Andersonstown News 4 Sept 97/1 of 2 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Thu, 4 Sep 1997 19:43:03 -0400 (EDT) Beananti@aol.com (Posters Note: As an occasional patron of the Felons, glad to see that it will remain open. Last post before tomorrow's shoulder operation. Your temporary Andytown volunteer poster will be Paul Griffith. Thank you for your kind e-mails and good wishes. Mary-Beth) -- Fr. Des Wilson Column -- Editorial -- Bookshelf by Eoghan Corry -- Ex-internees to the rescue as doors of the Felons stay open ************************************************ Andersonstown News - Thursday, 4 September 1997 ************************************************ Fr. Des Wilson Column Talking on our terms Nothing could underline better the gulf between Irish democracy and the English political system than Ms Mowlam's belief that she can "give permission" to Sinn Fiin to attend talks about our future. A number of things have to be made clear to the Labour administration when we are bringing not only ourselves but the British system and its minority supporters in Ireland into a modern democracy. One is, that it is we the voters who gave permission to Sinn Fiin and the other representatives to talk about our future. No administration, however imposing its guns may be, in Dublin or London or Washington, can give such permission. We gave it, we alone have the right to take it away. Another important thing is that people did not vote for Sinn Fiin to get them to bring about an IRA ceasefire - they voted for Sinn Fiin to negotiate our democratic future with the British government and anyone else who has a suitable mandate to act for British or Irish people. We mandated Sinn Fiin and the other parties to negotiate our future no matter what the IRA does. For the purposes of what we demanded of Sinn Fiin and the others, what the IRA does is irrelevant. Our mandate stands in any case. This means that the only mandate Sinn Fiin or the SDLP or the others have is ours, not the governments' or the churches'. The mandate is given therefore on our terms, not their theirs. And our terms are that Sinn Fiin and the SDLP and the others shall negotiate our future. The gulf between Irish democracy and the English system is seen clearly here, as the English government professes to believe that it is they who give a mandate to political parties. It is not. It is the voters who give it, and it is a terrible and potentially violent disfigurement of democracy to insist on doing what most European governments ceased doing a long time ago, throwing aside the elected representatives of the people and substituting the unelected in their place. Yet another important consideration is this: What would happen if Ms Mowlam did the same in her own country as she has done in ours? Just suppose that she were to say to the Liberal Democrats in England: "You will not be heard, you will not negotiate your own future or the future of your country, you will not have offices in parliament buildings unless you swear oaths which your Jewish and Moslem voters do not believe in and which your humanist members resent?" There would of course be an outcry in England amongst people who are quite happy that such things be said to mere Irish. We say "suppose" she should do this. What will actually happen when in Scotland and Wales the request for a parliament becomes a demand for independent self-government? Can you really believe a Labour administration like the present one would not treat Scots and Welsh independents the same way as it treats Irish democrats? Of course it would. We all know that the techniques of political management and control worked out and practised here for decades were meant primarily for the Irish but eventually for the British as well. When it becomes necessary, the state police will stand in the path of the British loyalists. When it becomes necessary the British police will stand in front of the Scots and Welsh independents. With the weapons they have used and developed in Ireland - firearms, spies, housing estates constructed according to military needs and much else besides. Such techniques will not be forgotten, they will be used wherever the administration needs them. So, how long will it take for the fist British political party to be outlawed and excluded over there? That depends upon the speed with which demands for independence from London develop in Scotland, Wales and perhaps in the north of England. When they do, the arsenal of weaponry material propagandist and oppressive is ready. Ten years is a long time in politics. Time for such a development to take place within what Mr Blair and Ms Mowlam hope will be their term as government, time for such a government response to be put in place. If - or when - such developments take place it is hoped that Irish democrats, having obtained their own freedom will be generous. It is hoped that they will not point out that when the techniques of exclusion and oppression, were being perfected in Ireland this was done with the consent of English, Scottish, and Welsh people who were so content with what was being done to the mere Irish that they sent their sons and daughters over with guns to enforce it. Chickens - and fowl politics - have a nasty habit