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    Vandalising history. How the truth about Ireland’s Arms Crisis was corrupted by a gang of NI paedophiles, a dissembling Taoiseach, Private Eye magazine in London, some British Intelligence black propagandists as well as an Irish Times reporter who was an ally of the Official IRA.

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      By David Burke. Introduction. The story of the Arms Crisis is a perfectly simple one. It only becomes complicated when the lies, fantasies and myths that engulfed it are entertained as if serious. Only two participants in the débacle told the full, accurate and unvarnished truth: Captain James Kelly and Colonel Michael Hefferon, both dutiful officers of Irish Military Intelligence, G2. It is my intention to publish a book next September which will reveal the deepest secret of the affair, aiming to make it even easier to comprehend. For the most part, I have ignored the parallel  story of how the truth was washed away by a flood of hogwash because it does little more than confuse the narrative. However, I will take this opportunity to present some of the more dramatically erroneous materials that made it into print. In other words, this is the story of what did not happen during the Arms Crisis and its aftermath. When the vines of deceit which wrapped themselves around the story are stripped away, what really happened in 1969/1970 becomes clear: James Gibbons, the Minister for Defence, 1969-70, oversaw an operation to import arms which were to be stored in the Republic under Irish Army lock and key. Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney were deeply involved too. Blaney was probably the main protagonist in the affair. Jack Lynch knew about it too. The paedophile, the propagandist and the political correspondent: William McGrath, Hugh Mooney and Dick Walsh. The weapons – which never reached Ireland – were intended to be distributed to certain vulnerable Catholic communities in Northern Ireland but only in the extremely unlikely event of a ‘doomsday’ situation such as a pogrom. Since no ‘doomsday’ scenario in fact occurred, the weapons would have done little more than gather dust and might have become no more than a minor footnote in recent history. All that changed when news of the importation attempt leaked out and all political hell broke loose. History was corrupted by a motley crew comprising a group of paranoid and malicious paedophiles who surrounded Ian Paisley, a cabal of deceitful British Intelligence propaganda experts, a Taoiseach who dissembled under great pressure – as did his minister for defence, a collection of delusional Official Sinn Féin activists, a legion of profoundly ignorant British journalists, and finally Dick Walsh, a secret ally of the Official OIRA in the Irish Times. This ramshackle crew concocted a variety of gobbledygook conspiracy theories. Broadly speaking, they can all be boiled down to a simple and core allegation, namely that the arms were destined for the IRA as part of some sort of dastardly plot involving Charles Haughey. Lying on an industrial scale: Jack Lynch and Jim Gibbons. One of the reasons the Arms Crisis became so confused was because of the