No. 520 JUNE 1987 30p

LESS THAN

ON OTHER PAGES

- IRISH PENSIONERS

— LETTER FROM CORK

MASSACRE AT LOUGHGALL

SEOSAMH O DIOCHON

— IRISH SONGS

— BOOK REVIEWS

8 — DONALL MacAMHLAIGH

ELECTION THE Connolly Association advises members of the Irish Community to vote Labour in the British General election, except in very special circumstances — for example where there is a sitting Plaid Cymru candidate, or where somebody like Mr Mason or Mr Concannon is going up for Labour.

The Irish in Britain have two sets of interests, those derived from Irish citizenship and those derived from British residence.

To take the second first, a vote for a Tory could be taken as equivalent to a death wish. Mrs Thatcher's government is wrecking the health service, murdering industry, hounding the unemployed youth, slapping poll-tax on the entire adult population, so that a teenager in a squat will pay the same rates as herself for a £350,000 mansion. They have decimated public transport. They have sold off public property at knock down rates and used the proceeds to make the rich wealthier.

WHATEVER Labour did it wouldn't do worse than that. And ndeed Labour is pledged to knock a

million off the dole in two years, restore the health service and increase pensions.

Take no notice about doing away with the nuclear deterrant. A nuclear war can't be won so the thing's no good.

On the Irish issue, Labour at least stands by the general principle of a United Ireland. Its non-nuclear policy gives a chance of stopping the pollution of the Irish Sea. It would repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and introduce more humane principles in treatment of prisoners.

Some time a political party in Britain is going to have to tackle the Irish question. While Labour is not yet prepared to do this it is indubitable that Labour thinking is moving in that direction. It is beginning to be seen that a small minority cannot be allowed indefinitely to hold up the course of social and constitutional progress. There is no sign of any awakening in the Tory party. Therefore it has to be Labour.

ONE IN THREE VOTE YES BETRAYAL LIKE 1921

But National Resistance grows THE Single European Act has been approved by referendum. But only 30.8% of the electorate voted for it, and 56% showed their contempt for the whole shabby farce by staying at home.

Those who voted "yes" endorsed the most vicious act of treachery since the so-called "treaty" of 1921.

As in 1921 there was a universal chorus of approval . Not one solitary commercial newspaper but repeated government lies and chorused for assent. In 1921 there was one dissentient voice, Sean Beaumont's "Connach tman" in Sligo. This time there was nobody.

MISERABLE As in 1921, the miserable

Labour Party stood on the sidelines and said "do whatever you please," Mr Spring (like Michael Collins in 1922) making it quite clear what he himself was going to do.

Nevertheless no praise is too high for the dedicated men and women who gave their time, energy and money to the task of e n l i g h t e n i n g t h e i r f e l l o w countrymen. Ten days before the referendum the establishment was in a panic. F ianna Fail was accused of not pulling its weight for acceptance, and Mr Haughey was forced to intervene.

The " n o " lobby did not succeed, but they held up the operation of this iniquitous treaty

GLASGOW CA MEETING . . . JUNE 17

(Wednesday, 7.30 pm)

SWDS CLUB, 42 CARLTON PLACE

by over six months , they ensured the most massive discussion of the creeping denationalisation being forced on the Irish people by the local establishment, and they brought together all that was best in Ireland in a way that has not been seen since the Republican Congress of the 1930s.

The battle is not over. It is only beginning. The treaty is now lawful. But implementing it is going to be another matter.

The establishment parties have been compelled to pin-point the neutrality issue and insist that the S.E.A. has nothing to do with it, and promise to go on opposing Sellafield. But the reservations they propose to deposit have no legal validity and the moment the veto goes can be over-ridden.

It is therefore very much to be hoped that Mr Crotty and his friends will be able to hold their movement together in some shape or form, so as to keep the government on course. If there is no movement they may be tempted to give in to Brussels. And they may not have to be tempted very hard.

SPURIOUS The breadth of the "no" lobby

is illustrative of the change that has come in Ireland over the past twenty years. During the thirties and forties Fianna Fail was able to keep progress minimal in social matters by larding everything with a spurious catholicity. It could do it because people believed it to be "the republican party" and sound on the issue of independence.

The 1948 coalition took the twenty-six counties out of the

Commonwealth, and cloaked even the most prosaic transactions in patriotic rhetoric; thev were going to "drown Britain in eggs."

Since then we have had years of anti-national brainwashing. The publ ic has been told t h a t patriotism is out of date. Why then should they support Fianna F a i l f o r i t s p a t r i o t i s m ? Government spokesman deplored the fact that people were more in te res ted in abo r t i on t h a n making money.

But to set up mercenary standards for the rich, and this is what the EEC is about, is to invite the poor to apply them to t h e m s e l v e s . A n d t h i s is happening. The result is the growing strength of the political " lef t" which is healthier in Ireland than anywhere else in western Europe, and whose motive is unity whereas everywhere else there is demoralisation and division.

In s h o r t t h e f o r c e s f o r continuing the struggle are there and growing.

The enormous abstention — 56% of the electorate did not vote

(Continued on page 4, column 2)

GUILDFORD FOUR "I AM sure with God's help, we will be able to establish our innocence, and I intend to fight on until we have achieved it."

So said Mrs Anne Maguire, who addressed a meeting on the subject of the Guildford Four at the High Building, Maryland Street, Liverpool on Saturday May 30th.

The meeting was called by the C o n n o l l y A s s o c i a t i o n , t h e chairman being Mr Desmond Greaves who said that to him as a chemist the scientific "evidence" appeared ludicrous.

With Mrs Maguire was Miss Lisa Astins who had been involved in the case as a young girl on the run f rom home, but who was now a highly respected nurse.

Another speaker was Mr Arthur Devlin who is co-ordinating a campaign for the release of the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four and the clearing of the names of the Maguire family.

Mrs Maguire asked to be excused from telling the audience what was done to her when she was in police custody. She claimed that she and her sons w t . t denied privileges which were available to other prisoners, and that she continued to be hounded by the press while serving a prison sentence.

N o b o d y w h o hea r s M r s Maguire speak could believe she had ever participated in a terrorism campaign. She is the personification of the ordinary decent housewife interested in her home and her family and de termined t o res tore the i r reputations.

During the week-end Mrs Maguire addressed gatherings at M a n c h e s t e r , B o l t o n a n d Blackburn.

( (

LONDON CA ONE DAY SCHOOL

IMPERIALISM TODAY 11 am - 5 pm

SUNDAY, JULY 12th, 1987

6 2 M A R C H M O N T S T R E E T , W C 1

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Page Two .RISH DEMOCRAT June 1987

LONDON SCENE BY D O N A L M a c C R A I T H OLD AGE IN IRELAND ACTION FOR PENSIONERS (Reprinted from "Grey Power")

H U N D R E D S of local Irish pensioners were invited to an important conference in Kilburn on May 13 to discuss their various needs and to call on the local authorities and other bodies in Brent and Camden to provide more resources.

The conference was organised by Pensioners' Link (Brent and Camden) , which says that the very high Irish elderly population in the Kilburn area , which overlaps the boroughs of Brent and Camden, consti tutes the largest ethnic elderly grouping within both these boroughs .

Dubliner Marion O'Keeffe of Brent says: "We invited relevant bodies from both boroughs, because of the geographical catchment area this group falls between, and with a view to acquiring either cross-funding or adequate individual funding w h i l s t a l s o i n t e n d i n g t o investigate the needs of this very important user group.

"We have been acutely aware for some time of the shortfall in the resources targeted at this very needy sector of the elderly population. A recent survey of mental health and the Irish elderly in Kilburn showed a very high proportion living in the often highly exploitative rented sector, often in very bad condit ions".

Mayoman John Munnelly of Camden says: "There is also a poor take-up of existing services, and though there is a distinct cultural identity, there is little recognition of its importance to the Irish communi ty in as much as to date no Irish luncheon clubs or drop-in facilities exist in either borough.

" W e are aware that Brent Council has committed itself to promot ing the needs of the Irish communi ty , whilst Camden has acknowledged their needs to a

degree for some time, and of the f i nanc i a l r e s t r a i n t s c u r r e n t l y operative."

The conference was held at the Sacred Heart Club in Brondes-bury Road, off Kilburn High Road, starting with a buffet lunch and followed by speakers and musical enter tainment . For more information contract Marion on 624 3480 or John on 267 3381.

CEILI T H E n i n t h a n n i v e r s a r y of Kilburn's popular Quex Road Ceifi was celebrated in fine style with a gala evening of dance and music at the communi ty centre in Mazenod Avenue.

The event attracted a huge attendance of people both young and old, and took on a carnival-like atmosphere as members of the Cein hard-working organising committee ensured that everyone who came along had a most enjoyable time.

The resident Caravelles duo of Martin and Theresa MacMahon provided plenty of foot-tapping ceili music for the enthusiastic dancers who took the floor for a b r e a t h - t a k i n g v a r i e t y of traditional dances which included the intricate High Cauled Cap, the exhausting Siege of Ennis and the lively Sweets of May.

The quex Road Ceil'i was originally started in 1978 as a fund-raising venture by the local branch of the church-based P i o n e e r T o t a l A b s t i n e n c e Association — popularly known as the Pioneers — but the evenings are far f rom being dry affairs.

The friendly a tmosphere of the weekly Ceifi ensures that a warm traditional Irish welcome o f 'Cead Mile Failte' is extended to every newcomer. And there is every encouragement to ' take the f loor ' with even a free weekly class for absolute beginners.

Since its inception, the Ceifi organisers have raised many thousands of pounds for local charities, hospitals and families and have renovated and decorated homes for people in need.

BRENT BRENT Council, a t its meeting last week, passed a resolution of support for the Gui ldford Four prisoners f rom Kilburn and the M a g u i r e Seven f r o m n o r t h P a d d i n g t o n . T h e r e s o l u t i o n , mo^ed by Labou r Councillors Frank Hansen (Mapesbury) and seconded by Michael Woods (Carlton) read: "Th i s Council askes the Home Secretary to use his powers to refer the case of the Guildford Four to the Court of Appeal because their convictions have been called into doubt by new evidence and doubts about the forensic evidence submitted at their trial. We fur ther support the Maguire family in their campaign for jhstice."

Councillors Johnson (Liberal) and Moloney (Labour ) also spoke in favour of the resolution. Cllr Maloney said: "These innocent p e o p l e h a v e b e e n m a d e scapegoats. There are thousands of Irish people in this borough who support the campaign for the freedom of the Gui ldford Four and the Birmingham Six".

TRAVELLERS MEMBERS of the Kilburn-based Brent Travellers' Suppor t G r o u p have greeted with mixed feelings the decision of the Secretary of State for the Environment to agree to the temporary use of the Book Centre site in Neasden to accommodate twenty caravans.

The public enquiry resulted in the necessary work on the site being delayed since last October and the continued occupat ion of Fryent Way. The Suppor t G r o u p will continue to campaign for permanent sites as well as offering suppor t to those w h o move into the temporary site.

RESTORING A STOLEN CULTURE I I IS many years ago that I formed the opinion that the worst thing in the history of Europe was the Roman Empire. That is why the most important event in Irish history is the one that didn't happen. The Romans never got there.

I thought the Greeks were much better till I read Thucydides. His account of the Athenian massacre in Melos - because its people wanted to be neutral in the war with Sparta - cured me of that illusion.

It became quite clear to me why the English public schools, the places where the rulers of Empire and the wielders of finance learn all their rottenness, have traditionally based their curriculum on the classics, the study of Greece and Rome.

Now a hook has been published that not only says that, but sets the whole subject in a new and enlarged perspective. It is written by Professor Martin Bemal, of the department of G o v e r n m e n t S t u d i e s in Corne l l University, USA. He is not, one gathers, of the Irish Bemals , but one suspects, possibly away back, there may be the same Portuguese origins.

His book entitled "Black Athena" is brought out, impeccably, by "Free Association Books", 26 Freegrove Road, London, N7. These are not academic publishers. Perhaps they are not quite such rebels as the Pluto Press, but they are commericial not academic. The author, in a word, is a rogue professor. Since this is the only kind of professor that ever produces anything of value, don't let this put you off.

P R O F E S S O R Bernal's thesis is that all the pother about the "glory that was Greece", the "cradle of European culture" the "fount of democracy" and the "hearth of science" is a gigantic humbug, invented less than two hundred y e a r s a g o , and d e v e l o p e d s y s -tematically to justify the wholesale robbery of the rest of the world by rapacious west-European imperialism. The country that is entitled to the credit the Greeks got, is Egypt. The Greeks t h e m s e l v e s a c k n o w l e d g e d t h e i r indebtedness. So did the rest of the world for nearly two millenia. Then recognition was withdrawn from them. And at a later stage the same happened to the Phoenicians.

The queston is why. The answer is for political reasons. Egypt is in Africa. Upper Egypt had close connections with Ethiopia the land of Prester John. It would be embarrassing to recognise such places as the heartland of western civilisation at a time when negroes were being tipped into the holds of coffin ships and hauled off to the plantations or when the "dark continent' was being carved up by the colonial powers and its inhabitants were being reduced to slavery in their own countries.

Civilisation had to be given an "Aryan" origin to justify Europe's exploitation of the world. So the contribution of the Phoenicians, whose language was almost identical with Hebrew, had to be sent the same way.

The process culminated in the anti-semitic excesses of Hitler Germany. By the same token the work of the Arab mathematicians and astronomers was

known only to specialists, and the average man can talk about Algol and Aldebaran unaware that the Arabs had named the stars.

T H I S worsh ip o f e v e r y t h i n g a p p e r t a i n i n g to a n c i e n t G r e e c e P r o f e s s o r Berna l c a l l s " H e l l e -nomania." And his quotations show again and again the sheer imperialistic chauvinism of much that passed for "science" until very recently indeed. The exponents of the Aryan myth spoke of Egyptians and Phoenicians much as such English historians a s Froude spoke of the Irish, selecting item:; favourable to their thesis and making sweeping g e n e r a l i s a t i o n s with an air o f infallibility.

In fact in the so-called humanities, scholarly impartiality never existed, does not exist and never will exist. Anything with political implications becomes a prey to political interests.

This is particularly so when a field b e c o m e s " p r o f e s s i o n a l i s e d " , a s archaeology became professionalised during the present century, and indeed as labour history and "Irish studies" are being professionalised before our very eyes.

A "received" wisdom establishes itself. It conforms to governmental requirements. It is kept in place by forces of patronage and snobbery. Professor Bernal tells of the difficulties he encountered in getting anti-hellenist books accepted in university libraries. They are not published under an academic colophon. They were not

IT must be ten years since I went to Tralee seeking the man who brought the message about Casement's landing to Liberty Hall

just before the Rising of 1916.

I said as I left that I hoped I hadn't forgotten to ask him something.

"Don't worry," said he, "give me a ring and I'll be in Dublin the next day." I mentioned expense but he told me he was an old age pensioner and could travel free on the railway.

Not being then a pensioner myself I hadn't given much thought to the subject. We most of us don't till it hits us. But I was interested in this evidence that social services in the Irish Republic are not as bad as they are cracked down to be.

Recently, when "Grey Power" got in touch with me, I went into the subject more fully and here are the results.

THERE is no mass organisation of pensioners in Ireland, so nothing comparable to "Grey Power". But the government publishes a useful brochure called "Entitlements for the Elderly" which lists the various pensions and other allowances.

Pensions take three forms, retirement pension, non-contributory Old Age Pension, and Contributory Old Age Pension. The retirement and contributory pensions carry no means test, but qualifying depends on having paid an appropriate number of social insurance contributions. The retirement and contributory personal rate is £53.45 over 65 and 66, and £57.10 over 80. The Irish pound is something over 90p, so the figure of £53.45 would be equal to about £48 sterling. The non-contributory pension is subject to a means test. The first £6 of personal income is ignored. But the pension cuts out when you have £48 coming in.

When considering Irish rates it is important to remember that Ireland has a more complicated

" p r o p e r b o o k s . " And e v e n a commercial publisher who has to look to his profits if he cares little about content, will hesitate to issue something he is advised does not "conform t o t h e c r i t e r i a o f m o d e r n scholarship." The book will not be reviewed. The paper will not be quoted. Any brief exiguous references will be accompanied by a sneer. Professor Bernal's book is not published by the Cornell University Press.

WHATEVER about that, he is man of immense learning, but with an eye for the essential fact. Reviewers had looked askance at his suggestion that the Egyptians colonised Greece and that half the vocabulary of the Greek language is non-Aryan. His authority for the former is Herodotus. I am not qualified to judge the latter. But I do recall reading in an English newspaper an account of an Italian philologist who explained the words, Aetolia, Italy, Anatolia, Atlas and Atlantic by suggesting that the letters t-l- came from an Akkadian root meaning to go down, that is to say the west. Professor Bernal remarks that Akkadian was the lingua franca of the mediterranean region in the second millenium. I tried to get that philologist's book. But highly qualified friends in Italy were unable to trace it. I wonder if the Akkadians are as unacceptable in Italy as the Egyptians in Britain, France and Germany!

Anyway, this is a thought-provoking book that is well worth reading.

C. D E S M O N D GREAVES

social structure than England. There is a large farming population, some members of which are very rich, others very poor. In neither case can their income be fully assessed in money terms.

Again people with farms may become employees during the winter. So for a retirement pension you need to have an average of 24 contributions a year. Also you must not be in full-time employment, though you may be self-employed or work for somebody else no more than 18 hours a week. Pensions moreover are graded in accordance with the number of contributions.

One gets the impression that while maximum rates are above those payable in Britain, they are not quite so easy to get. What this shows is not the generosity of the Republic, but the appalling miserliness of the British government.

WHEN one turns to perquisites the picture is brighter. The unlimited free rail travel has been mentioned. This applies also to bus services, and ferry services, the latter including a number of privately owned enterprises that have opted for the scheme. Wives and husbands who are not eligible in their own right may travel free when accompanying an eligible person. (An "adult dependant" of a person drawing a £53.45 pension gets £34.10, making £87.55 for. man and wife. This is about £80 sterling.)

But there are other benefits. Those aged 66 and over get a free allowance of electricity amounting to 300 units a month in winter and 200 in summer. They are also exempt from the standing charge. Those who are not connected to the power grid can get a free allowance on bottled gas.

Pensioners are allowed free black and white television without licence, but if they want colour they must pay the difference. Those with telephones who reach pensionable age pay no more rental charges provided they are living alone. If they decide to have a telephone installed they must pay for the installation themselves, but then they pay only for calls made.

There are two separate schemes for fuel benefits which are complicated and which govern-ments have been talking about simplifying for years but haven't got round to it. Broadly speaking they involve free fuel vouchers to the value of about £5 a week and can be used for any fuel.

SUCH in a very simplified summary form are the benefits available to Irish pensioners. The total cost to the state was £680,000,000 in 1985, and £710 million is budgeted for 1986.

While nobody would describe the pensioners as "on the pig's back", it is clear that levels of pensions cannot be used as an argument for maintaining the partition of Ireland. Some of the pensioners under the British system in Northern Ireland would lose out because of its comprehensiveness. But many would gain from the higher benefit levels.

The various medical benefits would of course have to be taken into account when assessing the

(Continued on page six) J

June 1987 IRISH DEMOCRAT Page Three

A REMINISCENCE OF PRITT I REMEMBER that day, though it must be thirty years ago. The Connolly Association found itself in a legal impasse. I rang up Ralph Millner, who had defended Eamonn Lyons when he was arrested for speaking at Arlington Road in Camden Town. He hadn ' t the answer but he said, "We' l l go and see D. N. Prit t ."

This was the impasse. Try as we could we could not get the g o v e r n m e n t t o a d m i t a n y responsibility fo r what was going on in the six counties.

We wrote abou t the B-men. " T h a t is a mat ter for the g o v e r n m e n t o f N o r t h e r n Ire land." We gave evidence of discrimination against Catholics. Tha t also was a mat ter for the

fovernment of Northern Ireland. 'riendly MPs asked questions. "It

A PLAQUE has been unveiled in Hammersmith to commemorate the great democratic lawyer D. N. Pritt, who defended political rebels both in Britain and the colonies.

The plaque was unveiled by the Mayor of Hammersmith, Cllr. Joan Caruana, in the

presence of C.L.P. Chairman Danny Harris, John Platts Mills Q.C., Michael Elliott, M.E.P., Jean Massey and Hammie O'Donohue.

WIFE IN USA D U R I N G her recent visit to the

United States, Mrs Catherine Mcllkenny, wife of Birmingham Six prisoner Richard Mcllkenny testified before the congressional ad hoc committee on Ireland, chaired by Congressman Mario Biaggi. The committee pledged to sent at least one congressman as an observer to the Appeal Court hearing in November.

She spoke at a demonstrat ion outside the British consulate in New York, and gave interviews issued by newspapers, radio, television and cable.

The Massachusetts House of Representatives presented her with a unanimous citation in recognition of her efforts for justice and freedom.

Effor ts are being made to secure the attendance of a number of distinguished observers when the c a s e o p e n s . T h o s e so f a r commit ted include the Committee for Legal justice and Frank MacManus former Fermanagh M P . The prisoners ' barristers include Lord Gif ford , former Unionist MP Mr Ferguson, and M r Michael Mansfield.

would not be proper f o r H M G to intervene." Indeed pressed hard on the mat ter they said they had no power .

One Member of Parl iament, since enobled, assured us that the Government of Ireland Act conferred as much independence as the Canada Act, and was quite hurt when I pointed ou t that the British had troops in Ireland but not in Canada .

It was at that point that I went to the stationery office fo r a copy of the Government of Ireland Act.

'They hadn ' t got one, bu t advised me to write as there might be an odd copy knocking abou t . I wrote and they found one — the last copy.

And there I found section 75, reserving to the British Parliament author i ty over every person and thing in the six counties. So how could H M G say they had no power? It was this we wanted Pritt to resolve.

O D D L Y enough, and it shows how the facts of the mat te r had been hushed up, he also quoted the British North American Act. I mentioned section 75. "Very well, we'll look at i t ." He sent for his clerk w h o took the tallest ladder that was ever seen and climbed to the very top shelf, then came down for a duster , finally bringing down the bound volume of British statutes.

" H a ! " he exclaimed. " W h a t d i d you say they've been telling you? That the government has no power to intervene?"

AMBASSADOR VISITS CORK T H E benefits of neutrality were i l l u s t r a t e d when the Sovie t Ambassador to Ireland recently visited Cork City. Mr G. Uranov was accompanied by the cultural a t tache Mr Dmitri Molotsov. They were received at the City Hall by the Lord Mayor Gerry O'Sullivan.

The Mayor told the visitors that Cork had considerable economic links with the USSR, and that Sunbeam, a majof employer , and one of the few industries left, had huge export orders to Russia. This was very impor tan t for local employment.

The subject of extending sport ing and cultural links was discussed, and the possibility of Cork being twinned with Kiev was referred to.

A Soviet team of athletes would be at tending the Cork City sports this year. The Munster playwright John B. Keane's play "The Field" is one of several Abbey Theatre product ions being considered for a prestigious run in Moscow, and leading Soviet actors are to visit Ireland following on the massive success of the Bolshoi Ballet in Dublin last year.

T H E Mayor pointed out that Cork children had given a lead in

from

JIM SAVAGE their 'peace project ' with the Soviet Union. Pupils a t Togher Nat ional School have "joined h a n d s " with pupils in the USSR and are interchanging letters.

The ambassador , w h o toured the city, visiting the Sunbeam factory, said that trade between Ireland and the Soviet Union was "ba l anced" but it could be increased. He was very conscieous of the importance of Cork as a port that was used by Soviet shipping.

Reference was made to the County Councils £38 million development at Ringaskiddy, and the possibility that this so far unprof i table venture might by rescued through Soviet t rade.

W h i l e in t h e C i t y t h e ambassador cut the tape and declared ope n the new bookshop "New B o o k s " run by the C P I at 2 French Church Strefct. H e was accompanied by Mr Michael O 'Riordan . Rapid expansion in the par ty ' s influence has led to shops being opened in several provincial centres.

"Exactly t ha t . " "Well they haven ' t . The act

doesn ' t say government . It says Parliament, and Parliament can intervene whenever it likes in • whatever way it l ikes."

He became quite enthusiastic. "Let me see now. An MP wants Parliament to intervene. He asks 'What do I do?' and they say 'go and find out, ' so he tries a motion. Or of course if you decide what you want you can d ra f t a bill."

He began thinking of sitting members who might act. I've forgotten what he called whom. There was 'Hhat rat abc" and " tha t ass xyz" and I well r e m e m b e r " S i r N o - g o o d Thomas . " He had no opinion of his former colleagues.

Anyway, as a result of his advice we completely revised our tactics in relation to Parliament. A n d t h e c l a i m t h a t t h e government had n o recourse (it could act though Parliament) was revised. T h e r e was a "convent ion" that it did not do so.

* H o w much that convention was worth when it was established that the six county government had contravened the 1920 act by raising an armed force was shown a decade or so later. The required legislation went th rough in hours.

Pritt was very much to the " l e f t " of the Labou r Party. He was thrown out in 1940 for refusing to suppor t Chamber-lain's attempt to switch the war against Hitler into one against Russian. Yes, that happened and the Labour Executive supported i t . H e s t o o d a g a i n f o r Hammersmith Nor th as an independent, and was returned with a substantial major i ty . But in 1950 he lost the seat. I helped him in that election, runn ing round the constituency with a loudspeaker with Commander Young. The House of Commons lost one of its few independent intellects. But few missed him. They weren't his size.

C D G

SUSTENTATION FUND THERE is no list of ack-nowledgements this month.

This is because we are going on to a new system, based on the calendar month. Hiis will enable us to keep better track of our finances. The donations received during the month of May will be acknow-ledged in the July issue.

This would seem an appropriate time to announce our forthcoming appeal for funds. We estimate we will need £1,000 to finance the national conference in London on October 24th. The sum of £2,000 will be the minimum requirment for the publication of the Connolly Association's history. And though we hope the events in jubilee year will mostly pay for themselves, we think that at a conservative estimate we'll need £2,000 to lay out.

So we're looking for £5,000 in addition to what we raise normally. This means we have to launch a special jubilee fund, and donations are invited now. If you want your donation to go into this special development fund, mark your letter "jubilee fund."

At the moment the Association has no full-time organiser and the secretary is carrying on as best he can, thanks to A e efforts of voluntary helpers. But we'll need an organiser by the end of the year, and anybody who wants a rotten job (but an interesting job) should start thinking about it now.

D. N. PRITT, QC

CA JUBILEE F O L L O W I N G its most successful conference for many years with eleven branches represented, the Connolly Association announces its preparations for its jubilee year in 1988.

The Association was founded on September 4th, 1938, and the first issue of the Irish Democrat , then called Irish Freedom, was published in Januarv 1939.

During the course of 1988 it is j hoped to publish the History of the Association that Mr Anthony Coughlan has been working on for over ten years and promises the manuscript of by January 1st, 1988.

It is hoped to put on some special event each month , and ideas put forward include a youth festival and the performance of James Connolly's play "Under which f lag" recently staged successfully in New York.

The Connolly Association has n o t b e e n a f f e c t e d by t h e widespread demoralisation that has afflicted the British " l e f t " and its membership has been slowly but steadily increasing. New branches have been started in Not t ingham and Glasgow, and Glasgow is carrying on thanks to the initiative of Ellen Mitchell, despite the terrible blow of the premature death of Margaret Byrne.

T H E members of the Executive Counci l elected at the conference are as fo l lows:

Michael Barry ( S W L ) , Patrick Bond, M . A . (SEL), John Boyd (WL) Patrick Byrne (SEL), Flann Campbell M . A . , Ph .D. (CL), Ciaran Corcoran ( E L ) , M i c h a e l C r o w e M . A . (Newcast le) , Derek O'Flaherty , B. A. (CL), Joseph O'Grady (Liverpool) , G e r a r d C u r r a n ( W L ) , T o n y D o n a g h e y (CL), D e s m o n d Greaves, B.Sc. (Liverpool) , Josephine Logan, M . A . (Nott ingham), Ellen Mitchell, M . A . (Glasgow) , Peter Mulligan (Northampton) , Martin Moriarty, B.A. (CL), Pat O' D o n o h o e (WL), Jane Tate (CL).

Members and friends w h o have leaflets, posters, letters etc. likely to be suitable for an exhibit ion of the Assoc ia t ion ' s history are invited to not i fy the secretary at 2 4 4 / 2 4 6 Grays Inn Road , London, W.C. I . A l s o ideas and suggest ions on h o w to celebrate the Associat ion's jubilee will be given careful consideration by the Standing Commit tee .

STATE Sponsored Murder — "My local brigade would arrange for soldiers to be waiting, for example, on our side of the border, and a team would go across, sometimes Ulster Volunteer Force people or Ulster Freedom Fighters who were being used by the army and by the police, the Special Branch in the North, and they would try to kidnap the chap and bring him across to the North. In other cases there were murders carried out." Captain Fred Holroyd, former British Army Intelligence officer.

MYTH OF RUSSIAN THREAT

AS the negotiations between the USA and the USSR on getting rid of some nuclear weapons make progress, Mrs Thatcher and the Tories have shown how terrified they are of a nuclear weapon-free Europe and a possible halt to the Arms Race.

Ever since the Reykjavik summit when such steps, because of Mr Gorbachov's initiatives, became likely Mrs Thatcher has (electoral window-dressing apart) conducted an all-out campaign to retain nuclear weapons.

As her case is thin on logic, she has become more than economical with the truth in a desperate attempt to stem the anti-nuclear tide.

In the House of Commons, after her visit to Moscow, she resorted to a hoary old myth. She said: "I made it clear to Mr Gorbachev that the United Kingdom would rot be prepared to accept the de-nuciearisation of Europe, which would leave us dangerously exposed to Soviet superiority in conventional and other forces."

T H I S is just not true. The Warsaw Pact countries do not have a massive advantage in conventional forces over NATO.

The U . S . Congressional Research S e r v i c e e s t i m a t e s that N A T O ' s military spending is about 25% higher than that of Warsaw Pact countries.

N A T O has 2'/2 times as many major surface ships as the Warsaw Pact. This superiority is increasing because of the top priority given to the U.S . Navy in President Reagan's arms drive.

BY BOB WYNN

The International Institute of Strategic Studies (London) says that NATO has slightly more ground forces — 3 million soldiers in place plus 5.4 million reserves — than Warsaw Pact countries which have 2.8 million soldiers in place plus 5.1 million reserves. I ISS figures show that NATO has 803 ,000 soldiers in place in West Germany, Belgium and Holland, and 246,000 troops in France, facing 998,000 Warswa Pact soldiers in East Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia.

Warsaw Pact forces can muster a superiority in tanks, they have 67,000, facing NATO's 32,000 and China's 10,000. But this advantage is being e r o d e d . N A T O c o u n t r i e s have improved their anti-tank defences, and new N A T O tanks are believed to be considerably superior to their much older Soviet equivalents. Even though numerically superior, Soviet tank forces face a powerful opposition.

N A T O has according to the IISS about 11,000 combat aircraft, roughly the same figure as Warsaw Pact forces. NATO said in 1984: "To a considerable degree N A T O air forces maintain a high state of readiness and are qualitatively superior to those of the Warsaw Pact."

What does this situation of rough equality between East and West mean? In 1986, the Pentagon admitted that, out of the 20 most important areas of military technology, the USA was superior in 14, the U S and the USSR were equal in six and the USSR was ahead in N O N E .

According to the independent S t o c k h o l m I n t e r n a t i o n a l P e a c e Research Institute the military gap between East and West is widening, as the NATO military budget is now about twice as great as that of the Warsaw P a c t , s u g g e s t i n g a c o n s i d e r a b l y military Western advantage.

It is time to nail the lies about Russian military superiority over the West before they become one of the major obstacles in the public's mind to world nuclear disarmament.

'Mr Wynn 1% active in the Campaign for Mucfoar Disarmament.

Page Four IRISH DEMOCRAT June 1987

Trade Unionists Hlli not send to the Four Provinces Bookshop for a supply of John Boyd's pamphlet, "The murder of British Industry" to distribute to your members or sell at branch or committee meetings? Ring 051-833-3022 for particulars of special quantity terms. This pamphlet has been warmly praised by people who know, hut it needs to be got into the hands of those who work (or want to work) in industry.

MASSACRE

LETTER BELFAST WALLS

B E L F A S T is fast becoming a city with walls criss-crossing d i f ferent areas erected to keep communi t i e s apar t . Walls now exist in West, East and Nor th Belfast. The most in famous one, being that obscenity between the Shankhi l l and Falls Roads , erected to divide the working class people and keep them apar t .

Similar walls in the f o r m of large monstrosi t ies of steel gates and fencing separate the people of the New Lodge Road and Dunca i rn Gardens areas of N. Belfast. The most recent wall to be erected in Nor th Belfast was a 450ft long barrier between the two ne ighbourhoods of O ldpa rk Avenue and the Torrens drive of the C'liftonville Road.

T he construct ion of this mis-named "sectar ian peaceline" cost someth ing m the region of £100,000, to keep apart two fairly small communit ies . Responsibility for the bui ld ing of this wall is that of the Hous ing Executive :>n the instruction of the Dep t . of the I nv i ronment . The wall, which has all the hal lmarks of a pe rmanen t division b e t w e e n w o r k i n g c l a s s p e o p l e replaced an old cor ruga ted iron and wire m e s h / b a r b e d wire "peace l ine" , which had been erected by the armv.

Now ano ther mons t ros i ty is to be thrust on the people of Nor th Belfast, in M a n o r Street, lower Cl i f ton-v i l l e /Oldpark , to be precise. Once again the two communi t ies a re to be forcefully kept apar t , by a built up barr ier of division, in a w o r k i n g class area w ith t radi t ions and h is tory going back several generat ions.

IN this case "The B o n e " on the Oldpark road — was closed in on two sides, with very much reduced access, lu r ther down the Oldpark r o a d an industr ial and development a rea has been erected in the past few years . In this recent "Barr ier of D iv i s ion" in M a n o r Street, there should be some fo rm of investigation as to h o w this latest plan of division was a r r ived at. W h o was consulted, w hose views were sought and taken into cons idera t ion , and who made the actual decision to build the wall. Also to seek out on what g rounds do the R . U . C . and British Army act on, in giving their advice to the erection of the walls of division within the work ing class areas of Belfast.

T h e H o u s i n g E x e c u t i v e a r e showing concern about the spending of public funds on the bu i ld ing of walls, and so they should, a n d so are we

it would serve the Hous ing Executive better to consider spend ing this money on some fo rms o f s tudy and surveys which would he lp to improve communi ty re la t ions and break d o w n the barriers ins tead of erecting walls to keep people apar t . All this money would go a long way in p roduc ing some forms of social and c o m m u n a l pursui ts in the deeply deprived and socially s tagnant j>art of Nor th Belfast, with unemploymen t and poverty above the na t iona l average.

THE election campaign has diverted attention from one of the most barbarous outrages ever committed in the six counties.

When early in May it was announced that S.A.S. soldiers had been sent to the troubled area nobody thought much about it. But the reason emerged later.

It seems that in some way the security forces got wind of a proposed raid on Loughgall R.U.C. barracks.

Now nobody would be aggrieved if they tried to prevent such an attack and arrest those responsible. People who go out to attack police barracks are liable to attract interference from the security forces, just as governments who occupy areas of other people's countries are liable to stir up resistance movements. There is no reason for thinking such a position desirable, but it happens all over the world.

But what took place on May 8th does not have the appearance of an attempt to prevent an offence. On the face of it one would suspect that it was decided to let the offence be committed, but to ambush the participants and shoot them dead.

LOUGHALL R.U.C. barracks is a small one only open for two hours in the morning and two in the evening. At 7.15pm the raiders appeared, at the head a JCB digger with a bomb in its barrow. This contained a driver and two armed men. A blue van fo l lowed containing five men including Patrick Kelly the I.R.A. Brigade commander.

The JCB digger opened fire on the station. At this time the S.A.S. men were crouching on the other side of the road. They allowed the bomb to be detonated from inside the van. Then they opened fire. Local people two hundred yards up the road heard a fusillade of literally dozens of shots. Three men died inside the van and two while positioned at the back door of the van. According to the "Irish Times" two more were killed while trying to escape. "Shot while attempting to escape." How many times did we hear that from the Nazis.

Some sources said that in addition to any other wounds all eight were shot in the head, that is to say finished off. The authorities say that though an inquest will be

held, it will not be held for a "considerable time."

NO care seems to have been taken to protect the public. Mr Anthony Hughes was driving home from Belfast to Caledon with his brother Frank. His white Citroen came within 130 yards of the barracks when it was engulfed in a hail of shots. Anthony was hit several times in the head and died in hospital. His brother was detained in hospital in a serious condition, having been wounded in the head by shots from a high velocity rifle.

Two hundred and fifty yards from the station a mother dragged her children into the cover of a church hall as bullets smashed the windows of a Ford Sierra. Bullet shells were subsequently found near the car.

Obviously these events cry out for a public enquiry. But before the subject was even touched upon, the Unionist leaders and Sir Eldon Griffiths, a Conservative MP, said

to be the "representative of the British police Federat ions", declared that on no account should there be an enquiry into the event. One said there must be "no enquiry into why terrorists get their just rewards."

MUST there be no enquiry also into how an innocent motorist was shot dead in his own car, and his brother seriously injured?

It is hoped that the British public will insist that certain questions are answered. On whose authority was the whole operation mounted? Was Mrs Thatcher consulted, and if not why not? Were the S.A.S. men who carried out the killings the men whose despatch to the six counties was announced a few days previous?

Were any precautions taken to avoid injury to innocent civilians, and if there were how is it that they proved ineffective? Finally was this in effect simply a bloody reprisal for the killing of the judge?

International Nationalism IT HAS been said of the Irish that "they are most international when they are most truly national." That saying has been proved right again. Maire Comerford, Sir Henry Esmonde's niece used to visit him at the House of Commons. It was there that she realised that the Irish question was not some small parochial dispute on the edge of Europe, but an international struggle of world significance.

So it has proved again in the campaign against the Single European Act. There was much interference from the EEC itself. Commissioner Peter Sutherland (the name is not French or German) took it upon himself to visit Irish newspapers to persuade them to slant material in favour of "Yes". As a result in one issue a paper had 160 square inches stating the arguments for a "yes" vote and only four for a "no".

The discredited Dr Mansholt appeared on the scene. A few years ago he said the Common Market was not working and never would. But he must have been re-converted.

ON THE other hand there was international support for the "no"

lobby. Petra Kelly the famous German 'green' came to Dublin, and cash was raised by anti-Market groups in Denmark.

The British Housewives' League is cons'4utionalIy debarred from making donations out of its own funds, to other organisations but, John Boyd reports, they had a whip round at one of their committee meetings and raised £350. The League stands for withdrawing Britain from the EEC.

Mr Boyd also told the Irish Democrat that another anti-EEC group with which he maintains connections, the "British Anti-Common Market Campaign" voted £1,000. Both of these organisations are non-political in the usual sense of the word, but they saw the case for supporting a campaign for nationality that drew support across the spectrum from Sinn Fein to the Bishop of Limerick. That is what there should be in Britain.

FEWER THAN ONE IN THREE VOTED YES from page one

It is surely a very sad reflection of those in power in that the only solution which they can come up with, for social and communal problems, is to make the divisions more permanent and lasting. "What price the 'Berlin Wall'?

Denis Smyth Belfast.

— is part of the same picture. People know there is something wrong. Unemployment is at record levels. The government is implementing savage cuts in social expenditure. Kites are being flown as t o t h e p r i v a t i s i n g of nationalised industries. Wage increases are being determinedly resisted, while the main burden of taxation is borne by the wage-earners.

These people who are calling for the ratification of the S.E.A. never s top talking about the "benef i t s" of EEC membership. But these "benefi ts" have been in operat ion for years, years during which these same gentlemen have been at the helm of national affairs, and then they have the brass neck to invite the public to make sacrifices because the country is in such a bad way. If it is in such a bad way, who got it there, and why should the people go for more of the same medicine?

People stayed at home because there was no answe. to this quest ion, and there was no alternative government able to lead in a different direction. And the cowardly visionless men who lead the Labour Party, who should be offering the alternative, do not even make the effort to unders tand the situation.

Break-up T w o correspondents writing to

the "Ir ish Democra t " one from Belfast, the other f r o m Dublin, have asked "Does this mean the beginning of the break-up of F ianna Fail?" The history of the past few months prompts such questions. Mr Haughey last year c o n d e m n e d the A n g l o - I r i s h agreement. Now he supports it. He opposed the Single European Act. Now he supports it. He had the opportuni ty to govern by the goodwill of Mr Tony Gregory. He refused to pay the price. He chose

to govern by grace and favour of Fine Gael . This is a recipe for ruin.

James Connolly was fond of quoting McCracken's d ic tum that " the rich always betray the poor" . This was seen in 1798. It was seen in 1914 and again in 1921. And itis happening today before ou r eyes. The E E C guarantees a life of wealth and ease to those who lie in the a rms of the international bankers. Rather than risk this an Irish Taoiseach goes to the U.S.A. and the sole concession he can get is to ship a few more thousands of his c o u n t r y m e n a c r o s s the Atlantic.

It is in this overall s i tuat ion that the immensely strong and active " n o " lobby may possibly be seen as marking the first signs of a radical alternative, an alliance of l a b o u r , d e m o c r a t i c a n d republican forces which could fight the nineteen thirties over again with better effect.

LONDON A T 7.30pm on Thursday July

2nd at the Irish Centre, Murrey Street, Camden Square, London NW1, Mrs Margaret Gralton f rom Drumsna County Leitrim Ireland, will give a talk on the life and times of her cousin, Jimmy Gral ton , who was deported f r o m his native land to the U.S.A. In 1933, because he was a Connolly supporter , a marxist and a co-operative organiser.

In this talk Margaret will examine the historical events surrounding the South Leitrim Soviet, Gral ton 's depor ta t ion in 1933, the consequences fo r the small farming communi ty of South Leitrim, and the resulting mass emigration that followed. Margaret Gra l ton , who is an OAP, is a well known personali ty on the Connaught Inter Town ' s quiz programme, Mrs Gra l ton has made frequent appearances on T V and on radio. She has recently helped in the making of a Scandinavian film centred on the life and times of The Leitrim small farmers.

This talk is par t of a series of historical talks and lectures promoted by the Irish in Britain History Group, who are at present fighting for continued funding for their work of recording and collating the history of the Irish in Britain.

Fur ther informat ion on the Gra l ton affair may be purchased f rom The Four Provinces book-shop, 244-246, Grays Inn Road, London NW1, and there will be a book stall in a t tendance on the night of the lecture where many other books of historical interest, plus a selection of poems, plays and fiction will be on sale.

For fur ther informat ion please contact:- Doris M. Daly on 607-8250.

LIVERPOOL MEASURES are being taken by the Liverpool branch of the Connolly Association to revive the campaign for the release of the Guildford four and the Birmingham six, andfor the rehabilitation of the Maguire family.

Since the announcement that the Birmingham prisoners have been allowed to appeal, there has been a slackening of the tempo in this campaign, and the gathering of signatures to the petition has been allowed to fall o f f .

As part of this effort the Association held a public meeting on Saturday May 30th, which was addressed by Mrs Anne Maguire and other members of her family. It was held in the Haigh building, the Liverpool Polytechnic students union.

The branch A.G.M. is scheduled for June 24th at the AUEW rooms in Mount Pleasant.

At its meeting on May 27th the branch discussed plans for the Association's jubilee year. This will it is hoped include a celebratory dinner which it is hoped that many old members will attend.

Readers of the Irish Democrat are invited to send in information as to their whereabouts. We can make contact with people like Kath MacLaughlin, but are any of the Carroll family still about? It was Madge Carroll who was largely instrumental in starting the

(Continued on page six)

J u n e 1 9 0 7 IRISH DEMOCRAT Page Five

LAGAN LIGHTS BY S, ODIOCHON

LOUGHGALL MASSACRE "THE fools, the fools they have left us our Fenian dead" exclaimed Padraig Pearse over the coffin of the Fenian "terrorist" O'Donovan Rossa in 1913. Pearse was aware that the folk memory of the Irish was a significant factor in the long struggle for national independence against British rule. Despite the anti-national brainwashing that has flooded the country since the advent of the transnational economy, the EEC and latterly the Anglo-Irish Agreement the republican folk memory is very much alive and evident at the present time.

When Britain's covert SAS set up their ambush at Loughgall police station in County Armagh last month it was for them a ware game in which they pitted their tactics of legal terrorism against those of the IRA. Without injury to themselves they unleashed an enormous fire-power and killed the eight IRA men involved in the attack on the barracks. The only complication to mar what Neil Kinnock imperialistically called their "victory against violence" was that in the process they murdered Anthony Hughes and seriously injured his brother Oliver when they happened to be passing in their car and innocently found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.

PRESUMBLY those responsible for organising a slaughter of this nature would give some thought to its afermath and its political consequences. Was Tom King a party to this planned shoot-to-kill operation? Was it carried out to appease the Unionists or as a quid pro quo for the killing of Justice Gibson and his wife? Is the British Army now entitled to act as judge, jury and executioner? These and other questions which arise will not be resolved in a cosy get-together by the consenting partners in the Anglo-Irish Conference. It was significant that on the day after the' massacre the Unionists and the Police Federation in London and Belfast demanded that there should be no public inquiry into the events, even before anyone made such a request. Obviously there will have to be a public scrutiny. But who will be the scrutineers? There was no bomb-loaded JCB heading the peaceful and well-stewarded Derry demonstration in 1972 when the British Army shot dead thirteen of our people. Yet the subsequent Widgery inquiry whitewashed the Army and judged the killers to be blameless.

Whatever consideration the British Army Command and the politicians involved, gave to the probable reaction of public opinion to the ambush it is certain that its effect on the republican folk memory of the Irish would have been the farthest thing from their thoughts. The Bourbons never learn. Yet to date it is this gut reaction, fuelled by past memory, that has dominated the political

aftermath. Fr Denis Faul, that inveterate opponent of the IRA military campaign, put his finger on it when he said "as much as you condemn the IRA the sight of an English soldier shooting an Irishman in Ireland produces a gut reation". The large crowds, that accompanied the IRA men to their various graves, were not only responding to the immediate issue but also to the republican tradition of past generations.

SINCE the root cause of these tragic events is the British presence in Ireland, the SDLP and the Dublin government, who have been collaborating with that presence t h r o u g h the A n g l o - I r i s h Agreement, have been marginalised and rendered inneffectual for the t ime b e i n g . T h a t c h e r and Fitzgerald both stated that the main aim of the Hillsborough Pact was to destroy the IRA. When the SAS wiped out the eight IRA men they were contributing to that objective. The SDLP and the Dublin government were caught in the contradictions of their past policies which prevented them from identifying with the feeling of revulsion that swept through the Nationalist population at the Loughgall killings. The SDLP, mainly through the statements of Seamas Mallon, hummed and hawed with feeble reservations. The Fianna Fail government, having inherited and reaffirmed the Anglo-Irish Pact, followed the logic of that Agreement and gave their support to the Brits.

If De Yalera, the founder of Fianna Fail, was influenced by looking into the heart and mind of the Irish people that certainly cannot be applied to his present s u c c e s s o r s . T h e y are t o o preoccupied with the EEC and The SEA and with fixing and juggling the national finance to satisfy the dictates of the international bankers. It is part of that process that they are now entrapped as collaborators in the unholy political mess that is Britain's colony in Ireland. In truth thay can no longer lay claim to the republicanism of their founder and at the same time they have strengthened the Provisionals' claim to be the inheritors of Irish republicanism and defenders of the Nationalists withing the Six Counties.

H o w e v e r r e p u b l i c a n fo lk memory is still strong in the grass roots of the Fianna Fail party. It may be that the leadership will pay dearly for its insensitive neglect of the feelings of the Northern Nationalists during this period. It is conceivable that future historians will record that Loughgall J s notable, not only as the birthplace of the Orange Order in 1795, but that in 1987 it was the Loughgall massacre that triggered off the decline of Fianna Fail from its position as the largest political party in Ireland, because of its pro-British stance and its betrayal of the Northern Nationalists.

CRACK SHOTS- Dona// Kennedy

ENQUIRY COUPON Please send me particulars of membership of the Connolly Association

N a m e

Address

Cut out and post to: CONNOLLY ASSOCIATION,

244/246 Grays Inn Road, London WC1

ON HEARING that a certain fellow had blown out his brains with a pistol, the late Noel Coward observed that he must've been a crack shot. If some Editorial pundits wish to repeat the exercise they'd be best advised to use shotguns. Two prize examples of the type can be found at the supposedly intellectual ends of London and Dublin journalism.

London's Observer celebrated the cession of Dr FitzGerald's leadership with the Editorial "Garret's Legacy." We are asked to believe that this includes Mr Haughey's adoption of the principle that there can be, no change to Northern Ireland's status until "a majority of Unionists" there want it. So much for Democracy and equality under the law! Not a majority of voters in the gerrymandered enclave. We can't even be sure whether that "principle" hinges on today's Unionist ratio being halved, fi r so [ong as there is but one Unionist in the statelet, by definition he/she will be both a "majority of Unionists" and against separation from Great Britain.

I'm not being facetious or over-pedantic here. Unionist criteria of "democracy" are notoriously fickle. Once they demanded an English refer-endum on Home Rule and shied away from an Ulster one. Then English voters were believed to be pro-Unionist and Ulster

voters had (in two elections in 1910) returned 17 Nationalists to 16 Unionists and, turn, turn-about, 17 Unionists to 16 Nationalists. The Nationalists even polled more votes in Ulster in one of those elections, and the then Liberal, Winston Churchill, taunted Carson with being "leader of the half-Ulster." There's no call from Unionists

for an English referendum today, and when they use the term "Ulster" they are short-changing you. I suspect too that when "The Observer" speaks of "principle" it is, not through malice, but from long-ingrained stupidity, short-changing its readers. But it has its match in Dublin.

TAKING issue with a recent Sinn Fein document, "Scenario for Peace," on May 3 Dublin's Sunday Tribune dismissed part of it as "kind of rhetorical junk which bedevils so much of political discussion in this country." "This country," in Tribune-speak may mean Ireland. Then again it may not, for Ireland is later described as "the island" and is inhabited by" Nationalists and Unionists. The latter may (or may not?) be embraced by the term "Irish people" (who may or may not include Unionists) have rights. Three of these rights are spelled out by the Sunday Tribune:- "If a majority of the Irish people decide to abandon sovereignty entirely and forget about unity and forsake independence, then they are absolutely free to do so."

There's no arguing that, for who would wish to stop them! The Sunday Tribune does not claim mey d*" "absolutely free" o do the opposuWhen Henry Ford offered any colour you like so long as it's black he gave the public more freedom than yer man claims for the Irish, as Ford had his competitors in the car business. For eight bloody centuries Irishmen and women have been absolutely free in the sense the Sunday Tribune understands the term, for the power of the English State has stood between them and any other type of

freedom.

The Sunday Tribune finds fault too with Sinn Fein's recognition of most Britons' wish to be shut of Ireland. They tell us that Britain is only discharging her duty to the Unionist majority in the statelet she herself created. (Not long back the alibi was that the Brits were protecting the Nation-alists). If the British Parliament were that sensitive to local opinion, London would still have the GLC. Like many political illiterates, the Sunday Tribune ignores the fact that sovereignty in the UK is not vested in the mass of the people, but in Parliament, where all, but the two SDLP members, are in Unionist parties. Nor is the fact that British politicians hold the Six Counties for their own strategic ends given a mention. The Six Counties are part of their scenario for global war.

LEGAL TYPHOON ROCKS FIJI

F I J I used to be inhabited by Melanesians. The British stole their country off them, decided to g row sugar cane in it, and brought in I n d i a n s t o w o r k t h e plantat ions.

Af ter four generations in Fiji the Indians became a majority, but before this happened Britain granted the country independence and a "democratic const i tut ion."

All went well until 1987. Then the Indians used their majority posit ion to vote in a Labour government. All might have gone on going well until . . . the new democratically elected govern-ment did the unexpected. It declared Fiji non-aligned and refused to have nuclear shipping in its ports.

Within days the American CIA acted. A military coup took place, The elected government was o v e r t h r o w n . T h e g o v e r n o r -general , representative of the queen of England, declared the c o u p illegal . . . and proceeded to cook up a conspiracy with the rebels by which they had the running of the country until a new consti tut ion was imposed which would gerrymander them to power at the next election.

No t a word of protest f rom Mrs Thatcher . So was she in the plot, or was it another Grenada when the USA just landed and took over their "al ly 's" colony? ^

N o w there's g r e a ^ t f i l g o f how unfa i r it is to put the Fiji natives under an Indian majori ty. But it 's not unfair to put the Irish under a Unionist majority even though the

DROCHTHORADH BA thruamhealach an staid agus

an cuma a bhi ar Bhothar na bhFdl i mBealfeirste ar na laethe indhiaidh an air uafasaigh a rinne an S.A.S. ag Loch gCal i gCo Ard Macha. Thainig na daoine amach, a mbunas uile in a n-dganaigh. Thog siad cireib agus rinne siad scrios ar an bhothar lena gcuidfeirge a ligint amach. Cuireadh busannai agus leorithe tri thine, leagadh na cuailli lampa agus togadh baracaidi ina gconstaic trasnu an bhothair. Ce go bhfuil se furust a thuigsint cad chuige tharla se niorbh e sin an doigh a b'fhearr lena mishasacht a chur in iul taobh istoigh ina nghetto fein. Is boichte an t-ean a shalaionn a nead fein.

Bhi sceal beag ag iriseoir eigin a leirigh go grinn meon tintri an cheantair seo ag an am. Chuir an nuachtoir seo cleite comhra ar ghasur beag a raibh buideal bainne folamh, agus cifleog ag gobadh anuas as i ngreim Idimhe amhdin aige, agus pilear plaisteach sa Idimh eile. Thairg an malrach an pilear don iriseoir ar luach puint. Nuair a cuireadh ceist air ceard a dheanfadh se leis an airgead ba e an

ancestors of the Unionists were planted like the Fiji Indians. And it 's not unfair to deprive the Irish major i ty of the right to rule the whole of their country.

It seems to depend less on majorit ies than on the attitude to nuclear weapons and American hegemony. And, come to think of it, the Tories are currently hushing u p their plot to have a coup in B r i t a i n a n d u n s e a t H a r o l d Wilson.

freagra a thug se go mbeadh se ndan a chuid fein de jfheitreal a cheannacht. Nach miofar e an toradh a fhasann as rialu Shasana.

STRIP SEARCHING W E are involved in organising a

d e m o n s t r a t i o n a g a i n s t s t r ip -searches that will take place in Durham on June 13th. 1 enclose some leaflets for you. We hope that you will want to support us. We consider strip-searching of republican women prisoners in Maghaberry jail and now Durham jail to be examples of state violence and racist violence to women, and we want to unite with as manygroupsas possible on that basis.

If you would like to support the demonstration there are many things you can do. We are asking all groups and individuals to write greetings to the women prisoners on that day. We are desperately short of money so please would you ask your group, and any other groups who would wish to show support , to sponser us. If you would like to publicize the event in any mailings you are doing, or at any events you go to, please just let us know that you need leaflets, and we will be glad of your support .

Please spread word about the demonstration to as many other people that might be interested,as you can.

WENDY P E A R M A N , ( S t o p t h e S t r i p S e a r c h e s Campaign, 52-54 Featherstone

Street, London EC1).

P a g e Six IRISH DEMOCRAT

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BAND Chorus:

Her eyes they shine like D i a m o n d s You would th ink she was queen of the

land With her hair thrown over her

shoulder Tied up with a black ribbon band In Tralee in the sweet County Kerry An apprentice to trade I was b o u n d With plenty of light amusement For to see the day g o 'round Then misfortune and ruin c a m e o'er

me Which caused me to stray f rom my

land Far away from my friends a n d

relations T o fo l low the black ribbon band

As I went walking down Broadway Not intending to stay very long I met with a f icklesome damsel As she came tripping a long A watch she pulled out of her pocket And slipped it right into my hand On the very first day that I met her Bad luck to her black ribbon band 'Fore judge and jury next morn ing Both of us did appear And a gent leman craved the jury A n d the case against us was clear For seven years transportation Right d o w n to Van Diemen's land Far away from my friends and

c o m p a n i o n s T o fo l low the black ribbon band

C o m e all ye young Irish fe l lows A warning take by me Beware of those f icklesome damsels That are lurking around in Tralee They'll treat y o u to whiskey a n d

porter Until you're not able to stand A n d before you've had time for to

leave them You'll end up in Van Diemen's land

June 1987

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W i l l N first we h e a r d M c D a d e h a d died o u r hi ar ts wi th so r row fi l led We were six g o o d f r iends in B i r m i n g h a m — G e r r y H u n t e r , P a d d y Hi l l ,

M c l l k e n n y a n d Bill Power , J o h n Walke r , C a l l a g h a n , And respect to pay o u r b o y h o o d d a y s was the i nnocence of o u r p l an , Wc were family men of I re land w h o h a d left ou r c o u n t r y dea r , T o settle d o w n in B i r m i n g h a m in the M i d l a n d s over he re . T h o u g h s o m e of us were not w o r k i n g a n d did not have t he co in , Wc sc raped o u r f a re a n d we did r epa i r back l iome fo r the A r d o y n e ,

CHORUS: I lie B i r m i n g h a m Six set ou t o n e day to sail the sea for h o m e , I hoy were b o u n d t o w a r d s a f u n e r a l d idn ' t k n o w it w o u l d be their o w n .

At New Street S t a t i o n we met u p in a hol iday m o o d so f ine H u g h C a l l a g h a n c o u l d n ' t raise the f a r e a n d was fo r ced t o stay b e h i n d . W e a m u s e d ou r se lve s with a g a m e o f c a rd s as the t r a in sped o 'e r the rail In ou r wildest d r e a m we could no t h a v e seen tha t the e n d of the line w a s jail . At H e v h u m Por t we left the t ra in t he t e r r . for t o b o a r d , But the b r a n c h m e n s t o p p e d us at t he ga te saying " P a d d y we'd like a w o r d ' We had n o t h i n g t o hide so we to ld t h e m we were of f t o bu ry M c D a d e " W e know the b a s t a r d you a d m i r e d ani l lor tha t we'l l m a k e you p a y . "

T h e police s t a t i on at M o r e c a m b e w a s the place they t o o k us t o They tested us forens ica l ly a n d bea t u s black a n d b lue

• • The I R A ' s hit B i r m i n g h a m a n d t h e E m p i r e ' s ou t f o r b l o o d A n d you ' r e t he lucky Irish pigs w h o will sat isfy the j u d g e " They ba t t e r ed us at M o r e c a m b e a n d aga in at B i r m i n g h a m A special b r a n d o f jus t ice for an h o n e s t I r i shman We'll s t o p t he k i ck ings when we 've f o r c e d confess ions f r o m you all They t o r t u r e d us wi th pistols a n d w h i p p e d Paddy in the balls.

They picked u p H u g h i e Ca l l aghan a n d t o r t u r ed him as well F o r sixty h o u r s they bullied us in a c rue l living hell They s ta rved us a n d they kept us in f e a r of o u r very lives Thev w o u l d n ' t let lis sleep until w e ' d s igned their b l o o d y lies At last they left so l ic i tors in so we c o u l d tell the t r u th There was n o real case against us a n d their evidence was loose J u d g e Bridge i g n o r e d o u r bruises a n d conf l ic t ions of the C r o w n A n d fo r t w e n t y - o n e life t e rms were six innocent m e n sent d o w n .

Now twelve l o n g years have passed s ince that bleak night in seven ty - fou r How many m o r e will pass before they open u p the d o o r ? A n d give lis b a c k t he f r eedom which s h o u l d never have been r o b b e d I t ' s t ime fo r Bri t ish c r imes against t h e Ir ish t o be s t o p p e d

In W o r m w o o d S c r u b s . L o n g I .ar t in , F r a n k l i n Prison a n d G a r t r e e We ' r e denied t he c o u r s e of just ice a l t h o u g h everyone can see T h a t half a dozen m o r e have fallen f o u l of dir ty tr icks A n y b o d y with a consc i encc cry " R e l e a s e the B i r m i n g h a m Six" .

in

OLD AGE (Continued from page 2)

overall position of Irish pensioners. While this subject on its own. general the impression one gets is that the Irish sjv tem stands up on levels of services, t>ui lacks the comprehensiveness of the British system, which is however the most comprehensive in the world. It is necessary to keep it that way. For efforts are being made to disrupt it.

- C.D.G. Reprinted from "Grey Power", a quarterly from Wilt Charles, 63 Ballbrooh Court, Mffimsfow Road, Dldsbury, Manchester.

LIVERPOOL 1988

(Continued from page 4) Liverpool branch in late 1939 or early 1940. Her brother went to London and joined Ewan Mac Coil's singers. Pat Mac-Laughlin is however unfortunately no longer with us.

The branch fell apart soon after the war but was revived by John McClelland, now in Belfast. Perhaps he might make a trip for the occasion.

LOVE'S OLD SWEET

SONG BY J. L. M O L L O Y

Once in the dear, dead days beyond recall,

When on the world the mists began t o fall,

Out of the dreams that rose in happy throng ,

Low to our hearts love sung an o ld sweet song;

And in the dusk where fell the firelight gleam,

Softly it wove itself into our dream.

Chorus: Just a song at twil ight, when the lights

are low, And the f l ick'ring shadows sof t ly

c o m e and go ; Though the heart be weary, sad the

day and long, Still to us at twilight comes love's o ld

song, C o m e s love's o ld sweet song.

Even to-day we hear love's song o f yore;

Deep in our hearts it dwells for evermore.

Footsteps may falter, weary grow the way,

Still we can hear it at the close of day. S o till the end , when life's d im

shadows fall, Love will be f o u n d the sweetest song

of all.

IRISH SONGS

E D I T E D BY P A T R I C K B O N D OLD BALLYMOE

IN the County Roscommon in haste f r o m the rain I was crossing the fields on my way to the train, I met a cailin and says she, do you know The shortest shortcut into old Ballymoe? Says I, cailin og who led you astray? I think I'll go with you to show you the way Says she, I 'm afraid because you I don ' t know — You might kiss me between here and old Ballymoe! Says I, cailin og, I have seldom been kissed; Says she, you poor lad, sure a lot you have missed! Says I, I am willing to learn you know — We can practise between here and old Ballymoe. Do you think I'll go with you, you Mullingar rogue? I don ' t like your looks nor you soodherin ' oul brogue — You're young and you're handsome but dear knows you're slow I don ' t fancy a dead one in old Ballymoe.

Says I, I 've been noticed for strength and good looks, And my brains aren' t bad, for I 'm mad f o r the books, So if you'l l say yes, to be married we'll go And forever be happy in old Ballymoe.

She started to laugh till I thought she would choke; She said, you poor fool, now I'll tell you a joke — Step out of my way, sir, for now I will go , I've a husband and six kids in old Ballymoe.

EILEEN OGE EILEEN O G E ! an ' that the darlin's name is, Through the Barony of her features they were famous If we loved her who is there to blame us, For wasn't she the Pride of Petravore? But her beauty made us all so shy, Not a man could look her in the eye, Boys, O boys! sure that 's the reason why We're mourn in ' for the Pride of Petravore.

CHORUS: Eileen Oge! me heart is growin' grey Ever since the day you wandered far away; Eileen Oge! there's good fish in the sea, But there 's no-one like the Pride of Petravore.

Friday at the fair of Ballintubber, Eileen met McGra th the Cattle jobber , I 'd like to set me mark upon the robber, For he stole away the Pride of Petravore He never seemed to see the girl at all, Even when she ogled him underneath her shawl, Looking big and masterful when she was looking small, Most provoking for the Pride of Petravore. Boys, O boys! with fate 'tis hard to grapple, Of my eye 'tis Eileen was the apple, And now to see her walkin' to the Chapel Wid the hardest featured man in Petravore. Now boys this is all I have to say; When you d o your court in ' make no display,

If you want them to run after you just walk the other way, For they're mostly like the Pride of Petravore.

PERCY FRENCH

Casadh an tSugain A RI na bhfear t cad do chas san duthaigh seo me Is gur mo chailin deas a gheobhainn im duthaighin beag fein, Gur casadh me isteach mar a raibh searc agus grach mo cheibl Is gur cuir an tsean-bhean amach le casadh an tsugain me.

Curfa: Ma bhionn tu liom bi liom Bi liom a stoirin mo chroidhe Ma bhlionn tu liom bi liom Bi liom as comhair an tsaoghae Me bhionn tu liom bi liom i ngac orlach i do chroidhe k

'Se molean le fonn nach liom thu De domhnaigh mar mhnaoi .

Ta mo cheannsa liath le blain is ni le crionnacht e Ni beathaidh na breithre na breithre pe sa d o m h a n soeal Is taim id dhiadh le bliadhain is gan fail agam or t fein Is gur geal le fia me ar sliabh go mbeadh gair con 'na driaidh. D o threbhfainn, d ' fhuirsf inn, chaifnn siol ins a chre s ' do dheanfainn obair shocair, alainn, mhin, reidh, D o chuifinn cru fen each is mire shiull r iamb at fear Is na healodh bean le fear na deanfadh-san fein.

June 1987 IRISH DEMOCRAT P a 9 e S e V e "

FENIANS DOUBLECROSSED BY U.S. PRESIDENT

c o n c o m i t a n t sp l i t s a n d p l o t s , s e e k s she l ter in the B r o t h e r h o o d , w h e r e h i s l ega l a n d mi l i tary t r a i n i n g s t a n d h i m in g o o d s tead .

M E A N W H I L E , G a v i n ' s younger brother, John-Joe , also an ex-Union Army Officer, goes to Ireland with 150 Fenian Officers to prepare recruits for the long awaited, and long overdue, rising. He has many exciting adventures in Dublin, Cork , and the Midlands, assists in the rescue of J a m e s S t e p h e n s f r o m Richmond Barracks, and on delivering a well deserved conge to a vicious eviction-happy landlord, is obliged to flee the country. Back in New York he becomes involved in the preparations for the invasion of Canada.

