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 , who is now the political boss of the State Army believes that there is "...an unwillingness to obey the laws of the land . Every citizen must realise that the alternative to the democratic concensus is anarchy leading to revolutionary change.." ('1169...' Comment - when that "law" is an ass , and is being enforced by unprincipled careerist assholes , and that "land" is a corrupt , gombeen and morally-challenged poxy State such as this is , then we say - 'bring on the anarchy!' and God speed the 'revolutionary change'! )

Mr. Cooney is also concerned with "... the high level of national (sic- for Cooney and his likes , the word 'national' is used to describe the Free State) malaise manifesting itself in so many unpleasant ways in our society today * . Anything that we could do or the (State) Defence Forces could be involved in doing to cure that would be a high national (sic) priority " , said the man , speaking in Leinster House in June 1983 . ( * '1169...' Comment - that "malaise" is caused by those self-same political leeches that reside in Leinster House : they are the cause of it , not the "cure" for it.)

The (State) Defence Forces "...curing.." the "...national malaise.." ? This sounds more like Generals Pinochet or Zia than 'General' Paddy Cooney ! Such bright ideas from the midland solicitor do not raise too many eyebrows with the Irish public at present : but they must sow seed of thought - and ambition - in the ranks of young (State) Army Officers ....... ('1169...' Comment - this corrupt wee Statelet really deserves to be screwed if it's "young Army Officers" are anyway anxious to 'grow up' to be like their political masters!)
(MORE LATER).



KERRY GARDA CRISIS .

There is a crisis among the Gardai in Kerry and it is much deeper than one of morale . For years the Kerry Detective force has enjoyed a free hand in dealing with Section 30 cases in this heavily Republican county .
But the free rein given in these cases has had the inevitably corrupting effect . Now individual Gardai are being fingered for conduct that most of them had taken for normal : the heat is now on . Only the fall-guys remain to be named .
From 'The Phoenix' magazine , February 1985 .

Aside altogether from the Kerry Babies case , there is a mounting catalogue of controversial incidents involving Gardai throughout the Kerry division in the years up to , and including , 1984 : there is evidence of Garda brutality - sometimes quite casual brutality . In addition , there is evidence of abuse of powers , intimidation of citizens , and of malpractice in constructing cases which has already brought the Kerry Gardai into conflict with the State DPP .

The following catalogue of controversial cases is by no means exhaustive ; it is simply representative of the types of cases that have built up to the current crisis in the division - once again , they point to the necessity for a complaints procedure so long promised , and so long delayed , by the present (State) Minister for Justice .

The Emmet Walsh Case -
Emmet Walsh was arrested under Section 30 of the Offences Against The State Act , in April 1982 , and taken to Tralee Garda Station , Kerry , where , he says , he was asked to sign a confession : he had no previous arrests , and is a college graduate , indicating some degree of articulateness . Furthermore , his father is a retired Garda Inspector : in short , Walsh's background was as different from 'the usual' as is possible .

Emmet Walsh alleges that he was beaten by named Detectives and , on his release , had the sense to make straight for the doctor . Complaints were duly made and the incident was investigated by a Garda Superintendent .......
(MORE LATER).



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

Recently , Eoghan Harris has helped out on the planned production of a film based on 'Up In The Park', the boring reminiscences of Liz Shannon , the boring wife of the former boring United States Ambassador to Ireland . And only last week , the Eoghan and Anne team were giving a polite lecture on politics and literature at the Arts Club in Dublin .

But as Anne Harris emerges ever more to the forefront of the partnership , Eoghan retreats into the provincial Ireland he loves to loathe - like Noel Browne , he is spending more time in his country retreat , privately fulminating against the body politic and the ignorance of those who vote 'Yahoos' into office . Writing plays - even bad plays - is one antidote for this malaise ; the other is to put his own pet theories and his reputation to the real test that they deserve - on the hustings in an election .
[END of 'PILLARS OF SOCIETY : EOGHAN HARRIS']
(Next - 'A HARD 'OUL STATION : LIFE ON THE STREETS' . From 1987.)

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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 year 1977 saw the 'electoral fluke' in which Paddy Cooney got his comeuppance : he lost his seat ! But there was the 'consolation prize' of leader of Fine Gael in the State Senate for the next four years - but he still insisted on keeping abreast of 'justice' matters . Towards the end of 1977 , Paddy Cooney charged that the "...notoriously guilty.." were not convicted because of their "...clever manipulation.." of legal technicalities !

His decrease in salary was cushioned somewhat by a £28,000 award made against the 'Sunday World' newspaper when he sued them in a defamation action . This stint in the State Senate seems to have set him thinking about politics on a global scale : it was around this time that he said that "...a takeover by communists could be avoided by a political , and if necessary , a defence union , of Europe . " He succeeded in getting himself back into Leinster House in 1981 and held the 'Transport And Communications' portfolio in the short-lived Coalition administration of that year .

Sitting on the backbench once more , Paddy Cooney found time to criticise the Irish charity , 'Trocaire' , saying that much of the money donated "...went to a myraid of quasi-social and political projects .. " and added that if the Catholic Church hierarchy wanted to promote social and political revolution in the Third World (!) they should tell people what they were collecting the money for , and not for the relief of hunger . Fine Gael leader Garret Fitzgerald (on the left of the photograph : the person on the right is a female) was forced to wield a Very Big Stick for this outburst by Cooney and that stick was brought down unequivocally on Paddy Cooney's knuckles . But all was forgiven as another election ensued and Mr. Cooney was then elevated to the Defence portfolio : this was seen as a concession to the less liberal wing of Fine Gael.......
(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.

If British strategists hope that an assassination campaign against Irish Republican activists specifically , will be accepted by nationalists as a 'logical outcome' of those activists' military opposition to British rule * , then they are sadly mistaken . (* ' 1169...' Comment - That 'logic' was , then [1983] , used by , amongst others , the political muppets in Leinster House and the SDLP ie - ' ...Westminster only has troops here because of the (para-)military opposition shown to them....' . Today , that nonsense is on the tip of the tongue of the new 'respectables'.)

Republican military resistance , as has been shown so often before , is too deeply a part of nationalists' rejection of the Orange State to be regarded as anything other than entirely legitmate , both politically and morally , and for the deaths of those Republican activists to be anything other than a deeply-felt tragedy . If the shoot-to-kill tactics persist , the Catholic bishops will have even fewer "...voices of moderation.. " left to talk to .
[END of 'SHOOT TO KILL' .]
(Next-'KERRY GARDA CRISIS' ; from 1985.)


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

The 'cloak-and-dagger' days for the Workers Party are almost gone : although Eoghan Harris always took his role as 'Supreme Guru' very seriously , his elitist and bullying ways made him many enemies within the Workers Party .

Gone now are the days when a half-hour pep-talk from Harris in a smoke-filled back room would swing the party behind his latest point of view - his theories , too , have been somewhat discredited . The Telesis Report and the performance of multinationals inside the Irish economy in recent years have made his booklet 'The Irish Industrial Revolution' a tract which 'the comrades' would rather forget . Many members of the Workers Party also baulk at Eoghan Harris's complete commitment to the 'Two Nations' theory . Personally , poor Eoghan now has to contend with the twin debilities of being middle-aged and middle-rich !

Despite his favoured proletarian stance , Eoghan Harris and his wife must now enjoy a joint income of around £50,000 per year and the 'strain' of it is beginning to tell : the family is about to move house from an inner-city-but-chic residence off Dublin's South Circular Road to the blatantly burgeois comfort of Monkstown , overlooking Dublin Bay.......
(MORE LATER).



An tAthair Eoghan Ó Gramhnaigh (Father Eoghan O'Growney).

We wrote an article on Father Eoghan on this blog and have recently been contacted by a kind reader , Donncha , from Beal Feirste (Belfast) , who complimented our blog (*BLUSH!*) and wrote - " Could I request that you highlight in some way the fact that the homestead of this great man from county Meath is lying derelict. I think it is a shame that some memorial has not long ago been erected at this sacred spot. I know that there is a fine statue of him at the Church in Athboy but I think that something special should be erected at the place of his birth. I wrote to the Meath Co. Council but to date I have not received an acknowledgement of any sort. Keep up the good work."

It is a travesty , Donncha , that those who currently have the authority to authorise memorials to the the men and women that sacrificed so much , so often , in an attempt to build a better future for unknown generations would , instead , rather use taxpayers money on so-called 'modern street furniture' : an injustice to those of us who are proud of our history . We can at least console ourselves by believing that things will not always be so .

Thank You again , Donncha , a Chara ; your message was a joy to receive , considering the amount of anti-Republican/anti-Irish comments we get each week .
Slan go foill anois . Sharon .

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GREAT TO BE BACK !

....but hard to get going again ! We enjoyed our break in Tramore , County Waterford - too much of this , perhaps (it was , on a 'guessitmate' , between 27 and 30 degrees on most days!) , just the right amount of this and , as always , not enough of this !
This blog will be updated every Monday , Wednesday and Friday : if you have any comments please keep them to yourself . Or leave them in our 'Guestbook' !

Thank You . Sharon .


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 .

In the late 1970's , Paddy Cooney busied himself not making deals with Gallagher and Coyle in relation to the Herrema kidnapping and criticised both the Provisional IRA and the Official IRA as "... the two sources of subversion in Ireland * springing from a debased nationalism and a Sino-Hibernian version of the Communist Manifesto. " (* '1169...' Comment : typical freestate mindset - no mention of the British presence as a "source of subversion" on this isle .)

This was one of the first indications that the 'Red Scare' was on the way . Then , in 1976 , the British Ambassador to this State , Christopher Ewart-Biggs , was assassinated , the Fine Gael and Labour State Administration declared an Emergency and rushed through seven-day detention . Surprise , surprise , allegations of brutality against plain clothes members of the Gardai began to pop up everywhere ; newspaper reports appeared which alleged that there was in existence within the Gardai a 'Heavy Gang' , whose main function was to force self-inflicting statements from those held in custody . Calls for an Independent Complaints Tribunal were met with the usual enthusiasm .

Paddy Cooney said that those who called for adequate legal counsel and medical attention for suspects held in custody should also demand access to hairdressers , dentists and opticians if they were to be consistent . ('1169...' Comment - an arrogant , sneering and 'elitist' response from a career politician - this time a Fine Gael one - directed at those that Cooney and his type most probably view as 'worthless' . On this occasion , however , Cooney let his guard down and spoke his mind - and he was , then , commenting on "suspects" , not those actually convicted of an offence.)

In any event , 22 charges of Garda brutality were referred to the State Director of Public Prosecutions ; eight Gardai were charged , but the charges were all dismissed in court . 'Internal disciplinary action' was taken in four cases . Somewhere in there , the Sallins train was robbed and the fall-out from that one is still around.......
(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 British Government correctly believes that the main body of Northern Nationalist opinion is now , in the wake of the hunger-strikes and as seen partly in the Stormont Assembly elections , so totally alienated and polarised from British 'solutions' that it cannot be further polarised nor can it be wooed by velvet glove * tactics . (* ' 1169...' Comment : .....so Westminster commenced their tried and trusted 'Plan B' scenario : 'woo' the in-coming new leadership of the 'trouble-makers/dissidents/terrorist community' ie Adams and Company and use those that have been so 'wooed' to convince their followers that a 'respectable' way forward is possible . Then finance that new leadership and relax , then remove , restrictions on them . And in Adams , McGuinness , Kelly and others , they found willing 'wooables' .)

In those circumstances the British Government believes that its present tactical interests are served by satisfying increasingly outrageous loyalist demands for 'greater security' - which means further repression of nationalists - and for more drastic methods , and by attempting to sicken and terrify nationalists with a revamped 'tough image' RUC . Westminster also no doubt hopes , foolishly , to inflict a psychological wound among Irish republican activists by creating the impression that , given an opportunity , they will be shot on sight , in an attempt to intimidate them . Yet their own analysis should perhaps best teach them of the shortcomings of such a strategy against a nationalist people that has grown up in the face of such repressive terror tactics and has been hardned and steeled by them .

The killings in Lurgan and Armagh of Irish Republican activists had emotional repercussions right across the usual spectrum of nationalist opinion in those towns , and elsewhere in the North-East of Ireland , arousing an anger that the transparently futile calls for more Widgery-like whitewash enquiries did nothing to allay.......
(MORE LATER).



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

In 1980 , Eoghan Harris tried to mobilise RTE producers against the mooted appointment of John Kelleher to Muiris Mac Conghail's slot as Controller of Programmes ; since then , however , Harris's star has waned inside the trade union as members have recoiled from the manipulative methods of Workers Party activists who wield a disproportionate influence inside the RTE complex .

Eoghan Harris can look back on 20 years in which he has pioneered a new intellectual and political framework for the force of ' moderninism' (or pro-imperialism , depending on your point of view) inside RTE and the Workers Party . But the Workers Party has moved away , politically if not militarily , from its obsessive secrecy - party members now seek open identification as the Workers Party now makes its bid to displace the Labour Party electorally . The methods of Harris were more geared to the infiltration of organisations : the unions , RTE , the Union of Students in Ireland and even the IDA .

Harris is an unusual phenomenon on the Irish political scene : he is an intellectual who is not an academic and a politician who does not seek public office : he is interested in political power but it is a power without responsibility or at least accountability .......
(MORE LATER).

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