THE RADIO DOCTOR

By Patsy McGarry
Bill Cunningham is an American who
knows how to make radio stations tick.
He has carved out a specal niche for
himself on the Dublin radio scene,
where his talents are jealously fought
over 6

BEYOND THE LAW

By Michael Farrell
The case of Robert Russell maywell
mean that anyone who is involved with
the IRA has put thernselves beyond
the protection of the Constitution
....................... 11

OUR EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS

By John Cooney
Our representatives in the European
Parliament are the forgotten men and
women of Irish politics. Yet, next
year's elections are likely to be the
most hot1y-contested ever se en in this
country. John Cooney looks at the role
of the Parliament, assesses the present
crop of Irish MEPs and looks at the
most likely contenders for 1989 26

THE GAELIC DREAM OF

DOUGLAS HYDE
By Patsy McGarry
The first president of Ireland, Douglas
Hyde, was inaugurated f'ifty years ago.
He was a Protestant from Roscommon,
which is perhaps why very little is
known about hirn . . . . . . . . . 34
THE MAN OF YOUR DREAMS Italy Here We Come!
By Fintan O'Toole Noel King assesses the Irish team in
Every Sunday night, in the Midas Club th e wake of their remarkable perfor-
WHISPERING IN A GALE in Ballyhaunis, Paul Claffey captivates mance in the European' Champioriships
By Eilis Ward thep opulation of several counties with and Robert Allen looks forward to our
his unique kind of magic. On Monday next game against Norther Ireland in a
Pa't O'Brien is a priest and a poet.
During the divorce referendum he was morning he eases people back to World Cupoqualifier in Septernber 54
silenced by his bishop 40 reality ................ 44

Mr Thomas
ONE WONDERS HOW THE BRITISH
premier Margaret Thatcher has the
almighty gall to continue in office
following recent demands for her re-
signation in Hot Press magazine.
Readers of that publication will recent-
ly no doubt have been expectantly
scanning their newspapers in search of
headlines like "PM TOPPLED BY POP
P APER" and turning on their television
sets at newstime in the hope of seeing
an ashe n-faced Mrs Thatcher ernerging
from Number Ten Downing Street to
begin her retirement.
These expectations have been
aroused in the pop-consumng sections
of the populace by a recent series of
articles in Ho t Press on the Gibraltar
killings by the author and sometimes
journalist Gordon Thomas. In his first
article on the subject, published last
April, Mr Thomas purported to link
Gibraltar direct1y to the Eksund arms
importation affair and to directly im-
plicate Mrs Thatcher in the decision to
despatch the SAS hit-squad. Making
liberal mention of his "well-placed
sources", "highly -placed sources" and
"sources close to Whitehall ", Mr
Thomas created a convincingirnpression
of having an inside track on not just
the Gibraltar killings and the Eksund
affair, but also on the machinations .of
the British'Prime Minister. In one
particular passage , in which he gave a
detailed, even intimate, pen-picture of
Mrs Thateher sipping her first cup of
coffee of the day and mulling over the
contents of the newspapers as she sat
in her kitchen, Mr Thomas left the
reader with the distinct irnpressio n
that he, Gordon Thornas, was seated
across the table from the Prime Minister
at the time.
IN A FOLLOW-UP ARTICLE
published in Ho t Press on June 2, Mr
Thomas returned to the subject for the
purp oses of reminding his readers of
his prevous "world exclusive" revel-
ations. Hot Press, he said , h ad been the
"first publication in the world" to tell
of the Prime Minister's role in the
Gibraltar killings. Since then, there
had been a number of television pro-
grammes and numerous newspaper
investigations. Amnesty Internatonal
had suddenly awakened to the serious-
ness of the matter. The Coroner's
offce in Gibraltar was now takng "full
and careful note" of the implications
of the Ho t Press story. The original
Hot Press article had been 'widely re- '
published" .
Having thus congratulated himelf',
Mr Thomas' then went on to the main
business of hs follow-up article. This
was to examine the 1ikelihoodof wh at
Mr Thomas described as "that crucial
question" being answered,
addressed, by the forthcoming inquest
or even
~ that question being, as Mr Thomas
saw it: "Frorn the beginning were the
SAS team's orders to continue the
British government's shoot-to-kill
policy?"
Mr Thomas then went about this
analysis in a most interesting way. He
broke down the issues facing the in-
quest into six different questions. For
the purposes o this, he says, he had
"been back to my highly-placed
French, German and Spanish intelli-
gence sources". He did not actually
say th at he had been to Gibraltar,
th ough the article was billed as "a
report from the Rock". He did not say
that he had actually spoken to the
Gibraltar Coroner, Mr Felix Pizzarello,
though, as with the previous intimate
pen-picture of Margare t Thatcher,
the reader was left with the distinct
impression that he must have done so.
Thc Coroner was described as "a be-
spectacled, rather gaunt-faced man,
so berly dresse d and mannered, in many
ways the archetypal Coroner".
Of an article of about 3,000 words
in total, about two-thrds was devoted
to examining these "crucial questions",
the rest being devoted to a summary
of the recent developments, the afore-
mentioned self-congratulations and a
couple of panel pie ces: one headed
"The Coroner's Limitations" and the
other a piece which purporte d to be an
interview with the key wtness, Carmen
Proetta.
In the course of a very thorough
analysis, Gordon Thomas went through
the key questions: what were the IRA
members d oing on Gibraltar?; was there
a shoot-to-kill polcy on the part of
the SAS?; was there ever an intention
on the part of the SAS team to arrest
the IRA members?; could the soldiers
have kno wn whether or not there was
a bomb on the Rock?; what was the
role of the Gibraltar police?; what
would the three IRA members have
been charged with had they been ar-
reste d? And so on.
IF THE EDITOR OF THE BRITISH
newspaper The Independent h.ad been
aware that Gordon Thomas was gong
to write this article for Hot Press, it is
possible that he would not have
bothered sending Heather Mills to
Gibraltar in early May forothe purposes
of researching and writng an article
which appeared in his newspapers on
Saturday May 14 lasto In a full-page
feature on the Gibraltar killings, Heather
Mills examined the matters to be ad-
dressed by the forthcoming nquest
under the heading "Eight ssues behind
the killngs". These included: what
were the IRA doing on Gibraltar?; was
there a shoot-to-kill policy on the part
of the SAS?; was there ever an intention
on the part of the SAS team to arrest
the IRA members?; could the soldiers
have known whether or not there was
a bomb on the Rock?; what was the
role of the Gibraltar police?; and with
what would the IRA members have
been charged with had they been ar-
rested? There is a panel.piece entitled
"Inquest's powers strict1y limited"
which deals with, yes, the limitations
faced by the Coroner. On the page
also there is a pho tograph of the Cor-
oner, Mr Pzzarello who, to be sure,
is a bespectacled, rather gaunt faced
man, dressed in a jacket, collar and tie
and looking reasonably sober.
THERE WAS ALSO, ON THE SAME
page of the Independent, an interview
with the chief witness to the Gibraltar
killings, Mrs Carmen Proetta, conducted
also by Heather Mills. In this the
following paragraph appeared:
From her flat in Gibraitar Mrs
Proetta had an uninterrupted view
of the incident. She has said that
she has "no doubts" that Mairead
Farrell and Daniel McCann, two of
the IRA group, had their hands in
the air as if in surrender when they
were shot. As they iay on the ground
she saw one of three gunmen fire
again, apparently into their heads.
She could see the biood spurt out.
"It was something I wil! never for-
get," she said. 'lIt was horrible." ~
Two weeks later, the f'ollowing pas-
sage appeared in Gordon Thomas's
article in Hot Press:
"1 have no doubt, no doubt at al!,
that the three had thetr harids in
the air as if they were wishing to
surrerider , Then they were shot, As
they lay on the ground, I saw one
of the gunmen fire aqain , this time
into t helr heads. I saw the blood
come out. It spurted out, in a foun-
tain. It is something I will never
forget. It was horrible, horrible."
There are a number 0'1' remarkable
things about all this. One, o bviously , is
that there are a number of marked
similarties between the two passages.
Another is that, paradoxically , they
tell two totally different versions of
the eventsin Gibraltar last March from
Carmen Proetta's perspective. In the
Independent she is paraphrased as say-
ing that she saw two IRA members be-
ing gunned down, which is what she
said on television and in every interview
since she went public on the affair.
In Hot Press she is quoted directly by
Gordon Thomasas saying that in fact
she saw three IRA members being
gunned down. My own understanding
of the situation was that Mrs Proetta
did indeed see only two people being
shot; the third, Sean Savage, was shot
around a corner out of her view. 1 have
contacted Carmen Proetta through her
lawyer to clarify this and she has con-
firmed my understanding of events.
She al so said that she has never spoken
to Gordon Thomas.

The Write
Stuff
MR ALAN WATKINS WHO WRITES
on politics for The Observer recent1y
featured in a major London libel action.
He was being sued by Mr Michael
Meacher, a senior Labour politician. In
a case such as this between a journalist
and a politician it might reasonably be
expected that my sympathies would
be on the side of the politician. They
weren't. I very much wanted Alan Wat-
kins to win this case,which he did.
I felt sorry for Michael Meacher at
the end of the case. The sheer silliness
of the issues on which he fought has
seriously d amaged his reputation.while
the enormous legal costs he must now
bear will imp ose a crippling burden.
That said, however, he brought it on
himself. Only someone as priggish as
Mr Meacher would have brought such
a case in the first place - it was alleged
his origins were middle class and not
agrcultural working class as he claimed
in an attempt to confer on himself
authentic socialist credentials - and
only someone as self-rghteous as Mr
Meacher would have persisted in the
face of commonsense and honest ad-
vice to drop the matter. But persist he
did.
The issues raised in that case are
important but they must wait another
day. For me the importance of the
case lay in the fact that Alan Watkins
is the reason I prefer The Observer to
any other British newspap er. He is
quite simply the best writer on poli-
tics in the business. By best writer I
don't mean he beavers around un-
earthing scoops. I don't know Alan
Watkins but I suspect he disapproves
of over zealous journalism and prefers
the typ of scoop he finds in the House
of Commons bar. His writing is laid
back, almost detached, but always
vivid, witty and, most of all, wise. His
eye.f'or the vanity, the foibles, the ec-
centricity, endearing or otherwise, of
his politicians is sharp and swift. He
can spot hurnbug or hypocrisyat a Gene Kerrigan has. a quality of
rnile , but he is not just a knocker. He
likes his politicians when and where
they should be liked and he treats
politics seriously but never with
solemnity.
ALL OF TRIS BRINGS ME' IN A
roundabout way to the question of
good writing and good writers inour
newspapers. 1 suppose the best de-
fintion of a good writer is that one
looks forward to reading their work
and feels somewhat cheated if they
don't appear. The good writer for me
is one whose p ersonality transcends his
material, injects into his writing ele-
ments of his own experience with out
ever turning the column into an ego
trip. Put at its most basic a good writer
is one whose writing gves pleasure.
With this' in mind I began to look
around to see who would feature on
my list of good writers here - and to
my surprise the list is considerable.
Herewith just a few of the best.
Dick Walsh of The Iris Times is
the nearest thing we have to an Alan
Watkins. Walsh is a careful and precise
writer whose work conveys a sense of
world weariness, a sense of having seen
it all before, of not being easily im-
pressed by politicians or their claims.
But behnd the veneer of cy nicism or,
more accurately , scepticsm, is a lover
of lif'e and of people , someone who, in
spite of it all, continues to be optimistic ,
to inject a battered sense of idealism
nto what he writes. He has too -that
sharp eye for thc detail which illumi-
nates the absurdity of a situation or
the pomposity of the individual.
Next on my list come two writers
with whom I findmyself frequently at
variance and who 1 suspect are rarely
in agreernent with each other - Eamon
Dunphy and Gene Kerrgan.
savage indignation which.T sometimes
feel is misdirected and sornetmes leads
him over the topo But his writing is
vivid, powerful and personal. When he
attacks he takes no hostages. He can
also be extraordinarily tender and com-
passionate and his piece on the "other"
Dublin was a welcome antidote amid
a welter of millenial self-congratulation.
EAMON DUNPHY IS AN EXTRA-
ordinary genius, More than any other
writer he bares his soul in his work.
He is knowledgeable, opinionated, mer-
curial. He is not much gven to doubt
or to the "en the one hand , on the
other hand" philosophy of life. But
he has great common sen se ; he argues
closely and tenaciously from a basis of
decent civic and human vales especially
on questcns of Northern Ireland, and
he has always had the courage to say
unpopular thngs. He has one thing in
common with Gene Kerrigan - when
he attacks it's all the way to the jugu-
lar and no hostages taken.
My list could go on and on. It would
include Eugene McGee on Gaelic foot-
ball and on the world of the GAA -
somcbody should publish his collected
works on the world of Knockavanna
Gaels.
It would include, too, Nuala O Fao-
lain whose humanity and concern never
become sentimental or cloying and
whose writing has a sturdily indepen-
dent centre.
Then there's Conor Cruise O'Brien,
still essen tial reading even if his
Independent column suffers from being
too long and from the "born again "
version of CJH which deprives him of
so much of his ammunition and ma-
terial, But then, that may not last for
ever either.
Michael Hand when given his head
can be great; who will forget his mar-
vellous piece on Kilkenny footballers
- the team that never, but never, win
a match.
I'm happy to say there are many
more exarnples of good writing around
- David Hanly , Eanna Brophy, Tom
O'Dea are but three. And, finally , of
course there 's Healy , Reporter. Let 's
hope he soon gets back to the national
stage.
MAGILL JULy 1988 5
 I
NTHE UNITED STATES THEY
call Bill Cunningharn a "Radio
Doctor". His job is to take a station
with ailing ratings and bring t to the
top of the pile in its area. Since 1970
he has been doing this kind of work and
has quite a record. In 1973 in Miami,
for instance, he brought a station
(Y 100) from the bottom of the ratngs
to the number one position in a cty
where it then had f'orty-two compet-
torso He has the press cuttings to prove
it.
Based in his home city of Omaha,
Nebraska his consultancy firm, Resul-
tants, became very successful, It won
ten 'Radio Station of the Year' awards
during the Seventies and early Eighties,
Bill Cunningham himself won cight
'Naticnal Programrne Director of the
Year' awards. With his reputation, and
over 4,000 stations in the US all want-
ing to be number one, he was never
short of work.
However, in early 1986 he felt he
needed a break. He decided to come to
Ireland. Though in his late forties, and
though his mother was frorn Cork, he
had never been here.

I NJUNE 1986 SUNSHINE RADIO

was comfortably placed in the
ratings. Radio Nova had closed
down the previous March, having slip-
ped badly in the ratings. Sunshine,
Q 102 and (RTE) Radio 2 were similarly
placed with only single digit points
separating them in listenership levels
- hardly enough difference to persuade
an advertising agency to prefer one
before the oth ers.
As a radio station Sunshine had pur-
sued a safe, middle-o I-the-road policy.
Whereas Radio Nova had captured the
public imagnatiori with its style and
professionalism, it was Sunshine which
carne to be regarded as the acceptable
fac e of p irate radio. This was the result
of a carefully executed, cautious, don't-
rock-thc-boat-or-provcke- R TE-manage-
ment policy. That, and the station's in-
volvement in local/community events
and numerous fundraising efforts in-
spired a certain regard for the station
- which was precisely the intention.

TheRadio Doctor
Bil/ Cunningham, an American, thought the radio s ituation in Ireland was Whereas Chris Carey ,one ofthe original
wonderful. Last year he made Radio Sunshine the top station in Dublin founders of Sunshine, played the buc-
caneer with unabashed elan, Robbie
and this year has turned his attentions to Q102. He unapologetical!y Ro binson preferred to keep his head
be lieves in a direct, aggressive style of nidio and regards news programmes low and his eyes fixed on a licence.
Then Bill Cunningham arrived. With-
a s a "tur n-off". in nine months (April '87) Sunshirie
would hold forty-eight per cent of the
He is currently possibly the most powerful man in lr ish radio.
twelve to forty-nne age group in a
PATSY McGARRY reports. "listened yesterday" survey , making it

6 MAGILLJULY 1988
the number one station in Dublin -
four p ercentage points ahead of Radio
l. In the same survey Q 102 rated
twenty-seven per cent, RTE 2 twenty-
five per cent and NRG twenty per cent.
Bill Cunningham thought the radio
situation in Ireland was wonderful. No
Federal Authority to be bothered with
and all these stations vying for a slice
of the action. He just couldn't resist
it. Though he had come for a h.oliday,
he found himself visiting sorne of the
Dublin stations offerng his services.He
plumped for Sunshine - because he
liked the people better. He later denied
reports that norte of the other stations
were interested in him. At Sunshne,
he was taken on as Programme Director/
Consultant and "Bill Said" became
Holy Writ -- the essential imprimatur
for everythng at the station.
He began with "Phase One"; chang-
ing the name of the station to Sunshine
101. Staff who answered the phone in
any other way were toasted. Even in
prvate conversation the station was
only to be referred to as Sunshine 101.
Also all staff were strongly advised to
think positive, to 'thnk number one'.
In "Phase one", all on-air speech b~1
the disc jockeys (DJs) was stopped.
News bulletns were shortened and re-
duced in number to sixteen a day fro
the previous twenty-four. AHspecialis
programmes (eg country sho w , rack
n'roll show, etc, etc.) were dropped.
For two weeks all that was heard on
the station was non-stop ,Top Forty
'hit' records ~ for this was 'Hot-Hit '
 radio. Records were interspersed with
promotions from Bill Cunningham, who
identified the station and rounded the
piece out with the exhortation: "Brace
iyourselves, babycakes, Phase Two is ,
coming."
Behind the scenes a new playlist
was prepared which inc1uded only the
Top Forty hts and sorne recent
"oldies" (from the previous threc
years). The emphasis was to be on the
Top Ten and new entries. The aim was
to get the young, and throughthem
the home and the housewife. The last
group to succumb, Cunningham con-
tended, would be the twenty-f'ive to
thirty-f've young males group. But
they too would soon be 'captured ' by
the success of the station.
P HASE ONE IN F ACT BEGAN
with a stunt. For two hours a
DI play ed the same record over
and over -'Bang, Zoom, Let's Go, Go ',
by The Real Roxanne. According to his
brief the DI had locked hmself into
the studio and taken over the airwaves
to protest in this way aganst the
changes of the station, which were
driving him crazy . It was "designer re-
bellion". The stunt was designed to
attract media attention and was some-
thing of a disappointment in this, How-
ever, it did attract the attention of a
local garda station from where there
carne enquiriesas to whether every-
thing wasvalrightover there".
With phase Two DI s were allowed
speak, albeit briefly. They could identi-
fy the station, announce/back announce
the record and maybe gve the time.
New emphasis was placed on the Break-
fast Programme (6-l0am) where a 'fun'
atrnosphere was encouraged in order
to attract a large audience. A success-
ful Breakfast Show meant a large audi-
ence for the day, as people did not tend
to switch stations very much in Dublin
- 1.5 times daily , accordng to research.
A new oldies programme, 'Bee Bop
Gold', was introduced on Sundays and
proved hugely successful.
The changes soon began to pay off.
A survey at the end of August - four
weeks after the new format was ntro-
duced - indicated Sunshine was edging
ahead, with thirty-four per cent share
of thc market.
But.a was not sweetness and Ight the role of "Big Guy", Big Bird with a
at the statiori. Staff resented the cavalier
swagger with which changes were intro-
duced and the way they were being
treated. Many resented in particular
the firing of colleagues who had been
working at specialist programmes on
the station fO" years and who had
shown great loyalty to the station.
Cunningham was furious at "all this
negativity " and rescntcdvdeeply the
scepticism with which his changes were
greeted.
One DI, incensed by what was going
on and theway people were being
8 MAGILL JULY 1988
treated, decided to go out in a blaze of
glory. He snored on air through the
number one record of th e day, '1 want
to wake up with y ou '. Bill Cunningham
was uncontrol1able. How could anyone,
anyone treat the number one record
like that? That . DI disappeared from
the airwaves shortly afterwards as did
ano ther who had problems accepting
the new image decided upon for him.
That DI was told that frorn thenceforth
he was to be cal1ed "The Iceman ".
"I'he Iceman' could not stomach the
idea and resisted going along with it.
His attitude was not helped by col-
leagues who paraded around the studios
tinkling ice cubes in a glass and punning
o bscenely on Tennessee Williams' play
'The Icernan Cometh '.
One of the replacernent DIs was
"Nails Mahoney ", a new name given to
another DI and pronounced in the
American way as Mahone-y , "brother
of Pogue", as one dissaffected news-
reader introduced hrn, Still another
DI was renamed "Dusty Roads". Mr
Ro binson became "our generous Man-
ager Mr Ro binson Co Co Ca Chew",
while Bill Cunningham himself adopted
twee voice.
S
UNSHINE 101'S RATINGS
continued to rise, great1y assis-
ted by a massive marketing
campaign - the biggest ever launched
by a radio station in Dublin.
This was Phase Three. It was a six
month camp aign culminating in a
listener winning fl 0,000, and a two
week market survey at the beginning
of April last year. The J::10,000 "give-
away " was launched with saturation
billboard and prnt media advertising.
Listeners could win the J::lO,OOO by
sayng the "phrase that pays" - "1
listen to the red hot sound of Sunshine
101" whenever they answered the
phone. If you kept it up, one of these
days it might just be Sunshine 101 on
the o ther end. It was the biggest amount
of money ever offered by a radio station
and was final1y won on Easter Sunday
last year, just days after the market
research survey had ended.
The survey aIso coincided with an
intensification of promotions for .the
"giveaway " on the station and a greatIy
increased number of street campaigns.
PeopIe were stopped and asked which
station they listened to; if they said
Sunshine, they won cash prizes, albums,
etc.
Staff at the station were told that
Q 102 were conductng a survey, hence
the hype. The figures from the survey
were extraordnary. Sunshine was lead-
ing the fieId with forty-eight per cent
of the market. The results got extensive .
and very favourable publicity.
Advertising agencies were very im-
pressed. Earlier Bill Cunningham had
toId the agencies the new format would
"knock their socks off". He sent each
agency a pair of socks with promotonal
material. At Christmas every agency
was sent a Bewley's Christmas cake
and a wooden cheese-board with Sun-
shnes new logo engraved thereon.
Cunningham's success in dealing with
the agencies can be gleaned from the
remarkmade by an advertisingexecutive
recently who said that in a choice situ-
ation they would always opt for Sun-
shine "even though they are the most
expensive".
Inf1uenced by the success of Sun-
shine, RTE Radio Two tightened up its
format and introduced an oldes pro-
gramrne on Sunday afternoon. Q 102
beganto drop news bul1etins and aIso
introduced an oIdies programrne on
Saturdays,
But Bill Cunningharn was not content
to sit on his laurels. Within weeks ofthe
gveaway he had launched 'The Big
Kahuna' which promised prizes of
J::45,000 to an unknown DI and wouId
run throughout the summer. The przes
were sponsored by an assortment of
firrns who would in turn get "free"
advertising. .
However , all seeme d headed for dis-
aster in May of last yearwhen Sunshine
faced the biggest internal crisis in its
historyvThe News Department was in
revolt. The Sunshine News Department
(five full-time, two part-time) had are-
cord of fercely-guarded independence
at the station. Journalists there were
dedicated to the point of fanaticism.
Over the previous three y ears they had
built up the country's only independent
news service, twenty-f'our bul1etins a
day, seven days a week, with extended
bul1etins at 9am, 12 and 6pm. Initially ,
management at the station had been
wary of them but could see the political
advantages in having a proper news ser-
vice, so they stood aside. AH the usual
news sources had to be coaxed to co-
operate and to overcome their fear of
reprisal from RTE. So successful were
the news team in building a service that
in January 1985 a NUJ delegation who
inspected the operation and sat in on
its performance agreed it was up to
union requirements. In June 1985 the
Sunshine staff were accepte d irrto the
union.
When Bill Cunningham arrived, the
News Department were initially very
positive. They felt a change was needed
and in their own area they were anxious
to try new ways of presentation. They
agreed to a reduced number of bulle-
tins. There was discussion about a
second channel which mght be brought
on stream and which would demand a
greater current affars contento
However, relations with Bill Cun-
ningham soon became strained. He re-
garded news as a "turn-off"."AH those
bombs, killings and ro bberies, god darnit
it's so depressng;' he would complain.
He wanted "haPPY" news.
A war of attrition began. AH news
interviews were outlawed. Every single
bulletin was formulated, ie pre-plan-
ned. Every bulletin had to end in a
"kicker " - a funny story. Hard news
was reduced to twenty seconds of a re-o
duced sixty-f ive second bulletin. The
ernphasis was on gossip and pop star-
related materiaL
It emerged finally that, there would
be no second channel. Staff were now
doubly anxious as there was over-
capacity in the department and they
feared jo.bs would soon beaxed. They
sought a house agreement with manage-
mento Negotiations involving the NUJ
dragged on for months with no success.
Eventually it was agreed to go to the
Labour Court.
The day it was agreed to go to the
Labour Court, rnanagement announced
it wanted to reduce news staff to two.
The Chapel (NUJ mem bers at Sunshine)
favoured strike action and were backed
in ths by the Dublin branches. However
the NEC member of the day Mr Ray
McGuigan did not want "another pri-
vate dispute" so soon after the Nova
row, and advised union head office in
London against supporting strike action
at Sunshine. It was a controversial de-
cision, bitterly contested by members
at the radio station. However they were
forced into accepting a sett1ement
which left three staff in Sunshine News
Department. Of those three, only one
now remains at the station supplying
four hours news a day, five days a
week.
B
ILL CUNNINGHAM CONTIN-
ued at Sunshine until August
last year. He then returned to
the Unted States. He atternpted to get
Robbie Robinson t keep hrn on a re-
tainer, whereby he would give advice
on tapes of programmng, sent to him
in the USo However, he says, Mr Ro bin-
son was not interested. Cunningham's
stay at the stationhad been an extended
one, based on verbal agreements. As
far as he was concerned, his ties with
Sunshine were now at an end. After
sorne time back in the US Bill Cunning-
harn found that he missed Ireland and
wished to come back.
In April this year Mike Hogan of
QI02 tried to contact hrn but failed.
Bill Cunningham heard about this and
rang back. Hogan was interested in
hiring him. Cunningham called Robbie
Ro binson to establish finally whether
he was still not interested. He wasn't.
Later that evening both Mr Ro binson
and his wife Stella called Bill Cunning-
ham in sorne agtatiori. They wondered
how he could possibly coriternplate
MAGILLJULY 1988 9
 coming back to Dublin to compete
against them. The very next day he re-
ceived a solicitor's letter from Ireland.
It arrived by special overnight post. It
had been sent by Mr John O'Connor of
Malahide who was acting for the
Robinsons. The letter, dated May 5
1988, alleged that Mr Cunningham's
coming to Ireland under the circum-
stances would be in breach of an em-
ploymentcontract with Sunshine Radio
Productions Ud - the terms of which
stpulated he could not work for any
other radio station in the Dublin area.
He was warned that in the event of
Cunnngharn offering his services to
another radio station in Dublin Mr
O'Connor had full instruction to obtain
an injunction in the High Court to pre-
vent this. Further he would be claiming
costs and would also seek d arnages for
any Ioss suffered by his client as a
resulto Bill Cunningham was given
seven days to respondo
In a telephone conversation on the
subject, Cunningham and Robinson
could come to no resolution of the
dispute between them. Following an
abrupt termination, Cunningharn im-
mediately rang Piure Doyle , boss of
Q 102, to accept his offer. Ro bbie
Robinson did not pursue the matter all staff refer to it as such, even in Bill Cunninghams promotions,
further. private conversation. There is no News which dominate the station's output,
Departrnent at Super Q - it was elim- invite drect comparson with Sunshine.

