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.

Volume 27 (continued)

He visits Dublin again on February 10 1976 primarily for a meeting with the ITGWU executive about his projected history, which seems likely to proceed. He lunches with AC who fills him in on the way official SF has infiltrated and taken over the Resources Committee, as they had done with the NICRA. Smullen in the lead, with the glamour of his having 'done jail for Ireland', is said to be increasingly influential, and aspiring to replace Tomas Mac Giolla. He concludes the entry with a revealing passage: '..I notice on all sides the same impatience with SF that I feel myself. This claim to national decision-making without popular mandate is objectionable, and I think that there is an element of it inherent in the idea of a Communist Party with a special status in a socialist state, which requires serious examination, though it is not a subject I have ever given much thought to..'.

SF at this time, under the influence of Eoghan Harris supported by Eamonn Smullen, was attempting to upstage the CPI and become the recognised Irish embodiment of the 'international movement'. It is interesting that this is the trigger for CDG's implied questioning of the 'dictatorship of the proletariat' principle, the article of faith on which the 'international movement' placed so much weight.

In Dublin again on February 21 1976 CDG encounters Tomas Mac Giolla to whom he conveys their decision not to print Sean O Cionnaith's letter attacking the Provisionals. The next day he attends an ISM seminar in the Shelbourne, attended by SR. TR, SN, Joy Rudd, DOC, MOL and others. He considered it useful, but does not record what it was about. He records an encounter with the present writer, for once not disparagingly; it seems I was active on an education committee of the CPI and had suggested that CDG be invited to address a school; the opposition however was positively vicious, on the grounds the CDG was 'virtually a Provisional'. The running was said to be made by 'two Englishmen' but Jimmy Stewart backed them up. He also noted the presence of George Jeffares and Sam Nolan; the latter he regarded as 'extinct' but he felt that Jeffares' work in the past for peace might be harnessed in the direction of the six counties.

Then on February 23 he meets with O Cionnaith and Smullen, who argue that the CPI would never appeal to the masses, but they could with effectively the same policy. The Provisionals were a counter-revolutionary force. They wanted a devolved assembly in Northern Ireland with a Bill of Rights and majority government; Des Geraghty had disavowed 'power-sharing'. ISM was a useless organisation. They threatened that if CDG did not publish their attack on the Provisionals, they would take the matter up with organisations connected with the CA in England (meaning the CPGB). They parted hoping for better relations; CDG went to Sean Nolan who agreed with CDG's position. They were trying to sweep the CPI aside and overall being 'terribly sectarian'.

However pathological the situation is where there is one highly centralised Stalinist top-down organisational claiming 'revolutionary vanguard' status, the existence of two such is indeed a recipe for disaster, with each claiming to control broad-based bodies by the exercise of disciplined infiltrating voting machines. This was a long way from the situation envisioned in the 1970 'Freedom Manifesto' as published in the United Irishman, which, though flawed in its ambiguity regarding the IRA, enshrined the pinnacle of the present writer's influence.

There is a reference on May 2 1976 to a 'day school' run by the CA in London, addressed by CDG himself, and by Sean Redmond who had come over. There was talk afterwards of initiatives to get the Provisionals to stop their bombing in return for a 'qualified declaration of intent' from the British Government. There is a reference to '...Desmond O'Hagan has gone over to a group whose policy is being made for him by a Trotsky who works in Radio Eireann - I forget his name. RHWJ says he has taken the place that he once occupied as theoretical mentor of the IRA..'. This must have been Eoghan Harris, who did claim about this time that he had 'taken up my mantle'. CDG regularly uses the term 'Trotsky' as a generic for all egregious ultra-left people, as an indication that he regards them as phony and disruptive. RJ.

On May 27 1976 CDG records arriving in Dublin; he stays with AC; Helga is on crutches, as is Janice, who for the first time is described non-pejoratively. He attends a WTS meeting; it was to have been addressed by Sean Hughes, but he was ill, and it seems the present writer filled in for him. I have no recollection of this meeting, or what was said, nor does CDG record anything, but his presence can be taken as an indication that he considered the WTS, as it had evolved in the Provisional-dominated epoch, was perhaps worth a visit. By this time however it was in terminal decline.

