Draw of the Irish:
Cronin, Sean
Report from Ireland DRAW OF THE IRISH WEAK GOVERNMENT, TOUGH PROBLEMS T HE IRISH REPUBLIC'S June 1 lth general election was a draw. The voters could not make up their minds, and the...
...The Kieron Doherty is the likelier one to die...
...small round wire-rimmed glasses, just defense, and heard soldiers talking about If given an order, should I assume that it like the Nazis in the movies...
...One is less sure of Dr...
...The North is no longer a viable political or economic unit and the Republic is being sucked into the maelstrom...
...When he succeeded Mr...
...As an economist he will understand what they are talking about...
...And what will he tell Mrs...
...government with its first constitutional and international crisis Mr...
...Ireland pays for its imports in these two currencies...
...FitzGerald's government will stagger along for some months until a crisis unseats him, or he decides,that the time is ripe for him to call new elections following a snap defeat carefully planned...
...They agreed Commonweal: 422 to set up study groups to examine "the totality of relation- The next issue will be dated August 28...
...Are there no limits at all to what governments may do in the O NE NIGHT when I was in college I have obeyed any order given to him...
...someone asked...
...The men who bombed Dres- teach a form of loyalty which assumes Nazi army, and in all likelihood he would den and Hiroshima did what they did not the decency of those in authority, if we 31 July 1981:423...
...The strongly...
...EEC grants improved the land...
...All things being equal--which they are not--he would make an able Prime Minister...
...FitzGerald...
...founder of Fianna Fail, lost her seat in the affluent district of Haughey says everything is on the table...
...He could hunger strikers, Mr...
...Foreign investment, especially American, in industrial development is continuing--but not at a fast enough rate to provide jobs for the growing under- twenty-five population...
...Given her head, Mrs...
...Haughey received such a high vote--high in the circum- stances of his dismal economic performace since he took over the government from Jack Lynch in a kind of coup eighteen months ago...
...name, or those of his fellow-candidates...
...His party is split...
...FitzGerald...
...in the next few months...
...It threw Mr...
...Haughey...
...But he is governing in coalition with the mildlysocialist Labor party...
...Should I b6 willing to serve...
...good enough...
...On June 30th he was voted out of office by two votes, 81 to 79...
...The latter want more of the welfare state in a country suffering 21 percent inflation and 11 percent unemployment...
...Thatcher...
...The Taoiseach (Prime Min- ister), Charles J. Haughey, saw his Fianna Fhil party lose a little under five percent of the popular vote for 78 seats in the lOS-member Dhil (National Assembly...
...Last December Mr...
...it may have a deficit of over $1.3 billion at the end of this year, according to OECD estimates...
...The EEC has brought the state out'of its permanent depression and there's no going back to it...
...FitzGerald was by proportional'representation and he won bipartisan believes in "a good neighbor attitude in the North--and good support...
...Reservations on Dr...
...When it broke with Britain economically, by joining the European Economic Community, farm prices rose and Ire- land's smallholders tasted affluence for the first time in their lives...
...The Irish pound is maintained by foreign borrow- ing...
...The vote insisting that the agenda be made explicit...
...You would ever feel free to make the choice to question is not what an army may be mean fight for Hitler...
...The prisoners in the ironically of "the special relationship" between the two...
...Lynch, he had the confidence of the nationalists, that is to say the Catholics, of Northern Ireland...
...Following that, ships" between Ireland and Britain...
...If one of the elected destabilized the politics and the economy of Northern Ireland...
...Not all is gloom and doom...
...I mentioned the tactical use of nuclear weapons...
...FitzGerald has a long-range solution--confederation...
...He had little political organization, but all of Irish relations between North and South...
...Thatcher to be less not believe the reports he was getting from workers in the field...
...Meanwhile, Ireland's problems will stagger along with him...
...Eleven years ago he was relieved of his duties, arrested and put on trial for conspiring to import arms into the Republic...
...He needed 84 for an overall majority...
...That swine...
...FitzGerald, another independent voted for Mr...
...The economic problems are minor compared with the politi- cal problem of Northern Ireland...
...A large number of the sitting deputies do not trust him...
...intransigent...
...The arms trial helped with the nationalist section of the population...
...Haughey could have won his election, despite But the border counties were on fire...
...There is no way out of the situation short of a miracle...
...The new Prime Minister, Dr...
...this to a friend, this uncritical and im- doubt all of these men would obey or- This is an important educational matmediate defense of a form of patriotism ders, whatever the orders were, just as ter --educational, because it has everywhich murdered millions, and my friend previous soldiers were willing to bomb thing to do with what we teach our childadmitted that because of the way he had Dresden and Hiroshima...
...FitzGerald have nothing to do with his ability...
...I talked to the chairman of the economy, but for Bobby Sands and the other H-Block the H-Block Committee eleven days before the vote...
...FitzGerald may be forced to deflate--or have defla- tion imposed upon him...
...He had straight blond hair and watched a news special about America's ence itself...
...like that and Mr...
...The electors of Economist has suggested he may sabotage the talks "by insist- Cavan and Monaghan, two Ulster counties that are part of the ing that the Ulster Unionists be drawn into them and by Republic, gave him more than nine thousand votes...
...For Ireland, the prospect just now is gloomy...
...By all accounts they got along well: two realists who could speak for and to the hardliners in their respective countries...
...means and there have been many interpretations...
...found myself sitting with a number wasn't comfortable about this...
...He never referred publicly to the case again, but dedicated himself to reclimbing the greasy pole and succeeded...
...The independent Irish pound continues to fall against sterling and of course the dollar...
...An Maze left the Republic without a government to tackle its...
...Thatcher says it has nothing to do with the constitutional right in a half-prediction: Sile de Valera, granddaughter of the arrangements between Northern Ireland and Britain...
...He has a good clear mind and a liberal conscience...
...Haughey out of office, although surveys indicate the electorate felt he was more likely to resolve this question than Dr...
...No ought to be obeyed...
...ad hoc committee, dominated by the Provisional IRA, decided problems...
...Brandt...
...Thatcher when they The media in the Republic hardly knew Kieron Doherty's meet...
...He name of self-defense...
...The question which be-came especially clear with Hiroshima, LOYALTY TO DEEPER LOYALTIES however, is this: is anything permitted to defeat an enemy...
...Their talks were secret...
...Of several minds: John Garvey only because they were ordered to do so, but because they were absolutely con-vinced of the need to defeat Hitler and the LIMITS OF ALLEGIANCE Axis powers...
...Haughey, one was elected speaker and thus was not eligible to vote, three abstained, and two are in prison...
...If we allowed himself to be drafted into the of course...
...Haughey held a summit meeting in Dublin with Mrs...
...Whereas'he wants indirect taxation, his partners want to tax the wealthy...
...Garret FitzGerald, is an economist, which should be of some help with some of the problems...
...This confidence accounts for the fact that Mr...
...While the Irish currency w, as tied to sterling this was fine...
...He ran all sure what that was in a wartime situa- German student and my friend's re-off to Sweden when he should have tion, and he was not at all sure that he sponse made me realize that the major stayed to defend his country...
...There is more to ren about their obligation to society, to been brought up he would probably have this than the question of obeying orders, government, and to the church...
...The former are strong on law-and-order in the Republic...
...His goodwill may not be history helped him...
...They paid their cam- SEAN CRONIN paigns little attention...
...disobey...
...FitzGerald how to cut his cloth to his measure...
...The Republic's current account, which covers trade and certain unilateral transfers, had a gap of about $996.4 million at the end of 1980...
...In 1978 the Republic cut the sterling link and joined the European Monetary System...
...Report from Ireland DRAW OF THE IRISH WEAK GOVERNMENT, TOUGH PROBLEMS T HE IRISH REPUBLIC'S June 1 lth general election was a draw...
...deputies dies on hunger strike, he'll present the new Irish A timebomb is ticking...
...The voters could not make up their minds, and the result was inconclusive...
...She refused...
...One independent socialist voted for Dr...
...Farm incomes tumbled and are now down about 55 percent from 1978...
...Haughey, if given a mandate, might have avoided this...
...She has her own problems and she can't solve them and Northern Ireland is not even number two...
...permitted to do, or the limits to be placed "Of course," the German student an-I remembered these things as I on weaponry, but the problem of obedi- ,swered...
...He was acquitted, but his political career was in ruins...
...What is needed is an immediate solution...
...Any solution of that problem must have their consent...
...They politics of the Irish Republic as she and her predecessors have took two seats from Mr...
...Thatcher could help but she won't...
...Ireland's foreign debt is enormous and one of these days the Interna- tional Monetary Fund may be suggesting to Dr...
...As a politician he may find their recommendations difficult to apply...
...With the help of three independents, Dr...
...He will head a cabinet of reactionaries (supplied by his own party) and reformers (supplied by Labor...
...The farmer would favor devalua- tion of the Irish pound--or a government subsidy as a hedge against inflation...
...In Ireland they began to speak These reports were understatements...
...They were proved correspondent of the Irish Times of Dublin...
...FitzGerald will take his place...
...FitzGerald, Minister for Foreign Affairs under the conservative Liam Cosgrave for much of the 1970s, was fighting his first election as leader of Fine Gael, a party that even Ray Cline when head of intelli- gence at the State Department couldn't make up his mind about--one year he reported it left-of-center, the next year right-of-center--but which may be described more accurately as conservative and mildly nationalist, in contrast with the populist and strongly nationalist Fianna Fhil, Eamon de Val- era's party...
...Haughey asked Mrs...
...he hoped While it is important to continue pres- of European students at dinner...
...Haughey was to continue his talks with Mrs...
...It's a wound that won't heal...
...The that he would have had the courage to sing for disarmament and accord be-name Of Willy Brandt came up, and a resist if he were ordered to do something tween nations, there is something even German graduate student reacted that was obviously evil, but he was not at more important to be considered...
...They said they would draw few votes, (Sean Cronin, just returned from Ireland, is the Washington that the economic issue would dominate all...
...Fine Gael has 65 seats and Labor 15...
...No one is sure what this Commonweal will return to its bi-weeidy schedule...
...Farm sizes expanded...
...Thatcher and the Irish people with another nationalist martyr...
...Thatcher may destabilize the .to run prisoner-candidates in the Republic's election...
...The Republic earns its living from agriculture, particularly beef...
...The result is that Ireland has a weak government and insoluble problems, political and eco- nomic...
...It could have gone on Dublin South because she was "too strident on the North...
Vol. 108 • July 1981 • No. 14
