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    Vol . 8 No.4 CON TENTS December 1984

    Rom e Ruleby Olivia 0 'Leary

    The ap pointment of Bishop M cNamara as Ar chbisho p of Dublin h as prov oked s ometren cha nt com ment f rom Dublin cler gy . It also emphasis es the P ope 's determination tostamp his image on the c hu rch worldwide.

    6

    The Super market War 36Alan Murd och rep or ts on the fier ce comp etition betwe en the superma rkets and the sm allreta iler s.

    The Esse ntial Nell 21

    Nell McCaff er ty has jus t had published a collecti on of her be st writin gs of the p as tfourt een years . Gene Kerrigan talked to her .

    The Fall F rom The Su mm it 8

    The Co mmissione r 27by Olivia 0 'Lear y

    Larr y Wren to ok over a s h ea d or-rhe ga rda fo rce in co nt rov ersial circumstances. The postis today mo re s ensiti ve tha n ever an d the o ld- f ashi one d dis ciplina rian has hi s hands full .

    The Summi t deba cle has not alo ne d ama ge d Garret F itzGera ld's presti ge, it has blo wnawa y man y of the i llus ions in whi h Anglo -Irish relations h ave wall owed.

    Cyri l Cusa ck 43by Tom O'Dea

    The gr and old man of Irish th eatre is ,th inking of reti reme nt , but n ot j ust ye t.

    That Was Movi ng Hea rts 45Gene Kerrigan a nd Derek Speirs were a long to recor d the last pe rform ance o f the most

    ex citing ban d to appe ar in r ec en t years.

    The Rugb y Gre ats 56by John Rea son

    In the t hi rd pa rt of hi s series o n the great pl aye rs John R ea son re count s the achi evem ent sof th e great fo rwar ds .

    EditorCa lm Toib in

    Reporte rG e ne Kerrigan

    Political Cor respondentOli via O'Leary

    Adver tising ManagerPa tr ici a Burr e ll

    Promot ionsPa trici a Burrell

    Pr inted byLithographic Uni ver sal L td .DistributionNewsp re adLtd .Colour SeparationsLitho S tu d ios Limit e d.Editorial and Business Address1 4 M erri o n Row, Dublin 2. Tele p ho n e : 606055Magill is published byMa gill P u b lica tion s Ltd .

    DEPARTMENTS

    I I A B c l! The a veragenet paid sa lesasc e rtified by the AUDIT BUREAU OF C IRCULATIO/\ 'Sfo r the period J anua ry- J une 1984 was33 .045 copiesper month .

    Diar y .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4As Time Goe s By 18Busin ess Forum 24

    Geor ge Campb ell's Motori ng 30 Terr y K eane 3S

    Art. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 48Eamon Dunp hy S3Wigmore 60

    MAGILL DECEMBER 198 4 3

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    RKHARD R YAN HAD Abook of poem s publishedwhen he was an und ergra-du ate in UCD. At leas t th iswas the rumou r going ar oundin the ea rly 1970s wh en your

    correspondent was a studentthere and Richard Ryan hungaround the Anglo-Irish De-partment doing what wasknown as "po st-gradu atework ". ("Post-graduate work "meant , in general , that thegraduate was eagerly aw aitinga call into the civil servi cewhich h ad not yet come andwas reading th e odd bo ok inthe m eantime .) Ryan was oneof . thos e fellows from thatpart of Dublin between Balls-bridge and Bra y, now s er viced

    by D AR T. He spok e with aDartland acc ent lik e t he r estof th em, a cros s bet weenMike Murphy and Ga y Byrn eand probably would hav egone into RT E if he'd h ad th elooks.

    But p eople whi sper ed th athe was d estin ed f or greaterthings . Not alone p oe try.(Although th at as well .) No,diplom acy, this was going to-be hi storte . Reader s mayremember th at in th e earl y197 0s the only job worth

    having was in the D epart-ment of Foreign Aff airs andthe ex ams f or the positio nwere tr eated with th e utmo stse riou sness by the de nizen sof Dartland and the ir off-spring. The trav el, the recep-tions at the Emba ssy , Ireland 'sreputation abr oad , the job inBrussel s, bec oming a FirstSecret ary, going on a tr ipwith Garr et : th e world wasthe oys ter of the Third Sec -retary.

    Over the ne xt five o r si x

    years y our corre spondentmust have r ead ten or ma ybetwelve artic les in the Irish Times about Richard R yan .From these we learn ed of th egrea t tradit ion he was in: the:;:oer /di p 10 mat, just like V al

    Ironm onger or Denis Devli n,bringing honour and glory t ohis countr y, pen in on e handand what eve r Thi rd Secre-taries use i n the oth er. Durin gthi s period Ryan published a

    second boo k of poetr y an dwas posted t o Japan . Morearti cles i n th e Irish Times .Dur ing thi s per iod as we llRyan bec ame a f r iend of Garech Bro wne, o ne of th eGuinn es s hei rs, and was oftenseen about the pl ace withhim. There were n o morebook s of poet ry.

    So when the Anglo-Iri shDep artm ent of Fore ign Af-f ai rs, headed b y one M ichae lLillis, wante d someone to g oover to Lond on to l ook aft er

    the T ory party, go huntin 'sho oti n' and f ishi n' withthem , drin k sherry with them ,dis cuss the state of the nationwith them, why , who betterthan our friend Rich ard Ryan.It was a grea t da y f or Dart-land.

    The Departm ent rented ahu ge house in exc lusive Mont -pelie r Squa re and install edRyan and his family therein .

    The rent i s beli eve d to be inthe r egion of 20,000 p eryear. According to some w ho

    hav e been there the f urnitur elooks rented as well but th ereis no hard e vidence for this .Som e of Ryan 's book s on thebookshelf date f rom h is s tu-dent d ays a nd look odd, itis repo rted. Pap erbac k ed i-tion s of Steinbeck , that s or tof thing.

    So Montp elier Squa re iswhere it's all at. This is w herethe Tory par ty is wined an ddined, this is w here Irish civilser vants and Britis h poli cy-makers win friend s and in-

    fluen ce peopl e. When I rel andf inally take s her plac e a s anati on on ce again, t her e willbe a p laqu e o n Montp elierSqu are t elling th e wo rld th atthis was the spot wh ere th ebes t laid plans were mad e.

    The Montp elier Square T alks. The Montp elier S et. Freedrink in Montpelier Square.

    The onl y pro ble m is thatthe Tory p arty hav e hom es togo t o. N one o f them, it se ems,has the slightest intere st inMontp elier Square. The y justdon't go . Des pit e the b es teffort s of consci enti ousRichard, observ er s note that

    the Tory mo st oft en se en inMontpelier is a c ertain down-at-heel Lo rd who se onl y in-come is the a ttendanc e mo neyhe gets f rom the House of Lords. T hi s livel y fellow hasspre ad the word ar ound , as aresult of which Montpeli erSquar e is th es e days crawlingwith de stitute Lords preten-ding to have s ome influen cein the Tor y part y. Ther e theIrish tax- pay er fee ds them alldrink for a while and th enthe y all wande r off some-

    where el se to di sc us s oldtimes. These f ell ows ha ve noinflu ence of an y so rt; theydon't spe ak in the Houseand even if they did no onewould listen .

    Montpelie r Squ are sh ouldnot be di smissed out of hand,howeve r. It ha s prov ed to bea g reat boos t to s ome of Richard R yan's friends whost ay there when th ey're inLondo n. Inde ed , las t summ erone w ell -known R TE pers o-nalit y took the h ouse ov er

    for a w eek when Ryan was onholid ay and gave many partieswher e he ente rtained hismany friend s in Londo n.When h e ca me ba ck to Dublinhe talked about th e v alu e of ha ving a t own house i n Lon-do n and h ow much fun . itwas. A pity i t w as only f ora week, but Richard R yanwas o nl y away f or two wee ksand Michae l Lillis was goi ngto take it for the other week .

    Asunempl oyrnent incr eas esin this country y oung p eo ple

    ar e more and mo re g oing toLond on to try and find somework and so me hope fo r thef uture. Ma ny be come de sti-tut e a nd th ere i s no properagen cy to a ssist them . Per-hap s the be st h ope for those

    who are really stuck wouldbe t o phon e the posh hou sewhich Foreign Af fai rs ha sren ted t o impr es s the Tor ypar ty. The numb er is 584-2365 .

    SocialC limbing T H E M E SS AGE W AS L O U Dand clear : Ring MaureenCairndu ff . The eyes of yourcorr es pond ent lit up , as the ysay, and h e r aced to the tele-phone and d ialled the number ;her e it was o n a plate afterall the se years. A n invitationto the h ome o f Ireland 's mosttal ked-ab out h os tess, an op-por tunit y to mingle withFreddie Forsyth, a ch anceto ex chan ge pl ea santrie s with

    Bobby and Bet ty Ballagh , tonod at th e w isdom of CharlieHau ghey, t o bare one 's soulto Fran k Feel y, to whisperint o the ear of Maurice Man-ning , to discuss the pianowith John O 'Conor . A look atthe cal endar ad de d to theexci tem ent : it was ge ttingnea r a First Fr iday a ndMaureen Cairnduff alw ayshad her parti es on Fir st

    '1 Fridays. Down in Enniscor thythe y we n t to Mas s on FirstFrida ys and thi s rep or tergrinned t o him self at how f arhe had come and ho w all theeffort had been wo rth it.

    As the phone rang all thepas t appear ed in fron t of your corre spond ent 's mind asthough h e we re drowni ng. lnpar ticular there was thatni ght at th e Russia n Embassyparty when he a ppr oac hedMau reen Cai rnduff , f am ousf or th e party she h eld i n herhouse on the First Friday inever y month , and og led her ,gri nned at her, paid her

    compliments, admire d herhai r. Anythin g for an invita-tion, my k ing dom for aninvitation, pleas e Ma ur ee ninvite me t o on e of your FirstFridays .

    So, even though it was

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    month s lat er , your reporterwas sure that he had wonthe day . An invitati on la y atthe other end of th e ph one .Pl eas e Mrs Cairnduf f , an sw erthe phone .

    The phone r ang for a whilelong er.

    Eve ntuall y it was ans weredand the voi ce w as the voic e of Mrs Cairn duff . Wh at a ni ceday it wa s, w onderful summerall told , ho w ar e y ou , glad tohear that , and all belongingto you? Sinc e the day B ellinvented th e telep hone th ere

    has n ev er b ee n amore p leasa ntconversation .

    But it was all in vai n. There was no inv itati on forth -comin g t o even a SecondFrid ay in Mrs C air nduff' shouse , let alo ne aFi rst Frida y.Mrs Cai rn du ff w as merelycompiling a Who 's Wh o andwant ed to know wher e t hepresent wr iter was in s cho ol.It was an an ti -elima x. It wasa sor e d isappoin tmen t. It wasa s ad d ay . Your corr espon -dent sa t in h is l ittle off icemaking plans to drink hi ms elf into an early grave , al l hopeof soc ial ad van cement gonedown the drain. Effort was -ted. All that trouble fornothin g. Needn 't ha ve b oth-er ed. Life 's not fa ir. Emi gr a-tion . The b oat . Paddy work-ing on the railways .

    The Man Who Couldn 'tGe t An In vitation T o M aure enCaimduff 's.

