Issue 014, Saoirse : Irish Freedom (June, 1988)

              issn 0791 - 0002 irish freedom uimh 14 meitheamh - june 1988 25p usa 50c per issue si 8 oer year brits seize lands in south armagh p 3 at work dsf the latter half of 1922 churchill as british colonial secretary was anxious to stabilise the treaty of surrender settlement in all of ireland his connivance and his del icate balancing-act between those in power in belfast and dublin is illustrated as follows in michael farrell's arming the protestants p 179 he churchill wrote private and personal letters to both craig and collins on 7 july drawing craig's attention to the possibilities now that collins had definitely drawn the sword against the enemies of the british em pire he urged craig not to make any hasty statements about the boundary commission and suggested that a settlement might now be possible which would win the support of the best of the catholic elements in the north for his government to collins he suggested the idea of a new craig - collins pact and hinted that a united ireland might be possible when the republic ans had been suppressed can we assume that mrs thatcher is writing contradictory private and personal letters to the various participants in the current talks the plot to secure the new pol itical re-settlement of ireland gath ered force during may the pieces of the jigsaw are fitting into place more and more the talks about talks between thatcher's six-county secretary king and unionist leaders moly neaux and paisley have settled on discussions parallel to the hills borough deal which will remain in place for the time being interviewed on rte's today tonight on may 17 molyneaux said there would be no negotiations with dublin now but discussions could take place with an exchange of papers and a summit later during the month this process began when he quietly met fine gael leader alan dukes in london giving one of his rare smiles on tele vision molyneaux buttered up charles haughey calling him a tough ruthless and efficient statesman ". meanwhile under haughey's auspices the hume/adams talks continued with back-up teams on both sides it was agreed all round on thames tv on may 15 that a new agreement to supercede hillsborough is the aim thatcher and haughey want to get both the unionists and adams and as many as possible of free state sinn fein into this net tom hartley a member of adams team told unionists publicly to talk to nationalists on both sides of the border that there was definitely something in it for them the pan-nationalist front was early in operation both the sdlp and free state sinn fe"in have publicly placed a limit of mid july on their continual discussions the count-down to the review of the work ings of hillsborough by november 15 has begun shared platform at a protest meeting on may 22 in glassdrummond south armagh against british army seizures of land to erect new look-out posts sdlp and free state sinn fe"in councillors co-operated on a shared platform — the first such get-together since the days of the civil rights move ment the pieces are indeed falling into place but what does it all mean for irish rep ublicans one thing it certainly does not mean is the restoration of the all-ireland republican dail of 1919 it is interesting to recall what happened in the past on such occasions in 1921 stage one of the treaty of surrender which cemented the partition of ireland was sold to the gullible on the basis that stage two the boundary commission would reduce the northern statelet to two-and-a-half counties and that stage three the council of ireland would be the bridge back to an all-ireland par liament which the settlement effectively suppressed stages two and three never happened of course because the dynamic in the sit uation — the people's struggle — had been demobilised by a bloody and ruthless counter-revolution remove the dynamic and all movement stops — that is what thatcher and haugh ey are trying to achieve in these months of 1988 on the thames tv programme of may 1 5 , the editor of the irish times said that haughey models himself on de valera who reached a compromise situation with the 26-county state in the 1930s with his new constitution in 1937 and his trade agreement with england in 1938 which gave back the treaty ports de valera had come to a halt when the irish republican army push ed past him with the sabotage campaign which opened in england in 1939 de val era responded with savage and total repression executions by firing squad and the brit ish hangman internment camps and death on hunger strike shooting dead of republicans on the streets and in the jails . . . these were the order of the day in the 1940s whether haughey models himself on de valera or not the situation into which we are all being stealthily moved demands just such an outcome : total repression of those who will not accept the new treaty of surrender again saoirse says republicans must expose and reveal what is going on now it may be too late when the euphoria and indeed the hysteria gener ated for this treacherous deal stampedes people along without thinking and the prospects for irish freedom are set back for quite a long time . bodenstown sunday june 12 assemble sallins field 2.30pm oration cllr frank mccarry glens of antrim testimonial dinner saturday june 11 9pm taille 10.50 spa hotel lucan dublin honorees anna steele -- ulster ned o'shea — munster sylvester fitzsimons — connacht jack butler — leinster tim brennan — usa