Diary - Feb 1982: Northern Ireland reform, James Shannon, Cardinal O Fiach

The Politics Of The Dolly Mixture

ALL ROADS LEAD TO THE Forum and all roads lead the refrom. It is the filter that will refine everything that nationalist politicians have been doing and saying for the past fifteen years. And at the SDLP Conference in Belfast last weekend, speakers exxpressed their gratitude to Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour for joining them in the Forum, for spending time and energy in the search for peace and reconciliation among nationalists and mayybe, eventually, among all men and women in this country.

Other members of the party, however, were worried about John Hume. It is known that he doesn't want the Forum's report to recommmend just one option, that he and Garret FitzGerald are both in favour of a report which outlines the three options of a unitary state, a federal Ireland and joint sovereignty .

It was felt that something would have to be done to stop Hume and that it would have to be done in public at the conference.

All eyes were on Seamus Mallon, the greatest nationaalist of them all. He might do it, but just in case he wouldn't one leading mem ber asked both Austin Currie and Denis Haughey if they would fire the shot across John Hume's bows. The code word was to be "Dolly Mixture". Someeone who missed the speech which Seamus Mallon made later asked if he had used the expression "Dolly Mixture".

Yes, Mallon did. He was against handing the British government a '''bag of Dolly Mixtures". His speech was seen at the conference as a clear attack on Hume's plans for the Forum.

Fianna Fail, as well as a few Fine Gael and Labour members of the Forum, are also against "a bag of Dolly Mixtures". They want the Forum to issue a strong statement in support of a unitary state.

They are absolutely opposed to both a federal Ireland and joint sovereignty. A federal Ireland, they argue, could not allow power-sharing in the North because it could  not allow it in the South. It would, in fact, involve the return of Stormont and all it implies. It would not help the nationalists in the North and it would cost the South too much money.

Fianna Fail are particularly opposed to joint sovereignty because they believe that such a policy would accept British presence in Northern Ireland, would be administratively impossible and too expensive. It would make Sinn Fein the only political party in Ireland which opposed the British presence. It would strengthen Sinn Fein North and South. Fianna Fail are also afraid that the British would make propaganda out of Ireland's acceptance of the British presence.

The Forum is thus split between FitzGerald and Hume on one hand and Haughey and Mallon on the other. On one hand they disagree, on the other they desperately
want to reach consensus. But that is only where their problems start. Those involved talk about the importance and urgency of the  Forum as those involved in
the Treaty of Versailles must have talked: as though their decisions were going to draw borders and ordain how people will live. Optimism, a word much used about this connference, is not the word.

Nobody knows what will happen a year from now. Nobody knows what will happen if the Unionists reject the report, as they will, and the British ignore it, as they may well do. One SDLP member, when asked about this, remarked that a year is a long time in politics. But he looked away in the distance as though hoping it might be even longer.

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James Shannon, who may become the first Irish citizen to be handed over to the R UC following a Supreme Court decision last December which narrowed the definition of a "political offence". On that occasion, the Chief Justice said that Dominic McGlinchey had exceeded "what reasonnably civilised people would regard as political activity". Shannon failed in the High Court last week to have the extradition order against him quashed and will now appeal his case to the Supreme Court. The British authorities are known to have shown an extraordinary amount of interest in the case. Prior to the hearing, it is understood that the British Embassy rang the Chief State Solicitor's office every day and a representative attended each day of the High Court action. Shannon is wanted in the North to face charges relating to the murder of the former speaker at Stormont, Sir Norman Stronge and his son James at their home at Tynan Abbey, Co Armagh on 21 January 1981.

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The Cardinal And The RUC

CARDINAL 0 FIAICH IS reported to have been quite surprised at the strong reacction to his statements about Sinn Fein on This Week. Readers will. remember that after the interviewthe Cabinet, having failed to ban Sinn Fein or intern its members, deci-' ded to urge the Cardinal to declare membership of Sinn Fein some sort of mortal sin.

The interview on This Week had been the second attempt to broadcast the Cardinal's views on these and other matters. The first was dropped in the wake of the Tidey rescue and the Harrods bombing. For the. second interview the Cardinal put a lot of thought not into what he would say about Sinn Fein, but into statements he wanted to make about the RUC. He decided, it is underrstood, to praise the RUC for arresting members of the UDR and charging them with murder. He believed, it is reported, that any controoversy caused by his interview with This Week would be "caused by his statements about the RUC.

The interview was recorrded on the Saturday and the tape brought back to an RTE studio for editing. The techhnique used in editing such tapes is called "dubbing" and it involves transferring the material from one reel to another. There were two reels used in the interview and when the second one was being edited the two reels were put the wrong way around and some of the interview was rubbed out. This included one section where the Cardinal talked about the RUC.

The error was not disscovered until late on Sunday morning and it was too late to do anything about it. The interview was broadcast withhout the section on the RUC which the Cardinal had felt would be controversial. Howwever, RTE news bulletins on Sunday carried a report on this section of the interview which had not been broadd.cast for "technical reasons". Although the Cardinal pubblicly stated his satisfaction with the way the interview was handled, he is known to have been privately upset by the exclusion of the part which he felt was most immportant and by the subseequent controversy.

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Ten Green Bottles

READERS OF THE SUNDAY World last Sunday must have wondered when they saw the story about the nine worst heads in Dublin.

Nine?

Why nine? Why not, for example, ten, or even twelve, or, say, twenty.

Nine. A funny number of heads. And then there were nine. The sort of number that previously was ten and now has one missing.

After several days investiigation we have unearthed the truth. Ladies and gentlemen read all about it.

Nine heads. Why nine? Nine because Cedric MeeClolland, the noble editor of the Sunday World, didn't like one of the ten the poor reporters had been ordered to select from his phone calls to barbers all over Dublin. He didn't like one of them at all. The tenth was the

editor of another Sunday newspaper. No, it was not the new fellow at the Indo ("Munster must have the dog results"), not the Deepest

Thinker of His Generation at the Sunday Press. But the other one. Cedric wasn't having his name in the Sunday World. Some people thought nine was a bit odd, but Cedric stuck to his guns, so to speak.

"Try not giving that f ... any publicity," he muttered.