence, Myths From 1916 which was compiling information on the Eoin Neeson's Myths From Easter 1916 The jeering crowd—the "insulted and Battle of the Somme—which seemed to was reviewed in The Sunday Tribune of injured" produced by the utter misery of be taking the place of the 1859 Revival as 25th November by Ken Griffin who found inner-city Dublin in those times—had no a focal point in Ulsterish life. it— stable sentiment, no political purpose, no "lightweight and unashamedly place in the social order. Their conduct in The Somme was a battle like no other, partisan… His narrative is little more the presence of extravagantly triumphant in that it had no object beyond killing—at than historical cowboys and Indians, military power indicates nothing about least after the first couple of days, and it with the Irish rebels as cowboys and the "the Irish people"—the great property- went on for months. It had no territorial British as the Indians." owning democracy in the country, the objective beyond pushing forward a few What were the cowboys with relation organised workers of the towns, and the hundred yards towards nothing in to the Indians? A genocidal force in the middle and lower middle classes in their particular, and manoeuvre with a view to vanguard of a powerful state which was various enterprises. And when "the Irish encirclement was out of the question. It committed to exterminating the native people" got going in response to the was nothing but good, solid killing, week peoples of the continent until it had been Rebellion, and exerted a masterful counter- after week, at a favourable rate of attrition. ethnically cleansed right through to the pressure in social life to the British military And a favourable rate of attrition did not Pacific. The Indians—who were officially pressure exerted from outside, the jeers require more Huns to be killed than Brits. marked down for extinction by Jefferson, turned to adulation. What was required was that the smaller who told them frankly what was in store Neeson did not bother his head with the German population be whittled away faster for them, and who asserted US sovereignty jeering crowd. And quite right. What he than the Allied populations relative to over a vast region inhabited by Indians at says in response to he argument that "the size. the time—might win an occasional skirm- Rising did not reflect the current mood of I read many accounts of the first day. I ish in their attempt to ward off obliteration, the majority of the people", is that "in don't often go for images, but in this but the consequence then was that the 1916 active democracy such as we know it instance I could not escape the image of USA then sent a pulverising military force simply did not exist", and that within the Gaderine swine with their mad urge against them. weeks the shock of the rising brought for self-destruction. I knew it from What Griffin's absurd comparison about a dramatic change of mood and Dostoevsky's epigraph to The Possessed shows is how thoroughly the progressive created the "revolutionary climate of rather than from the Bible—where it has genocidal mentality of Great and Greater thought necessary to challenge alien rule". more force than in the Bible. Britain has saturated critical faculties in And I don't see how one can quibble with So what Devils were driving them on, Ireland. that—unless one is employed to be a making them climb out of their trenches The 1916 rebels used to be condemned quibbler. and walk slowly into the machine gun fire for committing themselves to the hopeless of prepared defensive positions all through enterprise of disputing sovereignty with One of the Myths disposed of by Neeson a long Summer's day, each wave walking the British Empire. That was the kind of is that of the "blood sacrifice". Of all the over the bodies of the preceding waves? consideration that deterred many Indian nonsense about 1916 published by the What was the cause? What was the pur- attempts at resistance, and facilitated revisionists in recent decades that has pose? What was the teleology—which peaceful extinction. always seemed to me to be the most our revisionists apply inappropriately to Griffin says that Neeson— ridiculous. Revisionism is a massaging of little things but are afraid to apply to the "occasionally ignores historical fact Irish history of that period to suit current big things that merit it? including the jeering of the captured British interests. Almost all of it comes When the Germans tried an offensive rebels by crowds in Dublin streets after from British Universities and British in 1918 it was something like a battle. they finally surrendered, an incident publishers. Almost forty years ago I made Means appropriate to breaking through which totally undermines his claim that myself persona non grata with the the front, conducting an encirclement, and the Rising's leaders had the support of nationalist media by making out a case for achieving a strategic territorial gain, were the Irish people". the Ulster Protestants on a "two-nations" devised and put into effect. No Gaderine The jeering crowd was a very local basis, and characterising Northern Ireland swine there. No hint of mass suicide. affair within Dublin. The spectacular as undemocratic because of its exclusion application of physical force by a powerful from the political life of the state which Going back two years to the start of it army aroused the enthusiasm of a local held it and proposing that it be democrat- all, 1914, one finds English literature crowd, which jeered at the vanquished. ised into that state. What I wrote was saturated with the cult of death. "Now God What's unusual about that? The lumpen- published by the British & Irish be thanked who matched us with His hour" proletariat is usually exhilarated by Communist Organisation, which held that says Rupert Brooke happily going off to masterful application of power. in many respects the Free State remained the carnage of war "like swimmers into The rebels in the GPO used to be con- a British sub-state, and its conduct could cleanness leaping"—and it was not his demned for not encouraging social not be understood adequately on any other fault that he died mundanely of disease on revolution by supporting the plunder of terms. From that vantage point we the way to Gallipoli. The Prime Minister's shops in O'Connell Street. Did the looters combined Ireland with Britain as a subject son, Asquith, one of the upper class coterie they condemned appear in the crowd that of investigation. The Easter Rising had of ultra-aesthetes called The Souls wrote a jeered at them a few days later? I have not never interested me greatly as a distinct poem glorifying a clerk who left the seen the question addressed either by those event. When I came to it, it was through counting-house to be transformed into a who saw the looters as an expression of the Great War, which was unavoidable in warrior and live a worthwhile life for a potential social revolution, or those who Belfast if one wanted to understand the brief moment before passing on to see them as expressing the loyal sentiment Protestant community. At one point I Valhalla. And there was Julien Grenfell of "the Irish people" in the face of rebellion. went to the Belfast Central Library to who felt the Earth calling out for blood: 18 "And life is colour and warmth and light tions the questioning of it was rendered extraordinary that the Irish electorate didn't And a striving ever more for these meaningless by the factual situation respond by going home and forgetting And he is dead who will not fight resulting from it. Then, after 1970, the era about it, but not at all extraordinary that And who dies fighting has increase". of counterfactual history called revision- Britain put in "Cadets" to shoot up the ism began, inaugurated by Jack Lynch it Irish—and to take the risk of being killed Grenfell's sympathetic upper class seems, with England appealed to by in order to do a bit of killing. biographer in a later generation (one of Raymond Crotty to come and take Irish The Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries the Mosley's I think) wondered what it intellectual life in hand once again. lived in an ideology of death-cult. To find was that made those very cultured English I have not been predisposed in favour anything comparable on the other side the of 1914 have such a strong wish to be of Eoin Neeson, who was Jack Lynch's barrel has to be scraped. Revisionism is killed. I forget what his answer was. publicity agent in 1970. But now he the scraping of the barrel with regard to Herbert Asquith, the Prime Minister's appears as a survivor of the old order the Irish. What it does with the Auxiliaries son, celebrated death n The Volunteer— subverted by Lynch and tries to put history is subsume them into the state policy they "And falling thus he wants not recompense back on a factual basis—and is dismissed served and lose all their particularity. But Who found his battle in the last resort". for it by the same Dublin circles that put the Black and Tans weren't statesmen, the word out on me in 1969. while the members of the Republican And in Flanders 1915: Army on the whole were. The Dail was "Above the clouds what lights are gleaming? God's batteries are those, A final word about the cult of death. not in a position to hire groups of mercen- Or souls of soldiers homewards streaming Edmund Burke made a distinction between aries as Lloyd George was—at least not To banquet with their foes? great states which have things to do with until it became the Free State Dail. The floods of battle ebb and flow, the world and trifling states whose destiny Griffen makes no comment on Neeson's The soldiers to Valhalla go! is to adapt without too great a fuss to the account of the signing of the 'Treaty', the … requirement of the great state which bears setting up of a Treatyite apparatus of state, The fighting men go charging past down on them—unless they are being and the precipitation of what is called With battle in their eyes, instigated to revolt by a hostile great state. Civil War. This is a region in which the The fighting men go reeling past The order of the world, and therefore its Dublin journalistic mind of the revisionist Like gods in poor disguse". morality, is determined by the outcome of era does not function. great wars. Neeson says that the Dail was a single- And T.M. Kettle, the Home Ruler, who was one of them until 1916 demoralised Britain purported to be fighting some party Assembly in which, because of the him and he turned to mawkishness: new kind of war in 1914, but conducted consensual circumstances of its creation, itself just as if it was fighting an ordinary there was no Opposition: "Blood on the land, and blood on the sea? kind of war. The United States joined that "The yeast binding many shades of So it stands as ordained to be, war in 1917 (saving its debtors from defeat) opinion from Left to Right across the Stamp, and signet and guarantee and insisted that something like the world political spectrum and holding Sinn Of the better ways we knew, order for which Britain had purported to Fein together as one party, was the Time for the plough when the sword has be fighting in 1914 should be set up. So principle of self-determination… Its won; the League of Nations was set up, declaring fulfilment, particularly in part, would The loom will wait on the crashing gun, inevitably, in the political scheme of And the hands of peace drop benison all nations to be entitled to statehood, and all states to have equal rights. Britain and things, lead to political division sooner When the task of death is through". or later." France went along with American Coming from this kind of thing how propaganda until Germany was defeated, If the Treatyite War arose out of the can one be bothered about a couple of but prevented the League from functioning self-determination principle, and a little flourishes by the 1916 people. And according to the American prospectus.. consequent disagreement over how the what world do those who are bothered by Whether it might have functioned is an independent state should be governed, those flourishes live in? They want to open question. The British and French then it is right to call it a Civil War. It is repudiate 1916 and return to ——the Empires prevented it from being attempted widely hinted nowadays that the Treaty Somme! and the US then refused to participate. split was the result of pre-existing political There is utter horror at Pearse's matter- Twenty-five years later, after another divisions which had been covered over of-fact observation that sometimes the world war which led to the world being during the War of Independence, but I wrong people might be shot. A few years split into two antagonistic camps, the know of no publication which attempts to ago I noticed no expression of outrage League was replaced by the UN, which demonstrate that such was the case. As far from those quarters when the British Prime made no pretence of equality. as I could discover, certain political positions which re-surfaced in 1922-23 Minister said he might be killing the wrong Events of the past twenty years have people but, multiplied a thousandfold. blown away the ideological obfuscation did so as a consequence of the Treaty. Blair said, before destroying the Iraqi of the League and the UN and revealed a They were not the cause. The Treaty split occurred in the medium of personal state, that it might be that it was the wrong world much as it was in 1914, modified thing to do, but if so history would say he chiefly by the quality of weaponry now responses within Sinn Fein to the British was right to do it because it was better be available. The great states now openly threat of intensified warfare. And I think there is no reasonable doubt that the safe than sorry; while if the right thing to determine the course of events by use of do was to destroy it and he neglected to do their power as in the good old days. And essential thing for Britain was the split in so history would not forgive him. a cult of death is a necessary ideological Sinn Fein rather than any particular item that was in the Treaty. It is a convoluted argument. What he element in the make-up of such states, really meant was that the war on Iraq which cannot function without the activity Once the split was accomplished, politi- would be done so well that the accom- of highly-motivated bodies for which cal elements that had been marginalised plished fact would dominate the public staying alive is not all-important. for three years became ardently 'patriotic' mind and relegate consideration of rights Treatyites. I think particularly of the die- and wrongs to the marginal fringe of In 1919 "the Irish people" was an hard Redmondites and the Church of Ire- eccentrics. electorate that had voted to leave Britain land Gazette (which became ardently The 1916 Rising did dominate the public and the Empire. Britain and the Empire 'patriotic' the moment the Dail carried the mind very quickly. Then for two genera- said that wasn't on. It is now thought Treaty under duress, having been opposed 19 to all that had been done on the basis of the found himself at war with the Army as a Lloyd George's secretary, Shakespeare, free vote of the electorate since 1918). whole. was present at the scene at which the Irish The Home Rulers held on to a few seats That may be. But, when Collins struck delegates signed the Treaty without in 1918, but they refused, along with the out on his own in December, and got the consulting their Government under threat Unionists, to sit in the Dail, even though delegates to sign the Treaty without the of immediate war if they delayed. He says they were still supposedly committed to approval of the Government, he was in the he was very surprised that they allowed self-determination, and had not declared game of playing all sides against the themselves to be bluffed into hasty action. themselves a 26-County Party. They went middle, and it was his business to know He did not doubt that the treat of war was off and submitted themselves to the Crown everything. in earnest. The bluff was that it would be in the state which their national electorate In the event, Collins was the General put into effect at once if they insisted on had rejected. Then, when the national Monk of the Irish Republic. He restored consulting their Government. They all body politic was disrupted by the Treaty, the Monarchy. Nobody knew what Monk signed and everything else followed from they formed the Centre Party. Some of was up to between the death of Cromwell that. But their will was broken by Collins, them later joined Cumann na nGaedheal. and the return of the King. Possibly he did not by Lloyd George. Collins embarked And then, in the 1930s, the two parties not know himself at times. But he kept on an independent course of action, instead merged to form a Fascist Party against tabs on everything and deceived every- of making his Government decide. The Fianna Fail in support of the Treaty—Fine body. And that was what Collins had to do gain to Britain from that bluff, to which Gael. once he decided to act without the authority Collins was a party, were enormous. of his Government, and what he failed to Brendan Clifford If the Treaty split had been brought do. about by a purposeful element within Sinn But perhaps the comparison is unfair to Fein which had been thrown together with Monk. He did not throw the Republican others for a few years and decided the time body politic in England into disarray. He had come to realise its own objectives, the only manipulated his way through the Free State would have been a more vigor- disarray into which the Republican body ous thing than it was. It bore to the end the politic had fallen. character of its origin, which was submis- Playing all sides against the middle in sive rather than purposeful, and once conflict with the heirs of General Monk established securely in power with British was not something that Collins was every arms it did not know quite what to do with likely to succeed in. He was putty in their itself, except rattle old bones. hands. That was the Free State. It was not Collins, even though he was the founder Collins had a sadly unrealistic idea of of the Free State. himself. I suppose it blossomed in London Some years ago in the British Public under the nurturing of Lord Birkenhead Record Office I came across a document and Lady Lavery, but nothing blossoms in which Collins pleaded with Whitehall out of nothing. In any case, he lost his to make it less obvious that it was pulling bearings in their presence, and was made his strings. the instrument of breaking up the He was implementing their Treaty for Republican body politic that had somehow them. Why were they making it so difficult materialised under the eyes of the RIC. for him to carry everybody with him into Once he acted independently of his a peaceful settlement? Because White- Government he was on the escalator Aubane Historical Society € 20, £15 hall's object was not a peaceful settlement leading to 'Civil War'. which would leave the Republican army Neeson says that the Civil War "solved and body politic intact. And if Collins did nothing that could not have been solved not understand that, he understood very peacefully". That's because it was not in little about the situation in which he acted. substance a Civil War at all. The victors in authentic Civil Wars know what they Neeson suggests that, when Collins want to do and they go on and do it. The Church & State 91 shelled the Four Courts, in response to yet fact that De Valera took over within ten another British ultimatum, his purpose years of the crushing Treatyite military The Long Imperial Road To was to enact a kind of coup which would victory and implemented so much of the The Pakistan Crisis. Editorial enable him to cut the strings by which Anti-Treaty position shows how far it was Catholicism And Marxism. Conor Lynch Whitehall had manipulated him since from being a genuine Civil War. The Christian Right, Kansas And Ulster December 6th. By breaking the Four It was in fact a British war by proxy, Stephen Richards (Review: What's Courts garrison he would comply with and was so described in Westminster. Its The Matter With Kansas? Part 2) Whitehall demands with a spectacular long-term advantage to Britain was the Church Developments. Pat Maloney Martin Mansergh's 'Dark Corners' display of strength and purpose, and then establishment in Ireland of a State without demand that the British back him in an Army—only a 'Defence Force' directed and much else implementing his Pact with De Valera, inwards—and with a severely-damaged and bringing in a Free State Constitution body politic and cultural life. €3, £2 from addresses on back page that the Army could live with. He was But Britain was unable to exert close relying on the fact that the solid body of supervision over Irish affairs under the the Army in the country was not backing Treaty because the British body politic Look up Athol Books on the Internet the Four Courts exhibitionists. But his was itself traumatised by the defeat information was faulty. He did not know suffered at the hands of the Turks at the at that Moylan etc. had just patched up their very moment when the Free State was differences with the Four Courts garrison, being put in place. That is why something www.atholbooks.org so that when he fired the first shot he was retrievable in Ireland. 20 Does · Biteback · Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback it Stack No sympathy for a 'hierarchy of regret' The letter below appeared in the Irish Examiner of 11th February without the last up sentence! ? Brendan Cafferty asks (Letters, February 4) why can't I admit that "some awful things were done to Protestants in our name" during the War of Independence? He is really Erskine Childers There seems to be asking me to be selective in my concern and compassion for its victims. I cannot oblige. some sort of concerted attack on Ireland Compassion for those victims is like mercy and its "quality is not strain'd, it droppeth by the London Review of Books of late. As as the gentle rain from heaven" on all of them. Mr Cafferty can discriminate in such a subscriber, I was rather interested to see matters if he wishes and create hierarchies of regret for those who lost their lives. I can't. that in the issue (Vol. 30, No.3, 7th This was an unnecessary war and none of its victims in Ireland caused it. They were February 2008), there was a letter from an all equally innocent and therefore all their deaths are equally regrettable. The Irish Augustus Young commenting on a review electorate voted overwhelmingly for independence in 1918. A government was formed of a book 'On Ugliness' stating that there on the basis of that result and proceeded to govern on its democratic mandate. It was then was a "political issue" to the subject under subjected to military terrorism to prevent it functioning by parties in a government that review that was not adverted to: had not even contested the 1918 election in Ireland. That election result, and the Irish "Ireland almost conducted a national government that resulted from it, was further endorsed by an even more overwhelming campaign against it. Erskine Childers, result in the 1921 general election when the then Irish government party, Sinn Féin, won minister of health in the late 1960's, every single elective seat in the State. But the terrorism against it persisted and increased. was obsessed by the hypothesis that In these circumstances I assume it is obvious, even to Mr Cafferty who caused that war ugly people were more likely to develop mental illness. He ordered his in Ireland and who is therefore responsible for all of its victims. It would be more department to investigate. Research profitable for him therefore to address those responsible and more appropriate to ask money would be found, he said, no them to admit "the awful things that were done" in their name. [Omitted:] Their address expense would be spared. Civil servants is 10 Downing St., Whitehall, London SW1A 2 AJ. Jack Lane Aubane Millstreet Co dissuaded him with some difficulty; no Cork objective criteria could be established to define ugliness (or beauty); a scientific study would be impossible. David Murphy's book; if you are interested YFG were having their recent annual He reluctantly dropped the idea and in Irish military history, this book is a gathering to hear debate on the pros and went on to be president of Ireland". must". Continuing: "The Irish propensity cons of the Treaty, they were told to drop That statement has such fascistic to get involved in wars is well known". Libertas, the anti-Lisbon side, by overtones that it led me to look through a Indeed. Well with our Rangers out in headquarters, and only Dukes and FG's biography of Childers which indicated Chad, perhaps we have finally acquired Lucinda Creighton took to the platform. that drinking and smoking were his bête some military zeal and it will be interesting As the Irish Mail (21st February 2008) noires but there was no policy to outlaw to see how it all pans out in the end. reported, they took it in turns to have a 'ugliness' as far as I could ascertain. But According to the Irish Mail (4th crack at their absent opposition which the this English-born "scion of an upper-class February 2008) a "play about a 14 year- paper thought quite "unsporting". In the London family" interested me more by the old Irish boy who was the youngest Allied next day's paper, it was reported "that fact that very few have alluded to his soldier to die in battle in the First World there was a motion in the EU parliament powerful presence at Cabinet during the War is to go nationwide. 'Boy Soldier' committing the EU to 'respecting the whole arms controversy as he was Lynch's based on Waterford teenager John Condon outcome of the referendum in Ireland" Tánaiste too. However he did a lot at also pays tribute to the thousands of Irish- which one would have thought to "have Health pushing through a new Health Act men killed in the war. Writer Ben Hennessy passed uncontroversially. Actually, it was in 1970 and in 1971 he created eight new said the production gives a voice to the voted down by 499-129". Amongst those Health Boards and three new Regional young soldiers who have largely been who voted down the proposal was one Hospitals in Cork, Galway and Dublin. forgotten in the annals of history. The cast Proinsias De Rossa "who happily sided Because he went abroad a lot during these and production team met members of the with those seeking to undercut the vote of testing times attacking both Britain and soldier's family and visited Flanders for his home country. There was a time this the IRA and helping put a polish and spin three days to pay their respects. Condon would have been called treason". on the Irish Government's case, he was was killed during the second battle of named Newsweek's 'Minister of the Year' Ypres, on 24th May 1915. The only British Embassy The UK Embassy in Dublin (apart from its own in-house 1970. personal item returned to his family was a piece of boot bearing his regimental diplomats/military attaché) does not Irish Militarism? Now that it is accepted number—6322. And to think that today employ staff—it sub-contracts them. that there is a growing State militarism in According to the UK Foreign Office, UK the UN sponsors various missions parti- Ireland there are many programmes and cularly in Africa dedicated to eradicating embassies as a matter of policy do not act books to help us acquire this disposition. the scourge of boy soldiers while we here as tax-withholding agencies. The Embassy When the whole Great War thing kicked has unilaterally and illegally opted out of in Ireland create heroes of them. off it took us a long time to acquire the its responsibilities as an employer. No right mentality to appreciate what it did E U Referendum With the Treaty of PAYE, no employer's PRSI, no sick pay, for saving our way of life et cetera. In this Lisbon being aired, it is somewhat amusing no pension contributions are paid by the issue of Books Ireland, a Tony Canavan to see how so-called liberal people are Embassy to the Irish State on behalf of its under the heading 'Secret Ireland' reviews behaving. I accept that Young Fine Gael "contractors" who are "expected to look several books with a military/conflict and liberalism have never been bed- after their own taxes". The staff are paid theme. But for one book all the stops were fellows but Alan Dukes likes to propagate gross. Very nice for them. Are the Revenue pulled out: The Irish Brigades 1685-2006 that image of himself and of course he is Commissioners interested? by David Murphy. Four Courts Press (pb ably abetted by the Irish Times and other €50!).Canavan, says "a rave review for media-like outlets. However when the Lobus Globus Pocus Sometimes the 21 academics produce unintended howlers. Gerard Morgan (Irish Examiner 14th no Cathedral in Dublin and the Church of The Irish Mail (13th February 2008) asks: February 2008) deplored the necessity for Ireland has two Cathedrals. How about an Is Nominate Prof Micheal O Suilleabhain the cash register in the Cathedral but ecumenical gesture of giving one back to Ireland's Most Pretentious Man? The accepted it is necessary because the Irish the Catholics? Problem solved. brochure for his Irish World Academy of State should, but will not, support the Music and Dance at the University of Protestant Churches. O B N Stack has decided after seeing Limerick includes: This does not stack up at all when one Martin Mansergh's obsequious support "Our locus in this instance….is the considers that these Cathedrals and their for the battling Taoiseach Bertie Ahern globus. In this way, we recognise the vast supporting estates were acquired from that he will follow in Private Eye's essential dynamic at the heart of the the mostly Catholic population of Ireland footsteps and have a little column titled creative process at work as a kind of in the Great Protestant Land Grab known OBN. So this will go to someone who has global listening within which—in this as the Reformation and subsequently assiduously cultivated this title. Step instance—Europe is within the inner supported by forced extortion of tithes forward our inaugural candidate—Deputy ear. Within us is "the rest of the world", and "the rest of the world" is that within from Catholics and others alike up to the Martin Mansergh. which we dwell." Disestablishment Act. The Catholics have Michael Stack
