CALLS HER A `HANG-WOMAN`

MOCRAT
FOUNDED IN 1939
No- 421
ORGAN OF THE CONNOLLY ASSOCIATION
JULY 1979
15p
LEO ABSE
to all the elements who are obstructing bridge-building in the
province."
CALLS HER A 'HANG-WOMAN'
SEND IN ALL
THOSE FIVERS
IjWING to holidays we are not
able to include acknowledger
ments of donations received during
the last month. These will be
printed next month.
But In the meantime may we
remind our friends that the flow
ft tunds needs to be kept up.
The fact that w* are able by our
r-wn unaided resources to organise
;« successful and enthusiastic a
conference as that- en
34th
is an indication of the wide appreciation that exists of the work of
the Connolly Association.
The Irish community has recovered its n a n *
Jhe«^; jura
signs that tbt members ojf f h a
British Labour/ movement ar* patting tired of being fofrbed off with
platiturffl* and half measures, that
is when there are any measures at
f
»"•
4
So send in your fivers. We still
need hundreds of them. And
remember, holiday times ar* thin
times for organisations. So don't
tielay.
Conor Cruise (^Briefi 'hysterical'
r
E British Government should learn sense and get out of Ireland. That was the guts of
an eloquent speech made by Mr Leo Abse, the Labour Member for Pontypool, South
Wales, an independent campaigner for often unpopular causes, and a man never afraid to
speak out about something once he understands it.
Mr Abse Had been talking to Mr Tip O'Neill who was telling
hint aboUt the reaction of American opinion to the regime of
murder and torture which exists in the six counties of Northern
Ireland.
"Britain", he said, "needs a
jolt to sw&ken her. Britain,' and
in my view particularly the
Labour Movement, has to emancipate itself as it has not yet
done, from the dreamy delusions
of imperial grandeur. . . . The
policy of successive governments
in Northern Ireland bears he
impress of our imperial pretentions."
"The theme
wish to put to
the House is that it is time to
acknowledge the brutal fact that
Ulster is our last colony, in. the
interests, moral ahd economic,
of our people as well as the
people of
Northern
Ireland,
Britain should once and for Ml
complete its process of decolonisation."
For this reason Mr Abse declared
he did not concur with the leader
of the orpos^tion (Mr Callaghan)
that the tragedy of Northern Ireland should not become a party
issue.
He was appalled at the Queen's
speech which could think of nothing
better than bringing back the rope.
The Prime Minister, Whom he referred to as a "hangwoman", was
"strong on conviction and coarse r
on sensibility." 1
s it - - r ^
Note: Mr Leo Abse was one of
the sponsors Of the Connolly Association conference of June 24th.
TIHOMAS
Win
qia<*» M I born m
tttii year. Tb jtoitti
the occasion theIttfbaM 0'Dully
Sooiety organ!** * VM« k> Mt
grave. Moor* dted i n ^ f e f * ; a « r i e
b w W lhi^jlhe graveyard of Brom• 'v. „.v.. . , ,.. t,. ... iHM i i t M enuruw n e a r oevkee
in Wiltshire. The group included
Referring , to the outbursts Of
sihgM* UMilt Brown* from Atbtene
Conor...Cruise O'Brien who ''never and Derryman Miohael ODufly,
c^wjas to infprm us that Britain plug fork, and c*nmM(r
must : remain enmeshed sinca the tion member Miohael Horgan.
alternative is a bloodbath in Ulster,"
They,wis?. f f r f M f l by t n * yMw,
he remarked. ?m private life sage
men. learn, not to respond to a Rev. Mr Watfrs, wbo was abfe to
hysteric, seeking to convert others gtwii'rtmm wane interesting laforto his or her will by threatening matton about Moor* a n d Ma wife
BtWi who H t n l M t t M m bw' s a M
sufelde." •
y e a * a n a M borta* to tt» nam*
tomb. B e a i d e i t t a a wtowuwtaat,
oreotad *» U N , in 4b*' f t m * - * *
i m p . Ireland was £1J million. By oefHX orpaa. Or» ene i t * J t i n n a
1972-73 it had reached £09 million. quoditton fronj Maertf* a*M> »Kami,
» r the year 19W-76 It h i d reach^dt Lord B y r m a n d ®n t h e other a
million and for the year 1978-79 verse from Moore-, owrt song Dear
1
i t i i f d mounted to £81* million. In
Harp of
' ^
?
addition to this t h e n arecivil subsidies amounting to £845 teiHton.
South (Mr
thaiw*.
Louis Browne and MichBBt O'Ouffy W t h * f l i o m a .
The significance of this speech
will not be lost upon those in the
Labour movement who believe that
progress depends on brushing constitutional questions under the
cttrpet. From now on they will
increasingly realise that they do so
at their peril and at the peril of
all of us. T h e tide cannot be pushed
back.
- A
Answering those who thought Mr
Tip O'Neill's criticisms of British
policy In Ireland was "interference"
l ? r s t s k e d / f f c s w a 3 any different
frofli British criticism" of America's
policy in Vietnam.
TURBUMEWT
L
He concluded "It is to be hoped
that, for the sake of the people
of Northern Ireland, they will not
be deceived into believing t h a t the
patience of the people of Britain is
infinite. It is not, nor should it
be. Some of us hope, indeed, that
by the pressures that will be exerted
its will soon be demonstrated that
that patience has come to a n end."
he said "The senator
his wftrW need to be
e took the course tliey
i ' should stm be in
tottiCj^.v,
H' lMMRKd W ' W m
Hatred spurious alibis
THE fRISH DEMOCRAT
July 1979
THE IRISH DEMOCRAT
2
II\ BRITAIN TODAY
YEARS
IN
T
HEY'D tell you anything. That is the verdict on the politicians. In this article JOHN BOYD, recalls some o!
the promises made when the people who wished to bam
boozle the public into "going into Europe" were painting
their bright pictures. He contrasts these with the sober
reality. What has happened is exactly what the IRISH
DEMOCRAT predicted.
EUROPE
[)URING the Referendum
Campaign in Britain four years
ago who said this ?
"The inevitable result would
be serious damage to our economy, a run on the
pound,
rampant inflation, falling living standards
and
massive
unemployment."
Although this is a very good
description of the sorry state of
the country at the moment
it
was in fact the
pro-Marketeers'
threat of the consequences
if
Britain left the EEC.
,
No-one can deny
that
the
economy
has been
seriously
undermined
because
industry
has been cleft down the middle
in the face of a deluge of manufactures from the EEC's industrial countries.
In fact
the
nation's output is nearly half
that of 1974.
This
de-industrialisation
in
turn has caused large-scale
unemployment
which h a s doubled
in four years.
Politicians now
push the idea that the long dole
queue is now a permanent
part
of life.
Inflation has been with us in
double figures since the early
1970s, precisely
that period in
which Britain has been a member of the EEC. The word "inflation'" is used to cover a multitude of sins and is depicted as
some strange happening
occurring overnight
that
somehow
marks up all the price
labels.
There is hardly any mention of
the fact that basic
foodstuffs
cost several times more inside
the Common Market than outside. Also somehow the massive
contributions
to the EEC have
to be paid for out of our
pockets.
Even the current Government says it is disturbed
at
this huge amount
of
money
being paid into the EEC.
An examination of other statements, promises
and
forecasts
by the "Yes" brigade four years
and, at
ago makes interesting
times, hilarious,
reading.
fOR
instance,
the
European
Movement
said:—
"The much criticised
Common Agricultural
Policy
is
now of. direct benefit to Britain. It ensures stable
supplies
at reasonable prices and helps
British
farmers
to
produce
more food at home.
Keep Britain in Europe published a Red, White and Blue
leaflet quoting the recent M.P.
Mrs Shirley
Williams's
statement to Parliament
in. March
1974. This was under a heading
of TRUTH.
"The overall level of food
prices in the United
Kingdom
is not at present
significantly
affected one way or thk other
by our membership
of the
European Community.
Continuity of supply is
obviously
advantageous
in
avoiding
shortages
and wide
fluctuations in price, though it can-
not be accurately quantified."
in London on May 3rd this
year EEC Agricultural
Minister,
Mr Firm Olav Gundelach, made
clear what C.A,1» is atf about
"the Common Market
will
end this year with a record
surplus of butter of between
500,000 and 600,000
tonnes
. . . .
We don't know what
to do with it."
A 600,000-tonne butter mountain is equivalent
to 5%lbs of
butter for every living
person
in the nine EEC countries.
This
represents 22lbs for a family of
four which is over two months'
supply. The EEC has bought up
all the butter and stuffed it into
fridges at our expense
because
we cannot afford to buy it.
Please note that the price of
butter in Britain is still not up
to the common high price.
J^HE figures associated
with
the food mountains
are so
fairyland-like
that
they
are
nearly beyond
the realms of
credibility
and somehow
help
to cover
up the
outrageous
criminal policy that it all represents.
But then a magic wand
called "inflation" is waved, and
all is explained
away.
A lot was said about
jobs,
work and
prosperity.
"The real,
straightforward
reason for keeping Britain in
the European Community
is
that more and faster
industrial growth is essential
for
future full
employment.
"Prospects for getting
this
growth,
with
less
inflation
and more prosperous
regions,
are much better inside a bigger and prosperous
Community than outside."
¥
—"Keep Britain in Europe"
(June 1974)
Remember
all those
"Yes"
posters on the bus-shelters
and
hoardings, with a group of lads
and the slogan "Jobs for the
boys" ? Another favourite
was
one of locked factory gates and
the warning "Out of Europe,
out of work".
The recent Labour
government
had to finance
special
schemes
to help alleyiate
the
growing
ntass
unemployment
amongst
school - leavers
and
young
people.
The advice offered in 1971 by
British
Ley land
chief
Lord
Stokes in large
advertisements
carried by British and
foreign
newspapers
was : "The sooner
we're in the Common
Market
the better."
"As Britain's biggest single exporting
company,
British
Leyland
welcomes
the
prospect of entry into the Common Market.
We feel sure that
most active with 964 people detained, 20 of those for more than
two days. But the Metropolitan
tual kind passed the notorious Police who came second are known
Prevention
of
Terrorism
Aot to be the most pernloious. They
Immediately the 'thought Police' < detained 869 with 128 held longer
went into action and to-date some than two days and on most occa4,000 people have been 'detained'. sions relatives were not informed.
They are interrogated, fingerprinted So far 386 people have been held
and photographed. Most of these longer than two days on an Extenpeople have been detained at Air sion Order signed by the Secretary
and Sea Ports thus their freedom of State. H k signed every order
to travel has been hindered. Of
those who were from Northern the mistaken uwdsirtwdlng that a
WSMt • •
Ireland the information obtained
has been passed to the Army Computer there with obvious conseq u e n t s for them and their relations.
THE
!j
JN fact British Leyland
went
bust and an
ever-increasing
lion's share of the car market
now goes to West German and
French motor monopolies.
Today even British Leyland
puts
in parts made in EEC countries
that were formerly
manufactured in Britain.
In
common
with other industries, the workforce in the motor industry continues to shrink.