to come home to roost. However, being generous, Irish democrats understand that every step they take on the way to contradicting the pre-democratic system imposed on us here is a step towards democracy for the British as well, the Scots, the Welsh and the English who, although they do not realise it, have never experienced modern democracy either. One further difference between Irish democrats and British subjects of the Queen is that Irish democrats know when they are being treated like serfs. And have the will to do something about it. *********************************************************** We say... A united nationalist front is essential going into talks The debate as to what the UUP intends to do come the start of all-party talks continues, but that debate is a limited one, confined to what devices the party can concoct to avoid engaging fully with Sinn Fiin. Such is the increasing international pressure on the UUP or perhaps, more accurately, the party's increasing sensitivity to it that it seems unlikely that the UUP will turn and walk away for good from the process, even in the face of growing discontent among some MPs. That's a dilemma compounded by their complete inability to read Tony Blair and Mo Mowlam because of the conflicting signals they're sending out. Is Blair likely to punish unionists severely if they adopt a stay-away attitude by pushing on and conspiring with the Irish to find an imposed settlement? Probably not, but given his electoral strength and preoccupation with his own position after a shaky summer, they can't be sure and daren't take the risk. What we are likely to see is the kind of vaguely embarrassing game of hide and seek that the unionists have become so adept at in recent years, whereby some dispensable party hack will be tasked with shuttling between the talks table and the party big-wigs, who will be skulking in a back room waiting for news from the front. The acute difficulty facing the UUP at the present was perhaps best illustrated by their 'meet the people' exercise, which culminated this week in David Trimble's meeting with the Catholic Primate of Ireland, Sean Brady the UUP leader's attitude towards that was probably best illustrated by the memorable pictures of his less-than-enthusiastic handshake with the Primate outside Ara Coeli. Both men knew that the meeting itself would be meaningless that it was the gesture and the picture that would count. Yet Trimble even managed to make a complete mess of that. You might have thought that the two nationalist parties might have thought it important to knock their heads together in advance of the talks to formulate some kind of meaningful strategy aimed at securing the best possible deal for their people. It stands to sense that if they can work together at the talks then so much more could be achieved in terms of parity of esteem for the long-suffering nationalist people who are entitled to believe that perhaps there might be something in this process for them after all. That co-operation does not have to mean, as some would have us believe, that either party need sacrifice its basic principles. Far from it, it would mean only that nationalists very late in the day are starting to play what's now the only game in town. We need only look at the bitter personal recriminations that have rent the main unionist parties in recent months to know that it isn't necessary perhaps not even desirable for politicians to be bosom buddies in order to do business. When push comes to shove at Stormont, the unionists inside the talks will be singing from the same hymnsheet as those outside the talks and the lyrics are very simple: this we will maintain. It is not too late for this co-operation to be initiated, if the elected representatives of nationalist people of all hues have an ounce of sense, they will realise that what is wanted of them most of all is to present a united front in a determined effort to change forever the twisted nature of this failed statelet it was a united unionist front, after all, that managed to maintain it for 70 years, despite its glaring inequalities and corruption. If no soundings have yet been taken by the leaders of the nationalist parties about what tactics they should adopt once they cross the threshhold, then they should begin forthwith. Once the flesh has been pressed in the Waldorf Astoria and the Mediterranean holidays are over, this should be the first item on the agenda. The last thing that any Irish politician should do, if he or she is serious about doing their utmost to bring about change for the good, is to go these talks having engaged in no preparatory work or dialogue. Gerry Adams, developing a theme raised some time ago in the pages of this paper, has said that he intends to consult the wider nationalist community in an effort to give the process back to the people. Unless he's speaking to an entirely different set of people from those who read this newspaper, he must know that a united nationalist front at the forthcoming talks is at the top of this community's political wish-list. And that's not necessarily because they think that it will make the unionists throw in the towel and drive the British Army into the sea. No, it's because they agree with Billy