The next day, after visiting May Hayes and lunching with AC, he meets with MO'R and the ensuing discussion is reported over two pages. The issues relate to the relationship between the CPI and the 'officials'. There is on the agenda a feeler to the Provisionals via Micheal O Loingsigh regarding a ceasefire, in the context of which CDG would have possible compromise arrangements raised in Westminster via Labour MP contacts. There is also the question of the 'officials' emerging as a sort of 'rival CP', and it seems that the CPGB is nibbling at the idea; an emissary 'IBr' (Irene Brennan) is involved, who it seems has stayed with Des O'Hagan in Dublin. There is a projected political jamboree in August which the CPI are refusing to attend. It seems the CPGB has not yet decided. The meeting continues with discussion of international affairs and the aftermath of the Czech events; according to CDG '...the developments in Italy illustrated the complexities of the transition to socialism in countries of even moderately developed capitalism..'.

Then on May 29 CDG gives a lecture in the morning, with MM (Michael Mullen the ITGWU General Secretary) in the chair; this is in the context of his work on the history of the ITGWU. There were about 35 people present, mostly 'wee sects', few if any from the CPI, though he records Michael Farrell of PD fame, and Eoin O Murchu's wife Helena Sheehan, who felt that Connolly was not severe enough on religion. On the 'wee sects', he records some of them favourably, adding the comment '..I don't think the Irish make typical Trotskies unless they come from the Orange side. There is some redeeming feature even in the ultra-right among the nationalists..'.

CDG then encounters Miriam Daly, who it seems was instrumental in having CDG invited to this event (Could it have been the Labour History Society?), and who urged him to go and see George Gilmore in hospital (where he was with a broken leg). Miriam Daly subsequently took a job in Queens University, where she was assassinated, under circumstances which have never been adequately explained. She was, I believe, supportive of the IRSP and Seamus Costello. She had been friendly with Joy Rudd and knew CDG on the CA network.

Micheal O Loingsigh looked in to CMacL's place on May 30 1976; the next day, Monday, he is to see Daithi O'Connell who has by then succeeded Mac Stiofain as the leader of the Provisionals. They discuss various possible peace feelers.

Thus ends Volume 27; there is a postscript: he notes that 'official' SF did not consult MO'R about Tomas Mac Giolla standing in the coming by-election, taking his support for granted. Betty Sinclair would be back next year (she was, I believe, in Prague), and no doubt active. Sean Nolan's health was failing.

Volume 28

CDG meets up in Galway with Fergal Costello, Tom Redmond, Sean O'Rourke and other CPI stalwarts who are indignant at the way the CPGB is tending to look to 'official' SF as their Irish corresponding body. At the dinner CDG gets top table treatment with Carroll, Kennedy, Mullin etc. He remarks that the event is one big junket; no-one listens to the speakers. There was however a speaker from Chile who spoke well and was heard.

Back in Dublin on July 9 1976 CDG picks up from Noel Harris who is an official in the ASTMS trade union, and a CPI stalwart, with a Belfast background that he regards the CPI - SF alliance as being the work of Edwina Stewart and Madge Davison (pejoratively labelled) in Belfast, who are the CPI activists in the NICRA. There are also indications of tension between Andy Barr and Jimmy Stewart on this issue. The CPGB activist Irene Brennan who has it seems been building herself up as the CPGB expert on Ireland alternative to CDG is held to be a 'very cunning young lady' sowing divisions.

Then in London on July 15 the issue arises about objections from MO'R to publicity by the CPGB about TMacG at the 'Communist University'; it seems JS in Belfast had said OK. Then it seems that the bulk of the Irish Socialist is written by Eoin O Murchu, by whom it seems CDG is '..favourably impressed... despite his (pejorative label) wife who wears the trousers... The SF did not like the situation and warned that they might take "physical reprisals" against him "not as a member of the CPI but as a former member of SF. So much for the sucking doves they represent themselves in England..'.

Eoin O Murchu had been active in SF in close association with Eoghan Harris during the latter's period of intellectual dominance. The circumstances of his move from 'official' SF to the CPI remain obscure to the present writer. At the time of my resignation in 1972 EOM was seeking to issue a damning statement but was over-ruled by the then leadership, who respected my integrity.

