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December 1978 Volume 2 Number 3

COVER STORY The Tony Hanahoe Affair by Vincent Browne 74

MAGILL FILE UDA Plans for Independence by Ed Maloney 6 Cork County Council by Nell McCafferty 12

DEPARTMENTS How Cooney Scooped the Sunday World 4 Motoring cdit c d by ScfWYII Parker 32 Wigmore 94 Health by Michael Fitzpatrick 62 People by Joan Byrne and Selwyn Parker 26 Going Out in December 86 Teddy Kennedy is the most powerful liberal in the US Senate and is unlikely to sacrifice that position CURRENT AFFAIRS for a shot at the presidency in 1980, and indeed, The Myth of Dole Abuse by Brian Trench 17 may never run for that office. Page 56 Martin 0 'Donoghue oft the Economy 20 . . ", ;., - Inside H Block by Ed Maloney 24

FEATURES Magill's Christmas Shopping Guide by A nile Dempsey 29 Iran in Flames by Vincent Browne 38 Armed Robbery by Rorie Smith 46 Teddy Kennedy in 19801 by A lex Cockburn 56

FINANCE Finance Diary 65 The EEC Bonanza 66

REVIEWS The Slane Castle Restaurant by Peter Pumpkin 83 Bob Willoughby Photo· Feature 84 Tom Kiernan, capped 54 times for Ireland and Irish Painters c 1660-1920 by Bruce Arnold 88 coach of the victorious Munster team against the Record Reviews by Brian Trench 92 All Blacks, talks about Irish rugby. Page 70

SPORT Tom Kiernan on Irish Rugby 70 i~lf '1

The myth of dole abuse disguises the worsening misery of the unemployed and distracts attention from employers' abuse of the system. Page 17

MAGILL DECEMBER 1978 3 he £28,000 libel award to be kept under wraps. TPatrick Cooney against the "Paddy Cooney is anxious Sunday World was the result of a that no such inquiry be held. He combination of unprofessional probably knows most of the facts journalism, editorial strife with- than most others ... in the paper and managerial timi- "Those who most tried to stop dity. the Watergate inquiries in The case has done more than America ultimately turned out to the best efforts of the Coalition have much to hide. None can ever Government in 1976 to stifle the hope to hold political office again. press here and has blunted in- Those who were lawyers were quiries into those issues related to stopped from carry ing on that Cooney's reign in Justice. trade later. The Sunday World story was "I feel sure that those who written by an anonymous free- The Sunday World published a libelous article on want to stop enquiries into the lance political journalist who was Patrick Cooney after the editor had been informed Irish Watergate act from the very the mainstay of the "Senator" that the basis for the article was false. best of motives and have nothing column until recently. Joe to hide ..... " Kennedy, the first editor of the Kennedy sent the article to be Sunday World and perhaps the about it here ... As usual". typeset and he then laid out the person most responsible for the This story was published after page. However when the final paper's initial success, edited the the editor, Kevin Marron had page make-up was being done it column even after he became n September 25, 1977 the been assured that its contents was found that there were gaps on managing editor of the company I"Senator" went even fur- were almost entirely "rubbish". the page. A sub-editor scanned in order to launch a new evening ther: "I can tell you this morning Kennedy was on leave when it the copy, saw the names of Nixon paper. that we are about to witness in arrived in the Sunday World and Cooney and placed thei r The libelous column which this country the biggest series of office and Marron asked reporter photographs at either end of the. was published on October 2,1977, trials arising out of the activities Eamon McCann to check the heading "Is this to be Irish Water- was preceded by two other condoned or ordered by Govern- piece. gate?" ment Ministers that has ever columns in the same vein written McCann interviewed the most That section of the paper was occurred. by the same freelance political obvious "leading constitutional printed on a Thursday morning "I can also say that Ireland's journalist. lawyer" in th is context, Sean and Kennedy saw one of the first The first of these appeared on leading constitutional lawyer has McBride, and was assured that the print outs when he arrived in his July 24, 1977 and predicted the drawn up an indictment concern- report was nonsense. McCann office that afternoon. Believing ing activities while in office of publication of the Amnesty re- made some further inquiries with that the publication of the phoro- port on allegations of Garda bru- Coalition Ministers. In the case of Government contacts and report- graph would libel Cooney, he some of the accusations any or all tality, which was common know- ed to Marron that the story was immediately ordered that the Coalition Ministers could be ledge at the time. The story went untrue. presses be stopped and that on to state: "I gather that the accused though it might not be Nevertheless, it was published. Cooney's picture be removed. name of a most senior minister that all were fully aware of what Kennedy vetted the October 2, The sub-editor, unsure of who authorised a most senior they were condoning. 1977 story, from the same free- Kennedy's authority to order the pol ice officer to use whatever "It is expected that a Bill of lance political journalist, when it stopping of the presses, enquired methods he liked on prisoners and Indemnity might be requested to came to the office, not knowing of Marron whether to comply. guaranteed him that there would cover all actions taken by or on that his story published the pre- Marron said no, partly because he behalf of Ministers from 1973 to be no investigation of any kind, vious week had been found to be was peeved at Kennedy's usurp- 1977 on the lines being planned no matter what occurred, may oaseless by one of the paper's tion of his authority and partly in Britain to indemnify actions by feature prominently in the re- own reporters. The October 2 because he didn't want to waste Ian Smith and his Ministers since port". story advanced the fanciful tale the pages already printed. That story ended by denying 1965. even further: It is doubtful if the publica- emphatically that Patrick Cooney "Were Jack Lynch to agree, "I can say this morning' that tion of the Cooney picture made was the Minister concerned. prosecutions would likely be Jack Lynch certainly does not any difference to the defamation. There was never the slightest thwarted though some lawyers want members of the previous ad- The story had clearly implicated possibility that a senior ,Minister claim action might still be taken ministration put on trial. But his Cooney in the possible trials and would be named by Amnesty In- against former Ministers under ths dilemma is that matters are en- had suggested that as he didn't ternational as having given any in- European Convention of Human tirely out of his hands. want an inqu iry he had much to struction to a senior police officer. Rights .... " "Amnesty International and hide. It also, by implication, cal- Amnesty at no stage had any evi- That column ended with what the International Commission of led into question his future status dence of this and would never must now read as subl ime irony: Jurists and powerful individuals as a lawyer. have been in a position to receive "when you read fu rther details of concerned with human rights in The almost unbelievable as- evidence ot this. A phone call to what is happening in other jour- many parts of the world have the pect to the story -isthat the editor the Amnesty office in London nals, remember you first heard facts. It is not as if things could of the paper knew that the basis for the article was untrue - viz. out-of-court settlement of £10,000 that there was a possibility of damages plus a full apology but trials involving sen ior ministers, the Sunday World lawyers advised that a Bill of Indemnity was against acceptance. under consideration, and that in- The Sunday World then star- ternational bodies might name the ted to assemble a file on Cooney senior Coalition ministers as hav- involving the fingerprint affair, ing condoned or ordered Garda the allegations of Garda brutality brutality. Also, it seems incredible and prison conditions and there that neither Marron' nor McCann were rumours of the greatest poli- bothered to mention to Kennedy tical libel case in history. The pro- that the previous story from the spect became even more alluring same journalist was nonsense. when it became known that for- Cooney's solicitors reacted mer Fianna Fail Attorney General, immediately and in the following Colm Condon, would lead for the Sunday's paper, October 9, 1977, defence. there was a page 2 "clarification" In the end, both the manage- which attempted to maintain that ment of the Sunday World and as the July 24 column had stated the lawyers chickened out of a emphatically that Cooney was not confrontation and attempted to the person likely to be named as argue the ridiculous - that the the senior minister who ordered a column didn't defame Cooney. senior police officer to use what- There are serious issues ar'ising ever methods he liked on prison- from Cooney's period in Justice ers, then it would be clear to but now the Sunday World has readers of the October 2 column effectively blown any possibility that Cooney was not the person of an inquiry into these.

bei ng referred to. '1 Last month we had occasion It was a fatuous defence, as to commend Marron's editorship the September 25 and October 2 of the Sunday World and the articles referred to Ministers in cou rage he has often shown on the plural and the October 2 issues such as house-building article had named Cooney as methods of large construction probably knowing most of the firms, and security issues general- facts as most others, wantinq to ly. He comes badly out of the stop an inquiry and implying that Coo ney case but perhaps he and he, like those who tried to stop other journalists will learn the the Watergate inquiry, had much lessons of attempting expose to hide. using hint and anonymous smear Cooney's lawyers offered an journalism.. Vincent Browne en years ago the thought Group was set up in January Tthat a significant and in- Of this year under the full fluential body of Northern time chairmanship of Glenn Protestant opinion would not Barr. Although Barr had re- only be contemplating break- signed from the UDA in mid- ing the link with Britain but 1976 over a disagreement on also planning for the day when voluntary coalition between Ulster would become a sove- the UUUC and the SDLP, reign, independent state on Tyrie 's invitation he quiet- would have struck most ly and unannounced rejoined people as absurd. After all, the organisation to head its gallons of blood have been new think tank. spilt throughout this century Judging by the member- and most of the last resisting ship of Barr's committee it is attempts to break the British clear that the UDA attaches link. Ulster Protestants repea- great importance to their new tedly, assured the world that strategy. The secretary 'of the they were as British as any committee is John Mac Yorkshireman. It is a measure Michael, commander of the of the changes that have been Lisburn UDA and principal wrought, over the last decade, actor in the UDA's film of in- not least in the Protestant terrogation techniques shown psyche, that many now reg- to the Amnesty International 'afd independence and the inquiry into RUC brutality. slicing of the British umbilical The political co-ordinator is cord as the only remaining Harry Chicken, who has been practicable solution to the for several years the UDA's "troubles". Some of these A UDA committee headed by Glenn Barr has major political guru. The proponents are plainly eccen- drawn up plans for an independent Ulster incor- committee's PRO is Tommy tric and are destined to re- porating a new constitution, a Bill of Rights and a Lyttle, one of the organisa- main forever, as curios, on phased British withdrawal. Above, clockwise, from tion's founder members and a the fringes of any political upper left, independence advocates Glenn Barr, formidable influence on the developments. But the most Shankill Road. In November articulate members of the Andy Tyrie, David Rowlands, and Paddy Devlin. 1974 Lyttle and Chicken independence lobby represent for all to see. It was the half- Loyalist Association of Work- accompanied Glenn Barr on a the real, and some would crown, not the Crown, that ers, claimed that the Russians bizarre trip to Libya where argue progressive, changes commanded his true loyalty. would provide financial assis- they had negotiations with that have occurred in the Pro- Up to the Ulster Workers' tance if the North declared the Libyans on Ulster inde- testant community since the Council strike in May 1974, unilateral independence. In pendence. Barr's delegation Civil Rights movement ex- which toppled the power- the build up to the UWC is reported to have offered posed and fomented ever sharing government, indepen- strike, Harry West, now the Libyans oil drilling rights widening class divisions in the dence was seen by many leader of the Official Union- off the Northern coast in re- Unionist monolith. loyalist politicians as a device ists came out in favour of turn for Arab money to Ulster nationalism first be- to return to the old com- independence in the event of finance their plans. That, came a potent political force fortable days before 1968. a British withdrawal. During financial help is understood when the British abolished There was even talk of UD!. the strike Glenn Barr, the to have taken the form of Stormont in March 1972. The bailing out the Belfast News- The first politician to throw UWC spokesman, threatened resulting reaction of ,most letter, then undergoing a his hat into the independence to "declare a provisional Protestants emanated essenti- period of financial hardship, ring was former Stormont government to save the pro- ally from the-gut: They felt and providing Harland and Minister of Home Affairs vince from republicanism". that their politicians had let John Taylor. At a meeting of The option of independence Wolff with oil tanker orders. them down and the British disillusioned party faithful in was clearly seen by its pro- Although the negotiations had betrayed them. With July 1972, he declared him- ponents and the Catholic came to nought they did have Storrnojit went all their prive- self to be in favour of in- community as a way of re- the effect of drying up the leges and their control over dependence if the British re- storing the past. generous supply of Libyan jobs and over the horizon fused to re-establish a major- Since 1974 the most sig- arms to the Provisional IRA. loomed the not too distant ity controlled parliament. At nificant development in the If Barr is to be believed prospect of a united Ireland. a meeting in February 1973, independence movement has the UDA is a very different At a massive protest rally supported by Belfast Orange been the establishment by the organisation than that which under the shadow of the now leader Martin Smyth, another Ulster Defence Association of indiscriminately assassinated defunct parliament building, former Minister of Home a committee to research and Catholics a few years ago. In it was the flag of Ulster, not Affairs and founder of Ulster eventually provide the UDA an interview for Magill, break- the Union Jack, that flew Vanguard, William Craig with a political programme ing the committee's self-im- from a thousand held poles. argued for Dominion status in based on independence. The posed embargo on talking to The ultimate contradiction in rhe absence of pre-I 968 poli- brainchild of UDA comman- the press, Barr claimed that the average Protestant's poli- tical structures. Also in 1973 der Andy, Tyrie, the New the UDA "is no longer a Pro- tical make-up was displayed Billv Hull, then leader of the Ulster. Political. Research testant army at the beck and call of loyalist politicians". their own narrow, sectarian to old flag waving loyalties." pleted work on what he terms Barr dates this fundamental ends. The UDA determined He cited the dramatic fall "a new constitution, a new shift in UDA attitudes to the that this would never happen in sectarian murders over the political structure and a Bill failure of the Paisley/Baird again and realised as well that last year and the lack of re- of Rights" which if introduc- strike of May 1977. "It was if there was going to be a sponse to the La Mon disaster ed, following a phased, nego- clear to us that as with the political solution it would I as evidence of the UDA's tiated withdrawal of British UWC strike of 1974, we were have to be based on some- change of heart. troops, would pave the way being used by politicians for thing diff'erent than an appeal Barr's committee has com- for consensus, class based" politics. The new state would not be a stepping stone to a united Ireland but a sovereign parliamentary democracy with membership in the EEC. It is clear that Barr has been heavily influenced by his month-long study trip to the United States last year, fund-I .•.• ed by the Washington State Department. His new consti- tution would borrow heavily from the American Presi- dential model. An elected President, nominated from outside Jhe party system, would cfibose an executive from the province's academic and intellectual elite. The executive would be answer- able to US Congress-style committees drawn from an elected legislature. A Presi- dential veto would be further augumented by a Bill of Rights. Dublin would have to drop its claims to the North by altering the 1937 consti- tution. External defence would be guaranteed by an outside power - probably the United States. The £300 million subvention from Bri- tain WOUld continue for twenty five Years since, accor- ding to Barr, "they owe us that at least". Internal secur- ity is one knotty problem Barr and the UDA have not as yet resolved, but it is not in- conceivable that they have some form of short term neu- tral peace keeping force in mind. The other major lobby for independence comes from a committee founded in November 1976 by ex-chair- man of the Community Rela- tions Commission, David Rowlands. Like the UDA, Rowlands' Committee for the study of Negotiated Indepen- dence sees independence as sensus politics into the North. It is also, according to Row- lands, "the only possible compromise between a Catholic community which wants to break ithe British link and a Protestant com- munity that will have no truck with Dublin". His com- " mittee consists of a sprinkling of middle class academics, ex- loyalist paramilitants and Ultimately, though, it is Barr's committee with under- its implacable opposition to Catholic community workers. the UDA's committee that standable distrust. Many of any form of six county in- Prominent among the ex- has the political muscle. As those associated with inde- dependence. After its Ard

