Remember the 77

I sometimes am left exacerbated when I read the Irish Times. Reading this article was one of those times. It is very easy for an Irish journalist to write from his comfortable apartment in Dublin, take the Luas to work, worship Fintan O'Toole and regret the formation of the Democratic Left. I find it tougher for them to write so smugly and with an sense of moral superiority that would leave Pat Rabbitte blushing as they do when they put pen to paper about the Spanish Civil War. Looking through my old shoe box from my school days, before the ease of internet bookmarking, I have a collection of newspaper articles which took my fancy and I saved them for future reference. Many of them relate to this topic again most of them from the Irish Times.

First off I'd like to say I am not going into who was right and who was wrong in Spain. That is not for me to do. Though it did not stop two impressionable cousins of my maternal grandfather joining the International Brigade and going to fight in Spain. A very taboo business for Irish Catholics to get caught up in! But I shall say that it is more ignorant of an Irish writer to say that the Spanish have not faced up to their Civil War. Does he not remember that barley fifteen years before Franco staged his coup in Spain, this country had it's own Civil War the basis and wounds of which is more prevalent in this state than the Civil War in Spain. Our two major political parties have their roots in this conflict, the partition of this island which inspired many men to arms is still a fact and the silence surrounding those dark day's of 1922 and '23 fail to find a niche in Irish historiography.

What we do know about our Civil War, pretty basic stuff. The IRA took over the Four Courts, gosh aren't they nasty buggers. The Free State Army gets them out of it, cheers all round. Poor old Michael Collins, what a handsome saintly bloke, he gets shot and the whole country and world mourns him and Neil Jordon gets the idea for a movie. Then nothing much happens until a sinister figure called Liam Lynch gets shot. Then nasty old de Valera who is to the Catholic Church what Kermit the Frog was to Jim Henson gets arrested and we are all happy, Civil War ends. At least that is how it was thought to me in school, thanks a million Ms. Cora O'Mahony!

I think for most people that was the Civil War. But where was the assassination of Sean Hayles by the IRA, which sparked the illegal murders of 77 Republican Prisoners by the IRA? Where were the tragedies of Kerry, which saw many innocents die at the hands of the Free State Army. Where was de Valera running across the country in a desperate effort to try and end the war and being rebuffed by both sides. No we don't hear much about this. History after all rarely comes with the seal of approval of the losing side. These are things we as a nation however don't like to talk about. Both sides regretted the war it split our national unity, destroyed friendships and families and left us in a bad position to begin from on our road to Independence.



The Spanish Civil War was a very different creature which had reared its ugly head as Spain had been in an almost continual limbo since the end of the Napoleonic Wars. To make it as clear cut as good=Republic, bad=Franco is not just the work of a bad historian, but pandering to the Romantic notions that surround the Republican war effort in the Spanish Civil War. Yes the Francoists were backed by Hitler and Mussolini, but the Republicans were working with Stalinist Russia. Similarly the quota of murder that existed in the war was pretty evenly divided by both sides. No one can truly claim that neither the Nationalists or Republicans took sympathy against their opponents. Still though our liberal elite like to see the Civil War in Spain so simplistically.

These armchair historians should look perhaps how we as a nation still are reeling from our Civil War. They should delve into how we as country suffered from the conflict what we lost as a consequence of it. They should promote a full unbiased study of the period that allows for opinions to be formed around the events. Then perhaps they can begin to asses how the Spanish handle their own history!

Patrick Street reborn

I was coming home from work today when I popped into the newly reopened Dunne Stores on Patrick's Street. I had an interest in it's building, as I passed it on a regular basis walking to work or even just hanging around town strolling. For the first time since it opened I popped in. Outside of the attractive looking exterior, the interior looked very modern, chic and above all clean. I was impressed. Being in a hurry I just went to the grocery section, which I had trouble finding, though it was my only complaint about the place. The prices were very reasonable and there were some good deals on offer, which I intend to avail of when I come back to do a bigger shop in the near future. I have to say the whole O'Callaghan development looks pretty good overall with the old lane next to Dunne's and the building attached to Le Chateau giving Patrick Street a very modern, European feel to it.

