Friday, September 14, 2007

THEY ARE HELD IN BELFAST JAIL .......

From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1958 .

Sentenced To Penal Servitude :

E. Boyce , Dublin - 12 years .
T. Mitchell , Dublin , - 10 years .
P. Clarke , Dublin - 10 years .
J. McCabe , Leitrim - 10 years .
S. O'Callaghan , Cork - 10 years .
J.Hegarty , Cork -10 years .
L. Mulcahy , Cork - 10 years .
P. Kearney , Dublin - 10 years.
K. O' Rourke , Banbridge , County Down - 7 years .
E.Timoney , Derry City - 10 years.
P.J. O' Kane , Dungiven , County Derry - 10 years .
P. Collins , Belfast - 4 years .
T. O' Malley , Belfast - 5 years .
C. A. Loy , Newry , County Down - 8 years .
B. G. Loy , Newry , County Down - 8 years .
P. Constantine , Dublin - 8 years.
T.P. Cairns , Newry , County Down - 8 years.
P. Shaw , Dundalk , County Louth - 8 years .
S. Hands , Dundalk , County Louth - 8 years .
P. Duffy , Dundalk , County Louth - 8 years .
J. J. Kelly , Belfast - 8 years .
J. Madden , Cork - 8 years .
D. P. Lewsley , Shore Road , Lurgan , County Armagh - 8 years .
P. J. Monaghan , Dunamorie , County Tyrone - 3 years .
T. Ferron , Belfast - 4 years .
J. J. Corbett , Belfast - 5 years .
T. P. P. Doyle , Dublin - 6 years .
P. J. Hodgins , Dublin - 5 years .

(MORE LATER).



ECONOMY IN CRISIS - An Historical Perspective.......

By any standards the economy of Ireland , North and South , can be described as being in a sorry mess with crisis , recession and imminent bankruptcy the most constant themes of economic discussion , intermittently over the last decade and ceaselessly in the last three years . In this article , Peter Graham surveys the factors which have produced this economy , and the historical role of foreign and native Irish capital.

From 'IRIS' magazine , November 1982.

However , for all this apparent failure of capitalism to deliver , the immediate prospect is not one of revolution towards a socialist alternative which would include nationalisation , the ending of the profit motive , and a planned economy with full employment , but rather one of the continuation of private enterprise , publicly-financed where weakest by the State , and of the further crippling of workers and the unemployed who bear the brunt of this failure .

Undoubtedly , the reasons for this total lack of socialist economic alternative , even in the absence of a strong constitutional force of the left either North or South , rest on political factors originating in Ireland's national history . In the North , the continuation of sectarian discrimination against the nationalist people , in order to maintain the State itself , has eradicated any basis for the growth of class politics . In the Free State , the centrality of the unresolved issue of partition in the political affiliations of the population , coupled with a labour movement historically afraid of that issue , has had a devastatingly similar effect in stifling even the mildest consideration of revolutionary economic solutions .

But of equal importance in considering the position of the Irish capitalist economy - and ultimately in considering its particular weaknesses - is the development of that economy historically.......
(MORE LATER).



THE LEFT BEHIND.......

Dick Spring and the Labour Party headed into this election campaign with four years of coalition government behind them . To observe them on the campaign trial you would never guess this , but there is , nevertheless , a noticeable resistence to them , especially amongst traditional Labour voters . Judging from Dick Spring's reception on the campaign trial it is almost certain that the party is in big trouble , at least in the Dublin area .

From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine 'Election Special' , 1987 .
By Derek Dunne.

You work on a building site . You might have had a few jars the night before and maybe you don't feel too well . You might be thinking about getting home for something to eat . But right now you are down a hole , digging it deeper . Suddenly you hear - " How's it goin' lads ? " You look up and there's Dick Spring looking down into the hole , smiling : he asks if the digging is going okay . That can be very un-nerving.

Dick wanders off and starts to 'level' some concrete with a piece of timber , and lets it be known that he once worked on a building site . Nobody mentions that perhaps it might have been a good idea if he had stayed there . Dick gets a hard hat and a sledgehammer and poses for local photographers beside a bucket of concrete . 'Dick The Builder' , photographed filling a bucket of concrete with a sledgehammer . Someone remarks that Dick was known as a very dirty player on the sportsfield and Dick doesn't deny this . Dirty play is now parading as virtue . " Still am . When I don't get my own way , I walk off the pitch."

Later , on the way into a hotel , Dick notices that a poster of Dessie O' Malley has had eyeshadow and lipstick painted in . " Graffiti with taste , " he remarks . The political-circus bus drives on : Malahide , then Swords . At a shopping centre , it's time to talk to the punters again . The reaction is not great for the party leader who claims to represent the working class . Indeed , one woman says she will only vote for him when he gets her husband back to work , another woman says only when he gets her husband back from his job in England , and a third woman says only when he gets her a grant for some building work that she's trying to get done . A nurse says she will vote for Barry Desmond as she admires him , even though she wouldn't agree with everything he has done . But by now the timetable is getting loused up and Dick is led away by his handlers.......
(MORE LATER).