HOCRAT FOUNDED IN 1939. THE PAPER THAT SHOWS THE WAY FORWARD

No. 353 NOVEMBER 1973 7p

WE CHALLENGE ABAIRT AN LAE

Deinigi iir-n-dicheall. •_». bhfuel Sibh i gcoir. 3. Anc Athair mo cheile a t a

tu age Ra. 4. Fear on ait seo a thug

dui e. ,V Bfeidir go be sin an t-sliis-

fearr. 6. Lcath sgeiil e sin abhi acu. 7. Is feaarr liom e. t>. Ba shaor leis a cheannaigh

seiad. 9. Niorhbh bhfiu leithe orra e.

MR WHITELAW STOP THIS HATE

OUR, FUND UNIONIST MURDER THREATS LITTLEJOHN hope i l l /oj l r / r r faders fully

' ' appreciate! tljatj i j Is piurder keeping the li jSR •e^ic^r^t" going, what with the tM^ios'ot»th(E crazed euro-fanatic EdwaVd , ifcath in our pockets every rrtorjthl ais prices rise ever more steely./ ' j J J j

We have quftefa report this menlh J b is not as if ai ppu any more. VW Tories let it floatl i Our sincere bhk

|response to lit |of| course it

is\ a pound demented

Ji j to sink. P.I Pozzoli

£6, H. Cassidy *4(fp, '•J.'V1 d iamond 80;, D. O'Brien £2, A. Gavin 25p, C. Keaney 25p, M. Rabbitt 25p, Brian Wilkinson 25p, M. Keane £1, J. Whelan 48p, B. Riordan 40p, South London Readers £17.61, West London Readers £8.67, Central Lon-don Readers £7.04, .Northampton Headers £1.17, East London Readers £ 6 .

These fine donations from readers who voluntarily pay more for the paper than the scheduled price a re enabling us still to keep our price ('.own to 7p.

N E X T MONTH

We hope to be able to announce the total of the Pat Devine Memorial Fund. At present it stands at about £66. But we would greatly appreciate it if our mends who have not contributed fnd intend to do so would let us have their remittances as soon as possible. We would very much like •t to top the £100 before we close it. Send your donations to the "Irish Democrat" office for the attention of Jim Kelly.

TO CATHOLIC WORKERS Venom sheets should be banned

HATE,, hate and more bate is spewed out- daily across the city of Belfast by half a dozen or so "Loyalist" and Orange bulletins and news-sheets. They are sold on the streets, displayed in shop windows, passed frotir hand to hand in the factories. T h e y contain countless examples of incitement to murder, intimidate, assassinate, discrimi-nate-directed by the city's Catholic population.

They are totally illegal, for incitement of this kind is supposed to have been banned by the British Government's "reform" legislation. In fact, nothing is done about them. The hate-mongers go about their bitter trade, making a fair bit of money on the sly and contributing in no small way to the nightmare of fear in the city.

enough but, alas, attractive tempta-tions are a lure to the unwise and another murder in this takeover zone is recorded."

T O L E R A T I N G But the Br i t i sh peop le and the

L a b o u r M o v e m e n t shou ld know w h a t t h e Tory G o v e r n m e n t is to le ra t ing , wh i l e W h i t e l a w le ts on he is do ing all he can to be f a i r and nice to eve ryone .

Mr Ian Paisley's "Protestant Tele-graph" is not the worst. A typical exaipple is this. Writing of the dil-apidated rat-infested s tate of the houses in the McClure Street area

. of Belfast, it states tha t there were no complaints when it was occupied by Protestants. But "since the two-legged rats moved in, the four-legged variety followed suit and the

denizens, rodents or not, are respon-sible for the state of the houses."

One item from the "Protestant Telegraph", headed "Behind the Headlines", refers to the young son of a policeman who was murdered in the Ormeau Road of Belfast and says that "the fact that he was a Protestant was prominently em-phasised in the news." •

But, adds Paisley's paper with sickening innuendo, there was a death notice in a newspaper by his friend Margaret which ended "RIP'' —and other notices from "the Catholic Community". And it adds: "The takeover of the lower Ormeau by the papists should be warning

HOW PARTITION IS AN ISSUE |^|ANY of our friends in the

British progressive move-ment have only recently started thinking about Ireland, and it is natural that its complexities can impress them in different ways.

Some for example would like to cut the Gordian knot with one ma-jestic gesture. "Bring back the 'roops now!" they declare. They cannot understand why not a single organisation IN IRELAND puts 'he matter that way.

°ur Provisional" friends call for a declaration of Intent" by the English Government, and say that

a c t u a> date and rate of wlth-ara,v^1 i s negotiable, but the prin-

n l c l s no«- In our opinion this is -'mple common sense.

The m c n w h o a r o ^ a h u | T y d Q

give due regard to the S Y S T E M na» England has built up In the six

"unt.es over the fifty years of par-n ' Tt>e majority of the bomb-

and shootings going on at

present are being carried out by Unionist extremists and not by the I.R.A. at all. It is Just not ac-. ceptable that the English should wash their hands of the mess they have created, and leave the Irish to fight it out. We know well that if they did withdraw on that basis, there Would be plenty to supply the Unionists with arms, secretly or otherwise. Ireland could be a second cffigo. England has done enough harm to Ireland without letting loose the dogs which are at this very moment straining at the leash for civil war. Dogs that England planted and trained.

It is nafthat Irishmen are afraid to fight for their rights, It is Just that they are entitled to their rights without having to fight for them, and the first step is to recog-nise Ireland's rights, which so far Mh Heath and his Tory fanatics have refused to do.

But some of our friends take a

different view. Recognising that the results of fifty years' partition cannot be swept away like a couple of scraps of paper, they ask why do we need the declaration of intent of a British withdrawal. Why not Just concentrate on establishing democ-racy within the six counties, solving economic problems and so on. Why mention partition if it can't be ended at once.

Of course you might Just as well say "why talk about socialism when it's clear that capitalism will be with us after the next General Elec-tion." The sooialist would reply that capitalism is the cause of his com-plaints, and that it helps him to re-move those that can be removed at once to remember what causes the lot of them.

And that principle applies with regard to partition. Partition is the root oause of the special and extra

(Continued on Pago Four)

M U R D E R In other words, because a young

Protestant fell for an attractive "napist" he was taking part In a papist takeover and so fell a victim to those resisting this trend. A justification for murder in the eyes of the readers of the "Protestant Telegraph"? It could be with some of them.

Mr Christopher Sweeney wrote an article in the London "Times" the other week, quoting examples f rom the Loyalist News, where the small ads have been replaced by a small threats column—and this paper last year claimed a circulation of 80,000. Here are examples, full of menace in a city where sectarian assassina-tion is common:—

"Cogry. • You cannot hide forever. The Debt Collector."

"To the three young men in the Morris Oxford dark coloured car who beat up the young man on the Shankhill a f t e r taking him for a ride on Fr iday night. You did not go unnoticefL Balaclava."

Other threats are signed "Side Door Drinker", "The Watcher", "The Hooder", "Night Shift". Another warns a Ballymena Protest-ant that Loyalists know he is spend-ing time with "a rebel squaw".

All totally illegal and easily enough stopped if the responsible authorities, Mr Whitelaw and his civil servants, want to enforce the law.

How long will British Members of Parliament turn a blind eye to this failure to enforce the law In North-ern Ireland, when for onoe the law in question is undoubtedly a good one? How long will this Incite-ment to murder and bigotry be allowed fre« by civil jervipe and police under Mr Whltektto s authority? When will the Labour and Liberal parties break off their bipartisanship with this appalling administration?

SCANDAL IS STILL ALIVE

r£*HE Littlejohn case refuses to die down and there are

many aspects of it which need probing by M.P.s at Westmin-ster.

Why was Kenneth Littlejohn's r.amfe tab,ep of! the wanted per-sons list in the "Police Gazette" in 1971 when he was being sought in connection with a Midlands £38,000 wages snatch?

%hy was Keith Littlejohn re-leased from jail following the intervention of Lady Pamela Onslow, friend of Lord Carring-ton, Minister for Defence and chairman of the Tory Party ?

What assurances and guarantees did Mr Geoffrey Johnson-Simith, M.P.; Army Minister; give to the Littlejohns when he met them a t Lady Onslow's house?

How much public money was paid to Mr John Wyman, an employee of the Ministry of Defence and a member of MIS, during the year prior to December 1972, when W.v-man was arrested in Dublin and charged with security offences? Mr Wyman admitted in the Irish court to being a British Government em-ployee. "VI^HAT information has the

Ministry of Defence on con-tracts between their employee, John Wyman, and the Litt lejohns prior to the Graf ton Street bank robbery in October 1972?

Did the Ministry of Defence or their employee, John Wyman, authorise the Littlejohns to carry out assassinations of well-known Irish republicans, as was stated by Kenneth Littlejohn in an affidavit?

Was Mr Johnson-Smith or the Ministry of Defence aware of the

(Continued on Page Four)

TRANSLATION 1. Do your best. 2. Are you(pl.) ready. 3. Are you speaking of my

father-in-law? 4. Was it a man from this

place tha t gave it to you? 5. Perhaps that 's the best way. 6. That is an excuse of theirs. 7. I prefer it. 8. He thought he had bought

them too cheap. 9. She didn't think it worthy

of them. (Phrase a day, bv Seamus o

Cionnfhaola.

T H E I R I S H D E M O C R A T November 1973

ANTI-EEC. CAMPAIGN

RESUMED

IMPORTANT CONFERENCE ON NOV 25

. - Mit' pnnr:i rowing Bnian: nion Market

will resume >«s as a mo;i

.id:

. . 'Iirir campaign and brmairu •'i ilif public the ciin>T'i'.-.'!;-

i: E E C membership . til's! of these nieetir.j> -a .11

. .;t the Central Hall. V.V-t-.... -'":'. at 3 p.m. en Saturday, •• '.!•. ber 10th.

'."::• list of speakers include? hael Foot, MP., John Biffen.

:.: ? and Sir John Winnifrith. ior-... : Permanent Under-secretary at

Ministry of Agriculture. | ) RITAIN'S Anti-Marketeer- can ' ' take encouragement from the

'a public opinion poll, which was : i'..-:ed on as a "very disturbing

in the Common Market's own bulletin. "Community News".

Question: Do you think Britain v;. : right or wrong to join the Com-mon Market?

Answer: Right 32 per cent. Wrona per cent, Don't Know 16 per

i'.'11 Question: Would you be sorry if

Cr.: Common Market were t<• be s.". ripped tomorrow?

Answers: Pleased 48 per cent, Sorry 20 per cent, Indifferent 22 per rent. Don't Know 10 per cent.

So half the population would be gUi'i to see the thing scrapped and le .: than a quarter would be sorry. In Ireland there has not yet been Mi h a poll, but the answers there slv/.ild also show a strong swing u-s unst the Market.

Ho if vou want to get ammuni-tion for the campaign to get Britain 01.: of the EEC and upset Edward H;:_ah's attempt to salvage British <v>r;it,ilism, write to the Common I.Urket Safeguards Campaign for information and leaflets. Their ari'!re<s is pB Park Lane, London, v :

I . C T T E K j\ TIGHT I refer to the article

upon Frank Ryan in the Sep-tember issue of the Democrat. The ar'.icle states the facts as generally known. As I was in Berlin in 1941 and onwards for no political reason, bu" happened to be stuck there with no alternative, I got to know Frank Ryan's (i.e. Richards's) presence by chance. I met him accidentally but he did not remember me, as I had ori:v met him on one or two occa-sion., as editor of the then An Phob-lacht in Dublin.

; made enquiries about him with a friend of mine working in the aliens' office. He asked me to in-form people in the future that he was given full freedom in Germany even though he was known as anti-Nazi like myself. The Gestapo had nothing to do with him. He had been under the care of the Abwehr, which was controlled by the Wehr-macht—the Abwehr had their own department and did not work to-gether with the "Party's" counter-espionage which, was the Sicher-heitsdient.

r only want to point out t ha t Frank Ryan was not interfered with in any way on account of his anti-Nazi opinions. Nor was I my-self—it was so long as we did not interfere in the political sphere. W" can thank the Irish Government of the day for having protected us Iri,h citizens in every way. The German and even the Nazi officials respected this. They did not want to bring Ireland into the war any more than Britain did, though the pres.9 often gave the contrary im-plosion.

This letter could be longer with more details, but I do not wish to fill up too much space in your paper.

L IAM M U L L A L L Y , St. Wolfgang,

Austria.

T H E "Irish Democrat" is con-vening a conference in the

Hampstead Town Hall for the afternoon of Sunday, November 25th.

It will be over by about 5.30, and it is hoped that while the time for discussion is thus limited to half a day, the times chosen will enable delegates to travel into London from as far away as Lancashire and York-shire, and get back home the same day if they want to do so.

