Enquiries to RJ at rjtechne@iol.ie; Anthony Coughlan is contactable at his home address at 24 Crawford Avenue, Dublin 9, phone 00-353-1-8305792.

After his trip to Dublin, and subsequent cycling trip to Scotland, CDG returned to Liverpool on June 2 1966, to address the problem of what to do with his late sister's house and belongings, and how to reconstruct his life-style to accommodate living in it.

Volume 18

Paul had been to school at St Columba's with the present writer, and in that sense I suppose could 'pass' as a Protestant, though in fact he was a 'Catholic atheist' sent there by atheist parents, with Catholic family backgrounds, as a refugee from Catholic education. He was by this time well established in Cambridge as an academic legal specialist, and his contribution to an NCCL NI committee would indeed have been useful.

On June 12 CDG attended the Clann na h-Eireann demonstration at Trafalgar Square, which was rather poorly attended, 96 having marched down from Hyde Park; his old antagonist Callaghan was there, being friendly and chatting; Gerry Lawless was there, selling his paper, looking ill. The CA commemoration the following Sunday had 160 people marching down from Hyde Park, but there is no mention of speakers from Ireland.

Some attempts to organise a joint commemoration of Wolfe Tone had failed; the two organisations did so separately on successive Sundays (the 18th mentioned above being a mistake for the 19th).

Then on June 13 1966 he mentions a letter from RHWJ in which I wrote that the US-based Monthly Review was setting up an office in London and was seeking support. CDG however is dismissive of this, regarding it as a Trotskyist front, linked with the 4th International and the Earl Russell Foundation.

I had been a supporter of MR since observing its support for Cuba in the late 1950s, as a rare and worthy US-based rational progressive voice. It remains published to this day, being associated with the names of Huberman and Sweezy. CDG's dismissal of MR is the measure of the extent to which he was still at this time under the influence of Stalinist and post-Stalinist orthodoxy.

On June 15 CDG records a letter from Cathal MacLiam regarding Cathal Goulding's jail sentence of 3 months, in lieu of a £50 fine, which according to tradition he had refused to pay. CMcL was collecting to pay the fine, and CDG sent him a contribution. The next day he attends the celebrations of the 70th birthday of R Palme Dutt, the Indian Marxist guru of the CPGB.

On June 27 CDG encounters Sean Redmond who regales him with what has happened at the Hyde Park meeting the previous day, Sunday: the trotskyist 'workers group' people (Lawless and Dalton) had run a rival meeting and heckled the CA meeting, one particular accusation being that the CA was 'making Sinn Fein Stalinist', mentioning the present writer by name.

The dead hand of Stalin has prevented the development of any rational united Marxism-based organisation in Europe for generations, providing the basis for ongoing, painful and sometimes violent disunity among various radical left-wing groups, most of whose members in their own way wish to speak for justice and for the dispossessed. Police agent-provocateurs take advantage of this disunity, with a view to ensuring that it persists, so that bourgeois hegemony remains safe.

Then CDG goes to Dublin on July 5 1966, sets himself up with the McLiams in Finglas and then has lunch with the present writer, filling me in on the Lawless attacks, and I filled him in on an episode where one G..., whom we have encountered earlier, had created an incident at a party, which was directed against me; I suspected a Lawless connection. The next day CMcL brought CDG to a meeting on Rhodesia, chaired by Conor Cruise O'Brien; he noted Maire Comerford in the audience as well as AC and myself, and '...a young man from TCD, Dudley Edwards, made great use of his handsome appearance, assonant voice and Trinity Historical Society manner...'.

He '...met (again) Seamus Costello. He is obviously worried about Lawless and Dalton's attacks on Roy. He also thinks G... the villain. He said he was going to a C na hE meeting next Sunday. I mentioned the recrudescence of Callaghan. Like Roy he gave no reaction, so again I suspect some complicity..'. There are indications that the Special Branch were extremely concerned about any sort of left-republican convergence, and were prepared to brief agents to prevent it happening by sowing dissent.

I feel that the July 8 1966 entry deserves extensive verbatim quotation, for reasons which will become apparent: '...(Micheal O'Riordan) told me he had discussed with Cathal Goulding the possibility of bringing back Frank Ryan's remains from Dresden. He is going there next week for the 30th anniversary of the International Brigade.... he is hopeful of establishing a broad committee led by Peadar O'Donnell... I understand from Cathal (MacLiam) that Cathal Goulding is no longer the Chief of Staff. Apparently the position does not automatically revert when its owner returns. This explains why the IRA turned out in force to defend the "blue flag" at Bodenstown. They had so much greater strength than the police that to ban it would have involved the use of troops. The IRA thus acted a a kind of Citizen Army on this occasion. Every man had a baton concealed in his trousers. This was not Cathal Goulding's idea but his successor's, and he doubted its success. The fear is now that it becomes a matter of principle. The change of CoS also explains the discussion with MO'R..'.

I must say I don't recollect this episode, but it was an indicator of the fragility of CG's influence in the Army Council, and the persistence of the culture which subsequently led to the emergence of the Provisionals. CDG would have picked up from it an impression along these lines, and it would have influenced his subsequent attitude to the present writer.

CDG's Dublin visits have switched in their focus from Mellows to O'Casey, the book on the former having been in process of preparation for delivery to the publisher, and the O'Casey book having been commissioned.

