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16 January 1997 Edition

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There was one from near the border

``It was on a dreary New Year's Eve, as shades of night came down...'' So begins one of the most famous and best loved Irish rebel songs of all time, Seán Sabhat, remembering the famous Brookeborough raid of 31 December 1957, one of the first operations of the IRA's Operation Harvest, in which Sabhat and Feargal O'Hanlon were fatally wounded.

The song of the attack on an RUC barracks in which the two IRA Volunteers lost their lives is so much a part of our national identity now that the Irish soccer squad under Jack Charlton had no problems adopting it as an anthem before entering the fray.

RTE's Léargas (RTE1, Tuesday, 14 January, 7.30pm) recalled the events of that night and the legacy of the two men who died. Among those interviewed was Seán Sabhat's brother Gearóid, who proudly displayed his brother's uniform, and Monaghan Sinn Féin Councillor Pádraigín Ní Mhurchadha, Feargal O'Hanlon's sister. They spoke of their loved ones with affection and pride and expressed the continuity of the freedom struggle in which they gave their lives. Most prominent in the documentary were three other men who were all active at the time. Tomás MacGiolla was interned in the Curragh as a result of the border campaign, as was Proinsias De Rossa, who was part of a Fianna Eireann colour party at Sabhat's funeral, while Ruairí O Brádaigh, directly involved in the campaign, also ended up in a Nissen hut.

MacGiolla tried to differentiate between the IRA of 1957 and the IRA of 1997, much as Fianna Fáilers and Fine Gaelers do when they speak of the `Old' IRA. He accused the modern manifestation of sectarianism while De Rossa described the ``lifelong journey'' which led him from the Curragh to the gravy train. Ní Mhurchadha could have answered their jibes but while the programme makers allowed MacGiolla and De Rossa to respond to her comments, she was not afforded the same luxury. You also got the impression at the end that while for Proinsias De Rossa history has conveniently disappeared, for Ruairí O Brádaigh it has stood still.

 
Few issues, if any, arouse more disgust, anger and frustration than that of paedophilia. Child abuse goes on all over the world but one of its most despicable manifestations is that of white European males travelling to poorer countries to satisfy their appetites. The Phillipines and Bangkok spring immediately to mind as centres of western sex tourism but BBC2's Assignment programme (Sunday, 12 January, 9pm) exposed a thriving trade in child abuse on the tourist beaches of Sri Lanka, an unholy alliance between the vulnerability of the poor and the self-indulgence of the privileged.

The enemy of child abusers is publicity and campaigners in Sri Lanka have fought back against the abusers by contacting similar groups in the abusers' countries of origin. A Swiss millionaire, Victor Baumann, is currently free on bail in Sri Lanka on charges of child sex abuse. During his ten years on the island he is suspected of personally abusing or procuring for his friends up to 1,500 boys. For five or six years his practices were an open secret on the island but his wealth bought him political and legal protection while he masqueraded as a philanthropist, donating money to schools, voluntary organisations, youth projects and sports organisations. He was charged only when the Swiss Government, given hard evidence of his guilt gleaned by investigators from a Swiss human rights organisation, formally requested that the Sri Lankan authorities charge him. Even so, campaigners in Sri Lanka are not confident of eventual success through the courts.

It is estimated that one in five visitors to Sri Lanka are child abusers but a corrupt and poor state has neither the resources, nor it seems, the inclination, to stop the trade in their poorest and most vulnerable people.

Most importantly, this documentary challenged western governments to accept responsibility for the actions of their citizens by properly resourcing efforts to stamp out this modern day exploitation of the Third World.

 
Dark Skies: The Awakening (Monday, 13 January, 9pm), Channel 4's new science fiction thriller series, hit the screens this week with a pilot episode heavy on conspiracy theory, boasting impressive special effects but somewhat lacking in character development and dialogue.

Set in `60s America, Dark Skies begs, borrows and steals unashamedly from many previous incarnations. It's a sort of X Files meets Invasion of the Bodysnatchers meets Independence Day meets JFK. The conspiracy theory stuff begins when a young Congressional Aide, John Leongard, stumbles across a top secret US intelligence operation. They know aliens are out there and have been invading via parasitic organisms in our heads since 1947 (this could explain Seán O Donaíle). But the project is hidden in a shroud of ultra secrecy. Even the President (JFK) has not been trusted with the facts. When Leongard and his girlfriend decide the President must be told, JFK winds up dead. The couple are now on the run, trying to evade both their own intelligence agents and the alien invaders. One of the major selling points of this series is that major events in US and world history, such as the US space programme, the civil rights movement and even Beatlemania will be tied in with the plot. There's enough there for me to tune in next Monday but I'll reserve final judgement for a few episodes.

BY LIAM O COILEAIN

An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland