Irish Times on the Arbour Hill Oration Silence Of Labour? dissecting table Brian P. Murphy osb Labour Comment John Martin book launch page 12 page 14 back page IRISH POLITICAL REVIEW May 2008 Vol.23, No.5 ISSN 0790-7672 and Northern Star incorporating Workers' Weekly Vol.22 No.5 ISSN 954-5891 For An Three Down, ? To Go EU Federal State! So the mistress of the Party has had her way again. A third Taoiseach has fallen to In June the Irish people will be asked to the wiles of the failed and resentful party politician chosen by the Oath-bound vote on the Lisbon Treaty. We urge Directorate. of the Irish Times to front its campaign against the only functional party of people to vote "No", to help save the EU the Republic. project from its enemies. In the moment of its third victory the Irish Times felt slightly uneasy. Bertie pre- One could parse and analyse every empted it. Stephen Collins announced that he would be got rid of by being subjected word of the Treaty for its meaning and to a process of "death by a thousand cuts". But he went while the journalistic knives then consider its real meaning. And no were still being sharpened for a Summer campaign. And in his going he launched a doubt that will be done as it was done slight counter-offensive which made Tara Street feel uneasy. In order to confuse the during the French referendum of 2005. situation it gave momentary prominence on its pages to voices in its extensive stable of But the forthcoming referendum comes journalists which are usually required to be silent. The "right of due process" was even down to one question and it is the same mentioned, after due process had been systematically over-ridden—and will be again question that was asked of the Irish people when an opportunity is found. in 1972 when we voted to join the EEC. That question is: are you in favour of the "Due process" is an empty phrase in Ireland today. It has been shredded by the Irish European project? From 1972 until the Times and the Flood Tribunal acting together in pursuit of a vendetta. Both were Maastricht Treaty the answer to that determined to get Ahern. He was harassed fanatically over matters which had nothing question was an unambiguous "yes". to do with the issue for which the Tribunal was set up. And in the end they got him. But what did they get him for? For nothing in particular. It was just that the Judge The Irish people experienced the conducting the Tribunal, outside the judicial process, under ill-defined authority European project as a liberation. Roger conferred by the Dail, chose to keep on extending the range of the Inquisition, regardless Casement, a founding father of this State, of the initial object for which the Tribunal was set up, because he was intent on getting believed that one of the most iniquitous Ahern. aspects of British rule in Ireland was that The procedure he implemented was a bizarre mixture of inquisitorial and adversarial, it cut us off from Continental Europe. being one or the other according to his wish, and without the safeguards that would Joining the EEC was an opportunity to operate if it was definitely either one or the other. The endless bullying of witnesses with participate in an international project of regard to small financial transactions a decade ago or more until some usable equivocal cooperation on an equal basis with the continued on page 2 continued on page 3 going to become a permanent fixture, anti-partitionism became a central tenet The Irish Times Record On Kosovo of Irish foreign policy. From India to Vietnam to Korea, dividing countries on And The Men Of The West ethnic lines was no answer to disputes. All changed, changed utterly this week. It would be easy to begin this article that the overwhelming majority of western The three main Dáil parties have not just media pundits have been afraid to come to accept partition for the time with an ad hominem argument against being—they actively support it … I should Unionist polemicist Steven King. I could articulate: point out that I'm not talking about the provide lengthy quotations from the vast "It is too easily forgotten that no one, North. Rather, I refer to the declarations body of his articles that I detest before not Carson any more than de Valera, of support for the partition of Serbia, also proceeding to an exception. But that would Collins or Connolly, wanted to see Ireland known as the independence of Kosovo. carved in two. Even the first Stormont On Monday, much of the west—led by be pure self-indulgence. So let me proceed prime minister, James Craig, thought it the US, Britain and France —seized on straight away to his Irish Examiner column was probably just a temporary expedient. Kosovo as an opportunity to parade before of February 20th, where he raised questions But as it became clear that the border was the world as democracy's champion and continued on page 4 O'Toole's statement was not ridiculed, we C O N T E N T S must take it that the meaning of corruption Three Down, ? To Go. Editorial 1 has changed, and it no longer means a For An EU Federal State!. Editorial from Irish Foreign Affairs 1 public servant doing favours in returns for The Irish Times Record On Kosovo And The Men Of The West. bribes. And that opens it to any meaning Manus O'Riordan 1 one cares to give it. Readers' Letters: Eoin Neeson Not A Publicity Agent 3 The clearest case of misuse of public O Cuanachán And The Record. Report 7 office was when a Fine Gael Minister of Editorial Digest. (Legislation At Stormont; Easter Commemorations; The 'Riot In Defence, Hugh Coveney, canvassed the Derry; IRA Ex-Prisoner Frank McGreevy; Partnership And Migrant Rights; Chairman of Bord Gais, Michael Conlon, Markievicz Museum; The Queen; Normality; Cowen's Selection; Parking Protests; for consultancy work for his company. Black Propaganda; SF On Chad; Selling Our Heritage) 7 When that came to light, Coveney was Mitchelstown And Mandeville. Conor Lynch 8 merely demoted in May 1995 to be Mad Dogs Are Irishmen. Seán McGouran (on McDonagh and MacDonald) 9 Minister of State at the Department of National Agreements. Conor Lynch 10 Finance. But that was OK, as his party Shorts from the Long Fellow (Redmond; Parnell; Ahern & The Irish Times; leader was Garret FitzGerald, and it is Ahern & The Tribunals) 11 axiomatic that Fine Gael is not corrupt. Holding The Irish Times To Account. John Martin (launch speech) 12 Unfortunately Coveney killed himself A Parallel Universe. Pat Murphy on Cynical Use of Left-minded Journalists 13 some time later, pre-empting further New Book About Irish Times. Irish Times and Phoenix responses 14 exposures. An Easter Message. Brian P. Murphy's Arbour Hill Oration 14 And then there was FitzGerald himself Lord Professor Bew & The Forging Of A Shared Past. B. Clifford (Part 2) 16 who borrowed heavily from the Allied Does It Stack Up? Michael Stack (Call This Democracy?; A Totalitarian State; Irish Banks in order to make a speculative Kyoto Agreement; Duke Of Devonshire; Major Tom; Lest We Forget) 18 investment that went wrong, and then had Paddy Heaney On Coolacrease. (Report) 20 the loan written off in May 1993. Former Palestinian Suffering: State Urged To Act (Report) 20 Fine Gael Attorney General and European Commissioner Peter Sutherland— Labour Comment, edited by Pat Maloney: appointed to both positions by Dr. Fitz Silence Of Labour? by Pat Maloney (back page) Gerald—was Chairman of AIB. Labour University - call by Jack O'Connor, p20 And then there's Michael Lowry, the Fine Gael Minister who resigned from the Cabinet in November after it was revealed that Ben Dunne had built a £395,000 response is elicited could not be carried on Irish Times refused to divulge the leaked extension to his house, and who is still in a law court. It is carried on by the document so that the leak could be traced. answering questions to a Tribunal on Tribunal only because the Judge, freed In fact it said it had deliberately destroyed another matter. from the judicial restriction of courtroom the document in order to be unable to He has since contested his seat as an law, allows it—wishes it. divulge it. The Court ordered that the Independent and consistently held it. The Tribunal simulates a law court. Irish Times should co-operate with the And there is a Judge on the Bench—only Tribunal in tracing the leak. The Irish The Editor of the Irish Times urged her it is not a Bench in a law court. Times appealed that judgment, and the readers to hold their noses against the Tribunal was happy to let it rest. That was stench of corruption arising from the Irish The Tribunal is like the Times about six months ago. people. So the very electorate is corrupt? Commission set up to pin the Phoenix The procedure adopted by the Tribunal Or could it be that the electorate is not Park murders on Parnell. But there has for handling information given in motivated by an agenda set outside itself, been nobody of the status of Michael confidence was to give it very considerable and has a realistic understanding of the Davitt or William O'Brien to reduce the circulation within its system, virtually functioning of democracy by means of Judge sitting out of Court to size.