lutein rn partt-^ p o uige the

action and indifference cj as much evil as iltco precipitancy. i.

The bolstering up col Unionist privilege counties, and the truckling to it$ powef i jtifefc: when the Unlofiff -fate: successfully :jMMj British Parliament, is-a the background of fltfefca that' must not be forgott*

2 (km. • 5 f m m M k m Wk.' ''mSPM m

to do I. u •rating, ami etltohMl M nut tan.

..J'f.i a ha»:jto

Mason>M| ninths thai yMrt-aiNl 1

SH DEMOCRAT FOUNDED IN 1939 MONTHLY ORGAN OF THE CONNOLLY ASSOCIATION

No. 392 FEBRUARY 7977 Price tSp

IRELAND EEC

DICTATORSHIP 'THE Dublin_ Government has

refused to be brow-beaten by the Europeans who were try-ing to persuade them to agree to the extradition of political prisoners.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Fitzgerald, said that he was shocked at the op-position he had to contend with from Common Market coun-tries, when he explained that they were trying to make him break the constitution,

v. " -iaix E.E.C. countries ganged

up against him,

-But Ireland will not sign the convention they want.

THE TRUE ROAD TO PEACE NOTES & NEWS CAVAGE price rises for coal * have been introduced both injthe six counties and in the Republic. The six county rises mean that a bag of ooal is more than ten per cent dearer from February 1st.

In the Republic the increase _ in coal price* coincides with

THE Connolly Association has issuedon appeal to all Irish re pub- swingeing increases in the ooet . . j ' - a* is a m. . ' ^ • :• i • S . electricity, oil an* turf, a«d ticons and nationalists to unite in a campaign to bring pressure people with central heating are

on Hie Labour Government to change its present policy towards Ireland. par,lcu,ar,y1^2l

The statement notes that the present position of seeking solutions is proving sterile of results, and

that the first move should be made by the British mentstating that it was prepared to accede to the the Majority of the Irish people, to work for the ft Wand.

U ' - ' 1 -conditions

this desirable - object could by peaceful

for on such a basis it would have been necessary to support Hitler.

these

r,

youiig Irish people Into mistaken courses. . • . ' f -

r ••

/^HAiwea mQm »a* enacting era bf antagonism, between • l ^ i i l i M i i l P W l t t l i w i ' I n - .

Wf

be achieved means, so ending the long

a nsw «rder ha* h*n issued in drafts with insufficient time tar

g.xi-jfeiMb alii v'Va 'J, • 'ime/iLiTffijjjp'' " ' aitBiEi' e'jX-i

tar psrsonai in- the pfrihcipal peoples of these

islands.

paidout wilt - But this saving of money k> being ariitevtd in'an txcoptlonally nasty

of loss or damage

nflttttn*. pafnetper* Miiiurt the viotlm

t GOVERNMENTS' whiCH ' W-^ sorts to systematic harass ment of harmless civilians, to calculated torture pfebli&y con-demned in international courts, to the total destruction of repre-sentative Government, and. att; to maintain a counter-revoluti Vendee in the heart at a i

statement runs as bouring country, cannot , . responsibility when

it r ^ V ; . - . -Mjiitimrnt provokes, . •: rnpB. '^otmotljr jtasociation de- ' mistaken as we *

plores the recommencement * — - of bomtotag in London, qnd

urges those responsible, if tlsty are as is claimed, «f JMsh origin, to think fgato. .

It is a terriWe thing; to risk tUt^lffes and llmbs W" fehow

"" M ' "

The 1977 ^Irishman of the year" voted by readers of the "Irish Post,"- is Mr Domhnall

will be a hard road to MacAmhlaigh, is a:, mein-progresain these islands as be* of the CcmAplly association,

;;as the Fascist enclave to and whose serial story is con-tinued on Ireland is allowed to

Government shiouki; tolerate it, when this' toleration Is due

" Jltrategic posittoeis, in wiich we are SCrry to aay Britain^ has proved more reactionary than the United

.' B t ^ V f •

-We call Laboiu-

W-mv that Qnuqgp i'^Mlp^on must

because members of the 1 class support it is s M ^ g r

Wil* M a F l t B E D E q i -' i r l i r miiiriiirtii''

2 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT February, 1977

I * B R I T A I N T O D A Y

Wrong men HOW TO RUIN A COUNTRY in jail?

| jJ RAVE d isqu ie t has been caused by the s t a t e m e n t

by the m e n accused of t h e Bal-combe S t r e e t hold-up tha t t hey were r e spons ib l e for . the Gui ld-ford bombings , and tha t those w h o a re p r e s e n t doing t i m e fo r t h e m w e r e not respons ib le at all.

If th is is correct it m e a n s tha t the m e t h o d s of t r ac ing these of fences to the i r p e r p e t r a -tors a re s u b j e c t to ser ious doubts . .<' This is one more illustration of the evils attendant on the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which is designed to make it easy to get convictions, but which many think does not adequately protect the rights of accused persons.

There would seem to be a case for an enquiry. Perhaps the attorney - general would have a look at this 9

Innocent man held seven

months A N important letter to the Lon-

don Times tells of how a man was arrested and charged with murdering his wife.

After a trial lasting seven days he was released without a stain on his character.

But the trial only took place after he had been held in jail for seven months.

This is what goes on as one-time Liberal England sinks down into the slough of heafr-TasCism. $ i •

Queen's Counsel Prank Whit-worth argues that innocent people who are treated in this barbarous way should at least be compen-sated.

So should the many Irish people who have been terrorised and de-tained under the Prevention of Ter-rorism Act.

If the authorities have come to the conclusion that they cannot prevent crime without taking "mea-sures against the innocent, and European Mr Jenkins said as much, then they should be prepared to pay for it, and compensate them.

I ATEST news on how the E E C . * J is ruining Britain's e c o n o m y -

provided by courtesy of the Gov-ernment- that got us there.

The balance of investment be-tween Britain and the other EEC countries has become worse—not. better—since the country became an EEC. member. So much for all that dynamic foreign capital that was going to flow into Britain once all the barriers were down.

In fact the flow has been all the other way. With "free movement of capital" one of the Tablets of the Law of the Community, is now-easier than ever for the men of capital, the Banks, insurance com-panies and investment trusts, to collect the savings of the English, the Scots and the Welsh and make money out of them by investing them in Dusseldorf, Brussels, Paris and Milan.

Britain is now investing five times as much money in the Com-mon Market countries as their re-turn investment. Since Britain joined the EEC the British capital-ists have invested £886 million there, of ' which £440 million was in Common Market manufacturing industry.

Of course tha t is why Big Busi-ness in Britain wanted to join the

AN IMPORTANT CONFERENCE

"LIBERATION" (President : Lord Brockway) is organ-

ising an important national con-ference on the subject of racism, at The Friends' House, Euston Road, London, N.W.I, on Satur-day, Mafch ,19th.

We hope tKat all branches of the Connolly Association will be represented, and that other Irish organisations will assist.

The Movement for Colonial Free-dom, as it was formerly called, is one of the very few English or-ganisations that has declared in principle for the objective of a united independent Ireland, and therefore deserves support during the present period of black reaction, when most people are afraid even to mention the word partition.

Application form can be obtained from Mr Tony Gilbert, at 313 Cale-donian Road, London N.l.

Common Market in the first place —so that they might accelerate the rundown of British industry which has been going on for so long and transfer their most profitable acti-vities abroad.

' T H E big capitalist concerns that dominate industry in Britain

and who campaigned so fervently through the Confederation of British Industry on behalf of E.E.C. membership have got no ^national loyalties. The English politicians who serve them have scarcely any national loyalties either—at least the pro-Common Market lot. Then-interests are ,«iow multi-national, not British, English, or confined to these islands. Their criterion of good policy is what benefits their balance sheets, and if industry at home goes to pot through under-

investment, while they invest eagerly abroad, they could not give a damn. These men of money arc-not sentimental nationalists!

In giving these figures for in-vestment flows between Britain and the E.E.C. the Government spokes-man, Mr Meacher, said that it might take some time yet for the advantages of the Common Market to show themselves.

He said a mouthful, brother; for it is becoming clearer and clearer now that it is only by either leav-ing or busting up the E.E.C. that policies can be adopted which alone offer hope of "regenerating" British industry, ending unemploy-ment and getting' some sense back into this country's chaotic economy.

And the same goes for Ireland, let it be said.

THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS T ! ^ H E Government persuaded

everybody to do with a four pound a week wage-hike, promising that by the end of 1976 inflation, would be down to single figures.

*

Was it ? Not it. It remained at 15 per cent!

So what are they saying now ? That you should do with a smaller wage increase still this year, or none at all. But there is no promise this time of a re-duction in inflation. The best they can hope is to Hold fifteen per cent; and there is a danger that it will go up to twenty per cent.

And food prices, under Com-mon Market rules, will go up more stilL i -

What a time then for the IRISH DEMOCRAT to be ask-ing for more donations. Well, here you are. If people don't support things like the IRISH DEMOCRAT, the peofcfle who are the cause of all the trouble will have it all their, own way. It's surely Worth a bob or two to put a sprag in the wheel of the profiteers and imperialists.

£1, Anon £20, V. Griffin £2, R. Gordon 85p, B. Farrington £2.70, J. Lyne 50p, F. Hook 55p, South London Jumble Sale £40, J. O'Brien £1 , G. Hutchins £6, J. McGoldrick £1 , K. Lynch £5 , Dublin Friends £5, South London C.A. £13.30, South London Readers £4.76, Central Lon-don Readers £4.15, East Lon-don Readers £1.87, West Lon-don Readers ?0p. T O T A L : £111.38.

FOR THIS AS WELL ,vIiHE money for the organiser's

fund is not coming in as quickly as we had hoped, so we hope our friends will note the cause of the delay in getting our man on the road.

One thing members of the Con-nolly Association can do at once however is to renew their subscrip-tions. In the oldien days these were based on the beginning of the year, not at present, on the time you join. So there are plenty of subscriptions due now.

Meanwhile our thanks to:

ORGANISER FUND T, Leonard fit, J. Lyne 60p, R.

Gibbs £1, <1. Deighan £10, Tyne & wear Branch C.A. £8, Ned Connolly £20, L. O'Doheity £6. TOTAL: £46.50.

controls whether you hMe aiofc or net ? .. - Who*

dqeMei what industry thai* ex-pand or where investlWWt: will 4mw i^mo Aseaeti day pguss More and more of these deai-ttons are taken outside Britain and: taken Instead inside Bras-IA|d I imamliaiiin

JOHN BOYD • t^^str-sm,

irtt nil ill .11 wWIW IVIHJBVW

Is twiHftn a ttaol* tkm or the CBC to atlow invest-ment at m mutton Into this industry where t&jUt Jobs are involved on the Triiinrtfl«tHrtii| side alone.-' ' " \ . r ' f •

Products of copper, alum-inium, zinc and various alloys range from small preeisiph eastings to largo vehicle parts. These am made in a handful of

'v'JJfMJilB O SJl i f Add dUTO.UMf medium and small workplaces. Britain's Indvsfry has many

MMMd to Mn the EEC

. lion is coneen-Targe highly

automated foundries mainly as-sooiated with motor vehicle as-

• flNwfcWFjf*

APPARENTLY around a £100 mMNou investment is re-

quired in order to enable ^WOWl 9 Wwlmw&WW J wvWIIIv

competit ive and to m a k e eoosHtiene attractive to sMMed workers. v It therefore becomes hollow of the government at Westminster to oaMI tor invest-ment in Britain's industry while awaiting the approval of the CEO to allow inadequate in-vestment. At the same time H becomes elear that the EEC, acting on behalf of-the monopo-lies of Wettem

Europe, does not want Britain's industry to be-come competitive and does not dare one deutschmark if jobs disappear In tfie Uk.

More important than the Hght metal industry is that of iron and steel production. This faUflittlyti la a . a i t * IIIM«II| >a m IHIIimiHOiitm ipart of all Britain's total production.

Steel m good bar state of and the ei

Between;

acts as a " indicating the * H production

1975 steel %. At the

Ww: .ViWVi; 'inpots. _ t » Gtf tVI ValCTl I the potion's

jd«I or expor-

same time *y*S% an#H, to a quarter of ffl UUUul • Joining the ted more ted. By 1978 this hoaithy state had been reversed.

At this moment fn time furi-ous arguments about steel/flfe going on wMhin the CBC*[ Be-cause of an t>verafl exMjM pro-duction of steel, so "caTfed dis-cussions are taking place.as to where outs In production •hould be iiil lifc' l gujijrBBMatirt amount of unused steel looks like growlnjppp-l pjpaiHddn' tain.

BCB

and West Germany. Each wants

the other to take the greater cut in production. Those even-(natty involved In the carve-np will be the 244MHM workforce employed in iron and steel

in Britain. The tooke grim, for In the

main y»«r»<lwee joining the BCO this pnrtkniar werkfome has deolined «y nearly W I N Jobs. If W M ^ r t t t n y , h r l l u gutse of the EEC, has Its way this workforce and many of the SWT steel furnaces will be re-dundant. In addition the people Who make goods oat of the steel will also be out of work.

This means, on its own, a right to work campaign Is an ultra leftist slogan or a first aid rdifef M i | i % ; w - a k r i ® initially welcome to the patient but is df little use to him where the real tojvry fc tMftfijHkafod fracture of the legi Bandaging the afcta together Is no cure for a broken bone.. The eampaigir for Job* must be linked with re-gaining national sovereignty. I N the sphere Of metd! manu-

facture national sovereignty (Continued on page four)

APPEAL BY IRISH TUNNEL

WORKERS A CAMPAIGN of terror is being

^ waged against militant trade union officials trying to organise workers in the tunnelling industry in the South-East of England, ac-cording to a recent report in tlw 'Irish Press"

Dummy bombs have been sent, dozens of obscene telephone calls made and homes have been at-tacked in recent months by an anonymous group styling itself the "Employers' Protection Association", according to the report, and tha Transport and General Workers' Union, which is principally in-volved, is taking the matter up with the Home Secretary.

c y H E brunt of the attacks have been borne, it seems, by Mr

Jim Duffy and Mr Jim Kavanagh, both West of Ireland men, who are officials of the union's new branch for tunnel workers. They were attacked on several "occasions since last summer after they began a campaign for the unionisation of tunnel workers.

"In late August", said Mr Dufiy, "we got the first calls, saying to get out or gfet killed. My wife, Teresa, was soon getting up to ten calls a day. Then letters started coming also, and in September, after leaving our seven-year-oi& daughter Mary at school, she Wtts driven at by a van near the front of our home and had to jump into a front garden. The campaign got worse in November, with a false bomb arriving,, a shed being^set alight in the garden and holes driven in the front and rear doors in an effort to gam entry." He stated that the police-were* unable to provide adequate protection and although the post office had inter-cepted calls for a while, there were still some coming through.

"DOTH men feel that Some branch . of the National front way *>e

involved and that employers' money may be backing them as the organ-ising of labour in the tunnels has meant that "lump" subcontractors are being forced out. •

"We have no intention of being intimidated by these people", SSifl Mr Kavanagh, "and will have Lon-don a closed shop Within six months. But their efforts to g<ft at us through our wives and fami-lies must be stopped before this develops and the children are injured.

"We hope that all Irish Workers will move on our behalf In uniea branches In the new year and pres-surise the police for resiflts and protection. If these people art allowed to be successful with uA. |;he next step Is to frtghten jooiil Shop Stewards and the porkers themselves." ' '

It is - understood that the T.-Q.W.U.'s tedaj ^ B l t i m u a Has taken up tbe oesqUadnU «ne police and tbe Heme SemeUry. *

S o u t h

C.

rjp^WW^'ili

830. Wn.

j E F P i i r v * t f t M t t g t Jeffreys Road,

TNURSftAY, FBI . 24

w •

THURSD,

February, 1977 THE IRISH DEMuuiVi

P O L I T I C A J L F O U C M

POLICY AN ARTICLE BASED ON THE C.A. STANDING COMMITTEE

STATEMENT AT THE CONFERENCE ON THE IRISH DEMOCRAT

p L A N S for a national confer-ence in June this year to

discuss the position of the Irish Community in Britain, were announced at the Conference on the Irish Democrat, held in Lon-don on January 30th.

It was pointed out' the posi-tion of the Irish had sharply de-teriorated over the past few years. The operation of the Prevention of Terrorism Act was an obvious example.

But the Irish community was alee suffering from the effects of the economic recession and the even more damaging Gov-ernment spending cuts.

The building trade, where j»ost of the Irish work, had been severely hit, arid the de-fence of the workers' interests was menaced by lack of tra$e union organisation as well as trade union rivalry.

It is expected that the reces-sion will get worse.

Other occupations employing large numbers of Irish had also been affected, for example the Health Service. And as the cuts tote others are liable to be affected, for example by the in-sistence of the ELE.G. that Eng-lish industry must be run down, especially in the old traditional areas of employment, to make way for expansion on the Con-tinent.

'THE changes that have taken place in the situation with-

in the country demand that the Irish Democrat should be tail-ored to correspond with them.

The purpose of the paper was t© cater for Labours-minded members of the Irish Commun-ity, and' those other non-Irish people within, the Labour move-ment who were sympathetic to Ireland. .

i Its means were to provide news, information, background material, and advice that 'would enable them to play an effective part in fee movement', and spread an unijerst^nding as widely as possible..

Certain things it is necessary to say all the time. These are the things that the English find 4pBeult to understand, and the Irish find hardest to explain to them. Central to everything is tbe fact of partition. is the

» % flfemNypjil^ i o l i c f "of the' British parliament. "" *

It 4s about majorities and minorities in the, s i* c o u n t y . The, minpr-it* "fie, ^jc coturiies 14 jttpf of the majority of the Irish, people as a whole, aa^. iXjmr^. lisb workers, wish to. show spiir darity with, the I ^ i people, they mustcshQw it to Ute" major-ity o f , M just a / m M ^

That js to-say in within ^ho- si» minority i^ ' - f j JSM^ majority is wrong.

( ) N C E there, is'clarity on par-tition, elarity is Mssibl* or,

everything MW port to t;. unionists and ptJ six count ie | ' t« ' in no way con been said about

The issue of violence stems from partition. The I.R.A. would almost certainly not exist at all, if it were not for partition. The means used to protect partition are so offen-sive to young nationalists that they are driven to join groups who advocate violence. The nationalist people are tortured into desperation, and the result is that foolish and even wicked things are done, things that should not be done. But it still remains necessary to get right down to the cause.

] F the British Government were to indicate in any

appropriate way that it had changed the direction of its policy, and was now aiming at the restoration of the unity of Ireland, under conditions of in-dependence, it is highly likely that the Republicans would re-spond by ordering a cessation of violence on their side.

In other words, instead of aiming at a military solution which would leave the nation-alist population beaten and re-sentful, and liable to take up violence again when opportun-ity offered, they should recog-nise in principle the justice of their jdemands, and while aim-ing at the long-term solution, set to. work at once to remedy immediate grievances, not by British - imposed constitutions,

but by encouraging the most promising developments of the people themselves.

Money wasted on security could be turned to profitable use. There would never be any fear of being caught between two fires. The ultimate result would be a complete British disengagement and a friendly Ireland.

' J 'HE extraordinary thing is that this is just what the

British Government has had to come to in Rhodesia. There is in that country a black major-ity and a white minority, and Mr Richards has been telling the whites that they should agree to come under the rule of the black majority, "major-ity rule." People say that the Unionists ih the six counties must be won to see themselves as Irishmen. But why is the British Government, • who be-long to the same camp as them-selves, as they belong to the same camp as the white Rhode-sians, not telling the six county Unionists what they are telling the white Rhodesi.ans ? Why is what is right in Rhodesia wrong in Ireland ?

Is it that they are afraid that unless they bring pressure on Mr Smith, southern Africa will go Communist ? Are they not afraid that if they do nothing about the six counties, the en-

-n-

t i r e Bri t ish Isles wi l l go Fas-cist ?

The Irish Democrat provides a forum for discussions on this subject, and enables the Irish to explain their case with the necessary arguments and illus-trations.

r |^HE Standing Committee is of the opiniop that provid-

ing there is no further outbreak of violence in England, the im-provement in the morale of the Irish community will continue, and there will be a greater wil-lingness to undertake political activity.

The Association wishes to put on the road its full-time orga-niser this spring.: But we still need more money.

There have been certain tar-gets set for the Irish Democrat. Broadly speaking there is needed an increase in circula-tion of the level of forty per cent.

All sellers are b^ing appealed to, to try to make this increase, which should be possible now the better weather will be com-ing.

It would mean asking every-body who now sells five papers to sell seven. In addition to that the usual money-raising activi-ties should be undertaken be-cause as well as having Our re-

" " ' 1 H " ) .

serve fund for the organiser, we want to try and clear off the backlog of debts hanging, over the paper, which have mounted up as a result of inflation.

J J E R E it should be remarked that every reader can help.

When the paper was lOp, people used often to give us an extra 5p. A number of them are giv-ing us an extra 5p now. This is painless enough. You can'Jt buy much with 5p. But a thousand people giving us 5p is the same as one person giving us £50 !

With a 40 per cent increase in circulation we could mjake a much more effective paper which would pay for itself. With the extra few copies of a large number of readers, plus the continued support pf our regular donors, we could pre-pare to sweep the sheet clean for when the organiser starts. We don't want to make his first problem balancing the budget. We Wli rit him to have it bal-anced already.

The great increase in Irish cultural activities, to which the Irish Democrat Bookshop must have contributed, shows that there is, great life and-resilience among the Irish in Britain,- and since the Irish Democrat has a workable policy to epd the troubles in the six counties,"we invite our people .-to help us to make known that policy*, and try target it put into effect. >

1 fa 1 IT 11* 1

A glimpse into T i p r c > are the "Establishment" * * in Scotland? According to

Chambers' T^sntteth'QWrtury Dic-tionary 'tf ie iann ^ s | i | 3 ^ h i n l n t " means: "the ctess in a coflimuhity . . . who hold power, usually be-cause they are linked socially, and who are usually considered to have

tlom^pjlP^'.-^'' • In Scotland we , know that the

1707 Treaty of Unioa with Eng-land—whereby Scotland 16st its political independence—was a sell-out conducted under combined con-ditions of bribery, corruption and English military^. pre^Bffe. But it was the Scottish nation that was sold out, aittt ttie ttitf minority of the population who stood- to gain were the Anglicised landed aristo-cracy and sections s>t. the rising bourgeoisie wfco/togetli^r, made up the ^dominant, ruling classes Dr main elements Of th«. Scottish Establishment. ' " , J f r .

Sut who are the Establishment today? A Scottish T might, say that .the' axe the owners «* * * » / production.- JBi$ SfcQW* thW t " ~

present-day' lM> :')im' tku ingS'&£ the class Hne-up in (torrent ScoV

• tfch aflaira qpAKS for . example the Devolu-1 tton question. Devolution a Is w store Scotland* .political independ-ence, or anything, like, it. Neverthe-less, Westminster Pe ' " t»MW,cfa for lion-h. vatlxe opinion" ' even, talk Rbout* is to use Somewhat exare«rated language, yet th* Tories are out to "kill" it altogether if they caa as castrate it of all potential. At time of writing, the hailstorm of Tory 'imrniwrnte 60 use B1U at tbe our-r«at CoDamitte« Stace tat

hoars of debate s

of

three days and has covered only one of the Bill's 115 clauses and 16 Sc&edples. . 4,

* { M l .Tory Party .they represent the spearhead—are not the only section^ of Scottish Establishment opinion* dgainst De-volution. To broaden the picture a" bit we must take into consideration conservative elements attacking De-volution: outside Westminster as well as in, and simultaneously at that." The Confederation ©! British Industry has w e i g h t in against Devofction with a variety, of xea-sons upholding the status Quo, such as "unnecessary expense", "pos^Jjlp••>, ccmflict ^tween t&e-Assefn " Westminster". Next; the " volution sentiments of fiaaaee

• capital such as Banking and In-surance interests—which represent dominant KstabHshmwit ^ftwelitjg^ summed up by the Scottish Bankers' Presideftt's recent statement that "we arie^ap ^ttMb^ bound to the economic activlty'of the remainder of the Xr.K that otfr bestr hope for advancement lies in the recovery of Great Britain as a

t l p l i r r He a id** spell the "we" are! As fo>r the hoped-for tewvery", exacts one fellewing his speech.it « a s ai^ nounced that Scottish -atomploih: ment had soared to a poeMvar record <#.-180,W0,,\ TJV 8TABLISHMENT academics are * * also against DevoJuttotk Jn the current issue of !

Banks. Review.", a Mi Commercial Banking llcatlon, the Professor Economy at Olasgqw had much to say """ oil, »«it for a Scoi be given part of the NortM 'mm. oil t S i f e ^ r f r itf a dcingemar, ^JtoMWerS slso ttiaHljps 1» our ecenomte position . . should not be embarking upMfcjat^.«tp*l- . m m t s in" legislative d e i f ^ a . . "

accepting

(where held!) to dent at tj) porplnittee

The academic anti-Devolution lobby also includes the Committee- of Vice - Ohascellois and PolftciRals who are. hostile to the view that Scotland's Universitlei M i U lie devolved to the Assembly. The Scottish Council of the British Medical Association—despite , Scot-land'S" horrific health record—also vehemently opposesDevolutioiui^^ Scottish liand-owners' Federation also said "no" to Devolution re-cently and. now the Scottish'Wood-land Owners' Association has a<fted yetj another "no" -to the pile. ing official farmiiig circles are like-wise adopting a negative attitude^ claiming that "a j « a l f. Devolution in Scotland exists because of the, s p e c i i ^ ^ ^ P tfamii^ wilh: • Statse, who is gcotlaiid's Mmister of Agriculture""

Another powerful anti-Devolution faction is the business, interests be-hind the "Scotland i s British" campaign. No shortage of cash mmmmm^nttve ' *ree*ads/i|S* | large MU IWMMBilllM nooters displayed throughout Seotlaod.- I paiga committee

and even a :et ex-Labour M P.

Tfbe foregoing 'r^i.-t^^ inkling Of the present polftieaUme^

par ts of the Scottish DevolutionM t w m t * t to

THE IRISH DEMOCRAT

TWENTY-SIX COUNTIES February, 1977

K

h<

t

a i

SW:

IRISH WORK HARDEST

\ CCORDING to an E.E.C. sur-vey the Irish work the

longest hours in Europe. It states that an average Irish worker clocked up 46.8 hours a week last year.

The British work the shortest hours, the survey says, with 39.3 hours per week. The European average is 41.3 hours and the Ger-mans' work 41.6, the French 42.8 and the Italians 41.5 hours.

As one would expect, employers and self-employed people said that they worked considerably longer than- employees—their hours being more irregular and under their own control* In Ireland self-employed, who would include shopkeepers, f irmers and independent contrac-tors, said that they worked an average weekly* 61.3 hours, while some persons engaged in farming worked even longer, registering a 6a.9 hour week.

The survey also showed that early last year Ireland had the highest unemployment figures for the 14-1& year age group. Ireland's figures were 21.6% unemployment in this age group, compared with a European average of 10.1%.

H e C A R V i - U P (Continued from page two)

means that Britain decides what metal and bow much it pro-duces, what cash to invest in its own foundries, what goods to manufacture out of the motets antf which country out of the whole wide world it wilt trade with. Jobs will occur in this commonsense manner of run-ning a country, not in the dic-tators' paradise, of the EEC.

In other words, making the fight for Jobs'alone, without a struggle tor national sover-eignty, is like an attempt'to1

launch a space ship without the rockets. Tbe ship will get nowhere ami will eventually fat* l i t on Ks own nose cone. Gel ait tbe stages together ami it WW ^ surprising bow many helping bands there wHl- be to-launch this country out ot the EE& to ereate a- situation where there could be mere thaf enough work to go round to

CONSTITUENCY boundaries for the elections to the so-

called "European Parliament" which it is aimed to hold next year, have now been announced in Dublin and Fianna Fail and the Coalition are already in a dog-fight about them as they assess their respective chances of getting aboard the latest Common Market gravy-train.

The twenty-six counties are to have 15 seats out of a total of 455 or so when and if direct elections are held. We say "when and if" because, although 1978 is the target date laid down by the E.E.C. people, the elec-tions have still to be approved by the various national parlia-ments. There won't be any hesitation in the Irish parliament unfortunately, as the politicians are already starting to vie with one another for these jobs, and there is unlikely to be much op-position at Westminster either— though the Labour Left and the Nationalists will be hostile—but the matter may be held up by the French, who See these elec-tions as another step in the abandonment of national sover-eignty. The Gaullists in France are opposed to them. So are the Communists, and. it is not clear yet if the French National Assembly will let the subject go forward.

The salaries suggested at pre-sent are £20,000 a year plus £40 A DAY expenses. These will be on top of the salaries which members of the Dail and Senate get for their work, as there will be dual membership of national and Common Market bodies. This should bring the combined salaries of the Irish members up

'jaSs > --

fife*-'-•ca*. ; ^HSh1-'

B j f e f e v

Ik--.*''-

m

^llSl^

bbeoby. tuswy v* riUnUl

I

T3> Y. far the most notable at-tempt to save Irish both as

a written and spoken language in the first half of the nine-teenth century was made by Philik Bfirron> of Co. Water-. N e i l l w a g

first , Gaelic

years too sdori and Ifeft Bttle to posterity save his inspiration' :

•Pilib . B a r u n * a Catholic nationalist, was; very prominent i»:4feepolitical and -journalistic

Mfc Waterford- m the .eigh teen-twenties and was per-

haps O'Connell's greatest sup-porter in that county, especially in the election when. Lord „ Geocge Beresford was ousted ii*.-favouJr of the Catholic 'Emfncipotionist Villiers Stuart.

actually "bought -TMy. Hnm out the Waterford Chronicle to

hands' of the •SBt Beresfords "'and* from its pages

' carried out such tirades and on-slaughts upon that. family "that had ivied Ireland and .cowed viceroys, for. over a century" that he. recklessly betrayed-him-

iibel -_ - '^fcai f t apology twas refusedf.'

Xi&Sfy vft* awttfdtfd (183(P).

h» WM in hoepKal he re-' visits from menttaere

d mueh COT-locloded a

vBMV:'1ftl» of the twite

ICR Cunningham i».noactive. -.„,

By Anthony Coughlan to the £30,000 a year mark, plus the expenses referred to. No wonder there is a rush to the pork-barrel!

People should never refer to the "European Parliament" ex-cept in quotation marks. Or if speaking about it they should refer to it as the so-called "Par-liament",- because- of course it is not a real Parliament at all. as it has no legislative or deci-sion-making powers. It is purely an advisory body. It can give advice to the Common Market Commission and Council, which are the real decision-making bodies of the E.E.C., but these bodies are in no way bound to do anything about such advice. It may also make statements and questions may be asked in it. But as a.' law-making "Parlia^ ment" it is a total sham. Its proper title is the B£:C. "As-sembly" and it is-so referred to in all Common Market official documents, the Treaty of Rome and so forth: Atl this talk of a "parliament" is nothing more than a gigantic pUMic-relations exercise, aimed M deluding the people of the' hirie Common Market countries that there is some control ori&r tfce non-etec-ted bureaucracies in Brussels who have the real power.

If it is not a teal'Parliament, then these electt'Shs ;are a shorn from s to be ' to put some; ticians mous sa, at the pi

People are ut to w ated poli-

enor-0et excited "Hey will be > yt , r :•:

invited to participate in an utterly bogus political battle, engineered by the newspapers and television, the real pufpose of which is to arouse some public interest in the flagging "European" enterprise and con-fer some appearance of demo-cratic legitimacy on an institu-tion which is undemocratic, anti-national and anti-popular to the core.

The proper response to such an invitation should be to tell the "European" propagandists, who will be trying to get the maximum possible turn-out in these elections, to stuff their so-called Parliament you-know-where ! And in practice the best way of doing that is to stay at home on the day of the elec-tions, if in fact they do come o f f , and certainly not be gulled into voting for the sharks, shy-sters and opportunists who will mostly be standing. Or if ^any-one feels he really must waste his time by going to the polling booth, then he should spoil the ballot-papers.

A boycott, in other words, should be the proper response of all sensible men to these elec-tions. Show the Euro fahatics what one thinks of their tub-thumping and deception by mas-sive indifference. A tow poll would be the best way of cock-ing a snook at this particular enterprise and a massively low poll would be a significant'pro-paganda blow to the Common Market.

Because the earliest time these c."

feff: ftefcnd lest . % property or self be .seized and.

jk> - ?i*nce, froiw whence he contributed' a most interesting series of French ters t^ttte C h i e i t f d e . ' f . ' -However, in contrast 16'

Q'Coaueii's utilitarianism, Bp-

run had at.; standing almost al« the vital i guage. could wr the gradfi this more at ftny Ot tory. Co: Irish sp

Barun's to set up . „ in Irelandf;Jib#r'< Kinsale. Bonmahori, StradbaH'y^m" (1835). Ji^mm design, vstiiflu' twenty yards , by-, mensions.- I f ^ j couraged'1 port from" Catholic esiastics. League BartS*^ tarianism.^ May, 1835^i! numbers trfA' which proved I markable kttftft the l a n g u i d Fifty thousaftd He also pi of an Iri$lju Irish, a?! lie prayer linear tra Irish daomr^iiV and college tional Sch and Irish MNp even 4ni ing districts

i Utider-e and

gcasped the lan-said "he

a sigh, Mf'At

ably tlsan'

: vtj-ag. an

••him

b y

Padraig O Cleirigh

in nd.

i t s d i -wasen-

WP-•both

hi]

or both

school.

! up

with acknowledgments to ROSC (Dublin)

However^ due to lack of funds the college (which had ripral science on its syllabus) failed. Barun 'went abroad. The year or cfty of his death is uncertain. Enigmatically enough, a certain 'SVlrs Barron" contributed td ttif Ossiapic Society in the fifties frOm Bonn and later from Bath.

t i lr v " Such was his. scholarship i t . was greatly appreciated by Irish

and ^ CB^^j^iry, Dath de Barta, wrote a poem in Irish in his praise : "skilled he is in every difficult lay, a restorer of the laws and statutes of ancient families, a resurreqtor of ancient things long laid in the grave, a pleader, a cham-pion, lucid in word and gay -in BPirit"-r-^Mie eulogy fc Or What

; could surpass, "Glad tKHMte ' and life to him and his madtlrs

folds as a covering for our stark >and stricken love till very death". .

In 1913 Michael O'Mahony found the merest remnants of the college, its waUs eight or nine inches high, covered-. >in briars. -

elections will take place is sum-mer next year, and because in any case there is still a chance they may never come off if the French remain intransigent, there has not been that much discussion of the issue among Irish socialists and republicans. The main organisation which has clearly advocted a policy so far has been the Communist Party of Ireland, which has urged people to boycott the elec-tions if they do happen. This is undoubtedly the proper things to do and it is to be hoped that this will be the general response of people in the Irish progressive movement.

It is also the response-.which will most closely correspond to the instincts of the ordinary people. As more and more people get disillusioned with the E.E.C. there will be little en thusiasm to get hot anft bothered" about which 15 out of a larger crowd of chancers will be al-lowed to hold these plum jobs for the next five years.

Some people on-the left may be attracted by another argu-ment. There are those who say, if this "Parliament" does obtain real powers over time, then it can be turned into an instrument of real democratic control over the Common Market Council and Commissipn. This is the delusion in Italy suffer from, for instance. For this proposition is based on final acceptance of the abandon-ment ofv national, sovereignty and independence. Democratic control has meaning only at the national level: It is not demo-cracy if the majority of Germans and French decide-wfufe shall be done by the, English—though that, in terms of. bead-counting, would be "majority rule". No more man it was democracy in the 19th century for tfce over-whelmingly more numei lishr-and English MPs M West-minster—to mafte laws far the "minori tyof lrish witftin ^ e United Kir

If this E.E.C. Assembly gets some real powers, an4 this is what l l t e / W ^ w l ^ l A l f f l f f ^ happen in time, there would be eytd^kmiUfthocracy thm$gii£< For what. influence does anyone» think'irish menOwrs wotdd> have in an Assembty gf 455.-5Mt does jtot .mafter much if It I t .* mere talkin&Shop; but if in time ft became more tftan flwt there would be greater danger than: over of tola^^lgtmpir b<gng overridden. The legs fegft timacy and interest the so-called : "Pamm0ntH' hast different and third-rate the poli-ticians who go there, the more unlikely it will be that it will be given real powers In time or be tremed-seriomty^M^M^ • sent Ti&mbet the-reason why one should treat, the whole enterprise with the, con-term *toMMffity it m t i m

and so turning these election* into a popular condemiijfl&W the whole backwardundemo-cratic and anti-national enter-prise that is tm Common mantel. •••• --•'•.u .

„ mfc*

February, 1977 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT

POLITICIANS NOW! TOME of the many people who J wished the Northern Peace Movement well have been alarmed at the policies recently advocated by some of its lead-ing spokesmen. The initial strength of the movement, which got such a response from both Protestants and Catholics, to a large extent lay in its avoidance of "political" state-ments. But some highly dubi-ous pronouncements have lately appeared which can do nothing but harm to a movement that seeks to span sectarian barriers.

The Peace Movement have ntfw published a "Strategy for

SECRETARY of State Roy . . Ma?pn, England's hard-line

proconsul in the North, has re-cently suggested censoring, the B.B.C. as pari; of his do-nothing-except - military - repression policy in the Six Counties. It is another sign of the way civil liberties arfe threatened by the London Government's deter-mined effort to hold on to the place1 at all costs.

The activities and statements of ' the Provisional I.RA. and militant Loyalist groups should not be published or broadcast, said Roy Mason when he met journalists in Belfast.

Such reportfe were propa-ganda for the paramilitary groups, he said, and he singled out the B 3 C. ¥ haying given "some trouble>yn this respect.

The Secretary of State has also been reported in the Daily Mail as having told the Board of Governors of the ^B.B.C. at a dinner party in Belfast that the ' B:B.C. ^as dteloyal, supported the rebels, purveyed their pro-paganda and refused to accept the advice of the" Northern Ire-land CMfice "on what news to cariy^. Tlie British Army Gene-ral" who was with hibi, Major General Young, Commander of Land Forces ih the^Noith, is re-ported to have joined the "attack by saying- that the EB.0. did not accept official Army and Stormont "Castle versions of ih-ddente;.'' ' ••:• - ' < M R MASON is reported as

• having suggested a "thieei month bttck-Out military activities, to whit i the aB.C. people replied that f t whs not liheir function to act 6s an arrrt of the Goveriurtsinf. ^ '

rt cofiie to something inde«d'^h«ht<the rities-'W'^^iaast are Wtterly "omplaining "a^dhst the: 5EB-C." One reeaiU the rede'- of the B.B.C; durihg the Ubter Wor^ k^rs' Council "lockout", when scare bulletins ' in support of those Wishing to bring dowiT th^ Northern Executive" ap-peared almost hourly on the radio and television in the six couitt i i i ir^"^' ^ •

fn sCMadlO t ' ^ ^ j i a i ^ i ^ ^ suggestiohs the Belfast branch of the National Union of Jour-nalists has passed''*' resolution asking fcfrn umaorify his • -tion on cenSOfthiji aita to iate the statements attributed to him m th# Daily Wail as these could put lives 'of journalists itt.JjMjtfa^^-''^;

Peace", which acknowledges that much of the thinking be-hind it is contained in a book-let, "The Price of Peace", pub-lished last autumn by Mr Cia-ran McKeown, one of the Peace Movement leaders.

Among the issues which "Strategy for Peace" says should be discussed in an open and honest manner are: the emerg-ing "Northern Irish Identity", the theory of non-violence, whether schools should be sepa-rate, Integrated or shared and "a federation of the British Isles". lyfENTION of a "federation of

the British Isles", coming from a Peace People source, has caused many to raise their eye-brbws. When questioned by the press, Mr McKeown said that discussing a federation was not political but constitutional, and that citizens decided con-stitutions, not politicians! It is doubtful if Mr McKeown, who is a bright, well-meaning young man, can really believe that constitutions are not "political!', or that' there could be anything more political than a federa-tion Of the British Isles, in which undoubtedly England would be the strongest element and which would entail the present Twenty-Six Counties coming under some revamped form of English imperial rule.

One may well have doubts too about the stress on a "North-ern Irish" identity. Some of the

Peace People have had lots to say about the "Northern Irish" —who seemingly exclude the people of Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan and whose territor-ial boundaries, one may sur-mise, coincide with the Border. It may be loose talk, but it also, echoes Stormont Castle propa-ganda about "Ulster identity". It fits in with what we Were hearing yester-year from Mer-lyn Rees and Stanley Orme, as

Mr Gerry Fitt has expressed worry too. He thinks that Paddy Devlin might be right in seeing in the Peace Movement an embryonic political party that might lend itself to the de-signs of those wishing to for-ward the devious policies of Stormont Castle and the British Government. As Gerry Fitt

' says: "The Peace Movement has many supporters in its ob-jective of 'peace', but 'peace'

WAR OFFICE ENQUIRY

^ T last there is to be a "searching enquiry" intf*

the behaviour of English troops in the six counties.

An undertaking to this effect. has been given to Mr Gerry Fitt after a '30-minute interview with Mr Fred Mulley, Secretary of State for Defence.

There is to be particular at-tention paid to the notorious

they groped around for policies ' cannot be achieved that easily. Parachute Regiment. tirV»ir»h nrrviil/4 . A T . — i * . l i." 'i.'. ' — . ~ _ ' " which would induce the Catho-lics to buckle down to Parti-tion and to work the Six Coun-ties within the United King-dom. The current attempts to divide the nationalist politicians by fostering illusions of an "In-dependent Ulster", where Lon-don would in practice pull the strings, are part of the same game. ]y£R PADDY DEVLIN of the

S.D.L.P., who is renowned for the robustness of his langu-age, called the "Strategy for Peace"* a "kindergarten cbn-trick, the product of a move-ment which is largely the fig-ment of Fleet Street's'imagina-tion, which relates to Berlin, Buffalo and Birmingham, hu t not to Belfast". He is probably being too hard on the genuine idealism which finds, expression in the rallies, marches and local organisational work of the "Peace People", but he un-doubtedly has a point.

Now that it has put itself into the political arena, legitimate questions must be answered and the S.D.L.P. will be asking them." ,TpHE Pe^ce Movement expres-

sed the longing for peace and sensible politics by the

. great majority of the people of the North, on both sides of the fence. In doing that it made a positive contribution. But the bases of peace in society are the rule of law and the estab-lishment of a just political order. It is these things which are necessary to bring real peace to the North and the responsibility above all else is Britain's, as Bishop Cahal Daly so sensibly remarked the other week. Real peace requires a just, political settlement and nothing is gained by glossing , over the problems that stand in. the way of this in particular the intransigence of the sovereign government in London.

. i i .I .

s s f t E n g t a f s w f f ^ s p f t J I & ' - a O Y MASON, English

Secretary of- State for Northern Ireland, has stated categorically that British troops are not to be taken out of the

For reasofls which. remain-mysterious, Dublin journalists are "constantly announcing - a disengagement, which UfVer

.and which.. t£e ... , ' has * consis-

tently explained was ; never' contemplated,, fO*;. the simple

lQ.O\>ERNMENT policy is to should be supptSrted? The majo-

reason that six counties as? gations the. Treafy € Comznon"

the ;of her bbli-

Atlantic~ >n and the

Her American and German haVf - indicated that

£ the particular baby they to hold " '

Tfte pohcy tt^^ls being pur-sued->s not remotely connected with the internal politics of the

why loot-

ing! effect ^upbn it: r'

"" 'tj> lit"'

maintain the siX-T$»un,ty base. If it is more expien^ive that is unfortunate; if fjetiple ire killed or property is destroyed, that also is unforturti

. "Thes pursuit of rests upon the Tory conception of Britain's role in the world, and as long as governments-maintain a bi-partisan approach to this question, then the situa-tiwvis likely to continUe,as it-is.. •

determination to hold fhe sia^counties at all costs i® the s^pet of why a Labour; admink strs^wl is prepared tq bolster up what is in effect a fascist" organisation, the apparatus of Orangeism and Unionism.

If they had been prepared to accept,a united Ireland the Irish people would have . s m ^ p p i s^Sjf years ago. ference is preserving which defies elementary «* iaacy. But the stojy'Is liifc about that "the Irish

T T is true that the " amree. But which iof thorn

rity who stand for national inde-pendence, or the minority who want tot live under *»ntrol of the foreigner? -i We S?y _ without' ^hesitation, the nationalists are right and the Unionists; are ^rong, and. if the British ? Labour: movement was true to its own faith, it be: wSpld be supporting tile n«tk>n^ alists ali 'idong the . the -working-for tl».re]piific»ti6n; o f .

This follows a serious inci-dent. Members of this regi-ment were searching the house, of 68-year^old Mr Frank Moyna. When they left he was dead.

Mr Fitt had stressed that Mr*"-Moyna died as a result of the "brutal and callous" action by members of the Parachute Regi- -ment. |rJ^HESE creatures (one cannot

call them men) snatched away Mrs Moyna from the win-dow where \ she was trying to attract attention' in order to-"bring medical assistance'to her , husband.

Mr Fitt has also drawn the Defence Minister's attention to reports in six-county news-papers of members of the British Ariny being convicted on char* ges of rape.

He pointed out that thousands of people who db: not believe . in violence at all are now fiercely hostile tgr the Army, and the people of Clonard have deqofanded. thef'removal of; the acgq?«ed ? Parachut^ flegiment not-only fr«n ; our jpwn district

Neighbours said that when Mr Moyna suffered a. heart attack the soldiers told him to "shut his Ittiouth" and pulled his wife' awajKu:

i.... jj.'i' (• • n m - "offlcua- Sinn J-eto move-

Its name to "Shto m i , ta^ Wflrttt,' tortf , toy re8dh#» at Ib^brannttal Ard Fhels at thgwd ol January. ^ V:

to T6m« MacCHoll*, un«i»in»u»ly re-elected prestdentfe' told tte dde-gates: »'Tb«eJi|| mood lsr change aamt tbe electorate",: s n ^ t t U

| M p p f e n d up.s a^Unttal ppober ol candi-date at he General taection ex-

The shn of the party, said the

constitute itself the mata «pfee ooaliUon 'troail-fm to win away support tAiMftr Party.

of solidarity tlons in

Those

the Zimbabwe

6 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT February, 1977

I R I S H S O l t t i S i

The Woodlands of Loughglyn "THE summer sun was sinking low behind the western sea,

The lark's loud song was pealing sweet, but it brought no joy to me,

For the one t love is far away, he left the Tyrant's den, Me fought till death and then he left the Woodlands of Loughglyn.

A noble Irishman was he, Sean Bergin was his name, Me belonged to Tipperary and from Nenagh town he came, Bttrt now, thank God, where he is gone he is free from harm and sin A n * he let them have his parting shot in the Woodlands of

Loughglyn.

McDermott too was bold and true from the plains of Bstllynagare, Me is missed from many a fireside in homes both near anil far,

- Me is missed at home in Bracklin by his own dear kith and kin, And his comrades true shall miss him too in the Woodlands of

Loughglyn.

Young Sergio said, that he was proud to die for Ireland's cause, Ttie deed was done that should be dene against England's cruel

laws, Me said goodbye to Tipperary town and to every vale and glen A n d to ail my faithful comrades in the Woodlands of Loughglyn.

a >Take this message to our own brave boys and tell them we are dead*

T e l l t h e m to be of utmost cheer and to hold no drooping head, To keep* their, brains a-using, to fight and not give in And be proud to die neath an Irish sky in the Woodlands of

Loughglyn.

OLD IRELAND FREE ONCE MORE fc AST night I had a happy dream, though restless where I be :

I thought again brave Irishmen had set eld Ireland free. And how excited I became when t heard the cannon's rear— © gradh me chreidhe, I long to see Old Ireland free once more.

It's true we had brave Irishmen as everyone must own, 0Hei l l» ODennell , Sarsfield true, Lord Edward and Wolfe Tone, And also Robert Emmet who till death did not give o'er— © gradh mo ehroidhe, I long to see Old Ireland, free once more.

N e w we can't forget the former years, they're kept in memory still, the Wexford men of >98 who fought on Vinegar Hilt,

Wtth- Father Murphy by their side and the green flag waving o'er— Q^gradh *ne etoroMhOi I long to see Old Ireland free once more.

Mien , O'Brien and Larkin died, their country to set free, i yet brave Irishmen will make thVSaxoo flee :

a o d m g h t they'll always fight, until death they'll ne'er give otor—

© gradh mo chroidhe, I long to see Old Ireland free once more.

DOWN BY THE GLENSIDE ' T W A S down by the gienside I met an eld woman,

• t ^ i i u i a i w nettles, she ne'^r heard me qoming, And I littcned a whi le to t h r e w * * she was hum

'Tis f i f ty long years since I saw the moon beaming f On stronih manly forms and on eyes w i th hppe gleaming, I see them again, sure, through aU my day-dreaming, - Otory-e, glery-o to the bold Fenian men!

i d the stranger, l us , t*etr cause was a failure,

By never feared danger,

f ' l i i i i i f t i i i i r t i ^ L W . y i r W i i n t r ^ f - -

we'll never have better,

m

i'J.-VrfiMKjWfl see me

fan duthaighin beag

iH>dh mn liftirnh mar a aaibh searc ages graoh mo cheibh, r outr an. 'Ueaifejpp^ tftpgpla me.

Ovrfa: Ma bhionn tu Hem bi Item k t t t i f t o i n * eHreidhe

t u l l t t u M i i t t ttt Hem e s M an tsadghae mwmmx*-I ngae orlaeti H

le lMaln te nl le erleanecht e 1 M ^ demhan weal

gan fail agam ort fein ... _ .nooami gatr con na oriaian.

W-- w f f c p l r Jjgm&t j M Irn a chre

m^mmmm^fm:-'

Wl". .^V- .^Vf l ; • • • . • :

DANCING IN THE

GLENRONE QY the turf fire brightly gleaming w I am sitting idly dreaming For its pleasant to recall again The joys that long have flown; And I find upon reflection That my fondest recollection Is the fiddler's lilting music And the dancing in Glenrone.

Every jig and reel, I mind them, In my memory I can find them, Bringing back the scenes of

childhood And the joys that long have flown; Though I'm growing old and

weary Still my heart is never dreary When I dream the dream that

brings me back The dancing in Glenrone.

Sure the oolleens were the sweetest And their dancing was the neatest Ah, you wouldn't find their equal In the valleys of Tyrone, * While the lads were gay but steady You could always find them ready With a failte to the stranger To the dancing in Glenrone.

And while sitting here I ponder Till my heart is filled with wonder Why we ever leave that pleasure For a world so cold and lone; Oh, I wish j was returning To begin again life's morning But dream land only beings, me back The dancing in Glenrone.

••- -p V.< , , Now outside,the, snow is falling; Ever more and more recalling To my mentor^ {he long agp A n d • And my Mnd^rthQUgMts artf going Where the breeze is ever blowing For to drop each snowflake

gently : .. On a hillside in Glenronn.

And though time for me's advancing

Don't I know that , there's still dancing-,,.;.. " •'•

In some cottage by, .the gienside Where my ttijipvtits tonight have

Hewn ,:-' "*".., And that Joy may w e betide them And the tight eC Hpiwen guide

them ">/ For Ireland wHI ha ir While ther^a j

• ^J^HM (This lo*riyH

fully sung by'; on the Prii new L.P. ' ttHl^iipl I SOkP teao).' -+. • •

Glenrone.

THERE* angel ^.^jf^jrara^B^T •

And fair as the lleWWl In May; They call her the ffentle Valden

Whenever she takes her M y . ,

Her eyes have the As it brlgl

But more than The love d

Thoughi I dream # 1 m t

The sound «a.r The spell ef.beii I

And whether i • r whether «ma m« >.

The face o*i Will follow

Niall Plunkett OBoyle (Kffled by Free State forces, Wicklow, February, 1922)

WE laid him to rest by the rim of the ocean, Near the home of his fathers we laid him to rest

Old Ireland he lived with true faith and devotion, He fought and he died for the cause he loved best.

When the call it went out to the sons of the heather O'Boyle was the foremost to answer the call;

The sons of the Rosses he banded together To drive the oppressor from Dark Donegal.

Oh bravely he fought with the foe alt around him Till alone and outnumbered, a captive he fell.

To the bastille at Newgate, a prisoner they bore him— He escaped through a tunnel and bade them farewell.

Again on the hillside, undaunted and daring, But it is not the; Saxon this time on his trail.

Oh no, 'twas the bloodhounds of Richard Muicahy And the men who sold Ireland, the dregs of the Gad.

Once more on the hillside, undaunted and daring, Till all hope abandoned, he turned on the foe.

"Long live the Republic!" his words rang out elearty, Then the guns thundered forth and d'Boyle was laid low.

No« : bravely he sleeps by the rim of the ocean, rior wind now, nor tempest his slumber oan spoil.

Long, long we'll remember with faith and devotion The fate of our hero, Niall Plunkett O'Boyle.

THE HILLS OF DONEGAL OH, Donegal, the pride of all, my heart still turns to thee,

My cottage home, where oft I've roamed when I was young and free,

Big houses grand in a foreign tland cannot compare at all, To my cottage bright on a winter's night on the hills of Donegal.

Right well I mind the harvest time that doleful dreary day, When I left all in Donegal to wander far away, Near Creeslough town my friends stood rouud ; I bid farewell to all And from the van I waved my hand to the hills of Donegal.

Gazing back through the blossoms gay on my own native hill, I thought no shame (oh. who could blame) 'twaS there I cried my

fill, My parents kind ran in my mind, my friends and comrades ail, My heart did ache, I though 'twould break, in leaving Donegal.

From Derry Quay we steamed away, the waters calm and fttiH> Down Lough Foyle our tug did toil to tfcfe big ship at Moville, Some love to see each tower and tree, each ancient Idrdty bal l^ But my thoughts that day were far away on the hills of Donegal.

Round Tory Isle we steamed in style, the mainland^ We ceu*d see, Till Muckish grand, wi th glistening sand, s m i l e * over Oroskalee; Elagh, much more brighter still, looked proudly over all , I heaved a sigh and bid goodbye to the hills of Donegal,

Amongst those h i l l s St. CoUimhkille left miracles and cures. Amid streams and dells and holy wette his pewer it still endures ; Green Garden cell and old Doone Welt where St. Finian's waters

; fall, , . / , • " -A simple shrine unchanged by time on the hills of Donegal.

MUSIC '•r CeUf Band s

• i *>,

W C are the music-makers , T f , And we are I t e dreamers of dreams. ' Wandering by lone sea-breakers,

And sitting b y desolate streams i World-losers ami, world-forsahers, , . On w b o m v p ^ pale mepp gieaow ; •• Yet We a t s r n ^jpni-rr 'hit;TnSl|lfin -

Of the world for ever, it seems. •• r* • ;' » ' > ."* ' •>' . • .

A at ^ ' •*•• ' . 1 ..

irfui deathless ditties _ Up the i » o r l d ' s # M t cities,

- -.rimmtM a^fi>^i|iifitftiy".-. • -W e tesbion a n empire's glory:

ma« with -a dream, at pleasure, Olwtt go forth ahd oonquer a orown;

A«d three with a n e w song's measure -Odn trample an empire down.

We, Mhf te ages lying In the buried past of the earth,

^mmm '^Mjwk------ • And Babel Itself wi th our mirth;

. AiM, tfmrity with ^ J j j o Wkrmm m m i t m W f m t k i , - r

. i l l Or one that is aomioc t» kiath.

—Arthur O'Shaughnessy.

February, 1977 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT 7

e rapid financial the death to

i i ^ ' M P ^ ' yoar

ClAftAN I

B O O K S

?A~ S A BRILLIANT BIOGRAPHY "Reflections on Language", by

Noam Chomsky (Fontana/ Collins, £1.50).

MANY will have heard of Chofnsky as one of the

intellectuals associated with the campaign to end the war in Vietnam. Few whose primary concern is anti-imperialist politics will have had an opportunity to get the measure of the man on his home-ground. This book consti-tutes such an opportunity.

Chomsky is a mathematician by training who was associated with early efforts in Massachusetts In-stitute of Technology to apply the power of the electronic computer to the translation of one language Into another. These efforts have on. the whole net been suooessful, except over very restricted areas of ex-perience. Despite tftis, the conse-quences for the science of linguis-tics of the effort having been made have been profound. Chomsky has become a dominant controversial figure; linguistic scholarship falls into "pre-Chomsky" and "post-Chomsky" schools, the latter being composed of people in their forties or ove?, who are rapidly finding the communication gap with the younger generation unbridgeable.

Put very crudely, one Important aspect of the Chomsky thesis is the postulated existence of an under-lying "deep structure" which deter-mines the range of acoeptaMe natural language structures for ex-pressing a given concept. This "deep structure" is postulated to be genetically determined, an in-nate human characteristic, govern-ing the growth of language as an organ of thought rather like the genetic code determines the growth of, for example, the liver. The nature of the deep structure, or linguistic genetic oode, has proved elusive. But then, so was the na-ture of the gene m the preHftiotmu-lar biology epoch, so that even the need to earry on a search for a basic molecular genetic mechanism could in some situations be credibly questioned 4»y schools of crude em-piricists, as in th> Lysenko episode, in this book, Chomsky, While visibly back-tradklng from Iris early opti-mism, re-States this basic philoso-phical position. • There are hints of an Anglo-

chauvinist position: v " . . . This discussion has been

restricted to English a . . I suggest that the principles 4hat appear to have explanatory power tor JingHsh are principles of universal gram-mar . . . as part of the system of "prvexistent knowledge" that makes learning possible . . . "

This, I feel, weakens the political adceptaWWy of Ms arguments out-side -the: RnglrSfexsn woMd, a *e-gretttfMv tepee, as i t is by the inter-action of Mriows national linguis-tic scholarships that the Chomsky position oan alone hope to gain-ultimate validation. fij.

"Eleanor Marx, volume 2, the Crowded Years, 1884-1898", by Yvonne Kapp (Lawrence & Wishart, 775pp, £12).

A T last there is a book costing " twelve pounds that is worth every penny even of this vast price. It is a splendid work, monumental in every sense of the word. •»

It is indeed two works in one. It tells the story of the multifarious activities of Karl Marx's youngest daughter, the one closest to him in temperament. But it also tells the story of the British, indeed the international, working class move-ment during some of the most cru-cial years of its history. It was of course the tragedy of that genera-tion that the onset of imperialism robbed them of the fruits of their work, which were indeed reaped in other lands.

Mrs Kapp provides over-a thou-sand references. Every detail is checked with scrupulous care. In a result the story carries the reader forward like a huge river where the individual waves are completely discernible. She is obviously an extremely clever woman, and it is something that Eleanor Marx's monument should be erected by such a biographer, who brings out all the vital conclusions without ever succumbing to the temptation to moralise.

For. example, she never herself condemns the anarchists. But after reading the facts nobody could be in any doubt that the in-ternational was always right to ex-clude them. And I can think of

. some on the lunatic left ttot cor-respond to them exactly and ${>ould

Reviewed by Desmond Greaves be excluded from making today.

all decision-

\ S for Eleanor Marx herself, it takes the book's eight hundred

pages to do justice to her. She is shown as a dedicated compiler and popularizer of her father's thought, as a trade union organizer of great accomplishment who was right in the forefront of those who were converting the great unrest into greater organisation, as a secretary, stenographer, interpreter at one international congress after another, translator and writer. Mrs JCapp notes her pride in her Jewish ori-gins, in which she was right too, because Judaism never descended to the depths of degradation that mark the much-vaunted Greco-Roman civilization. And she shows Eleanor Marx as a champion of women's rights, substantial ones too, not what Engels called the "formal" ones, which one presumes were the nineteenth century equivalent of being called mizz or chairperson. As Engels put it: "an irrelevant form of warfare between the sexes, leaving the employers of labour totally unmoved."

Perhaps Eleanor Marx's greatest achievement was the building up of the Gasworkers' Union, now the N.U.G.M.W. and its story is told" in fine detail. Eleanor Marx's last visit to Ireland was when she at-tended its. second conference which was held in Dublin.

TpHIS is a book that is not only J- carefully written in. the literary sense, but has a. sensitivity of presentation that inspires total confidence. It is full Of unobtru-sive commonsense about the.'way Jobn Thompson's baifn*»®<in fact

• a

go about their business—the one abiding wonder that lasts yo~u right through your life and is always liable to augmentation.

This is especially true in her treatment of Edward Aveling. Of course he was a scoundrel. But Mrs Kapp refrains from tearing him apart. She leads carefully up to Eleanor's judgment, that he suf-fered a weakness in moral sense, as somebody else might have a weak sense of balance, or bad teeth. She acknowledges that there must have been something in him that was good, but just what it was is hard to say. His treatment of Eleanor was abominable to the last degree. Yet his political loyalty never wavered.

One throws one's mind back to the gossip of former years. T. A. Jackson used to say that Aveling (it used often to be pronounced Avvel-ing, but Mrs Kapp does not say whether it should be Ave-ling) was the most brilliant man he ever met. "But, mind you," he would add, "He'd f a cat!" He used to tell the story that at Aveling's funeral there were dozens of sor-rowing women, all dressed in black, with babies of variable sizes in arms or in tow. But Mrs Kapp dis-poses of that, and perhaps throws Jight on the man. He had no children. He was not able for them. She is not completely con-vinced of the reason for his uni-versal unpopularity, natural enough in such a dogged borrower. Per-haps she suggests it was partly due to national prejudice because of AVeling's Irish connections.

It used to be said years ago that the two Avelings co^ia^tted stycide

they felt they coula^no

"Charles Stewart Parnell: The Man and his Family," by R. F. Faster ftiuftiester, £9.95).

T N the Psrnell mythology the cen-A feral, figure—a Protestant femdK lord leading the peasantry his oim class; a • cold, politician Who delivered ' to his enemies for the wyirian—is accepted lusus .naturae neither requiring explanation, wffl. h^ve none of this: ttfiJBricftt

: as he tttofoMes himself he seeks out the logic underlying the pher nomenon, Charles Stewart PafnelL

First he sweeps away some be-liefs traceable to that jSUr John Pan**!, for faafcgple, the* great-grandfather who lost his chanceBoiehip of the exchequer for opposing the utttofc xit U»l, was a fee' to Protestant ascendancy; that Dora Stewart Pamell Indoctrinated . ' , - • .. . imp.

hes

W'Mm&w' "Conflict m Northern Ireland'',

by John tktrby (Gill and "Mc-Mittan, 0fj9S).

TpOR anyone who requires a clear 1 and factual picture of the background to the present situation in Northern Ireland "this boott'Ctm be wanrty wulmfipjiri l "it traces briefly the M»$»y itttiftt the setting up of the AdmfcdStr*-tion of the Statelet, and Its subse-quent development up tO ttTO. It clearly abaws t ^ fnii& itS |apep-tion all the power was held by the majority in the area, and that the one-third1 Includes against their Wlll in:.the ,Bt never i d m t i f l e d ' y ^ ^ ^ aa tration, or were encouraged! fay so- - I raft "S*

This boekjwpads' *mrol fr/Mm-takes and omlsMoaa whloh towugttt on the present deplorable situation. The British, after dividing a unit

tet-

her son with American anglophobia; or thd! Parnell's financial tffficul-

the tribute of 1883 was solve, stemmed wholly

olitical activities. e positive side Mr Foster

as an important in-,ce the four published works grandfather William Parnell,

Tironr which the home-rule leader undoubtedly acquired 'whatever understanding of Irish history be possessed. A more important in-heritance was a liberal view of the land question—which, as. this book shows, was to some exf&ftt shared by other Wicklow gentry. In a county-which had been spared - the worst of the great fafldite many proprietors, several of them kin"to the. Parnells — Howards, PoWers-courts, Tighes, Synges, Grattans and Bartons for example— relationship with their tenants im-. •

embittered by the memory of evic-tions. • • »•'•/<; x.'-t." TTiROM sparse materials (chiefly • p • Pxeu0tt 'lOKMitor tt 4 ' a t Sullivan, memoirs sister Emily Dickinson in brother John Howard in 1916 and references in the writings of rine Tynan) the author « much hard .Information about" immediate family, siblings who reached mil isolates a f^aHtteai" oc group wWeh includes the \ poetess Fanny (her "Hold _ vest" is quoted in fun and bivalent Jmfcgory Aima the resolute Utdtes' Land -iieagfle Whoi out to sea in 1911 and so " to an end nearly thirty Utter- disillusionment with nationalism; she had sever to her brother after Ids ment of the LX.L.

longer be of service to the Labour Movement. This would be too old at forty with a vengeance. But ia disposing of this myth, Mrs Katip traces it to its origin in police evi-dence given at the inquest.

TN her moving last and penutti-mate sections, where she deals

with the last days of Engels, wheat the ailing genius fell into the hands of the unscrupulous Doctor who had married Kautsky's first wife, the author sighs for the pen of a Balzac, or at least the novelist's artistic license. But she makes a fair fist of it without thein. These chapters are indeed fascinating reading, and no novelist could bet-ter portray the characters and the clash of character. There is little doubt that the last few months of estrangement from Engels, foi-., lowed by his death, formed part of the background against which Aveling's shabby behaviour precipi-tated the suicide.

If only she had lived! The last sentence in the book has however just the slightest touch of an anti-climax which' is a pity. It is a quotation from Shakespeare, but inapposite because the sense de-mands "thereafter" instead of "hereafter", in 1977. It might have, been better to quote Joe Hill, wiw» didn't die at all.

'This book is a monument to ftp author's wide learning and humane culture. It is moreover ftill aff glorious wee items of gossip. Who-ever is tired of gossip is tired of life. Did you know for example that Thomas Carlyle's maidservant was engaged in giving birth in oae room, While Carlyle entertained his lady friends in the adjolntog «!«•? It doesn't make any difference but itir -wry nice to know, ^,/v'-',. - sSKd did yen tn«w that Frederick

Engels. bought his Wbteiin Dublin? Thwer is quite a. J | |

land' in fM^^-^bul-^totf never think so from looking at -the tadat,; & for « book of tws if. you are interea ticiaar branch you will wish to

Jtote'' I itirrdfi 1 jt': ii

tMUBtt" Ijeeds, Itei oicdsr to -ffflfiBrtc thfi' J

MiWWHf ,,. . they ; had ^.recognised for centuries, let Its local admipistra-tion have a free hand in perpetuat-

regime. mm, *o«t t* Inception, this unviable unit was flnsnclally subsidised, all efforts to have rea-sanaWe discusrioa :dbt>ut its short-

. cpmi^ip in Parliament were dis-couraged or ignored. •

1 . • . , irpHE Dublin estafeishment (of all -1- main political parties) paid

Hp service to the national desire for unity aWt stated their case 1n sim-plistic and unrealistic terms. They did hot try to aim any of tbctr arguments to. the ruling majority • there, or attempt to analyse or

• undeastan** their leafs or tradi-tlons. We nan see how, over the years, M*ai*te institutions grew up North and South and, how the ram-shackle edifice erected in 1030 was propped up by Indifference and

tear of radical change fy <«axaU " minded politicians. ' -y) •

The Nationalists of the Six Coun-ties tor 50 years, -through their dis-unity and their dependence an ah out of date political, party, were -denied «ay opportunity ajf publics* ing their real grievances and sured that When the M < S t i i | W | • - ' . M p P ' A v i p off there would be a violent reac- given to tion/^ ' ^ v i

THIS book examines ifte .differ-

but it cKers no facile has a valuable bibliography well^ Indexed. It strates by' Its very irii; unsuccessful the settl: artificlifl' Statelet has how1 necessary it will bejtp fundamental reco6sldwrf^*,-^ * than Window - d meirts belore thls deep Irish people of can be setUed-as It must.

JACK SOMEAS

8 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT February, 1977

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B R A V B Y DONAL MacAMHLAIt iH

D I A R Y €1 A P E A C E T I M E S O L D I E R

W

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f£OUTE march today—upwards of twenty miles at least—in

•full battle order, that is, pack end webbing equipment, tin-hat, rifle and bayonet. Each man had to take along a spare pair of socks in case he got blisters, and a piece of soap to rub to the affected parts. We were in great form altogether starting out and once we were clear cf the camp we had permission to lake away at will. And to be sure Rhattigan, the Mayoman who is always grousing, made the most of it.

"There's no need for this," he moaed, "ne'er a bit of need at all. I've gone through all this before many's and many's the time, so 1 have. What's the point of it all, what are they trying to prove ?"

"Shut your mouth an' keep marching," the platoon corporal told him but in a harmless sort of a way as though he cpuldn't be bothered with the man.

"Of course the real reason is to give the officers a chance to work up an appetite for their dinner—that's what this bloomin' caper is all in aid of," Rhattigan went on.

"He's like a cursed gramo-phone," Matt said to myself in Irish. "Isn't it a wonder but he'd get tired of it some time ?"

"Of course they'll have a dif-ferent fce sure of that," Rhattigffn pumted, "it won't be trusting to three rotten spuds and a sliver of meat they'll be—not Ukely, sir! Oh no, they'll be having pheasant and duck and all kinds of nice things, followed by custard and jelly and coffee when they're done."

"You're badly off for coffee," •r" said the platoon corporal, "'tis

far from coffee you were reared." t

"It's not just the coffee, corp," said my man, "but we'll be late back for dinner , and them sav-ages in Two Company will have everything ate on us."

"It's a wonder to me when you disapprove of everything so much that you ever came back into the Army," said the cor-poral to him then.

"I was brain-washed into it, that's the why," Rhattigan[told him.. "There wasn't a time that I'd go to draw me bit of dole —for all 'twas worth, a lousy few shillings—but I'd see the posters-, 'Join the NEW Apny'. Arid so I did but I don't see any-thing new about it. It's all the same old boloney. I don't think" we'd frighten the Russians my-away."

"That kind of talk is bad for morale," said the corpot& a little more sharply.

4 "I don't think the Russians could stand it—the talking," said Matt in Irish.

"It's a pity you ever heeded the posters, we could well do without you," the corporal told Rhattigan and this really pro-voked him. >, . " Well, If it comes t+Jhafyfor-

Printed toy Ri|Hfy Printers Limited (T.U.), Nottingham Road, Rfofcy, Derbyshire, and published by Connolly Publications Limited, at 3S9-Gr»y» Um Rd., iwndon^WCl.

poral, 1 was soldiering before you knew which end of the rifle the bullet came out of!" \yE all had a good laugh at this

and the corporal shut up himself, none too pleased. We went through Brownstown and Suncroft and other villages which I don't know the names of and sure enough when we got back to McDonagh Barracks the dinner was scrappy whether those other savages in Two Company got more than their fair share—as Rhattigan sug-gested—1 can't say. Not every-one completed the march but Rhattigan did though he was grumbling away as good as ever when we came in sight of the camp again.

I think we'll soon be losing Martin O Nee for he's deter-mined to work his ticket—to get his discharge, that is. He never cleans a rifle and his buttons have moss growing on them for want of brasso, so Sergeant Sullivan says, but since he "goes sick" most days there isn't a lot they can do with him and in the end I suppose they'll say that there's no point in keeping him against his will. It would be hard for them to prove that he's malingering, I expect, since he has already spent a term in the hospital here. But our numbers continue to grow and the other night we had a new addition, a young chap coiled Gerald Gavanly >/rom Co Westmeath. Most people walk into a room but Gerald burst into the room like a man in a frantic hurry. He threw open the door, slung his kitbag to one side and marched up through the billet straight for the fire. He spread his hands to the blaze, gave a quick look at each one of us in turn and then introduced him-self—something which is not the custom among our sort at all.

"I'm Gerald Gavanly and I'm pleased to meet you all," he said in the best of Irish and then he launched into a sermon about the Anglicised state of the nation and about the spineless shoneens who were only happy when they were aping the ways of other countries and neglect-ing their own culture. Gerald had had a row with his father who, it seems, did not share his enthusiasm for the Gaelic way of life and he/had joined the Army in consequence.

" 'I'll eband join the First Battctfkm,' 1 told him," said Gerald with defiance in his eyes, "I'll have the Language round me there and our own traditions and culture'." ~ "Where will you be getting all

that—in the First Battalion in Galway, is it?" Martin 0 Nee asked, wide-eyed.

"To be sure!" said Gerald. "Isn't it the Gaelic Battalion ?"

O Nee, who seemingly hadn't given the matter a lot of though up to now, said nothing and then Gerald wanted to know how many of us came from the Gael-totfyi '.

"I'll not 8peak a word of Eng-lish, mind," he warned, "not one single solitary word of English."

It was somehow as if he had us under his .influence already,

young as he was, and to oblige him we began reckoning up how many of us came from the Gael-tacht. We went through the list, naming each man and where he came from—Matt from Carra-roe, O Nee from Rosmuc, Martin Cooke from Inishmore and so on until we came to Paddy Hynes and said he was from Claregalway.

"Hang on a minute, not so fast," Gerald interrupted with a sweep of his hand.

"I don't think I can accept Claregalway."

"What do you mean, you don't think you can accept Claregal-c* way ?" Hyne demanded, quite naturally upset. Paddy Hynes is no fanatic about the Lan-guage, in fact he'd just as lief speak English any day, but he didn't like to see his home place downgraded like that.

"What I mean to say is that Claregalway isn't a hundred per cent Irish-speaking place like Rosmuc or Cama or somewhere like that, is it? You speak a different dialect to these other chaps . . . I'd say you probably spoke as much English at home as you did Irish."

"Arrah shut your mouth.you, greenhorn you, what do you know about it? All belonging to me spoke Irish, the very best of Irish, j^m oBmg& yw."

"Anyway, I have no apologia for the Spaniards, ancient or modern," said Gerald.

"Let's change the subject. What kind of activities do ye have here ?"

"Activities ?" Ninety Murphy said, "Well, there's foot-drill and rifle-drill and we'll be starting on the Bren gun soon "

But Gerald let him get no further.

"Oh, 1 don't mean all THAT," he said in a tone of disgust, "I mean cultural activities. Do ye produce any plays or concerts here in the barracks, or is there discussion groups or anything like that ? For it's not by bread alone that Man liveth," he quoted, eyeing the cream bun which Nought Six was munching

dolefully. "If there isn't then there should be, there's /enough talent here I'm sure to get some-thing going."

"There's something telling me that this billet won't be the same from now on," "Nought Six confided to me later in the night. "The peace of the place is gone," His forecast, alas, is all too true, for there's not a moment's peace in \ the room since my man came among us, nothing but endless discussions and arguments about culture and language, and sermons by the score. It's a good job he's not training with us anyway or we'd be moidered altogether."

(More next month) © An Clochomhar. B.A.C. •

Gaelic sport comments By P. J. CUNNINGHAM

wo^^f^^^nc&ttntered tW. I

mmmmfs Jmm^bbearn-

° _ W Hte of a language to to speak it and we must keep increasing om,voca-bulary."; ~ v*"*-:.

"Whatf yout name in Eng-lish?" Mmxnquired of htm awkwardly tJwwAvhot I mean to say is that he intended to be

't : • 7 mm****, f •

awkwarm awkwarli T likes, tie's to A he he nic some sti

"Wh my n Gerald

"1 li name ft way th Irish told him&.%>~

"Well, must k

"Th Matt s

"As original! formed with th tion was

"We our isl Cooke gang."

"They> said my lnquisiti

"We helped

"I'd help, ol Reilly s looking that se well off that he w contqntioiu

be a very \t when he

getting on nee, wk om

r for OWft. >

to know " asked

i English .if Ml'j i ' n some

the * Watt

If ym Gerald.

Mme,"

•fact it was ? Gerald in-

J* pt#f happy the conversa-

irds in ' Martin

ijp're a dirty

, people," I the Spanish

wbs^H vhenthey

not 81* O '

He was

-pHE present lull in inter-Gounty games gives us a

chance to look at an aspect of our games which we have neg-lected somewhat in the past. I refer to the all-Ireland club championships in hurling and football which were introduced a few years ago and have been widely acclaimed as a great

•v. '«'»».< .. M S • -we*'. * 'y<5.-wflif» ,. I feel that sometimes we tend

to get carried away fey the feig inter-county game* ant In the process porhapi we n « | | o t t h e clubs, l e t us remember that the club is the feaslo dnit of the Association and that Without those same clubs—big and little —there would be no inter-county games or indeed stars. For that reason I am delighted that clubs are how being helped and encouraged to develop their owh clubrooms and to lloome an important social and cul-tural centre in thOir localities, not meroly involving themselves in the playing of games-tiough thli of course will rental* their basic function. T

The recent improved recep-tion of Radio Eireann in Britain has done a great deat liven the Sunday aft Gaelic followers in this Niw at throe o'clock day we are brought with the latest events G.A.A. calendar. Boihg receive t h • ' M H r i f 0 H«blr also brought en end t * the weekly pilgrimage td that unique London-Irish institution

- the uninitiated "the pole" wNt en ordinary t e l e | i W ( J b j « ^ M l l O h for tome reason seemed to have

w h e i ^ l h M U k -up of Radio Eireartn was In* ted, bask in thofcadew days

fore the prooefitjie* trans-mitter was erected Hi Tuft*

My local pole wae

Ho homo on 0hHflMBI and back In (he ~ wards of fifty of us

gather round it to enjoy the thrills from Croke Park c» Thurles brought to us by Michael's golden voice. In fact at one stage "going to the pole" came as naturally to the Irishman in Clapham as going to mam In St Mary's and to the Alexandra for draught Guin-ness, Since movingte Tooting I have M " "' ""

the other day who that "fiie pete they ean all pick it now.w —

A F course not all the yisUto to the pole wore avid

G.A.A. fans. There «iM& M&e who were probaMy lonely end came to see a friendly face and perhaps through the medlum<ef Radio Elroanti to recapture the atmosphere of their youth in Ireland. There wore Others who came only for the "emtft". The latter tonded to taih g fbod deal add made It diffleiitt for those. of wjghfrwere tryldg to hear the commotttary te eeiteen-trate on the game. Thlw of no who regarded ourselves as rea-sonably knowledgeable on the

•

- ignore V|hddr a n * ' h l p i ' p m f -they would go away.

There were some amusing tn-""""" at the pole t m ' of

I can vividly reoall one ular nr Sunday aftefndon Cork and

*f • thrilling Munster pionship match, who* suddenly the gremlins got Into therradio. We tried moving it t e diJWent angles, tried every side of the polo, all lo no a v h l l r ' M M M y suggested that thero was a •hot-ter pole'" down 4he road, fO^in desperation I * t off itito ritot suburban Narbonne radio tuoked under my i pursued by fifty of my i countrymen. One of tives who woo In d (he had Just hnished , Ms. J i r l j d W g f t p W ashed; "Who are you? Plod Piper r

My Irish Democrat teams In

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