FOUNDED 1939

Organ of the Connolly Association

15

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No. 457

J

r MARCH 1982 20p

Poge 2 - IRISH LABOUR PARTY

Pose 3 - THE EEC WEAKENS

Poge 4 - BALLADS OF LONG KESH

*oge 5 - SIX COUNTY ECONOMY

Poge 6 - IRISH SONGS

Poge 7 - BOOKS

Poge 8 •

- DONALL MocAMHLAIGH

DUBLIN IN WAR DANGER

IT^UBLIN would be an inevit-able target in a nuclear

war, said anti-nuclear cam-paigner Frank Bamaby, of the Stockholm Peace Research In-stitute, at a recent conference organised by the Irish School of Ecumenics. In the Jesuit head-quarters in Milltown, Dublin, peace campaigners from all over the country came together to consider the question of Irish neutrality in this nuclear age.

Dr Barnaby warned that tlje world had at most 10 years or so to reverse the slide towards war by controlling the arms race. In the big capitalist coun-tries like America or Britain or Germany there are powerful business interests committed to the arms race. They want maxi-mum arms preparations, even if they don't want war itself. Huge numbers of scientists and other professionals are also engaged in arms research, so that it will be very hard to bring about nuclear disarmament. TRELAND would be best ad-

vised to stay neutral and get together with other neutral and non-aligned States to work for general disarmament. There was general agreement that the EEC was endangering Irish neu-trality, as it became ever more obviously an economic arm for NATO and as Germany and Bri-tain tried to bring about a com-mon foreign policy. Ireland went along with the EEC on Poland, Iran, the Middle East and El Salvador because of Common Market economic pres-sures, although genuinely neu-tral countries like Sweden, Switzerland, Austria and Fin-land were free from such pres-sures.

The School of Ecumenics links together those clergymen in Ireland of all denominations who wish to develop closer co-operation between the chur-ches. It is an important de-velopment that the clergy, Pro-testant and Catholic, and from both North and South, are showing their concern about Irish neutrality by holding meetings such as this.

THE meaning of the election result, giving the Republic its second " hung Dail" in succession means that the Irish people trust neither tweedledum nor tweedledee.

No doubt Garret Fitzgerald is a "decent fellow", and lie, takes care over his "image". No doubt Charles Haughey has one 6r two drops of Republican blood. But if Fianna Fail is marginally better, "statistical man" would prefer to have a position where either of them could be toppled if they outrage public opinion.

It is all very well to talk about strong government. That means government tha t can disregard the wishes of the people.

Labour sowed the wind and is reaping, the whirlwind. The re-sult of the unprincipled coalition with Pine Gael is that Labour's vote dropped to its lowest ever, while Pine Gael's reached its high-est ever.

By a near miracle Labour kept its seats. If its vote slumps fur-ther at the next election its repres-entation might be wiped out, and Sinn Fein the • Workers' Party is showing threatening signs of tak-ing its place.

Against prediction Mr Kemmy got back. That means that it is not unpopular to bring down a

government engaged in robbing the ordinary man.

What the new government will have to reckon with is a newly al-erted public opinion on' such is-sues as the economy, the attempt by Mrs Thatcher to inveigle Ire-land into her war preparations, and the evil results of membership of the E.E.C.

With its massive population of " young people the Republic is po-

tentially one of the most volatile states in Europe, and the young people will swing decisively as soon as there is something to swing to.

McKEAGUE MURDER, ANOTHER KINCORA COVER UP ?

TOHN McKEAGUE leading Belfast "loyalist" (loyal to

somebody else's country) was a bitter anti-Catholic, always ranting about Fenians and Taigs

Apparently nobody told him that his own name means "son of Teague", so he must have had Gaelic and probably Catholic ancestry.

So had thousands of other en-thusiastic Orangemen, who, if the truth were known, don't know what they are, and fill up the cultural vacuum with bangs on the big drum.

XTE was a key figure in the group that blew up Bel-

Tipperary mine reopens "VpjXT to Pennsylvania, Ireland

' produces the finest anthracite In the world.

Now production of this is to begin again in Ballingarry, Co. Ttpperary., '

Reason? The mine closed down in 1970, not because there was no

coal left, but because oil was cheap and coal fetched only £20 a ton. Now oil is dear arid high-class an-thracite fetches £160 a ton.

Hie company opening the mine hopes to employ about 200 men and they will turn out about 2,500 tons a week. Used a t this r a t i the reserves will last a t least 40 years.

fast's water supply and brought down Terence O'Neill's govern-ment. Everybody blamed the IRA, as the provocateurs had intended they should. And now he himself has come to a violent end.

It is common knowledge that he was an active homosexual and when he was chairman of the Ulster Defence Association was to be seen surrounded by handsome young fellows re-cruited into his paramilitary "Red Hand Commandoes".

At one time he was an asso-ciate of Ian Paisley, but politi-cal differences arose between them

Now his name is being men-tioned in connection with the Kincora scandal into which the Government is being compelled to make further enquiry after members of the previous com-mission resigned. «-

INCORA was the name of a boys' home which had been

made the centre of a homo-sexual prostitution racket, said to have involved key figures in the Orange Order, civil service and Stormont Castle.

Desperate efforts to hush mat-ters up have proved ineffective and public opinion in the six counties is outraged as fresh revelations are published every day.

It is being said that T:he as-sassination of McKeague was intended to silence for ever somebody who knew too much.

It is a fair guess that before it is finished the Kincora scan-dal will seriously affect the careers of prominent Unionists. It has already revealed to the world the corruptness of Union-ism and led people to ask: "what else are they getting up to?" No wonder they didn't want power-sharing.

REPUBLICANS REJECT PRIOR

I O 0 R T H E R N Ireland Minister Mr James Prior is said to

be ready to impose on the six counties a new scheme that he has cooked up.

There would be an assembly with advisory powers, but the administration would be com-posed of Englishmen chosen in London.

SDLP vice - chairman, Mr Paddy O'Hanlon, speaking at a meeting of the Oxford Union on February 5th, said that an Irish dimension was essential to a solution.

"We are Irish", he insisted, "James Prior would do well to accept this reality. I hope that Southern political parties do not need to be reminded."

The Republicans have rejec-ted it out of hand.

STILL TIME TO INFLUENCE

VOTE r y H E Prevention of Terrorism

Act comes up for renewal in March.

There may still be a couple of weeks in which it will be possible to influence Members of Parlia-ment.

According to Mr Clive Soley, M P., there is a good chance that Labour will for the first time offi-cially vote against renewal, though what kind of whip will be issued is not yet clear. The question will then arise of the attitude of tho Social Democrats. Mr Roy Jenkins is going up in Hillhead, Glasgow, where the respectable middle-class will be for the P.T.A., but where he needs all the working clas.f votes he can get.

Shirley Williams in Crosby has a substantial Irish Catholic electo-rate. Why not drop her a postcard?

And don't neglect the Liberals either. David Alton will vote against renewal. What about tho others?

. .._ • >.-. _ J

2 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT March 1982

LABOUR P A R T Y - I S IT A DEATH WISH ?

Mr Michael O'Leary, T D

Reagan, the war-monger ()\UN()US detail* of A-u

preparations for >e.\r c „arned in a recent i> - . ' : influential "EivnomUt". ra\>- -dent Reagan is (J >:;v .".: »:.< -pending on so-ca:' J 'V."f de-

between I • -Plans have be ... f-> eval uate up to •>•• ureas which a • < .••: - idered lil:ely nuclear tar\ T .--is is known as "c: is! • ' "'tun The planners as-; •'• there u->.,/d be a week n c k j : rnter-nat tonal tension I >re "crisis relocation" became necessary ana the\ u-sume . '. :th the ;•{(/>/(«• culi-hi(.••; ' t.' ' un.v-tVty, it witi ^ •• > ••' : '-'I-formation on iwv £•• evw

To prepare I or t- > f': ' G< v-eminent has alrcu..y d'-tributed 15 newspaper cc'.t »:•••-,• "> iocu/ c'/vi/ defence dree: -s. and in turn they will l; . > r::»?m lo local newspapers u : . ' . < ? t i n e is rig/if — if right is the word.

The US Energy iepjrtment has produced a study urg ing that old people ins'jad of young people should he the rir-t to be sent out of fallout shelters after a nuclear attack to search for food unci water ! T'> ' reasoning is that the old are likely to die from natural causes before the cancer they contract from fall-out destroys their bodies. y f f E Pentagon is now planning

a civilian - military conting-ency hospital system by getting American hospitals to set aside beds for the victims of an un-specified foreign war which could begin very rapidly and produce casualties at a higher rate than any other war in his-tory. To date 26 hospitals have joined this programme and it is to these American hospitals that leading members of the British Army and government would he transported if Britain was blot-ted out first by nuclear bombs.

It is all part of the Reagan ad-ministration's planning for a "limited nuclear war", which they expect to come out of bet-ter than the Russians. Another step in that direction is Rea-

gan'.i re. ent decision to spend C.i'2 million on binary nerve gas weaponv This is after a 13 year iu!! in work on such wea-pons. They are meant to he us ••: / t Europe, of course, where the r:<: :-; -man fighting would be don j.

The b response to these plans ;'.-•• a European holocaust i•< to j; >• CAD and support the campaign for unilateral disarma-ment it: 'Jrituin. and to work to pet rid : the Thatcher Govern-ment u ic'-i is egging Reagan on in his e ::r preparations. And for Ir,>:,.-. \: it is to defend neu-trality of i nurse.

MR Michael O'Leary has been described us the luckiest man

alive. Son of an obscure publican in Cork Cits not long ago he was reported to be earning £75.000 a year

A His luck has held, foi despite the

return ol his previous leader Mr Cluskey. the Labour deputies unani-mously put him back. The question is now. will his luck continue to hold? And what will be the con-sequences lor the Irish Labour Party.

It is » recognised fact that, des-pite the enormous strength of the Trade Union movement, political Labour has next to no impact on public affairs in the Republic.

Why is this? I f ANY people believe that Labour -1'®- has consistently condemned it-

self to ineffectiveness by ignoring the fundamental fact of Irish poli-tics, the interference of imperial England

After tht Rising of 1916 Labour could have led the country as the party of Connolly, 'me Sligo con-ference faced both ways, out of fear of offending the six county trade unionist.-

Labour was prevented from stand-ing for Dail Eireann on an absten-tionist ticket by the influence ot one of these. Cassidy, and so from 1918 to 1922 Labour was powerless to in-fluence national policy.

If Labour had put up no candid-ates in 1922. the Free State Parlia-ment, from which Republicans were abstaining, would not have been able to function. Labour took part and did well, only to lose all its gains a year later. I^OR one brief spell in 1932 * Labour supported Fianna Fail

but when, for narrow party pur-poses. Fianna Fail turned on Labour. there was no effort to show that this action was against the national interest. Fianna Pail was let away with represent-ing itself as the main republican party, which indeed it was.

