Contents

COVER STORY LIFTING THE LID

By Vincent Browne The Supreme Court has confirmed the authority of the Tribunals of Inquiry to investigate allegations of corruption. But can they and the other inquiries now underway delve into the depths of the corruption in Irish public and financial life?

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THE RIP OFF GOES ON IRISH LIFE

by Ursula Halligan Magill reveals further details of customers who were churned and never compensated by Irish Life.

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Magill
Block I, Usher's Court, Usher's Quay, Dublin 8. Telephone: 01-670 3488 Fax: 01-670 3722

THE GREAT EXCHANGE

by Calm Rapple The introduction of the Euro to the cash registers of Ireland.

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THE FINAL TEST

EMail: magill@iol.ieISSN

0332 1754

EDITOR: Vincent Browne STAFF JOURNALISTS: Ursula Halligan & Marguerite Barry P.A. TO V. BROWNE/MAGill ACCOUNTS: Valerie Doyle lAYOUT & DESIGN: Michelle Cosgrave PRODUCTION: Graphic Repro SUB-EDITING: Marguerite Barry ADVERTISING MANAGER: Joan Fitzpatrick ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE: Shane Treanor. Magill is published by Coliemore

EDITORIAL
The Orange OrderA sickness in Irish society

MAGILL MISCELLANY
Ruairi Quinn and Independent Newspapers by Vincent Browne Magill Grill-Shay Healy The Battle of the Eyeballs- TV3 by Ursula Halligan YouNever Phone, YouNever WriteRichie Ryan by Marguerite Barry Drugs Hysteria-Ecstasy & Cannabis by Cormac O'Keeffe & Olaf Tyransen "ViewFrom The Bus",by BillyFleming

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by Fionnuala O'Connor and Liz Walsh The Assembly faces strain after a month that shook the North.

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RIGHT OF REPLY: We offer a right of reply to any person who feels aggrieved or defamed by any material published in Magill. Please contact the editor as soon as such material is identified and we willtake immediate steps to undo any wrong done and to vindicate the reputation of any person unfairly defamed.
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HELEN LUCY BURKE

on Limerick

50 54 AS GOOD 56 60 62
AS IT GETS
Ireland photographed Cathy Loughran by

MOTORING
by Siobhan Mulcahy

BOOKS
edited by Michael O'Sullivan

PAT RABBITTE
on Lobbying around the World

ANEW WORLD ORDER

The September issue of Magill will be on sale on August 27.

WIGMORE

World Cup by Paddy Agnew Vivela France

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Editorial
The Orange Order is a bigoted sectarian institution. The Church of Ireland and the Ulster Unionist Party are both demeaned by their association with it and by their indulgence of it. Every man who joins the Orange Order has to swear an oath which includes the declaration that he "was born of Protestant parents, was educated in the Protestant faith, (has) never been in any way connected with the Church of Rome" and, if married, that his "wife is a Protestant". Members of the Orange Order are required to "strenuously oppose the fatal errors and doctrines of the Church of Rome and scrupulously avoid countenancing, by his presence or otherwise, any act or ceremony of Popish worship". The Orange oath expresses a contempt for Catholics, far beyond any reciprocal contempt there was expressed for Protestants in the notorious and now defunct Catholic ne temere decree. The reference to "Popish worship" is a crude insult not just to the Catholic religion of their neighbours but to the Catholic neighbours themselves. The expression of the Orange identity apparently is crucially threatened if Orange parades are not permitted to march through Catholic neighbourhoods, where, entirely reasonably, the triumphal re-enactment of an Orange victory over Catholics in a seventeenth century religious war is deeply resented. There is no requirement of toleration to respect the Orange Order, its paraphernalia, its capers, its vows and its ethos. If toleration required us to respect all traditions we would also be required to respect the murderous tradition of violent republicanism and of bigoted Catholicism. But toleration does require us to protest at the attempted conflation of Orange "rights" with Protestant civil and religious liberties.' For these reasons the pusillanimity of the Church of Ireland over the July stand-off at Drumcree and its attendant outrages through Northern Ireland, is rightly the subject of scorn. Equally the combination of Ulster Unionist Party overt and covert encouragement to that outrageous excess should rightly be the subject of condemnation.

by Vincent

Browne

The Orange Order-A Sickness in Irish Society

A year previously Archbishop Robert Eames, the Church of Ireland Primate of all Ireland after the last siege of Drumcree, described the scenes of Orange outrages following the religious "ceremony" at Drumcree Church as "blasphemous". Admittedly he reserved this comment until after the furore had died down. But that perception might have emboldened him to utter something more substantial about the siege ty upon which most of the Orange demonstrations at Drumcree were taking place was property owned by and controlled effectively by the governing body of the Church of Ireland. It had allowed its Church and its church service to become the focal point of a sectarian demonstration that predictably enflamed bigoted passions throughout Northern Ireland arid, again predictably, resulted in a disaster, although perhaps the full awful horror of the disaster that did occur could not have been predicted. Never once throughout the inflamed days of the siege did any Church of Ireland figure say that the claim that what was at stake at Drumcree was the full corpus of Protestant civil and religious liberties was a vile characture of the reality. But of course what the Ulster Unionist Party did was much worse. They egged on the protestbrazenly-as did John Taylor, by calling on Orangemen to mobilise in support of their "brethren" at Drumcree. Only marginally less so did David Trimble by saying that the ban on the Orange parade going down Garvaghy Road was a denial of Protestant civil and religious liberties. Trimble's culpability in all that goes back to the infamous part he played in the three previous Drumcree sieges. He danced in celebration of what was wrongly portrayed as the enforced nationalist capitulation in 1995. And he, as much as anybody else, led the standoff in 1996 which forced eventually the humiliation of the nationalist community on Garvaghy Rd. Perhaps he could not have mended his ways so quickly on becoming the shadow "First Minister" of the new Northern Ireland administration. But he , could have avoided depicting what was at stake in apocalyptic terms for Protestantism in Northern Ireland. His party is of course hand in glove with the sectarian Orange Order. The Orange Order is institutionally a part of the Ulster Unionist Party and all the leaders of that party, without exception, have been leading members of the Order. The "twelfth" and the institution that celebrates it, the Orange Order, are the manifestations of a sickness in Irish society and should be treated as such.

itself than a succession of pious banalities during the first week of this year's siege, during which tens of Catholic families were being burnt out of their homes and Catholic churches attacked. Repeatedly during that first week in calling for restraint on both sides Archbishop Eames presented a moral equivalence between the two sides. On the one side the law-breaking members of a sectarian organisation, who refused even to talk both to the residents of the area they wanted to parade through and to the democratically (at least in UK terms) appointed Parades Commission, established to mediate between the two sides. And on the other hand the Garvaghy Rd residents who had their accommodation thrown back in their face three years previously, who were willing to discuss a resolution of the impasse with the Orange Order and who had co-operated fully with the Parades Commission. It was only after the murder of the three Quinn children on the morning of July 13 and after a Presbyterian chaplain had called for the siege to be lifted, that Archbishop Eames summoned up the courage to say that perhaps the Orange demonstrators outside the Drumcree church should go home. And it was only then too, that the Church of Ireland discovered for the first time that the proper-

MISCELLANY

by Vmcent Browne

page the results of the poll, under the In response to an article in last heading, "Voters back Quinn for month's Magill, Ruairi Quinn, leader Labour leader". The opening paraof the Labour Party acknowledged graphs of the story read: that in the week before the Labour "Former Finance Minister Ruairi Party leadership election last Quinn is the voters choice to be the November he initiated a telephone next leader of the Labour Party.He has conversation with a long time friend, the support of a clear majority of the Mr John Meagher, deputy chairman of electorate, according to an Irish Independent Newspapers plc. Independent poll today. With Don't Mr Quinn said he asked Mr Knows excluded, Mr Quinn has the Meagher if Independent Newspapers backing of 64 per cent of all voters, plc was conducting an opinion poll on compared with 36 per cent for his the Labour leadership electionrival, the former Environment opinion polls conducted for Minister, Brendan Howlin" Independent Newspapers are conOn the editorial page of that newsducted by IMS, a market surveying paper that same day (page 14) there company owned by Mr Meagher. was a feature article on the poll, writMr Quinn said that Mr Meagher ten by James Downey. It was headed: replied he did not know. Mr Quinn "Long week finishes on high note for then, according to himself, "indicated Quinn." to him (MrMeagher) that I had reason That article noted how Mr Quinn's to believe that an opinion poll would . campaign had been in trouble the be positive from my point of view. I previous week but that here had been had access to research done that india turn around in his fortunes over the cated that I came out favourably in previous few days with the announceopinion polls as a minister in the last ment of support from Tommy government." Broughan TD and Labour Youth. The On the morning of Monday, article continued: "Today Mr Quinn's November 10, three days before the candidature is further boosted by the Labour leadership election, The Irish findings of the Irish Independent -IMS Independent published on its front opinion poll". 8

The lead editorial on the same page on that day stated: "The decision (on the Labour leadership) will not of course be made by popular vote. That would be impractical. It will be made by a very small group composed of the Labour parliamentary party and the party's general council. But it is highly probable that the popular preference will sway at least some of the votes cast on Thursday". The editorial went on effectivelyto endorse Mr Quinn. It pointed out that he had the "distinction" of having been the only Labour TD to become Minister for Finance and that his Dublin base meant tharhe was better placed than Mr Howlin to rebuild a strong base for the party in the capital". The survey on the Labour Party leadership was the major element of the poll, as presented by The Irish Independent. There were other issues polled as well in that survey. These included perceptions of government performance and voting intentions (there was not any obvious reason to poll voting intentions in November 1997). There were also a number of other bizarre issues such as satisfaction with Mary McAleese(she had not taken up office as President at the time the poll was conducted), perceptions of the Labour Party and perceptions on the likely impact of republican divisions on a return to violence. Following Mr Quinn's election as leader of the Labour Party on the following Thursday, he and John

Meagher celebrated his victory in the Dan bar. A statement was issued by the solicitors Matheson Ormsby Prentice, on behalf of Independent Newspapers, Mr Tony 0 Reilly,chairman of Independent Newspapers, and Mr Meagher, on Wednesday,June 24 last, also in response to the Magill article. It confirmed that Mr Quinn had contacted Mr Meagher on whether Independent Newspapers was conducting an opinion poll on the Labour leadership election. (This confirmation contradicted a statement made on behalf of Mr Meagher to The Sunday Business Post on June 14 last in which, according to the newspaper, he denied he had had any conversations with Mr Quinn prior to the publication of the opinion poll.) In that statement of June 24 it was said on behalf of Mr Meagher that he had taken "no further action on foot of this telephone call".The statement claimed that the decision to conduct the poll "was made by Mr Vincent Doyle,editor ofthe Irish Independent, arising from a normal round-table editorial conference". It went on to say: "No director or executive of Independent Newspapers plc was involved in any manner in the commissioning of this poll. Mr Meagher did not contact the chairman Dr AJF O'Reillyor anybody else, as alleged (in the Magill article)." To summarise: Ruairi Quinn contacted his friend John Meagher, deputy chairman of Independent Newspapers, and said it would be in

his interests if an opinion poll was done on the Labour leadership. John Meagher did nothing. Within a week one of the newspapers in Independent Newspapers published a poll on precisely the issue that Ruairi

Sean Fleming T.O.

Apology
In the course of the July 1988 edition of Magill in an article headed "VAT Reclaimedwith BogusInvoice" it was suggested that Mr Sean Fleming TO was involved in the arrangement and supply of a bogus invoice when employed as a salaried chartered accountant at Fianna Fail Head Office. Magillaccepts that the above statement amounted to a very serious libel OfMr Fleming TD in both a personal and professional capacity. Magill accepts that Mr Sean Fleming TD had no involvement in the issuing of a bogus invoice to the Fitzwilton subsidiary, Rennicks Manufacturing Ltd, in respect of a political contribution of 30,000 made in June 1989by this company. Magill apologises for the hurt caused to Mr Fleming TD by the publication of this article and regrets any embarrassment occasioned to him by this publication. It is accepted by all concerned that the material related to a matter of public interest.

Quinn said would be in his interests, with precisely the desired outcome and coupled with an editorial endorsement of his candidature. John Meagher, who had done nothing at all, followingthe clear implied request by Mr Quinn for help the previous week, showed up in the Dail bar to celebrate with Mr Quinn on the latter's victory in the Labour leadership election.

Shay Healy - media mogul- returns to the screen to present "BeastlyBehaviour" RTE1, September and does not trust Michael Flatley (Q.8)

Did you have a happy childhood? Extremely What were you like at school? Asmartarse Your best friend? Antacids Biggest political donation you ever gave? A year of invective in the columns of In Dublin In what circumstances do you lie most? Whenever it gets me past the crisis What is Ireland's most unjust law? Libel Complete in 12 words or less: If I was Taoiseach ... ... Yiz would all be sorry!

Your greatest doubt? That Michael Flatley has really retired Your strongest belief? That to be an asshole requires effort Do you believe in an afterlife? Only as a piece of stardust 60 seconds of what to replace the Angelus? J.]. Cale Your dosest brush with the law? Gerry Sexton's party (He'sa cop) What newspapers do you read? The lot Favourite columnist/journalist? A.A Gill-Liam Fay Favourite Television programme? So Graham Norton

Worst aspect of Irish media? Sloppy syntax What women do you most admire? White trash icons-Courtney Love and Madonna What men do you most admire? Quiet ones Biggest influence in your life? Getting up in the morning Last LP/CDjTape bought? Kila Worst job you ever had? Stacking boxes of Bovril in London How would you like to be remembered? Little but often

MISCELLANY

The Battle of the Eyeballs

Sexual chemistry, svelte figures and 'fun' are the weapons TV3 will bring to battle with RTE. By Ursula Halligan
ewsis where TV3 will challenge RTEwhen the new station launches on September 21. The station plans to steal a march on RTEby beginning its evening news show at ten seconds to six, when RTE is still broadcasting the Angelus. The country's first independent station has hired over 35 full time journalists, including three special correspondents, one each in Belfast, London and Leinster House and four regional correspondents. The presenters willbe a stunningly good-looking couple, 24-year-old Grainne Seoige,formerly of TnaG and 30-year-old Alan Cantwell formerly of INN. According to a TV3 source, the idea of having an attractive young woman teamed up with a slightly older man is to exploit as much as possible on-screen sexual chemistry. News reports will be slick, glossy and professional but with a decided emphasis on human interest and entertainment. A second news programme will be broadcast at 11pm. A station source insisted there would be no solemn faced reporters standing rigidly behind microphones in TV3. "RTE is more Irish Times in style, whereas we'll be more Irish Independent-more middle of the road," said Andrew Hanlon, Director of News and Information Programming. Both in content and visual presentation the influence of Sky News will be discernable including the use of

promos plugging up-coming news stories. Kieran Devaney, a former senior producer with Sky;is the programme editor of the six 0' clock news. Zoe McDonald, a former camerawoman with Sky News will head the stations ENG(electronic news gathering) service. "Alot ofRTE'spictures are flat and one dimensional. Some are the same old shots we see again and again. Our stories will be shot in a more exciting way," said Andrew Hanlon. The station's news service willalso have the back-up of an extensive 15 year-old video library which the station has bought in recent weeks. The station is primarily targeting the high-spending 15 to 44 year old television audience which makes up over 60% of the population. Its spokesmen say this is the segment of the market that watches Sky 1 and other foreign channels and has been neglected by RTEfor years. To entice these viewers to switch from foreign channels, TV3 is unashamedly offering a similar diet of imported programmes, but with an Irish flavour. More than 80% of the stations programming willbe imported from the US,Australia and Britain. The Irish ingredient will feature strongly in the 11 hours of news a week along with two daily chat shows in the morning and afternoon. TV3has scored a coup in securing the rights to the Republic of Ireland's away games in the qualifying rounds

tvthree

for the European Championships in 2000 and the exclusive Irish rights to the popular British soap, East Enders. Both acquisitions will help grow channel loyalty and attract audiences to other parts of its schedule. Bidding for exclusive material is likely to be an on-going battleground for TV3and RTE.The presence of a second home bidder will hurt the national broadcaster and drive up prices for everyone. The overallstyle and image ofTV3will reflect the characteristics of its targeted audience. It will have a decidedly younger look than RTE.Most of the faces will be under 25 and slim. According to a TV3source, some of the new presenters were told to lose weight before getting in front of a camera. "The image will be young, fun, sexy-the opposite to everything RTErepresents," he said. Although, TV3hasn't yet hit the airwaves it has been making waves of a different kind in RTE, according to one independent producer who points to the shake-up and re-launch of Network 2 last year as evidence. "For the first time in years they started to make programmes for a neglected generation," he said. According to a reliable source, the change in RTE's strategy for Network 2 was a huge success and the channel's share of the 15-44audience increased by 17% in the past 12months. Meanwhile, RTEis gearing up for the challenge of TV3 and its autumn-winter schedule boasts the names of a number of young presenters including GAAstar and FAlhero Jason Sherlock. In addition, it willhave a new comedy show, a drama series, the return of Zig and Zag, plus a list of hit movies to keep Irish eyeswatching the two stations. RTE also plans to broadcast round the clock, for 24 hours, beginning in September, coincidentally the same month TV3comes on air. transmission revolution sweeping the global television industry. The new company will develop the high tech system known as digital terrestrial television (DTT)and will be able to provide 30 channels. DTT can create more channels, provide more variety and much better picture and sound quality than the current analogue system. However, Cable, MMDSand satellite will also be able to deliver the same product. The fact that RTEwill have a 40% share in one of these delivery systems, means that as well as being a TV station making programmes and a transmission company transmitting programmes, it will also be, for the first time in its history, a multichannel service provider, just like Cablelink.

A new row is brewing between the country's cable/ MMDSoperators and the Government following the decision to set up a digital transmission company in which RTEwould have a 40%holding. This means RTEwillbe directly competing with the cable and MMDS companies to supply a multi-channel service to viewers. It also means that RTE is poised to break Cablelink's monopoly as the multichannel service provider in Dublin, Galway and Waterford. The cable and MMDScompanies have always maintained they were granted exclusive rights to provide multichannel TV to Irish viewers and are currently suing, the state for failing to shut down deflector systems who defied this. A source close to the Cable Communications Association of Ireland,

Digital TV
the umbrella group for the country's cable and MMDS operators, told Magill that members were furious with Minister de Valera'sproposals because they exacerbated the legal row between the cable companies and the state. He said the industry was now considering extending its legal claim against the state: "There's no point in us just taking an action against deflectors if the state is saying that it's alright for the new digital transmission company to do the same," he said. Minister de Valeramade the announcement about the new company when she was unveiling legislation to enable Irish broadcasters catch up with the digital

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Water,Water You Never Phone, Everywhere You Never

Almost half the group water schemes in Ireland supply water that is unfit for human consumption.
Investigations into 'widespread pollution' of drinking water supplies in Ireland have begun at EC level on foot of complaints made by individuals directly affected. The evidence produced is in EPA reports on the quality of drinking water in Ireland which show that over 43 per cent of the Group Water Schemes in Ireland have been heavily contaminated with faecal coliforms. All these water supplies are in breach of the limits set out in the EU Drinking Water Directive, which deems water unfit for human consumption if it contains even one coliform per 100 ml. Group water schemes deliver water to over 150,000 households or half a million people throughout the country and constitute 28 per cent of the drinking water supplies in Ireland. Only 749 out of over 5500 group water schemes were monitored in 1996 and the true extent of the problem has yet to be established. Monitoring of all water supplies by the local authorities is part of. a new set of measures launched last May but according to the Department of the Environment, it will take years before the problems are solved. The Department of the Environment denies, however, that there is "a widespread problem" with drinking water supplies in Ireland, a view strongly contended by Bernard Keeley, chairman of the National Federation of Group Water Schemes (NFGWS). "Pollution is widespread yet water pollution case law is sparse," says Keeley. Dr Pat Flanagan, author of the EPA report, adds, "We're at the mercy of what we get from the local authority. There is a problem of resources, and we have not yet been in a position to put in place a follow-up procedure to check on a monitoring programme independently." The causes of water pollution range from agricultural intensification close to lakes and rivers from which the water is pumped, to slurry spreading on permeable soils and lack of post-planning inspection of septic tanks by local authorities. The recent emergence of the bacteria, E.coli 0157 is a particular cause for concern since there is an acknowledged risk of infection through contaminated water. The main syndromes caused by E.coli 0157 range from bloody diarrhoea, (or haemorrhaegic colitis-HC) and acute renal failure (haemolytic uraemic syndrome- HUS) both of which may cause death. Dr Pat Wall, CEO of the Food Safety Authority says, " If we're going to get a water-borne outbreak of E0157 in Ireland, it will be related to schemes that are not chlorinated or chlorinated inappropriately. We'd be naive to be sitting back waiting for a disaster." Last year, 15 cases of E.coli 0157 were notified in the Eastern Health Board's region, and one child died from the complications in January 1997. By Sophie Rieu

Write...

Richie Ryan
ot to be confused with Richie Ryan, the immortal sword wielding protege of TV's Highlander. But immortal and sword wielding may not be far off the mark. Richie Ryan was born in Dublin in 1929, entering politics moments later. His was not a political family. His father would have preferred him to continue a legal career, but Richie got the bug. "Fianna Fail were too long in government" -he had to do something about it. He joined Fine Gael in his teens and at 22 was invited by his mentor General Tom Mulcahy to become a standing committee representative. Student debating gave him (and many before and after) the taste for Leinster House-Ryan was auditor of the L&H Society UCD 1950-51. He qualified as a solicitor but was elected in 1959 in a by-election for Dublin South West. His true motive? "Politics is a fertile field for romance," says Ryan. His wife Mairead first saw Richie when they were both young members of Fine Gael; she, in her school gym slip, he, making an impassioned speech to a crowd from the back of a lorry at Terenure cross. It was a good speech. They married and had 5 children. In 1973 when Liam Cosgrave led the Fine Gael/Labour coalition into government, Garret Fitzgerald was expected to get the Finance & Public Services portfolio. The job went to Ryan and eyebrows were raised. Despite the attractions of an oil crisis, a dramatic rise in inflation, borrowing and of course rabid unemployment, it was a job no one would have wanted, but Richie would not let down his leader. Preparation? "My former economics professor advised me to forget everything I had ever learnt." Politically unpopular budgets dogged his tenure. Richie Ryan became 'Red Richie' and 'Richie Ruin', names he bemusedly attributes more to alliteration than any particular political trait. Bringing farmers into the tax net for the first time and putting ten

pence on the pint were not vote winners but he did increase social welfare spending by 70% and polyfilla'd tax loopholes which smiled widely during the previous Fianna Fail era. "People grumbled but they knew what had to be done. Still, no Finance Minister in Europe survived the oil crisis." Richie was also one of Ireland's first MEPs, taking his seat in 1973. He was offered the position of Commissioner while in government "but declined," and later was a member of the Council of Ministers. He was Europe president of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in 1996. "I'm not a Eurocrat by compulsion," he protests. In 1979 he went for the European Parliament in the first direct elections. By 1982 he found the dual mandate to be "inconvenient and dishonest" and opted to stay in Luxembourg. In 1986 he resigned his seat when appointed to the European Court -of Auditors where he stayed up until 1994. Then disaster struck. Richie broke his neck in a fall at his home and spent almost a year in the National Rehabilitation Centre in Dun Laoghaire, wheelchair bound. "Therapy is very hard work, there's no time to think or have regrets." Immortality? Although he can no longer spend hours "getting dirty in the garden," his only hobby, his recovery was a major success. By the middle of last year he was back in action. And the sword? Richie is now chairman and acting secretary general of the Irish Red Cross. He's also a Commissioner of Irish Lights-the caretakers of lighthouses and buoys. Looking back, he confirms there was never a television in the Ryan household, not to avoid Frank Hall's constant lampooning but because the children didn't want one. "Television changed politics in Ireland. It's just not as much fun anymore," says the last of the old time orators. Marguerite Barry

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MISCELLANY

Ten years of E
en years ago a new form of electronic music and a white tablet changed the face of youth culture forever. With the opening of the first dance club in Cork in 1988,dance music and Ecstasy (or MDMA)combined to create a culture that enveloped the country within years. In 1991, the Gardai seized 429 Ecstasy tablets. By 1995, this had increased to 180,000 tablets. According to international estimates, seizures represent one tenth of the total quantity in circulation. In the same period, Ecstasy-related offences increased from 45 to 645, while the price of Ecstasy dropped from 25 to 10 a tablet. In 1996 and 1997, seizures of Ecstasy fell dramatically to 24,000 tablets. However, so far this year over 440,000 tablets have been seized. Because of these dramatic swings, prevalence studies are considered to be more accurate estimates of usage. The European-wide ESPADstudy in 1995 estimated that 11 per cent of 15-16 year olds in Ireland have taken Ecstasy. A 1996 survey in schools in north Dublin by Dr Evan Murphy put the figure at 17per cent. A 1997Southern Health Board survey estimated that 6 per cent of the 15-25 age group have taken Ecstasy. Surveys carried out in third-level colleges in Dublin have put the figure at around 20 per cent. These surveys show that users are divided into experimental, occasional and regular users and that Ecstasy use crosses many divides: gender, class, geography, sexual orientation and age. Ecstasy targets brain chemicals controlling mood and behaviour, enabling users to get into dance music and dance repetitively over a long period of time. It also boosts feelings of happiness, well being and empathy among users. This creates an atmosphere of communality, friendliness and tolerance in dance clubs. According to a survey by the Union of Students in Ireland this year, 75 per cent of students said that curiosity was the main reason why they took their first drug, with 25 per cent mentioning peer influence. Like most sur12

byCormacO'Keeffe

Studies on Ecstasy show that telling people to reduce use is more effective than telling them to stop.

veys it found that the vast majority of people receive their first drug from a friend, or a friend of a friend-s-not a pusher. Availability, pleasure from taking drugs, social lifestyle and peer group influences are said to be among the factors determining continuing use. The USI survey also showed that many users mix Ecstasy with other drugs, namely alcohol, cannabis and 'speed' (amphetamine). The Ecstasyheroin connection appears to be primarily confined to working class areas in Dublin, where large numbers of young people have graduated to smoking heroin. Dehydration, overheating-caused by Ecstasy itself, the heat in clubs and the heat generated by dancing-and heart failure have caused many of the estimated 15Ecstasy-related deaths in Ireland. Medical researchers are

unsure why these users have died while others haven't. "Nobody can tell who is going to have a safe experience and who isn't," says Dr Des Corrigan of Trinity College.Some research suggests that a small number of people may have a deficiency,perhaps genetic' which may explain some of the deaths. Many researchers warn, however, against over-emphasising the risk of death. British Home Office figures show that Ecstasy deaths account for 0.0002 per cent of all users. Alcohol deaths, meanwhile, account for 0.5 per cent of all users. Researchers are more concerned that many users-particularly frequent and heavy users-may suffer long term depression as well as heart and liver problems. Referring to

recent US research showing evidence of brain damage, Dr Corrigan says that while some of the damage "appears to be reparable, some is not reparable". Despite this, most evaluations of anti-drug campaigns have found they have little impact on drug use because they over-exaggerate the harmful effects. While such campaigns re-enforce the fears on nonusers, they alienate users. Drug education programmes now focus on developing the personal and social skills of young people, with the aim of enabling them to make informed choices in relation to drugs. A extensive survey by British researchers Dorn and Murji found that programmes which aim to prevent initial use "have on balance not succeeded" and that reducing use was a more realistic aim. Now, a state agency is breaking new ground by adopting harm reduction strategies for the tens of thousands who continue to use Ecstasy and other 'dance' drugs. A new campaign drawn up by the Dun Laoghaire Drugs Task Force and the Eastern Health Board aims to regulate clubs and provide factual information to users as well as advice on how to reduce (not stop) the damage to themselves. According to Steven Harding of the EHB:"Wewould prefer if people didn't use these drugs, but they do, so we need to ensure they are as safe as possible."

The Real Reason Cannabis is Illegal

By Olaf Tyransen

Hemp, a viable paper substitute, was demonised by the paper industry. Its other by-product was cannabis.

friendly than hemp, trees are used because unfortunately wood pulp technology happened to accelerate before the technology to mass produce paper from hemp did. The first American patent for the wood pulping process was granted in 1854, thereby making the country's vast forestry reserves the source of enormous profit potential. It wasn't until 1916 with the war in Europe putting great pressure on their woodlands (30million square feet of spruce alone was going into the war effort every month), that US Department of Agriculture scientists developed a method of making paper from hemp pulp on the same scale. This potentially much cheaper process posed a great threat to the vast US paper industry and to those who had invest-

he reasons for the criminalisation of cannabis have little or nothing to do with its properties as a recreational drug. In the early half of this century the plant was demonised by a small group of powerful American business tycoons in order to protect their vested economic interests in the pharmaceutical, petrochemical and paper manufacturing industries. The resulting prohibition is still in place across most of the world today, despite an amount of evidence which supports lifting the ban. Since ancient times, the hemp plant-Cannabis-has thrived allover the globe and, for at least the last 10,000years, substances derived from it have been used by innumerable cultures for many different purposes. It is only in the last 60 years that it has become the centre of controversy.An amazingly versatile plant, hemp is almost abnormally efficient both in the speed of its growth and in its ability to flourish in a wide range of soils and climates. Throughout mankind's history, it has been grown to provide sails, clothing, rope, food, medicine, shelter, armour, etc. Most importantly, however it has been used to make paper. The hemp plant is one of the world's most efficient producers of biomass-four months growth will produce over ten tonnes of biomass per acre-and therefore is perfect for making paper. Most paper made today is manufactured from wood pulp, although trees take an average of twenty years to grow and yield only tow tonnes of biomass per acre. Although less economical and eco-

they grew in their own backyards. Their campaign of misinformation reached its peak in 1937, when Anslinger testified to Congress that "marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind". (A decade later he would warn them that it had the potential to turn America's youth into pacifist zombies). This led to the Marijuana TaxAct which effectivelymade hemp production unprofitable in the extreme, much to the relief of those in paper-manufacturing as well as those in the petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries who were also threatened by hemp's versatility. Anslinger was the son-inlaw ofAndrew Mellon,one of the chief financial backers of DuPont. Before the Marijuana Tax Act was passed, natural hemp products were in competition with the new synthetic fibres coming from the petrochemical industry, such as rayon and nylon. Today, DuPont are America's single largest producer of these products. It wasn't long before the ripple effect of this media-manufacture "reefer madness" was felt all over on this side of the Atlantic and two years after the American ban, cannabis became a prohibited substance across most of Europe as well. This unjustifiable and unenforceable ban ~ still remains in force today, despite a iii series of lengthy scientific studies which have all vindicated the drug (a ed heavily in forestry and wood pulping equipment. 1988America DEAreport stated that "marijuana is one of the safest, theraThose who controlled the paper peutically active substances known to industry also owned the newspapers of the day. Chief amongst these was man"). the notoriously racist William Earlier this year, New Scientist Randolph Hearst-"Citizen Kane"magazine reported on a two year and it was through his tabloids that study commissioned by the World white America was first introduced to Health Organisation which concluded the demon drug "marijuana" (the that cannabis was a far safer subMexican word for hemp). During his stance than both alcohol and tobaccampaign of cannabis demonization, co-having fewer ill effects on health readers were treated to such spurious than either ofthe legal substances in 5 headlines as: "Marijuana Makes out of 7 categories. WHO officialshad Fiends of Boys Within 30 Days" and attempted to suppress the report. It has been estimated that over half "Hasheesh Goads Users To Blood Lust".Stories about black men raping of all school leavers in Ireland have white women whilst under the influ- experimented with cannabis. Its proence of "marihuana" and "voodoo hibition turns otherwise law-abiding satanic music" (i.e, jazz) regularly citizens into criminals and therefore appeared on his front pages. burdens the police, courts and prisHearst's friend and ally,the prohions. It is difficult in any society to bitionist Harry J. Anslinger was also have a large number of people engagoft-quoted in these papers, telling the ing in a clandestine illegal activity without the legal foundations of that public that "if the hideous monster Frankenstein came face to face with society being undermined. Its status as a recreational drug the monster marijuana he would drop dead of fright." Most readers didn't aside, however, the economic potenrealist that this terrible drug "marijua- tial of hemp as a raw material for na" was the same staff as the hemp industry is still enormous.

13

MISCELLANY

All Our Operators Are Busy ...

6,000 people are currently employed in teleservices in Ireland but the high tech facade hides what some describe as white collar factory labour.
orbairt and the IDA successfully targeted the teleservices industry during the 1990's to create jobs and the numbers employed in this industry is expected to reach 10,000 by the year 2000. Overseas companies locate a call centre in Ireland on the basis of low operating costs, low corporate taxes and generous State incentives. Ireland offers not only a state of the art telecommunications infrastructure but also a quality skills pool at cheap labour rates. According to the IDA, 50 overseas companies have call centres here. US companies like Dell, Gateway 2000 and Oracle have been attracted to use the Irish call centre opportunity as a low cost entry to the European market. Irish tele-operators answer calls from allover Europe.

David Metcalf and Sue Fernie from the London School of Economics Centre for Economic Performance, describe the call centre working environment as the 'ultimate industrialisation' of white-collar work. They say it replicates the tyranny of the traditional assembly line with the aid of computer integrated telephony. This technology, crucial to the industry, monitors the behaviour of tele-operators and measures their productivity.Workersexperience constant supervision with every aspect of their input and output being monitored. Statistics on the number of calls dealt with by a tele-operator can be accessed by a supervisor at any time through the network and listening in to calls ensures that the correct chirpy tone is being adhered to.

The EU Directive on WorkingTime (1993)has been transposed into Irish law by means of the Organisation of Working Time Act (1997) and Regulations made under the Safety, Health and Welfareat WorkAct (1989). Companies with call centres utilise the provision for exemption of certain activities under the Act in relation to employees' entitlements to daily rest, intervals at work and weekly rest. The shiftworking tele-operator is pushed into maximum productivity. Regulation on employers is at a minimum. Targeted call rates are high and in one Dublin call centre employees said they were under pressure to make 500 calls a day each on a recent sales campaign. Despite press reports that operators could expect starting salaries of around 10,000per annum in this new industry, several call centres offer just 8,000 per annum with thin opportunities for bonuses or commission. This is confirmed by the Communications Workers Union, which has found the majority of companies activelyhostile to unions. Jane Tynan

Corncrake Counters
The census results are in and the counters need no longer chase males after midnight.
Catherine Casey is a corncrake counter. Armed with a notebook, a torch and a 6 inch map-"nothing high tech"-she and four other people have just completed the first corncrake census in 5 years. From late May until the end of July the corncrake counters prowl the countryside between the hours of midnight and 3am, listening. They only count males. It is not a sexist issue. They are just easier to count because they make a noise "crex crex"-their mating call. They also tend to stay in the same spot marking their territory and calling. Females, who look exactly the same as males, are silent and rarely seen. In 1988 there were almost one thousand male corncrakes in Ireland. Ten years later there are just 150, but for the first time the Corncrake is on the way back. The numbers of Ireland's only international endangered bird have levelled off and the population in the Shannon Callowsis up by 25 per cent on last year. 14 The corncrake arrives in April from its wintering ground in South East Africa to breed in Ireland. It is attracted by tall vegetation and hayfields which make suitable nesting places, rare now in cooler Northern climes. Their sexual pattern is 'serial polygamy'. One male can have 5 breeding partners or none at all, which makes counting the full population difficult. 150 calling males could mean anywhere between 100to 600 females. Counting corncrakes is tiring work. The counter acts on research into prime locations done over 24 hour watches and on tip-offs from local volunteers. They then sit and wait. The male corncrake will wander for about a mile from his territory during the day, but at night he always stays put, calling. The counter returns to the same spot over several weeks

Theirsexual pattern is 'serial polygamy~ One male can have 5 breeding partners or none at a/f.

where the same bird will consistently be found, and is eventually recorded. This way,no bird is counted twice. There is one corncrake counter in Donegal, one in Mayo and two in the Shannon Callows. Catherine Casey, the Corncrake project officer for the Irish Wildlife Conservancy and based in Offaly, was drafted in there as a third. Two birds have returned to Inisbofin off the Connemara coast for the first time in over 6 years. The i1! uninhabited island of Iniskea off ~ Mayo has also recorded two birds for the first time. Mayo has up to 18, Donegal 28, Tory and Inishbofin 34, the Shannon Callows 70 and Elsewhere has 2. Catherine Casey says conservation projects are the reason corncrakes are coming out of decline. They have planted fields of irises and nettles for them to hide beneath, safe in the absence of tractors and sheep. And the grants paid to farmers for 'corncrake friendly' farming have paid off. Waiting until August to mow hay or silage earns 90 a hectare. Mowing fields slowlyfrom the centre outwards to allow nesting birds to move, earns another 20 per hectare. It pays to count corncrakes. But is it mad? Marguerite Barry

MIsc.
ne cannot open a Newspaper these days without someone like Esat's Denis O'Brien or Telecom's Alfie Kane smiling gruesomely out at you. This pair and their acolytes are dragging the sad, battered remains of Homo Hibernicus into the Digital Telecommunications era. The Irish always had a great oul' gra for chat. (This, in an era when the word "chat" was used independently of the word "line"). Chat occurred in Public Houses all over the country and was vitally necessary due to the lack of Sky Sports, or indeed any form of Today, air conditioned and fragrant lavatoTelevisual distraction in these places. ries feature Burt Bacharach tootling away "Chatting" usually took the form of inquisitowhilst you dampen the shining porcelain. rial probing of non-locals in order to ascertain The Pub is now, like our homes, Bursting if they kicked with the correct foot. with Technology. Electronic Tills with pinhole Today we have a benign sepia-toned view cameras to protect the publican's loot from of the "Traditional Irish Pub", full of laughter, any light fingered staff. All manner of cooling gaiety and the milk of human kindness. But, and treating systems to ensure that our poiIn the black'n'white Ireland of the 50s, 60s and son is as chemically pure as possible. even 70s, this was not always the case. More Cigarette machines provide something for the often than not our "traditional" pub was sparAir conditioning to condition. Yet, these tan and catered for the recreational needs of a places are not "of us", no matter how we are clientele as yet unused to hot water or inside constantly told so by sexy media people. The WC's. bonhomie, which that appalling word "craie" Come to think of it, the pubs themselves is meant to portray, is as foreign to the Irish weren't exactly full of the technology of Sir psyche as Tardiness is to the Teuton. Thomas Crapper or Sir Joseph Bazalgette The "real" Irish want to be left alone to either. Utilising a seatless bowl, (bring your study. the movements within their Pint, to own paper) or peeing into an open channel conjure up demons from within the swirling was about as far as one went. As for the ladies? bubbles, each Pint yielding a more terrifying Easy "We don't serve Wimmin in here" ..! Piica. Paddy likes his Dark Night of the Soul

Microchips

with

Everything

and he likes it every night. Instead we are forced to adopt a smiling "divil me care" attitude to fit the stereotype which is then beamed all round the globe, luring more unsuspecting foreigners into these infernal pubs. All of this Enforced Enjoyment is eroding our natural garrulousness and is causing serious mental problems. We were a more stable race when we were allowed space to confront the tormentors within our heads, instead of, today, doing it live on Radio 1 for Marion Finucane. Enter ...Denis'n'Alfie, whose respective companies are profuse in their "apologies for ANY inconvenience caused" by the interminable digging, trenching and wholesale destruction being carried out by their contractors Countrywide. "Improvements" to the telecommunications network which will benefit us all ...hmmm. These improvements will no doubt allow greater access to exotic Premium Rate 1550 services as "Naughty Norma's Chatup Line", "Saucy Celia's Upper House of Relaxation", or "Weathercall". Those seeking to travel that extra mile might be attracted to the "Irish Psychics, Live" service, which is, I suppose, preferable to "Irish Psychics, Dead" although connection times to the latter might be somewhat longer, to the great benefit of Denis'n Alfie. My advice? Stick with the Wireless-and Medium Wave at that.

