Irish Democrat October - November 1996

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Reclaiming William Morris from
the revisionists
p 3 & 5
Desmond Greaves Summer
School reports
p8
illegal arms find at Buckingham
Palace
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Irish Democrat
October/November 1996 • Price 50p
Connolly Association: campaigning for a united and independent Ireland
Association
to sue over
'police
vandalism'
Irish prisoners
Enda Finlay
THE BRITISH
government
faces another
humiliating
legal crisis with
the news that more than
100 Irish prisoners may
have been convicted on
unreliable forensic evidence.
Concern has been
growing since it was revealed
that the Home
Secretary was reviewing
the cases of 14 IRA
prisoners referred by
Professor Brian Caddy,
who headed the inquiry o Unsafe convictions: British justice in the dock once more
into Britain's main forensic
explosives laboratory.
It has since emerged the current Home Secretary
will have to shows the complete con-
"The latest revelation
that a further 100 cases
dating back to the early reconsider his initial reaction
that "the chances shown by a regime that
tempt for human rights
1970s and 1980s could
also be unreliable, thanks that there has been a miscarriage
of justice are with securing convic-
was more concerned
to now discredited advice
given by the very small".
tions than making sure
Forensic Science Service The news was greeted they had the right
to the Home Office. with anger both-in Ireland
and in Britain. Association president
people," said Connolly
The problem that such
a huge review of cases
would pose for the Home
Office is obvious.
It is also certain that
David Granville.
"The 'appalling vista'
that Lord Denning tried
to suppress is now openeing
up before our
eyes," said Mr Granville.
"The Home Secretary
must now act swiftly and
decisively to release
those prisoners wrongly
convicted.
"Conditions for many
Irish prisoners in British
jails actually worsened
during the IRA ceasefire,
underlining the British
government's contempt
justice and the Irish
peace process," Mr Granville
said.
THE CONNOLLY Association
is to seek substantial
compensation
from Lothian and Borders
police after a senior officer
admitted that they had destroyed
an historic banner
made by the great-granddaughter
of socialist labour
leader James Connolly.
The banner, which had
never been seen in public,
was confiscated by the Edinburgh
police in June 1993
during attempts to prevent a
banned march organised to
commemorate James Connolly
in the city of his birth.
A number of Association
members, including London
CA member Gerry Fennelly,
were also detained at the
time of the incident.
The police have since
claimed that they attempted
to contact Mr Fennelly using
the Metropolitan Police, but
being unable to locate his
current whereabouts in
order to return the banner,
had ordered its destruction.
The admission by the Lothian
and Borders Assistant
Chief Constable, T Wood,
followed lengthy correspondence
between the Association
and the police, who
had previously refused to
say what had happened to
the banner or a number of
badges which were also confiscated.
Commenting on the this
latest development, Connolly
Association general
secretary Enda Finlay accused
the police of carrying
out an act of 'gross and wanton
vandalism'.
"It is impossible to put a
value on this banner and we
will be seeking legal advice
on how best to press our
claim for compensation. It is
utterly ridiculous for the
police to say that they
couldn't contact the owner
given the fact that the Association's
name was prominently
displayed, and that
members of die Edinburgh
branch of the Association
were well known to the
police at that time."

IfiU
I
Rebuild the
peace
THl HNDof August 1996could havebeen the celebration
of the second anniversary of the IRA ceasefire.
Instead, in the last number of weeks there has been
speculation that a renewal of the 1994 ceasefire might be
on the way, although when this is expected and what sort
of ceasefire it will be, is not detailed. It would also be
foolish to assume, as a result of the speculation, that a new
IRA ceasefire is imminent.
Unfortunately an opportunity has been lost and instead
of addressing and discussing all the issues that the
ceasefire seemed to allow space for — Orange marches,
policing, discrimination, prisoners and so on — the last
two years have been bogged down on the issue of decommissioning.
The talks process has failed to get over this
seemingly insurmountable hurdle.
In fact recent months have thrown up scenes that many
of us had hoped had been buried in the black and white
news coverage of the 1970s. The sight of Catholics being
intimidated out of their homes and loyalist roadblocks
following Drumcree, shattered the confidence and hopes
of a great many people, especially the SDLP-voting
middle-class. The magnitude of the damage done by this
summer's marching season can only be guessed at. In
business termsalonea recentestimateputitat£10million.
What price the social and political damage?
One of the most obvious manifestations of the damage
is the boycotting of businesses run by Orangemen that
participated in Drumcree this year. Despite unionist protests
insisting that, "this sectarian campaign was orchestrated
by Sinn Fein and another instance of their ethnic
cleansing of Protestants", a recent article in the Irish News
has revealed that the boycott was actually started by the
Royal Black Preceptory as a response to nationalists refusal
to allow a march through Roslea in Fermanagh last
year, before the current Orange boycott.
There are also continuing concerns over the loyalist
ceasefire, concerns which were obviously added to by the
expulsion of Billy Wright, and the standing down of Mid-
Ulster UVF with which he is identified. His championing
by the accordion-playing-reverend, Willie McCrea was
unpalatable as the reverend's renditions, as this was an
individual who at the very least was supporting a return
to killing Catholics by Loyalists. The INLA also continued
to show everybody that they are still around and whilst
observing a ceasefire of sorts, their current round of internecine
violence has claimed many lives.
But despite all these concerns and backtracking, and
nobody should doubt that enormous damage has been
done, there is still hope, albeit very slim, that the peace
process can be rebuilt. There is speculation about a
renewed IRA ceasefire, an Irish-American delegation recently
visited Ireland as they did in the weeks preceding
the initial ceasefire. The SDLP and the UUP are apparently
reaching an agreement over the issue of decommissioning
and the new head of the RUC Ronnie Flanagan has been
making more moderate noises than his predecessor.
Most importantly the more militant republicans have
kept their powder dry in the Six Counties over this summer's
marching season. There is still however little movement
on the transfer of prisoners, the marching issue
continues to provoke very angry scenes. A number of
other issues including the use of plastic and rubber bullets
have not yet been addressed. If the peace process is to be
rebuilt it will need to move towards an active agenda of
change at a much quicker pace than heretofore.
The forthcoming Labour Party conference's main motions
on Ireland will focus on the need to rebuild the peace
process and the role of the Labour Party in that reconstruction.
It is obvious that if the peace process is to be rebuilt,
the Labour Party will have to come up with a better idea
than bi-partisanship, which at best offered the illusion of
being able to over-ride the unionist veto and at worst
made the Labour Party as culpable as the Tories for the
ending of the IRA ceasefire,
o EF
Mi DemocRAT
BI-MONTHLY NEWSPAPER OF
THE CONNOLLY ASSOCIATION
Founded 1939. Volume 51, number 5
Editorial board: Helen Bennett; Gerard Curran;
David Granville (editor); Jonathan Hardy; Peter
Mulligan; Alex Reid; Moya Frenz St Leger.
Production: Derek Kotz
PUBLISHED BY: Connolly Publications Ltd, 244
Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8JR, telephone
0171 833 3022. Email: Connolly@geo2.poptel.org.uk
PRINTED BY: Ripley Printers (TU) Ltd, Nottingham
Road, Ripley, Derbyshire, telephone 01773
743 621.
HEADLINES
Greaves school success
Summer school
Democrat reporter
THIS YEAR'S Desmond
Greaves summer school,
the eighth, continued to
build on the event's growing
reputation as an important
forum for left-wing political
debate in Ireland.
Held in the pleasant surroundings
of the Irish Labour
History Museum in Dublin,
the school remains at the forefront
of moves to challenge the
'anti-national' project at the
heart of official and academic
orthodoxy.
The school's success owes
much to its ability to attract
high-calibre lecturers.
This year they included the
leading left-wing intellectual,
Professor Terry Eagleton, who
spoke on the ideology of Irish
studies.
Other sessions were led by
educationalists Frankie Watson
and Peter Collins, who opened
a lively discussion about
the teaching of history in Irish
Irish President to unveil
Wolfe Tone headstone
can republicanism.
Matilda Tone, who died in
1849, and her family were important
members of the pre-
Famine New York Irish
community whose leaders included
prominent United Irishmen
such as Thomas Addis
Emmet, William James Mac-
Neven, William Sampson,
Thomas CConor, John Chambers
and Samuel Neilson.
Following the unveiling of
BROOKLYN'S Greenwood
cemetery is to be
the site of the first American
bicentennial commemoration
of the United Irishmen
movement when Irish President
Mary Robinson unveils
the restored headstone of Theobald
Wolfe Tone's widow,
Matilda, at a public ceremony
on October 8.
President Robinson will be
the guest of the Irish-American
Labour Coalition and the New the headstone.
York History Roundtable.
Both organisations plan to
mark the legacy of 1798 by recognising
the United Irish expatriates
who settled in New
York, where they contributed
to the development of Ameri-
Professor
Nancy Curtin of Fordham
University will deliver an address
on Matilda Tone's role in
the dissemination of the ideals
of the United Irish movement
following the death of her husband.
Councils face repair bills
TWO LOCAL councils hit
by IRA bombs since the
end of the ceasefire are
facing repair and clean-up bills
of around £5 million as a result
of uninsured damage to council
property.
Connolly Association update
The London Borough of
Tower Hamlets and Manchester
City Council have been refused
extra help from central
government and are now facing
bills of £2 million and £3
million respectively.
Sheffield:
Where Now for Peace in Ireland?
with Kevin McNamara MP, Kevin McCorry, Campaign for
Democracy, and Enda Finlay, Connolly Association.
October 17,7:30 pm at Morrissey's The Riverside public house,
Mowbray Street.
Liverpool:
Desmond Greaves Memorial Lecture: Peter Berresford Ellis on
the history of the Orange Order
November 2,1.30 pm at the Institute of Irish Studies, University
of Liverpool, 1 Abercromby Square.
London:
Connolly Association Annual Conference (open session)
Invited Speakers: Kevin McNamara MP, Eamon O Cuiv TD
November 9, 10:30am in the Kennedy Room, Camden Irish
Centre, NW1.
schools throughout Ireland; Dr
Christopher Woods, joint editor
of die forthcoming threevolume
Oxford edition of
writings of Wolfe Tone, on the
relationship between leading
United Irishmen Theobald
Wolfe Tone and Thomas Russell;
and Kevin McCorry of the
Belfast-based Campaign for
Democracy and Sean Farren of
the SDLP on the Northern situation.
o More school reports, page 5
Irish population
reaches new high
Census
Democrat reporter
THE FIRST results of the
19% Census show that the
26-County population is
now 3.6 million, die highest
since the foundation of the
state in 1921 and a rise of
100,000 since the last census in
1991.
The increase has not crane
about because Irish people are
having more children. Irish
fertility and birth rates have
been falling for two decades, as
people have fewer children
than their parents, in line with
general trends in industrialised
countries.
More women work outside
the home, social and sexual attitudes
have changed. Most
young Irish women nowadays
will have just two children,
which is what is needed to permit
each generation to replace
itself, without natural growth.
The extra 100,000 are the result
of a high level of net immigration,
more people returning
or moving to Ireland, in contrast
to high levels of emigration
from the country in the
1980s and previous decades.
Ehiblin's population continues
to grow, as do those of
other cities — Galway by
enough to make it the fastest
growing city in Europe. All but
four counties show an increase,
die losers being the border
counties of Longford,
Leitrim, Roscommon and
Monaghan.
If the 'peace process' progresses
to real peace, these border
counties may at last get
their chance, for they have
been hit by partition and its
consequences for decades.
Donations to the Connolly Association and the
Irish Democrat
July 12-September 171996
R Kelly £2.50; R Deacon £12.50; F Jennings £10; M Keane £40;
C Cunningham £5; S Healy £8; I Mulazzani £62; S Redmond
£5; A Knott £7; C C £20; J McC £17.50; J Hardy £5; L & E Dwyer
£5; G Day £5; L Bradley (in memory of Bernard Bradley) £10;
J & N Duggan £13; PT Mallin (in memory of C D Greaves)
£25;
V Deegan £5; M Keane £5; A Donaghy £5; P W Ladkin £5; A
Harvey £4; T Cronin £10; C Bland (in memory of Paddy Bond)
£20; J McC £10; A CKeefe £5; J O'Connor £2; M Parkinson
£10; P Williams £10; D Smith £5; L Wilde £10; E Heath £2; J
Kenneally £5; J Farrell £5; C Haswell £10; S Hare £5; J Egan £1
Bankers' orders £335
TOTAL ££721.50
Guidelines aim to
tackle sectarian
harassment at work
Civil rights
Democrat reporter
MORE THAN one in ten
people working in the
Six Counties has experienced
sectarian harassment according
to a recent survey on
behalf of the Northern Ireland
Fair Employment Commission
(FEC).
The figures, which revealed
that nearly a quarter of all catholic
men and ten per cent of
protestant men had been harassed
at work, were published
to coincide with the launch
of new guidelines for employers
aimed at tackling the
problem.
The guidelines have won
the endorsement of both the
Confederation of British Industry
in the Six Counties and
the Northern Ireland Committee
of the Irish Congress of
Trade Unions.
ICTU has its own anti-sectarian
campaigning and educational
organisation, Counteract.
FEC chief executive Harry
Goodman said at the guidelines'
launch that the aim
was to help employers create a
safe and dignified working environment
where potential victims
could feel assured that
problems would be dealt with
seriously and sensitively.
"Of all fair employment
issues, sectarian harassment is
one of the most sensitive and
difficult to deal with, very
often because it is a hidden,
unreported problem," Goodman
said.
"But, reported or not, any
behaviour that causes fear or
apprehension to employees is
totally unacceptable."
Revisionists are at it everywhere, but
here NICK WRIGHT rescues William
Morris from the clutches of those who
would deny the politics of this
revolutionary and supporter of the cause
of Irish freedom
, i
HEADLINES
Trade unionist is victim of sectarian attack
o The cost of representing the concerns of his members in
the Ormeau Road bakery was very nearly life itself for former
Transport and General shop steward Pearse McKenna, pictured
above speaking at a workshop on sectarianism in the
workplace in London recently.
William Morris
IN THE centenary of his
death, the English craftsman,
designer, political
leader and poet, William
Morris is claimed by temporising
reformers as the precursor
to Blairism!
Not only Ireland's history
must be rewritten if the demon
of revolution is to be exorcised.
For a man who wrote in his
mature years: "I call myself a
Communist and have no wish
to qualify that word by joining
any other to it," the revisionist
makeover of Morris suppresses
a revolutionary
politics which encompassed,
naturally, a practical engagement
with the Irish question.
In 1886 he wrote "... the
Irish (as I have some reason to
know) will not listen to anything
except the hope of independence
as long as they are
governed by England; no, not
even to the most elementary
propositions about the land,
which concerns them most and
nearest — they can see nothing
else than an Ireland freed from
that government."
Morris had in mind his reception
by a Dublin audience
of his lecture on the 'aims of
art.'
He reports "One slip I unwittingly
made by mentioning
Sackville Street, which is
popularly know as OConnell
Street, a name which the authorities
refuse to accept.
"A great to-do followed this
blunder, which on a hint from
the chairman, I corrected with
all good will and was allowed
to go on, with cheers." William
Morris was republican by
democratic instinct and developed
ideology.
His second trip to Ireland,
in 1886, coincided with the
Home Rule Bill and Gladstone's
speech, brought home
the divisive character of religious
bigotry:
"I cannot help thinking that
when Home Rule is established
the Catholic clergy will
begin to act after their kind,
and try after more and more
power".
HIS FIRST visit — an 1877
journey taken to advise
the Countess of Charleville
at Tullamore, County Offal
y, entirely for commercial
purposes notwithstanding —
had impressed upon him the
poverty and degradation of
rural life in landlord Ireland.
Discussing the class character
of the government — in the
January 14, 1888 Commonweal
— he points out: "As the English,
Scotch and Welsh working
men became educated into
friendliness and sympathy
with die Irish peasant, so the
middle class became educated
into hatred of him.
"To them he is no longer
now a romantic survival of
past times of a rebellion made
beautiful by distance, carrying
about a preposterous sentiment
of nationality never to be
Less than two months after raising the issue of displays
of banned sectarian emblems with management Mr
McKenna, one of a small number of catholic workers at the
bakery, was shot in the back at close range by a masked
gunman.
realised save as a flavour to a
few old ballads sung to melancholy
ancient tunes, he is a
working man asking for some
of the property of the proprietary
classes, and not too nice as
to the means by which to establish
his claim."
What is remarkable about
this passage is not simply its
internationalism and working
class politics but his clear
sighted embrace of the modern
world, of conflict and change,
of struggle and progress.
This is a long way from the
clouds of mysticism in which
his admiring friends' cloak his
views.
Morris thought the land
question critical in Ireland:
"Home Rule for Ireland is
not necessarily a revolutionary
measure, but it will clear the
ground for the sowing of the
seeds of Revolution; and that
all the more as the problem in
Ireland is simpler than elsewhere,
owing to it being
chiefly an agricultural
country."
He linked Ireland's progress
to independence, industrial
development and the
railway and warned, presciently,
of the need to protect
Ireland manufactures from the
world market'.
"As Socialists, therefore, we
are bound to wish the ytmost
success to those who can at
least see that it is necessary for
Ireland to take her own affairs
into her own hands, whatever
the immediate results may be."
Cruiser
in truth
shock
CONOR CRUISE O'Brien
has changed his mind on
Orangeism. Now that he
has proclaimed himself a
unionist and thrown in his lot
with Robert McCartney, he
will surely find it uncomfortable
to be reminded of what he
wrote nearly 30 years ago.
This extract from a piece by
him in the New York Review of
Books for 1969 was carried recently
by An Phoblacht. Our
readers may like to spread it
around in the aftermath of
Drumcree.
"When Orange Order and
the Apprentice Boys commemorate
the victories of 1690, as
they do each year in elaborate
ceremonies, the message they
are conveying is that of their
determination to hold for protestants
in Northern Ireland as
much as possible of the privileged
status which their ancestors
won under William of
Orange. These are not, as outsiders
suppose, comically archaic
occasions. The symbols
are historical, the iconography
old-fashioned, but the message
is for the here and now.
"The ritual is one of annual
renewal of a stylized dominance:
'We are your superiors;
we know you hate this demonstration
of that fact; we dare
you to say something about it;
if you don't you ratify your
own inferior status.' That is
what die drums say."
The Cruiser rarely wrote a
truer word.
IRISH DEMOCRAT Oc 2
IRISH
DEMOCR

understanding
For an
of
the cause of this
summer's
turbulence in the
North, it is helpful
perpetual
to consider the
paranoia
experienced by
unionists,
our
argues
Six-County
correspondent
BOBBIE
HEATLEY
o Unionism is built on a monumental lie
DEBATE
All in the mind?
PARANOIA IS a mental
disorder frequently characterised
Pby delusions of
persecution and self-importance,
an abnormal tendency to
suspect and mistrust others.
Such features have marked
out unionists from their very
beginnings and were particularly
prevalent during the Irish
Home Rule crisis in the early
part of this century. Then, as
now, the loosening of Westminster's
control over one of
its parts was seen by British
and Irish unionism as the beginning
of the end for the
United Kingdom and, at that
time, for the Empire.
With Irish unionism's main
strength concentrated in Ulster's
six north-eastern counties,
British ruling class
pragmatism dictated that
Northerners be used as a foothold
for the British state in Ireland.
The aim: to defeat the
Home Rule Bill. Partition was
achieved by building an allclass
alliance in the North
whereby the landlords and
magnates of industry and commerce
bound to themselves the
protestant working-people
and professional classes by according
them preferential (ie
discriminatory) treatment on
the basis of their religion.
While not all protestants
benefited, a majority did. The
price was severance from their
catholic working-class
counterparts and the acceptance
of a rigid dependency,
political and economic, on
their 'superiors'. A syndrome
— extant to this day — was
born.
Westminster gave them
Stormont, a 'protestant parliament
for a protestant people',
over a third of whom were
catholic, allowing unionists to
police and administer the territory
stolen from Ireland by
means of superior military and
economic might. Despite the
built-in impermanency of this
artificially contrived construction,
the pragmatic politics of
unionism's real imperial
grand-masters at Westminster,
Lloyd George, Bonar Law,
Lord Birkenhead, Sir Edward
Carson and Walter Long et al
necessitated a six county stop
g a P-
This arrangement required
the 'sacrifice' of 26 county
unionists who had been an integral
part of the all-Ireland
Irish Unionist Alliance.
Self-seeking northern
unionist supported this betrayal
of their 'southern' kindred
with great fervour,
providing one explanation for
the neurosis of insecurity with
which northern unionism remains
encumbered.
The fact is that northern
unionists hate and distrust
everybody: northern nationalists
(to say nothing of republicans),
Irish governments (no
matter how appeasing), British
governments (which have
done little — as yet—to undermine
them), British non-establishment
democracy (an aspect
of 'Britishness' which they detest),
the Americans (except
the 'Scotch' Irish whom they
misrepresent), the Pope, and,
with marvellous consistency,
each other.
Not all of this can be put
down to party political jockeying.
All this may help to shed
some light on the mayhem
which Orange/unionist street
violence subjected the North to
during the summer, but it is far
from being the full story. Six
County unionism's undying
fear of betrayal, its insecurity,
manifested in its truculent
marching season is merely
symptomatic of something
lying deeper: the fact that
unionism is built on a
monumental lie.
Any political formation
which is sure of its own veracity
does not display the touchiness,
the nervousness, the
bull-headed assertiveness, and
sheer lack of tolerance universally
exhibited by the media
'personalities' of northern
unionism. Even Paisley's humour
is self-conscious and
ghoulish. Unionist ideology
seems to contort some individuals
who might otherwise be
personable enough.
TWO ASPECTS of the
many-faceted lie on which
unionism is based — and
from which all other aspects
derive — cause unionists to
convolute and invert reality:
that northern protestants are
not Irish; and that unionism is
representative of democracy in
Northern Ireland. Here we are
discussing the ideology of
unionism and not the consciousness
or sentiment of individual
protestants, whose
community forms my own
background.
Utilising obfuscation,
unionism has striven, with
limited success, to sow
muddle-headedness and confusion
among its adherents
with regard to national identity,
mixing statehood and
other things with nationality.
Proto-fascist definitions have
been—and are—used relying
on spurious ethnicities (insofar
as the present-day population
is concerned) and equally
spurious genetic/racial and
other non-applicable criteria.
Yet, only a minority of
mainly socially deprived protestants,
the bottom rung of the
all-class alliance, appear to be
genuinely confused as to their
correct national identity.
It is, of course, necessary for
the project that a few of unionism's
top, university educated,
people should engage in fanning
the flames of this particular
fire, causing some
protestants to think that they
are the targets of 'ethnic cleansing'.
The resulting anger of such
protestants is understandable.
At least some of the new politicians
associated with the
loyalist paramilitaries have declared
themselves 'wised up'
to this kind of cynical manipulation.
Otherwise, sheer dishonesty
is in play. Take this
example. Gregory Campbell of
the DUP, Mr Paisley's leading
spokesman in Derry, attempted
to explain to a TV interviewer
the imperative
behind the Apprentice Boys insistence
upon parading along
the entire walls of Derry when
they knew it was only a small
section of the route that gave
offence to their nationalist
neighbours.
He was unable to admit that
the offending section was the
whole point of the parade and
that, having demonstrated
who were 'the people' by forcing
a route through it, he could
happily forego the non-offending
portion. He tried another
tack, claiming that "..they (the
nationalists) are trying to make
us more Irish". Not wishing to
compound foolishness, he
didn't deny his Irishness because
he was talking to a network
with a predominantly
English audience.
It is only within Ireland that
unionists engage in unsustainable
definitions of nationality
in the secure knowledge that
sections of the ruling elite in
the twenty six counties affects
to take them seriously.
FOR UNIONISTS to admit,
without qualification, that
they are Irish (although
many admit qualified Irishness)
would be to deprive British
colonialism of its sole
argument justifying its interference
in the internal affairs of
Ireland.
National minorities (and,
since different concepts — sectarian
and otherwise — are involved
here, it is not clear that
protestants would be defined
as such) have rights. None of
which confers a legitimacy in
opting out of the nation viz UN
General Assembly Resolution
47/135, 1992, entitled 'Declaration
of the rights of persons
belonging to national, ethnic,
religious and linguistic minorities'.
The second key aspect of
unionist self-delusion is the
notion that it represents
democracy in the North. It is
the remnant upholder of British
colonialism in Ireland and
to suggest that it is democratic
is a contradiction in terms.
Unionism's role is in safeguarding
the largely English
ruling-class hegemony over
government in the North.
Right-wing Toryism, the father
of Northern Ireland unionism
in modern times, is both the
enemy of true democracy in
Ireland and of the common
people of Britain itself. It is
antipathetic to the national
rights of the Welsh and Scottish
people and uses its hegemony
over them too to
strengthen itself in the face of
English people. Economically,
it 'rips off' all the nationalities
without distinction.
The legacy bequeathed to
the peoples of Britain by the
likes of Carson, Long and their
associates, which is ultimately
responsible for the presentday
frictions, was the antidemocratic
Stormont regime
which imposed itself for 50
years before Westminster was
forced to prorogue it and replace
it with the even more
draconian direct rule.
Neither section of the community
in Northern Ireland
possesses one iota of governmental
power, not Trimble,
Paisley or Hume, although its
speaks volumes of the former
two that they have been conditioned
to not even want selfgovernment
It is fashionable in some
quarters to rubbish the idea
that Northern Ireland is a colony.
However, Long's biographer,
John Kendle, explains
with great clarity why the old
Tory and his accomplices established
the unviable entity:
"Most Englishmen, particularly
those in high office, considered
Ireland theirs by right
of conquest. To accept the existence
of a national alternative
would be to impugn English
sovereignty. The majority
found this unacceptable, and
Long was no exception."
Based on such a monumental
perversion of reality, is it
any wonder that unionism is
constantly in fright of being
found out and consigned to the
dustbin of post-colonial history?
When it feels threatened,
as it does with some justification
at the moment, its aggressiveness
and obduracy becomes
most glaring. The summer parades
acted as a barometer
measuring its inability to countenance
any political change.
These 'traditional' events rose
in number from 1,731 in 1986
to 2,581 in 1995, an increase of
48 per cent accompanied, they
would have us believe, by a
commensurate increase in
piety and church-going.
ON THE political plane,
intransigence takes a
form which even Mr Molotov's
'nyet' could not equil in
its day. For unionism to allow
one dunk is to flirt with the
danger of seeing the whole
gerry-built edifice fall away.
Thus, its immovable position
has been succinctly put by
Paisley (and you wont see
Trimble drifting far from it) ignoring
the aspirations of the
other 40 per cent of the community:
o Ulster (sic) to remain firmly
within the United Kingdom;
o The removal of Dublin's
claim (sic) over Ulster;
o No role for Dublin in Ulster's
affairs;
o Democratic and accountable
structures of government
for Ulster (not understood as
self-government, rather fancy
titles and perks for top unionists,
without responsibility);
o 'IRA-Sinn Fein' and all 'terrorists'
made to hand over
their illegal weaponry and dismantle
their terrorist
machines (widely accepted as
only achievable in the context
of a political settlement which
Mr Paisley's demands would
make impossible);
o The principle of consent and
self-determination for the
people (code for unionists) of
Northern Ireland to be fully
established. (How can a political
party exercise national
self-determination?);
o No negotiations on the basis
of the Downing Street Declaration
and the Framework
Documents.
Why did he fail to mention
The Anglo-Irish Agreement? Is
there something in it he likes?
Another striking omission is
even a tokenistic commitment
to the concept of 'parity of esteem'.
David McKittrick was
wrong when he said that
David Trimble, Paisley's partner
at Drumcree, had reverted
to a more primitive form of
unionism. The truth is that
unionism has never moved
away from its pristine form. It
is both unchanged and unchangeable,
at least until some
progressive British government
refuses to preserve it.
i
A
Following another
highly successful
Desmond Creams
Summer School
the Irish Democrat
reports on
contributions hy
Terry Eagleton
(pictured above)
and Kevin
McCorry (below)
on the 'Ideology of
Irish Studies'and
'The Way Forward
for the North'
a
iPENING HIS erudite
Icritique of the role of
"liberal humanism And
postmodernism in , Irish
studies, Oxford University
professor Terry Eagleton
agreed that Irish history had
become "ensnared in potent
mythologies" from which it
DESMOND GREAVES SUMMER SCHOOL
School offers vital
lessons in
theory and practice
needed to be severed.
However, contrary to accepted
orthodoxies, it was
those created by "liberal humanism,
postmodern pluralism,
Eurocentrism,
multinational cosmopolitanism,
ideologies of progressivism
and modernisation" to
which he referred.
Deconstructing Irish nationalism
had become fashionable
in some quarters, and
could enhance job prospects,
he argued. Deconstructing
liberal humanism or postmodern
pluralism, on the other
hand, would probably not.
Stressing the need for a
more appropriate term than
'revisionist' he reminded his
audience that "the greatest enterprise
of historiographical
revisionism in Ireland" had
been carried out by nationalists
who had rewritten with
"breathtaking boldness from
below" the imperialist version
of events.
'Middle-class liberal'
would cover much of what
was regarded as 'revisionist'
he suggested, arguing that
"the middle-class liberalism
shared by a large number of
Irish historians and cultural
commentators today is more
hopelessly mystified than
unionism and nationalism
ever were."
'Northern democracy' holds the key
E PEACE process
should be rebuilt around
|T? a politics for a Northern
democracy,", Kevin McCorry
-4 of the Campaign for Democ-
\ racy told the Greaves School.
• Addressing the question of
A 'The Way Forward for the
jl North', he said this could be
based on driving a wedge be-
I tween the British government
I and intransigent unionism and
\ between intransigent unionism
and loyalists prepared to
contemplate an accommodai
tion between nationalism and
^
unionism, and on depriving
Britain of its political support
in the North.
One of the consequences of
Drumcree was that middleclass
unionists were able to reestablish
their dominance
within unionism, he argued:
"Nevertheless, perceptive
unionists recognise that the
Northern Ireland unionist case
is becoming more and more expendable
to British policy."
The response from
Trimble's party has been an attempt
to redefine unionism:
"The party believes that the
drift towards a united Ireland
can only be halted by closer
links with those sections of the
British establishment which
subscribe to the line that any
change in Northern Ireland's
constitutional status would
have a domino effect on the
rest of the United Kingdom."
Their 'integrationist' approach
was a rejection of any
accommodation between nationalism
and unionism, he
said.
Lessons could be learned
from the Civil Rights approach
which succeeded in politically
mobilising nationalists in the
North, winning international
support for civil-rights demands
and dividing unionism.
Democracy remained the
key, he said: "Although the
Orange state is gone, the
Orange mentality has been reproduced
in the period of direct
rule from Westminster.
A programme of democratic
rights would "open the
way for political reconciliation
between many present-day
unionists and their fellow nationalist
countrymen, thereby
winning a majority in the
North for reunification over
time".
Such an accommodation
must:
o be open to the development
towards a united Ireland;
o rule out an internal settlement
— either within a Six-
County or UK context;
o require that nationalists and
unionists have the maximum
legislative and administrative
powers,
o and include an Irish dimension
expressed politically by
the establishment of meaningful
North/South institutions
with a capacity for evolution,
over time, in an all-Ireland direction
The replacement of the
RUC by an unarmed police
service acceptable to both communities;
the elimination of all
forms of discrimination
against nationalists; linguistic
rights for the Irish language; an
"Just consider the ridiculousness
of it. Here are good
decent women, committed to
the values of justice, freedpm,
tolerance and the like, who actually
believe that all of this
could be achieved without the
most shattering transformation
of the existing world system.
'"No Surrender' and 'Up
the Gael' may be symptoms of
irrationalism. But what could
be more insanely unreasonable,
more unhinged from the
workaday world, than to imagine
that justice, freedom, respect
and autonomy could be
negotiated in anything like the
measure in which we require
them, from a world of weapons,
commodities, drugs, torture,
famine and
exploitation?"
Such misconceptions arose
as a result of the parochialism
of most Irish historians, he argued,
"a state of mind which
may itself be among other
things symptomatic of the very
post-colonial existence whose
existence some of them deny."
Liberal humanism detests
violence, except perhaps when
it comes to Dunkirk, the Gulf
or the Malvinas, celebrates individual
liberty and supports
a socio-economic system
which makes a mockery of it,
praises pluralism but is scrupulous
about who it allows to
its seminars, and is generally
every bit as much an ideology
as Seventh Day Adventism."
"The real difference between
revisionists and their
critics sometimes strike me as
being less about nationalism or
colonialism than about class —
a concept which liberal humanists
occasionally have
some difficulty in grasping, as
Chicano grape pickers on the
whole do not."
Speaking about the difficult
subject — at least for most of
those attending the Greaves
school — of postmodernism,
he argued that it forged 'a
curious cross-breed' with liberal
humanism, ideologically
underpinning much of what
currently constitutes Irish
studies.
Yet despite the obvious antagonisms,
Irish postmodernism
had more in common with
'Irish romantic nationalism',
particularly a tendency "to
construct history backwards"
from current political interests.
"Like romantic nationalism
too, it is much enamoured of
the regional and the particular,
and shares many of its anti-enlightenment
prejudices."
Yet liberal middle-class
Irish historians were largely ignorant
of either postmodernism
or their part in it, he said.
amnesty for those imprisoned
as a result of the conflict, and
general reforms in civil and
criminal law to reflect the principles
of equality of treatment
and parity of esteem should
also be included in a programme
of democratic rights
"The task in the period
ahead is to build a politics
which is capable of mobilising
what could be described as a
Northern democracy. In the
immediate period such a
politics would seek the re-establishment
of the peace process,
the completion of
demilitarisation, the release of
prisoniers, and seek support for
the idea of a broadly acceptable
police service. It would
stress the idea of a common
civic identity in place of sectarian
division and strife, and
strive for social and economic
development."
"A politics for a Northern
democracy can form the basis
of a new political initiative
which should have resonance
for those in the peace movement,
the trade unions and
community groups, and those
political parties which seek a
way forward towards community
reconciliation and political
and social progress."
JOHN MURPHY'S KEYWORDS
What causes
inflation?
INFLATION IS always caused by governments. When
the supply of government legal tender — that is the
money, paper currency and credit which enables
people to buy and exchange goods and services — increases
more rapidly than the actual volume of such
goods and services themselves, it means the currency is
being inflated.
As governments, either directly or through a state central
bank, control the amount of cash and credit in an
economy, governments cause inflation by printing excess
money. Inflation is not just price rises. Prices are always
going up and down relative to one another as supply and
demand for things change, as well as the labour costs of
making them.
Foreign travel and computer prices have fallen in recent
years. Beer and footwear have gone up, while everyone
has noticed how house prices first soared and then
slumped over the past decade.
But there can be no general increase in the price of
everything unless the government deliberately expands
the money supply beyond what is needed to cover increases
in real output. If there is five percent economic
growth in a particular year, it means the real volume of
goods and services grows by that amount.
But if, at the same time, the Bank of England expands
the money and credit that can be offered for those items
by, say, 20 percent, more money will be offered for the
same quantity of real things, so the price of everything
will rise.
Who benefits from inflation? Borrowers for one. If
prices rise so' that the pound in one's pocket buys less
every year, people can repay their debts in a depreciating
currency, less valuable than the money they borrowed.
As governments are the biggest borrowers of all, inflation
enables them to pay off the domestic element of the
national debt at the expense of those fool enough to lend
them money. It is robbery, of course, but of a half-hidden
kind, for it takes people time to realise that the extra
paper money they have is buying them less and less.
Who loses? Those who lend money rather than borrow,
so that inflation penalises thrift. But inflation affects
huge numbers besides lenders and borrowers. If there is
a general price rise because the government has printed
excess money, some people are better placed to protect
themselves than others.
Best placed are the strong and the well-organised, the
big finns in i monopoly or semi-monopoly position,
which are able to pass on rises in their costs through
higher prices to the public. And well-organised workers
in strong unions who are in a good bargaining position.
Mass unemployment has
got rid of inflation, by
strengthening the power
of big capital and
weakening that of labour
The losers are the weak and unorganised: small firms facing
severe competition; those in weak trade unions or
who are not organised at all; people living on fixed incomes,
such as pensioners, who have no bargaining
power whatever to raise their incomes, and more generally,
people living in 'third-world' countries who face
inflationary price rises for their imports, and who are unable
to compensate by demanding by demanding more
for their primary products and semi-manufactures.
During the great inflation boom of the 1970s and '80s
prices increased three-fold in most western countries.
Money wages also grew, but by no means evenly, so that
people were differently affected. Lenders generally were
robbed for the benefit of borrowers, inequality grew between
strong and weak — and the 'third world' was
robbed wholesale as the 'terms of trade' the quantity of
exports needed to buy the same volume of imports,
moved decisively against it.
Inflation is no longer a problem foi advanced capitalism.
Mass unemployment has got rid of i:, by strengthening
the power of big capital and weakening that of
labour. Why inflation became an obsessive problem for
capitalism, despite the way governments can benefit
from it, we shall look at in the next issue.
IRISH DEMOCRAT October/November 1 9 9 6 page 4
IRISH DEMOCRAT Oct
M M

IRISH
BOOKS
A gem from a decolonisinq intellectual
GERARD CURRAN
reviews Transformations of
Irish culture by Luke
Gibbons, Field Day
Essays, Cork University
Press, £14.95 pbk.
LUKE GIBBONS belongs to
that group of writers/historians/critics,
which includes
Salman Rushdie,
Edward Said, C L R James, and
Ireland's Declan Kiberd and
Seam us Deane, who describe
themselves as decolonising intellectuals'.
This rather clumsy phrase
describes their efforts to describe
life and art in both pre
and post-colonial situations.
They resist the constant efforts
to distort and denigrate
their respective nationalisms.
In Ireland there is a constant
battle against unionist historians,
revisionist writers like F
S L Lyons, Moody, Conor
Cruise O'Brien and Roy Foster,
and journalists like Kevin
Myers and Fintan O'Toole.
Originally published between
1983 and 1995, this collection
of essays outlines the
history of an increasingly uninhibited
debate in Ireland
about a range of social, political
and cultural issues previously
'brushed under the
carpet'.
The essay Synge Country
and Western: the myth of the West
in Irish and American culture, is
particularly interesting. A
Penitence preceeds politics...
MOYA FRENZ ST LEGER
reviews Pardon and peace
by Nicholas Frayling,
SPCK, 171 pp, £10.99 pbk.
AN ENGLISHMAN at the
heart of the British establishment
has identified
the missing element in the
struggle for a solution to Ireland.
He is Nicholas Frayling,
Canon of Liverpool's Anglican
Cathedral.
In this book he calls for the
British publicly to acknowledge
and repent for 800 years
cimated the Irish people and
their culture.
This eminently readable
paperback, the product of
years of reflection upon the intractable
problem of Ireland,
records the writer's intensely
personal experience of his own
involvement.
A theological student on
holiday in Ireland in 1976, Nicholas
Frayling was in a pub
when a landmine exploded beneath
a car in Dublin killing its
occupant, British Ambassador
Sir Christopher Ewart Biggs.
Unable to make a discreet
exit, he was persuaded by the
other men to stay, and for the
next four hours listened to the
story of Ireland. He left the pub
changed.
In 1994 the author, spent
four months in Northern Ireland
listening to representatives
from all sides of the
conflict. His book records
some illuminating conversations,
and the 44-page appendix,
Outline of Irish History,
provides the ideal easy reference
for those without an encyclopaedic
knowledge.
Monsignor Denis Faul is
quoted: "Until the British repent
for what they have done,
and make amends for what
they have done, there will
never be peace in Ireland."
Penitence precedes politics. I
cannot recommend this book
too highly.
A rebel account of Easter 1916
David Granville reviews
Dublin's burning: the Easter
Rising from behind the
barricades by W J
Brennan-Whitmore, G&M,
£9.99 pbk.
IT SEEMS quite remarkable
that when Brennan-Whitmore's
account of the Easter
Rising was first submitted for
publication, shortly after its
completion in 1961, it was rejected
by at least one leading
Irish publisher on the grounds
that it was too controversial!
It is therefore with considerable
thanks to Gill and Macmillan
that they have finally
made Dublin's burning, almost
certainly the last memoir by a
participant in the Rising, available
to a wider audience.
A journalist by profession,
Brennan-Whitmore gained
valuable military experience as
a member of the Royal Irish
Regiment in India before returning
home where he joined
Sinn Fein, the Gaelic League
and the Irish Volunteers.
As a general staff officer he
was first based in the GPO before
being sent to command
the Volunteer position in
North Earl Street, which he
held for 72 houis before being
forced out by British artillery.
Although critical of Connolly's
policy of adopting a
'static defence', based on the
Labour leader's belief that the
British would not use artillery
against the rebels, it is clear
that he greatly admired Connolly
for his military skills, his
strength of character and his
dedication to the cause of Irish
freedom — although not for
his socialism.
In addition to an analysis of
the military aspects of the Rising,
Brennan-Whitmore's
vivid and clear-headed account,
written without rancour,
includes many
interesting observations of his
fellow combatants, the people
of Dublin caught up in the rebellion
and even the British
enemy.
copy of the Keating picture The
men of the West shows a group
of Aran-type men with guns.
The picture and Synge's Playboy
erf the western ivorld, and his
work on the Aran islands, depict
an uninhibited, primitive
people relatively untainted by
capitalism.
Synge was especially interested
in the people of the western
seaboard, whose lives were
to be threatened by both British
and Irish commercialism.
Gibbons points out that
Synge's playboy, the unabashed
hedonist Christy
Mahon, was the exact opposite
to the stereotype American
cowboy hero: invariably puritanical,
an upholder of the law,
and shy about women.
While respectable women
in the American western were
largely decorative figures, the
heroine in Synge's Playboy is,
by contrast, an initiator of action.
Gibbon's essay on the deportation
of Jimmy Gralton explains
how Gralton's dance
hall, where neither subversive
nor licentious behaviour occurred,
attracted the wrath of
Fianna Fail, the Church and
conservative sections of the
IRA.
They had to get rid of a man
who was exposing the myth of
the satisfied rural community
without poverty or unrest.
Yet he was successfully hidden
in the area for five months,
demonstrating a considerable
level of local support.
De Valera wanted to 'paper
over' the scandal of poverty
and landlessness in the rural
areas, and the whole affair led
directly to a split in the IRA
and the founding of the Republican
Congress.
It is impossible in a short
review to pay adequate tribute
to the richness of the material
in this excellent collection. His
essay on the social influence of
television which demonstrates
haw a television serial, The
Riordans, originally screened to
increase mechanisation on
farms, and The Late Late Show
became important forums for
discussing taboo subjects like
rape, adultery and birth control,
and helped to remould
public opinion.
Other essays deal with the
feminist interpretations of the
heroine in Irish film and examination
of new areas of
prejudice and racism through
a study of Irish history.
This book should be on the
curriculum of all Irish studies
courses.
Miscellany, myth,
ethics, religion
and some poetry
RUAIRI O'DONNELL
reviews How the Irish
saved civilisation
by
Thomas Cahill, Hodder
and Stoughton, 246pp,
£6.99.
SOMETHING OF a mixed
bag: a miscellany of history,
myth, religion,
ethics, some strange Gaelic
pronunciations and poetry.
Most importantly, it gives too
little space to its central issue,
The Golden Age.
Occasionally, one suspects
that the text has lost, or gained,
in translation. For example, we
are told that, during his escape
from Ireland Patrick was refused
passage on a ship.
The sailors later relented,
and "even offered (him) their
nipples to be suck

I
(
IRISH
SONGS
The Grand Oul' Dame
Britannia
The satirical tradition which is of immense antiquity in
Irish literature was continued by Sean O'Casey whose
"Grand Oul' Dame Britannia" was published in James
Connolly's Workers' Republic. John Redmond, referred to
in the song, was the leader of the Irish Parliamentary
Party, which had pledged Irish men and resources to the
English war effort.
Och! Ireland, sure I'm proud of you-
Ses the Grand Oul' Dame Britannia,
To poor little Belgium tried and true,
Ses the Grand Oul' Dame Britannia,
We've closed your ear to the 'Shinners' lies,
For you know each Gael that for England dies
Will enjoy Home Rule in the clear blue skies,
Ses the Grand Oul' Dame Britannia.
Oh, Casement! Damn that Irish pig,
We'll make him dance and English jig.
But Redmond's here — the good and great,
A pillar of the English state.
Who fears to speak of '98?
The Castle's now an altered place,
It's the drawing room of the Irish race.
John Redmond to the throne is bowed
'Mid a frantic cheering Irish crowd.
Sure its like the days of Shane the Proud.
For Redmond now Home Rule has won.
And he's finished what Wolfe Tone begun.
Yet rebels through the country stalk,
Shouting '67 and "Bachelors Walk";
Did ye ever hear such foolish talk?
Ye want a pound or two from me!
From your oul' Hibernian Academy!
Don't you know we've got title Huns to quell,
And we want the cash for shot and shell.
Your artists! — Let them go to hell.
Old Ireland free once more
Last night I had a happy dream, though restless where I
be:
I thought again brave Irishmen had set old Ireland free.
id how excited I became when I heard the cannon's
roar,
O gradh mo chroidhe, I long to see Old Ireland free
once more.
It's true we had brave Irishmen as everyone must own,
O'Neill, O'Donnell, Sarsfield true, Lord Edward and
Wolfe Tone,
And also Robert Emmet who till death did not give o'er,
O gradh mo choidhe, I long to see Old Ireland free once
more.
Now we can't forget the former years, they're kept in
memory stii,
Of the Wexford men of' 98 who fought on Vinegar Hill,
With Father Murphy by their side and the green flag
yaving o'er,
0 gradh mo chroidhe, I long to see Old Ireland free
nee more.
Allen, O'Brien and Larkin died, their country set free.
And some day yet brave Irishmen will make die Saxon
flee:
Both day and night they'll always fight, until death
they'll ne'er give o'er —
O gradh mo choidhe, I long to see Old Ireland free once
more.
Monto
There is no explanation for this song by George Hodnett
in most song books. Monto is supposed to be a Red Light
district in Dublin in the days during the British occupation.
It seems it was located in Ringsend. Members of the
aristocracy were known to frequent such places. Some of
the words are reminiscent of the Gilroy satirical cartoons
which showed little respect for prime ministers or royalty.
The Dubliners used to sing it with great gusto.
Well, if you've got a wing-o,
Take her up to Ring-o,
Where the waxies sing o, all day.
If you've had your fill of porter
And you can't go any further,
Give your man the order:
Back to the Quay!
CHORUS:
And take her up to Monto, Monto, Monto,
Take her up to Monto, langeroo — To you!
You've heard of the Duke of Gloucester,
The dirty old impostor,
He got a mot and lost her, up the Flurry Glen,
He first put on his bowler,
And he buttoned up his trousers,
And he whistled for a growler
And he says 'My man'
Take me up to etc.
You've heard of the Dublin Fusileers,
The dirty old bamboozileers.
They went and got the childer, one, two, three.
Oh, marching from the Linen Hall
There's one for every cannonball,
And Vicki's going to send them all,
O'er the sea.
But first go up toetc.
When Carey told cm Skin-the-goat,
O'Donnell caught him on the boat,
He wished he'd never been afloat, the filthy skite,
It wasn't very sensible
To tell on the Invincibles,
They stood up for their principles,
Day and night
And they all went up toetc.
This is a good song when the going gets weary. The peace
process falters. What the various loyalist paramilitaries Now when the Czar of Russia
will do next seems in the lap of the gods. The Orangemen And the King of Prussia,
get on Radio 4 talking about their civil liberties. Let's Landed in the Phoenix Park, in a big balloon,
recall the old days in song, and fill the whiskey glasses. They asked the policemen to play
The wearing of dte green'
But die buggers in the depot
Didn't Know die tune.
So they both went up toetc.
Now the Queen she came to call on us,
She wanted to see all of us,
I'm glad she didn't fall on us, she's 18 stone.
'Mister Milord the Mayor', says she,
'Is this all you've got to show me?'
'Why no ma'am, there's some more to see,
pg mo thin.
And he took her up to etc.
Music books at the Four Provinces Bookshop
The followino an a selection of sonabooks avaiabie from the Four
• aw IwllVlf—IWWSw VI WPivWlfwll wl vwiiwwnv wvwiMnv ivvfli •••w • Wwi
Provinces Bookshop, 244 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8JR, tel.
0171133 3022:
Songs of Belfast £330; Where songs do thunder, £6.99; The
words of 100 Irish party songs (Four Volumes) including
golden oldies from The auld triangle to The Red Rose Cafe,
old favourites from Danny Boy to The fields of Atheray,
£2.75 each volume; The Troops Out songbook, £2.95; 100
Irish ballads with words music and guitar chords. £6.95;
Ceolta Gael, £2.75; Love songs of the Irish, £3.99.
PETER
PEEPSHOW
MULLIGAN'S
Orange marches,
internment
and torture
PROTESTING FUNDAMENTALISTS —"There is a
widespread sense that at Drumcree Protestants finally
showed their determination not to be pushed
around At Drumcree, the Orange Order, in close association
with the Ulster Unionist Party, demonstrated a
new strength. Any government will in future have to
think twice before embarking on a course which might
incur Orange wrath, and get the roads blocked and
barricaded again." David McKittrick writing in the Independent
on Sunday. NB: We will look with interest at how
the British government handles the Orange marching
season next year.
A LITTLE GEM "Detectives want to hear from anyone
who might have been 'phoned by a man with a
French, American or Irish accent between June 1 and
July 15 interested in renting a garage." Press release
issued by the Anti-Terrorist Squad at the height of the
Derry blockade. (The Independent)
POLITICS AS HISTORY — During 1971 the IRA campaign
of violence reached a crescendo and the
government of Northern Ireland, after consulting the UK
government, decided to exercise the power of internment
under the Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act
1922.
In April of that year a secret seminar took place in
Belfast between senior British intelligence officers from
the English Intelligence Centre and members of the RUC
Special Branch to discuss the 'five techniques' of interrogation
and the location of interrogation centres.
Palace Barracks would be the main interrogation centre.
The first round-up took place on August 9,1971 when
342 men were arrested. By November of that year over
980,000 were detained. Over 3,000 received interrogation
while 14 were selected forthe full treatment
The security forces decided to use the opportunity to
torture selected Individuals in an effort to obtain information
and to send a message to the dissident
community. The methods of interrogation included
keeping the detainee's heads covered with black hoods;
subjecting them to continuous and monotonous 'white'
noise; depriving them of sleep; depriving them of food
and water; making them stand facing a wall with legs
apart and hand raised. Following complaints by the Irish
government and Amnesty International amongst others
a committee of inquiry was set up to investigate the
charges of torture.
Three Privy Councillors (the Parker Committee) were
then asked whether the authorised methods of interrogation
should be changed. Two members, a former
Conservative Cabinet minister and former Lord Chief
Justice, concluded that information was obtained by
such methods of interrogation and recommendedthat
there should be little change but that a doctor should be
present.
A minority report by Lord Gardiner, a former Labour
Lord Chancellor, held that the interrogation methods
had never been authorised. "If any document or minister
had purported to authorise them, it would have been
invalid because the methods were and are illegal by the
domestic law and may also have been illegal by international
law," the minority report concluded. The
government accepted Lord Gardiner's report and abandoned
the interrogation procedures. However, those
who had taken part in illegal acts which amounted to
torture were protected by the state.
LAST
WORD
"As our country has had her freedom and her nationhood
taken from her by England, so also our sex is denied emancipation
and citizenship by the same country. So therefore,
the first step on the road to freedom is to realise ourselves as
Irishwomen — not as Irish or merely as women, but as Irishwomen
doubly enslaved and with a double battle to fight."
o Countess Maridevicz writing in SaannBraann on
suffrage issues.
IRISH
DEMOC

ANONN IS ANALL: THE PETER BERRESFORD ELLIS COLUMN
Every UK passport, every Act of Parliament displays a false claim
Illegal arms
find at
Buckingham
Palace
THE DEMAND for the
Irish state to abandon Articles
2 and 3 of its constitution,
which assert the
territorial integrity of the
whole island of Ireland, its islands
and territorial seas, continues
to be stridently made by
unionists.
There is some scuttlebutt
that the Dublin government,
for the sake of 'progress and
good relationships in the peace
talks', may actually put the
matter to a referendum.
Why is it that the Dublin
government, nor, indeed, any
of the nationalist parties, have
ever demanded that the British
government and monarchy
cease making territorial claims
over the whole of Ireland?
No, I am not referring to the
territorial claims over the Six
Counties but the constant and
visible territorial claims over
all 32 counties.
Can it really be that people
are unaware of such claims?
Most people in the United
Kingdom encounter the claim
every day.
'
Every United Kingdom
passport has the claim emblazoned
on it; every time the
United Kingdom parliament
passes an act it prints the claim;
every time UK civil service departments
write letters the
claim is on the letterhead; on
every United Kingdom embassy
and consulate throughout
the world the claim is
boldly there — yes, even on the
British embassy in Dublin, and
every time the Queen sallies
forth in her royal car, the assertion
is there that Ireland (not
just part but the whole) is part
of her dominions.
The Arms of Ireland stand
forth, quartered, in the Royal
Arms. And the Royal Arms are
not personal arms but a kingdom's
claim to sovereignty
and therefore these arms assert
a claim, moral or de jure, to
sovereignty over all Ireland.
The Arms of the Kingdom
of Ireland were first recorded
in the Wijinbergen Roll, a
French armorial register, in the
late 13th and early 14th centuries.
These arms, a golden
harp on a blue background,
were attributed as belonging to
the native 'King of Ireland', not
to the Anglo-Norman 'Lord of
Ireland', which was the title
then borne by the English
kings. In the Treaty of Windsor
of 1175, Henry II and his heirs
were recognised as holding
'lordship' over Irish kings.
As the ancient symbol of an
independent Ireland, the Arms
of Ireland were reasserted by
Ireland on regaining independence
as its badge of statehood.
This 'Azure a Harp Gold
stringed Argent', the legendary
Harp of Tara, had been
adopted by Henry VIII when
he became the first English
monarch to assume the title
'King of Ireland'. The arms
were quartered within the
Royal Arms.
From Henry VIII all the
English sovereigns have borne
the Arms of Ireland quartered
with those of their other possessions.
When, in December 1936,
Albert, Duke of York, succeeded
his brother Edward
VIII, as George VI, he was
legally entitled to bear the
Arms of Ireland because the
Free State was then part of the
Commonwealth and George
VI was thereby King of Ireland.
However, when George VI
died in 1952 and was succeeded
by Elizabeth II, things
had changed. The Irish Constitution
of 1937 had paved the
way for a period of a 'dictionary
republic' and the republic
was confirmed by referendum
and declared in January, 1949.
Elizabeth II did not, therefore,
succeed as 'Queen of Ireland',
but as queen over only
six counties in northeast Ulster
which constituted her 'Kingdom
of Northern Ireland'.
The Arms of Ireland was,
and is, used by the Irish Republic
and internationally recognised.
The Great Seals of
Office, of the President, the
Taoiseach and so on, bear these
arms.
AT NO time has the Irish
President, the Dublin
government, nor even
the Office of the Chief Herald
of Ireland, in Kildare Street,
Dublin — who should know
about these matters — protested
to the English Queen
and her government over the
continued misuse of the Arms
of Ireland nor demanded,
under international heraldic
usage, that she remove the
third quartering — Ireland —
from her Arms.
How supine can one get?
The English Queen, at least,
was conscious of the newly
emerging Commonwealth and
of the need to adjust to the
complex relationship with the
Commonwealth. In 1960 she
had a new personal device designed
to be carried at Commonwealth
meetings when the
Royal Arms were considered
'inappropriate'. Obviously,
Irish sensitivities do not matter
as much as Commonwealth
ones.
Of course, if she wants to
assert some role in Ireland,
then the United Kingdom
sovereign is perfectly entitled
at this point in time, under heraldic
usage, to replace the
Arms of Ireland with the Arms
of 'Northern Ireland'.
Note that I do not say the
Arms of Ulster, of which she is
not sovereign, as a third of Ulster
comes within the Irish
state, but with the Arms of her
Kingdom of Northern Ireland
— her state is called 'The
United Kingdom of Great Bri
tain and Northern Ireland'.
But perhaps the English
Queen is personally unhappy
at using the arms borne by her
unionist government which
for over 50 years discriminated
against so large a number of
her subjects? Perhaps she,
wisely, sees those Arms as a
badge of shame rather than
one of honour and that is why
she clings to the heraldic assertion
that she is 'Queen of Ireland'?
Let me make it clear that the
Royal Arms are not the English
Queen's personal or family
arms. Her family arms are, of
course, those of Saxe-Coburg-
Gotha, a branch of the house of
Saxony. She does not bear
these arms mainly because the
re-named House of Windsor
wishes to consider itself as
English and not German.
The Royal Arms which she
bears are called, in heraldic
terms, 'Arms of Dominion',
and refer to the territories the
sovereign rules de facto or
claims to rule de jure divino. The
Royal Arms assert a real and
moral claim to sovereignty.
That is why the use of the Arms
of Ireland within them is an
affront to all Irish citizens.
Every time the Royal Arms are
used in this form, Elizabeth II
is claiming moral or de jure
Isn't it
about time
the Irish
Chief
Herald's
Office
stopped
ignoring its
duty?
sovereignty over all Ireland.
It is high time that this presumption
was abandoned by
the English Queen and her
government.
In heraldic terms, of course,
it can be argued that the Royal
Arms have degenerated into
Arms of Pretension, that is a
symbol borne to claim sovereignty,
title or office over a territory
without actual
possession. Edward III in 1337
claimed to be King of France
and quartered the Arms of
France in his Royal Arms. It
was not until 1801 that the
Arms of France were removed
from the Royal Arms of England.
THE ENGLISH are as fond
of precedents for such
procedures as they are of
using heraldic symbolism.
Therefore, there is a clear
precedent for her change of
heraldic status. All English
sovereigns from the reign of
George I until the death of William
IV bore a quartering of the
Kingdom of Hanover in their
Royal Arms. If you are in Dublin,
look up on the old Parliament
House — now the Bank
of Ireland — where you may
still see the Hanover Arms
quartered in the Royal Arms.
When William IV died and
was succeeded by Victoria, she
acquired the English Crown
but not that of Hanover. Hanover
had Salic Law, which in
Germany excluded females
from dynastic succession, and
William IV was succeeded by
his younger brother Ernest Augustus,
Duke of Cumberland.
Queen Victoria was therefore
obliged to abandoned the use
of Hanover's Arms in the
Royal Arms.
SURELY THIS matter,
which is a matter of international
heraldic law, for
nations do hold their symbols
of statehood jealously as matters
of honour, should have
been sorted out by die Chief
Herald of Ireland as early as
1949? The office of Chief Herald
of Ireland came into being
in the current form in 1943
when the previous office of the
Ulster King of Arms split between
Dublin's Chief Herald's
Office and the office of Norroy
and Ulster King of Arms in
London, with heraldic jurisdiction
over the Six Counties.
So plenty of time for that office
to learn the job! The lack of
protest on this matter causes
the Irish Chief Herald's Office
to be brought into disrepute
and ridiculed throughout the
world. This then humiliates the
Irish Presidency and State.
I find it rather curious how
successive Irish heads of state
and governments are always
seen to be jumping backward
somersaults to appease their
English neighbours, as if in a
state of constant apology to
them.
When President Mary Robinson
visited England recently
her Protocol Office
offered no objection to her
being called "The Irish President'
when she met the Queen
of the United Kingdom, of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
to smooth any problems
about the Queen's claims over
the Six Counties. Anyone dealing
in semantics will tell you
that "The Irish President' is not
the same as 'President of Ireland'.
The late President Kennedy
was often referred to as
'The Irish President' but he
never claimed to be 'President
of Ireland'!
Presumably Mrs Robinson
drove up to Buckingham Palace
in her official car bearing
the Irish Arms. Did Mrs Robinson,
sworn to uphold the dignity
of the Irish State, have any
reservations at seeing, on the
gates of Buckingham Palace,
the Royal Arms bearing the
Irish Arms quartered, asserting
the Queen's sovereignty
over her and the state she is
supposed to be head of? Or,
indeed, as she sat down to the
official banquet, did she remark
at the menu card bearing
that same heraldic assertion?
Isn't it about time the Irish
Chief Herald's Office stopped
ignoring its duty, and the Irish
President and Government
climbed off their collective
knees and started to make protests
about this insult to the
Irish state and its people? Or is
it still a case of when someone
in the British government
sneezes, someone in the Dail
blows his or her nose?
IRISH DEMOCRAT 0 c t o b • r / N o v • m b • r 1 9 9 6 p«0« 8