It was in 1948 that the policy of coalition with Fine Gael saw the light. It was cooked up between Roddy Connolly and Sean Mac-Bride. But the "inter-party government" contained members of Clann na Poblachta, mostly left wing republicans who were dis-illusioned with Fianna Fail's weak

Irish go to El Salvador Jk i 1CHAEL D. H1GGINS of

the Labour Party, Nial An-drews of Fianna Fail and Mrs Patsy Lawlor of Fine Gael went out to El Salvador to see for themselves what was going on there. Secretary of the group was Tony Meade, formerly edi-tor of the "United Irishman" and deputy editor of the "Kerryman" and now a full-time worker for the Catholic charity, Trocaire.

When they returned they gave a frightening account of what is going on in this Latin American country, which is ruled by a right-wing clique of big landlords and army gene-rals, supported by the US Gov-ernment in a vicious civil war against the mass of the people.

Troftps and death-squads loyal to the US-backed regime have killed at least 2,500 people dur-ing the past year, pushing the death toll ir. the three years' civil war to 30,000. And this, mind you, in a country which is smaller than the province of Munster.

"The horror has continued," says Legal Aid, a human rights agency run by the San Salvador archdiocese. Five-sixths of thote killed have been oivilians and,

as the report says, "The grave responsibility for the execu-tions of the defenceless civil population falls fundamentally on the Salvadorean armed for-ces and paramilitary bands."

T H E Irish delegation was not allowed into El Salvador at

first, but there was so much out-rage at this that the US Em-bassy must have told the El Salvador' Government that they had better be let in for a period. On Irish television they told of being allowed to visit a prison, where — surprisingly, they said —they were permitted to speak to the prisoners alone. "We asked them how they felt com-pared with those outside," said Michael Higgins. "And they told us they were the lucky ones, for in general those captured by the Government were immediately executed if thpy were th' ught to have connection with '.<e Na-tional Revolutionary FVont, the body which links together the guerillas fighting the oppres-sive regime."

Considering how the Reagan Government backs up the dic-tatorships in El Salvador and Turkey, it is utterly hypocriti-cal, the hullabaloo they make about Poland.

A.C.

stand on the national question. Previous to the election there was a campaign for the release of I R A men in Portlaoise jail The small agrarian Clann na Talmhan also took part

Sean OCasey commented "Their backsides were itching for the plush seats of office." Even so Mulcahy had to stand down and the inter-party government brought the Republic out of the British Commonwealth. i 'pHEN followed a period when

Labour stood alone and during tjtie sixties its shar* it the poll, 11 per cent in 194b jse to 42 per cent in 1961. 15 per cent in 1965 and finally 17 per cent in 1969. Thereafter as the coalition with Fine Gael (and Fine Gael alone> gathered strength, its share dropped to 14 per cent in 1973, 12 per cent in 1977, 10 per cent in 1981 and now in the 1982 election to 9 per cent.

Contrast this with Fine Gael. In 1948 it had 20 per cent of the poll and for that reason could not totally dominate the inter-party government. In 1973 it had risen to 35 per cent, in 1981 it was 36 per cent and now it is at its high-est ever, despite the budget, 38 per cent. The conclusion is simple. Labour has drained its blood to fatten Fine Gael.

Fine Gael, founded by men whose atrocities rivalled those of the

black-and-tans, committed against republicans, has been permitted to cover itself with a semi-socialist, "progressive" veneer. Its aim is to rival and overtake Fianna Fail If it succeeds it will have no time for Labour. Labour's seeming death-wish will have come true,

i RE there no murmering* among the rank and file?

There are. and what a vigorous nationallv-minded socially adven-turous Labour Party could do, is shown by the tremendous recep-tion given Mr Tony Benn when he went to Dublin. This was due to two things. First he has come out openiy for a united Ireland, and second they think he would prob-ably do what he promises, a rare thing in a politician.

Meanwhile Mr O'Leary continues as the embodiment of the policy that has laid Labour low, though he is far from its only begetter The question is how far wilt Labour have to decline before it becomes obvious that it needs to change colours. We shall see.

FEICREANACH.

r had occasion to visit the an-' nual RPS exhibition of en-gineering equiment "Enquip 82" which took place on February 9-12 at Ballsbridge. This event is jointly sponsored by the Engineer-ing Industry Association (a com-ponent of the Confederation of Irish Industries), its Northern Ire-land equivalent the Engineering Industries Association (NI), the Electricity Supply Board, the Irish Goods Council and the Industrial Development Authority. I 'nlike the Spring Show (which

is aimed at the general public and buyers of series-produced hardware) Enquip is accessible by invitation and attracts primarily producers of hardware. Invita-tions go out via the readerships of technical journals etc.

A visit to this annual event would be a useful stimulus for

a skilled person with industrial experience abroad contemplating setting up a firm in Ireland to sup-ply the demand currently met by imported bits and pieces. The workforce in engineering in the Re-public is currently 62,000, or one-third of all existing manufactur-ing employment. Over half of the employment generated by new firms is in the engineering sector, sphere are impassive incentives

and support services available to people wishing to set up in pro-duction: the latest example is the Limerick-based "innovation centre" which will help to develop an em-bryonic concept ri^i" through to pilot-scale production. I^ i rms that have been established

include Adela Precision En-gineering in Castlebar (toolmak-ing and precision fabrication). Western Communications in Gal-way (2-way radio systems), ATW in Donegal (low-cost rough-terrain vehicles) and Air Motive, an Aer Lingus subsidiary which overhauls Rolls Royce and Pratt & Whitney aero-engines for world airlines. Ballintubber Enterprises has de-signed and developed a turf-cutting machine suitable for small local bogs (this could be added to the services provided by the local til-lage contractor); a successful potato-harvester had been devel-oped previously. Thus there are some signs of a revival of the ag-

ricultural machinery industry after a period of decline, under the stim-ulus of the rise in energy costs. sphere is growing appreciation

that it is not enough to design a system so that it can be produced easily and will work; it has to be used by human beings, agreeably and without stress. The Kilkenny Design Centre is increasingly be-ing seen by the engineering indus-try as a supplier of total design services (not just the package or the superficial appearance). They have produced an attractive coloured poster showing a selection of products to which they have contributed, ranging from com-pressors and noise-level meters to soft furnishings and ceramics (use-ful, peitfiaps for display on the wall in a school or social centre seeking to establish a sense of Irish identity?) iriihe Thatcher hatchet-job being

* done on the British economy is having side-effects in Ireland, in unexpected ways. Not only is the Republic being promoted as a source of jobs in British technical periodicals (see for example New Scientist for February 4 which gives an interesting though incom-plete yiew of the growing Irish-based electronics industry) but as a source of engineering further ed-ucation by the various countries which have traditionally sent post-graduate students to British uni-versities to pick up specialist mas-ters-degrees plus a knowledge of English. Because of the Thatcher policy of axing the universities and raising fees for foreigners to pro-hibitive levels, people are looking to Ireland; not only the various Af-rican countries but also the Prench, who are promoting gradu-ate student exchange with Irish Universities in a systematic way, particularly with the Grands •coles which produce the elite of Prench industrial technologists. A gainst this background the

sense of gloom and doom be-ing promoted by the politicians ia connection with an election where the Budget is apparently the main issue seems somewhat artificial. There are positive stirrings In the undergrowth which are important for future developments.

S c i e n c e a n d

T e c h n o l o g y R o y J o h n s t o n

STUDENTS COME TO IRELAND

March 1982 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT 3

EEC FALLING APART - OFFICIAL Ten wasted years / i o the 16th February the current " President of the EEC, Gaston Thorn, gave a speech of doom and gloom about the Community. Ad-dressing the European Assembly in Strasbourg the President outlined the Ten's political, economic and commercial situation. It was the first major admission in public that all is far from well in the Com-munity. This warning can be compared to a year ago when the President optimistically called for full integration of the member states within four years.

The Commission, through the President, indicated the major fac-

News from Wales »

A young teacher of Welsh at Llanidloes High School In

Powys has lost his job. His headmaster wants to keep

Mm. The County Council wants to keep him. He is capable and dedicated, renowned for spending half his lunch break to help back-ward learners.

But when Vice chairman of the Welsh Language Society he was jailed for conspiring to damage television Installations as part of a campaign to get television in Welsh, without which the Welsh language spoken now by 400,000 people, will die out as the london government wants It to die out.

The parents, instigated by two Londoners who have only been in Wales five years, got a court in-junction to stop the Council em-ploying him.

The last County Council to pass a resolution to go "nuclear free"

was Clw/d. Two hundred demon-strators gathered round Mold Shire Hall, and 2,000 balloons were sent up when the decision was given.

Wales is thus the first country In Europe to go "nuclear free" and councils are going to erect notices for tourists to see. Envoys are be-ing sent abroad to spread the news. It is expeoted that the councils will refuse to co-operate In Mrs Thatcher's plans for universal butchery.

Mr Joe Gormley recently said there was "complete democ-

racy" In Britain. How's this one. Mr Moses Edwards of Talysarn In Snowdonia, spotted two men drive up and put something In the vil-lage telephone kiosk. He went to the kiosk to see what they were Up to, and found a small bulging device had been attached to it. He removed It Intending to notify the police. They rushed back and snatched It out of his hand. He took the number of their car and reported the Incident to the police.

The police tried to find the car's owner from the central computer. They were told tha t on Home Of-fice Instructions It was not to be made available and no further ac-tion should be taken.

It was then m e a l e d that though telephone tapping Is only allowed, so they olaim, with the Home Sec-retary's permission bugging can be decided on by any Chief Con-stable or his assistant.

We'd better go to Poland.

An attempt to dethrone Mr Charles Haughey and replace

him with Mr Desmond O'Malley collapsed Ignominlously at a meet-ing ef Fianna Fall held on Thurs-day, February 25th. . .Throughout the election cam-paign there was sniping at Mr Haughey, and attempts were made to o ItPilse on his Involvement In the gun-iunnlng case of ten years ago.

People might regret that the pub-llo has nobody better to ohoose from, but even the accusation of gurt-runnlng constitutes a national reoerd In term* of today, so It will have to be "Up Haughey I"

tors causing their concern. The list of factors included the stale-mate over Britain's budget payments, the national policies that are being adopted independent of the EEC, the rapid rise in un-employment throughout the Com-munity and the in-fighting over wine, turkeys and farm prices as well as other arears of disagree-ment. Also, considerable concern was expressed over the deteriora-ting relations between the EEC and the USA. Uo, is the Community actually fal-^ ling apart ? Why the frank-ness in public by the EEC Presi-dent ? What is really going on ?

As predicted and analysed many times in the pages of the Irish Democrat, as well as by many anti-marketeers, the EEC is a mass of contradictions. It is an impos-, sible task to attempt to combine in-

BY JOHN BOYD

to one superstate the ten different nation states which have quite dis-

-tinct histories, cultures, lan-guages, problems and aspirations. The crocodile tears of the com-mission reflect on their frustration at flying in the face of history on their chosen path to integrate Western Europe.

The unresolved and protracted debate on Britain's budget pay-ments is only the tip of the total problem. The full works consist of horsetrading over this issue, that trading embargo, this concession and that punch up in the battle to be top dog in the EEC. The na-tional interests keep coming to the fore in a situation that brings out the worst in the parties concerned. Hardly a formula for good rela-tions and peace. T n order to try and resolve some * of the ravages of the slump each

member state has adopted policies, independent of the EEC, in an at-tempt to prop u*> a particular in-dustry, region or section of popu-lation. This contravenes the grand plans and laws of Western Europe and places obstacles in the path to a federal and fully integrated EEC. Each nation state is attempt-ing to resolve its own problems

MOVED IRISH

BOOKS now at

177 LAVENDER HILL,

LONDON SW11

which in many instances are ag-gravated by the very existence of the EEC and its policies.

