Celtic recorded victories over Dundee and Hearts after their first two Champions League games but collected only one point from the two league games following the double header against Barcelona. They also won after only two of their four Champions League qualifying games, so there is no reason to expect a convincing win against Inverness tomorrow.
Inverness slumped to a freak 1-5 defeat at home to Motherwell last week but that was their first defeat since the same team beat them earlier this season. Like Celtic at the Camp Nou, they will be set on defending deeply at Celtic Park in order to prevent another collapse. This could be an occasion for Paddy McCourt to prize them open.
I had a look at the Europa League group tables last night. Udinese, who eclipsed us in the same competition last season, are bottom of their group this year, as are PSV Eindhoven, Sporting Lisbon, Athletic Bilbao (who beat Manchester Utd home and away last season) and Helsingborgs. Other recent opponents Rapid Vienna and Hapoel Tel-Aviv are also bottom.
If you’re on Facebook there is a story on the CQN Magazine page about Benfica implying Celtic only beat Barcelona because of cheating. Drop in and take a look. On a related subject, I’ve some good material from Spartak in reserve for the days before their visit.
The Annual Remembrance Service, held by the Celtic Supporters’ Association, takes place tomorrow, in memory of Celtic fans no longer with us, with prayers offered for those departed during the last year, including Joe McBride.
The Mass, at St Michael’s at 1350 Gallowgate just up from Parkhead Cross, will start at 12:30 and should be over in around 30 minutes, after which refreshments will be available in the hall to warm you before you head to the game. All are welcome to celebrate the memory of those who have gone before us.
Lost wedding ring alert! Someone found a wedding ring in Lisbon which was probably dropped by a Celtic fan. Let me know if you know who is walking around with their hand in their pocket this week.
Get your CQN Annual here, an enormous resource from the keyboards of Celtic fans!
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Big Georges Fan Club
01:03 on 24 November, 2012
Oops, that should read ‘no’ knowledge, but I’m sure you realised that!
Phyllis Dietrichson
01:09 on
24 November, 2012
Lovely, sincere words mate thank you for them.
Despite coming across as a bit of a loony on these esteemed pages on occasion, I take my job and my responsibilities extremely seriously.
See what i mean!!!
Anyway point to put..if you wanted advice on the accountability of your business books would you ask a judge or a senior accountant?
So why did 2 judges have the power to find thems unaccountable and the person that has the expertise find thems guilty.
Ht.
You will no my 2 sisters both occupy the same position.congratulations.hh
So…
Who was under the influence of the dark side?
Seems like the judges hands were tied, but they let us know that.
The HMRC guys, unless they have an encore planned, are, well…
The guys that made this happen.
Small place… Edinburgh
Evening all
A quick question for you.
How many season tickets have we sold?
tictalker talking tic
I am making tea for a young Venezuelan student this weekend. If you think it’s crazy here in the Ukplc you should hear what he has to say about his homeland. An eye-opener.
And then to see yourself as others see you. Interesting.
Anyway, me and mrs. miki are enjoying the experience.
Unfortunately, he really likes Real Madrid….so….on Sunday I’m going to show him photies and highlights from THAT match on 7/11/12 and convert him. One fan at a time, that’s the way to do it!
Tictalker
Do you know?
I guess 43,000.
Rascar
No I dont.
I was talking about it today at work while trying to make a point.
.
G’Day Fae a Absoluter El Scorchio Down-Under..Mad Hoat..:O(
Summa
.
What page is BRTH Post..?
Summa
miki67
Its really hard to remember how good we’ve got it, cos it seems crap.
Its just a pattern of thinking, most of the world would love to be here.
I watched Michael Moore’s film Sicko recently.
On my own, and then with my family.
This forty year old cried at the plight of ordinary Americans.
We have a wonderful place to live.
But it still could be better.
….PFayr
00:56 on 24 November, 2012
Celt55
‘BRTH opinion on the dissenting opinion is well constructed it explains the position more succinctly than I can’
I still think he’s wrong on the Ramsay doctrine. Parts of the scheme can be valid (like the trusts and the loans) without affecting the overall status as a scam. Though following BRTh’s Machiavellian spin on events that might be what the tribunal intended ie to make it easy for the upper tribunal to reverse the decision.
It’s all a bit too conspiratorial for me.
Summa
Second last page of previous thread..it’s a link under his moniker
Summa
Dunno…
But I read it in the morning, maybe about 11am.
I don’t like long posts, but see yourself through this one.
Subtle truth BRTH style, might even eclipse Gangam style.
Ernie
I take your point ….perhaps they were P off with HMRC for cocking it up in the first place …it did seem a fairly significant concession for HMRC to give
My limited understanding of the Ramsay principle allows for the totality of the scheme to be looked at as regards tax avoidance …am I correct in this
chrome://newtabhttp//www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d30rpdvtiA&feature=share
….PFayr
01:57 on 24 November, 2012
‘My limited understanding of the Ramsay principle allows for the totality of the scheme to be looked at as regards tax avoidance …am I correct in this’
You look at the whole picture, not individual pieces. On that basis BRTH’s hypothesis looks a bit shaky.
