7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

1/49

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

2/49

CONTENTSAugust 1984

Early Days In The Cosgrave Coalition 6

An excerpt from Chapter 5 of "Round Up The Usual Suspects: The Cosgrave Coalitionand Nicky Kelly" which outlines the political background to the arrest of Nicky Kelly.

Citizen Ken 13

byOlivia0'Leary

Ken Livingstone is a man with a mission: to savethe GLC and spread egg all over the faceof Margaret Thatcher.

T

e Big Irish Ball 16~ lark Brennock and photographer Patrick Redmond spent two weeks in the

iththe Irish troops.

Framing Of Marie McCarthy 24

:._-Calm Toibin

How 'Today Tonight', Gordon Thomas and the Sunday Press used the Pope and an inno-cent woman to sell a story which was completely untrue.

Olympics 84

A complete guide to all the field and track events by Hugh Quigley.

39

A Fool For Ireland 51A Profile of Donall 0 Morain

by Tom O'Dea

Twice Chairman of the RTE Authority, Chief Executive of Gael-L inn, Donall 0 Morain,is now about to publish a Sunday newspaper in Irish.

Million Dollar Bash 56

Declan Kiberd casts a cold eye over the fun and frolics of the middle classes at the Dylanconcert at Slane.

DEPARTMENTS

Diary 4Motoring. . 35Art 48

As Time Goes By 50Business Forum . . . . . . . . 60

Wigmore 61

Editor Man4ging Director

Colm Toibin Anne ConnollyReporter Printed by

Gene Kerrigan Lithogrlphic Univer.1 Ltd.Political Correspondent Distribution

Olivia O'Leary N_spreld Ltd.Advertising Manager Colour Separations

Patricia Burrell Litho Studios Limited.Promotions Editorial and Business Address

Patricil Burrell 14Merrion Row, Dublin 2.Telephone: 606055Magill is published by

Megill PubliCltions Ltd.

~ABC ~The averagenet paid salesas certified by the AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS for the periodI J anuary-J une 1983 was 30. 596 copies per month.

MAGILL AUGUST 1984 3

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

3/49

IN JANUARY T H I S YEARa meeting was held betweenthe senior garda officers in-volved in the Nicky Kellycase and the Director ofPublic Prosecutions. The DPPwanted to know why JohnFitzpatrick had not beenarrested and charged with theSallins train robbery whichhad taken place eight yearsearlier. The meeting discussedwhether it was now possibleto charge Fitzpatrick withthe robbery.

This information has beenrevealed in "Round Up TheUsual Suspects", by DerekDunne and Gene Kerrigan,which is published today.

Fitzpatrick was first arres-ted under Section 30 onApril5 1976 and held for 48 hours.His first statement was anaccount of going to Limerickwith Micnael Barrett on theday of the Sallins robbery.His second statement madeat8.15 in the morning of April7 admitted to the robberybut did not name anyoneelse. He was also alleged tohave made verbal statementsnaming all the other IRSPmembers supposedly on therobbery.

Fitzpatrick got bail alongwith the others accused ofthe robbery and spent eightmonths waiting for the caseto come to trial.Then Justiceo hUadhaigh dismissed thecase. In December 1976wordcame from the DPP's office:arrest and chargeNickyKelly,Brian McNally, Osgur Breat-nach, MickPlunkett and JohnFitzpatrick. The day theothers werearrested thegardairaided Fitzpatrick's parents'

home but Fitzpatrick wasn'tthere.That was the end of his

involvement in the case.Sevenyears passed.

In October 1983 procee-"mgs began for taking Nicky

Kelly's caseto the EuropeanCourt. Also, John Fitzpatrickgave a press conference inDublin. Hetold the pressthathe had an alibi for the nightof the robbery when he hadstayed with various membersof the Hayes family in Lime-rick. If he was brought tocourt and his alibi stood upthere would be a problem.

Not alone had he confessedto the robbery but he wasnamed in Nicky Kelly's con-fession. If he was elsewherethat night, why did he con-fess and why was he namedin Nicky Kelly's confession?

Either the pressconferenceor the European hearing aler-ted the DPP's office to theexistence of Fitzpatrick.Senior gardai were summonedto a meeting. When askedwhy they hadn't arrested Fitz-patrick as they were orderedto do, they said that theycouldn't find him, that hehad fled the country.

According to "Round UpThe Usual Suspects", Fitz-patrick says he never left thecountry during this sevenyear period except to go on

.holidays. He says that duringthis time he lived in constantfear of being arrested againand charged. He claims thath,e was seen by the SpecialBranchjust three months aftertheothers hadbeenrecharged.

So the senior gardai satin the DPP's officein Januaryof this year andthey discussedwhether they should re-arrestFitzpatrick and if not whynot. It was concluded thatthe grounds of appeal whichhad been successful in OsgurBreatnach's case would alsobe likely to be successful ifFitzpatrick be tried and con-victed on the basis of thestatement which hemade. Sothe outcome of the discussion

between the gardai and theDPP was that Fitzpatrickwould not beprosecuted.

So, John Fitzpatrick,against whom there was pre-cisely the same evidence asNicky Kelly was not prose-

cuted. For seven years, whileKelly wasbeingtried, abscon-ding, on the run in Dublinand America, and in prisonin Portlaoise, John Fitzpatrickwalked free.

D r u g s"THE DIFFERENCE BE-tween their approach andmine," said Barry Desmondabout Sinn Fein, "is that Iam prepared to combat theevils of drugabusein ademo-cratic manner." Speaking atSt Colrncille's Hospital in hisDun Laoghaire constituencylast month Desmond had

nothing good to say aboutthe local Provos and their in-volvement in the anti-drugs

campaign. He promised that"financial resources" wouldbemadeavailabletoapprovedvoluntary groups, that a newextension to the hospitalwould beequipped to handledrug cases and that further

[

facilities would be providedat a planned new healthcentrein Loughlinstown.

In considering Mr Des-mond's proposals DunLaoghaire citizens shouldhave a good look at the ex-perience of the people of St

Teresa's Gardens.Agitation about heroin in

St Teresa's Gardens did notcome out of nowhere sudden-ly last summer. It began inMay 1981 when the thenHealth Minister, MichaelWoods, was presented with apetition asking him to takeaction about the "heroinepidemic" in the area. Thisfollowed a speech by theMinister in Maynooth Collegein which he had claimed thatthere was no serious drugproblemin the Republic.

The Minister attended ameeting in Teresa's Gardens

in the first week of June1981 when he was told bylocal parents and communityworkersthat childrenasyoungas twelve were affected byheroin in Teresa's Gardens.

The delegation gavethe Mini-ster a list of demands, thefirst of which was for a localdrugstreatment centre.

For elevenmonths nothinghappened, apart from endlesslobbying fromlocal people of

TDs, the Eastern HealthBoard, the Department ofHealth and the Garda DrugsSquad.

In April 1982 at thelaunching of the communitymagazine "Gardens" a seniorEastern Health Board officialannounced that a "rehabilita-tion centre ... the first of itskind in the country" wouldbe set up in the locality. Theofficial, Ms Aine Flanagan,gave a detailed account ofhow the centre would berun.It was to be managed by a

committee chaired by anEas-tern Health Board social wor-ker and including representa-tivesof the local developmentcommittee, the clergy, a doc-tor and a health nurse. Itwould provide a day-time

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

4/49

drop-in centre, therapy fordrug abusers and educationon drug abuse aimed parti-cularly at young people.

There would be three full-time posts. One had alreadybeen advertised. All that wasneeded were premises.

For more than a yearnothing happened apart fromthe taxi traffic jams at theentrance to the Gardens asaddicts poured in to do busi-ness with the local pushersand the lobbying of everyofficial who could be foundto do something about theproblem.

Then Fergus O'Brienspoke on "Today Tonight"about the government TaskForce report on drug abuse.He announced that premiseshad been found - a fourclassroom school buildingowned by the Sisters ofMercy In reasonably nearbyWeaverSquare.

The premises existed andthey still do. They are emptyand they arefallingasunder.

On April 9 this year BarryDesmond attended an open

day at a community club inthe Gardens and was pleasedto announce that the WeaverSquare premises had nowbeen purchased. He wasn't asspecific as Aine Flanagan had

been two years earlier aboutthe running of the centre,although he did promise thatlocal people would have a"major say". Possibly encour-aged by the Minister's speech,Aine Flanagan spoke at aseminar in Trinity CollegeonMay 31 in terms which leftsome of her listeners with theimpression that it wasalreadyinoperation.

In fact it would take upto 12 months to do the placeup and there is no sign of

the three full-time workers,not even the one whose postwas advertised in April 1982.

The earliest the centre willopen - if it ever does open -will be the summer of nextyear.

This saga provided a fullexplanation for the emer-gence of the ConcernedParents movement in St

Teresa's Gardens in June lastyear. Two years had passedsinceit had been madeknownto the Department of Health

that heroin abuse was epide-mic in the area. During thisperiod all the democraticmethods urged by Desmondon the people of DunLaoghaire had been tried.

They achieved nothing.

M ountjoyAT L UNCHTUME L ASTFriday eighty prisoners sat onthe ground in the exercise

yard of A-Wing. Later thir-teen prisoners climbed onthe roof of A-wing. Elevenstayed there for 28 hourswithout food or water. OnSunday morning at Mass astudent priest received minorinjuries to his neck when hewas attacked by a prisoner.Another prisoner took themicrophone and shouted"Let's get the screws." Otherprisoners stood on their seatsand began shouting and chan-ting.

