Unity

From Unity, 28 February 2009

La lucha continua!

by W. Owl

I have to admit that up to the date of the Bob Doyle commemoration march in Dublin on 14 February I didn’t know much about the Irish Independent columnist Kevin Myers.
     The previous week he had penned a rather putrid article entitled “The devil might indeed have the best tunes but it is the lefties who easily have the best myths.”
     It was basically an attack on Bob Doyle, the International Brigades and all that they stood for.
     He argued that the description of the struggle to defend the Spanish Republic “as a fight for democracy everywhere” was a reflection of a “powerful and almost irresistible mythology.”
     This “irresistible mythology” that has taken hold “not just in Ireland but throughout the west” holds that “left-wing extremists are really frustrated democrats, whose only yearning is to make people free while right-wing extremists want to oppress people.”
     He turned his attention to Bob Doyle, who, he claimed, was “no democrat,” because in the 1930s he was a member of the Dublin IRA, who had a slogan that was put “elegantly” by Frank Ryan: “While we have fists, hands and boots to use, and guns if necessary, we will not allow free speech to traitors.”
     “Traitors,” according to Myers, were the “democratically accountable political party, Cumann na nGaelheal.”
     Is this the same organisation that in 1934 merged with the Blueshirts to form Fine Gael, under the leadership of General O’ Duffy? Needless to say, Myers makes no references to this.
     He then turns his attention to Bob’s membership of the Communist Party, “which took its orders from Stalin.” As regards the International Brigade, well, that was “merely a tool of the Soviet Union.” Of course the purges that took place in the Soviet Union get a mention, and the fact that three of the victims were Irish.
     Myers must have been disappointed to learn that, despite his article, the daughter of one of those victims was present at Bob’s commemoration.
     Frank Ryan gets another mention “as an IRA man, who along with Seán Russell threw his lot in with the Nazis.” The only wonder about that one is that there are people still around peddling this stuff about Frank Ryan.
     As with all right-wingers—and this is being kind to Myers—we get the one about the International Brigade and its “ferocious purges,” also its “ruthlessness to other left wing groups.” No mention that some of these “other left wing groups,” by their actions, may have been jeopardising the struggle in Spain.
     We then get some farcical comments about the Blueshirts, when Myers states: “Equally to have served with Franco forces, as many more Irish did than with the International Brigade, is now a matter for shame and recrimination.” I should think so!
     He excuses these men (who were so effective that Franco couldn’t wait to get shut of them) by stating that they “were merely doing what their church and many political leaders urged of them.” No condemnation, though, of the church or the many political leaders who were lining up with Franco, Hitler, and Mussolini.
     He asks why they should be judged more harshly than those who became a tool of Soviet foreign policy. He then complains that President McAleese hosted a reception for the four survivors of the brigade, and “if she has ever hosted one for the Blueshirt survivors, I’ve been unable to find any mention of it.”
     He’ll be questioning the German Chancellor next about holding receptions for surviving members of the Waffen-SS.
     In previous writings Myers has talked of the “treachery” of the Easter Uprising, his support for Israel and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, complained about the criminals among the Travelling community, and of course Muslim immigrants, for which he was praised on a BNP web site. No doubt that would please him no end.
     He has also ranted about single mothers “mothering bastards” in order to get benefits, ann article that allegedly got him thrown off the Irish Times.
     He has probably now found his spiritual home with the Irish Independent, which in 1916 called for the execution of James Connolly.
     A letter was sent to the paper defending Bob Doyle, but it was not printed. So much for press freedom! The letter pointed out that Bob was granted Spanish citizenship. “Bob’s ultimate vindication was indeed the verdict of the Spanish people themselves.” La lucha continua!

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