Casement! 1974 Bombings Patricia King Address Paul Hyde, Jack Lane, Manus O'Riordan Labour Comment Tim O'Sullivan pages 3,7,19 page 14 back page IRISH POLITICAL REVIEW August 2019 Vol.34, No.8 ISSN 0790-7672 and Northern Star incorporating Workers' Weekly Vol.33 No.8 ISSN 954-5891

England As It Is The New Commission President British political life is in superficial confusion at the moment. The Parliament three years ago conferred on the electorate, by referendum, the decision about The Irish Times editorialised on the whether the state should remain a member of the European Union and be carried new Commission President, Ursula along by its development, or should withdraw from the European system, reassert its von der Leyen, and her programme th comprehensive independence and revert to the traditional British strategy of fostering on 18 July. Von der Leyen made two divisions within Europe and nurturing those divisions towards conflict. radical proposals—that the European It might be that the issue put to referendum vote was not formally presented in Parliament should have the ‘power of those terms, but the history of British/European relations, which saturates British initiative’: i.e. to initiate legislation for national culture, determined that that is how the matter was understood. the EU; and that half of the Commission The electorate decided that the state should leave the EU. Ministers should be women, which means that she decides who should be The Government that put the issue to the electorate had been expecting a different a Commissioner, not the Member States. result. It hoped for a strong showing of support for leaving the EU in order to If implemented these two strengthen its bargaining position against the EU and compel it to concede further commitments would wreck the long-time reforms in the British interest, but was confident that there would not be a majority existing, founding, principles of the vote for leaving the EU. EU and the Treaty-based arrangements between the Commission, the The Government resigned when the result was announced. That is to say the Member States and the Parliament. Prime Minister, David Cameron, resigned. The Tory Party selected a new leader, Theresa May, who became Prime Minister. She was a Remainer. She called a General But the Irish Times did not see Election, presumably for the purpose of strengthening her Parliamentary base and fit to even mention either of these carrying through a Brexit on terms which involved the least possible distancing of proposals. Why? If it considers Britain from the EU. She lost the majority she inherited from Cameron and succeeded them unimportant, then it betrays a in forming a Government only with the support of the Ulster Unionists. woeful ignorance of what the EU is. continued on page 2 continued on page 5

July 2019 Brexit summary “disaggregated” in order to be implemented. Dublin, Brussels and the other European Irish media debate about the Backstop. According to Peter Foster writing in capitals should hold position and play a the Daily Telegraph (15 July), Johnson waiting game over the Summer months and Johnson’s strategy sees the first step of his Brexit strategy allow events in Britain to take their course, Johnson who is virtually certain to win as guaranteeing in law the future rights according to the London correspondent of the Tory Leadership contest and become of the 3.2 million EU citizens currently the Irish Times, Denis Staunton (11 July). UK Prime Minister on July 24th, voted resident in the UK. His second step will Good, if obvious, advice. Meanwhile for Theresa May’s Deal the last time it be to suspend the £39 billion divorce Brexit developments continue to come came before the British Commons. But in payment pending the negotiation of a thick and fast. This article will examine the Leadership campaign his position has Free Trade Agreement with the EU. Boris Johnson’s strategy, the change of hardened. He now describes the Withdrawal Third, he wants the Backstop removed guard at the leadership of the EU and the Agreement as “defunct” and needing to be continued on page 6 Parliament had referred the issue to CONTE NTS direct decision by the electorate. This Page was done by general agreement. Then, England As It Is. Editorial 1at the Election, all parties committed The New Commission President. Jack Lane 1themselves to implement the decision of July 19 Brexit Summary. Dave Alvey 1the electorate. And all agreed to inform Readers' Letters: Fake Lies. Paul R. Hyde the EU that the two-year process of Historians' Sources Not Always Reliable. Donal Kennedy 3withdrawal had been triggered. LEST WE FORGET (4). Extracts from Irish Bulletin. This issue lists And so it fell to Parliament to do what British Acts Of Aggression, 2nd May - 7 June 1919 (ed. Jack Lane) 8 the electorate decided should be done— Es Ahora. Julianne Herlihy (Travels And Some Reflections) 12 and Parliament decided not to do it. Lest We Forget The 1974 Bombings. Manus O’Riordan (Two Books Reviewed) 14 There had been agreement to put the Freemasons! Wilson John Haire 16 matter to referendum. Now there was Casement Controversy: The Seen, The Unseen And The Disappeared. conspiracy, or collaboration, to restore to Jack Lane 17 Parliament the sovereign authority which A Scotsman, An Englishman, An Irishman And Casement Diary Discretion. had been delegated to the populace, but to Tim O'Sullivan (Part 2) 19 do so by means of verbal juggling which Banks And Money Creation. John Martin 21 did not openly say that the populace was Clarifying Money Creation. Martin Dolphin 21 politically ignorant and had not measured Some Zionist Terrorism. Donal Kennedy 22 up to the responsibility required of it. Biteback: History Is Vital, At The Core Of What We Are. Pat Maloney 22 Parliamentary authority was restored 'Constitutionalism'. And An O'Casey Song For A Collins Execution. over the matter that Parliament had Manus O’Riordan 23 delegated to the populace. This was Europhile? (Report of remarks by Ambrose Evans Pritchard) 24 done by Judicial decision, which actually Biteback: 'The Brigade'. Tom Cooper (Unpublished letter to overruled the sovereignty of Parliament Sunday Independent) 24 by making it subject to law. Does It Stack Up? Michael Stack (Computerisation of Transport) 25 Judge Jonathan Sumption, in his Reith Biteback: Protestants And The War Of Independence. Brian P. Murphy osb Lectures, made a feeble defence of the (Letter, Sunday Independent) 26 Judicial action which gave Parliament the final say on any Brexit arrangements by Labour Comment, edited by Pat Maloney: saying the Judges only did for Parliament Patricia King: ICTU Address what it was proving incapable of doing (back page) for itself. But the point was not whether Parliament agreed with the decision made about it by the Judges, but that the Judges decided they had competence In the days of Parnell and Redmond, whose purpose is to be British, and which in the matter, and gave judgment, and the Irish Home Rule Party, with its block in the pursuit of this purpose organizes Parliament accepted the judgment. of 80 Westminster seats, occasionally separately from the other British Parties. held the balance-of-power when neither Simultaneously with this, Parliament of the British Parties won an outright This absurdity was imposed on Ulster asserted its independence of Government, majority. That a tiny Unionist Party in in 1921 by the British Unionist Party and a number of MPs who should have Northern Ireland—Paisley’s Party— which, in 1922, became the Tory Party. known better, announced excitedly that should hold that position was the least If “Ulster” had not been excluded from the era of Parliamentary democracy had probable of all the strange things that the British political system in the early begun. have happened in the past three years. 1920s by the joint action of the Tory and Labour Parties, there would not now be There is no necessary connection The balance-of-power in the British an “Ulster” Party making life difficult for between Parliament and democracy. For state was held by a miniscule Party its creators at Westminster. Ulsterishness most of its existence Parliament was not from Ireland that was a British Party but would have been heavily modified and a democratically-composed body. It was was extraneous to the British political woven into British political life by the the King’s Council. It was a kind of system. action of the Tory and Labour Parties. representative body of nobles by means But it is pleasant to see chickens of which the Monarch governed. Ulster Unionism is a political absurd­ coming home to roost. ity. “Ulster”—the Six County bit of In the previous Brexit, known as it—has a Party which wants to be in Teresa May’s Government has been the English Reformation, the King, the United Kingdom. It is organised crippled by its dependence on the DUP. Henry VIII, consulted Parliament, but separately for the purpose of being in It could not act decisively. Its indecision essentially he gave it instructions. He was the United Kingdom even though it has gave the opportunity to all sources of making up a new religion and destroying never, since the United Kingdom was discontent with the outcome of the the old. He expanded the nobility out of formed, been anywhere but in the United referendum to express themselves and to the plunder of the old religion, and it did Kingdom. Its “Ulster”, we are told feel their way through casuistic reasoning his bidding. authori­­­tatively, is as securely British as to the conviction that the right thing to A hundred years later Parliament Finchley. But there is no Finchley Party do was prevent its implementation. rebelled against the King, Charles the First, 2 grandson of the martyred Mary Queen of Scots, who tried to establish a religious LETTERS TO THE EDITOR · LETTERS TO THE EDITOR· LETTERS TO THE EDI- structure balanced between the old and the new. It made war on the Monarchy for eight years, executed the King in 1649, and established a Parliamentary Fake Lies! system without a Monarch—a Republic, Mr. O’Sullivan makes several interesting comments in July’s Irish P­olitical called a Commonwealth. Review regarding my book Anatomy of a lie. He tells us the following: The English Parliamentary Republic —which was not a democracy, and “Humans are more rationalising beings than rational ones. We tend to decide to support never knew quite what it was—let loose something for our own subjective reasons and then rationalise the decision afterwards … Human beings tend to ignore data which contradicts things they have decided to its Puritan forces on the Irish to crush believe in. Something that appears to be an effort to deceive the reader may actually be the Catholic Church, but in England the writer deceiving himself.” it failed to establish a viable system of government. It failed, quickly, within This brief guide to self deception will be at once ­crystal clear to everyone who has a few years, but its appearance of life experience of deceiving themselves. was eked out by Cromwell’s dictatorship Mr. O’ Sullivan explains that these Casement authors, first and without having until 1659. examined the facts, decided what to believe about the diaries. Then they decided to ignore any facts which contradicted what they had decided to believe. And they In 1660 the Monarchy was restored decided this for their own ‘subjective reasons’. Ergo, they reasoned themselves into by General Monk, a Puritan, without self deception and then used their reason to rationalise the deception they had chosen. resistance from the headless Parliament, If they deceived their readers it was only an unintended consequence. That is clear. and a number of leading rebels were Those who are not intimate with processes of self deception might find it executed as regicides. strange how the authors were all afflicted by the same reasoned form of self The restored Monarchy, which deception and, stranger still, how this affliction overcame them only when was definitely a monarchy, continued they were dealing with the same subject matter, viz, the troublesome diaries. until 1688, the year of The Glorious The argument from honest belief is a valid legal defence only when the honesty is Revolution, the Year of Liberty. demonstrated. Mr. O’ Sullivan has demonstrated the honesty of these authors by eliminating The occasion of the Revolution was lies from our world and leaving us with honest self deception. This is very convincing and the establishment of freedom of religion the world is a better place. What can one say? Fake truth has given way to fake lies? Your by King James the Second. England Honour, I tend to honestly believe that I tended to decide to honestly deceive myself for was destined to be a Protestant state subjective reasons which are unknown to me. I now tend to honestly disbelieve myself. and its Protestant exclusiveness was asserted forcibly. But the Revolution Paul R. Hyde was kept very severely in check by the nobility which organised it, who ensured that there was no repeat of 1641. The Historians’ Sources Not Always Reliable! populace could sing Lillibulero and abuse During Britain’s second war on South Africa, film supposedly Papism to its heart’s content, but the showing that territory was shot on London’s Hampstead Heath. State structure was to be authoritatively In 1920 Pathe News collaborated with Hugh Pollard of Dublin Anglican, rather than Puritan. Castle’s Black Propaganda gang to show the aftermath of an invented The political substance of the ambush in Tralee. When shown in Dublin cinemas, the patrons Revolution was the complete freedom of recognised the Vico Road on Killiney Bay. Stills from the film are still the nobility from monarchical restraints. regularly reproduced as genuine in books and documentaries, as are the The State structure maintained by lies told by Pollard’s colleagues. the monarchy dissolved and its place was taken by networks of aristocratic Pollard also produced false issues of Dail Eireann’s Irish Bulletin, families, each of which was sovereign in one of which was exposed as a forgery even in the House of Commons its own locality. within days. The Irish Bulletin is a key document for bona fidehistorians The figment of monarchy to which and others, but it is a ‘thought crime’, as Orwell defined it, to breathe all were subject was maintained, but its name today. aristocrats were subject to no authority, and there was no overall State authority under which the populace might have I write this because of the suggestion that Brian O’Higgins was a rights. “Holocaust Denier”. I would suggest, that he treated British Newsreels, That was the freedom established by and other British ‘news’ with understandable scepticism. the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and the Might I add that my Godfather, who graduated as a Doctor from Irish Parliament of the Penal Laws was its offshoot. UCC in the late 1930s, served with Britain’s Royal Army Medical Corps. I’m told that he was the first Medic from that Corps into Belsen The main economic reform enacted Concentration Camp on its liberation. I’m not a Holocaust Denier. Nor by the Glorious Revolution was the am I sceptical about the horrors unleashed by Nazis. throwing open of the Slave Trade to Donal Kennedy continued on page 4 3 England As It is The French Revolution abolished the In this system the Prime Minister (the continued aristocracy and declared democracy to King’s first Minister) is the leader of the be the only legitimate form of govern­ majority party in Parliament. He acts in private enterprise by anybody capable of ment, but it was able to maintain actual the name of the monarch and with the engaging in it. This led to the Triangular democratic government only for a few authority of the monarch. That was the Trade (England, West Africa, the years because it did not have a party meaning in practice of what was called Caribbean), the first form of the British system and did not want one. (A party Parliamentary sovereignty for short, world market within which Capitalism system, when you think about it, is an but was the sovereignty of the Crown in was hatched. affront to democratic principle, as some Parliament. British MPs came to see when they Parliamentary sovereignty in the 18th century England, after 1714, thought about it for the first time this literal sense was generally understood might be described as an aristocratic year.) not to be practicable. It had been tried in Republic disguised as a monarchy. But the 1650s and failed, and this was widely the disguise was not external to it—aside The British ruling class rejected understood until recently. from the fact that the minor German democracy as chaos, when France Royalty, put on its throne in 1714, did not introduced it. Forty years later, in 1832, The current situation is that a speak English. The monarchy was not it reckoned that the party system would Parliament which had lost its bearings only maintained as a kind of Holy Family allow a stratum of the middle class to be undermined the practical form of its for the populace to look up to, but also safely introduced into the Parliamentary sovereignty by delegating decision on served a purpose in the psychology of franchise. And, about fifty years after that, a major issue of State to the general the aristocracy which stage-managed it, it began to think that general democracy electorate and then refused to implement as that aristocracy became a ruling class would be practicable as the people at the decision made by the electorate. with ramifications downwards. This is a large were beginning to understand that uniquely English institution amongst the their welfare, such as it was, depended on Its decision to refuse to implement major states. competent government of the Empire. the decision of the electorate was then Actual democratisation was delayed, spun into an assertion that the electorate, Ireland was given a Parliament by however, until it was made inevitable by being ignorant, had voted for something the Glorious Revolution in 1691, and the imposition of conscription in the war that was not implementable. a British aristocracy to go along with on Germany. Its rushed introduction was it, but the aristocracy in Ireland did not then a cause of disastrous British action An interesting thing about democracy function as a ruling class connected with on Europe in the Peace Settlement. in large, complicated states is that it the people, and therefore it became a works best when there is a low level of nuisance which had to be put away. Democracy, once it was adopted mass engagement with it, and it is not in party-political form as a practicable government of the people for the people The English aristocracy/ruling class arrangement when the populace came by the people, but government with the existed for Parliamentary purposes in the to see that it had a vested interest in consent of the governed. form of a party system which reflected Empire and turned away from Utopian its complicated origins in 17th century A very substantial portion of the schemes, was projected backward. The English electorate never votes. It leaves revolution and counter-revolution. This 1688 Revolution, which established rep­ is perhaps the thing that sets it most apart politics to political addicts. That is the resentative government of the aristocracy, important contribution which it makes. from the major European countries, in the form of religious sectarianism, was whose parties were not inherited by the By its inaction it gives stabilising consent conjured into a democratic event, as was to the process. democracy from the aristocratic era, the revolt of the Barons at Runnymede in but were formed in the struggle against the 14th century. aristocracy. The intensive voting propaganda The story began to be that England, by of the Referendum campaign brought The first English political party and large, had always been a democracy people out to vote who would not bother was the Puritan party formed for the of one sort or the other, except for a to vote in routine elections. It was a second election of 1641. It wrenched few years in the 1680s when James the once in a lifetime event. And what it was power from the monarchy, established Second subjected it to the tyranny of about was not cost-benefit analysis of the Parliamentary government, and failed to religious freedom. economics of leaving or remaining, but govern. The memory of it hung about the destiny of England. in the undergrowth of the Restoration Actual British democracy, which Was it to be sucked into the world of system of 1660, giving rise in the long has shown itself to be the most durable the Treaty of Rome, from which Henry run to the Whig/Tory division that was democracy in Europe, is a construct of the Eighth had freed it, to be the mere th th part of the autonomous aristocratic the late 19 century and early 20 . It equal of all those peoples whom it had so system masquerading as a monarchy in has always been Imperialist, having been th often saved from themselves by knocking the 18 century. born in the greatest Empire the world their heads together—or were they to be And it was through the gradual draw­ has ever seen, at the moment when its England still? ing of widening circles of the population power was greatest. And its form has into this party system of the ruling class always been the two-party system They decided to be England still. that the British Parliamentary franchise founded by the aristocracy, broadened But their representatives in Parliament was democratised, with the outcome that gradually from 1832 to 1918 to include refused to implement that decision on British democracy was both monarchical the adult population in the Parliamentary the terms of disengagement which the in ways and aristocratic in ways. franchise. EU agreed with the May Government. 4 Three years after the Referendum, bodies of opinion, that indicates the Europe is in a very early stage of its Britain is still as much within the EU as effective action of institutions of the development. It does not quite know ever it was, but the major British party State on the flux of public opinion. The what it is to be. Its origins are lost in in the European Parliament displays its institutions of State which have done this obscurity. They are very recent and very contempt for the Union and encourages in Britain are its hierarchically organised accessible but it dare not think about dissent among the members of that political parties—two of them with a them because they are thick with ethnic Union, whilst British politics at home third nipping at their heels—and its cleansing and genocide—and we don’t appears to be descending into anarchy, electoral system which is biased towards refer to the Fascist era! and there is speculation that the party authority rather than representation. It is living in a false ideology of itself. system has been fatally damaged and It has lost the coherence of its founders. that something else is taking its place. British democracy is a product of a It is apparently fragile. Britain is putting long history, conducted behind a powerful it to the test, pitting its substantial Our guess is that the party system Navy, and guided by the principle that democracy against what it can only see will spring back into life, as if by magic, the best form of defence is attack. It as the toy-town democracy of Europe. once a Deal is done, and the purpose actively interferes with others—for their The Irish state, which detached itself of the present carry-on—which is not own good—but never allows itself to be from British foreign policy in 1932, ought unprecedented in British politics—is to interfered with by others. Whatever it to be a source of memory in Europe, exert maximum pressure on the European happened to be at any particular moment stiffening its resolve by keeping alive the system, formally over the terms of dis­ was the right thing to be and justified spirit of Adenauer and De Gaulle. But, engagement, in order to initiate a process its interference with others who were alas!, the Irish state has been in flight from of fracturing within the EU. different. the memory of itself for two generations.

