Socialism & EU A Land War Hero Fanfani & Guilds Joe Keenan Jack Lane Labour Comment

page 4 page 12 back page IRISH POLITICAL REVIEW October 2012 Vol.27, No.10 ISSN 0790-7672 and Northern Star incorporating Workers' Weekly Vol.26 No.10 ISSN 954-5891

Political Resolution Of The Euro Future referendums "Step By Step" on 'Europe'. It is said that, in the current crisis of the Euro, power has shifted to the bankers. The appearance is of a technocratic monetary policy dictating political developments, which John O'Hagan, Professor of Economics is hardly surprising in a technical monetary crisis. But it is only an appearance, as what at Trinity College Dublin, had an agonising is being resolved through what modern jargon might call technical-monetary "adjustments" piece in the Irish Times on how future is the unresolved political contradiction at the heart of the Euro project since its launch. referendums on EU Treaties should be In mid-October the leading foreign policy functionary of the Austrian State, Stefan handled. It is a topic over which our Lehne, is addressing Brendan Halligan's Institute of International and European Affairs Europhiles are losing sleep. He wrote: (IIEA). He will, apparently, tell the gathering of Irish officials and foreign policy "The European Central Bank and academics the basic facts of life of the current crisis and the three possible "scenarios" German constitutional court have calmed of how it will develop: "prolongation of the crisis; the end of the crisis with a durable the waters in relation to the euro crisis for accommodation between the UK and the EU; and a massive deepening of integration in now. Such calm though will not persist the Eurozone", with the outcome being determined by the actions of the 'Big Three' for long unless very significant action is taken at a political level to deal with the Member States: France, Germany and the UK. longer-term issues that the crisis has And there is the rub. For a "massive deepening of integration in the Eurozone" means thrown up. In particular many EU treaty its political integration and, as Lehne has pointed out in papers he has written for the changes are very likely in the coming Brussels "Carnegie Europe" Institute, this "might weaken and even destroy the EU's years" (Irish Times, 14 September). overall coherence" and marginalize the UK. Earlier in the Summer the IIEA discussed the role Ireland might play in keeping the UK involved in the resolution of the Euro crisis He goes on: or, as The Irish Times put it, acting as a "bridge" between the UK and Europe. The current "Here a treaty change supported by the Dublin regime seems enthralled by the notion of the "political leverage" it might gain by vast majority of the democratically making itself a pawn of Britain in this regard, with issues such as opposition to a Financial elected representatives can be rejected Transaction Tax, defence of low Corporation Tax rates and defence of financial via the vagaries of a referendum. This is particularly worrying when many may derivatives trading all seen as "common interests" with the UK. This, in our view, would have voted in the referendum on some place Ireland at the reactionary end of the Eurozone, minimizing its integration by aspect of Irish government policy totally retaining UK influence. unrelated to the EU issue on the ballot As regards the political resolution of the Euro crisis, in the judgement of one who paper. Given the extreme seriousness of should know, the future of the Euro is now secure. That is the reluctant conclusion of the the present euro zone banking and continued on page 2 continued on page 3

Armistice Day British Empire's unbroken record of an Irish Parliament up to 1801. It is why defending the weak against the strong in the building was used as the backdrop for At the beginning of the year the Irish the years between. British Army recruiting posters and Times reprinted from its Archives "An On the original Remembrance Day in postcards. One such chocolate-boxy Irishman's Diary" from November 1951, 1919, Ireland's capital city, Dublin, was postcard was in danger of giving Schmalz believed to have been written by Bertie treated to the spectacle of massed tanks, a bad name. Smyllie, its Editor from 1934 to 1954. The terrestrial Dreadnoughts or land battleships It showed rosy-cheeked gossoons, Diarist waxed indignant and lyrical in paraded past a saluting base at the Bank of virgin soldiers in British uniform, being turn, as he described being called an Ireland.The tanks were at the service of cheered by winsome, rosy-cheeked Imperialist So-and-So by a young Dubliner the British Government and their role was virginal colleens as they marched off to for wearing a Poppy on Britain's Remem- to Shock and Awe the citizens of Ireland. rescue the equally virtuous Little Catholic brance Day, and the pride with which he The Bank of Ireland was, as the British Belgium from the lustful grasp of the recalled wearing it ever since its first outing well knew, as iconic as the Rock of Cashel Hun. The return of the Bank of Ireland to on Remembrance Day 1919, and of the in Ireland's consciousness, having housed continued on page 9 3) the launch of a single currency; 4) the launch of European political union. C O N T E N T S Page European integration had been derailed Political Resolution Of The Euro, "Step By Step". Editorial 1 by British influence and the Federalists Future Referendums On 'Europe'. Jack Lane 1 were on the back foot. But the Euro would Armistice Day. Donal Kennedy 1 create a "fact on the ground" which would Readers' Letters: A Question Of Finance. Ivor Kenna 3 eventually impel a new momentum tow- Socialism: Utopian Or Incoherent. Joe Keenan 4 ards political integration. This was the Shorts from the Long Fellow (Bank Guarantee .... Again; The Irish Times And case put to Mitterand by Jacques Delors, Germany; Germany And Greece; 8 the great architect of "Social Europe". Queen Of Supermax. Wilson John Haire (poem) 9 The momentum of the currency was Statement From John Young. understood at the time by its chief Report on Eve Morrison and Kilmichael Ambush 10 engineers. Lehne quotes from Commission Goal! Gush Shalom (A Palestinian Poem, contributed by David Morrison) 11 President Romano Prodi in the Financial A Land War Leader, The Bard. Jack Lane 12 Times in December 2001 as follows: "I am Es Ahora. Julianne Herlihy (British Embassy Party; Summer Book Launch Party; sure the Euro will oblige us to introduce a Irish Studies Journal; The TCD Connection; The Marriage Foundation; new set of economic policy instruments. It Colm Tóibín, Vargas Llosa And Roger Casement) 13 is impossible to propose that now. But An Irish Anti-Fascist RAF Volunteer And Some Other Soldiers. some day there will be a crisis and new Manus O'Riordan (Part 3) 15 instruments will be created." Does It Stack Up? Michael Stack (Children's Rights Referendum; Abortion Legislation; Constitutional Law And Children 22 It could be said that Mitterrand failed in Items From Irish Bulletin, September 1920. Part 14 23 the sense that "perfection" was not Team GB—The Anglo-Saxon Is A Sport! Philip O'Connor achieved. The arrangements were—as The Captains And The Kings, poem by Brendan Behan 24 Prodi stated—inadequate and, as Mitter- and well knew, the contradictions would Labour Comment, edited by Pat Maloney: have to be resolved by a future generation Fanfani And The Guilds of politicians when, to paraphrase Soros, Mondragon, Part 12 "its inadequacies became apparent". (back page) But he would not have been dis- heartened . Au contraire! He always said Trade Union Notes: that it was sometimes necessary to provoke Accidents; Earnings; Trade Surplus; Jobs Market; Tax on Workers a crisis in order to arrive at a political (page 25) solution. In the current crisis political leadership has passed from France to Germany. man who bet against the Exchange Rate knowing full well that when they achieved Angela Merkel is now demonstrating the Mechanism in 1992 and won. George it, its inadequacy would become apparent statesmanship of Mitterrand … "step by Soros' long article in the September edi- and require a further step. The process step". The moves towards fiscal integration fed on its own success, very much like a tion of the New York Review of Books is a have been determined and consistent since financial bubble. That is how the Coal denunciation of Germany, but a spectacul- the "Merkozy" initiative launching the and Steel Community was gradually Fiscal Compact and the exit of Britain arly successful finance capitalist cannot transformed in the European Union, step allow his prejudices to obscure the reality by step." from the process at the end of 2011. From of things. Following the Draghi announce- the very start—as reported exclusively (in In other words, it is a political process, ment of "unlimited bond buying" by the Ireland) by this journal—Merkel has and Soros' description also applies precise- European Central Bank, he prefaced his brought the Eurozone with her in a strategy ly to how the project for the Euro currency article just before it went to print with a to construct an integrated monetary and was conceived. Following the collapse of statement reversing the judgement of the banking regime, that will also ultimately the Soviet Union Francois Mitterrand article itself, concluding: deliver debt resolution (see 'Yes vote feared that the impetus for European Union vindicated!', in Irish Political Review, July "The Euro crisis has entered a new would be lost as Germany prepared for phase. The continued survival of the Euro 2012). is assured…" unification. Already the deepening of President of the ECB Mario Draghi has European integration had gone into been allowed "do whatever it takes to Since his billions are dependent on it, reverse, a victim of British influence. preserve the euro as a stable currency". he has taken the trouble to understand the According to his biographer, Jacques Attali This leap forward has been described by European project, and it shows: (C'était Francois Mitterand, p. 306), the Anglo-American press as a "defeat" "The process of integration was spear- Mitterand supported German unification for Germany and a "turnaround" by headed by a small group of farsighted on the following four conditions, none of Merkel. It is no such thing. There will, statesmen who practiced what Karl which German Chancellor Helmut Kohl Draghi declared, be unlimited purchases Popper called piecemeal social engineer- would have baulked at: ing. They recognised that perfection is of the Government Bonds of debtor unattainable; so they set limited objectives 1) recognition of the Polish border; countries—up to three years in maturity and firm timelines and then mobilised 2) a united Germany foregoing nuc- and provided they reach an agreement the political will for a small step forward lear weapons; with the European Financial Stability 2 Facility and put themselves under the supervision of the Troika—the executive LETTERS TO THE EDITOR · LETTERS TO THE EDITOR· LETTERS TO THE EDITOR· committee of the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the Inter- national Monetary Fund. The ECB bonds will not rank in preference to other bonds. A Question Of Finance In explaining the initiative, and the I refer to Michael Robinson's article on Regional Pay in your August issue. opposition of the Bundesbank (which Mr. Robinson quotes from a report entitled "An Analysis Of The Social And Merkel had overruled), German Finance Economic Impact Of Loss Of Jobs In Northern Ireland" as follows: Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said— "Growth in input and jobs has tended to be in relatively low value added areas, which "German fears of 'unlimited' ECB has resulted in average wages remaining significantly below the UK. bond-buying were understandable but "The economy has historically been under-represented in higher value added sectors based on a misunderstanding. 'The fact such as finance and business services". that the ECB doesn't name a [ceiling] is because, if they did, it would be an People working in finance and business services often like to refer to themselves as invitation for speculators'." (Irish Times, adding value. 15th September). Actually, all that these people are doing is making lots of money for themselves and The Financial Times, the organ of their employers. finance capitalism that has consistently Finance and business services do not produce commodities. These services are non- promoted "solutions" that would have productive. They do not add value. fatally weakened the euro and disabled its Finance and business services are a deduction from values that have already been largest member economy, has been created. They are, to a large extent, parasitic on agriculture and industry. reduced to incoherence. Its editorial of 15th September is a pathetic attempt to Efficient industry pulls in far more money per employee than efficient agriculture. stoke up imaginary Greek grievances Efficient financial and business services pull in far more money per employee than against Germany. efficient industry. Merkel's intervention was decisive. She overruled Bundesbank President, Jens Labour Market Overview, quoted by Mr. Robinson, shows that, although Northern Weidmann (who shares the conservative Ireland children are brighter than those in the rest of the United Kingdom, many of the monetarist views of the German business brightest have to leave Northern Ireland to partake in the money-spinning financial and class), and made sure that the German business services. Government representative on the ECB Ivor Kenna board, Jörg Asmussen (a Social 10th August 2012 Democrat), supported Draghi. of Soros, parroted locally by Mary Ellen words of George Soros—to progress "step The question arises as to why all of this Synon in The Sunday Times. Any of these by step" towards resolution. was not done earlier. The reason is that the developments would, of course, have conditionality attached to unlimited bond collapsed the currency. But a new bene- buying could not have been imposed volence towards Germany then swept Europe continued earlier. It was only as the crisis was pro- across the neo-liberal press of Europe, longed that political acceptance emerged which produced a clamour to the effect sovereign debt crisis, it seems extra- in Europe, and in the Member States that it was in Germany's best interests to ordinary that the democratically elected leave the Euro as otherwise it would "ruin government of the day is so constrained directly affected, to take on the refusal of in responding to the crisis in a timely and itself" in financing the saving of the affluent Greeks to pay taxes and the in- effective way." ordinate privileges enjoyed by higher currency out of a sense of duty arising public servants and professional elites in from wartime guilt (thus Richard Sulik, The problem with all this is that it Ireland. Bond buying without conditionality leader of the Slovak neo-liberal 'Freedom assumes the EU goes on as before and it —as previously advocated by the Finan- and Solidarity' Party, writing in Die Zeit, just needs amendments and updating to its cial Times—would of course have 19th August). Treaties. destroyed the Euro. Of course debt resolution will be on the But the EU is now only the mood agenda when a banking and monetary music, at best, of what is happening in The Financial Times and the political union are in place. As far back as January Europe. At worst, and increasingly, it will forces across Europe that share its view of 2012—as reported in this journal—this become a dangerous charade. Dangerous the world initially advocated as a solution was admitted even by German Finance because it will be used to hinder the to the crisis the printing of cheap money Minister Wolfgang Schäuble. development of the Eurozone. Britain has and the flooding of debtor states with it. The solution announced by Draghi led the way in this by creating two Euro- This was later replaced by a clamour for remains inadequate. Banking and its logic pean entities—the EU and the Eurozone, stricken banks (in Spain) to be refloated are temporarily and necessarily shaping and counterpoising one against the other. by the ECB without conditionality on the the development of things, though within This is all legally correct. States in which they operated and which an overall political framework of a There are interconnections between the were therefore responsible for regulating consolidation of the currency zone. And two but these will wither over time. The them. Finally the neo-liberal solution the Fiscal Treaty is silent on the question one that matters is the Eurozone. When shifted again, to a demand on Germany of private debt. But a solid basis for a O'Hagan and others agonise about future either to bankroll the debtor states or leave resolution of the crisis has been put in EU Treaties they are dealing with political the Euro altogether—the initial position place which allows the Eurozone—in the shadows. The last referendum was not 3 about the EU—it was an inter- central role it is will only make sense to be unfortunate…", followed by this: Governmental Treaty and that is the pattern lawyers and lead to a total discontent with "While markets might be restrained of the future. the electorate. The last inter-Governmental and the laws of the market 'bucked' as it The Pringle legal challenge to that referendum was on a real issue that used to be said, the laws themselves referendum is legally arguable because mattered to people, the future security of remain the same. The law of gravity does there is an obvious conflict between the the currency. not determine human action, but it does new inter-Governmental reality and the set its parameters. Ignoring or denying the law of gravity, let alone claiming it redundant EU structure enshrined in our Any inter-Governmental Treaty would can be overthrown, does not eliminate or Constitution and laws. The law has not also inevitably be on a real issue and even extend those parameters by the caught up with political realities. The EU people could relate to it. They will not slightest degree. In fact the opposite would Treaties and their ramifications should be relate to more Lisbon type gobbledygook tend to be the case. By understanding the left wither on the vine like the EU itself and amendments to such gobbledegook law and utilising it, the scope of human and all the concerns about passing EU and that is all that future EU referendums action is increased." (Irish Political referendums despite Crotty, McKenna, can be about. It all belongs to the proverbial Review , September, 2012) Coughlan and Pringle can be forgotten dustbin of history. Two things. First, what kind of social- about. If these legal fetishes are given a Jack Lane ism is it that stands in the full glare of a public debate and declares that the laws of the market are eternal; that however the A Reply To John Martin and Philip O'Connor's Road To Recovery, market may be "bucked", whatever that is, in Irish Political Review (September 2012) the "laws of the market remain the same"? Just like the law of gravity. Socialism: Utopian or Incoherent And that's the second thing: economics When last we met here, I was hymning never anything ironic or paradoxical or is not a science like physics or chemistry, Sancta Simplicitas, singing the praises of dialectical, just the working class interest. nor is politics such a science. Holy Simplicity. That was an attempt to Simply that. Economics is an abstract product of the cut through theories based on immutable human mind which has no existence inde- economic laws and relying on inexorable What I mean by simplicity in all this is pendent of human will and human intel- geopolitics, in order to point instead to a contained in the words of the Shaker hymn ligence. It has conventions and rules and political strategy for the working class that is the centrepiece of Aaron Copeland's generally accepted procedures which by that required nothing more than human Appalachian Spring: analogy are called laws, though they are vision and human effort in the day and not laws in the way that mindless, in- "'Tis the gift to be simple. 'Tis the gift to be daily here and now. organic, utterly physical processes are free. I described the attempt as Utopian, and laws. When humanity has passed, and 'Tis the gift to come down where we ought so it was, and so it remains. So, to begin human will and human intelligence are no to be, again, some more of that. more, the universe will proceed as it always And when we find ourselves in the place has and the law of gravity will "remain the just right, The thing about Utopianism in the same". Say's law of markets will no 'Twill be in the valley of love and delight. context of these politics is not at all that it longer apply, because Say's law is not a is unrealistic or unrealisable. The thing is, law. "When true simplicity is gain'd, that it stands at an opposite pole to Engels' Really, the best analogy for a law such To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd, Scientific Socialism. as Say's would be all those laws against To turn, turn will be our delight, Given that Engels' science was the homosexuality, against drunkenness, Till by turning, turning we come 'round dialectic which required distinct stages of against Sunday opening, or for banning right." historical development to run their full, Sinn Féin; all of which have been swept inevitable, immutable and predetermined away by waves of public outrage, or tilting Freedom is the gift, to which simplicity course: given that Engels' science, in all balances of power, or changes in fashion. is key, and a gift in its own right. its dialectical majesty, required the univer- And to answer my earlier question: sal establishment of the most thorough- It's a key and a gift, but simplicity is not what kind of socialism is it that declares going form of Capitalism before Socialism easy. the laws of the market to be eternal; let's be could be realised: given all that, is there charitable, and just say it's an incoherent Reducing whatever of this, that, and anything else for a Socialist to do but find kind of socialism. the other to the simple of itself can be hard some utterly opposite pole and take a work. stand there? Finally on this; in the great school of It is the simple thing to do. Rather than THE LAW OF LAWS the social "sciences", if there be any logical await the final victory of Capitalism at Take law, in the sense in which John structure at all in the building of it, which point it will dialectically be trans- and Philip have been using it in their economics is housed in a small room, formed into Socialism; just work to achieve editorial of last August, and in their reply perhaps a closet, of the great hall of politics. however much, or little, of Socialism we to me. Politics sets the questions, marks the test can together establish here and now. First came the appeal to "certain im- papers and awards the diplomas that all Socialism itself is a simple enough mutable economic laws" which reduced the competing economic theories and thing. In any situation at all, it is the to just one silly law of double-entry book economists contend for. working class interest in that situation. keeping, then a truculent admission that And should anyone say; "All right then, Never anything more or less than that, "The choice of the word 'immutable' may go ahead and try to abolish the eternal 4 laws of the market, just try and see where stand back from the economy, only That Single European Act institutional- that gets you!"; we'll answer them simply, stepping in to control cartels and cream ising the single market for free movement "That's what the politics we hold to are all off enough surplus wealth to run a robust of goods, persons, services and capital welfare state. I believe that too." about, its what we ourselves are for, just was given force in the period during which that and nothing more!" I hope that's an end to trivial school Russian liberalisation measures climaxed yard shenanigans. in an unravelling of the Soviet Union. NO ANSWER BUT ABUSE In any event, as John and Philip would Once the Soviet threat was gone the central In my initial response to the August not provide me with a coherent answer to motive for Capitalist relaxation of its pres- editorial I took up the argument it my questions on the position of the Troika sure against Labour in the class struggle presented, that: regarding the elements of Neo-Liberalism was removed, and we returned to some- "The main lessons from engagement —Free Trade, Free Movement of Capital, thing resembling the state of nature with with the Troika loan programme would Monetary restraint and budgetary auster- confident Capitalism moving against the seem to be that the only given is that ity, Labour Market Flexibility, Privatis- working class much more vigorously than deficit reduction targets be met. This is ation and The Replacement of Welfare by in the past 40 years, most assuredly "red in meant to be achieved by a combination of Workfare—I had to go looking for such tooth and claw". savings and revenue raising measures, and by 'structural reforms' in line with information on those areas as I could find And, beyond a doubt, England on-board long established EU policy which, under for myself. I looked first in the foundation as an anti-European pioneer of neo-liberal EU Competition Policy, particularly the documents of the European Union which political economy was a determining fact- Services Directive, can (though must not set the terms of the activity of the European or. As was the very substantial influence necessarily) include elements of privatis- Central Bank and the European Com- of the United States. ation. This element was proposed by the mission. This is what I found. Irish government itself. What is clear is Cutting a long story short of the treaties that the choices made in terms of tax EUROPEAN UNION & NEO-LIBERALISM of Maastricht (which came into force in policy, service cuts, welfare and minimum Article 3 (f) of the original Treaty of 1993), Nice (2003) and Lisbon (2009), wage rates etc., are all determined by the Rome committed the (six) members of the and the process which began with the political forces within a programme state." European Economic Community to "the Delors Report (1989) of Economic and I simply asked what the details of this institution of a system ensuring that Monetary Union; we come to the provi- "long established EU policy" are. competition in the common market is not sions of the latest version of the foundation John and Philip did not reply to that distorted". documents of the E.U, the Consolidated question. Instead they resorted to shouting What was then meant by "distortion" versions of the Treaty on European Union abuse at me; incoherent, unfounded, was nothing more than tariffs and quotas. and the Treaty on the Functioning of the juvenile abuse comparing me to the Irish Free movement of capital and services European Union (from Official Journal of Political Review's long-time number one and labour flexibility were not considered, the European Union, 30 March 2010 - this hate figure, Eoghan Harris. or at least not considered seriously, outside and other relevant documents can be of England, until 1986 when Articles 13 downloaded from http://www.atholbooks. "Like Eoghan Harris's charlatan dis- missal of Paddy Heaney for his historical and 14 of the Single European Act added org/europeansources/documents.php). account of what happened 90 years ago at these provisions to the EEC Treaty: Well, dear reader, I did say that simplic- Coolacrease because he did not produce "ARTICLE 13 ity could sometimes only be arrived at 'documentary evidence' for his statements "The EEC Treaty shall be supple- —though Paddy was of course sub- mented by the following provisions: through hard work. Sorry and all that, but, sequently vindicated by the documentary take a deeeep breath, and here goes: record—Joe demands 'details' for state- "ARTICLE 8a Article 26 of the Treaty on the Function- ments such as that above concerning the "The Community shall adopt measures ing of the European Union echoes the position of the Troika." with the aim of progressively establishing the internal market over a period expiring Single European Act, stating: The sentiment there is clear enough; on 31 December 1992… "1. The Union shall adopt measures the sense of it has to be worked at, but only "The internal market shall comprise an with the aim of establishing or ensuring a little. area without internal frontiers in which the functioning of the internal market, in It is well known that under pressure the free movement of goods, persons, accordance with the relevant provisions people's fears in respect of their own services and capital is ensured in of the Treaties. accordance with the provisions of this position are often expressed as insults "2. The internal market shall comprise Treaty. an area without internal frontiers in which directed towards others. Given which, I "ARTICLE 14 the free movement of goods, persons, wasn't entirely surprised to learn that services and capital is ensured in accord- Eoghan Harris's views on Germany and "The EEC Treaty shall be supple- mented by the following provisions: ance with the provisions of the Treaties. Keynesianism are not a million miles "3. The Council, on a proposal from removed from those of John and Philip. In "ARTICLE 8b the Commission, shall determine the "The Commission shall report to the the Sunday Independent on 4th., March guidelines and conditions necessary to Council before 31 December 1988 and 2012, Harris wrote: ensure balanced progress in all the sectors again before 31 December 1990 on the concerned." "Last Wednesday, Derek Scally of The progress made towards achieving the Irish Times spelled out a fundamental internal market within the time limit fixed This then is taken up in Article 119: difference between Irish and German in Article 8a. thinking. Our liberal elites are Keynesians "The Council, acting by a qualified "1. For the purposes set out in Article who believe in throwing borrowed money majority on a proposal from the Com- 3 of the Treaty on European Union, the at a problem. mission, shall determine the guidelines activities of the Member States and the "By contrast, Germans are 'ordoliberals' and conditions necessary to ensure Union shall include, as provided in the who believe in living within a budget, balanced progress in all the sectors Treaties, the adoption of an economic and that by and large the state should concerned." policy which is based on the close 5 coordination of Member States’ economic anti working-class pro-market reforms the inactivity traps that lower exit rates from policies, on the internal market and on Troika is aiming at. It is the crux of the unemployment, making it especially the definition of common objectives, and important to reform to reform the structure conducted in accordance with the prin- matter to which the August editorial of social payments in this area. ciple of an open market economy with referred when it welcomed the commit- "Labor costs. Almost 9 percent of the free competition. ment of the European Central Bank, the work force, or over 60 percent of the "2. Concurrently with the foregoing, European Commission and the Inter- unemployed, have been out of work for and as provided in the Treaties and in national Monetary Fund to "structural over a year. In these circumstances, it is accordance with the procedures set out reforms". The IMF is a non-EU part of the important to maximize opportunities to therein, these activities shall include a Troika which hasn't been considered so regain access to the job ladder. One step single currency, the euro, and the defin- would be to retain the reduced rate of ition and conduct of a single monetary far in this article. So, let’s consider the PRSI for the lowest pay beyond 2013 if policy and exchange-rate policy the IMF views on Ireland as a suitable case for the planned evaluation of this measure primary objective of both of which shall structural reform of the labour market, for shows it to be effective. While there are be to maintain price stability and, without labour flexibility. relatively few workers employed at the prejudice to this objective, to support the This month (September) the IMF National Minimum Wage (NMW) of general economic policies in the Union, published its Country Report No. 12/264. ¤8.65 per hour for adults, this has a in accordance with the principle of an This is titled: "Ireland: 2012 Article IV broader impact through wage setting in open market economy with free com- EROs and REAs which cover almost one petition. and Seventh Review Under the Extended quarter of employment. A reduction in "3. These activities of the Member Arrangement—Staff Report; Information- the NMW should be considered given States and the Union shall entail com- al Annex, Staff Supplement; and Public the broad fall in consumer prices including pliance with the following guiding Information Notice". Just for complete- rents in recent years, and because it is principles: stable prices, sound public ness' sake I should mention that the Report notably above the minimum wage in finances and monetary conditions and a carries a disclaimer to the effect that the Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom sustainable balance of payments." Executive Board of the IMF doesn't despite the highly integrated labor market. Nonetheless, with jobseeker payments at Article 21 of the European Union Treaty necessarily stand over every word of the about 62 percent of the NMW (assuming is essentially about foreign policy. It is document. a 35 hour work week), there are limits to entitled "General Provision's On The I don't really think Christine Lagarde et reductions given the need to ensure the Union's External Action". Article 21.2e al will have any difficulties with what NMW provides adequate incentives to states that the Union shall… their staff on the ground have to say here: take up employment. "40. The authorities consider the reduc- "…encourage the integration of all "39. Enhancing resources to help the tion of unemployment a core priority. countries into the world economy, long-term unemployed get back into the The Pathways to Work project is a major including through the progressive aboli- workforce is also needed. Staff strongly endeavor across a range of government tion of restrictions on international supported the direction of reforms of bodies, and the authorities emphasized trade…" activation policies under the Pathways to their full commitment to making the sus- Work initiative and encouraged sustained tained effort needed to achieve a modern And Article 206 of the Treaty on the implementation effort in this area. Reform and effective approach to engaging with Functioning of the EU, under Part Five, of welfare payments to avoid unemploy- the unemployed and addressing their Title II, "Common Commercial Policy", ment and inactivity traps, and reviews of training and other needs to help them makes its commitment to the global estab- PRSI on low-incomes and of minimum return to work. At the same time, they wages, also warrant consideration to lishment of this absolutely free market, all had no immediate plan to materially maximize the employment benefits of the more glaring: reform Community Employment, which economic recovery. In particular: played an important role in local com- "By establishing a customs union in "Private provision of employment munities. Regarding resources for accordance with Articles 28 to 32, the services. The number of employment employment services, they were consider- Union shall contribute, in the common services staff with case worker training is ing how these needs could best be met, interest, to the harmonious development low relative to the number of unemployed, including the potential role for the private of world trade, the progressive abolition which may impede more active engage- sector, where they had researched of restrictions on international trade and ment, so additional well trained case experience in Australia and the United on foreign direct investment, and the workers are needed. Involving private Kingdom. The authorities noted they had lowering of customs and other barriers." sector firms with the provision of activa- identified issues in the structure of welfare tion services should be considered, payments, which are limited to a relatively This is why the August editorial did not especially for the long-term unemployed, small group of long-term unemployed go into the details of the "long-established though international experience indicates also receiving housing supplements, and EU policy" which is the substantial core of careful design of such arrangements is that the Housing Assistance Payment the Troika's being in the world. Its reason crucial. would address those incentive concerns. "Principle of mutual obligation. To and its rationale are Neo-Liberal. Free The authorities noted that as a share of ensure jobseekers meet their obligations average and median wages, Ireland’s competition, free movement of capital, to actively seek employment and improve monetary restraint and budgetary austerity minimum wage was not so high when their skills and qualifications so as to compared with other countries, and that are at the heart of "long established EU reenter the labor market, it is critical to both coalition partners in the government policy". An understandable, from their strictly apply the system of sanctions for had agreed to reverse an earlier reduction point of view, reluctance to draw attention jobseekers that are not complying with in the national minimum wage, so the to these details is why John & Philip activation and training requirements. authorities were not planning to review "Welfare benefits. The flat structure of refused to answer the questions I asked in this matter." unemployment payments results in the September Irish Political Review and replacement rates for the long-term instead resorted to vulgar abuse. unemployed that are high by international That is a substantial chunk for readers standards. The highest replacement rates to take on board, but I don't see how I THE IMF ON LABOUR FLEXIBILITY affect those also receiving housing could have reduced it without distorting, Labour flexibility is essential to the benefits, resulting in unemployment and or at least downplaying, the full import of 6 it. It is important to note that "The author- "Large-scale growth-enhancing nation- that all this argy-bargy will prove to have ities" in para. 40 and elsewhere are the al reforms seldom happen without the been nothing more than a confused little Irish Government. That paragraph seeks specter of a crisis, involve compromises, storm in a metaphorical little tea-cup and take time. to show the "authorities" as hard nego- (something we'll look back on in later life, "EU-driven reforms have been more and then, oh how we'll laugh!). tiators who are resisting the schemes of successful where national authority was the IMF. So, the "authorities" have "no delegated but failed when relying on peer There are many matters of dispute bet- immediate plan to materially reform pressure. ween myself and John & Philip that have Community Employment" and are not … "EU driven reforms have succeeded not been touched upon in this article. Had currently disposed to reduce the national we but world enough and time they would minimum wage. But the IMF is not terribly when accompanied with clear powers, but failed when reliant on peer pressure. have been. Not to mention paper enough concerned with the minimum wage, which The Single Market Program, coordinated and ink. But given all those constraints has to provide "adequate incentives to by the European Commission, has been I've done my best to at least present what take up employment" and while the Com- successful in opening product market are to my mind the major points at issue, munity Employment scheme may not be access and leveling the playing field. By in the process of, I hope, providing suffi- being "materially reformed" it is certainly contrast, labor market and social policy cient documentary material to form the being downgraded. reforms, left to national authorities, and basis of future, more informed, discussions. subject only to peer pressure, have pro- Those matters to one side, the important ceeded gingerly. One reason may be AND IN CONCLUSION, THE NEW EUROPE aspects of this IMF plan for Ireland can be technical, as harmonization in most I just want to mention one final matter summarised in its own words: product market areas was relatively which has been referred to quite obliquely straightforward to achieve in a top-down "…Reform of welfare payments to over recent months by several writers in avoid unemployment and inactivity approach, whereas labor market institu- tions are country-specific, more complex this magazine; the idea that since Cameron traps…Private provision of employment has isolated Britain from a developing services…involving private sector firms to reform, and changes also need to reflect with the provision of activation services (country-specific) preferences. Still, soft European fiscal union that will as a matter should be considered, especially for the coordination methods—such as the Lis- of course become a new European polity, long-term unemployed…Principle of bon Strategy process—failed to deliver all is really right with the world and we mutual obligation…it is critical to strictly the appropriate incentives to reform: the should positively welcome the necessarily creation of the euro area did not generate apply the system of sanctions for harsh actions of the Troika in the problem jobseekers that are not complying with an impetus to reform labor markets, and paradoxically, the absence of immediate economies of the Eurozone as the birth activation and training requirement…The pangs of The New Europe (from which flat structure of unemployment payments pressure on exchange rates in the currency results in replacement rates for the long- union made reforms to sustain com- England will be excluded, to which term unemployed that are high by petitiveness less compelling." England need not apply—and rightly so). international standards. The highest And so there you have it, not as brief as No doubt that notion will be expressed replacement rates affect those also I would have liked, but as brief as I could much more eloquently over coming receiving housing benefits, resulting in months and I may find that I have mis- unemployment and inactivity traps that get it: the Troika is taking advantage of the current fiscal economic crisis to further understood it completely. In the meantime lower exit rates from unemployment I would just like to point out that the making it especially important to reform the Neo-Liberal project which Britain the structure of social payments in this introduced into the politics of the EU and constitutions of new polities do not emerge area." which, since the collapse of the Soviet peacefully from a quiet state of nature. Union, has been broadly unchallenged. Assuming the peaceful establishment of The clear aim of these measures is to The New Europe, it is most likely that its harass and demoralise the unemployed Most particularly their own documents constitution will be an adaptation of the element of the working class, the reserve prove the EU and IMF to be engaged in army of labour, in order to make the Ireland, as elsewhere, in a phased plan (it currently applying European treaties that employed majority more amenable to Neo- will "involve compromises" and "take have been considered in this article. That Liberal pressure. time") to reduce the labour market to a is, it is most likely that the economic Nevertheless it should be remembered condition of flexibility; low-wage, de- aspects of the yet to be written constitution that this IMF report on Ireland is written regulated, un-unionised workplaces of the yet to be mooted New Europe will with an eye to local opinion. It is not staffed by a socially isolated, demoralised be as Neo-Liberal as the current documents. altogether red in tooth, and its claws, to an workforce faced with just the one alter- Assuming that The New Europe is extent, are sheathed. When the IMF is native of, not a welfare safety net, but a established peacefully it is most likely writing more directly for itself it is even workfare treadmill of petty regulation and that its political economy will be a more open about the thinking behind its drastic coercion. continuation of that of the body from activity. which it is emerging, that is the political That is where the immutable market In November 2010 an IMF document laws of John Martin & Philip O'Connor, economy upon which the European Central on "Lifting Euro Area Growth: Priorities the "long established policy of the EU" Bank, the European Commission and the for Structural Reforms and Governance" and the IMF are leading the Irish working International Monetary Fund are acting to was prepared under the direction of Ajai class; through the golden opportunity (for destroy the prospects of peace, happiness Chopra; a former head of the Irish bailout the bourgeoisie) of this once in an era and a decent life for all of the the Irish programme, currently deputy director of crisis, to utter catastrophe. working class. the IMF's European Department. The document is entirely open about this being It will, of course, be up to John and What use is any of that to any of us, exactly the right time to make Neo-Liberal Philip themselves to explain how they Socialists all, whose only political commit- hay while the Crisis is hot, and this is what reconcile their defence of the Troika with ment is to that simplest of things, the it has to say about the "Political Economy their Socialism. For myself I look forward working class interest? of Structural Reforms": to their doing so, in the simple expectation Joe Keenan 7 fond of quoting Lenin. The West Brit GERMANY AND GREECE element in the media decided to blame the It is quite amusing to see the right wing Germans and the left could only follow. press in Britain support the underdog; it Shorts Gerry Adams couldn't resist uttering his would be remarkable if the anti Europe cupla focail of German in the Dáil. agenda were not understood. But even the from The effect of focussing on the bond- Financial Times (15.9.12) had to quail at the Long Fellow holders was that attention was drawn away the latest Greek attempt to extract con- from the massive transfer of wealth that cessions from the Germans. A Greek did occur. For every property developer parliamentarian, Manolis Glezos, is BANK GUARANTEE…AGAIN who lost by buying at the top of the market, claiming 162 billion euro from the The Irish Times reports (8/9/12) the there was someone else who made massive Germans for Nazi crimes committed 70 Central Bank Governor Patrick Honahan windfall gains. The political energy which years ago. Unfortunately Greece signed a as saying that Ireland should have been should have been expended in taxing (by Treaty with Germany in 1990 agreeing allowed to impose losses on Senior Bond- legislation with retrospective effect) such that no more was due. holders. However, the effect of the Guaran- windfall gains was dissipated in a rush to The Financial Times suggests a tee was marginal since Europe would not blame the EU (really the Germans). different tack: have allowed us to impose losses on Senior Bondholders in any case. THE IRISH TIMES AND GERMANY "But if Athens wants to parry German In recent times a view has been expres- The Irish Times completely lost the run accusations of feckless Greeks taking the sed by ESRI economist John Fitzgerald of itself during the period of the boom with money of hard-working Europeans, there are better ways to score points. Instead, its property supplements and disastrous among others that Anglo Irish Bank was pose the question of where all the money saved because an immediate collapse purchase of myhome.ie. When the econo- paid out in structural funds and bailouts would have been a disaster for the mic crisis began it reverted to its tradi- actually ends up. Most of the investment European banking system. Nothing is said tional view that the State had failed and in Athens' gleaming underground system, about the consequences for the Irish banks gave over its opinion pages to proponents for example, returned to northern Europe which Honohan in his report on the of that view such as Morgan Kelly and via national champions such as Siemens Guarantee in June 2010 said would have Brian Lucey. It was as if the world econ- and Alstom. Don't bother mentioning the war. Just follow the money." been catastrophic. omic crisis did not exist. When the Troika If the Irish State can convince Europe was called in, its editorial invoked the mem- What exactly is the Financial Times that it made sacrifices for the greater good ory of 1916 to show how the State had suggesting here? The Germans provide of Europe the Long Fellow can only wish failed. It was as if no other country had infrastructure for the Greeks in part financ- it the best of luck. But he does not feel that ever called in the IMF (e.g. the UK in 1976). ed by EU structural funds, which are in it was unjust for the Irish State to under- Fintan O'Toole is still banging on the turn largely financed by the Germans. So write the liabilities owed to Senior "failed State" drum but the Irish Times as the Germans should be grateful to the Bondholders. an institution cannot afford to remain Greeks for allowing them to do so? In a Ireland has benefitted from the global detached from reality if it is to remain reversal of normal commercial practice game. She has attracted multi nationals to relevant. The resolution of the euro crisis the producer should compensate the this country and taxed the income of such will result in closer economic and political consumer? As Lenin advocated: "from companies which has resulted from the ties with continental Europe. Accordingly, each according to his ability; to each Research and Development expenditure the newspaper had a series of articles on according to his need"? that was incurred elsewhere. Germany and our attitudes to that country. As it happens the Greeks have already The German Depfa bank operating out It found that the hostility of some media thought of that approach. The Daily of the IFSC incurred a 100 billion euro commentators to Germany was not reflect- Telegraph reports that the German loss, for which the German tax payer had ed among ordinary Irish people. In the company Siemens has been found guilty to pick up the tab. Long Fellow's opinion most Irish people of bribery in connection to infrastructure We experimented with a neo-liberal admire the Germans and feel that we can projects for the Olympic Games in Athens approach to banking regulation. Billions learn from that country. in 2004. It has to write off 80 million euros of euros flooded into the country from One of the interesting facts revealed in that the Greek State still owes Siemens. wealth that was created elsewhere. This the series was that 7 per cent of Irish The terms of the deal also oblige Siemens generated economic activity which would school leavers become engineers whereas to invest another 250 million euro in not have occurred otherwise. It also the corresponding figure for Germany is infrastructural investments in Greece. This generated massive windfall taxes for the 37 per cent. Only 30 per cent of German will consist of 90 million in Government State from taxes on property transactions. school leavers go to university compared infrastructure (including medical equip- For a brief period we thought we could to over 50 per cent in Ireland. It appears ment and university research); 100 million have the tax system of Texas and the that in Ireland there is an overemphasis on to ensure that Siemens remains in Greece; Social system of Sweden. And Charlie academic qualifications as a means of and 60 million on a new plant employing McCreevy lectured the rest of Europe on entering the professions and not enough 700 people. On top of this Siemens will the virtues of free market capitalism before emphasis on good technical qualifications. have to pay for its own and the Greek the whole house of cards came crashing The reason for this may be that the State's legal bills. down in 2008. professions in this country are overpaid. In 1914 V.I. Lenin called on Russian The middle class in this country has too It is interesting that 8 years after the communists to turn the international much power. The Long Fellow can only Athens Olympics German companies still conflict into a civil conflict. But the left in hope that the Troika will continue to put have not been paid. The story does not this country is incapable of that kind of pressure on the Government to tackle the indicate if there was any sanction against thinking; even that element that is most restrictive practices of the professions. the Greek State officials who were bribed. 8 CHINA AND AMERICA Republic's Army were also arrested and of justice, and that his remains were It is not easy to assess Chinese economic jailed with them. spinning in his grave at the Blasphemy of conditions. A lot of Western commentary manipulating propagandists and black- is based on wishful thinking. Nevertheless On 10th November 1920 the 73 years guard politicians? Is it too much to suspect it appears that Chinese economic growth old Parish Priest of Dunmanway, Co Cork, that the Cenotaph is not empty, but stuffed is about to slow. She may even enter Canon Magner, received a threatening with the empty promises of those who did recession. Wages have increased and letter demanding he ring his Church bell well out of the War? production is moving to cheaper locations on the following day, the anniversary of such as the Philippines, Vietnam and the Armistice. He ignored the threat, and Skipping some unpleasantness we come Burma. This is, of course, a symptom of was murdered in broad daylight by to Remembrance Day in Dublin in 1931 success as China moves up the value chain. an "Auxiliary Police Cadet"—in fact a when the British Legion is accompanied Clifford Coonan suggests another chal- British Army Officer and Great War in its commemoration by the Dublin lenge for China (The Irish Times, 10.9.12). veteran named Harte, who had just Branch of the British Union of Fascists, There is a shift back to manufacturing in murdered a young man, Timothy Crowley, without any sign of dissension between the US. Last year 237,000 jobs were whilst Crowley was speaking with the them. Then to 4th March 1933 when the created in the US manufacturing sector Priest. By this time the British had sup- Irish Times hailed (Heiled?) the accession and this is expected to keep growing. pressed Inquests in Ireland, a suppression of Hitler to power in Germany, as The article has the following surprising which has been a boon to a school of "Europe's standard-bearer against quote from the China Daily: charlatans posing as historians which has Muscovite terrorism". A couple of years "Given that the US is on the threshold been assiduously promoted in recent years later, after the accession of Smyllie to the of a new technological and industrial by the Irish Times. Pre-eminent amongst Editor's Chair, the paper lamented, on the revolution, China should change its the charlatans was the late Professor Peter death of Edward Carson, that the Unionist manufacturing strategy in order to Hart, whose "The IRA And Its Enemies" leader had been born forty years too soon, overcome its insufficient technological brought to History the same standards as for otherwise "he might have been a innovation capacity and low "Police Cadet" Harte brought to Policing. Mussolini, or even a Hitler". competitiveness".

