The Clare People Archive

CLARE TD of 20 years and former senior cabinet minister, Síle de Valera, was at the centre of AngloIrish storm over the hunger striking prisoners in the Maze Prison that was only calmed by an apology being issued to the British government by Taoiseach Charles Haughey.

Irish State papers from 1980 released under the 30-year rule have revealed that Haughey stepped in to calm any discord in Anglo-Irish relations pertaining to Northern Ireland by sending a personal apology to British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, following remarks de Valera made in support of hunger strikers in the H-Blocks.

Deputy de Valera made her remarks at a bye-election rally, at which Charles Haughey was present, denouncing the conditions in the Maze, words that set in train a chain of events that ultimately forced the Taoiseach to issue a personal apology to Mrs Thatcher.

“I did refer to Mrs Thatcher at the time as being callous,” recalled Ms de Valera years later. “I still believe that she was in terms of her approach to that whole question of the hunger strikes. Even if you were to look at it from a purely humanitarian point of view, leaving aside the political aspects of that, I was very disappointed that she should take that stance. And it was interesting at the time that I was asked by some members of Fianna Fáil to apologise to Mrs Thatcher for calling her callous,” she added.

Ms de Valera’s support of hunger strikes led to her being part of a three-person Dáil delegation to visit Bobby Sands in the Maze when he was 51 days into his protest in 1981. The others were Dr John O’Connell and Neil Blaney.

“I think it’s important to remember – Bobby Sands said it to us that day we were there that he wasn’t just fighting for the demands of the Republican prisoners at the time, but those demands should be followed through to those who were Loyalist prisoners too, and that’s something that’s always forgotten,” said Ms de Valera.

Asked if she was moved by him, she said, “I think all of us were. From a human point of view, here was someone who knew they were very close to death. It was a horrible death. I think it could’ve been prevented, I think it could’ve been prevented by giving some of the demands”.

Meanwhile, Ms de Valera’s public show of support for the hunger strikers contrasts sharply with the British government’s view of what it called “unofficial” Fianna Fáil policy on the republican protests in the Maze.

Papers from the British National Archives have revealed that Mrs Thatcher told her cabinet colleagues that “Mr Haughey had regrettably not been willing to condemn the hunger strike in public, but he had made clear in private that he did so; he had not sought to argue that the strikers’ demand for political status should be met; and he accepted that there was nothing more that the British authorities could offer them”.

This claim by Mrs Thatcher has given added substance to the notion that it was Mr Haughey who privately insisted that Ms de Valera apologise for her remarks, but in the intervening 30 years she had refused to confirm or deny this.

“It wouldn’t be fair to name (them) but some senior members of the party,” Ms de Valera said in 2006 when announcing her decision to retire from frontline politics after the 2007 General Election.

When pressed further about whether Charles Haughey had asked her to apologise to Mrs Thatcher, she replied, “We’ll leave that to one side now”.

Ironically, it was Ms de Valera who played a crucial role in Mr Haughey’s rise to the leadership of Fianna Fáíl in September 1979 when she used the platform of the annual Liam Lynch Commemoration in Fermoy to launch a scathing attack on Taoiseach Jack Lynch’s policy on the north.

“If our political leaders are not seen to be furthering our Republican aspirations through constitutional means, the idealistic young young members of our community will become disillusioned and discontented. I look to our party and particularly our leader to demonstrate his Republicanism. If we are to be true Irishmen and Irishwomen we have a solemn duty to seek the freedom of our country,” she said.

Ms de Valera’s address, coupled with the attack of Dr Bill Loughnane TD on Jack Lynch’s leadership in July 1979, helped precipitate Lynch’s decision to resign as leader of Fianna Fáil in December of that year, with Charles Haughey beating George Colley in the subsequent leadership vote.

COORACLARE’S Brendan Daly had been in the Dáil for just four year when a young Bertie Ahern was first elected in 1977. For the next two decades their political careers became more and more entwined as first Daly and then Ahern were promoted to the Cabinet table where they became both friends and close political allies.

Thinking back to those early day, the former Clare TD remembers a quieter Bertie Ahern. A political mind with undoubted talents, who had a skill of helping people to get along and wished to keep his private life to himself.