    But soft , as the y say inShak espear e. What is this?It cam e in an en ve lop e af ew we ek s a go. Here it wa sin writin g. Maureen, comehome all i s forg iven. I repent .I tak e back all th e thin gs Isaid about you in pub s a llover Dublin in the five

    mi nut es befor e c losi ng tim e.It w as, dea r re ad er, an

    inv itat ion.On F rida y Nove mber 23

    198 4 yo ur cor respondent puton hi s g ood re d t ie, put aslight bi t of poli sh on h isshoes, took t hat smi rk off hi sface an d ordere d a tax i tota ke hi m to th e home o f Mrs M aur ee n Cairn duff , glit-teri ng hostes s, a woman whogives fr ee dr ink to th e ri chand powe rful on the FirstFriday of ev ery month.

    This was n't a First Friday ;it was a F ourt h Frida y; butit wa s a star t; f rom suchbegin nings many have mademi llions.

    At t he doo r s to od JohnK elly TD. That 's pos h. Thing sseeme d promis ing. Ian Ca irn -du ff, Ma ur ee n's hard-workinghu sband answered the door . This rep or te r smil ed polit elyan d ste ppe d in b ehind JohnKell y.

    No t l ong a fterw ards , th efirst sight of th e salon co uldbe had; seve ral children wan -der ed ar ound offering cham-pagn e; th e Russi an amb ass a-dor talk ed t o th e e dit or of th e Sunda y Press (the manwh o tells it like it is) . Gemma

    Husse y, a f ellow w ho ca llshimself Baron Br ef f ni (funnyname th at) , Edward de Bono(What !), M ike Burns , Olli eCa mpb ell min gled. It was likesomething out of one 's wild estdr eams. Cockta il sausag es,sand wiches , bit s o f qui che .

    But th e d re am, as th eysay , was soon shattered and i tbecam e clear that the major ityof tho se in the ro om we repl ain or dinar y hac ks . At th elaunchin g o f a bo ok, thi s w asno soiree, this w as a bun chof grubb y new sp ape r p eoplelook ing for a sto ry, journa-lists from the Sund ays wh owould be l ooking for allthin gs bri ght an d beautifulto woo t hei r re ader s, lists o f th e ri ch and th e pow erfulwho were at Maureen Cairn-duff 's la st Frid ay . Thi s wasgo ing to be n o fun .

    The Man Wh o C ouldn 'tGet A Prop er Invitat ion toMaur een Caimduff' s.

    All alon g t he mant lep iec ewe re invitati ons to pa rtie swh ich had b een r ece ive d by

    Mrs Cairnduff . Hundreds of them and behind those hun-dre ds of othe rs. All coloursal l shapes a nd si zes . Wh at a

    great ti me Mrs Ca irn duff has!How nice it w ould be to beher! L oad s of state r eceptionsas well! The s un shin es brighton Mrs Cair ndu ff!

    On closer in spe ction theseinvita tion s turn ed out not tobe fo r eve nts i n the futur ebut even ts in the pas t. Theopening o f ROS C, st at e r ec ep-tions .In September , Oct oberand November . The y w er e allover and i t was hard to kno wwhy Mr s C airnduff wa s s tilldispla ying invit ations to them

    on h er mantlepi ec e.Dow n in th e toil et th erewer e load s of photos of MrsCairnduff . It w as the sort of toilet where th ere 's nothingelse exc ept a bo wl and if you sat d own on the b owland veered your head to theright y ou would have yo urnose st uck up ag ainst thece rti f icat es whi ch as sured in-terest ed pa rties that Mr Cairn-duff wa s an account ant .

    There wer e a ll sort s of painting s in th e front room:

    som e of them w ere v ery good(Camil e Souter , Patri ck Col -lins, C harli e Brad y) ; oth erswe re w oef ul . Funny woman,Mrs Ca irn duff .

    Just as the champ ag ne wa srunning out m os t p eopl e hadgo ne but Mi chael Lillis, o f the Department of ForeignAffairs turned up. ( Getsar ound a lot , that f ellow ).Mrs Ca irnduff wa s d elightedwith her book, all the hardwork wa s worth it and it wasa go od ni ght for the pr ess .But co mpar ed with this , whatco uld her First Friday s belike ? Watch this space.

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    ,

    T'S IMPERIALISM OF THE WORS T K IND,like th e Roman Empir e pu tting a fe lla intoSyria to whip i n the slave s." The pr iest wasdir ec ting hi s an ger at th e a rch- cons erv ative

    Vatican , not at Archbishop-el ect K ev in McNamar a who m

    the Dublin cler gy s ee as muc h the unhapp y victim of RomanImper ialism a s is the Dublin dio cese itsel f .While no one ex pe cts Rome to b e democrati c, it had

    oee n ho ped th at so me at tenti on m igh t ha ve bee n pai d toDubl in sen sitivi ties. "It's a bit of an af f ront t o the arch-dioces e that Rome th ough t nob ody in Dublin was a goo denough can did ate and that Der mo t Ryan tu rned his ba ckon his auxi liari es," said an affront ed Clonli ff e ma n. Withmo re t han a whiff of res entment against their former ultra -montanist bo ss , some Dublin priests sn iff that D er mot , nowin Rome , iso nl y too anxious t o do as the R oma ns do.

    There 's littl e doubt among the cler gy that Ryan 's in-fluence was de cisive in the app ointment of his su cces sor ,an d that he knew in pu shin g th e candida cy of th e like-

    minded K evin McNamar a, he was p erfectl y in tun e with theat ican 's vigorous policy of retrenchme nt. When ask ed at

    a Clonlif f e class di nne r ear lier thi s year if the new manwould be f rom Dublin, h e replied gluml y "Name one ."He w as n't joking, as his ast ounded class-mates were so on torea lise. Ryan would see m to hav e rega rded mos t of hisau xiliary bi shop s as f ar too lib eral fo r thei r ow n go od, andis s ai d to have b elieved that only one of h is f iveau xiliar ies ,Bisho p Jose ph Carroll, had b een co mple tel y loyal to hi m.

    Looking at R yan's st eady advan cement as a Prin ce of me Chur ch, and wonderin g whether th e imposition of aconserv ative out sider a s his succes so r has gained him stillmore Brown ie points in th e Vatica n, Dub lin priests h av eoeg un to mus e cynicall y on R yan's amb itions f or th e chai rof Peter . If a conservati ve Pole can make it , why no t a c on-se rvative Irishm an? "Is Dermot in line for t he big job?"a young er c ollea gu e ask ed an old PP re centl y. "He hasn 'tgot the looks for it," pr onoun ced th e old ma n, "looks are.ery importan t f or the mo dern da y Pope, an d Dermo t'siaw will fail him. " Woul dn' t it be ga lling to be b eaten a tthe pos t not by a he ad, but b y a rival 's juttin g jaw ?

    Still, the t ide of re trenchmen t will lift all conse rvativebo at s and Ryan's man for Dublin fits int o a se ries o f seni orppo int rnent s mad e ar ound th e world over the l ast year :

    J1e conse rvative Archbi shop 0 'Conn or ha s bee n ap pointedin "\"ew York, co nse rvative Arc hbi shop Simo nis app ointedprimate of the Netherlands , two right -wing f ing er s pla cedilrrnl y in two poss ible liber al dykes. The whole climate of rer renc hme nt was f urther st rengt hened by the rece nt wa rn-::::gs agains t the ex cess es of liber ation th eo logy by CardinalRatzin ger , the head of the Congregat ion for the Doct rineQ; the Fait h, an d the ma n who keeps a n eagle eye o ut f or~: . careless lapse s into liberalism. "It is all," said a Dublin

    :- i : ~, gloomily, "part of the grand str ategy of the P ole."

    .;GILL DECEMBER 1984

    Last May, whe n we canvass ed Dub lin clergy for the irviews of likel y arc hep iscopal candidat es , the re was ag enera lwithdraw ing o f souta ne sk irts at the m ention of McNama ra." The a ppoint ment of McNam ara wo uld be as bad as youcou ld poss ibl y get," sa id one man . "He's an old st yle acade -mician , not th e so rt of person a b ig devel oping city needs ."

    So what sort of wel come will he g et? One south c ityprie st voiced a gener al atti tude: "I will welcome K evin

    McNama ra, wha tever m y view of his a pp ointme nt is. N at u-rally we ar e disapp oint ed that one of our own was n' tchosen , but t hat' s it now . There will be no protest . No bodywould want to go bac k over the car ry-on and intrig ue of the last eight m onths ."

    The Dublin clergy a re beginnin g to wonder wha t thepurpose of th e co nsu ltati ve process on appoint ment of bish ops is, or whether t heir i nvolve me nt in it - an d the ywould ha ve plumpe d f or auxiliar y bis ho ps Dermot O'Maho-ne y, Donal Mur ray and di ocesan adm inistrator DesmondWilliams, with Ferns Bish op Brendan Comi skey as apo ssibl eoutsider - is an ythin g more t han windo w-dressi ng.

    mHILETHEY FEEL THEIR JOB IS TO GE T

    on with pr ea ching t he gospe l, rathe r than wastetheir energ ies in int ernal church pol itics, someof the young er men fear tha t McNamara 's

    strict int er pretat ion of chur ch law on sexual morality andhi s dete rminati on that the state shou ld ref lect that law willacce lerate the urban dr ift aw ay f rom the chur ch. "We'real read y losi ng liberal Catholi cs at a c olossa l rat e. "

    Som e of them wat ched with des pai r as t he Archbish op-ele ct, at his i nitial press conferen ce, waded st raight into themudd y waters of contra ception , the an ti-ab ort ion ame nd -ment , and d ivorce. " Does he th ink ab out an ything b utsex? It's about time both chur ch an d st at e go t thi s se x thingoff t heir minds. Aren't there more important econo mic an dsocial problem s? A nd coul dn't McNamara have said thatthere was mor e to t he ch urch than rules a bout se x? Whatpe ople need is some en cour agement and s ome hope ."

    The main fear i s tha t McNama ra is too mu ch in themoul d of R yan . "Kinda gloom y, y 'know ," sighed one,"All rules , and no h ope. Wenee ded a comm un ica tor. That'swhy p eople started to l at ch ont o Brend an Com isk ey, they

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    ==o~!!lli:he mi ght have been able to serve w ith j oy . As far asRyan an d ~cNamara were conce rne d, Jes us Chr ist ha d. erome a ver y heavy we ight ."

    There is, howev er , a deal of sympathy for McNamarahi ms elf . He's see n as s omeo ne without ov er ween ing per so nalam bit ion , and someo ne who had to be pressu rised to ta keon the Dublin job. Initi al ly rese nted in K erry beca use hi sap pointme nt was announ ced even b ef ore the loca l consul-tation pr ocess was compl eted , he is now se en as a ge ntlean d kind man who is mu ch more perso nally compass ionatethan his tub-thu mpi ng state ments on sex ual mora lity wo uldind icate. "A nd you have t o re memb er tha t to be co nse rva-tive o n sexu al issues is h ardly a dr aw back in K er ry," said apr ies t who h ad worked with him th ere.