CDG records on July 16 1966 an encounter of CMacL with the United Irishman editorial committee, which happened to be in session when he called. Tony Meade, Sean Garland, Tom Mitchell, Cathal Goulding and Denis Foley were there, discussing whether to print a reply by Tom Mitchell to RHWJ's famous 'rosary' letter. It seems they got quite heated. CDG's comment: '...Roy should of course never have raised the question which is entirely speculative since there is no sign of any Protestant drift towards republicanism..'.

Nor indeed will there be, as long as they feel they have to dress up political commemorations in religious garb. This is a 'chicken and egg' problem. Protestants must be made feel welcome in a united Ireland. I am quite unrepentant about this, and regard CDG's remark as pussyfooting.

On July 23 there is a record of pub talk with Des Logan, Tadhg Egan and Tony Meade, joined later by Tony Ruane. The latter's SF vision currently is to 'go in when they have an overall majority' to which CDG replied 'you ask the public to buy a pig in a poke, and they won't.' Tony Meade it seems has been promoting the idea of the Wolfe Tone Society replacing Sinn Fein as the 'political wing'. CMacL it seems has achieved some sort of level of approval or recognition by the republicans, though a member of the Irish Workers Party. CDG wonders how this would stand up if the WTS became a political party in its own right. Then on July 24 1966 CDG picks up from Des Logan the latest news of the G... episode, which involved a threat by G... that Richard Behal intended to put a hand-grenade through RJ's front window. This incensed my wife Mairin, who put her brothers on to complain to Cathal Goulding, who established with Behal that this threat was without foundation. CG then went to Micheal O'Riordan and demanded that G... be disciplined (it seems he was a 'member' of the IWP). Mairin's brothers also, it seems, took suitable action themselves.

G... it seems was doing his best to sow confusion and dissension among those concerned with the republican politicisation process. He was almost certainly acting for the Special Branch, of which the policy, like that of their colleagues in Britain, was to keep the left weak and divided, and the republicans engaged in military futilities, to the advantage of the ruling establishment. Any trend towards a broad-based republican left, with realisable political objectives, had to be nipped in the bud.

On his last day in Dublin July 26 1966 CDG met with CG, who enquired about the possibility of a committee on the Casement diaries. CDG '...had no interest in any secret agreement... it must be public and above-board..', and CG agreed; CDG also insisted that if the so-called Irish Workers Group had anything to do with it, the CA would not; he went on to describe the 'IWG' as the analogue of the '..Cork City anti-revisionists..': '...they were a society of vulgar anti-communists whose purpose was to take communism in the rear by asserting that it was not communist enough..'. CG then drove CDG to the boat, and went on with CMacL to a meeting of the WTS '...which some of them, including TM, regard as a future replacement for Sinn Fein...'.

The next day July 27 1966 CDG went with Sean Redmond to a meeting of the (British National Council for) Civil Liberties Committee on Northern Ireland, which was composed mostly of legal people. He laid down the law with them; it was not a question of 'collecting information'; he had been collecting information for 30 years and it was a matter of their using what had already been collected. They then got through several bottles of 1962 Beaujolais.

August is spent between London and Liverpool, on routine CA and domestic chores. In September in Blackpool, at the Trade Union Congress, CDG and SR meet with a group of workers concerned about the projected closure of Short and Harland's aircraft factory; there was a Catholic with a pioneer pin in the group.

In London on September 15 1966 CDG records meeting one David Broderick, who had driven Sean Redmond to Murlough; he turns out to be '..the lad who approached me in the national library some time ago..'. It seems Tony Coughlan was with him in Hyde Park the previous Sunday, Lawless being as usual causing trouble. Lawless knew Broderick in College, called him over, and asked 'why are you speaking to that f- c- Coughlan?'. Broderick was at the time a member of the Dublin Wolfe Tone Society, where he was known as Daithi O Bruadair.

The role of this 'Irish Workers Group' was clearly to introduce confusion, drive wedges, prevent creative interaction between concerned people having common ground.

In Dublin again on September 25 1966 he goes to CMacL's place and encounters a young CnahE lad called Cregan who had been to Glencombcille, and was hoping to get a job with Pye. Cunningham, of Aiseiri fame, called and took Cregan with him. CMacL and CDG went into town and met some Fianna lads, up for their Ard Fheis; one was Donal (Danny) Burke who had read CDG's pamphlet on Wolfe Tone; he was introduced to another who was a son of Seamus Mangan of Swinford, of whom he had heard through Des Logan. When they returned to Finglas they found CG in the house: '...he still cannot see why the British movement cannot make the same onslaught on Lemass that can be done here. This must be because he has no belief that British Labour can ever act in an anti-imperialist direction, and therefore all that remains is one Irish race...'. The next day he had lunch with AC; no fresh news, as he had seen him recently. Later he '..met RHJ, and we came back to Cathal's. Who should turn up but Tony Meade. He can see points that CG does not appreciate, but for all that is less decisive in his own mind..'.

The next day September 27 1966 being his birthday he lunches with AC, in somewhat celebratory mode, at the Gresham. He goes on: '..in the evening Cathal went to a Wolfe Tone Society meeting. He has only just been admitted to this somewhat select society, though AC is editing their paper, Tuairisc - I hope he doesn't neglect the Democrat! It is rather like the IRB and Meade says... it is intended to replace Sinn Fein, Cathal being skeptical..'. The next day he took the boat back to Liverpool.

He spends the next couple of weeks between London and Liverpool and returns to Dublin on October 12 1966.

