DISARM STORMONT'S i /-

DEMOCRAT No. 302 OCTOBER 1969

Wilson's constituents send petition from

to Brighton Resolutions and Labour Conference COLLOWING the tabling of four resolutions • Labour Party Conference in Brighton it w

on Ireland at the — was widely believed

that thi Executive would accede to the wide demand for a debate. Nearly two thousand signatures

to a petition demanding action over the Ulster crisis were brought f rom Mr. Wilson's own constituency

; ' in Liverpool to the conference. CAMFRON ki As-Mm

Gamaron Report on turban i n in I c i t a t

don^ S t a t i o n e r y at t h e U n -

^-^ffea. eaine happened inadf&s iy . - BWrybody wanted to read the sbatpeet ever indictment of six county Tory-Uitioqlsm.

OrFtCML . This is printed on the orders of

the Governor General ot the six counties and bears t he official coat of arms of the Queen of Sigland.

There can be m wriggling out now. ' The Cameron report says the complaints Of the Catholic minority are Justine* up to the hilt

What the "Irish' Democrat" has been saying for years is now officially admitted. There Is dis-criminatioa la jobs a n d housing. There 1« gerrymandering. There Is a Special Powers Act which abro-gates 20 out of the 30 provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The . Police are NOT under impartial control The B-speci(ds are bigotted Protestant strong-arm mtn.

(continued on Paso six)

iW3HfflSBTS,£JK

HOW badly the "Irish Democrat needs money to expand I Never

was the work it does mote impor-tant t h a n a t the present time. It brfcgs to its readers the news that is not in the British papers, and the interpretation of events on the basis of Republicanism and the in-terests of the working train.

We want to get i t ou^ to thou-sands more. Yet we have hardly the cash to get it out t o those it does get out to.

Bo particular thanks to those who responded to our appeal. • And also to the London readers whose small donations amounted to so fine a total.

We acknowledge with thanks: B. Wilkinson 7/-, P. Ryan 4/-, Peter O'Connor £2, B. Wilkinson 7/0, P. Ryan 4/-, A. Broadhurst 3/6, A. G. Morton £6, P. Forrest 12/-, O. Walsh 6/-, Manchester Readers 15/-, London Readers £5 8s. and J . Roose Williams (in memory of his brother Glyn) £10. The total is £25 3s. 6d.

, Meetings arranged included a march and open ail1 demonstration organised by the Connolly Associa-tion for Sunday afternoon, Septem-ber 28th.

ampaign for Democracy in >rganised a meeting for

ites on Monday eveti&g, 8*p-tember 29th, and the ^ tttaiifcrf fefeed^a evening, September 30th.

These meetings were all par t of the campaign of t he three organ-isations to bring the issue of a Bill of Rights before the British Labour Movement so as to secure action by the Government.

FASCIST GANGS!

Democracy, not barbed wire Put the police under non-sectarian control

Belfast Unionists, echoed by Westminster Tories, are yam-mering for the "resumption of law and order" and the "resumption of normal life in Northern Ireland."

The Catholics and Democrats of the six counties decline to resume the life that was "normal" under Unionism these past 5 0 years.

They want life that is "nor-mal" in democracies where citi-zens have equal rights and op-portuniftga, U Erecting tangles of barbed wire, lining t h e streets with British troops will fee of no value as long as the Fascist bands are allowed to organise a&d keep their arms.

v , ' - f ! BAN . •.. j? Urgent issue in the six the banning of all

te armies , . and the Crumlin Road Jail of tries t o keep tbem total and final abo-

There is never any difficulty in searching Republican homes for arms If they are suspected of con-taining t h e m Let t he other side have a b i t of their own medicine if they break the law.

Lord Carson, the founder of Unionism, said he , would hang

British Cabinet Ministers on lamp-posts, but he was never arrested. Paisley is saying he will lead a hundred thousand Protestants to Stormont. He is not arrested either.

Indeed he talks of "law and order" — which means leaving the Catholic people without protection.

DRILLING There is one law for the Protest-

ants anil another for the Catholics. Unionists have been soon drilling with rifles In the fields of Co, -Tyrone*.. Nothing -was , done to '.ttMi^. 'tut throe Republicans are in Jag on m i o i ft

The marauding pogromists, the fascist murder gangs, the seo tarian Special Constabulary, and the R.U.C.~have been shown to be in league against them. When the laws a re equal laws, and - When those who enforce them do so im-partially, then there will be no need of barricades.

The barricades are down for the present. The responsibility is now that of Messrs. Wilson and Cai-laghan. They must be made to face it.

A

Until there is one law equally binding on all citizens, the Catho-lic people will require barricades for their protection.

Does anybody think they undergo t h e inconvenience l o r ftmf/Y,

Irish meetings T U E S D A Y S 8 p.m.

S U N D A Y S 3 » m . • g g f

AN DEAR Mr. Wilton, — The inevit-

a b l e Ulster crisis has broken during, your period of offtoe, and lust when your'party Is beginning to oonslder its prospects at the next aleotion.

The problem was not created by your Government but by your pre-decessors. The root cause is the Government of Ireland Aot, 1920, which created a separate adminis-tration In six North-Eastern coun-ties of Ireland, and handed over to this administration powers to oppress one-third o f ' the oitizene under Its oontrol beeause their poli-tical views ooinolded with those of the vast majority of the Irish (Staple. HOW oouM suoh an arrange-ment prove stable?

Well, It has not proved stable. It Is crying out for a solution. And If it does not reoelve that solution, It could be a serious factor operat-ing against your Government and against the Labour Party. You will remember that the Liberal Party never r e o o v e r e d from Lloyd Ooorpe's handling of the Irish quoetion. History does not repeat ItaoH exaoUy, but like causae often praduoe like reeulte.

The dMtfsr It undeniable. But the opportunity Is then. Your Government has an overwhelming majority. The six county adminJ-tratlon Is without support among the British public, and even the Conservatives disown It. The com-ment* of the overoeas Press show the International demand for im-mediate change*. The bell Is at your feet Will you aetf

We have dlsoorned In your hand-ling of the-crisis, as well as in that of your oolleague Mr. Callaghen, a

certain hesitancy which we believe is unnecessary. Why should you preface almost every statement with an assertion that Britain in-tends to hold six Irish counties within the United Kingdom? At Bogslde Mr. Callaghan told the Catholics that they ware only a minority in the six oountles and they must abide by the decisions of the majority. Why not also tell the Unionists that they are a mino-rity in Ireland and should abide by the decisions of the majority who want Government from Dublin?

The partition of Ireland cannot be maintained for ever. Obviously

of Ireland. And there a n imme-diate steps which are oryinffeut for action, That action should be legislation by the fftif lNnster Parliament.

FIRST, the Government of i n -land Aot, Section 4, should be amended so as to remove the re-strictions on the powers of the six oounty administration to seek ac-commodations with the Republic without the consent of WeeMlnster —these restrictions are named In subsoetlons 1, 4 and T In particu-lar.

SECOND, the same Act, Seotlon 5, should be amended ae- that the

ing to affect law reality strongly dleorlmlnary legis-lation. * y ;.

For the moment you have Bri-tish troopa in Norttiem M M * a situation which is to be regiotlsd. if, however, you mrtaoe the pre-sent bad laws whleh i with mod Ones, and Insist on total disbandment of all soeta

ULSTEK A A *•}

there are obstaoles and itlffioulties In the way of immediate reunifica-tion, nut at least your Government should remind the U n i o n i s t minority that you favour progress in thfs direotlon, and that they should turn their mimts towards re-oonolliation Instead of permanent hostility to the majority of the Irish people.

If you do not take up this posi-tion, you ptao% youreelf In the posi-tion of Justifying the basis on which the whole denial of demo-cracy In Northern Ireland rests. And the faots, we do not need to remind you after the Cameron Report, are admitted.

What Is wanted Is to turn the oourse of your Irish policy In the direction of an agreed reunification

veto on legislation interfering with religious equality should be ex-tended to all forms of administra-tive action In furthoranoe of reli-gious Inequality, that is to say, re-ligious discrimination and Incite-ment to religious discrimination should be outlawed.

THIRD, Seotlon 15 of the same Aot should be amended eo as to provide that all local and provlnolal elections shall be oonduoted In all respects on the same basis as com-parable elections In the rest of the United Kingdom.

FOURTH, In order to place it beyond doubt that the ban on reii-gioue discrimination applies to the administration of law and the maintenance of pubtyo order, a schedule of democratic rights

polloe and armed foreoo, private, then you will be a withdraw your troope with quont financial saving.

It Is to be feared, however, that if you do not aot along the Nnee set oiit above now, Mieh you have the omMrtiinlty, you or yeur stw-

s r a P s a P M j K t t have deteriorated further, and with

political embarrassment than need be the oaae new.

If you aot now for a democratic solution of the Ulster question, you can be aaound of the euppert of millions of Labour electors and of the million Irish resident in this country.

Your Government has had seme successes end » number of failure*. You have It to your hand t« add a success which would plaoe your Government and your oountry In an unaaaailaMe position bofare world opinion.

Very slnoeraly yours, C4DE8MOND GREAVES.

Editor.

The date was chosen ii

m m m «M their way to Brighton.

power THE IRISH DEMOCRAT

or DISCUSSION co-operation

^HOULD the Irish in Britain rely purely on their own

organisations to give support to the movement for democratic rights at home, or shpu^d they seek a place in a wider group-ing, for example, the British Labour and trade unioft move-ment ?

Wherever Irish people discuss tactics this matter comes up. Some have even advocated "Green power" with separate Irish trade unioas and political parties in England.

Frankly we think this is daft. It wouldn't work. It would antago-nise the British .workers, who would look on us .as splitters.

But there remains the more prac-tical question of how far we are Ijfcely to get in winning the organi-

' sations. of British labour to our side.

Those who think the prospects are not very good point to the fact that the English workers are a bit

. insular, concentrate very mych on |tf,ea'd and butter issues,, and any-]ggy, know nothing about Irelapd and care less'.

advanced Sritjsh .workers 'W*. would agree that their coun-

en are inclined to be pragpjjitic i pot'/easily .n^ovecj 9n .anything af doesn't seem to affect them

directly. Jgutr IX we want to give any real

pollueai aid to the movement in we've got to influence the

pi t be Briiieh Qpvernment, y M J ^ t the opinions of t i p ip-habitants of Britain do this is ob-

^ vious on all sides. . The British Government has got

finy»rs in thft Irish nifi. T h a t if. plain. What is it doing there? Thje British are paying to ttje tune qf mil|jo» a year and have an interest in what their cash is used t ah l

riwious obstacle is British ignorance of ' Ireland. Tl^e

cause of this is th?> way the Press has boycotted the subject for year?. Now that t h e lid h^s su^"" coipe o f t the ayes** Briti worker is a bit confu

But that is an argument for get-ting right into the British organi-sations, trade unions, political parties, and so on, and explaining the facts, to dispel the ignorance.

Other Irishmen argue that Bri-tish Labour isn't Labour at all. There are socialists who eat peaches-in-brandy after their meals, trade unionists in the House of Lords, and "millionaires" on the Labour back-benches.

But this is an, argument for going in. For what does the state of the Labour Party prove? It proves that capitalists have joined the working class movement and have been able to worm their way into positions of responsibility within it, and divert it away from its original purpose.

They did this by joining, not by staying outside.

Surely what one man can do, an-other can do.

AGAIN it is only necessary to read the reports of debates in

trade union and.Labour conferences to see that there is a constant con-flic);' ijf • principles within these organisations. And it is not always the wrong side that wins.

Tlje Brighton T.U.C. was pusilla-nimous ori the Irish question. Like the tirade* unionists who tried to

•tjodge tjtie clyille.nge of PoweUism a couple of years ago, some of them tried to dodge the challenge of Orangeism within the trade union movement.

But wv a whole series of other is-sues, including the prices apd in-comes policy, there was progress made.

If there« is lack of courage on ttoe Irish question. Jit is because l?mm m hpt paying enough m* w W twsfc- mm wvewpnt . W tyfc&m the £ad.e union move-ment cannot be in^uenced.

CTOALLY the beginning of all wisdom is to realise that there

is a struggle for freedom going on in England as well as in Iceland.