S INCE HE BECAN AT QI02 IN

mid May Bill Cunningham has
introduced "the new up to date
Super Sounds formula". It sounds very
much like the Hot Hts formula, but
Mr Cunningham insists it's got less
oldies. "Super Sounds" was launched
with a stunt. A lady counted to over
5,000 on-air covering a five h our
periodo Cunningham has stopped DJs
from talking, except to give the station
identification, back announce a record
and/or the time. Alllocal community
announcements have been dropped.
The station's name has been changed
to "Super Q" and 'Cunnmgharri insists
10 MAGILL JUL Y 1988
inated following Sunshine's "success"
in getting rid of same. Cunningham has
introduced a new odies programme
'The Bo p Shop' on .Sundays, at exactly
the same time as Sunshines 'Bee Bop
Cold' programme. People on the street
are offered przes if they say they listen
1:0 Super Q and much, much more if
they say they "listened yesterday". A Super Q is now on a par with Sunshine
il 0,000 promotion has just been
launched on the station. The winner
will be sorne lucky person who tells
Bill Cunningham he/she "listened
yesterday" to Super Q. It's understood
the carnpaign will continue to the end
of August when a "listened yesterday "
survey is planned by SuperQ.
Meanwhile Mr Cunningharn is un-
happy with the "negatve attitude" of
staff at the station. Garreth O'Callaghan
and Scott Williams recently left to jo in
RTE's Millcnniurn station in Dublin.
Others are also preparing to get out.
Even Mike Hogan, the station's ebullient
manager to date, is understood to be
under pressure because of a "negative
attitude". His 'Eye in the Sky' pro-
gramme relaying traffic reports from a
helicopter was recently dropped when
the Starnewspaper pulled out its joint
sponso rsh ip , Bill Cunningham insisted
they pay the same mo ney for two
twenty second spots as they had pre-
viously for eight two minute spots, Mr
Cunninghamattempted to get Mike
Hogan to change his radio name to
Mike 'Blo w-gun ' Hogan, but without
success so far.
Sorne of them end with the refrain:
'Up Your Big Kahuna ...
owwwwww'.
meeeeee-
He believes this direct,
aggressive style can only work to Super
Q's advantage. "The market is already
well aware of Sunshine and if they
react at all, they have to inform listen-
ers of Super Q." As it is, he insists
in the ratings and he invites Ro bbie
Ro binson and any other station owner
toparticipate in the next market survey
with Super Q. He would not say when
the survey is taking place.
Meanwhile, dcspite an intial obvious
upset , Ro bbie Robinson presents an
unperturbed face. In a reference to the
situation he was quoted recent1y as
saying that "after taking someone in
and with whom you believe you have
a valuable relationship, when sornething
like ths happens it is a bit of a shock".
However, despite the threat from
Super Q and Bill Cunningham, Robbie
Ro binson has been around a long time,
has a good solid track record in the
Independent Radio business and is
likely to be around for sorne time to
come in the new era of legalised local
radio. It was perhaps with a view to
this that on June 15 he placed a plan-
n ing notice in the ncwspapers to the
effect that he was seeking planning
permission to convert the old cinema
at Fairview into broadcasting studios.
The new Radio Bill was passed by the
Dail on lune 8.
 F
District
IANNA
benchers
secret
FAIL BACK-
may ha ve heaved a
sigh of relief when
Justice Jarlath Ruane threw
out the extradition case against
Patrick McVeigh in Portlaoise District
Court last month. For all the huff ing
and puffing by British media and MPs,
Government backbenchers were
pro bab ly only too pleased that this
particular chalice had passed Iro m
thern , They do not want a repetitio n
of he scenes at the Border when
Dominic McGlinchey and Seamus
Shannon were handed over.
But Charles Haughey's Government
will have to grapple with the thorny
pro blem of extradition sooner than
most peo ple realise. For the courts
have already ordered the handing over
to the RUC of thirty-year-old Maze
escaper Robert Russcll, who is
currently finishing a three-year-
sen ten ce in Portlaoise Prison for trying
to escape from there as well. Thc
Government has until sorne time in
THE AN GLO-IRISH FU RORE OVER THE F AILUR E 'ro EXTRADITE
August at the latest to make up its
PATRICK MCVEIGH HAS OVER-SHADOWED ANOTH ER EXTRADlTION CASE
mind on what to do with him.
WHERE THE PRISONER INVOLV ED IS DUE TO BE HANDED OVER NEXT The Cabinet 's dilemma is made a
MONTH (AUGUST) AND WHICH COULD HAVE VERY FAR-REACHING little sharper bccause the two most
LEGAL IMPLIC ATlONS. MICHAEL F ARRELL R EPOR TS. serious charges against Russell - the
m urder of o ne prison officer and the
attempted murder of another during
the mass breakout from the Maze

MAGILL JUL Y 1988 11

prison in 1983 - have collapsed .. Last
May , the Norths Lord Chief Justice,
Lord Lowry , dismissed similar charges
against sixteen other Maze escapers
and ruled that there was no evidence
that the prison officer had been
murdered (he died of a heart attack)
or that -anyone had atternpted to
murder his colleague.
When Robert Russel1's sentence in
Portlaoise is finished next month , the
Supreme Court has ordered his extra-
dition to the North for escaping from
the Maze, where he was serving twenty
years for the attempted murder of an
RUC man in 1978. He denies any in-
volvernent in that attack.
The Supreme Court gave its
decision in Russell's case last January ,
for while the British and Irish
Attorneys General have been arguing
about the implementation of the new
Extradition Acts which carne into
force last December, extradition pro-
ceedings have been going on under the
old rules and another three fugitives
from the North are set to Iollow
Russel1 through the courts under the
old rules.
T
HE GOVERNMENT CANNOT
sidestep the Russel1 issue, h ow-
ever much it might like to,
because his solicitor, Anne Rowland,
has appealed direct1y to Justice Minis-
ter Gerry Col1ins to use a little-known
power under Section 50 of the Extra-
dition Act 1965 to stop her client
being handed over to the RUC. The
section gives the Minister power to
refuse extradition even when the
courts have ordered it. This is believed
to be the first time a Minister for Jus-
tice has ever be en asked to intervene
like this.
Normal1y the Government would
probably say: "The courts have deci-
ded: we cannot interfere." But this
case is a little different. The Supreme
Court divided 3: 2 on whether Russel1
should be handed over to the North
and the majority position, outlined by
Chief .Justce Thomas Finlay, was so
controversal that one ofthe dissenters,
Mr Justice McCarthy, said it amounted
to "a judicial repeal" of part of the
Extradition Act. His Iellow dissenter,
Mr Justice Hederman, said the reason-
ing invo1ved in the majority position
was "so strained and unreal as to re-
duce the law ... to a state of confusion".
One o" the defence lawyers in the
case said afterwards that the majority
decision reintroduced "the concept of
outlawry, of a class of peop1e who
have no rights under the law." And Mr
J ustice McCarthy added that Russell
had established a strong possibility
that he rnight be assau1ted by prison
officers on his return to the Maze and
a prima facie case that the RUC had
failed to bring other peop1e extradited
12 MAGILL JULY 1988
for IRA offences before a magistrate
as soon as possible as the 1aw required.
Instead they had he1d them for in ter-
rogation first.
R
OBERT RUSSELL GREW UP
in the Ballymurphy are a of
West Be1fast during sorne of
the worst rioting of the early 1970s.
His brother was bad1y wounded and
two neighbours shot dead by British
paratroops in 1971. He told thc courts
that he saw a priest and three local
men shot dead by loyalist gunmen a
year later, when he was fourteen, He
joined the Fianna, the youth wing of
the IRA, and was interned without
trial for ayear when he was seventeen.
Three months later he was rearrested
and he1d in jail for ten months until
the charges against him were dropped.
Russel1 was final1y convicted in
981 of the atternpte d murder of an
RUC man and sentenced to twenty
years. In September 1983 he escaped
in the mass breakout from the Maze.
He was arrested in Dublin in May 1984
on nineteen warrants arising from the
escape. He appealed to the High Court
and then the Supreme Court, sayng he
was a member of the IRA and al1 the
offences were political so he should
not be extradited.
The Supreme Court had been try ing
for years to get round the section of
the Extradition Act 1965 that barred
extradition for p olitical offences. In
1982 Chief Justice Tom O'Higgins de-
livered the McGlinchey judgement, res-
tricting political
reasonable,
offences to "what
civilised people
regard as politica1." He did not spel1
wou1d
out who he regarded as "reasonable ,
civilised people", but it was a fair bet it
did not include too many unernployed
youths from Ballymurphy ,
The McGlinchey test was widely
criticised as too subjective - including
by Mr Justice Hederman in a subse-
quent extradition case - and when its
author left for the European Court at
the begnning of 1985, the Supreme
Court changed its line of argument,
though not its commitment to extra-
diting IRA or INLA members.
In the case of John Patrick Quinn,
wanted in Eng1and f'or-passing stolen
cheques, allegedly for the INLA, the
court seized on Quinn 's statement that
the INLA aimed at "the establishment
of a thirty-two-county Workers' Re-
public by force of arrns." The new
Chief Justice Thornas Fin1ay declared
that this necessarily involved thc des-
truction by force of the Constitution
and so Quinn was not entit1ed to the
protection of laws passed under the
Constitution. Not much notice was
taken of this ruling,
however, because when Quinn was
sent to London, the police failed to
press charges against him. There was
sorne suspicion that their real interest
in Quinn had been to get a headline-
settng judgement in his case.
Then carne Robert Russell. Aware
of the Quinn decisin, Russell was
careful to state that the objective of
the IRA was to use force to overthrow
British rule in the North and reinte-
grate the national territory, but that
they did not seek to overthrow the
Constitution of the Republic. That
did not sway Chief Justice Finlay ,
however, or the other two judges who
assented to his decision, Mr Justice
Henchy and Mr Justice Griffin. Deli-
vering the majority decision, the Chief
Justice went considerably further than
in the Quinn case.
Decisions on how to reintegrate
the national territory were reserved to
the Government and the Dail, he said.
"For a person or group of persons,
however, to take over or seek to take
over the carrying out of a policy of
reintegration ... without the autho-
rity of the organs of state established
by the Cnstituton is to subvert the
Constitution and to usurp the func-
tions of Government." Accordingly,
Russell was not entitled to the protec-
tion of the section of the Extradition
Act which bars the handing over of
political offenders. The judge in the
High Court, Mr Justice O'Han10n, had
admitted that Russell's offences were
prima facie political, but had used the
Quinn precedent to supersede that.
T HE IMPLICATIONS
majority
OF THE
decision in Russell 's
case are staggering. By analogy
it cou1d be argued that no one erigaged
in IRA activities, North or South, is
entit1ed to the protection of any of
the laws enacted under the Constitu-
tion. Indeed the Chief Justice quoted
with approva1 a 1982 decision that
Sinn Fein was not entitled to electoral
broadcasts under the re gula tion s go-
verning fair access to the airwaves
because Sinn Fein, though a legal
party , supported the activities of the
IRA.
There has rarely been a sharper
division in the Supreme Court. In fact
it took nine months to produce a
decision because the split was so deep.
Mr Justice Hederman said there was no
evidence whatsoever that Russell's
activities were directed against the
Irish state. He described the IRA's
campaign in the North as "the classic
form of political offence" and said Mr
Justice O'Hanlon's reasoning in the
H:igh Court - and therefore that of
"so strained and unreal as to reduce Charles Haughey prevented a back- McVeigh case was bungled. But even
the law regarding extradition and the bench revolt over implementing the when the British and Irish authorities
'political offence' to a state of con-' Coalition measure and defused do get their act together the centro-
fusion." demands that the British havc to versy will not be over. A number of
He said Russell should be released. establish a prima facie case by intro- Irish lawyers, and notably Patrick
Mr Justice McCarthy reiterated that ducing the Amendment Act. It pro- McEntee SC, have argued that the
there was .no evidence that Russell vides that the Irish Attorney General Amendment Act gives the Attorney
aimed to destroy the Irish Constitu- must be satisfied that the British or General powers that are reserved by
tion. He poirrte d out that over the Northern authorities have enough the constitution for the courts.
years the courts had repeatedly accep- evidence to warrant a prosecution. The first case under the new Acts
ted that IRA off'ences could be regar- It took six months of wrangling for will provoke a major constitutional
ded as political. The key judgement to the British to agree to provide even a challenge. But in the meantime Gerry
that effect, he noted pointedly, had sumrnary of evidence against those Collins will have to decide what to
been given by Chief Justice Finlay they want extradited and still the do with Robert Russell.
hirnself in 1974 in the High Court. A
large number of people had 'been
released on just those grounds. To
adopt the new reasoning, he said,
would be "to effect a judicial repeal"
of thepolitical offence clause. It
wou1d "deprive it of any practica1
meaning" and would amount to "judi-
cial legslation". He accepted that
Russell's offences were political.
McCarthy added that there was
uncontested evidence that Maze prison
warders had assau1ted recaptured es-
capers in 'l 983 and no disciplinary
action had been taken against them, so
Russell had grounds to fear maltreat-
ment if he was handed over. It was
also clear the RUC had not brought
the two Republican fugitives who had
so far been extradited to the North -
Dominic McGlinchey and Seamus
Shannon - before a magistrate as soon
as possib1e, as the law required. They
had held them for interrogation first.
He too said that Russell should be re-
leased.
AH this will give Gerry Collins food
for thought as he ponders Robert
Russell's appeal.

M
EANWHILE THREE OTHER
cases are due to come before
the courts short1y under the
old Extradition Act. Paul Anthony
Kane and Dermot Finucane are also
wanted for the Maze escape - in
Kane's case the State has already
withdrawn the associated murder and
attempted murder charges. And
former Westminster MP Owen Carron
is wanted on a charge of possessing a
rifle and ammunition in 1985.
Future charges, however, will be
brought under the new Extradition
(European Convention on the Sup-
pression of Terrorism) Act brought in
by the Coalition in 1986 and the
Extradition (Amendment) Act 1987
brought fu by Fianna Fail. The first
Act simply declares that, regardless
of motives, no offences involving the
use of automatic weapons or ex-
plosives will any lo nger be r egard ed as
political - its implementation was
delayed for ayear to allow time for
an expected reform of the North's
Diplock courts which never material-
ised.

MAGILL JUL y 1988 13

 T HE FUMES FROM THE OLD MOTOR LAUNCH
which provides a free shuttle service for visitors to
Spike island were sickly sweet. Although it's a short
journey of fifteen minutesduration it was a relief to land
on the island , The on ly inhabitants now are the prisoners.
The last of the civilian population was rehoused on the
m ainland almost three years ago when the jail was reopened.
It was supposed to take only prisoners convicted of minor
offences and to house those who were jailed during the joy-
riding epidemic in Dublin. Instead, prisons around the
country used the opportunity to transport sorne of their
most difficult cases. In September 1985 the prisoners ran
riot. The red glow in the sky could be seen for miles around
as the prison buildings blazed.
It is a steep c1imb up to the jail , up a winding road to the
MAGILL JUL y 1988
island hilltop. Y ou pass through a street with houses and
cottages on either side. Flowers still bloom in the gardens
which are overgrown and c1ustered with weeds. AH of the
houses and cottages have their windows barred up. At the
entrance to the prison there is a big wooden gate with wooden
bars three in ches thick , It was a beautful summer's day and
AH the visitors were ushered into an anteroom to wait
couple of young prisoners naked from the waist up, were
taking Iull advantage of the sun.
AH the visitors were ushered into an ante room to wait
for the visit to commence. Security seemed relaxed. There
were no body searches. A sign forbidding the passing of
"any artic1e" to. prisoners had been altered by someone to
read "many artc1es" .
In the visiting room Martn Cahill was sitting resting his
elbow on the counter and his hand onhis ear. He was smiling.
The visitng room was about forty feet long and a prison
officer stood at each end. However, unlike Mountjoy , it
was possible to have a prvate conversation.
Martin Cahill had just completed his first week on Spike
Island. He had been arrested the previous week outsidethe
Bridewell in Dublin and taken to the high security wing of
Mountjoy to serve a Iour-rnonth seritence for failing to sign
a bond to keep the peace. The following day , without warn-
ing, Martin Cahill was transferre d by the Department of
Justice to Spike Island , A Garda spokesperson was quoted
in the natinal papers as saying that Cahill would ned green
fingers as he would be helping to build golf course on the
island for the prisor warders.
As he was being driven southwards out of Dublin Cahill
thought at first t hut he was gU111!c'l c i jo in two otCher associ-
ates who had recently started lengthy sentences in Port-
laoise , When they drove through Portlaoise he, was watching
the turning to see if they were go ing to Limerick or Cork.
Just as they had passed .through Cork he heard news on the
car radio that he was going to Spike.
The journey down had been uncornfrtable. Just before
he was arrested he had covered his face in boot polish to
prevent photographers getting a picture of his face in the
event of his mask being removed. Hehad had a hot shower
before leaving Mountjoy which had washed off all the polish.
Hut when he had put on his woollen balaclava for the
journey to Cork the polish from the bala clava bcgan to seep
into his pores.
Cahill got up from his seat in the visiting room and shook
MAGILL JUL y 1988
 hands. He was unstinting in his praise for the prison except
for the fact it placed an unreasonable burden and expense
on his wife travelling almost four hundred miles tomake
the visit. On hearing she had made the visit by train he asked
her why she had not taken the car. She replied that she was
not sure it would make it there and back , Why then, he en"
quired, had she not used the car belonging to a particular
friend of theirs? The clutch was gone, he was told. "We are
supposed to be millionaires, you know ," he remarked wryly ,
The inconvenience aside, Spike Island has it s compen-
sations. The regirne is lax, says Cahill, and the food is good ,
He begins work each day at around 9.30am. During other
periods in jail Cahill has learned weldng , worked as a painter
and passed a driving test as a lorry driver. On Spike Island
he is now learning to be a plasterer. He shares a dormitory
type cell with four other inmates. One is an elderly man in
his fifties who is injail because he failed to discharge a debt
of tSOo to his brother. The other three are juveniles serving
sentences for minor offences.
During the visit Cahill's wife asked him if he had seen
the previous day's Sunday Tribune which had a picture of
Eamon Daly being led off by two prison warders and an
article entitled "Gangbusters". He hadn't and expressed no
interest in it , Instead he wanted to know if she had managed
to buy him a new pair of Mickey Mouse shorts. His old pair
had been taken by the gardai in a raid on his house prior to
his arrest.
On occasions when Martin Cahill knows the media are
waiting for him - having, he believes , been tipped Off in
advance by the gardai ~ he clearly enjoys dressing up in
costume. He discussed eagerly the possibility of leaving
Spike Island - which he referred to throughout out con-
versaton as "Treasure Island" - dressed as 'Long John
Silver' complete with wooden peg leg and stuffed parrot.
"1 will tell them" he said "that my treasure is buried on the
island golf course, but no matter how many holes they d ig ,
they will not find it ,"
S ATURDAY JUNE4 WASMUCHLIKEANYOTHER
. Saturday night. Frances Cahillleft the house shortly
af'ter 9pm and drove down to the home of her sister,
Tina Lawless in Swan Grave, Rathmines. The surveillance
unit parked outside her house followed. Martin Cahill re-
mained alone in 17 Cowper Downs
Around 9.30pm the house in Swan Grave, where Cahill
often spends the night, was raided by gard ai who had a
warrant to search the prernises for a firearm. The house at
17 Cowper Downs and the flat of Martin Cahill's mother-
in -law were also being simultaneously searched.
The search in Swan Grove f ollowed routine procedures.
The sergeant in charge told his men to ensure there was a
member of the household in each room they searched. The
search was over in a matter of minutes and yielded nothing.
Frances Cahill, who was there during the search, decided to
return to Cowper Downs. She suspected that the gardai
were also up there and had come to take her h usband to jail
for his failure to sign the pea ce bond. Cahill had written
about ten days previously to the office of the Chief State
Solicitor indicating that he was available for arrest.
Martin Cahill, meanwhile, had come to the door at 17
Cowper Downs when the gardai arrived. He had a1ready
blacked out his face and was wearing a balaclava. He was
shown the search warrant. Irnrnedia tely he says, he be-
carne suspicious, particularly as the warrant specified
"firearm" and not "frearrns" as is custornary , he claims, as
though they were looking for one gun. However, this point
equally favoured the Gardai. They were raiding the house
they subsequently claimed on a tip-off.
The previous day , Friday June 2, Cahill had told Magill
that he believed the gardai would try nd plant evidence on
him. It was a very simple thing to do and could be done at
any time, he asserted. And now, with him going into prison
on a relatively minor infringement 'the gardai would be
16 MAGILLJULY 1988
anxious to show something more spectacular for their six
months surveillanee work.
On the night of June 4, when Martin Cahill was con-
fronted with the search warrant, he asked the gardai, he
claims, to allow him search th em before they carne into his
house. He also asked , he says, that they search only one
room at a time. Both requests, he says, were refused. The
seareh commenced. As it got underway Franees Cahill
arrived baek at Cowper Downs fr orn Swan Grove. She went
around the side of the house to go in the baek door. Inside
the house her husband was standing on the stairs. He was in
an agitated state.A Colt forty-five wrapped in plastic bags was
found in the toilet cistern. Franees and Martin Cahill were
taken down to the living room. The time was about ten
o'c1ock. Pretty soon the house was buzzing with detectives,
many mernbers of the surveillance squad who hado followed
Martin Cahill around for the past six months. The gun was
photographed in the living room .and examined by ballisties
experts. Both Martin and Franees Cahill deny any knowledge
of the gun.
The gardai in the house might have been expected to be
in a eelebratory mood after the find. But, claim the Cahills,
the atmosphere in the house that nght was "subdued",
Shortly after one o'clock in the morning Franees and Martn
Cahill and Tina Lawless, in whose name the house in Co w-
per Downs is, were all arrested under Section 30 of the
Offenses Against the State Act. Martin Cahill was taken to
the Bridewell for questioning. Sisters Franees and Tina were
taken into Rathmines Garda Station. AH three were asked
to make a statement aceounting for the gun in the house ,
either adrnitting they had put it there or telling gardai the
names of reeent visitors to the house who might have planted
it in a bid to frame Martin Cahill. None of the three made a
statement andthey were all released the following afternoon
without eharge. On his release from the Bridewell Martn
Cahill was rearrested under a warrant for failing to enter
a peace bond. It was the swansong of the surveillance unit
who had devoted the last six months to watehing his every
movement. Life without Martn Cahill was not going to be
the same.
E
VENTHE GARDAI THEMSEL VES ARE UNCLEAR
what exactly the overt surveillance was supposed to
achieve. The shorteomings were obvious, If Martn
Cahill was as bright a criminal as alleged neither he nor the
others under observation were likely to commit a erime
under the noses of the Gardai. Sorne Gardai were critical
from a pragmatc point of view: they eonsidered it to be a
publicity exercise and a waste of valuable resourees. But if
there was eonfusion surroundng the initiative to set up the
surveillanee operation there was consensus among those
spoken to that the impetus for it carne from the Garda
Commissioner Eamon Doherty.
Eamon Doherty jo ined the Garda ranks in Deeember of
1944. He had no family background in the force. His father
was a well-to-do cattle dealer in Buncrana, County Donegal,
Doherty completed his secondary education at St Columbs
College in Derry, a prvate, fee-paying college. He worked
briefly as a storeman and payclerk for the Office of Public
Works in Fort Dunree, a few miles outside Bunerana. It was
the war years and job openings were few and far between.
Doherty was looking for a job which offered security and
a pensiono He applied simultaneously to the gardai and to
the Customs and Excise seetion of the Revenue Cornmiss-
ioners. He was successful in both applicatioris but opte d for
the guards on the basis that it carne up first.
He found it was the type of job that grew on you with
time. He still has a vivid recollection of his first arrest. He
was on the beat in Drumeondra when he spotted sorneone
breaking into a car and gave chase. He found the experience
of making the arrest, the taking into custody and the sub-
sequent eonviction in the Bridewell at least as intimidating
as his prisoner.
 There was no meteoric rise through the ranks. In 1957
he was promoted to the rank of sergeant. He worked in the
Objects and Methods office which was directly aboye the
offce of the then Garda Commissioner Dan Costigan. He
was the first garda officer to train with the FBI. The Bulk of
the six month course consiste d of lectures and seminars. It
was less exciting than it sounded. The emphasis was on better
administrative management of a police force.
On his return to Ireland Doherty was transferred to Naas.
In rural Ireland, he says, crime was not a major factor. He is
the first to admit that he had no major involvement in the
day-to-day detection of serious crime. He was involved in
investigations of murder and other serious crmes but invari-
ably , as he himself points out, the credit for their detection
lay with others. He built a solid reputation as an adminis-
trator.
In the 1970s he returned to Dublin as a Chief Superin-
tendent based in Dublin Castle. In 1977 Fianna Fail were
returned to power. Justice Minister Gerry Collins appointed
him as an Assistant Commissioner in 1978 and to the
position of Deputy Commissioner ayear later. His portfolio
was the responsibility for the administration and finances
of the force.
The Garda were in crisis. Republican and criminal suspects
were alleging brutality in custody at the hands of a "heavy
gang" within the force. The allegations were only given
credence when they were substantiated by gardai who were
themselves unhappy with the direction the force was taking.
It was a period during which there was no shortage of -
scandal. In some cases the source of cornplaint was the
gardai themselves.
The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors
(AGSI) was clamouring that there was political interference
in the force regarding promotions. At the time the AGSI
was regularly sweeping its own offices for bugs which it was
feared might havc been planted on instructions from head-
quarters, There was never any evidente to suggest that the
fears of the AGSI had any substance. But the phones of
two prominent journalists had been tapped. Garda morale
took a battering when this became public and eventually
prorn pted the resignation of Commission Patrick McLaughlin
and rus deputy Joe Ainsworth.
Larry Wren was the Coalition's new appointment as
Commissioner. The balance of power shifted. Doherty
devoted his boundless energy to his activities in Cospoir and
other sporting activities. He maintained a high social profile
and featured regularly in the gossip columns in the news-
papers who commented on his frequent presence at press
receptions. He insists that he played a full role at meetings
of the Commissioners. If Larry Wren chose not to listen to
what he said, the reason for this would be best explained by
Wren himself', he says.
Vnd Wrerr's Commissionership a period of stability
returned. But just before Wren left office the gardai were
once again plunged into crisis.
Martin Cahill had been a thorn in th e side of the police
for years. Theysuspected him of involvement in a number
of unsolved serious crimes throughout the 1980s. These
crimes had a pattern, whatever the Gardai say Cahill denies
involvement in any of these crimes. In each and every case
they lacked evidence with which to bring charges.
In May 1986 Russborough House was burgled and eleven
priceless paintings were stolen. They included Vermeer's
'Love Letter', Goya's portrait of 'Donna Antonia', Metsu's
'The Letter Writer' and a fourth by Dutch master Reubens.
These four paintings alone are valued at over .!:30m.
Sixteen men had taken part in the robbery. The only
hiccup they had experienced was in the planning stages
when they discovered that another criminal gang was plan-
ning to carry out a similar robbery. They frightened the
other gang off by dressing up as security guards with alsatians
and whistles when the other gang arrived tomake final
arrangements for the robbery. In Dublin's underworld the
Russborough House robbery has become the stuff oflegend.
I
But after a short while it became obvious to everyone con-
cerned that selling the paintings was gong to be difficult,
if not impossible. Several of the gang members were said to
be frustrated and at one point it was suggested that they
draw straws to take a painting or a sh are in a painting apiece.
It would then be every man for himself. this was said to
have been vetoed by the gang leader himself.
Despite the large number of people who had taken part
in the robbery the gardai were frustrated in their attempts
to get information. Only three men knew where the paint-
ings were hidden. There were several unsuccessful atternpts
to tempt the gang into a sale. The first breakthrough came
early in the summer of last year. Two suppliers of hash to
Dublin city approache d a senior mernber ofthe gang and
told him that their supplier in Holland was interested in
acting as a go-between in a sale of the paintings. The Dutch
dealer claimed to have an interested buyer. The dealer, called
"Peter", came to Ireland to discuss the proposal. The gang
was unaware that he was already working for the Dutch
police. One of the paintings, valued at [20,000, was left by
arrangement in a car in Dublin. This was collected by Peter
and taken back to Holland. Months passed. Deputy Com-
missioner J ohn McMahon f1ew to Amsterdam and met with
the dealer. In September the dealer returned to Ireland and
met with a senior rnernber of the gang who had pulled off
the robbery , The gang mernber noticed that Peter was very
tense but put this down to nerves.
It was arranged that an art expert would view the paint-
ings. The "art expert" was an Interpol agent. An arrange-
ment was made that he would be picked up outside the
Burlington Hotel at one o 'clock on Sunday September 29
1987. The asking price for four of thc p aintings he had re-
quested to see is believed to have been a million pounds.
The art expert was picked up as arranged by a different
gang member. The driver quickly spotted that they were
being followed by an unmarked police car. He was aware
that a huge and dangerous effort had gone into getting the
paintings to the pre-arranged meeting place. After 'driving
around for an hour and a half he believed that hehad lost
the Garda "tail ", He had not allowed for the fact, however,
that he was being watched by a Cessna spotter plane over-
head.
The driver was becoming suspicious. It was the "art ex-
pert 's" first time in Dublinbut he asked the driver were
they headed for "the Dublin mountains", as indeed they
were. He wondered if the briefcase that his passenger was
carrying wasbugged. The rendezvous was at Kilakee Wood.
A large force of gardai had gathere d a couple of miles away
outside Bridget Burke's pub. They were having communi-
cation problems. Up in the wood the suspicions of the gang
members intensifie d. The art expert wa:s examining the
paintings with a torcho The torch contained a radio which
was sending a signal tothc.plarie overhead giving their exact
position. On examining the painting the "art expert" ex-
claimed loudly: "The real thing, the real thing." The gang
h ad enough. This was supposed to be a covert operation,
yet this man was talking at the top of his voice. The man
who had driven him there bundled him into the back seat
.of the car and drove off at speed. The other twp gang mem->
bers drove off with the paintngs in the-(jppsite direction.
The driver and the "art expcrt " were apprehended outside
the Silver Tassie pub in Loughlinstown.
The driver was arrested under Section 30 of the Offences
Against the State Act. The paintings had not been formally
identified, however, and there was no evidence thatanything
illegal had occurred. He was subsequently released without
charge. The rernaining two gang mernbers and the paintings
had disappeared.
It was a serous blow to the morale of the gardai. There
were bitter recriminations within the force itself. The investi-
gation into the Beit robbery was the responsibility of the
Serious Crime Squad. They had not been involved in the
stake-out in the robbery ~ a factor which one gang mem-
MAGILLJULY 1988 17
 ber attributed to his successful escape. It was a s if the Garda,
instead of acting as a cohesive force, was factionalised, with
different departments in competiton with one another.
These problems were accentuated during the O'Grady
kidnap. There was a reluctance-within sectons of the Special
Branch to pool the information on their files with other
sections of the gardai. Information did not flo w freely and
as a result the whole investigation was slowed up.
E AMON DOHERTY'S APPOINTMENT AS COM-
missioner at the end of October occurred in the
middle of the O'Grady kidnap investigation. The
kidnap was pushed off the front pages of the newsp apers
by the capture of the Eksund with the largest consignment
of IRA weapons ever sezed and subsequent 'intelligence
reports that four other shiprnents had been landed intacto
The new Commissioner acted decisively. On Novernber 26
50,000 homes were raided. The search faled to turn up any
significant arms finds but two IRA bunkers were uncovered.
At a later date this search would take on a new significance
for Martin Cahill.
The meeting to set up the surveillance was held within
a week of the national search. It was attended by a number
of Chief Superintendentsfrom the Dublin area and chared
by Eamon Doherty. The Commissioner has denied to Magill
that the idea for the surveillance unt was his idea, or at
least was exclusvely his idea. "1 discussed it with professionals
who were much better on the ground at this game that 1
would be." Each of the Superintendents handpicked fifteen
men from their own district. The object of the exercise was
to target organise d crime , according to theCornmissoner.
According to an article published in The Irisli Times, the
decision to introduce surveillance was taken with the mini-
mum of discussion. There was no long term strategy, The
method chosen was unusual. It was not , for exarnple,
modelled on any particular systern which had succeeded
elsewhere. Overt surveillance has previously been used by
Irish plice and other police forces for a variety of reasons
but not in its present formo In the past the gardai have used
it on IRA members in the Republic after they had received
information from the RUC that the indivduals in question
were planning, or about to particpate in a big operation
across the border. But in those instances the purpose was
one of containment.
Initially six people were targeted for virtual round-the-
elock overt surveillance. A similar number was targetted for
occasional surveillance which was to depend on the degree
to whcih they were seen associating with the prime targets.
Each of those targets was given an abbreviated codename.
Martn Cahill was "T" (for target) l. Other associates of
Cahill who were to merit continuous attention were Eamon
Dalyand Seamus "Shavo " Hogan, Two other friends, Christy
Dutton and Noel Lynch, also qualified as prime targets. The
sixth man is presently facing a serious charge before the
courts and we cannot name hm. His codename is "T 7".
M ARTIN CAHILL WAS NOTNECESSARILYTHE
obvious choice as the target of the surveillance unit,
contrary to media reports. For nstance, there is
one 111anon the northside of Dublin who is believed to have
been responsible for three murders in recent years and is
also believed to ha ve been responsible for a il.5m cash
robbery from a Securicor van in Marino.
But Cahill did not f'all into the usual category of police
suspects. In the forty-eght hours prior to the O'Connors
jewellery rcbbery, where i1.3m was stolen, Martn Cahill
had mounted a one-man picket outside the Dail and the
Departrnent of Justice. He carried a placard allegng the
gardai had planted forensic evidence on hm in a previous
case he had been tried on. Cahill denied any involvement in
that robbery or any other robbery in which the Gardai sus-
pect his involvement.
Gardai saw this behaviour as provocatve and the sur-
18 MAGILLJULY 1988
I
veillance operation was going to be a good opportunity to
let them take the initiative. There was another reason.
Cahill had a hgh media-profle after the failure of thc Kila-
kee operation. If evidence were to emerge which would lead
to a conviction he would be a far bigger catch than the
anonymous criminal suspect on Dublin's north side.
T
HE SEVENTY GARDAI PICKED TO JOIN THE
surveillance unit reported for duty on Monday
December 7. The surveillance operation proper dd
not begin until the frst week of J anuary , Many of those
picked were young guards straght out of uniform. They re-
ceived less than three weeks' training at the end of which
they were armed and in plain clothes - members of a new
elite squad.
During that initial period of training their targets got an
inklng of what was to come. The Cahills noticed a garda '
car parked outside their house for a couple of hours each
day.
Then, on Christmas Eve last, Eamon Daly was breath-
alysed leaving the Rathmines Inn pub. The test proved
negative. When he returned to collect his car he found the
tyres had been slashed. Daly returned to Rathmines garda
station and made an official cornplaint to the newly set
up Garda Complaints Bureau. He lad the blame for the
damage cause d to his car firrnly at the hands of the gardai.
In the past when the police had scored a success over
Southside criminals, the tyres of cars owned by gardai
in well-to-do housing estates would be slashed. It was per-
ceived as being their wayof getting back at .the gardai -
a meansof showing them they were not as effective in
protecting the property of the middle and upper classes as
they might think, Now, in the small hours of Christmas
mornng, the trend seemed to have been reversed.
Later that day, Martn Cahill was travelling from .Cow-
per Downs with hs wife and family down to his sister-
n-law, Tina Lawless, in Swan Grove. They were followed
by an unmarked patrol car which drew alongside. According
to Martin Cahill the occupants were jeering and laughing
at him, It was Christmas Day and he says he was annoyed
as he thought he and his wife and farnly were entitled to el
day off. At that moment he saw - or thought he saw, it
was dark and he couldn't be quite sure - a cat crossing the
road , 'He jarnmed on the brakes and the patrol car which
was following ran nto the back of him. It was olear from
the outset that the relationship between the surveillance unt
and their targets was going to be an uneasy one.
When the surveillance began in earnest the following
week, Martin Cahll was a worried mano Police surveillance
was nothing new to him. He first experienced t in Decern-
ber 1974, af'ter the gardai suspected him of being a member
of a three man team which had taken part in a i90,000
robbery at Quinnsworth in Rathfarnham shopping centre.
In the years between he had frequently been subject to
Garda surveillance and was often fol1owed continuously for
days on end. During these years he became personal1y ac-
quainted with many mernbers of the Garda Heavy Gang ,
Sorne of them were his contemporaries. Others were up to
twenty years older than himself. But now each morning
when he opened his door he was confronted with fresh
y oung faces he had never seen before. Cahill viewed this
situation with concern for two reasons. Firstly , it made hrn
feel old and, secondly , none of the familiar faces he had en-
countered over the years were anywhere to be seen. This
led him to believe that the young detectives - or "rookies"
as he insists on calling them - were only the frontline in
the offensive that was being mounted against hm. There
were other thngs as well whch, from his perspectve ,
ddn't add up. The gardai seemed too cocky by faro Copies
of the Phoenix magazine which carried artieles and a
cartoon lamp,ooning the .actvtes of the surveillance unit
were dropped on his doorstep in the morning for hrn to
read: On the odd occasion when he did meet senior officers
 A senior member of the gang which was involved in the
robbery at Russborough House visited a location in the
Dublin Mountains where four of the paintings were concealed.
He was within thirty yards of his quarry when he saw two meno
He didn't stay to find out who they were. He was convinced they
were armed detectives staking out the site of the stolen paintings.
he was acquanted with, he thought he noticed in them a
smugness which had hitherto been lacking. They seemed far
too confident that Martin Cahill was going to jail. This led
him to the conclusion there was more to this surveillance
than met 'the eye.
M ARTIN CAHILL ALREADY HAD A HIGHMEDIA
profile of sorts. For y ears every time there was a
majar crime such as the kidnap of Jennifer
or John O'Grady or a big armed robbery, the newspapers
would quote Garda sources saying they believed a Ieading
criminal known as "The General" was their prime suspect,
It mattered little that others were subsequently convicted
for the crimes in question. There isno doubt whatsoever
that the person the newspapers referred to in their reports,
under the guise of The General was Martin Cahill. Cahill,
himself however has denied that he was the person who
was the subject of the reports. And given that so many
of these reports proved subsequent1y to be grossly inaccurate
it is a legitimate stance. The publicity attached to the
man known as "The General" reached new heights in the
aftermath of the failed stake-out at Kilakee. The Sunday
World ran a front page story namng MartinCahill as Dublin's
top criminal, thought they didn't say he was the man known
as "The General". The Sunday Tribune went a step further
and became the first to name the General as Martn Cahill.
But the most astounding article of all appeared in the Irish
Independent on October 7 lasto At the top of the article
was an artist's impression of "The General". The m an de-
picted wore a collar and tie and was shown working at a
desk lit by a study lamp, totting up figures on a ca1culator.
The man looked more like a tired executve than a "criminal
masterrnind" and bore no resernblance whatever to Martin
Cahill. Neither dd the person described in the article. He,
was described as a majar drug dealer, as havng dumped in a
field a member of hisgang who had overdosed on the way
to a robbery , and as having forbidden his children to mix
with his neghbours, The article reported correct1y that
"The General" neither smoked nor drank. A few paragraphs
down readers were told that he had "bad personal habits",
A typical lunch was described as "a bottle of Gunnessand
a Swiss roll". Though Martin Cahill did once have a sweet
tooth he no longer indulges himself since he has been diag-
nosed as having diabetes. The article concluded: "The big
question is why have the gardai not put away this monster
long ago?"
But it was the 'Today Tonight ' programme which turned
Martin Cahill into a national figure. The programme makers
are sensitive to criticism that their programmeamounted
to "trial by television". Quoting from Garda and criminal
sources, the information was flashed onto the screen that a
gang - and viewers were left in no doubt that Martin Cahill
was the supposed leader of this gang - were believed
responsible for the following
robberies: Quinnsworth, i90,000 ;Semperit tyre Iactory ,
i53,000; post offices in Tallaght and Mallow, ;1;83,000 and
;1;125,000 respectively; O'Connors jewellers, ;l;1.3m. The
gang was also said to be allegedly responsib1e for the blowing
up of the car of State forensic scientist Dr O'Donovan who
sustained serious injury in the b1ast, losing part of his left
I
foot. Not a single shredof evidence was advancedto support
any of these claims. No criminal trial would be allowed to
proceed in this manner. Whatever else this programme was,
"trial by television" it was noto .
The programme had a huge impact. The image of Martn
Cahill in his anorak with the hood drawn tightly up and his
hand coverng his fa ce while he ta1ked to reporter Brendan
O'Brien was an enduring one. It caught the public's imagin-
ation. .
Around the same time as the 'Today Tonght ' programme
was broadcast, he learned of an event which changed his
whole perspective on the Garda surveillance operation. He
claims that in the small hours of the mornng a senior mem-
ber of the gang who had taken part in the robbery at Russ-
borough House visited a site in the Dublin mountains where
the four paintings which were shown to the Interpol agent
are concealed. The gang member was within thrty yards of
his quarry when he saw aman move ahead of hrn , He
crouched down and remained still for half-an-hour. During
this time a second man appeared and began conversing with
the other. The gang member crawled slowly away and,
when he was sure he was out of sght, fled. He did not at-
ternpt to establish the identity of either of the two men he
had seen. As far as he was concerned he didn't need too He
was convnced that they were mernbers of the gardai. He
surmised that, the paintings had been found during the
National Search and have been staked out by armed detec-
tives ever' sin ce . Martin Cahill has never admitted to being
involved in the Beit robbery or arry other robbery in which
the gardai claim he was involved. But news of the late night
incidentspread. He was aware that it had taken place. What
had transpired on the mountain, as far as Cahill is concerned,
gave a perspectve of the surveillance operation which hther-
to had eluded him. If, for example, the men on the moun-
tains were armed detectives it meant that no matter how
unfavourable the publicity the gardai receved over the sur-
veillance the four most valuable paintings could be produced
at any moment as justification for the operation. He had
never looked on the surveillance operation as anything but
a "game" but now he believed that the gardai already had
four aces befare the hands had even been dealt.
T
HE 1MMEDIATE FALL-OUT OF THE 'TODAY
Tonight ' programme for Martin Cahill was that he
lost his unemployment assistance. During the pro-
gramme Cahill had told O'Brien that he was "on standby",
available to do work for the detective agency run by his
friend Noel Lynch. A second man whom Cahill had named
on the prograrnme as being available to work for the same.>
agency hado also experienced difflcultes-whefi hewerit to
collect his dale. He told the social welfare official that he
was taking legal advice with a view to sueing Martin Cahill
over the allegation. Much to his annoyance , when he met
Cahill1aterthat day, Cahill found the severence ofhis pay-
ments amusng. Cahill started to run through the narnes of
well-known detectives. "1 could be Cannon," said Cahill.
The other man who has a powerful physique and a mous-
tache, he suggested, cou1d be Magnum.
Meanwhile, the honeymoon period was over. There was
now open hostility between the surveillance unit and their
target. It began as pranks but rapidly esca1ated. Martn Cahill
wou1d ring the garda 'station as a concerned citizen to tell
them there were two suspicious looking men sitting in a car
MAGILLJULY 1988 19
 The possibtlity that an informer was in their midst had to be,
and was, given serious consideration.
in the Swan Grove cul-de-sac. Could they send a patrol car
to investigate as there were a lot of children playing and he
was worried the men in the car might be planning to abduct
or molest them. Eamon Daly would come out in the rnorn-
ing and find that the air had been let out of his car tyres.
Members of the surveillance unit, he says, would be sitting
in ther cars, smirking.
During the week of February 19 to February 26, matters
carne to a head. On the afternoon of Fe bruary 19 thc man
known as "T 7" was driving from the tax office. "Shavo"
Hogan was a passenger in the car. On Church Street bridge
the car in front of T 7's braked suddenly, causing him to
run into the back of it. A verbal confrontation followed.
An ambulance was cal1ed and cervical collars were fitted to
the two members of'the surveillance unit who had been in
the car in front and also to T 7. Al1 three were taken to
James Street Hospital. At the hospital a fracas developed
between T 7 and one of the members of the surveillance unit.
Lat that nigh] the tyres of cars belonging to Eamon Daly
and another person under surveillance were slashed. That
night , Saturday February 20, the Garda golf club at Stacks-
town was vandalised. Eleven greens were dug up and the
tyres of twenty-three cars in the mernbers' car park were
slashed. The golf course on Bull Island which has a number
of Garda members was also damaged: in some greens, up to
forty holes were dug. Cahill had been interviewed by Magill
on the night of the attack on the golf courses in connection
with an article forthe March issue of the magazine.He claimed
.to be quite happy with the way the surveillance was pro-
gressing: "The gardai have come down to my level," he
claimed, "they are now breaking the law." On the fol1owing
nght the cars of Martin Cahill, Eamon Daly (for the second
time in forty-eght hours), T 7 and those belo nging to two
other associates were attacked. Tyres were slashed and wind-
screens smashed. Debbie Corrigan, Eamon Daly's wife ,
claims to have witnessed the attack on their car. According
to information released by the Garda press office, the sur-
veillance unit moved out of Cowper Downs shortly before
4am. The attack on Martn Cahll's car occurred minutes
later. The attack on Daly 's car in Meadowmount Terenure
carne a few minutes later again. Corrign says she heard
noises and went to the window. She saw two men attacking
the car. They were masked. She shouted at them. They re-
plied, she claims, that next time her home would be petrol
bombed. The attack, she clams, took place in full view of
a patrol car, She rang the local Garda station to complain.
She was told, she says, that her husband was "only a gouger ".
A patrol car cal1ed to her house within minutes - the same
car, she claims which had been present during the attack.
The gardai in the car denie d they had seen anything, On
Thursday February 25 "Shavo " Hogan was spotted by a
patrol car driving in the Walkinstown area. The gardai pur-
sued Hogan who made off at speed. Hogan abandoned the
car and ran away on foot. Two gave chase even though by
then Hogan was firing a gun. Hogan was apprehended. He
was charged with possession of firearms with intent to en-
danger life ..
The gardai were jubilant. They claimed the apprehension
of Hogan was indirectly attributable to the surveillance units
The increased pressure on him, they said, meant that he
could not longer plan hs operatons with precision. Sources
clase to Hogan dismiss the claim. No matter how well he
might have planned whatever it was he was doing, they say ,
the result would have been the same. They say the only
reason he was apprehended was "bad luck", having been
spotted by a regular patrol car while driving along an open
road. In any situation, they say, where there are guns in a
car that is an "occupational hazard". The same source went
on to claim that when uniformed gardai arrived to searh
Hogan's house in a follow-up operation they commenced
'. 20 MAGILLJULY 1988
jeering the surveillance unit who believed Hogan had been
in his house al1 day. They had been waiting patiently for
him to emerge.
T
HAT NIGHT, THE SURVEILLANCE ON CAHILL'S
house at Cowper Downs was withdrawn. The ex-
planation gven was that the unit was aware that
Martin Cahill had given them the slip. According to one
criminal source the removal of the unit had another purpose.
The gardai, he says, were expecting sorne kind of reaction
to the arrest of Hogan. The pulling back of the surveillance
was in the hope that someone might go up the mountains
to destroy one ofthe paintings,
In the event there was a reaction. Almost 150 carshad
ther tyres slashed, mainly in the Dublin 6 area. Just under
a hundred of the cars were in Cowper Downs itself', The
fol1owing mornng, Saturday February 27, Martin Cahill
was arrested at the flat of his m other-in-law, under Section
30 of the Offences Against the State Act. Two of his chl-
dren, Martin aged nineteen and Christopher aged just fifteen
were also arrested under Section 30. Al1 were subsequently
released without charge.
Shortly after one o'clock in the morning of March 24,
Martin Cahill was in Rathmnes garda station. He was there
to lodge an official complaint. Two cars belonging to friends
and which had been parked outsde his house had had their
tyres slashed. In the complaint he blamed members of the
surveillance unit and a guard on a motorbike. He gave the
guard who was taking anote ofhis complainttheregistration
number of both vehicles. If the gardai wanted to interview
the people he claimed were responsible, they just had to go
outside. Both vehicles had been on surveillance duty had
fol1owed him down to the station from Cowper Downs,
A few minutes af'ter he made the complaint he was back in
the police station making another. This time his complaint
was that while he had been m aking the original cornplaint
the air had been let out of his tyres. Again he c1aimed the
gardai were responsible ,
Two days later Eamon Daly walked into the Atlantic
Homecare DIY shop to pul1 a robbery , There was a struggle
with a security mano The gardai were on hand almost im-
mediately , Daly was arrested and found to have a loaded
gun in his pocket. A second raider was shot in the shoulder.
Imme diately prior to the robbery Eamon Daly had been
advised by a close friend not to take part in it. The two
men who were doing the robbery with him had recently
planned to do a robbery in County Wicklow. They had set
off to do the robbery and changed their minds only at the
last minute. That information was well known to both the
garda and members of the criminal fraternity. Criminals
with the aid of radio scanning equipment regularly listen
in to Garda communications. On the day th e men had set
off to-do the robbery in Wicklow their every movement had
been monitored by th e gardai and was being broadcast on
the Garda wavebands. Caught red-handed in the Atlantic
Homecare store Eamon Daly must h ave wished dearly that
he had heeded the advice he had received. Subsequently it
emerged that one of the men who took part in the robbery
had been spotted over a month earlier "casing" the Atlantic
Homecare store. Ever since then the gardai h ad been keep-
ing a very close eye on the premises.
Within hours of Eamon Daly 's capture a man in a bala-
clava appeared on the roof of one of the pigeon lofts in the
back garden of 17 Cowper Downs. The back wall of the gar-
den was lined with detectives from the surveillance unit.
According to evidence later tendered by detectives, the man
on the pigeon loft was Martn Cahill 'who started shouting
at them. Martin Cahill denies this. He says the man was a
friend who had gone out on the pgeon loft for a joke. Over
the next forty minutes, according to the detectives, the
 On March 24 Cahill was in Rathmines Garda station
making an official complaint alleging members of the surveillance
unit had slashed car tyres outside his house. A few minutes later
he was back making a fresh complaint: while he was making the
original complaint some one had let the air out of his car tyres.
The Gardai, once again, he claimed, were responsible.
man shouted a stream of abuse. He issued a number of
threats to the Sisks, neighbours who live behind Cowper
Downs. The Sisks h ad facilitated the gardai by allowing
them access to Martin Cahill's back wall through their garden.
The man on the loft, they say, threatened to burn them out.
Sexual obscenities were also shouted. The man also, it was
said, told the gardai that he would have no difficulty getting
a hole in one on the Garda golf course, there were that many
holes on it.
On the evening of March 27 there was a repetition of the
previous nights proceedings. This time there were two men
on the loft. The detectives claimed that the men were Martin
Cahill and another man under surveillance, T 7.
On Good Friday , Martin Cahill was outside 17 Cowper
Downs wth a m egaphone. He was shouting through it that
the gardai were "tyreslashers, perverts and rapists", The
incident with the megaphone carne in the aftermath of a
confrontation with members of the surveillance unit earlier
in theday in which they claim the surveillance unit blocked
the road with their cars, preventing Cahillleaving the estate.
That evening the gardai arrved to the house with a summons
ordering him to appear in the District Court the following
week. An application was being made to bind him over to
keeping the peace.
T HE NATIONAL MEDIA HAD BY NOW COTTONED
on to thc fact that Martin Cahill sold newspapers,
Their coverage of events was entirely one-sided. The
gardai had launched the most controversial police operation
in recent years, but theconsensus was that this was a good
thing. It might h ave been expected that the merits or other-
wise of this operation would have been the subject of debate,
that experts would have been interviewed or commissioned
to write articles on why or why not the surveillance policy
was correcto ~ ed. In one instance one of those undersurveillance
Debbie Corrigan says th at by March their friends no longer
called to their house. Many of them, she stressed, had never
been in trouble with the guards. Callers were questioned
corning in and out of the house. Many - includng a baby-
sitter - had their houses raided by the gardai after visiting
the Daly household.
Another of those under surveillance had his petrol tank
filled with mudo Perhaps, a member of the surveillance unit
suggested, it was m tick from the Garda golf club. All those
under surveillance have had tyres slashed and d amage done
to their cars, in sorne cases on more than one occason: The
Gardai, they say, frequently shouted personal abuse. Certain
members of the surveillance units, they claim, used to shout
to their spouses calling them "whores" and "sluts", On
several occasions they were followed by up to three cars at
a given time. The cars, they allege, were driven in front, be-.
hind and alongside. A car in front, thcy claim, would fre-
quent1y jam on brakes without warning. It was an attempt,
they say, to provoking them into assau1ts. As they saw it,
the Garda opcration had nothing to do with surveillance -
it was wholesale harassment.
Many of the claims made are unproven and in sorne in-
stances unproveable. But a number of people interviewed
by Magill who had no criminal records told how they had
been subject to Garda harassment sin ce coming into contact
with those under surveillance. One of'those under survellance
I
keeps rotweiler dogs as a hobby. The person who showsthe
dog for him has no criminal record but says his life has been
"made hell" by thc surveillance unit. He resented being told
to stay away from the surveillance target. As far as he is
concemed he is free to associate with whomever he wants.
Over the lastsix months he too has come in for constant at-
tention. Strange things began to happen. Regularly cars
would draw up outside where he lives at midnight, 3am and
6am and hoot their horns. His own dogs would commence
barking, waking neighbours. He says he has been stopped
and searched on dozens of occasions and has had his home
raided several times. One day while walking through Nut-
grove shopping centre on the way to his vet with one of his
dogs, members of the surveillance unit, he says, appeared
from nowhere and started to take photographs, The dog, a
rotweiler got extremely agitated. He says that when he
threatened to set the dog loose he was told it would be shot.
The events of the last six months h ave also been punctu-
ated by moments of farce. The man known to the surveillance
unit as T 7 is extremely fit. At onepoint he took to running
for three hours a day. On one occasion he and Shavo Hogan
went for a run in Bushy Park along the banks of the Dodder.
They crossed and recrossed the river itself a number of times
with detectives in pursuit, On another occasion he was
visiting relatives out in Tallaght. After the pub s had closed
he set off on a run up the mountains. Behind he could hear
a detective radioing back: "If you look to the left of the
moon there is a ridge and he should be coming into view any
minute now."
T HE ALLEGATIONS MADE BY THOSE VNDER
surveillance must, of course, be se en in context. The
harassment which they allege has been a two-way
process. Mem bers of the surveillance unit have been threaten-
went
down to the Central Detective Unit in Harcourt Street clad
in his balaclava. There was an angry confrontation during
w hich he offered the detective a "straighte ner " to sort things
out. The only condition he attached was that there would
be no charges of assau1t arising out of the fight.
When those under surveillance would go to the pub for
a drink members of the surveillance unit would follow them
into the pub and observe from another tableo This particular
detective, however, would sit down right beside his target
who would be there meeting friends. One night the man
un der surveillance explained at length and in excruciating
detail to the detective the difference in a peD;9.n'Lfa~c_tl //
when a bullet enters the head from the backor the front,
No direct threat was made. Throughout, the detective replied
"This is it - This is what you are up against,"
The rnan who had this conversation with the detective
justifed it on the basis that the detective in question had
harassed and abused him on several occasions in an attempt
to provoke him. "If you poke a dog often enough," he says,
"it will eventual1y bite back."
D
URING THE COURSE OF RESEARCHING THIS
article this reporter interviewed one of those under
surveillance at his home. As t was late when the
interview ended he offered a lift home. The car was stopped
en route. A detective asked my name and address and other
MAGILLJULY 1988 21
 personal details. When we reached my house a second car
was waiting, It drew alongside and observed us. When 1 got
out of the car the detective who had originally stopped us
on the way down approached. He repeated the questions he
had earlier been given answers to, only this time more ag-
gressively. He demanded to know my association with the
man who had given me a lift home. A second detective asked
if 1 had any documents on me and proposed to search me.
The gardai. have no general right of search. Their rght to
search s confned to certain statutory exceptions. One such
exception is the Misuse of Drugs Act. It empowers gardai to
search someone where they have a "reasonable suspiciori"
that they are in possession of a controlled substance prohi-
bited under the Act, which includes substances such as
heroin, cocaine,cannabis and a host of other drugs which
are legally only available under prescrption. When asked
what power of search he was usng, the garda replied the
Misuse of Drugs Act. Having announced only a few seconds
earlier that he was looking for documents, the detective had
now formed a "reasonable suspicion " that 1 was carrying a
controlled drug contrary to the Act. Despite my protest-
aticns, notes of the interview were taken and read by the
detective. It was a fairly minor form of harassment but it
gves perhaps a perspective en why people stcpped calling
at the houses of those under surveillance.
M ARTIN CAHILL, MEANWHILE, CHANGED TAC-
tics. His new routine rarely varied. He got up each
morning in Swan Grove and then drove the five
minute drive to Cowper Downs. The police waited at the
back and front of the house - all day. Martin Cahill was
e
doing his best to ensure they were bored: he now looked
on the surveillance operation as an endurance test. Con-
vinced that the gardai had found four of the Beit paintings
hidden in the Dublin mountains, he says he worried oc-
casionally that the polce would run out of patience and ab-
duct him. He feared they would take him to the spot the
paintings are concealed and then clairn that they had arres-
ted him attempting to rnov the paintngs.
When Cahill had been arrested under Section 3 O of the
Offences Aganst the State Act subsequent to the slashing
of the car tyres of ninety-seven vehicles he had been taken
to the Bridewell for questioning, His clothes had been re-
moved for forensic purposes and new ones purchased for
him, When he was being release d from thc Bridewell the
door of the station was opened "Iike 1 was gong out on a
stage". Outside there was a number of television crews and
photographers and reporters. Cahill prides himself on the
fact that no member of the media has yet managed to get a
picture of his face. On the occasion of his release from the
Bridewell it was no different: he had ripped the sleeve off
the jumper bought for him by the gardai and fashioned it
into a balaclava. While he walked through the crowd of re-
porters to a waiting car he ignored all questions put to him
and hummed a tune. The voice of one reporter, Ann
O'Loughlin, Security Correspondent for thc lrisli Indepen-
dent, could be heard aboye allothers: "You have just spent
fort y-eight hours.in Garda custo dy , why are you singing, Mr
Cahill?" Hemade no reply.
The applicaton to bind him over to thepeace was heard
on April 13. Cahill had sent a friend down in his car to act
as a decoy for .the media. The friend, wearing the familiar
green parka anorak and wth his hand over his face, posed
for photographers before disappearing into the court build-
ing. Martin Cahill watched from across the river o n his ten-
speed racing bike. He was wearing a wig , a false moustache
and gold-rimme.d glasses. He thought it hilarious. In court
it wasn't untilafter hearing several hours of evidence that
the judge , District Justice Macklin, was astonished to be told
that Martin Cahill was in disguise.
Outside the court Martin Cahill held an irnprornptu. press
conference and pose.d for pictures in his Mickey Mouse shirt
and shorts. Two merribers of the surveillance unt grabbed
22 MAGILLJULY 1988
I
Cahill and tried to pull his balaclava off. But Cahillwas
shouting: "1 am being assau1ted by Gardai. 1 want to see
m y solicitor, Mr Sheehan." At the time Cahill could hear
Ann O 'Loughlin from the Independent asking in a shrill
voice: "Why aren't youlaughing now, Mr Cahill?" Cahill
was then taken into Garda custody in the Bridewell. The
place was packed with Gardai. A number shouted and swore
-at him calling him a "bastard". Cahill got front page cover-
age the next day in all thenewspapers. The papers reported
that he had burst into song, snging: "1 am going to sit right
down and write myself a letter." It occurred to no one that
this might be a none-too-cryptc reference to two of the
most va1uable of the Beit paintings sto len from Russborough
House, Metsu's 'The Letter Writer' and Vermeer's 'Love
Letter'. The case against Cahill was adjourned for a week.
Cahill passed the time wondering who he would next dress
up as. Spiderman was considered briefly. His own favourite
was Dona1d Duck with a caption across the T shirt: "What's
up Doc?" He was persuaded to abandon the idea. He has a
tape of an E1vis Pres1ey song which he took with him to
court in his walkrnan. During the week he had rehearsed
miming the songo He planned to perform the E1vis number,
'The Lady Loves Me But She Doesn't Know It' for the
benefit of the Iris Independent Security Correspondent,
Ann O'Loughlin. In the event he was to be disappointed as
he did not meet O'Loughlin that day ,
District Justice Macklin bound Cahill over to the peace.
He was obliged to obtain two independent sureties of :500
each. He was a1so ordered to pay :500 towards the cost of
the proceedings, The deadline was May 8.
Then came the most serious setback since the surveillance
began , Guns were found in a park on the Southside of the
city , It has been considered how the Gardai carne to have
knowledge that the guns were in the park . Various possibili-
ties merited consideration. The guns could have been found
by a member of the public who alerted the Gardai. Alter-
native1y meetings could ha ve been bugged by means of
electronic surveillance. But the most serious possibility of
all was that the police had managed to place an informer
close' to those under surveillance. Only a very small number
of people knew about the weapons. The number of people
w ho knew the location was small. The possibility that an
informer was in their midst had to be, and was, given
serious consideration. Where before there was total trust
there was now mutual suspicion. This was admitted to
Magill by a number of people under surveillance. However,
they insist that the breakdown was only ternporary.
May 8 came and Martin Cahill had still not sgned the
peace bond. He would rather go to jail, This was partly in-
fluenced by his belief the garda would be waitingall summer
in the mountains knowing that whoever did come to collect
the paintings, if anybody did, it wouldn't be Martin Cahill.
His decisin to go to jail was made known to the media. On
May 12 gardai applied to the District Court f or a warrant
for his arresto No effort was made to arrest Martin Cahill,
however. Hehad written to the Chief State Solicitor in-
forming him that he would not be signng the bond and in-
dicating that he was available for arresto Still nothng
happened. On the afternoon of Thursday June 2, "Sh avo "
Hogan called to see Martin Cahill in Cowper Downs. The
two have been very close friends for a number of years. The
next day , Friday June 3, Hogan was due to appear before
the Special Criminal Court on charges arising out of th e
shoot-out with gardai on the Naas Road on Fe bruary 25.
Just over two weeks previously Eamon Daly h ad been sen-
tenced for his part in the attempted robbery at the Atlantic
Homecare store. The court had been told that Daly was a
harderied criminal. The gardai said that he lived in a :40,OOO
h ouse which had been paid for in cash, though they had
never known him to work a day in his life. Daly , the judge
was told, was a member of a ruthless criminal gang onthe
southside of Dublin. Eamon Daly got twelve years.
Hogan and Cahill chatted away in Cowper Downs, a
 "There isno tit-for-tat, as you so cal! it, type of operation. "
-Garda Commissioner Eamon Doherty,
"good long chat " was how-Cahill described it. They bid
adieu, each man knowing that it would bea long time,
probably more than ten years, before they met again as
free meno Nonetheless there were a few surprises in the
Special Criminal Court the following morning. Hagan
pleaded guilty as charged. In evidence the Gardaimade no
mention ofHogan's f.50,OOO house paid for in cash, nor of
his long-term unernployed status, nor that Hogan was be-
lieved to be "a.rnember of a ruthless criminal gang". Hogan's
offence was potentially more serious than Daly's ~ an un-
armed Garda had been fired upon ~ but his sentence was
eight years.
After Hogan has been sentenced at the Special Criminal
Ccurt , Martn Cahill alleges that the subsequent planting of
a gun in his water cistern was an attempt by th Gardai to
rriake him believe Hogan was the culprit. He believes the
relatively light sentence imposed by the court gave the
Gardai an opportunity to make him think Hogan had done
a deal with the polce and they sought to capitalise on this.
Martn Cahill also says that the plot he alleges was con-
cocted by the Gardai in the wake of the trial has failed. He
does not believe that Hogan would have done such a thing.
However, hedoes not know at what time after the trial the
. gun was allegedly planted. The Gardai cornpltely reject
such an allegation and say that the raid on the house was ~
prompted by a tip-off.
T
HEEVENTSOFFEBRUARYl9ANDFEBRUARY
o 26 _ which included the malicious attack on the
. Garda golf club at Stackstown, followed the next
night by an attack on the car of Martin Cahill and others
undersurvellance, were summarised in an interview with
Garda Commissioner Eamon Doherty and he was asked by
Magill whether, on the basis of this, he believed the surveil-
lance unit was engaged in tit-f'or-tat retaliatory attacks. He
was outraged and vsibly angered by the suggestion. The
evidence offered by those making the allegations is that their
car tyres were slashed when they were virtually under
round-the-clock surveillance. They also point out the damge
carne immediately after attacks on the Garda golf club .The
Cornmissioner replied: "1 reject (those) suggestions totally.
The surveillance unit were under the control of very ex-
perienced senior officers. They operated in a controlled
fashion. There was no. tit-for-tat - as you call it - type of
operaton." Neither, he said, was there anything sinister in
the fact that a surveillance unit whch was on duty outside
Cowper Downs on the night of the attack moved out a
matter of minutes before it cornmenced, The surveillance
teams; he pointed out, regularly received instructions to
take up new positions or to revert from overt to covert sur"
vellance. Magill, he said, "was making allegations that were
totally unsubstantiated." If anyone wanted to make the al-
legations in print regarding the Garda force they would be
fol1owed up and ful1y investigated and every action taken.
The peo ple who have made the al1egations against the
Gardaishould make thern , he said, to the Garda Complaints
Board. Numerous cornplaints have in faet already been
made. Copies of them have been seen by Magill. None of
thecomplaints whichhave been made -to the Garda Com-
plaints Board has reached the stage of a hearing. In the
meantime the Commissioner is totally satisfiedthat the sur-
veillance units have been doinga professionaljob combatng
organised crime and dong it well. If anyone wanted to
suggest otherwise they should gve him facts that consti-
tuted hard evidence of wrongdoing. The Commissioner em-
phatically denied during the interviewthat the Garda had re-
covered four of the stolen Beit paintings in the Dublin moun-
tains. He said that it would be inconceivable that, if there
was an armed Garda stake-out involving these paintings, he
would be unaware of it.
T o
HE MOST CONTROVERSIAL POLlCE OPER-
ation in years has come to a halt. Effective round-
the-clock surveillance on Martin Cahill ended at the
end of April. The Commissioner, in his interview with
Magill, rejected out of hand any suggestion thatmembers
of the surveillance unit had acted rnproperly without
evidence being produced to support it. That is a vew which
is urrderstandable and justified. But it ignores the inconsis-
tency that the whole justification for the Garda operatiori
011 Martin Cahill and others was that he was beleved to be
involved in a number of serious crmesbut the Garda lacked
hard evidence with which to bring charges.
Another aspect of this point was recently demonstrated
n the case of Derek Fairbrother. Not all the facts are known
in this case, save that Derek Fairbrother is aileged to have
received a savage beating in Garda custcdy. The media widely
reported these al1egations. The response by the Garda Re-
presentatveAssociation to the media reporting of the Fair-
brother case was swif't, The AGSI wasquoted as saying it
deplored the meda's "trial by publicity". Jack Marrinan of
the Garda Representative Association said he was totally
oppose d to the suspension of any of his members prior to
an internal inqury. To do so would be a presumption that
any or al1 of the men had done something wrong. Marrinan
mght have gone further and said that the principle hewas
invoking - that any person aecused of a criminal act is en-
titled to a fair hearing and is presumed innocent until proved
guilty - did not exist prely for the protection of gardai,
The Suprerne Court has said in no uncertan terms that
everybody is entitled to be' treated equally under the law.
The operation of the surveillance unit over the Iast six
months wouldseern to turn that principle on its head.
MAGILL JULy 1988 23
 Our Europeon
Chompions!
JOHN COONEY on next year's race for Europe
HEN THE CAREER OF
W
. '. '. Charles J. Haughey is assessed
by future historians they will
6 bserve how his g aining andJiolding
control of Fianna Fail was.influenced
to a considerable degree by -elections
to an institution for which he has
shown little enthusiasm in his political
utterances - the European Parliament.
The first direct elections to the
European Parliament in June 1979 saw
Fianna Fail take only five ofthe fifteen
Irish seats in Strasbourg , The party's
share. bf the vote was a record lowly
34.68 per cent cornpared with the all
time high of 50.8 per cent in the general
election of exactly two years earlier.
According to historian T. Ryle Dwyer
the Euro-poll was "the worst showing
in thepartys fifty-three years existence
and nervous backbenchers began to
.look for a change of Ieadership ." The
introdu ction of direct suffrage to the
European Parliament in 1979 had a
profound impact on the direction of
Irish politics as it marked the beginning
of the end of Jack Lynch's leadership
and paved the way for the succession
struggle later that year which resulted
in the narrow but decisive victory of
Mr Haughey over the late Mr George
Colley ,
Less spectacularly but effeetively
the J une 1984 European elections en-
abled Mr Haughey to tighten his grip
on a Fianna Fail party which was mak-
ing heavy weather of Opposition in
spite of the growing evidence that the
Fine Gael-Labour Coalition was not
taking the drastic rneasures requred to
restore confidence in the economy ,
Fianna Fail.did better in fhis.Euro-poll
than expected by taking eight of the
fifteen seats though it pushed up its
share of first preference votes to only
39.7 per e ent. Possession of a majority
of the Strasbourg seats was obtained
26 MAGILLJULY 1988
I
by a calculated but cynical strategy of
running prominent Dail politicianssuch
as Ray Mac Sh arry , Gene Ftzgerald,
Sylvester Barrett, Jim Fitzsimons,
Eileen Lemass and Niall Andrews.
Allowing them dual membership of
Dail Eireann and the European Parlia-
ment until the February 1987 general
election enabled Fianna Fail to put
well known names before an indifferent
electorate in the Euro-ballot. To date
the 1984 European election remains
the only electoral outing in which Mr
Haughey has obtained a clear majority
of available seats,
Mr Haughey and party strategists in
Mount Street are already weighing up
the optons for the campaign in the
third elections to the European Parla-
ment which are to be held in Ireland
and the other eleven member states of
the Community between Thursday 15
and Sunday 18 June 1989. But plan-
ning for these elections s complicated
at this stage by the possibilty of a
general election being held either in
the autumn or early next year. There
are also the possibilities of by-elections
arising in Sligo-Leitrim. if the Minister
for Finance, Mr Ray MacSharry,replaces
Mr Peter Sutherland in J anuary as Ire-
land's nomineeto the European Corn-
mission, and in other sensitive constitu-
encies as a result of illnesses of Dail
deputies.
The most pervasive current assump-
tion in political circles is that if there
is not a general election befare next
spring, the European con test will be
the first major test of the popular
standing of the mnority Fianna Fail
Government. This will put considerable
demands on the party machine to hold
its two seats in each of the four con-
stituencies of Dublin, Leinster, Munster
and Connacht-Ulster. On the basis of
the Government's present high ratings
in the opinion polls, it should be in a
good position to hold its eight seats.
The climate of public opinion in a
year's time, however, may have altered
after a third harsh budget next J anuary ,
Once again a European election may
exert not inconsiderable influence on
the course of Mr Haughey's career.
The stake, however, may be even
higher for Mr Alan Dukes, the Fine
Gael leader. Unable so far to arrest his
party's decline in the polls andto inject
a new spirit of collegial determination
among his front bench, Mr Dukes is in
a race against time for the constructive-
ness of his Tallaght strategy to find ap-
preciation by the electorate in what
ultimately counts in politics - votes.
If the European elections prove tabe
his first cal1 .to the hustings asparty
leader, Mr Dukes has the daunting task
of holding on to Fine Gael's creditable
six seats.
The task will be made more difficult
far Mr Dukes on account of the debut
in European politics of the Progressive
Democrats. Mr Desmond O'Malley and
his Dail colleagues will be anxious to
register their arrival on the European
scene and to take a seat among the
Liberal and Democratic group there.
The competition to Fine Gael in parti-
cular from the Progressive Democrats
should ensure that the 1989 European
elections have more of a domestic poli-
tical edge than either in 1979 or 1984
when the voting pattern was character-
ised bytheregisterng of protests against
the nationalperformance ofthe Govern-
ment of the day ,
A1though Fine Gael actuallyin-
creased its Strasbourg representation
in 1984 from four tosix - a rise in part
due to the uncontested standing of Dr
Garret PitzGerald on European Com-
munity issues -'- the brunt of the anti-
Government swing that year.was borne

