The Simple Truth About The Irish Sugar Industry . In the past week or so , the remains of the sugar industry in this State has again come under attack from outside interests : with this in mind , we re-print a document which was first published 17 years ago (1989) .
The Simple Truth About The Irish Sugar Industry .
Address by Ruairi O Bradaigh , Uachtaran , at a meeting of Comhairle na Mumhan (Munster Executive) ,Sinn Fein Poblachtach , in Killaloe , County Clare , on Sunday 19 February 1989 .......
It is in that context that the fight for the Irish Sugar Company needs to be fought at a time when the C.A.P. agricultural bubble has also burst and farm incomes , due to be cut by 3 per cent this year , seem destined to a stagnant and uncertain future .
The simple truth about Comhlacht Siucra Eireann remains that a 200,000 tonnes quota for sugar-beet growing was agreed over a decade ago with the Brussels bureaucracy and that there is nothing the company or the politicians or any new private firm can do to change the situation as long as this very basic specific and clear-cut restriction to the march of Irish progress remains in place . That quota condemns all existing Irish sugar plants to death in the medium if not the short term .
Certainly it means that there is no room for more than one Irish sugar plant in the 1990's and that talk about Mallow and Carlow being any more 'viable' than Thurles or Tuam - both of which were making a profit at the time the decision to close them was taken - misses the basic point , which is the EEC 200,000 tonnes quota : this is not only a constant , but a basic fact , which almost the entire media as well as the political smoke-screen simply tend to ignore .......
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FIANNA FAIL - THE MASK OF DE VALERA ....... From 'AP/RN' , August 10th , 1989 .
(No 'By-Line')
Irish Republicans had failed to show up de Valera's shortcomings on the national question and to rally support on social and economic issues : his 'Document Number Two' ideas and social conservatism were enshrined in the 1937 Constitution , endorsed by the electorate that year , which also saw Fianna Fail again returned to Office . The new constitution was opposed by Republicans and , as is often forgotten , by many women because of the second-class citizenship it gave to them .
Divorce was banned and the Catholic Church given special status ; opposition to partition was reduced to the pious aspirations of * Articles Two and Three 'claiming' jurisdiction over the Six Counties . (* '1169...' Comment : ....those two Articles were disposed off in 1998 , with the assistance of the Provos , who agreed not to object in return for a career and a pension . )
War broke out in Europe in 1939 and de Valera declared the 26 Counties to be neutral . The IRA launched a bombing campaign in England and de Valera took the opportunity to introduce the 'Offences Against the State Act' : his ex-comrades were now the target .......
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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 : " If you say you are not a member of any paramilitary organisation , why is the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) issuing a death threat against you ? "
Billy Wright : " I live in a staunchly loyalist town , where there are many UVF men , and in other parts of mid-Ulster as well , and I can assure you they're not angry with me . "
Emer Woodful : " But why has the CLMC issued a death threat , then ? "
Billy Wright : " As I said before , I will not have a foreign type of politics imposed on me , and because I'm seen to be a loyalist , and because I will not align myself to that type of politics , it appears that I'm an embarrassment to certain people . "
Emer Woodful : " But is it because you support violence , is that why they don't want anything to do with you ? "
Billy Wright : " I beg your pardon . I would remind you that I took part in pre-negotiations , before the cease-fire . I was the first leading loyalist to call for a loyalist cease-fire . I describe that day as the happiest day of my life . I am totally for peace . However , to achieve peace we need a permanent IRA cease-fire . If that is not forthcoming , and if they continue to take British lives , and if the security forces (sic) don't handle them in the manner that they ought to , then I can understand why loyalist violence takes place . "
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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 nearness of victory split Sinn Fein and the IRA , and split them along class lines : Civil War followed . One section of Sinn Fein and the IRA , supported by their recent British enemy , made war on another . The Irish 'upper class' made war on the Irish 'lower class' ; the class interest of the Treaty faction , their greed , their determination to establish themselves as the ruling class in Ireland , their dread that the Republicans , by angering the British , would bring about a resumption of the Anglo-Irish war and so prevent them from becoming the ruling class , led them to commit atrocities against the Republicans in the Republican strong-hold of the South and West of Ireland , especially in Kerry , of a kind and on a scale that the British themselves had never attempted .
When the Dail of the Republic divided on the question of the Treaty in January 1922 , the pro-Treaty faction had a majority : those pro-Treatyites represented the Irish bourgeoisie in the 26 Counties : the anti-Treatyites , however , did not represent the working class , but the small property owners , 'the petty bourgeoisie' . And so although the opposing sides in the Civil War represented different class interests , they did not represent antagonistic class interests - accordingly , the Civil War was not fought to a finish but was called off halfway through , and the main body of the Republican side adopted peaceful methods which brought it to power ten years later .
The Civil War , tragically for the future history of Ireland , did not develop into a clear-cut class war between exploiter and exploited - it was a squabble between two property owning factions . De Valera , then and later , was supported by the workers , but he , no less than Michael Collins and Kevin O' Higgins , represented a propertied interest .......
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