For instance the British steel in-dustry's capacity, production and workforce have been decided in Brussels, not in Westminster. Any subsidy or plan to help this indus-try and its workforce are illegal within the EEC. The same applies to agriculture, fishing and nearly every other major industry. r | 1 h e EEC was put forward as the -*- safe haven for all to enter, the

bastion against the nasty world outside "Europe' plus other equally ridiculous platitudes. The total of unemployed throughout the Community, rising and officially predicted to grow still further, is solid proof enough that all the promises of the grand plan of Wes-tern Europe are now in shreds and tatters.

The deteriorating relationship between the EEC and the USA, as well as Japan, is a symptom of the rivalry between the three imperial-ist centres. The trade dispute over steel with the USA is a part of this rivalry. Other factors in-clude the pressure put on the EEC by the USA in the current cold war atmosphere to carry out dic-tats regarding US ideas on East-West relationships in Europe. The investment, interests and loans of West Europe in East Europe make for differences both between the USA and the EEC, and within the EEC itself.

'These revelations in public about the EEC without doubt are

heartening to the anti-market forces. But the real essence of the EEC President's summary of the Community's situation is to tell all the pro-market interests that they must cease arguing, make sacrifices in money and principle in order to hold the EEC together and carry it on to further integration and deeper into a superstate.

Anti marketeers should by now be well aware that the EEC will be held together at all costs including human misery, wasted lives and it seems even war. The lessons to be drawn from the inter-state and in-ter-imperial differences need to be spelt out in order to reveal the true nature of the EEC;. This will help end its days and ensure that the EEC does fall apart.

|llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!lllllllllllllllllll|i|

1 GREENLAND I |TO PULL OUT( | A N February 23rd, Green-| | land voted to pull out of 1 | the Common Market ecdito-| | mic war-zone.

| Apart from one brief an-| |nouncement on the B B C | | news, the heavily censored! = British press virtually ig-f snored it.

| The land area of the E E C | | has been reduced by a half= i a n d the myth that once i n | | the E E C always in the E E C § 1 has been shattered. No won-| |der they keep quiet!

lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllllllilllllllllll

I t is ten years ago this January since Ireland and Britain signed

the Treaties of Accession to the EEC. There was no official celebra-tion though. because of course there was absolutely nothing to celebrate.

When Ireland joined the EEC unemployment in the Twenty Six Counties was 70.000 or so. Now it is double that at 140.000. Infla-tion is also almost double, instead of "Markets in Europe, Jobs at Home," which people were prom-

THE MAD EEC pURO-JAM regulations introduce ™ labels of "jam" or "extra jam" according to the fruit content. The new rules decided on in Brussels will allow jam to be coloured with beetroot juice, according to "The Times" recently.

•fr & ilr Greenland is voting to decide on

whether it will remain inside the EEC towards the end of February. The Brussels people are spending millions in special schemes to bribe the Greenlanders to vote "Yes". Public opinion has been very much against the EEC in Greenland, whose population is less than 100,000. But it is fantastically rich in minerals which the EEC wants to be able to exploit. Hence the bribes and handouts — and Roy Jenkins himself made a special visit to Greenland to appeal to the Greenlanders to support the. EEC last year. Will the Greenlanders be as deceived as the voters of the rfillhead may be? Or will both give both the EEC and Jenkins the kick they richly deserve?

A -A-Tricks with Cows: West German

farmers could be costing the EEC up to £300 million in fraudulent practices. The farmers collect a premium of £650 per slaughtered cow but the cows are not slaught-ered but transferred to neighbours. They also collect an EEC premium for refraining from milk production for the next five years. At the end of this time' the neighbour re-turns the cows and himself repeats the fraud. Your taxes are boinn collected by the Government and then are handed over to Brussels to help finance this kind of thing,

ft it * Renegotiate Membership? Ire-

land should renegotiate member-ship of the EEC if the principles of the agricultural policy were changed, says Fianna Fail agricul-tural spokesman Ray McSharry. Fianna Fail would give Irish far-mers a higher subsidy without get-ting permission from Brussels. He said he had broken EEC rules twice last year when he was Minister for Agriculture and nothing had hap-pened. Other countries broke the rules all the time, he said, and it was time for Ireland to be less "European-minded" than in the past. We can say Amen to that!

ft ft ft Fit for cats. A writer in the

Guardian complains that the Bri-tish are not being allowed to eat lamb, mutton or pork, but must call these things slieep-meat and pig-meat. What happens asks the writer if you buy a tin of cat-meat?

OPPOSITION TO PTA i r pHE following letter has been

* sent to Mrs Shirley Williams, MP for Crossby, Liverpool.

We, the undersigned, call upon Shirley Williams MP to vote against the renewal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act. As your constituents, we feel that the repewal of this Act will perpetuate the erosion of civil liberties In this country and also in Northern Ireland .

Jan Walshe, H. Kelly, K. O'Far-rell, Maurice O'Brien, M. Barwin, A. G. Gill, Paul, Menhy, Alison Trenery, D. Mortimer, Jane Tan-

ner, Beatrice Charles, Lilian Gal-lina, Dave Treneny. On Monday, March 1st Tribune

MPs urged Michael Foot to oppose the PTA and a delegation consist-ing of Reg Race, Norman Buchan, Martin Flannery and Jo Richardson were appointed to see him. TTCATT shop stewards employed

by Liverpool Corporation have joined with TGWU men in writing to Mr Eric Heffer, a Union MP, ask-ing him to be sure to vote against the Prevention of Terrorism Act when it comes up for renewall. The stewards are bringing motions up at their Union branches.

ised, it is a case of Markets iif Ire-land, Jobs in Europe, as foreign goods flood the Irish market and as nearly half the jobs which exis-ted in Irish manufacturing ten years ago have disappeared.

England. Scotland and Wales can tnll a similar woeful tale as un-employment soars beyond three million, over double what it was when Britain joined the EEC.

Indeed the EEC is causing prob-lems for all the member countries. West Germany, its strongest econ-omy, now has an unemployment

"We no longer live in a country. We live in an economy." John Heuly.

figure of uvo million and France, whose socialist government is des-perate to bring unemployment down, is talking about introducing import controls in order to re-conquer the French market for the French, as they like to call it. These French echoes ol "Buy Irish' are sending shivers of ap-prehension down the spines of the bureaucrats in Brussels.

There are now o\er 10 million out of work m the EEC as a whole, bringing the EEC unemployment rate to 9 per cent of the civilian population, compared to a rate of 7.2 per cent only last year.

Cambridge economists have fore-cast that the EEC unemployment total will rise by over half again to 13.4 million by the middle ih«0's at the present rate of increase.

Belgium has 13 per cent out of •work. It is followed by Ireland, then Britain and then Italy,

The EEC. far from helping its member countries to tackle their economic problems, is making it harder for them to do so That is why tiie break up of the ITSC would free each State to tfke the measures necessary to defend their home markets, expand home de-mand and increase jobs and out-put without sucking in imports and causing balance of payments crises.

KEEPING UP THE STRUGGLE

THE fight against the Prevention of Terrorism Act has reached a new height. First, a very success-ful conference drawing in a variety of support, and second the biggest lobby oi Parliament yet, culminating in an assurance that there would almost certainly be an official Labour vote against re-newal, though we don't know what kind of whip will be issued.

We don't want to say nobody else did anything, for they did. But it is beyond contradiction that the driving force in this campaign, whatever about any other cam-paigns. has been thp Connolly Association and the Irish Demo-crat.

It also follows that those who are contributing so generously to keeping the Association and the paper going in these difficult times of inflation and recession are doing a good .job. So keep it up Our thanks to:

0. Cahn £2, 1. Linehan £2, J. Cready £1.05, K. McFarlane, £1, O. Weston £2.50, N. Manchee £t , C. Hall £2, J. Kavanagh £3.80; W. Cowan £3, E. Ayres 80p, T. Dunne £1, G. Ward £1.25, South London C.A. £57, A. Noone £1, J. Buckley £1, T. Egan £3, per J. Kelly £20, W. O Mahoney £1, B. Rischer 70p, supporters In South Loltcton £12.41, in East Londor £1.60, In Central London £2.69. TOTAL: £121.80.

DONATIONS TO PREMISES APPEAL: Glasgow C,A. $A P. Mulligan £50, M. Cloherty £1, P. Bransfield £50, H. Eggleton £20, M. Byrne £10, K.C. £20, B.H. £1, M. O'Donnell £10.25, R. J. M. Tol-hurst £10, J. P. Whelan £10, C. O'Sulllvan £50. TOTAL: £236.25.

2 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT March 1982

Peadar ODonnell is 89 PE A D A R 0 D O N N E L L was 89 on

February 22nd and the "Irish Democrat' sends greetings and good wishes to this famous republi-c a n , socialist, author and champion

TONY BENN IN DUBLIN

i'I'ONY BENN spoke to the largest * indoor political meeting in

! niblm for years last month on the lut-me "The Struggle for Socialism . Not only was Liberty Hall's auditor-ium which holds 1,000 people packed to the doors, but the pro-ceedings were internally televised te another 300 in the smaller Social Hall, and there were still a few hundred others who could not be .sqttce/.ed in at all.

The meeting was organised by .jabour Youth, the youth section of liu- Irish Labour Party, whose chairman, Michael D. Higgins, TD. chaired the meeting. Other speak-er.- were John Carroll, vice-presi-dent uf the ITGWU, and Joe Hig-t-'iu.v a member of Labour's Ad-ministrative Council and an activist ii- in Militant Tendency which is i ei y st rung in Labour Youth. Mr jB-'tin is strongly supported by the Militant Tendency in Britain, which ha- close connections with its Irish opposite number. " 1 'ON Y BEN:* said that he had

' always regarded the partition >: In .and as a crime against the 11i-.ii people. He spoke about the l.aoottr Party's movement of opin-ion against partition and said that u> solution would open up tremen-dous political possibilities for people ui Ireland North and South, and particularly lor the trade union and Labour movement. He also re-stated his opposition to the EEC and said that a future Labour Gov-ernment vould be dedicated to leav-ing the EEC.

The otner speakers did not refer to partition, but spoke of the desira-bility of socialism as a system of political and economic organisa-tion The crowd was obviously en-thusiastic. It was full of young people who clearly wanted some real alternative to tiie political wares being offered simultaneously by the political parties engaged in the Irish general election. There was much enthusiasm for the poli-tical visions outlined by the speak-ers. but these contrasted all the more bleakly with the realiiies out-side the hall. It is doubtful if Mr Benn's visit to Dublin will leave much long-term impact on the character of the Irish Left, and whether it helped Mr Benn to learn more about Ireland, only time will tell.

Bretons resist | r l 'HE "Irish Democrat" was the

only paper on the left to warn against the fraudulent prospectus of the socialist" Mitterand govern-ment in France.