Mr. Dick Spring hasn't gone away. This column has been watching his resurfacing in various places with more frequency Mark Langhammer lately. At the recent Cork Chamber's (they have done away with the Commerce bit) Caitriona Ruane, the Sinn Fein Minister in the Northern Executive wants to Annual Dinner black-tie event, which only abolish the 11+ examination, which currently determines what second-level the movers and shakers and of course education a child receives in the State sector. However Unionists want to bankers attend, there on the top table retain selection. Under the Belfast Agreement as originally negotiated, amongst Cork's finest was none other than each Minister was emperor in his own fiefdom. That Agreement was Dick. He was the after-dinner speaker in amended at St. Andrews on the lines of a Comprehensive Agreement his role as Deputy Executive Vice document, put forward by the British and the Irish Governments, and the President of Fexco, the Kerry firm. (Dick DUP claims to have curbed Ministerial powers. This article discusses unhappily didn't pick up the dazzling Directorships that he thought were in the whether Cross Community Consent is required or not bag after his political career collapsed—a lot of people didn't trust a guy who brought Does The DUP Have A Veto down a very good Government for reasons that are still murky today.) But as a warm- On Abolishing The 11+ ? up guy he wasn't that bad with some Following the statement of Education from the Assembly for "review" by the vintage jokes and some at the expense of Minister, Caitriona Ruane, on 5th Executive. The mechanism for Assembly an obviously fuming Micheal Martin, December 2007[1], setting out her vision referrals of "important ministerial Minister of Enterprise, Trade and for the education system of the future, decisions" to the Executive is described in Employment. At one stage in the proceed- there has been no little speculation as to paragraph 6 of Annex B, which says: ings, the Minister was seen laughing with how consensus can be built for the vision his cronies and Dick bitingly said; "You "An amendment to the 1998 Act outlined, or whether indeed consensus is can laugh at me now Michael but it may would provide for referrals from the required. Can Caitriona Ruane push her not be long before you are where I am Assembly to the Executive of important education reforms through, or does she now" to the collective laughter of the 1000 ministerial decisions. Thirty members require "cross community consent"? This of the Assembly might initiate such a attendees. But his remit also included question is of wider significance than the referral, within seven days of a informing a very up-to-the-minute crowd narrow question of whether there is ministerial decision or notification of of business people about the sub-prime academic selection, and whether at 11 or the decision, where appropriate. Before mortgages which they all were well 14. Although the academic selection issue he could pass the referral to the familiar with. A few lads said afterwards may be atypical, it nonetheless represents Executive, the Presiding Officer, that they suspected he might try for the following consultation with the parties the first real test of the Stormont govern- Presidency and let's say 'watch this space'! in the Assembly, would be required to mental arrangements, post St Andrews. certify that it concerned an issue of The trials of Guantanamo Bay prisoners public importance. The Executive THE COMPREHENSIVE AGREEMENT are coming up in April and May next. Will would consider the issue within seven The St. Andrews provisions incorpor- days. A second referral could not be the trials be fair and equitable? The man in ated the British and Irish Governments made by the Assembly in respect of the charge of the trials is a Bush political proposals for a "Comprehensive Agree- same matter. Only matters covered by appointee, William Haynes from the ment" of December 2004 [2]. This was the Ministerial Code, as set out above, Pentagon. General Haynes is in charge of covered in detail by David Morrison in would require a collective decision by the Prosecution, he is in charge of the Has the DUP accepted the Belfast the Executive." Defence and he is in charge of the judges Agreement? [3]. The DUP's main criticism at the Guantanamo Tribunals. Are the So, the DUP acting alone could initiate of the Belfast Agreement was the defendants likely to get a fair trial? It this process in respect of Caitriona Ruane's ministerial autonomy enshrined within it. doesn't stack up! proposals. But, whether this challenge The question then was: did the DUP reaches the Executive depends on the rules achieve their stated goal of putting Church And State Church of Ireland St. to be applied by the Presiding Officer to ministers under the control of the Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin is now raising decide whether the decision in question Assembly in these proposals? funds by selling Rosary Beads in the shop "concerned an issue of public importance". inside the Cathedral. (As indeed they also One new mechanism was proposed Let's assume that the Presiding Officer do in the great Salisbury Cathedral where whereby what are described as "important determines the matter to be "of public I bought a lovely one last Autumn.) Dr. ministerial decisions" may be referred importance". 22 Can the Presiding Officer can then (vi) discussion of and agreement on the Admissions Criteria. refer a ministerial decision to the Executive any issue which is significant or Caitriona Ruane's thinking is likely to for consideration? Can the Executive controversial and is clearly outside the be that, whilst she can force through overturn a ministerial decision? The scope of the agreed Programme for Admissions Criteria through "Negative answer to that appears to be in principle Government or which the First Minister Resolution Procedure", if such a set of "Yes", but in practice such an event would and Deputy First Minister agree should regulations ignored (and therefore be brought to the Executive." be very rare, given the political makeup of displaced) academic selection, it may be the present, and any conceivable future, Matters (i) to (v) are an accurate open to legal challenge. It should be noted Assembly. reflection of paragraphs 19 and 20 of the that when regulations are written on It is assumed that a ministerial decision original Agreement, which, according to Admissions Criteria, all other/previous referred to the Executive would stand Section 20(3) of the Northern Ireland Act admissions policies lapse. unless the Executive passed a resolution 1998, define the functions of the Executive. Admissions Criteria without reference overturning it. That would be difficult to But, both aspects of (vi) are new. It is to academic selection could be deemed as achieve given the following: not obvious, however, that (vi) represents inconsistent with the 2006 Education "There would be arrangements to a major extension of what can be placed Order. ensure that, where a decision of the on the agenda of the Executive. For Executive could not be achieved by example, does the first part of (vi) go The Explanatory Memorandum to the consensus and a vote was required, any further than a review of the agreed Prog- Education (Northern Ireland) Order, three members of the Executive could Section 55 says that: require it to be taken on a cross- ramme of Government, which is already community basis" (Annex B, para 3). allowed for in (v)? And, it doesn't seem "The prohibition on academic unreasonable to allow a matter to be put selection will come into operation on This rule, which wasn't in the original on the agenda of the Executive, if the First 25 November 2006, to take effect in Agreement, means that, for example, Sinn Minister and the Deputy First Minister relation to admissions from September 2010, unless the Northern Ireland Fein would be able to bloc any attempt by agree that it should be. (Strangely, there is no specific mention Assembly is restored by 24 November the DUP to overturn a decision of a Sinn 2006, in which case the commencement Fein (or any other) minister. in this list of the Executive being obliged of the prohibition on academic selection On its own, Sinn Fein is in a position to consider 'referrals' passed on by the will be subject to affirmative resolution to bloc any potential Executive decision Presiding Officer from the Assembly.) in the Assembly." (a) because it has the 3 (4 including However, even if what can be placed the Dept 1st Minister) members that are on the agenda of the Executive is In short, once the Assembly and Exec- sufficient to require a "cross- marginally extended, the cross-community utive is set up, the prohibition on academic community" vote on the Executive, and voting mechanism will severely restrict selection would require a cross community (b) because its members represent a the degree to which ministers' sovereignty vote. The DUP alone could block that majority of the Nationalist members can be overridden in practice by the proposal. and are therefore in a position to stop Executive. the passing of any motion before the From the above, it seems certain that In addition, the legal