He has lunch with AC, who regales him with the latest Lawless antics; meets Maire Comerford in the national library, then meets AC again, and Broderick who is starting a Republican Club in TCD. He picks up from O Bruadair via one Campbell the impression that CnahE is afraid that the CA would poach all their members if they get too close. It seems also that there is a legend in Dublin to the effect that CDG is a '..great friend of de Valera and never goes to Dublin without visiting him... How these stories grow! ONCE I met de Valera in Arus an Uachtarain..'.

As CMacL's parents had moved in, CDG stays with RJ. '...I had been telling Tony Meade that the Wolfe Tone Society was IRB re-invented. Strange to say, George Gilmore has told them the same..'.

After a visit to Ennis, still on the Mellows trail, CDG returned to RHWJ's place on October 15 1966, finding that I was away, turning up the next morning unshaven and jaded. This was the occasion of the 1966 Army Convention.

CDG notes that I was '..inclined to inveigh against the romanticism of this exercise. He said that there was talk of entering the Dail... Mitchell and TM were not opposed... as the voting repeatedly revealed. They had sent AC to Belfast ... to revive the Wolfe Tone Society there, which means he can't be at the Labour Party conference....'. He goes on to record a nocturnal encounter with Micheal O'Leary, who regales CDG with his then view of the Labour Party and Corish. Missing the boat train it seems CDG and I went up to the Brian Boru where we met Ned Stapleton, who thought the 'Poblacht' crowd in Cork were not capable of producing a political paper; he suspects the articles are written for them, by the brother of Cunningham the Aiseiri man.

This is useful in that it enables the 1966 Army Convention to be dated exactly. The November United Irishman should contain echoes of it. I remember feeling at the time that this was no way to be making serious political decisions, in an all-night session, without documentation. I was elected to the Army Executive, where there was a clear majority of politicisers. I declined to go forward for the Army Council, which consisted of Goulding, Garland, Costello, O Bradaigh, Mac Stiofain, and 2 others, who could have been Mitchell, Meade, or perhaps Mac Giolla, I am not certain of this. The sending of AC to Belfast would have been a Dublin WTS decision. Mairin at the time was actively working in the Labour Party for O'Leary. Ned Stapleton was an IWP member, an ex-republican from the 1940s, and member of the pre-IWL Connolly Group of ex-internees. He was in process of developing the traditional music movement. CDG had a high regard for him, being a usually reliable source of information.

In the same entry CDG goes on to note the funeral of Walter Dwyer, at whose funeral Seamus O Mongain and Micheal O'Riordan had spoken, as well as the local priest.

All the foregoing would suggest that CDG accepted the existence of a 'left-republican convergence' process, and regarded it positively.

In the October 17 1966 entry, done in Liverpool, he notes the outcome of AC's visit to Belfast, where he had met with the 'easy-going Jack Bennett' and established the possibility of getting the Democrat into the Falls Road.

CDG then goes to London where CA business continues as usual, until November 2 1966 where there are references to Derry Kelleher, RJ and Broderick:

Kelleher ('..formerly of South London..') drops in and they have lunch. He brought a message from Broderick (Daithi O Brudair) repeating the request that CDG should speak in TCD, suggesting December 4. CDG replies '...too soon but.. would consider March..'. He wrote to Cathal Mac Liam asking did he consider this wise, and pointing out that he would need more than an oral message. He goes on '..From Kelleher I realised where RHWJ drew one of the strands of his eclectic wits. Kelleher who is working for Gouldings Fertilisers after being in Southampton said "when an Irishman comes home he is treated like a second-class citizen". RHWJ had declared as a great discovery that this was now "realised" - a sign of revolutionary progress.

CDG goes on with further analysis of this, and concludes: '...it was a pleasant visit, with plenty of news of scientific goings on..'. This would have been the work of the Council for Science and Technology in Ireland, on which Kelleher and I were then working together; I have treated this elsewhere in the 1960s science and society module.

There is a reference on November 11 1966 to a seminar on Sean O'Casey that CDG had been organising; Jim Fitzgerald, then Head of Drama in RTE, was scheduled to speak, and there was panic at his non-arrival; it seems CDG was frantically phoning the present writer in Dublin all morning to get confirmation, and that I had some role in delivering him, which is credible, as we were on friendly terms. In the end he turned up, and the seminar took place; it seems to have been lively, with Fitz making the case for the current progressive open-ness of Irish society, generating English incredulity, most being obsessed with the image of dominant Catholic obscurantism.

On November 14 1966 CDG records an invitation from Micheal O'Riordan to address an educational conference in Dublin the following February. There is some uncertainty about the date. He then goes on: '...last Thursday SR was at the Civil Liberties and who should arrive but McCartney (a law lecturer in Queens, with NILP connections). He was expressing fears that some villains from Dublin were starting a Civil Liberties which was not a branch of the British one, and SR was speculating as to who it was. I told him that I had tried to put the Dublin republicans up to setting up an independent one and had tackled CG about it. Tonight I rang JB to get Fitt's address: "...we've a key Civil Liberties meeting coming off. Of course a certain view wants it to be a branch of London, and we have to be careful about the link with Dublin if we want the Trade Unions. So we'll have a separate six-county one." So that was good...'.

This is a reference to the seminal War Memorial Hall meeting from which the NICRA arose. It had come about on the initiative of the Dublin WTS, via the Belfast WTS, and prior work had been done on the republican network at the two Maghera meetings in Kevin Agnew's house; the first was to plan the meeting with the aid of the Belfast WTS, and the second was to persuade the republican grassroots to support it, while keeping their heads down. The second of these Maghera meetings was the one referred to by Tim Pat Coogan as having involved Eoghan Harris.