hogwash they spouted about it. 1969: INTRODUCING THE EXTREMIST LOYALIST CHILD-RAPIST, ORANGEMAN, BIGOT, THIEF, BOMBER AND TERRORIST WHO INSTIGATED THE FIANNA FÁIL-IRA SMEAR All the trace elements of the Arms Crisis myth can be found in a devious story published in the pro-Paisley newspaper, The Protestant Telegraph, in 1969. A group of extreme Loyalists zealots including ‘Dr’ Ian Paisley, his associate William McGrath, and Paisley’s one-time bodyguard, John McKeague, and one of McKeague’s friends, Alan Campbell, ratcheted up sectarian hatred in the 1960s in tandem with other like-minded bigots. McGrath was a vile creature: a notorious paedophile who would be convicted for child rape in December 1981. The RUC referred to him as ‘The Beast’. McKeague was worse; not only was he a child rapist but his depravity extended further – he became a UVF/Red Hand Commando serial killer and torturer. He would be murdered in February 1982 after he threatened to reveal what he knew about the Kincora Boys Home scandal when it looked like the RUC CID was on the verge of arresting him for rape. Alan Campbell was one of the three men who led the notorious Shankill Defence Association alongside McKeague. Campbell was also the RUC’s chief suspect in the abduction and murder of a ten-year-old boy in 1973 in Belfast. McGrath, McKeague and Paisley Back in April of 1969, McGrath, McKeague, Paisley and other hate-fuelled fanatics mounted a ‘false flag’ bomb campaign in the North, i.e. one they perpetrated but blamed on the IRA and Jack Lynch’s government. The most notorious bomb of the campaign was the one which exploded in the Silent Valley and cut off the water supply to parts of Belfast. At the time the IRA hardly existed and  certainly had no intention of launching any sort of military campaign against the NI State. The allegation that the April 1969 bombs were part of an IRA campaign was circulated in the pro-Paisley newspaper, The Protestant Telegraph. It declared deceitfully that a source “close to [Stormont] Government circles” had informed the paper that a purported “secret dossier” on the Castlereagh electricity sub-station explosion contained: “startling documentation and facts. Original reports suggested that the IRA could have been responsible, but in Parliament no such definite statement would be made…We are told that the Ministry of Home Affairs is examining reports which implicate the Eire Government in the £2 million act of sabotage — By actively precipitating a crisis in Ulster, the Eire Government can make capital, win or lose. The facts, we hope, will be made public, thereby exposing the chicanery of the Dublin regime”. The Irish government ignited the Troubles – if you believe McGrath – by bombing the water supply to Belfast. This picture shows some of the débris left after the Silvent Valley bomb explosion actually perpetrated by supporters of Ian Paisley. William McGrath blamed Fianna Fáil for it. These lies would be laughable but for the vitriol they helped whip up in extreme Loyalist circles. McGrath was the main promoter of the lie. He used the then deputy editor of the Protestant Telegraph, David Browne, as his conduit to plant the story in the paper. Browne had been present at a meeting in