In the British view political unity in The question of democracy was Europe is against nature. And, if Europe raised in the 1640s and democracy was is united, England cannot know what it is established in 1918. This long, slow itself. That is the world view ingrained development—which was historical EU Commission in English culture by five hundred years in the sense of not being a process of of history. implementation of a principle—was President continued made possible by a great ballast of There is no pro-Europe party in deference on the part of the populace. The paper explained that, because her Britain, least of all the Remain parties, And that deference was continued into ratification was subject to the Parliament which are Remain and Reform parties. the democratic system. which is now fragmented, she was “forced Reform means diverting Europe from Deference was sustained by a right of her to cobble together a policy platform at the course it set itself sixty years ago vulgar abuse. Grossly obscene libels on short notice”. Indeed! But that will be the by remoulding it to accord with British the Great and the Good were published recurring and permanent state of the EU interests. Remain means continuing the for mass consumption by the English Commission Presidency, cobbling policies work so ably begun by Thatcher. populace two and a half centuries ago, together, if the present arrangement with just as they are today. And they have the Parliament continues to which the And in Europe the process of uniting now made their way into the middle Commission has made itself beholden. was launched on anti-British grounds by class: a feminist commentator on BBC’s statesmen who had come to understand Newsnight suggested that much of Boris The European Parliament is a pretend the meaning of British balance-of-power Johnson’s performance was just “Willy- Parliament. Parliaments worthy of the strategy by being there while Britain wagging”. name are instruments of a State, and made a mess of Europe after the 1914 English democracy was a domestic accordingly have appropriate legislative War and guided it towards the 1939 historical development within the and executive powers. They are the War. Empire. It was not extended to the products, not the initiators, of states. States Empire. But, once established, it was (The most pro-Europe statement are not voted into existence by Parliaments. presented as a universal for propaganda made by a British politician during the They are manufactured and that was the purposes. past few years was made by a Tory, Chris function of the Commission. If it’s not that, Grayling, who said in effect that Europe what is it? It is nothing, and that would be A kind of practical democracy had escaped from the British influence the outcome of von de Leyen’s proposals. evolved in England over a long period. by establishing the Euro, and that it England then presented it as a scientific would be held together and increasingly The Irish Times comes to a very formula. Like a chemical formula it given a structure by the requirements of different conclusion: could be put into effect on pieces of maintaining the Euro, and that Britain matter anywhere. And, if it was put in “The more long-term problem suggested should disengage from it in its own place and did not work, that could only by von der Leyen’s struggle for votes is that interest, let it be, and give itself a new be because Evil and Corrupt forces were she could find it difficult to form a working orientation in the world.) sabotaging it. And, of course, that called majority for her policy plans. Not only is the for intervention to put it right. parliament more fragmented than ever but, A thoroughgoing democracy would as Tuesday’s vote suggests, the big groups always seem to exist on the verge of Democratism has become a very cannot count on all their members falling bankruptcy, as the British does now. useful instrument of subversion of states into line. The result of a more splintered, Where this is not the case, and the State which are not toeing the Ameranglian independent-minded parliament would be is soundly and routinely based on stable line. a weaker commission.” 5 The reverse is true! Divisions are returned to the back benches after context. He had a modest proposal for within the European Parliament are Johnson takes over; Grieve has already pushing things in the right direction: to be welcomed by the Commission, managed to get an Amendment passed the Commission should re-establish if it was functioning as it should. In which has the aim of preventing the Prime the project to create an agreed history that situation, they would facilitate the Minister from suspending Parliament. of Europe. Referring to the central functioning of a stronger Commission. importance of the Commission he said: Unfortunately it has compromised its This, however, may be wishful thinking. “The European project was initiated authority with the Parliament—a situation Following the European Elections, by an elite and no other means was pos- exacerbated by its new President who and the likely victory of Johnson, the sible. The elite created an ademocratic has proposed even greater dilution of entire anti-Brexit constituency has been structure based on the concept of the Commission authority. As a result, weakened. The Remainers are within their Commission—and the scheme worked, she will have to become even more rights in seeking to thwart Brexit, since in contrast to many attempted supra­ attuned to the whims of Parliament. they have substantial minority support national bodies. There was an inevitable For example, surely it will not be in the country, and the success of their tension between the Commission and the nation states, as it was both of the long before the LBGT community project is still possible, but responsibility states and a potential replacement will demand that Member States for the deadlock lies with them. (It is they to those states, with a Commission include a member in their nomination who reject the Referendum result), and the President being in reality a President for Commissioner. And, if politics was deadlock cannot continue indefinitely. If of Europe in a future state. This was a all about fairness, that is unanswerable. legalistic machinations from Grieve and unique way to try to create a State and the tensions and conflicts were managed Jack Lane others continue to be the order of the day, the democratic case for proroguing successfully for decades. The Jury is now out on whether it will continue Parliament will surely increase. And, if to succeed. Without the Commission this is blocked by Parliament, a General developing into the central authority, Election fought on respecting the Brexit the project was in trouble…” July Brexit Summary mandate will presumably be the only option. continued (The Spectre Haunting Europe, July 2019 Irish Political Review) from the Agreement and all affected Ch a n g e s a t t h e t o p i n t h e EU Border arrangements to be settled in the The four top EU jobs will be filled On Brexit, von der Leyen has expressed context of the Free Trade Agreement. And as follows: former German Christian a willingness to provide a further extension fourth, he wants to see UK preparations Democrat Minister Ursula von der Leyen to the UK, not a gesture that Jean Claude for a No Deal disorderly Brexit pursued becomes President of the European Juncker would have made. If the President confidently. Against the charge that this Commission; former Belgian Premier elect of the Commission has illusions about strategy will result in No Deal, Johnson’s and former Leader of the Francophone forging a reconciliation with the UK, her answer is that he is fully confident that liberal Reformist Movement Charles term of Office will be a disaster for the the European Council will recognise Michel will be President of the European EU; all the solidarity gains achieved by the economic damage facing the EU Council; Christine Lagarde will be Michel Barnier will be put to nought. economies (especially the Irish economy), President of the European Central Bank; and will climb down from its current and former Spanish Socialist Foreign However, it is early days. There are insistence that the negotiations are over. Minister and erstwhile supporter of NATO reports that von der Leyen was a principled Josep Borrel will be High Representative Social Affairs Minister, strengthening The idea that these tactics are mere for Foreign Affairs and Security. pro-family legislation and welfare demagogy arising from the needs of supports to allow women to give up work the Leadership contest is questionable. At first glance these appointments while rearing children, including adjusting A more likely explanation is that the seem to fit the pattern of the large EU pension law so they didn’t suffer as a contest concentrated minds, among National Governments keeping the result. We can only hope that she retains Tory members as much as the campaign Brussels institutions under tight control. something of the traditional Christian planners. Essentially the Johnson strategy Von der Leyen, one may surmise, is Democratic commitment to realising the is a re-statement of the original UK Merkel’s nominee, and Michel has European Project. negotiating position. The thinking seems credentials that will appeal to Macron. to be that, if this leads to a crash-out exit, But the appointments seem to reflect It is difficult to read the significance so be it; Johnson will lay the blame on Merkel’s conservatism, rather than the of the other appointments. As head of the EU/Irish intransigence; in any case he over-optimistic Europeanism of Macron. International Monetary Fund, Lagarde was will be strengthening his negotiating hand. Allowing the EU to be governed in this critical of the Eurozone’s response to the way, at arm’s length, by the German Euro crisis, but will she act to make good the Like Theresa May, Johnson faces the Chancellor and the French President is a lessons of the Greek crisis? Probably not. opposition of the anti-Brexit camp in his recipe for incoherence at the top, not least Borrel is pro-NATO and an opponent of own party but, unlike her, he can count because running Germany and France Catalan independence but, on the positive on the united support of the soft and hard tend to be all-consuming responsibilities. side, his high profile criticism of the Brexiteers. But what tactics can we expect unsuccessful US intervention in Venezuela from the Tory Remainers? Denis Staunton As Jack Lane argued in last month’s drew the ire of the Trump Administration. believes that the position of people like Irish Political Review this question of Dominic Grieve will be strengthened the architecture of the EU’s governance Th e Ba c k s t o p d e b a t e when a number of current Ministers needs to examined in a broad historical i n t h e Ir i s h m e d i a 6 much by way of context for Harris’s Sunday Independent columnist unionist paper, increased its circulation attempt to get the Varadkar Government to Eoghan Harris had this to say about in the late 1960s by seeming to make capitulate to the British over the Backstop. the Backstop debate in Ireland: peace with nationalist Ireland, but, even then, its owner, Major Thomas “Last week, the backstop began to It would be easy to dismiss Eoghan McDowell, was careful to maintain Harris. His tabloid style depends on blow up in Leo Varadkar’s face where it secretive links with the British State. politically matters most—in mainstream exaggeration and colourful polemic. His Irish media. commentaries are below the standard The Independent group of newspapers of professionalism of the journalists he Five top political journalists—none of is traditionally associated with the refers to above. Yet he has influence, whom work for RTE—wondered if we anti-republican Fine Gael party as especially with the current Fianna should think about a time-limit compro- mise to save our country. Dan O’Brien is the Cork-city based Examiner. In Fail leadership, and should be taken and myself have been doing the same response to the Northern conflict, both seriously. The case he makes about the in the Sunday Independent—since last the Independent and the Examiner gave Backstop is not without plausibility. December. vent to virulent anti-republicanism, at the same time becoming ever But there are manifold flaws in his In the past six months, more than half more open to the British worldview. line of argument. The Backstop has not my columns warned that the backstop The move to a solidly pro-British caused the Tories to turn to Boris Johnson; was backing the British into a corner and would cause a crash-out. orientation across the full range of Irish rather it became necessary to replace media, excepting the Irish Press, but May with a strong Brexiteer because of Like Dr Frankenstein in Mary Shel- including the broadcast media, was May’s error-prone record and because of ley’s story, Dr Varadkar’s backstop has encouraged by the State. It gathered the Parliamentary machinations of Tory created the Boris Johnson monster who momentum as disenchantment with Remainers. Irish and EU insistence on may politically destroy his creator. But the Republican war increased. An guarantees to prevent the return of a Hard our politicians and media were too busy example of its extremism was the Border arose when it became clear that sneering at the suicidal Brits to notice that it was our beloved backstop that was strident denunciation by Eoghan Harris’s the British side had failed to notice that driving them over the cliffs—and that we paper of the Hume-Adams talks, an Brexit had negative implications for the were shackled to them. initiative that laid the basis for the Peace island of Ireland and posed a threat to the Process. Following the Good Friday Good Friday settlement. Preventing a Hard Dan O’Brien and myself should not Agreement in 1998, anti-nationalism and Border is not a “manufactured” grievance. have been alone in sounding these warn- the related phenomenon of neo-colonial Millions of people on either side of the ings. The main value of a media is to reverence for British norms, took Border will be adversely affected and, as speak truth to power—especially to the power of consensus. the form of a full-scale attack on testified by independent experts described Irish history and went into overdrive. in Tony Connolly’s excellent reports for Luckily for the future of our country, the RTE, the British position that technological privately owned print and broadcasting It was only in the run-up to the solutions are possible does not stand up. media finally found its voice last week” centenary commemorations of the 1916 (Sunday Independent, 7 July 2019). Rising that substantial public disquiet From the word go, the Brexit about the official narrative became negotiations have been hamstrung by a Harris likes to spin political events noticeable. The disconnect between media failure of the two sides to understand each as mini dramas, with himself playing and populace is exemplified by an editorial other, and the lion’s share of responsibility the leading roles. His self-serving and proposal from the Examiner newspaper for the failure lies with an arrogance on the insular take on the Backstop needs that we should mark the centenary by British side. As a way of trying to avoid a to be answered but first, a word of wearing poppies, the symbol associated No Deal crash out, should Varadkar and explanation is needed on how the Irish with England’s war on Germany in Coveney capitulate to London’s unreal media works. Hopefully this will be 1914-18. Seen against the background sense of entitlement in dealings with the useful to those members of the European of all this, Brexit was a most unwelcome EU? If the British get their way on the Commission, tasked with following slap in the face for the Irish media. Backstop, what next will be demanded of Irish developments, as background the EU? A slippery slope to the collapse of information for the Brexit negotiations. That the Irish Government decided the EU beckons, which the EU and the Irish in late 2016 to side unequivocally with Government have been right to recognise. The practice since Independence Europe against Britain in the Brexit has been for most Irish newspapers to negotiations must have come as a shock At the end of the day Harris and his hold in varying degrees to a pro-British to anti-nationalist ideologues like Eoghan various allies want a return, in their terms, orientation. The exception was the Irish Harris. A major effort was made in to the good old days when Ireland seemed Press which was established in the early 2017, fronted by the former Irish to be moving ever closer to Britain, when 1930s by de Valera with the specific Ambassador to Canada, Ray Basset, to the traditional narrative of the independent purpose of countering anti-national pull Ireland back into alignment with Irish State was being thrashed and when propaganda. Sadly, the Irish Press lost Britain, backed up by considerable media Republicanism was increasingly reviled. some of its edge in the 1970s and, due to fire-power, but it came to nothing. From Those days are gone, and tantrums from bad management, eventually collapsed Harris’s anti-nationalist perspective, the likes of Harris should not be allowed in the 1990s. Its demise left the Irish the years of hard work obliterating to get in the way of the serious business media landscape smaller and less diverse. Irish historical memory, and in its place of working out a stable relationship building a close Anglo Irish relationship, between the EU and post-Brexit Britain. The Irish Times, a traditionally are now in danger of being negated. So Dave Alvey 7 (Continuing our series on the events of 1919 with the help of the daily newspaper of the First Dail, the Irish Bulletin.)

LEST WE FORGET (8) The following are Acts of Aggression committed in Ireland by the Military and Police of the usurping English Government as reported in the Daily Press for week ending September 27th. 1919 :-

Date 22nd 23rd 24th 25th 26th 27th Total September 43 6 17 4 13 120 203 Raids:- - 1 - 9 5 1 16 Arrests:- 1 1 3 - - - 5 Sentences:- Armed - - - - 2 - 2 Assaults:- 1 - 3 - 2 - 6 Courtmartials:- 9 4 7 - 40 71 Proclamations & Suppressions:- 11 ------Daily Totals:- 56 17 27 20 22 161 303

The Sentences imposed in the 5 cases mentioned above totalled 3 years, 1 month.