Hutchinson when he says that come May 1998 not only will no political solution have been arrived at, but that we will only be starting to scratch the surface. It's because they will settle in the meantime for full parity of esteem, accorded to them by the British and Irish governments moving under the full force of northern nationalist opinion. The case for granting us the full range of social, national, cultural and economic rights denied us for close on eighty years is irresistible and must now be made and made forcefully. This is especially so given the growing perception that the new Labour Government has of late been less favourably disposed towards groups working for various nationalist rights than they were before the ceasefire their dismissive attitude to Irish language groups is a good case in point. This is a dangerous state of affairs. The drive towards parity of esteem is, therefore, necessary not only in human rights terms, but also in terms of the long term maintenance of the ceasefire and the ending of violence. ************************************************************ Bookshelf by Eoghan Corry Wellington: From tolerance to reaction Wellington: A Personal History by Christopher Hibbert (HarperCollins#20) Like Lord Edward, this was published in April but only arrived in the Andytown bookcase this week. It was Wellington who saw that Catholic Emancipation was inevitable in the face of Daniel O'Connell's populism, and Hibbert attributes much of the Government's success in bringing George IV to see sense, getting him to abandon his politically disastrous plans to divorce Queen Caroline as well as to accept Catholic Emancipation to the premier's unfailing patience in dealing with the half- witted and cherry-brandy-sodden king. Hibbert also reveals that during the campaigns in Portugal and Spain, Wellington issued precise instructions that all British soldiers encountering Catholic religious processions should salute the Host as it passed. He decreed that sentries were to present arms before the consecrated wafer. Hibbert does not explore the theme further. Could his Irish background have informed these decisions? Particularly as his cousin, William Wellesley "Orange" Pole, was a great supporter of the procession rights of triumphalist Orange parades through small towns in Laois at the turn of the nineteenth century. Wellington vacillated between tolerance and reactionary behaviour. During the debate on education in Ireland he cried "we want discipline, not learning" but his forgotten legacy for Ireland, stable or no, was the first modern primary education system in the world. The Genesis Code by John Case (Century #16) Oh dear. Within a few pages of the start of this blockbuster you have an Italian parish priest listening to himself "like a musician playing Bach", and fear radiates from an anguished penitent, an expert biologist and sometime biblical scholar with a special interest in holy relics who also runs a fertility clinic, "like a halo around the moon". After the confession the priest hurries off in horror to the Vatican to violate the secrecy of the confessional. The Vatican is also horror-struck but will do nothing. Then contact is made with a shadowy Catholic group who despatch a hitman to solve the trouble. Several shootings later we meet Joe Lassiter, Washington's 26th most eligible bachelor, relative of two of the victims and head of a large private investigations bureau. He might have read the letter to the priest which is in his pocket for the last third of the book, untouched. He would have saved us all a lot of wasted words. Citizen Lord: Edward Fitzgerald 1763-1798 by Stella Tillyard (Chatto & Windus #17) Edward Fitzgerald was the Errol Flynn of the United Irishmen, handsome, dashing, and utterly convinced the good guys would win in the end, sweeping away economic and social injustice, sectarianism, colonialism, and bringing freedom to Ireland. It was his mother who made sure he was exposed to all the forces of the eighteenth century, but even she would have been astounded that his outlook might be so attractive to future generations as to inspire this biography for the English market. He was to be educated according to the principles of Emile's Rousseau by William Ogilvie, the defining influence on his life. He holiday in pre-Revolutionary France, became an avowed republican on reading Paine, and fought in his teens in the American War of Independence "against the cause of liberty" as he was later to regret. He adopted a freed Negro slave, Tony Small, as a constant companion with an egalitarian streak that infuriated the colonialists. He was inspired by the politics of his first cousin Charles Fox, the most charismatic and radical English politician of the time and mortal enemy of Edmund Burke, (hero of Conor Cruise O'Brien). Tillyard's decorative prose drives the story along with pace, her knowledge of the lifestyles of the aristocracy and Ireland's role in the context of Westminster politics are sure, and local misspellings and poor contextualisation may be forgiven. Artistic touches mean that the life story told by predecessors such as Brian Smith is infected with a little conjecture: horses' hooves slap rhythmically on the roads around Kildare, but there is enough colour in the hundreds of bit-players in the great drama of two centuries ago to colour the story by themselves. Fitzgerald was to lead the Dublin rebellion, and when he was arrested Dublin failed abysmally while the south east and north east were doomed. The French army that landed could do nothing but skirmish and surrender. Camden, who wrote: "I will not lament the attempt at insurrection. It will enable us to act with effect", was proved right when the rebellion proved a pretext for the destruction of thousands of homes and Catholic churches across the country, the judicial murder of something like thirty thousand people, and the abolition of the Irish parliament. In death, Fitzgerald's legacy proved a strong influence on future rebels. But it is his vision that strikes out across the generations. One of the last people that Fitzgerald wanted to see was Dr Barber, the Presbyterian minister in Rathfriland who allowed his chapels to be used alternatively by Catholics and Presbyterians. He admired Barber, and saw him as the embodiment of the new Ireland that Fitzgerald wanted to build. Two hundred years later, his successors are still trying. Song of Stone by Iain Banks (Abacus #17) Banks' bleakest novel yet, reminiscent of Neil Jordan at his best. We never know the name of the country it is set in, the chaotic wars which have reduced the landscape to desolation, or who lives in the castle with tapestries, paintings, precious objects, ancient heirlooms, and dependant peasants huddling around its walls. Mad Max bands of bizarrely dressed bandit soldiers with names such as Karma, Deathwish and Victim roam the territory. One of these stops Abel and his lover or wife, or, as it turns out, lover and sister, and their leader, a Banksian female heroine, the Lieutenant makes them return as her guest- prisoners, and as their forced reoccupation of the castle lengthens Morgan, Abel's lover-sister, becomes the lieutenant's love and Abel is thrown down the castle well. Belonging neither with Banks science fiction or his realistic fiction, this is wonderfully tight and apocalyptic prose. Already a best-seller and and it's well worth a look. Watch out for the inevitable movie. ************************************************************ Ex-internees to the rescue as doors of the Felons stay open When is an ex-prisoner not an ex-prisoner? When he or she is a former internee. That's the cheeky solution that one of West Belfast's best-known social clubs had to come up with after it was faced with closure when new licensing laws threatened to close it down. The committee and members of the Felons Club on the Falls Road feared that what they have described as a 20-year vendetta against the club by the British Government and the RUC had finally paid off when new pubs and clubs legislation kicked in earlier this year. While drinkers were celebrating extended opening hours, the committee of the Felons Club was left wondering how they would respond to a new law barring anyone who has served more than three years in prison from serving on a social club committee. Not surprisingly, that requirement posed more of a problem for the Felons than for most clubs the club's membership,and therefore its entire committee, is made up exclusively of republican men and women who have served time in jail for their politicial beliefs. But in a surprise move that has secured the future of the club, a new committee is now in place comprising solely of former internees. And although internees qualify for membership of the Felons because they were caged for their political beliefs, they were held without charge and therefore remained unsentenced technically none has served a prison term and is eligible to serve on the committee. "It's good news for the club insofar as we have defeated this rather crude attempt to shut us down," said former club chairman Liam Shannon a former internee whose position is unaffected by the legislation. "And while keeping the club going is our number one priority, it is a terrible blow to some club officials who have given 20 years and more to the club and are now required to stand down because of their political beliefs. For many, the Felons is their life, but you can be assured that they will continue to be a vital part of the club." Local Sinn Fiin councillor and Felons member Chrissie McAuley said those good causes benefiting from the club's legendary generosity would now breathe a sigh of relief. Casting an eye over the club's 1996 accounts with an Andersonstown News reporter, she described the club as a "powerful force for good in the community" and wished the new committee well for the future. "You can see for yourself the range of charities right across the board that the club has supported," she said. "What prisoners' relatives' charities, in particular, and the visitors' buses would do without the Felons doesn't bear thinking about they have been tremendously supportive over the years and their commitment has never wavered. I'm tremendously gratified that the club has found a way round this draconian legislation, which is nothing more than political vetting at its most blatant." continued... ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-09.12.97-00:46:03-4941