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    The Official IRA planned the murders of journalists Ed Moloney and Vincent Browne.

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    An Irish Times insider passed a spiked Ed Moloney article about the Official IRA to its commanders, who spread a rumour he was a terrorist, expecting the UDA would murder him. The material was later published by Vincent Browne inspiring plans by the Official IRA to murder him. By David Burke. Ed Moloney A MEETING WITH THE HARD EDGE OF THE UDA’s INNER COUNCIL Shortly after the February 1982 general election, Ed Moloney of the Irish Times found himself standing in a room “in the office of Andy Tyrie at the UDA’s HQ in Gawn Street on the Newtownards Road” with three senior UDA leaders. The trio included John McMichael, a member of the UDA’s Inner Council and Commander of the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), the name the UDA used when it perpetrated assassination, torture and other acts of violence. The name was used so that the UDA itself would not be proscribed. No-one was fooled, least of all the British government and its security services. The second individual was “a very senior member of the Inner Council who is still alive”. Ed Moloney does not want to name him. The third man was Davy Payne, one of the UDA’s most feared killers and torturers. Like the other two, he was a member of its ‘elite’ Inner Council. John McMichael Moloney still recalls how “Payne was to my left. The other two were to my right. Their presence lent considerable authority to what Payne told me, since these three were the UDA’s main military men on the Inner Council”. Ed Moloney survived his encounter with these men. He continued to work as the Northern Editor of the Irish Times and went on to be voted Irish journalist of the year in 1999. Before the encounter with the UDA, he had worked for  Hibernia and Magill. After his time at the Irish Times, he went to work at the Sunday Tribune. He now lives in New York and publishes a blog, ‘The Broken Elbow’. He has contributed to Village. He is also the author of a string of acclaimed books about the Troubles. A CRITIC OF THE WORKERS PARTY During the course of Moloney’s work he had gathered ample evidence that the Official IRA (OIRA) was still in existence despite claims by its political wing, Sinn Féin the Workers Party (SFWP), to the contrary; and, moreover, that it was engaged in a wide range of criminality including bank robberies and extortion. After SFWP won three seats in the February 1982 general election, the party found itself holding the balance of power. The new SFWP TDs voted for Charles Haughey as Taoiseach in a stark choice between him and Garret FitzGerald of Fine Gael. Dick Walsh of the Irish Times, who was an ally of Cathal Goulding, chief of staff of the Official IRA, was appalled by his party’s support for Haughey. He described the development as a “Hitler-Stalin pact of sorts” in the Irish Times. The pact was never destined to last and Haughey’s government would collapse eight months later when the SFWP deputies withdrew their support. After the February 1982 election, Moloney wrote two pieces for the Northern Notebook of  the Irish Times. He has explained to Village  that one part of the series “dealt with the political journey SFWP had taken to power in the South. That part duly appeared on the Saturday as all Northern Notebooks did”. He submitted a second piece which was not published. It  “dealt with the continued existence of the SFWP’s military wing and the various criminal activities it was involved in, including racketeering and paramilitary activity”. This part “never appeared and I was never officially informed nor given any explanation by the Irish Times.  I cannot even say whether my copy was even shown above the level of sub-editor”. Moloney believes that “the real SFWP/OIRA influence was wielded at sub-editor level where stories could be changed and challenged without senior figures even knowing”. Shockingly, someone in the Irish Times – position unknown – passed the article to the Officials behind Moloney’s back. Moloney subsequently handed the research over to Magill, then edited by Vincent Browne, who published a two-part series on SFWP in March and April 1982. The magazine flew off the shelves and sold out completely. This was egregiously embarrassing for SFWP. It later changed its name to the Workers Party (WP) in an effort to distance itself from the whiff of sulphur that clung to the Sinn Féin part of its old name. Vincent Browne (left); Cathal Goulding on the cover of one of the two 1982 Magill articles which incensed the Official IRA; Ed Moloney (right) As Moloney has confirmed to Village, “I certainly gave Vincent the material I had gathered over the years, including material the IT had refused to publish”. THE MACHIAVELLIAN OFFICIAL IRA PLOT TO MURDER ED MOLONEY That the OIRA tried to set Moloney up for murder is not in doubt. The only issue is whether they did so after the publication of the Magill articles, or before. If it was before, it means that the murder attempt was designed to prevent the information he had gathered from reaching the public. If after, it was an act of revenge and a possible attempt to prevent further revelations. The plot was deeply Machiavellian: two Sinn Féin the Workers Party members told the UDA that Moloney was in the INLA. “Since people like Andy Tyrie and John McMichael knew me and doubted the claim, the UDA stayed its hand. The allegation against me was apparently made to the UDA by two members of Sinn Féin the Workers Party” Moloney has told Village that: “I learned about the threat to my life from the late UDA North Belfast Commander Davy Payne who informed me one day that the UDA had been told that I was a member of the INLA but, since people like Andy Tyrie and John McMichael knew me and doubted the claim, the UDA stayed its hand.

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    Dick Walsh’s covert committee monitored OIRA media enemies. Future Irish Times Assistant editor put colleagues on lists.

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    By David Burke. Part 1 of this series can be found at https://villagemagazine.ie/dw/ THE OFFICIAL IRA AND OFFICIAL SINN FÉIN The IRA fractured in December 1969 into what became known as the Provisional IRA and the Official IRA. Sinn Féin split along the same lines the following month. Before the division, the IRA had been led by IRA veterans such as Cathal Goulding, who was its chief of staff, Seán Garland, Seamus Costello, Tomás MacGiolla, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and Seán Mac Stíofáin. On the political front, they controlled Sinn Féin. Together the IRA and Sinn Féin were known as the Republican Movement. Goulding, Garland, Costello and MacGiolla sided with the Officials after the split and reproduced the military and political formula for their new organisation. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and Seán Mac Stíofáin set up the Provisionals. Goulding’s faction managed to retain control of the United Irishman, the movement’s monthly newspaper. Collectively they also became known as the ‘Stickies’. Cathal Goulding avoids the media The United Irishman had been edited by Tony Meade, Denis Foley, Séamas Ó Tuathail (who brought sales to a height of 100,000 in 1969) and then Eoin Ó Murchú. In late 1972 Ó Murchú left and Dick Walsh of the Irish Times, later to become its political editor (from 1985) and indeed its assistant editor (from 1999), was asked to take care of the paper while a new editor was found. The full-time replacement turned out to be Jackie Ward, who had been in charge of the The Starry Plough which had appeared in Derry. In 1973 the Officials launched another publication, The Irish People, a weekly paper. Pádraig Yeates, who edited it between 1977 and 1982, joined the Irish Times in 1983. The Officials also produced numerous pamphlets, most but not all of which were produced openly as Official Sinn Féin publications. The Official IRA (OIRA) issued statements which were reported in the press. After they called a ceasefire in 1972, they continued to exist for purported ‘defensive’ purposes and continued to issue statements. The Irish Times continued reporting them until the mid-1970s. Bizarrely, when the paper interviewed Goulding wearing his political cap in 1983, it reported that the OIRA had ceased to exists in 1972, as if all the statements it had carried for the three to four years after the 1972 ceasefire had never appeared on its pages. It was the least of the dysfunctionalities in that paper’s nexus with the OIRA. WALSH’S SECRET COMMITTEE Behind the scenes Goulding and his GHQ staff decided to draw up a list of their friends and enemies in the media. Goulding, now chief of staff of the OIRA, appointed Dick Walsh as the kingpin of this clandestine effort. He was assigned to lead a committee which drew up lists of journalists and to characterise the attitude of each towards the Officials. The OIRA also spied on their political opponents throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s and probably well beyond. Their penetration of the Revenue Commissioners caused so much internal rancour that some civil servants tried to set up their own union. They felt the Officials had taken over the existing set up. The Officials’ spies in the Revenue Commissioners paid particular attention to the tax affairs of politicians such as Charles Haughey and well-known big -businessmen. Ultimately no use was made of the information they accrued because they did not want to draw attention to their assets in the department. The OIRA also spied on groups who were opposed to the Soviet Union such as the Irish Council for European Freedom and the Irish Czech Society. Their reports were presumably furnished to the Soviets. Amnesty International was another target. One of those monitored was Louise O’Brien. THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY Dick Walsh broke the media into five groups. Category ‘A’ consisted of those deemed friendly towards the Official Sinn Féin and the OIRA. This group consisted of between ten and twenty reporters who were prominent in the early 1970s. Walsh included himself in it, along with members of the OIRA who were working in the media and those who, while never in any wing of the IRA, were sympathetic to the left-wing direction in which Goulding was taking the Officials. The political wing of the Party became known as Sinn Féin the Workers Party (SFWP) and later again simply the Workers Party (WP). Walsh and his committee presumably updated the list from time to time. One possible motive for the exercise was to help create a network of supporters in the media. On the other side of the coin had the revolution, that Goulding, Garland, MacGiolla and their comrades were fomenting, actually succeeded, the information would have been a useful resource to identify likely counter-revolutionaries. A number of ‘A’-listed OIRA figures were, or became, employees at the Irish Times. The purpose of this article is not to suggest that the Officials succeeded in taking control of the paper because they did not. The plot to murder a journalist at the Irish Times – which will be described in the next article in this series – demonstrates this definitively. Overall the paper was a broad church, especially under the editorship of Douglas Gageby. However, the ‘Stickies’ did have a number of notable successes in promoting their essential views, including their grossly distorted account of the Arms Crisis. THE IRA VOLUNTEERS AT THE IRISH TIMES As readers may recall from Part 1 of this series, James Downey, a former deputy editor of the Irish Times, stated that Dick Walsh was not only “an intimate of Cathal Goulding and the other leaders of what would shortly become the ‘Official’ Sinn Fein and IRA” but also that there were “two or three who were actual members of the IRA, on the paper”. (Downey p. 102.) Sean Cronin, former Chief of Staff of the IRA and Irish Times Washington correspondent during the Troubles Downey was disturbed by the OIRA presence and opined that “…the position of Dick

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    Contempt in the rose garden.