Monday, September 22nd 1919. Tuesday, September 23rd. 1919

Raids:- Some ten branches of the Cumann na mBan, Raids:- Police and military fully armed raided the offices of (Irish Women’s League), were raided by fully armed the “Midland Tribune”, Birr, King’s County. Police and mili- Police in Co. Tipperary. In Co. Roscommon similar tary raided the Sinn Fein Club at Caheragh, Co. Cork. In the raids took place on several branches of the same league. same county the armed forces also raided the houses of Mr. Armed police raided the residence of Mr. Peadar O’ E. Goggin, Killeenleigh and Mr. H. McCartney, Clonclugger. At Midleton, Co. Cork, military raided and commandeered Hourihane, Irish Language Organiser, at Kinsale, Co. the Town Hall and the local Sinn Fein Club. Cork, carrying away all letters and documents written in the Irish Language. Large forces of Military and Arrests:- Mr. William Tannam, Rathfanham, Co. Dublin, was Police raided three of the principal printing works in arrested on a charge of escaping from Mountjoy gaol, where Dublin, Messrs P. Mahon; Cahill & Co. and the Wood he was serving a term for a political offence. Printing Press, dislocating the machinery. A similar Sentence:- William Tannam was subsequently tried and was raid took place upon the printing works of the “Dundalk ordered to be imprisoned for three months to await trial at the Examiner”, Co. Louth. At Roscrea and Clogheen, po- Winter Assizes. lice raided five newspaper shops and confiscated part of Proclamations and Suppressions:- The “Leader” another Dublin the stock. At Dundalk, twelve newsagent’s shops were paper which published the Irish Self-Determination Loan Pro- raided and papers carried off. At Midleton, Co. Cork, spectus was suppressed as was also the “Midland Tribune”, armed police raided a newsagent’s shop and took away Birr, King’s Co. for a like “offence”. Pig Fair at Nenagh, Co. all copies of Republican papers. Tipperary. Trade has practically ceased in that town, which is completely in the hands of the military. An armoured car at- Sentences:- Mr. Frank Mooney, Tullamore, King’s tended by strong forces of military and police raided a handball Co., was sentenced by a Crimes Court in that town alley at Laffanbridge, Co. Tipperary, and suppressed a handball to one month’s imprisonment for “illegal drilling”. contest between teams representing Kilkenny and Tipperary. ­Tipperary was suppressed by military and police. The farm- The market at Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, was suppressed as was ers bringing supplies to the town were met by large bodies of also an Irish Language Festival at Midleton, Co. Cork. A Cin- troops accompanied by tanks and were turned back. At Thurles ema show at Roscrea was also suppressed. An Irish Language where the need for provisions is very great a similar action Festival at Togher, Co. Cork was proclaimed but was held was taken by the English military, the farmers being driven secretly close by. At Newmarket, Co. Cork, a large force of back at the point of the bayonet. Some of the farmers were military and police accompanied by armoured cars and Red seized by the military and searched. Cross wagons suppressed a sports meeting. Courtmartial:- Christopher Quigley, 8 Lower Gloucester Street, Militarism:- The “Manchester Guardian” of this date says Dublin was tried by Courtmartial at Dublin on a charge of “There is really no limit short of extermination of the Irish being in possession of arms and ammunition. race to the policy of repression on which Lord French has 8 embarked”. The same paper having described the present condi- Sergeant Peter Wallace and Constable Michael Enright on May tions in Ireland came to this conclusion:- “RUSSIA UNDER 13th,1919, when a prisoner being conveyed to Cork gaol was THE CZAR IN NOT TOO STRAINED A PARALLEL.” The rescued. Denis and Patrick Neill, Cuoragh; John and Jerh. Most Rev. Dr. McRory, Bishop of Down and Connor writes:- “A Sullivan, Crowhane; and Michael Sheehan, Inches, Co. Kerry, furious attempt in the best Prussian style is being made under were arrested and charged at a special Court in Castletownbere the guise of maintaining law and order to terrorise our people with “unlawful assembly” at Crowhane on August 26th 1919. and crush the National spirit… the fine talk about freedom They were remanded on bail to the next Petty Sessions. and the right of self-determination of small nations is drowned Suppressions:- The weekly market at Borrisokane, Co. Tipper- for us in the tramp of the Army of Occupation”. The police all ary was prevented by British Military and Police. Templemore over the country are being armed with hand - grenades. market was similarly suppressed. Yesterday morning British military and police entered the offices of Messrs J. Quinnell & Wednesday, September 24th 1919. Sons, Tralee and suppressed the “Kerry News”; “Kerry Weekly Raids:- Some dozen houses were raided by armed police at Reporter” and “Killarney Echo”. Portions of the machinery Drumquin, Omagh, Co. Tyrone was forced by armed police which the papers were printed were taken away. Suppressions and searched. The printing works of the “Limerick Leader”, are ascribed to the publication of the prospectus of the National Limerick, was raided by armed police and military and the Loan. Shortly before 7 p.m. yesterday evening British military machinery dismantled. Two other printing works in that city and police entered the offices of the “Dundalk Examiner” and – those of the “Limerick Echo” and the “Munster News” – were suppressed the paper. The reason given was “the publication also raided and essential parts of the machinery confiscated. of seditious matter”, the seditious matter being apparently the Armed police forced their way into the premises at Rearcross, prospectus of the Dail Eireann Loan. The total number of Press Co. Tipperary where an Irish class was in progress and ordered suppressions since May 1918 is now 42. the class to disperse. The class refused and the police left threatening further proceedings. Raids:- The residence of Eamonn Donnelly, Chief Sinn Fein Registration Agent in Ulster, Tullyard House, Armagh, has Sentences:- Andrew Healy, 173 Inchicore Road, Dublin, was been raided several times in the past month. Registers, Lists sentenced by English Courtmartial to 12 months imprisonment of Claimants, for votes in the various divisions in Ulster, and with hard labour for being in possession of a Revolver. Jer. many other documents were taken. A raid was made on the Mullane, Blarney Street, Cork, was sentenced to 12 months apartments of Professor O’Maille, Louisville House, Galway, imprisonment with hard labour at an English Courtmartial for by armed raiders and some private documents and papers carrying a Revolver. John Kenny, Loughlane, Cloughjordan, removed. Co. Tipperary was sentenced by English Courtmartial to 9 months imprisonment with hard labour for being in possession Proclamation:- An Aeridheacht at Castletownroche was pro- of “seditious literature”. claimed on Sunday last. The town was occupied by military with an armoured car and an aeroplane hovered over the district Suppressions:- The English military have suppressed the entire apparently engaged in scouting. Republican Press of Limerick City consisting in the “Munster News”, “The Limerick Echo” and “The Limerick Leader”. The Friday, September 26th. 1919 suppression is the result of the publication by these papers of the prospectus of the Self-Determination Loan floated by the Courtmartials:- Patrick O’Keeffe, member of the Irish Parlia- elected Government of Ireland. Armed military and police ment for North Cork, was tried by English Courtmartial at accompanied by tanks and armoured cars surrounded at night Ship St. Barracks, Dublin, yesterday, charged with “doing an the town of Emly and prevented farmers from entering the town act calculated to cause sedition” – by a speech in Charleville where a weekly fair was to have been held. on May 11th 1919. The police witness admitted that he only took mental notes of the “seditious” speech. The decision of Manufactured Outrages:- A Sergeant and three Constables of the Court will be announced later. Peter Ennis, Caretaker of the English controlled Constabulary in Ireland report that when Liberty Hall, Dublin, was charged at an English Courtmartial returning to their barracks at Kilmihil, Co. Clare, they were in Ship Street Barracks, with having in his possession a service ambushed by a large party of men and fired upon from both rifle, an automatic pistol and some cartridges. These were sides of the road. Not one of the four Constables was even found in a room in Liberty Hall by military and police during scratched. Military are already being rushed to the source of a raid on August 22nd 1919, when Ennis was arrested. He has the manufactured outrage. been in custody since. The court found him not guilty and he Militarism:- The London “Daily Herald” of this date, commenting was discharged.

on the militarist regime in Ireland says:- “Ireland is already in Arrests:- In connection with a raid for arms by a party of despair. She is being driven to desperation”. The “Manchester masked men on the residence of Col. J. Kirkwood, Woodbrook, Guardian” of this date says:- “The symptoms of the disorder Carrick-on-Shannon the following have been arrested by the of the Irish Government and its complete estrangement from police:- Thomas Gilchrist, Michael Burns, Joseph Burns, the governed are pretty clear all over the land”. Vincent Garry and Michael McGowan, Carrick-on-Shannon. Garry was subsequently released. Thursday, September 25th. 1919 Arrests:- Edward Foley, Galbally; Michael Shanahan, Glenlara, Raids:- The houses of the arrested men mentioned above were Michael Murphy, Knocklong and Patrick Maher, Knocklong, raided by police and searched. A revolver and flash-light were Co. Tipperary were arrested early yesterday morning by large commandeered at Burns’ residence and a large quantity of forces of British military and Police and conveyed to Limerick cartridges. was found. Two guns and a revolver were found gaol in motor lorries. At Limerick they were charged before at McGowan’s. The houses of about six people in Boyle, Co. a Resident Magistrate with being concerned in the murder of Roscommon were raided by police and rigorously searched. 9 Armed police raided the residence of Mr. W. J. Aherne, Midle- premises were thoroughly searched and some documents found. ton, Co. Cork, and searched Aherne and his brother. The house Later the police raided houses in Aughadown district. British was minutely searched but nothing was found. The business military and police made many raids in Crowreagh, Savilmore premises of Mr., Castle Street, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, was and Savilbeg district, Co. Down. Literature and photographs raided by police. A number of photographs were seized. were seized. British military and police raided all the farm houses in Tipperary district and commandeered all shot guns, including those for which permits had been obtained. Saturday, September 27th. 1919. Arrests:- Thomas McGowan was arrested yesterday after the Raids:- Following the raid on Col. Kirkwood’s house, Carrick- raid on his house. on-Shannon, British military and police scoured a wide area of Leitrim yesterday, searching a great number of houses. The Suppressions:- It is impossible to number the suppressions in house of Thomas McGowan, Toomna, Carrick-on Shannon, was Co. Tipperary. Even where permits had been sought in ac- raided yesterday by the Crown Forces. A gun and some sticks cordance with the Proclamation permission to hold fairs and of gelignite were found and commandeered. The premises of markets has been refused. Sports of all kinds have been banned. Mrs. McCarthy, Draper, Carrick-on-Shannon, were raided and Theatres work under temporary permits. Permits are refused for searched. The house of James Healy, Publican, was also searched auctions. Clonmel markets are prohibited. Business is held up but nothing incriminating was found. Armed police entered all over the county as a result of these measures. Templemore Lisheen schoolhouse, Co. Cork while a meeting of Tugadown butter and egg market was completely held up by the military Sinn Fein Club was being held. Those present were charged yesterday. A circus performance in Tipperary town on Thursday with “unlawful assembly” and their names demanded. The night was prohibited.

THE FOLLOWING ARE ACTS OF AGGRESSION COMMITTED IN IRELAND BY THE MILITARY AND POLICE OF THE USURPING ENGLISH GOVERNMENT AS REPORTED IN THE DAILY PRESS FOR THE WEEK ENDING OCTOBER 4th , ’19.

Date:-Sept. 29th 30th Oct.1st. 2nd 3rd 4th Total. & October 14 - 2 - 70 Raids:- 53 1 2 5 - 1 15 Arrests:- - 7 1 1 - 1 4 - 1 3 1 3 2 16 3 4 1 - 200 - 203 1 2 - 1 - - 1 - - Daily 56 15 21 8 205 4 309 Totals:-

Monday, September 29th. 1919ı where they had been in solitary confinement for nine months, were removed to Mountjoy Jail, Dublin, some of them in a Raids:- Police and Military raided upwards of fifty houses in state of collapse. the neighbourhood of Berrings, Co. Cork. The house at Dys-

art, Co. Roscommon of Mr. Denis J. Kelly, Vice-Chairman Tuesday, September 30th, 1919. of the Roscommon County Council was forcibly entered by police during his absence and searched. In the same district Raids:- Military and police raided and took possession of the houses of Messrs. John J. Geoghegan and Patrick Murray the Ball-alley at Laffanbridge, Co. Tipperary, where handball were similarly raided and searched. contests were about to be held. Proclamations and Suppression:- Markets were suppressed Arrests: in many parts of Co. Tipperary including the fairs arranged - Denis and Daniel Looney and John Scanlon, all of Donough- to be held at Carrick-on-Suir, Nenagh, Clonmel, all of more, Co. Cork; Owen McCarthy Firmount; Timothy Connell, which towns were occupied by large bodies of troops Kilmartin and Daniel Moynihan, Ballycunningham, all in who prohibited the farmers from bringing supplies to Cork County were arrested on a charge of endeavouring the townspeople. The sufferings of the poor throughout to obtain arms. Michael Aherne, Clonakilty, Co. Cork, the entire county are now very great as hardly any food was arrested on an unknown political charge and brought or fuel is allowed to reach them. to Cork jail.

Treatment of Prisoners:- Miss Catherine McCormack of Car- Sentence:- Charles Gildea, Derry, was fined £3 for defending ron, Co. Clare, was released from Mountjoy jail, Dublin, in himself against a detective who overpowered him and searched broken health. Twenty-six political prisoners from Cork jail his pockets. 10 Proclamations:- At Loughinisland, Co. Down, the English ary, was prevented by members of the army of occupation. Military authorities proclaimed a Republican meeting. A large body of English troops raided and suppressed a sports meeting at Militarism:- British military have requisitioned the use of the Thurles, Co. Tipperary, in which town the usual weekly market Bantry Guardians Board-room, and have informed the Guardians was also suppressed. At Dundrum, in the same county, a fete to that they should hold their meetings elsewhere. Hand-printed procure funds for carrying on the local schools was suppressed posters calling on the people to support the Dail Eireann Loan by large forces of military and police fully armed. were torn down by the police. Armed Assaults:- Armed police suddenly attacked the local Raids:- W. O’Grady, Hairdresser, Wicklow, having failed to band at Newmarket, Co. Cork, which was parading the streets remove a full-page advertisement of the Dail Eireann Loan, of the town. Many of the bandsmen were seriously injured. Po- which was adhered to the window, the Constabulary raided lice and military fully armed held up country folk bringing the premises and completely defaced it with their penknives. supplies to Thurles, Co. Tipperary and, having overpowered They warned O’ Grady of the consequences of placing another them, searched them. in the window. British military raided and searched a drapery establishment in Rostrevor, Co. Down. Wednesday, October 1st. 1919. Raids:- At Midleton, Co. Cork, armed police raided twelve Saturday, October 4th. 1919. houses. The houses of Mr. E. T. Keane and Alderman J. Nowlan, Suppressions:- The Lord Justices refused a permit for the hold- Kilkenny, were raided by military and police. ing of a fair in Clonmel. British military and police were posted at the entrances to the town to prevent any attempt to hold the Arrests:- Alderman James Nowlan, President of the Gaelic fair. British military and police also occupied the approaches Athletic Association was arrested by military and police at to Thurles and turned back the people who were bringing pigs Kilkenny City in the early morning. Mr. E. T. Keane, Editor to the fortnightly market. of the “Kilkenny People” was similarly arrested. Arrest:- Charles Bradley, Herbert Street, Belfast, was arrested Sentences:- Christopher Quigley, Lower Gloucester Street, on a charge of having in his possession of a canister of gun- Dublin, was sentenced by Courtmartial to 12 months impris- powder and 59 pinfire revolver cartridges for which he had onment for procuring arms. A hurling contest at Tulla, Co. no licence. Clare, was proclaimed and suppressed by military and police. Sentence:- Tried on above charge, Charles Bradley was fined A hurling contest at Toeni, Co. Tipperary, was also suppressed. 40/- and costs. At Newcestown, Co. Cork, an Irish Language festival was suppressed by English military and police who raided and occupied the ground. Armed Assault:- At Ballynahinch, Co. Down, Rev. Fr. Denis Cahill was surrounded by armed police and being overpowered had his pockets searched. Irish Bulletin A full reprint of newspaper of Dáil Éireann Thursday, October 2nd. 1919. giving war reports. Arrests:- Five men whose names have not transpired were ar- rested at Bochel, Tannaghmore, Co. Down, for taking part in Published so far: a proclaimed language festival. Sentences:- William Shaughnessy, Cathedral Street, Ennis, Co. Volume 1, 12th July 1919 to 1st May 1920. 514pp. Clare, was tried by courtmartial at Limerick and was sentenced Volume 2, 3rd May 1920 to 31st August 1920. 540pp. to 17 days imprisonment with hard labour for endeavouring to procure arms. Volume 3, 1st September 1920 to 1st January 1921. Courtmartial:- Mr. Richard A. Johnston, University Hall, Earls- 695pp fort Terrace, Dublin was tried by courtmartial at Ship Street Barracks, Dublin, on a charge of possessing parts of a revolver Volume 4, Part One: 3rd January 1921 to 16th March 1921. 365pp. and five cartridges. Suppressions:- Military and police raided the printing works of the “Sligo Nationalist” dismantled the machinery and sup- • €36, £30 paperback, per volume pressed the paper. (€55, £45 hardback)

Friday, October 3rd. 1919. POSTFREE in Ireland and Britain Suppressions:- The weekly corn market in Cashel was prevented https://www.atholbooks-sales.org/ by the British Authorities last Wednesday. The marketers had sent in a request for a permit which was refused. In reply to a request for a permit to hold fairs and markets, Nenagh U.D.C. received notice from the Co. Inspector of the R.I.C. that none https://www.atholbooks-sales.org/searches/keyword_ would be allowed. Persons bringing butter to the market in search.php Carrick-on-Suir were held up by armed police. Armed Assault:- The market in Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipper- 11 the glories of our Celtic civilisation?

