Connolly Association No 549 November 1989 40p Founded 1939 Organ of the

his sisters Bridie otograph: Peter nt, London.

Gerard Conkm, a free man, greet Brennan and Ann McKernan.

Nacdiarmid. Convrieht Indei

THERE arc now a few hundred people who know for certain that they haw had their names placed on loyalist: death lists by soldiers and policeman In the north of Ireland. For flwit will come as little surprise The most extraordinary aspect a b o u t the unfok'ing saga of collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and the security forces have been the expressions of incredulity by th i authorities. There is nothing new about these contracts. They are an every day practice in the province and there is no shortage of evidence to demonstrate this fact.

Deputy chief constable John Stevens' efforts to root out individual wrong doers are almost farcical. Even if his search for scapegoats does not meet the same fate as John Stalkers'it is likely to be of about the same use as a public relations exercise. The day after, he reports yet another leak could be brought to light ridiculing attempts to present the problem as just a few "bad apples". The soldier promoted after being convicted of passing information to the UVF provides an iilustratibn of how seriously the British army regard these "breaches of discipline". 1 The leaks have, however, turned the spotlight once again on the army's most discredited regiment: the UDR., Even before the current spate of leaks die decision to equip the Ulster Defence Regiment with plastic bullets had been greeted with outrage by Irish nationalists of all persuasion. This

•uniquely sectarian and undisciplined regiment is being brought into the front line of the authorities efforts to

[deal with civil disorder, a weapon

which is tempting to use, innacurate and lethal.

With typical arrogance, the British government has faced down all critics of its decision. The leaks have if any th ing stiffened i ts a t t i tude. Margaret Thatcher's first public action when they came to light was to jet'to the north for a morale-boosting visit tQ^a UDR barracks where she spoke of her admiration for this "very, very, very, brave group of men". The following day Sinn Fein issued a document of over seventy pages in length consisting entirely of court appearances by members of the regiment.

One hundred and thirty members of the UJDR have been convicted of serious crimes inc luding rape, robbery, arson and murder. It is known... t h a t many ho ld dual membership with loyalist para-military groups and that the regiment provides these death squads with one of their main sources of arms, training and information. On occasions members of the regiment have staged fake patrols and road blocks to carry out killings which have then been claimed by loyalist paramilitaries.

One of the early , promises pf the increasingly discredited Hillsborough Accord was that it would lead to the disbandment of the UDR and some Irish politicians have again called into question the regiment's continued existence. It seems, however, that the issue is not being pressed at the inter-governmental conferences and the British at t i tude is unyielding, nevertheless a clear commitment By the British Labour Party that an i n c o m i n g g o v e r n m e n t wou ld

FREE AT LAST THE brilliant photo by jPeter MacDiarmid catches the pain and triumph in Gerard Conlon's face, pain after fifteen ears in prison, though innocent of any crime, triumph between his gaolers failed to break; his spirit. His defiant words to the awaiting reporters showed his determination to speak but against the evil system which imprisoned him, Paul Hill, Caroline Richardson and Patrick Armstrong.

Powerful pv to free Blrml

A f t e r t o ? their referring „ ... innocence Conlon's first th< were for the Birmingham Six and need to get them freed. The principle people working for the release of the Guildford* Four, Alaister Logan, Michael insher and Robert Kee have all asfced the authorities to urgently look into the other cases, The Birmingham Six, the question of the innocence of the Maguires and the need to clear the name of Guisseppe Conlon, Gerard's father, who died in prison. Like his son he was innocent of any crime. j t

"The pressure for the release of the Birmingham Six is now unstoppable," leading campaigner for the 'Six' said the day before the Four were released.

"It seemed to us that the Guildford Four had a higher mountain to climb, given that the people involved included senior law officers, including a former attorney general, M u t e r of the Rolls and the Chief of the Metropolitan Police.

"What Lord Denning called 'an

disband the UDR would be widely supported. Indeed it would be seen as tangible evidence that Labour was seriously committed to its policy of reforming the Northern Ireland statelet with the aim of eventually re-unifying Ireland.

One of the major arguments against precipitate moves towards Irish unity has been the numbers of guns in the hands of loyalists and the risk of a violent Protestant back-lash. Priority should surely therefore be given to removing the main source of these weapons. Labour correctly stresses the necessity of obtaining the m a x i m u m c o n s e n t f r o m the Protestant community in the process of re-unification but this would be far more likely to be forthcoming if they did not have their own sectarian militia armed to the teeth.

Unfortunately Labour again looks set to fudge the issue. At a fringe meeting at Labour Party conference Labour's spokesperson on Northern Ireland, Kevin McNamara, evaded a direct answer to a question about the UDR's future with a strange piece of double logic. He responded by admitting that the regiment had an appalling record and was widely feared by northern Irish nationalists. However, he said, Labour had to be "even handed" and while nationalists might find the regiment objectional many Unionists looked on it as a source of protection. Exactly the same points could be made about the Belfast Brigade of the IRA but Labour's newly adopted policy review does not propose to legalise, finance, arm and train this body.

Fltwi Conor Foley

appalling vista' of police and judicial collusion now opens up , " he added.

Mr May said that the shock decision — about which nobody including the prisoners were told, — sprang from the desire by the judiciary to avoid a mauling similar to that which followed the Birmingham Six appeal, rejected in January 1988.

"The public scrutiny of the British legal system then was due to be repeated next January when the Guildford appeal was due to be heard, with US Senators, foreign MPs and religious leaders from around the world ready to fly in."

But Mr May emphasised that the day was tinged sadness too. "Why have these people spent so long i t gaol? If'. e Four are innocent why did Anne Maguire spend 11 years behind bars?

"Why did Guisseppe Conlon have to die in gaol?"

The Guildford Four are now expected to play a leading role in the campaign to free the Birmingham Six.

The case is due to be heard before the UN commission on Human Rights in New York in January.

fer forced confessions "PAUL Hill would not have his statement of guilt and the Guildford Four would never have been convicted if it wasn't for the Prevent ion of Terror i sm A c t " C O N O R FOLEY, N A T I O N A L ORGANISER O F THE CON-NOLLY ASSOCIATION explained to the Irish Democrat, on the day of release of the Guildford Four.

Mr Hill was the first person ever detained under the Act, just one day after it was rushed through the House of Commons in response to outrageat the Birmingham bombings.

Conor Foley added that it was due simply to the length in custody without access to a solicitor that he

was under pressure to incriminate himself and others.

"His fifteen years in prison as an innocent man have been a living indictment of the Act. We urge all democrats to call for its repeal," he said. '••»

Of the four , Paul Hill has had the harshest treatment in prison. He has been moved to different prisons on SO occas ions a n d has s p e n t t he equivalent of four years in solitary confinement, including a stretch of 10 months.

He has been awarded compen-sation for beatings he has received and has had to suffer the humiliation of being strip-searched before and after every visit f rom his family.

The key tor getting consent (Indicated in Emmet Stagg's speech in Glasgow)

EMMET Stagg, Labour Party of Inland T.D. for Kildare, was in Glasgow on 27/9/89 to deliver the Desmond Greaves Memorial Lecture. He shared the platform in the TGWU building with Conor Foley, recently appointed Organiser of the Connolly Association and John Foley, Chairman of the Glasgow Branch which was sponsoring the Lecture.

The lecture, entitled "The British State and Irish Unity", explored the ideas of British neutrality and unity by consent before dismissing them as bankrupt concepts, An occupying power cannot have a neutral status. The real question now is whether Britain, admitting the fai lures of its past policies and the redundancy of _ its continuing pretence, will now' embark on the only remaining option which it hat hittorically denied the Irish people—unity and self-determination. Unity by content remain verbiage unless and until a strategy it developed for obtaining that content. . . .

Developing this theme, Emmet Stagg stated IrWl nationalism hat for too tag foe—ill on thi role of Britain and does not

a radical social and He referred positively to

SDLP attempts to broaden the agenda by forcing Irish nationalism to tcek to win

positively Northern Protestants to a vision of a new United Ireland. A practical non-sectarian programme is now required incorporating radical initiatives on a number of fronts to build a broad popular coalition. Firstly, Britain should make an u n a m b i g u o u s constitutional statement on the future of Northern Ireland ie., that it is in the political, economic, social and moral interest of all the British and Irish peoples that a united Ireland is created and that Britain will work with the Irish Republic to win the consent of the population of Northern Ireland. This would be qualitatively different to a British declaration of withdrawal and would emphasise rather a positive commitment to Irish unity. Such a statement would create an irresistible momentum in the sphere of economic and social policies and would also remove the rationale for terrorism.

It would alto give impetus for unbedding the sectarianism endemic throughout Ireland in matters of health, education and personal liberties. What is needed is a joint cafflpagin to promote thi agenda, involving political and trade union activists in both Britain and Ireland. The formation of group! such at "Time to Go" greatly enhances the prospects of such a campaign. /

, Crtaral Secretary,

By Conor Foley

National Organiser of the

Connolly Association

I id . : . ; i ,.

of Sinn I ein lo a nit •eting Ul /III w ene ol the Brit ̂iiton 1 bombing ie.vv than a /„„. night i. Uli" the Deal' I bombing was inert •diblv I pro i'ol j i

inviting disastrous publicity from the media , b u t even if the s teward ing had been t ighter it would have been diff icult to prevent i sola ted hecklers f rom d i s rup t ing the proceedings . Deal ba r racks is not that fa r f r o m Brighton and it wou ld have been qui te possible for co l leagues of the ten mar ines who died there to have been a m o n g s t the gate-crashers .

Fa r t o o of ten groups campaign ing f o r I r i s h r e - u n i f i c a t i o n p r e s e n t t h e m s e I v e s , i n a d v e r t e n t l y o r o therwise , as cheerleaders for Sinn Fein. In doing so they isolate themselves by selecting a pa r ty which does no t have major i ty suppor t in either the nor th or the sou th of Ireland or even amongs t the minor i ty in the nor th . T o most o r d i n a r y people, singling o u t this g roup , amongs t all the o t h e r s which s u p p o r t re-uni f ica t ion , simply implies suppor t for the m e t h o d s of the IRA. It should not be necessary to have to restate these a r g u m e n t s but it seems that s o m e p e o p l e r e g a r d p u t t i n g Republ icans on political p l a t fo rms as a poin t of principle regardless of the

London Scene by DONAL MacCRAITH

Page Two THE IRISH DEMOCRAT November 1980

Labour Party Conference Brighton beautiful

LABOUR Party conference held few surprises for Ii sh activists with trade union votes igain being wielded against calls to r British withdrawal a n d the l e a d e r s h i p s l a n d e r i n g supporters of Irish re-unification Kevin McNamara also enter tained us with one of the worst speeches of his entire political career .

At a fringe meeting McNamara equivocated a b o u t the role of the Ulster Defence Regiment a n d told a relative of one of the Gui ldford Four that he would d o better to go and ask the Tories for suppor t . On conference f loo r , Labour ' s spokesperson lor N o r t h e r n I r e l a n d m a r r e d an unusually construct ive debate by insinuating that the movers of a Time To G o resolution were "flirt ing with parami l i ta r ies" a n d had no place in a democrat ic par ty . Despite, or because of , his speech the resolution at t racted i respectable 600,000 votes.

Hie Labour Commi t t ee on Ireland, the main Irish pressure g roup in the par ty , have rightly condemned McNamara ' s " c h e a p and nasty smea r " . Unfor tunate ly , to a certain extent , they exposed themselves to it by organising a fr inge meeting with Ge r ry Adams M P on the first day of conference.

Of c o u r s e , a s a n e l e c t e d representative of a significant number nt Irish people, Gerry A d a m s has a perfect right to address meetings in this country. Indeed since the b r o a d c a s t i n g r e s t r i c t i o n s w e r e imposed last year , he has no o ther way of communica t ing idrectly with British people. It was undoubted ly for these reasons that the LC'l decided to stage the meet ing. However, their ac t ions can only be seen as counte r -product ive in their overall political impac t .