16

Off Site, Out of Mind

Death and injury on Irish construction sites is at an all time high as cutting costs seems to mean sacrificing safety. by Aine de Paor
n March 14th Noel Wilson was crushed to death. Just after Christmas, Patrick Sinott died when he was struck by a moving object. In March last year Lyndon Bird was electrocuted, and the month before, Thomas Dowling was killed when he came in contact with a "rough, coarse surface". The latest construction workers to join the Health and Safety Authority's National Breakdown of Fatal Accidents are Sean Treacy and Robert Dunne. Employed on a sub contract basis in Co Kildare, they were buried alive in July when the wall of a trench collapsed on top of them. The industry' s spiralling death rate-53 deaths over the past three years, 11 this year alone-led to the formation last autumn of a new group demanding government action to enforce safety regulations and reduce fatalities. Building Workers Against the Black Economy, along with traditional building unions, claim the majority of deaths are due to falling safety standards, a side effect of the illegal use of subcontracting as a system of employment. They maintain that bogus self-employment is replacing the PAYEsystem and has become an accepted way of cutting costs in a highly competitive industry. According to Michael Finnegan, SIPTU's representative for labourers, employers are forcing workers into subcontracting to avoid paying their PAYEcontributions. "That way they don't have to pay PRSI, redundancy, holiday or sick pay and there's no wet pay." The government says such claims are inflated. But Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, recently produced three conflicting sets of figures for the industry's 100,000 strong workforce. Last November he put the number of PAYE workers in the building industry for 1994/ 1995 at 35,245. In January he estimated that in 1997 64,000 people had been directly employed and in February he told the Dan that of those "presently employed in the

Construction Industry, approximately 35,000 are employees." Rising with the death toll on-site are the fortunes of the industry itself-7 billion in 1997 alone-and now the fastest growing building sector in the EU. Worth treble what it was in 1988 profit growth is guaranteed into the next century by ever rising house prices, predicted to increase by 25% this year alone. Niall Irwin, maintains that by losing out on PAYE benefits like 'wet pay,' self employed workers are forced to compensate by taking risks like working in dangerous weather conditions in what he terms the "legalised black economy". In one year alone, from 1996 to 1997 accidents in the industry increased by 14%. According to the Health and Safety Authority, for every worker that dies as the result of a safety lapse the maximum fine that can be awarded against a contractor is 1,000. Fatal accidents have doubled since the early 1990' s according to Mr Irwin who believes the only way to reverse the trend is to change the iaw and allow for the imprisonment of negligent contractors. "It's cheaper for a developer not to put up a proper structure and just keep paying 500 or 1,000 every time someone gets killed and that's what's been happening. I can think of one Dublin developer that is responsible for at least three or four deaths."

For every worker that dies as the result of a safety lapse the maximum fine that can be awarded against a contractor is
7,000.

Last year in the High Court Mr Justice Kellytemporarily shut down a site belonging to the biggest apartment builder in the country, Zoe Developments, following the death of a 24 year-old worker. He told the company's director Liam Carroll that he had behaved "as if he couldn't care less" about his workers and the laws of the state. He added: "You are entitled to make profits on the sweat of your workers, but you are not entitled to make profits on the blood and lives of your workers. You are a disgrace to the construction industry ..." The court heard of 13 breaches of health and safety regulations in addition to the death. Mr Justice Kellysaid he had evidence that "the company had 12 previous convictions for the same sort of activities." After prompting from the bench Mr Carroll offered to make a 100,000 donation to charity as a sign of his remorse. In fact, the suspension of work at Zoe ended up favouring the company-house prices rose in the interim allowing it to recoup the donation several times over. Despite government assertions that the sub contracting system is not being manipulated to create largescale bogus self-employment individual departments with responsibilities in the area hint at a different analysis. The Department of the Environment in its Construction Industry Review of 1996 had this to say; "Over the past twenty years the employment structure of the industry has changed fundamentally' with most main contractors changing from traditionally employing large numbers of direct employees to a situation in recent years where they now employ subcontract workers in a contract management role." One firm told Magill that contractors abusing the system were cutting labour costs by 22 per cent allowing them to outbid legitimate operators for contracts. "This has been going on for years but you must remember that the Revenue was getting 35% in tax returns from those in self employment so they weren't bothered whether people were bogus or not." Martin Lang of the Alliance of Specialist Contractors Association maintains that the proportion of the workforce on subcontract merely reflects current employment trends. "Ifyou look at the way employment is going generally, you'll see that working on contract has become common place. Construction only reflects that."

17

IRISH lIFE - THE FOllOW UP

The Rip- Off goes on

Despite assertions by Irish Life that the company never tolerated cases of mis-selling, that it never hesitated to compensate customers who were mis-sold policies and that it dismissed sales people who engaged in such practices, the experience of some of our readers tells a very different story.
here was a large public response to our article on Irish Life in the July issue when we reported that customers lost millions of pounds as a direct result of sales practices designed to earn extra commission for sales representatives and management. Over 30 members of the public, from different parts of the country, contacted the magazine by phone or letter, to tell of various difficulties they had experienced with insurance companies. With the exception of two calls, which named other insurance companies, the remainder referred to Irish Life and a majority related to the practice of 'churning'. (Churning is term used in the insurance industry to describe a sales practice where policy holders are persuaded to cash in existing policies before maturity and replace them with new policies to generate extra commission for the sales representatives and management staff.) In addition, there was reaction from politicians and Government: T The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment sent officials into Irish Life to inspect the company files relating to the alleged mis-selling of insurance policies.

T A senior official in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment announced that new legislation was on its way to make the insurance industry more transparent and reduce the possibility of customers being misled. T The Irish Independent reported there were serious concerns within the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment over the allegations, with Tanaiste Mary Harney monitoring the practices closely. T The junior Minister for Commerce oel Treacy wrote to all of the Irish based life assurance companies expressing concerns about 'churning' within the industry. The letter, which was also circulated to the life assurance industry's representative body, the Irish Insurance Federation (HF), sought clarification from each company on procedures put in place to guard against the misselling of policies. T The Irish Independent reported the Minister's letter also asked whether the companies maintained 'properly audited persistency records' which show how many customers continue to pay into the policies until full term and what proportion of policies lapse'.

By Ursula Halligan
Committee on Enterprise and Small Business criticised Irish Life managing director David Went for refusing an invitation to attend a meeting of the committee concerning the churning allegations. Mr Went told the committee he would send a representative to the committee when the department's investigation was complete. However, this provoked a furious response from committee members and Mr Went subsequently agreed to personally attend an early meeting of the committee. Some of the Irish Life customers who called us, suspected they had been churned and were pursuing the matter with the company. Others said they had proof they were churned and were either in the process of negotiating a settlement with Irish Life or were suing the company. Below, we publish a selection of the case histories we received. In the three cases quoted, the customers requested not to be identified by name.

T The Joint Oireachtas

18

3 Case Studies
CASE A:
Bachelor churned 5 times in 7 years Mr A is a 50-year old, single selfemployed man with no dependent children. He lives in the south of the country During the early 1980she wanted to open a savings and investment policy which he could cash in at a later stage to provide for his retirement. When he was in contact with an Irish Life sales representative in 1984, he explained his circumstances and asked for advice. Between 1984 and 1991, three different Irish Life sales representatives proceeded to sell 5 separate Lifesaver policies to Mr A. These are policies that primarily provide life assurance and have a minimum facility for savings. As a single man with no dependents, Mr A did not need or want life assurance. He bought the policies on the basis that they were saving plans. He didn't realise that every time he opened a new policy, the sales representative and management in Irish Life took 90% of the first year's premium in commission. Given that Mr A was sold 5 Lifesaver policies in 7 years, (4 of which are still open and a number of which he would have been paying concurrently), this means that five years of his premium contributions went straight into the pockets of Irish Life sales reps and management, rather than into a savings policy that Mr A originally requested. By 1994, it had become clear to Mr A that he had been ill advised in relation to his investment and he raised the matter with Irish Life.Irish Lifejustified the selling of so many policies to Mr A on the grounds that there was tax relief on such policies. However, this was rejected by Mr A, who pointed out that he had already a number of savings policies with other life assurance companies where this entitlement was fully exhausted. After an unsatisfactory and lengthy correspondence between Mr !\s solicitor and Irish Life head office and the company solicitors, Mr A issued Circuit Court proceedings against Irish Life. Solicitors for Mr A told Magill that at no time since 1994 to date has Irish Life made any serious effort to deal with the matter or to compensate Mr A. Instead, Irish Life has denied that Mr A was ill advised and have defended in full the proceedings brought. national company in the west ofIreland. In that year she was persuaded by an Irish Life sales rep to take out a Lifesaver policy where her payments would be deducted from the company payroll. Two years later (1990), following another visit from the Irish Life sales rep, Ms B increased her weekly premium from 5.80 to 15. However, in 1994, when Ms B phoned Irish Life to inquire about the policy's surrender value, she was asked 'which policy?' To Ms B's amazement, she was told there was not one but two policies in her name. The first was lying dormant and all her payments were going into the second policy. She had never noticed the switch in policies because her payroll deduction slip did not quote policy numbers and simply continued to show the 15 deduction. Ms B is also adamant that she never received the fifteen day cooling off letter all insurance companies are obliged to send to customers who open new policies. Ms B was upset by the discovery of the two policies because her fiance explained to her that the opening of a second, similar policy meant she would have forfeited almost a complete year's premium in commission to the sales rep. At the time it didn't suit her to have a major row with Irish Life so she cashed in the dormant policy and continued paying into the second policy.She decided to put the episode down to experience. In 1996, Ms B got married and she and her husband visited the local branch office of Irish Life.After Ms B's earlier experience with the company, the couple was wary of dealing with Irish Life and they said this to the sales rep. They told him they wanted to increase the premium payment on Mrs B's existing policy to 25, cancel the life cover, and place all the payments into savings. They told the sales rep they wanted him to be clear about their instructions and that under no circumstances was a new policy to be opened in Mrs B's name. The sales rep assured them this would not happen and that the changes could be accommodated on Mrs B's existing policy without opening a new policy. A year later Mrs B was surprised to learn she once more had two policies. This happened when she received a standard letter from Irish Life bringing her up to date on her payroll deductions. As happened in the first case, Mrs B never received the fifteen day cooling off letter all insurance companies are obliged to send to customers who open new policies.
continued overleaf

Following the Irish Life expose in Magill, the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment appointed an authorised officer, Martin Cosgrove to examine the company's sales policies in light of the allegations of churning. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has responsibility for the insurance industry via one of its special divisions, the Insurance and Company Law Division which monitors the sector's activities. This unit supervises the non-life and life assurance companies in accordance with European and national legislation on the subject. The Division ensures that the insurance companies are able to meet their obligations to policyholders and claimants and that a competitive insurance market exists. The following is the full terms of reference set down by the Department for Mr Cosgrove's inquiry: Terms of Reference 1. Mr Martin Cosgrove, accompanied by other Departmental Officials as necessary to enquire into and report to the Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce on: T Any evidence, or otherwise as to the extent and the scope of the practice of "churning" of life assurance policies by salesforce personnel operating in the State on behalf ofIrish Life ("the company")

CASE B: 'A policy in the hand is worth two in the bush'.

In 1987,Ms B:was a single woman in her early 20's who worked in a large multi-

T The encouragement! endorsement of management, or otherwise and/ or the connivance by management, or otherwise in the practice of churning of life assurance policies by the company T The actions taken by management in the company to prevent the practice of churning wherever and whenever it occurred T The actions taken by management disciplinary or otherwise against those involved in the practice of churning T The actions taken by management to compensate policyholders suffering losses as a result of churning activities T The action taken by management to institute appropriate compliance and enforcement procedures to deal with churning of policies 2. The examination is to be carried out under the Supervisory and Regulatory authority of the Insurance Acts and Regulations. 3. Mr Cosgrove is to make whatever recommendations for future action as are deemed appropriate 4. Mr Cosgrove to produce any status or interim Reports as required by the Minister on foot of his examination 5. Mr Cosgrove to furnish a final Report on the matter as requested by the Minister.

19

IRISH LIFE - THE FOLLOW UP

Mrs B and her husband were astounded that this could happen to them twice in such a short time and they complained to Irish Life head office. However, it took several months of persistent correspondence, phone calls and a solicitor's letter before Irish Life agreed to reinstate Mrs B's original policy (1987) and place all her payments from the two subsequent policies into it. Mr and Mrs B were so disgusted by the way they had being treated by Irish Life that they decided to cash in this policy and have nothing more to do with Irish Life. The sales rep who dealt with them in 1996 is still working in the branch office.

We were churned
Irish Life in Northern Ireland
An insurance consumer group in Northern Ireland said Irish Life'soffice in Belfast featured largely in numerous complaints it received over the years concerning churning. The Society of Policyholders Issuing Complaints Effectively (SPICE), set up in 1991 by a group of dissatisfied insurance policy holders in Northern Ireland, helps customers who had their policies churned by insurance companies. Chairman, Pearse Kelly said that the number of complaints received about Irish Life suggested its sales force had engaged in widespread mis-selling of policies. 'The most widely mis-sold products are whole of life policies. These are policies which are designed primarily to provide life cover and have a small savings element but many were sold to clients who were seeking a savings plan', he said. In 1994,in one of SPICE'smost celebrated cases, Irish Life admitted that churning had taken place in the case of a Tyrone couple, Douglas and Adele Millar. The admission followed representations from SPICEand resulted in Irish Life paying thousands of pounds in compensation to the couple. Mr and Mrs Millar were persuaded to cash in their existing insurance policies with another insurance company and take out a new policy with Irish Life. The couple didn't realise there was little difference between the new Irish Life policy and the policies they held already. Later, they discovered the change cost them approximately 5,000, between the early surrender penalties on their old policies and unnecessary charges on the new policy. The Millar case was one of the most publicised examples of churning in Northern Ireland. In the same year, Irish Life closed down its Belfast office. Pearse Kelly says churning is a broad description that covers two types of practice. In its purest form, churning occurs when customers are persuaded to cancel existing policies with an insurance company in favour or buying a 'better' one with a rival company. The customer is really being re-sold the same policy, but at great expense, by a sales rep from another insurance company who benefits from the additional commission. This type of churning occurs between insurance companies. The second type of churning'twisting'-takes place when an insurance company sells similar policies to its own customers. Pearse Kelly says this practice appears to have been highlighted by the Magill article. He said 'twisting' is easier to detect because company files record the sale of similar policies to customers whereas in churning (between companies) there is no central body of data to consult. Such cases only came to light if the customers realised what happened and pursued the matter. 'My experience of dealing with Irish Life victims in the UK, is that the company is not very consumer friend1y.There is an arrogance about their response and many clients tell me that when they make a complaint it's as thought they are the villains in the piece and not Irish Life'. Mr Kelly said self-regulation in the insurance industry didn't work in the UK or in Northern Ireland and the Financial Services Act introduced during the 1980s to tighten up on the industry, is also inadequate. He said there would be no need for SPICE or other similar consumer organisations to exist, if the official channels, which handle customer complaints about insurance companies, were efficient and effective. SPICE is a commercial enterprise that operates on a no fee, no foal basis and charges a membership fee of 50. In cases where it achieves compensation, it takes 25 per cent of the net award. Most of its business comes from Northern Ireland but it has handled a small number of cases in the Republic. It can be contacted at: 0801 868767629.

Case C: 'No
Irish Life'

insurance after 25 years in

Mr and Mrs C live in the West ofIreland and have been customers of Irish Life for the past 25 years but are now without life assurance and feel insecure. The reason why is as follows: In 1983, they took out a Lifesaver policy and agreed to pay 5 per week initially with a view to increasing this at a later date. In 1985, they agreed to increase their payments but instead of a top-up on the original policy, they received a new policy. The additional premium was 25 per week making a total premium of 30 per week. This was too much for them and they requested a reduction. In 1987, on the advice of an Irish Life sales rep, the couple cashed in the original policy (1983). In August 1994, again on the advice of their Irish Lifesales rep, the couple cashed in the 1985 policy. This was replaced with a new policy. In December 1994 and November 1995 two further policies were opened. From 1983 to 1995, there were five policies taken out. Two of which were cashed in on the advice of Mr C's Irish Life sales rep and replaced with similar policies. Mr C contacted Irish Life on a number of occasions to seek clarification on where he stood with his various policies. In May this year, he employed a solicitor to help him get answers to his letters and phone calls. The response from Irish Life was to give him a breakdown of payments due and payments received. No effort was made to investigate why Mr C and his wife had five policies taken out over a period of 12 years and two policies surrendered when similar policies replaced them. Mr C ' still feels aggrieved by the way he was treated by Irish Life and believes he is no longer insured. He considers the advice given to him by his Irish Life sales rep and the Dublin office was totally inadequate and left him and his wife more confused and annoyed than before he looked for help and advice.

The Millar case was one of the most publicised examples of churning in Northern Ireland. In the some year, Irish Life closed down its Belfast office.

20

MAGlLL August 1998

COVER STORY

They were not the only

Rogues
Evidence of massive tax fraud emerged at closed committee

. sessions.

by Vincent Browne

The scale of the malpractice revealed in that closed session dwarfs anything so for revealed or likely to be revealed concerning the former Taoiseach, Charles Haughey

n April 28 last the outgoing chairman of the Revenue . Commissioners, Cathal Mac Domhnaill, was invited to attend a closed session of the Dail's Committee of Public Accounts. In the course of a question and answer session with TDs on the Committee, Mr MacDornhnaill gave an insight into the scale of financial malpractice that pertains in Ireland and the apparent helplessness of the Revenue Commissioners in dealing with it. He revealed that the chief special collector's figure for the 1993 tax amnesty, introduced by the Fianna Fail/Labour government was just under IR200m. He said that when "grossed up" that figure would represent undeclared income of "over IRl billion, perhaps IR1.25 billion". He also revealed that one financial institution had been forced to pay back tax and penalties of a six-figure sum and that building societies were also involved in the facilitation of large-scale tax fraud. The scale of the malpractice revealed in that closed session dwarfs anything so

22

far revealed or likely to be revealed concerning the former Taoiseach, Charles Haughey. It is likely to be established by the Moriarty Tribunal that Mr Haughey was funded from private secret sources to the tune of millions of pounds (in today's terms) since he entered politics and that he evaded tax on these gifts and other benefits. It is also likely to be established that he received very considerable contributions while Taoiseach from 1987 to 1992 from sources other than Ben Dunne, although his lifestyle expenses were probably no more than l.25m during that period-the McCracken Tribunal established that Mr Haughey's household expenses were 5,000 per week. (Among the mysteries of Mr Haughey's financial arrangements is not just from where he got his money but what he did with the relatively vast amounts he received). It is also likely to emerge that Ray Burke received substantial payments additional to the 60,000 he received in June 1989 from JMSE and Fitzwilton pIc. And again the question arises as to what he did with such monies. In connection with the payments to Ray Burke a crucial issue remains-who knew about the 30,000 contribution from Fitzwilton and when did they know it? Evidence given by the former Fianna Fail general secretary, Pat Farrell, to the Beef Tribunal in 1992 suggests that the full time financial controller of the party had direct knowledge of all contributions made to the party and that the informal fund raising group which raised money at election times for the party reported directly to him. Evidence has also emerged of the involvement of the three main political parties, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Labour Party in a systematic practice that could have facilitated tax fraud-the "pick me up" system (see panel on page 27). Mr Ahern informed his Parliamentary Party about his party's operation of the scheme at a party conference in Cavan on the afternoon of Friday June 19 last. This followed a letter earlier that morning, from Magill to Mr Ahern's close associate and the current party fund-raiser, Des Richardson, asking questions about Fianna Fail's operation of that system.

he following extract is from the question and answer session with Mr MacDomhnaill, the then chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, is taken from the confidential transcript of the interchange. Deputy Rabbitte (Democratic Left TD for Dublin South West): "The largest bank in the country has conceded that it had 53,000 bogus accounts with about IR600m in them and it defended that in public on the basis that the practice was industrywide. Given the size of the country, 53,000 accounts in the largest bank and an admission that the practice

was industry-wide, the tax compliant citizens will want to know how that could have been going on at such a scale." Mr MacDomhnaill: "That is what I refer to when I say that certain information came to light during the amnesty debate. These were the figures mentioned. A Deputy said in the Dail that there were two streams of hot money-hot money which is abroad and hot money in the country. The chief special collector's figure for the amnesty was just under IR200m and grossed up that would represent undeclared income of over IRl billion, perhaps IRl.25 billion. The Deputy asks how this can happen. The Euromoney study has shown that there are trillions of dollars floating around in offshore funds. It is world wide phenomenon .... Deputy Rabbitte: "What was going on in the AlB or the NIB does not fit into that trillions scenario for hot money, the origins of some of which may be very doubtful. We are talking

about legitimate commercial and other undertakings within the jurisdiction where products were sold on the basis that the money would be hidden from the Revenue. In other words, straightforward tax evasion to middle Ireland while hundreds of thousands of PAYE workers were in the streets. That is not to be compared with big-time hot money." Mr MacDomhnaill: "It is seamless. The person who has international transactions can arrange to have kickbacks and discounts which do not come back into the country. There are a lot of legitimate interbank balances involved also. If one was to study the consolidated balance sheet published by the Central Bank one would see that at the last count the indebtedness to overseas by Irish financial institutions was of the order of over IR80 billion. That is the scale of amounts." Chairman (Jim Mitchell TD): "IR80 billion?" Mr MacDomhnaill: "Yes. Huge amounts are flowing in and out. That is not to say we do not use all means at our disposal to tackle evasion where we find it. We cannot go through the banking system to get that information but we have powers of audit for the taxpayers. Genuine non-resident accounts are one matter but bogus non-resident accounts are another. The main culprit in the case of the latter is the taxpayer who declares that the interest on the money is beneficially the property of someone not ordinarily resident in the State ... " Deputy Sean Ardagh (Fianna Fail TD for Dublin South Central and a chartered accountant): "Was a payment or settlement made by any financial institution in compensation to the Revenue Commissioners for the wrong use by their customers of nonresident accounts?" Mr MacDomhnaill: "This answer should not be misinterpreted as applying to recent cases in the news. On a minor scale, we have been paid sums of money in relation to cases where we were able to individually establish that retention tax should be paid. Our primary approach to these cases is not to give credit for the retention tax to the taxpayer concerned; we reimpose tax in full on the interest."
Continues on page 25

23

MAG1U. August 1998

COVER STORY

A Frenzy of Inquiries
Magill has learned that the Gardai are to launch a criminal investigation into breaches of exchange controls. This is a direct result of an investigation in one of the many inquiries taking place.

By Liz Walsh
Moriarty Tribunal
Established - September 26, 1997 Chairman - Justice Michael Moriarty Counsel- John Coughlan SC,Jerry Healy SC, Jacqueline O'Brien BL,Maire Moriarty BL. Solicitor - John Davis Terms of reference - To enquire into: 1 details of payments made, directly or indirectly to Charles Haughey during any period in public office from January 1979to December 1996 and whether any benefactors were granted political favours 2 source of money held in the Ansbacher accounts and other bank accounts by Haughey or any ministerial office holders, past or present 3 whether substantial payments were made to Michael Lowry (or JUSTICE MICHAEL any company associated with him, including Sreamline Enterprises) during his time in office 4 source of money held by Lowry in the Bank of Ireland (Thurles branch and Isle of Man) branches of AlBbank in the Channel Islands and Dame Street, the Irish Permanent Building Society, Cork, or Rea Brothers (Isle of Man) 5 whether or not Lowry gave political favours for such payments 6 whether the revenue commissioners used their powers to recover taxes due by Lowry and Haughey as a result of payments or gifts paid by Ben Dunne to both men or to Streamline Enterprises. Status: Sat for a day at the end of October, delivered interim report to the Dail on December 22. Deadline: Originally July 31, 1998 but delayed due to High Court and Supreme Court action by the Haughey family challenging the basis of the tribunal. Public hearings expected to begin in October. Minister, Ray Burke in June 1989 by James Gogarty on behalf of the building firm, Joseph Murphy Structural Engineers (JMSE) Original Terms of Reference1 identify the 726 acres of land in north county Dublin referred to in a letter from Michael Bailey (director of Bovale Developments) to James Gogarty (executive of JMSE) and the planning history ofthe land 2 determine if any acts associated with the planning process committed after June 1985 amounts to corruption 3 identify all recipients of payments made by Gogarty or Bailey to political parties, _ politicians (past or present) or MORIARTY local authority officials and the motives behind such payments. Extended terms of reference (July 1,1998) 4 the 30,000 donation to Burke from Rennick's Manufacturing LTD,a subsidiary of Fitzwilton plc, The donation, a cheque made out to cash during the 1989 election campaign, was revealed by Magilllast June. The extended powers also allowthe tribunal to investigate allegations of corruption dating back to January 1973. Status: Preliminary investigation stage delayed by legal action and by the extension of its terms of reference. Public session likelyin January 1999.

1 Coded records, kept by Padraig Collery of Guinness & Mahon, of secret Ansbacher deposits made by Irish residents over a 20year period to a Cayman bank, Ansbacher Ltd. (Money re-deposited into general accounts in Dublin's Guinness and Mahon bank and later into Irish Intercontinetal Bank.) 2 Loans from Guinness & Mahon to Tony O'Reilly. Mr O'Reilly said he was only a depositor in a 12 month account held with Guinness and Mahon in 1972and said he never made contributions to either Lowry or Haughey. 3 Documentation from Irish Intercontinental Bank together with a smaller amount from Hamilton Ross, a Caymanregistered company linked to Ansbacher. 4 Account opened by Des Traynor in Irish Continental in the name of Hamilton Ross, into which some of the Ansbacher funds were transferred. After his death, accounts operated by Padriag Collery. Status - Ansbacher refuses to co-operate and sought court order in Cayman banning release ofits files.

Kentford Securities
Est - June 1998by Tanaiste Mary Harney Inspector - Gerry Ryan Details - part of money trail leading to Ansbacher deposits. Irish-registered company, Kentford (est. 1979 by Management and Investment Services (MIS)).Sam Field Corbett, former business associate of Charles Haughey and linked with Celtic Helicopters, runs MIS. Two former Guinness and Mahon directors, Maurice O'Kelly and Daniel O'Connor, directors of Kentford for a brief period. Kentford was controlled and operated by Haughey's accountant, the late Des Traynor. Apparently, Traynor used Kentford as a sifting mechanism though which he opened accounts and closed them once the deposits had been moved on. Kentford was dissolved in May 1995. Status - Ryan examining books and documents belonging to Kentford.

Blayney inquiry
Established - 24 September 1997,by Institute of Chartered Accountants. Chairman - Retired Supreme Court judge, John Blayney. Terms of Reference - Investigating possible professional misconduct by members named in the McCracken Tribunal Status - Progress made but delayed by legal action. Noel Fox, senior partner in Freaney, was a financial advisor to Dunnes Stores which paid l.3m to Charles Haughey. Also a trustee of Dunnes Settlement Trust and a close friend of Ben Dunne.

Celtic Helicopters
Est - Last September by Tanaiste, Mary Hanney Inspector - Gerry Ryan To inquire into - the operations of Celtic Helicopters (Ciaran Haughey major shareholder). FollowedMcCracken report revelation that Celtic secured loans from Ansbacher deposits. Investigating - Ansbacher Cayman funds held for Charles Haughey and used 4 times to support debts by Celtic Helicopters. A 150,000 loan from Irish Continental to Celtic Helicopters in1992 repaid out of the Haughey's Ansbacher funds, (a payment

Flood Tribunal
Established - 4 November 1997 Chairman - Justice Feargus Flood Counsel - John Gallaher SC, Pat Hanratty SC, FelixMcEnroy BL,Mairead Coghlan BL (research counsel) Solicitors - Mary Cummins and Maire Ann Howard. Details - Investigating possible corruption in land rezoning and planning issues, in particular, the circumstances surrounding the 30,000payment to former Fianna Fail

Ansbacher Deposits Investigation

Established - Tanaiste Mary Harney Investigator - Gerry Ryan of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Enterprise To inquire into

24

Continued from page 23

that Ciaran Haughey must have been aware of, the McCracken tribunal concluded) . Status - Gerry Ryan gave interim report but told department he needed more information. Several more months to go.

tion on inspectors' queries and for the right of their solicitors to cross-examine anyone giving evidence against their clients. High Court Ruling: staff must co-operate with the inspectors. Interviews will begin almost immediately.

Garuda
Est - July 1998 by Tanaiste tancy department within Enterprise and Details - Inspecting company files concernEmployment. ing mis-selling of insurance policies follow(Garuda Ltd, trading as Streamline ing a report in the July issue of Magill, which revealed that Irish Life cusEnterprises, owned by Michael Lowry.) tomers lost millions of pounds as a direct result of sales pracInvestigating - Cheques issued tices, known as "churning". by Dunnes Group to Streamline, Junior minister for Commerce, either cashed by Lowry or lodged into his account between Noel Treacy also wrote to all Irish based life assurance comNovember 1988 and March panies expressing concern 1993, did not appear in the about churning within the books of the company because Lowry had declared it as personindustry. A copy of the minister's letter was sent to the Irish alincome. Insurance Federation (IIF) the McCracken says the Dunnes/ TANAlsTE MARY HARNEY Streamline relationship allowed representaive body for the industry. The IIF has sought clarification payments to be made which facilitated tax from each company on procedures put in evasion and exchange control laws. Status - Compiling list of financial transacplace to guard against the mis-selling of policies. tions by Garuda on issues of company law and taxation. Report due to be completed Central Bank before the Celtic investigation. Est - June 7 by Department of Finance National Irish Bank Details - Sought advice of Garda Commissioner on criminal investigation into breachEst. - March by Tanaiste Mary Harney es of the law governing exchange controls. Inspectors - accountant Tom Grace and Acting on the advice of the DPP on June 5, retired Supreme Court judge, John Blayney, Finance gave the Commissioner a file of Investigating documents arising from the McCracken 1 Overcharging and interest loading Tribunal. Duplicate set sent to revenue and stretching back 10 years the Moriarty Tribunal. Breaches of 2 Allegations that NIB management either exchange control rules carries penalties of encouraged surcharging practices or failed up to 5,000 or two years imprisonment. to stop the practices when they became Status - Central Bank refuses to comment. It aware of them. is understood that the investigation exam3 Why misappropriated funds were not ined payments routed by Ben Dunne to repaid and who was responsible for the Michael Lowry through Isle of Man decision. Evidence suggests accounts were accounts and also offshore payments by falsified and that money was taken from Dunne to Charles Haughey. Exchange conNIB customers without their knowledge trols were abolished in December 1992, but and who were then given forged statements prior to that, a number of wealthy deposiof their accounts. tors would have benefited by holding ster4 Accounts and books of NIB from 1988 to ling accounts abroad in accounts like now. 5 Senior civil servant Martin Cosgrove Ansbacher Cayman. Central Bank is also investigating allegaappointed to investigate the sale by the bank of the Clerical Medical International tions of interest loading and overcharging by NIB and sale of the controversial offshore (CMI) investment bonds. bonds scheme. The bank has no statutory Status - Cosgrove delivered interim report obligations to publish its findings. in June, which indicated that NIB may have The Central Bank has a range of sanctions at operated CMI schemes with intention of its disposal, including the removal of a defrauding revenue. banker's licence. Compelling evidence 4 out of every 5 NIB policies examined exists that some institutions-most notably appeared to breach regulations. Established that offshore bonds were not authorised for Guinness and Mahon bank-exceeded Central Bank guidelines that no deposit or sale in the republic. June 4, Cosgrove report sentto DPP. group of deposits should account for more than 5 % of a bank's assets. Despite this, High Court extended the remit of the two action has yet to be taken by the Central inspectors to include CMI. Delayed by court Bank. action from 100 NIB staff wanting informaEst - September by Tanaiste, Mary Harney Inspector - Peter Fisher, head ofthe consul-

lrishllie

Deputy Ardagh: "Of what magnitude was the payment from the financial institution or institutions involved?" Mr MacDomhnaill: "There are different orders or magnitude. In one instance where we were able to identify a number of evasion cases in a certain branch of a particular bankagain not to be confused with the ones that have been mentioned-the aggregate was a six figure sum." Mr MacDomhnaill then went on to disclose that the Building Societies were also involved in schemes that facilitated large-scale tax evasion. "The big word advertised in those days (1980's) was 'confidentiality'. Anybody would have known there was regular advertising by building societies of confidentiality, which was a code word for saying they did not have to make a return of interest." In effect, building societies had a retention tax regime long before 1986. The commission on taxation said this arrangement facilitated evasion. In 1986, the retention tax was not removed but extended to all the other financial institutions instead. As the commission saw it, the same type of regime can be set to facilitate evasion because it has removed the obligation on those institutions to make returns of interest to Revenue ... "When we examined this in 1991, we could see the trend. The associated banks non-resident deposit amount was static and the non-associated bank's amount, mainly building societies' was going up at a dramatic rate. This could be juxtaposed with the advertisement of confidentiality." The terms of the Moriarty Tribunal (see panel on inquiries) include an investigation into the effectiveness of the Revenue Commissioners and the Central Bank. Certainly, on the basis of Mr McDomhnaill, there are ground s for enquiring into the effectiveness of the Revenue Commissioners in investigating the banks and building societies in the operation of non-resi- . dent accounts. The McCracken Tribunal raised questions about the effectiveness of the Revenue Commissioners in relation to the Ansbacher accounts. There also remains the unanswered question how the Revenue Commissioners ignored for so long the apparent discrepancy between the cost of Mr Haughey's very public lifestyle and the income he was earning from public office.
Continues on page 27

25

MAG1LL August 1998

COVER STORY

Pick Me Up in Style
The 'pick me up' style of political donations can involve complex games with taxation.
By Suzanne Kelly
the n 1950'sa 'pick me up' was a tonic, thought to have a suspect medical pedigree. As the millennium approaches, a pick me up is understood to be a kind of financial sponsorship of political parties, thought to have a suspect tax pedigree. A millennium pick me up is where a political party's bill is picked up by some other person-"you go ahead and order the posters, Tammy, I'll pick up the tab." The facts surrounding each pick me up need to be clearly established, if the fullfinancial and tax consequences are to be understood. Take a mythical company called Kelcorp and assume it wishes to make a donation to a selected political party of say 20,000. The Kelcorp board of directors may decide to make such a donation because the party a) is friendly to its industry b) does not wish to be omitted from any contracts/tenders by virtue of not having given any donation (this can be the rationale for donations to two or three political parties during the same election) c) wishes to support a particular party within the political party and the donation is expressly given to that individual ---' "''-~ "" Kelcorp is entitled to make a donation in all of the above circumstances. In the preparation of the company's audited accounts, this payment will be fully deductible in the Profit and Loss account. It is these same audited accounts which are submitted to the Revenue Commissioners for tax purposes. These accounts are then revised for tax purposes. Usuallythere are tax addbacks to the profit in the P&Laccount, for example entertainment expenses.

Entertainment expenses, as defined by tax law, are not deductible for tax purposes even though they may be a legitimate corporate expense and deductible in the P&L account. Entertainment expenses are therefore added back for tax purposes. Any payments in the P&Laccount not "wholly and exclusive" for the

purposes of the company's trade are added back for taxing. A donation to a political party would not generally be regarded as a business payment made wholly and exclusively for the trade. Therefore for tax purposes it would be added back, effectively costing the paying company more cash. It has been suggested that instead of making non-deductible payments directly to political parties, these payments could be made tax deductible if they could be invoiced as a kind of expense which the company would have incurred normally in the course ofits business. Take for example where Kelcorp, instead of making a donation of 20,000 directly to the political party, pays the political party's advertising bill up to an amount of 20,000 plus VAT. VATis charged at 21% so there would be a VATcharge of 4200 in addition to the 20,000. If the contract for the advertising work is between the advertising company and Kelcorp say where Kelcorp says to its own advertising firm go ahead and do 20,000of business for a

designated political party, then the invoice is properly issued to Kelcorp. It followsthat in either of the above cases, the payment by Kelcorp to the advertiser is not wholly and exclusively for the purposes of Kelcorp's trade and therefore must be added back for taxing. Were such an add back omitted and its omission is subsequently established by the Revenue Commissioners, full tax and interest (of 12%or 15%per annum, depending on the year) running from the original date upon which the tax was due must be paid over by the company. The Revenue have full powers to pursue all entities involved in any conspiracy that might exist. Once any facts enter the public arena the revenue may fully investigate the matter, and seek to recover any additional tax, interest and penalties on both corporation tax and vat. It is difficult to understand the motive of businesses entering into such complicated arrangements (pick me ups) where it would be much more straightforward to just givea donation to the political party. If a pick me up was used as the basis of an omitted add back claim and therefore a suppression of tax, the saving to the company would be 12,200 on a donation of 24,200 (inclusive of VAT)where the rate of corporation tax was running at 40%. The most alarming aspect of this discussion is that any political party, hoping to run the country at some future date, might have suggested that a contribution be made in this way in order to either increase donations or decrease the cost of donations to the business making the donation. In the late 1980's the basis of increases in productivity was "when the end justified the means"-ethics may not have been of concern. If historically people in political parties conspired in any way to defeat the tax man, ethics will be the least of their concerns as we approach the millennium; they could end up in jail under their own legislation drafted by themselves.

26

Continued from page 25

the n course of his evidence to the Beef Tribunal on September 15, 1992, the then general secretary of Fianna Fan, Pat Farrell, gave an insight into that issue. He said that in election terms, special fundraising schemes took place. Mailing lists were compiled using standard direct mailing lists, listing of companies and businesses etc. Counsel for the Tribunal, Eoin McGonigal SC, questioned him: Mr McGonigal: "I think all letters inviting contributions are sent in and dealt with directly by a full time paid official in headquarters". Pat Farrell: "By one full time paid official, that's right". Mr McGonigal: These records are maintained under the control of a full time official?" Pat Farrell: "That's correct" Mr McGonigal: "Is that yourself or somebody else?" Pat Farrell: "No. The full time official concerned is the financial executive, the financial controller of the organisation". Mr McGonigal: "What access do the senior members of the party have to these records?" Pat Farrell: "None. These records are maintained strictly under the control of full time officials." Mr McGonigal: "Would senior members of the party been made aware of who was making donations?" Pat Farrell: "No." Mr McGonigal: "Is that part of the confidentiality?" Pat Farrell: "Absolutely." Mr McGonigal: "Apart from the letters and contributions is there a system of fundraisers employed by the party?" Pat Farrell: "While fundraisers would

Revenue Chairman Cathal MacDomhnaill the reveneue offices in Tallaght assist in a voluntary capacity in assisting in the compilation of lists such as at the time of an election." Mr McGonigal: "Apart altogether from that, is there a committee of fundraisers set up for the specific purpose of collecting funds?" Pat Farrell: "I don't know if you would describe it as a committee, as such. We would use it from time to time and it would vary in numbers. Fundraisers who assist with compiling lists to direct mail individuals, companies, etc. in relation to solicitation of funds at the time of election". Mr McGonigal: "And those fundraisers, who would they be responsible to?"

and Charlie Mccreevy, minister for finance at the opening of

Evidence has also emerged of the involvement of the three main political parties, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Labour Party in a systematic practice that could have facilitated tax fraud-the "pick me up" system.

Pat Farrell: "While they would be directly responsible to the full time official and would assist him directly in his duty to compile lists, issue standard letters to people on the list and companies on the list and he would then receive directly any responses or donations that would come from that general mailshot", The question arises; how it was that at a time when the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, was attempting to establish in June 1997 what payments had been made to Ray Burke in June 1989 that he did not consult with the person who was or had been the full time official? The fate of the Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrat government hangs crucially on the issue of when Mr Ahern first knew of the Fitzwilton payment to Mr Burke in 1989. If it were established that Mr Ahern knew of this prior to September 1997, then he would have been complicit in the deception of the Dan in September of last year about the 10,000 contribution to Fianna Fan (i.e. the 10,000 that Ray Burke hand" ed over to Fianna Fail in June 1989 from the Fitzwilton 30,000, which he told the Dail was from the JMSE 30,000).