Mitterand promised to cut down t he highly polluting nuclear energy programme, which is nothing to do with electricity but everything to do with plutonium and mass mur-der. He shamelessly broke his elec-tion promises.

But like the English government that sites its nuclear power stations where they can poison Scots, Welsh and Irish, plus a few East Angiians mot the stockbrokers of Surrey — wait till they site a pressure-water reactor at Guildford!) the Paris dictators go for Brittany.

And the Bretons, good for them, resist.

On February 21st two people were injured at Le Carnet. Two thou-sand protesters hurled stones and Molotov cocktails. This is the sec-ond time in a week the local people objected to surveyors who want to build a nuclear poison factory.

Why can't the French do their polluting in their own country?

of Ireland's workers and small working farmers.

Peadar is the last surviving mem-ber of the Republican Executive of 1922. He is the man who wanted Labour to continue Connolly's mis-sion of giving a lead to the Irish national struggle in the 1918-22 period. When Griffith and De Valera said Labour must wait, Pea-dar sought to get the IRA, which was then a mass movement with 10,000 or so members, to go political, ally with the trade unions and small farm organisations and push Flanna Fail to the political left. This was the idea of the Republican Congress of the early 1930s, which Peadar led, along with George Gil-more, Sean Murray and Frank Ryan.

IN the 1940s and early 1950s he edited "The Bell", wrote sevet-al

novels and exposed the bad condi-tions of the emigrant Donegal tatlehokers" in Scotland. He has

always championed real Republi-canism, the republicanism of Tone, which was based on the Protestant people of the North and which broke down the barriers between Protestant and Catholic instead of adding to them. He was to the fore in the Peace Movement and In opposing the Vietnam War, in Ire-land.

The other week he spoke in Trin-ity College, Dublin, at a meeting organised by the Anti-Apartheid Movement to honour the 70th anni-versary of the founding of the African National Congress. He vyas as eloquent and In as good form as ever.

FIANNA FAIL'S FIRM PROMISE ' j ' H E Irish Campaign for Nu-

clear Disarmament availed of the election to ask candidates and political par t ies for their v iews on neutra l i ty and nuclear d isarmament .

The General Secretary . Frank A. Wall, wrote as follows to na-t ional - c o m m i t t e e - m a n Colm Power .

1. Irish neutrality : Our determination is to maintain this position and not to join any military al-liance which might jeopar-dise it.

2. Nuclear disarmament : A primary aim of our policy is to promote a more peace-ful and stable world. We will maintain our policy of military neutrality and we support improvement in East-West relations. Ire-land was elected to the United Nations Security Council during our last term in Government. Noel Dorr, the Ambassador we appointed to the UN was widely mentioned as a com-promise candidate during the recent election of a successor to Dr Waldheim as Secretary General. This shows that our dedi-cation and commitment to world peace and security is real and is recognised.

Members of Irish CND picketing the American Embassy.

CAN UNIONISTS CRY PURITY ? WHEN the European Court of

Human Rights told the British government it was at fault for not legalising homosexual behaviour be-tween consenting adults in the six counties, steps were taken to comply.

There was uproar among the Unionists and Ian Paisley ran a noisy campaign under the slogan "keep sodomy out of Ulster."

However, it has now emerged t l p t It was there already, and Mr Prior has seized his opportunity to com-ply with the court's ruling at a time when it would be a little hard for

the Unionists to cry purity. Nobody will take much notice.

It is true of course that the Catholics, who are untouched by the Kincora scandal, might make a protest. The Hierarchy objected to tfce earlier proposals.

Mr Jeffrey Dudgeon, the unem-ployed teacher who has waged the campaign for "gay" emancipation has pointed out that a man could get life imprisonment in Belfast for something that is perfectly legal in Liverpool.

Anyway, Mr Prior has really little choice.

We are, of course, commit-ted to a Nuclear Disarma-ment multilateral agree-ment between East and West since nuclear war represents the greatest threat to the survival of mankind.

This is a most important com-mitment from the party expec-ted to form the next govern-ment.

The campaign continues to win support. After Colm Power had proposed a resolution to that effect in his branch (11/ 102) the Irish Regional Commit-tee of the ATGWU agreed to affiliate. A majority of the members of the ATGWU are in the six counties. It is expected

that the NUJ and AUEW (TASS) will be the next to affiliate.

Anti-war films have been shown in both Dublin and Cork city, and protests have been sent to the prejs at the state-ment of a military gentieman, Lt-Gen Carl O'Sullivan that Ire-land should join the "West Euro-pean" military alliance.

When the National Committee met in Cork city on February 20th most of those present signed a letter protesting at tbe decision of the American Gov-ernment to name its new nuclear - powered submarine "Corpus Christi". Many thought this action by the US Govern-ment to be sheer blasphemy.

Ballads of Long Kesh n O B B Y SANDS, the MP the

Tories let die in Long Kesh. wrote many poems during his im-prisonment. They are published by Sinn Fein at 44 Pamell Square. Dublin.

The preface speaks of them as "written by a young man under

the most depressing of conditions . . . his poetry is the raw literature of the H-block prison protest which hundreds of naked men stood up against their cell doors (in the late of night when the Screws left the wing) to listen to and applaud."

"The Trilogy" is an impressively sustained long poem of 226 stanzas telling the story of a prisoner's life from first being taken into Castle-reagh, and scrawling his name on the wall, just to prove to himself that he was still sane. 'I P this was what Sands could do - "on the blanket", then with freedom and leisure he might have made a very considerable poet. For the greater part of the long poem he uses a six line stanza, and the style is slightly reminiscent of the "Ballad of Reading Jail."

But the most remarkable techni-cal device, which is kept up with remarkable consistency, the use of internal rhyme. This is, of course, a feature of much Gaelic poetry and it is therefore not sur-prising to learn that Bobby Sands wrote in Irish as well, though there is no Irish verse in this collection.

"Poetic Justice" is in lighter vein. The poet dreams he is dead and encounters the spirit of Roy Mason outside the pearly gates. Peter sends him down to the H-block.

These poems are valuable for their evocation of the meaning of

imprisonment and the cultural strength that kept up the spirits of the Republicans.

At the same time it is impossible to avoid a sense of regret for the waste inherent in this method of resistance to imperialism.

C.D.G.

Another u-turn at turnstile ?

i r | \HE "New Statesman" has sacked its editor, though he will re-

main on the technical staff. The board responsible for the dismissal has refused to give the staff an assurance that the paper will pre-serve its broadly socialist slant. The chairman and another member of the board are members of the Social Democratic party.

So the establishment have drawn its teeth at last. The outstanding exposure items by Duncan Camp-bell and others caused intense irri-tation in high places. They tried to get Campbell under the Official Secrets Act, but failed.

Last week Campbell exposed the wholesale falsification of Ordnance maps to conceal well-known mili-tary fixtures, not from an enemy, but from the British public.

Under the editor now retiring, the "New Statesman" has been mark-edly pro-Irish, and has made many exposures of misgovernment in the six counties. But it did a U-tum once before when just before the referendum it came out in favour of 'he Common Market.

MAR A CHEILE IAD Cait: Dia duit, a Mhaire ! Ce'n

sceal agat fein ? Maire: Diabhal sceal na sceal,

a Chait! Ce' n chaoi bhfuil tusa?

Cait: O muise, mar a fheiceann tu me. Ag stracadh leis an saol.

Maire : Nach mar sin duinn uile, a stoir ? Is ainnis an saol anois e, ta rudai go hole.

Cait: Da dhonacht anseo iad is measa fos iad in Eirinn. Nach bhfuil tri phraghas ar gach rud ? Ta an boilsciu imithe as compas ar fad thiar ansin.

Maire : An boilsciu ? Ce'n sort rud e fein, a Chait a chroi, no ce leis is cosuil e ?

Cait: An t-inflation, a dhiab-hail! Ce nach bhfuil an Ghaeilge nua agat ?

Maire: Muise nil a fhios agam an bhfuil no nach bhfuil, nil agam de Ghaeilge ach an meid a chuala me i gconai riamh.

Cait: Is doigh gur cuma ceard a thabharfaidh muid air, in-flation na boila^i se'n da mhar a cheile e, an ball seire is a ghiolla — no mar a deir an Bearla, "You're as bad scalr ded as burnt!"

Maire: Diabhal focal breige an-sin a'd, a Chait! Mar a cheile iad . . .

DONALL Mac AMHLAIGH

IRISH HISTORY L E C T U R E S 7 pm — SUNDAY, 10th MARCH

MAOLSHEACHLAINN O CAOLLAI—"The Irish Language in Histqjr" 7 pm — SUNDAY, 28th MARCH

ANTHONY COUGHLAN—'"From Pannell to Pears." IRISH CENTRE, Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, 9

l i f t

jUMB •'Aid • i M l f i l ?

March 1982 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT 4

IS THE SIX40UNTY ECONOMY DOOMED?

X X AS the six-county economy reached the point of no re-

turn? At the moment there is still some hope of saving De Lorean, and that is certainly to be hoped lor. But whether, except for purely political, and that means military, reasons, the north of Ire-land can ever be of serious concern economically to a London govern-ment, is open to serious question.

The shipyard in Belfast is to lose another 1,000 workers, and though there are orders in the offing, they're still away off. Questions hang over the future of Shorts, the semi-state-owned aircraft factory, Mackie's engineering and the tex-tile firm British Enkalon. This fol-lows closures at ICI and Courtaulds at Carrickfergus. r p H E R E are 114,000 out of work in

the six counties. Of these 80,000 are men and 34,000 are women, 20% of the employable population. The employment figure has dropped to that of the late 1960s, though there has. been an in-crease in population.

I t is beginning to look as if the chickens are coming home to roost. Generally speaking Protestant trade unionists have been prepared to ac-cept the position where the six counties acted as the English gar-rison and base in Ireland, because they thought Britain would never

THE FLAGSHIP IS SUNK'

irpHE prejudice and bias of the London "Times" against Ire-

land and things Irish have been highlighted by a recent judgment of the British Press Council*

The Press Council upheld com-plaints at a biased report carried by "The Times" on May 8th last year dealing with the funeral of Bobby Sands at the same time as Ian Paisley held a meeting at the Ceno-taph in Belfast.

The report opened "The Roman. Catholics buried Robert Sands yes-terday as Protestants lamented their 2,000 dead frcm 12 years of terrorism," and it went on to say that while Bobby Sands's place in republican history was assured, "the 2,000 victims of his collaborators will never be as famous".

Mr Kennedy of Central London Connolly Association complained to the Press Council at the failure of "The Times" to correct the- error after he had told the editor that it was a fiction to suggest that the IRA had killed 2,000 people, let alone 2,000 Protestants. Mr Ken-nedy informed the Council that of the 2,100 people killed during the 12 years of political violence in the North a high proportion were Catholics. r p H E Y said that "The Times" had

delayed in publishing their let-ter of correction for over six weeks, even though the editor had been Informed on the very day that the report was carried that it was quite false.

The judgment of the Press Coun-cil condemning "The Times" said it was "a most serious error of fact on a highly sensitive matter which should have been corrected by the newspaper at once In a more forth-right manner."

