JUBILEE MARTYRS

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While O'Connell St. was hosting the fall of Nelson and the 1916 Jubilee march past, another drama with revolutionary reverberations was playing out in Kildare St. and Merrion Square.

It was 1966 and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA) had had enough. Milk prices were rock bottom, farmers and their families were suffering badly, and they were determined to force the Government to do something about it.

They decided to picket the Dáil, a move that was grossly illegal and seen at the time as threatening the foundations of the State. The precincts of parliament were sacrosanct and legally protected.

So they were arrested in their droves as reinforcements were called up to take the place of those arrested. Charlie Haughey, as Minister for Agriculture, was displaying a Napoleonic defiance of one of the two most powerful farmers' forces in the land.

In the end, the farmers carried the day but not without cost. Bitterness between the two major associations lasted for years afterwards. And no doubt Charlie Haughey did not forget the damage to his macho image.

Why did I use the word Jubilee in the title of this post. Well, 1966 was the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Rising, which was being commemorated at the time and this is the 50th anniversary of the protest. Incidentally, it turned out to have been a signifcant year in my photographic career, but that's another story.

You may notice the service medals on the veteran protester in the photo above. Both leaders of the ICMSA were veterans of the War of Independence. Interesting that they were then all defying the law outside the very parliament they were instrumental in bringing about.

For a blow by blow account of the protest and its aftermath check out this excellent piece in The Examiner by Ray Ryan.

BROKEN BISCUITS

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Raheny library has a very interesting exhibition running through the month of August. The theme is W&R Jacob Biscuit Factory and the 1916 Rising.

It draws on the Jacob's Archive and that of Douglas Appleyard, both recently presented to the City Council, and on a number of other sources. It is curated by Ellen Murphy who is responsible for the Jacob's archive in the Dublin City Library & Archive.

So who needed the Pillar, or the Guinness Tower, or the Smithfield Distillery for that matter.

Long before Jim Figgerty and the public's obsession with how the fig got into the fig roll.

This little gem from the 50th anniversary of 1916. Two names which will be familiar to the oldies. Charlie Haughey as Minister for Agriculture, no less, congratulating Jacob's marketing director, Gordon Lambert, on the company's 1916 Jubilee Booklet and thanking him for the box of biscuits.

Do drop in and check out the rest of the exhibition. There's heaps of background here.

And the title of this post. Well, in my day, you could buy broken biscuits by weight in a brown paper bag. Put some of the posher biscuits within reach of the rest of us. A serious contribution to cherishing all the children of the nation equally.

Albert Reynolds RIP

Albert Reynolds, RIP

Albert Reynolds was my Minister from November 1988 to November 1991. He was the Minister for Finance and I worked in that Department (Ministry).

I didn't have any direct contact with him in the early days, or even during the negotiations for the establishment of the EBRD from late 1989 to mid 1990, which body of work was on my desk. The negotiations were led by Michael Somers and the then Taoiseach, Charlie Haughey, took a hands on interest in them as they had been initiated by his good friend French President Mitterand and Ireland held the EU Presidency in the first half of 1990.

Albert's first real involvement with EBRD was the signing of the Articles of Agreement in May 1990 at the Elysée Palace in Paris. He actually signed the articles twice. No, not in a gesture of extravagance which would not have been his form, but firstly as the Bank's Governor for Ireland and secondly on behalf of the EU Presidency.

His next involvement with the EBRD was at the inauguration of the Bank in London in April 1991. By then we had, of course, relinquished the EU Presidency and he was attending solely in his capacity of Governor for Ireland.

The Chairman and CEO of the Bank was President Mitterand's former adviser Jacques Attali and, as a man of high culture, he had arranged a working lunch for Governors where they would be entertained by the renowned cellist Rostropovich. As I have explained elsewhere, Attali had invited Mary Robinson, the newly elected President of Ireland, to the lunch in place of the lowlier Finance Minister and Governor for Ireland. I felt obliged to get this protocol gaff reversed and managed it by citing the likelihood of an Irish constitutional crisis if Attali persisted in his mistaken campaign to notch up as many Heads of State as possible at every function he organised. This was a working lunch for Governors and the presence of a constitutional Head of State with no executive functions related to the Bank was completely inappropriate.

