The Consistency of Senator Eoghan Harris

by pseud Fri Aug 17, 2007 10:01

Dan Boyle (chief negotiator of the Green's programme for government) has been announced
as deputy leader of the Seanad, this means a rewarding salry hike to add to his already
mounting pension fund and of course a bit of political elbow. mr gormley, last seen releasing eagles
into the Irish Park's land in Kerry is, as Minister with responsibility for 'Environment'
http://www.environ.ie casting his beam on Seanad and Local Government Reform.

The FF backbench are rutting over Shannon, but surprisingly quiet over the Green plum Jobs
in both the front bench and Seanad, sure they'll be fielding a presidential candidate next.

by JJ Fri Aug 17, 2007 10:25

Jasus Roy, ever her of the saying once bitten...... Do yourself a favour stay away of this charlatan. The man was offered a role in the film Transformers as the only human with the ability to 'change' from nationalist to socialist republican to leninist to social democrat to christian democrat to unionist and back to nationalist and, in the process perform ideological sommersaults justified by the closest quote from Tone, Plato, Marx or whoever, usually out of context. You cannot deny his intellect. He is the most gifted egotist in Ireland an will prostitute himself to the most flattering hence his new found adoration of Bankrolled Bertie.

by pat c Fri Aug 17, 2007 12:18

Dont slag dan boyle. The deputy leader allowance is only about €15,000 a year. What could you with that?

As for Eoghan, I welcome his appointment. Think of the fun times ahead! What will he do to/for the Greens? Wont be long before he trys to get them to adopt his new programme: The Necessity of Nuclear Power.

Caligula put his horse in the Senate.

Bertie has put his Ass in the Senate.

by Cruiser Fri Aug 17, 2007 13:15

dont be fooled, this is payback time for Harris and O Reilly,only for them Bertie would not have won the election

by Historian Fri Aug 17, 2007 14:10

Harris and Johnston did NOT found the civil rights movement. And if their previous associations are anything to go by may god help us. BTW, Johnston was working with Gormley during the elections so where does that leave him?

by Boil Fri Aug 17, 2007 14:16

O we could discuss the admittance by Brian Cowen that he personally contacted the editorial
team at unison during the general election campaign?

That was one he admitted to after the outcome. Now the FF government have developed one
of the most spohisticated media monitoring and troble-shooting services in the EU, they even have
Mary Hanfin photographed taking calls from concerned parents on the maths fuck up. They
are bright-eyed and bushy tailed when it comes to massing the figures.
Two taoiseach nominations to the senate are:- Colm O Gorman and Dan Boyle.

And SF didn't even meow!
Its got nothing to do with democracy , its a value lesson in how to carve up the pie between the males
in power and typically there is no gender balance in either house of the Oireachtas or the FF party.
=Jobs for the boys and more of the same establishment culture.

by pat c Fri Aug 17, 2007 14:17

apparently his allowance is a measly €9,747 per annum! poor dan he'll never get by on that.

by crookstown Fri Aug 17, 2007 21:16

Vincent Browne wrote a good article about Harris in this month's Village magazine. Also click on this link

by Jim O'Sullivan Sat Aug 18, 2007 10:37

I had the experience of attending a meeting that was addressed by Harris sometime ago. I'm not sure what phase he was in then but it was clear that attached to a very colourful and lyrical tongue was a brain functioning without the support of stabilisers. While the evening was entertaining if nothing else, I never dreamed it possible that he would end up anywhere near Kildare Street. We sure live in scary times.

by John Doherty Sat Aug 18, 2007 13:32

Senator Harris's solipsistic pseudo-political rantings suggest he is afflicted with a narcissistic personality disorder.
In his last piece in the Sunday Independent he used the personal pronoun about 40 times. He deserves compassion, but his outpourings are merely of clinical interest.

by Jim Sun Aug 19, 2007 01:59

An interesting one to watch: will Harris use his Senate position to oppose the extradition of Sean 'North Korea' Garland to the US? One would think not, but Stickie blood is thicker than water.

by Peadar Donnell - absolutely no party Sun Aug 19, 2007 09:47

When I look at the current repetitive right-leaning journalism of whirligig ideologist Eoghan Harris I am reminded of the final sad sentence in George Orwell's political fable, Animal Farm. (No need to quote it, as most people here have read it.)

I know journalists like Harris are well paid for their conveyor belt writings.

I also think of how elected politicians have come up the greasy ladder and 'make' on travel and other expenses. I also think of how several well-known Stickie leaders of the 1970s marxist era have risen in professions like trade unionism and law.

So, if anybody here is climbing the bottom rungs of the social ladder at the moment, just think for a moment:- a few of you might be in places like the Harrises, the Gilmores, the Rabittes or the De Rossas, twenty years from now. Well-paid champions of the underdog indeed!

by Sceptic Sun Aug 19, 2007 11:32

Its better to be inconsistent than to be perpetually wrong. Harris began by believing in wrong headed and half baked ideas about socialism and nationalism. Its to be welcomed that he has shed these. Its a pity a few others could not do likewise.

by Sean Doe Sun Aug 19, 2007 18:18

Harris lost his Stalinist religion only when the Soviet Union collapsed. He backed the wrong horse, as he did in the Provo/Stickie split.
It looks like he has picked another winner in his support for the neo-con instigated mass murder in the Middle East, -although he has grown silent in his support for this imperial debacle.
Harris has been a consistent supporter of some of history's greatest mass murderers while attacking the powerless who resist such atrocities. His flip-flop political postures are not based on any political principle. His selection to the Seanad by the leader of Fianna Fail exposes Fianna Fail as the party of the backward, subservient-to-Empire elitist caste which controls the Irish political economy. Welcome to to the modernization of gombeenism.

by Sceptic Sun Aug 19, 2007 23:24

I am not defending Harris. I am defending inconsistency. Some great men have been inconsistent - M. K Gandhi often changed his mind and defended his right to do so as the necessary act of a thinking political man.

by Alex White (not really) Mon Aug 20, 2007 08:00

"Its better to be inconsistent than to be perpetually wrong. Harris began by believing in wrong headed and half baked ideas about socialism and nationalism. Its to be welcomed that he has shed these. Its a pity a few others could not do likewise. "

Seems like you are defending Harris to me. Harris may have been inconsistent in his formal allegience to ideologies like socialism and conservatism, but he has been utterly single-minded in his loyalty to power, his intolerance of other points of view, his willingness to tolerate dictatorships and political killing in the name of a higher cause. From his support for North Korea to his adulation of Bush, the continuities beneath the rhetoric are striking. With that in mind, I don't think any of us on the Left who never supported Kim IL Sung or any other Red tyrant feels like we have much to learn from the man.

by Sceptic Mon Aug 20, 2007 14:18

He is narcissistic and sniffs the way the wind blows and acts accordingly. I am not a great fan but he is interesting and original. Recall that FF itself was a result of Dev's pragmatism. The rump SF left behind in 1927 were the consistent elephants in the graveyard. Imagine where we would be if he had not shown that leadership. One reason that I hesitate to condemn someone who changes. Agreed that Harris has probably changed a bit too much. In that case you get the reputation of someone who has been all over the place. However Harris is articulate enough to carry it off.

by Caobhin Mon Aug 20, 2007 17:49

In the real world there are different words than inconsistency to describe Harris - lickarse, lickspittle, ligger, sychophant, parasite, not to mention bully and coward (his RTE Section 31 antics) spring to mind. The guy is consistent though - he will say and do anything to be close to those in power even if he is best cabin boy for two masters (Aherne and O'Reilly).

Harris began by believing in wrong headed and half baked ideas about socialism and nationalism. Its to be welcomed that he has shed these.

What is to be welcomed? The Moscow gold ran out and so did Harris - an act of the morally bankrupt blackguard who has no integrity.

by crookstown Mon Aug 20, 2007 21:26

Harris had enormous influence in RTE during the 1970s through the Ned Stapleton Cumann.

by Sigmund Murphy Tue Aug 21, 2007 00:17

The self-important preening, the "all about me" screeds in the Sindo, the infantile temper tantrums on the radio...its clear that the poor man needs to be put in a rest home for the defunct, -which is precisely what Bertie (God bless him) has done by putting Harris in the Senate.

by Barry - 32 csm Tue Aug 21, 2007 12:46

This is the same fucking bollocks that recently lectured a west Belfast audience of how horrible and annoying their claims of victimhood are to an Irish audience . The same arsehole who has loudly denounced the Irish people for years about the non existant ethnic cleansing and victimhood of the souths protestant population while demanding their repentance and self flagellation , even viciously denouncing those from the souths protestant population for daring to point out it that erm..actually it didnt happen , their neighours are quite nice people ...and erm.. couldnt really give a damn about their religious background or affilitation .
Blasphemy .
For decades Harris personally played an active and central role in undermining any notion of the essential pre requisite for a functoning national democracy on this island , a critical media . The activities of his unelected RTE watchdog , the Ned Stapleton cummann , and their personal decisions on how the already draconian section 31 should be interpreted ensured that the southern population were routinely misled and lied to for 30 years with British propaganda . Harris and his cronies boasted on their ability to "smell a nationalist at 50 paces" . They made sure that not only were Sinn Fein people not interviewed but that anyone whose opinion on issues concerning the British governemnts activities in Ireland put the British in an unfavourable light were banned from the airwaves too . At the very same time Harris was also put in charge of the training of future current affairs journalists , ensuring this policy would be sustained . Not only did he advise them that facts ( erm..central to reporting the..erm.. facts ) were "masturbation" he also advised them that they should seek the views of the UDA leadership as regards northern events and slant their news reports from that angle .
We need only look at the example of Dublin 1974 and Irelands biggest mass murder perpetrated by British government forces , a massacre being covered up to this day . Harris and his people controlled RTE current affairs and there was no media critique of these events other than ,somehow , the provos were really responsible . Those authors of the atrocity in the corridors of the British embassy and Whitehall must have been cock a hoop . In fact the release of some papers from that period from the British national archives shows they pretty much were .
It is a reasonable question to put as to whether or not British military intelligence knew beforehand what the reaction of the Irish media would be to the British government massacring Irish citizens in Dublin and Monaghan with no warning car bombs . They seemed pretty sure beforehand of what the Irish polices actions would be , having pretty much heavily infiltrated them beforehand . Could they be sure that no Irish journalist would be permitted to look into such a matter , the states biggest mass murder ? Because as head of current affairs neither Harris or any of his cronies did . In fact they still havent , just as the Irish police havent . Instead they actively persued an agenda of presenting the propaganda of state backed murder gangs such as the UDA as factual news coverage to the Irish people .
And its a reasonable assumption to make that any prior knowlege that the Irish media would not look into and examine the commission of mass murder on the streets of Dublin , may well have greatly influenced the decision to carry out war crimes and an act of war against a neighbouring European state in the first place . Or that may well have been mere coincidence . How , in the name of God, could British military intelligence predict what the Irish media would do ?

We now know from the British National archive that the Irish Times in 1970 was put at the disposal of the British intelligence services as a propaganda tool by its owners in the Irish Times Trust . Douglas Gageby had an annoying little habit of permitting articles that showed the activities of the British governemnt in Ireland in an unfavourable light , so the owners handed this journal of record over to the professionals to sort the matter out .
The activities of Harris , a thoroughly unprincipled propagandist who reviles factual reporting as "media masturbation" may well have been purely coincidental to British military intelligences simultaneous occupation of the Irish media . His support for the military backed UDA may well have been coincidental , his urging of fellow RTE journalists to present the propaganda of the military backed UDA as factual news may well have been coincidental too . But his activities certainly assisted the activitis of those who were massacring Irish citizens north and south . He ensured the Irish media avoided this subject and placed the blame farily and squarely not only at the feet of the provos but the Irish people themselves . Punishment for their original sin of being slightly nationalist in outlook and prepared to belive bad things about the British government .
And in case the Irish people ever forget the heinous nature of their original sin Harris has regularly demanded from his various pulpits they self flagellate themselves at regular intervals . Thanks to Bertie he now has a permanent pulpit to denounce them from .
Who knows Harris may well even be destined for even greater things than this . In the unlikely event Bertie ever decides to permit a public enquiry into the Dublin Monaghan bombings Senator Harris can now be made chairman of it . Its no more grotesque and unbelievable a scenario than the unelected and unnacountable responsibility and power hes weilded at a national level thus far over the decades .
But ultimately its the Irish people themselves who are responsible for this lying guttersnipes lengthy career on the national scene . They and we are stupid enough and undignified enough to put up with him and we all throughly deserve what we have got from him in return . Even that west Belfast audience who invited him to their festival deserved the insults he spewed at them and their murdered relatives and burned streets , because they were so predictable .
Hopefully someday our children will be more enlightened , dignified and assertive and maybe even self flagellate themselves as a nation for our and our parents collective sin of tolerating the likes of this offensive and vile little scumbag for one single minute .

by Paddy X Tue Aug 21, 2007 19:00

Harris for 20 years used the republican movement as a scapegoat. Scapegoating is a classic ploy of the authoritarian personality. It is motivated, not by objective reality, but by the psychological pressures felt by the scapegoater. Now that the Provos have capitulated, Harris has to find another scapegoat in order to maintain a modicum of psychological equilibrium. His public emotional outbursts show that the psychological pressure is building.

by Rudyard Wed Aug 22, 2007 01:56

It appears that The Sunday Indo acts towards its writers much as confessing one's heresy did in the days of the Inquisition: one is recruited, one publicly renounces every Left-wing idea one ever had, one is forgiven and given a column to write. There is something wonderfully Irishy-Catholic about the Sunday Indo, which most of the Republic's journos and columnists understand perfectly. By reducing their journos to children by making them confess their sins, the Sindo can indeed control them.

by Barry Wed Aug 22, 2007 13:37

If I remember correctly Harris and his chums made RTE journalists sign a similar undertaking regarding nationalist beliefs/associating with those in possession of said beliefs .
Like the catholic church before them these fucking tramps are merely agents of social control , engaged in a very long and drawn out process of social engineering directed against the Irish people. And quite a succesful one as it has turned out . Harris self flagellating lunacy has become mainstream in the modern Ireland they helped programme . Even those in the south who regard themselves as progressive have many of their psychological buttons pushed by his bullshit , and will continue to have their buttons pushed for quite some time to come . Like their forefathers with their catholic guilt ,theyll even pass these liberal psychological triggers onto their children too . Dignity , commonsense and self confidence will elude us as a nation for quite some time to come .

by Skin the Goat Wed Aug 22, 2007 16:15

John Waters wrote a sychophantic piece on Harris in the Irish Times. Cedarlounge has an interesting commentary.
Link: http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2007/08/14/the-flexibi...deed/

by strongstomache Wed Aug 22, 2007 17:06

I take it this is the john waters piece you refer to:
http://www.anfearrua.com/db.asp?a=addreply&tid=368818&q...68819

Health Warning (for those of a queasy disposition): Enough to make anyone puke.

by strongstomache Wed Aug 22, 2007 17:19

...is actually a link to another critique of the waters article, but it does include the article in full rather than just quotes.

by mid cork Wed Aug 22, 2007 21:54

I just read Harris' biography in wikipedia, I never realised that he supported the Iraq invasion . I guess now it's such a disaster he prefers to keep quiet about it.

by Sceptic Fri Aug 24, 2007 15:19

If you did not know that Harris supported the Iraqi invasion you must be fairly new to "Harris watching". In fairness to Harris he has written extensively and cogently about his reasons for this support both before and after March 2003. He continues to defend his position though he does not write as much about it as he used to.

by Jerry Cornelius Fri Aug 24, 2007 15:47

"He continues to defend his position though he does not write as much about it as he used to. "

He doesnt write as much about Iraq anymore because all of his writings have proved to be misleading. You certainly wont see him mentioning Chalibi.

