Of Morality & Corruption Ireland & Another PD Budget! Brendan Clifford Philip O'Connor Labour Comment

page 16 page 23 back page IRISH POLITICAL REVIEW January 2011 Vol.26, No.1 ISSN 0790-7672 and Northern Star incorporating Workers' Weekly Vol.25 No.1 ISSN 954-5891

Economic Mindgames Irish Budget 2011 To Default or Not to Default? that is the question facing the Irish democracy at present. In normal circumstances this would be Should Ireland become the first -zone country to renege on its debts? The bank debt considered an awful budget. But the cir- in question has largely been incurred by private institutions of the capitalist system, cumstances are not normal. Our current which . made plenty money for themselves when times were good—which adds a budget deficit has ballooned to 11.6% of piquancy to the choice ahead. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) excluding As Irish Congress of Trade Unions General Secretary David Begg has pointed out, the bank debt (over 30% when the once-off Banks have been reckless. The net foreign debt of the Irish banking sector was 10% of bank recapitalisation is taken into account). Gross Domestic Product in 2003. By 2008 it had risen to 60%. And he adds: "They lied Our State debt to GDP is set to increase to about their exposure" (Irish Times, 13.12.10). just over 100% in the coming years. A few When the world financial crisis sapped investor confidence, and cut off the supply of years ago our State debt was one of the funds to banks across the world, the Irish banks threatened to become insolvent as private lowest, but now it is one of the highest, institutions. If market forces had been left to themselves, the banks would have gone although still behind Greece, Italy and under. Ireland would have lost its banking system and thus a major element of its Belgium. sovereignty. The problems were created in the private sector, but the society as a whole While our debt to GDP ratio is far less would have suffered if a remedy had not been found. than was the case in the 1980s the inter- Brian Lenihan was right to step in and offer a guarantee to all creditors, a guarantee national environment was more benign that was partially renewed in November. That guarantee bought relative security for a then. Also, the State debt was not accom- couple of years. In a volatile situation, as exists in the financial world today, there are panied by large private debt and in the no lasting solutions—even for big and powerful economies, as Barack Obama has found 1980s inflation mitigated the burden of out. A small, open economy like the Irish can only survive by dealing creatively with the debt. crisis of the moment. Finance Minister Lenihan has shown considerable talent in doing Therefore the 2011 budget required a this. step-change rather than an incremental change in order to bring the finances back While the Bank Guarantee worked for a while, as the world crisis continued to cause in order. It has been described as the most instability, international investors lost confidence in the collateral that the Irish banks severe budget ever. Certainly, if severity were offering for their loans. That is to say, the banks were not able to go on borrowing is measured in terms of prior year, the funds. Again Ireland was threatened with the loss of its banking system. And again the budget was savage. But are prior year Government acted with flair, to establish the National Assets Management Agency, to comparisons valid? Up to a point they are. continued on page 2 continued on page 7

easy thing to establish—the easiest thing the 1990s. How did this happen? Were Democracy in the world. If that is so, how could it the Russian people deprived of the vote? The political system that is called have been that Democracy hardly hardly Did they not elect Putin to be President, democracy is less than a century old, but existed at all until 1918, and that despite and then elect Medvedev to replace him? the official view of states that have it is all the propaganda of the League of Nations Is it that the mass of the people are too that states that do not have it should be and the United Nations it is still not the incompetent or stupid to sustain democracy destroyed. That is the meaning of the actual political system of most states? —which is the rule of the people? It is awarding of the Nobel Prize to a prisoner Evil dictators prevent it, we are told. But hard to see what else could be meant when in China, and the threats made by the elections have been held in most states, it is said that the elected Government of against countries that did and if democracy is simple, how could it Russia is a dictatorship. not attend the Prize ceremony. be that people who wanted to be evil Russia was a democracy during the The word "democracy" is used as a dictators have been so successful. Yeltsin era. Yeltsin ruled by Presidential demagogic slogan, with the implication We are now told that Russia is a dictator- decree and sent his tanks to shell the that a functional democratic State is an ship, after having been a democracy during Parliament. But Russia under Yeltsin was continued on page 10 are transparent, if misguided, the same C O N T E N T S can not be said for those who advocate Page such a move, while continuing to espouse Economic Mindgames. Editorial 1 the capitalist/globalist system. Irish Budget 2011. John Martin 1 Democracy. Editorial 1 Sovereign debt is public debt, money Individualisation Of Tax. Report of David Quinn remarks 3 borrowed by the State for investment and It's Inter-Governmental, Stupid. Jack Lane 6 sometimes to make up shortfalls in tax The Water Crisis. Conor Lynch 9 revenues. But it is hard to see how Ireland Shorts from the Long Fellow (David McWilliams; Sinn Fein & The Guarantee; could have done otherwise than equate Joe Higgins On The Banks; Guardian On Iceland; IT On Iceland; Ryan Line) 12 Bank Debt with Sovereign debt. In any RTÉ Attitudes. Letters Exchange, Desmond Fennell & Cathal Goan 13 case, it is utopian to believe that investor No Sign Of Global Warming This Year. Dr. Alan Rogers (Report) 14 confidence in Sovereign Debt would have Richard Holbrooke. Wilson John Haire (Poem) 14 been unaffected by a Default on bank Es Ahora. Julianne Herlihy (Bernie Madoff; Ireland & Wealth; debt. If the banks had been allowed to Political Corruption; Writers & Prizes 15 smash up, not only would Ireland have Of Morality & Corruption. Brendan Clifford 16 been without a banking system of its own, Jack Jones Vindicated. Manus O'Riordan (Part 5) 18 it would also have found it far more The Greaves Journal. Anthony Coughlan 21 expensive to borrow Sovereign Debt. Harris—as he was. article from 1965 (translated from What are the implications of not having Irish by Oscar Gregan) 22 a Banking system? It means that Ireland Ireland And Israel From De Valera To Lemass. Philip O'Connor becomes dependent on foreign banks to (Part 2 of De Valera On Zionism & Palestine) 23 look after its financial affairs. These Naval Warfare. Pat Walsh (Part 6) 27 banks would have headquarters in the Index, 2010. 28 City of London, New York etc. They A Labour Policy. Report 29 certainly would not conduct their opera- It Matters Not If Adams Was A Member Of The IRA. Donal Kennedy tions for the benefit of their Irish customers (Report) 29 or to build up the Irish economy. In the Does It Stack Up? Michael Stack (Governance; Abortion And Adoption) 30 days when Irish financial affairs were managed from London, Irish savings were channelled to the City of London and built Labour Comment, edited by Pat Maloney: up the British economy. A pre-condition Another PD Budget for Irish prosperity was the move by (back page) to put an end to this state of affairs.

take the largest loans from the banks. As ranging powers, such as downsizing the There is a further consideration. An has been explained in this magazine, it is two largest banks, and imposing large Irish Bank Default, quite apart from not just non-performing loans that have losses on subordinated (as opposed to damaging Ireland, would have serious been stripped from the banks. The senior) Bondholders. Immediately the effects right across the European Union. collateral offered by the borrowers has Irish Times criticised him for not taking been taken too, and also loans to the same such steps a couple of years ago, instead The implications of allowing the Irish borrower that are not in trouble. The of offering the Bank Guarantee. This kind Banks to go under would be far-reaching. whole thing has been very complicated, as of mechanistic thinking is widespread A default would bring about a domino customers may have had loans from amongst those who have no understanding effect which would spread right across various banks in Ireland and elsewhere. of how government works. The fact is . A decision to walk away from the In effect, where a customer has been unable that, at any given point, the situation must indebtness problem would not just be felt to maintain scheduled payments in respect be handled according to the circumstances in Ireland alone. The exposure of European of one large loan, the whole of his portfolio of the time. An action, which may be right Banks to Irish debt is (in dollars): with any participating banks has been in one situation, could be damaging in 50.1 billion taken on by NAMA. It has thus been another. Two years ago the situation was 138.6 " made more difficult for them to avoid entirely different. Italy 15.3 " their liabilities. It is a creative solution Portugal 19.4 " and one that will probably pay off in the Begg says the Government made a Spain 14.0 " long run. "crucial mistake" by guaranteeing that UK 148.5 " Along with establishing NAMA the debt to bank investors (Bond-holders) and The source for these figures is the Bank State has been obliged to put money into equating "banking debt with sovereign for International Settlements and they the banks, and become a major shareholder. debt". Presumably he feels that market appeared in the Financial Times of 2nd Then, when that failed to settle inter- forces should have been allowed to take December. national markets, Lenihan took steps their course and is not concerned about These banks are not just exposed to enabling him to close two of the most the knock-on effects. Irish debt. The banks of every country are troubled institutions, Anglo-Irish Bank The demand that the Bond-holders mutually exposed to large quantities of and Irish Nationwide (not related to British should be burned is currently coming both debt. An Irish default on bank debt would Nationwide, which has remained a mutual from the left and the right of the political start an avalanche which would eventually institution). He has also taken other wide- spectrum. While the motives of the Left engulf even the strongest European economy. 2 In the immediate post-Default period, Ireland would find it very difficult to Individualisation Of Tax borrow the money it needs to maintain its social services at the present generous "…one-income married families can pay thousands more in tax than two-income level, a level more generous than that of married families on the same earnings. most other European countries. Fianna Now things are to get even worse for one-income married couples because the four- Fail may have given the developers tax year plan, unveiled last week… will penalise them even further… breaks worth millions, but he gave the On page 102 of the plan we are told that by 2014 single people earning €55,000 per working class billions. annum will pay an additional €1,860 in taxes but one-income married couples also on €55,000 pa will pay another €450 on top of that, bringing their added burden to €2,310… While the Default shock therapy treat- …100% of State policy is aimed at the 20% of women who want to work full-time, ment might or might not kill the patient, all the time, and the other 80% of woman are ignored… the political and economic system would What of the children? …if their parents are in work, then the children will have to be be savagely damaged with no alternative looked after by other people… in a growing number of cases they will be put in day-care. system in prospect. There could be no Is this good for them?… gradual change to a different way of doing …social policy in this area is increasingly coercive and anti-housewife…" things. In prospect would be a time of (David Quinn, Irish Catholic, 2.12.10) severe economic hardship. A Default is a leap into the unknown: anything could prominent Opinion Piece in the EU/IMF bail-out facility is greater happen. Most societies only choose to of 2nd December. The provocative title than the likely rate of growth of the Irish take such a course when there is no other was Will It Work? No. What Can Ireland economy. By availing of the bailout, practical alternative. Do? Remove The Bank Guarantee And Ireland's debts will become larger in prop- In 1919 the German Sparticists led by Default. And the message was given a big ortion to the economy, while the ability to Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg coloured banner headline on the front repay diminishes. Ergo: without a Default, tried to pull down the institutions of the page of the Irish Times, as well as featuring Ireland faces a downward economic spiral. German State. The disorder did not inside. The point of the wordy headline Here is his essential point: produce their ideal, on the contrary. was to make an impression on those who "The markets… are correct. At an It is one thing to leap into the unknown would give just a cursory glance at the interest rate of 5.8%, the loan from the as a coherent society, organised around a article. These are the methods of agitprop European Financial Stability Facility will far-sighted and competent political and they sit curiously in what claims to be at best plug a temporary funding gap. It leadership. It is quite another to make that a serious journal. will not improve—and quite possibly worsen—Ireland's underlying solvency jump with political parties at the helm that The Irish Times has consistently under- position. The interest rate is very likely are routinely competent at best, and which mined the Government's attempts to to be higher than Ireland’s nominal annual display little of the broader vision of their stabilise the economic situation. Under growth during the period of the loan. founders. the guise of a spurious 'balance', it pub- And that means the real value of the debt It might be added that those who lishes sharply-written negative articles will increase…" advocate Default also tend to have while, somehow, the rebutting pieces never But this argument relies on comparing contempt for De Valera’s vision of a frugal, make the same impact. The negative two things that are different in kind. One self-sufficient society, content with simple articles are picked up by the world media is the rate of interest on a loan facility. The pleasures. They want the fruits of and the rebuttals are not. other is the growth in the size of the globalism but do not want to pay the And it is not just internationally that economy. The juxtaposition of the two asking price. The way that Eamon de this tactic undermines what is essentially percentages may make an unwary reader Valera did not make it onto the short list of a sound economy. Irish investors, too, are believe that Ireland is diminishing its GDP Greatest Irishmen earlier this year does persuaded to take their money abroad. by around 3.8% per annum by availing of not suggest that there is a democratic Some are even fearful of keeping their the loan facility—the amount of the repay- readiness to give up the consumerist way money in —as though Stering or the ment, less the amount of growth—which and rediscover the traditional cultural Dollar offered a safer alternative!! of course it is not doing. heritage in word, music and dance. The The situation that the Bank Guarantee How come none of the professional two main Opposition Parties suggest that was established to prevent is being gradu- economists have pointed to this conceptual there is another way of dealing with the ally brought about by chipping away at flaw in Mr. Münchau’s argumentation? crisis—or rather two, but incompatible, investor confidence and stoking up fears Moreover, under the rescue scheme, other ways. of collapse. The more Default is talked Ireland may borrow up to €85 billion over about, the more money leaves the country, seven years, at a maximum rate of 5.8%. Given that an Irish Default on bank or fails to come in. It is not borrowing the whole amount in debt would have such a dire effect, what the first year. So it is not faced with are we to make of the fact that it is But what of Münchau's certainty that paying 5.8% of €85 billion up front, 4.9 advocated in quarters where one would the IMF/EU Bail-out will not work? What billion, as an unwary reader may conclude. expect probity and conservatism? A quality of argument does he deploy? The Also, €17 billion out of the €85 billion Default has been pushed by the Financial tone of the piece is ex cathedra: opinions is coming from Ireland's own resources. Times, and promoted by the Irish Times. are simply laid down from the Financial So in fact the part of the bail-out fund And it is not just advocated: it is sold Times papal chair. But a closer look which is in the form of an external funding with spurious arguments that do not bear shows that what there is in the way of facility amounts to €67.5 billion. even a cursory examination. supporting argument is weak, to say the The firepower given by the IMF/EU Wolfgang Münchau, Associate Editor least. Mr. Münchau’s core argument is facility will bolster the Stuate Guarantee of the Financial Times, contributed a very that the rate of interest Ireland will pay on and enable our banks to obtain cheaper 3 funding on the international markets. 1%! manner. Schäuble is best from the British Some of the loan facility may be used to Let us also note that Ireland is coming viewpoint because he has been a globalis- plug a hole in the current account of the from a very positive underlying situation: ing Finance Minister, implementing the State, faced as it is with lower taxation in 2008-10 Ireland had the third highest break up of the national social structure of revenues. Münchau dismisses as worthless Gross Domestic Product of the EU. It was the German economy decided on, under a loan facility that enables Ireland to plug the biggest exporting country in the EU, British influence, by Chancellor Merkel a spending gap. But is it so worthless? taken as a percentage of GDP. In 2008 its and her predecessors. Without the loan, Ireland might have had debt to GDP ratio was the fifth lowest in * to default. With the loan, it can conduct an Europe. And its National Debt still com- By complete contrast to the Finanacial orderly retrenchment of its public spending pares favourably with that of other Times, John Fitzgerald, a Professor at the and bring about a reform of the banking European countries. ESRI (Economic & Social Research system. And the EU/IMF funding facility, There is plenty of scope for taking on Institute), has made a complete analysis by keeping the show on the road, gives the additional debt to meet present difficulties of the EU/IMF bailouts: opportunity to avail of any better inter- without bankrupting the country. "This focus on the interest rate on national situation that may come down the As befits a Financial Times propagand- actual borrowing from the EU/IMF fund road. And if the international situation ist, Münchau ignores the real economy. has distracted from the value of the facility does not improve—then Ireland's prob- But Ireland’s economy is doing quite well to Ireland. As with any overdraft, in the lems will be a drop in the ocean! Globalist at present. Farmers have had an excellent case of the EU/IMF facility, Ireland will Capitalism will have reached the end of pay interest when it draws down funds. year and there is good world demand for "However,the availability of the the road, and all bets will be off. their produce. On top of that, firms from facility, even if no money is drawn down, around the world are continuing to move has considerable value to the country. The loan facility means Ireland can their headquarters to for accounting "Since the crisis began, the National meet its funding needs now. That is the purposes in order to avail of the favourable Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) present all-important problem. The prob- Corporate Tax. So far, Corporation Tax has held for the government around €20 lem of repayment of the loan is quite yields for 2010 have come in above expect- billion in cash (over €24 billion last different. And it is not insurmountable, as September). Given that the state was ations. Manufacturing output in the already paying between 4 per cent and 5 Münchau attempts to convey. He suggests foreign-owned multi-national sector in this per cent for borrowing earlier in the year, that repaying the loan would decrease the country is up 15%. Output in the indi- and will now pay 5.8 per cent, this cash is size of the Irish economy, because the genous manufacturing sector is up 6%. costing the state more than €1 billion a interest rate payable on the loan is so high. year in interest. But there is no iron law which says that the Mr. Münchau does a sleight of hand "This cash was needed to tide things Irish economy has to grow every year, or with regard to this matter of growth of the over if the state had problems borrowing. that it cannot get smaller. economy. He is suggesting that loan However, with the EU/IMF overdraft repayments must come out of growth in now available, which can be drawn down In fact the annual Irish Gross Domestic whenever required, it will be possible for the economy or risk a long-term downward Product—the total value of all things prod- the state to use much of this cash in 2011 uced in an economy for a year—grew by economic spiral. But why is that? The to fund its day-to-day expenses, avoiding 6% in 2007, the last of several years of GDP measures the extent size of commer- the necessity of additional borrowing. growth so strong that it has been the marvel cial activity in a society: it says nothing "For example, if half of the cash is used of Europe. The GDP got smaller by 3% in about the wealth of the country as a whole. up next year, avoiding borrowing of the 2008 and by 7% in 2009. That decline What is the size and weight of the whole same amount, the interest savings will be economy that has accumulated down the around €600 million” (Sunday Business stabilised in 2010, being perhaps 1%. The Post , 12th December). expectation is that 2011 will see 2% decades? That is not talked of. growth. Plenty of money and resources remain It will be recalled that Finance Minister Let us look at the facts not in percentage in the country. If it came to crunch-time, Lenihan punished the markets in Novem- terms, but in real figures. The GDP in existing loans could be repaid by a modest ber, when interest rates shot up, by refusing 2009was around €160 billion. The figure levy on all the wealth in the country. to borrow money. He said the state had for 2010 will not be that different. The Ireland is anything but poor: it is one of enough in hand. Bucking the market has current account deficit, the shortfall in the wealthiest countries in the European a cost, and that is holding cash in hand. annual revenues coming into the Govern- Union. The trickier the situation, the more of a ment will be around €18.5 billion. And Using economic hocus-pocus, the cash cushion has to be held. Now the the EU/IMF loan facility enables the Financial Times is simply attempting to Government has a guarantee in its pocket, Government to borrow below what the demoralise the national will of the country an assurance that it will not have to pay market was charging for this amount. If to take care of its own affairs. It acted in more than 5.8% to borrow money in the all of this money is borrowed at this rate, the same vein in November when it voted years ahead. So it can run down its insur- the interest would come to €1.1 billion. Brian Lenihan the worst Finance Minister ance money. But if the nominal rate of growth does in Europe. It considered Germany’s But there is another advantage to having come to 2%, we are looking at an increase Wolfgang Schäuble the best. How do you that bail-out money there as a last resort in the size of the economy of €3.2 billion. judge best and worst as between such facility. Governments have long-term So the repayment on this amount is different societies? It must be taken that commitments and they like to borrow certainly repayable. And Ireland would the criteria applied relate to the Anglo long-term. However, the international have money left over! mania for further globalisation. The nearer financial situation has got so difficult that It might be noted that monies which Germany moves to Boston, the happier investors have got nervous. Borrowing have been made available to the Banks the paper will be. And the black mark money for long periods of time has got from the European Central Bank up to the against Lenihan is because he has been very expensive. However, investors are present have carried an interest rate of just pursuing Irish interests in a single-minded not so chary about lending money for 4 short periods. As Fitzgerald explains, out of the country. As labour follows good account to further American and because that bail-out fund is there, the capital, money spent abroad diminishes British strategic interests as against Eur- Government need not worry about the employment and development in Ireland. ope. And these geo-political objectives long-term capital markets—it can use The main thing required of those in public are being advanced by the voracious feed- short-term money: service is that they should be bound by a ing of myriads of piranha fish, all speculat- good ethic of service to the country: ing on the Euro becoming a weak currency. "Under normal circumstances, the bulk numbers should not be an issue.) of the borrowing by the state is undertaken Germany is making a monumental with bonds repayable seven to ten years mistake in failing to see the real nature of in advance. The making of various arrangements to the game that is being played out. assist Euro-zone countries to resist the "The NTMA manages the situation to It is experiencing some Schadenfreude ensure that, unlike the Irish banks last onslaught of speculators shows that there as it sees prodigal spendthrifts being September, the state does not have to are at least some forces in Europe that brought low. It believes that profligate understand that solidarity is needed at this repay everything in a short period. European countries are being punished by "This need to manage repayments has time. the just men of the market. It thinks that limited the ability of the state to borrow All of this paints a very different econo- it can play out the financial game as if it money short term. were gin rummy, using intelligence and a "However, because the overdraft mic picture than that being pushed by the modicum of luck. The crisis is a good facility is there for the next three years, Financial Times, with its junior partner in the NTMA can now undertake some Ireland. opportunity to impose fiscal good manners short-term borrowing with the certainty John Fitzgerald points out that one of on the lesser brethren. So it is holding that it can be refinanced, if necessary, by the dangers ahead "lies outside our hands": back on the money assistance it makes drawing down the overdraft. it being "the instability in the European available to those under market pressure, "The advantage of such short-term financial system". But of course Ireland is complaining of the few extra billions in borrowing is that, over the next three a part of that financial system. It can be cost to itself. years, it may well prove possible for seen that it is for anything but the good of But Chancellor Merkel is not playing Ireland to find lenders willing to lend for Ireland that the Financial Times advocates gin rummy: it is fight-to-the-death poker short periods at much lower interest rates a Default. that is being played. And to win in that than would be charged for the overdraft. Big game is being hunted here and kind of game you need Darwinian instincts "When Ireland last borrowed such Ireland is but the tethered goat. —it's all or nothing. If Merkel loses this money in the summer, it was paying an game, it will not just be a few billions that interest rate of 2 per cent…" There is a strategic heave in progress she loses: there will be a European banking Two per cent! What does Mr. Münchau against the Euro. The Dollar, with Sterling crisis which engulfs large and small. It is at its heels, does not want a third—and poker and as long as she continues to say to that!? He doesn't of course. He is potentially sounder—currency establish hazard small stakes, she will lose. She is playing his own game. itself. Gold has gone as an objective way just feeding the blood-lust of the piranha Far from Ireland being pulled down by of holding reserves of money and there is fish. The only way to win in high-stakes 5.8% punitive interest rates from the EU no alternative system in place. The Dollar poker is to be menacing and bet everything and IMF, the situation is that it is liberated and Sterling act as surrogates, but both you have. Not only must she gamble with to borrow money in the cheapest market. America and Britain use inflation as an money, she needs to cut off the life-blood The bailout money acts as a kind of instrument of monetary policy. At present of financial lending to the speculators. collateral making it possible to borrow the world subsidises America—and She needs to re-establish Europe as an more cheaply elsewhere. Britain too—by having to hold their mone- unfriendly place for the financial manipul- tary reserves in currency and financial ators. Half-measures will not do it. The instruments that are constantly diminishing biggest and most savage will win. Mr. Fitzgerald also makes some remarks in value. The world must subsidise Amer- about the growth rate of the Irish economy. All this gives us some perspective on He rejects the "external commentators" ica and Britain as things stand. Not surprisingly, it is on the look-out for an our friendly shark, Mr. Münchau, who who predict 1% growth or less in coming kindly advises Ireland to throw the years. He suggests there will be "signific- alternative. And if the Euro goes bust, there is no other candidate. European finance system into chaos, but ant growth" in 2011. As he points out, the still stay in the Euro! He ends his piece And, if the Euro fails to establish itself reduction in spending power as a result of saying: Budget cut-backs has less of an effect in with reserve currency status, the prospect the economy as might be expected: of a third power-bloc goes with it. It must "in such a scenario [of default]… Should Ireland stay in the Euro zone? I because Ireland imports a lot of what it be said that, while Europe has been pain- would say yes it should… The smart consumes, reduced consumer spending fully subservient to America and Britain in international affairs, its very existence choice is to default in the euro zone. It is power affects the countries which export going to happen, sooner or later." to Ireland more than Irish manufacturing as a coherent unit presents the possibility itself. As he says: "While this does not of it re-discovering its political self. There is a German folk-tale about Baron America supported the formation of make the budget cuts any easier to endure, Münchhausen, who goes around the coun- the European Union as a counter to the it will limit their consequences for the try telling tall tales. Perhaps the Financial domestic economy". Warsaw Bloc and Communist political economy. Now that the danger from an Times associate Editor is related to him. (As a slight aside here it might be added alternative way of arranging public affairs To think that there would still be a stable that having large numbers employed in has passed, the existence of a united Europe Euro-zone after an Irish default is to stretch the public service is a benefit, not a drain is of no particular benefit—on the contrary. credibility. And if Ireland set off a Euro- on the country. Goods and services prod- Dealing with countries on an individual pean banking crisis, would the zone wish uced by the public sector help to keep basis presents far greater benefit to pursu- to retain Ireland as a member? An Irish money in the country because they are ing American economic and power default would surely bring Ireland under paid out of taxation. If the tax take were objectives. lower, a high proportion of the money the wing of its "good friend" (to use British saved would be spent on imported goods, It is a curious fact that the financial Chancellor George Osborne's term of foreign holidays and the like, taking money crisis, made in America, is being turned to endearment), Mr. Sterling. 