The next day we hid out in our hotel es ahora room endeavouring to be comfortable in such heat and only later on in the afternoon went to visit the Gross Minster in the old part of Zurich. It was in this great church that Ulrich Zwingli preached the Reformation. But it was in St. Gallen Travels And Some Reflections Library that we saw the destructiveness This summer we both decided to throw spoken about and truly it was beautiful of that event where both Zurich and caution to the winds and for most of July (that word doesn’t do it justice!) and awed Bern looted a lot of the contents of the we went inter-railing in Switzerland with us both. Before we entered the library we Abbey and when pacts were drawn up a quick foray into Milan for our La Scala all had to put on the famous puttee slippers finally, Bern returned the stolen loot but special once in a lifetime interlude. And over our shoes so that as we walked around, Zurich only gave back some of it and because of all this rather hectic travel, I we were also shining the lovely old floor to this day are holding on to the more paused my research on both topics that I tiles. First was the celestial/earth globe valuable treasures despite the terms of have been writing about in the Irish Political situated just inside the entrance and then the treaties following the religious wars. Review for some time now, the one on Clair the books and manuscripts all laid out in Wills and latterly Fergal Keane and Martin a fashion that was so easy to navigate. After that we set off for Milan and Mansergh. I will revisit them in the next There were the big manuscripts and then three hours later arrived bedraggled issue but in the meantime let me offer you the miniature ones which presumably and taxied to our hotel where we barely some reflections from a foreign clime. were for travelling and reading the refreshed ourselves, as we had a tour of holy office. The pamphlet put it best: the great Opera House booked specially We could never have expected the and were already late for it, due to terrible heat-wave, especially as Switzer- ”In 612 A.D. Gallus found his way to the Swiss train being 25 minutes late. land has temperatures very like Ireland the shores of Lake Constance with other What can I say about the taxis of Irish monks and settled into seclusion varying from 19C to 24C in the summer. Milan? Indeed what can anyone say about within the high Steinach valley. His We were scorched and still feel the cell and oratory led to the beginning of all modes of transport in that city from effects of it all—sometimes we felt a small settlement… His testimony of cars, scooters, motor bikes, electric skates punch-drunk from dehydration and heat faith attracted more and more people and even pedestrians? Our taxi-driver exhaustion. And the travel decisions until his death around 650 A.D. when veered from one lane to another, hit made at our kitchen table at home he was buried in the oratory within his his horn repeatedly, and shouted curses translated into a very pacy travel schedule cell. Today his tomb is located beneath with arm/finger gestures to the point the high altar in the Gallus crypt, erected that was almost beyond endurance. where I thought we’d never get out alive. 837-39… In 719, the priest Otmar of Ask anyone what they know about Raetia was appointed to form a monastic When we squealed to a stop outside Switzerland and they’ll usually answer community from the hermit settlement La Scala, we both scrambled out and something about the mountains and around Gallus’ grave. thanked our maker that we had made it Toblerone chocolate. And indeed He adopted the rules of the Benedictines after such an exhibition of Italian driving. beyond their famous canton system, and became the first abbot of the rapidly I couldn’t answer much more myself. thriving monastery. He was famous not Alas the two gentlemen at the booth only for his building activities but also informed us that our tour was almost for his care of the poor and sick. Due to We kicked off by staying in Zurich political turmoil, he was exiled to the over and an elderly woman guard put her for three days and what really hit island of Werd, where he died in 759. arms up against us lest we made a run to me—beside the heat—was the number His remains are housed at the west end pass her. I begged, saying with plenty of of foreigners especially Asian which of the cathedral in the St. Otmar crypt, gestures myself – all placatory I hasten we were to later realise were mostly where former bishops of St. Gallen are to add—with tickets held aloft—and Vietnamese. And, rather surprisingly, a also laid to rest.” eventually­ after conversing among lot of Muslims: the women with their For me, the highlight was definitely themselves,­ they called a young man to headscarves and heavy black clothes the library, where to see again and again take us on a shortened version of the trip. surrounded by their children and their the acknowledgment of the “Irish monk” We really hit pay-dirt! The guide spoke men with western-style light, sleeveless and “Irishmen” almost brought tears to my fluent English and was very fervent about shirts and dark trousers. I looked at those eyes. St. Gallen Cathedral is a Baroque Opera as is of course himself. And we ended women and wondered how they stuck treasure and rightly along with the abbey up getting the best tour ever with even a the heat with such all enveloping clothes. precinct is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. highly forbidden step up onto the great That night we dined in the hotel but The town itself was very quiet and stage itself on which Caruso, McCormack, the food was bland and very expensive. we had a lovely repast in a café in the Callas, Pavarotti et al performed. And it Thereafter we went out and bought precincts of the Cathedral where we was a huge stage—the biggest in Europe the food and had it in our hotel room. sat down to reflect on our heritage (not – one could turn two buses on it and even the one that is at present heralded by I could accept that this was indeed a sort of Our first visit was to St. Galen and the our State) and spoke quietly about the holy ground that could and did induce tears. famous library which himself had often treasures that Europe holds from Ireland. That night we attended the Opera and, Isn’t it something that we have to travel after scorching back to the hotel, I was * It Is Time so far to see our authentic Irish past and beginning to get used to the chaotic driving. 12 I remarked upon a great stone building great Italian fashion designer Armani had of the Angels. (Of this name I can’t be and the taxi-driver told me it was the his flagship store and his impossibly rich sure of as he was doing a lot of gesturing central railway station from which we and inaccessible ‘Armani Palace Hotel’. himself) but there was no payment there and had disembarked earlier. I wondered who Of course during the interval, I flashed I was overjoyed—the complaining letter to had built it and was startled when again past many of these oh-so-languid people Pope Francis already mentally torn apart. the taxi-driver intervened in English (I and bought our precious water at an have no Italian but am great at gestures exorbitant price. The second half was a The Doumo Plaza was huge too as all which is I am beginning to think part of one-act opera by Puccini. It was good but the buildings surrounding the Cathedral the Italian language itself!) and proudly a little overwrought and the singing was were parts of it and was all so very vast. The stated that Mussolini built it. That gave lacklustre, but we were in the greatest Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris—before the me quite a land and later on we learnt that Opera House in the world and these things awful fire—was a fully functioning Church there were still a lot of Italians especially didn’t stop us from enjoying every minute. where we always went to Mass whenever in Northern Italy who revered Il Duce. we were in Paris and it was always full Next day, we were off to the Doumo, to capacity. (One of my great moments There was a huge police presence and that great mediaeval Cathedral, where the there after Mass once was kissing the ring even an Army truck to the side of La Scala guards informed us we had to get tickets of the very shy and brilliant theologian during the performance of the Opera. Inside to enter. After queuing for these, we then Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, the Jewish in the huge marble foyer, the security had to rejoin the queue for the Cathedral Catholic who was so close to Pope John presence was formidable with lots of guns in the heat of the sweltering day. And the Paul 11.) I think that two of Notre Dames on the hips of the police and various other guards were having fun sending ladies who would still not fill the Douma so huge is it. props like big batons, spray canisters etc. were dressed skimpily off to buy gauzy The guide had taken us into the Royal coverlets (think raincoats) to their fury. But After Milan, we set off by ECRail (Euro Box, now renamed the Presidential Box, no dice—you wanted in—you obeyed the city rail as opposed to Intercity Rail) to so perhaps some foreign dignitaries/or rules, as some Americans were informed Zermat, melting all the way, to see the huge politicians were there which the young to their especially loud vocal protestations. Matterhorn Mountain. There in the foothills guide said it was used for now that I was delighted with this strategy of this massive mountain with its snow firmly Victor Emmanuel’s Reign was over. and thought we could do with some sitting atop—we finally stayed in a hotel that But still there remained many buildings of that at home where at Mass our was family-owned and very welcoming. and vias that bore his name so history has not dress code has gone out the window! The Hotel Berghoff was fabulous for a been glossed over. Far from it—the guide four star hotel. It has two swimming pools, told us of the bombing of La Scala during But the guards were then wanding saunas and lots of other delights but we were the Second World War and implied ever so everyone and of course it came to himself. so exhausted that we ate and fell into our bed. suavely that it was the fault of the Americans. The wand reacted loudly and out came We did have drinks on our very his mobile phone from his jacket. Still it own veranda (me—always water, Indeed, later on, when we met a young shrilled and out came a pocket’s worth of himself—wine) and just looked at the Irishman who was working for an Irish coins—all Swiss. The wand still shrieked majesty of Matterhorn. State company, he informed us about the and now I was beside myself with fury—the I was so exhausted that I couldn’t sleep history of the coffee drink Café Americano. heat was relentless—and I intervened and and after midnight sometime got up and During the Second World War, the American told himself to get off his trousers and jacket went out into the Berghoff garden and sat soldiers, were knocked out by the strength altogether, at which the guard pointed his and looked at the mighty mountain, the sky of the Italian coffee so they had to water it wand at me warningly but he let himself (free of light pollution) gradually revealed down and hence the name ‘Café Americano’. go through. I have noticed that Italian men itself to me in all its starry glory. The stillness Down in Kinsale today two men in the seem to love bossy women and so, when I filled me and it was there I truly encountered big local hotel asked for two coffees and back spread out my hands at length, he waved me my God of all creation. That memory came the breezy acknowledgement: “Right through with a smile. Una point for Ireland! will live with me until my dying day. so, two Café Americanos”. One of the men said he hated that expression and he wanted But the paying to enter the Cathedral Next day, we were off to Lucerne where a black coffee. As it happened, himself was was an annoyance and I was mentally the following day, we caught a ferry and there with them and told them the story of composing a letter to the Pope as went all the way to the canton of Uri, where it’s origins and made them all the more this was against Christ’s teachings. William Tell was born, and which became determined to ask for just “black coffees”. Inside the vast Cathedral, with the first republican canton in the world in its mediaeval giftings from the great the fourteenth century. Was Switzerland But, back to La Scala and the Opera, families of Milan and further a field, the the first democratic republic in the world? as they say in the best North-side Cork Medici’s, the Agnellies, the Borinis et Greece and Rome were certainly not society and, yes, I admit I slept during the al­—one was just overawed completely. democratic, slaves were not allowed to vote. first half of the programme which wasa As I went nearer to the Altar where I For himself, Uri was what he had always little known piece by the Italian composer was barred from entry by locked ropings dreamt of and his delight was infectious. Scalieri. Himself woke me up for the of gilt and velvet, I saw a man inside and Three days later we were back in Zurich and interval and there was a lot of wealth on waved him over and asked him why I—as the next day we flew by Swiss Air to Cork, display. Huge diamonds and designer frocks a Catholic—could not access the Altar. He to be met with the most pleasurable weather galore—after all Milan is the fashion capital told me that I had entered the museum part in the world. A light dewy rain and a 20C of the world and the Milanese were not where the upkeep of such a great building temperature was like a benediction after all going to let an occasion like this to stop has to be paid for but there was another the sun, heat and travel. Home, home at last! them from showing off. And nearby the entrance for worshippers named the gate Julianne Herlihy © 13 ment or our gardaí’s missing files. A public inquiry is essential to es- tablish the truth of what happened Lest We Forget The 1974 Bombings: in the aftermath of 33 murders and the injuries of hundreds of people. On the night of the bombings the Two Books Reviewed taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave, promised to leave no stone unturned until those Can a book of 33 ballads and 33 up the author’s fine achievement: responsible were brought to justice. Thirty years have not diminished docu-sonnets, which strictly chronicles a “Here is a profound recuperation and the families’ sorrow and frustration. life-after-life slaughter of the innocents, remembrance, centred on the victims I’m now 80 and have fought long be described as a beautiful work of of one of most shocking attacks on the and hard for justice for our Anna. art? In the case of ‘May Day 1974’ by Republic in recent history. The harrow- This is probably my last opportunity Rachael Hegarty I have no hesitation in so ing verbatim witness of the relatives is to press my concerns but my family juxtaposed with reconstructions of the describing it. The author’s dedication reads: will continue to strive for the truth and interior lives of those murdered. Their seek justice for the forgotten.” “For the 34 people who lost their lives hopes and fears, their work lives and fam- on the 17th of May 1974. For the families ily lives, their dreams for their children and friends who lost their loved ones. and their friends, are imagined in lucent Union headquarters at Liberty Hall For the injured who lost limbs and bits and empathetic poetry. This powerful had been the target of a bomb attack of themselves. For the children who lost book adds impetus to the long struggle on 1st December 1972, while a second their innocence on that day. For those by the relatives, with the selfless and bomb murdered two bus workers, George tireless dedication of Margaret Urwin, who never lost hope in finding justice.” Bradshaw and Thomas Duffy, in nearby to simply find out what happened, and In her Foreword, Hegarty explains: to get justice for their lost loved ones. Sackville Place that same night. At the Here the dead cry out for truth in poems same time, Fianna Fáil Taoiseach Jack “The 17th of May 1974 was the worst that return to us their beauty, their dig- Lynch’s controversial and oppressive day of the Troubles. Three car bombs nity and their magnificent humanity.” Offences Against the State Bill was exploded in Dublin city centre, the first being debated in Dáil Éireann, and that at 5.28pm on Parnell Street, the second This is not a literary review, other than night’s bombs ensured that the leader at 5.30pm on Talbot Street and the third at 5.32pm on South Leinster Street. At I would earnestly encourage people to read of the Fine Gael Opposition, Liam 6.58pm another car bomb exploded, on for themselves how beautifully crafted Cosgrave, could now marshal all his North Road in Monaghan town. As a are Hegarty’s imagined interior lives of troops to guarantee that Bill’s enactment. result of these four car bombs, 33 people the victims. My focus here is primarily died, as did a full-term baby, and almost on the thirst for justice represented by On the afternoon of 20th January1973, 300 people were treated for injuries. her book. The docu-sonnet in memory Sackville Place was yet again targeted Many more hundreds of witnesses saw of Siobhán Roice, based on the January for bombing, resulting in the murder of the outcomes of this terrorist attack: dead bodies, dying men, women and children, 2004 testimony from her father Edward a third bus worker. I myself had been decapitated corpses, mutilated limbs to the Oireachtas Hearings on the Barron on the other side of O’Connell Street, and a motherless toddler wandering the Report, contains the following lines: manning the B&ICO literature stand at streets, too shocked to cry. People saw the GPO and selling a copy of the ‘Irish “My wife and I were in our early things that cannot be unseen. My mother, Communist’ to a customer, when that 1973 fifties when Siobhán was murdered, brother and I survived that day. We were car bomb which killed my fellow ITGWU crossing from Talbot Street to North Earl or, I should say, when 33 people member Thomas Douglas thunderously Street at the time of the second explo- were slaughtered on Irish streets. sion. Ma threw me into the pram with My wife and I are now senior citi- exploded, and the vivid sight of that car’s my little brother and ran for our lives.” zens, in our early eighties, still trying roof and other bomb debris shooting up to get answers to the questions and way above the roof of Clery’s Stores is “This collection contains 33 ballads the truth that has been denied to us. one that remains indelible in my memory. and 33 docu-sonnets to commemorate Would anybody, as a parent, not move every stone to get the answers? the dead. The ballads, which are named But it was the late afternoon of 17th for each victim, are the products of my The truth is that justice has been May 1974, which saw Dublin’s deadliest imagination. The short biographies of denied to us for over the 30 years. the victims come from Justice Barron’s As a parent, I appeal to the com- bombings, when separate car bombs in Reports. The docu-sonnets are crafted mittee members to do something Parnell Street, South Leinster Street and verbatim, except where small changes that they would not deny their own chil- Talbot Street wiped out the lives of 26 were needed for metre and form, hewn dren if the situation were reversed.” civilians and a full term unborn child. That from bereaved families’ testimonies in same evening, a car bomb in Monaghan the public domain: Oireachtas statements, And the docu-sonnet in memory town robbed a further seven people of their coroner’s depositions, YouTube foot- of Anna Massey, based on the January lives, with the resulting total death toll age and a documentary, ‘Hidden Hand: The Forgotten Massacre’. Even though 2004 testimony from her father being the largest in any single day of the eyewitnesses were able to identify the Frank, contains the following lines: conflict which would not be brought to an drivers of the stolen cars that carried the end until the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. explosives, no one has ever been charged “Our Anna was murdered in Lein- or brought to court. The grieving families ster Street on the 17th of May 1974. Author Frank Connolly recalls being and survivors are still awaiting a public We are bitterly disappointed in a witness to the aftermath of the 1974 inquiry, the truth and justice.” the failures of the Barron Report. Justice Barron’s investigation was bomb in South Leinster Street and In her blurb on the back cover of thwarted by lack of access to files assisting with the injured, and his Hegarty’s book, Paula Meehan sums in possession of the British govern- recently published novel, ‘A Conspiracy 14 Of Lies’, opens with the statement that morning during the commemorative 1974 about the subsequent course “everyone remembers where they were ceremony at the Talbot Street memorial. of events, as rumour has it that— at the time of the bombings, except Simultaneously, Frank Connolly has those too young, too old or too dead”. found another antidote for historical “when the Irish Home Affairs Min- amnesia by producing a thriller centred ister met his British counterpart at the And a conspiracy it certainly was, which high security meeting in Baldonnel in on a young man and woman, Joe and could so condition the invincible ignorance September, not a word was spoken about Angie, catapulted into first experiencing of a Fine Gael Junior Minister for Open the bombings... For whatever reason, the trauma of the Bombings itself, next Government, Patrick O’Donovan, that, in there’s no appetite in government to take becoming aware of the nature of the an interview with the ‘Irish Independent’ on the bombers or to ask the Brits what conspiracy behind them, and then setting they know.” two years ago, he sought to indict Sinn out to expose that conspiracy. Indeed Féin with the rhetorical question: “What Angie, the female protagonist, gives a about the innocent children blown to In the Spring of 1976, the Bistro for fuller description than the book’s title when smithereens indiscriminately in the likes which Joe and Angie work, provides she nails it as “a conspiracy of agreed lies”. of the Dublin-Monaghan bombings?” the catering for an event where they His “facts” were, of course, quickly Connolly’s novel approach to spreading can witness the Minister in action: corrected by Justice for the Forgotten—that public awareness of the historical “The occasion is an important speech it was the loyalist UVF which had staged, truth—and the pun is my own—could, made by the Home Affairs Minister, not only the 1974 bombings, but those of of course, have fallen flat on its face if Patrick Cooney... provocatively entitled 1972 and 1973 as well. But the UVF had his novel was not up to scratch in its own ‘Violence, Revolution and War’... ‘There not done so alone, and it is widely held right. It, however, succeeds admirably as are two sources of subversion in Ireland, that those bombings were masterminded an exciting thriller, which also contains the Provisional IRA and Official Sinn by British Intelligence, which also a tender love story. The historical truths Féin’, Cooney thunders, ‘springing from a Sino-Hibernian version of the Com- provided the necessary technical expertise. are initially presented straight from the munist Manifesto. Revolution and its record—how the Cosgrave Coalition techniques are international.’ Banging It had been the heroic efforts of Government itself sought to deflect the the rostrum, and raising his voice several ‘Irish Political Review’ columnist John searchlight away from the actual British octaves... Angie thinks he’s scary. She’s Morgan (Lt. Col. rtd.), in his book, ‘The culprits by winding down the Garda never been in a room full of grown men Dublin/Monaghan Bombings 1974: A investigation after a mere three months, hooting and screeching during a forty- Military Anaysis’, published by Athol while the Fine Gael Minister for Justice, minute torrent of abuse hurled at enemies of the State.” Books in 2013, that raised all the Paddy Cooney, and Labour’s Minister for necessary and detailed questions in its Post & Telegraphs, Conor Cruise O’Brien, Angie overhears the British Embassy 248 pages. It is particularly poignant set about a diversionary rhetorical campaign official Fenton, a fictional construct, that John’s recent passing occurred less to hold the IRA “ultimately” responsible enthuse “about the minister being so than three weeks after 45th anniversary for the Dublin/Monaghan Bombings. A courageous, direct, no nonsense; that of those bombings. And yet he remained conspiracy was indeed well underway. he’s going to root out the evil subversives extremely modest about his achievement. Connolly describes the historical facts: and restore good relations between As Frank Connolly related to “Sloppy investigation of mass mur- our two countries”. But then she also me: “I attended John’s funeral. He der, destruction of evidence, missing eavesdrop on Fenton threatening the was carried in and out of the church notes and records. Wrong intelligence, press officer for Fianna Fáil’s Clarke: by members of the Defence Forces. sinister forces, political myopia. The “Those three big bangs in May two There was a large attendance and no gardaí handing over the forensic and ballistic evidence to the British Army at years ago really concentrated the minds eulogy at his request.” His obituary of your people. And I imagine it won’t be in the July issue of this magazine was Lisburn. A police and security failure of epic proportions.” the last time, if you don’t destroy those rightly entitled “A Stalwart Seeker murdering IRA bastards soon.” For Truth And Fighter For Justice!” Cooney is named and reported in the novel, but thereafter the politicians are Angie goes on to wonder aloud to Joe— But how to ensure that the historical fictionalised. Cooney’s counterpart in “why the minister had not given his facts of 1974 are kept before the public Fianna Fáil as its spokesperson on Home admiring audience any insight into who eye? Margaret Urwin and Justice for the Affairs, who subsequently becomes bombed Dublin that day. He spoke of a Forgotten have relentlessly campaigned Minister in the wake of Jack Lynch’s host of brutal killings that have recently in that regard. But there is a significant massive election victory in 1977, is a numbed people across the country, and section of young to middle aged among fictional character named Bob Clarke who in England, but no mention was made of the Irish public that will remain unreached is being politically blackmailed regarding the single biggest loss of life in this city, or anywhere else on the island, since the by what many of them might regard as his secret offshore accounts by sinister troubles erupted.” “just” 45 year old history and just one British Intelligence officers, operating more commemoration among many. from both the UK Foreign Office and Joe replies: Rachael Hegarty’s book of poetry its Dublin Embassy. Unashamedly frank “He was playing to the crowd, drum- does much to ensure that the memory of with Clarke about Britain’s responsibility ming up fear. Is it any wonder the Brits those slaughtered will not be allowed to for the Dublin/Monaghan bombings, they love him? No mention of the loyalists fade away, and she launched her book seek to manipulate how the incoming killing and bombing this town to bits. this past May 17th, the 45th anniversary Fianna Fáil Government will behave by Blame everything on republicans. But to the very day of that murderous attack threatening more of the same. Having from what you overheard, it seems to me on the Republic, having movingly been a witness to the Bombings himself, like the Englishman was saying what a lot of people think. The dogs on the street be- read some of those poems earlier that Joe is already thinking deeply in 15 lieve his crowd had something to do with All these characters are fictional, as in both organisations, would be the last the Dublin bombs in ‘74... You heard how to go if there were redundancies, and the they love all the new security measures are those in the media. The reader will nonetheless be bemused by portrayals first to get his job back if orders came in introduced by Cooney and his promise of for more ships to be built by Harland & even more. At the same time they’ve been of some of those fictionalised types 45 working hard to deflect rumours that their years back, such as the references to Wolff shipyard or more manufacturing agents, working with deranged loyalists, “a pliant security correspondent at the machinery to be made in Mackie’s were the ones that actually conspired to ‘Independent’” and “the new book on the Engineering, and the Sirocco Works. This wreck this town.” history of the Garda Síochána written by caused friction amongst Protestants who Later in 1976, another fictio­nal the sycophantic security correspondent”. either didn’t want to be part of the Masons con­struct, Richards of the British or Orange Order or who didn’t have Foreign Office, is taped directly But above all, the book is a racy thriller, the right degrees in both organisations. threat­­­­en­­ing the compromised Clarke: which evokes the Dublin underworld of Catholics didn’t stand a chance. the time, and also graphically, if rather “If you think I’m bad you should meet gruesomely, portrays the beatings-to-a- I could never find out how the few some of my friends in the service, the secret service I mean. They’re prepared pulp tortures inflicted by the all-too-real Catholics in heavy industry got a chance to take out the Labour government in Garda Heavy Gang in the wake of a for apprenticeships. Maybe they were Britain. Do you think they’d hesitate for burglary at Clarke’s home. From chapter just tokens. But, again, Ulster Unionism a second if they wanted to take out yours, to chapter the narrative is filled with didn’t particularly care about tokens or you for that matter? Do you honestly unfolding suspense, and the novel is to or what the outside world thought think the loyalists could have done the be highly recommended for that reason about their discrimination. It was so ‘74 job on their own? Three bombs, alone. And, if vacationing Government confident in its future that the PM Basil high explosives, plastics, timed to go off within minutes of each other, on the Ministers, whether Senior or Junior, Brooke (Lord Brookeborough) could route to the main train stations during a need a break from reading official disappear on a three month world tour. bus strike. One just a hundred yards or so documents, they could do no better than I asked a few young Catholic from your excuse for a parliament. That’s turn to Frank Connolly’s exciting thriller, apprentices in the shipyard how they called military precision.” while also becoming acquainted with managed to get into the shipyard but some historical truths along the way. received no reply and an air of annoyance Quite a succinct summing and the mute wish for me to leave up of John Morgan’s findings! Manus O’Riordan them alone in this sea of Protestantism.

Tokenism was favoured by the communist Trade Union leaders. It might be odd to say but that’s all they could do. They were basically the leaders of a Protestant-dominated Trade Union Freemasons! movement. To bring up the Catholic question in its fullness would be the end of them. I’m not particularly interested in membership. (Scotland Yard has its With our knowledge of the Two free­masonry and it can continue as long own Freemason Lodge, as have financial Nations situation in NI, any move as it wants as far as I’m concerned. institutions and film studio senior staff.) by communist Trade Union leaders Basically I don’t even want to hear on the Catholic question would have about it. My father was obsessed by it, And how did I know about the meant putting their full weight behind feeling he had been denied work in the freemason handshake? In the 1950s, at that nationality. They did get the odd Belfast shipyard when it was masons first Speaker’s Corner, in Hyde Park, there Catholic youth an apprenticeship. for the jobs, or being made redundant was a disgruntled former freemason A young Catholic member of the CPNI first because he wasn’t a member. preaching against its influence. He had was recruited for training in the Fire So his moans and groans about it run off (mimeo machined) small booklets Brigade, thanks to the communist made me block out. But what made which told you how to pass yourself leader of the Firemen’s Union. me angry about it was back in 1974 off as a freemason, and they cost about when in Belfast where a film of a a shilling for each degree exposed. These CP leaders could over-rule what script I had written was to produced. was then the personnel department. The (a very long story I won’t relate here). Someone in the crowd asked him why he Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers, What annoyed me was that, meeting wasn’t dead because of giving away these which had CPNI leadership, could force the second in command of Belfast BBC, secrets and his reply was that he was dead. Catholics into monopoly Protestant jobs. being given a freemason’s handshake. It Whatever job he was in was very subject Ironically, if the companies refused to made my blood boil to think he might to freemason membership and now he was take them on the grounds of religion, have thought this script could have been black-listed and black-balled. He was the unions could call a strike in which accepted because I was a freemason. living on starvation National Assistance. the Protestant workforce would obey.