The role of the latter, who at the time was a somewhat uncommitted fringe member of the Dublin WTS, was simply to read the Coughlan script, Coughlan being committed elsewhere on the day, having to go to his father's funeral, and the present writer, who should have read it being the Dublin WTS representative, being inhibited by his stammer. Attendance of leading local NI republicans at this meeting was considered inadequate, and a subsequent broad-based meeting was convened, I think in the Brockereilly Hall, which was addressed by Cathal Goulding supported by Anthony Coughlan; I myself was not present on this occasion.

Speakers at the War Memorial Hall meeting from Dublin included Kader Asmal, the leader of the anti-apartheid movement, and Ciaran Mac an Aili, who was explicitly a supporter of non-violence, and had played an earlier Civil Rights role in the republican interest; also Professor Dolley of Queen's. So it seems CDG was aware of the War Memorial Hall meeting and was supportive of the initiative, which must be credited to Anthony Coughlan, who produced the seminal Tuairisc #8 paper from the Dublin WTS.

Work continues in London in the CA and elsewhere; then there is a long entry on December 8 1966 in the middle of which the following occurs:

'...the Irish Times had a report that Fitt was speaking favourably of the EEC. I had a letter from Art McMillan and mentioned this in my reply. I also wrote to JB and suggested a campaign to lift the ban on the UI so the people on the Falls Road can see the case against entry...'.

The next day SR reported on the NCCL meeting the previous night: '...there was a letter from McCartney reporting on the Belfast meeting which complained that "too many republicans" were there, and what was as bad JB seemed to be running things. Some of them had objected to taking up civil liberties other than political ones. Tony Smyth disclosed that when the meeting was announced the NILP had rung NCCL to ask if they were running it. They replied in the negative. Now they want Tony Smythe to go over as quickly as he can. SR was against this. He too was hesitant. Ennals looked on with a sardonic smile. One of McCartney's complaints was that "too many people from Dublin" were at the meeting - they were indeed - McAnally who defended Smythe after he had been bitten by the police dog that took a snap at Dr Browne, and Kader Asmal whose father-in-law is on the same EC. But SR had the response that there had been fierce battles on the Irish question for a long time past. We decided to urge JB to meet Smythe, and thus to spike McCartney's guns...'.

After an uneventful Christmas on December 31 1966 CDG turns up in Dublin staying with CMacL. In the middle of a long entry, which deals with McCartney, the following occurs: '...AC.. told me about CG who requested space in the Democrat and then didn't want it. "Then" says Tony "they came to me and said Goulding wanted to write in the Democrat but didn't know what to write about. So he asked me if I'd write it for him." I said I had heard that the republicans decided that no "message" should be sent to any paper but their own, and, pointing out that no question existed of a "message", expressed the view that they "muddled it up". "He always does" says Tony. I was rather taken by Tony's increased maturity, in style, manner and judgment. Then I realise he is now thirty.'

This would suggest that politically Goulding was somewhat at sea without a compass, while apparently wanting to encourage the movement to evolve towards the left. I am surprised that CDG does not comment to this effect.

The next day January 1 1967 CDG records that AC told him that '..the Belfast Civil Liberties meeting was most representative, and that Eddie McAteer was present. Also McCartney made himself most objectionable, and tried to prevent the committee being established, objecting that this would prevent the British NCCL from doing anything. It was generally agreed that it would not. AC added that McCartney blocked the anti-apartheid in the same way. He regards McCartney as a soured embittered individualist who must rule. But JB regards him as a careerist. AC dilated on the CG article decisions and expressed the opinion that the republicans always pull out of any relationship with the Left. It happens every time..'.

Back at MacLiam's Cathal remarked that he regarded Tony Meade as being consistent and straight in his dealings. Then 'to our surprise' Cathal Goulding turns up, along with wife and young Cathal, then about 14. They had been drinking; the wife was in gloomy mood. CDG was critical of CG's positive opinion of Dominic Behan, concluding that he was lacking in political acumen. CG wanted CDG to speak to the students, but the latter found it difficult to decide.

During this period it seems CG must have been regularly tipped off by his cousin CMacL when CDG was around, and CG often took the opportunity to cultivate the contact. Back in London CDG has an encounter on January 15 1967 with Micheal O'Riordan, who proceeds to rub CDG the wrong way by fraternising with Joe O'Connor, whom CDG regarded correctly as a disruptionist leftist element. Then on January 29 he records a well-attended school on the Common Market, addressed by JR Campbell, with about 30 people present, mostly CA members.

On February 9 1967 CDG records receiving from Art McMillan a copy of Paisley's 'Protestant Telegraph' which reprinted AC's article in full, and accused them of being a 'Romish front for the Communist Party'. According to AC, this was an ironical piece about attending one of Paisley's religious services and had been originally published in the Irish Democrat. Paisley republished it under the heading 'As others see us'.. The next day Feb 10 CDG learns that the WTS is sending KL to the CA conference, and that AC is coming.

From the following entry it emerges that KL must be CDG's abbreviation for Derry Kelleher; DK elsewhere is almost certainly Dalton Kelly (Daltun O Ceallaigh).

On February 25 Derry Kelleher and AC show up at the CA office on their way to the conference which is in the Conway Hall nearby. '..The attendance surpassed their most optimistic estimates..', but Clann na hEireann did not show up. The next day the CA Executive met.

