ALL AT S.E.A....... !A light-hearted look at the 'Single European Act' legislation .
From 'The Very End' column , 'New Hibernia' magazine , May 1987.
By Patrick Murphy.
Meanwhile it has been revealed that people from the North of Ireland can come down and vote provided they stay here for more than 48 hours ; this will allow them to take back two 'YES!' votes on the Single European Act , four 'NO!' votes in the Pro-Life Amendment and six bottles of 'DON'T KNOWS!' in the 'Divorce Referendum' .
Northern Customs Authorities yesterday seized two lorry loads of 'NO!' votes near Newry after they had been smuggled in from the South ; it is believed they would have been added to the thousands of 'ULSTER SAYS NO!' votes already in the North and Unionists along the border have recently complained that they can sell very few 'NO!' votes in view of the large numbers of them being imported from the South .
But as bus-loads of Northern voters queued to visit Dublin yesterday they scrambled for bargain 'NO!' votes throughout the city , and authorities in the North are worried that political jobs there may be lost if the trend continues .......
(MORE LATER).
BILLY WRIGHT , LOYALIST VOLUNTEER FORCE . " I have been prepared to die for long many a year . I don't wish to die , but at the end of the day no one will force their opinion down my throat . No one . "
On August 29 , 1996 , shortly before the 'Combined Loyalist Military Command's' death threat against him expired , EMER WOODFUL interviewed LVF leader BILLY WRIGHT in his Portadown home .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1998 .
Emer Woodful : " It seems to me what you are looking for at the end of the day is total victory and total peace . "
Billy Wright : " No. Now what is total victory ? No one's looking for total victory . What we're looking for here is recognition of the democratic rights of the majority (sic) of people in Northern Ireland (sic) . All these people are asking for is to co-exist with the Irish Republic (sic) . "
Emer Woodful : " What threatens you so much ? "
Billy Wright : " Well now , please ! We now have two foreign governments interfering - we have the American and we have the government of the Free State sitting in Stormont . And that's an insult to the unionist people . We have seen our culture gradually eroded , with no benefit * . I mean the denial of our culture without benefit * , ( * '1169...' Comment - Is loyalist 'culture' for sale if the 'price' is right ... ?) you must understand , that that to the unionist people is an insult . We have watched the IRA and Sinn Fein being pandered to , watched senior politicians in the South actually making excuses for the murder of British citizens . How do you really think that we feel ? How do you think we feel ? "
Emer Woodful : " But on the other hand , if you take someone like Gusty Spence , who was in the past a paramilitary and now is in the democratic process , and we have to move on ..... "
Billy Wright : "...Now I think there's a vast difference between the approach to peace by the loyalists and by republicans - loyalists entered this process with honesty and integrity . I mean , the same cannot be said for the Republican Movement . "
(MORE LATER).
LIAM MELLOWS AND THE IRISH CIVIL WAR .......This is the bulk of a public lecture given at University College , Galway , by Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member and Deputy General Secretary of the 'Local Government and Public Services Union' , Phil Flynn , on December 8th 1982 , the 60th Anniversary of the Free State's execution of Liam Mellows .
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983 .
The struggle for national independence became at a certain point a struggle for socialism ; the struggle for socialism had always involved struggle for national independence . The point was reached in 1921/1922 - from this point no further progress could be made towards the achievement of an independent Republic on a 'classless' basis (which of course meant a capitalist basis) - all further progress depended on the proletariat becoming the leading force in the Republican Movement .
Michael Collins had become the political representative of Irish capitalism in December 1921 , from which time his influence on Irish affairs was reactionary . De Valera also decided for capitalism and subjection to Britain , but his fall into deep reaction was delayed for a few years by the fact that his desire for independence , or his political ambition , carried him beyond Collins , who actually became the representative of the Anglo-Irish and the bigger Irish bourgeoisie : de Valera became the representative of the small businessman and the aspiring 'peasants' .
The working class did not become the leading force in the Republican Movement , cursed as it was with a reformist and subservient leadership ; but some Irish Republicans came to an awareness that their struggle was no longer a national struggle of all classes against the British , and that the success of the fight for the Republic depended on its being transformed into a war of Irish workers against their class enemy , the Free State , and its imperialist master . The most clearsighted of these Republicans was Liam Mellows .......
(MORE LATER).
