Christopher Owens has finished reading a book on the Official Republican Movement. 

 
It's good to see the Official IRA/Worker's Party being given critical attention.

For those interested in the recent history of this country, the endless focus on the Provisional IRA/loyalists and British can be a little tiring. Of course, they were the main players.

But where are the copious amounts of text regarding Seamus Costello, Martin 'Rook' O'Prey, John McMichael or Tommy 'Tucker' Lyttle? All people who played significant roles in the conflict and are interesting characters in their own right.

For too long, the Officials fell into this category. Most of this was down to their own desire to rewrite history and pretend their army split in 1972, but Brian Hanley and Scott Millar's seminal The Lost Revolution saw the movement examined in a fair and critical fashion.

As a result, we've seen a revival of interest in the Worker's Party and their failed revolution. And this tome carries on in that vein, but using papers from Dublin, Washington and London to examine how the movement was perceived by officials in government who viewed the growing influence of left wing politics in the south, as well as the spiralling situation in the north, through a Cold War prism.

It's an interesting premise for a book, but unfortunately at least half of the book is purely an exercise in academia. This is because the various documents simply have diplomats reporting what various sources have told them. And while it is noteworthy to see how they were paranoid that the USSR would use the conflict in the north for propaganda and gaining a foothold in Ireland, the nature of these documents do get tiresome after a while.

Where the book really begins to pick up is when discussing the period where the Worker's Party (then known as Sinn Fein The Worker's Party) begin to take power in the Dail, meaning that they get to interact with the diplomats writing the reports.

Some of these are quite funny. It's immediately noted that the party had no friends in the national political stage, describing the 1985 ard fheis as "...one of the least stimulating events in the political year" and noting a clear divide between the northern and southern members (with the latter being much more bourgeoisie). This matter, clearly evident to an outsider seven years before the split, seems not to have been given much though by Goulding and Co at the time.

Another example is given whenever Sean Garland and Des 'the Devil' O'Hagan met with British embassy diplomats regarding the north. Here, it is noted that both men genuinely believed that they were playing a '...lead role in defeating terrorism...' How they squared that with racketeering and running brothels with the UVF will never be known!

Finally, the infamous 1988 trip to Pyongyang for several OIRA members to learn martial arts is discussed as such:

Living in spartan conditions, eating 'crap' food including dog soup, the Belfast volunteers were relieved to arrive home. Three had been sent back earlier after two months following a punch up. One member of this group summed up his experience: 'It was the worst place I ever went to. The poor bastards believe they are living in Utopia.'

Considering the OIRA had been, officially, on ceasefire since 1972 and hadn't used violence since 1977, it begs the question what was the purpose of having members shipped out overseas to learn about martial arts. Were they planning a ninja wing or something, or was it just a rouse to get money from the North Koreans (as it is claimed that two of those trained came back with a ton of money)?

Disappointingly, there is no reference to the allegation made by the Communist Party of Ireland that the Worker's Party were importing heroin from Iraq. Although no evidence has surfaced to back up the claim, the circumstances listed in Jerome aan de Wiel's book East German Intelligence and Ireland do make for further investigation, especially Mulqueen's remarks about Garland being a frequent visitor to Iraq.

Allegations such as these and the claims over North Korean martial arts being adopted by Cyprus Street regulars state clearly that there is a lot more to come out about this organisation. Certain people need to start talking and writing, otherwise history will be ill served.

Despite the criticisms, An Alien Ideology is a great book with some fascinating insights. Acting as a supplement to The Lost Revolution, it allows for a wider perspective on the Worker's Party and their flight from Irish republicanism (while still holding onto the Official IRA to do their dirty work).

The Russians dodged a bullet by not endorsing this lot.

John Mulqueen, 2019.  An Alien Ideology: Cold War Perceptions of the Irish Republican Left. Liverpool University Press. ISBN-13: 978-1789620641

Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland.

An Alien Ideology

Christopher Owens has finished reading a book on the Official Republican Movement. 

 
It's good to see the Official IRA/Worker's Party being given critical attention.

For those interested in the recent history of this country, the endless focus on the Provisional IRA/loyalists and British can be a little tiring. Of course, they were the main players.

But where are the copious amounts of text regarding Seamus Costello, Martin 'Rook' O'Prey, John McMichael or Tommy 'Tucker' Lyttle? All people who played significant roles in the conflict and are interesting characters in their own right.

For too long, the Officials fell into this category. Most of this was down to their own desire to rewrite history and pretend their army split in 1972, but Brian Hanley and Scott Millar's seminal The Lost Revolution saw the movement examined in a fair and critical fashion.

As a result, we've seen a revival of interest in the Worker's Party and their failed revolution. And this tome carries on in that vein, but using papers from Dublin, Washington and London to examine how the movement was perceived by officials in government who viewed the growing influence of left wing politics in the south, as well as the spiralling situation in the north, through a Cold War prism.

It's an interesting premise for a book, but unfortunately at least half of the book is purely an exercise in academia. This is because the various documents simply have diplomats reporting what various sources have told them. And while it is noteworthy to see how they were paranoid that the USSR would use the conflict in the north for propaganda and gaining a foothold in Ireland, the nature of these documents do get tiresome after a while.

Where the book really begins to pick up is when discussing the period where the Worker's Party (then known as Sinn Fein The Worker's Party) begin to take power in the Dail, meaning that they get to interact with the diplomats writing the reports.

Some of these are quite funny. It's immediately noted that the party had no friends in the national political stage, describing the 1985 ard fheis as "...one of the least stimulating events in the political year" and noting a clear divide between the northern and southern members (with the latter being much more bourgeoisie). This matter, clearly evident to an outsider seven years before the split, seems not to have been given much though by Goulding and Co at the time.

Another example is given whenever Sean Garland and Des 'the Devil' O'Hagan met with British embassy diplomats regarding the north. Here, it is noted that both men genuinely believed that they were playing a '...lead role in defeating terrorism...' How they squared that with racketeering and running brothels with the UVF will never be known!

Finally, the infamous 1988 trip to Pyongyang for several OIRA members to learn martial arts is discussed as such:

Living in spartan conditions, eating 'crap' food including dog soup, the Belfast volunteers were relieved to arrive home. Three had been sent back earlier after two months following a punch up. One member of this group summed up his experience: 'It was the worst place I ever went to. The poor bastards believe they are living in Utopia.'

Considering the OIRA had been, officially, on ceasefire since 1972 and hadn't used violence since 1977, it begs the question what was the purpose of having members shipped out overseas to learn about martial arts. Were they planning a ninja wing or something, or was it just a rouse to get money from the North Koreans (as it is claimed that two of those trained came back with a ton of money)?

Disappointingly, there is no reference to the allegation made by the Communist Party of Ireland that the Worker's Party were importing heroin from Iraq. Although no evidence has surfaced to back up the claim, the circumstances listed in Jerome aan de Wiel's book East German Intelligence and Ireland do make for further investigation, especially Mulqueen's remarks about Garland being a frequent visitor to Iraq.

Allegations such as these and the claims over North Korean martial arts being adopted by Cyprus Street regulars state clearly that there is a lot more to come out about this organisation. Certain people need to start talking and writing, otherwise history will be ill served.

Despite the criticisms, An Alien Ideology is a great book with some fascinating insights. Acting as a supplement to The Lost Revolution, it allows for a wider perspective on the Worker's Party and their flight from Irish republicanism (while still holding onto the Official IRA to do their dirty work).

The Russians dodged a bullet by not endorsing this lot.

John Mulqueen, 2019.  An Alien Ideology: Cold War Perceptions of the Irish Republican Left. Liverpool University Press. ISBN-13: 978-1789620641

Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland.

8 comments:

  1. Christopher

    This review falls short on the usual detailed observtions that we have come to expect from your reviews. I take it the book does not include the Stickies involvment in racketeering, or, most importantly, their collusion with Loyalists and how come they exchanged weapons with each other??

    ReplyDelete
  2. I loved the review Christy - thought it witty and what a review should be - an appetiser to read the book. I loved that part about them meeting the spooks and thinking they were at the frontline of defeating terrorism!!

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  3. AM

    I liked the review but was attacking the book's lack of important content.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Christy,

    no, the book doesn't deal with any of that. As the subtitle indicates, it's purely about how government diplomats perceived the Officials to be a threat.

    Towards the end, when summing up the demise of the party, Mulqueen does touch a little on things like North Korea training OIRA/Group B members, but it's purely for context to demonstrate the somewhat fractured relationship between the WP and the Soviets. Stuff that we already know from Hanley and Miller.

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  5. Christopher

    My impression of the Stickies was that they were skulking opertunists who only got their hands dirty for personal gain in various criminal enterprises -but never for political ideals, despite being well armed. I seem to recall an incident around 1989-1990 when 2 guys I know saw 2 Stickies going into a house along the Falls road carrying a large bag. When the Stickies left the house empty handed the 2 guys brass-necked it and called to the house and said they were sent to collect a bag of gear -the householder brought them in and showed them a bag of guns, which they took away with them... so some benefactors donated guns eventually made their way into the hands of those actually engaged in armed struggle rather than crime.

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  6. Christy,

    others would be in a better position to speak but it seems to me that the Sticks (by the early 80's at least) were quite happy to accommodate certain criminal types for two reasons. 1) making money for the party and 2) sticking two fingers up at the Provos.

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  7. Christopher

    That about sums it up and if you ever listened to the Brit footpatrols on a scanner when they stopped stickies on the street they referred to them as the 'Friendly Enemy'.

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  8. This piece by Connal Parr is an interesting take on UVF/OIRA relations.

    http://www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk/?p=1659

    ReplyDelete