I t doesn't take the same forms. -The Englishman doesn't react to events in just the same way as the Irishman. The institutions he is

Ac

union

utive Council of the - nnmap fljf ^ ^

•*tad*». m lawFst mat w f r H v U * printing industry, has v « d » .a imrrfinw «# «PW> to t h e t m d

I fey tfeeBpttaM Tnades Goua . J f g i M M i s t the many people who fence suffered as a result of recent wants m the six counties.

The Executive Council has also branches and members to i the fond.

h central branch of t&e cantatas qrer l&fi

hctye a resolution on jprhep its l*a'tf-yearly

takes place on m „ bw)Pb committee,

calls on the British Parliament to ttW Q w A r n i ^ t of 1* -

tefii 4ct W as tp inswpqratp witftin u, a m of Righto wWch wortd en-sure tor the people of tstortfcwi Ireland the same rights as citizens of the Waited Kingdom.

The demands specially mentioned to the resolution are machinery to make discrimination illegal, the ending of tl)e Special* Powere Acts, v<}te» at lg, and the prevention of fjirjther electoral jjfprrymaaidertng when tl^e lpcfil gqvernmei)t areas are revised.

who paid r W U of a mmtm at IMttafe democmtlc

, «u> National Council c m Liberties Maided to hoU

» peaMmsee on iatuiday, Septem-ber M b , a t t h e Mends ' House, Buston Road, N.W.I,

d p i mOtU «Mk otter organi su-i t e six <*»>riti— h a w

aflUiated

Aswwlntinn ha* ap-er at delegates,

chosen to view of # Relegates

erence London

IN LANCASHIRE

" W E h a * bpep hying in a f ight-' * mare for months," said Mrs.

O'Neill, mother or 11 children who fled from Belfast after being burned Mit, of t u r home,

The family came J a frimds in heniWML haieaehii*. and their ac-d i a l rnimal a n e a t leneatke. fine # tfee neighbours q4»red' to put up « loan to enable t h a n to put a deposit on a house, a married sen was found a flat, and one of the local pepplf pjpvigsfl tyo jeftr^yftns

were l^ynwhed by gifts from

Ufe PWHJW. W / " >flteryi«ved W> 0/ t l^ su -

county dictatorship shocked tbf readers. Anonymous letters were

received at Protestant threatening to bufp them

ThU ii believe*} to tof an ruse djMignfd to destroy the

jytnff iay. t i ie turiyai pf the p^Ne|ils has evoked.

ICIHICI9

c^urafaes dowa,

used to working through are not the same. That's only to say these are two different countries.

But the struggle for freedom in England is the essential fact of English political life. There is a more sceptical and rebellious mood among the British workers now than for years.

There is the fight against redun-dancies. The fight against the wage freeze while prices go on rising. The fight for equal pay for men and women. The fight of the ordinary people for a say in the decisions affecting their lives made by the vast faceless bureaucratic machine that runs England.

More and more of them are com-ing to understand that the denial of democracy to the people of Northern Ireland is part and parcel of the same system that makes life so uncertain for workers in Eng-land.

That understanding can only be increased if the Ijish in Britain participate in British political life, through membership of the t r ^ e unions and political parties as well as through their own Irish organi-sations.

TtfNNEY BEATS PLATFORM GAG A TTEMPTS by the Draughts-• men's Association and the

Lightermen's Union to bring up the six counter crisis by means of an emergency resolution at the Trade U#i<?n Congress, were foiled by the General Council.

Accident played a part in this. The union's' secretary was taken ill and had to go home.

The other delegate was refused the opportunity to put the resolu-tion on the grounds that the T.U.C. had already issued a statement. This was one of the pious, mean-ingless expressions of good inten-tion that were current before the crisis assigned its present alarming proportions. No harm, but not much good.

The gag was beaten through the ingenuity of ©.A.T.A. delegate Mr. Austin Tip^ey, of Supder^ind.

A resolution on discrimination came up on the Friday morning.

Mr. Tunney started to speak ahput the six counties » his speech. The chairman told him it must not be discussed. At once there were voices from all oven the hall: "Let him speak! " He went on speaking. Again the chairman tried to stop him and there were even louder protests a t the attempt tp sweep th» six county scandal under the carpet.

In, tfie end, NJr. Turnkey, who is yjsry j ^ n ^ n e n t in Labour circles oii. t#e North-East coast, said all that he wanted to say and sat down.

The reason for the attempted gag is not known, but it is being speculated that some trade unions wi^lj members lp the six counties a d ^ t e f the s h q ^ & t y e d view that it youid "embarrass" their Orange members to bring them up against the force of British democratic opinion.

Terribly mistaken aad opportu-nistic ae this would be, it is lm.-agtoabte t h a t epofe considerations might possibly have played a con-tributory p a r t It is wall that the old AStUr. did not take up this position during the pogroms of the 'SKKs.

CROSLANDIS TACXLSO

1 QMWZ of Iffob waiters ift ^ PI&tfconyw, Mmtffmhire, t w e W W * ^ MA, W . An-thony CroslandL demanding the recall of P % r l l » i ^ to djscuss the y^tej- apd |mme4iat<j ^ n to fi?t?W>Hce full democracy ip the six counties.

October 1969

Mr£ Vlvienne Morton, daughter of thf historian T. 41. Jwkson, ™ with a Parnell shawl.

A U N K WITH C. S. PARNELL Died October, ISM

J T is quite possible that some Democrat readers may have

§een handkerchiefs like the one iheKe : tfeey must have been pro-duced in some quantities during Parnell's campaign and some have surely been preserved. But it is unlikely th^t many have so remarkable a history.

For this handkerchief was pre-sented by Kitty O'Shea to no less a person than Mrs. Gladstone. Mrs. Qladstone accepted it, t^oupfe she, lM^e eyetyone else in tfee Inner poli-

IQHPPH RAIL'S tESOttfTION:

A T the North London District ^ C<nmcil of the National Union Qf S ^ w a w j e n meeting on Septem-ber Wh, an m e r g m a y resolution wns mwed by the delegates ot the Marylpbope Branch and seceded by Wtt ot the west, Baling NO. 2 Branch, demanding an immediate nBcaU of Parliament to introduce a 9111 of Rights guaranteeing full deflftocrat^c fights to all c i t i ^ m at Nflfltiwnt Ireland, the disbanding of t h e ffiBRtciais, annulment of m e Special Powers Act, and a meeting be twwi ti»e British and Irish Qov-ernments to seek, reasonable aolu-tioij» po g.vtstandipg constitutiopal problems.

Wje b r n siqce Jgjearci t l ^ t t l ^ SW^lye Pprpmjt}^ qf the Na-tfeP^. VfUm 9f unanimously Dassed a ttmlation s ^ i l a r to fh^t w t l t p d aIjpve. The

«» ABe of the Wggcst unions in JPritoin.

IRISH CtNWU ATTACKtD

ABWGK was thrown through the window of t|»e Ir l^j Oentrp

in Binningiam shortly afj^er it he-came knpwn th»t a njmrtfp- of pp-' " f f e from IJelfftst were br tpi tetmrufty k»lMl t im*

fcfth or«H>i»ati98i to t h* pity coUected l a c p v m 9f to

im tbe m m-lish oncaaisations in.

i ^ j u r , trade union and Communist bodies.

w.orid, Jpaew about the Pameli-®§he$ retMaonghip.

Later, she .decided tha t she <hd not like it, a « t gave it to lwer ladys maid. There seems to be go^d^Qg-sqp tp thi^k that her «Ualil(e was not m^onnftctod with the putt ic ex ppsure of the lStetionship and the scandal tha t followed.

The ladysmaid, tiling her mis-tress as the Victorian ladysmaid tended to do, did not like the hand-kerchief either, and passed it 00 to a fellow servant, who later gave it to his wife.

From the latter it passed to a djjtant connection of Parnell, jjji whose family she was employe^, and who was. as she said, ''the onjy one i ^ l l y intoresjpd jn

f h j s present os«>gr, Mrs. has kipdjy a l l ^ ^ it to b«

j h ^ r a p h e d , apd its story told, to the Dewpcwt," to the that W readers also w^uld find M interesting.

i 10LLECTI( V toro

taken up on

month to wm fSnref the people of Northern The c.olj£ct|0n qp T y j j j ^ §ftf$kan sifi» amoufltod to m a a j ^ a t on Bart»ican site m

The money was passed the Connolly Association to the ( fast Trades Council, which had ma4e an appeal for workers in this country to assist their fellow-workers in the six counties. .

L E T T E R / iOMORATULATIOtfS < ^ J September issue. It

on the was a

splendid effort. I know the Con nelly Association will be^ki the fore-front of the struggle to Inform the British Labour movement of to* atrocities committed to their n§me in Northern Ireland, and the very important part they can play in ending it.

1. .wholeheartedly agree with toe sentiments expeeued fry G»th MuefrUn. a lw to the September

PCTSB 0«C BMM«* Waterford.

O c t o b e r 1 9 6 9 IRISH DEMOCRAT

HUSH DEMOCRAT Editor: DESMOND GREAVES

Associate Editor: SEAN REDMOND

Books: GERARD CURRAN Songs: Patrick Bond

Administration: A. Curran, James Kelly,

D. Deighan, E. & G. Shields P. Mulligan, C. Cunningham.

WHY HOLD ON? 8t is always being said that the

British taxpayer subsidises the six counties.

The northern Protestant worker is toltf this «very day of the week fey the Unionists. He is, in feet, indoctrinated with the idea that his livelihood and standard of liv-ing depends ^n the British connec-tion.

This view wae first challenged fry trie Editor of this paper In » book-let "The Irish Question end the BHMsh*l»e)M«?» irt which ft Was pAnftti m that the British subsl-idles merely oancM out the she cdunttttt* unfavourtWe trade ia l -arfce WhtcM Is assoclated with keep-ing fhe area backward end

nt on British imports.

, . , from roughly ascertainable pdyntn te of dWrtdertde to BHtfsh investors trwfo wes expHvlfaffon throofeH m a u H t pHce dlWer«ntlals arid i m m f t dt ground rtfrits.

It followed that the higher stan-dard of living in> the «ix counties among the favoured Protestant Deputation was in almost exact pro-portion to the relative productivity of the economies of the six and 26 counties, ami therefore Ireland could be united without re-ducing the six county stan-dard of living if the appropri-ate arrangements were made. For the higher standard of living is NOT due to the • British subsidy, while the economic stagnation IS due to the British connection.

•

For reasons which most, people will find incomprehensible, the simple logic of this arithmetic has never been spelled out to the six county workers. Some of their leaders have preferred to ignore facts in their sensitivity to Unionist prejudices.

BUT now from an impeccable Protestant source, Trinity Col-

lege, Dublin, comes further proof of the same principle.

Mr. Alan Matthews, of 36 Trinity College — incidentally, the classic abode whence Johnston and O'Hig-gine launched ftftfr Fatten activities in the '«0'a—irrftee to trie "Irish Times" stressing that while the total subsidy Britain claims to pay the six oounttas is £133 million, £75 million Is fictitious. It repre-seirfa money spent m Britain on imperial defence but ear-marked a t the oeet «r defending the six coanttw. Not • penny of it ever reaches Ulster.

Hie conclusion is that "there ia method in our old Imperialist foe's madness yet"

There oertalnly i& Especially does •t appear When we realise that the dirttftoWB dtliwn from the Six coaritttt ar* enjoyed By private •nttflSriW, while the subsidies paid c o m m m the pookets of the tax-paiytri tlie six counties is a vast British market and sphere of lh-veMVnMtt, a oatchmchl for savings a n * insuranoe. Very profitable. thniR you, and British troops are always available to H«ld it

Prtttti this folloWs the Importance •or the Irish III Britain to eXfMln to the British workers two simple proportions:

Flrstt the six oountles is kept In the united Kingdom to Increase the profits or their bosses.

Seeond: the >00000 do not pay for thfs oervloe themselves, they charge 't te the taxpayer, the English working man.

6 t a e this Is understood enthu-siasm tar holding on to the six ooomiee will meriOMMy wane lit the Britteh wortdng otase and Labour

WORLD COMMENTARY

Ho Chi sadly but proudly join

the decent, progressive fighters for national freedom and socialism the world over in paying tribute to Ho Chi Minh, leader of the struggle, by his people, for freedom and eman-cipation during the past 50 years.

His death is a terrible blow. His life however will always remain an inspiration to all of us wh6 believe in freedom and are prepared to fight for it.

I make no apology for Quoting from a letter by Hilda Vernon of the Vietnamese Committee, which tells of an Irish interest in Ho's life. \

"When Ho Chi Minh was work-ing in the kitchen of the Carl-toh Hotel, London, a fellow worker, seeing him holding a newspaper, with his eyes full of tears, asked what had made him so sad. Pointing to the news-paper Ho Chi Minh replied: 'Look this is the news about the IVIay'or ot Cork, a great Irish patriot who was arrested and im-prisoned by the English, fie went oh strike. He did not eat or drink, he did not speak or even move. He lay on one side and kept still for 69 days, fie died for his country. How courafcedus! How heroic! A nation With such citizens will never surrender'." As leader of the Vietnamese

people Ho Chi Minh led the many-years-old liberation struggle against the French imperialists whom he expelled from the country after the magnificent victory at Dien Bien

By PAT DEVINE

Phu. The victory agreement how-ever, although ratified by the French and all Vietnamese parties was not allowed to operate.

The United States of America launched a vicious illegal attack upon the Vietnamese people and has been engaged in a war of ex-termination ever since.

But the Vietcong in both North and South Vietnam have fought back over the years and are today getting to the point where the American forces, defeated on the battlefield will have to withdraw and leave the Vietnamese people free to unite and run their own country.

A peaceful united Vietnam will be the best memorial to Ho Chi Minh.

U.S. BOMBING CONTINUES The hopes raised about the pos-

sibility of a truce — official or un-official — or at least the stopping of the bombing Were crushed, as President Nixon, after a meeting with his main military and politi-cal Chiefs on September 12th ordered a recommencement of the B52 bomber attacks which had been suspended for a period be-cause of the death of Ho Chi Mirih.

Pressure from the American people is growing. They want an end to the fruitless war. The dead are piling up; the fathers and mothers want to get their boys back home, and the boys them-selves want to get home as can be seen from the many reports of them refusing to attack.

The general feeling appears to be: "We are ready at all times to

on Terence MacSwiney defend our homes and our country with our lives, but we are against being sent to foreign shores to fight against people like ourselves who only want to be left alone. It is the munitions makers and financiers who want the war in Vietnam to continue. They should be allowed to do the fighting and dying. We've had enough."

There should be no doubt, either about the courage of the American soldiers, trade unionists and ordin-ary people. They are not war mongers. If we escalate the anti-war, anti-Vietnam U.S. murder campaign, the American people will support it.

ISRAEL STEPS UP WAR The United Nations has once

again had to condemn Israeli at-tacks upon the Arabs. The burn-ing of the Holy places, accom-panied by the recent punitive action across the Suez Canal and bombardment of Arab . towns and villages makes it clear that Israel is at war with the Arab countries and has no intention of paying heed to the Security Council reso-lution of 1967 which called for the evacuation of ail occupied ter-ritories.

It is ludicrous for the Israelis to denounce the Arab guerillas for their defensive action. It is ele-mentary, that if a nation (or na-tions)'" is being perpetually attacked and its territory illegally occupied, it has the duty to fight back.

The United. Nations has played around with this question far too long without taking any substan-tial action to compel Israel to con-form to the 1967 resolution.

The 'major powers, especially America and Britain who are sup-porting the Israeli stand, must bear a big responsibility, if, as is looking likely, the Middle Eastern area is plunged into an Israeli-provoked war that could lead to a world war.

The latest events in the Arab sector of Jerusalem, including the fire at the Al-Agsa Mosque, and the September demolition by the Israelis of entire blocks occupied by the Arab population once again urge and confirm the need for urgent measures on the part of all peace-loving countries and peoples aimed at eliminating the after-math of Israeli imperialist aggres-sion, and in the first place, the im-mediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Arab territories oc-cupied during the aggression in 1967.

Both by word and deed the Israelis have become more warlike. Mrs. Meir, the Israeli Prime Minister said recently that "If the prospect of peace should arise, none of us will be ready to forego one inch of land if it means en-dangering Israel's security bor-ders."

Gen. Day an recently spoke of the need to "redraw the map" by the establishment of new towns and villages in the occupied territories.

These are not the words of peace-makers.

They are the words of war-makers, of colonisers who are determined to hold on to their ill-gotten gains.

They must not be allowed to do that.

LOOKING BACK ON BOGSIDE r r H E days of the barricades are

over, and some of the most remarkable events in Irish his-tory are now behind us. It is time to assess, not finally, but tentatively. What was the cause? What was the occasion ? What

_was the character of the great Upheaval?

But first a general word. There may be those who think the coming down of the barricades is a defeat. But anybody who has ever been in a strike knows that it has to end some way. If the balance goes to the workers you chalk up a victory, and the struggle goes on.

The people of the Bogside chalk up a victory. Why? Because the purpose of their enemies has not been achieved! This was not a revolution. This was successful re-sistance to a counter-revolution.

And this is what took place. The sequence of events is most interest-ing. Chichester Clarke refused to bah the "apprentice boys" march on August 12th despite appeals from every section of moderate opinion. TXERE is the question. Did he ' 1 know tha t it was going to be

the signal for an organised attempt throughout the province to start civil war and drive the Catholics across the border? Did Mr. Lynch know, or suspect, that this would happen, so that he was ready with the Irish Army?

Bid Mr. Wilson know and have Mr. Callaghan On the alert ready to intervene when he told him to? These are questions the enquiry will NOT answer. They are the questions every thinking man will ask.

For on August 12th the frenzy started. Within hours it seemed every Paisieylte in Ulster was in Derry. Then came the British troops. Immediately the second ex-plosion began. Five days and the two main cities were In the grip of civil war and the Catholic popu-lation was in beleaguered for-tresses.

S t r e s s e s that never fell! For-tresses that may go back on to a peacetime footing, as has hap-pened, hut can ohly be maintained on a peace-time fodtlng thanks to the Ides by the Northern Ireland administration Of Its authority, initiative and pWst'ije.

^llHE first attack was at Derry, J- four miles from the border.

I t shouldn't have been hard to get those Catholics across. All agree on the astonishing courage shown by the young people of Bogside. They successfully defended their homes. 1

By the time the troops came in it looked like a drawn battle. It could not be continued except at the loss of millions of pounds. And money is more p^scious than life. The troops qame IK and the in-vestment's were saved.

By then there had been created the rival administration behind the barricades. "Amazing," said a B.B.C. commentator, ^and to think this is happening in Britain." Orders must have been given to the B.B.C. to speak of the six coun-ties as being in' 'Britain. The powers that be want to accustom public opinion to direct rule from London Do you remember a year ago when they said it was "in Irelarid" and they "couldn't inter-fere."

What took place in the Bogside would have been remarkable in Britain. But Derry is in Ireland and popular take-overs have oc-curred there a t regular intervals for years. We are only waiting for the greatest take-over of all—the recooquest of Ireland by the Irish people.

ir -tr -to I30GSIDE was originally the ' name of a street, a street of mean houses with the north wall and Walker's statue towering over it.

Following redevelopment three blocks Of twelve storey flats and a series of three storey flats were built. This area Was barricaded off and Within It were about 5,000 people.

6nly residents were allowed to pass the barricades. These were manned anij the streets patrolled day and night by a "police corps" whose members wore armbands.

Exceptions to the "residents only" rule Wire doctors, and Jour-nalists. They were issued with a white armband. Police and B-men were kept out. Even sanitary in-spectors were not let in No official of the Belfast or Derry civil administration.

Was there any crime? There was one case 0! looting. The young men were hauled before the leaders of the Derry Defence Association

and "sentenced." To what? To do three days hard work with not overmuch food.

£ 6 rP(HE Bogside administration was ' in the hands of t h e Defence

Association. Paddy O'Doherty and Sean Keenan, two local men took the main decisions.

The association had about 400 members. These had red cards and were eligible to serve, but not com-pelled to serve, in the police, corps. Of the 40® about 350 were Bog-siders, the rest volunteers from other parts of the city and a few

. from outside. The street cleansing was done by

the people. But later corporation workmen ibut not supervisors) were allowed in, breaches being made in the barricades to allow them.

The water and electricity was not cut oft. Some think this was be-cause the city gas-works was be-hind the barricades. This was kept working. Most of its employees are Bogsiders, but those who lived outside were let in each day.

Three meetings of all citizens were held, one of them, on the issue of the barricades, mustering 2,000 people—that is the whole adult population. The usual at-tendance was 500. And gatherings were also held in the open air at which political groups presented their views.

Speakers' Comer was called "Free Derry Corner."

A -A ir i'I^HE man in charge of the -*- "Police Corps" was called the "Chief Constable" and passes were signed by him >

The committee when first formed consisted of eight men ot Republi-can sympathy. These ltved in the Bogside. Later representatives of political and cultural societies in the city as a whole were co-opted and the Republicans were in a minority.

The democracy was thus not based on election of representatives in streets and blocks of flats, but on the state of opinion among the nationalist population of the city as a whole. The committee num-bered twenty-five, but in practice the officials took day-to-day de-risions.

The greater part of the men were unemployed. The women went through the barricades to

work each morning. There are

shops in the Bogside area, but most shopping continued to be done in the city shops. Children were allowed out, to school, as soon as the arrival of the troops made it possible for them to go out with-out the risk of being set on by Protestant children.

A -it it v I

/ iN these facts then what was the Bogside? A Republic? An ex-

periment in Socialism? A well-de-fended ghetto? A commune? The dictatorship of the proletariat?

It is clear that its economic life was untouched by the change. The gasworks was not taken over. <1 do not of course suggest that it ought to have been). People who could do so earned their livings as before.

The residents drove out the state security forces and replaced them with a democratic security of their own. There vfa.a thus a popular power in a tiny enclave withiij Northern Ireland's semi - fascist State. Free Derry was a good name for it.

But there was no question of an , experiment in Socialism or Conl-munism People noticed a willingness to share and alike than was usual. But there was to be shared was substantially in the same way as. before. \

r - A small area like the Bogside is

not geographically large enough, has not an adequately developed economic life, to be made into, viable republic. So the barric came down. The policy Was to hold out for a political settlement,

Of course if it had been a mat-ter of all Derry west of the Foyle! But probably Irish troops yotud have been needed and how many Catholics would have been left! alive in Belfast?

A word about Bernadette Devlin., All testify to her m&gniflcent courage during the defence. Grant that her knowledge of politics is still a bit superficial, and that the powers that be are busy presentr ing her as Europe's first "pop poll-ician" and trying to spot) her with

money and publicity. SUB, therq is no place for the sneera we hav£ heard. It is not her work In thB. Bogside that her fellow: M.£.s should be engaged ia condemning.' I t Is their own slackness in clear- ' ing up the situation 6ritain ha* created.

TRADE UNIONS ARE .CAUTIOUS THE Irish T.U.C. has done

very little on the subject of the crisis in the six connties.

As in 1916 the Trade Union movement appears to be almost paralysed.

What is the reason? Many believe it is the same

reason that paralysed it in 1916 —the difficulty of speaking for a single Irish working class when that class is so deeply divided between Protestant and Catholic in the north.

There have always been re-actionaries who wanted to split the trade un!6n movement at the border. This was the purpose of the Stormont Government when they for many years refused to recognise the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish T.U.C.

Their line was "split and we will recognise you."

But the Irish trade unionists refused to be split and the Irish Congress of trade unions has proudly retained its all-Ireland character.

At the same time it has been at the expense of not being able to be as forthright as many would like on Ulster issues.

The main culprits are un-doubtedly the big British amal-gamated unions. In general these recruit the Unionist workers who won't join Irish unions. The headquarters often fail to insist that their Orange members stand by the principles of non-discrimination and Civil Rights, on the grounds that it is a mat-ter for the Northern Ireland members whether they wish to apply trade union principles or not.

This is the exact parallel of the similar cant from the British Government, now exploded, that they had a "convention" net to interfere in six county affairs, when in fact they were up to their necks in- interference.

By operating in any part of Ireland at aU the British trade unions are interfering. Their members can contribute to the solution of the Irish problem if they insist they interfere in a progressive direction. J list as the Labour electors should insist that, since the Government is in-terfering it must interfere in favour of democracy not against it.

IS THE DAIL NOT THE IRISH DEMOCRAT October 1969

WHY RECALLED? T^THILE vital events affecting

all Irish people are taking place in the North these days, the 144 Deputies of Dail Eireann drowse through the summer recess. The Dail does not re-assemble until the last week of October, having been on holiday since early July.