by PJ Bakunin Fri Aug 24, 2007 18:17

Sceptic, please let us know where ( in what publication) has Senator Harris recently defended the U.S. war on Iraq? How recently? The neo-cons (from whom Harris has being taking his cue) have begun to blame Bush's incompetence for the mess. If the U.S was winning, Harris and his reactionary fellow-travellers would be crowing in triumph. Harris's silence is telling. The British army's defeat in southern Iraq must be very painful for him. (and also for his silly colleague Myers)

by Sceptic Fri Aug 24, 2007 20:52

As I recall it was in the Sunday Independent in the past few months but I have not got a link for it. It is not an easy publication to search on the web. His gist was that in the light of the information then available it was the right thing to do and that its was done for good motives. He dismissed those who say it was wrong with the benefit of hindsight as hindsight was not available to those who had to make the decision and they must not be judged in that way. Contemptible Monday morning quarterbacks or words to that effect.

by Barry - 32 csm Sat Aug 25, 2007 21:18

Most of the world were telling them not to do it , it was patently the wrong thing to do . An idiot could see that , except perhaps President Chimpy McFlightsuit , Poodle Blair and Haw haw Harris . Harris denounced those who opposed the war , now hes denouncing them for being right to oppose the war but wrong to oppose it because he supported it . It was wrong but the right thing to do because he couldnt see the glaringly obvious nature of how wrong it was , therefoe he was right all along . What a fucking prick . A sociopathic conceited prick , a total waste of oxygen

by mid cork Sat Aug 25, 2007 21:55

I never took much notice of Harris until Bertie nominated him. But theres an article in this month's Village magazine that says he and his Worker's Party cronies had huge influence in RTE in the 1980s. They even persecuted Mary Mcaleese because she was a northern nationalist.

by Ambrose Bierce Sun Aug 26, 2007 16:39

Harris is boasting in today's Sindo how he predicted Sinn Fein's poor performance in the recent election. Not so. He predicted that Sinn Fein would increase its representation. He also predicted that Labour would form a coalition with Fianna Fail. Today, because his old Stickie crony, Rabbitte, has resigned, Harris is claiming that the Labour party is finished. A severe case of megalomania with no credibility.

by mid cork Sun Aug 26, 2007 21:10

In todays Sunday Times they write that he roared and screamed at a woman who interrupted him when he was giving a lecture. She's filed a complaint. They also say that he claimed to have won a silver bear award at the Berlin Film Festival but it was actually a lesser award at a different festival in Berlin.

by pat c Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:04

Actually Harris has hated Rabbitte for a long time. Rabbitte would not support Him in 1990 when Harris attempted to foist "The Necessity For Social Democracy" on the WP. This was to be a change of line, the WP would adopt a Social Democratic line but it would be handed down from above.

Harris has at times called Rabbitte a provo lover.

Regarding the film award, perhaps it was the Bronze Beagle from the Cork Film Festival.

Its not at all unusual for Harris to shout at or/and abuse people in audiences. I remember when he shouted at Des Bonass, ATGWU, who was in the audeience on Q&A. He accuesed DEs of being a member of SF, because Des disagreed with him. Another time on Q&A, Harris accused the audience of being sectarian because they applauded someone who disagreed with Harris!

by B Thu Aug 30, 2007 01:41

If Harris ever got real political power Ireland would be absolutely bollixed. The sad thing is that his control of the broadcasting media and its resulting ability to set the political agenda for almost 2 decades means he did have serious political power for quite some time. The nonsense being witnessed in public is merely what was going on behind the scenes in the broadcasting media for decades.
Even many of the political attitudes held by those who profess to detest him have been shaped by him. Thats why he shouts that those who disagree with him are sectarian, he created the Pavlovian button to press in the first place. The utter lack of spirit and dignity across the board in Irish politics today can be traced back to his door, along with much confusion.

by Tomelty Thu Aug 30, 2007 02:31

Pulling strings behind the scenes and manipulating public perceptions - these have been Harris's constant projects in all his career and political reincarnations. And he's been well remunerated for his control-freakery.

If we despise Independent and other newspapers we can refuse to buy them, can't we? Not only that, we can urge lots of other media consumers to do the same. Why do so many people spend their lives munching prolefeed?

by Daltun Lalor Fri Aug 31, 2007 20:29

Harris in his Sindo column August 26 says: 'Guevara was a ruthless bastard who perfectly fitted Amos Oz's definition of a political fanatic as "someone who is more interested in you than in himself".
Ernesto Che Guevara Lynch lived and died fighting against imperial agression. He criticized the Soviet empire when Harris was its stooge and propagandist. Harris is still the propandist of the Empire against the downtrodden and oppressed.
The Oz quote comes from a humourously ironic passage in Oz's book. Harris takes it literally. In the same paragraph Oz says 'Bin Laden loves you', and 'Sept 11 was a labour of love'.
If Harris believes this is Oz's definition of fanaticism then he also believes that Bin Laden loves Americans and the the 911 atrocitiy was an act of love.
Oz states that 'the seed of fanaticism always lies in uncompromising self-righteousness'. He could be describing Harris. Whatever position Harris currently holds (and he has more positions than are in the Kama Sutra) he is sure to hold it fanatically. It seems to be some neocon, neolib, pseudo-social democrat mish-mash.
Oz also attacks the Bush neocon fanatics for attempting to spread 'democracy' at the point of a gun, a position Harris has publicly supported.
In his booklet Oz clealy supports the great worldwide struggle against colonialism and empire. Harris is an apologist for empire and a propagandist for imperial control of Ireland.
Oz's book is entitled 'How to cure a fanatic' but this should be taken with a grain of salt. To cure authoritarianism is almost impossible. But exposure and irony can help quarantine it. Harris is now a propandist for the parasitical, corrupt speculators of Fianna Fail. His Seanad appointment is a form of welfare for the privileged. His pernicious authoritarianism can be controlled through exposure and ridicule.

by Tomelty Sat Sep 01, 2007 02:29

That's a powerful post, Daltun - well researched and packing literary punch.

I especially liked your summing up of the chameleon Harris: "... he has more positions than are in the Kama Sutra." Except that many of those positions are graceful, romantic and artistically tasteful... and Harris is anything but.

by Fred Johnston Sun Sep 02, 2007 15:20 sylfredcar at iolfree dot ie

I don't quite understand why everyone is so set on mowing down Eoghan Harris merely because he has followed the diktats of an increasingly Right-wing society. Perhaps he has set himself up; but he is hardly the only one to do so. Yes, I have often read his columns merely to be outraged. But others have stated that we live in a society where principles must be fluid, that we can hold principles personally but they cannot practicably extend into the political realm - this was said in a newspaper recently, The Irish Examiner indeed, of the Labour Party and its future. I find this sort of thing quite obnoxious, having been on the Left, as was my father and uncles, since I could understand what the Left was. If we are to single out Eoghan Harris without looking at how our cultural life has been muted, many of our artists and writers self-silenced by the need to conform in order to 'succeed,' our politicians on all sides changing opinion or refusing to have any, then we are acting unfairly. This entire New Ireland - not Eoghan Harris on his own - demands conformity, regulation, boats that do not rock, focus that does not focus, politics that serves itself and exists of itself, separate from the People. Politics and culture are for taming. Ireland must, at all costs, be marketable. This did not start with Eoghan Harris, nor is it fuelled by him: rather it is maintained by the rigidity of our own silence, we on the Left who would rather banter amongst ourselves than take action, write letters, lobby, examine what we mean by 'Left,' and what we expect of the concept. Yes, brave things have happened in Mayo, and writers too took courage there. But there is never any concerted cultural action - there is no cultural Left. Let's not look for easy scape-goats, nor blame politicians for being, well . . politicians: let's see what our writers and artists can do to produce a real Left-consciousness. Lobby the Irish Writers' Union and Aosdána on political and cultural issues, for instance; lobby the playwrights and the theatre organisations; lobby the visual artists. Do something practical.

by oscar Tue Sep 04, 2007 10:36

Daltun Lalor's post takes a critical look at some of Harris' comments in the Sindo on August 26th. Also in that article is an incoherent attack on John Pilger and a eulogy about the work of Official Sinn Fein / The Worker's Party's industrial caucus in the 1970s. Missing was any reference to one of their publications in 1976, "Tony O'Reilly's last match"!

by Tomelty Tue Sep 04, 2007 14:40

That last bit about a publication (article?) on Tony O'Reilly is getting closer to the heart of the matter. What we need is researched short quotes from bylined articles/communiques by Harris that appeared in Sticky propaganda periodicals during his SF-the Workers Party (SWFP) years and its other transmogrifications up to the creation of Democratic Left.

What did he actually write about the 'bourgeois capitalist press' in those years? What did he have to say about imperialism in relation to Palestine, the Middle East and elsewhere? What did he have to say about trade unions, the working class struggle and social democracy?

Such annotated quotes, from Harris, De Rossa, Rabitte, Gilmore, White and a few others, would help us all to evaluate these individuals who have made it into commanding heights of the professional middle class.

by Gerry McCarthy Sat Sep 15, 2007 18:28

A 'trenchcoat republican', that about sums up Harrris in Cork in the 1960s. He was attracted to the militaristic trappings but not the reality. Of course there were many working class republicans in Cork in those days: some of them had just been released from Crumlin Road jail.
Harris, by contrast, used his middle-class Fianna Fail background to get himself appointed an officer in that well-known revolutionary army--the F.C.A. He later claimed that by doing so he was acting as a 'role model' for the working class. What a silly twit!
As for the Wolfe Tone society, that was an elitist front group of the Communist Party of great Britain. Mick O'Riordan of the Communist Party of IRELAND was too radical, too republican, too proletarian, and too honest for the snooty practitioners of deception, Harris and Roy Johnston. So they set up their own talking shop. Some poor fools, such as Cathal Goulding were deceived.
Harris is now a flimflam man for the deceitful, corrupt Bertie Ahern, the Fianna Fail leader of the sleazy circle of greedy landgrabbers who have enriched themselves at the expense of the working class. And it is reported that Roy Johnston is now to join with Harris in some new political venture... fooled you once..
Harris will eventually realize what has been obvious for some time: that Provisional Sinn Fein are no different from Fianna Fail. Harris will then boast that he predicted this all along, although a few weeks ago he was calling the Provos 'fascists'.
Harris's boy at R.T.E. , Charlie Bird, is now doing his level best to put a positive spin on Ahern's disastrous performance before the Mahon tribunal. But not much can be expected from a 'journalist' who can't write and who was parachuted into R.T.E by Harris when he and his stalinist cronies controlled R.T.E. and censored the news.
Ahern, who signed blank checks for the criminal, Haughey, may not have the same lavish lifestyle as the squireen Haughey. And so far, it appears he did not take as much money from his capitalist cronies as did his predecessor as gombeen-in-chief. But a low-priced whore is as much a prostitute as a high-paid one.
Radical, non-violent social republicanism has always been the real threat to the hegemony of Fianna Fail. In his non-stop efforts to destroy republicanism Harris has remained true to his Fianna Fail roots.
Paul Bew, Harris' ideological blood brother, was recently entitled, ridiculously, Lord Bew, and rewarded for his anti-republicanism by Lizzie Battenburg. The shoneen, Ahern, has lamented that we don't have an 'honours system' so we could ape the English. So he rewarded Harris for his anti-republicanism by putting him in the Seanad, an entity about as useful as an appendix.
The capitulation of the Provisional movement opens a political space for radical, non-violent republicanism. The exposure of Harris and Ahern and what they represent is one small step in the development of a real, radical alternative in Ireland.

by Sam Sat Sep 15, 2007 23:16

Harris is a well paid turncoat and time server. I don't think your passing remarks on Charlie Bird are justified, however. Charlie Bird is a hard working informed reporter who is in nobody's pocket. He is a better current affairs journalist than most of them fellas with university degrees.

by Barry - 32 csm Sat Sep 15, 2007 23:48

did Bird not resign/threaten to resign from the journalists union when it put forward an agm motion condemning section 31 ?

And is tthis the same cutting edge journalist that covered gulf 2 from the roof of a Dubai hotel ?

by Barry Sun Sep 16, 2007 00:56

During the time of the shoot to kill/ Stalker enquiry the families of men shot dead by the RUC held a press conference in Dublin. Bird dominated the proceedings making attempt after attempt to demonise the families as supporters of violence. He managed to persistently badger Gervaise McKerrs mother to the pont of breaking down crying by asking her over and over again whether she supported violence, whether she supported the IRA, IRA violence and would she condemn it etc .etc etc Mrs McKerr, who was'nt a member of any political party, made it abundantly clear she opposed all violence by all groups but it wasnt good enough for Bird who kept badgering and baiting at her till she broke down weeping.
A proud moment indeed for Irish journalism.
The little matter that the issue of the press conference was the British states use of assassination as policy and not a bereaved County Armagh pensioners views on political violence escaped Birds attention. But he wasnt there to cover and report the news he was there to promote a political agnda, the one shared by his mentor Harris. That anyone who criticises the British is a provo or closet provo and must be hounded and exposed.

That kicking he got in the Dubin riots was well deserved in my opinion.

by Sam Sun Sep 16, 2007 12:05

It's a fair cop, guv. Barry has responded to my query about Charlie Bird. That badgering of the woman at a press conference seems to have passed a boundary line in journalism ethics.
I always thought Charlie Bird was an energetic reporter who built up his network of contacts over the years. I admired his tenacity as somebody who overcame the career handicap of not having a university degree.

I still wonder why he has to be linked to turncoat Harris, though. Harris is a lifelong ideological control freak. Bird is a lifelong plodding reporter who has had a few spectacular scoops.

by observer Sun Sep 16, 2007 12:49

Charles was a youthful revolutionary who was a member of a trot group with links to Saor Eire in Dublin. One of mates was killed in some fued over money in 1971 I think. So perhaps he is attempting to exorcise the ghosts of the past?

by Sam Sun Sep 16, 2007 14:57

Well if Bird was in a trot group he couldn't have been linked to sticky Harris, coz the two groups had opposite canine and feline natures. Kettles and pots like.

by Barry - 32 csm Sun Sep 16, 2007 15:16

Harris has been linked to everything from the IRA , communism , British loyalism , neo liberal corporatism , Fine Gael and Fianna Fail and God knows what else during his career . Ideology is no bar to the mans desire for promoting a negative agenda .

by observer Sun Sep 16, 2007 17:14

I am quite aware of the fascinating differences between differnet marxist sects, my point was that Bird's career has followed a similar trajectory from young revolutionary to middle aged sychophant of the great and the good.

by Skin the Goat Sun Sep 16, 2007 20:12

We the people are not paying Charlie Bird's salary so that he can be Bertie Ahern's public relations man. But perhaps its too much to expect basic journalistic ethics and professionalism from Bird, who was part of Eoghan Harris' regime of censorship at RTE. Old habits die hard. Serving the interests of power and privelege, just like his mentor, Harris, is Bird's current activity. He is an opportunist, and his revolutionary youth is a fiction.

by Sam Sun Sep 16, 2007 22:40

Barry's point is well made that ideology is no bar to Harris'es
liking for promoting negative agendas (i.e. censorship, bias against certain political viewpoints, steamrolling of historical interpretations), but skin-the-goat's belief that Bird was "part of Eoghan Harris' regime of censorship" in RTE is a bit sweeping.

I still think Harris in the stickies and RTE held far more calculating clout than a workaday plodding reporter, ex-flirter with trots, like Bird.

Does Bird fawn over Bertie? Maybe he admires Bertie's staying power, so do a lot of Joe and Mary Publics. But didn't Bird also cultivate his journalist's contacts with well-placed republicans in the critical period leading up to the ceasefire and the jittery beginnings of the peace talks?

