'BRITISH COLONEL W.W.B. TOPPING ON THE CAMPAIGN' . From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1958 .
British Colonel W.W.B. Topping told the Larne Unionist Association that no one knows how long the campaign of Resistance will continue and "...what other wicked forms it may take.." He said that after 30 or 40 years Mr. de Valera had realised there was no hope of cutting the Six Counties from the United Kingdom .
Colonel Topping said that since December 12 , 1956 , 40 men had been convicted and sentenced to terms of imprisonment totalling 272 years , that 242 men were held in the Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast, of whom 166 were held without charge or trial , and 27 were detained in prison also without charge or trial but under 'investigation' for trial .
Of those 27 detained in prison , Topping said , it was likely that 13 would be charged with offences , and the question of charges against the remaining 14 was under consideration . In the same speech he gave the reasons behind why all this was happening in Occupied Ireland when he quoted extracts from a press release by the Irish Republican Publicity Bureau.......
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A DAY AT THE RENT COURT.......
From 'GRALTON' magazine , August/September 1983 .
Mr. O' Sullivan , a joiner by trade , was made redundant in 1980 . He is not yet of pensionable age and does part-time work at the local credit union for £50 per week . After 'due consideration' , the judge in the rent court decreed that the old controlled rent of 87 pence per week be increased to £19.50 pence per week for the next five years !
Another case , involving a Mrs. O' Neill , came to court without the solicitor and valuer to which she is entitled . The lady is in her seventies and somewhat confused about what is happening , so the judge appoints a solicitor to act on her behalf . Mrs. O' Neill and her son live together in a house similar to that of the O' Sullivan's in the last case : her son has not worked for eight years and gets £26 per week unemployment assistance , and she herself has the old age pension . She has lived for 43 years in the house .
The living room is damp and the ceiling cracked . The bedroom is damp . There is no bathroom . One of the walls of the outside toilet fell down recently . There is only a cold water supply . The judge listened to all this , then decided that the rent of 57 pence per week should be increased to £16 per week for the next five years.......
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WHAT ROUGH BEAST IS THIS , ITS HOUR COME ROUND AT LAST.......?By JOHN WATERS.
From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine, 'Election Special' , 1987.
It is a measure of Charlie Haughey's political astuteness that he has managed to turn even the media's hostility * to his advantage . (*'1169...' Comment - the establishment media were too scared of Haughey and his powerful 'friends' to expose the huge difference between his legitimate income and his lifestyle . They were more frightened of him and his cronies than 'hostile' to them.) During the attempts to remove him from the leadership in 1983 he effectively managed to hold on , not in spite of but because of the hostility of the press towards him . The line was that he , as democratically elected leader of the party , could not be seen to be hounded out of office by the media .
That line worked , and so well did Haughey sow the seed that nowadays the media are bending over backwards to be fair to him . Anyway , it is probably true to say that unless the media could prove that Charlie Haughey ate live babies for brekkie there is nothing they could do to touch him . This , in turn , has allowed him to become more relaxed with the media , and in this election campaign , apart from the occasional tetchiness , he has been good humoured and co-operative .
This time round there is a sense that nothing can touch him , that all that went before were false starts , that this time it's for real . Charlie Haughey is about to inherit the earth and them as don't like it can go and get knotted.......
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