Many Deputies are indignant, especially the Labour ones. They want to discuss the North and what is happening there; they want to discuss the Government's moves in the United Nations. But they are not to be given an op-portunity of doing so. Leinster House is on holiday, like Stormont and Westminster, while the Minis-ters and civil servants take the de-cisions. I t is a commentary on the kind of democracy we live in.

Despite this, people are at present broadly satisfied with F ianna Fail's efforts, though the public mood would change if there were any signs that the Govern-m e n t were not doing all it could to give political support to the people in t h e North.

Alt the signs are that the British Government doesn't like it one bit tha t the Irish Government is raising the Northern Civil Rights

FROM A CORRESPONDENT IN DUBLIN situation in the United Nations, as well as Partition, " the root of the trouble," as Mr. Patrick Hillery pu t it. While the Twenty Six County State is confronting Britain like this, even if it is only at diplomatic level in the U.N., it makes it very difficult for Britain to concert a political deal with Dublin which would enable Britain to take advantage of the situation.

Small wonder that , as the "Irish Times" has put it, f rom the point of view of working out some long-term settlement for the Northern crisis the British Government is as worried by the attitude of the Dublin Government as it is by that in Stormont. i rpHE factors which have made J - the Fianna Fail Government

take its present line may not last. Public opinion here is aroused over the North as never before, and the Government dare not forget this. The pressures for action from with-in the Cabinet, however, in particu-lar from Messrs. Blaney, Boland and Lenihan, could subside over-night.

Fianna Fail's position is basically anomalous. Their policy on the North has veered suddenly to take

DUBLIN CONFERENCE" BACKS BILL OF RIGHTS

« A CONFERENCE was held in Dublin cm Sunday, Septem-

ber 14th, to consider what poli-tical suppert can be given to the North at the present tfane from the twenty-six counties.

T h e conference was remarkable for the number a t Northern Civil Righto people who came to take part* as veH as f<* the ldfge l u m -bers of l abour , trader tmjon, repub-lican and liberties people pre-

Iwm Cooper

. Ciaran Mc-John '/Mo-

de Courey Ireland, OUoherty and many, many

The conference resolved tha t the most appropriate political support

could be given to the people a t the present time

»'<to advocate support for the oC Civil Rights. I n a

ju which was carried una-y, the conference stated i t s that t he responsibility for

in Netthem Ireland. ' British Government mt Which maintain

m t r the area, and it tt* British Farlia-

rar a Bill of Ireland which

civil, political and tor the people

conference recognised tha t majority Of Irish people

the establishment of a country which guaranteed . religious liberties was the

acceptable solution and it Dublin Government -to

take an important step in this direction by examining the 1987 Constitution and its present legisla-tion fa order to remove any mea-sures which show a sectarian bias and to make the Constitution guarantee civil and religious liber-ties for alL

There was general recognition a t t he conference t h a t the mafa thing that could be actually done In the twenty-six counties was to put our own-house in order, as t t were, and to make the prospect of national reunification more aMfective, or possibly )e*s unattractive to the Protestants of the North. An essential tfcfag here, as the resolu-tion states,, was to change the Con-stitution to remove from it the clauses recognising the "special position" of the Catholic Church

and disallowing divorce legislation. Legislation governing the sale of contraceptives and confining legal adoption to members of certain churches was also offensive to many Protestants.

Certainly it is probably true to say tha t if there were ever an appropriate time to take these steps it is now. Such measures Would almost certainly have mas& support among the people and would pos-sibly have t h e acquiescence of the Catholic hierarchy. • k '

Another suggestion was to im-prove our social services to bring them into line with those in the North. Ivan Cooper regretted the tremendous ignorance in Northern Ireland about conditions and life in the South. The setting *iq> of a television station to cover the six counties would be of tremendous, benefit in getting rid of this and in making a propaganda case to the Northern Protestants about national unity, reminding them of. their Irish heritage and putting the civil rights cfcse. J U S T I N KEATING, T.D., made

f ' the point that any effort made down here to oppose British ecorfb-mic imperialism was a help to the whole movement of democratic ad-vance in both parts of the country. I t would be impossible to have a united independent Ireland which did not conduct a vigorous struggle against imperialism. Capitalism might benefit certain sections of a fabulously wealthy and developed country like the United States, but for a small country like Ireland, situated between two huge capita-list countries, the UJ3.A. and Great Britain, it was only by taking a socialist direction in development that any real independence could be maintained.

The conference was useful in thrashing out the implications of the demand that was .understand-ably made by some in faid-August, when the Stormont Government seemed to be conniving a t a mass-acre of the Catholics, for direct and total ride of the North by Westmin-ster. The general consensus was that this would be a mistake. There was also general agreement, despite Miss Devlin's eloquent plea to the contrary, that the struggle in the North was primarily for civil rights, and not for socialism nor for a re-public.

Republicans and Socialists would, of course, benefit enormously from obtatatng civil rights; they had all the more reason therefore for join-ing in the common front of the Civil Rights Movement, struggling to maintain its unity, and sticking to civil rights as the main Issue until civil rights were achieved.

account of public opinion. Only a few months ago Government policy was to say and do nothing. Mr. Jack Lynch openly ticked off Mr. Nial Blaney for raising the issues of partition and civil rights in a speech. For years the policy of the Dublin Government could be summed up as "Hands-across-the-Border."

In those tea-time chats with Cap-tain O'Neill which the press down here heralded as ushering in a new chapter of progress in relations with the North, such things as dis-crimination and the second-class status of the Catholics were never mentioned. In the economic sphere the dependence of Fianna Fail on Britain is greater than ever before. Economic integration is going ahead apace; the take-over bids and the penetration of British capital into the Irish economy con-tinue.

It is likely tha t the Dublin Gov-ernment's diplomatic confrontation with Britain a t ' the U.N. embar-rasses not only Britain but the Government's own civil service eco-nomic policy makers. The need for public pressure on the Govern-ment to maintain their position on the North is clearly vital.

Important too is the Labour Party's attitude. The Labour Party sent their delegation of T.D.s to see British Minister Lord Chalfont and various high-up Labour Party dig-nitaries. The views of the Irish Labour Party may carry some slight weight with these British Labour people and there has been some discussion within the Labour Party over t h e past month as to what thosfe views should be.

RITICISM has been expressed in some quarters about the

appropriateness of the Labour Party calling, for example, for the abolition of Stormont and direct rule of the North by Westminster. This demand h a s "very little sup-port in the North itself; it h^s not been pot forward by the Civil Rights Movement, and it is hard to see how abolishing an elected Parliament, however unfair some of the elections afid however bad the representation within i t - may be, would make for a better deal for the Northern Catholics. For in

Westminster, of course, the North would be represented by ten Unionists, Mr. Fi t t and Miss Dev-lin.

Going back a t this time of t he day to the position that existed before 1920 would hardly facilitate the eventual winning of a united Ireland and it would not be neces-sary to obtain Civil Rights — not, a t any rate, if Westminster legis-lated, not to abolish Stormont, but to bring in Civil Rights where the Northern Unionists were unwilling or unable to do so.

Some Labour Par ty T.D.s are much less enthusiastic than others about this particular aim, which is thought to have originated very much with Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien, Labour's spokesman on foreign affairs and the North.

Labour T.D.s however have felt generally reluctant about adopting a policy on the North similar to tha t of Fianna Fall. They are so used to having good reason to criticise Fianna Fail that when Fianna Fail takes a reasonably progressive stand some Labour people are urged to adopt a seem-ingly more "leftward" one, to get their bearings r ight , as it were.

The same thing happened when the Labour Party urged the greater involvement of British troops in the North, when t h e Government's position was tha t t he use of such troops on Irish soil was "in priit-ciple unacceptable."

I t is true enough tha t the people of the Falls and Bogside were very glad to see the British troops - in the circumstances and at the time they were sent. They were, a f te r all, the only alternative in tha t time and place t o a massacre of Catholics a t the hands of t he Specials and the Palsleyite mobs. But the Government of the State next door does not have to take tha t position, no more than does the leadership of any political par ty within that State.

Labour should not seek, through fear of aligning itself with Fianna Fail, to take up a position which is basically anti-national. I t has happened to the Labour Party too often i» the past, and is one of the reasons they are a much smaller force in Ir ish life today than they otherwise would have been.

FROM THE LEE By JIM SWAGE

IN a huge demonstration of soli-darity with the people of the

North, approximately 1,000 people took part In a peaoefut parade organlssd by the Cork City Cony hairle Ceanntar of Sinn Fein through Cork to oxpress their sup-port for the harassed people of Northern Ireland. TIM parade took ptaoe from the National Monument in the Grand Parade to City Centre, where a publle meeting, watched by saveral thousands, took plaoe. Traffic was divsrted while ths hour-long mooting wss In pro-gross.

At the meeting it was announced that Sinn Fein had organised a Relief Fund for the victims and a special centre for the purpose of re-ceiving money, clothes and food had been set up a t the Thomas Ashe Hall, Morrissons Island. Later It was agreed that General Tom Barry would bead this Fund Committee. The attendance was tremendous as public meetings are badly attended in the city over the last five years.

The speakers on the platform also called to the t rade union move-ment to establish relief centres as well as social organisations. Vol-unteers to assist in the relief work were also asked for. The speakers who were Introduced by Antoin OUanrachaln, were Joe Sherlock, Ard Comhairle, Sinn Fein, and Mal-low Urban District Council; Pat Magnler. of the Wolfe Tone Society; Jim O'Reagan, Sinn Fein; and Eddie Williams, Irish Republi-can Army.

Since this meeting a great num-

ber of young people have applied for membership of the Republican Movement, and the Thomas Ashe Hall has been a hive of activity. Then the Lord Mayor of Cork, Councillor Pearse Leahy, convened a special meeting of Cork Corpora-tion and set up a Reception Com-mittee to provide homes for chil-dren from the troubled areas, and to establish a Distress Fund. TJRIOR to the outbreak of the J trouble In the North, I am happy to report t h a t the Midleton Urban Council decided not to pay a return visit to the twin town of Coleraine.

Coleraine Corporation had In-formed the Council by letter that September 12th to 14th had been set aside for the return visit of the Urban District Council. Readers of this column will remember tha t in the July Issue of the "Irish Democrat" we attacked and named those who took par t in welcoming the Mayor of Coleraine and Council to Midleton, because we believed that Coleraine was one of the blackest spots for discrimination In the North. T^ XPRESSING horror at the vlo-

J lence In Northern Ireland, the Cork Council of Trade Unions called on all union members to promote by example harmony be-tween all sections of the commu-nity. The committee reiterated that the only way tha t peace caa be maintained in the North on a permanent basis Is by the Introduc-tion of full democratic (yid civil rights for ajl citizens.

The Council also unanimously de-

cided that financial aid should be sent immediately to the victims of the riots in the North. The 800 workers a t Verolme (Cork) Dock-yard agreed to work an extra hour's overtime and to devote the proceeds to the distress fund being organised by tbe Lord Mayor. A spokesman a t the Dockyard said It was hoped tha t the workers' deci-sion would result to operatives else-where making a similar gesture. He said that between £300 and £400 was collected a t the dockyard.

Following a specially-convened meeting of t he Cork Building Oroup of workers, they pledged their sup-port to their fellow workers and trade unionists in the North in their fight for civil rights, and called on all building workers to contribute at least one hour's pay to a collection, this to be organised by shop stewards on the sites.

The 400 workers of Blackwater Cottons and Seafield Gentex donated one hour's wages to the fund for the relief of the Six County refugees. The Irish Exhibi-tion of Living Art, which has been held in Cork for the first time in Its 27 years' existence, got off to a rather exciting If unexpected start when the first prizewinner of £300, Mr. Michael FarreJl, from Kelts, with "Sandycove Series No. 10," said that 1* protest against what was happening In the North of Ire-land, he would not exhibit there nor in Britain. "Art is above politics," he said, "but not humanity. As an artist and a man, I deplore the hor rifle, sad and horrible thing*

(Continued on Page Six)

October 1969 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT 5

BILL OF RIGHTS Z ~ w E WANT A UNITED

IRELAND. We want the whole people of

Ireland, whether Protestant or Catholic, Jew, or unbeliever, to stand together and work to-gether for the advancement of the common man in their com-mon country.

Therefore we are for a united Irish people.

We want unity to come about, as it will, by processes that do not leave hatreds and divisions. We want these divisions buried with the bones of our ancestors.