“Even in the Cabinet he was very discreet. He kept his council very much to himself and was very considered and discreet. He was Minister for Labour at the time and he was very good and finding solutions to problems at that time. He came in in the ‘80s at a time when the Depart- ment of Labour was involved in solving disputes almost every day and he made a big contribution towards the establishment of industrial peace in Ireland,” remember Brendan.

“He was a very private individual. I wasn’t aware, for example, that he was having marriage difficulties even though his close friends did. I didn’t become aware of that until I went to his father’s funeral in Dublin. It was then that I met his wife whom I had known for a long time and I found out from her. It was only that day at his father’s funeral that I became aware that they had separated – that is how much he valued his privacy.

“In my time it was very rare to see him in the Dáil bar or socialising with the TDs in the Dáil. He preferred to be with his own loyal followers in the constituency when he had any free time and not so much socialising around the Dáil.”

When the historians finish with Bertie Ahern, Brendan believes they will have much more good things to say about him than bad.

“I think the one major contribution that he made was to the situation in Northern Ireland which was a very difficult situation. I think when people begin to write in more detail about him the one thing that will be mentioned is the settlement which has brought an end to the killing and bloodshed in Northern Ireland,” continues Brendan.

“I think it what was almost as important as the Northern Irish talks was coming to that tripartite agreement with the unions, employers and the government. We were on the brink of a major industrial dispute in 1991 and this arrangement worked out by Bertie brought about the industrial piece which has remained until now.”

THE SUCCESS of the Northern Irish peace process will be Bertie Ahern’s legacy in years to come and when the current financial troubles are forgotten he will be remembered as a good Taoiseach.

That is the opinion of Kilnamona man Michael McTigue, who got to know the former Taoiseach very well when he served on the National Executive of the Fianna Fáil party for more then a decade.

“I got to know him well enough when he was Minister for Finance and I was on the National Executive of the party and I was there when he was first elected Taoiseach. He was a great man to hang around and chat after a meeting – he always seemed to have time for everybody,” said Mike.

“Mind you he was always a very disheveled looking character when he was Minister for Finance, he was probably one of the worst dressed people going into Dáil Éireann at the time.

“He had an old shinny suit on him with the pockets bulging with notes about different things.

“Nothing was too small for Bertie, he would always make time for people. I used to always get a phone call from him on Christmas Eve, and if he didn’t get me his secretary would arrange another time for him to call.

“But I think the Good Friday Agreement would have to be his greatest achievement as Taoiseach. I remember I was at his mother’s funeral when he was whisked off by helicopter back to Belfast.

“He was knocking heads together up in Northern Ireland while his mother was dying. He came down for his mother’s funeral and at the end he was whisked back over the border again.

“I remember being at his mother’s funeral and in the middle of all of that he remembered everyone’s name – that’s the sort of guy he was,” he added.

“I mean he managed to solve the most intractable political problem in western Europe, something that has been an issue for many centuries, that is some achievement.”

Despite the current economic trouble, Mike believes that Bertie Ahern will be remembered fondly by the people of Ireland.

“Right now he is taking a bit of a beating but in the long term it will have to be seen in a positive light.

“We are in a mess now and people need someone to blame but when all of this is done they will realise that we have a roads’ network now that we never had before and even now there are twice as many people working now as there were in the 1980s,” he added.

OPPOSITION politicians in Clare have given a stern thumbs down to former Taoiseach Bertie Ahearn as a possible candidate for the presidency.

Former Labour TD Dr Moosajee Bhamjee and Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen both told The Clare People that they are less than impressed with Bertie’s criticisms of the current Taoiseach.

Dr Bhamjee said, “He has left politicis and he could have offered his support and experience to the current Taoiseach from the back benches. That was the time to make his opinions heard – not now when he has left.”

The Fine Gael Deputy spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Deputy Breen, had a similar opinion.

“I don’t think he’s being fair to Cowen. After all, he was Taoiseach when the trouble started and to say that as Taoiseach that no-one told him there was a problem with the banks, that’s just unbelievable,” Deputy Breen said.