system may Executive. the Assembly will not be able to interpret any challenge on the basis of the countermand ministerial decisions that do Government 'Red Book' guidance, which STATUTORY MINISTERIAL CODE not involve legislation and the DUP's governs the drafting of subordinate Another proposed St. Andrews change complaint that under the original regulations [4]. is potentially relevant to ministerial ability Agreement each individual Minister can Paragraph 4.5.6 of the Red Book is to take executive decisions. This is the take any executive decision over the particularly relevant in showing that policy introduction of a statutory Ministerial Code department he controls without recourse must be made in legislation and can't be (see paragraphs 3-5 of Annex B). to or the consent of the Assembly will made by regulations: - Paragraph 3 says: continue to be operative. "In the interpretation of powers, there "The 1998 Act would be amended to is one invaluable guide—the rest of the require inclusion in the Code of agreed In this general sense Sinn Fein has Act which confers the powers. Powers provisions in relation to ministerial retained Ministerial autonomy, and the do not exist in isolation. They are almost accountability." always granted to assist in the DUP has moved onto the ground of the implementation of the Act in which It goes on to list the matters to be Good Friday Agreement. they are contained. It is the primary decided collectively by ministers in the The specific case of the 11+, however, legislation which lays down general Executive, which it says would be a forum may not result in a Sinn Fein victory. policy or an outline structure and the for: subordinate legislation which fills in the gaps. The subordinate legislation "(i) the discussion of, and agree- NEGATIVE RESOLUTION PROCEDURE cannot, as a general rule, be used either ment on, issues which cut across the VS CONSENSUS to extend the scope or operation of the responsibilities of two or more As things stand, therefore, Caitriona Act under which it is made or, in Ministers, including in particular those Ruane could draw up Regulations particular, to defeat its purpose." that are the responsibility of the Minister specifying Admissions Criteria for of Finance and Personnel; secondary schools, which forbid academic This would be the crucial factor in the (ii) prioritising executive proposals; selection, and dare Unionists to attempt to interpretation of the powers in relation to (iii) prioritising legislative proposals; overturn them by seeking a review of this admission criteria. (iv) recommending a common ministerial decision. Civil servants now position where necessary—for instance, refer to this as "Negative Resolution So, it looks as if Caitriona Ruane could on matters which concern the response Procedure". use "Negative Resolution Procedure"— of the Northern Ireland administration and end academic selection by means of to external relationships; However, Regulations are drawn up (v) agreement each year on (and and implemented within the context of regulation—but that this would be legally review as necessary of) a programme primary legislation. The relevant fragile. With immediate consensus not incorporating an agreed budget linked legislation is now the Education (Northern likely (both main Unionist parties are to policies and programmes (Prog- Ireland) Order 2006, which succeeded firmly wedded to academic selection) the ramme for Government); the 1997 Order and gives power to specify political tactic adopted by Caitriona Ruane 23 appears to be the application of both References how many there are on the Catholic side. financial and political pressure. [1] www.deni.gov.uk/outling_a_vision_for_ David Burnside, a fundamentalist in the First, she has declared that there will our_education_system SDLP's sister-party, recently questioned not be a test in 2010: that will put pressure [2]www.nio.gov.uk/proposals_by_ Paisley at Stormont about the past of the on primary schools to 'bed in' the revised the_british_%20and_irish_governments_for_a_ Deputy First Minister. Paisley brushed curriculum and to cease to "narrow the comprehensive_agreement.pdf the question aside by remarking that curriculum" and "teach to the test". This [3] www.david-morrison.org.uk/northern- somebody with a past like Burnside's will be largely welcomed in Primary ireland/dup-agreement.htm [4] online.did.nics.gov.uk/ofmdfm/mog/red- would do well to live in the present. Schools. book-april-2007.pdf Green Poppies? The Roscommon Second, the decision not to fund any Champion reports that a bunch of alternative academic test (such as the Roscommon Councillors have been to Common Entrance test proposed by Sir Editorial Digest France to lay a wreath of poppies on the Ken Bloomfield of the Association for continued graves of fallen WW1 soldiers from Quality Education). That would place a SDLP 3, Sinn Fein 1, Alliance 1, and Roscommon and to acknowledge their significant financial burden on schools Traditional Ulster Voice 1. [Banbridge role in fighting for the freedoms we now opting to continue with academic testing Leader, 25.2.08] enjoy! However the group's itinerary at 10-11. With over a thousand parental Price Of History. There seems to be an will differ from that of other such groups challenges annually to current 11+ absence of any guilt among the families by taking in the German cemetery at gradings, the cost and burden of of those who fought and died for Ireland Langemark (which visitors usually miss administering any test are not insignificant. when it comes to making money. because it is not sign-posted). The Equally, it can be guaranteed that decisions Recently the papers of executed 1916 delegation will stay at the Irish College to exclude children from particular schools leader, Tom Clarke, were sold off for a at Louvain (founded in 1607 by a will lead to legal challenges which could, small fortune. Others queued up to cash Roscommon Franciscan priest, Fr. potentially, be backed by the Equality in on the sacrifices of their relatives. The Florence Conry). The first Irish Commission, the Childrens' Commis- latest is one Sid McAuley, a British dictionary was compiled at Louvain, as sioner or the Childrens' Law Centre. Ministry of Defence instructor, who is was the Annals of the Four Masters. Third, there are very few fully selective selling his grandfather's 1916 medal for Bono To Attend Israel Independence schools left in Northern Ireland. It is between £5,000 and £7,000. His Celebration? It has been reported that understood that just 10 Grammar Schools grandfather was William Patrick the singer has been invited by President in Northern Ireland accept only 11+ "A" Partridge, a captain in the Irish Citizen Shimon Peres to attend the Machar grades. Many take grades "C", "D" or Army who fought alongside Countess (tomorrow) conference which he has indeed those who did not take the 11+ test. Markievicz at the College of Surgeons. organized, scheduled to take place Even prestigious Grammar Schools such He was a Trade Union friend of James following Israel's 60th Independence as Methodist College have empty/surplus Connolly, a founder of the Labour Party Day, and the U2 front man might accept places. Of the 10 remaining wholly and a Dublin City Councillor. (Irish Peres' invitation. The Machar Confer- selective schools, 6 are Catholic schools. News, 4.2.08) ence will showcase Israel's various And the Catholic Bishops, to date, have Victims' Industry. The North's contributions to medicine, science, and solidly supported reforms and are Appointments Commissioner, Felicity conservation. understood to be 'onside' for Ruane's Huston, has condemned the way that planned reforms. people have been appointed to public IMPACT and Palestine The prospects for selective Grammar jobs dealing with the recent war; though Schools aiming to provide a long term, she has nothing to say about the The following motion was adopted at the credible, challenge to Minister Ruane's proliferation of such jobs. She was a AGM of the State Agencies and proposals are not, by any means, simple or Voluntary Sector Branch of IMPACT member of the Lords Commission which and will go forward to the Annual straightforward. In short, the largely rejected Several of Tony Blair's cronies Protestant Grammar Schools face the Conference in May for adoption as for peerages. In particular, she criticises national policy: fraught prospect of funding an academic the way that Lord Robert Eames and test themselves, facing legal challenges Given the motion adopted by a great Denis Bradley were appointed to head majority of delegates at the 2007 ICTU alone, and appearing as a sectarian rump the Consultative Group on the Past. in so doing. Biennial Conference in support of the Eames and Bradley are being paid £680 rights of the Palestinian people and seeking a day for three days a week. According CONCLUSION Irish Government action in vindicating to the Irish News (26.2.08) their remit is those rights, and given the fact finding Whilst Caitriona Ruane can seek to to produce "recommendations… aimed impose Admissions Criteria through visit to Palestine by a high level delegation at supporting Northern Ireland society of ICTU which followed, this Conference: "Negative Resolution Procedure" it seems in building a future that is not over unlikely that she will do so. Equally, it shadowed by the events of the past". expresses its concern at Israel’s suppression of the Palestinian people and seems unlikely that Unionist consensus This attempt at removing history from for the vision outlined in Minister Ruane's strangulation of Palestinian economic the lives of the people should make for development and speech will be easily forthcoming. What interesting reading! Both the Catholic is more likely is that the "14, not 11" calls on the Irish Government: Bishops and the IRA have refused to to take a stand on Palestine independent of proposals will get an airing through a speak to the Group. Should