In the real world of reporting somebody like Bird will need to get close to a range of sources across the political spectrum. It is a measure of Bird's professional achievement that he did, and was first with the news on a few dramatic occasions.

by crookstown Mon Sep 17, 2007 17:50

In Charlie Bird's wikipedia entry it says he was recruited to RTE by Harris. I think Harris has openly claimed that he recruited Bird, and Marian Finucane too.

by crookstown Mon Sep 17, 2007 19:51

I checked Marian Finucane's wikipedia entry and she too was recruited to RTE by Eoghan Harris.

Could she be hiding a stickie past?

by Anne Mon Sep 17, 2007 22:46

Will you go on outa that! Marion Finiucane is as sticky as Maeve Binchy, and Binchy's easy read novels would wipe the floor with that chicklit upstart Cecilia Ahern any day.

by crookstown Tue Sep 18, 2007 15:30

I'm not saying she's a stickie now , obviously.

But who knows what she did when she was young and foolish?

by Anne Tue Sep 18, 2007 23:47

Sure maybe I took an innocent peak at the thoughts of Mao when the nuns weren't looking, but then I went back to Mills and Boone romances, also frowned on by the nuns.

If you've got hard information fine; otherwise keep focused on real targets. And avoid Celia Ahern chicklit novels like the plague.

by Skin the goat Thu Sep 20, 2007 19:24

Be suspicious, be very suspicious, of anyone who wears epauletes.
Harris's plant at RTE, Charlie Bird, gave another 'robust' effort tonight attempting to defend Bertie the Bamboozler.
Despite Ahern's convoluted obfuscation its clear that he received large sums of money from the privileged class. At the very least this is unethical and, possibly, illegal. But niceties aside its clear the Ahern has been bought and sold by the men of property and he has run the country for their benefit, and that this has had a severely deleterious impact on ordinary people. Free market policies in favour of the rich are causing enormous damage to Irish society. Any page of any daily newspaper shows this. http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishexaminer/pages/story....1.asp

Ahern has now stated that he intends to extend this government of, by, and for the rich, to the Northern statelet. The Fianna Fail party which murdered Maurice O'Neill and George Plante claims to be 'republican'. Perhaps they have the U.S. Republican Party in mind. Karl Rove once said 'we're an empire now, we create our own reality'. Harris and his underlings in the Irish media have the same 'ignore the facts' approach. For instance, Harris has claimed that his grandfather worked for the descendants of Robert Emmet in New York. Emmet had no descendants.

Ahern is in a long line of corrupt Fianna Fail leaders. Kevin Boland and Haughey were profiting from the rezoning of real estate back in the 1960s, and using their control of the state to repress the republican movement. Harris defense of Ahern was rewarded by the senatorial sinecure. The leader of the so-called 'republican party' put in the Senate an anti-republican careerist who has boasted of his consistency in opposing the republican movement. And now, a product of the Harris school of censorship, Charlie Bird, acts as a flimflam man for the antics of the gombeeen-in-chief before the Mahon tribunal.
And Gilmore will have to do more that wear a red tie if he intends to try and do something about the debacle that is the Irish political economy.

by Sam Sat Sep 22, 2007 02:01

It's obvious that Charlie Bird is defending Bertie against the strongest insinuations being made against him (in blogs and pubs) arising from the present Mahon proceedings. Has he always said defensive things about FF politicians? Has he ever reported about FG, Labour, the Greens or SF in an adverse way? I'd like a historical overview of his overt or implied tone in political and current affairs reporting. Let me be clear that I admire Charlie for being a self-made man who has achieved amazing scoops and thereby bettered many of his university educated journalist colleagues.

I don't sympathise with FF, I'm a floating voter.

If Bird is flimflamming Bertie, then so must the former BICO writers in the Irish Political Review, who seem to have a serious attitude against Irish Times editorial policy. Be realistic, about 95 per cent of mainstream media commentators are anti-FF, while about 41 per cent of voters are pro-FF. The bias is in the media. As for the voters, some of them are probably my neighbours. They look like balanced individuals, but I can't understand their attitude to corruption disclosures.

by Barry - 32 csm Sat Sep 22, 2007 13:19

with a history of planting no warning car bombs in southern Irish towns..

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/64944

so its pretty wise of the former BICO chaps to be critical of that paper , although their own trajectory around the dark side of the moon is nothing short of astounding .

One thing Harris , Bird , The Irish Times , Ahern and the foreign military intelligence agency which has so much influence south of the border all have in common is a desire for people not to talk about Irelands worst terrorist massacre . Harris was head of RTE current affairs during that and other masscres , and national current affairs journalism didnt want to know about it , apart from blaming the provos for it . Neither did the Irish Times because their bosses were responsible for the bombings . The chances of charlie Bird doing an investigative scoop on it are about the same as him reporting from the middle of the next dublin riot outside of an armoured tank .

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern ran for election as Taoiseach all those years ago as a folksy man of the people , a plain northsider who liked his pint and his soccer and who was going to get at the root of the countries corruption . He claimed that just like the ordinary man and woman in the street he was deeply disturbed by the states actions surrounding Dublin Monaghan and other MI5 massacres , because he was basically the conscience of the ordinary man on the street . So disturbed in fact he brought the Dublin Monaghan families on the election trail with him and made heartfelt pledges to have the files opened for inspection ( because the gardai wouldnt allow them to be used in an international court case against Britian ) . Once elected to office it was only 2 months before he announced ..sure hed had a look at the oul files himself..and sure there was nothing in them worth looking at ..and sure thered be no point having an enquiry or anything because sure there was nothing of interest in them at all . Such a blatant u turn , such a despicable , hypocritical , stinking betrayal of dozens of bereaved fellow northsiders should have been a media scandal . But it wasnt . None took the opportunity to have a four square dig at the sordid little shit . Neither did any politicians .
When the Dublin Monaghan families refused to let the matter drop it later transpired that every last file held in secure state archives had disappeared along with their duplicates from 5 seperate secure facilities including the Deapartment of justice and garda headquarters . Not so much as a paper clip was left . Neither Bird nor Harris nor the Irish times nor Marion Finucane or anyone else was too preturbed either . The only RTE journalist to seriously tackle the subject was Joe Tiernan , who assited Yorkshire televisions Hidden Hand documentary in the early 90s . Safe to say Tiernan has never worked for RTE since and the documentary has never been broadcast on Irish television .

So Ahern was obviously lying . That tens of thousands of documents along with their duplicates had disappeared in their entirety from 5 seperate locations since he last saw them obviously meant that there was some very interesting and disturbing stuff indeed in them . Otherwise the British intelligence agents currently employed in An Garda siochana would not be committing treason against their country and removing the evidence on the states biggest terrorist massacre , colluding in the massacre of their own citizens by a foreign military agency .

And yet again despite the enormity of what had just occured neither Harris , Bird, The Irish Times or anyone else called for an investigation or for heads to roll . So why Aherns u turn , why the media silence from Harris and Bird and the IT and others , why can the files from a states biggest terrorist massacre disappear 30 years later just as pressure for an enquiry becomes unprecedented ?
Ahern as the last man known to have seen these files is now a potential material witness regarding their disappearance . Hes the last person known to have seen them . Yet this money orientated fuck up of a country is just barely concerned that hes financially corrupt .
Harris and Bird along with the other self selected and often Harris appointed journalistic whores that exist accross the entire spectrum of national broadcasting and media ensure this remains the case and will remain the case . During a committee debate on a public enquiry , barely mentioned in the media , one senator made the point that such massacres could very easily happen again . And the fact is that if British policy deemed it expediaent to plant further no warning car bombs in Irish tons its not just the gardai which would look the other way for the perpetrators but the national media of Bird and others also . That is Harris' greatest single acheivement , his psychological masterpiece borne from decades of propagandising on behalf of the people who massacred our fellow citizens on te streets of Dublin , Monaghan , Dundlak and Belfast . Hes created a society that prefers to demonise the victims of such atrocities than the perpetrators .
Hes a warped genius , sick , depraved , degenerate but a genius .

by A Cynic Sat Sep 22, 2007 20:15

According to Danny McGrain's article,
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/80451, Harris was influenced by some of BICO's ideas. His writing style is also similar to
theirs-aggressive and pseudo-intellectual.
Harris is smart, but he also has an unpleasant mix of sycophancy (to the rich) and bullying (to the powerless) that
makes him so repulsive.

by crookstown Sat Sep 22, 2007 22:05

Would I be right in saying that Harris's friend Eamonn Smullen was associated with BICO in England before he returned to Ireland and took up with Sinn Fein the Worker's Party?

by A Cynic Sat Sep 22, 2007 22:57

I don't think Smullen was in BICO, but Harris' buddy Paul Bew was.Bew might also have been in the BICO front called the Workers'
Association. Both OSF/WP and BICO were Stalinist and
against the Provos, so it's natural people might have associated with both organisations.

Does anyone know what is Smullen doing these days, BTW?

by Starkadder Sat Sep 22, 2007 23:03

According to this website, Smullen passed away several years ago.
http://www.emigrant.ie/article.asp?iCategoryID=200&iArt...48117

by Barry - 32 csm Sat Sep 22, 2007 23:04

The right Honourable Paul Bew is now properly known as Baron Bew of Donegore ( I shit you not ), a life peer in the British house of commons . Which is all rather spiffing and in keeping with these former lefties unprincipled lifestyles .All Bertie could manage for his old chum Harris was a seat in the seanad , much less regal but itll do the job for services rendered I suppose .

by Biker Sun Sep 23, 2007 09:20

Eamonn Smullen died suddenly while on a holiday in Italy - I think it was 1991 or 92. Eoghan Harris gave a typically florid oration in which he condemned his former party comrades in the WP, many of whom were in the audience for the cremation at Glasnevin.

by crookstown Sun Sep 23, 2007 22:19

I don't disagree with what Barry has written regarding Harris and Bertie, but I think Harris gets too much attention because of his " flamboyant personality".

By the 1980s Harris was reduced to working on Bosco in RTE.

I think there were other stickies who shared his views and wielded even more influence within RTE. It's true to say they shaped how the nation thinks to the present day.

These people can't be named because of libel laws, but they controlled some of RTE's output for years.

Harris was only one of many.

by ribbid Sun Sep 23, 2007 22:44

Oh do tell us why it would be libel to publish the names of members of the former Official Sf, SFWP, WP or whatever bit of alphabet soup the stickies belonged to who shaped how Ireland think to this very day with an effect which is even more awesome than Mc Quaid on steroids? & what's this with "being reduced" to Bosco? Do you have any idea what a role old Bosco & yer man the creepy kiddy stethoscope yoke had & still have on Irish culture?
I reckon the very fact that everyone over a certain age, perhaps the age of those who can remember punt notes with protestants on them instead of the nun series that made Joyce look like O Connell after a month of constant binge eating consumer burger muck - oh yes - rant - rant - I am convinced the very fact that that generation remember Bosco but hardly one - & you'd be hard put to find a open counter retailer in this land who can - remember accurately what the puppet said.

subliminals man.

the power of the image means his words are forgotten.

by Sam Sun Sep 23, 2007 23:08

Harris and others put a spin on the news in RTE during the '70s and '80s and talented producers were inhibited when it came to in-depth documentary making. However, academia to a large extent rowed, regardless of political sympathies, in tandem with the current. It was an unsatisfactory time in Irish public discourse.

Another unsettling matter is how the print and electronic media have come to dominate our thoughts, lack of thought and our feelings. Ireland, a small society, has become media dominated. There is not much reality outside the box, not much thought and conversation independent of the latest chat show, op-ed article or banner headline. Most of the screaming headlines and infotainment photos come from outside the country, with insidious effects on cultural life.

We should be concerned about this as much as about what kinds of individuals control and doctor the mass media.

by Barry - 32 csm Mon Sep 24, 2007 02:13

The reason we cant remember anything bosco said was because Harris ensured he was censored under section 31 due to his startling resemblance to martin mcguiness .

As for the very pertinent points raised by Sam Id argue that the vaccuousness of our media and what passes for our bourgouis intelligentsia , its unending inanity and determination to shape Irish society in such a bland , beige empty manner is due to its purpose , the advancement of the post colonial state and the necessity to destroy opposition to colonialism in Ireland from whatever quarter . Its been a serious political project and Harris was at the helm of it .
As Fanon pointed out in his study of post colonial society " Colonialism is not satisfied with merely holding a people in its grip and emptying the natives brains of all logic , form and content . With its own perverted logic it turns to the past of the oppressed people and distorts , disfigures and destroys it "

That is precisely the project the Irish chattering classes and media have dedicated themselves to for decades now and we as a society and nation are all the worse for it . While those who have held to that political project have been well rewarded . Its safe at this stage to say theyve won virtually hands down . .

by Sam Mon Sep 24, 2007 06:10

Fairly well said, Barry. The chattering classes come in useful when media manipulators want to make a painful socio-cultural agenda palatable. Just remember that our chattering classes, some of whom consider themselves to be socialists of 157 hues, model themselves on their betters in the British and North American metropoles.
So the prime chattering classes have a degraded and degrading popular culture in their societies of inspiration.

If somebody could research and list hundreds of books discussed, of opinion merchants interviewed, of infotainment celebs hosted on, say, the Late Late Show since the 1970s the statistics would be astounding. The proportion of foreign published books, and overseas experts and celebs featured more for our entertainment than our instruction (though light entertainment has a devious instructive agenda in the long run) would be amazingly overweight against local counterparts.

We need deep analysis and commentary on the cultural and intellectual orientation of RTE radio and television during the past 35 years. Can anybody cite relevant books and/or articles on the topic?

by crookstown Mon Sep 24, 2007 17:39

I found an interesting article on stickie influence at RTE as late as 2001, in the form of the notorious documentary on Des o'malley.

John Caden was producer of the Gay Byrne radio show for about 20 years at a time when it was the most popular show in the country. Gerry Gregg was a producer on Today Tonight and I know he was not the most senior stickie in current affairs.

Mary McAleese said the situation in RTE in the 80s was "kafkaesque"

by Real Stickie Mon Sep 24, 2007 18:44

Most, if not all of these people left the Workers Party with Harris in 1990 when he failed to get the party to abandon socialism and embrace social democracy. Others who tried a similar coup d'etat two years later also failed and left leaving the party smaller but without the carpetbaggers.

Whatever influence was there it was not "stickie" but Harrisite.

by historian Mon Sep 24, 2007 18:57

The real stickies were only too happy to allow the likes of Harris their head for years. Just as they thought they could use opportunists like Rabbitte and Gilmore to win seats. Of course we all know what happened in the end and short of shooting them - which no doubt they would have done had it been possible - there was fk all the real stickies could do about it.

by crookstown Mon Sep 24, 2007 21:55

It's true they mostly left the party in 1992. I remember Tomas McGiolla leading a picket of RTE in 1992.

He alleged that RTE was biased in covering the split that had happened, supporting De Rossa and co , instead of the Party old guard.

I imagine that many former Harrisites continued to subtly support Democratic Left in the '90s. De Rossa ,Rabbite etc., continued to have good political careers while the old guard lost support.

Perhaps the RTE inhouse support was part of the attraction for Labour in merging with DL .

Labour thought they'd get favourable coverage from RTE.

by F. O'C. Tue Sep 25, 2007 00:30

What J.M. Coetzee calls the 'paranoid logic of the censoring mentality" is still alive and fetid.

On Questions and Answers last week Harris associate, Richard Aldous, attacked novelist Eamonn Sweeney, when Sweeney was making the point that its common knowledge that corruption around the planning process has been around for years, and that its known that councillors are on the payroll of 'developers. Such 'cynicism', said Aldous, was undermining confidence in public life.

In his Sunday Independent piece Harris also attacked Sweeney and supported Aldous. The Tribunal and the media are subverting the state!

Both Harris and Aldous assert that the people are behind the corrupt Ahern. How these arrogant bastards know this is unclear.

Its the sleazy, unethical behaviour of Ahern thats calling the state into disrepute. What Harris and Aldous, as state flunkies, are worried about is the exposure of this through the Tribunal and the media. Therefore they attack the media and the Tribunal.

They and their masters fear the light. Exposure of the system of corrupt power and privilege from which they benefit is an 'appalling vista', which they cannot contemplate.

But cracks are appearing in this edifice, and their defense of the indefensible is being seen for what it is. Calls for ending these investigations should be resisted. What is needed is further investigation and exposure of the corrupt propertied-based system which is having a severely adverse effect on the lives and livelihoods of working people.
And reality-challenged mouthpieces of the property elite, such as Harris and Aldous and Bird, should be constantly scrutinized.

by historian Tue Sep 25, 2007 10:40

Harris may well be a mouthpiece of the elite but is not a member of the elite. No more than he was when he was a stickie making excuses for British and loyalist terror. I imagine the elite - represented in Mr. Harris' case by Sir A.J have little more than contempt for him. From their lofty perspective the contentions of the likes of Harris and his rivals must be mildly amusing but are only a diversion from their real concerns. Just as they probably allow themselves a wry chuckle when they see other members of the left passionately defend other policies that benefit only themselves on spurious grounds.

by A Cynic Tue Sep 25, 2007 12:30

Eoghan Harris mentioned BICO in the Sindo of February 11th . In an article criticising Manus O’Riordan he refers to him as a former “two nations” revisionist and says:
“Like myself and Kevin Myers, Hart is regularly attacked by O'Riordan in publications of the Aubane Society (which is mostly made up of former members of the British and Irish Communist Organisation).”

Harris probably knew O’Riordan when the latter was pro-Unionist.
During the troubles, Conor Cruise O'Brien and Harris' Workers' Party were the main manifestations of "left-wing" support
for British Imperialism. But don't forget the BICO's role as well.

by Matt Wed Sep 26, 2007 00:01

I know that BICO was involved in that two-nations project during the 1970s, along with Harris's WP, and C.C.O'Brien. I remember that the Sunday Press columist Desmond Fennell wrote against that project. He was a loose cannon nationalist then. So it's strange to pick up an occasional copy of the BICO-supported Irish Political Review (only available in a few places like Books Upstairs) and find writing in its pages - wait for it - one Desmond Fennell.

Strange things can happen to old campaigners on the crooked road to Damascus. I don't expect to find Harris writing in IPR, but what is Fennell doing there? What's the attraction?

by ben dare Wed Sep 26, 2007 20:34

Fennell was and still is a freelance nationalist. As for BICO and WP. During the IRa insurrection they performed their masters bidding in working against nationalism to defeat the uprising. Now that the insurrection has been defeated they have taken on a gloss of nationalism to fool the gullible once again. Ahern appoints Harris to the Senate. AngloAmerican politics and economics now dominates all Ireland. Ahern is the leader of the gombeen-comprador class which benefits from subordinating Ireland to the Empire. Now the aubane sect and Harris and his boys in the media and academia take on a gloss of nationalism of the FF variety to quell and fool any real opposition.
Bird's main qualification for his job was his expertize in licking Harris arse. Now this mediocrity is mouthing inanities on the news, such as An Taoiseach will be back again at the Tribunal, and He gave as good as he got, and he makes these trite statements as if he is saying something profound. He is incapable of even the slightest attempt at analysis. And he has the identical constipated look on his face as Harris. It isn't easy being anal-retentive.
But they can only bamboozle some of the people all the time. They have many weaknesses. The resort to censorship of political opinion was one example of weakness. As the contradictions of Anglo-American economics in the Irish context become more acute, the Harris/Ahern faction have no answers. They will become more hysterical. It will be fun to watch but also presents great opportunity to develop a real alternative to the gombeen sell-out to international capitalism. And this alternative has to be based on Ireland's historic revolutionary tradition. I'm not talking armed struggle. Relentless criticism of the Harris/Ahern bamboozlers and their acolytes is a beginning.

by crookstown Thu Sep 27, 2007 21:30

On his first day in the Senate, Eoghan Harris called for "capital consequences" for those who shoot Gardai

by Jerry Cornelius Fri Sep 28, 2007 19:01

How about RUC? Harris was in OSF/OIRA when they killed RUCmen during bankjobs.

by Barry - 32 csm Sat Sep 29, 2007 13:36

Harris is fullsome in his praise of both the gardai and the British military forces . When he was a leading stick in Dublin 2 of his fellow Dublin based stickie comrades ,the english Litlejohn brothers , were running about carrying out armed attacks on gardaí and garda stations as well as commtting armed robberies and the like . The Littlejohns themselves were working for British military intelligence and had been instructed to join the OIRA and attack the gardáí by their military superiors in whitehall . The purpose of those attacks on gardaí was to create a political climate where draconian laws against Irish citizens could be called for by freindly Irish politicians and journalists who were sympathetic to Britains war aims in Ireland . British intelligence had just taken control of the Irish Times in that period . Unsurprisingly Harris does not warn the Irish people against the activities of that foreign military intelligence organisation , or their deliberate attacks on gardaí .

The OSF/WP organisation which Harris belonged to was engaged in the commission of numerous serious offences both sides of the border throughout his membership of that organisation , and he was a leading member . Bank robbery both sides of the border was a major stickie fundraiser , as was counterfeiting tax frauds etc . The big moneyspinner was tax certificate fraud on building sites , a scam which the sticks invented and pioneered . The proceeds of much of this fundraising was to prop up the political wing of the outfit and finance its political propaganda. Harris was a key member and propagandist in cheif . The party papers and documents on which his propaganda was printed was paid for by the proceeds of armed organised crime and paramilitarism . The offices from which his propaganda was disseminated were paid for by the proceeds of armed robbery , counterfeiting ,fraud and extortion .
They were also involved in numerous murders during his membership , mostly of their political opponents and former members whod committed heresy , such as the late Seamus Costello .

by Anamnua Sun Sep 30, 2007 03:48

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/76468

by skin the goat Tue Oct 02, 2007 00:39

As calls for Ahern's resignation intensify, Ahern's appointment of Harris to the Senate is not helping Bertie's prospects with the Soldiers of Destiny backbenchers. That Ahern put Harris, a rightwing Unionist, in the Senate sticks in the craw of many.
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/84448

by historian Tue Oct 02, 2007 09:45

Following on from Barry's post, has anyone ever confronted Harris to his face with what he knew about Costello's assassination?

"So Senator Harris, you were a leading member of the Official Republican Movement in 1977 and an intimate advisor of the OIRA Chief of Staff. Were you aware he had ordered the death of Seamus Costello?".

Now THAT would make for some interesting viewing!

by Daltun Lalor Tue Oct 02, 2007 18:22

Whatever about the charlatan Harris's knowledge of the murder, he certainly prepared the censoring atmosphere which made the crime possible.
Noel Brown said of Costello: ' Is it not a triumph for our radio, TV and newspapers and the venomous Dublin political denigration machine that none of us has ever read, heard of, or seen this man's remarkable dialectical skill and political ability. '.

Connolly's daughter gave a fine funeral oration:

http://irsm.org/irsp/costello/oration.html

Its been 30 years since this political murder. Harris is now a Fianna Fail-appointed rightwing, Unionist Senator calling for the death penalty and repression of the working class, and for the implementation of Thatcherite economics, and he is still very much part of that 'political denigration machine, with his sycophantic plants such as Charlie Bird in the media , and Aldous in academia. And openly working for Unionist and imperial interests in Ireland.

Its about time that the ideas of Seamus Costello were better understood and disseminated. And the circumstances and perpetrators of his murder need to be exposed. It is not too much to say that Costello's murder paved the way for all of Ireland being fully incorporated into the Anglo-American imperial project under the comprador subservience of Fianna Fail, with the flipflop, flimflam artist, Harris, acting as its chief cheerleader.

by A Cynic Wed Oct 03, 2007 09:51

Harris claimed to be against terrorism, but he was involved in the OSF/WP when the OIRA were committing murders and robberies.
He wasn't the only one-C.C. O'Brien in his pretentious autobiography noted how he had hidden Garda brutality from the government
(he boasted the Guards had "beaten the shit" out of a republican suspect).
It should also be noted that the members of BICO/Aubane, who now champion "blood and soil" Irish Nationalism, met with loyalist terrorists in the early seventies.
The anti-republicans were only against violence when it was against British Imperialism. As a pacifist I do not support violence myself, but the hypocrisy of Harris and the others is repugnant and should be condemned.

by Barry - 32 csm Wed Oct 03, 2007 10:48

"So Senator Harris, you were a leading member of the Official Republican Movement in 1977 and an intimate advisor of the OIRA Chief of Staff. Were you aware he had ordered the death of Seamus Costello?".

Seamus Costello was sentenced to death after he swam against the 2 nationist tide of the sticks political guru Harris . His followers , mostly youthful , were immediately subjected to pogrom on the streets of Belfast when he broke the Harris connection , a wave of shootings and killings followed with culiminated in Costellos political murder in Dublin . The second Costello broke from the sticks his death was a certainty and everyone knew it . The negativity , bitterness and cynicism which characterised its leadership echelons simply wouldnt tolerate another republican alternative to their warped brand of revisionism and opportunism . Costello presented a real political challenge to them on the left as well as a military one . In fact he was more politically and ideologically dangerous than anything , and Harris still cannot tolerate anyone who even remotely challenges his ideas . It drives him to irrational frenzy even in his middle age .

The man Harris advised , the OIRA cheif of staff was arrested in recent times in Belfast over dodgy dollars ( ironic when one considers Harris latest mentor Bertie Aherns difficulties with the oul dodgy dollars) . Facing extradition to the US he sought refuge in the jurisdiction controlled by Harris' mentor Ahern . Nobody doubts for a second that if further misfortune befalls this gentleman and he gets extradited he'll sink a lot of political figures in the southern state where he is now currently resident following a major improvement to his health immediately after crossing the border . Harris for one isnt caling for Bertie to extradite the man to the US to face the full rigours of the law . Charlie Bird isnt saying a lot either . The man has jumped bail from one key allyy , Britian , while facing extradition to another , the USA . " why are you harbouring a wanted fugitive a key ally of ours wants to extradite Taoiseach ?" . No doubt Harris knows why .

Seamus Costello was murdered on the streets of Dublin . Pillars of Irish bourgeouis democracy played their role in advising that this murder be carried out no matter what .

by Ghandi of North Strand - none Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:04

While Harris may be many things the reality was that he had no involvement in OIRA in 77, to argue as Dalton Lalor does that Harris was responsible for us not hearing SC on the airwaves is rubbish, and factually in correct.

The reality is that once BmcM, after the feud was shot after the feud had ended, SC new he would be killed regardless, and made this point to a senior IRSP/INLA figure who was in his company when the call came through regarding BmcM’s assassination.

SC's assassination was carried out on a outstanding order that had not been rescinded. The reality is that had SC not placed himself on the North Strand in the heart of OIRA territory on a regular basis where he was observed by senior OIRA members then it is unlikely that a plan would have evolved.

Barry’s point that the individual who was charged in relation to the dollars, was CS in 77 is again incorrect, also is the view that Harris was a close confident of his, Harris was close to the CS at the time but as a political advisor not a military one.

It is abundantly clear that OIRA is being written out of history and their role erased. Whilst I have many differences with what emerged and what became WP, we should not lose site of the truth. The problem is that much of the history of that period has been written from the Provo point of view and an authorative history of OIRA has not yet been published, with the exception of Forde’s and Johnson’s books which deal mainly with the political side of the ORM.

by Historian Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:19

Harris may not have been an active member of the OIRA or a member at all. He was however a leading member of the WP which was under a joint collective leadership in which the OIRA CS and former CS and other leading OIRA people - you know who I'm talking about - also held the leading positions in OSF. Harris is not stupid and would have been well aware of the connection. He was also in a position in RTE to manipulate the news to ensure that OIRA killings were either ignored or spun in the right way. Would be very interesting in fact to see who RTE actually pinned the initial blame for Costello's death on.

But apart from all that, Harris has over the years attacked even people like the current President of this state as Provo fellow travellers and hush puppies! On that basis he can hardly deny culpability in what his former comrades were at while he was looking after their interests in Montrose.

by Historian Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:26

Just as matter of interest. Who is the Forde you refer to as having written book on ORM? Sounds interesting.

by Blake Thu Oct 04, 2007 12:11

Someone should go to the National Library. Then look up the United Irishman and Workers Life, two SFWP/WP organs in the 1970-80 period when Harris was around. Photocopy any interesting bylined articles by Harris, De Rossa, Rabitte, White, Gilmore and A.N.Others about imperialism, workers power, overseas revolutionary movements, the Soviet Union. Then distribute widely to younger people the juicy bits so they will know where these people come from

by Ghandi of North Strand Thu Oct 04, 2007 12:24

Historian,
The key point is that Harris was not an active member of OIRA nor in its leadership, naturally I know who you are talking about, whilst it is correct that some but not all military leaders were also in the public political leadership it was not the case that all political leaders were in the military. Harris is given far too much credit for matters which in fact he had nothing to do with. Of course Harris knew what was going on as did everybody else. I can’t recall who RTE initially blamed it on but I don’t recall there being any view other than that it was OIRA. – Apart that is from the later emerging nonsensical stories that it was INLA under HF who carried it out. Those with an interest knew.

Do you seriously think that the likes of the student princes were going to be briefed on military matters?

They could not be trusted to open an envelope. As my mother said of one of them ( political leaders) who had been in Fianna, when asked was he active in the army, she replied “he had’nt the balls”, and she would not be a woman to use bad language ever.

A issue that would be better addressed was the attempt by British Intelligence to blow up a train on its way to Bodenstown in order to re-ignite the OIA /INLA (PLA) feud, where they stabbed an innocent man to death.

I wiol post the details of Fordes book later.

by Historian Thu Oct 04, 2007 13:12

(Details on Forde would book would be much appreciated.)

I accept what you are saying about Harris and the OIRA in terms of actual involvement or intimate knowledge but purely in his own terms and against his own measure by whcih he castigates others, he is a hypocrite. He has attributed moral responsibility to people for PIRA operations who were a million light years removed from PIRA as compared to himself in regards to, for example Costello.

And by the way, I am making no moral judgement myself regarding the OIRA. Had family involved for a time and nothing is as simple as it seems in retrospect. But thread is about Harris and his santimoniousness.

by Ghandi of North Strand Thu Oct 04, 2007 14:24

Historian

Thread does seem to have drifted somewhat, perhaps another thread should be started. No doubt Harris can be seen as a hypocrite, does'nt mean that he may not have been right at different times or at least believe himself to be right.

Those who have continually involved in Republicanism have always altered our positions on various points, but our consistancy is in relation to our core objective and the fluidity comes from how we achive that objective.

Harris has come a long road, many of those who critizise him on this and other sites have done nothing themselves but pontificate. He's has always been unpopular to large sections. He has'nt been afraid to articulate an opinion. Give me one Harris even though I might disagree with him, rather than all the mushrooms (keep them in the dark and feed them shite) in the Provisionals.

Can one honestly say now that the Provisionals were right and that OIRA were wrong? It would seem to me that OIRA took the correct decision in calling a ceasefire in 73, but perhaps too early, I belive they should have waited another five years. What have we got now,- less than Sunningdale, 3,500 dead, 10's of thousand injured and thousands who spent their adult lives in jail, for what?

by Jerry Cornelius Thu Oct 04, 2007 14:51

A few corrections. The OIRA called their "Ceasefire" in 1972. But the OIRA last killed a British soldier in 1973 and last killed an RUC member in 1974. The Rucman was killed by the OIRA during a bank robbery.