It’s a bizarre judgement though so something out of the ordinary could have taken place.
What makes me suspicious is that the tribunal sat in private.
001
Fill yir boots!
http://broganrogantrevinoandhogan.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/the-hoover-the-runaways-and-a-judicial-nod-is-as-good-as-a-wink-on-the-rangers-tax-case/
Ernie lynch.
I’d like to buy into that but i can’t.
I looked at the smug smile on sallys face today.
I felt it told the usual story…try as we may but watp was written all over his face.
Hopefully Im wrong and justice will be seen to have been done.
I won’t be holding my breath.
Things can always be better. Nowadays the thing is not to let them regress for the sake of maintaining the lifestyles of the greedy, or for the aggrandisement of truly psychopathic politicians.
When people come here it can take them time to see past the propaganda/tourist veneer.
That is true anywhere.
And poverty is relative; not just to one another globally, but between the elite at the top and the destitute.
The imbalance.
The most peaceful places are the most equitable.
Sometimes I just think about these things. Mostly late at night, when I feel warm, lucky, and grateful to be able to do this at all.
For all you Celts that enjoyed Breaking Bad, I Watched about 6 episodes of sons of anarchy today, amazing stuff, it better than BB IMO.
Much better than the rangers tax fraud shenanigans, although there’s still a few miles of twists n turns in that particular fiasco.
V
Miki67
“The most peaceful places are the most equitable.
Sometimes I just think about these things. Mostly late at night, when I feel warm, lucky, and grateful to be able to do this at all.”
Sounds like you live here.
Enjoy what you have.
Secret courts, anonymised witnesses and/or miscreants, near impenetrable judgements, biased media, arcane societies, brutal overseer from the Yorkshire moors, smug pie muncher….
….Kafka and Eyre entwined. If only a literary great, like a Damon Runyan, an Iain Banks, could write a suitable allegory to describe this institutional scandalous farce, explain it all in terms we could live with….
….if only that bluidy poxy Bigotdome would fall into the abyss..
…if only.
miki67
You’re lovin this!
Go on, write about normal pish.
Ah dare ye…
I do enjoy what I have. It’s more than I ever thought possible. My monetary state would say otherwise, but I feel immensely well off in all the ways that matter to me.
I suppose that’s relativity, too.
HH!
Like what? What’s normal? This is normal.
Huns are abnormal.
Ernie
Was any justification given for allowing the tribunal to sit in private
I noticed your posts earlier in the week re Chris Moyles
http://i46.tinypic.com/s3ht0p.jpg
miki67
Ah suppose I hoped you were a wild eyed opponent, looking at me with a dangerous dance.
Mixing our knowledge like old bad men, and laughin about it.
But ye wurnae.
…PFayr 12.50,
A logical thinking person would maybe counter your argument with the fact that Paddy has rarely been given time to produce anything ‘meaningfull’ in recent times. He’s now in his 5th season at the club, and hasn’t even broke the 80-game barrier. He’s averaged about 15 games a season in all competitions since he came to the club.
Undoubtedly one of the most talented players we have at Celtic and blessed with the rare talent of being able to drop the shoulder, maze past handfuls of players with ease and capable of scoring goals that the majority of footballers can’t. Unfortunately some people can’t seem to appreciate the talent that Paddy holds, and would rather criticize the guy for not performing miracles from the bench. Hail Hail Paddy Mccourt.
.
VMhan..
Was talking to Ya Bhoy yesterday..You will be Looking forward to seeing the Bhoy..
He gave me Your Address so l can send You Xmas pressie..Should get Ole BlantyreTim one as well as He will probably use it More than You..:O) Clue..?
And he Did give me the Only Georgious Samaras Supporters Club in the World Badge..:O)
Summa
Ps..Thanks to all that gave me BRTH Post details..But ended Up reading Last nights Howling at the Moon CQN Nightshift..That is 2 hour i’ll never get back..Thankfully..
.
It’s the Olde..”Name that Quoter”.Game..Name Him..I Want his Name..
“I’m certainly not going to look back and say ‘that was a disgrace, he was a disgrace, we want apologies’. I’m delighted at the result and the way it has gone and we just want an opportunity to move on and move forward. What’s happened in the last year or so has sadly set the club back years and years and years.” And maybe l can ‘Manage’ to Win a Cup game or a Away Game..While wearing My Trackie Daks..Eating a Pie..
Summa of QuestionOfSportingIntegretyCSC
.
Right..
Who Shot JR..?
RIP
Summa
I see the process to ‘even‘ up the religious hate crime statistics is working well.
The stats are a bit confusing, but show more than half the victims were Police officers!
They really are having a laugh.
HH
Apologies for not posting these chapters earlier, however we can’t neglect education so:
MICHAEL COLLINS’ OWN STORY ~
CHAPTER V
ARTHUR GRIFFITH’S LAST STATEMENT
” SINN FEIN was not my exclusive creation. It is unfair to the memory of a great Irishman that this false impression should be allowed to exist. Sinn Fein was conceived by two of us and the other man was William Rooney.”
Arthur Griffith made this statement to me so far as I am aware it was the last statement he ever made for publication after I had asked him to tell the story of his winning his countrymen to the Sinn Fein policy of ” ourselves alone.” As every newspaper man who ever attempted the task knows, Griffith was by far the most difficult of all the Irish leaders to persuade to grant an interview. Only because I had sent by a waiter a message that Collins wished him to see me did Griffith consent and presently I found myself with him in a private dining-room tucked high up under the eaves of Bailey’s chophouse in Dublin, a favourite haunt of his. But at the conclusion of our talk he dashed my hopes to the ground by insisting that I delay publication of the interview ” until the facts can be told without doing damage.”
At that time it was late June Rory O’Connor and his gunmen were in possession of the Four Courts, and every attempt to establish unity between the two sections of the Irish Republican Army had failed. Still, Griffith had high hopes of reaching a peaceful settlement with De Valera, and through him with the more radical of the Die-Hard element. In any event he insisted that there must be no publication of unpalatable facts that might jeopardise all chances of peace. There was nothing for it except compliance obviously.
Now, however, that Griffith has gone, now that Collins’ death had made it certain that the war will be carried on until law and order shall have been established throughout all the country the story can be told ” without doing damage.” And in what follows I trust there will appear ample justification for my characterising Griffith as a fact merchant. In all my newspaper career I have never met a man who held facts in such superlatively high estimation.
” The Sinn Fein movement,” Griffith explained, ” was both economic and national. Rooney’s idea and mine was to make Sinn Fein in this way meet the two evils produced by the Union. Primarily Ireland’s need was education. Sinn Fein grew to wield enormous educational power. More than that, we saw the fruits of our labours in the growth of spiritual power among those who came into the ranks of Sinn Fein.
” Unquestionably the organisation went far in unifying Ireland. The people had been waiting for an ‘ Irish Ireland ‘ policy. Sinn Fein promoted that policy. Everywhere we preached the recreation of Ireland built upon the Gael. We penetrated into Belfast and North-East Ulster, where encouraging educational work was making the national revival a living reality. And then the world war broke out.
” I do not indulge in prophecies, but the facts make clear that if Sinn Fein’s work in Ulster had not been interrupted in 1914 if that work could have been completed the freedom which the Treaty gives us would have been complete freedom. We who went to London as the nation’s plenipotentiaries did not go as representatives of a united Ireland as we should have been had our work in Ulster gone on even a short time longer. And until Ireland can speak as a united people we shall not earn and we shall not get that full freedom deserved and possessed by nations that are nations.
” Too much stress has been laid on two phases of Sinn Fein neither of which was its chief characteristic. It has been repeatedly said that the Sinn Fein movement was not militant, and that I was wedded to the theory of non-resistance. I have no excuses nor apologies to make for my support of the abstention policy. For Irish representatives to sit in the Westminster Parliament had been abundantly proved to be the worst thing that could happen to Ireland. But Sinn Fein was not pacifistic. The militant movement existed within it, and by its side. Those who have a mere smattering of knowledge of Irish events of the past few years must realise that this is so when they learn that two of Sinn Fein’s most ardent advocates were Tom Clarke and Sean McDermott ! No one will call these two mighty figures of Easter Week pacifists ! Moreover, within the organisation the two movements worked in perfect harmony.
” The second over-stressed feature of Sinn Fein has been that it is a purely political machine with the accompanying suggestion of belittlement that this charge for some inexplicable reason seems to carry. The admittedly large majority in the Ard Fheis against the Treaty was instanced as a proof of this the fact being used to show that Sinn Fein was as narrowly partisan as the ordinary party machine and as little concerned with the actual welfare of the nation. This is a gross libel.
” It is a fact that Rooney had little use for formulae. He preached language and liberty. But he also inspired all whom he met with national pride and courage. ‘ Tell the world bravely what we seek ! ‘ he said. ‘ We must be men if we mean to win.’ He believed that liberty could not be won unless we were fit and willing to win it ready to suffer and die for it. He interpreted the national ideal as ‘ an Irish State governed by Irishmen for the benefit of the Irish people.’ He sought to impregnate the whole people with ‘ a Gaelic-speaking nationality.’ ‘ Only then,’ he pleaded, ‘ could we win freedom and be worthy of it freedom, individual and national freedom of the fullest and broadest character, freedom to think and act as it best beseems national freedom to stand equally with the rest of the world.’
” He aimed at weaving Gaelicism into the whole fabric of our national life. He wished to have Gaelic songs sung by the children in the schools. He advocated the boycotting of English goods, always with an eye to the spiritual effect. ‘ We shall need, he said, ‘ to turn our towns into something more than mere huxters’ shops, and, as a natural consequence, wells of anglicisation poisoning every section of our people.’
