AN EXPERIMENT IN JAMES STREET : THE DEATH OF NIALL RUSH.......From 'MAGILL' magazine , September 1984.
By Derek Dunne.
There were 3 friends in a car waiting outside the ICP for Joe. They rewound the tape , but there was nothing but static on it - Joe had pushed the button the wrong way. He psyched himself up once again , and went back in. Dr Brick and Dr Darragh weren't around , but Dr Walker was. Under questioning , Dr Walker admitted that there were some good points being made , and said that he would take up the issue of examination of patients who were returning for the second part of a test, with the people in the ICP. He expressed a worry that volunteers might be having treatment from another doctor , which they would not disclose for fear of being refused for a course.
He talked for a while about the difficulty of getting the truth out of would-be patients about their medical history and so forth , stating - "But how do we get the truth out of them? You know? We're not policemen. We're not here to beat people up. We're not..." , to which Joe replied "That's right, yeah..." , and Dr Walker continued - ".....and I try to be as sympathetic as possible to anybdy who comes in here because I know that....that the money end of it.....and that's why I keep away from the money end of it , that I don't get involved at all. If a fellow is fit at all I would recommend him for admission , but if somebody has a past history of illness of any sort, or a psychiatric admission to hospital, how the hell am I going to get that info out of them if they deny it..."
When Dr Walker was pushed on the issue of testing for specific drugs that present in the bloodstream of a patient, he replied that the usual drugs had been looked for , the ones that could be bought on the street - cocaine , heroine , morphine etc but, in coming in for the second part of a test, he admitted that the patients "....could be on anything..........".
(MORE LATER).
THE PETER BERRY PAPERS....... The Top Secret Memoirs of Ireland's Most Powerful Civil Servant : Dirty Tricks, Election '69/ Spying on a Unionist Politician/ Keeping the (State) Taoiseach informed/ The Garda Fallon Murder/ Advice to Jack Lynch- 'Fire the pair of them...'/ Vivion De Valera's advice to O'Malley/ Rumours of a Coup D'Etat/ The Internment Plot, November 1970/ Secret Meeting with William Craig.From 'MAGILL' magazine , June 1980.
" Charles Haughey (and here) became Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Justice in the following circumstances : In 1960 the Minister , Mr Oscar Traynor, piloted two Bills through the Dail and Seanad and early on it became apparent that he was in difficulties with the omnibus 'Intoxicating Liquor Act', partly because of deafness of which he was secretive and sensitive , and partly because of the complexity and conflicting nature of the measure. On that account, the Taoiseach , Mr Lemass, directed that Mr O Morain , Minister for Lands at the time , sit in with him.
Again he was in some difficulties with the 'Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill' which opened the way for new developments in penal reform : for instance, it enabled the implementation of the 'parole' system and the 'sleep-in-work-out' system for which Mr Haughey was to be given credit for initiating. In the aftermath , Minister Traynor informed me that the Taoiseach had offered him the assistance of a Parliamentary Secretary and he asked me to draw up a panel of Dail Deputies whom I considered would be suitable. After consultation with my senior officers I submitted the names of Deputy Seán Flanagan (later Minister for Health) , Deputy Michael Carty (later Parliamentary Secretary) , Deputy Honor Crowley and one other which I now forget.
Later, Minister Traynor told me that Deputy Flanagan had been offered the post and had refused , that the Taoiseach did not consider the other Deputies ripe for appointment to the Department of Justice and , instead, had put forward the name of Deputy Charles Haughey , his own son-in-law , who was a Dail representative in Mr Traynor's constituency and for whom Mr Traynor had a decided aversion........"
(MORE LATER).
MARY BYRNE-THE NEW VERA LYNN,'FORCES SWEETHEART'?
From 'The Clondalkin Echo' newspaper , 25th November 2010 , page 7 : 'X Factors singer Mary Byrne has revealed that meeting injured British soldiers was one of the most inspirational moments of the show. Mary Byrne......told 'The Echo' that although she had met her idols Tom Jones and Robbie Williams , nothing compared to those young injured soldiers : "We went to see the heros from Afghanistan and I met a young guy who was 20 years old and had no legs but his spirit is just electric . They embraced us and I must have kissed about 70 million of them that evening - that has been the highlight for me." '
Mary Byrne - the new Vera Lynn ?This woman is either politically clueless or she is prepared to do or say anything to advance her singing 'career' : either way , she has publicly disgraced herself by associating with those British thugs and has , by her foolish actions in relation to voicing support for terrorism, actually politicised a large number of people in the Clondalkin and Ballyfermot areas of Dublin and, we hope , further afield. Those who, up to now, had considered her escapades as 'harmless fun' etc are now looking at her in a different light.
And win , loose or draw in the competition she is in , some people will no longer view her simply as an 'aspiring/successful singer' - she has tainted herself as a politically ignorant airhead and/or a scheming , calculating wannabe 'Diva' , prepared to go to any lengths to gain fame and fortune. Just another disappointing stage act , with no moral safety net.
What a shame ; good voice , pity about the politics.
Thanks for reading,
Sharon.
