Irish Democrat December 2000 - January 2001

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December 2000/January 2001 Connolly Association: campaigning for a united and independent Ireland ISSN 0021-1125 60p 

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TRIMBLE AIMS FOR 

SUSPENSION AGAIN 

PEACE PROCESS 

Democrat reporter 

UNIONIST LEADER David Trimble, 

with Northern Ireland secretary Peter 

Mandelson's tacit compliance, seems 

now to be working towards a second 

suspension of the Northern Ireland 

executive before the UK general 

election, which is widely expected to be 

called next May. 

The unionist leader is desperate to 

avoid losing some of his Westminster 

seats to the hardline Paisleyites of the 

DUP (see page 4). 

His strategy for avoiding that is to 

push the peace process to a crisis that 

would lead to a second suspension of the 

northern executive and the north-south 

institutions, and probably the collapse of 

the Assembly itself — for which official 

unionism would then seek to blame Sinn 

Fein. 

Clear proof that this is Trimble's 

strategy is to be found in his letter to 

Ulster Unionist Council delegates before 

refusing as first minister to nominate 

Sinn Fein ministers to the north-south 

implementation bodies: 

"Political pressure correctly applied 

has brought and can bring rewards to 

unionism but what is contained in the 

Donaldson proposals would be utterly 

counter-productive. 

"That is why tomorrow I will outline 

a carefully considered response should 

republicanism continue to ignore its 

commitments on the issue of 

disarmament. 

"The response is intended to increase 

pressure progressively on republicans 

and nationalists. 

"This might result in a crisis for the 

assembly and executive. But if that arises 

we must do all we can to place 

responsibility on republicans. 

"Only in that way can suspension be 

achieved. Suspension is preferable to 

collapse for it is the only way we can 

hope to make progress afterwards," 

wrote Trimble 

The announcement by the IRA that it 

had reopened its arms dumps a second 

time to the two international arms 

inspectors, Cyril Ramaphosa and Martti 

Ahtisaari, was not enough for Trimble. 

Nor was the statement from these 

two respected people that they 

considered the IRA, which has been on 

cease-fire for most of the past six years, 

to be serious about the peace-process and 

to have honoured in full its commitments 

made last summer. 

Trimble insists on more 

decommissioning gestures by the IRA 

and has pressed hard, though with only 

limited success, for key proposals of the 

Patten commission on the RUC to be 

dropped. 

At a press conference after the Ulster 

Unionist Council meeting Trimble said 

that the difference between himself and 

unionist hardliner Jeffrey Donaldson was 

not policy but tactics. 

Ever since the Good Friday 

agreement Trimble and co. have ignored 

the fact that it provided for the 

decommissioning question to be taken 

out of the purview of the assembly, with 

the clear objective of removing it from 

the assembly's business and so allowing 

that body and its executive to get on with 

such issues as the economy, 

infrastructure, health, education etc. 

Instead Trimble and the proagreement 

unionists have allowed the 

anti-agreement forces to latch on to this 

issue, with Peter Mandelson's effective 

co-operation, and to use it to bring the 

executive down once, with another 

suspension now being clearly aimed for. 

Mandelson, by playing ball with 

Trimble, seems to be making quite a 

hash of things. 

If there is to be a really new 

dispensation in the north it is essential 

that republicans and nationalists should 

be able to tell their young people that it 

is alright to join the police. 

Republicans have already made it 

clear that the British government's 

watering-down of the Patten report 

compromise, which completed its 

legislative passage through parliament at 

the end of November, cannot form a 

basis on which they can recommend 

republicans to join the new force or the 

police boards. 

Although it seems likely that the 

position of the SDLP will be more 

flexible, the sense of betrayal and anger 

even amongst moderate nationalists over 

the watering down of Patten is real. 

It is not just a question of the new 

emblem of the new police being fully 

acceptable to nationalists. The hill-top 

watch-towers dominating South Armagh 

will issue an appropriate final end-ofcampaign 

order when these key issues 

are dealt with and the institutions of the 

remain a continuing provocation in Good Friday agreement are no longer 

staunchly republican areas. Promises open to subversion by hardline unionists. 

that arrest warrants would be lifted for 

republicans "on the run" "have not been 

honoured. 

For Peter Mandelson to truckle to 

Trimble in election mode, willi the First 

Minister's stated end-game being to have 

There can be no doubt that the IRA is republicans blamed for a second 

genuine when it says that it intends 

putting its arms "beyond use" and that it 

suspension of the executive, is utter 

foolishness on Mandelson's part. 

He needs to accelerate 

demilitarisation in South Armagh and 

elsewhere and to deal with the other 

issues that lead nationalists and 

republicans increasingly to question his 

good faith. 

There can be no doubt that the 

dilution of Pattern will make his task 

immeasurably more difficult or even, as 

some would argue, not without 

justification, impossible. 

CAMDEN MAYOR Heather Johnson welcomes Derry mayor of a six-county city expressed his delight at being in 

counterpart Cathal Crumley at the official opening of this 

year's Terence MacSwiney memorial lecture in London (see 

page 3). Responding to the welcome, the first ever Sinn F6in 

London to speak at an event which honoured MacSwiney, 

whose sacrifice continued to inspire successive generations of 

Irish people in their struggle for freedom.

iRISh OcmOCRAC 

Founded Volume 55. Number 6 

Britain is still the problem 

PETER MANDELSON'S attempt to wash his hands of responsibility 

for the latest crisis in the peace process arising out the government's 

failure to include key elements of the Patten reforms into the Police Bill 

and David Trimble's decision, as First Minister, to bar Sinn Fein 

ministers from north-south ministerial council meetings is looking 

increasingly disingenuous. 

The proconsul's protestation that he does not agree with the actions 

of the Ulster Unionist Party leader while being powerless to intervene 

rings about as true as a cracked bell — those with an interest in such | 

matters are unlikely to have forgotten his willingness to pull Trimble Sj 

out of the mire, by unilaterally and illegally suspending the agreement 

institutions. 

Unfortunately, pandering to the unionist agenda while claiming to 

maintain a neutral stance comes second nature to British secretaries of 

state. Mandelson has shown himself to be no exception. By failing to 

intervene forcefully, or even go as far publicly as to remind the first 

minister of his commitments under an international treaty, Trimble 

knows that he has the secretary of state's tacit support for his latest 

political survival strategy. 

Trimble's UUP No men — and their various camp followers — are 

undoubtedly making life difficult for the First Minister. To make 

matters worse, Ian Paisley is lurking close by, gleefully rubbing his 

hands as the prospect of what could be one last chance to become the 

nominal leader of a majority of unionists in the six counties. 

The No camp has been further encouraged by the efforts of the 

secretary of state to save Trimble's political skin — a strategy which 

could rapidly be heading for the buffers as the UUP leader moves ever 

closer to the position of his opponents while continuing to lose 

credibility amongst his unionist constituency. 

However, it has become clear that Trimble's latest wrecking moves 

may stem more from the agreement reached in Hillsborough in May, 

which resulted in the inspection of IRA arms dumps and which 

breathed new life into the Stormont institutions, than from pressures 

from within unionism. 

Pro-agreement unionist sources have let it be known that at a crucial 

meeting between the government and Sinn Fein, Mandelson arrogantly 

suggested that the IRA wou:J move on the arms issue because Sinn 

Fein would not allow the process to collapse given that their 'entire 

strategy is predicated on this process working'. 

Mandelson appears to have come away from 

Hillsborough 

believing that the republicans were in a corner and that the IRA could 

be pushed around, all of which gave encouragement to unionists. 

Republican sources suggest otherwise and have made known the 

enormity of Mandelson's mistake, if that is what he believes. The 

reality is that unionists have always been keenest on an assembly and 

would lose most if the agreement was to collapse. Sinn Fein, on the 

other hand, could be reasonably be confident that 95 per cent of the 

Good Friday deal would be implemented, with or without the 

Assembly and assorted institutions. 

Although the IRA has no intention of returning to war, further 

progress towards decommissioning is extremely unlikely given 

Mandelson's attitude over the north-south ministerial council issue, the 

government's broken promises over the Patten reforms, the lack of 

progress towards demilitarisation in republican heartlands, particularly 

South Armagh, and Mandelson's decision to deny parity of esteem to 

nationalists by imposing the flying of the Union flag over official 

government buildings. 

While the British government has undoubtedly played directly into 

the hands of those who want to limit and prevent change, it is the 

former rather than the latter who must bear ultimate responsibility. Put 

plainly, the un.onist position is not sustainable without the support of 

the British government. The time for change is now. 

Imsh Oemoouc 

Bi-monthly newspaper of the Connolly Association 

Editorial Board 

Gerard Cumin; finda Finlay; David Granville (editor!; Peter Mulligan; Mnya St Leger 

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News 

Page (i Irish Democrat December 2000/January 2001 

Meeting demands reforms in full 

r 

1 

POLICING 

THE NORTH 


SINN FEIN national chairperson Mitchel 

McLoughlin, left, joined a labour and 

trade union platform in London recently 

in its call for the full implementation of 

policing reforms recommended by the 

Pattern Commission. 

The meeting at the Hammersmith 

Irish Centre in London was organised 

jointly by the Connolly Association and 

the Hammersmith and Fulham trades 

union council. 

Senior Irish trade unionist Daltun O 

Ceallaigh, from Dublin-based Trade 

Unionists for Irish Unity and 

Independence, and prominent left 

Labour MP, Jeremy Corbyn also spoke 

at the meeting, which was chaired by 

Gwen Cook of Hammersmith and 

Fulham TUC. 

Daltun O Ceallaigh summed up the 

general mood when he stressed that the 

Patten recommendations were a "huge 

compromise" for nationalists. 

