OUR NEW YEAR MESSAGE TO THE BRITISH HOME SECRETARY

RELEASE IRISH R E A D A B O U T

THC FLINT MAN OF WHITEHALL

— P A G E TWO

I R I S H * 6 °

DEMOCRAT No. 217 JANUARY 1963

71 SIGN TELEGRAM TO BROOKEBOROUGH

^ N 14th December the following telegram was sent ^ to Lord Brookeborough: "Undersigned urgently request release remaining political prisoners before Christinas—Season of Goodwill."

The s ignatories included 48 members of the Brit ish Parlia-ment and 23 other notable citizens, n a m e l y :—

Malcolm Arnold. J. D. Bernal, Lord Boyd Orr, Alan Bush, John Eber, Doris Lessing, C. S. Lewis, Sir Compton MacKenzie. Ethel Mannin, Peggy Middleton (Coun.), Maurice Orbach, D. N. Pritt, Herbert Read, Michael Scott, Donald O. Soper (Rev. Dr.), Lady Tyrrell.

Trade union leaders (in per-sonal capacity) :—

Percy Belcher (Gen. Sec. Tobacco Workers' Union), Richard W. Briginshaw ' Gen. Sec. National Society of Operative Printers and Assistants), John Dutton (Gen. Sec. Association of Scientific Workers), Betty Harrison (Nat. Org. Tobacco Workers' Union), E. J Hill (Gen. Sec. United Society of Boilermakers), David Lambeth (Gen. Sec, Amalgamated Union of Foi indry workers,, E. Patterson (Constructional E n g i n e e r i n g Union).

Members of Parliament (all Labour) :—

Prank AllaUn, Alan Beanev, John Baird. Elizabeth M. Braddock, Fenner Brockway, Joyce Butler, George Craddock, Alice Cullen, G. Elfed Davies, S. O. Davies, Tom Driberg, Albert Evans, E. Ferny-hough, David Griffiths, Will Griffiths, Mark Hewltson, Percy Hoi man, Emrys Hughes, Daniel Jones, Richard Kelley, Arthur W. J. Lewis, Marcus Ltpton, Leslie Lever, David G. Logan, Charles Loughlin, John McKay, J . P. W. Mallalteu, Archie C. Manuel, Arthur S. Moody, Tom Oewald, John Parker, Ben Parkin, L. A. Pavitt, Sir Leslie Plummer, John Rankin, G. W. Reynolds, A. Roberts, Charles Royle, E. Bhlnwell, Julius Silverman, Hamet Slater, R. W Sorenaon, John Storehouse, William Stones. I. R. Thomas, William Warbey, David Weltzman, Victor Yates.

Total M.P.s 48.

PRISONERS E LS E!

LAUNCHED IN CONSTITUENCY

IN order to bring pressure on the British Home Secretary to tell his Government 1 frankly thai the Irish Republican prisoners cannot be kept in jail any longer, an intensive campaign is to be laundied in January.

Connolly Deputation meets George Brown

11 Q N Monday, November 26th, a deputation from the Connolly

Association waited on shadow Home Secretary, Mr. George Brown, M.P., at the House of Commons.

Purpose was to urge him to use his good offices to help secure the

>e of Joseph Doyle from riT prison.

Members of the deputation were Mr. Sean Redmond (General Sec-retary), Or. R. H. W. Johnston (Treasurer), Coun. Tom Leonard

\ and Mr. Eamonn MacLaughlin, late General Secretary.

The deputation was received cordially by Mr. Brown and ex-plained to him the circumstances surrounding Joseph Doyle's Im-prisonment and the reason why if was widely felt that he should be released at once.

Mr. Brown undertook to raise the mat te r with the Home Secretary ei ther as an individual M.P. or officially on behalf of the Labour Party.

Mr. George Brown, M.P.

Marcus Lipton will "have another go'9 to release Doyle " T H E British Home Secretary

has informed Mr. Marcus Lipton, M.P. that he wi l l not release Joseph Doy le from Wakef ie ld prison before Christ-mas.

He says, however, that the ca.se is being kept under review.

Mr. Marcus Lipton together with Mr. Leslie Lever had Mid a .special visit to Mr. Brooke* Par-liamentary Secretary, Mr. Fletcher-Cooke, and both members had stressed very strongly the reasons why Doyle should be released.

Letters and resolutions poured

ST. PATRICK'S EVI DANCE S A T U R D A Y , 16th M A R C H , 1963

* Four Courts Ceili Band

* L e n Young and his Calif ornians

Irish dancers and musicians r.2 P 0 R C H E 8 T E R H L L , B A Y S W A T E R , W

Tickets 7 / 6 from C**10011? Association, 374 Grays Inn Rd„ ' London, W.C.I.

into the Home Office as soon as it was announced that the deputa-tion was to go to Mr. Fletcher Cooke.

Negative Though the present reply i.s

negative, it is believed that the Home Office will not be able much longer to withstand the pressure which is being put upon them.

In a letter to the Connolly Association, Mr. Marcus Lipton stated tha t he would resume his efforts for Doyle's release when the House re-assembles in January. Mr. Lipton has had letters from trade union branches in Brixton congratulating him on his work for the Irish, one of the branches being that of the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers, most of whose members are English, but where very good relations exist between men of the two nations.

MORE ABOUT THE PRISONERS

ON PAG£ EIGHT liiiim iM in

It is designed to hit him where it hurts most—in his own constituency.

Mr. Brooke is M.P. for Hampstead. Possibly his determi-nation to yield nothing in the diehard defence of Tory policy is encouraged by his possession of i 17,000 majority.

Liberal Irishmen coming into Lon-

He may thing nothing can shake him.

But he may have to think again.

In Orpington, the Tories had a huge major i ty but the Liberal toppled t h e m over. In Hampstead there will be a Liberal.

In other elections the Tories have been sadly shocked, by anti-

don are advised to live in Hamp-stead in preference to other boroughs, granted equal conditions.

Irishmen who do not need to move are asked not to leave Hampstead.

Consideration may be given to compiling a register of Irish voters as was done in the days of Parnell.

Lose his seal -Association proposes to party letting the Labour l ^ T T " 6 proposes to

5 is a Labour candidate to w l t ? organisa-tions who have been affected ad-versely by the policies Mr. Brooke is operating. The Government must be shown tha t if it carries out the kind of policy Mr. Brooke is responsible for putt in1? over, then the Minister who puts it over will either lose his seat, or have his majority so reduced tha t the

There Hampstead. Mr. Cooper. And who

'-•knows, there may also be an anti-market Tory.

Refusal And what is more, Hampstead is

not what it was. The Irish are seeping up from Kilburn in the West and Camden Town in the Government itself will suffer South. There is a big population of middle-class intellectuals who have been steadily swinging away from the Tories to the Liberals. Also he has angered the Jews by his refusal to introduce legislation against racial incitement.

There have been elections in the. past when Ministers lost their seats. The most famous case was the ignominious defeat of Ramsey MacDonald. who had to be found a university seat though he was Prime Minister. He continued as Prime Minister for a while though not a member of the House.

Centre of the campaign will be the Connolly Association's Kilburn branch.

One aspect will be to urge all Irishmen to see their names a re on the electoral register and In a position to use ttftfir votes a t the next election.

blow. The campaign in Mr. Brooke's

constituency will include a special effort to make the electorate of Hampstead understand the Six-County set-up which Mr. Brooke is responsible for maintaining.

It will go on until not only Doyle but all the Crumlin Road prisoners are released. Every day those prisoners remain In jail, Mr. Brooke will lose politically in his own cooutitueney. Hempstead is nice and handy for Kltburn and Camden Town. There will be meet-ings called. Leaflets will fwve to be given out awl poster parades organised.

All Irish national organisations are invited to help . . . and indeed we want the help of everybody who wants to make Brooke carry the can for the policy he is carrying out.

THEY CAME FROM DUBLIN

E' ARLY in December the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Aid. J . J .

O'Keeffe. t he Lord Mayor of Cork, Aid. Sean Casey, former Lord Mayor of Limerick Mr. Stephen Coughlan, T.D.. Mr. Michael Mul-lan, T.D. a n d Mr. Sean Dunn, T.D.. flew to London to see the Heme Secretary, Mr. Henry Brooke.

They only got as far as seeing Mr. Fletcher Cooke, his secretary; purpose of their visit was to de-mand the release of Joseph Dearie, the one remaining political prisoner held in Britain.

The deputat ion from Dublin

brought with them documents signed by over 100 members of the Oireachtas, including tha t of the Oeann Comhairle, Mr. Patrick Hogan.

Mr. Sean Dunn, T .D, was given permission to viait Joseph Doyle in Wakefleld jail.

There was much dissatisfaction tha t such a high-powered deputa-tion was not received by the Home Secretary in person.

Suspicions are being aroused tha t there is "high politics" in-volved in the detention of Doyle.

»

2 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT January 1963

RT. HON. HENRY BROOKE * T It. S. Martin

I F every Irishman showed the steadfast loyalty to his country that some British Cabinet ministers do to their class, we

would be free tomorrow. E x a m p l e of t o d a y is M r . H e n r y -sight of his successor was able to move

Brooke, Minister of Home Affairs, h i n l - H e h a d his instructions and he was w h o is charged with the task of with- t 0 can '-v t h e m out-s t a n d i n g t h e m a s s i v e a n d m o u n t i n g On November 30th. "Tr ibune" published pressure for the release of Joseph Doyle from Wakefield jail.

For it is Mr. Brooke's depa r tmen t which issues the little paper t h a t can send this young I r i shman back over t he sea to whe re his. widowed mother, aged 79, sits wa i t ing for him in their little home in Co. Wicklow.

T h e same depa r tmen t is responsible for Nor the rn Ireland. A letter bear ing Mr, Brooke's s ignature sent to Mr. Faulkner in Belfast would have those prisoners out of Crumlin Road jail in two shakes of a l amb ' s tail.

Indeed it could be done by telephone. B u t so far the Bri t ish Government will

no t budge, and Mr. Brooke, rapidly earn-ing t h e ti t le of t h e flint man of the Tory pa r ty , is like Hora t ius holding the bridge in t h e brave days of old.

* * *

T T E R E is the pressure he h a s been ordered to wi ths tand.

On J u n e 17th, 5.000 Ir ishmen gathered in T r a f a l g a r Square and heard Ger ry Fit t . Ben Park in and Fenner Brockway appeal for t h e release of all the prisoners.

T h e Irish Prisoners ' Release Commit tee followed tha t u p with an even bigger demons t ra t ion in October.

O n November 18th, Connolly Association m e m b e r s a n d suppor ters traipsed through M|ift a n d sleet to Brooke's house in ftMlingtoit Road, Hampstead, and de-l ivered a letter asking for the release of Doyle.

T h e y went out in the soaking ra in and pold to show they were serious. In mid-November the Association sent a deputa-t ion to Labour 's shadow Home Secretary Mr. George Brown who promised to a p p r o a c h Mr. Brooke. But not even the

a le t te r signed by 25 M.P.s. T h i s was followed by a deputa t ion of five T.D.s who took to the Home Office a pet i t ion signed by n o less than 100 members of t h e Dail a n d Sena te in Dublin.

T h e Connolly Association lobbied Par-l i a m e n t on December 12th and hopes were h igh when the Home Office agreed to meet a deputa t ion. On December 18th, Messrs. M a r c u s Lipton and Leslie Lever went to see Mr. Fletcher Cooke and c a m e away emp ty handed, a l t hough the re had seemed to be a ha l f -promise or ch ink of l igh t in a letter he h a d sen t to Sir Leslie P l u m m e r .

Members of the A.E.U. group of M.P.s, Mr. McCann and Mr. George Panne l l tackled the Home Secre ta ry as well. His own p a r t y began to weaken. T h e "Sunday Express ." most rebellious a t all t imes of t he Tory papers, publ ished an Editor ial on December 18th. poin t ing out t h a t Doyle was n o t a criminal a n d suggest ing t ha t a f t e r all Chris tmas was Chr i s tmas . All to no effect. Orders were orders.

\ N Irish festival is deadly sick, al-most sick to dea th .

Every year t he numbers a t tending the annua l commemorat ion cf the Manches-ter Martyrs, Allen Larkin and O'Brien, grow smaller and smaller.

November 25th, 1962, was the worst turn-out ever.

Even if fog had not prevented two bus loads coming f rom London and Bir-mingham. t he parade would have been worse than the previous worst in 1901. And only a handfu l a t tended the memorial Mass in the morning.

Disappoin tment mevicaoiy worked its effect on the speakers, a n d Cha i rman T. O'Hara and the young Sinn Fein speaker f rom Dublin, made cons tant references to the " fa i th fu l few" and the "hard core "

The ora t ion was capably delivered and explained the S inn Fein policy. Among those present were a number of members of the Connolly Association, Sinn Fein, and the United I re land League.

W h a t Is t he mat te r with t h e Man-chester Irish t h a t they do no t s u p p o r t this commemorat ion as they did? Th i s was asked by the I r ish Press In 1961.

It would be more realistic to ask w h a t is wrong with the commemoration. And to this there is a simple answer.

I t is too narrow. As the "Ir ish Democra t" has repeatedly

pointed out. th is commemorat ion was s tar ted as a united demonstra t ion in which all I r ish organizations could take par i .

8ome ten years ago, during the decline of the once-powerful Anti-partition League there were dissensions and disunity broke out

There were fau l t s on both sides. But instead of f inding a way to work together , t h e members grew dispirited Some re-signed. OthcrR dropped out. T h e control of the Commit tee liecame vested La a small tyoup whose Intentions were good

A sharp word to Irish organisations

in Manchester so far as they went, but who had no unders tanding of how to win the support of the ordinary people.

I t is quite wrong t h a t this commemora-tion should be the perquisi te of one political party, howevt r admirable tha t pa r ty may be.

Mcston should be a grea t rallying point for the Irish cf Lancash i re In the olden days organisations used to come from all over the county and place the i r wreaths on the cenotaph.

By an unimaginable piece of confused thinking, one year when London hoodlums tried to prevent Connolly Association lay-ing its customary wrea th , instead of banning the hoodlums f rom then on. the Committee cancelled the wreath-laying.

By tha t single act of folly they scat tered the Ir ish of Lancashire, who ceased to a t tend when they had no part in the ceremony. T h e I r i sh are not pre-pared to have their public affairs run for them by tutors, no m a t t e r how well-intentioned they are From the day the wreaths were stopped the ceremony be-gan to decline.

There is only one way to revive it. Look fac t s in the face, and recognise tha t the • I r ish are consti tuents, ne t children The j leaders are the representa t ives of the l>eople not their herdsmen. Let the Irish lie consulted. Let t he I r ish people run j t he whole affair th rough an elected com- [ mit tee.

T h e existing commit tee has a grave re-1 rponsibUity. If they do not now call a j conference of ALL Ir ish organisat ions in iJ incashire with a view to gett ing the mar ty rs ' commemorat ion on Its feet, they will be responsible if there is no centenary commemorat ion in 1967

Are they prepared to face this re-sponsibi l i ty? Are they prepared to go d e w n in the record of history as the men whose lack of imaginat ion killed an I r ish t rad i t ion , divided the Ir ish of Liverpool f r o m those of Manchester , and aban-doned those of the small towns to dis-pers ion?

T h e mil i tant section of the Ir ish should also examine their consciences.

T h e r e are people who still keep up a sense of grudge agains t the existing Commit tee , who have af ter all, kept the t h ing going, such as it is. Tha t sense of gr ievance should be dropped.

A conference should be called. I t s pur-pose should be the revivifaction of the festival , and possibly the erection of some f u r t h e r memorial or addition to the memor ia l to mark the centenary in 1967. Every I r ish organisat ion in Lancashire should be invited, and prepara t ions should be begun now. not next October, for get-t ing a cont ingent f rom every one.

A booklet should be set out to explain t he commemora t ion to newcomers to Manches te r .

W r e a t h s should be invited once again. I t is t ime to say to Irish organisat ions

in Manches te r , ei ther you want this com-memora t ion or you do not. Have the courage to face facts and take a decision

—FEICREANACH

* * *

f P H I S is what Deryck Win te r ton wrote of Mr. Brooke in t h e "Daily Hera ld"

of Augus t 10th, 1962: — " I n any competit ion for the perfect

bu reauc ra t Mr. Brooke would be well up a m o n g the leaders. Given a brief , he will cling to it, live wi th it, defend every comma, a lmost—one suspects—be ready to die for it." And t h a t is why t h e Tory party gives h im the stickiest jobs to get on with.

T h e most unpopular measure since the war. t h e Rent Act of 1957 was no t likely to m a k e the Minister who p u t it t h r o u g h the da r l ing of the public. Mr. Macmil lan ' s h e n c h m e n could have been excused if they had flinched. Not so Mr. Brooke. He car r ied through his unp l ea san t task with s ingle-minded de te rmina t ion . T h e Gov-e r n m e n t had agreed on a r e n t ac t—a ren t act t h e r e would be.

T h e consequences for hi.' own popular i ty he did seem to count. Indeed he gloried in hav ing done his duty , which he con-ceived as unswerving loyalty to t h e in-teres ts of the Conservative party, a n d be-came almost an ogre to t he working class

T h e R e n t Act became operat ive on July 6th. 1957. I t gave landlords of de-con-trolled premises the r igh t to cha rge wha t they liked, and increased the ren t s of con-trolled dwellings. I t was es t imated t h a t two ou t of five million homes let by pri-vate owners became uncontrol led. Ren t s were dr iven up by £210 million between 1957 a n d 1959.

T h o u s a n d s of psople were th rown on the s t reets , so that one wit called flrooke the "Minis te r of evictions.' ' T h e Irish suffered heavily, as the increase in un-f u r n i s h e d rants sent the r en t s of fu rn i shed rooms soaring.

T h e policy belonged to the Government . But Brooke took all t he knocks wi thout ba t t ing a n eyelid. At a d inne r in 1958 he said: "Thank-you for your warm welcome to t h e mos t hated man in England ." When pushing t h e Rent Act t h r o u g h he told the Opposi t ion who had been giving h im a rough t ime. "I am much too thick-skinned to t ake any notice."

Mr. Macmillan had shown t h a t he knew his man .

(Continued on Page Three)

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THE FLINT MAN OF January 1963 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT 3

T H E I R I S H

D E M O C R A T 374 GRAYS INN ROAD

LONDON, W.C.I Subscription: 8/6 per year

Editor: DESMOND GREAVES Associate Editor: SEAN REDMOND

World Commentary

Republican year nV~OW we enter the y e a r of the 200th x anniversary of the bir th of Ire-land's greatest pat r io t , Theobald Wolfe Tone. Great m e n have been produced in plenty in Ireland, both before and since. Bu t it remains, as the f amous historian Mr. T. A. Jack-son was fond of saying, tha t there is only one Tone.

And in the same year of 1963 s tar ing all of us in the face is t h a t wha t we have to do is to carry out t he exact tactics of Wolfe Tone, before t h e Brit ish terror compelled h im and his comrades to adopt the only available al ternat ive—revolut ion.

Tone m a d e the P ro t e s t an t s into Repub-licans, a n d joined them wi th t he Catholics in order to try and m a k e Ireland a democracy. If he h a d achieved t ha t in his day, and the cen t re of the whole s t ra tegy was Catholic suf f rage , then not only would Ireland have been f ree a hund red and fifty years ago, but ours would have been a Gaelic nation. T h e grandeur of Tone's concept ion when he developed it is only dwar fed by the tre-mendous significance given to it by the experience of subsequent history.

So 1963 should be declared the Repub-lican Year, when every I r i sh patriotic organisat ion should t ry to ensure t h a t not a single Irish m a n or woman is ignoran t of what Tone t h o u g h t and what he did, and why he said, " F r o m the s t a r t I was a democrat."

Democracy means rule by the people, and t h a t is what is w a n t e d in Ireland.

The Connolly Association and "I r i sh Democra t" are prepared to do their share . A few years ago we se t ourselves t he objective of restoring the funct ioning of na t ional unity by J u n e 1963. Perhaps it could be said tha t it is even now func-tioning in a somewhat loose and pe rhaps r a the r restr icted way.

But it does not all depend on us. He re in Br i ta in there is no doubt the I r i sh movement could be as influential as it was in t h e days of Char les Stewart P a r -nell if we could only all uni te . Is it no t possible t h a t our respected f r iends in t he Sinn Fein movement would be prepared to discuss with us and p lan with us how this could be brought abou t?

by Pat Devine

Do tliey hesitate f r o m fear of losing their ident i ty? Do they th ink we w a n t to proselytise their members and try to weaken them? Or do they think the compelling force of J a m e s Connolly's out-look migh t catch their people up in our en thus iasm and. even if we did not wish it. they would lose people in to the Labour movement?

If such fears exist, we would be willing to discuss how to co-ordinate our work in such a way as to lay t h e m completely a t rest. We do not w a n t to proselytise members f rom other organisat ions . W e have no interests whatsoever but those of the Ir ish people as a whole aga ins t those who divide and exploit them, a n d we define those interests a s Tone deflnad them, in the simple single word democ-racy.

We invite the leaders of the Sinn Fein movement in Britain to t u r n over in the i r minds whether there is not some way of bringing about a mutual re la t ionship or common unders tanding which, though possibly informal and binding on nobody, would enable us to co-ordinate our work for example for the release of the prisoners and the spreading of republican ideas, so tha t these effor ts add to each other and there !s no danger of t hem taking awav

IMPERIAL GLORY FADING ^ J R. DEAN ACHESON, who was

Secretary of Sta te under Presi-dent Truman and is cu r r en t ly a lead-ing foreign affairs adviser to President Kennedy, in speeches and articles during December, has openly classi-

St ra igh t f rom this French rebuff. Mr. Macmil lan proceeded to the B a h a m a s ( the first t ime in history thai a Br i t i sh Pr ime Minis te r had visited tha t ter r i tory > to meet President Kennedy, to present the Tory begging-bowl in the for lorn hope t h a t the President might do someth ing

fied Great Britain as a declining to relieve the Tory fortunes which are in power, with a rapidly declining role dire crisis at the moment, in world affairs.

I t is the Tory Party tha t is in crisis. Britain 's independent role in the world I t is t h e Tory Par ty that has led Bri ta in

is "played out." it is W e s t e r n Germany to i ts present precarious position. I t is t h a t is today the leading a n d most stable t h e Tory Pa r ty tha t maintains t h e part i-nat ion m Europe, and the sooner Britain t ion of I re land and the impr isonment of gets into the Common Marke t , already Joseph Doyle. I t is the Tory Pa r ty t ha t dominated by France and Germany, the is' responsible for the industrial murder better it will be for her, suggests Mr. of Nor the rn Ireland's shipyards. Acheson.

All indicat ions are tha t the Tory Gov-Rubbing salt In the wounds, so to speak, e r n m e n t is on the way out. T h e people

President Kennedy has now taken uni- of Br i t a in don't want to join t h e Common lateral action by declaring his intention M a r k e t at America's bidding. They don't to end the Skybolt missile programme w&nt to be condemned to t he role of upon which Britain 's so-called indepen- a n American pawn in foreign affairs , to dent nuclear defence p rog ramme for the be p lunged into crisis and war a t the fu tu re rested. w h i m of the United States.

It is suggested tha t in r e t u r n for the W e already have it f rom Premier loss of Skybolt. Bri tain will receive the L e m a s s t ha t if Britain joins t h e Common Polaris missile but, says t he "Daily Mail", M a r k e t it is in the interest of the Republic "only on condition tha t Br i t a in abdicates to do likewise. By the same measur ing her political control on the firing buttons red if Br i ta in does not join the Common to the U.S. or N.A.T.O." M a r k e t the Republic need not join. I re land

can m a i n t a i n her neutrali ty and cont inue How have the mighty fa l len! From t o p l h e r t i n w o r l d a f f a i r s

the heyday of Victorian Br i t i sh imperial-ism upon whose Empire t h e sun never I t is impor tan t to note tha t whilst some. set, to 1962, when a f te r suf fe r ing a series people are t rying to minimise I re land ' s of unbelievable humil ia t ions the British role a n d even Mr. Lemass suggest^ chang-Prime Minister Mr. Macmi l lan had to ing it, the American Secretary of State, set out on a begging tour. D e a n Rusk, on Ireland, said:—

" I feel t h e serious, sane and clear Premier Macmillan visited General De Gaulle in Paris to beg lor some easing of the t e rms being presented before Bri tain could, or would be allowed, to en ter the Common Marke t !

Informed observers say Macmillan got the brush-off. Accept our t e rms or stay out, seems to have been President De Gaulle 's a t t i tude.

voice of I re land in the Uni ted Nat ions a n d the service which she h a s rendered to the United Nations and t h e Congo, a r e one of the practical contr ibut ions to world peace.

" I re land is making an enormous con-t r ibu t ion to t he building up of a decent

or ld community and the peaceful

| FLINT MAN OF WHITEHALL From Page 2

A T the same time he was Minister for whole Act and nothing but t he Act. So

trying to destroy the Welsh language and Holloway prison for 47 days while Mr. culture. Brooke put a person who could Brooke was deciding whether to send her not Speak a word of Welsh in charge of away or let her stay, the Welsh section of the B.B.C. Plaid T h e r e was a storm of protest when the Cymru, the Welsh Nationalists , con- t r u t h ^ ^ e d out. And though he showed demned him for his "pers is tent activities every sign of being prepared to "die for against Wales." his brief ," in the end it was plain t h a t

Realising t ha t here was t he man who even he could not put the Government ' s more than any other embodied the en- policy over. He had to let her out of jail, t renched class Interests of Conservatism, T h e "Daily Herald" wrote:— the Labour Par ty tabled a motion In 1960 "M.P.s will need to keep a very close Which called for his res ignat ion. wa tch on Mr. Brooke in the fu tu re . This

Once the Connolly Association and S inn Fein were pulling together , even in n o more than tacit agreement , we could rapidly br ing all the I r i sh together in one g rea t nat ional movement , and make i t impossible for the Labour movement to do other t h a n heed us a n d act as we desire.

t ime he has been fouttt out and h a s had to swallow his arrogant talk, 'I a m not p repared to look at this oase again,. ' But he is an obstinate man. T h e Com-m o n s mus t be ready If necessary to Veep on giving hlrti lessons."

* * *

O R E recently when there was a recrudescence of racial inci tement

I t need not be emphasised t h a t tha t was never more needed t han now.

After he had driven t h e Rent Act through Par l iament he spen t n ine months as Chief Secretary to t he Treasury . This was the t ime when the Government ' s financial policy was coming under fire. Mr. Selwyn Lloyd was t ry ing to put through the pay pause. He would never have managed without Brooke working s t i r r e d up by fascist elements, he was constantly behind the scenes. I t was said u r g e c i to make it illegal to try to provoke indeed, t ha t Mr. Lloyd looked af ter the d iscr iminat ion on grounds of race or shop-window while Mr. Brooke looked nat ional i ty . This was not Governmen t a f t e r the till. policy. So Mr. Brooke nould not do it.

* * * He thereby earned the acute dislike of t h e ' f P H E N interest shif ted to t he Home Jewish community, but once again was too •' Office. The I m m i g r a n t s Act was " thick-skinned," as he had called it, to

being introduced in deference to the show any concern. wishes of the Common Market . When it T h e only way to get Doyle and the o ther was tune to s t a r t deporting people, Mr. pr i soners out is to bring to the pursu i t Brooke was put in Mr. But ler ' s place at of I r i sh national policy an even grea te r the Home Office. By December 12th, there degree of determination and energy t h a n were 379 people recommended for deporta- Mr. Brooke does to the policy of t h e Tory tion, 218 of them Irish. par ty . He can be made to tell his par ty

The Immigrat ion Act showed however "Sorry, boys, I'll have to -climb down." t h a t even Mr. Brooke could be forced to But only if the campaign Is big enough, vleld If opposition to Gove rnmen t policy So if Doyle is not released by t h e t ime was made s t rong enough. T h e case of you read this, bombard Mr, Henry Brooke Carmen Brvan. a voung J a m a i c a n girl, a t t he Home Office. London S.W.I, with Illustrates this. She was charged with let ters , telegrams, cards, and t r ade union stealing goods worth £2 4s. 7d as a first resolutions. Demand tha t Doyle be re-offence. She pleaded guilty a t Maryle- leased Immediately, a n d tha t the Br i t i sh bone police court and was discharged and G o v e r n m e n t inform the Slx-CoUnty Oov-bound over But she was also recom- e r n m e n t t h a t they wish the Republ ican mended for deportat ion. Butler had pr i soners let out of Cnimlln Road jail, promised t h a t first offenders would not And as for Mr. Brooke himself , t he re be deported. But tha t was no t what the is only one way to teach the Tory P a r t y Act said. Mr. Brooke was given the a lesson. T h a t is to see t ha t the i r "flint tougher Job of operating the Act. the m a n " is not re-elected.

settlement of disputes." During the period covered by the above

appraisal I re land was playing a neu t ra l role. Only the cont inuat ion of th i s role can main ta in I re land in the proud posi-tion she has reached in ternat ional ly .

Once the Republic su r renders her neutral i ty she sur renders her independent role in world affairs.

Great Bri tain has been brought to the begging-bowl because of her Tory Gov-ernment subservience to the Uni ted S ta tes of America up to and including prepara-tion to surrender her sovereignty inside the Common Market .

How much grea te r would be I re land ' s tragedy if she were to sacrifice the inde-pendence she still has due to he r policy of neutrali ty.

F I G H T T O T H E D E A T H The white planters , the Pooh Balis and

pukka sahibs of Africa have thrown down the gauntlet . They have virtually pro-claimed a war to the death aga ins t tlie Alrican people. T h e mask of conciliaticri used in t h e pas t to hide the i r brutal depredations has been wi thdrawn. They s tand out in the clear l ight of da,y as open suppor ters of the in famous Dr. Verwoerd's policy of apar theid .

All of this became evident in t he result of the Southern Rhodesian elections just ended. With t he Alrican par t ies impos-ing a boycott of the elections, it was the 88.000 whites who voted and registered their opinion in no uncer ta in fashion.

Sir Edgar Whi tehead ' s party, which has been in power for 30 years and whose record (so f a r as the Africans are con-cerned) stinks, has been defeated.

Mr. Winston Field won a handsome majori ty for his Rhodesian F r o n t Pa r ty policy which, according to the "Salisbury Sunday Mail", was "won on emotion." "Who might occupy the house next door, and sits next to one's child a t school were major issues. There are many in the Rhodesian F ron t who want apar the id ."

Dr. Kenneth Kaunda , African leffljer in the Northern Rhodesian Government ,

. said: RhoSesian Front was. for th-right ; you know where you s tand with them."

According to the "Ir ish Times". Af r i can nationalists in Southern Rhodesia say they are under no illusions about t he white supremist a t t i tude of mos t R h f c -esian Front voters, and declare confidently tha t the struggle between t hem a n d the new Government will be " shor t and sharp" whereas the Government of S i r Edgar Whitehead had been too slipjfery a wrestling opponent.

A first result of this changed position in Southern Rhodesia is t h a t Mr. Field is against Federation whereas Sir Edgar Whitehead was for it.

Dr. Banda in Nyasaland a n d Mr. K a u n d a in Nor thern Rhodesia a r e also against Federation, but for vastly di f ferent reasons t han Mr. Field, who in t h e ne»r fu tu re may make overtures to Dr. Ver-woerd of South Africa.

The Federat ion of Rhodesia is virtually finished. Toryism and imperial ism have suffered serious defea ts .

The African peoples a re coming into their own. Whi te supremacy, long a blot on the world's scene, may wea the r the storm for a l i t t le ^ h U e because it appears to be the chosen policy for imperial ism's eleventh-hour effor t to salvage someth ing f rom its African goldmine

"We wish to send our warmest seasonal greetings a n d expression of suppor t to all peoples s t ruggl ing for their independence and hope to see a f ree independent Africa before 1964.

THANKS TO YOU r p H E Irish Democra t needs your sap-J - port if it is to keep up its work ot

exposing Nor thern I re land Toryism, t h e anti-Ir ish policies of the Bri t ish Govern-ment, and the t r icks of those who « r e t rying to undermine t h e neutra l i ty of the Republic

Please don' t th ink we a re well off and making money h a n d over fist. We a r e not . Brery month It is a e t ruggle t o br«alc even, and it is t h rough t h e dona t ions Vre receive t h a t we Just manage to d o so

O u r t hanks to: W O CI , J . Outlfovle, <51; RO.'s, '£5 Is. 6d.; H. J. Ma t t tn . 1/6; Manches ter Readers , 6«. 8d.; P. CTdomwr 7k.; C Ma«L, l / « ; T. Cox £ 5 SR. 6d. Total £14 4s. «d

1

4 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT January 1963

LETTER FROM THE LIFFEY by ANTHONY COUGHLAN

E EC. WOULD WRECK OUR INDUSTRY T J I T H E R T O most people here

seemed to accept the line plugged by politicians and newspapers that the Common M a r k e t will be our Eldorado—politically and economic-ally. The doubte rs w e r e worried mainly about how our neutrali ty would f a re in the n e w Europe.

Lately, though, the economic as-pects of membership of the E.E.C. have been getting more and more people worried. The bad news con-tained in the reports of the Commit-tee of Industrial Organisations so far published, and rumours of others pending, is percolating through to the public.

The C.I.O. is a committee of industria-lists, t rade unionists, civil servants and economists. I t is supervising the work of 24 research teams examining our main industries, and over 15 "commodity study groups" dealing with f a rm products.

The first report, on the linen and cotton industry, prophesied a likely redundancy of 1,500 out of a work-force of 4,500 in the Common Market; the second, on the Boot and Shoe industry, forecast redun-dancy of 1,000/2,000 out of 7,000 workers. A fortnight ago the country read of the report on the leather industry. 1.000 leather workers are likely to lose their jobs under free trade, it seems, and another 1,000 will do so unless drastic steps of reorganisation a re taken.

A report on the motor assembly in-dustry is expected next. This may have to be written off altogether, with Its 1,500 workers, and the Taoiseach has already hinted as much in a Dail statement. Who is going to bother assembling cars in Ireland if they can be imported tariff free from abroad? This would mean goodbye to Fords of Cork. ,

I t is rumoured also t h a t t h e report on the Sam and Metal Trades industry will forecMt the likely unemployment of 2,600 of its 6,000 workers. a r e no signs tha t this litany of gloom is going to alter as the reports continue to come out, at least so f a r as industry is concerned. Most of them should be published with-in the next six months, and their cumu-lative effect may prove very embarrassing to the government.

Some people think t h a t the govern-ment is now regretting considerably allowing these reports to be issued In their present form. I t was the trade unions which- insisted t h a t they be pub-lished, as they come f rom the pens of the survey teams, without any gloss or whitewash. Otherwise they would have refused to co-operate with t h e C.I.O. # * *

TRELAND seems very prosperous just ^ now—especially Dublin, in its hectic pre-Christmas rush. There is more money around than ever before. Despite ominous shadows we are still "in boom," the re-sult of the boom in Europe and Britain and the considerable investment, by Irish people and foreigners, in offices, factories and houses.

A main theme of ministerial speeches these days has been the government's success in getting new industry going, providing lots of new jobs. Thus Mr. Lynch, Minister for Industry and Com-merce, stated recently t h a t "since 1955 about 150 new industrial projects with foreign participation had started, and 50 more had been approved."

Most people will welcome this, the more industries there are giving employ-ment to Irishmen in Ireland the better, whoever starts them. But some figures given at a recent conference on economic development held by the I r ish Congress of Trade Unions show t h a t these suc-cesses should be seen in perspective.

Unemployment is still high, around 50,080 at present. Since 1955 employment in agriculture has fallen f rom 455,000 to 406,000 last year.

In manufacturing industry it has in-creased from 191,000 to 195,000, al-though in Industry altogether it has fal-len from 299,000 to 284,000. And the total a t work, including Industry and agricul-ture, has declined in t ha t period from 1,181,000 to 1,119,000. Thus, although manufacturing industry is employing more people today tha t six years ago, the increase has not kept pace with the ra te people were leaving the land. Hence unemployment Is still high There has been industrial growth, but not enough.

NEUTRALITY is still a major issue, and a vigorous correspondence con-

tinues in the morning and evening papers on whether we should give up our mili-tary non-alignment in the Common Mar-ket, if we join.

Mrs. Josephine McNeill again took issue with the join-N.A.T.O. people and the Holy Warriors against communism. To quote: "Irish neutrality is endangered by the decision to seek full membership of the Common Market. Full member-ship implies political union in a form not yet fully determined, bu t which clearly implies as a logical consequence participation in military defence and a cession of some degree of sovereignty. T h e cession of a degree of sovereignty is not in itself an evil, and in t h e case of long-established countries, it may be justifiable and even praiseworthy. For Ireland at this stage to cede any of her sovereignty before she rightly knows the taste of it, before a single generation has had time to enjoy it before it ha s been applied to the whole national territory, is, I believe, premature and makes non-sense of our history."

T h e controversy over neutral i ty has been accompanied by a puerile red scare, sparked off by a gentleman a t the F ianna Fail Ard-Fheis, who sees Com-munists rearing their heads all over Ire-land, especially where there is any oppo-sition' to Fianna Fail. Self-appointed guardians of the public conscience have been, smearing individuals and organisa-tions all over the place as "communistic," C.NJ)^ Fabians, Sinn Fein, the I.R.A., the lot, but especially in so f a r as they make a stand for neutrality.

I t is doubtful if this tactic takes many people in. I t was condemned as a "smoke

m" by Labour leaders and people in ie Gael. Even the Minister fo r Justice,

—and he should know!—said t h a t he thought the degree of communist influ-ence was being "exaggerated." False-hoods and smears can become too ludicrous.

* A * TI T R AIKEN is reported to believe that ^ sanctions of this sort are ineffective,"

the newspapers said. If so, Mr. Aiken hadn ' t many Companions in his belief. He had the colonial powers, Britain, France, Belgium and Holland, the E.E.C. countries and such exponents of political liberty as Spain and South Africa, but no t the

bulk of the world's nations. The matter at issue was a vote in the

United Nations on whether sanctions should be imposed on Portugal because of the "war she is pursuing against the people of Angola." This would mean tha t countries would not trade with Portugal as long as she kept up this policy. Ire-land voted against—as she had voted against sanctions on South Africa be-cause of her apartheid policies last month. To such a pass is the country brought by the government's unwilling-ness to antagonise Britain or the E.E.C. countries.

Mr. DeValera said in America in 1919: "We are in the vanguard of the fight for freedom of the nations. We are the spearhead of human freedom every-where." And Mr. Lemass in 1962?

Of course Mr. Aiken may believe t h a t sanctions are "ineffective." But is it likely?

jfa tfc «jc \ NOTHER ship glided down t h e slip-

J ' way at the Verolme Dockyard, Cork, at the end of November. I t was the 24,000 ton cargo ship "Silver Isle," the largest ship ever to be built in the Twenty Six Counties.

I t is 730ft. long and is fitted with the world's largest pitch propellor, weighing 30 tons, which makes navigation f rom the bridge easier. I t is meant for service with a Canadian Company on the Grea t Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The next ship to be built in the Dock-yard has already had its keel laid. I t is a 30,000 ton cargo bulk carrier for a Dutch firm and is due for delivery in au tumn next year.

r p H E seeds of a new £ 1 million I r ish -*- industry may lie in work now being

done on the cultivation of plant and vegetable oils by the Agricultural Insti-tute.

In 1961 we imported over £1 million of plant oils—linseed oil, mustard seed oil, lavender oil, mint oil and others. These are used in making a multitude of goods of one kind or another—margarine, paint, inks, soap, lubricants, cosmetics, flavour-ings, etc.

Thir ty years ago it was suggested by research workers at U.C.C. tha t these could be grown in Ireland, and the Agri-cultural Insti tute is now carrying out promising experiments a t its research

] \ p

station at Lullymore, Co. Kildare, and a t Oak Park, Carlow. They expect at the Institute to overcome any problems of adapting such plants as mint, camomile, rape, hemp, mustard, poppies and others to the Irish climate. Yields on some of the reclaimed bog land used for the pur-pose are said to very good, well up to European standards, and could provide, in time, for the home demand and an export market as well.

* • • EW methods of teaching Irish in the

schools are foreshadowed in the appointment of An tAth. Colman O hUallachain as adviser on this subject to the Depar tment of Education. Fr. Col-man is being given full facilities to travel abroad and see how the new rapid-learning methods of language teaching can be applied to Irish and in-troduced to schools here.

An emphasis on oral - and visual methods of teaching rather than on com-position and formal grammar is already to be seen in t h e more progressive primary schools in Ireland. Too many students were given a dislike of the language in the past because of a pedantic stress on its finer points before they had acquired any kind of vocabulary or verbal facility.

Fr. Colman has already spent t ime in America studying methods of language teaching there. We wish him success in his task of helping to make Irish more attractive and easier to the young Irish students of today.

DIGGING UP OLD DUBLIN 8 1INCE May last, the National Museum

has, with the permission of the Cor-poration, been conducting an excavation in a vacant plot of ground in Dublin, bordered by High Street, Nicholas Street and Back Lane. The site which lies just across the road from Christ Church Cathedral, is situated within the bounds of the old town walls, and on the height above the Liffey where the original settlement, which formed the nucleus of the present city, was probably located.

In the initial stages of the work, the considerable overburden of debris result-ing f rom the recent demolition of old and dilapidated buildings, was first re-moved mechanically, but it was then found tha t the foundations dug for the construc-tion of the house cellars of 18th and 19th century date, had disturbed the ground to a depth of nine to twelve feet below the present street level. When these were cleared, a trial trench revealed tha t there still remained a seven-foot thick s t ratum of occupation debris which had accumu-lated in the course of centuries over the original ground surface on which t h e first inhabitants settled. It is into this s t ra tum tha t the excavation proper had been made in the hope of recovering Information about the lives of the Dublin citizens of the past. The expectation of doing so was based on the fact that in medieval towns the present-day system of the col-lection and disposal of domestic and industrial refuse was largely unknown, and t h a t the many bye-laws and regula-tions now governing building and sani-tation existed only in the most rudimen-tary form

In short, it may be taken for granted tha t a very great deal more came into the average medieval town in the shape of food and fodder, fuel, building stuff and the raw materials for the many craf tsmen living there, than ever left in

the form of waste products. These last served to raise gradually the

level of the ground within the town area, and as the present excavation shows, Dublin was no exception to the rule. Moreover, the probability of recovering in-formation about city life in the past f rom a large-scale excavation was increased by the fac t that the Museum already has an interesting collection of items found in street construction and sewer-making in the last century, and that similar finds, together with some remains of early buildings, were discovered in the examina-tion of a relatively small area in the Castle Yard undertaken last year by the Office of Public Works.

The excavation has revealed a compli-cated tangle of small enclosures bounded by post-and-wattle walls. The work of re-vealing these fragile remains is exceed-ingly tedious, and since many of them have obviously been superimposed on each other at different periods, the task of following and planning any one of them is slow and complicated.

While there is abundant literary evi-dence t h a t this technique of construct-ing house-walls and fences was s tandard practice in ancient and medieval Ireland, it appears to have become virtually ex-tinct in the country by the 18th century.

It has been established tha t one, at least, of these post-and-wattle structures was a small house which had a rectan-gular stone-lined hearth near the centre of the floor. The walls remained to an average height of two feet and con-sisted of three rows of undressed posts in the round with stout rods woven be-tween them after the fashion of a basket. No stone buildings have come to light as yet.

A large number of finds have been dis-covered associated with the structures so far uncovered. These consist of bits and

pieces of domestic articles and discarded oddments, which under modern condi-tions, would find their way into the dust-bin, but which, in those less organised times, were simply thrown out into the back yard or garden.

Those now recovered include many fragments of decorated glazed pottery, parts of wooden vessels, nails, iron barrel-locks, shears, knives, iron spear-heads and arrowheads and the metal fitments of wooden boxes and vessels. Most of these objects are in an unusually good state of preservation, exemplified by several iron knives which still retain their wooden handles, one of which was bound with fine wire and had a bronze ferrule decorated with interlacing. The objects so fa r found date in general to the 13th and 14th centuries, and the structures with which they were associa-ted must belong to the same period.

The excavation has yielded some in-formation about the techniques of a number of trades which we know from the old city records, were followed in medieval times. Pa r t of the site must, at one time, have been occupied by a comb-maker's workshop, for large numbers of pieces of sawn-off deer antlers, bone plates, some blank and some with the teeth sawn, as well as combs of several types have come to light.

The presence of a shoemaker's work-shop is attested by a large quantity of fragments of scrap leather and a series of shoes. A weaver too, appears to have worked on the site, for among the most interesting of the finds is a small decorated wooden sword, used to beat t h e weft threads into the warp, while a number of wooden frames, pierced with holes to take wooden pegs are possibly

(Continued on Pag* Six)

January 1963 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT 5

SHORT SHRIFT FOR ^ S explained in the first chapter,

the question of allegiance to Dubl in or London is the great divid-ing line of Nor thern Ireland politics. The Government is completely aware of this, Whence the multiplicity of oaths for civil purposes. Nationalists, accept ing the Dublin allegiance, can-not bu t regard the Six-County ad-minis t ra t ion as a usurpat ion and their t e r r i t o ry as occupied. That granted, they adap t their course of action to w h a t they consider the requi rements of the situation. The blocking up of o rd ina ry consti tutional channels has convinced some of their younger people that the only way to f ree the Six Counties is through a "resistance movement."

This trend of thought derives its tra-dition f rom the Irish Volunteers set up in 1913 as a patriotic rejoinder to Car-son's armed bands. In the Rising of Easter, 1916, they were joined by James Connolly's Citizen Army and became known as the Irish Republican Army. During the ensuing period they conduc-ted guerilla warfare against the British forces. I t was they who compelled Lloyd George to confine the Government of Ireland Act to Six Counties. The concep-tion of a "resistance movement" is there-fore not new in Irish history.

As well as those actually engaged in "resistance" when this is considered prac-tical (as from 1956 to 1962) there are a large number of Nationalists who offer moral support, to such an extent that in 1955 political Republicanism (Sinn Fein) won two seats In the Imperial General Election. The members were declared dis-qualified by a Northern Ireland Court, on the grounds they they were serving prison sentences for political offences. While i t is probably tha t the Republi-can movement draws its most active forces f rom the small farmer class, it seems tha t those who have some experi-ence of industry as well ai'e moSl attrac-ted to it. I t has substantial support among certain sections of the Nationalist workers in Belfast where it is said that whereas the lower Falls Road area which houses the unskilled workers is tradi-tionally Redmondite or Devlinite, the Upper Falls inhabited by the skilled workers is Republican.

Republicanism is by no means synony-mous with the cult of the gun, as Unionist spokesmen are anxious to con-vince the world. Its theoretical ancestry has never been fully traced, but shows close on two centuries of native Irish growth influenced from without by American secessionism, French Jacobin-ism, physical force English Chartism, Blanquism and the International Work-ingmen's Association. There is nothing exceptional or unexpected about its existence in Ireland, since it remains part of the direct tradition of European revo-lutionism. Perhaps it has learned more from the nineteenth than the twentieth century, but the national struggles of the nineteenth century created some of the leading states in the modern world.

To talk merely of "terrorism" is there-fore to miss the point. Messrs. Barritt and Carter, who employ this term admit that the Republicans are "Careful to oppose religious bigotry," and "careful not to provoke the civilian population," it is a pity the Government does not employ similar care. The difference is due to a difference of aim. The Republicans have taken to physical violence when they felt there was nothing else for it. But it is in the cause of the unity and independence of their country. I t is necessary to under-stand this, and not to imagine that they are interested in nothing but fighting.

Coalisland One of the strongest centres of Repub-

licanism is the Coalisland area of the Co. Tyrone. This is an area of small Catholic farmers on the shores of Lough Neagh. Three miles south is the gerry-mandered town of Dungannon. The dis-trict is remarkable for the presence of a number of rural Industries originally established to exploit the local deposits of coal and clay. It Is stated tha t in April, 1916, the Lough Neagh fishermen stood by with their fleet of dinghies In which they were to ferry the volunteers over to Glenavy for a rear assault on Belfast.

REPUBLICANS THE STORY OF UNIONIST TYRANNY

A number of incidents took place in this district during 1957, one of which was the blowing up of a railway signal box on June 12th. Special detachments of police and military were draf ted into the area to make searches for hidden arms and explosives. On August 17th ^ n exhaustive search was made of the town-lands or Roan and Braccaville in which mine-detectors were employed. But that night just before 11 p.m. a telephone call from Edendork (three miles away) was received at Coalisland police barracks, with the result that a party of police and soldiers set out to search an un-occupied house in Cattle Lane, Bracca-ville. During the search there was an ex-plosion, said by the police to be caused by a booby trap, and Sergeant Ovens was killed.

Round-up This event was the signal for a general

round-up of Republicans in the district, but seemingly no charges were preferred and most of them were released. Early on November 20th a fur ther search re-sulted in the discovery of a cache of arms in the adjoining townland of Lisnastrane. Ten men were arrested for questioning, and among those detained were Kevin Mallon, Francis Talbot, Daniel Devlin, J. Herron and James O'Donnell. I t was six months before any of them were brought to trial a t Belfast.

There was every reason for concern over their fa te while In prison. Unplea-sant rumours of police behaviour were abroad. Mr. J. Cohnellan, Nationalist M.P. for South Down, had already on November 12th raised in Stormont the complaint of Mr. Seamus 0"Hare, aged 22, of Magherareagh, Kilkeel, who had been subjected to questioning a t New-castle police barracks. He had been kept continuously in a standing position for a long period, and finally lost all mental control. When he was allowed to return to Kilkeel his doctor had him removed to hospital, where the police appeared and insisted on remaining with him. He wad then transferred to a Belfast hospital to escape their attentions. There were re-ports of the use by the R.U.C. of a technique in which relays of policemen kept up a volley of identical questions until the victim was utterly exhausted.

The trial of James O'Donnell took placeman 18th April, 1958. There was no police evidence to connect him with either explosion or the arms cache which was found near his house. But the prose-cution were able to produce a confession signed by O'Donnell himself, in which he described his par t in the signal box ex-plosion and admitted his connection with illegal organisations. He was described as an unemployed steel erector. He had worked in Manchester, indeed, where he was an active member of the Construc-tional Engineering Union and walked in the Trades Council's May Day processions each year.

Tortured There was a sensation when O'Donnell

repudiated the confession. "It was not a voluntary statement" he objected, and explained tha t he had signed it on November 21st, after having been "tor-tured and beaten about the face and stomach," and threatened with being "handed over to the B-8pecials." Other alleged threats were that members of his family would be interned without charge or trial. Herron in his turn stated tha t the R.U.C. had threatened to charge him with the murder of Ovens if he failed to confess.

O'Donnell declined to go into the wit-ness box since identification with court procedure 1s held by most Republicans to amount to "recognising" the Northern Ireland constitution. Those who doubt the validity of this argument must re-spect the courage of the action. He was then found guilty of the two charges of causing an explosion and possessing the

cache of arms and ammunition found near his house in Lisnastrane, together with a charge of membership of an illegal organisation. The sole evidence offered was the confession which was dated November 21st. Why had the authorities been sitting on it for six months?

After the jury's verdict Sergeant J. Hermon, of Coalisland, gave the judge the benefit of his local knowledge. O'Don-nell came of a "very Republican family," which held very strong views and opinions. Another brother had been in Monaghan since 1955. "There is nothing I can say from a political point of view in his favour," the sergeant continued, "he is an intelligent type, an organiser and a leader, and he has no respect for the constitution a t all," "In other words." commented the judge, "he is really sour." After this public airing of O'Donnell's political character and associations, the court sentenced him to ten years im-prisonment.

Defended Four days later two other young men,

Kevin Mallon and Francis Talbot were charged with the murder of Sergeant Ovens. The same morning the British newspapers announced the discovery of an infernal machine in Whitehall, be-lieved to be something planted by the I R A. It turned out to be a doctor's stethoscope.

The prosecution alleged not tha t Mal-lon and Talbot had planted the booby trap, but that they had made the tele-phone call Svhich lured Ovens to his death. Once again the sole police evi-dence of the slightest moment was a pair of confessions. These were again repu-diated, but since it is Republican practice to waive the non-recognition principle in the case of capital charges, this time the case was defended.

The death of a juror resulted in its being postponed for three months. But the case opened on the 28th July with Mr. Elwyn Jones, Q.C., M.P., Recorder of Cardiff and a prosecutor at the Nurem-burg War Crimes trials, for the defence.

It took twenty-five minutes for the jurors to be sworn, according to Mr. Hostettler who attended the trial as an observer on behalf of the Connolly Asso-ciation. The defence challenged 18 of the jurors and the Crown told another 17 to "stand by." The defence tried to pre-vent the confessions being put in as evi-dence on two grounds, first that they were secured while the accused were in illegal custody, and second that they were induced by "undue terror and menaces."

Defence Counsel was able to show that the confessions of the two men were mutually contradictory. "They are incon-sistent on fundamental matters," said Mr. Elwyn Jones. Later he was able to call witnesses who said they saw Mallon and Talbot elsewhere when the telephone call was supposedly being made.

Denial Mallon's evidence was that at the time

the phone call was made he was not in Edendork, but in Coalisland, having played records on the juke-box in Mamie Herron's shop till 10.30 and then gone to St. Patrick's Hall where he remained till 11.30. He heard an explosion, but did not know where it was or ' w h a t had caused it. He had no connection with It.

"I did not make the phone call from Edendork nor was I with Talbot or anyone else who may have made such a call," he said, "I had no connection with the explosion or the death of sergeant Ovens." On November 19th he had been taken

by ihe police to Coalisland barracks, and then removed to Dungannon where Sergeant said to him, "We'll fix you this time, Mallon. It will be a while before you get out."

"They then started to beat me up," he went on, "two strange men holding me

CHAPTER SEVEN O F

11 THE IRISH QUESTION AND T H E

BRITISH PEOPLE" BY

DESMOND GREAVES which it is hoped to publ ish shor t ly a s a supp lemen t to T H E I R I S H D E M O C R A T

and District Inspector and Head Constable beating me. They made a whole lot of remarks. 'Confess you were there, you did it and you led a lot of other lads astray.' I was beaten alternatively by the D.-I. and the head-constable, and between the beatings and the interrogation it lasted from 6.30 or 7 p.m. to midnight." Mallon said t h a t af ter the interrogation

he was handcuffed and put into a car. Head Constable and another policeman were In the car. He did not know where he was going, but when they were a short distance out of Dungannon the car was stopped and Head Constable

had a conversation with the men who stopped them. Then said, "we have brought the b out to you, "and they said "we'll fix him." He was then taken out of the car, and the two men prodded him round the body with rifles. He was put back in the car and they drove on.

Between Lurgan and Lisburn the car turned up a road to the left and asked him if he was ready to confess to the murder of Sergeant Ovens and "lots of other things." He replied tha t he did not know anything and was then taken out of the car. The other police-man, who was accompanying them, threw him across the back of the car. The head constable started to choke him, saying, "Confess, confess, you are a murderer."

Semi-conscious Mallon then alleged that the head con-

stable hit him in the stomach with his fist, and when he passed into semi-con-sciousness he was returned to the car.

said, "We will have more time to deal with this boy in Belfast."

When they arrived in Belfast about 2 a.m. the handcuffs were removed and he was taken into a cell on the top floor of the Police Barracks, used as an office.

He was questioned by head constable —— about the death of Sergeant Ovens for hall an hour or therabouts. His shirt was torn and covered with blood from his nose and mouth. The questioning stopped about 3 a.m. He was next questioned at 3 p.m. on the same day by a "strange police officer."

During this period of questioning, which continued till 5 or 5.30 p.m. he was struck every time he said "No." At 6 p.m. a fur ther period of questioning started, lasting until 11 p.m. One of the interro-gators brought him a mirror, held it up in f ront of him and said, "Take a look a t yourself. You know you are in bad shape. If you don't confess now we will keep this up until you do confess. We will keep it up for weeks if necessary."

Mallon then described how a "small s t range man" arrived who was left alone with him and started to speak about religion. After about an hour he asked If Mallon had anything to confess. When he replied tha t he had not, the man Jumped up and pulled out a gun, pushed it in to his stomach and said "I am going to let you have It." When Mallon sttU did not respond he was struck over the head with the revolver and fell to the ground.

Two policemen then ran In and said: (Continuwl on Pa«* Six)

THE IRISH DEMOCRAT January 1963

THE HILLS OF CLENSWILLY A T T E N T I O N pay, my countrymen, and hear my

^ Although my song is sorrowful I Jtope 'twHI b latest news;

be excused. I left my nalive country, a foreign land to see, And I bade farewell to Donegal, likewise to Glenswilly.

'Twas on a summer morning at the dawning of the day, I left my peaceful happy home to wander far away ; And as I viewed that well-known glen, perhaps no more to see, I thought my heart would surely break at leaving Glenswilly.

Great stalwart men around me stood, my comrades loyal and true, And as I clasped each well-known hand to bid them sad adieu, I said "My fellow-countrymen, I hope you'll soon be free, And the green flag waving proudly over the hills of Glenswilly.

No more among the sycamores I'll hear the blackbird sing, No more for me the proud cuckoo shall welcome back the spring, No more I'll plough those fertile fields, acushla geal mo chroidhe On a foreign soil I'm doomed to toil far away from Glenswilly.

God bless you, dark old Donegal, my own, my native land, In dreams I see your heather glens and towering mountains grand ; God speed the day, may it soon come round, when I return to see And live as my forefathers lived and die in Glenswilly.

SHORT SHRIFT FOR "We don't want any blood in here." They dragged him into another room where a handkerchief was put round his neck and twisted, and a lighted cigarette put to his lips.

"My condition was then very bad," Mallon continued in his evidence, "They stood me up against a wall and said 'Take off your clothes.' I took off all my clothes with the exception of my trousers, which were removed by the small man. I was then naked.

"One of the policemen got a window pole and pushed it into my stomach. Another one trod on my toes. They kept this up for some time. They threw me on the floor and one of them said 'I am Ovens. You know you blew me up, didn't you. I'll haunt you Jor the rest of your life."

"They kept asking me to confess, and one of them started to behave like a maniac. He crawled all over me and clawed at me. He said, 'I am Ovens,' and he was laughing and shouting all t he time."

Talbot too After fur ther pressure had been used

Mallon said he was taken to a cell which was also occupied by Daniel Devlin. Later h e heard sounds which suggested tha t t h e police were busy on Talbot. It was then he said, he decided to concoct the confession. At his request he was taken to Talbot who was lying in bed, and said " I made tha t telephone call." Sergeant

protested that his voice was not deep enough. He then said, in Talbot's hearing, "No it was Talbot." District Inspector then came to the door, and while Sgt. was speaking to him Mallon told Talbot the main threads of the story it was proposed to invent to save them both fur ther ill-t reatment . Mallon produced a grey shirt •which was torn down the front. He alleged it had been torn in Dungannon by District Inspector .

After Talbot had given similar evidence, Mallon's sister gave evidence of seeing h i m in prison two weeks a f te r his arrest and being greatly shocked at the change in his appearance The defence then called three witnesses, two internees and one prisoner who most courageously testified on Mallon's behalf. Devlin said h e had seen Mallon with his face covered with blood and hardly fit to stand on his feet. Others corroborated Mallon's account of his movements.

Mr. Elwyn Jones in his final speech said:

"Normally you would have thought that if the prosecution and the authorities were satisfied here was an adequate basis for a charge of murder, there would have been a charge of murder then and there. But weeks went by be-fore public knowledge was gained that these two young men were going to be charged with murder. I t was not till January tha t they were charged. There can not have been much confidence t h a t there was good evidence. It was not until January that it was known to the lawyers defending these men t h a t there was need to seek evidence." Submitting tha t tNrt* Vas riot a shred

BATTLE HYMN OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC

AR M E D for the battle, kneel we before Thee, Bless Thou our banners, God of the brave!

Ireland is living ! shout we exultant; Ireland is waking! hands grasp the sword. Who fights for Ireland. God guide his blows home ; Who dies for Ireland, God give him peace! Knowing our cause just, march we triumphant, Living or dying, Ireland to free ! The spirit of freedom floats in the ether Souls of our heroes march by our side,

Tone is our battle-cry, Emmet inspires us, Those who for Freedom fall never shall die. England is breaking ! shout we exultant; England is beaten, Ireland is free ! Charge for the old cause, down with the old foe, Giving our hearts' blood, Ireland to free!

— C O N S T A N C E DE M A R K I E V I C Z .

REPUBLICANS Pfarge

m5

of evidence to corroborate the s ta tements alleged to have been made by the two accused, Mr. Elwyn Jones said he would have expected evidence of fingerprints in the telephone kiosk at Edendork. Al-though all the apparatus of the police had been rightly put in action with efficiency and force to try and find the perpetrators of t he crime, nothing had been produced connecting the two accused in any way with the explosion a t all.

After the judge's summing up, the jury retired for two and a quarter hours. Every one of them was a Protestant, and there was no woman among them. But they returned with a verdict of "Not guilty," which was greeted with applause in the court and some cries of "Thank God!" Out in Coalisland a silent crowd waited irr the diamond and dispersed with relief when the good news came through.

Mr. Hostettler wrote after the trial: "As an Englishman I have never visited Ireland before . . . Apart from the trial my visits to Belfast have also opened my eyes to the very grim picture of govern-ment and police repression in the six counties . . No democrat can remain in-different to these things."

I t might have been thought t ha t Mal-lon and Talbot would have been allowed home at once to recover from their nine-mon th ordeal. According to the "Belfast Telegraph":—

"Immediately af ter they had been found not guilty . . and ordered to be released from the dock, the two young Coalisland men, Kevin Mallon and Francis Talbot were taken into police custody. They were then held for three or four hours in a police waiting room while senior police officers conferred and were then smuggled out of the court-house through a back exit and driven to the Police Office to await the issue of a detention order by the Ministry of Home Affairs." The Minister readily complied and two

days later Mallon and Talbot appeared once more in court, this time charged among other things with unlawful pos-session of that very cache of arms and explosives for which James O'Donnell was already serving ten years. And once again out came the confessions of last November. This time Mallon and Tal-bot were not represented by counsel and refused to give evidence while once again repudiating the confessions. They were found guilty and sentenced to fourteen and eight years respectively. This time Sergeant Herman testified that Mallon came from a respectable hard-working family and had lived at home. In Decem-ber, 1962, organisations of the British and Irish Labour and Nationalist move-ments were still trying to secure their release.

Impressions The first impression of these trials is

of a police force grown careless f rom the possession of too comprehensive powers. Messrs. Barritt and Carter say: "It seems to us that on occasion the police will use ruugh treatment against those who are, a f t e r all, trying to murder them." After aU, trying to murder them? After 'what? i t %OuW be hoped af ter a jury hftd found

GRACIE 0 6 MACHREE WHEN, on Ramillies' bloody field,

The baffled French were forced to yield,

The victor Saxon backward reeled Before the charge of Clare's Dragoons, The flags we oonquered in that fray Look lone in Ypres' choir, they say, We'll win them company today, Or bravely die like Clare's Dragoons.

Viva la, for Ireland's wrong! Viva la, for Ireland's right. Viva la, in battle throng, For a Spanish steed and sabre bright!

Another Clare is here to lead, The worthy son of such a breed ; The French expect some famous deed, When Clare leads on his bold dragoons. Our Colonel comes f rom Brian's race, His wounds are in his breast and face, The bearna baoghail is still his place The foremost of his bold dragoons.

Viva la, the new brigade! Viva ta, the old one, too! Viva la, the rose shall fade, And the shamrock stiine for ever new!

Oh! Comrades, think how Ireland pines, Her exiled lords, her rifled shrines, Her dearest hope the ordered lines, And bursting charge of Clare's Dragoons, Then fling your green flag to the sky, Be LIMERICK! your battle-cry, And charge, till blood flows fetlock-high Around the track of Clare's Dragoons.

Viva ta, the new brigade! Viva la, the old one too! Viva la, the rose shall fade And the shamrock shine for ever new!

T H O M A S DAVIS .

CLARES DRAGOONS

JOHN K. C A S E Y

I P L A C E D the silver in her palm, 1 By Inny's smiling tide, And vowed, ere summer time cams on,

To claim her as a bride. Bnt when the summer time came on,

I dwelt beyond the sea ; Yet still my heart is ever true

To Gracie Og Machree.

0 bonnie are the woods of Trag, And green thy hills, Rathmore,

And soft the sunlight ever falls On Darre's sloping shore ;

And there the eyes I love—in tears Shine ever mournfully,

While I am far, and far away From Gracie Og Machree.

When battlesteeds were neighing loud, With bright blades in the air,

Next to my inmost heart I wore A bright tress of her hair,

When stirrup-cups were lifted up To lips, with soldier glee,

One toast I always fondly pledged, 'Twas Gracie Og Machree.

0 ! I may never, never clasp Again, her lily hand,

And I may find a soldier's grave Upon a foreign strand ;

But when the heart pulse beats the last,

And death takes hold of me, One word shall part my dying lips,

Thy name, Asthore Machree. them guilty. I t is striking that to many people in Northern Ireland the picture of the police acting as judge, jury and executioner arouses no surprise. They are used to it.

The second impression is that Republi-cans are allowing themselves to be black-mailed by their refusal to give t l » courts de facto recognition. If the Mallon and Talbot case had been pressed through to a conclusion with capable counsel the Six-County Government would have suf-fered one of the greatest setbacks in its history. It is even doubtful whether, if they had known beforehand that the case would be defended, they would have dared to stage the second trial.

The origin of this 'purism' is historical. Refusal to recognise the court was a way of drawing attention to packed juries. During the dual power from 1919 to 1921 Republicans naturally made a point of honour to take their disputes to the Dail Eireann courts and to boycott the British. James Connolly, on the other hand, when arrested in 1913, contented himself with saying he did not recognise the court (de jurei but then accepted it (de facto) and defended himself. When sentenced, how-ever, he went on hunger strike, by such tactics combining what was best in two approaches. The tactics of Republicans are, however, a mat ter for themselves, and the valiant struggle for their rights by Mallon and Talbot deserves to be long remembered by all democrats.

The Republican movement has received scant attention and scanter praise in Britain. It is therefore necessary to state for the Information of the British worker that even those who disapprove of its tactics recognise the high standard of political principle and personal Integrity of Its Weinberg. Hie i r rejection of reli-gious Sectarianism makes them accessible to Protestant democrats who sometimes give way to a suspicion tha t the Catho-lics might VlBh to rr tai tate. The inter-

nationalism of the Republican tradition brings points of contact with socialism.

I t may be that in the coming period the Republicans will have to draw fresh inspiration from their founder. The Six Counties of Northern Ireland have some resemblances with Ireland as a whole in 1782-1800, both administratively and poli-tically. The agitation of Wolfe Tone for Catholic emancipation, democratisaUon of the franchise and the unity of all Ir ishmen irrespective of creed under the banner of democracy almost exactly fits the requirements of today. I t may yet happen tha t Tone's grand strategy may be carried out on the ground where he had the greatest hopes of it. Success depends on the difficult task of securing a junction between the Nationalist mo^t-ment and the working class movement.

The fact that such possibilities are in-herent in their position accounts for the Unionist determination to give short shr i f t to Republicans far more than the fact tha t they are the alleged repositories of the doctrine of physical force.

DIGGING UP OLD DUBLIN

—Continued from Par; Four the remains of a warping tree on which the warp threads were arranged l>cfore se t t ing , them up on the loom.

Some data on the food of the inhabi-tants are provided by the presence of large quantities of oyster, cockle, mussel and periwinkle shells, together with bones of cattleT sheep and pigs.

As a total area of approximately 4.000 square feet was opened for excavation purposes much remains to be done before the investigation ts carried down to the original ground level, and it is hoped to continue the work this season for as long aR the W a t h e r permits, and to resume it early in the coming year.

January 1963 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT

IRISH ODYSSEY " B R E N D A N BEHAN'S ISLAND," and. as those up here are as good as

II

by Brendan Behan and Paul Hogarth (published by Hutchinson ?5 / - ) . UTCHINSON. in publishing this book has given the author a unique oppor-

a laugh, as when lie spends a few pages

an anti-Catholic

of his

umj;v to give a "dose of castor oil" to 0f his tongue all ?.;id sundry. This gives us a chance y E T { o r a l l t h i s . t h e r e i s s o m e t h i n g

nt ' I " T ° r T ° f , t h e m ° ' S t ' T h p British Press took him , a n d ;v»«en about Irish writers to its bosom and even the "Sunday Times"

ol ,_.e piesent time. a n d L o n d o n . . T i m e S " recommended the Hr.if the value and beauty of the book b o°k to readers. Is Behan writing to

is contained in ihe drawings of the Eng- please English audiences and guilty of Iish artist, Paul Hogarth, which adorn 80 perpetrating the stage Irishman into the of the book's 200-odd pages. bargain? The "Irish Democrat" represents

Hogarth, whose previous works concen- t h e i n l e r e s t s o f t n e emigrants and is in t rated on showing the simple heroism of t h e f l ' o n t h n e a S a i n s t British ruling ordinary people, continues this travelling with Behan except when the Connemara coast or the Donegal moun-tains a t t rac t the Englishman away from his companion. I feel, as a Dubliner, tha*. the atmosphere Hogarth has created is sc real one can nearly smell the Liffey; what with the sketches of the kids play-ing :n Mountjoy Square, the old people in their snugs, the coopers at work in Guinness's and not forgetting the Half-penny bridge or the back streets along the quays. I showed the book to some steely,orkers of Belfast origin over a pint after work and the.v were very impressed. "The old place hasn't changed at all."

"Brendan Behan's Island" had aroused controversy some time before it was pub-lished, an illustration of how the author 's reputation has been expanded by his TV appearances and the malice of the Eng-lish gossip columnists, as well as by his literary work. The Cork Library Com-mittee debated with many a word the desiiability of exposing the good citizens along the Lee to a blast of Dublin "guff."

"No." said the defenders of public morals and pinions, "we are getting fed up with Joyce and Behan and I do not think public money should be spent buying their work*. Behan is a genius but the image of Ireland he' is projecting abroad is a disgrace." However, reason won. i h e day and now beside Proust and Tagore an-other "quare fellow" wickedly looks down upon the "innocents'" from the book-shelves.

Slu!, I suppose the Cork Library Cam-mi; tee had their reasons, as Behan is likely to criticise anyone from English Tories to their Irish counterpart , the Dublin middle class to the Orange men.

He gets all this into his tours, not always pub crawling, around Dub-lin, Cork, the West up to the "Black North." He also squeezes in two bitter-sweet poems to Joyce and Oscar Wilde, the text of his play, "The Big House" and two excellent short stories. The stories. "Thf Confirmation Suit" and "A Woman of No Standing." have a surprising ten-derness about them and make a change from some of the repetitive yarns and mannerisms which crop up many times in h^s different works.

Interlacing reminiscences and Chaucer-ian tales, songs and poems, is his run-ning commentary on every aspect of Irish life; "vou have the same sameness of depression in all Irish cities. Belfast. Dublin. Cork. Limerick. Galway — unemployment and emigration. get-ting to the boat and away, coming home with a few quid, staying happily for a fortnight, miserably for a week, before runn.ng back again to some slum in Birmingham or Wigan or London "

This is one of the few attempts to look at the problem from the point of view of the emigrants. Of course, the a t tempt is somewhat spoiled by the suggestion, an obvious exaggeration, that all the Irish resident in England, who go on holidays to Ireland, live in slums in England.

He sees through the Partition "frame-up" and his horse-sense of Republicanism never deserts him After describing the machinations of gerrymandering. Special P o w r s Act. and "B" Specials, his em-phasis on the Northern workers to make the next move in the Irish struggle for unity and and independence shows a sound political insight, considering the lermenting atmosphere in Belfast and Newry today. "So, there's a wind of change up there too that Macmilian might take note ol also."

He sees a possible use for the Orange sectarianism when its teeth have been drswn. "It 's a rokmrful show. I must admit and I think when the countrv is again united, we'll keep It going under tl»e auspices of the Tourist Board. After all, people travel to distant countries to see these tribal ceremonies and (lances

any to be found, we might as well make talking about the effects of 'gerrymander a bit ot money out of them." i n g vet ends it off with

The Anglo-Irish ascendancy class, "the joke, horse Protestants" with their hypocritical He himself has this to sav ways and those who have made ghost approach in "The Hostage" •--villages of the Gaelteact suffer the wrath "Joan Littlewood has the same views

on the theatre that I have, which is that the music-hall is the thing to aim at to amuse people and any time they get bored, divert them with a song or a dance. . . . While they were laugh-ing their heads off you could be up to any bloody thing behind their backs; and it was what you were doing behind their bloody backs tha t made your play great."

,, A recent dramatist, a refugee from the while c l a s s e s ' s o c l a l - Political and psychological bankrupt "absurdity" of the French

attitude towards Ireland. theatre. Arthur Adamov. in an interview Which side does Behan help? It must with the London "Times." made some

be admitted that many of his remarks shrewd observations which Brendan and actions are an embarrassment to Behan could well ponder over. The theatre exiles. The opinion is widely held that of nonsense, he said, like Ionsesco. pre-he could take a firmer stand against tends to criticise the ruling class, yet the British imperialism. Many Irish who latter can see the play, "enjoy it and say would criticise the figure he cuts in to themselves. 'Look, that's us—how England would be on his side against funny,' when they should be saying the more conservative elements in Ireland. 'That's us, how terrible!' They go away It is a cruel twist of politics, yet it has amused and self-congratulatory in being been said that even "The Merchant of able to take a joke about themselves in Venice" could in certain circumstances be good part, when they should be shattered considered an anti-Semetic play. at the truth."

Part of the trouble comes from Behan's Has Behan the same fault? Is he theory of the function of literature and creating the invention which will return drama. Everything must go over with to plague the inventor, i.e., an audience

BOOK PAGE Edited by

Gerard Curran

which will never take him seriously, which will result in his being isolated from his working-class audience ("the only real people") up in the "gods." If he thinks Ireland can be symbolised as a brothel then he must know tha t John Bull is the procurer and the greatest of them all at that .

I F we are asking for a high standard 1 from Brendan Behan it is because

we leel he can give so much more and we understand what he is up against, with the pundits of the Dublin stage, the failure of the men of property to finish the Irish national revolution and their "Irishmen forget the past" brain-washing. Why not remind us again of our history, of the famine "the kind of things t ha t cannot be forgotten in a day or two" when "Queen Victoria was very distressed about her loyal subjects and she sent £ 5 to the Famine Relief Fund. Then, in case she might be thought to be showing open sympathy with a crowd of rebels, she sent £5 to the Battersea Boys' Home."

T. Redmond.

SELF HELP mention of their

classes own draughty over-and badlv-equipped

"HELPING T H E IMMIGRANTS." The Report of the West Midlands crowded Area C.P.C. Study Group. Price 6d. s c h o o l s

Publishers: Conservative Political 11 i s alleged that the Irish iami-Centre. l i e s a r e accustomed to overcrowded

I IKE many Conservative pamphlets, a n d squalid conditions. It was cer-"Helping the Immigrants" is an at- t a i n l y U ' u e o f t h e Twenty-Six Counties

tempt to make the reader forget Uie when the latter was under direct damage already done by the Conservative B r ' t i s h rule. Now. however, the worst Government. The Government's Immi- hol>sing conditions are to be found in gration Act has already turned all the E n 8 ' a n d and Northern Ireland. In the immigrants into second-class citizens and ! a t t e r - t h e Catholics are deprived of new was designed to split the workers in their l l 0 U s e s -struggles against unemployment, the Common Market and for higher wages. Writing such a pamphlet is like under-taking to protect householders against burglars, having first made it illegal for them to use locks or bolts on their doors,

The pamphlet accuses the West Indian house-owners (sometimes they club to-gether to buy a house I of tax-dodging. Here the writers have become self-appointed enquiry agents for the Inspec-tor of Taxes. Surely this sort of thing

and then proceeding to point out weak- s h o u l d be left to the Government depart-nesses in the windows and roofs and for- m e n t Tax-dodging by the rich would be getting to mention that the writers of a m 0 l e fruitful subject for the writers, the pamphlet are themselves accomplices ° n v i e w ' n g the "slum houses" of immi-of the burglars. grants, a mood of Tennessee Williams

The first of the many black marks romanticism came over the writers, against the immigrants is their habit of " A n atmosphere of hopeless decay concentrating in particular areas and settles on the district.' causing the indigenous population to 11 i s a ! 'eged the immigrants are often move out. This applies to both West disease-ridden. "The fact that many Indians. Pakistanis and Irish. All these Immigrants are living here without their people who have had experience of British w °men folk must be relevant." So the colonial rule have learned that unity is d l s e a s e l s coming from English women, strength. It is not surprising that this w h a t a n exposure of the British Ministry annoys the Conservative investigators. o f Health! i r p H E report is at pains to stress the ' r PHESE expert fault-finders were unable J terrible difficulties caused to the edu- to criticise the Irish under the head-

cation authorities bv the influx of immi- ing "Industrial Relations." grants. "First there are the Irish immigrants,

"Irish children speak with strong who have been coming to this country brogues which are hard to interpret " Yet ior many years and have been success-the most eminent dramatic experts go into raptures when they hear the same strong brogue on the stage. An English teacher of phonetics, not in a provincial town, once told me Irish people should treasure their accents, praised dialects in general and said what a pitv it would be if dull s tandard English was to oust them evervwhere.

"They I the children I have similar diffl-

THE TRAP SPRUNG WATCH the "Orange a r d Green"

talks. What could have been a wonderful

ful reconciliation is redolent of danger. Sir George Clarke has mads the official

Orangg proposals fcr the agenda of his next get-together with Senator Lennon. He suggssts that what should be dis-cussed is Nationalist recognition of the Northern Ireland Govsrr.ment. Since the Nationalists already recognize the Northern Ireland Government DE FACTO by going into Parliament, this can only be directed at t he Republic.

The t rap is sprung. Beware of it. Senator Lennon asked for talks to im-prove relations between the communities and banish sectarianism. The Orange Order come back with a political demand that the Nationalists should give up their historic aim.

The Catholics are Britain's hostages. Recognize the border and we'll not t rea t them so rough. The barbarity of i t!

Brooke as well When Nationalist M.P,s asked Lord

Brookeborough if he would carry out Mr. Brooke's advice to cooperate with Mr. Lemass, the Unionists quoted" Mr. Brooke's speech in full. He had said tha t the border would stay and must say, but subject to t ha t he wanted co-operation between the Governments.

What could this mean but a demand that Lemass recognizes the border?

The Unionists stowed t t o position by immediately demanding the recognition of partition by Lomap as a condition to be met before they would soeak with Mm.

What was behind it? Britain is con-fronted with the problem tha t going into E.E.C. might weaken the economic aspects of partition. She is therefore anxious to get the political aspects well sewn, when she feels she wili be able to get the Unionists to agree to a settle-ment in which she will in effect be the boss of all Ireland.

Belfast workers are Britain's hootages. They will b« fed a bit better if Mr. Lemass recognises tho Tory-imposed border.

And Doyle Why won't Brookeborough

prisoners out? (Continued on Page Eight)

let the

fully accepted into the framework of industry and the trade union move-ment. They are known to a certain type oi labour, mostly manual, and have earned great respect amongst em-ployers for their hard work and integ-rity. As far as can be ascertained they do not present any great problem in industry." The "solution" offered by the pamphlet

culty in understanding standard English." is to split up the groups of immigrants. Surely people whose ancestors occupied teach them to respect the "highly deve-Ireland for 700 years will not be upset loped standards" established in Britain by a small prcblem like this. and slowly raise them to the level of

"Several experienced teachers have ex- those standards. Thus isolated from their pressed the opinion that Irish children fellows they can soon forget their "shame- isation which defends their interests. Join generally suffer from educational neglect, ful" customs and learn to become Eng- a trade union and fight with the Ingl i sh Furthermore in their experience. Irish lish The indigenous population ts urged workers for higher wages, against unem-parents are often careless of their child- to patronise the process. In this "solu- ployment and the Common Market, ren's educational interests." tion" two features of British ruling-class Oppose Tory attempts to isolate immi-

Note the pompous language What does thinking compete for supremacy—arro- grants irom their fellows, educational neglect mean? We would gance and hypocrisy. Preserve and foster national customs want to know the age of the children. Those experienced in the Jungle habits and culture. Try and absorb what is and the subjects involved to check on this of the Tory animal would give the follow- good in your new surroundings. Labour's allegation. Also were the parents of the Ing advice to immigrants and those who history of struggle. English li terature and children seen? Was the matter discussed genuinely want to help them. science. Reject what is bad, Toryism with Irish organisations? To record the Fight the Immigrants Act and support with all its snobbery, cult of the rat-race, prejudices of anti-Irish teachers could Fenner Brock way's Bill to outlaw racial warmongering, racial hatred, paternalism hardly be described Us carrying out a discrimination. Join a genuine West and hypocrisy. scientific survey. There is naturally no Indian. Irish, Pakistani or African organ- G.C.

T H E

V FOI: IRISH W O R K E R S AND P A T R I O T S W I T H tHF. C O U R A G E TO THINK

FOLLY UNBELIEVABLE AMNESTY CAMPAIGN SWEEPS 6-COUNTIES

T H E Political Prisoners' Release 1 Committee started in Belfast by

Messrs. Sean Stinson, James O'Kane a n d Sean Mac Eochaidh has had in-s t a n t and startling success.

Begun "on a shoe-string," it has com-ing into its office a t 3 College Square North, every day resolutions from all de-scription of organisations.

At the outside Mr. Joseph Connellan, M.P, gave his full backing. Resolutions demanding release were passed at meet-ings of the Ulster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association when it met in Armagh OR November 25th. of the C.A.W.U., the Belfast Trades Coun-cil, Newry Trades Council, and at boards

Resolutions were coming up at branches of the Gaelic League and G.A.A.

Locally too Local committees have been set up in

Derrv City, Lurgan, Dungannon, Coal-island, and Newry.

Enthusiastic helpers are coming for-ward and meetings have been held in Dungannon and Lurgan.

A new note is being sounded which is very ominous for the Government. If Northern Ireland Labour had sounded it th*y would have won Cromac. Committees are being advised to hold meetings and poster parades, and to have observers from the National Council for Civil Liberties

I t the police are so foolish as to try and interfere the committee will seek solidarity action f rom nationalist, demo-cratic and Labour organisations both in Northern Ireland and across the channel. And they will get It too. The year 1962 is not 1912 for all the jubilating and commemorating.

This splendid self-oonfidence is one of the highest auguries of success.

Prisoners 1|fae committee is making known who

the prisoners are and what they are like. Far example, take Robert Gerard Mur-

ray # ; M W f t He w a r bnfy 1» when was sentenced to ten years' imprison-

Ten years' imprisonment for a boy of IS!

Can you believe it? That is Northern Ireland.

Then there is Mr. J. B. O'Hagan, Lur-gan, Co. Armagh. He is a married man with five young children. His wife is in poor health and has been a patient in a Lurgan hospital for a month.

How can a woman hope to recover .sufficiently to look a f te r her children when the worry of her imprisoned husband weighs down her mind?

Yet the disturbances which caused the imprisonments have stopped a year ago. Can the Unionists never forest anything? Are they the modern Bourbons who "learned nothing and forgot nothing"?

A.C.U. BRANCH ACTS

The Gladstone No. 2 Branch of the Amalgamated Engineering Union has sent a message to the Home Secretary, de-manding the release of Joseph Doyle f rom Wakefield prison. I t is also under-stood that action to secure and enquiry into the operation of the Government of Ireland Act will be taken by organisations of the same trade union. Pressing for such action is Mr. J. Fitzgerald of Wlllesden.

NORTHERN IRELAND LABOUR M P s. VOTE WITH TORIES

And come crashing in Cromac by-election " T H E R E are no grounds for any dramatic opening of the jail gates,"

' Home Secretary Mr. Brian Faulkner told the House, when Nationalists joined with the Labour Party in an effort to secure the release of the Republican prisoners from Crumiin Road jail.

The motion was moved by Mr. Harry Diamond, and seconded by Mr. Gerry Pitt. Both speakers made it clear that their object was to bury the hatchet and try to effect a reconciliation between different sections of the Irish people.

Most likely they were trying to perform a "statesmanlike act" just before the election and appear before the electors as the men who affected a reconciliation. When they <;ould not get the prisoners to

brave men in prison and telling them they do what they wanted they must have must grovel and beg their way out of it. jumped to the conclusion t h a t the men

When Mr. Diamond tried to force a divi- they could not convince should be given sion by moving the question be put. the the kind of love tha t consists of chastisfc-Liberal, Miss Sheila Murnaghan, of ment. How men can delude themselves!

Mr" Faulkner, "in"what"Mr. Cahir Healy Q u e s n s University, supported the com- Yet there they are. described as a "bitter speech," said he b i n e d forces of the Nationalist Party and They are the only representatives the could not act on the assumption that the t h e Labour Party. The Northern Ireland Protestant workers have and it is they I R A was finished Labour group alone among the opposition who need the schoolmaster, not the

He seemed to take it strongly amiss w a l k e d i n t o t h e l o b b y w i t h t h e T o r i e s - prisoners, that the prisoners had not petitioned for Protests their release. There were immediate protests from

A s s u r a n c e s several sources. Surprise of1 the debate came when The Political Prisoners Release Com- . . ...

Northern Ireland' Labour member T. W. mittee issued a bulletin which stated tha t u n t is s t i l™ne^ed P 6

Boyd explained the position of his group, "these "Labour' men have shown an arro-

They have created a situation when it depends on t h e wisdom and forbearance of the nationally-minded part ies to stop recriminations as soon as possible and

He had been to see the prisoners with gant contempt for the feelings of the pub-Mr. Simpson, and had told them that the lie as seen in the enthusiastic support Government would require assurances accorded the free-the-prisoners campaign from them before they would be let out. in every pa r t of the Six Counties. They

"A measure of forgiveness involves a have also chosen to ignore the representa-measure of repentance." he declared. tions made on behalf of the prisoners by

Mr. Joseph Stewart said he thought the 100 T.D.s and 25 M.P.s at Westminster." Northern Ireland Labour group's move in There is no doubt that the British M.P.s interviewing the prisoners was the "great- who signed the telegram calling for an est piece of political jobbery I have ever amnesty have saved the reputation of come across." He hoped the nationally- Labour among the Nationalist population minded people of Cromac would take of Belfast, and also prevented the action notice of their action. of the Northern Ireland Labour group

This was a reference to a by-election f rom injuring the prospects of Labour which took place just afterwards in which candidates in Irish constituencies in his words must have proved prophetic as Britain. Northern Ireland Labour was annihilated W h v d o i t ? and the Unionist increased his poll. P e o p l e a r e a s k l n ^ w h a t i s [ h e r e a s o n f o r

Doesn't work this act of unimaginable folly? The electors must have felt there was Is it t ha t they are in the grip of a

something politically repulsive in lecturing theory, the theory that it is possible for a Labour Party that identifies itself with Unionism to replace Unionism? T h a t it is possible to penetrate Stormont by stealth, and introduce the reign of democracy w i t h o u t fighting for democracy?

While some members of the Northern Ireland Labour group are said to be "local preachers," it is surely out of the question tha t they should have been blinded by religious prejudice.

Those who know this have the task of preventing the division.

M.C.F. Resolution Ar T the meet ing of the General

Council of t h e ' Movement for Colonial Freedom (President, Mr. Fenner Brock way, M.P.) , on Decem-ber 15th, the fo l l owing resolution w a s passed and sent to t h e Home Secre-tary :

"The M.C.F. urges you to release Joseph Doyle from Wakefield Prison, where he is serving a life sentence for his part in the Arborfield camp raid in 1955. We are anxious that he should be released and allowed to re-turn to his family before Christmas, season of goodwill."

The trap sprung —(Continued from Page 8even).

Why is the British Government con-tinuing to hold Doyle in Wakefield?

Is it possible that they have in mind a deal ooming off in which Mr. Lamass recognizee the partition of Ireland, then promises are made to the Catholics and the Belfast workers.

And to crown it with a cap of goodwill Doyle and the other prisoners are Ist out.

If this Is true, then Doyle Is Britain's hostage, like the other prisoners in Crumlin Road jalL

They will be let out ir Lemass is pre-pared to take the whole country back into jail.

We must see this does not happen. Let the prisoners out now.

Printed by Ripley Printers Ltd. (T.O.), Nottingham Road, Ripley, Derbys., and ' published by Connolly Publications Ltd., at m x f e a y s ina. Boad. T wlwa . ,w.c.i.

RELEASE JOE DOYLE Has your T.U. Branch passed a resolution?

IF SO Let the "Democrat" have it for publication.

bodies wished

He won't A NUMBER of student

^ Manchester University organise a public debate between Pro-fessor Carter, p a r t author of the much-discussed controversial book "The Northern Ireland Problem" and Mr. Des-mond Greaves, Editor of the Ir ish Demo-crat.

The Professor declined the invitation. Perhaps he heard that his co-author,

Mr. Barritt, had been having a rough time at discussions in Belfast.

THOUSANDS SEE IRISH PICKET

\ T the very busiest time of day mem-bers of t he Manchester Branch of

the Connolly Association marched with posters through the streets of Manchester crowded with Christmas shoppers from all over Lancashire.

The marchers stopped f rom time to time to picket a t various points and en-able the crowds to read their posters.

On the posters were demands for the release of Joe Doyle and the other Re-publican prisoners incarcerated by Bri-tish Imperialism. The date of t he parade was November 24th. A second parade which was to take taken place three weeks later was frustrated by a 100-mile an hour gale. When the members assembled with their posters it was de-cided that it would not be sa fe to lift them off the ground.

South London's projected poster parade for the same purpose in Brixton was for-bidden by the police.

Have you yet re-enrolled for 1963 ? OR IF NOT A M E M B E R WHY N O T J O I N ?

F i l l this form in, out out and post with 7/6 to—

Connolly Association Head Office, 374 Grays Inn Road, W.C.1

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