Dr Bhamjee, who was part of the Rainbow Coalition Government of 1994, said he met with Bertie Ahern at various delegations and found he “had a way of pacifying people. He is a very co-ordinated person. He made social partnerships work by his way of dealing with people.”

But despite this quality, Dr Bhamjee feels it is “time for him to go. I don’t think he is a suitable candidate for the presidency. He has stepped away from politicis and he should just go quietly now and not make the kind of statements he has made over the last few days.”

Deputy Breen accused the former Taoiseach of having “bought his way through every election. He gave everyone what they wanted”.

The Fine Gael Deputy says Bertie’s potential candidacy would do the party no good.

“His work on the peace agreement was fantastic but he has wiped that out. He will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. The Galway tent was born during his era and that’s where many of the problems we know have begun.

“He created so many junior ministries there was nearly one for everyone in the audience. He can’t stand for the presidency, there are too many ‘if’s’ .

He continued, “For a former Taoiseach to take part in an ad where he appears out of a cupboard – he’s just not a creditable candidate for Fianna Fail.”

Deputy Breen said that while Bertie “has a great presence, you’d certainly know that he’s in the room”, his departure from politics should now be swift. “He can’t change his political legacy,” Deputy Breen said.

A SUBMARINE cable which will connect Moneypoint to a new combined-cycle gas turbine power plant on the former ESB station at Tarbert in County Kerry has been granted planning permission by An Bord Pleanála.

The new plant is now likely to be supplied with natural gas from An Bord Gáis through the national gas network, whose nearest connection is just 22 kilometres. This could open the possibility for Moneypoint to converted to a gas burning power station in the future.

The new Tarbert station will be owned and operated Endesa Ireland, part of the Spanish energy company Endesa. The power plant, which will generate up to 450 megawatts by 2016, is to be built within the confines of the existing power-generating plant at Tarbert, which is to be demolished, on the Shannon estuary just opposite Moneypoint.

The more energy efficient plant at Tarbert will occupy 10 hectares of the existing 42-hectare site and be constructed in two phases over four years.

The Endesa application came under the Strategic Infrastructure Act, which provides for planning applications for some major projects to be made directly to An Bord Pleanála, and an oral hearing was held earlier this year.

A PRIMARY school in Ennis is participating in a major research project aimed at compiling a new database of information for historians.

The Junior Genealogist Initiative has been underway at the Ennis National School for the past month. Under the initiative, students are asked to collect memorial cards of people who were born or died in Clare, and bring them in to school. Cards are then copied and returned safely to their owners.

Over 1,000 cards have been copied so far at Ennis National where students have really embraced the spirit of the initiative.

The purpose of this project is to compile a repository of historical detail and family information for future genealogists and historians.

It is also an objective of this project to use genealogy as a practical learning tool for children to deepen their awareness and appreciation of the origins of their own families, their communities and their broader society.

It is also hoped that the project could be used in the classroom as an interesting, enjoyable and practical addition to the existing curriculum, in which the children themselves would play a leading role.

Clare Education Centre will collect the copies from all Clare schools for presentation to Clare County Library, genealogy section. This will ensure that the memory of all these deceased people will be preserved, and accessible to descendents of Clare families into the future. The Junior Genealogist Initiative will close on January 17.

The project is sponsored by the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport, and is designed to give children an appreciation of the importance of preserving knowledge of their own community.

The project is also supported by the Clare Roots Society. The Clare Roots Society, brainchild of Ennis man Larry Brennan, was formed in April 2006 as an amateur family history group in Clare.

The society meets once a month in Ennis, and now has over 100 members. The society aims to provide a forum for family history and genealogical research with emphasis on County Clare.

IT NOW seems unlikely that the voters of Clare will not be asked to turn out for a General Election before January or February, as The Green Party had promised before Christmas.

That was the message from Clare TD and Minister for Defense Tony Killeen who said over the weekend that the General Election is now unlikely to take place before March.

This is to give time for the Financial Bill to pass through the Dáil, a process which could take more than two months to complete. Once the Financial Bill is successfully through the Dáil and the Dáil is dissolved by President Mary McAleese, it will take at least one month for an election to take place.

“It would seem unlikely to me that the election would come before March,” said Minister Killeen, who also raised the possibility of hosting a referendum on the future of the Seanad at the same time as the General election.

“In the kind of time scale that is envisioned for the Finance Bill it would seem to be to be possible [to host the Seanad referendum] but I am not aware that it has been considered yet.”

Meanwhile, Labour yesterday has confirmed that they will be calling for the abolition of the Seanad as part of their programme for government.

It is also understood that behind the scenes talks have taken place between Fianna Fáil and the Green Party and both side of the coalition are said to be receptive to the idea of getting rid of the Seanad.

The Green Party said two months ago there should be a general election held before the end of January. However, they have since cooled towards the idea and hope to push legislation through in the coming months

ANOTHER successful year in St. Joseph’s Education Centre, Ennis, has been celebrated with the raising of the green school flag for excellence in environmental and ecological achievement.

Over 3,500 centres of education in Ireland now have the flag but St. Joseph’s is only the second among 30 Traveller training centres to gain the accolade.

An Taisce’s Green Schools Travel Education Officer, Roisín Garvey told students “achieving the flag was clear evidence of everyone’s real pride in taking care of creation which was intended by God in the first place to be cared for, not destroyed”.

The flag was formally raised by the chairman of the National Association of Traveller Training Centres, Martin Ward of Tuam, former mayor of the town council there.

Director of the St Joseph’s Centre, Brian Crossan said he was “very proud of all the great work ongoing there”, adding “we are living in times of great change and uncertainty, so it’s important to stay positive and to influence that over which they had control”.

The centre was developing new programmes and a great atmosphere plus a fine work ethic prevailed throughout.

The centre had a proud tradition over its 36 years, one of the best latest developments being the high number of males taking courses there.

Mayor Christy Curtin emphasised that “Traveller culture was very much part of Irish traditions and I’m always pleased to see how it was maintained and enhanced in St Joseph’s which was an intrinsic undertaking of Co Clare Vocational Education Committee with which I had been a teacher for many years in its community colleges.”

IF IRELAND’S political parties have a genuine commitment to democracy they would not be seeking to abolish the Seanad.

This was the view of west of Ireland Independent MEP Marian Harkin when she insisted that a reformed Seanad would be a vital protection for citizens in a situation where democracy was being increasingly eroded at Dáil level.

She said, “It is disquieting to say the least that the main political parties are trying to outdo each other in populist advocacy of Seanad abolition.

“A reformed Seanad will be essential to the preservation of an effective democratic system in Ireland and as a protection for citizens against a system which has clearly failed to protect their interests.”

Ms Harkin said that in a reformed Seanad the voluntary sector should have a valid and necessary role.

“The Seanad, as originally envisaged and constituted was a valuable brake on government arrogance or ineptitude and, having regard to the huge role and effectiveness of the voluntary sector, there would be highly qualified and highly motivated people available to perform effective roles in a reformed Seanad.”

“The Seanad could also have an essential role in considering draft EU legislation in depth and subsequently monitoring its implementation. We have had too many instances of inadequate input into new legislation.”

GARDAÍ in Clare arrested a total of sixty three people on suspicion of various offences between Christmas Eve and last Sunday.

The busy holiday period saw ten people arrested on suspicion of drink-driving.

Five of these were stopped in Ennis, three in Lahinch and two in Kilrush.

In Ennis alone, thirty four people were arrested and in seventeen of these cases the arrests were for alleged breaches of the Public Order Act. A number of these arrests were made on St Stephen’s night.

Gardaí working round the clock over the holiday period manned twenty sixcheckpoints around the county.

The busy period and the weather didn’t stop members of the force getting out on the county’s roads to check for drink driving, speeding and other Road Traffic offences.

According to a Garda spokesperson the road conditions “weren’t a big factor” in the holiday operations as the thaw had set in and only Christmas eve and Christmas day presented some dangerous road conditions and only in some places. During the icy road conditions members of the public did also heed garda advice on driving with extra care.

While the special operations to stop people drinking and driving during the holiday period will now be stood down, gardaí are reminding motorists that checkpoints and speed detectors are a feature of Garda operations all year.