"The RUC is not being disbanded or 

reconstituted. There is no guaranteed 

extraction from its ranks of those 

culpable of bigotry, neglect of duty, 

perverting the course of justice, 

collaboration with loyalist death squads, 

and murder," he said. 

Connolly legaoy Is conference theme 

CONNOLLY 

CONFERENCE 


A MAJOR international conference 

aimed at evaluating the relevance of the 

Irish labour James Connolly for the 21st 

century is being planned for the new 

year. 

The event, which will take place in 

Dublin between 20 and 22 April, is being 

organised by the James Connolly 

Education Trust, a non-sectarian forum 

which has hosted a range of education 

and discussion forums for left, 

republican and labour forces in Dublin 

throughout the last decade. 

It is hoped that the Trust's latest 

iniative will bring together a wide range 

of political forces for a much-needed 

evaluation of Connolly in the light of 

current political developments. 

The trust has already approached a 

large number of individuals and 

organisations across the labour and 

republican movements seeking 

sponsorship for the conference. Several 

trade union councils in both the north 

and south of Ireland as well as a number 

in England, Scotland and Wales have 

been invited to sponsor the event. 

"One of the conference's aims is to 

draw workers within the countries of 

these islands together," said conference 

oganiser Eugene McCartan 

• For further information contact The 

James Connolly Education Trust c/o 

Connolly Books, 43 East Essex Street, 

Dublin, or email Eugene McCartan at 

connollyconference@eircom.net 

Army welcomes back killers 

McBRIDE 

MURDER 


THE FAMILY and friends of the Belfast 

teenager murdered by two Scots Guards 

in 1995 have reacted with anger and 

disbelief at an Army boards decision to 

allow the two British soldiers to continue 

their military careers. 

The decision, announced 

unexpectedly towards the end of 

November, came over a year after the 

Ministry of Defence was ordered by a 

Belfast court to reconsider an earlier 

Army board decision to allow guardsmen 

Mark Wright and James Fisher to remain 

in the army despite being found guilty of 

murdering Peter McBride. 

Jean McBride, mother of the 

murdered 18-year-old, said that she was 

"completely devastated" by the Army's 

decision but vowed to keep up the 

campaign for the soldiers' dismissal. 

"The anniversary of Peters's birthday 

is next week and if they think that I 

brought my son into this world to have 

him murdered and forgotten then they 

just don't understand what it is to be a 

mother," she said. 

The Army board decision comes only 

weeks after it was revealed in parliament 

that 1,510 British soldiers had been 

dismissed from the army for drugs 

offences since Peter McBride was 

murdered. 

"This is a completely ludicrous 

situation, " said a spokesperson for the 

Derry-based Pat Finucane Centre. "The 

British army is effectively telling us that it 

is a mqre serious crime to smoke a joint 

than to murder an innocent Irish teenager." 

The family and its supporters are 

calling for maximum support for a 

second international day of protest on 

Friday 1 December. 

IhisIi Ocmociuc 

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IN BRIEF 

Veto challenged 

SINN FEIN assembly ministers Martin 

McGuinness and Bairbre de Brun have 

been granted leave by the High Court in 

Belfast to seek a judicial review of the 

sanctions imposed by the First Minister 

David Trimble preventing them from 

attending the north-south ministerial 

council. 

A Paisley first 

IAN PAISLEY Jr of the anti-agreement 

DUP has become the first elected 

member to be suspended from the 

Northern Ireland assembly. 

Mr Paisley was suspended towards 

the end of October for refusing to 

withdraw comments suggesting that 

Sinn Fein education minister Martin 

McGuinness was a liar. 

Price increase 

THE COVER price of the Irish Democrat 

will increase from the next issue of the 

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See the advert on this page for further 

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T 

Irish 

Demot. rat December 2000/January 2001 Page 3 

News 

Action demanded on MacSwiney records 

MacSWINEY 

LECTURE 


AROUND SEVENTY-FIVE people at 

this year's annual Terence MacSwiney 

memorial lecture unanimously backed a 

motion calling upon the Home Secretary, 

Jack Straw, to release files relating to the 

death of the Cork ma) or. 

Although MacSwiney died 80 years 

ago the relevant files, which are thought 

to contain information about Britain's 

failed colonial administration in Ireland 

and important aspects of the Irish 

freedom struggle, are not due for release 

until 2030. 

The main speaker at this year's event, 

which was organised by the Connolly 

Association to compliment the annual 

MacSwiney mass held at St George's 

Cathedral, Southwark, was Sinn F6in 

mayor of Derry Cathal Crumley. 

The nationalist community in the 

north had made substantial political 

gains in recent years while there were 

signs that many unionists were prepared 

to adopt a pragmatic approach to the 

changes brought about by the Good 

Friday agreement, said Crumley. 

"Most of the barriers to creating a 

new, inclusive, independent, sovereign 

Ireland are being demolished. The 

arguments historically used by unionists 

and British Tories to convince the nonnationalist 

population of the benefits of 

maintaining the link with Britain are no 

longer sustainable." 

The electorate in the north had 

become educated and extremely 

politicised and was no longer blankly 

prepared to follow those politicians who, 

in order to sustain a solid grip on power 

and maintain a false sense of dependency 

on Britain among Protestants and 

unionists, had "instilled a sense of 

bigotry about everything Irish into the 

unionist mind". 

"I believe that many amongst those 

pragmatists, particularly in unionist 

business and professional sectors, are 

preparing privately for what they see as 

inevitable — the reunification of 

Ireland." 

Speaking on behalf of Camden TUC, 

a long-standing supporter of Irish unity, 

Phil Lewis pointed out that John Scurr 

and George Lansbury, two leading 

figures in the British labour movement, 

had supported MacSwiney's demand to 

Derry mayor Cathal Crumley, above, 

delivered the keynpote address at 

this year's lecture, which also 

focused on solidarity with the cause 

of Irish freedom 

be released from Brixton prison in 1920. 

He also reminded the audience that 

the mayor of St Pancras had marched 

behind MacSwiney's coffin between 

Southwark to Euston as a mark of 

solidarity with the Irish people at a 

critical time in the war of independence. 

Among other contributors to the 

event were a Camden-based Asian music 

group, pictured above, which sang 

Bengali freedom songs to mark the 

strong fraternal links between the Indian 

and Irish independence movements. 

Demilitarisation claims challenged 

SOUTH ARMAGH 


LOCAL PEOPLE in South Armagh 

continue to challenge misleading 

statements made earlier in the year by 

the British military and police authorities 

suggesting significant levels of 

demilitarisation in the area. 

Of particular offence has been a 

statement issued towards the end of the 

summer giving the impression that the 

controversial army base at Crossmaglen 

was to be demolished. 

Nothing could be further from the 

truth, explained Toni Carragher of the 

South Armagh Farmers and Residents 

Committee. Although one watchtower 

overlooking the square in Crossmaglen, 

has been removed, "numerous 

sophisticated surveillance and infra-red 

cameras which festoon the joint 

RUC/British Army barracks remain to 

spy upon the people of South Armagh 

and neighbouring counties in the south 

of Ireland", she says. 

Modernisation work is continuing 

throughout the base, which remains 

surrounded by four giant watch towers, 

and helicopter patrols have been stepped 

up across the area in recent months. 

The presence of 30 watchtowers and 

seven joint RUC/British army barracks, 

excluding Newry, throughout South 

Armagh paints a very different picture 

from the false impressions given by the 

security forces. "The reality is that 

demilitarisation has not taken place in 

South Armagh," insists Toni Carragher. 

Demilitarisation South Armagh style: although the Crossmaglen watchtower in 

the foreground has been demolished, the tower in the background has been 

refortified and fitted with additional monitoring equipment in recent weeks 

Shooting plans 'went right to the top' 

BLOODY SUNDAY 


A LEADING British barrister has told 

the new Bloody Sunday inquiry that he 

intends to prove that not only was there a 

plan to shoot unarmed civilians but that it 

was endorsed by both the British prime 

minister of the day, Sir Edward Heath, 

and the then prime minister of Northern 

Ireland, the late Brian Faulkner. 

Lord Gifford QC, who is 

representing the family Jim Wray, one of 

the 14 people killed by British 

paratroopers on 30 January 1972, will 

rely on a memo from the army's second 

in command, General Robert Ford, to the 

genera! commanding officer in the six 

counties, Sir Harry Tuzo. 

In the memo Ford argued that the 

time had come to shoot dead some of the 

ringleaders among the rioters, referred to 

as the 'Derry Young Hooligans'(DYH): 

"I am coming to the conclusion that the 

minimum force necessary to achieve a 

restoration of law and order is to shoot 

selected ringleaders amongst the DYH, 

after clear warnings have been issued," 

wrote General Ford. 

Gifford accepts that there is no 

written evidence to support his claim that 

Heath and Faulkner knew of the shootto-kill 

plan. However, he will argue that 

it would have been highly unlikely that 

any such orders would have been written 

down. 

A letter from another former British 

prime minister, Jim Callaghan, 

underlines his reasoning: 

"Very heavy pressure was brought to 

bear on the army commanders to step up 

their attitude. I don't suppose any of us 

will ever know whether they were acting 

on their own judgement or whether they 

yielded to the judgement of others... I am 

sure iuch information would never have 

been committed to paper but would have 

been passed word of mouth," wrote 

Callaghan. 

Other important information 

presented to the inquiry, chaired by Lord 

Saville, since it reopened at Guildhall in 

Derry on 13 November has included: 

• evidence of serious discrepancies 

between the trajectory of shots fired by 

soldiers and the location of the victims; 

• the results of an RUC investigation, 

which concluded that although 17-year 

old Jack Duddy had been murdered by a 

British soldier no further action should 

be taken as the soldier could not be 

identified; 

• evidence of the failure of the RUC to 

prosecute a British soldier identified 

from the bullet removed from the body 

of teenager Michael Kelly — the RUC 

decided not to prosecute on the grounds 

that it would have been "unfair to single 

him out" from other colleagues who 

were also responsible for wounding and 

killing innocent civil rights protesters on 

the day. 

In another bizarre turn, a tape from ;in 

IRA bug planted at the Victoria Barracks 

in Derry has been rediscovered and 

passed on to the inquiry. 

The tape, which contains 

conversations between military 

personnel and between journalists and 

soldiers, confirms that the authorities 

knew early on that, in their own words, 

"the wrong people" had been killed. 

The inquiry will continue to hear the 

opening statements of counsel for the 

families of those killed and wounded 

until the end of November after which it 

will begin taking evidence from around 

700 civilian witnesses. 

• THE BLOODY Sunday legal team 

has been joined by British-bom Richard 

Harvey, a leading New York-based 

human-rights lawyer. 

Harvey, who is representing the 

family of Bloody Sunday victim James 

Wray, replaces Barry McDonald who 

left in the summer to become a QC 

following a successful legal challenge to 

the rule stipulating that barristers in the 

north must swear allegiance to the 

British crown before 'taking silk'. 

NEWS IN BRIEF 

Secrets and lies 

"THE UK's disregard for the public 

interest and preference for gagging and 

suppression of information over 

accountability and democratic scrutiny is 

an international disgrace," according to a 

new report by civil rights groups Article 

19 and Liberty. 

The report. Secrets, Spies and 

Whistleblowers, analyses recent 

government attempts to suppress 

"embarrassing or controversial 

revelations" including the activities of 

the British Army Force Research Unit, 

which is implicated in the murders of Pal 

Finucane. Gerard Slane. Terence 

McDaid, Francisco Notoranionio. 

Patrick Hamill and others. 

The report is available from Article 19. 

Lancaster House, 33 Islington High St. 

London. Nl 9LH (price £5). It can also 

be accessed online ai 

www.article 19.org/docimages/791 .htm 

Police complaints 

THE OFFICE of the new independent 

police ombudsman in the six counties, 

Nuala O'Loan, opened for business 

towards the end of November and was 

immediately awash with complaints 

against the RUC. Around 100 appear to 

have been lodged on the first day alone, 

most of which concern allegations of 

physical assault and sectarian abuse. 

The introduction of a police 

ombudsman brings to an end the corrupt 

practice of the RUC investigating 

complaints against itself under the 

nominal supervision of the former 

Commission for Police Complaints. 

The Belfast-based Committee on the 

Administration of Justice has lodged a 

complaint against RUC Chief Constable 

Ronnie Flanagan based on allegations 

that he failed to investigate properly 

written threats against the murdered 

human-rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson. 

Disqualification Bill 

TORY OPPONENTS in the House of 

Lords have forced through a wrecking 

amendment to the government's 

Disqualification Bill, effectively 

scuppering plans to allow members of 

the Dail to sit in the Commons. 

Although the government could still 

force the legislation through, lack of 

political will and the pressure of 

parliamentary time, look set to see the 

Disqualification Bill quietly ditched, at 

least for the current parliament. 

The legislation would have brought 

the Republic of Ireland into line with 

members of the Commonwealth by 

removing the bar on members of the Dail 

becoming MPs or members of the 

Northern Ireland assembly. 

Greaves memorial 

A MEMORIAL stone has been placed 

on the Merseyside grave of the late 

Desmond Greaves, labour historian 

political activist and editor of the Irish 

Democrat for over 40 years. 

Greaves' ashes lie in the family plot 

at Bebington Cemetery, Birkenhead, 

alongside his parents and his sister 

Phyllis 

The memorial inscription proclaims 

Greaves to have been an internationalist, 

an historian and a poet. 

Greaves used say that he championed 

Irish independence and unity, the cause 

to which he devoted most of his political 

life, because he was a socialist 

internationalist. 

For anyone wishing to visit the grave, 

it can be found by the wall near the 

comer on the left of the main entrance to 

Bebington cemetery.


Irish Demot. rat December 2000/January 2001 

Page 4 

WORLD VIEW 

Politicus 

Not very Nice! 

THH LATEST step inwards turning the 

European Union into a superstate is the 

Treaty of Nice, due tor signing in 

December. 

This new treaty, the fourth in 14 

years, will go round for ratification in 

each HI I member state over the coming 

year. All must ratify it before it can come 

into force. 

Its key proposal is the abolition of the 

national veto in a wide range of policy 

areas hitherto requiring unanimity — 

effectively, the end of national 

democratic control over those areas. 

Even if the British people do not 

want something, parliament does not 

want it. the government does not want it. 

and even if the British minister on the 

EU Council of Ministers votes against it, 

it can still go through and become 

binding EU law because a majority of 

other EU governments have voted for it. 

The Germans, French and some 

others want to be able to establish the 

"avant-garde " of a quasi-federal state 

amongst themselves, so as to be able to 

present those unwilling to go that far 

with an endless series of political and 

economic faits-accomplis. At present 

there must be unanimous agreement for 

any such move. 

The Treaty of Nice abolishes this 

veto, so permitting a transformation of 

the EU from a partnership of equals, into 

a two-tier EU. 

Germany, France and some others 

also want to abolish the national veto on 

the use of the European army (the socalled 

Rapid Reaction Force) that is now 

being set up. so that while a national 

state may be free to opt out of EU 

miltary operations, it cannot prevent 

others going ahead in the name of the EU 

as a whole, or using the military 

structures that all members have 

contributed to. 

The treaty proposes to abolish the 

national veto in several other areas as 

well. 

The ostensible reason for the new 

treaty is to make decision-making easier 

if the EU should be enlarged by the 

addition of east European states. 

The real reason is that Germany and 

France, who are the principal pushers of 

this new treaty, do not want to be 

overridden by the newcomers. 

Enlargement of the EU is in fact a 

most reactionary development. It 

deprives the east European applicant 

states of their hard-won national 

democracy and independence. Beforejoining 

the EU they must adopt some 

20,(XX) EU directives and regulations, 

without changing a jot or tittle. 

They must commit themselves in 

principle to abolishing their national 

currencies, so that the European Central 

Bank, whose policies are geared to what 

suits Germany and France, will exercise 

unfettered economic dominion over 

them. 

This is a political servitude greater 

than anything they may have suffered 

when they were allies or clients of the 

former USSR. 

The political elites of eastern Europe, 

who have made such a mess of running 

their own countries since 1989, see the 

EU as a 'deus ex machina'. 

They picture themselves as happily 

helping to run an enlarged EU, while in 

future Brussels can be blamed for their 

continuing domestic problems. 

Meanwhile their populations grow 

ever more disillusioned as people 

everywhere are turning against the EU as 

they realise that it means the end of their 

national independence and democracy. 

News/analysis 

Paisley spectre returns to haunt Yes camp 

Irish Democrat 

northern 

correspondent Bobbie 

Heatley warns of trouble 

ahead if Ian Paisley 

realises his ambition of 

dominating unionism in 

the six counties 

WITH THE Democratic Unionist 

Party's annual conference this 

November the gauntlet has been thrown 

down to all those who profess to be 

adherents of the G(KHJ Friday agreement. 

If the DUP's expectations were to 

materialise in the forthcoming UK 

general election, and the recent byelection 

result in South Antrim suggest 

they could, then the agreement is 

d(X)med. 

Of course, Paisley has had his hopes 

raised before, but even though they have 

not been realised hitherto many will be 

canny about ruling out his chances this 

time around. 

Chiefly, this is because of the 

maladroit way in which the British 

government has handled the 

implementation process of the Good 

Friday deal. 

Instead of making it clear to the 

rejectionist wing of the Ulster Unionist 

Party that the reform programme was 

going to be fully and expeditiously 

implemented, it chose another path — 

that of allowing Trimble to stall and 

water down the reforms. 

If the real objective was to pressurise 

the mainstream IRA into 

decommissioning its weapons 

prematurely', then the tactic was 

counter-productive. How the IRA could 

have been persuaded to disarm when 

politics were not seen to be working 

sufficiently well is a mystery to most 

objectively-minded analysts. 

Worse still, the collusion game being 

played by Downing Street and the 

Trimbleites was grist to the mill of the 

UUP rejectionists. 

It now seems that the outcome of this 

tactic could be that Paisleyism is poised 

to become the majority element of 

unionism in the north, either through 

one-party dominance or as the enlarged 

core of a post-election unionist 

realignment. 

Should that happen, the UK 

government will be faced with a selfmade 

problem of some difficulty. 

Paisley has made it abundantly clear 

that he will accept nothing less than a 

return to the old-time unionist 

domination. 

Failing that, it seems that a more 

securely integrated form of direct rule 

from Westminster would suit him. 

For decades, British governments 

have sought to avoid a head-on 

Abuser Vincent McKenna 

sentenced to three years 

McKENNA CASE 


A TWENTY-SIX county court has 

sentenced the founder, director and 

spokesperson of the Northern Ireland 

Human Rights Bureau, Vincent 

McKenna to three years' imprisonment 

for sexually abusing his daughter over an 

eight-year period. 

The sentence was the minimum 

available to the court. 

McKenna, who falsely claimed to 

have been a reformed member of the 

IRA, come to public prominence as a 

leading spokesman of the Britishgovernment-funded 

Families Against 

Intimidation and Terror (FAIT). 

Despite British support for its antirepublican 

crusade, FAIT disintegrated 

recently under the strain of bitter internal 

divisions and allegations of financial 

irregularities. 

The IRA has always denied that 

McKenna was a member of the 

organisation. 

While McKenna's staunchly antirepublican 

agenda was music to the ears 

Welcome to the Other View 

MEDIA 


THE IRISH Democrat recently received 

a copy of The Other View, a new 

magazine associated with a project in the 

north aimed at fostering constructive 

dialogue and identifying common 

ground between loyalists and 

republicans. 

Many of those involved in producing 

the magazine, which does not shy away 

from contentious issues, are ex-prisoners 

and local community workers. 

Several contributors in issue two 

reflect on the closure of Long Kesh, 

while others deal with Orange marches 

and the nature of republicanism in 

Ireland — from both loyalist and 

republican perspectives. 

"The magazine is not a substitute for 

political negotiations,'' explains editorial 

board member Tommy McKearney, a 

former IRA prisoner and founder 

member of the Irish Republican Writers' 

Group. "It should be seen rather as a 

modest contribution to serious political 

discourse." 

Fellow editorial board member Billy 

Mitchell, a former UVF prisoner and a 

prominent member of the Progressive 

Unionist Party, insists that much of what 

has passed for political dialogue in 

recent years "has been nothing more 

than people talking at each other rather 

than with each other". 

'Tommy and 1 believe that if political 

enemies like ourselves are ever going to 

understand each other we have to change 

the dynamic of the pcace process by 

opening new channels of 

communication and encouraging the 

of those, including the British authorities 

and unionists, desperate to undermine 

growing public support for Sinn Fein, 

others believe that McKenna's objectives 

went even further. 

Father Joe McVeigh of the Human 

Rights Centre in Belfast recently 

described the Human Rights Bureau as 

"a contrived attempt to undermine the 

peace process". 

"It exists soley to disparage Sinn Fein 

as a political party and to take the focus 

away from the RUC and British 

government abuse of human rights here," 

he said. 

relationships into constructive 

directions." 

• For further information visit The 

Other View's website at 

www.theotherview.org/ or write c/o 

LINC Resource Centre, 218 York Street, 

Belfast BT15 1GY; tel. 028 90 745566 

confrontation with Ulster unionism. 

Now it seems that, at long last, it could 

be being led into such a clash by 

Britain's current proconsul, Peter 

Mandelson. 

An enhanced Paisleyite front refusing 

to operate the agreement would be 

problematic for Downing Street. The 

agreement is based on an international 

treaty and it has had the endorsement of 

the whole of the Irish people on both 

sides of the border. 

Unfortunately, this fact has not 

inhibited the British government from 

acting unilaterally — and illegally — on 

previous occasions, at the UUP's behest, 

as if it were the sole proprietor of the 

agreement. But circumstances in a postelection 

situation could be very different. 

Indeed, even the prospect of 

Paisleyism gaining a dominant position 

within unionism presents a danger. 

But given its fixation with the 

'aspirations/sensitivities' of the unionists 

in the north, the government appears set 

to carry on doing the wrong thing by 

continuing to pander to them — 

although using its political clout more 

forcibly with the rejectionists, 

themselves a dependency, always 

remains an option. 

The question in the run-up to the next 

UK general election is whether there will 

be more dithering on the part of the 

government to stave off authentic 

democratic changes and preserve 

Trimble from the rejectionists, by 

making him even more indistinguishable 

from them. 

Or will Mandelson, instead of 

instructing a member of the Patten 

Commission, professor Shearing, to 

"come into the real world", make a big 

effort to get there himself? 

Proconsul 

Mandelson 

Imposes 

flag rale 

PARITY OF ESTEEM 


THE MOST recent projection of 

demographic figures for the north shows 

that within a decade Catholics, already 

43 per cent of voters, could become a 

majority. 

Even so, as the issue of the flying of 

flags over official buildings has recently 

demonstrated, Peter Mandelson 

continues to act as if as if they don't 

exist. 

By the edict of secretary of state, 

public buildings will fly the Union flag 

on 17 days throughout the year, 

including on the birthday of Sophie Rhys 

Jones, wife of Edward Windsor. 

A flag will be permitted on Saint 

Patrick's day — but it too will be the 

Union flag. 

The decision to impose the flying of 

the Union flag, while banning the flying 

of the Irish tricolour on official buildings 

such as the health and education 

ministries — even alongside the Union 

flag — will cause many to ask: what 

happened to the equality provisions of 

the Good Friday agreement? 

The British government's attitude to 

sensitive issues of this kind is being seen 

as a litmus test of the efficacy of the 

agreement for opening up a political 

means to the attainment of an Irish 

national democracy in the north. Once 

again, it has failed. 

Qrlm side of 

the fairytale 

Irish Democrat 

FREDERICK DOUGLASS, 

the Black abolitionist, who 

visited Ireland twice and 

knew Daniel O'Connell, 

said: "The Irish who at 

home readily sympathise 

with the oppressed everywhere are 

instantly taught when they step on our 

soil to hate and despise the Negro... Sir, 

examines the dynamics of class, race and 

the Irish-American will one day find out 

immigration in the formation of the US 

his mistake." 

working class. 

Noel Ignatiev's provocatively-titled 

It is an analysis of the process by 

book How The Irish Became White 

which the Irish, oppressed in their 

homeland, destitute, alien in religion, 

and in many cases language, arrived in 

the slave-owning America of the 1840s 

and 1850s, only to meet brutal class 

oppression and US nativism in pre-civilwar 

America. 

Paradoxically, the Irish were 

integrated into the dominant white racist i > 

society and its main urban political party, | 

the Democrats. How was that possible? 2 

In a chapter entitled The \ 

Transubstantiation of an Irish 2 

US correspondent Joe Jamison takes a 

look at a provocative book by Harvard University 

lecturer Noel Ignatiev, which challenges the sanitised 

'rags to riches' version of the Irish in America 

government troops in the streets of New York City in anti-conscription riots 

A money mystery? 

EUROPEAN INVESTMENT Bank vice 

presidential appointee Michael Tutty, a 

long-time civil servant with the 

Department of Finance, is described in 

an article in the Irish Times of 7 

September as a conservative who prefers 

managing money to giving it away. 

This parsimonious trait has served 

him well in his function as a devisor of 

budgets for the government in recent 

years. 

Mr Tutty is on record as saying that 

the job of the Department of Finance is 

"to curb enthusiasm, just like your bank 

manager". Mr Ttitty may rest assured 

that enthusiasm, ever in short supply in 

the less privileged and vulnerable sectors 

of society, has withered away completely 

Revolutionary, Ignatiev traces the career 

of John Binns, Dubliner, born in 1772 of 

mixed Anglican and Dissenter stock. 

Binns sympathised with the United 

Irish movement and in England joined 

the London Corresponding Society, 

being appointed secretary of the LCS's 

Birmingham branch. 

He was arrested twice, once for gunrunning, 

and was released in 1801. He 

emigrated to Philadelphia where he 

became an American racist. 

Analysis 

In a long career in Philadelphia 

politics he favoured conscripting black 

free labourers — who competed for 

work with the new Irish — as cannon 

fodder in the War of 1812; congratulated 

the governor of South Carolina for his 

bloody suppression of the 1822 slave 

rebellion, and wrote scathing public 

denunciations of Daniel O'Connell for 

suggesting an alliance of US 

abolitionism and Irish nationalism. 

Ignatiev makes a number of 

interesting points: 

• Ireland had an old anti-slavery 

tradition, going back to the Council of 

Armagh (1177), which had prohibited 

the Irish trade in English slaves. 

• The term 'Scotch Irish' only dates 

back to around 1850. The Irish 

Protestants who came to the 13 colonies 

up to 1850 were simply called 'Irish'. 

Only after the hunger-stricken Irish 

Catholics arrived in huge numbers did 

the snobby label 'Scotch-Irish' develop. 

• The need to get out the vote of the 

Catholic Irish in the northern cities 

explains why the Democratic Party 

rejected 'nativism'. 

• The Act of Union 1800 represented a 

turn from national oppression which 

relied on elite sections of the oppressed 

nation (the ascendancy) to racial 

oppression which relies on the support of 

the labouring classes of the oppressed 

group — the loyalist working classes. 

The July 1863 draft riots in New York 

City are, perhaps, the most shameful 

chapter of the Irish in America. 

In July 1863 the Confederacy made 

its deepest incursion into northern 

territory, into southern Pennsylvania. 

Top Confederate general Robert E. Lee 

threw his army against Lincoln's army at 

Gettysburg. Lee was decisively beaten in 

an epic battle that left 50,000 dead. 

Almost simultaneously, 'anti-draft' 

— anti-forced conscription — riots 

broke out in New York City, about two 

hundred miles away, leaving hundreds of 

black Americans dead in grotesque racist 

atrocities. 

The rioters were mostly poor and 

mostly immigrant Irish. Ignatiev rightly 

calls the draft riots an insurrection, but 

seems to suggest they were a 

Letters to the Editor 

Write to: The Editor, Irish Democrat, c/o 244 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8JR 

or email at: democrat@hardgran.demon.co.uk 

to be replaced in the wake of recent 

budgets by an overwhelming sense of 

hopelessness and despair. 

Shortly to be in receipt of a yearly 

salary of £147,000, plus considerable 

perks, Mr Tutty has cause to feel 

extremely enthusiastic about his own 

personal situation. 

The Irish Times profile refers to his 

having occupied positions of influence at 

different levels within the department, 

going on to say that he had "spent a lot 

of time on the Strategic Management 

Initiative". 

Lay persons such as myself would 

appreciate an elucidation relating to the 

processes related to this mysterious 

sector of fin ncial manipulation. 

John Kelly 

Mullingar, Co. Westmeath 

OUR DUBLIN correspondent writes: 

The Strategic Finance Initiative that Mr 

Kelly mentions is management jargon 

for some changes in public 

administration involving more explicit 

setting-out of goals and more frequent 

assessment of feed-back on how those 

goals are being attained. 

The real objection to the appointment 

spontaneous expression of Irish racism. 

Untrue. New York City mayor 

Fernando Wood openly favoured the 

Confederacy, as did and the cottonexporting 

merchants who backed him 

and who stoked the flames of racist 

violence among the white poor. 

Moreover, spontaneous riots don't last 

four days. 

Ignatiev's Irish who "became white' 

represent only one wave, that which 

moved into America at the high tide of 

US slavery. Irish emigration to America 

has gone on from the 17th century to the 

1980s. 

In an influential wave of 1789-1815, 

political exiles flocked into Thomas 

Jefferson's early Democratic Republican 

and tilted that party leftward. Irish 

republican exiles of the 1920s. Mike 

Quill most famously, joined with US 

communists to organise the New York 

subway system. 

Yet, this is an honest, challenging, 

well-researched book. It caused 

heartburn in respectable Irish-American 

circles accustomed to the rags to riches, 

self-flattering Irish-American 'success 

story' mythology purveyed in 

mainstream Irish-American newspapers. 

The grimmest pages from the story of 

the mid-19th century Irish in America 

have modem echoes in battles over 

bussing in south Boston, or the recent 

acquittal of four New York policemen 

with Irish surnames — for shooting 41 

bullets into an unarmed West African 

immigrant. 

In Britain, racism continues to be a 

main political problem for the labour 

movement. And in Ireland an upsurge of 

non-white immigration is making a 

political response to racism urgent. 

Perhaps this book, not so well known 

in Britain, is a timely study of a bleak 

chapter of the Irish experience in 

America, a country where race is as 

central a stumbling block for working 

class unity and political progress, as 

sectarianism is in the six counties. 

• How the Irish Became White by Noel 

Ignatiev is published in paperback by 

Routledge 

of civil servant Michael Tutty as vicepresident 

of the European Investment 

Bank in place of former Judge Hugh 

0' Flaherty, is that this was done without 

any public advertisement or attempt to 

find the most qualified person for this 

£147,000 EU job. 

Tutty is as much a recipient of the 

favouritism of Irish finance mininster 

Charlie McCreevy as was the Fianna 

Fdil-supporting former judge, who 

resigned over the Sheedy affair. 

The European Investment Bank is 

itself an unaccountable institution that is 

in clear breach of its own statut; because 

of the way it permits members of its 

board of governors, who are the 

ministers of finance of the EU member 

states, to distribute these top jobs to their 

favourites as prime pieces of political 

patronage. 

VIEWPOINT 

Jim Savage 

Stain of treachery 

FOR MANY years it has been a 

privilege for ex-graduates to marry at the 

Honan chapel in University College 

Cork, which was built after the great 

famine by the Honan family, at one time 

an important merchant family. 

Today, the family has gone and few 

are aware of their treacherous role during 

the famine as a major exporter of cereals 

and other foodstuffs to England. 

According to British statistics. 1.7 

million tonnes of wheat and maize alone 

were exported to Britain from Ireland 

between 1844 and 1848, and food 

exports of this period would be valued at 

around £2.25 billion in today's money. 

The Honans drafted in British troops 

in order to enforce the exports, including 

gunboats to guard grain ships and troops 

to protect the unharvested com from the 

starving population. 

This demonstration of greed was 

used to exterminate the most helpless of 

our people, men, women, children, 

young and old, many of whom were 

forced to endure the dual agonies of 

starvation unto death and of watching 

their loved ones wither away. Many of 

the most defenceless were women and 

children evicted from their hearths by 

ruthless landlords. 

The increased levels of poverty 

which resulted from the actions of the 

merchant and landlord class turned the 

failure of one crop into an inevitable 

famine. The suggestion that the potato 

failure alone was responsible for the 

carnage of the Irish poor, one of the 

greatest human tragedies of the 19th 

century, is misleading and inaccurate. 

In Cork, the Honans, who also 

exported cattle, beef, butter and cheese , 

and other big farmers and institutions of 

the day, turned a blind eye to the 

unfortunate poor. 

The only way that the disaster might 

have been averted was for the 

Government to give free food to the 

needy. But this was at variance with their 

adherence to 'laissez-faire' capitalism — 

as least as far as the plight of the Irish 

poor was concerned. 

The Honans built the chapel for the 

glorification of their class and not for the 

benefit of the people or even today's 

university graduates, who come from all 

walks of life. 

It is somehow fitting that all that 

remains of the family is a glass-panelled 

limestone vault in Cork's St. Finbar's 

cemetery — and the stain of their 

contribution to a an entirely preventable 

calamity. 

Student housing 

STUDENTS LOOKING for affordable 

housing in Ireland are facing the worst 

accommodation crisis in history 

according to the Irish students' union. 

Student numbers have risen 

dramatically in recent years, intensifying 

the pressure on the rentedaccommodation 

sector. This year, 

students have faced the prospect of 

having to shell out ever more on rent 

while facing the hassle of week-long 

accommodation 'hunts' 

The cost of rented accommodation 

has also risen dramatically. Weekly rents 

in most student areas have increased by 

between £5 and £15 per room, to 

between £55 and £65 — a hike which 

hits students from disadvantaged 

backgrounds particularly hard. 

The Union of Students in Ireland 

(USI), which has long campaigned for 

higher grants, now fears that more 

students will be forced to drop out of 

college this year, or turn down the offer 

of a place, because of the rising costs of 

so-called 'free' third-level education.


Irish Demot. rat December 2000/January 2001 Page 7 

connoUy column 

In this edited extract 

from the Irish Worker of 

31 October 1914, 

Connolly returns to the 

jc 

relationship between 

labour and Irish 

nationalism and its 

significance in the 

struggle for political and 

economic freedom in 

Ireland and Britain 

ever refused to be 

drawn into any 

mere anti-English 

The Hope of Ireland 

THE PRESENT crisis in Ireland is shattering many reputations and falsifying many 

predictions, hut to the careful observer it is becoming daily apparent that it will leave 

intact at least one reputation — that of those who pinned their faith to the working 

class as the anchor and foundation of any real nationalism that this country can show. 

Here and there the working class may waver, here and there local influences may 

exert sufficient pressure to weaken or corrupt the manhood of the workers. But, 

speaking broadly, it remains true that in that class lay the only hope of those who held 

last to the faith that this Ireland of ours is a nation distinct and apart from all others, 

and capable of working out its own destiny and living its own life. 

The working class has ever refused to be drawn into any mere anti-English 

feeling; it refuses to be drawn into it now. It has always refused to consider that hatred 

England was equivalent to love of 

Ireland, or that true patriotism required 

The (Irish) 

an Irishman or woman to bear enmity to 

the toiling masses of the English 

working class has 

population. It still holds that position. 

The working class of Ireland, when it 

grows conscious of its true dignity, does 

not consider that it owes to the British 

empire any debt except that of hatred. 

But it also realises that the best 

services it can render to the British 

people is due to them, and that service 

feeling 

will be... as speedy as possible a 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ destruction of the foul governmental 

system that has made the British people an instrument of the enslavement of millions, 

of the extirpation of whole tribes and nations, of the devastation of vast territories. 

Enslaved socially at home, the British people have been taught that what little 

political liberty they do enjoy can only be bought at the price of the national 

destruction of every people rising into social or economic rivalry with the British 

master class. 

If it requires war to free the minds of the British working class from that debasing 

superstition then war we shall have, for the world cannot progress industrially whilst 

so important a nation in Europe is perverted mentally by a belief so hostile to fraternal 

progress. If it requires insurrection in Ireland and through all the British dominions to 

teach the English working class that they cannot hope to prosper permanently by 

arresting the industrial development of others then insurrection must come. 

Those who hold that the British people must learn this lesson are not necessarily 

enemies of the British people, of the British democracy. Rather do they hold with 

John Mitchel that they are the truest ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

friends of the British people who are the 

greatest enemies of the British 

government. 

The Irish working class sees 110 

abandonment of the principles of the 

labour movement in the fight against this 

war (1914-18 war, ed.) and all that it 

implies: sees no weakening of 

international solidarity in their fierce 

resolve to do 110 fighting except in their 

own country to secure the rights to hold 

that country for its own sons and 

daughters. Rather do they joy in giving 

this proof that the principles of the labour 

Alone in Ireland, 

the working class 

has no ties that 

bind it to the 

service of the 

empire 

movement represent the highest form of patriotism, and that true patriotism will 

embody the broadest principles of labour and socialism. 

The labour movement in Ireland stands for the ownership of all Ireland by all the 

Irish. It therefore fights against all things calculated to weaken the hold of the Irish 

upon Ireland, as it fights for all things calculated to strengthen the grasp of the Irish 

upon Ireland and all things Irish... Alone in Ireland, the working class has no ties that 

bind it to the service of the empire. Hunger and fear of hunger have dri ,1 thousands 

of our class into the British army; but for whatever pay or pension such have drawn... 

owe neither gratitude nor allegiance. 

Other classes serve England for the sake of dividends, profits, official positions 

and sinecures — a thousand strings drawing them to England for the one patriotic tie 

that binds them to Ireland. The Irish working class as a class can only hope to rise 

with Ireland. Equally true is it that Ireland cannot rise to freedom except upon the 

shoulders of a working class knowing its rights and daring to take them. 

The class of that character we are creating in Ireland. Wherever then in Ireland 

flies the banner of the Irish Transport & General Workers' Union there flies also to 

the heavens the flag of the Irish working class, alert, disciplined, intelligent, 

determined to be free. 

Michael Smith takes up 

the case of a remarkable 

Irishman whose 

contribution to polar 

exploration deserves to be 

remembered alongside the 

likes of Captain Scott and 

Ernest Shackleton 

TOM CREAN is hardly a 

name which leaps to mind 

when contemplating the 

legendary stories of early 

exploration to the Antarctic a 

century ago. It seems easier 

to recall familiar names like Shackleton 

or Scott. 