5 on the Commission as it was quite rightly seen as the key institution. and his Liberals did the business for the UK, and It's Inter-Governmental, Stupid! effectively removed that key and Europe has been a headless chicken ever since. The Government and their EU off as a Constitution of mind-boggling If the EU institutions are bypassed on colleagues are very pleased with them- legalisms; when defeated in a number of this purely economic matter, then it will selves in getting a permanent fund set up countries, some decorative elements were inevitably be bypassed on others. There at their 16-17 December meeting to deal removed and it became a Treaty; when are more important issues. War and Peace, with sovereign debt issues that may arise defeated again, protocols and guarantees for example. If the EU leadership decides after 2013. Everyone knows that a bailout were attached and a combination of dire on a war policy, which is certainly not mechanism is contrary to the Lisbon threats, wild promises and demagoguery unimaginable, and if it proves very un- Treaty. But the EU simply said that this did the trick. popular then why not follow this precedent has nothing to do with the EU institutions It was a Pyrrhic victory. The EU elite and say, in effect, 'It's an Inter- and therefore Lisbon is irrelevant. put all its political capital and credibility Governmental matter, stupid.' "If there is a transfer of competences to into Lisbon, but now it never wants another Or, on a mundane level, if the Corpor- the union then there may be a requirement referendum on it. Because they know ation Tax rate is declared an Inter- for a referendum. In this case there isn't Lisbon simply stinks. And now the Treaty Governmental matter then the Lisbon going to be a transfer. Remember, we're has been declared irrelevant when serious guarantees can be bypassed. Or the going to have an inter-Governmental decisions have to be taken. The people Guarantees on Irish neutrality, etc., etc. A arrangement here", Mr. Roche said. (Irish who took it seriously at face value have Pandora's Box has been opened up by our Times, 15 Dec. 10). And it was spelt out been taken for a ride and they know it. leaders but for them "Sufficient unto the more clearly by Arthur Beesley: But that is the not the most serious day is the evil thereof". "For one thing, an inter- governmental aspect of it. If Lisbon and all the EU Realising the EU needed a central focus arrangement would operate outside the institutions are to be by-passed when the idea of a Constitution was drawn up by ambit of the EU bodies. As such it would serious decisions have to be taken, it begs Valery Giscard d'Estaing ten years ago. not increase the powers of the institutions the question, what is the EU? If it is at The Lisbon Treaty was sold as the lynchpin themselves. For another, the avoidance heart, when the proverbial chips are down, of any new liabilities for the EU and its of the EU. And it is an appropriate meta- member states is specified to ensure that an Inter-Governmental body, it is not the phor for any Constitutional document or aid is offered only by way of loans. This EU. An Inter-Governmental arrangement agreement. But if a lynchpin is removed is required because the EU's infamous is not a union—it is not so by definition. the wheel falls off the cart, the horse usually 'no-bailout' clause remains intact in the There are Inter-Governmental bodies bolts and people can easily get hurt. treaty, breached in principle in the galore in the world and many of them are interventions that led to the Greek rescue regional ones. They are as significant and THE SOUND OF PENNIES DROPPING but not by the letter" (Irish Times, 14 useful as their leading members want them Dec.). One positive side effect of the current to be. Such bodies are very natural and situation is that even the simple-minded So, it's Inter-Governmental, stupid. have their uses. And if that is what Europe Europhiles in Ireland might begin to Nothing to do with the EU, Lisbon or is then let's make that clear. And let's call develop critical faculties about the EU. anything else. it the League of European Nations or appears to be one of them. some such. Otherwise if it continues to John was one of those hand-picked by The permanent mechanism is vital for operate calling itself a union it is a fraud Valery d'Estaing ten years ago to draw up the future stability of the Euro zone, depending on illusions and delusions the Constitution that became the Lisbon therefore for the future of the Euro, among its citizens. That is a recipe for Treaty. His famous dictum at the time was therefore for the future of the EU—but it trouble. that the EU was ordained by God and that has nothing to do with any of the EU seemed to be the full extent of his forensic institutions! This is a weird scenario and In the debates leading up the Treaty of analysis of what constituted the EU. too clever by half. If the EU institutions Rome there was intense debate on what Now, he sees things a little differently. are unaffected, it begs the questions as to kind of organisations and institutions God must have taken his eye off the ball. what exactly the EU now is. would best suit the new project that the He reckons that the permanent bailout Though everyone knows a bailout is founders had in mind—an integrated agreement is flawed because of the legally contrary to the Treaty, it's a case of Europe. They had seen the failures of Inter condition that it will only be activated "if needs must and the Treaty has to be pushed -Governmental bodies such as the League indispensable to the stability of the euro aside. While a political solution always of Nations. They concluded that such area as a whole". He says quite rightly will and always should, override purely bodies were worse than useless for what that: legal issues—after all, creators of the law they had in mind. They knew also that "This is quite a high bar to cross. are ipso facto above the law—there are they could not easily a create a supra- Suppose there is a financial crisis affecting consequences to their flouting of their national body as the nation states would the majority of countries in the euro zone, own laws. Or rather, there are con- not allow it. But they saw that a supra- but one large country has insulated itself sequences to flouting their own law and national body was essential to what they against this by building up large savings pretending that the law remains unflouted. aimed for and they devised the Commis- and preventing its banks from lending more than a very conservative amount. This is the situation we now have re sion as the key to bridge the gap between Would the position of that country be Lisbon. Do as we say but not as we do. what existed and what could exist. But the legally sufficient to prevent the bailout This follows in line with the long years founders did not have worthy successors. fund being used, because the crisis was of chicanery that was involved in getting After the entry of the UK, and particularly not affecting the euro area 'as a whole'?" the Treaty passed. Let's not forget it started under Thatcher, there was a sustained attack (Irish Times, 22 Dec.2010). 6 It would help John's argument if he would not change. the option of allowing such allowances to specified the hypothetical country but he On the other hand, the Commission be eroded by default. In this budget Brian seems to suffer from a 'don't mention the was the exclusively European element in Lenihan reduced both the Tax Bands and war' syndrome. the EU project but for John it is now only Tax Credits by 10%. And he goes on: "This wording may "arguably....available to help". In other So there was a reduction in the employ- mean that countries will prefer to seek words, it is dispensable for him. He seems ee, single personal and one person family help from the IMF, because the IMF will to think that the rivalry with the Council is Tax Credits from 1,830 euros to 1,650. look at the situation of individual countries its problem. But its very raison d'être was The married person's Tax Credit was and will not be required to satisfy itself rivalry with the Council. That rivalry was reduced from 3,660 to 3,300. The Tax that the euro area as a whole is at risk." essential to the creation of a real union. Bands were reduced from 36,400 to 32,800 This seems to be a shock to John, but The Commission was given the right to for a single person; 45,400 to 41,800 for the EU is already working hand in glove initiate legislation for Europe. That meant a married couple with one income; and with the IMF, as in the Irish bailout. Did an inbuilt creative rivalry between the from 72,800 to 65,600 for a married couple he not see from the start that IMF involve- two. The tension between the two was the with two incomes. ment in the affairs of the EU was an key productive dynamic in creating a Reductions in Tax Credits affect all admission that the EU could not deal with European polity. The Commission has taxpayers, but taxpayers on low incomes its own problems? It was effectively an lost out in that rivalry and it is the fact that are disproportionately affected. However, invitation to the IMF—i.e. the dollar—to there is now NO real rivalry between the a large proportion of taxpayers were paying put manners on the EU and the Euro. and two that means that the dynamic for an no income tax. 45% of income earners in it is logical that the dollar will seek to integrated EU has evaporated. No other this country paid no income tax in 2010. It expand its power and influence at the dynamic is in sight—apart from some is doubtful that this is sustainable. expense of the Euro given this opportunity. almighty financial disaster among EU Everyone is for competition these days, states. The Minister also said that the 8 per are they not, and this applies to currencies Ireland, in the form of Pat Cox, punched cent of the population who earn over as well as everything else. way above its weight in the elimination of 75,000 will pay 60% of all income tax. the Commission's authority and morale. It The 80% of the population, who earn John gives us his explanation for the was the greatest self-inflicted wound that under 50,000, pay 17% of taxes. This crisis in the EU: Ireland has ever given itself—and the means that the 12% who earn between 50 "My own view is that the European other smaller Member States. The Council and 75 thousand pay 23% of all income Council, which is a body consisting of 27 gained in authority automatically as the tax. By any standards this is a progressive part-timers that has concentrated ever tax system. However, it appears that the more power in its hands, is not an Commission declined. Bruton along with Government decided that there were limits organisation whose present working the whole host of our Europhiles seem methods make it capable of the sort of oblivious to this development. to the burden that the top earners could rigorous, sustained and self-critical John wails that "Europeans are looking carry. thought that is needed to restore economic for leadership. They want a sense that The Government replaced the Income growth at this critical moment in history. someone is in charge". It is the Commission and Health Levies with a universal Social Its part-time character explains why the that should be in charge and the only body European Council is always running after Charge. This has a progressive feature. problems, rather than getting ahead of that could have given leadership in this On income from zero to 4,004 per annum them. situation but it has been destroyed. And the rate will be zero. Anyone earning "Twenty-seven heads of Government, like Humpty Dumpty all the king's horses more than 4,004 will have all of their all of whom are already fully employed and all the king's men cannot put it together income up until 10,036 taxed at 2% under managing their own countries, can only again. this universal charge. A charge of 4% will turn to EU affairs in their spare time, Jack Lane which may consist of sitting on a flight on apply to income from 10,037 to 16,016. the way to the meeting in Brussels. The All income above 16,016 will be charged European Council does have a small at a rate of 7% under this regime. The secretariat and a full-time chairman, but striking thing about this charge is that the that is not enough to make up for the fact Irish Budget higher rate kicks in at a low level of that the people who make the actual continued income. decisions are all part-time Europeans. Some low income earners will be dis- Arguably, the is Prior year comparisons measure the adjust- available to help, but its role is sidelined ments that tax payers and social welfare advantaged by this. For example, the old by its institutional rivalry with the recipients will have to make. However, in Health Levy exempted people on an council" (ibid). the extraordinary circumstances we find income of 26,000 or less. On the other This is a naive view of the Council and ourselves in, it is also useful to take a hand, the PRSI ceiling has been eliminated. EU structures, and it is seriously frighten- longer view. In the 1980s the standard rate So income above 75,000 will be charged ing that a person like Bruton who has been of tax was 35% and the top rate was 65%. a 4% rate. immersed in EU affairs for decades has Governments had a policy in the early High income earners will therefore have a marginal tax rate of 52% (when tax and such notions. The Council is, as it always 1980s of allowing inflation to erode the value of tax allowances, pushing more levies are taken into account). It is widely was, the Member States looking after the believed that as marginal tax rates exceed and more people in to the higher tax bands. interests of their states. It always will be so 50% the law of diminishing returns comes and John cannot hope to make a European Even after this budget the two tax rates into play. silk purse out of the sows' ears of Member remain the same: 20% and 41%. However In the past high income earners were States' interests. Even if they had the the Tax Credits and Tax Bands were able to avoid tax by availing of various tax biggest Secretariat imaginable and all the reduced. In this era of low or negative reliefs. These have been gradually eroded time in the world to discuss matters that inflation the Government does not have and this year this trend continued. 7 SECTION 23 RELIEF on State Contributory and Non-Contributory This was the first budget that the new From 1st January 2011 Section 23 relief Pension. In these cases their pensions finance spokesman Michael will be restricted to the property itself (it remain unchanged. Noonan faced Brian Lenihan. In my opin- was eligible to be used against all rental However those under 65 were not so ion Lenihan has had the better of Richard income). lucky. Widows/widowers, those on Bruton (Noonan's predecessor) in the post- budget set pieces of recent years, but Relief will not be available after a 10- Invalidity Pension (contributory and non Noonan came across as being much more year holding period. If the property is sold contributory) and carers had a cut of 8 self-assured than Lenihan on Prime Time. within the 10-year period, the relief is not euros a week. There was very little substantial difference available to the new owner and the seller The over--25 Jobseekers Allowance between the two, but Noonan had the is subject to a clawback of tax relief already was also reduced by 8 euros a week to 188 ability to go beyond the usual anti-Govern- claimed. per week. ment rhetoric of the Opposition parties. There will be a termination of all un- Some of his suggestions in the Dáil There were also significant reductions claimed and unused Capital Allowances, were interesting. He thinks, for example, in Child Benefit. The first and second arising after or carried forward from 2014 that the standard rate of VAT should be child had reductions in 10 euros per month. as well as unused Section 23 Relief carried raised from its existing rate (21%) more The third child had a reduction of 20 euros forward from 2014. quickly than the Government intends to per month(!), while subsequent children do. The Government prefers to wait until Some would argue that the relief should had reductions of 10 euros per month. the VAT rates in the UK go up so as to have been terminated immediately. How- Michael Noonan was very funny on this avoid cross-Border shopping. Noonan, on ever, houses were built on the understand- subject. He wondered aloud whether the the other hand, thinks that the 21% rate ing that the Relief could be availed of for Minister had been beaten up by a third applies mostly to imported products, a period of 10 years. It is likely that, even child when he was a kid. However, the whereas the 13.5% applies to indigenous the phasing out of the Relief, in this budget services. This 13.5% should be reduced to situation after the adjustments does not will be subject to legal challenge. stimulate activity in this sector. My own appear anomalous. The first and second view is that consumption taxes are regres- child will receive 140 a month. The third RELIEF FOR PRIVATE PENSIONS sive because they affect low-income Another set of Reliefs which have child will receive 167 and subsequent earners more than high income earners benefitted the better-off are those available children will receive 177 euros per month. and therefore the 21% rate should not be for private pensions. The following The Minister decided not to introduce increased. restrictions will apply: means-testing or taxation of these benefits Noonan also suspects that the Govern- -p rivate pension contributions will no on administrative grounds and because ment is planning to privatise Bord Gais, but Noonan himself has been explicit in longer be eligible for relief from Pay this was a benefit paid to the mother and Related Social Insurance and the Health should not be assessed on the basis of her advocating the sale of State utilities. He Levy (now the Universal Social Charge). partner's income. thinks the receipts from such sales could be used to stimulate the economy. In my - PRSI exemption for employer view it has never been more important for contributions to pension schemes will MISCELLANEOUS MEASURES the State to retain control of our infra- be cut by 50%. There were a number of other measures affecting the better off. The Deposit structure. Has Fine Gael not learned from - It has been signalled that in the next 3 Interest Rate Tax will increase by two the disastrous privatisation of Eircom? years the Relief for private pension percentage points to 27%. On longer term Fine Gael appears to have regained contributions will be available only at deposit accounts the rate will rise from some confidence and have accordingly the standard rate of 20% (currently it is 28% to 30%. moved to the right. It will be more available at the 41%). The thresholds or allowances for Gift aggressive than Fianna Fail in implement- - Reduction in the annual earnings limit and Inheritance taxes will be reduced by ing job cuts in the public service, which on which pension tax relief is applicable 20%. begs the question as to what role Labour from 150,000 to 115,000. There was a simplification on the Stamp will play in the next Government. - Maximum allowable pension fund on Duty on property (1% for property up to a retirement for tax purposes to be reduced value of 1 million; 2% on amounts above Labour has nowhere to go except into from 5.4 million to 2.3 million. that value). The Reliefs to new property the familiar embrace of Fine Gael. It has -A new 200,000 limit will be imposed and first-time buyers will be abolished. excluded coalition with Sinn Fein (in the on tax free retirement lump sums. There were also reductions in the salary unlikely event that the numbers add up) - The imputed distribution from Approv- of the and Minister. The 10% and with Fianna Fail. In recent months ed Retirement Funds will be increased reduction in the salaries of new entrants to some of the puff has gone out of the from 3% to 5%. This 5% distribution the public service will also apply to the Gilmore gale. The party has been flounder- will be taxable. This will prevent judiciary. ing in response to a resurgent Sinn Fein. hoarding of wealth in Pension Funds. Its trump card has been that it opposed the POLITICAL REACTION State's Bank Guarantee. Recently, Joan The reduction in the minimum wage by STATE PENSIONS AND SOCIAL WELFARE Burton managed to puncture some of the 1 euro an hour received quite a lot attention. confidence of Sinn Fein's rising star Pearse Public service pensions above 12,000 The Prime Time budget special on RTE Doherty by reminding him that Sinn Fein will be reduced by on average 4%. Again, made a meal of this issue by comparing supported the Guarantee. However, this will be done in a progressive fashion. the increase in taxes of a high income Labour's position seems to be a moral The reductions will be 0% on income earner with the reduction in the salary of rather than a political stance since, unlike below 12,000; 6% on income between a person on the minimum wage. But, of Sinn Fein, it is not advocating torching 12,000 and 24,000; 9% from 24,000 to course, the comparison is misleading. It senior bond holders. 60,000; and 12% on sums higher than assumes that employers paying people on CONCLUSION that. the minimum wage will reduce the salary The 2011 budget was a credible attempt One of the few categories of people of those people just because the law has to restore order to the public finances. who remained unscathed was the over 65s been changed. Some of the social gains of recent years 8 have been eroded but it was more an orderly retreat than a scorched earth policy. The outgoing Government has left some The Northern Ireland Water Crisis controversial measures—such as a prop- erty tax on principal private residences— What Was Really Going On for the incoming Government to tackle. Labour is even more opposed to this latter Over Christmas and the New Year the money came along—but no improvement policy than its prospective partner. people in the North of Ireland experienced that could not have occurred anyway. It will be interesting to see how the an almost never-ending catastrophe of MacKenzie went off on holiday as soon contradictions between Fine Gael and floods and water shortages. Temperatures as the crisis erupted. His companions Labour are resolved during the forth- reached an unprecedented low of -18 were nowhere to be seen. MacKenzie did coming General Election and afterwards. degrees. Then the temperature soared to not appear until 30th December and indeed While it is disappointing that people on +9. The result was separating and burst had not planned to return at all until 10th welfare should be disadvantaged, the pipes, in homes businesses and in the January, and then just to announce that he economy as a whole contracted in 2008 mains supplies under the streets. would not be resigning. Well why should and 2009. As a consequence the disposable There is natural public dissatisfaction he? Everything was going to plan. Well, income of the low-paid was approaching with the service provided by the water not quite. those on welfare. That is not sustainable. company and there are bound to be great Irish rates of welfare remain quite changes in administration, but will there The Minister with responsibility for generous for the long-term unemployed, now be public support for water privatis- water (and sometimes it seems for just but for those who are newly unemployed ation, or will the water authorities be about everything else!) is Conor Murphy, the rates are quite poor compared to brought back under full public control? Sinn Fein MLA from South Armagh. He Continental Europe. Irish welfare is based Direct Rule from Westminster has left is well aware of the trickery going on on providing a safety net rather than Social Northern Ireland with a legacy of under- around privatisation and has stated that he Insurance (benefits proportional to investment in water supply. On top of will not allow it, or water charging, to contributions made). that, an ideologically-driven New Labour happen. He has been using his time in This has created enormous problems of agenda worked towards the privatisation office to counter the money grabbers. He adjustment for those who have lost their of the service. As a first step, the old had already sacked people in the layer of jobs and have mortgages to pay on homes Water Board was disbanded and a com- administration above the Water Board purchased during the bubble years. pany was set up, owned by the public, but and they were next on the list. His object The State has been able to restrain the outside hands-on control by politicians. is to bring water administration back under banks from repossessing family homes, The Directors of the Company have proper public control. but how long this can be sustained is a acted in accordance with New Labour The only Ministers to appear during the moot point. thinking. They have a direct personal crisis were Sinn Fein's Conor Murphy and interest in seeing the 'business' they work Martin McGuinness. Water charges are a Our system of redundancy payments is for privatised. Delivering a good service device facilitating the privatisation agenda. relatively generous and mitigates this prob- whilst under public ownership is not con- The idea is to get people used to paying a lem, but this does not cover people who ducive to a privatisation agenda. So the separate water bill. Administratively, the have changed jobs. Indeed, the present system was run into the ground. Workers most cost-effective system of charging writer knows people who are afraid to were laid off. Maintenance was not carried for water is through Domestic Rates. The move from struggling companies because out. People were to be shown the hard water charges simply appear as a distinct of fear of losing their redundancy entitlements. way that a state owned company could not item on the rates, a form of taxation which be trusted and that therefore the system is not regressive. McGuinness said that, if Although there was some improvement should be put into private hands. all those well-off people who were in public services during the When Mrs. Thatcher, and later Tony demanding water charges felt like making era much of the benefit of the windfall in Blair, were privatising everything in sight, a voluntary contribution, their money the public finances went towards increas- Northern Ireland was left alone—because would be accepted! But there would be no ing people's disposable income by: of the war. But, since the Good Friday water charging as the poorer majority -reduced taxes for those in the private Agreement, the privatisers have been argu- would not be punished. First Minister, sector; ing their case with all possible force. These Peter Robinson, did not appear until New -increased pay in the public sector; include capitalists on the make, and the Year's Eve and then only to make a brief - and increased monetary benefits for take, a few politicians and the people with and meaningless statement. Finance those on welfare. most to gain immediately—the bosses of Minister, Sammy Wilson, made a brief the state companies. statement to attack Murphy's national- It is a great pity that more resources Laurence MacKenzie, the head of NI isation position. were not directed towards improving the Water leads the pack. Already he gets quality of public services rather than 250,000 pounds a year and was looking In Lurgan there occurred probably the increasing disposable income. There forward to multiplying that by at least five worst incident—houses were flooded with would have been a better quality of life. times if the company went private. The raw sewage. The Water Company's PR We would not have avoided the asset other Directors could look forward to man made some smart-ass statement bubbles, which were mostly caused by the similar rewards. Water charges would be implying that people were shitting too growth of credit, but the extent of the brought in. The public would pay through much once their water came back on. problem and the damaging social the nose. But it would be the same useless Otherwise he has been very good at his consequences might have been less. people running things. Doubtless some job—dissembling day after day on behalf John Martin improvement would be seen as private of his masters. The Board's PR team have 9 been feeding their line to a compliant the way that capitalists do in market ten years ago? The legal system of the media. For about a week every BBC economies. It was gifted to them by Soviet era had been abolished, and a new Northern Ireland news bulletin reminded President Yeltsin, who could see no other legal system could not be conjured into its viewers at least twice that NI Water is way of establishing private property. being to replace it. Even if Yeltsin had not state-owned, in much the same way that it Through no economic effort of their ruled by decrees, and wrecked Parliament, always mentions that Chinese coal mines own they suddenly came into possession a new system of law for a new system of are state owned when it reports a Chinese of vast wealth. They were welcomed by economy—and not a system that existed, mining tragedy. the West into the club of big capitalists, but that was to be constructed—could not It is particularly unfortunate that this but they had not got to the top through have been established in so short a time in crisis over water supply has come to a effort in a general market system. They such circumstances. head at a time of cut-backs in public were at the top with nothing underneath It was a prime case of the safety of the spending, as there is no doubt that there is them. people being the supreme law. And the a need for a lot of new investment in the Some of them knew how lucky they people acted as if they thought Putin had water supply network. There is bound to were and behaved prudently. Abramovich saved them. be dispute within the Executive about the bought Chelsea Football Club with his way to go. Some Unionist voices are unearned income, which was a relatively Towards the end of the Yeltsin period a advocating privatisation. The question is harmless activity. Another, who was a number of thoughtful books were publish- whether Sinn Fein can gather social strong believer in economic determinism ed in Russia by people who were support- support to re-make water provision from his Communist Party days, set up a ive of reform into capitalist democracy structures and return water supply to be a kind of Fifth International in London, a but saw that it was not actually happening. service, rather than a business run for Capitalist International to assist with the They worked out what the West had known private profit. It's an open question as to inevitable realisation of classical capital- all along—that what we call 'democracy' how all this will work out. But something ism in Russia. That too was a relatively functions if there are a small number of approaching real politics might happen. harmless activity—though a waste of the political parties, well-organised in the Conor Lynch Russian resources gifted to him by Yeltsin. society, which have stable existence from one election to another, and between whose Khodorkovsky was a different case. policies there is very little difference. He was given vast oil and gas fields in In Russia in the 1990s there were scores Democracy Russia and he tried to boost himself into of parties. New parties popped up every month. And the parties that contested one continued the stratosphere of global wealth by effect- ively transferring them into American election fell apart between elections and a democracy. The United States said so. ownership. That was when the tide turned. were remade. The electors were faced And, when the USA speaks on such Putin had negotiated a smooth transfer with a superabundance of choice, and matters, it is reckless to disagree. of Presidential power with Yeltsin by therefore had no effective choice. means of a guarantee that Yeltsin would This was explained by Edmund Burke Bill Clinton, during the Yeltsin era, not be prosecuted for corruption. As far as over two centuries ago with regard to defined democracy as liberty and free one can tell, Putin was willing to operate representative government. Burke did markets. Or maybe he defined liberty as the Yeltsin system—if it can be called a not think that representative government democracy and free markets. One or the system—but modify it gradually into could be maintained on the basis of a other. The essential element was free something more like a national economy. democratic franchise. The franchise was markets. Russia was certainly a free market It was Khodorkovsky's reckless deal with broadened under popular pressure until it under Yeltsin. A free market is a market the USA that precipitated the sudden was extended to a majority of the adult that is open to US capital. change of course. population in 1918. The average standard of living in Russia Khodorkovsky was arrested, tried, (There are those who dispute the plummeted in Yeltsin's free market and convicted and imprisoned. Lost in authenticity of the 1918 Election in Ireland, life expectancy shortened. But the people capitalist Utopian ideology, he had not and excuse Britain for over-ruling it, on enjoyed freedom—or at least they had believed it could happen. It happened. the ground that it was excessively demo- freedom, and if they lacked the aesthetic And now, shortly before his sentence is cratic. Professor Garvin is one of them. sensibility to enjoy it while starving, that up, it has happened again. The Western They argue that Sinn Fein would not have was their hard luck. Freedom is the media has made a great fuss, but there is won on the much more restricted 1910 supreme good, and must be enforced little sign in Russia of popular support for franchise, and see that as being relevant.) regardless of consequences. the civil rights of Oligarchs. Freedom ended when Khodorkovsky Democracy is the system which presents was arrested. Russia is no longer a free market—a the adult population with a very small market at the disposal of Western capital— number of parties, between which there Free markets were established by therefore it is no longer a democracy, even are no fundamental differences, to choose Yeltsin giving state assets to a small group though the Government continues to be from to form a Government. of people close to him, making them elected. Another condition is that these parties billionaires overnight. These were the It is said that Khodorkovsky's trials must engage in vigorous verbal antagon- economic Oligarchs, who lived a life of were political, not legal. Certainly they ism with each other, condemn each other Riley amidst the general misery. These were political. A state, in an economically as a danger to the State, if not as an enemy Oligarchs were not really capitalists. desperate situation, that will not act when of humanity, and seem to mean it, and yet Leaving aside the question of whether its major assets are about to be given away not mean it. If what is said at elections is capitalism is good or bad, they had not to an immensely wealthy predator state, taken literally, one must conclude that acquired the wealth that they possessed in will perish. And what was law in Russia what is required to decide the issue is not 10 voting but a civil war. A democratic pressure through the satellite States in —a list of the states that "kowtowed" to election is a kind of role playing of civil Eastern Europe; and the erosion of the China by declining the invitation to the war. It is a form of extreme artifice which ideology on which the State was based. Oslo propaganda event. Ireland was not is not easily concocted where it does not These means are not available against on it. Afghanistan headed it. At the time evolve from actual civil war and stalemate. China. of the First Opium War, nationalist Ireland was just getting going. The Young Ireland This must be seen by anybody who Russia before Bolshevism was a new paper, The Nation, was launching. It stands back from our system, reflects on Westernising State without a secure tradi- sympathised with the Chinese, but was it, and takes even a cursory look at the vast tional culture. China lived for thousands disgusted by their military weakness. That tract of the world where nothing like it of years in Confucianism, an immensely was also the time of The First Afghan exists. flexible and stabilising culture, and it War. The Nation celebrated what the seems to be metmorphosising back into it Afghans did to the invading British Army. Another factor is that most democratic with little difficulty. Daniel O'Connell was a Liberal in states have been Imperialist States. And Napoleon advised that the sleeping giant general politics. His Liberal friends were many of the advocates of democratisation should be let lie. But Britain, intent on in Government. The War Minister who in Britain around 1900 said openly that it ruling the world, could let nothing lie. It launched the invasion of China, to open it was on the basis of imperialism that they broke China open by means of the Opium to opium sales from British India, was the great Liberal ideologue, Macaulay. O' thought democracy was possible. It is too Wars, beginning in 1841. The commercial often forgotten that the self-righteous core Connell supported the Opium War. It was and colonial disintegration of China by only in the Irish cause that he was against states of the EU were Imperialist States Imperial Powers led by Britain went on shedding a drop of blood. The Irish Estab- within living memory—and participated for more than a century. When China lishment today rightly identifies itself as in Hitler's New Order to an extent that reassembled itself, it was by means of O'Connellite. they do not now care to remember. revolutionary power capable of repelling The sleeping giant was kicked awake In the light of this we must assume that the occupying Powers. It could not have the Nobel Committee etc. do not actually in 1841, and then was kicked again, and been otherwise. Christian Imperialism, again, and again until he got up and started believe in the democratisation of China— intent on its universal mission, could not kicking back. A hundred years later it was do not believe that our recently-established be reasoned into withdrawal. China, still not too late to shackle him. Japan, as system could be introduced there to the having let the world be for thousands of peaceful as China but with a more vigorous benefit of the general population, and that years, became a danger to the world internal structure, was forced into the world the only obstacle to it is the evil, power- through have been able to fight off the market by American warships in the 1850s. hungry men who control the apparatus of world in order to exist. With the example of China before it, it tyranny. knew it had a choice between becoming It is evident that the tyranny is not China has fought us off, and we have an imperialist predator or imperialist prey. experienced as tyranny by the vast majority recently had to give up our military project It chose to be predator, formed its clans of Chinese. (That, of course, is because against it. The United Nations treated the into capitalist enterprises, and acquired they have 'false consciousness'. A Kuyomintang remnant on Formosa/ imperial possessions, mainly in China, in order to supply itself with raw materials generation ago the explanation by Social- Taiwan as the legitimate Government of And it entered into an alliance with the ists of the continuation of Capitalism was China until the 1970s, and Formosa was British Empire, and became its protector the false consciousness it generated in the the military base from which the US in Asia. But America, having forced populace. Now the explanation of why intended to restore legitimate Government Japan into the world market, then began to Capitalism is not universal also involves in Peking. That project was given up, and treat it as a rival who must be destroyed. false consciousness. This is as it should the Peking Government was recognised Britain, in hock to the US after the Great be. Where would Capitalism be today if as legitimate by the UN only after Peking War, was compelled to end its Treaty with the Socialists of a generation ago had not had developed a defensive military Japan. And then the US gave an ultimatum become Capitalist Utopians?) capacity to exterminate us if we interfered to Japan to withdraw from China, which it The rational object of the campaign for with it again. So on these conditions, could not have done without undermining the democratisation of China can only be there has been peace between us. But, if its economy. So there was war. the break-up of China. A generation ago, China weakened, that peace would not By that time Japan had cultivated a when China embarked on its New last. For the time being, however, we can second Chinese State. Today the US Economic Policy, it was expected to only try to weaken it by encouraging it would very much like to break up China, become a vast new and passive market for what we call democracy. but then all it could see was Japan as a rival Western capital. But something entirely Liu Xiaobo deserves a Prize from us, to its dominance in the Pacific. It is a different has happened. Chinese State no doubt. But a Peace Prize!! powerful but blundering Imperialism, Capitalism is threatening to become the The Irish Times carried an article by the always having to overcome this year the greatest economic power in the world, it is Secretary of Amnesty International on consequences of what it did last year. subverting Western control over African December 10th: China's Dictators Can Browbeat Internal Opponents But They raw materials, and its military power is Japan was fortunate after 1945 in that Will Not Win In The End". Fighting talk Imperialist antagonisms were suspended such that war against it can no longer be for a Peace event! contemplated, as it was not so very long by the shock of the Communist victory in Amnesty lost its innocence in these China. It was given privileged treatment ago. So the only thing is internal disruption matters when, at the end of the Cold War, through democratisation. as a Cold War ally, no longer needed an it came on board for the first Gulf War Empire as a source for raw materials, and The was broken by the with a Report that fed into the war happily returned to being just Japanese— proxy war with the West in Afghanistan propaganda. something which Christian Imperialism, (in which the West cultivated the Islamic On 10th December the Irish Times with its Millenarian streak, seems to be terrorism that it is now making war on); published an editorial "roll of dishonour" incapable of doing. 11 one year later in the following paragraph: the passing of the Bill, which Sinn Féin "In that day's Sunday Business Post supported, the Banks' debts became {28.9.08—LF}, McWilliams had argued Sovereign Debt. For that party now to forcefully for a bank guarantee, but only pretend otherwise is disingenuous. Shorts on deposits. Finance minister Lenihan from had also spoken to McWilliams about the banks on a number of occasions in the JOE HIGGINS ON THE BANKS the Long Fellow previous weeks. He had also consulted Brian Lenihan sometimes defends the the and former Government's policies on the banks by finance minister Charlie McCreevy" saying that the shareholders suffered DAVID MCWILLIAMS (Sunday Business Post, 27.9.09). losses. But if Joe Higgins of the Socialist Is David McWilliams an idiot or a Party had his way some of the banks' charlatan? That is the question that arises But McWilliams did not advocate that shareholders would have been compen- from his article of 22nd December 2010 in the guarantee be restricted to deposits. sated by the State (i.e. the taxpayer) for the . In the following Here is what he actually recommended their losses. In a discussion on the Pat paragraph he describes the "subsidy" to back in September 2008: Kenny radio show (16.1.09) he said NAMA: "The only option is to guarantee 100 "On page 19 we see the breakdown of per cent of all depositors/creditors in the "small" shareholders should be compen- NAMA subsidy to the delinquent banks. Irish banking system. This guarantee does sated. In a recent thread on the politics.ie The AIB total is €23bn, Anglo's is €36bn not extend to shareholders who will have site a Socialist Party member said that and INBS's is €9bn. To that you can add to live with the losses they have suffered. only shareholders with a "proven need" about another €8bn to AIB as yesterday's However, it applies to everyone else" would be compensated. NAMA statement included an extra (Sunday Business Post, 28.9.08). This is certainly a policy that deserves €16bn from AIB and BOI, but refused to Nothing could be clearer. McWilliams wider attention. Not even in the days of give a breakdown." was recommending that the Guarantee Margaret Thatcher has there been a greater But the figures he refers to are the was to extend to all creditors, including encouragement to widespread share nominal value of loans transferred to bondholders. The only category to be ownership! NAMA. They have nothing to do with a excluded was shareholders. This was more "subsidy" from NAMA. They don't even extensive than the Guarantee that was THE GUARDIAN ON ICELAND refer to how much NAMA will pay the actually implemented which excluded One of the great myths currently being bank for the loans. In no sense can these undated subordinated debt. perpetuated by the British media is that figures be called a subsidy. The 16 billion things in Ireland could not be worse; no extra in customer loans (the banks' assets) SINN FÉIN ON THE GUARANTEE alternative policy which the Government to be transferred from AIB and Bank of David McWilliams is not the only one did not pursue could have been worse than Ireland to NAMA also represent the nom- who has changed his position on the the policies that it did pursue. If only we inal value of those loans. NAMA has paid Guarantee. These days Sinn Féin is fond had not joined the Euro, we would not 47.5% of the nominal value of the loans of denouncing the Guarantee and advocat- have suffered so much! In an attempt to already transferred. As indicated in this ing torching the senior Bond holders, but support such a dubious proposition, some column last month, there is a widespread back in 2008 it had a very different position. British newspapers point to the example view which has recently been expressed Here is an extract from a Sinn Féin of Iceland. by Michael Somers, the former head of the press release of 17th October 2008: Often the articles in question have a National Treasury Management Agency, "When the Credit Institutions Bill came headline which bears little relationship to that NAMA has underpaid for the loans before this house two weeks ago, the the content of the article. So, for example and as a result has hollowed out the balance Sinn Féin party supported it. We did so an article in the Guardian (8.12.10) has a sheets of the participating banks. because we believed that it was entirely headline which reads: Iceland Rises Again How could McWilliams have made necessary to stabilize the state's banking system and we believe that our read of As Ireland Sinks. But a close reading of such a stupid mistake? The only explana- the article indicates that the garden in tion is that he has long ceased to be a that situation has been proven correct. Since its implementation we have neither Iceland is not quite as rosy as is suggested. serious and insightful economics com- lost a bank or been forced into bailing out The article says that, following seven mentator. He has decided to become an a bank with hard cash". successive quarters of contraction, the entertainer and doesn't want to let the facts To be sure, by 17th October 2008 the Icelandic economy is growing at a "faster get in the way of a good yarn. party had reservations about some of the pace than expected". What exactly does terms and conditions so the press release that mean? MCWILLIAMS ON THE GUARANTEE goes on to say: A little later some hard information is Not only does McWilliams not allow given. It says that Iceland devalued its the facts get in the way of his populist "However Sinn Féin stated that we had a number of reservations regarding the currency by 80%! This, of course, makes rants, he doesn't let his past pronounce- ambiguity over the guarantee's terms and the cost of imports five times more expen- ments interfere with his current conditions …Sinn Féin wanted to see sive for the people of that country. Such a denunciations. And since media celebrities terms that included a windfall payment dramatic increase in the cost of living rarely criticise each other (unlike politici- to the state, the introduction of a bank makes the figures on GDP "growth" pretty levy and an onus on banks to negotiate as ans) he is allowed to indulge himself. meaningless. McWilliams is well known for being much as possible with homeowners facing repossession". opposed to the Bank Guarantee, but that THE IRISH TIMES ON ICELAND was not his position in September 2008 But these reservations had nothing to Not to be outdone, the British newspaper when the policy was enacted. His Sunday do with the principle of the State under- in Ireland, The Irish Times, has a similar Business Post colleague Pat Leahy writing the banks' liabilities, which is the modus operandi. Its article on Iceland attempted to airbrush McWilliams's views key element of the Guarantee. Following (11.12.10) by Elaine Byrne reads: "A 12 lesson from Iceland: say you're mad as worthy than all those authorities and TDs Letters Exchanged Between Desmond hell and are not going to take it any more". because his listeners knew that he actually Fennell and RTÉ The opening paragraph gushes: cared about them" (The Irish Times, "It's official—Iceland is emerging from 22.5.10). RTÉ Attitudes recession, with growth up in the last But following the results of the autopsy, quarter, and inflation and interest rates an uncharacteristic silence on Ryan has down. What lessons can we learn from descended on the great moralist of Irish Letter sent to Mr Cathal Goan, our North Atlantic neighbours, and can life. Director General RTÉ, Ireland follow Iceland out of the financial Indeed an eerie silence on the subject 3 December 2010 doldrums?" has been the response of the late broad- Dear Cathal caster's colleagues in RTE, which speaks Later on we learn that the growth in I write to you to put on record three features volumes about the values of that institution. question is 1.2% in the most recent quarter. of the national broadcaster over the past year When Fianna Fáil Minister that have degraded it, and that have therefore There are no hard figures given on the commented on RTE's response, the station displeased me greatly. economic contraction before then. It is expressed a rather curt and arrogant "dis- 1. A marked departure from civil public only in the last couple of paragraphs that appointment" about the Minister's discourse. Mainly this has taken the form of an we are given some inkling of the true comments. It is interesting to note that its increasing transformation of current affairs extent of the Icelandic catastrophe: head of corporate communication is none interviews—especially with members of the other than Kevin Dawson Government and Fianna Fáil persons—from "Ordinary Icelanders have mixed views exercises in elucidation of matters of public about their future. When the property Dawson is well known to readers of interest into disrespectful and bad-mannered boom collapsed, two friends of mine, this magazine for being the Commission- interrogations as by a public prosecutor. In a Brynhildur and Hinrik, lost their jobs in ing Editor of what was laughingly called pub such verbal behaviour would lead to the architecture and property conveyance. "factual programmes". As such, he was a person in question being given either a wide When I visited earlier this year, they were stout defender of the notorious Coola- berth or a smack on the gob; but backed by the living in a tiny two-room basement of crease documentary. power of the national broadcaster it has been their house, having divided the rest of Dawson was also responsible for com- engaged in with impunity. Directed at Taoi- their home into rental apartments. Trap- missioning another notorious RTE seach, minister or bishop, it undermines by ped in a cycle of negative equity, Hinrik documentary called High Society. This example civil public discourse, the respect due has no option but to work as a fisherman was about cocaine abuse in Irish society to legitimate public office, and thus public order. In listening over the years to interviews in the Arctic Circle two-thirds of the and was based on a book on the subject by year. 'A dramatic shift in the mentality of on the British, Italian and German broadcasting Justine Delaney-Wilson. The blurb on the systems, I have never heard the like. Pioneered the people has occurred;, says Brynhildur; book indicated: 'we are revaluating every priority in our by a couple of male broadcasters and one "Lawyers do it. Doctors do it. female, it has been spreading as by contagion lives;. Accountants and airline pilots do it. Priests to some younger males who want to prove their "Even more tax increases, spending and nuns do it. Government ministers do machismo and even to a female newsreader cuts and salary cuts are promised for it". engaging in interview. Given this style-setting 2011. The Icelandic minister for finance development it was not surprising that recently cancelled a trip to But apparently media personalities a guest, TD, shouted insultingly two weeks ago after the failure of attempts escaped the author's intrepid gaze! for four minutes at another guest, Minister Pat to legislate for a bailout for mortgage It is interesting to note that Dawson Carey, without being stopped by the 'moder- holders. In a country of only 320,000 claimed that RTE management did not ator', and that a few days later on 'The Frontline' inhabitants, up to 40,000 of them may know that Gerry Ryan was a junky, even a shouting member of the audience several times now lose their homes. though it was widely known among people interrupted the talk of others with impunity. "Things will get much worse in the with no connection to the media. RTE's next year before they get better. A taste of 2. In disregard of RTÉ's statutory oblig- ignorance contrasted with Dawson's know- ation as state-sponsored broadcaster, the station the future?" ledge of other people who took cocaine. In has added itself to the constitutional Opposition Maybe it is not much of a consolation, promoting the High Society documentary parties in opposition to, and denigration of, the but life in Ireland could be far, far worse! he claimed to know the identity of the Government and the biggest Dáil party. This Minister who abused cocaine and it was widely perceived political role has been performed by RTÉ broadcasters, generally, in THE RYAN LINE this allegation that received most attention. Following his beautification on his their comments and statements and by produ- Gill & Macmillan, the publishers of the cers in the selection of participants for discus- death, the reputation of Coke Head Gerry book began to doubt the credibility of the sions of public affairs. A sole representative of Ryan returned to earth after the results of author following interviews promoting the Goverment/Fianna Fáil finds himself or the autopsy. It is unlikely that Ryan's coke the documentary. In one RTE interview herself facing one, or more often two or more, habit would ever have been officially she said that she had a digital recording of invited opponents, plus the nominal moderator. acknowledged if there was not a financial (This RTÉ partisanship has rendered RTÉ a de interest involved: Life assurance compan- the Minister admitting regular cocaine facto participant in a perverse situation. Breach- ies don't pay out if drug abuse is involved. use. The problem was that this was never ing the norm of pluralist liberal democracy, the Last May Fintan O'Toole described mentioned to the publishers. All she Republic's national mass media display no Ryan as a "genius" and opined that the claimed to them was that she had written political pluralism but speak with one voice as famous "Lambo" incident, in which he notes of a meeting with the relevant Minis- in a Communist regime or a one-party dictatorship.) had lied to the public, had transformed ter. That is a detail which could not be 3. RTÉ. in its coverage of the national him from being a mere DJ into someone misunderstood or misinterpreted. Then, economic situation, has concentrated, with the who had convinced us that the "puckish, when the author was asked to produce the above-mentioned bias, on the banking and prankish side of Irish life could have its fiscal aspects, the 'invariably wrong' Govern- relevant recording she claimed to have ment actions, the 13 per cent unemployed own integrity". While Gay Byrne was the destroyed it for reasons which remain nation's "father confessor", Ryan "had minority, the difficulties of improvident obscure. mortgage holders, and hard-luck story-tellers metaphorically removed the grille in the In so many ways Kevin Dawson is sought out by producers and spoon-fed by confession box that separates the penitent presenters. The main messages thus conveyed from the priest" and "this brilliant chancer uniquely qualified to be RTE's Head of are that the country is destroyed, the Govern- came to seem more real and more trust- Corporate Communication. ment incompetent and heartless, and the well- 13 off RTÉ personnel deeply concerned about the however, the Dáil Chamber, where the poor and unfortunate victims. The main effects expression of our democratic right to elect our The following letter appeared in the have been to 'spread doom and gloom', as the leaders is most manifest, leads by its own Irish Independent, 28th December 2010 popular saying has it, and to sap both national example in this regard. Many of the interviews morale and Ireland's reputation abroad At the you have heard in recent months have become same time, RTÉ's coverage of our economic quite heated, precisely because the adversarial No sign of global situation, has been failing to cover, discuss and approach of the Dáil Chamber is replicated in celebrate, as encouragement, the hundreds of failures to address the causes of the crisis or to warming this year thousands of busily employed workers and provide concrete proposals for recovery. The managers who are increasingly producing and additional feature which you raise, the alleged I find it absolutely sickening that the exporting goods and services worldwide and failure of presenters to intervene and moderate global warming alarmists (yes, there are making the real Irish economy more than pay comment which becomes heated is an odd one. still some around) are now claiming that its way. The freedom of expression is prized at United the current cold weather is either due to The fact that Dublin-4-to-Dalkey is RTÉ's Nations and European level. If one deputy in man-made carbon dioxide emissions, or home and mental environment shows in this one programme rounds on a Government is masking an underlying rise in global neglect of the successful, employed and minister, the minister is provided with the temperatures. The Goddard Institute of productive part of the Irish economy. opportunity to respond and—further—avails Space Studies (GISS) temperature index, D4toDalkey, while contributing next to nothing of it. You suggest a shouting member of the quoted in your article on December 23, to national wealth production, self-isolated audience in Frontline was allowed to inter- from mainstream Ireland, and obsessed with vene with impunity. This is simply not the apparently shows 2010 as being one of the the Dublin power play, has made RTÉ its case. I am not sufficiently familiar with German warmest years ever. political agent, making it take from Ireland in broadcasting to comment on your comparison. In fact, most other global temperature difficulty only those elements which can help I am familiar enough with the indices, including the one published by D4toDalkey demolish its long-time bogeyman: and observations about the conduct of the Danish Meteorological Institute, show Fianna Fáil and all it stands for. How often, interviews on the BBC airwaves to know that global temperatures dropping like a stone Cathal, does RTÉ TV's coverage of the Irish there is no agreement there either as to the over the past number of years, exactly in economic situation, show us Government preference for deference over enlightenment. I line with most people's experience. Buildings and how often a factory, an will resist any comment on Italy because the The GISS index is produced by the engineering works, a creamery, cattle mart, or public and private media are in the control of discredited James Hansen, who predicted internet enterprise, where mere workers work? the Italian prime minister. Given that these three features have marked a number of years ago that we'd be under RTÉ's performance over the past year or so, I 2. RTÉ is in receipt on a regular basis of 20 feet of water by 2010. With solar must take it that they have not displeased you emails, phone calls and letters arguing that a) scientists now saying that the Sun is enter- as much as they have displeased me. I am we are failing to hold to account those ing a quiet period, we should be preparing merely putting on record, as I said, my own responsible for the crisis and b) that we are too for lots more cold weather, as was the view of these matters. I understand that you hostile in our questioning of Government norm only 50 years ago. representatives. Whilst we cannot assume that have only a few months of your tenure still to And yet with the climate change bill go. just because the public perception of our performance is so divided into pro and anti currently being rushed through the Dail, Personally, I wish you a happy retirement. we are going to essentially strangle our Yours sincerely, Dr. Desmond Fennell government and pro and anti opposition we can be complacent that we are successfully economy to death to eliminate a non- fulfilling the function of the fourth estate. I can existent problem. Reply from Mr Cathal Goan, say that we strive to be even-handed and fair in The Greens and Fianna Fail have 17 December 2010 our approach to all news and current affairs. It outdone themselves yet again. I hope they is worth noting that RTÉ is regulated by the enjoy a long and extremely cold period in Dear Desmond Broadcasting Authority of Ireland in regard to Thank you for your letter of 3 December. I the political wilderness. the fulfilment of our statutory obligations in Dr. Alan Rogers am disappointed to learn of your dissatisfaction regard to impartiality, objectivity and fairness. with some aspects of RTÉ over the past year. Despite many complaints about coverage of I have to confess to a degree of perplexity at the economic crisis over the last 12 months no some of your sweeping assertions which appear complaint has been upheld that RTÉ News and to be based on a highly selective analysis of Current Affairs has failed to live up to the RICHARD HOLBROOKE RTÉ output. I am taking the opportunity of required standard. copying this letter to the Chairman of the RTÉ In his hands he held an unsigned contract Board to whom you blind copied your original 3. We are conscious of the overwhelmingly while on his shoulder perched a Stealth letter to me. negative news which dominates at the moment. We constantly remind our programme makers Bomber. 1. The national economy is in a crisis that, where possible, positive news should be At Dayton, Ohio, not a murmur unparalleled since independence. I don't know sought out and reported. But the simple truth is as jigsaw Yugoslavia retracts. of any source of effective commentary or that at this point in the economic crisis the 1963 and the Foreign Service, analysis which does not attribute—at least in majority of news is bad news. We wish it were an accomplice to murder in Vietnam part—the causes of the crisis to policies adopted otherwise, but it would be unprofessional for by Government in the last number of years and us to emphasise the positive at the expense of with John Negroponte. (ad nauseam) by its failure to exercise, albeit through its the dominant negative news stories. Where And with 'Blowtorch’ Bob Komer agencies, regulatory control of bankers, there is something to celebrate, whether it be in auspicious. developers, speculators, etc RTÉ's presenters Morning Ireland, at a festival or Nationwide Wanted war in Afghanistan to stop. have attempted to elicit answers to a variety of reporting a community activity that reflects (put up your hands and march to the entirely legitimate questions in the public well on the country, RTÉ strives to be there. interest from a variety of sources, including This has however to be balanced by the, regret- stockade) Government ministers, in a respectful and fully, almost endless reporting of the spiralling He tangled the strings in a Karzai strop. persistent manner. On a very limited number economic crisis. President's hit-man, topped up stock-in- of occasions, regrettably, interviews have Finally, I would like to thank you for your trade. become ill-tempered. It is in the nature of Irish kind personal sentiments but I should say that Built monuments to war but no Cheop. public discourse that the blame game occupies any suggestion of retirement is premature. I much of the time available for constructive am simply moving on to another phase of my Imploded during a switchblade accolade. discussion. If RTÉ is culpable it is that we have life. failed to persuade politicians to recognise the Yours sincerely, Wilson John Haire pointlessness of this approach. Undeniably, Cathal Goan, Director General 16th December, 2010 14 written, removing the Wiesel character. no other gripes and having landed in "This has been a profoundly painful Airport, they immediately sorted out 4x4 es ahora * experience, and I'm still scared to talk taxis and off they went with all their about it", said dramatist Margolis. Wiesel luggage and friendly waves. said Madoff should be forced, 24 hours a What ever about the economy here, BERNIE MADOFF AND HIS LEGACY When Madoff went to gaol in the USA day, "to look at pictures of his victims". there is no question but that the Celtic Tiger left an enormous black economy— for some 150 years, he insisted that he IRELAND AND WEALTH acted alone in defrauding his clients and In these days of belt-tightening, amid an almost parallel one really and these are the people who did not get caught in risky that his own family, though also in Bank- talk of being given hand-outs from the ing, had nothing to do with his crimes IMF, ECB etc and the media's continuing property speculations or bank-bonds which were his and his alone. But gradually panics about our children and grand- because they have only need of council housing and/or their own traveller cara- a picture was being built up wherein his children being in financial captivity for clients went after his two sons and his wife generations— it would seem that there is vans. So they remain cash-rich as do the Ruth and even baby grandsons. Madoff little money in Ireland but one couldn't be public sector politicians and others. What was especially lovely to hear was took money off some of the biggest names more wrong. In the first week of December, in the US—including the film Director himself and I flew to Paris for five days the young teens talking about their presents Stephen Spielberg. The movie actor Mich- just to see the sights and perhaps a bit of for their nans/mothers/fathers/cousins who were not on this trip. They were going ael Douglas has estimated that some 40% opera. When we got to Cork Airport and of his hard-earned cash has gone in started queuing for our flight—it seemed through their lists like Santa himself and Madoff's Ponzie schemes. Madoff himself as if half of the traveller population of the there was something familiar about the clan system still being in existence that said he couldn't handle all the requests city had decided to take their children out from people who heard of his success and of school and come as well. The young needs to be transferred back to the Irish wanted to invest with him—he had to beat men wore only tee-shirts with lots of tattoos situation if we are to have a chance of surviving as a nation. The hack-pack can talk all they them back—the point is that he didn't of a holy nature (mostly Our Lady featured target people but they him. Douglas, now heavily and Celtic Crosses), and the young want about single-parent families and new suffering from grade 4 cancer, is the only mothers wore Adidas track-suits. Once versions of nuclear ones, but it is clear from Asiatic societies and others that our one who has gone public with his loss but we were all aboard our Air Lingus flight, feels he has something else to worry about I was told by the young lady sitting next to old way of life was the one best suited to and is not seeking back his stolen monies me with a babe in arms that they were all the needs of us all. This is what society needs to understand and the political party at this stage. off to Euro Disney, Paris. They went every What is interesting is that there is year and had great fun. Had I been? I had that grasps this will the one who will see nothing new in Ponzie schemes themselves to admit that I had not and she told me I us through the coming years successfully. —they need a good chancer and lots of was missing out—she said the children POLITICAL CORRUPTION greedy people who are offered unseemly loved them and they all had a great time. When the Irish hack-pack howl in moral sums as a return on their original invest- Then all the children who were aged from outrage against Fianna Fail and their ment. High risk investment involves high their late teens to babes in arms were acolytes, one could be forgiven for thinking risk loss—what is the problem? But these given pursuits appropriate to their ages that the latter invented political corruption people were assured by Bernie that nothing and I thought it would be games hell. But and cronyism. But one looks at the UK would go awry and when all was lost— they had picture books with crayons, and one is immediately set right. The HM they now seek out their vengeance. Mad- puzzles and they were the best-behaved Revenue and Customs boss, a Dave Hart- off's eldest son Mark was under such children we have ever travelled with. Every nett, jetted off to Mumbai for three days pressure that he hung himself while time an air-hostess came with beverages— before Christmas. He spoke for 40 minutes minding his baby son in their apartment in they all had as much as they wanted, with on the subject of "Tax dispute resolution— New York. He had sent his wife increasing- crisps, and coco cola being the firm a global view" appearing before an ly suicidal emails and texts while she was favourites. Some of the young men got up audience of offshore tax advisers, Indian away. The story will not end there, as the and I never saw such wads of cash being officials and businessmen at a Conference former clients have issued legal proceed- fished out of their pockets and all were sponsored by a Mauritian tax advisory ings and intend to go ahead, as their latest paid up with no fuss. As a tiny can of water firm and the Isle of Man and Jersey Govern- statement verified. cost €2.50, we passed on all refreshments. ments (plus the usual big accountancy While the names of these clients are not When we got to Charles de Gaulle Airport, firms). Hartnett did miss the official dinner yet released—it does not seem as if Spiel- the ground staff seemed to know the but it was odd, thought Private Eye, No. berg and certainly Douglas are amongst travellers well and had faces of utter delight 1277, 10th December-23rd December them. But there is another name that is greeting them—one could hear them 2010 that no other Government thought fit also well known, who was a huge investor think—here comes the big spenders. to attend this private shindig. with Madoff snr. and that is Holocaust And when we returned on the Friday, Hartnett announced to the assembled survivor and author Elie Wiesel, who lost they had so many bags of excess luggage tax dodgers, Britain's tax-friendliness for his life savings according to an item in the from shopping that I realised why they the biggest companies. "In my opinion Irish Daily Mail, 23rd July 2010. And not were precious to the French. I was told winning tax disputes at all costs is no way only did Wiesel "lose his own savings but they had a great time and the snow was forward in the modern world", declared his Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity just enough to make it more magical but the man who let Vodafone off billions of also parted with some ¤12 million" . But they had trouble with some of the rides, pounds. "We are committed to handling here the story takes a turn for Wiesel which their travel agent had not told them disputes in a non-confrontational way and himself took legal action to stop New about, and they would be taking this up collaborating with customers whenever York playwright Laura Margolis's new with her as soon as they got to Cork as it possible". It's apparently all part of a work Imagining Madoff, portraying him was not the fault of Euro Disney. I inquired "customer-centric strategy". Exporting as having pleaded with Madoff to invest about this and was told some rides had such pearls will not have come cheap for his money, even though it was intended to ages imposed on them which meant that the UK taxpayers. Hartnett stayed on the be sympathetic. The play has now been re- the eight year olds were not left on the "Upper Crust" executive floor of the five more "fun" ones. I imagined this had to do star ITC Maratha Hotel and ate in the It Is Time with insurance. But they seemed to have hotel's best restaurant with a colleague, 15 HMRC deputy director Melissa Tatton, who accompanied the boss so she too could speak for 40 minutes on international tax. In that same issue of Private Eye, they had something to say about the Irish Of Morality And Corruption economy and its "meltdown" and another well-known Irish tax dodger. Bono, the "The root cause of the crisis is to be as a labourer in the local Creamery, and man who initiated the campaign "Make found in the moral bankruptcy of Irish such things were discussed freely there. poverty history", is now appearing in the political culture. As a result we became First and Last Things were taken with a nearest glossy magazine—say Vanity accustomed to regarding the marketplace pinch of salt. And, if in practical life Fair—in a beautifully shot ad. for the and the forces within it, plus the entire things were done which could not be luxury goods company, Louis Vuitton. It commercial sphere, as moral free zones"— approved of as a general rule, but the pictures him and his wife Ali disembarking that is the view of T.P. O'Mahony in a doing of them relieved a particular situ- from a small private jet on an unidentified series in the Evening Echo (Cork) called ation, then they were done but not taken African plain. Bono, whose band U2 Renewing The Republic. official account of. There was art, or moved its company business U2 Ltd to Holland four years ago to avoid paying And O'Mahony knows when the rot set artfulness, in that way of life. And the tax in Ireland, is never one to let business in: things that have been the subject of get in the place of sentiment. At the bottom "Unquestionably… the moral ground Tribunal investigations in recent years did of the beautifully shot ad. is a disclaimer on which our political culture was based not happen in it. noting that "Profits from the bag (worn by shifted decisively the moment Charles I only realised much later that one of Haughey succeeded in his wife Ali) benefit" (by what percentage?) my best friends as a boy was illegitimate. December 1979. Where there was "Conservation Cotton Initiative Uganda". incompetence before, we now had But that did not mean that illegitimacy But—as Louis Vuitton bought out Ali and incompetence plus corruption and we was approved of. It was disapproved of, Bono's loss-making Fashion Company, have lived with the legacy of low but nothing was made of it. Where is the Edun and the bag is loggoed under standards in high places since…" morality of that? "Vuitton/Edun collaborative bag"—I Haughey introduced the much-ridiculed would contend that the Hewsons are O'Mahony says he is not talking about making money out of this venture—which bedroom morality. When I first heard of "Irish solution for an Irish problem". Was is a joint venture with Vuitton after all. Haughey it was in the form of gossip that moral, or what? (Did its immorality about his loose sexual morality. I heard it consist of not being an English solution? In the 1960s there were still restrictions on WRITERS AND PRIZES from Trotskyist Republicans and thought contraceptive culture in England. That When Eileen Battersby of The Irish it strange that Marxists should be prying Times , 23rd December 2010 ranted into these things. And I thought it must be changed in the 1970s. Irish backwardness, hilariously about "Literary 'greatness' now a good thing to have a free liver in the or immorality, consisted of not keeping nothing more than a game of hype", I public life of prudish middle class Dublin. pace with English changes.) thought she was outing herself and her For the rest, it seemed that he was resented paper finally after years of this type of Two things stand out in Jack Lynch's because he was unusually hard-working period as Taoiseach: the prosecution on thing being standard fare in her literary and competent and little given to waffle, columns and those of her Literary Editor, the basis of no evidence of Haughey, moral or otherwise. Caroline Walsh. But alas no—for the rather Captain Kelly, John Kelly, Neil Blaney fiery Battersby, who as an American critic, But it has to be accepted that Haughey and Albert Luykx for conspiracy to import is far too po-faced to ever doubt her is hated in Cork because it is Jack Lynch's arms illegally, and the administrative over- rightness to define what is readable and town. I even found that he was hated out ruling of the Not Guilty verdict; and the what most certainly is not. In her article in the country by people who were profiting abolition of Domestic Rates. she targets somewhat obliquely what she from what he did for the cattle industry. O'Mahony published a biography of terms un-named "British writers" who Maybe that's what morality means now— Lynch in which the Arms Trials are not didn't agree with what she herself wrote irrational opinion. mentioned. And T. Ryle Dwyer, in the about feted American author, Jonathan It used to mean the customary opinion Franzen. Battersby writes: Examiner (a companion paper of the Echo) of a stable society. But that meant that it says that— "Several members of the British literary was different in different places. And that establishment selected 'Freedom' as "the attempted gun running behind the is not acceptable today. So it has been among their books of the year. No doubt was grossly irresponsible. they enjoyed it: it is an easy read; intellect- universalised; and it has been transcend- The whole thing was not, as we were told, ually undemanding and amusing, entalised in order to make it universal. just a scheme to help the nationalist culminating in a well-drawn war of wits And, when morality is liberated from community to defend themselves. It was between old Walter and the owner of a custom, I don't know that it can have much a crazy conspiracy o end partition by provoking war if necessary" (Dec. 10). bird-killing cat—but there are far funnier definite meaning. It must mean: whatever US novels and far superior ones… But you fancy. Lynch had his case put at the Trials, lurking beneath the apparent British where it became evident that he had no acceptance of 'Freedom' is the suspicion Back in the 1950s, living in the depths that the British may think, or prefer to case. The situation, as brought out at the think that this is as good as US fiction of rural Ireland and finding myself out of Trials and confirmed by secret documents gets… It is not, far from it…" joint with things that were spreading into released thirty years later, was that there the country from the towns, I set about had been an entirely legal attempt, within And on and on she goes. She is such a figuring out the world for myself. I used tease, she never names these British eejits the chain of command under the Minister who can't get it. But one question—is to get books posted tome from a bookshop of Defence, at a covert import of arms. there any other kind of a cat than one in Cork City but, when I ordered Beyond Why Lynch instituted a prosecution which which does try to kill birds? Good And Evil, it refused to deal with me could not be supported with evidence is a Julianne Herlihy. © anymore. On the other hand, I was working matter for speculation. That he did so is 16 indisputable. And that he did what he engagement with a very different order of Unquestionably, though, the moral ground could to punish those who had been found things. The greatest Empire in the world … shifted decisively the moment Charles Not Guilty is also certain. Was there no availed of the potato blight to bring about Haughey succeeded Jack Lynch…" degradation of public morality in that? a drastic reduction in the Catholic popula- James Connolly would be shocked, he (The reason for the attempt at covert tion of Ireland, but it doesn't want it to be says. In the recent competition to find the importation was so that the State would remembered that way. The Irish 'Famine' greatest Irishman ever, Joe Duffy spon- have some weapons that the British was one of many 'Famines' that it brought sored Connolly on ground that advocated Government did not know about. It was about in the course of improving the world upward social mobility, and I did not see done on Lynch's authority as Taoiseach. and giving it a sophisticated moral sense. that he was ridiculed. That was proof that It would not have been necessary if the But the fixing of this moral sense requires Connolly now stands for nothing in the state had any arms industry of its own.) that raw memory of the event should be public mind. He can even be presented as And the abolition of Domestic Rates in overcome. a Yuppie. the 1977 election campaign: did that not It is better to remember that one million As to class, the absence of it is what feed into the property boom that led to the died as a consequence of the potato blight, bedevils urban Ireland. Mere income collapse? despite the best efforts of the Empire to difference is not class, particularly when But what have facts to do with history keep them alive, than to discover that the 'have-nots' have quite a bit. One these days. History is the fable we agree perhaps four millions died with the problem is that the 'haves' don't quite upon, as Senator Harris said—or was it approval of the Empire. It was good that know what they are and what to do with Napoleon? the population was culled so drastically, themselves. Cultural class is English, and (Ten or fifteen years ago O'Mahony but it would not have been good to remem- the English are hanging onto it for dear had an encounter with Professor Keogh ber it in those terms. So it was arranged life. Class as a mere current phenomenon, who ran the University down the road. He that it should be remembered in other detached from the past, is threadbare in suggested Ireland should make use of the terms. (At the time Isaac Butt, a strong England, but the class culture of the past 'Famine' in the way Israel makes use of the Imperialist at the outset, was so dis- continues to be reconstructed lovingly Holocaust. Keogh jumped on him. Keogh, illusioned by what he saw being done that year after year in television and literature, an Irish Press journalist at the time, had a he barely held himself back from bringing and there is a sufficient residue of the old nightmare about Fascism at the time when a charge of genocide against his class, and class culture at the top for the upwardly the Government allowed the British he became a defender of Fenians and a mobile to get some satisfaction from Embassy to be burned in order to let off Home Ruler.) entering it, so that they do not feel that all steam over the Bloody Sunday murders— they are is stinking rich. is that the right word? He subsequently The author of Beyond Good And Evil, In Ireland there has long been a yearning made himself an academic; dedicated writing in a situation in which the on the part of the rich for the distinction of himself to a campaign against 'irredentism'; traditional morality of custom had been class. The socio-cultural vacuum at the glorified Jack Lynch, who never ceased to undermined and the propaganda morality top devalues the striving to get there, and be irredentist on the subject of Partition as of Imperial manipulation was taking its creates a yearning for that world of decorat- far as I know; aligned himself with Zion- place, observed that the history of morality ive marvels connected with The Queen. ism, the greatest irredentism there has was immoral. He groped for an unparadox- John Paul McCarthy, upwardly mobile ever been; and visited Israel, hosted by ical morality that was not immoral, but from Cork City, exudes satisfaction in his the Government, around the time of his didn't find it. Urban Ireland thought in the Sunday Independent column, having dispute with O'Mahony and refused to 1950s it had found it, and would not let me reached at least the foothills of Paradise comment on the Palestinian Intifada read his book. What has urban Ireland with some little position at Oxford Univer- caused by irredentist Jewish colonisation. made of itself since then? sity, where ancient posturings continue. It's a pity O'Mahony let himself be put It must be admitted that the Republic off the 'Famine' issue by Keogh, and drawn O'Mahony, grasping at moral straws has failed to make adequate provision for into superficial and ephemeral moral within the flux, suggests that class differen- snobbery, and this inadequacy has gener- chatter. Morality today is a propaganda tiation is what led us astray: ated in certain quarters a yearning for The fashion of the passing moment. It is not a "One startling illustration of this has Queen. It is not something I have any feel custom. It is not a stable cultural element been highlighted by Fintan O'Toole… for. In Slieve Luacra there was no sense of in a way of life. It is dreamed up from day 'In the last three years of the boom… the anything missing. But it is evident our to day, and has been cut adrift even from richest 450 people in Ireland added 41 bn rich in their immaturity have need of The the business of reproducing the species. to their combined personal wealth. Yet somehow went on believing Queen. C.C. O'Brien spoke for them The system of Good and Evil, that that they lived in a relatively classless when he scouted the idea of Republican commercial Ireland prevented me from society'. We may be uncomfortable with virtue. getting a book about in the 1950s, has the notion of a society divided on 'class' collapsed. The words continue to be used lines, partly because many of us tend to In the country of The Queen, the but what was Good yesterday may be Evil think 'class' is a distinctly British thing, hierarchy of class culture has been the tomorrow. And the only constant Evil yet there is no denying that there is an bearer of morality—the framework of seems to be the system of actual morality Ireland of the 'haves' and an Ireland of the morality—indeed morality itself. have-nots'. and it is the former who have And it seems to me that one reason for that is persisting in the world as a way of exerted most influence on our political life, despite our efforts to dissipate it. It is the profound hatred of Haughey is that he culture. It may well be that those who behaved with the utter self-confidence this Evil that now gives us our sense of argue that, right from the inception of the Good. We are good, because at least we new State in 1922, powerful vested that characterised members of the English are not Muslim. interests used their financial and political ruling class, while being altogether un- clout to 'distort' the culture of politics to English. That was bewildering. Tackling the 'Famine' brings one into their advantage have an arguable case… Brendan Clifford 17 Harris. At a time when the objective pre- requisites are coming more and more to the fore for a qualitative development in the consciousness of trade unionists with regard to the hitherto unchallenged Jack Jones Vindicated control of production by the bourgeoisie, Part Five Noel Harris does his utmost to prevent The only left-wing organisation to £20 and 33 percent for the worker on £30. such a consciousness emerging by support the British Trade Union strategy Noel Harris, however, dismisses argu- encouraging a fatalistic view that there is being pursued from 1972 onwards by the ments in this area by claiming that: "It is nothing that the trade unions with proper false to suggest that the gains of the 14th leadership could accomplish in terms of then TGWU General Secretary Jack Jones Round for the lower paid have been (1913-2009) was the British & Irish Com- workers' control. Consequently Noel brought by the sacrifices of the better- Harris advocates an acceptance of the munist Organisation, through the theoret- paid…' system at it is in order to pursue an ical journal of its London branch, The "Noel Harris argues that the better- intensified policy of economism. On no Communist. In Ireland the argument for a paid worker should have done relatively account, it would seem, some workers be similar left-wing stand, embracing Jones's better than he did under the National encouraged to transcend their traditional advocacy of industrial democracy as an Agreements and that the total wages-bill trade union consciousness." should have been increased on this basis. "The economism of Noel Harris con- essential component, was articulated by Noel Harris shirks the fact that this would an ITGWU shop steward Pat Murphy sists in pouring cold water on any attempt be at the expense of the lower-paid to take the first necessary steps towards (1937-2009), of the B&ICO's Dublin because a further expansion of the wage- developing a socialist consciousness branch, and one of its founding members. bill at a faster rate than the growth in among workers, namely, activating a I joined that branch in 1971, at the same productivity would necessarily further concrete struggle in the direction of time as I took up employment in Liberty undermine the real wage gains of the workers' control . Instead he upholds, as Hall in March 1971 as Head of Research lower paid by an acceleration in the rate the be-all and end-all of trade union action, of inflation, if increased unemployment the intensification of a type of economic with the ITGWU (retiring as SIPTU Head were not to result..." of Research in May 2010). A would-be struggle which has begun to prove itself "In the August 1973 issue of Liberty I more and more self-defeating, particularly Irish version of Bert Ramelson, British argued the following economic realities for the lower paid workers (although Communist Party Industrial Organiser and which Noel Harris chooses to ignore: maybe not so much for the managerial an outright opponent of the Jones strategy, 'During the course of the National Wages staffs that Noel Harris's union caters for)." emerged in the shape of the Communist Agreement there has not been any signi- Party of Ireland's Noel Harris, Southern ficant alteration in the income shares held by wages and profits … Consequently I proceeded to highlight how Harris Irish Divisional Officer of ASTMS (which an attempt to redress the inflationary was essentially regurgitating Ramelson: later became TASS, then AMICUS, losses suffered by workers on the basis of "In the October 1968 issue of Marxism merging with the TGWU in 2009 to form a wages policy alone would be inadequate Today , the CPGB Industrial Organiser: UNITE). I was very much influenced by and ultimately have results other than Bert Ramelson, wrote: 'In private industry both Jack Jones and Pat Murphy in the desired. In previous 'Liberty' articles we worker directors would, in my view, be a strategic arguments I tried to develop in have referred to the fact that if wage red herring.' This is a position that Bert Ramelson has reiterated five years later, both the ITGWU journal Liberty and the increases begin to continuously exceed the growth in productivity, they must on 30 June 1973, in the CPGB's Comment: B&ICO theoretical journal The Irish either lead to a drop in investment, with 'We have had something of this sort (of Communist in addressing such key ques- its consequent unemployment, or, alter- class collaboration) in Western Germany, tions of union strategy. natively, an increased inflationary where in coal and steel 50 percent of the board are elected by the workers; I don't In August 1973 the CPI published a situation must be accepted to allow profit think it is accidental that it is Western pamphlet authored by Noel Harris and levels to be restored in order to generate the necessary investment funds. For this Germany that we have seen less struggle entitled Challenge to Irish Trade Unionism reason, it has been argued, the wage during the past period than any other —National Wage Agreements. In an article bargain struck by trade unions should part of Europe... In the period we are entitled Workers' Control—The Need for have as a necessary component a growing moving into, this (question of work- Communist Clarification, published in the element of control by workers over invest- directors) is going to become a major December 1973 issue of The Irish Com- ment, with industrial democracy begin- issue of struggle inside the labour munist, I argued: ning to extend at the levels of both the movement. As I understand it, the T.U.C. "In this pamphlet we find the traditional individual firm and the economy as a might even come forward with the idea of economic half-truths of the 'left', only on whole.' supervisory boards and election of a more intensified scale in certain "Noel Harris makes it perfectly obvious directors. I am not concerned at the directions since ASTMS is a Trade Union elsewhere in his pamphlet that there is no moment at the method of election. I am catering very much for the higher-paid. more determined a person than himself against workers' directors, no matter how Whatever the economic arguments con- in resisting the whole perspective of such they are elected, or to whom against cerning National Agreements, and despite a resolution. He argues: 'Whether one workers' directors, no matter how they the fact that the acceleration in food price likes it or not, employees are concerned are elected, or to whom they are respon- inflation reduced the real value of money primarily about their wages. They have sible, being part of management of a wage increases secured under them, it no direct interest in capital, its growth, private firm.' It was along these lines that must still be recognised that in relative the use of profits or decisions on invest- Bert Ramelson also attacked the docu- terms, the position of the lower paid ment, which in our society are taken by ment entitled Labour's Programme for workers has improved compared with other people. Whether one likes it or not Britain where it stated: 'And since that of the higher-paid. The worker on the mass of wage and salary earners feel collective bargaining does not seem to be £15 in December 1970 has received that capital is alien to them, belonging to adequate enough on its own we are money wage increases totalling 54 percent others, and that investment requirements considering the provision of some kind of over the 3 years of the Agreements are no reason to restrain wage demands.' direct representation for workers.' In the compared with percentage money wage Such is the 'Communist' leadership given Morning Star of 21 June 1973 Bert increases of 42 percent for the worker on to the trade union movement by Noel Ramelson's indignant response this is to 18 exclaim: 'Who says collective bargaining by Ken Gill of TASS {also of the CPGB, the sacred principle of 'differentials'. In the does not seem to be adequate enough?' and Noel Harris's boss—MO'R} ... The man the cry came from academics, politi- And that just about sums up Bert danger of losing the advantages we had cians, and some white-collar unions. The Ramelson's position..." already received, let alone prospects for overwhelming majority of people in "The British Trade Union Congress's further advance, if Labour lost the Election, industry had accepted the £6 solution, but Interim Report on Industrial Democracy, concentrated the minds of a lot of people forces, in the main not directly connected while emphasising the extension of the including Hugh Scanlon. He asked Ken with industry, were determined that scope of collective bargaining as an Gill to withdraw his resolution. So strong favourable lessons should not be drawn essential element in extending industrial was the desire for unity in the Congress that from that" (pp298-300). democracy, also pointed to the limitations Gill agreed, against what he said was his better judgment. Next day he was of confining the struggle for industrial "Part of the Social Contract which was condemned by the Morning Star {in other repeated in the 's manifesto of democracy within such a rigid framework: words, Ramelson—MO'R} ..." (pp284-5). 1974 was a commitment to an Industrial 'Major decisions on investment, location, Democracy Act 'to increase the control of closures, takeovers and mergers, and "At the September 1975 Trades Union industry by the people'. Closer contact with product specialisation of the organisation Congress I moved the motion supporting Europe through the EEC and the European are generally taken at levels where the £6 policy and outlining the many trade upon movement increased our interest collective bargaining does not take place, measures the TUC hoped to achieve through in the subject. It meant a lot to me personally. and indeed are subject matter not readily cooperation with the Government. When From my youthful days I had been associated covered by collective bargaining. New we got the Labour Party Conference a month with the extension of collective bargaining. forms of control are needed. This problem afterwards there appeared to be more Now I saw the possibility of elected shop is particularly acute in the private sector acrimony than unity. Whatever my mis- stewards taking their place in the board- … A large number of decisions of vital givings I was determined to back the rooms of private companies and publicly- importance to workpeople are made at Government, 'warts and all'. Not least owned industries... I wanted to avoid at all national managerial levels, but are not because Harold Wilson, Barbara Castle and costs the sort of fiasco which occurred susceptible to collective bargaining. others had told me that there were members when Harold Wilson's Government of 1966- Institutional involvement in these of the Government who were looking for a 70 experimented with industrial democracy decisions fills a gap between worker break-up, and were ready to move towards in the steel industry. When the idea was participation and control at local level a coalition. The threats from the Right first considered I personally urged on and the influence of the trade union worried me, but I wasn't surprised. On the Barbara Castle the need to ensure that movement as a whole which exists in the other hand I was shocked to learn from worker directors should be elected and national level.' ... But Bert Ramelson Barbara Castle that Ian Mikardo was going accountable to the shop stewards, and to make a savage attach on me and the through them to the workforce. Their would prefer the T.U.C. to adopt his General Council at the Tribune Rally in the reaction was that my idea was 'syndicalist', philosophy of economism: 'The right to middle of the Conference. I felt indignant if not 'anarchist', and could not be enter- strike is the be all and end all of industrial that a man I regarded as a friend and col- tained. In fact, as it worked out, the proce- trade union struggle'..." league could plan so meticulously to attack dure became meaningless and patronising. the Government and the General Council, The men who were appointed had to give This sustained CPGB attack, on both suggesting in effect that the latter had sold up any active connection with their union" the Industrial Democracy and Social the workers down the river. This was no (p310). Contract campaigns of 1974-75 in Britain, spontaneous attack, it was designed to get was a campaign orchestrated by Bert the maximum publicity. Mik was a member In 1976 I sought to draw some lessons Ramelson against the whole strategy being of the NEC of the Labour Party and for the Irish Trade Union movement by represented them on the Economic Com- developed by Jack Jones. And the CPGB mittee of the TUC. Why had he not made covering Jack Jones's struggle for Indus- line also gathered support from much of his attacks there? What troubled me most trial Democracy in Britain in considerable the Tribunite Left. Jones related some of was the prospect of Mik's references to the detail in a series of articles published in these episodes as follows: TUC going through without challenge and Liberty, journal of the ITGWU, of which "And what about the trade union side of the media getting the impression that the the following are some excerpts: the Social Contract? I had said publicly that Tribune rally unanimously backed his "One of the most heartening aspects of the Government was entitled to look for a statement... and I decided to protest at the our Union's Annual Conference this year response... I had been an advocate of point where Mik referred to the General was the manner in which delegates were no productivity agreements from the beginning Council. I stood at the back of the meeting, longer content to formally adopt motions and saw in them opportunities for widening then moved forward swiftly to the platform supporting industrial democracy before the area of collective bargaining as well as when the moment came. All eyes were on moving hurriedly on to the next business, bringing about increased earnings. My me. When I reached the platform I shouted but felt the need to make contributions advocacy of the idea over the years had led to the chairman: 'I object to these attacks on concerning the practical problems of any to differences with some union leaders, the trade unions and the TUC. We want meaningful developments in this field. both on the right and on the left, who were unity, not splitting attacks like this!' {See Much of this interest has, of course, been inclined to dismiss such deals as 'phoney'. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/ heightened by the proximity of legislation Wage restraint was the big issue of the 3390633.stm for a TV clip of that providing for worker directors in semi- Trades Union Congress, according to the confrontation—MO'R} ... There were state enterprises. It is not, however, suffi- newspapers. They made the most of any many, less spectacular incidents in the cient to have a merely responsive approach sign of division, and when the Amalgamated campaign for the £6 policy, but to the to such developments. Trade Unionists must Union of Engineering Workers at a meeting consternation of some people both on the articulate their own demands if in fact on the Saturday before the Congress decided Right and on the Left, it succeeded. We industrial democracy is to have any vitality... to vote against the Social Contract it became proved that the trade union movement could This has proved to be an issue which has not big headlines. As always the reports were deliver, and not one instance of a breach of so far resulted in any unanimity in the highly personalised: the policy from the trade union side was British trade union movement. The interest- Jack Jones appealed to Scanlon to be reported. Within the twelve months of ing point to note is that the division of more realistic, to think again', or operation which had been stipulated, opinion has not been along traditional left- 'On Wednesday, Scanlon dramatically inflation fell by more than half, from 25 right lines in that movement. The major capitulated, and the Social Contract was percent to 12 percent. advocate of the worker director policy of voted through Congress with virtual "An egalitarian approach to the solution the TUC has been Jack Jones of the unanimity.' of economic problems had been attempted, Transport and General Workers' Union, "In fact it wasn't quite like that... The but before the effects of the £6 policy could and he has been opposed as much by Frank opponents of the Social Contract were led be assessed demands went up to maintain Chapple of the Electrical Trade Union on 19 the right as by Hugh Scanlon of the again debated at this year's TUC Conference mendations depends very much on the Amalgamated Engineering Union on the on September 8. On the previous day the willingness of the British trade union left. The division has rather been between TUC General Secretary, Len Murray, had movement to strongly campaign for such those who feel that current economic taken the argument into the camp of those legislation. Either way, a debate has been problems demand a new dimension to trade opposing the Congress Report when he opened up that will not easily go away." unionism and those who, for whatever wrote in the Morning Star: 'We say 'yes' to (Liberty, June 1977). reason, regard traditional trade unionism as the extension of collective bargaining and sacrosanct. Since it is highly unlikely that 'yes' to parity representation on policy See http://free-magazines.atholbooks. any meaningful developments in industrial boards. Neither one is substitute for the org/problems_2/index.php for a repro- democracy can take place without first other... In accepting their share of responsi- duction in full of that series of articles in coming to grips with debating these contro- bility for jointly-made board decisions trade the April-May, June-July, August- versial issues in the Irish Congress of Trade union representatives will not be accepting Unions, it might be of interest to readers to some new and alien form of responsibility September and October-November 2008 take a look at how the argument has prog- as is sometimes implied. Every time a union issues of the journal Problems of Capital- ressed to date in Britain. We might also representative signs a collective agreement ism and Socialism: The Workers' Control learn something from the fact that the limited he is assuming responsibility for a decision. Debate from 1975 to now. In its pre- extent and inconclusive outcome of this That decision, while possibly not ideal, decessor journal, Problems of Commun- British debate has now resulted in the TUC represents the best bargain that can be ism, the B&ICO had been the only leftwing itself and some of its important affiliated achieved at that particular point of time. organisation to mark the centenary in 1981 unions currently pursuing policies on the These are hard facts of industrial life which of the birth of Ernest Bevin in 1881, and question of worker directors which are in are all too often buried under abstract an article by myself appeared in the Sum- direct contradiction with one another... The rhetoric about unions as independent mer 1981 issue, entitled Bevin And The TUC General Council's call for parity of oppositional bodies totally uncontaminated representation for worker directors elected by any shared responsibility for company British Road—a Problem for Leninism. by trade union members, was to be supported policy. All that cam be achieved through a Ranelson's successor as CPGB Indust- by the TGWU and NUPE but opposed from totally 'oppositional' role is a de facto right rial Organiser, Mick Costello, presided the right by the EETPU and from the left by of veto over management decisions, which over that Party's hostility towards any the AUEW. How the 1974 Congress debate unions are increasingly realizing isn't centenary commemoration of Bevin. further progressed will be examined next always the best way to further membership "Transport Union members are somewhat month." (Liberty, July 1976) interests. Trade unions want to be in a bemused by the fuss being made by the position to have a decisive say not just over union's leadership over the publication of "The issue was not fought out decisively what they don't want on what they do a book on right-winger Ernest Bevin", and the verbal reconciliation which was want.'.." was the Morning Star contemptuous attempted only resulted in a confused "The line of reasoning pursued in that outcome. The TUC General Council article set the framework for the TUC debate comment on 12th March 1981. A week interpreted the Congress vote as giving it on the following day. Len Murray and Jack earlier, on 5th March, the TGWU's retired the go-ahead to demand the enactment of Jones would argue that their policy for General Secretary, Jack Jones, had been enabling legislation for 50 per cent worker board representation fully complied with determined to have his own personal representation on company boards. The such terms by virtue of being a further commemoration, in a centenary lecture TUC submission to the Bullock Committee advancement of the power of the trade which be delivered in the London School on Industrial Democracy, however, came union movement... The 1976 TUC Confer- of Economics. Entitled "Ernest Bevin— under fire from the EETPU on the right, the ence at long last grasped this contentious Revolutionary by Consent", the lecture GMWU on the centre, and the AUEW on nettle by heavily defeating the AUEW was also published by the UK Department the left—since these unions also felt that amendment and overwhelming carrying the of Labour in the March 1981 issue of the indecisiveness represented by the all- NUR pro-General Council resolution things-to-all-men Congress vote justified against the combined opposition of the Employment Gazette. It also led to my their continued opposition to any system of AUEW, the EETPU and the GMWU. It first direct collaboration with Jack, when worker directors. Hopefully the Irish trade now remains for the Bullock Committee to he agreed to Dublin's Labour History union movement will be in a position to make up its mind" (Liberty, October 1976). Workshop jointly re-publishing both of avoid the pitfalls which inevitably result our Bevin tributes in 1983. And a year from such indecisiveness, and such papering "In a series of articles last year we detailed before he died came our final collaboration -over of important differences, whenever it the debate within the British trade union when, in January 2008, he agreed to my decides to get to grips with clarifying its movement as to whether or not it should request to provide an Introduction to the demands on industrial democracy. In the pursue a policy of demanding equality of launch of that new series of Problems of meantime, developments in this area sub- representation on company boards in both Capitalism and Socialism. Jack Jones sequent to that 1974 Congress of the TUC, the public and private sectors. The Trade and particularly the diverse evidence sub- provided the following parting message Union Congress decided that it should press on the labour struggles he had led: mitted to the Bullock Committee on for these demands. The British Government Industrial Democracy will be looked at in accordingly appointed a Committee of "The great power of the trade unions and greater detail in a future issue" (Liberty, Inquiry on Industrial Democracy, chaired sympathetic Governments in the late 1960s August 1976). by Lord Bullock, whose purpose was to and the 1970s provided an opportunity for "The oppositionist approach stood in investigate the reform of the company law the working class in Britain to start becom- sharp contrast with the stand adopted by the to take account of the TUC proposals. The ing the ruling class. These conditions were Transport and General Workers' Union, Bullock Committee, subsequently issued the result of the social and economic and whose General Secretary, Jack Jones, had its Report earlier this year and called for reforms introduced by Clement Attlee and been one of the chief architects of the TUC legislation in the private sector which would Ernest Bevin following the Second World policy... The TGWU championed parity permit workers to have an equal number of War. The Government was prepared to board representation in the private as well representatives with shareholders on a admit the unions as equal partners in plan- as the public sector and its General single-tier board in companies employing ning the economy. The Bullock Committee, Secretary, Jack Jones, is at present a member over 2,000, while a third outside element on which I had the privilege to sit, was set of the Bullock Committee of Inquiry into would be jointly co-opted on to the board up under terms of reference devised by the Industrial Democracy... The major handicap by both sets of representatives. Such a Trade Union Congress and recommended a facing the TUC in the pursuit of its policy system of worker directors would, more- parity of power between employers and aims nevertheless lay in the ambiguity of its over, be firmly based on trade union unions on the Boards of large private 1974 Conference decisions. If further machinery... Whether or not legislation is companies... The opportunities offered were progress was to be made the issue needed to introduced into the UK Parliament along unfortunately not taken up in the wider be resolved when industrial democracy was the lines of the Bullock Report's recom- union movement and Britain moved in a 20 Thatcherite direction. This all happened the best part of a year (or, perhaps, I should any hesitation to defend the good name of over thirty years ago. A whole generation re-phrase it as 'the worst part') in the honourable men whenever slandered by does not know about these things or about notoriously vicious fascist concentration the world as it was at this time. I am glad camp of San Pedro de Cardeñas. During guttersnipes, as he defended my own father therefore that two of the workers' control such incarceration his record continued to against an Irish Times attack by Kevin activists of that time, Joe Keenan and Conor be an honourable one (as personally testified Myers in 2005. Three decades earlier, he Lynch are publishing an account of these to me by two of his fellow-prisoners, had done the same for Ernie Bevin: times and these events as a series in their Dubliners Maurice Levitas and Bob Doyle. "Towards the end of 1977 I was involved magazine 'Problems of Capitalism & See www.irelandscw.com/obit-MLevitas. in several controversies. I took issue with Socialism'. I am also pleased that most of htm and www.irelandscw.com/ibvol- the author A.L. Rowse, who had claimed in the material will be in the form of reprinting BobDoyle.htm for their obituaries). Because an article in the Daily Telegraph that Ernest journals, pamphlets and articles from that of that record, notwithstanding his Bevin, in his last words, had said of Britain's era." subsequent reactionary politics that were ordinary people, 'The buggers won't work.' loathed by the overwhelming majority of I challenged him to prove this; he dithered Jack Jones had little hesitation in his fellow IB veterans, he continued to be displaying his contempt for some of the and claimed that Bevin had said something welcomed in their ranks at Spanish Civil of the sort to Lord Boothby, but there was mindless Left by naming them, for War commemorations. In 1996 Sherman example Reg Birch, AUEW Deputy no verification. I did not believe that Ernie was among those British veterans who Bevin had ever said that of his own people, General Secretary and leader of the Maoist participated in the International Brigade and said so... I was indignant that what I Communist Party of Britain (Marxist- Association delegation to the 60th anniver- regarded as anti-worker prejudice should Leninist). Writing of a Ford Motors sary commemoration ceremonies in Spain, gain publicity, and replied in detail, using dispute, Jack recalled: as well as receiving the honorary citizenship the New Statesman as my platform" (p.324). "'Let the grass grow over the plants!' awarded to all IB vets by unanimous deci- was the view of Reg Birch, secretary of sion of the Spanish Parliament. Sherman remained particularly loyal to the memory It is therefore no less incumbent upon the trade union side, who favoured a of those who had been his fellow prisoners those of us who knew, loved and admired prolonged strike. I did not share his idea; at San Pedro. In 2001, when I gave the Jack James Larkin Jones, and who were had I done so trade unionism at Ford's oration at the London funeral of the Dublin honoured to have been able to work could have been weakened beyond repair" IB veteran and former San Pedro prisoner (p235). Maurice Levitas, I observed that Sherman, alongside him in several fields, to thor- oughly expose the British Intelligence I trust I have shown up M15 Professor despite the handicaps of advancing old age, smear campaign against his memory for Andrew's slander—that Jack Jones and had been among those IB vets who had made a special effort to be present in order the monstrosity that it is—even if this has Bert Ramelson were both "KGB agents" to pay their respects—even though Morry's entailed subscribing to Jack's own maxim engaged in a common Soviet-inspired membership of the New Communist Party of providing a reply of some considerable industrial conspiracy—for the nonsense placed him unequivocally at the opposite detail! that it is. I trust that I have further demon- end of the political spectrum to Sherman's (series concluded) strated how, from 1972 onwards, their Thatcherism (or was it Thatcher's Shermanism?). On account of his Manus O'Riordan Trade Union strategies were diametrically courageous role in Spain, the memory of opposed to each other. And yet Ramelson the young Alfred Sherman continues, never spoke of Jack with anything but the accordingly, to be honoured by those height of personal respect, while Jack inspired by the history of the International The Greaves Journal Brigades." refrained from criticising Ramelson by The following points of clarification name, referring instead to depersonalised have been made in a letter to Manus The Real Band of Brothers was therefore Morning Star criticisms. There was, O’Riordan, dated 12th November the most appropriate title for Max Arthur's indeed, more than one political opponent 2010, from Anthony Coughlan: 2009 book on such brigadistas. And, from to whom Jack gave such gentle treatment. his Observer obituary for Jack Jones on I was interested to see reference to a Sir Alfred Sherman had been co-founder 26 April 2009, Max Arthur again quoted letter I wrote to your late father some of the Tory Centre for Policy Studies and Jack as follows: years ago, together with excerpts from Margaret Thatcher's ideological mentor Desmond Greaves's journal for 1939 which and speech-writer. And yet, in the "Before the battle of the Ebro, I met up I had sent with it, in the November issue of with young Ted Heath (later the Tory Irish Political Review. Some 20 years September 2006 Newsletter of the prime minister). He came out with a International Brigade Memorial Trust, small group of students, while we were in ago, after Desmond Greaves's death, in Jack wrote: "I am sad to report that we training. He was then chairman of the my capacity as Greaves's literary executor, have lost some comrades and friends of Federation of University Conservative I paid several different people to type out the Trust since our last issue. We pay Associations and was to the right of the his voluminous journal, doing some of it myself, for it was written in a manuscript tribute particularly to comrades Alan five-man delegation. I suppose he reflect- in a hand that was sometimes hard to Menai Williams and Sir Alfred Sherman". ed a strand of Conservative thinking which had some sympathy with the decipher. I forgot who may have typed out Why? Because just like Bert Ramelson, Republic ... He was very sympathetic and the excerpts that you gave for publication Alfred Sherman had the shared personal I built up a friendship with him. It was in the Irish Political Review, but you experience with Jack Jones of having amazing to me that a Conservative would should know—and indeed the readers of fought bravely, and had suffered come out there in favour of the Republic— the Review should know—that the excerpts accordingly, as an International Brigade as he was, genuinely. I established a link from the Greaves Journal which I sent to volunteer in the Spanish Anti-Fascist War. with him which I maintained afterwards. your father had not been properly collated As I myself also wrote in the Abraham He was always very friendly—more so with the original by me, so that the minor than some of the Labour Party. I say that Lincoln Brigade Archives' ALBA Forum mistakes in the published excerpts, which now, but I wouldn't have said it at the led to your inserting correctional "sics" Digest