DUBLIN 1980 : THE GLUE SNIFFERS.......Pictures by Andrew McGlynn. From 'MAGILL' magazine September 1980.
Two cultures overlapping in the one space , getting in each other's way sometimes . We have the hospitals , the machines , the learning and the money . And the petitions , the men in uniforms and robes and the buildings with bars and barbed wire.
Muscles flex , people get hurt . Some of the kids suck a 'solution' from the bottom of a plastic bag.
[END of 'DUBLIN 1980 : THE GLUE SNIFFERS']
(Next - 'THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY' , from 1986.)
HOPE IN THE SHADOWS.......For some Northern nationalists the Anglo-Irish Agreement ('Hillsborough Treaty',1985) only makes their lives more dangerous , for others it offers hope on a road to nowhere. Fionnuala O'Connor visited a (Provisional) Sinn Fein advice centre in the Ardoyne and Seamus Mallon's office in Newry.
From 'MAGILL' magazine, December 1986.
The British Labour Party's 'roll of shame' was recited dolefully - Harold Wilson, Merlyn Rees, Michael Foot and the awful Roy Mason. Tom Kelly , Seamus Mallon's young personal assistant , saved a gloomy moment - " A hung parliament in Westminster with the Unionists holding the balance and (P) Sinn Féin holding the ring in Dublin . The worst possible picture , right ? But politics is the art of the possible. "
That won a smile from the old hands.
[END of 'HOPE IN THE SHADOWS']
(Next - 'THE HOWARD MARKS AFFAIR' , from 1980.)
A BATTLE FOR HEARTS AND MINDS.......A look at issues raised by Liz Curtis' recent book.
From 'IRIS' magazine, August 1984.
Review by Trisha Fox.
Just occasionally , a programme slips through that portrays oddly favourable points of view in some respects , though they might not be the primary intent of the programme maker .
A Programme in the 'Real Lives' series entitled 'A' Company , directed by Paul Hamann, showed a group of ex-British soldiers revisiting Belfast ten years after their first tour of duty . While the programme was primarily a propaganda exercise for the Brits , insofar as it portrayed relatively 'liberal' and informed ex-soldiers who stoutly maintained that their role had been that of 'peace-keepers' between sectarian factions , there did emerge several images favourable to Irish republicans .
The most memorable of these occurs after British Army Colonel David Hancock (see 'The Military Wing Of Unionism', here) is seen visiting a community leader , Frank Cahill, in Ballymurphy , whom he had first met while stationed in the area years earlier . Later , summing up his overall impressions , Hancock refers to his meeting with Frank Cahill : " The thing I shall remember is the dedication of the republican we saw this afternoon . No wavering after fifteen years of conflict on the streets . The same aims , same intentions , same dedication . It is foolish to plan a solution without taking a factor like that into consideration. "
(MORE LATER).
