A ROUGH DEAL .......
Ten years ago EDDIE GALLAGHER went to prison for his part in the kidnapping of TIEDE HERREMA . He is still there , even though he did a deal which promised him only four years in jail . His accomplice , MARION COYLE , has been released . DEREK DUNNE reports on GALLAGHER's maverick relationship with the IRA , on the negotiations which led to the release of TIEDE HERREMA and on the roots of GALLAGHER's involvement .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , January 1986 , pages 6 , 7 , 8, and 9 .
By 1975 , Eddie Gallagher was carrying-out military operations without the authority of the IRA leadership ; he refused to tell the leaders anything until the operation was complete , and considered that he should be just let get on with it . At that time , he was particularly active in the Donegal area , and had recruited a number of individuals of like mind . At the time Brendan Hughes was IRA Director Of Operations in the twenty-six counties , Eddie Gallagher was his Adjutant and Marion Coyle acted as Courier ; they were not attached to any particular IRA Unit .
Following the cease-fire , there was a botch up of a certain Provo operation in the twenty-six counties , and the IRA Army Council attempted to re-organise the entire membership . In mid-April , Marion Coyle was summoned to Dublin and told that she was being moved to another area ; the people who informed her of this decision were in favour of a truce and she associated the change with their attitude . In mid-May , the Provo Officer in charge of the area she had been sent to informed his superiors that she had'nt turned up . Moves were made to suspend her from membership .
Eddie Gallagher was at this time involved in a major operation but was refusing to give any money to the Provo leadership ; the IRA Army Council became worried when they did not hear from Brendan Hughes or Eddie Gallagher . Marion Coyle was afterwards cleared of doing anything untoward with these funds . The fact that Gallagher's was a maverick group did little to distinguish them from the Provos in the minds of most people ; a kidnapping would bring the Gardai and the (Free State) Army down hard all over the country (sic) - there would be searches in places there had never been . And , in fact, these searches turned up firearms in several places .
The Provos were displeased with Brendan Hughes , Eddie Gallagher and Marion Coyle - but the main bone of contention about any kidnapping would be that it would not be sanctioned by the IRA Army Council or any local IRA Unit .......
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TO WESTMINSTER AND BACK .......
The Life And Times Of Gerry Fitt.
By Nell McCafferty .
First published in ' MAGILL' magazine , July 1983 .
Gerry Fitts' stories were wonderful ; about the 2,000 couples he knew in Dungannon who could'nt get a house , the intricate saga of why Derry did'nt get the University and Coleraine did , and the " ... 468 telegrams , 700 letters and 1,000 phone calls .. " from people who opposed him in religion but supported him in his new approach to politics . Unionists , he finished , " ... cannot believe that 3,000 Protestants voted for me .. " .
Sir Douglas Glover , Conservative member from Ormskirk , followed him : " Whatever we may think about the arguments put forward , we like people who speak with sincerity and fire in their bellies . " He praised Gerry Fitts' " ... descriptive turn of phrase .. " and smoothly dismissed the complaints about Stormont - " In any parliament that is always the view of the minority about the actions of the majority . " Why , he too was about to spend five years watching the majority Labour Party members go through the lobbies like fodder , " ... used by whips in carrying through legislation in which they do not believe .. " .
British Captain L.S. Orr , Unionist member at Westminster for South Down said , smoothly , that Mr. Fitt had made no complaints to the RUC upon his election , that the University had been sited in Coleraine following recommendations by an independent board that included many prominent and eminent British academics , that the Northern Ireland (sic) Labour Party should confirm that religion was never mentioned when the NILP fought elections , and he finished with a quotation from the 'Irish Independent' newspaper Editorial - ' Captain O'Neill has a new respect from the Catholics of Belfast who cannot remember a time when the police were more fair or more efficient than they were last Sunday , when two rival parades were taking place in the city . '
But still Gerry Fitt had faith that when Harold Wilson's government knew the facts , they would take corrective action in Northern Ireland (sic) - one hundred Labour MP's had come together in a caucus called ' Campaign For Democracy in Ulster ' (sic) and in the North itself a dossier of irrefutable information was being painstakingly compiled to convince Westminster of the wrongs which existed .......
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A DECADE OF CENSORSHIP .Bernadette Quinn looks at the development of SECTION 31 of the Broadcasting Act , used by the Free State government to suppress the Republican viewpoint on state radio and television - and extended by Radio Telefis Eireann itself into a regime of self-censorship . From ' IRIS ' magazine , November 1983 .
Section 31 was first proposed as part of the Broadcasting Act of 1960 by the then Minister for Posts and Telegraphs in the Free State , Patrick Hilliard . It was intended to provide the Free State government with a veto which would make broadcasting an instrument of government policy and was supposedly intended to ensure that ' foreign governents were not embarrassed . '
Paragraph 1 of the section stated : ' The Minister may direct the (RTE) Authority in writing to refrain from broadcasting any particular matter or matter of any particular class , and the Authority shall comply with the direction . ' Admitting that the provision of the veto was "... restrictive.. " , Patrick Hilliard said : " It is the Government's wish that the Authority should act as its own censor , recognising the absolute importance of safeguarding truth and preserving intact the moral integrity of our people . "
Exactly ten years later , the Fianna Fail government's lack of action in response to the Northern crisis was becoming an embarrassment to it , as events there increasingly showed up the hollowness of the party's claim to 'republicanism' . In July 1970 , the then (Free State) Minister for Justice , Des O' Malley , wrote to his counterpart at Posts and Telegraphs , Gerry Collins , protesting bitterly about the " ... irresponsible behaviour of RTE in glamourising persons who are well known to have engaged in subversive or criminal activities . "
RTE had been warned ; a little over a year later , Gerry Collins went further .......
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