Last Ditch Unionism Promissory Notes The Reformation & Pat Walsh John Martin The Guilds Labour Comment page 3 page 6 back page IRISH POLITICAL REVIEW May 2012 Vol.27, No.5 ISSN 0790-7672 and Northern Star incorporating Workers' Weekly Vol.26 No.5 ISSN 954-5891

A New Treaty With 'Our Gallant Allies' Syria In politics context is everything. The greatest vices and the greatest virtues are totally The turn of events in Syria indicates interchangeable depending on the context—the particular object to be achieved. The EU that the world is in the process of return- was, and is, considered a most virtuous institution by all pro-Europeans. Now it is the ing to Great Power politics. favourite weapon of the anti-Europeans to defeat the Fiscal Compact. Cameron justified Nothing other than Great Power politics his action on 8th December last year on the basis that he was defending the EU against is possible, unless the Great Powers submit the 26 other members who were ignoring it in proposing the Fiscal Compact among themselves to some kind of world body themselves. If he had the guts to follow this through, he could legally bar all work and which is independent of them. The United people concerned with the Compact from every EU building. Bill Cash and Bruce Arnold Nations is not a body of that kind, and was are now also great defenders of the EU. Anthony Coughlan has not yet taken up this not intended to be. Its creators, essentially argument. Anthony is probably too honest to play this game but that only means he is just the Powers that defeated Nazi Germany, a pedant when it comes to politics. Russia and America, exempted themselves However, there is a need to explain to the electorate how this situation has coma about. from UN authority at the outset. Each After 40 years' membership of the EEC/EU we are back to square one, legally speaking. remained absolutely sovereign, with a To utilise a favourite analogy of the past in relation to Europe: the train we were on has Veto power which prevented the UN from run into a siding and a new one has started moving from the station and we must decide attempting to interfere in their affairs, or which one to join. Trying to be on both is a rather absurd position to be in. But why are even criticise them. there now two trains? But twenty-two years ago the Soviet The explanation for this dilemma begins and ends with Britain. After less than a system collapsed and America became decade of membership, Britain changed tack politically and began a campaign to subvert the only Great Power. By means of the the EEC/EU development. It has succeeded up to now. The only surprise is that they moral influence of brute force—and by blocked a measure so openly and clearly last December. These things are rarely done so arm-twisting when moral influence was frankly. Clarity not being a virtue in these situations. Even those hitherto blind, deaf and not sufficient—it ran the world, using the dumb to Britain's ways, such as John Bruton, realise what has happened. UN as its instrument. Russia was in disarray. The actual Chinese Government This Fiscal Compact Treaty presents a straightforward political choice between those had been excluded from the UN for a who essentially created the present problem (Anglo Finance Capital with the policy of quarter of a century after the American money deregulation which it foisted upon the world) on the one hand, and those who can client Government of Chiang Kai Shek be more reliable allies in Europe. If the Fiscal Compact is agreed, all the rest concerning was defeated by the Communist Party in tax arrangements, bail-outs, etc., will fall into place. The only realisable European civil war. Chiang retreated to the island of political arrangement will then be able to develop. Formosa (Taiwan) with a remnant of his Britain sees this clearly and hence its opposition. The 'Open Europe' press summary Kuomintang movement, was protected of 5th April (which is produced by a well-funded British Euro-sceptic pressure group) there by the US Navy, and the US gave an indication of the shape of a non-British Europe already taking place: recognised his Government in Taiwan as "In an interview with the FT [Financial Times], French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé the legitimate sovereign power over the claimed that France would adopt a more assertive stance with the EU if Nicolas Sarkozy Chinese mainland, and Vetoed attempts were re-elected at the upcoming Presidential elections. 'It's not a bad method from time to by the actual Chinese Government to take time to bang the table' he said in reference to Sarkozy's threat to suspend French the seat on the Security Council. participation in the free movement Schengen area, adding 'it is a very good vision of what China had no experience at operating Europe should become—a Europe with borders'. He also reiterated Sarkozy's call for a Buy European Act, stating that 'we have a divergence with our British friends who see Europe Great Power politics in the UN Security as a big free trade area. That is not our vision. We must introduce into free trade the notion Council—the only part that matters‚ and of reciprocity'." Russia under Gorbachev forgot how to do it. But Russia is now remembering, and Similarly, in a TV interview on 11th April, Sarkozy is reported as saying: China is learning. "They don't agree with me, which I find very funny, you know, because I don't agree with them… The FT, as they say in informed circles, has always defended the Anglo-Saxon On Libya last year they agreed to what model, considering the French irredeemable and that we would do better to align ourselves seemed a motion of restricting use of the to the Anglo-Saxon model… The FT has for many years said that the solution for the world Libyan air force against the insurrection, continued on page 2 continued on page 2 The Union is at a dead end, and inter- Governmental arrangements which leave Britain isolated have had to be made. C O N T E N T S This referendum presents an opportun- Page ity to re-establish an older alliance than A New Treaty With 'Our Gallant Allies. Jack Lane 1 the EU, an opportunity to put real flesh on Syria. Editorial 1 the alliance proclaimed in 1916 with 'our Some Thoughts On Last-Detich Unionism And 'Norn Irn'. Pat Walsh 3 gallant allies in Europe'. If this Referen- The Irish Times Regrets. Editorial 5 dum succeeds, that would be clearly Promissory Note Deal. John Martin 6 evident for the centenary of 1916 and that Mahon's Star Witness. Editorial 7 event could then take on a whole new Anne Harris. Editorial 9 meaning. Poem: A Source Said. Wilson John Haire 10 Vote Yes! Shorts from the Long Fellow (Denis O'Brien; Elaine Byrne; Eoghan Harris; Jack Lane Corporation Tax; Property Taxes) 11 Elizabeth Bowen And Her Admirers. Julianne Herlihy (Part 2) 12 Items From The Irish Bulletin: 10. April 1920 14 Harris And Dunmanway. Jack Lane (Report) 14 The North And Dunmanway. Wilson John Haire 15 Syria The Dunmanway Killings, Curiouser And Curiouser. Jack Lane (Part 3) 16 continued Naval Warfare. Pat Walsh (Part 19, Final) 18 An Irish Anti-Fascist RAF Volunteer, and some other soldiers. only to see it 'interpreted' as authority to Manus O'Riordan (Part 1) 19 destroy the Libyan State by bombing. Biteback: Which Portraits Should Be Removed? Tom Cooper (Report) 23 When a 'moderate' resolution was sought Does It Stack Up? Michael Stack (Party Annual Conference; Dingle—Dangle; on Syria this year, they would not allow it. Governance; The Titanic) 24 The US, UK and France declared that they were "the international community", but Russia and China showed them that they Labour Comment, edited by Pat Maloney: weren't. Western intervention to destroy The Protestant Reformation And The Guilds the Syrian State under cover of a perversely (Part 7 of Mondragon) -interpreted UN resolution was prevented. (back page) A truce was brokered to allow negotiat- NEXT MONTH: ions between Government and opposition groups in Syria to take place. Although Brendan Clifford replies to Stephen Richards' Views Of Sinn Fein, the aim of the US etc. was to destroy the which appeared in the February 2012 issue of Irish Political Review Syrian State, they felt obliged to agree to this, but from the start their object was to prevent it from actually happening. On is that there should be no law… I think The paper goes to trot out the very same the first morning of the truce, St. Fergal exactly the opposite…. The FT explains type of threat/promise that got Lisbon Keane of the BBC pronounced that, if the to us that it is necessary to do exactly Treaty, Mark II passed: truce did not take the form of the Syrian what Great Britain does, which is in a far Government allowing the "demonstrat- worse economic situation than France. "If voters stand aloof, they will auto- So as for me, I accept any who volunteer matically forego the capacity to access ions" against it to resume without hind- to give us lessons, but not them, and not emergency funding by way of a new rance, then it would be spurious. This was like that!" Eurozone 'firewall'. Such funding may the US/UK line, but so far it hasn't played not be required. But its availability could well. How this new situation has come about make a substantial difference to the cost That the US objective is not negotiated is what needs to be explained to the elector- of Government borrowing on inter- peace consolidated by reform within the national markets. That, in turn, will ate because, apart from providing the facts Syrian State, but the destruction of the of the case, it might actually help win the influence the range of public services it can afford to provide" (7 April). Syrian State, is not subject to reasonable referendum. Clarity might become a doubt. And the means for destroying the political virtue! So it's all about the lolly we might need State is religious warfare. It has been and might be denied. In other words, the attempted by the US and Saudi Arabia to However the omens for this are not lowest common denominator among shape the Sunni population in Syria into a good. For example, The Irish Times, which nations and people is the summit of its battering ram which, backed by active feels entitled to lecture the Government case for this Treaty. This is in keeping Western support, will destroy the regime. and the people at regular intervals, has with the economic determinism that now And the EU, in the middle of the crisis it editorialised on: dominates intellectual life. Far from giving has brought about for itself, supports the "clear explanations" there is no attempt to destructive policy on Syria. "Explaining The Treaty point out the unique nature of this Treaty, "…This time out, clear explanations and robust political campaigns are that it isn't another EU Treaty, that it's an None of this is new. What is new is that required from the outset. A lack of inter-Governmental arrangement, what Russia and China are ending Single Power information must not be allowed to figure that means, why it has arisen—and why dominance of world affairs, and are again as the public's reason for rejection" has the European Union failed to deliver restoring the old-fashioned Great Power (7 April). in its hour of crisis. politics which in bygone times, before the 2 era of universalist illusion, sometimes states, and to uphold the dominance of its the Lord Bew of Queen's, Prof. Keogh of maintained peace in much of the world for major client state, the Saudi theocracy, in Cork and many others. It appears now that long periods of time. order to keep the others in line. the politicians have agreed that it is a fable worth promulgating. That there is a "Syrian people", kept In the heat of this conflict Turkey seems Northern Ireland: what is it? really down by the regime and capable of to have given up its ambition to operate an says everything that needs to be said about establishing orderly government if only independent foreign policy and act as a the purpose of Northern Ireland and what the regime is destroyed, is not even benevolent intermediary in disputes, and it has done. It makes something that has believed by those who assert it. The US to have become a partisan in the attempt to had the purpose of mystification, and object is merely to have no stable states in sweep aside the Syrian State by means of which has mystified even those who have the Middle East which are not its client US/Saudi-backed religious war. administered it, from Terence O'Neill to Peter Robinson, understandable. In Northern Ireland: what is it? Brendan Clifford states: "The 'Northern Ireland state' is a propaganda construct, designed Some Thoughts On Last-Ditch Unionism to shift political responsibility for the creation of the North away from Britain And 'Norn Irn' and foist it on somebody else" (p.21). Well, it has been foisted alright and we Peter Robinson, First Minister of North- "Though a statue of Lord Carson takes have been well and truly foistered upon! ern Ireland's Home Rule parliament, made pride of place in front of Parliament a speech at Iveagh House in Dublin on Buildings at Stormont, a Northern Ireland Parliament was an institution he had not Over 60 years ago, Captain Henry Harri- 29th March 2012 to begin the centenary sought. Though he did so much for son (OBE and MC) noted that Northern commemorations of Ulster's resistance to unionism and Northern Ireland, he Ireland was neither "an integral part of Home Rule. regarded the failure to retain the rest of the United Kingdom", nor "a state". It The subject of the speech was Sir Ireland in the United Kingdom as a was, in fact, a "quasi unit"—a semi- Edward Carson, who led the resistance to massive loss… His hope and belief had detached administrative part of the United Home Rule in Ireland but who ended up as been that success for Ulster would thwart Kingdom State, constructed for Imperial a statue outside the Home Rule Parliament the entire Home Rule project for Ireland. It is ironic that the one part of Ireland purposes against the will of Carson and in Stormont. In the course of his speech which in 1912 did not want a local the Unionists in Ireland. Harrison explained: Robinson said: "Edward Carson… was Parliament, within the Union, was the the chief architect and creator of the only part of Ireland that ultimately got "An examination of the statutory and Northern Ireland state—maintaining it, it." administrative conditions in regard to against the odds, as an integral part of the Northern Ireland brings into prominent Perhaps the complexities of history relief… the fact that here is no distinct United Kingdom—a constitutional would have been too impolitic for the political organism, or polity. There is not outcome that remains to this day." First Minister of Northern Ireland to draw even the rudimentary structure of such an It must be a record for even a politician out. Perhaps they would have been wasted organism. It is, in good sooth, 'an integral to get 5 facts wrong in a single sentence— part of the United Kingdom'—a quasi on his Dublin hosts and would have spoiled but Robinson somehow managed it. unit. It is not a distinct and separate unit, the atmosphere of peace and reconciliation except perhaps nominally or convention- which they wished to cultivate. And most Firstly, Carson was never an architect ally, for certain of the purposes of legis- of all, perhaps it did not matter what lation, finance, administration or of what became Northern Ireland—never Robinson said at all but only where he said economic treatment. Thus, whilst North- desiring such an entity to ever be brought it and that it was generally nice to his ern Ireland has its own Parliament, the into existence. Secondly, he was also not hosts. That, after all, is the whole point is United Kingdom Parliament at Westmin- its creator and it administration bears little ster continues to legislate for it… the it not? resemblance to what his Provisional bulk of its revenue comes from the Government might have been. Thirdly, he It must be a wonderful world to live in Imperial Treasury in London, which never maintained the entity of Northern to be unburdened by uncomfortable truths collects and handles its most important taxes and charges it with the cost of doing Ireland but walked away from it at its with no one around who will ever point so… it is British officials 'from depart- birth. Fourthly, the area was never meant them out. It is almost like 'the wonderful ments having their headquarters in to be by its architects and creators "an world of Disney' we enjoyed as children— London and acting under the control of integral part of the United Kingdom", and or perhaps it should be called 'Fantasia the United Kingdom authorities' that never became such in the fifty years that Norn Irn'. administer in Northern Ireland itself, the the Unionist Party administered it. Lastly, reserved services…" (Ulster and the It is just a pity that the masses are the Good Friday Agreement (or its British Empire, pp.64-5). burdened by the truth of the consequences modification at St. Andrews, if that is Captain Harrison argued that Britain of it all. preferred) is hardly indicative of such "a let the pretence emerge that Northern constitutional outcome." Brendan Clifford in his recent book Ireland was a state in order that the Robinson is not an ignoramus, as many Northern Ireland: what is it?—Professor formation and conduct of its government others of a more academic and less prac- Mansergh changes his mind, shows how could not be blamed on Westminster and tical persuasion are in relation to such academics in Ireland have taken to writing so that the Unionists in Ulster be allowed matters, and he has some idea of the facts about the 'Northern Ireland state' as if it to have a free hand in governing and of the matter with regard to Carson and exists. These academics include the policing their minority problem without Northern Ireland, as is made clear in his foremost in the country, nationalist and interference from outside. And in that it speech: unionist: Prof. Fitzpatrick of Trinity, Prof. undoubtedly succeeded for 50 years. 3 Henry Harrison was a Parnellite and Carson, in opposing Home Rule institu- conveniences and difficulties from which then Redmondite, serving with the 16th tions for Northern Ireland, was clearly Ulster has suffered arose not from any Division of the British Army on the West- suggesting the use of Ulster as a base for wish of her people. On the contrary, Ulster did not ask for any constitutional ern Front in the Great War. He then worked the future reconquest of Ireland, in this change. She was perfectly content to with Sir Horace Plunkett as Secretary of speech. But he was conceding that the remain in the United Kingdom, and it the Irish Dominion League, an organisa- game was up, having been told behind the was only because of the strong movement tion campaigning for dominion status for scenes that the Imperial interest demanded of Imperial policy and many tragic events, Ireland within the British Empire and Ulster make a great sacrifice. on which I do not intend to dwell, that in became Irish correspondent of The Carson had led the Ulster Unionist 1920 Ulster consented to defer to the Economist from 1922 to 1927. resistance against the British Liberal wish of the Imperial parliament and to set up a house of her own. From the moment In the late 1930s he wrote a number of Government but abandoned it in its that this took place, from the moment that interesting books from the perspective of moment of triumph because what it had it was quite clear that Ulster was not in someone who wished for a rapprochement got was not what he had aimed to get. And any way standing in the way of the between Britain and Ireland, so that Ireland as a result he retired from politics in disgust aspirations of the rest of Ireland, but was could be of assistance to England in her at the betrayal of the Union by the British deferring to the general requirements of coming hour of need which he seemed to Unionist Party. Imperial policy, it has always seemed to know was coming with the instinct of a me that a very strong obligation rested upon Parliament to secure her reasonable Britisher. He defended Irish neutrality in Harrison also noticed the speeches of help in the difficult and critical years Britain's Second War on Germany both Winston Churchill in Parliament which attending the creation of this new against British and American critics and give something of a indication of what the government" (Hansard, cols. 1665-6, 22 at the same time also founded, with General construction of Northern Ireland was really February, 1926). Sir Hubert Gough, the leader of the all about. Curragh mutineers, the Commonwealth In February 1925, three and a half years Here, from the horse's mouth, from one Irish Association in 1942. after Northern Ireland had come into of the real 'architects' of Northern Ireland, existence, Churchill, as Chancellor of the it is clear that Ulster had been reluctant to Harrison's book Ulster And The British Exchequer, was proposing the making of accept Home Rule institutions and had Empire was a plea to Britain for an ending a grant-in-aid of 1 million and a quarter only done so in deferring to the "general of partition in order that Ireland could do pounds to the revenues of Northern Ireland. requirements of Imperial policy". Snow- its duty by Britain against Germany in the This was opposed by Philip Snowden, the den acknowledged Churchill's argument second round of unfinished business. former Chancellor of the Exchequer, on that Northern Ireland should receive Harrison saw it in 1940 as "a thing most the basis that such a grant was "illegal" "illegal" subventions because of the sacri- lamentable that in the new Great War and inconsistent with the provisions in the fices she have made to the requirements of Ireland should be standing neutral" (from terms of the Government of Ireland Act of Imperial policy as the only justification the Introduction, The Neutrality of 1920. Churchill justified the 'illegal' for receiving the Treasury's treasure when Ireland). subventions to Ulster on the following treasure was in short supply after the One cannot help recalling the words of basis: extravagant spending of it in destroying George W. Bush after reading that: "fool "For many years Ulster's repugnance Germany. me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, to Home Rule denied Home Rule to the shame on me" or something like that. rest of the island which desired it so The financial arrangements between However, it is an unusual book in that keenly, but in 1921 the attitude of Ulster Westminster and Northern Ireland are one Harrison's anti-partitionism does not changed. Ulster, not out of any wish on of the lesser-known aspects of the Treaty. totally cloud his understanding of Northern her own part, contrary to her inclinations It seems that Collins was led to believe, as Ireland as being a dysfunctional political and contrary to her interest, consented to, in the Imperial interest, in the general an inducement to signing the Treaty, that unit in its own right, quite apart from its interest, to accept a form of government it would be impossible for Northern Ireland partitionist function. which separated the administration of to opt out from the new Irish Free State In the book Harrison quotes Sir Edward Ulster from the administration of Great due to the lack of financial assistance it Carson in the House of Lords giving the Britain, and which establish them as a would receive from the British Govern- reasons why he was abstaining in the vote small community in the North of Ireland, ment under the terms of the Treaty. Of over the 1920 Government of Ireland Act: with many difficulties, many embarrassments, and many perils which course, behind the scenes, assurances were "No, sir, I urge even now at this hour they had to face. I say that that was a great made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that the proper course is that Ulster should sacrifice on the part of Ulster, and no one Stanley Baldwin, to Sir James Craig that remain as she is and that you should who cares about the principle of pacifica- govern her, as you are governing her extra finance would be forthcoming in the tion embodied in the Irish settlement event of it deciding to exclude itself from now, from here; there is very little ought ever to ignore or be forgetful of the Treaty state established in Dublin. difficulty about it, and that you should that great sacrifice. It has imposed hard- above all things have it as a place of your ships upon Ulster. They did not want any This was the beginning of a system which own with feelings toward you exactly change, and were contented with the was developed by purely administrative like your own people, and from which, if situation that existed." (Hansard, cols. methods in which Northern Ireland ceased these eventualities occur, you will have a 1665-6, 23 February, 1925) to make an effective contribution to the jumping off place from which you can British Exchequer but received regular carry on all the necessary operations A year later, when Northern Ireland because to my mind, it is utterly idle to and substantial subsidies or grants-in-aid required another Imperial subvention from suppose, and indeed it has been said so from the Treasury in Whitehall, for reasons over and over again, that this country can the public purse Churchill reiterated his of Imperial interest. ever afford or will attempt to try a point: complete separation of Ireland from Great "I think it right to ask the committee to Winston Churchill, unlike his father, Britain" (Hansard, col. 1292, 18 May, 1920). bear in mind the fact that all the in- had been a vigorous Home Ruler who had 4 gone down the Falls to speak up for it and "This political strategy (triangulation) So they commemorate events of a century had threatened civil war against the Tories is what Sinn Fein has been executing ago which unionists appropriated after after the Curragh Mutiny threatened to brilliantly in the north over recent years 1921… Unionists stand open mouthed as against unionists. You must have noticed Republicans appear to promote 'Norn frustrate it (before drawing back from his that Sinn Fein MLAs and councillors Irn'. Of course, in the next breath bluster when the possibility of a greater have been finding grandparents or great- republicans remind them it is all part of a war appeared on the horizon). grandparents who fought in the British larger project to make unionists feel safe So it was perhaps only Churchill who army in the First World War. So it's OK in a future united Ireland… At the same could speak up for what had happened, to go to Messines to commemorate the time no unionist could fault McGuinness after all the twists and turns of Imperial dead of 1914 to 1918… Martin Mc for the commitment with which he oper- policy toward Ireland between 1912 and Guinness… conveniently found a grand- ates the institutions of the local administ- father who had worked on the Titanic… ration here. In fact, he and his fellow 1922, since he had the greatest understand- What's going on? Triangulation, that's republicans have taken complete posses- ing and experience of the whole mess. what. Quite simply Sinn Fein has been sion of all aspects of that administration, And if anyone was an architect of it all, unashamedly taking ownership of the haven't they? They're making 'Norn Irn' who had seen various plans consigned to North. Areas of life here which for work aren't they? Unionists couldn't the dustbin of history after events, it was generations unionists believed were complain about that, could they? he. exclusive to them and of which they had "It has baffled some Sinn Fein support- sole possession have now been invaded ers who write to this paper objecting that and taken over by republicans. It gives Sinn Fein has 'sold out'—but these Northern Ireland had been created to another meaning to a shared society. supporters fail to see… that by embracing serve the Imperial purpose with regard to Unionists look on in bewilderment as fully all the north's institutions Sinn Fein Ireland in the light of the tumultuous events Sinn Fein confidently asserts control of is irrevocably changing the north into a of the decade, 1912-22. The Ulster what are called 'signature' projects that place unionists no longer own or even Unionists had "taken a hit" and made "a unionists expected might have caused recognise but can't object to." great sacrifice" in accepting a semi- embarrassment to republicans. Not a bit detached provincial form of Home Rule of it. They own the north as much as any So, what will Peter do now, poor thing? unionist. 