on 31 August 2006: time. I found I identified more with Ted "Alfred Sherman was indeed a veteran of here and there, do not necessarily occur in Heath than with Harold Wilson, for the original. the 15th International Brigade's British example." Battalion. He had, following his capture on the Aragon front, also been a prisoner for Jack always leaped forward without 21 an overall picture. Seán Sabhat stands at the suffered death in England, Belfast, Dublin, heart of modern Irish history. His life and and Portlaoise. For what purpose? So that the death provide some guidance to the disciples ideology is maintained without blemish, of Tone's teachings. I myself believe in Tone's without fault. This was done in the name Harris—as he was teachings and this book prompts me to probe a of Tone, Lalor, Mitchel, the Fenians and the particular theme. War of Independence fighters. They apply the [In the November Irish Political Review we The military campaign of 1956-57 was bigger teachings and history of Tone to a different age noted the amazing claims by Eoghan Harris and conditions. Let us examine his tradition. about Republican politics in Cork city in the than the risings of 1848, 1865 or 1867. But I am 1960s. Before he comes up with even more totally convinced from my own experience Tone founded . Breaking amazing claims, we reprint below a translation and from the election results from 1957 onwards the connection with England and uniting every of a book review he did in 1965 for an Irish that, for example, William Smith O'Brien's Irish person regardless of religious faith was at language magazine. As the Editor noted, it was weak effort was more important by far in Irish the heart of the doctrine. At present the Repub- not really a book review but a statement for the political history. We know well who the enemy lican movement supports the first aim but what benefit of the then leadership of the Republican of the Fenians were and against whom they about the second aim? Who are the B-Specials? movement. Hopefully it will give readers a fired. B-Specials were the enemy of the IRA in Who supports them? England? Unless the feel for what Harris actually was at that time 1956-57, we notice. I'm not willing to accept Republicans are totally blind, they must realise and what he had to offer and how much these people as enemies. Sabhat was a that there are thousands of Orangemen substance there was to it.] republican and I'm a republican but I don't supporting the B-Specials. What will we do concur with Sabhat or his friends over who our about them? Shoot them all? All right,—but enemies are. I will continue for a moment. [From An Síol*, 1965] don't do it in the name of Wolfe Tone! Act in the What sort of person died in Brookborough that name of the Hibernians who are on both sides Maríodh Seán Sabhat Aréir le night? What reason had he to be there, anyway? of the fence. Mainchín Seoighe Mainchín Seoighe's account contradicts the The northern Presbyterians are the opinion of what you get from his photo, in my ['An Síol' Editorial Note:] We asked descendants of Henry Joy McCracken and view. Look at him: an honest face, serious eyes Jemmy Hope. From the descendants of the Eoghan Harris to review the above book. behind glasses—a more serious facial expres- huge crowd at Fairy House on Easter Monday, We received the following essay, entitled sion than the average person. It's clear also that from those that threw stones at the Volunteers, Sabhat was not as gloomy as one would think MARÍODH SEÁN SABHAT i 1923. It is from those that joined the British Army 1914- but on the other hand he would not be called "a not a standard, normal review but we feel 1918, come the Twenty Six-County majority. typical person". Because he was principled, he that we should publish it as it is.] But what would Tone have done? was a Republican—a person from a small MARÍODH SEÁN SABHAT i 1923** minority. Sabhat was a member of a despicable movement, Maria Duce—an anti-Semitic, anti- Sabhat agreed completely with the 1916 At seven o'clock on New Year's Eve, 1957 Protestant organisation. Sabhat was a high Easter Proclamation, the Proclamation of the Pearse Column of the IRA attacked the minded person throughout, one way or the Independence, 1919 and the objectives of the RUC barracks in Brookborough. This was not other but did he understand Tone's beliefs? Constitution of 1937. The prime meaning of an isolated attack because, from the night of Does the present day IRA understand them? each of these documents is that the Irish people the 11th /12th December, 1956, the IRA were Why, if they do understand, do they attack own their country and that they desire to found conducting a new military campaign within Irish people specifically because they are a free, Gaelic state. Attempts were made to the Six Counties. Two volunteers were fatally Orangemen? Is it because they are loyal to the implement the 1st and 2nd of the above docu- wounded in this attack, Fergail Ó hAnnluain Crown? The Orangemen proved that they are ments by force of arms. By the time that the 3rd from Co. Monaghan and Seán Sabhat from fond of no one but themselves in 1913 when document was drawn up, there was a big change Limerick city. they took up arms to use them against the in the situation. The Civil War and the Six- When this biography of Seán Sabhat was British Army. As Pádraig Mac Piarais (a County Parliament stood between the majority published last year, a commotion arose in the Republican) said: rarefied circle of Irish language publishers of the Irish people and their historic objectives. "It has become clear within the last few because one of the two versions (the Club Irish Republicans broke their hearts and years that the Orangeman is no more loyal to Leabhar edition) was defective. There was no their courage in the major sacrifice of 1922- England than we are. He wants the Union need for this. Most of what was at issue was 23—and they failed. It was not long until the because he believes that it serves his prosperity; some poetry, part of which was written in majority of Republicans understood that mere yet he is ready to fire on the Union flag the English—verses that don't clarify Seán Sabhat's dogma was finished. A Gaelic state was not moment that it threatens his prosperity. The complex life any more completely than the going to be founded: the armed struggle was position is perfectly clear and understandable. prose itself did. And there is little information lost. They accepted the constitutional system Foolish notions of loyalty to England being given by the prose either. If it is a fact that that was there and attempted to improve it. eliminated, it is a matter for business-like Mainchín Seoighe's only intention was to tell They achieved much success. the old story—the story of patriots who lived negotiation." But all the visionaries—a vision that was by the sword and died by the sword—then he And referring to the large majority who founded on armed conflict—did not concur has achieved much success. But there is little were at the Fairy House Races while he was in with this approach. "Traitors" they called their merit in this book for the person seeking a deep the GPO, he remarked: understanding of the state of this country in the former comrades. I never understood and will Fifties, of the historical tragedy that is a never understand the wisdom of that. The "Hitherto, England has governed background to Sabhat's life and to the role of armed conflict was lost. When your own brother Ireland through the Orange; she now republicanism in the Irish political tradition at has become your enemy what else can you do? proposes to govern her through the A.O.H. this present time. A praise-poem in prose is But intoxicated, blinded by dogma, serious You object. So do we." what this book is in my view—and it's an honest men forgot John Devoy and his New uncritical poem. The author avoids not only Departure and took the path of Rossa and the Where are the descendants of the AOH to- theses which would give guidance to the dynamiters. Mainchín Seoighe gives a precise day? Very much alive still I would say. Forty followers of Tone but also particular aspects of account—a very detailed description—of those years have passed and the Hibernian mentality the life of Sabhat that would not suit the thesis. men from 1923. is in power in Dublin. The IRA say that the gun We are not saying that Mainchín Seoighe The Republican movement embraced Tone, could solve the problems of the nation. Why concealed anything deliberately. He was Lalor, Davis, Mitchel and Pearse and they then are the people of the twenty six counties probably attempting to be unbiased throughout claimed that only they were the bearers of the not Irish-speaking, seeing as their state was but it is my view that he omits too many facts true tradition of Republicanism. They believed won by the gun. The IRA regard themselves as and inferences without attempting to present in armed struggle.—they put their trust in disciples of Tone. Why are they not in the armed struggle only; the constitutional forefront of the struggle to end sectarianism? * The Seed. Ed. IPR movement declined .Over time their enemies Because they have hardly any constitutional ** Sean South Died In 1923. Harris is became more and more—Brits, Unionists, the ideas or organs of propaganda. All they have speaking figuratively. Ed. IPR Twenty Six County Army, the Gardaí. They to offer is the gun. 22 We will turn to the case of Lalor. He added implement this vision. The gun is not enough. gun and only the gun. This is a dreadful wicked a progressive outlook to the philosophy of What pathway is open to us? error. Tone. He joined social issues to the republican For the last thirty years the IRA has believed Sean Sabhat didn't embrace the gun doctrine. Where are the economic policies of only in the use of force and because I and suddenly. He started with the Irish language Sinn Féin? They exist alright but without the thousands of others do not follow that route, but, because he understood like Corkery that smallest chance of them being implemented. then we stand as strangers in Bodenstown in state support was necessary if the Language How can the people have any confidence in an the view of the IRA. But in the present time was to be revived. He considered the different organisation that won't even take their seats in what is needed is an effective organisation. political parties. Finally he put his trust in the Dáil? The Northerner and Southerner unite As I said, I'm a Republican. My people have Clann na Poblachta. They failed him. It was on basic economic issues but all that the IRA been Republicans from the time of the Fenians then that he wrote a letter to the United Irishmen can offer them is the gun. and I am certain that they would understand in search of the truth. The death of a man so For reasons of history, as a republican I my point of view. Let us take a realistic look at honest and so dedicated as Sabhat was a great cannot agree with any policy for Ireland that the situation in Ireland. We have two loss to the national cause. We don't want a does have an Irish speaking state as part of its Parliaments and the guns have failed to rectify similar loss to occur ever again. aims. Seán Sabhat believed in the Irish the situation. We can't have much confidence You, the leaders of the Republican movement Language. Probably no single other man did in the gun because of certain factors, because who have been so principled for so long, try as much to promote Irish in Limerick as Sabhat of the Civil War, because we now have the B- and be reasonable as well. It's not that we hate did. The results are evident in the various Specials as enemies, because of the vision of the gun but it's a foolish tool to use to plough organisations and inspiring papers that he Wolfe Tone. the fields. There are fields before us that have introduced. Hundreds of Mass cards from But with the teachings of Tone, with been neglected for too long. Let us take care of almost every company in Limerick were sent Lalor's example in economic matters and with them. There were 50,000 Irish people at Seán for his funeral—the vast majority in Irish. Davis's and Pearse's cultural values and Sabhat's funeral. Sabhat gained his prestige and trust from accepting the example of John Devoy and the How can we reach those people again? How spreading Irish among the business class of example of other nations regarding methods of can we reopen the door that closed on Sabhat? Limerick. He failed to win them to the gun. We work, Sinn Féin could put an end to the despair We have a big battle in front of us. have the proof of the elections as evidence that that is afflicting independent republicans who Eoghan Harris B.A. he failed. have no party affiliations. A good start has [Assistant, History Department] "Merchants make bad revolutionaries" been made. There is a truce. Say it louder! commented Tone. However they made an effort Sinn Féin would win twenty seats at the next during 1918-21 when there was a sensible election if they abandoned all the intransigent [Editorial note: Thanks to Oscar Gregan body of people behind their columns as support. dogma. who remembered this article from his But what would Sean Sabhat say about the UCC days, located it in "de college" library Huxley once said that, if he believed in bilingual policies that Sinn Féin adopted shortly Catholicism, he would spend all his life on his in 2009 and translated it. Thanks also to after his death? Why was there no real move- knees. But this is not how the average mind both Pat Muldowney and Cathal O Cion- ment of republicans in support of the Irish works. Huxley does not understand the naith who checked his translation. Many language campaign in 1964? We only received Catholicism of the human race or of God. It is of their suggestions have been incorpora- moral support. Their publicity machine was similar with Sinn Féin. They believe in Tone. ted into this translation but the final result impotent without any political use being made Tone fought and therefore they must use the of it—any constitutional political use. is Oscar's own responsibility.] I will spend a moment on the Fenians. I would say that they were republicans. They hated sectarianism—look at the Constitution of the IRB in 1894. They did their very best but De Valera on Zionism and Palestine when they lost the battle, John Devoy and the Part 2 majority of the Fenians took up the Ireland and Israel from De Valera to Lemass constitutional politics of Parnell as "the bulk of actual things" overwhelmed them. Rossa went with the dynamiters but Devoy lived to In the first part of this article, Republican caught the attention of Republican Ire- support the war of Independence. And it was Ireland And Zionism (Irish Political land. The Zionist project was widely not a "traitor" that Pearse called him, but "The Review, Nov. 2010)—we saw that the regarded as a British Imperial project, greatest of the Fenians". very active foreign and international with the Arabs as its victims. Zionism was I'm very sure that it was the guns of the IRA policies pursued by the De Valera Govern- not regarded as a national independence that broke the power of the English in this part ments of the 1930s continued the outlook movement in the way that Indian or Egypt- ian movements were. Churchill and other of the country forty years ago, but I also of the 1918-21 Republic in seeking an believe that they would not have been able to British Imperialists were carriers of a survive for one week without the support of the international order based on the rights and profound anti-Semitism that led them to Irish people, without the propaganda system security of independent states. It sought to portray "international Jewry" as a threat there to maintain their morale and without the do this through disengagement from the to civilization that had spawned Bolshev- authority of Dáil Éireann behind their efforts. "British Commonwealth" and seeking to ism. They claimed it could be tamed only The people of Ireland showed since 1956 that strengthen the role of the League of by being rooted in a national project that they are not prepared to accept the gun alone. coincided with British Imperial interests They don't respect Sinn Féin because they are Nations, particularly in resolving disputes not sure whether they are constitutional or its between the powers and preventing Imper- in the Middle East. They therefore prom- opposite. There is no Devoy around to keep the ial aggression through active "collective oted the Zionist project for the reasons dynamiters quiet until their opening comes. security". The Indian, Arab and other Irish Republicans opposed it. On the other Which opening? Read Devoy and you will see independence struggles regarded the De hand, De Valera and Republican opinion when it is correct to organise a revolutionary always regarded the Jews in Ireland as an organisation as part of a constitutional Valera Government as their champion integral element of the Irish nation, organisation. The Republican movement is a and maintained close relations with it. opposed elements in Ireland under British terrible example of a revolutionary organis- The disastrous conditions generated in Imperial influence which sought to whip ation. It is almost dead as an effective Palestine through the mass immigration up a popular anti-Semitism, and maintain- organisation. ed close relations with the Irish Jewish It's a bad situation. I'm a Republican. I of Jewish settlers as the British Mandate believe in Tone's vision. There are thousands regime implemented its Balfour Declar- community, explicitly honouring Judaism of people in the country that believe in Tone's ation of 1917—which had promised the as one of the recognised religions of the vision and they want an effort to be made to creation of a "Jewish homeland" there — state in the 1937 Constitution. The Jews 23 were not regarded as a separate "nation" physical-racial type ... It is physically He co-founded the underground military in the way portrayed by both anti-Semites impossible for a Jew descended from sev- group, the Irgun Zvai Leumi (IZL) that, and Zionists, but as simply another Irish eral generations of pure, unmixed Jewish led by Menachim Begin, would go on to "faith community", to use today's terminol- blood to adopt the mental state of a German wage a terrorist war against Britain and ogy. Irish Republican hostility to the or a Frenchman, just as it is impossible the Palestinians, and, during the foundation Zionist project was not rooted in anti- for a Negro to cease being a Negro" of Israel, play a leading role in the expul- Semitism but in its opposite. (quoted in Shlomo Sand, The Invention of sion of the Palestinian population. Briscoe the Jewish People, 2009, p261). He fore- in his memoirs (For the Life of Me, p264) DE VALERA AND IRISH ZIONISM saw the "re-settlement" of the Arab popul- relates that he worked "closely with Jabo- The Irish Jewish republican and Fianna ation of Palestine and Jordan to an Arab tinsky in organizing Irgun on the lines of Fáil TD, Robert Briscoe, turned to Zionism State of Iraq. At the World Zionist Con- the I.R.A. In the course of this collabor- in the 1930s, becoming a supporter of its gress in July 1931 a motion from his ation I made many trips to England ... I extreme "revisionist" wing led by Vladimir supporters sought to commit the movement taught Jabotinsky ... the methods we had Ze'ev Jabotinsky. Hannah Arendt, a to "the conversion of the entire mandate found most effective in the guerrilla war. philosopher of German Jewish back- territory in Eretz Israel on both sides of I explained the British military weaknesses ground, described the New Zionists, as the Jordan into a Jewish State, in other and where their strengths lay; and how to the revisionists called themselves, as the words a commonwealth with a Jewish profit by the first and combat—or evade— "fascist" wing of Zionism. The Jewish majority". This subsequently became the the second..." The Briscoe-Jabotinsky community in Ireland did not advocate an majority Zionist position, and remains the link—and Begin's subsequent adoption of open door for the mass immigration of position of the Likud Party. the nom-de-guerre "Michael" (after Mich- refugees from Europe in the 1930s, ael Collins)—is the basis of the mythology confining itself to seeking visas for parti- The leaders of the Jewish community of a historical alignment of militant Zion- cular families or individuals, which were in Ireland in the 1930s embraced Zionism. ism and Irish Republicanism, a concept sometimes granted. Briscoe himself Isaac Herzog spoke publicly in its favour much promoted in Ireland by the Zionist explicitly opposed it. As a true Zionist, the and Dr J.A. (Con) Leventhal, paraphrasing lobby. While Zionist nationalism and Irish only emigration that mattered was Chaim Weizmann, stated that "despite nationalism had much in common in a emigration to Palestine, as Jewish diplomatic and political intrigue, a Jewish superficial sense, what separated them immigration to Ireland would only lay the state would be established eventually, and was the issue of the ownership of the land basis for a future anti-Semitism: it would be as Jewish as Ireland was Irish over which each claimed sovereignty. "The position in Germany and or as England was English" (The Irish Through Briscoe, Jabotinsky secured a for Jewry is migration or extermination ... I Times, 3rd June 1937). This was again a am not prepared to advocate migration to position that left little room for the 1m meeting with de Valera, who questioned areas which will sew the seeds for anti- strong indigenous population and left the him at length, particularly about the future Semitism at some future date. Every country the Zionists saw for the Arab population. in the world can only permit immigration in question of their future unanswered. Given the conditions in Europe at the Jabotinsky argued the biblical tale of an accordance with its own capacity to absorb, exiled people reclaiming its historical and without any serious reactions to the time, de Valera allowed Briscoe a free hand, and he travelled with de Valera's territory. Briscoe was unsure of the economy of such country. The question of outcome of the meeting, writing in his the Arabs is often referred to. Arabs and blessing to the US and South Africa to memoirs (p265): "I am not sure, but I Jews can reach agreement provided there is raise money for the Jewish National Fund, no outside interference or influence" (The which was funding Jewish settlement in think the Chief was convinced by {Jabo- tinsky's} arguments. Certain it is that I Irish Times, 3rd January 1939). Palestine. He even visited Poland in was." But Israeli historian, Shulamit Eliash The term "extermination" was not at January 1939, then led by a military Government with nationalist anti-Semitic has shown that the Zionist leadership in this time meant literally, though the fact regarded de Valera's stance at the tendencies, to promote Jabotinsky's plan revisionist Zionists made liberal use of it meeting—and at subsequent meetings with in the sense of the elimination of the to solve what Briscoe called the Poles' "Jewish Problem" by creating a Colony in WZO delegate Zelig Brodetsky and with Jewish role in European national life. Even Irish Jewish leaders—as non-committal Palestine with the transfer there of 1m of the Nazi leaders themselves at this time on the issue of Zionism, especially in his were not contemplating murder of the their "unwanted Jews". He suggested to Polish Foreign Minister, Josef Beck, that repeated insistence on the rights of the Jews, and the revisionist Zionists were indigenous population not to be over- he negotiate with his British ally for Poland thinking of a programme of migration whelmed by Jewish settlers. Eliash from Europe extending over a number of to take over the Palestine Mandate for this purpose. Beck expressed interest in the surmises that, for all de Valera's undoubted decades (Yaacov Shavit, Jabotinsky and sympathy for the Jews, from the per- idea but, at a meeting with the leading the Revisionist Movement 1925-48, 1988). spective of the "the conflict between the For the Zionist movement there could be rabbinical authorities, Briscoe found that the Jewish leaders of Poland—like most different communities in Ireland", he no future for the "Jewish nation", except "viewed the Arabs in Palestine as the of European Jewry at that time—opposed through location to Palestine and the equivalent of the Irish Catholics" (The creation there of a uniquely Jewish nation Zionism. (The Irish Times, 27.12.1938 and 03.01.1939, Briscoe, For the Life of Harp and the Shield: Ireland, Zionism state. In the 1930s they vigorously pursued and the State of Israel, 2007, pp39 ff.). this programme, not least through emig- Me, 1958, pp.267 ff.) At the League of Nations De Valera opposed ration and capital relocation agreements Jabotinsky had made contact with the partition of Palestine proposed by the with the anti-Semitic German Government. Briscoe and came to Ireland in 1938 in the British, later telling the Dáil: hope of securing support for the Zionist "The General Assembly and its {Man- While Briscoe might have believed that project from de Valera, who had become dates} committee was largely taken up with "Arabs and Jews can reach agreement a significant international statesman after two or three questions of very great provided there is no outside interference importance to the maintenance of general becoming President of the League of peace in the world ... With regard to or influence", this was not Jabotinsky's Nations Assembly and a member of its Palestine, our view that no solution position. His notion of the Jewish nation Mandates Committee. But Jabotinsky was involving the partition of that country should left little room for accommodation with also laying the basis for war with Britain, be sanctioned in any way by the League of Arabs. Jabotinsky believed that "national which he saw as inevitable if the radical Nations was duly put on record" (Dáil identity is inherent in man's 'blood', in his plan for Eretz Israel was to be achieved. Éireann, 13th July 1938). 24 De Valera's opposition to the partition are recounted in O'Malley, Ireland, India the 'Holy Land', raised concerns about the of Palestine was not "anti-partitionist" in And Empire). After the meeting with Ben treatment of the Arab population and, in the Zionist sense articulated by Briscoe Gurion, and against the advice of his Israeli particular, was vociferous in insisting on and Jabotinsky, i.e. an undivided Palestine/ hosts, de Valera insisted on crossing the the "internationalisation" of Jerusalem. It Jordan as the territory of a majority Jewish armistice line to Rammalah, then under also withheld de jure recognition of the state, but rather an undivided territory for Jordanian rule as, according to Briscoe Jewish state. But de Valera and his the people then actually living there. De (For The Life Of Me, p307), he "sym- colleagues had defied the Hierarchy in Valera argued in his statement to the pathised with the Arab people in their 1922 in refusing to accept the Treaty and League: "Partition was no solution. All hope of independence and prosperity". faced excommunication during the Civil the Christian world interested in the Holy Here, where he met with King Abdullah, War. As was popularly said at the time, places, the Jews and the Arabs had, so far he also witnessed the conditions of the they took "their religion from Rome but as there had been any opinion expressed Palestinian refugees. their politics from home". De Valera, who by them, opposed the solution of partition" Irish commentators were among the had annoyed the Lords of the Church by (Irish Press, 23.09.1938). As Eliash first in the West to challenge the Zionist facilitating the accession of the Soviet reveals in The Harp And The Shield (pp18 version of events surrounding the expul- Union to the League of Nations and by ff.), at the League Mandates Committee sion of 700,000 of the Arab Palestinian including Judaism as a state religion in his meeting in September 1937, de Valera population, in what Palestinians have ever 1937 Constitution, had a world view had sided with—and spoken in favour of since called the Nakhba ('Catastrophe'). developed from the Sinn Féin perspective —a motion proposed by France that Erskine Childers—son of the famous Anti- on the world, which was independent- rejected both the Zionist position— Treaty Republican and later a President of minded in its anti-Imperialism while work- supported by the anti-Semitic powers of Ireland—had been a strong champion of ing in the context of a Catholic culture. Eastern Europe and favouring a mass action against European persecution of The reporting in de Valera's Irish Press on transplantation of European Jews to the Jews in the 1930s. He was one of the Palestine in the 1930s was a model of Palestine—and the partition proposals of first to expose in the British media the objectivity, focusing on the political issues the Peel Commission. 1949 Zionist myth of a voluntary Palestin- and referring to the Catholic interest only The Irish stance at Geneva was wel- ian flight incited by Arab leaders ('The as a secondary factor. His position on the comed by Arab delegates. But it infuriated Other Exodus', The Spectator, May 1951). partition of Palestine in the late 1930s was the British, who complained to the Irish In Studies, the leading intellectual journal based on the upholding of international High Commissioner in London, John of Catholic Ireland that continued to reflect law and concern for the rights of the Dulanty, that Britain's "difficulties in this a generally pro-British Redmondite view indigenous population not to be "over- matter are increased by the line which the of the world, J.J.W. Murphy, providing a whelmed" by a colonising enterprise. Irish Free State Government had taken" review of the history of the Zionist While the withholding of de jure (Documents on Irish Foreign Policy, vol. 5, p129). colonialist project, wrote: recognition of Israel until 1963 was influ- When the abandonment of attempts to "Very few Arabs are left in Israel. Some enced by the stance of the Vatican, it was settle the Danzig issue led to the Polish- 500,000 {sic.—PO'C}, or about five-sixths also due to Israel's overturning of the UN of those Arabs who lived there, fled in German war, and subsequently to British terror of the Jewish extremists to the partition plan, its refusal to accept an strategy causing a widening of that war to neighbouring Arab states or to the part of international status for Jerusalem, and one engulfing Europe, the de Valera Palestine still held by Arab armies, where widespread public unease at how the state Government established and, with great their condition is pitiable. A few have been of Israel had come into existence grabbing difficulty, maintained Irish neutrality. allowed to return, but the Jews have taken a far larger territory for itself than had Nevertheless, throughout the conflict, de their lands and homes for the new Jewish been allocated by the UN. The Inter-Party Valera maintained contact with his old immigrants who are pouring into Israel; so Government Foreign Minister, Seán Mac friend, Isaac Herzog, now Chief Rabbi of there is little left for them to go back to" Bride, nevertheless maintained a benevol- Jerusalem, and mobilised the Irish ('Background and Progress of Political Zionism,' ent position towards Israel, influenced diplomatic corps in Vichy France, Italy, Studies, September 1950, pp. 289-300). apparently by a bizarre propaganda cam- and even Germany on numerous occa- The same writer, in another prominent paign headed by his protégé Conor Cruise sions, to intervene to attempt to rescue Catholic journal, commented that the "The O'Brien, which sought to secure American individuals and groups of Jews threatened traditional picture of Cromwell's 'Hell or Jewish support for ending Irish partition by the Holocaust, knowledge of which Connaught' policy in Ireland gives a fair by aligning the Irish anti-partition cause reached the Irish Government at the start with the aggressive Israeli rejection of the idea of what happened in Palestine during of 1943. That these efforts met with little 1947 UN partition boundaries (Eliash, success is hardly surprising given the 1948 to Arabs whose homes then were in Harp And The Shield of David, pp103 ff.). nature of the exterminationist war what is now Jewish territory" ('Britain The Inter-Party Government did not other- engulfing the entire continent by this stage. and Palestine', Irish Ecclesiastical Record, wise pursue an active policy in relation to August 1950, pp116-126). the Middle East, and Seán MacBride DE VALERA AND ISRAEL In the event, the Inter-Party Government tended generally towards an uncritical In 1950 de Valera travelled to Jerusalem withheld de jure recognition of Israel, pro-Western alignment in foreign policy in the company of Briscoe. He met Israeli granting it de facto recognition, i.e. matters. leader Ben Gurion in the home of Isaac recognising it as a fact, much as the Irish Herzog. According to Briscoe, it was a Government had initially granted Franco's De Valera, despite his close,personal highly congenial meeting but discussion insurgent Government only "de facto" ties with the Irish Jewish community, of politics was studiously avoided. De recognition after it had finally captured shared the outrage at the circumstances Valera made no public statements in Israel, Barcelona at the end of the Spanish Civil surrounding the creation of the Israeli let alone endorsing the Israeli State. This War in 1939 (On the latter see Documents state. When Edwin Samuel, son of the contrasts dramatically with the very public on Irish Foreign Policy, vol. 5, p.398). first British High Commissioner of Pales- positions he took on his visit to India two The 'Vatican Factor' is often given as tine, met de Valera, again Taoiseach, in years previously in support of the new the overriding explanation for Irish atti- April 1952, he found him implacably Indian State, the common struggle for tudes to the "Palestine Question" and to opposed to de jure recognition of Israel, independence and the identity of interests the recognition of the Israeli State. The blaming it for the Palestinian refugee between the Indian and Irish states. (These Vatican had also opposed the partition of problem and holding that the Catholics 25 fared better under Arab regimes than under the Middle East. De Valera's foreign up its attitude to the De Valera-Aiken era that of Israel (Eliash, Harp And The Shield, minister, , following agree- in international affairs thus: pp118 ff.). Eliahu Elath, the Israeli ment in Cabinet, held separate talks with "By the mid-1950s the German economic Ambassador to Britain, also met with de Arab and Israeli delegations, including miracle was well under way. The FRG was Valera and other senior Irish politicians Golda Meir, to whom he suggested that permitted to join NATO. It was allowed to the following January, after which he Ireland might propose a solution whereby re-arm for the collective benefit of the 'Free reported that de Valera was the main the Arab States would recognise Israel as World', and it became a central player in the opponent of upgrading the Irish diplomatic a fact in return for Israel accepting its European integration process… Meanwhile, Ireland remained relatively isolated in the relationship with Israel, due to the issues current borders as the final ones. But this West, most notably during Frank Aiken's of Jerusalem, the Palestinian refugees and was something Israel had (and continues stewardship of Irish foreign policy at the the treatment of the Arab Catholic minority to have) no intention of doing, and the United Nations during de Valera's final (ibid., p128). Irish diplomatic initiative came to nought. government between May 1957 and June Zionist writers have absurdly tried to On 14th August 1958 Aiken, creating a 1959… De Valera's Ireland demonstrated a impute "anti-Semitism" to de Valera. As stir internationally, presented a "3-Point disturbing lack of common sense with the Peace Plan for the Middle East" to the UN west in general at the UN. In particular, there is demonstrably nothing in the record Aiken failed to identify with the Western to support such a view, indeed quite the General Assembly: powers on high-profile controversies contrary, the Israeli historian Shulamit 1. That Arab nations should have the right relating to Cyprus, Algeria and apartheid. It Eliash (Harp And The Shield Of David) of self-determination to maintain a proposed troop withdrawal from Central approvingly quotes the portrayal of de separate existence or to unite or federate; Europe, self-determination for Algeria, Valera by the Israeli Ambassador to Britain 2. That the Assembly should declare that Chinese admission to the UN; and it in the 1950s, Eliahu Elath, as a "personality the whole region be developed as a condemned South Africa's racial policies. tainted by anti-Semitism", an innate rather neutral region; The adoption of such a 'moral' and neutral- ist or non-aligned foreign policy by Ireland than explicit anti-Semitism, arising 3. That the General Secretary of the UN inexorably from his "Catholic devoutness" appeared fanciful and ineffective from the should arrange the repatriation of point of view of … hard-headed realism… (pp63, 128, 178). This is not a position {Palestinian} refugees from Israel and Lemass 'mainstreamed' Irish foreign policy that can be argued with. for full compensation for those left away from the 'traditional nationalist and behind. insular outlook'…" (Mervyn O'Driscoll, FRANK AIKEN AT THE UN 'Hesitant Europeans: Self-Defeating The creation of the United Nations by The Suez invasion of 1956, the 1958 Irredentists and Security Free-Riders?', Irish the victor powers in 1945 was viewed Revolution in Iraq and British and Studies in International Affairs, vol. 21, with both scepticism and realism by de American troop landings in Jordan and 2010, pp90-104). Valera. He compared the UN unfavourably Lebanon, he said, were all events "pro- with the League and in November 1944, foundly affected by decisions regarding With the Celtic Tiger, Irish trade with when the Dumbarton Oaks proposals first Palestine more than ten years ago and by Israel, especially in the area of computer became public, he described the proposed the fragmentation of the whole region 30 electronics, has expanded exponentially organisation with its Security Council years ago" (Irish Times, 15.08.1958). He and is now greater in value than the total controlled by the Vetoes of the victor thus fingered the Balfour Declaration and of Irish trade with the Arab world. This Allied states as a "dictatorship of the great the circumstances of the creation of the represents a reversal of the trade relation- powers". In a speech to the Dáil on 26th Israeli State as the root causes of the ships of the 1980s, with the Allied wars June 1946 he gave what long-time Irish chaotic condition of the region. against the Muslim world since 1990 diplomat, Noel Dorr, has described as "a wiping out the substantial Irish medical, very clear-eyed assessment, at a very early "Ireland still views Israel as an educational and agricultural trade with stage, of both the new United Nations occupier and a colonialist entity" the region. A notable caution has entered organisation itself and what Ireland's The clear historical understanding the Irish political stance on its relations membership would entail". Listing its underpinning Aiken's statements at the with Israel. There has also been the limitations and "defects", de Valera expres- UN began to be sidelined during the emergence since 2009 of a new group in sed the hope that "this organisation will Lemass years when Ireland "opened to the the Dáil, the Friends of Israel, ultimately embrace all nations, both those World", i.e. aligned itself more closely convened by of Fine Gael who were on the one side and those who with Western interests in the world. The and Joanna Tuffy of Labour, and involving were on the other {in World War Two}". new strategy of attracting US investment about a dozen members, including Leo A month later he proposed that Ireland as the basis for the next period of economic Varadkar, Charlie Flanagan and Lucinda apply for membership on the basis that the development was seen to necessitate the Creighton of Fine Gael, of UN was "as good as can be got at this jettisoning of elements of the Republican Labour, and others. moment" (Noel Dorr, Ireland at the United legacy at odds with emerging US policy But attempts to pin a history of anti- Nations. Memories of the Early Years, interests in the world. The modern fashion Semitism on Ireland have proven un- Dublin, 2010, p22). of viewing De Valera's foreign policy sustainable, and popular Irish attitudes to The Western conflict with Soviet legacy as something of an embarrassment the conflict in Palestine remain stubbornly Russia, which resumed as soon as Ger- began at this stage. hostile to the Israeli case. This state of many was defeated, meant that Ireland The Institute of International and affairs causes some bewilderment in Israel. was excluded from the UN by Soviet veto European Affairs (IIEA) has been working But Rory Miller, a pro-Israeli Irish born until December 1955, when an exchange assiduously since the 1980s in promoting historian, neatly summarised the answer: was made for an equal number of pro- a "modern" Irish foreign policy. It com- "Ireland still views Israel as an occupier Western and pro-Soviet member states. bines the major interests of the state with and a colonialist entity" (Jerusalem Post, At that time, because of Cold War stale- the minds of Dublin's academic intelligen- 9th June 2006). mate on the Security Council, the General tsia. It has campaigned vigorously since In the final part of this article, we will Assembly played a more prominent role its foundation against "outmoded" Irish examine the initiative of the Haughey in UN affairs than it does today. neutrality, was to the fore in promoting Government of the early 1980-s that On returning to power in 1957, one of Ireland as a "global hub" and spearheaded transformed the European position on the the first initiatives of the new de Valera the pro-Lisbon campaign. An article in "Middle East Conflict". Government at the UN was in relation to the latest issue of its annual journal sums Philip O'Connor 26 enemy he is helping him more easily to The Royal Navy's booty from the war support the war, even though they are not was colossal whereas the continental included in the list of 'contraband.' We nations were exhausted by the loss of Naval Warfare have indeed now learned that even the blood and treasure (the distribution of Part Six most 'innocent' things, tinned milk for example, contain ingredients which may territory in Europe remained almost the To understand the issues surrounding be turned into high explosives" (The Free same as it had been previously). the naval warfare waged by England in Seas in War, p20). After the war industry, commerce and the entire force of production were ruined the First World War it is necessary to go The Seven Years War brought about an on the continent. The capital wealth of back to the real First World War—the astonishing development in all the bran- England immeasurably increased. Gold Seven Years War of 1756-63. ches of English trade and industry. The and raw materials flowed into England The Seven Years War, the first global British trading fleet established its rule from her new overseas possessions or conflict, established the Royal Navy's over the seas and thousands of foreign from the Spanish and Portuguese colonies mastery of the seas. It was fought in Europe trading ships, the property of enemies, which Britain had gained by enforced by Austria, France, Russia, Sweden and neutrals and allies alike had been treaty. The great majority of trade was Saxony against Prussia and England, and 'disappeared.' shipped on board English vessels and in in North America and India by France and During the Seven Years War France, this way money flowed into the English England. under pressure from the Royal Navy, purse. During the Seven Years War the found- opened up her trade to other nations, In this way England acquired practically ations of the British Empire were estab- permitting neutrals to carry on trade with the whole of the shipping trade of the lished through the financial procurement her colonial possessions in the West Indies. world and mastery of the seas. Britain also of Prussian arms in Europe and a limited Six months before England's declar- took the opportunity to separate Spain and English intervention on Frederick the ation of war on France the English fleet France from their overseas possessions Great's side. had sailed into the Bay of Biscay and because England realized that the Power And the Royal Navy and British Army captured 800 French trading ships. which commands the sea would be able to used the opportunity elsewhere in the Subsequently, England blockaded the obtain without difficulty the wealth and world to end France's challenge as a French coasts and captured ships, includ- commerce of the world. worldwide rival and steal its colonial ing neutrals, bound for French ports. possessions. Pitt later said: "We have won In response France was forced to let Canada in Germany" and Gustav von neutrals carry her trade. Another product of the Seven Years Schmoller, the Prussian economist, noted: England saw this as an affront to the War was the Rule Of The War of 1756. "Without the victories of the Prussian policy of colonial monopoly and seized This denied to neutral ship-owners Grenadiers there would be today no the neutral ships on the basis that a neutral participation in trade-routes which Britain English world trade." had no right to deliver an enemy of England then established as a monopoly. One In 1759 England pulled out of the from the pressure of the Royal Navy. example of this was that trade in products European conflict, abandoning her Prus- Dutch vessels trading on the French coast was controlled and certain products were sian ally, when she had managed to drive were dealt with on the same principle. forbidden by England to be exported from the French out of Canada and end their The following judgements were given India and Ireland. influence in India. in English courts over the issue: In the period after the Seven Years War "It cannot be contended to be a right of England ruthlessly enforced the Rule of Sir Francis Piggott, introducing a neutrals to intrude into a commerce which the War of 1756. When Britain became a had been uniformly shut against them, selection of speeches by David Urquhart, belligerent in wars (which was often) the great exponent of England's unlimited and which is now forced open merely by the pressure of war… That change is the neutral shipping attempted to avail of the rights on the sea, published in 1918, direct and unavoidable consequence of opportunity, when the Royal Navy was pointed to the main bone of contention the compulsion of war—it is a measure otherwise occupied, to engage in the free between Britain and the nations of the not of French councils but of British trade which in times of peace was denied world since the 1750s: force" (The Immanuel, 2 Ch. Rob. Rep. at to them. But the English courts decided p200). that neutral ship engaged in free trade was "The questions which have been so "As to the coasting trade (supposing it fiercely debated as to England's action at to be a trade not usually opened to foreign liable to seizure and the Royal Navy sea have been raised by the neutrals. vessels), can there be described a more applied these rulings by force. They have protested that her action against effective accommodation that can be the enemy has affected them 'illegally'. given to an enemy during a war than to The main threat to the Rule of the War Their contention has always been that undertake it for him during his own of 1756 was the loss of the Thirteen 'neutral trade is free', even with the enemy, disability ? ... Is it possible to describe a unless it be in contraband or in running Colonies and the appearance of the United more direct and a more effectual opposi- States in the world. The US was prepared blockades. tion to the success of {our} hostility, "England's contention has always been short of an actual military assistance in to engage in extensive trading in defiance that while neutral trade with neutral is the war ?" (The Emanuel, i Ch. Rob. Rep. of the Rule and made great profit from its certainly free, neutral trade with the at p300). trading. One reason for the war of 1812, in enemy is not free, and that a belligerent "Such trade cannot innocently be which Washington was burned by the has a right to prevent it on this simple undertaken by a neutral; nor without the British, was to enforce the Rule. But the ground, that trading with the enemy is hazard of rendering him liable to be assisting the enemy. It surely need not be survival of the United States and its persist- considered as giving immediate aid and ence in trading had the effect of wearing demonstrated that if a neutral buys what adherence to {the} belligerent, to the the enemy has to sell he furnishes him disadvantage of his adversary" (The away England's adherence to the Rule of with the money he wants to carry on the Nancy, 3 Ch. Rob. Rep., at p83). (Cited in the War of 1756. war: or, if a neutral sells things to the Sir Francis Piggott, The Free Seas in War Pat Walsh p23). 27 Does It Stack Up? Michael Stack And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda. Hiroshima. Wilson John Haire (poem) Index, 2010 (Winter 2009; Water Shortages; Eric Bogle (extract from song) Es Ahora. Julianne Herlihy (How The Fraudulent Politicians; Corporate Es Ahora. 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Manus O'Riordan (report) Professor Fanning & Major McDowell's Jack Jones Vindicated. Manus Problems Of Green-Left Convergence. A Founder Of The State. Professor 'White Nigger' Remarks. (Report of O'Riordan (Part One) Roy Johnston Cathal MacSwiney Brugha Niall Meehan letter) Political Historians Of Ancient Ireland. Comment On Johnston's Remarks. Bill Sharkey. James Daly (Funeral Turkish Real-politik? Report Pat Muldowney (review) Brendan Clifford Oration) Shorts from the Long Fellow (The State Does It Stack Up? Michael Stack Climate Manipulations. Report Casement Events. Ted O'Sullivan & Counter-Revolution; Credit Where (Greenpeace; BPplc; Palestine & Helen Lewis, 1916-2009. Stephen The Spy Who Grew Up With The Bold. Credit Is due; Who's This 'We'?; Gaza; Maths Teaching) Richards (obituary) Manus O'Riordan (John Betjeman, Gerry Ran; Tribunal Tribulations) Labour Comment: Private Vultures Eye The 'Racist' Gaelic Revival: a case with Part 2) Remembering Captain Kelly. Sylvia E.S.B. no evidence. John Minihane Barack Hussein Obama & The IRA. Kelly Speech The Dunmanway Killings: as wise as Seán McGouran Launch Of Dictionary Of Irish August ever. Jack Lane DIBlues 2: Tom Barry. Jack Lane Biography. John Martin Not To Reason Why. Editorial Biteback: Niall Meehan on the Scandals Religion And Nationality. Roy Johnston DIB Blues (4). Anthony Jordon on John EU: Action Stations? Jack Lane and Kincora Gallipoli Cost Us More Than Soldiers. McBride (report) Brian "the deposit King" Lucey. John Downey's Memoirs. John Martin Dr. Pat Walsh (report of article and What Would Larkin Have Done? Manus Martin (review) letter) O'Riordan Readers' Letters: Settlers And Natives. 28 Stephen Richards Editorial Digest. (Violence; Electric; ; Department Of Éamon Smullen. Wilson John Haire Orange Order; Iris Robinson; Omagh; Finance; Automatic Pilot) Report of Letter which Visiting The Six Counties. Wilson City Of Culture; Consultants; British Labour Comment: Not On Our Knees appeared in the Irish John Haire Army; The Pope; Eames/Bradley; Yet, James! Examiner, 27th December Editorial Digest. (The Riots; Martin Óg Legal Bills; New Taxes; GAA, Up In Meehan; Mary McAleese; RIR; Its Down; Wee ; Settlers & December 2010 Only Money; Army Council; Celtic Natives) Ireland: The Political Crisis. Editorial League; Greenhouse Gas Emissions! Corrupt Ireland? John Martin reviews Ms Laffan's Thoughts. Editorial on The Sinn Fein Mayor, Donegal; Fianna 's The Bankers EU And The Crisis It Matters Not If Adams Is Fail In North; Jackie McDonald;Gun Sean Lester: Gageby Gagged By The Irish Times And Our Gallant Allies. A Member Of The IRA Deaths; 32 County 12th?; Victims) Madam. Manus O'Riordan (report) Editorial The Madam With A Record And A Shorts from the Long Fellow (Bond Readers' Letters: Poppies At Celtic. I was completely under- Retractable Minister. Manus Market; Irrevocable Guarantee; A Martyn Joseph Gallogly; whelmed by Matt Cooper’s O'Riordan Sovereign Default; Economic Remembering The Minutes. Eamon Poems. Wilson John Haire: Thar She Recovery? Irish.economy.ie; Brian Dyas piece on December 17. Blows. Anyone Seen Neptune's Lenihan In Beal na mBlath) Falling Off The Tigger? Editorial Neither all the queen's horses Trident? Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi. Global Crisis. Eamon Dyas Shorts from the Long Fellow (Anglo- Wilston John Haire (poem) Editorial Digest. (SF Victory; Gerry nor all the queen's men, Irish Bank Legacy; Future Of Anglo- A No-Go Area For Fianna Fail? Jack Goes South; Maggie's Poppy; Alex exhausting what Gladstone Irish Bank; Sean FitzPatrick; Nama; Lane Attwood; Humanists Too!; NI Irish Economy.ie; Deposit Selling Mr. Blair Clarifies The Issue That Assembly; DUP; Tories v. UUP; called "the resources of Moments;Gerry Adams) Defines Him—The War In Iraq. Jack Robinson & Education; Unionist civilisation" could prove Gerry Rhetoric Versus Reality About The Lane Ireland; Prisoners; Policing NI; Republic. Jack Lane A Discussion On The 1640s. John Roads; Rail; Royal Giggle; Bad Adams’s membership of the Saville Report: Reactions, Flawed And Minahane reports on the launch of An Health; Dublin March; Corruption; IRA. Otherwise. Conor Lynch Argument Defending The Right Of Recession Jack Jones Vindicated. Manus The Kingdom Of Ireland (1645) by The Means Test. Wilson John Haire So who am I, or Mr Cooper, O'Riordan (Part 2) Conor O'Mahony (poem) to doubt his word? I don’t think Biteback: National Newspaper? Phillip Famine Or Holocast? How Many Died? Mickey Dwyer. Obituary O'Connor (unpublished letter) Report of talk given by Jack Lane at Shorts from the Long Fellow (Why Save it matters now, nor ever has, to A Good Biography With A Fatal Flaw. Féile Duthalla 2010 Anglo Irish Bank?; Bondholders & those who vote Sinn Féin. John Minahane (on Benjamin Es Ahora. Julianne Herlihy (Rolling Depositors; Media & Crisis; NAMA Hazard's book on Flaithrí Ó Stone Magazine; Shell & Ireland; Profits; Crony Capitalism; Fianna It's not as if Sinn Féin is Maolchonaire) The Times; Battle Of Britain; Fail; Labour; Fine Gael; Corruption?; particularly irregular. From Naval Warfare. Dr. Pat Walsh (Part 1) 'Wartime' Britain; Private Eye) Irish Times Perspective; Tin-Tin Lithograph. Kathe Kollwitz Meeting Pat Murphy. Brendan Clifford Award 1912 onwards various Unionist Labour Comment: The Politics Of reviews Pat Murphy, Social Ireland & The Great War. Pat Walsh parties had their own Ulster Virtue Republican reports on Collins Barracks Event After The Single Currency. why not a Protestants In West Cork. Jack Lane Freikorps. September Euro Bond? (Report of letter by David (review) And Garret Fitzgerald, as a Trouble With Moderates. Editorial McInerney) Performance Economics. John Martin Victim Of Academic Ideology? Jack Jones Vindicated. Manus (review) senator, could serve on the Fine Obituary of Peter Hart O'Riordan (Part 3) Driving Ol' Éire Down. Seán McGouran Gael Front Bench without Readers' Letters: Manus O'Riordan. A Naval Warfare. Pat Walsh (Part 3) The Harris Privilege. Report Senior Moment Remembrance Day. Wilston John Haire 1641 Massacre. Pat Muldowney joining the party. But if that was Editorial Digest. ( Mercenary, (poem) (unpublished letter) a misfortune, consider the care- Aid & Afghanistan; Policing Board Does It Stack Up? Michael Stack The Earl Of Strafford And 1641. John Developer; Arnotts; Gerry Kelly To (Coillte Teoranta; Oil Industry; Minahane (Letter, with response) lessness of John A Costello, who Meet Dissidents; Parades Legislation; Education; Revenue Commissioners; Es Ahora. Julianne Herlihy (Rare Old remarked to Garret: "Forty years Suicide Pilots) NAMA; Norway And Its Oil) Times; More Media Figures) 21 Why The European Union Can't Get Labour Comment: Fianna Fail The Ghost Of Admiral Hall. Tim in politics, twice Taoiseach, Real. Desmond Fennell Renaissance? by Philip O'Connor O'Sullivan (reply to Jeff Dudgeon) never joined Fine Gael." Shorts from the Long Fellow (Revised 23 National Development Plan; Bold November Jack Jones Vindicated. Manus If Gerry Adams’s remarks on Leap Forward; Progress; Catch Up; Like A Virgin! Rediscovering 1641. O'Riordan (part 4) the IRA scandalise your polite Fintan & The Bank Guarantee; Editorial Biteback: Legitimacy? Nick Folley Property Taxes; Peter Hart; Griffith Lisbon Looms Again. Jack Lane (unpublished letter) readers, they should look away & Collins; Elaine Byrne) Taming Tigers? Editorial Naval Warfare. Pat Walsh (part 5) before considering these of Mr Irish Squaddies. Tom Cooper letter Readers' Letters: Augsburg & Does It Stack Up? Michael Stack (Report) Westphalia, Stephen Richards. Rose- (Betting Winnings; Banking Crisis; Costello in the Dáil in 1934- Could This Be Forgiveness. Wilson Tinted View Of Fianna Fail? Kells Public Sector Crisis; Bank For "the Backshirts were victorious John Haire (Poem: Hiroshima, reader. Private Hospitals. Nick Folley International Settlements) Nagasaki) Obama's 'New Beginning' At An End In Tears Of Ice. Wilson John Haire (poem) in Italy, the Hitler Shirts were Es Ahora. Julianne Herlihy (Shell & The Arab World? David Morrison Cultural Cringe. Seán McGouran victorious in Germany ... as Ireland; & Corrib Gas Project; & Political Snapshot. Philip O'Connor War Veterans. Report of Letter by Mick Rossport In Courts; The Queen & Harris Doing As Harris Does. Jack Nugent assuredly the Blueshirts will be Her Honours; Private Eye & Honours; Lane Labour Comment: Quo Vadis? ICTU victorious in the Irish Free Mrs. Harold Pinter & History; Prof. First Ballymurphy, Then Bloody Lets Itself Down Bartlett & Fall Of Irish Sunday. Report, and Poem by W.J. State." Historiography) Haire Nior thainig a la for 14 years, The Irish Republican Education Of Sir Shorts from the Long Fellow (State John Betjeman. Manus O'Riordan. Broadcaster; Anglo Bank Cost; Brian A Labour Policy and then only with the "kiss of (Part 4 of The Spy Who Grew Up Lucey & David McWilliams; life" from Sean McBride, an With The Bold) Government Performance; Could Biteback: Senator Twomey, Beal Na And Should; Lucey On The Property "I was very disappointed IRA man when Costello made mBleath And Fianna Fail: Irish Times Market; Lenihan On Banking Crisis; to hear the Labour Party say that speech. Letters (Patrick Martin; Mark The Irish Times; The Village McGrail) Moral Denunciation From O'Toole. that if it was to be part of the It would be a shame if future Naval Warfare. Pat Walsh (Part 2) John Martin next Irish government it leaders were as oblivious of the Dunkirk: "The Truth Cannot Hurt The 1939 Greaves-Regan-O'Riordan British Now". Ruairí Ó Domhnaill Conversations. Manus O'Riordan would turn its back on past that they couldn’t laugh at 20 Republican Ireland And Zionism. Philip infrastructure projects in the Cooper's fastidious pretensions. Does It Stack Up? Michael Stack O'Connor. (Part 1, De Valera On (BPplc; The Public Service In Ireland; Zionism And Palestine) North. Donal Kennedy The Irish Economy; Government In Reply To Jeff Dudgeon On Peter "Fianna Fail and I Schemes; Duke Of Devonshire & Hart. Niall Meehan His Irish Estate, Lismore Castle Es Ahora. Julianne Herlihy (The Cosh strongly believe that On-line sales of books, Labour Comment: Callely: The Of The Crozier; Ireland & The IMF; prosperity across our island Exception. Philip O'Connor History Of IMF; Manifest Destiny) pamphlets and magazines: Hard On Hart? Brendan Clifford is essential to continue October Biteback: Nama & Associate Professor building on the peace we What's Constitutional. Junior Minister Lucey. Feargus O Raghallaigh https:// Mansergh Speaks. Editorial Naval Warfare. Pat Walsh. (Part 1) have achieved together…" Béal an Lenihan. Editorial When. Poem and article by Wilson (, Irish www.atholbooks- Readers' Letters: In Defence Of Peter John Haire Hart. Jeffrey Dudgeon Does It Stack Up? Michael Stack (The News, 13.12.10) New Unionist Leader. Conor Lynch Government; Croke Park Agreement; sales.org 29 Just imagine the cruelty of this kind of does not work. It was thrust upon us by attack? In December 2009, Minister Lloyd George et al who modelled it upon Does Lenihan said there would be fuel vouchers, their own defective system in Britain in It in July Minister O Cuiv said he was 1921. We have moved on since then and it Stack working on it and in November 2010 is time we had for ourselves systems of Up Minister O Cuiv stated that there would be legislation and government to protect our ? no vouchers nor even “a small extra sovereignty and our democracy which we payment” and then goes on to talk surely deserve. GOVERNANCE unfeelingly about the pension pots of Is there anyone out there who still has millions of Euro Ministers and Public ABORTION AND ADOPTION faith in an honest politician? Anyone? Servants and others. Was he being Fostering the children of other known Why is it that almost every person who dishonest? You be the judge. He certainly people used to be a very common occur- gets elected to public office will eventually spoke with a “forked tongue”. rence in Ireland. It became less common and almost inevitably, it seems, end up And then there were the