(Incorporating "Irish Freedom")

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Eire Faces Hard Year WAGE, PRICE PROBLEMS

By Our Political Correspondent

] 9 4 7 THREATENS to be one of the most difficult years for

Eire since the outbreak of war. Government expecta-

tions that the end of hostilities would ease the economic burden

on the country have not been fulfilled.

Fue l , w h e a t and r ising prices a re the i t e m s which g ive rise to most anx ie ty . T r a n s p o r t and indus t ry , fo r which big p lans of deve lopmen t and r e - e q u i p m e n t have been proposed, will be severe ly hand i capped by lack of coal, a n d m a n y domest ic g ra tes wil l go sho r t of tu r f th is w in te r .

Shor tage of home-grown wheat, due to fall in acreage sown last year and decline in imports, has forced the Government to rat ion bread—a measure avoided even at the worst periods of the war blockade. Prices continue to rise despite forecasts

tha t the reverse would take place as sup-plies of raw mafer ia ls improved. Food, clothing and rent levels are hit t ing new peaks.

Profits Soar

Labour circles are worried a t the way in which wages lag fu r the r and fur the i be-hind profits.

It is est imated tha t the workers' real s t anda rds of living have fallen 10 to 20 per cent, since 1939, wh:ie the big farmers , merchan t s and manufac tu re r s are growing richer t h a n ever.

Government statistics show t h a t prices have r isen 70 per cent., profits 50 per cent, and wages only 25 per cent, during the past seven years.

Banks' Big Profits TRISH banks are doing very well * out of the economic emergency. Last year the Bank of Ireland made a profit of £378,000. The Provincial Bank made £56,000, the Hibernian Bank £90,000, the National Bank £98,000. Yet recently these banks declared they were too poor to give their staff increased wages.

Gaelic Scholar Dead

[ R I S H let ters have suffered grievous loss ' th is m o n t h by the dea th of three well-

known writers who have been closely as-sociated with the literary and language re-vivals of the pas t thirty years.

Forrest Reid, who died last mon th in Belfast, was au thor of the novels "Brian Westby" and "Peter Waring" and critical studies of W. B. Yeats and Wal te r de la Mare. A painstaking and poetic writer he never received the recognition he de-served.

Celtic Revival Ernest Boyd, whose death is reported

from New York, wrote copiously on the Irish l i terature between 1916-1920. His "Ire-land's Li terary Renaissance" a n d "Con-temporary D r a m a in Ireland" a re stand-ard works of reference.

Gaelic scholarship has lost one of its brilliant exponents by the dea th of that famous Kerry character, Sean Kavanagh.

Sean ("An Cota") was known f rom Dun-quin to Donegal as one of the foremost Gaelic philologists in Ireland. A great character and story-teller he had been en-gaged for several years in compiling an English-Irish dictionary.

Fair Share

Banking and Stock Exchange figures, which are a good index of business pro-fits, showed striking increases last year. Profits of the Bank of Ireland, Provincial, Hibernian and National Bank totalled £622.000. An "Irish Times" survey of nearly 250 shares quoted on the Dublin Stock Exchange shows tha t only 24 shares fell, while over 220 rose in value during 1946.

Labour must continue to press the Gov-ernment to ensure tha t the workers, small farmers, and professional people get a fair share of the National Income.

Belfast Police Chief

'Hangman of the Greeks' r r H E Swiss Labour paper, 'Voix Ouvriere,'

published the following "appreciat ion" of R.U.C. Chief, Sir Charles Wickham, un-der the title "Sir Charles Wickham, terror of the Ir ish people, h a n g m a n of the Greeks": "At the British Labour Party Congress one of the delegates gave some information about the head of the Greek Security Police, Sir Charles Wickham.

"Sir Charles Wickham was appointed In 1920 Chief of Police in Northern Ireland, and In tha t capacity subjected the coun-try to a reign of the darkest terror .

"He organised special n igh t patrols, which traversed the streets of Belfast , ar-resting Ir ish patriots and executing them on the spot. T h e Irish were in the habit of saying when they heard rifle shots, 'Wickham Is killing again to-night. '

TORTURED PATRIOTS "Wickham had the custom of getting

Irish pa t r io ts tied behind police cars and dragging them through the cent ra l s t reets of Belfast to teiTorise the populat ion. At that time even Labour M.P.s «and trade union delegates were arrested by t h e police and expelled.

"It is not surprising—said our British in-fo rmant—tha t the Greek Government is using terrorist methods ever since our Gov-ernment sent Sir Charles Wickham to or-ganise t ha t country's police.

"To carry out his work the better, Sir Charles Wickham has taken with h im 30 of the cruellest gangsters tha t he had a t his disposal In Belfast ."

VISAS TO U.S.A. r r i W E L V E THOUSAND applications for J - visas to the U.S.A. are reported to have been m a d e to the American consul in Dub-lin. So great has been the rush to get to America t h a t the consulate staff have been unable to cope with it.

Emigran ts to the U.S.A. are admitted on the quota system, and are usually required to be In good health and to possess at least £200. They must also have a relative or frietid in the U.S.A. who will vouch for them.

In 1946, 5,713 passports and 29,405 travel permits were Issued in Dublin for travel to Bri ta in .

Dublin Conference

200,000 Call for Price Control

•^WO hundred thousand Irish con-sumers were represented at a

Conference called by the Dublin Trades Council to protest against high prices. w

Labour, trade union, parents ' associa-tion, Irish housewives, old I.R.A.. Women 's social and progressive league, tenants , pro-fessional and service organisations sent delegates. A strong plea for the uni ty of the Labour Movement was made by Mr. J o h n Swift, pres ident I r ish T.U.C. who said that the workers were about to launch an offensive aga ins t t h e high cost of liv-ing. During the pas t seven years wages had lagged behind both profits and prices.

Mrs. Tweedy, Irish housewives, pressed for control of essential foodstuffs, rent and* clothing. The price of vegetables was ex-orbitant , meat was becoming a luxury; new clothing was so expensive that the average worker could seldom afford to buy it.

Delegates to the conference agreed t h a t the rise of prices was due not only to t h e increased cost of r aw materials but also to profiteering by manufacturers , r anch-ers and big shopkeepers.

Story of an Apple

Huge profits are being made by whole-sale merchants. Sena tor Luke Dufy, La-bour Party secretary, told the Senate last mon th how a W e s t m e a t h fa rmer who sold apples had split one of them and inserted a note stating: "I sold th is apple for Id. How much did you pay for it?" The far -mer got a reply f rom a Dublin woman say-ing she had paid 9d. for it.

The farmer did t h e same thing with a head of cabbage, which he sold for a fa r -thing. He got a no te to say it had been bought for fourpenJe.

Co-operative frui t and vegetable marke t -ing is part of Labour's programme, backed by an ever increasing number of Irish consumers.

NEW IRISH PLAYS IN LONDON

T ONDON is expecting an invasion of Irish plays this mon th . Wal-

ter Macken's "Galway Handicap" (produced at the Abbey as "Mungo s Mansions") will be produced at the Lyric, Hammersmi th with a cast headed by tha t Irish veteran, Ar-thur Sinclair. Macken's play, which is a study of tenement life in Gal-way, has recently been published by MacMillans. The author is hailed as the O'Casey of the West.

Producer will be Irene Henchel, wife of Ivor Brown, well-known drama critic and now editor of the "Observer."

All-Irish Cast Michael McLlammoir, t he Dublin

Gate Theat re ' s famous actor-de-signer-playwright, will appear in his own "III Met By Moonlight" a t the Vaudeville. Most of the original cast will come with him with the excep-tion tha t Maureen Cusack will take the par t played by Ginet te Maddeil In Dublin.

Paul Vincent Carroll is expecting to have two of his plays produced in London shortly. Liam Redmond, who has just finished filming in "Captain Boycott," will head an all-Irish cast in "The White Steed" which is to be produced by Shelagh Richards at the Embassy in March. Carroll 's "The Wise Have Not Spoken" will open at the Arts on February 4th.

Though it will warm the hear t s of Irish exiles in London to see some of their own Dublin favouri tes again, and it will be interest ing to see how the native Irish d r a m a compares with the current British produc-tions, those who want to see a re-vival of the Irish d r a m a must be seriously concerned at th is wholesale emigration of the country 's best pro-ducers, actors and actresses.

Film Contracts Clearly there will be no hoped for

revival on the scale of the Abbey Theatre thi r ty years ago so long as there is no regular repertory com-pany in Dublin whicfi can develop the playwrights so obviously lacking at the moment . It is a pity to see such fine actors as Cyril Cusack and F. J. McCormick forced for financial reasons to take small pa r t s in such plays as "Hungry Hill" and "Captain Boycott" The deterioration of t ha t great Abbey actor, Barry Fitzgerald, while in Hollywood should be a warning to our younger Irish play-ers who may feel a t t rac ted by the bright lights and big salar ies offered by Mr. Ar thur Rank.

Fuel Crisis Threat J 'RELAND is th rea tened with a serious

fuel crisis owing to the cutt ing down of British supplies and the lack of good turf . Last year's turf supplies were cur-tailed by bad weather, and 1947 stocks will not be available unt i l J u n e or July.

It is feared in Dublin tha t the present turf ration of one ton a month cannot be maintained. Decline In quality as well as quant i ty is also expected.

a

Shannon Scheme

About one hundred thousand tons of cu t turf are lying on the bogs but It would re-quire several weeks' dry weather to make

them fit for use. Gas and electricity sup* plies a re also severely affected by th shortage of good British coal. It is no generally realised by the public tha t t h Shannon scheme only supplies par t t • Eire's electricity, and t h a t Dublin 1 largely dependent upon the coal-burnin.^ Pigeon House for power and light.

Northern I re land is also facing a di f f cult winter a n d spring. Negotiat ions hars , recently taken place between Belfast an. , Dublin with a view to get t ing co-operatl<r • ^ on the provision of electricity for boter1

par t s of the country. * Labour circles are pressing that an ajp

proach be mad* to the Polish G o v e r n i n g with a proposal for th* exchange of l r i & cattl* for Polish coal.

THE IRISH DEMOCRAT February, 1947

BRISTOL HOSTELS NEED CLEAN-UP

Sheets not Changed for Fifteen Weeks

fa t 'l y W H E N IN L O N D O N | |

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JAMES CONNOLLY—

THE FORERUNNER

p O P I E S of this new biography ^ by R. M. Fox, which will be

reviewed in our next issue, can be obtained from . . .

THE BOOK DEPT., "IRISH DEMOCRAT"

Price: 11/- post free (Cash with order, please).

POETS' CONCERT * • — LESLIE DAIKEN will present

PROGRAMME OF HIS POEMS at

Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London, W.C.I

On FEBRUARY 10th, at 7.30 p.m. Tickets 6/-, 3/-, 2/- and II-

(From Workers' Music Association, 132 Westbourne Terrace, W.2)

" C I N C E private enterprise took over the administration of these hostels, ^ living conditions have steadily deteriorated," This was the opinion

expressed by Mr. Hugh Sweeny, chairman of the Welfare Committee in a hostel at Bedminster, Bristol, which I visited recently.

His opinion was unanimously sha red by the men a t tha t hostel, and a t 47 Avon-mouth Road. Bristol, and as I cha t t ed with the men, heard their views and looked over the camps, it became abundant ly clear tha t conditions were deplorably bad.

At the first- hostel I visited (Avonmouth Road) only 15 sheets were available for some 60 men, and those fo r tuna te enough to get sheets had long ceased to use them, owing to the fac t tha t they had no t been changed for more t han 10 weeks. The sheets were almost black; if one pic tures the workers coming home a f t e r a day knocking down ceilings or working in a foundry, it is easy to imagine the fil thy state of the bed linen af ter a period of weeks.

Dirty Sheets This Avonmouth hostel and the one at

Bedminster are owned by the Bristol Cor-poration and administered by Mr. Youlton for the Corporation, the men told me.