About 30 years ago there was a neo The immediate trigger to the sup- Smyllie's people nearly eighty years liberal view that money was the measure pression was the Inquest held on Tomas later seem to have have no difficulty in of all value; and that it did not matter if MacCurtain, Lord Mayor of Cork, emulating the feats of a late German money was made in manufacturing or murdered by Royal Irish Constabulary Minister of Propaganda, replicating his services. The effect of this was to com- men led by District Inspector Swanzy, real habits and mimicking the short- pletely undermine manufacturing in the which named as the perpetrators not just comings attributed to him in the British UK, but it appears that the manufacturing Swanzy, but also British Prime Minister army marching song. base of the US was never destroyed. David Lloyd George, Lord French, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Acting Inspector For I fear they have No Balls At All. General Smith and Divisional Inspector Donal Kennedy Clayton of the RIC', whose policy Swanzy was implementing when he murdered Armistice Day continued MacCurtain. For many decades The Irish QUEEN OF SUPERMAX Times annually commemorated Swanzy an Irish Parliament was the bait that lured in its Roll of Honour. tens of thousands of gullible Irishmen to Abu Hamza-al-Mastri annoys Liz, dusty, muddy and briney deaths. Armistice Day 1920 was a very busy commander-in-chief, British Armed day in Westminster. In Whitehall a stone Forces. That same Remembrance Day in Cenotaph, or symbolic empty tomb was head of the C-of-E, and drones of course, Dublin, British Crown Forces arrested unveiled in Whitehall by King George V, her grandson, wealthy, full of John O'Mahony, MP for Fermanagh South, who that day also attended a solemn champagne fizz, John Hayes, MP for Cork West, Frank ceremony in Westminster Abbey when goes on safari to bag an Afghan, Lawless, MP for Dublin North and the mortal remains of an Unknown Warrior or two. A family wardrobe of uniforms Diarmuid Lynch, MP for Cork, South who had died wearing British Uniform in makes marriage, as an act of war, the East. In common with 69 other Sinn Fein the Great War was interred there. That norm. candidates in the General Election of the same day the Better Government of Ireland Prompts killing, this Imperial clan. previous December they had been elected Bill, partitioning Ireland, had its Third A preaching imam threatens their on a mandate to establish an Irish Parli- and Final Reading in Parliament, to privileges? ament to serve a Sovereign Republic for become law when King George gave it his For Liz to care you must hold a rifle Ireland. As the party thus had 73 of all the Royal Assent some weeks later. Not one but to resist murder is sacrilege, constituencies in Ireland it set about of the 29 Irish MPs (23 Unionists and 6 every voice of resistance is stifled keeping its promises. The MPs named Nationalists) voted for the Bill, and as the with threats of US Supermax tutelage. were sentenced to two months' imprison- remaining 73 repudiated British rule Her Maj watches the Islam soul recycled. ment for being members of Sinn Fein and altogether, the Bill had no Assent in for illegal assembly, as both Dail Eireann Ireland.Is it too fanciful to imagine that and Sinn Fein were deemed illegal by the the Unknown Warrior was an Irish Home Wilson John Haire, Shocking and Awesome British Govern- Ruler, or some honest Briton who thought 26th September, 2012 ment. Other officers of the Dail and of the that his sacrifice would promote the cause 9 Report: Eve Morrison And Kilmichael Statement by John Young {Edward, 'Ned', Young was the last surviving veteran of the 28 November 1920 Kilmichael Ambush. He died 13 Statement From John Young November 1989, aged 97.}

{Note by Spinwatch: The statement having virtually lost the faculty of speech". 22 August 2012 below is from the son of an Irish War of Peter Hart did not respond to Troubled Independence veteran who fought at the History, apart from stating in Times Higher A response to claims by Dr Eve Morrison (TCD Modern history Kilmichael Ambush of 28 November Education that he had not acted im- Department) at the Institute for 1920. properly.2 Historical Research, Reviews in It arises from claims in a controversial In 2012 Eve Morrison, also a TCD PhD History website, 1998 Oxford University Press book, The graduate, defended Hart's Kilmichael http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/ IRA and its Enemies, Violence and analysis in her contribution to Terror in review/1303. Community in Cork, 1916-1923, by Peter Ireland 1916-23, edited by Professor Hart (who died suddenly in 2010 aged David Fitzpatrick. The book, a product of I am a son of Edward, 'Ned', Young, 46). That book was based on Hart's 1993 the TCD History Workshop, was dedicated last surviving veteran of the 28 November Trinity College Dublin PhD thesis of the to Peter Hart's memory. Niall Meehan 1920 Kilmichael Ambush. Ned Young same name. critiqued the work for Reviews in History. died on 13 November 1989, aged 97. In the book Hart wrote that he spoke to Fitzpatrick and Morrison responded. thirteen Irish Republican Army veterans Morrison claimed in her response that she In a response (16 August 2012) to a of the conflict, anonymously. Hart said he had telephoned John Young on 4 July review by Niall Meehan of Terror in did this because some of the veterans he 2012 and that he told her, "his father's Ireland 1916-1921 (edited by Professor spoke to requested anonymity. mental faculties were not impaired and David Fitzpatrick), the author of a chapter This created particular problems in that he could speak perfectly clearly".3 on the Kilmichael Ambush, Dr Eve Hart's treatment of the 28 November 1920 John Young rejects this account of the Morrison, reports a 4 July 2012 telephone West Cork Kilmichael Ambush. Seven- telephone call and asked Reviews in conversation with me. I have not spoken teen of eighteen British soldiers were killed History to carry his statement to that effect. to Eve Morrison before or since. I have in action there (the last was left for dead). Reviews in History replied that as an never received any other communication They were from the notorious counter- academic journal they are not, after of any kind from Eve Morrison. insurgency Auxiliary Division of the RIC. publishing a review and response, a forum In his Guerrilla Days in Ireland (1949), for publishing "additional pieces". Young's I refute Eve Morrison's report of that Ambush commander Tom Barry asserted statement was partially reported by Justine conversation in its entirety. that the Auxiliaries had engaged in a 'false McCarthy in the Irish edition of the Sunday surrender' trick, resulting in two of three Times (26 August 2012).4 The telephone call lasted approximately IRA fatalities. According to Barry the For that reason, in the interests of five to ten minutes. I attempted at the false surrender justified his decision to transparency, Spinwatch reproduces John outset to ascertain who or what Ms Morri- order that all the Auxiliaries be killed Young's statement here in full.} son represented and the purpose of her outright. Hart disputed this, calling Barry call, without success. Members of my and liar and a 'political serial killer'. Hart's family witnessed my end of the convers- claims received media publicity in Ireland Letter, John Young, ation with Eve Morrison. After the some- and Britain, as well as numerous academic son of Edward ('Ned') Young what puzzling telephone call I dismissed accolades. 22 August 2012 the subject from my mind. As evidence for his view, Hart claimed Dear Reviews in History, to have spoken to two Kilmichael Ambush I take very strong objection to Eve That pales into insignificance in com- veterans in 1988-89 when just one veteran, Morrison's claims published on your web- parison to claims Eve Morrison makes in Edward, 'Ned', Young, was alive. Indeed, site, in which she reports entirely inaccur- her recently published report of that Hart claimed to have spoken to one of his ately a short confused telephone 4 July conversation, brought to my attention by two anonymous interviewees on 19 Nov- 2012 conversation with me. Her remarks a family member. ember 1989, six days after Ned Young were never checked with me for accuracy. died on 13 November 1989, aged 97. Ned I wish you to publish on your website after Morrison defends the late Peter Hart's Young's death was reported in the widely her remarks the following attached analysis of [the 28 November 1920] read West Cork Southern Star newspaper statement, dated 22 August 2012, which I Kilmichael Ambush in The IRA and its on 18 November 1989, with the headline, am copying to Niall Meehan, to whom Enemies (OUP, 1998). That analysis was Ned Young—last of 'the Boys of Eve Morrison took exception for accur- based on alleged anonymous interviews Kilmichael' . ately reporting the contents of an affidavit with two Kilmichael veterans in 1988 and I swore in December 2007. 1989, at a time when my father was, I Troubled History, a 10th Anniversary You may contact me to verify the repeat for emphasis, the sole surviving Critique of The IRA and its Enemies contents of the statement if you wish, and ambush participant. Meehan noted in his (2008), by Niall Meehan and Brian for that purpose alone. review that Hart's claim to have inter- Murphy, published a sworn affidavit by viewed my father anonymously in April Yours sincerely, Ned Young's son, John Young, in which and June of 1988 was undermined by an John Young John Young stated that his father suffered affidavit signed by me on 21 August 2007, a stroke in late 1986.1 It "made [Ned (son of Edward 'Ned' Young) sworn with witnesses on 14 December young] incapable of giving an interview, Dunmanway, Co. Cork 2007 (first published, in full, as an appendix 10 to Troubled History, 2008, by Meehan Kilmichael commemoration. I was the I agree with the suggestion that Fr. and Brian Murphy). Peter Hart made no family member in overall charge of my Chisholm deposit tapes of interviews with response to my affidavit that stated, inter father's care and well-being. I reiterate War of Independence veterans (which he alia, what is stated in my affidavit, that, apart obtained on the basis of research for Liam from designated family members, his Deasy's 1973 book, Towards Ireland Free) If Peter Hart is referring to my father, doctor and parish clergy, no one was in a public archive. That is the expressed Ned Young, with his made up reference permitted to speak to my father without view also of Liam Deasy's eldest daughter, (of "A.A."), his claim that he interviewed my express permission. Eve Morrison's Maureen, who typed her father's my father in April and June of 1988 is insulting remarks to the effect that because manuscript. I demand that a copy of Fr totally untrue as, at that stage, Ned Young I was not present 24-7 Peter Hart could Chisholm's interview with my father was wheelchair bound having suffered a have slipped through this mutually agreed should be given to me without further stroke sometime previously (circa late family net is specious and unworthy of delay. 1986). As a consequence, it made him serious consideration. John Young incapable of giving an interview, having 22 August 2012 virtually lost the faculty of speech. He was I have a specific reason, not before constantly attended day and night by revealed, why I am confident in making 1 Troubled History available at, http:// family members and full-time professional this assertion: gcd.academia.edu/NiallMeehan/Books/ carers. On my instructions to my mother 75341/ and the carers, the only people allowed During the late 1980s a man with what 2 John Gill, Troubles and strife as IRA into my parents home were family mem- my late mother described as a "foreign historian draws peers' fire, available at, bers, i.e., his nephews and nieces, accent" called to her door asking to http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/ grandchildren his doctor, Dr. Jim Young interview Ned Young. She reported to me story.asp?storyCode=402611§ioncode=26 (his nephew), and the priests of the parish. that she explained to him directly that Ned 3Meehan review and Fitzpatrick-Morrison Young was a sick man in bed who would response available at, http://gcd. Despite this, Eve Morrison claims in not be granting interviews, not least academia.edu/NiallMeehan/Papers/ her response to Meehan that on 4 July because he was incapable of doing so. I do 1877653. 2012, not know if the man was Peter Hart. 4 Available at, http://www.indymedia.ie/ However, I am aware that the late Jim [John] Young confirmed that his father's article/102322. O'Driscoll, SC (Orwell Road, Dublin), mental faculties were not impaired and 5 An article critical of Hart in the Southern drove the then PhD researcher Peter Hart that he could speak perfectly clearly. I Star of 5 July 2008, of which Jim O' and deposited him at my mother and asked him this twice, and he said he was Driscoll was aware, makes reference to father's address during that time frame. willing to go on the record on this point. that fact, http://www.southernstar.ie/ Jim O'Driscoll, who I knew well, was one News/Kilmichael-veterans-son- This, her statement is—I repeat of the witness signatories to my affidavit challenges-Hart-846.htm?id=846. Jim emphatically—palpably untrue. I wish to sworn on 14 December 2007, referred to O'Driscoll died suddenly in 2009. His go on record to refute Eve Morrison's above.5 If, as seems likely, the man in Irish Times obituary, 21 March 2009, claim. My August 2007 affidavit stands in question was Peter Hart, it makes his refers to the controversy, http://www. its entirety because it is true and immutable. subsequent behaviour all the more irishtimes.com/newspaper/obituaries/ inexcusable and inexplicable. 2009/0321/1224243193986.html). I am surprised if Eve Morrison's Also (related): http://www.politics.ie/ behaviour is regarded as acceptable acad- Eve Morrison's suggestion that my forum/history/134386-peter-hart-dies- emic practice in Trinity College Dublin. father was not the last surviving veteran of 21.html#post5713837 Is a short, hurried, and confused telephone the Kilmichael ambush is nonsense. call between strangers on a serious matter Morrison makes this claim because Peter A Palestinian Poem a proper basis for making historical claims? Hart reported interviewing a second Does Eve Morrison consider me so light anonymous 'Kilmichael veteran' six days Goal! minded as to reverse a sworn considered after Edward, 'Ned', Young, my father, statement about my own father, in the died. Mahmud Sarsak course of a brief conversation on the Of the Palestinian National telephone with someone I have never met? My upset at being presented with Eve Football Team Why did Eve Morrison not attempt to Morrison's claims is only surpassed by Was detained without trial confirm with me in writing her mistaken my incredulity at the publication of untrue And went on a three-month interpretation of our conversation before and unchecked claims by Morrison. Hunger strike. publication? She had over forty days prior International footballers to publication in which to do so. I am equally astonished by the Demanded his release, revelation that Father John Chisholm And suddenly Eve Morrison's other claims with regard possessed a forty-year-old tape-recorded The "security considerations" to how my father was cared for are equally interview with my father he released to Evaporated into thin air. without foundation and equally upsetting Eve Morrison. I wrote to Fr Chisholm in to me and to my family. Two carers under 2008 asking if he had such a tape recording. An own goal my direction were required to nurse my He replied, By Israel. father after he suffered his stroke in late I greatly regret having to inform you I Gush Shalom 1986. Ned Young rarely ventured out in have no recording of an interview with [Irish Political Review is indebted to David public during the period in question, an your father, though I remember him with Morrison for bringing this poem to our exception being attendance at the annual affection as a man of real character. attention] 11 Book review: 'The Bard'—North Cork's Leader in the Land War 1881-1891 by other privileges, the Gaelic League was Barry Keane© 2012 (Aubane Historical Society) flourishing, etc., etc. Democratic County Councils were established. The list goes on. The people were nearly killed with A Land War Leader, The Bard kindness. There was a relationship with Britain that our modern revisionists would A biography of someone called 'the William O'Brien and the All For Ireland die for, it was their paradise. The people Bard' would no doubt mean only one thing League MPs. volunteered to join up in their hundreds of to most readers—another biography of His arch enemies were a very successful thousands to fight and die for the the 'the Bard of Avon' .However, the local self-made Catholic businessman, consolidation of this in the form of Home subject of this book was known as the Jeremiah Hegarty, who used 'credit crunch' Rule. And then they revolted! As the 'Bard of Millstreet' and could hardly have tactics (and the traditional supplementary Editor of the Irish Times said on a later been be more different. He was a legendary tactics now out of fashion in these occasion: 'What sort of people are we?' leader of Moonlighters in North Cork situations) against tenants in financial The fact is the people did not change. during the Land War and public enemy difficulties and thereby acquired their land; The Irish, despite any claims to the number one for a decade. Yet he did have the other was the local Catholic Parish contrary, are fundamentally a conservative something in common with his namesake Priest, Canon Arthur Sands Griffin, who people as they believe they have more to from Stratford. orchestrated a long and well thought out conserve than discard—and they are right There is no evidence that either of them campaign against the Land League, in this. It is Britain in its wisdom that ever wrote a poem or a play. And both had locally, nationally and internationally. The changed the rules of the game—the one the title of Bard thrust upon them. two were a formidable combination and constant in its politics. It said, essentially, Our 'Bard' got his nickname from the with all the powers of the State and the fight and die for us in our war, wait for second syllable of his middle name in Establishment actively supportive of them Home Rule (after waiting for over 30 Irish, Riobaird, (Robert). Having the rather they seemed invincible. Hegarty was made years), and after you voted for what you ordinary and nondescript name of John a Justice of Peace with the purpose of believed you had fought and died for— O'Sullivan it was felt necessary to give hounding the Bard. The ensuing conflict 'the freedom of small nations'—we will him a more exotic title because of his made Millstreet known as the 'cockpit of treat it as a bad joke and shit on you with distinctive characteristics and activities. Ireland' for a while. It was not a pretty the Black and Tans. So 'the Bard' was chosen for this purpose. sight and not for the faint-hearted. That People can get upset about things like His descendants gloried in association conflict resonates to this day and remains that. The Irish continued to believe in with him and the name Robert became a part of the DNA of the area. what they had fought for—the freedom of family nickname and one of them who small nations—except that they now found was a schoolmate of mine was known as But a most interesting aspect of him is they had to fight at home for what they 'Bobby Robert'—a sort of double insurance that he became an 'All for Irelander'. After thought they had fought for, and won, that he would not be mistaken for any his release, he became constitutional in abroad. other of the O'Sullivan clan. his politics, became a farmer and showed The Bard himself was not in a position The author, Barry Keane, is a great every sign of adapting very positively to to fight again but he celebrated the victory grandson of the Bard and he has written the situation where his war, the Land War, and his spirit and example helped secure the first biography of the man and had been won. He was not and never could that victory. interweaves family, local and national be a rebel without a cause. The same went Jack Lane history into a well-told story. It's lucky for for the vast majority of his peers. He and us that Barry got there first with his they were not looking for another war biography because if the Bard had first after they had just won their own war. His TU Notes 'got the treatment' from our modern extended family became upstanding and concluded academes he would no doubt be classified model members of society which they and dismissed as just an arch terrorist. The have remained down to the present day. period—but their take-home pay has dropped to just €36,273. authorities of the day believed so and They turned up in large numbers at the People on €100,000 are paying an extra were so convinced of it that he received a launch of this book and spoke vividly and €2,177 in income tax and other charges, sentence of 24 years hard labour at a show proudly of their ancestor. despite their gross earnings falling due to trial in Nenagh in 1891. Keane does not pay cuts. Again, this is largely due to the forget the plight of his wife with six Why then, only about a decade after his universal social charge. children in this situation. To survive she release did he live to see a bigger war in Back in 2008 there was no universal broke stones by the roadside to fill potholes his area than he had ever experienced and social charge, but workers had to pay a in pre-tarmacadam days. one he could hardly have ever imagined health levy of 2% of their gross income. He was released when the Liberal despite being the very personification of a This amounted to €1,000 for someone earning €50,000. Government came to power in 1906 war himself? "After the health levy and income taxes, through the efforts of D.D. Sheehan, Did something come over the people to the €50,000 worker was left with €41,578, go to war? Reading modern historians this calculations by Cathal Maxwell of becomes a mystery. The farmers had their Paylesstax.ie show. Tax and other Look Up the land, the labourers had their cottage and deductions amounted to €8,422." (ibid.) Athol Books an acre, the town tenants became owners But a likely pay cut of 10% has left this of their homes and business, older people private sector worker with a gross salary archive on the Internet got their pensions, churches were built, of just €45,000. The take from the universal social the Catholic