In Defence of Conspiracy Theories with examples from Irish and International History and Politics Brian Nugent Dedicated to St Patrick and St Oliver Plunkett Cover photographs clockwise from top left corner: John Paul II, Francis Dashwood by Hogarth (mocking the Franciscans), A constellation of US and French satellites, Pope Paul VI, Martin McGuinness, Erskine Childers, Michael Collins, Marquise Montesban,and Cardinal Richelieu. In the centre: 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary, James Stephens and Francis Dashwood. © Brian Nugent Co.Meath 2006-8. 4th online edition 18 November 2008. The basic text of Chapters 1 and 11 are from www.indymedia.ie/article/84203, Chapter 2 from www.indymedia.ie/article/84054 , 4 from www.indymedia.ie/article/76810 , 7 from www.indymedia.ie/article/81544 , 8 from www.indymedia.ie/article/74119 , 9 from www.indymedia.ie/article/86730 and 10 from www.indymedia.ie/article/78897 . A hard copy version of this book (ISBN 9780955681226) is available at: http://www.lulu.com/content/2369144 2 CONTENTS 1. In Defence of Conspiracy Theories...................................................................................5 Modern Mé Féin Culture..............................................................................................................................5 Media response to Whistleblowers............................................................................................................12 Police response to Whistleblowers............................................................................................................16 Technology................................................................................................................................................19 Secret Societies.........................................................................................................................................21 Underestimating the Complexity of Politics................................................................................................23 The pervasive influence of the modern mass media..................................................................................28 2. The 1641 Rebellion..........................................................................................................42 Conspiratorial Pattern of the Confederate Wars in Ireland. ......................................................................46 Deliberate Manipulation of the Historical Record.......................................................................................47 Glossary....................................................................................................................................................48 3. Were most of the Irish leaders of the 1919-21 War really British agents? A different perspective.......................................................................................................................60 4. Secret Societies in Ireland...............................................................................................83 5. Satanic Ritual Abuse and the case of Sarah Bland.........................................................91 6. Did Wayne O'Donoghue really kill Robert Holohan?.....................................................103 Hypnosis and Trauma, Mind Manipulation Technology...........................................................................106 7. Russia in the crosshairs.................................................................................................118 8. Is Martin McGuinness a British Agent? The new revelations considered.....................128 Further thoughts in the light of more intelligence leaks............................................................................130 9. Crisis and Corruption in the Catholic Church................................................................136 10.Irish Immigration, a state or EU conspiracy?................................................................148 11.How to create a Value System in a population to make Political Control easier..........155 Hospitality as one example of an element in a Value System..................................................................155 Stripping out Traditional Values...............................................................................................................155 Implanting Subservient Values................................................................................................................158 Necessity to crush the sense of history ..................................................................................................162 The Open War of Ideas...........................................................................................................................163 Public Policy set by a small clique worldwide..........................................................................................165 3 PREFACE This is a book compiled from various articles, most of them hosted at indymedia.ie whom I'd like to thank, on the general subject of conspiracy theories. In some ways its probably not a particularly useful categorisation but it seems to be applied to virtually every case of involved or complicated state corruption in modern times and hence seems to apply to all these articles. I apologise that I use an internet writing style that is a lot different to normal academic styles but hopefully the points raised are clear enough. Similarly I hope too that I will be forgiven for using standard internet abbreviations like afaik – as far as I know, lol and :-) – lots of laughter, and imho – in my humble opinion. I'd like to thank my family and all the research institutions and libraries that I used, which I list in the book 'Shakespeare is Irish', and many many thanks also to the many commentators that contributed to indymedia. This would get like the Oscars if I was to list them all :-), but I beg forgiveness from those that I have left out and plead lack of space, memory, sheer exhaustion after proof reading this book (and yes I know there are no doubt still piles of errors, they'll just have to do!lol) etc etc. I hope too that the many victims of the groups listed in these pages will take heart and one day see better days. Brian Nugent B.A.(Hons) Co.Meath 26 March 2008 4 CHAPTER 1 In Defence of Conspiracy Theories This chapter attempts to answer some of the criticism levelled at 'conspiracy theorists', by showing inter alia that factors in modern society make it all too possible for conspiracies to exist and difficult for them to be exposed. Modern Mé Féin Culture I think a lot of people would agree with Fred Johnston when he says that: "This is not the age of principles, as commentators keep telling us; we live in a fallen, mé- fhéin [selfish] epoque, when nothing matters."1 The thing is that this kind of general atmosphere has implications for the question of whether or not conspir- acies flourish. Clearly if people don't care about their fellow citizens then they won't bother exposing conspir- acies and are much more likely to participate in them for their own financial or career advancement. Another way of looking at it is that formerly the morals of society were set by the church, particularly by the Catholic Church in Ireland, and probably by the public school and university systems in places like the UK, and this influence led to a personal morality which, in theory anyway, certainly proscribed getting involved in any duplicitous practices: - The Church. I know its perfectly true to say that some of those Christian Brothers, and others, in the later 20th century have not exactly lived up to the ideals they taught but I still wonder if its not fair to say that they impressed upon their students a code of morality, and an 'informed conscience', which encouraged their pu- pils not to get involved in 'conspiratorial' practices. Like obviously if you emerged believing in the 10 Com- mandments, which they drilled into people, with its requirements not to lie, steal, or kill etc then you really would be useless as a conspirator! Also the Irish Catholic church was always traditionally critical of Secret Societies and under that pressure those societies often wilted, so again maybe that particular 'conspiracy theory', that those societies are all powerful, would be truer in the period when the church is in decline. - Universities and Public Schools. During most of the 19th and early 20th century these institutions used to boast of turning out a 'gentleman' who had a high standard of morality and learning. This certainly involved keeping your word, not stealing, and being well informed and educated about the world around you. Within that code incidentally they also tended to praise a kind of semi leisure existence, certainly working all the time to the detriment of expanding your mind was considered the ultimate social faux pas! (As Oscar Wilde once said "Work is the curse of the drinking classes!") Anyway this 'gentleman' type would also never toler- ate the goings on that are described in the usual 'conspiracy theories'. Obviously this education and code of morality was not followed by all who were brought up in it, plenty of Christian Brothers pupils, and teachers unfortunately, turned out to be perfectly evil and many of those 'gen- tlemen' were anything but. That being said you could surely make the case that people existing in a society which cherishes those kind of values are somewhat less likely to get involved in 'conspiracies' than a society