To bring the President of Sinn Fein to a meeting at the scene of the Brighton b o m b i n g less than a for tn ight after one of the biggest IRA opera t ions in Britain was incredibly p r o v o c a t i v e . S l o p p y s t e w a r d i n g placed both him and his audience in considerable danger , as well as

Brent helps Irish disabled D I S A B L E D j o b seekers in the Irish communi ty are being encouraged to apply for new p o s t s a s Benefit Officers a n d Clerical Off icers with Brent Counci l in north-west London on the basis of (heir skills and abilities, knowledge a n d experience

11 is v ery c o m m o n lor disabled people to experience discrimina-t ion soon as they declare that they have a physical or learning disabili ty, or mental heal th condi t ion .

The Council is seeking disabled people with a variety of numeracy , literacy and clerical skills, to fill key pos t s ir. its expand ing Benefits Sections.

If any disabled person, appo in t ed to one of these jobs , requires an adaptation to a building, special equipment or add i t iona l facilities to enable them to work , the Councii will d o its best to ensure that these things are dwne.

I G W U member S tan Quirey, co-o rd ina to r of Brent Irish Advisory Service, welcomed the Counc i l ' s moves and hoped that it would be the f irs t of many, initiatives to target disabled and Irish people into j o b s work ing lor the borough .

"There is a d i sporpor t iona te n u m b e r of disabled people within the local Irish communi ty , and they a re o f t e n d i s c r i m i n a t e d a g a i n s t in employment simply because of their d i s a b i l i t i e s o r m e n t a l h e a l t h cond i t ion .

" W e meet many Irish people w h o

are physical ly disabled fol lowing an accident a t work, or w h o have a mental hea l th condi t ion due to the stresses of migrat ion f r o m their family and h o m e l a n d to seek work in this lonely, s t r ange ci ty ."

The j o b s a n n o u n c e m e n t has also been welcomed by m e m b e r s of Brent I r i s h M e n t a l H e a l t h G r o u p and by g r o u p s working with Irish adults w h o have learning disabilities. ITiey will be encourag ing Irish disabled people to apply f o r the posts.

Any d isab led person w h o is keen to find out more should con tac t Nick C a l l a g h a n , H o u s i n g B e n e f i t s D i v i s i o n , 6 th F l o o r , M a h a t m a G a n d h i House , 34 Wembley Hill Road , Wembley, Middlesex or t e lephone M r Callaghan on 900 5566.

Irish for Women BRENT Women's Centre at 232 High Road , Willesden, which describes itself as "a communi ty and resource centre for all women in Brent" , is has s tar ted a ten-week Irish language course as part of its programme of classes and workshops.

An Irish women's g r o u p meets at the centre on the first Friday of the m o n t h f rom 6.30 to 9pm, a n d a new Irish Lesbian g r o u p meets on the last Fr iday of the m o n t h at the same t ime. For: more details^ phone t h e Centre on 459 7669;

DON'T STAY UNSKILLED

impact of doing so. It reflects a basic confus ion abou t the role of organisations campaigning.for Irish re-unification in this country.

Firstly, the Irish people would have a right to unity and independence even if the IRA did not exist so the focus is wrong. Secondly, the IRA's military campaign is aimed at sickening the British public and breaking the will of the British government to remain the north of Ireland. Many Republicans are geniunely sorry at the methods they feel it is necessary to use and certainly do not need the British left to cheer them on. Thirdly, as the late Desmond Greaves has pointed out, the British left can sit and debate their attitude to the IRA until the small hours without affecting anything. Their support does not bring the IRA a single gun, nor would their condemnation cost it a bullet. The wisdom, or otherwise, of the campaign will be judged in Ireland.

Our task, in this country, is to organise the maximum possible pressure on the British government to set in motion the process of withdrawal from Ireland and limit its room to prop up the statelet through repression. This means drawing together the broadest possible coalition against each infringement of civil liberties while using them to expose the fundamentally undemo-cratic nature of Northern Ireland.

The LCI meeting in Brighton narrowed our potential base of support, both in opposition to the broadcasting ban and support for the Time To Go campaign, by diverting the debate about free speech into one of attitudes to violence. On an issue where we actually have the support of Labour's front bench they chose to deliberately isolate ourselves and polarise the atmosphere on the question of Ireland in a way which suited only the closet Unionists in the party's leadership. Hopefully the lessons will not be forgotten after the bruises have faded.

Conor Foley

Ineffectiveness of PTA proved by GfrifeHor* Four release says Connolly THE Connolly Association is lamcfaing a new updated briefing document on the 1989 Prevention of Terrorism Act. Hie briefing provides a concise summary of the case against the Act and takes into accomrt the changes made to it when it became a permanent piece of legislation earlier this year. The Connolly Association ' has been campaigning against the PTA since it was introduced 15 years ago and welcomes the recent decision by the Trades Union Congress to oppose the. Act. Hie Association hopes that the TUC will now take steps to educate their membership about the PTA and can provide speakers and more information on request.

Welcoming the launch of the briefing, Conor Foley, the Connolly Association's new National Organiser, said "the PTA has longiieen criticised as draconian and arbitary but with the release of the Guildford Four we have

an official admission that it is ineffective. Only a tiny, proportion of those detained under the act are ever charged with offences and now tbr credibility of so open to question , „ „ . were the first vistims of the PTAand tfc-only evidence prodaeedagtfast tiwaNn court were statements, extracted fhom them under the Act, whfcfc barermm been proved to be untrue. Tbeyspeat fifteen years in prison as adlrectresrt of the PTA. It Is difficult to tMak of a

"greater indictment". The briefing is the first of an

occasional series produced by t|K Association aimed- at keeping British trade unionists* democrat* members of the bisk informed about major issues c Copies are available priced £0 p&p) or £3.00 for 10. Cheques t be made payable to Ct Publications.

T H E E u r o p e a n Social F u n d ( E S F ) in Brussels has agreed to pay u p to half a million p o u n d s this year to the Migran t Tra in ing Scheme (MTS) , ini t ia led by the Associat ion of L o n d o n Author i t ies , t o provide t ra in ing oppor tun i t i e s for Irish a n d o t h e r young migrants .

The Camden-based MTS is providing up to 200 places across London for Irish and other migrant youth on training courses in nine London borough, which have agreed funding in cash or kind to match the ESF grant.

Brent Irish Advisory Service, which plays a leading role in highlighting the training and employment needs of local Irish people, and provides " w o r k experience" placements, welcomed the 56 new places in Brent.

The Innisfree Housing Association in Willesden Green plays a key role within the MTS scheme by providing temporary accommodation across London for MTS trainees who are unable to start the training courses because of homelessness.

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November 1988 i _ A„

" 3 n J s A n

» ; i By Peter Be?*

Rage Th ree

SIR Walter Raleigh? Oh, yes. A nice, wellrmannered sort of chap, wasn't

,he? Threw, bis cloak over a puddle so that Elizabeth I wouldn't muddy her Shoes. And.j^coww... didn't he bring back the first potato from the New "World? And tobacco! We mustn't, forget that most important addition to our civilisation!

That's about all the average schoolchild is taught. To those with a more prying historical eye, Raleigh emerges as the architypal Renaissance English gentleman — an explorer, poet, scientist, historian, pirate and

-soldier. Yes, that's all admitted. But one thing not mentioned in English •history is that WalterRaleigh was also a mass murderer.

i t 'happened in November, 1580. The .place — that favourite area of

t o u r i s t a t t r ac t i on , the Dingle •Peninsula.

Smerwick, which takes its name f rom the English 'St Manr's Wick', is situated on the edge of a fine harbour, beyond which you can see the

.Brandon Mountain and, to the north, "the swooping outline of the Hiree Sisters. $efore you reach the village, you turn up abroad which leads on toa small path that will take you to the

•end of the promontory, moving along a narrow ridge above the cliffs.

'Here you come to ,a set of earthworks called Dun an Oir, the fort ^ff-fold. Hie earthworks h a d ^been raised by James F i tzmaur ice Fitzgerald m July, 1579, when he landed m Diijgle Bay to strike the -spark of insur rec t ion agains t .'England. Andbere, over a year later, »tfce -English were to commit an atrocity which became a European tsymbol of dupjidty and barbaric

Colonisation resisted In the *Irish were fiercely

resisting the English colonisation of •Hie T u d o r s and s t r ik ing f o r independence. Ibe new Lord Deputy, 'Lord Grey de Wilton, had arrived with a fresh army in July to teach the Irish 'savages' a lesson. It was he who was taught the lesson in August, when

?the Irish gave him and his army a -bloody nose at Gleann Maolura (see Irish Democrat, August, 1989). To assist the Irish, Pope Gregory XIII,

with the aid of Philip II of Spain, bad raised a Papal army. They were recruited in both Italy and Spain and commanded by Sebastiano di San Giuseppe f r o m Bologna. They numbered only 1,000 men but took to Ireland arms and ammunition for 6,000 in-order to supply the Irish.

Ibis force landed in Dingle Bay and took up their positions .in die earthworic fort of Dun an Oir. The fort was 350 feet in length aad 100 feet wide. T h e ' c ampmas t e r ' .was Alexander Bartoni of Florence. He fortified it with 14cuhrerins,or small cannon. During October'Sebastiano held a council of war with Gerald Fit2geraid, the Earl of Desmond and JamesEustace, Viscount Baltmglas.

News of the landing of the small Rapal army reached Lord Deputy Greytiii Dublin. TheEarl of Ormonde had alrady made a reconnaisaneebut b»d been forced back to Kilkenny to face a threat from .Baltingtas. Grey, smarting under his August defeat by the Irish, was determined to have vengeance. He left Dublin at the end of October and headed for the Dingle peninsula. He. arrived in Dingle and had to wait for the fleet of Admiral William Winter as it carried the necessary siege guns required to attack the position at tDtin an Oir. Winter a r r i v e d on S a t u r d a y , November5, 1580.

Oliver Plunkett In tthe fort Sebastiano had ibeen

joined by the Papal Legate, Oliver Plunkett. Plunkett was a member of a family whose .descendants would include St Oliver Plunkett, hanged, drawn and quartered in London in 1681, beatified in 1920and canonised

jn :I9?5;*also iCount G. ;N. Plunkett, Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the

'KHl'i^aiMept'- Maiy* TOWitfc£tt. executed in 1916, and Edward Plunkett, Baron Dunsany, the famous author.

With Oliver Plunkett in Dun an Oil were Father Laurence Moore, an Irish friar, and William Walsh, secretary to Father Nicholas Sanders. They acted as interpreters between the Papal army commander and the Irish. There were also a few Irish soldiers in the fortress along with many of the local

population, the elderly and women and children, who had retired into the fortifications at the arrival of Grey's army.

On Monday, November 7, Grey drew up his forces before Dun an Oir. The next morning Sir Jacques Wingfield's artillery began to bombard the fortifications. The fire was deadly accurate and Sebastiano lost many of his guns. That nighrGrey advanced his trenehes'to withiriWO yards Of fee fort. Walter Raleigh was given command of the entrenchment and managed to fight bank, counter-attacks. The next day, Grey's artillery demolished the remaining heavy guns of the Plapal army.

Although Sebastiano had three months food supplies.and plenty of arms and ammunition,, he did not have field guns with which to stand up to Grey's artillery. On thcavenmg of November -8 -he sent Alexander Bartopi to Lord Grey.iJtfc«as wifling to surrender on terms of safe conduct back to Corona, in Spain; tht port from which hisforcehadsailed. Grey replied that since there were Spanish in the fort • they wauldrlnve~to make separate terras, notwithstanding that Sebastiano was commander-in-chief.

In the fort, Plunkett urged Sebastiano.to fight on. He knew the fate that awaited any Irish who fell into the hands of fee English. However, the next day,'Sebastiano,

along with the commanders o f the Spanish forces, Stefeno San Josepho and: the Duke of Biscay,as. well as his Italian ^lieutenants, Hercules Pisano and Alexander Bartoni, went to speak with Grey personally. Oliver:Plunkett went with him as official interpreter.

Alnwisesurrender The result of the negotiations was

that Sebastiano surrendered his force of -700 survivors. -It was the understanding of the Italians, Spanish and Irish that Grey had granted Sebastiano terms. Grey later claimed that he had given no promise of safe conduct or even a promise that the lives of his defeated opponents would be spared. The vicious anti-Irish racist poet Edmund Spenser, who was with Grey, was quick to echo his patron and write that no guarantees had been made. If they had not, why did

The Importance of

(The first of an occasional series on the ABC of Politics)

THE beginning of wisdom in politics is to recognise the importance of State borders, irrespective of whether you approve of them or not. You can only afreet events fruitfully if you work in accordance with the political laws of motion of the State you live and work in, for every State has its own special circumstances. Thus you cannot hope to affect American politics if you live and work in Britain, no more than you can usefully decide things in British politics if you live in Irleand.

The California State Legislature — which covers the sixth largest economy in the world — has just adopted the MacBride Principles by a

! big majority, despite intense lobbying i by the British Government to try to stop them. It is a victory for the great work for Ireland by Irish people and American friends of Irelandin the US. Proof positive of what can be done once people stop looking backward, put nostalgia behind them and get i nvo lved in i n f l u e n c i n g the organisations of the country they have moved to, even if only temporarily. There is said to be some argument these days in Noraid about whether they should get involved in this kind of political work or should confine themselves to traditional fund-raising

activities for the folks back home. The MacBride campaign 's successes should give a clear answer to that.

And in Britain? The Connolly Association has always urged Irish people here to get involved in British' politics — for the sake of Ireland as well as to defend their economic interests while living in thiscountry. If they are workers they should join a trade union and be active in educating its non-Irish members about Ireland and getting it to press Labour to support a policy of Irish reunification. By becoming members of the C. A. itself, the oldest and most experienced political organisation of the Irish in Britain, they put themselves in the best position to influence both the Irish community and organised British opinion through the Labour movement. As well as by playing a part in Time to Go activities.

The best advice Sinn Fein, Labour and progressive organisations in Ireland can give those who look to them from Britain is that they should work politically in the British movement. For in practice that is the best way they can help the movement back home. And it is for those living in Britain to decide how best to act there, in accordance with British political conditions, just as it is for those who live in Ireland to work out what to do there* whether North or South. In other words you carry the can for what you do in the political unit you live in. It is irresponsible to interfere across State boundaries when you are unable to carry the can if things go wrong.

These principles give a guide through all sorts of thorny issues. Thus it is folly for people in one State to set up branches of their

organisation in another. Links across frontiers should be fraternal, not organic. Or take the question of approval or disapproval of the "armed struggle". If you live in Britain, or the 2 Counties for that matter, you will of course have opinions about it, including whether it is wise or unwise. But you are not called upon to express approval or disapproval, in other words to say or do anything about it whatsoever. You can say it is a tactic adopted by people living in the North — a response by them to intolerable oppression — in a p l a c e w h e r e you a r e n o t responsible for what happens. Of course it is different if bombs are set off in Britain. That does affect you and the people you are working politically with.

Many of the British Left, or far-Left have a romantic obsession with the IRA and the armed struggle. It may seem more exciting, especially to young people, than the humdrum politics of persuasion and lobbying in Britain. Yet it i s the latter ultimately which decides things in this country. For no force in Ireland, however well-organised, ruthless or self-sacrificing, can ever be strong enough to force a change in British Government policy. Only the force of organised opinion in Britain itself can do that, opinion in the political centre or at least including large swathes of opinion to the right of the faf-Left. Which is why the movement in Ireland must compensate for its weakness via-n-Vis the British Government by winning allies in Britain itself. And only those who know and operate by the laws of motion of British politics can provide those allies.

Sebastiano meekly surrender his entire force to immediate butchery when, had they fought on, they might have been relieved by a nearby Irish force Of 4,000 men who was coming to their rescue? After all, although he did not possess cannon, Sebastiano had musket, ball and gunpowder for 6,000 men and food provisions for three months. It is obvious a promise had been made.

On Friday, November 11, 1580, a date Which lived, in infamy on the caknders of .Ireland, Italy and Spain for centuries afterwards, Sebastiano .and .bis twelve officee. k f t the fort. Behind them came the standard bearers of the Papal force with flags furled. The flggs tqgether with the swords of these officers were handed over to Lord Grey. "Even Grey, c o n t e m p l a t i n g mass m u r d e r , described them as 'as gallant and as jgoodly personages as ever I have seen*.

English mass murder begins

Wingfield was ordered to round up all the,ptisoners,disarm them and pile up their pikes, swords and muskets with theirbody armour.

The next move-Showed what lay in store fori the hapless prisoners.

The English soldiers rounded up all the Irish, -combatants and non-combatants alike, including the elderly,. and women .aad children. Gallows were speedily erected and soon all the Irish who had been in the fort were hanged... even pregnant women.

Special treatment, however, lay in store for Oliver Plunkett, Father Laurence Moore and William Walsh. They -were managed and led down to thesmithyVshop iaSRKiwiak. Here, their arms and legswerebroken in three-plaeeseachbyafiEngltshsoklier with the smitby!s hamster. They were then; thro wn.into a sheAUtheut food or water for two 4»ys before being dragged back up the hill to the gibbets, still holding the swaying corpses of the women, children and elderly. There they were hanged, drawn and quartered in bloody ritual.

And what of Sebastiano and his disarmed I tal ian and Spanish soldiers? What were their feelings as (hey witnessed this? Did they still think that Grey was an honourable man who would keep his agreement with them?

Two officers were detailed for the job of executing the 700 disarmed men. A Captain Mack worth and Captain Walter Raleigh. They took their companies and matched in to the fort. This was to be the killing field. Ball and gunpowder *were expensive so the massacre was to be carried out by sword and pike.

The first line of Italians and Spanish were pushed forward and probably slaughtered before they knew what was about t o happen. Swords and pike thrustsbegan to hew down the so ld ie r s who had surrendered honourably. There was pandemonium, some cried for mercy, others sought escape but there was none. It took several hours to turn 700 living beings into 700corpses in Dun an Oir. One soldier in Raleigh's company wrote: *Never since I was a man of war, was I so weary with the killing of men...'

As for Raleigh, he never made any comment on the event then or later. It can clearly be arguod that Raleigh was not simply obeying orders. Even that is no longer deemed a legal or moral defence. But this killing, in the human abattoir of Dun an Oir, was in keeping with his p e r s o n a l policy of ruthlessness in dealing with.the Irish and their allies. Several times in his subsequent career in Ireland he s l a u g h t e r e d p e o p l e w i t h o u t compunction.

Raleigh supervises burial

After the killing was over, and the bodies looted of personal possessions

Peter Berresford Ellis

and clothes, the soldiers, under, Raleigh's guidance, took the corpses and threw them over the cliffs. A mass grave was dug into the soft sand below.

Raleigh's troops came out of Dun an Oir dazed and blood-splattered. The whole of the next day was spent scrubbing their gear and trying to sharpen the metal of their blades, dulled by bone and gristle. Could they ever.cleanse the blood of their victims or Silence their screams and cries for mercy? Some biographers of Raleigh have claimed that his book History o] tke World, obsessed with the theme of man's inhumanity t o man, was an atonement for his part in this mass murder. Yet Raleigh never displayed remorse for that event nor the others betook part in during his bloodthirsty career in Ireland.

Historians justify barbarities

Some historians have argued that mercy or compassion had a different value for the Elizabethan English and, by such argument, they seek to dismiss or justify the mass murder at Dun an Oir. Indeed, as all the English atrocities in Irland have been excused over the centuries. That is a spuriofrs notion. As soon as news of the a t r o c i t y reached E n g l a n d , a controversy sprang up which lasted twenty years. Some attempted to defend and justify Grey, others denounced his barbarity.

Gray himself wrote a report on November 12 justifying his action by saying that he had made no promises to Sebastiano. Queen Elizabeth privately approved and wrote him a letter at Caristmas praising the event 'in which action I joy that you have been chosen the instrument of His (God's) Glory!'. But the Queen's adviser, William Cecil , Lord Burghley, bad a finger on the pulse of public opinion and quickly ensured that the Queen was publicly dissociated with any expression of approval.

To the credit of the English nation, a major part of public opinion was appalled. Large contingents of English soldiers, mainly from the northern counties of England, refused to serve in Ireland and these forces had to be disbanded and sent back to their towns and villages.

In Ireland, the phrase 'feall Gre, or 'the faith of Grey' became a synonym for duplicity. In Italy and Spain the word 'Graia' came to mean a treacherous person. The massacre was certainly a major step towards the eventual war between Spain and England.

Dun an Oir is not recalled in the histories ofthe glories of the English Elizabethan Age. Walter Raleigh's reputation is untarnished; his manners renowned, and his name praised for bringing the potato and tobacco to Europe.

Beneath the cliffs of Smerwick, where seas crash remorselessly on the granite rocks, there is the resting place of his victims... young men from Bologna, from Genoa and Florence and Naples, and also from Bilbao in Spain, the places of recruitment of the small Papal force which had come to help the Irish win their freedom.

Page Four THE IRISH DEMOCRAT November 1989

IS THE NATION STATE STILL RELEVANT?

By PADRAIG 0 SNODAIGH From his lecture at the DESMOND GREAVES

WEEKEND SUMMER SCHOOL 26 - 27 August, Dublin Continued from October issue Irish Democrat

L A G A N L I G H T S

There was an emerging Catholic bourgeoisie outside the professions, from which the Penal Laws excluded them. They were hardly as confident as D'Arcy had been in the I640's, when he had been working towards a Rousseau type Social Contract idea, or as the Patriot Parliament had been with its universal to le rance . Nevertheless they began as the century went on to move towards some indentity of interests with the more radical wing of the colonial nationalists. This was, as one might expect a nervous slow waltz — a Flood, for example had little time for emergent Catholics, and Sir Edward Newing ton , c o r r e s p o n d e n t of Washington's was reminded by the American that religious strife was no good augury for the solidarity of the nation.

Commercial resentments

Much of the agitation we have mentioned was based on middle class commercial resentments — as was the American Revolution and it too had its effect on Ireland with the emergence of the volunteers. They were for a time, used as an extra-parliamentary pressure group and were credited with some ameliorative legis la t ion for C a t h o l i c s and

improving trade conditions, which they forced through parliament. They were also credited with achieving the legislative independence of the 1782-1 8 0 0 p a r l i a m e n t . B u t f o r independence parliament depended more on a tradition in English politics than on the muskets of the volunteers. The volunteers were seen more as a local police force than as a nascent national army.

They have been said to have paved the way for 1798. Certainly, the more political among them celebrated the Fall of the Bastile and in Dublin and Belfast, National Guards Units were formed. Their very appearance so frightened the establishment of the day that the force was put down by Government Decrees in 1792 and 1793. These Decrees were not resisted. Most of the officer corps would surface in uniform again, in the yeomanry force formed in 1796 because of the perceived threat of messianic French Revolutionism and emergent Irish Republicanism.

Extra dimension But I incline to underplay the role

of the volunteers in the emergence of the United Irishmen, which informed and inspired by the F rench Revolution gave the extra dimension

to all the inchoate strivings and angry aspirations of the emergent Catholic middle class, the dispossed tenantry, and the radical non-monarchist protestants. The United Irishmen gave to Irish patriots a programme, a form, a body of thought, a philosophy and a hope that is as vital now as it was then. It gave a skeletal outline of the structure of the nation state, a generous fraternity that inspired to participatory democracy, a radical base on which better could be built, a non-doctrinaire sense of equality.

So when next the post-this-that-and-the-other-ists try to blind us with pseudo-science, baffle us with isolated facts or slip theories past the post on the basis of a spurious logic it is as well to recall again that comprehensive and welcoming fraternity; the real equality of citizen for all its duties as well as its rights; and the antithesis of homo sapiens, the lovely, if lonely dignity of freedom as worth striving for in the Republican mold of the nation state. And if we are accused of be ing du l l of w i t , s l ow of apprehension and blind to the happenings of the universal world we answer — open as we have been like a sunflower to the sun — we answer that theirs was nothing with which to replace our aisling.

Padraig O Snodaigh

FINANCIAL ARMAGEDDON

T H E political and economic troubles in the socialist world should not make p e o p l e f o r g e t t h e p r o b l e m s overhanging capitalism. For the prosperity of advanced capi ta l ism — d e s p i t e 17 m i l l i o n o f f i c i a l l y unemployed — is the obverse of the poverty of the " n o t - a d v a n c e d " Third World, where the bulk of mank ind lives and which of course is overwhelmingly capitalist. Last year payments f r o m the Third World to the First were thousands of mill ions more than the f u n d s going the o the r way. It Eastern Europe sat a top a pyramid of colonies and neo-colonies as the First World does , the condescending smile might be on its face ra ther than the West's.

USA vs EEC vs Japan The decl ine in Superpower tension

between America and Russia will probably increase the tensions within the advanced capitalist b loc, in part icular between the USA, the E E C — which is domina ted by West Germany — and Japan . For years the LSA has run enormous t r ade deficits with the Europeans and J a p a n e s e and t h e r e is l i t t l e s ign o f t h e m disappear ing. The USA buys vastly more f rom the others than sh : sells to them. A s a c o n s e q u c n c e s h e i s n o w t h e world's biggest debtor . It c a n n o i on. America can only ba lance her books by increasing her e x p o r t s to the EEC and J a p a n , or by impor t ing less f rom them, but these areas want to keep their export surpluses a n d d o not want to encourage i m p o r t s to themselves. The situation has the making of violent economic wars between the parties — mili tary wars, as in the pas t , being presumably ruled out because of the a tom b o m b .

The danger s are aggravated by the

WORLD COMMENT tides of currency speculation now swilling round the capitalist world, outside the control of governments and central banks . Nowadays currency exchanges amount to some 300 billion dollars everyday. Billions, mind you — 300,000 million — per day! That is thirty times more than is needed to pay for daily trade transactions, fifty times more than is needed to finance real investment flows. It is mostly short-term "hot m o n e y " , p l a c e d by B a n k s , transnational firms and pension funds to hedge against currency losses or make speculative gains, and capable of being switched across the world overnight at the touch of a computer button. The Americans, Japanese and Europeans compete with one another through interest rates to attract this "hot money" to underpin their currencies.

Fear of Financial collapse The big danger for the capitalist

world is a collapse in the value of the dollar vis-a-vis other currencies as money markets lose confidence in it because of the continuing US deficit. That would send interest rates rocketing everywhere as countries tried to prevent "hot money" flowing out. High interest rates, which make loans more expensive, would hit industrial investment and send the capitalist world into a recession, with each area trying to save itself at the expense of the others. As American b^nks collapse and "junk-bond" bubbles burst these days on Wall Street, financial Armageddon seems to be a question of not "whether" but "when".

Britain's trade deficit parallels America's. This year Britain's surplus of imports over exports will be nearly the biggest ever recorded. The deficit is mostly with West Germany, which has been taking more and more of the British market ever since Britain

BY POLmCUS joined the EEC. In the 19th century Britain was the workshop of the w o r l d , s e n d i n g h e r c h e a p manufactures to every country. But since 1986 she has been a net importer of manufactured goods. At the same time Britain is a net exporter of investment capital. Each year British owners of capital put more long-term investments abroad than foreigners invest in Britain. That is where the City makes its money. Small wonder Britain is becoming "deindust-rialised". Finance capital dominates manufacturing capital in this country. It is a legacy of the days of imperialism, when Britain had captive markets in the Empire, and has been going on since the 1880s. The British Marxist R. Palme Dutt described the process, which is the root of Britain's decline, in his famous book "Crisis of Britain and the British Empire".

Chance to re-equip industry missed

The Thatcher decade 1979-89 was underpinned by North Sea Oil. The foreign currency got for North Sea oil could have been used to re-equip and modernise British industry. Instead the pound sterling was overvalued, which facilitates the export of capital but makes exporting goods more difficult and encourages foreign imports, which a strong currency makes cheaper in terms of British pounds. The British people thus got the benefit of North Sea Oil in cheap Japanese motor cars and cheap Italian washing machines.

THE British Labour Party has reaffirmed its now traditional policy vis a vis the North... no removal of partition until a majority living there indicates its consent. Mr McNamara, party spokesman, says that terrorism will not be allowed to settle this vexed issue. That would be OK if British Labour was a bit more vocal in acknowledging that it is not only from the Irish side that what he defines as mere terrorism stents.

Unfortunately the far left in British politics, including in the Labour Party, makes it easy for the Kinnock line of argument to appear to carry weight, at least in its implication that AT THE MOMENT nothing can be done in respect of Ireland. Everything is relegated to the long-term aspiration.

In the first place the demand for 'Troops Out Now* is not one that is being advocated by any significant section of the Irish people, including those in the North. The demand for a p h a s e d I r i s h - a g r e e d B r i t i s h withdrawal with, possibly, the troops being the LAST to go, isone that has widespread support in Ireland. There are financial considerations too. The subvention from the British Exchequer would similarly have to be taken away in stages.

Why does the British far left not listen to what the Irish people want? Does it think it knows better what is good for Ireland? An imperialist attitude surely.

It is b e c a u s e t h e r e is a POSSIBILITY, given the present alignment and strength of indigenous forces in Ireland, that a\precipitate withdrawal of the British Army would lead to a significant increase in blood-letting that the right-wing Labour argument acquires its plausibility. That Aunt Sally dealt with, the rest of the debate on Ireland (what CAN be done) is dismissed summararily.

The real question is: what is British Labour doing to achieve the majority support for Irish unity in which it professes to believe? This is what PROGRESSIVES here ift ffitfrhorth of Ireland would like to know.

Unionist terrorism Meanwhile the scandal regarding

the British State forces and their collusion with the Unionist para-military terrorists continues to occupy the headlines. Twenty-eight members of the Ulster Defence Regiment (the British Army's biggest regiment) have been arrested for something that has been going on probably for twenty years. The disclosure, originating from the Unionist 'Ulster Volunteer Force', was intended to wreck the A n g l o - I r i s h A g r e e m e n t . T h e subsequent orchestrated leakages substantiate this point.

Dealing with an intransigent Thatcher nominee at the inter-governmental conferences, there is no doubt that, in the short term, things have been made very difficult for the Irish government. It is finding out what Anthony Coughlan in 'Fooled Again' told them all along: 'Ministers Burke and Collins are finding that the Agreement is nothing even close to what it was being sold as by the coalition government in 1985 — something just short of administrative joint authority.' (Gerald Barry, Sunday Tribune, October 8th). The UDR is to receive their plastic bullets regardless. However the Irish government is resolved to persevere with the AIA and it appears that the Unionists have succeeded only in shooting themselves in their feet. Now

that the story of 'security forces' collusion with the Unionist para-militaries is out, the scandal will not go away without redress.

The Campaign for Democracy's residential school at the Ulster Peoples' College, Belfast, was a unique event for this City. Opening the school, Mr Dalton Kelly made the point that it is possible for nations to die. The EC, which was reversing the democratic attainments of the French Revolution, was putting at risk the existence of a distinctive Irish State. Not that the French Revolution had said the last word on democracy. It had been seen in too narrow a POLITICAL way.

There was need for criticism of 'Western' countries. Where did they operate democracy at all levels — social, industrial, political? Mr Kelly referred to the developments in eastern Europe and said that the socialist/democratic identity was being rediscovered. In Ireland national democracy m e a n t the fostering of our own culture as opposed to the encroaching Euro-culture.

United Irishwomen This set the tone for the weekend

debate. Miss Frankie Watson then delivered a fascinating talk on the United Irishwomen who, towards the end of the eighteenth century, played a very powerful part in the struggle for Irish nationhood and democracy. The Presbyterian women of tl»e North were especially mentioned: Mary Anne McCracken, Matilda Matier. Miss McNevin, Liz Moore, Anne Shearer, Rose Ann McGladdery. Feebie Burnside and her daughter Peggy and many, many more. Some of these women took part in the actual battles, such as Betsey Gray and Eliza Bryson. The helpless weeping women of the Aisling (or Vision) poems had vanished, said Miss Watson, by the advent of the nineteenth century. The United Irishwomen had left a new impression o f Irish womanhood.

Anthony Coughlan, speaking on constitutions for a New Ireland, made the point that a 32-county State would be qualitatively different from the s e p a r a t e 6 a n d 26 c o u n t y arrangement. Protestants would be more effective in a 32-county Ireland than they are in the UK. He said that a unitary State for the 32 counties would not rule out devolution should that be thought to be desirable. National and social progressiveness would be best served by a unitary State. Over time, a L a b o u r / Republican bloc would wield great influence under this arrangement.

Kevin M'Corry, of the Campaign for D e m o c r a c y , a s se r t ed tha t democracy in Ireland required a sovereign independent State, based on the nation, in which to be able to flourish. He defined the nation as... 'a complex entity of objective and subject ive f ea tu re s ' . I r e l a n d ' s progression to nationhood had been interrupted and inhibited by an external predator power. None of the usual criteria for defining a nation was able to establish that the people of Ireland were not a nation. In 1798 the nor thern bourgeois ie a n d the southern mercantile class had taken up the lead, on the basis of a common nat ional i ty , of <the a l l - I re land peasantry and the putative working-class. A new all-Ireland alliance, suitable to modern conditions, was necessary if democracy was to be recouped in the South and obtained for the first time in the North.

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November 1969 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT Page Five <

YEARS ago in classes on political economy it was pointed out that if capitalists could find a way to make us all pay for the air we breathe, they would. It is sobering to consider how close we are to this situation. Green issues are not simply a question of cleaning up current processes; the subject goes deeper. Products and

_ their object of production must also be questioned. Nearly all production is for the sake of profit and has no bearing on people or their wellbeing. The way production is organised, how restrictions and controls are imposed should also be taken into account.

There is profit in cleaning up the environment, the water we drink and the air we breathe. As the northern

' English used to say "there's brass in muck" and a lot of it as the following cases indicate.

Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

The EC's CAP encourages overuse of pesticides and fertilisers by intensive farming methods. Besides contamination of water and soil there are lesser known evils. For instance rape seed production is highly subsidised by the EC. This has brought about swarms of insects seeking: pollen which in turn cause destruction of other crops. For what purpose and to what end? Mountains of food are caused by surpluses which are later destroyed, sold off cheaply, fed to aqimafc or dumped on the Third World, helping to wreck their economies; On the way money fs transferred from workers' pockets to aid and prop up the whole sordid

'process of over-production under. CAP.

Recycling upsets

Recycling waste goes against maximising profits. If a product is wrapped in umpteen layers of paper, cardboard and cellophane you can be assured the largest part of the profit is in the throw-away packaging. There are no EC or national policies or incentives for recycling paper and plastic. Collection of waste paper relies f

e -John Boyd

charities to raise funds. Meanwhile the forests continue to be axed down.

In Britain only five per cent of a l u m i n i u m cans a re recycled . Meanwhile the EC Commission said Denmark's insistence on using refillable beer containers was illegal, as free trade was restricted by disallowing imports which complied with banish law but did not comply with EC law. Although the Court of Justice reversed the Commission's ruling, the initial diktat indicates the EC is far more interested in free trade atad lifting all such restrictions than it is in the environment and preserving resources.

Bauxite is largely imported as a raw material from developing countries and requires large amounts of electricity to produce aluminium. The bauxite is transferred from the Third World at a low price and made into cans which are mostly thrown away, ifliis is jus t one example . of transferring wealth from under-privileged countries and indirectly polluting the atmosphere through u s i n g e n e r g y , o n e of - m a n y implications of the Single European. Market.

Ships without pilots

As part of the free market c o n d i t i o n s b e l o v e d by t h i s government, in Britain there have been recent changes in legislation -regarding ships entering ports. Ships

IN MUCK are no longer required to take on pilots when entering or leaving ports. The government has also opposed any legislation requiring ships to report cargoes of toxic and dangerous substances (as called for by the shipping owners) in order to cut costs. No mention has been made of the increase in profits and likelihood of accidents at the expense of ignoring safety in ports and environmental consequences. Freedom of the seas for merchant shipping has been the guiding principle.

Workers will pay for environmental cleaning to cover neglect and lack of investment over the past two centuries. Capitalism Wants to clean the environment and make a profit out of the mess it originally caused.

Safeguards The process is in place with the

systematic removal of environmental watchdogs in Britain such as the Countryside Commission and Nature Conservancy Council, and is being repeated on a grander EC scale by removal of powers from national governments and parliaments. The UK is using Commission and EC machinery and diktats as an excuse to delay, do nothing or little itself and detract from real problems.

Not a trick is missed in this game. For instance Sir Geoffrey Howe when Foreign Minister said environmental problems could be tackled and solved by joining with others through "jointly exercising sovereignty" in the EC. The thrust is toa^jhieve European Union at any cost and by making any promise.

An EC designed for transnational, making profits in a free market which tells member states what to do, including how to clean up water or beaches, simply is not required. This is caipitalism let off all democratic reins and removing nation States who can currently exercise sovereign powers for curbing excesses and protecting the environment. There is a need for international co-operation which does not require disassembling nation states; they remain the best line of defence of the interests of their people and environments.

John Boyd

tMiiMi^m/^ JieefaAtHw

HOPES AND FEARS (from New Statesman & Society) "MY HOPE is for a truce and lasting peaceful settlement and the withdrawal from the country of British troops, to put it in very simplistic terms. My worst fears are that the British might withdraw, but leave in place a state that would be neither free nor allow the people any self-determination, but would serve their own interests rather than the interests of the Irish people as

a whole."- May Nellis, Derry community worker.

"IRELAND is a peculiar place. Some of its peculiarities are the product of its own genius; others are distortions, forced on it by history. My best hope is that Ireland will become in many respects die same as the other European countries I admire, while yet remaining different. My fear is that it will manage to be only one of those two things, merely different or merely the same." Anthony Cronin. Poet, novelist and cultural adviser to the Taoiseach.

NATIONS, it is believed, have the right, in their own historical time, to discover themselves according to their own needs and imaginations. History seized up and time stopped in Ireland eight centuries ago with the entry of the first troops loyal to the British crown, and ever since, the country has been prevented from learning its

-"identity. The ailment is colonial, the wound itself scrupulously cultivated by the British army and attendant bureaucrats. My best hope therefore is that the British public will force its government finally to withdraw so that Ireland can again enter historical time and discover itself as a nation. I believe the tenacity of the present generation of republicans renders any other solution irrelevant. My feat is

that there will be no change in the spineless, cynical and perpetually failing British policy of containment, and the horrific convulsions will t h e r e f o r e c o n t i n u e . T i m o t h y O'Grady. Novelist, film maker.

TIT FOR TAT — "The attack has been seen by the security forces last night as the revenge the IRA had been seeking since eight of its hit men were wiped out in May in an SAS ambush at Loughgall, County Antrim." DAILY TELEGRAPH.

NEGOTIATE — "The leaders of the IRA know that they cannot achieve a military victory over the British Army, and those commanding the British Army will privately admit that they cannot ever hope to eliminate the IRA. In such a situation it is an act of criminal irresponsibility not to negotiate a political solution." from "Livingstone's Labour." - » » •

WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT — "Britain points to the end of 'supergrass' trials, shorter remand times and a new code of conduct for the police, as signs that Catholics now have more confidence in the province's administration of justice." DAILY TELEGRAPH. What do radiation and the British Government have in common? — Neither recognises Irish sovereignty.

This is madness Said Dr Colin Morris, Controller for the BBC in Northern Ireland, referring to the use of the Sinn Fein Ban to remove the voice of De Valera from a TV programme. PETER MULLIGAN, Secretary of the Northampton Connolly Association looks at other aspects of the ban below. ' IF the Tory Government gets its way Irish History for English consumption will be censored. The broadcasting ban on Sein Fein has already begun to have its effect. The ever servile English journalists are now busy deleting any reference to Sein Fein in historical footage held by public film libraries. A recent TV history of Irish dissent against British occupation of Ireland was censored to delete any reference to Sein Fein. The Tory government ban on Sein Fein now requires broadcaster's to filter the historical record. TV programmes made for British schools about current events are now being censored by the producers before being released for public consumption. British journalists, keen to present the British viewpoint first have used the scissors to delete from the BBC film on the 20th anniversary of what they like to call 'the troubles'.

Vital political and historical footage on the interviews with Sean McStiofain and Gerry Adams after their negotiations with the British Government in the early seventies, was cut out of this film. So the British public will never know of the Tory governments negot ia t ions with representatives of the Irish Republican movement. British broadcasters have now had one year of working under the Home Secretary's ban on interviews with the leaders of Sein Fein. This has affected the right to free speech in Britain to the degree that journalists and radio station managers are censoring any event that examines the Irish question.

Meanwhile in Derry City Council Sein Fein has five seats and is the second largest party after the Social Democrat and Labour Party. Vital political debate is taking place on the redevelopment of this ancient city. Radio Foyle has been running a programme on economic issues facing the local population. They can go into the Creggan estate and interview the residents about their concerrts but they can only talk to one of the Councillors, Pat Devine of the SDLP. The other Creggan Councillor. Hugh Brady, is excluded because he represents Sein Fein.

V

Hume's rivals 1

ignored

Friei piay puts journalists in

a funk Brian Friels play 'The Freedom of the

City' about the early civil rights movement in Derry was recently shown in Northampton. The press release issued by the Northampton Connolly Association told local newspaper and radio journalists what the play was about. To a man they all reserved their right to remain silent. Nobody mentioned the play and it was like it never happened.

In some housing estates in Derry unemployment is up to 80 per cent of the male population. The BBC can interview John Hume on his campaign to bring wort,? to the City but they are not allowed by law to interview his political rivals and critics because they have been named by the British Home Secretary. Sein Fein is a political fact of life in Northern Ireland and it is commonly accepted that they will have to be part of any solution. The part) wins a third of the nationalist vote in the six counties and is involved in political life at

' every level. The continued ban is an insult to voters, viewers and listeners.

Ten days after the Deal bombing Gerry Adams, elected as member of parliament for East Belfast, addressed a fringe meeting at the Labour party conference The event was organised by the Labour Committee on Ireland whose presidents are MPs Joan Maynoard and Ken Livingstone. Mr Adams shared the platform with leaders of the labour movement including Jeremy Corbyn and over 400 Labour party delegates attended. The media were falling over themselves to record and film what was being said. The BBC news teams could only report this important event but the British public were denied the right to hear the questions arid the answers. Free open and democratic societies are often demanded for other peoples but when it tomes to the fag end of empire democracy continues to be the loser. The ban should be lifted.

Gaeilge sa Bhaile Irish at Home

Le Seamus O Crannfhaol aidh 1. Ta deifir orm - 1 am in a hurry. 2. T£ deithneas orm -1 am in a hurry. 3. Ta deabha orm - I am in a hurry. 4. I ngan fhios dibh. — Unknown to you.

5. Taim ag dul i bfeabhas - I am getting better. 6. Taim ag dul i ndonacht - I am getting worse. 7. Taim ag dul in ao i rde - lam getting taller. 8. Taim ag dul i meid - I am getting bigger. 9. Tdim ag dul in aois. - I am getting older. 10. Aithne - Know. 11. Td aithne agam ar : I know him. 12. Nil ach aithne sul agam uirthi -1 only know her by sight. 13. Td sean aithne ag an mbeirtsinar a cheile - They both know each other.

14. Cuir in aithne dhome-Int roduce me to that person. 15. Ba mhaith liom go gcuirfi in aithne dhom i — I would like to be introduced to her.

16. Geall - A pledge or a wager.

17. Biodh geall ar — Let there be a wager.

18. Cuirfime geall leat - : will bet you,... 19. Ta me geallta - I am engaged.

20. Fiu - Worth. 21. Ni fiu birean e siud - He is not worth a pin. 22. Niorbhfhiuaonrudr iamhesiud-He was never worth anything. 23. An fiu dul ann - Is it worth going there. 24. An fiu an meid sin e - Is it worth that much.

Competition winner WE are happy toannounce the winner of t h e " 2 0 Key S e n t e n c e s Competition", which was announced in the August Irish Democrat. The twenty key sentences had to be taken from the Connolly Assocation best selling pamphlet "How to Go".

The winner was Howard Kelsey, Springwood, Haddiscoe, Norwich

He will be receiving a Four Provinces Bookshop Catalogue from the Editor so that he can choose £20 worth of books.

The second best entry was that of Gloria Findllay who will be sent " C o n s t a n c e M a r k i e v i c z , A n Independant Life by Anne Haverty, Pandora Press.

— — — I

Page Six THE IRISH DEMOCRAT Novc

A Very Important 1 h i s i o r > . be l t n \ , b a s e d nil .i t r u e in : idiH' ! is r e p r i n t e d h \ k i n d p e r m i s s i o n f r o m t h e ( a p t i u V o i o \ n h i ir < -;it a, a q u a r t e r ! \ ti' : a / i n e w r i t t e n a n d

i l lus t r u l e d I n I r i sh R e p u b l i c . i . i P r i s o n e r s ( i i p i r s o l t h e ( a p l i v e Voice c a n lie o b t a i n e d i r o m 1 1 t

D u b l i n . \ \ e a r ' s s u b s c r i p t i o n is l 4

lis Hi Kill, H o l f a s l oi s I t l e s s i i ig tnn S t r e e t .

T H E cornflakes could be seen above lh t rim of the bowl, one of those big blue ones that h a d only recently appeared. Even when lying flat, he could see the l ight-brown flakes sprinkled with sugar , though the table was some inches higher than the bed.

Beside the bowl s tood a fresh unopened car ton of milk — a truly magnificent sight. The boys used to spend countless hours speaking of such luxuries a n d yet there they were in abundance — but he would not eat them.

A table, bed, chair , small locker and po — most hospital wards have a sparse clinical look to them but a

> pr ison one is more sparse and clinical Fewer items to search when the raiding party makes its periodic visit.

Francy's emacia ted figure lay on the bed, p ropped up with three pillows. Scattered untidily a round him lay two pos tcards and three envelopes — letters sticking out ol two of them. They had been read quickly, very quickly. Francy was not really worrried about what his relatives were doing, unless it was devilment of some sor t , or about what the weather outside was like, or where so and so was going for his holidays tha t year. Most of that news bored him but he did appreciate that someone had taken the time to write it.

Today though, he had hurr ied th rough the mail more quickly than usual. He had recognised Charlie 's hand-wri t ing the momen t the letters were placed on the locker and he wanted to read it, but also to save it. S o he read of the relations and the weather and the hol idays first. Now he would lie back a n d relish the sceal f r o m Charlie.

The first pa ragraph brought a smile to his face. Half a page of personal abuse and most of it not too mild either. No-one else would dare write to a dying man the way Charlie did

and the freshness of it brought new life to Francy. Soon he was beside Charlie at the wheel of his Cortina — handbrake turns in a crowded car park after dances, the look of fear on the fates of the bystanders only enhancing the thrill of it; walking into pubs along the lough shore, slapping the oul boys on the back until their very lungs rattled and the beer spilled over the rims of their tighly-held glasses.

Yet although they dreaded Francy's "hello" they knew they would hear a yarn or two before the night was out and the bottle and half 'un that would be set before them would more than make up for what they had lost.

Absorbed in his letter and reminiscing, Francy did not notice the door open and the white-coated medical orderly walk-in, the peaked cap and the prison service badge an incongruous contast to the coat. When he did become aware of him he tried his best to ignore him but you could not ignore Victor. He had that dogged persistence of a minor State bureaucrat chasing up the two missing paper clips from a bo* of one thousand.

"You've a visitor coming soon, an MP A Labour MP". Victor seemed to be proud to announce this piece of important news. Being the possessor of such knowledge gave him, in his own eyes, elevated status. He spoke loudly, thinking that in so doing others would be impressed. Victor's problem was that he simply did not have a clue and his lack of knowledge and confidence became apparent every time he opened his mouth.

Francy was by this time motoring along the roads between Bellaghy and Toomebridge and he was greatly annoyed at this interruption. "What do you call him?" he snapped.

"I don't know", said Victor, but you'll find out soon enough. He's almost here".

Suddenly a thought struck Francy and he turned and stared at Victor. "Labour MP you say? Isn't that wee bastard Marsden is it?"

I've already told you I don't know" Victor replied, agitated that such a person should refer to an elected member of Her Majesty's Parliament in such a manner.

He was on the point of slamming the door on his way out but stopped himself in time. He must remain unemotional w hen dealing with these people —that is what he had been told — but he found that difficult. "They get under your skin" he had told his wife. "They say something which sounds logical and correct but you know rightly it's just a twisted lie — like all their other twistedlies. It's just that I am not quick enough to answer them".

Victor admitted only to himself that it was not speed of reply he lacked but the ability to come to terms with the fact that a lot of what they said did make sense — and that challenged everything he had been brought up to believe.

Fancy was already well back into his letter even as he finished his remark about Marsden: You want to see it Francy, a real steakerl had—eye closed for about a week and the black's only disappearing now from round the edges. Looked a fucking mess, I can tell you! Bloody big bastard — want to see the size of him—and then his brothers and just because I asked his girl up for a dance! How the fuck was I to know she was with him? First thing 1 knew was when the sledg-hammer hit me on the side of the head.

Swear to Christ Francy you want to see the size of the hands of this big bastard! Didn't help his car much anyway — he told me to get out of the hall and never come back and I wasn't going to argue but there wasn't his car parked down the road — didn't leave a fucking window in it — is right —

smashed the heap of them. So. fuck him and his girl and his hall. He doesn't frighten me — he and his -brother and all —but I'd takehim in a straight fight — just me and him — but who would want to go backto that lousy hall anyway!

Francy was laughing to himself by this stage —knowing that on other occasions he would have been with Charlie on just such a night. Charlie is getting all civilised he thought — saw the time he would have smashed the windows and then threw the whole car over the hedge! With this thought he started to imagine what type of car it was and if there was a stereo in it and what type of tapes yer man had. He would be able to judge his character from that.

The door opened again —abruptly. In walked a chief officer, a governor, two unidentified civilians and, following up in the rear, Victor. Francy eyed each of them as they shuffled into position along the side of front of the bed. One of the unidentified spoke, introducing himself as being from the Northern Ireland Office. Francy could not catch his name, nor did he care. But he did catch the annoucement of the identity of "Mr Concannon, a member of the British Labour Party and the House of Commons".

Concannon stood at the bottom left-hand, corner of the bed and introduced himself. "Good morning. How are you" he said. "I am Mr Concannon, member of the British Labour Party and Opposition Spokesman on Northern Ireland".

Francy was sure he heard all this before — about five seconds before.

" I am h e r e " , C o n c a n n o n continued, "as a representative of the Labour Party to inform you and your colleagues that the Labour Party fully supports the policy and stance of Her Majesty 's Government in not conceding any type of special or

political status to terrorists and criminals. Your protest is therefore futile and I wouldadvise you to end it before you do yourself serious harm".

Francy's eyes were on him as he spoke but his attention had long since drifted elsewhere. He was thinking of Charlie, of reckless driving in cars, of old boys in the pubs around the lough shore and the women around the car paries on the lough shore. He thought of the lads in tbe Blocks and the sing song tbey had given him the night before he,left for thohotpital — how it had lasted until 3am, with him doing most of the singing. Real -«bel -rousing ones they were too! He thought of Bobby — another member of Parliament — and Raymond and Patsy just down the ward from him, and of the last time he had walked the fields of his townland at night, in battledress and armed (for combat.

His thoughts came back to the small room when he heard his name spoken. Victor, feeling that it wasbjsfesponsibiiity to end the strained silence which had followed Concannon's words, now spoke out loudly in what he-hoped was a suitably authoritarian-sounding voice, the correct one to follow Mr Concaenon'&strongand timely message. "Hughes,is there anything you wish to say to Mr Concannonr'

The governor standing closest to Francy gave a start as Victor's voiceboomed out ridiculously loud. Afterwards he seemed embarrassed at rhis temporary loss of composure.

"Is there anything I want to say to him? asked Francy, turning bis eyes to the bottom of the bed. "There is alright" he said. "Will you shut that door hi boy— from the outside".

He folded Charlie's letter carefully and replaced it in its envelope. iHe.would take it out later and re-read it. He knew Charlie had struggled with the last few lines . , .

Well Francy, I'll go on here. Everyone's asking for you — the whole family and all — the whole fucking country. You were never so popular, -you ;big rascal ye! Everyone's keeping well andhoping for the best. You know Francy, I'm not the best with the oul words but here, sure if you were out here we'd.be laughing at this. I'll go here then. So I'll be on my way here, OK? Christ sakes Francy, just don't let those bastards get you down.

All the best mate, Charlie. He's one mad "hoor" that Charlie,

Francy smiled to himself. Laurence McKeown, Long Kesh.

Get out of Ireland SAYS PAUL FOOT

Ireland: Why Britain Must Get Out, by Paul Foot, published by Chatto & Windus, 1989, 69 pages, £2.99.

T H I S pamphlet supports the growing consensus on British withdrawal f rom Ireland that proposes negotiated disengage-ment as opposed to the unilaterist 'Troops Out' position. As Paul Foot puts it on page 56: "My proposal is very simple: the British government should declare that it intends to withdraw its troops f rom Ireland forever; and that it will no longer sustain a separate state in the North of Ireland. It. should set an irrevocable date for that withdrawal, and at once c o n v e n e a c o n s t i t u t i o n a l conference at international level to determine how best that withdrawal can be accomplished, and what contribution Britain should make to a new, united Ireland."

N e g o t i a t e d d i s e n g a g e m e n t begins with the declaration by the British government that it intends to withdraw its military, policing, judicial and executive forces —

the entire colonial apperatus — from Ireland. This would be followed by negotiations with the Irish g o v e r n m e n t a n d , together with them, by discussions with all parties in Ireland, possibly through the UN a n d / o r an international conference. These n e g o t i a t i o n s a n d d i s c u s s i o n s would deal with how and when the process of disengagement would take place. This position is close to Paul Foot 's proposal . That Paul Foot believes that before such n e g o t i a t i o n s t h e B r i t i s h government should set its date for withdrawal shows that he still holds some unilateralist positions.

The pamphlet really begins on page 56. Pages 3 to 55 give an outline history of Ireland and its relationship with Britain. This follows the classical form of pamphlets on Ireland which spend a very long time on Irish history and very little on the present position. By gazing into the past for a long time it is hoped to get a glimpse of the present . Such lengthy historical introductions tend to increase the reader's impatience as they wait for the real business of the pamphlet — the current situation — to be dealt with. It also gives the impression

t h a t t h e e s s e n c e of a n u n d e r s t a n d i n g of the I r i sh question lies in Irish history whereas knowledge of inter-national affairs in general and of imperialism in particular is more important .

When the pamphle t does get started, in the last 14 pages, the historical references are well used to prove the po in t s Paul Foot is making about present and fu tu re problems. He deals with " f o u r f a m i l i a r o b j e c t i o n s " t o h i s proposal in a sophisticated but simple manner.

However, British colonial rule of the six count ies tends to be reduced simply t o the presence of British troops. This may be a political oversight on his par t o r a diplomatic accommodat ion with his party, the Socialist Workers Party, with their slogan of T r o o p s Out ' . Another weakness is that the term 'Protestants ' is sometimes used as a b lanke t term when 'Loyalists' o r 'Unionists ' is would be more acurate. Apar t f rom these points h i s discussion of the mechanics of withdrawal is close to the classical decolon-isation position that is becoming more popular.

Continued on foot of next column

A frank T H E R E was a march in Dublin last August calling for the withdrawal of British troops from the North. Glasgow Labour MP George Galloway took part. The Workers ' Party leader Tomas MacGiolla issued a press release on Galloway's participation in the march urging him not to share a platform with Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams.

According to a report in the "Irish Times" MacGiolla sent a copy of the press release to Galloway's office and received a reply in which no words were minced. "I already knew that you

Continued from preceeding column While the history lesson from

pages 3 to 55 is very readable it is a little light because of the speed at which it skims through Irish history. The author would have done better to cut the history lesson out altogether and spent more time on the final section, a d d i n g h i s well p r e s e n t e d h i s t o r i c a l r e f e r e n c e s a s appropriate .

This pamphlet is part of the C h a t t o C o u n t e r B l a s t s series which "in the best tradition of pamphleteering" is "a forum for voices of dissent; they challenge the dominant values of our time." Paul Foot ' s pamphlet is definitely in this category.

Brett Kibble

had issued the press release because I read it ,as you intended all over the English gutter press ." wrote Galloway. " iFor that reason alone I hold your intervention in ut ter contempt. That contempt is compounded when I ponder the grotesque hypocrisy of y o u and your party lecturing me on violence, murder and terror ism."

There followed a brief history of the origins of the Workers Party in Official Sinn F e i n a n d t h e Official IRA, and the accusation tha t MacGiolla Jiad developed "hyper-amnesia" abou t modern Irish history. *'J will take no lectures on terrorism f rom you" , he said.

This proved a response .as follows from MacGiolla: "Dear Mr Galloway, I thought I was writing to a person of sincerity and reason, but I find that you are just a typically abusive Trotskyist shit. Goodbye ."

The counter-reaction to this was: " I will retain your letter as it is unlikely that I will ever again Le accused in writing, as I have never been before, of being a disciple of the late Mr Trotsky. Please don ' t write again ."

As the "Irish T i m e s " writer comments , this could presumably be classed as "a full and f rank exchange of views" between the part ies!

T h e Irish a n d T h e Bastille

The Green Cockade. The Irish in the French Rev-olution 1789 - 1815. By Liam Swords. Glendale Publishers 1989. Price £8.95.

IN November 1796 the fleet to carry Hoche's expeditionary force to Bantry was lying at anchor at Brest. Hie General was waiting for a report from one of his officers, Captain Bernard MacSheehy, who had been sent to Ireland to reconnoitre the position there, before embarking on the invasion. MacSheehy's report was to state that: "If Hoche lands, Ireland will be free. France has a faithful ally, and her natural enemy, the enemy of all nations, will be struck off the list of nations." In the North, 50,000 United Irishmen were waiting to welcome him.

The fleet consisted of 43 ships carrying 14,500 seasoned troops, 41,644 stand of arms, and "a supply of green cockades."

This episode is one of the absorbing features in Liam Sword's book "The Green Cockade," which deals with the impact of theFrench Revolution on the Irish community in France. At the time the "green" patchwork was made up of the existing resident body of Irish, who were to contribute Kavanagh, a shoemake r , and Blackwell, a medical student, to lead the assault on the Bastille; veterans of the disbanded Irish Brigade;students, mainly clerical; at the Irish colleges; refugees from the British Terror in Ireland; and later arrivals including Tone, Napper Tandy, and others, seeking French aid for the Republican cause at home.

The chiefs of the Irish Brigade were divided in their loyalties. Some, ledby 'General Count Daniel O'Connell. remained loyal to the Bourbons, whilst tithers, KHhiaine, Harty, Arthur and -Theobald Dil lon, offered their swords to the Republic. But, if there was divergence amongst the military men, it was sweetness and light compared with the ructions at the Irish colleges where students and superiors were at odds in their attitude to the new regime, and to each other. Only one priest fell foul of the Terror, Fr. Martin Glynn, superior of the Irish College at Bordeaux, who by a quirk offate had, in happier days, Dr Guillotin as one of bis students. Of the priests who eventually made it back to Ireland, Fr. Murphy and Fr. Kearns are forever

linked with Wexford in '98 and Fr. Gannon with Humbert and the ' French at Kiltala.

On the resumption of war with Britain in 1803, Napoleon signed a decree for the formation of Irish Brigades, which sent shock waves anew in Irish circles.

I particularly recommend the following sections of "The Green Cockade" Pages 22-26; this is the first account of the Irish involvement in the fall of The Bastille, and the names of the Irish inmates there. Plages 71-76: a detailed account of The King's

, last hours when he was attended by the Abbe Edgeworth who had emigrated, to France as a youth from Ireland;

Page 120: this is a very revealing chapter on Wolfe Tone and the abortive expeditionary invasion of

The Dynamics of Irish Politics by P. Bew, E. Hazelkorn, H. Patterson. Lawrence and Wishart, £8.50.

T H E authors of this s tudy of Twenty-Six C o u n t y politics a re three ideologues of the Workers Party. Messrs Bew a n d Pat terson

are already well k n o w n for their neo-Unionist studies of Six County politics, while Miss Hazelkorn, a l though she seems to regard herself a s a Marxist, has gained a reputa t ion for her writings on h o w Marx and Engels seemingly go t Ireland and the Irish Question all wrong.

Despite its title this is not in fac t a book on dynamics of " I r i s h " politics at all , but rather of Twenty-Six Count ies politics. Yet there is no discussion of theeffects of partition on the South. T h e authors totally ignore what is the most impor tant political fac t abou t Ireland, namely that it is a parti t ioned coun t ry and that it is impossible to understand the internal politics o f either pa r t without reference to this reality.

Although the book's first c h a p t e r o n t h e " s o c i a l founda t ions" of the Irish Free State includes a section on " H i e choices for the Le f t " , it omits even to mention Labour ' s crucial choice in deciding not to contest the watershed 1918 General Election, which formed the political choices of a generation, t h e r e b y h a n d i n g o v e r t h e leadership of t h e independence movement to Sinn Fein and the different elements of the Irish bourgeoisie a n d small bourgeoisie viluch came frond it. Yet tha t decision was d u e to partition a n d Labour ' s desire n o t to split the Trade Union Movement like the country, between North and South. As Peader O'Donnel l used to say, in 1918 Labou r threw a way the whole of I re land for the sake of Belfast.

The au thors do not show the remotest grasp of the significance of Connolly 's socialist repub-licanism which, if it had been maintained by Irish Labour, could have- given the Left hegemony over the whole national m o v e m e n t in t h e W a r of Independence period a n d later. The frui t fulness of Connolly's view of die relations of national democracy a n d socialism has been proved ia^the practice of national liberation; movements a round the world since h e died: It is, for instance, t h e position adopted by the Left a t the present t ime i n d i e S o u t h A f r i c a n f r e e d o m m o v e m e n t , t h e A N C . The Republican Congress of the 1930s, where the issue was throughly argued o u t , dbes not rate a mention in the discussion.

As befits their neo-unionist, pseudo-left approach, the authors use the t e r m ' n a t i o n a l i s m ' throughout as synonymous with c o n s e r v a t i s m . When L a b o u r joined with Fine Gael in various Coalition governments they say it was because it was putting "nationalist values" before those of class. Personal careerism before class interest certainly, but "nat ional is t" values? At least one can say tha t no one has tried offering that as an explanation before! At the same t ime, in the most useful section of the book, the authors show how Fianna Fail successfully exploited the national sentiment of the working class and small farmers in o rder to keep its hegemony over them. It does not seem to have occurred to them, however , that Labour , over the years, could have weaned its working class supporters away from Fianna Fail if it had counterposed a genuine anti-imperialism to Fianna Fail's bogus one.

On Page 117 they speak of "the class which made the national

revolution — the fa rmers" , indicating an extraordinarily nar row view of the social forces involved: They write of the 1916-2 3 period as if no one h a d previously analysed the class relations-of the Irish countryside, t h o u g h t h e s e m a t t e r s a r e thoroughly treated in Greaves 's Liam Mellows and his History oj the ITGWV. Nor is there any discussion of Ireland and the E E C o r the attitudes of the various part ies and social classes to E E C membership. Yet this is surely crucial to the dynamics of modern Irish politics. They believe t h e E E C is a good thing and that the Left should suppor t it. But if anything represents a lining-up by the Left behind the mainstream policy of the Irish bourgeoisie a n d the Irish farmers, support for the E E C is surely it.

Imperialism they define (p.12) as "a structured and constantly transformed system of capitalist relations of p roduc t ion" . T o conceive of imperialism as a series of bad things d o n e to Ireland by E n g l a n d is , t h e y tell u s , 'primitivism'. Though what is imperialistic a b o u t "constantly transforming capitalist relations of product ion" they do not say. Having used the word ' imper-ialism', they leave it hanging in the a i r and it has no relevance to their later discussion.

Unfortunately the political 'primitivism' is nearer to the au tho r s themselves than thev th ink. This b o o k is woefully confused and confusing, despite having useful b i ts of information here and there. It shows tha t i f you c a n n o t get the ABCs of the relation of nat ional democracy and socialism right, all the academic learning in the world will not help you, but will only make confusion worse con-founded . These readers in politics and lecturers in sociology should

try to set aside their neo-Unionist prejudices, especially when at tempting to explain the Twenty-Six Counties a n d mix more with the ordinary people of the area in order to unders tand what makes them really tick politically.

Politic us

Socialist Scotland Socialist Scotland. £1, Box

8, 52 Broughton Street, Edinburgh.

THIS is a new magazine for socialists North of the Border. The big political parties are not publishing in Scotland. Keir Hardie House, Labour Party HQ.doesnoK publish a political magazine. The SNP"s Scots Independent does not cater for the Left. This new journal is for socialists who support Scottish Independence and who are also against the Common Market.

The national question is to the fore in Scotland now. The vibrant optimism of Glasgow and Edinburgh's political mood is a world away from London's pessimism, and cynicism.

Bob Mulholland criticises as a political delusion the SNP's adoption of its 'independence in Europe' policy. He quotes an early socialist approach to the matter by Frederick Engels who pointed out that the path to socialism lay through national independence and sovereignty.

In 1893 Engels wrote: "Without re-establishing the unity and independence of each nation, it is impossible to create the international unity of the proletariat, nor the peaceful and intelligent collaboration of these nations towards common aims." Events in both Western and Eastern Europe are now beginning to hammer home that point.

Few socialists grasped the enormous significance of that principle and tried to act on it. James Connolly and John Maclean were among the few: Mulholland adapts Connolly's slogan and speaks of the "reconquest of Scotland by its people". He urges Scots socialists to be foremost in defence of Scots independence whether politically, economically, socially or culturally. By doing that tliey can avoid isolation in sectish corners or the perils of careerist opportunism on the road to the House of Commons.

IN DOCKLANDS "Canon Bang Bang" by J.

M. O'Neill. HB £12.95. Published by Hodder and Stoughton September 1989.

J. M. O'NEILL erstwhile host of the late lamented Sugawn Kitchen and The Sugawn Theatre, a salubrious Balls Pond Road London N1 venue, carved his fame in the grateful hearts of a culturally s ta rved Irish population of the early seventies. He also sold The Irish Democrat at this address! He was the precursor of The Pub Theatre now proliferating as The Fringe in and around London. No one has bettered him. It fell to him to trump himself!

This he has done by establishing his place in the literaiy world alongside the Greats by publishing three novels (apart from his plays) since his retirement from the licensed trade 10 years ago.

His first novel "Open Cut", followed by "Duffy is Dead" raised a clamour of awe from the critics that rose like a wave smacking against the CUffs of Moherand being kissed in its ebb by this-third novel rising hard in the wake of the synapse of the primary pair. "Canon Bang Bang" rounds off the trilogy.

This third novel set in London's dooklands on the last three days of October 1988, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. One is sorely tempted to add Bloomiday, for there is a certain

amphigouri of Ulyssian paradox there, and yet not there, as if the sum and substance ran a spurious under tow to trap the unwary who learned things by rote. The Big-Bang of The City going sour whispers out a c c u m u l a t e d da ta f r o m the subconscious. Nothing is as it seems. _

The characters exist in cohesive necessity, no one is spare. The dialogue of which O'Neill is master, is articulate, hard, and precious as diamonds, yet abstract, woven into the story line like voice-overs on a Pop video in which the dramatis personae mime to the tune of a surrealist Creator. The title, 'Canon Bang Bang' although intrinsically redolent of war and mayhem, is in fact harmless Cockney-esque slang; "What does a Canon do?" "goes bang! bang! of course". The big guct& are there alright in the status of The Bishop and his hierarchical set up. Our Canon Paul Vincent Herlihy is "si lenced" or " d e f r o c k e d " for practising euthanasia out of love and respect for the dignity of human life. He finds himself the owner of a large sweep of Docklands from the bequest of a wealthy eccentric and aged Lucy Dory-Catch pole whom the Canon 'helped'. The Bishop out of love and respect for property and wealth sets out to obtain this bequest by having the Canon murdered so that The Church may be "helped', and s inkr to

Continued on page S

13!

Page Eight THE IRISH DEMOCRAT November

WILLIAM THOMPSON, F O R over halt a c e n l n r y . West Cork nad a L a b o u r d e p u t y in Leinster House I"hen it was d e c i d e d not to contest the seat . Th i s raises the ques t ion " W h y 1 " a s t he contes t was . a r r w n g a r e v o l u t i o n a r y t radi t ion (.oint back as far a s 1812. M a n y l a b o u r s u p p o r t e r s in C o r k City were j n a u a r e of this t r a d i t i o n . This is not surpr i s ing as there is very little mater ia l easi ly a v a i l a b l e on Irish < o c i a l / e c o n o m i c h i s to ry a n d even less t n the l a b o u r a n d socia l i s t m o v e m e n t .

First Irish Socialist " C o n n o l l y r e g a r d e d W i l l i a m

T h o m p s o n as the first Irish socialist r e a r i n g the same r e l a t i on to Marx as the p r e - D a r w i n i a n evo lu t ion i s t s did

D a r w i n . " (page 244 The Life a n d Times of J a m e s C o n n o l l y by C. D e s m o n d Greaves ) .

Wil l iam T h o m p s o n , the son of a l and lo rd w h o had been mayor of C o r k , m i g h t seem a n i n c o n g r u o u s ;>gure in a n y survey of Irish leaders, »et this m a n was d i rec t ly in the social r e v o l u t i o n a r y t r ad i t i on of the United I r i shmen. Wolfe T o n e w h o did no t iook to m e n like T h o m p s o n , wrote , " O u r f r e e d o m mus t be had at all h a z a r d s . If the men of p r o p e r t y will not help us they mus t fa l l . We will free ourse lves b y the aid of t h a t large a n d re spec tab le class of the c o m m u n i t y , ihe men of n o p r o p e r t y . " William T h o m p s o n in c o m m o n with J o h n D o h e r t v , Fe rgus O ' C o n n o r , J a m e s ©ront ier re O ' B r i e n , J a m e s F in ton L a l o r , M i c h a e l D a v i t t , J a m e s C o n n o l l y a n d J im L a r k i n , was very much al ive to the p l igh t of men a n d w o m e n o f n o p r o p e r t y a n d c h a m p i o n e d their c a u s e . T h o m p s o n I r ans la t ed the gu id ing pr inciples of I h e U n i t e d I r i s h m e n i n t o sys temat ica l ly f o r m u l a t e d doct r ines a n d so he b e c a m e the a n t i c i p a t o r of the bas ic theor ies of w h a t became k n o w n a s m o d e r n soc ia l i sm.

Born in 1775, Thompson's'family b e l o n g e d t o t h e p r o t e s t a n t a s c e n d a n c y , the a b s e n t e e landlord class tha t he ld a m o n o p o l y of all state pos i t i ons , all p o w e r a n d pa t ronage a n d m o s t of the weal th a n d educat ion of the c o u n t r y . His f a t h e r . Alderman J o h n T h o m p s o n , a ve ry p rosperous Cork m e r c h a n t , had been mavor of £j»rk a s well as High Sher i f f of the C o u n t y . J o h n T h o m p s o n died in a f f l uence , a n d in 1814 his son inher i ted t he lucrat ive bus iness , which included a fleet of t r a d i n g vessels as well a s the es ta te of a b o u t 1,500 acres a t C l o n k e e n , R o s s c a r b e r y , o v e r l o o k i n g the b e a u t i f u l h a r b o u r of C l a n d o r e . His son h a d n o interest in ihe weal th of the f a m i l y business . His conce rn w a s publ ic wel fa re , not pr ivate f o r t u n e m a k i n g . H e lived in a t iuge h o u s e in Patr ick Street which had an ex tens ive l ib ra ry .

He w a s a p r o m i n e n t m e m b e r of the Cork Ins t i tu t ion of the Phi losophica l , Scientific a n d Li te ra ry Society. Like m a n y o t h e r e d u c a t e d a n d intelligent I r i shmen , his t h i n k i n g had been excited by the French Revolu t ion He had t ravel led to F r a n c e a n d Holland a n d had been a s soc ia t ed with leading French pol i t ical a n d economic writers. O n publ ic a f f a i r s , his views were rad ica l a n d c h a l l e n g i n g and he •made n o e f f o r t to c o n c e a l t hem, bu t his d e m o c r a t i c c o n v i c t i o n s ou t raged his own c lass .

There is a t r ad i t i on t h a t , when visiting h i s t e n a n t s o n his Rossca rbery estate w h o were p o v e r t y s t r icken, he walked r o u n d with a F r e n c h t r icolour at the end of his w a l k i n g stick. His

• r evo lu t ionary beliefs b r o u g h t h im into conf l i c t with the Pro tes tan t a scendancy . He p a r t i c u l a r l v a f f r o n t e d lhem at the elections in 1812 and 1826, by s u p p o r t i n g C h r i s t o p h e r Hely-H u t c h i n s o n a n d C a t h o l i c emanc ip -a t ion . S o o n a f t e r b e c o m i n g propr ie to r of C l o n k e e n he dec ided t o end his career a s a n absen tee l and lo rd . He gave leases on g e n e r o u s te rms and i n t r o d u c e d improved m e t h o d s of cu l t i va t ion . He was widely read in

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agr icu l tu ra l sc iences a n d m a d e prac t ica l p l a n s f o r scientific f a r m i n g a n d the g r o w i n g of new roo t c r o p s by his t enants .

Personal austerity His h u m a n qua l i t i e s and the i m p a c t

of his pe r sona l i t y m u s t have been very c o n s i d e r a b l e . T h e p e o p l e o f Rosscarbery m a y have been s h o c k e d by some of h i s v iews , bu t they j u d g e d h im by his a c t i o n s . They r e m e m b e r e d him fo r his h u m a n i t y a n d k i n d n e s s , a n d a d m i r e d h i m f o r his p e r s o n a l aus te r i ty , wh ich f o r a m a n of h i s c lass caused genera l a s t o n i s h m e n t . H e was a l so in teres ted in p h i l o s o p h y a n d he f r equen t ly l e c t u r e d on it in C o r k .

He tried t o m a k e the C o r k ins t i tu t ions a m e a n s of p r o v i d i n g e d u c a t i o n , espec ia l ly fo r the p o o r . He was appa l l ed b y the neglect in a c o m m e r c i a l c i ty like Cork .

Bentham rejected T h o m p s o n w a s a close f r i e n d of

J e r e m y B e n t h a m , the E n g l i s h

Cork Letter from Jim Savage

p h i l o s o p h e r B e n t h a m ' s social teaching was summarised in the slogan, "The greatest happiness to the greatest number." Their friendship

continued even after the Irishman r e j e c t e d B e n t h a m ' s e c o n o m i c doctrines. Thompson was more concerned with the just distribution of wealth than with its accumulation. He followed Ricardo in arguing that the value of a commodity was equal to the value of the labour that produced it.

For this proposition he drew the un-Ricardian conclusion that, in social justice, the labourer was entitled to the full value of his labour. Under capitalism the labourer was paid the lowest wage that the market c o m p e t i t i o n f o r t he l a b o u r determined. The rest of the produce went to the capitalist in profit and interest. It is this exposition of the social right of the worker to the full produce of his labour that makes Thompson a precursor of Marx and Engels.

Thompson es tab l i shed a co-operative commune at Carhoogarriff near Leap about 1830 and another co-operative community on his estate near Rosscarbery. He drafted a

constitution, which provided for complete freedom of expression on all subjects. Religion was to be a private c o n c e r n . ,

W o m e n w e r e e l i g i b l e f o r advancement to all office to which their talents might lead them. He was also an early and most vigorous advocate of the advancement of women and produced an attack on the pol i t ica l , social a n d economic disabilities of women, described as "The rightlessness of wives against their husbands." It was the most influential work on feminism, a reply to the famous essay of James Mill. I t was called "An appeal of one half d? the human race, women, against the pretensions of the other half, men, to retain them in political and thence in civil and domestic slavery." He died in 1833 at the age of 58 before his ambitious plans could be completed. Only the stone foundations of his experiment survive in Rosscarbery. William Thompson was one of the great socialist theoreticians.

THE EFFECTS OF THE POLL TAX By Patricia Appleton-Fox

An introduction to the discussion at the Ludlow Green Party meeting. Continued from last month.

Securing Tory rule APART from all these very practical effects there are also a number of p o l i t i c a l a n d p h i l o s o p h i c a l implications which need to be given careful consideration to appreciate fully what the long term effects may b e .

It has often been pointed out that this tax can be seen as a means of the Tory government trying to secure the i r own po l i t i ca l , f u t u r e , by undermining their main centres of opposition — namely the Labour controlled metropolitan councils. This has already been achieved to some degree by their characterisation in the press as "high-spending", "extravagant" and "the loony left". Whilst there are always grounds for criticism of any council it is also true that the reduction of the central government rate support grant by 1/3 over the last 10 years does play a significant part in recent rises in the rates.

This undermining of government opposition will be given a more concrete basis under the poll-tax. Whilst the proclaimed intention is to make councils more 'accountable' to their local electorate, the result will be to make them more accountable to Central Government because they will have control over a significantly reduced proportion of their Finances. This is because charges levied from businesses will now be set by central government under the new Unified Business Rate. The only income the councils will have direct control over is the flat ratr poll-tax, though the government will still retain powers similar to those of rate-capping. This is in effect a further centralisation of government power and not a move to greater local democracy.

However the government may yet be hoist on its own petard over the issue of the 4 year transitional safety-net , by which people in more affluent areas will pay about £75 extra to ease the impact on poorer and higher-spending areas, a situation which makes a mockery of the whole precept of the fairness ' on which the tax is supposedly based. Many Tory voters will find themselves in the ridiculous position of actually subsidising those very Labour councils which the tax is supposed to be curbing: a situation likely to occur in some alienation of loyal government supporters? Sir Rhodes Boyson, a former Tory local government minister, has said that

"the present methods of funding the safety-net are both immoral and political suicide for the Conservative Party". Though it has been pointed out that the areas most likely to benefit from such an arrangement would be Tory marginal seats...

Big brother

security system, a certain amount of i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t p e r s o n a l relationships will be necessary — especially in respect of the 'joint and several liability' clause relating to partners and spouses. Already more than 300 councils are being asked to account for some questions they asked on the registration form regarding personal relationships and other areas outside their brief. $ut there is iw mechanism t o j

-ft central to t h i s ^ w T r t f f l d h ef this information on. People are less though it was unlawfully obtained. In

fact in the face of the great potential for the abuse of power and individuals rights to privacy there are virtualiyrio safeguards.

Data Protection Act

The government suggests that the Data Protection Act is a protection — but in fact people will not have the right to examine this information as these files are not available under the act. The National Council for Civil L i b e r t i e s h a d r e c o m m e n d e d safeguards to offset the inherent dangers in the tax. These include severe restrictions and monitoring on the t r a n s f e r of i n f o r m a t i o n , n o introduction of personal identif-ication numbers, Community Charge registers should not be exempt from the Data Protection Act, the electoral register should not be used, couples who are separating should not have access to their joint register entry (in order to protect battered wives at secret addresses), no canvassing of

The registration of all adults and the maintenance of a computer fije on each i n d i v u f u T " scheme of ta reliable than property as a mode of taxation as theyoften move aboutand there are alwayi potential problems of identification. So to establish and maintain the poll-tax register and files the authorities- Will use a variety of sources of information to minimise the evasion of this charge. One of the registration officers primary sources of information' will be the electoral register . A Vie t which could discourage people f rom having their names on it, so forfeiting their right to vote. Other sources will be the h o u s i n g a u t h o r i t y , b u s p a s s applications, Reason tickets for council servicfes, library tickets, housing improvements grants, .gas, electricity and {telephone companies — British Teleejbm will apparently be offering a 'service* to local authorities by which it will inform them when new accounts are opened and when t h e i r c u s t o m e r s m o v e ! T h e monitoring of the movements of people is integral to the successful collection of the tax. Poll tax registration officers have asked schools for lists ,of pupils parents — despite original assurances from the Department of Education that these would be used for educational purposes only j - that is, the schools opt-out ballot^ under the new Education Act. A Department of the Environment spokesman has however stated that the jK>II-tax officers are empowered to overrule the Education Department.

Eroskxtof civil

The implication! of all this for the erosion of our" civil liberties are glaringly obvious. The existence of files on each individual with sufficient personal information to establish identity and accew to any and every area of our lives for information. Also, as under the current social

neighbours or workmates. These recommendations highlight areas of potential abuse of power under th j r poll-tax. So far the government has done nothing to implement a n y s u c * safeguards. I

So, whilst this "fair , simple a more honest tax" (to quote Chr Patten) will undoubtedly benefit sonft people, and high-spending councils will be penalised, and unemployment

new jobs to administer it, these 'benefits' of the poll-tax are fa? outweighed by the inherent inequality in disregarding the ability to pay, die phenomenal expense, the bureau-cratic nightmare, the political self-interest, the increasing centralisation of powers into the hands of a o autocratic government and tfc* e ros ion of civil l iber t ies antf democracy. j •

Finally, I would like to point otit that 1381 was not the only preceddgf for poll-taxes — they were a feature colonial administration f r o m 1900 the 1950's. In Lord Hailey's "AfrN* survey of 1956", his account of evolution of direct taxation in African colonies, he states that tk9 main drawback of poll-tax, apart from the costs of administration, 18 that it must be low enough for poowl people to pay it. Colonial taxation evolved f rom hut tax, to a poll-tax,U graduated taxes on earnings Hailey's conclusion was that might almost be said that the African begins to be a member of the civilised society when he becomes subject t o the payment of income tax instead of poll-tax." ...)

Ghosts in Docklands Continued from page 7 I

depths murkier than Thames silt in his pursuit of wealth and power. The analogy between good and evil is ever p r e s e n t , b u t neve r l a b o u r e d . Retribution is not far behind, safe in the hands of mad Harney. But life g o e s on r e g a r d l e s s , recycl ing humanity with the same surnames with the same Karma in the same Docklands for two hundred years. Only the spiritually developed Canon catches glimpses of the past lives and weaves them into his reality. This poses the questions, what is death? what is reality? what is madness? The only certainty is that Old Father Thames keeps rolling along, down to an oily sea. The eternal river has the final say and the docklands are

cleansed for another cycle to begin. It would be easy to fall into a snare here, and comparc O'Neill with Joyce, O'Casey or O'Brien (Flann), but i" would be a facile act of folly. Certai there is a likeness of style, and the <

Bnative has ah affinity with '*" -sh literary figures of

century, but O'Neill hi of his own that is uniq Goldsmith said of "If he were to he would have them talk as and therein lies the due, Johnson , and his biog:

Amen!