The Department of Justiceinformed the public thatthere was "no reason" givenfor the protests. The GeneralSecretary of the Prison Offi-cers Association said that theproblem was lack of discip-line.

There were, however,reasons for the protests. Thefirst was the events of Thurs-day, the day before the pro-test, when an assault caseagainst two prison officers,arisingout of the riots in the

prison last November wasdismissed on a technicality.

The prison officers in courtwere jubilant in court andthose prisoners who had beenbrought. to court as witnesseswent back to Mountjoy and

relayed the news.Last month we revealed

that 400 letters were found'in Mountjoy which had notbeen delivered to prisoners.

The Department said it wasenquiring into it; nothing hashappened about it. .

Mountjoy prison is stillovercrowded; many of theprisoners have a heroin prob-lem. There is no treatmentfor drug addiction. The priso-ners still wash in cold water.

They get only one showerand changeof clothes aweek.

There is still no work for theprisoners in .A wing becausethe workshops weredestroyedin last year's riots. Prisonersstill spend over fifteen hours

aday locked in their cells.

IN THE L AST ISSUE IN ANanalysis of the Euro-electionresults wesaidthat the Labourvote in Dublin South Easthad been seven per cent,which if transferred to ageneral election would meanthat Ruairi Quinn would losehis seat. In fact the figurewas eleven per cent whichwill still leave Quinn introuble but with some chance

of regaininghis seat.And now for some more

good news. The circulation ofMagill has gone up from30,500 in the last six monthsof 1983 to 33,045 in thefirst six months of 1984.

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

5/49

Three chapters of ROUND .up THE USUAL

SUSPECTS by Derek Dunne and Gene Kerrigan,

published today by MAGILL, outline the political

background to the Nicky Kelly case. The section

printed below is taken from the second of these:

'A State Of Siege',

The National Coalition was on top of security from thestart. Liam Cosgrave's Fine Gael would never be softon wrongdoers. Labour would provide the balance neededto preserve civil liberties. The government of all the talents,they were called. .

What about the repressive legislation that Paddy Cooneyhad called "repugnant to the basic principles of justice andliberty", just four months earlier? Now, asthe new Ministerfor Justice, Cooney said that "as long as democracy wasthreatened in any way it had to have the means to protectitself, even if the laws necessary were repugnant."

The Cabinet posts were divided ten-five between FineGael and labour. It was to be an odd Cabinet, the lines ofdivision based more on personality conflicts than on partyor ideology. There were no serious clashes, everyone goton with running their Departments and there was no poli-tical disagreement. There was likewise no political agree-ment. The ministers worked more as administrative headsof their Departments rather than as politicians collectively

making policy. Paradoxically, Cabinet meetings were oftenand lengthy. Cosgrave believed in talking things out, lettingall have their say, putting off taking a vote. Some ministersfound the process so frustrating that they sometimes con-ducted Departmental business in siderooms during Cabinetmeetings. At the time, Frank Hall's satirical TV show por-trayed Cosgrave as a Hitler figure, barking out orders. Atthe end of one long gabby Cabinet meeting one ministerturned to another and asked wouldn't it be grand if theyhad that fella from Hall's show as Taoiseach, at leastthey'd get a decision.

The Cabinet was entirely divorced from decision-making

on security. They didn't decide policy, monitor events ormake decisions on practical matters. They got reports, but

there was little detail and less interest. Such reports werealmost always concerned with the party political embarrass-ments resulting from successful subversive action.

Within the Cabinet there was a sub-committee on secu-

rity. The three Fine Gael places on it were filled automati-

cally. Cosgrave, as Taoiseach got one, Paddy Donegan wasappointed Minister for Defence and took to it like a kid

who has been given a very large box of toy soldiers. Heautomatically got the second place on the sub-committee.

The third place went to the Minister for Justice, Paddy

Cooney.Labour had two places on the sub-committee. One went

automatically to Brendan Corish, as Tanaiste. Corish, how-ever, wasn't too interested. He spent a lot of time in hisconstituency and delegated his position on the sub-com-mittee to J immy Tully, Minister for Local Government.

There was one Labour place left. They had to fill it because

this was a coalition, and because, went the theory, FineGael shouldn't have too tight a hold on security matters.Neither Michael O'Leary nor Justin Keating expressed anyinterest. Conor Cruise O'Brien, still interested primarily inthe Northern conflict, took the fifth place on the sub-committee.

In the event, the sub-committee didn't have to press itsviews on the Cabinet. During the entire four years of the

Coalition's reign the Cabinet would vote just twice onsecurity matters of any moment. In effect, whether throughinexperience or lack of interest, the Cabinet abdicated itsresponsibilities on security (and civil rights) in favour ofthe sub-committee.

Some Cabinet members didn't know or weren't too sure

who was actually on the sub-committee, where it met, howoften it met or just what it did.

In the beginning it didn't matter. There was great crackon the security front. Paddy Donegan had been Minister

for Defence for a fortnight when the Provos tried to bringin a consignment of guns on a ship called the Claudia, Thegardai were tipped off and Donegan rushed to the scene,stayed up all night and "personally directed" the swoop onthe ship. There were several arrests and the guns wereconfiscated and the Claudia was allowed go free. Journa-lists reached for the dictionaries to find out what a transom

was when Donegan announced that he had delivered "akick up the transom".

In May Liam Cosgrave told a triumphant Fine Gael ArdFheis that his priorities were law and order, an incomes

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

6/49

policy and a housing programme. He got the usual standingovation.

The security successes went on. Five Provos, includingJoe Cahill, went to jail for their part in the Claudia affair.

Paddy Donegan announced the formation of two new bat-talions of the army for border duty. Thirty Provos werearrested when disturbances followed the annual Bodens-town commemoration. A raid on a ship in Dublin portnetted 17 rifles and 29,000 rounds of ammunition boundfor the Provos. In J uly gardai foiled an attempted escape

from Mountjoy. things were still unsettled, but the Coali-tion was getting on top of the security problems.

There was a bonus in that Fianna Fail were finding ithard to settle in to opposition after 16 years in power.

Deputy Liam Ahern told the Dail that what was neededwas "more guns, bags of guns", to J ack Lynch's embar-rassment. That embarrassment deepened when it was

revealed that .as Taoiseach Lynch had been told - but hadforgotten - about the activities of Kenneth and KeithLittlejohn, two thieves recruited as British agents and sent

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

7/49

Portlaoise Prison

over to infiltrate the IRA .. The Lirtlejohns Iaimed to haverobbed banks and set off explosions in the South in orderto push the government towards more repressive measuresagainst republicans.

And there was real hope that there could be a solutionto the [orthern conflict. In October 1972 the Britishgovernment had issued a Green Paper outlining proposalsfor new political structures in the North. Three weeksafter the coalition won the election a British White Paperhad been issued developing the ideas.

The coalition had made a successful start and was feel-ing pleased with itself. On October 8 there was anothersmall victory when Provo leader Seamus Twomey was sentto Mountjoy to start a three year sentence. J ust over threeweeks later that little victory would lash back into thegovernment's face.

Leonard had an American accent. He wanted to takesome aerial photographs of ancient monuments aroundStradbally, County Laois. He went along to the Westpointhanger at Dublin Airport, following a phone call, to have a

look at the kind of aircraft he could hire from I rish Heli-copters. He thought the Alouette helicopter should do fine

for his purposes and 80 an hour sounded about right. Hebooked the helicopter for Wednesday week.

On Wednesday October 31 1973 the National Coalitionhad been in government for eight months.

Leonard arrived at Dublin airport at noon and set off onhis flight, with Irish Helicopters pilot Thompson Boyes at

the controls. They flew down to L aois and at about 2.30pmLeonard said he'd like to land in that field over there.

They landed. Two armed men came out of the trees.An hour later Thompson Boyes was flying at gunpoint,

approaching Mountjoy prison. He used the Royal Canaland the nearby railway line as landmarks. It was 3.39pm .

when the helicopter landed in the exercise yard of D Wingin Mountjoy. Some of the warders thought it was the newMinister for Justice, Paddy Cooney, come to pay a surprisevisit.

At 3.41pm the helicopter took off again. It had threeProvo leaders, Seamus Twomey, Kevin Mallon and J .B.O'Hagan, aboard. When the prison warders realised whatwas happening they tried to stop the escape but otherprisoners in the yard prevented them. There were sixuniformed gardai in the prison and one plainclothes garda

with a gun. That garda was near the front gate. The gates

were open as a truck was about to enter the prison. Theprison alarm bells went off. A warder yelled for someoneto close the gates.

The helicopter, overloaded, made it up and over thewalls of the prison with just twenty feet to spare. ThreeProvo leaders, the pilot and Leonard with the American

accent.The helicopter escape gave the Provos a needed boost to

their morale. It severely embarrassed the Coalition. PaddyCooney had been away in Turkey, celebrating the fiftieth

anniversary of the founding of the Turkish state. DesO'Malley called for his resignation. Cooney shrugged offcriticism. He couldn't forsee everything. But the escapeshook the government. Cosgrave announced that therewould be a judicial inquiry. The idea was forming that thestate should forsee everything.

On J une 3 Michael Gaughan, a republican who had beenon hunger strike since March 31, died. At Gaughan's funeralservice in Kilburn Rev Michael Connolly described himas a great man. The priest was suspended from his parishduties. There was a military-style parade down the KilburnHigh Road.

As Gaughan's body was taken from Dublin to Ballinathousands of people lined the roadsides in tribute. TheCosgrave government was angered at the open display ofsupport for the Provisionals. They determined that it would

MAGILL AUGUST 1984 11

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

8/49

-:s:e'"'lowed happen again.

- the end of that month the authorities found an 80-

oot tunnel in Portlaoise prison. The number ofgardai:::.die prison was increased and army foot patrols were set

~ outside the walls. Wire contraptions were erected tozasure that no helicopters could suddenly drop in.

On August 18, shortly after noon, nineteen Provos inCell Block E overpowered warders and got out onto a roof.

Tiley had gelignite and used it blow their way throughtwo gates. All nineteen escaped.

The image of confidence cracked. The embarrassment ofme helicopter escape was compounded. Paddy Cooneyannounced ajudicial inquiry headed by Justice Finlay.

In fact, this inquiry had been under way since the heli-copter escape the previous October. Although the impres-sion was given that the Finlay inquiry was a routine affair

in which the security failures which allowed the escapeswould be identified and rectified the inquiry went very farbeyond that. The Finlay report was never published, but itradically restructured the whole security network - gardai,army, intelligence, prevention, detection.

The Finlay Report, delivered to the Taoiseach in 1974,

carne in several sections. It examined and made recommen-dations on prisons, RTE, ESB, the airports, the courts,water and gas installations, railways, embassies and diplo-mats, communications, and just about every institution orservice which might be under threat from subversives. Itwas divided into sections and each section was given onlyto those affected by its recommendations ~ for instance,

the section covering the ESB was seen only by those in-volved in ESB security, and that was the only section ofthe report they saw.

The most important innovation was the setting up ofthe National Security Group. This was a body chaired bythe secretary to the Taoiseach. It had representatives fromthe Departments of J ustice and Defence, the Garda Com-missioner, the army Chief of Staff, and a senior gardaofficer with direct responsibility for state security. Repre-sentatives from any government Department could becalled to attend meetings of the group when their area wasbeing discussed. The group met at least once a month inRoom 6B of government buildings and constantly assessedsecurity developments and made recommendations. It

reported, through the Taoiseach's secretary, directly toLiam Cosgrave.

Cosgrave therefore, by late 1974, had direct lines ofcommunication to all aspects of state security. He also had

the Cabinet sub-committee on security, which was sohomogenous in its views that its only function was to en-dorse the measures which Cosgrave - separately from thesub-committee - decided in conjunction with PaddyCooney and Paddy Donegan. The direction and control ofthe forces of state security had been gathered in very fewhands and those hands belonged to people of like views.

The Cabinet, which in theory had responsibility for secu-rity and to which the various instruments of security were

.in theory accountable, was otherwise engaged. Its memberswere content to let Cosgrave and his circle get on with it.

There would later arise a myth that the National Coali-tion launched a concerted attack on civil liberties. It wasn'ttrue. So far from the minds of Cabinet ministers were civil

liberties that it never occurred to them to attack them.Much less defend them.

Inbetween the helicopter escape and the Portlaoise break-out Coalition hopes for progress to stability in the North

were dashed. The British discussion documents had led toa four-day conference at Sunningdale in December 1973.

The idea was for Protestants and Catholics to share powerin an Executive and that there would be an "Irish dimen-

sion", a Council of Ireland. No one was sure what this lastwas. It was sold to nationalists as a first step to a unitedIreland and to unionists as a structure which would stymie

moves to a united Ireland.Cosgrave did his best. Even before he formed his Cabinet,

in March 1973, he flew to London with Brendan Corishto discuss the situation with Edward Heath. Garret Fitz-Gerald met William Whitelaw for talks in London in June.Cosgrave again went to London to see Heath in J uly. OnSeptember 17 there was a massive military exercise whichsealed off Baldonnel airfield while Cosgrave and Heathengaged in nine hours of talks. Then there were the fourdays of Sunningdale in December, to which Cosgravecommitted the best part of his Cabinet. Cosgrave consultedby phone with Brian Faulkner, the Northern premier, onthe Council of Ireland proposal and then met Faulkner

for five hours at Baldonnel on J anuary 16. After the Britishgeneral election in February Garret FitzGerald went toLondon for talks with the new Northern secretary, MerlynRees, Senior Garda and RUC officers met to discuss secu-rity arrangements. It was all go, and all for nothing.

The general election results in February 1974 showedwhich way the wind was blowing in the North. Eleven ofthe twelve Northern seats at Westminster were won by anti-power sharing unionists. The unionists didn't want powersharing, they wanted their state back. They launched ageneral strike, closed the power stations, patrolled thestreets carrying cudgels, and bombed Dublin and Monaghan,killing 31 people. The power sharing Executive collapsedin May, after a tentative start. It was the first genuine

attempt to square the circle in the North, and it would bethe last for a decade.

From that point on the Cosgrave Coalition had noNorthern policy. Only O'Brien had a policy based on anideological positon. For Cosgrave and his circle the jobwas now merely one of tightening security. There was nounderlying political strategy, as there had been with Sun-ningdale, just a decision to stamp out the IRA in the Southand push the problem back across the border.

For Liam Cosgrave, enough was enough. When theExecutive collapsed he turned to Conor Cruise O'Brien andsaid, "The Protestants have won - isn't that it?" That wasit.

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

9/49

[!J

HANKS" SAID THE WOMAN HANDING KENLivingstone a copy of his new biography to

T sign. "Thanks for everything you're doing forus." She was neat, spinsterish, and timid.

Livingstone handed her the signed book. "I hope we cankeep on doing it," he said gently.

They queued up in W.H. Smith's in Streathem to buy

"Citizen Ken" by John Carvel of the Guardian, and 'tohave a word with Livingstone. He's London's folk hero,came second only to Pope J ohn Paul II in the BBC's Man

of the Y ear Poll, and he's easy to talk to. There are nosharp edges to Livingstone, no defensiveness, no quickglances at his watch to remind one he is a busy man."N'yeah sure" he said in his nasal South London drawlwhen pounced on for aMagill interview that his press officesaid was totally out of the question. "Sure, why not?"

Insults and compliments he meets with the same self-deprecatory good humour. Ken doesn't believe in hassle.

Socialist well-being does not allow for stress.The British gutter press have called him Red Ken, Loony

Ken, This Damn Fool - even the liberal Guardian havesuggested he should stick to raising his beloved salamandersand leave the government of London to others. But L iving-stone, the man who said all people are bi-sexual, who sup-ported the H Blocks hunger strikers and invited GerryAdams to London, who believes diet is a political state-ment, has become a working-class hero - and not just tothe working class. As left wing Labour leader of the GLC,he cut fares on London Transport and proposed extra rateson business people and property owners to cover the sub-

sidy. He queried the GLC support for elitist pursuits likeopera, and gave grants to community-based arts groups,creches, ethnic, homosexual and women's groups. Heopened the GLC's halls and facilities to striking workersand when the government tried to abolish him and hiscouncil, he took them on by appealing directly to Lon-

doners.That morning he'd announced that he was resigning his

GLC seat, along with a handful of other Labour councillors,to force a series of by-elections in which Londoners couldshow their support for his campaign to maintain the GLC.

The queue in WH. Smiths were right behind him.Two beautifully dressed blue-rinsed ladies told him they

were on his side because MrsThatcher was using the law toconduct a personal witch-hunt. "It's outrageous what'sshe's doing," they said quivering with indignation "and it'sall to get at you - just to get at you!" An adoring girlwith a pony tail said she was really delighted to meet him.

"Go on, you're not really," drawled Ken with a grin. "Yesshe is," said her black friend. "Gawd, she's been talking

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

10/49

about it for weeks, and what's more she had to drag mealong."

"Do Tories support you, too?" asked a man who haddriven his teenage daughter up from Kent that day to meetLivingstone. "Y es, some of 'em do," mused Ken. He's hadletters from Tory voters, from retired colonels in the shiresbacking him to the hilt in his bid to save the GLC. They'dseen him on BBC television's Question Time, he said, andrealised he wasn't an ogre. .

The response to Ken's campaign has startled not onlyMrs Thatcher, but more significantly, his own Labourcolleagues in Parliament who have too easily dismissed Kenas a Looney London Leftie.

From the terrace of the House of Commons, MPs canlook diagonally across the river to the elegant curve of GLC

Headquarters at City Hall. There, in giant letters along the

parapet is the week's message from Citizen Ken. This week,it's a thank you to the Lords for throwing out the bill to

abolish the GLC: "Peers, thank you for saving London'sdemocracy." Other weeks, it will be another battle-cry inthe fight against abolition: "Vote us in to vote us out";or it will revert to the regular tally of the total unemployed

under Mrs Thatcher's administration. Ken was never a man

to waste prime adyertising space.MPs watch the massive message board with varying

degrees of fascination, fury and pure envy. To the Tories,it's impudence beyond all bearing. To the L abour Opposi-tion, it is a brazen and stylish assault on government whichmakes their own performance, hampered by the traditionsand etiquette of parliament, look tame and stuffy. Ken, tothe London man in the street, is fast looking like the realleader of the opposition.