However, the exploits of the 

formidable men who mapped Antarctica 

cannot be told without recognising the 

significant contribution made by Tom 

Crean, the man from Kerry who is the 

unsung hero of Polar exploration. 

Crean sailed on three of the four 

major British expeditions of the age and 

spent more time exploring the icy wastes 

than either Scott or Shackleton. And he 

outlived them both. 

The life of Tom Crean is the 

compelling and inspirational story of an 

ordinary man who did extraordinary 

things. But it is also a story which has 

been overlooked for the best part of a 

century. 

One reason why the story of Crean is 

so compelling is that he is not typical of 

the traditional Irish hero. Broadly 

speaking, many of Ireland heroic figures 

from the past can be broken down into 

two distinct categories. 

One group would include the famous 

political or military people like Collins, 

de Valera and Tone and the other would 

incorporate Ireland's great artistic 

heritage, such Joyce, Shaw, Swift, Wilde 

and Yeats. 

But Antarctic explorer Crean does 

not fit into either category. He also came 

from very a different social background 

than most famous Irish historical figures. 

Tom Crean was born in 1877 on a 

remote hillside farm near the village of 

Anascaul, Kerry. He was one of ten 

children and a rudimentary education 

gave him little more than the ability to 

read and write. 

Features 

At the age of 15, Crean ran away to 

join Queen Victoria's Royal Navy. It was 

customary at the time for recruiting 

officers to round up willing young men 

from Ireland's rural communities and 

Crean volunteered to give up the struggle 

on the land for an adventurous life at sea 

in the world's mightiest navy. 

By chance, his warship was in New 

Zealand as Captain Robert Scott's 

Discovery steamed into Lyttleton 

harbour shortly before Christmas, 1901 

en route to the Antarctic. Discovery was 

the largest expedition ever sent to the 

unmapped continent and the equivalent 

today would be a trip through space to a 

planet like Jupiter — but without the aid 

of advanced telecommunications. 

Crean's opportunity to join the trip 

into unknown territory came by chance 

when a sailor attacked an officer and 

deserted, leaving Scott with a vacancy on 

the eve of departure. Crean promptly 

volunteered to fill the gap. 

The expedition's achievements were 

modest, but when Scott went south again 

in 1910, Crean was among the first men 

he recruited. 

Crean dragged a sledge 750 miles 

across the ice and was among the last to 

see Scott alive. They separated only 150 

miles from the South Pole and Crean 

wept at the disappointment. A few 

months later he was in the search party 

which buried Scott's body in the ice. He 

wept again. 

CREAN'S OWN return 

march to base camp ranks 

as the finest feat of 

individual heroism in an 

era which is littered with 

great tales of endurance. 

But it was inevitably eclipsed by the 

tragedy of Scott's death and lost in time. 

The 750-mile haul back to base with 

colleagues Lashly and Lt Evans was a 

race for life. Only Evans could navigate 

and before long he succumbed to scurvy. 

Crean and Lashly placed Evans on 

the sledge and dragged him for about 

100 miles before their strength gave out. 

When they could pull no further, Crean 

bravely volunteered to march the final 35 

miles without food, shelter or even a hot 

drink. 

Although he had already walked 

1,500 miles across the world's most 

inhospitable terrain, Crean struggled 

through and alerted rescuers to his 

stricken comrades. He was given the 

The tale 

of an 

unsung 

hero 

Albert Medal, the highest award for 

gallantry. 

Less than two years later, Crean was 

on board Shackleton's Endurance 

heading south on what was to become 

the era's most incredible story of 

survival. 

Endurance was crushed by ice and 

the 28 crewmen first drifted on ice-floes 

for months, before sailing their three 

lifeboats to the uninhabited and desolate 

Elephant Island. Rescue lay 800 miles 

over the violent Southern Ocean in South 

Georgia and Crean was prominent in the 

party which made the crossing in the 22ft 

James Caird. 

Crean then joined Shackleton and 

Worsley for the famous first-ever march 

across the rugged interior of South 

Georgia to bring rescuers to their 

comrades stranded on Elephant Island. It 

was Crean's last act as an explorer. 

After retiring from the navy in 1920, 

he returned to Anascaul, Kerry, where he 

married, raised a family and opened a 

pub which he called the South Pole Inn. 

It is open to this day. 

Crean's remarkable contribution to 

exploration of Antarctica has since 

remained largely undisturbed, in contrast 

to people like Scott and Shackleton, who 

have earned lasting fame 

This partly reflects his own modesty. 

But it also reflects his reluctance to 

speak openly about his exploits. 

Crean never gave an interview in his 

life, largely because of the timing of his 

return to Ireland. He arrived back in 

Kerry in 1920 when Ireland was fighting 

the war of independence. His brother 

Cornelius, a member of the Royal Irish 

Constabulary, was shot dead in Cork in 

1920. 

Crean's fame had been earned in the 

British Navy and in the circumstances, 

he chose to keep his head down. 

Consequently, he lived a quiet and 

peaceful life away from the spotlight and 

died in 1938, aged 61. 

Later historians who came to 

chronicle one of the great adventurers of 

the 20th century found very little original 

material on which to build a picture of 

the man. Crean's rough education meant 

that he did not keep diaries or write 

voluminous correspondence like the 

middle-class and university-educated 

officers. His legacy is a handful of poorly 

crafted letters. 

My own journey researching and 

writing Crean's extraordinary life took 

around three years and called for many 

hours spent poring over the books, letters 

and diaries of men who knew and 

respected Tom Crean. 

As a result, for the first time it is now 

possible to acknowledge Tom Crean's 

massive contribution to Polar 

exploration and provide him with the 

recognition he so richly deserves. 

• Michael Smith is the author of An 

Unsung Hero — Tom Crean, Antartic 

Survivor published by The Collins Press, 

£20 hbk. Contact: Collinspress.com for 

further details. 

Features 

Towards modern 

republicanism 

Sinn F6in: the main embodiment of republicanism in Ireland today, according to 0 Ceallaigh 

s 

Following Caoimhghin O Caolain's contribution on the 

future of republicanism in the last edition of the Irish 

Democrat, we continue the debate with an edited 

extract from an important new book, Irish 

Republicanism, 

Good Friday and After, by the Irish 

trade unionist and writer, Daltun O Ceallaigh, below 

HOSTILE CRITICS of 

republicanism like to 

depict it as caught in a 

time warp whose chief 

boundaries are the Easter 

rising of 1916 and the end 

of the second Dail in 1922. It is 

portrayed as musing about Gaelic myth 

and rural idyll, subscribing to a nonexistent 

government of the republic, and 

attached to a Catholicism which 

regularly denounces it. 

Such critics, who find it difficult to 

engage with modem republicanism, thus 

concentrate on knocking down their own 

anachronistic aunt Sally. 

Modem republicans, however, do not 

base their position merely on what took 

place in 1916 or the general election of 

1918, although those events are still 

germane; that is insofar as they asserted 

a principle — the right of the people of 

Ireland to untrammelled selfdetermination 

— which is contravened 

to this day through the incorporation of 

the six counties in the UK. 

While they view the 26-county state 

as thus short of satisfying Irish national 

aspirations, they but perceive its value as 

a popularly endorsed and vital 

bridgehead towards a sovereign Ireland. 

They wish to see a new 

accommodation among Irish men and 

women in a situation of unity, but 

recognise that this does not infer cultural 

homogeneity or administrative 

centralism. 

They do not expect Irish to be 

restored in the foreseeable future as the 

main language of the nation, but treasure 

its heritage and seek genuinely (in 

contrast to other parties) to encourage 

bilingualism as far as possible. 

They do not envisage an Ireland of 

contemporised tuatha*, but strive to 

promote an enabled collective self-help 

that eventuates in social justice and local 

empowerment; self-rule and self-respect 

go together at all levels. 

They regard these aims as 

necessitating the construction of a 

progressive alliance which is primarily, 

but not exclusively, rooted among wage 

and salary earners, forming as they do 

the overwhelming majority in the Ireland 

of the new century. 

But this should not be misunderstood 

as excluding the regional or inferring an 

anti-rural outlook. Moreover, they are 

decidedly not a Catholic party or in thrall 

to the Catholic church as their policies, 

such as on abortion, amply demonstrate. 

Catholicity for republicans is purely a 

private matter. 

The one thing that has not changed in 

republicanism is esteem of Irishness. It 

does not suffer from neo-colonial 

insecurity or 'euro-indifference' to 

nationality. It acknowledges ethnicity in 

its positive aspects while, with a 

characteristically democratic spirit. 

firmly rejecting chauvinism or racism. 

It comprehends that the nation of the 

early 21st century cannot be the same as 

when nationalism first emerged upon the 

modern historical scene, but discerns 

that 'post-nationalism' has already been 

falsified by history. The global is truly 

with us, but so also is the 'glocal'. 

Sinn Fein is the 

only notable force 

in all-Ireland 

politics that 

harbours a healthy 

scepticism about 

the European 

Union and its 

military ambitions 

Republicans advocate overcoming 

individual alienation through 

appreciating national community; this is 

also the alternative to a slide towards 

cosmopolitan anomie. At the same time, 

it in no way cuts across human solidarity. 

The task is to help create and participate 

in a world democratic order that 

combines interdependence and national 

distinctiveness. 

Sinn Fdin, which is the main 

embodiment of republicanism today, is 

the only notable force in all-Ireland 

politics that also harbours a healthy 

scepticism about the European Union 

and its military ambitions as well as 

wider developments in NATO and the 

so-called Partnership for Peace. 

It is the only authentically national 

party in the Assembly and the Dail. 

through its very presence in both 

legislatures and continuing to reject the 

principle of partition. It has called for 

right of participation by northern MPs in 

the Dail and northern votes in 

presidential elections and relevant 

constitutional referenda. 

It is thus unique as a party on the 

island oi Ireland in reflecting a 32- 

county mentality and practice, lt could 

also eventually be the only party sitting 

on both sides of the north-south 

ministerial council. Republicans further 

maintain a critique of 'social 

partnership' and the effect on the less 

well-off in the community. 

Their realistic nationalism, mature 

Irishness, and social progressiveness, 

sets them apart from the opportunisticpopulism 

of Fianna Fail, the shapeless 

conservatism of Fine Gael, and the nonnationalist 

corporatism of Labour —as 

well as the occasional junior partners of 

some of those parties. 

Furthermore, they are, therefore, also 

distinguished from the residuum of the 

anti-republican caricature which cannot 

look beyond the second Dail. To put it 

another way, for those whose position is 

not right-wing, not tokenistically Irish, 

and not economically reductionist, 

republicanism offers political 

expression. 

And republicanism should not be 

counterposed to nationalism in the Irish 

sense — the distinction is that all 

republicans are nationalist, but not all 

nationalists have been republican. 

In other words, republicans believe in 

the rights of the Irish nation, but 

nationalists have not always been 

unanimous that these should assume a 

republican form. Redmond accepted the 

empire and Cosgrave the 

Commonwealth; and their political 

reincarnations exist to this day. 

At the same time, republicans have 

their feet firmly planted on the ground 

and know, for all that has been said 

above, that they are not going to be 

propelled in meteoric fashion to political 

hegemony of the Irish nation. But the 

possibility is there to become strong 

enough throughout Ireland so as to make 

a significant intervention generally on 

the island and just as has happened in the 

six counties. 

w 

HILE THE chief 

organisational 

expression of 

republicanism in 

Ireland today is 

undoubtedly Sinn 

Fein, such an ideological outlook is not 

confined to that party. Whatever about 

their leaderships, republicans are also to 

be found in Fianna F&il and Labour and 

many will remain there for reasons of 

tradition or because that is where they 

can have most impact. 

Republicans are also active in nonparty 

pressure groups or may be in no 

organisation at all. Indeed, they may be 

included among non-voters, owing to the 

lack of appeal of the major D3il parties. 

The strengthening of Sinn F6in will be 

important, but the mobilisation of 

republicans cannot be measured just in 

that fashion. The growth of Sinn Fdin 

will have a catalyst effect on republicans 

elsewhere and there should then be 

dynamic interaction with them. The 

fruits of such a development will be 

gauged, among other things, by the 

changing positions and policies of other 

parties. Moreover, republicans should 

reach out to all democrats where there is 

agreement on some if not all issues. 

A question which is now increasingly 

coming to the fore is whether Sinn Fein 

should contemplate coalition in the south 

as well as power-shanng in the north 

It is important to approach this 

without succumbing to the dogmatism 

and fetishism that once bedevilled the 

subject in the Labour Party, or else one 

will be in danger of creating a new 

confusion between tactic and principle 

when one has just got over that on 

abstentionism. 

A decision on coalition should be 

determined by a programme for 

government and judgement as to the 

longer term impact on party 

development. If concessions on the right 

policies can be secured and 

implemented, and it is perceived that 

Sinn Fein is responsible for them, then 

there is no reason why coalition should 

not be entered into and why it should not 

benefit the party. 

But public relations will be as 

important here as political negotiations. 

In other words, Sinn Fein must not only 

be successful, but be seen to be so and 

not hesitate to advertise properly its 

achievements as distinct from just a 

government's. 

There is a myth that participation by 

a small party in government necessarily 

leads to its eclipse and decline. The 

evidence which is currently most 

frequently adduced to that end is the 

advance of the Labour Party in 1992 and 

its reverse five years later. 

However, the historical evidence 

does not bear out that interpretation. 

After going into coalition with Fianna 

Fail, Labour's standing in opinion polls 

remained high. It only began to go down 

in the wake of cronyism in political 

appointments and the adoption of 

unpopular measures such as the amnesty 

benefiting big tax evaders. 

The myth endures because of 

tendentious pundits in the media who are 

either irrationally anti-coalition or just 

rabidly anti-Fianna Fail. Earlier such 

experiences of small parties were also 

more complex than is made out by the 

inquisitors of coalition heresy. 

Overall, and on careful analysis, 

there is reason to believe that many 

people are more policy driven than party 

loyal or hostile. This is also probably so 

because the electorate is generally astute 

enough to understand the consequences 

of a voting system and constituency 

boundaries which now makes coalition 

of one sort or another almost 

unavoidable — that is, if there is not 

to be a minority single-party 

administration, which has been avoided 

since the late 1980s for reasons of 

stability. 

In this realisation, they are well ahead 

of some media cognoscenti and purist 

ideologues. The party in modem Ireland 

which will never go into coalition may 

never go into government; if it is a small 

party, it certainly never will. 

There is furthermore often an implied 

and ironic Elitism in the case of some 

anti-coalitionists. That is, when the 

possible, tactical advances that could be 

made on policies and actions through 

coalescence are in fact acknowledged by 

them, they maintain that the ordinary' 

people cannot see this and will thus 

desert a left-wing party in such a 

circumstance. In this way, they reveal an 

underlying lack of faith in democracy 

and evince an arrogance whose result is 

irrelevance. 

* tuatha — communal groupings at the 

heart of ancient Gaelic society 

% Daltun 6 Ceallaigh's new book, Irish 

Republicanism — Good Friday and 

after, is available from Leirmheas, PO 

Box 3278, Dublin 6 (IR£6) or from Four 

Provinces Bookshop, London (£6)


Book reviews 

Parading allegiances in orange (and green) 

(icrani Curran re\tews The Irish 

Parading Tradition: following 

the drum. II) Fmser led. i, 

Mannillan. £1\9') pbk and Petei 

Berresford Ellis reviews Orange 

Parades: the politics of 

ritual, tradition and control by 

Dominic Bryan. Pluto Press £15.99 pbk 

THERE IS a problem with the title of 

The Irish Parading Tradition, which 

covers Protestant, nationalist and mixed 

parading. All the Orange parading in the 

essays dealing with the period before 

1922 is described as being in the 

"Protestant interest". 

The term "Protestant interest" 

became less inaccurate alter 1834 when 

Presbyterians were allowed to parade 

with the Orange Order. When describing 

the pre-1834. period the term 'Anglican' 

interest would have been more accurate. 

How Irish' was this parading before 

1922'.' Anyone who did not admire 

William of Orange, or the English 

monarchy the majority of the 

population — did not take part. Most of 

the pro-Orange and monarchist parading 

was supported and encouraged by the 

ascendancy class on behalf of the 

English authorities. 

One sentence refers to the 1748 

rebellion in which many Presbyterians 

and Dissenters look part. There is no 

mention of the persecution of Dissenters 

and Presbyterians under the Penal laws, 

and the emigration of many to America, 

in the 18th century. 

The description of the Loyal Orange 

» A%. i 

t? V 

* c* * * r 

lodges in Cumbria will be new to many 

students of Irish activities in Britain. The 

parades attracted the interest and support 

of the local Tories and the active hostility 

of the Catholic Irish. 

The two essays on the Irish in 

Scotland will fill gaps in many peoples' 

knowledge. The weakness of both essays 

is that the authors exaggerate the 

isolation and vulnerability of the Irish. 

Martin Mitchell in The Irish in the 

West of Scotland demonstrated that even 

in the first half of the 19th century the 

Catholic Irish were not as isolated and 

despised as other historians have claimed 

and that some at least "participated in 

strikes, trade unions and political 

workers with native workers". 

The second claims that the Irish, 

whether 'Orange' or 'Green', were 

unpopular in Scotland. They were 

The impact of the famine on Belfast 

Ian McKeane reviews, The Hidden 

Famine: hunger, poverty and 

sectarianism in Belfast In- 

Christine Kinealy


Irish Demot. rat December 2000/January 2001 Page 11 

Reviews/culture 

lt\\n-OKt 

Gerard Curran's songs page 

Sources said... 

In praise of murder 

hum is Foley reviews The Playboy 

of the Western World by John 

Millington Synge. RTE eil 236 

ALTHOUGH NOW considered one the 

finest examples of Irish drama, when 

first performed The Playboy of the 

Western World was greeted with open 

hostility, earning Synge the sobriquets 

"the dramatist of the dung heap" and the 

"evil genius of the Ahbey Theatre". 

In a talk about the play included on 

this two-cd set. Marina Carr explains that 

"a nation that takes as its role model the 

language manner and etiquette of its 

conqueror does not like to be reminded 

that the majority of its population live in 

mud huts with earthen floors. and it 

doesn't like to be told that a generation 

ago they lived like that themselves". 

Initially appearing to be a comedy 

about Irish peasant life, it is preoccupied 

with the universal mythical themes, often 

seen as parallels of Oedipus and of 

The biting humour 

of the Irish 

political cartoon 

STHVH BELL'S 1996 cartoon, right, 

insnired by the decision to allow the 

Orange Order to parade down the 

(iarvaghy i

Anonn Is Anall: The Peter Berresford Ellis Column 

Imsh OcmpCRAC 

Bigadier Frank Crazier, centre, with RIC officers, an RIC Auxiliary officer and Black and Tans, Beggars Bush barracks, Dublin, 1920 

Time for truth 

Peter Berresford Ellis asks when will historians be 

able to reveal the full truth about the Black and Tans 

and the RIC Auxiliaries and their role in Britain's 

resistance to the Irish during the war of independence 

AMONG THE studies on the war of 

independence of 1919-21 there is a 

distinct gap when it comes to the 

availability of a credible study of the 

infamous 'Black and Tans' or the even 

more ruthless 'Auxiliaries'. As I recall, 

there has only been one work which has presented a 

history of the 'Tans'. 

Richard Bennet'S The Black and Tans was first 

published in 1959 and became a best-selling 

paperback in tyhe early 1960s. (Military history 

specialists Spellmount have just produced a new 

illustrated edition, price £14.99.) 

It is a work that tries to be 'fair'. Sadly, a number 

of basic errors make for irritating reading. Bennett 

translates Sinn Fein as meaning 'we are it' claiming 

that it symbolised a narrow parochialism. Yet, as the 

only book on the activities of the unit, it is an 

important work. 

For those who need to be clear about the Black 

and Tans, and Bennett himself propagates a few 

myths, the unit began to arrive in Ireland on 25 

March 1920 to reinforce the depleted Royal Irish 

Constabulary (RIC). Irish members of the RIC had 

begun to resign in large numbers — 600 in June- 

July, 1920 — appalled at what their superiors were 

asking them to do against civilians; against the 

democratically-elected parliament of their country 

and its defenders. 

Demobilised British soldiers were recruited and, 

in May 1920, they came under the command of 

Major General Sir Hugh Tudor (1871-1965), the 

new chief of police. There being a shortage of RIC 

uniforms for the new force, they were issued with 

khaki trousers (military) and dark green tunics 

(police). This reminded people in Munster of the 

famous Scarteen Black and Tans, a Co. Limerick 

hunt, hence the nickname. 

Their notoriety stemmed from the ferocity of 

their attacks against the civilian population, 

including murders of elected political 

representatives and the burning of villages and 

towns. They were simply UK governmentcondoned 

war criminals. 

Their notoriety stemmed 

from the ferocity of their 

attacks against the 

civilian population 

Yet in spite of their reputation they were not as 

vicious as the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish 

Constabulary recruited in July, 1920. This division 

consisted of 1,500 men who were all former British 

officers between the ranks of lieutenant and 

lieutenant-colonel who were enrolled as 'temporary 

cadets' in the RIC. 

'Cadet' was a term carefully chosen for 

propaganda use. If an Auxiliary cadet was listed as 

killed or wounded by 'terrorists', British 

propaganda could conjure up images of 'innocent 

youths' being attacked instead of the reality of 

seasoned military officers. They were paid £1 per 

day and expenses, making them the highest-paid 

uniform force of their time. 

The 15 'Auxiliary' companies were soon 

notorious. They were indiscriminate in their killings 

and a 'terrorist' force in the true sense of the word. 

They used terror to repress the Irish civilian 

population. 

Their commander was from an Ulster unionist 

background, Brigadier Frank P. Crazier CB, CMG, 

DSO. (1879-1937). Crazier had trained the Ulster 

Volunteer Force in 1914 but rose in the regular army 

to be GOC of the 40th Division in France. 

Crozier, however, had scruples. When he had 

evidence of war crimes against his men, he 

dismissed them. His superior, General Tudor, 

immediately reinstated them. 

Crozier created a furore by resigning his 

command and drawing attention to the war crimes 

being committed by both Auxiliaries and Black and 

Tans. Yet, as commandant of the Auxiliaries from 

August 1920 to February 1921, it is hard to believe 

that Crazier was entirely unaware of his men's 

excesses. Crazier later wrote a famous book, Ireland 

For Ever (Cape, 1932), in which he enumerated 

some of the war crimes in Ireland. 

He also published the text of the infamous 

address given by the Munster Auxiliary 

commander, Colonel Gerald Smyth, to the RIC in 

Listowel in June, 1920. Accompanied by General 

Tudor, Smyth outlined the new official policy of 

murder and terror, reassuring them that no RIC man 

would have to answer to the law because of it. While 

the British government had the text of this 

statement, it was surpressed from the British press. 

WE KNOW, of course, about the 

Black and Tans and the 

Auxiliaries, but only from the 

viewpoint of Irish records. Over 

the years I can recall no one who 

has served in these units ever 

having the courage to write their memoirs nor 

attempting to justify the existence of those units or 

their role in them. Nor has their ever been a serious 

'official history' of those units. British history 

would, of course, like such information erased. 

I was reminded of this lack of information, not 

simply by the reappearance of Richard Bennett's 

book, but, strangely, by a television interview with 

'Andy McNab', the former SAS sergeant, and now 

a best-selling author, who is best known for his book 

on the capture of his unit by Iraqis in the 'Desert 

Storm' campaign. 

'Andy McNab', a pseudonym of course, is now 

writing thrillers. He was interviewed in disguise and 

justified this on the grounds that he could still be a 

target for revenge by various Irish gro"ps for what 

he did in Ireland. One might wonder what exactly 

he did do to bring about such a fear of reprisal. 

It is obvious that many former Black and Tans 

and Auxiliaries also forbade to boast openly of their 

former careers in Ireland for the same fears — even 

though General Tudor, in the Cork Constitution of 2 

February 1922, declared he was proud to have 

commanded them and that "the Tans... deserved 

well of their country". They, along with the 

auxiliaries, were officially disbanded that month. 

Recently, I reviewed the diaries of Mark Sturgis, 

a senior British civil servant at Dublin Castle 

between 1920 and 1922 (The Last Days of Dublin 

Castle, Irish Academic Press). An entry on 16 

November 1920 intrigued me. Sturgis wrote: "Back 

in the Castle by 5. Saw Pollard and Garro Jones 

fresh back from their Kerry battle. I exhorted them 

now to drop the gun and assume the pen in good 

earnest and give us some red hot eye witness stuff." 

I realised that Hugh Pollard was supposed to be 

a member of the publicity department of Dublin 

Castle. So what was a civilian press officer doing 

with a gun engaging in 'a battle' in Kerry. 1 checked 

what happened in Kerry at that time. The Auxiliaries 

attacked the Irish creameries there, burning them 

down, inflicting several deaths and injuries, with the 

result that many local people were put out of work. 

It was sheer terrorism against a civilian population. 

I decided to research further. Hugh Pollard was 

bom in London in 1888 and connected with the 

banking family of Montagu. While prospecting in 

Morocco in 1908 he became involved in a 

revolution there. He found adventure more to his 

liking and became a correspondent for the Daily 

Express. He went to cover the Mexican revolution in 

1912. But he had also joined a paramilitary 

organisation called the Legion of Frontiersmen. 

"The Frontiersmen is a self-governing, selfsupporting, 

patriot and private (but not secret) 

organisation, consisting of members either unable 

or ineligible to serve in His Majesty's forces — 

enrolled and organised with a view to their being 

utilised during emergency for the maintenance of 

Imperial Prestige and Peace", says Frontiersmen 

literature of February, 1910. 

Some 17,500 men were enrolled in the Legion 

by 1914 and the Legion contributed the entire 25th 

Battalion of Fusiliers (Frontiersmen) during 1914- 

18 war, as well as a company of cavalry. 

Perhaps it should be a matter of concern that this 

'private army' is still in existence and still recruiting. 

They wear uniform, have military rank and enjoy an 

associate membership of the British Reserve Forces 

Association, funded by the Ministry of Defence. 

An MoD spokesperson says that the activities of 

the Legion are not inconsistent with the aims of the 

Reserve Forces Association. The Legion is a 

registered charity, No 284541. You will even find 

them on the internet. 

It is interesting that when the Legion was 

formed, Admiral HRH Prince Louis of Battenberg 

(1854-1921), the father of Lord Mountbatten, was 

one of its senior officials, while today Countess 

Mountbatten is the patroness of the Legion. 

Historians might well find that a preponderance 

of the 1,500 British ex-officers, who comprised the 

auxiliaries, were actually members of the Legion. 

Pollard was commissioned in the British army in 

1914 and wounded at Ypres. He recovered and was 

an obvious recruit to the Intelligence Corps in which 

he served until the end of the war, retiring as a 

Major. How did Pollard come to be appointed as a 

Dublin Castle press officer and what was his precise 

function? Certainly not writing press releases, as the 

Sturgis diaries show. What else then, apart from 

burning down Irish creameries? 

Pollard died in 1966 and among his papers was 

an unpublished manuscript written around 1921. It 

contained the following passage about his prowess 

with guns: "I once missed twice at about ten yards 

by shooting through the median line of a windblown 

raincoat! The slender rogue was on the windward 

side (of the raincoat) but I have never forgotten how 

puzzled I was, momentarily, at this apparent 

invulnerability. Then... I corrected." 

The famous gun maker, Robert Churchill, was a 

close friend of Pollard's and it has been revealed 

that the two were in charge of an intelligence plan to 

sell a consignment of naval pompoms and 

Hotchkiss machine guns to the Irish Volunteers. 

They arranged to have the assignment intercepted 

and those taking delivery arrested. But the main 

intention was to drain republican funds used for the 

purchase of arms shipments. 

Pollard became an expert on guns, publishing 

several books on the subject. His also wrote thrillers 

as Oliver Bland. He was often called as an expert 

witness on ballistics in court cases during the 1920s 

and 1930s. His connection with British intelligence 

remained most of his life. 

With Douglas Jerrold, a publisher, Pollard 

devised an operation to 'rescue' General Franco 

from exile in the Canaries and take him to Morocco 

from where the General began his fascist rebellion 

against the democratic government of Spain. 

The late Lewis Macdonald Hastings, a friend in 

later years, remarked that Pollard "probably had a 

greater impact on events than he cared anybody 

should know. If you can unravel him, you need to 

know all the tricks of Mr Smiley and James Bond." 

There is much for historians yet to uncover 

about the covert organisations which used terror and 

'dirty tricks' to attempt to ensure England's colonial 

dominance in many lands, not least in Ireland.

Irish Democrat December 2000 - January 2001

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