Those who read the "quality" British press, or listen to the "qual-ity" BBC, will have many stories to tell of this kind of prejudice. It goes on all the time in order to confuse the British public, to cloud their understanding of who is pri-marily responsible for the Six County violence and to arouse pre-judice against Irish people and di-vide the working-class and Labour Movement.

"The flagship is sunk" was Mr Kennedy's commcat to the "Irish Democrat".

risk allowing basic industries like the shipyard to fold up. Imperial-ism guaranteed Protestant jobs. It also guaranteed officials access to the career structure of the British unions. X T could well be that this was

about to change. If, and we hope it does not happen, Mrs That-cher extends British influence over the whole of Ireland, why pick out the north? It was this danger that had Mr Paisley running round the countryside like water in a hot pot. And, as the "Irish Democrat" said at the time, if that happened there would be nothing he could do about it.

What happens when imperialism no longer guarantees Protestant jobs? You'll be surprised at the change.

BLOW TO CATHOLIC EDUCATION THE British Government is

planning to shut down the two Catholic Teacher Training Colleges In the Six Counties, St Joseph's and St Mary's — and merge them with the predomin-antly Protestant Stranmillis Col-lege, in what would be a major step in "denationalising" the education of Northern Catholics.

It is all in the supposed inter-ests of "economy" — Maggie Thatcher's excuse for every reactionary move — for the Catholio Training Colleges are together smaller than the Prot-estant one, and the Government wants to out back on training teachers anyway.

The young people training to become teachers in the proposed hybrid College would have none of the special training In Irish history and culture which they now get in the Catholic colleges. They would see Ireland through the eyes of British oriented his-

tory and would be expected to pass that viewpoint on to the next generation of young people in the schools. Thus like most of the teachers coming from the Protestant Colleges, all they would learn about Irish history would be the impact of Parnell on the 19th century House of Commons — where the British regarded him as a bloody nui-sance — and whatever they might voluntarily pick up through their independent stud-ies.

The proposal would very likely be the beginning of an assault by the Government on the Catholic school system generally and has been condemned as such by spokesmen for the Catholic authorities.

Some people who cannot use their brains say that sectarian violence In the North Is contri-buted to by the fact that Protes-

tant and Catholic children go to different schools, and that if the schools were merged the political trouble would go away. Of course they forget that there are Protestant and Catholic schools under separate adminis-tration in Scotland, Holland, Germany, Canada and many other countries, and there Is no sectarian trouble.

So other factors are at work— the different political allegiances and cultural traditions which are passed on in the two communi-ties, of which the schools are only a part. When the question of political allegiance Is settled and there is one Government and one State for the whole of Ireland — then democrats can support without qualms an Inte-grated State school system, with appropriate facilities for the reli-gious education of those seeking this in accordance with their parents' wishes.

VIGOROUS CAMPAIGN AGAINST PTA I N March 1981 46 MPs voted

against the renewal of the Preven-tion of Terrorism Act. This was the culmination of a seven year campaign on the part of the Con-nolly Association.

I t arose from the conviction that if you want something done you must convince Parliament. Last year the target was fifty. This year it is a hundred. Once you've got a hundred MPs wanting some-thing, you get near influencing gov-ernment, especially when those MPs form the government.

Already the PTA was getting a bad name in the Labour Party, and the campaigh in the country came to be matched by one in the party, and the party conference voted that the Act should be repealed. T N an effort to associate as many J- people as possible with this year's lobby, the Connolly Associa-tion called a conference which was attended by forty-flve delegates, mostly Irish, but some representing British organisations which were sympathetic.

CONNOLLY

MAN ELECTED A clipping sent into the Demo-

^ crat (origin not marked) draws attention to the election in Dublin central of twenty-eight year old Tony Gregory, who got in on the tenth count.

Complaints were made that dur-ing the campaign he was smeared as a "provisional," otherwise he would have been elected on an earlier count.

What makes his election inter-esting is that he is described as a "Connolly Socialist" interested in the conditions of people living in the scandalously neglected in-ner city, but like Connolly also a strong Irish nationalist.

Anybody offering such a pros-pectus is obviously interesting. Whether he can preserve his in-tegrity in the House of Corruption is of course another matter. If an unknown independent can secure election on the Connolly ticket, to it not time the Irish Labour Party considered going back to its roots ?

Among organisations represented were Brent Trades Council, Ham-mersmith Trades Council. South-wark Labour Party, London Com-munist Party, APEX. Stepney UCATT, Troops Out Movement, Ealing Community Relations Coun-cil, the Irish in Britain Representa-tion Group, and Provisional Sinn Fein. Among those present were Mr Tom Durkin and Mr M. Mar-tin. The chair was taken by Mr Noel Harris who presided by per-mission of his Union, and the dis-cussion was opened by Mr Desmond Greaves.

After the conference Mr Noel Gordon took a petition containing some thousands of signatures to Mr Clive Soley, who showed it to the Northern Ireland Committee of the Labour Party. These in turn decided to pass it on to the Home Affairs group, as the PTA is a matter for the Home Secretary. imHE February issue of the "Irish - Democrat" had urged all Irish people and friends of Ireland to lobby on February 17th. One notable event was the decision of the Federation of Irish Societies to ask for a meeting with MPs, with a view to a deputation to the Home Secretary. A meeting to consider this was held in the Jubilee Room. Mr Bob Parry. Mr Alfred Dubbs and Mr Martin Flannery were there the whole time, and the Federation sent Mr Hogan, Mr Hal-kin and Mr Tom Walsh, who were, at the suggestions of MPs, joined by Mr Bernard Morgan and Mr Desmond Greaves. Mr Bob Parry

undertook to try to arrange the deputation. "ITEANWHILE in the main lobby

a very varied assembly had gathered, representing the Connolly Association, London and Liverpool, the Troops Out Movement, Irish National Council (three members, Francis McCaffrey, Stephen Savage and Geraldine Smith) the IBRG (Manchester, James King and Anna Johnson), Brent Trades Council (Tom Durkin), Acton UCATT (John Hourigan), Ealing Commun-ity Relations Council (Una Millner) and others too numerous to men-tion.

Among the MPs interviewed were Sid Bidwell, Reg Freeson, Douglas Hoyle (it is understood that War-rington Irish Club had been in touch with him), Chris Price, Mar-tin Flannery, Alf Dubbs, Bob Parry, Stan Newens, Roland Moyle, Tom Cox, A. W. Stallard, Clive Soley, John Fraser, Sam Silkin, Dennis Skinner, Ron Brown, Lawrence Pa-vitt, Norman Buchan, David Alton, Sir H. Greenway and Martin Ste-vens. The last two are Conserva-tives who are feeling uneasy about the PTA and invited Connolly As-sociation members to attend their "surgeries" and discuss it further. PyHE Act may not come up for

renewal until the end of the month. There is still time to write to your MP. If you can get a trade union branch to pass a reso-lution, so much the better. Two south London ladies have written to every MP in the house. They have also persuaded three priests

SEAN HOGAN LEAVES FOR CLARE MANCHESTER readers of the

"Irish Democrat" will wish to offer their condolences to Mr Sean Hogan, who lost his wife at the end of January.

Mr Hogan has been for many years active in every aspect of the life of the Irish community. He worked alongside Alf Have-kin and others in the Anti-par-tition League, and during the campaign for civil rights in the six counties, served on the com-mittees set up by the Connolly Association.

He is currently president of the Irish in Britain representa-tion group in Manchester.

He has recently suffered from ill-health, aggravated by his truly heroic attendance on his ailing wife, and will be leaving Manchester this month to re-turn to his native Ennis in the Co Clare.

The Connolly Association and IBRG are hoping to mark his de-parture in an appropriate man-ner.

INTERNATIONALISING THE IRISH QUESTION

FURTHER steps to International-ise tin issue of partition are

now In progress.

Recently the "lr|»i Democrat" published • letter from Mr Brian Wilkinson pointing out that th* issue of Puerto Rloo had boon d i e

cussed at tho United Nations de-colonisation oommission, The Issue Is now Ming taken up by Mr Roy Johnston who Is dlsouMng possi-bilities with Mr $aan MaoBride.

A further development Is taking place in the United State* where

prominent Trad* Unionists ar* con-sidering th* sotting up of an or-ganisation among lrish*Am*rloans which, Ilk* th* Connolly Associa-tion, would work through th* La-hour Movement. Th* International Committee of th* British TUC will not ilk* that!

to include a reference to the evils of the Aet in their parish maga-zines.

Were not out of the wood yet, but we re making progress. When we succeed, as we will, it will prove an important proposition. This is the way to go about settling the whole Irish question if you happen to be living in Britain. It takes time. But the time has to be taken.

UNIONIST VETO MUST GO —MP T H E guarantee to the Ulster

Unionists must not be used as a permanent veto on political progress, Clive Soley. MP for Ham-mersmith North, who is Labour's deputy spokesman on the North, told the Oxford Union s Fabian Society recently.

The time has come to speak openly for a united Ireland, he said It would be a mistake to draw up a detailed programme to achieve Irish unity, as there was "more to unity n

than drawing lines on a map", but the unionist guarantee must be tackled.

A future Labour Government should also encourage the develop-ment of closer social, economic and political links with the South by a programme of harmonisation des-tined to make the Border increas-ingly irrelevant

It should also extend the Anglo-Irish dialogue beyond the present "in camera" talks and introduce legislation for joint voting and citi-zenship rights.

COERCION i r pHE Irish News editorial of Feb-

ruary 3rd was bitterly critical of Mr Michael Foot, who had at a news conference gone to great lengths to reassure the Unionists that Labour's long term commit-ment to the reunification of Ireland was based on persuasion and con-sent, and coercion had no part in it.

The editorial commented that British Labour did not seek the 7

consent of the nationalist popula-tion when it "traded five extra seats at Westminster for Unionist sup-port In 1079."

I t also makes the point that per-suasion and consent meant noth-ing In 1921 when "coercion and nothing else set up, and in varioas forms has maintained, Northern Ireland".

As a republican once said, scratch an English red, and you draw the blue blood. Only we think Mr Foot a trifle pink

m JSGk'?

THE HHSH DEMOCRAT March 1982

THE WEST'S ASLEEP Caoine Magaidh l l / H E N all beside a vigil keep. * * The West's asleep, the West's asleep-

Alas! and well may Erin weep When Connacht lies in slumber deep. There lake and plain smile fair and free. Mill rocks their guardian chivalry.

Sing, Oh ! let man learn liberty From crashing wind and lashing sea.

That chainless wave and lovely land Freedom and Nationhood demand ; Be sure, the great God never planned. For slumb'r'.ig slaves a home so grand. And long, a brave and haughty race Honoured and sentinelled the place. Sing. Oh ! not even their sons' disgrace Can riuite destroy their glory's trace.

For often, in O'Connor's van. To triumph dashed each Connacht clan, And flee) as deer the Normans ran Thro' Corrsliabh Pass and Ardrahan ; And later times saw deeds as brave. And glory guards Clanricarde's grave. Sing, Oh ! they died their land to save At Aughrim's slopes and Shannon's wave.