by Labour. Mr Dick Spring witnessed
his party's spectacu1ar 1979 triumph
of four seats fade into oblivion in 1984.
This Euro-vanishing act, however, was
contributed to effortless1y by Labour
itse1f. Two of its wunderbar performers
in 1979, DrJohn 'Connell and Michae1
'Leary were conspicuous absentees
from Strasbourg. In Dr Garret Fitz-
Gerald's first Coalition Government
which was appointed to office in June
1981 'Leary became Labour leader,
Tanaiste and Minister for Industry and
Energy while 'Connell became Ceann
Comhairle of the 22nd Dail. Labour's
other two Strasbourg musketeers,
Eileen Desmond and Liam Kavanagh
also opted out of Strasbourg in favour
of participation in Government. Stras-
bourg became the temporary refuge of
defeated former leader Frank Cluskey ,
In the extraordinarily volatile period
of politics in Ire1and in the early 1980s
La bour's resort to seven replacements
without holding a by-election provoked
the Eurcpean Parliament's Credentials
Cornmittee to comp1ain to the Dail.
This complaint led to the introduction
in the Dail of a European Assembly
Elections Bill requiring a list of "substi-
tutes" to be on display at polling
booths though not on the ballot paper.
The recollection of this censure and
the memory of its humiliating troun-
cing in 1984 - Ireland is the only
rnember State without representation
in th e parliamentary Socialist group ~
will galvanise Labour to restore its
presence in Strasbourg.
However, Labour can expect a strong
challenge from the Workers Party for
any left wing seat which might be avail-
able. The newest of the Dail party
1eaders, Proinsas de Rossa, will be keen
to mo bilise su pport particularly in
Dublin and to deprive Labour of the
joys of a return to the A1satian capital.
The 1989 European elections are,
therefore, shaping up to be a lively tria1
of party strengths domestically with
European issues as in 1979 andin 1984
Playing a subdued role.Paradoxically,
however, next year's elections pose
substantive questions to the Irish
electorate about the kind of Europe to
which we shall belong when the trade .
barriers come down between now and
1992. Senior Community officials are
in no doubt that this time it is in Ire-
land's national interest that European
issues should come to the fore in the
carnpaign.
I
NTHE 'JENSEN SCENARIO', A
spy thriller about life in the corri-
dors of power in thc European
Comrnunity, the action turns to the
French town of Strasbourg where the
Europe an Parliament is in sesson.
There is a lull in the story not un-
connected with the fact that the parlia-
ment session is far from dramatic. The
MEPs have just discussed the Third
World and are turning their attention
to the proble ms posed by Turkish im-
migrants. Although many of the MEPs
are genuine1y e oncerned about these
subjects, .they know that the general
public will pay no attention to their
debate. They are on1y too aware that
the media tends to dismiss them as
belo nging to "the holiday camp parlia-
me nt."
Commentators have 1abelled the
European Parliament - which has its
headquarters in Luxembourg, but holds
its p1enary sessions in Strasbourg and
committee meetings in Brussels - as
"the flying Parlament," "the travelling
Euro-circus" and as the "gravy train."
In a famous BBC interview with Henry
Kelly nearly ten years ago the Minister
for Foreign Affairs, Mr Brian Lenihan,
assigned to the Parliament the damning
epitaph of being "a rabble without
respcnsibility."
This public cynicism about the value
of the Eurcpean Parliament has been
particularly enkindled in Ire1and and
Britain as a result of seemingly end1ess
news reports of 1avish expenses, exotic
junkets abroad and of fo1d-up beds in
the Strasbourg offices of MEPs. Even
a co1umnist as sympathetic to the
European Parliament as John Healy
dubbed Ire1and's fifteen members as
"the forgotten men and women of Irish
politics."
Such re1egated status of individual
MEPs was ou t of step with the greater
attention thrust on the enhanced role
of the European Par1iament as an insti-
tution in the Community's comp1ex
decision-rn aking process following the
direct elections of June 1979and 1984.
Doubts remained as to whether it was
really a par1iament or a mere ta1king-
shop, in spite of it being the only de-
mocratie Cornmunity body and the
on1y one which meets in publico
However, a new mood of political
relevan ce and purpose has gripped the
518 MEPs since the ratifieation last
year of the Single European Act chart-
ing the way ahead for the removal by
1992 of trade barriers and the creation
of a common market for 310 million
consumers in the twelve member states.
Much of the bluster has gone out of
the Parliament'sdcbates as MEPs get
down to thc serious task of scrutinising
the myriad pie ces of legislation that
will bring the single market into exist-
ence . The holidays are ver.
The Parliarnent evolved from the
common assembly of the 1952 Euro-
pean Coal and Stecl Cornmunity. In
1957 the Treaty of Rome gave it advis-
ory and supervisory powers in relation
to the Commission and the Council of
Ministers. fficially called thc European
Assern bly , it voted in 1962 to call i t-
self the European Parliament. Until
MAGILLJULY 1988 27
 1979 the members were nominated to
it by th e national parliaments.
Unlike Dail Eireann the European
Parliament has no independent legis-
1ative functions nor do its members
form a government. The Parliarrient
has no say in the appointment of the
Commission, nor of the Council. But,
unlike national parliaments where
governments decide parliamentary
priorities, the European Parliament
fixes its own order of business.
The European Parliament's com-
mittee system is more highly developed
than that of the Oireachtas. Each MEP
is a member of at least one committee
. and is usual1y a1so a su bstitute member
of one or two other committees. Much
of an MEP's work is spent in commit-
tees dealing with for instance, poltics,
agriculture, economic and monetary
affairs, energy and research, budgets
and social affairs and ernployrnent.
Practically every shade of European
though t is represente d in the Parlia-
ment - from Communists to Jean
Marie Le Pen's ultra-right conservatives.
And members are seated not by na-
tionality but by politic al aff iliation.
Fianna Fail belong to the Group of the
European Democratic Alliance which
includes the Gaullists as the senior
partners. Fine Gael members are in
Group of the European People 's Party ,
composed of Christian Democrats and
ranking as the second largest bloc be-
hind the Socialists. Mr T.J. Maher is a
member of the Group of Liberals and
Democrats.
Overseeing the work is the President,
Lord Henry Plumb , an English Conser-
vatve. The President, assisted by twelve
Vice Presidents including Mark Clinton
of Fine Gael, organises parliamentary
business in what is called the Bureau.
This becomes the Enlarged Bureau
when it is joned by the leaders of the
politica1 groups.
The first direct elections a decade
ago did not give the Parliament increased
powers but it did give it more inf1uence
and status. The main annual focus of
parliamentary activity centres on the
passage of the Community budget.
Under the Budget Treaties of 1970
and 1975 the most significant power
of Parliament is its right to amend the
draft budget and to reject it in toto.
But if it does so spending continues at
the previous year's rate on a month by
month basis, known as "provisional
twelfths." The budget by its nature is
a complex and often boring subject.
But "the power of the purse" is the
area where parliaments have tradition-
ally extended their control over the
executive.
Since the establishment of the
Court of Auditors (of which former
Finance Minister Richie Ryan is a
member) the Parliament has acquired
28 MAGILL JUL Y 1988
I
significant powers to call the other in-
stitutions to account for their expendi-
tu re under the budget. This function is
known as "the power of discharge."
The Treaties also confer certain "ad-
visory powers" on the European
Parliament. These include the issuing
by Parliamertt of "opnions" on a
range of issues requested by the Coun-
cil of Ministers. When the Council sends
a proposal to the Parliament for its
opinion, it is passed on to the relevant
comrnttee for nvestgation. The com-
mittee appoints a rapporteur who drafts
. a renort for the benefit of the commit-
tee ~nd when the committee has agreed
on the report it is referred for debate
at aplenary session of the Parliament.
As it is the rapporteur who presents
the report to Parliarnent, cornpetition
is intense for the authorship of more
important and controversial reports.
To smooth out difficulties between
the Cornrnunity institutions in the field
of legislation the Council and Parlia-
ment have worked out a conciliation
pro cedure, distinct from similar pro-
ce dures relating to budgetary disputes.
Through the inf1uence of British
and Irish MEPs question time has be-
come a central feature of parliamentary
business. Questions can be put by MEPs
to members of the European Commis-
sion and the Council of Ministers on
EEC policies, as well as to Foreign
Ministers on the coordination of me m-
ber states' foreign policies (known as'
Political Cooperation) and on the out-
come of the twice annual European
Council Summit rneetings of the Heads
ofGovernment and State.
Parliament's powers over the Brussels
based Commission have been wel1 de-
fined in the Treaties but to date have
had limited application. Parlament has
the power to dismiss the Cornmission
- but not individual commissioners -
by a two-thirds majority of al1members
of Parliament. But the Council can re-
.appoint the same Cornmission if it
wishes to defy Parliament. Increasingly
there is a natural al1iance forming be-
tween Commission and Parliament as
they plot strategy to bypass vested
nationalistic interests defended by the
Council.
This instituticnal intimacy was most
visible during the speeches at the June
session of the Parliament of Corn-
mission President, Jacques Delors,
whose name is now synonyrnous with
the drive to create the single market.
MEP after MEP spoke in support of
the work programrne of Delors and the
and the other members of his Corn-
mission. Much of this new e nthusiasrn
stems frorn the conferral on the Parlia-
ment of the right to pro pose amend-
ments to legislation after the adoption
of a common position by the twelve
member states. Although this "co-
operation procedure" has extended
Parliament's influence, the final say re-
mains with the Council. This change,
however, means that MEPs are increas-
ing1y caught up in the techncal draft-
ing of legislation. It also means that the
political groups have to organise their
voting pattern in an organised way
which produces the necessary majori-
ties that form the staple diet of a
parliament.
An area where the will of Parliament
holds sway over the Council is in regard
to a country 's accession to the Euro-
pean Cornmunty or in association
agreernents entered into by the Com-
munity with other countries. The Single
European Act requres that 260 votes
are needed for such protocols to come
into effect. Such approval was not
accorded by Parliament recently to a
protocol with Israel, a vote which
showed the political dimension which
the European Parliarnent can inject
into international trade and diplornatic
relationships.
Strasbourg is a frenetic forum which
leaves the Dail looking like a kinder-
garten of parliaments,
FIANNA F AIL EURO-TEAM
DURING HIS PERIOD IN STRAS-
bourg when Fianna Fail was out of
power, Ray MacSharry was the de facto
leader of the group and was the one
Fianna Fail MEPconsidered by Gaullists
and others to be among the Parliament's
small band of top flight politicians,
Since their return to office the Fianna
Fail team uses to maximum effect the
inside track provided by belonging to
the governing party in Ireland. Before
each plenary session the eight MEPs
meet in Dublin under the chairrnanship
of Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, th e Mini-
ster of State at the Department of the
Taoiseach who is responsible for co-
ordinating Ireland's EC policy. They
run through the agenda and work out
the positions to be taken by the group
on the upcorning issues. When in doubt
about issues that arise unexpectedly
Paddy Lalor, the group leader, is fre-
quently in touch with the Taoiseach's
departrnent for guidance. The coordin-
ated approach of the Fianna Fal team
is further underlined by the professon-
alism of the supplied scrip ts prepared
for the members by officials Michael
MacGreal and Denis Srnyth. Overall
impression: a discplined group of
seasoned politicians who are effective
but who, unlike the Irish soccer team,
do not generate excitement.
PADDY LALOR (Leinster) A Govern-
ment minister in J ack Lynch cabinets,
he has provided workmanlike leadership
for Fianna" Fail in the EuropeanParlia-
ment since 1979. He served as Vice
President forfive years and from 1979
to 1982 was in the inner circle of th e