Church also got its University, www.atholbooks.org charge is close to €2,500. schools and hospitals, Ne Temere, and ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 12 indeed "everyone sang in unison", much Cosgrave, Finlay's daughter Ms. Justice to the joy of the new Ambassador. The Mary Finlay-Geoghegan and his son-in- es ahora * Irish Times then carried a list of those who law, the former Supreme Court judge Hugh attended. The Minister for European Geoghegan, and the former Supreme Court Affairs Lucinda Creighton, Fine Gael, judge Catherine McGuinness. Also there was there with her former campaign were Siobhan Brady, wife of the late BRITISH EMBASSY PARTY There has been no end of grousing this manager Tom Ponsonby. His partner was former Attorney General Rory Brady, Summer about the weather and all sorts of Rebecca Wardell who works for the British judge Colm Mac Eochaidh, Éamon Ó things. But we have had the best GAA Embassy. The Fine Gael strategist Frank Cúiv, Fianna Fail TD, Alex White TD, hurling and football matches that I can Flannery and his wife were seen talking to former judge Hugh O'Flaherty and former recall for a long long time with Jim Mc Olivia Mitchell. Mr. Justice Paul Carney Editor of The Irish Times, Geraldine Guinness and his Donegal team upping "surveyed the gardens and Fianna Fail's Kennedy. The author Gerald Hogan is their game to standards once reminiscent Éamon Ó Cúiv left early". Amongst the himself a High Court judge and I would of the old Kerry teams of the 60s—and the other named guests were the chief of staff have thought that there was a clear conflict 70s. The one bad note was as usual of the Defence Forces, Lt. Gen. Sean Mc of interest in him writing this book and provided by the Dublin crowd who, when Cann, former Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave, then practising law at that high level. Can someone was taking a free, whistled and Canon Bob Reed, the preceptor of St. you imagine bringing a case before him cat-called and behaved in a generally Patrick's Cathedral "who was the epitome and disagreeing with his interpretation of odious fashion like one sees in English of sartorial elegance in his panama hat", the Constitution—where would that leave soccer matches. While over in the British the papal nuncio Archbishop Charles your case? I think it sets a dangerous Embassy, there was the muted arrival of Brown, Ethna Fitzgerald of Rotary precedent as the constitution itself is our that old war-horse Sir Dominick Chilcott International in Ireland, PwC's Fergal O' primary text and even the best-intentioned as the new Ambassador. Sir Dominick— Rourke, son of Mary O'Rourke among study of it brings into play subjective bias for those of us who remember—was many others. that no amount of scholarship can conceal. previously the Ambassador in Teheran but for reasons best known to the British SUMMER BOOK LAUNCH PARTY IRISH STUDIES JOURNAL Reading the Jesuits' Studies, Spring themselves was recalled with the rest of The launch of Gerard Hogan's book 2012, Vol. 101, No. 402, I came across a his team from Iran and found that his next The Origins of the Irish Constitution 1928- book review of A Small State at the Top posting was to our fair isle. Anyway he 1941 at the Royal Irish Academy brought Table. Memories of Ireland on the Security threw his bash on the 6th of September out the elite of the law in Ireland and from Council, 1981-82 by Noel Dorr: Institute 2012 and he had a most special surprise the names there according to The Irish of Public Administration, 2010. It was for his elite gathering. Queen Elizabeth 11 Times, 15th September 2012, there seems reviewed by a Dr. Michael Kennedy who had granted him the permission to have to be in my opinion a lot of nepotism being is according to the end blurb: "Executive the clothes she wore on her state visit to practised in that arena. The book was Editor of the Royal Irish Academy's Ireland to be flown over to the Embassy launched by the Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series. and once they were put on mannequins, Fine Gael, who "read extracts from letters He has published widely on twentieth they were displayed so that those invited and memos" from His Grace, Archbishop century Irish diplomatic and military guests "filed past them", as reverentially "John Charles McQuaid to Eamon de history." No daw then until one reads his reported in The Irish Times, 8th September Valera: review of Dorr's book which left me almost 2012—and this gesture was greatly "I am deeply grateful for the draft, it is speechless with shock and for anyone appreciated by the guests. (I remember such a joy to see it in print… I beg to enclose a copy of the work I have been at, who knows me that takes a rare old fright! when the reliquaries of St. Theresa of rummaging in the heads of the last few First there was a brief account of our time Lisieux were brought to Ireland and Popes. I hope it is what you want." at the League of Nations, then the United everywhere were met throughout the land Nations and our occupancy of the Security with great crowds and devotion and The (Obviously as these were the only Council for a half term in 1962, in 1980- Irish Times was "embarrassed" by such extracts quoted, it follows on The Irish 1982, and again in 2000-2002 which were fervour and claimed that it was reminiscent Times campaign of attrition against the both two year terms against stiff opposition of former peasant devotions!) But the formidable Archbishop who obviously according to Dorr. In this book—which is Queen of England's dresses and hats— was reading through former papal encyc- Dorr's second volume of United Nations now that was a different story altogether. licals with an aim to help de Valera in that memoirs, Noel Dorr "covers this two-year The Ambassador made much of the area but from the words written there was term and explores the three crises that fact that the film director Danny Boyle, no attempt to interfere or terrify (as if!) the occurred during this period from an Irish who had done the £27million opening then Taoiseach, as is the usual canard put perspective". First there "the mounting ceremony of the British Olympics, though out by the revisionists in academia or the tension over Namibian independence "born in Lancashire had a mother who media for that matter. The language is (1981), the Israeli invasion of Lebanon came from Galway and all four of his friendly and informal confirming the true (1982) and the Anglo-Argentine war over grandparents were Irish". This gave Sir nature of the friendship between these the Falkland Islands (1982)." (Throughout Dominic the idea that he was someone two men with the Archbishop acknow- the name of the Malvinas Islands is given who "straddled the Irish sea in a spirit of ledging how truly grateful he was to receive inexplicably as the Falkland Islands and kinship" and he called on his guests "to the draft and "to see it in print…") so to be true to the book I will have to use sing 'Danny Boy' to Boyle and to what he The guest list included former Chief the latter.) Kennedy avows: represents in British-Irish relations". And Justice Ronan Keane and his wife Irene "The Irish angle and Dorr's personal Garavan-Keane, former Chief Justice perspectives are, nevertheless, the key It Is Time Thomas Finlay, former Taoiseach Liam dimensions in this most readable text." 13 Taking up over half the book, the its negative impact on British-Irish "the tradition of selfless public service reviewer states that: relations and on Ireland's position at that radiates from Dorr's memoirs." the United Nations." "the most important chapters cover Well Dr. Kennedy if that's how you see Ireland's and Dorr's handling of the it—then God help us all. Falkland War of April to June 1982. So here there is clear evidence of a civil servant of the Irish Government going Following the sinking of the Argentine THE TCD CONNECTION cruiser General Belgrano by a British against the stated intentions of the democ- Kennedy goes on to state in his review submarine on 2nd May, Ireland's strongly ratically elected leader of the Irish state. in Studies that republican Minister for Defence, Paddy And doing so on the totally spurious "at a witness seminar held on 13th Power, publicly attacked Britain as the grounds of following de Valera's policy aggressor in the Falklands conflict. This April 2012 by the Centre for Contempor- outburst did considerable damage to during WW2 which he endorsed for the ary Irish History at TCD, Dorr was one of British-Irish relations". safety of this country during that event but half-a-dozen senior British and Irish which was rolled into our Neutrality which figures who took part in the events of I urge readers to look at the language itself became the doctrinal litmus test of thirty years ago who reassembled to used by Dorr/Kennedy alleging the our freedom as a State and has still not discuss Ireland's reaction to the Falklands "outburst" which suggest an intemperate War. He (Dorr) explained to the audience been abrogated. According to Dorr, that he was 'not inclined to apologise for response rather than the calculated one of "Haughey's actions removed any 'honest a senior Irish Minister. As far as I remember whatever efforts we made in our time to broker' role that Ireland might have played try to avert the war' and this is also the the 'Belgrano' was not engaged in conflict on the Security Council over the central theme of the Falklands section of at the time of being hit but was returning Falklands", which in my opinion is utter his Security Council memoir." to base and had communicated that to the ráméis. According to Dorr too we were British who responded by firing Exocet Where did this nonsense come from? It "hobbled by the Taoiseach's actions", was Haughey who called for an UN missiles from one of their warships which which begs the question how successful had the result of sinking the ship with over resolution "to end hostilities" and it was was Dorr's own initiative? Kennedy allows Dorr himself who stated he did everything 1,300 sailors on board. (A war crime if that ever there was one!) None of this is in the possible to stall his Taoiseach's order and "it might not have been the worst crisis who sided with the British position. Just review and so I would conclude that it is for British-Irish relations for a generation not in the book either. But what really as Dorr contends; it was ultimately a imagine if it was Prime Minister Thatcher riled both Dorr and Kennedy was that short term matter with few long-term who was the one who was being disobeyed upon the UK media frenzy of war triumph- consequences. But, coming after the 1981 by her diplomats and shown such dis- alism that greeted this outrageous act that hunger strikes and in the context of loyalty in a sneaky fashion by allaying deteriorating personal relations between themselves with the policy of another the Taoiseach Charlie Haughey, Fianna Thatcher and Haughey, it is not hard to Fail, having formerly accepted an UN country at that– she would have their see why Dorr has cast it as such from the heads for treason to the State and justly so. resolution calling for Argentine with- perspectives of New York." drawal from the Falklands, now issued a The pity of it is that it seems that such press release on the 4th May: The cold stark truth here is that our treasonable activity is admired here at Taoiseach was undermined by his own home—especially in the enclaves of TCD "drafted, it would seem, by Haughey's advisors in Dublin which arrived at the officials who broke their pledge to the and The Irish Times and of course by the Irish Permanent Mission to the United Official Secrets Act and colluded with present reviewer Dr. Michael Kennedy of Nations in New York via the Irish another country which makes this cold the Royal Irish Academy. In the final embassy in Washington calling for an treason. paragraph Kennedy extols Dorr and says immediate meeting of the Security Kennedy also makes the very pertinent he: Council to prepare a resolution calling point—that Michael Lillis of the Depart- "has written a primer for students of for an end to hostilities" ment of Foreign Affairs also made—and international relations on the operation —which sounded utterly reasonable to that was that Dorr and Secretary of the of the Security Council. He shows what me. But that was not how Dorr saw it and Department of Foreign Affairs Séan a small state can do… when given a of course there is the matter of how Dorr Donlon should both have resigned over chance: he has also shown the nightmare scenario of what happens when, through himself was bypassed in this process by Haughey's so-called démarche (Dublin Review of Books December 2012). But no a clumsy desire for personal political the press release being given first to the advancement , the senior member of the Irish Embassy in Washington. sooner does he say that but jumps home team seeks to direct policy. Dorr "Whether through a desire to see Eng- immediately to negate it and goes on to may not admit it, but he was fire-fighting land's difficulty as Ireland's opportunity, suggest that "surely this would have been on two fronts in May 1982." or a short-sighted attempt at improving counter-productive and provoked When that senior member is the Taoi- his domestic popularity, Haughey forgot Haughey into wilder and more damaging seach of the country who never courted a key maxim of Irish foreign policy, actions?" Can anyone imagine a more enshrined by his predecessor as Taoiseach political advancement to the peril of our dispiriting view from so-called experts on Eamon de Valera: Ireland would never state, it is outrageous to suggest that he Irish Foreign policy? For Haughey—how let itself be used as a base from which to didn't have the right to "direct policy" incapacitating it must have been for him attack Britain. In fact, as Dorr has put it, when that was his and his only right to so England's difficulty is Ireland's to see him now cast as a rather mad man of direct. responsibility (p.240, footnote 3). And it public actions. This of course is the image was on Dorr's own initiative that these scuits want to cast about Charles THE MARRIAGE FOUNDATION Haughey's démarche, which cast Ireland Haughey but they were far from the reality. In last month's Irish Political Review, I in an anti-British light internationally Charlie was stubborn but very pragmatic and as the first chink in ending the related how there is a new attempt in the European Union sanctions against and left a legacy that one day will be UK to make marriage a more favoured Argentine, was brought to a soft landing recognised when these bird-brains are long response to setting up home rather than that deadened, as best as Dorr could, gone. And then Dr. Kennedy notes: just living together which statistically 14 attracts more breakdown—here at home "Casement was a fanatical Irish the dark, Mayta" (Casement) "moving there was the welcome news that marriage nationalist… He worked to help to closer and closer to his innocent and is on the up and up. Co-habitation is colonise the Congo, implicating himself sexual prey …" in the very activity of which he later falling in popularity. Now comes the news became a formidable and public enemy. According to Tóibín: from the USA that: He was an energetic and meticulous "Casement... had many lovers for a "Growing up with married parents campaigner against the abuse of the price—dozens, perhaps hundreds—and vastly increases a child's prospects of Congo and the Amazon Basin; he also not a single loving relationship. Pure sex, escaping poverty. A stable home was kept a diary in which he noted his sexual hurried and animal." found to raise a child's chances of escaping adventures with native young men, many the poverty trap by 82% {which is a quite of whom he paid." Tóibín himself believes that those of us staggering percentage!} When equally who know Casement as the great patriot well-educated families were compared, So we are left with the picture of a man and humanitarian cannot allow ourselves marriage increased a child's chances of who brought huge publicity to the abused to believe in the so-called Black Diaries living above the poverty line by 75%.The natives of Africa and the Amazon—yet he because they show him to be a widely US research also found that just 7% of himself partook of this abuse and his many promiscuous homosexual with some children in families below the poverty enemies didn't watch him—we are led to paedophile proclivities. The British line has two married parents. Study author believe—only when he stood up for his Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, Government have never published the a think-tank based in Washington DC own colonised country and faked fac- diaries and have yet to accede to the request said: “Being married has roughly the similes of his diaries were produced by the to do so. Certainly, when Taoiseach Eamon same effect in reducing poverty that British State and shown to influential de Valera brought home the remains of adding five to six years to a parent's people whose murmurs of sympathy our murdered martyr, neither he nor his education has. Marriage remains became more and more muted so that people who thronged the streets of Dublin America's strongest anti-poverty Casement's hanging was assured. Tóibín's for his final fitting funeral believed the weapon”." rush to implicate Casement in what was slurs and arrows that were rained down on then deemed deviant behaviour—after all him—then or now. It will still take a lot COLM TÓIBÍN, VARGAS LLOSA the fall of Oscar Wilde was fresh in every- more than imperial lies to disturb Roger AND ROGER CASEMENT one's mind—is shown by his shameless In the London Review of Books, 13th Casement's peaceful grave in our honoured quotation of the fiction of Vargas Llosa: September 2012, Colm Tóibín reviewed State cemetery—Glasnevin. ".. while lying beside one another in in a rather loose way Mario Vargas Llosa's Julianne Herlihy © The Dream of the Celt, a novel but, accord- ing to the author himself, based on quite an amount of research about Roger Case- Part Three ment. Though living superbly well as a London literati for many years now, An Irish Anti-Fascist RAF Volunteer Vargas Llosa came to Ireland and went on And Some Other Soldiers a research journey with the Casement historian Dr. Angus Mitchell. No evidence Derry Kelleher's personally motivated outlook from that which I had on of such scholarship shapes Vargas Llosa's slander—that Cork Communist Kevin incarceration on the 3rd June 1940—to propagandistic treatment of Casement and Neville had joined the RAF because of a resume my studies at University College, Cork" (p53). it is obvious he went on to write this foul supposed hostility to Ireland's wartime novel to once more with purpose to blacken neutrality on the part of the Curragh Kelleher signed out more than three Casement's noble nature and name. Internment Camp's Connolly Group—was months after Nazi Germany's invasion of Tóibín's praise for Joseph Conrad's both quoted and refuted in Part Two the USSR, and it is clear that that neither fictionalised account of his journey to (August Irish Political Review). This Kevin Neville nor anybody else had yet Africa Heart of Darkness (though his visit malicious allegation in respect of signed out by late 1941 for any anti-fascist lasted little more than two months) Neville—against whom Kelleher held a political purpose whatsoever. Con- completely over-shadows the greatness grudge originating from their shared IRA sequently, the following statement on the of what Casement accomplished but that activities in Easter 1940—came on page website www.irishlabour.com from Jim is all grist to the English mill and this very 293 of his frequently bizarre 476 page Lane's 2005 memoir Miscellaneous Notes English review journal. When Casement tome, Buried Alive in Ireland—A Story of on Republicanism and Socialism in Cork was facing his execution and Joseph a Twentieth Century Inquisition (2001). City 1954-69 is as misleading on timing as Conrad could have made some protestation On reaching page 293, however, the reader it is on the "advice" supposedly given to on his account, the latter despicably wrote may well have forgotten by that stage that Neville: against him stating: the dates from the earlier part of his book "He was a good companion; but already clearly demonstrated that Kelleher had no "Gerry Higgins told me that, following the invasion of the Soviet Union in June in Africa I judged that he was a man, personal experience of anything that might properly speaking, of no mind at all. I 1941, Kevin Neville heeded the advice of don't mean stupid. I mean that he was all have ever been debated within that Group. leading socialist figures and sought and emotion… A creature of sheer temperament Kelleher had in fact signed out of the received parole from the Curragh Camp, —a truly tragic personality: all but the Camp at an earlier stage, for his own going on to join the RAF. The advice greatness of which he had not a trace. personal reasons: given at the time was that all able bodied Only vanity. But in the Congo it was not "The writer's political metamorphosis socialists should join the armies of the visible yet". … may be extended beyond late Allied forces in the fight against fascism September/early October in 1941—when and in defence of the Soviet Union." Tóibín then goes on with typical I emerged from the Curragh Internment (p10). revisionist cant: Camp, with a radically altered political Yet Kelleher's account in the earlier 15 part of his book is reasonably accurate as War veterans and… radically minded 1946 honeymoon visiting IRA volunteers to both the dating and political resolve of volunteers… such as Seamus Ronayne, imprisoned in Britain for their bombing the Connolly Group's deliberations in Tom Murphy and Timmy Aherne from campaign activities, my father was Cork City… The Curragh Socialist which he himself, however, had played no upbraided by one prisoner, Joe Collins of Group, recognising that the IRA had been part. The pivotal figure had been Neil bereft of any revolutionary potential… Dunmanway, with the greeting: "I see Goold—not, however, an IRA member decided to take an irreversible step using you've gone Constitutional!" "Are you himself, but a Communist who had spent the resource available for their release calling me a Redmondite?" "If the cap the mid-1930s in the USSR before and enter the outside world to engage in fits!" Their friendship survived!) returning to Ireland. Goold was arrested at flesh and blood politics. The Cork There was also to be a parting of the a Dublin unemployed demonstration in members who took this step were Michael ways on that