Iran's Bomb? Raymond Crotty's Mondragon. Part 4 David Morrison Appeal To England Labour Comment page 8 page 12 back page IRISH POLITICAL REVIEW February 2012 Vol.27, No.2 ISSN 0790-7672 and Northern Star incorporating Workers' Weekly Vol.26 No.2 ISSN 954-5891 The Euro The Right To Desert Realities And "Minister for Defence, Alan Shatter, has said that serious examination is taking place Abstractions into the possible pardoning of Irish soldiers who deserted from the Defence forces to fight for the Allies in World War 2. Speaking on Morning Ireland Minister Shatter said these Recent developments to secure the soldiers had fought against fascism and contributed to the future of freedom and Euro, and the new inter-Governmental democracy in Europe. He said they were penalised by a regulation barring them from being arrangements to do so, have left our EU- employed in any public service job. He welcomed the passing of a motion in the Stormont ophiles talking and writing the most awful Assembly earlier this week calling for a pardon for the soldiers. Minister Shatter said he rubbish. The EU has had to be cast aside believes that it is right that the Republic of Ireland now revisit how this issue was dealt with as ineffective and now the EU structure is historically" (RTE Online, 25 January). being used by the British Government as The motion at Stormont not only demanded that the deserters to the enemy should be the best way to prevent the Euro being a pardoned, but that there should be an official Apology because their right of desertion success. The choice is plain—the EU or was not recognised. the Euro! But that is the last thing that any Sinn Fein supported the Stormont motion, which was proposed by the DUP. But, of EUophile will say. He/she will try to have course, Sinn Fein in the 1940s did not recognised the 26 County regime as a legitimately- it every which way. The Commission's constituted State. Nor did it do so for half a century after the end of the World War. And top civil servant, Catherine Day, was at it it is still, on occasion, accused of not recognising it in earnest by the governing party in Dublin last month. which is seriously considering honouring the deserters from the Irish Army to join the "Ms Day, the Irish woman who has British Army—at a moment when the British Prime Minister was reasserting a right of been secretary general of the commission military intervention in the Irish state. since 2005, told the Institute of Inter- If the Dail complies with the DUP/Sinn Fein motion, it will substantiate Sinn Fein national European Affairs in Dublin yesterday the future shape of the EU was scepticism about its legitimacy. States assert a monopoly right on the use of force. The currently being determined. The trad- converse of this is that, in democratic states, the apparatus of force of the State must be itional “community method” of doing unconditionally obedient to the elected Government of the state. A State which accords business was being challenged by an a right to its soldiers in time of war, not only to desert but to join the Army of a hostile inter-governmental approach dominated State is, to put it at its mildest, an inadequate state, doubtful of its right to independent by the larger states" (The Irish Times, existence. January 6, 2012). The Irish Army was not a conscript army: soldiers were all volunteers—and it had It is not "being challenged"—the Com- been open to the men in question to go and volunteer in the UK. Many did so and did munity method was challenged, lost and continued on page 2 continued on page 6 We also were to be given the worst Deserters: Ireland A Fascist State? treatment possible, because as you know The Irish Times published the following letter from a lady who had clearly been Ireland did not like the British. The Irish traumatised in its issue of 27th January government gave the British government "Pardon on way for Irish who fought, was in the British forces, and then have it the bill for the children and the British according to Minister for Defence, Alan put on your records (like it stated on my government paid. Shatter… records that went in with me to the The Irish people who did join the British That is good news. But now let him take industrial school at the age of three years forces must have been the bravest people a good look at what happened to soldiers’ old). Letters that were sent to the industrial going, knowing that they were very likely children, charged and taken to court by the school from the parents were sent on to the to face death; to find that