'An Ireland of equals' you see. so that Britain's influence on Ireland could Pat Walsh be maintained in future. A political entity had been created that nobody in Ireland, unionist or nationalist, wanted but which would maintain a useful antagonism by giving it a sizeable minority and a parlia- ment that provided for the juices to stew. The Irish Times Regrets This would also act as a prize that the part of Ireland that was lost could always aspire The Home Rule Bill that caused 35,000 recruit for the British Army. He said that to but never regain without doing Britain's to be killed in the Great War is having its the Home Rule Volunteers would defend bidding. centenary. The Home Rule leader, John Ireland against Germany, thus freeing So leverage, in perpetuity, was created Redmond, called on Home Rulers to join British troops for the War. It was a ludi- on that which was lost by that which was the British Army for the war on Germany. crous proposal and was rightly ridiculed held, but held out temptingly to that which There were two reasons why they should by the Irish Times. There was no way that had been lost—in the hope that it would do so: the Unionists, who came into their own never be fully lost and might be regained, with the War, would have given control of someday, in one way or another. A. The Home Rule Act, which Ireland Ireland to the Irish Volunteers. The Irish It was a cunning plan and it has been had demanded and had been granted, Times then published a series of denunc- very successful—it saw off Dev, the made Ireland a willing part of the Empire iations of Redmond for standing between Catholic Bulletin, the Irish Press and now, with Imperial obligations. Ireland and the War. The young men of it seems, Fianna Fail as well. The History B. If Home Rule Ireland did not flock Ireland were lusting for battle, but he was Departments of the Universities in the into the British Army,Britain might deny holding them on a leash. south were captured and the media became it Home Rule. The Home Rule Bill was enacted in late its willing tool. September, along with a Bill suspending It therefore has been very successful in The matter was beautifully poised from its actual implementation, and Redmond relation to its primary objective—the lost the British viewpoint. The Home Rule complied with the Irish Times demand Twenty-Six. But what seeds has it planted Bill, against which Unionist Ulster had that he should send Irishmen to war. in the Six itself? raised an illegal Army, had been put on Peter Robinson's speech was reported the Statute Book with Unionist support John Bruton, former Taoiseach and former EU Ambassador, was upset by the mostly on account of its ambition to sign but on the condition that it would not be Irish Times criticism of Redmond's war Catholics up as unionists as a final fall- put into effect until the end of the War, and policy: that even then it would not be put into back position for defending the Union. "It is hard to argue that Redmond was Presumably, they would be unionism's effect without unspecified amendment. wrong to take sides in a war to defend the last ditch. But it appears that the rug is The Irish Times editorial of 12th April territorial integrity of a small nation like already being pulled out from under his this year suggested that Redmond's Belgium… Redmond's position was more feet. "appeal to service in the British Empire's enlightened than that of the republicans of Easter Week 1916, who explicitly Brian Feeney writes in the Irish News cause… as a first step to Irish freedom" was "a disastrous miscalculation". invoked in their proclamation, their of 11th April the following article, Sinn “gallant allies” in Europe. These allies Fein "selling out" just an exercise in tri- In August 1914 Redmond had declared were imperial Germany, the Austro- angulation, as I finish these thoughts: support for Britain in the War but did not Hungarian empire and the Ottoman 5 empire. The morality of this alliance has Berlin that it would treat it as a reason for an offer of a chunk of Turkey in return for yet to be seriously questioned, but it war. Berlin did its best to ascertain the joining the War. So Britain invaded should be…" (13.4.12). British attitude but was misled. Germany Greece, overthrew its Government, set up It is true that the particulars of the Great would have accepted whatever conditions a puppet Government in its place, and in War and the Republican view of it at the Britain put on its neutrality in the war 1919 sent the puppet Government to invade time have not been questioned. What has Germany was facing with two powerful the Asia Minor region of Turkey and set happened in recent years is that the Repub- Empires. Britain had made careful prepar- up a Greek Empire there. When the Greek lic has, by general consent, declared the ations over a number of years for war invasion, after initial penetration into the war of the British Empire in 1914-19 to be against Germany, but the Government heart of Anatolia, provoked a powerful "Our War", and therefore, of course, a had the problem a strong pacifist senti- Turkish resistance which drove the Greek good war, but without going into detail. ment on its backbenches and needed an Army back to the sea, amid scenes of great One detail, to be starting with,is that incident to overcome it. The German communal slaughter, Britain piously "little Belgium" was a great genocidal slave march through Belgium was the incident. washed its hands of the matter. state. Estimates of the slaves killed by its It was deliberately let happen for that brutal regime in the Congo run into millions. purpose. Bruton might look up the If John Bruton wants a thorough dis- Another detail is that Britain could warmonger, G.B. Shaw, about it. cussion of the morality of "Our War" he have prevented the German march across Another detail, re violations of neutral- can have it here. We doubt that he could Belgium on the way to France by telling ity, is that the Greek Government refused have it anywhere else.

Promissory Note Deal

The deal on the Promissory Notes that lems. It was not intended as long-term annual payments, most of which will be the Irish State negotiated with the EU at funding. With this in mind, the Irish State paid in the first 10 years. The Irish Govern- the end of March was an improvement on was obliged to replace the ELA in the Irish ment was attempting to postpone these the status quo. Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) with Promissory Note payments. The first pay- To recap: the Irish Banks have been loans from the IMF/EU. Loans from the ment of 3.06 billion was paid in March borrowing Exceptional Liquidity Assist- ECB at 1% would be replaced by loans 2011 and the second instalment was due ance (ELA) from the European Central from the IMF/EU at 3.5%, repayable over to be paid last March. Bank (ECB) at 1% interest. This was not a period of 20 years. considered acceptable by the ECB because The IBRC (formerly Anglo Irish Bank Enda Kenny in his Ard Fheis speech ELA was a form of money that was and Irish Nationwide) owed about 42 claimed that the Government had succeed- intended to be only "exceptional" or billion euro in ELA. It could repay about ed in postponing the payment. This was "emergency" money, which would be 11 billion out of its own resources. The not quite accurate and he later had to repaid once the banks in question had remainder was to be financed by the State withdraw this claim. emerged from short-term liquidity prob- over a period of 20 years in the form of In last month's Irish Political Review, 6 we described the basic architecture of the Promissory Notes. The diagram accom- panying this article is similar to the one last month. As in last month's illustration, Mahon's Star Witness the top of the diagram shows the ECB authorising the Central Bank of Ireland We apologise for the description of that the suppositions upon which a (CBI) to issue ELA money which is passed Thomas Gilmartin as a corrupt property determination is made are not adequate as on to the IBRC. The IBRC repays the developer in last month's magazine. This a basis for criminal prosecution. ELA by means of Promissory Note pay- foolish statement did not take due account ments from the State. However in March of the fact that Mr. Gilmartin had been There are certain matters in the Mahon granted exemption from the law in this Tribunal that are arguable and other this year, instead of making a payment of matter by the competent authority of the matters that are indisputable. 3.06 billion, the State issued a Government State. Tom Gilmartin on the advice of his It is indisputable that in May or June Bond to the IBRC. The IBRC used this lawyer (Noel Smyth, the famous property 1989 Tom Gilmartin wrote a cheque for Bond to borrow from the Bank of Ireland developer and Anglo-Irish Bank debtor), IR£50,000 and gave it to Padraig Flynn at a 2.35% rate of interest (see note at end sought and obtained criminal immunity who was then the Minister for the Environ- of article). It then handed over the money from The Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain ment. It is also indisputable that Flynn to the CBI, which settles its account with Planning Matters & Payments. The was given the power to dispose of the the ECB. Immunity was granted by the Director of money in any way that he saw fit. Mr. The Bank of Ireland, in turn used this Public Prosecutions, on the request of the Gilmartin says that he left the payee section Government Bond to borrow from the Tribunal. No other witness in this Tribunal of the cheque blank. ECB at 1% interest. or in any other Irish Tribunal has sought or It is indisputable that the cheque was obtained such immunity. From this it can not written on a personal cheque book. He From the point of view of the State, the be reasonably inferred that Gilmartin was had arranged with his bank that, when financing costs have been reduced. Instead Judge Mahon's star witness. It is note- Flynn presented the cheque to the bank, of borrowing from the IMF/EU at 3.5% it worthy that the Supreme Court has found the amount would be debited to Gilmartin's is borrowing at 2.35% from Bank of Ire- that the Judge was over-protective of his personal account. It is indisputable that land. This represents a saving of 35.2 witness. Evidence that might have under- Gilmartin never looked for a receipt for million euro in annual interest costs ((3.5% mined the credibility of Gilmartin was not the payment of the IR£50,000, despite - 2.35%) x 3.06 billion). Bank of Ireland made available to parties against whom leaving the payee section of the cheque will make an annual profit of 41.3 million Gilmartin had made allegations. The blank. on the transaction ((2.35% - 1.0%) x 3.06 Supreme Court over-ruled the Tribunal Judge Mahon makes the following billion. However, the State owns 15% of on this matter. indisputable comment in his report: this bank, so it is entitled to 15% of the Nevertheless the Tribunal carried on as "Mr Flynn confirmed that the dealings a moral/legal Inquisition of a kind not profits, which amount to 6.2 million. So, he had with Mr Gilmartin were under- seen since the Holy Inquisition. With the total savings on the Government deal taken by him in his capacity as the Minister Tribunals, the standard of proof required for the Environment. He accepted that equal 41.4 million (35.2 + 6.2). This is for a determination is lower than in crim- had he not held this position he probably very small in the context of the billions inal cases. Testimony is not subject to the would never have encountered Mr Gil- that are in play, but it is not nothing. While rules of evidence. Furthermore, the Chair- martin, and that other than these dealings, the ECB has not reduced its liability of man of the Tribunal can form an opinion no political or business relationship, 3.06 billion euro as it expected, it has on the basis of what he is told without the friendship or connection had ever existed shifted it from a dead bank (IBRC) to a benefit of adversarial cross-examination. between them." functioning bank (Bank of Ireland). This In a criminal prosecution the verdict has It is indisputable that Mr. Gilmartin will obviate the political objections to to be 'beyond reasonable doubt'. In a sought Urban Renewal tax relief status for criminal prosecution the verdict has to be repaying the ECB. his Quarryvale properties—which at the 'beyond reasonable doubt' However, in time were exclusively owned by him— civil cases, the verdict can be based on from Padraig Flynn. Such status would While the money saved is relatively 'balance of probabilities'. The difference have obviated the need for planning small the Government can feel that it has between the standards of proof as between established a precedent which can be used permission. Mr. Edmund Kay, a Senior criminal and civil cases is because some- Manager in AIB's property division, noted next year when another 3.06 billion is due one may lose his liberty in a criminal in an internal memo that Gilmartin believ- for payment. It would be preferable if next prosecution, whilst a civil prosecution ed he would obtain that status. The internal year the IBRC borrowed from AIB instead usually only results in monetary sanctions. memorandum says that Gilmartin believed The trouble with applying civil standards of Bank of Ireland, because AIB is almost that Flynn would ring AIB to confirm that 100%-owned by the State and therefore of proof in the Tribunals is that, with the the Relief would be granted to Quarryvale. its profits would remain within the State. glare of publicity associated with the Gilmartin disputes the accuracy of this Tribunal process, the consequences of an This is something, which the Government memo, but it is difficult to know why Kay adverse determination for a person in the should focus on in its ongoing negotiations. would lie about this matter. public eye are far more severe than for the It is indisputable that Mr. Gilmartin did John Martin usual respondents in civil cases. It is also not obtain this Relief. Note 1: The transaction will have to be quite commonplace for media reporting postponed until Bank of Ireland obtains to go beyond the actual findings of Tribu- We now turn to what is disputable. shareholder approval. In the meantime bridging nals, but to be inaccurate in such a way Gilmartin claims that, although he left the finance is obtained from NAMA. that a libel case cannot hope to succeed. payee section of the cheque blank, he There have been frequent calls for the intended the cheque for Fianna Fáil. It On-line sales of books, prosecution of persons against whom there should be pointed out that Gilmartin was pamphlets and magazines: have been adverse Tribunal findings. So at that time a seasoned businessman. He far there has only been one, George Red- was not an innocent abroad. In the previous https://www.atholbooks-sales.org mond. The reason for the lack of action is year (1988) he had been writing cheques 7 of IR£3,500 a month to Liam Lawlor. financial contributions to the party which, to liaise with the U.K. Road Engineering These cheques also had the payee section in one case (a sum of IR£50,000), it was experts that I have retained for advice left blank. retained by the individual minister regarding the provision of motorway The question arises of whether Gilmartin himself." facilities with particular emphasis on had had such a close affinity with Fianna complying with safety and international road engineering standards. We are Fáil, that would explain such an outburst Judge Mahon comments as follows: compiling a selection of aerial and photo- of generosity. It would appear that there "Mr Gilmartin was cross-examined in graphic views to outline specific examples was not such a relationship. In February relation to the reference in the foregoing of the appropriate entrance and exit 1989, just a few months before he gave the extract to 'in most instances'. It was put to designs. The construction engineers will cheque to Padraig Flynn, the developer him that these words suggested that in prepare a sketch layout showing our some instances he had succumbed to suggestion for consideration by yourself claims to have had an interesting experi- requests for the payments of bribes, ence. As Gilmartin recounts it on oath to and your Road Engineering colleagues in including the payment of IR£50,000. Mr the Council to further the exploratory the Tribunal, he was brought to Leinster Gilmartin denied that he had ever bribed discussions. We fully accept and note the House by Liam Lawlor. He was ushered anyone and maintained that he could not point raised, that your Council acts as an in to a meeting attended by Charles Haughey, be held accountable for the phrasing of agent for the Department of the Environ- Padraig Flynn, Bertie Ahern and other Mr Smyth's document." ment, Roads Division, on overseeing the Cabinet Ministers. There was also an Gilmartin can't be held accountable for construction of the Motorway and unidentified man at the meeting. After what his solicitor says on his behalf?! It is National Primary Road schemes. receiving some supportive comments, Gil- We believe if agreement can be reached, a novel view, as legal representatives act that our proposal for a business park and martin was ushered out of the meeting by on the instruction of their clients. But the motorway service at the Palmerstown/ this unidentified man. The man requested learned Judge says it is so. Rowlagh location would bring much IR£5 million on the basis of the assistance There are two points that should be needed investment to the area. We hope that was going to be given to Gilmartin. made about Gilmartin/Smyth's statement. to be in a position to seek a further meeting Gilmartin refused and told the man: Firstly, this is Gilmartin's version of the with yourself and your colleagues in the Roads Department, to discuss our 'You people make the so and so Mafia situation he faced as interpreted by his proposal further. look like monks'. solicitor. Secondly, even in this version, I will contact your secretary in due Gilmartin is asking us to believe that he the "threats" consisted of denying him a course to arrange a date and time suitable issued a cheque for IR£50,000 and the benefit. It must be said that Gilmartin had to your itinerary. intended recipient was a political party no legal entitlement to have his lands Yours sincerely, Tom Gilmartin that in his own words would make the rezoned. The letter does not indicate who attend- "mafia look like monks". Why would he ed the meeting apart from Redmond and do this? Gilmartin claimed to the Tribunal Nobody could accuse Gilmartin of Gilmartin. However, a letter from Michael that he hoped the payment: being anything less than voluble in the complaints he made to the Tribunal. But it Hartnett, a Council official, acknowledg- "would smooth the way, smooth my appears that he was considerably more ing the letter indicates that Liam Lawlor path through the quagmire of corruption also attended the meeting of 28th of June and the zoning etcetera'. circumspect at the time the matters arose. For example, Gilmartin claims that in 1988. He thought that the people who would May or June of 1988 he attended a meeting Gilmartin accepted that he wrote the make the mafia look like monks would do with George Redmond (an Assistant City above letter. However, he claimed that the this for IR£50,000 when apparently the and County Manager) and Liam Lawlor. meeting of 28th of June occurred after the going rate for assistance was IR£5 million! This meeting took place at Redmond's meeting in which bribes were solicited. In office. According to Gilmartin he was other words there were two separate meet- A friend of Gilmartin, Mr. Sheeran, given a map showing the landowners in ings that were attended by Redmond, told the Tribunal that his understanding, the Quarryvale area. At a certain point Lawlor and himself. It was at the earlier of based on information provided to him by Redmond used some pretext to leave the two meetings that bribes were solicited. Mr. Gilmartin, was that the payment was Lawlor alone with Gilmartin. Gilmartin made by Mr Gilmartin claims that Lawlor solicited IR£100,000 If Gilmartin were lying, it would be quite despicable, acting under legal 'to smooth his path through tax for himself and IR£100,000 for Redmond. incentives and zoning etc.', Redmond and Lawlor vehemently deny immunity, to accuse people falsely under oath of a criminal act. On the other hand, Sheeran later claimed that his statement that such a meeting took place. However, they do concede that a meeting did take if he were telling the truth, how would this was badly worded. But it's not easy to reflect on him? He believes that a bribe is formulate a good wording for this. place between Gilmartin, Lawlor and Redmond on 28th June 1988. There was solicited by Lawlor with the connivance Gilmartin's solicitor Noel Smyth form- no discussion of the landowners in of Redmond and is happy to meet both ulated Gilmartin's position as follows: Quarryvale and no bribes were solicited. individuals at a subsequent meeting. "… while the rezoning was postponed To support their version of the content of Indeed, after the second meeting he expres- on several occasions, he (i.e. Gilmartin) the meeting, a letter from Tom Gilmartin ses pleasure to Redmond at the opportunity was under duress to pay contributions to was produced dated 6th July 1988 which of meeting him and would like to meet TDs, councillors, and members of the stated as follows: him again. Gilmartin does not make a then Fianna Fáil government and was complaint to the Gardaí. It is not until 8 or openly threatened that in the event of his "Dear Mr Redmond, 9 months later in February 1989 that he Re: Motorway facilities failing to do so, then his rezoning would complains to Frank Feely (Dublin City not take place. In most instances he I was very pleased to have the oppor- resisted these claims but on a number of tunity of meeting you and I would like to and County Manager) and his assistant occasions, believing that it would signifi- thank you for your advice and assistance. Seán Haughey (the brother of the former cantly help the process, agreed to make I have instructed the consulting engineers Taoiseach). 8 It should be noted that Sean Haughey tions. Superintendent Thomas Burns was on 20th March 1989. quite properly passed on this complaint to the operational head of the inquiry. By the end of 1990 Gilmartin was the Gardaí. In the course of the Garda Gilmartin did not claim to the Tribunal struggling to meet his financial commit- investigation there were three telephone that the call did in fact come from Burns ments and was urged by the bank to seek interviews with Gilmartin. The last one and Burns denied that he made such a call. a business partner. In next month's issue occurred on 4th March 1989. Gilmartin we will examine the allegations made by claims that a few days afterwards he Gilmartin did not make a complaint to Gilmartin against the Cork property deve- received a phone call from a "Garda Burns" the Gardaí regarding the call but ceased to loper, Owen O'Callaghan, and against warning him against making further allega- cooperate with the Gardaí on the matter Bertie Ahern.

Anne Harris

Forty years ago the Official IRA set off —with a limited and particular object, Crown. It was equally clear that the a bomb in Aldershot military barracks because the Northern Ireland system intention was to strike at the officer class. which missed the soldiers and killed the necessitated it. We did not support them One ex-British Army officer tells me that cleaning staff. The Irish News (Belfast), at all because we advocated a different there there are at least two other and more noting the 40th anniversary of the incident way of dealing with the intolerable state accessible targets in Aldershot—barrack on February 22nd, said: system, but we acknowledged that they dormitories for enlisted men. Clearly the "It was a devastating attack that would were acting in the reality of the Northern I.R.A. was making a political as well as a signal the beginning of the end for the Ireland system, which could not be allowed military gesture by striking at the Officers' Official IRA, allowing the younger, more to continue. Mess where so many Derry anecdotes and militant Provisionals to take over and so Poona guffaws must have been heard after shape the course of the troubles in The Officials acted in a fantasy. In the the brigade's heroic battle in Derry. Northern Ireland." mid-seventies they were joined by the British Army propaganda did a good In fact the Official IRA remained in devotees of the ultimate form of fantasy job in building up the working class image being and active for many years after the revolutionism—the theoretical theorists of the victims. It is incredible how the Aldershot bombing. It is true that it called of Althusserian Marxism-Leninism, of Tories who so degrade and exploit their off its revolutionary war of national which he who became Lord Bew of own poor while alive, can continue to liberation in 1972, but it killed many people Donegore was then the chief apostle. exploit them posthumously. Nobody here and robbed many banks during the 1970s The Official fantasists were at best a bothered to point out that the Official and 1980s. As late as 1990 it offered to nuisance in the North, but they prospered I.R.A. had not placed their bomb in a shoot people connected with this public- in the South, which began to lose all recreation centre of a public house but ation. It was a kind of mad-dog operation, historical sense of itself in the early had, to the limit of human ingenuity, struck acting in ideological fantasy. seventies. at the lords and masters. Accordingly I We give below a comment on the found Tim Pat Coogan's profound analysis It did not "allow" the Provisionals to Aldershot bombing, published at the time on R.T.E. (“an attempt to upstage the take over. It did its best to stop them. If by Anne Harris, who was then the wife of Provisionals”) particularly rich in view of failed to stop them because the Provos Eoghan Harris, who was then guru of the the heady editorial line of the Irish Press were not generalised Marxist-Leninist Official IRA. Anne Harris is now Editor has been running for the past two years. revolutionary ideologists looking for a of the Sunday Independent, which is the The peculiar mixture of romanticism, revolution. They were products of the biggest-selling newspaper in Ireland, and Hibernianism and support for the most bizarre Northern Ireland political system, is very hot on "terrorism" and very anti- sectarian Provisional elements have been and they made sense to the Catholic Catholic. We did not hear that, on her way charted before by commentators such as community from its viewpoint within that to becoming Editor of the Sunday Jack Dowling. Less bumptious but more system. Northern Ireland needed to have Independent, she ever repented of her skin-crawling smug was Dr. Cruise O' a job done on it, and the stress under which active support for terrorism. It was not Brien's introspection on behalf of the Irish it put the Catholic community generated necessary for her to do so. It seems that it middle class who are organised loosely in the power for doing the job. is only the realistic terrorism which brought three parties under his general direction. about the radical restructuring of the North Dr. O'Brien wanted to know if the seeds The Provo movement was not a youth that is entirely unacceptable to peace- of Aldershot were sown in some Irish movement. In the first instance its leaders lovers in the South: were the older element which had been schoolroom. If they were it must have been a national school. Certainly the expelled from the republican movement "Personally Speaking, by the Marxist-Leninist ideologists who seeds of the Mountain View Tavern and ANNE HARRIS, Hibernia, 3rd March 1972 took control in the late 1960s. And it was the Four Steps Inn were sown in Clon- above all else a movement created by the The attack on the headquarters of the gowes Wood and half a dozen other Northern Ireland system and directed Parachute Brigade in Aldershot produced colleges maintained for the privileged. against it. It accepted support from the most nauseating show of hypocrisy Dr. O'Brien can very easily find out by generalised Marxist-Leninist revolutionary from the Irish middle class to date. It was reading the Insight team's brilliant Ulster groups around the world who were looking quite clear that it took courage and how the college boys got the lads from for a revolution to connect with, but made determination to enter the headquarters of Barr Na Sraide N.S. to stop fish-ins on it clear that it was not one of them. It the technological savages who are main- Fianna Fail waters and start bombing engaged in revolutionary activity—a war tained for colonial repression by the Protestants instead. There is also a good 9 account of how this piece of fascism was commerce student, Conor Lynch, could he was a notorious two-nationist, and resisted, not by Dr. O'Brien's trendy social often be seen in the company of a well- naming him would give two-nationism a democrats but by men who never got known housing agitator, Pat O'Sullivan. good name! Both are now behind bars in England" further than the national school. (Hibernia, 7 Jan. 1972). Personally I fail to see why, in a colonial Another two-nationist prominent in the country like Ireland teachers should not She neglects to mention that Conor class struggle in that period is mentioned sow the seeds of Aldershot. Surely a man Lynch became a two-nationist in prison by another Hibernia columnist, Proinnsias acquainted with Franz Fanon should know and put the two-nation view in letters MacAongusa (25.6.1971). That was Sean that a conquered people's hope of from prison. Kearney, who was leading a strike in a retribution is a legitimate human aspira- The teacher—who was sacked from carpet factory in Gweedore, in the Donegal tion. But then Dr. O'Brien and Fianna Fail the convent for being a Communist—she Gaeltacht, and publishing a Gaelic socialist strenuously resist the logic of our colonial does not name at all, even though she magazine produced by Athol Books. * position. To jog their memory here are the knew well who he was. Nor did she name The Harrises switched over to the enemy latest figures. There are 986 British him in the following issue when she had to at some point after we had ceased to take subsidiaries now operating in the 26 publish a correction: notice of their foibles. The Soviet Union counties. More than 65% of Irish owned "In the last issue I wrote about a young towards the end of its life adopted the manufacturing industry is controlled by Communist graduate from U.C.C. who Official Republicans as their Irish base. foreign capital, mostly British. And if he lost his teaching job in a Dunmanway Then it collapsed. Eoghan Harris then still thinks there is two nations in Ireland convent because of his politics. I also went through every conceivable position it can only be the merest accident that their pointed out that the Reverend Mother of in rapid succession. In 2003 he became economic structures are increasingly the convent had done her best to prevent this happening. I gave Dunmanway too political adviser to the fantasist, Chalabi, identical. In the Six Counties 5% of the much credit. Sister Philomena, Superior- in the invasion of Iraq. And he continued population own nearly half of all wealth. ess of the only convent in Dunmanway, to rant against his Provo enemies, who In the south the same 5% own more than wishes to be disassociated from anything had fought a war grounded in social reality half. The responsibility for maintaining of that sort. The brave and humanitarian and conducted it to a functional peace. this set up is vested in many groups. Reverend Mother was, of course, in That peace has now been maintained for In Ireland the three political parties Kanturk" (Hibernia, 21 Jan. 1972). more than a decade, despite the best efforts help keep the natives quiet. But if that But it wasn't in Kanturk either! We of the Sunday Independent to subvert it. should fail there is always the refined don't know if there was a further correction gentlemen standing at the bar of the —and don't recall there being a convent in And now the Sunday Independent is in Officers' Mess in Aldershot. In the last Kanturk. danger of being taken away from them as analysis the Irish poor, face the paras. their plaything by Denis O'Brien, who is That is why, although I'm depressed about The unnamed subject of these items is as close to being an Irish national capitalist the deaths of five waitresses, I am also Jack Lane. He could not be named because as is to be found in Ireland these days. sickened by the hypocrisy of the establishment reaction." Wilson John Haire ***************** 22nd February, 2012 A SOURCE SAID...

THE TWO NATIONS A source said but I cannot substantiate Conor Cruise O'Brien never agreed with the government killing of his tribe, appreciate, the two-nations view of the conflict in the we don’t disambiguate North. It was put to him at the time and he or for that matter abbreviate rejected it. Even if he had agreed with it, those names that would associate he would have rejected it because it had the informant with the habituate been thought of by others. rebellion to give his fight a palliate. Watch my lips - see how I enunciate Some time later the Harrises flipped the democratic right to disassociate and became disciples of O'Brien, skin- from the country’s leadership. I expatiate crawling smugness and all. And yet, on the rebellion. The armed might I excoriate. while they changed radically, they I watch YouTube and nauseate remained much the same. at the result of those who humiliate with twenty blooded bodies to infuriate Anne Harris made some approving my sense of fair play that could asphyxiate comments about two-nationists back then: my humanitarian endeavours to alleviate "In the mid '60s the university [i.e. this trying world outside our shores, to conciliate Cork] turned out such dedicated commun- rogue states though they do expropriate ists that Stephen Barrett was forced to the truth and in lies luxuriate. denounce one of them who had carried And I say again I cannot substantiate. his politics through graduation day and But here lies twenty victims and something must differentiate past the portals of Dunmanway convent. between activists and stooges who misappropriate The teacher lost his job—it should be the principles of free nations and defoliate noted—in the teeth of protest from the the tree of life and inebriate Reverend Mother; lay fascism has always been stronger than clerical fascism in the world media to vitiate world peace. So, for the sake of the dead I ingratiate Ireland. And I can remember the most recent attempt to form an alliance between myself, without apology, with the opposition, to satiate Cork students and Cork workers. A my thirst for justice by declaring these killings a substantiate. 10 ELAINE BYRNE April he wrote: A conclusion is only as good as the "In June, Denis O'Brien will attempt to premise that it relies on. topple the O'Reilly regime in INM. If he Shorts Elaine Byrne's premise is that the succeeds, I will no longer be writing for Licence Competition was itself corrupt. the Sunday Independent." from Since she accepts this premise uncritically, Promises! Promises! the Long Fellow she cannot criticise the behaviour of Esat's unsuccessful rival: the Persona Group. In We did not have to wait until June. By her Sunday Independent article (1.4.12) the end of April Gavin O'Reilly had DENIS O'BRIEN she claims that Ireland lost 1,500 jobs as a resigned as Chief Executive. It is the Long The Long Fellow is of the opinion that result of awarding the licence to Esat. This Fellow's fervent wish that Eoghan Harris the Esat Digifone Consortium won the was because the award incurred the dis- stands by his principles! mobile phone licence competition fairly pleasure of Motorola, which was the lead and squarely in 1995. Denis O'Brien did member of the Persona Group. Byrne CORPORATION TAX not have a corrupt relationship with Mich- says: The Irish Political Review cannot claim ael Lowry; and Lowry did not exert any "The boss of Motorola warned the then to achieve the consistent unanimity of the improper influence on the decision to grant Taoiseach, John Bruton, that the US Sunday Independent. And accordingly the the second mobile phone licence. But that multinational company might withdraw Long Fellow disagrees with Philip O' is a view that is not widely shared within because of the "serious questions" about Connor's piece on our 12.5% Corporation the media which uncritically accepts the the awarding of the second mobile phone Tax rate, which appeared in last month's opinions of the Moriarty Tribunal. licence to Denis O'Brien in 1995." Irish Political Review. A Project Group consisting of civil And, apparently, the damage has not Philip says: servants from various divisions of the ended: "The more this issue is examined, the Department of Transport, Enterprise and "Wearing his heart on his sleeve, John less it seems to have anything much to do Communications, as well as represent- J Mitchell told Bruton that “appraisal of with US multinationals and the more it atives from the Department of Finance, Motorola involvement in Ireland— seems to have to do with Irish companies". evaluated the applicants for the licence. present and future—is presently under serious review”." But the low Corporation Tax is of This Project Group appointed Danish greater benefit to foreign multinationals. consultants Andersen Management Inter- It was not just Motorola that was The foreign parent company of an Irish national (AMI) to assist in the evaluation unhappy: resident company that receives Irish process. Both the Project Group and AMI "Even the US embassy got involved at dividends is not liable to Income Tax or recommended Esat. the time. US diplomats directly intervened Withholding Tax. On the other hand, an So, what is Lowry accused of? The with the Irish government on behalf of Irish resident who receives dividends from original plan was that there should be a four US companies who had been partners an Irish company is liable to Withholding period of one month for the politicians to with consortia seeking to win the licence. Tax at the standard rate of Income Tax. If deliberate over the matter. But, after Privately, US companies were saying his income is sufficiently high, he will be receiving the recommendation for Esat, that the Irish process for winning the second GSM licence was more like a liable to tax at the higher rate on that Lowry decided that a decision should be process they had encountered in 'banana income and will be able to use the With- made as soon as possible. There were republics'" holding Tax as a tax credit. But such a good reasons for this. Firstly, the recom- shareholder does not receive any tax credit mendation was clear and unambiguous. But what if the competition was not for the Corporation Tax that the company Secondly, it was based on a highly tech- corrupt? Even Moriarty does not claim has paid. nical report which politicians were not that the Civil Servants or AMI, who recom- In general the higher the Corporation particularly qualified to adjudicate on. mended Esat, were corrupt. If Byrne's Tax rate, the less an individual will be Thirdly, Lowry was advised by his Civil premise is rejected, it casts a completely taxed on dividend income. About 30 years Servants and Press Officer that delaying different light on Motorola's behaviour, ago Irish non-exporting companies were the decision would have run the risk of which preceded the publication of the taxed at a 50% rate. However shareholders unauthorised leaks and political lobbying. Moriarty Report. received a tax credit of 35% on dividend But Lowry did not announce the An alternative premise would lead to income in recognition of the fact that the awarding of the licence without political the conclusion that Motorola was using its income had already been taxed. So, it consultation. He submitted his proposal corporate muscle to attempt to overturn a could be said that the tax on profits that to a Cabinet Sub-Committee, which legitimate decision of a democratically- could not be used to reduce a shareholder's consisted of John Bruton (Taoiseach), elected Irish Government. Also, that the income tax was 15%, which is not much Ruairi Quinn (Minister for Finance), most powerful State in the world had different from the current Corporation Proinsias de Rossa (leader of Democratic intervened in a Government decision to Tax rate of 12.5%. Left), and Dick Spring (leader of the advance American corporate interests. One could have a discussion on the Labour Party). If Lowry was corrupt in question of whether the foreign corporate this incidence (which the Long Fellow EOGHAN HARRIS sector should make a greater contribution does not accept), the aforementioned Sub- The unanimity which Sunday Independ- to the State's revenue, but there should be Committee was complicit in corruption. ent journalists achieve every Sunday is a no doubt that our low Corporation Tax It follows that de Rossa and Bruton wonder to behold. For most of April they primarily benefits foreign-owned product- must withdraw from all public duties and were agreed that Denis O'Brien should 7ive enterprises. Quinn must resign from the Cabinet. not obtain control of Independent News "Let justice be done, though the heavens and Media. Eoghan Harris decided to take PROPERTY TAXES fall"! a principled stand. In his column of 1st The most glaring anomaly in our tax 11 system has been the complete absence of preparing the ground for a Property Tax. The next in the series was to be on property taxes. One of the first things that Fine Gael, which is beginning to look like Daniel Corkery, to be edited by her other a foreigner—particularly a continental the party of State, is successfully colleague Heather Laird—and of course European—notices about this country is implementing that policy. It will be we all knew that Eibhear is the overall the amount of large houses. The Long interesting to see if the Government has editor of the series. Fellow knows of prosperous businessmen the political will to introduce a fairer operating in a cash business who evade tax by sinking surplus cash into their system, now that householders have Coughlan then introduced Mary Leland property in the form of extensions, top of registered their property. which I covered in the April issue of Irish the range bathrooms and kitchens. Meanwhile, the so-called Left in this Political Review. country has performed its traditional role Fianna Fáil set the ball rolling by of mindless opposition. LELAND'S ADDRESS AT FARAHY CHURCH On the 11th September 2011, there was the usual service of prayers and hymn- singing in memory of Elizabeth Bowen, Elizabeth Bowen and her Admirers celebrated by Dean Robert MacCarthy of Part Two Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin and the local Canon Toomey. The Dean thanked "Wherever I was in 1916, I was not remember and during all that time they the Board of Trustees of the St. Colman's murdering my neighbours." "have never had a cross word". Church, Farrahy (who initially leased the James Dillon, Dáil Debates, 22nd She went on to remind us of— building from the Church of Ireland JH) April 1932. and the local FÁS team for all their work. "This remark was just a reminder of "Eibhear's long-standing study and growing contribution of our literary and just how much outside the mainstream I am always struck by how little money Dillon was, and an indication to the rest cultural history of Ireland generally but of the House that he would fight to defend in particular of Munster and more parti- is collected from the people present. As the name and honour of his father's party. cularly again of Munster's women writers the bag is passed around, it is only small As he put it: “I am in the presence of two of various ethnicities and background — change that many people—mostly the loyalties. I have a loyalty higher to the Teresa Deevey herself, like Eibhear a Protestants—give, whereas we Catholics memory of these men than I have to this Waterford person, and also Molly Keane always have paper money to give. and Elizabeth Bowen—members of the House” which Maurice Manning accepts When the service finished, Mary Leland ascendancy before he corrected me not to was “in itself a strange statement, was introduced and she made a startling indicating a less than full acceptance of say so—and the person of her native city, the full legitimacy of the Dáil”." Kate O'Brien. He has brought a very well start to her address. She got out of her seat James Dillon. A Biography researched sensibility to the thought and and then to much eye-brow raising and by Maurice Manning. literary perspective of these literary uncondoning expressions, she genuflected "His real and lasting significance may writers and his work is now considerable generously and it brought to mind that be less in what he did than what he was … and formidable indeed and his biography saying which I roughly paraphrase on this of Kate O'Brien is considered the seminal the embodiment of a type of nationalist occasion "one get take the woman out of work on that writer which is a magnum rare in any country, and of incalculable Catholicism but not the Catholicism out value to the Ireland of his day." opus indeed. And his work is not confined F.S.L. Lyons on John Dillon. to Munster or women, these works that I of the woman", as exemplified in this case. mentioned are accompanied by important and critical works on the very different Mary Leland started her speech with THE UCC ACADEMICS topic of Oscar Wilde. the lovely image of her having played "As well as that Eibhear is very well Professor Patricia Coughlan was a tennis that morning and then gone out to received in the international critical sphere her garden and cut sweet pea—as a sort of speaker at the launch of Eibhear Walshe's and is a commentator on the history of book, Elizabeth Bowen's Selected Irish gay and lesbian writing from that sensibil- obeisance to the memory of Bowen. She Writings at Fota House on the 1st October ity and from that he has made very stated that this set off an association of 2011. She begins by praising the book important and cited articles on this topic memory—such Bowen items as in the itself as a very "handsome" product, being which are very highly rated. As well as latter's Preface to the second edition of hardback and with a full length portrait of that Eibhear is widely known as a highly- The Last September, where the characters entertaining contributor to broadcasting Bowen on the cover. She had only just "were playing tennis and cutting sweet and he may be more widely known to the pea"—oh the leisured pursuits of the long acquired the book, she said, and pointed public for his witty and highly-ranked out that the portrait itself by Patrick memoir about his family and growing up lost Eden of the Big House is such a Hennessy, reproduced courtesy of the which is called 'Cissie's Abattoir'." seductive trope for our writers of today. Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, was one of There is such nostalgia for this sort of her favourite portraits of Bowen, being in Coughlan's spiel about the qualities of thing exhibited by our chattering classes many ways the most beautiful and most Walsh's writings—considering their that I realise that our culture—pluralist, telling of the many portraits of Bowen that admitted "closeness", as she said herself, inclusive and many faceted—has been exist. The speaker went on to say that she made her—in my opinion completely— sheared off from the elite who are for the was going to say a little bit about what was critically blind. most part urbanites. being celebrated—and that was of course She ended up by congratulating Eibhear Eibhear himself. He, she stated was "a and Cork University Press for this book, Leland stated that she had left the long-time colleague" of hers in the School made up of so many essays that she couldn't Catholic Church and had found her place of English at University College Cork: wait to read, particularly as they were in the more liberal Anglicism of the Church they were "across the corridor from each collected and edited with much scholarly of Ireland and Church of England, with other" for more years than she cared to intention. their loud Protestant confident hymns. 12 She went on to consider the now usual diverse topics as British modern literature now to be how the academics paint her. Bowen fare. She talked about her long and and literary theory, feminist theory, the devoted love affair with the Canadian Irish Gothic tradition, and pedagogical I feel sympathy for Susan Osborn diplomat Charles Ritchie. Leland theory and practice. She is also the Editor because, when she takes on The Last considered its endurance to be its most of a handsome book, Elizabeth Bowen— September', not having a history back- striking feature. They met up in Paris, New Critical Perspectives, published by ground, she is doubly-bound: because she Canada, London, and even Bonn—where Cork University Press, 2009. The title of is an outsider. To ask of her to understand Leland alleges wrongly that Ritchie took her talk was Elizabeth Bowen's Irelands. the complexities of that period is quite up a most important diplomatic position It was obvious that being in the Church simply too big an ask. One cannot talk as just to be near Bowen and Bowen's Court— itself where Bowen once worshipped was she does of 'The War of Independence' his home in Ireland. a huge honour for her and she was so without as much as a reference to the affected that it was quite easy to see. She General Election of 1918—how can It is now well known that Bowen was talked about the air itself being "thick Osborn infer that the democratic mandate running out of money long before her here", adding that "this strange simple given overwhelmingly to Sinn Féin by the husband Alan Cameron's death in 1952. church has an inhabited feeling about it". Irish people and the creation of the First Seeing the writing on the wall, she started Then she questioned whether it could Dáil is not worth a mention in her essay? selling off the silver and whatever other be said whether "Bowen was an Irish She declares that the law of the land was pieces she had and finally her jewellery in writer or an English one". She used a lot still British, when in truth Britain was Cork. Leland reminded us of the awful of information from the book Bowen wrote making war on the Irish people. Of course day when Bowen was in Cork to sell the in 1942, Bowen's Court, and it seemed to the revisionists would be delighted with remaining few things she had—that she me that she took it to be a serious history Osborn, but I sensed a sense of integrity leant on the writing ledge in the GPO and book. Osborn also referred obliquely to about this American woman and I would wrote a heart-breaking letter to her lover, the famous North Cork Anthology by Jack advise her to be careful of her sources if Charles Ritchie, asking for $100 saying Lane, stating that: she wants to give Bowen her dues. I would also counsel Osborn not to be so arrogant she was doing so because she was just so "one recent Irish anthologist, alienated desperate. He sent her on the $100 (which and upset by what might be construed as as to think she can take on the great in my opinion just showed what a tightwad traitorish work for the English govern- Hermione Lee and Maud Ellmann, whose he was, as he was by then earning serious ment, declared that she was not an Irish work on Elizabeth Bowen are par money and came from a wealthy family writer at all but that she was an English excellence. background. JH) one. Though he ultimately included her in the anthology of North Cork writers, The other writer of note who spoke at he expressed his frustration with her by the Conference was Clair Wills—already Mary Leland went on to tell us of drawing a line of cancellation through meeting Elizabeth Bowen in 1970 in her name which appears at the top of the known to the readers of the Irish Political Doneraile for an interview "with a small i" page of her entry. He stated: “we include Review for her controversial talk at UCC. she says. She sat with her in the back of her in this anthology in deleted form in Professor Clair Wills is Professor of Irish Donnacha O'Dulaing's Jaguar and had no order to explain why she does not belong Literature at Queen Mary College, Univer- idea of how famous her interviewee was. to it”." sity of London. She spoke to the School of Leland then added "Mea culpa". She also This to great delight from the audience. English on Elizabeth Bowen: Visions and didn't know that it was Bowen's first return Revisions at a Bowen Conference on 6th - to her former home since she left. She was Susan Osborn's essay in the book on 7th October 2009. This time a very warm there because she was part of a Bowen she edited had reference to many Wills spoke well and with wit and style. Symposium: 100 years of the Christian linguistic critics—amongst them were She had the audience at the Firgrove Hotel Brothers in Doneraile. There were also Alain Badiou, Jacques Lacan, Fredric eating out of her hand, so to speak. She 100 school children who trooped with Jameson and others. So to posit her as had learned from her UCC appearance— Bowen, O'Dulaing and Leland up the being un-knowledgeable about Jacques perhaps from reading the account printed avenue to the site of where Bowen's Court Derrida seems unbelievable yet she does in this journal. She spoke about Bowen stood. The field was now vacant. Leland not recognise one of his critical devices and her political activities and saw in her does not say what Bowen said or did while when she is looking straight at it. Jack writings a continuing engagement with looking at the empty field. So we are left Lane and Brendan Clifford, as Editors of those elements of society. But there is to ponder on such imponderables. the North Cork Anthology used the WW2 and its dramatic imprint on her Leland said that after her meeting with Derridian form of deletion only because it novels especially "her 1949 masterpiece, Bowen, she was so ashamed she went seemed to be appropriate for Elizabeth 'The Heat of the Day'". But for Wills, it is home to read the latter's novels and short Bowen. They are pointing at the obvious— The House in Paris, though published in stories which she thought to be great. But which is that when the writer wrote about 1935 and set in Paris, which she admitted didn't it take her long enough though? "place" so important to her, she situated it finding very "heartbreaking". as only ever being in "big house islands cut off from the outside world", and she THE OTHER ADDRESS IN FARAHY IN 2011 Wills, with her enthusiasm, connects never made that clearer than in The Last with her audience in a way that I have As part of the Trevor/Bowen Summer September. Bowen was a realist and hadn't never really seen before. She is open to School in Mitchelstown last Summer, the a romantic bone in her body when it came questions afterwards and she gets them speaker at Farahy Church was an American down to it. She was tough and no one does and answers them with all the good humour academic who lectures in the Department her any favours by vaporising her into a of someone at ease with her scholarship. It of English at Rutgers University, New nostalgic old gal—she was the one who was a fine night with great craic and that Brunswick, New Jersey. Susan Osborn was all "for damping things down"—and encomium is more than enough. was her name and she lectures on such she meant any ráméis^—which seems Julianne Herlihy © 13 Report ITEMS FROM’‘THE IRISH BULLETIN’ – 10 Harris & Dunmanway The “Irish Bulletin” (7th July 1919 – 11th Dec.1921) was the official Eoghan Harris presented an RTE programme on 16th organ of Dáil Eireann during the 1919–1921 period. Lawrence Ginnell, April, An Tost Fada, and RTE promoted it: "to tell the story then Director of Publicity for the Dáil, first started it in mid 1919 as a of George Salter and his family, whose lives were forever “summary of acts of aggression” committed by the forces of the Crown. changed by the murders in West Cork in April 1922". Harris This newssheet came out fortnightly, later, weekly. We reprint below the also promoted it in his Sunday Independent column and summaries published for April 1920 gave the following reason for the Salter family leaving the country in April 1922: WEEK ENDING APRIL 3rd, 1920 March April "George's father Bill farmed at Kilronan outside Dunmanway. He bought cattle at marts all over Cork and Date:- 29th 30th 31st 1st 3rd Total. Kerry, fattened them on his land, and sold them on to Raids:- 133 204 108 153 515 1113 England. But in the fevered Civil War climate of April 1922 Arrests:- 45 13 10 13 21 102 this English connection aroused the suspicion of the local Sentences:- 1 7 4 7 19 IRA. In April 1922 Bill Salter was told to get out. He had to Courtsmartial:- 1 1 take the threat seriously in the bloody month that had seen Suppressions:- 1 1 the killing of 13 Protestants in the Bandon Valley. The Armed Assaults:- 1 1 threat was backed by shots fired near the farm at night. He fled with his family to England." Deportations:- 1 40 41 Sabotage:- 5 4 21 30 This is a typical piece of Harris's ongoing idiot’s guide to Murder:- 1 1 2 the War of the Independence. If William Salter had to leave Daily Total:- 185 224 126 211 564 1310 for selling cattle to England, then practically every farmer in the country would have had to consider leaving as well. WEEK ENDING APRIL 10th, 1920 But what have facts got to do with a Harris assertion? Date:- April 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Total. Neither in his column nor in the programme did he see any Raids:- 216 24 10 125 210 132 717 need to provide the actual background or the need to Arrests:- 21 27 4 37 11 15 115 provide any real evidence about why the Salter family Sentences:- 1 3 4 left—apart from the facile explanation that they were Armed Assaults:- 1 1 Protestants. This is extraordinary, as the evidence which Sabotage:- 1 2 3 indicates why they left the area has been publicly available Daily Total:- 237 52 15 162 222 152 840 for decades and is provided by William Salter himself. The background is available from the horse’s mouth, but was WEEK ENDING APRIL 17th, 1920 determinedly ignored by Harris. Date:- April 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th Total. Harris made only made a passing to compensation Raids:- 301 24 2 102 256 450 1135 received by William but no more. He makes no mention of Arrests:- 42 19 26 1 166 6 260 the claim and the case which William Salter, George’s Sentences:- 2 2 father, made to the Irish Grants Committee in 1928. In fact, Proclamations & 1 1 2 the information contained therein is one of the few Suppressions:- 0 contemporary and first-hand accounts of what happened. Courts-martial:- 2 2 Furthermore, William’s son, George, did not refer to the Armed Assaults:- 4 3 6 3 16 claim in the programme, though he must surely know of his Deportations:- 55 37 92 father’s testimony? Perhaps he does not: he makes it clear Murders:- 3 1 4 in the programme that this was his first visit to his father’s Daily Total:- 398 82 33 107 431 462 1513 original farm. William Salter’s evidence gives a more rounded view of WEEK ENDING APRIL 24th, 1920 the events than Harris’s sectarian simplifications. A standard question in the application form for compensation was: Date:- April 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23rd 24th Total. Raids:- 180 72 25 20 11 201 509 “Do you claim that the loss or injury was claimed in Arrests:- 58 6 5 34 103 respect of, or on account of, your allegiance to the Armed Assaults:- 2 2 Government of the United Kingdom? If so give particulars on which you base this claim.” Deportations:- 30 8 12 15 65 Daily Total:- 268 86 42 20 60 203 679 Answer: “Yes, I was well known to be a Protestant Loyalist, and as such I was marked down for persecution.” WEEK ENDING MAY 1st, 1920 (TNA, CO/762/182/8). Date:- April 26th 27th 28th 29th 30th May 1stTotal. And Salter’s solicitor in the covering letter said: "…there Raids:- 170 244 104 258 31 77 884 is no doubt as to Mr. Salter's loyalty and there is no question Arrests:- 10 28 21 8 1 68 that it was owing to his loyalty that he suffered the persecution Sentences:- 5 9 2 16 he went through" (14 May 1928). I.e., not his Protestantism. Courtmartials:- 1 1 None of this was mentioned on the Harris programme as it Armed Assaults 1 2 3 6 spoils the neat little sectarian story somewhat. Murder 1 1 Daily Total:- 186 272 137 269 35 77 976 William Salter went on to explain that the "persecution" 14 began on 12th July 1921 and boiled down coming into being. In those situations, Harris should try to be a little less to a demand by the Army of the legitimate when there is a conflict, the result is not a parochial in these matters. He and his Government of the day for him to accept pretty sight. Harris could make thousands former wife, Anne, seem to have lived the State’s legitimacy and to play, and of RTE programmes to illustrate this basic very sheltered lives and the more they get pay, his part in its upkeep. He objected to political fact of life, both in Ireland and to know about the world the more it seems doing so. Neither, as he stated (or boasted) throughout the modern world since nation to them to be inhabited by Big Bad Wolves would he provide food or shelter for the states became the norm for political life. —monsters who always seem to be Irish— Government's army, the IRA. He claimed And in this respect the Irish War of Inde- from the IRA to Denis O’Brien! The result that, as a result, he got threatening letters pendence, on the Irish side, because of the is hysteria rather than history. They should from the local Commandant of the IRA. overwhelming support of the people for it, consider creating an Irish version of the However, he did not submit any copies of was a mild affair compared to most others BBC's "Horrible Histories",but I suppose this crucial evidence to the Grants Committee in its minimal dependence on force to they could not supply the necessary —or the name of the Commandant. This make its case. That had to come from the humour. could have been done in total confidence other side. Jack Lane and would have been useful then, and now, to illustrate and confirm the facts of Letter In Reply To Jeff Dudgeon his case. But this failure to provide factual backing for alleged threats is very typical of those claims to the Grants Committee I have consulted. The North And Dunmanway In fact, this lack of chapter and verse is typical of the problem with the 'Dunman- It seems odd of Jeff Dudgeon to dip his rule, did what they wanted. Most people way killings' themselves—all sorts of toe into Southern waters by taking up the knew of their sexual orientation. It ran accusations but minimal verifiable evid- Dunmanway case which occurred ninety from senior members of the BBC to the ence provided as to who exactly was years ago. I would think most Northern Lord Mayor's office to what was left of responsible. In the programme George Catholics are unaware of Dunmanway Northern Ireland's aristocracy and to senior Salter presented yet another anonymous and if aware probably have no interest in members of the Orange Order and the source who allegedly admitted to the the matter, considering their own tragic RUC. I knew the names of many of them killing of many of his co-religionists. Yet history not so long ago. during that time and I'm sure so did the rest again all is left hanging in the air—who, Most Northerners of my age (80) had of Northern Ireland They were well- when, where and why? parents and grandparents and uncles and protected by the regime so it was wise to In the Grants application, William aunts involved in the War of Independence. whisper and not blether it all over the makes no mention of selling cattle to They, and we, saw that War as an honour- place. England (or spying) as a cause of his able one fought by honourable men and Around Belfast City Hall at night teen- problems. If he had put that forward as the women. It was too big an event on the age boys had to run the gauntlet of preda- reason for requesting the substantial world stage to be be overshadowed by tory gays on their way home. You could compensation—which he got and which local issues. It was accepted by even the be accosted by well-spoken men carrying was funded from Ireland, though disbursed most mild-mannered Catholic that touts sheaves of sacred music. Carrying such by England—there is no doubt the claim and informants of either hue died, and ennobling material I suppose might bring would not have been accepted. deserved to die during a nation and its one's guard down if approached. Also, a people’s fight for survival. The honourable curious police officer could be overawed. The Irish Times in its 'Choice' of prog- Northern Protestant also follows this code. It was all quite open. Stormont protected ramme on the day claimed the "family its own. I can't remember anyone being were lucky to escape before the killings Odd too of Jeff Dudgeon to seek a seat brought to court in Northern Ireland for began"—which is just plain wrong. in the Irish Senate. Again, most Northern homosexual activities, whereas, when I William Salter’s problems began a long Catholics don’t understand Dail Eireann came to London in the 1950s it was never time before the killings, but he left after he and its composition. it is as strange to most out of the papers: had sold his farm some time after the of us as the French or Spanish parliaments. 'I saw him look into the face of a man in killings. But these are only facts. Of course Dudgeon is to be commended a public toilet', says a detective at Bow on winning the Dudgeon V United King- Street court. There is no doubt that William Salter dom case before the European Court of It is also ironical that, with the old made a clear choice in his state allegiance Human Rights. Homosexuality was a Stormont regime gone, homophobia and there is no doubt that this had adverse criminal offence in Northern Ireland up should emanate from a police force who consequences for himself. However his until 1980. That is a major achievement in former times turned a blind eye. son George did not follow his father’s and he can justifiably live off that for the path: he did not object to the authority of rest of his life. But the people who kept Jeff Dudgeon can be seen on the internet the new State. He made his life in Ireland that legislation in were those from his holding up his MBE. Jeremy Paxman on and he had no complaint whatever to own community, the fundamental Protest- the BBC Newsnight suggested the award make of of being discriminated against in ant. Republicans, led by the modern young had nothing to do with empire anymore the new state during his very long life. On men and women of the Provisional IRA but should be interpreted as a Member of the contrary, he had a good life. who fought the war, long ago accepted British Excellence. I wonder if that still homosexuality as a fact of life. stands considering the manic blowing on The world is made up of states and they the embers of British Empire past that is all insist on the full allegiance of its citizens Prominent homosexual Protestants now taking place. —or else!—especially when the states are around Belfast, during the old Stormont They have been dropping these baubles 15 on Northern Ireland like confetti recently. they had the right to kill on what they centrates on some incident ninety years Charles Windsor visited the mainly Cath- thought was their own territory of Northern ago in a part of the country he knows very olic Lyric Theatre in Belfast, after it had Ireland. Horrifying as it may sound now little about? He is as ignorant of workings undergone a major rebuilding, and handed retaliation by those representing the Cath- of the Republic of Ireland as most North- out a few. Liam Neeson, the Catholic olic community found it worked when the ern Catholics are. If he were to probe into international film star, got an OBE, though killing of Catholics stopped in the Border what happened in his own backyard then that still didn't influence the unionist- areas. he might have to think about apologising controlled Ballymena Borough Council for what his community did to the Catholic I am also aware of the Northern mas- to give him the Freedom of Ballymena population over the years. sacres during the War of Independence where he once lived, though he didn't ask Just a quick thought—Northern Catho- not only from what my mother told me or suggest they do. They voted against it. lics, like the Northern Protestants, are when she herself was an eye witness to Didn't even make him an honorary very unlikely to fit into a united Ireland, some occurrences in the town of Omagh Protestant. even if it is united through joining the but also from my Protestant father's per- British commonwealth. Why not follow spective whose mother refused to lie on Dunmanway must be a calculated dis- the Swiss and their Swiss Federation of the floor of the tram in Belfast as it was traction away from what Dudgeon's com- Cantons. They have 26 Cantons for four fired on when coming from a Protestant munity did to the Catholic community different languages and peoples of differ- area and passing Catholic Streets. It was a either on orders from the British Intelligible ent national backgrounds. routine for the tram conductor to shout: services or from pure sectarian hatred at We could have three Cantons at least 'All down!’ when passing Catholic streets. the Catholic daring to get up from his/her and like Switzerland we could be a whole knees: Here are few examples as a In war there is a great amount of free neutral and peaceful nation. Dream reminder: murderous anger but you wouldn’t know on? The Shankill Road Butchers took it was the same people when a ceasefire is Wilson John Haire random Catholics off the streets during agreed on. Why does Jeff Dudgeon con- 14th March, 2012 the Seventies to what they called romper rooms to torture them with knives and pliers while hung upside-down. People The Dunmanway Killings, living nearby heard the screams of the victims but were too scared to do anything Curiouser And Curouseri about it. They tortured and killed in all Part Three thirty Catholics before the British State decided enough was enough. Much in the The most extraordinary aspect of these At an official level, why did the then fashion of throwing-in-the-towel in a killings is the lack of information on who Free State Government not investigate to boxing match. 