their salaries consultation process, whilst some facts EU Foreign Policy; not therefore be halved? Then there are 1to demand the suspension of are laid out on the ground—notably that the Victims' Commissioners. Objections primary schools will now plan for teaching the preferential trading status that Israel to the appointment of Bertha McDougall enjoys under the Euro-Med Agreement the revised curriculum through to the end as commissioner led to the appointment as long as Israel continues its economic of Year 7, and not for any test. Ultimately, of the other three applicants, Brendan blockade of occupied Palestinian areas; however, an Admissions Criteria for pupils McAllister, Mike Nesbitt and Patricia 2 to openly seek a change in the moving from Primary School to Post McBride, as co-Commissioners. There EU position Primary Schools has to be put in place by are at least 15 victims' organisations on 3 to demand the restoration of full 2009-10. EU funding for the Palestinian the Protestant side. God alone knows Authority 24 Report of letter in Irish Times wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the WILSON continued matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, Israel And The should be righted, in order that peace may once themselves for its maintenance. more be made secure in the interest of all. Palestinians IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy that national armaments will be reduced to the should be effected along clearly recognizable Prof Benny Morris is a renowned Israeli lowest point consistent with domestic safety. lines of nationality. historian, whose ground-breaking 1988 V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose book The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, place among the nations we wish to see Problem demolished several of the default based upon a strict observance of the principle safeguarded and assured, should be accorded that in determining all such questions of positions of Israeli state propaganda. As a the freest opportunity to autonomous sovereignty the interests of the populations development. result, he was for many years spurned by concerned must have equal weight with the XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro the Israeli academic establishment—a state equitable claims of the government whose title should be evacuated; occupied territories of affairs that he has successfully overcome is to be determined. restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access by subsequently drawing conclusions that VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory to the sea; and the relations of the several are drastically at variance with the evidence and such a settlement of all questions affecting Balkan states to one another determined by that he himself established. Russia as will secure the best and freest friendly counsel along historically established cooperation of the other nations of the world in lines of allegiance and nationality; and This process has been meticulously obtaining for her an unhampered and international guarantees of the political and charted by the US Jewish historian Norman unembarrassed opportunity for the independent economic independence and territorial integrity G. Finkelstein in his classic Image and determination of her own political development of the several Balkan states should be entered Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict. and national policy and assure her of a sincere into. welcome into the society of free nations under XII. The Turkish portion of the present In his letter of February 21st, Prof institutions of her own choosing; and, more Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure Morris advises David Norris and David than a welcome, assistance also of every kind sovereignty, but the other nationalities which Landy to "read some history books and that she may need and may herself desire. The are now under Turkish rule should be assured become acquainted with the facts, not treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations an undoubted security of life and an absolutely recycle shopworn Arab propaganda"— in the months to come will be the acid test of unmolested opportunity of autonomous although, if these critics of Israel are their good will, of their comprehension of her development, and the Dardanelles should be "recycling" anything, it is the research of needs as distinguished from their own interests, permanently opened as a free passage to the such Israeli historians as Avi Shlaim and and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy. ships and commerce of all nations under Ilan Pappe, who followed Morris's lead VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, international guarantees. must be evacuated and restored, without any without being constrained by his XIII. An independent Polish state should attempt to limit the sovereignty which she be erected which should include the territories ideological blinkers. enjoys in common with all other free nations. inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, In a notorious interview with the No other single act will serve as this will serve which should be assured a free and secure Haaretz journalist Ari Shavit, Morris to restore confidence among the nations in the access to the sea, and whose political and claimed that "from April 1948, Ben- laws which they have themselves set and economic independence and territorial integrity determined for the government of their relations Gurion is projecting a message of transfer. should be guaranteed by international covenant. with one another. Without this healing act the XIV. A general association of nations must There is no explicit order of his in writing, whole structure and validity of international be formed under specific covenants for the there is no orderly comprehensive policy, law is forever impaired. purpose of affording mutual guarantees of but there is an atmosphere of [ population] VIII. All French territory should be freed political independence and territorial integrity transfer." Shavit comments that "I don't and the invaded portions restored, and the to great and small states alike. hear you condemning him", to which Morris brutally replies: "Ben-Gurion was right. . .You can't that the establishment of Israel postdated correct types. But my feeling is that this make an omelette without breaking the UN Charter, which was the first of place would be quieter and know less eggs. . . A society that aims to kill you several instruments that sought, in the suffering if the matter had been resolved forces you to destroy it. . . There are wake of the second World War, to prevent once and for all. If Ben-Gurion had carried circumstances in history that justify such horrors from happening again. out a large expulsion and cleansed the ethnic cleansing. . . A Jewish state With defenders like Benny Morris, the whole country - the whole Land of Israel, would not have come into being without as far as the Jordan River. It may yet turn state of Israel needs no enemies. the uprooting of 700,000 Palestinians. out that this was his fatal mistake. If he Therefore it was necessary to uproot Raymond Deane, Ireland Palestine had carried out a full expulsion - rather them. . . Even the great American Solidarity Campaign, Dublin 2. than a partial one - he would have stabilized democracy could not have been created without the annihilation of the Indians. the State of Israel for generations. There are cases in which the overall, final good justifies harsh and cruel acts Shavit: I find it hard to believe what I that are committed in the course of Benny Morris On am hearing. history." Transfer Of Morris: If the end of the story turns out Nothing in Prof Morris's letter Palestinians to be a gloomy one for the Jews, it will be contradicts this scandalous viewpoint. He because Ben-Gurion did not complete the acknowledges that the state of Israel was transfer in 1948. Because he left a large established by means of ethnic cleansing, Shavit: Are you saying that Ben-Gurion and volatile demographic reserve in the but brazenly asserts that such criminality erred in expelling too few Arabs? West Bank and Gaza andwithin Israel was justified. itself. Morris: If he was already engaged in Enlisting the genocide of native expulsion, maybe he should have done a Extract from Ari Shavit's interview Americans in defence of his thesis is vile complete job. I know that this stuns the with Benny Morris enough in itself, but overlooks the fact Arabs and the liberals and the politically (Haaretz, 9 January 2004) 25 Democratic senators spurn all efforts at "British leaders had no qualms in WILSON continued compromise with Cabot Lodge and the agreeing with Wilson. Bonar Law Republicans. Twice, on 19th November pointed out that it was for that they fell on soil that had been made ready by 1919, and 19th March 1920, the Treaty of were fighting. Lloyd George said: 'We the pledges of the war and the common Versailles failed to gain the two-thirds are fighting for the freedom of small sufferings of peoples. And the winged vote necessary for ratification, in fact the nations as well as big ones'" (ibid. p29). words of the President ripened these United States never ratified the Treaty of aspirations into revolution in Ireland, The Peace Conference was held in in Egypt, in Mesopotamia, in Africa, in Versailles (The Paris Peace Conference). Versailles, Paris, with President Wilson India. As an evangelist he achieved Later, under Warren G. Harding, Wilson's presiding. Ireland was not allowed Republican successor, the United States what he possibly least wanted to representation at the Peace Conference. achieve. He helped to free Ireland. He made a separate peace with Germany, Even though she had lost a proportionate heartened the Egyptians, the Arabs, something Wilson had believed "would number of soldiers in the war, her plea and the Indians. He set aflame fires that