Justice Brian McCracken

27

n July 19 half a dozen men dragged 33 year old Andy Kearney away from his partner and baby, and left him shot in both knees to bleed to death in the jammed lift of a New Lodge tower-block. This was for no better reason than that he had beaten a local North IRAboss in a fight. Andy Kearney's miserable death turned the spotlight firmly away from the previous week's spectacle-that of unionists shamed, Orangeism confounded and nationalists largely vindicated in the eyes of the world, by a pattern of intransigence and loyalist violence that led to the death of the three Quinn children in an arson attack. An IRA squad killed Mr. Kearney just as Unionists and Conservatives began once more to argue in Westminster that Sinn Fein as the IRA's political wing must not be treated as a normal democratic party, because they have not abandoned 'the use or threat of violence.' Sinn Fein should be excluded from the new Assembly'sExecutive and IRAprisoners refused accelerated release-both of which legislation is about to underpin as part of the Good Friday Agreement. Tony Blair,though he accepts that SF and the IRA are 'inextricably linked,' has refused all pleas to date by

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble to tinker with the Agreement's terms. Labour's majority will clobber Unionist and Conservative proposals. But the result of the Kearney killing, and the RUCannouncement that they are investigating IRAinvolvement, is that Secretary of State Mo Mowlam may be forced to announce that the first releases of IRAprisoners will be delayed. What this would mean for the political future and in the long run the IRA ceasefire, is incalculable. The Agreement insists on linked movement across the board: continued commitment to exclusively peaceful means, Sinn Fein into the Assembly Executive, accelerated prisoner release, decommissioning, etc. A package, or nothing. Sinn Fein has difficulties with decommissioning, David Trimble with Sinn Fein ministers, North/South bodies and reforms. For all that, both seemed prepared for the autumn's tests. Trimble had been strengthened by the outcome of Drumcree and the failure of his unionist enemies to use it as a rallying ground. Sinn Fein was boosted by the after-images of Orangemen among violent loyalists, blinking at petrol bombings of Catholic homes until three small boys burned to death.

No one has even tried to justify the killing of Andy Kearney as a punishment.' Sinn Feinets themselves seemed wrong footed, their usually smooth propaganda machine stalled.

Popular disgust with the IRAwill not erase those images. The communal judgement might be, with Andy Kearney's mother, that politicians themselves ambivalent about violence should not use his death. The Referendum and Assembly elections showed a cross-community will to work a new deal. But Sinn Fein's selfrighteousness has made them slow to recognise that Andy Kearney's death will accelerate the argument about disarming and standing clown the IRA. They might look more sharply at the failings of republicanism after reflection on what happened behind the stand-offs. Some of those who spearheaded opposition to the new deal have clearly themselves begun to work the system. When he saw the DUP-Ian Paisley, Nigel Dodds, Gregory Campbell-driving into Stormont in the middle of the first week of Drumcree, the heart of one new Assembly functionary sank. "I thought 'I bet this is part of their tactics. They're here to dig in. They're going to bar the door and say they're not coming out until the Orangemen get down Garvaghy Road'." But the Reverend Ian and Messrs Campbell and Dodds are the DUP's team on the committee to draw up standing

Countdown
to Drumcree
Monday, June 29

Thursday, July 2

The Parades Commission announced the prohibition on the Drumcree Orange parade from marking through Garvaghy Road, following the church service on July 5. The prohibition was welcomed by the Garvaghy residents and criticised by the Orange Order and David Trimble.
Tuesday, June 30

Loyalist hardliners carried out an overnight spate of arson attacks on Catholic churches throughout the north. The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair flew into Belfast and pledged the churches would be rebuilt.
Friday, July 3

Blair's secretary phones the Garvaghy ~ road residents and asks them to allow ~ the Orange Parade to go ahead. ~
Saturday, July 4

The 108 members took their seats in the new Northern Ireland Assembly. Later, the Secretary of State Mo Mowlam met Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan to discuss the Drumcree crisis.

Wednesday, July 1

A series of meetings organised by David Trimble and his deputy continued throughout the day but failed to reach agreement over Drumcree.

Ashopes of a last minute compromise faded, Trimble and Mallon said the impasse should not be allowed to threaten peace and stability. A caller claiming to represent the mid-Ulster UVF warned they would retaliate of

29

"":f ~

August 19981

THE NORTH
orders for the new Assembly. Fresh from urging the Orangemen to hold fast at Drumcree, they turned up at Stormont to sit around a table and elect a chair with among others, Sinn Fein's John Kelly (of the 1970Arms Trial) and a young South Armagh SF-er who served a jail sentence, Conor Murphy. As the Orangemen brought up their hamburger vans and loyalists began lightning blockades on Northern Ireland's roads, stopping drivers in the middle of Belfast and asking for details, moving off as police arrived, the DUP's team at Stormont spread out their order papers and cleared their throats. Contrary to most expectations, Paisley and company created no fuss in the meeting-one of only two Assembly committees up and running. They were there to do business, crammed shoulder to shoulder round one table with those they insist on calling Sinn Fein /IRA-"it's not a very big room," a first-time elected representative said, clearly somewhat awed. Bob Mc Cartney's UK Unionists nominated the DUP leader for the Trimble's Ulster Unionists voted for the politician most certain to try any standing orders to breaking-point, the loudest anti-Agreement voice, Ian Paisley. "Of course they did," said a proAgreement rep, "they couldn't have it said that they gave an SDLPman the first committee chair to be settled." Or as another put it: "In the middle of Drumcree, coming up to the Twelfth, vote for a nationalist instead of Paisley?Forget it." But the first person eventually took a more optimistic line. "Youcould as easily be surprised the DUP turned up at all in the week that was in it. The important thing is to draw them in and not make a fuss, not score. It could just be that's what the UU's were doing too." Elsewhere in Stormont, the two men elected to head the new Assembly struggled with Drumcree and its potential to destroy the fragile structures of the Good Friday Agreement. David Trimble was still pussyfooting round the disruption and increasing violence of the Orange protest, Seamus Mallon trying to stiffen the UU's man resolve, fielding nationalist phone calls expressing disgust with the ambivalence of unionist leaders about the threat and use of violence. The Trimble/Mallon 'rapport' that some officials had tried to

chair, against SDLP veteran Denis Haughey. The two tied with seven votes each. Brid Rodgers was away on Garvaghy Road: the SDLP team was one down. Perhaps daunted in what was effectivelythe first test of dispositions in the new order, David Ervine of the Progressive Unionists, the UVF's small front party, didn't cast his vote. The four representatives of David

As the Orangemen brought up their hamburger vans, and loyalists began lightning blockades on Northern Ireland's roads, the DUP's team at Stormont spread out their order papers and cleared their throats.

Monday, July 6

Thursday, July 9

Trimble and Church of Ireland Archbishop Robin Eames met in Armagh and appealed to an end of violence. Petrol bombs were thrown at police and two gunmen hijacked a bus in Craigavon in a series of violent incidents throughout the north.
Tuesday, July 7

Orange leaders flewto Downing Street for a 90-minute meeting with Tony Blair.Afterwards, Blairsaid the parade ban would be upheld. Three policemen Were injured by shrapnel when Orange protesters hurled blast bombs.

Orangemen were attacked by the

RUe. Sunday, July 5

Thousands of Orangemen set offfrom Portadown Orange Hall to Drumcree Church. The District Grand Master called for a dignified protest when their return route was blocked by security forces and a standoff began.

Shots were fired in Belfast and 2,000 Orange supporters blockaded the village of Dunloy. Seamus Mallon was heckled by 100 angry residents on Garvaghy Road who accused him of trying to broker a deal on the march. Wednesday,July 8 A number of RUCwere forced to flee their homes as police reinforcements were flown into Drumcree. SDLP assembly member, Brid Rogers accused political extremists of exploiting the Drumcree crisis.

30

TV shots of sashed and suited Orongemen mingling with rioters indisputably caused ripples of unease among a wider unionist community.

talk up looked strained. Mallon made his own public judgements on the potential for disaster in Drumcree, went to GarvaghyRoad, was jeered as a 'Catholic unionist' and came back to Trimble'sside. Atpress conferences then and after the deaths on the Twelfth morning of the three young Quinns, the SDLP man defended his new boss, the fledgling First Minister. When the pugnacious radio reporter Eamon Mallie piled into Trimble, asking why he couldn't have called for the Orangemen to leave Drumcree before the little boys died, Mallon called him unfair. By some accounts he was in truth less sympathetic. "The thing is those guys in the UU can't be told," one Mallon colleague said later. "We'vebeen telling them for ages, and I'm sure Blair does too, if you pussyfoot round Paisley-or worse, if you try competing with him in appealing to the worst instincts in unionism-Paisley's always the winner."

Mallon's comparative public patience with Trimble reflected general awareness that the UU leader, incapable of building on the crosscommunity support for the agreement, still had enormous difficulties and was almost completely isolated among those who should have been

Saturday, July 11

Monday, July 13

The proximity talks adjourned after several hours of disagreement. Portadown District applied for a new march at noon. Garvaghy residents described the application as very provocative and warned they would mount a counter demonstration.
Sunday, July 12

Thousands of Orangemen march in celebration of the Twelfth but numbers at Drumcree dwindle. Nationalists in the lower Ormeau Road held a silent black flag protest as the Orange parade passed by. Scuffles

Friday, July 10

Nationalists and unionists agreed to attend proximity talks in Armagh. Policein London and Dublin arrest six people from a dissident republican group who were allegedly on a bombing mission in England.

Three young brothers were burned to death in their home in Ballymoney, Co Antrim in what RUC Chief Constable described as an act of sectarian murder. Richard, Mark and Jason Quinn, were aged 10, 9 and 8, The murders were condemned by unionist, republican and church leaders on both sides of the border. That evening, the Orange Order county chaplain, Willie Bingham, called on the Orangemen to leave the field at Drumcree and go home.

31

August 19981

THE NORTH
his colleagues. "He's so badly served by those around him," said an observer more sympathetic to Trimble than most. "Up at Stormont there's hardly a well known face, it's these infants. He spins and dithers. He probably imagines that way he risks less. But the man has enemies everywhere." Ballymoney and the disintegration of the Orange case unsettled some of Trimble's UU foes and at least temporarily interrupted covert moves towards an anti-agreement front. The procession to Drumcree of antiAgreement MP's keen to pay public respect had already tapered off, as loyalist violence became too widespread to ignore. Some insiders reckoned that foremost internal Trimble rival Jeffrey Donaldson damaged himself by reintroducing the notion of a unified antiAgreement front on the day of the Twelfth parades, 24 hours after the Quinn boys' deaths. "Nobody trusts Jeffrey anyhow," said one, "and now they wonder has he got what it takes. His nappies are showing." Arguments still rumble as to whether the stand-off would have fizzled out if the horror in Ballymoney had not happened. But TV shots of sashed and suited Orangemen mingling with rioters indisputably caused ripples of unease among a wider unionist community. Church of Ireland clerics and laity bubbled into a ferment, still continuing. Radio phone-ins and newspaper editorials suggested the nightly tally of Catholic families petrol-bombed and hit-and-run roadblocks registered the connection with the marching controversy, even among those who resisted the notion, and even before the children died. One circle of long time friends in Belfast told a visiting journalist they had shared unusual heart-searching: "A woman with no political cop-on but a lot of family Orange history spent the Twelfth trying to get the House of Orange on the phone to tell the Order what she thought of them. Another of us, who's a Catholic, eventually said he'd figured out why she annoyed him. He thought she'd taken nearly thirty years to get to the position he reached about the Provos in 1971." Few nationalists recognise any parallel between endemic unionist unwillingness to recognise the not -soveiled threat behind all unionist protest as a use of violence, and their own blind eye to republican 'punishment' beatings and shootings. An ugly legacy of the Troubles, many argue, which will wither with time and normality. But no one has even tried to justify the killing of Andy Kearney as a

Arguments still rumble as to whether the stand-off would have fizzled out if the horror in Ballymoney had not happened

'punishment.' Sinn Feiners themselves seemed wrong footed, their usually smooth propaganda machine stalled. It was striking that there was none ofthe usual effort to blacken the dead man's name. Some sensed SFbewilderment that their IRAcounterparts could be quite

broke out at the Pomeroy demonstration in Co Tyrone between moderate Orangemen and supporters of the hardline Spirit of Drumcree Group. Rev Bingham is heckled and pushed into a ditch.

Tuesday, July 14

Leading churchmen, community leaders and politicians from across the political divide were among the hundreds who attended the funeral of the murdered Quinn brothers. Colin Parry, whose son Tim was killed in the Warrington bomb, was among the mourners. The RUC arrested two men in connection with the killings.

Wednesday, July 15

Four hundred extra troops drafted into the north the previous week, returned to England. The Church of Ireland body, which owns most of the land around Drumcree Church, asked the remaining Orangemen to leave the field. US President, Bill Clinton sent a message of condolence to the Quinn family in which he promised to redouble his peace efforts.

Thursday, July 16

Chrissie Quinn, the Catholic mother whose sons were murdered, blamed Drumcree for the deaths of her children. "It has everything to do with it," she said, commenting on claims that reasons other than sectarian were behind the killings.

32

so blind to the political price of murder now. Others reported a different bewilderment. "It's as if they believe an occasional death might still be overlooked," said one seasoned observer, "like they got away with killing that man in Lurgan during the talks. It didn't seem to strike some of

them, at least at first, that Trimble was bound to seize on this and that Mo can't overlook it." Before the twists and turns of the last couple of hectic weeks, a senior Ulster Unionist voiced a general conclusion. "The DUP need this Assembly badly, even more than us and the SDLP and Alliance-to keep the party going, to keep them together." Less circumspect observers spell out what happens to the DUP in a Paisley-lessfuture. "They have to have something against the day the Big Man keels over,"says one political scientist. "Contempt for Baby Doc won't hold Peter and Nigel and Willy McCrea together. Daddy's big vote might have got Junior his Assembly seat but he can't bequeath him the party." When the Standing Orders Committee met again to have another try at electing a chair, Ian Paisleywithdrew, saying he had not realised how pressing his Westminster Parliamentary diary would be. He proposed in his place the UU's Fred Cobain, an old Belfast City Council hand. Cobain and Denis Haughey got 9 votes each. When the chair is eventually sorted out-whether through rotation between Haughey and Cobain, or a civil servant as a fall back and admis-

sion of defeat-the Standing Orders Committee has to produce house rules. The drafters were tasked to consider Dail practice, Westminster, and for some reason the acrimonious and unproductive Constitutional Convention of 1975.Most of the committee may be yearning for their holi-

days but debate might take some time: procedural tussles are a DUP speciality.On the other hand even Ian Paisley and Nigel Dodds may lose interest in devising blocking tactics, if a New Lodge IRA squad unable to come to terms with the demands of a transitional age has threatened the future more thoroughly than even reactionary unionism could wish.

Saturday, July 18 Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern attended a Requiem Mass for the Quinn brothers in the ProCathedral in Dublin. Only 10 people are allowed through by the RUC to the field at Drumcree.

In Portadown, police removed many of the barriers they had erected before the stand-off. Monday, July 20 The RUe question six men in connection with the triple murders of the Quinn brothers. A 23-year-old Ballymoney man was later charged with the murders and appeared before a Belfastcourt the followingday.

Friday, July 17 At a rally of 2,000 Loyalists in Portadown, Orange leaders pledged to continue to fight to walk down GarvaghyRoad. About 2,000 supporters took part in the rally, called to revive flagging Drumcree protest, which now consisted of a token presence of 15to 20 people.

Sunday, July 19 Republicans blamed for killing a 33year-old man in a punishment-style attack in north Belfast. Andy Kearney was taken from a flat in the New Lodge area by five men shortly after mid-night, shot in both knees and left to bleed to death.

33

everin the country's history has there been such a sense of self-confidence and achievement as there is in the summer of '98. Just over a decade ago, Ireland was a "failed political entity" beset by crushing public indebtedness, soaring emigration, huge unemployment and a stagnant economy. Now Ireland is the success story of Europe. Perhaps the most telling measure of that success story is encapsulated in the following: Ten years ago Ireland's per capita income was less than two thirds the average of the 15 states (65.8 per cent) now in the European Union. Today our per capita income is 107 per cent of the European average. We seek to capture the mood of Ireland this summer in these pictures by Cathy Loughran. This summer of '98 may well be "as good as it gets".

35

WIuAugust

19981

here was no more vivid contrast between the two states of Ireland than there was on the weekend of July 12 last. The south of Ireland witnessed the start of the tour de France here and its progress through Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford, Tipperary and Cork. The Tour symbolised the absorption of the Republic of Ireland fully within modern Europe. Meanwhile Northern Ireland was transfixed by the fourth Orange siege of Drumcree and the murder on the morning of July 12 of Richard, Jason and Mark Quinn in Ballymoney, Co Antrim. Tourist numbers continue to grow in spite of the weather. Tour buses parade the streets of Dublin continuously throughout the year, passing not only the splendours of Georgian Dublin but the explosive building boom in the capital. There were nearly 39,000 house completions in 1997, as compared with less than 22,500 five years previously. Meanwhile house prices have rocketed, with one house on Sorrento Terrace, Dalkey selling for 5.9m. Nearby in Dalkey a tiny three bedroom cottage, Martha's Vineyard, overlooking the sea (part of the cottage actually extending out over the sea) sold for 1.2m. New restaurants, bars and coffee shops have started in the cities and town of the country and part of the couture of the summer of '98 has been a mobile telephone.

Previous page Above: Drinking champagne at the Irish Derby, the Curragh, Kildare. Top Right: Offaly v Kilkenny, Leinster Senior Hurling Final. Right: Fashion shoot at the Shelbourne Hotel.

Facing page: Tour de France Top Right: Guided Bus Tour on Merrion Square Middle: Development site at Ballsbridge Bottom: Hogan's Bar, George's Street Dublin

36

_August 19981

It
Right: Beer kegs in Temple Bar Far right: Busking on Crafton Street Dublin

fThere have been festivals, summer schools and fetes throughout the country and open air art exhibitions through the summer on Merrion Square, Dublin. One of the ugly features of Ireland in 1998has been the manifestation of racism. A few thousand of Europeans from the poorer parts of the continent, notably Romania, have sought refuge in Ireland, often from the relative misery of the economic and social conditions of their home countries. The government has sought to apply the full rigours of European immigra-

tion law to them and socially they have been met with hostility and often violence. Our unemployment rate has declined from 16.1per cent of the work force in 1988 to 10.5per cent. But there remains a problem with long term unemployment and associate poverty. Large areas of Dublin particularly-the south and north inner city and parts of the western and northern suburbs-suffer from chronic deprivation. There is little evidence of political will to share with the people of these areas the success society as a whole has enjoyed.

Below: Bosnian woman with children Top left: Finalists of Enniscorthy Strawberry Queen Contest Below left: Art on Sunday in Merrion Square

38

August 1998

orethan 50 new hotels have been opened in Dublin alone in the last five years. Consumer expenditure has risen from less than 14 billion in 1988 to over 27 billion in 1997. The number of new car registrations has increased from less than 68,000 in 1992 to an expected 150,000 in 1998. The total number of cars in the country will come close to 200,000 in 1998, with all the resultant traffic congestion and chaos.

I;

;pr,,'

f MiMil

Below: Herbert Park Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin

Above: Irish Derby Crowd at the Curragh, Co. Kildare

Meanwhile the State treasury is bulging. Total tax receipts in 1988 were 7,322m. In 1997 they were lS,167m and likely to exceed 16,SOOmin 1998. Amidst the euphoria over our success there is a growing apprehension that the boom may decline or even collapse within years. Inflation is rising and our ability to contain it is diminishing with Ireland joining the European single currency in January of next year with our interest rates being tied to European interest rates.

Right: Mercedes showrooms

41

MONEY

by Calm Rapple
Sometime between January 1 and Iuly 1,2002, the Irish pound will cease to exist, as will ten other European currencies. In each of the eleven countries the euro will become the sole legal tender, freely interchangeable across national borders. The path towards that final end has been firmly laid with three important dates along the way: January 1, 1999, January 1, 2002 and July 1, 2002.
January 1 1999: The euro comes into existence.
bodies will be accepting payments in euro, few retailers will do so. Most government departments will continue to conduct their transactions in Irish pounds although they will accept payments in euros. You'll be able to pay your tax in euros, for instance. But the vast bulk of government payments, including all social welfare benefits, will still be made in pounds. A major exception to this gradualist approach is the Irish Stock Exchange,which is going to convert all Irish share prices from pounds to euros from January 1 next. It will be up to stockbrokers to translate the euro prices into pounds for clients who wish to continue dealing in the Irish currency. Other businesses also intend converting to euro accounting well before the coins and notes are issued. Grocery suppliers and retailers within the Food, Drink and Tobacco Federation of IEEe have decided to use euro accounting at the wholesale level from January 1, 20010a year before the notes are issued.

A Box Heading
Unless there is a major upset on the foreign exchange markets the Irish pound will be going into the euro close to the following rates against the other member currencies.