score with the Group's O'Riordan, Jim Savage, Seamus Ronayne, early 1940 and sent to the Curragh founder, Neil Goold. On its website at Timmy Aherne, Kevin Neville, Donie Internment Camp, only to be transferred Sheehan, the brothers Jerry and Tommy www.communistpartyofireland.ie/s- out of it again to Mountjoy Jail, on account MacSweeney and Thomas Kavanagh… goold.html the Communist Party of of the activities of the Connolly Study This Cork contingent decided to join the Ireland's portrayal of Goold says too much Group that he had set up in January 1942. Labour Party… 'to follow in the footsteps on one point and too little on another: Jim Savage, a member of that Group, was, of our hero dead' and so to form (in 1943) for a change, reasonably accurate in the a Liam Mellows branch of the Labour "The IRA leadership was irritated by Party {which Kelleher himself would his lectures on communism and also by following excerpt from the narrative he later join—MO'R}… Among those who the fact that he (among others) encouraged supplied to Uinseann Mac Eoin in 1997: flocked to join the new branch were Bill internees to apply for parole and to join "I was finally arrested in 1941 and held Nagle, Tommy Murray, Bernie Kennedy, the British forces so as to take their part for six weeks in the Cork Bridewell… Jack Madden, Dan Neville (brother of in the war against German fascism… On then shifted to Collins Barracks for three Kevin), Máire Keohane (the fiancée of his release from prison at the end of 1943 weeks… (then) transferred for some Donie Sheehan), Maurice Savage (brother he was critical of the CPI for having weeks to Mountjoy… I received four of Jim), Denis Cremin, Dan Looney, suspended its activities in the South in months on a minor charge; but… with Anthony Hegarty, Paddy Tierney, Mick 1941." internment I knew I was likely to be in for Ronayne (the father of Seamus, and a the duration… {Meanwhile in the veteran Labourite) … and a comrade of The CPI suggestion that Goold and Curragh}—it being then the month of Terence MacSwiney, Jim Gray, veteran some unnamed "others" (O'Riordan, January {1942}—all of the Camp was of the Black and Tan and Civil Wars and perhaps?) were actively recruiting for the drawing fuel for the stoves in each hut… ex-secretary of Fianna Fáil in Cork City. However, I was not myself present at that {As an anti-fascist, Jim Gray enthusiast- British armed forces is solely based on time… {When transferred to the Curragh} ically backed O'Riordan's 1943 campaign uncorroborated allegations made by IRA I was in a hut which included Neil against wartime anti-semitism within the internees hostile to that Group. It com- Goold… The Connolly Group had already Labour Party and continued to back him pletely ignores the fact that not a single been formed by Neil Goold and it became in his 1946 Cork Socialist Party election one of the four Connolly Group members the basis of my further education. The campaign. This was the same Jim Gray interviewed by MacEoin—namely, Fen- Soviet Union had been violently attacked whose War of Independence record has nell, O'Riordan, Ronayne and Savage — by Nazi Germany in June 1941, so we all him characterised as 'one of the city's felt we should support its war effort. most notorious gunmen' by Gerard ever gave the slightest indication of any Russia, being now drawn into the war, Murphy in The Year Of Disappear- such activity. Moreover, Goold's principal formed an inspiration to the Group. While ances—Political Killings in Cork, 2010, criticism of the CPI in the South was that the Group had numbers of Cork men in it, p33. The front cover of Murphy's second it had told its members to join the Labour it was not however Cork inspired… All edition proudly flashes the Sunday Party. As for Goold himself, his own the time, however, we were supervised… Independent review by John-Paul agitational activities after his release were The Staters {Irish Army camp guards— McCarthy on 7 November 2010, in which not all concerned with Britain's war effort MO'R} did not interfere. I am not saying Murphy was praised for his portrayal— they took notes but they listened carefully. or should I not say character assassin- but became decidedly more Republican They only wanted to split the IRA anyway. ation?—of Miah and Jim Gray as "two than ever before, getting him into trouble They shoved Goold into the Curragh notoriously cruel IRA men .. intent on .. with the law yet again in 1944 for when he should have been placed in sectarian massacre"—MO'R} ... The campaigning (unsuccessfully) to save the Mountjoy for organising the unemployed Liam Mellows Branch also met life of IRA chief-of-staff Charlie Kerins, and lying down on the streets, not indeed committees of trade unions in Cork, not following his Military Tribunal conviction that that should be regarded as a crime. affiliated to the Labour Party, to remind and death sentence for the murder of His offence was of course Mountjoy them of the historically endorsed practical material pure and simple; not Curragh advantages of so doing, so as to obtain Detective Sergeant Denny O'Brien. material. After a while (IRA internees appropriate trade union legislation leader) Pearse Kelly took alarm and wrote through the Dáil {My emphasis –MO'R}" Jim Lane's 2005 narrative of the 1954- to the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin… (pp 73-83). 69 years was quoted at length in Part Two, and whatever case he put forward, Goold, so what follows is commentary rather who had been almost three years in the The "apostasy" of the nine Cork than unnecessary, repetitive requotation. Camp and was generally respected, was Connolly Group members, as far as the It is its sins of omission that result in it removed" (The IRA In The Twilight Years , pp 816-820). IRA was concerned, lay in their recognition being a particularly misleading account of of the 26 Counties Dáil—and, by the politics of many of the names that The earlier part of Kelleher's book implication, de Valera's 1937 Constitution Lane drops throughout the course of his further related: —and not in any supposed group enlist- memoir. If his narrative is to be accepted "The New Year (of 1942) saw the ment in the British armed forces. Kevin at face value, one must conclude that he emergence of a Connolly Study Group… Neville's enlistment in the RAF was the knew less than he thought he did about (which) had already been in gestation sole Cork exception that proved that rule. many of those he cites as close associates, with the convergence of Spanish Civil (When my parents spent their November whether or not it was a conscious decision 16 on their part that he was a man who should political discussions with the two dual and James McCormack. Both volunteers be kept in the dark about their other political CPI/IRA members operating in Cork in had been hanged in Birmingham in affiliations. that year—Jim O'Regan and Micheál February 1940, following their conviction O'Riordan—both of whom had also fought for the Coventry bombing of August 1939. I do not at all doubt Lane's word that in defence of the Spanish Republic. It was Robert White, a sympathetic biographer Kevin Neville, Dan Neville and Liam made abundantly clear how much O'Regan of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, first President of Flavin were associated with him in the had been opposed to Seán Russell's IRA Provisional Sinn Féin in 1970 and Irish Republican Forces activities of the bombing campaign, then underway in subsequently of Republican Sinn Féin in early 1960s. But I remain mystified as to England. Yet O'Regan finally volunteered 1986, has graphically evoked that why his memoir stays silent on their for that campaign, was arrested, and in occasion: concurrent membership of the Irish October 1939 was sentenced by a London Workers' League (which became the IWP "In July (1969) the British government Court to twenty years' penal servitude, of gave the traditionalists the opportunity to in 1962). But perhaps they never told him; which he would serve nine. Lane described publicly challenge the IRA leadership no more than did the IRA's Cork Brigade O'Regan as "an iconic figure" in the {of Cathal Goulding}… The Barnes and Adjutant, Jim O'Regan. Lane's narrative Republican Movement, against whom he McCormack Repatriation Committee… makes much of having been informed by included Ruairí Ó Brádaigh (of did not risk expressing a single word of Gerry Higgins of "secret" communist Roscommon)… and Jimmy Steele, criticism. Yet, in recounting how in meetings in Cork hotels with IWL General Jimmy Drumm, Billy McKee and Joe September 1958 he himself had gone to Secretary Michael O'Riordan during an Cahill, all from Belfast {and all leaders the home of the IRA's Cork Brigade of the Provisional IRA that was on the earlier period, but he seems to know Adjutant—the same Jim O'Regan—to point of emerging—MO'R}. Their nothing of the semi-clandestine Cork resign from that Army because of the campaign was successful… On Sunday, Branch meetings of the IWL that were Cork leadership's obstruction of local July 6, thousands attended the funeral… held in the Boreenmanna Road home of The speakers included James O'Regan of volunteers going North to fight in the my maternal aunt, Máire Keohane Cork, a veteran Republican and socialist Border campaign, it never seemed to have Sheehan, where I would spend my who was expected to support the new struck Lane to consider that O'Regan may childhood Summer holidays. (Goulding/MacGiolla) political direction, well have been to the fore himself in such and Jimmy Steele. The traditionalists, Both Jim O'Regan and Dan Neville I a policy of obstructionism, motivated by abstentionists and other dissidents were would have known from my infancy. Liam his own bitter experience of imprisonment there to hear Steele, a living legend in the Flavin—another member of the Curragh from 1939 to 1948, and trying hard to Belfast IRA… He had spent twenty years Internment Camp's Connolly Group—I in prison for the cause. And he was primed. protect and prevent young Cork first met at the age of 8 when I was put The Belfast people knew what was Republicans from throwing away either sitting up on the side of the speakers' lorry coming. As Steele rose to speak, Jimmy their liberty—or, worse still, their lives— at a mass rally of Cork unemployed Drumm … leaned over and suggested in what the architect of the IRA's Border that Ó Brádaigh listen carefully… Steele workers in 1957. I subsequently became campaign, Seán Cronin, would categorise spoke of Barnes and McCormack… They aware of the gatherings of O'Regan, at the close of his life as "the failed 'went forth to carry the fight to the enemy, Neville, Flavin and several others in my campaign". into enemy territory, using the only aunt's home, but I would be packed off to methods that will ever succeed, not the bed before the conversation turned too How much Jim Lane really understood methods of the politicians, nor the 'serious'. By the Summer of 1960, however, of Jim O'Regan's dual communist/IRA constitutionalists, but the methods of I was 11 years of age—too old to be sent politics may be judged from his 2009 soldiers, the methods of armed force.' To shouts of 'hear, hear' and applause, he to bed, but deemed too young yet to roam audio interview that has also been placed added, 'The ultimate aim of the Irish the streets. So I was allowed sit in on that on the website www.irishlabour.com as nation will never emerge from the political 1960 meeting and yet another one in 1961. an "authentic historical record" of or constitutional platform.' … Steele stole That these were formal IWL Branch Republicanism and Socialism in Cork: the show. Tomás Mac Giolla {pre-Split meetings—and not ad hoc meetings "Jim O'Regan was on the (Irish President of Sinn Féin, and—following convened just because my father was in Republican) Army Council in Cork. the Party Split at its January 1970 Ard town—was beyond doubt, with my aunt Riordan spent umpteen occasions trying Fheis—President of all of the subsequent metamorphoses of Official SF into SFWP reading out the minutes of previous to get Jim to go into the (Irish Workers') and, later, the Workers' Party—MO'R}, meetings, and with Jim O'Regan, Dan Party, but Jim wouldn't go." That Lane who was sitting on the platform, 'could Neville and Liam Flavin among those knew even less of the final decade of feel the tension'. Steele was summarily present as IWL members. At one or other O'Regan's life is also evident from the dismissed from the IRA; his remarks of the two meetings I attended, I also following: "I don't know when he died, but were contrary to {Goulding's} army recall Jim Savage reporting back on his he died pre the Split, I think." As I pointed policy" (Ruairí Ó Brádaigh: The Life visit to the USSR, as a guest of the CPSU, out in Irish Political Review in November and Politics of an Irish Revolutionary, 2006, pp 144-5). on how Khrushchev's anti-Stalin campaign 2010, it was in fact 1978 when Jim O'Regan was developing. died, almost a decade after the IRA had Lane's recall proved amnesiac regarding split into its Official and Republican wings O'Regan's platform presence during this Judging from Jim Lane's memoir, he in December 1969. But the Split had Split high drama of July 1969, believing was either ignorant of, or else did not wish already been dramatically signalled before that he was already dead by this stage. to acknowledge, O'Regan's dual IRA/IWL an assembly of fifteen thousand What can be said of O'Regan, however, is membership. In the November 2010 issue Republicans in Mullingar five months that he subsequently appears to have stood of Irish Political Review I provided a previously, as O'Regan gave the first aside from that Republican Split. My own detailed profile of O'Regan, when funeral oration when the reburial took last meeting and conversation with Jim publishing for the first time Desmond place in July 1969 of the repatriated O'Regan occurred six years later, when he Greaves's July 1939 diary account of his remains of IRA volunteers Peter Barnes came to Clonakilty in September 1975 for 17 the funeral of my maternal aunt and parents and my Aunt Máire, in which she 8th, 1922—the executions of Rory godmother, Máire Keohane Sheehan. related how Jim Lane had won over what O'Connor, Dick Barrett, Joe McKelvey When, however, it comes to describing he himself called the Republican "middle and Liam Mellows—in Mountjoy Jail." (1965 edition, pp 34-36). his own central role in what, by com- ground". He had played the abstentionist parison, was very much a minor drama, card: O'Riordan should be excluded Peadar O'Donnell, of course, had always Lane's recall at first appears to be far because he had recognised Leinster House. known the identities of the three IRA free- sharper. A closer reading nonetheless leads On that score, O'Riordan and his fellow lancers who would assassinate the Free to the conclusion that he knew far less of IWP members were undoubtedly "guilty State Minister for Justice, Kevin O' Kevin Neville (1921-1964) as a person as charged", as was to be colourfully Higgins, in July 1927: one a pure-and- than he seemed to suggest, while knowing underscored in that same year of 1965 by simple IRA gunman, another a dual far more of Neville's actual politics than the funeral ceremonies of a Party founding member of Fianna Fáil who would have a he cared to shed light on. member, Bill Gannon. FF Cumann named after him following his own assassination in January 1928 by In his audio interview Lane professed In his 1932 autobiographical account a Free State informer (and have leading ignorance of Saor Uladh's politics, seemed of Civil War imprisonment, The Gates Fianna Fáiler and future Government bewildered as to how Neville set about Flew Open, Peadar O'Donnell recalled: Minister and pillar of the establishment joining Saor Uladh's Border campaign, "It is a matter of speculation whether Seán MacEntee promise that his death and while knowing that he had participated the executions {by the Free State of 77 would be avenged), and the third a in its first military action in which Connie Republican prisoners—MO'R} would communist dual member of both the IRA Green lost his life, he seems not to have have begun so soon but for the capture of and the short-lived Workers' Party of known that Neville was wounded during Erskine Childers, who was hated with a Ireland in 1927, who would later become that same engagement, as Kevin himself deadly hatred by Churchill, and his associates in Ireland. Desmond a founding member of the Communist related to my mother, Kay Keohane FitzGerald, O'Higgins, and Churchill Party of Ireland in 1933. As the Irish O'Riordan, on one of her hospital visits appear to have thirsted for the death of Times reported on October 7, 1985: during the course of his cancer treatment. this frail, scholarly and courageous man, Of his own successful political coup in with a ferocity that has rarely been "Mr Peadar O'Donnell, the last survivor 1965, Jim Lane's memoir relates that when expressed, Churchill's speech in Scotland of the IRA executive elected in the 1920s, revealing what seems to me an almost said yesterday that the names of the men Máire Sheehan, as Secretary of the Kevin who murdered Kevin O'Higgins in 1927 Neville Commemorative Committee, insane hatred… The executions rever- berated in Mountjoy… Its immediate had been given to the IRA Army Council by its intelligence section 'pretty promptly' "announced that the oration on the day effect was to darken the whole jail with a after O'Higgins was shot down on his of the unveiling would be given by brooding spirit of vengeance that grouped way to Mass near his home in Dublin… Michael O'Riordan of the Irish Workers' men in cells. In prison men dream of Mr O'Donnell said political assassination Party … the socialist republican element rousing a people to tear down a tyranny was not part of IRA policy at the time… {a Lane self-description—MO'R} and achieve freedom or they plan dark Archie Doyle was one of the more challenged this departure from basic individual vengeance. Living close to the shadowy figures in IRA activities over democracy to successfully win over the thoughts in the average prisoner I was two decades… A single reference to him middle ground and stop the O'Riordan sensitive to this tendency to create circles in J Bowyer Bell's book, The Secret Army, oration" (p11). to wreck vengeance later on, and I had many opportunities to discuss it, for there describes him as part of a skeleton staff still attached to Charlie Kerins, then Chief Not wishing for controversy to cause were conflicting views: some did not oppose it for any reasons except political of Staff of the IRA, who was tried and any distress to the Neville family, my considerations, that the reforming of the hanged in 1944 for the murder of Sergeant father absented himself from the stout mass of the people for another bid Denis O'Brien of the Garda Special subsequent unveiling ceremony. But a for freedom would be delayed by mere Branch in September 1942. Doyle was photograph of the occasion taken by Dan group terrorism; others approached it also involved in the O'Brien murder… Neville—Kevin's fellow-IWP member as merely as a religious question and Tim Coughlan, another of the men named, considered such proposed killings as was according to Bowyer Bell, 'a member well as his brother—tells its own story. of Fianna Fáil and (it was assumed) the Those shown as present include Máire murder. Then there was the view that all shooting of government agents is good IRA'. He was shot dead in an incident in Sheehan, Jim O'Regan (wearing his and the terrorism of groups co-ordinated 1928 in which Sean Harling, a police customary black beret that he still wore actually makes a revolutionary agent, was fired upon and returned fire. when I last met him a decade later— movement… The executions came so The third man named as one of MO'R), Liam Flavin and Gerry Higgins— close that news of them struck the ear like O'Higgins's assassins, Bill Gannon, died along with Jim Lane hovering over the the thud of falling bodies, and at every on September 12th, 1965, and was buried thud the jails darkened and passions at Mount Jerome cemetery in Dublin shoulders of Jim Savage who, as I with military honours accorded by an remarked in Part Two, seemed to bring rocked men's minds, so that only steeled obsessions to kill this person or that in Army unit and bugler. His coffin was out the worst in each other. The centre black vengeance, remained. Soft and draped with a Tricolour and Red Flag, as piece is, of course, the Celtic Cross shallow minds that only meet the world Gannon had been a member of the Irish memorial itself, inscribed "Kevin Neville, on the highways will never get within Workers' Party and the British O/C Southern Command Saor Uladh, hailing distance of the minds that were Communist Party." formerly of No 2 Coy 1st Batt, 1st Cork bruised in the prisons of 1922, and Brigade, Irish Republican Army"—and, although the groups that swore to kill this The Irish Times of 13th July 1987 also one or that may have been dispersed, still standing upright against the base of that reported how Una Higgins-O'Malley had the impulse that first drew them together memorial, a large laurel wreath from Kevin arranged a memorial Mass, on his has not been eradicated and gusts of it anniversary, for both her father and his Neville's comrades in the Irish Workers' invade political life even yet. And I would Party. I remember very clearly the say these impulses get their greatest three assassins: conversations of that time between my impetus from the events of December "Kevin O'Higgins was on his way to 18 Mass at the same church, 60 years ago, "Frank Aiken's Volunteers soldiered us. Like Charlie Haughey was down there when he was shot dead… O'Higgins was enthusiastically side by side with (Free in UCD and set fire to a British flag. I was regarded as the main author of the Free State) Civil War veterans, In the mobilised on the verge of getting on a jeep myself State Constitution, which was replaced 10th (Uisneach) Infantry Battalion the and going up there and petrol bombing in 1937 by the present one." author and other Volunteers served them. Thanks be to Jesus that I didn't. cheerfully under their platoon They dodged the bloody draft. It was Gannon himself was to say of his role in commander, Lt ('Score-Card') Larry mostly Northern Ireland people. Draft- the O'Higgins assassination: Clancy, the man alleged to have shot dodgers. It's hard to explain the feeling at Liam Lynch" (p179). that time. But it was encapsulated in "Seeing him and realising that it was Churchill's talk about 'We were forced to not a mistake, we were just taken over In January 2001 Duggan