'" ,',' -j j December 1978 Volume 2 Number 3 COVER STORY The Tony Hanahoe Affair by Vincent Browne 74 MAGILL FILE UDA Plans for Independence by Ed Maloney 6 Cork County Council by Nell McCafferty 12 DEPARTMENTS How Cooney Scooped the Sunday World 4 Motoring cdit c d by ScfWYII Parker 32 Wigmore 94 Health by Michael Fitzpatrick 62 People by Joan Byrne and Selwyn Parker 26 Going Out in December 86 Teddy Kennedy is the most powerful liberal in the US Senate and is unlikely to sacrifice that position CURRENT AFFAIRS for a shot at the presidency in 1980, and indeed, The Myth of Dole Abuse by Brian Trench 17 may never run for that office. Page 56 Martin 0 'Donoghue oft the Economy 20 . ", ;., - Inside H Block by Ed Maloney 24 FEATURES Magill's Christmas Shopping Guide by A nile Dempsey 29 Iran in Flames by Vincent Browne 38 Armed Robbery by Rorie Smith 46 Teddy Kennedy in 19801 by A lex Cockburn 56 FINANCE Finance Diary 65 The EEC Bonanza 66 REVIEWS The Slane Castle Restaurant by Peter Pumpkin 83 Bob Willoughby Photo· Feature 84 Tom Kiernan, capped 54 times for Ireland and Irish Painters c 1660-1920 by Bruce Arnold 88 coach of the victorious Munster team against the Record Reviews by Brian Trench 92 All Blacks, talks about Irish rugby. Page 70 SPORT Tom Kiernan on Irish Rugby 70 i~lf '1 The myth of dole abuse disguises the worsening misery of the unemployed and distracts attention from employers' abuse of the system. Page 17 MAGILL DECEMBER 1978 3 he £28,000 libel award to be kept under wraps. TPatrick Cooney against the "Paddy Cooney is anxious Sunday World was the result of a that no such inquiry be held. He combination of unprofessional probably knows most of the facts journalism, editorial strife with- than most others ... in the paper and managerial timi- "Those who most tried to stop dity. the Watergate inquiries in The case has done more than America ultimately turned out to the best efforts of the Coalition have much to hide. None can ever Government in 1976 to stifle the hope to hold political office again. press here and has blunted in- Those who were lawyers were quiries into those issues related to stopped from carry ing on that Cooney's reign in Justice. trade later. The Sunday World story was "I feel sure that those who written by an anonymous free- The Sunday World published a libelous article on want to stop enquiries into the lance political journalist who was Patrick Cooney after the editor had been informed Irish Watergate act from the very the mainstay of the "Senator" that the basis for the article was false. best of motives and have nothing column until recently. Joe to hide ..... " Kennedy, the first editor of the Kennedy sent the article to be Sunday World and perhaps the about it here ... As usual". typeset and he then laid out the person most responsible for the This story was published after page. However when the final paper's initial success, edited the the editor, Kevin Marron had page make-up was being done it column even after he became n September 25, 1977 the been assured that its contents was found that there were gaps on managing editor of the company I"Senator" went even fur- were almost entirely "rubbish". the page. A sub-editor scanned in order to launch a new evening ther: "I can tell you this morning Kennedy was on leave when it the copy, saw the names of Nixon paper. that we are about to witness in arrived in the Sunday World and Cooney and placed thei r The libelous column which this country the biggest series of office and Marron asked reporter photographs at either end of the. was published on October 2,1977, trials arising out of the activities Eamon McCann to check the heading "Is this to be Irish Water- was preceded by two other condoned or ordered by Govern- piece. gate?" ment Ministers that has ever columns in the same vein written McCann interviewed the most That section of the paper was occurred. by the same freelance political obvious "leading constitutional printed on a Thursday morning "I can also say that Ireland's journalist. lawyer" in th is context, Sean and Kennedy saw one of the first The first of these appeared on leading constitutional lawyer has McBride, and was assured that the print outs when he arrived in his July 24, 1977 and predicted the drawn up an indictment concern- report was nonsense. McCann office that afternoon. Believing ing activities while in office of publication of the Amnesty re- made some further inquiries with that the publication of the phoro- port on allegations of Garda bru- Coalition Ministers. In the case of Government contacts and report- graph would libel Cooney, he some of the accusations any or all tality, which was common know- ed to Marron that the story was immediately ordered that the Coalition Ministers could be ledge at the time. The story went untrue. presses be stopped and that on to state: "I gather that the accused though it might not be Nevertheless, it was published. Cooney's picture be removed. name of a most senior minister that all were fully aware of what Kennedy vetted the October 2, The sub-editor, unsure of who authorised a most senior they were condoning. 