Austrian schilling 17.472 Belgian franc 51.221 Dutch guilder 2.798 Finnish mark 7.550 French franc 8.329 (jreman mark 2.483 Italian lira 2458.555 51.221 Luxembourg franc Portuguese escudo 254.559 Spanish peseta 211.267

The exchange rates between the eleven member currencies will be fixed against one another and against the euro. The method of calculating those rates has been agreed. Had the euro come into being on June 24, the rates would have been as shown in the table 1.They could change between now and January 1 next, but the changes are not likelyto be significant. So the pound is likely to exchange for 8.329 French francs, 2.483 Deutsche mark or 1.256 euros. Those rates will be fixed. You will get the same number of francs for your pound next October as you will in January. There'll be no exchange rate risk between the eleven member currencies. That is not a big change from the present situation since currency fluctuations between the eleven are already very small. Foreign travellers will experience little change and, indeed, the same will be true for the bulk of the population. There willbe no euro notes or coins in circulation and unless you want to use the euro you won't have to. You'll be better off not bothering January 1, 2002: unless you are involved in some form of foreign Euro notes and coins will go trade either exporting or importing. into circulation. If you want to you will be able to open a euro bank account and have a euro chequebook. If Some shops will have been displaying dual prices requested any of the major banks or building for months, helping to get customers used to the societies will switch your existing current, loan or change, but there won't have been any euros to savings account from pounds to euro. There is to spend. From January 1, 2002 (or probably the folbe no charge for a once-off lowing day as it's a bank holiswitch. day), the shoppers out for the Businesses buying or selling New Year sales will most likely The Irish Stock Exchange is abroad may benefit from having with pounds and get their going to convert all Irish shore pay euro accounts if their cuschange in euros. tomers or suppliers want to prices from pounds to euros It will be all very confusing to trade in euros. And individuals say the least. On the assumpfrom January 1 next It will be travelling in Europe or indeed up to stockbrokers to tronslate tion that 1 will exchange for buying from abroad may gain 1.256 euros, a person buying a the euro prices into pounds for coat priced at 49.99 and profsome advantage from being able to write euro denominated clients who wish to continue fering three 20 notes can cheques. But while most official expect to get 12.57 euros dealing in the Irish currency.

42

On the assumption that 1 willexchange for 1.256 euros, a person buying a coat priced at 49.99 and proffering three 20 notes can expect to get 12.57 euros change. Willa sales weary shopper be able to make sense of that? Willa sales weary cashier have time to explain?
change. Will a sales weary shopper be able to make sense of that? Will a sales weary cashier have time to explain? It's quite simple really if you can work it out on paper or on a calculator. The price of the coat in euros is 62.787 and the proferred 60 is worth 75.36 euros. So the shopper is due 12.573 euros change. He or she will possibly be given a ten euro note, a two euro coin, a 50 cent coin, a five cent coin and a two cent coin. There's no coin smaller than 1 cent so the shop will take the remaining 0.3 as additional profit. That's not much but prices will undoubtedly be rounded up or down, most likely increasing profit margins and giving a boost to inflation. The Central Bank wants to get the existing coinage out of circulation as quickly as possible after January 1, 2002. Irish pounds will remain legal tender for six months but the Central Bank hopes to have the bulk of the changeover done well before that. How will retailers convert their prices? A straight conversion will undoubtedly yield uneven prices and there will be a temptation to round them up if only to help cover some of the conversion costs. So an item priced at 9.99 should sell for 12.547 euros but it may well be priced at 12.99 euros instead yielding a significant extra margin to the retailer. The change over itself will be a massive operation. There are some 2,000 million coins and 150 million notes to be replaced. Those coins weigh an estimated 10,000 tonnes. Apart from the logistics, there's the problem of security. The euros will have to be stored prior to issue, as will the withdrawn notes and coins while they are awaiting burning or smelting. Army barracks may be used. Those are some of the problems but there will also be compensations.

,amp ny
B ~bbey

July 1, 2002:

The pound and ten other European currencies cease to become legal tender.
The Central Bank hopes for a sharp, short, shock with euros completely replacing pounds in a matter of weeks. For some consumers the only obvious benefit is that within the eleven-country block there will no longer be any need to change currencies. The same Euro notes and coins will be accepted in each of the member states.

43

MONEY
At the business level, of course, the ending of exchange rate risks within the Euro zone is one of the main arguments for the single currency. Exporting will become easier and less risky but that will apply equally to businesses abroad that want to target the Irish market. So Irish business is preparing for the opportunities and the threats although recent surveys indicate that some firms, particularly of the small and medium sized variety, have still to get their act together. But no doubt it will come right in the end. The real worry must be over the macro-economic implications of the single currency. They are particularly acute for Ireland. We have accepted an act of economic union. We have ceded economic power to the European Central Bank (ECB).It remains to be seen how it will regard the needs of the Irish economy when it determines interest rates and the exchange rate of the euro against non-euro currencies. It will also impose fiscal policy6it is already doing so. Low interest rates currently suit Germany and France and that's what the ECB is going to provide. The fact that we could do with much higher interest rates to curb rampant inflation in asset prices may not be taken into account but we'll have to live with it. At a time when there are ample reasons to cure many social ills, Charlie McCreevy is being told by Brussels to cool the economy, cut spending and ease back on tax concessions. If the German economy is booming in a few zyears time the ECB will undoubtedly raise interest rates6let's hope we are in a position to live with it at that time. We'll have no other option. The Euro is minus four months old and counting'

44

ANew

World

Champions of the World P7 thing as a

That the French won the 1998 World Cup without a striker worthy of the name says much about the lack of a truly outstanding side in France. Or o perhaps it underlines just how poorly ~ Brazil played in the final. omething was wrong. Half an hour before the World Cup final and the Brazilian Players had still not appeared for the routine pre-match warm up. Worse still, the official FIFA team sheets had just been handed out and missing from the Brazilian side was the most famous name of all, striker Ronaldo. What was going on? The Brazilians had a last minute crisis meeting in their dressing room, a meeting that in the years to come is sure to generate more speculation than the match that followed. That meeting decided that Ronaldo should play, after all. Who decided and why? Ronaldo had been the object of, intense speculation about injuries, firstly to his knee and then his ankle. A press communique just before the final said Ronaldo had gone to hospital immediately before the game for a "check up". Brazilian reporters engaged in a frantic flurry of phone calls minutes before the final, discovered that the "check up" was not as routine as it seemed. Like most other footballers, the Brazilians went for a pre-match siesta on the day of the final. However, their afternoon snooze was rudely awoken by defender Roberto Carlos, roommate of Renaldo, who rushed out into the hotel corridor, screaming, "Renaldo's dead, Renaldo's dead." From here on, the story is hazy. We know the Brazilian medical team spent half an hour with Ronaldo who was officially described as having had a "fit". We also know the mood of the Brazilian players as they climbed onto

the team bus for the stadium was unusually sober. We know too that, after his rushed "check up" Ronaldo actually arrived at the Stade de France only 45 minutes before kick off and only then was it decided he should, after all, play. Did Brazilian coach Mario Zagallo decide of his own volition? Or did he, as widely speculated in both the Brazilian and international press, decide against his best instincts and only under pressure? Where did the pressure come from? From the Brazilian Federation, from Nike (sponsors of both Brazil and Renaldo), from the other players? A new team sheet appeared with Ronaldo back in the side. either Brazil nor Ronaldo need have bothered, so woeful \ as their sleep walking performance. The Ronaldo incident and Brazil's poor performance may have cast a shadow over what was otherwise a wonderful World Cup but they should take nothing away from the new World Champions, France, organisers of the best World Cup finals since Spain '82. The French were deserving winners of the tournament both for the quality of their players and for their attacking attitude. The French had the best back four at France 98 and perhaps the best balanced midfield, while in Lilian Thuram they had arguably the best player at France 98. If this French side had Davor Suker, Gabriel Batistuta, Oliver Bierhoff orChristian Vieri up front, then they would have been irresistible.

France
Clairefontaine-100 Km outside of Paris, the site of the French Football Federations training centre and the French team base from mid-May to mid-June. A window on the ground floor of the Chateau (it is a real chateau) opens and captain Didier Deschamps leans out to summon his team mates for lunch; "A Table!" The French players might have found Clairfontaine too bucolic for their tastes, arguing that their isolation out there gave them little sense of the World Cup excitement that put half a million people on the Champs Elysees on the night of the final. Yet coach Aime Jacquet can argue for evermore that the results proved him right. France's wholehearted attacking attitude was one of the quintessential elements in the France '98 success story. They played with a panache which, while toothless in front of the goal, still won over an initially diffident French nation (20.4 million French viewers watched the final on TV;while television audiences included approximately half of French women under 50 years of age). The success of the French provided an element that was spectacularly missing four years ago in the USA. It also allowed Aime Jacquet a memorable outburst at one of his final press conferences when he addressed those mainly French soccer critics who have been enraged by decisions such as that which saw him omit "stars" -Eric Cantona and David Ginola: "The French people are behind my team because, despite a campaign of

The Ronaldo incident and Brazil's poor performance may have cost a shadow over what was otherwise a wonderful World Cup.

46

Order
by/Paddy Agnew
prove there is no such thing.
media disinformation they have discovered for themselves that France does have a team, does have a coach, does have a game plan and that furthermore, this team can win the World cup." While prestigious French sports daily, L'Equipa had to issue a front page apology to Jacquet in the wake of his success, newly elected FIFApresident Sepp Blatter probably felt like building a second EiffelTower to him for the fundamental part played byhis side in the tournament's overall success. The World Cup has changed football in France on and off the pitch, Newspaper editorials and radio and TV commentators made much of the "unifying nature" of a team whose membership reflected France's ethnic diversity (and colonial past). Desailly was born in Ghana, Thuram's parents came from Guadaloupe, Karembeu was born in New Caledonia, Djorkaieff's father is Armenian, while Barthez comes from the Pyrenees, Lizarazu is Basque and Guivarc'h is a Breton. Maybe the fact that such a team triumphed means little but it certainly will not do any harm in a country where the extreme right National Front's racist policies have a significant following.

Night Chat
1a.m. in a little cafe across the road from the Hotel du Louvre, central Paris. Mark Lawrenson, Alan Hansen and Martin O'Neill, three of British television's soccer gurus are seated at a footpath table, with plates of pasta after a hard day at the France '98 World Cup office. The night in question was the quarter final Saturday which witnessed Holland's 2-1 win over Argentina and Croatia's 3-0 dismissal of once mighty Germany. Leicester

47

WORLD CUP
City manager O'Neill said: "After watching this World Cup, I'd just love to be playing now, I'djust love to be an attacking player now because you'd know that the referee is going to give you protection." O'Neill reflected the opinion of most soccer professionals. Players and coaches might have had reservations about aspects of this World Cup but nearly everyone agreed that it marked a turning point in FIFA's ongoing battle to promote more open and attractive soccer even at the highest level. The refereeing may have been controversial but the tournament marked the culmination of an eight year crusade by Sepp Blatter to clean up the game and swing the refereeing in favour of strikers rather than defenders. After watching West Germany beat Argentina 1-0 in a dull disappointing final in 1990 in which Germany proved even more cynical that Argentina, Blatter promised war on the cheats, vowing that future World Cups would provide better fare for the punters. If this meant that refereeing practices had to change then so be it. Blatter encouraged reforms that have turned soccer upside down. Once upon a time a referee was encouraged to systematically give the benefit of the doubt to the defender. At France 98 the benefit of the doubt went to the attacker. In the opening game Spanish referee Jose GarciaAranda awarded a penalty to Scotland after a foul by Cesar Sampaio on Kevin Gallacher. There followed a spectacular series of controversial decisions, all of which had a common thread-the protection of attackers and the elimination of violent play. Sending off David Beckham against Argentina, Christian Warns against Croatia, Ariel Ortega against Holland and awarding a penalty to Croatia against Romania were all utterly decisive moments in the knock out stage of the tournament. England, Germany, Argentina and Romania failed to recover from the import of those decisions and might argue that they were hard done by. Yet the players involved should have known better. 54 games had been played by the time England met Argentina in St Etienne and it was obvious thatreferees were going to be excessivelystrict on defensive misdemeanours. Having waged war on one form of cheating, FIFAunwittingly gave scope to two other long established dubious 48 the following morning but didn't. Okechukwu, worried, rings Nigeria himself to discover that President Sani Abacha has just died. Boris gets to keep his job for another 3 weeks. We keep waiting for the African explosion and after Nigeria's brilliant first round performance we thought this time it might happen. Alas the reasons for yet another failure were all too familiar. Nigeria fell because of an undisciplined mental approach that belied off the field problems. Nigeria's concession of two quick goals in their defeat by Denmark was other wise too bad to be true. African soccer remains a reservoir of immense talent, mindlessly and wilfullysquandered by a post colonial political class which just cannot resist the political gains to be made out of day to day involvement in football.

Hail and Farewell

In the age of satellite TV and postBosman freedom of players, a World Cup no longer surprises us with numerous previously unheard of players. The biggest revelation was Michael Owen, but not to Irish fans familiar with the English premiership. Others were Mexican Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Iran's Kia Mahdavi and above all Nigeria's little NO.IO Jay Jay Okocha. As for the rest, the names which made headlines were not new-Suker, Batistuta, Vieri, Salas, Bergkamp, Bierhoff, Kluivert, Zidane, Thuram and any Brazilian you care to mention. There were two bitter diappointments in Italian Del Piero and YugoslavMijatovic. Stoichov, Hagi, Baggio, Scifo, Aldair, Biyik, Valderrama, Boban, Laudrup, Matthaeus and Zubizaretta-all great players-have sadly come to the end of the A new team sheet appeared WorldCup road. The next World Cup in 2002will be with Ronalda back in the played in two different side. Neither Brazil nor countries, South Korea Ronalda need have and Japan. This promises bothered, so woeful was to present huge logistical problems and perhaps their sleep walking these players will not performance. miss much. Preparations for 2002 have already begun. It promises to be very different, perhaps innovative. It had better be. France 98 willbe a hard act to follow. Paddy Agnew is a sports journalist with the Irish Times

practices, the dive in the penalty area and the feigning of serious injury. Argentine Diego Simeone's histrionic skills managed to see first Beckham, then Dutchman Arthur Numan sent off in successive games. FIFAcould justifiably claim it got the balance right at least in terms of results. This World Cup witnessed the demise of teams which traditionally playa defensive, cynical, percentage game based as much on stopping your opponents playas on your own creativity.

Africa
Chateau Bellinglise; 80 Km from Paris and Nigerian camp base, 2 am, in the week before World Cup 98 begins. The phone rings in the bedroom of team captain Uche Okechukwu. Nigerian Sports Minister Sampson Omeruah tells him, coach Yugoslav Boris Milutinovic is to be sacked after an embarrassing 5-1 drubbing by Holland. Confirmation was to arrive

THE RESTAURANT

by Helen Lucy Burke

Bring on the basil and lemon sorbet! Two large plates had a long-handled teaspoon laid across. The sorbet nestled in half the bowl of the teaspoon: if you blinked you missed it. The taste was ordinary. I loved the Villeroy et Boch plates, though not with odd dustings of pepper or sauce scattered on them at each course. Meant to adorn, it made them look dirty.
ANYONE OFFENDED BY COARSE BUT ACCURATE DESCRIPTIONS SHOULD SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH.

Limerick

Luvvies
Quenelles The Green Onion Royal George Hunt Museum
Limerick City DEAR LIMERICK TOURISM, Your suburban conservatory style Tourist Centre on Arthur's quay is part of a genteel rip-off. Not only were the decorative young ladies I met unable to answer such basic questions as where the Redemptorist Church wasalthough it features big in Angela's Ashes, and there was a 5-sitting-a-day novena going on there-but they sold me a map of a few centre city streets heavily endorsed by advertisements, for 1, even though the Co. Council provides a better one free which you don't stock. Allover Europe tourism maps are give-aways. I heard a great deal more about your amateurish efforts from someone in the know. Pretentious is the word for the menus at Quenelles of Steamboat quay in Limerick where I dined; the. type which tells you the sauce is mouth-watering and the fish seafresh. Irritation increased as the contents were chanted at me by a willowy young man who seemed to be approaching hysteria as he sped through the dainties in store. Soup, first course, sorbet, main course and pudding cost a basic 24, which seemed extraordinary value until we saw supplements scattered through. The names and listed ingredients of the dishes may not be exact: see later. A Relative's dinner cost 28.50 and mine 24.50. My companion AR started with "Consomme of fresh Wild Irish Salmon with Crab": a clear liquid with a sheen of grease on top. No crab hit our palates, and the consomme suggested to us the water in which a salmon had been poached, except that some fragments of very tired tasting salmon wallowing heavily in it imparted the disagreeable flavour of fish that is not quite fresh. My special

AR had ordered Fillet of Beef in Three rounds with a Lobster Sausage. A taut shiny buff-pink shaft-the lobster sausage-protruded several proud inches vertically from an oval dark mass of beef which to our eyes resembled a scrotum. It was an almost lifelike model 'of the erect human penis. Screaming with laughter he gestured towards our vegetable plates on which the same versatile member was represented by a wrinkled wilting shaft of potato puree detumescing into two pale mounds; a poke of my fork uncovered mixed vegetables inside these "testicles". This was turrets, School of Peacock Alley, carried ~ to logical extremes. "How do I eat it?"
g:

pleaded AR. (I made a suggestion).

Dismantled, the lobster sausage provided none of the promised erotic excitement but the beef fillet was tender' flavoursome, delicious, cooked rare to his exact taste. The sauce lapping my "Fillet of Pork with a delicious Basil Toffee topping" was so cloying that boiled sweets could have formed part of it. The topping brought a herbal Cleeve's toffee to mind, catching most unpleasantly at my molars; the meat underneath was dense, dry and tasteless. I ate maybe two bites; it was removed without any concerned query. Let's forget about the puddings; to cheer us up through them we drank half a bottle (15) of Banyuls, a red dessert wine which I adore, and with our meat we had a pleasant but extremely light Barolo 1992/93 at 22.50. Our bill which also included one glass, eyebath size, of dry sherry, and a bottle of Nash's mineral water came to 96.20, and deary me I added service making 106. I had smouched the menus for reference. A blonde woman who saw us to the door repossessed them, by the stratagem of offering to hold them as I put on my coat, then all changed as she announced that she was Sindy, wife of the proprietor/chef Kim

I had an adventurous NShavings of Kangaroo fillet with Salad herbs": my first kangaroo, bearded or clean-shaven and my last.

soup of the day was Potato and Leek with some herbal addition. I tasted, once, twice. I blinked. AR dipped, blinked and said, "It tastes like tobacco." We had attained unison. His first course of Mussels "steamed with Guinness and horseradish" had no horseradish whatsoever in it or any Guinness that he could taste, though there was plentiful Parmesan cheese. Mussels and horseradish put us on notice that Hey! this was an eclectic chef. Anyway, the mussels were delicious as they came. We mentioned the variance from the menu to a waiter; no rebuttal or explanation was offered. I had an adventurous "Shavings of Kangaroo fillet with Salad herbs": my first kangaroo, bearded or cleanshaven and my last; the five slivers of dark dry meat in texture resembling pigeon tasted anonymous. A chanterelle-shaped orange object occupied most of the plate, with salad greens spilling from it, cornucopia style. To sample it I had to bend and yank at its sides, for they had the gnawy leathery texture of old hide. Melted Cheddar cheese poured over a mould and let solidify was probably the construction method. Two gnaws told me it was not for me.