” Such was our policy. It differed not at all from that policy enunciated during the world war by many publicists in America. Just as it was urged there that Americans should be neither pro-British nor anti-British, but, on the contrary, should concentrate on being pro- American so Sinn Fein aimed at making Irishmen pro-Irish. Only by developing our own resources, by linking up our life with the past and adopting the civilisation which was stopped by the Union could we become Gaels again and help win our nation back. As long as we were Gaels we knew the influence of the foreigner was negligible. Unless we were Gaels we had no claim to occupy a definite and distinct place in the world’s life.
” ‘ We most decidedly do believe,’ said Rooney, ‘ that this nation has a right to direct its own destinies. We do most heartily concede that men bred and native of the soil are the best judges of what is good for this land. We are believers in an Irish nation using its own tongue, flying its own flag, defending its own coasts, and using its own discretion when dealing with the outside world. But this we most certainly believe can never come as the gift of any parliament, British or otherwise. It can only be won by the strong right arm and grim resolve of men. Neglect no weapon which the necessities and difficulties of the enemy force him to abandon to us, and make each concession a steppingstone to further things.’
” Perhaps that is a sufficient answer to the charge that Sinn Fein was a pacifist organisation !
” Rooney spoke as a prophet. He prepared the way and foresaw the victory, and he helped his nation to rise and, by developing its soul, to get ready for victory.”
” And you feel that the Treaty is, then, such a victory ? ” I asked.
” Yes,” came the instant answer. “It is just that. Ireland’s victory is a fact ! In spite of Englishmen and sons of Englishmen men who dare to pose as Irishmen and leaders of Irishmen the Irish people are at last masters in their own house. And they will know how to deal with Erskine Childers and the others of his ilk.
” But let me attempt to state the bare facts of the case.
” Dail Eireann sent us to London to make a bargain with England. We made a bargain. We brought it back. The Irish people accepted it. Those are the indisputable facts.
” Our job in London was to ‘ reconcile Irish national aspirations with the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire.’ That job was as hard a one as was ever placed on the shoulders of men. We did not seek the job. When other men refused to go we went.
“AND OUR CRITICS SHOULD REMEMBER THAT THE VERY FACT OF OUR GOING WAS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT IN ITSELF THAT WE WERE PREPARED TO ACCEPT LESS THAN THE COMPLETE INDEPENDENCE OF AN ISOLATED REPUBLIC. NONE BETTER THAN DE VALERA KNEW THAT THIS WAS THE FACT”.
” I signed the Treaty not as an ideal thing but fully believing what I believe now : that it safeguards the interests of Ireland and is everlasting proof of our right to recognition as a distinct nationality. By that Treaty I am going to stand, and every man with a scrap of honour who signed it will do the same. The suggestion that patriotism justifies or excuses a man in putting his signature to a bond of this kind with his tongue in his cheek is abominable. If any of the signatories to the Treaty adopts such a course he will write himself down a blackguard. The Irish people have declared emphatically that the Treaty is good enough for them, and the Irish people are our masters and not our slaves as some think. We are not dictators of the Irish people, but their representatives, and if we misrepresent them our moral authority and the strength behind us are gone, and gone for ever.
” Now as to the efforts that have been made to show that certain men have stood uncompromisingly on the rock of the Republic and nothing but the Republic the time has not yet arrived to prove that such statements are downright lies, but the time may not be far distant when the facts of the matter may safely be told. The men who have tried to make the Irish people believe this lie are the same men who have done their utmost to vilify the one man who made the negotiations possible the man who won the war Michael Collins. They have charged him with having compromised Ireland’s rights. That is a lie.
” Every one of these detractors of Michael Collins, De Valera, Stack, Brugha, Childers they deserve to be named knows that Ireland’s rights have never been in better hands in all Irish history. They know that in the letters that preceded the negotiations not once was a demand made for recognition of the Irish Republic. They know that if such a demand had been made there would have been no negotiations ! And that is not all.
” WHILE THE NEGOTIATIONS WERE IN PROGRESS DURING ONE OF THE MANY ADJOURNMENTS, WHILE WE WERE TEMPORARILY IN DUBLIN DE VALERA BEGGED ME TO DEVISE A WAY TO GET HIM OUT OF THE REPUBLICAN STRAIT JACKET”.