IWP Seminar

This indicates that the left-republican convergence was very much still alive, at the level of mutual recognition and willingness to exchange ideas, and that CDG was supportive of the process. But in practical terms the choice of dates for events was unco-ordinated, so that mutual participation was subject to constraints.

CDG left early; CMacL drove him up to Maire Comerford's place, and then back down to catch the boat. After some reminiscences about her personal background, CDG notes that '...she is very critical of de Valera who told her "some of our own people were believing their own propaganda when I got back from America. Some of them still do". She said de Valera came into the movement because of Sinead O'Flanagan, the Gaelic Leaguer. He was always referred to as "Miss O'Flanagan's young man". "How did he become a Commandant?" asked Cathal. Probably through sheer ability, it was agreed. She has been analysing the Dail debates with a microscope, noting wherever there is a discrepancy and seeking what were the differences between the Dail Cabinet and the Dail Ministry. She says there are four meetings of the Dail that are not recorded, and that the anti-partition struggle during the Treaty period has been suppressed...'

'...She says that when she asked de Valera what was being done about the Government of Ireland Act he replied that they were in touch with Devlin about it. She claims that when the plenipotentiaries were in Dublin but before the Treaty, Document no 2 was put to the cabinet but not to the "Ministry". Whenever a more secret or select cabal was required a new committee was invented...'

'I asked about Alice Stopford Green and MCf surprised me. She considered that she had greatly influenced Collins towards his alternate Treaty position. She had backed Casement loyally, though her financing of the Howth gun-running was essentially a piece of English Liberal politics. Over Casement she lost her Liberal friends, while retaining some of the Labour ones. She came home to Ireland towards the end of the war and MCf then became her secretary - not a very good one... since she was always being "lent" to national organisations... the entry continues with an anecdote about Mrs Philip Snowden and her practical education in the Irish situation, and a further anecdote about Alice Stopford Green:

'...(She) asked her to read the headlines of the morning paper to her. She began 'Seventeen Auxiliaries Ambushed'. It was only then she revealed her true opinions. She rushed over, snatched the paper from MCf's hands, tore it, crumpled it and stamped on it. The inherent imperialism came out. MCf thought there were two reasons. One was that she was a nineteenth century Liberal who thought that British democracy would, given time, evolve to a perfect form of government by consent. Secondly her study of the decentralised old Gaelic State had led to a fanciful parallel between this and a decentralised British Commonwealth. I forgot to enquire whether she used the word Commonwealth which I understood to originate around 1921, from Liberal circles. Britain was the "mother county" as Tara was the High Kingship. She valued an enlightened Union, and the Free State seemed to give it, just as partition seemed a sort of decentralisation...'

'..She thought that Collins was "loyal" and never started up intrigues of his own. But for some reason de Valera gave Griffith a veto on everything. She had only met Griffith once when he came to see Mrs Green and was very impatient at her being out....'

'..We discussed Frank Gallagher's Life of de Valera and mentioned Tom O'Neill. "What's Pakenham's position?" she asked. I replied that I saw him as a British Government agent, a kind of unofficial censor, sent to keep an eye on O'Neill and prevent the most discreditable revelations about a discreditable period seeing the light of day as a result of a young man's enthusiasm. She laughed and agreed. "When Frank Pakenham sent his son Tom here to school, he used to come over quite often. He mixed in the kind of circles I mixed in. One day in 1938 he called us all into the room and said there was a war on. Then he said he was in the intelligence service, or something or other, and he concluded by saying 'when any of you talk to me remember that'."..'. Then CDG concluded: '...I told her about Oxford where he became a Catholic in hopes of winning the seat for Labour, his ignorance of Connolly, and his arrogance towards a student of which I was a witness...'

Back to Liverpool and then London, where on March 16 1967 CDG has a visit from Sean Garland:

'...Last night AC telephoned saying that there might be ructions in Belfast next weekend and that somebody was coming to see us about sending an observer... (this) proved to be Sean Garland. I had met him for two minutes once at Cathal's. He told me that the Republican Clubs, which had been made illegal in the Six Counties, had decided to defy the law and hold a Convention in the Ard Scoil Divis St on Sunday. They wanted me and Sean to go, as many British MPs as possible, and observers of all kinds. What were we going to observe? He could not say, anything might happen. I roundly ticked him off for not consulting us over something he wanted us to take part in, and added that I could think of nothing more foolish than for an illegal organisation to bring all its members together in one place ready for the authorities. I did not think we could participate. However I would see what could be done about observers. I asked why they had decided on this action, and he replied that they felt that if they did not do something they might as well give in. I would prefer the alternative course of a legal campaign for the lifting of the law, I said. He was throwing in his main forces without consulting his allies, merely expecting them to follow suit, and I was afraid they might split the Civil Liberties committee over there. He listened to all this quite quietly. He was here to get what he could, I presume, and an observer would be better than nothing...'.