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    Inside Dominic Cummings’ mind and project.By Christopher Stanley. On a sunny English Whitsun Bank Holiday afternoon we would have been ordinarily watching The Eagle has Landed or Ice Station Zebra. On ITV10 there was a (further) repeat of Midsomer Murders – how appropriate for these death-ridden Covid-19 strange and sad times. But no, we waited and waited for Boris Johnson’s chief advisor’s television explanation of why he drove to Durham instead. In one sense Dominic’s Passion in The Rose Garden was the final out-workings in his Mind of his Project, in which the media plays no part. But ironically of course the only audience permitted to this performance was the media. By the final out-workings of his Project I mean that in an unprecedented political-media-Covid-19-stained event an unelected, unaccountable, ‘political advisor’ took centre stage…eventually; it was his first public performance in years, he said, and he was late. He did not find a tie – why should he? His confession and contrition never came – why should it? This was a moment of significant political transition in the political waft and weave of the English constitutional system – whether Dominic Cummings survives or not. It was a moment of dedicated and profound contempt. One which left Dominic Cummings stronger and more powerful because the English constitutional system of checks and balances, of trust and accountability, failed and a new more malevolent form of politics was exposed with Cummings as its incarnation: a new elitism, a new contempt, a post-modern managerial Machiavellianism, with Cummings stronger because he went back to work the next day. Even after he was exposed in all the calibrated contempt. In Downing Street. London. SW1A. Dominic Cummings His Mind and His Project Let us look at his Twitter profile first. Let us look at his Wikipedia entry second. Let us look at his Mind third. Let us look at his Project finally. Twitter BUT THIS IS A PARODY ACCOUNT (perhaps or simulation when Dominic is in charge of the narrative?) “BoJo’s best bud, bus lie writer, government tinkerer, not Benedict Cumberbatch” 53 following 4,881 followers May 25 It’s true, I’m #NotSorry. Now get back to work poor people! #ToriesLovePooriesMay 24 Phew, well done @BorisJohnsonthanks for covering my back! #StayAtHomeBTW: Bus Lie Writer: The Spectator 31 October 2017 (last accessed 26 May 2020) Not sure whether or not to resign, can’t find @BorisJohnsonto discuss it so might go and see my folks, they’ll know what to do Wikipedia “After attending state primary school, he was privately educated at Durham School and Exeter College, Oxford, where he studied under Norman Stone, graduating in 1994 with a First in Ancient and Modern History. One of his professors has described him to the New Statesman as “fizzing with ideas, unconvinced by any received set of views about anything”. He was “something like a Robespierre – someone determined to bring down things that don’t work.” Also in his youth, he worked at Klute, a nightclub owned by his uncle in Durham”. Note: Maximilien Robespierre: “England! Ha! What good are they to you, England and its depraved constitution, which may have looked free to you when you had sunk to the lowest degree of servitude, but which it is high time to stop praising out of ignorance or habit!”. “After university, Cummings moved to Yeltsin’s post-Soviet Russia from 1994 to 1997, working on various projects at the encouragement of Stone. He worked for a group attempting to set up an airline connecting Samara in southern Russia to Vienna in Austria which was ‘spectacularly unsuccessful’. He subsequently returned to the UK”. Note: Norman Stone once said “I wear my enemies like medals”. “In December 2011, Cummings married Mary Wakefield, sister of his friend Jack Wakefield, former director of the Firtash Foundation. Mary Wakefield has worked at the weekly magazine The Spectator for decades, since Boris Johnson was editor, and is now commissioning editor. She is the daughter of Sir Humphry Wakefield, 2nd Baronet, of Chillingham Castle in Northumberland. Her mother is Katherine Wakefield, née Baring, elder daughter of Evelyn Baring, 1st Baron Howick of Glendale.” “Cummings is reportedly an admirer of Otto von Bismarck, Richard Feynman (see further on), Sun Tzu, and U.S. fighter pilot and military strategist John Boyd. Journalist Owen Bennett claimed that Cummings “is a Russophile, speaks Russian, and is passionately interested in Dostoyevsky”, while Patrick Wintour in The Guardian reported that “Anna Karenina, maths and Bismarck are his three obsessions.” Note: Fyodor Dostoevsky: “Right or wrong, it’s very pleasant to break something from time to time.” “Cummings has said he has never been a member of a political party Despite this, he was second in a list by LBC of the ‘Top 100 Most Influential Conservatives of 2019’.” The Mind “He is now the country’s de facto project manager, but what does he actually believe?” (Stefan Collini) (The Guardian 6 February 2020) (last accessed 26 May 2020). In that question Stefan Collini identifies what is central to The Project of Dominic Cummings – he is The Project Manager of the New Model Polity for England but he is not political (unless he is post-political) – he is so over politics. He is an expression of a new form of ideologue. This means his Project is a project to implement a new kind of post-political system – it is about planning and a form of quasi-scientific rationality – in which the role of the democratically elected and accountable politician, and indeed those of all other parts of the Executive – including the Civil Service, are negligible. Dominic Cummings is a Type similar to the ‘Types’ who succumb to Communist Party rule in Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz’s ‘The Captive Mind’ (1953). Which is why if he does depart it does not signify much as he will be replaced by the same form of functionary/synthesiser. He is an intellectual with a good academic pedigree. Collini notes: “Dominic Cummings is the best-known unknown historian of ideas in the country”. He has a big