paramilitants are Andy yet they have chosen not to pendence are on record as I Fheis decision in October to McCann, an ex-UYF leader exercise ·that muscle. Accord- notorious bigots, even if they talk to loyalists, Sinn Fein interned by the British and ing to Barr, they are going to now privately disavow their leader Gerry Adams again John McKeague, founder of wait until after the "next flag past beliefs. There are many made it clear that the organi- the notorious sectarian Red waving General Election" be- in the Catholic population sation would only be interes- Hand Commandoes and fore they do any serious pro-· who feel that that kind of ted in discussing nine county author of several VICIOUS paganda work. In the mean- leopard can never change its independence within the anti-Catholic songs and time they will continue to spots. There is also the sus- framework of Eire Nua. poems. McKeague was un- sound out influential aca- picion that the whole thing With the British showing successfully prosecuted under demics and groups north and is a ploy to return to Pro- no signs of conceding to the the Incitement to Hatred Act south of the border and on testant ascendancy, that the various calls for withdrawal, in 1971 and interned shortly both sides of the community UDA, realising that it cannot and the established political thereafter. divide. Barr has addressed defeat the Provos, and that parties opposing it, there The Rowlands' committee meetin gs of the Irish As- the British will never re-intro- seems no real chance of in- is really nothing more than a sociation in Dublin and in the duce Stormont, has merely dependence becoming a live talking shop and an umbrella figure of Paddy Devlin he has become cunning in old age. issue. The fact that the UDA for groups as obscure as the already won an influential Barr's committee also re- has been particularly reticent Ulster Independence Party northern convert. Devlin also fuses point blank to have any about its new policy suggests (membership of three) and sees independence as the only contact with the Provos and that it is not even sure it the Ulster Independence way of creating normal, class still regards them as "the real i could command support from Association (membership of politics in the North. He enemies of Ulster". As long as its own ranks. Nevertheless two). Nevertheless, the re- accepted the UDA's change the Provos are ignored it is their realisation that "Britain cognition of the difficulties of heart as genuine. So much difficult to see independence looks upon us and treats us involved in selling the inde- so that as far as he is con- becoming a viable proposi- very differently than York- pendence idea to Catholics cerned "the UDA is presently tion. The Provos, after all, do i shire" does represent a poten- led in June this year to Andy the most progressive political represent a legitimate tradi- tially progressive shift in McCann addressing a gather- organisation in the North". tion in the North. In an inter- some Protestant attitudes. It ing of largely middle-class Despite Devlin's enthus- view with the Provisional IRA remains to be seen whether Andersontonians in the Glen- iasm for their plans, the in August's Magill, the repub- that potential will be realiseds owen Inn. Catholic population views lican movement made clear Ed Maloney he Angelus was deferred the Exchequer which had Tfor 25 minutes while appropriated the EEC deve- homage was sung to Michael lopment fund of £ 16.5 mil- Conlon at the November lion and failed to channel a meeting of Cork County fair-share toward Cork. Walsh Council. Successive council- thought they should get a few lors of all political creeds million, at any rate. Joe Sher- tolled a litany of despair at lock, SFWP, pressed the claim the resignation (duly accep- of the Ferrnoy to Mallow ted) of their beloved County road in a modest cine minute Manager, and noon had long speech. Gerry Cronin, former since come and gone before Minister for Defence, now they turned in intercession to seized the opportunity to put function properly, bringing Fianna Fail TD for Cork the nearest other person to in a plea for two extra pumps on his head the concentrated North East, engaged the God. The Angelus was recited to be included in the group scorn of all parties and inde- County engineer in a close in full by the assembled coun- water plan for his district. pendents. (Fianna Fail 21, ten-minute scrutiny of a cer- cillors, the manager, the sec- Fianna Fail's J. Roche reques- Fine Gael 17, Labour 5, tain bend between Mallow retary and the pious press ted the erection of telephone SWFP 1, Ind. 2). and Cork. under the sorrowful gaze of a kiosks in four parishes in his "We'll get the kiosks first Dennis O'Reilly stayed on crucified Christ nailed to the bailiwick, citing hardship of and the service after", snap- the straight and narrow. wall above them. eight miles from the nearest ped Chairman Donal Creed, 'S orne artie trucks are moun- Sixteen floors below, on village, 60 miles from the Fine Gael TD for Mid Cork. ting the ditch to get into the the outside, looking dolefully hospital. Cornelius Murphy, They turned their atten- farmer's door". In this age of up the glassy face of the Labour, rose to the passion- tion to the roads and the re- the EE C, rural folk were still County Hall skyscraper, a ate heights about the tele- commendation of the Skibbe- bringing milk to the side of pair of statues of two work- phonic difficulties of the reen-Schull area Committee the road and the farmers ing class men stood rooted, "island people of Bere". that certain public rights of would "get sour and refuse to necks craned, courtesy of the Barry Cogan, Fianna Fail TD way be taken over by the pay rates excepting some- ITGWU, circa 1976. from Carrigaline, exhorted Council and appropriately thing be done about it". Thus afflicted, blessed and the dialling difficulties of cared for. There was a His Fine Gael colleague beseeched, 40 councillors got "those out in the hills and the scramble between Cornelius Phil Burton, ex-TD, ex-Sena- down to work in the plush valleys" and Michael Pat Murphy and Fine Gael's tor, and ex-County Chairman, chamber amid expensive pot- Murphy, Labour TD for Cork Paddy Sheehan to move provided the translation that ted plants, bearing in mind South West, :von unanimous adoption, both men having an bulk milk carriers and articul- Conlon's farewell words that acclaim with the observation eye to the public acclaim that ated trucks could not nego- there was a big difference be- that "kiosks which might not would greet. the transforma- tiate the bends in the roads of tween that first meeting of 'be an economic proposition tion of ten bodhreens, and East Cork. Deputy Paddy his 18 years ago when they should be regarded as an the lame duck status of stand- Hegarty, Fine Gael TD for had considered "the placing essential social service for iso- ing the other party's vote. Cork North East complained of Council pumps for water la ted rural areas". While they played snap the that local bridges were "not supply" and their recent ap- Dennis O'Reilly, Fine Gael, Fianna Fail deputy for South geared to hold the axles of proval of a £30 million water thought it might be better to West Cork, Councillor J. European trucks"." The gardai, supply system for the county. ·concentrate their energies on Walsh, played a poker bluff he chided, were preoccupied A Fine Gael councillor I getting existing services to with a resounding attack on with snatching one or two turnips off the tops of sugar- Maguire's ancestral home had beet lorries that were over- fallen derelict for want of loaded. money to make it a National Their pleas were referred Monument. The man who to the General Purposes Com- had bequeathed the All-Ire- mittee. land Cup was a sports here and a national hero, they n a more personal level said. Submission noted. OCouncillor Burton lam- ented the absence in County fter lunch a severely de- Hall grounds of parking space A pleted council had mov- for Council members. He ed to piers around the coast. wondered if workers now- The Department of Fisheries adays were possessed of two and Forestry had agreed to cars each or what, such was pay 75 per cent, or £3000, to- the squeeze below. Michael wards the cost of removing a Conlon, recalling the early submerged rock off Tra Bhad days when there was space to pier, Caherkeen. "I move" the east and west .of the buil- came the simultaneous shouts ding, offered smoothly to of Donal Harrington, Fine rope off 35 spaces every time Gael, and Dan R. Harrington, there was a council meeting. Fianna Fail. "Donal's got it", Would they like their spaces chorused Fine Gael. to the east or west? Charmed, While they foundered on they let him make the final the rock, the Chairman noted decision. As Joe Sherlock said that the Department had also in his tribute, Conlon's Late agreed to pay £285,000 to- Late television performance ward the improvement of crowed Fianna Fail. cial commitment from us", had impressed people with his Schull pier. "'I move that", Phil Burton recalled them said Chairman Creed, tighte- obvious concern for the needs Fine Gael's Sheehan was to their senses. "Take it easy. ning the purse. The request of simple individuals. gleeful. John Walsh, Fianna Where is the Council going to was deferred for further con- Equally simple were the Fail, ponderously drew the find its share of the cost? sideration. urgently expressed needs of a Chairman's attention to a How much will this put on As they moved to any deputation from the residents written motion in his name the rates?" other business at four o'clock of Glounthaune who entered. regarding improvements in Conlon seized the oppor- the chamber quickly emptied. the Chamber and dramatical- Schull. Creed graciously tunity to remind them of fis- "I want a public enquiry into ly unveiled a drawing board awarded victory to Walsh. cal responsibility. "It's all the Department of P and T", mounted on an easel, to show "Let's talk a bit about it right to vote £4000 for the Councillor O'Reilly called a placard bearing the legend anyway and get some credit" removal of a rock. It's paten- after his departing colleagues. "Death N o. 30 N ow Due" came a Fine Gael voice. tly not so to vote £ I 0 I ,000 "When I speak on the phone above a skull and crossbones. Michael Pat Murphy recalled for Schull pier". everyone gets word of my pri- In Glounthaune last winter a at once that in his time as He put the hearts across vate informations over the CIE bus collided with a lorry, secretary to this very Fisher- them with the reminder that lines. They're crossed or leaving five dead and many ies Department, Schull had al- they had only last month something. r might as well injured. Eddie Mooney of ways been top of his list, and voted £ I 96 ,000 out of cur- broadcast to the News of the Glounthaune Development the Coalition government had rent estimates for increased World". Association told the assem- agreed with him. An unabash- pay for road workers. If they "Yerra boy," called a bled gathering that the odds ed Councillor Sheehan re- couldn't raise this new allo- Fianna Failer from the door", on death No. 30 were getting minded them all that he had cation, even out of next isn't that what you want? shorter all the time, 29 been the very first to produce year's estimates, it was good- Publicity?" . people having died over ten photographs of the pier in bye to the government grant. years on that short stretch of this very chamber. He had "But we always accept a he real Council work was. road. As his companion flip- been dismayed, on his recent seventy five per cent grant", Tin the paperwork under ped the sheets on the drawing return from a Spanish holi- said Michael Pat Murphy their arms which they took board, showing a pictorial day, to read a Fianna Fail simply. It was accepted. home to study. The minutes sequence of mutilation, cumann statement about the Youghal Tourist Develop- of the Joint Meeting of the mourning, and meandering grant in the Southern Star. ment Ltd. requested the Sheep Dipping Committees of motorists, Mooney requested The government had a strange Council to nominate forth- Cork and Kerry Councils; of double white lines, traffic way of conveying news to the with a representative to its the special Council meeting wardens and signposts. The County Council. "But who- newly formed board, that on the Cork land use and Council noted his submis- ever gets the kudos, the they might qualify for this transportation Study; of the sions. people will remember that year's Bord Failte grant of National Monuments Advi- Another deputation, intro- Deputy Murphy and myself £1000. "Sound boy", said a sory Committee; of planning duced by Fianna Fail Coun- bought Schull to the fore- helpful Fine Gaeler, leading permission granted or denied cillor Calnan of Dunrnanway , front" . the nods of approval. to nearly three hundred appli- told the Council that Sam "We brought the money" "This will entail a finan- cants in the month of Octo- here would seem to be an obvious I Haughey starts by saying that it is their I Tline of- political descent from a purpose to let people know what bene- I speech by Charlie Haughey at the last fits they are entitled to receive and to Fianna Fail Ard Fheis through para-E pay them those benefits. Yet, with his graph 7.16 of the Green Paper Develop- t ear fairly firmly attached to the ground, ment for Full Employment to the reo~ he told last February's FF Ard Fhe is of cently increased restrictions on dole~ his concern about abuses of the social claimants. But the appearances are de·~ welfare system. And the same concern ceptive: the Minister for Social Wel- was expressed in terms of a possible fare and his department officials cate- cost-cutting exercise in the Green Paper: gorically deny that they have issued any "Steps must be taken to prevent abuses directive to labour exchanges requiring of the system .... the effect of fraud Il- them to have the unemployed sign on lent claims is that less is available to more regularly or show more tangible help those who are genuinely in need ... evidence of their efforts to get work. such abuse of the system affects the The regulations for labour exchanges C0111munity's willingness to provide the specifically require claimants Jiving necessary finances ... " within two miles of an exchange to sign And then: "the government are re- i on daily. viewing the existing measures to combat " Due to the increased pressure on the fraudulent claims and have at present exchanges from record levels of unem- under consideration a number of mea- ployment the rules had been relaxed - Charlie Haughey sures to control abuse of the system and and that was on the basis of a depart- Still, there is constant pressure on thereby reduce the heavy cost of finan- the Minister and the Department of cing the services." Social Welfare to cut out alleged abuses There is no evidence at all of any. of the dole. The most common of these such measures having been introd uced. is supposed to be "doing the double", The Department does not even have an that is, holding down a job and collec- approximate figure for the value of ting unemployment benefit. Complaints I benefits which have been paid to inelig- about this practice are made frequently to the Minister, though they are usually non-specific. The conviction that the ment instruction. However, with the dip practice is widespread extends into the in unemployment earlier this year, ex- Fianna Fail parliamentary party and change managers arranged for a return limits the Minister's ability to persuade to earlier methods. Ironically, these them that Social Welfare needs more were just taking wider effect and com- funds. Civil servants in that department ing to public notice as unemployment come in for flak from their colleagues in rose again in two leaps of over 1,000 a other departments because they are alle- week. If closer scrutiny of claimants' eli- gedly lax in controlling the hand-outs. ible claim an ts. But officials acknow- gibility removes some people from the Both the present Minister and his ledge that if such a figure could be pro- Live Register of unemployed, they will officials believe that dole abuses are a duced it would certainly come to less be knocked down, as they leave the ex- very minor problem, however. Defining than the £500,000 which the Depart- changes, by the new people coming in. the work of this department, Charlie ment had to retrieve last year through civil bills issued against employers who because an employer fails to comply did not buy social insurance stamps with the law." with the money deducted from wages Bell, whose group within the union for that purpose. ' includes workers in the much troubled Last year, about 100 successful pro- textiles and footwear sectors, had stated secutions were brought against employ- that non-stamping of social welfare ers for failure to pass on contributions. cards had "assumed grave proportions, Although there are over ten times as particularly in the low-paid areas of many insured workers as there are em- employment, and indeed in industries ployers liable to pay insruance, the where we have 'been faced with short- number of successful prosecutions time working, lay-offs and redundanc- against social welfare claimants was 87. ies." Bell claims that in every factory That figure represented a substantial in- closure which he has to deal with cards crease over the previous year due to the were not stamped up to date; the per- prosecutions of 30 people in a single iods for which stamps were missing case. In the first ten months of 1978, ranged fromsix months to two years. In there have been 47 successful prosecu- some instances, companies have tried to tions. These figures include both dole extend their life by not stamping cards, abusers and the more easily apprehend- even resorting to blackmail' by claiming ed defrauders of sickness benefit. that they would have to close a factory if they did stamp the cards up to date. s Parliamentary Secretary, Frank In other instances, it has been found ACluskey tried to turn the tables on that companies were lodging the deduc- those who alleged there were wide- tions in the bank, either trading with spread abuses of the dole (usually re- the cash or accumulating interest, and ferring to urban workers rather than to then buying the stamps in one block at recipients of the politely named "small- the end of six months or a year. holders' assistance"). 'He launched a Workers have the right to inspect campaign against defaulting employers their cards once a month, but few do it. in the wake of the Creation Group They may not want to risk precipitating a crisis in a shaky company if they in- sist on their right and evidently they feel other inhibitions about doing it, too. When five uninhibited part-time unemployed lower than they should be teachers at Dun Laoghaire School of and it inhibits action to eliminate un- Art occupied the premises of the Voca- employment. And there, too, is a reason tional Education Committee for a day for Ministers to gently encourage what and a half during October in order to they know to be a wild exaggeration. see their cards they had their worst It can feed the notion that many of the suspicions confirmed: the cards had not unemployed lead the life of Reilly and been fully stamped for three years. that there are not really as many genuin- collapse which had revealed that tens of However, workers from whom de- ely unemployed as the Live Register thousands of pounds worth of deduc- ductions have been made and who can- statistics show. However, Murray's tions for a pension fund, for PAYE, and not, therefore, be blamed for the dis- analysis of the unemployed has demon- for social insurance, had been retained crepancy, are protected if they are made strated that an increasing proportion are by the company. The Social Welfare redundant. Once the Department is being reduced to the rock-bottom assis- Act, 1976, increased the penalties for satisfied that they have made their con- tance payments. And it is generally such offences, but only a small propor- tribution unemployment benefit can be accepted by economists and statisticians tion of the cases where social welfare paid. But the investigation may take - notably Brendan Walsh, of ESRI - that officers discover a discrepancy go as far several weeks and during that time the the Live Register gives an under-estim- as prosecution and conviction, By their unemployed person receives only the ate, possibly by as much as 30,000 or own efforts the Department recovered means-tested unemployment assistance 40,000 of the unemployed. over £4 million last year from employ- whose maximum rate is much lower ers who had not stamped cards up to than unemployment benefit. The State, date. Even that sizeable sum represents too, is partly protected against employ- a tiny percentage of the total of £230 ers' failure to buy the stamps; in the million collected each' year from em- event of a liquidation, the Department ployees' contributions. of Social Welfare comes high up the list Not too surprisingly, the Green Paper of secured creditors. However, it may does not mention this form of social take months or years for the liquidator welfare abuse. However, in a letter sent to make the payment and, even then, it last month to Michael Bell, National is likely to be less than the full amount. Group Secretary in the Irish Transport In a paper prepared last January, and General Workers' Union, the t seems no amount of evidence of Jim Murray demonstrated that while the Minister's private secretary stated that I. employers' abuse of the dole is going overall level of unemployment was fal- Haughey was conscioLis of the problems to shift the well-rooted belief that ling, the numbers of 'unemployed who caused by employers who do not claimants are systematically fiddling the have been out of work for six months or "comply with their obligations to stamp system. As Jim Murray, Director of the more, and who have, therefore, lost or the insurance cards of their employees". National Social Service Council, has are about to lose entitlement to redun- "You may rest assured," he wrote, pointed out, this kind of belief - or dancy payor pay-related benefit, are "that all practical steps will be taken to "myth", as he calls it - has a dangerous rising steadily. Murray showed that the ensure that no employee suffers loss effect: it helps keep payments for the numbers on the Live Register who re- ceive no form of benefit at all have been during a period when the total numbers, this aspect of unemployment at Eden- increasing, and the proportion of those excluding those on farmholders assist- more, SLP researchers found that some relying on unemployment assistance ance, fell from 84,524 to 81,591. Now did not bother to collect the assistance alone is also on the up. In October that unemployment is again rising stead- they had been awarded because the bus 1977, these two categories took in over ily towards the 100,000 threshold which fares to the labour exchange made it half the officially unemployed. Their Jack Lynch last January hung around worthless. By doing this, they also for- his neck as the acceptable reason for feited other non-cash benefits. supporting, or rejecting, a government, An even larger category of unem- it can only be assumed that the trend is ployed who do not appear on the Live being accentuated. Launching their Register and who receive neither benefit Interim Report last month, the chair- nor assistance are married women. Many woman of the Combat Poverty Com- professional and voluntary workers mittee, Sister Stanislaus, made a general assisting the unemployed insist that the reference to the growing number of un- apparently systematic refusal of Depart- employed caught within the poverty ment officials to recognise married trap. Unfortunately, none of the projects women as being available for work and, which the Poverty Committee is carrying therefore, eligible for unemployment out will demonstrate with the necessary benefits, is one of the very real abuses. maximum income if they had an adult force just how wide of the mark the Deciding Officers rule them out on the dependant and six child dependants common middle-class perceptions of the grounds that they cannot be available comes to £38.60 - less than half the unemployed are. for work when they are looking after average male industrial earnings. their children and Appeals Officers have The average income of the unem- recently published survey of a tended overwhelmingly to uphold their ployed represents a declining proportion A Dublin working class estate - findings. (This is in contrast to the 40 of the earnings of those at work and Edenmore, in Raheny - showed in an- per cent of cases where the appellant is their average period out of work is in- other way how global and average figures creasing. Figures from the Central Stati- for unemployment disguise the grim stics Office show that the trend cont- reality of unemployment as so many tinued into this year. In 1976, 50 per experience it. The survey, carried out by cent of the males on the Live Register the local branch of the Socialist Labour were unemployed for more than six Party, recorded a level of unemployment months. In August 1977, that figure twice the national average. For those had gone up to 52.7 per cent. It dipped between 16 and 19, however, the figure slightly in November 1977 - to 51.4 was 29 per cent. Youths do not become per cent, but in May of this year it had eligible for unemployment benefit until risen to 54.8 per cent. In the six months they are 18. Those who have never from last November to last May the worked and are living at home may be successful in having the original decision number of men unemployed for more assessed for unemployment assistance. reversed, or modified.) than a year rose from 28,236 to 29,505 While not preparing a formal report on An unsuccessful claimant took a High Court action against the Department regulations for the exchanges rather of women and youth are excluded from last April. But Justice Tom Finlay ruled than going to court. However, for pur- any form of benefit. Others are awarded that the onus of proof was on the claim- poses of the appeal which almost invar- so little and have so far to travel to a ant to show that the Appeals Officer iably follows a decision to suspend a labour exchange that it is not worth had acted unreasonably and to support claimant from unemployment benefit, her own case for unemployment benefit. or remove them from the register The Coolock Community Law Centre, altogether, the Department is obliged to which was involved with that case, re- observe the strictest standards of ports that Appeals Officers seem to be evidence and the l8 social welfare influenced in their finding by whether officers throughout the state who the claimant is represented by a third specialise in matters of dole fraud may party or not. .They also say that claim- face insuperable problems in proving a ants may be humiliated with questions suspected abuse. On the other hand, the like "Who will cook your husband's tea?" knowledge that they are being investi- or led into agreeing that they are gated often persuades a claimant to available for part-time work, from report that they are working again - collecting. The proportion of those who which the A.O. concludes that they are possibly several months after this has are included in the statistices for unem- not available for full-time work, and happened. It is notable, too, that in 30 ployment but who receive no social therefore not eligible for benefit. of last year's convictions against claim- welfare payments or minimal means- an ts for unemployment benefit or tested assistance is increasing. Employers assistance, the Probation Act was applied, are defrauding the Department of Social the court evidently holding that there Welfare of thousands of pounds at a was real hardship. The Department did time. And the 26 Counties still maintains not retrieve the funds they had handed it's bottom-of-the-league position in the out. But nobody was making themselves EEC for per capita spending on social rich on dole money. services and for the proportion of Set against the misery of unemploy- national income spent on social benefits. ment for so many thousands, the increas- The continuing chorus about dole- ing length of time spent out of work, fiddling deflects attention from all of It cannot be denied that some claim- and the mounting evidence that the these things. But it could be stopped - ants do make fraudulent claims and their Fianna Fail government's programme if the Minister for Social Welfare was numbers are considerably under-stated cannot make a substantial dent in the willing to make an emphatic and detailed in the figures for prosecutions. Generally, unemployment figures, dole abuse is an statement on the information which his the problem is handled under the insignificant phenomenon. Thousands Department has on supposed abuses! "We are well on the way to the "The 7 per cent growth rate this "The increase of 17,000 in the attainment of the Government's year is not a consumer boom - in- numbers at work this year is the economic targets for 1979 and full vestment has grown by 14 per largest single increase in employ- employment by 1983." cent and consumer spending by ment ever in our history." only 8 per cent."