I know there are some shady Yes, there was the scourge of A Union Card was very important to characters in freemasonry where coppers Freemasonry in the North’s heavy have in what was100 per cent unionised and criminals have been able to meet and industry. The Orange Order, very much jobs. it was your passport to further where who one knows, and not what like Freemasonry, had its various levels work. There was definitely no black-leg/ one knows, can be at the forefront of or chapters. A man having high ranking scab labour in Belfast’s heavy industry. 16 Then there were the non-CPNI-led Looks like the present one-nation employing lecturers from Queen’s Belfast. unions with their Mason membership/ Communist Party, Northern Ireland is Socialist in thinking, he is aware of Orange Order membership. not going to look back on its chequered what Masonry and the Orange Order history. And equally de-industrialised was up to in Belfast heavy industry I don’t think the CPNI Trade Union NI, with its rising university student but has no knowledge of the workings leaders would have been Masons. They membership, isn’t going to be inter- of the Trade Union movement there, were interested in Protestant workers ested either in the small details of not having been involved in the CPNI. who were neither Masons or Orange human existence in these industries. But he is very aware of the anti- Order members. My Protestant father Catholic discrimination practised then. was one of those, and to the left, though By a coincidence I got an email this in that environment they could be morning from a former Belfast shipyard Another former shipyard worker I little else than be Protestant reformers. worker who lives in Vancouver. He was correspond with lives in Delaware, in the a Protestant, non-member of Masonry US. Also a former H&W joiner, a Protestant, I remember my father coming home or Orange Order, a joiner who served also aware of anti-Catholic discrimination one night from the shipyard and relating his apprenticeship in H&W around the but still wonders what he could have done how every joiner working on D-Deck same time as I did. He later got himself about it. His father was badly beaten-up of a Union Castle Line passenger ship into Trinity College and became a when trying to help a Catholic colleague was of the left, while every joiner on Presbyterian Minister, and later became who had been thrown into the sea in the deck below, C-Deck, was either a a lecturer in literature at the University a pogrom and had heavy ship’s rivets Mason or a member of the Orange Order. of British Columbia, which for a time thrown at him, during the early 1920s. had a great interest in Ulster Unionism, in Wilson John Haire There were two ways of recruiting joiners. When you heard H&W shipyard was hiring, you went to a jetty on Musgrave Channel Road and stood with the crowd. A head foreman joiner, bowler-hat, nice suit and tie, most likely a Mason and member Casement Controversy— of the Orange Order, would be standing on a joiner’s work-stool to scan the faces The Seen, The Unseen And The Disappeared of the crowd. He would then point to who he wanted, and would go on like that until In his review of ‘Anatomy of person who tried hard to check the original he had recruited up to 200 joiners. If he a lie’ by Paul Hyde , A Scotsman, diary(ies) and failed to do so; Alfred Noyes couldn’t find enough familiar faces he an Englishman, an Irishman, and and John Quinn respectively. (Quinn was would then, as far as I heard, phone the Casement Diary Discretion (IPR June in New York, so he saw nothing that was Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers 2019), Tim Sullivan concludes that: in London and could not check anything.) office, run by Billy Sinclair, secretary and CPNI EC member and ask him to send him “Commentators, whatever their posi- The only recorded example of the maybe another fifty joiners. That’s when tion on the authenticity question, referred showing of police typescripts to people to ‘photographic representations’ or else Sinclair could pop in his token Catholics. ‘photographs’ being shown along with before Casement’s execution is that typescripts. If merely typed matter was described by Alfred Noyes, a highly One of these was Joe Cahill, a circulated, surely a good number of people regarded poet who became Chair of Poetry well-known Republican, who was sent to would have twigged that most peculiar at Princeton University and “was attached the shipyard on two occasions Catholics lacuna, whereby there was no evidence to the British Foreign Office” throughout kept quiet in heavy industry firms. If you connecting the distinctive handwriting the period. Noyes never saw any diaries, allowed yourself to be bantered, then the pattern of Casement, with the incriminat- only police typescripts and Hyde gives ing diary subject matter?” Protestant tormentors would feel you about 11 examples of showings in the had paid your dues and leave you alone. book on pages 105-6 and these are all Cahill contracted a lung disease while There were indeed references to documented. There is no evidence of anyone working in the shipyard. He sued and was photographs being shown with the police then seeing the bound volume diaries. awarded a number of thousands of pounds typescripts but photos of what? Tim in compensation by Harland and Wolff. seems to assume that these photos must Noyes described the event in a be genuine photos of what they purported letter to the Times, 17th May 1956: Unfortunately the Republican Move­- to be simply because they were photos. “In 1916 when I was doing some work ment and the Connolly Association wasn’t But none of these are extant. Why? They in the News Department of the Foreign interest in Belfast’s mighty industries might be the smoking gun if genuine and Office, a copy of the alleged ‘diary’ was and just dismissed them as Protestant available. Some of the police typescripts placed upon my desk (by Stephen Gas- territories. The Connolly Association’s are extant. And the police typescripts elee, afterwards, Sir Stephen Gaselee, Irish Democrat image of a one-nation were definitely read by those shown them. and K.C.M.G. Librarian of the Foreign Ireland was of a donkey looking over a Office). It was a typed not a photographic County Mayo stone-wall. If you did bring I think the best way to illustrate what copy as Mr. MacColl says in his book. It was left with me for a few minutes and the subject up at meeting in the CA you happened is to take the only example I was then somewhat hastily withdrawn. It were looked on as some kind of traitor, if know of a person who described what they was never in my possession. I was merely you worked in Belfast heavy industry. Then were shown and crucially how they were one of the many to whom it was shown it was back to milk-churning in Tipperary. shown it (i.e., not given it) and another (as we now know) on the disgraceful 17 recommendation of the legal adviser to for the same reason that many others Quinn saw “a heap of photographs” the Home Office. (Sir Ernley Blackwell). did not—trust in the Government. That In my first revulsion of disgust at the at the Embassy in Washington. That made type of trust has not gone away. Noyes them UK Government publications but things that had been shown me I naturally was later ashamed of what he had made the expected comment and this was they were all ‘disappeared’—which was incorporated in a brief paragraph in an done and believed he had been misled. an efficient operation in itself. I doubt if article which was sent out, not by me but they will be found in the National Archives by the News Department, for propaganda In another context in his Irish Political where they should be. Paul Hyde gives a purposes. That was my sole connection Review piece, Tim Sullivan explains the very good description of how Quinn was with the documents... In 1916 I had no doubt at all of the good faith of the Home syndrome another way: “Humans are more deceived by confusion, pages 109-12. Office.” (‘The Accusing Ghost’ 1957, by rationalising beings than rational ones. Some police typescripts have survived Alfred Noyes. Emphasis in original.) We tend to decide to support something but they mean nothing. There is no for our own subjective reasons and then evidence that they are copies of anything. Later in his book he elaborates: rationalise the decision afterwards”. “In all the statements discouraging That is precisely what Noyes and many Tim says there is evidence of forgery authentication appears the same kind of others did with the police typescripts but no proof. Equally there is no proof distortion of truth which I encountered they were shown. And the rationalising of authenticity and the evidence for in 1916, when one brief paragraph (men- was easily done. To them Casement authenticity is demonstrably weak. tioned in my letter to The Times) was was a political pervert of the first There is no evidence for the material published in America with false captions order, a condemned and self-confessed existence of the Diaries in 1916. The and even, as I learned years later, with traitor in the middle of a vital war to documented evidence presented in additions, including the statement that I had “made search” to authenticate the defend the British Empire. It was quite ‘Anatomy of a Lie’ is more than sufficient diary—the very thing I was quite unable natural to accept that what were then for a reasoned and impartial judgement. to do ... about the same time, the Associ- considered sexual perversions ‘went ated Press representative was refusing on with the territory’ of political perversion. No more evidence is likely to ethical grounds to be used for the same There was a well developed campaign become available, though there are purpose” (ibid). led by Noel Pemberton Billing MP, still a number of files that remain that provoked the ‘libel case of the closed on the case. So what to do? I interpret this to mean that Noyes century’, which elaborated this theory. recognised in 1957 that he was used If Britain lost the war, there was a I once served on the jury of a very in 1916; that he did not write the ready-made ‘stab in the back’ theory to long case that was regularly interrupted article attributed to him; and that his explain defeat—homosexuality. It had by legal disputation. The Judge realised 1916 comment amounted to one brief sapped the moral fibre of the nation. we were mystified by the evidence, the paragraph and no more. The rest of the interruptions, the legal arguing and began article text was written by others and There was little questioning of the his summing up with a piece of advice attributed to Noyes since his name was authenticity of the police typescripts he probably rehearsed in many cases: known in the US. In other words, the shown in the UK, but this was not the “Ladies and gentlemen of the Jury, what article is a forgery—in broad daylight. case with John Quinn, one of America’s are the facts of this case? The facts of Noyes became engaged in a big top lawyers, a patron of the arts, a mover this case are what you believe them to propaganda exercise in support of the and shaker in Washington, personal friend be!” (A rather frightening proposition British war effort across America, of the British Ambassador, Spring Rice, after listening to the views of some jury lecturing in at least 200 cities. A part of and a personal friend of Casement whom members in that particular case. The this campaign was the article referred he greatly admired. But, as a supporter of defendant was acquitted on all charges.) to above, that had his comment inserted Britain, Quinn disagreed with Casement and published under his name without on the War. He was a very important That means that you, dear reader, if his permission. It is available at: opinion-maker in America, and he needed you are interested in this case, (or the https://panewsarchive.psu.edu/lccn/ convincing when he heard about the kind of problem that judges have to face), sn83045211/1916-08-31 /ed-1/seq-10/ . Diary. So he demanded the originals, must put on a wig, become a judge and was given the run-around, and eventually sum up the available evidence in this A small sample from it shown photos of what was claimed to case. If you are studying law, make it about Casement gives the flavour: be extracts of the diary in Casement’s your PhD or whatever the equivalent is. “And the chief leader of these rebels—I handwriting. But photos and no context cannot print his own written confessions were not enough for Quinn, having a legal about himself, for they are filthy beyond mind. He was not even allowed to take the Begin with the evidence in Anatomy all description. But I have seen and read photos for handwriting analysis. Casement of a lie. them and they touch the lowest depths had stayed with Quinn and he had plenty Jack Lane that human degradation has ever touched. material to check the handwriting against. Page after page of his diary would be an insult to a pig’s trough to let the foul record touch it. The Irish will canonise Those photos have never been seen Check out the these things at their own peril” since then. The photos were shown to Athol Books (Philadelphia Public Ledger, Evening certain people but never published. Again, sales site: Edition, 31 August 1916). why not? They would have been lapped up by the ‘popular press’, saved a lot of www.atholbooks-sales.org Noyes did not seek any original effort, and might have sealed a case for source material for the police typescripts, authenticity. But none are extant apparently! 18 One would expect such an organisation to Part 2 be aware of this threat to its defamation project. One would expect them to have every possibility and every threat covered. A Scotsman, an Englishman, an Irishman, So, we would expect them to have taken measures so as to confirm the existence and Casement Diary Discretion of the bound volumes in the minds of Reviewing Anatomy of a Lie by Paul The above is quite an attractive those they sought to persuade. We would R Hyde, Jack Lane in Casement: The proposition for forgery proponents who expect them to have deployed material Gauntlet is Thrown! (Irish Political are tempted to seek an argument which before the eyes of those they had chosen to Review, June 2019) referred to typescripts neatly disposes of the Diaries and consigns convince which achieved this. This would alone being shown about in 1916 them to oblivion. A problem has existed have entailed showing the bound volumes when the furtive campaign to discredit for forgery proponents down the years themselves or, failing that, showing Casement was underway. However, that anomalies and contradictions could photographic representations of them. as already mentioned, there arises the be found in significant quantity among the There is an old saying: Seeing is believing. question as to how efficacious such various aspects of Casement Diary doctrine an approach could have been. Lack of and scripture (and what scripture!), but Ri s k o b v i o u s a n d t o o g r e a t direct evidence linking Casement to the none of these inconsistencies was quite To have circulated typescripts without incriminating matter via his distinctive so devastating, in itself and on its own, some credible visual representations to personal handwriting could only have to definitively topple the whole edifice. back up the contents would have been to provoked suspicion. The objective was “This author believes that the diaries invite failure. Suppose some person or to convince; the very opposite of the now held in TNA (The National Archives) persons, inspired by suspicion, demanded nurturing of doubt. If typescripts alone were forged in their entirety after Case- to see the handwritten originals. What if were shown, then to the question: “Did ment’s death…” (Anatomy of a Lie, someone called their bluff? What then? you see the diary?” the appropriate answer (2019) Pg 6). The Department of Naval Intelligence had to have been an essential “No!” could not have afforded to be so reckless He goes on to say: “…the volumes as to circulate typescripts without As already mentioned, nobody could not be shown because they did sup­­port­ing handwritten originals. commenting on the matter, whether not exist. Their non-existence made it The risk was obvious and too great. in books or newspaper or periodical necessary to prepare the typescripts as If they were backed up by what today articles, in the century up to the recent a temporary substitute so that the smear are known as photocopies, the question present, noticed that merely typescripts campaign could proceed” (Ibid, p10). arises as to how much of the typed alone were shown. That is a lot of material would need to be supported failing to notice. It begs an explanation. Ru l e s o f l o g i c in such a way. When we consider the “In London it was shown to some of the Science and technology have changed amount of trouble an incredulous and signatories of the appeal for his reprieve. dramatically in the last hundred years and suspecting individual could cause those They, too, had been utterly incredulous, in turn they have changed how we live. The tasked with an underhand campaign of but were reduced to silence when they technology around communications has false witness; the answer has to be all of it. saw the photographed extracts. The pho- experienced revolution upon revolution. A difficult individual could tographs were shown to certain persons in However, the nature of logic and its select various dates at random and court when the appeal was being heard…” implicit rules have not moved one iota ask to see corresponding handwritten (Traitor or Patriot—The Life and Death of Roger Casement (1931), p18, Denis over the same time span. The rules of logic originals. Failure to provide, at short Gwynn, American Edition). remain in July 2019 exactly where they notice, appropriate photocopies of were in July 1916, when extracts of what handwritten originals would bring “For those who doubted its inspiration there was provided a photographic copy were purported to have been Casement’s the vilification project unstuck. of a specimen page of the indecent diary” personal diaries were been displayed to (The Forged Casement Diaries (1936), chosen individuals. From the vantage point If photographic representations p15, Dr W.J. Maloney). of 2019 the author reads into the absence corresponding to the typescripts of anything but typescripts being shown needed to exist then something else Or i g i n o f t h e b o u n d v o l u m e s (as he sees it) a revelation that no bound needed to exist also; the handwritten Anatomy of a Lie takes the notion that volumes could have existed at that time. matter to provide the photographic typescripts alone were shown and from But if somebody can make such a representations; the handwritten this idea conceptualises how the bound deduction from the vantage point of 2019, original bound volumes themselves. volumes we have today at the British then using the same set of facts and the National Archives, Kew, originated. As same process of deduction (logic rules in It has been argued that there is typescripts alone are said to have been 1916 assumed the same as today) people no archival record of the handwritten shown, it is concluded that the bound could have come to the same conclusion originals being shown to anybody before volumes did not exist at the time of in 1916. So, assuming typescripts alone Casement was executed and thus it is Casement’s trial and appeal. That is, were shown in 1916, then there was a argued they did not exist at this time. they were not shown as a consequence of very real and present danger people would However, this argument ignores the their lack of existence, Rather it is said, conclude the bound volumes did not exist. theoretical framework around the forging they were concocted after Casement’s The Department of Naval Intelligence was of the Diaries that has evolved gradually execution. As such, then, they could the intelligence arm of the most powerful and cumulatively since the mid 1950s not have been written by Casement. armed force of that age; the Royal Navy. and which perceives the matter in terms 19 of a partial forgery. Looked at from deemed only necessary to show typescripts This, however, is a misreading of the this perspective, the authorities would on the eastern end of the Atlantic? 1959 text of an internal Home Office have been loathe to show the originals There is some reason to doubt this. document. If the civil servant writing to anybody at the crucial time for fear really meant to convey the idea that the some astute and suspicious person might Admiral Sir William James published in photographs were OF the typescript then examine the pages under magnification 1955 a biography of Reginald Hall, Director that is what they would have written. and uncover smudging, indentation on of Naval Intelligence. Hall, according to As well, they would also have added in the paper surface from erased writing James, had overseen the circulation of the additional qualifying wording to avoid any or irregularities in ink pigmentation; Diaries. In the latter part of the Great War, ambiguity. So, the wording would have all indications of forged erasure and some time after Casement’s execution, been something like: “two photographs of interpolation. James had been Hall’s assistant. During the the typescript itself”. Instead the defining Photostats (photocopies), as they were circulation of the diary materials, James had word related to the typescript is FROM. then known, being monochrome and lacking been in command of a ship on the high seas. In the 1950s, before the dumbing down high definition, could be better relied upon What is important, though, is that Admiral of education had got under way and when not to reveal such incriminating detail. James had worked closely with Hall in the the study of the grammatically challenging So, failure to display the hand-written wartime Intelligence field and so had the classical languages of Latin and Greek originals at the crucial time is perfectly in keeping opportunity to get to know him well. As was still well established in education, with the scenario of forged interpolation. such, his revelations on Hall’s wartime an appreciation of the grammatical activities have to carry some weight. relationship between words in a sentence Ph o t o g r a p h i c representations “Nevertheless type written copies of and the implications for the meaning Do we have evidence that photo- pages of the diaries and photographic produced was something taken for granted. graphic representations of handwritten representations of specimen pages were diary pages were circulated? circulated in London clubs and the House Obviously what the quoted words Shane Leslie had worked in the British of Commons and were seen by journalists meant was that the US Ambassador Embassy in Washing during the Casement who were known to be sympathetic to was provided with photographs trial. He was a cousin of the Ambassador, Casement and by the signatories of the of handwritten matter which corres- appeal for Casement’s reprieve…” (The Cecil Spring-Rice. Diary material was Eyes of the Navy (1955), p113—Admiral ponded with typescript passages. being circulated in Washington at the time. Sir William James) “During his trial the alleged Diary The account given by the former (which has troubled Anglo-Irish rela- Writing to Dr, Roger McHugh, Naval Intelligence colleague of tions for nearly half a century) was being academic and forgery proponent, Bulmer Reginald Hall supports this view: handed about. Spring-Rice asked me to Hobson, who had been a very close friend “It revealed (the Diary) that for some look at the photographed copies, but I of Casement, told how the then Solicitor years Casement had been addicted to declined. It was enough for me that John General for Ireland in 1916, James unnatural vices and had recorded his ex- Quinn had recognized the handwriting. O’Connor (later Sir James O’Connor), periences in a diary. As some American England gave him the Martyr’s crown” had attended the Casement trial. O’Connor newspapers were championing Casement, (Long Shadows (1966), p188—Shane Thomson had some pages of the diary Leslie). had met Hobson about 1922 at the house of a friend. O’Connor had told how he had photographed and showed them to Dr Page, the American Ambassador…” (The John Quinn was a prominent Irish- been surprised to have been approached Eyes of the Navy (1955), p113—Admiral American lawyer who had known by F.E. Smith, Prosecuting Counsel, and Sir William James). Casement. He viewed photographic British Attorney General, after a trial material at the British Embassy, session had been wound up. “He then Pl a u s i b l e f o u n d a t i o n l a c k i n g Washington DC during August 1916, just handed O’Connor a photostat of a page When we weigh up what a plausible a few weeks after Casement’s execution. of the indecent diary. O’Connor looked scenario for the circulation of the diary Soon afterwards he wrote to George at it and handed it back…” (Hobson to material would have entailed, we are forced Gavan Duffy (Casement’s trial solicitor) McHugh, Nov 2, 1956, NLI MS 8638). to look askance at the notion of typescripts describing how “the handwriting looked alone being shown. When we look at like” Casement’s. (NLI MS 17603) A Mi s r e a d i n g published material on the subject, we read of According to a confidential telegram Anatomy of a Lie, later in the text, again photographic reproductions of handwritten to the British naval attaché in Washington, takes up the discussion about the use of material also being shown around. Captain Guy Gaunt, June29, 1916: photographs/photocopies. It claims the This is true also for the archival record. “Photographic facsimile & transcript photographs shown were ones taken of We have to conclude that the idea of Casement’s diary of which you typescripts as opposed to photographs taken the furtive campaign was founded have, no doubt, already heard is of handwritten diary pages. It discusses the on typescript evidence alone is being sent to America by today’s mail. presentation of alleged evidence to the US lacking a plausible foundation. Person receiving it will communicate Ambassador: “Proof that the photographs Yet, working from this unsupported with you when it arrives” (Foreign taken were photographs of the typescripts premise, the author of Anatomy of Office Archive—TNA FO 395/43). comes from HM government itself: ‘The a Lie builds a case for believing the Ambassador was given photographs of two handwritten bound volumes did Could it be photographic copies of passages from the typescript’ (History of the not exist during Casement’s lifetime. handwritten diary pages were shown in Casement Diaries. March 1959 Working That does not stand up to closer America alone but, because the British Party PRO HO 144/23481). These were examination. were more respectful towards authority given by Thomson at the ambassador’s Tim O’Sullivan and the Irish more credulous, it was request...” (Anatomy of a Lie, (2019) p41) 20 This—if I might say so—is typical of Martin! He blithely slips in these new actors without spelling out the Banks and implications. He did the same in his Clarifying Money Money Creation May article. It is noteworthy that his Creation coyness is always in respect of depositors.