participated come to close quarters with Éire'. And and incensed with hatred. You can have in a panel discussion with fellow wartime everybody was aghast and there was great no idea what it was like, with the memory euphoria over Dev's reply" (pp 215-6). of the {Civil War} executions, and the Irish Army officers for a 2004 book, The Irish Experience During the Second World sight of him just walking along on his But it was in his evocation of how the own. We started shooting from the car, War—An Oral History, compiled by Irish Army had been transformed by the then getting out of the car we continued Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon. He was, of War that Duggan proved most enlight- to shoot. We all shot at him; he didn't course, contemptuous of those from among ening: have a chance" (Bill Gannon statement, the IRA internees who had derided the National Archives, as quoted by Richard "It was a turning point in the army. A English, Armed Struggle—A History of Irish Army's wartime defence of this State: real turning point… Because don't forget, the IRA, 2003, p44). "(Brig Gen Patrick Daly:) We had in 1939 the Civil War was only barely 14 internment camps here, for British airmen. or 15 years since 1923. In the hand-over The Defence Forces, welded together (Duggan:) Not only that, we had an of 1932, it was touch and go, you know. to safeguard Ireland's neutrality during internment camp for the IRA. And don't I remember people who were friends World War Two against all potential forget throughout the War, de Valera saying 'Will we shoot or salute?' But de invaders, was a much transformed force executed six IRA men, and had to do it, I Valera thought there were subversives in remember them as a soldier in 1940-41 the army, and indeed when I say it was a from the Free State Army that Gannon and they were a terrible crowd of bastards. had fought against during the Civil War, turning point in the army, it was at that Down in Tintown (the Curragh point that Dan Mc Kenna began to come just as Dev's 1937 Constitution also Internment Camp) they would be shouting into focus. He was changed into Chief of represented a Republican dismantling of insults up at you, as if you were a second- Staff (in January 1940)… He (Dev) had the British-imposed Treaty, inclusive of class Irishman." (p218). made up his mind then that Chief of Staff the Imperial Constitution so highly valued Brennan would go and that Dan McKenna by O'Higgins. (It should also be noted that Duggan was equally contemptuous of would come in. There had to be an end to Gannon's funeral was itself marked by the those who had deserted the Irish Army— ambivalence as far as your oath was healing of some Civil War wounds, with in the hour of greatest danger to this State's concerned, and you couldn't have a fifth very existence—in order to soldier with column… (Commandant Owen Quinn:) the attendance of a "Collins man" who had I think there's one thing that can be brought the British Army: fought against Gannon in that Treaty up for our own personal point of view, War—Martin Walton, founder of Walton's "We certainly had to draw demarcation from the end of our own Civil War of Music Shops—in memory of when they lines here in Ireland. You're back into 1922-23, when we saw these old-timers had soldiered together as close comrades- that 'Who are we neutral against?' united at last… (Duggan:) Very in-arms during the War of Independence.) question. These islands are so complex. important. I would say that coming When Dev secured victory in both the You wouldn't know who was planted together was the first thawing of the Civil War bitterness. Coming into the army in 1932 and 1933 General Elections, his where. There is an incestuous relation between the two islands. So many the Emergency, together, in 1940, it was choice as Minister for Defence was Frank Irishmen fought with the British Army... the first time they were united. Because, Aiken who, when Liam Lynch had been which is why in 1922 the one thing they as you know, before that you had the 26th killed in action by Free State forces in wanted in the Treaty was to keep this 'Old IRA' Battalion, and the 12th Murder March 1923, had succeeded Lynch as place as a recruiting ground. I'm sure all Battalion, but now there was that coming IRA Chief-of-Staff and was to bring the of you had the experience of fellows together and it was the first thawing of Civil War to a close two months later. The deserting our army to go to the British the Civil War" (pp 205-6 and 220-1). new Fianna Fáil Government froze Army. (Brig Gen Patrick Hogan:) Oh yes. Not many, but two or three men in My father recognised that change from recruitment to the Free State Army and in my company during the War deserted the outset. In February 1940 he was to be 1934 went on to establish a new Volunteer and went to join the British Army." interned for the best part of four years Force into which flocked many Republican (p202). before he had time to seriously weigh up veterans of the Civil War—if outnumbered the offer made to him of a commission in by enthusiastic fresh recruits unencumber- Duggan's greatest contempt, however, the Irish Defence Forces. And while he ed by any such divisive legacy—and which was reserved for the Trinity College enjoyed highlighting the irony of how rapidly achieved close to parity in numbers loyalists who had dodged joining the Terry Flanagan, a fellow International with the Regular Army itself, leading to British Army. In answer to a question as to Brigade veteran of the Spanish War, had the much transformed Irish Defence Forces his feelings on VE Day when the War in been one of the armed guards in a Curragh of the Second World War years. Europe was over, Duggan elaborated: camp watchtower overseeing both himself In his 1991 book, A History of the Irish "The general feeling at that time was and his fellow prisoners, he never held it Army, Lt. Col. John P. Duggan recalled one of relief. But at the same time, a great against Flanagan that his response to World annoyance at Britain… You had these how well both traditions would ultimately pricks in Trinity College who had dodged War Two had been to volunteer for the blend in rallying to the colours to defend the War and nevertheless went up on top Irish Army. That both Bill Gannon and his this beleaguered State during World War of Trinity College and burned the Party General Secretary Micheál O' Two: Tricolour, which infuriated a number of Riordan recognised that this was no longer 19 the old Free State Army was made Stormont—and his endorsement of Gerry Jack_Jones_Vindicated.pdf there is no unambiguously evident from the arrange- Madden's 1963 statement of denunciation need for me to do more than mention that ments they joined together in making for that "it is only two years ago that all much of it is a critique of Ramelson's the former's funeral. In his 1979 book, delegates from Cork to the Sinn Féin Ard negative role in Trade Union politics. It is, Connolly Column—The Story of the Fheis, with the exception of myself, voted however, his previous role in the anti- Irishmen who Fought for the Spanish in favour of entering Leinster House, the fascist and anti-imperialist struggles of Republic 1936-1939, my father further Free State Parliament". (p26). Jim Lane's the 1930s and 1940s that I here wish to enthused about that funeral ceremony: need for such nod and wink furtiveness acknowledge. Seifert and Sibley relate: should, of course, be obvious. To take up "In 1936 Ramelson took the decision "In September 1936 a decision was an abstentionist sniper's position from to go to Spain to fight with the taken by the very small Communist Party behind Kevin Neville's gravestone was to International Brigades in defence of the of Ireland that an Irish Unit of the dishonour the man's memory with a Spanish Republic… In the battle for International Brigades should be formed. vengeance. For Kevin himself, as O/C of Spanish democracy against the Franco The task of recruitment and organisation Saor Uladh's Southern Command, was fascist rebellion… Ramelson fought on was given to Bill Gannon, a member of the Aragon Front and in the Ebro the Party who had considerable explicitly and enthusiastically committed Offensive. In both operations he was experience as a Republican fighter in the to recognition of the 26 Counties Dáil. wounded… Franco's troops were vastly war against the British Imperialists and superior both in numbers and equipment, the Free State forces. Bill Gannon (1902- Saor Uladh's approach to the Six and were backed to the hilt by Mussolini 1965) was the son of a 1913 striker and a Counties was, of course, a different matter, and Hitler—unlike the democratic Fenian mother. He was a member of and an issue worth exploring in its own government they were seeking to Fianna Éireann (Republican Boy Scouts), right. How is it that the two casualties of overthrow, who were abandoned by other later joining the Irish Republican Army, western governments… {BR's} main being one of the first to be chosen for the that first Border campaign offensive in political conclusion was that this was a Active Service Unit of the Dublin November 1955—Kevin Neville, war against fascism, and that the overall Brigade, taking part in all the engagements wounded, and Connie Green killed in aim of British and French diplomacy was of that specially picked body of fighters action—were both World War Two ex- to avoid confrontation with Hitler and to against the Black and Tans. During the servicemen? (Neville serving in the RAF encourage the Nazi regime to look Civil War he was in the Republican and Green as a British commando eastwards towards the military defeat of Garrison of the Four Courts… With the the Soviet Union" (pp 30-4). fall of the Four Courts, he was imprisoned decorated for bravery in the Italian campaign). Neville, we know, had enlisted in Mountjoy Jail. After his release he What, then, of the Second World War? resumed activity with the IRA and was and demobilised as a Republican The authors continue: associated with that body's formation of Communist. I don't know if Derryman Saor Éire, a radical political organisation Green had enlisted for anything other than "We have no record of Ramelson's based on workers and small farmers. On economic reasons, but he did emerge from personal reaction to the Hitler-Stalin Pact the occasion of his funeral on September that War as a convinced anti-fascist, and (August 1939), but we do know from a 15th, 1965, his coffin, as he wished, was later interview that Ramelson had strong covered by both the National and Red perhaps a socialist to boot. Both Neville reservations about the anti-fascist nature Flags. At the graveside an honour guard and Green would have been party to the of the war in its initial stages… 'And the from the 2nd Battalion, the Irish Army, radical debates that took place among the nature of the Phoney War, and early part Cathal Brugha Barracks, rendered rank and file of British servicemen as the of it, confirmed us in that particular military honours" (pp 55 and 64; my War drew to a close, and which took the view… This was an imperialist war emphases—MO'R). form of what became known as "Forces primarily' … From this it is clear that Parliaments". It is worth looking briefly Ramelson supported, as did many other So, O'Riordan was quite clearly "guilty" British Communists, the Soviet view that at some of these developments among the the failure of the major European of recognising the Leinster House Dáil, British forces in India. the political "crime" for which he had imperialist powers, Britain and France, to join a collective security pact with the been "indicted" by Jim Lane in 1965. One Bert Ramelson (1910-1994) was the Soviet Union indicated that if war were does not have to agree with Ruairí Ó Industrial Organiser of the Communist to break out it would not be an anti-fascist Brádaigh's life-long contention—that no Party of Great Britain from 1965 to 1977, one. Ramelson's views changed as events Dáil after the Second Dáil should be and for most of this period was at unfolded—rather faster than those of the accorded any legitimacy—to recognise Party leadership. Once the Churchill- loggerheads with the leadership being Attlee coalition was in place in 1940, that in his case the principle of Republican given by Jack Jones (1913-2009) as abstentionism has undoubtedly been clearly determined to defeat Hitler, TGWU General Secretary from 1969 to Ramelson felt that the phoney war stage maintained with an incorruptible integrity, 1978. This year has seen the publication had finished and that the line should have however myopic. (Ó Brádaigh nonetheless of an adulatory biography by Roger Seifert changed to reflect this. In the event it was found no difficulty in going out of his way and Tom Sibley: Revolutionary to take Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union to convey to me his personal condolences Communist at Work—a Political (June 1941) to convince the CPGB as a on the death of my father in May 2006.) whole that the war was an anti-fascist Biography of Bert Ramelson. On page one, to be fought unreservedly… But there was nothing principled about 352 the authors cite my own 2010 Bevin Jim Lane's abstentionist whispering Ramelson was called up in May 1941 … Society pamphlet The Vindication of Jack and posted to Cairo in October 1941" (pp campaign of 1965. It was furtive at that James Larkin Jones for the first publication 35-6). time, and it remained so in its retelling of evidence that Jones himself had been a four decades later. For it is only hinted at CPGB member during the 1930s. The authors recount Ramelson's capture in Lane's own passing expression of by the German Army, his experiences as a contempt for any "recognition of the Since this pamphlet is available as a prisoner in both North African and Italian partitioned parliaments" (p12)—by which free download at http://free-downloads. POW camps, and his escape and he meant Dáil Éireann no less than atholbooks.org/pamphlets/ repatriation to the UK. Then: 20 "After two months leave Ramelson to Mutiny In The RAF—the Air Force The 'mutiny' resulted and was emulated: was trained as an artillery officer for a Strikes of 1946—it can be downloaded at "The Royal Indian Navy followed. year… In August 1945 he was sent to www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk/ Three thousand ratings mutinied in India, where he was posted to Deolali as duncancontents.htm—which had been Bombay, the principal naval base, and a legal officer… Deolali was in essence a many of them carried the flags of the large transit camp… It also had a Forces written by one of the CPGB leaders of the Karachi "mutiny", David Duncan. The Indian National Congress and the Muslim Parliament in which, not surprisingly, League when they demonstrated in the Ramelson soon became a leading force. May 2008 Guardian obituary of another city. When some of the ratings ashore In this Parliament the government was a "mutineer" recorded: were involved in skirmishes with soldiers, left coalition (Communist and Labour) "Arthur Attwood has died aged 95. In the mutineers on board the ships in the and around a thousand troops attended 1946 he was imprisoned as a leader of the harbour trained their guns on the city and the twice-weekly open-air sessions. so-called RAF mutiny, a strike action threatened a bombardment... The Viceroy Ramelson recalled an incident involving involving up to 50,000 men in 60 British of India, General Wavell, held the RAF John Saville who later became an air bases across India and South Asia men guilty. Referring to the naval influential Marxist history professor and protesting at conditions and slow mutinies, he wrote: 'I am afraid that the for a while was a member of the Yorkshire demobilisation following the end of the example of the Royal Air Force, who got District CP at the same time as Ramelson Second World War." away with what was really mutiny, has was the District Secretary. Saville passed some responsibility for the present through Deolali on his way back to Britain David Duncan himself related: situation.' … Many historians have having been demobilised from Karachi. presented the transfer of power in India "Men in the forces are trained to obey. At the time a small number of British as part of a grand British scheme to grant Parades, kit inspections, saluting, service people, including some CP independence to the nations of the Empire. polishing boots and buttons may have members, were being court-martialled It was not like that. At the beginning of other justifications, but all are used to for mutiny after pressing for 1946 the future of India was still uncertain. accustom men to instant obedience to the demobilisation now that the war was Informed British opinion, shared by Prime orders of their superiors. How, then, could over. The question of Indian Minister Attlee, was that, in the new twelve hundred RAF personnel at Drigh independence was also high on the post-war situation, Britain would not be Road, Karachi, in January, 1946, come to political agenda and it was widely felt able to hold on to India against the wishes defy their commanding officer and take that demobilisation was being delayed in of its people. So major concessions would part in what was technically a mutiny? In case of civil unrest erupting in support of have to be made. But would these general, the morale of British forces claims made by Indian political leaders concessions go as far as real during the Second World War seems to which the British ruling class was not yet independence?… The strikes of early have been surprisingly good…. Almost prepared to concede. The two questions— 1946 made it clear that the British without exception, they knew that this demobilisation of British service people government had no choice. If the Indian was a war that had to be won. They would and Indian independence—were forces were discontented, with many have expressed this in different ways— intertwined and the impatient Saville sympathetic to nationalism; if British fighting for their country, standing up for wanted to know from his fellow forces recruited to fight Nazi Germany democracy, opposing aggression or, for communist (Ramelson) what action he could not be relied upon to support the me and many like me, fighting fascism. was going to propose to the troops at government's peacetime objectives, how We all wanted the war to be over, but Deolali in support of the Indian people could British control be maintained?… only after victory. A few months after the and the Karachi 'mutineers'. This seemed By the summer of 1947 the British were end of the war the atmosphere had to Ramelson to be an adventurist position out." and pressed Saville for ideas as to how changed. Except for a few regular airmen, such a campaign could be launched and our paybooks showed that we had joined sustained with the prospect of success for 'DPE'—the Duration of the Present There were, however, no threatened without exposing rank-and-file service Emergency. {Yes! 'The Emergency' was British forces "mutinies"—whether near people to the threat of reprisals from the not a WW2 term invented by Dev; it was or real—to help bring about civil rights authorities. When Ramelson, as Minister a term also used in Britain's own wartime and democracy in Northern Ireland. Without Portfolio in the Forces regulations—MO'R.} And to us the Connie Green would have to make up his Parliament, suggested a debate in support emergency was over. The war had been own mind what to do about his native won. It was time to get back to Britain of immediate and full independence for heath on returning to Derry following his the Indian people, Saville pooh-poohed and then into civilian life… And if we the proposal as idle talk when action was could not be demobilised for a while, British Army demobilisation. The Cork required… (having) little inkling of the why could we not go home and serve our RAF veteran Kevin Neville would go on political level of the troops in Deolali. time in Britain? The official answer was to connect with Green's resolution, and The Parliament duly carried the independ- that there were not enough ships, but act accordingly as his comrade-in-arms. ence motion by an overwhelming none of us believed that. Some men (to be continued) majority but within days and as a direct pointed out that plenty of ships seemed to Manus O'Riordan result of this resolution it was closed be available to take supplies to Indonesia down by the British authorities… The to help the Dutch regain their hold on that British military authorities had become country… There seemed to be no official pretty fed up with the articulate lawyer answers, and more and more men were (Ramelson) who had all the contacts and convinced that we were being held in skills to raise difficult questions about India as a matter of policy… The war was their conduct with British MPs. (He raised over, had been over for five months. To with the MPs questions concerning the men, that meant it was time to go independence and asked them to intercede home. To the top brass of the Air Force, to support his campaign to re-open the that meant it was time for peacetime Deolali Parliament.) So a few months discipline. Early in January came the after the Deolali Parliament closure crucial blow. Station Orders announced Ramelson was back in Britain, that on Saturday, 19th January, the whole demobilised on 6 May 1946" (pp 41-3). station would parade in best blue uniform, and the parade would be followed by a kit In 1998 John Saville wrote a foreword inspection." 