And if, when all a vigil keep. The West's asleep ; the West's asleep ! Alas! and well may Erin weep. That Connacht lies in slumber deep. But hard ! a voice like thunder spake "The West's awake ! the West's awake !" Sing, Oh ! hurrah ! let England quake. We'll watch till death for Erin's sake!

THOMAS DAVIS

THE OLD RUSTIC MILL BY THE BRIDGE

I ' M thinking tonight of the old rustic bridge, That bends o'er the murmuring stream,

' T w a s there, Maggie dear, with our hearts ful l of cheer. We strayed 'neath the moon's gentle beam ;

'Twas there I first met you, the light in your eye, Awoke in my heart a sweet thrill,

Though now tar away, still my thoughts fondly stray, To the old rust ic bridge by the mill.

CHORUS: Beneath it the stream gently ripples,

Around it the birds love to trill; Tho' now far away, still my thoughts fondly stray.

To the old rustic bridge by the mill.

How often, dear Maggie, when years passed away, And we plighted lovers became,

We rambled the path to the bridge day by day, The smiles of each other to claim.

But one day we parteld, in pain and regret, Our vows then we could not fulfil,

Oh ! may we soon meet and our fond love repeat, On the old rustic bridge by the mill.

I keep in my mem'ry our love of the past With me 'tis as bright as of old,

For deep in my heart it was planted to last; In absence it never grows cold.

I think of you darling, when lonely at night, And when all is peaceful and still,

My heart wanders back in a dream of delight, To the old rustic bridge by the mill.

CLARE TO HERE A H , there's four who share the room and we work hard for the ™ brass And getting up late on Sunday, I never get to mass.

CHORUS : Oh, it's a long, long way from Clare to here It's a long, long way from Clare to here It's a long, long way, it gets further day by day It's a long, long way from Clare to here.

When Friday night comes around it's only into fighting; My ma would like a letter home but I've no time for writing.

And the only time I feel aright is when I'm into drinking It eases off the pain a bit and levels out my thinking.

Well it almost breaks my heart when I think of Josephine I promised I'd be coming back with pockets full of green.

I dream I hear a piper playing—maybe it's a notion I dream I see white horses dance on that other ocean.

RALPH McTELL

A MOLA more le Muire, Mar ta cliathan mo thighe-

se cluthar 'Gus cruach mhon im chistin, Is, m'fhear tighe a' dul 'on roilig, A Sheain oig, a riuin !

CURFA A Sheain, tri lar mo chroi

anonn ! Do chasa fada bui Slnte slos le taobh do thighe A Sheain, tri lar mo chroi

anonn! G«l a gol o, got o, gol o, Gol a gol o, gol o, gol o, Gol a gol o, gol o, gol o, A Sheain, tri lar mo chroi

anonn !

Mo thaisge is mo riun tu ! Is do bhuailtha me le craobh

is ruta, Is le ceann reamhar a' tsuiste ; Is mola bhearfad 'on Ur-Mhac Mar ba dhuit-se ba thuisge, A Sheain oig, a riuin ! Mo ghra tu is mo thaisge! Do thugtha dhom an taobh ba

chrua den leabain, An chuid ba chaoile 'en bheatha, '» an ceann ba raimhre 'en

bhata, A Siieain oig, a riuin ! Mo ghra tu is mo chumann £ Do chuirtha na cearca chun nide, Do thogtha an t-im den chuiginn, Is mise sa chuinne a' sile, A Sheain oig, a riuin ! Mo ghra tu is mo chiall, S ta feasog ar do ghiall; Gan tu a' feachaint soir na siar, Is t'anam gleigeal ag an ndial, A Sheain oig, a riuin ! Mo chreach mor is mo lat! Nuair a gheoir-se uaim amach Is baralin ban id ghlaic, Is tairnge sios id chab, Do chualacht suas ler ais, Is mise rompa amach, Mo ramhan agan's mo shluasad Chun cludaithe anuas ort, A Sheain oig, a riuin ! Cuirfead leac le cul do chinn, Is leac eile le tracht do bhuinn, Dha teac dheag no tri Anuas, ar aghaidh do chroi Na leigfidh duit eiridh anios A Sheain oig, a riuin .'

Ach ni chreidfinn fein on rlocht Na ga bpreabfa fos it shui 'S bheadh bata glas on gcoiil Go h'ard os cionn mo chinn A Sheain oig a riuin !

THE OLD FENIAN GUN

I T liung above the kitchen fire ' Its barrel long and brown, And one day with a boy's desire,

I climbed and took It down. My father's eyes with anger flashed

He cried: "What have you done? I wish you'd left It where it was—

That's my old Fenian gun." I fondled it with love and pride,

And looked It o'er and o'er; I placed it on my shoulder

And I marched across the floor. My father's anguish softened,

And he shared my boyish fun— "Ah well," he said, " ' t i s In your

breed Like that old Fenian gun."

"I remember '67 well." He said, "when lads like me

All thought we'd strike another blow

To set old Ireland free, But broken were our golden hopes,

l was long months on the run, But it did good work for Ireland

then, Did that old Fenian gun.

"I was down then In KWmallook— 'Twas the hottest ftght of all,

And you see (he raised his arm) There's the mark still of the ball.

I hope the young Iwfs trowing now Will hold the grouiyl we won And not disgrace thy cause In

which I held that Fenian gun/ '

SHANAGOLDEN A H , the cold winds from the mountains are calling soft to me

The smell of scented heather brings bitter memories, The wild Mi l lonely eflgle up In the summer sklec Flies high o'er SfiMagoWMi where my yMNtg Willie lies.

Do you remember, darling, we walked the moonlit road, I held you in my arms then, I'd never let you go ? Our hands they were entwined, my love, all in the pale moonlight By the fields of Shanagolden on a lonely winter's night.

Then came the call to arms, my love, and the hills they were aflame;

Down from the silent mountains the Saxon stranger came. I held you in my arms then, my young hetifl wild with fear Near the fields of Shanagolden in the springtime of the year.

And you fought them, darling Willie, all through the summer day*, I heard the rifles firing in the mountains far away— I held you in my arms, love, and your blood ran free and bright And you died by Shanagolden on a lonely summer's night.

Oh, but that was long ago, my love, and our son grows fine and tall, The hills they are at peace again, the Saxon stranger's gone ; There's roses on your grave, my love, there's an eagle in the sky, Flying high o'er Shanagolden where my young Willie lies.

Sean O'Dwyer a ghleanna A F T E R Aughrim's great disaster, when the foe in sooth was

* * master, 'Twas you that first plunged in and swam the Shannon's boiling

flood; And through Slieve Bloom's dark passes you led your gaHowglasses Although the hungry Saxon wolves were howling for our blood. As we crossed Tipperary, we rived the clan O'Leary, And drove a "creacht" before us as their horsemen onward came With our spears and swords we gored them, as through flood and

flight we bore them Still Sean O'Dwyer A Ghleanna, we were worsted in the game.

Long, long we kept the hillside, our couch hard by the hillside, The sturdy knotted oaken boughs our curtain overhead ; The summer's blaze we laughed at, the winter's snows we scoffed at And trusted in our long steel swords to win us daily bread. Till the Dutchman's troops came round us, with fire and steel they

bound us, They blazed the woods and mountains till the very clouds were

flame, But our sharpened swords cut through them, in their very hearts

we slew them, Still Sean O'Dwyer A Ghleanna, we were worsted in the game-

Here's a health to yours and my king, the sovereign of our liking, To Sarsfield underneath whose flag we'll cast once more a chance; For the morning's breeze will bring us across the seas and wing us To take our stand and wield a brand among the sons of France; And though we part in sorrow, still Sean O'Dwyer, a chara, Our prayer is "God save Ireland and pour blessings on her name" May her sons prove true when needed, may they never fall as we

did, For Sean O'Dwyer A Ghleanna, we were worsted in the game.

DRUMBOE CASTLE (Commemorating four of the seventy-seven men executed by Free

State forces during the civil war, on March 14th, 1923 — Timothy O'Sullivan, Chuvles Daly, John Larkin and Daniel Enright). *

A N the eve of St Patrick's day at the dawning of day w The hills of Tirconaill looked a«mbre and grey, When the first light of morning illumined the sky, Four brave Irish soldiers were led forth to die.

They left their loved homes in a green Munster vale And came to Tirconaill to flght for the Gael, But instead of true friends they met traitor and foe, Now uncofhned they lie in the woods of Drumboe.

The church bells rang loud in the cool morning air To summon the faithful to penance and prayer, \ When a crash from the wild woods struck terror and woe-— 'Twas the death knell of Daly shot dead at Drumboe.

Four Republican soldiers were dragged from their cell Where for months they had suffered the torments of hell. No mercy they aaked from their pitiless foe, And no mercy was shown by the thugs cf Drumboe.

Let Tirconaill no more boast of honour and fame, All the water*.of Finn could not wash out this shame. While the Finn and the Swilly continue to flow The stain will remain on the thugs of Drumboe.

*

THE IRISH DEMOCRAT

The last of Connolly's children "We Shall Rise Again", Nora Connolly O'Brien (Mosquito Press, London ppl21. Paperback £1.95).

RECOMMENDED "The Last Ditch", by Roy Brad-• ford (Published by Blackstaff

Press. Price £3.95).

Sometimes a novel can conjure up the social and political at-

mosphere of a time and place much better than a history or a political •aalysis. How little people un-derstand about- nineteenth cen-tury France before they read novels of Balzac. In a similar way Roy Bradford in his second novel has brought alive the crisis of Official unionism and the Loyalist Workers Strike in a way that none •f the political commentators have done. The material is mainly auto-biographical, coming from Mi-Bradford's seven years' experience as a Cabinet Minister.

History in the raw is seldom suitable for presentation in a novel. Remember how Brian Friel •hanged the shooting of the Civil Rights demonstrators to outside the town hall and reduced them to three in "Freedom of the City."

In real life, the replacement of the "B" Specials by the U.D.R.

arose out of a judicial enquiry into the behaviour of the Specials in violent confrontations with civil Rights marchers and demonstra-tors. In the novel the enquiry is not mentioned and the decision seems to come out of the blue from the British Government.

The Loyalist strike was not a re-action to the British threat to the "B" Specials but a reaction to the Sunningdale Agreement and the al--ieged threat of power-sharing to the privileged position of the Protestants. In the novel the Loyalist strike is connected with the threat to the Specials. These alterations are legitimate for the novelist.

The result is a taut, fast-moving novel reproducing the hot-house at-mosphere of Northern Ireland poli-tics. It comes over very clearly that the sole preoccupation of all the Unionist groups is to maintain supremacy over the Catholics.

The central character, the Home Affairs Minister Desmond Car-

son is not a run-of-the mill Union-ist. On one level he is an astute politician and quite ruthless in his use of the Protestant paramili-taries. On another level he is the lover of the Catholic girl, looking for something more satisfying than sis county politics. Bradford's awareness of being in a trap set by Britain is made very clear in a oonversation towards the end :

"The bitter truth is that we're [Stormont Government] being ig-nored. We are only a puppet regime — our opponents are right." He turned to face her and spoke from the heart. "At times like this I'd give anything, anything, to be in a real govern-ment."

"Any government ?" she asked, half-smiling.