if they made it NSPCC and the ISPCC, to be criminally Department of Education. So the children back home to Ireland, their own govern- charged and sentenced to an industrial never got to see their parents; the Depart- ment and people rejected them: and this is school for up to 16 years or life. Yes, I ment of Education and the nuns made us supposed to be a good Christian country. mean life, because the nuns could have orphans. When we were released from the Ireland did not just incarcerate its own you sent to a Magdalene Laundry or a industrial schools there was no family to children; it also incarcerated a lot of foreign mental institution just because your father turn to. children in the industrial schools as well. continued on page 7 preparation had been made) was in collapse. The issue for the British Government then C O N T E N T S was whether to limit the War in the light of Page the military fiasco in France, and make a The Right To Desert. Editorial 1 settlement as France did, or to use British The Euro: Realities And Abstractions. Jack Lane 1 naval dominance to keep the War going Deserters: Ireland A Fascist State? Report 1 and try to embroil the world in it. Readers' Letters: Views Of Sinn Fein. Stephen Richards 3 There was argument within the British Iran Not Trying To Develop A Nuclear Weapon Cabinet on the issue. Churchill, despite —US Defence Secretary Panetta. David Morrison 8 his notorious reputation as a warmonger, Not Sufficient To Be Sour. Jack Lane responds to Desmond Fennell 9 had his way. He kept the War going with Shorts from the Long Fellow (Pensioners; Failed States; When Was Independence?; very little British fighting, spreading it The Media And Change; Mary Raftery; 'Unexpected' Death) 11 piecemeal for a year, until he gained Stalin Raymond Crotty's Appeal To England: as an ally and the catastrophic phase of the Introduction. Brendan Clifford 12 War began. Eire: A Land Where Emigrants Are Born. Raymond Crotty 12 Some Comments On Raymond Crotty's Article. John Martin 13 That Britain might have adopted a Es Ahora. Julianne Herlihy (Elizabeth Bowen, Lies, Spies & Academics different course of action, either in 1939 —Qui Bono?; CUP & Einbhear Walshe) 15 or in June 1940, is not allowed by the Deserters And Their Champions Equally Unworthy Of Trust. Churchillian mythology of the War And, Donal Kennedy (Unpublished Letter) 16 though Ireland maintained its neutrality in 'The Further One Gets From Belfast'. Niall Meehan replies to Jeff Dudgeon 17 the face of Churchill's threats, it failed to The 1934 Larkin Affidavit: A Comment. Jeff Dudgeon replies to produce a history of the War from its own Manus O'Riordan 21 viewpoint subsequently and therefore fell Crozier Antidotes For Hart Maladies. Manus O'Riordan 23 under the spell of the mesmeric myth cast Items From The Irish Bulletin, 1919. Number 7 27 by Churchill. Does It Stack Up? Michael Stack (Inside Job; Corporation Tax; Fee-Paying The object of almost all British history- And Public Schools; Ultra-Privileged Schools) 28 writing is to make the possibility of a Needs Sectioned? Wilson John Haire (Poem) 29 different course of action from the course chosen by Britain unthinkable. What Labour Comment, edited by Pat Maloney: Britain did was the only thing to do and The Guilds And Capitalism anybody who does not agree is a scoundrel. Mondragon, Part 4 (back page) But the revisionists who dominate Irish academic history in the British interest Due to pressure of space, it has been necessary to hold over a number of items, argue the exact opposite case with regard including Naval Warfare, Part 18 by Pat Walsh to Irish history. They charge nationalists with the fallacy of holding that there was not suffer adverse consequences. the War declared on it by Britain. Britain an inevitable, predestined course of events The Irish Times—the newspaper that held a quarter of the island and was exerting leading to the formation of an independent Britain left behind it in Ireland when it had pressure on the other three-quarters to Irish state. They assert that history happens to leave—did some stirring on this issue facilitate its war effort. through a serious of complicated conjunct- over a year ago. It complained that: ures, and that in each conjuncture something "Soldiers who deserted but did not join The possibility of Irish neutrality had different might have been done. But, the British army were treated differently: come about only a year before Britain when it comes to consideration of British Some were not even arrested, and their launched the War on Germany.