I use his words. ” He was in an uncomfortable position. Nominally the leader of that section of the Dail styling themselves ‘ uncompromising Republicans, he was actually the least radical of them all. Brugha and Stack not to mention the women members of Dail Eireann were determined that we should obtain nothing less than recognition of the Republic, even though the two men named well knew that it needed only the making of the demand for the negotiations to end abruptly. As President of the Republic De Valera felt he could not show less zeal than that of his followers. And yet he was faced with the fact that the course was worse than futile. He wanted to extricate himself from his predicament. He tried to do so with the mysterious Document No, 2,
” That document was not written by De Valera ; it was the product of Erskine Childers’ brain. Three times this man who has spent most of the years of his life in the employ of his native country, England, drafted and redrafted Document No. 2. Three times we submitted it to Lloyd George. Three times he turned it down. There was nothing of a Republic in that document ; it included an oath of allegiance to King George ; it was not altogether unnatural in view of its authorship that it was decidedly more English than the Treaty itself ! But let it not be forgotten that the man who now poses as an uncompromising Republican did everything in his power to saddle Ireland with an obligation very much more difficult to have met than is contained in the Treaty.
” For the same reasons that at this time I cannot allow these facts to be made public, and while they must not be made public so long as there is a chance of our settling our differences, I permitted my hands to be tied in the Dail. There I called the differences between Document No. 2 and the Treaty a quibble of words. For the purpose of the point I want to make it is enough to repeat this statement. Over this quibble of words De Valera and his followers are preparing to force the Irish people to go back to war with England. So far as my power can accomplish it, not one Irish life shall be lost over such a quibble.
” They put us in the dock these uncompromising Republicans of the Dail. They tried us and found us guilty of treason to the Republic THE REPUBLIC WHICH THEIR PRESIDENT HIMSELF HAD SECRETLY ABANDONED ! The day will come when we shall be put on trial by the Irish people. It will be their verdict that will matter.
” We did our best for Ireland. If the Irish people had said having got everything else but the name Republic they would fight to get the name, I should have told them that they were fools and then joined their ranks. But the Irish people did not do that. The Irish people are not fools !
” If a misguided, unrepresentative minority can stigmatise a whole people, if these uncompromising Republicans whose actual and brainiest leader, Erskine Childers, is a renegade Englishman can make it appear that the Irish people sponsor and share their madness, the world will not be fooled for long. The Irish people want peace. They want peace even to the extent of accepting alliance with England. For they see that in such an alliance Ireland can develop her own life, carry out her own way of existence, and rebuild her Gaelic civilisation. They want to end the bitter conflict of centuries to end it for ever. If they wanted anything else they would be fools.
” Cathal Brugha said I might be immortalised by dishonouring my signature by repudiating the Treaty. Whether I become an immortal or not is of no concern to me, and certainly to no one else. But no man who signed that Treaty could dishonour his signature without dishonouring the Irish nation. And that is a vital concern.
“Cathal Brugha also attempted to belittle Michael Collins as a subordinate of no importance who had used the newspapers to make himself a national hero. I have gone on record that Michael Collins won the war. I said it in the Dail and I say it again. He is the man and no one knows it better than I do whose matchless energy and indomitable will carried Ireland through the years of the terror. If I had any ambition as a politician, if I would have immortal fame, if I longed to have my name go down in history, I should choose to have my name associated with the name of Michael Collins. Michael Collins beat the Black and Tan terror until England was forced to offer terms of peace.
” If I seem to dwell too long on the methods used by our opponents, it seems to me the facts justify me. During the long sessions of the Dail I wondered often at my very small imagination that had never visualised the heights of my own villainy. The abuse we listened to there had had no parallel since the days of Biddy Moriarity. They told us we were guilty of treason against the Republic. De Valera allowed that charge to be made without protest.
Yet he knew, as I knew, that in one of his letters to Lloyd George he wrote this sentence :
” ‘ We have no conditions to impose and no claim to advance but one, that we be free from aggression.’
” He knew because Lloyd George told him so at their meeting in July that there would have been no negotiations had we insisted as a condition of the bargaining that England recognise the Republic. And still he made no move to stem the flood of abuse to which we were subjected by his followers.
” As for the attacks made upon me because of my attitude towards the Southern Unionists and the anti-Nationalists of Ulster, I hold that they are all my countrymen, and that if we are to have an Irish nation there must be fair play for all sections, and understanding between all sections. I met the Southern Unionists and promised them fair play. So far as I can control it, they shall have fair play. I hope to live to meet the Ulster Unionists upon the same basis. They are all members of the Irish nation, and their lives and fortunes are as much at stake as our own.
” THE MAN WHO THINKS WE CAN BUILD AN IRISH NATION AND MAKE IT FUNCTION SUCCESSFULLY WITH 800,000 OF OUR COUNTRYMEN IN THE NORTH-EAST AGAINST US, AND 400,000 OF OUR COUNTRYMEN IN THE SOUTH OPPOSED TO US, IS LIVING IN A FOOL’S PARADISE.
” I live in a world of realities, but that does not mean I have no dreams. I have dreamed. And I should like to make my dreams come true. But I have to face facts, and one fact is that Ireland is not equal in physical strength to England. The Treaty makes Ireland a sovereign State coequal with the other States of the British Commonwealth. It gives Ireland essential unity because it recognises Ireland as a unit. It is for us to make that unity a fact!
” When I was a boy I was taught that the aim of Irish Nationalists was to get the British forces out of Ireland, to restore the Parliament of Ireland, and to make the Irish people sovereign in their own country. Under the Treaty these three aims have become accomplished facts. But here today a minority comprising Englishmen and sons of Englishmen tells the Irish people that the evacuation of Ireland by British troops is an injury to their soul, and the best way to save the soul of Ireland is to lacerate its body ! That doctrine has been preached in Ireland before. I remember when I was young often hearing foolish people saying that the poorer the Irish people were the better their national spirit would be. If this were true and De Valera has his way we should be approaching the zenith of national spirit. But it is an absolute fallacy. In Ireland as in any other land the poorer the people are, the more dispirited they become.
” The men who in the name of idealism are doing their best to ruin their own country insist that we who signed the Treaty set a boundary to the march of our nation. That is a lie. By the Treaty we ended armed conflict between Ireland and England and made it possible to dwell beside her in peace and amity. As years pass it may be that changes in the relationship will come, but the Treaty insures that such changes will come by friendly agreement and not by force. No man can answer for the next generation. Meantime, we who accept the Treaty will work it honourably.
” And now one final fact : let no Irishman doubt for a moment that in signing the Treaty every one of the plenipotentiaries knew that we had got the last ounce it was possible to get out of England.”
MICHAEL COLLINS’ OWN STORY ~
CHAPTER VI
THE AFTERMATH OF ” EASTER WEEK ”
” REBELLION like any other potent remedy indulged in too often can become a habit, a body and soul-destroying habit. It is not inaccurate to say that the senseless campaign of destruction now being waged by the madmen who have chosen to follow De Valera and the other ‘uncompromising Republicans’ is a direct consequence of the rising of Easter Week. It is an old story in Irish history the story of misguided men mistaking the means for the end.”
Collins thus approached the subject of the outstanding consequences of the 1916 rebellion.
” The immediate consequences,” he continued, ” may be divided into two parts the consequences at home and the consequences abroad.
” The result at home was that although not only did the British have in custody the men who had actually taken part hi the righting, but also the political activists from nearly every part of the country nevertheless, the national spirit reawakened with marvellous promptitude. Popular feeling went entirely in favour of the insurgents, and it was thus possible for reorganisation to begin at an early date. Large and ever increasing numbers gave their adherence to the cause that was espoused in Easter Week, and more and more Irish eyes turned from the futility of representation in the British Parliament at Westminster, and of agitation there, to the utility of organisation at home and reliance on their own effort at home.
” Abroad the insurrection made it clear before people’s minds that the Irish question had still to be settled, and had the effect of showing up Britain’s claim to be the incorruptible champion of small nations. In my own estimation the rising and the subsequent revival in Ireland, and the importance of the rising in its international character, were all inseparable from the thought and hope of a German victory. Ireland’s position at that time was to look to the Peace Conference for a settlement of the age-long dispute between Britain and herself.”
” Is it your opinion,” I asked, ” that a German victory would have been better for Ireland than the Allied victory ? ”
” We thought so then,” Collins replied. ” Our aim was to win our freedom. We believed that the worse England’s plight was the better was our chance to compel her to grant our demand. I doubt if any of us looked so far ahead as to consider whether our freedom once won we could function most successfully with a triumphant Germany in the European saddle, and an England economically smashed. I think our only concern then was to win our freedom first, and let what followed take care of itself.
” We were not pro-German during the war any more than we were pro-Bulgarian, pro-Turk, or anti-French. We were anti-British, pursuing our age-long policy against the common enemy. We were a weak nation kept in subjection by a stronger one, and we formed and adopted our policy in light of this fact. We remembered that England’s difficulty was Ireland’s opportunity, and we took advantage of her engagement elsewhere to make a bid for freedom. The odds between us were for the moment a little less unequal. Our hostility to England was the common factor between Germany and ourselves. We made common cause with France when France was fighting England. We made common cause with Spain when Spain was fighting England. We made common cause with the Dutch when the Dutch were fighting England.
” BASES IN IRELAND FOR GERMAN SUBMARINES ? ”
Collins repeated my interjected question with an uplifting of his eyebrows, and a smile creeping into his eyes. For a space it seemed as if he were seeking a discreet answer, Then, the smile widening, he said, ” OF COURSE NOT ! WHO COULD IMAGINE SUCH A THING ? ” SUBSEQUENTLY I LEARNED FROM AN INDISPUTABLY AUTHORITATIVE SOURCE THAT ON ONE OCCASION DURING THE TREATY NEGOTIATIONS IN LONDON WINSTON CHURCHILL AND ADMIRAL BEATTY PRODUCED AN ADMIRALTY MAP OF THE BRITISH ISLES AND SHOWED IT TO COLLINS. A REDHEADED PIN INDICATED THE POSITION OF EVERY SHIP SUNK IN THOSE WATERS BY GERMAN SUBMARINES. BY FAR THE GREATEST NUMBER DOTTED THE IRISH COAST !