We want an Ireland in which the people of Ulster, even the most bigotted and mistaken, have a part.

Therefore we w a n t ' the question of the unity of Ireland to be answered in such a way that all that is best in Ulster is with us. We want to save Ulster for Ireland. We believe it can be done.

But action is needed quickly. The forces of Fascist reaction are gathering. Every day of dithering by Wilson and Calla-ghan menaces peace and threa-tens the greatest catastrophe these islands have seen for years. The men who plotted August 14th are preparing another coup.

We want the world to know that there is a peaceful solution possible. Let history judge those who reject it.

LET us start by placing the blame where it is due. Who

is to blame for the situation in

Ulster? Who partitioned Ulster? Who introduced gerrymandering? Who brought in the provisions of the Special Powers Acts? Who, in a word, destroyed civil rights in Ulster? Who introduced religious discrimination?

None of these things was done by the Stormont Govern-ment. They were done by Eng-land before Stormont was set up and Stormont only took them over.

Thus civil rights in the six coun-ties is not an Irish question. It is a British question.

We now call on the British Gov-ernment to undo its handiwork. We demand tha t Mr. Wilson pulls down the edifice of tyranny erected by Lloyd George and handed to Craigavon's puppet administration for operation.

This can be done simply by the British Parliament if they pass a Bill of Rights, restoring to the Irish people the democracy they took away.

HERE we explain the idea of a

BILL OF RIGHTS and the policies tha t should go with it in simple question-an-answer form.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY A BILL OF RIGHTS?

We mean an Act of the West-minster Parliament which would write into the Constitution of Northern Ireland, which is the Government of Ireland Act, guar-antees tha t civil liberties in that area should .be equal to those enjoyed In Britain, and also that pending talks over the reunifica-tion of Ireland, the right of the

six counties to leave the United _ i _ I ; :

Kingdom should be admitted.

HAS THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT THE POWER TO DO THIS?

The constitutional power in British and international law is not disputed. In British law Section 75 of the Government of Ireland Act specifically declares it. And the military power is obvious.

WHERE SHOULD THE NEW PRO-VISIONS BE WRITTEN INTO THE CONSTITUTION?

In sections 4, 5 and 15 mainly (see Page One). The effect would be to end -the Special Powers Acts, abolish gerrymandering, do away with the B-Specials and re-organise the R.U.C., make repub-lican propaganda a legal activity and make religious discrimination an offence.

WHAT IF THE SIX-COUNTY GOVERNMENT DEFIED THE BILL OF RIGHTS?

I t would be within the powers of the British Government to de-pose it and invite those willing to work the constitution to form a government.

IS THERE NO DANGER OF A UNILATERAL DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AS IN THE CASE OF RHODESIA?

If Britain wants a U.D.I, as a means of selling out on its re-sponsibilities, then British impe-rialism would be able to concoct such an arrangement in collusion with the Unionists'. But If the British Government wants to en-force a Bill of Rights it can easily prevent a U.D.I.—for it is already in military occupation, and collects 90 per .cent of the taxation. The British working-

class movement and the Irish in Britain should watch Wilson. HP is quite capable of a sell-out. But he must be prevented from doing it by the vigilance of the people.

BUT WHAT IF THE FOLLOWERS OF PAISLEY AND BUNTING TRY TO START AN ARMED COUNTER-REVOLUTION?

The first thing to do is to disann private sectarian armies, and disband the armed B-Specials. While these quasi-Fascist bodies remain in existence democratic rights can never be put into operation any way.

ARE YOU PREPARED IF NECES-SARY TO SEE THE BRITISH A R M Y D I S A R M T H E S E PEOPLE?

Yes, if it can be done in no other way. As previously ex-plained it was Britain who created these bodies. Let Britain disband them. Why should Irishmen have to clean up Britain's mess?

BUT DON'T YOU WANT THE BRITISH T R O O P S WITH-DRAWN?

Yes—as soon as they have cleaned up the mess their bosses made in Ireland. It is no good just to say "we'll get out and leave you the mess." Let them put things back in order and then get out. And let them get out in an orderly manner af ter talks with the Republic over a peaceful solution and a proper hand-over. Why should Ireland have a lot of disturbance and destruction when Britain goes as well as that when Britain came?

ISN'T IT UNFAIR TO THE BRITISH T R 0 0 P 8 TO ASK THEM TO DO THIS?

Of course it is unfair to ask

A NORTHERN PROTESTANT SPEAKS Speech of T.U. leader NOEL KARRIS in O'Connell St., Dublin

U PEAKING as a Northerner with some history of involvement

in Civil Rights, and as a Trade Unionist, I must say tha t my main concern in the present tragic situa-tion In the North Is that realistic demands aimed at bringing about an end, first of all to the bloodshed and the fighting, and secondly (and perhaps more importantly if there is- to be any real hope of a more normal atmosphere being maintained) an end to the preva-lence of discrimination, jobbery and intolerance which has resulted in 40 per cent of the people in that par t of our country being relegated to the status of second class citiaens.

I am deeply concerned that in considering what aid can be given to oirr suffering fellow-countrymen from this part of Ireland that we clearly recognise the nature of the aid which is required and the pur-pose for which that aid Is required.

It must be clearly understood that the present situation does not present any short-cut to the re-unification of our Nation which all of us dearly long t6 see. It must be clearly understood that no such short-cut exists! (Save the obvious one tha t is which I propose to deal with later on).

No-one need Imagine that after nearly fifty years of almost total neglect; fifty years in which poli-ticians In this part of the Country have been almost wholly preoccu-pied in building their personally lucrative Neb-Colonlaltet relation-ship with our former masters, that t he opportunity exists in the North for Mr. Lynch or any other South-ern politician to bring about in any short space" of time the desired goal of reunification.

The only short-term solution to the problem of ending Partition Is that of cocrclon. If the Border is

to be abolished within the fore-seeable fu ture the 60 per cent ma-jority of the population of t he six north eastern counties of this island will have to be coerced!

Anyone who advocates t h a t as an immediate solution must then ask themselves' "Who Is to do the coercing?" — "Is it to be the British?" I t was the British who sowed the seeds of sectarian dis-unity in our nation in history — it was the British who reaped the harvest of sectarianism to finally partition our .country.

Does anyone seriously believe that the British will now coerce their erstwhile stooges into ac-cepting and participating In the Irish nation which they have feared for 700 years?

If not the British, then who? Anyone who believes tha t the ability or the resources for such a project are to be found within this island does not know the situa-tion in the North, and certainly does not even begin to have an understanding of the make-up of the fellow-Irishmen who constitute the majority in the North. Coer-cion ls not the solution to the problem! Ireland will be re-united when bigotry has been ended; when all men in the North are accorded thjelr full dignity as equal human beings and when tm identity of purpose ls recognised.

For whilst the overwhelming burden of discrimination, emigra-tion and oppression undoubtedly falls upon the Catholic people in the North of Ireland, Its removal would still — in the kind of society in which we live — leave that exploitation of working people which falls equally on Catholic and Protectant. n i l s being so, the heritage of all "The Irish Nation" can then be presented in an atmos-phere free from fear, animosity.

hate and suspicion and will be firmly grasped.

If the struggle in the North at present is not about the removal of the Border; if it is not an at-tempt at an insurrection to bring about the complete coercion of the existing majority there; i t certainly is about the creation of an atmos-phere and a political-climate in the North which would make the re-building of the Nation almost in-evitable.

Recognising this, and recognis-ing tha t it is because of the recognition by the Unionist ascend-ancy of the truth of this assertion that we are witnessing the brutal suppression of people seeking basic human dignities, we must con-sider what role can be played from this side of the Border.

In the immediate situation it is imperative that relief and succour be given particularly to the suf-fering women and children from the areas of conflagration. Some sort of new "White Cross" organ-isation might be established under the auspices of some clearly non-sectarian and Thirty-two County-body, such as the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

Such an organisation could tap sources of relief which would not be available to the many bodies who are organising such relief within their own spheres of in-fluence.

The political task which must be done In the Republic is that all possible pressure must be brought tq be«ir on the Dublin Government to make them demand of the British Government certain achiev-able measures. Through the Intcr-natlonalisatlon of the problem by placing the ease on Ihe agenda of the Security Council of the United Nations which sits In permament session and not at the General As-sembly which only meets periodi-cally, the Irish Government could

force their British counterparts to:— (1) immediately disband the "B"

Special Constabulary, and it must be bo me in mind that this would probably involve the use of British troops to forcibly disarm t h i s undisciplined rabble,

(21 take effective steps against the Paisleyits extremists,

(31 re-organise the R.U.C. into a normal civil police force with full public accountability^

(4> impose a Charter of Human Rights over the head of Stor-mont to include:— (a) the right to "Habeas

Corpus," which would en-tail the end of imprison-ment without trial and the repeal ef the Special Powers Act.

< b i the right to full political expression for all opinions —which would mean an ending of the bans on Sinn Fein. Republican Clubs and "The United Irishman" and

i.51 supervise the re-structuring of Government at all levels in the North to bring about full democratisation with an equal universal franchise a t 18 years and preferably Includ-ing a Proportional Representa-tion electoral system.

These I believe to be realistic and achievable demands, which would have far reaching effects, not only In the North but through-out the country, which would pro-duce the necessary climate in which Ireland through the func-tioning of free and normal politi-cal democracy can be "A Nation Once Again.''

NOEL HARRI8, B.Sc. (Econ.) Trade Union official — Founding Chairman of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.

young Englishmen to be occupy-ing parts of Ireland, but the un-fairness is that of their own Government which created the necessity.

SO YOU WOULD NOT DO AWAY WITH THE STORMONT GOVERNMENT?

Not by British Government ac-tion. The aim would be to work to a position where it would be done away with by the free action of the Irish people following dis-cussions between Britain and their representatives?

WOULD NOT DIRECT RULE BY WESTMINSTER BE S A F E R AND SIMPLER?

Not really. England would have to have some kind of local admi-nistration, and direct rule would deprive the local people of a say in local affairs. England might be tempted to stay on making one excuse after another. We might never see the back of them. The existence of Stormont is a back-handed admission that England cannot rule Ireland. The fight Is to replace Unionist Stormont with democratic Stormont and then let the people unite with Dublin in whatever way they decide. Finally Stormont does participate in cer-tain joint ventures with the Re-public, and we want this extended, not that Britain should be brought in.

WHAT IS THE KEY TO YOUR POLICY THEN?

Action by the Irish In Britain and the British working-class movement to force Harold Wilson to Introduce the BUI of Rights with its establishment of an amended constitution to be oper-ated in the si* counties pending solution of the partition question.

HOW DO YOU PROPOSE TO SECURE THIS ACTION?

By organised agitation, and education of opinion. Through bringing pressure on the Govern-ment through members of Parlia-ment, trade unions, political par-ties, demonstrations, the publica-tion of literature—in short by the mobilisation of public opinion, in the Irish community and the Bri-tish working class.

1 . C I T C R

AGAIN allow, mo to correct you.

I don't say it Is wrong to pro-test about bad housing conditions, and I don't say H Is wrong to ad-vocate civil rights in the six coun-ties. What I do oay and what I have said aH along It that those rights will never be had until an alf-lroland RspuMlo is had. AM the way to rid Ireland of sectarian savagery Is to rid Ireland of par-tition.

But It is no part of the policy of the Civil Rights movement to got rid of partition. You say If you wera a millionaire you would buy a Rolls-Royos. Well, If I wore a millionaire I'd buy a big big gun and I'd blow tho Border to hall out of it.

LEO McCORMAC, London.

i t is something that Mr. McCor-mac concedes that it is "not wrong" to protest over bad hous-ing conditions and the absence of civil rights. He gave a different impression in earlier correspond-ence. He says the way to get civil rights Ls to end the Border, but what Is happening before our eyes shows that the way to end the Border ls to get civil rights, and then use them. As for get-ting tha t big big gun and blowing the Border to hell, it is as likely to happen as being a millloriilre. I t is tbe action of masses of people determined to win their rights that counts, not the guns of In-dividual heroes.—Editor.)

F R O M P A G E O N E

October 1969 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT

THE ROCKS OF BAWN

THE BONNY BOY CASADH AN TSUGAIN FATHER, dear father, you've done what's very wrong

V ^ T o marry me to this bonny boy, he being so very young For he is only fifteen years and I am twenty-one— Oh the bonny boy is young and still growing."