'" Te are well on the way to the at- only 8 to 9 per cent. In addition, public and its unemployment reduction target ~,.. tainment of the Government's sector investment has been running at has caused considerable confusion), re- economic targets for 1979 and towards· only 12 per cent, while private sector in- dundancies in the private sector were the attainment of full employment by vestment has been running at about 18 higher than anticipated and job creation 1983", according to Martin 0'Donog- per cent. The entire manifesto strategy lower. hue, Minister for Economic Planning was to boost employment in the public "While, obviously, we have been dis- and Development, in an interview with sector in 1978, while private industry appointed at the shortfall in the overall Magill prior to the announcement of the geared itself up for expansion in the growth of employment, the drop of decision on joining the European Mone- following years and this has happened. 17,000 in the numbers at work in 1978 Itary System (EMS) and the completion "There has been a major increase in represents the largest single increase in lof the Government's deliberations on farm investment, which will have spin- employment in our history." the White Paper on economic develop- off effects in terms of jobs, and the IDA ment. will end up by signing up projects for oesn't the likelihood of there being I about 30,000 jobs this year although ) no national wage agreement next O'Donoghue said that the 1979 eco- they were talking only in terms of crea- year seriously disrupt the Government's nomic targets could be met whether or ting about 27,000 at the outset of the economic strategy? not Ireland joins the EMS, nor should year. This can be repeated next year." "I'm not perturbed about the possi- the failure to reach a national wage bility of there being a different form of ~onoghue said that the Govern- agreement seriously disrupt Government wage agreement", O'Donoghue said. ment had set five main targets for plans. Furthermore, the shortfall in the O "What does worry us is the amount of unemployment targets for 1978 should 1978: increase that would arise. The fact is not disturb progress towards the 1979 • The creation of 20,000 jobs in the that the limit on real wage increase has objectives. public sector. This was accomplished. got to relate to the growth in the econo- • The reduction of the inflation rate mony. "The 7 per cent growth rate in the to 7 per cent. Because of the higher "A 2% per cent increase in the num- economy should be repeated in 1979, than anticipated national wage round, bers at work, with a 7 per cent growth there should be a drop of 25,000 in un- inflation will be about 8 per cent for the rate, means that at best there is only 4% employment, the borrowing require- year, but still a substantial improvement from 14 per cent in 1977 and the 17 per per cent increase available for the in- ment should be down to 10.5 per cent comes of those at work. Any attempts cent in 1976. from 13 this year but inflation might be to get real increases in excess of that are in the 6 to 7 per cent area instead of 5 • A growth rate of7 per cent in Gross self-defeating, per cent, depending on what happens National Product (GNP). This has been "Increases of 50 per cent, as current- the next wage round," O'Donoghue attained. ly being demanded by some of the pub- said. • A borrowing rate limit of 13 per lic sector service workers, are simply not cent. It is expected to be slightly lower. on." "The 7 per cent growth rate is not a • The reduction of employment by consumer boom, as some of our critics 20,000. The drop in unemployment will ntry into the European Monetary have alleged. The fastest growing cate- have been about 17,000. While the E System (EMS) could obviously gory has been in investment, which has Government delivered on its 20,000 job have serious disruptive effects on the been running at 14 per cent. The in- creation programme (the same figure for economy and on the Government's tar- crease in consumer spending has been the Government's job creation target gets. The negotiations of the last several months have been directed towards would insulate Ireland from these ad- negotiating a financial package which verse effects of EMS membership while would offset these potentially detrimen- we are adjusting our domestic policy tal effects on the economy and ensure and getting domestic costs in line with that the Government's programme re- those of the other EMS members. The mains on course, O'Donoghue said. figure the Government proposed was He explains: if both Britain and Ire- £650 million spread over a five-year land were to go into the EMS then with- period. out offsetting action it would be expec- The main potential source of financ- ted that the growth rate would be lower ial aid is West Germany and it has been and therefore increases in employment the Helmut Schmidt in Bonn that the would be lower. The borrowing rate Irish government has had to primarily would be higher but the inflation rate persuade. The aid would be spent on would be lower. because the EMS would capital investment on roads, telephones have a deflationary impact. and water supplies, thereby helping to cut domestic costs and, in the mean- If Britain stays out and we go 4'1, time, creating jobs to offset the loss of then all these factors would be exacer- jobs caused by EMS entry. bated:' the growth rate would be even However as the negotiations opened lower, employment lower, the borrow- in Brussels at the Heads of Government. ing rate even higher and inflation lower meeting, it became apparent that the at least within a few years of entry. West Germans were prepared to finance only a three year loan instead of a five Ireland could also encounter balance year one, thereby reducing the size of of payments problems, possibly leading the financial package to under £400 m. to a run on the Irish punt - perhaps even It also became apparent that the Ger- forcing us out of the EMS. Observers see mans were going to insist on conditions these problems as justification for Ire- being attached to the loan/grant, inclu- land's requests for financial aid from its ding the maintenance of a low inflation EMS colleagues. O'Donoghue, however, rate, the adherence of the Fianna Fail refused to comment on any issues relat- manifesto commitments on the borrow- ing to possible devaluation. ing rate and the reduction of public expenditure as a proportion of GNP. "The primary reason for the adverse O'Donoghue, however, refused to be effects of EMS membership is that Ire- drawn on any of these issues. land's domestic costs are running higher than those of Germany, France and the A further possibility - on which Benelux countries, and every 1 per cent O'Donoghue refused to comment - was increase in domestic costs could mean a that Ireland may devalue the Irish punt drop of up to 2 per cent sales. This vis-a-vis the other EMS currencies at the means that we would be selling less, point of EMS entry in order to ensure hence production would drop and em- that the British pound is not devalued ployment levels would be affected. At- against the Irish punt. As stated earlier, tempts to counteract this on our own the British pound is almost certain to would make our borrowing require- fall against the EMS currencies and Ire- ments too high. land could not easily afford a situation whereby the British pound was devalued "The Government's approach to the against the Irish: our exports on the Bri- EMS negotiations has been to seek tish market would fall and their imports agreement on a financial package which here would rise .• he visitors room for H Block in an old British Army blanket, and Tprisoners is large and low ceil- confined virtually 24 hours a day in a inged. Around the walls are 20 small, cell plastered with his own excreta and wooden, numbered cubicles. Each one swimming in urine? "How are you?" contains a table and four chairs - two seems a somewhat inadequate greeting. for visitors, one for the prisoner and one Like the only other blanket prisoner for his guard. " in the room, his hair and beard were The names of prisoners receiving a long and uncombed and he wore an ill- visit are called out and the thirty or so fitting blue boiler suit. waiting friends and relatives are allotted He hadn't washed since March and a cubicle number. Most people are there his teeth were completely yellow. His to see remand prisoners or those fortun- skin was a cadaverous shade of white ate enough to still enjoy political status. and stretched tightly across his cheek- The blanket men rarely take visits. bones. His eyes were sunk deep into Those appealing sentences take a daily dark rimmed sockets and throughout 15 minute visit and of the rest only those the visit never ceased from wandering. with young families or with sick relatives With his guard never more than three take advantage of a monthly 30 minute feet away, conversation was necessarily visit. Others like Ciaran Nugent, the first surreptitious, but he did manage to man to go on the blanket, have refused describe life in the H Blocks for himself visits for over two years. and the other 370 Republican prisoners We are shown to our cubicle and wait. presently on the no wash strike. "We Opposite, a blanket man is in whisper- refuse to leave our cells for any reason ed conversation with his parents. He was burly warder listening in to his convers- other than visits and Sunday Mass. That obviously an H Block prisoner. His face ation. means we use our cells for everything. was almost completely covered in hair Eventually our prisoner, handcuffed At the beginning we used a corner of and he could have been anything between between two warders, arrives. He is a 24 the cell for a toilet but after the screws 18 and 30 years old. year old form the New Lodge Road dis- started to throw our blankets in it we The blanket men break their no trict of Belfast, serving a recommended smeared the cell walls with shit and prison uniform rule for visits but the life sentence for murder. He was con- poured the piss under the cell door." boiler suits they are issued with have victed on the basis of a signed "confess- What about the smell? "You get used to plainly seen better days. His was several ion" and spent over a year on remand it. It only really hits me when I go back sizes too large and a long rip in the before being sent to H Block 3 a few after a visit." trousers revealed a pair of skinny butt- days before the no wash strike started. Once a week the cells are steam hosed ocks. His enormous unlaced boots looked What do you say to a man who has clean by the warders and the prisoners as if they would have better suited the spent the last eight months dressed only moved to a cleaner wing of the H Block. The need to keep one wing of each by thin, watery custard. Supper often the cause of violence and are re- block for this purpose has created an is even more frugal. A pint of unsweet- garded by the prisoners as petty harass- overcrowding problem. Initially the H ened tea and four slices of bread and ment designed to break their wills. "I Block cells were built to house one margarine. was made to stretch my legs open and prisoner. Now there are two inmates for It's a boring and monotonous routine was searched twice before this visit. each cell and there are unconfirmed broken only by regular cell searches. They'll do it twice more before I get reports of loyalists in H Blocks 7 and 8, For the prisoners, the idea of warders back into my cell. How could I get the the criminal Blocks, sharing four to a searching a cell that contains only two time and opportunity to hide anything. cell. It's during these moves, when ward- foam rubber mattresses and six thin It's done for badness. ers make prisoners run to their new During the rest of the day prisoners wing, that most of the beatings happen. either sleep, play chess with sets The prisoner we visited had been modelled out of scraps of paper or speak moved that morning along with the 24 to each other by using the pipes of the other inmates of his wing. After they block's heating system as a telephone had been rehoused they discovered that wire. At night time they conduct sing one of their number was missing. "His songs or give Irish language classes and cellmate saw him with his head bleeding lectures shouted through the thick cell and he's probably on the board now." doors. On the board refers to the Punishment The lecture earlier that week was on or P Block, a twenty four cell con- the Vietnamese General Giap's theory crete building situated some distance of "the revolutionary act of people's from the the H Blocks. war". "Whoever gives the classor lecture Prisoners are sent to the P Block normally can't speak for days after, so for between three and and twenty eight some nights we just sing rebel songs". days for offences as different and as The Northern Ireland Office main- blankets is especially galling. "We're petty as speaking back to a warder and tains that prisoners can control the lights first of all given an anal search and then smuggling tobacco and messages from in their cells but this prisoner denied it. made to stand outside the cell in puddles visitors. Beatings are automatic in the "Sometimes the screws keep the lights of urine while the screws poke through P Block and the prisoner we visited on all night so that we can't sleep. Other our mattresses. If we make a move other spoke of a man who had to be hospital- screws jump on top of us." nights they bang on the cell doors and ised after 28 days of solitary confine- shout to keep us awake. I've read that in Anal searches which follow and pre- ment and attacks from warders. Stannheim jail they keep the Baader- cede every excursion from cells are Meinhof people in complete silence to ife in H Block 3 starts early for the drive them mad. Here they use noise." L prisoners. "The screws corne around Apart from his skeletal appearance at seven in the morning and wake us up the health of the prisoner we visited by banging their batons on the steel seemed to have withstood the strain of cell doors. But I'm usually awake earlier the no wash strike. But other prisoners than that when flocks of noisy crows are entering their third winter in the H leave their nests and fly over the prison. Blocks. When they started the protest They ask us if we want a visit from the the prisoners smashed cell furniture doctor, a priest or the governor. We and broke windows. The refusal of the never accept because that would mean Governor to replace the windows means putting on prison uniform. If you're that this winter cells will be open to the really sick they'll send a doctor in to see elements. you but that can take weeks. As for a Other prisoners are dentist there's only one for the whole of showing mental stress and Long Kesh." at least one of them has been Breakfast of cornflakes or porridge, a forced to take sedative pint of tea and two unbuttered slices of drugs. All of the H Block bread follows. If the prisoners suspect men apparently suffer from that their food has been tampered with constant diarrhoea - Long it joins the excreta pasting their Kesh fever as they call it. cell wall. "One day my cell- With a recommended life mate found a dead mouse at sentence in front of him the bottom of his mug of how much longer could he tea and we think that sustain the protest. "From sometimes the screws the day I was arrested I was piss into the tea as well." treated as a special kind of The prisoners are prisoner. The R.D.C. extract- locked up all the time ed a confession from me except for meals. Ap- and I was convicted in a no- peals from Donal Deeny, jury court. None of us here an Alliance Party council- have anything to lose by lor and a member of the trying for political status." Long Kesh Board of With that the visit was Visitors, for exercise for over and without being all- prisoners have fallen on owed to shake hands the deaf Northern Ireland prisoner was escorted, hand- Office ears. Lunch is skimpy cuffed, back to his cell, a and consists of one potato, blanket, the overwhelming two thin slices of meat and stench of urine and excreta a spoon of vegetable followed and an uncertain fate .• here can't be very many is the corroboration they of Martinique in 1902. Like to be an attraction of oppo- Tbest-selling authors who need. subsequent books, its interest sites (they have been termed spend much of their creative It is their seventh book, in calamity is not ghoulish or the "Laurel and Hardy" of life crawling around a study and probably their biggest gloating. Rather, it's a human disaster). Witts, for instance, floor on their hands and knees. assignment so far. The subject: dissection of people's re- is impeccably dressed in tweed But here's Max Morgan-Witts the Great Crash of '29, the actions when confronted with jacket, polished shoes, roll- doubled up on the carpet in Wall Street stock market imminent disaster. top pullover and creased the home of his co-author, shimp that triggered a de- With almost metronomic slacks. Even crawling around Gordon Thomas, in Ashford, pression, prompted once high- regularity came other books: on the floor, he manages to County Wicklow. In front of flying financiers to leap out Strange Story of the Morro convey an impression of him is a massive manilla folder of skyscraper windows, closed Castle (a mystery of the sea), correctness. (He's also death chock-a-block with notes, down banks, and generally Voyage of the Damned, on bad grarnmar.) pamphlets, and photostat shook the world's faith in the Guernica ( an account of that Thomas by contrast is cuttings from the New York great American dream. If dreadful blitzkrieg), and Ruin portly, often rumpled in dress Times of 1929. All around, occasionally the authors seem From the Air (dropping of and loquacious. thomas is piled high against the wails, edgy, it's understandable. the atomic bomb on Hiro- also the salesman, a key in- stacked on top of what is They face a race against I shima). Sales steadily built gredient in the promotion arguably the longest private time ..The giant US publishers, up. Now they stand at around circus, especially in America. desk in Europe (21 feet), Doubleday, want the manu- 26 million copies. So meticulous is Thomas jammed into almost wall-to- script before Christmas so Since they first met at the about publicity that he main- wall shelves, are similar they can meet production' BBC where Witts was an ex- tains a cross-index file of re- folders, some of them nearly schedules of the hardback ecutive producer, the writers porters around the world who a foot thick. edition before October 29, have established an almost have at one time or another the fiftieth anniversary of the brotherly relationship. A interviewed them. And he Thomas, ushering a visitor Crash. NBC television will Canadian who lives in London, keeps in touch with many of into this newly-built sump- make a four to six hour 2 Witts flies across to Ashford them. tuous workplace (how many million dollar series from the for the roughly two-yearly With stoic cheerfulness, writers wrestle with the muse book. And Twentieth Century ritual of writing. (It's in they submit to slightly insane in a "study" that has two Fox plans a feature film, with, Ashford that all the docu- publicity jamborees which stories, self-contained kitchen the co-authors as associate ments, garnered by a world- may involve in a three-week and bathroom and a view over producers. wide network of researchers spin as many as a 100 tele- a heated swimming-pool?) sees as well as by the writers, are vision interviews, and even no need to apologise for his The Hollywood interest is stored.) Every now and again more radio and newspaper colleague's unusual working nothing new to Witts and Thomas lets him go home to interviews. Why? "It sells position. That's the way Thomas, since four of their his family - "half-term", he books", says Thomas. Indeed, they've done it in nearly 14 books have been or are being jokes. the selling is as important as years together. Indeed, made into movies, but it's the The chapters are written the writing. To promote the Thomas sometimes jokes that first time the pressures have according to a precise schedule present book they will prob- they will fit knee-pads, a la synchronised. Add to all that which ends on December 21 ably, for the first time, have gridiron. a bitter legal battle with their with the final one, and dis- to split up. Usually, they are From time to time Witts discarded American publisher, patched to Doubleday ten at interviewed together, employ- rises, sits at his allotted section which the authors finally won a time via Aer Lingus, (Shortly ing a much-refined technique of the desk and writes in a in September, and you have before Magill went to press, which includes putting precise hand all over pages an idea of what life is like at they were ahead of the time- questions at each other, anti- produced from Thomas' the top of the best-selling tree. table.) cipating every possible angle, ebullient prose by a typist The authors have been before going live. beavering away downstairs. rapidly scaling that tree almost he basis of the Witts! But perhaps the basis of Witts' crawling is made neces- since they first combined their TThomas formula is a the authors' long-lasting suc- sary by the drudgery of check- disparate but matching talents good working relationship. cess, in a profession with a ing, double-checking and in the sixties. Their first book, "We don't come to blows", very high failure rate, is dis- triple-checking. Somewhere The Day the World Ended is a says Witts but concedes that cipline. The research finished, in the 14 million-plus words riveting account of the vol- there is oeasionally "electricity they got down to writing in of raw material around them canic eruption on the island in the air". There also appears August. Since then they have been toiling away mostly ers with a highly refined foot- Financial footnote: seven daysaweek, according in-the-door technique. Hardly It's a heady thought for to an inexorable schedule anybody refuses their requests aspiring writers, expecially starting precisely at 8.45am. for interviews, a fact they unpublished ones, that Lunch isbetween 1-1.45pm, attribute to their age (Witts is Thomas and Witts were signed followed by the day's only 47,Thomas 45). Says Witts: up for their three-cornered scheduled entertainment, 15 'We don't look like bright deal (book, film, television) minutes of table-tennis. After young 23-year-olds, nor do before they had researched or the dinner break at 6.30pm, we look too decrepit". They written one single word of they return to work until also work hard at getting their The wsn Street Crash. Such is around 9pm. "Sometimes subject's confidence by being the value of a hot track record we're dying to get back" says well prepared, using a tape- or, in Hollywood parlance, Witts who has, Thomas con-. recorder and checking back being "bankable". The terms fides, a "mania for work". on quotes afterwards. A tran- of the deal were generous by During the writing there is script with an important any standards. Between them little' social life for either; source may run to 150 anno- the writers split a 500,000 they take only urgent phone tated, indexed pages. dollar advance from Double- calls, most of which come Occasionally they. run into day, accepted an offer of from New York publishers, opposition which, apparently, world wide research assistance producers and their minions. dissolves eventually. 'We'1lget from their long term associ- "They all Want," says Thomas, the story", Thomas said earlier ates, Readers Digest. That aid "delivery like yesterday". this year about one such is worth roughly 300,000 Don't they ever take a difficulty in America. "We al- I dollars. They also share 5 per holiday? (In January they ways do." Having got 'it, they I cent of the film's gross. Fox/ both fly to New York for check it. Witts, a painstaking I NBC pay 100,000 dollars for work on the filmand television researcher, says: "We've never I the book for the television series.) Witts looks almost been faulted on any important series. And the authors still shocked. "Yes, but you never factual error". haven't collected any hard- need a break for long: There's As the visitor left, Witts back royalties on which they no need to sit in the sun for had got back on the floor to share 1.90 dollars a copy six months. Two days is a check the name of a shoe-shine (compared with 19 cents soft break." boy who used to clean the big back), let alone the soft back "I don't think we're work- bankers' shoes in WaU Street. rights and royalties. But to aholics", says Thomas un- He was mortified to discover earn that kind of money you certainly. that in the rough draft they have to be good, tough and Both writers are ex-report- had got it wrong. I punctual.e Selwyn Parker

he next decade will see companies have come up with T other motoring develop- various . petrol-saving devices, ments beside the micros fea- some of which also have a tured in out last issue. Manu- pollution-reducing effect. facturers are responding to (See Spitfire in Shopwindow) government, consumer and A lesser-known pollutant dealer pressures in several is the asbestos fibre used in ways. Some of these strate- brake linings which can be gies might even improve the hazardous to mechanics dur- automobile, making it less ing. servicing. Although a pollutant, more economical, machine now cleans the brake and more attractive. Magill's linings of asbestos dust, the George Campbell went to last Australian company Repco, month's Birmingham motor has produced an asbestos-free show to see how well the brake pad. manufacturers are planning A petrol-powered car will for the eighties. never be pollution-free, but a This is his report: battery-powered car is (though the construction and charging of the battery causes nthe last five years, the some pollution). There is, Ielectronics industry has therefore, a lot of interest in been able to offer cars a num- the development of high- ber of reliable components speed battery-powered cars such as diode rectifiers to be by agencies such as the used in alternators, power Chloride Technical Research transistors in voltage regula- Centre at Manchester which is tors, electronic ignition and working on a new sodium-sul- petrol injection systems, and phur battery. This light electronic circuits employed eliminated the speedometer frames, bumpers, hinges, gear- weight power source may in anti-skid braking systems. drive cable and replaced it box housings, chassis frames, overcome the problems with It's been a quiet revolution. with a magnetic pulse trans- etc. The weight savings are standard lead -acid batteries; Because of these advances, mitter which measures the substantial. The steel in a mainly, an inability to store cars are more efficient car's speed. The Saab's in- car's two-piece propellor enough energy. The sodium- machines but owners are strument panel also features shaft weighs 22 pounds com- sulphur version has the poten- not aware of the reasons. fibre optic illumination that pared with the carbon fibre's tial, according to tests, of The eighties will almost dims automatically as night nine pounds. In a heavy truck, storing five times as much. certainly witness an explosion approaches. the rear suspension leaf spring This would give the battery- in car-based electronics. Just around the corner is weighs 257 pounds compared powered car a much longer Citroen's Visa Special and a central "brain" which will with the carbon fibre's 48 running time between top-ups. Club models, for example, re- both control and diagnose, pounds. Cleaner diesel-engined cars place the distributor with a i.e. it will tell mechanics what Carbon fibre's major dis- (the sooty-looking exhaust solid-state electronic ignition is wrong with the car and also advantage is its much higher smoke is less pollutant than system - the first in mass- inform the driver of his tyre cost that steel, but large scale petrol emission) are increas- produced automobiles. pressures. production should remove ing their share of the world Inside the car we can ex- Reduced weight usually the price differences. market by about 10 per cent pect a proliferation of digital means a lower fuel consump- each year. But a major hurdle, display units which will in- tion. That's why the develop- as with petrol-powered cars, clude in their readout the dis- ment of carbon fibre replace-· is the low level of pollution tance travelled, amount of ments for expensive, heavy, o a certain extent, the permitted under new regula- fuel being used, average fuel rust-prone steel is of crucial Tlong-term future of the tions. The US Environment consumption, average speed importance to the industry. petrol-powered internal com- Protection Agency, for in- for the journey, and, of Developed by Britain's GKN bustion engine depends on stance, will require before course, the time of day. The group with Bristol Composite manufacturers' ability to 1981 a level of one gram NOx Chrysler Horizon SX Auto- Materials, this material (glass satisfy tough government anti- (nitrogen oxides) per mile. matic already has all this. and carbon fibre impregnated pollution regulations without However, if the agency's Renault's automatic gear- with resin) is supposed to be pricing the car beyond the warning that diesel emissions boxes work under the bene- stronger than steel, and it's consumer's pocket. Already may be cancer-causing is sub- volent guidance of a com- certainly lighter. Of course, it we have seen developments stantiated, that level may puter which constantly moni- can't rust. which include exhaust gas re- drop to an almost impossible tors a pre-set programme of Several areas of applica- circulation systems, modified 0.4 grams NOx per mile. working sequences and varies tion to cars and trucks have combustion chamber shapes In the meantime every them according to the current already been identified: sus- to reduce wastage, improved major manufacturer is work- speed and/or load. pension leaf springs, coil carburation, and electronic ing on diesel-engined alterna- Already the Saab 900 has springs, propellor shafts, seat ignition systems. Accessory tives, notably Fiat, Volvo, housands of people have died in the Iran and the torture of suspected politi- established itself. It sponsored 16 Tcourse of peaceful demonstrations cal dissidents was still common. poetry reading sessions for prominent in Iran during the last year, as one of However, the force of international dissident authors, including recent poli- the world's most brutal and corrupt re- pressure started to make itself felt with tical prisoners. The meetings drew huge gimes attempts desperately to hang on the Shah in the mid-seventies. Amnesty audiences, often up to 15,000 people. to power. The indications are, however, International, which had previously Tape recordings of the sessions in that Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi will focussed almost entirely on communist Tehran were distributed to universities be overthrown, in spite of a succession countries, began to turn its attentions to throughout the country. It was the of "concessions" to the protestors nations such as Iran, Chile, Indonesia poetry sessions that led to the begin- accompanied by the widespread mas- and Ireland. The International Com- nings of the revolution. But there were sacre of demonstrators and that Iran mission of Jurists took the regime to other factors in Iranian society which will be plunged into further upheaval task for "systematic use of torture". led to the explosion of popular outrage with critical consequences for Western The International League of Human against the Shah. capita lism. Rights, a UN-affiliated organisation, Ironically, it has been the oil boom called upon the Shah to "rectify the de- of the early seventies and the partial plorable human rights situation in Iran". he oil boom of the early seventies liberalisation of the repressive regime of But more significantly, there were fears Tresulted in huge increases in Iran- the Shah that has precipitated the re- in the Shah's entourage that the US ian GNP - 14.2 per cent in 1972/1973, volution in Iran. But the deeper causes might impose sanctions. 30.3 per cent in 1973/74 and 42 per of the revolt have included the brutal During his Presidential campaign, cent in. 1974/7 5, with per capita GNP nature of the regime, the unequal dis- Jimmy Carter singled out Iran as a rising from 450 dollars in 1971 to 1,344 tribution of the huge wealth generated country where human rights were ab- dollars in 1978. The boom has increased by oil and the recent social upheavals used, hinting that if elected he would the country's dependence on oil: from within Iranian society. cut off American aid and arms sales. representing 19.5 per cent of GNP in Since coming to power in a CIA in- In August 1977, the Shah dismissed 1972/73, oil rose to 49.7 per cent in spired coup in 1953, the Shah has in- his prime minister, Amir Abbas Hovey- 1977 /78. In 1977 it accounted for 77 stituted one of the cruellest regimes in dax, who had been conspicuously asso- per cent of all Governmene earnings and the world. As Martin Ennals of Amnesty ciated with the worst elements of the re- 87 per cent of foreign exchange earn- International stated, "the Shah of Iran pression. He appointed in his place the ings. This latter factor now has critical retains his benevolent image despite the former OPEC negotiator and oil min- significance for the survival of the re- highest rate of death penalties in the ster, Jamshid Amouzegar. So-me poli- gime, as explained below. world, no valid system of civilian courts tical prisoners were released, torture was But the resultant wealth has been un- and a history of torture which is beyond eased off and there was evidence of the evenly distributed. According to Robert belief". improvement of civil liberties. F. Looney in Economic Development oj Immediately after the 1953 coup, Co-inciding with these developments, Iran, the top 10 per cent of the popu- thousands of people were either execut- groups of writers, intellectuals and law- lation earns 40 per cent of the total ed or killed while being tortured. In yers wrote letters to the Shah and Prime . annual Income. This inequality is given 1957, SA V AI<, a secret police agency, Minister demanding a relaxation of cen- added edge by the ostentatious, lavish was set up with the assistance of the sorship, the revival of the Writers' Asso- life-style of the Shah and his family - CIA and the Israeli secret police. ciation, the removal of the ban on they shuttle between five palaces in SA V AK -has been the principle agent of opposition .political parties and changes Iran. repression' and torture sirice then. By in politicalproced ure. Much of the petro-dollar income has the middle of 1977, there were still Although it didn't receive official been allocated to a programme 0-[' in- more than 100,000 political prisoners in sanction, the Writers' Association re- dustrialisation which has exhausted the

