“Never language.” Which mikes you wonder wnt aort of…”

Never language.” Which mikes you wonder wnt aort of method for assessing matlomality they ose around the “Irish Times". There you have Holland, now, with Litele to speak of in the way of literature, yet nobedy hag been casting Switzerland, too, seam te be holding little te boast of by way of literature.

So, you don't need a Literature to be a mation, Wheat about « language?

still get avey with calling thesaelves a mition, English ig the most. widely spoken language dn Britain, the U.5., Australia and Canada, yet nobody sugeats thet they're all one ontion -althoagh people sometimes suggest that because English is the dominant everyday langeage “in Ireland, we are therafore British, Funny psychtlogy at worky chairw Se, a set of people can still con-%q Stitute 2 mation without having a not able Literature and without speaking one, Gmique language. As Leon Trotsky put it: "...the.Svisa people, through their histerical cemection, feel themselves, despite different Langwages and religion, as one nation. i abstract criterion is not decisive in feelings and their impulses. But that also is not determined accidentally but rather by thy general conditions."

Smith, in his scholarly study, Theories o¢_K , writes: "...there is no doubt that Linguistic homogeneity and distinctiveness is an invaluable vehicle and symbol of nationhood and ration=formation; bat it would be mlsleading ta consider it either a sefficlent OF a mecessary mark of the ethnic mation," | (p220} CAERLIC LEAGUE Thus; it is wrong to regard the Irish Language or a hichly developed literature ag @s9ential to Irish mationality, Beth our language abd our literature have tean experiencing Lean times for many decades new, yet Lrish Hationality has, in tha Last eight Wears, asserted ttself with renewed vigour dn the stragole against Drip ish eccupation of the Six Gounties.

Hut Gt is troe that the strucele to revive the Orish language and to develop the Literature of the country tends to strengthen amd eohance ous nationality generally, and, in particular, to giva ¢ boost to. the more ovartly political aspects of the struggle against British domination [and vice verga). Thig emerges very clearly from an examination of the peried leading um to 1916 and the War of Independence. Pearse wrote kn 191d: "I have said ugain-and again°that when the Garlic Ledgie was founded in 1699 the Irish revolution began."

Six cut of the sevet signatories to the 1916 Proclamation wore ormbers of the coiste goo of the Gaelic League. Gomolis's attitude was described in an interview which bis dauchter, Kora Qanmally-O' frion, gave to. the “Irish Times" (24/4/76): "One dav her father told ber and her sister Mona that he wat talkie them te a place where they would learn their native lanmuage. lic teak tham te a Gaelic League class eff High Street... could read Irish but did not attempt to apenk it. 1skbp: ALL YRaTa ss FAULT Elaewhere, GonmolLly condemned thase whe, Like todays British. & Drish fomimigt Organisation, Selieve that linperlaliget eppressian and cultural domingtjan somehew belp the cause of Sacialisn, He wate that: "...oations which submit cerned Poo pik Opposed te discreet bebind-closeddoors lobbying, Civil Libertics Acciae fein in LoD 2 A daree fweting of the do February was wilitant and far-reaching in its condetmatianer Garda brutality. Hilitants mst boild an such meetings, affering porspactives far éittending inte jodat action with other pectore of society, axtend= ing wetion tt other-collewes, amd takleg up the Tight whidein the studcot representative bodies, Some ota Mo mt Maly epeole me at the Trishwnmen Onited meeting on Censorship in-the Mansion Hews on February 24th placed the banning af ‘Spare Bib? in the contest of the growth of gtate repression, as did the fact ef an TW nilitast being held under the etergency lava for putting up posters about the meeting, The women's movement can play ab impartant rele in bringing its weight and emergigs toe bear in the atriuggla against repression, | T rr Peoor Consai: :

Early in its campalen the Morray Lefance Ganmitteer [HT) made appiro— aches tetany organiaations and individuals for suppart for its demends.