'He's had enough but that'll did it. Events which happened 90 years find out who had killed 10 people, appar- should teach him into thinking he's champ.' ago this month. ently because of their pro-Free State sympathies? The Free State summarily The Miami Showband incident on the THE SHERLOCK HOLMES TEST killed people who were totally and 31st of July, 1975 near the village of Any numbers of theories about the absolutely innocent with no evidence Buskhill, County Down, when three musi- killings are plausible but they all run into against them except that they opposed the cians were shot dead and two injured as the ground at a certain point. That point is 'Treaty'. Here was an opportunity for the the bus was returning to Dublin. Said to when we come to the proverbial dog Government to tar its opponents with a have been carried out by a combination of famously noted by Sherlock Holmes— sectarian brush by conducting an investiga- Protestant paramilitaries and members of the one that does not bark. Except in this tion into a 'hate-crime' allegedly committed the Ulster Defence Regiment, a British case there is a whole kennel of dogs that by people opposed to the Treaty. Here we Army regiment. did not bark. had a witnessed fact that 10 people were The Kingsmill massacre, on the 5th of If it was a sectarian pogrom, why did it allegedly killed because they were Free January, 1976, when ten Protestants were begin and end so suddenly and why has Staters, killed in cold blood by anti- taken off a bus and shot dead in retaliation nobody ever spilt the beans despite all the Treatyites and it seems that the Free State for the killing in Whitecross village of subsequent political and personal divisions Government did nothing about it! The what became known as the Reavey and and conflicts in the area? And if it was great law and order party stood idly by, O’Dowd killings when five Catholics were such surely someone or a relation of some- then and since, in the face of this blatant shot dead by the Glenanne Gang said to one, involved would have had a crisis of lawlessness? Why did Britain not insist consist of the UVF, British soldiers and conscience? they take action as they did two months members of the RUC, on the 4th of January, A single killing in rural Ireland used to later over the 4 Courts? 1976, the night before. be discussed and analysed in the greatest During the later 'civil war', anti-Treatyite The killing of the Protestants was carried detail across generations as they were so Republicans were regarded as roughly the out by the South Armagh Republican unusual. I have listened to endless stories equivalent of Al Qaeda today (also with Action Group. They were involved in the and songs about such events. Famous an odd-looking leader and an odder- killings of three Protestants at a Gospel plays like The Field have been written sounding name) and they could almost be Hall outside the village of Darkley in about one such event. The community is shot on sight. They had allegedly commit- South Armagh, on Sunday the 20th of the jury. And who else could be? Yet here ted this terrorist crime and yet...... November, 1983. This was in retaliation we have a spectacular killing event and for the murder of Catholics in the Border nothing firm is established about who did It has to be stressed that the IRA failed areas. In the grimmest times of the war it. The Jury is still out—90 years this to identify and apprehend anyone for this some Protestant militants felt that only month! alleged sectarian crime that was supposed- 16 ly done in its name—despite its efforts to A. Murphy and Eoghan Harris have not war' and did well in business in the US in do so. And it must be remembered that it done so. And it all happened almost literal- a venture which meant competing with stepped in to prevent further killings. ly in their own backyard. Murphy had the Mafia—where he gave as good as he In fact both Free State and the IRA decades of professorial patronage in got: he appears to have always 'given' could have common ground on identifying University College Cork to utilise in estab- before he 'got'. He had the 'Willie John the killers if it was sectarian atrocity but lishing some facts—any facts—about the McBride approach' of getting his retaliat- that did not happen! episode, but did not do so though he ion in first. He came back to Ireland when bemoaned the lack of this research on an Fianna Fail came to power and acted as an If the victims were known spies, why RTE programme on the matter. His father unofficial bodyguard for de Valera. He was this not said to counter any sectarian was active in the IRA at the time in West served in the Irish Army during the Emer- accusations? Even if they were maverick Cork and he never seems to have asked gency. Please note—this is not the members, the IRA surely knew all its him about it. Or is he not saying? Ditto for behaviour of a maverick. members, mavericks and otherwise, and Harris and his grandfather. The over 1,770 There is no doubt whatever that he yet was helpless in identifying who did it. Bureau of Military History Witness could have done the deed if what was As with any army, at a purely military Statements appear to be of no help. required was the elimination of a spy ring level, it could not and was unlikely to —either an old one or a new one being tolerate mavericks who are a most danger- But most intriguingly and most curious reactivated. He had the necessary 'iron in ous element in any army. And therefore, of all, none of Hart's many anonymous the soul' to do so. He is held responsible with a clear conscience, could be dealt sources (about 60) used this safe cover, for bungling the Dripsey Ambush, and with by army methods. Mavericks who which was alleged to be necessary for because of that and he has been regarded get away with this sort of thing are not them, to tell him who did it and he surely as something of a 'maverick'. When people likely to just give up so quickly after about asked them—more than once. And they in Cork talk of mavericks in the IRA at the two and a half days of success. And yet … were very knowledgeable and forthcoming time, it is their code for Frank. But I think There was another spectacular crime on much more trivial matters. But not at he has been given the maverick tag because committed a couple of years earlier when all knowledgeable about this major event? his steely disposition made him quite two banks in Millstreet were robbed of How curious. And surely this would have different to the majority of IRA men of the about £17,000— about half a million Euro been the real sensation of his work, as well time, who had to acquire this quality and in today's money. The RIC encouraged as bringing some real added value to the many found it impossible to do so—or, everyone to believe it was the work of the history of the period. And surely if he was when they did, afterwards to live with IRA and most people believed them. Who told he was safe and secures enough in the what they had been forced to do. Tom else could possibly have done it? It was groves of academe to say so and not fear Barry had this military disposition in buck- almost the equivalent of the Northern Bank any repercussions? ets from his experiences in the brutality Robbery in the context of the time. But, (And the people he interviewed who and barbarity of WWI. again to note another of Mr. Holmes' had passed over to The West Cork Happy Busteed's overall career belies the conclusions—there can be nothing as Hunting Ground did not use their very maverick description. misleading as an obvious fact. privileged position for this type of know- After some months the IRA decided to ledge to inform him—even his omniscient By the way, it's amazing how none of find the 'mavericks'. Liam Lynch moved interviewees did not know who did it!) our revisionists hold anything against into the area, set up a court, made clear his The silence on who did the killings Barry for his four years of killing across determination to find the culprits and becomes deafening and becomes thereby two Continents, but castigate him for his within days the community provided all the single most significant fact about who relatively minor skirmish at Kilmichael. the necessary evidence. The money was carried out the killings. Did they disappear It's worth noting therefore that our revision- recovered and returned to the banks, the into thin air? ists are certainly not pacifists or anti-war. culprits tried and sentenced, and the It seems they are just against little wars. standing of the IRA was enhanced ENTER FRANK BUSTEED Frank seems to have had this stern Frank Busteed has re-entered the picture nationally and internationally. The whole quality naturally and he always remained (or is it the frame) as a suspect. Niall story, with the names and addresses of the something of a man apart from other Meehan pointed out some time ago that robbers, was published immediately in Republicans because of this. He is not the IRA leader had entered Hart's frame the Irish Bulletin. The 'mavericks' naturally buried in Cork's Republican Plot. Maybe initially but was dropped because of his enough had bigger plans in mind but "an it was his Cromwellian heritage that gave mixed Protestant/Catholic ancestry and end was put to their gallop". There was an him this quality. There is no Irish Clan his declared atheism. He clearly did not fit unusual twist in that the banks did not Busteed. want the money back, as they had drawn the sectarian picture so dear to Hart. the insurance money on it in the intervening Busteed has reappeared as a very likely But there is one big flaw in the sug- period. participant in the execution of the gestion that Busteed was responsible for Is it not curious that nothing like this Intelligence Agents captured in Macroom. Dunmanway: he would hardly have kept was done in the case of the Dunmanway He admitted this, but his description con- quiet about the operation all his life: he crimes? flicts with other facts about it. It is now spoke of other executions he carried out— suggested that they divulged the names of in detail—and gilded the lily somewhat. None of the many books and memoirs, the spies they were reorganising and Frank But one consistent element that appears in posthumous or prehumous, identify any- 'did the business'. his execution accounts is that he made body as being responsible for the Dunman- He was Vice-Commandant of the 6th clear to those he executed why he was way killings. None of the revisionists have Battalion, 1st Cork Brigade and it is a doing it—as befitted his personality, being done so. Even the revisionists from West great pity there is no biography of him. He frank by nature as well by name. If he Cork itself like Emeritus Professor John had to leave the country after the 'civil executed the Dunmanway Protestants as 17 spies, he was very likely to have told them tributed to the writing of modern Irish ended him—and continue to defend him— why rather than shouting at them about history by which this debâcle could be to the bitter end. being Free Staters—which was about the compared and judged? Was there a period Insofar as Irish academia produced most irrelevant fact about them in the of worthwhile Irish academic history- anything on history, it was the Free State circumstances. He would have justified writing? There was nothing of the kind. view that predominated and that, at best, the action, as he would have seen it as The history of the Irish revolution was could only be a truncated version of the similar to what Collins had done to the written by the participants. It did not come revolution. After them we had the dominance Cairo Gang of British Intelligence operat- out of the Universities. We were fortunate of T.D. Williams and Nicholas Mansergh ives. Busteed was not the kind of guy to to have so many 'historians by accident' to who, with their MI5 backgrounds, continued hide his light under a bushel and he would write it and make it real—and not, thank to emasculate the history-writing of the have probably gloried in the exploit if it goodness—just another academic subject, country. Williams must hold a world was a spy elimination exploit. But he and long may it remain free of that dead record for a non-publishing Professor. never barked either. hand. They lived it and they made it live His successor, Mr. Ferriter, supplies Or have I gone deaf? for their readers and it will outlast all historical tit-bits to the media on request. academic work on the subject. The modern SOURCES AND PROFESSORS revisionists looked down their noses at I should probably declare an interest. I, Of course, all this begs the question, these writings and assured us that they in like many others, trusted the undergraduate again, about Hart's sources and omissions. their brave new world they would produce Hart and assisted him, glad that somebody Why did 'A.G.', 'A.E.', "B.B", "B.V." and the proper history which they would get new was taking an interest in the subjects "B.Y." among the approximately 60—no from ferreting around in the archives. And he was dealing with. He betrayed this trust less—anonymous people interviewed for what we got was Peter Hart and his like. with his preconceived agenda and blatant his book all feel the need to remain anony- And neither did the critique and refutation abuse of facts. His supervisors by their mous, over six decades after the events? of Hart come from where it originated: in silence are endorsing this betrayal. As Hart cannot help us further with this, Irish universities. Those institutions def- Jack Lane then surely the eminent Professors should help us now, nearly three decades later again. The book is based on a doctoral thesis. When supervising him, did they not enquire as to who any or all of these Naval Warfare people were and verify their existence? PART NINETEEN Now that we have reached the Great both increasingly depended on peace After all, these anonymous sources were, War again it is worth reviewing naval between the major Powers in Europe. A from their numbers alone, crucial to his warfare during the period of the Hundred peace interest grew which was represented work and conclusions? Years' Peace of 1815-14. During the by Manchester Capitalism and Liberalism Were his informants involved in the Hundred Years Peace the only substantial in England. The new Nonconformist events or were they providing him with war in Europe lasted for a year. This was middle class, admitted to the franchise in just more hearsay? Let's hope Professors the Franco-German conflict of 1870-71 1832, was 'anti-war' for reasons of trade Fitzpatrick and Townshend help us while (The Balkan Wars took place during 1911- and morality. That is to say, it saw war as still 'in harness' and before they become 12. However these were conducted on the being bad for trade and state expenditure Emeritus Professors or go to the Great periphery of Europe and, despite their on war being hard on the pockets of the History Department in the sky. Otherwise devastating consequences for many of the middle-class taxpayer. So warfare and this debate comes to a dead end, un- Ottoman populations, they were effect- colonial expansion was supported largely resolved, and they surely have some sense ively localised by the Great Powers). where it brought opportunity and possibili- of responsibility in not allowing that to Plenty of revolutions and possibilities ties of profit, as in the case of the Opium happen. of conflict occurred in Europe during the Wars. After rereading some of Hart again I Hundred Years' Peace but the Balance of The economic system began to achieve now find that hardly a sentence or note in Power was maintained effectively. After an ascendancy over the military war, or let his book is trustworthy when put in its the French Revolution, conservatives put us say that the economic interests that actual, original context and sources down revolutions and suppressed minor- developed in the One Hundred Years' checked. And all of it was passed as gospel ities that created disorder within the Peace began to subserviate the military by our eminent Professors. Congress system. But the British State interest to the economic system. The John Regan in his recent writings on was content to see this happen in the cause Declaration of Paris and the Crimean War this subject has highlighted the situation of stability and being able to get on with its (which Urquhart noted was waged in a in which these supervisors ignored their business elsewhere in the world. half-cock fashion against Russia, without own published, contradictory, views on It was possible to roll up the map of the full power of the Royal Navy, in order the issues raised by Hart and allowed him Europe for a generation. to establish Istanbul as a financial depend- to indulge in what can only be described ency) were examples of this. as a grotesque caricature of history writing England had become master of the seas Commerce and the economic system — and of which they must have been and controller of the global economy after were allowed, for the first time, to continue aware. Regan is concerned that this has it won the Seven Years' War (1756-63) during wars. Previously wars were used to disgraced Irish academic history-writing. and seen off Napoleon in 1815. Trade expand the share of British commerce in No doubt it has. He attributes it to the grew within the area which the Royal relation to the other powers (Mercantilist influence of the 'Troubles' in Northern Navy carved out for commerce as a con- theory was developed in England to Ireland. He is being generous. What had sequence of this long peace. Trade support this, in which global trade was Irish academic history-writing ever con- depended upon international finance and seen as a cake with anyone taking a bigger 18 slice ensuring that others had to get smaller Germany took two steps to deal with sive about when it was realised that one portions). Now British commerce was the problem of the Royal Navy and main- day the British Empire and its navy might dominant and the Royal Navy upheld the tain her commercial growth. Firstly, she no longer be capable of destroying its Free Trade system it had helped establish began building a navy capable of acting as emerging rival for the trade of the world. as the playing field which would continue a deterrent to Britain, so that England The system that had curtailed the Royal England's dominance. would think twice before entering into Navy was now to give the Royal Navy war with Germany and suffer such loss of another innings and a last hurrah. Wars continued in the parts of the world blood and treasure that it would endanger where the global market had not been her world-wide Empire and Imperial NOTE ON FINAL PART OF NAVAL WARFARE established or was limited to local com- dominance. Secondly, she began to make This is the final part of the Naval mercial relations. Where the global Free provision for feeding herself and protecting Warfare series. However, the issues that Market was developed, the interest was her trade by developing trade routes across have been explored, and the subject of peace and where the Free Market had not central Europe that would be not as England's maritime control of the world, developed, provision was made for war. vulnerable to the guns of the Royal Navy. will be further developed within a larger And England fought numerous 'little wars' This would make it more difficult for work, provisionally called The Siege Of against 'lesser breeds' in this pursuit. Britain to use its senior armed service in Europe. This will examine the geopolitical That is why the Royal Navy became an blockading Germany into submission and strategic basis of Britain's Great War instrument of defending the peace in the through starvation of its civilian population and will form the final part of a trilogy on free market area and only an instrument of —a thing that Royal Navy officers, like the subject that has been preceded by The war in the undeveloped regions of the Admiral Fisher, had signalled their intent- Rise And Fall Of Imperial Ireland, and world. And this was at the heart of the ion to do. Britain's Great War On Turkey. matter between the protagonists over naval Hopefully it will take the story through warfare. The Berlin-Baghdad Railway and the the Great War and the blockade of The Declaration of Paris had formalised relationship with Ottoman Turkey were Germany up to the early 1920s and the the defence of the Free Market system by manifestations of this German commercial Naval Agreement with Washington. allowing trade during wartime carried by defence policy that Britain became obses- Pat Walsh neutrals. Those who opposed this develop- ment felt it blunted the main weapon of war and expansion—the Royal Navy—in doing so. An Irish Anti-Fascist RAF Volunteer The conflict between the navalists and and some other soldiers the Free Traders intensified with the Part One development of the new vigorous Imperial- There were, of course, Irish anti-fascist I know for a fact that this RAF veteran ism of the 1870s on. This new swaggering volunteers in the British armed forces had volunteered for sound ant-fascist reas- Imperialism raised the prospect of conflict during the Second World War. In 1964, at ons. While he never deserted from any (particularly with the newly emerging the age of 15, I was bequeathed a mandolin regular armed force, I have little doubt German competitor) and the Royal Navy by a dying Second World War veteran. No that if his political principles had demanded had always been the primary weapon of it was not Captain Corelli's Mandolin. A it, he would have done so. In a subsequent the British State in war. passing thought: Was that romantic novel land-based armed action he had been It was the 1904 alliance that Britain and the film's fictional character based on wounded, while his close comrade-in- established with France and the 1907 a real Italian officer who had started out as arms was killed in action. This comrade alliance with Russia that undermined the a fascist but ended up an anti-fascist? had been decorated for bravery in action system that maintained the Hundred Years' Who knows? My mandolin came from an against Nazi German forces in Italy while Peace. It signalled hostile intent on Brit- Irish volunteer in Britain's RAF. It was serving as a commando with the Royal ain's part to intervene in Europe again and primarily an expression of heartfelt Inniskilling Fusiliers. I do not, however, disrupt the system that had produced econ- gratitude to my mother who constantly know if that particular war hero had volun- omic development on the Continent, after visited him in hospital as cancer was teered for anti-fascist reasons. In fact, a long absence of British intervention. bringing his life to an end. But the gift was most Irish World War Two veterans of the The problem for Britain was that the system also an expression of profound admiration British Army that I have personally known had begun to be worked by an emerging and affection for my father. Regrettably, did not do so, even if in the course of that power, Germany, too effectively. It was the son's response to the mandolin proved war they eventually underwent an anti- judged that the Balance of Power had become unworthy of that veteran's deep friendship fascist and/or socialist political radicalis- precarious again after a hundred years and with his parents. Having finally been ation. Most had joined the British armed something needed doing about it. successful in putting my foot down in forces from family tradition, or for econo- Germany during the late nineteenth resistance to any more compulsory violin mic reasons, or both. century entered the world market to the lessons, I was damned if I was going to extent that she could no longer feed herself. take up another instrument. A decade later, There is no evidence that a single one of This made her commercial rise and my mother and I agreed that it was only those who deserted the Irish Army in prosperity vulnerable to the guns of the appropriate that the mandolin should be order to join the British Army was at all Royal Navy—which had then begun to returned to the war veteran's family, where motivated by a commitment to anti-fascist constitute a kind of world policeman whose it would at least have a more immediate struggle. There has been one half-hearted role it was to keep other nations from emotional—even if not an immediate attempt to illustrate such a "case", which challenging England's commercial and musical—resonance, and our action was was so outlandish that it was instantly military domination of the world. greatly appreciated. dropped. On January 26th last, under the 19 heading of Pardon for deserters who joined 'modern' Fianna Fáil. The death of all that statement action might be taken against the British army, the Irish Daily Mail the Party had ever stood for in the 20th him." reported: century was made patently obvious in Yet the current Minister Defence does "Soldiers who deserted the Irish Army to January, when not a single Fianna Fáil TD not require any pardon from the present fight the Axis powers during the Second called for Shatter to be sacked. Taoiseach for celebrating those who had World War are to receive an official pardon. At least in October 1976, when Fine betrayed their oath of loyalty to the Irish The 4,983 servicemen who joined the fight Gael Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave was res- Army by deserting it in its most perilous against fascism were barred from jobs and ponsible for the resignation of President State pensions on their return, a move that hour of need, because nobody in either Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh on account of his Government or Opposition deems him to condemned many to poverty and stigma for refusal to sack his Minister for Defence the rest of their lives. Justice Minister Alan have committed any offence that might Shatter {who, more important in this case, Paddy Donegan after he had called the require such a pardon. His Labour Party is also the Minister for Defence—MO'R} President "a thundering disgrace", partners in Government have tamely has said he believes the dishonourable discharge Cosgrave had to face a fight on its hands. acquiesced in the Fine Gael Party's re- they received was wrong. 'Many who fought The Irish Times on 22nd October, 1976 invigorated West British reflexes. Deputy in British uniforms during that war returned reported on the previous day's Dáil pro- Leader Joan Burton has been as silent on to Ireland', he said. 'For too many years, ceedings, where a Fianna Fáil motion this issue as her Party Leader, Tánaiste their contribution in preserving European calling for the Minister for Defence's dis- Eamon Gilmore. Because she has crossed and Irish democracy was ignored. Some of missal had been defeated by 63 votes to those include members of our Defence Gilmore on other issues, however, the 58, but on which occasion all Fianna Fáil Sunday Business Post reported on March Forces who left this island during that time factions had spoken with a single voice. to fight for freedom and who were sub- 11th that "Burton's refusal to back down sequently dishonourably discharged from "The President, under the Constitution, from her comments prompted a rap on the the Defence Forces.' … Families of the men was the Supreme Commander of the knuckles from Labour handlers, delivered have welcomed the news of the pardon, Defence Forces, and the Minister their chief political administrator, and the fact that his through their favourite house journal, the after years of campaigning. Paddy Reid, Irish Times". Perhaps it is the ex cathedra whose father Paddy and uncle Freddie left remarks were made in the presence of those forces made the damaging effect all the pronouncement from that quarter on the the Irish Army to fight with the British, deserters' issue that has silenced Labour. said: 'I'm very happy to hear of the pardon worse", said Fianna Fáil leader Jack Lynch. but there is also a deep sense of regret that "The situation was a basic Constitutional On January 26th an Irish Times editorial— it has taken so long for these men to be matter… Mr Cosgrave, as Taoiseach, had entitled A Time To Pardon—pronounced: recognised for what they did.' Paddy Snr. built up around himself an aura of overall "There are those who insist that desertion joined the Allied Forces in 1941, when he inflexible rectitude and was regarded as is always wrong and the offence cannot be was 17, and fought against the Japanese in being a passionate adherent of the idea of pardoned. That is codology… In any event, Burma. He died in 1988, aged 64. He joined the supremacy of State institutions and their an Emergency Powers Order stripped these the British forces to make money because protection. But many of those who accepted soldiers of pensions and banned their he wanted to start a family, his son said. that image were going to be seriously employment in all State agencies for a However, he also felt he should stand up disturbed by the stand he was taking on the period of seven years. The order was against the Nazis after hearing about the present matter… There was a very real opposed by the Labour Party in the Dáil and bombing of Guernica in northern Spain." danger that, in the public mind, the Taoi- described by Fine Gael's T F O'Higgins as seach's attitude was going to be confused 'brutal and inhumane …stimulated by So, in 1937, a 13 year-old boy called with support for and approval of what the malice… and oozing with venom'…" Paddy Reid was so incensed by the bomb- Minister had said, It was inevitable that in ing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil not looking for the Minister's resignation, If that Irish Times editorial is the basis War that he resolved to join the Irish Army, the Taoiseach was laying himself open to for Labour's current silence, it is based on profit from its military training, desert to this", argued Charlie Haughey, Fianna Fáil an outrageous historical lie. There are the British Army in 1941, avenge Guernica spokesman on Health. "The Taoiseach was those who know this to be the case, but attempting to defend the indefensible and who cannot bring themselves to say that in Burma and, hopefully, ensure that the there was still time for him to demand Mr British Army would succeed in overthrow- Donegan's resignation… Under the Consti- the Emperor has no clothes. On February ing fascism in Spain! Pull the other one! tution … the Army, at all times, was there 15th the Irish Times published an Opinion The story was so outlandish, that coverage to defend all the people of the country… Piece—entitled "Wrong to assume all Irish of Paddy Jnr.'s remarks in every other The Constitution clearly recognised the deserters were Allied veterans"—penned newspaper of that same day carefully ex- supremacy of the President so far as the by Dr. Michael Kennedy of the Royal cluded any reference to Guernica, as it Defence Forces were concerned. The Irish Academy. The article was not without was also dropped from the Irish Daily Minister for Defence, who came lower down its informative merits, but Kennedy was Mail's continuing Reid campaign on the in the hierarchy, had made a serious as much furtive as he was coy as he following day, under the heading of The reflection on the Commander-in-Chief of mentioned in passing: the Forces. If an Army officer had done the "Under Emergency Powers Order 362, soldiers persecuted for daring to help same thing, he would be dealt with", returning deserters were subject to swinge- Britain fight Hitler. proclaimed Dessie O'Malley, Fianna Fáil ing penalties, including being denied State As for Alan Shatter, well, if in any other spokesman on Industry and Commerce. jobs for seven years. It was attacked in the self-respecting State where a Minister for Dáil in 1945, but deputies agreed that Defence had celebrated desertion from And who could envisage any member of the current—slimmed down but 'modern' desertion warranted harsh measures. Fianna the National Army for which he holds Fáil's Harry Colley explained that the order specific Ministerial responsibility, it would —Fianna Fáil Oireachtas Party providing showed deserters 'that their duty was first have led to his instant dismissal. But why anything approaching the following gutsy to their own'. Labour Party deputy Jim on earth should the Fine Gael Taoiseach contribution to that same October 1976 Larkin jnr amplified the point: 'Our own Enda Kenny take any such action? Has debate, from the Fianna Fáil spokesman country claims our first duty.'" any Opposition politician demanded that on Defence, Joe Dowling: Why was no date or more specific refer- he do so? I share the conclusions of the "If an Army officer, an NCO, or a private made a statement like the one made by the ence given by Kennedy? More important, leading front page article in the April Irish Minister, he would be court-martialled and why no mention of the fact that Larkin, in Political Review, "Fianna Fáil on the road expelled from the armed services. But the speaking for the Labour Party as a whole, to nowhere?" For it was not left to this Minister had got the pardon of the Taoiseach. although voicing some concerns about the March's convoluted somersaults on the Under present emergency legislation, if the impact on deserters' wives and families, Mahon Tribunal to confirm the death of ordinary man in the street made a similar was speaking in support of the retention of 20 de Valera's Order and against O' Higgins's because of the undoubted hardships their ist war, despite the fact that the USSR had motion to annul it. To expect such clarity dependents were undergoing during the allied itself with the 'democratic' imperialist from Kennedy, however, would be to war, countless other men bore equally great powers." (International Marxist Tendency: expect him to have had the courage to give hardships on themselves and their families "Introduction to Volume One of Ted Grant's and did not desert. Whatever may be said Writings 1938-42") the lie to the Irish Times editorial, and that for the views held by individuals as regards would be too much to ask. the issues involved in the war—and I sup- For Joe Higgins it is obviously a matter James Larkin Junior, son of Big Jim, pose we all have our own views—it is correct of supreme indifference whether or not had enough political background to take that our own country claims our first duty soldiers deserted from one "bourgeois- the measure of O'Higgins. Young Jim had and responsibility. From that point of view, democratic" army to another. The position presided over the inaugural conference of we must take the attitude that we support in of Sinn Fèin will be addressed in Part Two the Communist Party of Ireland in June principle the continuance of the Order and of this article. 1933, having previously been most insist- will vote against the motion." (My ent that the Party should declare itself emphasis—MO'R). I personally have known only three Irishmen, and know of a mere six others, Communist ("Why a Communist Party?", It is, however, primarily due to the fact Irish Workers' Voice, March 11, 1933). At where anti-fascist ardour had definitely that not a single member of any of the precisely the same time, Dr. T.F. O'Hig- driven them to enlist in the British armed Opposition groupings in the Dáil saw fit forces at a certain stage of the Second gins, a brother of Kevin O'Higgins, was a to challenge the Minister for Defence's leader of Irish Fascism, as founding Pres- World War. But, then, all nine of those outrageous rubbishing of our Army that ident of the Blueshirt Army Comrades' Irish volunteers had been Communists. he got away with it. Fianna Fáil's moral Most Irish World War Two veterans I Association. On 19th April 1933, his collapse has already been noted. But what friend and later poet-spy John Betjeman have known joined up out of a family of the Shane Ross-Joe Higgins Technical had sought to advance O'Higgins's fascist tradition of British Army enlistment, or Group? (Would it not be more politically for economic reasons, or a mixture of project by writing as follows to the Earl of informative—even if a trifle unkindly Rosse: both. Take the case of Jack Harte. A "I have a friend who is one of the Big expressed—to describe them as the Bloc retired Workers' Union of Ireland official Three in the new White Army in Ireland. As of Rights and Trotskyites?) and a protégé of Young Jim Larkin, Jack you are an Irish Citizen and expect you Shane Ross would have been condition- served as Chairman of the Big Jim Larkin have opinions about Dev's actions and ed by his pedigree to see nothing question- Commemoration Committee and as a politics at the moment, I thought you might able about deserting the Irish Army to join Labour Party Senator for almost two be interested in the enclosed pamphlets the British Army. Like Shane himself, decades, following his first election to the about the Army Comrades' Association— before he switched Houses in the Oireacht- Seanad in 1973. As a Second World War the White Army… All people who have as, his late father had been a particular veteran, Jack still teams up with old property and Trees in Ireland are bound to type of Trinity College Senator. As this comrades-in-arms from the British Army be a bit anxious now and it looks to me that New Year's Day Sunday Independent their only hope lies in the ACA." and wears his poppy each November to obituary related: commemorate fallen friends. Jack's father "Christened John Nathaniel Ross, he was had served in the British Army during the On 18th October 1945, Dr. T.F. O'Hig- born in Cork in February 1919 into a local First World War, but during the Second gins moved the following motion in Dáil merchant family… {He had} an upbringing Éireann: "That Emergency Powers (362) World War it was in his National Army, that was largely English. He went to East- that of an independent Ireland struggling Order, 1945, be and is hereby annulled." bourne College and Queen's College Cam- to defend its neutrality against all comers, Speaking on behalf of the Labour Party, bridge before coming to Trinity to read James Larkin Junior TD responded: history shortly after the outbreak of the where the father next chose to serve. Jack's own war service, however, was in the "The question involved now is such that Second World War. At Trinity he joined we in these benches are entitled to say at the the college company of the LDF (Local British Army. But not even a speck of moment that we are of the opinion that the Defence Force)… A keen debater, he was anti-fascist consciousness lay behind his Order should stand. There are certain points elected Auditor of the College Historical enlistment, as is patently evident from his that merit discussion and on which the Society for the academic year 1942-43. 2007 memoirs, To The Limits Of Endur- Minister might be able to enlighten us. It is Then, in November 1942, after a successful ance: One Irishman's War. His motivat- unfortunate that, when Deputy O'Higgins opening meeting, he caused a minor sensa- ion was a mixture of economic incentives started off, whatever his views may be, he tion by resigning to join the British army. and a teenager's thirst for adventure. So, at He enlisted in the Irish Guards and saw started on a wrong basis, and if the discussion the age of 17, he was to be blooded in a has taken a turn that is not helpful to his service in France and Belgium during the final year of hostilities… His conviction squalid imperialist war. No, not against point of view, he has largely himself to Germany, for this was the phase of Britain's blame… Possibly it is correct that many that the religious minority must play a part members of the National Defence Forces in Irish public life if they were not to become "peace in our time", except, of course, who deserted and went elsewhere did so a petty people led him to seek election to within the British Empire itself. Harte because they were inspired with certain Seanad Eireann representing the univers- writes as follows of the victims of the views as to where political and military ity. On his third attempt in 1961, following British war he had been sent to wage: a formidable canvass, he was elected at the activity should be carried on and they were "On 27 September 1938, British Prime top of the poll, unseating the strident interested in it; but that does not apply to all Minister Neville Chamberlain and other of them. We are quite well aware that many outspoken liberal Owen Sheehy Skeffing- ton. In his first speech John typecast himself international leaders met with Hitler and of them went elsewhere, not because of any Mussolini in Munich, and signed an agree- political views, but because the financial unashamedly as a member of Anglo-Irish background." ment which, Chamberlain claimed, attraction was much stronger than that which secured peace with honour. The following we were able to hold out to them. For a long And as for Joe Higgins, his ideological day, the Nazi jackboot stamped itself all time past, I have expressed the view in this House that the conditions we offered to guru was Ted Grant, founder of the Militant over Czechoslovakia… Our orders were serving members of the Defence Forces Tendency, and wartime leader of the to leave for Palestine on 10 October could not be justified. I still hold to that Workers' International League. Grant's 1938… As far as I could see, our only view, both in regard to direct pay given to perspective on the World War has been purpose in Palestine was to put down the the men and in regard to the allowances described by his followers: insurrection by the Palestinian Arabs. I given to the dependents. While recognising "Despite Hitler's attack on the Soviet knew nothing of the history or geography that position and while knowing personally Union in June 1941, the WIL did not change of the Middle East, or the reasons behind that many men did desert and go elsewhere its characterisation of the war as an imperial- the rebellion, and it seemed that none of 21 my fellow soldiers were any wiser. As a when a guard came around with a large His profound humanity is evident in what soldier, I didn't need to know: I had to steaming cauldron of watery soup, into follows: follow orders." (pp23-4). which each prisoner was 'allowed' to put his bare hand to extract a small piece of meat to "Escorted by German guards, we trund- Harte's narrative of his service with the supplement his soup. Many were scalded led along, shaking the louse-ridden bits of and didn't try it again, preferring to go straw from what was left of our clothes as "Faugh-a-Ballaghs", the Royal Irish Fusil- we went. After about three miles, we came iers, continues: hungry" (pp28-33). "Many years later, when I was a senator, to a barbed wire enclosure… a transit camp "In Palestine… we had no understanding I made the journey to Beirut together with for POWs. Ushered through the huge gates, of the historical, religious or ethnic divides, a number of TDs from Dáil Éireann. While we got our first glimpse of the watchtowers and the 'fighting' was not what we had we were there, we met with Yasser Arafat, spaced around the perimeter, and the many expected. We had to go into alleyways and the then Palestinian leader, who was in different nationalities in the camp… It was hideouts, right into the heart of the enemy's hiding, wanted by the Israelis. He made us immediately clear that the Russians, who stronghold: it was guerrilla warfare, some- very welcome. As we talked, I told him of made up the largest group, were being thing that was then in its infancy. It was a the time I had spent in Palestine during the badly treated—they were so stick-thin and steep learning curve for us… Just a few Insurrection, and we chatted about it for a haggard that they almost made the other days into our posting… law and order broke while. Eventually he said to me with a prisoners look healthy. Although the down in Acre… We moved in to quell the twinkle in his eye: 'You were probably nationalities were segregated into different disturbances, and were met with (armed) shooting at my father.' With an even bigger compounds, we ventured close to the Rus- opposition from local rebels… We were twinkle in my eye, I replied: 'Well, I must sian compound, and were surprised that the prevented from going in hot pursuit by a have missed, or you wouldn't be here, so guards made no attempt to stop us. We were large group of belligerent Arabs, bent on look what I've done for Palestine!' Arafat's shocked at the Russians' emaciated state. helping the gunmen escape. A curfew was The camp medical staff, who had lost no imposed on Acre… The rest of the 2nd slow smile quickly turned into a loud belly laugh, as the significance of my remark hit time in cleaning us up, showed little concern Faughs, backed up (by other regiments), for the poor Russians. After de-lousing and put a cordon around the old city and round- home. (The fact that his father had Egyptian origins was neither here nor there.) We a wonderful shower—despite the fact that ed up all the male inhabitants… The battal- it was mid-December and temperatures were ion was… constantly being moved from remained friends and some years later, while we were at dinner in Jury's Hotel in Dublin, well below freezing—we settled into the one activity to another in an effort to quell wooden huts, with their triple-decked, the insurrection… (while also being sent) he made a point of telling my friends about the encounter, and didn't miss the opportun- rough-timbered bunks. It was sheer luxury to check for illegal Jewish immigrants who after the last few weeks" (p183). were fleeing persecution in Germany and ity of 'ribbing' me about how my 'bad aim' other countries" (pp26-8). had helped the cause of Palestine" (pp36-7). "Turning the corner, I heard grunts and The integrity of Jack Harte's position groans coming from three Russian POWs. But it was what—as a 17 year old boy demands that it be fully recorded. Jack has They were struggling to keep their feet in soldier—he had been required to do in the muddy slime as they pulled a high- remained a PLO supporter ever since, and wheeled wagon over the toffee-like ground. suppressing the Palestinian Arab revolt some years ago he passed on to me his The wagon was overflowing with the con- that was to leave Harte with a permanent collection of PLO publications, notwith- tents of the cesspit, which had been pumped sense of guilt: standing our known disagreements. Happ- out of it. The men looked exhausted and "Although the insurrectionists were refer- ily, Jack is still with us, and more than able forlorn, their long, filthy coats hanging off red to as 'bandits' by our officers, it was to refute any fictional misrepresentation their starved frames, and the bottoms of stressed that we were not to assume that we of his life. But pre-emptive action should their coats dragging along the mud- and were dealing with trigger-happy hooligans. nonetheless be taken lest, at some future cess-stained ground. Their fur caps, worn They were determined to destroy anything date, Eoghan Harris's Sunday Independent on the Russian front, had seen better days, that stood between them and independence column, or its John-Paul McCarthy reflect- and offered little protection against the for Palestine. Although I knew little about elements. Their precious mess tins were ion, should seek to misrepresent him as tied to their waists, or around their necks, the background to their fight, to me it felt one of "Ireland's British Army heroes" not unlike the situation back home, where with a piece of string. Despite all the horrors for hundreds of years rebels had been who had set out—not just in 1941, not just I'd witnessed in this terrible war, I was fighting for their independence. I couldn't in 1939, but in 1938—to "fight against shocked by their plight. I was furious to say I was pursuing a noble cause: orders fascism". But where? In Palestine! Jack think that they could be treated like dogs by had to be obeyed, no more, no less… Back related his January 1939 departure from the Germans because their government had in the billets, and weary from acting as that squalid imperialist posting on behalf not signed up to the Geneva Convention. target practice for the snipers, many men's of perfidious Albion. But the outbreak of My gestures, an attempt at commiseration inclinations bordered on the Lynch Law World War Two in September 1939 is not and support, were met by angry shouts from philosophy—whereby summary justice, at all recorded in his memoirs. The "phoney their German guard, who was well togged without the niceties of a fair trial, is the out in waterproof clothing. There was war" had no practical significance for nothing I could do to help them. Drowned order of the day. Orders which led to us him. His first mention of the World War is riding roughshod in the relentless pursuit to the skin, I made my way back to what I and punishment of the so-called 'rebels', of the German siege of Malta commencing now saw as the relative comfort of our and those who were giving them shelter, in June 1940, and of how he and his mates prison hut. I later learned that the Russians resulted in some homes being demolished came under attack from Stuka aircraft in looked on this job as a reasonably cushy or burnt down, with little thought as to January 1941. His courageous exploits in one, given some of the other work they where the poor people were to find shelter… Greece in November 1943 are rightly were expected to do!" (p201). To my mind, our actions were high-handed recorded in great detail, but even at that "If we thought the poor Russians were and cruel… Back at our billets, the talk was stage of the War there is nothing to indicate hard done by, the Poles weren't far behind. of what would happen to these prisoners that he had yet developed any anti-fascist It had been raining for hours, and the camp after we had handed them over to the local political perspective. The military outcome was a quagmire, as we watched the Germans police, who transferred them to the medieval for Jack himself in Greece was summed erect a makeshift tent, on the sea of mud prison in Acre. Although we never had that had been the sports pitch. We looked FRIENDLY occasion to visit the prison, I later learned up by the chapter heading " on as more than two hundred and fifty FIRE AND LOUSY LEADERS COST US something of the horrendous conditions distressed, dirty and cold Polish civilians, there at the time. With up to forty men to a LIFE AND LIBERTY". Jack's anti-fascist including children, were herded into the cell, there was little room to move—never consciousness was, however, nurtured and tent, prisoners of the Reich. Some were mind sleep. A bucket served as a communal fired by what he was to observe as a emaciated, and all were soaked to the skin toilet, which overflowed and stank in the prisoner-of-war, especially after being as they queued on weary legs for a ladle of hot fetid jail. Feeding time was like a zoo, moved to Germany itself in January 1944. skilly. On their second day, the rain stopped 22 and they drifted towards our fence in search of a friendly face… The Poles told us about · Biteback · Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback· Biteback the ghettos of Warsaw, from where they'd been snatched… When a few Red Cross parcels came through, most of us shared our This letter appeared in the Irish Examiner of 4th April food with these poor wretches. Unfortunate- ly, man's inhumanity to man is ever present, and a very small minority of British POWs Which Portraits Should Be Removed? exploited them, by trading food in return Labour Senator James Heffernan ponders whether it was appropriate that the portraits for their jewellery, or treasured keepsakes, of politicians who had been "found culpable of corruption, of abuse of power, abuses of which they'd hidden from the Germans, at privilege and, indeed perjury", should still hang in Leinster House. risk to their very lives. It was only after the He claimed these people "have stained political life in Ireland and it’s time they were Poles' departure that we learned the true extent of their hardships and bravery. They wiped from our memory" (Irish Examiner, Mar 28). were part of an exceptionally heroic brethren Does he include in his list of inappropriate images the portrait of former Taoiseach Dr. that had stood up to, and frequently out- Garret FitzGerald? witted, the cruel SS. For this, they were Did not Dr. FitzGerald's Government bail out AIB to the painful tune of £400m in 1985 by now paying a terrible price. At that time, in agreeing to cover the losses of the Insurance Corporation of Ireland which was a subsidiary of late 1944, we, as POWs, were in complete AIB? ignorance of the extent of the cruelty and Six years later AIB wrote off debts of around £200,000 incurred by Dr. FitzGerald massive destruction that was being meted after the collapse of Guinness Peat Aviation. out to the Jewish people… It was only after my release, at the end of World War II, that The Chairman of AIB at the time was Peter Sutherland, who was later appointed as I found out that our POW camp was less Ireland’s member of the European Commission. than twenty miles from the notorious Belsen, And what about Mr. W.T. Cosgrave who, as first President of the Executive Council where many thousands of poor souls met a 1922-1932, sanctioned the unlawful execution of 77 Republican prisoners? horrific end at the hands of the SS" (pp208- Tom Cooper 9,226). Jack's end-of-war experiences made an present, former Senator Jack Harte who, remark completely out of context—for it anti-fascist out of him. And he also became serving in the British army, fought against had nothing to do with Churchill confront- an anti-Imperialist. In August 2006, in a the Nazis in Greece. He subsequently be- ing Nazism in Europe. Terry de Valera's series on RTÉ TV entitled War Stories, came their prisoner-of-war… He is here own antipathy towards Nazism and Hitler's Jack Harte was interviewed by Cathal today in order to pay his respects to the memory of Frank Ryan.'" war from the very outset of his invasion of O'Shannon. Jack told me how he had gone Poland was made patently manifest on to draw on his experiences of war to Indeed, Jack Harte was particularly throughout the book. But the author refused denounce the British and American war in pleased when I passed on to him the to back off referring to the war crimes that Iraq, but that all of that section in the December 2005 issue of Irish Political Churchill was quite prepared to contem- O'Shannon interview had been deleted Review, with its front page photo of him plate committing in Ireland itself. He from the programme when it came to be attending that Frank Ryan commemor- wrote: broadcast. And Jack also came to a realisa- ation, taken by the late Conor Lynch. "The popular view today, and for some tion that at the time that he had been time past, is to create the impression that fighting for British Imperialism in Pales- But what of the mandolin-playing the only threat of invasion of Ireland during tine in 1938, during that very same year volunteer? Only a year younger than Harte, World War Two came from Germany. This there had in fact been an ant-fascist war but in marked contrast to the circumstances is far from the truth. Invasion by the British waged in Spain by those whom, during of Jack's own enlistment, this Corkman was just as likely, if not more so, and it is had already developed a very definite ant- now known that the British had drawn up World War Two itself, the US and UK detailed plans for this. What is so terrifying authorities would seek to smear as fascist perspective by the time he volun- teered for the RAF at the age of 20. I am to realise, is that had Germany invaded, "premature" ant-fascists. In the Sunday Churchill, on the advice of his air chiefs, Independent of 11th February 2007 also convinced that—had the need arisen was fully prepared to order and sanction the Eoghan Harris was to denounce a Spanish —not alone would he have deserted from saturation of large portions of the Irish War commemoration that I had organised: the RAF, but that he would have turned population using mustard and phosgene his gun on them. There has been an gases, calculated to cause maximum pain, "Let me remind O'Riordan of the widely avalanche of nonsense spoken in praise of circulated oration which he gave at a memor- suffering and lingering death to countless ial to Frank Ryan in Glasnevin Cemetery those who deserted the Irish Army in its Irish people, both in the south and in the on October 25, 2005, in the course of which hour of wartime need. What is ignored is north. The consequences of such diabolical … he paid tribute to Mrs Budge Mulcahy the real dilemma that all recruits to the action would have been horrific. It appears Clissmann {who died this March 20— British forces, whether bona fide Irish that there was no such plans by the Germans MO'R}, whom {sic}, he told us, had 'attend- volunteers or Irish deserters, came so peril- to use gas against the Irish. It should not be forgotten that the British, and Churchill in ed to that final act upon Frank's death with ously close to having to confront. In A the same loving care she had shown him in particular, were quite prepared to wipe out Memoir (2004), the late Terry de Valera, large portions of the Irish population by life, and who is present today in memory of Dev's youngest son, confronted this chal- that friendship'… Budge Clissmann is the using the most ghastly methods imaginable. lenge head on, for which he was upbraided This Churchill would do simply to satisfy widow of Helmut Clissmann who featured by the late Garret FitzGerald in a review in in Cathal O'Shannon's programme (Ire- his own selfish imperial aims and personal land's Hidden Nazis) as a Nazi intelligence the Irish Times on 17th July 2004. lust for power" (p176). agent." Fitzgerald charged the younger de Valera: Perhaps FitzGerald did not wish to believe de Valera's home truths about Needless to say, my reply was denied "In the context of the War, he sees Church- ill as having been concerned 'simply to Churchill. But the latter's source was im- publication in the Sunday Independent by satisfy his own selfish imperial aims and peccably accurate—John P. Duggan's the Harrises, including my following point personal lust for power'— which seems an 1985 book Ireland And The Third Reich, of information: odd verdict on the man who saved Europe, in which this retired Irish Army Lieutenant "Eoghan's account omitted to record some including Ireland, from Nazism". -Colonel brought to light a secret British other words of welcome that I had voiced: War Cabinet memo of 8th October 1940. 'We also have a Second World War veteran FitzGerald had torn Terry de Valera's continued on page 25 23 inclusion on the Agenda of the Annual Is it any wonder democracy does not Conference. And they are included on the appear to be working? We say we have Does Agenda. The proposers and seconders have democracy but we haven't really. It is It speeches prepared and the delegates sit all really tribalism camouflaged. Stack day and listen to the speeches. It has all Up been a load of hard work and long hours. DINGLE—DANGLE. ? Everybody involved feels, usually quite Daingean Uí Cúis otherwise known as strongly, that they are helping democracy Dingle in Co. Kerry was recently suffering to work. from the rest of Ireland and the rest of the PARTY ANNUAL CONFERENCES The motions are voted upon and some World being cut off from it for several Labour's Centenary Conference held at are passed and some are defeated. All well hours. There were no telephone com- National University of Ireland, Galway and good so far. But the culmination of munications and no internet access for on 14th April was a rambunctious affair. every Conference is the Leader's Speech. much of the day. ATM transactions and About 1000 protesters turned up and they In the course of which almost nothing credit card transactions were impossible, were not all young unemployed or stud- substantive is said! Not only was nothing bank branches had to close. Mobile phones ents. There were many pensioners and definite said by the Leader at the Labour and landlines were unusable. As well as children and family groups—and more Conference, as is the usual case with all Dingle, a vast area of the Dingle Peninsula than a few mothers with babies in prams. Leader's speeches at all such conferences, was dangling out of touch with emergency And they were angry at election promises but the Tánaiste went further and said services. A trawler in the port which had unfulfilled. Labour party posters and in- with careful intonations that Labour Minis- a Sat. Phone was able to communicate signia were pulled down. And, inside the ters would of course "take very much into with the outside world via satellite. Why Hall, there were motions calling on Labour account and take seriously any of the not have at least one Sat Phone in each in Government to reverse the education motions that were passed" at the Confer- centre of population and in each Garda cuts, to introduce a third higher rate of tax ence. And then he went on to say that Station, Ambulance Station and Fire on high earners, to lift the recruitment Government policy was decided by the Station as back-up to landlines? The cost moratoriums in the Health Service, and Programme for Government agreed would be very small compared with the for radical action to "create jobs". A tight between Labour and Fine Gael! In other overall communications expenditure. rein was kept on speakers inside so that words, he was stating clearly for all to The cause of the communication crash there was no chance of a runaway revolu- hear that the party members could pass was damage to terrestrial radio-links by tion. Most of the attendees accepted the whatever motions they wished but the high winds. Communities are just as reality of Coalition Government. One motions passed, if not in the Programme vulnerable to vandalism or to criminal Labour official said: "Not every Labour for Government, would be ignored by the damage. Not only radio links but also Party policy is in the Programme for Labour Ministers for Government pur- computer-controlled electricity grids are Government and not everything in the poses, because the Ministers and the vulnerable. Very vulnerable. All a hacker programme for Government is Labour Tánaiste want to stay in the power and in has to is to gain access to any power sub- Party policy". the money regardless of what the Annual station—there is one on almost every The speech of Tánaiste and Party Leader Conference decides on Labour Policy. street—and hitch up the laptop. Tools Eamon Gilmore TD was emotive and And the herd listens to this and gives it a needed are a hacksaw, a laptop, a short persuasive on the day but later, on cold standing ovation! It doesn't stack up! length of cable and a small screwdriver. A analysis, it was clear that he said nothing hacker could access and close down the new and gave no solid detail. There were And yet this is the experience of every- whole electric grid system. It has happened references to a "fair and just society", and one who has attended Party Conferences elsewhere but has been hushed up. The it was pointed out that the "issue was for whatever Party with which they are mad rush to replace people by computers complicated legally and financially",with involved. Intelligent, hardworking Party (miscalled "efficiency") has its limits and the promise that "the Taoiseach, Enda members go through all the idealistic hard we are well beyond the limits now. It Kenny, TD and I have taken personal slog and then on Saturday evening of the doesn't stack up and it needs to be thought responsibility to drive this agenda for- Conference, we listen to it all being, in out and re-planned at top Government ward", but no details of how exactly he effect, rubbished. Is it because the Leader level before a major crises erupts. But, of proposed to do anything. does it? Would we give a standing ovation course this would be unnatural. The crisis And yet, at the end of his speech, the on the Saturday evening to any other orator in Dingle is over and forgotten. It wasn't Tánaiste received a standing ovation. For who spoke the same words? Unlikely, but important enough to move the bureaucratic what? Is every Party Conference a mani- the conclusion we then have to draw is mountain. There will have to be an festation of the herd instinct? Well, of that, while the daytime activities of the inevitable major crisis before anything is course it is, but where is the instinct leading Annual Conferences look like and feel done. That's life in the Public Service. the herd to in these cases? After all, the like business sessions of a functioning Annual Conference has been in preparation democracy, when it comes to the evening GOVERNANCE for months beforehand. Labour Branches session and the Leader's Speech we have Once in a while we may get a Minister throughout the land have met and deliberat- all reverted to tribalism. The tribalism of of Government, or better still a Taoiseach, ed on what resolutions and motions they Una Duce, Una Voce. Once the leader who is forceful enough and intelligent will put forward at the Annual Conference. rises to speak all of us are prepared to ditch enough and brave enough to change our These motions are taken very seriously by our personal convictions which we have society. Michael Collins did it from 1916 those party members who put them for- forcefully expressed during the day and to 1921, Eamon de Valera did it from 1932 ward. They work on these motions. They we each succumb to tribalism. It is no to 1938 and Charlie Haughey did it from discuss them at meetings and send them wonder that the Sunday sessions are 1960 to 1968. We need such a leader now. off to Party Headquarters in Dublin for lukewarm after this, and poorly attended. A leader who can unite the people—the 24 workers, the employers, the public service with the Ice Pilotage Service, shows in his and room in the 20 lifeboats for only and the pensioners and the unemployed— book that there was no iceberg and that 1,178 people. The British Board of Trade into one powerful group who will follow what the Titanic hit was a field of pack ice regulations did not provide for more the leader's vision into a future of economic which was seen but ignored ten minutes lifeboats and did not provide for lifeboat well-being and peace. before the impact. The two lookouts in the drills. Only 652 people were loaded onto Ireland is now stricken by an economic Crow's Nest saw the ice but they had no the lifeboats. The tragedy could have been war, the ongoing severity of which is not previous experience of ice at sea and they much worse if the ship had been fully yet acknowledged meaningfully by Ire- thought it was "haze". It was shown that loaded. It was designed and licensed to land's present leaders. At present, the haze was impossible in the weather condi- carry 2,603 passengers and 944 crew, a country is fractured—some going this way, tions that night. Visibility was good—the total of 3,547 people. If the full licensed some that way and more going another lookouts said—and it was only when the number of people had been on board the way. The news media reflect what is hap- ship's lights fell on the pack ice that an number of people lost would have been pening. So cynical have people become optical illusion, well known to ice pilots, about 2,885. The ship was constructed by that neither politicians, Governments nor appeared to show the ice getting higher in Harland & Wolff under supervision of the media are believed and they are all losing front of the ship and then, too late, the British Board of Trade. The London the support of the people. RTE's lookouts reported "iceberg ahead" to the Enquiry into the sinking was conducted newsreaders have been so biased in favour bridge of the ship. by The Wreck Commissioners Court of the Government that it has been com- assisted by the Attorney General. The pared, perhaps unjustly with Moscow's Incredibly, not only had the two look- report shows that the witnesses were asked Pravda. A daily count, for example, was outs no experience of navigating in ice, "leading questions" throughout. The given by RTE of those who paid the the Captain has no such experience either. American Senate Hearings on the other Household Tax while more or less ignoring Nor had the any of the officers on board. hand were a marvel of fact finding and the real news which was the number of The three officers on duty at 11.30 pm that straight talk. If possible, get a copy of the people who were NOT paying the tax. evening were all Master Mariners: they book if only to see the difference between There is a similar approach to water and Captain Smith did not survive the the British and American Enquiries. metering and to a water tax. sinking. There were 2,208 people on board Micheal Stack © RTE does not worry too much about its loss of viewers and listeners because it is RAF Volunteer continued stick in his comments on O'Casey and supported out of taxation basically and Orwell (July 2nd). O'Casey's 'waspish res- bodies like RTE do not ever seem to have As Duggan elaborated: ponse' to Orwell's review of Drums Under the foresight to judge where their path is "Churchill… had no time at all for de The Windows was actually refused public- leading to. The newspapers also are losing Valera. He concurred with the RAF plan to ation by the Observer, so it cannot have drench Ireland with poison-gas if the been a factor in Orwell's naming O'Casey circulation. People are tired of reading on his list of 'crypto-Communists, fellow- lies and propaganda and being bullied by Germans invaded there. The British chiefs of staff were assuming that Germany would travellers or inclined that way' sent to the scare stories. Despite all the PR being use gas bombs and chemical weapons in Information Research Department of the generated by Ministers' and Government 'Sealion' {the blueprint for an invasion of Foreign Office in 1949. On the contrary, and political parties—all at our expense— Britain—MO'R} and that they would have Orwell's review of O'Casey's book reveals to reply in kind. A requirement was outlined, his unacceptable attitude towards the Irish. no one great leader is emerging. Enda What Orwell said was: 'It is not surprising Kenny, Eamon Gilmore and Gerry Adams in the event of the Germans setting up a bridgehead in Ireland, of spraying their that there should be Irishmen whose life- have been through it all before and each of landing sites and axes of advance with work is abusing England: what does call for them looks battle-weary. Micheál Martin poison gases, including mustard gas which remark is that they should be able to look to looks energetic and fresh but has he enough would have caused incapacitating blistering the English public for support and in some of the lungs and respiratory tract. There was cases should even, like Mr O'Casey himself, leadership personality? Can he produce prefer to live in the country which is the the spark to get the whole country—not also a phosgene gas which would kill by choking. It would not separate Irish from object of their hatred ... This book contains just Fianna Fáil—moving forward toge- German, and no thought seems to have literally no reference to England which is ther? The hope for Ireland is for another been given as to the possible effects on the not hostile or contemptuous.' The logic of great leader to come forward with the Irish civilian population, north or south. this view is that the Irish living in England This could hardly have been termed assist- should keep their mouths shut. In 1945, altruism, the wisdom and the energy to when the review was published, the war motivate us all. The country is waiting for ance to repel the German invasion. A bomb- er squadron at Feltwell in Suffolk was was just over and a lot of English people, such a leader. equipped with gas spray containers for the Orwell among them, still resented the Irish contingency. Bases… were also alerted that policy of neutrality. In February 1941 THE TITANIC … should it be necessary to employ gas Orwell noted in his diary: 'The spectacle of We are all a little tired of the Titanic. against an enemy force invading Éire, this our allowing a sham-independent country All the newspapers, radio, TV and maga- work would be undertaken by bomber like Ireland to defy us simply makes all zine coverage. And the films, document- squadrons based in England. There was no Europe laugh at us.' Thus a review of the indication that it would be necessary for the kind handed out to O'Casey did not come aries and books. One book is worth reading. out of the blue. All the brouhaha at present It is called The Sinking of the Titanic— Germans to make the first move with chem- ical weapons before Britain would resort to to elevate Orwell to some kind of sainthood The Mystery Solved by Captain L. Marma- these counter measures. " (pp136-7). ought not to blind us to his little-Englandism dike Collins. I had not realised there was and his prejudice against the Irish." any mystery, except the secrecy surround- A truly Orwellian scenario and horror As I've already said, I have no doubt ing the British Admiralty altering the story, for Orwell was also a Churchillian whatsoever how the Cork RAF volunteer construction plans of the watertight bulk- imperialist warmonger. As Sean O'Casey's Kevin Neville would have responded to heads. Captain Collins, a very experien- biographer, Christopher Murray, put it in any RAF war crime against Ireland. He ced shipmaster who worked on cargo and a letter to the Irish Times on 8th July 2003: would have opened fire on any fellow passenger ships and then thirty-five years "Toby Joyce has the wrong end of the RAF pilot about to embark on such a continued on page 26 25 ed all the most stringent provisions of the and the eighteenth-century political writers GUILDS continued preceding laws with some clauses that in France, the economic-political theories were intended for the protection of the of Smith and Ricardo in England, and the worker. But its principal fault lay in the self-interest of the English capitalists, all above rather than under 2,000,000 acres. stipulation that wages should be fixed and combined to inaugurate a regime of The mere change of ownership was the law administered by the Justices of the complete freedom of contract, complete little compared with the result to the poorer Peace. The latter generally were keenly freedom of competition, and almost tenants of the estates, for the royal policy interested in keeping wages down, and in complete non-intervention of Government in parcelling the confiscated lands among exploiting the labourer. So thoroughly did in industry. The old legislation fixing his needy courtiers was to create a mono- they enforce the law for their own benefit wages, and requiring a seven-years' period poly in land. As the new possessors had that by the beginning of the eighteenth of apprenticeship, was abolished in 1813 frequently paid large sums for their grants, century they had made low wages, famine and 1814, and nothing was substituted for their own interest prompted them to make wages; traditional, and these wages insuf- the protection of the labourer. While every the most of their purchases, which they ficient by themselves, were supplemented law that in any way restricted the freedom did by raising the rents paid by the farmers from the poor rate (Thorold Rogers, The of the employer or regulated the conditions and encroaching upon what had hitherto Economic Interpretation Of History, T. of employment was abolished, the old been regarded as common rights. Fisher Unwin, 1909). Combination Acts, which made labour This reference to the poor rate calls to organizations criminal, were re-enacted CUSTOM mind the Elizabethan Poor Law, which in 1799. This act prohibited even the The old monastic and religious corpora- had been rendered necessary through the contribution of money in furtherance of a tions were easy landlords. Not being confiscation of the Guild and monastic strike. In fact, the prevailing theory of subject to demise, such bodies, continuing lands, and the destruction of the monastic industrial liberty seemed to require that to dwell in the midst of their tenants, dealt system of poor relief. the individual employer should always with them according to immemorial The modern industrial era, the factory deal with the individual worker, and to custom. It is custom, as John Stuart Mill system, the age of machine production, assume that this would be for the best points out, especially in regard to rent, began, properly speaking, with the indus- interests of all. Undoubtedly, many of the which "is the most powerful protector of trial revolution. The latter phrase describes old regulations, such as the law of appren- the weak against the strong, their sole that series of changes which was effected ticeship, had outlived their usefulness and protector where there are no laws or by several notable inventions, chiefly the ought to have been repealed, but some of government adequate to the purpose". In steam-engine, spinning machinery, and them were still valuable or could have the change of ownership effected during the power-loom, during the last quarter of been made so by amendment. What was the Reformation of the 16th century no the eighteenth century. Among their most needed was new and appropriate regulat- respect whatsoever was paid to custom. important immediate results were: the ion, not the absence of all regulation. As a That barrier "which even in the most grouping of workingmen into factories result of the policy of non-intervention, oppressed condition of mankind", in the where they tended machines instead of the working classes of England experienc- opinion of the philosopher, "tyranny is working in their homes with the old and ed during the first half of the nineteenth forced in some degree to respect" was simple tools; the ownership of the factories century a depth of misery and degradation thrown out the window, and the weak and machinery by capitalist employers, which has obtained the name of "English were left in the power of the strong. instead of by the labourers themselves; a wage slavery". Both in England and Germany the great increase in the dependence of the ******************************************************************** Protestant Reformation inflicted great labourer upon the employer; and congest- * Bishop William Morley Stubbs (1825- injury on the Guilds, and through them ion of the working population in the cities 1901) was a scholar of history and a former upon the whole labouring class. There Church of England Bishop of Chester (1884) which grew up close to the factories and and Bishop of Oxford 1889. was no legislation during this period that commercial establishments. The wage- NOTE: For an in-depth study of this was of any marked benefit to the labourer. earner was truly born. In France and Germany laws were period see "Catholic Wealth and the passed restricting the activities of the "ENGLISH WAGE SLAVERY" Making of Protestant Imperial England" Guilds. In England the Statute of Labour- Simultaneously with the revolution in by Eamon Dyas in Church & State , An ers, which had been re-enacted and industrial processes and relations, there Irish History Magazine, No. 103 to 108. amended at least ten times in the course of occurred a revolution, as thorough if not See also the magazine "Problems", two centuries, was supplanted in 1563 by as sudden, in economic theory and legis- Spring/Summer 2011, William Cobbett's the famous statute of Elizabeth. It embrac- lation. The teaching of the physiocrats Rural War. Introduction by Joe Keenan.

RAF Volunteer continued not only became an anti-fascist, but also a situation was more akin to the Fascism he committed socialist, according to another was told he had been fighting against than chemical warfare attack. A Communist, participant in the engagement in which he the Democracy he was supposed to have he was both an anti-fascist and an anti- was to meet his death. A pedant might ask: been fighting for. Connie Green was killed Imperialist. Before his premature death at But was he a Marxist, a 'scientific' socialist? in action in the opening shots of the Border the age of 43, Kevin Neville related to my The fact is that Connie Green returned to Campaign—the Saor Uladh attack on mother how he had been wounded in the his native Derry to find that his own family, Roslea RUC barracks on 26th November same military engagement during which along with the rest of that City's Catholic 1955—in which action his comrade-in- his Derry-born comrade-in-arms had been majority, was still being subjected to arms and O/C of Saor Uladh's Southern killed in action. Decorated for his valour oppression and humiliation at the hands Command, Kevin Neville, was wounded. in serving with the British Army against of that City's minority Orange junta. (to be continued) the German forces in Italy, the Derryman 'Scientific' or not, he concluded that this Manus O'Riordan 26 out how by means of property filched ation, declared to be superstitious GUILDS continued from the poor, the rich had mounted to practices; and unfortunately, whilst confis- place and power, whilst the former, cating the property intended for the support deprived of their protectors and inherit- of ceremonies now declared to be illegal, realm" (William Morley Stubbs, Constitutional History of England).* ance, had sunk deeper into the hopeless the state unwittingly swept into the public slough of pauperism. The suppressions coffers that intended for the poor. However It is obvious that the various measures "made of yeomen and artificers gentlemen, gladly one would believe this to have been which formed integral portions of the great and of gentlemen knights, and so forth the actual state of the case, original scheme of the Reformation, although not upward, and of the poorest sort stark documents in the Record Office prove ostensibly aimed at breaking up the essen- beggars". that the plunder of the poor by those in tial unity of a Christian kingdom governed A still more glaring and, if possible, power was a deliberate and premeditated on Catholic principles, in reality had that more unjustifiable instance of the way in act. In many instances the report of the effect. which during the period of religious Commissioners sent to inquire into the The dissolution of the monastic houses, changes in England no respect was paid to possessions of the Guilds show that they the confiscations of the property of the the rights of the poor may be seen in the fully noted and proposed to exempt from Guilds, Hospitals and Alms-Houses, and confiscation of the property of the Guilds, confiscation all portions of the corporate even the introduction of a married clergy, contemplated under Henry VIII and carried property of any Guild charged with were all calculated to injure the poor and into effect in the first days of Edward VI. payment in behalf of the poor. In every deprive them of their inheritance, or what Whatever may have been the special instance where such a proposal was made, by immemorial custom they had come to objects to promote which those voluntary the Crown official through whose hands regard as such. In particular the possessions societies were founded, whether for trade, the report has passed has drawn his pen of the monastic houses are popularly social or religious purposes, they all made through this humane recommendation, and understood to be, as an old writer expresses the performance of the Christian duty of intimated that the crown, not recognising it, "oblations to the Lord" and "the patri- charity to the poor a necessary part of their any such right on the part of the poor, mony of the poor, to be bestowed accord- regular work. would take possession of the entire ingly". In them the monks "made such property. "In the frith-guild of London", writes provision daily for the people that stood in Bishop Stubbs, "the remains of the feasts need thereof, as sick, sore, lame, or other- were dealt to the needy for the love of ******************************************************************** wise impotent, that none or very few lacked God; the maintenance of the poorer Lujo Brentano (1844-1931), the relief in one place or another". And, al- members of the craft was, as in the friendly German economist and social reformer though it may be questioned whether the societies of our own time, one main object who challenged both Marx and Weber, time-honoured methods of dealing with in the institution of the craft guilds; and was the first to investigate the question of even those later religious guilds, in which poverty would have stood the test of greatly the origins of the Guilds thoroughly, the chief object seems at first sight, as in associating these facts with the importance increased demands, still it is a matter of much of the charitable machinery of the history the dissolution of the monastic present day, to have been the acting of of family relationship among Teutonic houses did in fact immediately produce mysteries and the exhibition of pageants, nations, considers that the Guild in its overwhelming poverty and distress, which were organised for the relief of distress as earliest form was developed from the at once necessitated legislation as novel as well as for conjoint and mutual prayer. It family, and that the spirit of association, it was harsh, and further, that the condition was with this idea that men gave large being congenial to Christianity, was so estates in land to the guilds, which down of pauperism, as distinguished from that fostered by the Church that the institution to the Reformation formed an organised and development of the Guilds progressed of poverty, may certainly be traced for its administration of relief." origin to that event. rapidly. Bishop Stubbs then goes on to declare ******************************************************************** that— From the Reformation until the indust- CONFISCATNG MONASTERIES "the confiscation of the guild property, rial revolution at the end of the eighteenth That it could not fail to impoverish a together with that of the hospitals, was century, the history of labour for the most large portion of the people must be obvious one of the great wrongs which were part records a decline from the conditions to anyone acquainted with the circum- perpetrated under Edward VI, and, of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. stances of the case; and whatever view whatever may have been the results of The confiscation of the monastic and Guild may be taken as to the utility of monastic the stoppage of monastic charity, was lands in England under Henry VIII and observances or of the advisability of the one unquestionable cause of the growth of town pauperism" (Stubbs, ibid). Edward VI, the eviction of large numbers extensive charities distributed by the of the tenants from their holdings, the religious houses, it is obvious that no Whilst fully allowing that by the seizure enclosures of these lands and a large part benefit to the poorer part of the population of the property of the Guilds a grave of the common lands into great estates, of the country could possibly result from injustice was perpetrated on those for and the substitution of competitive for stopping the flow of charity altogether, by whom the charities disbursed by them customary rents, caused immense hard- confiscating the revenues of the monaster- were intended, few writers have yet realis- ships to the agricultural population. ies and dividing them among the favourites ed how deliberate that act of injustice The dissolution of the monasteries and of the Crown, or lightening the burdens of really was. It is often stated that the the confiscation of the property of the the rich by applying them to the relief of charitable funds were not to be distinguish- chantries and Guilds resulted in the transfer general taxation. The old writer before ed from the revenues appropriated for of a large amount of land into the hands of quoted, speaking at the close of the six- religious rites for masses for the dead, etc. the new proprietors. Possibly the extent of teenth century, when the results of the which were, on the assured ascendancy of territory which thus changed hands was policy of destruction were manifest, points the Protestant principles of the Reform- continued on page 26 27 VOLUME 30 No. 5 CORK ISSN 0790-1712

****************************************************************************************************************************************************** "My grandfather was a staunch member "When I was younger and I went to It's always down to the back pocket, of the the Ancient Guild of Incorporated work on a building site, it would have unfortunately, and money seems to do Brick and Stonelayers Trade Union and been all families, with four or five sons the talking now… I am a descendant of my uncle, Paddy, was the Chairman of on the site doing different jobs. It's an one of the main Cork stonemasonry the Cork branch. I was always steeped in area that just wasn't open to you unless families, but the times of the Stonemasons' it and masonry was always very your grandfather or father had been in it guild are dead and buried. I'd like if prominent in the house. One of my uncles before you. I went with my father and interest in the trade picked up and the old has six sons who are all stonemasons but stuck with it and never regretted it… My values could be brought back in." my own sons Colin and Mark didn't show father never treated his work as a (Joe O'Sullivan, Stonemason, an interest in it. commodity and has rubbed off on me… Evening Echo, Cork, 8.3.2012). ****************************************************************************************************************************************************** The Protestant Reformation and the Guilds When William Cobbett began writing process to have less. cost of, as it were, driving a wedge well The Protestant Reformation in England Their condition under the new order into the heart of the nation, which at once and Ireland in 1824, proposals for Catholic was visibly harder, till as a natural result and for all divided the rich from the poor, emancipation were much in discussion, of their misery there came forth many of and established the distinction which still and it was in "the heat of the contest and the social sores which afflict society to the exists between the classes and the masses. cry against the Catholics" that Cobbett present day. What Cobbett's History Of boldly stepped forth and called the Reform- The Protestant Reformation chiefly dis- "CLASS AND CLASS" ation "a devastation", and proclaimed "the plays, then, is this aspect of the religious Speaking of the condition of the poor in Protestant religion to have been establish- changes in the sixteenth century. His pages the middle ages, Bishop Stubbs declares ed by gibbets, racks, and ripping knives". help us to realise the fact that the Reform- that— ation effected, besides a change in religious "there is very little evidence to show The genius of Cobbett instinctively beliefs and practices, a wide and permanent that our forefathers, in the middle ranks realised that the religious changes in division in the great body politic. The of life, desired to set any impassable boundary between class and class. The England in the sixteenth century, if not supposed purification of doctrine and great barons would probably at any period actually promoted by those in power for practice was brought about only at the their own purposes, had certainly resulted have shown disinclination to admit new men on terms of equality to their own in benefiting the rich to the detriment of Subscribers to the magazine are regularly order; but this disinclination was over- offered special rates on other publications their poorer brethren. In fact, wholly apart borne by the royal policy of promoting from the religious side of the question, or Irish Political Review is published by useful servants, and the country knight from advantages which may be thought to the IPR Group: write to— was always regarded as a member of the have been secured by the triumph of noble class, and his position was contin- 1 Sutton Villas, Lower Dargle Road ually strengthened by intermarriage with Protestantism, the price paid for the change Bray, Co. Wicklow or by the lower classes must in fairness be the baronage. The city magnate again 33 Athol Street, Belfast BT12 4GX or formed a link between the country squire, estimated as very considerable. Viewed 2 Newington Green Mansions, London N16 9BT and the tradesman and the yeoman were merely in its social aspect, the English or Labour Comment, TEL: 021-4676029 in position and in blood close akin. Even Reformation was in reality the rising of C/O Shandon St. P.O., Cork the villein {a peasant bound to his lord} the rich against the poor. In the general might by learning a craft set his foot on Subscription by Post: the ladder of promotion; but the most upheaval which accompanied the labours 12 issues: £20, UK; of the Reformers to root up Catholicism € 30, Ireland; € 35, Europe. certain way to rise was furnished by from the soil of England, most of those in education, and by the law of the land Electronic Subscription: 'every man or woman, of what state or place and power were enabled to grow € 15 / £12 for 12 issues condition that he be, shall be free to set greater in wealth and position, while those (or € 1.30 / £1.10 per issue) their son or daughter to take learning at who had before but a small share in the You can also order from: any school that pleaseth them within the good things of this world came in the https://www.atholbooks-sales.org continued on page 27