The OIRA continued to wage war against the INLA and PIRA with large scale feuds in 1975 and 1977. As late as 1995 the OIRA took armed action against the ORM. There was no Ceasefire on the part of the OIRA and they have never decommissioned their weapons.

by Skin the goat Thu Oct 04, 2007 16:00

Interesting piece by John Pilger, given that Harris has attacked Pilger and regards the BBC as left-wing. The man has no shame and seems to think everyone else is a fool.

http://www.isreview.org/issues/55/pilger.shtml

by Ghandi of North Strand Thu Oct 04, 2007 16:48

The Ceasefire was called in 72 that is correct, but in reality it was 73 before it became fully effective.

The Ceasefire was against Crown Forces and OIRA always retained the means and the right to defend themselves. I restate my earlier comment on rewriting history, the first INLA feud was with the PLA as they were initially called and from OIRA’s position they took action against a volunteer who had taken army weapons to a new grouping and thsi led to a feud with some of the best Republicians of their generation dying including BmcM and SC. There was no feud with the Provo’s rather a pogrom carried out by them under the direction of Crown Forces during a time that the Provos were on ceasefire. In 95 there were a number of small scale incidents mainly in Belfast and Newry, which perhaps had more to do with personality clashes than politics.

It is clear that there was a ceasefire by OIRA, and in fact that has been the critism of them by many in the wider Republican family. You are correct that they did not decommission, the only group to have surrendered their weapons to the enemy in the whole course of the sorry history of this country have been PIRA.

A study of all the feuds is badly needed, especially if they are looked at in the context of the list of names given by Captain Kelly to John White in 69/70, along with the number of persons who played a key role in igniting feuds and have turned out to be agents, and I include the senior INLA member to be outed in Derry in the coming days and particularly in the light of his role in 87.

by Jerry Cornelius Thu Oct 04, 2007 17:19

Still doesnt explain how RUC men were killed in bank robberies in 1974 if there was a ceasefire in 1973.

In pogroms almost all the deaths are on one side. However in the OIRA/PIRA feuds in 1975 and 1977 the casualties were about even. Your attempts to rewrite history wouldn't even take in Eoghan Harris.

by Ghandi of North Strand Thu Oct 04, 2007 17:29

If I need to explain the differance between fundraising and ceasefires, I'm clearly wasting my time. The ceasefire was only as I have said before in relation to military actions against crown forces. We must also have a different understanding f even, the night of the long knives hardly led to an even situation, but I will chech the numericals tonight.

by JC Thu Oct 04, 2007 17:49

"If I need to explain the differance between fundraising and ceasefires, I'm clearly wasting my time."

I just dont accept your distinction as being a valid one. While supposedly on ceasfire the OSF/OIRA killed soldiers, policemen and their political opponents. Where exactly did the funds raised go? Why were they necessary if the OSF/OIRA were on Ceasefire?

by Barry Thu Oct 04, 2007 19:35

The OIRA simply switched sides and became an agency that backed the state and its organs such as the RUC , just as the provos went on to do some decades later .
. While the provos went on to surrender their weapons to the British , long prior to that the sticks were issued with firearms certificates by the British and effectively maintained a state sanctioned armed militia within nationalist districts . Much like the provos do today . They also continued to import modern weaponry long after they ceased conflict with the state .
The British simply succeeded in co-opting all the dominant forces within the nationalist community at different intervals of the conflict whether it was the catholic church ,, the SDLP , the sticks and then the provos . What all had in common was an aversion to the practice of internal democracy within their structures .and the presence of a "micro bourgeouisie" within those hierarchical structures that ultimately sought self advancement . All were easy meat for manipulation , whether from outside forces or internal such as Harris and others with their own agendas.
Criticisms of Harris aside it is the case that despite his cheerleading he has never shook george bushes hand , unlike the self styled leader of Irish republicanism ( as he refers to himself in his latest autobiography , his 18th AUTOBIOGRAPHY to be exact) .
The Irish political class in general are the scum of the earth and largely always have been . Almost all are as hypocritical , lying loathsome and self serving as Harris . All have made uturns as drastic as his , except not so many of them . Harris however has a mental condition which advertises his loathsomeness and desperation for recognition to a degree more recognisable than others . While the rest of the scum try to paper over their loathsomness and hypocrisy with smooth patter and political cliches Harris' mental dysfunctionality and urges to bully the weak are in your face , hence we notice him more . Due to his pathological condition he honestly cant help himself . He was however the right man in the right place at the right time to inflict a great deal of damge to this nation and its outlook , to the point where many of its people barely regard the Irish nation as a nation . While he didnt do it alone he was crucial to that agenda .

by Historian Fri Oct 05, 2007 09:36

Could you post details of that book by Forde. Have googled the name to no avail.

by Benny Fri Oct 05, 2007 09:54

Barry, maybe the reason the sticks turned around to support the state forces, and the shinners are doing it today - with a heavy electoral mandate incidentally - is that different waves of militants have discovered through bitter experience that the aims of Irish republicanism are not realizable. You can't get a 32-county republic in the short term without mass slaughter.

If you think otherwise, try and convince me.

by Ghandi of North Strand. Fri Oct 05, 2007 09:56

Apologies Historian I had in fact meant Official Irish Republicanism by Sean Swan, published Feb 07 bY Lulu ISBN 978-1-4303-0798-3.

by Ghandi Fri Oct 05, 2007 09:58

Actually thought it might have been that! Have it. Quite interesting. Anyway thanks.

by Ghandi of North Strand Fri Oct 05, 2007 10:22

Historian

Swan's book is OK for the period it deals with, but I think it may lack a certain depth.

Have you read Century of Endeavor by Roy Johnson, quite detailed in some respects, not exactly bed time reading, and only consentrates on the political side, throug the use of Greaves stuff is helpful.

It seems to me that those involved in that period owe it to the net generation to write down their views, not necessarily for publication at this time. I would suggest that SG's would be the most facinating. I understand taht a number of books are in the pipeline, buth they have been for years.

Also have you heard anything about a book by Eamon Boyce, most likely dealing with the 50's

Barry

It continues to amaze me the venom which Barry has for the Sticks, considering most of his associates in 32CSM stayed in the Provisionals post ’86 and allowed the situation we are now in to develop. They have allowed a far worse betrayal than anything they can accuse the Sticks of. It a bit rich to complain that they supported the state when we now know that the Provsionals were run and controlled by Brit & Irish Intel from their creation.

For years Barry & his ilk have been saying that the Sticks were unrepresentative and had no power in Nationalist areas as they were not wanted there, now suddenly they are all powerful and were running the show, which is it, or is it the fact that those who have spent time in the Provos are capable of saying black is white this week and saying the complete opposite next week and claiming that they are still saying the same thing.
Whatever one may think of the Sticks at least they did not get dragged into what turned out to be a sectarian conflict where 3,500 people died most of them innocent. They had the foresight to see what was coming, if anything they were ahead of their time.

To return to the subject Harris may well be inconsistent, but I would suggest that that is more an evolution of thought through the years, and unlike most others he say what HE thinks not what he’s told to think, that appears to be a fault in today’s political world.

by Barry - 32 csm Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:07

If such aims are unrealizable them the onus is on those who make the u turns to explain why they are unrealizable . Unfortunately for them doing so would entail identifying the impediments to national sovereignty being realised while simultaneously convincing people that Britain is a neutral player under their strategies , that it wants to leave and that under the merits of their respective reformist strategies it eventually will . They claim their u turns are a stepping stone to the realization of their aims , a transition , not that those aims are unrealizable .
Mass slaughter in Ireland will only occur if the occupying power unleashes it , as it regularly has done with street massacres ,no warning car bombs and bar room spray jobs with aparthied south african arms. That in itself is not justification for being co-opted by the occupation as the various political groupings have been . Give up and go home by all means but its the most degenerate activity to try and convince people of the merits of an occupation that will slaughter them if they dont sub,it to it . Its despicable behaviour .
The imposition of mechanisms such as foreign imposed vetoes are profoundly undemocratic . Supporting such mechanisms does not make one a democrat , it does not promote democracy or conflict resolution as such undemocratic mechanisms are the root of the conflict . All the political groupings recognise this but allow themselves to be co-opted nonthless . The sticks and provos maintained criminal party militias for the express purpose of exercising dominance within their communities and silencing their internal opponents who refused to be co-opted by the British state . If such parties regard the realization of national sovereignty as impossible then its up to them to explain why and identify the mechanisms which make it impossible . Not to prop those mechanisms up and particularly not at the point of a gun or baseball bat .

by Barry Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:08

or an Eoghan Harris

by pat c Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:23

"Harris however has a mental condition which advertises his loathsomeness and desperation for recognition to a degree more recognisable than others ."

Harris suffers from Bi-Polar Disorder. As do many thouands of people on this Island. It is a treatable disorder. That in itself has little if anything to do with his politics. When he is in his manic phase he may be more agrressive, but it does not make him a maniac. JUst as when hes down it doesnt mean that he will capiulate yet further to British Imperialism.

I think its best to leave the mental health of Eoghan Harris out of this debate. Its no more relevant to the debate then if he was missing a limb.

by Barry - 32 csm Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:43

I have equal amounts of venom for the entire Irish political leadership class . The subject at hand however is Eoghan Harris which entails in depth discussion of the organisation for which he was a leading propagandist and strategist . For what its worth I have freinds from sticky , provo , sdlp and even unionist backgrounds . My venom is reserved for their leaderships , not their personnel en masse .
Ive never claimed the sticks were all powerful ( Your engaging in hyperbole to back up a weak argument) , simply pointed to their willingness to be co-opted by the state and the appointments and rewards they recieved in turn . As an organisation it ceased to be of any real benefit to the state long ago and was supplanted by the provos who even leapfrogged the SDLP under British and American patronage . Individuals such as Harris retained their usefulness despite the sticks becoming obsolete , themselves adapting to to the political climate and shedding their political coats to remain useful .
As regards 1986 that ard feis was 21 years ago . The overwhelming majority of 32 csm members were either teenagers and even toddlers when it occured . I was present , I agreed with ROB but unfortunately they did not build a political vehicle engaged in any challenge to British rule and even ruled out the creation of any military structure and instructed their supporters to continue support for the provos armed struggle . Instead they opted to keep principles intact within a political museum . The provos were importing tonnes of arms from Libya and an all out offensive against British rule seemed a reality . Unlike the provo/stick split joining RSF entailed physically walking away from an ongoing national liberation struggle that was on the point of intensifying . It was a completely different set of circumstances .

by Historian Fri Oct 05, 2007 12:03

Have read Johnston's book. Good source. A book by Garland would be worth reading but is unlikely I would imagine!

by Barry - 32 csm Fri Oct 05, 2007 12:03

in my opinion anyway .
His bi-polar condition certainly does not make him a bad person no more than it makes the many others afflicted with it a bad person . But his perpetual desire to bully the weak and support the oppression of the weak under a variety of political guises is a mental disturbance quite seperate from a bi-polar condition . And as such is relevant to any analysis of the mans activities and statements .
My own rage against colonialism is in itself partly a mental condition brought about by colonialism and indeed is quite common in socieities afflicted by colonialism. Harris' fervent support for colonialism and his desire to re-engineer Irish society through the constant use of shame , guilt , self flagellation and repetitive "killing ones father" scenarios is also a result of mental afflictions brought about by colonialism . The mans psychology is relevant to an examination of his political actions particularly when he himself utilises psychology as a means of pressing the Irish publics buttons . He openly boasts of how he reconstructed himself and the guilt he feels at Irelands imagined crimes against the British empire . His mission is to reconstruct the Irish psyche to a point where it is more in tune with his own reconstructed model , utilising his own inner guilt , self loathing and self flagellating . In my opinion this is crucial to an understanding of the man and his politics . Self hatred is central to his politics and thats a mental condition worthy of examination particularly within its context .

by Ghandi of North Strand Fri Oct 05, 2007 12:21 malachysteenson at yahoo dot com

Barry,

I accept and understand your view in 86, likewise I was there, as an observer, and at that time with the RSM. Likewise I have friends and family in all of the groupings. Perhaps the difficulty in ROB gaining ground was because many like yourself, belived the hype etc., from Adams and Co., as members looked at the ground, they could see preparations for the TET offensive being made, but as we now see this was another con. It would seem to me that the most despicable act of the leadership was to betray its own volunteers. I don't think that same comparison can be said of the Sticky's, while certainly the public statements etc., said one thing and many partry memebrs believed what they were told. Army Vols knew the score and were note decieved, having grown up in one of the leading Sticky homes in Dublin I was never under any illusion as to what was going on.

It would seem to me that people in 86 were happy enough to stay were they were in the hope that ROB was wrong, but could'nt find it in themselves to leave teh confort zone and start something fresh, and I think this applied to many post hunger strike members particularly.

There is certainly a need for a debate on these issues, though I would suggest that this site is not the forum for such a frank and open discussion, could I suggest some kind of a dialogue or email (I was going to say of like minded people) of people be held. The only meeting I recall was the Way forward for Republicianism in Abbey Street last year, nothing seems to have emerged from that.

by Barry Fri Oct 05, 2007 12:36

Further meetings have been held in the north with varying degrees of success and attempts are under way to construct an open forum for republicans and other progressives to discuss and hopefully persue common goals

you can get in contact here

[email protected]

by Ghandi Fri Oct 05, 2007 12:49

Will talk to you on your email, I was aware of teh Northern meetings, the difficulty I think for me was that they were mid week, evening time, and with work and other committments I coun'nt make them, taht I'm sure applled to a lot of people. Having them all in the North implies Northern control, and not National events ( even partitionist) , is'nt control by Northerners one of the reasons we are in the mess we in now.

by Barry Fri Oct 05, 2007 12:54

Im not sure garland and Harris would have made a better job of it :)

by Ghandi Fri Oct 05, 2007 13:05

Maybe not

by crookstown Fri Oct 05, 2007 13:58

Theres an article in this week's Phoenix magazine about Sean Garland's extradition problem.

He might not be in the clear yet

by Ghandi Fri Oct 05, 2007 14:18

That article bears out a lot of what many have been saying from the beginning, in relation to this being a plot more concerned with US intentions regarding North Korea.

Of course PP is no friend of SG's. When your enemies are still your enemies and not your friends you must be doing something right.

by Mac an Scian Fri Oct 05, 2007 17:18

Some years ago, in New York, I heard Martin Galvin, the spokesman for Noraid, speak in favour of the 'Nationalist Front'. And he saw Fianna Fail as part of this. One got the distinct impression that Irish republicanism was all about extending Fianna Failism to the 32 Cos. And when Haughey was out of office for a while and visiting New York he was introduced by an Irish-American millionaire attorney to the previous patron of RSF, George Harrison, and they then escorted Haughey around New York to see the sights. The poor fools probably thought Haughey was a republican because he sang The Oul Black Brimmer on TV." Betraying one's own volunteers " goes back at least as far as the inception of Fianna Fail and De Valera. Anyone acquainted with republicanism knows that Fianna Fail, since its inception, is the deadly enemy of Irish republicanism. Men spent years naked on the blanket in Fianna Fail's Curragh concentration camp. (including the son of the murdered Mayor of Cork, MacCurtain)The history is there and available. Even Swan's book contains the memo written by Haughey when he was "Justice" minister in the early 60s detailing his measures to destroy the republican movement.
There is a naivety among many republicans about the nature of F.F. Another example is Radio Free Eireann, WBAI, New York. John McDonagh, the shows presenter, is with RSF and the show's Irish correspondent is Fianna Fail supporter, Nollaig O Gadhra. One of the most sycophantic pieces ever written was penned by O Gadhra (in the Irish Post) praising Albert Reynolds for signing the Downing Street Declaration. This is the first key document in the so-called Peace Process which has resulted not just in the incorporation of all Ireland, economically and politically, into the Anglo-American empire, but in the assimilation to this process of those who once resisted. And each week, this clown O'Gadhra is there presenting his Fianna Fail horseshit as republicanism.
And Martin Galvin a few months back was in Ireland supporting the election campaign of fascist, McGeough, to the sub-parliament of Westminster, Stormont.