Later in the same entry there is a reference to a complaint by SF against the present writer, calling on MO'R to discipline him for exposing to key leading people in the Resources Protection Campaign that the left were at war within it, fighting for take-over.

This was indeed true; I had attended a broad-based meeting in Athlone, attended by ASTMS and other trade union people with strong technological skills, with standing and influence, some of whom I knew personally thanks to the Irish Times 'Science and Technology' column. It looked like the RPC was beginning to attract technological heavyweights. I was appalled by the way the meeting descended into a slanging match between rival voting machines on some motion, the purport of which I forget. I attempted to generate a knowledge-based compromise consensual amendment, but was shouted down by both sides. This was, if anything, evidence of an ignorant petty-bourgeois struggle between two so-called 'working-class' voting machines, in a contest for the ownership of an organisation which neither of them understood. CDG did not have a clue about this, and adds some pejorative remarks about the present writer.

On August 10 1976 CDG records a meeting with Kevin Byrne's father, in the East Wall, who was a Mellows source; Kevin Byrne was also perhaps an O'Casey source in that he as a city councillor was attempting to get the East Wall area conserved as an O'Casey sanctuary. I had put CDG on to this contact, some time back, but CDG had not followed it up, as presumably he thought it was 'RHWJ nonsense'.

There is a short entry on November 18 1976 in which CDG encounters some East German diplomats, who ask why Ireland is not represented in the GDR by 'her ally, Britain'. Perhaps an implied critical note on the east-bloc scene?

CDG visits Dublin on November 25 1976 and attends a WTS meeting addressed by Anthony Cronin; Cathal Mac Liam, Helena Sheehan, Uinsean Mac Eoin and others were there, but apparently not the present writer on this occasion. The next day he calls in to Mairin Johnston for some songs for the Democrat, and comments on the family, the girls all being approved of, with their mother as a shining role model, while Fergus, presumably assumed to be looking up to the present writer, is disparaged. He then talks to Sean Nolan and Micheal O'Riordan about the current still-smouldering issue of the CPGB, Irene Brennan and the relationship with 'official' SF. He remains in Dublin until December 9, mostly doing library work on O'Casey references etc.

CDG visits Dublin again on February 7 1977, visits libraries, discusses critically the present writer with SN and MO'R in the context of the Resources Protection Campaign; also it seems I have been contributing to 'Carmody's duplicated sheet', and am said to be 'getting ready for another political resignation', having assessed the current leadership as being 'bloody fools'. He accepts hospitality from the O Murchus, and warms to Helena, who has identified Irene Brennan as a 'spoilt nun', being one herself. He goes on to give a lecture in TCD on February 14, presumably under the auspices of the student society. The usual coterie are named as being present, with the present writer being regarded as an outsider worthy of negative comment. We get the first hints of the 'officials' move to become the 'Workers Party'. He returns to Liverpool on February 18.

CDG on February 25 1977 has some comments on Betty Sinclair who is said to be due shortly back in Ireland from Prague where she was carrying out some job for the 'international movement'. MO'R wants to get her 'dried out'. CDG goes on '...one sees looking back that the "official" "take-over" of NICRA was the culmination of the war against her, and that all the ruin has proceeded from that, assisted by (pejorative labels) JS. I wonder if we could get her to Dublin. She will not survive in Belfast...'.

There is a further letter from Betty Sinclair on April 21 1977 who queries a donation of £170 from one Des O'Hagan recorded in the Democrat; she smells an attempt at SFWP take-over. SFWP in Ireland are dumping all republican traditions. CDG reassures her that the Des O'Hagan who donated was a seafarer, not 'the bearded one'. Betty's experience of dealing with the republicans has left her somewhat paranoid.

More intrigue is reported on April 28: according to AC it seems a fake report of a meeting between the CPI, IRSP and the Provisionals called by the Irish Sovereignty Movement had been put in to the Irish Times by the 'officials'. '..But how did they know..' comments CDG, suggesting that such a meeting took place, and it was supposed to be secret, and that CDG knew about it. I recollect at about this time there was a move on the part of the CPI towards the Provisionals, and that there was some Provisional sympathy within the ISM.

In the same entry there is a reference to the 'hardline' branch of the CPGB, and an indication that CDG wants to stay out of CPGB internal differences, but he notes that Irene Brennan is said to be seeking to set up an Irish advisory committee with a view to bringing to bear SFWP influence on the CA.

CDG visits Dublin on May 4 1977. TMacG is going full time on SFWP. AC has been supportive of Raymond Crotty's land tax ideas, but has not managed to bring the ISM with him. On May 9 CDG and AC have lunch with the O Murchus, who apparently are seen as an important CPI contact. They are trying to pull MO'R for the following Sunday's Trafalgar Square rally in London, but it seems he is in Warsaw. They prefer Tom Redmond to Jimmy Stewart or Andy Barr. CDG sees TR, now living in RHWJ's flat below. MJ and family have by this time moved to Monkstown, under the separation agreement, with RJ and JW moving up from the garden flat to the house above; the flat is made available to TR on a friendly contact basis. Back in London MO'R in the end arrives, late, to speak at the meeting on May 15, but is noted as being 'not good, perhaps I'd have been better with TR after all..'.

CDG visits Dublin again on June 16 1977, noting in passing that someone had sent him a copy of a magazine with a photo of the present writer, Justin Keating and the Provost of TCD. '..He thought AC had sent it as a joke.. but he had not... RHWJ must have sent it himself..'.

The occasion was a small reception held for the launch of a directory I had compiled of scientific and engineering contacts in TCD who were available for applied-scientific work on contract, this being the objective in setting up the 'industrial liaison office' which I then occupied. Justin Keating was at that time the relevant Minister, and he obliged me by coming along in support. Applied-research consultancy, industrial problem-solving, and sponsored masters degree programmes related to to the needs of the emerging Irish-based high-technology sector, were a service increasingly provided by the College. Some purists objected to this, but it has increasingly been seen as a useful service, and I was a pioneer in the field. The fact that CDG chooses to sneer at this activity underlines the extent to which he had managed to decouple himself from his own applied-scientific roots, where he had once worked reputably.

The following day June 17 1977 he devotes a whole mean-minded entry to the attempted assassination of the character of the present writer, which says a lot about CDG. He had indeed succeeded in freezing me out from his coterie of admirers, by regaling them with malicious gossip from dubious sources, and recorded this fact triumphantly: '..everybody is keeping out of his way..'. Indeed! I had in fact noticed this among certain elements of the CDG coterie, with some amusement, but did not miss them.

On June 21 he meets with SN who forecasts dire happenings in the CPGB. Then in the evening there is a meeting attended by CDG, MO'R, TR with Anthony Cronin and Richard Behal; it is hoped to start a movement in the direction of a Provisional cease-fire. The Provisionals are increasingly 'people to be talked to'. CDG goes on a trip to Cork, Limerick and Galway, mostly on the historical trail. He comes back to Dublin on July 7 and works in the National Library. There is more talk of intrigue, with the 'officials' and the CPGB. He returns to Liverpool on July 12 1977.

In Dublin again on August 23 1977 there is contact with the coterie, and mention of an evening in Joy Rudd's place '..a Dublin Protestant and very proper..'. SFWP has been trying to influence Michael Mullin. He goes to Tralee, on the Casement trail it seems. Back to Dublin on August 28; the next day he encounters Kevin Byrne, who has been using TCD as a source of free advice, but now complains that everyone asks for a fee, allegedly under the influence of the present writer.

KB had been running a so-called 'free Dublin University' based on academics willing to give marginal time to speak on various topics of public interest, as many did, and continue to do, out of a sense of social responsibility. This had absolutely nothing to do with the present writer, whose activities were aimed at providing a fee-paying knowledge-based service to industry in science and technology. This remark is just another gratuitous piece of character-assassination. As far as KB was concerned, it probably was at the level of a leg-pull.

Later he and AC dine at the O Murchus; Helena is pleased with CDG's article in 'Marxism Today'; it seems '..she believes that things are decided on their merits..'. EOM sees the 'officials' as declining; they have 15 organisers as against FF's six, so that people suspect dubious financial expedients.

On August 30 CDG comes in to town on the Howth train in the company of Helena Sheehan; among other various intrigues in the CPI she complains about RHWJ in TCD: '..apparently science is his province and she is organising a conference that he wants to organise..'.