Recently their rents have been increased, and to-day s tand at 31/- and 30/- per week respectively.

Jus t why there should be dif ferent r en t s a t tire two hostels the men did not know. As I held up my trousers and waded through the s t agnan t water on the floor of the lavatory, as I looked a t the sheets, once white, now black, I thought of the affect tha t these bad conditions mus t be having on the hea l th of the men.

Changes Demanded "Of course we have demanded t h a t our

sHeets be changed a t least once a fort-night," Mr. Sweeny said in reply to my question, and one Galway man in te r rupted to add: "Mine have not been changed for 15 weeks. I 've been here 15 m o n t h s and never had a change of blankets. Should a new man arrive, his bed is made up with the same blankets and linen t h a t have been on the bed for the use of t he previous resident.' '

Onslow Square ¥> EPORTS continue to reach "Ir ish

Democrat" of bad conditions in London and Provincial hostels. Next month we hope to report on Lon-don's biggest hostel at Onslow Sq. Ron Williams, N.F.B.T.O. will also write a special article on the f u t u r e of hostels in Britain.

Mr. O'Donnell, a Clare m a n f r o m Dev's constituency,-said t ha t in his hos te l they asked Mr. Youlton about conditions, and he blamed the Bristol Corporat ion; the men were now trying to get in touch with the appropriate Corporation d e p a r t m e n t to take up the mat te r with them.

Not Men's Fault These insani tary conditions a re not the

fault of the hostel residents, for dur ing my visit I saw the men a t Avonmouth hostel hard a t work paint ing and decorat ing their hostel for Chris tmas.

Far away from their homes and their families, they were doing their best to add a festive touch to their drab conditions.

The men are doing everything possible to ma in t a in s t anda rds of decency and cleanliness under very difficult conditions, but they are f rus t ra ted at every tu rn .

Need for Policy These bad hostel conditions a re by no

means an isolated case. Clearly some-thing mus t be done quickly. T h e British Labour Government has a responsibility towards these men who are playing an im-por tant pa r t in the vital hous ing drive and whose labour is so much needed for the success of the home re-construction programme and the export drive. The Government must face up to i ts responsi-bility. I t mus t see tha t cer ta in definite minimum s t anda rds are laid down for every aspect of hostel conditions a n d wel-fare.

Con noil/ and Workers' Press

C O N N O L L Y A S S O C I A T I O N

The London Branch of the Connolly Association has arranged

A S E R I E S O F L E C T U R E S Every other Thursday at the

GARIBALDI CAFE (Laystall Street; about 50 yards along Clerkenwell Road from Holborn Hall)

"Is Ireland Democratic?" (Feb. 13th) "How to Unite Ireland" (Feb. 27th)

COME ALONG AND BRING YOUR FRIENDS !

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middle-aged gentleman and son, own house, large garden, four mins. Station, 40 mins. L,pndbn. Ideal for gentleman retiring; every conveni-ence—Write Box A 10, "Irish Demo-crat."

"THE Editor welcome! letters, 1 poems, articles, et»., for pub-

llcption. Letters slibiilcr prefer-ably lie short and W^tteii on one side of the paper only. Name* and addresses, not nece* sitliy for ptHflieailoti, must bo eftiltteV.'

JAMES CONNOLLY believed t h a t the Socialist Press was one of the f inest

weapons possessed by the working class. Much of his best theoretical wri t ing .ap-peared in the columns of "The Harp ," "The Irish Worker" and "The Workers ' Republic." He is said to have wri t ten artices, hand-set the type and sold the papers in the street himself.

Writing in "The Workers' Republic," he said: "In the long r u n , t h e f reedom of a nation is measured by the freedom of its lowest class; every upward s tep of t ha t class to the possibility of possessing h igher things raises the s tandard of the na t ion in the scale of civilisation; every t ime t h a t class is beaten back into the mire, the whole moral tone of the na t ion suffers. Condemned and despised though he be, yet the rebellious docker is the sign and symbol to all t h a t an imperfect civilisa-tion cannot last, for slavery cannot sur-vive the awakened intelligence of the slave."

In "Forward," the Glasgow Socialist Journal, he defined his at t i tude to patr iot-ism: "I make no war upon pat r io t i sm; never have done. But against the patr iot-ism of capital ism—the patr iot ism which makes the interest of the capi tal is t class the supreme test of duty and r ight—I placc the patriotism of the working class, the patriotism which judges every public act by its affect upon the the for tunes of those who toil. T h a t which is good for the work-ing class I esteem patriotic, bu t t h a t par ty or movement is t he most perfcct embodi-ment of patr iot ism which most successfully works for the conquest by the working class ol. the control of the destinieB of the land wherein they labour,

"To me, therefore, the Socialist of another country is a fellow-patriot, as the capitalist* of my own count ry is a na tura l enemy. I regard each na t ion as the possessor of a definite contr ibut ion to the common stock of civilisation, and I regard the capitalist class of each nation as being the logical and na tura l enemy of the nat ional culture which const i tutes tha t definite contribution.

"Therefore, the stronger I a m in my affection for nat ional tradition, l i terature, language and sympathies, the more firmly rooted I am in my opposition to t h a t capi-talist class, which in its soulless lust for power and gold, would braze the nat ions as in a mortar ."

Cross-Channel Postal Services Reduced

In connection with the reduct ion ol cross-Channel L.M.S. services between Dun Laoghaire and Holyhead f rom Janu-ary 20th to March 29th, the Depa r tmen t of Posts and Telegraphs announces that there will be only one despatch and arri-val of cross-Channel mails daily (including Sundays) during the period.

These are : outward from Dun Laoghaire 8.30 p.m.; inwards arriving Dun iAOghaire 6.45 p.m. The latest times for posting out-ward correspondence are—at the G.P.O. and College Green, Dublin, 6 p.m., and Pearse Street P.O. 6.30 p.m.

Cross-Channel air mail services are un-changed. The latest times for posting for these services arc- -G.P.O. and College Green 1 p.m. and Pcarse Street 2 p.ra,

Reader s Rostrum

POLITICAL OSTRICHES 1 »FADING in the -Democra t" th va:i-

ous speeches at the "End Pa r . ! ' i on" rally, held in London recently, I can only sum up each speaker as the proverbial "ostrich which buried its head in the sand."

Every man on tha t p la t form knew the only peaceful way to end paitition, namely, a big Labour ma jo r i ty both north a n d sou th of the Border, marching together with this great Labour Government in Bri ta in .

But I suppose the Labourites who a t -tended were either a f r a id or ashamed to say so much, in case they would offend the narrow-minded National is t from the nor th , or the Green, White, and Yellow Tories f rom the south.

If we want to smash part i t ion sincerely, we mus t make it a Lef t Wing movement, and remove all reactionaries, no m a t t e r what colour they come in.

H. TITLEY. Nott ingham.

* * * BORDER

I T would be wrong to assume tha i t he J - Border question can be solved at West-minster , or tha t its mere removal to-mor-row would lead to a uni ted Ireland.

De Valera and Brooke derive much of thei r political power f rom the Border issue. I t is also the main p lank of the Friends of I re land and the Anti-Parti t ionists, who by their short-sighted policy are making more difficult the fight for uni ty of the Nor-the rn Ireland Labour Movement.

No one denies t ha t a Police State exists in Northern Ireland, or t ha t the Border is a product of Imperialism, but it would be foolish to think t h a t a stroke of the p ' n could cure the evils of past generations. I t is equally foolish to delude ourselves t h a t Dev's Catholic capi tal is t society is so much better than Brooke's Protestant capi-talist society.

W h e n we have Socialist governments in Ulster and Eire, a uni ted Ireland will auto-matically follow. E.G. Belfast.

* * * COUNTRY PAPERS

"VI OST of us have taken it for g ran ted tha t our I r ish papers exist only to

serve the interests of the nation. Your admirable factual survey in the J a n u a r y issue is therefore most timely in revealing t h a t our so-called Nat ional Press, like t h e Tory Press in Bri tain, is simply a class weapon operating in the interests of t he capitalists.

T h e point of your article would, how-ever, have been driven home more forcibly had it included some reference to t he policies and owners of t h a t other section of our Press—the county papers. Many of these are not as innocuous as they seem, and invariably reflect the reactionary out-look of the larger papers .

I suggest tha t you would be doing the working class a service if. in some f u t u r e issue, you devoted space to a review of the local Press.

W. J. BURKE. London, W.I.

EOIN O 'MAHONY

C*AN it be established whether Mr. Eoin ' O'Mahony, who is taking a kindly in-

terest in Irish Republ ican prisoners de-ta ined in Britain, h a s severed his connec-tion with Fianna Pai l? He was a candi -da te for tha t Par ty in the local election in 1945. In view of t he fact tha t political prisoners are being held in Ireland, t he re would be no consistency in his a t t i tude unless he has left the F ianna Pail Pa r ty . A. BYRNE. Dublin.

CONNOLLY'S BOOKS

/ <OULD you possibly use your influence " to get supplies of Connolly's "Labour in Ir ish History" into the shops in Bel-fas t? I know a lot of young men just be-ginning to take an interest in Socialism, and they cannot get any of Connolly's works. This Is a great shame, and I have been told tha t the faul t lies in Dublin.

SEAN OG." Belfast.

February, 1947 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT 3

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S i x M o n t h s 2 / -

KEEP THE PRICES DOWN C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S to the Labour

Party branches, trade unions and consumer groups who have led the campaign to reduce prices in Eire. It has long been scandalous to see the way in which manufacturers, ranch-ers and shopkeepers have combined in an unholy alliance to use the war emergency to squeeze out the last drop of profit from their products.

At last Labour has begun to real-ise that it is no use winning higher wages if consumer goods are per-mitted to soar in price. It is most welcome, too, to see how the various consumer organisations, housewives, parents, countrywomen's guilds, are co-operating with the political and industrial wings of the Labour move-ment. It is precisely this unity of all the exploited forces which wil l com-pel the Government to take action to prevent any further widening of the gap in the living standards between rich and poor.

The next step must be an all-out offensive to raise the wage-levels of the lower-paid workers, mostly un-skilled and women, and a continued campaign to reduce the prices of necessities by subsidies and the intro-duction of utility models, and if necessary a further extension of rationing. The Co-operative move-ment, already so powerful in Britain and Europe, must be extended to all branches of production and distribu-tion in Ireland.

Only thus can the living standards of the working people be protected from the grasping hands of the profit-makers.

•

WORKERS' PRESS I R E L A N D ' S capitalist press is owned

by bankers, ranchers and wealthy businessmen whose main interest in Iif6 is to increase their profits and protect the interests of their own class. In contrast, our Republican and Labour Press, s m a l l a n d struggling though it has been, has always spoken for the mass of the people, it has ben journals such as the "Northern Star," " N a t i o n , " "Workers' Republic" and "An Phob-lacht" which have truly represented the aspirations of our small farmers, workers and intellectuals.

To-day, Ireland has five s u c h progressive papers, " Irish People," "Unity," "Irish Review," "Northern Star" and "Irish Democrat." It is the duty of our readers to see that these papers get political and financial support. Send a subscription to our Fighting Fund to-day.

None-striking Teachers Get Bonus

Over fr.rty teachers who remained at work du. ing the strike of nat ional school t eachers in Dublin last year have been given bonuses by the Depar tmen t ol Edu-cat ion, it was stated recently.

Some of the teachers were members of t h e Irish National School Teachers ' Orga-nisat ion. They were expelled from the Or-ganisat ion during the strike.

It is reported tha t the bonus given by t h e Depar tment amounted to £20 in the Case of principal teachers, and £10 in the Case of ass is tant teachers.

A SOCIALIST LOOKS AT PARTITION

Labour Will I iiite E V E R Y Irishman is, at least

theoretically, against parti-tion. Even a perfervid Orange-man cannot defend two Gov-ernments in one small country as something desirable.

Every man is against a headache . But the first doctor you meet will tell you that a t tacking a symptom does not cure a disease. You mus t trace it to its source and at tack that .

Then those eloquent ones who cry "Down with par t i t ion" amid the acc lamat ion of vast throngs might just as well shout "To hell with headaches." We all agree. But what do we do then?

Fortunately some people do t ry to make a reasoned analysis. A cleverly written article in the "Ir ish Review" approaches the problem along classical lines and at-tempts a classical remedy. Michael Ryan tells us t ha t the significance of t he 1921 treaty lies in its beheading of t he social movement within the ranks of republican-ism. His promise is of course incorrect. The treaty made Republicanism f rom tha t time on, an unsuitable vehicle for the social movement, and this doomed it poli-tically.

Ireland has suffered, not f rom the de-cline of republicanism, but from the failure to create an al ternative popular movement .

But once the premise is accepted, let us see what follows. The implication is tha t parti t ion will be abolished when a re-publican movement containing a social movement appears .

Fianna Fail Policy This desire to recreate the pas t leads to

some sweeping negations. "No solution is possible without the aid of t he Brit ish Labour Government ," and "It is useless . . to say t ha t what is needed is a Labour Government nor th and south. The re will be no Labour Government North and South while Partit ion lasts." He concludes "A united I re land under Mr. de Valera would be an enormous advance in Irish politics."

But Mr. R y a n then says t h a t Mr. de Valera is responsible for "unemployment , a feudal system of education a n d a low s tandard of living" and much else. "These defects are obvious to the Nor the rn wor-kers" and of course they do no t believe tha t union wiUi these evils would be an enormous advance. Worse still "The de Valera Government has capi tu la ted on parti t ion' ' and "will make no ser ious ef-

Ireland fort to remove it." and in any case, a move-ment aga ins t partition, Mr. Ryan thinks, would get no support in Bri ta in unless it was led by Labour. So Labour must, it is

Controversy continues to rage around the issue of

Partition.

DESMOND GREAVES contributes this article for discussion and i n v i t e s comments from our readers.

implied, fight to unite I re land under de Valera, for there can be no Labour Govern-ment while Partit ion lasts, and Mr. de Valera h a s capituatcd.

Workers' Struggle He a t t e m p t s to escape f rom this vicious

circle by demanding tha t a "socialist Bri-tain" should assist Eire to a t t a in a higher s tandard of living. The struggle of the Irish workers lighting thei r way to poli-tical power nor th and south ("Labour Gov-ernments nor th and south") is by contrast described as "an alibi for doing nothing."

Then Mr. Ryan pushes the errors which have befogged Irish Labour politics for 25 years to the i r logical conclusion by saying if (from the text he m e a n s sinoe) Labour canot achieve power, i ts s t ruggle must be a t rade union one—the political struggle must be abandoned. So now all errors may be repeated.

I t is easy to criticise. Bu t what is to be done ins tead?

Let it first be stated t ha t the mass movement of the Irish people led by the working class is the source from which all fu tu re good in Ireland will come—not from f ront ie r ad jus tmen t s between capi-talist Governments, not from charity from England.

Words and Deeds The chief obstacle to the Reunion of Ire-

land is t h a t a majori ty of Northerners be-lieve t h a t the advantages promised from Irish uni ty are more likely to be gained from union with Britain. How can they be

persuaded otherwise? By words or by facts.

What fac t could be more t e " : n g than the ups tuge of a great m a s s movement in Eire demanding t h a t the capital is t class cease enr iching

themselves at the expense of the people, a n d tha t living s t andards should a t once be raised a t least to those of Northern I re land? Would not such a movement lend redoubled s t rength to the a r m s of democrats in the six counties who would demand the ending of ger rymander-ing, and a fair chance for all, including a n improvement of the i r own conditions?

I t is inevitable t h a t two such movements should tend to fuse and become one. Uni ty develops in s t ruggle for a common objec-tive. This has been proved by the achieve-m e n t of unity between Protes tant a n d Catholic workers in Belfast in the i r s t ruggle against the boss.

Ireland's Foreign Policy

But other a ims can unite North a n d South besides the s t ruggle for higher living s tandards . These a i m s are those of world democracy. Brooke in the North and de Valera in the South a re holding the people back from par t ic ipa t ion in the s t ruggle fo r these. We canot say "End par t i t ion first, and we will t hen play our par t ." T h a t would be sheer abst ract ion.

It is participation in the struggle which will end parti t ion.

Imagine a powerful movement n o r t h a n d south, not only demanding social ad-vances at home, bu t calling for a b reak with Salazar, Franco, Tsaldanis, and a t o m diplomacy and firm fr iendship w i th t h e U.S.S.R. a n d the new demo-cracies. Imagine the Ir ish people de-manding unity in order to do the very th ings the Bri t ish people themselves w a n t to see done! Would t h a t not win suppor t in Britain and m a k e Ir ish independence a n internat ional quest ion once more.

When the s t ruggle is so far advanced a s to raise the ending of partit ion in th i s concrete way, the I r i sh will fuse with t h e Bri t ish struggle a n d the British people will insis t on doing the i r pa r t to remedy t h e injust ice of 1921.

Parti t ion is the re fore no t an issue by it-self. It is a symptom, a symptom of quies-cence. Let the I r i sh people tu rn their eyes away from the pas t with its outmoded slogans and see its glorious future .

In tha t fight, par t i t ion, together with many other ills, will be swept away.

Highlights by 'Red Hugh'

THE 'E IREISH' G U A R D S r p H E Six County Diehards ' craze to J - ignore reali ty and not only cut themselves off f rom the other 26, but kid themselves on tha t the other 26 do not exist, is, I hear, being carr ied a stage fu r the r with a proposal to change the name of the Royal Irish Fusil iers—the Faugh a Bal laghs- -to Royal Ulster Fusi-liers. A bailot is in progress a t the moment among officers and men.

This process will no doubt resul t in time in the Irish Guards e i ther being the Ulster Guards, or, if they remain "Ir ish" being reserved, exclusively for re-cruits f rom the 26 Counties—in which case logic should have its way a n d the name changed to "Eireish" Guards . For t ha t ma t t e r the Faugh's new name, to be accurate, should be "Royal Six County Fusiliers." *

Actually, the War Office would be ill-advised to pander to this super-"nat ion-alism" of the Six Countyites, for the fact is tha t far more men from Sou the rn l ie-land served in the Fusiliers in the last war than did men from Nor the rn Ire-land.

\ND. talking about the Fusiliers, it

may be a coincidence or some War Office wallah's idea of a good joke, but the fact remains tha t the r eg imen t is at present mounting Border guard—on the f ront ier between Austria and Jugoslavia. Makes them feel at home, maybe!

There are 5,000 impatient people In Sir Basil Brooke's dominion—would-be emigrants to Canada 's wide open spaces. Some of them have been wai t ing for years to shake the dust of the i r nat ive land ofr their heels. The trouble is ship-ping. The majori ty of them a re skilled ar t i sans and land workers, and no doubt their depar ture will be welcomed by the

Government . At least, it solves the prob-lem of finding them work a t home. Rather naively, the "Belfast Weekly Telegraph" reports tha t they are anxious to clear out "for the sake of their chil-dren." I t will be a big day for the North when the natives stay a t home for the same reason -but pe rhaps tha t ' s being Utopian. U I X County Unionists continue to re-* ' ceive hard criticism f rom Six County Unionists. If I were to say some of the things they say about each other I would be accused of bias. Latest spate of plain speaking to hand gushed forth a t the annua l meeting of the Central-Armagh Unionist Association, where one local leader accused Colonel Hall-Thomp-son, Minis ter of Education, of being a dictator.

Mr. J o s h u a Bell, the critic, was a dele-gate to the recent annua l meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council, and here is what he h a d to say about t h a t : "The en-tire proceedings were devoted to Belfast businessmen grinding their own particu-lar axes. When I protested a t this, and asked w h a t I was going to tell Armagh Unionists Col. Hail-Thompson replied: 'I don't care : go home and tell them what you like.' "

All th is led to a serious r i f t in the lute at the Ulster Unionist Council. The Co. Armagh delegates left the meeting in protest, a n d refused, when pleaded with, to re turn to it. The Armagh stalwarts got their own back, at their own meeting by adopt ing unanimously a r e s o l u t i o n demanding t h a t the ga l lan t Colonel be removed f rom the job of cha i rman of the Ulster Council, and describing him as "the greates t dictator the Council ever sat under." Hard words by comrades, eh?

V O U may recall t h a t last month I J- mentioned t h a t Pakis tan was the

solution of India 's difficulties most fa-voured by "Ulster" partit ionists. The s ame goes for Palest ine. Parti t ion is ap-paren t ly the panacea for all political puzzles. Mr. Conolly Gage, Westminster Member for South Belfast , doesn't pu t a tooth in it. "Par t i t ion, similar to what happened in I re land is the only solution to the Palestine problem," he told his const i tuents . So now we know.

T h i s same gent leman seems to suffer f r o m a short memory, as well as a simpli-fied outlook on world problems. Attack-ing the Labour Government , he declared "Unionists want to see men and women mas te r s of their own fate, with every-body free to buy thei r own house with-ou t being called a capital ist . National-ism is just a pretence. The time will come when we will sweep out the Soeial-is ts and bring the country back to pros-peri ty."

MY recollection of the state of Bri tain - the last time the Unionists ruled

t h e roost is t ha t the workers were in very little danger of being accused of be-ing capitalists. In fact , it took ail the in-fluence of tile late Lord Craigavon to keep the Six Counties f rom being called a "special area"—which was the camou-flage of the day for derelict area, with widespread unemployment, malnutr i t ion a n d poverty. He m u s t think tha t—un-like the elephant—Six Co. workers have shor t memories. I t will soon, I fear, t ake all Sir Bacil Brooke's influence to the same end. but for t he present he is able to shunt the ever-growing surplus of workers over to Socialist Britain, where unemployment is a t a minimum.

4 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT February, 1947

Dublin Workers Expose Price Racket CONSUMERS PROTEST

Irish girls are now being recruited in large numbers for Lancashire's cotton mills.

| { > O u r D u b l i n C o r r e s p o n d e n t T H E great struggle of our working class for a living wage goes on. It " has now been intensified by their determination to prevent the recent

wage and salary rises—nowhere as adequate as the workers had hoped— from being swallowed up in enormous increases in prices.

T h e Dubl in C e n t r a l B r a n c h of t h e L a b o u r P a r t y p a s s e d a s h a r p r e s o l u t i o n before C h r i s t m a s d e m a n d i n g s t r i c t price c o n t r o l . Th i s r e c e i v e d w i d e publ ic i ty .

ideas it used to shadow-box are now really down for the count in large p a r t s of Europe. Meanwhile, incidentally, i ts pro-fits have been increasing handsomely.

Anyway the "I.T." has now dug up a genuine German-Ir ishman from the Soviet Zone, escaped with hush-hush name " for obvious reasons."

Th i s gentleman is being well paid to tell the world what filthy bru tes the Russ i ans are. and that Goebbels was right a f t e r all. Well, well, we all known the "Irish T i m e s " record.

The cudgels were nexl t aken up by the Dublin Trades Council. At its January meeting it decided to call a conference of organisat ions of all kinds in Dublin to con-sider an all-in fight to bring the recent price rises to an end.

Consumers' Council Becoming aware of the fac t t ha t there

was genuine and widespread feeling on this subject, and tha t large numbers of organisat ions were responding to the Trades Council s call—women's organisa-tions, such as the Irish Housewives' Asso-ciation, Labour Par ty branches, trade union branches and others—the capitalist Press began also to pay a t ten t ion to the price problem.

The papers opened their columns to cor-respondents, who proved f rom all imagin-able angles that a gigantic price racket was in progress.

Already, as the result of a Labour motion in the Senate, calling for price con-trol, the Government has been forced to admit t h a t there is a good deal to be said for the public campaign. If th i s campaign is pressed energetically, th is semi-sympa-thetic a t t i tude of the Government can be converted, by force of popular opinion, into a series of activities for the benefit of the people whom they have so long mis-represented.

