'What If' Lynch Had A Revolting Fantasy Irish Militarism Attacked Britain? (review of Hanley/Millar) Labour Comment pages 8,9 page 14 back page IRISH POLITICAL REVIEW October 2009 Vol.24, No.10 ISSN 0790-7672 and Northern Star incorporating Workers' Weekly Vol.23 No.10 ISSN 954- 5891 News From Nowhere LISBON REFERENDUM: The leader of the SDLP is to resign the leadership of the party after the next election. Ireland Toes The Line He will contest his Westminster seat, relinquish his Stormont seat and attempt to make it a principle that the "dual mandate" of holding seats at both Stormont and Westminster Lisbon II was a demeaning affair. The should be ended. whole idea of refusing to recognise a The leader of the Liberal Democrats, who expects to hold the balance of power at referendum result and insisting on another Westminster next year, says that, with the devolved system now established, the was an insult and a clear indication that Northern. Ireland Office of the Whitehall Government should be abolished. Ireland is not taken seriously in the EU. The DUP, which dragged its heels on the implementation of the Good Friday The enthusiasm of the Government and Agreement a couple of years ago while waiting for the flighty Tony Blair to be replaced most of the political class in accepting the by the sound Presbyterian Scot, Gordon Brown, was disillusioned by Brown and is now need to rerun it confirms that there is no delaying the devolution of Justice and Policing powers while waiting for the Tories to need to take the country seriously and it take over from New Labour. will not be taken seriously from now on— Brown had to pull out of a Commemoration meeting for Trade Union leader Jack least of all in the EU. Jones in order to go to Belfast and try to get the DUP to implement the agreement on the The EU has changed fundamentally devolution of policing. He did not succeed. and it is now driven by the larger Member While the leader of the DUP refuses to implement the policing agreement for Unionist States as they see fit. There used to be a reasons, the DUP Finance Minister appeals to Dublin for Northern representation on the 'community method' of doing things as NAMA (National Assets Management Agency) Board, one aim of which is to prevent exemplified and practised by the Commis- a collapse of property prices under the influence of the market by taking over major sion and its approach. All members were building projects and assets from the banks under a system of anticipated future prices. equal and treated accordingly and Over the past decade there has been heavy investment by Southern business in property agreement reached by consensus. Now in the North, and a fundamentalist Unionist wants representation in the Southern rescue the President of the Commission is not system. And the Southern Finance Minister, a member of Fianna Fail: The Republican even sure how many Commissioners there Party, refuses. (Report, IT 9.9.09.) will be or should be. During his visit here The Irish Labour Party, under Stickie leadership, has in recent times been doing its "Mr Barroso said there was no agreement best to break off the slight engagement in the political life of the North which it undertook yet on a proposal by Sweden to allow 26 a few years ago. Yet the Stickie leader of the Party suddenly engages with internal member states to retain a commissioner Northern affairs by needling Sinn Fein (Provo) in its Northern dimension over the lower and give the 27th country the right to minimum wage prevailing in the area "where you are in government" (23.9.09 IT: The appoint a new EU high representative for respective levels are ¤8.65 and ¤6.32). foreign affairs. 'There are different Fianna Fail under Bertie Ahern opened up the prospect of extending its organisation scenarios. Some people say we should to the North. Then under Brian Cowen it closed down that prospect. And now, have a commission of 15 members. It's too apparently under grass roots pressure, the organisation of Fianna Fail branches in the soon to speculate,' he added" (IT, 19.9.09). to page 5, column 2 to page 2 Labour and the excluding Employer/Trade Union rep- governance or public administration" resentatives (currently four ICTU and four (The Irish Times, 6.10.2009). destruction of FÁS IBEC) as well as the two directly-elected This is the beginning of the end of FÁS The Government has moved swiftly to FÁS Worker Directors. Together these as one of the great Social Partnership capitalise on the collapse of FÁS—the accounted for 10 of the 17 Board places. organisations with roots going back to the state training and employment agency with The Bill will instead provide for the Minis- tripartite employer-labour-state institut- an annual budget of ¤1bn.