FIANNA FAIL - THE MASK OF DE VALERA ....... From 'AP/RN' , August 10th , 1989 .
(No 'By-Line')
Speaking in Leinster House in 1929 , Eamon de Valera said - " Those who continued on in that organisation (the IRA) which we have left can claim exactly the same continuity that we claimed up to 1925 . "
Sean Lemass had earlier described Fianna Fail as a "...slightly constitutional party .. " and , in 1931 , a year before the first Fianna Fail government took Office , the two organisations marched together to Bodenstown which had been ringed by Free State troops ; the same year the Free State government introduced its most repressive measures of all when it set-up a military tribunal with power to impose the death penalty .
This was accompanied by a 'red scare' when the State Administration , the Catholic hierarchy and the media combined to denounce the IRA , the newly-banned Saor Eire (an IRA-founded party with socialist policies) and Fianna Fail as 'communist' : Fianna Fail's newspaper 'The Irish Press' (founded by de Valera in 1931) was prosecuted before the military tribual for "...seditious libel.." . It was the broad opposition to this regime which swept Fianna Fail to power in 1932 - with the help of the IRA .......
(MORE LATER).
1913 : 75 YEARS AFTER THE LOCK-OUT .......From 'Liberty News' , March/April 1988 .
(No 'By-Line' )
The 1913 Lock-Out tried to outlaw a culture which was counter to capitalism ; it failed partly because it was so crude and ham fisted . Today's attack is more subtle and all the more dangerous because of it .
To honour the memory of 1913 we must begin , on an individual basis , to commit ourselves to trade union activity , not just trade union membership . We must once again set out the task of regenerating a nation on the shoulders of a people industrially free .
[END of '1913 : 75 YEARS AFTER THE LOCK-OUT'].
(Tomorrow : 'BILLY WRIGHT - PREPARED TO DIE.....' : from 1998.)
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 .
British imperialism destroyed the Republic by exploiting the contradictions that existed within the national movement ; these were class contradictions .
The Republic , as it existed from 1919 to 1921 , was a 'One-Party State' : Sinn Fein was 'the Party of the State' and , according to its leaders , it was a classless Party which was fighting purely in the interests of the Irish Nation . The reality however was that many classes were to be found within Sinn Fein and the IRA .
Medium-sized Irish businessmen (national bourgeoisie) ; small businessmen - shopkeepers , tradesmen etc (the petty bourgeoisie) ; peasants , large and small ; and workers , both urban and rural . From 1918 to 1921 no nationalist group of any significance existed outside the Sinn Fein/IRA organisation : all nationalist groups - the Citizen Army , the Irish Volunteers , the Irish Republican Brotherhood , the old Sinn Fein , the Gaelic League , the GAA , etc had merged to produce the Sinn Fein/IRA organisation .
The most significant merger was that of the Irish Citizen Army - the army of the Irish working class - with the Irish Volunteers - the army of the Irish nationalist bourgeoisie , to form the IRA .......
(MORE LATER).