    The K erry clergy we re pleas antl y surprise d to f ind hi measy to wo rk wi th , encourag ing, and a bi shop who ha d greatres pe ct for eac h pri est a s a per so n. "I don't know of an yonewho w as ev er disciplined by hi m. He wasn't am an for con-f ront at ions. "

    He turned o ut to be m uch more o f a pas tor than theyha d ex pec ted an d was a consta nt visitor t o hosp itals'. andsc hools. Compared with Eamon Ca sey, he seem ed ind ee d amild and m odest ma n. He of ten use d a bi cyc le, a nd i n hissp are time he g ot u p to nothin g mo re exot ic than a n eve n-ing wa lk.

    Indee d, it' s acce pted in Dublin that h e won' t be a ninterferin g or a fu ssy ar chbi shop . "He ma y be dull as dit ch-water a nd a b it prim, bu t he's ag entl eman. In a ny case thisis Dubli n, it's not as co mpact as K er ry. You can't be para -ding around Leeso n Str ee t at ni ght wat chi ng the lad s. It'smuch ea si er f or fellas in a bi g city to do their own thingwithou t bein g noti ced. "

    His main prob lem as the y see it , will be to get to k now"the lad s". " There are near ly a tho usan d of us . To get toknow us at all well will take h im the best p art o f ten years .

    By that stage h e'll be 68. That probl em w ouldn 't havearisen if he 'd bee n a local ."So it's not t he man t hey 're worried about , so muc h as

    his unyielding pronounceme nts. T hey're afra id he' ll ge tinto publi c tang les which will hu rt hi m and th e c hur ch,tangles w hich th e j ust as co nse rvat ive, but more w ily, Ryanma nage d to m inimise.

    They know he doesn 't agon ise abou t moral iss ues, nordoes he de bate them. He knows w hat's right an d what'swrong and won 't spen d ti me a rguin g the point , ashi s f ell owbi shops discove red on the ch urch /state iss ue.

    Com pass ionate he may be , but that does n't mean thathe be nds the rul es. One fo rme r student of his at May noo thag ree d to typ e up the man us cript of McNamar a's late stbook . With the restr icted free t ime semi narians had then ,the st udent f ound he had to do his typ ing during s tud yhours in order to f inish the manuscr ipt on t ime . He n eglec-ted hi s Moral Th eo logy wor k for the C hristmas exa msass uming that h is pr ofess or i n the s ubj ec t, McNamar a, w ouldund ersta nd what had happe ned an d give h im a pass. Theda y af te r the ma nu sc ript was f inished, the st ud ent fou nd athank yo u note an d a book of ch urch hi sto ry left in hi sroom by a g ratef ul McNama ra. The day aft er that aga in hedi scovere d he was the o nly ma n in hi s c lass who had fail edMora l Theo logy.

    Dub lin might as wel l be war ned . There w ill be no sp ecialple adi ng. Black w ill be bl ack , an d whi te w ill be whi te,and Derm ot Ryan can slee p so und in hi s Roma n bed. TheEmp ire st ill rul es OK .

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    [[]

    s I T SERIOUSLY SUGGESTED THAT BE-

    I cause nobody in the .Irish Em9 ,assy in Londoncould get RTE on Monday evening when Mrs That cher 's press conference was being broad-

    cast live to the Irish nation that we have lost the best':2ance for peace in our time , screwed up Anglo-Irishrelatio ns and brought much closer a civil war scenario in-:'e North?

    let's leave aside for the moment the . fact that thelondon embassy has known for months that it 'was often

    impossible to get RTE because of the activities of the pirate,Radio Laser . Irish p 'eople in BJ -itain 'havbeen loud in theircomplaints about it and the Department of Foreign Affairshas raised the matter with the British Government . Nor~hould we , attempt to answer the questions it raises aboutthe running of our London embassy. Presumably MessrsDonlon, Dorr and Lillis are even now having "full andfrank" discussions to find out why there was only one offi- 'eial at Do}VningStreet who had to hurry back to brief the Taoiseach , when every cub reporter covering a Fianna Fail

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    M A G I L L DE C E M B ER1984 9

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    lecrion m ee ting in rural Irelan d knows tha t you ma kesome arran geme nt with a local str inger to ke ep a n eye onthe last fifteen m inutes whe n you have to ru sh of f to catcha d eadline.

    What ab out all thes e fo reign journal ists who m For eignAffair s have bee n bringing to I relan d, wining an d dining andeduca ting them o n Irish sensi tiviti es ab out th e N or th? It'sfifteen mi nutes walk f rom D owni ng Stree t to the Irish

    FitzGer ald: discus sed w ith h er the nee d each has to lull thepara noia a mong their own peopl e

    Emb as sy in G rosven or Place a nd couldn 't one of the m havementi oned "OU T! OU T! OUT!" to on e of their ers twhilehosts . What 's Pet er P renderga st b eing paid for anywa y if he can 't ma ke a p ho ne ca ll to Dublin to f ind out what thedogs in the street ar e sa ying about Mrs T hatc he r on t he boxbe f ore h e se nds the Taoise ach into a pres s conferen ce totalk to the Irish peo ple live a bout his spec ial relationsh ip

    with the la dy? Parti cularly since it wa s agreed that shewould hold her pr ess c onf erence first be cause it woul d behelpfu l f or Dr FitzGerald to know wha t sh e'd sai d an d howpeople ba ck ho me were likely to react t o it. Which of cour se , it wou ld hav e b een if ....

    Be f air, there a re ti mes when you can't help ha ving asne aking sympat hy with English gents l ike Wi llieWh itela w

    who just shake their he ads and sa y "But th ey'll never gettheir a ct together ." And I mean " act ". Becau se wh at allthis shows , yet again , is that the m ain point of Anglo -Irishsummitry is not what gets s aid, but how it gets presentedafterwards . That applies t o Britain too . Mrs Thatcher hashad her pr oblems with presenting her side with what the ywant to hear but she's learnt from her mistakes . Even if he 'd known about "OU T! OU T! OUT!" Garret would pr ob-

    abl y ha ve blo wn it . Char lie would al mos t certainl y ha veblown it t oo though in r at he r a differe nt way.

    O OHERE HAVE NOW BEEN FOUR SUMMITS , T two between Thatcher and Hau ghey in May andDecember 1980 , two between herself andFitzGerald in November 1983 and November1984. In theor y, any mee ting bet wee n two EEC prim eministers can be called a "summit " but the word seem s toha ve entered media coinage here when Hau ghey met

    Thatcher for the sec ond time at Dubl in Castle . Bet weenthat meeting and the Th atcher FitzGerald r approchem entcame the Hunger Strike , the Falklands and s ev eral changesof government . Our peopl e come and go , but MrsTh atcheris always there. And will be for the next dozen or sosummits if they go on at th eir present annual rate .

    She 's also just as good at taking gratuitous offence asshe is at dishing it out , which is why the pre sentation of thesummit aft erward s has t o be finely jud ge d and ac ted out .Say too much and the l ady won 't ever t alk to you aga in.Haughe y's relationship with Mrs Th atcher took an irre ver-sible nosedive within minutes of his sw ee test mome nt of su ccess when he had brou ght her over to Dublin aftermonths of careful , clev er political wooing . He bounc ed herinto a communique full of fine phrases about the "tot alityof relationships" which she never understood at the time . That was clever of him . She put her name to the documentwith Peter Carrington guiding the pen and i f Haughe y hadhad a twit te r of wit and kept his mouth shut afterwards herown stubb orn pride would hav e mad e her stick b y it andto hell with the Uni oni sts . Instead he had to come outbleating about h ist oric prog ress having bee n made l eav ingher to pick up th e pieces bac k in Lond on. Not clever at all.

    The da mag e was comp ounded b y Brian Lenihan 's claimthat everything wa s "on the table " includin g Irish unit y.No proble m. Anyone who thinks Mrs Th atcher was grat ui-tously offensive last week should have been around when

    Haughey w as called in to answer for L enih an when he metthe lady at an EEC meetin g in March 19 81. Th e word i sthat she nea rly ate him . For mon ths afterwards he r ow nmin ist ers had a pact not t o ment ion I relan d if they couldpossibl y avoid i t, becaus e it was dis tress ing to see he r star tfoami ng a t the m outh and talk ing about Brian Lenihan.

    Garr et learnt f rom that . Be discr eet , gently does it..

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    She t rusts you , Yeah , Yeah, Yeah. And you know that can 'tbe bad. Even before the press conference his ow n off icialswere ur ging him to start off wi th some remarks to theeffect tha t the Bri ti sh and Irish governments "ar e now inbusiness ". He wo uldn't do i t, might upset her . The mind -blowing thing about this is th at she does actual ly have so meapp reciation of Ga rret's domestic politica l prob lems . Sheknows about Haughey for a start . But she also knows aboutthe broa d swat hes of sensit ive greenery that can be setquivering if any Irish Taoiseach is too polite to the Brit s.Several times in t he past she and Garre t ha ve d iscus sed th eneed each has to lull the paranoia amon g their own people .

    She even tried to make it a bit easier for him , or at le asther offi cials di d. As I said , it w as agreed that she 'd hold herpress conferen ce first so he c ould reac t to it. Her op enin gremarks in wh ich she spoke about thes e having been "th ef ullest , frankest an d most r ealisti c dis cussions " ever h eldbetween the two governments were a greed in advan ce t ohelp the Irish d elegation . She also made a great deal of thefact that she wou ld emphasise th at they had be en ta lkingabo ut "specif ics" which everyone assum ed woul d dr ive th eUnionists crazy.

    Nobody tho ught to worry about her style . The on ly

    person who mig ht have done so if he 'd been around to men-tion it was John Hume . He's a lways said that even if thetwo governmen ts cou ld agree on some future i nitiati ve onthe North the thing most l ikely to wreck it wo ul d be hercomplete insensitivity to Irish f ee lings on the ground. St ill,the l ast thing a nyone in the Irish deleg ation was thinkingabout as they drove back to London after 2 2 h ours closetedat Ch equers was Mrs That cher 's ton e of voi ce . And anyw ay

    the atm osphere at Downin g Street w as as warm and relaxedas a Rado x bath compared to t he way she 'd tr eated herown officials at Chequers . It had been , ph ysically at lea st ,an intimate affair . A bi t like Cas tlerea gh. Three po liticiansand three senior offi cials on ea ch side , dinne r on Sunda yevening , a few drinks , count ry house party conver sation.

    00HE SERIOUS B USINESS CAME NEXT DAY.

    T What seems to h ave shocked our s ide mo st wasthe breathtak ing sca le of her ignorance . At onestage she admitt ed that yes , it was disgra ceful

    the way the Un ionists discrim inat ed against Catho lics inLondonderry. Do uglas Hurd , new boy eage r to impressthe teacher, tried to point out that actua lly it was the othe rway aroun d. If anything a t ouch of the j ackboot wascoming from t he Nationa lists , f or examp le in chang ing thename from Londonderry to Derry . No, No Do uglas, sheinsisted , we m ust admit when our peop le are in the wrong ;the Uni onists are still behaving very b adly in Londond erry.As sho cking to o ur rather sensiti ve souls was the wa y sh etre ated her own , ver y senior officials , que rying wh at th eyhad done in private ne go tiations , expressing disbel ief attheir nai vete .

    At one st age the ga me didn 't seem worth the candle .Both sides withdre w, our s to dis cuss whether t o pul l outthere and th en. The m ain bone of contention was whetherIreland w ould get an e xecuti ve as oppose d to consultat iverole in the runnin g of th e N orth ( NO. NO. NO). In the e ndour d elega tion de cided to 'keep t alking. The y didn 't (an ddon 't) h ave an y alternativ e, although the T aoise ach seem sto be the only politician in Ireland aware of tha t fac t.Barring an ac cident w ith a bus or th e IRA getting luck yse cond time around (their word s, not, Hea ven fo rbid , mine)she 's going to be with us f or a l ong time . If anything isgoing to be done abou t the North Mrs That cher is going todo it. Not President Reag an, not Chance llor Kohl . It'sMargaret Th atc her we 'have to de al with, to t ry and concen-trate her sha llow and uncar ing min d on what happe ns toCatholic youths when the y get stoppe d by the UDR on thestree ts of Armagh and what th at does to the Catholic corn -munity. It's got to be d one aga inst formidable odds - aminer s' strike which a si zeable se ct ion of the Briti sh est ab-lishmen t now believes i s threa tenin g to rupture thr ee hun-

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    dr ed years of so cial cohesi on in her own countr y, EnochPowell's bony thumb , the lad y's pass ionate b elief th at it 'sher United Kingdom and th at an yone who wa nts to er odeher sover eignt y is a knave o r a f ool or both.

    In a kind of a way the I rish at Cheque rs pulled it off . Atleast they bought time , the ch ance to go o n talking and anagreem ent a bou t wha t the y should b e talking about . Shedidn't rule the co ntinu ing proc ess out , out , ou t as mo st of hem had fea red she would. Th ey em erged sh ellsh ocked

    f rorn the exp erience . As the y set off from Chequers t o theirres pec tive press co nf eren ce n obod y th ought of the d ang erslurking in Mrs Tha tcher's hab it of treat ing each journa listas if he o r she i s a ret arde d five yea r old who has to have,. her sum s expla ined very, very sl owly indeed .

    That was f ool ish of t hem and m ay turn out t o have been:'i~. At the v er y least the Irish lot s hould h ave know n-~, " :he Irish me dia had p redicted fai lure, may be even

    anted it . Well , success o n sca le w hich most Irishjou rnalist sel d see as succes s was neve r on the ca rds anyway, so

    -- =y needed fai lur e to make a story. They knew Char lie. - g a t hom e a nd that a lovel y juicy r ow was in the

    offing. Even if Mrs Tha tcher h ad an noun ced that sh e no wund erstoo d the attractions of a uni ted Ireland and wante dto disc uss them wi th Pais ley and Mo lyne ux, Haughey wou ldhav e descr ibe d i t as a defeat . "Se ll out ," he 'd have said.Af ter all, thes e peo ple ha ve no right to pu t a v eto t o themar ch of the Irish nation, she 's uph olding the guara ntee .

    ~

    HE ONLY PERSON WHO JUS T MIGH T HAVE

    T under stood how importan t it was t o prese ntthe ver y little they had ac hi eved in a t ough ,agg ressive wa y was Pet er Bar ry and he had to

    fly of f for a me et ing of EEC forei gn ministers . He wouldhave k nown beca use he fee ls it in his gut s, just how mo stIrish peo ple reac t when they see an d hea r Margaret That che r.And D ougl as Hurd , come to that . He can 't bea r eithe r of them, lose s h is tem per , get s em ot ional , just like m ost pe op lewho were sittin g at h ome watch ing t elevision in Irel andwere d oing . He's n ot m uch fun at tim es for hi s ow n diplo -

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    mat s when t hey 're trying to keep the t emperature down ,bur he knows more about how Iri sh people feel, not t o

    ent ion how Fianna Fail will react , than was ever dreamto r in the civilised salons of Palmerston Road .

    But Peter Barry wasn't at the pres s ~onference. It was alldow n to the Taoisea ch. Even now it 's impossible to under-stand why he couldn 't have done the minimum th at she

    did, kept stressing that the going had been tough, tough ,

    tough but that was because they were talking about re alissues , not about gettin g their names in the history booksfor solving an 800 year-old conflict . He could have said thatof course life gets difficult when you get away from theeasy platitudes th at form the bulk of the Forum Repo rt,and God knows it had been difficult enough to agree them.Of course , he regretted , and was angry about , her dismissalof the Forum Report but if he couldn't get what NationalistIreland wanted now he was determined to negotiate some-thing that would ease the lives of the Nationalist minorit yin the North . What , he might have asked , is Mr Haughe y'salternative ?

    Instead we got - what? Total collapse . A national humi-

    liation , A day when you we re ashamed to be Irish . And soon . The questi on remain s. Why didn 't the British s ee it thatway? A t the same tim e as al l th is wa s go ing on in th e Irishpape rs the Guardian was runn ing a spl ash stor y "Ulstersummit sets agend a for n ew initi ative". Most British com -ment at ors have react ed the sa me w ay. They keep say ing,over and ove r again "Can 't you understa nd , she 's alwa yslike that?" and asking why we get so excited about appear -anc es when the su bs tan ce has gone our way.

    The rea l danger is that Mrs T hatc he r her se lf thinksexactly th e same thing . A lot of h er cabinet colleagues agreewith h er view that "it's all metaph ysical with the Irish ".Whitel aw is kn own to say we ari ly rha t it's hopeles s tr yingto deal wi th the Irish b ecause t hey never k now them selveswhat th ey want . It used to d rive Prior ab so lut ely crazy untilhe star ted to go native towar ds the e nd and bega n beha vinglike an I rish politi cian hims elf . "Give me a shopping list, "he'd s ay to John Hume , "wh at do you want m e to do , for

    example about the UDR." "And t he n," one aide r ecalledlast week , " John w ould go off into the Celtic mists talkingabout r econ ciling the two tr aditions ."

    Perhaps th ey're righ t. It' s ha rd to see Garret or eve nC).H. as Rob ert Mugabe . He wante d hi s country and it 'shard to im agine him agonisin g about w ho was p at ronisin ghim on t he way to gett ing it. Perh ap s we've l ived withlosing for so long that w e need it li ke a junkie ne eds a fix.Certainly it takes a fair degr ee of det ermina tion to snatch amajo r nati onal humiliation f rom the jaws o f what was amodest , but re al, victory at C hequ ers . But we ma na ged it.But then no one , not even Mrs Th atch er, has ev er ques-tioned our talent fo r defe at.

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    I t was a mess r ight from the start.Cock-up City. I didn 't want to goto Chequers , in the first place , butbloody Jim bloody Dooge stuck hisgreasy finger in the pie and stirredthings up. "Offer to go to Chequers,Garret," he said , "For security reasons,Garret," he said. "Put her under anobligation, Garret," he said, "Get youoff on the right foot, Garret ," he said .A re al deep -dyed, spit in the cup,

    God I must bedreaming, cock-up .Put her under a compliment, I askyou . A real exp ert on human nature,is our Jim.

    I had a row with G arret on thepl ane. What's the point , I asked him,of employing me as a National Handlerif he won 't take my advice? Stayingovernight at Chequers was out, I toldhim. Out, out , out. They 'll be bossingus around, tapping our phone calls toDublin. "Who do you think she is ,"asked Garret , "Sean Doherty?" I wan-ted us to bunk down in a little B&Ba couple of miles away in Fretley ,

    where we 'd have som e priva cy, andmotor back and forth to the summit .But these people are amateurs . " Thatwould bediscourteous ," h e sa id.

    Discourteous, I ask you. W e' regoing to visit Britain's answer toGen eral J aruzelski and Garret's wor-ried about minding his manners .

    When we got to Chequers, Garr et,Peter Barry and myself went insidefor a confab , while Dick Spring

    brought the bags in from the car .We were shown into a side room. Iwas first into the room and a foothooked my shin, a hand pushed myback and I went down on my face . Ilook ed up and there were eight SASmen , in blackface and carrying machine-pistols. Dick Spring cam e in with thebags, whistling , and took a fist in thestom ach . "Paddy basta rds! " The fourof us were pushed and kicked upagainst the wall and searched. "Fackingfenian bombing Paddy bastards!"

    Douglas Hurd came into the roomand waited until the soldiers had

    finished. " Thank you , lads," he s aid."Sorry about that, chaps, c an't be toocareful ." The SAS left and Hurd ges-tured to the sofa . "Please do s it down ,Dr Fitzpatrick . And what w as it youwanted to see the PM about?"

    * * *

    I t was a miserabl e evening . Ga rretasked Hurd if perhaps we mighthav e acons idered response to the ForumReport , C hapter 5 in part icular . Hurdlooked pu zzled for a moment and thensaid, "Oh , jolly good , see what I cando, old ch ap. Meanwhile, do pleasemake yourselves co mfortable." As heleft he turned and aske d, "By th e way ,old chap, wouldn 't ha ppen to h ave aspare copy of tha t Report in yourpocket? Seem to h ave misl aid mycopy ." "Dick ," said G arret , and Springhad a root around in his briefcase andgaveHurd a copy.

    We spent the rest of that Sundayevening moping ab out th e ro om .

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    G,,---:;:~switc hed o n the TV and set tled~ o ' ;\ J in front o f a Benn y Hill re peat .Pc ~e:- Bar ry sulke d in a n ar mchair. This mad e a c ha ng e from see ing Pe ter

    ;: on t he pl ane , sulk in the car, sulkO!1 rhe sof a, sul k pac ing u p a nd d ownth e ca rpet . D ick sat at t he pian o inthe corne r, puffe d away on h ispipe, an d gave a one-f inge r re ci-tal, a med ley of social ist so ngs. He had

    just fi nished " The Wat chwo rd of Lab our " and was on th e firs t b ar of " The Wo rker s' F lag is Deepe st Re d"whe n Gar ret l ooked up fr om the t ellyand said , "Sto p it." Di ck sto pped i t.He began hummi ng sof tl y. ". . . itsh ro uded oft o ur martyred dea d .. . "

    I was po king aro un d the roo m.

    Ou tside I co ul d see th e SAS d ress ingup in pol ice un iforms an d p ra cti cingthei r b aton cha rg es wit h scream s of "NUM ba stard s!"

    I opened a dra wer and f ound athick book . Abo ut two -thi rds of t helined pag es we re cove red in h and-writ ing . The f irst pa ge sai d, "He lms-man 's Log, HM S Co nqueror". Iflicked throu gh it and near t he e nd of the wr itt en-on pag es noti ce d a n ota-tion , "C hang e co urse , 32 degr eeswest , eng ines f ull ahe ad, mess ag e ex '

    Garr et p oured

    Londo n imp erat ive sink Belgra nofort hwit h b efo re reac hes home port,sc upp er dago peace p lan, Go d sa vequeen ."

    "I'm hun gry," s ai d Di ck. "Garre t,I'm hun gry ." G arret sa id nothing ."I'd g ive an ything for a Big M ac,"sa id Di ck. " Bugger it," sa id Gar ret .He got up a nd went to t he door . Itwas lock ed.

    A co uple of ho urs late r Hu rdbrought us some marmit e san dwi chesand s ome tea. He ap ologised f or t hePxf 's de lay, said she was " plu mbtuc ke red out, old b oy , deci ded to h ave

    an ear ly ni ght . Bee n work ing jollyha rd l ate ly, yo u know. " Garret sa id hequire unde rstoo d. "Been r eadi ng yo urForum thingy ," sa id H urd . " Jolly,

    jolly good . Ve ry impressive . Qui te!i Le. Tar e in parts . How long d id i t takeyou to pur toget he r? " Ga rre t lo oke d~ o: r ill. He sa id, " Actua lly, thi s a ll

    bega n ... ""My God, " s aid Hu rd, " Is that t he

    time? Must ru sh, o ld cha p. Do m akeyo urse lve s c omfort abl e."

    We se ttle d down wit h the t ea a ndsan dwi ch es . Gar ret pou red . "M y," hesaid , "Is n't th at a ni ce Geo rgian silve rteapot? "

    * * *

    D ick was late c omi ng down tobreakf as t n ex t m orning. Seems hehad got up dur ing th e n ight t o a nswera ca ll of nat ure a nd h e had gone jus ttwo yards dow n t he corr ido r when h ewas po unced o n by t he SAS a nd b eatensense les s.

    Dick puffedIt was la te t ha t Mo nd ay mor ning

    when Mrs T hatc her breeze d in . "Howare yo u, how are yo u," she s aid as s heacce lerated pas t us , "I t's very ve ry niceto see yo u agai n, Mr F itzpatrick ."

    She wen t to her r oo m. W e s toodaro und f or an hour or two. I tri ed o ne

    last t ime wi th Gar re t. "Boots," I sa id,"Boots flying. Tha t's t he on ly way togo into th is mee tin g. Sh e wo n't b udgeon sove re ignty - f ine. Yo u te ll her shewants to keep t hin gs as th ey are t ha t' sf ine w ith yo u. The six counties a reBriti sh, sh e says , you s ay fin e. Thenth e IRA is a Britis h terr oris t' or ganisa -tion a nd it's her pr obl em, let h er so rtit o ut. Our troop s come o f f the bor der,our cops stop beatin g up s uspects , ourcourts get juries , we save hundr eds o f mill ions of po und s . .. "

    "We mu st s hould er our r es pons i-bi liti es ," said Gar ret .

    We had a ni ce lun ch. Pete r B arryhad to s top D ick bu tter ing hi s brea droll wit h the f ish knife, b ut apart fro mthat it was most e nj oya ble.

    At aro und 3pm Do ugl as H urdca lled Garret i n t o see M rs Th atcher .Peter, Dick and I we re joi ned b y somemore of th e N at ional Ha nd lers a nd

    Di ck produ ce d a d ec k of cards. Wewer e on the second game , I'd j ustdraw n two nines to tr iple aces , whenGarre t cam e back in , f urious. " Thatwom an, " he said, " is g ratu itouslyof f ensive." Turned out he' d bee n inthere seve n mi nu tes and she p roduce dan agreed com mu niqu e she wa nte dhim to sign .

    Sighs and w hisp ers, gna shing o f teeth. I fought a lon e batt le b ut t herest of t hem ag reed t hat th e b est t hingto do wou ld be to s ign t he co mm u-nique and kee p shtu mm, better lucknex t time. It was agr eed t hat the 1 -have - vision - the -rest - of -the -wo rld-wears-bifoca ls gimmi ck woul d b e e m-ploye d. This was pi oneered by Char lieHa ugh ey after he firs t met Maggie in198 0. Char lie cam e out nodd ing a ndwi nk ing about h is S pe cial Relationshipand kep t te lling u s gre at th ings wereafoo t an d abo ut th e v isions he co uldsee o n the ho riz on. It worked untilthe H Block hung er st rik es s howe dthat C har lie's relations hip to Magg iewas so methin g like my r elat ionship to Jim D ooge .

    Af ter th at it was a ll down hil l.Mag gie h ad a pr ess co nf ere nce a ndquit e inn oce ntl y let eve ry one k nowhow s he fe lt a bout thin gs. Garr et didthe " pr ogress towar ds pr ogr es s" bit .Break yo ur heart , it wou ld. P ete rBarry flew off, s ul ki ng, to Bruss els,and Ga rr et, Dic k and I left for t he ai r-port . We wer e arrest ed u nd er thePreve nt ion of Terrorism A ct an d heldov ernigh t, but Pet er Pr enderga st mana -ged to keep the wraps o n that and putthe de lay d ow n to bad we ather .

    We w ere hard ly back on the o ul sa dwhen th e exc reta h it the fa n. E venBruce Arn ol d was pissed of f . It's notall peach es a nd crea m, f olks , it's notall peach es and cream . Anyon e f or agame of chequers?

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    S IT TING DOW NST AIRS B ESI DEa h ug e v at of t om ato ketch up ,in a Wim py fast food j oint in Lond on ,ladlin g the ke tch up i nto bo tt les , Ne llMcCa f fer ty de cided it wa s ti me to gohome a ga in. Ketc hup by the dol lopyo u can tak e or leav e, ket chup enma sse you just lea ve,

    Ne ll had been away from Derry ,off and on , f or t he pa st sev en yea rs.F our year s at Queen s, a year in Cann es ,most of a year wander ing the Gre ekbeaches , "k nock ing ar ound Eur ope, aswe used to say in t he Sixties .' ,a yea r an d a ha lf on a .:dbbu tzin I sra el, th en Lon don . Bacs;to Derry now and then insea rc h of work. Sub teachin gf or a whil e, bUI that didn ;last and , besides , she hated i r.

    The f ligh t from the ker chu jwas just ano ther tri p backhom e, wi th the pr ospe ct 0:an othe r root ar ound f or

    job . Sh e a rri ved ba ck inDerry on Oc tob er 6 1 968.It was th e da y aft er t h a tcivil right s mar ch, the onewhere the R UC we nt apeand RT E's Ga y O 'Brien wasth ere w ith -his camer a an dhel ped m ake th e diff ere nce.O'Bri en's imag es of RUC me nin heat, b eating p eo pl e, cha s-ing the t aigs back t o th ei rapp ointed place , we nt ar ou ndthe world . In th ose day s su chimage s we re u nusual andsh oc king . The British g ov ern -ment had to do somethin g,they pick ed at thr ead s, th ewhol e thin g began un rav el -ling.

    Nell M cCa ff er ty joined i n.She wasn 't parti cularly rad i-cal, but th e tim es wer e. S he

    joined the l oc al La bo ur Pa rt y,bec am e sec retar y f or a while. Journalist s w ere p ouri ng intothe city. Sh e w as on e of th ose natural gab ber s, ex -plainers, direction -givers , whoalwa ys spring up in suchsitu ations and with out wh om

    journalist s ar e l ost. S he was art icu late ,feist y, like able. On e o f th e journ alists ,Mar y Holl and fr om th e Obser ver, tol dthe Irish Times th ey should ge t Ne ll towrite for them. Th ey asked for ap iec eand she spent a d ay with Ian Paisleyand wrot e abou t i t. Th e Irish Timesask ed fo r more p iec es, liked them,eventuall y o ff ered h er aj ob in Dub lin.

    She was due to join the Irish Time son May 2 8 1970 . She couldn' t ma keit. That d ay she had to app ear in courtin Omagh , charg ed with s omet hin g

    min or l ike occ up ying th e cou rth ouse .She rang t he Irish Time s an d told themshe was s ick .

    Later, cov er ing th e c ourt s in Dublin ,she wo ul d be a ll- too-awa re of th efee lings of pe ople ca ught in the leg almangle - "pl eas e k ee p my name o utof the pap ers ."

    Next da y she arri ved at the p aper,havi ng been f ined 2 0. D onal F oley ,th e ta lent -spott er who along withedi tor Do ug las Gage by had r evi ve dthe fo rtun es of th e Irish Times in the

    1960s, w as s itting at a des k, rea din gthe Irish Pr es s, lookin g at a pi ctur e of Nell a nd a re port of t he co urt cas e." This ," he told h er, "w ill have tostop." She was n ever sur e if he w as

    joking.

    F OR ABO U T TWO MO NTH S N ELLMcCaffe rty sat a t a desk , wo nde r-ing w hat s he was do ing here. Sh e was

    ap po inted to the wo men's d es k. Shedidn 't k no w anyth ing a bout fas hion,could car e les s about cookin g. Sh edid a rep ort on a c hild ren 's art co m-pet iti on. Tha t was n't ba d. Sh e wo n-de re d should she q uit .

    The Irish Time s was a pp ointin gwomen journ alist s bu t it di dn't kn owwhat t o do with them . E ileen 0 'Bri enhad be en doing go od stuf f on povert y,Mary Ma her h ad a m eas ure o f fre e-dom to g et o ut and r epo rt . Ne ll sa tat the des k t ry ing not t o th ink a bout

    fas hi on. Then Mary Ma he r had a r ow with

    Dougl as Gag eby and h e told h er, okay ,you edit the w omen 's pag e. And th atlivened thin gs up . The pa ge kept th efashion and th e c ookery , but i t b ran -ched ou t int o housing , pover ty , con -tr acepti on, a ll the co ncern s o f theti me , and i t was a roa ring su ccess . Itwas domi nate d by compassionat eWO men who had a lot to be aggress iveab out. Maher and McCaf f ert y werepa rt of the women 's move ment whi ch

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    _ ~ ~ : di e rime. The jo urnal ism and _c.~ "-\ .~\ S ::::;. se eme d two wings of the

    ement, It did n' t last , but it~ .- = ~ "" ::::k-sra n to a var iety o f mo ve-

    uses and c amp aigns whi ch-=-= m.:.ay part of the pol iti cal and~ sc ener y.

    Dona l Foley who c am e __ _ uSS a b ook of c ou rt reports bysoz;e Br itish jo urn ali st w ho gave a:::::::=o:-ou s slant to t he dai ly co ur t:o~~e. He sent Ne ll dow n to the:Con::- Co urt s " to s ee w ha t t he joke

    5 ' - - It wa sn't at all fun ny.-In The Eyes Of The Law ", th e

    .an g-r un ning c olumn which res ulted,2S a devast ating d emy st ificat ion of

    ta e judic ial syste m. It showe d the T:iai rness , the pre judice , the c lass

    -.''' '. th e se x bi as, the r amshackle,zrbi trary vic iou snes s o f it. It wa s anexce llent and sus tai ned pi ec e of jour-nalism. And i t depres sed t he hell ou t

    ~ Xell Mc Cafferty . A s th e yea rs wentn she didn 't se e the poin t. "Se nding

    ta e mi dd le class c rying to be d." Itcaanged no thing . She also fo un d he r-se l; mo vi ng right wards, looking a t thesam e peo pl e coming ba ck a ga in andag ain to the do ck. Would yo u for

    jayzus sa ke not ca tch your se lf on?"1 w as thinking like aj ud ge ."

    She w ent to Amer ica for six mon th si::J. 1977 . Came back to t he Irish Times

    and the b eginn ing o f 1978, sa t th erere ading the papers a ll day. For aper iod befor e goi ng to Ame ric a sheaad bee n at a loss. It was worse now.She was n't s ur e th ere was mu ch point;:0 jour na lism , could n't f ind a ni chelike " In The Ey es Of T he L aw" , th eIrish Times didn 't kno w how to u seher. She left and went t o Cork f or a

    hil e.She lat er began writ ing a co lumn

    ~ O T the pa per , becom ing more andmo re draw n to t he po litical statu sissue in the Nort h. In June 1980 shewrote an art icle on t he wo men pr iso-

    ners i n A rmagh j ail, st atin g blun tlytha t t he politica l status pr otest was afemi ni st iss ue . It be gan , "Th ere iszaenst ru al bl ood on the wal ls of Ar-zaag h priso n .. . " and it ca use d bi ttercontroversy amongst fem inists . Mary~.1zher disagr eed wit h th e politic s of th e piec e b ut pri nted i t. The f ollowi ngweek s he pr int ed statem ent s by anu mbe r of promi nent fem inists who~ d isag ree d with Nell and w ho di d:lO L nu mber the women r ep ublicansamong t he femini st sist erh oo d. Ne llranr ed the paper to sub seque nt ly

    : _:Dt th e vi ews of those f emi nists wh o

    :.i::' agree wi th her position. The pap eroul dn 't, Nell - less ena mo ure d than _ -e: wi th j ournali sm ~ gave up t he: ;) 1 t: . ; ] } D .

    Altho ugh once sy no nomous with::.= Ir ish Times she has s ince dr ifted::s a f reela nce . Sh e on ce wr ote to

    :~~ Ga ge by o f f erin g a column on

    trade un ion a ffairs. It 's an a rea that i spoor ly reported an d had Ne ll br oughtto it the talents s he bro ught to cou rtre porting it mi ght have result ed in

    so me c hange in th e way such thingsare seen b y th e me dia . She received n orepl y. Nell wrote a bo ok on th eArmagh wo men, publ ish ed a co llec-tion of he r co urt rep orts, w rote anove l. "It was des perate ." Real ly ba d?" Yea h, it was boring. It p rove d to meth at I 'm not a ficti on wr iter. "

    As A FR EELANCE NE LL HASwritten some of her best wo rk .She has a regu lar co lumn i n th e Irish

    Press which is so met imes just a hum o-ro us re flectio n and so meti mes a

    riv ett ing repo rt. She ha s also bee nwriting for In Dubli n an d Magi ll,

    wit h exc ur sions in to th e short li vedDail y News and Statu s. Her "G ood -ni gh t Sisters" sp ot on RTE 's Women'sProgramme has w on h er a ne w aud -ien ce.

    The Best of Nell is a collec tion of her wo rk o ve r fourt een y ears . Thereare low -key pie ces , chil dhood r emem-bra nces, c our t reports a nd stunn ingpie ces o f repo rti ng. " The T rage dy of Anne P ur vis", fi rst pu blished i n theIrish Pres s, f ollowed the ki lling o f aDe rr y woman who h ad ret urned tovi sit h er p arent s a long with her Brit ishar my hu sban d. T he Pr ovos burst into

    the house, inten t on killing the soldi er,.the b ul let s hit Ann e Purv is an d s hedied . A lot was writte n abo ut thatkill ing . Ne ll McCafferty wrot e a s hortcompass ionate p iec e whi ch co nveyedth e horro r of t he killing a nd th e co n-flicti ng loyalti es , the amb igui ti es , fear ,hat re d, whi ch h av e d own the yearsar isen wh en De rr y wo men f ell in lov ewit h fore ign soldiers.

    That piece was based o n memo ry of events an d know ledge o f Derry. "T heAccus ing Finge r of Ray mond Gil mo ur"first pu bl ish ed i n Mag ill, is ba sed onsittin g through th e cour t pr oce edin gs

    as the " su pe rgrass " fin ge red hi s ex -friends. It is a mi xt ure of anger a ndsadn ess , sustained , co ntro lled, usingthe horrific eve nts w ithin th e co urt-room t o show us so methi ng of whatthe Nor th as a po litica l enti ty hasbecome . "Jo hn Gilmo ur look ed l ikea man at ba y, a rabbit in headl ights ,

    both t hese thi ng s. Then the doorswung open again and the yel ls andscr eams of his sisters and knockaboutnoises came fro m t he p assageway

    beyond . There iss ued t hen fr om hismouth a sound t ha t bor e no r ese mb -lance to the spoke n wo rd . I t was aloud long bell ow, and as it cam e for thhe la un ched h imself head long into t heserum of poli ce be low ... " It is a lmostobsc ene th at work as good as t hi ssho uld come from suc h horro rs.

    The boo k has a f ine p ref ace byEava n Boland . ("I told th em theysh ould ju st p rint t he prefa ce andleave the res t out . ") It resta te s thetruism that journ alis m chang es no -thing. "Wh at is muc h harder tomeasu re, to quan tif y, are shif ts of pe r-

    ce ptio n. The y are the sl ow, unsee nrock -slides tha t b egin in the f irs tbo ul de r loosening an d sc atteri ng sma llpebb les . I have no doubt, and equallyno p roo f , that ther e h ave bee n s uc hshifts a nd c hanges in th e c limate o f th oug ht in this cou nt ry in the last te nor fif teen ye ar s. Just a s 1 have nodo ubt, an d no pr oo f, t hat w rit ing likeIn The E yes Of Th e La w is intimate lybo und up wit h th ose s hi f ts of pe rce p-ti on."

    The bo ok is pub lished b y A tt icPress, a new publ ishing impri nt esta b-lishe d by wom en wh o are in their

    pol iti cs produ cts o f the shifts of p er -cept ion caused by Ne ll McCaff erty 'sboulde r-l oo senin g. They ha ve simul -ta neo usly pu bl ishe d Smashing T imes ,a hist or y of the suff rage moveme nt i nIre land b y Ro sema ry Culle n Owens .

    Co ns ider ed b y some a bit of aProvo an d de ri ded by t he Provos f ora la ck of a dh erence t o their line, Ne llMc Caffert y has weaved he r ow n lineth rough the develo pments of t he pas tfour tee n years . The thi rty -two a rt iclesin her col lect ion ch ron icle th e s ightsseen along "the way. She ha s nev ercom pro mi sed her femi ni sm or sq uan -

    dere d her ta lent s, and i t s hows in t hebook . The lat es t pie ces a re as powerf ulas t he earlier ones . Altho ugh she isunq ues tionab ly one of t he f inest

    journa lists i n t he co unt ry - on h erbest days unqu es tionab ly t he finest -she's stil l not too s ure ab out th ebusiness. "Then I read Eav an B oland' spreface and I thought, s ur e there'smaybe som ething to be sa id for jour -na lism a f ter a ll." S he can' t resistmaki ng joke s abo ut herse lf and herwork, as though you mig ht take hertoo se rious ly. "Now, is that the e ndof thi s em barr assing co nversat ion?"

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    A YE~ 84 is a classic al concertfeat uring five young Irish musiciansto be held in the Examination Hall in Trinity College, Dublin on Thursday ,Dec ember 13 1984, at 7.30pm. Thisunique concert is being organ ised byth e parti cipants of the AnCO/IrishMuse ums Trust training course inArts Administration.

    The musicians, who have received

    gr ants and scholarships over the pastnu mber of years, have been sel ectedby th e participants for their excellencein musiciansh ip. The concert aims atprov iding a platform to further theirperforming careers.

    The artists inelude: Donal Bannisteron trombone who will play Sonatinaby Casterede and a sonata in A m inorby Gaillard , Annette Cleary on celloperforming Debussy 's cello sonata,Mary Collins who will perform piec esby Sc arlatti, Chopin and Lizt on thepiano, Aedin Halpin playing piec es byLoeillet , Telemann and Gordon Jacob

    on the recorder and Paul O'Hanlonon violin who will perform Bach'sPartita in D minor .

    * * * * * THE NEW Man's Shop at Brown Thomas held a reception on TuesdayNovember 13for its account customersand press . Despite bad weather and thetragic air crash over 300 peopl e turnedup to congratulate managing directorGeorge McCullagh on his re-design of the new dep artm ent . Also the decis ionto diversif y into younger men 's cloth-ing . Phil Fitzpatri ck, Man 's Shopbuyer , has done an incredible job inmaintaining qu ality merchandi se atcompetitive prices .

    ALLI ED IRISH B ANKS ' un audit edGroup profit before t axa tion for thehalf-year ended 30 Septemb er 19 84amounted to IR 40 .5 m illion . Thi s

    compares with IR43 .4 million for theprev ious half-year to 31 Mar ch 1 984and IR4 2 million for the h alf -year to30 September 19 83. The tax chargefor September 198 4 i s IR10.6million less than the Mar ch 1984figure (which included a lev y of IRlO .4 million) and IR2 .9 millionless than the more comparable Sep -tember 1983 figure. This reduction of IR2.9 million is becaus e of lowerprofits and greater tax b ased lending .

    Resulting fr om the lower ta x c harge ,the af ter ta x p osition shows an in-crea se o f IR 7. 7 million over th eMarch 1 98 4 figure and IRl .4 million

    over the S ept emb er 198 3 figure. The d irector s have de clared aninte rim dividend of 4 .5p per shar eon the higher number of shares inissu e, whi ch will absorb IR7.5 mil-lion as aga inst an interim of 4 .5p pershare l ast y ear wh ich absorbed IR6 .7million. The divid end which carries atax credit o f 25 /75 (twenty-fiveseven ty-fifths) will be paid on 18December to sh areholders on thecompany's regist er at the close of

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    -~= on 2 3 N ove mber 198 4.AI t h e An nu al Gener al Meeting

    ~ J1L f }', Nia ll Crowley, Chairman,ment ioned tha t he was "hopeful that

    e will be able to at least equ al last/ea:-'s result s, wh ich would b e a goodpe rfor ma nce in the ci rcumstances. " The result s f or this half-ye ar are inline with thos e expect ations. Thisperf orma nce is understand abl e havingre gard t o t he dif f icult economic con-di tio ns pr evai ling in our princip almarketplace, the Republic of Ireland. The recession here has ' resulted in thecontinuation of a high level of badde bts charged against profit and they

    do not fore see any improvement inthat situation for the second h alf-year .

    * * * * *

    CAR A DAT ACOMM, the D ata Com -munications d ivis ion of CARA DataProcessing Limited , has r eceived twoma jor aw ard s from Ra cal-Mil go and T-Bar for sales in Ireland .

    The Ra ca l-Milgo award wa s for themost outstandin g sales of NetworkManagement syst ems and Local AreaNetworks in th e Europe and theMiddle East area in the last year .

    The T -Bar award was for the

    high est value of sales in Europe forcomputer and communication switch-ing and patching equipment over ayear . This brings to four the number

    of s ales aw ards CARA Datacomm hasrece ived in recen t yea rs.

    Mr D enis B ehan , General Managerof CARA Dat aco mm , announcing theawards , said: " They underl ine therapid d evelopment of high technologyin D ata Communi ca tions in Ir eland ,whi ch has now become a significantmarket in European terms for sophis-ticated equipment of this kind.

    * * * * *

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    1 1 1 1yOUHAVEI TNOW.rMNOTgo ing to make it d iff icul t f oryou," Joe A insworth w as o ver -

    heard t o sa y to Lar ry Wren d ur ing the c risis-f illed

    week s in which Wren saw out t he M cLaughlin /Ains-wor th reg ime . And indeed Wr en had it all , as his oldrival conc eded; the comm issione rship, a reputati onunsu llied b y th e wave of poli tical sca ndal , and aclean s weep at the to p of the fo rce whi ch left himhea d and sho ulders above any po ssibl e interna l chal-leng e.

    There c an have be en few more dramatic chang esof the pa lace guar d. A fortnight a f ter t he Decem ber1982 acce ss ion of the coalition gov ernme nt , two of themo st se nio r officers in t he f orce becam e the s ubje cts of an inv estig ation by at hird , Larry Wren . They sa t in theirof f ices , wat ched m en; d ef erring to jun iors in terms of ac -cess to fi les or even cert ain telep hone calls; knowing thatthe new Minist er for J ustice h ad asked imme diately f or f ileson t elephon e s ur veillan ce, on D owra , on the Kerr y car cr as h,the P at O'Conno r case , on a se ries of i ncidents ranging fromthe Star dust fire t o the Macar thur case.

    Dep uty Commi ssi one r Larry W ren had bee n the c loud ontheir , and th eir former mini st er's horizon. Now the st orm wasbreakin g and Wren's e nqu iry would swee p the m out and hi sown reg ime i n.

    Wren , aft er all , hadn' t stood idl y by in the pr ev ious two year s.What ev er h is s uper iors tho ught , he show ed he co uld act i ndepen -dently.

    In April 1982 w hen McLaughlin was on hol iday and Wren was~ Acting Commissi oner, he had in itiat ed an inquir y into the h an dling

    ~ by S uperintendent Bi lly Byrne o f the Pa t O'Connor cas e ( the a llega -': tion of voting ir regular iti es b y C. J. Haughe y's e lection.~ a gent ), as a resul t of DPP queries .>:>

    o: But he tr od on e ven m ore sensiti ve g round in~ September 1 982 , when h e rep res en tedQ the Comm issioner at a r eview

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    ::me.' heari ng w here he voted to uphold the appeal against~ r b y Sergeant Tom Tully of Boyle, former Justice

    _ . ist er Doherty's home townland. Doherty was furious,it as the evidence gathered by Tully to back his case

    whi h was in time to lift the lid off the Doherty regime in Justic e.

    In Wren's file at that hearing were two recommendationsthat Sergeant Tully's appeal be rejected, one from AssistantCommissioner Frank Davis in charge of the PersonnelBranch, and one from Chief Superintendent Burke who hadcarried out a disciplinary investigation into Tully as a resultof allegations by a Garda Cafferty. According to documentswhi ch have come into the hands of Magill, the allegationswere not proven but Burke recommended that the transfergo ahead because of the unsatisfactory way the Boylestation records were kept and because he felt if Tully "wereremoved from his farming interests, he would again revertto giving of his best."

    The farming factor and "disharmony" at the station weregiven by Assistant Commissioner Davis as reasons for atransfer.

    Even though Wren, as one of the three adjudicators onthe .review body , had no role to play in the revealing of information to the body he was called in the next morn -ing by the Minister for Justice, Sean Doherty. In an angryconfrontation Doherty demanded of Wren if it was stand-ard practice for the review body to arrive at its decisionswithout all the facts being made known to it, implyingthat Wren should have argued a case for the transfer onthe basis of the recommendations made by senior offic-ers. Wren reacted angrily. As far as Wren was concerned,for quite some time, the gloves were off .

    '

    HERE ARE THOSE WITHIN THE FORCEwho will say that Wren spent his first eighteenmonths as head of the force settling scores, thatthe restoration of local control over the regional

    task forces, and the ending of the ground-to -air patrols weredeliberate attempts to undo the work of Joe Ainsworth.Ainsworth's close relationship with Commissioner McLaugh-lin in the period from 1979 had edged the then DeputyCommissioner Wren out of the real centre of power in the

    force.But there were good reasons to clip the wings of theregional task forces, whose increasing independence of action had been causing local concern. And there were gooddisciplinary reasons to pursue the Dowra and Kerry carcrash incidents, not that either reached a very decisive con-clusion. (Wren's tangle with RUC Chief Constable JackHermon on the Dowra matter got him nowhere. In theKerry case, Garda Donie Dunne was charged, but the casewas dismissed in court .)

    And there were good reasons to impose discipline on aforce which had begun to accept political interference as amatter of course under successive governments, and to haveless confidence in its own regulatory procedures as a result .

    One of Wren's first moves was to see that the law ondrunken driving be applied vigorously, no matter whatspecial representation was made in individual cases. He in-sisted that all cases where breathalyser tests were given berep orted to his office and appointed an officer to monitorthem and investigate cases that weren't brought to court . A

    ~1 AGILLDECEMBER 1984

    number of men were disc iplined in the Dun drum are a as aresult of breathalyser cases which didn't reach the co ur ts.

    More recently, Wren set about smartening up his seni orofficers throughout the country. At ameeting in August of Superintendents and Chief Superintendents he told th embluntly to spend less time on the golf course, less time onthe second jobs, and more productive time in their offices.

    The boys were stunned. Senior Garda Officers are pettykings in their own areas. Nobody had spoken to them likethat for years .

    Various senior officers stood up to make their case butthe Commissioner wasn 't in the mood to listen. After thefirst four speakers, the officers decided to sit on theiropinions. The meeting ended early, leaving quite a fewmutinous souls behind. One Chief Superintendent from theWest has since been considering early retirement . There arecertain things up with which aman will not put .

    That won't worry Larry Wren. Abrasive, spartan, a born

    martinet, he aims to run a tight ship, even at the risk of afew men overboard . He has a puritan's distrust for the perksand privileges of his office. For instance he leaves his offi-cial car in the depot, driving his family car to and fromhome - and insists that his fellow commissioners do thesame, somewhat to their chagrin.

    He is determined that no one will ever level against himany charge of favouritism and is rigid about transfer andappointment decisions within the force. Indeed, appealscan often backfire , as in the case of one Chief Superinten-dent in the Dublin area who, with a year to go to retire-ment, was to be transferred to headquarters but asked to beallowed stay where he was.

    Not only did the Commissioner refuse his request, hetransferred him a week earlier than scheduled and called hisreplacement back off holiday.

    ON PUBLIC OCCASIONS COMMISSIONERWren rarely takes more than one drink andpulls out early from traditional Garda knees-upslike the Templemore passing out parades, so

    that his fellow officers feel obliged to do the same. His waywith people he must have learned in the Archbishop DermotRyan Academy for corn-treading and truculence. He

    detests red carpets and welcoming parties and is likely toask the officers involved if they've nothing better to do.He livens up social occasions by enquiring of fellow gardaihow they managed to get time away from their desks. Heprobably means to make a diffident joke . Grace, as I say,is not his middle name.

    He didn't particularly endear himself to members of theOireachtas when he created difficulties about cooperatingwith the All-Party Committee on Crime and Vandalism. Ina curt exchange of letters he informed them that he couldnot be questioned by them on policy since that was thegovernment's responsibility. Eventually he agreed to speakonly about the operational matters for which he was res-ponsible. As a result the committee could not explore thewider implications of c rime-beating and crime-preventionwith the chieflaw officer in the land.

    A criticism levelled against him even by those who arehis allies and who welcome his puritanical approach , isthat he fails to accept his full responsibilities as head of th eforce , that he has no input into the development of policin g

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    :;.=-=--:- _.har he i s an o ld-fash ioned cop wit h no imagin at ion."'-- 6 noticea ble that the tw o representati ve bodies withi n

    :I::= f orc e, The Garda Representative Ass oc iation and thecia rion of Sergeants and Inspectors, se t the pace on t he

    Crrninal Just ice Bill, workin g out det ailed submissi ons,arguing The case in publi c. It was the y, ra ther than th e headof the for ce, who rigor ousl y fought th e gar da cas e.

    Indeed there are complai nts t ha t Wre n is to o mu chunde r the thumb of the Dep artmen t of Justi ce and fail sal most to tally to act as the publi c vo ice of t he f orce andthere w as an amount of anger within the ga rdai that it wasMichael Noonan, and not Wren who announ ced the suspe n-si on of the three gardai in the Sherco ck case. Noon an th enwent on t o warn that if th e garda inv estigation into th eK erry Babies case didn't come to a satisf actory con clusi on apublic enquiry w ould be held . Noona n, the ga rdai know , isa politician first and last . When the gard ai are on the rope s,they 'd pr efer their own Commissi oner t o do the tal king.

    Joe Ainsworth

    And right now , with public con f iden ce in the f orce ata low ebb and growing un eas e about t he treatment of people brought in for qu estioning, the g ar dai need a sp okes-man. What th ey have is a C ommission er who r efuses t o dointerviews o r appear o n television - he g ave one re luctantint erv iew to RTE's securit y corre spond en t de fendi ng thegar dai aga inst allega tions of i nvolvement in th e Mo ynabugg ing af f air, and on e int erv iew t o th e Sunday Pre ssabo ut the Claremorris fi asco d uri ng th e T idey ki dnap case- an in terview he later regr et ted.

    The fo rce's re presentativ e bodies ofte n en d up d oing his job for him on televisi on. Mr Wren hasn 't yet join ed thetelev ision age .

    He i s fie rcely secretiv e a bout garda aff airs and monit ors

    jealo usl y the handing out of the most mu nda ne inform ationby the press o ffice. Indeed , when I ask ed th e pre ss o f f ice:o~ some bas ic biographi cal mat erial - where he was from ,", 1:ae he l ived - the y bega n to read me d etails f rom anIr..:..;: Times cut ting - a curious co mp lime nt to t he ex cel lent

    - or respo nderit of th e Irish Tim es , but hardl y an

    impr essi ve r efle ction on the information-gathering p owersof the gar da pres s of f ice rs.

    It's said the senio r press officer is brought in for a 10 .30session every day to clea r any nuggets of information whichma y be re leased on the hungry publ ic, and that a reply toalmost all press que ries has to b e cleare d by the Commis-si oner's ow n office . No comment at all is gi ven on dis cip-linary matt er s. In add ition , the press st ill don't knowwhe ther the inter na l inqui ry into th e K erry Bab ies ca seha s bee n comp leted or not .

    Memb ers of the f or ce worr y that as a re sult of thi s infor-mat ion-blo cking pr ocess the gardai are getting an uns ympa-theti c pr ess . "We need a proper publi c relation s job done ,be cause we need the public on ou r side," said one g arda."Policing is no longe r a s imple m atter of containment, wenee d the c ooperation of the publi c."

    But the n Lar ry Wren i s 62 , he d oesn 't belong t o a gene -ration whic h value s good public relati ons . Born in Abbe y-

    feale, Cou nt y Limerick in 1922 , he joined the gardai in194 3, was promoted t o sergea nt in 1954 and inspect or in196 0, sup erinte nd ent in 1963 (when bas ed in Munste r, hewas shot at by a ga rda w ith a grud ge ) and chi ef sup erin-ten den t in 1969. Thr ough the seventies he worked in C3 ,now t he I ntel ligen ce and Se curity Bran ch, and was ace ntralfigur e in the ga rda han dling of the Herrema kidn ap andMonas tere van si ege in 197 5 when h e maintained constantcontact with kidnapp ers Eddi e Gallagher and Marion C oy le.

    He was a trusted prot eg e of Commi ssioner Ned Garve y,who ma de a deal with t he kidna pp ers to re commendredu ced senten ces if they s ur rendere d an d hand ed overHerr ema unharmed. The d eal was r ene ged up on. It's notclear if Wren ha d a role in draw ing up the d eal, bu t he c er-tainl y knew of it and ind ee d was hand ed a copy of it byHerre ma , who had in turn been handed it by E ddi e Galla-ghe r.

    Wren w as ma de an Assistant Commis sioner in 1 976and Deputy Commi ssioner in 197 8 when he wa s pushedside way s as swashbuck ling Joe A isn wor th took ov er andex pand ed t he Intell igence and Sec urity Branch.

    He w as ap pointed Commi ss ioner on Feb ruar y 1 1 983.If Wren is a m an wh o arrives o n the job pr omptly , he

    doesn 't hang aro und when the working day is over, lea vinghi s off ice a t 5.30pm to head f or his C as tl ekno ck home , hi sGalwa y-born wife, Maureen, a nd th eir two d aughters .Apart from his home an d famil y, his onl y known int erestout side t he job is hi s wo rk for the S t Vincent d e Paul inthe North Dublin ar ea.

    In hi s remaining th ree years, it 's unlikely that he 'll beabl e to tac kle the formi dable pr oblems facing th e police.His tradi tional view s may pr ove a s tumbling blo ck to themoder ni sat ion of police methods and m ore imp ortant , tothe pr ovisio n of thorough an d ef f ect ive ba sic trainin g. Heco ul d tac kle the ill-trea tme nt of peo pl e brought i n f or qu es-tioning and pr ove t hat he's as pu ritani cal ab out p oliceinterf ering w ith m embe rs of the publi c as h e i s ab ou t poli-ticians inte rf ering with members of his own for ce. There arecorrupti ng influen ces insi de the f orce as well a s o ut side o f it.

    But f or the mom ent, whatever hi s limitation s, thi s' one

    maj or ac hi evement will stand to him . Politi cian s plead ingf or spec ial fav our s no longer ge t a ready ear from th epolice, an d policemen who say "no" don' t live in f ear of revenge. " You can now," sai d one of the boys i n blueearne stly, "te ll a politician to go and get st uffed ."

    And that 's what L ar ry Wren d id. 0

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    ration and each offers a diesel variant. The Carina II and 626 are offered inboth saloon and hatchback form, theBluebird in saloon or estate (theNissan Stanza is available as a hatch-

    back), and only the Carina is offeredwith automatic transmission as anoption.

    Although the surprise attack waslaunched only about eight months agothese latest Japanese stormtroopershave performed well in battle mana-ging to achieve 6 .1 % of the totalmarket between them up to Septem-ber according to figures issued by theSociety of the Irish Motor Industry(SIMI). This compares with 4 .5% forthe same period last y ear (althoughthe Mazda 626 was not available then) .Although single monthly figures canbe misleading we feel it is worth quot-ing the latest SIMI figures available tous for the month of September . Thenew Carina takes 5.6 % of the totalmarket to become second best sellerfor that particular month next to theFord Fiesta (8 .2%), compared to only2% and sixteenth in the sales leaguefor the same month last year . And theBluebird managed 2 .4% and fifteenthcompared to 1 .5% and twenty-firstfor September '83, and we estimatethe Mazda 626 has captured about0.6 % of the market since its introduc-tion in April and about 32 placesdown .

    Our road testing of these threebattle cruisers comprised of the basemodel in each case , the Carina II 1 .6GL, the Mazda 626 LX and the Blue-bird 1.6 GL (all 4-door saloons) .Although they are all front-wheel-drive and very much Japanese theyare as different as chalk and cheeseto drive. Toyota engineers have mana-ged to endow the Carina II with anexcellent degree of ride and handling- a decent compromise of which isnot easily achieved . The Bluebirdcould be regarded as fair in bothdepartments whereas the 626 , while

    possessing excellent cornering power,gives one a decidedly bumpy ride al-though road noise is extremely wellsubdued.

    As our comparison table shows theBluebird provides the b est combina-tion of boot space and rear seat leg-room (not shown) within the shortestoverall length of 14 ft 3 Yzins and itshigh gearing contributes handsomelyto its excellent fuel economy - al-though it is the slowest car of thethree.

    There can be no doubt that Toyotahave got it right with this new Carina- a very enjoyable, pleasant andeffortless car to drive and must surelyrank highly in the honours list as aresult of its bravery in battle duringthe current Irish Car of the Year con-frontation.

    Sharon Prior the owner of a 1979Fiat 126, reg no 244 0 ZE cont ac-ted the service department of Tra cta-motors (Dublin) Ltd , Prussia S treet(a Fiat/Lancia main dealer) to a sk ho wmuch a servi ce on her car w oul d cost .According to Ms Prior sh e w as in-formed that it would co st 70 for amajor all-in service or altern atively50 for a 'winter service ' to inc lud enew spark plugs, distribu tor po ints ,

    air filter , oil change, adjusting tappetsand diagnosis only of the conditionof the brakes.

    The cheaper of the two serviceswas chosen and the job was done on5 November in Tract amotors. ToMagill's surprise the bill came to only34 .46 .

    According to Michael Brennan, Tractamotors' service manager , theyhave no record of the original esti-

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    mates ever being given . On arrival at Tractamotors to book in her car MsPrior asked the service receptionist,"How much is it going to cost me?"and the reply, "Thirty-five poun ds."Ms Prior: "Is that the 'winter service'?"the receptionist replied "Yes. " Sonaturally Ms Prior was not surprised atthe size of the bill.

    Mr Brennan says that his distinctimpression was that the owner of thecar did not want to spend any morethan 35 arid therefore tailored theservice to suit that amount of money.In fact, according to Mr Brennan,they went as far as contacting MsPrior by phone to inform her thatthe rear brakes of her car were badly

    worn down and that they could dothe job immediately for 25, but MsPrior decided not to have the job done.Other work required to be done onthe Fiat 126 included freeing-out stiff steering and replacing a sheared-off halfshaft bolt, both jobs costing extra.Again the owner decided not to havethis extra work done.

    Our post-service inspection of thecar revealed that the fan belt was loose ,the battery terminals had not beencleaned, new distributor points hadnot been fitted, the valve tappets werenot adjusted, and even though newspark plugs were fitted their screwterminals were loose. A new aircleaner was fitted and the engine oil

    was changed. The bill was made up of 25 for labour , 7 for parts, and3 .84 for engine oil.

    Mr Brennan comments, "Morallywe are blameless ... it would appearto be a case of misunderstanding ...and we did inform the owner of theimportance of having those safety-related defects seen to , namely thesteering, the brakes and the half shaftbolt ." He went on to say that they didnot ch arge for anything they did notdo, that they had to decide what notto do according to the 35 limit, andthe items not attended to, apart fromthe safety-related items, are serviceablefor the next 3,000 miles or over thewinter months .

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    Pressure is on for price regula tion which will hav e an immedia te

    impact on what ever y shopper pays for basic f oodstuffs.

    When supermarkets f irst o penedin Ire land they were reg ard edvarious ly as the first wave of th eCommunis t men ace or the lat estimport of American bubb legum cul-tu re . Their guidin g pr inciple w ascon tained in an aphor ism attributed tothe origina l barro w-boy m ade good ,the lat e Tesc o pioneer J ack Co hen:"Pil e it high and sell it cheap. " Itwas the Henr y F ord philosoph y a p-pl ied to food instead of cars - thereta iler making profit thro ugh thesh eer vo lume of g oods sold .

    By def inition this wreaks ha vocamong independent groc ers f ro mwhom the sup ermark ets multiple winscustom . In 1 967 the re were 1 2,68 1such shop s in busin ess in Ire lan d. Bylast yea r onl y 7,7 36 re main ed. InBr itai n, according to A.C. Nielsen

    ma rk et resea rch , it has been ca lcula-ted tha t o ne goes out of busi nesseve ry hour .

    Thi s y ear indepe ndents , re presentedby the whole saler s tr ade associat ion,chose to st and a nd fi ght on th e iss ueof multiples ' sel ling of goo ds at belowth e bu ying-in price offer ed to th e res tof the mark et. In the last month theyhave w run g from an all pa rty Da ilcommittee a re comm endat ion that'below c ost selling ' be banned. If theysuc cee d, t op sell ing lines from bea nsto biscuits, co uld becom e more ex -

    pensive .In their d ri ve to offe r che aperprices , supermarkets multip les - todayprimaril y Dunne s, Quinn sw ort h, Tescoand S uperquinn , w ith H . William s trai l-ing in fifth pl ace - have increasinglyfought on a secon d f ront. Thi s invo lves

    putting pressure o n suppliers for biggerand bi gg er disco un ts for bulk . Frag -mented , and towered ov er by bot hexpa nding competi tors a nd t he f oodman uf act urer s, inde pen dent. groce rshave littl e muscle t o ex tract remo telycom parab le conce ssions.

    With growing markets shares , themul tiples ' leverage over su ppliers hasincrease d. This has reverse d the powerstruct ure in t he industry. In t he ea rl yseventies the largest cor porate entitiesin the Iris h food i ndu stry were thema nufa ctu rer s. To day - if one lea ves

    aside th e s ubs idi aries of mu ltin at ionals- they are dwa rf ed by th e t ur nover of the mu ltip les. Ir ish Biscu its for exam -ple , wit h a tu rn over of some 5 0mi llion a year , is now towered over bythe likes of D unn es an d Qui nnswo rth,each wit h sa les sever al t imes t hat

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    figure.Responsibility for introducing much

    of the hard-nos ed b attling into tradingis generally attributed to the lat e BenDunne S enio r. He made d emand s onsupp liers no one el se ha d th e nerv e to ,su ch as g ettin g t heir deli ve ry st af f tostoc k h is shelves f or him . One su chtus sle repo rtedl y led to a p rocessionof reps fr om dif f erent suppli ers beinglocke d out o f on e of his larg est Dublinstor es. They were on ly allow ed ba ckinto the building in return f or a furtherdis count. Within the c ompan y heexerted pressur e at least as gr ea t uponhis own m anagers, who at on e s tore inth e c apital d epart ed with a f requ encyth at made soccer c lubs s ee m t olerant .

    To outs iders he could be e qu allyobtu se. Rep ort ers i nva ri ab ly s truc k averb al bri ck wa ll - hi s stock re pl y toall qu estion s was "Dunn es Sto res bettervalue bea ts t hem all ."

    The Multiples' Armoury

    Shoppers do not have to be clubbedover the h ead to go int o super-markets - th ey go there by choice.Surveys by the Nation al Pr ices Com-mi ssi on show th at customer s in areaswithout sup erm ark ets pa y mor e f orcertain foods tuffs (NPC monthl y report January 19 84) . At th e s am e tim e themultiples have no monopol y o f toughta ctics when it comes to b arg ainingwith suppliers . But their v ery si zeand purchasing power confer on themweapons un avail able to lesser rivals.

    The suppli er may be expect ed toassist in the costs of opening a newmultiple outlet , as in taking space inpr ess ads ann ouncing the new arriv al.Not surprisingl y thi s is see n as a keyf actor in getting the produ ct f ea tur edpr ominentl y in th e sto re. As ave teransuppli er puts it: "It's th e pri ce of staying on the shel ves ." Some ye arsago the pri ce was dearer - "e ntr ance

    fees " were levied for sto cking newl y-launched products, a practice that hasnow dwindled.

    Staple lines of f ood store s usuallyinvo lve the supplier in a "lon g termagr eement " ( LT A). Centr al to this inthe c ases of multiples is a di sc ountpa yable to th e s


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