Making lin on Ireland

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Northern Ireland is the stuff of which dozens of British World War II heroics movies were made in the 1950s and '60s, 'Colditz' and The But the British press has seen nothing heroic in the IRA's great escape. Killers on the Loose' was the message of the headlines which were accompanied by rogues gallery' police mugshots.

In fact Britain's IRA captives are prisoners of war, even though they have been tried and convicted in no-jury courts - some of them on the evidence of paid informers. Long Kesh is an internment camp not an Most striking has been the reaction in the South where the police and army were mobilised to round up any republican PoWs who made South. Now the southern bosses' state takes on its full responsibility for Loyalists swarmed outside the meeting i Great Escape' being perhaps the best known.

ordinary prison.

their way down across the border.

policing the border.

Any republicans captured in British internment camps north of the south will be sent back to the the border or locked up in the south. Callum McRae reports on an important meeting.

'IT IS important that the links between Irish Republicans and opponents of imperialism be kept alive and strengthened, since ultimately, your victory depends on our victory, and our victory will come with yours."

Eoghan Mac Cormac, writing on behalf of the prisoners in the H blocks set the tone at a meeting organised by the Edinburgh branch of the Labour Committee on Ireland. Ine letter, written in tiny script on a scrap of paper, had been smuggled out of Long Kesh for the meeting.

Outside, with a hysteria matched only by the national press the next day, a bunch of thirty or so loyalists had made a ritual attack on the meeting to the past they have left Edinburgh activists requiring hospital treatment. On this occasion they had to be largely content with hurling themselves painfully against the door of the labour rooms where the meeting was taking place. Even when Ken Livingstone arrived they managed only a couple of blows.

Although a few people who had come for the meeting thought the better of trying to get through the loyalists, around seventy persevered and were well pleased to have done so.

Mary Pearson from Birmingthe issue of Ireland in her union for many years. She spoke first and stressed the importance, and problems, of union work. "We can't insult our trade union comrades by simply reciting slogans. We have to continually argue and present the facts. Only by doing that in a reasoned manner can we win people to supporting British withdrawal."

Journalists who stayed through the meeting in the hope of some "newsworthy" aggro at the end, shad to listen to Ken Livingstone making another reference to his remarks on Dublin radio about the 'Irish Holocaust'. This time he was not widely reported. 'Most school children in Britain are aware of the scale of the Famine even if the British press aren't."

He went on to attack 'those like Peter Shore who say we should not be raising the issue of Ireland in the Labour Party.

"What did they do about the discrimination against the Catholics in the sixties when Labour had a majority of around a hundred? They did nothing ... and must take much of the responsibility for the violence now.".

On the growth of Sinn Fein he said 'They have emerged as the major force in the republican community. In areas with up to 80% unemployment and housing which makes areas of Glasgow look palatial they have articulated and represented the feelings of the community."

These remarks were echoed by a speaker from the floor. "Sinn Fein" , he said, "has recruited and built a base in the republican community which would put any Labour Party branch to shame.

The meeting had to finish early because of the problem of getting the speakers safely away, but in other respects it was very successful, For many Labour Party members it was CHRIS HIE the first time they had attended a meeting on Ireland.

With the speakers gone most of the loyalists also left. It was difficult to take seriously the pathetic group who remained outside to defend the faith against the "poofs, patsys and murdering fenian scum" who had attended the meeting. nonetheless, the problem of loyalism in Scotland is a real one.

It had been touch and go whether the meeting would go ahead at all. Not because the loyalists had been near to physically stopping it, but because so many venues (including labour movement ones) had refused or hesitated about accepting the booking for a meeting about Ireland. The cause was a combination of the threat of loyalist violence and the fear by union officials (particularly the NUM) of a backlash led by their loyalie, members.

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