The next day March 17 1967 we have '..Garland came again in the morning. I got him to tell SR what he had told me before I told Sean my own view. SR did not perhaps put things as forcefully, but his conclusion was the same. I then asked SR to take him up to Tony Smythe, and see what NCCL would do. They went up, and came back laughing. Instead of urging caution, Smythe had thumped the table and cried "That's the way to treat those laws! Direct Action!". He was all for the NCCL sending somebody, and later offered to go himself if we paid for the trip and his EC members did not object. Meanwhile we wired the Leicester group of Amnesty International which is studying the Special Powers Act. Johnson telephoned and said he thought somebody would go, and I phoned JB asking him to have these facts announced. Smythe was to meet Garland at the dance at the Porchester Hall (this was the annual St Patrick's Day event organised by the CA). Marcus Lipton was there, the Labour MP for Brixton and a member of the Connolly Association. "I hope Tony Smythe is not going to get into trouble" he said to J(oe) D(eighan) as he left... "...two weeks jail will not hurt him and 'twill make wonderful propaganda..". When speaking to Garland I adverted to the prospect that Amnesty's man would be hit on the head by the RUC. He replied "we can only pray for it". So these allies are highly expendable..!.

Smythe's EC agreed he could go, and he leaked stories to the papers, and arranged a press conference in London for his triumphant return. The next day, March 18 1967, after noting the performance of the ultra-left element who had infested the dance unsuccessfully, they met in the office. SR was to get an emergency resolution passed at the conference of the MCF. Contact with Belfast trade union people (DATA) indicated that they could not touch it. From JB it emerged that the convention had been 'cleared' by the police: '...in other words an illegal organisation had asked police permission to hold a meeting of its entire membership, and had obtained it.... Kelleher was in the office at the time and told us that AC was going. But he entirely agreed that we would be wise not to do so, as we would hardly be classed as disinterested observers, and would be fulfilling the purpose the republicans wanted us to fulfil rather than the one decided at our own conference...'.

Kelleher went on about how the Teilhard de Chardin Society, with which he was associated in Ireland, in the 'Marxist-Christian dialogue' context, had its premises free from Lady Acton. CDG's comment was '..the aristocracy does as it pleases, the bourgeoisie does what is profitable..'. Then later JB rang from Belfast to the effect that Craig had announced on the radio that the convention was after all banned, whereupon the republicans announced that they would hold it in a 'secret place'. JB was left with the problem of how to get the observers there, which presumably was resolved; in the March 20 entry he notes that there were 80-100 people present, including Betty Sinclair and Tony Coughlan. Six resolutions were passed. The preamble had involved the Trades Council, to which Betty Sinclair objected, as they had not been consulted in advance. '..They cannot involve organisations through individuals..'. In the aftermath Tom Mitchell was arrested, and when Smyth and Gerry Fitt went to enquire about him, they were told he was not there, though they could see him. '..The second in command, who is to take over shortly, showed visible embarrassment - and spoke with an impeccable Oxford accent..'.

Regrettably the record of this episode from the SF side is missing; they had after the 1966 Ard Fheis set up a Standing Committee to work between Ard Comhairle meetings, and did not get round to minuting it properly until the following June. It was clearly a seminal event. Yet its impact was already being undermined by Mac Stiofain, who claims in his memoirs to have been organising the Northern IRA units from the angle of military intelligence, in a role given him by Goulding. The process was riven with contradictions.

Routine CA business continues, between London, Liverpool and Glasgow; on April 17 there is a mention of how the Clann na hEireann people had been to Dublin to see if it was OK for them to join the CA: '..The idea was abroad that CG had urged them to "make use of" the CA and it was very clear to me that my man was completely oriented in this direction..'. The entry continues with an analysis of the current 'left-republican honeymoon' and problems of dual membership, with the prospect of the CA becoming a 'front' organisation.

After various events and contacts in Scotland CDG goes on April 20 1967 to Belfast from Glasgow, where he meets with Betty Sinclair in her office: '...She told me that she discovered that when she was prevented from speaking at Casement Park it was not the fault of the GAA but that the republicans had cold feet at the last minute. How she found this out was that on the way to Murlough last year Sean Steenson drove her up in his car. "I believe you objected to my speaking last year" she remarked. "Not a bit of it". The republicans had told her they would be delighted to have her but they had been threatened that if she spoke they would never get the Park again. Even when she got to Murlough she was left off the agenda and the chairman was closing the meeting after SR spoke. But one of the officials ran to the chairman. Betty wondered it a fight would ensue. Then the chairman, a local man, said "Miss Sinclair wished to say a few words". Such is the fear of Communism...'.

CDG continues on Betty Sinclair: '...she described the banned meeting, and her remarks which Tony Smythe had dismissed as "striking a jarring note". There were of course reasons: she had objected to the description of the six counties as a police State because it was to frighten people. She told Tom Mitchell "what a job you could have done for us if you had taken your seat - a real Irishman there." And she described refusal to enter Leinster House as "mock heroics". Then, later: '...at a meeting of the Civil Liberty organisation Billy McMillan had said there should be free speech for everybody, to which she replied "you stopped me from speaking at Casement Park". He blushed a deep red..'.

Later CDG gets to talk to Liam McMillan, Art's brother (and at that time O/C of Belfast RJ). There was talk of a possible trip to London in June. '...he showed me an exercise book in which he was endeavouring to get to grips with political ideas. He said "the Army would like to co-operate with everybody, including Communists, but there is a strong group of old-fashioned Sinn Fein in the way". He asked if I thought Betty Sinclair would co-operate in a campaign against unemployment. I said I was sure she would provided they did not attempt to usurp the functions of the Labour Movement. For that is the danger. She thinks they are all very suspicious of Protestants, and that the Protestants feel lost, not knowing what nationality they belong to, or having any history or culture. But he did not show signs of this. He is probably the most thoughtful and broadminded though the brother is more forceful...'.