BY PATRICK BYRNE

T h e s c o p e Of t h i s g r e a t e n t e r p r i s e , r e s e a r c h e d in great d e t a i l , a n d t o l d f o r t h e first t i m e , is a r e v e l a t i o n . T h e F e n i a n l eaders h a d d i s c u s s e d the ir p l a n s wi th P r e s i d e n t A n d r e w J o h n s o n , a n d S e c r e t a r y o f S t a t e W i l l i a m S e w a r d , in W a s h i n g t o n , a n d h a d b e e n a s s u r e d that t h e U . S . g o v e r n m e n t " w o u l d r e c o g n i s e a c c o m p l i s h e d f a c t s . "

Their confidence in the U.S. government 's benign suppor t was strengthened by the facilities offered to them to purchase arms, artillery (and even warships) at U.S. arsenals.

The invasion of C a n a d a was planned to coincide with the rising in Ireland in order to d raw troops away f rom there, and to occasion the utmost difficulties for the B r i t i s h / C a n a d i a n a u t h o r i t i e s . Three Fenian Army groups , each consisting, initially, of 30,000 men w o u l d s t r i ke s i m u l t a n e o u s l y across the border and descend on Toronto , Montreal and Ottowa. An army under Colonel John O'Neill crossed the Niagara River f rom Buffalo, and routed a superior Bri t ish/Canadian force , at Ridgeway on June 2nd, 1866. A second Fenian army crossed into Canada near Lake Champla in on June 9th for the advance on Montreal . In both cases, however, the intervention of the U.S. army and navy prevented supplies and r e i n f o r c e m e n t s r e a c h i n g the Fenian forces in Canada , making their withdrawal inevitable.

This U-turn by President Johnson was at variance with the assurance given to the Fenians, and was seen as a cynical use of the Irish as political pawns in his devious dealings with the British government.

C o n t e m p o r a r y h i s t o r i c a l sources agree that the dedication and professionalism of the Fenian armies would have been more than a match for the inadequacies of the British command in Canada .

This book , as well as being a first rate novel, is a mine of original historical research. No I r i sh , Br i t i sh , A m e r i c a n o r C a n a d i a n ' s l i b r a ry , will be complete without a copy.

PATRICK BYRNE

The Rising of the Moon - A Novel of the Fenian Invasion of Canada, by Peter Berresford Ellis. Methuen. Price £10.95.

Berresford Ellis, author of The Rising of the Moon

PETER Berresford Ellis was born in 1943. A former journalist , he was deputy editor o f the Irish Post, he has published over a dozen b o o k s since 1968, mainly in the field o f political history.

His "The Scottish Insurrection of 1829," co-authored with Seamus Mac A G h o b h a i n n was considered a classic o f radical literature. Then came the fo l lowing " A History of the Irish Working class ," hardback 1972, paperback 1985. " H e l l o r C o n n a u g h t ! the Cromwel l ian Colonisat ion of Ireland 1652-60" was published in

1975 fo l l owed by The B o y n e Water: The Battle of the Boyne 1976. He also e d i t e d a n d i n t r o d u c e d J a m e s C o n n o l l y : S e l e c t e d W r i t i n g s publ ished in 1973.

Ellis is also fascinated by popular literature and its effect o n forming and conf irming predjudice. He has publ ished biographies o f Rider Haggard, Captain W. E. J o h n s and Talbot Mundy. His first historical novel, "The Liberty Tree ," was published in 1982 and is set against the background of the English republican movement o f the 1790's.

This is history without tears, except for those you will shed over the mass graves of the Irish fleeing f r o m the Famine, who lie in their thousands on Grosse Island in the St Lawrence, and for the bold Fenian men who died for Ireland in the battle of Ridgeway in Canada .

The central character in the story is Gavin Devlin, a Union Arm-y Captain, who returns to New York to resume his legal career, and to contract an a d v a n t a g e o u s m a r r i a g e . T h e r o m a n c e b e c o m e s u n s t u c k , however, due to the young lady's snobbery, and her family's Maf ia-like connections, who exploit the poor , largely Irish and ex-soldiers, by means of early "Pro tec t ion" rackets. To escape the lethal at tent ions of these gangsters, Gavin , who has become involved in emigre politics, with its

T H I S substantial novel, in the genre of Margaret Mitchell 's " G o n e with the Wind" , is set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, and its a f te rmath . It directs a searchlight o n t h e i m m i g r a n t I r i s h communi ty in the United States, still largely Irish speaking and ghetto orientated, and it deals specifically with the meteoric rise o f t h e I r i s h R e p u b l i c a n Brotherhood.

Unionist's money well spent after death Sir William Gregory of Coole: a biography by Brian Jenkins. Pub. Colin Smythe. Price £19.95. 339pp. 9 plates.

IT IS enough to see the length of shelf space public libraries given to biography to realize what a popular form of reading this is and this is not surprising. Real life is more extraordinary than any novel and a good biography is, by definition, a mine of information about some place or period or type of life. To anyone interested in Irish history this particular biography is a valuable source as well as making profoundly depressing reading — Sir William Gregory was a landlord who lived through the Famine and the Land League struggle. We are constantly told that he was one of the best landlords — but to any reader with a heart it will be transparently clear that it is the ins t i tut ion of co lonia l landlordism which is :vil, not the moral s h o r t c o m i n g s of the landlords themselves which may well be no worse than those of the rest of us.

Sir William Gregory was not a particularly gifted or interesting man. In a way this biography gains greatly in value because of his personal mediocrity — what we iearn about are the institutions of the 19th century. We read of the indifferent education which was to be gained at Harrow before Thomas Arnold brought some sort of pedagogic system into Rugby

and therefore into the public school system as a whole. As colonial governors went, which was not very far in the right direction, Gregory was a spectacularly good governor of Ceylon: the description of those years in his life gives an interesting insight into colonial administration and dreary economic exploitation — even he, the perfect governor, invested in coffee estates, the cash crop that despoiled the island's fertility.

There are other aspects of history on which this book casts light: on British complicity in c h o o s i n g and s u b s e q u e n t l y manipulating the royal line bestowed on the emergent Greek nation. As Gregory had a dissolute period when he was obsessed with horse racing and gambling, we are initiated into this far from i n s i g n i f i c a n t aspec t of the g e n t l e m a n l y l i fe . Art , but particularly painting, was a great love of Gregory and he had a sustained interest in the National Gallery (of London), of which he became a trustee. It is interesting to read the machinations of wheedling money out of the government in those days and how new works were purchased. Some things change and some do not.

THE serious value of this book is the light it casts on 19th century Ire land. Gregory c a m e of Cromwellian stock, his family thereafter consistently gave service to the crown. William Gregory was s e v e r a l t i m e s e l e c t e d to

Westminster first for Dublin and then for Galway. In 1947, with chilling echoes of Enoch Powell in our own day, Gregory with some other MPs, including, if you please, the nephew of Daniel O'Connell, "proposed that the government provide the transportation for as many as 1,500,000 emigrants to Canada. The costs, which they estimated at £9 million, would be advanced by the government on the security of an escalating tax on Irish property." (p. 73) If we read on page 95 that "It was to be Gregory's proud claim that he had never evicted a tenant." It seems a parochial virtue beside such wholesale national oppression.

In the ghastly Famine years we read "The destitute, it seemed, sought imprisonment rather than admission to the workhouse because both the food and the accommodation were superior in the county jai l . Hence the committee" headed by Gregory "recommended that this absurd anomaly be ended. In future the treatment of prisoners was to be no better than that of paupers." (p. 109) And still Gregory lived on. Were 6ur ancestors not unduly forebearing?

Poor Gregory spent his life in a state of anxiety at the prospect of an extension of voting rights: "But he foresaw token representation at b e s t , c e r t a i n l y n o t t h e enfranchisement of working men as a class which would place them in a position to disturb 'the equipoise of

intelligence and property'". He was especially against votes for the Irish who "were a fine race when under control, but unfit to be their own masters." Not surprisingly he had a particular distaste for the secret ballot, (p. 161)

G R E G O R Y was a great supporter of the Catholic Church because he regarded it as the most trustworthy agent for British power in Ireland. This book gives detailed information on this important issue. Occasionally this led him to correct policies, like opposing titles.

After the Famine Gregory's fear of Irish nationalism did not peak again until the Land League struggle. We read that "In the fight against Home Rule Sir William Gregory had long been willing to play the 'Orange card.' In 1883 he had privately urged that the Protestants of Ulster be roused and 'that speakers of no mealy-mouthed eloquence should be chosen to get up steam'" (p. 289). On the subject of Parnell he correctly predicted that he would be destroyed by the Catholic hierarchy though giving "three cheers for Kitty O'Shea" on the side.

Gregory is probably chiefly remembered as the husband that lef t Lady Augusta Gregory economically equipped to devote her long widowhood to patronage of the Irish arts. This service was involuntary but it was the finest thing he did for his country.

P.O'F.

BELFAST JOURNAL

Linen Hall Review. Vol. 3 No. 4. pp 38. Subscription £3.50. Enquiries to Four Provinces Bookshop.

This journal is a comprehens ive review o f literature and the arts. Though based in Belfast it is as wide ranging and indeed as Irish as anything else in Ireland. S o m e might indeed regard it as paradoxical that this journal defends Irish publishers in their right to publish what they wish while Dubl in based journals are alleged to have joined the Eason boycott o f the Poolbeg book on Paisley.

Both "Pais ley" by Ed Maloney and Andy Pol lak and " G o d Save Ulster: T h e R e l i g i o n and P o l i t i c s o f Paisleyism. ' are very well reviewed here.

"The Fictional Face of Belfast" is a survey of contemporary Fiction which uses Belfast as a background and enables the reader to choose what to buy, beg, borrow or steal.

A n o t h e r e n t e r t a i n i n g a r t i c l e features some "disaster" novels -< written near the end of the nineteenth c e n t u r y . T h e y d e s c r i b e d t h e "terrifying" prospect of H o m e Rule, m a i n l y a s seen by f r i g h t e n e d clergymen.

T h i s j o u r n a l w a s h i g h l y recommended to me. In turn I recommend it to others. It is written t h r o u g h o u t in a t h o u g h t f u l informative style free f rom trendy language or sociological jargon.

•G.C.

Page Eight IRISH DEMOCRAT June 1987

LEAVING A Fragment from Work in Progress

THE railway station was crowded but the carriages hadn't filled up yet, it was as if the travellers and those who had come to see them off were unwilling to purl. An old man in grey homespun trousers and black Spanish hat wiped his eyes on the hem of his bainin while a dark-haired girl of eighteen patted him for comfort and smiled through her own tears. A little way off three hefty young men in blue suits and white shirts stretched taut on their broad chests argued drunkenly, their great knuckled fists balled threateningly;

' they would sleep most of the wav to London or wherever they were bound once the drink died down in them. Neil reckoned, and he wondered if they had any more thought for the land they were leaving than a sheep or a cow. But most of the crowd was sober and subdued, quiet family men hating the long separation until they got home again and wives who faced another lonely year without them. It was all wrong, Neil thought, as wrong as anything that had happened in their long and sorry history, and the exodus took the shine off his own goodfoi tune in not having to leave home.

Neil found himself a seat by the window in a carriage that had three other occupants, two plump dark-haired girls who were clearly sisters and ax ihick-sel young man with long sidelocks and a gold watch on his broad wrist. The young marfand * the girls were acquainted to judge from their easy conversation that faltered briefly when Neil entered the carriage; Neil spoke to them in Irish and the sisters smiled at him with natural friendliness w hile the young man agreed that it wasn't a pad day for travelling. Neil was eager to talk with them but not just yet, not until they were beyond the grey walls ofRenmore and the blue-washed thatched houses of Ballyloughane, he wanted to store every last impression of Galway in his mind, to savour his last moments there for it might be a long time before he returned again. For all that he was going home and with brighter prospects than his

fellow passengers he would miss Galway for many a day.

OUTSIDE on the platform the old man in the bainin put both arms round the young girl and she kissed him quickly on the cheek before breaking aw ay and hurrying to the train; she'd be the youngest daughter, Neil guessed, and her having a harder blow perhaps than all the others who had gone before. There would be sore hearts in many a Connacht home tonight, sons, daughters and husbands to be missed - it most surely wasn't what

' f'earse and Connolly died for. The carriage door slid back and a

woman in her late twenties entered carrying a medium sized, bulging suitcase; she w:as more smartly dressed, less countrified than the two sisters, with good features, a clear skin and a head of rich auburn hair. Neil took her suitcase and placed it on the rack above the

By Donall MacAmhlaigh vacant seat opposite himself and the girl thanked him with a smile. Again the conversation of the others stopped, their natural shyness inhibiting their use of a language that often brought stares of surprise, and the auburn haired girl gazed out of the window engaged with her own thoughts. The arguing men in white shirts and blue suits that looked as if they had been slept in were getting into the next carriage and people passed down along the corridor in growing numbers, some of them whom Neil remembered seeing in the pub. The hawk-faced man and the other big chaps he had been with in the Philadelphia Bar were coming through the station door and the woman who had sat so forlornly on the porter barrel twisting her wedding ring was sobbing now and clutching his arm. With a grimace of exasperation the man held her away from him, spoke to her briefly artd strode after his friends to the train. She looked a stricken figure standing there on the platform, her fingertips to her mouth in dismay, and it was almost with relief that Neil heard the guard's whistle shrill out above the surrounding din. The woman's grief was too painful to witness.

"Parting is hard," the auburn-headed girl said, with a nod towards the woman outside. It surprised Neil that she spoke in Irish, he had her down for a town girl and the label attached to the handle of her suitcase gave only her destination, Miss Ann Kane passenger to Norwold via Holyhead.

"It is," Neil agreed and as if encouraged the others began chatting again. Neil recalled another train journey he had made, returning from leave more than a year ago; there was a group of French tourists larking about in the corridor and talking with loud confidence; the Gaeltacht people never raised their voices like that

when they were among strangers and maybe that, thought Neil, was what was wrong with them all, maybe if they had the push and assertion of foreigners they wouldn't be leaving their homeland in droves every day.

A tremor ran through the train and the diesel engine up front emitted a tiny bleat so different from the piercing hoot of the old steamers; another convulsion and then they were sliding away, past the tourist board posters of barefoot, shawled woman laden like beasts of burden with creels of turf and the heavy crimson coloured machine that printed your name on metal strips. Neil craned to get a last glimpse of the sobbing woman on the platform and at the same moment her husband and the other men^ piled into the carriage; they seated themselves, nodding to the company and resumed their talking almost at once. Parting wasn't too hard for the hawk-faced man with the red hair, it seemed, for he never glanced towards the window as the train left the station and rumbled hollowly across Lough At alia bridge. Neil felt again the sense of desolation he had felt that morning when the barrack gate clanged shut behind him and he fixed his eyes on the grey walls ofRenmore until the train swept under the viaduct between the Iiigh banks of the cutting.

"You look like you know the place," the girl sitting across from Neil remarked, a sad sort of smile on her face.

"I should do! Three years I gave there, only left it this morning. The First Battalion."

"I know," said the girl, nodding. "My brother gave a spell there, during the Emergency. Are you for England?"

THE blue-washed houses of Ballyloughane were slipping past now and beyond the narrow corner of the bay the low woods of Ardfry

wre turning a dull brown. Neil strained for a look at the etched mound of Corkscrew Hill on the Clare side of the bay before turning back to the girl again.

"No, I'm going home - to Kilkenny."

The girl looked at him, surprised. "You speak good Irish." "I spoke nothing else this past

three years," Neil told her. "It's nice to be going home and

not leaving it," the girl said, nodding approval. "Have you a job there?" Her interest flattered and pleased Neil, it made him feel good to be asked questions like that by a woman as attractive as her.

"I'm going working for myself-a small bit of a business, you know. Enough to keep a man going!"

IT wouldn't do to sound boastful, he'd have had to head for England himself like as not but for the way things turned out and there would be no business to go to but for Lar Butler. Lar was at the Brothers with him, no great shakes as a scholar but he had a headpiece on him for all that. Lar could see a chance and avail of it. It was while he was at home on leave at the start of the summer that Lar proposed they team up - save a couple of quid a week apiece and pool it when they had enough, seventy or eighty pounds would start them o f f . A horse and cart, an axe and a sledge and cross-cut, other bits and pieces; you'd buy a fallen tree for. half nothing off a farmer, they'd flog bags of firewood, blocks and kippens from door to door. There was money in it, Lar Butler assured him, the thing was to get started before too many others did - who knew but they'd be in a big way in a couple of years, their own coalyard with a cubby of an office and a sign above the gate that said O'Cornell & Butler, Fuel Merchants... It was very flaithiulach of him. Neil joked, putting his partner's name first, but Lar said it didn't matter a damn whose name was first so long as they were raking in the lolly.

A GOOD MAN FALLEN AMONG UNIONISTS Trevor West, Horace Plunkett, Co-operation and Politics (1986), £12.95 nett.

SIR H O R A C E P L U N K E T T was one of those earnest and hard-working Irish landlords whose plans for "improving" the lot of small farmers and agricultural labourers was frustrated by the contradictions inherent in the policies he put forward. On the one hand, this liberal minded reformer genuinely wanted to make Irish agriculture technically more efficient and thus raise rural living standards. On the other hand, he could never break completely free from the social and religious prejudices of his Ascendancy background. Born in England, and educated at Eton and Oxford, he dovoted three decades of his life to Ireland. He was the third son of the wealthy Lord Dunsany whose ancestors had once been Catholics, but turned Protestant in the 18th century so as to hold on to their broad acres in Co. Meath.

p lunket t , who was an intelligent

and well-informed man if at times tactless and politically naive — recognised that the days of the big landlords was over, and that they must be replaced by a peasant p r o p r i e t o r s . He t h e r e f o r e supported the various Gladstone and Wyndham land acts. On his return f r o m America where he had gone to try and cure the tuberculosis which plagued him lor much of his life, he decided to campaign for new forms of co-operative enterprise which would enable small farmers to by-pass t ' i e g r a s s i n g s m a l l - t o w n m e r c h a n t s , and b u y t h e i r fertilisers, seeds and equipment more cheaply. James Connolly later wrote an essay in The Reconquest of Ireland in which he warmly approved of these attacks on the gombeenmen and their links with the more conservative elements in the Irish parl-iamentary party.

In 1894 Plunkett took the lead in forming the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, which was responsible for stimulating the creation within a few years of

scores and eventually hundreds, of c o - o p e r a t i v e c r e a m e r i e s throughout the 32 counties. His other passion was the encourage-ment of technical schools which he saw as one of the best ways of r ev iv ing ru r a l soc i e ty a n d p r o m o t i n g greater e conomic efficiency among farmers. In all these e f f o r t s he had the enthusiastic support of the Jesuit Father Tom Finlay of University College, Dublin, and the Ulster poet, A. E., who later became a fu l l - t ime organiser fo r the I.A.O.S., and in 1905 editor of the movement's journal, the Irish Homestead. T. W. Russell, M.P., who led the tenant-farmers' campaign in Ulster at the turn of the century, was also influenced by Plunkett.

T H O U G H wel l - in ten t ioned and a wealthy man with plenty of energy and wide social contacts, Plunkett was a failure as a politician because he tried to ride two horses which were going in opposite directions. In essence, he was that typical liberal imperialist

who strove for social and economic reforms within Ireland, but would not accept that these could only be fully achieved if the country was free to decide its own destiny. He was Unionist M P for Dublin South between 1892-1900, and t h o u g h he was neve r a s s o c i a t e d c l o s e l y w i t h O r a n g e m e n l i k e E d w a r d Saunderson and Bonar Law, he was on the friendliest of terms with the Tory leader Arthur Balfour, and his brother Gerald who for several years held the influential post of chief secretary in Ireland.

I n d e e d , in some r e spec t s Plunkett was the embodiment of that movement which was known as "constructive Unionism", or more accurately as trying to "kill home rule with kindness." He was not then on good terms with John Redmond, who distrusted him, or the new Sinn Fein leader, Arthur G r i f f i t h s , w h o was m o r e interested in political than he was in economic reform.

Plunkett was always proud of the fact that , in spite of his episcoplian background, he got on well with many Catholic priests and bishops who favoured his co-operative enterprises. He certainly would have denied that in any sense he was a bigot. However, like so many other members of his class, he sincerely believed that Protestantism was a superior religion to Catholicsim, and that Catholics f rom the nature of their education and moral convictions (he would have called them superstitions) were inherently less capable of hard work and economic progress. This aspect of his beliefs came out strongly in his book Ireland and the New Century which was published in 1904, and offended many Catholics.

THIS dichotomy between his liberal instincts and socially-inherited conservatism continued to render him politically impotent for the rest of his life. He disliked Carsonism and never accepted that Ulster had the right to opt out of the Irish nation. He was disturbed, probably under the i n f l u e n c e of JfL, b y t h e widespread poverty of the Dublin working-class which was revealed by the Larkin strike. On the other hand, he threw all his weight behind Britain when war broke out in 1914, and he was shocked at the 1916 rising.

In 1917 he was chosen as chairman of the Irish Convention — an abortive scheme proposed by Lloyd George with the ostensible aim of considering Home Rule once again, but with the real purpose of bringing Ireland more strongly into the war e f f o r t a n d m o l l i f y i n g t h e Americans. During the Civil War he naturally took the pro-Treaty side and was rewarded by being made a senator by Cosgrave. j

For his pains his large house at Foxrock, which had once been the scene of so much political and cultural activity, was burnt out by the I.R.A., led on this occasion by George Gilmore. This disillusioned him so much that he retired to England where he died in 1932.

In this excellent biography, the author Trevor West, though perhaps failing to explore deeply enough the ambivalence of Plunkett's philosophy, and the consequent disappointments of his political career, has provided a carefully-document and well-written account of an individual who if, like his fellow Protestants Erslcine Childers, Bulmer Hobson and Douglat Hyde, had thrown in his lot fully with tho movement for national independence, might have achieved much for the country he genuinely loved. As it was, he left • striking monument in a string of co-operative creameries scattered round tb* small towns of Ireland. It was no mean achievement, and we should honour him for it. i

FLANN CAMPBELL