urban labour supply and has driven up industrial wages. Another consequence of this industrialisation has been to attract labour from the agricultural sector, which has resulted in a drop in agricultural production, food shortages and huge increases in food prices. The rapid urbanisation has led to massive increases in house and rental prices. The Economist has estimated that rents in Teheran have quadrupled in five years and that a middle class family could be paying as much as half of its total income on housing. Some of the massive wealth coming from oil is being moved out of Iran by private individuals - one estimate puts' this at 15 per cent of all oil revenues,

ranian society has experienced con- Isiderable changes over the last few decades which have had a disruptive effect and have therefore contributed to the present crisis. The first of these changes has been. a massive shift of po pulation from rural to urban areas. Three decades ago only 21 per cent of the population was based in urban areas, now almost half the population is ur- banised. The urbanisation has paralleled a change in employment patterns. Three decades ago 75 per cent of the total workforce worked in agriculture, now only one third does. Although there has been signifi- cant hind reform, with the displace- ment of most of the large landowners, the reform only distributed land to about half of the 3.5 million families living in the Iranian countryside. The other half not only did not receive any land but lost their existing rights to partial access to land. Thus side' by side with the creation of a new rural proper- tied class came the creation of a new landless class with nothing to sell but their unskilled labour. Another displaced class has been the bazaar traders, which has been largely displaced by the rise of new and often foreign capitalist institutions. The bazaar owners have been one of the most potent elements in this current popular eruption and they have been active primarily because of their econo- mic dislocation. A small wage earning class has come into existence in the last two decades, numbering about 3 million. However, despite the numerical weight of this class, it is .not easily mobilised for poli- tical purposes, and it wasn't until the latter stages of the revolt that they be- came involved. Very few workers' are in anything like modern industrial plants. Oil, which in revenue terms forms the basis of the Iranian economy, employs only 40,000 workers (less than 0.5 per cent of the Mourning following Teheran's Black Friday. Features

total labour force). it has Iraq and more recently out- been estimated. that of these side Paris. He has consistently employed in manufacturing demanded the abdication of industry, 72 per cent were the Shah, the restoration of employed in units of less than democratic institutions and ten persons. of Islamic laws, the latter two Apart from the conditions objectives being somewhat in which most members of contradictory. the Iranian working class work, there are other factors which discourage political he recent violence in Iran militancy. The first of these is Tdates from November 15 the strong bargairiing power of last year. On the same day, which workers can wield in the Shah was being received conditions of labour shor- at the White House by Presi- tages. The second is the atten- dent Carter, who had greatly tion which the Iranian secret modified his civil rights stand police SA V AK had paid the since the campaign. industrial workers, infiltrating . Some 6000 people had factories, b lacklistingtrouble- assembled at Aryarnehr Uni- makers, using violence to versity Stadium in Teheran break strikes, etc. for a poetry reading by a for- mer political prisoner and a thf e Iranian re~o~u.ti~n de- leading dissident. After about . Ipended on the initiative of 4000 had entered the stad- the Iranian working class it ium, officials closed the gates would never have begun. The preventing another 2000 impetus for the revolt has from entering. Scuffles led to come from the landless rural II riots, and the police, swinging peasants, many of whom have batons, charged, injuring 30 drifted into the towns but ' people and arresting 50. have failed to join the elite of Those inside the stadium, the working class, the bazaar mostly students, refused to owners and of course the stu- leave until a list of demands dents and intellectuals, whose were met, including a i:::l. expectations have been 3 guarantee that further poetry aroused by the partial liberal- '" meetings would be allowed isation. on the Teheran university There is one other element campus, the release of the 50 in Iranian society which people arrested and a needs to be considered: the guarantee of safe passage on Islamic clergy, whose leader- leaving the stadium. ship of the uprising has ten- The students remained ded to confuse the nature of barricaded inside the stadium the revolt and the direction it for 22 hours and following is taking. the guarantee of safe passage The religious leaders have they began to file out. As assumed a central role in the they did so, they were attack- revolt largely because of the ed by police and many stu- absence of any alternative dents were seriously injured. leadership. The two decades The incidents led to a of severe repression. blotted series of protests and riots, out any political opposition centred primarily on Teheran to the Shah but the institu- university over the following tions of Islam remained intact weeks. Several of the leading and around these clustered dissident writers were singled the discontent and rebellion. out and beaten up by non- The mosques have remained uniformed people believed to legal and have been virtually be SA V AK agents. the only available mass meet- These initial demonstra- ing places. Furthermore, the tions were confined largely to close contact between the students and intellectuals, but religious leaders and the poor on January 9 of this year the has made them -natural most cohesive force in Iranian though inarticulate spokes- life, the muslim clergy, was' men for the oppressed. There involved in the protest move- have also been traditional ties I ment following riots in the between the religious hier- religious city of Qurn, the archy and the bazaar. centre of the Islamic religion The country's leading reli- in Iran. Protests there follow- gious leader Ayatollah Khorn- ed the publication. of an eyni, has been in exile since I Shah Reza Mohammed Pahlavi (top) and one of his most article in the semi-official 1963, first in neighbouring powerful opponents, religious leader Ayatollah Khomeyni. Teheran daily Ettala 'at,

A" 'RollA. nTT T T'"'-.T"'''T'''' 'T"IoT"""lT"lo 4 "'_ •••. ~:-..z;:-:dng Ayatullah Khomeini. A march fluences. But local anger was directed Teheran and other cities. Demonstra- :0 one of the mosques was intercepted primarily against the authorities - nearly tors, however, came onto the streets of b;- police who opened fired with half an hour elapsed before the first fire Teheran-In defiance of the order. The zaacaine guns and rifles. Government engine arrived and once they got there army opened fire on them and at -least sources stated that only six people were they discovered that none of the hyd- hundreds were massacred. The official killed but dissidents insisted that over rants were working. The days of mourn- death toll was 58 but by September 9, 100 were massacred. ing for the victims turned into days of 3897 death certificates had been issued To commemorate the fortieth day of further demonstrations against the by the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetary (the the killing of the Qum protestors (for- regime, and the demonstrations in largest in Teheran) for victims of gun- tieth day mourning is an Islamic tradi- Abadan spread to Tabriz, Qum and fire. Among the dead were about 400 tion), the religious leader Ayatullah other cities. women. Shooting continued for another Shariatmadari called for a day of It was clear by this time that the six days, although at a reduced scale. business shut down and "peaceful mass of the people were rising against On September 14, 80,000 people mourning". In response to this appeal, the Shah and in acknowledgement of took part in the march to the Behesht-e- protests took place on Febauary 18 in several large cities, including Tabriz, Isfahan, Shiraz and Ahwaz, the biggest of them being Tabriz , There, police confronted demonstra- tors and shot one youth at point blank range, The body of the slain youth was carried through the streets and huge demonstrations took place, with crowds chanting "death to the Shah". The crowds took over the city for 36 hours. Several buildings with economic and institutional connections with the regime were burnt and, significantly, the local army commander refused to move against the demonstrators. The Government rushed in paratroo- pers, who opened fire on the crowd from helicopters. Estimates of the num- ber killed were widely from 100 to 500 but the significance of the events in Tabriz was that now the mass of the people were mobilised against the regime. It was no longer a movement of students, intellectuals, and clergymen. Another forty days later, on March 30, the religious leaders again called for 11 'nation-wide general strike to comme- morate the Tabriz dead. Strikes closed down most universities and bazaars and there was rioting in 55 cities and towns. Again there were killings. And again on the fortieth day of these deaths, May 9, this, Jamshid Amouzegar resigned as Zahra cemetary in spite of the continu- there were further riots and demonstra- prime minister on August 27, to be ed imposition of marital law. tions, after which the religious leaders replaced by Jaafar Sharif-Emami, who Apart from the countrywide demon- decided not to call further fortieth formed what he described as a "govern- strations, another development was un- day mourning protests. Nevertheless, ment of national reconciliation". As a folding which could yet prove of even the demonstrations continued unabated. concession to the religious leaders the more profound significance. Strikes On June 8, 10,000 people in the "imperial calendar" was abolished and began to take place in August, initially Kurdish city of Majabad attended the the old Islamic calendar reinstated, the over industrial issues but later encom- funeral of a Kurdish nationalist who had token minister of women's affairs was passing political objectives as well. For spent 25 years in jail. They chanted abolished, and casinos were closed the first time the passive working class "Free Kurdistan" and carried pictures down. Sharif-Emami also announced has got involved in the struggle. of Mohammed Ghazi, the executed "free elections" in June 1979, "freedom In addition to this, press censor- leader of the 1946 autonomous of activity for legitimate political ship was easing and political parties Mahabad Republic. parties" and a government campaign declared themselves publicly - altogether, In the last weeks of July and again against corruption in the government 140fthem. on August 10, anti-government demon- bureaucracy. strations took place in at least 20 But the wave of national outrage cities. In the industrial city of Isfahan, was not going to be bought off by where the largest of these protests took gestures such as these. Demonstrations he Black Friday massacre of Sep- place, barricades were erected for the continued throughout the country with Ttember 8 in Teheran '(see photo- first time. The government put the city the largest ever taking place on Septem- graph on pages 40 and 41) has become a under marital law . ber 4 when 4 million people took to the turning point in the recent history of On August 19 a cinema was burnt streets in several cities. Iran, primarily because for the first time to the ground and 600 people inciner- On September 7, I million people in the year-long struggle the proletariat ated in what the Shah insisted was the marched through Teheran shouting has become involved fully in the rebel- action of fanatical Islamic followers pro- "death to the Shah" and on the follow- lion. Following that incident, strikes testing against Western modernising in- ing day martial law was declared in took place throughout the country, hit-

M' IJ.rir r T np{'PMRFR 1 q7R 4'i the prime ministership of the army chief of staff, General Gholam Beza Azhari, on November 6. This iniative followed the biggest demonstration to date in Teheran, protesting against the shooting of students at the university the prev- ious day. The installation of the military government was accompanied by the imposition of a dusk to dawn curfew, the banning of strikes and demonstra- tions, the closing of schools and uni- versities and the reimposition of cen- sorship. In addition, 2000 of the Shah's most prominent opponents were arres- ted and imprisoned. The Shah accompanied this further wave of repression \ by an abject tele- vision address in which he said the people's "revolutionary message has been heard . . . .I commit myself to make up for past mistakes, to fight corruption and injustice and to form a national government to carry out free elections" . As a follow-up to the promise to fight corruption, the military govern- ordered the arrest of some fifty top officials of the government and close associates of the Shah. Among those ting airline offices, schools, universities, the country. In one city, Amol, the arrested were a former prime minister government offices, factories, bazaars people even declared a democratic re- (1965-'77) and the Shah's closest and, most critically, the oil fields. For public. advisor for several years, Amir Abbas several weeks the lifeline of the eco- Piecemeal, the Shah was forced to re- Hoveyda, and the former head of nomy was closed off as oil production spond to the popular upsurge. Over SAVAK, Gen. Ne mathollah Nassiri. fell to almost zero. Oil workers and 1000 political prisoners were released The Shah also ordered the investiga- workers in other industries coupled poli- in October, censorship was further re- tion of the business dealings and the tical demands to their ind ustrial laxed but the demonstrations continued holdings of members of his own family. demands and, in all instances, called for relentlessly. As the US government im- While the appointment of the mili- the overthrow of the Shah. pressed on the Shah that his position tary government led to a pause in the was becoming untenable, he dismissed mass demonstrations, further strikes Meanwhile, demonstrations bigger the civilian government and installed in proliferated. Water and electricity were than ever before took place throughout its place a military ad ministration under cut off in Teheran, telephone services, air traffic and telecommunications were disrupted and one million civil servants refused to work. The oil workers struck again and the government appointed a military gover- nor in the Khuzestan province, the centre of oil production. While, at the time of writing, there has been a temporary lull to the demon- strations and strikes that have convulsed Iran over the last year, the portents re- main ominous for the Shah. The tradi- tional period of mourning, Muharram, in December is likely to spark off fur- ther countrywide protests, the oil work- ers, while back at the oil fields, have now been firmly established as part of the revolutionary upsurge. Meanwhile, some of the moderate bourgeois opposition leaders - primarily of the former National Front which was ousted in 1963 - have begun to intimate that a Spanish-type constitutional monarchy would be acceptable, even with the Shah remaining on as King. Some of the religious leaders have en- dorsed this strategy but the most power- ful Ayatollah Khorneyni still insists that the King of Kings must go .• he robbers' Santa Claus has been £700,000 higher than the total for last in 1976 (£150,000), the Newcastlewest Tbusy in Ireland these last few years. year. Thus by the end of 1978 the security van in 1978 (£500,000) and Last year he paid 817 visits, leaving Ire- armed robbery bonanza may be twice the Donegal security van in 1978 land's thriving thieves a bonanza of over that 0f last year, itself a record year. (£225,005») - were "political". But the £8 million in cash and property, and Gardai, lawyers and, politicians are vast .amount of burglaries and larcenies this year he promises to do even better. unanimous in blaming the phenomenal are in the non-political category. In For the Ali Babbas of Ireland are increase in the robbery rate on the 1977 just under £1 million was stolen in cleaning up with impunity as robbery is, escalation of the Northern troubles and the armed robberies, with £3 million in becoming the super-boom trade with a certainly there does seem to be a cor- larcenies (mainly cars) and £4 million sixteen fold increase in turnover in just relation: the largest increase in armed worth of property in burglaries and un- a decade. A modest slice of their loot and ordinary robberies occurred during armed robberies. would go a long way towards meeting the worst years of Northern violence, Statistical breakdowns of the amount the Garda pay demands but therein lies 1971 and 1972. But there is another of property and cash stolen each year a crux. For the boom time robbers rely possible factor. are crude - another symptom of the un- greatly on disaffection within the Garda sophisticated Garda response to the pro- force, as well as its archaic structures nthe decade from 1967 to 1977 dur- blem - thus it is difficult to estimate. and equipment - an efficient well paid Iing which the robbery rate increased While only one-eighth of the total Gardai might put the country's swinging 16 times, the unemployment rate robbery haul comes by way of armed stealers out of business. doubled. In 1967, there were just over rob bery , it remains the most lucrative But, as yet, they have nc need to 50,000 people out of work. nowadays source of enrichment. There are liter- panic. There are over 100,000. One Dublin ally thousands of people involved in There are indications however that criminal lawyer described the causes petty burglaries and, while the value of this year may see a drop in the total slightly differently: "the increasing the property stolen is considerable, the number of robberies. In a statement in opulence of society, wedded to the return to the burglar is slight because of the Dail on October 12 last, the Minister efficiency of the Provos, has shown that mark-down discounts in the stolen pro- for Justice, Gerry Collins, said there had armed robbery is like taking candy off a perty world. been only 430 robberies from the begin- baby". Estimates vary on the number of ning of the year until then. Thus even Another lawyer with experience with non-political armed robbers in the allowing for an anticipated surge of ac- professional robbers says, "the majority country, but Gardai and lawyers agree tivity in the pre-Christmas period, it of the non-political robbers here are that the figures lie between 50 and 100, seems likely that last year's record of merely jumped-up housebreakers, who with about 10 to 15 gangs operating in 817 robberies will not be attained. have been introduced to armed robber- the Dublin area, from where most of the But just as the Fianna Fail election ies by the example of the Northern non-political armed robberies emanate. promises on unemployment are open to para-militaries" . Our researches indicate that, con- different interpretations, so too are the . Most of those close to the tradev- trary to popular belief, nobody is robbery figures, for although there i.e. Gardai, lawyers and criminals them- making a huge fortune out of the seems to have been a drop in the num- selves - say that about 30 per cent of the racket, for even in boom time 1978 ber of robberies, the amount stolen in armed robberies are political, the rest only about £1Y2 million is likely to be armed robberies has reached an all time are entirely criminal. And while there is divided between the non-political pro- high. reason to believe this is so, it distorts fessionals, giving an average income of Collins also told the Dail that the the picture significantly. This is because about £6,600 per year - that is, allow- 1978 haul for armed robbery had come it seems that almost all of the major ing for a division of the loot. by 75 - a to an astonishing £1.6 million, almost robberies, such as the Kildare mail train comfortable but not extravagant in- Features

come from a hazardous and uncertain massage parlours, the protection spoofer, a conman, although they ack- profession. business and ownership of the odd nowledge he is sufficiently astute as to couple of flats thrown in. have pulled off a number of major jobs. he man regarded by police as one of The mention of his name brings al- By his own account he makes his Tthe country's major criminals looks most the flicker of a smile to one detec- monev bv gambling, he says he won considerably younger than his 40 odd tive's normally melancholy face. "He's £1,000 on the Ali-Spinks fight and he years, possibly becaue he dyes his hair pulled some of the best birds in town," has interests in the catering and decora- and spends, he says, up to six hours a the detective says wistfully. ting business. He claims continual police day in the local health club. He dresses On the other side of the coin he harrassment and that he and his family well but casually and according to a drinks in one of the roughest pubs in are under continual surveillance by senior police officer "could mix in any town; he drives a smart enough car but police. His brothers claim interests in type of society". In fact he mixed in the he says he doesn't have the £300 neces- several businesses. One admits to own- best political circles just a few years ago. sary to pay the insurance. ing a Jaguar but then says its a fairly old Rumours whirl around this man and. A short time ago he was due to pay model, worth about £600. his family. According to some of the a £100 fine for an assault charge and The man has come up the hard way, tales, he has a Swiss bank account, has was forced to spend the whole of the via an industrial school, via a spell in a money tucked away in other people's morning before chasing round Dublin coal pit in Britain, time on deep sea names in building societies, has a hand touching up his friends for money. trawlers, and a period in a Brighton in the drug business, runs some women Some criminals hold him in self-confessed boxing booth. in the discos, and has an interest in awe, while others regard him as a On the day of the Northern Ireland Features game he was standing with two friends the criminals and the police to be little on the comer outside a squat Victorian going on by the way of protection style pub in a working class section of rackets. Senior detectives refer to the Dublin. . odd bouncer on the door taking a rake In keeping with his reputation there off but they see nothing organised. were two carloads of plain clothes Only in the drug squad is there evi- detectives watching him, to the left a dence of any organisation but then red P & T style Renault van and to the senior detectives say that the problem is right a blue Escort. As he lacks the in- sufficiently small and they are more surance for his car, he decided it was concerned with the number of people safer to walk to his brother's house to drinking cheap wine and cider. watch the game. However, Inspector Mullins, head of While the three of them were strol- the Drug Squad, says that one group is ling slowly back, the red P & T style in charge of approximately 75 per cent van was drawing slowly up beside. of the drugs. They are dealing in what It looked right for a further police he calls synthetic opiates, either palfium .•.. check. The van drew alongside, the or diconal which they get from break- detective in the passenger side leaned ins at chemists shops. According to out of the window and, beckoning him police, any freelance people operating over, offered him a tip on a horse. "It's on a similar basis are expected to bring dead cert, it can't lose". A nod and a the goods to this major group. If they wink and the van drew on. don't they face physical assault. The man regarded as Dublin's lead- ing criminal then legged it round the nspector Jack Marriman of the Garda comer to the nearest bookies as quick as IRepresentative Association considers he could and put £20 on for a win. The That the Gardai showed that they were horse came in third. capable of getting on top of the pro- Heading back toward the house, he blem when at the end of 1977 detec- mumbled something about "getting the tives were assigned, as he put it, "to bastard back with a bum steer at the sit on the known robbers" and that as a dogs next week" and all through the consequence the number of armed rob- game he complains bitterly of the police beries declined dramatically. However,

