Due to a 'balls-up' with our staff (!) , this blog will publish only on Mondays , Wednesdays and Fridays .
Until.......

PADDY COONEY'S ARMY .......
Not since the earliest days of the State has the role of the Irish Army (sic) been under such intense scrutiny . And not since the war years has it had such a forceful political master as Patrick Mark Cooney .
From 'The Phoenix' magazine , 3 February 1984 .

Paddy Cooney himself stated in Leinster House in June 1983 - " Theoretically , the primary role of the (FS) Defence Forces is to defend the territory of the State against external aggression , but in practise its role consists of coming to the aid of the civil power in the apparently never ending fight against subversives and terrorism . " ('1169....' Comment - if Mr. Cooney was truly concerned about "subversives and terrorism" he would have noticed those evils being inflicted on us by Westminster and attempted to do something about that situation . Instead , he co-operated with the British to ensure that their occupation of part of this isle ran as smoothly as possible .)

Now , in the wake of Ballinamore , the State Army is to be given more powers and allowed more discretion in its back-up to the civil power .

The Defence portfolio used to be rated at the bottom of the State Cabinet barrel , but not any more : the very fact that the annual cost of maintaining the State Defence Forces is now over £220 million tells its own story , and with the increased importance of the State Army has come the higher ranking of the Defence job - Paddy Cooney is the most experienced State Minister to be put in charge of Defence since Oscar Traynor.......
(MORE LATER).


SHOOT TO KILL .......
The unchanging face of repression .
PETER HAYES examines reactions to the latest shoot-to-kill deaths .
From 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983.

The Catholic hierarchy made meaningless calls for public enquiries into the British shoot-to-kill policy , but the British-established 'Northern Ireland Office' - after treating those appeals with deserved contempt - refused to heed , instead instituting internal RUC enquiries to be carried out by those that British Direct-Ruler James Prior glibly referred to as "...independent people from the police force.." !

Those 'enquiries' , meaningless as they are , have yet apparently even to reach the six-county Director of Public Prosecutions , in strong contrast to the alacrity with which the DPP in England received the report into the Metropolitan Police shooting of Stephen Waldorf in London in January 1983 , which resulted in two British detectives being charged with murder .

Dr. Francis Brooks , the Catholic Bishop of Dromore , speaking at the Requiem Mass for Michael Tighe on November 27th 1982 , demonstrated to what extent the Catholic hierarchy has deliberately cut itself adrift from the sentiments and fears of the bulk of the nationalist population , and has rendered itself logically and morally incapable of unequivocally condemning the deliberate shoot-to-kill tactics employed by the RUC . Dr. Brooks stated -

" The police have a most difficult and dangerous responsibility placed on them , restoring law and order in the province . An impartial enquiry , irrespective of its findings , would strengthen the credibility of the police and foster confidence among all fair-minded people . " ('1169...' Comment - as usual throughout our history , the Catholic hierarchy , ever-mindful of its 'position' within 'society' , will stoop to any level to preserve its links with those it perceives to be the 'ruling class' , regardless of the rights and wrongs of the issue at hand . They 'turn the other cheek' , providing said cheek belongs to someone else ).
(MORE LATER).


PILLARS OF SOCIETY : EOGHAN HARRIS .......
From 'The Phoenix' magazine , October 1985 .

It was in the 'Feach' team that Eoghan Harris had his first of several celebrated encounters with the equally egotistical Proinsias MacAonghusa - the 'Feach' presenter took umbrage at an unsigned article by Eoghan Harris in an unofficial producers' bulletin which claimed that Proinsias MacAonghusa was angling for promotion to Head of Radio na Gaeltachta : at MacAonghusa's insistence , Harris was removed from 'Feach' , fanning a feud that has continued ever since .

During the 1970's , Eoghan Harris displayed a diabolical talent for embroiling himself in controversy within the Borgia-like court at RTE , Montrose , while managing to survive unscathed himself . During a stint with the 'Seven Days' programme Eoghan Harris came to the angry attention of Conor Cruise O' Brien for his editing of a programme on Northern internees which had Cruise O' Brien openly fulminating about 'subversives in RTE' at the 1974 Labour Party conference .

But the scripting of 'The Greening of America', an award-winning programme on U.S.-Irish immigrants , later marked the climax of Harris's career as a TV producer . More and more he diverted his moody energies after that towards shaping the political direction of the Workers Party , or Official Sinn Fein as it was then known.......
(MORE LATER).

---

---

---

Due to a 'balls-up' with our staff (!) , this blog will publish only on Mondays , Wednesdays and Fridays .
Until.......


PADDY COONEY'S ARMY .......
Not since the earliest days of the State has the role of the Irish Army (sic) been under such intense scrutiny . And not since the war years has it had such a forceful political master as Patrick Mark Cooney .
From 'The Phoenix' magazine , 3 February 1984 .

(Free State) Brig. Gen. Gerry O' Sullivan is Paddy Cooney's choice to head up the State Army at what Cooney believed was 'a time of change' : and that 'change' basically means a greater internal role for the State Army in law enforcement in this country (sic) - the young colonels cannot be displeased .

Few people realise the extent to which the State Army has become involved in semi-policing work over the past decade : in 1982 for instance -
* Over 21,000 military parties were supplied in Border areas for check-point duties and over 17,000 joint Garda/State Army checkpoints were set up .
* More than 11,000 patrols were sent out into the road network along the Border .
* Escorts for explosives and blasting operations were provided on over 1,200 occasions .
* About 150 requests for bomb disposal teams were handled.......
(MORE LATER).


SHOOT TO KILL .......
The unchanging face of repression .
PETER HAYES examines reactions to the latest shoot-to-kill deaths .
From 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983.

John Hume's own craven belief in the 'right' of the RUC and the British Army to repress nationalists as long as it is done within the 'extraordinary' legal framework of the Orange State , was well expressed early in December 1982 -

" No-one objects to any person being arrested for any crime for which they are suspected , charged and brought before the courts . This is the due process of law . But to authorise their instant execution or attempted execution , as has now happened on five separate occasions in recent times , is in effect to abandon the rule of law completely . "

The Catholic hierarchy also made meaningless calls for public enquiries but even these 'words of concern' were ignored by the British , who set about to white-wash the shoot-to-kill policy.......
(MORE LATER).



PILLARS OF SOCIETY : EOGHAN HARRIS .......
From 'The Phoenix' magazine , October 1985 .

Politically , Anne O' Sullivan (Harris) is formed in the image of her husband , Eoghan : her public praise of the Official IRA bombers at Aldershot , who killed five cleaning women and a priest at Aldershot Britsh Army Barracks in 1972 , is unlikely to have caused a row in the Harris household , and , today , Anne's sexual crusade against the Catholic clergy , coupled with her execration of things republican or rural , mirrors the route her husband has followed since the 1960's .

Ironically , given his now rabid anti-republicanism , Eoghan Harris first attracted attention as a talented young producer in RTE with a series of religious discussion programmes , but it was with 'Feach' , where he collaborated with Brendan O hEithir , that he made his best programmes .

A competent programme-maker as well as a good publicist - he stage-managed a walk-out by Official Sinn Fein leader Tomas MacGiolla , from one programme , - Eoghan Harris and Brendan O hEithir brought Irish cultural affairs to the nation's attention in a relevant and lively manner that has not often been repeated since.......
(MORE LATER).

---

---

---

Due to a 'balls-up' with our staff (!) , this blog will publish only on Mondays , Wednesdays and Fridays .
Until.......


PADDY COONEY'S ARMY .
Not since the earliest days of the State has the role of the Irish Army (sic) been under such intense scrutiny . And not since the war years has it had such a forceful political master as Patrick Mark Cooney .
From 'The Phoenix' magazine , 3 February 1984 .

The present (Free State) Minister for Defence , Paddy Cooney , has very positive views about Irish neutrality and there is a powerful lobby in the (State) Army now working for full Irish (ie in this case , 26 County) participation in NATO . But it is Mr. Cooney's obsession with 'subversives' at home - and how his army is going to deal with them - that warrants a close eye being kept on the activities of Generalissimo Patrick Mark Cooney .

The past year was a seminal one for the Irish (sic) Army for more reasons than one ; it was the first time a (FS) soldier was killed on active service in the State , it was the first time that a group of very senior retired officers publicly opposed any conduct of the State Army - in this case their participation in the British Legion commemoration on Poppy Day . And it was the first time that (State) soldiers on point duty shot at civilians on the public road .

The incoming (FS) Chief of Staff , Brig. Gen. Gerry O' Sullivan , is taking up his responsibility at a particularly sensitive time for the State defence forces .......
(MORE LATER).



SHOOT TO KILL .......
The unchanging face of repression .
PETER HAYES examines reactions to the latest shoot-to-kill deaths .
From 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983.

In Donagh , County Fermanagh , Kieran Leonard , a Sinn Fein election worker , was shot and wounded on December 29th , 1982 , near his home , by an undercover British Army unit , and later charged with possession of explosives which were found several hundred yards away .

On February 2nd , 1983 , unarmed INLA Volunteer Neil McMonagle was shot dead , and a friend , Liam Duffy , wounded , by an undercover British soldier in Derry's Shantallow housing estate . In none of the cases mentioned above was there any evidence that the dead or wounded men had been armed or that they had been engaged in acts of republican resistance .

The response to these cold-blooded killings from the constitutional 'leaders' of the nationalist community has been predictable in its bleating ineffectiveness : despite Sinn Fein declaring that the time for calling for 'independent' public enquiries was over , and that they had achieved nothing in earlier cases of legalised murder by the British State : the SDLP's only contribution - expressed by party deputy leader Seamus Mallon - was to call for an "independent enquiry " .......
(MORE LATER).



PILLARS OF SOCIETY : EOGHAN HARRIS .......
From 'The Phoenix' magazine , October 1985 .

After a brief flirtation with the right-wing ' Poblacht Chriostuil' ('The Christian Republic') group , Eoghan Harris' 'republicanism' manifested itself in more extrovert ways ; contemporaries recall his habit of strutting around in trenchcoat and black beret and even sporting a green coat , white shirt and gold tie , on one particular Easter week !

Others remember him from the FCA ('An Fórsa Cosanta Áitiuíl') , in which he became a fanatical corporal , forcing his troops on long marches through the night to attain FCA awards for endurance and discipline . More significantly , Eoghan O hEarchu , as he then styled himself , struck up an enduring friendship with historian Professor John A Murphy , and the pupil soon became an intimate of the master : Murphy's pre-eminent role as the sharpest of the revisionist school of Irish historians owes much to his late-night dialectic discourses with Eoghan Harris .

Eoghan Harris met his future wife , Anne O' Sullivan , then a member of the Wolfe Tone Society , at UCC , and she has since emerged from his shadow to become editor of 'Image' magazine and , more recently , an assistant editor of the Sunday Independent 'newspaper'.......
(MORE LATER).

---

---

---