four TDs who after the Irish holocaust of 1845-48 where being dishonest if not actually downright got themselves marked present in the Dail food was not made available but shipped crooked? Take the Minister for Social when they were abroad in April 2010. out by the British. But even up to forty or Protection, Eamon O Cuiv and the Carbon That was bad and blatant. But what was fifty years ago in Ireland everybody or Tax. A year ago when the Carbon Tax was much worse was that one of them was nearly everybody would know of a child announced by Minister for Finance, Brian Bernard Allen TD (Fine Gael) who was in the neighbourhood who was being Lenihan TD, he said a “voucher fuel and is Chairman of the Public Accounts reared by a grandmother or by an aunt. allowance scheme would be developed to Committee. Integrity? These examples Also Adoption Societies were busy placing offset the increases for low-income families may be regarded to be on a smaller scale children for adoption in cases where the dependent on such fuel”. In July 2010 but they also show what way TDs think. mother could not keep the baby for some Minister O Cuiv said he had set up a On the much larger scale we now know reason or another. Then the State blundered committee “to devise a scheme to enable that NAMA was necessary only to save in to a bit of law-making on the subject of compensation measures to be in place skins of inner circle people and to enable adoption, basing the new laws on models when the heating season starts”. This these same people to safeguard their assets taken from USUK and interlacing them was not going to be a big job of work— abroad while leaving their liabilities and with new laws on inheritance and DNA just calculate the percentage increase in debts in Ireland to the taxpayer. We know without proper consideration of the overall the retail price of the fuel due to the that Bank of Ireland and AIB could have social fabric. The result being that in many imposition of the Carbon Tax and issue been saved with State assistance and that cases when a woman found she was bear- that percentage increase in vouchers, Anglo-Irish Bank should have been ing a baby who was not expected and when simple. Not so. However in November allowed to go its own way and fail. But too her circumstances make it difficult to keep 2010 Minister O Cuiv reported to the Dail many reputations were at stake and it was the baby, she opted to have the baby killed that the working group has not yet finished not allowed to happen that way. The in England rather than go through the new its work but the Department had decided governing ministers did not allow it to complications involved in having the baby not to introduce a voucher system—as happen and bankers colluded with them adopted. There are a great number of such a voucher system introduced stigma all. Power corrupts and absolute power people who would be delighted to adopt a and caused huge administrative burden corrupts absolutely. We know this now so baby but the laws are too complicated and because of their (sic) complexity and as well as cleaning up the mess we should too restrictive and so the babies are put to Minister O Cuiv said he was still awaiting be taking reasonable steps to prevent it death. It doesn’t stack up at all. a report from the working group (!) but, happening like this again. he said “a compensation scheme may not All of the laws affecting children and be the best way to address rising fuel costs Reasonable steps should include a babies must be looked at in their entirety due to the Carbon Tax and if you want to completely new structure for our law- and redesigned so as to achieve a just and assist the most vulnerable, a small extra makers and for our Government. The fair society. The present laws are involving payment would not be anywhere as present structures have failed miserably. us and our State in ridiculous situations, efficient… its insulation, insulation is the So for the purpose of debate let us upset totally foreign to our way of life in Ireland. way to go”, he now declared. And just as the applecart. What about the party system? Not only have we passed a mesh of laws the poor person is rising from this The majority of citizens are not joined any dealing piecemeal and inadequately with whipping, Minister O Cuiv has more. “In party. It can easily be shown that political difficult situations but one of the main the current economic and financial crisis parties are conspiracies against the public. laws dealing with abortion and which the our main priority must be to restore However, parties may be appropriate for State quoted in a recent European Court of stability in the public finances… no bringing forward a programme of legis- Human Rights case was so old it was not provision has been made in the Estimates lation. Serious thought should be given, passed by us at all but the British Parli- for the payment of a Christmas bonus in for example, as to why any particular ament in 1861, i.e. no Irish legislator took the 2010 estimate”, he said. (This of course candidate on a ballot paper should be a serious look at this basic law for 150 refers to the hitherto customary extra Social singled out from others as a "this party" or years! This certainly does not stack up! Welfare payment at Christmas—it does "that party" member. Also, would it be I mean to say, what matter is more not refer to any of the payments to better if each candidate was elected as an important than life and death? Why hasn’t Ministers or to TD’s and Senators.) And individual and in a position to vote on it been dealt with in 150 years? Compared just in case any of the bystanders in the legislation with individual conscience? with the speed with which the Credit Visitors Gallery were feeling lucky not to Or not. Do we need a Seanad at all? Institutions (Stabilisation) Bill 2010 was receive a whipping, Minister O Cuiv adds Perhaps, as in USA, the lawmakers should dealt with—it was introduced in the Dail with apparent grim satisfaction: have nothing to do with the executive on 14th December and it appears to inter- government? Maybe the office of President fere with property rights protected by the “There are people over 65 who have should be abolished or be an elected Constitution of Ireland but it was dealt pension pots that are literally worth millions of Euros so that you cannot say executive President? Maybe, as in China, with like a bolt of lightening. Money is that in all measures in the budget, tax and there should be seven elected government more important than life or death in Dail otherwise, that any particular income is heads for each period of five years? One Eireann it seems. absolutely immune to cutbacks.” thing we do know, the present system Michael Stack © 30 BUDGET continued around €2m a month in prescription Employers will have to pay 50% PRSI charges this year. on their employees' contributions to a founder of TaxandLegal.ie.: "Since the This will mean that around 1.79 million pension scheme. This is in addition to the Lisbon Treaty, groups of European or 40% of the population will have a application of PRSI and USC to the countries will be able to club together to card—in stark contrast to 2001 when it employees' contributions themselves. harmonise taxes. If they do that, we will was just 29.8%. have to do the same," he predicted. Another 114,000 people have GP visit REDUNDANCY PAYMENTS Some new businesses will continue to cards, which entitle them to see their doctor Redundancy payments, apart from be exempt from Corporation Tax for the for free, although they are still liable for statutory redundancy amounts, will only first three years after the budget extended the cost of any drugs they are prescribed. be tax-free up to €200,000. For amount and altered a scheme aimed at helping The surge in numbers underlines the above this the tax will be 20%. small and medium-sized companies that growing reliance on the State for healthcare create new jobs. needs at a time when tens of thousands of GIFT TAX other people are also abandoning their The three-year Corporation Tax The amounts that can be given or left to private health insurance. exemption for start-up companies was relatives, tax free, are being reduced by first announced in 2009 but is now being By last October the HSE section dealing 20%. This is a significant change, raising changed so the value of the relief will be with medical cards and related services €40 million in a full year. linked to the amount of employers' PRSI had under-spent by €41m. The new limit for a gift or inheritance to A rise in medical cards means higher paid by a company up to €5,000 per a child is €332,804, and €33,280 for a drug bills for the State as well as a loss in employee. sibling or lineal descendant. income for hospitals. "I suspect this change is an attempt to THE FARMERS limit abuse," said Paul Brady, "It is GP CUTS Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith interesting that they are linking it to PRSI. GPs who treat medical card holders are said a net reduction of 11% in his They are trying to stop people from to face deep cuts. Their fees will be slashed Department's estimate for next year is making capital investments" (Irish by up to 50% in some cases. largely accounted for by lower farm waste Independent-8.12.2010). It will mean that their fee for a patient management scheme payments. But The scheme only applies to people who over 70 years of age in a nursing home will spending is maintained on disadvantaged are setting up a new business in manu- fall from €896 a year to €448. areas, REPS and AEOS, and reduced only Doctors will also be hit with an end to facturing and a few other sectors. It 1.66% in forestry and bio-energy. an allowance for a patient who lives a excludes services and only benefits new Up to €100m of the final farm waste certain distance from their surgery and companies that make a profit in their first management scheme instalment, due early fees for evening and weekend visits to three years. next year, is being brought forward to this patients' homes are to be reduced by 22%. Under the changes announced in the month. The 2011 estimate ensures the Their mileage allowances, which were 2011 budget, if the amount of qualifying department can make 2010 and 2011 built into fees for older patients living employers' PRSI is lower than the suckler scheme payments next year. over 10 miles from their surgery, will also reduction in corporation tax liability, relief be slashed. will be based on the lower amount. ****************************************************************************** There will be abolition of the fund The employer PRSI incentive scheme Most employers and employees (over which provides GPs with grants to improve is extended until the end of the year. 16 years of age) pay social insurance and refurbish their surgeries and they will Under the terms of the scheme, contributions into the national Social also suffer a cut of 8% in their fees for employers will not be liable for PRSI in Insurance Fund (SIF). In general, the caring for female patients under the respect of new workers for a period of 12 payment of social insurance is compulsory. maternity and infant schemes. months from the date of employment. Social insurance contributions in Ireland There are cuts in grants for hiring are referred to as P.R.S.I. (Pay Related secretaries and nurses. Social Insurance). MEDICAL CARDS People with Medical Cards did not It is expected the total amount taken The Social Insurance Fund is made up have to pay the Income levy or the Health from GPs, who got €500m under the of a current account and an investment levy up to now. payments, will amount to €48m over a account managed by the Minister for Social year. Protection and the Minister for Finance, But the merging of these two levies into The carers' allowance is down, with respectively. The current account consists the Universal Social Contribution (USC) cuts of €16.50 a week on the 2008 rate— of monies collected from people in will mean that people with a medical card, down from €220.50 a week to the new rate employment. This money is then used to whose income is greater than €4,000, will of €204 announced in the Budget. fund social insurance payments. The pay the new charge. The State Pension investment account is a savings account will be excluded from this. The Government expects a staggering PENSIONS that is managed by the Minister for 10,000 additional people a month to need The reduction in the employer PRSI Finance. The Comptroller and Auditor a medical card this year, as more lose their relief on pension contributions will cost General is responsible for ensuring that jobs or suffer pay cuts. Irish business about €90 million per year, the accounts are kept in order and reports There are now over 1.5 million covered according to employers group IBEC. This are made to the Houses of the Oireachtas. by a medical card, but those with the at a time when many employers are already benefit who need medicines will pay struggling to keep pension schemes afloat, ***************************************************************************** it says. *****************************************************************************

31 BUDGET continued DIRT TAX €300,000. The tax on savings—Deposit Interest Currently, stamp duty rates of up to 9% apply to transactions on property. levies. This makes for some anomalous Retention (DIRT)—will shoot from 25% situations. up to 27%. This is obviously a bid to get Stamp duty on residential property has A self-employed taxpayer on ¤175,000 some of the almost €100bn households raised around €80m so far this year, will suffer a cut of only 1% in take-home have stashed in the banks out of accounts compared with a peak of €1.3bn in 2006 at pay this year, while someone on ¤55,000 and spent in shops. Savers are taking their the height of the boom. will be down 4%. deposits out, that's for sure but they are not The Government will introduce a flat- There are a myriad of changes to pension heading for any shopping malls. Or maybe rate property tax from 2012 of around tax reliefs but most taxpayers will be they're heading for Lowry's Holy Cross €100, rising to €200 the following year. affected by only one. At present, PRSI casino. The 2012 tax will be paid to cash- strapped local authorities and county and levies are not paid on pension "Nervous depositors took €5.1bn out contributions. In future such contributions councils, as is the case with the existing of Irish banks in November, 2010, €200 on second-hand homes. will be included in gross pay for the according to new figures from the Central Minister Lenihan claimed the move purpose of calculating liability to PRSI Bank. will not only boost the property sector but and the new Universal Social Charge. "Irish consumers shifted €2.5bn of deposits out of Irish-regulated banks in will also provide useful valuations for the PUBLIC SERVANTS November, bringing the total amount held market. Such a wide-ranging package of in those institutions from €96.2bn in changes is bound to give rise to anomalies. October to €93.7bn. "If this system had been in place instead Many higher-paid public servants will "Big corporations, like pension funds, of the previous volatile one, it would were also still moving large sums of have lessened the effect on tax revenue of find it anomalous to be paying full-rate money out of these banks. The Central the booms and busts in the market," he PRSI at 4% on income above €75,036. Bank figures reveal they withdrew €2.6bn told the Dail. Those who joined the service prior to in November, bringing the total money "The information gathered from this 1995 currently only pay 0.9%. They may they hold in Irish-regulated banks down new regime can be used to compile data even feel that this change entitles them to from €45bn to €42.4bn." (Irish on house valuations to inform a valuations a social welfare pension when they resign. Independent-31.12.2010). database." But some lower paid workers face a more awesome anomaly. Single workers PROPERTY The Government is gearing up to use on the minimum wage will remain outside A belated but positive step was the the State Valuation Office to assess what the tax net provided they don't work more Government's decision to scrap Section tax should be applied on the 1.8 million than a normal week. But they won't be 23 which provides tax relief for the capital homes around the country after 2013. exempt from PRSI or from the new levy. expenditure incurred on the construction, This would mean a phasing out of the On any income above ¤16,050 they'll be refurbishment or conversion of rented flat-rate system which many believe is paying 7% Universal Social Charge and residential accommodation in certain unfair because the same tax is paid on a 4% PRSI and income tax at 20%. That's an designated areas. small home and a mansion. effective marginal tax rate of 31%. It's However, the Irish Property Owners The Government is also abolishing well below the 52% marginal rate faced Association (IPOA) is set to challenge the other existing reliefs and exemptions for by high earners but it's still very high for decision to abolish the measure, saying stamp duty on residential property as part someone who is earning just above the the Government brought in the incentive of its review of the sector. minimum wage. to encourage investment, but are now There will be further incentives for Those who will lose out most from the "fleecing" the people who purchased these local authority tenants to purchase their introduction of the Universal Social properties. The IPOA said it was homes through an increase in existing Charge are people earning around €25,000. "bordering on the criminal" to change the discounts. At present they are exempt from the health terms of a contract after it has been signed levy. and the monies paid. CORPORATION TAX Minister Lenihan reiterated that The reduction in the exemption "The measures introduced by the threshold to just over €4,000 will see such budget will cause dereliction in the future, Corporation Tax would remain at 12.5%, earners paying €1,069 in Universal Social not alone in the older properties, but in adding that several European finance Charges. the newer unsold properties that stand as ministers now understood that Ireland These include medical card holders, a monument to the lack of control on the needed to keep the rate low. He did not incentives and of banks that capitalised widows/widowers in receipt of the social name the ministers. on these incentives. The landlords of Senior figures in Germany and France welfare pension, persons aged 65 and Ireland must stand united and fight this over who earn less than €20,000 per year attack on their livelihood," the IPOA have said repeatedly that they would like (€40,000 in the case of married couple) stated. (Irish Examiner, 9.12.2010). Ireland to raise the rate to a level closer to and certain employees of overseas com- the level in countries which are funding panies working temporarily in Ireland. STAMP DUTY Ireland's EU-led €85bn bailout. Taken together with other changes, the First-time house buyers did not have to Industrialist Michael Smurfit said he result is that the new charge goes far pay any stamp duty up to now. From the saw no reason not to raise the rate to 15%. beyond what was already achieved by the December Budget they will have to shell While corporation tax remains at 12.5% income levy, in introducing a flat rate tax, out 1% of the value of properties worth up for now, it is likely to rise in the future, payable by virtually every person in the to €1 million. This will mean an additional said Paul Brady, a tax consultant and state on almost every form of income. €3,000 on a property that sells for continued on page 31

32 while others who should have known service. BUDGET continued better stood by and watched" (Colm The Irish Dental Association (IDA) Rapple, The Irish Mail on Sunday- has claimed that there will be 350,000 26.12.2010). paid around 11% compared with an EU more people holding medical cards by the average of more than double that. end of this year compared to 2008, bringing Where now is policy of tax cuts in lieu Over the last decade or so, the income the total number up to 1.6 million. tax system has gone through two distinct of wage increases so enthusiastically phases. 1997-2001 saw a sequence of advocated in 1987? "We have the disgraceful situation income tax rate reductions (48% to 41% Suddenly the C.B. word has turned up where what is a limited emergency and 26% to 20%) followed by a "hollow- again after all the years of Partnership treatment service is being stretched ing" out of the tax system in 2002 to 2008 talk: beyond breaking point," IDA chief executive Fintan Hourihan said. where the entry to the tax system rose by "Abandon the 'internal deflation' of 153%, from €7,238 to €18,300, together attempted wage-cutting, in favour of PRSI SELF-EMPLOYED with an increase in the single rate bands/ collective bargaining to allow workers The PRSI rate for self-employed people tax credits by 105% and 92% respectively. purchase the goods and services of a will be increased from 3% to 4%. All of this culminated in a tax system dynamic private sector" (Paul Sweeney, Meanwhile, employee contributions to where 45% of income earners paid no tax, Economic Adviser to the ICTU, Irish pension schemes will now be subject to which clearly was unsustainable. Times,31.12.2010). employee PRSI (3% up to ¤75,036, 4% Only for a single person with no children thereafter) and the new USC (7%). earning 167% of the average wage did the PRSI BENEFITS But despite the higher PRSI for the tax wedge come close to the OECD One of the most galling aspects of self-employed, these people will not end average. A well-paid single Irish person Minister Lenihan's removal of the PRSI up paying more tax at the margin. handed over 39% of total income while, if ceiling is his thrashing of the meagre The marginal rate for the self-employed they were living in Belgium, they would benefits arising from this payment. It is will come into line with those in PAYE have paid 55% of their salary. one of the few benefits the PAYE sector employment of 52%. This will remove the The 2011 budget outlined by Finance have, especially for those without a current anomaly under which the self- Minister Brian Lenihan will, according to Medical Card or a GP visit card. The employed have a marginal rate of up to an analysis by Social Justice Ireland, silence of the Trade Unions on the issue is 55%. increase the effective tax rate—total of almost deafening. Could it be that it touches income tax, levies and PRSI— only marginally on the public service STATE PENSIONS substantially on the lower-paid compared sector? Although 400,000 pensioners have with 2008. But for all, except those earning Dental treatment for almost two million escaped Budget cuts with no changes to over €120,000 a year, it is still less than people covered by PRSI was halved last their social welfare payments, the changes what people were paying in 2000. year—and it's going to be even worse in in the USC will hit pensioners with a Doubtless the next three budgets will 2011. private pension hard. change that. The changes to free or subsidised dental A major component of most country's treatment in last year's Budget saw Calculations by KPMG accountants revenues from labour are social spending fall from €62m in 2008 to €25m show that over 70-year-olds who have a contributions but in Ireland this has in 2010. medical card will now be almost €1,000 accounted for just 5.3%, compared to a Budget 2010 slashed the number of worse off because the new charge will EU average of 14.2% of GDP. This will benefits people covered by PRSI could apply to them. claim for free or at a discount from their increase now with the Universal Social "Until this Budget the Health levy and dentist. Charge (USC) 5%, taking over the levy of the Income levy did not apply to the over- the past two years and the health Since January last year, the only benefit 70s on a medical card, but the universal contribution 2%. they have under the scheme is a free social charge will apply now, but at a examination, leaving people to pay the lower rate of 4%," KPMG tax expert Quigley said. "COSY CONSENSUS" cost of other treatments out of their own "I wrote at the time of how their pocket. representatives on the National Economic December's 2011 Budget failed to AWESOME ANOMALIES and Social Council (NESC) reversed reverse the measure and the three months' Private Sector workers currently pay a previous calls for a property tax in a grace given to PRSI holders last year, combined 9% in income and health levies report on housing policy that it prepared 2010—allowing people to claim full on income between €75,037 and €174,980 that year. The trade unions, civil service and 11% on income above €174,981. The and community groups on the Council benefits if they submitted claims by acquiesced. December 31, 2010—is not available this new replacement charge will bear less "The union representatives on NESC, year. heavily on the higher-paid, presumably as including David Begg of ICTU and Jack The Government has been equally a partial offset to the fact that PRSI at 4% O'Connor of SIPTU, didn't even manage harsh in curtailing the treatment given to will now be payable on income above to have the old Kenny proposals for 1.5 million medical card holders . €75,037 without a ceiling. capping the price of development land Despite predictions that an extra 10,000 The changes favour high-earning self- included for consideration. employed taxpayers who currently pay "It's all history now. But there is a people a month will qualify for medical lesson to be learnt from the failures of cards this year, the money spent on their PRSI at 3% on all of their income. That is cosy consensus decision-making that let dental care is being kept at just €63m, going up to 4% this year, but that's not powerful interest groups push the agenda leaving them with just an emergency enough to offset the benefit of the lower continued on page 32

33 VOLUME 29 No. 1 CORK ISSN 0790-1712 Another P.D. Budget Presenting his Budget for 2011, appreciation of more reliable ways to a proportion of national income we Finance Minister Brian Lenihan seemed advance the economy with greater contribute less than half the EU average in hell-bent on sticking to the disastrous indigenous development. But no, Sir! The social insurance—4.7% as compared with Free Market ideology of a "Low Tax" Free Market prevails! 11.5%. In Germany the proportion of economy at all costs. The P.D.s might national income going on social insurance have "dumped arms" but their policies LOW TAX ECONOMY is 13.2%. are alive and well in the heart and soul Yet, we are still among the lowest- Following the 2011 Budget on 7th of New Fianna Fail. taxed countries in the world. Figures December 2010, the latest income tax Even Michael Smurfit, one of Ireland's produced by the OECD in 2009 provide increases, with the broadening of the tax outstanding industrialists said he saw no ample evidence that Minister Lenihan is band to bring many more workers into the reason not to raise the rate of Corporation wrong when he claims that there is very net, will bring the contribution of tax to Tax to 15%. But No, the Globalisers will little scope for increasing taxes. The fact the nation's coffers to little more than have none of it. Their entire economic is that we need higher taxes and there what it was two years ago, because of the policy is bound up in Foreign Direct should be public support for any politician rise in unemployment and the fall off in Investment (FDI). brave enough to say so and to outline how revenue from other sources. There was little to reveal in the such taxes could be effectively and The EU average tax take as a percentage Budget, with €2.1bn in current spending efficiently spent. of GDP is around 40.5%, so, at a little cuts, €1.8bn in capital spending Good public and social services have to more than 30% of the Department of reductions and €1.4bn in increased be paid for. We need to recognise that fact Finances' total income, Ireland will taxation already announced and decide whether or not we are willing continue to feature in the bottom five of beforehand. to pay the price. the EU's tax take list, with just Slovenia, Although tax rates remain unchanged— Our social insurance contributions, Pay Romania and Latvia bringing in a lesser 20% for standard earners and 41% for Related Social Insurance (PRSI), are proportion of tax from labour. higher earners—the Universal Social particularly low. The OECD figures relate The biggest contribution to GDP from Charge (USC) will increase tax revenue to 2007 but our international ranking won't personal taxation is in Denmark and into Government coffers. have changed much since then and we are Sweden, where it accounts for about half In future, a 7% tax will be placed on all clearly out of step with our neighbours. As of GDP. These countries possess top- incomes above the minimum wage. class social welfare systems compared to Subscribers to the magazine are regularly Ireland. The changes mean that workers on offered special rates on other publications income as low as €4,000 a year, will see Incidentally, Ireland is accompanied tax deductions eat away at their earnings. Irish Political Review is published by by fellow-suffering Spain and Greece at The USC is being developed principally the IPR Group: write to— the other end of the scale. to increase the total tax-take and to target 1 Sutton Villas, Lower Dargle Road Another way of measuring the tax take the near half of all income earners who Bray, Co. Wicklow or is to look at the tax wedge—the proportion will pay no income tax in 2010. PO Box 339, Belfast BT12 4GQ or of money a person pays to the state in a There is a property tax planned for PO Box 6589, London, N7 6SG, or combination of tax, and employee and 2012 but it is only a pale shade of what was Labour Comment, employer social contributions minus cash proposed by the Commission on Taxation C/O Shandon St. P.O., Cork City. transfers as a percentage of total labour and even that wasn't particularly radical. TEL: 021-4676029 costs. The budget measures drive home the Subscription by Post: The tax wedge for Irish workers is impact of Ireland's predicament more than 12 issues: £20, UK; among the lowest of all OECD and EU the bailouts of billions, than the ordinary € 30, Ireland; € 35, Europe. countries, having decreased strongly for person can grasp, and four year plans Electronic Subscription: all families over the past decade. The stretching into the future. € 15 / £12 for 12 issues wedge increased with last year's budget The budget could have served to consign (or € 1.30 / £1.10 per issue) for all households, except for lone parents the madness of the Celtic Tiger to the You can also order from: with two children on a low wage. They history books, and bring about a better https://www.atholbooks-sales.org continued on page 33