Livingstone knows his L ondon, and he knows his Eng.land. A winsome eccentric of which a modern P.G. Wode-house would have been proud, he has milked the Englishsense of fairness and the popular hostility to Whitehall civilservants. Pointing out that the refusal to hold next year'slocal elections is a reduction of London democracy, thatthe abolition of the GLC leaves London effectively in thecentralised hands of Whitehall, he has dotted the city withmad posters:

"This" declares one large hoarding bound in masses offluttering red tape, "is how London will look run by White-hall"; ''This'' announces another above a giant crawlingsnail "is how London will feel run by Whitehall". The

Thatcher government, taunted at every London crossroadsby an inspired poster campaign which is costing 3 million

of London taxpayers money, has turned every legislativegun in the armoury on Mr Livingstone's council, and ended

up with a House of Lords mutiny allover its face. Thenoble Lords, whom egalitarian Ken has been eager toabolish, accepted reluctantly that Livingstone was right.

The democratic way to get rid of Ken was to fight himfairly in a local election - not to abolish his council. The

battle has turned into a Tom and Jerry cartoon, with MrsThatcher as the snarling thwarted cat, and Livingstone asthe cheeky mouse. The nation is enjoying it hugely.

~

IVINGSTONE' A 38 Y EAR OLD SOUTHLondoner and former teacher, reluctantlyL accepts the Trotskyist label, at least he wouldprefer it to being called a Social Democrat or

indeed a Stalinist. What he's never been vague about is hiscommitment to the left and his determination that the

Labour Party whatever its leader, shall be the voice of theleft. "Hugh Gaitskell" he explained to a young CND acti-vist who complained that the Labour party had failed theleft "was about as far part from me asis possible in politicsbut still people did better under him than under any Torygovernment." She must join the Labour Party, he insistedover twenty persuasive minutes. If everybody who felt like

her joined the party, they could change the party, thecountry overnight. She was hooked.

Livingstone believes in evangelisation, imaginative per-suasion. That's what's gone wrong, he complains, with themain bulk of the party establishment. Everything he's donecould have been done by the MPs who look so enviouslyacross at Ken's campaign from their Commons terrace onthe river. "The Labour Party when in government could

have done something, but they never had the imagination ...the Fare's Fair policy, the development of the NationalHealth Service. From the 1950s up to now, the Labour

Party has lost sight of the fact that people are not naturallysocialist - they've got to be persuaded. There's agrey bureau-

cracy, and Neil Kinnock has caught the public eye simplybecause he hasn't been absorbed by that awful bureaucracy

of Westminster."For a leftwinger Livingstone places a startling belief in

the power of personality. Denis Healy, from whom he isworlds apart politically, would still have been his choicefor leader over leftwinger Michael Foot.

"Healy's a larger than life figure - one warms to him.Had he been less arrogant as Chancellor he might have beenleader of the party. When J im Callaghan resigned, I made itclear that I thought Healy should have been made leader.Healy's a bully, and at the time you needed a bully. Theleft always get on with Healy in opposition. It's when he'sin power we have trouble with him."

Livingstone who grew up in Streathem looked aroundthe bookshop and then he confided pleasantly to a respect-ful manager: "You know, I stole a book here when I wasten. It was a German phrase-book. I stole it, at least I thinkI did." The manager laughed as though shoplifting was hisfavourite past-time, too. "C'mon Ken" said his girl-friend

Kate. "Stop wallowing in guilt and sign some more books."He'd changed his mind about W.H. Smith, confided Ken,

signing away. Y ears ago, he demonstrated against themwhen they refused to stock "Private Eye". "Now I don'tcare who does or doesn't stock "Private Eye", they write

such nasty things about me."Over the last year, Livingstone has taken on and routedthose who write such nasty things about him. Sought afterby television because of his very notoriety, Livingstone per-

formed superbly, shattering the bogeyman image of souless,implacable Red Ken. "At first, people depicted me as apuritan, who hated food or nice clothes or any sort of joy- a sort of automaton who went to meetings. Then whenthey saw you on TV, they realised that you were like themand the image didn't stick. Papers, after all, have a declining

readership as sources of news or comment. Television istaking up more and more of that audience. Y ou can reachover the heads of the press."

Mind you, nasty as the British gutter press was, they

were reacting to some of Livingstone's own beliefs, not allof which would meet with widespread acceptance. Beforewe get to his views on the Northern Ireland question, whicheven his own press handlers realise could damage his hard-won popularity, there is Ken's belief in vegetarianism for abetter, fairer world. The replacement of red meat with

_~ 1lAGILL AUGUST 1984

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

11/49

.~~2b:e protein, he says, would lead to a fairer distribu-::~ of the world's resources. "People are sold red meat and.-=~- products because the farming industry benefits from~. r;we eat these things rather than consume vegetable

:~C':ein>we condemn the Third World to live at subsistence'1~'T

,& " .J . .

Ken took the questions on Northern Ireland though his_ress office were keen they be avoided - Ireland, just now,shouldn't distract from the fight to save London's demo-cracy, Even as we moved 'out of the shop to talk further,two bystanders were calling "Bloody Irish, get 'em all outof here, we say." It may have been a bad joke but onedidn't wait to find out.

The British army, says Livingstone, were accepted in

~orthern Ireland until 1972 and Operation Motorman.Interrunent proved them to be on the side of the Unionistregime and therefore unacceptable to Catholics as an inde-pendent force. So now they should get out, he says. It's a

new held by most British people, he claims, if not by theirpoliticians. London Radio's most recent poll showed overeighty per cent of people in favour of withdrawal. Thecommitment to union was fast becoming an empty shellmaintained by politicians, he said.

But wouldn't withdrawal have to be a gradual process,even if one agreed it was desirable? Something which hap-pened over ten or fifteen years?

"I'd do it in ten days," says Ken evenly. And would he,one ventured, like to be living as a besieged Catholic in WestBelfast during and after those ten days? "Y es, I would,"says Ken. "I walked around Andersonstown with Gerry

'Adams and I felt perfectly safe.

"The Protestant terrorists wouldn't get involved in acivil war," he claims, "they would know that internationalforces would stop them. The very balance of terror betweenthe two sides would stop such a war, and the Irish could allget down to working out a constitution, a new deal whichProtestants would be quick to have a major say in."

He sounded reasonable and persuasive about it all, askind and concerned as he was about bus passes for oldpeople, and proper housing and giving the GLC's unusedbuilding ground over to caravan-dwellers to live on.

But he sensed he hadn't quite persuaded the questionerand Livingstone always likes to persuade the questioner.

"])0 I gather from your attitude that you wouldn't like tobe in Andersonstown during that ten days?"

Not on your life, I told him - not even for a free vege-tarian dinner. I'd rather be in L ondon, on a subsidised bus,where comment is free and diet is a political statement,and peace is not maintained by a balance of terror, andwhere Mr Livingstone, I presume, will be as persuasive andas popular as ever.

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

12/49

I GHT A M

IN TIBNIN AND THE SOUND OF THE PIPE BAND

playing "Twenty Men from Dublin Town'. echoed throughthe prefabricated billets of Camp Shamrock, making sleepimpossible for those who had not yet emerged from under

themosquito nets.

There had been drinking the night before. The canteenopens for an hour and a half every night between eight andnine-thirty. About thirty people were in the canteen, sit-ting around tables and drinking the standard beer, Alrnaza,

out of cans. Michael Jackson played from the tape recorderin the corner, bought from one of the many local traders.Because the bar is only open for an hour and a half, somesoldiers have developed the tendency to drink their cans atan alarming rate. At ten o'clock an officer came in to clear

everyone out. Some of the lads muttered things under theirbreath but they all obeyed orders.

Back in the billets the Privates and NCOs were sittingaround a table when someone from another billet came in

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

13/49

looking very angry. Somebody had stolen his thirteen cansof beer, and he was accusing one of the lads of stealingthem. They began to shout at each other.

The soldier who lost his beer went away again, andsomeone said "we only got twelve" The troops agreed thatthey should give him the money for his cans, and someone

was nominated to do this the next day.

"The worst thing about drinking out here," said oneman, "is getting up in the morning. The heat would kill.ou,"

;'\0...- I T W~ morning. people were moving about the:RS gertiag hor. A~tae front gate the fOUI

lined up inside the gate, waiting to transport the officersto the morning briefing at HQ.

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

14/49

using South Lebanon from which to attack Israel. The

UNI FI L role was to keep peace in the area. They cannot,however, enforce peace, and can only fire weapons in self-defence.

Since then, Irish troops have been fired upon by all sidesin the area, including the Israeli army. Eighteen Irish troops

have been killed, some in action and others in accidents.The balance of power in the area has been constantly chan-ging in the last six years. The PLO are gone, but the Israelisare back. The Christian militia is now' being trained by theIsraeli Army and styling itself as the "South LebaneseArmy". This "Army" is not recognised by the Lebanese

government and, therefore, not by UNIFIL. It gets much

of its funding by a system of local "taxation" whichamounts to a crude form of extortion.

Ten different nations are participating in UNIFIL.

There are 736 Irish troops there, who spend six monthsin the 88 square kilometres of the I rish Area of Operationsbefore going home, to be replaced by a new battalion. TheIrish Army is well used to UN peacekeeping work, havingserved in the Congo for four years and in Cyprus for ten.

HE OFFI

CERS LEAP OUT OF THEIR SEATS TO ATTENTIONas the commanding officer of the 55th Irish Battalionwalks into the room. The duty officer, for the previous

day sits behind a desk at the top of the room with a large

map of the Irish Area of Operations (AO) behind him,with different coloured markers on it. The officers sit downagain as the duty officer begins his account of the eventsin the Irish AO for the previous 24 hours.

One. The Israelis fired two rounds from their position atIDF house down into the valley below - probably justclearing their weapons - and there were two overflights byIsraeli planes.

Two. Lauis (locals, armed and uniformed by the Israelis)

fired two shots in the air and twelve on the ground fromone of their two positions, and one into the valley below

from their other position, all for no apparent reason.Three. One Irishbatt truck was stopped for some time at

a DFF (De Facto Forces - Christian Militia) checkpoint,before being allowed through.

Four. The Laui position at Brashit was attacked during thenight, with 60 rounds fired at it, and a hundred fired back."It all seemed to end at 6.l0am when the Lauis went off

for a cup of tea."

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

15/49

-:::-he olue cravatted officers listen attentively as the~:ernus day's shooting incidents are read out. There iszothing unusual. The last item raises self-satisfied grins -the price of petrol had gone up in Dublin.

White UN jeeps bump along potholed roads and green-clad soldiers stop and search cars as the daily routineof Irishbatt begins. Most mornings some part of the landlinecommunications system has to be repaired. The cables laidalong the side of the road are regularly cut by locals, whouse them to pirate electricity into their homes or to makereins for their donkeys.

Soldiers sit with binoculars on rooftops of houses atisolated vantage points in the Irish AD and report on any-thing unusual. Their reports are usually of overflights ofIsraeli planes, or the sound of gunfire. At the checkpoints.cars are stopped one at a time, while ill cards arechecked and boots opened. Most of the Irish know how toask the routine set of questions in Arabic. They seem to

understand the answers.The local children wave and shout "hello" as the Irishvehicles pass along the dusty roads through the villages.

The Irish have a self imposed speed limit of 25mph. Thethus far harmonious relations with the locals could be

severely shaken by just one incident involving afast movingIrish jeep and a local child.

Much of the manpower is spent on the maintenance ofthe Irish operation. Mechanics work in an area known as

"The Pits" maintaining and repairing the UN vehicles, whichget a rough battering on the appalling roads. For moreserious vehicular casualties there isaNorwegian maintenancecompany beside Camp Shamrock.

The provision of food and water is also a' major opera-

tion. Several times a day, the water truck must travel 25kilometres to get water to service the main camp and the

smaller outposts. Cooks work a full day providing food forthe officers and men. In A company at Haddatah, the offi-cers sometimes participate by barbecuing their own food onthe balcony.

HE OLDWOMAN WITH THE KIDNEY INFECTION IN THE WAIT-ing room is calling for Allah. Three members of her familygather around, torn between comforting her and liaisingwith the Irish medical orderly. The jamjars in the officecontain assorted snakes and tarantulas, so that anyonecoming in with a bite can identify the assailant. The castfrom MASH smiles down from a poster on the wall as wellthey might.

The regimental aid post is the busiest part of CampShamrock. At 7.30 in the morning locals start to queueoutside the gate and are given numbers to wait in thequeue. Some patients arrive with a large entourage offamilySId friends, who keen and wail while the sick person isaeing seen to. On a bad morning the waiting room is filled~h howling people.

The dentist, Mary Keating needs only two words of_.....rabic, which sound like Rasras and Ecla. Most of the!.:r::2ls corning in want a rasras (filling) but they usually

~~ taeir visit to the dentist so late that an ecla (extrac-

tion) is required. People leave it late before coming to thedoctor too. Sometimes they have applied toothpaste to

burns and ground coffee to wounds before they come formedical attention. Many villagers who come to see the doc-

tor go next door to see the dentist before they leave, inorder to get value from their visit to Camp Shamrock.

The locals seem to prefer the Irish medical treatment to

the local treatment at Tibnin hospital. It may be that theyprefer the Irish medics, it may be because it's free at

Camp Shamrock.A few of the villagers specialise in acting as go betweens

between the locals and the Irish medics. They regularlyarrive up with one or more people in tow, dramaticallyexplain the plight of their clients, and escort them backhome again when they are finished. These intermediariesmay be merely doing a good turn for their friends - gratis- but one isknown as the tenpercent man.

"On the ball Irish!" The soldier at the Fijian checkpoint

jerks himself to attention, smacks his rifle in salute andflashes his white teeth before shouting his greeting as theIrish jeep goes by. Another black face appears at the window of the checkpoint and roars: "On the big Irish ball!"

Driving from the Israeli border to Tibnin involves passingthrough the Fiji controlled UN area. The Fijians havepickedup the Irish habit of saying "on the ball" and invariablyshout some variation of it as the Irish go by. They don'tknow what it means but they still say it in thick Fijianaccents. Some of them think it has something to do withfootball and they draw imaginary footballs in the air astheIrish pass. The Irish try to confuse them by drawing hexa-gonal shapes in the air.

But if you drive from the Israeli border to Tibnin, the

Fijians are the least of the problems. One must also passthrough an area known as the enclave, a narrow strip ofland between the Israeli border and the UN area. Here thenatives have taken to firing.at Israeli patrols and detonating

roadside bombs beside Israeli vehicles. On the road Leba-nese vehicles stay 100 yards behind Israeli jeeps, and UN

vehicles only travel in pairs. Some Irish UN drivers tell ofIsraeli vehicles trying to manoeuvre themselves into themiddle of UN convoys for safety. The UN drivers don't likethat sort of thing.

The Irish are playing a local soccer team - Haris - in afriendly match. The pitch is set deep in a valley with highbanks of rock on each side. The sun is getting low in the

sky, which casts a shadow over the pitch making it morecomfortable for the players to run around.

Up in the rocks and around the pitch sit around 50locals. The referee is alocal as well.

An Irish player shouts handball and the referee wants tosend him off. It was handball - the ball had clearly beenhandled by one of the local players - but the local refereewants to send off the Irish player. The referee finally chan-ges his mind and the Irish player stays on. "Fair play toyou ref", the Irishman says, not without a trace of irony.

The locals take their soccer very seriously. They havematching blue shirts with "Haris" emblazoned across them.

The local referee bows to the will of the spectators, whohave been known to throw stones at particularly good Irish

players. In the previous game the Irish had been winning inthe end but the referee extended the game for fifteenminutes until the local team scored. The referee slepteasily in his bed that night.

"I hear him, he say fucking ref, he go off." The friendlymatch is getting less friendly and an Irish player is being

MAGIUJAUGUST 1984 19

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

16/49

SU: off. The Irishman doesn't think he has done anythingwrong and he doesn't want to go off. The I rish are winning,

:De crowd is getting frustrated and the referee is gettingworried. An officer indicates that the player should go offand the martyr for community relations goes to the side-

5ne."Sure we have to let them win. It's their pitch and their

Dill."

There's no disco in Dibil. Soldiers on their first trip toSouth Lebanon are told that there is, that the tiny villageof Dibil is the place to be. But it's not. Dibil is in the Chris-tian controlled enclave, and a UN soldier there would be aspopular as a black at a disco in Cape Town.

OMMANDANT

PIERCE McCORLY IS FRANTICALLY CRAWLINGacross the floor of the canteen in Reece company headquar-ters at Al Y atun. The room is smoky and crowded and thetables are covered with beer cans. Everyone thinks it's veryfunny. Tonight there is an inter company quiz betweenReece company and C company and it's the charades

round.Soldiers who had been concentrating more on the 50

cent cans of Almaza start to pay attention to the quiz.People nudge each other and point out the senior officer onthe hard dusty floor. The laughter gets louder. The twoteams sit in front of the cartoon covered walls at the topof the room facing down towards the people at the bar.

Pierce McCorly is trying to mime the two worded name

of a book. He has done very well so far. The first word isanimal and the second rhymes with arm.

Pierce McCorly is trying to mime the second word. Heraises his legs in the air, he walks up and down the room

with an imaginary plough and puts his fingers to his headand wiggles them, but nobody thought that he looked likea farm and C Company won.

Finding amusement for the 648 Irish troops in a barren

and desolate place such as South Lebanon is difficult.Many soccer, table tennis, volleyball and quiz competitions

are organised to keep the men occupied, but for thosewho are thinking of home, the competitions are a poor

substitute.Shaper and Joe and some of the lads are lying out in the

sun on top of a bunker - an activity known as swarming.It's two in the afternoon, the hottest time of the day, buton top of the bunker the breeze makes the heat bearable.

Down on the balcony of the officers mess the officersare swarming as well. There is an unofficial siesta between12 noon and 3 in the afternoon, during which most of thetroops plaster themselves with suntan oil and top up theirsuntans. There were a lot of sore people in the first twoweeks, but by now most of the troops are used to the sun.

On the winter tour the status symbol of a tan is harder

to get. After the winter rain, soldiers grab every minuteof spare time to lie in the sun so that they'll impress thefolks at home when they get back.

A medical orderly approaches the lads. "Anyone here Apositive?" Tibnin hospital needs some blood. A donor is

found and hurried off to give his blood. During the nightthere was a 'medevac' from the Irish A O to Tyre hospital.A local woman had gynaecological complications, but hav-ing been driven to Tyre hospital by the UN she gave birthto a baby girl. Some of the troops think it was twins, others

swear it was triplets.We sit on the small whitewashed rocks that border the

pathways between the billets. The lads complain about the

beer. They've been promised for the last few years thatGuinness would be brought out, but there's still no sign of

it coming. They talk about the hard work, the heat, the

mosquitoes.At this time of the afternoon the soldiers wear nothing

but a pair of shorts. They have very dark suntans andthey're proud of them. Someone talks about the post, andhow a person's morale is transformed when they get a letterfrom home. But it takes a week for a letter to get from

Ireland, and another week for a reply to get back, "so if thewife wants to know something it takes two weeks beforeyou can tell her and by then it's out of date. Y ou're 3000miles away from Ireland when you come out here, and itgets further and further as the six months go by."

They say that during the winter South Lebanon lookslike the west of Ireland, but now in mid-summer the grassis scorched brown. Standing on the balcony of the officersmess there is a panoramic view of the rugged hills andvalleys of the Irish area of operations.

An Israeli flag flies over a building on a hill to the right.This is "IDF House", headquarters of the Israeli army inthe Irish area of operations. The soldiers in IDF House regu-larly fire at nothing in particular in the valley below their

position.Early in the morning they have patrols, which involve

jeeps driving around the area at high speed. Everyone getsout of the way.

The previous week a car bomb exploded 100 yards awayfrom IDF House. The three men who were in the car were

killed instantly, but the Israelis fired several hundred roundsof machine gun fire into the car just to make sure. They

sealed off the area for some time before allowing the Irish

in to pick up the pieces. They made no move to help.Straight in front of us are Landsdowne House and Court-town House, headquarters of the Dublin A company atHaddatah, a half a mile away from IDF House.

On the left is Hill 880 and the town of Brashit. Hill

880 is the highest point in the Irish A O, and the five sol.diers there spend a week in isolation at a time. Access tohill 880 is along a winding uphill dirt track, and cars ap-proaching can be seen ten minutes before they arrive.

There are no surprise inspections on Hill 880.

The town of Brashit is hostile to the UN and is the home

of a Christian Militia leader who is said to terrorise the

locals and faces several murder charges, including, it is said,one of setting fire to his wife. Then there is an outpost ona hill called the Black Hole.

There was a hole on a hill and two cubicles were put on

it to be used as toilets. The hole got very full, so someonedecided to go into one of the cubicles, pour petrol into itand light it. It is called the black hole because there wassomeone in the other cubicle.

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

17/49

HOWLING~OISE CmfES FROM THE MINARET OF THE MOSQUEin e \"J !a."ee of Ayte Zut down below us. This is the Imam(moslem priest) calling the faithful to pray. This happensme times a day in every village. "J aysus", says one soldier,"yer man is off again."

In the past the Imam used to come out to the door ofthe mosque and sing lines from the Koran. Now there is aloudspeaker system on top of the minaret, and the sound isa tape recording.

They say that in recent years some UN soldiers got intoa mosque and changed the tape, they say that in the earlyhours of the morning the Beatles sang for the people ofSouth Lebanon. They say that the locals were not amusedat all.

"This is a mingi shop", reads the wall of the garage like

building in the village of Haddatah. The shop is run by awoman called Laura. It's not her real name but all the Irish

call her that. All shops that sell radios, tape recorders andalmost anything else in the Irish AO are called mingi shops.

When the Irish served with the United Nations in theCongo in the 1960s, local traders used to try to sell any-

thing by shouting "mingi, mingi", the Swahili word for lotsof or plenty. 20 years later this word has moved to SouthLebanon. People talk of mingi tapes and mingi combs -the local electricity service is known as mingi power.

A mingi man approaches the gate of Camp Shamrock

laden with jewellery. Like all mingi men, he survives byparrot-learning all phrases that the Irish teach him. TheIrish teach him some new words at the gate, and he wandersoff towards the officers quarters shouting "ya fuckin'bollocks".

The six years of Irish presence in South Lebanon havehad their effect on local culture. Instead of using the Arabic

word for no "lah", the locals have learned the Irish version"big fuckin' lah". The local units of currency, lira, areknown as lebs in all the local shops. One local fourteen-year-old gives his career plans in perfect Dublinese: "I'mgoing to bleedin' Ireland to join the army and come backhere on me bleedin' holidays."

"The Irish are in high morality." So says the Muchtar

of Tibnin through the local interpreter. Fawas Fawas. On

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

18/49

the walls of his home are two Oglaigh na hEireann plaques,presented by f ormer Chiefs of Staff. Beside these is a pic-ture of the Muchtar with the UNIFIL force commander,General Bill O'Callaghan, and towering above them all is a

picture of the Christian Lebanese President, Amin Gemayel.The Muchtar , like eighty per cent of his villagers is a Shi'itemoslem.

The Irish are lucky that the Muchtar thinks they are inhi::b morality. Stories abound of soldiers from other contin-gents who weren't in such high morality, particularly inrelation to modesty and women. Some of them will neverrecover, especially the French soldier, who, the Iads say,had his goolies cut off before being tied on top of a lamp-post by the irate family of alocal girl.

The Irish go to great pains not to offend against localcustoms. During Ramadan, when all moslems must abstainfrom food, drink and sex between the hours of sunrise andsunset, the few drinking houses in the Irish AO are out of

bounds to the soldiers. When the Irish want to sunbathethey find a spot where they cannot be seen from outsidethe camp before exposing themselves.

"Their women are beautiful - but you daren't touch

them," says one disconsolate soldier ill reluctant selfrestraint. But adaptation to a different moral code worksboth ways, as a visit to the well stocked Tibnin shop knownas Porno Joe's testifies.

It's five o'clock and after the mid-afternoon heat,walking is becoming more comfortable. Groups of teen-age girls saunter along the road away from Tibnin, thenturn before Camp Shamrock and go back again. The local

men drive their cars up to the top of the hill past Camp

Shamrock, turn, and tear down the road into Tibnin pastthe women, who pretend not to notice. They do handbraketurns, burn their tyres and raise clouds of dust. This is atype of mating ritual which the Irish can watch from adiscreet distance. They call it the virgin parade. It happensevery evening.

OMETIMESTHE TROOPS WRITE THINGS ON THE WALL ABOUT

the assistant adjutant, Lieutenant Flynn. The assistant adju-

tant features in a cartoon on the wall at Al Y atun. She occa-sionally crops up in conversations in the canteen, as doCaptain Keating, Corporal Holly, Private Gallagher, andCaptain O'Loughlin. The Irish women in South Lebanon

have got used to it. Corporal Holly looks very young andvery small. She sits behind a typewriter in the sandbag pro-tected headquarters. She gets embarrassed as an officercomes in to say that "she's our darling here", and a sergeant

comes in to say that "life would be very dull without her".Everyone passing through the room quickens their pace

pointedly so as not to be seen to be listening.Corporal Holly can shut them up when she beats them atdarts in the canteen. She gets better accommodation thanhe men, because she gets to stay with the women officers,nd the officers are inclined to treat the women a bit better

~an the men:One of the men looks at his watch and tells us where to

find Marie Flynn. "Y ou'll catch her sunning herself," hesays with a grin "if you're lucky." He knows the exact spot.

Behind the medical aid post, Lieutenant Marie Flynn issunning herself. She talks of how the women used to be

more confined when the Irish went to Lebanon first, forfear of offending the conservative moslems. She talks ofhow the female officers and NCOs are closer than the menbecause they have sorrie common experiences that the men

wouldn't have. She tells of how she did much of her train-ing in Britain's Sandhurst military academy because there

were no women's toilets in the Curragh.It was dark in Tibnin at nine 0'clock and yer man was

off again. The solemn voice of the Imam of Tibnin couldbe heard in every part of the town as the four man Irishfoot patrol made its way through the outskirts of Tibnin to

the "Berri quarter", where the family home of Shi'ite Amalleader Nabih Berri is situated. An Irish tank sits outside the

house for about two hours each night. The four soldiers

move along the road, crouching at every turning beforerunning across one by one. The only sound is that of the

crickets, and of course yer man.The winding streets of Tibnin are becoming more popu-

lated as people come out to buy food after the day's fasting.One young man raises his hands in mock horror at the sight

of the Irish. Another shouts "On the big Irish ball," and athird says "all this just for some photographs."

Something makes a big bang. The soldiers duck down,looking around furtively. After a few seconds they moveon. Another bang. A noise like that on a South Lebanesenight is unnerving, but it's only the kids letting off fire-

crackers.

A snarling dog comes running to the I rish soldiers andhas two guns pointed at him. Most Lebanese dogs look un-healthy and emaciated, and there was a time when all dogsand cats wandering into the Irish camp were shot on sight.Soldiers tell horror stories of the eleven stomach injectionsnecessary to treat rabies and these two are taking nochances. The dog barks around them and the soldiers cocktheir guns. The owner comes out of his house and rescueshis hound.

The hot morning sun beats down on the tiny village of

Haddatah. A handful of local children on the narrow pot-holed road look towards the adjoining open space. An oldpeasant farmer with an overladen donkey makes his waypast and into the village.

The seven-man pipe band strikes up "20 Men fromDublin Town" as Lieutenant Colonel McQuillan makes hisway through the lines offorty blue-beretted green-uniformedIrish troops.

It's inspection time in the Irish Battalion. For a period

of a week boots are polished, buildings cleaned out anduniforms ironed as the Commanding Officer tours theentire Irish AO.

The tune has finished before he has got through themall, so the orange kilted drummers and bagpipers play "20Men from Dublin Town" again, as the CO moves from thesoldiers to the assorted UN jeeps and armoured personnelcarriers. The troops don't move a muscle until the inspec-tion is over and the officers retire into the big old housethat serves as A Company Headquarters for tea and 7 Up.

The band pack up and prepare to move on to the nextinspection where they will again play "20 Men from Dublin

Town". A Private turns and says: "It's not a bad place youknow, but you get tired of looking at Arabs and mingi

men."

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

19/49

I n March 1983 a 'Today Tonight' programme onthe connection between an Irish woman and a plot

to kill the Pope was watched by the largestaudience 'Today Tonight' has ever had. The

following two Sundaysthe Sunday Press ran

major articles on Marie

McCarthy (photo inset)and claimed she had

information which

proved that the CI A wasinvolved in the plot to

kill the Pope.Magill has established

that she had no suchinformation and that

there was no connectionwhatsoever between

Marie McCarthy and the plot to kill the Pope. I nthis article we trace her background and outline

how she came to spend the night of March 22 1983in Gordon Thomas's house in Ashford, Co Wicklow.

And what happened afterwards: How within aweek she was forced to use a different name andidentity; how 'Today Tonight' and the Sunday

Press damaged an innocent woman.

1. Gordon Thomas

Receives A Phone Call!

Early in 1983 when the dust had settled on Irish politicsand the country seemed destined for four years of stablegovernment RTE's Today Tonight team decided it was timeto consider introducing less serious items into some of theirprogrammes. A few short pieces not necessarily tied to cur-rent affairs might be a good thing, it was suggested. Some-one came up with the idea of doing an item on Gordon

Thomas and his new book "Pontiff". Thomas would alwaysbe willing to cooperate with RTE; the station had done anitem on Thomas's previous book and it had gone down well.It was decided that "Pontiff" would be a good ten-minuteitem on a dull night.

Paul Loughlin, a producer onToday Tonight, and Eleanor

Donovan, a production assistant, approached GordonThomas and he agreed to meet them.In the 1969 Budget, Charles Haughey, then Minister for

Finance, had introduced a tax free status for writers andartists, including writers and artists from abroad who woulddecide to come to live in Ireland. Over the previous fifteenyears many had taken advantage of the scheme, includingFrederick Forsyth, author of "The Day Of The J ackal".But perhaps the one who got most publicity was Gordon

Thomas. With his partner Max Morgan Witts, he had writtena large number of books on subjects of popular interest,such as the Wall Street Crash and the bombing of Guernica.

Thomas settled well in Ireland and seemed to enjoy thecountry. He wrote regularly for newspapers here and was a

regular contributor to RTE radio and television programmes.His house was in A shford in Co Wicklow in an area where a

number of other tax-free foreign writers also lived.Thomas was generous to several Irish publishers, allowing

them to publish his work without the usual fees and advan-ces that an author such as he would have commanded else-where. It was in the columns of the Sunday Press that

Gordon Thomas's work appeared most often. In 1982 hewrote a series of articles in which he explained that therumours about President Hillery's infidelity to his wifewere put about in Ireland by the K GB in order to under-mine the effect of the Pope's visit.

It was Thursday March 17, St Patrick's Day, when thetwo members of the Today Tonight team went to see

Thomas. Later they would think it was an extraordinarycoincidence that they were in his house when the firsttelephone call came and the first connection made.

The man who rang would not give his name but heneeded Thomas's help in something. If Thomas could helphim he would givehis name. For the moment he would justcall himself Bill. Thomas listened, he was interested, yes hethought he could help. Paul Loughlin and Eleanor Donovan

from Today Tonight were in the room and they heardGordon Thomas arranging that the caller would ring backthe following Saturday morning. He would probably knowby then what the problem was and if he could do anythingto help.

Over the next few days Loughlin and Donovan wouldcease to be interested in doing a short item for TodayTonight on Gordon Thomas's writing of "Pontiff'. Theywould become interested in the story of the man who madethe telephone call. Every programme has to have a name:

this one would be identified by those working on it as

"Sidelines". Even still in Today Tonight it is recognised as a

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

20/49

"sexy story". It had a woman, a few men, some guns, theCIA, secret documents, a car crash, the Special Branch, anassassin, Beirut, a Spanish jail. But above all, more than allthese ingredients, it had the Pope.

Beirut 1980. Everybody believed that everybody else was

up to something. No one seemed to be who they said theywere. So that when Marie M cCarthy, who ran a restaurantin the cellar of the Wilner House Hotel, used to joke withGarry K orkola, who came there to eat most nights, that hiscareer as "a dealer in electronics" didn't sound very plaus-ible to her, that surely he was a CIA man, he used to shrughis shoulders and laugh.

Korkola was wanted in the United States for runningguns into Central America. He had skipped bail before hewas sentenced to 53 years in prison. He was also a legiti-mate arms dealer and has done business with most govern-ments in the West, including the Irish government and theBritish government.

Marie McCarthy had come to Lebanon by a circuitousroute. She had left her native Cappoquin at the age ofseventeen and travelled for a number of years, finding jobsall over the place: in Dublin, Jersey, London, France, Spain,South Africa, New Y ork. In New Y ork she worked for theUnited Nations, later transferring to South Lebanon whereshe dealt with complaints from the native population against

UN forces. Her work involved regular visits to Beirut and it

was there she met a Dutchman called Gerrit, an engineerwho was attached to the UNIFIL forces in Lebanon. Theybecame involved and Marie McCarthy decided to leave theUN and move to Beirut.

She found bits and pieces to do. First, through a brotherin Dublin she found some work as an advertising agent.

Then she organised travel for groups of soldiers serving inthe Lebanon by shopping around for the cheapest prices.But it wasn't enough. A friend ran the Wilner House Hotelin Beirut and he took her down one day to look at thedining room in the basement: she agreed to take it over.

It was the sort of thing she was good at: meeting people,

going from table to table to make sure everything was allright, keeping the thing going. The opening of the restaurant

was a big event with representatives from all shades ofopinion in Beirut attending. A friend of Marie McCarthy'sarrived to know if he could bring someone else along who

hadn't been invited. This man was Garry Korkola who hadjust arrived in Beirut.

So every night Korkola would have his meal - he was

staying in the hotel upstairs - and then sit at the tableMarie McCarthy reserved for herself and have a drink with

. her. They became friends. And when Marie's boyfriendGerrit came back from a business trip he liked Garry Kor-kola as well and Korkola continued to sit at the owner'stable when he had finished his meal.

Korkola often mentioned a friend of his called Jim, whohe made out to be this amazing character livingin Damascus.

J im proved a great source of conversation and anecdote inthe September and October of 1980.

Neither Marie McCarthy nor Gerrit was aware that GarryKorkola was a wanted man in the United States nor didthey know who Jim was. Jim arrived in November to stay

in the hotel with his "wife" Ruth and he proved to bejust

as much fun as Korkola had promised. He talked aboutbeing in the CIA and how he was kicked out in 1972. Hefound out that Marie had worked for the United Nationsand insisted that he had worked for the United Nations

as well. Nobody would believe him when he said that hehad been Idi Amin's representative there.

J im told them all about the night he was having dinnerwith Amin and Amin was discussing what he was going todo with an enemy when suddenly the enemy's head wasbrought in on a platter. Some of the stuff he was tellingthem was true; but no one was sure how much. He cameabout three or four times to the restaurant and then went

back to Damascus where he seemed to be living. He had

made his mark.It was only later that Marie and Gerrit found out that his

real name wasn't J i m, that he was in fact Frank Terpil who

was wanted in the United States for various arms offencesand for his connections with Idi Amin and Ghaddifi.

Beirut was like the set for a movie. People were con-stantly running into the restaurant saying that there was abattle raging just down the street, then everyone would

hear it coming nearer and then it would stop and maybestart again. Everyone who came in was asked if they knewwhat was going on outside. Things were being more andmore dangerous and unpredictable. It was time to get out.

Marie was also having trouble with her back and didn'tthink much of the treatment she was getting in Beirut. She

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

21/49

went TO London with Gerrit who got ajob as a consultant.he attended Dr Ken Kennedy for her back and was cured.o by the summer of 1981 shewas able to work in London.

When Gerrit went back to Beirut, as he did for a few~Y 5 in September, he met Garry Korkola who had taken

over their flat in Beirut. For the first time Korkola toldGerrie the trouble he was in. One of the things he said he

ed to do was to clear his name in public, or discussh.3 case with the American people outside the confines of

ourtroom. A newspaper interview, or even better atelevision interview.

Marie knew Mike Wallace, who presents the "SixtyMinutes" programme on CBS, from the time she lived inNew Y ork. She rang him and told him that he could inter-view K orkola and Frank Terpil; he rang her back; he wasinterested. Marie and Gerrit were responsible for setting upthe interview with the two men which was done in their oldflat in Beirut and was due to be broadcast on Sunday 7

ovember.

On Saturday they got a phone call from Mike Wallace:there was a problem. Had they not heard? Korkola had

been kidnapped or at least was missing and so was FrankTerpil, who was also interviewed on the "Sixty Minutes"

programme (in fact Terpil had hogged the programme).McCarthy and Gerrit made a few phone calls and establishedthat the two had indeed been kidnapped. Mike Wallacedidn't know if there was a connection between his showand the kidnappings. Eventually he decided to go aheadwith the show.

They had liked Korkola and they were concerned abouthis welfare. Marie and Gerrit also felt responsible for settingup the CBS interviews. One call they made was to Garry

Korkola's wife Donna in the United States who was ex-tremely worried about her husband and determined to goto Beirut to search for him, even though she had been thereon a previous occasion and was scared to death due to thepresence of various armed militias. Marie and Gerrit decidedto go to Beirut with Donna Korkola to see if they couldlocate the two men.

The visit was fruitless and they left after ten days asnothing further could be achieved. Donna Korkola sugges-ted that Marie take Garry Korkola's address book whichwas lying around the flat and maybe contact some of hisassociates to see if they would know anything about hiswhereabouts. A few months earlier Marie and Gerrit hadbeen given a letter by Korkola to give to a contact in Scot-land Y ard. Through this and through conversations with him

they were aware that Korkola had contacts everywhere.

During the plane journey to Beirut Donna Korkola had

informed Marie and Gerrit that Frank Terpil had a wifecalled Marilyn who was living in Wales and from whom he

had not been divorced. Sometime afterwards, Marilyn.Terpil, who had been in touch with Donna Korkola,phoned

Marie and Gerrit out of the blue, introduced herself on thephone and wanted to know if they knew where her husbandwas. Even after Korkola and Terpil were released - whohey were kidnapped by and why remains unclear, Korkola

was released on New Y ear's Day and Terpil early in 1982 -Marilyn would phone Marie and Gerrit in London every six

veeks or so. Once she said she would be down in Londonand maybe they should meet; they met in a London hotel.~larilyn was very interested in finding out about the otherwoman who was with her husband, among other things.

In the spring of 1982 news came that Garry Korkola-,..: been arrested by Spanish police at an arms fair and was

awaiting extradition in a Madrid prison. Finally, the Spanishauthorities agreed to extradite him if the Americans wouldagree to give him a new trial. They heard no more from

him. Towards the end of the year Marilyn Terpil contactedMarie and Gerrit to say she had sold up and was

going back to the United States. She wanted to stay withthem the night before she went; she also wanted to leaveher car with them and might want them to sell it for her.

Marie McCarthy's mother in Cappoquin had had onestroke and had just suffered two heart attacks so in J anuary1983 when Marilyn had left, Gerrit suggested that they goto Ireland in Marilyn's car to see Marie's mother. They tookthe ferry over to Rosslare and were driving on the roadbetween Rosslare and New Ross. They were approaching agarage. The price of a gallon of petrol was written upclearly. Gerrit gasped in surprise; he was shocked at theprice. So shocked indeed that he missed the sign whichwarned of a dangerous bend and crashed Marilyn Terpil'sBMW into a bridge.

There are five M cCarthys. Marie is the youngest. John livesin Bray where he works in advertising. Betty lives in Genevawhere she is married. Billy works for his own company inDublin and Joan lives in Cappoquin.

Joan has always lived in the town. She married MichaelLacey, on the hurling team the last time Waterford won an

All-Ireland, and has seven children. When Marie and Gerritleft Cappoquin for London in J anuary 1983 they left in-

structions with Joan that a local mechanic J ohn Lucaswould go up to New Ross and get the car. He meant to go

one week, then the next. Time passed. The gardai in NewRoss became interested in the car which had seeminglybeen abandoned. They took the number to check the iden-tity of the owner.

The owner was Marilyn Terpil, wife of international gunrunner, fugitive, friend of Idi Arnin , Frank Terpil.

The gardai had no name or address for the two peoplewho had been in the car when it crashed. The only thingthe gardai knew was that the two people had taken a taxito Cappoquin. So the gardai, in their infinite wisdom, began.a house to house search in Cappoquin looking for an Englishcouple who had visited the town in J anuary. They finallyarrived at J oan Lacey's house and began to ask questions.Was she sure that the man who had been with her sisterwas Dutch or was it possible that he might have been anAmerican ...

Joan phoned Marie and asked her what in the name ofGod was going on.

John Lucas, the mechanic, went to New Ross to pick upthe car only to be taken to Waterford by gardai and ques-tioned for two hours. Among other things he was asked ifhe knew anything about Idi A min. He came back to Cappo-

quin and went to see J oan.Joan phoned Marie once more and asked her what in the

name of God was going on.

J ohn McCarthy, Marie's older brother who works in adver-

tising in Bray, had been away with his wife and child in the

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

22/49

Canary Islands when Marie and Gerrit came over to see hismother in Cappoquin. So he hadn't seen them. However,they contacted him after the J ohn Lucas/Idi Amin incidentin Waterford. They asked him to find out what the gardaiwanted to know about the car. John McCarthy didn't know

what to do. He couldn't just phone up the gardai and askthem straight out. Anyway, he didn't know any gardai,Frank Kilfeather of the Irish Times was a friend of his so hephoned him to ask him what to do. Kilfeather wasn't there.He phoned back a few times. Kilfeather still wasn't in. Hereally didn't know what to do. He had the thing on hismind and wanted to get something done about it as soon as

possible.The previous week he had been driving into town when

he heard Mike Murphy interviewing Gordon Thomas.

Thomas was talking about his book on the Pope and seemedto know what he was talking about. He would understandwho Frank Terpil was and he would have contacts amongthe gardai. He decided to phone Thomas and ask him if he

could help.He didn't want to give his name on the phone. In the

end he called himself Bill; the minute he said it he knew itwas a mistake. He had a brother called Bill, but once hegave the code name he decided not to complicate things

by changing it. His brother Bill was to take a dim view ofwhat would happen over the coming week and has not

spoken to J ohn McCarthy since then. John McCarthy ar-ranged to phone Gordon Thomas the following Saturday

morning.

It was the weekend of the Ireland-England rugby matchand J ohn McCarthy had friends staying with him for the

match but he managed to phone Thomas on Saturday

morning as arranged. Thomas told him that his sister was ina very serious situation, that he had spoken to contacts inWashington. John :\1cCanhy became very worried. Marie

had no phone at home; so J ohn couldn't contact her over

the weekend.On Saturday night he went to see Thomas in Ashford.

There was another man in the room who was introduced asan associate of Thomas. He was called Paul Loughlin.

Gordon Thomas told John McCarthy that his sister's lifewas in danger and he mentioned the possibility of herending up like Calvi on Brackfriars Bridge. John McCarthybecame very concerned but he still couldn't contact his

sister. On Sunday he went to see Thomas again. Thomastold him that the situation was really serious and that hehimself, John McCarthy, could even be in danger. Theydecided that they would phone Marie from Thomas'shouse the next morning.

"You don't understand how big this is," Thomas said toJohn McCarthy. It was Monday morning and McCarthy wasgoing to phone his sister to tell her that she was in bigtrouble and she'd better come to Ireland.

Thomas suggested that they film John telling Marie tocome home so that they would have a record of what hap-pened if the worst came to the worst. John spoke to herfirst and told her that there were fears for her safety andthat she should come home. Thomas spoke to her as welland said he would send a plane forher. It was arranged thatshe would bring what documents she had relating to GarryKorkola and Frank Terpil,

When John McCarthy came off the phone having beenfilmed speaking to his sister he was approached by EleanorDonovan of RTE's Today Tonight who was in the room

when the filming was done. She gave him a form to sign.He saw RTE's name on the form, Up to this he had notbeen aware that RTE had anything to do with what was

going on, although RTE say they had made him aware ofthis. He asked what the hell this had to do with RTE. Ifhis sister was in danger, he felt that she would surely be in

even more danger if RTE were to broadcast her problemsto the world.

John McCarthy left Thomas's house, went home andtried unsuccessfully to contact Marie. He didn't know whatto do. It seemed to him that he should have been told that

RTE was there when he phoned his sister. He tried to phonea solicitor friend to ask for advice but Gerry Sheehan, whohe knew from tennis, wasn't there. John McCarthy's wifeMartha phoned a friend who was a former barrister and herecommended solicitor Roger Ballagh, McCarthy went toseeBallagh. Loughlin and Donovan flew to London.

If Marie was flying in on a private plane to Dublin Air-port that night, then it was important to meet her and tellher about RTE's involvement. The private plane, he knew,was to fly from Heathrow to Dublin. 11cCarthy and his wife

went to the airport to wait for Marie.

The night wore on. They became the last people waiting

7/28/2019 magill_1984-08-01

23/49

in the airport building. It was after midnight. Y es, the airport still expected a small private plane coming from Heathrow. It would be in around one. Around one they saw itland and they could see Marie descend on to the runwayThey waited at the arrivals gate for her. They waited therefor two hours but she didn't appear. They drove back to

Bray.

"I have nothing. How can they think that?" Marie McCarthywas talking to Gordon Thomas on the phone. He was tellingher that she was being sought by the Special Branch, Scot-land Yard, the CIA . They were looking for informationabout Frank Terpil, they were looking for documents.She was also in danger from the other side because of whatshe knew about Terpil. There were two phone calls that

day, Monday 21 March. The second was Thomas on hisown who told her not to go to the police, that they would

plant stuff on her, that it was better to come to Irelandfirst, that he could help her, that he couldn't really talk toher on the phone but he knew a lot more about the troubleshewas in.

She was puzzled. Gerrit was away so she couldn't talk tohim. She had no documents of any significance in her pos-session. She had met Frank Terpil only three or four timesand on those occasions she didn't even know he was Frank

Terpil. But if the police in Ireland were looking for her thenshe should go there and clear matters up. She arranged togo to the Rembrandt Hotel that night at eight o'clock andmeet two people Thomas was sending to pick her up.

The Rembrandt Hotel in Thurloe Place opposite theVictoria and Albert Museum was used regularly by theToday Tonight team at that time. When Paul Loughlin andEleanor Donovan came into the hotel they found MarieMcCarthy already there. Loughlin went to the bar to getdrinks.

"Do you work for Gordon Thomas?" she asked EleanorDonovan. "Well sort of," was the reply. Marie asked herwhat she meant by "sort of'. "I do sometimes but I don'treally work for him full time," she said. "Well, who do youwork for?" she asked again. But there was no informationforthcoming. Marie McCarthy said that if they wouldn'ttell her who they were that she was going to go. Shereachedfor her coat. Eleanor Donovan was anxious that she didn'tgo until Paul came back from the bar. Paul would tell her

everything.Immediately Paul came back he told