to cgngquest of Taces which abandon their language in favour of that of an oppressor da eo.,.from a slavish and I cringing spirit...which canmot exist side by side with the revolrtionarr ‘ides. As with the Gaelic Leagim,ac es too with the Irish Literary Revival, Yeats, a8 be lay dying, asked himseLfi (id that play of mine send out’ GartPain mn the English shoe?! Canor ‘Cruise O'Brien, that Sad representative ef the most clapped-aut elements gt the Irish petit-bourgeaisie; builds oo thie in order te puta Jarge share -of- the responsibility for 1916 an Teatsa's Cathlern Ni Houllhan. The reasan for this exaggeration is to justify bia om acts of censorship today (when waa the Last time you heard "Helly of Killane™ on Radia Eireann’)

I wouldn't go along with O'Brien's exaggeration, but I do beligve that the Literary Reviwal enhanced the sense of separate identity amang the Irish peaple; — in Treteky's words: “the histerical consciousnnss, their feel| ings and their idpolses.™ This fis as valid for the Irish people as it is for Hlacks in the USA te be inepired by the works of James Baldwin, Tt is wrong of Antheny Cronin (whe ls usually more perspicacious than this) to upgrade the development of our literature at the expense of the Lanelage foretit, Both hare a substantial cantribution to itake, aot least te one anotle:, an the sooner everpane in bath camps (if you can describe them as separate camps) teglises it. the bether.

Indeed, Craniols proposition becomes slightly ludicraus when you recall that a subetantial propartion of our conten piracy Literatur in in Irish — samething that would onver bave happened without the language movement. Hr Cronin shewld also remember that there are (ther arta besides Literature, 148 SEANHAC S0LACHT Tt mast seize the opportunities pow opened up an the questian af brutality; ani it mast appraach these organisat— hom again. It dé mot sa,guch.4 fatter of getting a speaker frat,aay, the -ICCL on an MDG platform, aé to get the dem abd9 taken up yithin the metlberghip af such organisations, Nati Associa tior am Orngtiigatlong: On the basis of the Testlutions passed at the last natianal conference of HATO, militants should fight for support for action agalat ataute repression, as «1s asucersafully done by the Limerick Anti-Hepreasian Gemmitter on the question af the Murrays and capital punishment. Republicans and oe tr: Far the Provos te merely permit individtal fenbers te be involved in camp— signa euch as the Hurray Defence camp alien dé net enough, Militant mpohlicang maet fight far the committient of Heir organisation te such campaigns, 4t Lege] and national level. snd-botk | republican and socialist arganisationg mgt gee the contrality af interning in all sectors of political strugzle te radee the demands that can begin a deteroingd and concerted fightback.

La. MACKAY

Republi the domand that dens rama: - for questioning in Stateteots should be signed mot aay : : all conteds id:

Six Counties and the Twenty- oy the parade charged fut alse: br a suppression, intinidation and violence Tn thy Trede Unions: On the ono directed against the anti-andonist hatd, workers have mobilised aesdost workers. in the Werth is by oo means repressive laws, bath through trade the whele of Oritish strategy. On the wien badies and at Locg] and facterr contrary, the suppression of republican level, On the other hand, the various amd socialist forces in the 24 Counties trade unions and the ICTY have passed is an essential part of Dritish policy, reaplitions againgt repression, buat The revolt of the Catholic working tives resolutions have oot been trans class in the Six Counties has com up fortied into uttioo, The task af rey against the linits imposod by its sep- Slutionarles and all those within the aration from the Southermwrking class. labtur fionment committed to. class British imperialism is-intent upon for struggle Must be to work to generalise ther isolating and suppressing that SPotitatedns expressitns of resistance rewolt - and that entails the thorough by workers, and must be to press for represaion of anti-imperialist forces trade unien-sponsored meetings, marches, in the South, It is im the context of demonstrations, and other iitiatives, the centrality of Southern state mp- One example af how to raise the questression in British strategy that anti- ion = ek whee - to trade imiang ise ike Marre inmperisgliste mugt seize the a uni Call Oe eben relation to brated michel tn cimuntictiee aie apt _ While it would be mechanical co bel- 41dtants should push for a. trade 1 : : rs to visit Portlapias; the reality of the laws has become inve that a eimple get of demands in union fact-finding tlgsion ta yieit more and more apparent to many who wre Telation to the repression can be ani- os Pe lacns. wiate. te. wand dana inclined to diagies their importance, forly presented in 41] secters af pol- first-hand accounts of thw «Legatbetween the Depirtrent ar Justice ead #dtabligh what qr the demande wite “The Irish Gouncil for Ciyil Liber- iver the last year, the relationshi Tr arte t PA the legal profession has deteriorated. ean tal the struggle against repression Tdeg! So one tan be under any diLusIn the view of macy lawere the methods forward. dons that the bureaucratic leadersbip of the state in securing convictions 4s we have Mentioned, the demands of of the JOGL wishes to advance politichave threatened. te expose the whole the Hurray. Defornos Committee gaia The al devacuis through direct action, They cancept of Legal "justice™ in Irish “foros, On the erounds af the allegations bave on exclugively parliamentarian saciety. In rapid succession, Hoey, of police torture in the Murrays case, apd Jegalistic perspectim. All the Madden and Stenson have been released, and with the precedent of Hanan Stengon's ame, Mati Members sid supporters of Re ee eee a eee release, the domant must be te FREE THE the TiL do not soe parliament and the impliciely a rejection of the more MIARAYS; bat this demand should mor caurts 29 the eoly areas where effort imorthodex!" methods af achleving con exclads drawing attention to the fact should fe directed. Et is therefore evidence abd other Vunerthedox!t the state! s repressivyn policies, us Six. tical prisoners -.Karth, South and in Britain — are -being subjected ra inhuman and degrading treatment.

