Seamus Martin Lord Professor Bew Woodrow Wilson (2) Manus O'Riordan Brendan Clifford Labour Comment page 6 page 18 back page IRISH POLITICAL REVIEW April 2008 Vol.23, No.4 ISSN 0790-7672 and Northern Star incorporating Workers' Weekly Vol.22 No.4 ISSN 954-5891 Paisley And "British Government" A Right Wing Budget The London Times advised Ulster Unionists a few weeks ago not to rock the Sinn Fein Speech by Mark Langhammer boat too hard. The Establishment of the British state wants peace in Limbo. It doesn't (Labour Party) on the Northern want old sores scratched or new sores inflicted. Northern Ireland has been cobbled Ireland Executive Budget and together again, and all concerned must put on their best parlour manners to make sure Investment Strategy, 2008-11, that. the cobbling holds. 20 March 2008 It is not a democratic state, but it is a condition of the 1998 Agreement that it should be pretended that it is a democratic state. But the pretence must be restrained. In debate with Cllr Ian Parsley The modern democracy is a party system of government in which there is all-out (Alliance Party) and conflict between the party in Office and the party in Opposition. This system of conflict Mark Bailey (Green Party) does not wreck the state because usually there is hardly anything at issue between the conflicting parties except the mere holding of Office. The parties occupy substantially The budget of the Power-Sharing the same ground and therefore they can do each other down without restraint without Executive—let's call it the Robinson destroying the state. If there were fundamental matters at issue between them, so that budget—is a right-wing budget. It has a change of government caused a change of social system, what we call democracy been proudly described as "right wing… would not work. and Unionist driven" by Iris Robinson Northern Ireland is neither a democracy nor a state. MLA and by Edwin Poots, both of the It is a variant of the British state, excluded by Britain from the political system of the DUP, who also taunted Republicans by state. adding "Sinn Fein are pleased to achieve Within this Northern Ireland system the ground of party division is not of a kind with an Equality Impact Assessment of the the party division in the rest of the state. It is a communal division signified by religion, budget—but we set the budget." not a policy division relating to the government of the state. Neither Iris Robinson, nor Edwin Poots In the old Stormont system, where the democratic principle of majority rule applied, is wrong. the Protestant community had to return a Unionist majority at every 6 County election As with every other Northern Ireland in order to remain under the British state. A 'swing' towards the Nationalist Party which budget, the Robinson Budget is gave it a majority at Stormont would have led to a transference of the region from the constrained within the limits of the Barnett UK to the Republic. A subsequent reverse swing would have taken it back to the UK. formula [which determines how much of It was no more possible to have the 6 Counties nipping to and fro between the two the UK tax pool goes to NI (and Scotland states than it was to have the British social system changing to and fro between capitalism also)]. It is very much about dividing up and socialism as fundamentally antagonistic Labour and Tory Parties took turns at the slice of cake given by the Treasury. If winning elections. the Blair mantra was "Education, education, education" we should not forget continued on page 2 continued on page 4 Appreciation was held there for nearly two years. for Cork Co. Council. At week-ends he When he was released from the Curragh gave grinds in commerce and Pádraig Ó he found it difficult to get a job. On his accountancy He was a brilliant teacher release he did not have a proper pair of and one of his ex-students told me at his Cuanacháin shoes and they gave him an old pair of funeral that "if you had Paddy as your army boots. Later that day on the Grand teacher you were sure of success". The news that Pádraig Ó Cuanacháin Parade in Cork he met an acquaintance had died suddenly in Cork on Sunday who said "Paddy that's a great pair of On the Sunday of his death he went March 2nd was a great shock to all who boots, where did you get them"? He to the monument on the Grand Parade knew him. Born on 11th January 1932 replied "a present from De Valera". to take note of the names on it, went to he was 76. He had a diploma in He eventually joined Udaras na his nearby office a short distance away, commerce and was a certified Gaeilge and served with distinction until came back out on to the street and accountant. He joined CIE for a short he retired at 65 in 1997. He was then collapsed. Some passers by helped him time and then worked for Cork Co. seconded to Gael Taca and was back into his office but he was dead Council. responsible for opening many Irish when the ambulances arrived. He died He was a member of Sinn Fein and language schools as well as promoting in the office where he had worked for so was interred in the Curragh in 1956. He all things Irish. He was also a translator long promoting the Irish language. It is continued on page 3, column 2 himself we pressed the information on C O N T E N T S him in the lobbying of British party conferences in the 1980s and early 1990s. Paisley And 'British Government". Editorial 1 He indicated then that he did not wish to A Right-Wing Budget. Mark Langhammer 1 know that, which meant of course that he did know it but did not intend to let the Pádraig Ó Cuanacháin. Jack Moylett (an appreciation) 1 knowledge interfere with his career. BBC Readers' Letters: The Casement 'Black Diaries'. Roger Sawyer 3 journalists are carefully blinkered ideologues with disciplined eyes. A Martian Eye On Russia. Manus O'Riordan 6 Shorts from the Long Fellow (The Irish Woman; The Kenyan; The Scotsman; Paisley too knows that Northern Ireland is a place set apart. About 25 years ago he The Nepalese Boy; The American; The Irish Mahon) 9 adopted the policy of bringing it into the Social Partnership. Philip O'Connor; Manus O'Riordan 10 British system. He was talked out out of it by some powerful figures behind the Israel Flouts UN Resolutions. David Morrison 10 scenes, and reverted from 'integration' to 1916 Speeches In Co. Cork. Report 11 the Protestant/Catholic squabbling, which is the ground of Northern Ireland politics. Tibet. Conor Lynch (letter) 11 Since he once had the daring to propose Why History. T. O'Sullivan (report) 11 that the North of Ireland should be integrated with Britain, he knows that The Elections Of 1918, 1920 And 1921. Pat Muldowney 12 Ulster is not British but is only connected Does It Stack Up? Michael Stack (Boy Soldiers; Leaseholds; David Irving; with Britain in certain vital respects. University Funding; Environmental Terrorism) 15 In 1985, when John Hume gained his first great triumph, the Anglo-Irish Reactions To Paisley's Departure. Conor Lynch (Part 1) 16 Agreement, we responded by launching Lord Professor Bew And The Forging Of A Shared Past. Brendan Clifford 18 the CEC (Campaign for Equal Citizen- ship), which gathered considerable support Spies And Lies—Cui Bono? Julianne Herlihy (Part 2) 20 for a while. Hume got very angry with us, Editorial Digest. (Royal Irish Regiment; Saint Patrick's Day In Belfast . but he reckoned that we would fail because and in Dingle; Would You Wear An Easter Lily?; Prisoner Releases; Israel And the Unionists would submit to British Settlers; Simon Community; Outsourcing; Nice Little Earners) 24 pressure, would pull away from the campaign to democratise Ulster within Labour Comment, edited by Pat Maloney: the politics of the state, and would Woodrow Wilson: a lost soul in Paris withdraw to the enclave that Whitehall put them into in 1921. They backed down Northern Ireland politics is no more extremists in the Unionist movement and in 1921, he said, and agreed to operate a based on policy difference today than it the moderate extremists in the other camp. pseudo-state outside British politics, and was before 1972. But the old system in The extremist moderates had made Paisley he predicted that they would once again which, under a semblance of democracy, their bogeyman for 40 years—see the submit. And he was right. The submission there was a permanent party of government Irish Times, any date. Of course it was was made publicly by Frank Millar (wee and permanent party of opposition has awful that he should be the Unionist who Frankie), Secretary of the Unionist Party, been replaced with a system which allows made a settlement. But what they really who took a Unionist Party delegation to for no opposition but has all parties in the resented was that he let in Sinn Fein. Bad Downing Street, was told authoritatively government. though he was, he had a good side—he by Mrs. Thatcher that Northern Ireland This system was stabilised last year would die in the last ditch, rather than let would not be let into the British system of when Sinn Fein and the DUP became the Sinn Fein off the hook.