50

Pollard. "We have a policy against encouraging foodwriters. We wouldn't have let you in if we had known. I appeal to you, I plead with you not to write about this restaurant," she cried, fierce as a bear defending her cub. In vain I remonstrated that the menus would help my accuracy. Sorry, Sindy old girl, this is what we really thought. In fairness to your restaurant, I must report that it was filled with swanky people whose jaws champed steadily, presumably satisfied with everything. I stayed in The Royal George on O'Connell St., which was cheap (39.50 for a single occupancy), clean, comfortable, central and offered a dinner for two at 26 of which I later thought wistfully. Breakfast was excellent, for which I was profoundly grateful, having left Quenelles quite hungry. And on Friday I found where Limerick foodies eat, The Green Onion, 3 Ellen Street. Semi-darkness did not conceal its lamentable decor, but the food was delicious. A three course lunch for S and me, coffee each and two glasses of wine cost 31.80 service not included, and was far superior to dinner the previous evening. A spinach soup was truly ravishing, my "small" Greek Salad (too huge to finish) was lavish with its black and green olives, our Salmon Fillets baked in Dill Sauce tasted of fresh fish without straining to be eclectic. Puddings, simple and designed to refresh really shone. Loved the place. Limerick is as rum a place as ever though the people seem a mite cheerier and King John's Castle "experience" is much improved. But two days for Limerick city are overgenerous. There really "isn't" much of interest. I did a free association exercise: Ham, cheese, snobbery, Treaty stone, stabs, knives, Angela's Ashes, Sarsfield, Shannon, The Confraternity, anti-Jewish priests, the view through the rear mirror. I counted two good things, the Hunt Museum and cafe being the pinnacle. A sober 18th century Customhouse has been transformed into an

art-squirrel's treasure house. Come early. Spend the entire day there. After two hours browsing to give you the overview, retire to Du Cartes, the charming little cafe on the ground floor, for lunch. It is obviously popular. My chicken salad with olives, avocado and garlic mayonnaise, homemade bread, and a half bottle of truly excellent Muscadet sur Lie cost 9.85. After lunch take in a tour with one of the marvellous "docents" -volunteer guides. Spend half an hour with the carved wooden figure Apollo, Patron of all the Arts, a 16th Century Trade Unionist, festooned with emblems of all the Guilds in Augsburg: the Poulterers' is particularly delightful, incorporating a hen in her nest on his right hip. The surgeons, barbers and wigmakers also display well on his left shoulder, and the musicians with their fifes and drums on his crotch. Survey the sick sinister Dutch triptych of the Crucifixion with its flights of dragons and crucified snakes. Marvel at the robes of the Church Triumphant. I believe Ed Walsh was one of the prime movers in relocating the Museum. God bless you, Ed, and God above all bless the Hunts, Trudy and John. The Redemptorist church is the only other must-see. Its mosaic pictures should be designated city treasures. See Beatus Gerardus in his chapel insouciantly levitating, raising a young man from the dead, converting a scandalous sinner in knee breeches. The gilding sparkled with the light from a thousand candles for Novenas were in full swing during my visit, with four or five sittings a day for the pious who are numbered in thousands. Ambulances stood by for victims of fervour. From this church two rogue Redemptorists thundered against the Jews. Now the main altar blazes forth the Church Dominant and the sidealtars, glittering, twinkling, festooned with flowers, resemble something from Mexico City. And the Tourist young ladies knew nothing of it. This they admitted, smiling winsomely.

Zanzibar
Ormond Quay, Dublin 1

by Padraic McKiernan

The Northside of Dublin is not exactly renowned for its exotic hotspots. But when a pub named Zanzibar drops its drawbridge on Ormond Quay, this bred and buttered Northsider was seriously curious. Could the place possibly live up to the hype that had announced its arrival? If ever there was a bar that can be said to have put the pub back into publicity then Zanzibar is that establishment. Few superlatives have been spared in the rush to proclaim it as Ireland's first superpub, licensed for a staggering 1,500 people, a sort ofuberpub sans pareil. A queue of about a hundred people snaking up towards O'Connell Street is testimony to the fact that the publicity has worked. All roads it would seem lead to Zanzibar. This African-themed bar takes its name from the spice island situated off the East coast of the fabled "dark continent", though once inside the door I was struck less by the spice as by the space. This is the mother of all boozeramas, a claustrophobes paradise. A stunning bar area seemed to have the quality of a desert mirage stretching as it does off into what seems like infinity while the high vaulted ceilings give a drinking al fresco feel to the experience. Many shekels (some reports put it at 3 million) have been spent in creating a genuine "Casbah" atmosphere and this has been successfully achieved for the most part. The place is a veritable oasis of opulence. But while the Ali Baba urns and the lofty palm trees smack of authenticity, I still had the mildly uneasy feeling of having walked onto the set of the Gaiety Panto on a year when Sinbad the Sailor is the star turn. By day the clientele are multi generational while by night, as befits a bar named after a spice island, many of the customers wouldn't have been out of place as extras in a Spice Girl video. I'd read that the pub is aimed at the 20-something market, though at 2.50 for a pint of porter, this target could be less an age group than a salary scale. Standing beside an Ali Baba urn, one disgruntled punter on seeing his receipt was heard to inquire of the barman as to which one of the forty thieves was he, while another patron who had obviously drank a bit too deep, when sensibly urged by the barman to make it an early night was heard to exclaim "you mean I'm bleedin' Zanzibarred!" Prices may be high but so too are the standards. The staff were plentiful, efficient and extremely friendly. A minor quibble about the theme park resonance is to risk the borderline churlish. One doesn't go to Disneyland and give Donald a hard time for not being a duck. One shouldn't go to Zanzibar and expect anything other that the "stage African" and the unlikelihood is that you will be Zanzibored.

51

 August 1998

Intemet

by Brian Trench brian.trench@dcu.ie

g
to those who take online reservations-hence no guesthouses or B&Bs in Wicklow. Under Where to Go, some counties are not represented, and a link to Culture is not working. The further development of this site depends entirely on the take-up of direct online booking in the sector. Bard Failte, potentially a major part of the Virtual Ireland House, shed its Irish-language name to become www.ireland.traveLie.It cannot have been too happy with the emergence then of Travel Ireland. Just to add to the confusion, www.failte.comis not a tourism site but a shop window for a consultancy which promotes Irish and UK commercial sites. Bord Failte's site carries a myriad of sub-headings. But the complexity of the database perhaps conceals the paucity of the information on particular topics. There are no links to further information, even where the organisers of an event, or the owners of an adventure centre, might have posted such information on the Web. 'Cruising to Shannon' gave 10 'results', but none of them relating to one of the biggest cruiser hire companies, Emerald Star, which has its own site www.emeraldstar.ie, with online booking. From Islands, I found a reference to the former Achill resident, the late German writer, Heinrich Boll, "who's (sic) experiences in Achill are contained in his novel. .." There is no link here to more obvious information services e.g. www.achill-island.com. Bard Pailte may think that as a state service it must stand over all information on its site, or reached through its site. But this defies the Internet's character as a 'web' of information and communication channels. Regional tourism organisations have their own sites; Shannon Development-www.shannon-dev.ie and Dublin Tourism www.visitie/dublin. Here, too, the information provided is only that which Dublin Tourism itself has put up. So, there are no links to airline sites or to schedules, not even to those of Aer Lingus www.aerlingus.ie.

for the holidays

It's that time of year when friends tell you they rented a house in the Loire Valley or booked a bicycle tour in Scotland over the Internet. A simple word search on the Web andbingo-there are pictures of a farmhouse 300 metres from a boulangerie and 2 kilometres from a winemaker. Those are the lucky cases. Tourism and travel information are two of the applications of the Internet most frequently cited by its champions. Long before the Web was developed, people were sharing information through newsgroups on travel experiences. It still goes on. Train spotters swap stories about steam-powered journeys through India and Africa and narrow-gauge services in Wales. Those interested in cycling, walking, heritage, Kerry or the Hook area of south Wexford,are much more likely to get value from the Web-including the capacity to book directlythan those with more general interests and simply looking for places to stay. Golfers,walkers and cyclists are particularly well catered for. The government says a universal information service can become the means to build the international tourism market. The Ireland House concept, which has brought together diplomatic, tourism, trade, foodmarketing and other state services under one roof, is to be carried over on to the Internet as Virtual Ireland House. There's confusion here, as House of Ireland is also the name of an online shopping service. More critically the state services mentioned have developed their Internet services in different formats. Instead they could produce a single navigational aid and search procedure to cover the several sites within the one 'house'. There are already many would-be gateway sites, which offer links to a range of Irish sites, including to tourism information. But their interest is mainly in selling 'space'. Travel Ireland www.travelireland. com shows links to Where to Go, What to See and Do, Where to Stay,etc., and offers online booking. The listed accommodation is limited The EU's LEADERrural development programme has funded some local sites. However, the Blackwater Valley site www.blackwater.ie appears to be a shop window for Topsoft consultancy in Fermoy. Its intention and potential are not yet nearly realised. The Hook area of Wexford has a more developed site www.thehookwexford.com, which tells us that the local people are "warm, friendly, funny, interesting, philosophical..." It has useful information on places to stay and to eat (though nothing on the Neptune restaurant at Ballyhack). Mayo on the Move, www.mayo-ireland.ie, has tourism information about the county, but also news services, through links to local newspapers. The best of these locally focused Web sites is Kerry,www.ioLie/kerryinsight. Although a vehicle for an Internet enterprise, it has built up a mass of information. It is possible to imagine renting a house in Ballinskelligs, booking a deep sea angling trip or a boat trip to the Skelligs and planning to eat in one of the listed restaurants. The site is also well maintained. A well focused service for the whole country is Tourism Resources www.tourismresources.ie which has information on 150 selected 'friendly houses', mainly higher-quality guesthouses or small hotels. Itineraries can be booked to cater for special interests and the site also contains a long and valuable listing of pubs. The man behind the site, John Colclough, displays his wide cultural knowledge with a series of articles and his commitment to the family heritage with a notice of a Colclough family rally in September. He might consider including an audio file with the correct pronunciation of the name.

Long before the Web was developed, people were sharing information through newsgroups on travel experiences. It still goes on.

52

~.------------------------

TemlJ~"AUgust

1998

Motoring

by Siobhan Mulcahy

ity
S

r
Nissan Micra 3 and 5 door GX Automatic N-CVT: Acceleration 062mph 16.4 19.7-Urban mpg 39.8, 38.7-Combined mpg 47.1,46.3 The new Fiat Seicento, which is an updated version of the Cinquecento, is a wonderful little mover and offers a choice of three petrol engines which give nippy acceleration, comfortable cruising and good fuel economy. The economical39 bhp/89 cc engine is used in both the Seicento Sand SX versions, and for those who want a bit more power, there is a 54 bhp/ll08 cc FIRE engine which is used in the Sporting version. The standard Seicento has an energy absorbing steering wheel with collapsible steering column, an FPS fire prevention system and inertia switch. It also has a reinforced body and doors, and for extra safety-twin cross-over braking circuits, though the driver's airbag is optional rather than standard. Other features include an integrated electronic ignition and fuel injection system, and because it has a 3-way catalytic converter, pollution is kept to a minimum. Like the Micra, this car squeezes into spaces that larger cars can only dream about. Surprisingly, Seicento's hatch opens to reveal6cu.ft of luggage space. The Sporting version gives a top speed of 93mph. Its independent suspension incorporates an anti-dive feature, which reduces the car's tendency to pitch forward when braking suddenly. Its large bumpers are designed to absorb impact and it has several 'crumple' zones to protect you front and rear. Fiat's CODE security key, engine immobiliser and side impact bars are fitted as standard. Fiat Seicento SX Sporting: Acceleration 0-62mph 18.0 13.8Urban mpg 35/8 33.2-Combined mpg 46.3, 45.6 VW Polo. The new Polo is the smallest car in the Volkswagen range. It is shorter in length than its predecessor yet wider and taller, so there is more interior space for driver and passengers. The height adjustable steering column is collapsible telescopically, reducing the risk of driver injury during a severe frontal collision. The Polo's body cavities and lower box sections are flooded with hot liquid wax during production to give extra protection. Other features include colour co-ordinated bumpers, split-folding rear seats, and an engine immobiliser, which means that if the wrong key is used, the engine doesn't work.

mall cars are city slickers, easy on petrol and loved by urbanites for their traffic busting ease. These cars also tend to big on safety. Magill looks at three of the best.

Nissan is the world's fifth largest car manufacturer and their expertise in car manufacture really shows. The new Nissan Micra has a high level of safety and security features, including standard driver's airbag and state-of-the-art anti-theft system. The body has a front flying wing grille, sculptured hood, elongated teardrop side mouldings, rear combi-larnps, large headlamps and eye-catching wheel trims. The car's body structure has been reinforced and tested using NASA:s stress test software on Cray super computers. In the Micra's interior, the rotary dials on the dash are designed so that women don't break their nails. Other features include a tiltable steering wheel, an illuminated instrument panel and a fuel gauge with an audible warning. A cabin air filter keeps out airborne particles like dust and microscopic midges. Both the 3 and 5 door Mieras have aluminium 1.0L 16 valve, twin cam petrol engines controlled by an ingenious computerised engine. The compact dimensions of this small car make it ideal for dodging in and out of tight spaces and power steering is standard on all models. The Micra Automatic, known as the N -CVT, has a new generation transmission engine controlled by an onboard computer. If you remove your foot from the accelerator when stopped at traffic lights; this car doesn't creep forward. It also has one of the tightest turning circles in its class.

"The Citroen Xsaro, cousin of the Citroen Coupe-the car Claudia Schiffer likes to drive naked"

The Polo range offers a wide choice of 3 and 5 door hatchback body styles and three engines: 1 ltr, the 1.4 (60bph), and the 1.6, (75 bph). Each has a 5 speed manual gearbox. The most recent addition to the range is the 1.4 16v (lOObhp). Tinted glass is standard on the 1.4 and 1.6 models and available as an option on the 1 litre model. Options on all models include electric windows, central locking, sunroof, power steering and ABS airbags. VW Polo 1.0, 1.4, 16v 1.6: Acceleration 0-62mph 18.5, 12.2, 10.5-Urban mpg 36.2, 34.9, 34.4Combined mpg 47.1,40.9,40.4.

54

1998

Boo KS

edited by Mich~el O'Sullivan

course open to the Irish people, if they have sense and do not wish to commit suicide but to defend their neutrality at any cost.
It was precisely the Germanic inability to avoid striking the wrong note, that rendered the recruitment of Irish broadcasters essential. From the extracts collated by David O'Donoghue it is clear that the only accomplished propagandist who was enlisted was Francis Stuart. They also demonstrate that it is not possible to condone Stuart's involvement on grounds of any supposed naivete on his part. His position was carefully thought through, and his propaganda invariably contained a thin, virtually indiscernible thread of self-exculpation. Thus on August 5, 1942 launching his weekly talks he explained why he had elected to work in the German capital after the outbreak of the war:

Germany

Ca in
Hitler's Irish VoicesThe Story of German Radio's Wartime Irish Service
by David O'Donoghue (Beyond the Pale, 7.95 PB) Irland-Redaktion broadcast bilingual (Irish and English) programmes into Ireland from Berlin's Rundfunkhaus for almost the entire duration of the war (nightly from august 1941). The mastermind behind this venture was Dr Adolf Mahr.It is a remarkable and discreditable fact that the Austrian-born director of the Irish National Museum spent the war on leave of absence working on the Irish Desk of the German foreign office. Mahr was in Berlin when war broke out. His presence was supposed to permit him to attend the International Congress of Archaeology but conveniently coincided with the annual rally of the NSDAP at Nuremburg. When James Dillon raised Mahr's role in the Dail after the war, he was loutishly abused by Frank Aiken, the Minister for Finance who said of Mahr: "I will say for that gentleman, that he went towards the fighting, unlike Deputy Dillon". The radio service was set up by Dr Ludwig Mulhausen, eminent linguist, Celticist, Nazi and spy. Some of the photographs he took while perfecting his appreciation of the South West Donegal dialect in 1937 were destined to find their way into a German hadnbook, Military Geographical Data on Ireland. During his stay he shared a room with Leon O'Broin, Mahr displayed a large portrait of Hitler, while O'Broin-Van Helsinglike-hung a crucifix beside his bed. It is not possible to estimate the extent of the audience reached by Irland-Redaktion. Dr 0 Donoghue adduces some anecdotal evidence to suggest that it was not insignificant at

I am heartily sick and disgusted with the old order under which we've been existing and which had come to be from the great financialpouiers in whose shadows we lived. If there had to be a war; then I wanted to be among these people who had, moreover; claimed that they had a new and better one ... I had begun to see that no internal policy for Ireland could ever be completely successful unless joined to an external one that would not shed our ancient links with Europe and European culture ...
the outset. This is a little hard to credit. Moreover one would imagine that whatever audience it did have reflected the station's curiosity value rather than ideological sympathy. No doubt it enabled some benighted nationalists and republicans to persuade themselves that Ireland's strategic significance was a constant preoccupation of Goebbels and von Ribbentrop, but its propagandistic impact was at best negligible, at worst counter-productive. Even the most obtuse Anglophobe could not have failed to detect the menace of Hans Hartmann's broadcast in December 1941, warning against the dispatch of American troops to Northern Ireland by Roosevelt (in conjunction with 'the capitalists and Jews in America'): This was the Hibernian poete maudit and 'left' republican as Nazi apologist. The tone was calculatedly offhand, a kind of 'on the road' with Francis Stuart in the Third Reich. The argument was standard fascist fare. The unobtrusive, almost in audible qualification ('claimed to have') was presumably to enable him to assert even if only to himself, that he remained intellectually uncornpromised by his support of Hitler's Germany. Dr O'Donoghue's impressively researched book illuminates the dilemma ofIrish neutrality. The problem lay not with neutrality itself. Few states, least of all one in existence for less than two decades, embrace an avoidable war, and the consensus in favour of neutrality was overwhelming. The difficulty lay in maintaining the intellectual rigour that a policy of neutrality required, so as never to forget that neutrality was a harsh choice bred of political necessity. De Valera had a haunting sense of the severity of neutrality, but many others did not. Some saw neutrality as an article of republican faith, which equated the

The book demonstrates that it is not possible to condone FrancisStuart's involvement on grounds of any supposed naivete on his part ..

The fine edifice of the Republic would collapse immediately if the Irish Government did not succeed in avoiding war and maintaining neutrality. In addition it is likely that in such a case the war would be fought on Irish soil despite the long-standing friendship between Germany and Ireland. This means that there is no other

56

British Empire with the Third Reich; others saw it as in some way a moral principle, which it never could have been. In this respect neutrality was to inflict significant collateral damage on Irish political culture. Sitting out the war fortified Irish provincialism. It encouraged a strain of sanctimoniously neutralist thinking in Ireland, an insular suspiciousness of foreign engagements. Hitler's Irish Voices has a happy ending of sorts. On May 1, 1945,Irish listeners heard the announcement, in German, of Hitler's death. Any boost in ratings which this may have brought came too late. The following day Irland -Redaktion faded out with a recording of Iohn McCormack singing 'Come Back To Erin'. The staff of the German foreign radio service scurried with forged Dutch identity cards into the melee of a Berlin quaking under the might of the Soviet advance.
Frank Callanan

John Hume and the SDLP: Impad and Survival in Northern Ireland
by Gerard Murray (IrishAcademic Press 37.50 HB) Gerard Murray's John Hume and the SDLPis a thorough and detailed history of the SDLP.What is most striking on reading this book is the fact that the Good Friday Agreement is so clearly the culmination 'of SDLP policy from its inception in 1970. Murray's analysis would almost lead the reader to believe that the SDLP will emerge as the most influential political party on the island (certainly in the North) over the past 30 years. The irony is that the party may dwindle away now that the crux of its initial goal-the structural internal and external changes that may lead to what it calls an "agreed Ireland"-has been achieved. Unlike most political movements, the SDLP has actually managed to fulfill many of its own foundational aims. In fact, some of its early constitutional proposals have a very familiar ring to them. There was a proposal made in 1972 for a "one-hundredmember Commission broadly representative of the Northern Ireland community," with formal links with both the British and Irish governments and with a "Chairman, a ViceChairman and Executive Committee of fifteen." Murray's survey includes details of internal politicking and addresses the putative socialist status of the party, describing its success in the European and U.S. political arenas. However it does not shy away from criticizing the party and its members for poor organizational and leadership qualities.
Cormac Deane

Ulster Loyalism and the British Media

by Alan F.Parkinson, (Four Courts Press 39.50 HB,
14.95 PB)

Alan Parkinson's aim is to draw attention to the way in which the treatment of the unionist cause in the British media has lead to unionism's "increasing political marginalisation" in Britain. While his agenda is clearly unionist, this is in essence a more or less objective work of political science. In his survey of British newspapers' he includes the liberal republicanism of The Guardian alongside the anti -IRA hysteria of the Sun, even though only the former suits his contention that the republican propaganda machine is more effectivethan the unionist one. This is a useful source-book for those interested in the field. It is comprehensive in its survey of printed media and TV(but not radio), carefully annotated (449 footnotes in 184 pages), clearly argued and particularly interesting for its case-study of the media coverage of the Remembrance Day bombing of Enniskillen in 1987. The logic of Parkinson's thesis deserves some attention, however. In arguing that both unionists themselves and the British media are responsible for the transmission of a negative image of unionism (and it is difficultto refute this), he implies that

if only the unionists were as adroit as the nationalists in their propaganda, they would be treated more sympathetically by the British. For Parkinson, unionism's political ideology and its public image are two separate things. What he does not point out is that if unionists were suddenly to start acting like New Labour and trying to get everybody to like them, they would cease to be unionists as we know them. Suave marketing and public relations are anathema to the plain-talking what-you-see-is-whatyou-get tenor of unionism. It is characterised by its pride in its own constancy and unchanging attitude and by the fact that it has never lost much sleep over whether other people like them or not. Perhaps a new era of 'normal' political life for unionists-as the new assembly may prove to be-will witness the unionist parties becoming, like other political parties, more managed and marketed than ever before. The assembly may eventually transform unionism altogether before it ultimately sets about transforming the union itself. A further apparent fault in Parkinson's analysis is the assumption that the British people would be sympathetic to unionism if only they understood it better. This ignores the fact that the only people to whom unionism is a viable or credible political creed are the unionists themselves. Even those few non-unionists who have supported their cause, such as Conor Cruise O'Brien, Enoch Powell, or some farright Boers, have done so because it has suited their greater political ideologies and goals rather than out of any sympathy for the plight of the unionists themselves. The unpopularity of unionism may not be, as Parkinson suggests, the result of negative press coverage, rather it may be the cause.

57

August 199~

OOKS

Crazy John and the Bishop and other essays on Irish Culture
By Terry Eagleton Cork University Press (14.95 PB)

A Dangerous Man
Terry Eagleton, Thomas Wharton Professor of English at Oxford, critic and dramatist, (Saint Oscar and Other Plays,1997),seems to be a'dangerous man'. While he devours books in a 'cormoranting rage,' he can also make the hackles rise. Entering an RTEstudio to record, I met a discomfited group emerging, having failed to agree abour the merits of his latest book. "He knows nothing about the eighteenth century!" decreed a daunting historical lady, to the obvious dismay of her muted male colleagues. If he doesn't, then the first third of this collection of essays is a formidable delusion. Echoing Andrew Carpenter's excellent recent anthology, Verse in English from EighteenthCentury Ireland, also published by Cork University Press, Eagleton devotes his opening chapter to William Dunkin of Dublin, Described by Swiftas 'the best English as well as Latin Poet in this Kingdom.' We catch a glimpse of The Murphaied, a 'paean of satiric praise to one Paddy Murphy,' a college porter. And then The Poetical Mirror, 'Ireland's answer to Pope's Dunciad.' But, like Carpenter, he comes out strongly for The Parson's Revels, 'one of the great neglected pieces of eighteenth-century English.' Its mad metre recalls the high-jinks of Austin Clarke in his old age; I hate the rants of Dryden's rhyme; Old Shakespeare was (l grant) sub lime, But broke all unities of time, And action. 'Irish philosophy' sounds as much 58 of an oxymoron as 'British Intelligence' and Eagleton accepts that 'rationalisation never took root in this intensely religious, custombound society.' But in the playful yet dense title piece, he traces a line of cosmic idealism, from Eriugena through Berkeley,to John Toland and his enemy, Bishop Peter Browne. The latter are not familiar names, but like Dunkin they are on the way back, due to recent scholarship. The extraordinary Toland, known as the Donegal Heretic, was said by some to be 'the bastard offspring of a priest and a prostitute.' Eagleton clearly relishes the intellectual adventures of this philosophical lunatic, who 'roamed at large in a louche underworld of religious heretics, shady political operators and radical republicans,' but was a serious thinker and probably the inventor of still-useful terms like 'free-thinker' and 'West Britain.' Eagleton is less attracted by Toland's detractor Peter Browne, who denounced Toland's work to the public magistrate, which led to it being burnt by the public hangman. A long essay, 'The Good-Natured Gael,' analyses the 'extraordinary predominance of Gaels in the culture of 'English' sensibility.' This was a subject calling out to be examined and even these livelyseventy pages do not begin to exhaust it. Especially as Eagleton is unsympathetic to Goldsmith, one of my own heroes. (But then he has not read my brilliant essays on Goldy'spoetry, or he would

Eagleton deploys the linguistic lingo with a relish that the nearly extant Common Reader may find disconcerting.

have been better equipped to savour what Yeatscalled 'the honey pot of his mind.'!) My favourite essay concerns nineteenth century Cork, and will surprise the inhabitants of that citywith its learned ingenuity. Francis Sylvester Mahoney ('Father Prout'), the Mylesof his day,is soon joined by the rabid Protestant journalist, William Maginn and a host of other Leeside worthies, whose artistic comings and goings illustrate Eagleton's fascination with the Carnivalesque, a burlesque balance of high and low learning. Half way, Crazy John and the Bishop swerves towards the twentieth century, with a catalogue of neglected Irish novels, and a plea for a neglected socialist thinker, Frederic Ryan, once denounced as 'the most dangerous man in Ireland.' Eagleton is determined to widen the scope of Irish studies; one imagines him beavering under the dome of the National Library, exuberantly excavating the lost gems of the Gaels. Despite his edict against Big Names, he includes an essay on what he calls 'the scrupulous banality of Beckett's discourse' and a splendidly irreverent tribute to Yeats called 'Sailing to Byzantium ... one of the great immigration poems of Ireland' and speaking of Yeats 'hair-raisingly triumphalist epitaph.' Eagleton deploys the linguistic lingo with a relish that the nearly extant Common Reader may find disconcerting. (A young critic wrote to me apologising that he had to use Jameson to interpret my work and I could only reply that it was my favourite drink). This volume seems like a sequel to Heathcliff and the Great Hunger (1996) and shows Eagleton as a brilliant amphibian, an Oxford Don who lives in Dublin and cares deeply about nearly everything. That wisecracks and wisdom co-habit in the same sentence sometimes slows the palce, but he comes out swinging in the last chapter, declaring 'This is a bad time to write about Ireland' and scourges our new tendency to do ourselves down. It should be read by every historian and journalist skilled in 'well-bred sneering at the Gael.' John Montague

A Bohemian in Couture Tweeds

The Four Seasons of Mary Lavin
By Leah Levenson

(Marino, 20 HB)

Mary Lavin died in March, 1996. Recognition of her achievement as a writer of short stories included an honorary doctorate from University College Dublin and her election as a Saoi of Aosdana. Her stories are often mentioned along with those of Frank O'Connor, Liam O'Flaherty and Sean O'Faolain. All four are probably read nowadays more by the older generation than the young, if at all. Work that seemed daring and innovative some thirty years ago now seems worthy but tame. The Dublin of 1967 was a stagnant backwater that appears to belong to a far more distant past.Mary Lavin's life will be familiar to readers of her stories, since much of her material was autobiographical. She was born in 1912 in Massachusetts where her Roscommon-born father worked for the local mill owners. Her mother, Nora, was a woman of great social pretensions who considered she had married beneath her. At her insistence, the family returned to Dublin in 1918. When Tom was offered the job of estate manager at Bective House in County Meath he could live apart from his wife without provoking gossip. In 1934 Mary graduated from UCD with first class honours. In 1942 she married a solicitor, William Walsh, with whom she had three daughters. After Tom Lavin's death in 1945, the Walsh family bought farmland at Bective and built a house. William Walsh died suddenly in 1954, leaving Mary with three daughters. She acquired a Dublin base, kept on the farm and supported her family chiefly by writing. In 1969 she married a friend from college days, Michael Scott, an Australian who had spent the intervening years as a Jesuit priest. He died before her and, in spite of the devotion of her daughters and grandchildren, her final years battling with depression and drink sound grim.It is doubtful that this biography will win Lavin any new readers. Stories that Lavin says should be 'like the flight of an arrow' are leadenly summarised. One is left knowing more than one ever wanted to know about a not very exciting life, yet knowing less than one

needs about things that mattered to her work. For example, her difficult relationship with her mother, the essential conservatism of both her lifestyle and her religion, her two marriages, her depressions and her barely-alluded-to 'drink problem'. Levenson accepts the family's story unquestioningly, and thus perpetuates both the myth of how Mary Lavin saw herself, and the way she taught her daughters to see her. Like many writers of fiction, Lavin was prone to self-dramatisation. The role she liked best was that of plucky young widow, educating 'her girls' and maintaining two homes, while gaily entertaining all comers at her famous salon. But in the interstices of the authorised version one catches glimpses of another Mary Lavin, an imperious, competitive, often selfish woman, well aware of her own importance. And why not? Good writers are not necessarily nice people, and Lavin was apparently no exception.The salon in the Mews at Lad Lane reveals much about her modus vivendi. According to Mary's daughter Elizabeth, the salon was bohemian, but the right kind ofbohemian: "Artistic, but correct. The guests [who included Frank O'Connor, Sean O'Faolain Benedict Kiely, Padraic Colum, and among the younger generation Tom Kilroy, Tom MacIntrye, Desmond O'Grady, Augustine Martin, and Nuala O'Faolain] couldn't be run down at the heel. They had to be chic." For chic, read well mannered, i.e. housetrained. We are told that the young widow 'paid little attention to her appearance. Invariably, she dressed in black' Five pages later an interviewer is quoted as observing "She wears beautiful couture tweeds in a 'put them on

and forget them' manner." Mary refused to buy cashmere sweaters from Dunnes Stores for 27, preferring to pay 90 elsewhere, thus infuriating her eldest daughter. Like many people unaccustomed to . handling finances, Mary was permanently convinced she was facing ruin, when in fact she was quite comfortably off, and never, I suspect from the above anecdote, went without anything-she really wanted. She and her daughters were regular patrons of both the Shelbourne and Buswell's Hotel.Levenson finds it extraordinary that Mary Lavin treated her writing as a job of work from which she earned money. But of course she did; it was both her profession and her vocation, and she was very good at it.I far prefer the bohemian in couture tweeds to the plucky little mother in black. Let us not ignore Mary Lavin's complexity by accepting cosy myths. . by Alannah Hopkin

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Access All Areas

N
o matter how faithfully I take my political Viagra tablets, I can't quite rise to the Observer campaign against the Blair government. The so-called cash-for-access row is, on the face of it, scandalous. As the pro-labour quality broadsheet thunders its disapproval from nibs literally saturated in vitriol, the only logical conclusion is that there must -be skulduggery afoot

Lobbying may now be an integral part of the political process, but there is a difference between access and excessive influence.

institutions. In a society driven by consumer credit the poor could never afford to celebrate certain family occasions or purchase necessary consumer items if they were reliant on their local Bank Manager. There was no privileged access to me. I hear the views of several interest groups including a coalition of poverty groups that confirmed the above analysis. I clamped down on illegal money lending and enshrined a strict regime for the licensed industry.

"Britain under Tony Blair, like Cambodia under Pol Pot, is a country governed by a clique of children" rants columnist Nick Cohen, I would have
thought that were it not for his untimely demise, Pol Pot would happily have settled for such an epitaph. But surely it's a bit rough on Mr Blair who wouldn't have expected such a comparison from Joel Patton not to mention an Observer journalist. According to the newspaper "the

story gripped politics all week, consuming newspapers and the airwaves... " They might change that now
to several weeks. Fair enough, but what exactly is the story? Here is the Observer's own summary: "... that

lobbyists-many of them former party officials-had privileged access to government decision makers, leaving ordinary citizens, trades unionists and voluntary groups on the outside." The indignant ones at the Observer
should come to Ireland. If the charge is cronyism we have been running the country like that for years. After all the thunder and highminded rhetoric, there is no smoking gun. All we have is an overly boastful Blairite yuppie and the knowledge that the office of the Prince of Darkness (Mr Mandelson) makes a habit of faxing Gordon Brown's speeches to some other former Labour helpers. It must be flattering for Mr Brown to know that the full text of his speeches are read by someone. To use their own term the Observer staff are conducting themselves like "a clique of children" who became ecstatic at the emergence of the latest pop group, Blair and his Babes and have now wearied of them. That is not to avoid the serious question oat the heart of the controversy. Is the lobbying system corrupt-

ing of politicians and corrosive of democracy? The answer must be no and yes. I don't believe that lobbyists in Ireland corrupt politicians who don't want to be corrupted, nor does the plying of their trade corrode democracy. As Commerce Minister I put seven different Bills through the Oireachtas. I was fiercely lobbied on some of them. For example, the same lobbyist who represented to me the views of licensed money lenders on the Consumer Credit Act was back to me a year later pushing the viewpoint of the Credit Union movement on the Credit Union Act. Did he influence the legislation? The answer is probably yes. Was democracy demeaned in the process? The answer is definitely no. I came to the consumer legislation with some bad constituency experience of moneylenders, which didn't discriminate between the heavy tactics of certain illegal unlicensed moneylenders and the necessity for a regulated licensed money lending system outside the orthodox financial

The indignant ones at the Observer should come to Ireland If the charge is cronYism we have been running the country like that for years.

Maybe it's different in Britain. It is a larger society. Maybe cash-for-access means exclusive access. But I doubt it Anyway what is the difference between hearing a well marshalled presentation from a lobbyist and a long-winded presentation from a trade association? No Finance Minister-even if he wished it otherwise-can escape being lobbied between the publication of the Budget and its terms being given expression to in the Finance Act Different Finance Ministers may bend at the margins this way of that but can we conclude that there shouldn't be access to them? And if there should, does it matter whether it is the interest group themselves or a professional alobbyist representing their case? Theoretically the emergence of the Select Committee system allows this lobbying to be conducted in public and that would be a significant advance. However, powerful groups engaged in special pleading will still want to go behind closed doors, In these circumstances the usual checks

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and balances are an alert Opposition and vigilant journalism. Abolition of lobbyists ought not be confused with abolition of the back channel. In the main, tendering procedures these days are so streamlined it is quite difficult to confer favours without activelyworking at it. Unless the intention is there, it is unlikely the lobbyist will induce it. In a small society with Ireland's political system, access does not need to be purchased. If you want you land rezoned you can employ a lobbyist. Alternatively you can call directly yourself to the "clinics" of the party leaders on the Council. It is scarcely the persuasiveness of the lobbyist that determines a particular outcome. Lobbying the American way is a horse of a different colour as a book published in 1990 called Agents of Influence by Pay Choate clearly shows. The book reveals in startling detail how lobbyists acting for Japanese companies manipulate the American political and economic system to allow Japan win market share in the US for its target industries. At that time some $400m was being spent ($lOOmof which went to lobbyists) towards this purpose. Choate demonstrates beyond question how Japan could in effect actually veto US legislation inimical to its interests. The intriguing fact is that this army of lobbyists are overwhelmingly all American. Further, most of them are products of the Washington "revolving door" syndrome meaning they are former government officials who have deserted to peddle influence for the Japanese company of their choice. There is now a virtual conveyor belt of people who spend a few years acquiring knowledge of how the system works before defecting to make personal fortunes showing their new employers the way around the system and which buttons to press. According to Choate the Japanese strategy follows a simple pattern: protect your own domestic market from foreign penetration and capture as much of your competitor's market share as possible. Apparently Japan does not tolerate its top government officials becoming other nation's top lobbyists. Japan understands best that political power in America is a commodity that can be acquired by the highest

bidder. "Influence in Washington is just like in Indonesia. It'sfor sale," is a quote from a Japanese economic journal. The Economist puts it this way "America has the most advanced influence peddling industry in the World. Washington's culture of influence-for-hire is uniquely open to all buyers, foreign and domestic ... its lawful ways of corrupting public policy remain unrivalled." Thus Japan has such a commanding political presence in the US: American lobbyists, political advisors and public relations representatives. Japanese companies are major contributors to both political parties as well as to an array of leading party members, elected nationally and locally.They finance a growing number of policy institutes and scholars and have acquired a number of colleges that in future will turn out the Japanese graduates necessary to manage the substantial Japanese interests in America. Take the case of Trucks. The Japanese Government sets voluntary quotas on the number of cars that manufacturers may export to America. These manufacturers may export as many trucks to the States as they like. But there's a hitch. The tariff on light trucks is 25 per cent whereas it's only 2 per cent for cars. Since transplanted factories in America were virtually making exports of cars from Japan redundant, the car export quotas were going unfilled. To exploit the tariff rate differential, it was decided to reclassify light trucks as cars. The lobby network went into overdrive. A Congressman from each party was taken on board. They enlisted colleagues. The Commissioner for Customs resisted. Suzuki, for example, hired a well connected Republican lobbyist who had been an Aide to Vice-President Bush. Customs ruled against them. The Japanese effort was redoubled.

In January 1989at a meeting of the . "Big7" the Japanese Finance Minister persuaded his German and British counterparts to approach the US Treasury Secretary and formally request a reconsideration. Within 9 days of the Customs announcement, the ruling was suspended. Meanwhile in an attempt to kill off the ruling altogether, the Public Relations Campaign continued alleging that the Customs ruling would do enormous harm to US consumers by upping the retail price of light trucks. In a rare show of unity, Chrysler, Ford and General Motors mounted a campaign to preserve the ruling. It was too late. Within 45 days, the Treasury Department overturned the Custom's decision and reclassified light truck imports as passenger cars. Japan had more political muscle than Lee Iacocca and the heads ofFord and General Motors combined. Do similar practices apply in respect of the European Commission? Maybe the Observer has a point after all.

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Poisoned Pens
At the height of the Drumcree crisis, when Catholic churches and homes were being firebombed and two days before the Quinn boys were murdered in Ballymoney, Conor Cruise O'Brien offered his observations on the week's happenings in The Irish Independent of Saturday, July 11. He attributed the crisis at Drumcree directly to a secret deal done by the British government and Sinn Fein: "Sinn Fein were rewarded for their support for the 'peace process' by a British undertaking that the Orangemen would not be allowed down Garvaghy Road." He went on to claim that the Parades Commission was "indirectly responsive to the demands of Sinn Fein". The mentality that drove loyalists to firebomb Catholic homes and, almost certainly, to firebomb the Quinn home at Ballymoney, has been fed by precisely the kind of reckless exaggeration that the O'Brien article represented. Of course the murderers of Ballymoney are unlikely to have been readers of The Irish Independent on the weekend of the atrocity but the poison that O'Brien and others regularly inject into the Northern bloodstream is in part to blame for Orange bigotry and its accompanying savagery.

WIGMORE
at the Department of Health and Children, refused to accept the amendment. He did so on the grounds that it was government policy to encourage the reporting of allegations of child sex abuse to the gardai and the health boards and not to the sport clubs involved. He entirely ignored the points (a) that the Murphy report clearly envisaged that the sports club concerned, along with the Gardai, would be involved in responding to allegations of sexual abuse and (b) that the Murphy report also recommended that an official against whom a complaint had been made could be suspended, pending the outcome of the inquiry. The effect of the refusal to amend the Bill is that allegations of impropriety might not now be notified to the sporting club involved and that even if they are made known to the club, it may be constrained from taking immediate action to protect other young members of the club.

Murphy Report Amendment

The Murphy report on "Protection of Children in Sport" made several recommendations on how swimming clubs should handle complaints of sexual abuse. It recommended that

the official against whom a complaint has been made should stand down while the complaint is being examined (3.4), where a Garda investigation into an allegation is being investigated, the person under investigated should be suspended' or even dismissed (3.27). The report went on to recommend that "a complainant should be assured that the reporting of such a complaint is privileged and, accordingly, will not be defamatory unless it is made with malice" (6.8). In the Dail on July I last, a few weeks after the Murphy report had been published, Alan Shatter TD proposed an amendment to the Protection of Persons Reporting Child Abuse Bill 1998. This amendment would have assured that the making of a complaint to a sporting club of sexual abuse on the part of an official of that club would be privileged and that the sporting club concerned would be free to suspend an official while a complaint was being investigated. Frank Fahey TD, the Minister for State

Wasting the (ouffs Time

The judgement delivered in the Supreme Court in the Haughey v Moriarty case took two hours and forty minutes to read aloud-actually the chief justice, Mr Liam Hamilton, quite reasonably skipped bits of the judgement on the grounds of tiredness. As he read through the 180 pages of script, four other judges of the Supreme Court (Mrs Justice Denham and Messrs Justices Barrington, Murphy and Keane) sat there idly. In the Supreme Court of the United States only a brief summary of the judgement is read in court, the substantive judgement is presented in writing to the parties and the media. This is the practice also in the European Court of Justice. It is likely there will be a change of practice in the Irish Supreme Court this coming autumn, which will save judges, barristers and court officials a lot of needless agony and time. By Vincent Browne

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