"Almost. Only with sov-ereignty is there self-respect. You make your own mistakes."

n p h e novelist unwittingly reveals how Imperialism curtails and

ifrustrates the normal development of people's personalities at all ilevels of society in the six coun-ties. They are in a cage of Britf? aln'3 making and there is no way out till Britain withdraws with all he r works and pomps.

All the political groupings that are locked in varying degrees of antagonism or temporary alliance are depicted in an authentic fashion.

The book is as strongly recom-mended for students of politics as for habitual novel readers.

ex.

Qonnolly's children all went different ways. Mona died

in a scalding accident. Maire concentrated on her work as a doctor, though her sentiments were republican. Aideen like-wise remained aloof from poli-tics and emigrated to Birming-ham. Ina went Free State. Roddy after preliminary pere-grinations which included sec-retaryship of the Communist Party of Ireland, became a pil-lar of the Labour Party. Fiona's views most resembled her father's, and now Nora, the last to die, gives us what is in effect a "provisional Sinn Fein" view of history.

She looks back on her life from her final position, and there is no question about the interest of the account.

D u t a historian must read this D book with great care. She did many things she had for-gotten about, like working for the I.T.G.W.U. and acting as Irish correspondent to Sylvia Pankhurst's Workers Dread-nought.

Her sight was bad and it is doubtful if she was able to read what she had written before.

There are therefore quite a number of inaccuracies. Cathal O'Shannon denied that Con-

nolly knew German, and it is known that Matheson did translations for him. There is no reason to think that Bowen-Colthursts' murder of Skeffing-ton was due to drink. There was no reference to "continental socialists" in previous versions of Connolly's comments upon socialists during his last im-prisonment. More likely he had Scots in mind.

The meeting would be in Madison Square Garden when she was in the U.S.A. The Re-publican Congress paper was printed in Longford, not Ros-common. The dispute within the Republican Congress was

PART OF THE HIDDEN ULSTER "Sentry Hill, An Ulster Farm

and Family", by Brian M. Walker (Blackstaff, £5.95).

THREE men share the credit for this detailed record of a farm-

ing family and community on the outskirts of Belfast from about 1850 to the present. The originator was Wm. Fee McKinney (1832-1917) of Ballyvesey, Carnmoney, tenant of 93 acres whose interests in-cluded Presbyterian church affairs, local history, archaeology, geology, astronomy, public welfare, rural poetry, temperance and, most im-portantly, photography. In addi-tion, he was an assiduous diarist and the Inheritor of a family in-stinct for the hoarding of ephem-era-wills, letters, handbills, re-ceipts, broadsheets, newspaper cut-tings, even tram-tickets. These were the soli in which the seed of the book was planted.

The Sentry Hill family traces itself back to one McKenzie, a Jacobite refugee from Scotland after the 1715 rebellion. His des-cendants, all Presbyterians, kept aloof from the Orange Order. Wm. Fee McKinney's two grandfathers followed Henry Joy McCracken in 1798 and a kinsman fell on the Irish side at the battle of Antrim. William supported the Liberal Party, continuing to do so when it opposed home rule in 1886. He

signed the Ulster covenant in 1912, although his cousin Joe Blggar was a Parnellite M.P.

OF the 90 or so photographs brilliantly reproduced here the

bulk are from the 600-odd glass plates, all carefully labelled, taken by William between 1880 and 1917. They show generations of Mc-Kinneys, their relations, neigh-bours and servants; their house at all seasons, with its outbuildings, cottages, horses, ploughs; trades-men at Work—a thatcher, a pig-killer, a tailor, a carpenter; and much of the work of the farming year.

The second maker of "Sentry Hill: An Ulster Farm And F mily" is Dr Joe McK. Dundee, grandson of William and prqgent owner of the property. He has turned part of the house into a museum of all the aocount-books, miscellaneous documents^ fossils, antiques and furniture accumulated by his fore-bears. His inherited zeal for family and local history led to a meeting in 1976 with the third shaper of this Illustrated chronicle, Brian M. Walker.

MR Walker has done much more than catalogue the arte-

facts. He has filled in the his-torical background back to the O'Neill overlordship of South An-trim and has related the Mc-Kinney prosperity to such factors

as the Ulster custom', the growth of Belfast, changes In agricultural economy after the great famine and the decline of landlordism under the land acts of the period 1870 to 1904. He has pieced to-gether fragmentary evidence con-cerning the fortunes of family members who emigrated to Britain or Australia. The excerpts from diaries are chosen so as to cast light on such matters as wages, working conditions and the price of oats, butter, potatoes and buttermilk. Some are startling, like the 1868 entry which tells of manure being carted from Belfast under the buttermilk cans; one recalls the outbreaks of typhoid in that decade.

Nothing In these pages falls to interest. As an example of Mr Walker's eye for the significant see the broadsheet of the 1840s repro-duced on p.99. The poem preserves In metre, dialect and mood a Scot-tish tradition that was already archaic when Burns revived it a century earlier. Such a survival is one of many pointers in the book to an Ulster Presbyterian mode of thought and feeling that was rich and varied before it was overlaid with loyallsm. I would add Brian M. Walker's name to the list of the few who have 'wrought hard' to commemorate that mode as it manifested Itself in one small area.

SEAMUS TREACY

VALUABLE REFERENCE BOOK "A Guide to Anglo-Irish Litera-

ture", by Alan Warner (Gill and Macmillan, £15).

' A NGLQ-UIISH' as a literary term needs to be interpreted

selectively. Daniel Corkery's wide category of 'literature written in English by Irishmen' would admit Goldsmith, Swift, Burke, Berkeley, Sheridan, Wilde, Shaw and Beckett, none of whom (except, marginally, Swift and Shaw), con-cerned themselves with Irish ex-perience or addressed an Irish audience. As no single volume could cover such a range Alan Warner has taken a much nar-rower one. A Guide to Anglo-Irish Literature confines itself to in-siders'. i.e., creative writers in English since 1800 who were, in Yeat'g phrase, 'moulded by in-fluences which moulded Ireland'. If this excludes Goldsmith et al, and also Joyce Cary and Louise MacNeice, it leaves room for Maria Edgeworth, Somerville and Ross and George Moore. -Alan Warner then makes a

further selection of twenty poete, dramatists, novelists and short-story writers for study in some de-tail. These he groups under five headings—Big House writers (Edge-worth, Somerville and Ross, George Moore), writers from 'smaller houses' Carle ton, O'Connor, Ka»-anafh). Dubliners (Joyce, Stephens,

O'Casey, Clarke, Flann O'Brien). Yeats and Synge, and, to round off, seven living writers (0*Pao-lain, Lavin, Stuart, Moore, Mc-Gahern, Hewitt and Heaney). Sup-plementary sections contain notes on authors of lesser eminencce. r p H E twenty major essays follow * a fairly consistent method. An

experienced teacher like Professor Warner knows that a guide to reading should attend to words, Ideas, imMery and rhythms rather than to theories about influences or sources. Accordingly, he con-centrates on particular works of each author, quotes liberally, ad-vances on his own preferences, digresses occasionally and tries hard to bring out the inter-connection between the writer's life and his work. The essay on Francis Stuart, for example, coll-ates passages from the novels with a note written by Stuart in 1935. a lecture given by him in 1974 and an extract from bis Autobiography. The integrity of Stuart's character, career and work is illuminated.

Professor Warner's critical judge, merits wear an air of unassuming honesty suggesting long .medita-tion and also deep enjoyment. They a n sometimes markedly in-dividual and usually carefully bal-anced. Admiration tor Yeate and Synge does not extend to Yeat s eccentricity or Sy*jge's obseBsive-

ness; he casts a cold eye on some aspects of the Revival: affection for John Hewitt's poetry co-exists with an awareness of its limited appejil; he notes the crudities in Carleton's stories as well as their mimetic skill.

A N early chapter summarises u' what Alan Warner considers characteristically Irish in this array of writing. He claims no patent for these discoveries, but they are excellent guidelines for informed reading. Oral rhythms echo through both poetry and prose. There is revelry in the power of words such as the Eliza-bethan Engish enjoyed when their vernacular was first raised to lit-erary status. 'Marvels' abound, as they do in Gaelic literature. An-tiquity attracts Seam us Heaney no less than Yeats or Austin Clarke. Life tends to be contemplated tub •peel* aetermtaUs. Extremes of character and behaviour have pride of place over the quotidian mean.

There sire a few slips over dates and proper names Joyce is credi-ted with a Nobel Prize: no one will begrudge the promotion so close to his lOOtih birthday. We have in A OaM* to Aagte-lriah Literature both an important work of criticism and • handy reference beofc

MAMU8 TftEAGY

not "united front" versus "uni-ted Ireland." It was "the re public" versus "a workers' re-public" and Nora argued for a workers republic, i.e. socialism. She never came to a meeting of the Connolly Club and the con-versation in London is imag-inary. The Russians offered to pay for their Crown Jewels which had been placed in Irish custody in the United States and brought to Ireland. The re-turn took place shortly after th; war.

T h e y did not in 1913 go ta collect Connolly from

Mountjoy in the Vice-regal ear. Mrs Connolly was staying wllti Eamon Martin's sister. Tha Vice-regal car brought the or der for Connolly's release from Mounljoy. Then Martin, Lillie Connolly and (I think) Ina went to Mountjoy in a taxi.

At the same time these lively reminiscences do give a very effective picture of times past and the very varied eventj through which Nora Connolly lived. She was a generous en-thusiastic woman who should have been honoured in her lift-time with something more than a senatorship.

C.D.G.

JAMES JOYCE GEOGRAPHY

"A Guide to the Dublin of Ulys-ses", by Frank Delaney (Hod-der & Sloughton, £8.95).

I^RANK DELANEY, has dedi-cated his book to his three

sons "who are already Dubliners and who may yet become Joyceans". Published in this centenary year s>S Joyce s birth, this is a dazzling and beautiful work and must surely make Dubliners of all of us — who as yet are merely Joyceans.

The book is a wonderful guid<) for anyone reading "Ulysses", whether for the first time — oc the twenty-first time! To explore the Martello Tower, the National Library and the beach at Sandy-mount, through the marvellous photographs of Jorge Lewlnski, adds an extra dimension to one's enjoyment of "Ulysses". This vast work, in which the hero, Bloom, spends a whole day wandering through the streets of Dublin, has the City itself as one of its main characters. Dublin, is far more than mere background. Indeed, as the meandering tale unfolds, it be-comes one of its main protagonists. It wakes and sleeps with Bloom; takes part in birth and death and in the lives and loves of its in-habitants.

[T\ELANEY'S work gives us both a literary commentary oa

Joyce's book — explaining and commentating on the story M) Bloom and on its parallels with Joyce's own life — and alee a visual commentary, illustrated toy photographs of the Dublin of yes-terday and today.

Street maps accompany each sec-tion of the book and there is « r n a plan of Dublin In 1904. The ocrfy drawback is the absence of a class! fled list of the photographs, whiot* would have been a useful adjunct to the general Index. However, thla is a splendid book and one to toear sure and enjoy.