I don't know if Albert appreciated Rostropovich more than Mary Robinson would have but that was not my problem.

I don't think he was in any way impressed by people's nominal status. I introduced him to Viktor Gerashchenko, then head of the Soviet Central Bank, and the lead Soviet negotiator at the talks. I thought he might like to have said hello to a Soviet dinosaur as the USSR was coming apart. He hadn't the slightest interest.

As it happened, after the first day, Albert got fed up with the whole thing and I got a call in the middle of the night to say he wanted to go straight back to Dublin. This was arranged for first thing the following morning.

Now Albert's speech was scheduled for that morning and as I was now Head of Delegation I was faced with either cancelling it or making it myself. As I had written the speech I was loath to see it vanish so I opted to give it myself. The Norwegian Minister, whose speech was scheduled for the afternoon, was also anxious to be gone. He was looking for a morning speaker to swap with and, as I was going to be around anyway, I swapped slots with the Norwegians. That gave me plenty of time to make a few amendments to the speech to insert a few, not too obvious, digs at Attali who had been getting on my wick from a good while back.

I did inform the secretariat of both the swap and change of personnel but the latter never got as far as the captioners in the video room. So the video of me went out captioned as Albert Reynolds, Governor for Ireland. It is now presumably reposing in some archive and may well confuse historians in times to come.

Finally, Albert is accused of being a "one page man" as thought he couldn't read more than a single page at a session. It was very clearly explained in this morning's excellent Today with Seán O'Rourke that this originally stemmed from Albert, the businessman, insisting on any proposal put to him not going over one page. If he liked it he would then follow it up. In a ministerial/civil service context the "one page" submission also served a purpose. It meant that the person writing it had to have a very clear idea what precisely they were proposing that the minister do and it also gave him a very focused action brief.

Some more EBRD reminisences

Inside RTÉ

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I love everything about this book, from the cover to Betty herself.

I was going to say it's a real radio person's book, but, of course, Betty moved on to television. So, it would be more accurate to say it's a public service broadcaster's book.

Betty is committed to a very strong social agenda, but in the context of her broadcasting work, which seems to be most of her life, she is committed over all else to a public service agenda.

She has seen the organisation from so many vantage points, radio, television, trade unions and membership of the Authority itself, that the story carries a quiet authority of its own. The writing is crisp and crafted, and it is very personal.

I particularly enjoyed her concise and perceptive cameos of people, perhaps because her assessment coincided with mine where I had either met the person or already had a view on them.

Starting with Mícheál Holmes, whom I met in recent years, and whom I had down as a real radio man, one of my highest compliments. "Mícheál was not the campaigning type, but he had a fascination with good stories, and with the use of technology and gadgets to help find ways of illustrating people's lives." Sounds just like a younger version of the mature, but still curious, radio man that I encountered.

And Charlie Haughey, who, when Taoiseach, turned up unexpectedly at the studio in person, instead of being at the other end of a phone line, for an interview with John Bowman: "I want to see the whites of the fucker's eyes". Typical gobshite. I don't know whether that was before or after an occasion I remember when Haughey hung up the phone on Bowman, live on air, because Bowman was pushing him beyond a limit he thought he'd agreed with the producer. Betty doesn't refer to that one so she was probably not involved. She does make it clear, though, that John Bowman did not do interviews whose limits were determined by the interviewee.

On another occasion Haughey threatened to cut the licence fee if a programme on his covert and potentially controversial method of acquiring an electriciy generator for his private island was aired.

Then there's Ray Burke. Another obnoxious character. During a 1989 election programme, the "then Minister for Communications, Ray Burke, came up behind me, patronisingly tapped me on the shoulder, and said 'Yes dear, the Minister will have a cup of coffee, white, no sugar'". Broke Betty's concentration completely. But then Burke was never really interested in broadcasting as such.

And Eoghan Harris, who alternated bullying and charm and shouted people down at meetings, playing the Provo card when all else failed. She quotes Harris's own remark in a Today Tonight interview "I'm a propagandist, and always have been", he said, "that's what I do". And Betty's comment, "It is hard to argue with that self-assessment". Beautiful.