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    Unscrutinised lockdown breaches: resignation territory for Varadkar and Martin.

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    Close analysis suggests Leo Varadkar (not for hanging out in Phoenix Park), Micheál Martin and (perhaps) Dominic Cummings should all resign, for basic and flagrant breaches of lockdown rules. By Michael Smith. We are all fed up with plague restrictions. Some of them were disproportionate; some of them are needed and will continue to be needed. We’re all tired of them. We live in the era of Fake News so when maskless Donald Donald Trump, handshaking Boris Johnson, and picnicking Leo Varadkar say something is authorised or, better still, “legal” you know it may not be true. This article is about what the law, rules and guidance say, not what some status-unclear departmental official, or a garda on duty, said. It reflects very badly on two of Ireland’s Taoiseach-candidates, and Johnson’s peripatetic advisor, Dominic Cummings. Since there are many people who have been unable to visit dying relatives or to attend the funerals of parents and children, it is clear that serious breaches cannot be dismissed as forgivable mistakes, if the social contract is to be maintained. That is why Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, scrupulously avoided visiting his 96-year-old mother in her care home in the last weeks of her life https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/26/dutch-pm-mark-rutte-did-not-visit-dying-mother-due-to-covid-19-restrictions. Nobody, surely, would advocate a lower standard in modern Ireland. One of the premises I take as read is that if a rule provides for an exception, acting on the exception is not a breach, however much people go on about it. Let’s see how the exceptions position Ireland’s political leaders, and – in Britain – Boris Johnson’s fractious advisor, Dominic Cummings. Varadkar, 24 May, Phoenix Park Since for the last few weeks we have been allowed to meet in groups of four, outside, the Taoiseach’s hunky beering in the Phoenix Park last weekend was ok in principle. https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/taoiseach-was-in-line-with-public-health-guidance-while-sunbathing-in-phoenix-park-1001539.html An official in the Department of the Taoiseach, Liz Canavan, thinks we should not picnic, but that’s her view, not official written government advice. Asked this week whether it was okay for people to have picnics, Canavan said that the Government was “not madly encouraging people” to take up “a lot of space and time in amenities where they are cramped”. “We’re asking people to use their head”, she said. But the outing should have been distanced and photos, like the one above, show it was not. The failures may have been brief. It’s impossible to tell. We all do it; we should probably get over it. There is something that is far worse. On 24 March, the Taoiseach said people need to stay at home and only leave to: go to work go to the shops for essential supplies care for others exercise On 27 March the Departments of Health and of the Taoiseach jointly provided the following “policy” which was stated to be a “measure in place”: “The only reasons you can leave home: Stay at home in all circumstances, except in the following situations: to travel to and from work, if your work cannot be carried out from home to shop for essential food and household goods to attend medical appointments and collect medicines for vital family reasons, such as providing care to children, elderly or vulnerable people – but excluding social family visits for farming purposes – that is food production or care of animals To take brief individual physical exercise within 2km of your home, which may include children from your household, as long as you adhere to strict 2m physical distancing. to escape domestic violence“. The reasons are exclusive. There are no further exceptions. In his televised speech to the country on 27 March the Taoiseach put it succinctly: “Apart from the activities I have listed, there should be no travel outside 2km radius from your home for any other reason”. In fact Leo Varadkar left his home and moved to Farmleign during the lockdown. That was a major breach of advice not justifiable, or close to justifiable, under the listed limited exceptions. There is no ‘Taoiseach’ exception, no ‘I need better internet’ derogation, no ‘it’s ok I work for the government’ exemption. Just ask Mark Rutte or Dominic Cummings. And so, honestly, he should resign. Micheál Martin photographed in Courtmacsherry on 1 January for New Year’s swim Meanwhile Micheál Martin went off to West Cork as late as April 4. Remember the guidance cited above had been clear for at least two weeks at that date. He told Ryan Tubridy on the Late Late show of 22 May https://www.thesun.ie/news/5460487/coronavirus-ireland-fianna-fail-leader-micheal-martin-not-seen-family-weeks/: The lockdown started – West Cork, I was there. I came to Dublin and have stayed since and that’s it. That was untrue. The Irish Independent confirms he went from Dublin to West Cork on 4 April. This is a scandal waiting to break. According to the Irish Independent the Fianna Fáil leader, “was in Courtmacsherry when the lockdown rules were announced, and travelled to work in Dublin the following Monday”. On 4 April , he returned to his holiday home. According to a Fianna Fáil spokesperson: “In line with Government advice he returned to where he was when travel restrictions were introduced”.  The spokesperson said this was in line with Government advice, the Indo swallowed it, but it was not. Where is this ‘return to where you were’ exception to be found? After he went to Dublin he should have returned to his home in Cork City. It was simple. “On April 6, he travelled back to Dublin where he has remained since”, said his handlers – from where he tells stories about missing his family and jogging in Merrion Square. The spokesperson confirmed that Mr Martin has not been to his home in Cork city since the lockdown began: “Micheál has adhered to all of the expert advice and Government restrictions during this emergency”, they said. Inaccurately. https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/ff-leader-used-holiday-home-as-base-at-start-of-crisis-39137417.html For the blatancy of his flouting of the rules. for his equivocation on the Late Late show and for the cynically obfuscatory line that “Micheál has adhered to all of

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    Charles Haughey did not run guns to the IRA in 1970 but his father Seán did decades earlier. And on the orders of Michael Collins!

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    A gunrunner in the family. By David Burke. Haughey’s father Seán (on the right) who was one of Michael Collins’ most trusted officers. Collins chose him for one of his most sensitive secret operations. THE HAUGHEY FAMILY AND THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE Haughey’s parents, Seán and Sarah (nee McWilliams), were born and reared almost next door to one another on small farms in the adjacent townlands of Knockaneil and Stranagone, near Swatragh, a few miles from Maghera town in Derry. Haughey Senior, who was born in 1897, joined the Irish Volunteers in 1917. He rose to become the Second in Command, and later Officer in Command, of the South Derry Battalion of the Irish Volunteers during the War of Independence. At the start of the conflict he carried out raids on the homes of loyalists and a number of retired British army officers. His military file marked him out as one of the most energetic IRA members in south Derry. In one attack on June 5th 1921, a Royal Irish Constabulary sergeant called Michael Burke was killed while others were seriously wounded in a late-night ambush of the barracks at Swatragh. As a result of his activities, Seán Haughey had to go on the run. According to his superior, Major Dan McKenna, he would have been killed had he been caught. “His enemies were of the opinion, and indeed not without reason, that he was the cause of all their woes in his area”. Sarah, who was born in 1901, also played an active part during the campaign as a volunteer in Cumann na mBan. She remained a member until 1923. Commandant Seán (Johnny) Haughey with his wife Sarah Ann who served in Cumann na mBan. The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed on 21 December 1921 and ratified the following January. Yet hostilities persisted in the North. The UVF began to regroup under Lieutenant-Colonel F. H. Crawford. Thirty-one people were killed in Belfast between 12 and 16 February 1922. On 19 March 1922, 200 IRA men surrounded the town of Maghera, County Derry, cutting off the telephones before seizing the Royal Irish Constabulary barracks from which they removed 17 rifles, 5,000 rounds of ammunition and a sergeant as a hostage. The IRA campaign continued the next day with the destruction of mills, sawmills, stables and outhouses in County Derry. Burntollet Bridge (which would become infamous in 1968) was blown up. On 30 March Michael Collins, representing the Provisional Government in Dublin, and Sir James Craig, signed an agreement. Collins wanted to neutralise the security forces in the North as a threat to the Catholics. In return for a cessation of IRA activity, it was agreed that Catholics should join the Special Constabulary and assume responsibility for policing nationalist areas. In mixed areas, an equal force of Catholic and Protestant officers would be deployed. Meanwhile, all searches would be conducted by mixed units with British soldiers in attendance. The Specials were to wear uniforms with identification numbers and surrender their arms once they had finished their duties so they could be kept in barracks. On 31 March Royal assent was given to the Free State Bill which became the new constitution of the Free State. The ceasefire Collins and Craig negotiated proved a failure. On 2 April 500 Specials swooped across County Derry and Tyrone scooping up 300 men for questioning but only four were found to be in the IRA. The rest escaped to County Donegal. By