harrassment he has to suffer. Such is the he says when the overtime bill came in enigma of the Dublin underworld. they had to be called off. Neither lawyers, police nor villains "We need more men, more technolo- see any mastermind or particular groups gical aids, we need to be able to feed all making more than the others, though the modus operandi of a crime into a there is one man, now serving a jail term computer," he says. who police do regard as being a touch He also adds that the Gardai are in ahead. A post office robber, he is need of a change in the evidence pro- thought by those in the criminal world cedures. He says that he considers the to have between £30,000 and £60,000 present systems under which the crimi- salted away in investments and jewellery. nal doesn't have to produce his alibi until the book of evidence is produced ut for the average armed robber prejudicial to the case. He says that in Bhis profession does not hold any England the later the alibi is produced great riches, and the majority of them the less credence is given to it in court, live the corporation flat life existence in where here he says it holds the same Dublin's poorer areas. Seventy five of all credence whenever given. armed robberies in 1975 were for under Inspector Marriman also has some £5,000, which was then likely to be di- tough words for the banks and the com- vided four or five ways. And even on a panies and the unions that oppose the £20,000 plus job, a man is doing well if payment of wages by cheque rather he comes out of it with £2,000 to than cash. He hits out at the banks for £3,000, one criminal says. . not installing photo surveillance systems Among the lawyers and the criminals and pay grids. there is an antagonism toward the popu- This growth in the armed robbery lar press for what they consider the sen- rate and the apparent inability of the sational handling of the rise in the rob- Gardai to counteract it would appear to bery rate. The evening papers are singled have forced the Gardai to take other out and the Independent is referred to action. Every criminal involved in rob- in the underworld as the Police Gazette. bing has his tale to tell of getting a beat- Those likely to know, consider pro- ing from the Gardai at one time or an- stitution largely to be freelance, though other. This has resulted in a ferocious one lawyer says that some of the groups enmity between the Gardai and the have it as a sideline. There is also said by underworld e He claims to have at least 20 armed brother who did a bit of shoplifting at this lot for the kiddie? robberies to his credit, including banks, one time. No, me father was never a "No, we never ended up in court on post offices, factories and shops. He is criminal, he was always a straight fella. the shop job, we just got a caution from tall, fair haired and in his late twenties "The first time I got caught we was the sergeant. But then we got caught on and lives in a corporation flat in North in a shop when the old bill came and we something or other and I ended up Dublin. He is married with one small had to leg it up and out over the roof. doing a month in St. Pats. That scared daughter. Though he finds it difficult to Me mate went through the skylight. He the hell out 0 f me. They took all me put a figure on what he earns in a year was a right mess. They had to cut out a clothes .off and made me wear this long he says that he probably has a turnover 100 stitches in him in the end. While he shirt that came down to me knees and of around £1 0,000 a year, but that he made me parade in front of all the probably spends more than that. He others on the block. They do it to says he has done about six armed jobs everybody. That was the longest month this year, the largest one netting himself of me ·life. I don't know why but I around £3,500. A number of indepen- couldn't eat the food, couldn't eat dent sources back up his claim to be nothing, the only conversation was what he says he is, a professional armed about crime. robber. This is his story: "Anyhow I waslucky enough when I was born in one of the worst slum got out I got the job back that I had Iareas in the city. There were eight of before on this delivery van. I was just us in the family plus me mother and me hanging round though. Maybe I'd go out old fella. I was the third eldest. I was with the other fellows and do a wages never interested in soccer or anything was lying there I was screaming for the snatch on a Wednesday, but then we'd like that though later on I did a bit of coppers. I don't know how old we were blow it all playing cards or something." boxing. It was funny even then I had at the time, around 12 or 13 or so I sup- While he is talking, kids are running some sort of complex about houses. I pose" . round the block. Everyone knows his never bothered with them much, always He pauses to go into the kitchen to occupation, but he says nobody ever thought they was too small to be worth make a cup of tea, serving it in cracked bothers him because his neighbours are bothering with. cups. "Looks good don't it, big time in similar occupations. "They respect "And then there was me old fella, if bank robber serving up tea in cracked you if you've got a few bob" he says he'd have caught me he'd have broken mugs." He has sent his wife out for the with a smile. me up. But even that didn't keep me evening and he is minding the baby "But the first time I realised that I away for long. When I did start it was. daughter. He points to the odd pieces of was going to have a go full time on on robbing cars. I'm the only one in the baby equipment, walker pram, etc. "If crime was when I got sacked from the family into crime though I did have a I didn't do what I do how could I afford delivery round. I turned 18 and if they'd kept me on they'd have had to look rather incongruous in the plainness e agrees to describe without names pay me a man's wages so they sacked of the corporation flat. By this time he Ha particular job but in the end he me. has finished with the baby and is play- never quite does. He appears to be put- "So it was then that more or less I ing with her as she wriggles around in ting together bits and pieces of different went into housebreaking. Having work- her walker. jobs, presumably, so that he can't be ed on the delivery round I knew all the "When we got off the ground again identified. houses in the area. we were doing banks, post offices, all "Well, a couple of weeks ago we de- "We'd meet in a pub every morning that sort of thing. On the post offices, cided we was getting a bit low so we de- and get through five flats in a day. We we'd creep into the postmaster's house cided we had to pull a stroke. We had a went on fine for a while until someone and get hold of the whole family and tie decent wage van set up but the security them up." arrangements for collection of the While he is talking there is a tap on money changed so we had to touch for the window and a little girl shouts in a jug (rob a bank). You only do a jug that she needs lOp. Reaching into his when you're low, they're the most dan- pocket, he goes over to the window gerous. and gives her the l Op and in return re- "So how do we prepare for the job? ceives a note saying that he has just Well the four of us go off in different been conned out of lOp and that he has directions and then come back and de- been elected president of the Dumb cide which jug looks the most likely. Fuckers Club of Dublin. He laughs and When you're picking out your jug throws the note away. you're looking for all sorts of things. "We'd do the post offices to get pos- You're looking at the counter to/ see if tal orders and insurance stamps. You get its low enough to scramble over, is there greased on us on a job when we touch- roughly half price for the insurance money on display, is it a small enough ed a couple of grands worth of stuff. stamps. After you've done a few post jug that you can get into the vault. "Me and me mate got taken down to offices, you've collected enough stamps You're watching for money being with- the police station and we got a bit of a to be able to cash the postal orders drawn and if it's near a factory for hiding from half a dozen of the detec- without arousing too much suspicion. tives, you know they booted us up the "I always had me gun when we went arse and hit us over the face with their out on the jobs and I had a few rounds motor cycle gloves. for it, but they got damp so I suppose at "Then they put the lights out and that stage it wasn't much use. Some- started to bang on the walls with chair times at the beginning we'd go in with a legs to scare us. That must have gone on toy gun. All this talk in the paper of for an hour or two. Me mate, well he brokers hiring out guns and equipment, broke, and told them everything and he it's a lot of bollocks. I can remember got nine months for it, but after a while one raid I was on when there was six of they just threw me out of the station. I us in an old Escort. You think I can didn't tell them nothing. I'd have just ring someone up and order a bloody broken every bone in his body if he'd Granada or something or a pistol or have told them I was in on it. No, he whatever? You must be bloody joking. workers in cashing their pay cheques. wouldn't have dared do that." "And all this talk of villians going "But your route (getaway) that's While he is talking he has put a cigar- round in fancy cars and all that. Well, the most important thing. You've got ette down in the ashtray and he now there are some who might have a Jag to do your route and go over it again lifts his baby daughter from her walker, or an Alfa Romeo, but what they never and again until you've got it right. starts to change her nappies. put in the papers is that the Mercedes "Now on the job I'm thinking of, we "After that scare, I got a permanent is probably a 1969 model worth a were originally going to use a car. That sort of a job, no I'm not telling you couple of hundred quid and the drivers would have been parked just down a where, and I was going straight. But the likely to get nicked for driving without side lane, a cui de sac just a couple of problem was that I couldn't keep up tax or insurance. minutes from the bank. Then we'd with me mates. Hanging round with have got up onto the roof of the car and these fellows, I was spending in two over onto the wall and down the other nights what I earned in a week. side where the bikes would have been "I was accepted by the robbers be- waiting. It's always important to have cause they knew I wasn't a grass and I that kind of block in your getaway was invited to go out on jobs, but I al- where a chasing car can't get any fur- ways declined. But then someone came ther. up with a stake that I'd always wanted "One of the times I've used me gun to do. I was asked in a pub if I'd do it, was when we were on top of a wall and so I said I would. I had a motorbike and a squad car was behind us and I let fire had a personal rod myself, a .38. I'd had into the radiator of the car to give the it for three years, well wrapped up in others a chance to get over the wall and Dinzo tape and hidden away. I did the then they covered me with pistols while job during me dinner hour from work. "And then there's this talk of or- I was getting over. We used to get out for dinner at 12.30 ganised crime, of the Godfathers, well "But what ever happens on a stroke, but I slipped out at 12.00 and was back I've never heard about it and I know you've got to stick to your route. That's so I had me alibi. So that was it really what's going on. There is one old fell a absolutely basic. You also want to be we were really going again." who might organise a particular job he looking for a flat or some kind of safe Looking round the corporation flat it might mention to someone about a house a good while before you do a job, is difficult to find any evidence of a life particular blag and then get guns from you can't stay hanging round in the of luxury. There is a fur coat draped someone else, a car from another place, streets. I've often rented a flat specially over a doorway, a stereo in one corner. you know. But his cut from that would for the job. and a colour TV in another but they only be around £500." "No, I wouldn't use a gun unless I had to because of the danger to citizen- car or something then I just go and buy tards that spends all day in bed. Once ry. What I do quite often is let off a it with cash. I've got about £5,000 you've been inside you've done enough shot into the ceiling just to get every- stashed away right now though. But it hanging round without doing it when one's heads down. soon goes. I'm a devil for the birds, me, you're outside too. He finds it difficult to give a figure and I love going down the country. And "So I'm on the go most of the time, on how much he earns, but eventually like I said the overheads on a job is very hustling round looking for a job. I says he thinks he turns over around high, you're always putting your money might be in a pub and start chatting up £10,000 a year. With that sort of back in. And then you might have to go a bloke who works in a bank and ask money, what is he still doing in a cor- bail for people." him innocent like, what's going on in portaion flat? He seems puzzled by the the area, get him talking. question. So what sort of life does a bank "Except when I'm down the country robber lead? Again he has to think for or doing something like that, in the "Well, why should I move? This is a moment. "Well it's pretty ordinary I evenings I'm generally down the pub me home here. Now I'm not a business- suppose. I get up fairly early in the having a few pints. Simple sort of life man. If I want a suite of furniture, or a morning. I'm not one of those idle bas- really .• t's a state convention of trade union- liberal, C;eorge Mct iovern , execrate the from today. 34 per cent favoured Iists in Massachusetts. The keynote hand-outs to corporations. the flight Carter. speaker is Senator Edward Kennedy. He from the spirit of the New Deal. Their Ke nnedy is the most popular poli- leaps to the rostrum and delivers a rous- voices are strong. but lonely. The New tician in the Derno crat ic Party, in per- ing populist oration, not at all in the Deal, or anything remotely resembling manent request for functions such as idiom of these conservative times. He it, is not in fashion this year. the one described above in Massa- concludes with an impassioned plea for They used to call the late Hubert chussetts. He criss-crosses the country in the cause he has made his own: national Humphrey "the soul of the Democratic support elf politicians, amassing political health insurance. Party". A journalist asked Teddy debts. forging new alliances. Journalists "They passed national health in- Kennedy the other day whether he felt well seaso ned in the sport once again surance in Canada. And do you know cla~lber into the press busses and send what happened? The doctors said they "Is Teddy Running?" articles hack to would go on strike. And do you know their editors. what happened? The doctors did go on The Kennedy magic that wor ks on strike. And do you know what happen- these journalists and those audiences is ed? The death rate went do wn !" There's nothing 'partk-ularly mysterious Writer, a great roar of laughter as America's do not search for adject ives wit II t hl' leading liberal tells the labour move- same care or confusion as they did with ment what it wants to hear, and all too his brother Bobby. Teddy is of course seldom hears from the man in the White ,inheritor of the family's tradition and House. that "the mantle" of Humphrey had rnyst iq ue , but he is also so met h ing very It's hours after the adjournment of now fallen on his shoudlers. The senator simple: an emphatic liberal in a party the 95th Congress, at the end of Octo- shrugged and then smiled. "So many led by a man who has just raised interest ber. In two days the elected represen- mantles," he finally replied. But he rates and in clined his knee before the tatives of the American people have knew just as well as the journalist that altar of the balanced budget It was passed more regressive legislation than the mantle in question - spokesman for in any session since the infamous the poor, the minorities, labour. the Eightieth Congress which beat down ghetto population of the big cities - has national health insurance and full surely been passed to him, at the ripe employment bills after the Second young age of 46, and that a very large World War. The tax bill is rigged to give number of Democrats would like to See most of the boodle to citizens earning him become President in 191\0. over 200,000 dollars a year. The bill deregulating the price of natural gas will most sharply penalise the poor. Senator after senator races to the right, here are statesmen in many politi- convinced by polling data just before T cal parties who may embody fine as- the November elections that such is his piratio ns and noble traditions, but who only chance of salvation at the polls. are, as they say, on the shelf and leaders When the carnage is over, Teddy lost forever. Teddy Kennedy is not in Kennedy uplifts his voice in denuncia- this position. Not less than 49 per cent tion of what he calls the worst situa- of Democratic voters in one recent poll tion "inmy sixteen years in the Senate". stated that they wished Kennedy would Both he and the other leading senate be at the head of the ticket two years George Meany, head of the AFL-eIO, Teddy and author of an excellent book Boston and he in Washington. Cynics who said the other day that Carter "is on Bobby, puts it: "He toys with run- quickly suggested that the interview laid the most conservative president in my ning against Carter to get leverage." He Iowa potential problem in 1980 by lifetime". Meany was born in the last adds, having recently spent a day with exposing it in 1978. This reasoning is a century, so he has plenty of compara- Kennedy, "He's looking relaxed and at little byzantine - but may end up being tive material. peace with himself. He's looking for- true anyway. Meany, a conservative labour leader, ward to being chairman of JUdiciary. With the fading, though possibly still would like to see Kennedy in the White Unless Carter collapsed I don't think worrysorne matters of Chappaquiddick House. John Conyers, a radical black he would run. If he never became presi- and his marriage presently not afflicting Congressman from Detroit, would like dent, but succeeded with anti-trust laws, the minds of voters, what are Kennedy's to see Kennedy in the White House. national health and gun control he most convincing assets? Over the years And when the recession in the economy could feel he had accomplished his in the Senate, which he entered at the sets in next year - as it surely will after mission. " age of 30, Kennedy has steadily gained Carter's Republican-style economic pro- Just after asking whether he is run- the reputation (not always held by gram of early November - there will be ning or not, journalists ask - though in liberals in that body) of being an effec- millions more with the same emotion. decreasing numbers - about the Chappa- tive legislator. He successfully argued So just how likely is it? quiddick factor. Just how haunting is before the Supreme Court against the the shade of Mary Jo Kopechne? A poll presidential use of the pocket veto - s a simple point of information, we this year in Time magazine proclaimed Nixon's tactic for knocking down dis- should note that Kennedy has never A that over 70 per cent of Democratic tasteful bills. He was instrumental in declared that he seeks the nomination eliminating the poll tax and in inaugu- of his party in 1980. Sure enough, he voters said that Chappaq uidd ick wo uld rating the 18-year old vote. He does his teases audiences with the idea. "I ex- not influence their decision in voting for homework and has always assembled an pect you're wondering why I'm here," Kennedy. Now if Kennedy were actual- efficient staff. he grinned at a state Democratic con- ly to run, the articles and investigations Most of all, of course, he has fought vention in New Hampshire (venue of the would start again, just as they did in over the years for national health in- first primary in any presidential cam- 1976. And as in 1976 there would be surance, probably the single issue with paign) the a ther day. The crowd laugh- ed, but they were also wondering. He flirts with the notion and skirts commitment. It's something as simple as keeping one's options open and of course keeping oneself in the public eye. It's a flirtation with imponderables, too. If Carter's popularity wanes ... or if it soars ... then Kennedy will accelerate or decelerate his activity as leader of the loyal Democratic opposition. There are some very concrete reasons right now why Teddy Kennedy i's cer-

tainly not offended at the thought that many wish him to be the candidate. When the Congress reconvenes after the New Year he will be the new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a post of great power and one until now inhabited by conservative southerner some ongoing contradictions and dubie- which he is most identified in the minds James Eastland, who has retired. ties in his recollection of what happened of the voters. His most open disagree- Kennedy will be one of the most power- in 1969. There always will be. ment with President Carter came this ful men on Capitol Hill. His committee Earlier this year, in an interview in year over health insurance and Carter's confirms federal judges, considers anti- McCalls magazine, his wife Joan recoun- sabotage of it as "inflationary." As a trust legislation, could hold hearings on ted her successful fight against alcohol- matter of fact, Kennedy has made his gun control - to name three specific and ism, her occasional loneliness and her own compromises here, to a level where important areas. sense of hurt when she read stories of he has been charged by some critics The more potent his reputation as a her husband's adventures, imagined or from the left as having sold the bill out national figure, the more effective his otherwise, with other women. The story to the private insurance industry. But sway in the Senate and his purchase on provoked the general conclusion that such details do not affect the reputation the executive branch and the President the Senator and his wife are leading he has won as the politician most con- himself. As Jack Newfield, a friend of more or less separate lives - she in cerned with the health of the poor and the old. take. It would be a high risk and dan- was shattered by Oswald before the "Sure he could have it," a friend said gerous operation. He can win important reckoning of his administration could to me apropos Kennedy's possible can- victories now, or at least help them properly be made. Bobby died on the didacy. "But what would he do with occur. Against the trend in the mid-term edge of possible achievements which it?" The point here is that Kennedy is a elections at the start of November, a will never be known. Teddy has grown prominent liberal in a time when the young liberal called Paul Tsongas beat steadily from the student who cheated country has moved to the right, or at Edward Brooke in a Senate race in in his exams, to the senator who stutter- least (if you dislike ascription of such ed out the miserable excuses for general motions to "a country") when Chappaq uiddick to a major politician politicians elected to the senate are who represents the better instincts of more right-wing and when programs of his party: better, but presently un- social spending and so forth are under popular and indeed almost abandoned. serious fire. The scenarios can always be drawn: The dream is of course that Kennedy J erry Brown as the front-runner in would single-handedly reverse this tide. 1980, with Kennedy coming in at The actuality is that Kennedy would Convention time to unite the party, and either bend before the forces that have restore these better instincts and its made Carter into a Republican president soul. History will probably not be so or be forced to forge an alliance of Massachussetts, Brooke was the only accommodating. Absent a war or a left-liberals-Iabour-b lacks. The construc- black in the Senate and Kennedy had major slump, Carter can outman oeuvre tion of such an alliance would be often tacitly supported him in the past. the liberal opposition and prevail. The a tumultous and almost impossible task This time, amid personal scandals continuity of Teddy's career - and he is - and one which Kennedy, beyond surrounding Brooke, Kennedy campaig- a smart politician - would seem to point present invocations of the putative ned for Tsongas. towards long-term survival in the alliance, might be unwilling to under- Jack Kennedy's presidential career Senate .• ction to protect the public against In cigarette tobacco, concentrations of A the damage done to so many of 9,000 per billion are not unusual. them by cigarette smoking would have The publication of the first Royal more effect upon public health than College report on smoking and health in anything else that could now be done in 1962 initiated the most remarkable de- the whole field of preventive medicine." crease in the use of tobacco in the Bri- So begins the latest report on smoking tish Isles since the end of the Second from the Royal College of Physicians, a World War. According to the latest re- report which contains nothing to brigh- port, the downward trend continued ten the rapidly shortening lives of the until 1965. Since then there has been a world's smokers. steady upward movement. However, According to the RCP, "cigarette this overall increase in the consumption smoking is now as important a cause of of cigarettes disguises a number of im- death as were the great epidemic dis- portant tendencies. eases of the past". In fact, in the words While men are now smoking less, of Muiris X. FitzGerald, newly appoin- women have more than doubled their ted Professor of Medicine at UCD, "so consumption. Among unskilled wor- great has been the impact of the srnok- kers, men smoke as much as they ever ing-related diseases on mortality rates, did and women are smoking more. that adult life expectancy has not im- Among professionals, there has been a proved in the Developed World since the 20 per cent decrease in the number start of this century. Virtually all the smoking cigarettes, and among doctors advances of modern medical science the decrease has been slightly more than have been effectively negatived by the 35 per cent. The net result of all these counter-efforts of the tobacco in- are estimated to be between five and IS tendencies has been a mere 3 per cent d ustry." times more likely to suffer' from a fatal decrease in the smoking population of The major smoking-related illnesses attack than non-smokers. the British Isles since 1962. are lung cancer, bronchitis, and coro- Of the hundreds of known consti- nary heart disease. Between them, these tuents of cigarette smoke, the most im- three ailments currently account for portant from a medical point of view nearly 35 per cent of all deaths in the are nicotine, tar, and three different kinds of cancer-prod ucing substances. The amount of nicotine from one small cigar injected. intravenously would be enough to kill anybody. Inhaled in tobacco smoke, this potent drug causes hardening and narrowing of the arteries of the heart, and it also increases the tendency of the blood to clot. The' com- bination of these two effects greatly in- Several estimates have been made of creases the risk of thrombosis, which is the costs of cigarette smoking to the the blockage of an artery by a blood Health Services. In 1971, the Brit ish clot. Department of Health considered the Republic of Ireland. Smoking is not the Tar and the irritants it contains are figure of £ I 12 million per year to be only cause of these illnesses, but the known to produce serious alterations in conservative. By 1975, the estimate facts pointing to the strength of the the lungs of heavy smokers, Breath- from the same source was more than relationship are frighteningly conclu- lessness, smoker's cough, and chronic £250 million per year. Estimates for the sive: bronchitis are among the results. Republic of Ireland suggest that the care • Lung cancer is now the only form Emphysema, the structural deteriora- and treatment of sufferers from smok- of cancer claiming an increasing number tion of the lungs, is now virtually un- ing illnesses annually costs between £20 of lives and is 20 times more common known among non-smokers, but remains million and £30 million. among heavy smokers (25 cigarettes or a major cause of disability and death As Dr. Keith Ball commented wryly more daily) than among non-smokers. among the smoking population. at the Irish Heart Foundation's Sum- .Susceptibility to bronchitis, which Of the cancer-prod ucing constituents posium on Preventative Cardiology, the causes more medical absenteeism than of cigarette smoke, the most important only way to make economic sense of any other ailment in Western Europe, is are known as the N-nitroso compounds. such costs is to set against them the five times greater among smokers than In food and drink, these compounds are money saved through not having to pay among non-smokers. regarded as a potential health hazard at pensions to smokers who die before .Depending on age, heavy smokers concentrations of one part per billion. retirement.. Michael Fitzpatrick he Irish Central Bank is Trading came up with the Tin an invidious position startling results that 874 of as its power to act is severely the 1,614 cars checked had circumscribed by the punt's had their milo metres wound link with sterling. Thus in- back. As almost one-third of terest rates and, to a lesser private cars are now leased to extent, the money supply, is very high mileage drivers like dictated by London. salesmen, the chances of The Centra! Bank has, coming across one of these however, invented a few cars increases every day. It is methods of its own, one of not at all unusual for these which is art arrangement cars to do 30,000 miles a year whereby money brought into but you will not find many the country by banks in Ire- with this on the clock. The land is controlled by deman- new Bill will not change this ding that half of it be frozen situation but it could easily in the Central Bank. This, have included a high statu- however, is largely acting the tory fine on anyone caught mad hatter. Success in restric- tampering with a milometre, ting capital inflows will do and perhaps bar those guilty nothing more than force the from trading as motor dealers. Irish Government to find the Indo had, for example, an old expensive move costing £1.5 £200 million which the Cen- store down in Upper Liffey million, paid mostly in cash. lthough the Dublin Cor- tral Bank itself forecast will St. which it recently put on The company now being Aporation does not seem be lost on the Balance of Pay- the market. taken over is called John to have made any effort to ments this year by borrowing This store has 7,500 sq. ft. Barrie. It controls 30 shops in find an alternate site to Wood abroad unless external reser- with a 40 ft. frontage facing the Midlands and North West Quay for its new civic offices, ves are run down. right on to the site where of England and is budgeting there are now two other lots It does seem a bit peculiar, Marks & Spencers is currently for sales this year of £5 mil- on the market downtown. too that the Central Bank building. The selling agent lion and a net profit margin One of these sites is in should have allowed credit rip was naturally Hugh Hamilton, of 5\12 per cent in order to Amiens St. It is just up the this year and then express an Indo director, and he did give profits of £275,000. The street from the new Irish Life surprise at the size of the well to get £263,000, an ex- most extraordinary thing centre and right next door to growth in consumer demand. tremely good price and one about this deal however is CIE's Connolly's Railway Imposing a severe credit that must well make him that our semi-State bank, The Station with road access to squeeze on personal lending wonder just how much he Industrial Credit Co., is giving the southside facilitated by last month, the Bank stopped could now get for Indepen- Doreen £1 million cash to the new Liffey Bridge. in to slow down the 40 per dent House. buy this UK store chain, The site covers 76,000 sq. cent rate at which this lend- hardly what you would call in ft. and already has planning ing had been growing. It is ne of the most success- the cause of job creation in permission for four separate hoped that the Central Bank Oful quoted companies in Ireland. office blocks, which in total has got its Balance of Pay- Ireland today is Doreen Hol- would give 108,000 sq. ft. of ments forecast right but with dings, the company headed pdating the 1893 Sale of office space. The tender date the trade deficit £150 million up by that car buff, Cecil UGoods Act with the Sale for the site closes on Decem- up in the first ten months and Vard, who has stuck loyally of Goods And Supply of Ser- ber 14. getting worse, it is likely that to his now 21-year old Vaux- vices Bill currently going Not far away, Williams & the year's figure will be £300 hall although he does. have a through the vail will im- Woods has for a long time million, after last year's £120 little Porche as a second prove consumer protection been trying to sell its disused million deficit. string stand in. but will not fill all the gaps. space up in Parnell St. facing Doreen Holdings was set Buyers of goods on HP, who Irish Life's new Moore St. de- hen Torty O'Reilly up 32 years ago and named up to now have had no pro- velopment. This covers a far Wbought control of the after one of the family. It tection because they did not bigger area, so if the Corpora- Independent newspapers five grew slowly during the 50s have legal ownership, will tion thought the very access- and a half years ago, one of and 60s making ladies outer- now be covered. The public ible Amiens St. site was too the rumours at the time was wear clothes. It was really will also get some extra pro- small then it could build that he would sell the very only in the early seventies tection against crooked there. valuable site in Middle Abbey when Doreen took over Jack second hand car dealers. The developer, Hardwicks St. and move out to a new Toohey, an exporter of ladies In future, all motor dealers, Ltd., run by the late Mon- location in the suburbs or raincoats, a company larger when selling a second hand tague Kavanagh, bought the perhaps do li deal with Smur- than Doreen itself, that things car, will have to give the Willwood site four months fit on a new automated prin- really started to happen. buyer a "certificate of road ago for £750,000. It is.pre- ting operation. Since then, profits have worthiness". This, however, pared to sell to the Corpo but Nothing ever came of this more than quadrupled to over only states that the vehicle is no doubt will be looking for and the Indo is still using the £1 million and now the group fit for road use, hardly com- around £1 million. Both these old letterpress printing sys- is moving again on a big scale prehensive protection for in- sites are already cleared, so tem. However with the cur- to expand its Irish retail divi- nocent buyers. the argument that moving rent boom in property values, sion, . the ten-store Macey's On a recent sample survey, from Wood Quay would things could be changing. The chain, into the UK. This is an the British Office of Fair cause delay, is nonsense .• or just over 150 yeats now, Ireland's allow Ireland to export agricultural devilled by the plummeting value of Fmonetary system has been totally goods to the UK at prices which kept sterling that the opportunity to join the integrated with Britain's. This con- the Irish farmers on their knees. EMS offers us a chance to untie our- sequence of the 1807 Act of Union was Now we are in the EEC and receive selves from Britain's apron strings. not undone by independence. aid from the Community worth £400 Ireland's monetary union with million annually. Under the proposed Britain has been lopsided with the bur- European Monetary System, the EEC nthe era after World War II there den of maintaining it fully on Irish will make £ 17 billion available in order Iwere twenty years of fairly stable in- shoulders. Our Central Bank has to to support member currencies in tem- ternational currencies. The arrangement maintain sufficient funds in London to porary difficulties, and thereby ensure reached after the war, the Bretton ensure the parity Iink. This meant that currency stability. Any further grants or Woods Agreement, which set up the all our external reserves were held in loans are a bonus. International Monetary Fund (IMF), sterling. This cost us dearly as the value The principle objective of the EMS is worked well between the more indus- of the pound plummeted during and to create currency stability. This basical- trialised countries but hinged entirely after the Second World War and more ly means that the international value of on. the American dollar, which in turn recently in the late sixties and early anyone country's currency should be was linked to gold at a fixed price of 35 seventies. reasonably certain and if it does vary it dollars an ounce. Britain never used its reserves to sup- should do so in a predictable way within By being linked to the dollar, all port the Irish Punt and regarded mone- reasonably narrow limits. Ireland's other currencies were thus indirectly tary union as a grat;uitous concession to recent economic history has been so be- linked to gold. In effect, Bretton Woods set up a quasi-gold standard system not Government. These values are totally dissimilar to the pure gold standard in out of line with reality, but the Govern- which Churchill had so much faith in ment can sustain the fictions simply by the twenties. The big innovation was the refusing to allow their currency to be creation of the IMF, which supervised dealt in freely. Thus, in Moscow, for the system, and in times of temporary example, if you sell dollars or marks crisis, like a run on a currency, used its on the black market you can get four or reserves to support it. five times the official currency exchange The first real chink in this system rate. Nobody is seriously suggesting we came in the late sixties when the world resort to this expedient. was awash with American dollars. To Given these circumstances, it is clear- prevent Central Banks cashing in dollars ly advantageous for Ireland to be a mem- for gold, the US raised the gold price to ber of the EMS. The direct benefit is that if there is a run on the punt membership in the EMS would ensure that EMS funds are used to support it The British never used their re- within its agreed value band. But if serves to support the Irish pound there was excessive inflation in the and regarded the monetary union economy; .the Government would have as a gratuity on their part, even no choice but to devalue the punt in phased steps in agreement with the though its effect was to keep Irish EMF. The EMF would thus act almost farmers on their knees. exactly on the same lines as the Inter- national Monetary Fund (IMF).

42 dollars an ounce. This did not work, reland would really benefit if so the US then put artificial restrictions IEurope's economies were to be on dollar encashments. The dollar was totally integrated. Leaving out the ques- eventually forced off the gold exchange tion as to whether this would be pos- standard and left to float. The final sible without parallel political integra- push..was given to the whole system by tion, the benefits to poorer countries the'oil crisis in October '73. Ever since like Ireland would be phenomenal, as then, international currencies have be- spelled out in the McFadden Report. come increasingly unstable, and the Each country in this system would then recent collapse of the dollar has brought become almost like a state in the USA. the system's problems to a head. This would, of course, take control of The fact that the proposed European the Irish economy out of the Govern- Monetary System is only a monetary ment's hands, leaving it to act more like union and not a full economic integra- a local authority, dealing only with the tion has significant implications. In a smaller aspects of the economy. monetary union, all that happens is that Compensation for this reduction in countries agree to co-operate to ensure a national autonomy would be massive in- reasonably stable relationship between ter-regional transfers through social their currencies. Each country must still welfare payments with, for example, un- look after its own internal economy and employment and pension benefits deter- be responsible for ensuring a reasonable mined by the cost of living in the richer level of, for example, balance of pay- areas. As the bulk of public revenue ments and internal inflation. In turn, raised through taxes would be raised in the Europeam Monetary Fund (EMF) the richer areas, the flow would mainly would be prepared to support a member be that of tax revenue raised in the country's curren cy, if it ever came richer parts going to welfare benefits to under pressure, to ensure that it stayed the poorer parts. within the agreed 2'12 per cent band of Northern Ireland is an example of fluctuations. how a poorer region in a larger single economic area, namely the United King- small country like Ireland with an dom, benefits. The net effect of Ulster's A independent currency could very integration with the UK is the transfer easily be swamped by the massive funds of £600 million a year representing flowing around in the international almost one quarter of Northern Ireland's money market. It would be very easy gross national product. for a slight run on the Irish pound to Not withstanding all this, Ireland has turn into a stampede. Ireland would not to face up to realities. At the moment have the reserves to cope with such a Garret FitzGerald is arguing that for the situation and its only way out would be foreseeable future Ireland needs an ~ to allow the punt to be devalued signi- annual subsidy of up to £600 million£ ficantly. Or, and this is probably an from the EEC to allow our participation .e even Worse alternative, the Government in the EMS. For the Oovernment.j' could intervene directly in the market George Colley is arguing that what we 1! through exchange control mechanisms. need is £650 million to cover us for ther- This is the sort of system there is in next five years while the country adjusts European countries, where the inter- to the discipline imposed as a result of national value of these countries' cur- Jack Lynch to take the final leap into rencies is determined arbitrarily by the Europe? membership in the EMS supersnake. tute a resource transfer. This is some- ship of the EEC has created anything Colley's figure would be the equivalent what unreal and the Government impli- other than massive gains is totally dis- of 1Yz per cent of our GNP over the citly recognised this when it goes on to ingenuous even if all of these and more next five years, whereas Garret Fitz- argue that although Ireland may benefit have gone to the farmers as a result of Gerald is working on the basis of a con- under the agricultural policy it has Irish consumers having to pay more for tinuing annual subsidy in the order of suffered very heavily in industry. their food. Urban dwellers can rightly 5 per cent. But even this latter argument is complain about this but they should rather facetious for since the first pro- direct their ire not against the EEC, but embership of the EMS, however, gramme for Economic Development rather against our own Government for Mhas to be seen in the context of an back in 1959 Ireland has accepted a's it is up to the latter to determine how existing membership in the EEC. This part of its industrial policy, that indus- national income should be distributed. means that any resource transfer Ireland trial expansion must be associated with At current prices, Ireland's farmers are now applies for is over and above the free trade on the basis that it is only better off by over £800 million whereas existing benefits Ireland gets from EEC the country has only gained around membership. In a recent paper prepared £400 million a year as a member of the as part of our EMS application, the EEC. As farmers have gained more than Government estimates that the existing twice the country's total gains, member- resource transfers to Ireland worked out ship of the EEC has involved an internal at the phenomenally low figure of 0.3 resource transfer from the town to the per cent of gross domestic product. farmers of a massive £400 million a year These figures are a bit dated as they are on top of the EEC's £400 million con- worked on 1976 statistics, but neverthe- tribution. It is disgraceful that the through free trade that exporting indus- less do give an indication of where Ire- Government did not spread out these tries can flourish. It is clear that the vast land presently stands. Even if the figures gains more fairly. The very least it could bulk of foreign industrialists who have were updated to the likely 1978income, have done was immediately make all set up in Ireland have only done so on the calculation would not likely be that farmers subject to tax, as well as pos- much higher. the basis of Ireland's continuing mem- sibly imposing a land tax. This latter bership of the EEC, with the free access This figure is so low as to question is something that Seamus Sheehy sug- to these markets that this give them. its validity. The method used by the gests is something that should be done But it is under the Common Agri- Government to reach it was a rather anway simply to ensure the maximum cultural Policy where all of Ireland's simple one. All it did was add up the utilisation of land resources. major gains have come as a member of the EEC. In a recent paper read to the Dublin Economics Workshop down in tseems senseless to argue against the Renvyle House in Connemara, the IEuropean Monetary System and the Trinity economist, Alan Matthews, pre- currency stability it aims at. This does sented a paper on the "Income Transfer not mean that there are no disadvan- Effect of the Common Agricultural tages, but basically all these are short Policy for Ireland". The basis from term and arise almost exclusively be- which he worked was the differential cause of Ireland's existing monetary income effect between the value of all union with sterling. These disadvantages agricultural commodities traded exter- are all of a short term nature and arise payments to Ireland under the EEC's nally by Ireland based on the prices because of the existing trends in the social and regional funds and substract received under CAP and those that Irish economy like leapfrogging in- from this Ireland's annual contribution would have been received if Ireland had creases, and existing inflation. Neither to the Community. The common agri- to depend on world agricultural prices. of these will be possible in the EMS for cultural policy was excluded from the From his calculations he worked out it follows from currency stability that calculation on the basis that money that Ireland's farmers are better off to internal price rises and wage increases, flows to Ireland through the Market the tune of £718 million. The bulk of the things that determine the external mechanism of the CAP do not consti- this, however, is paid for by domestic value of the punt, are moderate and Irish consumers through higher internal basically only reflect real increases in prices for food goods and by higher output with only 2 per cent or 3 per prices on agricultural imports like wheat cent changes to cover internal irregula- and soya beans. Accounting for this, rities. Matthews calculated that Ireland was Courage will be needed to break the better off to the tune of £275 million as inflation psychosis forced on Ireland a member of the EEC. through the sterling link. The Irish trade Updated to the current year, Ireland unions however have inflation so in- is presently a net beneficiary under the grained into their bargaining system that Common Agricultural Policy of almost George Colley and Martin O'Donoghue £350 million. Adding on the benefits will have some task to convince them of received under the EEC's Social and the wrongness of their ways with Ire- Regional Funds, Ireland has gained a land in the EMS. It may need a wage further £50 million. Assuming that the and price freeze to bring this home and damage done to domestic industries is this would be worth it for inflation does more than offset by the industrial no one. any good. Without it there are growth that has occurred simply be- very tangible advantages like low in- cause Ireland has access to the EEC terest rates, which would mean, for markets, Ireland can thus seem to be a example, that the repayments on a net beneficiary of around £400 million £20,000 house mortgage would sink a year as a result of being a member of from the current level of £250 a month the EEC. to a German typerno nthly rate of £120 To suggest that Ireland's member- a month .• II I I'

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'I'i I' I;: i, I: I,I !~w did Munster beat the All Blacks? What about the All Blacks? Were you side of 1973(74. I;; I suppose it was inevitable that Mun- particularly worried before the game? The line-outs were a problem for Mun- ~erwould beat a touring side sooner or The most impressive feature of the ster and Ireland against the All Blacks . •Iter as it had come so close to doing so All Blacks play is the powerful con- Indeed there has been a major defici- la so many occasions. It was also prob- tinuity of their play. The sheer relent- ency in Irish teams for several seasons. :~ly inevitable that the All Blacks lessness of their forward play is almost This has been a problem in Irish :ould be beaten at least once on tour. intimidating, especially the manner in rugby for as long as I can remember. Bill :,0 matter how proficient a touring side which they drive into rucks, over- Mulcahy was a great second row for- .•~ it is extremely difficult to win every whelming all in front of them. We knew ward and probably his greatest quality !:iatch, especially as the provincial sides we would have to counter this and also was his ability to dispossess opponents :ley meet in mid-week regard the en- do something about their ability to once they got the ball, rather than [mnter almost as a do-or-die occasion. command possession, especially from catching it cleanly himself, at least at Il,re combination of these two inevita- the line-outs. international level. Willie John McBride !~itieS had a lot to do with the Munster We planned on the use of two man was a great line-out jumper in the early ;m. line-outs, using Donal Spring and Moss stages of his career but for the latter 1lhe victory must have had at least Keane, but in the event we weren't part he was in the Mulcahy mould - a Iilmething to do with your preparations. given much opportunity to use this tac- ro bber of opposition ball. i:; Of course this is true and in particu- tic because they had the vast majority Our present three line-out jumpers In- the level of fitness the team achieved of throw-ins from touch and anyway we for Ireland, Donal Spring, Moss Keane ,;)r the match. We went on a trip to were in our own half of the field for and Willie Duggan are the best as a '~ondon at the beginning of the season, most of the match and one doesn't risk group that we have had for a long time, jhere we played Middlesex and an Irish short line-outs in these circumstances. certainly since the time of McBride, and ~iles side. During the two days be- I didn't expect the All Blacks to get Goodall. Spring I think has great poten- veen these matches we trained at St. as much possession as they did, but the tial and he will become a great line-out ~aul's School, Hammersmith, and there possession they got was for the most expert with experience. But the signifi- .:e set a standard of fitness for the team part untidy, primarily because Hayden cant factor now is that we have three is a whole and special targets for the was pressurised against Munster. This relatively good line-out jumpers and as a acks and forwards - the backs concen- was in contrast to his performance group they are the best we have had in a '~ating on sharpness and sprinting, the against Ireland. long time. orwards on endurance. After that we It should also be acknowledged that Getting back to the Munster/All Blacks !Jet on three Wednesdays in Fermoy Munster had its share of luck. Had the match. What pleased you most about it nd on the Sunday and Monday prior to All Blacks scored first, in the absence of apart from the fact of winning? i~e match at St. Munchin's College in possession, it would have; been very dif- I was particularly pleased with the ~imerick. . " ficult for Munster to come; back at them. way Munster took their chances which ~ As this latter session it was obvious The fact that Munster scored first meant was an affirmation of the sharpness the ',J most onlookers that the Munster that the All Blacks had to come at us. team had attained in its pre-match train- hm was sharper and fitter than was the We were able to contain them alright, ing. The try came from a great piece of lase in many years and that we would but it would have been very difficult to anticipation by Bowen, who in the first he the All Blacks a tough game. I was come from behind at them. place had to run around his man to get 11ways of the belief that the players had What were the weaknesses of the All to Ward's kick ahead. He then beat two he skills to challenge the All Blacks. It Blacks side? men and when finally tackled, managed ~as merely a question of ensuring fit- Primarily the relatively poor standard to keep his balance, keep the ball free ';ess and a sharpness, and I think we of their back play. In this respect this and deliver it to Cantillon who went on chieved this. current side doesn't compare with the to score. All this was evidence of sharp- ness on Bohen's part. injury was only slight, he repeated the two seasons, players like McBride, I Then there was Ward's second drop tackle some minutes later and played Mcl.oughlin, Kennedy, Miller etc.' goal. A serum had been spoiled and the well for the rest of the game. These are not easily replaced. ball came back on the Munster side Munster's victory over the All Blacks Coming on to your own playing career, under some pressure. In that semi-crisis has been one of the few accomplish- when did you first play for Ireland? situation, Tucker got a fine pass out to ments of Irish rugby over the last seve- I first played, for Ireland against Eng- Ward who dropped a great goal in the ral seasons. What do you think is wrong land at Twickenham in 1960 and played circumstances. Again a manifestation of with Irish rugby at an international my last game against Scotland in Edin- sharpness. level? burgh in 1973. I was dropped twice dur- Another pleasing aspect to the per- I think that we are inclined to ex- ing this period and missed five games formance was the controlled discipline pect too much of our international side. through injury. In all, I won 54 caps. of the side. Throughout the match Mun- It must be remembered that rugby is a Playing with me in my first international ster didn't give away a single penalty in minority sport in Ireland and that when were Andy Mulligan, then captain, Mick its own half. We succeeded in allaying we play Wales and France we are play- English, Noel Murphy, Tim McGrath Munster's traditional fire and aggression ing countries at their national games vir- (recently deceased), Ronnie Kavanagh, to control and discipline. tually. We don't have anything like the Tony O'Reilly and Dave Hewitt. One of the New Zealand officials ex- same 'number of players from which to In addition to playing for Ireland, I plained his team's defeat by alleging draw, and we don't have the same deep toured twice with the British Lions, that Munster had adopted kama-kazi rugby traditions. both times to South Africa. I played in tactics, For Ireland it is important that first one test match in 1962 and in all four I'm not sure what this means but if it of all we get the right selectors, who can tests in 1968. is a commentary on the team's tackling mould a team together and then resist How many times were you captain? then it misses the point that tackling is popular pressure for changes when there I was captain 24 times, the first time as integral a part of rugby as is a majes- are no better options available. The being for one match in 1963. During tic midfield centre three quarter break second point is related to the latter, we that season I got injured and Bill Mulcahy and score under the posts. The perfect must get a team together and if possible took over for two years. I was re- timing and execution of a tackle gives keep it together. The most successful appointed captain for the last match in me as much pleasure to watch as any Irish sides have been the ones that have 1966, when Ray Mcl.oughlm was de- other element of rugby. 'I been playing together for a number of prived of the captaincy. In 1967 Noel There were two noteworthy tackles years. The failures of the last few sea- Murphy was captain but I was re- during the match both by Seamus sons I think are partly attributable to appointed captain for the Australian Dennison. It was he who was injured the enforced changes on the team. You tour at the end of that season, when after the first, and indeed, I thought he must remember that Ireland lost some Noel M~rphy was unavailable. I remained I' might have to come off. But happily the of its greatest ever players in the last captain from then until 1973. Sport How did Ireland fare during those years? points. One was in a match against Tony O'Reilly was certainly one of We beat Wales in 1966, '67, '68 and Scotland and the other wasin the second these. He was marvellously strong and '70 and in 1967 and '70 we came within international against France in Lans- fast and while he was renowned abroad one shot of the Triple Crown. But when downe Road. In 1972, the year Wales for his attacking qualities, when playing Ireland was beating Wales, Bob Hiller and Scotland refused to travel to Dublin. with him I remember him best for his (the England full back of the late On both occasions Ireland was leading defensive - his attacking opportunities 'sixties) was beating Ireland. comfortably and both times when I was were limited when playing for Ireland. How many points did you score for running to catch the ball I was thinking His catching, positioning and kicking Ireland? about counter-attacking. It was my were first rate and I always felt his very I think it was around 158, which was failure to concentrate on the immediate stature intimidated the opposition. It less than 3 points a match on average. I objective that led to me dropping the was said of O'Reilly that no other player was never happy goalkicking for Ireland. ball on both occasions. As a result on could alone obstruct an entire opposition Although I practiced incessantly at each occasion a serum was awarded in back line. goalkicking I don't think I had the phys- front of the Irish posts and a penalty ical attributes to be really successful. was awarded from the serum and we Look at Tony Ward today and see the lost 3 points. strength of his thighs. I don't think I I often feel that one of the primary was strong enough to have been the reasons modern full backs are not as regular pace kicker for Ireland. Dave reliable fielders of the ball as used to be Hewitt took some of the kicks in the the case, is because with the emphasis early 'sixties and off and on Mike Gibson on attacking full back play they are took kicks at goal and of course Barry concentrating not on catching the ball McGann did, but none of us had the but with what they will do when they success rate of Ward, who is worth about get it. Other outstanding wings I recall were 9 points a match. Obviously you have played against some Gerald Davies, David Duckam and the of the world's greatest players over a great English wing of the 'fifties, Peter decade. Who was the greatest full back Jackson. I played against him in my first you encountered? international. Of course Tom Grace and Without question it was LP.R. Alan Duggan should not be overlooked Williams, but closely followed by Ken as great wingers. They both scored a Scotland. Williams was superb in all the record number of tries for Ireland in attributes a full back should have. He their time and contributed handsomely In many people ~ minds you are re- was - indeed is - a superb fielder of the to the teams they played with. membered as one of the safest catchers ball. A good kicker, he is very fast and Centres? of the ball there was around in decades. devastating on the break, he times Mike Gibson. Do you remember how many balls you tackles perfectly and his positioning If I had to choose the single most dropped while playing for Ireland? sense is unequalled. outstanding player I ever came across I I couldn't put a number on that but I Wing three-quarters? think I would opt for Gibson, though I do remember dropping two balls and as I judged these best by reckoning would also have to consider Gareth a result the opposing teams scored 3 which I would least like to oppose. Edwards and Colin Meads. Gibson's Sport