” The general mental attitude of a greater part of the Irish people,” Collins continued, ” was aptly described by a member of Dail Eireann, who declared with fervent sincerity that the day he had ceased to fight for the Irish Republic was the day he had ceased to be interested in it ! I think this mental distortion goes a long way towards explaining the otherwise inexplicable madness of these irregulars now laying waste their own country. Under the leadership of men who are either fanatics or scoundrels, the Irregulars cherish the delusion that in destroying Ireland they are sanctifying her. But to return to the immediate aftermath of the rising.
” On the whole, it would, I think, be difficult to name any incident between April and December, 1916, as a ‘ high spot.’ The one eventful thing that happened in this period was scarcely a high spot, but rather a low spot. It was the agreement of the Northern Convention of Nationalists to Partition. Aside from this one isolated incident, the Irish people responded well. A certain amount of reorganisation was effected throughout the country, and the revival of the national spirit was very marked. Just before Christmas of that year occurred probably the most important event of the whole period. It was the release of all the interned prisoners. Their release enabled us to make a really long stride in reorganisation.
” De Valera has been fond of citing the apathy of the American colonists as analogous to the lack of fervid support accorded us in those first months following the rising.
I have heard Erskine Childers liken De Valera to George Washington and I have long suspected that De Valera does not dislike the parallel. It is a fact, of course, that only in garbled versions of history are a whole people shown to be as keenly determined in any cause as their leaders. Undoubtedly those of us who had had the wonderful inspiration that came from intimate association with such mighty Fenians as Tom Clarke and Sean McDermott were more grimly determined to win the fight they had died to win than peaceably inclined folk who lacked that inspiriting association. Yet the results of the first eight months following the rising were all that could have been expected.
” The first important event of 1917 was the Parliamentary election for the North Roscommon Division. Here was an opportunity to measure the extent to which the national spirit had been revived. We seized the opportunity and contested this election against the old Irish Parliamentary party. But let no present-day stalwart above all, let De Valera not attempt to forget one curious and instructive feature of that election campaign ! It was fought only five years ago but our candidate on that occasion did not even make abstention from Westminster part of his pre-election platform. The prominent workers studiously avoided mention of this subject. As for the Irish Republic so far as that campaign was concerned, it had ceased to exist!
” It is well to face the facts in matters of this kind and to tell the truth, however unpalatable the truth may now be to those who call themselves uncompromising Republicans. Therefore, let it be recorded that the greatest amount of support for our candidate in that election came from the Irish National League which did not approve of abstention from Westminster ! For the rest, our supporters were chiefly persons who had become entirely dissatisfied with the policy of the Irish Parliamentary party.
” SO MUCH HAD THE REPUBLIC OF EASTER WEEK BEEN FORGOTTEN, AND SO LITTLE HAD THE TEACHINGS YET PENETRATED INTO THE MINDS OF THE PEOPLE, THAT ALTHOUGH OUR CANDIDATE WAS COUNT PLUNKETT WHOSE SON HAD BEEN MARTYRED AFTER THE RISING HE WAS RETURNED ONLY ON THE GROUND OF HIS OPPOSITION TO THE IRISH PARTY CANDIDATES ! IT WAS ONLY AFTER HIS ELECTION THAT HE DECLARED HIS INTENTION NOT TO GO TO WESTMINSTER, AND THE ANNOUNCEMENT WAS NOT RECEIVED VERY ENTHUSIASTICALLY BY SOME OF THE MOST ENERGETIC OF HIS SUPPORTERS. THEY HAD ELECTED A MAN, THEY SAID, ‘ WHO DID NOT INTEND TO REPRESENT THEM ANYWHERE.’
” The next event of importance in 1917 was the arrest of Sinn Feiners in Dublin and throughout the country. More than forty men of influence in their communities, important local figures aside from their Sinn Fein affiliations, were deported to England. They were not actually imprisoned and both their activities and their prestige increased rather than diminished as a result of their temporary banishment. It was but one of many similar instances of English Governmental stupidity of England’s unwitting aid in arousing the Irish people to that national unity which finally forced the ancient enemy to give us freedom. The deported forty, relieved of the necessity of pursuing their usual, personal occupations, were able to devote all of their time to furthering the aims of Sinn Fein. Their presence in England lent to their work an especial significance ! But that is a story to be told elsewhere.
” Meantime, we at home were not idle. Following our victory in North Roscommon, reorganisation proceeded more rapidly than before. Two committees were now actively working the old Sinn Fein committee and the new committee formed of members of the original committee and others who had been prominent workers in the North Roscommon campaign. As part of the reorganisation scheme a proposal was made that we should send a circular to all the public bodies in Ireland asking them to appoint delegates to a conference to be held in Dublin. Many of these public bodies did not even respond, and many of them carried the resolution to send delegates only by a bare majority. The greatest proportion of support came from the South. The conference was held, and it was decided to organise the country on the basis of abstention from the Westminster Parliament and a general policy of virile opposition against British rule in Ireland.