bureau as a Questor with special res-
ponsibility for administrative matters.
He has a reputation for "Euro-gubu-ing"
as instanced by an over-zealous attack
on the SDLP leader John Hume for
supporting the Anglo-Irish Agreement,
Tends to be verbose but can rise to the
big occasion in the House. He does not
appear to be comfortable with journal-
ists. Although sixty-two years old
on July 21 he is eager for a third termo
NIALLANDREWS (Dublin) Although
a staunch Charlie supporter, he swop-
ped Leinster House f'or Strasbourg
where he has built up a strong national
and international reputation as an ad-
vocate of human rights and Third
World causes. A bon vivant who excels
socially, he can be opportunistic in his
contributions to the Parliament. An
instance of this was at the opening of
the June plenary session when he asked
the President Lord Plumb if he was
taking action in the European courts
to ensure that the decisin of UEF A
to limit the number of f'oregn players
permitted to play in any given national
or club soccer team was contrary to
the spirit of the Treaty of Rome. Follow-
ing Ireland's victory over England Mr
Andrews took the opportunity of con-
gratulating the Irish team for a magnf'i-
cent performance. Along with Jim
Fitzsimons and Mark Killilea, he
managed to get to the Hanover match
against the Soviet Union on the Wed-
nesday night. No doubt, he can argue
that that was the place to be if he was
in tune with . th e interests of his con-
stituents.
SYLVESTER BARRETT (Munster)
Another veteran of Irishpolitics who
served in cabinet under Jack Lynch, he
is a mem ber of the Committee on
Regional Policy and Regional Planning
as well as the Delegation for relations
with Australia and New Zealand. He is
quiet and unassumng. His son Frank
works for him from the office in Ennis,
GENEFITZGERALD (Munster) He
was Minister for Labour under Jack
Lynch and Charles Haughey before
rising to the giddy heights of Minister
for Finance and Public Service in the
difficult period from December 1980
to July 1981. He is a member of the
Committees on Social Affairs and Ern-
ployment and on Petitions. He is also a
member of the Delegation for relations
with the member states of ASEAN. He
never misses an opportunity to plug
Cork.
JIM FITZSIMONS (Leinster) Like NialI
Andrews he is gregarious, affable and
politically astute. He was among those
backbenchers who brought Mr Haughey
to power and his career in national
politics looked promising when he was
rewarded with a junior ministry in the
Department of Industry and Energy
from October to December 1982. But
he opte d for Strasbourg where he serves
on the Cornmittee on Energy, Research
and Technology and on the Delegation
to Japan.
SEAN FLANAGAN (Connacht-Ulster)
The most experienced politically and
the best intellect of the Fianna Fail
group, he was a Dail backbencher for
Mayo in the days when de Valera and
Lemass held sway. Under Jack Lynch
he was successively Minister for Health
and Minister for Lands.An individualist,
he would often berate colleagues as
well as opponents. His decision not to
stand again in next June's poli has
promp te d speculation that former
Justice Minister Sean Doherty will
make a bid to replace him. Also thought
to be interested is Senator Paschal
Mooney.
EILEEN LEMAS S (Dublin) Cork-born
widow of Noel Lemass, she was a Dail
deputy for Dublin West from 1977 to
February 1982 and from November
1982 to the last General Election when
she opted for full-time representation
in Europe. She confesses to having
found the transition confusing at first
but now finds it challenging. She has
pushed for special aid for Dublin and
learned sign language when recently
preparng a report on the deaf. She is
President of the Committee on Youth,
Culture, Education; Information and
Sport.
MARK KILLILEA (Connacht-Ulster)
Another "Charlie man" he replaced
Ray MacSharry whenthelatterbecame
"Mac the knife " in the Department of
Finance. Previous misfortune in Dail
elections was more than compensated
for by his inheritance of MacSharry's
coveted places on the Committee on
Agriculture , Fisheries and Food and
the Delegaton with countries of
South America,
THE FINE GAEL EURO-TEAM
THE OVERALL IMPRESSION IS
that the Fine Gael team is far less co-
Iiesive than the rival Fianna Fail group.
lndeed, closer inspection of the team's
performance tends to reinforce the im-
pression that it is cornposed of soloists
who have the courage of their individual
convictions, As well as differences
rooted in strong personalities, Fine
Gael in Europe appears to have prob-
lems in reconciling the agricultural and
urban perceptions of what constitutes
Irish national interests. Since 1973 Fine
Gael has not exploited the opportuni-
ties in Strasbourg with the same degree
of discipline and calculation that have
been the hallmark of Fianna Fail. What
Fine Gaelloses in terms of party soli-
darty, it makes up for, however, in a
more varied and reflective range of
contributions from its six members.
MAR K CLINTON (Leinster)At seventy
-three years of age he has decided to end
next June a long and distinguished
career which reached its high point
when he was Minister for Agriculture
and Fisheries in the honeymoon bon- .
anza days of Ireland's membership of
the Cornmunity. He was personally
hurt by the turning away of farmers
from Fine Gael to Fianna Fail in the
1977 General Election but his repu-
MAGILLJULY 1988 29
 tation as a good Agriculture minister
has survived the vagaries of electoral
politics. Nor was he enchanted after
the 1977 debacle to find Garret Fitz-
Gerald taking over the leadership of
Fine Gael from Liam Cosgrave. In the
European Parliament he has continued
to be a single-mnded advocate of Ire-
land's agricultural interests. Securing a
Vice presidency of the Parliament was
recognition of thc h gh regard in which
he is held in Strasbourg.
MARY BANOTTI (Dublin) To her ad-
mirers she is dynamic, enthusiastic and
tireless in promoting the interests of
her Dublin constituents whether it be
in denouncing Sellafield or the pharma-
ceutical industry and in extolling the
merits of the capital cityand advancing
the cause of women. To her detractors
she is deemed to be pushy, showyand
over-powering. Either way, she makes
an impact on whatever issue she takes
up. She is both a populst politician
who would be at home in the Dail and
a technocrat that suits Strasbourg-
style politics. She is more a tactician
than a strategist.
JOE McCARTIN (Connacht-Ulster) A
gritty and impassioned speaker on agri-
cultural and regional issues, he has
shown political courage in questioning
the way others have projected neutral-
ity into a panacea. He appears to h ave
been underrated and even neglected by
Garret FitzGerald but is getting more
recognition from Alan Dukes. He is
unperturbed by ta1k of Mayo West Dail
deputy Enda Kenny seeking a Stras-
bourg seat and feels confident that he
would not lose to the Castlebar mano
TOM O'DONNELL (Munster) The for-
mer Minister for the Gaeltacht and op-
ponent of Garret FitzGerald's ','Con-
stitutional Crusade" has concentrated
on regional issues. Described by an
eminent academic as "the ideal type of
regionalist politician which the Euro-
pean Parliament produces." As well as
serving a third term in Strasbourg, he
would like to have another go at win-
ning back the Dail seat in Limerick East
which he so unexpectedly lost in last
year's General Election.
TOM RAFTERY (Munster) A professor
of agriculature by profession he brings ,
his academic expertise (o the world of
Green Pounds and Monetary Cornpen-
satory Amounts that bamboozle the
non-farming publico He is also strong
on economic and monetary issues
generally. But his critics complain that
he is not a party politician. There is
growing pressure on the Fine Gael
strategists to strengthen the appeal of
the party ticket in Munster by en-
couraging Dail deputies such as Liam
Burke (Cork North Central), Ned
O'Keeffe (Cork East) or P.J. Sheehan
(Cork South West) to enter the race
for Europe. '
30 MAGILLJULY 1988
I
CHRIS O'MALLEY (Dublin) The
youngest, the most earnest and arguably
the most impressive of the Irish MEPs,
he found himself pitched into the
Strasbourg fray when Richie Ryan
was appointed to the Court of Auditors.
His expertise in economics has served
him in good stead on the inf1uential
Committee of Budgets. A well re-
searched speech on Ireland's need for
more developmental funding of sectors
of the Irish economy in the June session
of theParliament impressed Cornmis-
sion President Jacques Delors. Along
with Mary Banotti he most fits into
the technocratic mould of an MEP but
he does not match her in popular
appeal. However, he has been working
hard to explain the Parliament at ta1k-
ins with constituents and has defied
group leader Clinton in attacking the
excesses and absurdities of the common
agricultural policy. His forthcoming
book on life as an MEP should help
make him better known nationally.
But he will face a difficult time getting
through the selection convention be-
cause party strategists are likely to
field a well known Dail politician.
Names being rumoured include former
Government chiefwhip Fergus O'Brien,
Dun LaoghareTD Sean Barrett, former
Public Servce minister John Boland
and even Garret FitzGerald.
INDEPENDENT
T.J. MAHER (Munster) Assured of a
hallowed place in the history of farm-
ing politics, he is now sixty-six years
old. Opnioris vary as to whether or
not he will stand agan. He has built up
a high profile in the European Parlia-
ment much to the annoyance of Fianna
Fail members who are sceptical of his
claim to be a' non-politician. His con-
tributions are always worth reading as
he has a bread range of interests and is
a ref1ective persono He negotiated skil-
fully to j oin the Liberal and Democratic
group while maintaining his indepen-
dent position domestically. If he runs
again this dual identity will be tested
severely as the Progressive Democrats
have joined the Liberals and want a
share of the action in Strasbourg. The
recent PD debacle over thrawing God
out of the constitution will not have
endeared them to Maher who is a con-
servative on socio-religcus issues.
W
ITH THE DOMESTIC POLI-
tical stakes so predominant in
, the June Euro-poll the pres-
sure is mounting on Opposition party
leaders, Alan Dukes, Des O'Malley and
Dick Spring to field well known Dail
deputies so as to maximise the amount
-of number one preference votes for
their respective parties. This is likely
to produce a new crop of Irish poli-
ticians who exercise "the dual mandate"
- that is they hold seats in both the
national and the European Parliaments,
The resort to such electoral games-
manship will mark Ireland out from
most other EC countries where a.large
majority of the national political
parties forbid their members to hold
both a mandate as an MEP and a seat
in the national parliament. Magill has
obtained a copy of a report by an Eng-
lish Conservative mem ber, Mr Geoffrey
Hoon, which is due to come before
parliament this month andwhich pro-
poses to outlaw the practice ofthe dual
mandate.
On behalf of the legal affairs com-
mittee which has approved his report
by ten votes to three with four absten-
tions Mr Hoon will urge the Parliament
to adopt a three part resolution:
1. That the Parliament takes the view
that, as members of the European
Parliament are elected presumptvely
to serve on a full-time basis, they have
neither the time nor the opportunty
to serve in another national parliament,
and calls upon the member States to
amend Article fve of the Act of 20
September 1976 to prohibit this prac-
tice;
2. That the Parliament regards contacts
between regional elected assemblies
and the European Parliament to be of ,
mutual benefit to both parties and
recommends the establishment of
strong links with regional institutions.
3. Calls upon the President of thc
European Parliament to forward this
resolution to the Council, the Cornmis-
sion of the European Communities
and the parliaments of the member
States.
The successful adopton and imple-
mentation of this resolution would
thwart the electoral strategies of the
Opposition partes in the Republic but
it would have an even more dramatic
impact in Northern Ireland where the
leader of the Democratic Unionist
party, the Rev. Ian Paisley, and the
SDLP leader, both Westminster MPs,
plan to run for a third term in Europe.
It would be a stimulus to the political
parties to groom young politicians like '
Chris O'Malley, DUP Lord Mayor of
Belfast Nigel Dodds or SDLP back-
room man Mark Durkan in Europe.
, The reality; however,is almost cer-
tain to be that the Council this time
round will ignore Mr Hoon's noble
initiative. The political parties north
and south of the Irish border will have
freedom to choose national heavy-
weights for an institution dedicated to
supranationalism. Paisley and Hume
will wage another trial of strength
showing their respective holds on the
unionist and nationalist communtes
and in the Republic the Opposition
parties will imitate Fianna Fal's 1984
tactics.
 The speculation will continue over
the summer months as to whether Barry
Desmond or Ruairi Quinn will run for
La bour in Dublin and whether Eileen
Desmond or Justin Keating will make
a come-back in Munster and Leinster.
It is unlikely that Michael D. Higgins
will run in Corinacht-Ulster.
Will the Workers Party run forrner
leader Tom MacGiolla in the hope of
securing a .seat for the Left in the capital
city and conurbation?
Inside the PDs there will be agonised
debate about whether Bobby Molloy
should run in Connacht-Ulster even
though the odds of his being elected
are aganst him especially as Neil
Blaney is limbering up in Donegal for a
last hurrah European campaign. In
Dublin, deputy leader Michael Keatng
is expected to run but there is a feeling
that a Euro seat would go to the PDs if
Carmencita Hederrnan was persuaded
to runo In Munster there could be the
embarrassing episode for the European
beral Democrat group if T.L Maher
was fghting for a seat against a PD
standard bearer such as Cork South
Central TD Pearse Wyse or party gen-
eral secretary Pat Cox.
But the biggest pressure to produce
results .will be on Alan Dukes. Not
only has he to challenge Fianna Fail,
he has also to defend the Fine Gael
Euro-fiefdoms from plunder by the PDs,
Labour and the Workers Party. Already
there is a line-up of former ministers
or junior ministers eager for the call to
Strasbourg: Enda Kenny in Connacht-
Ulster, Paddy Cooney and Michael
D'Arcy in Leinster. Dublin awaits its
deus ex machina saviour while in
Munster the name of former Agri-
culture mirtister, Austin Deasy, is
mooted. (But Deasy, when asked by
Magill if he was plannng to run for
Europe, replied "My next position wi1l
be made known when 1 stand for leader-
ship of the party .")
In GovernmentBuildings there is an
optimstic mood that the Euro-tide is
running in Fianna Fail's favour. Come
election timethe public will be f'airly
attuned to the campaign theme of
adaptation to the challenges of the
single market. The Government will
have the ace hand of projecting the
message that Irish nterests in main-
taining the common agricultural policy
while expanding the regional, social
and farm modernisation grants are safe-
guarded primarily by ministers and only
secondarily by MEPs. Fianna Fail too
is likely to make electoral capital out
of having Ray MacSh.arry as Commis-
sioner in Brussels, With the kind ofluck
that came his way in 1979 Charles
Haughey rnay do severe.possibly lethal,
damage in 1989 to the government
ambitions of Alan Dukes and Des
O'Malley.
. . The
Gaelic Dream
91-
Doug as H~ ..e
I NFOUNDING THE GAELIC LEAGUE
along with Eoin MacNeill in 1893, Doug1as
Hyde initiated a movement which has been
described as the most revo1utionary in Irish,
history. Intended as a pure1y cultural or-
ganisation, it attracted peop1e of al1 political
and religious persuasions and spread rapidly
through all strata of Irish society while Hyde
rernained its President. Indeed much of the
organisation's success was attributed to Hyde's
charismatic and gregarious personality as well
as his adamant resistance to moves to allow it
to be used for any po1itica1 purposes. It. was
that very issue which was 1ater to 1ead to his
resignation as President in 1915, when it was
decide d at an Ard Fheis in Dunda1k to include
an aspiration to an independent Ire1and among
the League.'s fundamental aims.
He was to say 1ater: "My ambition had
always been to use the 1anguage as a neutral
fie1d upon which all Irishmen might meet. So
long as we remained non-political there was no
end to what we cou1d do. But the moment we
became political all the significan ce of the
movement as one to build up a nation from all
classes and creeds, came to an end."
Hyde may have failed to re alise his ambition
but his achievement was fully understood by
many contempories. Yeats said Hyde had
created "a great popular movement far more
important in its practica1 results than any
movement 1 cou1d have made ". Pearse, who
he1ped to turn the League into a politica1
organisation, said it wou1d be "recognised in
history as the most revo1utionary influence that
has ever come into Ireland ", Synge said Hyde's
writings had given "a new impulse to Irish
Drama". Lady Gregory asserted that "all
writers (of the Literary revival) had been in-
f1uenced by him ". An Irish Times editorial in
1937 pointed out that "all parties in Saorstat
Eireann owe their tit1es and largely existence
to him ", The same newspaper in an obituary on
Hyde 's death in 1949 spoke of the legacy of the
Gaelic League: "Frorn it are easi1y traceab1e
by Patsy McGarry
.
consequences
extravagant
from which it wou1d not be
to say the present
structure of the country emerged."
politicl
But few equalled the then Taoiseach Earnon
de Valera in the amount of significance he
attached to Hyde and his work. Speaking at the
in augura ti on of Dr Doug1as Hyde as first
President of Ire1and in June 1938, de Valcra,
addressing him as President and person, said:
"In you we greet the successor to our rightfu1
Princes, and in your accession to office, we hail
the closing of the breach that has existed sin ce
the undoing of our nation at Knsale. A scho1ar,
a Chraoibhin (Hyde's pen name) dhilis, you
syrnbolise for us the things by which our people
set most store; in your person you ho1d up to
us the ancient glory of our people and beckon
to us to make the future rival the past, urging
us to be ever worthy of our inheritance as a
great spiritual nation whose empire is of the
soul. "
Yet, de;pite the esteem in which the man
was he1d by his contemporaries, no single figure
in the pantheon of modern Irish history has
been as ignored or neglected, In an Irisn Press
interview il\ 1972 hs daughter, the late Mrs Una
Sealy , commented bitter1y and accurate1y on
how his grave had been neglected for twenty-
three years. For all those years it lay covered in
briars and weeds, lichens on the headstone, the
earth dpping to a hollow in its centre - an
extraordinary monument to an extraordinary
mano Mrs Sealy said: "1 have often thoghf if
he had killed peop1e he would have been con-
sidered great."
D
..
OUGLAS HYDE WAS BORN IN
Castlerea, Co. Roscommon on January
17 1860. He spent the first seven years
of his life in Klmactranny , Co. Sligo before his
father got a post as Church of Ire1and rector at
Portahard, between Frenchpark and Ballagha-
derreen in Co. Roscommon.
He was the third of four children, three boys
MAGILL jUL y 1988 35
 and a girl, Annette, who was the youngest. His
childhood was happy and reasonably typical for
a boy of his class. He was educated at home,
went hunting and fishing regularly with his
father and older brothers on the bogs and lake
nearby , and had a friendly if distant relation-
ship with the local people.
As Diarmiud Coffey puts it in an early
biography of Hyde (1917): "An average boy of
the upper classes regarded the tenants on his
estate as so many potential but pleasant
murderers. "
Such "average boys" went away to school,
to either Dublin or England. Hyde was sent to
Dublin but had to return home short1y after-
wards as he got measles. Upon such trivial
events does history tumo
Hyde remained at heme where he was
educated by his father, mainly in languages.
During those teenage years he became more
familiar with sorne of the local peo ple , in par-
ticular Seamus Hartrwho wasa gamekeeper,
John Lavin an old Fenian, Wa1ter Sherlock and
Martin Brannan who were tenants of Lord de
Freyne to whom Douglas's father ministered,
Mrs O'Rourke the Hyde 's housekeeper, Biddy
Crummy an old woman who lived in a hut in
the bog nearby , Through these people he
discovered and learned Irsh , and through them
also discovered an extraordinary store of myths
and legends of old Ireland.
These people, ~hom he grew to love, he
was to describe as "the last Milesians", the first
race in Ireland, now, he believed, "the oldest,
most neglected , and poorest of the Irish
speaking population ". They were tenants on
the lands of the French family , Arthur French
who had been a Whig (Liberal) MP for
Roscommon up to 1832 was made aBaron and
took the title "de Freyne ". Lord de Freyne
owned 20,000 acres around the Frenchpark
area. In 1846, starving tenants burned his effigy
outside the mansion door at Frenchpark. At
that time, during the famine , 30,000 people
living in the 135 square miles round Frenchpark
existed on one meal of boiled cabbage every
two days.
The only institution in this arca to cope with
the sick and dying was the workhouse at
Castlerea with its built-in sloping floors to ease
the rernoval of corpses to what became known
as 'the Black Gable', through which all bodies
passed to be covered with quick lime before
being disposed of in a mass grave. The Q'Conor
Don family at Clonalis near Castlerea, and
descended from the last High Kings of Ireland,
pleaded with the English authorities to alleviate
the hunger but with little success.
Famine ravaged the area. One old woman
told Hyde how it killed everything. "Poetry ,
music, and dancing stopped. Sport and pastimes
disappeared. And when times improved these
things never returned as they had been."
The people from whom Hyde now learned
his Irish had survived that Famine. Sorne, like
J ohn Lavin, still bore the scars. Under his in-
fluence the young Douglas Hyde became an out
and out supporter of violence against English
rule. In his diaries he pronounces a Fenian meet-
ing at Frenchpark as "a success", He wrote, on
reading a book by John Mitchel that it would
have made him a rebel were he not one already.
He also wrote sorne bloodcurdling anti-English
36 MAGILL JULY 1988
verses. His association with the locals did not
seem to disturb his family, nor indeed did the
fact that he had picked up sorne of their taste
for pote en and snuff. Indeed the Hydes's seems
to have been a remarkably liberal household for
its time. Writingin his diary when he was about
fifteen Douglas describes one winter's evening
thus: "There is a barrel of porter in the cellar,
there are a couple of gallons of whiskey up-
stairs, Seamus Hart and master and the two
brothers and myself in the kitchen with a good
fire in the grate, we sit down and drink a few
glasses of grog. Seamus tells us .stories and we
drink plenty and go to bed drunk, or nearly
drunk, or at least merry ."
Despite his appetite for the more acceptable
local pleasures of hunting, fishing, rarnblng,
and drinking , Hyde was an excellent scholar
and by the time he entered Trinity in 1880 he
had a good knowledge of Greek, Latn, Hebrew,
French, and German, as well as English. But he
claimed to. dream in Irish. By then he was also
writing verse in lrish and English under the
pseudonyrn of 'An Craoibhin Aoibhinn' (The
pleasant litt1e branch), which he was to use for
the remainder of his life.
His aeadernic career was quite brilliant. He
took a gold medal in modern languages in 1884
and proceeded to a doctorate in laws. There
was in tense pressure on him to take orders and
enter the Church. This led to friction between
himself and his father for a time but was re-
solved when the Rev Hyde relented.
At Trinity he befriended Yeats and the old
Fenian John O'Leary, who was to be a major
influence on both. O'Leary had served five
years in prison for his part in the attempted
Rising of 1867 and had since been in exile in
France. By the time Hyde met him at Trinity
the old man had modified his views con-
siderably, no loriger favouring force as a means
of ending English rule, and no longer hating
England but English rule in Ireland. In 1889
Hyde published his first collection of stories,
followed ayear later by 'Beside the Fire'.
In 1892 however, in his address to the Irish
Literary Society in Dublin, he gave what was to
be the definitive speech of his career on the
theme "Thc necessity for De-Anglicising
Ireland'. He spcke of the irnperatve of building
an Irish nation on Irish lines and denounced the
~ ambivalence whereby Irish people invariably
ended up imitating England and her ways while
at the same time hating them, Echoing the
views of old J ohn Lavin, whom he knew as a
child in Co Roscommon, he denounced the fact
that "in the previous nnety years" so many Irish
people had "with unparalleled frvolity" thrown
away ther own culture in favour of that whch
was alien and oppressive. In the process "people
had ceased to be Irish without becoming Eng-
lish". Hyde insisted he was not protesting
aganst the imitation of what was good in the
English people but at the slavish adoption of
all things English "pell mell ", simply because
they were English, with the consequent sacrifice
of ur soul as a people and a loss of contact
with our true selves. This "soul" ~ "the dim
consciousness at the back of Irish national
sentiment" - remained regardless. .
"1 believe," he said, "it is our Gaelic past
which, though the Irish race does not recognise
it at present, is really at the bottom of the Irish
 heart, and prevents us becoming citizens of
Empire." Hyde was thinking of the confiscations
from 1641 onwards, the penal laws, and the
concerted atternpt by the national schools
prograrnrne (from 1831 onwards) to eradicate
Irish as the language of the people. He recalled
a neighbourof his in Portahard, Sean
Cunningham, who had a stick tiedround his
neck at school by the teacher. Every time he
used a word of Irish at home his parents were
supposed to put a notch on the stick. He would
be beaten for every notch thereon next day at
school. No child was allowed speak Irish at
school.
t
93 WAS TO BE AN EXTRAORDINARY
year in Hyde's Iife , His book 'Love Songs of
Hvde with b is pet cockat oo i onnacht was pu blished and had
enorrnous Irnpact. Yeats said of it, and in
particular of the prose pie ces linking the songs,
where Hyde explained the background to the
songs in an English as spoken in North
Roscornmon, as "the coming of a new power
into Literature".
In 1893 also the Gaelic League was founded,
with Hyde as its first President. It was an
immediate and runaway success. Its constitution
declared that "no matter of religious or
political difference shall be admitted into the
proceedings". Its aim was the revival of the
Irish language, of Irish literature, music, and
dances. Hyde, as he often said, was not
atternptng to make Irish the language of every-
day speech but wanted to prevent it dyng out.
People of all creeds and classes joined. "It
gave Protestants", he said, "an opportunity to
identify themselves with a great national in-
terest." A considerablenumber of unionists
joined , he noted, possibly because they saw the
League "as a means of meeting their Nationalist
compatriots on a neutral ground ".
Branches of the League opened all over the
country. Regarded as chic and fashionable,
people turned to it in droves. Its success was
also helped by the repugnance which had swept
the country towards constitutional politics oration with Lady Gregory, called 'An Posadh ',
following the split in the Irish party and
Parnell's death , lt was an exciting, romantic
time in the League. People agitated successfulIy
for the right to address letters and parcels in .,
Irish , Hyde went to London and had this
cleared with the Post Master General. Irish
classes sprung up in every small town in the
country.
courage
Ballaghaderreen
Feiseanna were organised to en-
singing, dancing, and Irish music.
People set up Irish dramatic societies.
a local man, Felix Patridge,
wrote a play in Irish and it was staged by a
MIn .
local group along with other plays in Irish at
the Rotunda in Dublin, believed to be the first
staging of Irsh plays in the country.
Hyde began to visit Lady Gregory at Coole
Park in Galway where they discovered the songs
of Raf'tery , Lady Gregory was later to describe
her encounter with the Gaelic League as "the
first great discovery of the Anglo Irish Literary
Revival". For her the discovery of a culture
"twelve centuries old" and "a lyrical tradition
that existed before Chaucer" was similar to a
religious conversion. During Christmas 1898
Hy de produced a performance of Punch and
J udy in Irish at Coole where Lady Gregory says
"He triumphed in the scenes where he scolded
the baby", as many of thechildren recognised
the words from the scoldings they received
from their Irish speaking nannies at home. The
event she described as "the beginning of
modern Irish drama".
The local Anglo Irish ladies around Coole,
however, speculated that Hyde could not be a
gentleman, since he spok e Irish. It was a view
Hyde carne up against very often from members
of his own class. Notably from the establish-
ment at Trinity , which he was to describe as
"that English fort in Ireland". .
The Intermediate Act of 1877 had, at the
suggeston of the O 'Conor Don, included
Ce1tic as a subject on the syllabus for that
exam. In 1898 the inclusion of Irish as a
subject for the Intermediate was reviewed.
'0
Two of the most ardent opponents were Pro-
fessors Mahaffy and Atkinson of TCD. Mahaffy
complained thatit was not possible to get an
Irish textbook that wasn't "either religious,
silly , or indecent". Atkinson said the language
was "Io w and close to the soil", full of "coarse-
ness and indecency" and said he would not
allow a daugh ter of his read the story of
Diarmiud agus Grainne "no matter what her
age". The language itself he described as "a
broken-down patois" and what Hyde spoke he
said was "amelange, an imbroglio, an omnium
gatherurn ". In defence of th e language Hyde
brought along a range of eminent European
scholars who were so impressive the Commission
hearing the case found in favour of having the
language on the syllabus. Sorne years later Hy de
followed this success with a similar one when
he argued successfully for the inclusion of Irish
on the syllabus for the university matriculation
exams.
In October 1901 Hyde's play, 'Casadh an
tSugan', was presented at the Gaiety Theatre
in Dublin. It was the first ever professional pro-
duction of an Irish play in the country and was
done in collaboration with Yeats. Hyde himself
played the lead, "with vigour ", In 1902 a play
which he had written about Raf'tery , in collab-
was produced in Galway with Hyde himself
again in the lead. He wrote threeIrish plays for
the new Abbey Theatre and in a play produced
\at the Gaiety in 1903, ca11ed 'The Tinker and
the Fairy', he and Sinead Flanagan, the future
Mrs Eam on de Valera, played thelead parts.
EANWHILE THE WORK OF THE
League continued. Hyde was a power-
fuI propagandist and orator, "a cajoler
of crowds", as Yeats described him. Such was
his charisma that before he went on a fund-
raising tour for the League to the US there were
processions sending him off in both Cork and
Dublin. On that tourof fifty-two cities organise d
by Irish American millionaire, John Quinn,
Hyde also addressed crowds in Harvard and
Yale, as well as meeting President Roosevelt.
He arrived in San Francisco after the earth-
quake and donated all monies gathered there
for the League to the Quake Fund.
On his return to Ireland he got a hero's
welcome with crowds thronging O'Connell St
to see this man who had raised the then
phenomenal amount of : 11,000 for the
League. In Ballaghaderreen he wa~.carried from
MAGILLJULY 1988 37

the train station on the shoulders of local men
to a big bonfire on the Square. By then there
were 500 branches of the League in the country ,
Such was Hy des popularity that John
Redmond is said to have offered him his choice
of any of sixteen seats with the Irish Party ,
Hyde was insistent, however, that no matter
the circumstances aboye all else the League
rnust remain outside polities.
But the ver y success of the League made it
attractive to politically militant elements. With
the establishment of Sinn Fein these intense
young men and women became very active in
the higher echelons of the League itself', corn-
bining it with their involvement in Sinn Fein
and later the IRB. They were becoming in-
creasingly impatient with this, by now middle-
aged, Professor Hyde (of Irish at UCD, since
1909). They wanted change, they wanted the
League to become more nationalist, to enshrine
in its constitution the independence of Ireland
as one of its aspirations, Pearse wrote in 1913
that at meetings "whenever Dr Hyde has
produced his d ove of Peace , 1 have been careful
to tantalise him by saying that the Gaelic
League has brought into Ireland , not peace but
a sword ",
Hyde resisted all the way , but at the
League's Ard Fheis in 1915 'the hawks' had
their way , and the League became fully
political on the militant nationalist side. Hyde
resigned. In October 1916 he wrote to his
American friend John Quinn that "the fools
had steered the League onto the rocks". For
the remainder of his life he refused to discuss
politics or allow politics to be discussed in his
home.
His syrnpathies can only be speculated upon,
though he wrote to J ohn Quinn during the
Treaty debates in 1921: "We seem to have
really hammered out a measure of real freedom.
So far as 1 can see we have got almost every-
thing we want under the new treaty , 1 think we
got the very most we could have got without
war, and war it too awful to contemplate
agan."
In 1925 he was elected to the Free State
Senate but failed in subsequent attempts to
hold the seat. He retired to Portahard from
38 MAGILL JUL Y 1988
UCD in 1932. In 1937 he accepted de Valera's
nomination to the new Seanad, and in 1938 he
became the country's first President on the
unanimous nomination of parties in the Dail.
He was then seventy-eght.
Shortly after moving nto Aras an Uachtarain
he had a stroke and remained infirm for the
greater part of his term of office. He did not go
forward for a second term in 1945. He died on
-July 12 1949 and was buried at Portahard.
C
treated
ERTAINLY GENEROSITY
spirit has been noticeab1y absent in the
manner with which Dr Hyde has been
by this State. There were separate
relgious services precedng his inauguration as
OF
President. One at St Patrick's Cathedral ~n
Dublin attended by Dr Hyde and his Church
of Ireland co-religonists, another at {he Pro-
cathedra1 attended by the Taoiseach Mr de
Valera, his Government, the Opposition, the
Diplomatic Corps, and other State re presenta-
tives. At a reception in Dublin Cast1e that
evening, religious and politiea11eaders mingled,
drawing attention to their being together in one
room and saying how it augured well for the
country , wthout irony. On Dr Hyde.'s death
his successor Sean T. O Ceallagh, the "Taoiseach
Mr Costello and the entire Cabinet, sat outside
St Patrick's Cathedral in their cars awaiting the
end of the funeral service within. Mr de Valera
was represented at the service by Erskine
Childers, a member of the Church of Ireland.
The only Catholics to attend were the poet
Austin Clarke who wrote a poem about the
episode, and the French Ambassador.
The reason for this was that the Catholic
Church here had made it a reserved sin -
pardonable on1y by a bishop - for a member of
the flock to take part in any Protestant services.
This sin operated in most dioceses in the
country.
There was a similar occurrence at Hyde's
burial in Po rtahard, though the Iris Times
noted pointedly that both the President Mr
O Ceallaigh and Mr de Valera stayed in the
graveyard "right to the end of the service ".
This attitude continued long after his death.
Hyde had been given a house near Portahard as
a gift by the Gaelic League in 1906. He called it
Ratra House after the townland in which it
stood. When he died he returned it to the
League. Local members attempted to interest
the Department of Education in taking over
the house. They were not interested. The same
response carne to an approach to Roscommon
VEC. The League was unable to pay the rates
on the house, so its roof was removed. It
crumb1ed away to a heap of stones which were
sold as fill-in for the foundations of a new mi1k
powder factory in Ballaghaderreen in 1972.
No official interest was taken in his grave
either. The graveyard grew wild through neglect
and apart from an effort by local school-
chi1dren to clear it for the seventy-fif'th an-
niversary ce1ebrations of the Gaelic League in
1968, it remained neglected. After that sorne
attempts were made by the Board of Works and
the County Council to keep the grave in recog-
nisable order. The commemoration in
Roscornrnon, held at the end of 1ast month is
the first real attempt to remember this great
Irishman who did so much for his people.
Wllispering
----lna--