8 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT March t982

PETER MULLIGANS PEEP-SHOW

A STORY ON A STICK

| T is now known that the RUC ' knew about the child abuse in

the Kincora Home and other homes under the control of the British •ealth authority over ten years ago and declined lor obvious reasons to take action. Three members of ah Orange Lodge founded by Wil-Jiam McGiath have been jailed. The British Government wanted a pri-vate inquiry, but the people of Bel-fast. have demanded and got a pub-lic inquiry which will be headed by the Chief Constable of Sussex. Will we ever hear the full truth?

A ft ii lhe British Government plans to

enact, what they call enabling powers in the form of a new North-e m Ireland constitution act. An 80-cnember assembly is proposed — but the Parliament of Westminster will still retain complete power over the *i'ea under section 75 of the Gov-ernment of Ireland Act.

-..- it The Rev Martin Smythe, Grand

•Master of the Orange Lodge has announced that he will represent the Official Unionists in the elec-tion tor the seat formally held by the Rev R. Bradford. The Rev William McCrae. a well-known go;i-jpel singer and supporter ol the R.cv lan Paisley will fight on behalf cf the Democratic Unionist Party.

tY ft ft The British Government has ap-

pointed a Receiver for the Ameri-can De Lorean Motor Company in Dunmurray. South Belfast where registered unemployment is 35 per cent. Over 2.000 workers have iceen dismissed and the remaining

' 1.500 are on short time. Public fluids in excess of til million have been "invested" so far and it has •been pointed out that if more is not forthcoming some 3,000 jobs in Bri-tain could be affected if suppliers a.re not paid

ft ft 'ft Reports have reached us that the

Belfast Republican Press Centre is again under attack from the British Army. Raids have increased fonce the announcement that Sein Fein will contest elections in both parts of Irel nd. The Centre has been raided four times in the last e,ix weeks and the Director has been informed that "every time a telex statement goes out the centre will be raided". In common with other European news agencies the centre relays Republican news re-leases. The last raid resulted in all the staff being arrested and in-terrogated for 48 hours and then released. The general trend is to make a charge and then hold the person for as long as a year before the trial — when the charges are then found to be baseless. It is known as internment by remand.

4 4 « Two soldiers in the Royal Ang-

lian Regiment stationed at Ebring-ton Barracks in Derry, have to the litter dismay of local residents been found not guilty of the deaths of James Brown, aged 17, and James English 19, who were killed outright when a British Army Landrover rammed a crowd of young people.

Eyewitness Paul Clements, a BBC radio reporter was at the scene In

Printed by Ripley Printers Ltd (TU), Nottingham Road, Ripley., Derby.',, and published by Connolly Publi-cations Ltd, at 177 Lavender Hill, London SW11.

JJAYO readers at least will cer-tainly know that the first

and the last train into Achill Island carried the bodies of the dead victims of two related dis-asters — the last train to Achill in the year 1937 bore the bodies of the ten islanders who perished in the terrible bothy or barn fire in Kirkintilloch, in Scotland, a scandal which aroused the world to the awful conditions endured in the tatie fields of Scotland by Irish mi-gratory workers — as to some extent did also Patrick McGill's Novel "The Rat Pit" which I think was published a couple of decades earlier.

And in 1894 a special train was run as far as Mulranney to carry the bodies of thirty-eight workers, also bound for the farmlands of Scotland, who were drowned en route there . . these sad occurrences were brought to mind for me recently when I read a new book in Irish, "Almanag Eireannach" (An Irish Almanac) written by Tipperary-man Diarmuid Breath-nach who is the chief librarian at RTF;.

The hook itself is a treasure, an eleg mt, beautifully got out and illustrated compendium of well-known and of little-known events and people in Irish his-tory, going back a thousand years — a fascinating mixum gatherum — but what particu-larly took my attention was the repetition of a very persistent piece of Mayo folklore.

Let me explain: it has long been said and written that these twin disasters were foretold some three hundred years ago, long before anybody could fore-see the advent of the steam en-gine, by one Brian Rua O Cearb-hain in Mayo : O Cearbhain, so the legend runs, predicted that an iron-wheeled fire-driven train would run north and south and that on its first and its last trip

BY DONALL MacAMHLAIGH to Achill the passengers would be corpses.

A very impressive feat of pro-phecy indeed or so you would have thought but Diarmuid Breathnach tells us that it is en-tirely spurious and that prior to the disasters in question there was no mention at all in local folklore of the fateful train or of the victims it would carry— this was grafted on to the body of local tradition at a later date and so made its way into print! Breathnach says that this knowledge by hindsight was put in the mouth of Brian Rua, the Mayo Nostradamus, after the events in question had occurred.

And that brings me tf> a pos-sible 'mea-culpa' for propagating false prophecies myself — as many another unsuspecting vic-tim may have done ! Mayo Irish speakers will be familiar with the prediction that there would be:—

Teach ar gach cnocan, Brog ar gach tachran Agiis sceal i mbarr bata. (A house on every hill, boots

on every child, and a story on a stick — or telegraphy !). This prophecy, the author of which I'm not sure — it may have been, or ha\jf been attributed to the same brian Rua O Cearb-hain who was supposed to have foreseen the Achill disasters — always fascinated me and I quite honestly took it as more or less proof of some sort of prescience — for how else could anyone several hundred years ago foresee that every child would have a pair of boots in-stead of going barefooted as

the course of duty, l i u s is his re-port: "1 swung around and saw the two Landrovers coming down the hill at a fast speed into the junc-tion and into the crowd. I saw one young boy go up into the air four or five feet. I saw two shoes flying through the air. I was dumbfounded. I couldn't believe my eyes; I expected to see at least half a dozen people dead. M:.ny people must have stumbled off, too frightened to go to hospital in case they were arrested for rioting.

Another eyewitness also said he saw "one Landrover reversing over victim English's body". The prose-cution has been accused of holding back for political reasons. ("New Statesman").

ft ft ft In South Africa they call it the

Terrorism Act — in Britain it is the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Both Acts are designed to stop the use of military means for political purposes by civilians. Both Acts abolish all human rights for any persons detained. The National Council for Civil Liberties has stated: "By giving the Home Sec-retary and the police powers which cannot be challenged in the courts, the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) has destroyed the safeguards in the legal system to protect, the citizen against wrongful arrest, de-tention or conviction." I t has now been concluded that the British police are not in effect, searching for terrorists when they raid Irish homes, but are compiling low level intelligence for the Police National Computer. The Minister of State has recently disclosed that there

are at present 22 million persons on police computers. He has refused to allow individuals the right to vet the information held on them or to restrict the use of such informa-tion.

ft ft ft PREPARING FOR WAR — A

planned 12 acre government and military shelter in the Chiltern Hills has been budgeted at £300 million ("Sunday Times").

ft ft tV "Jesuit priests — as well as those

from other orders, have been openly siding with the poor in countries like El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Inevitably they have made themselves the natural ene-mies of the oligarchic governments of the region. . . . About 100 Jesuit leaders are to meet in Rome to con-sider their relationship with the Catholic hierarchy and their role in the world, which the Pope feels has been dangerously radical, es-pecially in Latin America." ("Guardian"). The Pope has re-placed Father Pedro Arrupe the Spanish Jesuit leader who has been accused of espousing left-wing causes.

ft ft ft How they see us — "The Irish are

brought up $oth at home and at school to believe tha t should they become poor they must not worry, because God will always provide." ("Sunday Times").

ft * ft DID YOU KNOW

. . . one million people could be living in 350,000 new homes in-stead of spending £10,000 million on the Trident Missile.

did but the rich; that a hguse would be built on every hill when it was the old Irish custom to build in sheltered places ; and far, far less that anything so unthinkable as telegraphy could come about.

But now in the light of what I learned from the Irish alma-nac it seems only too feasible that the prophecy if you could call it such, was concocted by someone who lived after the introduction of the telegraph poles to rural Ireland . . . a story on a s t ick, as they say in Mayo !

Sticking with the Almanac Eireannach, however, there is some support for the belief that certain things are foreknown or foretold in dreams. In Co Kerry in 1896 a great bogslide which travelled fourteen miles at the longest point and covered some three hundred acres of arable land also took the lives of seven members of the Donnelly family of Sliabh Luachra whose house was buried under eight foot of turf — one member of the fam-ily, a girl named Kate, survived because she was staying at the time with her grandmother some distance away; Kate it seems dreamt that same night that she saw seven coffins being borne past her house and this transpired because the normal route to the local cemetery was not passable due to the bogslide. There are more things in Hea-ven and Earth as the fellow said. . . .

UNDERSTANDING THE BRITISH

It has long been said that the British don't understand us. the Irish, but sometimes I think that it is equally hard for us Irish to understand them. Take the re-cent Freddie Laker business, for instance. . .. Freddie is a shrewd businessman (well maybe not shrewd enough !) and he made an awful lot of money by taking people to America a helluva lot cheaper than the established airlines could do.

Leaving aside the obvious reasons for this, Freddie was motivated by that very human and basic wish — to make a lot of money. Even now with his business gone bust it is hard to believe that he is near enough s ( a b o u t £10,000 is all he has left or so he tells the people), but even if he hadn't a boot on his foot it would be hard to see why he should arouse the great

groundswell of sympathy which he did.

I mean, no matter how many people availed of Freddie's cheap flights, they can only have been a fraction of those who wept salt tears for him and who dipped into their meagre sav-ings — into their even more meagre social security money if you may believe what you read — to come to the rescue of Freddie.

Why do people respond like this to the downfall of a mil-lionaire, when there are mil-lions of hungry mouths all over the world who would be glad of the few pence or the thou-sands of pounds being offered to Freddie Laker and Tony Row-land ? What is it that makes people think and respond in this way ?

Not that the Irish are always a lot better: some of them gave presents to Grace Kelly when they'd have turned a tinker away from their door, and Tony O Reilly — a great Rugby player, a successful manipulator of market forces, a financial wizard etc etc ad infinitum, but surely hardly a proper object of adulation — has been lauded to the high heavens over the years. Is it merely a case of having a goose and of getting a goose as the saying goes, or is there something basically servile in most of us ? "An te a bhionn thuas oltar deoch air, an te a bhionn thios buailtear cloch air" sort of thing ? It would seem so. . . .

* HORNS I'm indebted to AMARACH,

the Gaeltacht weekly, for the following lovely little story: A parish priest in Connemara came on a trio of schoolboys kicking a ball outside the school building — a practice he had forbidden them since they had broken windows that way before. In fright the three boys ran off to hide though the priest called them to come back to give them a piece of his mind. "Come back this minute!" the priest bawled. "I want to talk to you lads!" But the lads re-mained in their hiding place, de-termined not to come out.

"Come out here this minute !" the priest shouted again, but to no avail.

"If you boys don't come out here at once I'll put horns on you!" the priest threatened, at which the smallest of the three boys grew fearful.

"Aw come on out, lads." he entreated, "didn't you hear the priest say he'll put horns on us ?"

"Arrah, don't worry at all," said the oldest boy, "sure if he does itself won't we get stuff in the chemist's to take them off !"

ST. PATRICK'S NIGHT

SOCIAL WORKERS' MUSJ£ ASSOCIATION

236 Westbourne Park Road, London W11

Reg Halh and the Rakes plus Ken Keable

Admission £2 (Including Refreshments) 8 pm

CONNOLLY ASSOCIATION