place ineffable stain upon the gallantry would not be heard. are slowly driving the white men from and honor of the United States". The "The Irish delegates meeting with other people's countries. It was as an United States never joined the League of evangelist that President Wilson President Wilson were told there was Nations. an agreement between the Committee realized his reveries of himself. As an Wilson went on a whirlwind political " evangelist he takes his place among the of Four [Britain, France, Russia and the great men of history" (ibid. p314). tour of the States but the Irish were U.S.A.], that no small nation could "President Wilson's sense of everywhere to heckle and interrupt him, appear before them without the insecurity, when outside of his study, causing him to have a severe stroke…" unanimous consent of all four, allowing made him vulnerable. He was unwilling (Accepting The Challenge, Memoirs Of England to veto the proposal. [Frank to face defeat. He would not face failure. Michael Flannery, Clo Saoirse, Irish P.] Walsh reminded the President of his To escape failure he sacrificed Freedom Press, 2001). own declaration about the rights of principles. To save appearances he At the eve of the World War I Britain small nations to self-determination. Wilson gave a lengthy answer which made gestures against Italy over Fiume, needed the support from the World Jewry, against France over Syria. His constant ended: which had been neutral, and which "'You do not know the anxieties I struggle was to preserve the semblance represented a large part of the population even when the substance was lost" (ibid. have experienced as a result of the p314). of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The millions who had their hopes raised by "When President Wilson returned to declaration was drafted by Arthur James what I said.'" (p46). America the people were ready to accept Balfour, with the help of US President, Wilson's grandfather, James, came from his failures and understand the cause. It Woodrow Wilson, who was a strong Dergalt, Strabane, Co. Tyrone. It is was his assertion that he had brought supporter of Zionism. claimed he worked in the printing trade in back the peace he had promised that Strabane. Woodrow Wilson was a turned the tide. The people did not WOODROW WILSON generation closer to Ireland than either the believe what he said. They heckled him AND IRISH INDEPENDENCE Kennedys or the Fitzgeralds. Ronnie in his meetings. They forced him to see The following extracts are from: Hanna claims "…at heart he remained himself. It was then that his strength Accepting The Challenge—The Memoirs what he was born, an Ulster Presbyterian". gave way, his health broke. He lost his Yet, in all the books and web-sites, very vision of himself when he discovered Of Michael Flannery (Clo Saoirse, Irish that it was no longer held by others. The Freedom Press, 2001). little mention is made of his Ulster birth, pinnacle from which he fell was within "In January of 1917, President his Scotch-Irish is emphasised all the time, himself. That was the tragedy of the Wilson addressed Congress and i.e. Scotch Presbyterian. Peace Messiah" (p316, The Confessions outlined the conditions under which Wilson was conferred the Freedom of of a Reformer, Frederic C. Howe, 1925). America would be justified in entering Cork City in 1919, and therefore an the War. He said, among other things, Honorary Burgess of the City of Cork: ****************************************************************************** that the only conditions under which "Dr. Woodrow Wilson, President of "Very quickly, the values of the Ulster- America would be justified in entering the United States, elected 10th January, the war and accepting the peace 1919, as a mark of approval of the high Presbyterians became the values of settlement that would result at its ending Americans, evolving to what is principles laid down by him for the were: settlement of the peace of the world, of commonly referred to today as the "'That every nation should adopt the "American way"." (Woodrow Wilson— justice between nations, and the rights doctrine of President Monroe, as the of people" (Cork Corporation A Presbyterian President, Ronnie doctrine of the world. No nation should handbook, 1979). Hanna, Ulster Society (Publications) extend its rule or politics over another nation or people. That every nation Ltd., 1992). WOODROW WILSON'S ****************************************************************************** should have the right to control its own destiny, unhindered, unthreatened, and FOURTEEN POINTS In the 1916 election, the Democratic I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived campaign slogan, "He kept us out of unafraid, the small as well as the most powerful. I am proposing government at, after which there shall be no private war" , helped return Wilson to the White international understandings of any kind but House; Charles Evans Hughes, his main by the consent of the governed. Those are American principles. They are the diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in opponent was defeated by a very close the public view. margin. Wilson immediately attempted principles of mankind and must prevail. There must be a spirit of justice and II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon to mediate between the warring nations, the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in but without success. freedom and of right.'" (p29). "We believe these fundamental peace and in war, except as the seas may be "In 1917 he proclaimed American closed in whole or in part by international entrance into World War I a crusade to things. First, that every people has the right to choose the sovereignty under action for the enforcement of international make the world "safe for democracy" covenants. (White House Web site, 2008). which they shall live. Second, that the small nations of the world have the III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an The peace treaty went down to defeat in right to enjoy the same respect for their sovereignty and for their territorial equality of trade conditions among all the the Senate, as a consequence of Wilson's integrity, that great and powerful nations nations consenting to the peace and associating stroke-induced rigidity. He demanded that expect.". (p28). continued on page 25 26 "While England swelled this the islands of the sea. She had gained WILSON continued Messianic vision, France pricked it. control of the raw materials of the earth. The Paris press was cynical; under She would hold them as her spoils. government direction it sneered. Daily They were not open to disposition by had a place beside the highly coloured editorials questioned the President's the Peace Conference" (ibid. p310). representations of the Virgin Mary in vision of himself. Clemenceau said: "France would draw a cordon about peasants' cottages of France, Italy, and 'God gave us Ten Commandments— Germany—Poland, Czechoslovakia, Spain. People knelt by the side of the we have not followed them; but Wilson the Baltic States, and the Balkans. railway when his train passed. Men has given us Fourteen.' His reference to Austro-Hungary would be dismem- even expected a new economic order. the 'tin Jesus' was quoted all over Paris. bered and new countries created. France They dimly hoped for deliverance from It stung. A master of dramatic art, he needed allies, more enemies of war, a deliverance that was to come played on France's sufferings, on her Germany. Italy would have the Adriatic; through the great American emanci- moderation. Balfour, the man on whom Greece demanded Smyrna, part of pator, Woodrow Wilson. For a time, Wilson relied, was first of all a Briton. Turkey. Japan would have Shantung; Lloyd George, Clemenceau, and He spoke as a philosopher but acted as she had taken it herself from Germany" Orlando were apprehensive of this a politician" (ibid. p309). (ibid. p310). veneration; it was whispered that "The President had a contempt for "The President was unable to cope Wilson might appeal to the people and Lloyd George, which he incautiously with the men about him, who used the people might repudiate their rulers" expressed; and he came to have a hatred every device to confuse, to cheat him. (ibid. p307). of Clemenceau which the latter took no He did not trust his advisers. He could "At Paris, President Wilson stood on pains to assuage. To these men Wood- not possibly know the significance of a pinnacle. He had lifted the world to row Wilson was impractical, naive. His what was being proposed, of decisions his own idealism, and the world seemed peace without victory had aided in made, of the things he concurred in. He ready for a Messianic dispensation. breaking down German morale. His wanted approval, but was met with a "By choice he stood alone. He was idealism had deceived the world and sneer; he reached out for support, but without commanding advisers. His helped to win the war. But why did he found deceit" (ibid. p310). aides were inconspicuous men. …He think his words were different from "And when he had delivered his had only the scantiest knowledge of other war propaganda? It was ridiculous sermon, he had exhausted his armour. Europe, of the men whom he had to that he should think them so important; When he abandoned one principle he meet. He professed to be ignorant of the his Fourteen Points so sacred. They had abandoned all" (ibid. p310). secret treaties that confounded his never been agreed to, anyhow" (ibid. "Mr. Wilson could not bear criticism pledges. The Peace Conference was to p309). … after he had decided for war, he be a personal affair; he hoped that it "The secret treaties were now allowed to other men scarcely a day in would be largely personal to him and brought forward; plans for the which to change their opinions as had Mr. Arthur Balfour. It was to be guided distribution of the spoils, for the he; he denounced as 'wilful men' by