Here CDG is getting to grips with the width of the culture-gap between the left-politicising Belfast IRA and the Protestant radical tradition which was expressed in the CP. I was of course aware of this, and was similarly feeling my way towards bridging it. He goes back across the water on April 21, after a brief encounter with Sean Caughey, who expressed a high opinion of Gerry Fitt, and was optimistic about the way things were going. CDG spends some time in Scotland and then is back in London on April 24 1967.

May 13 1967: '...Cathal told me that he had appeared on television on an anti-EEC panel and was in the midst of tremendous activity... he may be coming to the Trafalgar Square meeting to represent the WTS. He also requested SR to write to the Society in Irish, which they are using increasingly in their affairs. Whether they should do this before they have brought the Northerners in is doubtful. But the main thing is not to go too far. When the language is under such assault it is impossible to counsel caution in its defence...'.

I recollect this period; the prime movers were Uinseann Mac Eoin, Deasun Breathnach and Micheal O Loingsigh; I must say I found it a constraint on the process of development of ideas which we could at the time have done without. But it was impolitic to say so.

On May 26 1967 CDG arrives in Dublin and stays with Cathal, who drives him to RJ's place to collect his bicycle. Mairin is going up as a Labour candidate for the Council in O'Leary's constituency. '..she is candidate, election agent, finance officer and committee... Roy was as usual on top of the world...'.

May 27: '..Cathal and I... walked in the protest march against the Common Market sell-out. Sinn Fein had organised it, but if they had not invited the IWP they would have had nobody... Derry Kelleher was there and I understand spoke..'. After some comments on wage levels etc CDG concludes: '...so this movement is in a rather confused state.'

After some work in the national library and a few contacts, including Maire Comerford, this Volume 18 of the diary comes to an end abruptly on May 31 1967. Volume 19 takes up on June 1 1967; this time there is no hiatus.

Volume 19

On June 9 he lunches with AC and Alan Heusaff the Breton; they discuss the Common Market and the various fringe national questions, Heusaff being despondent. Heusaff wanted AC to speak on the EEC at a meeting (organised presumably by the Celtic League, with which Heusaff was associated).

Then on June 11 1967 CDG and the present writer set out on our bikes towards the north Dublin countryside; we encountered O Tuathail going for a walk: '...he has no job, refuses to emigrate... now he works for TM in the UI. RHJ says he is one of the best..'. He goes on to record that I told him I had '..often had a smack at the motorists in (my) articles in the UI, but (the then editor Meade) always cut that out..'. It seems that we had been discussing the volume of cars on the roads.

I have no recollection of this specific issue; I am not conscious of ever having been substantively 'censored' in the UI. I do recollect this occasion, however, and I remember distinctly trying to interest him in some theoretical ideas on how a State firm should be managed, keeping track of the management costs. I had picked up a feel for the problem in Aer Lingus, and had homed in on the role of management in the reduction of entropy, with the manager having the role of 'Maxwell's demon'. I subsequently discussed this substantively in a Physics Today article. I had hoped to get a discussion going with CDG around this concept, with which he as a combustion technologist would have been familiar, via the second law of thermodynamics. He was however totally dismissive, along the doctrinaire lines that 'there is no basis of a theory of management overhead costs in Marxism'. I felt the existence of an intellectual gulf; we were not on the same theoretical wavelength. This I think was a turning-point in our relationship.

On a subsequent visit to Dublin on June 25 1967 CDG arrives at CMacL's house, where there was a gathering of Wolfe Tone society representatives from Dublin and Belfast, the objective of which was to persuade the Belfast people to oppose the Common Market, and not to be embarrassed by the fact that Paisley was doing the same.

In retrospect I am inclined to think that this early concentration on the Common Market as a perceived threat was destructive, in that it drew attention away from the key Northern issues.

Still in Dublin on July 1 1967 CDG has a brief encounter with Justin Keating, who has just sold the land round his bungalow for £50,000; he regales John de Courcy Ireland with this. The latter had been let down by JK over payment for material for a TV marine programme. He had also been let down by his former pupil Rex Cathcart, who had become Head of Sandford Park school, and had persuaded him to join the staff, but Cathcart was never there, so JdeCI left, and Cathcart later was dismissed. CDG refers to Cathcart's '..valuable thesis on Marx and Berkeley.. JI is very critical of both him and JK for their failure to keep appointments or even reply to letters. He has however plenty of respect for AC, RHWJ and those who are still with us...'.

Rex Cathcart was a historian, one of the 1940s Promethean stalwarts; he had been introduced to Marxist history by JdeCI in St Patrick's Grammar School. Prior to Sandford he had been in Raphoe. Subsequently he headed the educational programmes in BBCNI. The Berkeley hare is perhaps worth chasing, in case it interfaces with what JJ has done, and I have done this; regrettably it is purely Marxist-philosophical, and has no interface with Berkeley as pioneer development economist, in which role he was of interest to JJ. I have summarised it in the 1960s module of the academic thread of the hypertext.

Then on July 4 1967 CDG records an encounter with Uinseann Mac Eoin, in which the latter expostulates about the present writer's 'hare-brained schemes' for various committees to do this and that; CDG comments that '...Roy can of course be mechanical to the point of utter impracticability...'. He picks up from Mac Eoin that '..he thought that the south side (of Dublin) was the revolutionary centre from having the intelligentsia. But he agreed that the classes involved were broader, and that the activists were the intelligentsia OF the newly rising nationalist small business people..'.

