FIANNA FAIL - THE MASK OF DE VALERA ....... From 'AP/RN' , August 10th , 1989 .
(No 'By-Line')
In 1925 the IRA further emphasised its independence when it withdrew its allegiance from the underground Second Dail Republican government reluctantly headed by de Valera and elected a new Army Council .
That same year de Valera's argument for entry into the Free State parliament was strengthened when that body debated the Boundary Agreement between the Free State Government and the British . This finally sealed the partition boundary in its present form ; if the Sinn Fein TD's had taken their seats they * could have defeated Cosgrave's Cumann na nGaedhal on the vote . (* '1169....' Comment : it should be noted that this article was written three years after the Provisionals decided to take seats in Leinster House - in short , they were [and are!] still attempting to justify that decision to themselves and to Republicans outside their political party . It is now twenty years [ie 1986-2006] since Adams and his group deserted the Republican Movement for a career in Free State politics - and partition remains in place .)
At the 1926 Sinn Fein Ard Fheis , de Valera argued for an end to abstentionism but was defeated by 223 votes to 218 : he resigned and led his supporters away to form his new party , Fianna Fail , in May of that year : that party leadership immediately began the task , at which it was to become adept in the years ahead , of building a strong centrally controlled organisation geared to winning elections . It was helped by the increasing reactionary policies of Cumann na nGaedhal , who had introduced a repressive 'Public Safety Act' and had concluded another agreement with Britain to collect and repay the land annuities and had also cut public spending .......
(MORE LATER).
1913 : 75 YEARS AFTER THE LOCK-OUT .......From 'Liberty News' , March/April 1988 .
(No 'By-Line' )
1913 was , in fact , a marvellous victory drawn from the jaws of defeat ; the trade union and labour movement was soon to become an essential and important part of the new State and , in general terms , society came to accept the broad tenets of social democracy , if not socialism .
The broad values of society reflected the need to extend care to the underprivileged groups in society : but the battle was not won in 1913 , and progress since has been uneven . Despite tremendous growth in numerical terms in the size of the trade union movement in the 1970's , working-class organisation has not been reflected in political gains . In terms of a social audit of Dublin today as compared to 1913 can we really claim to be 'in credit' ? Certainly extreme poverty * has gone but things are relative to the times . ( * '1169....' Comment : "extreme poverty" has , for the most part , simply been replaced by 'bread/border-line poverty' and pushed into its own areas in the cities . It is usually only seriously [briefly] addressed and/or recognised when it 'spills-out' from those areas into neighbouring middle-class estates .)
We still have acute housing problems , unemployment , emigration , attacks on hard-won health , education and social services and new problems of urban decay , drug abuse , vandalism and crime in the alienation of our youth . Regrettably there is now a gathering attack on trade unionism and the essential collective values that it represents and to which the whole of Irish society owes many of its freedoms .......
(MORE LATER).
PLUS CA CHANGE .......Charles Haughey and Charles Stewart Parnell .
From 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1998 .
By Vincent Browne.
Charles Stewart Parnell was unable to account for either the £1000 John Morrogh donation or £5,000 of the monies received from Cecil Rhodes : it would appear that this 'great Irish leader' appropriated for his own uses about £375,000 in present-day terms .
But that is not all - in the present issue (ie February 1998) of the 'Bar Review' magazine , Rory Brady SC quotes from a biography of Cecil Rhodes - ' Rhodes : The Race for Africa' , as claiming that the donation by Rhodes , of £10,000 , was intended to buy the support of the Irish Party for chartered companies . In 1889 , Cecil Rhodes was seeking support in the British House of Commons for a charter for his corporation , the British South Africa Company , to develop Bechuanaland , and he needed the support of Charles Stewart Parnell and the Irish Party .......
(MORE LATER).
