What Price Peace?

Many Americans of Irish descent can still recall stories from the Great Hunger era of English efforts to gain converts to the Church of England. The British sought to capitalize on the starvation of the mostly Catholic Irish poor — a starvation they did much to promote — by offering life sustaining soup to those who would renounce their faith.

Most preferred hunger or emigration, but those who “took the soup” or “soupers” were always referred to bitterly. It was a form of degradation, and worse, a collaboration with their persecutors.

Twenty five years ago this issue of collaboration with British tormentors arose again. This time in a most unlikely place — Long Kesh prison in the six counties of Ireland held by British bayonet.

Now called the Maze and soon to be a museum, the prison was the focus of world-wide attention in 1981 as 10 naked and helpless prisoners starved themselves to death rather than accept a prison scheme that would revoke their political status and treat them as rapists and thieves. This too was an unthinkable form of collaboration and the equivalent of “taking the soup.”

Now, British Prime Minister Tony Blair seeks to get Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams and his party to accept the St. Andrews power sharing plan which includes a new form of collaboration — support for the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

To accept devolved government with any London, Army or MI-5 authority oversight of the police appears to be untenable. But this time the British may have found the right inducement.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown presented a £9.4 billion annual “peace dividend” if Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party take the next step. For Sinn Fein this is a heavy lift.

The most corrupt police force in the Western Hemisphere, tormentors of Catholics for decades, has still not been held accountable for its murder and mayhem. Adams claims some of the worse elements within it have been pensioned off, but wouldn’t it be traitorous to all Sinn Fein has stood for if it accepted devolved government proposals that failed to include unfettered control over the police ?

Sinn Fein may assume they could effectively monitor the spending of the “peace dividend’ so as to insure help to those areas most devastated by bad British policies. That’s not likely. As New York

City Comptroller William Thompson recently pointed out, the British controlled patterns of investment and job discrimination still disadvantage Catholics eight years after the 1998 Belfast Agreement.

This may be the most critical hurdle in the Irish peace process. Power sharing without police and justice powers is a pretend government.

Our guess is that Blair, Brown and company could double the sweet sounding “peace dividend” and it would not be enough to get Sinn Fein to “take the soup” unless and until unconditional control over the police from Belfast is part of the plan.

Michael J. Cummings
National Board Member Ancient Order of Hibernians
Albany, New York

Durkan the Legend

I cannot let you print my name for obvious reasons as this letter will show.

I write in praise of the late Frank Durkan, one of the greatest Irishmen of our time.

Many years ago when I was on the run in this country from the Troubles in the North I was given one name in case I was ever caught. That name was Frank Durkan. I was told to call him day or night.

I did not know the man from Adam, but was told it was the most important phone number I would ever have.

Thank God I never had to call him, but I know some friends who did and Frank would get out of his bed in the middle of the night to help them.

In one case he even came downtown late at night to federal court to secure bail for a man who had been arrested and charged with being an IRA member. He stayed up all night trying to get him out even though he was in the middle of a trial.

I know he must have worked countless hours free of charge for Irishmen who were caught up in the Troubles. Yet he never complained and always described it as a privilege to work on freeing yet another Irishman from British clutches. He was one of a kind, as was his uncle Paul O’Dwyer.

In this day and age we refer to heroes all too easily. Every two bit movie star is a hero these days, but Frank Durkan was a true hero, a man who inspired so many young people today to become lawyers and fight the good fight for those in society who have no one to speak for him. His loss to the Irish community is great indeed.

Anonymous

Information on Moloney

I’m researching the life and career of William J. Moloney (born Limerick May 28, 1885, died London February 19, 1968), who was for many years a correspondent with the Reuters news agency, and eventually retired as joint general manager of that company in 1944.

Moloney was fluent in several languages, including French, German, Spanish and Arabic, having worked in Cairo around 1906, with the Egyptian Standard and in the 1930s as Reuters representative in India and elsewhere.

During all his years abroad he apparently carried on correspondence with several friends in Irish, and also kept a diary in Irish (now unfortunately lost). Moloney had a brother, Bernard, who also worked for Reuters and lived for some time in New York.

If any readers remember Bernard, or can tell me anything about the current whereabouts of his family, I’d be very grateful. I can be contacted at daibhi. ocroinin@nuigalway.ie.

Professor Dáibhí Ó Cróinín
Department of History National University of Ireland, Galway

Ireland Isn’t Real

I read the Irish Voice every week, and also other Irish papers on the Internet, and I am astounded at what’s happening to the Ireland I remember leaving in my youth in the 1960s.

Things were not perfect then – far from it – but what’s going on in Ireland these days is shocking to me. On Page 4 of the issue dated November 22-26 there was a story entitled “Sex Fiend Attacks Kids,” about a man who assaulted two young girls aged four and six. In the same page there was a story about elder care abuse, and in the same issue there was a story in “Ireland’s Eye” about parents not making enough time for their children.

The level of crime in Ireland is sickening. And the viciousness is unlike anything you’d see here in the U.S.

I think prosperity is a good thing, and certainly growing up poor with no prospects was bad. But the Irish people can’t seem to handle their new-found wealth, and all the responsibilities that go along with it.

Now, it’s all me, me, me, and how much can I have. Nothing is real over there anymore. It saddens my heart.

Lucy Dowling
Chicago, Illinois

The Good Fight

I wanted to note something for your readers about Frank Durkan in the weeks before he died.

As far as I heard he did two things. One, he wrote a letter to the Irish Voice defending our great friend State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who was under attack by the reactionary New York Post among others. Frank never forgot a friend.

Secondly, he flew to Cleveland, though he was close to death, to speak to the Mayo Society there. He spoke about Northern Ireland and the young Irish who are trying to get legal in this country today.

It was typical of Frank that he would go out, still fighting the good fight for everyone around him.

James O’Connor
New Hyde Park, New York