In Martin Dolphin’s most recent Let us examine customers CBB2 and I think the bank lending scenario I article (Irish Political Review, July 2019) CBA2 in more detail. At the beginning of presented in the July issue of Irish Political he describes two banks. Bank BA has this process they have neither assets nor Review has served its purpose in clarifying shareholder funds of £300. The assets of liabilities in the bank. Their balances are the differences between John Martin and £300 are described as “reserves” which zero which is why they don’t appear in the me. Before banks BA and BB make loans, in the context means money in the form opening balance sheets of bank BA or BB. their assets are £300 and £100 respectively of deposits held in the Central Bank. But they both have non-monetary assets. (with corresponding liabilities). They then Bank BB has reserves of £100 Customers CBB2 and CBA2 have lend £500 and £400 with no matching financed by £100 in shareholder funds. stock of £500 and £400 respectively. loanable funds. This fact leads John to Bank BA loans out £500 to customer After selling their goods to customers describe the lending as reckless. But the CBA1. This is a rather daring move since CBA1 and CBB1 they deposit their banks are assuming that they will both be the bank has only £300 in assets. If customer sales receipts into banks BB and BA. creating bank money/credit out of thin air CBA1 spends his money immediately It is important to ponder this for a at roughly the same rate and so the bank the bank has a shortfall of £200. moment. CBB2 and CBA2 don’t have money/credit created out of thin air by bank to use the money to repay debts because BB will fund BA’s loan while the money/ However, fortunately for the bank they don’t have debts. Nor do they spend credit created out of thin air by BA will fund the customer doesn’t spend the money it on food or clothing because these needs BB’s loan. Banks BA and BB can perhaps immediately. So Martin accounts for have already been taken care of. They be described as financial intermediaries the transaction as an addition of loans are in the happy position of being able to of bank money created out of thin air. of £500 to the asset side of the balance deposit all of these receipts into the banks sheet and what I can only describe as because they represent surplus funds over After they lend and the loans are a provision for a reduction in reserves and above those required for their day to spent, the banks have assets of £700 on the liability side. The money hasn’t day needs. Furthermore, it is precisely and £600 respectively. I interpret this been spent yet or recorded as such by the existence of these surplus funds to mean that money/credit has been the Central Bank and therefore hasn’t that enables the banks to expand their created out of thin air to the tune of £900. left the bank. This is presumably the balance sheets. In Martin’s examples What is critical in the scenario I describe justification for not immediately reducing they are a necessary condition for the is that both banks expand their lending at the money reserves by £500 to minus £200. expansion of the banks’ balance sheets. roughly the same rate. In his 1930 ‘Treatise But this can only be very temporary on Money’ Keynes argued that, in a society since borrowers don’t borrow for the Unbelievably Martin concludes his that did not use cash to settle transactions, purposes of leaving the money in the analysis by saying: bank; they borrow in order to spend. And “…it is evident that there is no limit to in a modern electronic-based banking “...the balance sheets of the banks have the amount of bank money which banks can safely create provided that they move system the Central Bank’s recording of expanded and the expansion is not depen- dent on them having loanable funds.” forward in step” (J.M. Keynes, The Pure transactions is almost instantaneous. Theory of Money (1930) p23). But this is just plain wrong. If Martin’s bank BB is even more reckless. Martin has any doubts on the matter The use of cash to settle transactions It loans £400, but has only £100 in reserves. all he has to do is look at the final means that banks are limited in the amount The bank accounts for this in a similar way balance sheets in his own article. of bank money they can create by the to bank BA by creating a provision of £400 need to provide a certain percent of any in the liability side of the balance sheet. Bank BA has assets consisting of loan in cash form. Taking account of reserves of £200 and loans of £500. this restriction Keynes summarised his As things stand within a very short These assets are funded by shareholders views on bank money creation as follows: period of time Bank BA will have funds of £300 and the deposit of “There can be no doubt that… all de- reserves of minus £200 and Bank BB £400 made by customer CBA2. posits are ‘created’ by the bank holding minus £300. In other words they will Bank BB has assets consisting of them. It is certainly not the case that the be in the unenviable position of relying reserves of £200 and loans of £400. banks are limited to that kind of deposit, on funding from the Central Bank. These assets are funded by shareholders for the creation of which it is necessary How does Martin rescue the funds of £100 and the deposit of that depositors should come on their own initiative bringing cash or cheques. But situation? He makes two assumptions: £500 made by customer CBB2. it is equally clear that the rate at which Commercial banks are financial an individual bank creates deposits on its 1) “...customer CBA1 uses his £500 to intermediaries. They cannot create credit own initiative is subject to certain rules buy something from customer CBB2 of out of thin air. In all the thousands of and limitation; - it must keep step with bank BB” and words that Martin Dolphin has written the other banks and cannot raise its own 2) “...customer CBB1 uses his £400 to in this series he hasn’t adduced one deposits relatively to the total deposits buy something from customer CBA2 of piece of evidence to prove the contrary. out of proportion to its quota of the bank- ing business of the country. Finally, the bank BA.” John Martin ‘pace’ common to all the member banks 21 is governed by the aggregate of their re- · Biteback · Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback serve resources” (J.M. Keynes, The Pure Theory of Money (1930) pp 26). But I feel that I am here merely Letter in Evening Echo (Cork), July 23 2019: repeating points made in earlier exchanges with John Martin—though with the help of an actual example. I feel the History is vital, at the core of who we are discussion has run its course. I leave it to readers to decide which account of bank Dr Finola Doyle O’Neill is quite right about “the importance of history and why money creation they find most realistic. Irish society will suffer from its loss as a core subject.” Martin Dolphin (“History is now more important than ever”, July 8)

History is what has made us all, for good or ill and therefore the more we Note By The Editor: are aware of the facts of history the better for us individually and collectively. As no new arguments are There are fewer sadder sights than a person who has lost their memory. The being made in this debate, same applies to a society. And that is the inevitable result of a loss of historical it is now closed. knowledge. Few subjects could be of more importance to younger people. This is a world of ever increasing tensions and conflicts and each and every one of these can only be understood by the particular history of each. The conflicts and tension arising from history are not in the past or of no concern to us. The consequences of Brexit alone make that clear to us.

Fortunately, Cork is blessed with many local history, heritage and voluntary groups LETTERS TO THE EDITOR who are doing great work in making our history and heritage relevant and interesting. Members of a number of them are sponsoring a new West Cork History Forum that will be launched next month and will seek to be a focus for people to discuss and increase our understanding of history generally, but also of Cork in particular Some Zionist which has been the focus of much recent interest and controversy to historians. Terrorism Fóram Staire Iarthar Chorcaí: I use the term “U.N. Persons” to mean persons serving the United Nations The West Cork History Forum will hold a public meeting on The term “UNPERSON” originated in George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty Four” Friday, August 9, at 7.30 p.m.

Wikipedia explains—An UNPERSON at the is— West Cork Hotel, Ilen Street, “Someone who has been vapourised, secretly murdered and erased from society, Skibbereen the present, the universe and existence. Yours sincerely, Such a person would be taken out of books Pat Maloney, Editor, and photographs so that no trace of them can be found. It is ‘thought crime’ to say an Labour Comment, UNPERSON’S name.” Roman St., CORK

Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte Bernadotte (who was always unarmed) Who will join me in ACCUSING was chosen by the United Nations and an unarmed escort of Israel soldiers, named media—eg, THE TIMES, Security Council to negotiate peace when they were stopped at a roadblock THE GUARDIAN, THE BBC of a between Arabs and Zionists in Palestine. manned by a gang in Israeli uniform. conspiracy of VAPOURISING Bernadotte and Serot were shot Inter­­national Peacemakers and French Colonel Andre dead by the gang, who were acting whitewashing­ their murderers? Serot had serv­ed with distinction on the orders of a future Mossad in both World Wars. In 1945 his leader,Yitzshak Shamir who served as Are there no ZOLAS to wife had been deported to Germany. Israeli Prime Minister from 1983-1984 challenge political charlatans Count Bernadotte, who had already and 1986-1992. such as GORDON BROWN.? saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis, negotiated her release and he and The murders took place in broad “ G O R D O N - Z O L A — Bernadotte became friends. daylight in Jerusalem, rather than secretly SERIOUS ACCUSATIONS”

In 1948 Serot commanded French But in most of “THE FREE WORLD” would make a good headline peacekeeping forces under United Nations its seats of government, of learning, and for any controversy, a controversy Command in Palestine. On September 17 its media the former U.N. PERSONS are which would reveal a lot of stinkers. that year, unarmed he was travelling with UNPERSONS as described by ORWELL. Donal Kennedy

22 “When the GPO and Four Courts garrisons surrendered in 1916, the Volunteers were held captive in the ‘Constitutionalism’ grounds of the Rotunda Hospital. A certain Captain Percival Lea-Wilson And An O’Casey Song For A Collins Execution subjected the prisoners to a barrage of abuse and aimed his ire in particular at two signatories of the Proclamation, Seán O’Casey penned quite a number and circulated among the various National Thomas Clarke and Seán MacDiarmada. of songs in protest against Britain’s Societies” (Hogan, p 131). Frank Henderson, who had served under

1914-18 Imperialist War against Germany, Clarke and MacDiarmada in the GPO, particularly targeting and lampooning John See http://free-magazines.atholbooks.org/ ipr/2007/IPR_November_2007.pdf for a se- described Lea-Wilson’s action that Redmond’s ‘Constitutional Movement’ lection of six such anti-Redmondite “Songs night as ‘savage’. Liam Tobin, who... that was supporting and recruiting cannon against Sommetry” penned by O’Casey. witnessed Lea-Wilson abusing his fodder for that War. But who today ever comrades, ‘registered a vow’ to himself draws attention to the fact that these songs Prior to ‘Songs of the Wren’, and not that he ‘would deal with him at some even existed? included in that 1918 collection, there time in the future’. After the First World How come that all those pundits, who had also been a 1917 anti-Redmond War, Lea-Wilson left the British Army, wax lyrical about O’Casey’s critique song penned by O’Casey, whose rejoined the RIC and became District of Connolly and the 1916 Rising, stay first performance his biographer, Inspector (DI) for Gorey. He appeared to be making life miserable for the lo- deadly silent on his anti-British verse? Christopher Murray, related as follows: Feather’s from the Green Crow: Seán cal people including the IRA. Michael O’Casey 1905-1925 was a volume edited “It was something of an occasion, held Collins’s Chief of Intelligence, Liam by American academic Robert Hogan in the Empire Palace of Varieties (now the Tobin, and the Deputy Assistant Director and published in 1963—but it has Olympia Theatre), Dublin, on Sunday, of Intelligence, Frank Thornton, came long since been out of print. Yet among the 25 November 1917. Proceeds were for down from Dublin on 12 June 1920 to shoot the DI. After three days in the invaluable services performed by Hogan ‘Necessitous Children and the Poor’. An advertisement prominently displayed in company of three local IRA Volunteers was his rescue of such marvellous O’Casey the programme announced that O’Casey’s they decided that the best time to shoot ballads from the archives. Most of them ‘The Story of Thomas Ashe’ was ‘On Sale Lea-Wilson was in the morning, after he had been published by O’Casey himself in Everywhere’ ... O’Casey featured again, had collected his mail and newspaper his 1918 collection entitled Songs of the in offering with Michael Smyth a satirical from the 9.35 am Dublin train... On Wren, and they represented a powerful song he had written with Fergus O’Connor but not published, ‘The Constitutional 15 June ... the two Intelligence men, propagandist contribution from him together with Joe McMahon and Sean to the anti-Conscription campaign. As Movement Must Go On’. He and Smyth delivered it as Members of Parliament, Whelan, waited for their quarry who Hogan observed: “The satiric songs in frock coats, top hats, gloves and, of ‘opened his newspaper and was reading frequently comment upon World War course, boots. It mocked John Redmond’s its headlines as he walked towards the One, for O’Casey regarded Britain’s Irish Party (the song title deriving from place of execution’. The ambushers fired part in it and Britain’s attempt to recruit Redmond’s declaration after the 1916 a number of times... As they fled from in Ireland with a cold and satiric eye”. Rising), and concluded topically: the scene, Thornton started to sing a song written by Seán O’Casey, which mocked O’Casey mocked both Redmond’s ‘But when Lloyd George will John Redmond, ‘The Constitutional foolish belief in Britain’s Home Rule threaten Irish with conscription Movement Must Go On’, and the rest promise and the anti-German war hysteria, We’ll stop him with our gas, led of the men joined in the chorus” (p 115). to which Redmondism itself had so on by John passionately subscribed. And in The Bonnie And the ‘Freeman’ will write a Whelan’s Witness Statement had Bunch of Roses O! O’Casey also went on to grand description indeed concluded: pay tribute to his executed sparring partner, For the Constitutional movement James Connolly. For, notwithstanding must go on. “When the Inspector fell dead, about the frequent clashes between them, fifteen or twenty yards from our car, Chorus: he must have been hit at least a dozen it was Connolly himself who in And on and on and on for ever more.’ times, but just to make sure we hit him Jan­u­ary 1916 had published the best again as he lay stretched full length on of O’Casey’s songs—The Grand Droll rather than hilarious, this was well the footpath. We left him his mails and Oul’ Dame Britannia—over the received...” (‘Seán O’Casey—Writer At gun to show it was an execution and not latter’s pseudonym of “An Gall Fada” Work’, 2004, pp 110-111). a hold-up. As we reloaded our guns ... (“the tall foreigner”). When O’Casey we collected the Inspector’s morning himself republished it himself, in his Just how well received it was, paper—it was the ‘Irish Independent’. Thornton started to sing ‘The Constitu- 1934 collection Windfalls, he wrote in becom­­ing part of Republican folk culture, tional Movement must go on and on and his Preface: is revealed in the recently published on for ever more’. We all joined in the anti-revisionist history by Lorcan Collins, chorus as we sped away...” “Finally came the crash of the guns in ‘The War of Independence 1919-21—The the Great War, and England’s hurried and IRA’s Guerrilla Campaign’. The author agitated recruiting campaign in Ireland calling on Irishmen of goodwill to go out relates an episode in the life of Michael Just one example of the excellent use and fight for little Catholic Belgium. The Collins’s team of executioners, drawing made by Lorcan Collins of BMH Witness Grand Oul’ Dame Britannia was written, on their Witness Statements to the Bureau Statements! printed as a ‘nix job’ by friendly printers, of Military History: Manus O’Riordan 23 · Biteback · Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback Europhile ? The following remarks by The following response to Eoghan Harris’s S u n d a y The Daily Telegraph's premier Independent column of June 23rd was not published. columnist give a good insight (see https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/eoghan-harris-love- into British attitudes on the island-is-better-than-the-loveless-ireland-of-the-past-38244436.html) Remain side of the Brexit debate. (John Major has threatened legal