greatest attribute' was and is his enor- have a warm up, a talk and that was Irish team is faring disastrously and mous work-rate. He had all the skills of that. It was McLaughlin who first there seems to be very little organisation a great out-half or centre but he had this introduced strict discipline to the team in our out play for example. phenomenal work rate in addition to and a sense of cohesion. He was wrongly I don't see how there could be much these. When he was out half I remember dispossessed of the captaincy when more preparation, given the extent of he was always in the comer of my eye things didn't go well in the 1966 season the present commitment to the game on as I went to catch a ball or kick to but the initiative he took was carried the part of the leading players and touch. His presence was an enormous through. officials. There just isn't any more time reassurance, for preparations. The basic reason for There was one particular incident in our failures, as I said at the outset, is the a match against Australia in Sydney fact that we have such a small pool of which for me sums up what a great players to draw from. If we had the player Gibson was. He was playing out likes of Tony Hanahoe, Brian Mullins, half and ran hard into a pass and dropped Mikey Sheehy, Pat Spillane, John it. The Australian out. half, Hawthorn, O'Keefe, Jimmy Barry Murphy, Dinnie snapped up the ball and made 40 yards. Allen etc. playing rugby regularly, then As I tackled him he passed to his winger, we might be able to make significant Brass who ran in under the posts. But as improvements in our international he did so Gibson tackled him, twisted record, but the fact is that we don't. I'm him and he failed to touch down. A try There is now very much greater prep- not saying that all or indeed any of was disallowed. It was an incredible aration for games, greater discipline and these would necessarily be better than effort on Gibson's part and absolutely more thought, whereas formerly it was our present players, but if they were in typical. He was a totally dedicated, largely a matter of "doing your best for the game then they would help to raise generous, team-spirited player. No praise Ireland" and being good losers. Now we the general standard. of mine is sufficient for him. have introduced an element of organ- On completing the interview Kiernan What other centres impressed you? isation to our natural aggressiveness. remarked: "when I'm suspended the Dave Hewitt springs to mind im- Do you think there is sufficient prepar- whole Munster team will stand behind mediately. It was one of the great ation and organisation? After all the tragedies of Irish rugby that he played so few times for Ireland. He was part of perhaps the best three-quarter line Ireland fielded with Kevin Flynn, Niall Brophy and O'Reilly. The pity was that they played together only on a few occasions, the last being in 1959. Other outstanding centres were the Boniface brothers from France, Ian Loughland of Scotland and Bruce Robertson of the present New Zealand team. Out-halves? Gibson of course but apart from him the truly outstanding players in that position were Barry John, Phil Bennet and Richard Sharpe of England. I would also rate Barry McGann very highly. His guile, tactical ability and kicking were matchless. His rugby brain was as good as any I've ever come across. He had the ability to use the ball and pin-point situations better than players a lot faster than he. What forwards impress you most? Three New Zealanders spring to mind immediately, Colin Meads, Ken Grey and Wilson Whinery, Mervyn Davies of Wales, Claude Spanghero of France and for Ireland, McBride, Mulcahy, McLaughlin, Murphy, Ken Kennedy and Fergus Slattery. Did rugby change much at an inter- national level during your 13 years on the team? Yes, very much so. The change started with Ronnie Dawson right at the begin- ning of the 'sixties and was carried on by Ray McLaughlin. This was before there were national coaches and at a time when it was usual for the team to meet the day before an international, Top: Tony 0 'Reilly. Bottom: from left, Willie John McBride (with the ball), Ray I McLaughlin and at right Fergus Slattery. he significance of Tony Hanahoe's On the grounds of prejudice. It now that the history of poor relations be- Tachievement in Gaelic football is al- must be apparent to most people that tween the Dublin team and Aldridge ready well established. . there was one common factor in the All- stems primarily from Aldridge's role as He, along with Kevin Heffernan, Ireland final which we lost, the game secretary of the Kildare County Board brought an intelligence, organisation against Offaly at Portlaoise which we of the GAA, a position which many of and dedication to the game previously nearly lost, the game in New York the Dublin players feel renders him un- unknown. Their strategy virtually re- against Kerry which we lost and the fairly partisan in his dealings with volutionised the sport, bringing to it bizarre game against Wexford in the first Dublin. skills and concepts from an array of round of the championship last year. Kildare have been Dublin's main other disciplines. That one common factor was the Leinster rivals since the Dublin team's While Heffernan was the chief archi- referee. resurgence in 1975. Indeed it was tect, Hanahoe was the chief engineer, What decisions did you object to in the against Kildare in the Leinster final of later-assuming both roles with unrelen- final against Kerry? that year that Dublin first displayed the ting effect. But as a result of the inter- I objected throughout to his inter- cohesion and authority that was to nal traumas within the GAA over the bring them such success later. last month, Hanahoe will also be re- In that final, a Kildare player, Brian membered as the instigator of the chal- O'Doherty, was sent off for assaulting lenge to the autocracy within the organ- Brian Mullins. In its appeal against the isation and as the person who exposed a ensuing suspension, the Kildare county legal and constitutional anarchy within board, in a letter signed by its secretary the Association.' Seam us Aldridge, alleged that O'Doherty In his person, and perhaps unwitting- was merely retaliating after Mullins had ly, he has also represented a challenge to spat on him. That allegation, whether the chauvinism, insularity and xeno- true or not, was hardly conducive to phobia within the GAA and in these re- pretation of the rules of the game. I am future happy relations between the spects his service may yet prove as con- referring not just to the incident which part-time referee and the Dublin team. siderable as has been his contribution as led to the second Kerry goal but to his Since then, Aldridge has refereed a player and manager. handling of the entire match. ' several games involving Dublin, includ- This is beginning to sound a bit like sour ing two Leinster finals, two Leinster he controversy started of course grapes. semi-finals, a number of league games T with an interview of Tony Hanahoe I am aware of that and having con- against Cork and Kerry and he was the in the October issue of Magill following sidered it I reiterate my comments On official referee on the tour of the Uni- Dublin's All-Ireland final defeat by the referee. However these criticisms ted States last May when Dublin and Kerry. In the course of the interview he should not be taken' to detract in any Kerry played a number of exhibition was asked by this writer: way from the merit of the Kerry per- games. There has been a lot of criticism of the formance on the day. They took their The US tour didn't do much to re- referee Seamus Aldridge in this game ... opportunities well and' they deserve store good will between Aldridge and What were your views of his perfor- credit for doing so. the Dublin team, for there was a melee mance? in Gaelic Park in New York between Hanahoe: I 'personally objected to hile Hanahoe was not explicit in Dublin and Kerry players, leading to a the referee b~ore the game and I had W his criticism of Aldridge in the number of players' being sent off. Re- objected to him before the Offaly game. interview and he has refused to be sentment against Aldridge intensified, at Why? . drawn on the subject since then, it seems least in the minds of a few Dublin play-

74 MAGILL DECEMBER 1978 I ers. <:.., Relations on a social level were none §. too happy either, it seems, on the tour. ~Aldridge's personality, somewhat dour S and inflexible, typified in the minds of ~ several Dublin players a lot of what was " wrong with the GAA. Again it appears this was an uncharitable characterisation of Aldridge but on such misconceptions, great resentments are built. The situation wasn't helped by the game against Offaly, when the emerging cracks in the Dublin team first became apparent. The fact that Aldridge was in- strumental in Dublin surviving on that occasion - he awarded a critical penalty in the last quarter of the match, didn't'" deter Dublin, and Hanahoe in particular, from believing that he again had exhibi- ted bias against them. And although, to the vast majority of spectators that charge could have been groundless, Dublin did have a point. Al- dridge was then heavily involved in the

Kildare team's preparations for the championship and it was not entirely unreasonable to presume that as such he would have been prejudiced against his own team's most formidable rivals. The practice of county secretaries acting as referees is at least a question- able one, although Aldridge is by no means the only one to do so. The other most notable such example is Frank Murphy, the full time Cork County Secretary, and there have been protests about him too. It was therefore unwise for the Ac- tivities Committee to nominate Aldridge as referee for the All-Ireland final and it is difficult to understand how members of that committee weren't aware of Dublin's objections to him. However, there is some confusion about whether Dublin lodged an objec- tion to Aldridge. Certainly, no written objection was made but Hanahoe did ask the Dublin County Board officials to 'make an objection. It seems that a verbal protest was made, but even then the Chairman of the Activities Com- mittee, President-elect, Padraig McFlynn, wasn't made aware of it - had he been it is likely that he would have done some- thing about it. Aldridge's handling of the game was marred only by the notorious Paddy Cullen incident, as far as the non-parti- ensure that it would be he who would There concern was expressed about the san observer was concerned. It is by no referee the match. growing criticism of referees in the means clear why he penalised Cullen, It was this resentment that Hanahoe media by players and officials. This, it but having done so it seems he was in was expressing in the Magill interview. was said, was unfair to referees, for it error in allowing the goal ensuing from was contended that they were prohibi- the swiftly taken free by Mikey Sheehy, twas Aldridge himself who instigated ted from replying. And here the first as he had his back to the ball when the Ithe complaint against Hanahoe. The confusion about the Association's rules free was taken and the initial infringe- complaint was officially made to the arises. ment took place within the 14 metre Activities Committee by the Kildare Re- In the referees' and players' guide, line. In view of the comprehensiveness ferees Association of which Aldridge is the Rules of Gaelic Football and Hurl- of the Dublin defeat, it is inconceiv- secretary. ling, published by the National Referees able that this incident could have had a Hanahoe was called before the Acti- Advisory Council, under a section head- decisive effect on the game, but it did vities Committee on Saturday, Novem- ed "Advice to Referees", point 10 reads confirm in the minds of Dublin players ber 18. The complaint stated that he "that a referee should not give inter- the belief that Aldridge was consistently was in breach of a directive of the Cen- views to Press, TV or Radio on any con- prejudiced against them. tral Council meeting of March 4, 1978 troversial matters arising fron the and because of the critical importance game". n the dejected Dublin camp in the of this directive, it is necessary to ex- It is contended by the GAA head Idays after the game the consistent amine its background. Office that this represents an instruc- theme was that Aldridge was blatantly The directive arose from a seminar tion, not advice. However this is diffi- biased against them and that the higher held in Dublin last February by the cult to accept as it appears under the echelons of the GAA had conspired to National Referees' Advisory Council. heading "Advice to Referees" and among the other points under the same heading is: "physical fitness is vital, as referees should never be more than 20 to 30 yards from the ball". Quite ob- viously this could not be an instruction, for in hurling, for instance, it would be physically impossible to remain within 20 to 30 yards of the ball at all times. In addition, there seems to be no Rule or directive by any of the compe-

tent bodies within the GAA to validate an instruction about referees not talking to the press. Thus the directive under which Hanahoe was prosecuted seems to have arisen at the outset from a misunder- standing about the freedom of referees to reply to public criticism. Con Murphy, the GAA President, assured the referees seminar in February that a directive would be issued prohibi- ting public criticism of referees. And so it was. On March 4, the Central Committee, acting on the basis of a recommendation from the Management Committee, adopted a directive, which stated inter alia "any public criticism of a referee on press, radio or television by officials, players or members shall not be per- mitted and all units are now directed to ensure that such criticism is not permit- ted in future. Transgressors shall be dealt with under rule 40 or 101 O.G." Hanahoe's initial line of defence was to substantiate his charge of prejudice against Aldridge but this was deemed irrelevant by the committee. He then challenged the validity of the directive and the grounds that only Congress has the power to make rules binding on members of the GAA. This contention was rejected on the basis that Rule 59 (c) of the GAA constitution states in part that: "the management committee shall have complete discretion to decide on any matter not otherwise provided for, or not adequately provided for, in these Rules and shall be the only body to deal with such matters." Hanahoe appealed this issue to the Management Committee itself on Satur- day, November 25 but was again over- ruled. However, in spite of the seeming sweeping powers which rule 59 (c) gives to the management committee, there are serious grounds for contending that it does not have the power to make binding directives on members. Because this rule, along with several other rules in the GAA Official Guide, is clumsily worded, it is necessary to com- pare its wording with that of others to discover exactly what it means. For in- stance, it would hardly be contended that the management committee's dis- cretion on "any matter" would extend to the private lives of the Association's members, although the wording of the section could theoretically leave itself open to that interpretation. It is clear from the rules that the Management Committee's powers are apparent discretionary powers to decide Rule 98 which states: "Suspension of derived from the Central Council, there-· on "any matter". members or clubs under General Rules fore the Management Committee can It is argued that the Management or County Bye-laws means suspension have no more powers than the Central Committee doesn't make rules, it makes from all functions, privileges and com- Council does. directives. The differentiation is by no petitions under the Association. Sus- Rule 57 states: "the Central Council means clear, and since directives purport pends shall be ineligible to take part in in many cases to have the force of Rules, any capacity in the affairs of the As- then a court would probably find no sociation, during such suspension and, if such differentiation exists. included in a team, the team shall for- It is this challenge to the authority of feit the match. the Management Committee to make "Members who take part in competi- binding directives that is the most cri- tions while under suspension shall be tical issue in the Hanahoe affair. This is suspended for a period of at least six so because power now concentrates months, to take effect from the date on within the Management Committee and which they take part in such competi- its belief that it has discretion to decide tions". on "any matter" - in the literal sense of those words - gives it an apparently un- twas Hanahoe himself who first deci- challengable authoritarian control of the Ided he had the right to play while his organisation, subject only to Congress, suspension by the Activities Committee which by common consent is too amor- was being appealled to the Management phous to be effective. Committee. He was fully supported in As President and in other respects its this position by members of the Dublin shall be the supreme governing body of most influential member, Con Murphy County Board, whose chairman, Jimmy the Association from Congress to Con- effectively controls the G AA through Grey, had independently decided that gress and the sole authority to interpret the Management Committee. Thus when Hanahoe should play, as it was the prac- the Rules. Its jurisdiction shall extend Hanahoe challenged its power he was tice in Dublin to allow players to play in over the whole Association in all implicitly challenging the power of Con such circumstances. matters, including those that pertain to Murphy. Grey contacted Con Murphy on the the funds, investments and property of The other major issue involved in the Saturday evening by telephone in Cork the Association." affair was the question of Hanahoe's and was told that it was Murphy's clear It is clear from this that the Central playing in the national league match opinion that Hanahoe did not have the Council has powers only to interpret against Kildare on Sunday, November right to play. However Hanahoe was Rules, not to make them, therefore the 19, the day after his suspension by the applying the legal rules of natural justice Management Committee couldn't have Activities Committee. (what the courts see as basic human powers to make Rules, in spite of its He did so in apparent defiance of rights) in the situation, in defi~ce of whatever the GAA Rules might say or outsid e body on any matter". dorse its findings that there was no what the President of the GAA might These two rules are legal nonsense - question of a player being allowed to say. the High Court would declare both of play while his appeal against suspension The significance of this challenge by them to be unconstitutional - but they was being heard. Hanahoe is underlined when it is appre- typify the insularity and arrogance of Dr. Jim Brosnan of Kerry raised the ciated that the GAA goes some way to- the GAA. Thus by applying conven- point that if a player won his appeal and wards attempting to insulate itself from tional judicial rules of natural justice to were not allowed to play while his ap- the conventional judicial processes. Rule his own case, Hanahoe was challenging peal was being heard, then he would 57 states: "no appeal from decisions of another sacred cult of the GAA. have been punished unjustly. Con the Central Council may be made at law The Central Council deliberations on Murphy said that may well be the case or otherwise" and Rule I 04 states in the issue of Hanahoe playing while in a court of law but the GAA was dif- part: "no appeal (presumably against under suspension were instructive. Con ferent. The Rules stated a player suspension, but again this is unclear) Murphy, on behalf of the Management couldn't play during suspension even shall be to any Court of Law or to any Committee asked the Council to en- while appealing and only Congress could change that. . Murphy's indifference to the con- siderations of justice was revealing and ·1' he was simply wrong on what the rules said. The rules don't mention either way if a player appealing a suspension can participate in a game. To add semantics to confusion, the suspension surely would have been suspended. This was a classic case where the Cen- tral Council could have interpreted the rules of the Association, yet under Murphy's insistence it was led to believe that it couldn't do so. The legal absurdities don't end there. Among the other issues which arise are: • The applicability of Rule 98 to Hanahoe's case at all. Clearly the rule refers to suspensions arising only under

General Rules or County Bye-laws and as Hanahoe's suspension occurred under a directive, surely the apparent absolute prohibition on taking part in the affairs of the Association didn't apply . • The competence of the Activities Committee to adjudicate on the matter in the first place. It was the body which appointed the referee and therefore it should not have been the body to con- sider criticism of that appointment. Also, Rule 59 (c) states that the Management Committee shall be the only body to deal with matters on which the Management Committee has discretionary powers . • It is difficult to see how the A ctivi- ties and Management Committees deci- ded on a one month suspension for Hanahoe, for the relevant Rule (101) stipulates a mandatory penalty of six months suspension . • Once the Central Council affirmed the Management Committee's view that Hanahoe had no right to play while ap- he inevitable conclusion of the THanahoe affair is that the inner coterie of the GAA operates arbitarily and independently of both its own Rules and of the Constitution and laws of the State. But there were other issues at stake. Basically the GAA is torn between an autocratic, xenophobic, narrow tradi- tion and its more liberal, outward ele- ments. Hanahoe classically represents the latter in his manner, sytle and in- terests and it is because of this that he is suspected and resented by the more traditionalist element in the organisa- tion. - Hanahoe would have little sympathy with the philosophy ennunciated in the introduction to the Official Guide of the organisation, which says, in part: "The games to them (i.e. those who play) are more than games - they have a national significance - and the promo- tion of native pastimes becomes a part of the full national ideal, which envi- sages the speaking of our own language, the buying of Irish goods and the pro- motion of native music and dances. "The primary purpose of the GAA is the organisation of native Pastimes and the promotion of athletic fitness as a means to create a disciplined, self-reliant, national-minded, manhood which takes conscious pride in the heritage of un- rivalled pastimes and splendid cultural traditions, as essential factors in the re- storation of full and distinct nation- hood. The overall result is the express- ion of a people's preference for native ways as opposed to imported ones .... "If pride in the attributes of nation- hood dies, something good and distinc- tive dies with it ... " ... until complete nationhood is achieved, the Association must continue to maintain an all-embracing patriotic spirit. To that end its creed represents a simple choice between -qualities which are native and characteristic of our land and qualities which are foreign and im- ported. "This national side of the GAA and its dedication to the ideal of an Irish- ireland must be kept t~ the forefront at all times ... " Hanahoe's concerns are primarily with the game of Gaelic football and with creatively adapting the game to make it more mobile, more athletic and more skillful. An impatience about those, allied to an irritation with the in- sular autocracy that controls the organi- sation, were the ingredients of the con- troversy that has permitted him to make a further and unexpected contribution to the GAA .• expected shortly after Christ- mas and Maureen feels a lot of people will be very surpris- ed at the outcome.

aureen Concannon short-term basis. of its type in Ireland and ********** MO'Brien is the founder The English Language In- since its establishment in of the English Language Insti- 1961, about 40,000 students Hugh Leonard's best joke tute at 99 St. Stephen's have enrolled in it. in years is the publication of Green. She came to Ireland in In the New Year Maureen an anthology of his humour the late 50s to study in UCD, is off to the Soviet Union at columns published by John where she received a BA and the invitation of the Moscow Feeney of Egotist Press. Masters Degree in English, as Pedagogical Institute for Lan- Leonard has had a record well as a diploma in Psycho- guages. There she will observe 1978. For his l)a seen in logy. new techniques for the teach- New York, he won the best When Maureen worked in ing of languages. playwright of the year, and the Careers Office at UCD she Maureen is now complet- he has already sold the film 1-<'. saw the need for a language ing a two-year Research Pro- rights to Hollywood, thus en- school in Dublin. Students gramme on foreign opinion of suring a million dollars from a used to call into the office the Irish. She has interviewed single play. As well as his looking for English classes, 60,000 foreigners and financ- success with Da, another of which were not available on a ed the study. The results are h'is plays, Summer, is set for production in Boston next month. P.S. And another joke: as an artist, Leonard gets all this money tax free!

