Noraid: the last Hurrah?

HARD BY THE SUBWAY STATION in downtown Queens, suburban New York, lies the Astorian Manor. A confection of neon and plaster, it offered, on this below freezing night in late January, shelter from the kind of cold that drives people insane. Within the haze of its baby-blue womb lay comfort and Aid. Irish Northern Aid.  From Marie Crowe in New York

The Twelfth Annual Testimonial dinner of the Irish Northern Aid committee, America's most vigorous and most controov ersial Irish republican support group, was underway - perhaps for the last time.

It must have been relief at having escaped the elements that produced that momentary disorientation. Why - this felt like home, an Ard Fheis dance or a parish social, maybe.

Of course, some things were different.

The help were Hispanic, the cooks were probably Chinese. But the party was definiirely Irish - the cocktail "hour" was long, so were some of the speeches. Everyone seemed able to juggle the levity and deadly seriousness of it all.

Including the man who said he was from Boston to the woman who wondered if he was staying the night. He wasn't sure. Hey, she could show tum a good time, she said, squeezing his knee. He cogitated the offer.

BEFORE GETTING DOWN TO THE roast beef (nice and rare), string beans zad mashed potato one had time to stock =? on tee-shirts ("IRA freedom fighters" .•••.. as the message advertised on them), sweat sairts (ditto), caps (ditto), as well as a selecc:ion of badges. No flags.

Pinned to the lapels of many a good suit well-dressed bosom was the aforementioned message, emblems that read "IRA Irish Northern Aid", even an inspirational "Out of the ashes arose the Proves". Martin Galvin, publicity engineer for Noraid and editor of his threatened newspaper, The Irish People, sported the straight-talking "England get out of Ireland". Michael Flannery the old boy whose selection as Crand Marshal of last year's St Patrick's Day Parade in New York caused ructions, made do with his pioneer pin.

The important people of the night were further marked by the white carnations some generous soul had coloured with a strong dash of emerald green.

By ten o'clock the 1,800 people who had paid f3 35 each for the evening were seated.

Greers went up as the Cork County Pipe Band led in the night's "honorees" (those who were to receive Noraid awards), committee members and representatives of other organisations. The biggest cheer came when a tuxedoed Michael Flannery marched into view ... as the band played Roddy McCorley.

Joe Roche, chief of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, one who has on occasion, like Flannery, disturbed the sleep of Garret FitzGerald, smiled (probably at the thought of having disturbed the sleep of Garret FitzzGerald).

FACE THE FLAG ....

"Soldiers are we
whose lives are pledged to Ireland.
Some have come
from a land beyond the wave .... "

Father Maurice Burke, whose parish is on Staten Island, lent his Waterford City lilt to Grace. He had learned it off by heart:

"Heavenly father, we ask your blessing for the food prepared for us. We pray that our sharing this meal together will strengthen our commitment to the right of the people of Ireland to self-determination and inspire us to even greater efforts on behalf of the dependants of Irish prisoners of war .... "

Fr Burke who has "supported the IRA and continues to do so" writes a column as Oisin in The Irish People. If he though t money collected by Noraid was going for IRA guns he "would condemn that - beecause it would have been collected under false pretences - but I would not object to money going to the IRA if it was collected on that basis."

It has been a hazard of Noraid's exisstence that it has had to face charges of collecting funds for the IRA. Its leader routinely denies those charges, but it is now facing what seems to be the strongest effort yet to put it out of business, as the State Department closes in on it.

Noraid's stated aim is that it is "an American based, humanitarian organization which together with An Cumann Cabhrach and Green Cross gives support to the families of Irish political prisoners and to prisoners' welfare."

ALL OF THE IMPORTANT PEOPLE were collected on the dais - honorees, Noraid committee members and representaatives of other organizations who deemed it polite to signal support for Noraid as it faced into the US State Department's onnslaught. Three representatives of New York Labour were there. New York State Assemmbly man John Dearie, who started the cammpaign to have a US envoy sent to the North, was there. As was Peter King, Nassau County comptroller, Noraid's favourite for Grand Marshal - he's commended as being harddline.

One speaker commended Joe Roche "for having the quiet courage to take the AOH out of the closet". Roche smiled.

James Delaney, the big Texan, head of the new Irish Unity conference, who has made a lot of the running for "the Irish cause" in the past year didn't smile. Maybe he was thinking of the fact that, as he afterrwards explained, "I still have contact with them (the Irish government), but I don't know if I'll be very welcome at the Connsulate after tonight. He talked about 'efforts to discourage me from attending'."

Hooleys - or testimonial dinners - are for the crack, but they're also for serious speeches - one even invoked Plato and Locke.

They're also for sending signals - maybe to the State Department, more probably to the lads at home - both to the ones you like and the ones you don't like. The message is: Noraid fights for its life; AOH and Irish Unity Conference hold up the life support system. So much for Garret's team trying to tell the Yanks what to do ....

With all the talk of freedom fighters, the rash of IRA badges, the thunderous applause when Old Mike Flannery, the most wanted man in the room (autographs and snapshots) declared that "freedom can come only one way; that is by the perseverance of the Irish Republican Army," one was apt to become a trifle confused - not about Noraid - but, well, about the AOH and the hard-selling Irish Unity Conference. As for smiling Joe Roche, he said "Noraid is a rather demonnstrative organization. We in the AOH, we're opposed to all violence - RUC, IRA, UDA, but most importantly we're opposed to what the British army is up to.

"I think it would be fair to say that INA, AOH and the Unity Conference are now coming together more formally. Of course, you know that a lot of Noraid members are also members of the AOH."

The IRA, big Jim Delaney "neither conndemns nor condones". Though not a member of Noraid , he "is a strong supporter".

IT COULD BE THIS WAS THE LAST hurrah for Noraid. Let me rephrase that; it could be this was the last hurrah for Noraid as we know it. Michael Flannery was pessiimistic about its chances of surviving the State Department attack - the seriousness of which cannot be doubted since the Harrods bombing led British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, to a new condemnation of Noraid as the primary source in the United States of funds for the IRA.

Martin Glavin dismisses the notion of an imminent demise as "ludicrous". But even if it does go the road that Thatcher would elect for it "there would", he said, "be others to take up the cause." •