—in the wake ter for Enterprise, Trade and Employment ions established during the 1950s-60s of the resignation of its Board following a to personally select the board members in Lemass era of industrial development. year-long campaign of public vilification a "non-prescribed manner" and "in That industrial take-off owed not a little to based on the exposure of alleged corrupt- consultation with the Minister for Social a close alliance between Trade Unions ion. A draft Bill (Labour Services Amend- and Family Affairs and the Minister for and state following the re-unification of ment Bill, 2009) "leaked" to the press Education and Science". Those appointed the Trade Union movement under the showed the Government's intention to will "have experience and expertise in leadership of "Young Jim" Larkin. Larkin, establish a new Board reduced in size areas relevant to the functions of Fás" and contending with a weak Labour Party from 17 to 11 and, most significantly, in "finance, trade, commerce, corporate then in opposition and inspired by his to page 2, column 3 Afghanistan is certainly a good place C O N T E N T S where those Member States that had Page developed a bit of a conscience about News From Nowhere. Editorial 1 wanton killing can at least arrange to amend their ways as the Germans did on Lisbon: Ireland Toes The Line. Jack Lane 1 the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of Labour And The Destruction Of Fás. Philip O'Connor 1 WWII. Soon they may be reblooded Readers' Letters: Martin Meehan. S. Garland; Bowen & WW2. B.Ó Ceallaigh 3 enough to do it on their own account. Major McDowell (1923-2009). Editorial (Obituary) 4 Now Ireland is joined up to this game: and its political and moral capital in the Catalan And Anglo-Irish Identities. Manus O'Riordan 5 world used to support it. Welcome to the Death Of Muriel MacSwiney's Daughter. Note 6 new EU. Palestine's 'Friends'. Philip O'Connor (Report) 6 Jack Lane Netzarim Junction. Wilson John Haire (Poem) Shorts from the Long Fellow (Major McDowell; IT Trust; Record Of The Paper; Times Past; Unfunny Holocaust Joke) 7 Labour and FÁS 'What If' Lynch Had Attacked Britain? Editorial 8 continued father's life work and the political legacy Incursion Not Invasion. Edward Longwill (Review) 9 of Connolly, insisted on organised labour Prof. Hart On Rebel Cork. Jack Lane 10 co-determining the shape of the Irish National Anthems And Emblems. Manus O'Riordan 11 industrial programme. A Revolting Fantasy. Brendan Clifford 14 The ethos of the FÁS organisation can Biteback: Ireland And The Two World Wars. Philip O'Connor 16 be judged by its reaction to the collapse of Does It Stack Up? Michael Stack (Statistics; NAMA; Lisbon Treaty) 19 the construction industry—over the last John Curtin. Patrick O'Beirne 20 year it has "arranged" for 400 electrical Casement 2008. Tim O'Sullivan (Part 1 of report) 21 apprentices made redundant from the building sector by the recession to com- The Ford Job-Cull. Seán McGouran 23 plete their apprenticeships with another Non. Wilson John Haire (Poem on Lisbon) 23 "semi-state" corporation, the ESB. Indeed, by 2007 FÁS was overseeing the training of over 30,000 apprentices in Irish industry, Labour Comment, edited by Pat Maloney: with an annual intake of nearly three times Irish Militarism by Pat Maloney the figure of a decade previously (see FÁS It's That Time Again, poem on Afghanistan by Wilson John Haire annual reports, on www.fas.ie). (back page) A relentless campaign has been waged against the agency by anti-state forces in the Republic. The "scandals" revealed by Senator Shane Ross in the Sunday Inde- Now it is the intergovernmental method the focus of the new EU and the new which is in control and that means it is the President will be its cutting edge. Already pendent in November 2008 were simply a big boys who count, naturally, and they we know what to expect even if Mr. Blair call to arms to close in for the kill. will decide for Mr. Barroso how many does not get the job. No need to speculate— Commissioners there will be and what just get the maps out to locate the next The Board of FÁS which has just they should do. Mr Sarkozy, for example, 'crisis.' resigned was chaired by Peter McLoone, has shown many times how he approaches The following figures show the line-up the highly regarded General Secretary of things and it is not via EU consensus. of existing combatants in Afghanistan the public services union, IMPACT, and "Tired by the slow pace of EU justice from the EU and applicant countries: former President of ICTU.