Among the sponsors of the conference are Lord Brockway, Norman Atkinson M.P., Sydney Bidwell M.P., Tom Cox M.P., Richard Crawshaw M,P, Eric Heffer M.P., Marcus Lipton M.P., Michael O'Halloran M.P., Maurice Orbach M.P., A, W. Stallard M.P., William Wilson M P., and three others whose consent to become sponsors

arrived too late to be printed on the circular—Kevin Mc-Namara M.P., Stanley Orme M.P. and Lord Kilbracken. Among the trade unionists and other distinguished figures who kindly consented to sponsor the conference are Bill McLean, Alex Kitson, Joan Maynard, Hugh McDiarmid, John Platts Mills Q.C., Ernie Roberts and Alan Sapper. Too late to print came the official sponsorship of Bernard Panter on behalf of the Manchester District of the A.U.E.W. The late sponsors' names will be printed on mate-rial got out after now, T H E organisations which par-

ticipated in the conference held earlier this year are being invited to associate themselves with the conference, the pur-pose of which is to co-ordinate and concert ACTION, and in

REASON TO SUPPORT MINERS JT has now been disclosed that

England is the only major capitalist country likely to be completely self-sufficient in energy supplies until at least the end of the century.

There is the North Sea and Scottish oil, and gas. And in Yorkshire a new coalfield has been discovered, only 900 feet below the surface, with l i f t , thick seams, and of calorific value TOO GOOD to be used in existing power stations, so that it would have to be mixed with duff.

It is bigger than any known deposit in Western Europe or the United States, and there is

Right to picket ( 1 REAT alarm has been expressed

^ at the case brought against the picketing building workers in Shrewsbury. Liverpool Trades Council called a conference at-tended by several hundred Trade Unionists to consider what action should be taken on the principles involved. The case itself is of course sub judice.

But there are other alarming signs. The "Irish Democrat" for years warned tha t E.E.C. (first con-ceived by the Fascists in England) meant Eurofascism.

Now there are proposals to allow private enterprise security firms to carry arms, and to undertake searches of suspects at airports.

The game is to get this accepted, and then extend it to protection of factories, and harass the shop-stewards.

UPROOTING MANIA ,

'•"PEAKING things up is one of the E.E.C. manias, and an expen-

sive one on any count.

A former C.A. member living in Dublin describes how when on a visit to Germany he was shown magnificent orchards, producing some of the finest and most varied fruit he had ever seen.

They were situated on mixed farms.

But, he was told, the Government wanted them to be cut down. Why? In accordance with E.E.C. policy. Indeed so anxious was Bonn t h a t they should be cut down that they give a substantial subsidy for every tree eliminated Why? Because the big Italian fruit monopolies are to have the whole trade.

One of the glories of Germany Is to be sacrificed. Sheer crazy un-adulterated waste for the sake of profit!

no reason to believe that it is the last to be found.

And what is Mr Heath doing ? On oil he is trying to pluck up courage to hand over North Sea oil and gas free to the Com-mon Market, just waiting an opportunity to get away with it while the public is otherwise occupied.

On coal he is so busy fighting the miners, that he has forgot-ten about the essential work they j rform. If the miners' pay claim is met, more will be attrac id into the industry and these vast new deposits can be worked to everybody's advan-tage.

i

NORWAY DOES BETTER OUTSIDE

\ J O U R N A L I S T I C col league w h o t r a v e l s widely in

E u r o p e tel ls m e he r ecen t ly v is i ted Norway .

B e f o r e the r e f e r e n d u m , w h e n t h e N o r w e g i a n people , w h o a r e w e l l - k n o w n f o r t he i r h a r d -h e a d e d n e s s and rugged inde-j e n d e n c e , o v e r w h e l m i n g ^ Tfcb-jec ted t h e b l a n d i s h m e n t s of t h e C o m m o n M a r k e t t h o u g h t h e G e r m a n s sent a m a n to s t u m p t h e c o u n t r y to ge t t h e m in, t h e ta lk w a s tha t N o r w a y would be economica l ly r u i n e d if she d idn ' t fal l in l ine w i t h H e a t h , B r a n d t and Pompidou .

" W h a t has h a p p e n e d to you ?" he asked .

T h e repl ies he go t should be s tudied . T h e N o r w e g i a n eco-n o m y has rece ived t h e biggest l i f t in years . T h e y a r e s t and ing a lone and th ings a r e booming.

So m u c h for t h e euro- fana t ics .

Handy bombs I AST month the "Irish Democrat '

noted how handy the bombs in London had proved to the autho-rities, who had somehow never seemed to oatoh anybody.

How handy we have since learned. There has been a monstrous witch-hunt against innooent Irish people.

Barborous Belfast techniques have been applied in England. Whole streets have been sealed off and house to house searehes have been carried out. The result has been a partial intimidation of the Irish community.

Bombs never overturned a Gov-ernment. But they often helped a reactionary Government with an ex-cuse against Its legitimate oppo-nents,

particular to secure a wide-spread response to the affirma-tions, copies of which have been sent out during September and October.

T h e af f i rmat ion d e m a n d s a n end to all f o rms of i m p r i s o n -men t w i t h o u t t r ia l in the s ix count ies , the end of the m i s u s e of t h e Engl i sh a rmy , and r e p e a l of e m e r g e n c y legis la t ion. It also c a l l s for a pol icy of w o r k -ing f o r the end of p a r t i t i o n , and f o r L a b o u r to end b i p a r t i -sanship .

An e n o r m o u s a m o u n t of good w o r k is be ing done b y a v a r i e t y of o rgan i sa t ions , t h o u g h e v e n in sum it f a l l s f a r sho r t of w h a t is neces sa ry . Spec ia l m e n t i o n can b e m a d e of t h e N a t i o n a l Counc i l fo r Civil L i b e r t i e s w hich h a s spent s e v e r a l t h o u -sand p o u n d s on d e f e n c e of civi l r igh t s in the six coun t i e s o v e r the p a s t yea r , and has c u r r e n t l y th ree p e o p l e w o r k i n g on t h e sub jec t . O the r o r g a n i s a t i o n s wh ich h a v e con t r ibu ted u s e f u l l y a re t h e Pol i t ica l C o m m i t t e e of the L o n d o n Co-opera t ive Soci-

Skye and Faroes A BUSINESSMAN interested in

developing the Scottish Hebri-dean Island of Skye has been com-paring it with the Faroes.

He notes that the population of the Faroes (about the same size) has steadily increased and the standard of living has gone up.

That of Skye has dwindled. In-dustries have closed. There is now no fishing, and the only thing the Government will encourage is the curse of tourism.

What makes the difference? He says it is that Denmark has al-lowed the Faroes self-Government and they have improved themselves. Skye is not even a County Council, and the fat-bellies in Inverness, Edinburgh and London have their own pet nests to feather.

The same applies with even greater force now we are under Brussels.

L c i i r c t ) I AY I bring the following facts

x to your notice with a view, we hope, to your being able to give them some publicity in the "Irish Democrat". Mr Morgan O'Brien, a native of Co. Kerry, has recently been awarded a Research Scholar-ship by the World Council of Peace, this scholarship being offered by the National Peace Council of Poland in memory of the work-carried out in the cause of peace by the late Pro-fessor J. D. Bernal.

Mr O'Brien left school at the £fge of 14J and worked as a steel erec-tor for eleven years. During this time he studied at evening classes and obtained the necessary quali-fications to enable him to train and work as a laboratory technician a t a grammar school in Manchester. He subsequently entered on a B.A. Honours degree course in Social Science a t the Enfield College of Technology (now designated as the Middlesex Polytechnic) and ob-tained his degree this year.

He was one of the candidates recommended by the Panel of Ad-visers appointed by the Bernal Library, and he won the award of the Polish Scholarship which he will be leaving to take up in Warsaw in the middle of this month. He plans a year's study of Philosophy in Poland. As Professor J D. Ber-nal was also born in Ireland, the Library is especially pleased tha t this Scholarship should go to an Irishman; it is the second award to be made, the first having been offered by the German Democratic Republic, and won by a 8u&sex graduate who has already started on his research work in the Uni-versity of I,eipzig.

EILEEN BERNAL (Hon. 8eo.)

ety, the Na t iona l Union Students , t h e C o m m u n i s t P,;

Libera t ion ( f o r m e r l y the M(T the Br i t i sh Peace Commit', the H a l d a n e Socie ty and. course a b o v e all, t h e Conr. Associat ion wh ich w ^ s found for the specif ic pu rpose of !;,._. ing up t h e s e issues and cont inued t h e fight (oiU>: lonely one ) f o r 35 years .

, r jTHE " I r i sh D e m o c r a t " is }• . t i c u l a r l y anx ious t h a t t h e -

organ isa t ions and t he i r branch-.--should t a k e p a r t in th is cor-fe rence a n d te l l of t h e won; they a r e doing . As a result is hoped t h a t t he re wi l l be gene ra l s t r e n g t h e n i n g of a" f ronts , s o m e t h i n g which vi ta l ly i m p o r t a n t as w e ap-proach t h e G e n e r a l Election which is to b r i n g the accurst j Tory P a r t y c r a s h i n g d o w n neve: to recover i ts p lace in t h e poe-tical l ife of t h i s coun t ry .

Tories try to wreck human

rights court '""pHE British Government is try mi

to sabotage the right of indi-vidual citizens to petition the Com: of Human Rights in Strasbourg fo: redress in civil liberties cases. Tli? reason is the embarrassment t-h.r Heath and Whitelaw have bee:: caused by the human rights case-the Northern Ireland Civil Right-Association is currently havm: examined.

What Britain plans to do is f> spin out the Six County can • alleging torture and brutalit against detainees until January next. Article 25 of the Charter o: Human Rights, under which Gov-ernments agree to answer charge-by individuals as distinct fron: states, is due for renewal th.r. month and unless strong pressure is brought by civil liberties people within Britain, it looks as if Britain will refuse to sign this Article o: the Charter again.

This will mean that the Heat!: Government will be free of the embarrassment of having to answf: the NICRA charges. Only the charges brought by the Dublin Gov-ernment will then remain and th? British doubtless hope that "friendly settlement" can be conv to in respect of these, whereby tlr charges will be dropped in return for some minor political concessit1:: by Britain in the North. I ' ITHE right of Individual petition

to the Court of Human Right-is of fundamental importance, fo: Governments very rarely take case-against one another, although there have been several thousand cases o: individual complaints. The far' tha t citizens have this right is a:, important constraint on arbitral', behaviour by Governments. If 1

were abolished by Governments re-fusing to be bound by it any furthe: —as Britain now may easily want to do because of her six-county em-barrassments—the value of H Court of Human Rights as a de-fence of civil liberties would vr tually disappear.

The rights of citizens within B: tain itself would be reduced becau-of the bad behaviour of the Brit i... Government in t h e six countie I t would be just one other exnnip' of how the people of Britain as whole are increasingly exposed dangers in the political, secun' and civil liberties areas as a rcsii of what their Government is bei: allowed to do In Ireland.

The National Council for C Liberties are very worried that I! Heath Government will seek to away with the r ight of Individ" petition. All organisations of H democratic and labour movcmei need to raise their voices now ensure that they are not allowed ;

get away with It.

Noverr er 1973 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT 3

11 INTERNATIONAL

E.E.C hits Ireland's farmers

WEEK after week there are inci-dents which bring home to

the English how bad the Common Market is and what a mistake they made in joining. More and more people are looking to the British Labour Movement to pull Britain out of "Europe", in which case the Irish business and intellectual Establishment will doubtless aban-don totally their late-found fervour for Europeanism.

EEC regulations are proving more and more objectionable, as people realise what rule from Brussels is like. For example, down in Castle-townbere they discovered that an EEC regulation forbade the cold storing of fish with other items of food. The result was a critical shortage of storage space for various types of fish, with con-siderable losses for some of the local fishermen.

Another regulation threatens to abolish the Christmas poultry trade. This rule, which comes into force in two years' time bans the sale of clean, plucked, ungutted poultry-a traditional trade in Britain and Ireland since time im-memorial, especially at Christmas time. The ostensible grounds are hygiene requirements. The real grounds almost certainly are the desires of the factory farm monopo-lies to get every stage of processing dead poultry under their control, so that they can put their prices even further up.

r j U T why should Irish housewives ** or British ones for that mat-ter—be told by Brussels that in future they will not be allowed to buy, in their own country, the home-produced product they prefer?

Many people still put their hopes in the Common Market's Regional Policy. This is the fund whioh is supposed to develop the more back-ward, agricultural areas of the en-larged EEC. In the lead-up to Ire-and's vote on the Common Market he prospect of free millions of in-estments from this fund was held

out to the Irish voters if they would nly vote "Yes" in the polling ooths. This they did but the vision ' the free millions gets dimmer nd dimmer daily. The Regional Fund must be con-

ributed to by someone, of course, nd the idea naive Irish people had as that the rich Germans, Dutch hd French would set aside millions or investment and grants and free cans to countries and areas poorer han themselves. The latest news s that regions entitled to grants rom the fund include half of Great f'tam, nearly half of Italy and rge tracts of Germany, France

id the Benelux countries. If tre-nd Bets grants in proportion to

opulat.on we might get £10 mll-on—less than half of one per cent ' our GNPl Even five times this

would be a relatively tiny ™un , ,o set against the damage e w. I be done by the Common arket.

We shall know how much will be •he Fund by the end of the year,

r L l v d ' $ h 0 p € s a r e »>"">g mmer T h e t Q | ( J tQ ^ J

'or the Market are truly lnK exposed very fast

inn,mmmii^

x M AS I i s c o m i n g 1

• |

GIVE BOOKS I h " y t h e m a t

IRISH BOOKSHOP I 283 GRAYS INN ROAD I

' '•" Mondays, W e d n e s d a y s ! <»' Saturdays

,r writp for catalogue § """'"•iiiHniniMWftHiMrnmmii*

Is the world turning upside down? 1 , T E have said before in the "Irish

Democrat" t ha t the great post-war turning point was 1971.

What happened? The mighty American colossus, bankrupted in a war with a nation of peasants, had to give up its role of universal patron of the west, and turn to "detente". The result was some-thing of a world diplomatic revolu-tion, and England was sent scurry-ing into the bosom of the Common Market.

How the logic of the new situa-tion has gripped the course of events! The Vietnam war entailed the most f rant ic and senseless squandering of natural resources t h a t the world has ever known.

• Waste was escalated to unimagined levels—and do not forget it is still going on.

The United States, symbol of self-complacent self-sufficiency ran short of oil, and began to import it, thus

competing with the rest <>) the upitalist world. Europe and Japan

:n particular. Fifty years ago they would just have rolled the tanks into the Levant and taken it. Now the colonial revolution has estab-lished a series of independent states, which the existence of the socialist states guarantees from direct ag-gression. The spectre appears oefore the imperialists that if they dared to plunge the world into total war they would not have the oil to fight it.

I ITTLE wonder tha t the outbreak ^ of hostilities between Israel

and the Arabs found Kissinger fly-ing to Canossa in Moscow, and talking pacification with the once hated Russians against whom a few years ago they were breathing fire and slaughter. So though there is little in the way of a formal alliance, the military strength of .socialism guarantees the economic strength of the "third world", and

Belfast resolution on Chile t h e Belfast and District Trades

Council protests most strongly against the destruction of the demo-cratically elected Government in Chile by a brutal and reactionary military junta acting on behalf of the exploiters of the Chilean people and especially the international monopolies.

The Allende Government had ex-propriated the international mono-polies, nationalised the large banks, established for the first time a pub-lic sector in the economy, carried out a land reform in the interests of the landless peasants, had largely overcome the chronic unemployment which had always afflicted the peopje under former administra-tions and had, for the first time in the history of the people of that country, given the working class the opportunity of building a society of peace and progress. ' T H E military Junta is responsible

for the murder of President Allende and thousands of others who supported democratic govern-ment, it has imprisoned and tor-

tured thousands of others, it has outlawed the trade unions and all political parties, made bonfires of progressive and educational books and literature, including the poems and writings of the Chilean Nobel Peace Prize winner, the late Pablo Neruda.

The crimes of the military junta will go down in history alongside those of the German fascists. But the working class and progressive peasantry of Chile will rise again. To enable them to do this as quickly as possible they must be given the support of progressive movements, especially the trade unions, and persons everywhere. The Belfast Trades Union Council calls upon the British Government to cease forthwith its recognition of the military junta as the legal gov-ernment of Chile. It calls upon the British and Irish Trade Union Con-gresses to take steps towards that end. I t also calls upon the inter-national trade union centres to act together immediately in defence of the common people of Chile.

the economic strength of the "third world" makes the prospect of an attack on socialism hazardous to the last degree.

We can see how wrong Were those who a few years ago told us war was inevitable. The logic of events and the necessities of survival indicate to all the necessity for peace, and it is increasingly becom-ing only madmen who doubt it.

Speaking of "economic strength" of the "third world" of course does not imply that this is more than relative and conditional. When the imperialists could openly steal raw materials they had no reason to speak civilly. When they have to buy them, even if they get them cheap, the boot is on the other leg.

' And in the nature of the case the crazy squandering of natural re-sources, which is one of the chief features of modem capitalism (it would be quite possible^ to get "growth" of all the am&^ie s or-dinary people want without this mad squandermania of oil and minerals and soil fertility) creates a shortage. And long before the sky clouds over with smoke, or the sea sets solid with muck, or the oil dries up, or the soil is blown off the land, there are economic con-sequences, which serve as regulators or governors.

I T was for years considered almost a law of nature that

the so-called under-developed coun-tries needed the developed ones, but the developed ones did not much need them. This meant monopoly prices for the industrialist and rock-bottom poverty prices for the primary producer. It was taken for granted that cocoa would get cheaper no matter how many West African farmers were ruined. A big chocolate firm found to its cost tha t that was not so. The endless growth of the disparity in price be-tween primary (mineral and agri-cultural) goods was thought to lead in one direction only—advantage to the industrial country.

It may well be that the inevitable, which I remember Mr J. R. Camp-bell, the economist, warning of at a seminar held by the Connolly As-sociation nearly ten years ago, is

upon us. The famous old ".-<•:.— winch ruined the primary proa . and fattened the industrial mom l -list are beginning to close. What : after closing they open out other way? What if the term- i trade compel the rich nations the industrial west to hand back the advantage they took when tr.-r were able.

If so then the world will h; turned upside down.

The theme could be pursued end-lessly, and usefully too if it is re-membered that it involves only one of the aspects of world change. ^ ^NE thing certainly would follow,

long before there was a k:nd ol economic apocalpyse—the word-ing people of the western capital, t countries w^ould insist that the re-sources available or purchasable ov them should not be used in a waste-ful crazy squandering manner ir<r the sake of private profit, but .n accordance with a planned hus-bandry in which the criterion wf.s use.

In a word the need for socialism is more urgent than ever before. Let us hope we see rapid political developments to meet the needs world economics are making s tars ; . clear.

BARONET IS OFFENDED

T H E sensitive feelings of wefl-• padded Sir Christopher Soames,

European Commissioner of the fanatical Heath Government are sadly bruised by the universality ®t anti-EEC feeling in Britain.

He told the well-breeched merch-ants of Glasgow Chamber of Com-merce that he was "sick and tired:" of hearing critical comment on the Common Market.

He should look at his pay packet and cheer up.

Meanwhile the working man wrli! look at HIS pay packet and prepare for the fray.

Scottish Cultural Landmarks Exports t0 VTTHATEVER else may occur to

' * affect Scottish life before 1973 closes, two outstanding features of this year's "political" calendar have been, respectively, in the theatrical and literary fields; the 7:84 Theatre Company's play "The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil" and the November publication of "John Maclean", the first and long-awaited full-scale biography of Scot-land's greatest working-class politi-cal leader written by his younger daughter Nan Milton.

Until now it has been difficult to refute the habitual claim that the Scottish people cannot be brought to an interest in political and cul-tural matters; the "Cheviot" has rammed a wide gap in tha t claim. The play, described as a "ceilidn entertainment", was written as a group composition under the direc-tion of writer John McGrath (Mer-sey-side born son of Irish parents); each of the actors—all young Scots —researched the material for a section of the play. The group then built up from these sections the sequence and flow of the entire work. The result is a unique and brilliant portrayal of Scottish poli-tical history since the time of Cul-loden, and most important of all— it presented throughout from a class viewpoint.

The content of the play ranges widely—the Clearances, the phoney Patrick Sellar trial, the so-called Improvements and the Sutherland "psychophants" like Harr ie t Beccher Stowe, the crofter resistance move-ments and Highland lAnd ; League, the role of the Church and the military",' t&e ' W M ' ^ - s I & i t M " - '

By

R. Mulholland fishin' brigade, the white settlers, oil developments, pollution, tourism etc.; and all these themes are handled with an exhilarating mix-ture of uproarious humour, telling satire, Gaelic song and politically revealing dialogue; and for Scot-land, all adding up to a new kind of theatre, an informative experi-ence which effectively counters much of the false propaganda, de-scribed as historry, put out by "the Scotish" educational system.

"pHE Company has energetically ^ been on tour since last April,

taking the play "to the people"; in dozens of villages, small towns and communities—particularly in the Highlands and Islands—and every-where the deserved acclaim has been spontaneous and enthusiastic. The present tour culminates in the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh; in Glasgow at The Citizens' (Octo-ber SOth-November 13th) and in the Edinburgh Royal Lyceum for two weeks at the end of November; six Lowland towns will also see tt>c play during November. It 's a must!

The 7:84 Company (the seven per cent rich own 84 per rent of the wealth) then hope to start in Glas-gow With a new play about John Maclean which centres on Maclean's work and Its relevance to the present and future of Scotland. Nan Milton's biography Of her father Is.

ttutoe. a orwoially important

landmark in Scottish political, liter-ary history and its November pub-lication—which marks the 50th an-niversary of John Maclean's death —is mainly due to her tireless dedi-cation; every Scottish socialist is thereby in her debt.

It is a regrettable feature of Scot-tish political life that due recogni-tion is, usually, only very belatedly given to Scotland's most important sons—particularly those like John Maclean, Ruaraidh Erskine, John Murdoch and others—who looked at Scotland as a whole, a unit, a -na -tion, and dared to prescribe anti-imperialist, class remedies for the problems confronting the Scottish people. For Scottish writers to con-tinue propagating the ideas of such men is—as Hugh MacDiarmid says

"to handle lightning". John Maclean's political advocacy

was for a Scottish Socialist Repub-lic. He maintained—and the cor-rectness of his viewpoint becomes ever more valid and urgent—that the requirements for Scotland can-not possibly derive, in sufficient measure, from any "British" politi-cal party policy or devolvement. In the 50 years since his death the Maclean line has never been openly examined or analysed thoroughly by the Scottish labour movement. People have seemed to be afraid of bing called "narrow Nationalists"; though it is not possible for the narrow-minded ever to comprehend the complexity of the Scottish prob-lem.

It is to be hoped that every serious student of Scottish working-class history will read Nan Milton's toook.

boob Mr JOHN DA VIES, Minister ot

State in the fanatically Euro-pean Heath Government, admitted] the failure of Government policy in a speech to the Institute of Direc-tors.

He said that English exporters had failed even to make "reason-able progress" in exports to the continent.

And this is at a time when the pound is tumbling in value, and the prices that have to be paid for im-ports are fantastic.

It is thus crazy government policy, backing an economic loser, that is at the back of the pa? freeze. You and I are being askttf to pay for 1he luxury of Mr Heath's lack of foresight.

MESSING ABOUT WITH BEER

•pHEY tell us it will make no d..*-1 fercnce. The beer will still taste the same Wheh? When every single hop

plant in England has been grubbfc up at the cost of millions oi pounds, and a different kind brought from the continent put m its place.

Why is this being done? On t.n insane "directive" from the Com-mon Market dictators in Brussels, which the Tory gaulelters ar< slavishly carrying out.

The point is. If it make no de-ference to the beer Why are thry doing it?" ' " •'

4 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT November 1973

Socialist swan songs at Irish Conference p r o t e s t

T W E v r v . N i x c o r v n r c s i

Reprinted from "Irish Workers' Voice" (Dublin) I DO not advocate total public co'.trol of oil, nas and mines.

I do not advocate this because I am a democrat. No Irish govern-men! has .cot a mandate to do that. ) a n not ;;oing to ram down the throats ot the Irish oeople what they do not want."

The quote is irom Mr Justin Heating's concluding remarks at the Cork annual conference of the Labour Party. Th is represents Mr Heating's conversion to consensus politics. Is it his Socialist swan-song? For a man of his undoubted intellectual nrowess, it would be a rather inept epitaph. These re-marks in effect mean a rejection of socialism or nationalisation by the Labour Party in spite of the inclusion of such sentiments in some general Labour program-matic statements.

In fact, the public image of the Labour Party on this issue is one

Partition (Continued from Page One)

disadvantages the six counties labour under on top of those com-mon to all capitalist countries.

Many people do not understand that partition has two aspects. Each is a denial of democracy. The majority of the people of Ireland want an independent republic. Democracy is rule by the majority. So in accordance with the principle of democracy they are entitled to have one. The majority suffers by partition because they have avail-able to them only part of the national resources. And that is bad.

But there is another aspect, quite distinct. Within the six counties is a part of the majority of the people of Ireland, a part of those entitled to an independent republic, which is converted artificially into a minority by the power of the Eng-lish State to hold six Irish coun-ties. Whether it is made into an artificial minority with respect to the Unionists or with respect to the whole so-called "United Kingdom" the result is the same. A part of the majority of the people of Ire-land is subjected to a monstrous political injustice going to the very root of their status as citizens.

It is impossible to introduce "democracy" in the six counties. If a referendum is held in six coun-ties the f/3ople of the twenty-six are deprived of the right to decide what goes on in a part of their own country. The "minority" in the referendum is the majority view of the people of Ireland. A referen-dum is merely the expression of the above-mentioned injustice. It is indee^M injustice itself.

It m / f order to maintain that in-justice^hat the artificially created "majority" in the six counties has been segregated, indoctrinated, bribed, patronised and armed. They are entrenched in a thousand ways. And it is in relation to this second aspect of partition, the fact that the majority of the people of Ire-land are spread throughout the country, including right through the six counties, whereas the Unionist minority are only in the north-east, that the apparatus of dis-crimination, inequality and repres-sion has been built up. It must be added too that not only is the "majority" artificially created, its distinctness from the rest of the people of Ireland has been arti-ficially created by imperialism, so that as well as being the agents of oppressing their fellow Irishmen, |he Unionists are also Irishmen who A y e been deprived of their rights.

Since it has come to a confronta-tion what is to be done? Within r.ie nationalist oamp there will always be found men and women to continue the struggle for their rights as members of the majority of the Irish people. On the other hand, against them stands the ugly creation of Imperialism, the section of the Irish people imperialism has suoo«Ml«d temporarily in detaching from the nation. How do we get out of It? While our colleagues in Ireland are doing their part within

(Contd. on Page Five, Col. 1)

of glorious confusion as was the •outcome of the debate. It has been correctly said that the debate on mining was a criterion for identi-fying those fn the Party who took socialism seriously. It seems clear Justin Keating is not among them. His attitude was not far removed from the statement by the arch Right-winger, James Tully, who de-clared he did not care who owned the Navan mine as long as "the country got a fair share." It was shameful that the resolution on nationalisation was not carried at the Cork conference.

RE G A R D I N G Mr Keating's refer-ence to himself as a democrat,

(Continued from Page One)

large number of bank robberies, bombings, and o ther illegalities, including at tacks on police stations in County Louth, Ireland, carried out by the Li t t le johns in 1971 and 1972, allegedly with the aim of pro-voking the Irish Government into passing s tr ingent laws against t he I.R.A.?

Did Mr Geoffrey Johnson-Smith telephone Kenne th Lit t lejohn a f t e r the Aldershot bombing which killed six civilians and a n army padre, as alleged by Kenne th Littlejohn in a s ta tement issued by his lawyer, Mr John Lovatt-Dolan, S.C., on August 8th and if so what did Mr Johnson-Smith say?

When the Li t t le john brothers were contesting in cour t last J anu-ary their extradi t ion to Ireland to face bank robbery charges why did the Attorney-General , Sir Peter Rawlinson, ask for t h e proceedings to be heard in camera?

When the Li t t l e johns were ap-pealing agains t the i r extradition to Ireland before Lord Widgery, Chief Justice, last J anua ry , what were the grounds on which Sir Peter Rawlinson again requested that the proceedings agains t alleged bank robbers be held in secret?

Why did the Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Norman Skelhorn, fly to Dublin to get a guarantee from the Irish Attorney-General, Mr Colm Condon, t h a t t he Litt lejohns would not be tried on political charges if they were extradited, bu t on the bank robbery charge only? Is this normally done on "non-political" crimes? , r P H E Lit t le johns have consistenlv

1 claimed tha t the i r activities in Ireland, including bank robberies an£ provocations of various kinds, were carried out as p a r t of their political work for the British Ministry of Defence. Statements they have made have been construed as implying t h a t t he bombings in Dublin on December 1st last, which killed two busmen and injured 73 people in Liberty Hall, were the work of agents of t he British Intel-ligence. who sought thereby to in-fluence the Irish Dail to pass the Offences Against the S t a t e (Amend-ment) Act.

This they succeeded in doing, for the Act was s tampeded through the Dail in a virtual panic on the night of the bombings and since then numerous republicans have been imprisoned under its terms, which allow the bare s t a t ement of a police officer to be adequate evidence of membership of the I.R.A.

As Kenne th Li t t le john said to a reporter while awai t ing trial: "I laugh when I read about Water-gate. At least in t h a t no-one got killed."

CONFERENCE 25 NOVEMBER

Hampstead Town Hall

S E E PAGE

T W O

it must be asked is the exploitation ot our mineral resources by inter-national monopolies in conformity with his conception of democracy?

There has been much comment on the number of resolutions which were not reached and on the small mention of events in Northern Ireland. The qualified support given in official statements to the S.D.L.P. is a disquieting factor, al-lied to Conor Cruise O'Brien's appa-rent preference for the partitionist Northern Ireland Labour Party.

A motion on the Offences Against the State Act was not debated. It was scheduled as the last motion in the final session of the confer-

i T the t ime of writing the Little-' ' john brothers are in Mountjoy Prison. Dublin, having been given long sentences for bank robbery and their appeal agains t these sen-tences is coming up in late October. I t is widely thought in Dublin tha t they are quite confident of being released on appeal for if they are not they have threa tened to blow the gaff in detail on the provoca-tions and intelligence operat ions of MI6 employees in I re land, espe-cially those connected with Mr J o h n Wyman.

Naturally they are themselves primarily interested in get t ing out of prison and not having to spend the next 15 years in jail. They are also confident, if they get out with-out causing political embarrass-ment to the British Government, t h a t they will be generously treated on their r e tu rn to England by their former employers and live in com-for t for the rest of their lives. They believe t h a t for political reasons the present Ir ish government—and the head of the former I r ish gov-ernment , Mr Lynch—would not welcome a n exposure of the facts and would be glad if the Lit t lejohn brothers could be released on a legal technicality, and got rid of.

The latest twist in the story is the report t ha t Mr Sean Collins, at present detained in Long Kesh, is bringing a case against t h e British Government of wrongful detention on the grounds tha t he was forcibly taken f rom Dundalk last year by one of the Lit t lejohns a n d handed over by him to the Bri t ish security forces in Newry. His case is in the hands of Mr Paschal O'Hare, Nor thern Ireland lawyer, and if carried through will be a fu r ther

T H E Dublin Labour Move-ment has suffered a severe

loss in the death of Brendan Scott at the early age of 39. A Sligo man, from Easkey, settled in Dublin for some years, he left the administrative Council of the Irish Labour Party on the issue of the sending up of Conor Cruise O'Brien as a Labour Candidate. He was a member of the I.N.T.O.

As a speaker he had an elec-tric impact, as Noel Btowne put it in his tribute "an aoid tipped tongue". He was gifted with vast knowledge which he con-stantly drew upon to explain current events. He was fully committed to participation in active Labour politics to which he strove to impart a socialist direction. For an intellectual he attracted an astonishing loyalty from comrades. He was proud to have been asked by the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union to help with their education programme.

In the months before he died I saw him delving through books by authors as diverse as

ence and was eventually to be given 15 minutes; amid confusion this proposal was defeated.

The media were pleased with the conference, especially the "Irish Independent" and the "Cork Exa-miner", which organs hailed its •realism". The "Ir ish Times" edi-torial remarked: "At times it seemed Mr Keating was near to Fianna Fail slogan—the Party of Reality."

There is still in the Labour Party a strong section which fights for socialist ideas and they scored some successes. An interesting by-product of the conference was a Left-wing public meeting addressed by Noel Browne and Tomas Mac-Giolla.

reminder to a worried public of the mean ing of the Li t t le john affair .

A N elaborate cover-up of this - » British Waterga te ha s been on foot since last October when the Li t t le johns were arrested following t h e carrying out of t h e biggest b a n k robbery in the history of Ire-land. The cover-up pr imari ly in-volves Lord Carr ington, the British Minis ter for Defence, and his sub-ordinates, but indirectly involved are various I r ish polit icians who permi t ted themselves to be pro-voked by the fire-bombs to pass the legislation they did, wrhich is an ou t rage on basic principles of civil liberty.

Mr Jack Lynch in par t icular has been gravely embarrassed within his par ty because of his involve-m e n t in the Li t t le john affair , his "loss of mermory" about various incident^ relat ing to it, a n d his permi t t ing the Wyman and Little-j o h n cases ,to be dealt with by the Attorney-<S€neral and t h e Ir ish legal authori t ies in a way which took excessive account of Brit ish political susceptibilities. I ) R O M I N E N T politicians in both

islands are extremely anxious for the affair to blow over, but this is unlikely to happen unless the Li t t le johns can be released without fu s s and got safely back to Eng-land. Hence the public interest now growing in Dublin as to how their appea l will go.

I n the meant ime it lies with hones t and fearless men in English public life to get to the root of w h a t could virtually be the Brit ish Waterga te . A public enquiry into the whole affair is urgently needed. Fo r the people of Bri ta in and Ire-l and want to know what has been going on.

Lenin, Marcuse and Miliband. His last long essay now pub-lished by socialist colleagues in the Labour Party draws from the work of all these critically to examine the insidious urge of the coalitionists in Labour to a European style Social - Demo-cratic Labour Party, devoid of class feeling or socialist ideology.

His greatest scorn was re-served for the ultra-democrats, safely tucked away in the middle of the consensus herd incapable of and opposed to coming out in front. That is where Brendan always was, on an anti-apartheid picket line, on a demonstration for the home-less, always on the look-out for a leverage which would over-turn the society which he hated, though it could have given him a comfortable uncaring exist-ence.

He had known the hard years ki Ireland in the early fifties which had sent him to the emi-grant ship as it sent many others. I recall vividly a story he told me last Ju ly about his

t G R O U P of Dublin schoo ' ' chi ldren has protested outsia the Br i t i sh Embassy in Memo: Square aga ins t the continued dete:. tion of school students withoi; charge or tr ial by the Brit ish AG-minis t ra t ion in Northern Ireland

The pro tes t was organised by tin-Irish Union of School Students wh are seeking to draw at tent ion to th> pl ight of th ree boys, Alex Murplr, (15), Kevin Donnelly (15) and Sea-mus F inucance (16) who are at present held in deplorable condi-tions in Long Kesh internment camp.

These young people are denied any study facilities in their place of detent ion.

At the same time the Northern I re land Civil Rights Association is urging the Brit ish National Union of S tuden t s to publicise these ter-rible f ac t s in Britain. In a state-ment, NICRA says, "Under the Spe-cial Powers Act children were not interned, so t h a t the Emergency Provisions Act, which allows school-children to be held in this way, is shown to be a much more obnoxioti> piece of legislation than the Special Powers Act ever was."

The p l igh t of children detained without cha rge or trial is thus added to t h a t of the young women in Armagh Jai l , as a fu r the r scan-dal ar is ing f rom the Heath-White-law policy in Ireland.

I t needs to be publicised in Britain and to be opposed by every organ-isation concerned with democracy and civil liberties.

Will not allow debate on act

I N the Dail recently. Mr Neil Blaney asked Mr Cosgrave if

he would consider giving time for his Pr ivate Member's Bill to repeal the Offences Against the State (Amendment ) Act, 1972. The Taoiseach replied that he did not consider it to be urgent. Mr Blaney then asked whether it would be a Bill wor thy of inclusion in the Order of Business. Mr Cosgrave then said h e would not consider it.

I t is t ragic if the running for the repeal of t h i s infamous Act is to be lef t t o Neil Blaney, with silence f rom the Labour benches. Fine Gael voted for the Bill only after the f a t a l explosions in Dublin which are now generally believed to have been the handiwork of British Army agents . Labour voted against the Bill.

RIP .

first job as a publisher's assist-ant. His section had no trade union and were constantly pressed into late working, but the organised printers would have none of that without over-time agreements and other con-trols. The episode taught him the value of Union organisation and worker democracy in fac-tories, in schools and at all levels of society. This he never forgot.

Social history was his passion, but in his last few years he turned his mind increasingly to the theory of education and his great gifts were always seen at their best in the teacher. He died, incidentally, in the same week as A. S. Neill whose work he admired and emulated.

His wife and three chi ldren were the sun, moon and stars ot his life as his intensely painful death came. To them we should say as Brutus said of Cassius in Julius Caesar,

"I owe more tears than I can shed now.

But I shall find the time, < shal l find the time."

Littlejohn scandal is still alive

TRIBUTE TO BRENDAN SCOTT BY

PAT CARROLL

N o v e m b e r 1973 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT 5

S I X C O U N T Y N C K \ K

POWER-SHARING WHERE NO POWER IS DISCRIMINATION WILL the present British

plans for the six counties A O r k ? W i l l the Assembly and Executive get off the ground ? Will a Council of Ireland come into existence? And if not, what w i l l happen? These are questions exciting discussion all over Ireland today. And not only in Ireland, but among La-bour and Tory supporters of bi-partisanship in Britain:

The position of the S.D.L.P. is they are willing to form a

:jo\vcr-sliaring" Northern Execu--.•• with the Faulkner Unionists

,.,::d alliance Party, if the British Gj , eminen t also agrees to estab-

a Council of I re land with v.. cisum-making powers in certain ...vas and to radically re fo rm the

i.xc force in the North. Ta lks are ;.>••:;.' to go on for quite some time :> twoen the S.D.L.P., the Faulkner-

• and Alliance on a joint coali-programme under William

V.'vtelaw's chairmanship.

Loading S.D.L.P. Assemblymen .,:•!• sceptical about the likely re-sults of these talks. They doubt

Faulkner will be able to "deliver •.he goods." They see his position being undermined in the Ulster Unionist Council, which meets very shortly, and they know t h a t some o: Ins followers—the so-called "pledged Unionists" in t h e Assem-bly—will not support the establish-ment of a joint Executive with Catholics and nationalists like the S.D.L.P.

The S.D.L.P. continue wi th the talks, however, for if they a re to oreak down it must be the Union-

PARTITION (Continued from Page Five)

the needs of the situation at home, we who live in England must state what we want the English Govern-ment to do.

And this is it: to inform the Unionists that the game is up, that a United Ireland is coming, and that steps are to be set in motion to restore the majority their rights, That is the declaration of intent. But they would be given time to get used to the idea, and during that time the most objectionable part of the system of partition, the appara-tus of repression, should be dis-mantled. This apparatus had its origin in the need of the Unionists to pass themselves off as a majority, which they are not.

In other words we want a Govern-ment in England that would say to the Irish people, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we find we are in illegal occupation of part of your country, and we want to make restitution. We recognise our duty >s to get out, and we intend to per-form it. But we are aware that our predecessors have created a body of anti-national feeling and en-couraged a section to refuse to recognise the will of the majority, which is the sole possible basis for democracy in Ireland. We are also sorry to say that in pursuit of the aim of maintaining a core of anti-democratic feeling, our predecessors created a system of repression and discrimination and considerable re-form and re-education will be re-a r e d . We are anxious that no hasty or ill-considered action on o r part should create difficulties

, h e majority that must ulti-mately rule Ireland, and having stated our objectives to you frankly, and openly renounced any claim to

so", we now invite you to consult with us upon the processes required to achieve a peaceful and orderly withdrawal."

A t the core of the procoss of re-lorm and re-education is the

HEATH GETS NERVOUS AS THE ASSEMBLY REMAINS GROUNDED

By ANTHONY COUGHLAN

ists who mus t be seen to take the blame, so t h a t the i r intransigence is again exposed before Irish a n d British opinion.

I N these views the S.D.L.P. are 1 at one with the Dublin Govern-

ment, and par t icular ly the Cosgrave element wi thin it. as against those who would go to any lengths to placate the Unionists, such as Doctors O'Brien and Fitzgerald. The proposals p u t by Mr Cosgrave to Heath when they met in Dublin have not been released to the Press, but it seem§ t h a t the Irish side pressed for t he establishment of a Council of I r e l and which would have decision-taking and law-mak-ing power over the whole island, beginning wi th such areas as tourist development, electricity gen-eration and E.E.C. regional policy, but with power to take on f u r t h e r functions with t h e passage of time.

I t seems also t h a t Cosgrave sug-gested to H e a t h t h a t the Council of Ireland should be given super-visory powers over the police in both parts of t h e country. Hea th was non-committal , saying t h a t these developments might all be possible if the Northern Unionists agreed to them, but making no commitment to a positive Bri t ish initiative in relat ion to any of them.

For such an initiative would ob-viously be needed if an All-Ireland body were to be set up by the two governments, London and Dublin, which would have law-making powers. Th is would entail a limi-tation on the sovereignty of the Westminster Par l i ament over the six counties, as expressed in the Northern I re land Constitution Act, and would a t t he least require a fundamenta l amendment to t h a t Act.

Heath's real position therefore seems to be th i s : He wants Dublin to do everything possible to push the S.D.L.P. in to forming a coali-tion with the Faulknerites and Alliance in the Nor thern Assembly —thus achieving essentially wha t Captain O'Neill tr ied to do when Prime Minister five years ago—

winning the consent of the Catho-lics to work Parti t ion insti tut ions.

Dublin is to be led on by the bait of a Council of I re land which might entail a British move on the sovereignty issue. Bu t when the Executive is got going the Union-ists will effectively have a veto on this happening, and the British believe t ha t by then the lure of well-paid office and the momentum of events will have sapped the will ot' the S.D.L.P. to insist on an All-I re land body with real powers; Dublin will connive a t this surren-der and the new six-county settle-ment will get going with British sovereignty over the a rea intact.

The reality of the situation is enshrined in Section 2 of the Nor thern Ireland Consti tution Act. which Whitelaw and others stress all the time is the law of the land, something which must be supported by all and abided by. 'Section 2 states t ha t the North remains part of the United Kingdom and shall not cease to be so without the consent of the major i ty in the North taken in a poll a t ten-year intervals. As one poll has already been held, this effectively means tha t there can be no change in the constitutional status of the North within the U.K. until 1983 at the earliest, as long as this Section of the Constitution Act remains law.

It is true that this Section was passed by only a h a n d f u l of votes at Westminster, with the Labour Par ty voting against, but it is now written into the new "Const i tut ion" of Northern Ireland and aU mem-bers of the new Assembly take an oath to carry out their functions in accordance with it.

O U T do Heath and Whitelaw and ' Company really th ink them-

selves t ha t the whole scheme will work? Perhaps the most sensible interpretat ion of Heath ' s outburst about the North coming under per-manen t "direct rule" in the event of the Executive/Assembly scheme failing is tha t he too shares some scepticism about its likely success. If a "power-sharing" Executive is not formed by next March, then

the deadline for the operat ion o: the Consti tut ion Act could be ex-tended. That is one possibility.

Another is that White law could still appoint Protestant a n d Catho-lic Assemblymen to an Executive, even if they did not command a majori ty in the Assembly. This is within his powers under the Act and such a body would provide a facade of democratic approval to his continued direct ru le of the six counties. It would be an ad-mission of failure, however, and would be no formula for political stability.

The prospects of a "power-shar-ing" Executive being establ ished in the North are basically n o t good, The whole scheme looks like an a t tempt to square the political circle, to get Unionists and Na-tionalists to form a coali t ion with-out either side abandon ing their views. It is a course f r a u g h t with difficulty and is essentially the result of the failure of t he British Government to adopt a posit ion of seeking to end the Union and making tha t clear to the Northern Unionists.

A declaration of intent by Britain towards ending the Union is still the most rat ional and democratic-way forward in the North, t he only way leading to a real solut ion to the problems of the area . Heath and Whitelaw will not f a c e up to it and the Labour Par ty supporters of the present White Pape r "settle-men" are doing neither I re land nor Labour a service in their blinkered support of Tory policy on this issue.

I F Heath and Whitelaw fail they may well think of f u r t h e r ex-

pedients to "solve" the I r i sh prob-lem while keeping Bri t ish, sover-eignty in I re land; these m a y be even worse t h a t what they a re try-ing to do now and Br i t i sh and Irish democrats and Labour men need to be awake to what they may yet get up to.

By bringing to the fore the de-mand for a fundamen ta l Brit ish change of policy in I re land, a change f rom a policy of re ta in ing British sovereignty to a policy of openly working for the end of part i t ion—which is not a t all the same as the immediate wi thdrawal of the troops—the progressive forces in both countries will be showing the only hopeful way for* ward and heading off t h e even more reactionary schemes their present rulers may yet concoct if they can.

AGAINST BALLYMURPHY

1 ) ALLYMURPHY, as everyone knows, is the Catholic housing

es ta te in Be l fa s t which h a s h a d a terrible raw deal from the Unionis t and Whi te law adminis t ra t ions in recent years . In its s t ree t s the Bri t ish Army, particularly some regiments , a r e notorious for the i r bullying a n d int imidat ing be-haviour . Many adults and young men f rom the area have been in-terned without charge or t r ia l in Long Kesh.

Queen 's University has j u s t pub-lished a s ta t is t ical picture of the area , ent i t led "Ballymurphy, a Tale of Two Sili'veys", by A. E. D. Spen-cer, which gives a wealth of d a t a on the es ta te in the spring of 1971 and aga in two years later, in Februarv , 1973.

First ly, it shows the h igh pro-por t ion of young people in Bally-murphy . I n 1971 66 per cent were under 19 while only three per cent were over 55. Secondly, the es ta te is domina ted by large famil ies liv-ing in overcrowded conditions. Three quar t e r s of t he children live in households having- four or more children. In 1971 there was an average of 6.5 persons per dwelling in the estate, twice the average for Bel fas t as a whole. Nearly half the populat ion lived in houses with an overcrowding density of 1.5 persons per room or over.

Thirdly, Bal lymurphy. is ravaged by chronic unemployment and ill-hea l th—not surpris ing considering the housing conditions a n d the social discr iminat ion prac t i sed aga ins t people f rom the es ta te a n d their religion. Up to 27 per cent of t he men a n d 20 per cent of t he women have n o job.

This con t r a s t s with a Bel fas t un-employment r a t e of 6.4 per cent among men a n d 3.3 per c en t - among women. I n t h e es ta te 57 pe r cen t of the housewives between 25 a n d 29 had an unemployed husband. No less t h a n 48 pe r cent of the child-ren had a f a t h e r who was e i t he r unemployed or sick or disabled. T h e presence of physical or m e n t a l handicap in Bal lymurphy is th ree t imes the Ulster average—not sur-prising considering the pressures both pa ren t s and children live under.

Figures like these show t h a t more will be needed to solve the problems of the six count ies than N o r t h e r n I re land Cons t i tu t ion Acts and "direct rule" f r o m London !

The five year walk from old Dungannon

establishment of civil rights. But it 'impossible , o r a"V British Gov-

"nrnent determined to maintain Partition t 0 carry out a firm policy " J 1 " " for the logic of the ^r'.tion position drives It the other

'his, incidentally, is what the n i!0H' m 6 n w h 0 8 h 0 u t e d f o r direct we did not know, and we hope they

it now.

R E C E N T L Y the Northern Ireland ' Civil Rights Association orga-

nised marches to commemorate the f i f th anniversary of the first civil rights march f rom Coalisland to Dungannon and t h e October 5th march in Derry which th rus t Northern Ireland on to television screens all over the world and presented Terence O'Neill, Brian Faulkner, William Craig and their colleagues in all their naked glory.

Censorship has always been s tr in-gent in holv Nor thern Ireland "The Last T a n g o in Paris" is the most recent victim -but October 5th in Derry was one strip show our hypocritical mas ters were un-able to handle, and so the porno-graphic Unionist Party and its pa rami l i t a ry wing of the R.U.C. and "B" Specials provided history with a true blue film.

I missed the f irs t two historic marches, being a t th is time in Eng-land, so in t ak ing part in the recent commemorat ion I found my-self trying to re-create in my mind the first line of Civil Righters to gather on an I r ish roadside and to capture a little of the atmos-phere which m u s t have existed in Derry. I AM sure, though. Uiat of those

• people who came together just five years ago to demand civil rights and social justice, few could hav«. forecast the events that de-

veloped because of their simple democratic demands. Who was to know tha t a modern Brit ish gov-ernment . and a Labour one at that, would allow the Unionist Party to unleash its Orange mobs on a de-fenceless people?

Who could have anticipated that demented political lunatics would have been permitted in the last years of the 20th century to ar-range for the burning out and intimidation of whole communities. The ensuing rise of the Provision-als was not part of the cal-culations of the early Civil Right-ers and neither was the invasion of Catholic areas by the British Army resulting in hundreds of deaths, internment and mass re-pression on a scale t h a t has not been experienced since the down-fall of Hitler.

And who would have been brave enough to say that the simple de-mand of one man one vote would escalate into the downfall of official Unionism at Siormont 9

Walking along the road from Coalisland to Dungannon on a sunny autumn Saturday afternoon would be pleasant enough a t any time, but to have the company of a good-natured group telling jokes and singing civil r ights songs led by veteran Frank MrGlade (in-terned three times dur ing his life-

time) made the five miles pass very quickly.

There were many faces t h a t have become familiar to me d u r i n g the past four years and I a m sure some were there at the very begin-ning. but absent at Coalisland and later in Derry were the "profes-sional politicians. Some wit said tha t they are afraid to walk now as they would be in d a n g e r of tripping over their tongues. | > U T one man who was present

and in fact helped to organise the Coalisland march, was Paddy Joe MeClean. P.J is not a person who s tands out physically in a crowd of two thousands. He can hardly be more than 5Jft. tall and yet he has proved over the las t few years to be a political g i a n t in comparison to the many more easily recognisable political figures who are used by the Press and tele-vision to present the "correct" ap-proach for the people. P.J. is a man of quality and has won the respect of all sections in his nat ive Tyrone for his obvious sinceri ty and integrity.

A school teacher with a large family to support, lie was kid-napped with several hundred others on August 9th, 1971 and tor tured with a hood over his head for six days But such is the character of the man t h a t he came out of Long Kesh without bitterness and im-

By John McClelland

mediately re-involved himself in the mass s t ruggle fo r democracy.

Speaking a t the meeting in Dun-gannon a f t e r t h e march, he suc-ceeded better t h a n anyone else I have heard in Northern I re land in silencing the loyalists who h a d come along as usual to hurl abuse, at least. They listened as Paddy Joe pointed out t he similarities in the problems fac ing Protestant and Catholic workers and though they did not cheer h i m a t the end of his speech, they did not jeer ei ther .

Th i s was a mos t hear tening ex-perience and I could not help con-t ras t ing it with a n earlier meet ing I a t t ended in Dungannon when one of our leading politicians a lmos t s ta r ted a riot by shaking his fist a t the P ro t e s t an t crowd and tel l ing them, "You have walked over us m th£ past , now we will walk over you." Good sec ta r i an vote winning stuff but not t h e politics of P. J . McClean. J ^ O T H marches were carr ied

th rough in a peaceful and d ig - , nified manner , with the forces of law and ordor well out of s ight . Indeed, there was not a soldier to be seen in the Bogside, Creggan or Brandywell a r ea s of Derry. Maybe

(Continued on Page Eight)

6 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT November 1973

I R I S H S O \ < » S

TAIMSE IM CHODLADH M c C a f f e r y T H E C U F F S 0 F DOONEEN

f } f

!

i

I

II

• p R A T H N O I N I N deanach i gcean cois leasa dhom,

Taimse im chodladh 's na duistear me;

'Sea dhearcas lef thaobh an speirbhean mhaisiuil,

Taimse im chodladh 's na duistear me;

Ba bhachallach pearlach dreimreach barrachas,

A carnfholt craobhach ag teacht lei ar bhaillecrith,

Is i ag caitheamh na saighead trim thaobh do chealg me

Taimse im chodladh 's na duistear me.

Is mo bhuachaillin og a togadh go ceannasach,

Taimse im chodladh 's na duistear me ;

Do cuireadh le foirneart anonn thar farraige

Taimse im chodladh 's na duistear me ;

Go bhfeicead an lo go mbheidh ar ar Shasanaigh,

Ughaim ar a ndrom's iad ag treabhadh's ag branar duinn

Gan mise bheith a n n m u n a dteannam an maide leo

Taimse im chodladh 's na duistear me.

M

THE WIFE OF THE BOLD TENANT FARMER

Q N E evening of late as I happened to stray

Bound for Clonakilty from sweet Timoleague T w a s at Ballinascarthy some time I delayed

I wetted my whistle with porter,

I kindled my pipe and i spit on my stick, I kept the coach road, like a deer I did t r ip ; I cared for no bailiff, landlord or old Nick,

I sang like a lark in the morning.

I scarcely had travelled a mile of the road When I heard a dispute at a farmer's abode, 'Twas the son of a landlord, an ill-looking toad,

And the wife of a bold tenant farmer.

He said : "What the devil's come over you all ? Not one penny of rent at each time that I call, But by next October Ti l settle you all,

For you'll have the high road for your garden."

"You cafTler," the bold tenant wife then replied, "You're as bad as your daddy who's at the other side, But our National Land League will pull down your pride,

It's able to brave every storm.

"Its branches extend to each county and town Protecting the tenants, their houses and ground, I owe you twelve months and I'll give you one pound

If you'll clear our receipts in the morning."

When she spoke of the Land League, his lips they grew pale, Saying, "What good have they done but be stock into jail ? And the rent that you owe you must pay the next gale,

And believe me, we'll give you no quarter.

"Your husband I saw in the town just last night Dr inking and shouting for poor tenants' rights But the month of October we'll put you to night

To follow your friends o'er the water."

"And sure if he spent it on mountainy dew And came home each night to beat me black and blue I'd soancr he spent it nor gave it to you,"

Says the wife of the bold tenant farmer.

"We all joined the Land League on last New Year's Day And I think in my heart we were not going astray, With the whole people with us we'll carry the sway,

Now marshall ing all in good order.

Here's to Father O'Leary, the pride of our isle, He's the boy that can title you ruffians in style, John Dillon a no' Davitt who rank in their file

Take care you doift tread on their corns."

T h e n I stepped oat from the bush where I lay, A n d as he pasted by I heard him to say : "I wish to my God I was ten miles away

From the wife of the bold tenant farmer."

I shouted "Hurrah" and she shouted "Hurroo!" H e a v o w e d us h is bse l t a n d l ike l i g h t n i n g he flew,

S a y i n g : "God save the Land League and old Ireland too A f W f a g a i m l d s u i d m a r ata se."

WH E N I w a s bare ly eighteen years of age

T o jo in the a r m y I did then engage ;

I lett the factory with true intent, To Join the forty-second regiment.

To Fulwood Barracks I then did go To spend some time in that depot Fut fortunate I was not to be For Captain Hansom took a dislike

to me.

It happened that I was on guard one day,

Three sergeants' children came out to play,

I took one's name instead of all three,

With neglect of duty they did charge me.

At Fulwood guardroom I did appear But Captain Hansom my case

would not hear, So to my fate I was resigned, And in Fulwood guardroom I was

confined.

For thirteen weeks my hatred grew It filled my body all through and

through. Until the deed I resolved on night Was to shoot Captain Hansom dead

on sight.

Early one morning on the barrack square

Captain Hansom was walking with Colonel Blair;

1 raised my rifle, I shot to kill But I shot my Colonel against my

will.

I done the deed, I shed his blood At Liverpool Assizes my trial I

stood. Judge says to me, "McCaffery, Prepare yourself for the gallows

tree."

I had no father to take my part, Likewise no mother to break her

heart, Only one pal and a girl was she, She'd have iaiti down her life for

McCaffery.

Now all you young Irishmen, come listen to me,

Have nothing to do with the British Army,

For only lies and tyranny Made a murderer out of McCaffery.

BELIEVE ME, IF ALL THOSE ENDEARING

YOUNG CHARMS n E L l E V E me, if all those endear-

ing young charms Which I gaze on so fondly today,

Were to change by tommorow, and fleet in my arms,

Like fairy gifts fading away. Thou would'st still be adored, as

this moment thou art, Let thy loveliness fade as it will,

And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart

Would entwine itself verdantly still.

It is not while beauty and youth are thine own,

And thy oheeks unprofaned by a tear,

That the fervour and faith of a soul can be known,

To whloh time will but make thee more dear!

No; the heart' that has truly loved never forgets,

' But as truly loves on to the olose; As the sunflower turns on her god

when he sets, The same look which she turned

when he rose!

Q N C E again I must wander from my own native home,

Far across the blue mountains, far away o'er the foam,

But in all of my ramblings the likes I've not seen

Of the high rocky slopes round the cliffs of D o o n e e n .

So farewell to Dooneen, farewell for a while,

And to all the kind neighbours I am leaving behind,

To the crossroads and places where lately I have been,

And the high rocky slopes round the cliffs of Dooneen,

Oh, how pleasant to wander on a bright summer's day

Where the apples and cherries w i l l never decay,

Where the hare and the rabbit no plainer can be seen

Making homes for their young ones round the cliffs of Dooneen.

Take a view o'er the Shannon, strange sights you'll see there

You'll see high rocky mountains on the west coast of Clare

And the towers of Kilrusih and K i l kee can be seen

From the high rocky slopes round the cliffs of Dooneen.

So farewell to Dooneen, farewell for a while,

And although we are parted by the raging sea wild,

Once again I wil l wander with my Irish colleen

Round the high rocky slopes of the cliffs of Dcorteen.

TAKE IT DOWN FROM THE MAST •

T H E Y have taken brave Liam and Rory, They have murdered young Rictiard and Joe,

A n d their hands with their blood are all gory Fulfi l l ing the work of the foe.

C H O R U S :

Take it down from the mast, Ir ish traitors T i s the flag we Republicans c la im;

It shall never belong to Freestaters For they've brought on it nothing but shame.

We stand with Sean and with Feargal , With McGrath and Russell so bold

We'll break down the English connection And bring back the Republic ye have sold.

So leave it to those who are wi l l ing To uphold it in war and in peace,

The men who intend to defend it Until England's tyranny cease.

If your favourite s o n g has

not been in recently, let us

know !

WHITE, ORANGE AND GREEN I N the Galteemore Mountains so far, far away,

I wi l l tell you the story that happened one day, To a fair Irish colleen, her age was sixteen, And 'twas proudly she carried White, Orange and Green.

A bold English policeman by chance passed that way, Say ing : "Who is the maiden with the banner so gay?" With a laugh and a sneer he jumped of! his machine Determined to capture the flag of Sinn Fein.

"Wil l you give me that banner," the bold bobby cried, "Wil l you give me that banner and do what is right ? Give me that banner and do not be mean, For I must have that emblem, the flag of S inn Fein."

"You' l l not get that banner," the young maiden cried, ' T i l l your blood and my blood its colours have dyed. I have here a rifle and that's nothing mean, And it's proudly I'll die for the flag of S inn Fein."

The poor peeler's faoe turned as white as the snow, A n d he mounted his cycle and started to go , Saying : "What is the use, when a maid of sixteen, Would die for her colours, White, Orange and Green."

Thai very same day in sweet Tipperary town, That gallant young girl frorw the Galtees oamedown, Her poop heart was torn witft anguish and pain, For that very same day Mlckeen died for Sinn Fein.

Ye young men and maiden? of Erin's green shore, Raise a cheer for the maid from the proud Galteemore, And keep on fighting the cause of Sinn Fein, T i l l we make dear Old Ireland jTRepUftlfe Mgain.

N o v e m b e r 1973 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT 7

B O O K S

NOW A THIRD

SUPERPOWER? . ij,r;pean Community: A

superpower in the Making",

Joh.an Galtung (Geo. Allen

lV i nwin (£1,85 paperback).

, -HI* > the most i m p o r t a n t ' >>nk on the Common Marke t

: I; uUo the only book of ;r>n::y comprehensive a n a t u r e

: : ve as a guide for progressive m both Britain and I re land

•..:• >hwr tactics and s t ra tegy with-• hi' next 10 years.

Mr Galtuns 's method is to make •;•,< assumption tha t the opposition

. i he EC. is not powerful enough prevent the complete in tegra t ion

.:.!(•) the community of t h e th ree :; -a members. Denmark, I re land

Britain and then t ry to n.-wrr the question, "What will be

•!:<• role in the world of th is new -•;perpower?"

This investigation considers under '•parate chapters, the E.C.'s rela-

• ki:i to the European Socialist (I'intries, the United Sta tes , T h e

Thirc! World and the rest. A l though l he stress is on the external rela-; ions of the "Community", we are also left in no doubt of t h e long term disastrous effects for t h e poli-; ii al institutions, and therefore the people of both Britain and I re land .

The author has three qual i t ies v.hich do not always go toge the r learning experience, and clar i ty of mind. The material he h a s .lathered from many and various .-ourccs (there are 209 notes which include bibliography) are so me thod-ically arranged tha t one can memo-!•;-'.• the general picture in each

' t ion af ter two readings. I t is ar. attribute to the book's import -• '!ire to say tha t one would ga in : :om this feat of memory. An es-.-'.'•ntial book for all readers who have got past their political in fancy . Tin- material should help to give 'ii' anti European - Communi ty movement a new burst of vital i ty.

G.C.

AN OFFICERS MANUEL

WHY INFLATION "The Unstable Economy", by

Victor Perlo (Lawrence and Wishart, £2).

J F you want an answer to all the ins and outs of economics and

'•'•hat the Tory Government is up to i n u ' v i n r to fiddle with Britain's (' onomy, at our expense, and the I'-ason for Ireland's high rate of inflation, this work will tell you. Although the subtitle is "Booms 'nd Recessions in the U.S. since l;|4.)." with some obvious adapta-1 "ns. the work can be applied to Britain and Ireland. The author un-;< hamedly bases his thesis fairly and squarely on Marxism and in-<»ed extends a lot of the work that

ix outlined and touched on a c ntury ago.

The book star ts at square ope— Why cycles?" of boom and de-

pif.ssion and then covers amongst other areas, inflation. Here, the l l ' l l h n r says that "as inflation '"•"Ives into a permanent feature " n d deliberate policy of the ruling

i tabhshment it becomes a tar-" of struggle around which the

"•'• 'whelming majori ty of the I' Pulation can uni te . . . "

Militarism and its effect on the '•"»">my IS d e a l t w i t h s h o w i n g

'< "'•<• elearly that overall nothing is by large military spending

1,(1 l n fact, economic ills are •miagonised. The World Monetary

, l s , ! i 15 a l s o given an airing. " LS stated quite clearly that the ; " , a l , s l S - V s t e m both in individual ' " l n e s on a world scale is a

' " ' • • ' • i f? one . and that in "the ' ' " i a h p s . the only guarantee 'ii lound economic improvement

proper combination of ad-' " ' s m living standards, social ' : i l l (1 t h e Production levels 1 socialist planned economy in '11 "e workers are the collective

°< the means of produc-

J O H N BOYD.

"Protest and the Urban Guer-rilla", by Richard Clutter-buck (Cassell, £3.75).

^ S it is u n l i k e l y , r e v i e w e r s a s ide , t h a t th i s t r e a t i s e w i l l

b e r e a d by a n y o n e b u t f l e d g e -l i n g a r m y off icers , i ts b r a i n -n u m b i n g d u l l n e s s is n o g r e a t c a u s e f o r r e g r e t . A m a n u a l of t h e t h o u g h t - w a r w o u l d b e t h e l a s t p l a c e to look f o r o r i g i n a l i t y . T h e s o l d i e r l y a u t h o r is m e r e l y d i s c h a r g i n g a d u t y to h i s c l a s s b y d e p l o y i n g p l a t i t u d e , h a l f -t r u t h a n d u n t r u t h in d e f e n c e of a n i d e o l o g i c a l pos i t ion , n a m e l y t h e t h e o r y t h a t t h e B r i t i s h r u l i n g c lass h a v e s o l v e d t h e r i d d l e of t h e u n i v e r s e b y e r e c t i n g a p o l i t i c a l s y s t e m of s u c h p e r f e c t i o n t h a t e v e n t o q u e s t i o n i t s a s s u m p t i o n s is a c r i m e d e s e r v i n g d i s h o n o u r a n d d e a t h .

BERNARD SHAW "Bernard Shaw 1914-1918 Jour-

ney to Heartbreak", by Stan-ley Weintraub (Routledge & Kegan Paul, £3.50).

"The Bernard Shaw Compa-nion", by Michael & Mollie Hardwick (John Murray, £2.75).

i r p H E first of these is an encomi-^ ast ic account of the playwright 's

life dur ing one of its most tes t ing periods. The outbreak of war in 1914 found Shaw in enjoyment of a huge income f rom the thea t r e and undisputed pre-eminence among Bri t ish Socialists. But the candour of his pamphlet , "Common Sense about the War,' published in November 1914 in the midst of an ecstasy of patr iot ism and belli-cosity, made even his F a b i a n f r iends a f ra id of him.

Suddenly G.B.S. took precedence over t h e Kaiser as public enemy number one. Abuse continued to pour on, his unbowed head unt i l early in 1918, by which time t h e loss of half a million lives h a d converted many in Bri tain to Shaw's ha t red of bloodshed and even to scepticism about Ger-many's sole culpability for the war.

Professor Weintraub's theme is the celebration of Shaw's magna-nimity in the face of official and literary spite, as he battled for ex-ample in defence of conscientious objectors and dismissed with con-tempt the "black diaries" which so effectively disbanded the supporters of a reprieve for Roger Casement. His scathing condemnation of the revenge taken by Britain after the 1916 rising won him new respect in Ireland ( plus a long season in the Abbey) and increased unpopularity in England.

This delightfully partisan book penetrates Shaw's state of mind at the time he was writing "Heart-break House", the only one of his major plays which has despair as its keynote. References to news-papers and correspondence also build up a record of the sophistries and hypocrisies by which war fever was fed, and of Shaw's reaction to these as expressed in the social, religious and political ideas of the five-part cycle "Back to Methu-selah and of "The Apple Cart" and "Saint Joan."

The Hardwicks, though less com-mitted Shavians than Weintraub, have compiled a Who's Who of the playwright 's characters, digests of about 60 plots, a chronology and a brief biography, the whole consti tut-ing a n excellent navigational aid for voyagers on the ocean of the great man ' s ideas.

CIARAN DESMOND.

T h e - t h e m e is how to e m p l o y t h e r e s o u r c e s of the s t a t e — t h e a r m e d f o r c e s , t h e l aw . t h e m e d i a — s o a s t o p e r p e t u a t e t h e a d v a n t a g e s e n j o y e d by a m i n o -r i ty . A l t h o u g h th i s t h e m e is d e v e l o p e d i n g loba l t e r m s , t h e m o s t s i g n i f i c a n t of t h e f o u r s e c t i o n s is t h a t dea l ing w i t h N . I r e l a n d . F i r s t , a s ample of t h e w r i t e r ' s i n t e l l e c t u a l p o w e r — o n l y q u o t a t i o n c a n c o n v e y i t s q u a l i t y : " O u t s i d e I r e l a n d t h e r e h a v e b e e n n o r ea l l y b l o o d y r io t s o n E n g l i s h s t r ee t s in l iv -ing m e m o r y " (p. 141).

B u t t h e n o n s e n s e is b y n o m e a n s m e r e l y a m a t t e r of s t y l e . S i x - c o u n t y P r o t e s t a n t s a r e r e -f e r r e d t o a s s e t t l e r s , t h e b a c k s t r e e t s b e t w e e n t h e F a l l s a n d S h a n k i l l r o a d s a r e p r e p o s t e r -ous ly c a l l e d a n i n t e r f a c e , t h e O r a n g e o r d e r is sa id to b e 300 y e a r s o ld , g r o u p s of F ianna d'Eirann (sic) a r e m e n t i o n e d twice a n d o n c e in the i n d e x , Soldier Song ( s ic ) is a w a r -c h a n t of t h e C a t h o l i c ghe t to , t h e s t a r r y p l o u g h is " t h e flag of t h e r e v o l u t i o n a r y C o n n o l l y A s s o c i a -t ion . " U n i o n i s t s a r e opposed t o r e u n i f i c a t i o n b e c a u s e it is d i v i -s ive : b o t h l o g i c a n d fact h a v e h e r e a f o r m i d a b l e foe.

J ^ H E u n s u i t a b i l i t y of the f u l l -l e n g t h b o o k a s a vehic le of

b l ack p r o p a g a n d a becomes a p -p a r e n t a s o n e r e a d s . The r a d i o is t h e t o o l f o r t h i s job : it c a n

c r e a t e p r e j u d i c e t h r o u g h s u b -c o n s c i o u s i m p r e s s i o n a n d w i t h -ou t t h e n e e d f o r i n t e r n a l c o n -s i s t e n c y . C l u t t e r b u c k ' s ph i l i p -pics a g a i n s t t h e P r o v i s i o n a l I.R.A.. w h i c h m i g h t m a k e ef fec-t i v e b r o a d c a s t m a t e r i a l , a p p e a r in p r i n t as a c r a z y s e q u e n c e of c o n t r a d i c t i o n s . T h u s on o n e p a g e t h e P r o v o s a r e c r e d i t e d w i t h p r e t e r n a t u r a l p r e s c i e n c e a n d on t h e n e x t t h e i r low in-t e l l i g e n c e is b e i n g n o t e d b y t h e i r i n t e r r o g a t o r s .

O n t h e w h o l e t h e b o o k s h o u l d b r i n g s o m e c o m f o r t t o R e p u b -l i cans . O n e s t o r y , f o r e x a m p l e , a b o u t i d io t i c a r r e s t s a n d hood-i n g s in A r d o y n e c e r t a i n l y dis-c r e d i t s t h e B r i t i s h A r m y t h o u g h t h e i n t e n t i o n is t o s m e a r t h e P r o v i s i o n a l s .

T h e p r o p a g a n d a is h a c k n e y e d as w e l l ,:,as f u t i l e . S e n s i t i v e E n g l i s h p e o p l e h a v e l o n g s ince w e a r i e d of t h i s c a l l o u s n e s s to-w a r d s t h e C a t h o l i c v i c t i m s of t h e B r i t i s h A r m y a n d t h e i r O r a n g e a l l i e s c o m b i n e d w i t h h y p o c r i t i c a l c o m p a s s i o n f o r t h o s e k i l l e d o r i n j u r e d b y ac-t i o n s a t t r i b u t e d ( o f t e n i n t h e t e e t h of t h e e v i d e n c e ) t o t h e I .R.A. V e n o m o u s i n po l i t i ca l i n t e n t a n d b a r b o r o u s i n sen t i -m e n t t h o u g h t h e b o o k is, it can h a v e l i t t l e i n f l u e n c e b e c a u s e it is c a p a b l e of c o n v i n c i n g on ly m i n d s a l r e a d y c l o s e d a g a i n s t c h a n g e .

S E A M U S T R E A C Y

Rewards tremendous "Irish Kings and High Kings",

by Francis John Byrne (B. T. Batesford Ltd., £5.50).

|%0 not trouble to read reviews " of this book, go and gat it, either get it out of the library or buy it, but either way read it. Your reviewer, who is not a professional historian, found its reading needed application, I imagine she will not be alone in this, but the rewards of the effort are tremendous.

With the patience of a detective writer Francis John Byrne de-molishes the facile preconceived ideas of instant history and takes us up the mountain, through a cloud belt of contradictory clues, until we reach the point where we see before us a landscape of thril-ling complexity.

The sources h« has to draw upon are often suspect. Sagas, annals and genealogies could be edited and slanted In favour of some dynastic family as easily in the half dozen centuries up to the Norman Con-quest as the media in our own day can brainwash the British public into thinking the Irish are the authors of all their own misfor-tunes. Happily almost no pieoe of Information Is completely useless to a historian, a saga may be hope-lessly biased as an aocount of an Individual's life, but in Its descrip-tion of such things as rites of royal initiation give a valuable insight into the concepts of government prevalent at the time. .

WE realise we are entering a maze of complexity when we

are told at the beginning of the first chapter thati "In fact there were probably no less than 150 kings in the eountry at any given date between the fifth and twelfth oenturies. Since the total popula-tion was probably well under half a million, this multiplicity of royalty Is all the more remarkable." We trace the development of this subtle network of relative kingship up to the point where the organic de-velopment of feudalism was broken by the Norman Conquest.

Byrne is fascinating on the sub-ject of the early Irish Church, of the ways in which the indigenous culture both explains and influenced the special form she took, Irish society in its turn being surprisingly little changed by her, for: "The church, in a word, fitted so well into Irish society that it was hardly tempted to change it." Interesting, too, is his study of the link between the cult of St. Brigid and Leinster's dynastic ambitions. • J E deals with each of the four • • provinces in turn, and ends with Tara. Each province has its own flavour. Apart from producing some remarkable people my own Connacht comes out of it as a poor relation. To me the study of Munster was the most interesting, perhaps because I was most ignor-ant,of it and. thus had little reason to suspeot its riohes. Whatever way you look at iti "It has been said that Munster was the most pMoe-ful area in western Europe during the Dark Ages. This is very muoh an argument from silencei the lack of early annate has left both the petty wars and the more important power struggles in the south of Ire-land unrecorded. Nevertheless, the Munster genealogists and writers of dynastic propaganda do stress the essentially benevolent nature of the Cashel kingship," is a proud boast.

This book is expensive, but one can only rejoice that such a price-less work is so stoutly and beauti-fully produoed. Remember, your public library will get it for you even if it is not on their shelves.

P. O F.

IRELAND'S TROLLOPE

"The Distance and the Dark", by Terence de Vere White (Gollancz, Q.25).

' " r E R E N C E de Vere W h i t e excels in the kind of r o m a n t i c fic-

t ion tha t ha s been popu la r since novels were first wri t ten a n d long before. His people, however, have a sociological aspect which is distinctively I r i sh in the way t h a t Trollope's cha rac te r s are distinctively English. They are survivors indeed f r o m Maria Edgeworth a n d Charles Lever, members of t ha t t ight ly knit social class misnamed t h e Anglo-I r i sh whose subcultural symbols a re anglicanism and horses.

Mr White is clearly aware how odd these people are inso fa r as they exist a t all outside glossy , magazines. His charac ters , for example, tend to address one ano the r as "old m a n " and ' 'old girl" in t h e manner of Edward ian school stories. He has succeeded in this as in other novels in sus ta in ing an ironic de tachment , even though h is theme is now a t ragic one.

T h e tragedy of Everard Harvey or iginates in the wilful indifference of h i s class towards the problems demanding solution in m o d e r n Ire-land . But nemesis inheres in his own qualities of honesty and cha r i ty which lead to the defect ion of his worthless young wife, to es t rangement f r om his acquain-t ances and to involvement in an incredibly macabre IRA conspiracy. VJOME of the irony may escape

non-Irish readers; t he anach-ron ism of the Anglo-Irish concept (which has also been t r ea t ed in two recent 'novels by J e n n i f e r J o h n s t o n ) is subtly conveyed, whi le the melodrama may be r ead a s s t ra ight ant i -republican propa-ganda . Mr Whi te exercises his imagina t ion with a shrewdness which makes it possible to en joy h is novel f rom e i ther of two oppo-site political viewpoints.

The blurb explains that the story is set in Eire. Look out for a novel which advertises itself as set in Deutschland or Espafia. The un-willingness to n a m e Ireland cor-rectly stems f rom the same interest-ing British superstition which prompts the prime minister to m i s - , r pronounce Londonderry.

E M E R M U R P H Y

ARRESTS IN MANCHESTER

A LARM is spreading in the Manchester Labour movement

at the methods adopted by the police in seeking to clear up the murder of a six-county Irishman which is believed to have political overtones.

On Sunday, October 28th, several dozens of houses were visited by police. Those questioned included members of the Republican move-ment, Connolly Association, British political parties, and people with no political affiliations who were not even Irish.

In some instances Irishmen were fingerprinted and others who ob-jected were told that a court order would be obtained. A housewife who permitted her premises to be searched was told that the police "had information" that she bad guns and explosives on the pre-* mises. Even though they found none, they refused to disclose the sources of their alleged informa-tion.

A bookseller, a popular, inoffen-sive middle-aged man, was arrested on account of a pre-1814 revolver he had been given as a curio.

JOIN THE CONNOLLY ASSOCIATION F I L L IN T H I S F O R M

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8 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT November 1973

i i t 1*11 i \ m t i i \ i \

Central London

C.A. Branch notes Q I N C E Koing to press for the ** October issue, Central London Branch has had a busy month. We have had our A.G.M. Pegeen O'Sul-livan, Charles Cunningham and Chris 0 Sullivan have been con-firmed as chairman, secretary and treasurer respectively. Brian Crow-ley, Geraldine Joyce, J im Mulreany and Jim MacDonald comprise the rest of the committee.

On September 15th we held our second poster parade and open-air meeting in Kilburn. We en-countered a fair amount of verbal hostility from shoppers, which only goes to show how essential our edu-cational work is, but a goodly nucleus of mainly Irish people gathered around to hear what Pat-rick Bond and Charles Cunningham had to say at the meeting.

We are also busy circulating trade unions in our area in an effort to secure their support for our Affirmation. We hope that many will sign and that more will invite us to send them speakers.

Central London branch was privileged to have an inspiring talk from Madge Davison of Belfast NICRA during her few tightly packed days in London. Miss Davi-son gave a wonderfully clear per-spective of the present situation in the six counties and a most useful assessment of what needs to be done on our front in Britain. We do value every living link with those labouring for a free and just Ire-land in the Six Counties.

When the West London Branch was formed we lost Joe O'Connor to them as he lived in Eafing, but it would be impossible to chronicle our life without recording the shock and sense of loss which the news of his death brought our branch. It is sad to think that we will no longer have the gaeity and kindness of this brave Kerryman to enliven our socials and extend his friend-ship to us all. We are proud he was one of us.

P.O'F.

'Y'HERI•' was a "kip"—a cheap lodging - house where the

men cooked for themselves and the bed cost only a few shillings a week—in King's Lynn, and 1 spent a couple of nights there while looking around for a job. Like the Rowton Houses in London, this type of accommo-dation has become very scarce now in Britain with the result that a great many people who cannot afford proper digs or hotel accommodation are forced more and more to sleep rough.

After the couple of mon ths working in Diss I had enough money in my pocket to pay for bed and breakfast in a guest house, but in common with per-haps the majority of young working-class Irishmen of the time, I was reluctant to pay out too much hard-earned cash on such luxuries. Not that I be-lieved in taking it to the extent of the chap who used to sleep in the cement shed while working on the construction of the Ml in order to save every possible penny out of his wages ; but it seemed to me at the time that certain things were a waste of money, and so I settled for the "kip." A couple of days later, having exhausted the possibili-ties of getting a job in the area, I set off for Peterborough, where there was a fair share of building going on a t the time.

In the Bird in Hand in Peter-borough, I ran into an old mate, one Charlie Busby, from Leices-tershire way, an ex-seaman, ex-navvy driver and inveterate rambler; Charlie could never stay more than a few months in one place and latterly I had worked with him over in Daven-try on an extension to the Bri-tish Timken factory. From Charlie I could have learned a

FIVE YEAR WALK (Continued from Page Five)

the men of violence in high places are beginning to learn.

These two large demonstrations against military dictatorship and internment were relegated to the middle pages or sports columns of the Press, while the f ront pages were given over to the "secret" meetings taking place between the Alliance Party, S.D.L.P. and Union-ist Party as a first step towards the creation of an executive for the new Stofmont Assembly. So far we have been tol'd tha t they have busied themselves in discussions on social and economic matters and apparently they have reached some broad agreement. I t is said that these are not really contentious matters—although in a normal society, what is politics all about?

| ) E R H A P S Mr Faulkner has been converted to the socialism of

the S.D.L.P. or is it just the fact tha t there is no economic power to share that has made agreement so easy at this stage of the discussion. But could it be that Roy Bradford and others, inside and outside the Unionist Party, who share his view on the Irish Dimension within the E E C. are prepared to use their in-fluence to divert a t teht ion away from the crucial issue of democracy in order to set up an executive at, all costs.

The crunch will come, however, when the parties involved have to explain to their voters the result of discussions on such thorny matters as internment (Brian Faulkner's illegitimate baby), the R.U.C. and the Council of Ireland. These maters just cannot be

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SERIAL STORfY BY

DONALL MacAMHLAIGH

shelved, no matter how uncomfort-able an obstacle they present for the would-be politicians and states-men of Northern Ireland.

Few people at this stage would put their shirt on an executive being formed if the two main parties retain their stated positions and fewer take the new Stormont Assembly seriously, so any settle-ment would be bound to alienate a large section of the people. Cer-tainly a new Stormont Alliance government headed by Brian Faulk-ner and Gerry Fitt on paper simply looks like a joke in bad taste when the jails of Northern Ireland are bulging with men, women and chil-dren and would not be tolerated for long by the democratic forces.

When the people lined up in Coalisland five years ago they did not realise the sacrifices t h a t would be necessary before justice for all would be won. They are unlikely to call off the campaign now, satisfied that there are a few teagues in high places.

This is not what it has all been about.

iir £ ft i r p H E committee which was ap-

* pointed to prepare Standing Orders for the new Assembly has met and its suggestions will be dis-cussed when the Assembly meets for the second time in three months. There was disagreement over such important matters as the type of prayers to be said at the begining of the Assembly business and also on whether the Presiding Officer should be called Mr Speaker. (The Nationalist people of Co. Antrim could have helped them in finding a name for tile present P O„ Mr Nat Minford).

One thing they all agreed on was money. At over £3,000 per annum (last meeting three months ago) they are underpaid.

lot about steel-fixing as 1 was sent with him as an assistant, but not having the sense to see that it could be a very useful standby, I just carried the bars and took no heed at all of the actual fixing or plan reading.

TODAY when steel fixers are picking up something like

£12 a day I often regret my lack of interest. Charlie had just hit Peterborough himself from a different quarter and we swapped yarns over a few pints before setting off in search of "the feed"; meat was still on the ration then and most of the cafes we v is i ted could offer nothing more substantial than bacon and eggs or tinned stew, but Charlie knew a butcher and next thing we had a pound of steak but nowhere to fry it.

Charlie finally persuaded one cafe owner to fry us the steak along with chips and onions, and afterwards, much fortified, we started off looking for work. Gleesons, the con t rac to rs , had a big job outside the town some-where and we looked up the foreman here fully expecting that we'd get set on. There were no vacancies for general lab-ourers, however, though the foreman was willing to set Charlie on, driving a Ruston Bucyrus excavator. Out of some sense of loyalty Charlie de-clined the offer of the job—or perhaps it was a case of not really wanting to begin work while he had a few pounds in his pocket: like Moleskin Joe and the young fellow in Pat McGill's great book, "Children of the Dead-End," who were, in the immortal words of the Scots farm labourer, "Gannin' aroond the country lookin' for work and hopin' ye'll no find it."

At any rate, we walked away from Gleeson's job and tried another couple of sites before the pubs,opened again; we had no luck at all and next day I parted from Charlie slightly the worse for a night"s heavy drinking to make for Northamp-ton, where McAlpine's reservoir was just getting under way.

Digs in Northampton pre-sented no trouble at all; 1 just called in at the place where I had stayed before and the land-lady put the kettle on, and, amid alcoholic sniffs and hic-coughs (she had been on the bottle all day it seemed), re-galed me with an account of all that had happened with her "boys" since I went away. One or two had absconded without paying her, another was at least five weeks behind with his board money and really she was tempted to throw the so-and-so lot of us out on the ruddy

street and go in for students or the newly-arriving West Indian immigrants; at any rate she wasn't having much more of it.

y^WARE of how "mother" would soon transfer all her

frustration and anger to me, I gave her a week's digs money in advance and put my bag up-stairs, and then I went out to McAlpine's, where 1 managed to get a job without any tropble at all. There was a pound or two a week bonus to be earned on top of the basic three and six an hour, and if you qualified there would be the two guineas lodg-ing allowance or "bull money" too.

The "lodge" or '"bull money" as it is still sometimes called, was a feature of most worth-while jobs in those times. In effect it was really a bonus, since very often it was paid to men who had lived locally for years. But there was a kind of prestige attached to it, too, and even men who weren't lucky enough to be drawing it would sometimes pretend they were so as not to appear less worthy than the others. This reminds me of an old advertisement from the 1950s which was re-produced in the "Labour News" (now "Contracts Weekly," I think) in which there were two rates of pay, one for good men, the other for "inferior" men! Thank God we have long since left that kind of blatant dis-crimination behind, even though it exists all too widely in less open forms.

THERE is also the story about the Irish cable contractor who

paid three different rates of pay to his men according to how he valued them. Some were on three pounds a day, others on two pounds ten shillings, while the "dossers" were lucky to get a couple of quid ;• when the cable was being pulled in, how-ever, this contractor would call out: "I want all the three pound men up here at the front," and rather than admit to their mates that they were among the lower-paid men, most of the workers would hurry along to the fore. Thus do men play right into the boss's hands, forgetting their own interests.

The foreman on the reservoir job was a canny Scot from Aberdeen, so faithful to McAl-pine's interests that he kept as many of the men as he could on a string, waiting for.the two guineas lodging allowance. He would promise to get this money for a new starter and then, naturally enough, the new man would give of his best, fully expecting to have the extra couple of pounds in his packet on Thursday.

Like as no, however, there would be no "bull money" and when the disgruntled worker went along to complain about it Alex the foreman, would pre-tend dismay and promise to have it put right the week after. In nine out of ten cases the men

I J

s(

INTERNEES WIVES VISIT MANCHESTER ENNIE DRAPER of Manrh-

Connolly Association to]: tha t twenty-two wives and rr!;, of men interned in Long Ke-h rentration camp (Maze Prisor. called i visited Manchester on O ber 23rd, before going to Londi-lobby Parliament.

They arrived by plane at 10 and addressed students at the -Chester University and Manehc •-Polytechnic. In the early afterm they addressed a press confere: « and a picture and good coverage . ; peared in the "Manchester Even . News".

They visited offices of the Bu..' ing and Engineering Trade L'n. : and a delegation spoke to A.U.E.W. District Committee, a sum was voted in furtherance of campaign. They also met prom... ent shop stewards.

Manchester people are at pre-.;.; planning to follow up with a . gation of Manchester women to E.; fast, and a delegation of T:t< • Unionists similar to the one \vh. . went from London and Middk-o:

Lennie Draper, who met ;•-.-. women at a social at the Hi.hr.-Labour Club, said tha t they mac-an enormous "hit" and astonishe:; the English workers by what thr. had to say, and they impres-them by the way they said it.

INTERNEES GOT THE BOOKS

^JOUTH London Connolly A>-<\. -tion has received several let-

ters from girl internees in Armagh Jail, acknowledging receipt of book-tha t have been sent to them by members of the branch. It is hoped at some suitable time to publish in-teresting extracts from these letter.

Central London Branch has sen; books into Long Kesh which have also arrived safely, following the Executive Councils Voting of a sum to provide literature for a stuc.v class.

One or two people have ten: money earmarked for books for in-ternees, and as such money come; in, books will be sent.

Trade Unionists visit Ireland

I N October two English trade -*- unionists made a visit to Bel-fast as guests of the Belfast Trade-Council, They were Frank Feisty (A.E.C. Shop Steward) from the Ealing Trades Council and Arthi.: Gibbard, President of the Souths District of the A.U.E.W.

Their aim. was to establish Br-and independent channels of com-munication between the labo.,;' movements in Northern Ireland ar.d Britain, to facilitate the exchan---of information and opinion and see what we in Britain can do help.

They reported back on their ex-periences at a Conference on Sun-day, October 28th, 2.30 p.m. at the Labour Hall, Forest Road, Eahn-W.5. Other speakers were J-" Dromey of the National Council K-Civil Liberties and DcMiior.d Greaves, Editor of the " Democrat".

would have packed up in gust and other hopefuls t',,c" their place before Alex put "• for their two guineas at all.

(More next month)

GREAT GRANDSON OF 98 MAN LEAVES LONDON yy N U M B E R of m e m b e r s of

Sou th London Conno l ly Associat ion w e r e present a t a dance held by G r e e n w i c h L a b -our P a r t y on S a t u r d a y , O c t o b e r 20th, a t which a p re sen ta t i on was mafle t o Mr Bill S t ephens , r e t i r i ng p res iden t , w h o is h a v -ing to leave t h e London a r e a o w i n g t'o i l l -heal th b rought on by pe t ro l f u m e s .

M r S t e p h e n s has given v a l u -

able he lp to t h e Associa t ion in its campaign fo r s u p p o r t in the Labour m o v e m e n t f o r t h e demands of the Ir ish people . He comes f rom a l o n g l ine of m i l i t an t s - -h i s f a t h e r w a s act ive in London in 1920-21. His g rand-father , the first to l eave I re land , was a s t aunch s u p p o r t e r of Pa r -nell. His g rea t g r a n d - u n c l e w a s hanged a t the t i m e of t h e famine, and his g rea t -g rea t -

g r a n d f a t h e r w a s out in W e hope to inc lude a I'

accoun t of th i s r eman-f a m i l y in our nex t issue ; • 1

whi le , we wish Mr Ste | speedy r e tu rn to heal th .n D e v o n s h i r e countrysiil' w h i c h he is moving . H-P a u l and P e t e r a r e n ' " , J

in L o n d o n and have p i " to con t i nue the f a m i l y tr (1

of s u p p o r t for Ireland-