A Rl na bhfeart cad do chas san duthaigh seo me Is gur mo chailin deas a gheobhalnn im duthaighin beag fein

Gur casadh mo isteach mar a raibh Marc agus gradh mo chieibh, Is gur ouir an tsean-bhean amach le casadh an tsugain me.

COME all ye loyal heroes and listen unto me,

Don't hire with any farmer till you know what your worfc will be;

You rise up in the morning and from clear daylight till dawn,

And you never will be able to plough the Rocks of Bawn;

My shoes they arte worn and my stockings they are thin;

My heart is always trembling now for fear they mlglif give in,

My heart is always trembling now from clear dayligttt tin ddwn,

And I never Witt be atfte to plough the Rocks of Bawn.

My curse upon you, Swfceney boy, you have me nearly robbed;

You're sitting toy the fireside now, your feet upon the h«b,

You're sitting by the fireside now, from dear daylight till dawn,

And you never wWlfc a»M to plough the Rocks « Bawn.

Rise up, Gallant Sweeney, and get your horses hay,

And give them a good feed of oats before trt«y start aw&y,

Don't feed them on stfft turnip sprigs that grOW 6n yon green lawn,

Or they never will be able to plough the Rocks of Bawn.

I wish the Sergeant-Major would send for me in' time.

And place me in some regiment, all in my youth and prime*

I'd fight for Ireland's glory now, from clear daylight till dawn,

Before I would retufti again to plough the Rocks of Bawn.

"Oh daughter, dear daughter, I did not do you wrong To marry you to this bonny boy although he is so young, For he will be a match for you when I am dead and gone— OH the bonny boy is young, but he's growing."1

Curfa: Ma bhionn tu liom bi Horn Bi liom a stoirin mo chroidhe Ma bhionn tu liom bi liom El liom os comhair an tsaoghal Ma bhionn tu liom bi liom i ngao orlach i do chroidhe 'Se mo lean ie fonn nach liom thu De Domhnaigh mar mhnaoi.

"Oh father, dear father, I tell you what we'll do We'll send my love to college for another year or two, And alt around his bonnet we will tie a ribbon blue Te show the ladies that he is married."

Ta mo cheannsa liath le Main is ni le crionnacht e Ni beathaidh na brelthre na braithre pe sa cfomhan sceal Is taim id dhiadh le bliadhain is gan fait agam ort feln Is gur geall le fia me ar sliabh go mbeadh gair con 'na dhiaidh

Oh a year it went by and I passed (he college wall And saw the young collegians a-playing at the ball, » saw my love amongst them, the fairest of them all Otr the bonny bey was young and still growing.

Do threbhfainn, d'fhuirsfinn, chaifinn siol ins a chre 's do dheanfainn obair shocair, alainn, mhin, reidh, Do chuifinn cru fen each is mire shiuil riamh ar fear is na healodh bean le fear na deanfadh-san fein.

Oh at the age of fifteen he was a married man, And- at the age of sixteen the father of a son And at the age of seventeen o'er his* gram the grass grew green-Cruel death had put an end to his growing.

DOWN BY THE GLENSIDE THE JACKETS GREEN TWAS down by the glenside I met an old woman,

Aftfucking young nettles, she ne'er heard me coming, Am* f listened a while to the sent she was humming— Gtoryo, glory-o to the bold Fenian menr

U / H E M I was a maiden fair and young on the pleasant- banks of Lee * * No bird that in the greenwdod sung was half so Mithd and free;

My heart' ne'er beat with flying feet, no love sang me hie queen Till down the gWn rode Sarsfield's men, and they wore the jackets green.

Tie fifty long years since I saw the moon beaming On strong manly forms and on eyes with hope beaming, t se* them again, sure, through all my daydreaming, Glory*, glory* to the bold Fenian men I

Young Donal sat en his gallant grey like a king on a royal seat, And my heart taped out on his regal way to worship at his feet OK! Love* tiad you come in those colours dressed and wooed with a

soldier's mien I'd have laid my head on your throbbing breast for the sake of your

jacket green.

Soma died by the wayside, some died mid the stranger, And wise men have totd us, their cause was a failure, But they steod by oid Ireland, and they never feared danger, Glory-o, glory-o, te the bold Feniart men!

CAMERON SLAMS UNIONISTS

No hoarded wealth did my love own, save the good sword that he bore; But I loved him for himself alone and the colour that he wore. For had he come in England's red, to make me England's queen, I'd rove the high green hills, instead for the sake of tha Irish green.

I passed on my way, God be praised that I met her, Be Me long or short, I will never forget her, We may have been brave men, but wo*H never have better, Glory-o, glory-o to the bold Feniffli men!

THE Cameron report should be studied by every politically

minded British WoriHtt It tells what sort of a mess British Gov-ernment has made in Ireland.

But not too much notice should be taken of the excuses that are copiously offered. The sly digs at Mr. Gerard Fitt, the 100.se talk about extremists, the attempt to give "People's Democracy" an im-portance which it does not possess because the television cameras are fond of it. TP there were n6 ""grievances

there would be no complaints. That is the sum of the situation. And those who are to Be compli-mented for lifting the lid and let-ting the world see are not any particular individuals Or organisa-tions, however Worthy or unworthy. The credit belongs to the mass of the common people who are un-willing to live in the old way.

Let the Government' right the wrongs and we Wdn't be worried about the excuses.

When William stormed with shot and shell at the walls of Garryowen, In the breach of death my Donal fell and he sleeps near the Treaty

Stone. That breach the foemen never crossed wh » he swung his broadsword

keen, And I do not weep my darling lost, for he fell in his jacket green. rL up once more, we'll drihV a toast to comrades far away;

lid nation upon earth can boast of braver hearts than they. Ami though they sleep in dungeons deep, or flee, outlawed and banned, WO" fore them yet, we can't forget the felons of our land.

In boyhood's bloom and manhood's pride, foredoomed by alien laws, 8omm ort the scaffold bravely died for Ireland's holy cause. Andt brothers, say, shall we today unmoved, like cowards, stand VMM* traitors shame and foes defame the felons of our land.

When Sarsfield sailed away I wept as I heard the wild ochone, l felt, then, iread as the men who slept 'neath the fields of Gerryowen, While. Ireland held my Donai blessed, no wild sea rolled between, Till I would fold him to my breast all robed in his jacket green.

My soul has sobbed like the waves of woe that sad o'er tombstones break, For I buried my heart in Kis grave beiow for his and for Ireland's sake. And I ory:."Make way for the soldier's bride in your halls Of death, sad

queen," For I long to rest by my true love's side, and wrapped in the folds of

green.

Seme hi tha convict's dreary oell have found a living tomb; OkO same unseen, unfriended, fell within the dungeon's gloom. •iM Wflat care we, although it H» trod by a ruffian band-Be* Meee the oiay where rest today the felons of our land.

tetftowanle meek and tyrants frown, ah, little do we care! A felon's cap's the noMsat crown an Irish head can wear, and every Gael in Inisfail who scorns the self's vile brand, Pram Lea ta Boyne would gladly join the felens of our land.

ARTHUR M. FORRESTER.

I saw the Shannon's purple tide roll down by the Irish Town As I stood in the breach by Donal'S side when England's flag went down And now it glowers as it seeks the skies like a blood-red curse between-I weep, but 'tis not women's sighs will raise the Irish Green.

Oh, Ireland, sad is thy lonely soul, and loud beats the winter sea, But sadder and higher the wild waves roll from the hearts that break

for thee; Ye grief shall come to our heartless foes, and their thrones in the dust

be seen, So Irish maids, love none but those who wear the jaokets green

MICHAEL SCANLON.

FROM THE LEE of Eire, in order that a satisfactory solution to the division of Ireland cooW be achieved as quickly as pos-sible.

In addition to the above, the fol-lowing points should be noted:

A factor in the present situation is the connection between the Orange Order and the Unionist Party at Stormont, who have per-sistently obstructed and delayed any real movement towards a more equal society.

It also has to be recognised that the present problems stem, directly, from the economic difficulties and the ultimate long-term solution would hive to be based around the establishment of a S o c i a l i s t Workers' 8tate."

EDITORIAL COMMENT While the specific demands in

this resolution are sound, there is a technical consideration draughts-men should bear in mind. As the so-called "constitution" of Nor-thern Ireland is the Government of Ireland Act, it is clear that an Act of Parliament does not con-tain provision for suspending it-self. It is therefore not a matter of suspending but of amending, and this can be done by introduc-ing into the British Parliament a ft* malt in* the necessnry amend-ment*.

' f i f f i ' fo l lowing resolution, pro-pwii l l b y -tfte Wearside

MMHfeef D.A.T.A., was passed b f Sunderland Trades

Tfte Sunderland and District VMttk CTumcil urges Her Majesty's O M q M M t t to suspend the ConstV tuCta of Northern Ireland, in ao-cwMhnU With the powers vested in tMMlt ftp ihe 1920 Government of t rMttOArt .

f b a initial stages must include

(Continued from Page Four) happening in the NOrth of our country." And he added that he would not allow his Work in a Bel-fast gallery which was supported by a regime that was causing so much horror. He would not allow his work to be exhibited in Britain, which had condoned what was hap-pening in the North of Ireland. One hundred and fifty people, includ-ing the French Ambassador, M D'Harcourt, came by special train from Dublin for the occasion. The people of Cork have responded magnificently and have really lived up to the name "The Rebel County."

DUBLIN HOUSING COMMITTEE CHALLENGES AIKEN'S SON Friday, September 12th, in

the District Court, Dundrum, Mr. Lochlainn Aiken was granted an order against Mrs. Kathleen Boyle, obliging her to hand up to him possession of her lodge at Woodside, Sandyford, Co. Dublin.

Mrs. Kathleen Boyle's 1 husband-Peter Boyle—was a comrade of Mr. Prank Aiken from the 1919-1923 era and when Mr. Aiken settled per-manently in Dublin, Mr. Boyle came with him. Por 40 years Mr. Boyle was associated with the Aiken family as comrade, employee and friend. Mr. Aiken built the lodge for Mr. Boyle and for 33 years accepted a rental of £54 per annum.

In late 1966, some months before the paseiOg into law of the Tenant/ Landlord Act, Mr. Aiken succeeded in persuading Mr Boyle to sign a caretaker^ agreement. Two years later Mr. BOyle died. Two months

after he died, Mr. Aiken gave the lodge and grounds to his son, Loch-lainn, who now asks Mrs. Boyle to vacate the lodge. Mrs. Boyle, a woman in her 70's, was Bora in Sandyford and lived in the lodge for 35 years. To her it is home. She has no other home.

Mr. Lochlainn Aiken, the son of an ex-Minlster of State who is also a substantial landowner, cannot, he say*, find anywhere else to live ex-cept in Mrs. Boyle's lodge.

The Dublin Housing Action Com-mittee has issued a statement in which it demands:

(a) That the court order against Mrs. Boyle be dropped immediately..

<bl That no further action be taken against this defenceless widow, legal or otherwise.

(c) T7hat Mrt. Boyle tie made a legal tenant at her former rent,

The statement is indued over the' name of Maureen Burke.

(W The . repeal of the Special Power****.

tb> Tho disarming and disband-ing ot the notorious "B" Special L A T E R C L O S I N G O N

S U N D A Y S U R G E D 1 ) RANCHES of the Licensed Vin-

tlners Association in the Bol-der coun.tes of Mbnaghan, Louth and Cavan want the closing time of public houses on Sundays to be extended. They projpdse to ask the Government, through the associa-tion, to change the present legisla-tion in order to enattte pub* to re-main open to 11 O'clock on Sunday nights, instead of id o'clock.

A spokesman for Castleblanry branch of the association said thai the extra hour was regarded as most important in the Border counties.

tot investigation of the seri-oug allegations, which have ap-yeaHeO to the British Press, as to m f conduct" of the Royal Ulster CdlKaMiayp prior to and during th#l recent disorders in Northern Ireland.

fldft The complete restructuring of tha existing Civil Administration, la adder to speedily obtain equal CM* rights for all the inhabitants of Worthem Ireland.

M Id expected that Her Majesty's CMNWMMSt would seek, in the pa.t-SafP af time, tip establish more t rMM^relat ions with the «epubHc

i

October 1969 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT 7

BOOKS edited by

GERARD CURRAN

MOM JOYCE "James Joyce," by Arnold

Goldman. Profiles in Litera-ture Series. Routledge & Kegao Paul. 7/6.