I have placed on record in my memoirs the following, in the 1970s module of the 'Science and Society' thread:

In or about 1977 an episode occurred which is worth recording. Helena Sheehan, now on the academic staff of Dublin City University, was then doing her PhD in the philosophy of science in TCD, and I was in the TCD industrial liaison office, at the science-technology interface, acting on behalf of the College. I made an effort to build bridges.

Helena was associated with the TCD Communist Society, which ran occasional political events of student interest. I attended one at which she spoke on the 'scientific revolution'. While much of the discussion was somewhat 'up in the air', I felt it no harm to encourage the idea that mastery of science was an important aspect of social change. So when Helena came up with the idea of an invited speaker from the USSR with a science background, I was prepared to make an effort to ensure that the event was supported by at least some members of the College science community, and I made this known. This however turned out not to be welcome; I was accused of 'wanting to take over' the meeting. So I did little, but I did turn up to hear what the USSR speaker had to say. She had presumably got him to come over via the Party network.

The meeting was not very well attended; she had apparently made it an event to which outside political people came in, rather than as a promotional event relating Marxism to the student and College environment. The USSR guest speaker (I forget his name) turned out to be a tired hack, for whom this presumably was a trip to the West as reward for loyal service. However I took him as a possible source of insight into current USSR developments, and I asked a question about the Lysenko episode, which had earlier been a crunch issue at the interface between science and politics. The speaker however brushed aside the question, on the grounds that Lysenko, being by then discredited, was not a fit subject for study in a science context.

In other words, the problem of the dialectics of the interaction between science and society, including the analysis of historic pathologies, had not been identified in the USSR, and was being simply ignored. We had here an example of the atrophy of critical thinking under Brezhnev. However I did not get the impression that any of the Irish Marxists of the 'high church' picked up on this.

There are entries on September 1 and 3 1977 which expose the mechanism of the attempted character assassination perpetrated on the present writer by CDG. I have left some signed notes relating to this in an insert in the original Journal, in case they may be of interest in some future context, but I prefer to pass over them here.

The next day September 5 1977 CDG notes that he had heard via AC that I had become secretary of the Irish Peace Group, which he claims in '..now undertaking initiatives first thought of by the ISM..'. So CDG calls in to Sean Nolan in the bookshop and asks if he '...approves of RHWJ's new position.. "the difficulty is lack of personnel" said SN..'. Well they have been caught once..'.

The Irish Peace Group emerged out of an attempt to set up a broad-based peace lobby based on a group of politicals and journalists who went to a World Peace Council (WPC) conference in Moscow in 1972, at one of the high points in CPI-republican convergence. It included Tomas Mac Giolla, Micheal O'Riordan, Betty Sinclair, Robin Joseph (then Secretary of the ASTMS Scientific Staffs Branch), Cristoir Mac Aonghusa and his son Proinnsias, Donal Foley of the Irish Times, and a few others, including Irish CND people. It had a tenuous existence for a while, but lacked cohesion. It seems I took it on for a while, and I must have attempted to make some things happen, but without much success. It was basically a postal address for receiving masses of WPC published material, which was of questionable value. Here was CDG intriguing against my attempting to develop any sort of positive role for myself on the fringe of 'high-church left orthodoxy'. I subsequently discovered that MO'R had been leaking the highly libellous internal character-assassination document he had prepared in support of my expulsion to journalist members of the Peace Group. I am not surprised nothing came of it.

On December 1 1977 CDG goes to Dublin, basically to work in the National Library on his Sean O'Casey book, but the timing was coincidental with a reception at the Soviet ambassador's house on December 2, where Micheal O'Riordan was to be invested with the Order of the October Revolution, and MO'R had secured an invitation for him. He heard this at the last minute via Betty Sinclair. It was an event for the Party leadership and their friends, and a few other key people, like Sean MacBride. Neither AC nor CMacL were there, nor needless to say was the present writer. A copy of CDG's Connolly was presented to the ambassador, which he autographed. But Con Lehane and CG (ie Cathal Goulding) were present, it seems.

This would appear to have been an 'international movement' event intended to assert CPI priority on that network, in front of some other observers. No-one from England was there, apart from himself. He has no comment on the event, except to express unease that MO'R is to be succeeded by Tom Redmond, whom he regards as lightweight.

The next day he picks up from Jim Savage that the differences between the CPI and the SFWP have been documented in a paper by MO'R critical of SFWP's methods of raising finance. Savage had apparently taken it up with Goulding.

