'THE PRESS' Newspaper , October 1797 - March 1798 .
Too Radical for the Radicals .......
....... on 27th December 1792 , at 29 years young , 'Lord' Edward Fitzgerald married 19-years-young Pamela de Genlis . Pamela's mother was , by most accounts , Mme de Genlis and her father was thought to be the 'Duke' of Orleans - a 'family connection' that was to be raised later .......
In 1796 , 'Lord' Edward Fitzgerald travelled to Basel , in France , with Arthur O'Connor and Wolfe Tone - but he got a 'frosty' reception from the French because his wife was considered to be connected to the 'Royalists' ! However , the honesty of his political conviction became obvious to the hosts , and his statement to them (the 'French Directory') that the strength of the United Irishmen organisation stood at approximately 280,000 armed men helped convince them to send assistance - the 'Hoche Expedition' , already mentioned in this piece .
Edward Fitzgerald was not with the rest of the leadership of the United Irishmen organisation in March 1798 at the home of Oliver Bond in Bridge Street , Dublin , when the Brits raided and 'arrested' those within , acting on information sold to them by the informer Thomas Reynolds .
When British Major Henry Sirr realised that Fitzgerald was not amongst those captured , he offered a 'bounty' of £1,000 for information leading to his capture ; Edward Fitzgerald went 'on-the-run' .......
(MORE LATER).
A STICKY END.......
Rise and decline of the 'Officials' .
No by-line.
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , No. 2 , November 1981 , pages 76 and 77.
Re-published here in 8 parts .
(7 of 8).
'Sinn Fein - The Workers Party's' politics , such as they are , can best be seen in the remarkable document 'The Irish Industrial Revolution' (Repsol , 1978) ; the main aim is to pin the blame for Ireland's problems on the Nationalist 'middle class' - " They refused to industrialise . They refused to create a modern society . They refused to spend their money . "
This is all a bit simplistic but , worse than that , it totally ignores the role of imperialism which is recognised by most historians as the cause of Ireland's failure to industrialise in the 19th Century . Anyone working on the land is also automatically a reactionary , according to this document , thus writing-off the small farmer at one stroke .
The 'way out' is simple - call in the multi-national corporations , a 'progressive force' , and build-up the State sector .......
(MORE LATER).
BIG BROTHER HAS ARRIVED .
An investigation into the extent of telephone surveillance in Ireland shows that with the aid of new technology , telephone tapping has reached alarmimg proportions and most of it is done illegally .
By Frank Doherty .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , December 1980 , page 19.
(1 of 6).
The difficulty in uncovering tapping operations is shown by the lack of success the authorities have shown against illicit interceptions which have been carried out extensively by the Provisional IRA and various other organisations during the last ten years .
In July 1973 a night telephonist employed at a Posts and Telegraphs Exchange in Dublin was prosecuted for recording conversations for the IRA during a period between September 1972 and April 1973 .
An interception of this sort - where an operator uses TKO selectors to switch in on a temporary basis - is a 'hit and miss' affair which depends on the eavesdropper dialling up the line at a time when there was a worthwhile conversation in progress . It is also hazardous , as events proved ...
...TKO equipment causes a distinct 'click' as it brings the listener into the line , and it is easy for investigators to walk along 'final selector racks' in a telephone exchange and find a TKO Selector which is being mis-used by a particular operator .......
(MORE LATER).