"James Joyce Remembered," C.P. Curran. Oxford Univer-sity Press. 30/-.

l>OTH these books arg to be re-commended to students of

James Joyce. The first is an ex-cellent introduction both to his life and writings and Dr. Goldman's selections from the novels make a .splendid starting point for anyone coming to Joyce for the first time.

His critical comments on style and subject matter and his linking of Joyce's personal life with his art, make this small volume an invalu-able aid to an understanding of Joyce's work. Even those who have previously feared to approach "Finnegan's Wake" may find their appetites whetted af ter reading Dr. Goldman's introduction to "this Eyrawyggla saga" or "your new Irish stew"—just two of Joyce's names for his enormous work.

The excellent book list at the end is extremely helpful to anyone wanting to delve deeper into the amazing labyrinth of Joycean scholarship!

C. P. Curran'g book gives a fas-cinating insight into Joyce's stu-dent days at University College, Dublin. H,e MfiaJJs the njftqtings of the Literary and Historical Society in 1900 and 1902, when Joyce read papers on "Drama and Life'' and on the poet Mangan, and traces the influence of these papers, first on the early "Stephen Hero'' and then on the later "Portrait of the Artist as a Youpg Man." His ac-count of student life includes plenty of more light-hearted moments and he shows us Joyce acting charades and singing Irish ballads with great enthusiasm.

Later, when Joyce went to Europe, Curran still corresponded with him and they met at Intervals over the years. Joyce would Write to his friend demanding details of Dublin life, words of old music hall spngs, and libretti of ancient pan-tomimes. Curran wandered through the music shops of Capel Street and along the quays, searching for these relics of bygone days: relics that were to be incorporated after-wards in the maze of "Pinnegan's Wake." '

I OYCE'S friends always believed that he would return to Ire-

land; howeyec, time and a world war intervened. But, although be never lived in Dublin again, he im-mortalised the city and its people in his art.

These recojlftctwws of Joyce, by one of his v»Fy close friends, help us to see him and his writing against bis put}! in bapkgfqund. They make vjyid all thosg patetipn-•ships between Joyce and his fel-low university students tha t were to become embodied in "Ulysses" and "The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man."

This is an interesting and im-mensely readable book, hut It is also one whiqh presupposes con-siderable acquaintance with Joyce dnd his wor|c.

BURNTOLLET 'Burntollet," by Bowes Egan & Vincent McCormack (L.R.S., 10/-).

' 'PHIS i.s a documentary report of -L the now famous march from Bel-fast to Deny initiated by People's Democracy, a group of students at Queens University. Both of the writers were on the march.

Bowes Egan, a lecturer in law at the City of London College has been associated with the Civil Rights movement for some years, has written for "The Times," "Sun-day Times" and specialist journals.

Vincent McCormack is a writer and trainee psychologist at the De-partment of Psychology at Queens University. For three months he has carried out exhaustive investi-gations into the Burntollet inci-dents.

The story of the march was pieced together by interviewing marchers, sympathetic witnesses, attackers, reporters, photographers, examining all the newspaper re-ports r.t the time, interviewing Members of Parliament, residents of Bogside and even Major Bunting himself.

It has been suggested in various quarters that the students and lec-turers were crazy to set out through "Orange Territory" carrying Civil Rights banners. Were they not familiar with the character of the regime they were dealing with? Had they not read the material on Northern Ireland and its innumer-able abuses of democracy and evi-dence of discrimination against the Catholic minority? Whether they had studied this material or not, what emerges on the march was tftat both students and lecturers and many others were continually astonished at the role of the police ip not only assisting the P^isleyitee. 'B' Specials and all Orange attack-ers, bijt they were also aipazed at the continual assaults made by the police on the marchers.

Young people, especially those with a Protestant background, had not f.ully grasped the evidence pf the "old hands-" The march re-yealed to them and the world the brutal, corrupt and tyrannical character of the Stormont. Govern-ment and its supporters.

The best way to review sijch an important book as this is to let a selection of the marchers arid vic-tims speak for themselves.

O 1 iN the way through County An-trim the matchers wene barassed

by Bunting and his followers. Michael Farrell spoke to County

Inspector Cramise. He asked the inspector to clear Bunting's follow-ers out of the way for the legal procession. The inspector^ attitude was hostile. Under pressure, how-ever, he "agreed" to escort the mar-chers through two by two.

Erskine Holmes, a prominent member of the Labour Party, takes up the story.

"Mf» attempted to me** forward with the hel» of Mi* poNee. As soon a* we were- in tn» eentre oi the hostile orowA ttw mum mot ished. I wm punched by one m*n, Mbo also aeiae* fumu by the hair. W* VP* iMt** ttf U * others end finally dragged back to tlM march." The inspector then withdrew his

"ofTer" to get them through. Patri-cia Drinan remarks:—

"It appeared to us that before the polloe acted they consulted Major tunting. We asked why thfe happened- Thay gave no

explanation."

IRISH B O O K S

Call or wri te :—

2 8 3 G R A Y * m R O A D , L O N D O N . W C - I

Bunting himself explained: — "The situation was out of his

[the inspector's] control. If I had not been there he could have done nothing. I advised him on the tactics he should use . . ." After a lorry-driver was instruc-

ted to run down the marchers and did so, Peter Cosgrave, a school-teacher, was attacked by a police-man.

"He kicked out quite deliber-ately. Shortly after, when the situation quietened, I approached and asked for his number. He grabbed me by the throat, and said that he would charge me with obstructing him in the course of his duty, and with as-sault, if I was not respectful." One sergeant continually called

the marchers "sewer rats"! Most of the others were content with repetitive obscenities.

JANUARY 1st at a railway bridge outside Antrim the marchers

were again surrounded by a hostile crowd.

A Civil Rights supporter made this comment.

"The constables and sergeants mixed freely with Jhe groijp around the Union Jaok and Lam-beg drum. An excited leader ex-plained to a sergeant and two con-stables how they should 'drag a few over as an example, take them to a barber's shop, shave their heads to the bone, then throw them off the bridge.' One polipeman said he thought that would be just the medicine.' After experiencing further perse-

cution from hunting's followers without any interference from the police one marcher commented:—

"When I m m * t b * overwhelm-ing hostility of the po|iee, (rem county inspector to ( s t a b l e , I knew we would got no protection. Even when we got through safely that night, I realised that what had happened would have some dangerous consequences. Bunting must have been most impressed by the readiness of the police to co-operate, consult, to mingle with his gang while presenting a clear opponent's faoe to the marchers. He had been given open encouragement to continue and intensify his campaign of harassmen."

IN view of his later promotion, the photograph of Major Chi-

chester-Clark chatting with the county police inspector with its caption is pf particular interest. The Major approved of the police plan to divert the marchers—which led them into the ambush prepared by Utojpr Buptipg and bis followers.

Captain Long, Minister for Home Affairs, alsp distinguished himself ip help»8 to "whitewash" his Ocapge friends. After the exoited tn«b had wrepked 20 stoops in fyjaghera, smashed windows in Walshe's hotel, attacked preeemen, he came »n tolayisioa to announce that he had held a conference with Bunting and Paisley, and that these "gentlemen" had been most cour-teous. Neither, he said, had "either threatened or hinted that their fol-lowers would cause any trouble in Deny."

The following account was pub-lished in the "Belfast Telegraph": "Dungannon Civil Bights Commit-tee says it was incredible that a Minister of Home Affairs could sit back and tell millions of viewers that the enemies of the march had not been violent to date, especially in view of the fact that the world bad seen on television and in the Press h°W the enemies of this manoh bad wrought havoc on the property pf Civil Rights supporters."

End Captain Long not consider it an act of violence to be armed with offensive weapons and to block the path pf a legitimate peaceful parade? m H E N came the climatic events J- at Bumtollet. A schoolteacher

again takes up the account. "I saw Mi* fMUee m w t n t

through the fields, and then I

saw the first attacker wearing a white armband. Then I began to see other men wearing similar armbands standing in groups on high ground along the road. I remember then dismissing the idea that the attackers would simply be angry groups of locals annoyed at demonstrators passing through their village. My impres-sion was that the attack was well organised and the armbands were for recognition purposes.

"By now the field seemed crowded with men and youths . . .

"Then came the showers of stones and followed the screams of the girls as they were hit by stones." Colin Moore says: "I then saw a

girl in a white furry hat being con-fronted by a Paisleyite with a wooden club. The hat was taken off and there followed two blows each followed by blood."

Mrs. Margaret Tracey (54) gives her account:—

"I passed through a hail of stones, being hit only once in the leg. When we crossed the bridge I turned back . . . Standing on the side of the bridge on the marchers' left was a large middle-aged, well-dressed man, leaning against the waJJ quite casually. As a line of marshals passed he whipped what seemed like a police baton out of his overcoat pocket and smashed it on the back of the nearest marcher. Boys and girls went down one after the other."

James O'Kane was also attacked by the sarqe man.

"YS^TLLIAM McCONIGLE, of ' ' Dungiyen, recounts:—

"There was 9 man with a baton on th# bridge. He went to hit me by swinging the baton. I side-stepped, and another man hit me with 9- nailed stick on the baok of the bead. I saw the man With the baton hit other people—girls and men both." The attacker was a substantial

farmer of Camnish, Dungiven. On the Main Derry Road. Dympna Hasson says:—

"We ware thrown into the water. About ten girls were tossed in. They threw stones at us when we were in the water, which was about three feet deep. They wouldn't let us out as they were coming at us from both sides . . . We managed te erawl on to the further side. About six of them started to frit us. Two used police batons. Three fellows carried roe down to the water and thrfW me in again." Speaking further of the attack on

the young girls, the "Irish News" reporter says:—

"The* warp scatter* sere#m-ing Into the fteM| PMr the road-Seme of thM» neff tfee vhwr were gr«ftb* and thnewr o m Mw t r i * * to m mm n * w *

8

«M» te Iwva M* river the men stontf** ttwrn «ft Wf^ ^ntf" ^ iw^ ^ p i^ t 1 ifcw^

comparative safety."

„»ORLEY McNELIS, a Belfast artist, tells story:—

"I managed to get aorees all right, m tft*> I IMMI M l and *aw t must have been about twenty—lying face down In slraaro- She must have bean unaoiticious. the water covered he* mouih note. She was drowning, i want h a * to pull ber out, but befqr* I got there some men with ekihe started hitting «t har Ian .

f •fPFf* WW* -WJI through tha a d * * a M ' eewM IM the Wood sp i r t opl of the M a s in her Ufa, 1 m M M r t ta « r t » bar anna an« miU h * a * and then i t i p > M r mm half j i i l l a alfilMI A Mill kalAM U9VI W I'WP ••rfps w f ^ P ' ^ P ^ ^ ® o^jw^ WP® who helped te get her en to a wooden stretcher."

A one and a half page picture shows the scores of thugs who were mostly members of the B-Specials preventing the girls from getting out of the river.

SPHERE are many more similar examples of brutality against

defenceless civil rights supporters and finally we have the Police ter-ror in the Bogside in the early morning of January 5th.

This book needs to be sold widely in England. The photographs should if possible be acquired sepa-rately to exhibit at meetings.

Every sale of this book will help to bring home to the British pub-lic, the brutal fascist administra-tion they are subsidising in Northern Ireland.

A habit now frowned on by ani-mal lovers used to be to put the dog's nose in his mess.

The noses of the leading politi-cians in this country need to be held in the mess they have made and allowed to go on in North-East Ireland.

G. CURBAH

A

"The Wit of Oscar Wilde," Sean McCann (Leslie Frewin, 18/-). CATALOGUE of Wildean wit-ticisms, like an album of im-

paled butterflies, saddens while it charms. Those scrupulously sculp-tured cadences and delicately bal-anced antitheses, intended by their creator to wing their elegant way bepeath heavy chandeliers in the plum-coloured plush and gilt of-<« fin de siecle theatre, shriyel- and grow musty on the pages of a bogfr.

The same applies to Wilde's own mots. His conversation was as artificial, as meticulously tailored te the requirements of an audience, as any of his comedies. -His whole life was indeed a comic extrava-ganza, grotesquely twisted at the end into tragedy.

To resuscitate his wit and set it again in flight calls for the skill of a Miceal MacLiammoir, familiar by long study with the facts i f the man's life and hi6 extraordinary gifts both personal and literary.

Sean McCann opens his discrimi-nating selection with a character-sketch of Oscar the man, showing how the wit and the humour were products of that blend of gaiety and sadness which seems atarajs to distinguish thf^ true comedian. Thus the reader starts off fore-warned that the quotations, scintil-lating though they are, withhold something of their rich savour from those who are unacquainted with the life and work of Wilde. With-out that knowledge how can oa* appreciate an aphorism like

"All trials are trials for one's life, and all sentences are sentences of death"?

ClAftAM OE9MBM01

CLIAMM6 m THK W H Y

EVERY Dublin man knows that the LiSey Is the cleanest, sweet-

est, salubriousest river in Ireland. And every Cork man believes the

opposite though he doesn't want ty leave It.

Now Mr. Hanlon Macaulan has developed the theory that the U f t f pollutants are not generated wttMp the City but are floated dp the rivw on the ttde, from Dup Laolre fer example.

He proposes that a weir should be built Just below Butt Bridge wHfr flushing out gates and other equip-ment.

But whether it is wise to cut oC the centre of a port from the sea is another question. There might have to be a lock.

8 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT October 1969

MARCH FROM RUNNYMEDE TO LONDON

\ BOUT a hundred members of the London branch of

N.I.C.R.A., members of the Connolly A s s o c i a t i o n and others, left Runnymede, in Surrey, on Saturday, September 6th, to march to Hyde Park. Runnymede was the place where the English King John was forced against his will to sign the "Magna Carta," which is the basis of Eng-lish civil liberties today.

They were demanding equality of civil liberties for the occupied part of Ireland.

On the following day they marched f rom Shepherd's Bush to Trafalgar Square, being joined by a substantial contingent a t Marble Arch.

At Trafalgar Square the meeting was addressed by Mr. Brendan McGill, who said the Irish people were tired of promises and wanted an independent Irish Republic.

Mr. Aidan Corrigan, from Dun-gannon, spoke, together with Mr. MacEllistrum, Mr. Bowes Egan and Mrs. Maire Martin.

Mr. John Mendelssohn, MP., praised the British troops in the six counties and said they had been welcomed. Somewhat to his sur-prise his statement was received with loud booes from a section of the crowd to whom .the acceptance of British troops to stop the Orange hoodlums was a very dis-

- tasteful and humiliating necessity, of which the less said the better.

Edwin Brookes on

Q N Tuesday, August 26th, Liverpool Coimolly Asso-

ciation was addressed by -Mr. Edwin Brookes, MJ». for Beb-ingtofi (Wirral).

He expressed the opinion tha t . there was need 4pr a complete re-appraisal of the queWon of the parttt&M of Ireland. Be suggested t h a t this might be dealt with by t h e constitutional Commission which is to coositer Scottish and Welsh claims to independence.

Mr. ?ro9kes"was •tocHned to see Ir ish ^uni f ica t ion in .connection with European integration, and the passing of a Bill of Rights applic-able to all Europe.

A * 6 T I E considered that the halting - 1 1 of the reforming ecumenical initiatives of Pope John by the more cautious Pope Paul had left a vacuum of which the Paisleyite extremists had |pken advantage.

He spoke of the proposal for a convention to be signed by England a n d the Republic, the provisions of which would be binding on all parts of these Islands.

Notwithstanding these somewhat speculative ideas upon the. future, Mr. Brookes was strongly in favour of immediate British Government action to meet the demands of those struggling for democratic rights in the six comities.

Stan Redmond in Glasgow

8PEAKING a t a meeting organ-ised by the Glasgow branch of

the Connolly Association on Thurs-day, September 18th, in the Com-munity Centre, Clyde Street, Mr. Sean Redmond said that there was a great part to be played by the Scottish workers and the Irish in Scotland in the struggle against British imperialism in Ireland. He suggested a wide extension of the Connolly Association and greater distribution of the "Irish Demo-crat.",

Printed by Ripley Printers Ltd., (T.U.), Nottingham Road. Ripley, Derbyshire, and published by Con-nolly Publications Ltd., at 283 Grays Inn Road, London, W.C.I.

Irish campaign in Britain SEND YOUR REPORTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS TO THIS PAGE

Heath repudiates Enoch Powell on Irish alien issue

EDWARD HEATH, Con-servative Party Leader,

has told the Connolly Associa-tion that the views expressed by Mr. Enoch Powell on the desira-bility of turning Irishmen resi-dent in Britain into aliens are not Conservative Party policy.

Mr. Powell, says Mr. Heath in a letter from Glasgow, where he was holding a series of meetings, was speaking only for himself.

Mr. Heath's disclaimer ends a period of uncertainty which was doing the Conservative Party a great deal of harm.

In the Midlands, where there is the largest concentration of Irish immigrants outside Lon-

Irish in Birmingham

J^ S a result of the strike of Irish workers in the Bir-

mingham Corporation bus ser-vices, there was a 10 per cent reduction of operations.

The strike arose from a call is-sued in Ireland by the N.LC.R.A., and taken up by NI.C.RA. in Lon-don.

A certain amount of controversy surrounded the strike.

Some workers hesitated to par-ticipate on the grounds that the Irish should not strive to "go it alone" but should try to get their English fellow-workers to act with them through the established shop-stewards and other trade union or-ganisations.

A ft A T T was pointed out that the Eng-

lish workers on the buses would be happy enough if the Irish failed to come in, as there would be more overtime for them.

But in the factories, where pro-duction lines could be stopped and wages lost, there might be an over-all loss in the support that would come to the Irish cause without the prospect that the strike would ex-ert much influence on the British authorities.

•k -k -ir T T v i s felt that great confusion

could be caused if every organi-sation operating in Ireland was to issue its appeal to Irish workers in Britain without having regard to the existing organisations consti-tuted in Britain.

On the other hand, some Irish workers felt that this was an ex-ceptional occasion when there was great urgency and not the time to educate and infprm the English workers in advance.

It is not understood that further strikes are in contemplation except through the normal machinery.

EALING T.C. RESOLUTION

A N emergency resolution was ^ unanimously adopted by Ealing Trades Council on Wednesday, September 10th, and was forwarded to the Home Secretary, Mr. J. Cal-laghan.

It demanded the Immediate re-call of Parliament to consider the whole question of Northern Ire-land, the disarming and dlsband-ment of the B-Speclals, the ending of the Special Powers Act, the im-mediate introduction of "one man one vote" in local elections and the abolition of the business vote.

don, there had been massive swings away from Labour owing to the Government's in-ept handling of the six county crisis.

After Powell's speech, people who had sworn they would never vote Labour again, were saying they would do so after all.

ft ft ft M R . HEATH has also been ^ gravely embarrassed by

Notes and news A NUMBER of well-placed people

in Labour circles in Britain and Ireland are peddling the line of bringing the six counties under direct control of Westminster. Some suggest special arrangements for the Catholic areas. With th is pro-posal goes one for a "Civil Rights Convention" which would be made binding on the 26 counties. This is a cunning way to try and restore British control over the 26 counties and should be suspected.

ft ft ft

T T is clear that Mr. Callaghan and his advisers are more in-

terested in restoring "law and order" in Belfast than meeting the Just demands of the Catholic people. Otherwise he would have abolished the B-men and disarmed the Fascist bands before browbeat-ing the Falls Road people into tak-ing down'? their barricades. Well, his men are there. He is respon-sible.

ft ft ft

irpHE propaganda of the British Press is that the Belfast

troubles are "between Catholics and Protestants." They refuse to re-port that in many parts of the city joint peace committees are prevent-ing sectarian Tttysteria, and tha t in some of the factories like the ship-yards and Short and Harlands, peace meetings have been held.

the bad Press given the six county Unionists which the Conservative Party is currently

• trying to disown.

Mr. Powell's suggestion that Irishment born in the 26 coun-ties should be made into aliens is, of course, of doubtful consti-tutionality. It is not possible to deprive residents of the United Kingdom of citizenship that they possess. Even in rela-tion to new arrivals, it would involve the amendment or re-

" peal of the Ireland Act of 1949.

And Enoch Powell's mates won't want to tinker with that because it is the Act that guar-antees partition !

Replying to the statement of Mr. Powell at a well-attended meeting in Birmingham, Mr. Desmond Greaves said it was remarkable that a man like Mr. P o w e l l , who thought this country was being ruined by the number of aliens in it, should want to create a million more.

ft ft ft

"pHE Birmingham Clann na hEireann stated that emi-

gration from Ireland was caused by British interference in Irish political and economic life, and that if Britain woujd get out of Ireland it would be quite rea-sonable and possible for Irish-men to stay at home. But if Britain insisted on treating Ire-land as a piece of England, its statesmen could hardly object if Irishmen availed themselves of opportunities Britain pre-vented them from getting at home.

The Connolly Association in London issued a reply to Mr. Powell in similar terms.

M.C.F. HEAR ULSTER REPORT "VTR. STAN NEWENS, M.P., who ^ recently led a delegation of Westminster M.P.s to the six counties, reported on his experi-ences to the Central Council of the Movement for Colonial Freedom on Monday, September 15th.

It will be remembered that it was largely on Mr. Newen's initiative that the deputation to Mr. Calla-ghan by Gerard Fitt, M.P., and others was arranged.

Mr. Newens proposes to call to-gether all interested Members as

soon as the House of Commons re-assembles. There may be proposals to amend the Race Relations Act and extend it to the six counties, and to introduce a general Bijl of Rights.

Mr. Newens, whose constituency is Epping, Essex, has arranged a meeting in his own constituency a t Harlow New Town on Friday, 26th, and has invited Mr. Sean Redmond, General Secretary of the Connolly Association, to address it,

If you would like to have the "DEMOCRAT" posted to you, send this cut-out with your subscription to :

The IRISH DEMOCRAT, 283 Grays Inn Rd., London, W.C.1 with 16/- for a year 8/- for six months

Name Address ..;

JOIN THE CONNOLLY ASSOCIATION FILL IN THIS FORM

Please send me full particulars of how I can join the Connolly Association. Name Address H

Cut out and post to 283 Grays Inn Road, London, W.C.1

COVENTRY CAMPAIGN IN ACTION

; r PHE Coventry branch of th<. -1- Campaign for Social Justice in Northern Ireland reports that a successful meeting was held in the Precinct on Saturday, August 30th. The speakers included Mr. Eddie McCluskey, President of Coventry Trades Council, Sean Redmond, General Secretary, Connolly Asso-ciation, Sean McDermott, Chair-man, London Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, and Sean Collins, Birmingham Clann r,; hEireann.

A large audience listened to the speakers and then voted in favour of a resolution which called for the immediate repeal of the Special Powers Acts, and the disbandment of the B Special Police Force as an essential par t of providing full democratic rights for the people of Northern Ireland.

The branch has also been in-volved in raising money to help the people of the six counties. A fund has been set up, the trustees of which include Very Rev. Canon A. P. Diamond, and Rev. P. A. Berry, M.A., Coventry Cathedral.

Future activities of the branch include a dance on October 8th at St. Finbarr's Club, Stoney Stanton Road, and a public meeting on Thursday, October 23rd. The branch is also planning a confer-ence later in the year, which would be angled towards the trade union and Labour movement

Liberals call for changes at Stormont

T H E Liberal Party conference 1 meeting at Brighton on

September 17th, patted an emergency resolution demand-ing the extension of democratic righto hi the six counties.

Copies of the "Irish Democrat" were distributed to delegates by a young Londoner, Colin Brown, who is prominent in the party's youth section.

The resolution welcomed the Cameron Report, demanded the re-peal/of t he Special Powers Act, but insisted tha t a referendum should take place before the constitutional position was altered.

This last proposal would give •'• minority of the Irish people a veto on Irish unity.

It is expected now that U-1

Liberal Members of Parliament will press the Government for a< '.•ion when Parliament reassembles.

MANY MEETINGS

ARE PLANNED OTOE Connolly Association h..

enough speakers to speak at any place or time providing the out of pocket expenses of the speaker are met. Meetings of Lib-erals, United Nations Society, lab-our Party and Communist Furt • have been addressed.

Recently Desmond Greaves •• in the Conway Hall, London, and in Ealing to well-attended gather-ings. He Is booked for Newcastl-' and other meetings: in London October, and Yorkshire in a i f . Meetings are In prepar;.ti< > in Manchester and Nottingham.

Sean Redmond Is also avaiub • f o r m Id week travel. Other spea-'" • are available at the weekend N< request will normally be ref Write to 283 Grays Inn Pf" London, W.O.I.