7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

1/41

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

2/41

VoI.7,No.8 CONTENTS March 1984

The Heroin Bushfire 7

Day by day the heroin bushfire moves Southwest across Dublin, with one communitysuffering as another chases the pushers out. Magill investigates recent events and profiles

Ma Baker, one of the leading pushers.

The John Hume Show 16 ..

As the Forum proceedings reach a climax J ohn Hume, the North's most successfulproponent of constitutional nationalism, faces the biggest challenge of his career. Olivia

O'leary has been following Hume through the political labyrinth and examining hisrelations with his colleagues in the SDLP, Garret FitzGerald and Charlie Haughey, andMargaret Thatcher; and assessing his chances of salvaging something from the political

maelstrom.

In The Custody Of The State 29

Martin Beatty died in police custody and the recent inquest on his death left many ques-tions unanswered. The Beatty case is the latest in a series of disturbing events, withsomeone dying in the custody of the state every three months, on average.

The Politics Of Pig Slurry 34

Mark Brennock has been wading through the 'depths of charge and counter-charge that

followed the Ballyshannon pollution scandal. He investigates the events, the illnessesthat followed, the lack of official action on the problem, which spreads far beyond Bally-

shannon.

Two Poor Teams On An Off Day

) J ohn Reason assesses the Twickenham match and its consequences.

55

A Brilliant Loser

Eamon Dunphy writes about Tony Ward.

58

DEPARTMENTS

Diary 4

Eamonn McCann 27

Motoring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Subscriptions 43

Computers. . . . . . . . . . 46

As Time Goes By 50

Business Forum 53

Wigmore 60

Editor

Calm Toibin

Reporter

Gene Kerrigan

Political Correspondent

Olivia O'Leary

Executive Assistant

Lisa Stank ley

Advertising ManagerPatricia Burrell

AdvBrtising ExecutivB

Miriem Berrett

Publisher

Vincent Browne

Printed by

Lithographic Universal Ltd.

Distribution

Newspread Ltd.

Colour Separations

Litho Studios Limited.

Editorial and Business Address

14 Merrion Row. Dublin 2.Telephone: 606055Magill ispublished by

Magill Publications (Holdingsl Ltd.

I I A B c I I The average net paid sales as certified by the AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS for the period. . July-December 1982was 30.945 copies per montb ,

Cover photographs by Billy Stickland and Derek Speirs (Report) MAGILL MARCH 1984 3

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

3/41

Fear In The ValleyLAST M A Y rms R EP OR ter was shown a map by aman who lives in the valleybetween Carrick-on-Suir andClonmel, The man detailedthe number of deaths alongthe river valley by sudden

heart attacks. He then poin-ed to an area in the hillsabove the valley and listedthe names of those who haddied from cancer since theMerck Sharp and Dohme fac-tory opened in Ballydine be-tween Carrick and Clonmel.The incidence of cancer andsudden heart attacks seemedto this reporter to be in-credibly high for such ashortperiod.

We began to investigate.We had been told that over

the hill at Grangemockler alarge number of children hadbecome deaf since the fac-tory opened. A reporter fromMagill spent two days inGrangemockler and establish-ed that there was a problemwith deafness among chil-dren there, but this problemwas there before the MerckSharp and Dohme factorywaseven built.

We had been told thatthere was a high incidenceof twins born to women in

the area. This reporter visitedfamilies who had twins andfound in several cases thatthe twins were born outsidethe district or before theMerck Sharp and Dohme fac-tory wasbuilt.

We went along the valleyand talked to people whoserelatives had died of heartattacks but we could findno pattern. The figures fordeath by sudden heart attackalong the river valley stillremained astonishing. Noneof the local doctors wespoke

TO, however, expressed any- terest in it.

There was fear in thevauey. Everybody was look-

g out for signs of damage

the factory was doing and noone was sure whether theycould find them or not. Butno thorough investigation hasyet been done by the authori-ties.

The Government is still

concerned about the prob-lems in the Suir Valley, itseems, and the Taoiseach isconcerned that somethingshould be done about it.Various official bodies havebeen looking into the matterfor four and a half years;it seems unlikely that any-thing is going to be doneabout it and the matter mayhave to be sorted out oneway or the other in thecourts.

No monitoring is being

done by Tipperary CountyCouncil of the area aroundthe factory. This is on therecommendation of MarkLynch of the Department ofAgriculture and J.P. O'Calla-ghan of South TipperaryCounty Council. They bothproduced reports in theautumn of 1982; their reportswere summaries of the inves-tigations already done.

Aspects of their interpre-tations were inaccurate. MarkLynch's report for the Depart-

ment of Agriculture statedthat a TCD study on lichensin the area "does not indi-cate any pollution". The TCDstudy stated that the lichenstudy had indicated "chroniclevelsof pollution".

J.P. O'Callaghan, the Tip-perary county engineer, in hisreport for the County Coun-cil stated that "... the lichenspecies in the Ballydine areaare high pollution sensitivetypes which do not flourishin polluted areas". This is

nowhere stated in the TCDreport.On the leaf yeast study

undertaken by TCD, MarkLynch states the following:"The data can be interpre-

ted as indicative of airbornepollutants occurring over awide area around Ballydine.

This interpretation is un-tenable in the context ofmeteorological conditions ifthe Merck Sharp and Dohmeplant is the source." Noneof the studies undertakenhave stated this, and hegives no reason whatsoever

for his conclusion.J.P. O'Callaghan for theCounty Council states that"the results of the Leaf Yeastcounts . . . do not purportto be scientifically accurate".At no stagein their report didthe TCD scientists give anyindication that this was thecase. Quite the opposite.O'Callaghan givesno explana-tion for his assertion.

On a TCD animal hairstudy, Mark Lynch for theDepartment of Agriculture

states that: "The methodo-logy used was deficient. Noconclusions can be drawn."

The conclusions of the TCDscientists were that thesestudies showed a high levelof bromine and chlorinewhich reached a peak duringthe summer of 1981. MarkLynch givesno reasons for hisdismissal of the TCD animalhair studies.

The TCD leaf yeast studyand animal hair study offeredmost evidence that the fac-tory waspoisoning the valley.

The conflict in the evidencehas given officialdom anexcuse for inactivity. Sincethese reports, monitoring hasstopped.

No investigation has beendone into the case of PaddyO'Meara, although he hasgiven his evidence to J.P.O'Callaghan of TipperaryCounty Council, John Coffeyof the Department of theEnvironment and Dr JimmyWalshe of the Department of

Health. He insists that hishealth has been ruined by thefactory. His own doctor inClonmel, Dr O'Callaghan, hasnever been asked for areporton him, asfar aswecan ascer-

tain, and no independentassessment has ever beendone on his health. His land,

.opposite the factory, hasnever been monitored at anystage, despite the allegationshehas made.

Bertie Kennedy's problemsstarted in 1981. His cattlebegan to behave strangely atthe same time as his neigh-

bour, John Hanrahan, onwhose farm 114 cattle havedied in mysterious circum-stances. "I heard them in thebarn one night and I wentout to see what was happen-ing. When I went in theywere holding their heads upand sniffing the air. Thenthey all suddenly bolteddown to the bottom of theshed and started to pile ontop of each other. Threeand four high they were.I've never seen anything like

it before and I've been inBallyneale for 27 years. Onebullock got his back brokenwith all of them piling ontop of one another. The shedwas 135 feet long and theyall piled themselves into thetop 15feet."

The problems recurred thefollowing winter. "Theseweredifferent cattle in differentsheds. They started to trem-ble and then bolted into thecomer. They could be stand-ing there looking like they

were dead to the world andthen they'd go all of asudden.One day they were standingin the field and they startedshaking and one bullock ranand they all bolted out ofthe field. But then they cameback into the yard andgathered around me likeflies."

In August 1982 BertieKennedy began to get painsin his chest and sufferedfrom breathlessness. He hadbeen kicked by a bullock

earlier in the month and heput his trouble down to that.He went to Dr Denis

Flanagan in Carrick-on-Suir,and the following day he wassent to Galway for tests.

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

4/41

In all he was seen by sixdoctors. According to hiswife, all the doctors askedhim where he came in con-tact with chemicals. Dr

O'Halloran in Galway saidthat he had never seen thattype of cancer before in afarmer, according to MrsKennedy. "The doctor inGalway under Dr Kniessey,Dr Kenelley, said that it hadsomething to do with chemi-cals", Bertie Kennedy said.Hiswifesaysthat Dr Flanaganin Carrick asked where herhusband had come in contactwith asbestos. None of thedoctors will make any com-ment.

"I'm not blaming MerckSharp and Dohme for my ill-ness", Bertie Kennedy said."But I think it should defi-nitely be monitored. I'd backany committee set up toinvestigateit."

Bertie Kennedy died inAugust.Therewasnoinquest.

T he F inal

SolutionLAST OCTOBER ALL THEitinerant families on theTallaght by-pass were toldthat the road was to openshortly and it was intimatedto them that they would bemoved. Five of the familiessought an injunction from theHigh Court restraining theCounty Council from movingthem. This was based partlyon the Rosella McDonald

judgement in the SupremeCourt which had ruled thatthe local authorities couldnot move travellers withoutoffering them alternative ac-commodation. However, in

January Mr Justice Keanesaid that the Rosella Me-Donald ruling did not applyin this case and he ruled thatthe County Council were notin breach of their statutoryduty.

The following Monday theelected members of the Coun-

ty Council voted 16 to 11not to go ahead with provi-ding sites for travellers. Mem-bers of all parties votedagainst. They are: CathalBoland, Thomas Boland, SamCarroll, Eric Doyle, Brian

Fleming, Michael Gannon,James Gildea, WilliamHarvey,Patrick Hickey,Joseph Hogan,

Tom Kitt, Larry McMahon,Albert J. Reynolds, P.C.,Sean Ryan, Alan Shatter,MylesTierney.