21 Surely the most basic right of a child is children. In a recent Irish Independent to have parents. The existing Constitution article the retired Supreme Court Judge Does recognised this right. The new proposed Hugh O'Flaherty stated: "we don't need a It wording does not appear to recognise this referendum to protect our children's Stack basic right and temporises around it. Also rights" and he continued: Up the new proposed wording completely ? "…the important engine to implement ignores the rights of parents to have rights should come in ordinary legislation. children and the rights of children to have That can be enacted and amended speed- CHILDREN'S RIGHTS REFERENDUM brothers and sisters. The family is not ily if found wanting. Working towards a The Thirty-First Amendment of the mentioned at all in the Bill. constitutional referendum seems a Constitution (Children) Bill 2012 was cumbersome way of doing business." introduced on 17th September 2012 by The second set of outright and blatantly A Constitutional referendum on child- Minister Frances Fitzgerald, Fine Gael. deceiving statement in the official Memor- ren's rights is unnecessary, expensive and On the face of it there does not seem to be andum is to do with giving the impression troublesome. But there must be big money much done for children except to introduce that "the recommendations of many experts in it for some organisation/s. Why the the concept of adoption for children whose over the years…" are being delivered now concentration on adoption and what is parents are still alive. The Bill states: in this Bill. They are not. "voluntary adoption", as referred to in "Provision shall be made in law for the In Volume I0 of the report of the All proposed Article 42A.3? It is not explained adoption of any child where the parents Party Oireachtas Committee on the Con- anywhere. Who does the volunteering? have failed for such a period of time as stitution (2006 (p.88 et seq) a fairly wide may be prescribed by law in their duty The Father? The Mother? Or the Child? towards the child and where the best selection of expert views is given. Most of What about a brother or a sister? There are interests of the child so require." the views are not reflected in the Bill. Nor so many things that do not stack up in what are the views of the Committee. The seems to be at first glance 'a good thing' Up to now children who were suffering Committee expressly stated four basic but which is anything but a good thing deprivation or harm in a dysfunctional rights, none of which is mentioned in the when we look deeper into it. family could be placed by the State in Bill. In particular, the Bill does not state: foster care, a procedure which is thousands ABORTION LEGISLATION of years old and which in most cases will "the right of every child, as far as The need for abortion legislation seems practicable, to be cared for by his or her to be expressed by those who wish to provide as well as possible for the needs of parents." the child. Applying the "adoption" formula demonstrate their liberal credentials. The is the principle thrust of the proposed The report of the Joint Oireachtas Labour Party is for abortion legislation, as change to the Constitution. Why "adopt- Committee on the Constitutional Amend- also are very vocal Gay Rights and some ion"? No official explanation has been ment on Children (2010) made nine Feminist organisations. Credible reasons given for this choice. The Explanatory specific recommendations, most of which for their positions are not produced. What Memorandum published with the Bill is are ignored in the Bill. does not stack up at all are the views of specifically misleading and deceitfully The main purpose of the Bill seems to people who are against child abuse yet tendentious. The official Memorandum be to appear to be doing something about who are at the same time shouting for says: children and to appear to show that this legislation for abortion on demand. Rather "The proposed introduction of dedic- Government is reacting positively to the oxymoronic really? ated provisions for children is in line with revelations in recent years about child It is a fact that in many countries of the the recommendations of many experts abuse and to interfere with the concept of world that the most dangerous place for a over the years, including the Report of the family. The Bill is a piece of sticking baby to be is in its mother's womb. In the Joint Committee on the Constitutional plaster to put on the social wound of child Amendment on Children (2010) and the Ireland, a mother's womb is a safe place report of the All Party Oireachtas abuse. But child abuse has a long history for a baby and Ireland is a world leader in Committee on the Constitution (2006)." and was well known about (read Oliver providing safety for women in pregnancy Twist by Charles Dickens and Kidnapped as even the abortion minded WHO That statement is blatantly untrue. The by Robert Louis Stephenson for example). statistically proves. new provisions propose two things— Laws were there to prevent child abuse. In It is a fact that in Ireland women in firstly to delete existing Article 42.5. The fact the State of Ireland actively engaged pregnancy get all necessary treatment— new wording reads: through the Courts and the Department of even when the death of the baby unavoid- "The State recognises and affirms the Education in the same child abuse and ably and regrettably occurs. It is a fact that natural and imprescriptible rights of all policies which were inherited from the that the European Court decision has not children and shall, as far as practicable, British regime. But even they were as by its laws protect and vindicate these called for Ireland to legalise abortion. The rights." nothing compared to the 'Report of the European Court asked for Ireland to clarify Independent Child Death Review Group', our laws where there is a medical emerg- There is no reference to parents in the where the litany of brutal deaths and ency in the case of pregnant woman. new Article 42A.1, whereas the existing appalling street life of children were Presently, the rule is that for example, if a Article 42.5 provides quite reasonably exposed by our new State response in the pregnant woman has cancer of the uterus, that where parents— last number of years by the Health Services the uterus is surgically removed. The "fail in their duty towards their children, Executive (HSE). And this time—not one procedure has to be done, the death of the the State as guardian of the common person ended up in prison for their part in baby is not intended, but the mother is good, by appropriate means shall this new progressive engagement with the endeavour to supply the place of the saved. The European Court asked for parents but always with due regard for issue of vulnerable children. Ireland's law to be clear and specific, the the natural and imprescriptible rights of The Constitution as it is at present has Court did not say there should be the child." all the provisions necessary to protect intentional abortion as such. Ireland has 22 the legal right to insist to the Council of heading "Children" and the use of the Constitution. "Infant" is the correct legal Europe that we will maintain best medical words "child" and "children" in the term and the legal meaning of "infant" is practice and not introduce abortion. proposed draft. quite exact. It may not be a direct equivalent Minister James Reilly, Fine Gael Minister In the Gaelic version and it is this of "leanbh" but it is near enough. Why is for Health, has set up an expert Committee version in Gaelic which will prevail if it is "infant" not used? Why does a proposed to examine the issues raised by the Euro- passed in the referendum to be held on amendment to the Constitution have to pean Court. The Committee is heavily 10th November 2012, the words used are use conversational English? As in "how balanced, presumably intentionally, "Leanaí" and "leanbh". many children do you have?" "I have two towards legalising abortion. Minister children—one is a doctor in Dublin and Reilly put on the committee two prominent "Leanbh" in Gaelic means a small child. my daughter is a nuclear physicist in Bern." pro-abortion advocates and also the lawyer A child of an age to need protection, and The word "child" could be subject to who instigated the first Right-to-Abortion so it is the correct word in these misinterpretation and has no place in the case against Ireland. Not only that, but circumstances. The English and American Constitution of Ireland unless the word is Minister Reilly publicly steered his language are possibly the only languages defined by referring to a particular age- committee by stating that he himself with no word for an adult child i.e. a son group. Would it be too much to ask that favours legalised abortion in Ireland. I or daughter. Maybe, it should be said, no the word "child" be defined in the think it is fair to note that the Minister has specific word for an underage child. In Constitution? But lawyers need to be fed two of the biggest medical practices here ordinary American, the words "kid" and and lack of precision in legalisation is one and is a multi-millionaire beneficiary of "kids" are used but these slang words beg sure way of feeding the solicitors, barristers state imbursements for medical card the questions, who are the goats? Or the and judges. treatments. Of course he has had to hand old goats? "kids" will hardly do in our Michael Stack © over to managers his two GP practices while he is Minister in the Government but there is no doubt that he will return to Part 14 practice once he leaves front-line politics. Items From Irish Bulletin, September 1920 We do not want legalised killing in VOL. 3. No. 5. IRISH BULLETIN 7TH SEPTEMBER, 1920. Ireland. The people do not want it, as the people showed by voting for Fine Gael "THIS IS TO WARN YOU AS MAN TO MAN" TDs who like Minister Reilly signed THE SYSTEMATIC DESTRUCTION OF CO-OPERATIVE CREAMERIES IN IRELAND. undertakings to uphold Fine Gael policy During the last five months the following creameries have been destroyed by British against legalised abortion. Fianna Fail has Military and Police in Ireland: taken a firm stand against legalised Co-operative Creamery at Kilcommon, Co. Tipperary. abortion. Party leader Micheál Martín said Co-operative Creamery at Kilronan, Co. Tipperary. the party did not favour a "right to choose" Co-operative Creamery at Knockfune, Co. Limerick. in relation to pregnancy termination. Co-operative Creamery at Reiska, Co. Tipperary. Minister Pat Rabbitte disgraced himself Co-operative Creamery and Cheese Factory at Newport, Co. Limerick. and the Labour Party on RTE's This Week Co-operative Creamery at Newcastle West, Co. Limerick. programme when he declared that the Co-operative Creamery at Garryspillane, Co. Limerick. leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland Co-operative Creamery at Rearcross, Co. Tipperary. Co-operative Creamery at Upperchurch, Co. Tipperary. should not be involved in any political Co-operative Creamery at Killea, Co. Tipperary. debate on the issue and it would be a Co-operative Creamery at Loughmore, Co. Tipperary. backward step to return to the days of Co-operative Creamery at Castleiney, Co. Tipperary. senior churchmen dictating to public Co-operative Creamery at Pallas, Co. Limerick. representatives. Cardinal Brady was not Messrs Cleeve's Creamery at Lackamore, Co. Limerick. dictating, he might be described as Co-operative Creamery at Shanagolden, Co. Limerick. lobbying. Do Labour Party rank and file Co-operative Creamery at Hospital, Co. Limerick. members believe that democracy should Messrs Cleeve's Creamery at Knocklong, Co. Limerick. be closed down for non-members of the Messrs Cleeve's Creamery at Killeskilly, Co. Limerick. Labour Party? This Labour-Fine Gael government are displaying a visceral and This systematic destruction of one of the chief food producing industries in Ireland has automatic hatred for the Catholic Church. been believed by those not conversant with the facts to be the result of sporadic outbreaks The Labour Party and the Fine Gael Party of British troops and police and not an organised system of sabotage directed by the will never be other than minority parties commanding officers in the military districts in Ireland where such incidents have with this minority attitude to a major occurred. The following notice served upon Mr. John Nunan, Manager of the Co- humanitarian issue. Legalised Abortion is operative Creamery at Freemount, Charleville, Co. Cork, by a British dispatch carrier on uncivilised and is up there with ethnic August 16th, 1920 shows that this sabotage is carried out by British troops and police cleansing, capital punishment and eutha- acting under the direction and with the sanction of British Commanding officers: nasia which are abhorrent to any decent "John Nunan, human being. This is to warn you as man to man, that should any attempt be made on the life of an officer or his men of my Regiment in Liscarroll, your life will be forfeit, and I will bring CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AND CHILDREN A very important matter is raised by the men and destroy the house in which you live in the village—you or your relations. My detachment have received threatening letters. You now know what to expect if anyone draft of Article 42A proposed by the attempts to carry them out. referendum Bill introduced by Minister D. C. Boles for O.C. 17th Lancs. 16/8/20" Frances Fitzgerald. It is the proposed 23 And the shouts of crowds now silent when the boys to tea had gone. Let us, oh Lord above us, remember simple things, Team GB—The Anglo-Saxon is a sport! When all are dead who love us, Oh the Captains and the Kings, When all are dead who love us, Oh the Coverage of the Olympics on British British (and derivative Australian, Canad- Captains and the Kings. TV was a relentless cheerfest for 'Team ian etc.) athletes were covered in great and GB'. And sure why wouldn't it be? This admiring detail, as were to some extent We have many goods for export, Christian was THE English Olympics after all. the Americans, while the rest of the ethics and old port (Though surely it should have been "Team 'foreigners' were given perfunctory But our greatest boast is that the Anglo- GB & NI" to reflect the actual name of the treatment, even when they won ("The Saxon is a sport state?) Russian it seems will take it"). Sports When the darts game they are finished, & without empire participation were largely the boys their game of rings It was a spectacle to beat all spectacles— ignored. And the drafts and chess relinquished Oh sport of the highest order, accompanied the captains and the kings by the best of pop, and all wrapped in the Of course by the end of it all we had And the drafts and chess relinquished Oh glowing friendly stripes of the Union Jack RTE exclaiming "Team Ireland" and—a the captains and the kings of Blair's 'Cool Britannia'. Commentators little nervously—lauding Katie Taylor. swooned and enthused at the light shows, Taylor was the working class fighter from Far away in dear old Cyprus, or in Kenya's the parades of athletes, the natural the Oldcourt estate in Ballywaltrim, Bray, dusty land, patriotism, the heroic host nation, all whose religious convictions—Pentecostal We bear the white man's burden in many surpassing Beijing 2008—indeed nothing —will ensure she will not become the a strange land. quite like it had been seen since Albert malleable star the media like in athletes. As we look across our shoulder, in West Speer and Leni Riefenstahl gave us Berlin And her class background was also an Belfast the school bell rings, 1936. issue—one RTE reporter betrayed his And we sigh for dear old England, and the ignorance when he said it was his first Captains and the Kings. And it was Blair's Olympics. The time in Oldcourt not reporting on some And we sigh for dear old England, and the approach to spotting and nurturing talent criminal event or social calamity. Taylor's Captains and the Kings. to produce gold medal winners was rootedness in Bray, and in her Church, adopted as a national strategy after Britain threw an interesting light on those old In our dreams we see old Harrow, and we returned with just one gold from Atlanta Protestant undercurrents which have hear the crow's loud caw in 1996. The first British gold this time, I always been there in Dublin working class At the flower show our big marrow takes hear, went to a woman rower, who on culture and which, undergoing something the prize from Evelyn Waugh BBC Radio 4 revealed that she had never of a revival over the last ten years, Cups of tea and some dry Sherry, vintage been in a boat in her life until a trial that led contribute to a vigorous and healthy cars, these simple things her to being picked and nourished over community life. So let`s drink up and be merry, for the four years, funded by the state, including captains and the kings an annual allowance of £44,000 per athlete But what is it about Britain and sport? So let`s drink up and be merry, for the which amounted to an income. While the It seems that Britain invented it. Or rather, captains and the kings Chinese performance was derogatively when Britain was at its zenith, with its dismissed as simply a result of 'Soviet 19th century empire on which the sun As I wandered in a nightmare all around model' hot-housing, it was in fact Britain never set, it unselfconsciously described Great Windsor Park, which employed the Soviet model with itself as the new Roman Empire, and Now what did you think I found there as I such success. Despite the extraordinary promoted eulogistic histories of its alleged wandered in the dark? sporting achievements of Team GB, Greek and Roman precursors, portraying It was an apple half-bitten, and sweetest of however, it was notable that their successes them as glorious trial runs for the real all things, were much more in individualist sports thing that had finally come to pass: Five baby teeth had written of the Captains than team sports—itself a fitting tribute to Britannia ruling the waves! The cult of and the Kings. the memory of Blair, the man who vowed sport was resurrected in the second half of Five baby teeth had written of the Captains to return British Labour to its progressivist the nineteenth century in conscious and the Kings. liberal roots, and de-socialised it. reflection of the cults of sport that had been central to those empires of antiquity. By the moon that shines above us in the Over on RTE there was a very peculiar But all things have their day and must misty morning light phenomenon. While Irish hopefuls were finally fade. Brendan Behan provided this Let us cease to run ourselves down and covered lovingly, in the many sports where swansong for empire, and its sense of praise God that we are white they were absent our RTE commentators sport (to hear it at its best, find the late, And better still are English, tea and toast seem to have caught the Team GB fever. great Ronnie Drew singing it on Youtube): and muffin rings The atmosphere of the games, we were And old ladies with stern faces and the told, was "absolutely buzzing". It was captains and the kings "London's time". At every swimming, THE CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS And old ladies with stern faces and the field, track and other event, our RTE Brendan Behan captains and the kings. commentators got caught up in that I remember in September, when the final atmosphere. Personal information on the stumps were drawn, Philip O'Connor 24 FANFANI continued Earnings The country's trade surplus was The average Irish worker is earning €20.9bn, which was behind Germany at 74% more an hour in basic pay today than €92.4bn and the Netherlands at €25.6bn. "Weber's explanation is therefore at the height of the boom. The UK, in contrast, had the biggest inadequate, and we must ask whether Surprise figures from the Central fiscal deficit at €73.8bn. there were not other ways in which Statistics Office (C.S.O.) show a higher Ireland saw an increase of just 0.4% in Protestantism either encouraged or average hourly rate of basic pay for the hourly labour costs over the second quarter restrained the capitalist spirit—which has first quarter of 2012 compared with the of the year—making it the lowest recorded always existed in man in an embryonic first quarter of 2008. across the EU. Spain and the Netherlands state; which, opposed and held in check were the next lowest on a 0.5% increase. by Catholicism, became a social force However, the figures were skewed by when, in the fifteenth century, Catholic- the awarding of increments to civil Romania had the highest at 7.1% followed ism declined; and which was encouraged servants—the majority of whom are given by Finland on 4.9% and then Bulgaria and by humanism inasmuch as humanism small pay rises for each year of service. Latvia on 4.8%. weakened Catholic ties" (ibid., p.200/ The CSO figures show that hourly Overall, labour costs increased by 1.6% 205). pay—excluding bonuses and special over the second quarter of the year, payments—stood at €20.89 an hour in the compared with a 1.5% increase over the "IF ONLY . . . ." first quarter of the year. "In conclusion, Protestantism, as far as first quarter of this year compared with €20.15 in the first quarter of 2008. The two main components of labour we are concerned, only marked a further costs are wages and salaries and non- stage in the emancipation of human action This indicates that those in lower paid from supernatural limits. Working in this sectors are most likely to have lost their wage costs. sense, it produced no new effects, but jobs in the downturn, while at the same ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ facilitated the manifestation of a move- time those in the civil service have most ment that had shown perceptible signs of likely increased their earnings. "GRAPHIC designers, computer vitality before the Reformation, and which software developers and medical devices would continue its course after the "Experts say the figures indicate a engineers have emerged as the big Reformation, beyond what the Reformers number of trends taking place in the intended, for, dreaming of a return to the labour market since the crash including a winners in the jobs market—with Gospels, they never suspected what would concentration of job losses in lower substantial increases in pay since the be the fruits of their action" (ibid., p.209). income sectors; a preference in the private onset of the recession. sector to cut costs by shedding jobs rather "The big losers have been architects, The origin of this approach is noted by than reducing basic hourly pay; the civil engineers, sales executives, Fanfani when he argues that Weber got wholesale removal of substantial bonuses insurance underwriters, construction and other benefits; and the boosting effect workers, teachers, nurses, and gardai, everything backwards: it wasn't a Protest- on the national average hourly rate caused an Irish Independent investigation ant ethic, as distinct from a Catholic ethic, by the controversial increment system in reveals. that prompted the "capitalist spirit" and the public sector—which accounts for "Our probe found candidates for the led to the rise of capitalism, but instead it around one-fifth of the workforce" (Irish most highly sought jobs were enjoying was the rise of capitalism that prompted a Independent, 17.7.2012) pay hikes of more than 18%, while distinct and separate Protestant ethic that professions where work is hard to come is, in many cases, pro-capitalist—but As a result of increments many of the by have had their wages slashed by up to 300,000 or so public sector workers are 44%. which was originally anti-capitalist. "Experts said the biggest opportunities likely to have increased rather than were in the pharmaceutical and medical decreased their basic pay substantially devices industries and the information since 2008. and communications technology (ICT) A recent report claimed that increments sector. For example, consultants in business management software, known TRADE UNION NOTES had cost the Exchequer more than €250m as SAP, are now earning €60,000, last year—which works out at about €800 compared with €52,000 in 2008—a rise Accidents extra per civil servant. of over 15%." (Irish Independent- The average personal injuries payout 15.9.2012) last year was €21,339—with the highest "Had this amount instead been spread ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ across the entire workforce of 1.6 million, single award totalling €829,444. it would have been enough to add an "WORKERS are paying vastly more tax The total number of awards made by additional 7.8% an hour to everyone's the Injuries Board in 2011 was 9,833 and rate in that year." (Irish Independent, since the start of the economic crisis in overall compensation levels reached €210 17.7.2012) 2008 despite earning less. million, according to its Annual Report. "Stark new figures show that even those Over 75% of the awards were as a result on incomes of €50,000 who have suffered Average Industrial Wage for Quarter pay reductions have ended up shelling of injuries from road traffic accidents, One, 2012 per week is €691.21 (CSO). out more. with just over 8% coming as a result of ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "The universal social charge has been accidents in the workplace. blamed for the higher burden on employees." (Irish Independent- A further 15% involved accidents in "Ireland had the third highest trade 8.9.2012). public places. surplus among the 27 EU member states Since 2004, the Board has granted a A typical worker on €50,000 in 2008 is in July and the lowest increase in hourly now earning €5,000 less because of pay total of 50,000 awards with an overall labour costs across the region, according value of more than ¤1 billion. cuts. This means the worker's annual gross to official figures released yesterday." pay has fallen to €45,000 in the four-year (Irish Examiner-18.9.2012) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ continued on page 12

25 CAPITALISM PRECEDED PROTESTANTISM "Even in the seventeenth century the FANFANI continued "We must nonetheless take Weber's very Baxter whom Weber believes to theory into consideration if we are to supply so many proofs in support of his thesis attributes an ambiguous signific- ion of society, has never been identical understand the gravity of the true problem, which is quite other. And it is this: there ance to the idea of vocation, and only in with civilization. It is in a diverse manner the eighteenth century do we find among of conceiving all the values of life that were capitalistic “facts” before Protest- antism, and if we admit that they could the Puritans a pro-capitalistic content to Catholicism is opposed to capitalism, not the idea of vocation. The exhaustive as a complexus of instruments and means, not be capitalistic unless they were produced by the capitalist spirit, we must proofs brought forward by Robertson, but as an organization directing these and which gain an added value from the means to a certain end. Catholicism finds conclude that the capitalist spirit existed before Protestantism. If we reason conclusions of a work by Beins, perhaps no reason to object to mechanical looms give him too great assurance, and he goes or wireless. But so long as Catholicism logically from the data with which Weber supplies us, we cannot fail to reach this so far as to write that Weber's theory remains Catholicism it can never accept should be reversed and that the time has a society like our own in which wireless conclusion. Therefore we cannot accept the idea of vocation as the origin of the now come to ask whether it was not the and mechanical looms are the instruments predominance of a capitalist mentality in for attaining quite other goals than those capitalist spirit, or else we must say that it existed at an earlier date. the middle classes that led to a slow but proposed by Catholicism. sure evolution of the social ethical code "Anyone who strives to understand "On the other hand, we cannot grant that man never sought for gain in a of Protestantism in a capitalistic sense. exactly the respective positions of Cathol- "Robertson adds that no historian can icism and capitalism cannot be surprised rationalized manner before the idea of vocation. It is true that the idea of the be unaware that if the idea of vocation to find the two ideals in conflict, and the was the origin of capitalism, since this exponents of the one contending with the rational is relative, but it is also true that the idea of the economically rational, the idea is identical in the Protestantism of exponents of the other for the domination the seventeenth century and the Catholic- of society. idea of the minimum means, though affected by later knowledge, was known ism of the fourteenth century, and in the "It only remains for us to repeat that the Protestantism and in certain Catholic Catholic ethos is anti-capitalistic; that before Protestantism. So much so, that at bottom those theorists are right who hold currents of the eighteenth century, we Catholicism has opposed the establish- should have to conclude that Protestant- ment of capitalism, even if in certain that, from the point of view of pure gain, and from the point of view of an economic ism and Catholicism had an equal ways it has favoured its progress in this or importance, in this respect, for the deve- that direction." (Amintore Fanfani, rationality confined to scattered manifestations on the part of isolated lopment of the capitalist spirit. Nor does Catholicism, Protestantism, and Robertson's observation appear ill- Capitalism , p.159) individuals, capitalism has always existed.” founded, once we realize that the idea of vocation, attributed by Weber to the THE REFORMATION CAPITALIST SPIRIT Protestants, was a living idea before the "According to Max Weber, Protest- "As against these, and against Weber, Reformation, and remained alive in the antism encouraged the development of we would point out that man has an Catholic camp even after. capitalism by introducing into the world inborn instinct for gain; that he strives "Bourdaloue, Houdry, Feugère, Griffet, the idea of vocation, by which each always to attain the minimum means as Massillon, have repeatedly assured the individual was bound to devote all his far as his state of knowledge allows; that faithful in France in modern times, not powers to the field of work to which he external factors either check this instinct only that to each one God assigns a post was called, in the conviction that this was or encourage it. It is this instinct, this in the world, but that it is God's will “que his sole duty towards God. In this we do tendency, that is the germ of the capitalist chacun soit dans le monde parfaitement not agree with Weber, although he is far spirit. Therefore, in nuce {in a nutshell}, ce qu'il est {that each might be in the more correct than those who declare that the capitalist spirit has always been and world exactly what he is},” since “compared with Catholicism, always will be. But the capitalist spirit as “accomplir fidèlement tous ses Protestantism in general perhaps gives a social force has not always been, nor devoirs,...s'occuper de travailler,...agir greater encouragement to the spirit of will it always be. It is of this capitalist dans son état selon la volonté et le gré de individual initiative, since it confers on spirit that we speak and ought to speak. It Dieu, c'est prier {to accomplish faithfully the individual direct and complete is this that is the essence of capitalism as all his duties... to busy himself with work... responsibility in the sight of God, and a social phenomenon; capitalism, so to act within his station according to the does not admit any intercession, neither understood, has relations with the various will and desire of God, is to pray)”, and that of the Saints, nor that provided by the religions, because these, in seeking to that “les devoirs d'état sont... en un sens prayers of others”…" (ibid.) discipline the spiritual powers of man, de vrais devoirs de Religion {the duties "Leaving aside this utterly erroneous can, in combination with other social of state are... in one sense the real duties opinion, we venture to say that Weber's phenomena, destroy it, check it, or stimul- of Religion” and “l'état ou Dieu nous a solution is unacceptable for various ate it. They cannot bring it to birth, because places {the station God has given us}” is reasons, above all because it does not it has been born already, or, rather, it is “l'unique voie de notre salut {the only admit that the capitalist spirit existed inborn in man. path to our salvation}”. This most before the Protestant idea of vocation. It "But Weber's text lends itself to further decidedly Catholic idea does not even is true that Weber tries to anticipate the criticism. A few months ago Robertson lend itself to Groethuysen's recent objection, that there were capitalistic {H.M. Robertson 1905-1984} proved that reproach that Catholic teaching manifestations prior to Protestantism, by the idea of vocation, to which Weber condemned men's efforts to better their attributing a different spirit to their authors attributes so great significance in determ- position, for, since Gaetano's sixteenth- and distinguishing between capitalism ining the origin of the capitalist spirit, has century interpretation of St. Thomas' and the capitalist spirit, but though his not always implied what the German doctrine, it is plain that a man who seeks evasion of the objection is skillful, it sociologist supposed. The Protestants of to obtain that position in life for which he altogether fails to satisfy. Is it possible the sixteenth century, Latimer and Lever, is qualified by his gifts and capacities is for the essence of a thing—and for Weber for example, make use of the idea of not rebelling against God, but striving to the capitalist spirit constitutes the essence vocation to combat those manifestations reach the post that God has potentially of capitalism—to come into existence that Weber considers characteristic of assigned to him. long after the thing itself? the capitalist spirit. continued on page 25 26 influence on Pope Leo XIII in his defence Catholic countries; and that it was not an FANFANI continued and promotion of Catholic Corporatism in essential result of the Reformation, but the encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891). rather it developed as a result of the prog- overthrown, and all these are Drawing upon the work of Toniolo ressive decomposition of the original inconceivable in the Catholic conception inevitably meant, for Fanfani, a reference Catholic ethic. Neither was the pursuit of … There is an unbridgeable gulf between to refer to his vision of the Middle Ages. profit, nor pronounced activism (to note the Catholic and the Capitalist conception Toniolo was beatified this year by Pope just two of the aspects typical of the of life." Benedict XVI. Capitalism of Protestant countries) foreign Private economic initiative, in his view, A great part of the writings of Toniolo to the Catholic culture of the late Middle was justifiable only if harnessed to the regard the history of the mediaeval Ages. common good. economy, with particular reference to Fanfani took on a succession of Minis- Tuscany. In the work of Fanfani, which "In his work, Fanfani attempted, at tries. He was Minister of Labour from was based upon, among other things, a once with regard to both Weber and Groethuysen, a twofold correction. On 1947–1948 and again from 1948–1950; direct and detailed consultation of the the one hand, he traced the origins of the Minister of Agriculture from 1951–1953; primary sources of Tuscany, the work of “capitalistic spirit” to the late Middle as well as Minister of the Interior in 1953. this famous historian of the University of Ages. On the other, he saw in this very As Minister of Labour, he developed the Pisa represents an essential point of same spirit not a development but an "Fanfani House" programme for reference. inversion, almost a degeneration, of the Government-built workers' homes Of special importance in this respect is ethics of the Gospel. In substance, Capital- financed jointly by workers, the Govern- Quadragesimo Anno, written by Pius XI ism was born, at least as a mentality if not a fully developed economic structure, in ment, and employers and put 200,000 of in 1931, and which represented for the merchant world of Florence, Flanders Italy's many unemployed to work on a Fanfani—then at the beginning of his and the Hanseatic ports, particularly in reforestation program. As Minister of scientific research—a continuous point of the fourteenth century, as a secularized Agriculture, he set in motion much of the reference, specifically in its powerful form of that Christian activism that aimed Christian Democrats' land reform program. condemnation of the failure of Capitalism to transform the world. A strong supporter of the European and the damage it produced, along with its Economic Community (EEC), Fanfani suggestion that the Guilds were the ideal "That Christian activity traced its roots to the “Prayer and Work” of the Benedict- was Foreign Minister in 1965 and in 1966- answer to the economic and social crisis ine Rule and the subsequent flowering of 68. of the period. mediaeval monasticism, and to the He was forced to resign at Foreign "The years which saw the drafting of elaborations of the great mediaeval Minister in December 1965, after the Fanfani's 1934 work coincided with the theologians, first among whom is St. premature disclosure of possible peace after-effects, in Europe and in Italy, of Thomas Aquinas; and it manifested itself initiatives he had relayed to the United the Wall Street Crash of 1929. With the practically in the enormous network of States from the North Vietnamese leader, majority of the Catholic (and not only the institutions—from the “credit unions” to Catholic) intelligentsia of the period, Ho Chi Minh. the hospitals and orphanages—intended Fanfani saw the Crash as a kind of “swan to redeem in some way the world of song” of Capitalism. It is no coincidence, money from its essential dullness. From Fanfani died in Rome on 20th therefore, that the Guild solution was this point of view—as he would explain November 1999. advocated strongly in this period. Fascism in a later work, thereby synthesizing much had in fact enacted Guild legislation that had already been expressed in his (though it was somewhat of an “admix- WORK AND WORKERS 1934 study—“the weakening of influence "In June, 1946, Fanfani was elected to ture” of purely Catholic thought with of the social conception proposed and represent the Arezzo-Siena-Grosseto area Fascist ideology) that was intended to supported by mediaeval Catholicism is in the Constituent Assembly which bring about the reconciliation of Capital the circumstance which explains the drafted a new Constitution effective and Labour, and to definitively overcome manifestation and growth of the January 1, 1948. The very first article of the problems of Capitalism" (Giorgio capitalistic spirit in a Catholic world”…" the constitution reflects Fanfani's work Campanini, Professor of the History of (Giorgio Campanini, Professor of the and philosophy. Staunchly anti- Political Thought, University of Parma, History of Political Thought, University Communist, but socially progressive, Italy). of Parma, Italy). Fanfani proposed an article which read: “Italy is a democratic republic founded CATHOLIC INSPIRATION FANFANI AND ANTI-CAPITALISM on work.” His proposal, which was Fanfani's vision is based on the Catholic "In the Middle Ages, by supporting the eventually accepted, countered the Com- ideal. An understanding of that vision is intervention of public bodies in economic munist version: “Italy is a democratic important to have a full appreciation of life as a check to individual activity and republic of workers.” By a seemingly what it argues against, and why! Fanfani to defend the interests of society as a harmless change in the wording he whole; in our own time, by calling for avoided the class implication inherent in saw the Guilds as an alternative to both State intervention for the same reasons, the Communist formula" (Encyclopedia Capitalism and Socialism. the Church has remained faithful to her of World Biography, 2004). anti-capitalistic ethics. Both during the "CAPITALISTIC SPIRIT" predominance of the mediæval guild BLESSED GIUSEPPE TONIOLO The central thesis of Fanfani's argument system, and during that of capitalism, the A seminal influence on Fanfani was in Catholicism, Protestantism, and Church, and those Catholics that listened Giuseppe Toniolo (1845-1918). Toniolo Capitalism was: that the "capitalistic to her voice, set or sought to set bounds not lawfully to be overstepped to the was the great historian and admirer of the spirit" was not born in a Protestant area course of economic life—even at the cost mediaeval Guilds, and their advocate as a (as Weber thought, and with him not a of a sacrifice of mechanical and technical modern solidaristic (and therefore non- small number of students of economic progress, which, in the Catholic concept- capitalistic) economy. Toniolo had a big history), but rather it appeared first in continued on page 26 27 VOLUME 30 No. 10 CORK ISSN 0790-1712

Mondragon, Part 12

"Catholics, so long as they held closely to the social teachings of the Church, could never act in favour of capitalism."— Amintore Fanfani. Fanfani And The Guilds "The Corporation or Guild is typical of a central role in the birth and development of the foremost Italian politicians after the the period. It is the guardian of a system of modern Capitalism. Second World War, and a dominant figure of economic activity in which the purely of the Italian Christian Democrats. economic interests of the individual are The victory of capitalism over socialism He was the author of a number of import- sacrificed either to the moral and religious interests of the individual—the attainment seems, at least for now, to have stifled the ant works on economic history dealing of which is under the control of special debate over the conflicts between Christ- with religion and the development of public institutions—or to the economic ianity and capitalism, to the point where capitalism in the Renaissance and Reform- and extra-economic interests of the com- capitalism has become a preconception, ation in Europe. His thesis was published munity. Competition was restricted; the something that is accepted without any in Italian and then in English as Catholic- distribution of customers, hence a mini- critical analysis of thought. ism, Capitalism And Protestantism in mum of work, was assured; a certain 1935. system of work was compulsory; trade with various groups might be forbidden Fanfani's argument is that regardless of for political or religious reasons; certain what spirit motivates a man, once he finds FASCIST AFFILIATION practices were compulsory, and working himself in a system which recognizes no He joined the Italian National Fascist hours were limited; there were a number rule limiting competition, he either Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista; PNF) of compulsory feasts; prices and rates of competes or dies. His motive for compet- supporting the corporatist ideas of the increase were fixed; measures were taken ing may not be avarice; it may be mere regime promoting collaboration between to prevent speculation. Food laws and survival; it may even be quite noble, like the classes, which he defended in many sumptuary laws prove the impossibility and unlawfulness of an economic activity providing a livelihood for his family. But articles. "Some day", he once wrote, "the governed by standards of purely it is the economic structure—permitting European continent will be organized into individual utility. Ecclesiastical and civil the employment of all kinds of competitive a vast supranational area guided by Italy legislation forestalled such a possibility, means—that determines how he must and Germany. Those areas will take and dealt with the just price and usury. behave to obtain that livelihood. authoritarian governments and synchron- Plainly, all these institutions, and many ize their constitutions with Fascist prin- others that we could quote if the scope of ciples" (Time Magazine, US, 14.7.1958). the present work permitted, reveal the FASCIST TO DEMOCRAT influence of extra-economic ideas and Amintore Fanfani (1908-1999) was one He saw the corporate state as the ideal, mark their paramount influence as and in what he called a "temporary aber- principles of rationality, in the economic Subscribers to the magazine are regularly ration" turned to Fascism. He never tried offered special rates on other publications life both of the individual and of the to hide his Fascist record; but unlike many community. And it is these institutions Irish Political Review is published by of his countrymen, he freely admits that that guarantee that the means employed the IPR Group: write to— he was wrong. in economic life shall conform to such principles, even if individuals are 1 Sutton Villas, Lower Dargle Road unwilling to remain faithful to this order. Bray, Co. Wicklow or POLITICAL CAREER But more often than not the true guarantee 33 Athol Street, Belfast BT12 4GX or Following World War II, Fanfani was of the use of such means was provided by 2 Newington Green Mansions, London N16 9BT elected Vice-Secretary of the newly- the triumph of the pre-capitalist spirit in or Labour Comment, TEL: 021-4676029 founded Christian Democratic Party. He the minds of the many." (Amintore C/O Shandon St. P.O., Cork represented a particular ideological Fanfani, Catholicism, Protestantism, and position, that of Catholics who favoured Capitalism , Unicorn Books, Sheed & Subscription by Post: socio-economic interventionism. Ward, London, 1939, p.49/52) 12 issues: Euro-zone & World Surface: €40; Sterling-zone: £25 "Capitalism requires such a dread of This was Amintore Fanfani's rejection Electronic Subscription: loss", he once wrote, "such a forgetfulness of Max Weber's (1864-1920) argument € 15 / £12 for 12 issues of human brotherhood, such a certainty that Protestantism, primarily in its (or € 1.30 / £1.10 per issue) that a man's neighbour is merely a Calvinist and then its Puritan form, played You can also order from: customer to be gained or a rival to be https://www.atholbooks-sales.org continued on page 27