German Officer During the war the "Ir ish Times' ' tried

to represent itself as a heroic and often mar tyred champion of the anti-Pascist cause. Since the war it has been in hys-terics over the fact that the authori tar ian

A N U R S E HITS OUT " T U S T another Irish nurse" was a *" remark I heard which filled me

with resentment against the exploi-tation of Irish nurses in th is coun-try to-day.

Irish nurses have come to Britain a t t rac ted by better pay and condi-tions than those existing in Ireland. Advertisements promise an exalted and noble profession with good pay and t ime off.

All this too easily deceives the Irish girl into coming to England. The English girls stay outside the nurs ing profession because they are not prepared to work for a wage which seems so high to the Irish girl. The result is bi t terness on both sides which helps to main ta in the deplorable conditions existing in hos-pitals.

On duty the nurse mus t put up with harsh and domineering super-iors. Off-duty means split duty—that is a three-hour break between two short shifts, arranged for the con-venience of the officials and not the nurse herself. A nurse is not ex-pected to have any social life. Her free time is curtailed by petty re-strictions and she is never f ree from officialdom.

Pay is roughly three to five pounds a month , which must supply black stockings, shoes, books, examination fees, not to mention private neces-sities.

I mainta in that it is un fa i r to ex-ploit the youth of a country like this, and lead them on in ignorance of the real unsatisfactory conditions. There should be a general Inquiry Into the food and cater ing and the working week should be the 40-hour week. Above all, I should like to im-press the necessity of nurses Joining t rade unions. Under improved conditions the antagonism existing between Eng-lish and Irish nurses would disap-pear and these reforms would end the nursing shortage.

"PROBATIONER," Dartford, Kent.

Pantomime In Gaelic U O R the second successive year, the

people in Dublin are being given the opportunity of going to a pantomime done in Irish.

T h e language movement is in a bad way. I t s methods have become stereotyped; i ts personnel is for the most pa r t a l i t t le crusted. Too many people look upon it a s m e a n s for personal advancement , a n d in addi t ion to all this the economic condit ion of t he country, especially the Ir ish-speak-ing areas, is hardly conductive to t he rapid spread of the language. However, in thei r different ways, t he organisers of the pantomime at the Abbey and the manage -m e n t of the Galwav Gael ic Theatre, which is put t ing on t ransla t ions of modern plays with a punch, are doing something to rescue Irish from the place-hunters, a n d bring it back to the common people, who alone will ever resurrect it.

CO-OP. CAMPAIGN "I r i sh People," weekly organ of the

Labour Party, and the South Dublin Labour Party, have for some time been campaigning actively for the development of a Co-operative Movement in this city. T h e development of the batt le agains t ris-ing prices has intensified their campaign . Now the Irish Countrywomen's Associa-tion has undertaken the organisat ion of a Producers ' Co-operative Movement.

It is to be hoped tha t the modest suc-cesses already registered in South Dublin will stimulate the growth of a really effec-tive consumers' co-operative organisat ion in every district of the capital , and t h a t in due course this will be able to link up with successfull producers' co-operatives.

IR ISH CHESS P L A Y E R S DO W E L L J . J . O Hanlon (Dublin) finished in s ix th

place by winning four games in the Pre-mier Reserves 'A' competi t ion at the Has t -ing International Chess Congress. J . C. Hickey (Templemore) tied for four th place in M a j o r Section 'C' wi th four wins a n d a draw. And in First Class section 'A' Ever-a rd Woods (Six Counties) won fifth place with five wins.

FIVE DAY WEEK CALL IN BELFAST B

by our

Belfast Correspondent

E L F A 3 T Shipyard workers are well to the fore in the fight for the five-day week. The linen operatives are already working on this basis.

The engineering bosses, smarting under the new five-day agreement, are in a spiteful mood and are prepared to let even the most urgent contracts fall behind rather than pay overtime for Saturday work.

midable figure sallies forth to battle week in and week out, against "Eastern Euro-pean barbarians," numbskulls under the influence of the "old bore, Marx," against the English Labour Government, against Connollyism in Ireland, and ever and anon pours the vials of his terribly "cul-tured" wrath on certain evil spirits who move about Bloomsbury—a place which, the "News" readers are informed, is in-fested with Marxian sharks!

Bloomsbury Boys

It appears t ha t th is worthy fellow is the object of the hatred of most of l i terary London (God forgive them!) , for he tells his readers he "first came under the super-vision of the li terary Ogpu" with an article 10 years ago, telling the Marxian gaums what he thought of their bunkum. "Tha t was enough," he writes. "I was out; in fact, if l i terary Bloomsbury had got its hands on me I would now be serving my sentence in the salt mines." Wicked Bloomsbury, to vent such sadism on the Harmless, the Innocent, the Unknown!

All th is and much besides is regularly written in the columns of the "Ir ish News." The auld land is certainly still rearing them!

Shop s tewards have been to S to rmon t to press the claims of the 30,000 workers. The Ministry of Commerce answers t he dis-contented with the publication of trade figures for 1943-45, and the "Telegraph" healines this i tem "Ulster's t r ade is on Upgrade." These figure show the total trade for 1945 stood at £220.306.000. of which imports accounted for £107.100.000 and exports for £113,206.000.

The doubling of the trade figures of 1945 compared with 1939 is, however, t he result of war economy, and the growth of output in the war years is of little account in the face of the economic problems of the peace.

Misunderstood Genius

St. John Irvine, in his cont inuous broad-sides in the Tory "Telegraph" agains t everything pink, green or scarlet , is threatened with eclipse by Mr. Denis Ire-land, writing in t he Catholic " I r i sh News." Mr. Ireland, an ex-captain in the Bri t ish Army, th inks he is just as h a n d y with the nib as the redoubtable St. John , and is strongly convinced that he knows vastly more than most mortals in these wild parts.

Armed with such cocksureness, this for-

G I V E A T R E A T ! r p H E winter months are always our most J - difficult period for sales and collections

for our Fight ing Fund, so we are very glad to be able to report tha t the series of Dances now being organised by tfie Con-nolly Association in Central London are

How Much for Ireland? By M I K E QU1N

T H E long collection speech is done, And now the felt hat goes

From hand to hand its solemn way Along the restless rows.

In purse and pocket, fingers feel, And count the coins by touch.

Minds ponder what they can afford And hesitate—how much ?

In that brief, jostled moment when The battered hat arrives,

Try, brother, to remember that Some men put in their lives.

proving very successful money-raisers. However, we still have to rely mainly on individual contr ibutions f rom our readers and supporters who realise the importance of the task t ha t our paper is carrying out.

Here's a suggestion. Next time you are having a drink with your pals, why not stand a round to the "Irish Democrat"? Send us the proceeds—we promise not to swallow it, but our production costs are rising and tho paper swallows money easily enough!

Or again, if you are having a hand a t cards, why not donate the kitty to the paper, or better still, send us your win-nings? You can be sure the money is be-ing put to good use in your interests, so you will still be the winner.

Please send all contributions to th • Manager , Irish Democrat, ' Premier House, 150 Southampton Row, London, W.C.I.

Our most sincere thanks to: H. McCor-mack £1, Woolwich Branch, Connolly As-sociation £1, "Arklow" 1/-, Mrs. McNaul 5/-, Mrs. Radford 3/6, Peter Leyden 10/-, C. D. Greaves 30/-, P. J . Hope 5/-, P.O. £1, P. Early £1, London Branc.., Connolly As-sociation £1 0s. 3d., W. Barr 7/-, F.C. 10/-, Sooial Committee, Connolly Association £18, 8cots Democrat In R.A.F. 2/6. Total

£26 14s. 3d.

February, 1947 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT 5

O n 4ffiiai*<l f o r N | * s i l n IRISH AT JARAMA

By Frank Ryan Q N the road from Chinchon to Madrid, the road along which we had marched to

the attack three days before, we^e now scattered all who had survived—a few hundred

Britons, Irish and Spaniards. Dispirited by heavy casualties, by defeat, by lack of food, worn

out by three days of heavy fighting, our men appeared to have reached the end of their

resistance. .

. . . . A f t e r t h r ee d a y s of ter r i f ic s t rugg le , t h e supe r io r n u m b e r s , t he s u p e r i o r a r m a m e n t s of t h e Fascis ts , had r o u t e d t hem. All , as t h e y came back , h a d s imi lar s tor ies to tell , of c o m r a d e s dead , of cond i t ions t h a t w e r e m o r e t h a n flesh a n d blood could s t and , of w e a r i n e s s t h e y f o u n d h a r d to res is t .

I r e c o g n i s e d t h e y o u n g C o m m i s s a r of t h e S p a n i s h C o m p a n y . His h a n d b loody w h e r e a bu l l e t h a d g razed his pa lm, h e w a s f u m b l i n g n e v e r t h e l e s s w i t h h i s a u t o m a t i c , in t u r n t h r e a t e n -ing a n d p l e a d i n g w i t h h is m e n . I got M a n u e l t o ca lm him, a n d to te l l h i m w e w o u l d r a l l y e v e r y b o d y in a mo-m e n t .

G r o u p s w e r e ly ing a b o u t t h e road-s ide h u n g r i l y ea t ing o r a n g e s t h a t had b e e n t h r o w n to t h e m b y a pass ing l o r ry . I n o t e d w i t h s a t i s f ac t i on t h a t s o m e m e n had b r o u g h t d o w n s p a r e rifles. I f o u n d m y eyes s t r a y i n g to t h e h i l l s w e had vaca t ed , I h i t ched a r if le o n m y shoulder .

Song of Freedom

They stumbled to their feet. No time for barrack-square drill. One line of four.

FRANK RYAN , Irish leader in the International Brigade, wrote this stirring account of how the Republicans routed Franco at the gates of Madrid.

"Fall in behind us." A few were still on r ight .

The Road Back On we marched, back up the road,

nearer and nearer to the front . S t ragglers still in re t rea t down the slopes stopped in amazement , changed direction and r an up to join us; men lying exhausted on the roadside jumped up, cheered, and joined the ranks.

I looked back. Beneath the forest of up-raised lists what a s t range band! Un-shaven, unkempt , bloodstained, grimy. But full of f ight and marching on the road back.

Beside the road stood our Brigade Com-mander , General Gall. We had qui t ted; he had stood his ground. Was it that , or f ea r of his reprimands, t ha t made us give three cheers for him?

Our column had swelled in size dur ing the ha l t ; a group of Franco-Beige h a d joined us. We passed the Span i sh bat-talion. They caught the infect ion; they were singing, too, as they deployed to the

Spain under Franco is a vast prison-house. Jailed are Republicans, Trade Unionists,

Socialists, Communists.

the grass banks b?s.de the road, adjus t ing helmets and rifles.

Up the road towards the cook-house I saw Jock Cunningham assembling another crowd. Wc hurried up and joined forces. Together wc two m.uclied at the head.

Whatever popu'..r writers may say, nei ther your Briton nor your I r i shman is an exuberan t type. D r.ionstrativeness is not his dominating tra t. The crowd be-hind us was march r̂ .g silently. The thoughts in their m irJs could not be in-spiring ones. I remembered a trick of the old days when we w i e holding banned demonstra t ions . I jerked my head back: "Sing up. ye sons of guns!"

Quaver ing at first, then more lustily, then in one resounding c h a n t the song rose f rom the ranks. Bent backs straight-ened; t ired legs thumped sturdily; what had been a routed rabble marched to batt le again as proudly as they had done three days before. And the valley re-sounded to their singing:

"Unites the human race."

Send y o u r copy of the

IRISH DEMOCRAT home

when you've read it.

. . . . At last we are on the ridge, the ridge which we must never aga in desert. For, while we hold tha t ridge the Madrid-Valencia road is free.