action to prevent the proroguing of Parliament, should MPs attempt 'The Brigade' to prevent a No Deal Brexit) I was astonished at the venom of newspaper columnist Eoghan Harris’s criticism "Boris Johnson first entered my con- of RTE’s The Brigade that re-enacted scenes from the War of Independence in sciousness at an excruciating dinner just Cork. It reprised Tom Barry’s role and that of his IRA flying column. Mr Harris before the EU’s Maastricht summit in late engaged in fantasy history and historical slander with no basis in fact. Typically, 1991. It was a revealing little episode in no evidence was produced to sustain Mr Harris’s accusations of “tribal” sectarian the march of Anglo-European history. attacks by the IRA and, a newly minted charge, “threatening lone Protestant women”. He had come over from Brussels after Mr Harris must know the reason the IRA burned “beautiful big houses” causing weeks of grief for Downing Street with volleys of journalistic dynamite. I of active loyalists in 1921. It was because the British were systematically was writing leaders on Europe at Tele- destroying the often pitiful dwellings of suspected republicans. Then graph HQ. Brigade Major Bernard Montgomery summed up British attitudes, “it We were to meet the embattled Prime never bothered me a bit how many houses were burnt. I think I regarded Minister John Major for peace talks at all civilians as ‘Shinners’ and I never had any dealings with any of them”. Brooks’s, the 18th Century Whig club on IRA counter-terror had its effect, the British were forced to halt their campaign. Pall Mall, and the haunt of then Telegraph Perhaps Mr Harris is indifferent to the destruction of poor people’s not so ‘beautiful’ editor Max Hastings. The fifth man at the diner à cinq was Charles Moore. houses? If so, he echoes the later remarks of the British Army’s “Irish Command”, “The inhabitants are mainly of the lower orders and were on the whole bitterly Mr Major—as he then was—aimed to opposed to the Crown forces, the proportion of loyal forces being very small”. persuade us that he was not going to sign away the pound and lock Britain into a Mr Harris’s assertion of lack of “editorial scrutiny” of The Brigade is laughable European proto-state. But his pitch was from the scriptwriter of An Tost Fada, a lamentable effort he again mentions. As RTE shockingly off colour. He swore profusely admitted, that programme failed to engage in elementary fact checking. I puzzled in a faux tirade of nationalism, cursing how the programme, that depicted the headstone of an informer shot by the IRA, the amiable German Chancellor as “that bastard”. could get his date of death wrong by a factor of 14 months. What happened was this: The Prime Minister would never yield the victim’s gravestone was illegible. The programme filmed instead a name and to Johnny Foreigner. He banged the table inscription on the headstone of a woman with the same name, who died in 1939. so hard that the glasses almost crashed to An Tost Fada was dead wrong because, for some, facts don’t matter. the floor. As we left Boris shook his head Mr Harris bends them to suit the story he wants to tell. The best known in astonishment. “That was a disgraceful modern exponent resides currently in the White House in Washington. spectacle”, he said. John Major did resist Europe weeks Mr Harris incessantly trots out the supposed virtues of An Tost Fada. later at Maastricht, “game, set and match” “Trump that”, he effectively states. Luckily, few other documentary makers, in his tennis parlance. What he did not including those who made The Brigade, emulate Mr Harris’s ‘standards’. understand—but a younger Jean-Claude Tom Cooper Juncker grasped at once—is that by keep- ing Britain out of the great federalising project of monetary union he set the long fuse on Brexit. Sir Ivan Rogers, the UK’s first Brexit negotiator, told Parliament this month that New from Labour Affairs: Maastricht necessarily created an unstable equilibrium. A non-euro outsider would be in constant tension with an enterprise subject to monetary union’s integration Is the British Labour Party logic. This could not endure. Sir Ivan told colleagues as early as Institutionally Anti-Semitic? 2006 that British withdrawal was com- ing. The rupture could have happened over the Lisbon Treaty—midwife of a European supreme court—or again over Available from: Price: the Fiscal Compact. It does not really matter what finally precipitated Brexit. Dave Fennell Euro 4, Sterling £3 A bust-up was in the Aristotelean nature No. 2 Newington Green Mansions of things…" (Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, London, N16 9BT postfree, Ireland and Britain 24.7.2019) 24 If the Jaguar does not have a valet Computerisation of transport is in a button or if that method does not work, different class altogether from using a try this: Does laptop at home or at work, indoors from It the weather. Cars, buses, ships and planes with the key out of the ignition, hold are operating out in all sorts of weather and the headlamps stalk in the flash position Stack so that the headlamps are on. Put the key often in a very hostile environment where into the ignition and turn it to the “ac- Up there is a wind-driven rain, spray, ice and cessory” position. Now release the stalk ? humidity, all of which affect computers and flash the headlamps four times. The no matter how well they are protected. vehicle should enter programming mode and this will be indicated by a flash of Co m p u t e r i s a t i o n o f Tr a n s p o r t the lights and a sound of the horn. Now press one of the buttons on each of the There is a good case to be made Planes have fatally crashed due fobs to be programmed. You must use for the States to regulate the use of to sensors icing-up and the regulators five presses, so as you have three fobs, press the button once on one and twice computers in cars, vans, trucks, trains, just shrug it off as if computers are each of the other two. After five presses aeroplanes and ships. Crashes are normal and have to be allowed for. the vehicle will beep to confirm it is no occurring and people are dying as a They do not have to be allowed for. longer in programming mode. Turn off result of computer errors and failures. the ignition and test the fobs.” (‘Car If a car driver, or a ship’s captain or an airp Mechanics’, June 2019.) A driver or pilot should have complete control and not, as at present, control lane pilot causes an incident, the person by computer. Three out of four car involved is penalised and put off the road After reading that it is difficult to think breakdowns are now, in fact, computer and deprived of their licence. Not so if you are looking at a car in the traditional failures. There are failures of the “computer error” is at fault. There was even meaning of the word “car”. Instead you ‘Engine Management System’, or failure much sympathy for Boeing in the financial are looking at a computer on wheels. of ‘sensors’ or failure of ‘navigation press when two of Boeing’s Max aircraft Great for technophiles, but it is time to systems’. All forms of transportation crashed some months ago, killing hundreds acknowledge it is deadly for everyone really. of people. As if it is OK to kill hundreds had achieved a very high level of Inside what looks like a car there of people by computer when big money is mechanical reliability by 1970 or 1980. are sensors everywhere and multiple involved! Let us get a grip of ourselves. little electric motors to do the bidding of the vehicle management modems. And then came computerisation and Across the world thousands of drivers Global Positioning System (GPS) which and passengers are left stranded every the technophiles did not resist. Computers day by the malfunction of the computers This computerisation of transport is and GPS are very useful in their proper they are driving. Surely it is time for a completely separate project from the place but their use in transport vehicles Governments to stop the computerisation electric propulsion project. The push for should never have been permitted. They of transport. Do you still think you are electric propulsion is understandable if driving a car? The following, fairly are very delicate systems physically and for electricity is 100% 'green' in generation typical, extract from a Car Magazine may that reason notoriously unreliable. It is very and transmission, which it is not in Ireland, convince you otherwise as with key in hand but computerisation of transport is a totally frustrating to experience a computer going you approach what you think is a “car”. down. Very frustrating when we are quiet different and much more serious issue. “Q: Is there any way of setting the safe at work or at home, but no one is dead. Computerisation of transport should be It is much more serious when the computer remotes without having to go to a dealer? (Querist had replaced the battery.) internationally controlled and regulated. in a car or aeroplane goes down and it should just be totally unacceptable to have A: The Jaguar XK8 is listed on Auto- data as requiring diagnostic equipment (a cars and aeroplanes and ships dependent on computer also) to reprogramme the keys, th computers, which, if they go wrong, as they but there are two methods which I would As Sky News reported 26 July 2019, do, is likely to result in multiple deaths. try first before resorting to paying some- there was “a glitch in the Flight Control one to code them for you. If the vehicle System” at Heathrow Airport, causing has a valet button in the centre console massive disruption to all those travelling Let us ban such transportation under the armrest, try this method: for their holidays or work. But what computers before any more people die or does that phrase actually mean? Are the suffer. Stress and suffering can be at an Unlock the boot using the key and then flight control systems hacked? Or are turn on the ignition. The warning light extreme level when a vehicle becomes on the dash should come on and then go they affected by the weather (there is a undriveable due to computer failure. out. When it had gone out, immediately heat-wave on in the UK and Europe). The Stress, not only because of the helplessness lift the armrest to access the valet button resulting massive disruption to flights in of the breakdown incident but stress also and press the button five times within five and out of Heathrow Airport was caused by from being endangered on the side of a seconds. The lights should flash and the this so called “computer glitch” but surely horn should sound briefly. Press one of busy road or street in a life-threatening the buttons on the remote control. Turn more information should be shared if only situation and exposure to robbery and off the ignition and test the remote for to stay our fears about computerisation. assault from opportunist passers-by. operation. Michael Stack © 25 ensure we are all part of a sustainable, low degradation and continues to ignore the ICTU continued carbon economy and benefit from decent truths that are so obvious about short-term green jobs which were underpinned at solutions devoid of compassion or dignity. stances of Northern Ireland and the our Energy Sector seminar in Tullamore. As a movement, we have rejected Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, in all Delegates—there have been attempts the Government’s approach. its parts, remains paramount. to blame the homelessness and housing crisis on migrants. It is why we, together with others, • that both Governments live up to their were the instigators of the ‘Raise the International obligations as set out in that We reject any attempt to scapegoat Roof Campaign’. That campaign is about agreement. migrants for the political failures to deal reversing current Government housing with the housing crisis. policy and constructing the requisite This means that: public housing to provide a home for all. Look around this country: • A ‘No Deal Brexit’ cannot be tolerated. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions Pop up soup kitchens at the GPO. advocates for a radical progressive • The ‘Backstop’ must not be diluted. Young men sleeping in cardboard boxes vision for Ireland’s economy and society, in Kildare Street. Now is the time to invest in our people, • Any future actions taken as part of our public services, and our social Families dumped in hotel rooms and so- the UK Withdrawal cannot serve to infrastructure. This is the only way called family hubs. undermine the Good Friday Agreement we can ensure our future prosperity provisions in relation to rights equality in a sustainable and inclusive way. and equality of citizens, rights under- These are scenes more reminiscent We reject the philosophy of those who pinned by the Court of Justice of EU. of Strumpet City than the brash image see workers are a mere commodity in the of our country which some of our game of wealth creation. • There will be no ‘race to the bottom’ political leaders seek to project. Delegates—Together we can build on when it comes to workers’ rights. The current Government housing our proud tradition. policy has failed and should be abandoned. • A significant financial subvention must The housing crisis is a stain on the The battle for decent work is the defining be available to assist workers where job record of this Government and is the struggle of our times. In asserting our right losses occur directly arising from Brexit. source of great pain and anguish. Several to decent work and decent pay we are Workers and their families on this island professional reports, over recent months, laying the foundations for a better Ireland, must not be forced to pay the price for have highlighted the strong negative an Ireland based and social solidarity, an Brexit. effect such living conditions have on Ireland, North and South, where workers the lives of thousands of children. are respected and every person is afforded Our members, our families, our equal rights in every aspect of their life. communities, our all-island economy Have we not learned the lessons of must not become collateral damage and the Magdalen Laundries? The State yet (Conference held at Trinity College, Dublin, as Trade Unionists, we will never allow again turns a blind eye to misery and 3 July 2019) workers to be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. · Biteback · Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback

Delegates—it has been said that climate change is the greatest challenge Protestants And The War Of Independence of our generation. In his most recent Address to the EPSU Conference held here I note with regret and concern that Eoghan Harris has again alleged the Irish in Dublin, President Higgins challenged republican movement, under the administration of Dail Eireann from January the Trade Union movement to support a 1919, engaged in sectarian acts against members of the Protestant community. new eco-social political economy which However, it is highly significant that Dail Eireann placed members of the emphasises the finite nature of the Earth’s Protestant faith in charge of land reform. Robert Barton, a British officer in charge natural resources and the role rich nations of Irish prisoners during the 1916 Rising, was not only elected a TD for Wicklow must play in ameliorating this climate crisis. in 1918 but also acted as minister for agriculture from August 1919. In that capacity he created a National Land Bank in December 1919 with the aim of helping Irish Such a paradigm would advocate people acquire land and to improve their farms. Erskine Childers and Lionel combining the concerns of domestic, Smith Gordon, both of the Protestant faith, were appointed directors of the bank. international and intergenerational justice Far from driving Protestants from the land, Irish repub­li­cans selected Protestants in a global equity framework. Public to be in charge of land reform. servants will be to the fore in developing I accept this toleration did not survive the Civil War: Protestants, who in the main and delivering this change programme, supported the Treaty, were targeted by those who opposed it. They were discriminated which in our view must protect the lowest against, however, not because of religion but politics. In the same way those Protestants income families. Congress has seized who opposed the Treaty were confronted by the State. For example, when Erskine Childers the opportunity to take a lead role in was executed, in 1922, he was shot not as a Protestant but as an opponent of the Treaty. the development of a strategy for a ‘just Dr Brian P Murphy OSB, transition’ for workers and communities to Glenstal Abbey (Irish Independent, 21.7.19 , 26 our core mission. Decent pay for decent This could include high levels of job loss ICTU continued work must be more than a catchphrase. in particular sectors and locations. The scale of the Brexit effect will depend on To achieve it, we set out in our policy the future trading relationship agreed companies and sectors, it is sometimes document on collective bargaining, which between the parties into the future. easy to underestimate the plight of those we are launching at this Conference, that denied the human right to representation. we should campaign vigorously for However, the situation regarding Every month when we meet around the the adoption of an EU Directive to Northern Ireland is far more Executive Council table I am reminded of harmonise the laws of EU member States complex and could be very bleak. the plight of those who work for anti-union on Collective Bargaining and thereby companies: in supermarkets, pharmacies, establish the right to bargain in Irish Law. The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement construction sites, in companies up and If adopted, the doctrine of supremacy of provides for the protection of the Civil down the country where the right to be EU law would overcome any lingering and Human Rights of the citizens of heard is denied. doubt around the Constitutionality of Northern Ireland and further obliges However, after decades of conventional any legislative initiative in this sphere. both Governments to take no action that economic analysis promoting the could undermine the economic and social virtues of deregulation and outsourcing, We should also demand that well-being of the region into the future. internationally at least, we appear to our national law determines the have reached a turning point in such right to collectively bargain: Northern Ireland’s societal fabric discourse. The World Bank, OECD, the is fragile and sometimes unstable. If IMF—bodies not known for espousing • the right to Trade Union activism without we needed a reminder of that fragility socialist principles—are all championing penalisation, the right to organise, it may be found in the murder of Lyra inclusive growth. The World Bank McKee, a young working journalist, says: “.…it is clear that unions and • the right of access for Trade Unions, the equality campaigner and proud Trade collective bargaining have an equalising right of access to key employer decision Union member. The response to her effect on earnings’ distributions”. makers for the purpose of persuasion on murder speaks of hunger for political behalf of our members and leadership which can no longer be ignored. The IMF has declared that “The decline in unionisation is related to the rise of top • the right to reasonable time off to engage For the past two years, there has been income shares and less redistribution.” in representation and Trade Union train- no functioning Assembly or Government ing. in NI. Apart from the provision of public Our own successive reports on CEO services, its economic activity is largely Pay in Ireland are a testimony to the In most Western European countries driven by small businesses heavily unrestrained greed of those at the top: often bargaining takes place at the sectoral reliant on cross-border trade. One senior the same people are the most vociferous level. Here in Ireland legislation provides NI official has described the ‘no deal’ in their calls for pay restraint for workers. for sectoral bargaining of wages and Brexit scenario as akin to a blockade of conditions of employment in eight the Northern Ireland economy, where Delegates, let this conference mark economic sectors. However, the practice disruption would be severe and economic the beginning of a renewed effort to has been subverted by a concerted effort and social effects profound and lasting. secure the right to collective bargaining by employers not to participate in the for all workers. As we know, collective Joint Labour Committees. This employer We are right to be concerned at bargaining is the most effective instrument veto needs to be overcome and addressed the possibility of the re-instigation of to achieve more equal redistribution of by legislative amendment. This would the border on the island of Ireland. wealth, to drive down inequality, to achieve enhance collective bargaining coverage gender pay equality, and without it there to some of the most vulnerable workers This would be a highly regressive step. is no balance between capital and labour. in our labour market and would underpin the role of our movement in determining We must be equally adamant that The International Community has decent work across the economy. we avoid a border within the UK, long recognised that the right to organise between Britain and Northern Ireland and collectively bargain are fundamental Delegates, as we know, Brexit was and any economic border between these principles of rights at work. While Ireland the consequence of narrow, self-obsessed islands. We are fully committed to the has committed to upholding these rights nationalism based on the debased principle of consent enshrined in the under a number of international conventions, values of free market economics which Good Friday Agreement in terms of the it has failed to implement them in practice. places no value on human dignity constitutional position of Northern Ireland. or the concept of global solidarity. We need to put these workers’ It has the capacity to gravely damage our For all these reasons the Irish rights at the centre of political island economically, socially and politically. Congress of Trade Unions, has discourse in Ireland, North, and South. supported the Withdrawal Agreement There is no doubt that the Republic which includes the current ‘Backstop Creating a society that is more equal, of Ireland, as a member of the EU, will Arrangements’. In the months ahead where all work is decent, and jobs are experience some strong negative economic Congress will be focussed on ensuring: fulfilling and well-paid will be both consequences, considering its current demanding and complex, but it remains close trading relationship with the UK. • that protecting the particular circum- continued on page

27 VOLUME 37 No. 8 CORK ISSN 0790-1712

Address to Biennial Delegate Conference Irish Congress of Trade Unions By

PatriciaGeneral Secretary King

We meet for the first time in Trade Union officials, Shop Stewards, Bogus Self Employment, we have a road many years in Dublin. The last time Workplace Representatives, and to travel to achieve our ultimate goal. the Biennial Delegate Conference Trade Union members live out the was held in the capital was in 1988. principles of Larkin and Connolly. Following our seven-year campaign, the reduced VAT rate for the hospitality It’s fitting that we meet in the heart It would be easy in depressing times sector was abolished. Despite the of this proud city, All around us—in all to become despondent but reviewing weeping and wailing of employers directions, are reminders of our history. We the past two years, through our biennial in the Sector, the much-heralded gather only a stone’s throw from Liberty report, the Trade Union movement doomsday has yet to transpire. Hall, the birthplace of the Irish Trade Union can be proud of its achievements. movement; from the magnificent statue Agreement on a collective bargaining of James Larkin on O’Connell Street and Over the past two years pay increases process in Ryanair followed on from from the Rosie Hackett bridge, a reminder have been negotiated across the Public and an arduous and lengthy campaign by of the often neglected role played by Private Sectors, although we have to very these workers over decades and I salute women in the struggle for workers’ rights mindful that 1: 5 workers in our labour them for their tenacity and bravery. market are low paid and have not seen Most significantly, we have reversed This is the city of the 1913 Lock any sign of the much-vaunted recovery. the trend of the decline in Private Sector Out which marked a watershed Trade Union membership, underscored by in Irish Labour history, where the The Employment (Misc Provisions recent CSO figures. Consequent on years principle of Trade Union action and Act) 2018 has been enacted and in of structural change, strong investment workers solidarity was firmly asserted. many ways responded to the brave by individual affiliate unions, and the struggle of Dunnes Stores workers for very hard work of our community of Two years ago, in Belfast, we were dignity and fairness at work. Although Trade Union organisers, we are now reminded of the importance of that city in our campaign is ongoing in relation to progressing on a positive trajectory. the history of the Trade Union movement. What makes these achievements all This week, as we debate the Irish Political Review is published by the more remarkable is the fact that they enormous challenges which confront the IPR Group: write to— have been realised against the backdrop us in a hostile climate, nationally and 1 Sutton Villas, Lower Dargle Road of strong political resistance and within Bray, Co. Wicklow or internationally, we can draw inspiration the constraints of a legislative framework 33 Athol Street, Belfast BT12 4GX or from our strong history and legacy. designed to deny workers the right to be 2 Newington Green Mansions, London N16 9BT heard, to be collectively represented and to All of you, the men and women or Labour Comment, TEL: 021-4676029 be treated with fairness, dignity, and respect. P. Maloney, 26 Church Avenue, Roman of the Irish labour movement from Street, Cork City across this island, are custodians of our But what we have managed to achieve Subscription by Post: great tradition. The labour movement 12 issues: Euro-zone & World Surface: €40; against great odds and in the teeth of draws its strength from its collectivity Sterling-zone: £25 enormous resistance is a reminder of what and solidarity in the workplace. is entirely possible when we unite with a Electronic Subscription: common purpose. € 15 / £12 for 12 issues Every day, in factories, shops, offices, (or € 1.30 / £1.10 per issue) in companies large and small, in State You can also order from: For those working in unionised agencies and multinational conglomerates, https://www.atholbooks-sales.org continued on page 27