What ts new abtut this situation ig not that it exists, but that eoveromnt denials that lt existe are soy received with overwtelming disbelief, As a result, the governmental strategies that lig behind the wae of brutality arm threatened with a seatback, last year, the Leineter House. govermient hijacked Frank Stagg!s. funeral, hanned the Prove 1316 demo, brought in haw represaive laws. In Junos, the Hurrays werd sentenced to death, convleted on the basis of confessions which they asserted were extracted by torture; and the Morray Oefance CooLttects demands found Little aupport dn the face of the onslaught of state Teprassion, FIGHTING BACK Since then, th: climate has changed.

Ieapite the hostile environment, the Murray Defence Committee has maintained an energetic campaign, winning significant international support; the death sentence no longer hangs over vietlons. Such methods have backfired to. the exhent that Mr tooney saw Fit to advise Gardai publicly agaimet being Toversealoug', OPPORTUNITIES Then cam: the "Irish Times" articles. The details were net mew: what was new was that a trespectable! bourgedis daily 2paper had published tho material, He The potential for'a real fightback afainst state repression is greater now that it has mean for some tim, In Tarticular, the detands of the Murray Defence Comittee gain mow force ain relation to police drutalitr, State repression has not been ‘halted or pushed buck, but governiirot strategy hod received a jolt ~ g jolt thet can be Erangfermed inte a major sethock noe just for the Leinster Hoagse: government bat for British strategy as will, ‘The pee en eee r ‘ jong of: brutality, itical gtrugele, it is important to that they were conpicted without jury trigl: especially in the context of the revelationg regarding tinmeerprint procedures, w mgt demand AN EXD To SDK=JURY COURTS. speed oe ty da we have anid on many occasions in the past, we oppose the Forcible Entry dict, the Offences Againat ‘the State Acts, the Oriningl Law Jurisdiction dot etc, ate, And we demand AN EXD TO ADL REPRESSIVE LiWh. And the farticul= ab aspect of the yvart array of such laws that is thrawn inte clearest focus by the revelations sbout Garda brutality ig the 7-Day Detention provis— don. It is quite ebyious to Large funbers or people that fow could beep up tele resistance te signing a fake tanfession after such a period of intimidation apd torture. 30, oe damnd AM EMD TO 7-DAY DETENTION; snd we add lawyorj ate that a lavyer or other tndependeot withess should be present during interrogation, It-de by raisins such domandsy as witely as pegelble that wa «an aid the growth of conciousness as to the actual raality of the ropressive laws of tha state, important to find wuys of placiny beface the supporters of the Toc the Perepactive of public action against Garda technical bureau, §t, John! ry : ee "Heavy Gang” ix bpsed. John's Bead, Kingsbridge, Dublin, where the nuclems of aha

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