The POelllH of Pfit O'Brien

TE
GROUND OF PAT O'BRIEN'S CHLDHOOD GAMES
MACICAL

was the bacon factory in Claremorris where his father was

manager. Among the striped, dangling rows of flesh, sides
PLAY.

of meat, the hooves, heads, hooks and cleavers and the

stench of singed skin , Pat used to play cowboys and
indians, cops and robbers. Shadows, smells and dark
corridors fed gory fantasies of drama and danger in the
busy Mayo slaughterhouse,
Years, later, in another world and another time, Pat
carne face to face with another landscape of games sketched
from a palette of fear and terror. Except this was on a
brutalised, grander scale. And the bloody show-props of
childhood were real human flesh. In El Salvador, invited on
a trip by Irish Franciscans, he was shocked by the sheer
horror of life in a country where the most common
currency is dcath , After his retum, in late 1985, Pat pub-
lished a diary. It explored th ernes felt intensely at the time:
the personal effects of internationalpower politics, the end-
less victims whose lives are a whim to forces outside their
control, the darker side of the human psyche and its
potential for greed and bru tality.
Looking out on the lush flatlands of East Galway,
around Skehana, where Pat is now a curate, he wove these
themes, among others, into v.his first collection of poems
published recently by Dedalus Press. His starting point is
always the victim and the hunted. It is in the victim that he
finds the only 'realtruth ',
"It has been one common line of life for me," he says,
"that the world we have constantly creates victims whether
it's in place s like El Salvador or Ireland, when you've got a
violent situation. Or in intimate family situations, or in the
whole area of sexual politics where women are victims".
. . . .. "Everything had its undergro urul
Which the game found out.
A ioired-of] place uihere rats

by Ez1is Ward
40 MAGILL JUL Y 1988
 Grew enormous and insolvent
A t the edge of poisoned oats.
And everywherewere buried truths
Which only thehunted knew
Having a crouchthere .o o.
Finally I relea sed myself, sad ,
To leave that inviolable solitude
Theh.unters had gone home,
Th.eseek ers had tired of the quarry
And the couiboys-uiere settled in cities
Watching themseloes.
I was alone and in no h urry .
I would never again play
Hunter, cowboy, seeker,
Preferring to be found
But not found out
Bey o nd the pale-
faced regions. "
'Bildungsrornan'.
In 'Children's Game, Guatajiagua, El Salvador', the kill
goes on, This time, young children playing inthe sun-
parched red earth are the quarry:
"Sun and fun are suddenly e clip sed,
An ill wind blouis and a giant insect
shadow prouils. In the shattered sky
the spinning tops of helicopters are cy clops eyes
with children in their deadly aim and sigt. "
TEN YEARS
WORK HAS GONE INTO TRIS COLLECTION. ITS
title , 'A Book of Genesis', comes from his favourite poem
in the book , but also acts as a humorous theological hint at
more .to come. This book is merelythe beginning. The
poems are turbulent and rich, apocryphal in their world
vision , yet invigorating, They crowd with imagery that is
unmistakeably Irish but they are founded in the human
situation aboye and beyond national boundaries.
Thebook was edited by J ohn F Deane and the poems
o duties on his large black motorbike. His casual rumpled
arranged in sequence to expose their thematic continuity.
Beginning with childhood memories where the public and
the private merge in one frozen remembered moment, to
the searching poems with an earthy energy written in the
raw farnine-stccped landscape of CIare Island where he was
a curate for five years. And on to the more calm, ce1ebratory
work frorn .hours spent in Cornwall withhis sculptor friend
Tony o 'Malley and his wife J ane, Their friendship began on
the island where Tony's family have lived for decades and is
a mainstay in his personallife.
Not surprisingly, many of the metaphors and meters are
sprung from the textbooks of Christian theology. But there
is no sen se of preacherly platitudes or presumed common
morality.This is not the voice of a priest using poetry as a
prose1ytising medium, but a rich, sonorous, savage1y critical
voice of someone angry with the state of the world. He is
angry, for instance, about the high jack ing of biblical
language and concepts by politicalIe aders such as Margaret ,
Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, to preach a message that is
anything but biblical. '
In"Anti-Poem', the .born again Christian leader rallies
his lackey scien tists to aba~don their research on germ war-
fare andneutron bombs to a greater end:
"Listen to me
It is the Lord who sp eak s;
You must develop a b omb ,
So designed that when it explo des
The world it must form
a huge multi-coloured cro ss-sh ap ed cloud.
theworld it must form
42 MAGILLJULY 1988
in the shape of the cross
for all the watching universe to know
we are his seroan.ts
and seek only his purp ose and glory.
Gentlemen, go to it,
The Lord is with you.
You will not fail,
AridI myselfwill not be found wanting
when the times comes
at lasto"
The power of language as a tool of oppression is a theme
that draws him out. He is concerned with the concept of
the power of naming - this forms the central core of the
poem 'Gnesis". Pat O'Brien fee1s strongly that poets must
recover, invent or re-discover a language which is that of
'the poor, the oppressed , the women' A poet must be aware
o
of the political uses of words carefully laid oh papero
"Once you decide toeat, you are involved in politics -
where does the food come from? And once you are
breathing, it's a question of why the air isn't as it should be.
We are political by our very nature."
IRELAND'S EXPNENTS
OF A FORM OF LIBERATION THEOLOGY ARE FRE'
quently asked how they reconcile their radical personal and
poltical views with their participation in an overwhelming-
ly powerful and conservative institution like the Catholic
Church , It's a question that irritates him slightly. He
considers himself "radical" only in that he retums to the
root o the Church's beliefs and probably more Catholic
than the priests whose views he would oppose ~ those
resistant to any liberal changes or reforms,
On his return from Central Amrica, Pat got embroiled
in the Divorce Referendum to be eventually "silenced" by
his Bishop from speaking in favour of a change in the law.
He lives without a housekeeper in a modest pebble-
dashed bungalow, itsinterior traced with ples of books and
papers, y ou'll find him, cigarette in hand, fulfilling parish
dress of jeans and sweaters was stark in contrast to the rows
of neat blacksuited collared priests who cheered him on at
the launching of his book in Kenny's Art Gallery, Galway
city.
"1 suppose ultimately, I can still say the creed with full
conviction", he says. "But one cho oses the tradition one
stands in. I know my traditiori, It is the one, hopefully, of
the whole exodus thing from slavery to freedom, standing
by the poor, a refusal to lord it over anyone, an openness
to the victim and the hurto It is the tradition of Pope J ohn
XXlI and the Seco nd Vatican Co uncil to which I was
certainly ordained. If the Church is moving away from
that tradition - and I believe it is.umder the present pontiff
- all . I know isl will remain a priest because of that
tradition. And,as somebody said: 'There'll be other
Popes' "0
FLOWING
STUDIES IN ROME AT THE END OF TURBULENT
ms CLERICAL
years in Maynooth Coll'ege, Pat had, in fact, abandoned the
priesthood. For four years, he worked at this and that
around the country including a stint in the bacon factory
where he tookhis place in the "killing line" so vividly
depicted in another poem from the book,
A frendship formed with American priest and anti-
nuclear activist, Fr Daniel Berrigan persuaded him to return
 to the collar. And it was on the advice of Berrigan, declare: "not yet" can we claim vindication from history.
following a trip to visit him in New York in May, that Pat The poet must remain at the edge, but not removed. Com-
bought the word processor now installed between the mitted, but not dependant.
washing machine and th e ecclesiastical bookshelves in his In the 'Poet's Patch ', a blind poet struggles acro ss a
study. The funds came from proceeds frorn the book and.it famine-like treacherous countryside to find relative con-
will be used for parish work as well as committing to paper tentment struggling with a piece of soil while in white
the d ozens of other poems in his head , Mo scow , Russian poet Mandelstam d ies. An old lady,
Naturally self-effacing, Pat O'Hrien is reluctant to talk shaking with Parkinsoris, .the last person ever to rcmernber
about his relationship with his parishioners or the public a poem speaks to O'Brien:
perception of himself and his role in the Church.
"Poetry should not be forgotten
"1 don't consider myself to be different. Al! I know is
myself. I don't know any other way to be a priest so th ere We need poetry more than tablets
of stone or drugs. The rotting
aren't any other options open to me as regards the way I
could choose to be. I don't wake up in the morning planks and scattered stones regret
wondering what sort of priest I am.' or so it seems to me, the loss.
But, despite the perhaps inevitable tensions between the A cold Siberian wind
young radical priest and the older traditional parish hurls itselffrom Croaghmore. 'The Urals'
members, there is no doubting the genuine pride and I think, making a Bridget's Cro ss
affection the "Skehaners" have for him.
from rushes. One for Mandelstam.
There is no doubting either the world view that Pat
O'Brien holds: pessimistic. His focus ison the shifting I bind Nadezhda to his green flesh.
One for Ciaragain, I en.mesh
shadowy areas in the darker comers of the mind, the in-
both to the world, its dirge, its psalm;"
dividual stripped and alone. But it is not depressive or
joyless as he is not a joyless rnamThere is and always must
be a celebration - the dance and the music must go o n, The
celebration for him, however, is intensely individual.
One of the shortest poems in the book 'On That Day',
was written in El Salvador after a visit to Nicaragua where
he saw Culture Minister and J esuit, Ernesto Cardenale
ACCOMP ANIED
singing hymns to the country's then six year old revolution.
ON HIS JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AMERICA BY
"On that day of freedom and equality Dublin priest Peter Lemass. A poem dedicated to his
avoid the streets of the city memorv and written Iollowing Iiours of poring over photo-
loud uiit celebrations. graphs of murder squad victims in the Centre For Human
Go, rather to the sea's shore, Rights, San Salvador, was deliberately not included in this
as you did on al! day s befo re, collection , The pain it contains is not yet worked out ~ he
and h ear its quiet cautions. " is findrg it diffcult to finish. It will now become the
central th ern e for his next collection.
There is a fundamental mistrust here, is there not - of
the possibility of mass action, of the authenticity of "The poem will no t
collective decision making, of the socialist revolution? cannot
He sinks into a long silence before answering in cautious Descend to the depths
measures. of depravity descrip tion cannot stretch
"1 have a deep suspicion of what power do es to people, Its imagination
even very good people. I was obviously very aware of the to machete
threat that the country (Nicaragua) was under, but Open b odies of pregnant women.
suddenly conscription was in and, at that time, they No lines should bayonet
weren't allowing conscien tious objection which tome is Children as they fall. The p en
one of the great gains of the human spirit. I found it However po or, crea tes and lo ves the urge
worrying - the apotheosis of the human spirit, It seemed a To life ink, sp erm, blood surge
dangerous claim that history was suddenly on their side, 1 To acts of life and will not,
myself hold that history is not that good, that maybe the cannot
powers of darkness will win out in the end." Castrate the living the dead .....
He was worried too about the threat to Nicaragua's These are not images
position by North American power, the powerof inter- Of the victims
national and European businessand the Soviet Union, what made them smile
"1 was shockingly frightened by people who would claim Lips that kissed
their humanity against that power. And also the dark Child and woman
feeling that ultimately 1 believe that a victory won by Open to the massed
blood and armed struggle contains within itself the seeds o f Armies of ants
its own destruction." Whose hand they held
Whether the Nicaraguans had any real choice in taking In the volcanic days of summer
this path is an important question but it pales somewhat Wiped a momentary cage
against his belief that even 'pure goodness' will be crucified For butterfly; gath.ering flowers
by "the powers of Caesar, Pilate, Reagan or what ever con- To rainbow a lovers hair;
temporary name you want to put on it". Pickingripe mango, orangejWhetting the
quick juices.
"But this is the huge unanswered question of history:
In a world of lies
can we allow history .to ever declare that non-violent
opposition can't defeat the powers of evil? And there is a Facts are subversive
larger question: can anything else defeat the powers of And here no one dies
evil?" Like this. To say so gives
His uncertainty derives as much from a philosophical the lie and sometimes
position as it does from his conviction about the poet's Al! that isp ossible is minimal
role in society. The poet is someone who will always A truth whispering in a gale. "

MAGILLJULY 1988 43

I
 by Fintan O'Toole
'pOCK". THE BALL REBOUNDS
off the springy , f1at wood of
the bat and spins through the
air towards an open hand waiting to
grasp t. Theball is bowled again,
"Pock ". It is the sound of high blue
skies, airless days and lush , rich
greenery but it echoes now off dull
unplastered concrete as the ball traces
its way through the grey overbearing
skes of a Mayo Sunday. The cricketers'
brown skin and black, shiny hair stand
out all the more against the fierce
whiteness of their open-necked shirts,
th eir dark arms sticking out below
sleeves that are tightly rolled to just
aboye the elbow. Little boys and their
fathers playing together to pass the
afternoon, they have no proper
stumps, never mind a rolled, even
crickety pitch. They toss the ball
back and forth over scrub ground
littered with patches of gravel, bro ken
concrete blocks, odd bits of building
materials.
Behirid thern are their own houses,
surrounded by a rough wall, facing
away fro m the road as if turning their
backs on the small town of Ballyhaunis
in which they find thernselves. In front
of them, up a long tarmacadamed
driveway, is a huge, hulking new house ,
its roof as black as ther hair, its walls
as white as their shirts. The house,
which the locals say cost a milliori
pounds to buld, could be a hugely
MAGILLJULY 1988 45
 inf1ated version of a normal Irish
country house, set as it is next to a
stark, open qlllrry in landscape that
looks myan and dishevelled - except
that built into its facade are flowing
Islamic arches, fantastic and arabesque.
They gve the house the lightness of a
spaceship that has just landed on this
alien terrain "~ that rnight, at any mo-
ment, take off into the overhangng
clouds. It is the house of Sher Rafique,
the Pakistani businessrrian who owns
much of Ballyhaunis, and whose Halal
rneat plant ernploys the greater part of
its male workf'orce.
A few yards down the road, inside
the Midas Bar, Restaurant and Nite
Club, the drains have to be unblocked,
the ashtrays emptied, the broken
glasses swept up. The stale smell of last
night's dance still has to be exorcised
and the rehearsals for tonighr's talent
contest ate already behind schedule.
While the cricketers swing luxuriantly ,
the owner of the Midas Club, Paul
Claffey, is a whirl of activity , dragging
tables, shunting chairs, doling out
orders. "Get another barrel up ... gve
us a hand with this '" . check the level
on those mikes . . ." In just a few
hours, this old dance hall, littered
with the Ionesome evidence of last
night's dssipations, will have .to be
transformed into a drearn factory , To-
night 'Sunday Night Live at the Midas'
features both the finals of the Zanussi
Entertainer of the Year competition
and another instalment ofPaul Claffey's
own version of the television game
show, 'ThePrice Is Right '. Tomorrow
mornng at the factory it may be all
sheep's intestines and barrels of blood,
but tonight at the dream factory it has
to be all sheep's eyes and barrels of
beer. Already, on stage, a young.woman
with an enorrnous Irish harp is practis-
ing 'The Mountains of Moume' and
there's gangs of Paddies digging for
gold on the streets.
UL CLAFFEY IS THIRTY-
. fou; and has been in the enter-
~ tainment business for nearly
a quarter of a century. When he was
ten he started running discos in the
Marist Brothersschool in Castlerea, a
. few miles across the Roscommon bor-
der from Ballyhaunis. During . the
summer holidays, he and three frie nds
hired sound equiprnent and ran the
disco- in the school hall. For their
pains, they made twelve shillings each.
The other three reckoned th at the
returns were out of all pro portio n to
the effort and gave up. Paul reckoned
that four twelves would be f orty-e.ght
and two quid wasu't to be sneezed at,
so he carried on on his own.
Shortly afterwards he noticed that
there was always a row about whose
tum it was to go up the town for Coke
ando crisps when the lads went to the
swimming pool. He took h is bike to
46 MAGILL JUL Y 1988'
the local Coke distributor, persuaded
him to give him a crate on tick and
started his own shop outside the swim-
ming pool. By the time he was twelve,
he was hiring function rooms in all th e
local towns, ernploying a driver to take
himself and his disco gear around. He
started booking live acts, bringing them
down from Dublin to the dancehalls of
the area. He was still so young that he
had to pretend to the bands that the
Paul Claffey who had booked thern
was unfortunately indispose.d and that
he had just been sent along with a
message. By the mid-Seventies he h ad
the leases on five of the biggest dance-
halls in South Mayo, North Galway
and Roscommon.
What made him was dernographics.
With a baby boom and very little emi-
gration, there were plenty of young
kids around, kids who identifie.d with
youth culture and not with country
and westem or middle-of-the-road
cabaret. Paul Claffey spotted the gap
in the market and dved in, bringing
rock acts like Brush Shields, The Fresh-
men and even Thin Lizzy to Bally-
hauns and Gort. Almost overnight,
Horslips tapped a whole new market
for ndgenous rock music. Paul Claffey
had thern booked for [125 to play the
Royal Cinema in Roscommon town.
In between the booking and the gig,
the band broke t big. He made his i 125
back o n the raff1e at the interval,
But the tide of youth began to ebb
as the Seventies gave way .to the
Eighties. There were fewer young
people around as emigratiori began to
edge upwards again. The High Court
loosened restrctions on hotels gettng
bar extensions for cabarets and the
dancehall boom was over. In four
months, Paul Claffey lost all of his
dancehalls and a pub. He was dragged
through the courts over matters of
money , He had just enough left to risk
it all on getting a drinks licence for
the old dancehall in Ballyhauns, now
re-named The Midas Club. n cost him
i65,000 but he did it. When he opened
his doors and the young people who
had been his regular customers arrved,
they were discreetly turned away. He
had decided to go for the family mar-
ket, the rnarried couples and the
middle-aged who had n othing to do on
a Sunday night. Rcund here, there was
no future in the y oung.
B
ISMILLAH ALLAHU AKBAR!
The slaughterman is looking
. down into the upturned face of
th e sheep. Only the sheep's neck and
head stick out from th e pcn whch
holds it fast. The sheep cnters, the pen
clo ses and revolves, le aving its neck
pointing upwards, ready for the blade
of the slaughterman. The Koran lays
down that an animal must be killed in
the name of God and that it must be
killed with a sh arp knife, without
violent blows. The Prophet discouraged
the eating of too much meat - "Don't"
says the Koran "make your stomachs
the graveyard of animals" ~ and those
animals w hich were killed were general-
ly raised by the family and slaughtered
with great respect and gravity by the
head of the household. Muslims, h ow-
ever, have been eating more and more
meat in recent years and the Prophet's
injunctons have had to be adapted to
industrialised production. In Rally-
haunis, a dozen Muslim slaughterrnen
- Egyptians, Turks, Syrians, Pakistanis
- act as mullahs, muttering the prayer
Bismillab allahu akbar (In the name of
God, God is greater) while they sever
with one cut the twin arteries of the
throat, cutting off the supply of
.blood to the brain, causing loss of
consciousness and death,
Twelve years ago, when Paul Claf-
fey's dancehall empire was burgeonng,
Sher Raf'que built a small slaughtering
shed by the side of thc road, on a one-
acre site a few hundred yards outside
Ballyhauns. Now there are ten indivi-
dual plants on the ste and Halal (the
name is the Islamic equivalent of
kosher) is the biggest exporter of1amb
from the country , the second biggest
of beef. Sixty per cent of thcse
exports go to the EEC, largely to the
bg ethnic Islamic market, the rest to
North Africa and the Mid dle East. The
plant now straggles half a mile out the
road, one virtually unbroken blind
wall of concrete. The far side of the
road is .lttered with thousands of
pounds' worth of building materials:
blo cks, pipes, shores, posts, all strung
out in a Iine going nowhere. Behind
them is She r Rafique's house and, the
frame of its half-built dome naked
against the sky , amosque.
Those who will frequent the
mosque are never to be seen in the
o.ther gathering places of Ballyhaunis.
They don't drink, so they don't go
into the pubs. They don't dance, so
they don't go into the Midas. Aside
from the children who attend the local
natio nal school, the Muslims are a
familiar but largely enigrnatic prescncc.
When they eat in the restaurants, they
generally want to beserved quickly
and be away again. Across the road
from the entrance to the Midas, a
farnily of Syrians lives, but Paul
Claffey doesn't know much about
thern, except that they are decent,
quiet people. It's not that anyone has
abad word to say about the people
who increasingly provide the town's
reason to exist, or that there is any
obvious racism , just that everyorie s
happy enough for th eir presence to
remain insulated and discreet. Once,
orie of the Muslim workers wander-
ed into the Midas and asked for sorne
'white music'. He was given a tape of
sorne Irishcountry and westem and he
left, never to return. When their pre-
 sence does impinge, however, asit does for a member of the force to be work-
very obliquely , at the Midas talent ing for an illegal station, There was
contest that Sunday evening, it is kept an investgation, a file was sent down
safely at a distance. frrn Dublin, but thensomeone in
charge said that they liked listening to
his show and no action was taken.

S UDDENL~FROMTHEBANK
of speakers on the Midas stage,
the v'Also Sprach Zarathustra '
music from '2001' blares out': daah,
daah, da-da. "And now, ladies and
J ohn introduces
one by oneand
the conrestants
has a few words with
each before their seto J ackie, a local
teacher, sngs and plays the Celtic harp
and wants to say helio over the radio
gentlemen" announces Paul Claffey to Father Stephen and all the First
"with the time at twenty past the hour Years in the convento Paulne .frorn
of ten o 'clock, we present the Zanuss Baliagh sings Chris de Burgh and says
Entertaner of the Year final. And here that a Nanci Griff'ith song "reminds
is y our host, the one and only John me of Ire1and and the troubles we have
Duggan ." here - if we work together maybe we
J ohn Duggan has already been on can help to solve thern." Dave from
stage an hour before, to introduce Kilbeggan has a matching hankie and
Louse Morrissey and her Band. Louise tie and sings songs made famous by
has changed out of her jeans and into a Joe Dolan, "a man who I've admired
silver lame knee-length suit, the boys and loved for y ears." J ohn reads out a
in the band have doffed their jumpers requ est for a girl "who ce1ebrates her
and put on their blue cowboy-style birth day tomorrow and is off to
suits with knee-lerigth jackets, white America in the m orning."
shirts, blue dicky-bows and shoes so And then there's this black guy on
black and shiny they make pure white- stage, a b1ack Irishman calied Luke
ness look duli. The two young girls Davis who comes from Westport and
who are always the first to take the wears a realiy coo1 suit with rolle d up
floor in any dancehali have already sleeves and no tie. His voice is extra-
danced on their own to 'My Tears ordnary, a cross between Desmond
Have Washed 1 Love You From the Dekker and Rod Stewart. He purrs and
Blackboard of My Heart", turning little shouts and growls. He sings hs own
twirls and pirouettes before being composition with just an. acoustic
joined by a quickening trickle of dan- guitar accompaniment. He poses and
cers for 'The Night Daniel O'Donnell prowls. He.'s as Irish as anyone, but
Carne to Town' and 'The Green Glens here in the Midas there is sornethng
of Antrim'. The band have already foreign and exotic about him. Sorne-
finished their first set and J ohn thing that must be kept at a distance.
Duggan has been warning the crowd When the judges, local teachers and
not to sit in the passageways. "You'll journalists and businessmen, come to
say to yourself 'Wasri't 1 an awful vote for the prizewinners, no one
fool to sit here '." But the one and places hrn first, second or third. He's
only John Duggan has to beintroduced a1l very well, very original, but he's not
agan, because now the show is being really an all-round entertaner, more a
broadcast live on Paul Claffey's own speciality acto Somewhere, hovering
pirate radio station, Mid-West Radio, around the conversation, is Halal.
the signal being beamed to much of
Mayo,
Roscommon,
Galway , Sligo, Leitrim

back of the Midas.

from a tiny room at the

John Duggan does the late evening

and
"NW REMEMBER,
when 1 come back, I'm not
GIRLS,

Paul Claffey, I'm the man of

easy-listening show onMid-West Radio. your dreams . . ." Pau1 C1affey dis-
He started doing it shortly after the appears offstage while the ads are play-
station was established in November ing on Mid-West Radio, then bounds
1985. At the time, he had not yet back on to tumultuous applause. The
retired from his Job and was stll ser- rnusic this time is the therne from
ving as a garda in Glenamaddy , He h ad 'Rocky'. Afound his head Paul has a
been in the guards long enough to re- bow tiethat lights up, litt1e ye1low and
member serving in Crumlin garda red lights that flash on and off. Behind
station when it was one half of a him, to the right of the stage, the spot-
thatched cottage shared with Saint light picks Out a towering white altar
Agnes GAA club. At night in Crum- of consumer goods, the icons of the
lin while he was watching over the affluent society stretchrig fifteen
celis, he would write little songs. feet into the airo Copper electric
Later, in Glanamaddy , he wrote songs kett1es, mircowave ovens, electric
for T.R. Dalias and Hugo Duncan and, underblankets, barb ecues, 'hoovers and
aboye ali, for Brendan Shine, who had boilers are stacked on top of glistening
a big hit with one of thern, 'The Rose white fridges and glitteringwhite
of Cast1erea'. He started dong his Mid- washing machines, alitopped by a
WestRadio show as John Edwards, huge banner proc1aiming the name of
but someone made a comp1aint to the the sponsor: "M. Gunning. TV Video!
Garda authorities that it was improper Elect. Equip." On the left of the stage,

MAGILLJULY 1988 47
a day-glo sign, yello w letters on red
background says "Come On Down ... "
On the right, a matching sign says
"The Price Is Rght!" Behind the stage
a vast "ideo screen, which will be used
to show the items whose prices the
contestants are to guess, proclaims
again the name of the sponsor. Just
offstage, one of the technicians holds
up a sign thatsays simply"Applause".
Paul makes his way into the crp:"d
to pick out four contestants, "DQn't
be hiding, don't be iembarrassed .. We
have spectacular prizes." He calls out
numbers which correspond to those on
big yellow stickers that every one has
been given on the way in: 537, 29,
75 1, 824. As the contestants gather he
shakes a tu be over each one and they
are showered with coloured party
streamers, Ushering them onto the
stage , he keeps up a steady stream
of patter. "Anything up here y ou
f'ancy besides rnyself? My mother said
I wasgood-looking. Am I?" And the
crowd roars back "No". "If you folks
at home could see me, I look f'abliss:
white suit, yellow te, purple shoes.
Don't I look fabliss?"
Mary from Dunrnore, Margaret
from Carrick, Catherine from Castle-
rea and Michael, also from Castlerea,
line up facing the audience. It s,
Michael's last night in Ireland bef'ore
he emigrates to New York. Por Cather-
ine, too, it is a special night - this
particular weekend is a bank holiday
in England, so her husband is horne for
a few fleeting days with herself and
her children. In this setting, the domes-
tic appliances that flash up on the
video screen watched by a thousand
pairs of eyes have a peculiar pognancy,
actingas rnages ofdomestic bliss and
harmony that for many in this crowd
full of emigrants who are weekend
trippers in their own town are. as
evanescent and taunting as a game
show prize. Paul Claffey knows that
the audience he is facing is onethat
needs drearns. "1 keep the admission
ch arges for the show down to J::2.5a
because I have too If they had money,
there.'s no better man to get it out of
them than me, but they haven't."
Mary is f'irst to go out when she
guesses that a Zanussi washer-drier
would cost J::l,365, "It.'s about time,"
says Paul, "1 put a bit of culture into
this ignorant game ." A massive sow
and ten bonamhs flash up onto.i the
scrcen, rooting around in a pene'FOr a
minute or two a thousand people in
their Sunday best sit in the dark and
watch eleven pigs nosing around while
thc contestants guess how much they
would costo Michael's guess of J::S5 isa
the furthest off the mark, so he goes
out of the game. "Sure, what would
you know about pigs and you from
the town of Castlerea? Tell all on
Seventh Avenue we said 'Hi ' from the
Midas."
48 MAGILL JULY 1988
Even though Margaret and Catherine
knew a lot about the price of pigs, Paul
greets the arrival on the screen of an
outfit from Chic Boutique, Castlerea,
with the remark that "No w, girls, ths
is genuinely something that you might
know something about." Again, the
image is of family togethcrness, the
outfit described as being "ideal for a
wedding or a special occasion". After
this round, only Catherine is left, which
means that she gets to pick anumber
for a prize. Paul urges her to consult
her husband, he shouts up for anumber
and they win (drum roll, fanfare , huge
cheer) a microwave oven. The band
plays 'Congratulatons'i.vYou must be
thrille d, "saysPaul. "No need to cook
his dinner now, just pop it in and press
the button." He doesn't know that
these days Catherine's husband has his
dinner in England. Outside, in the early
hours of Monday m orning, something
is already stirring at the factory and
the sweet, ovet-rich smell of flesh and
offal and hide is already hanging in the
darkness.
' curry?"
B
y ELEVEN IN HALAL, SOME
of the men who were at the
Midas until the small hours are
already into . double figures, slitting
sheep's bellies, peelng back the skin
sothat the h eadhangs curiously upside
d own detached frorn the body that is
.alrady on the way to becoming a
commodty, pulling out the guts with
their hands and putting intact stomachs
into a great vat on wheels with all thc
other stomachs. The pace is hectic,
though methodicaI and matter-of-f'act,
but the sights are nonetheless strange:
men stamping flesh with little blue
harps like official documents, men
loading vast rows of careases on hooks
into cavernous trucks, rnen, on this
May day, working in woollen hats,
thick blue jackets with big padded
gloves, their faces appearing eerily out
of the ice-room fog, their feet planted
on thin layers of iced-over concrete.
And all, after a nightof country and
western and American game shows,
working away in th e name of Allah,
Down the road, in a tiny room at
the back of the Midas, Paul Claffey is
already back at work, h osting his regular
morning show on Mid-West Radio. On
his sound desk is a trophy made by a
local business to be given away to the
winner of yesterday's Cow Plop Con-
test in Be kan, a few miles away on the
road to Claremorris. The trophy has a
cow on the top and a large round cake
that looks like cow-dung on the bot-
tomo "Still trying to f'ind out exactly
wh at happened at the cow-ploppin '
yesterday. If you won thecontest ring
us and collectthis fabulous award ...
In the meantime , here 's one from
Barry Manilow." The Cow Plop Con-
test was one of the main attractions
at Bekan Family Day whose delights
also included Lades and Gents Tug-O'-
War, Guess the Weight of a Sheep,
Hammer the Nail, Throw the Welling-
ton and Best Dressed Dog. For the
Cow Plop, a feld is marked out in
num bered squares, each entrant is given
a number and the one which corres-
ponds to the square in which the cow
first defecates wins J::25a.
As the morning progresses, there is
more urgent business. "There 's adog
missing from the Toureen/Kilkelly
area, a black smooth-hair collie with a
white front lego Answers to Sim on,
misssing since Friday.' There is the No
BelIY Award for Paul's Plurnps, women
trying to lose weight. "PIe ase dn't be
angry with me" writes one who has
succumbed to temptation "as I just
couldn't bear it! 1 feel so bad as it is,
after letting you down." There are
items for sale: "a large dress with
beaded pearls, sze 14", "a fast tanning
sunbed, little used." There are quizzes
- "What is in every house, has a key
to open it, and is made in Tubber-
There's a woman who has
seventy-seven Calvita tokens for a trip
on the B & I and wants to sell thern.
There are greetngs for girls home from
England for the weekend. And there
are songs. One of the rnost requested is
Red Sovne's 'Teddy Bear', about a
trucker "on the outskirts of a little
Southern town" who gets the voice of
a little boy on his CB: "L.gt lonely
and t helps to tlk/,Cos that's about
all I can do/L'm a crpple , you see, and
I can't walk ... Dad used to take me
for rides when he was home/But I
guess that's over now he's gone."
Another of the most popular record s
is 'The JCB Song' sung by Seamus
Moore. Its popular because, in the
way that such songs used to mention
every town in Tpperary or Mayo, it
gets a long list of the pubs in Camden
Town lnto its chorus: The Galtee,
Nelly 's, The Bell, The Crown ... In
the same room where it is being broad-
cast, the one with the pictures of the
Pope, Louise Morrissey and T.R.
Dallas on the walls, Brother Gregory
stood the previous n ight. He teaches in
the Marist Brothers in Castlerea and is
director of the Castlerea Musical So-
ciety. He was talking enthusiastically
about his last production, 'Guys and
Dolls ', less so about the increasing
difficulty of finding enough young
people to rnake up a casto The door
opened and his face brightened, In
walked a young man ofaround twe nty,
his star dancer, one of th e great hopes
for his next production. "Tm delighted
to see you" he said, "I've just the part
for you .. ." The young man looked at
him as if he were touched. "What? Me?
Do you not know? I've been in London
for the last six m onths. l 'm only here
for the weekend. I'm not here at aH.".
hands. He was unstinting in his praise for the prison except
for the fact it placed an unreasonable burden and expense
on his wife travelling aImost four hundred miles tomake
the visit. On hearing she had made the visit by train he asked
her why she had not taken the caro She replied that she was
not sure it would make it there and back , Why then, he en-
quired, had she not used the car belonging to a particular
friend of theirs? The clutch was gone, he was told. "We are
supposed to be millionaires, you know," he remarked wryly ,
The inconvenience aside, Spike Island has its compen-
sations. The regime is lax, says Cahill, and the food is good.
He begins work each day at around 9.30am. During other
periods in jail Cahill has learned welding, worked as a painter
and passed a driving test as a lorry driver. On Spike Island
he is now learning to be a plasterer. He shares a dormitory
type cell with four other inmates. One is an elderly man in
his fifties who is in jail because he failed to discharge a debt
of :ESOO to his brother. The other three are juveniles serving
senterices for minor off'enees.
During the visit Cahill's wife asked him if he had seen
the previous day's Sunday Tribune which had a picture of
Eamon Daly being led off by two prison warders and an
article entitled "Gangbusters". He hadn't and expressed no
interest in it , Instead he wanted to know if she had managed
to buy him a new pair of Mickey Mouse shorts. His old pair
had been taken by the gardai in a raid on his house prior to
his arrest.
On occasions when Martin Cahill knows the media are
waiting for him - having , he believes, been tipped off in
advance by the gardai - he clearly enjoys dressing up in
costume. He discussed eagerly the possibility of leaving
Spik e Island - which he referred to throughout out con-
versation as "Treasure Island" - dressed as 'Long John
Silver ' complete with wooden peg leg and stuffed parrot.
"1 will tell them" he said "that my treasure is buried on the
island golf course, but no matter how many holes they d ig,
they will not find it ,"
S
ATURDAY 1UNE4 WASMUCHLIKEANYOTHER
. Saturday night. Frances cahilll.eft t.he house short.lY
after 9pm and drove down to the home of her sister,
Tina Lawless in Swan Grove, Rathmines. The surveillance
unit parked outside her house followed. Martn Cahill re-
mained alone in 17 Cowper Downs
Around 9.30pm the house in Swan Grove, where Cahill
often spends the night, was raided by gardai who had a
warr ant to search the premises for a firearm. The house at
17 Cowper Downs and the f!at of Martin Cahill's mother-
in-law were also being simultaneously searched.
The search in Swan Grove f ollowed routine procedures.
The sergeant in charge told his men to ensure there was a
member of the household in each room they searched. The
search was over in a matter of minutes and yielded nothing.
Frances Cahill, who was there during thesearch, decided to
return to Cowper Downs. She suspected that the gardai
were also up there and had come to take her h usband to jail
for his failure to sign the peace bond. Cahill had written
about ten days previously to the office of the Chief State
Solicitor indicating that he was available for arrest.
Martin Cahill, meanwhile, had come to the door at 17
Cowper Downs when the gardai arrived. He had already
blacked out his face and was wearing a balaclava. He was
shown the search warrant. Immediately, he says, he be-
carne suspicious, particularly as the warrant specified
"fircarm " and not "firearms" as is custornary , he claims, as
though they were looking for one gun. However, this pont
equally favoured the Gardai. They were raiding the house
they subsequent1y claimed on a tip-off,
The previous day , Friday June 2, Cahill had toldMagill
that he believed the gardai would try and plant evidence on
him , It was a very simple thing to do and could be done at
any time, he asserted. And now, with him going into prison
on a relatively minor infringern ent 'the gardai would be
16 MAGILLJULY 1988
anxious to show something more spectacular for their six
months surveillance work.
On the night of June 4, when Martin Cahill was con-
fronted with the search warrant , he asked the gardai, he
claims, to allow him search them before they carne into rus
house. He also asked, he says, that they search only one
room at a time. Both requests, he says, were refused. The
search commenced. As it got underway Frances. Cahill
arrived back at Cowper Downs from Swan Grove. She went
around the side of the house to go in the back door. Inside
the house her husband was standing on the stairs. He was in
an agitated state.A Colt forty-five wrapped in plastic bags was
found in the toilet cistern. Frances and Martin Cahill were
taken down to the living room. The time was about ten
o'clock. Pretty soon thc house was buzzing withdetectives,
many members of the surveillance squad who had followed
Martin Cahill around for the past six months. The gun was
photographed in the living room and examined by ballistics
experts. Both Martin and Frances Cahilldeny any knowledge
of the gun ,
The gardai in the house might have been expected to be
in a celebratory mood after the find. But, claim the Cahills,
the atmosphere in the house that night was "subdued ".
Shortly after one o'clock in the morning Frances and Martin
Cahill and Tina Lawless, in whose name the house in Cow-
per Downs is, were all arrested under Section 30 of the
Offenses Against the State Act. Martin Cahill was taken to
the Bridewell for questioning. Sisters Frances and Tina were
taken into Rathmines Garda Station. AlI three were asked
to make a statement accounting for the gun in the house ,
either admitting they had put it there or telling gardai the
names of recent visitors to the hou se who might have planted
it in a bid to frame Martin Cahill. None of the three made a
statement and they were al! released the fol!owing afternoon
without charge. On his release frorn the Bridewell Martin
Cahill was rearrested under a warrant for failing to enter
a peace bond. It was the swansongof the surveillance unit
who had devoted the last six months to watching rus every
movement. Life without Martin Cahill was not going to be
the same.
E
VENTHE GARDAI THEMSELVESARE UNCLEAR
what exactly the overt surveillance was supposed to
achieve. The shortcomings were obvious. If Martin
Cahill was as bright a criminal as alleged neither he nor the
others under observation were likely to commit a crime
under the noses of the Gardai. Sorne Gardai were critical
from a pragrnatic point of view: they considered it to be a
publicity exercise and a waste of valuable resources. But if
there was confusion surrounding the intiative to set up the
surveillance operation there was consensus among those
spoken to that the mpetus for it carne from the Garda
Cornrnissioner Eamon Doherty.
Eamon Doherty jo in ed the Garda ranks in December 01'
1944. He had no family background in the force. His father
was a well-to-do cattle dealer in Buncrana, County Donegal.
Doherty completed his secondary education at St Columbs
College in Derry, a prvate, fee-paying college. He worked
briefly as a storeman and payclerk for the Office of Public
Worksin Fort Dunree, a few miles outside Buncrana. It was
the war years and job openngs were few and far between.
Dcherty was looking for a job which offered security and
a pensiono He applied simultaneously to the gardai and to
the Customs and Excise section of the Revenue Cornmiss-
ioners. He was successfu in both applications but opted for
the guards on the basis that it carne up first.
He found it was the type of job that grew on you with
time. He still has a vivid recollection of his first arresto He
was on the beat in Drumcondra when he spotted sorneone
breaking nto a car and gave chase. He found the experience
of making the arrest, the taking into custody and the sub-
sequent convicton in the Bridewel! at least as intimidating
as his prisoner.
by Tommie Gorman
Tommie Gorman is North-Western Correspondent of RTE.
I
T'S LIKEL Y TO BE A TRICK *Kerry getting the kind of lueky many of the older fellas. I'm glad I'm
question in sorne pub quiz vo m- break that has eluded them for not a selector, th ats one thing sure .
petition - name the positions of months. They are pro bably in a no-win
five of the great Kerry footballers in On Friday , June 11, before 1,700 situation. If they play three offour of
Tralee' s main street, Castle Stree t. people at Bruff , Co Linierick, maybe the older guys, and they lose, they are
Mike Sheehy is manager with the the Gods begrudgingly took a half shine on a hiding to nothing. If they play
Irish Permanent, Seanie Walsh is to Kerry . Their Under Twenty-o nes too many younger guys and get
partner in an insuranee business, were actually beaten by a point when hammered , they will be eritie ised.
'Born ber ' Liston has just been they played Offaly in the All-Ireland Sorne of the Kerry supporters are
appointed manager for the Irish semi-final replay , But the defeat freed desperate demanding: in ways they
Nationwide, Charlie Nelligan has a one third of the Kerry team to jo in the have been spoiled with success. 1
thriving hot bread shop and Tommy senior panel for the last three weeks of remernber us winning Munster finals,
Doyle runs a bar and restaurant. 1 preparations before the Munster final maybe struggling a bit, but Jesus with
meet with Pat Spillane around the in Pairc Ui Chaoimh. the criticism afterwards,' you would
comer, at the Imperial Hotel in It 's killing Mike Sheehy that he swear we had lost. Sorne of the sup-
Denny Street. Here , after each training hasn't a hope of playing -in that game. porters demand top-class performanees,
session, mem bers of the Kerry team He made his Kerry senior debut in nothing less."
demolish steak meals. Spillarie at Oetober 1973, lining out in his first "Its tough in a way on the young
thirty-three is Kerry eaptain this year , Munster final the following year. He lads. They are always going to be
A PE graduate based in Bantr y , he has was a marvellous player right up to his judged on the four-in-a-row team, or
travelled over 100 miles to and from retirement through injury earlier this the team that carne baek and won
Tralee dozens of times since autumn. year. Sheehy's goal against Cork in the three more. They are outstanding foot-
During the summer holidays he and his drawn Munster final last year was ene ballers in their own rght but they are
new wife, Rosarie , will take over the of the great sporting feats. In the always going to be cornpared to their
family pub business. Like most in the closing minutes, Kerry , possibJy the predeeessors whch is sort of a noose
Kingdom, he is slow to make pre- finest team of a11 time, were dying on around their necks. 1have this feeling
dietions about the Munster Final their feet with nothing left to give. In about Mick O'Dwyer. A lot of people
between Kerry and Cork on July 3. an inspired mornent Sheehy , sur- say this wil! be his last year andof
"As f'ar as the Kerry seleetors were rounded by oppo nnts , found space course they were saying the sameIast
con cerned , often in the past the team and time through a crowded goal- year. 1 have a suspicion he has this
praetieally pieked itself. This time it is mouth to plant the ball in the back of thing in his head of building a nw
different. The selectors are going to the net , not just drawing beleagured team, of winning an All-Ireland with
have to put their neeks on the line and Kerry level , but putting thern one thern . 1 think that 's his goal and 1 feel
it is a question of getting the blend point ahead. He was so elevated in that he will do it , whcther it will be this
right. 1 suppose there are about nine flash of brilliance that three seconds year or next year ." -

or ten definites with five or six plaees passed before spectators knew they

L
IKE SHEEHY, SEANIE
to be decided. OUT big problcm isthat should applaud . Walsh, another _of the Kerry
for a lot of the time, we have had no It wil! be a bit of a change , he says, greats was foreed to retire
settled panel ... sorne of the younger getting up on the Sunday morning and through injury earlier this year , These
lads were away on duty with the going off to a Munster final with the nights you're likely to find the pair of
Under Twcnty-o nes, we've had abad Iarnily , instead of meeting the b oys. "1 them out on the golf course , maybe
run of injuries, key players were would have no doubts about Kerry with John and Ger O'Keefe. In
forced to retire. The game against with a fit 'Born ber' Liston - I'd make Sheehy's words, it allows him to dodge
Cork is going to be ver y tight ... it 's ourchances seventy-thirty , But it doing the garden or a bit of painting at
one thing to be brilliant in a National will only be fif'ty ..fifty if he is still home. The big matches aside, he longs
League match but the real test of a injured , 1 think that down through the for the times on the beach or in the
footbal!er is to shine in the heat of a years 'Bornbcr ' was probably the most gyrn , playing soceer, messing around
garne like when Kerry playsCork ." valuable member of our team. In the at kiekabouts. His trouble is he can't
A shy , alert man, Spillane becomes forwards eve rything revolved around twist or go down on the bad kriee. He
absolutely self-assured when talking him and if you were in trouble out the is work ing on weights and keeps alive
about footbal!. Being captain is "no field , he could come out for five or ten the small hope that he might yet
great responsibility in Gaclic , not lik c minutes and upset things. Por such a manage a few more years of club
in rugby." Bef'ore taking to ,the road, big man, at six feet four, he is footbal!.
he identifies four crucial factors for amazingly skillful and mobile ," A comprehensive preparation pro-
the game against Cork: "Thc way thcy are pick ing the gramme is arranged for the run-up to
*A fit 'Bomber'. tcam at thc mo me nt , it looks lik e they the mateh against Cork. From mid-
*Thc selectors getting the right are go ing to plump for th e younger April to July 3rd Kerry take part in
blend. guys. 1 suppose you are postponing the ten garues, including the ehampionship
"Coritro lling Larry Tompkins. inevitable if you k ccp playing too semi-final against Waterford.

MAGILL JUL y 1988 51

Hampered by injury , they show mixed Border, 200 miles away , is first onto O'Donovan. Derrnot Hanafin, an Army
form in the run-up: winners over a the pitch in Tralee. As the players capta in who trains with Jack O'Shea
Monaghan se1ection at Watervi11e on arrive they agree to stand alo ngside in Dublin, seems the likely choice to
June 5th; losing 1-10 to 0-14 to and the man sticks out his chest while partner him in midfield, provided he
Dublin at Causeway of June 12, but a friend clicks the camera. The man's can shake off a groin injury ,
recording an encouraging draw against wife, a woman in a pink dress, looks The real cha11enge for the selectors
a dep1eted Meath side at Navan on on and smiles, her sentiments a is the six forwards they choose.
June 19. A final tria1 is p1anned for mixture of deligh t and amusement. 'Bornber' Liston has right knee liga-
June 26 and the team will be About forty spectators tum up to ment problems and his fitn ess will be
announced after a se1ectors' meeting watch the activities. O'Dwyer, looking doubtful right up to match day ,
on the fo11owing night. as fit as his charges, leads them whether picked for the team or
According to Kerry Co Secretary , through two rounds of the pitch , Then among the subs. Pat Spillane is
Tony O'Keeffe, after last year's it'stime for the sprints as the work guaranteed his place, probably at full
Munster final defeat the Kerry increases. forward where he likes to play. And as
selectors went in search of new talent. In the football session the corn- many as four players who were no
"We beat Armagh in Tralee , drew with petition for places is obvious: more than nine-year-olds when Kerry
Cork in Pairc Ui Chaoimh and lost to Ambrose O'Donovan dishes out shoul- began history-making back in 1975,
Dublin by a point in CrokePark. der charges to roars of encourage- could be introduced to Munster final
People were quite happy about the ment. Pat Spillane, looking devas- footbal1. Maurice . Fitzgerald, from
way things were - going until Meath tatingly accurate, still finds it tight to Jack O'Shea's hometown, Cahirciveen,
will definitely play. In Mike Sheehy's
judgement "he has the goods and
would ha ve earned his place on any
Kerry tearn." Others impressing are
Gerard Murphy (a real forward,
capable of scoring with both feet, but
may be still a litt1e bit light), Donal
McEvoy (a very good runner but not
the most accurate yet) and Corinie
Murphy of the Dr Crokes club. Among
those competing in the push for places
are the great Ger Power, now thirty-
six; Willie Maher, running with a limp
but still looking at his sharpest since
breaking a leg in the mid Eighties; and
Michael McAuliffe who is bothered
by injuries. And there's alw ays the
wild card of Ogie Moran, a great
athlete whose versatility has greatly
helped Kerry teams in the past.

L
IKE THEIR MANAGER,
. Mick O'Dwyer, the majority
of those who played in the
great Kerry teams of thc Seventies and
Eighties have been successful off the
beat us we11 in Tralee before lose his marker, brother Torn , w ho has field as we11 as on it. Many of them
Christmas." the stride of an antelope. played colleges football together in
Fo11owing the death of Joe Keohane Among the onlookers, a11the ta1k is St Brendan's Killarney , competed
and the retirement of Mickey of the team for the Cork game. Charlie against one anotherat third-levelco11ege
O'Sullivan, there were changes in the Nelligan willline out in goal with Tom stages, lined out for Kerry Under
selection committee Eddie Spillane in front of him, forced into Twenty-onesand graduated to the
O'Sullivan and Liam Higgins joining duty there by Seanie Walsh's retire- senior team. The young men now chas-
Tim Kennelly , Kevin Griffin and Mick mento The comer back positions are ing the heels of the great names in Tra-
O'Dwyer. During the winter the often open to a degree: Mick Spillane, lee these nights have arrived by a differ-
changing panel trained one and sorne- injured during a club match in ent route. Gerard Murphy works with
times two nights per week, mainly November, was missing during the his father, a contractor. So, too, does
building up, stamina. A lot of younger winter and had a tough time against Morgan Nix. Donal McEvoy has a
lads were brought in to give them a Nudie Hughes (Monaghan) in a job in a Tralee factory . What hes ahead
taste f'or the bigger stage , Sorne were cha11enge match at Waterville. His for them? How would they perform
put on a short weight-training course. experience is a plus factor. Veteran before 35,000 people , watching their
Through challenge and le ague matches Paudie O'Shea is also under pressure every move? Foxy Mick O'Dwyer
as well as trials, the selectors had many - his footballing skills and positional politely but emphatica11y declined the
opportunities to study . One of the sense aren 't doubted but sorne query invitation to indicate his thinking.
factors they had to be conscious of his speed. Pushing them for places "1 don't know what sort of a t earn we
was the problern of preparing a team are Morgan Nix, a Tralee-based will have or how we will do" - that's
when pitches are soft and conditions member of the Under Twenty-one w hat he said as he moved away .
hard for a championship that takes team and Ogie Moran, called back into On July 3, the Kerry past, present
place on hard er , faster ground. training in June. The half back line and future will be on view at Pairc
At th e particular training session should pick itself , with Ger Lynch Vi Chaoimh - is O'Dwyer back in the
1 attend, aman from North of the and Tommy Doyle flanking Ambrose business of manufacturing champions?

52 MAGILL JUL Y 1988

 HEN RAY HOUGHTON
headed th at winnirig goal
against England on June 12 in
the Neckar Stadium Stuttgart, I was
two f'eet in the air at the R TE radio
position on the halfway
lineo
Where were you?
Such was the enormity of interest
in Irelands Furo '88 campaign and in
particular our opening game with Eng-
that in years to come thousands
not millions of Irishmen and women
wll recall with great detall th eir where-
abouts during this most famous of
MATCH DA Y APPROACH-
news from the England
camp was good for Ireland.
Watson was ruJed out and there were
about the starting line-up.
It rUl110Ure that a final low-key
run out against a local tcam would
start with the English first eleven. Any
preconceivcd notions of an h our long
loosener were dismisse d when 1arrived
at the ground. It was packe d with 3,000
locals and the tackling and comrn it-
was fiercc , Lincker , Wright and
Stevens injure d and threw English
nto a hcap, How much
Don Howc 's of workirig hard
right up to the day , as do Wim bledon,
rnight never be known , but one thing
54 MAGILLJULY 1988
is sure: when they come to bury Bobby
Ro bson this is an inciderit that will
be recalled.
On hearing this, the confidence in
the Irish camp was understandably
boosted. Here the "train if you need
it" princple was in operation. Charl-
ton's preparation was ahead on points
and in the eyes of the players cnly
time stood in the way of success.
A clue to the lack of confidence
and the pressure aff'ecting Robson carne
at a press conference where he stated
that England had recovered from bad
starts before. Hardly the inspirational
remark likely to boost his squad on aspect of the game for an hour and de-
the eve of the Irish game. served their goal lead. It was obvious
The Irish victory was sweet and de- that Charltori's men were prepare d to
served. Charlton had engineered the run eleven marathons at record times,
do wnfall of Bobby Robson using a such was the comrntmcnt to success.
typical English garne, based on comrnt- In fact the double-jobbing and sh aring
ment, organisation and the .early bal!o of covering dutes demanded such a
It will surely be hard for the English marathon attitude if the day was to be
FAto swal!ow that when they get Ireland's.
round to replacing Robson it will pro- Ireland had never beate n England in
bably be WiID somebody in the mould competition before and you h ave t o go
of Graham Taylor, a strong exponent back to 1949 to find our last victory
of the long ball style with Watford and in a challe nge match. Not surprisingly
now Aston Villa. Charlton influericcd m ost pre-m atch predictions, inclu ding
English soccer in 1966 when he won a my o wn , spelled doom and gloom, due
World Cup meda!. He could scarcely m ainly to the impending threat of Gary
have im agned that twcnty-two years Lineker , whose positional sense and
later he would still be influencing it, pace are of the highest order. 1'his
riot from within but as Irish manager. assessrrient proved correct, but h is
lreland matched England in every finishing was not what Europe had
 corne to expect.
The contribution of Packy Bonner
thankfully had been underestimated.
Givng an inspired performance the
six-f'oot-plus Donegal man was equal
to m ost things fired at him. His angles
and timing wereterrific, as was his
handling. When he did err, luck and
h is world class ref1ex actioris denied
the English. Packy was wrong-footed
when he responded to turn away
Hateley's chanceoff Hoddle's cross.
Then, after he had saved fr orn Lineker,
the ball fell sweetly for Beardsley only
y ards from an open goal. The resulting
blast over the bar ranked as the miss
of the tournament.
Stapleton's use in midfield as the
first confronting player on England's
Bry an Ro bson worked a treat. It al-

MAGILLJULY 1988 55

lowed McGrath the freedom to plug
.gaps in front of the back four and also
to pick up Robson when he m anaged
to break free of Stapleton's shackles.
Round one to Charlton. Also, the early
goal meant that there was no pressure
on- Frank to contribute as much in
. attack.
The threat of widemen John Barnes
and Chris Waddle was master1y covered
by Houghton and Morrison on the right
and Hughton and Galvin on the left.
The discipline, physical effort and
mental awareness to carry out these
tactcs. is great and no man flinched
from hs dutes,
1 thought Galvin's incluson in the
lrish team was suspect because of his
state of fitness. Yet, although le looked
exhausted after twenty minutes, he
continued to run when required.
Ronnie Whelan grew in stature dur-
ing the tournament and must now
rank as one of the best players Ireland
has ever produced. His all-round play-
ing ablity , one-touch passng and
willingness for work is second to none.
Anfield expects .workrate and tearn
mate John Aldridge had no problems
either, operating.as a lone front runner
56 MAGILL JULY 1988
for virtually the entire time. His success
rate in making himself available for the
ball and retaining possession was very
hgh, He was also a welcome and re-
lieving sight for lrish defenders when
they were under pressure.
Unlike the continentals, who, when
performing a similar role, stop runnng
when possesson is lost, Aldridge very
.often offered the first poin t of pressure,
whieh was a tribute to his fitness and
attitude.
Stapletou's withdrawal after an hour
due to weariness almost proved fatal
(and possibly affected Char1ton's atti-
tude towards a similar substitution in
the games against the Soviet Union
and the Netherlands).
England's manager Bobby Robson
had brought on Glenn Hoddle and
Charlton h.ad added the more attack-
minded Naill Quinn. Because Quin did
.not have the necessary experience and
could not match Stapleton's efforts,
England gradually took control of the
midfield for the last half hour of the
game. Yet they still had to chase a goal
and it was a boost to our morale that
we managed two real scoring oppor-
.tunities from Whelan and Quinn during
th s spell, which psychologically dam-
aged England and added to their frus-
tration.
Victory was ours. A new found nter-
national perspective belonged to Ireland
and to Jack Char1ton. He had fought
for the respect of the players on similar
grounds in the early stages of the
qualfying rounds. As Boss he doesn't
seek confrontation with his players,
nor they with him. It was against this
background that a spirit of comrade-
ship was built. There remains doubts
about his theory , but the solid pro-
f'essional respect still existed.
Together from May 18, doubts
that assembling the squad so early or
that it would cause friction were way
off the mark. It simply reflected the
total preparation demanded. The train-
ing session never proved to be energy
draining but continually emphasised
detail on the opposition and the single
minded way that particular problems
would be approached. There is an
uncanny resemblance to the prepar-
ation of J ohn Giles but the theories
of Char1ton and Giles are as dissimilar
as the pace of McCarthy and Lineker.
The famous era of Don Revie, former
manager to bo th at Leeds United, may
still be affecting soccer.
T HE WIN aYER ENGLAND
was supposed to satisfy a nation
yet nobo dy told the players.
They set about the Soviets as though
everythng depended on it and domin-
ated the game for long spells, causing
goalkeeper Rinat Dassayev more trouble
than any o ther team. Even the loss of
McGrath didn't materialiseinto the
.disaster we had feared. Ireland had
become the ta1k of Europe. Such was
the impression made that all the en-
suing press conferences given by Charl-
ton had an attendance four times
greater than expected. The questions
and observations were all the same.
How -can this running style be so"
successful? How can players be moti-
vated to do it for such long periods?
The soccer reporters and pundits had
watched the possible evolution o a
new systern (sic) that posed serious
questions of the beloved ch ess like
possession game and they wondered
how class defenders such as Ronald
Koeman, Kusnetsov and even Rij-
kaard (possibly the man of the tourna-
ment) had been forced to clear the ball
aimlessly, or misdirect passes from
zones they have normally regarded as
free build-up areas.
Char1ton's observation that all Ire-
land did "was work hard not to allow
o ther teams to play the way they want
to", and that it was "simple", did
riothing to appease their interest.
Professional soccer is a hgh powered
business that has, over the last twenty

Ronnie Whelan, the hero againS1: Russia,
meets the public.
years, developed the capacity to make
people very rich. This climate has seen
the emergence of the agent who had
educated or in sorne cases sullied the
minds of players, The cause of club or
country , formerly number one, has
been replaced by concern for signing
on fees, bonuses,insurance,promotions,
etc. This is understandable and not
wrong, but it can create within teams
jealousies, greed, newspaper scandals
and a bad dressing room climate, which
is detrimental to team morale.
Ireland 's soccr history hasn't es-
cape.d all this. In fact its past is littered
with allegations of player power, plus
the club or country commitments ando
stories of players feigning injuries to
avoid unattractive away fixtures.
Its aganst this background that
J ack Char1ton took control. The
potential for major controversy still
exists but it has never reared its ugly
head. It may well be that the time
J ack spent amongst the hardened pro-
fessiona1 players of Leeds served him
well. Whatever, Ire1and has a pool of
p1ayers wanting to play, hungry for
success and prepared to carry out
orders. That has stirred the rest of
Europe.
W HEN THE DUST SETTLES
and we realise how close these
. efforts brought us to the u1ti-
mate success (rernernber neither the
Soviets or the Dutch had it easy against
us) I'm sure Char1ton will take a con-
structive 100k:' at our performances.
He will have been pleased with the
contribution of Stapleton as an extra
midfie1der - a realistic ploy consider-
ing the heatartd the quality of the
opposition. It may well be that as he
reflects on those same difficulties he
may refine the Irish tactics, not pres-
sunsmg as often but doing it at selec-
ted times and in selected areas. That
wou1d give just as hgh a return and
save the legs. It may also be his de-
cision to retain possession a little
longer, which would enable us to go
forward when and where it suits us,
especially when opposing teams have
managed to filter behind the ball
early.
Whatever adjustments, if any, this
new experience of playing in Europe
may brng, nothing will get in his way
of taking Ireland to their first ever
World Cup fina1s.
O
N THE WORLD SCALE EURO
'88 threw up sorne conflicting
opinions, It certainly wasn't as
exciting as 1984 but it did show us a
more attack conscious Italy and a more
adventurous Soviet Union.
Italian striker Gianluca Vialli was
one of the stars and his direct running,
control, strength and fnshng power
marked hrn out as one to watch in the
1990 World Cupo finals. The service
supplied to hirn from Giannini was
super and Grannisi's commitment and
short range passing was unrivalled,
Ancellott's strength and passing ability
and sweeper Baresi, whose defensive
qualities, reading of the game and
ability to pop up as an extra striker,
will see Italy.ernerge as genuine con-
 tenders for the next World CUp.
The Soviets produced the perfor-
manees that their latent talent had
promised. Strong and mean defensively,
they possessed one of the few strikers
to live up to expectations, Oleg Pro-
tasov. At the age of twenty-f'ive this
strong and fast centre forward could
be the man to life the Soviets from the
pack in 1990. The Soviet squad was
one of the oldest and most experienced
in the tournament but could very well
have peaked. As usual they had highs
. and lows and it was against the Irish
that their normally cornpo se.d passing
garne was interrupted and made to
look frail. Dassayev and Belanov lived
up to expectation and defender Kus-
netsov, who missed the final because
of suspension, looked as hard and as
effective as any thing on show but the
team 's poor showing against Ireland
left doubts.
No team took Euro '88 by the
scruff of the neck and showed thern-
'selves to be worthy champio ns. This
can infer a number of things. The
standards m ay well have risen t ogether
and so little separated the best. Alter-
natively the standards dropped and
mediocrity rulcd.
Neither argument rings true for me.
, 1 believe th at we witnesscd a breeding
ground for concentrated challenges on
the 1990 World Cup. 1 am riot saying
that team s did not want to win but
58 MAGILL JULY 1988
merely that the selection of youthful
squads, particularly the Italians, Ger-
mans and the Dutch, was a deliberate
ploy to develop the experience so
necessary at this level 1 have no doubt
that one of the four serni-finalists on
view in Euro '88 will emerge as the
next world champions.
The Netherlands causcd the most
concern. They were undoubtedly the
luckest team in the competition and
they failed to live up to expectations.
Their buld-up of intricate one and
two touch passes, covering the wdth
of the field, was lovely to watch but
their penetration carne nowhere near
matchng it. If not for the sheer class,
positional sense and scoring ability of
Marco Van Basten they would h ave
gone home early.
Ronald Koeman, the master of the
thunderbolt shot, failed miserably
with this skill. His shooting was p ower-
fuI but his accuracy was appalling, al-
though the long range shooting through-
out the tournament was abysmal.
Ricjkaard stood out as the class de-
fender of the tournament, particularly
on the ball. If he tended to look ex-
posed at times it was only because he
had the confidence to remain one on
one at the back, arare sight indeed at
in ternational level andindicative of
the adventure in the Dutch team.
Gullit, the man from whom most
was expected, can run, dribble and
shoot. His all-roun d game is in fact
very good but the presence so neces-
sary tobe world class was sadly miss-
ing, In five garnes he failed to take
control and make things happen, es-
pecially against the Irish and in the
first Soviet game, whenhis team needed
him mosto
West Germ any, my tip for the cham-
pioriship, were stopped by the worst
penalty decision of the tournament,
just when they looked as thought they
were about to deliver their promise of
-improving with every garue.
The power of Matthaus made him
the best midfielder of the tournament
and while the team 's overall style is
one of strength and doggedness Thon
and Voeller did m anage to sparkle at
times. They were the most disciplined
and effective team but tended to be a
little less adventurous than the other
serni-finalists and for this reason de-
served no reward.
Euro '88 faile.d to give us any long
range goals, no red cards, no Gullit and
no outstandng team in Europe. What
it did provide, however, was Van Basten,
Protasov and Vialli and the exciting
possibilities of what might happen in
the World Cup. But it did gve ushours
of pIe asure and entertainment and food
for debate, plus the very real hope for
Irish football and the realisation of
how very close we were from toppling
the giants of soccer. Roll on 1990!

Graft .Meets
ROBERT ALLEN on the Republic's next game, against
Northern Ireland in the World Cupo
O N SEPTEMBER 14 JACK
Char1ton's green army go into
battle again in their first World
Cup qualifyng game against Northern
Ireland at Windsor Park. Bigotry apart,
theBelfast public should greet Charlton
and his team with rapturous applause ,
if only because of the ernp athy which
has always bonded the Republic o
Ireland and Northern Ireland soccer
teams.
The Republic of Ireland will go into
the game knowing that they are the
fifth best team in Europe. They will be
confident and they will be hungry for
further success, this time qualification
to the World Cup finals in Italy in 1990.
A result over the o ther Irish team is
imperative. But it wori't be easy.
Writing about the Republic of Ire-
land's success in West Germany, an
English soccer reporter said that the
achievements of Charltorr's squad were
"based on a style as English as a rose."
Then it was "as British as a bulldog,"
before the writer acknowledged that
maybe there was .sornethng else that
rnade Ireland different from England.
It was "fighting hearts, irrespressible
"optimsm and the odd lyrical surges"
which, he said, were characteristic of
the Irish.
The reason why England, with
players similar in temperament and
style to Ireland's, failed in West Ger-
many is because they lacked the quali-
ties that carried Northern Ireland to
the quarter finals of the 1982 World
Cup and the last sixteen of the 1986
World Cup, and the Republic of Ire-
land to the last eight of theEuropean
championshps. Those qualities are
pride and spirit and knowing th at hard
graft is a greater companion to skill
than arrogance.
For much of this century England
has marched onto the fields of soccer,
rugby and cricket beleving it had a
divine right to win. For many years
England were rarely challenged. Then,
in thc rnid-Fifties, those in the ivory
tower of English soccer were given a
warning. The talente d Hungarians
knocked the stuffing out of the English
team. But arrogance prevaile d. Ten
years later England won the World
Cup, ironically with big Jack Char1ton
at centre h alf'.
England had won with style and
verve. It was the English version of
total football, West Ham's Geoff Hurst
hitting a good old centre-forward's
h at-trick. It is the style of soccer that
Jack Char1ton has always espoused.
won the English Cup for
Graft Char1ton's tactics won in West
In Belfast it will be another typical
First Dvson game, but without the
frills.
O
N PAPER IT 15 BARD TO SEE
Char1ton's team Iosng. He has
"To me total football is the centre-
the more talented and more ex-
forward kcking off to the inside-right
perienced squad. He has built hs own
who puts it back to the centre-half,
squad, and he knows his best team.
who kicks it up to the centre forward,
Bingham, however, is ,
who' puts it in the neto Any variation
Ap art from a very salid back f'our thar
to that is a complication," said Charlton
has experienced a World Cup or two,
on one occasion. He later qualife d
Binghams first choice temu 18 inter-
that further. "Why take fifteen passes
nationally immature. The exceptions
to score a goal when three will do?"
are Mal Donaghy , John McClelland
It is a philogophy that Northern Ire-
and Norman Whiteside who llave 138
land manager Billy Bingham also ad-
caps between them. Only Worth-
heres too There is little between Bing-
ington, Alan McDonald, Steven
ham's and Char1ton's attitude to soccer.
Jimmy Quinn and Coln who
Tactically they are almost identical.
all played in the Mxico World Cup
Both insist on loyalty and commtment
finals, h ave relative experience. The re
from ther players, both believe fervent-
mainder of Bingham 's
ly in teamwork and, more fundament-
blooded during the Euro '88
ally , both concentrate on the strengths campagn,
of their players. Neither insists on
The Republic of Ireland's fantastic
making their players atternpt to do
success in West Germany was identical
things they cannot do and both let the
to Northern Ireland'ssuccess in Span
opposition do the worrying,
in the i 982 World Charltons
England, despite the presence of
Don Howe (who is similar in approach squad, wth the excepton of perhaps
to Bingharn and Charlton), failed in Stapleton and Brady, is young
Mexico and in West Germany because to compete internationaHy for at Ieast
they tried to playa game that is alen four more y ears. Binghams squad has
to them. "Through the years, too many the potential to achieve greater success
people have tried to convince England th an hs '82 tearn. and
th at they should be playing like Brazil Malta are the opposition in Six.
or Italy, but they're not suited to it," All this adds up to the the
said Charlton, as he recalled the game Irish are thc (c'dms to beat. would
against England. "Our game is more take a brave Iyrson to predict Jade
fast and physical and you have to make Charlton and Billy Binghamwon't
the most of the qualties you've got." lead the two Irelands out anta thc
"Take Gary Lineker. When the ball Italian soccer fields,
is played ahead of him into space he is Veterans of the at a
devastating. But how many times do time when soccer was a delight to
we see the England back four tapping watch, Char1ton and Bingham llave
the ball to one another while poor taken the best of traditiorial English
Lineker is wearing himself out making soccer and moulded it with Irish spirit
great runs for a ball that never comes?" and pride. "Get your players working
and your workers playng," once said
"We could hear Don Howe in the
the indefatigable Derek Then
England dug-out shouting for the ball
get them to work as a team. Then any-
to be played over the heads of our back
thing is possible.
four for Gary, but still they tcok no
notice. Wright would play it to Adams
who would give it to Stevens, who'd
give it back to Adams - all the time
we're not being put under pressure."
Surprisingly, the Du tch did sorne-
thing similar against the Irish. Instcad
of playing the ball to feet or into space
behind Ireland's back four they per-
sisted in knocking high crosses into the
pena1ty area. "We all krow l'rn short
.of pace when the ball is put behind me ,"
said centre-back Mick McCarthy, "but
they kept putting the ball onto my
head."
Before Euro '88, Don Howe said
that the Ireland-England garne would
be like a typical English First Divison
c1ash. It was, and as Ho wets tactics had
MAGILLJULY 1988 59

by Gabriel Byrne
NooYawk,
NooYawk
" Keep your splendid silent sun, Keep
y our woods oNature and. the quiet
places by the woods ... Give me the
streets of Manhattan "(Wa1t Whitman)
H EAT POUNDS THE PAVE-
ment like a hammer. Ninety
degrees the weatherman says.
The towers of the city shimmer in a
breezeless haze.
"Give me a cigarette you fatass
motherfucker ."
"Sorry man, don't smoke."
Dance off the sidewalk. Polite and
fast. Do n't make contacto Eyes ahead.
Dori't show fear. Walk , Don't walk , This
way only , One way , No way , Confusion
of signs. Eternal orchestra of sounds.
Horns and hooters. Thunder of the sub-
way shaking the sidewalk. Above the
Lone Star Caf'e a sixty foot iguana,
ballbearing eye, tailtip broken , threatens
to swallow all.
Yeah , welcome to 14 Street. You
got it my friendo Fifty dollar shirt only
five! Twenty-five dollar suspender
pants only three! Streets o f t he fake
Rolex. Tweety Bird clocks. Home of
the hanging basket and candy floss in
plastic bags.
A child floats seven balloons, seven
silver hearts high in the air aboye the
heads of the passers by. Stop for a
snow cone, translucent shavings planed
from a log of ice stuffed in a paper-cup
with syrup poured all over. Pay the
barrowman adollar. Move on through
the blanket of heat. Along the sidewalk
sentries perch on ladders aboye the
crowds. "Big sale." "Big sale." "Check
60 MAGILL JULY 1988
it out." "Check it out." "Discount ,"
"Dis count." "Come on in." Over and
over the mantra rap repeated, eyes
scanning crowds like electronic cameras
for thieves and buyers.
By a railed tree, caged-in flowers at
the base, a white-robed Nubian displays
his books, touches his lace skullcap in
blessing. Black face so calm, so kind.
"Was Christ really crucified?"
gently asks. "Was Saint Paul disciple or
he
deceiver? And who was Marcus Gar-
vey?" 1 shrug and move fast away ,
feeble smile of apology he musthave
se en a thousand times to day ,
In a doorway a beggar holds his
bowl. "Just one penny.just one penny"
a sign beside him says. "1 am hungry , 1
am horneles, anything will help , please ,
t harik you." "Don't you know therc's
another 's' in horneless," a lady scolds
before she drops a dime. "Oh yes, rna'
am; 1 know that. The other 's' just
wouldri't fit on -my sign, is all." She
sniffs and passes on.
At the crossing, by the traffic light ,
two brown shoes taped with bandaid
left and lo nely , as if their owner just
stepped out of them and walked away.
Barefoot on the sidewalk.
Further on, two meno Eyes locked
in rage.
"You come here again I'm gonna
choke you, motherfucker."
"1 don't steal your goddam patch."
"You hear me now. Don't come
here no more."
"Oh 1 am scared, Nigger ,"
"Who you calling nigger you god-
damn spic? Show me where you white,
white, W-H-I-T-E. Show me lil bit of
white on your whole motherfucking
body."
B
ETWEEN THE BUILDINGS,
ernpty space enclosed by wire.
A wasteland. Broken umbrella
like an uprooted flower beside a rusted
hubcap. Peels of orange, old news-
papers, butts of cgarett es, bamboo
sticks; over there gilt frame of a paint-
ing , a lady's wig. A paper cup that says
"1 love New York" inred.ln thecorner
a tree is slouched like a drunk against
the graffitied wall. A silver sign burning
to the touch: "Please keep 14 Street
clean ,"
Here, the Hope and Grace mission,
"Christ died for our sins." Next door
the Variety Playhouse is showing 'Little
French Maid' (She was born to serve!)
And 'Marathori' (They gave a party and
everybody came l) The man outside
rattles a keychain. Winks. His teeshirt
says "Life's a bit ch. Then 1 married
o ne." Into the dark of Dan Lynch's
bar. Who is Dan Lynch? Christmas
lights and holly adorn the walls, air
conditioning rumbles loud as the mail-
boat engine. Broken fan hangs useless
from the blue cracked ceiling , Ella sings
sweet on the jukebox. "The strong gets
strong, the weak just Jades, empty
po ckets don 't ever make the grade."
Pictures of soul singers. Ads for
Ro lling Rock beer and McSorley ale.
Colored framed photo of aman before
a barbed wire fence. White space under-
neath it says "Dan Lynch - 1931-
1984."
A huge alsatian stretched behind
the bar starts suddenly awake. Between
the bottles on the shelf, a plastic Virgin
crushes the head of a red-tongued
snake. Beside me, red and white of the
Budweiser sign flicking on and off in
his glass, an Irishman , Unmistakeable.
Cap setback on head, tricolor in lapel.
We embark on the ritual questions and
answers of Irishmen who meet abroad.
He is set for a bitter orgy of nostalgia,
wild goose homesick after his own
kind. Torn between the fear of leaving
and the fear of staying.He is immigrant ,
emigrant and stranger all in one. be-
longs to every place and to no place at
all.I have met him, this familiar stranger
a thousand times in Camden and Cov-
entry and Glasgow. Carries his exile
like a hump , seeking solace in drink
and wandering ta1k of the old sod , and
fierce hatred of England. 1 have listen-
ed to his sad songs made sadder by the
drink, head down , eyes closed , audience
hushed in reverential silence as he sings
his pain in the King's Arm on a Friday
night. Up the Republic! the Aul Bog
Road , Kevin Barry , the Lonely Woods
of Upto n , and sure , while you're at it,
spare a few bob for The Lads, like a
good Irishman, and Ireland long a
province'll be a nation once again,
Out of the dark and into the light.
They are tearing up flagstones and the
noise is like a pain. The flagstones are
broken and the clay is dried.almost at
once under the sun that has no merey.
Children play and splash in water
fountains that spray from the fire
hydrants and water stains the road
and sweeps the junk before it to the
-
drains.
 In the pet shop where violaters will
be eaten alive, they say "Hey, man,
man, dorr't overwind the mechanical
mouse." Why? "Because it hurts, is
why!" Here live the upside down cat-
fish , the needlenoses, flying foxes,
midnight angels and the sailfin mollies.
Darting iridescent jewels. Colours of
sky and silver and blood. They live in
toy motor cars in tanks of glass filled
with water. For moriths I have never
seen the grey lizard blink. He lies still
as a stone. And even the tapping of
the children's fingers cannot move him.
salutes 14 Street frorn a charging horse.
Voices drift on a shifty wind.
"Where you come frorn?"
"Caracas. Yeso Caracas."
"Where that?"
"Venezuela. Yeso Venezuela."
"What you got there?"
"Therrnal. Here. Thermal under-
wear."
"How much you pay?"
"Two dollar fif'ty;"
"Yo u come -back in the winter. See
if you get thermals two dollar f'if ty ,
man."
"You can get a overccat tor a dol-
the fate of the street. Streams of cars,
every mode of transport on the cratered
roadway , Rollers and limos, skate-
boar ds and bikes, fleets o{ yellow cabs,
trucks, buses and the creak of a horse
drawn carriage.
PIease don't keep looking up,
Johnny Appleseed , at the towers of
crystal and steel hiding their heads
among clouds, The muggers will know

F ROM A BLUE KAFTAN THE

saxman removes his sax. Handles
it like a child. Blows and tunes
and spits. Throws a quarter in a card-
lar today. See. Cause today is probably
the hottest day of the goddamn year.
You know what I'm saying.rny friend?"
Silencebetween them now. Over
you're not native and make you their
target. But I cannot keep my eyes frorn
them -day or night. The skies swim in
glass and clouds pass frorn window to
board. box. To start the ball rolling so there, the shoe shine man is making window and how the sun distorts itself
to speak. Softly begins 'A Nightinga le mirrors of leather. With soft rags. in these challengers of scale. These /
Sang in Berkeley Square'. Above .him , Time to drift back , through shadows thieves of light. And behind each win-
faded gold of gargoyles, and pigeons and pools, by a hyrnning church and a dow, a story, alife.
call from balconies. I sit on sorne steps hallway smelling of spice , Stand a The manholes spitsteam. Vagrants
and listen. Hard. As I must do often momento Watch the crane. Huge metal search the trash canso The lights come
here to tell which sounds are which, ball, with the slowest of motion, is on in million dollar apartments. Shad-
for so easy do they all become as one. swinging towards target , The face of a ows lengthen as evening comes falling,
Sneezing o buses. Squeal of brakes. wall istorn away and the floor of a Covering corners and ledges and steps
The helicopters' whirl. - The banshee parlour gapes through. Blue spotted and all the secret places: changing the
wail of the p aramedics' van. The high- wallpaper and timber and brick, As shape of things, filling the spaces be-
rise bell that tells the hour at five: And the crowd gathers round to watch the tween buildings, and moving slow as
somewhere the tinkly theme of Mr death o a house. Perpetual change is time over all the streets of the city.
Softee plays 'Waltzing Matilda'.
The day begins to lose its heat. Be-
hind a terracotta lion, a real grey city
cat watches on. One eye lidded from a
fight.
14 Street Subway , Path trains to
New Jersey, Downtown and Brooklyn.
The wind from underground comes in
sudden fetid breaths, making women
hold their dresses as they pass through
the yellow ribs of the exit gates.
"Give a dime to an o ld trooper."
"Sorry , no change."
"You're sorry? I'm sorr y , 1 asked
'1 hole."
"Hey, Rosie, you're looking good."
"I'm not Rosie."
"Yo u sure? Well, you still pretty ,"
A busker curses a broken string , A
baglady, tinselled garland in her hair,
tells herself a jo ke ,

I NUNION SQU ARE PARKA CHILD

is chasing pigeons over the sunbaked
grass. They wheel and turn low over
the seats where people sit, making tnem
bend their heads.
"Hey, I don wan dem mudders
comin in mah face."
A squirrel in nut heaven watches
for nut robbers, A girl sleeps under a
maple tree. 'Seppenwo!f' open on her
la p, as the wind turns the pages. San dals
beside her painted toes. Hair hiding
the palest face. And frorn among the
roses Paul Revere weathered green

MAGILLJULY 1988 61
HERE WE COME, HERE the British ho stage John Me-
WEGO Cart hy with whom he shares
a cell have given nicknames to
WHILE THERE WAS NO- their captors with one referred
thing but praise from the to as "no rnask" because of
German police for the Irish his appearance in the cell one
footbal! fans at the Euro to decipher what Taoiseach Walsh to Chief J ustice o f the day with his face uncovered
champio nships , the Getman Charles Ha ughey means w hen, Supreme Court from which and another as "good food"
equivalent of Bord Telecom guesting at Ray's Twenty- he would not ha ve to retire because of his habit of
was not so pleased , It seems One-Years-in-Politics dinner, after a fixed t errn , as is the praising the quality of the
that the Irish five pence fits Haughey said Ray MacSharry case in Europe. daily ration.
lik e a dream into the public was fit to occupy "any office Since Mr Haughey met with
phorieboxes and was substi- in the land, or in Europe". The the Iranian Foreign Minister ,
MORBID MARINER
tuted in great numbers for ordinary punter at first felt: Dr Ali Akbar Velayati, at the
the Mark by lonely fans calling "Thats telling them and no THE DEPARTMENT OF UN last mo nth , the Irish De-
home to assure their loved mstake." Wishful-Th nk ngs best cabi- partrnent of Fo re ign Affairs is
ories that they w ere OK and But Ray was heard to com- net brief: awaiting further news about
had not been slaughtered by plain a little plaintively after- Brendan Daly (Minister for the the welf'are and whereabouts
the Brtish riasties or the Ger- wards to close friends: "Fine Marine): "Tao iseach, if you of Mr Keenan. The Iranians
man beer.One Dub in a phorie- - but he hasn't told me." are go ing to stick Flynn in to promised to contact their ern-
box was spotted by a polite "Hasn't told you what, fix the rod licence row in the bassyin Beirut for information
and good-natured German Ray?" West overmyhead,I'l!resign." about the Irish hostage. Bren-
citizen who warned him that "Whether I'rn go ing to Taoiseach (quickly): Can 1 da Gilham, Br iari's sister, in
the police would send him to Europe or not ," have that in writing, Daly ?" Dublin f or the formation of a
prison if he was caught That's the nice thing about Friends of Brian Keenan Ac-
shortchanging the telephone Ray - he 's careful not to tion Group has cal!ed on the
co rnpany. Quick as a Ronnie sound over-ambitious. Irish govemment to send a
Whelan vol!ey the Dub replied hig h-powercd political dele-
"Prison , sure 1 was born in EUROJUDGE gation to Tehran or Beirut
prison ... me mother was a to meet directly with the Iran-
WITH ALL EYES ON THE
prostitute ," leaving the Ger- ia n officials and the hostage
Peter Sutherland plum job and
man somewhat bemused. takers themselves following
who will succeed him, no one
at all is looking at an equally th e apparently fruitful visits
NOT PLAYING BALL good number which comes up by a delegation of British
SPEAKING OF PROSTI this autumn: the filling of the parliamentarians and the suc-
tutes, one poor man trying to Irish seat on the European cess of the French in getting
be helpful dished out dozens ther three hostages relea sed .
Court of Justice in Luxern-
of discount tickets offering bourg.
sex at a nearby brothel to The incumbent is the for- FRIENDS INDEED
Irish fans in the popular mer .Irish Chief Justice, Tho- AMONG THE FRIENDS OF
Dubliner pub in Cologne , mas F. O'Higgins, founder of Brian Keenan are musicians
Within an hour the man was the VHI and two-tirne loser as Christy Moore and Van Morri-
almost torn apart by an irate Presidentialelection candidate. son, a former school mate of
paddy non e too pleased with He filled the European post Brian's in Belfast, as well as
his treatment by the lady of with distinction and he is due BRIAN KEENAN
several other musicians and
the nght , With their services to retire with several other BEIRUT HOSTAGE BRIAN the Musicains' Union who
in great demand he was told judges whose terms expire Keenan has not been idle attended a rally held in Be1fast
that he must come within also. There is a fair degreeof during his two years d eteri- for Brian last week.
three minutes and get out. tardiness in several countries tion by what are believed
And what was the lady doing announcing the nationalnomi- to be a faction of the pro-
while he made his greatest
HOLLOW THERE,
nees and the European bosses Iranian Hizbol!ah. A r ecently
efforts to pro ve that the have sent out reminders to released French ho stage had
CHRISTY!
Irish were on top in Europe several governments to ask evidence fro m an American Speaking of Chrsty Moare
. . . lying flat on her back them to speed up the naming hostage still in captivity that a nd , as if to confirm our o b-
watching football on TV. of successors. Brian had at one stage ern- servatons last month about
But a .team of Irsh rovers The Irish successor mght barked on a hunger strike to his growing popularity in the
from a club not a million norrnally be the present Chief establish firrnly in the minds US, his concert at Carnegie
yards from the To lka river Justice Finlay , maintaining of his captors that he is an Hall d uring June was a sell-out .
were having none of this sort the tradition of sending your Irishman. It is not clear for A song written about the re-
of treatment. On hearng that most senior figureto Europe. how long the strike continued publican prisoner Joe Doherty
there was a three minute limit , It is, however, a Government but it appears to have caused facing deportation to Britain
they demand ed their money nominaton and 'the Taoiseach great unease among the Hiz- was the hit of the night even
back and threatened to cal! may consider Mr Justice Brian bollah who were very con- though according to Christy
the police. It was either a full Walsh for whom he is known scious of the power of the it was written just forty
game or nothing, one was to have a lot of admiration. hunger strike in Irish history. minutes before the coricert
heard to mutter. They got And even though Chief Since the strike ended Keenan began and still had no tune to
ther mo ney back , Justice Finlay is regarded in is known to his guards as the it when he got on stage. Sorne
political circles as being "the "Irishman" who, despite his days latcr a massive crowd
RETICENT RA Y other side of the House" it extremely harsh conditions, turned out at Central Park to
RAYMOND MACSHARRY might well suit Haughey to maintains his strong sense of protest about the proposed
and hs Sligo friends are tryrng give him the norninaton, thus humour. Appareritly he and extraditiori of Doherty.

62 MAGILL JULy 1988