” While arrangements were proceeding for this conference, a vacancy arose for the Parliamentary Division of South Longford. Feeling in South Longford was not advanced politically, and the wisdom of putting forward a candidate from our side was questioned by many. However, we decided to adopt the bold course, and we put forward the name of Joe McGuinness, who was then serving a penal servitude sentence in Lewes. The election was warmly contested. Our principal appeal to the electorate was evidenced by two of our slogans ‘ The man in jail for Ireland ‘ and ‘ Put him in to get him out.’ All of us worked hard for the felon candidate, and he was returned a winner by a majority of 27 votes.
” Once again let me emphasise a fact that cannot be gainsaid. At that election the Irish Republic was not an issue. Our uncompromising Republicans were yet to announce themselves. Joe McGuinness triumphed only because the people remembered Easter Week, and the men who died for it.
” And then followed almost immediately complete corroboration of our election slogan. The British Government released all of the penal servitude prisoners from Lewes ! These releases gave the final fillip to the reorganisation scheme, and were, of course, acclaimed a great triumph for our cause.
” Among these prisoners were three men who had served in the rising as commandants. One of them was De Valera. Then, as always afterwards, De Valera exercised an ascendancy over Harry Boland that amounted almost to hypnotic control. Boland’s devotion to De Valera was the kind that is born of hero-worship. I am convinced Boland believed that Ireland’s salvation was inseparably bound up in the person of De Valera. I have every reason to believe that Boland was absolutely sincere in this. But out of this situation arose a remarkable sequence of closely related consequences.
” Some time prior to their release De Valera and Boland and several others were being transferred from Dartmoor to Lewes. On the journey Boland managed to write a note, unobserved by the guards, and dropped it out of the window of the railway coach. He had addressed the envelope to a friend in Dublin. Curiously enough, it was picked up by an Irish girl walking along the tracks. She posted it, and in due course Boland’s eulogy of De Valera- for that was what he had written reached its destination. According to the note (and it must be borne in mind that at that time nobody in Ireland had any idea of the truth about their fellow-countrymen imprisoned in England), De Valera had been unanimously proclaimed their leader, and eventually would prove himself worthy of being leader of the whole Irish nation. The news spread like wildfire. In a week De Valera leaped from relative obscurity into first place in the hearts of the Irish people. It was exactly what had been lacking until then a romantic figure, persecuted by the hereditary enemy a martyred, living hero !
” Just before the releases, and while the new De Valera hero-legend was spreading throughout the country, a vacancy occurred in Clare, the constituency in which De Valera belonged. Here was another golden opportunity With De Valera as our candidate we scored an impressive victory, winning for him a majority of almost 3,000 out of an electorate of 8,000. This victory sounded the death knell of the Irish Parliamentary party. But that was not its chief distinctive feature. It marked the beginning of public agitation in favour of the Irish Republic.
” De Valera in an English prison had obviously nothing to do with the injection of this new note in the election campaign. The talk in favour of the Irish Republic was spontaneous. At last our teachings, the lesson of Easter Week, the ultimate ideals of the men who had died for Ireland were beginning to be understood. But it is as well to bear in mind that in Clare where the political spirit was strong their own people for ‘ letting down the Republic ‘ know that their accusation is false. The declaration of a Republic by the leaders of the rising was far in advance of national thought. It was only after two years of propaganda that we were able to get solidity on the idea. Our real want was so simple, so old, so urgent liberation from English occupation it is not surprising that doctrinaire Republicanism made little appeal to the Irish people.
” The truth is best served by plain speaking. The Irish people at this moment are not wedded to the theory of a Republican form of government. There is only one reason why the Irish people have ever wanted a Republic it is because the British form of government is monarchical ! To express as emphatically as possible our desire to be different from England we declared a Republic ! We repudiated the British form of government not because it was monarchical, but because it was British ! If England were a Republic we undoubtedly would find a descendant of an Irish king and establish a monarchy ! So much for the inherent virtue of a Republic as Irish eyes see it ! ”
Collins made it plain that the interview had lasted as long as he could afford to have it. As always, he disguised his dismissal of me with characteristic tact.
” And now I’ll be getting on with the affairs of the Irish Free State,” he announced. As he spoke there was that suspicion of a chuckle in his voice that always preceded his making a joke. ” I suppose,” he added, “I’d have no time for you at all if this were a Republic ! ”
” Tomorrow night,” he continued seriously, “I’m going to have you meet the one man who was closer in the confidence of the leaders of the rising than any other man alive today Sean McGarry. There are many things he can tell you of the days before the rising, and, of them all, I am myself most anxious to hear the real story of the gunrunning at Howth, and just what part Erskine Childers played in it.”
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Looks like ALL of The Green Brigade bought Tickets to see their Other Team Elgin City play Neo Boys on the Block..:O(
Summa