1977 story, from the same free- Kennedy's authority to order the pol ice officer to use whatever "It is expected that a Bill of lance political journalist, when it stopping of the presses, enquired methods he liked on prisoners and Indemnity might be requested to came to the office, not knowing of Marron whether to comply. guaranteed him that there would cover all actions taken by or on that his story published the pre- Marron said no, partly because he behalf of Ministers from 1973 to be no investigation of any kind, vious week had been found to be was peeved at Kennedy's usurp- 1977 on the lines being planned no matter what occurred, may oaseless by one of the paper's tion of his authority and partly in Britain to indemnify actions by feature prominently in the re- own reporters. The October 2 because he didn't want to waste Ian Smith and his Ministers since port". story advanced the fanciful tale the pages already printed. That story ended by denying 1965. even further: It is doubtful if the publica- emphatically that Patrick Cooney "Were Jack Lynch to agree, "I can say this morning' that tion of the Cooney picture made was the Minister concerned. prosecutions would likely be Jack Lynch certainly does not any difference to the defamation. There was never the slightest thwarted though some lawyers want members of the previous ad- The story had clearly implicated possibility that a senior ,Minister claim action might still be taken ministration put on trial. But his Cooney in the possible trials and would be named by Amnesty In- against former Ministers under ths dilemma is that matters are en- had suggested that as he didn't ternational as having given any in- European Convention of Human tirely out of his hands. want an inqu iry he had much to struction to a senior police officer. Rights .... " "Amnesty International and hide. It also, by implication, cal- Amnesty at no stage had any evi- That column ended with what the International Commission of led into question his future status dence of this and would never must now read as subl ime irony: Jurists and powerful individuals as a lawyer. have been in a position to receive "when you read fu rther details of concerned with human rights in The almost unbelievable as- evidence ot this. A phone call to what is happening in other jour- many parts of the world have the pect to the story -isthat the editor the Amnesty office in London nals, remember you first heard facts. It is not as if things could of the paper knew that the basis for the article was untrue - viz. out-of-court settlement of £10,000 that there was a possibility of damages plus a full apology but trials involving sen ior ministers, the Sunday World lawyers advised that a Bill of Indemnity was against acceptance. under consideration, and that in- The Sunday World then star- ternational bodies might name the ted to assemble a file on Cooney senior Coalition ministers as hav- involving the fingerprint affair, ing condoned or ordered Garda the allegations of Garda brutality brutality. Also, it seems incredible and prison conditions and there that neither Marron' nor McCann were rumours of the greatest poli- bothered to mention to Kennedy tical libel case in history. The pro- that the previous story from the spect became even more alluring same journalist was nonsense. when it became known that for- Cooney's solicitors reacted mer Fianna Fail Attorney General, immediately and in the following Colm Condon, would lead for the Sunday's paper, October 9, 1977, defence. there was a page 2 "clarification" In the end, both the manage- which attempted to maintain that ment of the Sunday World and as the July 24 column had stated the lawyers chickened out of a emphatically that Cooney was not confrontation and attempted to the person likely to be named as argue the ridiculous - that the the senior minister who ordered a column didn't defame Cooney. senior police officer to use what- There are serious issues ar'ising ever methods he liked on prison- from Cooney's period in Justice ers, then it would be clear to but now the Sunday World has readers of the October 2 column effectively blown any possibility that Cooney was not the person of an inquiry into these.