Moorish Troops

. . . A burly French l ieutenant runs over to ask me for grenades. We have none. Waving a ridiculously tiny automatic , he advances shouting "En avan t ! " Ahead of us are some little cones of blue-red flame. Now we know where the Moorish and Ger-man machine-gunners are.

F la t on our bellies we push forward. Inch by inch. Darkness falls like a blanket. Still the fight goes on. Advancing! All the time advancing. As we crawl forward I suddenly realise with savage joy tha t it is we who are advancing, they who are being pushed back. And then, in actual d isappoin tment : "The bastards won't wait for our bayo-nets."

. . . . And thus the men who had been broken and routed a few hours before sett led down for the night on the ground they had conquered. They had smashed Fascis t hopes, smashed Fascist plans. Thence forward for more t h a n four mon ths they were to fight and many of them to die in these olive groves. But never again were the Fascists to rout them a t J a r a m a . They were to hold line and save Madrid.

Guerillas still fight for freedom in Spanish hills.

Jottings from a Norfolk Camp Site

(Concluded from last month) A T d i n n e r t h e s m e l l of c o o k i n g f o o d | costing th i r ty bob a w

a n d s w e a t y h u m a n i t y fills t h e *y c r o w d e d d i n i n g h a l l w i t h a s u f f o c a t -ing o d o u r a n d t h e r e a r e n u m e r o u s g r u m b l e s a n d c o m p l a i n t s By t h e m e n .

Comments like "It 's enough to sicken yer s tomach" and "Bury the cat — don't make bl—y soup out of h i m " fill the hall. So rest less do they become t h a t the welfare officer climbs on to a table and makes a speech, explaining t h a t on sites like these t h a t the difficulties of ca te r ing are enormous, t h a t there is a cont inual coming and going of workers and staff , in-evitable shor tages of supplies a n d equip-ment and so on. The men should co-operate more and not make difficulties for themselves. They have no real cause to grumble — indust r ia l canteens get double the normal ra t ions of sugar, but ter , meat and jam.

* * * r | 1 H A T night the recreation h u t is

crowded for the trade union meeting. Several local men and those living in digs or off the site leave early, but all t he camp residents, union secretaries, members of the production, welfare and canteen com-mittees, and the welfare officer—several hundred men in all—are present when the first speaker, the federation s teward, is introduced.

Welcoming the newcomers he explains how the bonus system works, how Irish and British po rke r s alike benefit f rom the concessions- the "guaranteed week" and the payment for "wet time which the unions have won during the war. He des-cribes how all workers on the site are covered by the Essential Works Order and tha t no one may leave his job wi thout the permission of the National Service ftfficer. and can only be dismissed for sef ious mis-conduct.

Then comes the brickies' s teward, a serious-faced, be-spectacled young com-munist, who speaks of the war and Fas-cism.

Big Money * N Irish s teward wants an ag i ta t ion for

-1' ' higher wages. He complains there is much loose talk of big money ea rned by building workers but he personally, though he is a skilled c ra f t sman and h a s often worked sixty and sixty-five hours a week, has never earned more than seven pounds a week. I t was time some of the gentle-men who pra ted about workers squander-ing their mbney on dnnk and dogs did a few sh i f t s themselves with a pick and shovel. How could they squander their money when they were sending home two and three pounds a week to their families, and their board and lodging on the site

eek, and income tax taking everything t h a t was left over? Wasn't there so much money off the site eveiy Friday ttrat the Post Office had to send a special van to car ry away the postal orders? A few hours in a mucky ditch and these f a t bellies would soon shut their gobs! i Loud applause) .

T T ECKLERS continually in ter rupt the ^ ' speech of the welfare officer. Why are there no covers on the lorries so t ha t the men going to work in the morning get soaking wet? When is he going to pro-vide rubber boots for cement workers? When will the sailing tickets be ready for men going on holiday? Why hasn ' t the welfaie commit tee met t ha t week? When will the new canteen manage r arrive? Will t h j i e be ex t ra cloth.ng coupons this year? When will he have some razor blades for sale? Could lie a r range for the tea round to be earlier in tile a f te rnoon?

All this talk and agi ta t ion is a 'new ex-perience for most of the I r ish workers.

Puzzled by the free-and-easy atmosphere they find it d is turb.ng a t first to realise they will not be automatical ly dismissed or deported if they criticise the manage-ment or complain tha t their billets are draughty.

Bonus System t S some hot-headed speaker denounces

- ' bonus system, timid members of the audience look apprehensively over their shoulders to see if the boss is listening. But bolder spir i ts soon realise that the trade union can protect them, t ha t labour is strong and well organised.

Knowledge of their new power and re-sponsibility f r igh tens seme men but acts as a s t imulan t to others.

In the new a tmosphere personalit es are t ransformed. Old fears and prejudices cast oft.

Tongues formerly t.ed in a knot of shy-ness are unexpectedly loosened, and the worker who speaks eloquently to a group of his comrades 011 the job soon finds him-self addressing a union meeting in the canteen. Individuals with qualities of lead-ership get elected 10 welfare and produc-tion committees. Men formerly contcnt to lay one brick on top of another find themselves arguing with the resident en-gineer about new ways of laying on a water supply or building a hangar .

And all this happens because the men have security and a few pounds in their poekets. berause they no longer fear the shadow of the unemployment queue round the corner.

F L A N N C A M P B E L L .

6 THE IRISH D E M O C R A T February, 1947

rish Motor Cyclists' High Book Reviews

Stories for M l Tas tes

Hopes tor

C H O I C E : Some new stories and prose, edited b y William Samsom, with drawings by Leonard Roso-man (Progress Publishing, 8/6).

J XVARIABLY the iirsi thing one looks at .n an aniho'.ogy are ihe contribut.ons

o: those writers whose names one has not s»i-n befoie. In this incident one turned ti sio.ies by Elsie Papadimitriou, Hum-phrey Hat man and P. H. Newby. and in-c. ed one was far from disappointed. The i . nge o.' the book, is enormous—from Eliza-fa Hi Bowen's V ctorian dressmaker to J o h n Sunmerf ie la ' s 1943 North African c . e i t ; f iom Arturo B a r e a s Spain to A ma Kavan 's New Zealand: from William P o ne. s Siberia to Prank O Connor's Ire-li .id. Mr. Sanscm has not e\'en committed u . e one mistake for which he could have e siiy been forgiven: tha t of filling his a nhology w:.h work in a similar style to t h a t in wnich he writes himself. There a ' e more women included than in most col-li r t .ens edin d by a man. and moie Irish-n.en than most Englishmen would have a . immed .

It is aiways nice to be able to speak well o! one's own. Leslie Daiken is a f requent Contributor to the "Irish Democrat," but h n \ e v e r it is only fair to state tha t a re-

wer in the "Patagonian Post" would, if he were doing his work seriously, have to call a t tent ion to his excellent story about t . :e loneliness of Jews. The other Ir ish story, "The Frying Pan." by Frank O'Con-n >r, must ranr;. I believe, with t h a t a ithor's best, and those who have read "Gues ts ol the Nation ' will know how good t l i a t is. I t .vould however. I believe, be impossible to publish it in Eire.

One could go on talking about this book a : great length. It is sufficient however to s t ress tha t its appearance marks a definite improvements on the usual "New Writ ing" p escr.plion. and that any adequate collec-t ins of short stories in this language 11 ast include a number of Irish entries.

P A U L POTTS. L A U G H T E R —

"I Laugh i0 Think" (Talbot Press, 5/-), J hn D. Sheridan's second collection of e. says, establishes this l u s h writer as a ii st-c'.ass humor.st . In these 30 essays, this p iilosopher of the ordinary man deaLs v th different aspects of everyday in a de-1 'htfuHy original manner. Mr. Sheridan is best when writing about children and thei r martyred parents. He subtly indi-ca tes what a monstrous crime it is to deal h xrshly with the little devils. Reading h im would almost make the sternest parent encourage their children's good, clean fun, v. ne ther it be playing with mud pies, pil-loA'-figliting a t midnight, or merely bring-ing dead ra'.s into the parlour.

As with famous essayists like Lamb. Fmercon. Lucas or Chesterton. Mr. Sheri-d in makes us realise how blind and un-ci 'servant we are to the drama and h a m o u r in such familiar commonalities as ? tnday af ternoon walks, cookery books, commit tee meetings, pockets, etc.

Mr. Sheridan is less verbose than Ches-t e r ! in and more natural than Leacock, or n a;,'be I prefer him because he is essen-tially Irish.

— A N D PITY One usually takes the emotion of pity to

Imply sentimental i ty and condescension. Mr. G v y n ' s six tales "Where did I put my Pity" (Progress Publishing Co., 5/6), set in a Welsh mining village, have nei ther qualities. They combine a high art ist ic s t i n d r r d with a torrential flow of humour of flie Runyon brand. The writer has a keen sense of social evils which frequently t u r n s his humour into bitter irony remini -sent of Dickens. His style is realistic and vigorous and full of tha t harsh oroodmg atmosphere peculiar to Welsh writing. It is an atmosphere born of the conflict be-tween the people's bit ter struggle ior exist-ence and their poetic yearning for real f reedom and culture. This is especially fel t in the second tale, "Simeon,' ' which teHs of a fa ther ' s mad lust bringing t ragedy to his children. The technique is master ly , the tenseness being worked gradual ly up to a climax, till the char-ac t e r s and readers are violently t i red from someth ing ugly and sinister.

G. C U R R A N .

By A. M A I T L A N D

| 0 4 * 7 P R O M I S E S to be another year of intensive activity in the Irish ' ' motor cycling world. Last season it was the Six Counties who

led the way in the revival of the sport, but I have been given to understand that this year the position will be evened up a bit, with more events in the 26 Counties.

| The Skerries 100 will lie run again and there is every likelihood of a cycle race on the Ta l lagh circuit. As well as this many of the lesser events will be given greater

BOXING NOTES

Win for Dublin \ SELECTED team of Dublin

boxers gained a 7 1 victory over a Polytechnic (London) team at the Stadium (Dublin) on Friday, J a n u a r y 10th,

The Heavyweight contest ended in the first round with T. Shanley knocking out H. Jenkins, an Eng-lish Army Champion, in a minute and a half.

Shanley who was making his re-appearance at the stadium, put his opponent down immediately for a count of two with a right cross, and before he could recover, finished him ofl with another terrific r ight .

The only Englishman to win, J. Wright, gave a fine display in the Welter contest in which he used a powerful right to full advantage, pu t t ing G. Scanlon down for a count of six in the third round when the bell saved him from being counted out. PLENTY OF ACTION

The Feathers also presented the house with plenty of action, both boxers moving very fast and punch-ing accurately. Williamson (Poly-technic) seemed to be slightly on top in the early stages but F. Scanlon settled down to dish out plenty of punishment with both hands, and finished a really good struggle defi-nitely on top.

The other middleweight contest between J. Kileen (Corinthians) and G. Lee ended in the f if th round when Lee was forced to retire from a nasty cut over the eye.

Both the Bantam and Lightweight contest went the distance and W. Burke who substituted for H. Ken-nedy in the Bantam contest was for-tuna te to get the decision and took some heavy punishment in the last round from J. Haddows (Polytech-nic.)

prominence. Irish Hopes

Last year many of the Irish riders gained reputations which cannot be ignored, and if they can obtain satisfac-tory agreements and suitable machines, I believe t h a t in the fu tu re their names might rank as high in in ternat ional ciicles as Stanley Woods or Wal ter Rusk.

Of our racing men, the most outs tanding last season were Artie Bell, Terry Hill and Ernest Lyons.

Bell and Hill had competed in interna-tional events prior to the war as private en t ran ts , but I unders tand tha t Bell has now signed on to race for the Norton firm this year, which in itself is an achieve-ment and a great step forward. Hill and Lyons are also worthy of the best machines , and it will be a great pity if they have to rely on their own pre-war machines now. Lyons had some outstand-ing successes in 1938-40, but his victory in the Senior Manx G r a n d Prix last year surpasses all these.

