IRA Targets, FG Ard Fheis, and Frank Cluskeys motor car

Short extracts from Wigmore, edited by Vincent Browne.

IRA Targets

A senior IRA intelligence officer was arrested in Dublin recently and found in his possession were detailed notes on several politicians and Garda officers. The notes included drawings of the houses of Government and ex-Government Ministers, including Jack Lynch,George Colley, Jim Tunney, Garret

FitzGerald and Conor Cruise O'Brien with information on their movements, the moveements of their relatives (e.g times and location of childrens' school) etc.

The Garda officers inccluded several members of the special branch and senior officers, including the former head of the Special Branch, John Fleming, and Assistant Commissioner Larry Wrenn.

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Fine Gael Disgrace

No doubt the Fine Gael Ard Fheis will try to obliterate from its memory last year's conference, which was corrrectly characterised by Charlie Haughey as akin to a fascist rally.

It wasn't the throw-away references by Liam Cosgrave to "blow-ins" that was the most disturbing, but the behaviour of the Fine Gael rank and file throughout that speech. Their most alarming response was when they burst into spontaneous derisive laughter when Cosgrave menntioned "civil rights".

There is a mean authorritarian streak within Fine Gael and Garret FitzGerald will achieve little with the party until he routs it out.

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Frank Cluskey's motor car

FOR THE PAST several months, socialist . Frank Cluskey has been trying to persuade the Government to give him a state car. After all Garret FitzGerald, not to mention Conor Cruise o 'Brien and Paddy Cooney were being chauffered around by Gardai, so why not him?

Negotiations ran into a sticky patch when the Government decided to take back Fitz Gerald's, O'Brien's and Cooney's cars but, undaunted, Frank persisted.

Finally, thanks to the good auspices of Jack Lynch and in spite of the hostile auspices of George Colley, a deal has been worked out. Garret FitzGerald as leader of the main opposition is to get an allowance for a car and a driver (Fine Gael officials had decided that the party was going to provide him with a chauffered car anyway because they believed he would kill himself on his own), Cluskey is to get a proportionate allowance for. a car, based on the number of seats Labour has. This works out at about 40%, which is quite unacceptable to Frank.

This whole business of state cars is quite outrageous. Approximately 60 Gardai are occupied driving bloated egos around, very largely on errands quite removed from affairs of state. When last in opposition Fine Gael promiised to undo this scandal, but like a lot else It's an issue we'll be returning to.