Steel-workers
are given
the
order of the boot because
the
Commission
has
" planned"
where steel shall and shall not
be made.
The Government
at
Westminster
was
over-ruled
when it wanted
to
subsidise
both
steel-making
and
shipbuilding.
One result was that
a large shipbuilding order went
to West Germany and yards in
Britain went
empty.
This contradicts
completely
the very
same
Government's
pro-Market
propaganda
pamphlet delivered
to each
home,
which
stated:—
"No important
new
policy
can be decided in Brussels or
anywhere
else without
the
consent of a British
Minister,
were confined to a part of the UK
under the jurisdiction of Westminster and 27 were deported to the
Republic of Ireland. No Charges
were made against any of these
Individuals and the figures exclude
those returned for activity not
related to this Act.
The vast majority detained under
the Act had no connection whatsoever with the Provisional Irish
RepuMtoan Army, tndeedy of the
34 whe wece ohargsd under the Aot;
la wsne oharged wKh wittttukHng
IRISH
A
DEMOCRAT
I
283 Grays Inn Road #
London, WC2.
01.837.4826
Subscription Rates :
answerable
to a British government
and British
Parlia
merit."
Thousands of laws and petty
regulations become law in Bri
tain without
the consent
of
either a Minister,
Government
or Parliament.
These are add
ing up to a qualitative
change
in this country which is at the
centre of the rapid
deteriora
tion in all spheres of life.
To sum up, perhaps the "Yes"
brigade
could
justify
their
claim:—
"The object of the Commu
nity is : Where WE do better,
THEY will catch up with us,
Where THEY do better,
WE
will catch up with them."
Did they mean top of the
unemployment
league,
inflation
league and a fall from
second
to seventh place in the
gross
national product table, and the
biggest contributor to the EEC's
budget?
Despite the sad position of>
the country falling to bits, you
cannot fool all the people
alt
the time, as the recent N O P'.'
opinion poll shows. In May this
year in answer to the
question,
"Do you think membership
of
the Common Market is a good
thing or a bad thing for Britain ?" 35 per cent a good thing,51 per cent a bad thing and 14
per cent didn't know.
These
obviously
had not been
out
shopping
lately!
THE PREVENTION' OF TERRORISM-BY MEANS OF TERROR
T was in November 1974 when
the House of Commons in a
Ifrenzy
of confusion of the intellec-
!
W
it will be good for Britain, good
for Europe
and
particularly
good for British industry
and
ourselves. . . . Imagine our opportunities
when the tariff barriers are removed and we can
compete on equal terms !"
John Boyd
By
Peter Mulligan
in Law, it nqw seems that a man
can conspire with himself. The
number charged with other offence]
speaks for itself and can only M
considered as a blatant attempt
to obtain a- charge when the first
chetefaite
The Home Office have just confirmed that information on the
detained "Is Ming retained
oewtraHy b* the Pence" under the
of Terrorism Act se
take It that when
6 months :
£ t .32
\2 months:
£2.64
MONTHLY
We say
'jpHAT there is an increased
impatience with the refusal
t-f successive governments to
tackle the constitutional problem presented by the partition
of Ireland is clear not only from
Mr Leo Abse's speech, but from
the size ana quality of the June
24th conference.
It is not possible to solve any
of the problems of the six
counties without tackling the
constitutional issue is slowly
dawning on people.
For sixty years the tinkering
about ha§ gone on. Now the
British people are getting tired
of being mulcted, and well they
may.
Nobody has got the right to
say that the British public must
face huge expenditures and loss
of life t h a t the crazy policy of
holding the six counties entails.
land; understand* the
underafeu*thenae* to- the>BkttiBb
Trade THrtrun — — — t tax flaht tor
democratic solution*, then there will
be a problem in TtaUM aa& ttta
Kfcsh. The SpMrial Powers Act
provided far wsmuUtoee searches,
naariury trial* sewsa*day detention
without access to panoaal, cosmicMm bjr the Dtptaefc oouzta on the
to WM. |
It i* estimated that 7MM*** ot
by Jury and so- on in Northern
Ireland.
We should call upon the
Government to-respond to the
t u n s of the Irish Qeveonnent concerning tiie iiMi'iBi
intent (Bathe wUhrtiawiil of- tosap9'
aad the mad f c » ^United Irohusdv
I l
f' fa1^AiM i . ^^k' v - - • .... i. ^
-.- .
s a n e nranta MttL n*. n M r i t u (m
oft
ri
I wpafe to> sap something
the "special"^ legal system of Northern Ireland—which Is responsible
for the H block prisoners at Long
tion rim m m* WW
Ireland, then this is a direct threat
to the procedures here, We should
be calling for a return to trial
On Aamafc-
34th there vftll be a meeting
commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the historian
T. A. Jackson.
this said, we must sound
a note of caution.
The Irish complaint is not just
that England occupies Irish soil.
It is that territory which should
be under the jurisdiction of
Dublin is held under another
jurisdiction.
Therefore if England withdraws, the matter is not satisfactorily disposed of, if the
result is that the six counties
are under any other jurisdiction
than that of Dublin.
It is this that is the objection
to the simplistic talk about
"troops out now". It is necessary to see in what direction a
policy leads. That policy leads in
the direction of an "independent
Ulster" ruled by the Orange
Order, with the probable blessing of Britain which could get
most of what was wanted from
such a regime.
And if she couldn't the United
States would assist. The meaning of the American offer to
finance
an independent six
counties is simply that the
United States is prepared to
guarantee its «wn military bases
if Britain proves incapable of
holding them any longer.
r~pHAT the provisionals sometimes appear to go along
with the "troops out now"
people should not be taken too
seriously. They probably think
that anything that is an embarrassment to the government
they are opposing does no harm.
The real need is a policy that
goes in the right direction, that
of ensuring a united Ireland.
The simplest way to approach
that is for Britain to tell Mr
Lynch that she is prepared to
renounce sovereignty in Ireland
and to discuss ways and means
of bringing a united Ireland
about.
'Irish Railways in the Heyday of Steam",sby H. C. Casseerley.
Published by D. Bradford (Barton : £4.25).
WIS latest album in the
publisher's extensive serfes of railway photographs is
ihe work Mr. H. C. Casserley
and his son. Its ninety pages
of photographs cover the
period from 1929, two years
before the first diesels Were
wtroduced into Ireland by
the Donegal Railway, to 1961,
-vhen steam on C.I.E. had
been relegated to branch
Sines and local freight workings.
None of the photographs
are coloured, but apart from
BOOK REVIEW
the beautiful blue of Ihe
Great Northern and red of the
County Donegal, Irish locos
«ere not the most colourful,
so little is lost by this.
Mr. Casserley has always
one of my favourite
I ail Way photographers, because he seeks out the interbeen
esting a n d h a s a n e y e f o r a
good subject without the gimmicks of some, of the younger
adherents o f t h e art.
>
Ml explaining
-iMfr wufc iaiili>»eai e m b* m a at*
m$*<*>3m
StHMBR& 'fiiiNtlSf'
' '^Mjftp''
For inform*
is
lend. The
fcnvfcfctpa
LL
PICTURES OF IRISH RAIL
The Merseyside Police were the
I vESMOND Starrs, President of
' • AUEW (TABS) devoted a considerable part of his address to the
Representative Council in Bournemouth to the Irish question.
Council was held on May 21st26th, 1979.
Mr Starrs, who is for years a
members of the Connolly Association, said the TASS members in
the six counties worked- under conditions which made theirs like a
"Sunday school treat".
"Ireland", said Mr Starrs, "and
in particular the problems of Northern Ireland, is something which
we have to bring home to the
working people of this country,
mush m e n forcibly than we have
in the past. Northern Ireland is not
only a problem ot British- Imperialism, but it 1* the problem of
the British peopfo and until such
times as the Btftish' people involve
3
K*
The subjects range dver
the railways from the
Schull andSkibbereen In Cork
!o
the Ballycastle In Antrim.
Naturally, the large compan'es dominate but such fntoresting oddities as the Water'ord and Tramore, Dublin and
Biesslngton and Ciogher Val;
ey are not neglected.
Although a knowledge of
Irish railway history and geognaturally add to
raphy would n
the enjoyment of the book,
the author Irtcli
includes some historical and technical Information about the locomotives in
his concise notes accompanying eacfc picture. The only
inaccuracy spotted was the
claim that the Derry and
Sirafea ne Railway was steam
worked until its closure in
1960, whereas the last train
on that line ran in 1955.
Opening with a view Of the
first of the Great Southern
"Queens" "Maedhbh" (now
in Belfast Transport Museum),
which were the epitome of
Mali- steam power, although
never really allowed to show
their 4rue potential, the book
closes with the only steam
locomotive constructed by
C.I.E. This was experimental
turf-burner designed by O. V.
Bulleld and imHt in 1957.
Although Jt never earned
any revenue for ihe stateowned company and published details of Its trials are
sparse, I, Hke to think that
maybe, bore Is <a pointer to
the future, whan the oil deposits have been dissipated
to lha four Wnds.
For anyone wNh nostalgic
memories of tratal on the
railways whan -steam nelgoed
supreme, JMa tbook is sura
to «Jv* satlsladlMi.
Brian Wilkinson.
PAISLEY DID NOT DO WELL AT ALL
VALUED correspondent
(R.W.H.). who writes at
"brave length" makes the following points :—
Paisley's claim to be the "uncrowned king of Ulster" rests
on a narrower foundation than
he makes out. "Out of a total
electorate of a million he polled
only 17 per cent, or 29 per cent
of the votes cast."
Then again the biggest lesson
was in the 43 per cent of the
voters who did not trouble to
go out.
For Paisley is antiMarket and so his 29 per cent
should to a great extent be
added to the 43 per cent.
The middle-of-the-road parties
suffered badly. The Alliance
Party polled a derisory 6.8 per
cent of the votes cast.
By the same token the representative of the N.I.L.P. saw his
£600 swallowed up.
"One other point," says our
correspondent, "was made clear
by what would otherwise have
been a Euro-poll fiasco. Petit
bourgeois socialists who think
that the national question is
something which can be ignored
fared very badly."
r
r H I S applied to Sinn Fein,
the Workers' Party and
Paddy Devlin. It is no use trying to sound the socialist tocsin,
or even "stick to bread-andbutter issues when the fundamental thing on which everything else rests, the constitutional position, remains the
bone of contention.
Mr John Hume and Mr Paisley remain the chief actors in
the drama, precisely because
the fundamental issue is that of
partition, and everything in the
six counties lines up for or
against that."
At the centre of Mr Hume's
performance, however, "lies a
policy contradiction which the
S.D.L.P. as a party' will have at
some time to resolve.
Is it
postulating that while Ireland
cannot obtain political and economic independence and territorial and national unity within
the Common Market of the
United Kingdom, she will be
able to do so within the superstate of Western imperialism ?
It is a dubious proposition upon
which to found the future prospects of the party.
"Were Mr Hume's 137,110 first
preferences (2,890 short of the
quota) indicative of support for
the E.E.C. ? Again, in the circumstances of the six counties,
the intentions were somewhat
obscured. Despite 66 transfers
which he received from Mr
Paisley (and what can you
make of this ?) one could be
excused for concluding that
what we are witnessing here is
another old, if understandable
aspect of six-county politics:
reactive, self-defeating, sectarianism based on the principle of
getting 'our man' in.
"The big question still remains : what were the 43 per
cent who stayed away thinking ? And who is going to
provide them with the leadership that, by activating them,
is going to put an end to the
bogus nature of democratic
processes in the six counties
whereby a man who gets 17
per cent of the total vote can
proclaim himself
'uncrowned
king'."
We have not seen the point
made elsewhere that in reality
Mr Paisley did not do well, but
very badly. And that relatively
Mr Hume did much better. We
therefore thank cnir correspondent for drawing attention to it.
LABOURS GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY
J^HE anti-EEC
commitments
given in the Labour
Party's
statement
on the EEC election
are a benchmark of the state
of anti-EEC feeling within the
Party.
There is now a golden
opportunity -for Labour and the
trade union movement
to-take
advantage of the powerful
antiEEC feeling in this country and
commit
themselves
to
taking
Britain out of "Europe", as the
Danish anti-Marketeers
have a
good chance of doing.
The Labour Party
manifesto
states : "We declare that if the
fundamental
reforms
contained
in this
manifesto
are
not
achieved
within a
reasonable
period of time, theh the Labour
Party would have to
consider
very seriously
whether
continued EEC membership
was in
the best interests of the British
people."
The Labour Party
describes
the EEC's agricultural policy as
"an expensive
farce" and says
the British £1,000 million
contribution to the EEC budget as
"monstrously
unfair".
It says
the EEC's power
to
legislate
and to tax means that
"our
right to democratic
self-government has been gravely
weakened".
They pledge the Labour
Party to return power to the
House of Commons
to
reject,
change or repeal EEC
legislation. They would also give the
House of Commons
power
to
decide whether any EEC decisions should apply to
Britain,
and say that Labour would pass
legislation
necessary
to
carry
out these policies
whether
or
not the EEC agreed.
British
Ministers would again be made
directly
accountable
to
the
House of Commons
for
what-
WHAT THE FOOLS VOTED FOR
" I T ' S What You Voted For", said
* the leading capitalist journal,
"The Economist" in an editorial
welcoming Maggie Thatcher's first
budget — which slashes
public
spending, brings in VAT at 15%
and is an attack on the living
standards of the ordinary people
of this country in order to increase
big business profits.
They welcome the £2$ billion
cut from public spending in the
remainder of this year and lick
their lips at what is yet to come.
We reproduce what they say as a
warning to the Labour Movement:
"This summer, however, the public-expenditure review for 1980-81
begins in earnest Since the chancellor intends more of the same
, next April, the outlook is for
savagery.
"Cutting industrial support and
local-government employment at a
time of economic expansion is one
thing-cutting it in a time of contraction is a test of political nerve
to which the present government
has yet to be subjected.
«By- next winter the true impact
of three yetvrs & c a s h l i m l t s o p
local authorities will, be shewing
through in collapsing sewfers, school,
housihg-68tate and road nrttitttenance, in dosfcl fibraries ^ t w shimming baths, in deteriorating fi*«
ambulance services—and in soaring
rates.
' The environment secretary, Mr
Heseltine, has warned councils
against increasing their rates "as an
act of virility". What does he want
them to do next year—declare themselves bankrupt?. . . .
ever they got up to
wearing
their EEC hats.
These commitments
could not
be implemented
while
Britain
remains within the EEC.
For
the essence of Brussels
dictatorship is their power to levy taxes
and make laws without
approval
by national
parliaments.
The Labour movement
can
lead the country if they
make
the Common Market the centre
of their organisational
work and
propaganda
in the next
three
years.
For the Common
Market
is England's "national
question".
It has put England under
foreign
rule for the first time in her
history.
The English people do
not like it—any more than the
Irish, Welsh and Scots like being ruled by outsiders.
Just as
in countries which in the past
were ruled by England,
nowadays
in England
herself
the
Labour movement
can lead the
people by standing for English
independence
against the Common Mcfrket.
History
indeed
has turned full
cirtle.
•m
i n
v i e r m a n y
"The government has decided to
enter the next wage-round in
A N si-Nazi, Dr. Karl Cacsteas,
belligerent spirit. Apart from the
- has been elected President ot
VAT increases the unions have West Oermany—the late&t-slgn t>hat
now witnessed: the - government's Germany is moving rapidly
remarkable generosity to the police right as it becomes in effect t h e
and servicemen; the smooth pas- political base of the Common Marsage of the top salaries board's ket. . '
••
, f W K ! '
25% increases: the promise of Wide
Carsens is a Christian Democrat
cuts in local and central govern- and his election was aonnmpantod
ment manpower; and, to rub salt by a demonstration in Bonn at
in these wounds, .regular sprinkling which people protested against the
by the employment department of rehabilitation- of the Sazls in thill
likely whispered trade-union re- fashion, ,j *
forms.. Sir Geoffrey Howe h a s to
Frftnz Joseph Strauss, the .ultragamble on the unions being more right-wing leader of Catholic B&var
stunned than angered by all this. . . rla, is now making a bid for leaden*
His supporters too do not disguise ship of the Christian DteifcoeraU
their hopes t h a t rising unemploy- in the. contest for the Chancello
ment may also help to do the trick." ship of Germany, and he 1
It's what you voted for, Indeed, good ohance of getting^
or what a lot of sillies voted for. Strauss is an ardh-Oold
I t is fair warning from an unim- if the Ukes of Carstens and J
peachable capitalist source of what come to run. Germany, the
(the first year is going to be like
runder w h ^ e o u W ^ e B 4>e t h e those '
Reactionary government
titMtenvrfc; ftfjthocks—quite possibly the
of another World War.
July 1979
THE IRISH DEMOCRAT
July 1979
THE IRISH DEMOCRAT
SIX.
Fierce pressure
on Ireland
at Brussells
I KELAND has come under powerful pressure in Brussels to t.o
!uu-le;tr and build an atomic power
s:ation in Carnsore.
Germany :n particular is usins
the excuse of the energy crisis to
induce Ireland to give German
industry a £400 million order for
,1 nuclear power station. This
would help out the German monopoly Kraftwerk Union, which has
been hard hit by the cancellation
of nuclear power stations by Iran.
Irish Foreign Minister Michael
O Kennedy came away from the
Brussels conference of EEC Heads
of State saying t h a t in the long
run the EEC would have no alternative but to develop new energy
supplies from nuclear power.
Nuclear programmes were a fact
of life, he said. He expressed the
opinion that governments would
have to convince the public that
there was ( j i o real alternative to
nuclear power.
The EEC are likely to offer Ireland a loan to meet part of the
cost of a nuclear power station. The
loan would have to be paid back
in time, of course, but in the meanwhile the nuclear industry would
get a substantial order. There have
also been suggestions that Ireland,
the least densely populated country
in Europe, would be a good place
for dumping the waste from Germany and Prance's nuclear power
stations. This is the stuff that is
deadly with radioactivity tens of
thousands of years after it is first
produced.
Mr O'Kennedy may be under
pressure in Brussels, where he made
his statement. But when he gets
back home he will find the Irish
anti-nuclear lobby does not like
whatr he has" been forced to say.
The Anti-Nuclear lobby in Ireland
should be a powerful addition to
the forces which are seeking to
disentangle the country from the
grip of the EEC.
E EC. ELECTION FLOP IN IRELAND
T H E EEC elections were a
gigantic flop in Ireland.
Less than 60% of the electorate
bothered to vote for the characters looking for the well-paid
jobs in Strasbourg. An unprecedented 4% of votes were spoiled
—most of them with such slogans as "EEC No", "No H-Block"
and the like written on them.
In the Republic the EEC elections coincided with the local
elections and the turnout was
no
greater
than
normally
occurs in these. Were it not for
the coincidence of the EEC and
local elections, the turnout in
the EEC elections would undoubtedly have been lower still
and would probably have approached that in Britain, where
only 32% bothered to vote.
It is a tribute to the good
sense of ordinary people that
so many refused to take seriously the elections to this
powerless Assembly, miscalled
a Parliament. The public thus
refused to give further impetus
to Europeanism and showed
widespread
scepticism about
the EEC.
T H E EEC elections, which
were meant to give a psychological boost to Europeanism, have boomeranged on their
initiators. It is quite likely that
they will be seen in time as a
watershed in European integration. For Ireland i h e low turnout has wiped out the shame of
the high vote for joining the
EEC which occurred in the 1972
referendum.
Greenland is likely to leave
the EEC shortly, as they have
now got Home Rule from Denmark and are opposed to the
EEC robbing them of their fisheries and mineral resources.
The a n t i - E E C forces in Denmark had a great victory in the
elections. They are all set now
to win a majority in the Danish
Parliament in the next three
years to have a referendum on
getting out of the EEC, which
would now have massive popular support in that country. In
Britain the derisory 32% turnout shows what people think of
"Europe". It should encourage
anti-EEC feeling in the Labour
movement and help those who
want the Labour Party to give
a commitment to pull Britain
out of the Common Market.
The EEC has shown itself
irrelevant to solving the problems which
beset ordinary
people these days, inflation,
energy crisis, unemployment,
regional
disparities,
overcentralisation of government
and low levels of popular participation and democracy. It is
in fact an obstacle to solving
these problems.
I N Ireland public opinion has
shifted f r o m euphoria about
the EEC in 1972 to cynicism,
disillusionment and disappointment today. It should turn into
active anti-EEC feeling in the
years to come.
The EEC is largely responsible
for the urban~rural tensions
which sparked off the PA YE tax
revolt. The EEC is the main
pressure on
Ireland to go
nuclear.
Ireland- cannot possibly provide enough jobs for
young people leaving school
while bound by the straitjacket
of the Tr?*ty of Rome. The
hundreds of EEC directives and
regulations which become law
each year without being debated or approved in the Irish
Dail or Seanad are a standing
COME BACK TO ERIN, SKILLED MEN
i ^ H E Irish Government is launching a campaign in Britain
to recruit highly skilled workers to
come and work in Ireland.
There are shortages in Ireland
of mechanical and electrical engineers, production engineers, electronic engineers, electronic technicians,
chemical
technologists,
systems analysts, mechanical and
electrical draughtsmen, toolmakers
and fitters.
The Minister for Labour in Dublin is to offer relocation grants of
up to £2,000 to help people move
to Ireland to take up such jobs.
A recruiting team was In Glasgow
the other week trying to sign people
up for these highly skilled jobs.
Most of those who came to enquire
were descendants of the families
driven to the West of Scotland by
generations of famine and unemployment. Liverpool papers likewise
are full of Irish advertisements.
The skilled men of Clydeside are
looking for • work and the men
offering the jobs have managed to
attract half of all American Investment in the Common Market in the
past year.
A N official of the Irish Indus* trial Development Authority,
who was over seeking the 500 skilled
men, said "We are making a bit of
history today. For decades British
companies, and in particular those
in Scotland, have been coining to
Ireland to recruit the brightest
talents. I never dreamed that one
day I would come back to Glasgow
seeking to cream off the best industrial abilities."
Although Ireland has nearly a
10% unemployment rate, the lack
of jobs is for unskilled people.
There are shortages of skilled workers, especially In the highly capital intensive industries the multinational companies are setting up
in Ireland.
PLEASE POST THE IRISH DEMOCRAT
TO ME FOR SIX MONTHS
Name
Address
ENCLOSE
£ f . 3 2 p
to
2 8 3
Grays Inn Rood,
WC1.
According to the IDA spokesman,
"Until this decade we pushed the
prospect of cheap labour in attracting foreign companies. Now we
have woken up to the fact that we
have an enormous pool of Irish
expertise, albeit much of it abroad.
Our job is to lure it home."
"Much of the skilled labour once
seeemed lost for ever, but now we
are discovering, that with equal
wages and good social prospects,
Irishmen are extremely keen to
come back to their own country,
even if it is only the country of
their grandparents."
WHERE TO BUY
DEMOCRAT
ERE is a select list of bookshop* where you can get the
Irish Democrat on your travels:—
H
B E L F A S T , M . K. Duff, 38 Knock
Road, 6; BIRMINGHAM,
Key
Books, 25 E S M X Street, 6 ; DUBLIN,
New Books, «3 East Essex Street, 2;
LIVERPOOL, Progressive Books,
Berry 8treet, Is LONDON, Central
Books, 37 Ofays Inn Rood, WCL;
CoHett'i London , Bookshop, M
Charing Crow Road, WC2; Messrs
Housmaifs, 8 Caledonian Road, N1;
Irish Democrat Book Contra, M3
(trays Inn llai|d,.WCtt NEW YORK
ClTYf
'IftflpkilM^ t M f ^ r t ,
itth j street; RAMSOATE, New
Times MoM, 95 Hit* Street
insult to democracy. It is the
EEC which is the main cause of
putting up food prices in the
shops. In the years ahead there
is the basis of a coalition of
these various interests, cutting
across all party lines, to break
up the EEC and get Ireland out
of it.
T H E EEC election results in
® Ireland have shown how
the organisations calling for a
boycott or a spoiled vote were
in tune with the public mood.
The
organisations
concerned
were the Gaelic League, the
Communist Party, the Irish
Sovereignty
Movement,
the
Irish Republican Socialist Party
and the Provisional Republicans, as well as a number of
smaller groups.
Those who did vote in the
EEC and local elections used
the occasion to register a protest against the Government.
Fianna Fail did badly, but the
main beneficiaries were not
Fine Gael or Labour but the
two
independent
candidates,
Neil Blaney of Donegal and T.
J. Maher the former IFA leader,
who collected the farmers' vote
in Munster. Tomas MacGiolla,
President of Sjnn Fein Workers'
Party, got a good vote and w a s
elected to Dublin Corporation.
So did Community candidate
Sean Dublin B a y Loftus, w h o
has campaigried vigorously to
save the Woad Quay Viking site
from the developers.
The vote of the Republican
Clubs
in the
six counties
amounted to a f e w derisory
thousands.
-.»,'
FRANK RYAN
LAID TO REST
T H E remains of the great Irish
republican and Spanish Civil
War hero, Frank Ryan, were interred at Glasnevin on Friday
June 22nd.. T h e Last Post w a s
played by the Irish Transport
and General Workers' Union
band, and the oration was delivered by Con Lehane. Representatives of both East and
West
German
governments
were present.
Frank Ryan's grave was discovered by Mr Michael O'Riordan some years ago and it w a s
he who set in train the series
of diplomatic exchanges which
ultimately brought Frank Ryan
back to rest in his native soil.
Among those present were his
sister Ellis and a group of Civil
War veterans, Miohael O'Riordan, Frank Edwards, Peter
O'Connor, J o h n Gough, Terry
Flanagan and Eugene Dowling
w h o flew specially from London.
Others present included the
Minister of State at the Department of External Affairs, Mr
David Andrews, and Mr Ruairi
O Bradaigh, leader of Provisional Sinn Fein.
Mr Paadar
C D o n n e l l and George Gllmore
were present, with Miohael
Mullen of the I.T.G.W.U.
A l t o present w a r s Kir T o d d
A n d r e w s a n d t w o m b * Messrs.
David A n d r e w s a n d Nfall A n d rews, s a d tha f i n s o l * v e t e r a n
Mrs McGregor.
M r L s i u g r s * M that F r s n f c
R y a n d e v o t s * t h e w h s t s of M s
l i f t t o tha - s o w s - o f t t s l s n d s n d
the
COLLEY URGES
BRITAIN TO
SEE REASON
T H E R E is no doubt that if Britain
were to face up to the Northern problem and to indicate thai
she would encourage unity, we
would have a new situation, said
Irish Deputy Prime Mliister, Mr
George Colley, at a meeting in
Donegal the other week.
He recalled the speech he made
in Kilmainham Jail on the anniversary of Padraig Pearse's execution.
"It was a suitable time and place
for me to remind the British Government of their fundamental responsibility in the Northern situation" he said.
"The negative guarantee given
to the Unionists Is an obstacle
to reasonable discussion between
all the interests concerned", said
Mr Colley, adding that, as the
Taoiseach, Mr Lynch, had said,
"It is the kind of guarantee which
makes intransigence a virtue and
silences reason."
He said that Mr Lynch, Sean
Lemass and Eamonn De Valera,
had consistently pointed this out.
Such a change of policy by Britain
was entirely compatible with the
securing of the unity of Ireland
over time by peaceful means.
JIM'S DIRTY DEAL
WITH IAN PAISLEY
T T has now been revealed that
< ^ when Tip O'Neill met Jim Callaghan while the latter was still
Prime Minister, Callaghan admitted
privately that he had in fact done
a deal with the Ulster Unionists
about extra seats at Westminster
in return for their support in the
lobbies.
He also admitted, it seems, that
he did not consult the parliamenttary Labour Party at all about the
pact.
When Callaghan was asked about
O'Neill's statement he said he had
"no complaints" about it. Previously
he had told Jack Lynch that he had
done no such deal. The Taoiseach
is reported to have been quite
annoyed when he heard O'NellTe
account of his talk with Callaghan.
for it seems he had been foolish
enough to believe the man.
ONeill in turn was so shocked
by the cynicism of the British politicians t h a t it sparked off his
remark about the North being a
football between the politicians of
this country.
Wood quay crux
TfVERYBODY in Dublin, except
the City Manager and Corporation high officials, are opposed
to the vandalising of Wood Quay,
where the remains of the Dublin
of the Danes are being relentlessly
destroyed by pile drivers and bulldozers.
This terrible act of bureaucratic
vandalism not only destroys the
finest Viking site in Europe but
ends all prospect of tracing a possible earlier Irish city below.
A magnificent campaign has been
waged by Father
X. Martin of
University College Dublin history department. But the vandals have no
ralpet for anybody.
There are
alternative sitae. . A change would
not coet a penny. But the bureauta have dug their heels In end
Government bureaucrat* have
helped them The situation U deptorsMe..*>•.»
' •
8
CONFERENCE
CALLS FOR
RE-EDUCATION
OF BRITISH
pVENTYEIGHT
trade
union
' organisations, three political
,,urUes and ten other organisations
i re represented at a conference
called by the Connolly Association
,:iid held in the NUR Hall, Euston
Road. London, on Sunday 24th June.
• a o member of Parliament, Messrs
A W. Stallard and Frank Dobson
. ere present and the subject was
ihe "International aspects of the
Irish question".
COUNT!"
5
ISSUES!
MICHAEL MULLEN SPEAKS OUT ON NORTH
I N introducing Chapter V on the
North of Ireland, we must unfortunately look back on another
sterile year when little or no
progress was made in arriving at
the much desired objectives of
peace and a just political solution
to the North's problems.
There are a number of reasons
one could point to in explaining this
situation. First of all, the British
Government, although formally a
labour one. was heavily dependent
on the support of minority parties
and was therefore weak and inadequate. Its energies were consumed
with the fight for political survival
and its sense of principle dulled
accordingly, as could be seen from
its shabby parliamentary deals
with right-wing unionism.
There were 80 delegates and 55
visitors, including representatives of
Co-operative political committees,
Irish organisations and the peace
movement. Many of these took part
Secondly, Mr Roy Mason, Engin discussion. But there was no
land's
Secretary or State for the
resolution as it was not thought
North, proved to be an utter disas(iesirable to try to bind people but
ter.
His
sole conception
of
n discuss issues.
discharging his duties seemed to
The main speaker at the morning consist of sitting around the table
session was Mr Anthony Coughlan, , with the British Army and the
M. A. from Dublin (Lecturer in
RUC and then issuing highflown
Sociology). He said t h a t the Labour
statements afterwards about the
movement in Britain should show
war against violence.
solidarity with the Irish people as
a whole by paying attention to what
There was no serious attempt on
the Irish Government had to say
his part to get to the roots of
on the' Northern Ireland problem. violence—to confront the problems
The Irish Government was asking of the North in a political way ard
that the British Government should
to take bold initiatives which might
make it its aim to work towards the promote meaningful negotiation. He
unity of Ireland instead of seeking has left behind a trail of rhetoric
to maintain sovereignty there. It about ending strife which has conwould thereby take away from the
stantly been contradicted by events.
Unionists the veto on political pro- His insensitivity and ineffectiveness
gress which successive . British will be recorded in Irish history.
Governments had granted them.
But Mr Mason's individual failure
is also a reflection of the unwillingWhat Dublin was looking for was
not. troops out or instant with- ness of the British Government to
drawal, but the setting in motion gtapple with the problems of the
of a process which would-culmihate North which it and its predecessors
in Irish unity—something British have done so much to create, and
governments did, not yet want for which Westminster continues
^because of their strategic interests t o retain overall responsibility. It
was so typical and sickening when
in Ireland.
the British Establishment felt vinThe Labour and Trade Union dicated after the European Court
Movement in Britain alone had the on Human Rights last year found
power to turn the Irish policy of
it guilty not of 'torture' of interthe British Government in a prog- nees in the North, but merely of
ressive direction. In doing so, a 'degrading and inhumane treatbasis would be laid for solidarity
ment'.
between t h e people of the two
|
r p H E same smug indifference to
countries against the Common MarJ
- the suffering and outrage of
ket and involvement in war blocs.
the Irish people also found expresIn the afternoon session, Mr sion in the British handling of the
Desmond Greaves, Editor of the
issue concerning the Castlereagh
Irish Democrat said t h a t the object
Interrogation Centre. I n June,
of the conference was to bring out Amnesty International submitted a
the central issues of the Irish report to the British Government
question which were International. about physical and mental malThe position was not that there
treatment of suspects at Castlewere quarrels between Irishmen in reagh and called for a public
a part of the United Kingdom but inquiry. The official response was
that England was claiming sover- to announce a closed investigation
eignty over Irish soil. The motive into police procedures for interrowas largely military and stemmed gation. This was subsequently boyfrom a bad foreign policy based on
cotted by the British National
antagonism to Eastern Europe and Council for Civil Liberties because
a eonsequent arms race. Though of its ineffectual powers.
they did not appreciate it the
framers of this policy Were running
The resulting report, named after
the risk of Isolating Britain within Judge Bennet, was delayed as long
the EEC and losing even more of
as possible because even it grudher influence.
.
gingly admitted that all was not
What was needed was that the well. But it was left to a courageous
Government should give up the police surgeon, Doctor Irwin, to
policy of holding the six counties provoke its actual publication and
at all costs and instead take up expose the attempted whitewash In
Mr Lynch's proposal of a declaration of the intention of renouncing
(Continued from Column One)
sovereignty In the six counties and
working in the direction of a united The true Protestant tradition was
Ireland.
that of Dean Swift, Wolfe Tone,
He then explained how such a Robert Emmet, Thomas Davis,
"fw objective would transform the Samuel Ferguson, W. B. Yeats,
•situation. First it would probably Countess Markievlcz, George Ber•'•ad to a cease fire by the Provlsionard Shaw and 'Sean O'Casey.
";'ls. It would make possible the
Orangism on the other hagd was
"peal of all repressive legislation
not
designed to fight Catholicism
including the Prevention of Terin
the
interests of Protestantism,
rorism Act. Above all, it would give
but
to
flfht
the unity of Catholics
encouragement to those who were
and
Protestants
in the interest of
working for the reconciliation of the
separated communities in Northern air outside power.
Ireland.
He suggested that the time hod
Mr Greaves said that for all his now come to undertake a radical
no ooo votes Mr I a n . Paisley flid reeducation of the British working
not
"'Present the true tradition of class movement, and the people to
Irish Protestantism,'-Vbut the arti- do it were the Irish community in
ficial and sterile or^Tof Orantfsm. Britain.
Why you should read this
A T the London conference there was some scepticism
^ ^
when the platform asserted that British workers only
hear one side of the case as far as the Irish trade union
movement is concerned. We therefore print here, in full,
the speech of Mr Michael Mullen, General Secretary of
Ireland's largest trade union, the Irish Transport and
General Workers' Union, when introducing the chapter of
the Annual Report relating to the north of Ireland at the
conference in Galway held on June 1st.
Though it is a bit long for the Democrat, we urge all
our trade union readers to take the trouble to read it, as it
puts the Irish case as clearly as could possibly be done.
the report by identifying the full
extent of RUC terrorism towards
suspects in custody. His reward was
character assassination in the
British press which rallied to the
noble cause of cover-up on behalf
of the RUC.
In Britain itself, there are continuing indications t h a t the policy
of Westminster is not endorsed by
the British people. The mass circulation Daily Mirror' in August
urged the British Government to
get out of the North in response
to the attitudes clearly revealed in
several opinion polls.
It may be that the British Government and its defenders cannot
tolerate any slight on their reputations, but such dishonesty, neglect and complicity in criminal
assault can only deepen the rift
between Ireland and Britain and
postpone all the more the day of
justice for the North and reconciliation between our two nations.
ters in this part of Ireland to help
counteract the politics of division
and discrimination in the North,
through protesting, and getting the
Irish Government to protest, at
the lack of democracy there, and
at the refusal of Britain to indicate
its willingness to leave Ireland
and encourage Irish unity. Our
country is Ireland and our responsibility is Ireland.
But, in as much as we endeavour
to remove the obstacle to unity provided by the British, we must be
wary of others which exist in the
Irish State itself. That is why there
is a clear and unmistakable need
for all parties to spell out the
kind of united Ireland they envisage. Yet the Government has
definitely been found wanting here, .
It has refused to publish a White
Paper on the subject and has set
up a study group from which a
report is long overdue.
But, of course, deeds and not
words alone are the true test of
sincerity. Of these, there have been
some and they have not augured
well for the cause of unity.
It was certainly no encouragement to reconciliation with the
The pressure on the British Gov- North when Mr Haughey introernment to state an intention to duced his hypocritical Bill on conmake a phased withdrawal from traception as well as little consoIreland should be kept up relent- lation to t b ^ m a n y working class
people south of the border trying to
lessly.
plan their families. Nor.. has the GovThe political parties in the Dail ernment's contemptuous rejection
should be encouraged to adopt a of the Q Briain Committee's report
position of consensus on British on interrogation procedures b y t h f t
disengagement and so present a- Gardai given us cause to hold our
united front to Westminster. Indeed, heads high. This was despite the
the Labour Movement should be to fact that Amnesty International
the fore in advocating' this stance had already accused the Governbecause it should be "the most ment of violating its comqttment .
prominent in upholding democracy, to the Human Rights Chattel''or
opposing ascendancy rule, and the United Nations by not investiseeking the unity of the Trish gating individual allegations of
working class. We can appeal to police maltreatment.
the rank and file worker in the
"' . > .',",'." ' ,
'
North to Join us in the search for
liberty and Justice, while at the
AT OREOVER, there is little attracsame time opposing the divisive
tion for our fellow Workers in
and sectarian politics of the union- Belfast and Dorry In the Governist elite—and the guarantee of sur- ment's timid economic policy which
vival which such politics effectively consists of wishful thinking that
receive from the British. Govern- multinational companies and native
ment through the maintenance of private enterprise will bring us fullpartition.
employment. All the evidence p&frts
Likewise the toleration by Britain
of religious discrimination in - the
North whereby the Catholic unemployment rate is 2i times that for
Protestants, ag jegvpaled. in 1978,
m u s t ' continue tcL* call the credentials of Westminster into question.
A N E encouraging sign In relation
^
to the North is that there is
a growing and widespread recognition that Britain must cease to
support either actively or passively,
the politics of reactionary unionism
and should eventually leave this
island altogether.
Fianna Pail
Administration formally accepts
that this is the correct policy and
both the Taoiseach and his Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Finance
repeated during 1978 t h a t the path
to peace lay through British disengagement. The SDLP has also declared that this is the way forward
for, a t its Annual Conference in
November, the party resolved t h a t
British disengagement was 'inevitable and desirable'. Subsequently,
the SDLP launched its 'new Ireland' campaign to persuade the
British to pursue this course of
action. Although Fine Gael is still
short of seeking a declared withdrawal, that party is at ledst
thinking and talking openly in allIreland terms, therefore giving
some sort of recognition to the fact
that the solution to Irish problems
is primarily a matter for all the
Trich
froo ' f r o m external
Irish nonnio
people free
interference.
t
There is no contradiction in pursuing these two ends and those
who say there is have abandoned
the struggle to win our protestant if thefce"
brothers and s l s t ^ V t n ^ "Apm IriSh Government ..
colonial reaction and in favour of "adopt the^progressive:
the Workers Republic at which policies to'tackle tt*fc problem, the
Connolly dreamed. So long os call for unity would be given added
Britain a w a c f l a ; ^
iikee of strength and meaning.
~
West, Craig and Paisley—-landlord,
industrialist and demagogue,-*
y, delegates, we must
veto on. Irish unity, 19 long will
dUf W*ral and ftolitithey- remain tatrajwigent, foster
..
J.*....
fear and delusion among the protestant working class and. oppress
Catholics within their partitionist
enclave.
' •
and in efforte
T T is the bounden. duty o f ' all
' democrats and labour suppor-
state, a
of
nunlty for
civ
^
H H j P ^
th
WorWunlor^^SJ^W
If**!!!? ^ m X ^ ^ ^ t ' l o n
iTtTtt,,"^ ^hll^Tt,
ference when Mr John TfiMM
proposed a two nation, theory"
resolution to the effect that "tha
majority p o l i t i c a l .roup" In Northern Ireland had "tha
right to deolde the
position of that 8tata."
» : ,,
J-, • ^ :
-" v
Tonk Redmond, one time seeretary of the Manchester
Association, and new ' aw! t h e
Exeoutlwe of the WHM. deeerlbed
th» resehitton as "ffftftiirv " '
had tent down a menage to th*
Republic that they did not want
ta set out of t l » United Kingdom.
_ At the M
„, t h e S S S
, ,ll • ,,, ,
of prisoners at U m T T L h
greatest obetaoto to
Tg ^ J " * * * * * * * *»
Thara was swiHisa
Oliver 0 Oonoghue,
,
-m
!!
w t o f r jgfr.
aromlwswt
I'mfrift.A"-.!
TT'^vf"'
THE IRtSH
I R I S H
COME TO THE BOWER
f(LL you come to the bower o'er the free boundless ocean,
Where the stupendous waves move in thundering motion,
Where the mermaids are seen the fierce tempest gathers
To tov'd Erin the Green, the dear land of our fathers,
you come, will you, will you, will you come to the Bower?
Wi»t you come to the land of O'Neill and O'Donnell,
©f Lord Lucan of old and the immortal O'Connell,
Where Brian drove the Danes and St Patrick the vermin
And whose valleys remain still most beautiful and charming
Will you come, will you, will you, will you come to the B o w e r ?
Where Owen Roe met Munroe and his chieftains did slaughter,
You can visit Benburb and the storied Blackwater
Where the lambs skip and play on the mossy all over,
From those bright golden views to enchanting Rostrevor,
Will you come, will you, will you, will you come to the B o w e r ?
You
The
You
You
Will
can see Dublin city and the fine groves of Blarney,
Bann, Boyne, the Liffey and the Lakes of Killarney;
may ride on the tide o'er the broad majestic Shannon,
may sail round Lough Neagh and see storied Dungannon.
you come, will you, will you, will you come to the B o w e r ?
You can visit New Ross, gallant Wexford and Gorey,
Where the Green was last seen by proud Saxon and Tory,
Where the soil is sanctified by the blood of each true man
Where they died satisfied their enemies they would not run from.
Will you come, will you, will you, will you come to the Bower ?
Will you come and awake our lost land from its slumber,
And her fetters w e will break that our limbs did long encumber,
And the air will resound with hosannas to greet you,
On the shore will be f o u n d gallant Irishmen to meet you,
Will you come, will you, will you, will you come to the Bower ?
(This song is an invitation to the exiled Fenians in America; Lord
Lucan is better known as Patrick
Sarsfield.)
T O R R A M H AN BHAHtLLE
CECOLFAD teastas ar shloite Bhaiie Mhac Oda mhaisiuil
mhuinte—
Treoin do chleachtas gach lo gan lagahd orthu, ol gan cheasna
gan c h u i n s e ;
Leonta lannamhar ceolmhar greannmhar comhachtach caima
cuntach,
Is is mor an t-aiteas go deo bheith eatarthu ar thorramh an
bhairille a dhiugadh.
Stor ni taiscithear leo go d e a r f a : in or na in earra ni chumhdaid,
Ach mor chuid beathuisce is beoir in aisce gan speois da scaipeadh
ar an nduthaigh;
A n dearoil ma thagann gan Ion 'na spaga do gheobhaidh an casca
gan cuntas
Le bol gan baeadh go bord na maidne ar thorrdthh an bhairille a
dhuigadh.
Fona dtearmainn deonach tarraingid foirne dalla gan suite '
' S is tear do bhacaigh gan treorr go tapaidh 'na dhoid gan bata
go siulaid;
N i l stroinse dealbh on gCobh go Caiseal na fos i bhfearantas
Dhubh again
>•
N a c h seottar sealed 'na gcembair i dtigh tabhairne ar thorramh an
Mtairille a dhilugadh.
A S I'm sitting all alone in the gloaming,
* * It might have been but yesterday,
That we watohed the fisher sails all homing
T i l the little herring fleet at anchor lay.
Then the fisher girls with baskets swinging,
Came running down the old stoneway,
Ev'ry lassie to her sailor lad was singing
A welcome back to Bantry Bay.
Then we heard the piper's s w e e t note tuning,
And all the lasstM turned to hear,
As they mingled witti a soft voice crooning,
'Til the music floated down the wooden pier.
"Save you kindly colleens all," said the piper,
"Hands across and trip it while I play";
And a joyous s o u n d s ! song and merry danoing
Stole softly over Bantry Bay.
As I'm sitting all alone in the gloaming,
The shadows of the past draw near,
And I see the loving faces around me
That used to glad the old brown p i e r ;
S o m e are gone upon their last loved homing,
Some are left, but they are old and grey,
And we're waiting for the tide in the gloaming,
!
To
^tojiMHflNm*'
To Mfdt land o V j A . u n e n d i n g ,
v-5
t
M l peacefully from JBentry Bay.
July 1979
SOftGS
EILEEN
HENRY JOY McCRACKEN
Air : The Lincolnshire
^NE day as I strolled along
Broadway,
A vision came into my view.
A vision of sadness and beauty,
A beauty that's given to few,
There was I in the land of the
stranger,
There was she, I'd not seen her
before.
But somehow I knew she was
Irish,
Sweet Eileen from Erin's green
shore.
So swiftly a spell she cast o'er me,
As her lovely form moved on
its way,
That I thought of the mother
that bore me,
And prayed that she would love
me for aye,
And as Eileen gazed sweetly
upon me
With the charm of her grace
ever more,
t was slave to sweet Eileen
McManus,
That fair coHeen from Erin's
green shore.
I quickly approached this young
maiden,
I asked her the cause of her woe,
And she said : "I am crying for
Erin,
The land where the
green
shamrocks grow."
I said: "Just make an end of
your sorrow,
Dear Eileen McManus asthore,
For w e l l marry and ere it's
tomorrow,
I'll take you to Erin's green
9hore."
We will travel the green hills
and mountains,
By the road to the Gap of Dunloe,
And along by the Glens and the
Valleys,
To a spot that is called Aghadoe,
T i s my joy just to see you
contented,
And your tears will be dried
evermore.
My
own
beautiful
Eileen
Mc Mantis,
You'll be home on old Erin's
green shore.
THE QUEEN OF
CONNEMARA
H! by b«at can swiftly float
In the teeth of wind and
weather
And outsail the fastest hooker
Between Galway and Kinsale.
BUt when the white rim of the
ocean
And the wild waves rush together,
She rides In her pride
Like a seabird on the gale.
»
CHORUS
Oh, she's neat, oh, she's sweet,
She's a beauty every line,
She's the Queen of Connemara,
This bounding barque of mine.
When she's loaded dawn with fish,
Till the water leaves-the gunwale
Not a drop she'll take aboard her
That would wash a fly away;
From the Heat she speeds out
.
quickly
Like a greyhound from her kannel
Till, she lands her silvery store the
first
On old Kin vara Quay.
There's a tight shines out afar
And It keeps me from dismaying
When- the clouds are Waek above us
And tha «aa r u n s white with foam
i n a oat In Cawtemaia
There's a wHa-and wee ones praying
To the
ftp*
walked the waters
once
To bring us safely home.
Poacher
(in slow tempo)
' T W A S on the Belfast mountains I heard a maid complain,
And she vexed the s w e e t June evening with her heartbroken
strain,
Saying, "Woe is m e ! Life's anguish is more than I can dree
Since Henry Joy McCracken died on the gallows tree.
"At Donegore he proudly rode and wore a suit of green,
And brave though vain at Antrim his sword flashing lightning keen
And when by spies surrounded his band to Slemish fled,
He came on to the Cave Hill for to rest a weary head,
"I watched for him each night as in our cot he slept,
At daybreak to the heather, to Mac Art's Fort, w e crept.
When the news came from Greencastle of a good ship standing by
And down by yon wee fountain we met to say goodbye.
"He says, 'My
He says, 'My
He kissed me
Saying, 'Death
love
love,
ever
shall
be cheerful, for tears and fears are vain.'
be hopeful, our land shall rise again.'
fondly, he kissed me three times o'er,
never part us, my tove, for evermore.'
"That night I climbed the Cave Hill, and watched till mornmg
blazed,
And when its fires had kindled across the lough I gazed—
I saw an English tender at anchor off Garmoyle,
But alas! no good ship bore him away—to France's soil.
"And twice that night a trampling came from the Old Shore Road,
'Twas Ellis and his yeomen, false Nibiock with them strode.
My father home returning the doleful story told—
'Alas!' he says, 'young Harry Joy for fifty pounds is sold'."
"And is it true ?" I asked her. "Yes, it is true," she said.
"For to this heart that loved him I pressed his gory head.
And every* night, pale, bleeding, his ghost comes to my side—
My Harry, my dead Harry, comes to his promised bride."
Now on the Belfast mountains this fair maid's voice is still,
For in a grave they laid her on high Carnmoney h i l l ;
The sad w a v e s beneath her chant a requiem for the dead,
But a rebel wind shrieks freedom above her weary head.
COME BY THE HILLS
(Air: Buachaill
£ O M E by the hills, there's a
^
And stand where the peaks
the sea,
Where the rivers run clear and
And the cares of tomorrow can
on
Eirne)
land w h e r e fancy is free,
meet the sky and the rocks m e e t
the blossom is gold in the sun,
wait till this day is done.
Come by the hills, there's a land where life is a song,
And sing while the birds fill the air with their joy all day long
Where the trees sway i n time and even the wind sings I n tune,
And the cares of tomorrow can wait till this day is done.
Come by the hills, there's a land w h e r e legends remain,
Where glories of old fill the heart and m a y yet e o n t e again*
Where our past has been lost and the future is yet to be won,
And the cares of tomorrow can wait till this day is done.
THE LAKE OF COOLFIN
' T W A S early one morning Willie Leonard arose,
And straight to his comrade's bed-chamber he goes
Saying, "Comrade, loyal comrade, let nobody know
'Tis a fine summer's morning and a bathing we'll go."
To the lake o f Coolfin t h e t w o comrades soon came,
And w h o should they m e e t but the keeper of game.
'Turn baok, Willie Leonard, do not venture in,
There is deep and false w a t e r in the Lake of Ooolfin."
But Wlflie jumped in and he swam the lake r o u n d :
He soon reached an island — i t was soft, boggy ground.
"Oh, comrade, dear comrade, do not f o l l o w me in,
There is deep and false w a t e r in the Lake of Coolfin."
T w a s very soon after Willie's sister awoke
And unto her mother all sadly she s p o k e :
"Oh, I dreamed a sad dream about Willie last night,
He came to my room in a shroud of snow-white."
Willie's mother arose and she went to the l a k e ;
She called her son's name and she w e p t for his s a k e ;
"Oft, sad was the hour w h e n my Willie plunged in,
There are deep and false waters In t h e Lake of Cooiftn."
To see Willie's funeral, oh, it was a grand s i g h t ;
There were four and t w e n t y young maids, they were all
dressd in w h i t e ;
There were four and t w e n t y young men, th$y were all dressed
in green
Just to show that he w a s drowned in the Lake of CooMn.
THE IRISH DEMOCRAT
PEARSE AS A WRITER IN IRISH
(Hanged July 17th, 1798)
McMANUS
O
BANTRY BAY
July 1979
DEMOCRAT
| HE language and style ate essenI tially the same throughout all the
nes. In this they are significantly
contrast with the language and
. le of the later polemical writings
-11 represented in the "Barr
3 a d h " section of the "Sgribhinni"),
:ch are addressed to a different
,.;::id of audience. Certain grami.aical and stylistic adornments in
;!•=• stories are evidently intended as
ring the language to appear :n
•.••ting, and they are characteristic
; ,:her of the narrator's part than
: the dialogue. But, notwithstanding these, the language of the
. ories is the kind of Irish which
;ld be understood, and even eni. ed, by an unlettered native
: -aker, if, let's suppose, somebody
?re to read them to such a person
..-. a decent accent. And experience
rv-n- the years has shown that these
; ones have provided
suitable
aiding for students whose study
the Irish language was never
Intended to demand from them a
friction of the energy and commit• ?nt devoted to it by Pearse.
In the "Barr Buadh", Pearse is
•..•riting in a more consciously
•literary" style and language—
-•hat he probably conceived as the
::id of Irish which would be written
,;- an intellectual elite if such a
" -:»ss had survived into his time in
j.n unbroken Gaelic tradition. The
i.uiguage and the rhetoric might
1 -,:u-e been conceived by- him as the
Gaelic equivalent of a leader in the
L:ndon "Times" or a speech in
Parliament. In the "Open Letters"
3eart
litreach
do
chuaidh
T.nugha)", where he is addressing
• able personages like Douglas
Hvde, John Redmond, T. P. O'Gon:\iv and Tim Healy, the manner
•••.a style are perhaps somewhat
- ire lofty than a t the normal level
. his leader-writing.
The language and style of the
Pieces in "An- Barr Buadh" move
-.trough several registers, according
the subject, the occasion, and
"-'.? mood. For instance, when he
i.roduces incidents from the old
vrature by way of allusion or
example, he affects a wholssale
itiitation of the "classical" language
K'.d style of Geoffrey Keating and
ciaer 17th century writers, for
instance:
Leightear l dTain Bo Cuailnge,
?.n tan ba mbA gftfahadl Uladh,
-r mbelth d& laochraidh ina
- Jighe othrais. . ." etc.
o:
Leightear 1 gCath Finn tragha,
- n tan do ghabb Ri an Domhain
:uan agus caladh-phort i gcuan
Pinntr^gha, agus a n uair ba chlos
- j cheithre h&irdibh Eireatnn,
•ceala na n-olc. .
etc.
These occur in a leading article.
Hwing
presented
his
literary
illusion in this guise—somewhat as
English intellectual in his time
' aht have produced a translation
- l h e grand style" from Homer
'Hiucydidas—Pearse slips back
n o the normal language and style
:
his polemic, But even at that
'"•el he tends very much to affect
'haisms from the older literature,
!l
as the use of forms like
i:nhail";
"drong"
(alternating
h
"dreara">;
"crann seasta
ha
cuise"; "cAig scUling gacha
" 'fhtmhaine". He often affects a
1(1
of eloquenee which emerges
-'tantly from the old heroic nar' '"•VPS
D
'('irigh iomwbhaidh uathmhar
us easaontas adhbhai—mhtfr
"nsin, 6ir do bh! gach « n n e ag
loladh canamhna a pharaiate
,n
agus do dhearbhulgh
1
go raibh an teanga
. a m 'lleadh a«Us d& marbhadh,
1
hathchumadh agus da hiotn,?,)
an bun 08 Citonn. .
;' h roughout all this lata* Jsuraai'
Of that o b s e w i ^ about an
^ n "native- prose l y t e VWcif
; > followed Pearse frtonrhls earty
j ' .
BY
PROFESSOR R. WALSH U.C.D. W
(Continued from last m o n t h )
Students of literature and of the
other arts in our time tend to feel
uncomfortable about any sharp
deviation from the dogma of "art
for art's sake". The notion that some
of the world's greatest literature
(including Homer) is, in a certain
sense, propaganda, would probably
seem outrageous to some people.
There is no time to enter into an
argument about this here: but, as
far as Homer, for instance, is concerned, there is an important body
of modern scholarship which shows
that the notion is not really so
shocking after all. And we know,
that the aestheticism of the Arnolds
and Paters of this world is not the
whole story of great literature.
Now nobody in his senses is
going to say that Pearse's writings
belong to the world's great literature. and I think Pearse himself
wbuld have been embarrassed by
such a suggestion. But before
going on to take a brief look et
his poetry, I feel it might be well
to come back to something I mentioned at the beginning, the question of art and propaganda. The
fact that Fearse's writings in Irish
are,
explicitly
or
implicitly,
propaganda, need not exclude
them from consideration as art.
Pearse himself expressed his views
on this matter, strongly and
unequivocally, in 1905, when he was
idea of drama.
He said: "If
(the dramatist) has a message to
Cbmmenting on Yeats's sestheticist
deliver to the world he delivers it,
and his work, if great enough, is
true art whether the artist was most
concerned for the advancement of
a cause or for 'art for art's sake'."
The redemption of Ireland from
anglicisation by the restoration of
the Irish language and t h e rebirth
of Gaelic litei ature — this was
Pearse's cause. His mind dissolved
completely in his sense of the inherent nobility of this cause and
of its urgency in his time, and he
had no doubt that art bad a worthy
role in its service.
At this point I cannot resist the
temptation to refer to t h e words of
one of the great propagandists of
a later age, George Orwell: Orwell
was speaking on the BBC in April
1941 about how the events of the
thirties had affected literature and
literary criticism, and in particular
about the frontiers of art and propaganda. He said:
"The writers who have come up
sinc« 1930 have been living in a
world in which not onl; one's Bfe
but one's whole scheme of values
is constantly menaced. In such
circumstances ctotaohment is not
possible. Literature had to became polttifeil, becatfce anything
else would have Entailed mental
dishonesty. One's attachments and
hafcted* wera 4oo"nMP the surfaec
of ooractougaw M ba ignored
Gaelic literature. The poems deserve consideration as serious art
both by virtue of the deeply-felt
personal message and by virtue of
the author's concern for technique,
for fitness of form.
I said at the beginning that only
a few of these poems are free of
overt propaganda. I hope I may be
allowed to use this word, "propaganda", to stand for the propagation of a wave of feeling which
Pearse believed to be vitally and
urgently necessary for Ireland in
his time—and, by his own peculiar
extension of it, for humanity in
general.
From his early youth, Pearse's
mind came steadily under the influence
of
certain
archetypal
images. Some of these can be identified as forms which universally
and timelessly inhabit the human
psyche, which underlie the great
mythologies, and which constantly
re-appear in the great and the
humble literatures of the world: the
Mother archetype, the Hero, Sacrifice. Others are, so to speak, subsidiaries of these, which possessed
Pearse's mind in particular. If we
leave aside for the moment the interesting little poem "A Mhic Bhig
na gCleas", one thing we can say
about all the others together is that
they have to do, in one way or
another, with
the
archetypes,
Mother, Sacrifice, Hero, Death.
rThe Mother figure, with some
of its well-known complexities (Involving heroism, dedication, idealisation etc) plays a major part in
Pearse's life and writings.
The
first two poems In the collected
"Scribhinni",
the
mountainy
woman's lullaby and the monntainy
woman's lament for her son, are
remarkably good efforts in the form
and idiom of the poetry which survived in the oral tradition. The obvious reflection of passages occurring in well-known songs by no
means degrades Pearse's compositions: the generalisation of certain
formulae throughout numbers of
such songs is in fact characteristic
of t h e tradition.
"Mise Eire", which is probably
Pearse's best known poem, is a sort
of descant of four variations on the
theme of Ireland as UK Groat
Mother: she is older than the hag
of Beare—timeless; she gave birth
to the great hero, Cu Chulainn; she
has been betrayed by her own
children; she is utterly alone The
technique of these four brief twoline stanzas reflects Pearse's preelection for the compactness of form
and language and imagery which
he admired so much in Early Irish
lyric poetry.
The pMawapation w*h daath appears in a number of f a n p t One
little m m m V H s UMWP4M* in-
Binne liom na ceol na stoc
Ciuineas do thighe 's a shiorthost.
It takes some time to penetrate
the IrishneSk of the form and idiom
to discover the "mused rhyme" in
which Death is called "soft names"
like "mo ghra".
He is going
slightly farther than Keats: he is
more than "half in love with easeful death". As I suggested earlier
about a similar instance in one of
Pearse's early prose pieces, this
kind of reflex could be quite unconscious. As Pearse matured, the
Romantic poets, Charles Dickens,
and the great English prose-writers
of the 19th century must have had
a great deal to do with determining
his idea of the content and the
forms of a notable literature.
Whatever Pearse's conscious political or cultural Ideals may have
been, he was a proddct of late Victorian English middle-class culture,
and it is in the nature of things
that his unconscious behaviour
would reflect this. People cannot
really disengage themselves fromthe culture in which they have
grown, even if they consciously reject it: they can feel consciously
independent of it only in so far as
they analyse it historically, and this
can hardly ever be more than an
academic process.
Whatever we may think of
Pearse's ideal of the re-birth of
Gaelic Ireland, as conceived by him,
in his time, it could be argued that
it cannot be judged validly in the
light of the role it has been given
in the incoherent politics and t h e confused ideologies of later years.
And yet it cannot be denied that
the form in which he passed it on
made it a dangerous weapon.
The great
historical thinker.
Johann Huizinga, commenting r a
the rhetoric of certain historical'
scholars, wrote a warning -against
what we might call putting legs
under abstractions. I want to conclude with a quotation from Hutzinga's essay:
"The danger is even greater
where, from historical material,
purely political aims form idenl
conceptions, then offered
a«.
'new Mtrth'—ia as a sacred syeteM-1'
of thought forced upon the oajn-'
mori man. Our vision is deliberately obscured here by a horrible
and totally hypocritical confusion
of religion,
mythology,
and*
science. T h e historical conscience
of our time most beware test in
the name of history Wood-thirsty
idols be raised that devour culture".
>• -VKr
'
t
"Hunt ii i i • .11
.
It is often said that Pearse was a.
Romantic. This is true in so far as
he was under the influence of the
romantic tradition hi literature and
maimers, in which he was educated.
It does go some way towards explaining the direction of his energies; but what it explains are
CCftWf A * bhfuH tt ehun vet*
largely incidental details, and it
*
a ohtiitficamh an
should not be overrated as A means
of
Understanding
the
Pearse
phenomenon.
In explaining the momentous impact of the whole Pearse episode,
people tend to say i t e t he. created
a "mjrth" or "a*rtha". TMs J* a
rather loose, unteohnieal use of the
term "MtsW, though it has become
established usage in p r e s e n t l y
sociological discussion of UMTMncrgent nation phenomenon. Strictly
speaWnfc wkftt' Peaew* bended on t o the pmt-me wo*W was net a
"myth!'; but a system of symbols.
The gceat archetypes, and- the
mythical systems in which they appenr, have lie a i i m n l m un it
always present. A INK* Jl^ the
analysis of Pearse's personality in
terms of the aotiVftttob ef» estteizv
universal arehetypee hae- been implied here in s e fa» a*1* seen* vnttd- '
for the interptefcrticm of - his .
writings in Irish. I would venture
to say that a careful study, of the
materials assembled in Ruth Edwards' recent hook would, suggest
that the dominance of these archetypes can be related to certain factors in Pearse's personality and upbringing which are not within my
couMkp^te^
WlmjM
!li»i-;
And this.,perio»o£ ten years . . PeanWft wkMMK but a l m Mttfc us Benfcftante^hriijiiaj, ' l i j ; | | | p | i g | | | , , :
designad4k«y<te^at:>|)i)|i»,ii liiiili.:
reminded ;us, t^.0tflDftgaftda in s o m M g f e o p p t t *
he plugged &
some With or other lurks in every his timfpftiftara •new•tHkffc, that every work ot art has ture is influenced by tb* literary Irish Ireland movement, afc
a meaning and a purpooe-a poh- fashion and taste of his time. I t when a long sequence or events
tical, social Mid religious purpose consists of two four-line stanzas so had left a majority 'of the Irish
, - ^ a d 'tifcft au» watisitc jtiie-' nicely turned to the lcUam 4f the PMPto ti»»«*«r hy-»eed of some
menta mm always coloured br our literary rather more than the oral such medium fer the expression of
prejudices, and beUofs . . . But it tradition,
that
the
derivative national tyent&t,' • j t e j m M M liealso toWw U? Wnufhetag into a character of the poetic Imagery land, the enemies inherent ta these
symbols o r t r t $ ^ t l r 9 p f e a f u bHnd alley, ,because it caused almost escapes us:
sion which was generally imminent
a s m f l a u m i f t t JrttBW vto t i p tp
Rann dorinneas in mo chroidhe after the1 war; ' '•••" • W
tie ther minds ttt a poUtical disDo'n ridire, do'n ard-rifh,
f h e study of PaarMht writings
cipline which, tf they had stuck
Rann do rlnneas do mo ghradh, would seem t o f a v M t h a t t h e " f i r ^ r
to il, weal* Htm untie mental
Do righ na riogh, do'n tssan- dom" tot which he gave kis hft,
hoawty lanmnlfcle":,.
bhas: t
and the nMNrtti of OteM» ftetetod;'
a
lie
Horn 'na soiilse lae
'w w ^ i i tiii tkiu^'MliifeI think it is pretty generally felt
Doircheacht do thighe gidh the same thing, it metinnlans etutiy*
that Fearse* htadftlt of prang In
dubh-chre;
might, I think, show that his ideal
irtsh is his best ccmtrtbtrtiun to
•IP
Sm
defines itself in cultural terms
rather than in narrowly political
terms. But his symbols and the
way he used them make his system
look very like a religion. More particularly, this system of symbols
and the rhetoric in which he transmitted it found a predictable
response in traditional Irish Catholicism, where modern variants of
Christianity, including puritanism,
blend curiously with elements that
survived from a
pre-Christian
world.
iii
July
THE I R I S H DEMOCRAT
a
S H O R T
S T O R l
IN THE BAR OF THE BOADICEA
J1HERE were only three
people
in the bur of the
Boadicea—
an Englishman who looked like
an Irishman, an Irishman
who
looked like an Englishman,
and
myself, whose physiognomy
(as
the saying goes) gives no hint
of any particular ancestry.
The
landlord,
almost
unwittingly,
was being drawn into a conversation about his predecessor
and
his wife, the previous
tenants
of the pub.
After a deal of
coaxing
and probing
he admitted that yes, they did have
to leave rather
suddenly.
"Bills,"
explained,
the present
landlord
a mite
cryptically.
"Booze,"
said
• with the English
the
Irishman
face.
"Well I never!" said the real
Englishman.
"Oh, just a minnit now, Bert,"
protested
the Irishman,
"you
seen her as often as 1 did . . .
comin' down here at
opening
time at ten o'clock in the morning, with a bottle of gin under
her oxter and nothing on her
but a dressing - grown,
half
open."
/The oxter, for the benefit of
anyone not acquainted with the
word, is the armpit; my dictionary tells me that the word is of
Scots origin but I had
always
thought it peculiarly Irish.
You
live and learn !]
"Yes,"
conceded
the
Irishlooking Englishman,
"she did
like her little drop."
"The Bogeys have been here
summona score of times with
ses," said the landlord. "I didn't
know their new address
and
even if I did I wouldn't a give
it them.
No skin of MY nose
what they
owed."
"Too right," said the Irishman.
"I wouldn't 'ave believed
it,"
the Englishman said. "I'd never
'ave thought
they were
like
that."
"Well there you are now,"
said the landlord.
"HE was all right," the Irishman said.
"HE was a nice
bloke."
"He weren't nothing
special,"
said the
Englishman.
I was just about to finish my
pint and make off home when
another
customer
— another
Hibernian — came in,
weighed
down with two bags of shopping.
1 wondered if there was
a pub anywhere
in Ireland—in
particular
a little
back-street
pub
like
the
Boadicea —
where
you'd find the
native
population
outnumbered
like
this. But then maybe there is;
it's a long time since I lived
there
and there
have
been
many, many
changes.
1 ordered another pint and sat
back.
The incoming
Irishman
put
down his two bags and called
for a pint of Ben.
"It's not a great pint," he told
the landlord
undiplomatically,
"but
it's
better
than
that
Watney
muck."
"Thirty-four
pee," said
the
landlord,
unmoved.
"Ent none of it much
cop
nowadays," said the Englishman
with the Irish face.
"Not since they did
away
with the local breweries,"
said
the Irishman with the English
face.
iniuimm n
u
" X 3 u
IfpHE provincial football and hurling championships have now
reached an advanced stage.
Par and away the most impressive
and surprising displays to date
have been giveW by Monaghan in
the Ulster football championship.
Having disposed of Down in the
first round they then overcame
Armagh by two points in the semifinal and they will now contest
their first Ulster final since 1952
against the winners of the DerryDonegal game. Indeed Donegal's
win over Tyrone and Derry's win
over Covan in Breffni Park also
in the 'surprise' category and
there seems little to choose between
the three sides still left in the
competition.
Dublin recaptured much of their
former glory with an outstanding
win over Louth in the Leinster
championship. They will be firm
favourites to beat Wicklow who
ousted Wexford and thus qualify
for yet another final. Their opponents should they qualify will be
either Meath who put out Kildare
in a replay or Offaly who had to
fight
desperately
hard
before
beating neighbouring rivals Laois.
/ 1 0 R K as expected easily beat
Tipperary in the Munster
•football semi-final and they now
await the winners of the KerryClare game in the final. In the
Connaugh football semi-final Roscommon continued to Uisplay their
recent good form with an easy win
over a very subdued Galway. In
the other semi-final Mayo had a
3-12 to 1-10 win over gallant Lei trim
in Carrick-on-Shannon. The final
will be played in Castlebar which
should give an advantage to the
home side.
Followers of the Munster hurling
championship have had two thril)ing semi-finals to whet their
appetites for the final. Age old
rivals Cork and Tipperary provided
a feast of hurling for the 40,000
spectators in Pairc Ui Tsoimh
before the homesters chasing a fourin-arrow
of
All-Ireland
titles,
emerged victorious by a single
point after Pat O'NeiU's last minute
Printed by Ripley Printers Ltd. (TtJ),
Nottingham Road, Ripley, Derby*.,
and published by Connolly fublicatJo/ia Ltd., at 3TO Orays In® Road,
London WC1.
effort to secure an equalising point
just failed. The second semi-final
between Limerick and Clare also
provided great entertainment for
the 25,000 crowd in Thurles with the
Rannerroen reducing a Limerick
lead of twelve points to the minimum before finally failing by four
points.
i^vNCE again it will be the old
^
familiar pairing of Kilkenny
and Wexford in the Leinster hurling
final However they both had to
overcome unexpectedly stern opposition from Dublin and Offaly respectively before booking their final
tickets.
Laois captured the Senior B'
hurling championship by beating
a Very game London side in a replay
and thus qualify for a quarter-final
tilt with Galway in the championship proper.
In a recent tournament game
between Kerry and Offaly the "new
rule" which limits the solo run in
gaelic football to two toe to hands
1979
by
P. J. Cunningham
and one hop w^teJi&MHjteed,. .Thfc
aim of this rule" &jifcording to its
advocates is to limit the number
of fouls committp#! on players who
use this particular tactic. Now cutting down on a number of fouls
and stoppages is of course a very
laudable aim b u t , I must disagree
with this m e t h o d ^ doing it. The
solo run when projperly used is one
of the most thrilling and attractive
parts of our games. Banning its
use simply beoguse it sometimes
results in the less skilful players
resorting to foilt tactics to stop
its exponents seM$S to me to be a
case of throwing: t h e baby out with
the bathwater, if referees imposed
properly the present rulipgWflfcjDersonal fouls thefe would be linSe
need to introduce this drastic and
shortsighted measure.
BY
DONALL
MacAMHLAIGH
"I can't remember back that
far," the landlord said with sly
malice.
The newly-arrived
customer
took a drink from his glass and
a silence settled on the company—a pregnant silence if that
is not too fanciful a way to
describe it.
"This," said the Irishman
the shopping bags, "is a
nice pub."
"Thank
lord.
you,"
said
the
said.
Sheep
"I mean
Street."
take
a look at
"You're back on Sheep
Street
again," the first Irishman said
resentfully.
with
very
"Well, YOU can
what this town was
here long enough,"
Irishman
retorted.
land-
"No, I don't mean it personal," the Irishman explained.
"I
mean to say—no offence
intended—even before you came this
pub had character.
Real character. This is what I'd call a real
old-fashioned
pub.
There's not
many left like it."
remember
like—you're
the
other
• "You can say that again," the
first Irishman — the one
who
looks like an Englishman — said
agreeably.
"Maybe I am."
Defensively.
"I mean," the Irishman
with
the shopping bags appealed
to
the others
present.
"Sheep
Street was alive then; you began at the Bird in Hand and
you went to the Cross
Keys
and from there you went over
the road to the Plumber's
Arms
and then back over again to the
Ram and the Bear . . ."
"They ruined this town," the
man with the shopping * bags
said suddenly.
"I beg your pardon ?" said
the
landlord.
"All this modernisation
and
development
— so-called — and
the way all the old pubs have
been closed and pulled
down.
Look at Sheep Street,
cut in
two and left like a
race-track
now. You wouldn't have a lease
of your life crossing there.
Not
to mention
that
curse-of-God
shopping precinct.
It's not the
same town at all."
"1 don't know," the landlord
said, "1 wasn't here before
thejL.
changed it?'^
' y 5 "
"T*
"You gotta have
progress,pi
said the Englishman
with the
Irish appearance,
"things
can't
stand
still."
"There's
progress
and
progress, but that's not what I'd
call progress — what
happened
here in this town," the Irishman
drinking the pint of Ben Truman
"Everyone
wasn't on a pubcrawl like that," the first Irishman objected,
and it occurred
to me that they must
have
known each other at some time
in the past — that there
was
maybe a bit of needle at Work.
"Begor then I saw you often
enough legless coming out of
the Admiral Rodney," the Irishman drinking the pint of Ben
remarked.
"If I did I was drinking
me
own," came the
answer.
"Did anyone
say that
you
weren't ?"
"I'm not saying that
anyone
said 'that I wasn't."
"So what are you
arghin'
about,
then?"
"I'm arguing
about
nothing
at all,", said the Irishman
with
the English cast of features.
That seemed to sum it up to
me, as well, and I finished off
my own pint to leave.
Enough
is said to be as good as the
proverbial feast . . .
CONNOLLY ASSOCMiHON
Results of Draw for Holiday in Ireland made May 25th 1979.
Ticket No.
Winner
Sold by
13049
First prize, f r e e r e t u r n a i r tickets f o r t w o o r £120
C. Liston
Mrs Dexter, Loughborough, Leics.
5375
Second Prize, £40
J. O'Farrelly, c/o Bo vis Site, Thorpe, Egham J. Horan
member of the
A FOUNDATION
Connolly Association, Mr Bob
4514
Mr Hawthorn, Sunderland
Fairley of Dromore, Co. Down, has
been given a high honour in his
trade union.
7966
C. McCarthy, London NW2
CONNOLLY MAN HONOURED
R. Gibbs
Fourth prize, £5
Winner
Consolation, prizes £ 1 each
2502
1479*
2289
10941
11909
4332
5871
12799
6902
At the recently held National
Committee, at which several resolutions on the six counties were discussed, he was elected General
Office Trustee.
The union is the Amalgamated
Union of Engineering Workers, the
second largest in Britain, representing one and a quarter million workehrs, and one of the most influential as it represents all types of
Engineering workers.
3?55
HOUNSLOW MOTION
on of its Executive
^ J N the motion
Hounslo
Committee,, Hourislow
Trades
Council has piassed a resolution
calling for the repeal of all emergency legislation in the six counties,
tlft release of all prisoners detained
under emergency powers of Diplock
Courts, such prisoners being tried
. by Jury where evidence exists, a
declaration of intent by the Gov-
(Third fcrize, £10
ernment to withdraw from .^Northern Ireland, the necessary action
support and solidarity frorii the
British trade union and labour
movement to secure these objectives.
The Hounslow Trades Cqfiiicll
sent a delegate to the Connolly
Association's conference on June
24th. He was Mr David Mallon.
15388
J09292
17
%417
5632
«""*
12104
12809
3991
14955
7707
4977
James Noone, Manchester 15
Mr Andrew*, London E l •
C. Nicholson, o/o Wheatsheaf, SW17
D. J. Taylor, Dartford, Kent
D. Sutton, Parkhurst Prison
Barbara Garvin, Southampton
Jack Dromey, London NW6
Mick Beamish, London E l
Tony Whelan
Ted Murphy, London CI
Tins Bradley* London 8JE2
K.BrlnB6u,LondonSWl6
Mrs Mary Mttkten> Loddon W8
j Palmer, o/O.ft Huggett, London E8
Dot Lee, London C3
M)«k Beamish, London E l
J. NfMy, London E8
J. Kyne, London, SW2
J.WMcCarthy.Ul^ster
B. Haran, Hastemere
The Association
and by buying tioktti,
We will be using the
oause of a united. Ii
L. Daly
F. Broughton
J. Crowley
T. Protheroe
B. SuJton
Winner
M. Jempson
M. Jempson
At Dance
T.Finn
J. Bradley
ss
. Jempson
•Jempsqn
A.Formolli
£
m
Winner
, by selling
the Drawrfc for the