In these tough times it's good to see these kind of developments coming online. I hope H and M is just the first of many stores that will take up residence in the new development. Already I have heard the idea of an upmarket restaurant being mooted for the old house opposite the Crawford. Something that would really add to the area. I hope the project is a success, unlike the rather sorry development that was the Cornmarket Center, which is now just a mausoleum to the Celtic Tiger. The Patrick Street development is something big for Cork and lets hope it is the beginning of the restoration of this great cities fortunes.

1911 Census

Every so often the Internet throws me up a gem which takes up a great portion of my online time. First it was bebo, then it was facebook , not forgetting youtube and most recently I stumbled across the Irish 1911 Census. Since finding it I have spent many enjoyable and informative hours trawling through this useful resource to catch a glimpse of how the great, the not so good and everybody else who lived in the dying days of Edwardian Ireland, just before the onslaught of the First World War. It is interesting to see that how people like Éamon de Valera lived just five short years before they shot to prominence as a consequence of the 1916 Rising. Or as someone who is a bit prudish about handwriting see how these people left their old John Hancock on the census returns. One which stands out is that of Douglas Hyde, founder of the Gaelic League and later First President of Ireland who filled in his return in beautiful old Gaelic script.

Of course outside the obvious movers and shakers I took a look at my own family that lived in the period. I discovered that My great-great grandfather, David Wiseman, my paternal grandfathers grandfather, could speak Irish and English yet he was unable to read or write. Or my maternal grandmothers grandfather, William Clarke, had spent time in the Royal Navy, he too spoke both English and Irish. Thus as such my family has not used Irish as a language of communication in five generations. Which is a little startling. My own grandfather, Patrick Corkery, whom I am called after is also on the census, though he is just a child still. Rarely does such a resource make itself available and for free. I would encourage anyone I know who has a free hour online to sit down and take a look at the census as it is free and you might never know who you will stumble across.

NAMA for Dummies

• As stated by Minister Lenihan: “NAMA will buy loans from the participating banks at a significant discount – these loans will be from the riskiest part of the bank portfolios, the land and development loans, as well as certain associated loans. This will take these riskier loan classes away from the balance sheets of the banks concerned and make the banks safer and more secure for depositors and investors.“

• There is no ‘free pass’ for developers as many have suggested, no ‘bail out’ for the construction industry, every liability owed to NAMA shall continue to be owed and full repayment will be expected.

• NAMA shall be self‐financing through interest accrued on its loan assets, profits from the sale of the underlying assets will accrue to NAMA and upon the wind‐up of NAMA if it has accumulated a profit, this will also accrue to the State. If ultimately NAMA proves to make a loss, the Government intends to place a levy on the banking sector to recoup the shortfall. (A historical example that may be of use is that of the collapse of the PMPA insurance company where the Fine Gael/Labour led government introduced emergency legislation to place the company under administration and financed the bailout by imposing a 2% levy on insurance companies.)

• It is important to emphasise that NAMA shall not pay for the loans based on the peak prices of the property boom, a long term perspective shall be taken on the property market . Minister Lenihan has indicated that the ‘long term economic value’ would be worked out based on the historic trends in Irish property values since 1974, but excluding the recent property bubble. In some instances certain tracts of agricultural and zoned land shall have a ‘long term economic value’ which is the same as the current economic value.

• By paying the ‘long term economic value’, the Government is conforming with European Union guidelines.

• A letter in the Irish Times on 26th August signed by 46 economists suggested that the true value of the loans to be acquired by NAMA is €30 billion, this is pure speculation. NAMA has access to the specific details related to each individual loan and without knowledge of facts such as location of property, original purchase price, level of borrower’s equity in property and the likelihood of the borrower making repayment, it is impossible to make an estimation of the loans true value.

• The loan assets will be acquired from the banks in exchange for Government bonds which can then be exchanged for cash at the European Central Bank and provide the necessary liquidity for banks to start lending again.

• NAMA is fully accountable to the Oireachtas. It shall issue regular reports to the Minister for Finance, which shall be laid before the Oireachtas, and the agency shall be subject to audit by the Controller & Auditor General.

Labour Party Policy
• The Labour Party policy of temporary nationalisation would prove disastrous as the State would be forced to absorb all debts of each bank and investment from outside groups such as pension and investment funds would disappear.

• The purpose of the Government’s action is to ensure banks return to a stable condition where the lending needs of the real economy are met. A commercially focused banking system, which includes banks with a market presence, operating within market disciplines and constraints, is best equipped to achieve this aim.

• Anglo Irish Bank is the perfect example as to why nationalisation will not work, a nationalised bank must still conform to the same laws as private banks.

• The confusion in Labour Party economic policy could not be clearer – they opposed the extension of the bank guarantee to cover deposits yet now propose full scale nationalisation.

Fine Gael Policy
• The Fine Gael alternative to NAMA can be summarised as reckless. Their plan envisages the creation of so called ‘good’ and ‘bad’ banks; setting up a wholesale ‘good bank’ with a clean balance sheet and funded by the European Central Bank. Minister Brian Lenihan has described the proposal of a ‘good’ bank as a ‘mirage’.

• Most worryingly a proposal of their plan is a deliberate default on debt to senior bondholders. Such a plan could greatly damage our perception amongst international investors and create substantial difficulties for the State in borrowing money on international markets, which will be necessary to provide for the running of the country.

• The Fine Gael plan also entails waiting until the end of the current bank guarantee scheme in September 2010 and then assess the banks balance sheets, we cannot afford such a period of Government inaction as the credit required by businesses and households must be made available now.

Brenda in Wonderland

With the summer sort of in its middle period and the weather as it is, I found myself taking solace and comfort in a few purchases from Waterstones. Normally my reading consists of biographies or history books. This time I decided as I was going on holidays and if I saw another chapter of a book pertaining to the Battle of Stalingrad I would go off my rocker. So, breaking the mould ever so slightly I opted for two books by Robert Harris, Fatherland and Imperium. I can already here people say; “wait those are history books.” In reply I say; “no, they are historical fiction, there is a difference.” In the case of Fatherland it is very much fiction and is set in a world where Nazi Germany won World War II!!! Doesn’t get more fictitious then that! Rather then bore anyone with the details of the respective books; I just shall say that I think it was enjoyable to break away from my now normal reading habits and experience a little bit of fiction. Fiction can be fun sometimes, but sometimes when people come out with a little bit of fiction which angers me I feel it is pointless to ignore it. Last Sunday I was alerted to an article by Brenda Power in the Sunday Times. Firstly I would like to point out, I have never read the Sunday Times willingly, I hate the Murdoch dominated media and avoid it when my purchase of Newspapers and deciding which News Channel I watch. In any case Mrs. Power wrote an article about gay marriage. Which is fine, she is perfectly entitled to. She laid out her points many of which I disagreed with but only as in this day and age Mrs. Power feels that being a homosexual let alone getting married or adopting children is still not a social norm!

All of these things I can accept as opinion and brush under the carpet of freedom to express ones own opinion. Not being a big backer of the P.C. police in general I often turn a blind eye in the name of free speech, however my cage was well and truly rattled by her opinions that homosexuality was in some way a bizarre creature that still has no place in modern society. To think that an educated woman, a journalist and broadcaster with huge audience is in possession of such an opinion is frightening. Imagine if she had said she was in favour of Eugenics? Yes we’d all write our angry letters and get a facebook page going, but besides that Mr. Murdoch would sack Mrs. Power straight away and you can be sure she would never darken our printed or digital media therein. But the issue was not Eugenics it was about being gay and yes people did protest and yes people did write letters and what happened? Nothing. Why is this? Simple, because no matter how much you write letters, set up Facebook pages or make amusing Youtube videos against Mrs. Power, gay people are still second class citizens. We may find it shocking as those who hold her ideas abhorrent, but sadly Mrs. Power is speaking for the voices of many within our community. Including our politicians who still talk through both sides of their mouth in relation to the issue, lest some Legion of Mary member get the rabble roused against them.

The power of those who come out against divorce and abortion and who hide behind the veils of Roman Catholicism have not gone away and they are always looking for an issue to crusade against. You can be sure if Gay Marriage did arise in a referendum, the kind of sick perverse propaganda that would emanate from every organ from the bishops to the Messenger magazine would put a smile on the faces of those who authored the Nuremberg Laws. What can be done? Well it is really pretty much black and white, either one conforms to the norm, or else they go about changing what we perceive to be normal. As one knows mankind once believed human sacrifice as being as much a part of human life as we do taking a bus or drinking a cup of coffee. To sit down in the face of such things will only allow those who seek to hold back the hands of progress to further triumph and push forward their social norms upon others. Mrs. Power is living in a fiction, if she thinks being gay is not a normal part of society. Perhaps she might slot in nicely to the world that exists in Fatherland, writing perhaps for Der Stürmer, where her opinions would not cause offence or denigrate anyone, at least anyone who reads it. I’m sure those she would seek to offend wouldn’t receive a regular copy of Der Stürmer in Auschwitz or Dacha. But thankfully the Nazis did not win the war and people can continue to fight for what they think is right. I know I shall continue to do so anyway.

Apres le deluge

Well the Local Elections are well and truly over. My own predictions were well wrong to say the least. I got two wards right. The rest I was more or less way off. I never predicted that Fianna Fáil would do so woefully bad, or that Sinn Féin and Independent's would do so well. Labour too managed to scoop up a second seat in the South-West ward in the form of Ger Gibbons at the expense of sitting councillor Fergal Denehy. This brought them up to 7 seats on the council, making them the second largest grouping on the body. Fine Gael managed to do well with the Southside wards seeing a particularly strong performance by the party. John Buttimer managed to poll over 2000 votes on his first time out, a very good result. While in the South-East Ward all three Fine Galer's on the ticket got elected, with two of them Des Cahill and Laura Mcgonigle both being elected on the first count with 1,776 and 1,675 votes respectively.

Political chameleon and former Lord Mayor Joe O'Callaghan was the only sitting Fine Gael councillor to lose his seat. This was not surprising seeing the reaction his ward colleagues got on the doors, which was basically A.B.J. (Anything but Joe). This aside, the Lord Mayors Chain did no favours for Fianna Fáil's Donal Counihan who had served on the council since 1979 and topped the poll in 2004. Likewise two other former Fianna Fáil Lord Mayors lost their seats also, Tom O'Driscoll and Damien Wallace. Personally Tom O'Driscoll's loss was a major shock. I have known Tom for several years and knew him to be a hard working and popular councillor. Sadly the electorate voted as if it was a national election and Tom along with many other hard working Fianna Fáil councillors lost out.

I was right in predicting that Ted Tynan would make a reappearance on this council when he managed to edge out Fianna Fáil defector, Dave Whyte for the final seat in the North-East Ward. I think Ted will add a lot of colour and constructive criticism to the city over the next five years. A big shock was North Central Socialist Coucillor, Mick Barry, polling over 2000 votes. The likes of John Buttimer getting such a vote I can understand, in Barry's case I am at a loss. I suppose however every councillor in the city may want to look had his methods, abandon normal political practice, buy a megaphone make up some placards and off you go. Seemingly this style of politics works at the ballot box!

2009 Local Elections will best be remembered as the one where Fianna Fáil lost out badly. As it stands even if they regain ground and manage to regroup for a Dáil election, they have lost the Senate. The leadership did badly with those closely linked to the ruling elite losing out. Talks of rebuilding the organisation are being mooted, while the real buzz is when will Brian Cowen be gone! I think between now and Christmas we will see some interesting movement on the political scene!

Vote tomorrow

I think after a long election campaign and all the media hype people are just not interested in voting. I am not going to call on any one to vote for any one party or person. But I will advocate they go out and vote. We all know the old mantra about people died for our right to vote and so forth. I would not agree with that-we had the vote under the UK and for British imposed corporations and local councils. What people did die for was the right to vote for an Irish parliament and Irish controlled councils. That still stands for a lot in my mind. So tomorrow take fifteen minutes to walk to your polling station and cast your vote. By doing so you not only take part in the great process that is democracy, but more importantly you have your say in how things are run. The Local Elections are also in conjunction with the European and as everyone knows the European Union's influence is all around us, for better or worse. So once again make your voice heard because in the end one must not forget-votes are counted in ones!