THE SEEDS OF A POLICE STATE .......There is substantial evidence that a major crime was perpetrated within the Garda Siochana five years ago .
The evidence for this crime has certainly been available to senior Gardai ever since then , but no enquiry whatsoever has taken place , let alone any Garda being disciplined in connection with that crime .
By Vincent Browne and Derek Dunne .
From 'MAGILL' magazine , September 1983 .
One of three men who happened to be in the Bridewell Garda Station at the same time as those arrested for the Sallins mail train robbery , Peter Harrington , spent the night in a cell with George and William Royale : under cross examination , Peter Harrington admitted that he had a number of previous convictions including ones for receiving and stealing , robbery with violence , breaking and entering , and also with stealing a car . This last was in the English jurisdiction and he was convicted in London . He denied that he fabricated his evidence .
William Royale gave evidence at Brian McNally's trial to the effect that he had spent the night in a cell with his brother George , and Peter Harrington : he said that around midnight on the Tuesday , he heard shouts and screams in the Bridewell , and the sound of someone who was obviously in pain and frightened . He claimed he banged on the cell door to try and get the noise stopped , but that he was told he would be better keeping out of it and that it had nothing to do with him - he said that he had been in the Bridewell many times since that night in relation to the same case , and admitted under cross examination that he had a number of convictions including housebreaking , malicious damage , larceny , and interfering with a car .
Alan Martin , giving evidence at Brian McNally's trial , said that he was brought into the Bridewell Garda Station on Tuesday night at around midnight and that he had never been in there before - he said that he heard screams and shouts in the cell next to his own and that these lasted for one-and-a-half to two hours . He also said that he had been in Garda custody three or four times and that he could not remember another incident like it.......
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SPORTING NATIONALISM .......A look at the political origins of the GAA .
By 'Celt' .
From 'IRIS' magazine , November 1982 .
A teacher by profession , from County Clare , Michael Cusack had founded his own academy in Dublin and moved in the prolific literary circles of his day , being an acquaintance of both Douglas Hyde and James Joyce. He was fond of the popular practice of letter writing to the national press , using their columns as a springboard for debate on national and cultural issues .
However , less than two years after becoming the figurehead of the emergent GAA , Michael Cusack found himself in open conflict with other members of the Executive and was subsequently voted from office : the issue which enveloped the GAA , and was to do so again and again , was the conflict between the nationalist lobby within it who favoured constitutional agitation , and those separatists who favoured physical force .
Two of the original seven founding members of the GAA - Joseph Kevin Bracken and John Wyse Power, were also members of the revolutionary Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), and it was obvious before long that the IRB had worked diligently at ground level in many parts of the country , to further their aim of using the GAA as a training ground.......
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THE PROVOS AT THE BALLOT BOX .......By Michael Farrell .
From 'MAGILL' magazine , June 1983 .
On the positive * side , the SDLP is putting great stress on the All-Ireland Forum , due to open with great pomp and ceremony soon , on John Hume's 'achievements' in the European Parliament and on the possibility that they could hold the balance of power at Westminster . ('1169...' Comment * 'Positive' , that is , for the SDLP and others like them , but not for Irish Republicans , as the 'All-Ireland Forum' did not address the issue of the actual British presence itself.)
Apart from the unlikelihood of the last , the points they stress indicate that they are losing touch with grassroots feeling - the 'All-Ireland Forum' , Westminster and the EEC cut little ice in the Falls , Bogside or Crossmaglen where the burning issues are repression , housing and social security - the ones Sinn Fein is concentrating on .
The election is nearly as crucial for Sinn Fein as it is for the SDLP - their new political strategy still sits uneasily on the advocates of pure physical force : indeed , however loyally the Sinn Fein candidates defend it , the Ard Fheis resolution on support for the armed struggle looked very like an attempt by 'the militarists' to put a curb on the 'politicians' in the Republican Movement , and a set-back in the election could well lead to a backlash against the new 'political strategy' ; but even 'success' could have its problems - Sinn Fein sees its involvement in constituency work as central to its new socialist development , and Gerry Adams talks of trying to involve the people in solving their own problems , but the Republican Movement has never found it easy to work with other groups and organisations .
There is also a narrow line between what they would term 'principled' constituency work and the sort of clientilism practised by Leinster House members and county councillors in their constituency clinics.......
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