Three of the families whohad been refused the injunc-tion appealed to the SupremeCourt. On the afternoon ofthe first day thesethree fami-lies were offered accommoda-tion by the County Council.

The case was adjourned over-night and ruling will be giventoday, 1March. However, thefamilies have accepted one ofthe three sites offered. Thecourt was told by the CountyCouncil that these three siteswere suitable for the families

and one of the sites was a"prototype" for future sites.

This reporter visited thesesites last weekend. They arenot suitable for itinerants,nor anybody else for thatmatter. It is understandablethat the Judges Henchy,Hederman and McCarthy ac-cepted the County Council'sword when the council claim-ed the sites were suitable. Itis not understandable, how-ever, that the council choseto mislead the court.

The site which the threefamilies have accepted is inSt Oliver's Park in Clon-dalkin. Other travellers havesettled in small houses onthat site and there is a con-crete surface for caravans to

park, but there are no sani-tary facilities.

This site is good com-pared to the others. Thesecond site, at Kishogue,between Clondalkin andLucan, is over amilefrom the

nearest shop down asideroadon which the school busrefuses to travel. There is notoilet on the site. The Cork-Dublin train line runs alongthe side of the site; it is im-possible to keep the chil-dren from playing on it. Acertain dealer in barrels usesthe tap on the site to cleantoxic waste from barrels. Thewater is emptied out andgoes back down into thespring from whereIthe watercomes. The water on the site

is thus impossible to use; ittastes of acid. The travellerswho are on the site have togo miles for water. The elec-tric light on the site has beenbroken for aslong as anyonecanremember.

The third site is the"prototype". It is a field inBlanchardstown. There are notoilet facilities, unless you in-clude two cabins from an oilrig, acquired by a local resi-dent, which were placed onthe site asarecreation centre;the County Council wereasked to provide some facili-ties in these, such as electriclight but they did nothing.The cabins are now healthhazards, having been used fortoilets.

The singletap in this fieldis working at the momentalthough it is generally out oforder. The field is full ofmuck in this "prototype"

site. There are two skips forrefuse; they have not beenemptied for 11months.

The County Council, how-ever, have been active onthissite. They cameinthe summerand dug trenches around the

. field to stop the caravansfrom getting into certainparts of it. The trenches arenow full of water, some ofthem are as deep as six feet.One itinerant child fell inaround Christmas, but wassavedfrom drowning.

There arepylons overhang-ing the site. The CountyCouncil should not have toldthe Supreme Court that itwassuitable. It is not.

Barry T heM agician

AT A RECENT PRESS CON-ference to announce the set-

ting up of the WhittakerCommission into the PenalServices, Michael Noonan re-fused to answer a questionabout what he is doing totreat prisoners in Mountjoywho are drug addicts. At themoment there is no treatment.for prisoners who are drug:addicts. Heroin is also avail-able in the prison, as it has'been for some time.

In the face of continuing'protest and publicity' thegovernment has to be seen

to act. So Barry Desmondhas announced that drugpushers will be liable to besentenced to life imprison-ment. If this will help solvethe drugs problem, then it isto be welcomed. There is noevidence that it will helpsolve the drugs problem andit is understood that there isdissatisfaction among theGardai who deal with thedrug problem about BarryDesmond's proposal. It isunderstood that the proposaldid not have its origins indiscussions between those in-volved in the drug problemand the Minister for Health.The dissatisfaction stemsfrom the fact that he seemsto havepulled it out of.a hat.

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

5/41

I olVER THE LAST SIX MONTIlStllERll HAVE'b.e.en radical chan.ges..in.theDub1inheroln' tr~~e..'fhey are the result of three J actors ~ a series__oflrsuccessfu~ operatioas by the Garda DrugsSquad,the resultant disintegration of the 'Dunne family'sheroin empi~e, and the determined action taken by commu-nities to evict pushers from tl1eiT'areas.

No sing'le.gr'Ouphasemerged to take .the place of theDunne family, who in their hey -day controlled an estimatedforty per cent of the Dubliri heroin.markeLSorne membersof the family are sti1:1invol'ved in the heroin.trade, in parti-cular one brother currently operating "on the northside ofthe city. Bis group is now, however, one among many, a

considerable numil'>erof which have been.formed over thepast six months to. .supply a demand \>thichshows no signsof abating. '., .

There' has beet): surprisingly I:ittleviolence between theseIK'W groupings, andl,there is as yet-no evidence of any patti-:u1ar one striving f6r dOhQ~nance.There is a sense that the>:u_rker is big enoughfor e;veryorne,and that-there is more

to be gained by peaceful co-existence and cooperation than:,~. open warfare.

Open warfare is in fact more likely to break out betweenthe rapidly organising cornrrraniey groups and the networksof pushers than between the pushers themselves. It hasbecome 3. feature of the Dublin heroin trade that it has

been forced through community action to shift from onearea to another and into parts of the :;,i1ywhere it hadpreviously only existed on a small scale..As more commu--

nity drugs action groups form in different areaS as far apartas Iallaght and Ballymun, they pass information to each

other on the activities of pushers evicted ftonfone particularlocality and moving into another.

A central Dublin eommittee.of community-based drugsaction groups has now been fanned to\lienable a mote effi-

cleat exchange of information. It isrhatcomnuttee whichorganised yesterday's protest march to Dail Eireann.

One of the effects of the success of the Drugs Squadduring the past year has been. that Dublin herein dealershave learned from the mistakes of their convicted colleaguesand have radically altered theirmethods of operation so astoavoid detection.

Heroin imported into the country is no longer stored inbulk. On arrival, it is now immediately broken up into small

, ', . . . .quantities, and stored in several, constantly changing 10ca.tions in the city. Because of this, the Garda Drugs Squad

now recognise. that large seizures have becom:va thing ofthe past ..

The means of importation has also changed. Whilecouriers travelling by plane and carrying amounts o~heroin

On their person are still used, bublin dealers have divers!', .fled. Anlincreasi-ngly popular smuggling'joute is across theIrish Sea from Britain, with the heroin concealed on artien-lated trucks. One kilogram of pure hemin is compact and

easy to' hide on SO large a vehicle, and has a potential streetvalue of over 2 million. In some cases, tpe driver may noteven b e aware that 'his lorry is being used to smuggle heroin.Magill has established that during the Christmas period twoloads of half a kilogram of heroin were smuggled into the

country in this way.The source of heroin on sale in Dublin has graduallyshifted frorn' Amsterdam to L ondon, and many Irish dealershave found regular contacts in the Lon.dOn underworld.

They have now reached a level of sophistication whereby

they have access to facilities in L,ondort to test the ptirijyof the heroimbefore Jpurchase~ '

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

6/41

The soohis 'cation has also spread onto the streets ofDublin, - ere the actual mechanics of the heroin trade

ve iereloped to a point where it has become almost im-_ossf 1" 0apprehend a pusher in the act of selling the

nrag. The trade is now conducted in open spaces, where the_ ,'" can see if he or she is being observed. As the use of:- -- and houses increases the chances of detection, street

o ers, shopping centres and open fields are preferred.Whenever pushers.are approached by someone they suspectof being a Garda, they simply drop any heroin they have -usually not very much - on the ground. They can only be

arrested if caught with it in their possession.In Crumlin, which is still the centre of the Dublin heroin

trade, the various groups distribute heroin in 10 packsto their pushers by means of a courier network of smallboys, all of them living in the area.

The boys are hired and fired on a daily basis. They are

paid 10 a day, and rarely carry more than three or four

10 packs at anyone time. They have been trained imme-diately to drop the heroin on the ground on the slightestsuspicion, and to retrieve it if nothing happens. When deli-vering to a flat, they lay false trails by visiting seven or eight

flats in a block, making it impossible for the Gardai to

know to which flat the heroin has. been delivered. Thepushers themselves have also become more cautious. Addictsnow frequently find that they givemoney to one individualand receive the desired amount of heroin from another.

The increased sophistication of even the smaller group-

ings of heroin dealers has inevitably made the job of theGarda Drugs Squad more difficult. They still have neitherthe personnel nor the equipment to make a significant

impact on the problem. One measure which they feel wouldincrease their detection rate is the use of a procedureknown asentrapment, whereby aGarda can actually engagein transactions of an illegal nature, the evidence of whichcan be used to convict a suspect. At present, entrapment isnot used by the Gardai. The legal position surrounding itis unclear, and the courts are known to frown on its use.

l M J'~A BAKER AND HER SONS ARE AMONG

M .the largest pushers in the Crumlin area of

. Dublin. They have between 150 and 200, regular clients and operate all over Crumlin,

but usually not outside it. Five of her distributors. are

members of her own family. A further six are small boys.The boys are all local and she does not use kids who takeheroin. She also changes them regularly. Her nephew, whois currently charged with possession of heroin with intentto supply, also distributes for her. One of her sons isserving an eighteen months sentence in Mountjoy. Two of

her other sons are facing drug-related charges.Baker is not her real name, but she is widely known by

other pushers and by addicts as Ma Baker, a corruption ofMa Barker, the name of the machine gun-wielding head ofan infamous criminal family in the US in the Thirties.

No one gets any credit from Ma Baker, neither addictnor pusher. Thus she is never owed money and has little

need to resort to violence. However, she is reported to havea lot of muscle available to her . One associate says that shecould put together a small army, if necessary.

In 1982 one of her sons was running into trouble with aoungster from the same area and a fight was brewing.

\\ ithin a half hour of Ma Baker giving the order, four cars_ led up outside her house in the inner city of Dublin

where she lives.About eight men got out of the cars. One was armed

with a scythe for cutting grass, another with a hatchet and

a third with a baton. Her neighbours were out watching the

proceedings and they report that she instructed the gangnot to attack. She had made her point.The living room of the house she rents from Dublin

Corporation is sacrosanct and ~ dealing has ever been donethere. In her living room she stores all the souvenirs fromher trips abroad and her collection of Waterford glass.

One former addict who bought heroin from her more

than eighteen months ago in her kitchen, reports that she

conducted her trade in a brusque and business-like manner."In and out and no messing," was how he described dealingwith Ma Baker. The heroin was divided and weighed and

laid out on the mantlepiece in the kitchen in 10 packs.A fire was lit continuously in the kitchen, and in the event

of raids the heroin was thrown on the kitchen fire and

disappeared up the chimney in a puff of smoke. There wereglassjars in the kitchen stuffed with money.

She has seven sons. The one who is in Mountjoy hadformerly dealt in heroin in the Crumlin area. One son still

lives in Crumlin and two live in Ballyferrnct. The others

move from one place to another. Although there is no evid-ence that Ma Baker has sold heroin from her own kitchenduring the last year, neighbours report that as recently asthe third Sunday in J anuary, addicts were queueing outside

for supplies. Ma Baker was out, but some of her sons were

at home.In the last year she has become more careful and more

professional and her operation has grown. When the house

is raided by the Drug Squad, as it often is, she remains calmand does not resist; she telephones her solicitor. Often her

sons have to sleep out in houses of friends and associates in

Crumlin; it is said that she doesn't want them in the house

because they might have drugs on them. She does, however,exert control over them. When one of them spent some of

the money owed to her he disappeared for a few daysrather than face Ma with no money.

Some time ago one of her sons moved in with a couple

and their child inCrumlin , Both parents were addicts, and

for the use of the flat the son provided them with enoughheroin to keep themselves going. But some of her sonsare not involved in criminal activities, Others divide theirtime between ordinary jobs and working for their mother.

Ma Baker's supply of heroin comes from two sources:

she has contacts in London and has imported quantitiesfrom these sources. She also buys from (and sells to) other

Dublin dealers. She banks or invests her money. She isknown to have invested in London stocks and shares.

She was born in Birmingham in February 1939 and wasbrought to Dublin when she was three years old. She isseparated from her husband; however, they remain on verygood terms, and he occasionally takes care of the twoyounger girls, although he is not their father. One of them

is to make her First Communion this year and the otherher Confirmation. Towards the end of last year there wasconsiderable publicity surrounding the fact that they were

missing for a couple of days and were found on the NaasRoad.

Up to the time one of her sons was accused of murder

she lived in Crumlin. She has a history of petty crime, and

in February 1980, in the Dublin Circuit Court, she wasgiven an eighteen months suspended sentence for receiving

stolen goods. In April 1980 she was given probation for ob-

.2...\.GILL MARCH 1984

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

7/41

structing a Garda in the course of his duty.Her son, accused of murder, was given four separate

trials for the same crime. The first trial was stopped fortechnical reasons; in the next three the jury failed to agreeand finally her son was released. Evidence of Garda bruta-

lity was produced at all four trials. On the day the fourth

trial finished, in July 1983, Ma Baker attended a meeting inthe Gresham Hotel called by the family of Donal Dunne tocomplain about the fact that Malcolm Macarthur was notprosecuted for the murder of their son. She spoke about

the persecution of her own son and her own family.Between the first trial and the last her circumstances had

hanged considerably. She moved out of Crumlin andsquatted in an army barracks and was then housed by theCorporation in one of the new red brick houses in the innercity. During his trials, her son became addicted to heroin,and his mother began to sell it. She saw the opening in the

Crumlin area and she moved in to sell heroin to her formerneighbours.

In August 1982 a man was shot dead in Ballyfermot. He

was known to Ma Baker and her friends and a benefit gigwas held for his family; people paid 1.50 to get in. About::.ti way through the night Ma stood up and announced~= there would be a collection. She took 10 out of her.~~ 2.3d dropped it into the collection bag. "I'll start the~- roiling," she said. "And see if any of you can beati::~-.."

5.::;.=2s a heart of gold; everybody says that about her.v.-. : .: ; .: . ~= kids in the area were having a disco she providedv:s:? :=:. C:-5tJs.When there was a party in her street last5"~-~ sae ~ro;ided a couple of bottles of spirits for theEC~:_ l . ; '" there is a death in a family she knows she will

offer he!? or money. She will send a wreath.

She visitsf1;L'OilS.

At the moment she is refusing to seeher own SOIl in ~joun=joy, because he is still taking heroinin the prison. DU, she visits another man, a Northerner, who

seldom receives visits. When she is in England she also visitsprisoners. She visits the ~orth and was there for the recentBloody Sunday commemoration.

A small, stout, flaxen-haired, sharp-locking woman, she

is a familiar figure driving in her big car between the centrecity and Crumlin. One of the charms on her bracelet i s acar, and her car is a vital factor in her life and her conver-sation. She talks about picking up her children from schoolin the car, about having the child of a notorious terroristin the car, about taking her car with her to Britain when she

goes there.More than once her car has caused her problems. InNovember 1979 in the Dublin District Court she was fined100 for careless driving and refusing to give a blood

sample. Her most recent problems with the Gardai over hercar have been explained to all her neighbours and friends.

She says she was beaten up in a Garda station, having beenstopped by three plainclothes detectives in an unmarkedcar. She has loose teeth and missing teeth to prove it. She

says she is taking an action against the Gardai. Gardasources, on the other hand, say that she was drunk andabusive, and they had to literally sit on her in the back ofthe car to get her back to the station.

She drinks a lot, usually pints of Guinness, and enjoystalking the night away in public houses. She isfriendly withvarious members of the Dunne family and drinks with themin a pub in the south inner city. She also often drinks in the

same pub in the morning and the afternoon. She complainsabout her health, particularly about her bad heart. She

travels a lot, often taking her daughters with her. Recentlyshe was in Portugal; she knows Malta well, her purse has a

scene from Malta embossed on it. She visits prisoners when

she is in Malta. She also knows Spain. Next month she plansto take her daughters off to Birmingham for a while. She

enjoys playing poker.

J ust last week a woman in Teresa's Gardens tried to get

into the bathroom of her flat but the door was locked.Inside, her 20-year-old son had overdosed on two 10 packsof heroin. The syringe was still stuck in his arm.

In panic the woman ran to the recently opened commu-nity centre in Teresa's Gardens. Two men came with herto the flat and one of them climbed through the window.

The young man was slumped on the toilet seat. The man

MAGILL MARCH 1984 11

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

8/41

recognised the symptoms of an overdose and beganjumpingU? and down on his chest. The youth eventually respondedaad recovered. He had bought his supply that day in a partof Crumlin which is serviced by Ma Baker, the woman withthe heart of gold.

[I]HREE Y EARS AGO EV ERY K ID I N ST

T Teresa's Gardens knew what a junkie was.They knew that they were the people who putneedles into themselves on the stairs, and who

sometimes dropped their trousers to find a vein that hadn'tcollapsed in their backside.

The first junkies had come from London in 1973, butthere hadn't been many of them. Eight years later the flatswere riddled with heroin addicts. The children played withthe syringes they found lying on the stairs. Everybody

knew somebody that was on gear and they felt powerlessto do anything about it or about the taxis that pulled intothe Gardens all night every night with junkies who camelooking for a fix.

In June 1983 some people living in St Teresa's Gardensproduced a play called "Fight Back". The play was stagedin the Y outh Centre and the people of the Gardens came tosee the play. Then they had a meeting.

They had tried to hold meetings before in the Gardensbut few people ever turned up. Community meetingsweren't popular because most people didn't want to be inthe community anyway. The heroin problem had causedalienation and suspicion; the appearance of the flats haddisintegrated due to lack of maintenance. Teresa's Gardens

in 1981 was a place to get out of.As a result of the meeting after the first performanceof the play "Fight Back", a woman's keep-fit class wasstarted. There was no particular reason for a keep-fit class.Itjust seemed to be a good idea.

In the evenings when the women exercised in Our Lady'sY outh Centre they talked about themselves, their children- and drugs.

When the next meeting was called in the Gardens thewomen made sure that people came. .

At that meeting, on June 13 1983, there were about 70people, much talk and much confusion. What were they todo to stop the pushing in the flats? Somebody suggestedthat they should go to the drug pushers, ask them to stop

or tell them to leave the flats. Four people were nominatedto pass on the message. They included Paul Humphries,who had been active in the community for five,years.

By September there were just three families pushing inthe flats. It was obvious that they weren't prepared to justleave. A meeting was held and a vote was passed givingthethree remaining families a week to get out. The next daythey moved out with relatives and announced they wouldhe taking legal action. A member of the Dunne familysupplied the solicitor.

That night nearly 300 people formed a human chainoutside the flats passing the furniture down the stairs andstacking it neatly under the balconies of the first floor flats.-:hey offered to lay on vans to help the pushers move but

ey said they could do it themselves. Two families left::::e country and went to Birmingham, the other went to= co'"1 "gU r. On October 30 last year a dance was held inC'=- Lady's Hall beside the Gardens. It was called the

_ _ - '= - : : . Dance.

[I]

HE HORROR OF LIFE I N A COMMUNITYdominated by heroin abuse was by no meansT confined to Teresa's Gardens. Residents of theflats complexes in Dolphin House, Oliver Bond

House, Bridgefoot Street and Fatima Mansions had livedwith it for over two years. But in the autumn of last yearthey noticed a sharp increase in the heroin trade in theirareas, and particularly that more people were coming intothe flats from other parts of the city to buy their supply.

The increase was a direct result of the closure, by the com-munity, of Teresa's Gardens as a major outlet for the saleof heroin.

Shortly after the action taken by the residents of Teresa'sGardens, those living in Dolphin House followed suit. They

were assisted by members of the Teresa's Gardens commit-tee, and they adopted the same tactics. Within a matter ofweeks, Dolphin House was "drug free".

As recently as last December a group of small childrenin Bridgefoot Street flats were playing with syringes leftlying on the stairs the night before. One of them was acci- .dentally stabbed with a syringe with some heroin still init. She was rushed to hospital and treated for an overdoseof heroin. There was no one in Bridgefoot Street flatsaddicted to heroin. The area was used entirely by outsidersfor the purpose of both buying and selling the drug.

In the second week of December, the residents ofBridgefoot Street followed the example set by Teresa'sGardens. They mounted a patrol and stopped addictscoming into the flats. As they turned them away, theynoticed that most went straight across the road and into theOliver Bond flats complex. Bridgefoot Street was "drug

free", but the trade in Oliver Bond increased immediately.Oliver Bond has as yet no community drugs action group.As the communities rose up against them, the pushers

using the various flats complexes as their base moved andcontinued trading elsewhere. One who was forced out of

Teresa's Gardens moved to Tallaght, as did another whowas evicted from Dolphin House. Some left the countryand moved to Britain, but most simply shifted their opera-tions onto the streets of Crumlin. After a series of Garda

Drugs Squad busts made in flats and houses, they began totrade in the open, where they felt themselves to be lessvulnerable.

In Crumlin, the trade moves from street to street, neverstaying in anyone place for very long. Local children are

paid to wait and inform addicts of a new location. For thepast three weeks, an open space at a bus terminus at theClonmacnoise Road roundabout has been used. The pushersits in a car, parked on the side of the green. When app-roached by an addict, he digs up the heroin which has beenburied, for safekeeping, in the green.

There are currently twelve groups dealing in heroin inthe Crumlin area. Ma Baker's is one of the largest and also

the most secure, as it consists largely of members of herown family. Many of the other groups are loosely-knit, andare formed on the basis of temporary convenience to thoseinvolved. They are being constantly restructured as mem-bers leave to join other groups or to attempt to form theirown organisations.

Although no single group has emerged to control thearea, Crumlin remains the centre of the heroin trade in

Dublin. There is hardly a street which has not been affec-ted. Intimidation of the residents is widespread and manyhave until now been afraid to speak of what they have seen.

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

9/41

19February: Crumlin residents march in protest against drug pushing in their area.

[IJAST SUMMER STRANGE PEOPLE BEGAN

Lto hang around the Cashel Avenue area. Thepeople in the houses around noticed them.

They came in the late afternoon and stayedia a the night. One woman asked about the strange people.

meone told her they were junkies. She had never heardthe word before. There is only one entrance by road toCssnel Avenue and the people hung around the pedestrian

: :path.A: night the people heard noises in their back gardens

zs +>: hildren who were employed as runners took the""r;cuts along the back of the houses. Everybody was

. They watched their neighbours and waited for

"~ 'ere many raids by the Drugs Squad last summer.: = : _ _ . = . . : . : was suspected of being an informer. If a raid

r: there was suspicion about what the people in._~ --.-: were telling the Gardai. When one youth was

-:. -rz- 1.._ a squad car with six packs of heroin and

res later, he was branded as an informer.- _ . : = .~ ~ 'ugs came there was always trouble in the

"0- - .~ cars and break-ins. Joy riders used aban-

rs ~ the avenue; but they stopped when theEverything stopped when the drugs came.z: = e .erywhere. One woman said she could- 0

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

10/41

house if I was pushing."Sometimes the crowd believed them, sometimes they

didn't. Then it was the turn of the marchers and theirleaders to purge themselves. A woman in her fifties - herfinger shaking with anger - screamed at the platform:

"You'll not call my sons pushers. I reared them too hardfor that." A taxi driver who'd been wrongly accused deman-

ded an apology from a member of the committee on theplatform. The man wouldn't apologise. He said he was just

joking.

Wacker Humphries, a brother of Paul Humphries andone of the main activists in the St Teresa's Gardenscampaign, went on stage. He spoke about mistakes andretributions. On Monday night, February 20, a gang ofthirty men had arrived at Wacker Humphries' flat inSt Teresa's Gardens. They had come as a result of themarch the previous day in lower Crumlin, Wacker was oneof the men who led the march which had gone to the wronghouse. The man who lived in the house was very angry. He

had gone with a gang to deal with Wacker, who wasn't inhis flat at the time so they wrecked his furniture and left.The following night they apologised. Wacker said from thestage at the lower Crumlin meeting on Wednesday nightthat he had accepted their apology because the mostimportant thing was for the people to stick together and getthe pushers out.

[A]sTHE HEROIN TRADE WAS SPILLING OUT

A of the inner-city flats complexes onto thestreets of Crumlin, it was also increasing inother parts of the city. Ballyfermot is an

example of an area where the availability of heroin has risen

sharply over the past few months. Addicts living there nolonger have to go elsewhere to obtain their supply - it issold on street corners, in some known houses, around theshopping centre, and in a field, known locally asThe Ranch,beside the Old Pine Tree public house. The Ranch, in parti-cular, has become known throughout the city as one of the

places where heroin can be bought.

There are five organised groups of pushers in Ballyfer-mot, together with a number of individuals who sell thedrug to maintain their own habits. One of Ma Baker's sonsliving in Ballyfermot is suspected of dealing in heroin.

Every Tuesday morning for the past few months a carhas pulled up at The Ranch. Awaiting its arrival are usuallybetween fifteen and twenty people. Most of them are male

and in their late teens and early twenties. The driver of thecar supplies them with heroin. Some of them have subse-quently been seen selling the heroin, particularly around

th~shopping centre.. Another dealer, operating from his house, used to supply

two 10 packs of heroin in return for a colour televisionset. A video machine secured a day's supply for an addict,about 80 worth. This individual accumulated so manystolen television sets and videos that he began to rent them

out on a commercial basis to residents in another part ofrhe city.

There is as yet no drugs action group in Ballyfermot.There are, however, some residents who are interested inforrning one, and it was they who organised the buses toc. port people into town for the march to the Dail on: = - , , ' ruary 29.

Despite the absence of an organised community group,---" ; dividual residents have taken action with regard to:=-::-0- pushers. This has taken the form of observing the

habits of suspected pushers and passing on the informationto the Garda Drugs Squad.

Local residents recently spent two months monitoringthe activities of one pusher. They had noticed groups ofpeople waiting around outside his house and had become

suspicious. After prolonged and constant observation, theycontacted the Drugs Squad and told them what they knew.The next day, a van arrived on the street and parked nearthe pusher's house. It was unmarked, but according to the

residents it was immediately identifiable as a police vehicle.

The pusher spotted it coming around the corner, and hedisappeared within minutes. The residents complained tothe Drugs Squad. Their two month's work had all been fornothing. They were told that the Squad had no other typeof vehicle available to it, that it could only use what it had

been given.

[lJAST NOVEMBER A GROUP OF RESIDENTS

Lin Tallaght became worried that with the spread

of heroin throughout the city they might bethe next to be affected. They formed the

Tallaght Drugs Action Committee, with John Noonan, alocal Sinn Fein activist, as chairman. It was essentially apreventative action, as there was no evidence of heroindealing in Tallaglft at the time.

Earlier this month, however, the Tallaght committeeWas informed by members of the committees in Teresa'sGardens and Dolphin House that two pushers previouslyactive in the flats were now known to be living in the

Cloonmore area of West Tallaght. They also identified athird pusher living in the Jobstown area. There was no

evidence that any of these three were dealing in Tallaghtitself, but all of them were known to be supplying theinner-city market.

On Tuesday 14 February, 250 people marched to the

homes of the three pushers. 100 had come from Teresa's

Gardens and 50 from Dolphin House. The remainder wereTallaght residents, although none were from the Cloonmorearea.

The marchers had received information that one of thepushers was in the process of moving into a new squat inCloonmore. When they reached this house, he was out.

They were about to march to his previous dwelling, whensome of the women from Teresa's Gardens recognised himwalking around the corner. On seeing 250 people standing

outside his house, he started to run away, but was chasedby some of the crowd. The chase was stopped by the inter-vention of a squad car which had been accompanying themarch. The pusher disappeared. The march then continuedto the homes of the remaining two pushers, neither ofwhom were in at the time.

The following day, the residents of Cloonmore, whowere not aware that heroin pushers lived in their area andwho had not been informed of the previous night's march,decided to take matters into their own hands. That nightthey marched to the house of the first pusher, the one whohad been chased the night before. There was no one in thehouse, and so they broke in, removed the furniture and left

it on the side of the road. There were no Gardai present

during this incident. The pusher has not since reappearedin the area.

The next night (Thursday 16 February) the residentshad decided they would march to the home of the secondpusher, a brother of the first. The Gardai were out in force,

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

11/41

with squad cars, special branch cars and two foot patrols.

The march, however, did not take place. It had been dis-covered earlier inthe evening that the pusher had alreadyleft. The following day, Friday, the third pusher moved outof Tallaght.

The Tallaght Drugs A ction Committee currently has twohouses under observation. J ohn Noonan says that they are

eighty per cent certain that there are pushers living in them,and that these pushers are dealing in Tallaght itself. The

committee knows that school-children in parts of Tallaght

have been offered free heroin, and syringes have been foundon a site usually used for cider parties. As soon as they areone hundred per cent certain that the people under obser-vation are pushers, they will ask them either to stop or toleave.

The three pushers forced out of Tallaght earlier this

month have not stopped selling heroin. The two brothershave both moved back to the inner-city, one to FatimaMansions, the other to Oliver Bond flats. The third pusheris now believed to be in Ballymun.

~

N 23 FEBRUARY A MEETING WAS H E L D

Oin the Utility Room, Shangan School, Ballymun.

About thirty people turned up for the meeting.It was a progress report. A young man with red

hair had read out a list of names of the pushers. The grouphad been formed for three weeks. Since they had formedone pusher had left the area and two had said they would5::0p pushing. The young man read out the registration of a:2..U and a car that they had been watching up at the shop-

:;:+-- g centre. At a meeting two nights earlier in St Teresa'sGEni'ellS he gave out the same registration numbers. The

~0Zcommittees were beginning to coordinate, to pass on- ; - " l . , : : : ::'2IIles of pushers and to know when one was moving

i-:

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

12/41

For John Hume, this last month may have been the busiest of his life.

His supreme skills as a lobbyist, as a political broker, as atwister of

guilty consciences, have been stretched to the limit; Desperate to be

seen to be as busy politically as the Provisionals are militarily about the

nation's unfmished business, HumeIast year bludgeoned the political

parties in the Republic into the New Ireland Forum.

The risks were obvious from the outset. Hume's plan to bestir the

British presumed a hitherto impossible consensus on Northern Ireland

between the parties in the Republic. He risked splitting the SDLP along

the lines which havefor 60 years divided Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. He

has stretched the SDLP across' the San Andreas fault of the South's

differences in Northern Ireland and already the cracks are begin-. ning to show.

On Thursday, February 16, Seamus Mallon, the SDLP's deputy leader,

threatened to resign, differing with Hume's and subsequently the party'sdecision t~back an "all-options;' Forum report asfavoured by Garret FitzGerald

and Labour. Charles Haughey, with Ray McShart')1:as his Republican' stalking-horse, continues to argue for a report clearly backing a unitary state. The

Mallon bugging incident and the disturbing evasiveness of the government has

led to a sudden deterioration of relations between the main parties in the

Forum at its most crucial stage. When FitzGerald tried to mend the fences last

week, Mallon was seen to brush him off brusquely.

Now that all these rumblings have begun to shake the Forum's cosy con-

structiveness, will Fianna Fail cut and run for a minority report maintaining the

traditional United Ireland line? Can all John Hume's political skill avoid a

failure? Over the last month, Olivia O'Leary has been looking at Hume asapolitical operator, at his relations with the Dublin and Westminster govern-

ments, and at the pressures in Northern Ireland and within his own party

which have led him to the edge of such a dangerous precipice, both for the

SDLP and for the future of constitutional nationalism.

16 MAGILL MARCH 1984

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

13/41

OHNHUMEIS

A BIT LIKE GOD. FOR THOSE OF US WHOSE ACQUAIN-2::.:e with the North dates from the 1960s, it seems he was,Sacd always will be. He spends much of his time in the skyb-t:-..-eena dozen different locations, And he speaks in veri-~~e tablets of stone. '

T e~e.ision and the endless spotlight on Northern IrelandtE~ created the feeling that he's larger than life, that the=-X =~!eC figure and the haughty face are as familiar as yes-terday's paper if not tonight's news. But he also has anAlmighty habit of declaring things, a bit like an oracle.

His thoughts come ready prepared in long paragraphs, hungon extended adverbial clauses, impervious to any interrup-

tion by tetchy interviewers. He utters them as thoughthey've been carved in marble ... tablets, as I say, of stone.

Hume has an almost Biblical sense of destiny - to lead

his people into the promised New Ireland. To do that heasks for miracles - often, as the New I reland Forum mayprove, from those least able to deliver them. He regards assacrosanct his role as leader of the North's lost tribe. If,to maintainthat leadership, he and his party have to com-promise on what politicians in the Republic might regard asprinciples, Hume expects the Republic to understand. Theyhave told him often enough that he stands between them

and the Provos. That position needs their unified and activesupport. It's a price J ohn Hume has now demanded.

Hume knows that there has been a drift away from theone true faith of SDLP support among some Southern poli-ticians in recent years notably in Fine Gael and Labour.

There are those like J ohn Bruton, who "doesn't like to beatthe drum on Northern Ireland"; sceptics like John Bolandand indeed Pat Cooney who feel uncomfortable with the

move to greener nationalism.In recent years those in the Republic who once feted the

SDLP as weary warriors fighting the gooa fight, became lessContinued on page20

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

14/41

BY OLIVIA O'LEARY

Itnearly kill~dJohn .Hume to-Ieave, the' Bishd'p's presentatid'n'illhd theForum a haifan hour after it started,but he had to. Margaret Thatcher hasasked to see him and Hume wasn'tgoing to mi3s a chance to put his and

the Forum's case. At the door helooked back eagerly. The round tableForum glowed under the televisionlights. Bishop Cathal Daly was dealingsmoothly with his SDLP questioner.The Taoiseach, the Tanaiste, and theopposition leader and the payked pressgallery were, straining to l1e~r'!everyword. Hume's Forumw:S at lasthitting the headlines.

He tucked Cathal Daly's openingstatement into his pocket and accosteda BBC man in the ante-room. Wherewere the BBC cameras, where wastheir political correspondent? Now

that Hume had forced the media inthe Republic to take note, he wasn'tgoing to let BBC Northern Ireland offthe hook. 'I,

Their c.utiJ ,l;lntaffairs pt9gnimrheshact ignored1the SDLP annual con-ference a fortnight before. Theyweren't going to be allowed to ignorethe Forum. Neither was MargaretThatcher.

Shepherded onto the plane by anAer Lingus official, Hume wasalreadyworking out what he needed to say.

The last meeting with t!J.e BritishPrime Minister, some two yearsearlier, had been a stormy 0t;le.Hehadsuggested ter:lson which the"HBiockshunger strike"could be settled, termswhich could have headed .off thedeaths and the emotional c~paign,terms which might as well have beengranted earlier, since they were gran-ted later, but too late, from Hume'spoint of view to avoid damage to thecause of constitutional nationalism inthe North. Emerging from No. 10Downing Street at the time, he said asmuch angrily to the waiting televisioncameras. Mfs7Thatcherhadnlf. forgivephim. ',7 '"iiT

Her cry had always been that shedidn't understand the heat of emotionabout the hunger strikers. They were,after all, starving themselves to death.She had simply decided not to force-feed them. Neither did sheunderstand

sense 9fG~trholic &lienati8~fromwhole Northern Ireland:i'state.did they feel alienated ahd why?

Hume would havea chance to tell her.As the policeman on duty at West-

-rninster waved Hume's taxi through,

he said suddenly: "Do you knowwhere they put poor old John Red-mond, the Irish MP who sacrificedeverything for them? They put hisDust outside the Stranger's Bar,That'sasfar ashe got,;:",the Stranger'sBar."m,)JiuJ;llehas,fi,9,intention of joining

i'~eomond wut~~~!(\the Stranger"s Bar.ri e wants to beltela.nd's, not Britain's,favourite Irishman.

Leading the way toathe Stranger'sBar, which is where MPsentertain visi-tors, Hume waved an expansive arm."Welcome", he said mincingly, "tomah cleb". He admitted he felt like a

stranger at Westminster. He felt con-stitutionally uneasy, and that was theway he wanted it. He had John Red-

,~~md's bust t3,~f",elPindhim that West-'iii~~~ter,tOy9~Plli~"phrase,had be

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

15/41

tell y.ou, hey" story. Gerry may nowbe a national institution - Britain's

favourite Irishman - but John is theone in active politics, John is-the onewith the news. Gerry likesnews. Humetolerates him, teases him "How can

YOu'Q.\j.arbeing;;+called~'X,WiLord"~y+asks iileredulously of Fitt: 'Fitt g~s:"I mean, MyLord" scoffed Hume, theboy from Derry. "How can you bearall that stuff?" Gerry looked as thoughhecould bear it very well.

Hume now had a choice to make.Thehouse wasdebating the LongKeshbreak-out covered in th,~Hennessyreport~and Huine had s6:inethingS osay. He didn't want to talk about the

report but about the fact that whilethe Commons could giveprime time toa debate about what he saw as thesymptoms of Northern Ireland's con-dition, it refused to discuss the condi-tion itself, except when t~e house 'Y~spractically empty in the'smaIl houts,::::d I T refused totally to discuss thecauses or the cure for that condition.E ~e said that, would he anger thePrimeMinister before their meeting?

Gerry Fitt was telling him aboutthe extraordinary freedom beinggivenrae pziscners in LongKesh, DidHUW\jknow. he asked, that the prisori~~s

were allowed to bring their wivesaridgirlfriends off to aspecial roomduring'visits?Gerry sounded shocked. Humedidn't see anything wrong with it. Itwould be a humane thing to do. Any-way, the freedoms which exiited in

Long Kesh had been agreed after thecalling off of the hunger strike, and

had been agreed at the highest BritishGovernment level, sowhat wasnew?

Humewentinto the chamber whereJim Prior wastrying to wriggleout ofannesponsib~ity for th\j+prison~reak-out.; Taking his seat o n the LaBourbenches in front of Merlyn Rees andacross the floor from where Margaret

Thatcher sat in black velvetand pearlsbehind the wriggling J im Prior, hebided his time. One arm flung alongthe green benches, his face assumedthat".,haughty.; ~rome~~ry expressi~~Which"it adQi5is whetl,llle's thin~ingthree moves. ahead. The La15hur

Northern Ireland spokesman, PeterArcher, began to reply, criticising theinsensitivity of the Thatcher and Dukeof Edinburgh visits to Dromad. BesideHume, the Unionist members sprangto defend the Duke's right to visithis ~llregiment.,IHume li;~tened fdl:tfIimoment and then asked to speak. Thespeaker agreed readily. He usuallybows to Hume, who speaks rarelyenough and amounts to a one-manparty.

Humespokefor two minutes.l;hey were.dealing with the SyWP-

toms,notthel~causes o~lthe Nort\.ern

Ireland problejiis, hecomplained. Whycouldn't they understand the sense oralienation of "Northern Catholics? Ifeight policemen at Brixton had beencharged with killing blacks and thePrime Minister and a member of the

royal family had made apoint of goingto Brixton station to extend Christmaswishes, wouldn't there be an ..outcry

in Britain?"That shut them " said Humehappily.

He straightened his tie, gulped ascalding cup of coffee and headed offto meet Thatcher. "Give us a packetof fags, I'm on my way to meetMaggie." he announced cheerfully tothe barman and a group of Labour'.IPs.

Margarer Thatcher saw him in herWestminster office. "I don't think wehave any Irish,' sheapologised. Wouldhe .aave Scotch. Hume said he would,he wasn't a bigot. MrsThatcher joined

him in a Scotch. AndHumestarted onwhat he had come to say. Her invita-ion ,0 him had been a gesture of

friendship and he '.-asdetermined tokeep it tha: way. He avoided obviousflashpoiats like the Dromad visit butexplained again taat the hunger strikeand her own government's attitude toit had created serious difficulties forthe SDLP. had allowed the develop-ment of an emotional campaign whichhad created .2 political platform forthe Provisionals. He explained thatpoliticians like himself who werelook-ing for progress in non-violent ways

had to tackle the problem of analienated minority ccmmunity. Hewarned that the extent of that aliena-tion was not at all appreciated inBritain. Mrs Thatcher didn't under-stand. She asked him for examples.Hegavethem to her.

It was more difficuir talking to awoman. You couldn't s...ear and bangthe table, as with \\cITe Whitelaw.And she looked tired and thin. Hespoke of the Forum. and hishopes forit and gaveher his CO?y of the BishopCathal Daly statement made in Dublinthat morning which claimed that the

Bishops didn't want .2 Catholic Statefor a Catholic people. She expressedinterest in the outcome of :he Forum,as indeed she has before. Hespent anhour with her and came away, happyatIeast, that shehad listened.

"'Dining in the members' restaurantthat night, waving at Roy Hattersleyand other Labour members withwhom he's friendly, Hume admittedthat the Tories have almost stoppedlistening. IRA violence had closedTory ears. But the Forum had pushedMargaret Thatcher to talk to him.TheLabour Party had promised a debate

on the Forum report and the Torieshadn't ruled it out. The Forumreportmight yet have them hopping up anddown on those green benches, and callthe ghost of John Redmond from theStranger's Bar.

MAGILL MARCH 1984 19

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

16/41

fulsome in their welcome. Dublin is a fickle city, and as theNorth turned from a sudden drama into an unending saga,

it tired of the Rabelesian nights on the town, the endlesstalk of solutions. Certain hoteliers stopped picking up the

tabs, journalists turned to the more immediate domestic

controversies, and the advent of Charles Haughey as a newchallenger for the mantle of nationalism brought the focusaway from Northern nationalists to Dublin.

For Hume, who feels naturally at home in the Republic,and who admits that a weight still lifts from his shouldersas he crosses the border going south, that coolness parti-cularly from the coalition parties, was hard to take. He'sstill somewhat bitter towards the Y oung Fine Gael Turkswho turned up their noses at the SDLP and who criticisedthe party roundly for its failure to fight the Ferrnanagh-

South Tyrone by-elections and for its abstentionist positionon the Assembly. It's not a bitterness extended to GarretFitzGerald whom Hume by all accounts can wind aroundhis little finger. FitzGerald, to the perturbation of his own

New Ireland Forum, 9February 1984:J ohn Hume greetsCharles Haughey with Bishop Edward Daly and Fr MichaelLedwith

party, moved political position more than once to keep in

step with Hume. Nor does he blame Peter Barry who, hesays, "stayed with us in the hungry days", visiting Northern

Ireland for three and four days at a time, almost totallywithout publicity, talking to party activists on the ground,

pledging his support wherever he could.

But Hume knows that the SDLP will never be a mascotto the bulk of Fine Gael in the same way that traditiondecrees it must to Fianna Fail, and he knows that the loss

of the Fitt/Devlin element of the party make Labour lesscomfortable with him. Frank Cluskey's passionate emphasison reconciliation within Northern Ireland makes him sus-

picious of the SDLP's move towards a Dublin London axis,and Cluskey would almost be certain to distrust any processinitiated by Charles Haughey. Indeed, by the time Garret

FitzGerald put Hume's Forum idea to the cabinet, therewere only three members in favour: FitzGerald himself,Peter Barry and Michael Noonan.

The coolness in the coalition ranks has developed inHume a certain loyalty to Haughey, despite the disagree-

ment between them on the proposed Forum report, anddespite the development of the Haughey-Mallon relation-ship which has more than once seriously challenged Hume'sauthority within-the SDLP.

Charlie still worships at the shrine of nationalism. He'sC ! believer, he bends the knee. In Charlie's world the Nor-:hem nationalists will always have a value, even if it is

rAGILL MARCH 1984

mainly a symbolic one. John Hume doesn't forget that.For John Hume, the last fifteen years has been a struggle

for survival, a struggle to focus attention on the nationalist

case, by whatever political means. Starting in the-late six-ties with civil rights for Catholics, by February 1972 he was

saying that "the settlement to problems is a United Irelandor nothing". In June 1972 he was talking to the ProvisionalIRA - about a truce which ended four weeks later. He saysit was the last time he treated with the Provisionals.

With the Sunningdale deal, the SDLP emphasis moved togetting a share of power for Catholics internally in Northern

Ireland". With the failure of a series of internal British initia-

tives, that emphasis has shifted back to the need for asettlement in the Irish context. Always conscious of the

need to keep the door open to active politics, Hume hasresisted too headlong a rush to the irredentist nationalistposition. But political pressures in the North, some mutiny

within his own party and the coming to power of CharlesJ . Haughey in the Republic have all compounded an SDLP

drift to a traditional nationalist position. Hume had hopedthe Forum would stop the drift into that cul de sac. He hadhoped the Forum could offer the British an acceptablepolitical way forward and so break the log-jam in theNorth. Maybe he still does.

NCE UPON ATIME, AND NOT SO MANY Y EARS AGO, THE SDLPwould have been reluctant to seek such official politicalsuccour in the Republic. In the days when the party still

saw some hope of an internal power-sharing arrangement inNorthern Ireland, they were very sensitive to unionistsneers that they were "running down to Dublin again".But time and time again, the British failed the SDLP in itsattempts to ensure Catholic representation in the govern-ment of Northern Ireland. IRA violence turned the Britishoff Ireland. British faint-heartedness towards the unionists,

British insensitivity about the extent of Catholic alienationin the North, and finally the SDLP's own internal problemsforced it down the unapproved road to the Republic.

After the bitter collapse of the power-sharing executivein 1974, and the long-drawn out disappointment of theconstitutional convention in 1975/76 the party's twinpolicy of power-sharing and an Irish dimension began tolist heavily towards the old nationalist line - that Catholic

involvement in, and acceptance of, the Northern stateneeded official supervision from the Republic.

The party was no longer so careful to distance itselffrom the old Nationalist party's ideals. Newer lights, likeSeamus Mallon, made it clear that they were ready to "go

to the grave with Eddie McAteer".

And then, there were the Provos. Faced with the emo-tionalism of the H Blocks campaign, and the party's ownorganisational problems in Ferrnanagh-South Tyrone, theSDLP stood back in 1981 to let first Bobby Sands and thenOwen Carron take what was in fact a Provisional Sinn Feinseat. Militant Republicanism was on the SDLP's tail. By

the time James Prior's Assembly elections came along,

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

17/41

~~.;; ':'rQ ouu1anked within the party and forced into an

~=r--z-.mionistposition on the assembly.~os.e two decisions, the decision not to contest Fer-

;;-.".~o=gh-SouthTyrone the second time, and the absten-~:::isIposition adopted on the Assembly, made the SDLP

!oo:< more than ever like a ghost of the old Nationalist~-. To coalition parties in the Republic they also raised a:;L"jor question-mark over John Hume's commitment to the

.;-:=rciple of constitutional politics. But Hume had his

~blems.The SDLP political base in Ferrnanagh-South Tyrone

:::zs never been properly developed. The personal troubles0: SDLP Council chairman, Tom Daly, brother of Bishop~ed Daly of Derry, left them without an obvious candidatefor the 1979 election.

Austin Currie decided to break with party wishes andstood as an Independent in 1979 but was beaten by Inde-pendent Nationalist Frank Maguire who took his seat forme second term. When Maguire died, his brother Noel put

1972: Hume confronts the British Army

::: his nomination papers but papers were also lodged forhunger-striker Bobby Sands. Fearing that Maguire would bepressured by the Provisionals to withdraw, Currie wanted:0lodge his own nomination papers. Hume advised against::_ In the event Maguire was persuaded by what Dannyl!:o=L'On was later to call "moral blackmail" to withdrawz=:' the field was left open to the Provisionals.

:l:tcould have been said that the party was duped on that

occasion. Some months later, however, when Sands died::::;:n; was a second chance for the SDLP to offer the con-s:L:..::ional nationalist option to Owen Carron. The local

~- wanted Hume himself to run.2.e party constituency council decided not to contest

c election by 48 votes to 44. J ohn Hume said at the timezha; he backed the decision not to contest in the hope that

Owen Carron would lose, and that would stop the Prombandwagon. It didn't.

The decision was made because of the emotion genera-ted by the H Blocks campaign at the time, even in SDLP

circles, and was taken with a view to the possible backlash

the party in Fermanagh might face in the forthcoming localelections. But it was a betrayal of the SDLP's promise tooffer the constitutional option to nationalists, and itshocked many of their supporters in the Republic, parti-cularly within Fine Gael and Labour, and put a further nailin their coffin as far as British public opinion was con-

cerned.The Assembly elections presented another challenge to

Hume. Garret FitzGerald had given a lukewarm welcome tothe proposals, Charles Haughey had damned them. Hume,feeling that the provision for a seventy per cent vote topass any measure still didn't give the SDLP a proper veto,decided still that the SDLP should fight the election and

take their seats to put at least one power-sharing motion

down. He went on holiday in the summer of 1982 havingcommunicated this to the party. While he was away the

hardliners in the party lobbied for an abstentionist line andwhen Hume came back to a stormy party meeting in Dun-

gannon in September, the mood had changed. Indeed partydespair with the inadequacy of the British response had

reached such a pitch that prominent nationalist membelike Paddy Duffy, who had created such a powerful base

for the SDLP in the Mid Ulster area, decided to opt our 0:active representative politics at that meeting. Thedecided to run on an abstentionist ticket and Humeaccept it. The SDLP wasn't going to givethat British initia-tive a sideways look.

On an abstentionist ticket for the first time the SDLPfought an uneasy campaign to find that Provisional Sinn

MAGILL MARCH 1984 21

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

18/41

Fein, bringing out a new vote, had established a consider-able political base from which to challenge them for theleadership of the nationalist community.

They were in trouble in Belfast, with the Provos gettingout the Republican vote, and the Alliance party squeezingthem from the other side, taking an amount of the better-

heeled Catholic vote. They were challenged in Mid Ulster.Even before Sinn Fein won the West Belfast Westminster

seat the SDLP knew it needed to be seen to be about itsconstitutional. nationalist business, needed a respectableplatform and a shot of self-confidence, and where betterto get that than in the home of nationalist tea and sym-pathy itself - Dublin.

NTIL CHARLES

HAUGHEY TOOK OVER FlANNA FAIL, CHANGES OFpolitical leadership or government in the Republic hadposed few problems for Hume and the SDLP. He was likea political son to Jack Lynch, and Lynch, Aiken and deValera had wanted him to contest a seat for Fianna Fail inthe Republic. The cordial relationship continued with LiamCosgrave though Hume was careful to retain his relationshipwith Fianna Fail. He refused, for instance, Liam Cosgrave'srequest at Sunningdale to contact Jack Lynch and winLynch's prior support for the Sunningdale deal - that ashe saw it was Cosgrave's job. But he also persuaded George

Colley not to attack the deal, as Colley wanted to.The Republic's policy on the North up to 1979 was

always sensitive to keep in line with the wishes of the

SDLP.Haughey's accession, and the now clear Fianna Fail

demand for a British withdrawal, however, strained thetriangular relationship between the SDLP and the twomain Southern parties. Hume knew that he had to come toterms with Haughey rather than Haughey coming to termswith him. Haughey after all, saw the mantle of Republicanism

as belonging properly to the Taoiseach in Dublin, ratherthan J ohn Hume in Northern Ireland.

But if their electoral collywobbles in Northern Irelandhad alienated the SDLP from Fine Gael, the real strain with

Garret FitzGerald came at the end of March 1982 when

Haughey and FitzGerald had disagreed sharply over the

worth of the Prior Assembly - FitzGerald still saw somehope for it. But then Hume met with the newly electedHaughey, and after their meeting a communique was issueddamning the assembly and any future internal arrangementsas "unworkable", and asking for any future progress to bepursued through the Anglo-Irish Council. The statement

was issued, unusually, in both Haughey's and Hume's

names. Fine Gael regarded it as an SDLP abandonment ofpower-sharing and an SDLP snub to Garret FitzGerald.

FitzGerald was angry for some weeks, but eventuallymended the relationship with Hume. But other members

of Fine Gael didn't forget so easily. Neither did the LabourParty.

The residue of this ill-will could have swamped Hume'sForum, had not Garret FitzGerald railroaded the cabinetinto agreement. After Hume's official talks in Dublin inspring 1983 to persuade the three party leaders of the need

_2 MAGILL MARCH 1984

for the Forum, Dick Spring admitted to political corres-

pondents that he had major reservations about involvinghimself in what had to be a purely nationalist exercise.

When FitzGerald informed' the cabinet of his decisionto support the Forum only an hour before he issued hisstatement, only three members of the cabinet were in

favour of the idea.All those tensions still remain with the Forum and

would seem to be impossible to reconcile. Hume has in-volved himself at last in the cauldron of politics in theRepublic and it will need a miracle for him and the SDLPto emerge unscathed. With Charlie Haughey and Ray

McSharry refusing to givein on the unitary state, and FrankCluskey and Maurice Manning refusing to co-operate in areiteration of the old green line, the parties in the Republicsimply resume their original stances on Northern Ireland.

They don't suffer with their own supporters. But what ofthe SDLP? How will John Hume and Seamus Mallon

emerge from this debate, or from a split report?

The Hume-Mallon relationship is a difficult one, nothelped by the assiduous wooing of Mallon by the Fianna

Fail leader. Hume saw little of Haughey before he becameleader of Fianna Fail. Indeed, on a visit to Derry in the mid

1970s when Haughey asked Hume to show him around,Hume decided to make it clear that he didn't approve ofHaughey's suspected sympathy for the Provisionals. Hebrought him around bomb site after bomb site, ramming

home the message of what the Provisionals had done toNorthern Ireland. When Haughey appointed Mallon to theSenate, and rang Hume to clear it, Hume was angry butcouldn't be seen to veto the appointment. His view hasalways been that the SDLP shouldn't take seats in theRepublic. In turn the Mallon camp have felt that Hume

didn't rally round for Mallon's court case - his disquali-fication from the Northern Ireland Assembly because ofholding a Senate seat. Neither has Hume had much to sayabout the Mallon bugging affair.

At the SDLP conference this year, Mallon threw down adirect challenge to Hume's support for the "all options"

Forum report ... it was like letting the British choose asthey wished, he said, the presentation of a Dolly Mixture.

The difference reached a crisis point in an SDLP Forummeeting on Thursday, February 16, with M allon threatening

to resign. The next day, however, Hume carried the SDLPmeeting in a vote for an all options report. Mallon was outof the room taking a telephone call.

While Hume is undoubtedly in charge at SDLP officerand elected representative level, Mallon is now the mostsignificant hardline nationalist within the party and has adeal of grass root support. His loss would be a substantial

blow to the party. His fear, and that of assembly memberslike Pascal O'Hare, Frank Feely, and Paddy O'Donoghue,would be of the British taking up a joint authority optionfrom the Forum, and limiting it to security co-operation.

That would reduce the North to the mere security contextin which the British see it, and might involve the SDLP in

what is a mere law and order arrangement.Hume's fear is of a Fianna Fail minority report or a

unitary state report - one which the British can ignore.He has used his formidable lobbying skills to keep the

Forum on the road, grabbing the ear of Gerry Collins on aStrasbourg visit one day, pushing Bishop Ned Daly to get

the Bishops into the Forum on another.An ex-Maynooth man, and Cardinal 0Fiaich's first MA

student in Maynooth, Hume didn't like the Government's

attack on the Cardinal over Sinn Fein - mostly because it

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

19/41

might damage the Forum. He doesn't see prior constitu-tional change in the South as central to the emergence of aNew Ireland, but he knew that the Bishops presence wouldfocus Southern attention and perhaps British attention onthe Forum.

If the Forum fails, he knows the SDLP is on its own. His '"own immediate position electorally is safe enough, he'll win

his European seat without much bother, but will the Provos

push their vote over the 100,000 figure in June?The SDLP is also beginning to look like a one man party

- Hume is their leader, their man in Europe, their man inWestminster. With Paddy Duffy the party might have taken

$a seat in Mid Ulster but in the event it went to the DUP'sWilliam McCrea. In Belfast, the party is still struggling to

recover from the lack of organisation left by Gerry Fittand Paddy Devlin. Brian Feeney's branch in North Belfast5 probably the liveliest. West Belfast would seem to be:Ic:nly in the hands of the Provisionals. Their clientelism,

however cynical, is working on the ground.J ohn Hume himself admits that he was so ashamed by

:he housing conditions in West Belfast during his Euro elec-:i0:: campaign in 1979 that he stopped the canvass with

G:~:-Fitt. He couldn't ask those people for a vote when:::~- were living in such housing conditions in an SDLP.,-::;;-;'5 constituency, he said. His Euro-election boast is that

~~ has managed to secure a special 63 million housing

~L for Belfast from the special budget line he's persuaded7"-:;; ELC to set up for Northern Ireland. And indeed, his

J W:: ::D "T I of Derry is a monument to the housing work he~~-= coing since the mid sixties; the city centre has beenpT"~--uC21lyrebuilt and there's what amounts to a new townof houses in Camhill and Shantallow, as well as a new

bridge across the Foyle. He has a Westminster secretary,

Mark Durkan, and a European secretary, Denis Haughey,

operating from Derry and his wife, Pat, now runs the officeso efficiently that constituents ask for her, not him, whenthey come ig,.

But in Belfast, the party feels that Hume is Derry oreven Dublin oriented, that he doesn't understand or know

the city, and that when he's away from Northern Ireland,which he is so often, there is nobody in the North's capitalcity to represent the party adequately.

The amount of publicity given to Hume can sometimes

irritate his colleagues. He rarely misses a photo opportunity.- he was in all the press pictures of the Bishops visit to theForum although he had to leave a half an hour after it

started; he was in at the opening and closing press con-

ferences of the Northern leaders job-finding visit to theStates, though it was Austin Currie who represented the

SDLP after the first two days. He can seem to do ten tele-vision interviews in an evening when a story is running. He

is good with the press, careful to keep up contacts witheditors, editorial writers and powerful journalists, butrarely utters an unguarded word. He quoted an old Bogsidefriend ruefully ashe looked at a series of Monday morningheadlines which forecast failure for the Forum: "There'sno such thing as bad publicity, Mr Hume."

One wonders. The Forum has been built up to be tneway forward for the SDLP. At this year's conference i

Belfast, the delegates spoke of it as of a second corning.The euphoria was contagious, the press milled around. Halfthe Dublin civil service and parliament were there to payrespects. At the end of the dinner that evening, the dele-gates rose to their feet on a wave of emotion asJ ohn Humethrew off his jacket and sang: "We shall overcome."

Will they sing it this time next year?

MAGILL MARCH 1984 23

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

20/41

nat the Mallonbuggingrow revealsis the fragility of the Southern State.

This isobscured by the fact thatit's attractive to believethat almostanything this government does resultsfrom acorn bination of maliceandineptitude.

And it's difficult to dislodgefromthe forefront of the mind that it mustbesweet asnuts for Charlie Haugheyto haveachanceto skewer FitzGerald

on an issueto do with bugging.But this one goes way back. Itgoesback at least asfar as the Crinion-Wymanaffair in 1970 when aBritspook and the human bug he hadplanted in gardacommunicationswereposted back to their bossesinWhitehall, no fuss. At the time, hardlyanybody prominent in constitutionalpolitics or in the media objected. Oddto think back onthat now.

But, privately, some prominentpeople were outraged and I suspectCharlie Haughey wasamong them.Not that he wasin aposition to say

or do much about it - the armsbusiness and all that - but he willhavekept it in mind through the longyears in the wilderness.

It is casually, widely assumed inthe media that Haughey spent thoseyears criss-crossingthe land glad-handing and back-slapping and makinghimself generally amenable athootenannys andhill-billy hoe-downsput on by comical Fianna Failcuma.inndown the country, fired andfuelled by pure personal ambition toclaw and slither his way back to thetOJ}~

'For all I know this is the truth of it.But if it isit's atype of truth which:'oesn't really matter much. Whatmatters arethe ideas he carried with:::im ashe went, which he believed

ere central to what the State is_:x}Ut,which had been subtly derided==c werein the process of being::::clled by the faction then in control::~Fianna Fail, which had never been::'-e, ished anyway by the crowd in?-:eGael, but which evoked adeep~c::se where it waseventually to~e: - among the raucous red-necks"':::.:s:" whoops andyahoo yelps

, - = = - = = . = Leinster House when Haughey~

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

21/41

He was a bad lot for most of hislong life and eventually went mad.On one occasion, round about 1804,he got out of his carriage in RoyalWindsor Park to shake hands with anoak tree, being under the impressionthat it was King Frederick of Prussia.When he began the 1811 King'sSpeech in parliament with: "My Lords

and Peacocks" there was no morehiding the fact that he was daft, sothey locked him up in a sealed wing inWindsor Palace where he gibberedquite contentedly for many a longyear.

The Prince of Wales then becamePrince Regent, which caused troubleagain. He was married to a Papishcalled Mrs FitzHerbert. MrsFitzHerbert was a sound woman andagreed, for three grand a year andaccess to the Royal loins when she feltlike it, which she did, often, to forgetabout the marriage and allow the

Prince Regent to "marry" a PrincessCaroline, acquired from Brunswick.

The couple met for the first timethree days before the wedding and,understandably enough, hated oneanother so heartily on sight that bothof them were blind drunk during theceremony. The Prince Regent was heldupright by the Duke of Bedford.Caroline collapsed in a stupor. Still,they did the British thing shortlythereafter and managed to produce adaughter, Charlotte, following whichCaroline was told to make herselfscarce and Mrs FitzHerbert broughtback to bed.

Then, tragedy. In 1817 Charlottedied giving birth to a stillborn baby.Caroline, mightily miffed at the wayshe'd been treated, made it clear shewasn't coming back to bake anotherbun for Britain. The Prince thoughtabout divorcing her on the ground ofher numerous adulteries (including atorrid affair with her brother Bergami)and sending out for a replacementGerman princess. But this would havebeen a heavy thing to do sinceadultery by the wife of an heir to the

British throne was a capital offence.(Still is, afact which Di should keepfirmly in mind if she ever fancies abit of spare, and who'd blame her ifshe does?).

The situation was serious. Therewere swarms of Royal kids growing fat

off the tax-payers' money but;::Z::i:~lr;.-all of them were bastards.R " , i!::sI serenteer: candidates for the5 '.:':-:

7/28/2019 magill_1984-03-01

22/41

Every three months, on average, someone dies in apolice station or prison.

The deaths are seldom natural, often violent and sometimes without a satisfactory explanation.

. Gene Kerrigan reports

M~-3Beatty had drunk three:,':""'~and six glasses, or there-

~:s. 0: lager. It was a Sunday~t-c.,September 11 1983, and tenu":ID:k was long gone but Martin2.3',want to leave the bar. He had=e~ in the lounge of the Lome Hotel,Ciznbrassil Street, Dundalk, sincebefore 6pm and he wanted morerl::ink. It was 11pm now and his wifeAudrey said she was going. home.~1artin insisted on staying on. Thebartenders said later that he drankfrom other people's drinks. He askedfor a glass of water and wasgiven one."Please", he asked, "please giveme aglassof Harp".

On leaving the pub Audrey Beattywent to get some chips on the wayhome to Linenhall Street. At somepoint, worried that Martin hadn'tfollowed her home, she decided to goback to the hotel. It was about mid-night when she got there. Shetappedon the glassand they let her in. Martinwasn't there. He had been arrested bythe gardai about half an hour before,she wastold.

Audrey went to the phone and rangthe Crescent garda station. Yes, Martinwas there, said Garda Larry Witheroe.He had been taken in for causingtrouble at the hotel. No, there wasnopoint in Audrey coming down to thestation, Martin was asleep in his cell.As soon as he sobered up he would bereleased.

Garda Witheroe later testified thathe never told Audrey Beatty thatMartin wasasleep in the cell.

Audrey waited at home. At 3amthere was a knock on the door. It wasSergeant Connolly from the Crescentstation. Martin was dead.

t was coming up to 11.30pm thatnight when the bartenders in the

Lome Hotel made a serious effort to

put Martin Beatty out. There was ascuffle in the doorway and Martinand a bartender fell against a bicycleparked there. Martin was ejected. 'Hebegan kicking the door and a glasspanel broke. To avoid further damagethe bartender opened the door andMartin Beatty came back in. Thegardai werecalled.

The gardai were ten or fifteenminutes coming. Martin went outwith them easily enough. When hesaw the squad car he began struggling.He put his feet against the car in aneffort to prevent the gardai puttinghim inside. At one point one of hislegs was on top of the car. Anothersquad car was passing. The gardai sawthe struggle and came to the aid oftheir colleagues. There were now fourgardai present. Garda Calm Murray,who had arrested Martin, and GardaiChristy 0'Gara, Joseph Fitzpatrickand Finbar Hickey.

Two gardai drew their batons andused them.

Martin Beatty was 27. He camefrom Clones in County Monaghanandhad done his training as a painter andhad been employed until the previousJanuary. In July he had taken ahand-ful of anti-arthritic tablets and had tospend some time in hospital. There

.was a suggestion that hehad been sentto a psychiatric hospital but his owndoctor confirmed that he had neverbeen either an in-patient or out-patient at a psychiatric hospital. Itwasn't, say the family, a seriousattempt at suicide and Martin seemedembarrassed by it.

Fine Gael TD Brendan McGahanknew Martin and describes him as "a

fine lad" from a "law-abiding family"Martin had never been in trouble withthe police. He had been thinking ofemigrating to Australia, where two ofhis brothers lived. In August he beganajob with AnCO.

On Wednesday 14 September hisbrother Frank received a telegram in

Australia telling him of Martin's death.The next day hereceived aletter fromMartin.

Martin Beatty arrived at theCrescent garda station atI.4Spm. He was wearing a very lightand thin white jacket, white shirt,white shoes, white socks and a whitebelt on blue trousers. The belt wastaken fromhim.

According to the gardai Martin wasabit of a nuisance. He kept demandingto be released and was banging ontheflat metal plate in the door of the cell

.where food trays are placed. The cell,Cell 1, can beseen from the front deskwhere Garda Witheroe, who wasstation orderly that night, wasstationed.

GardaWitheroe saidthat hecheckedon Martin every fifteen minutes from11.4Spm to lam. He saidhe repeated-ly asked Martin to stop making noise.The Garda Siochana Code gives de-tailed instructions on the need to keepprisoners under regular observation,particularly during the first few hours.

At lam, according to Garda Withe-roe, Martin's banging became toomuch of a nuisance. He closed thedoor leading to the cells, "Because hewasgetting on my nerves".

Sergeant Connolly went to inves-tigate the banging some time afterthat. According to Sergeant Connollyhe went into the cell area at about1.lSam. According to Garda Witheroeit was between 1.10 and 1.1Sam.Thetiming is important.

Sergeant Connolly later testifiedthat Martin stopped making noisewhen he went in. Marti