now the IRA was on the verge of a split into pro- and anti-treaty factions. The 8,500 volunteers who lived in the new State in the North were virtually all anti-treaty. Michael Collins was prepared to supply them with arms for a number of reasons, one of which was that it offered him a possible way to unify the IRA, something that was a priority for him. SÉAN HAUGHEY PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN MICHAEL COLLINS’ MOST SENSITIVE AND SECRET CROSS-BORDER OPERATION AFTER THE CEASEFIRE Seán Haughey became involved in what was perhaps the most sensitive and secret covert operation Michael Collins ever mounted: it was one to provide Catholics living across the new border with weapons to defend themselves from the forces of the new state. Hundreds of Catholics (and many Protestants) had been killed during sectarian riots that had erupted in July 1920. Between 1920 and 1922,  267 Catholics were killed,  while 2,000 more would be wounded; another 30,000 people were evicted from their homes and driven from their jobs, especially at Belfast’s shipyards. Collins arranged for guns, at least some of which were supplied by the IRA in Cork, to be smuggled across the Border. Collins was keen not to use any of the weapons he had obtained from the British which could easily be traced back to forces under his control. The First Northern Division of the IRA in Donegal was led by Commandant-General Joseph Sweeney who went on record stating: “Collins sent an emissary to say that he was sending arms to Donegal, and that they were to be handed over to certain persons  –  he didn’t say who they were – who would come with credentials to my headquarters. Once we got them we had fellows working for two days with hammers and chisels doing away with the serials on the rifles… About 400 rifles and all were taken to the Northern volunteers by Dan McKenna and Johnny [i.e. Seán] Haughey”.    (See also From Pogrom to Civil War by Kieran Glennon.) Eoin O’Duffy, who later led the Blueshirts, along with Collins and Haughey, was part of the operation to smuggle the IRA guns across the border. Another IRA man, Thomas Kelly, collected a consignment of 200 Lee-Enfield rifles and ammunition from Eoin O’Duffy. In an affidavit Kelly swore many years later, he revealed that the “rifles and ammo were brought by Army transport to Donegal and later moved into County Tyrone in the compartment of an oil tanker. Only one member of the IRA escorted the consignment through

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    SHINE A UV LIGHT FOR FREEDOM

    by

    Once upon a time the US produced lacerating protest singers. Not any more. It has fallen to the Irish to fill the gap. Paddy Goodwin and the Holy Ghosts’ new song, ‘Jesus Is My Vaccine’, was written in anger at the treatment meted out by the knuckle-dragging neanderthals who abused nurses during the recent anti-lockdown protests in the US. Goodwin constructed the piece with his collaborator Enda Whyte in the hope that it would be woven into a video of clips and quotes from the heart of Trump-land. Then, Irish artist Conor Casby (famed for his painting of Brian Cowen) provided a picture depicting Trump as a Plague doctor. (See:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Cowen_nude_portraits_controversy) The plague doctors were charlatans who went around with hocus pocus snake-oil cures for the bubonic plague. Most of them helped spread the plague rather than cure it. Remind you of anyone? The combination of slide guitar, coruscating lyrics, Casby’s artwork and the video clips can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MthVGsirxhM

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