**********

opular tunes are regularly Pused in TV commercials, but a reverse situation arose recently with music compos- ed by Shaun Davey fOTradio' and TV butter commercial. Public i,nterest in this music prompted the National Dairy Council to commission Shaun Davey to write a three minute version of his composition, which is now released by CBS records, entitled Pride of the Herd. The flip side features Night Flight. Shaun Davey is well known for his music, composed for Stewart Parker's I

Pia,y Catchpenny Twist, later 'I used for BBC TV's Play For Today. I The butter music has a haunting, plaintive melody, evocative of our cultural heri- tage. The sleeve of the record consists of an eight-page illu- strated history of the Two Thousand Year Tradition of Buttermaking in Ireland. We are told "it is the soft Irish rain and mists combined with a mild temperature that makes butter and the Celtic Gold of Ireland". The impor- tance of butter to the Irish through the centuries is recor- ded with ancedotes of the ritual of making it - the song of the milkmaid rap: "Come, come contents of the churn, come dear butter to my waist and butter to my elbow.". Joan Byrne ~:~7fu-S;} The implication is that, on a normal night, the food at the Slane Castle Restaurant is commensurately more dear, and probably a bit pretent- ious. For this occasion was anything but normal. It was the Sotheby's sale of fine art at the castle, and the restaur-

!I and put on a special set dinner. With' no choice, the modest ! price presented no difficul- ties. If once, why not many times? The drive to Slane is a And for £5.00, with l2Y2% pleasant one. The road is fast, service charge, it was excel- and clear once one has got lent value. beyond Finglas. But one The marinaded (spelling it might be more encouraged if with a 'd' is preferable, in there were compensations for terms of accuracy) herring the time and distance and was well-flavoured, moist and money. In most of the restau- not over-garnished. The game rants surveyed over the last soup was rich and strong, if a six months it would be hard little thin. The veal was to corne up with the kind of wholesome, if just a little like value ~ffered by such a set food from the nursery, and menu. If more modestly the vegetables, which should priced wines could be added also have had the sobriquet in, and if the telephone ser- 'Slane' if not 'Slane Castle' vice worked better, and if it attached to them, were good. was spring on the Boyne, One might recommend a then what an evening we little cinnamon or ginger could have, you and I! flavouring for the apple tart. Something of the 'Big The generous slices, with House' atmosphere is culti- large helpings of whipped vated. Just occasionally there cream, were a bit bland for are discreet references to 'his the ending of such a meal, lordship, and Lady Mount- and were certainly over-gener- charles hovers about among ous in size. Something smaller the extremely efficient and and better flavoured would very pleasant waitresses. The have been preferable. restaurant is in a large, high- The wines were dispropor- ceilinged room in a wing of tionately expensive. A bottle the Castle, nicely furnished of Merseault, young and fair- with mahogany tables and ly acidic, came at £6.45, chairs from disused bedrooms. and Fleurie, also a Burgundy A huge fire blazes in a huge of a young and gauche fireplace. On the night in character, was £6.65. Given question an amplifier told the current wine merchant forth the prices at which Irish prices, with wholesale dis- silver was being knocked count, the mark-up seems to down by the Sotheby's be excessive. And it should auctioneer. But when that is certainly be possible to have off, the only piped music I a Muscadet, or a reasonable have ever liked to eat my Spanish or Portuguese white dinner to, Brahms and such- wine on the menu at around like, was played. I shall go £2.00.' again .• Peter Pumpkin

he Turn of the Century to 1920" dence given 16 the Parliamentary Com- clotted lines, Hugh Larie is given an un- ,T_ is the" title of the fifteenth' and mission will "realise that most, of the justified amount of space, without any final chapter of The Painters ofIreland "evidence" 'given".by . the/, four, men factual !hformation about him and his c. 1090 : 1920 by Anne Crooksharik named by thevauthors is opinion; not contributi9.n to Irish art., :, '. and Desmond Fitzgerald. It begins with evidence. In the case of George Moore The authors then turn their attention the following two sentences: this is entirely so. Though extremely to "the Irish prodigy of the early twen- "The turn of this century was a sup- witty, his encounter with the commis- tieth century", Wiliiani Orpen, .and the remely exciting time for the Arts in sion had no reltwance to its purpose; mistakes. multiply rapidly . They have Dublin outside the official realms of the Lane's had little; Orpen's was heavily him going to the Metropolitan School of Royal Hibernian Academy and its Life prejudiced, and he was the only person Art at the wrong age in the wrongyear. School and the Metropolitan School of who came back to the commissioners They describe his happy and fruitful Art. These institu- period of study. ill tions had been slow- Dublin, during ly slipping downhill which 'he was the since the mid-cen- ;nost successful stu- tury and are pillo- dent ever to attend ried by the evidence the, Metropolitan given with great wit School, of Art as and, frankness by "intolerable aca- Hugh Lane, William demic training", and Orpen, George Moore they suggest that and A. I;:. (George "happily , the train- Russell) and other ing did not break witnesses to the par- either his spirit or liamentary Commis- his talent". there sion, under the never was any chairmanship of question of that. Lord Windsor, They quite whose extensive re- wrongly suggest "lise port was published of strong chiaros- in 1906". curo" in Orperi's It is ail tlhfortlin- early masterpiece, ate start to an unfor- A Westerly Wind by Jack B. Yeats The Play Scene from tunate chapter. the institutionsiri and modified the somewhat harsh criti- 'Hamle"t', Though it. characterised question had not been slipping down- cism he had given. other Orpen paintings, it is decidedly hill; quite the reverse. 80th of them had "Nor is it accurate to talk of the "turn not evident in .this golden Rembrandt- passed their low watermark around of the century" as a '''supremely excit- like canvas, and one wonders whether 1860, and were strorig, active institu- ing time" for the arts in Dublin. The un- the authors went to see the painting; or tions by the turn of the century, very certain genesis for a limited revival may are relyirig.on photographs. much rivalling each other; both in re- be dated around 1900; the real force Wilson Steer-was not a fellow student spect of teaching, and of the main visual and momentum was later. at the Slade. He did not study there at arts question of the day, which concer- Though he was not a painter, and alL He was Orpen's teacher there. Nor ned the location of an exhibition hail. though elsewhere the book compresses was' William Rothenstein with Orpen.at Anyone who reads carefully the evi- quite important irish artists into a few the Slade. Orpen did not exhibit A Pub Scene by William John l:eech "throughout his career" with the RA, authors wrongly titled Midday on the Fitzgerald book. It happens to cover a the RHA and the New English Art Club. Beach is a travesty of all that Orpen period about which. I have some specia- He broke with the RHA in 1915, and, stood for in the art of the period: It lised knowledge, yet with the exception with some few exceptions, had by then lacks the strong sense of line, the gene- of what I say about the one painting given up exhibiting with the NEAC. He rally vertical structuring of Orpen's dealt with in detail, where the questions did not" go to Spain in 1960 with Hugh composition, 'and the dramatic cohesion mvolye' opinion ana interpretation, Lane, and the ' panel effect in 'The which makes the general rua ofeanvases every 'other criticism thl~t I IOO.keis con- Mirror ill. derived from Whistler, not of this .period 'so 'won.aerf'liI!l.Thep,aint- ceraed with factual errors. Many are of from Velasquez. Nor did' Orpen travel ing is unresolved in the deta.iling @;f'the the 'most elementary kind, and could widely ill Europe. And he never taught qliU!l's arms.vand in the fa'Cesof th#"two have been avoided by a' superficial ~t t4~ S!a~li, ll?~ had the ij3;~*0~~is" fi&l!te§. ,NQ~'s~f,prisi:~ .~.~atter "o~. o~~i~n"'?,hatr~e authors. " . .., clil:tll,!ogueof modern British works; or a ", \.. ,\ ." dorn1fla~t fac~or 111prp~n's !ti1". ~f the'CE@Qk$~- realm of amransed scholarship;'" - .". -: • ",!, •. ~AGILL DECEMBER 1978 89 With such a record in the relatively subject in detail." Why not? Why is gulps and lumps. Words like "may", well-tilled fields of Irish art of this cen- James Malton, who gave ten years of his "probably" and "possibly" run through tury, one cannot but work backwards life to the massive task of producing the the book from end to end, and indicate into the nineteenth, eighteenth and finest views ever done of our capital the high degree of speculation. If this seventeenth centuries with increasing city, reduced to thirteen lines which do had been edited down, and more care- scepticism. One would need an army of not even name the main work of his ful attention paid to the relationships scholars to carry out the appropriate life? between artists and ideas, and artists checks, but even superficially the cau- At the same time an artist like and each other, a more readable frame- tion with which scholars generally Robert Fagan, "whose links with this work for the abundant knowledge approach their subject has eluded the country are minimal", being neither would have been achieved. As it is the two authors in other parts of the book born, eduated or lived in Ireland at any style is clotted throughout. One winces as well. They cannot make up their time", treated to 43 lines of valuable at phrases like "is unlikely to be true minds whether there are two Thomas space dealing with the fact that his datewise", and there is something Bate paintings in existence or one. On father was a London baker, that he comical about this brief analysis of what [page 31, Thomas Bate "is known only married two beautiful Italian girls, dealt followed the Act of Union: "New by a single work", the Lord Coningsby in antiquities, smuggled pictures, be- people were at the Vice-Regal Court and portrait in the Ulster Museum. On page came consul-general for Sicily and Malta Dublin dropped back into a kind of tor- I 53 they write of a Dublin view "which and threw himself out of a window in por. Many of the nobility and gen try re- , can be dated 1699 from a study of the Rome in 1816. tired in disgust to the country and built architecture included, and is by Thomas The book is constructed clumsily, in themselves splendid houses." How jolly Bate. " for them, how awful for Dublin, and All of this is at a level of scholarship basically how inaccurate a generalisa- concerned with fact and detail, It is by tion. no means the most important aspect of No one would deny Anne Crook- a book of this kind. The authors say in shank the very real credit that is her due their introduction "We have not attemp- as a teacher, and as a pioneer figure in ted a Dictionary: we think we have the difficult and bewildering field of written a simple chronological account researches in Irish art; and she has an of the history and developments of Irish enthusiastic colleage in Desmond Fitz- painting." This is only partly true. Their gerald. Locked into the pages of this basic approach is a dictionary approach. book are the fruits of years of work, Instead of making it alphabetical, as and James White is correct when he I' Strickland did in his seminal "Diction- says, at the end of his very dreary Fore- ary of Irish Artists", published in 1913, word to the book, "it will certainly I they have made it chronological. But to prove of immense value to all of us who claim that this somehow makes "his- work in this area". tory". or presents us with the "develop- But this does not make it a good ment" of Irish painting, is a claim that is book. It is a compendium of W, G. unsupported by the book. Strickland, revised, made chronological' istory and development, in the instead of alphabetical, and illustrated, Hsense in which the authors use the generally well, but with some lapses terms, imply the relationship of people which are damaging to the artists con- and ideas, and the relationship of people cerned. It is a scholar's book of which with other people, particularly in terms scholars will be critical. And to the of the influence artists have on each general reader who likes art, the book is other. This kind of examination re- a hard slog for £ 15 .• quires discernment and courage. It is not sufficient to say, as the authors do, that William Ashford "was to become the leading Irish painter of the late eighteenth century". It is necessary to demonstrate how and why he became the leading painter of his day, and what influence this had on his contemporaries and on succeeding generations of pain- ters. The authors do not attempt this at all. Their very detailed material on Ashford, including the fact that the !louse of Commons Journal tells us he was paid £38 to travel around Ireland looking at soldiers' muskets, and that this may have developed his interest in landscape, uses up all the space avail- able and deprives us of the broader handling which would justify the book's larger claims. The result is apparent in the succes- sion of paragraphs beginning "Another painter ... ", or "A group of landscape painters in watercolour should be men- tioned at this point though we make no effort to chart this large and interesting 'VTelcome to the season Wavelength (Warner Bros) is like Linda Ronstadt, especial- aint's voice is not up to much, W of Bing Crosby and refreshingly direct. It also has ly when she does a gospel- but on Night People and With Golden Greats. The old a few surprises, a pop fell to type number on her latest You In Mind, for instance, groaner's back, too with A the arrangement for Lifetimes album, Sweet Oasis (CBS), he, the two ladies and the Christmas Sing with Bing. and a harder, edgier rock ap- but her voice doesn't have the band groove along nicely. Among the many others proach than we're used to same distinction. With a whose golden achievements hearing from Belfast's prodi- change of label and a move he Chieftains do their are celebrated in collections gal son on the title track. It is from a country-rock backing Tusual thing with Ch iet- of their best, or best-known, not as relaxed and doesn't to full orchestra, she seems tains 8 (Cladd agh), on which are two nearly as old as BC - swing as well as his best, but blander than on her first two several members of the group Nat King Cole and Frank Morrison is always worth a albums. apart from Paddy Maloney Sinatra. The recent hits of listen - and a second listen. Kate Bush's first album get the chance to arrange David Essex and Neil Dia- came nowhere near the prom- traditional dance tunes into mond, of Wings and the Com- ise of her strange single, supposedly higher art forms. modores, are featured in sea- Wuthering Heights. Her Maloney's major contribution sonal collections, too. second LP, Lionheart (EM!) is variously described as a Compilation albums by shows that she still had not "tone poem" and a "suite": two groups and one singer- been able to write material celebrating our relationship 'comedienne deserve special with enough immediately with the sea. Derek Bell mention. Steely Dan's Great- attractive elements to anchor arranges two tunes from the est Hits (ABC), a double the wayward movements of Carolan book and there are album, represent some of the her voice and occasionally reels, a strathspae and a polka best of white rock of recent irritating intonation. But to remind us of the roots. years. But the group has re- there are also some nice musi- Paul Brady approaches mained something of musi- cal moments to help us traditional material very dif- cians' musicians and a little through her imaginative ferently on Welcome Home, bit remote. That is also a; world of haunted places and Kind Stranger (Mulligan). He mark of their musical distinc-, hemlock. is fascinated by the stories tion and the occasionally un-' Joan Armatrading shares which the songs tell and in his settling irony which pervades much in her musical style notes writes things like, "I their lyrics. with Morrison, particularly in would like to know more." Earth, Wind and Fire have the effect - or reality - of im- The slight shakiness of his a Greatest Hits album on CBS provisation which her playing voice keeps the listener on which is selected from six and singing give. On To The edge and aware of the words. albums of their sophisti-funk, Limit (A&M) she is more Filling out the sound, Paul which has been a headline for forceful, more robust than doubles up and trebles up on the many more groups who before. But she still explores guitars and mandolins for have come both from jazz her very full vocal and ex- this album. The inner sleeve and soul into this bracket, pressive range, often changing reminds us of Paul's varied Few have been able to reach the tempo within a number musical career through R n' B, the same blend of sparkling and moving from near-croak the Johnso ns and Planxty. 1 II brass and voices with compul- and falsetto. recall him sitting in on Moles- sively body-shaking funky Some of the other sophis- worth Place jazz sessions in rhythms. ticated ladies of rock are also the mid-60s. Strange, really Best of Bette Middler (At- featured in current releases. that so little of that diverse lantic) features the eccentric Linda Ronstadt still sounds experience shows in his re- genius of an all-round enter- the helpless little girl on Two great ladies of soul, cordings, even if he some- tainer who mocks her audi- Living In The USA (Asylum), Bonnie Raitt and Etta James times lets it hang out in con- ence, parodies a range of style an album which departs from (who herself recently released certs. and, when she wants to, can the mood of the Chuck Berry an impressive album, Deep In Related to the last two really sing - and swing. number which gives its title The Night) get a special and only in that it is home-pro- Much more certain to immediately after that open- deserved credit for backing duc ed and aims in part at an make an impact among the ing track. Unlike Joan Arrna- vocals on Motion (Warner international market, the compendium albums is The trading, who writes all her Bros.) which features the Swarbriggs' Winter (EM!) has Singles, 1974-'78 by the Car- own material, Linda Ronstadt voice and compositions of several pleasant songs, but, in penters (on A&M). Nothing selects hers over a wide span in Allen Toussaint. Best known seeking to compensate for the naughty here; they're clean- time and styles. Oldest is a as the producer who put a weak vocals, arrange Richard cut. Karen sings accurately 1930s Oscar Hammerstein shape on New Orleans R n' B, Hill tends to clutter up the and strongly; Richard writes number, When I Grow Too Toussaint founded the N.O. shop. and arranges with clear pur- Old To Dream, where she lets studio where the vocal tracks Best in this bunch, apart pose. Each of these ten songs pass the opportunity to for the album were recorded. from the three selections has a strong melody and the swing. Relying heavily on the A couple of Crusaders are in mentioned early on, are the production avoids the temp- backing vocals, and with the tight rhythm section and albums by Joan Arrnatrading, tation of over-doing anything. simple accompaniment, the there's light colouring from Van Morrison, Allen Tous- Much less predictable, in- album is tasty, and a bit tame. horns and strings for a couple saint, Brothers Johnson, Kil- deed, often temper mental, is Scottish singer-songwriter of tracks. Nothing is over- burn and the High Roads, and Van Morrison, whose album Barbara Dickson can sound done, possibly because Touss- Paul Brady .• Brian Trench ast month's Trocaire of Scientific, Technical and sting time; a five-year agree- The last government back- L seminar on relations be- Managerial Staffs, as "an ment for its mcm bers has just bencher to come to wider tween the EEC and the de- ultra-left British-based union expired and at last month's public attention for speaking veloping countries attended headed by the arch-leftist, special conference of the out of turn was Padraig Flynn, by several Brussels-based am- Clive Jenkins," and he re- ICTU the Association oppos- from East Mayo. At a parlia- bassadors, gave us a rare peated the charge in slightly ed National Wage Agreement mentary party meeting he in- glimpse of Foreign Minister, milder form on radio the fol- for the first time. sisted that the government Michael O'Kennedy, doing lowing weekend. As Minister come clean on their taxation his statesman thing on the for Agriculture, Clinton con- here is one reassuringly proposals. Easy to see he's a home patch. It was quite a sistently refused to meet Tstable aspect oflocal poli- new boy. Not even the Mini- treat. O'Kennedy had been ASTMS representatives on his tics in this country - the fas- ster for Health and Social asked to say what the govern- ,cination which housing, and Welfare - come to think of ment's stance would be on re- environment conferences in it, he least of all - knows what negotiations of the Lome far-off places have for coun- the Minister for Finance is Convention between the EEC .cillors. Paddy Belton has just planning. ~6 African, Caribbean and returned from one such Charlie Haughey has taken Pacific countries of the ACP. meeting in Copenhagen - in on the first economist to be fie didn't. He waffled about spite of his failure to get for- employed by the Department caution, sensitivity and un- mal permission from Dublin of Social Welfare. His analysis Jerstanding and, under fire in City Council at its November is showing that children's al- .he discussion, said he meeting. lowances are the most effec- vould n't commit himself to As Minister for Local tive form of income mainten- my thing which migh t em- Government Jimmy Tully ance. Questions to the Mini- rarrass EEC partners. asked councils to go easy on ster about suggestions of tax- Disowning any responsib- unnecessary trips. He may ing these payments are refer- ility for past or present colo- only have drawn some coun- red out the window and nial exploits of EEC member plans for the Institute, but he cils' attention to the oppor- across the city to government countries, he refused to go tunities. At a recent housing is hardly likely to convince buildings. Brian Trench public on any discussions anybody that big farmer conference in Hamburg, within the Nine. "Our po- Gibbons, who did meet them Dundalk UDC and Louth County Council had a total of sition would be rather dif- frequently at the time is a ferent from the general ne- pawn for dangerous su bver- ten representatives between them, The impact all of this gotiating position", was all sives. he would say. Clinton's attack was also junketing makes on the funds It will be recalled that curiously ill-timed. Two left- of local authorities is signifi- O'Kennedy's first port of wing officials of ASTMS in cantly greater than the im- call on returning from his the Republic have both quit pact it makes on formation of recent African trip was Brus- within the past few months. policy. sels. It seems collective com- Communist Party member munity responsibility is sub- Noel Harris has gone to a job aying that a solicitor has a merging any independent at the World Federation of S vested interest in crime in lrish line. Does any other Trade Unions in Prague, and like saying that an undertak- government in the EEC show sometime Sinn Fein - Work- er has a vested interest in .tself so slavishly communi ers' Party supporter, John death, or a doctor in sick- 'aire? Mitchell resigned last month ness. However, Ben Briscoe's \ Jfark Clinton's outburst in to take up a post with the concern for solicitor Pat .V.lthe Dail about the union ESB Officers' Association. McEntan's earnings have at which had blocked his at- The efforts of the very least served the purpose of re- tempts to re-organise agricul- moderate Jenkins to clip the minding us just how rarely we tural research, advice and wings of the increasingly in- notice anything done or said education has set a new stan- dependent Irish section of the by a Fianna Fail back-bench dard in reds-under-the-beds union and the appointment TD. They only ever seem to paranoia. Attacking Jim of an English official to re- speak on cue, in spite of the Gibbon's concessions to the place Noel Harris had a good promise from Jack Lynch research staff in the Agricul- deal to do with the changes. that his party's record major- tural Institute he described Mitchell moves to the much ity would allow greater open- their union, the Association smaller ESBOA at an intere- ness within it.