The appointment of Harris to the Senate shows the true anti-republican nature of Fianna Fail. Because of censorship much of the true history of republicanism remains unknown. But with this new technology much that was hidden can be discovered and communicated. Now the likes of Ahern, Harris, and their facilitators can be exposed. A beginning can be made.

by Sam Sat Oct 06, 2007 00:04

Barry said a while back that "Mass slaughter in Ireland will only occur if the occupying power unleashes it , as it regularly has done with street massacres ,no warning car bombs and bar room spray jobs with aparthied south african arms. " This is selective blaming where massacres are concerned. We know that the UVF got arms from the S.A. broederbund and that they bombed pubs in Catholic areas. We know that the British dirty tricks dept. supplied info to the UDA-UDF on republican members they wanted assassinated. But we know that the Provos did Bloody Friday, featuring the car bomb that killed waiting passengers at the bus stop in Oxford Road etc. We know that members of the congregation were shot in cold blood in that protestant church in Darkely.

It is turning ethics on its head to plant a car bomb in a public street, and when it explodes prematurely before warning can be phoned to the samaritans, to blame the deaths and maimings on colonialism.

There were several instances of minature mass slaughter (oxymoron) caused by individual "active service units" and not by colonialism.

by Barry - 32 csm Sat Oct 06, 2007 01:01

Ive never heard of an organisation called the south african broederbund , whoever they are/were they did not supply the loyalists with arms . The people who purchased arms shipments in the mid 1980s from Apartheid SAs Armscorp company were British military intelligence , under the guidance of Lt Col Gordon Kerr of the FRU . Kerr answered directly to the British PM . The arms were purchased for the entire loyalist spectrum , not just the UVF .

As regards supplying information to loyalists the facts are that hardly any republican activists were killed as a result of this . Of the hundreds killed by these weapons and under FRU and Special branch supervision only a handful were republican activists , and most of those were household names in vulnerable localities that needed no secret intelligence to direct their killers towards them . In fact the FRU made every effort to steer loyalist killers away from republican personnel ( as so many of them were British agents by the mid 1980s) and directed them instead towards killing innocent catholic civilians almost exclusively . FRU agent Brian Nelson , who was key to the arms importation , was supplied with the files the British keep on virtually everyone . He passed these to the loyalist gangs along with false information that targets were in the IRA . It was this tactic that led to Nelsons downfall . So sure that they had targetted IRA personnel the UDA pasted the military documents Nelson was supplying them with on the walls of the shankill rd in response to the vocal claims from accross the nationalist community that those the state had directed loyalists to kill were uninvolved civilians. The media were invited along to view the thousands of documents adorning the walls and the cat was out of the bag . The documents led directly back to Nelson .

The British intelligence services facilitated and unleashed that reign of slaughter quite deliberately , just as they had unleashed previous waves throughout the 1970s particularly during a prolonged IRA ceasefire and talks between leaders of the unionist community and republicans .. And theyll unleash it again should they deem it in their interests .

by Al Maguire Sat Oct 06, 2007 04:10

We do not need to be frightened. There are many new Senators here, including Senator Eoghan Harris who, having got it so spectacularly wrong on the war in Iraq, may find that in his reportage from the battlefront here in Seanad Éireann he is able to give the people who read the largest selling newspaper in the country the real news- Senator Norris, Seanad Eireann, 13 -9 -2007

by crookstown Sat Oct 06, 2007 17:51

Harris definitely got it wrong on Iraq.

by M.Jones Mon Oct 08, 2007 17:41

In his weekly 'all-about-me' piece in yesterday's Sindo Harris is upset that the Meeja haven't given enough attention to his call to Unionists to unite.
Harris doesn't realize that people, north and south, are not interested in whether Unionists are organized in one party of two for the simple reason that any such merger would have no impact on anyone's life because the policies of both parties are essentially identical.

by D. Kelleher Tue Oct 09, 2007 20:58

Harris is incapable of writing a sentence without it containing the personal pronoun. He is incapable of writing a column without distorion and inaccuracy. In his last Sindo piece he assets that Frank Connolly by exposing the corruption of Harris's mentor, FF leader Bertie Ahern, is engaging in what Lenin called 'excitative terror'. Harris claims that what Lenin meant by 'excitative terror' was the planting of stories by agent provocateurs.
This is just drivel. Lenin clearly meant by 'excitative terror', just plain old ordinary terrorism, especially assassinations, which was rampant in the Russia of the 1880s. Lenin own brother was hanged for one such attempt to kill the Tsar. Lenin was against 'excitative terror' because it detracted from political and agitationary activity, and resulted in extreme repression from the state. For Harris to equate this with articles in newspapers is bizarre.
Lenin of course was in favour of state terror once he attained power. a position backed by Harris.
The shibboleths of a corrupted, Stalinist marxism have done brain damage to Harris, and he pathologically and bizzarely invokes Lenin's views on terror to attack an article on the corruption of Bertie Ahern.

by Turps Tue Oct 09, 2007 23:27

Former marxists don't shed their control freakery instincts, nor their manipulative lexical habits. cf. former radical Christopher Hitchens (more widely read and talented than Harris) who uses his journo skills against former allies in same style as he used them against conservatives.

by Bad element Sun Oct 14, 2007 22:49

Senator Harris is set to launch the latest propaganda piece by Baron Bew. Should be a great night. Hope ye all can make it.

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/events/2007/10/lesson....html

and Mick Hall thinks Harris stopped being a socialist to please Bertie Ahern.

http://organizedrage.blogspot.com/2007/10/backing-berti....html

by Rev Mon Oct 15, 2007 12:40

The real point is that Harris - and his crowd in the CC O'Brien Society (Oh I could name names ...) are scheming to get the Free State fully onboard the imperialist side in the great (and fictional) 'war against terror'. FF are a crowd of shites - look at that buffoon of a little bantam cock Willie O'dea - who already peddle the old 'poor little Israel' line (How about bringing up the subject of Israel's nukes and the fact that it breaches the non-proliferation treaty?)
Don't write Harris off as just self-serving, don't forget his hatreds and his prejudices and the fact that simpletons - and God we have more than our share of them - are easily duped by a clown like Harris spouting high sounding, but meaningless, shite about Plato.
Did the IRA shoot a few loyalists in Cork in 1920 in the middle of a war? God aren't we awful people? But does England agonise over Dresden or the US over Nagasaki? Do they hell! Leave that sort of nonsense to the simple Paddies.

by Tim Twosides Tue Oct 30, 2007 18:28

Friday's (26/10/07) Irish Times reported:

"Eoghan Harris, a nominee of the Taoiseach, caused problems for Seanad administrators when it was found that he had voted for and against the Government on whether yesterday's business schedule should be changed... Mr Harris, who sits as an Independent, initially voted for the Government, but shortly afterwards he also went to the Opposition lobby...The Government won the vote, but when Mr Harris's double vote came to light, the voting tellers were summoned to a meeting with Seanad clerk Deirdre Lane..."

Harris has flipflopped so much that its now second nature to him and he can't stop.

by pat c Tue Oct 30, 2007 18:33

I have a splendid idea. The Harrasser should join the PDs. He could then become their leader. I would love to see him put himself before the people.

Any bets on how many votes the bould Eoghan would get in Cork South-West?

by crookstown Tue Oct 30, 2007 19:05

The documentary on the Pearsons suggests that Harris still has influence in RTE.

by anti revisionist Sun Nov 11, 2007 00:29

A recent piece in the Ir. Times recalls Harris's description of our President as a 'tribal timebom'. 10 years later and no loud bangs from the Phoenix Park yet.

President Mary McAleese tells Kathy Sheridan about family life in the Á ras, and how her own personal experiences have shaped the way in which she has approached the job

At a 10-year distance, the hysteria seems comical. A couple of days before her state visit to New Zealand, sitting in the state drawing-room of Áras an Uachtaráin on the kind of gilded Louis XIV furniture that discourages slouching, opposite a poised, straight-talking yet guarded woman once condemned as a "tribal time bomb", 1997 seems like a distant epoch.

Back then, the Eoghan Harris fickle finger of fate had landed approvingly on the only male of the five presidential candidates. Derek Nally, he asserted, could be relied upon to purge any hint of nationalism and to return the role to a "traditional" presidency. And he wouldn't be into that "huggy-wuggy, clap-happy stuff". By contrast, the Fianna Fáil-nominated, Northern nationalist was "dangerous", "a tribal time bomb".

Thus it was that the gentlemanly Nally, parroting the words of his short-lived adviser, John Caden, found himself accusing Mary McAleese of working "to a different moral agenda than most people in the Republic".

It was open season.

by Turps Sun Nov 11, 2007 10:38

I thoroughly agree with that last post. Harris has been a weathercock that doesn't know which way the wind is blowing. He got Mary McAleese so wrong.

She and her husband have worked quietly behind the scenes to reach out to working class protestants in Belfast, despite the fact that her family home in the Ardoyne was burnt out by arsonists early in the 1970s. She has entertained groups from East Belfast at the Arus. Her husband has liased with people in 'sensitive' streets. She made an official visit to an Orange museum in East Belfast.

Harrisian journalism is for the birds.

by Jim O'Sullivan Sun Nov 11, 2007 11:25

"The documentary on the Pearsons suggests that Harris still has influence in RTE."

I'm afraid it's even worse, his Dublin "socialist " counterpart put him into the Senate. Could the Park beckon?
There might be even more compelling reasons, other than the destruction of our health service, for trying to get rid of the present FF heirarchy. If they are allowed to continue we might have to a consider building a very high wall around the houses of parliament to keep the occupants in and the rest of us safe.

by Sceptic Sun Nov 11, 2007 13:15

Harris spoke on the health service in the Senate last week, something he is a bit of an authority on. He blamed doctors and their unions as well as other unions for many of the problems in the service. Consultants are good at condemning others in and out of the service but their own greed and obduracy is one of the main problems if not the main one in the landscape.

by anti madness Sun Nov 11, 2007 14:27

Harris's outburst in the Senate last week supporting the irrational, incompetent Ahern and trying to justify the collapse of the Irish health service, and trying desperately and stupidly to absolve Ahern from responsiblity shows him to be a flim flam chancer and one who has only tentative contacts with reality.

Dr. Crown, who was cowardly attacked by Ahern under parliamentary privilege, has now been censored by RTE. The inmates are running the Irish health care asylum and are resorting to totalitarian tactics to silence critics. Expect more irrational outburst from Harris.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/i-was-the-victi....html

by anti madness Sun Nov 11, 2007 14:30

http://www.tribune.ie/article.tvt?_scope=Tribune/News/H...0News

by Jim O'Sullivan Sun Nov 11, 2007 17:05

"Harris spoke on the health service in the Senate last week, something he is a bit of an authority on."

"A bit of an authority"? Did Eoghan tell you this himself? Or maybe he achieved his authority as a patient?

And there I was thinking that the only thing that Harria is an authority on is writting words that his establishment paymasters want to see in print.

by Bronterre O'Brien Mon Nov 12, 2007 02:06

Even the mainstream press is now criticizing RTE for its censorship. For more than 20 years RTE had a blatant censorship regime. Harris was a key player. That culture of censorship still exists, and permits Harris to promulgate his twisted perversion of Irish history, most recently in the Coolacrease programme.
This censorship by the 'national' broadcaster is subversive of Irish democracy. The role of subversives such as Harris in undermining Ireland's hard won liberty must be exposed.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishexaminer/pages/story....1.asp

by crookstown Mon Nov 12, 2007 20:16

Harris was only one of a group of Worker's Party members within RTE. Others were Gerry Gregg , and John Caden. There were others also who cannot be named .

The agenda was not just censorship of Republicans but also to promote support of the Worker's Party, and to demonise traditional forces such as the Catholic Church and intriguingly the Farmers.

Their infiltration of RTE was the trump card, by 1989 the party won 7 Dail seats and 1 MEP seat plus many council seats.

I believe the Party had an important impact in diminishing the influence of traditional forces in Ireland particularly Republicanism and Catholicism.

This impact was particularly strong in Dublin.

by Daltun Connolly Fri Nov 30, 2007 20:38

In an Seanad Eireann during the week, the bloated, defunct Stalinist Eoghan Harris called for a 'bipartisan' policy on the heath crisis. Does he really believe that there is some difference between the neoliberal policies of the govenment and those of the opposition? He's calling for solidarity of the different factions of Irish capital in the face of the righteous anger of the people. Solidarity, like class struggle, is something talked about by the left while practised by the right. Solidarity of the privileged maintains the caste/caste nature of Irish society. And this is reflected in the two-tier health system, and in turn the dual health system reinforces the caste/class divide. The leader of Fianna Fail, the corrupt Ahern, has appointed Harris to the Senate to support the privileged and the powerful. The false dawn of the Celtic Tiger is becoming increasingly evident. Neoliberal social and economic doctrine is the problem, not the solution. Calls by Harris for a solidarity of the privileged must be met by real solidarity of the dispossessed. The caste/class system, and its reinforcement by neoliberalism, must be challenged not just in health but in all areas of economic, social, political and cultural life. And the silly plaintive cries of Eoghan Harris for solidarity of the rich must be ridiculed.

by Sceptic Sat Dec 01, 2007 17:33

I am not sure what has the shape of someone got to with the relevance of their policies. What would have to make of the policies of Bernadette McAliskey if that was the lodestar? Anyway Harris is a keen swimmer and is in reasonable shape for his age. There is merit in what he says. People are getting needlessly worried and upset by the all of this controversy and politicking about health. In fact much goes right in the health service and what is not right would benefit from a non-party political approach. The problem is too many people are concerned with political point scoring rather than finding constructive solutions with a consensus behind them.

by Aragon Sat Dec 01, 2007 18:29

Cross party support my foot!

Since when have Fianna Fail not gone in for political point scoring - they bloody well invented the sport and Ahern is the nastiest game player of them all. There is no reason why any of the opposition parties should sign up to sharing the blame for what Harney and FF have done/ are doing with health. Nice bloody try! Your line of argument is another sly attack on the idea that democratic accountability is a bad thing. Our opposition parties must and should hold the government to account for what they are doing - especially when it involves loss of life and risk to health on such a large scale.

by Jim O'Sullivan Sun Dec 02, 2007 12:12

"Harris spoke on the health service in the Senate last week, something he is a bit of an authority on."

" Anyway Harris is a keen swimmer and is in reasonable shape for his age."

The above intimate quotes are from two different posts from Sceptic.To have such detail, Sceptic is either married to Harris or is Harris himself. The latter would sure explain a lot of wierd posts.

by Sceptic Sun Dec 02, 2007 14:29

Not at all. Harris swims at Seapoint regularly - its near his home in Monkstown, Co Dublin. Some friends of mine do the same and have remarked he is quite fit. Also in the last year he has taken an interest in health matters - something that is clear from the public record.

by Barry - 32 csm Sun Dec 02, 2007 15:30

I actually think its a bit generous to the abilities of the pro colonialist workers party sect to state they infiltrated RTE . What actually happened was Fianna Fail Minister Gerry Collins sacked the entire RTE board , jailed a journalist and put the gaff in these peoples capable hands . And pretty much left it in their hands . Successive right wing governments were happy to leave them in control of it as they did such a sterling job misrepresenting the state of the nation in the interests of the rich , the powerful and the foreign .
Then as now Harris is just a willing tool and stooge of the state and its most backward and negative elements .

by Dorothy Gale Sun Dec 02, 2007 16:04

You are behind the times. Harris left Monkstown some time ago. Hes on the Northside now, closer to Bertie. Maybe you dont know as much as you like to let on.

by Sceptic Sun Dec 02, 2007 17:51

Maybe he has moved house but I have it on good authority he was still swimming at Seapoint in the past few weeks. I can't claim personal knowledge of all of his doings.

by D. Fahey Mon Dec 03, 2007 23:20

None of this is Bertie's fault. Whats he supposed to do if people give him money? Hows he supposed to know about invices and stuff, hes from de north soide. Senator Harris has often pointed out the Daily Mail is an English paper. The English are plotting to bring down Bertie, just like they did with that other great Irish republican, Albert Reynolds.
http://www.sarahcarey.ie/2007/12/03/des-richardson/

by bog trotter Tue Dec 04, 2007 23:20

http://www.publicinquiry.eu/2007/12/04/the-pity-of-eogh...rris/

by Watcher Wed Dec 05, 2007 08:23

He was at it again last night on RTE. This guy is a one man circus. Bertie sure has a lot more to answer for besides taking "digouts" . Image foreigners visiting the Seanad and having to listen to this fruit case.

by Raw Sienna Wed Dec 05, 2007 09:18

This is what senators who are bought do, defend the undefendable, especially when it’s the political career of the man who put you there on the line.

I doubt anyone of any persuasion takes Harris seriously. His meanderings since the 60's would confuse the most prolific of contortionists. I dare say Harris defending Bertie causes greater embarrassment to Ahern than the growing tide of allegations and accusations of malfeasance that plagues the Taoiseach on a daily basis.

by game ball Sun Dec 09, 2007 21:30

In todays Sindo Harris continues with his nonsense of blaming Ahern's difficulties on the Daily Mail. He threatens to return to his 'republican roots' in his attack on the Mail.
Ahern's troubles are due to his money-grubbing and his convoluted obfuscations before the Mahon tribunal. The Mail is but one media outlet to criticize Ahern. The decline of Ahern and Fianna Fail began about the time Ahern appointed Harris to the Senate. Many F.F. backbenchers opposed this appointment, as did many on the front bench.
Harris is now introducing anti-English bigotry in an attempt to get his patron, Ahern, off the hook. This elitist, atavastic ploy will be seen by the people for what it is.
Any Finance Minister, in any non-third world country, who took large sums of money from business people and then lied about it, would have long since been ousted from office.
True to his Stalinist roots Harris is undermining Irish democracy. His attempts to blame the messenger reveal him as an unprincipled flimflam man.
Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad. And its also fun to watch.

by martin - none Sun Dec 09, 2007 23:48

i was unaware that harris was bipolar as

am myself . this is hardly a reason to attack him .for me his problems are political and we should be very worried at his persuasiveness to those who dont remember the past. harris is a liar.he knows where the skeletons lie.

by Nero Mon Dec 10, 2007 15:23

Yesterday, Eoghan Harris, unaware that TV3 record their Political Show "as live" had what appeared to be a minor breakdown when he didn't like the line of (fairly soft) questioning that Ursula Halligan adopted.

In the clip, she asks whether he considers Bertie Ahern's taking money from businessmen to be okay, and he tries to stop the interview.

He's a loose cannon, and the FF press handlers are probably wondering how to shut him up as they review this tape in party hq.

by Fergus O'Connor Sun Apr 06, 2008 22:06

Harris was appointed to the Senate because of his flim-flam efforts on behalf of Ahern before the election.

In the Senate he continued his role as Bertie's P.R. man.

As the Mahon Tribunal exposed Ahern's twisted efforts to hide the vast sums he received from 'developers' and contractors, 'Senator' Harris blamed radical republicans, English newspapers, and internet bloggers for Bertie's difficulties.

The media fulfilled its role in a democratic society and Ahern was forced to resign.

'Senator' Harris is outraged because his flim-flam efforts failed.

In the Last Word interview Harris became prickly when Clifford did not call him 'Senator'. No democratic election bestowed this title on Harris. With Ahern gone, the original reason for Harris's sinecure disappears. 'Senator' Harris should resign.

by Barry - 32 csm Mon Apr 07, 2008 03:19

We should remember that Mr Ahern defined the tribunals trms of reference to planning corruption only . We should therefore assume that there were other more damaging issues of corruption which Mr Ahern may well have wished to prevent the tribunal from persuing . We should not assume that the many payments he received came from property developers and building contractors only .
Many of the payments he received were in British pounds Sterling , which would indicate that those paying him off were foreign to the jurisdiction .
His policies have been of immense benefit to others with vested interests in this country , such as Oil and gas oligarchs and the British governemnt and its security forces .
This is the same Mr Ahern that did a deal while finance minister with the oil oligarchs that resulted in Irelands substantial offshore oil and gas resources were given away tax and royalty free with their foreign exploration costs wrotten off against the Irish taxpayer, netting Lord OReilly for example a £16 billion pay off from Exxon Mobil to permit them to extract our oil and gas just from one small corner of the country . And then theres Shell .
Mr Ahern also campaigned for election as Taoiseach with the Dublin Monaghan families in tow , promising to throw open the files and deal with the very disturbing issues surrounding the case in a very robust and open manner . As soon as he was elected though he reneged on that promise , claiming hed loooked at the files himself and there was nothing interesting in them . The thousands of documents and files then disappeared in their entirety along with all duplicates from 5 seperate secure locations , including the Department of justice and Garda Headquarters . Britian then ceased perparing its sovereign immunity certificate from the international case being being prepared by the Dublin Moanghan families Ahern had tricked and misled .
Clearly Ahern has done a lot of favours for a lot of people . As has Mr Harris .

by B. Phair Tue Apr 08, 2008 00:19

Its been announced that Senator Eoghan Harris is in the running for a major award because of his outstanding journalistic commentary.
http://thatsireland.com/2008/04/06/eoghan-harris-hosts-...itry/

by T. Burton McCoy. Wed Apr 09, 2008 04:49

Looks like Harris will not have it all his own way in getting that award. Here's Brendan O'Connor in the Sindo:

"Was that worth suspending the running of the country for a year for?

and, says O'Connor, Harris on Prime Time

"was poetic and melancholic, almost bringing to mind a saddened, courtly lover. The gentleness and disappointment with which he spoke about Ahern's sweetness of character, with which he spoke about bereavement and love, was the most honest and accurate assessment of the country's mood at that time."

This is very profound and moving journalism. It brings a tear to the eye.

by Subber Wed Apr 09, 2008 06:34

As a response to your last remarks about Harris's prose: "This is very profound and moving journalism. It brings a tear to the eye." If I were working nights at the Sindo I'd bring a well-sharpened purple pencil to the passage quoted. He's a slobbering brownnose.

by U. Nanimous Fri May 23, 2008 18:49

Should Eoghan Harris be called 'Senator'? He dislikes 'Mister'. What is his democratic claim to the Senate sinecure now that his benefactor Ahern has been forced to resign? Harris should do the decent thing and resign.
http://www.sarahcarey.ie/2008/05/20/harris-tries-to-re-...tory/

by T. Lambert Sat Jun 14, 2008 18:10

Ireland's 'leading political analyst' had this to say in the Sindo, June 1, 08

" All the three main parties have to do is stand together and, in effect, say, Lisbon -- Let's Get On With It. And that simple act of solidarity should see Lisbon go through by a margin of 65-35. Because when in doubt, we tend to stand with the status quo."

So much for the status quo and Harris's analysis. Maybe Harris is the one who tends to side with the status quo......politically and economically.

by Fear Bolg Sun Aug 17, 2008 11:39

Sindo, August 17, 08:
"Lastly, let me mark the memory of Nollaig O Gadhra who died last week. We first met in UCC and argued about nationalism for nigh on 50 years without ever coming to any agreement

Although in his tribute the Taoiseach called Nollaig a republican, I think it more accurate to call him a nationalist. While Nollaig welcomed Irish Protestants who professed republicanism (like the late Risteard O Glaisne), nothing in his prolific writings showed he accepted they could rationally prefer unionism. Hence the arguments.

Although physically frail, Nollaig never lacked physical courage and bore his bad health with great grit. And if he sometimes annoyed people by coming across as the Keeper of the National Conscience, it is a fault from which I myself am not free. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam croga."

- Eoghan Harris
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/batt-man-com....html

by tomeile Sun Aug 17, 2008 12:52

Sean Garland is cheeky enough to be chairing one of the seminars at this year's Desmond Greaves Summer School , but Eoghain Harris presenting himself as the Keeper of the National Conscience - that takes some beating .

by leitheoir Sun Aug 17, 2008 15:02

Nollaig O'Gadhra dedicated himself to using the Irish language as something in which to communicate thoughts about the whole world. Thus he wrote a potted biography of Mahatma Gandhi, the practitioner of nonviolent political struggle. He also wrote a biography of the Kilkenny farmer's son who founded the Christian Brothers (an organisation that also founded schools in Australia, North America, the UK, India and parts of Africa) - Edmund Rice. He wrote articles and gave talks about the contemporary world and the world gone by i.e. he showed that the language wasn't fossilised folklore, so stereotyped by Peig and the boredom that text has caused to generations of Leaving Certificate students.

by Juno and the Paycock Tue Aug 19, 2008 02:37

Has it never occurred to us that, depressing as it might seem, Eoghan Harris does represent the national conscience or what passes for it in this country?

by Dorcha Wed Aug 20, 2008 12:43

Harris and O Gadhra had more in common than being the 'conscience of Ireland. They both came from lower middle class Fianna Fail backgrounds and remained true to that conservative background and political tradition. Both faithfully served the Irish anti-republican establishment.

by Fred Johnston Wed Aug 20, 2008 18:01

I think you can take it as given that, in Irish society, which is basically conservative, one does not gain access to the print or broadcast media as any kind of talking head if one is likely to be of a controversial or anti-consensus turn of mind. It is necessary to 'atone' for one's previous 'sins' as a Lefty, for instance. And more than one Sunday Independent columnist has begun life there by saying in print that 'I know I believed this in my youth but I now believe this . . . ' Even if their 'youth' was a couple of years back.

by Realist Thu Aug 21, 2008 08:51

I remember Nollaig O Gadhra as a teenager called Noel Geary. At that time he was a brave and radical rebel against Catholicism, against Irish, and against all the other established conformities which were experienced as oppressive by him at that time of his life. I respected him then, and I equally respect his more mature rethink of what he rejected in his early youth. There is no comparison between N. O G. and the likes of E. H., who is and was an opportunist and conformist at every turn. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam.

by leitheoir Thu Aug 21, 2008 10:59

I endorse the sentiments of Realist. It is common for youthful students to be 'radical' and against everything normal until they graduate and go into careers, marriages and mortgages. One radical thing Nollaig O Gadhra held onto was a commitment to the ideal of Irish language as a living tool of mature communication. He did not adopt the teanga as a cultural hobby, unlike many Dublin-based career-driven civil servants. He and his beloved wife Mairin (mo bhron thu) opted to live in the Gaeltacht and be active members of a living community where your acceptance depends more on your relations with neighbours than whatever job you do or income you have. Nollaig and other Gaeltacht activists stood up for social and linguistic rights during the early 1970s when they launched Gluaiseacht Cearta Siabhialta na Gaeltachta - an antiestablishment movement that told the Dublin gaelgoir hobbyists and polaiteoiri to cop on and get serious about the Gaelteacht.

I only met Nollaig and his wife once and they offered the hospitality that marks out the gaeltacht as a haven of civilisation. We spoke Irish for half an hour, then they both conversed in English freely with me for a couple more hours on national and international matters.

by Goban Saor Fri Aug 22, 2008 23:38

Only amadawns who believe Fianna Fail is republican would describe Nollaig O Gadhra as republican.

In his student days at UCC he was an ardent Fianna Failer and an admirer of Eamon DeValera. He was regarded as a bit of a harmless doofus well on his way to becoming a professional Gaelgeoir. He fulfilled this early promise.

Harris is more of a posturer but like O Gadhra has remained true to his conservative Fianna Fail roots. Harris was a little slow on the Peace Process, but soon caught up to O Gadhra in his support for this subvsersion of republicanism.

Those who confuse Irish republicanism with Catholic conservative nationalism cannot understand that the tributes to O Gadhra by Harris, Cowen and O Cuiv are because O Gadhra gave live long service to the anti-republican, conservative values and beliefs that sustain the 26-county statelet.

by dumdum Sat Aug 23, 2008 07:28

I am amazed by your sweeping dismissal of the population in the 26-county statelet. 41 per cent of them (excluding myself) voted Fianna Fail in the last two general elections and about 6 per cent voted Sinn Fein. Then a large number of assorted oddbods voted for the ineffective Fine Gael, the Labour professionals and the Greens. We're all out of step except you and your alcove of true republicans. We'll come around to your way of thinking when the cows come home. The true republic is somewhere out there in space, probably vanished into a black hole. Ah well, let's all cheer the three amateur boxers who won Olympic medals. If we can't share republicanism we can share national sporting success.

by Seth Ologist Mon Oct 13, 2008 19:46

Having predicted that Hillary would win the Democratic party nomination, and in his past few columns stating that McCain would beat Obama, Harris is now edging towards Obama.
He has no shame.

Harris also believes that Bill O'Reilly is the "best political brain in America", because O'Reilly said that if McCain had said that he would appoint Giuliani as Attorney General of the U.S. then McCain would easily win the presidency.
Harris says he "would prefer almost any other black candidate to Obama". An amazingly stupid statement.
And according to Harris his daughter, 'who has lived in America', believes that the black American middle class do not make it on their own merits but only by trading on 'white guilt'. And making Obama president would help the black middle class overcome this. What bilge.
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/eoghan-har....html

by Sceptic Mon Oct 13, 2008 23:24

In fairness to Harris he is prepared to stick his neck out and make predictions and he is mostly right. Besides McCain might yet win. In his case it is ok as a reflective and serious journalist to account for his thought process and its evolution through such as conversations with his daughter. Some of his critics never got beyond the stage of the second Dáil and are unburdened for the need for any thought at all having delegated that function to O'Brady. As for Lisbon there was a common assumption that the middle class would support it and spurn the various Provo and commie types who are viscerally opposed to the EU project in their narrow minded provsionalism. This time the middle class was distracted and split by the siren Ganley and a heavy duty campaign by the brit papers both popular and quality. Previous assumptions of middle class integrity which Harris was relying on were upended. Instead of fault finding Harris the rest of us should be paying heed to the various insights of an unusually fruitful mind.

by Don Williams Tue Oct 14, 2008 00:26

Harris is pandering to bigotry and stereotypes, just like Bill O'Reilly and the right-wing generally: their economic ideology in tatters they have no other recourse.

by groundsman Tue Oct 14, 2008 01:13

Harris and other stalwart leaders of the WP went on to have financially successful careers in politics, the law and media. Whatever happened to all those drones and spear-carriers who went out two or more nights a week (a condition of their membership in the Party) to 'work for the movement' and build up the Party in its campaigns for the working class? Where are they today while the finicky former leadership prospers in bien pensant respectability?

by Sean - WP Member Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:12

In response to the last posting - I am one of those members. I didn't go with the careerists in 1992, nor did the majority - many of us are still here and the party is growing again, slowly perhaps, but it is still active, with its own paper (Look Left). What they forgot to kill is organising.

by Fred Douglas Wed Oct 15, 2008 03:00

The 'best political brain in America' does Harlem.

": Discussing his recent dinner with Rev. Al Sharpton at the Harlem restaurant Sylvia's, Bill O'Reilly reported that he "couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship." O'Reilly added: "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea.' "

To call the clown O'Reilly the 'best political brain in America' shows Harris to be a dope.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200709210007

by Doc Watson Sat Oct 18, 2008 19:34

Harris and his daughter are ignorant of black America. So they spew forth half-baked racist cliches of the type usually uttered by the ignoramus, Bill O'Reilly.

But ignorance of a subject has never prevented the 'Senator' from speaking out; for example, on marxian economics.

His views on American politics closely follow those of his neo-con pal, Michael Barone.

Harris' predictions on the Lisbon referendum and on the U.S. Democratic primary were spectacularly wrong.

Supporters of Obama must hope that this Sunday Harris does not predict that the junior senator from Illinois will win the presidency.

by Fred Johnston Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:52

Harris has his faults, but continually attacking him is pointless unless one views in tandem the changes in Irish society and the consequent changes in the media - how will one forget the The Irish Times concluded its series of essays on human rights yesterday, Saturday, with a piece writen by a writer whom, I understand, is a comic fiction: Ross O'Carroll Kelly! If what once was a 'paper of note' can cartoonize a reflection on human rights, what does that say about the tenor of the Irish media? The days of good investigative journalism are gone: few journalists, if any, are divorced from the feel-good, don't-be-negative weirdness of an Irish society with its head in the sand. Everything from bad manners to bad journalism follows. Suddenly, of course, we've all to get serious about the 'financial downturn' and The Sunday Independent is attacking Cowen: the only readable journalist on that paper is Gene Kerrigan. The media, sadly, is increasingly about itself, with journalists writing stories about themselves, their friends, their new books, their old marriages and attacking their rivals like kids in a schoolyard gang. Harris is a symptom, not a source.

by De Carthy Sun Oct 19, 2008 16:10

Its illogical to suggest that by criticizing Senator Harris one accepts what is happening in Irish society or in the Irish media, especially since Harris was appointed to the Senate by the ruling party, and drew a salary from the Irish taxpayer for the 20 years he spent at RTE.
And as well as drawing his inflated Senate salary for doing nothing he also receives a state pension.
And all the while he attacks the workers in the public sector.
Exposing the hypocrisy of the charlatan, Harris, is also a criticism of Irish society and media.

by Dave Kelleher Sat Nov 08, 2008 17:13

"....Obama has been outflanked by McCain's initial refusal to debate during the current crisis,...
...Come November, no matter what the polls say now, America will vote for McCain and Palin. Next week, Inshallah, I will explain why.
Meantime, put your money on McCain/Palin. It's a lot better employed at the bookies than in a bank. Because what Aengus Fanning knows about football, I know about politics.
And my political predictor is still in good working order" -Eoghan Harris, Sindo, 28/9/2008

Clearly this clown knows nothing about American politics. McCain's erratic antics during the crisis, contrasted with the calm demeanour of Obama, swayed many a voter.

Harris was appointed to An Seanad because he is a propagandist for the crony capitalism of Fianna Fail.

Although Harris has fed at the public trough all his life he is busy blaming the public sector for Ireland's economic problems. Harris is trying to conceal the real cause of the problem: the interrelation of Fianna Fail with the banking/property development/construction interests.

Harris's analysis of current economic difficulties is as accurate as his confident prediction of a McCain/Palin win.

by C. Antillon Sun Jan 11, 2009 12:55

"If Duffy still doubts that the gap is deeply divisive, all he has to do is consult Constantin Gurdgiev in his own paper. Gurdgiev pointed out (days before the Dell news) that, this coming year, private sector workers will see their income shrink by up to 15 per cent."-Harris, Sindo, 11-1-2009

So because, in a deep recession, worker income in non-government employment will shrink by, allegedly, 15%, income of state workers according to Harris and Gurdgiev should shrink by the same amount. This is sheer idiocy and has no economic rationale.

Harris is trying to divert attention from the gross inequality that persists in both the public and private sectors.
If we must make comparisons lets make them between say the income of the CEO of Fas and its lowest paid worker.
Or compare the income of the lower-paid government workers with the ill-appropriated millions of the bank director parasites.
And speaking of parasites lets abolish an Seanad. It performs no useful function. It merely provides a platform for the unproductive, such as Harris, where they can spin bullshit in support of power, property and privilege.
Harris himself has fed from the public trough all his life. He has no shame.
The collapse of the Celtic Tiger means that those who support its underlying ideology have now no legitimacy. So Harris, like the bankers a beneficiary of Fianna Fail largesse, is now engaging in a process of distraction. The public sector did not cause the problems. Neither did the working class. Attacking the public sector and the working class is not the solution. Harris and his parasitical ilk are the problem.

by pat c Sun Jan 11, 2009 15:18

Eoghan Harris made a big gestutre of taking a 10% pay cut from as a Senator. But as has been pointed out, Harris has always had his snout on the public trough. Harris gets a producerspension of €40,000 pa from RTE. Does Harris think his pension should be cut?

The real story thoough is that Harris as an "Artist" does not pay any tax on his screenplays or other "artistic" earnings. If pararsites like Harris paid tax like ordinary workers then we wouldn't need cutbacks.

by thespian Tue Mar 17, 2009 12:37

Quite right, Pat C.

All these artistic parasites who paint, act, and write books should be driven from our shores.

Or is it only Harris whom you would single out?

by pat c Tue Mar 17, 2009 14:57

"Quite right, Pat C.

All these artistic parasites who paint, act, and write books should be driven from our shores.

Or is it only Harris whom you would single out?"

I do not wish to drive anyone from our shores and certainly not Eoghan! We Mad Corkmen must stick together.

What I object to is a writer or other artist being treated differently from a plumber, programmer or painter & decorater. There is no logical reason for this. If Eoghan and his ilk paid their fair share then there would be less need for cutbacks.

Tax equity! Squeeze the Rich until the pips squeak!

Btw, if you were really a thespian then you would know that actors do not qualify for tax exemption.But they have the brass neck tolobby for it.

by Sceptic Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:38

In fairness to Harris at least his political thinking evolves over the years and he takes account of the interests of people living in the here and now. Someone like Ruairí Ó Bradaigh’s - the “President” no less of RSF- thinking such at it is entirely fossilized in a particular 1922 mindset. Moreover his views are dictated by a select group of republican dead whom he seems to commune with at numerous graveside commemorations. A degree of pragmatism is sometimes required as opposed to absolutes which dictate that once again in this generation and century we have killings by republican homicidal fascists. Harris may have his failings but soomer him in a posisiton of influence than the likes of RSF and its armed wing.

by thespian Wed Mar 18, 2009 20:38

Alas, my thespian activities have all been amateur and the government hasn't yet put a levy on "free".

But I would endorse the opinion in the last comment.

Harris might be a tad overbearing, but he is no fascist.

by Fred Thu Mar 19, 2009 19:42

Eoghan Harris in all his splendid dullness can only really be seen to be one thing on a consistent basis and that it an apologist for the right wherever he finds it. A continual apologist for right wing politicians and their policies in Ireland.
A defender of US Right wing colonialism in Iraq (even to the point of hitching his colours to the criminal , Ahmed Chalabi in full technicolour in the Sunday Indo).
And recently in covering over war crimes in Gaza for the Israeli fascists by casting doubt over the murder of children there.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/eoghan-har....html

" The rest of the media, ranging from newspapers to RTE News, is far too fond of inflaming our passions with footage of alleged atrocities featuring the corpses of little children..."

Alleged ? Only in brown shirted circles , Harris.

by Browsing Bert Thu Mar 19, 2009 22:13

I gave up buying the Sindo years ago. I advise anybody who's tired of the columnist rantings and craw thumping in any newspaper distinguished for those traits to follow my example. Lower the circulation and make your criticisms bite into the revenue.

by Sceptic Fri Mar 20, 2009 11:23

Fred you are ranting and misusing language. There are divided views on the issue of the Iraqi intervention. However there was a perfectly respectable case that it was morally correct liberal intervention. Harris belonged to that particular school of intellectual thought. There is likewise a cogent case for the recent Israeli action in Gaza under the doctrine of bona fide self defence and also there is room for criticism of the RTE and other news organisation coverage. It is differing views that make the world go round – because some of different vies from your very strong ones does not mean you need to resort to name calling and denigration. That sort of thing merely weakens your case.

by Fred Johnston Fri Mar 20, 2009 13:17

No, I am not the 'Fred' referred to above, but I should point out that the the Israeli army has now admitted killing innocent civilians in Gaza - they had no choice but to admit it, given the universal outcry - and the Israeli government's morally-bankrupt notions of self-defence are old hat by now. War crimes' charges, with any luck, will follow. There was no moral or other reason for going into Iraq save to secure oil reserves for the US. They had been happy to supply Saddam with arms, including chemical weapons, when he was bulwarking US interests against Iran. They refused to assist the Kurds, as they refused to intervene when Saddam started gassing and murdering in Iraqi villages. Not in their remit, said George Bush Senior at the time. So let's get rid of this guff once and for all. Harris has leapt from one political belief to another in his day and it is not, as a consequence, begrudgery to doubt his views.

by Fred Fri Mar 20, 2009 14:09

No sceptic you got it all wrong.
You obviously didnt even read the Eoghan Harris article I posted for if you did you would have read this arrogant snippet early on in which Harris perfectly sums himself up.

" Good authority is about challenging the comfortable consensus. Bad politics is a seamless robe woven from the same consensus. By bad politics I mean parroting politically correct positions. By seamless robe I mean that a pundit who is wrong on one major moral issue is likely to be wrong on more than one. By consensus I mean the weak way politicians, commentators and academics seek shelter under the same roof. "

There can be no doubt that Harris gets it wrong by referring to the dead children in Gaza as "alleged" atrocities. They are not alleged they are factually real and substantiated in evidence. Harris would not ever dare to refer to an Israeli child injured by a homemade rocket as an alleged victim. Never ever would he do such a thing.
So in his own words that is where he gets it wrong on one major moral issue. So taking his own formula as described above we can easily see where he gets it wrong on Iraq. Specifically on the issue of touting the criminal embezzler Ahmed Chalabi for prime minister, when he didnt just get it politically wrong as we saw when Chalabi was flatly rejected by the Iraqi people, but again he got it morally wrong by once again tucking himself in under that very large right wing roof.

This is not about differing opinions , its about Eoghan Harris being a brown-shirted cheerleader for everything right wing under the sun.

by Paddy Spondulix Sun Apr 12, 2009 15:26

A Chairde, on this Easter Day please spare a thought, or a euro, for an old Cork republican in some difficulty.

In today's Sunday Independent, Senator Harris makes a heart-rending revelation which for one so reticent about himself and his affairs must indeed have been very painful to make.
As he enters into his declining years Senator Harris is still forced to work to make ends meet. The Senator reveals that, after a lifetime of working in both the public and private sectors, he has great difficulty living on his miserly Senatorial stipend. And he views the prospect of living on the old age pension with great dismay.

He has even been forced to do a nixer for Fas down in Tralee.

Ireland's treatment of its great men is not something we can always be proud of. But yet we have also shown generosity to those selfless individuals who because of the sacrifices they have made for the public good, have through no fault of their own found themselves experiencing economic difficulty. The subscriptions for O'Connell and Parnell come to mind.
Senator Harris's many contributions to Irish public life need no recital from me: suffice it to mention how he elected Mary Robinson president of Ireland.
The time has now come for payback so that Senator Harris can enjoy his golden years, can bask in the knowledge of a life well spent on behalf of his fellow citizens, and not be plagued by economic anxiety.
A Chairde, let us set up a subscription fund for the welfare of Senator Eoghan Harris.
Retired statesman, Bertie Ahern, would be the ideal man to be the chairman of the Fund. Let's call it the Senator Harris Dig-out Fund.

by Hank Sun Apr 12, 2009 22:58

All spoken from the heart of course. It's just the name I query. How about calling it the Senator Harris Investment Trust instead? Acronyms speak louder than words.

by Lenny Mon Apr 13, 2009 06:43

or call it the Harris Active Retirement Fund?

by Paddy X Tue May 05, 2009 01:50

Its time for Harris and the other 59 parasites to go.

-The Seanad should be abolished. It has outlived the purpose of the original Senate, that of providing southern unionists with a voice at the inception of the State. Today’s Seanad has no real powers and has in fact become an appendix to the body politic, of even less relevance than a human appendix. It is to the Council of State, not to it, that the President turns for advice on legislation.- T.P. Coogan
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0505/1....html

by Sceptic Wed May 06, 2009 15:02

Why single out Harris by name individually? You could just as easily have instanced Ivana Bacik, David Norris or Pearse Doherty. But your spleen is reserved for Harris and your association of his name with the term parasite.

by Hurler Wed May 06, 2009 15:19

Harris has a pension from RTE, earnings from journalism, film scripts, tv scripts as well as a Senators salary. His income from film and TV scripts is tax free as Harris is regarded as an "Artist". Yet Harris made a big thing of taking a 10% cut in his Senators salary (but not in attendance allowances or other expenses).

Despite his income and from many sources and his tax avoidance Harris demands cutbacks in public sector pay and pensions. Perhaps he could make a start by handing back his RTE pension or his tax exempt status.

Harris is a hypocrite.

by Paddy X Thu May 07, 2009 00:33

And a whingeing parasite.
The real income division in Irish society is between those leeches at the top such as Harris, and the mass of productive workers: not the division between the public and private sector, which Harris is being paid to promote. Wirra, wirra.

by Con Tumely Sat Nov 14, 2009 15:08

. “It was very creepy. I frankly found . . . the Harris faction a far more frightening phenomenon than the IRA itself,” -Paddy Woodworth.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/art...0.ece

Its a disgrace that the Irish taxpayer is still supporting the authoritarian crackpot, Harris, a life-time sponger on the public purse.

by Fergus O'Connor Tue Feb 01, 2011 23:04

It is now almost three and a half years since this site welcomed Eoghan Harris to An Seanad Eireann.

Over the intervening period the erudite Senator has graced Irish public life on many an occasion with his concern to for the downtrodden and forgotten. And this is as it should be as he has shown a great consistency in his concerns and in his career.

As a revolutionary socialist republican in his own and dearly loved Cork while still in his teens Eoghan Harris joined the F.C.A . Displaying what would become the hallmark of his career, his unmitigated mefeinism, he quickly rose through the ranks, became an officer and led many a foray through the hills of West Cork and saw active service on Spike Island.

During his 20 years as a marxist revolutionay at RTE, barely subisisting on a measly pittance from the bourgeois state, he craftily and cunningly promoted the views of Joe Dzhugashvili, all the while developing his expertize in flim-flam which would stand him in good stead, when having matured, and when communism collapsed, he would overnight become a conservative advocate for conservative politicians.
He had great success and we can only ask where would be today, David Trimble, John Bruton, Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen if they had not received the support of Eoghan Harris? And now too Enda Kenny...
Perhaps his finest moment in the Senate was when, exercising the dialectic, he made the strong case that if James Connolly was alive today he would oppose trade unionism.
Such moments will now be missed.
Throughout West Cork its a day of great sadness for all Aristotelians.
As he now enters the winter of his years Eoghan Harris can truly say that to his own self he was true.
He is now verily a legend in his own mind.
And he will be remembered as the greatest Corkman since the Bold Thady Quill.

by Naxalite Ned Wed Feb 02, 2011 03:17

If Harris publishes his political and journalist memoirs they could be titled
MY SHITE FOR IRISH FREEDOM. General Tom Barry's ghost would be amused.

by Plato Wed Feb 02, 2011 10:18

"... Eoghan Harris can truly say that to his own self he was true."

This is almost funny as Harris is now a self confessed full member of the greed merchants club. The man has beocme a pitiful joke, the fate of all Quislings.

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Wed Feb 02, 2011 13:18

....that he was a precocious genius of a child and that the name eoghan is actually short for onanist. But that was in a tabloid.