And Dick Roche. After telling us, for example, that "Tony Gregory was always apprehensive about his performance and about letting down his constituents", she goes on to say that "Others, like Wicklow Fianna Fáil TD Dick Roche, had no self-doubt or concerns before the show".

She thought highly of Pat Kenny, which I used to myself when he was on radio years ago. She had one really major bust up with him. Susan McKay had agreed to appear on the Late Late Show at very short notice to restore balance to an item where one of the participants was suddenly unable to appear. It was agreed, including by Pat, that Susan would be confined to outlining the excellent work done in the past by Dr. Maura Woods and that she would not be dragged into the wider emotionally charged and controversial discussion. Pat, on air, very pointedly did not honour this agreement and persistently tried to get Susan to comment beyond what had been agreed. No surprise there then. I always felt, in more recent times, that Pat considered himself more important than those on his show and behaved accordingly. Effectively the opposite of a good broadcaster. I had the same thing done to me on air once and it is not very nice.

Anyway, I enjoyed Betty's to-the-point observations on some of these people, but I'm not going to go through the whole book of them.

The book deals with weightier matters, including the future of broadcasting and the more recent controversies, such as the disgraceful character assassination of Fr. Reynolds in Mission to Prey and the famous supposedly Sinn Féin tweet aired on Frontline during the run up to the last Presidential election.

I found the book unputdownable and may even read it a second time.

You will see from the illustration of the cover of my copy above that Betty will not be getting any royalties from my reading of the book, but I'm sure, as a public service broadcaster par excellence, she will be sufficiently supportive of our wonderful public library service to forgive me.


Updates to 16/6/2014

Amazon censored my review.
I attempted to post the above as a book review to Amazon but without success. Now, I have 65 book reviews up on Amazon and never had a bit of bother with any of them. In fact, they normally came through within minutes. But not this one.

Amazon don't specifically tell you they are rejecting a review, but if it doesn't appear within 48 hours you are advised that it is unlikely to appear at all and you should go and check out their guidelines. So I surmised that there was a problem with this particular review and that it was the quote from Charlie Haughey regarding John Bowman. The possible sensitivity of my text had not struck me until the review failed to appear.

As it did not appear after well over the 48 hours specified, I resubmitted the review in a bowdlerised version (F word censored) to see what would happen. And Wow! The bowdlerised review came straight through, like a shot, though the word "gobshite" was asterisked to "gobs***e". So I think I was botted the first time round and am apparently not on any watch list as a result.

While the F word does appear in book titles on Amazon, this is an area over which they themselves have control and the book title in the reviews is inserted automatically from their own data base.

So now we know.

Bowdlerised review with editorial note here.

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I'm sure Charlie would be absolutely thrilled, the oul bollix.

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Update 22/5/17 Checkout my post on Maverick

Return Visit

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As a suitably attired Micheal D is set to pay the Queen a visit, some few reflections are in order.

This will be the first official visit of an Irish president to the British monarch.

It is in return for the Queen's visit to Ireland in 2011.

That visit was a major success, and, leaving aside the Queen's few words of Gaeilge, which probably meant no more than did her son's use of Welsh at his investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969, the highlight for me was her laying of a wreath in the memorial gardens in Parnell Square. This was a British monarch honouring those who gave their lives opposing her predecessors. Surely a significant moment.

At that time Sinn Féin refused to participate, but now Martin McGuinness, Deputy First Minister in the NI administration, will accept an invitation to attend a banquet in Windsor Castle. Sure to be another significant moment.

Michael D is not the first President of Ireland to visit Britain while in office. That honour goes to Mary Robinson in the spring of 1991. Her visit was not an official one and was not to the British monarch. She had been invited by Jacques Attali to attend the inauguration of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) as she had been one of the adjudicators in the competition for a bank logo.

That turned out to be her first trip outside the country since her election as president and it was conceded in the teeth of serious opposition by Government (who have the last say in these matters).

Charlie Haughey, then Taoiseach, was appalled at her election as president, and even more appalled by her promise to turn the office into a more significant one that theretofore. As a result he opposed almost anything she wanted to do, and the idea of letting her loose on the British "mainland", where she might get up to God knows what sort of mischief, was just an "appalling vista".

However he couldn't keep her bottled up for ever, so he reluctantly agreed to let her attend the inauguration, knowing that she also intended to address the Irish immigrant community in London. For safety's sake he sent a plane load of officials along to keep an eye on her (relatively speaking, that is).

Anyway, she got away with it, and continued to raise the profile of her office over the remainder of her tenure. (Though the height of that office so far must be the then President Patrick Hillery's refusal, in 1982, to accede to Charlie Haughey's request to block Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald's resignation and so indirectly install Haughey as Taoiseach.)

I was not involved directly in Mary Robinson's visit, except for getting her bounced off a lunch list which Attali had drawn up. He had a fixation on dealing with Heads of State where possible. The lunch, which was entertained by Rostropovich in person, was billed as a working lunch for EBRD Governors and as she was not in that category I had to make sure that it was Albert Reynolds, then Irish governor, who was invited.

Amazing the things you do for your country.

Some more EBRD reminisences

VBVM

Knock Shrine c.1885
from Schofield/Sexton

This is a useful time to look at Knock, Co. Mayo, where the Blessed Virgin Mary is reputed to have appeared on 21 August 1879, so we are fast approaching the 134th anniversary of the apparition.

I have a particular interest in Knock, having been on many pilgrimages there in my youth. My father was born in Ballyhaunis, just down the road (7 miles) and visits to the old homestead, then still inhabited by my Granny and Aunt Mollie, always included a trip to the church at Knock.

This was not the Knock of today. There was no basilica only a church with a gable end. Mind you it was a very important and controversial gable end, but a gable end no less.

There was no church of reconciliation with as many confessionals as there are weeks in the year.

And the holy water was freely available in unlimited quantities from a common tap in the corner.

Then there were the huxters stalls along the street, selling all sorts of religious artefacts and holy sounvenirs.

A decade of the rosary, a trimming or two, some momentos, and that was it. Private and no fuss.

So the picture above, is nearer to what I experienced than is the one below. It is a very interesting picture, taken within a few years of the apparition, and it testifies to a huge well of faith among those who visited in those early years. The crutches on the wall represent cures of one sort or another. Whether through divine intervention, the power of faith, or sheer mind over matter, an amazing number of cripples appear to have walked away.

For that reason, it is a very powerful picture. All the more powerful when you know the background of the times.

Irish faith was local and built around the monasteries, parishes and old practices.

There were patterns (mini-pilgrimages/visits), holy wells and other pisreogaí (superstitions). Rome, with the active connivance of Cardinal Cullen, was attempting to stamp out all this stuff and impose Rome rule (homogeneous and done by the book). Bishop McHale was the people's champion but he lost out in the long run.

In parallel with this conflict the land war was hotting up in this very area. Evictions were rife as was land agitation, and the church was divided, some priests opting for the old and others going with the new. This was the part of the country that gave us the boycott the following year. And, of course, 1879 was the year of the Gorta Beag (mini famine).

So it is not stretching it too much to say that Knock had a collective nervous breakdown around the time of the apparition. Eugene Hynes is great reading on all of this.

The narrative of the apparition, as it hit the wider public consciousness, was filtered by the church to ensure theological orthodoxy and the result has a bit of the camel about it.

The picture below of the gable as it is today, shows the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist and the Lamb of God. As motley crew as ever there was. That's what I mean about the camel - a compromise creature designed by a Committee (for which read church).

The modern decor, and holy complex, was instituted by that great dancehall promoter from Toureen, Monsignor Horan. A holy entrepreneur extraordinary. He ran rings around Charlie Haughey (Taoiseach/Prime Minister) by challenging him to validate his Mayo credentials and support the construction of a nearby airport. He even got Pope John Paul II to visit the shrine on the 100th anniversary of the apparition. Some operator.

Anyway, I just thought I'd give the BVM a mention seeing as how she is tending to slip from view in this modern materialistic world.

The Gable End today