This indeed corresponded to my then view; it had motivated me away from dependence on post-Stalinist pseudo-Marxist orthodoxy and the Irish Workers' Party (which the Irish Workers League had by now become). I don't think CDG ever appreciated the basic weakness of the Irish working class as a source of Marxist organisation, let alone Marxist theoretical analysis.

Two days later on July 6 CDG records the arrival at about midnight of a group consisting of Tony Coughlan, Cathal Goulding, Sean Garland, Seamus Costello, Mick Ryan; there was a Fianna lad in tow. Much drink was consumed, and CDG commented: '..there was loud argument and laughter till 4 a.m.and the only value was to enable me to see what theoretical points need explanation..'.

.the only value was to enable me to see what theoretical points need explanation. This indeed was an interesting convergence; one wonders of what earlier encounter was it the aftermath, and what the theoretical points were. On this occasion regrettably we remain in the dark.

On July 13 1967 CDG records a CA meeting in Liverpool, to which 24 people came, addressed by Brian Farrington, on 'Nationalism in Literature'. The issue arose of preventing the sale of the Communist Manifesto at the meeting, which ban CDG supported, on the grounds that if it were permitted it would open the gates to Trotskyite ultra-leftist disruption.

Then on August 7 1967 Seamus O Tuathail in a letter tips CDG off about his projected visit to Eton in the context of his ground rents campaign; one Proby, the Bursar of Eton, being a substantial ground landlord in Dublin. There was to be a press conference in Slough.

The question of the editorship of the United Irishman is discussed at some length on August 28 1967, triggered by a letter from CMacL. Tony Meade has resigned, on the grounds that '..the paper is not taken seriously. There is talk of O'Toole doing it. He is not a member of Sinn Fein. RHJ told Cathal they are asking AC, and Cathal wants to stop him. Did I agree? I did of course and wrote as much. But my guess is AC will do it. There was not a whisper of this while he was over. He is however notoriously secretive. Cathal fears that if things go wrong we will get the blame...'. Cathal went on to suggest that the present writer was '..preparing his own exit..'.

MacLiam on this occasion was ill-informed. I certainly was not in 1967 'preparing my own exit', as the politicisation process was going well, the NICRA was in existence, and the Clubs were supporting it. Mac Stiofain was intriguing against this process; I was aware of this in general terms, but seriously underestimated his specific influence, as Director of Intelligence, with the Northern IRA units, which we were trying to transform into political clubs.

Then on September 20 CDG visits Dublin and stays with CMacL, enabling the foregoing to be clarified somewhat. Seamus O Tuathail is to become Editor; Tony had apparently been offered the job but had declined. Tony Meade is leaving to work on the Kerryman. '...Cathal was not pleased that Meade was leaving. He thinks he will drop out...'. Selling the paper is now a priority task for members of the IRA. CDG wondered why Meade could not be persuaded to remain on this basis.

There is much discursive material, mostly in London, on which I will have to pass. Then on November 24 1967 there is an extensive entry relating to an encounter with BO (Ben Owens) in Central Books, which records encounters with the police and alleged IRA bomb threats. This suggests to me that the British dirty tricks department were prepared to re-invent the IRA for their own purposes, just as the B-Specials were with the Silent Valley incident, in order to try to prevent the development of progressive Irish political republicanism allied to the Labour Movement in Britain.

The next day November 25 CDG records a Manchester meeting commemorating the Martyrs, at which Jimmy Steele spoke, attacking the 'New Departure' of Davitt and Devoy; then '..someone plucked the chairman by the sleeve and he called Mr Fitzmorris to speak. That gentleman then announced that the Manchester Martyrs Committee had no connection with another committee purporting to commemorate Allen Larkin and O'Brien. "We are Catholics first and Irishmen afterwards" said he "and we do not want our freedom given us by Moscow"..'. CDG then goes on to describe the meeting they had organised, with Stan Orme MP for Salford, followed by the Secretary of the Stockport Trades Council, and then talks by Tom and Sean Redmond. Eventually Pat Dooley arrived, with the plaque, which weighed heavy, and broke a chair.

There are various nuances within the foregoing episode which perhaps deserve analysis in the context of a detailed treatment of the history of the Connolly Association, but I don't feel competent to go into them now. It does however illustrate the culture gap between the rational democratic Marxism of Greaves and the Catholic-nationalist forces within Republicanism which subsequently fuelled the 'Provisional' split. The false perception of Moscow domination, though demonstrably false in the case of the Connolly Association, was also a negative factor.

CDG on December 7 1967 receives a letter from Micheal O'Riordan inviting him to lecture on May 5 the following year, on 'Connolly the Marxist', in the context of the centenary celebration of Connolly's birth. He replied preferring a June date, and mentioned that he was thinking of a special issue of Marxism Today, about which he was in touch with I(dris) C(ox).

The suggestion here is that CDG wanted to claim Connolly firmly in the pantheon of the international (ie post-Stalinist Marxist orthodox) movement, in the integrity of which he still believed, despite the strains earlier induced by the Hungarian events, and which were currently beginning to surface in the contexts of Poland and Czechoslovakia.

On December 22 CDG recorded that he bought a goose in Birkenhead for £4: '..it is not that I propose to be engulfed in all the nonsense of this absurd commercial festival. It is simply that there are no geese on the market at other times..'.

It is appropriate to start a new module for 1968, in which year the intensity of relevant recorded events, naturally, gets much higher.

Some navigational notes: