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5 August 2004 Edition

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Rebel writers

BY JIM GIBNEY

Fr Joe McVeigh, Danny Morrison and Bobby Storey at the launch of Morrison's new book, Rebel Columns

Fr Joe McVeigh, Danny Morrison and Bobby Storey at the launch of Morrison's new book, Rebel Columns

"The written word is probably one of the most unique achievements handed down to us through human evolution. The word on a page has the power to motivate us, to educate us, to empower us."

That's how Gerry Adams introduced a novel and welcome development at one of Féile's many important political and literary events.

A group of former political prisoners, organised under the title of 'An Glór Gafa', 'The Captive Voice', have decided to republish classic republican books which are out of print.

Their first venture is Desmond Greaves's seminal book, 'Liam Mellows and the Irish Revolution'.

There is not a former political prisoner in the country who has not read Greaves's Mellows, either in part or whole.

Mellows was among a group of books deemed 'essential reading' by those in the gaols with the responsibility for political education. Another was Greaves's biography of James Connolly and Sean Cronin's 'Irish Nationalism'.

Before I was interned in December 1972, I didn't read books. I knew nothing about Irish history or republicanism. I was typical of the new generation of teenagers, described at times disparagingly as '69 republicans, who swelled the ranks of the republican movement.

By the time I was released nearly two years later, I was well versed in both. Connolly and Mellows were my introduction to socialism in an Irish setting.

Gerry Adams first read Greaves's book when he was in Cage 11, nearly 30 years ago. The prisoners formed a book club and asked their relatives not to send them in weekly food parcels and to use the money to buy them books instead, which they very generously did.

Joe Clarke, then the sole survivor of the 1916 Rising, sent in books, as did the Connolly Association, based in London.

Censored copies

All the books sent in were passed through the censor, except Greaves's book about Mellows. It was banned from the gaol, although the prisoners managed to get it in with a different cover on; Gerry Adams has the book on his bookshelf at home to this day.

The ban may have been the responsibility of an individual governor, but there is also another explanation, which I have lifted from Gerry Adams' introduction to the book.

Commenting on the response by reviewers to both his books, Connolly issued in 1961 and widely reviewed and Mellows in 1971 and practically ignored, Greaves said in 1980:

"The Connolly book is socialism and that is safe enough. There is not the least prospect of socialism in our part of the world for the foreseeable future. But the Mellows book is nationalism. And that is dangerous and unwelcome to the powers-that-be in the era of trans-national capitalism and the Common Market."

The national independence struggle motivated the mass of Irish people between 1916 and 1923, the end of the Civil War, which Coughlan described as a 'counter-revolution.'

It is the same objective that motivates republicans today

Anthony Coughlan, described by Gerry Adams as a 'sean chara' of Greaves, spoke about the man he had known for over 30 years.

Coughlan was appointed executor of Greaves's literary estate, which he described as voluminous.

Greaves and labour

Desmond Greaves (1913-1988), although he was born and lived all his life in Britain, was one of Ireland's leading Labour historians.

He was a member of the Connolly Association for 40 years and edited their newspaper 'The Irish Democrat' for the same length of time.

He was dedicated totally to the unity and independence of Ireland and spent a good deal of his time lobbying the British and Irish trade unions to support that cause, because he believed, as Connolly did that 'Ireland's cause was Labour's Cause.'

Mellows, in his 'Notes From Mountjoy' before he was executed, expressed his disappointment that the republican struggle had failed to sympathetically impact on the Irish trade union movement and that organised labour and the Labour Party had failed to take a stand on the 1916 Rising.

Peadar O'Donnell said that Labour's failure to take a stand for national independence in 1918 resulted in 'losing the whole of Ireland for the sake of Belfast', a reference to the Protestant make-up of the unions in the Six Counties.

Greaves believed the peaceful way to end partition was to secure maximum equality between Catholics and Protestants in the Six Counties, thereby removing any rational basis for unionism as an ideology that justified domination over Catholics. This would open a way for northern Protestants to rediscover in time the political implications of the common Irishness they share with their non-Protestant fellow countrymen and women.

Coughlan praised the initiative taken by 'An Glór Gafa' in republishing out-of-print books. He said it was "important to pass on progressive traditions".

Danny Morrison's new book

And that is certainly one of the roles that the Belfast-based printing house 'Beyond the Pale Publications' is fulfilling with their latest production, 'Rebel Columns' by Danny Morrison.

The book was launched by a '69 veteran, Bobby Storey, who at the very least has a gaol journal of some size inside him yet to be written, given his frequent visits to gaols here and England.

In a witty introduction, Bobby traced his encounters with Danny inside prison over the years.

He described Danny's weekly column in the 'Andersonstown News' as "close to the heartbeat of discussions, humorous, angry, critical and always dealing with the issue on people's mind".

He praised the fact that there is a growing number of republican activists now writing and expressing their experience of struggle in different literary arenas. This would advance the overall objective of freedom, he felt.

Danny told the large audience in attendance that his book, the sixth, was dedicated to Leonard Peltier, a native American Indian, who has been in gaol in North America for 28 years, convicted of killing two FBI men. He has always protested his innocence.

I'm a great fan of Danny's weekly column for the reasons that Bobby Storey gave, but I found those articles that Danny read out at the launch even more enjoyable than when I first read them in the newspaper.

Maybe he should consider bringing out a CD of his articles.

They are short enough and the sound of Danny's voice gives them an additional punch to that when read off the page.


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