THE FIANNA FÁIL STORY.......The Rise And Decline Of Fianna Fáil , by Kevin Boland - Mercier Press.
Seán Lemass And The Making Of Modern Ireland , by Paul Bew and Henry Patterson - Gill and Macmillan.
By Roy Johnston.
From 'Gralton' magazine, Aug/Sept 1983.
Kevin Boland, being the active politician concerned primarily with the shop-window of the political process does not detect them (the 'roots of betrayal') until they have thrived and blossomed. He has , however, enough gut-feeling to recognise and reject them - "...the necessary measures to save our economy would be in breach of the EEC laws , framed as they are specifically and totally for the well-being of the unscrupulous capitalist proprietors of Europe.....it is illegal to have the only realistic type of 'Buy Irish' campaign possible.....appeal to the patriotism of the supermarket-owners ? We want our collective head examined."
He represents a high-point of Fianna Fáil radicalism ; he has remained consistently pointing in the right directions - against British imperialism and the neo-Unionism of the Common Marketeers. The Left, however, have always found him unpalatable , mostly because he explicitly despises them - "...tiny minorities opposed to all our traditions..." .
If an Irish Left were to emerge with growth potential and with a creative respect for the democratic republican core of our national and social revolutionary traditions, Boland and his like would end up as respected fellow-travellers , bringing with them what remains of the grass-roots Fianna Fáil radical-democracy. In the absence of such a Left , Kevin Boland remains an isolated , and somewhat embittered, maverick.......
(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.
" I then told Mr Haughey that at that moment I was about to leave my house for Mount Carmel Hospital and if he wanted me for anything he could contact me on the telephone. He was very solicitous and apologised for bothering me in a time of personal stress.
I was given a private suite on the ground floor of Mount Carmel Hospital , with a direct entry from the garden : this was to prove important as I was to have many visitors , including Ministers and Garda Officers who could come and go without attracting attention. "
On Sunday , September 26th 1969 , Mr Berry's son , Peter, was involved in a serious car accident in County Galway , suffering injuries which were to lead to his premature death some years later. Mr Berry was understandably distressed with the news of this incident but consoled by numerous visits from a wide variety of callers, including the Archbishop of Dublin , Dr McQuaid , President de Valera , Peadar O'Donnell and several Supreme and High Court judges.
Mr Berry retained his personal supervision of the security nexus while in hospital and was visited frequently by the Garda Commissioner , Michael Wymes , and the head of the Special Branch , Chief Superintendent John Fleming.......
(MORE LATER).
RSF 'NO ROYALS WELCOME!' PROTEST , TUESDAY 29TH MARCH 2011 , AT THE BRITISH EMBASSY , DUBLIN.About twenty Dublin members of Republican Sinn Féin held a two-hour picket outside the British Embassy in Dublin yesterday (Tuesday 29th March 2011) in protest against the up-coming visit to this State by an English 'queen' : an invitation for that woman to 'grace us with her presence' was issued by Free State 'president' Mary McAleese , who has welcomed her fellow-'royal' on Irish soil before , as per the following picture , taken in Belfast in 2005 -
Two 'royals' , one a Free State 'wannabe'.The State 'establishment' here , and their colleagues in the media, are desperate to 'prove' to those they admire in Europe , and further afield, that the Irish people as a whole are not only 'all grown-up , politically' , but that we have 'moved-on' from the days when we held 'a political grudge against the English' and , hopefully soon , that will be the case. But not just yet : the British occupation of the north eastern part of Ireland is neither normal or acceptable , and it's not something that Irish Republicans are willing to 'move on' from until they 'move out' , politically and militarily. As long as our nation remains partitioned and occupied by the British state then 'relations' between our two countries will never be 'normal' and any attempt to portray the opposite will be opposed by Republican Sinn Féin.
Incidentally , as well as the usual uniformed Garda 'security presence' at and around the British Embassy yesterday at the RSF picket , eleven members of the State 'Special Branch' were also present , monitoring and recording the Republican picket , and taking the names of those present - a proper 'Irish Security Service' would be more interested in monitoring , recording and name-checking the details of those inside that Embassy , representing, as they do, a State which politically and militarily occupies this country.
But , as with 'president' McAleese - that's Free Staters for ya......
Thanks,
Sharon.
