Irish Political Review; September 2007

Press Freedom What Is To Be Done! Labour: Missing Boat The Right to Misrepresent? Joe Keenan starts debate Labour Comment page 9 page 17 back page IRISH POLITICAL REVIEW September 2007 Vol.22, No.9 ISSN 0790-7672 and Northern Star incorporating Workers' Weekly Vol.21 No.9 ISSN 954-5891 Jihad. Crusade. Culture vs Politics Colonisation Ireland tags along behind Britain in European and foreign policy matters. It could not Does Islam Encourage Terrorism? Yes do otherwise because, at the official level of the state, it has lost all historical sense of That was a screaming headline in the itself. As we go to print it is taking part in the attempt to starve the Palestinian population Irish Times on 13th August, over an article in the Gaza Strip into abject submission to an Israeli state that has never defined its by Susan Philips. She is described as "a . borders. The fig leaf for this policy is that Hamas does not recognise the state of Israel political analyst" but her political analysis and must therefore be excommunicated. If the Irish state had not lost all historical sense excludes politics: of itself, it would have some historical sense of the predicament of the Palestinian people "Factors such as the existence of in the face of ongoing conquest by the Jewish State, which was founded by British Israel and the occupation of Iraq by foreign policy when there were few Jews in Palestine and Britain was denying western armies may provide a focus for independent statehood to Ireland in defiance of a General Election mandate. Islamists. But none of these so-called provocations existed in the 7th century The collapse of Ireland's historical sense of itself, and therefore of the world, is when Islam spread like wildfire, mainly entirely due to Fianna Fail. It was Fianna Fail that insisted on Ireland becoming by the sword. Many consider Islam to contain peaceful approaches, but within independent. Fine Gael and Labour, having submitted to Britain's Treaty ultimatums its literature, significant space exists to of 1921 and 1922, settled down to domestic self-government, under the authority of the nurture a vanguard force, which is Crown, within the Empire/Commonwealth. religiously driven and committed to De Valera and his colleagues refused to settle down under the Treaty. They worked world domination through a process of up popular anti-Treaty sentiment into a functional party which made the state independent jihad. Unless Islam is understood in in the 1930s and has dominated its political life ever since 1932. such terms and is held in check by But political independence was not consolidated in the intellectual sphere—in the world opinion, the power of western Universities and in the 'Third Estate'—and those spheres now operate in antagonism institutions or moderate Islamic elites, with a Government which is in great measure the state because of the lack of a viable it will continue unchecked in its quest Opposition party. to establish global caliphate." (The No case in this Irish Times is presented by Syyed Siraj H Zaidi. Though technical- Fianna Fail remains dominant as the superior managerial party. But it was not as a ly in the form of presenting the cases managerial party that it became dominant. Its rise to dominance came about through a for and against the proposition, the Yes political purpose that went far beyond the ordinary purposes of a political party. It then appears as part of the headline in the consolidated its political dominance by developing managerial skills—a development way the page is laid out.) which is evident in the autobiography of Todd Andrews: Liam Lynch's die-hard, 'extremist', adjutant, who was hunted out on the bogs and the hills in 1923, and Philips is repeating the battle cry of the subsequently created Bord na Mona without any show of repentance for his earlier "war of civilisations" proclaimed by the activities. continued on page 2 continued on page 4 Part Two Iran: parts of Iran, Pakistan, India and China. Ethnicity And Nationalism Turkmenistan is a vast country with only 5 million people plus the 2 million within Iran. It was only here that I came I had assumed before going there, on language had a very Slavic sound to it. He across an obvious presence of Iranian no actual evidence, that Iran, unlike Iraq, agreed and said that it was because of the soldiers because of an American presence was a fairly homogeneous country. Wrong Turkish extensions into Eastern Europe. in Turkmenistan. The Turkman people again. Less than 50% of the population of He added that if I wanted to hear pure are a strange mixture. The majority were about 65 million are Persians. There are Turkish spoken I would have to go East of of Cossack appearance with the men over 25 million Azeris who speak Turkish. Turkey and that there were over 200 