Trials Successes

In Tr ia l s and Scrambles last year, the I r i shmen were also to the fore, with BUI Nicholson, or Nicky as he is generally callcd, outstanding. His remarkable r iding ability makes him the mos t consistent Trials rider in Britain, which his list of successes last year amply proves: his easy double win in the Cotswold Scramble; his victory in the Scot Tria l ; second place in the Colmore Cup Trial ; and his win in the Southern Trial aga ins t the pick of Brit ish experts, as well as his cont inental successes, cannot be overlooked.

The successes of these riders are very impor tant to Ireland's prest ige in the sport ing world.

SPOTLIGHT ON SPORT 'By J.A.D.

f^APT. MICHAEL T. DOWLING, the well-known Cork Rugby referee, has

been selected to referee the British Army v. British Air Force match at Twickenham on March 22nd. Capt. Dowling was the referee of the recent Irish Trial Final in Dublin.

BILLIARDS AND SNOOKER In the Six-County billiards and snooker

competit .on. held at Belfast, V. Convery beat J. McCann 500 to 223 in billiards.

P. Taylor had a snooker victory over J. McWilliams by three f r ames to one.

R. W. Taylor beat J. Curley three f rames to one, and O. Campbell beat W. Ash 500 to 479.

FOOTBALL F A. of Ireland and League of Ireland

selectors will be watching players a t week-end matches for likely choices for the coming representative matches against Spain"at Dalymount Park, on March 2nd. and aga ins t the North Regional Loague on St. Patr ick 's Day. I name three players, Coad i Shamrock Roversi. Hanson (Shel-bournei , and goal-scoring M. Flanagan i Bohemians i as "certs' for their places.

I hope English clubs will be generous in allowing Irish players time ofl for the Irish-Spanish game.

The l e a g u e issue will probably be be-tween Shelbourne and Drumeondra .

F.A. of Ireland Juniors will compete in the youths '16 to 18> internat ional matches in London in April; the invitation of the English Association to compete having been accepted by the Junior Committee.

TEAM TO MEET ENGLAND The I.F.A has selected the following

team to meet England in an ama teu r in ternat ional at Southport on February 8th: —

K. McAlinden (Belfast Celtic); H. Hegerty (Cliftonville); J . McAuley (Dis-t i l lery); W. Irvine (Distillery); J . Wilson, cap ta in (Cliftonville); M. McWilliams (Linfield); G. Bunting (Linficld); W. An-derson (Ballymenal; S. Smythe (Linfield); R. Ewing (Distillery); W. J. Preston (Clif-tonville).

INTER-COUNTY SOCCER MATCH Roscommon soccer f a n s witnessed this

first inter-county match between Galway and Mayo.

Galway went ahead with a grand goal by Brickett . Sheridan scored Mavo's only goal, and Corcoran gave Galway the win-ning goal.

RACING D. L. Moore, the I r i sh steeplechase

jockey, who has the choice of two mounts. Revelry and Housewarmor, in the English Grand National, will I anticipate, ride Revelery, who is owned by two partners— Messrs. J . Doyle and J. Clarke. Revelry is t ra ined a t Old Fairyhouse, where Moore resides.

GAELIC FOOTBALL Arr rangements are being made for an

exchange of Gaelic t eams with Australia, whereby two Australian t eams will visit I re land to demonstrate their system of play, while two G.A.A. t eams will visit Australia to play exhibition matches there.

Mr. J . H. Mulroney, who is secretary to the Austral ian High Commissioner 's Office in Dublin and a life member of the Aus-t ra l ian Football Council, h a s been auth-orised by his Council to open discussions on the project .

The Australian game Is played on an oval pi tch, maximum length 200 yards and 150 yards wide. The game is divided Into four quarters , each 25 minutes , and there are 18 players on each side.

Irish News in Brief

PROTEST AT 'SCAB' BONUS j JVER 40 teachers who remained at wo:

du:i'!>: the recent strike ol nat ional school teachers in Dublin have been re-warded by bonuses given by the Depar t -ment of Education. The amounts are said to be £20 for principal teachers and £10 for assistant teachers. Some of the teachers were members of the I r i sh National Teachers'- Organisation, but were expelled from the organisat ion during the strike.

The Executive of the Dublin Trade Union Council has passed a resolution condemning the action of the Government in grant ing bonuses "to the teacher strike-breakers as contrary to the principles of collective bargaining and major i ty rule."

The resolution submitted tha t the act ion of the Government was illegal, and reques-ted the Labour members of the Dail to "ascertain from what fund these bonuses were paid."

Not for Housing rI"'HE view tha t very few of the cleared

blitzed areas in Belfast might be used as housing sites is expressed in a report , prepared by the estates super in tendent . Dr. N. Agnew. which has been received "and endorsed by the Corporation Esta tes Com-mittee.

Sites previously covered by business premises and churches consti tute a con-siderable proportion of the cleared areas . These sites, he states, should be disre-garded for housing purposes, as they would be needed again for similar purpose, a n d also the cost of the sites would be too h igh for housing schemes.

The estates super intendent held t h a t most of the sites on which there were dwelling-houses before the 1941 raid, could also be eliminated from f u r t h e r considera-tion.

Directing a t tent ion to the few si tes which might appear worthy of more de-tailed consideration, Dr. Agnew held t h a t they would provide ground for f rom 70 to 85 houses, but it was doubtful if houses erected on these areas would qualify fo r Government grants .

Altogether not a very happy prospect for homeless and overcrowded people of Bel-fast .

Release Irish Prisoners Fifteen Anti-Partition and Labour M.P.s

of Stomount sent the following te legram to Mr. Chuter Ede, British Home Secre-tary:—

"We, members of Northern Ireland Par-liament, urge you to release Irish political prisoners in Parkhurs t and Tor twor th prisons. Time opportune. Similar releases in Belfast and Dublin recently."

Paul Rotha in Dublin T ) A U L ROTHA, tire documentary film J - producer, visited Dublin a t the end of last month. He introduced his f a m o u s film on housing, "Land of Promise," a t a meeting of the I r ish Film Society, a n d gave a public lecture on the , f Documen ta ry Film" a t the Mansion House. He also spoke f rom Radio Ei ieann.

High Prices \ | R SEAN LEMASS, Minister for In -

dustry and Commerce, speaking in the Dail on Janua ry 23rd, gave four main causes for the increase in prices. They were: (1) The cost of imported goods, in-cluding industrial mater ia ls ; <2) the cost of agricultural produce; (3> wages; and, least of all, 4) the overhead charges and profits of manufac tu re r s and traders.

He said tha t it was only to a very l imited extent tha t they could take action regard-ing the last cause, and claimed they had taken it wherever they could.

Labour still believes tha t there is p lenty of scope for more vigorous action by Mr. Lemass in this respect.

Coal from America Y O order has yet been placed for Amerl-

' can coal, but Irish Coal Impor te r s Ltd. are endeavouring to secure supplies.

Currency is the main difficulty at t he moment, but even if settled, it is unlikely tha t domestic consumers will benefit o ther than indirectly, in the form of main ten-ance of gas, electricity and t ranspor t se r -vices.

Double the cost of Brit ish coal per ton, the soft bituminous product of America may probably oflset the greater price by better efficiency and quality. The cost, however, makes regular sh ipment prohibi-tive, and the coal would be used only unt i l the situation in Britain eases.

Any supplies tha t may be obtained would be allocated to industry by the Depar t -ment of Industry and Commerce.

February, 1947 THE IR ISH D E M O C R A T 7

THE POET

AS SOCIAL

CRITIC NOW is an appropriate time to read

"By the Clock 'Tis Day" (poems by Alan M o r t o n and Desmond Greaves: The Clock lio-jse Press, 3/6) soon after a recent discussion opened by Prof. Levy, on the cleavage be-tween science and art — particularly literature. Writers in his audience were confronted with his question : "When scientists write they deal with science; what do writers deal with?"

Alan Morton and Desmond Greaves, scientists both, have in poetic form done the job t ha t the Marxist professor asks of the creative writer: t h a t he should de-scribe contemporary life—especially the contradict ions—and in doing so, apply scientific cri teria.

Alan Morton's reportage in "The Flying Frame," "Mr. Littlechild Makes a Dis-covery," "Mainly about the Head," and so on. is narra t ive spiced with Marxist com-ment : no difficulty here in recognising the Marxist "criticism of life."

How fa r docs Morton succeed in bring-ing poetry out of this poetic reformism? Read "Spring," in which a conventional poetic subject is linked with the "first spring of peace" and the resurgence of pro-letar ian activity. It succeeds, as also do his politico-rhetorical "New Song," "The Deputat ion" and a long poem fashioned faultlessly and clear as blown glass, "The Bloody Summer."

Marxist Criticism Morton is, I think, immersed in the

moderns. Desmond Greaves, on the other hand, shows a detachment , a wider read-ing and a more intensive study of poetic technique; he handles the pa rapherna l i a more competently, and conducts more as-sured experiments in metre, rhyme, asson-ance and consonant-coupling. Ir ish male-diction a t its most venomous provides a fierce and eloquent epi taph for Lord Craig-avon. And as often as he succeeds with body blows, he falls into the manne r of the Calypso—especially in his squibs on Chamber la in and Rothermere — which m a k e s t range bedfellows for the "Ode to Poetry."

As fa r as these au thors of "By the Clock 'tis Day" are concerned, • the scientist 's view of the funct ion of poetry is t ha t i t should become "3 Marxist criticism of life" in its epic moods, and in its lyric, "a trum-pet to sing to class batt le."

Kate O'Brien A new type of book has been appearing

a t regular intervals which combines the at t ract ive get-up of a smar t magazine with the informative articles one expects in serious books. I t also has hard covers, and is well wort th the dollar for which it can be obtained—if you are quick enough to reach the shops a f t e r publication. "Contact No. 3" (Contact Publications, 5/-) includes well-informed and provocative fea tures by Tom Harrison, Ar thur Calder-Marshall , Philip Toynbee, Kingsley Mar-tin. Frederick Mullally, Ken Annakin and other forward-looking English writers. "The Recovery of Germany" is treated pro-vocatively by Pastor Niemoeller, while Margaret Lambert and Stephen Spender have also something interest ing to say about the Germans ' fate. The editors are to be thanked for present ing a compelling summary of present-day Ireland, written by two of our best women authors. Eliza-beth Bowen writes splendidly on the new

Bankbook Invasion" of I re land by British capital, whereby the old landed estates and Big Houses are returning to the British— instead of to a National Trus t or as hos-tels and homes for the Ir ish dispossessed.

Limerick Farmer Equally succinct in style and penetrat-

ing t rea tment , is Kate O'Brien's docu-mentary portrai t of the life of a County Limerick f a r m labourer. Mick Mac is typical of the small f a rmer community in the country, and Miss O B n e n ' s observa-tion has seized on " the middl n ' average," which of course, in Ireland, is rarely the most significant. Yet her prototype affords the non- Insh reader with a full-size picture of how he lives, works, th inks • wlien let) and prays. We have every rea-son to expect a telling social essay from tile author of "Land of Spices," yet Kate O Bnen 's incursion into social journalism demands a warm welcome from those who read tlie "Ir ish Dcmocrnt," and like their home news unvarnished.

Leslie Daiken.

THE OLD LADY SAYS D I A R Y is—above all t h i n g s — a

s p o n t a n e o u s record. T h e r e is no t ime for r e t r o s p e c t i o n to d r a w con-elt is 'ons or to under l ine . H i s t o r y is p r e sen t ed in r u n n i n g c o m m e n t a r y , and the space g iven to note t h a t t h e r e is a bann 'oi tick f o r tea, and t h a t t h e daf fodi l s a r c o u t might j u s t i f i ab ly be longer t h a n t h a t t aken to r e c o r d some even t of d e e p na t iona l or i n t e r -na t iona l i m p o r t a n c e . In t h e case of j o u r n a l s i n t e r e s t i n g e n o u g h t o be publ i shed a d a y ' s h ighl ight b e c o m e s the m e m o i r s of a l i fe t ime.

The editor of diaries such as those of Lady Gregory, whose life was so r ich and creative, must carefully prune and select to present th i s material as history and biography within the scope of one book. "I sometimes think my life h a s been a series of enthusiasms," she wrote in these journals.

Lennox Robinson has classified these enthusiasms (Lady Gregorys Journals , Putnam, 18/-), and through the kaleido-scope of the recorded years emerges the clear pat tern of a life spent in h igh en-deavour and achievement.

YES llr re. but she hud long ago conic to tin conclusion: 'The days ol lan. i id p i o p i r n are past ;t is bf Iter so."

Coole , r P H E journals do not start until the tcr-

ribly signif icant year of 1916. In t h a t years Augusta Gregory w-as over 60, look-ing back on a life full and varied. Play-wright herself, she had expressed the hope tha t her journals would be presented as a series of "acts." Lennox Robinson raises the curtain first for us on Coole, her home, in Galway. The entries concerning Coole have an anxious note underlying them. The big houses are falling. Coole h a s come through many storms. Its inmates have lived as good landlords in peace a n d friendship with the neighbouring coun-tryside for over 150 years. The family came through t h e ' troubles of .the Land League days untouched, but now taxa t ion and the necessity to sell bits and pieces of the estate are threatening the beau t i fu l house with its gardens and library. Seven Woods and the lake of the Wild Swans. The ruin Lady Gregory feared came even-tually to Coole, but Yeats gave it immor-tality in the poems he wrote there :

"Upon the border of tha t lake's wood Now all dry sticks under a wintry sun, And in a copse of beeches there I stood. For Nature pulled her tragic buskin on And all the r a n t a mirror of my mood. At sudden thunde r of the moun t ing

swan I turned about and looked where

branches broke The glittering reaches of the flooded

lake." With the formidable determination t h a t

characterised her in other matters, Lady Gregory was able to keep Coole open as a home for her grandchi ldren until she died

Abbey Theatre T H E entries in the journals relat ing to

the Abbey Thea t re have a special im-portance in the history of I r ish drama. Not only was Lady Gregory director, pro-ducer and guard ian of the Abbey and all its children, but she undertook the great responsibility of keeping the thea t re open with her pen. writing in the space of 10 years, 30 plays.

Sean O'Casey, remembering and repro-ducing the somewhat irreverent voice of Dublin has wri t ten: "Some blasted little theatre or o ther has pu t on a play by a

• by

Mary Francis fellow named Singe, or Sinje or something. A terrible play, helped by ano the r boy named Yeats or Bates or something—said to be a kind of poet or something—of tilings no one can understand, and he was to blame for it all. assisted by some oul' one or another , named Beggory or some-thing, who was behind the scene, eggin' then* on in their foul infamy."

But tha t was talking about early days, and by the time the journals s tar t , the Abbey T h e a t r e has become a recognised stronghold of European culture, introduc-ing writers and players of genius to the world. Now in her journals. Lady Gregory is able to repor t with pride the discovery of yet ano the r playwright who will be pro-claimed as genius—Sean O'Casey himself.

wea;: m. She would never allow ihe Ab • • "3 l:ber . of speech or action to be end;. .-i w t l or compromised.

Politics V O one could be bom and live Iivla. -J • ' a t such a time, and not become in-

volved with politics. Lady Gregory "nev. r meddled in politics—she did not asp :<.• o be a Countess Maikievicz or a Ma: d Gonne." says Lennox Robinson—but was always whole-heartedly on t ie side of the Irish people. Her rcac ion ;e the 1 > ing ol 1916 is not r< vealed in he: jr urn 1

' but in 1919, when the t e n o r of the Bit; k 1 a n d Tans was let loose on the land. : :£• | was responsible for a series ol anonymo s

articles appearing in the "Nation." th tt informed the English people of t ' : e atrocities done in their name. She l'v d in the hear t of a dist i ict tery sort Im-pressed by the marauders , and her dia y becomes weighty with details of the su f -fer ing and persecution of the count y people. Of the murders and reprisals, s ;e wrote: "Death answering to death th ou :i the generations, like clerks answering 0 :e

| ano the r at the mass." In the Civil War h- 7 sympathies were with, t he Republicans. I n th is section, glimpses of lier "big-house' ' neighbours appear f rom time to tinv-. "packing and hiding away valuables a: :d whisky," in the true emigre tradit ion.

E The Lane Pictures ENTHUSIASM, allied with indomi tab 'e

Sean O'Casey ~LT E worked as a labourer and lived in a

tenement even a f te r his plays had been accepted by the Abbey. The story of his t r iumph is given in entr ies such as this, a f t e r a performance of " J u n o and the Paycock": " T h a t full house, the packed pit and gallery, the fine play, the call of the mother for t he putt ing away of hatred, made me say to Yeats: 'This is one of the evenings a t the Abbey t h a t makes me glad to have been born.' "

But Dublin was once again to be roused to fury and par t i sanship by the same Sean O'Casey. Scenes recalling the "Playboy" battles greeted his "Plough and the Stars." Tile Abbey once more resounded with whistles and catcalls. Wild women invaded the stage, and the police had to restore order. But no audience could coerce Augusta Gregory. Neither could the Gov-vernment wi th a dangling subsidy as a"

courage, will move most obstacles, b' it in one case Lady Gregory had to record fai lure in her journals. Her nephew. Hu^l l Lane, had made a codicil to his will t i -queathing his collection of pictures in t h e possession of the London National G a l -lery, to Dublin, and Lady Gregory was named as sole trustee. He went down wi h the Lusitania, and unfor tuna te ly the codi-cil was left unsigned. Therefore, a l t hough morally the pictures belonged to Dublin, legally they were t h e property of t h e Br i t i sh Government, Lady Gregory took her trusteeship seriously, and her journa l s tPll the touching story of her fight to ge t these pictures back to I re land. She m a d e countless journeys between London ar.d Dublin, recruiting allies and visitin;; any-one who might help he r cause. In spi te of all her endeavours the pictures s tayed in London, and do so to this day.

The people who move through Lady Gregory 's journals helped to shape t h e history of Ireland. T h e writers were nea re r to her t han the politicians. G e o r g e Bernard Shaw was a firm fr iend and ally, and her long association with Yeats h a s i ts memorial in the Abbey Theatre . Yeats , visiting the National Por t ra i t Gallery a n d seeing her picture was moved to wri te :

"But where is the brush tha t could show anyth ing

Of all tha t pride a n d tha t humil i ty ." We, in her journals, have been permi t ted

to see her, both in her t r i u m p h a n t a n d im her small quiet moments .

Plays, Pictures and People "\V"HEN I first discovered with a trc

mendous thr i l l the post-1914 W a r German expressionistic classics and later, their American and European counter-parts, one of the theatrical devices t h a t used to appeal most to me was the label-ling of different aspects of one's charac-ter and" the present ing of them on the stage as separate and articulate ' a n d how articulate!) enti t ies. Something of all th is flew through my mind as I staggered out from the film version of Daphne du Maur-ier's "Hungry Hill." onto the petrol-fumed and spiv-laden pavements of Oxford St.

"Hungry Hill" is the history of an ascendancy family, and interwoven into this fantast ic and surely typical Yoikshire family history, there is like a sombre judgment in the background, the shadow of Hungry Hill copper mine

In all fairness to Director Brian Hurs* he is. I bel eve, a lover and admirer of Ireland and of the I r i s h - t h e t r o u b l e ' i n K ; o n l ; ' s

arises however in trying to deal with think tha t events impartially and to present both sides of the question fairly by balancing the industrial isation of natural resources and the consequent employment of nat ive labour against the happy-go-lucky a t t i t ude of ignorant and poverty-stricken I r i sh peasantry.

* * * ""pHE story of ' "Hungry Hill" I will not

and bejabbers and bedad if there wasn' t the devil's own leppin' and screechin' , and finally to the lilt of the intoxicatin ' mad fairy music and lashin's of por ther for the peasants, ca tch me a leprachaun, if every one, peasant , quality, gent ry an ' all, don't all fall down together and, as Kitty the Hare might say, devil another lep outa them for the laughin' .

by

ALEC DIGGES

burden you with but there is one 'grand' scene you mustn t miss. An auld fiddler, with the mag 'c of a rollin', leppin', screechin' reel fiddles the gentry f rom the stately ball room, cn.it across the lawns

And my God how the old ladies of Ox-ford Street enjoyed it. Somehow i t .was just so Irish, my dear.

I11 every other generation, or so it seemed, of this incredibly tedioys family history. F. J . McCormick gave us a per-fect little cameo piece of restrained act-

hea r t jumped with pride to one of Ireland's outs tanding

character actors was pood enough to play a supporting role to handsome Stewart Granger!

* * * ^ ND so it goes on, the lean gaun t Irish

rebels, the inevitably curly-headed la^ bourers, beaut i fu l young colleens, old family retainers, all the cliche-concepts of Irishmen who, God help them, seem to have no home except in the fert i le Ima-ginations of their author.

The point of all the forego:ng. dear readers, is once again to Introduce the need for a nat ive Irish film industry. Only

then can we expect to see screened films which portray I r i shmen and women as n o t so romantic ordinary people with the s a m e appetites, desires and hopes as the m a j o -rity of mankind, men willing to take the i r place and share in the achieving of t h a t brave new world for which humani ty is hunger ing. When tha t day arrives let u s hope tha t the s tage Ir ishmen, the oddi-ties and characters, will be relegated to the forgotten limbo alongside their bro-thers the monocled silly-ass-Englishmen. the babu Indian, t he dagger-clutching Chinamen, the pullman-porter-Negroes and all those other fan tas t i c creations of Capital is t cellulo.d.

* * * I ^ O R those with an eve to fu ture events

I confidently recommend the follow-ing films shortly to be released: "Odd M a n Out," and "Green for Danger ."

Of special interest both to film fans a n d to s tudents of modern thea t re methods should be John Collier's "Black Magic." Wi th this documentary play on coal Uni ty T h e a t r e once again makes English thea t r i -cal history as this play is sponsored by t h e Ministry of Fuel and thus becomes t l ie first, to the best of my knowledge, officially sponsored propaganda play.

Documentary thea t re reached g r e a t he igh ts of dramat ic possibility in America and those of you who will have seen T h e a t r e Workshop's "Uran ium 235" re-cently performed in London will have some idea of the almost boundless possibilities of th i s new ar t form. T h e play commences a t Unity Theat re on the 2«th January .

I , f

THE IRISH DEMOCRAT February, 1947

Ireland's Republican and Labour Press has been the—

GLORY OF OUR NATION T O wr i l e the ful l story of the part ' the Press played in the Ir ish revo-

lutionary struggles would be equal to writing a history of Ireland.

In ill is ar t ic le all I can do is to .Live a by:of account of t h e mos t im-p o r t a n t of I r e l a n d ' s p r o g r e s s i v e j o u r -nals. as opposed to the Capi ta l i s t Press, so ab ly deal t w i t h in t h e December issue.

In the year 1791 a group of Ulster Pres-byterians. all members of the United Irishmen, met together in a house in Bel-las t to form themselves into a company, for the purpose of launching a paper. Their aim was to publicise their republi-can opinions, and to advocate the unity O! all I r ishmen irrespective of creed. On the 4th of January. 1792, the first number of the paper appeared. I t was named the "Northern Star." Samuel Neilson was the editor, and it had as its motto "The Pub-lic Will our Guide—the Public Good our End."

The Northern Star" gained so great a reputation in popularising the Rights of Man, and the grand ideals of revolution-ary France that 50 years af ter , the English Chartists took its name with pride for their own paper.

Davis and 'The Nation'

In 1842 Thomas Davis. Charles Gavan Daffy, and John Blake Dillon, founded the most popular paper tha t ever appeared in Ireland. "The Nation" was read and dis-cussed in almost every village a n d town. On a Sunday afternoon a dozen or more would gather at one house to hear the Nation read.

The policy of the paper can best be judged by a quotation f rom its first num-ber: "We announce a New Era—be this out-

first news When the Serf-grinding landlords shall

shake in their shoes While the ark of a bloodless yet mighty

reform Shall emerge from the flood of the popu-

lar storm." After "The Nation" came James

Fin tan Lalor's "Irish Felon," and John Mitchell 's . "United I r i shman," and the "Irish People," the organ of the Fenian movement. Among the many contributors to the "Irish People" was a tall young girl of 15, who came every week to the ofiice of the Fenian paper to hand in her verses, which though simple, breathe a spirit of revolt agains t slavery and oppression. They were wri t ten over the pen-name "Aleria" but her real name was Fanny Pamell , Charles Stewar t Par-nell's favourite sister.

Connolly's 'Workers'

Republic'

The general, national and cultural re-vival of the nineties gave rise to a num-ber of new journals. Among some of the most impor tant were James Connolly's "Workers' Republic." "Shan van Vocht," edited by Alice Milligan, and "The United I r i shman" founded in 1899. The last-named continued until 1906 when it had to close down a f t e r a libel action. It. re-appeared as "Sinn Fein," and af terwards as "Nationality." The two principal names associated with it were William Rooney, the poet, and Arthur Griffith.

There were T. M. Kettle 's two papers "New Ireland" and "The Nationalist ," and a number of o ther journals such as "The Republic," "The Volunteer" and "The Pea-

-by

PATRICK CLANCY sant and Nation," edited by W. P. Ryan. Then came "Ir ish Freedom," organ of the I.R.B.. edited by Dr. MacCar tan and Bul-mer Hobson, with Sean MacDermott as manager.

Jim Larkin's "Irish Worker," born in the great class struggles of 1913, ' de-fended the cause of the Irish workers not only against Murphy's "Irish Inde-pendent" but against the new enemies of Irish labour—the Arthur Griffith breed.

Easter Week Journal

About t h a t time Terence MacSwiney published a small journal in Cork, called "Fianna Fail." Probably the most historic yet least known paper tha t ever appeared in Ireland was "Irish War News," pub-lished behind the barricades during the Easter Rising. I t is dated April 25th, 1916. In the Stop Press it s tates "Irish War News is published to-day becarse a momen-tous thing has happened. The Irish Re-public has been declared in Dublin."

After the defeat of the rising a number of new journals made their appearance— "The Irish Nation." the "Ir ish Republic," "Eire Og" and "An Phoblacht na-Eireann" the fore-runner of "An-Phoblacht." "An Phoblacht" had probably the most che-quered history of all the Irish revolution-ary papers.

A fearless outspoken organ of progres-sive Republican opinion, it was banned on many occasions by the Cosgrave and de Valera Governments.

I t never abandoned its vigorous separa-tist policy, unti l it was finally suppressed in 1936. I ts editors were Frank Ryan,

Donal O'Dorioughue and Hannah Sheehy Skelfington.

Republican Congress

In 1926 a group of republicans in Dub-lin launched "Irish Freedom." They aimed to make the paper worthy of its prede-cessor. the organ of the I.R.B. While vigor-ously separatist , it boldly stated tha t there could be no real f reedom for Ireland under Capital ism.

It was one of the first papers to warn the Irish people of the danger of the grow-ing Fascist menace throughout the world.

I t was put out of existence a f te r two years through f inancial difficulties, and the ar res t of its m a n a g e r and editor. I t re-appeared a f t e rwards in a smaller size.

While dealing with the progressive jour-nals of tha t t ime it would be unfa i r to ignore the small t hough important paper "Fianna, ' ' organ of F i anna Eireann, the Ir ish youth movement. Countess Markie-vicz was among its many contributors. These journals were followed by "Ir ish Workers ' Voice," o rgan of the Ir ish Com-munis t Party, and a f t e rwards "Irish Wor-kers ' Weekly"; followed by "Republican Congress," organ of the Republican Con-gress, and the great progressive anti-fas-cist paper "Ir ish Democrat," edited by Frank Ryan. There were also Peadar O'Donnell 's "Irish people." "Prison Bars," edited by Maud G o n n e MacBtide, the or-gan of the Women's Prisoners ' Defence League, "Sentry." o rgan of the old I.R.A. Men's Association, a n d a monthly journal of left-wing opinion called "The Workers ' Republic." followed by "Torch" the Labour paper edited by Desmond Ryan.

Labour Daily

This brings us to the present progressive journa ls in Ireland. There are the two weeklies, "The Ir ish People," organ of the I r ish Labour Party, and "Labour Pro-gress," organ of the Northern Ireland La-bour Par ty . The monthly journals are "Unity," organ of the Communist Par ty of Nor thern Ireland, "The Northern Star ," organ of the Socialist Republican Party, and "I r ish Review," a Socialist monthly published in Dublin.

We have travelled a long way from the "Northern Star" of the United Irishmen, and while all the journals mentioned have played and are playing an important par t , one of the great tasks before the Iristi La-bour Movement is to aim for the t ime when the Irish workers will have their own daily paper.

Only then will I r i sh labour be able to give a day-to-day leadership to the I r i sh people; only then will the Irish workers be on the road to complete the task t ha t the "Northern S ta r " began.

Leitrim Patriot

T H E death of James Gralton in A New York City, left a gap in the

ranks of those Irish and Irish-American workers carrying on the struggle for the building of Workers' Republics in all lands.

Gralton, a son of Leitrim, believed in the reali ty of the class struggle. His viewpoint was international and believing t h a t the t ruth is mighty and shall prevail, he gave both per-sonal labour and financial support to organisat ions, such as the Tom Mooney Full Pardon Committee and the Jim Larkin Defence Committee.

He was one of the most alert members of the original James Con-nolly Club, of New York, and sold hundreds of copies of James Con-nolly's great masterpiece, "Labour in Irish History."

After 14 years in New York, he re-turned to Ireland during the Anglo-Irish war.

FOUGHT

COSGRAVE

He was personally responsible for the erection of a Pearse-Connolly Memorial Hall in his nat ive parish. An effort was made to take over the func t ions of the English courts, thus str iking at the very roots of English imperialism. Lands, from which people were evicted dur-ing the f amine and Land League days, were restored to their r ight-ful owners, notwi ths tanding the fact that the late Father Michael O'Flanagan had carried on almost similar work in taking over turf plots for the people in County Sligo. Gralton was denounced by reaction-ary clerical Tories and followers of Cosgrave, murderer of scores of Irish Republican soldiers. Gralton was forced to go on the run, and af ter months of struggle, he reached Cork and sailed back to the U.S.A.

Later on, t he call of the homeland was felt by Gralton, so he re turned to Ireland in 1932, to settle down in the home of his fa ther . But there was no peace for the returned exile, for no sooner had he started agi tat-ing for a real Irish Workers' Re-public to replace the misnamed "Irish Free State," than the De Valera Government ordered him to be deported in February, 1933. Gral-ton went on the run once more, a n d with the co-operation Sf the people of his nat ive Leitrim, it was six months before the police finally cap-tured and deported him, despite vigorous protests f rom many Irish and Irish-American societies.

Gralton's heal th for many years before his dea th was none too good, yet his un t i r ing spirit kept him in the fight almost to his last hour.

C.B.

THE IRISH THEATRE IN 1946 "THE absence of the usual Edwards-

MaeLiammoir Christmas Show at the Gate left a gap in the festive sea-son. We had almost come to take it for granted that we should have that splash of colour and excitement in the theatre. But we have had Anew McMaster at the Gate ; a Gaelic pan-tomime at the Abbey and the custom-ary Christmas shows to make up. And it is good news that Edwards-Mac-Liammoir are stooping to conquer London and New York in the coming year. . Pessimists have been telling us t ha t the

I r i sh theat re is doomed. Film magnates— or magnets—are at t ract ing Ir ish players in bundles to the screen. But F. J. McCormick came back to the Abbey. And the Irish stage must be good for the film people to pay so much at tent ion to it. Pe rhaps the twinkling lights of London and New York theat res are more of a th rea t to the Irish thea t re t han the films. Ei thne Dunne has now returned f rom Broadway with the praise of the critics and the plaudi ts of American audiences ringing in her ears. Fred Johnson also made a good Impres-sion. Soon whole companies—as well as individual players—may be away. The mi-gration h a s begun. , But In the long run the Irish stage will

benefit, for the »rt» never flourish In isola-tion.

MacLiammoir in London

For the past year I pin my own special award on Michael MacLiammoir for giving us in "III Met By Moonlight" the best and most original I r ish play of the period. His play is linked with the dramat ic tradition of Yeats for it has more than a touch of Celtic twilight. He planted his little cos-mopolitan group squarely in the fairy ring and the Ir ish changeling resists eviction with fury. Ei thne Dunne in the dual role of the changeling and the French actress achieved a difficult t r iumph. Sally Tra-vel's and MacLiammoir himself gave a strange at t ract ive quality to the local peasants.

My guess is tha t London and New York will like this play.

To compensate for their Chr is tmas omis-sion this company earlier presented: " . . . And Pastures New," a t the Gaiety— a colourful, bizarre spectacle in their own tradition. G inne t t e Waddell has done good work during the year. Her "Lady Bracknell" in "The Importance of Being Earnest" was outs tanding.

I t Is curious t h a t the success of the year a t the Abbey — Frank Carney s "The Righteous Are Bold"—had a similar theme to t h a t of MacLalmmoir. Both dealt with possession by an evil spirit. Bu t there was no other resemblance. T h a t It held the Abbey stage for a record t ime was due In no small measure to Malre O'Donnell and

also to M. J. Dolan's study of the priest. The play was certainly melodramatic and sha t te r ing . But it held the audience. And life can be melodramatic as well as dull. "The Visiting House," by M. J. Molloy was the runner-up. I t had originality and moments of strong appeal but it did not play so well.

Gate Theatre Success

Lord Longford's company a t the Gate distinguished itself mast, perhaps, by its recent presentat ion of "Twelf th Night"— a really colourful delight. Thanks are due to the whole company—Christopher Cas-son, Eve Watkinson and Iris Lawler out-s tanding. For originality of production the company deserves most piaise for Thorn-ton Wilder's unpretentious, homely "Our Town." This was handled imaginatively and simply. The company showed what could be done with bare boards and a few scat tered chairs. Char les Mitchel—as nar-rator—gave us the keynote of the whole play with admirable ease.

Misty lights In O'Connell Street with the slender Nelson pillar rising like an im-mense candle made the central feature of the Gaiety production of Sean O'Casey's "Red Roses For Me." Honours to the cast, to Rla Mooney for production and Carl Bonn for settings. And we had a visit f rom the "Ballets Joos." Here was something tha t redounds to the credit side of thea t re mobility. We may gain as well as lose in

Ireland when the players begin to travel between the capi ta ls of the world.

Poetic Drama

Austin Clarke's "Lyric Theatre" pursued i ts pa th with t rue integrity, being a t once t radi t ional and exotic.

This is a company tha t adds lustre to the Irish thea t re and not least througfi Austin Clarke's own lovely verse plays wrought out of poetry and imagination.

I t has helped to restore the music and meaning of words and so has laid hold of something very vital in the Irish d r a m a -tic tradition. Let us hope tha t this group will have room to expand in the coming year and not be confined to the al together inadequate sporadic appearances of one or two nights.

A word for the amateurs . Dublin is in-clined to take for granted groups such as the Pilgrim Players, the Arch and the Crofton, the University enthusias ts a n d many others who have sprung up in the city. Their work is a sign of d ramat ic vitality. There is no lack of stage ta len t in Ireland and It consti tutes a reservoir on which we c a n d raw to replenish the s tage wb»a the films become pressing.

Printed by Ripley Print ing Society Ltd (T.U.), Ripley, Derbys., and published by the Editor, P remier House, 150 South-ampton Row, London, W.C.I.