his Magna Carta, the lineal issue of dismemberment of Germany, the members of Congress who did not other great Anglo-Saxon charters, destruction of middle Europe. Mr. accede to his superior wisdom; he set beginning with the barons at Runny- Wilson professed to have no knowledge the Department of Justice in motion to mede and ending with Thomas of the secret treaties, which confounded speedily imprison men for saying one Jefferson. Men had conquered with the all his pledges, although they had been day the things he had said the day pen as well as with the sword. He would printed in America. He was indifferent, before" (ibid. p312). bring liberty to a distracted world by if not irritated, over imperialism, and "Had the President remained a the pen. He would bring it alone" (ibid. was wholly unprepared for criticism Messiah, content with approval from p308). and attack from sources from which he himself alone, he might possibly have "England fed this isolated grandeur. has least expected it. Neither France won. He might have failed, but his And England knew Woodrow Wilson nor England felt gratitude; rather they failure would have been a Messianic better than did we. She knew him as she felt resentment that we had not come in failure in keeping with his vision of knows so many things that no other earlier. We had made money from their himself. It might have upset govern- country thinks it worth while to know. necessities. That, too, could not be ments, widened revolutions; it would She had studied his written words; had forgotten. Among his confreres he was have left an imperishable influence on penetrated into his hidden psychology. an inexperienced colonial, to be the world" (ibid. p313). She knew his strength and his weakness. confused, outwitted, played on; now a "But he choose to barter. When he England had sent Mr. Arthur Balfour to saviour of the world, now an obstruct- began to barter, he lost all; he lost his Washington to win him to the war. Mr. ionist to speedy peace, now an ingrate own vision of himself, and he had to Balfour was the statesman-philosopher, to the sufferings of England and France. keep this vision of himself intact. It and the model of President Wilson's That it was primarily their war, not his principles were all that he had university aristocrat. He best ours; that we had come in because of brought to Paris" (ibid. p313). represented the England that Mr. Wilson appeals for help; that we had abandoned "A man less idealistic would have knew from Walter Bagehot. The our traditions and made our own been betrayed as he was betrayed, but England he had written about, the sacrifices, was a point of view to which he would have been a better bargainer. mother of America. The Balfour family they were impervious. That we had He would have used America's financial had always been a family of rulers. made these sacrifices because we power. He would have brought pressure They had no interest in trade. The knew sincerely believed that they too wanted to bear. He might have threatened. He nothing of the vulgarity of practical an end to war, received no credence" would have descended more frankly to politics. Other British emissaries had (ibid. p310). the world in which he found himself. been picked with the same insight. And "The President's Fourteen Points had But the evangelist could do none of England bowed to the Messianic no supporters. England would not even these things frankly, and the President Wilson; she accepted him on his own consider his freedom of the seas; was an evangelist" (p313). measure of himself. The King received command of the seas was protection to "Mankind needs evangelism as well him with sovereign honours at her empire. She would not renounce as achieving statesmanship. Had Wilson Buckingham Palace. Peers, common- conquest. Conquest was a word she did remained the evangelist he might have ers, people claimed him as their own. not know. Her empire was a trust, a broken Clemenceau and Lloyd George. The press sanctioned his idealism as sacred burden, which could not be But he chose political power. As the the idealism of English peoples. They discussed. She had seized her winnings politician he failed. But his words seemed to accept his leadership of the by war in Africa, in Mesopotamia, in carrying promise of a new dispensation world" (ibid. p308). continued on page 26 27 VOLUME 26 No. 3 CORK ISSN 0790-1712
Dedicated to John Bruton, European Ambassador to the United States. “Books are good enough in their own way, but, they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life.” (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1876) Woodrow Wilson: A Love Scorned
The US President Woodrow Wilson in the platonic sense of the term. To loved England and everything English but WOODROW WILSON: Woodrow Wilson the scholar it was easy to idealize a country that put its in the end, England broke Woodrow LOVE OF ENGLAND Wilson's heart. England betrayed every scholars in politics and kept them there "At Johns Hopkins, Woodrow as it kept Arthur Balfour, James Bryce, value and principle of civil liberty and Wilson fell under the spell of Walter democracy which poor Wilson believed and other men of his own type." (p36) Bagehot, one of the greatest of British (The Confessions of a Reformer, were the soul that made England a superior essayists. He urged his students to read Frederic C. Howe, 1925). civilization amongst nations instead of "A and reread Bagehot as he himself had "Woodrow Wilson loved England wolf in lamb's skin". done. His Congressional Government as the mother of civil liberty and of No man was more able to make an was said to have been inspired by parliamentary government. She had objective study of President Wilson than Bagehot's British Constitution, as were given us the Magna Carta, the Bill of many of his essays on public men. his friend, Frederic C. Howe. Both were Rights, and Petition of Rights. She had Bagehot gave the student Wilson that exiled the Stuarts for their betrayal of of Scotch-Irish descent "which means that which his mind wanted; a picture of they were Scotch Presbyterians who went English liberties and had called in what a great constitutional statesman Cromwell and William of Orange to re- over to Ireland and took the land away should be. Through Bagehot's eyes he from the Irish and gave them their Scotch establish them. In his mind England saw British statesmen as he saw himself. was the literal mother of America. From They were drawn from the best families, brand of religion in exchange" (The her we had taken our political institu- Confessions Of A Reformer, Frederic C. trained from youth for the service of the tions. Also our system of jurisprudence. Howe, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925, page state. They grew up in the atmosphere His chief criticism of the American of Oxford and Cambridge, and were Nine). Constitution related to those features Howe once shared the same boarding exalted by traditions of disinterested which failed to follow the British public service. They had no private parliamentary model. It was this love house with Wilson. In 1914, the President ends to serve; because of their for British forms that led him to read his appointed Howe United States Commis- independent wealth they were sioner of Immigration at the Port of New messages to Congress in person and to influenced only by the welfare of the treat himself as a Premier rather than as York or as the emigrants called it, Ellis empire. They were the natural rulers of Island. a President. As a matter of fact he was the constitutional state. England was a better fitted by temperament to serve as Twenty years ago, Brendan Clifford gentleman's country. And Mr. Wilson a parliamentary leader than as a believed in gentlemen, in selected men, came across this remarkable man Howe in President, and he would have felt much James Connolly's The Workers' Republic more at home at Westminster than in newspaper: Washington. (ibid. p37). "His paper, The Workers' Republic, Subscribers to the magazine are regularly "Mr. Wilson gave us no glimpse of is packed with material on Germany all offered special rates on other publications the economic background of the English through 1915 and right up to Easter Irish Political Review is published by ruling class. There was always the 1916. It includes extracts from assumption that these public men were "Socialized Germany", by Frederic the IPR Group: write to— not moved by private gain. It was never Howe, an American who made a study 14 New Comen Court, North Strand, hinted in his lecture-room that the of German society before the war. Dublin 3, or British landed gentry, bankers, and "I got hold of Howe's book, because PO Box 339, Belfast BT12 4GQ or business men enacted laws to protect those extracts were so persuasive, and PO Box 6589, London, N7 6SG, or their own class and group; looked out, found the complete book even more in short, for their own interests. Nor persuasive. Howe, who was not a Labour Comment, that the House of Lords was in the socialist, gives a detailed description of C/O Shandon St. P.O., Cork City. nature of a private corporation productive socialism developing in a Subscription by Post: representative of special interests even variety of forms, and flexibly 12 issues: £20, UK; more than the United States Senate. He interweaving itself with private € 30, Ireland; € 35, Europe. was not interested in economics" (ibid. industry." (Labour & Trade Union p38). Review , April/June 1988, p17). Electronic Subscription: "When Woodrow Wilson landed in On the basis of Howe's findings in € 15 / £12 for 12 issues France, he was hailed as a Messiah. His (or € 1.30 / £1.10 per issue) 1914, Germany, socially and politically presence would bring in the millennium. His photographs cut from newspapers was a far more advanced society than You can also order both postal and electronic subscriptions from: Britain ever was. www.atholbooks.org continued on page 27