wearing fur hats, tunics, baggy trousers About 2 million Turkmen, and the rest are million Turkish speakers in the world and long evil-looking knives in their belts. made up of Arabs, Kurds, Armenians and including the 70 million in Turkey itself. The women wore clothes made in the 'others'. Turkish was spoken in most of the Southern most brilliant colours. I remarked to a Turkish Turk that his Republics of the Soviet Union, but also in continued on page 3 opportunity for Catholics in Ireland. C O N T E N T S As an imperial entity with plenty to feel Page bad about, Britain has had plentiful Culture vs Politics. Editorial 1 recourse to historical myth. But there is no revisionism of sacred myth in the light Jihad. Crusade. Colonisation. Editorial 1 of historical fact, and there is no Ethnicity And Nationalism. Conor Lynch (Part 2 of Iran) 1 interference with academic freedom to Letters To Editor. Romantic View Of FF? Reader (Co. Meath); prevent it. About ten years ago John China G.M. Williams; How Ireland Reached The End Of History I. Kenna 3,26 Charmley used his academic freedom to Harris In The Seanad. Jack Lane 6 engage in some revision of the Churchill Shorts from the Long Fellow (Labour Debate; Celtic Tiger; Fianna Fail; myth. He wasn't sacked. The Times even The Irish Times Opposition; The Irish Times Refuge) 7 gave him some space to set out his Sacco & Vanzetti. Report of l'Humanité tribute (trans. J. Martin 8 criticism. But the thing was a nine-days- Press Freedom: The Right To Misrepresent? Editorial 9 wonder, and was soon lost amidst the Hidden History Of 'Ireland's Nazis'. Manus O'Riordan 10 mass of academic orthodoxy supportive Getting Sophistication. Julianne Herlihy (Report,Trevor/Bowen Summer School) 13 of the ideology of the state. Hubert Butler Society Goes American. David Alvey (Report of lecture) 15 Broadcasting is likewise controlled What Is To Be Done! Joe Keenan 17 discreetly in Britain within parameters set Editorial Digest. (Northern Victims; O'Loan Insulted; Empey On Democracy; by the political requirements of the state. Gay Derry; Shankill Welcome!; End Of Sctarianism?; Carson; Limerick 20 But occasionally things get slightly out of The Indo's Guilt Complex. Seán McGouran (Part 2) 20 hand. Does It Stack Up? Michael Stack (Education?; Sculpture; Global Warming; Dollars & Guns; Pheasant-Shooting; Atonement 21 The BBC was designed to function Old Irish And The Market. John Minahane (Part 2) 22 within the party-politics of the state. That The Professor And The Prince. Pat Walsh 23 is the meaning of the official requirement that it is 'impartial'. It is not independent. Labour Comment, edited by Pat Maloney: But its position in Northern Ireland is Two Views On When And Why Labour Lost Both Boat And Vote back page anomalous, because the region is outside Eamon Gilmore Conor Lynch page 31 the party-politics of the state, and BBC,NI Union Officials v. Elected Reps Tom Doherty page 31 is liable to conceive illusions of independ- What Next For The Left In Northern Ireland Mark Langhammer page 31 ence. About twenty years ago its regional Director commissioned interviews with Martin McGuinness and Gregory Camp- Garret FitzGerald is the anti-type of antagonism with the academic and journal- bell. McGuinness was still imagined to be Todd Andrews—the pampered son of a istic dimensions. an outrageous revolutionary in those times. member of the Treatyite elite who declared In functional states the harmonious Mrs. Thatcher questioned the propriety of himself a Commonwealth man sixty years functioning of these different dimensions broadcasting the interview. The Director ago when Fine Gael declared itself to be is achieved by patronage. In a well- General supported the regional Director. Republican for the purpose of scrambling conducted state the patronage is so The Government put its foot down. back to office in alliance with a recently discreetly operated that it is scarcely Vincent Hanna (who came of a Belfast retired Chief of Staff of the IRA. But in noticed. But there is always patronage. middle class nationalist family) was then recent years it is only FitzGerald, amongst And academic freedom operates within in the position that Jeremy Paxman holds the leading politicians and academics, who practical parameters set by patronage. now. He led a strike against Government has said anything thoughtful in support of interference, and asserted the independ- political independence. Effective state patronage of the academic system by discreet means ence of the BBC, which he described as a kind of independent guild of broadcasters. This apparent absurdity is actually in requires that the major political forces A flimsy semblance of compromise was accordance with the present nature of the have a strong presence within academia.

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