There is a reference on December 11 1977 to the present writer's expulsion from the CPI which manages to avoid any serious explanation of the issues involved, and to add in the usual character-assassination spin features. I did have negative experience of O Murchu when we were both in the republican movement. He stayed on after I resigned on the militarist issue, and wanted to issue a damning statement, but was prevented by the leadership from doing so; it seems they wanted to retain ongoing good relations with me, and to accept my reasons for resignation in good faith. Later O Murchu took up with the Eoghan Harris group who acted as a Goulding 'think-tank', initiating the policy move away from republican objectives and towards support for international capital, welcomed as a 'generator of an Irish proletariat'. When O Murchu later made the transition to the CPI, under unexplained circumstances, he was made welcome and lionised, rapidly becoming a guru of the centralist political culture which still remained in fashion in the CPI.

In this capacity O Murchu spoke at a meeting on cultural issues, as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations of the October Revolution. He defended the repressive Zhdanov cultural policies of the USSR, which had led to the isolation and persecution of numerous globally-famous Russian literary and scientific figures, and had stifled critical comment. I quite rightly attacked him for this, pointing out that if the Party was ever to have any influence it would have to decouple itself from this sort of carry-on, and learn to apply Marxism creatively to specifically Irish problems. For this I was expelled, with a libellous character-assassination document being circulated by MO'R. This event showed up the total political bankruptcy of the CPI, and its inability to read the signs of the coming disasters, which were then increasingly apparent.

Volume 29

His next trip to Dublin is on May 8 1978; AC brings him up to MacLiam's; he is regaled with the latest malicious gossip about RHWJ, so mean-minded as to be not worth recording.

He works mostly in the library. On May 13 he encounters Noel Harris with whom Betty Sinclair is staying and notes '..the impossibility of getting the Irish question discussed by the CPs had been engaging us both, and I do not see much prospect...'. After a trip to Sligo, and more work in the library, and a few contacts, he goes back on May 20.

In London on June 29 1978 there is a reference to a letter from Betty Sinclair: '..the Irish question has become a 'Northern Ireland' question..'. and there is reference to the CPGB Communist University hosting Des O'Hagan and Eoin O Murchu, and the the "femme fatale" identified as Irene Brennan. In the background he notes the Times working up a war psychosis, and adds '..by making fools of themselves over Soviet dissidents the left are handing to the war-mongers their war aims, while the realities are oil in Mesopotamia and copper in Africa...'.

CDG records a visit by AC on September 19 1978 from whom he picks up that Noel Harris is going to Czechoslovakia and SFWP is spreading like a virus in the trade union movement while they decay in the country.

The frequency of relevant entries has declined over the years, with the developing crisis in the global left, and the ongoing de-politicisation of the Irish situation by the Provisional campaign. There is an entry on March 22 1979 which indicates CDG's increasing distance from the 'international movement' and from the CPGB; he describes the situation behind the impending split, and has nothing only abuse for those he regards as the problem, like 'horrid little revisionist' and 'cocky conceited little jackanapes'. He concludes '..I am afraid the demoralisation has gone a long way, and many of the younger people have not the categories to think with..'.

Then on July 1 1979 there is an entry in which CDG is critical of the way the Communist University is treating the Irish question, with no input from the CPI or from the CA of London in the associated literature, though there is a CPI speaker, balanced however by an SFWP speaker. The battle between the CPI and SFWP for international recognition continues.

I am beginning to see this as a classic petite-bourgeois struggle between competitive small businesses for a niche market, or mafiosi families battling for control of their patch. Both bodies are top-down centralist in organisational form, actuated by similar political philosophies, Fenian and Stalinist. The idea of a co-operative bottom-up system to merge and develop broad-based democratic politics creatively is anathema to both.

CDG goes to Dublin again on July 12 1979. This trip extends to July 21 and is not directly germane to this narrative, but it is relatively rich in interesting material, contacts and episodes, referencing George Thomson, Peadar O'Donnell, Jonathan Hanaghan and others, as well as picking up insights into the CPI - CPGB relationship. There is also a reference to the Frank Ryan funeral, which MO'R had managed to organise, with repatriation of his remains from Dresden. This latter event was marred by an episode involving the Provisionals, who it seems wanted to claim him.

'Jonty' Hanaghan is important among other things for being an early influence on JD Bernal in his Cambridge days. CDG had met him in 1935. He was a pioneer psychologist.

On July 16 he meets Micheal Mullin who it seems is treasurer of a Seamus Costello memorial fund. In the Peadar O'Donnell encounter he picks up about the latter's experiences in Prague, delivering a letter to relatives of emigré dissidents, who let their hair down in his company, talking about the need to overthrow 'those bastards' in the government.

On August 5 1979 we have a reference to Sean MacBride, Michael Mullin and the Irish Caucus in the US, picked up from AC; then on August 13 he travels again to Dublin with AC, meeting with George Gilmore on August 15; later there is a reference to Erna Bennett who it seems is acting for SFWP in Rome. On August 17 with DOC he looks at the Liberty Hall archives; later he meets with MO'R, from whom he picks up about the present writer's views on ex-nuns and on MO'R himself; the usual malicious gossip.

Note that this encounter with Erna Bennett would have been about the time she set me up writing a report for the FAO on informatic support for the genetic resources of the world food crops. Erna Bennett at the time was working as a plant geneticist for the FAO in Rome, and in that mode was distinguished and influential. CDG returns to Liverpool on August 18.

Volume 29 comes to an end on August 31 1979 and Volume 30 takes up immediately, extending to August 31 1981. We will share this volume between this module and the next, which will open up the 1980s, CDG's last decade.

Volume 30

There is an entry on February 9 1980 into which he transcribes a copy of a letter which he had received from Michael Mullin regarding his 2-volume History of the ITGWU. Daltun O Ceallaigh has been replaced in his liaison role by Des Geraghty, with a consultative committee. CDG decides to try to fight this politically, and to release them from any financial obligation; he is not dependent on the revenue; he is 'not for sale', so he pulls out from the project. I have since picked up from AC that the history of the ITGWU had been originally envisaged as a three-volume project, and CDG was glad to get out of the second two volumes - precipitated by Geraghty and his committee - having dealt with the Union's heroic period in the first. On February 13 he considers writing a history of the Protestant republican tradition, as an alternative.

There is a reference on March 25 1980 which gives some insight into how SFWP raise their finances, their spokeswoman being quite flippant about it, on an occasion when she was interacting with some CPI trade union people, who were somewhat shocked.

On April 1 1980 there is a brief note to the effect that he has written to the present writer, Betty Sinclair, Micheal O'Riordan and 'Sk'. He does not say what this is about. The context is the aftermath of the ITGWU debacle, and also the publication of the O'Casey book, of which I seem to recollect having done a review. It could also have had to do with my science column, which I was then contributing to the Democrat.

CDG visits Ireland on June 17-20 1980 to give a lecture on O'Casey under CPI auspices. There are problems about the ownership of the work he has already done for the ITGWU. He also calls on Maire Comerford. Then on July 28 it emerges that the reference committee for the ITGWU history included Joe Lee and Paul Bew, who had 'nit-picked' the first-volume material; he had attempted to write a popular history, and they had it seems found it insufficiently academic. The publication strategy remains unresolved.

There is a reference to the present writer in the entry on August 14 1980. I had it seems been sending a science column to the Irish Democrat (a peace offering on my part), and for the September issue I had done a critical review of the Goldsmith life of JD Bernal, with which the family had not co-operated, withholding the Bernal papers. I had read it and it was indeed rubbish, giving a totally false picture of the Irish war of independence, which Bernal had observed. I expressed interest in how to get at the Bernal papers, with a view to perhaps writing a refutation.

This in fact did eventually develop into my participation in the Bernal biographical team, along with several others, including Eric Hobsbawm, Richie Calder and Earl Mountbatten(!), which in the end produced an omnibus biography published in 1999 by Verso, edited by Brenda Swann and Francis Aprahamian. I contributed the 'Irish roots' chapter.

CDG however attributes this interest to my desire to 'tailor my politics to my pocket' shamelessly. He could not have been more wrong. There was no money in this for anyone, simply a desire to put Bernal on the map credibly, and to set the record straight.

There are no further entries in 1980 which are germane to this narrative, or, at least, I have failed to pick any up.

Some navigational notes: