Thatcher was ignorant of Ireland at the height of the Troubles claims state papers

ancavker - I agree most people just wanted to ignore events ‘up north’…while getting ‘upset’ about issues far away…let’s not forget the Dunne’s Stores strike..

Woundeknee the same happened in Auistralia. We were shunned by the Irish establishment, embassy and badgered by the police doing England dirty work.

I lived in New York for a good part of the 1980s, and I was active in a support group for the Birmingham Six. I remember how we were shunned by the Irish Consulate in NYC, who refused to even meet with us. Various relatives of individuals of the Birmingham Six came to NYC during those years, and they were universally ostracized by the Consulate. Anyone who contacted the Consulate to express concern about the Birmingham Six was put on a black-list, indeed there was some evidence that they had their phones tapped. (I stress I am NOT referring to tracing people making threatening calls). The Consulate also contacted the offices of Governor Hugh Carey and Senator Moynihan and told these great (sic) Irish-Americans not to meet with us. There were few lower lifes at that time than the Irish foreign service. They have a long anglophilic tradition, as even came out recently in the accounts of how they tried to derail Irish government policy at the time of the Malvinas war. It is a testament to the utter mediocrity of the Irish political and journalistic class that guys like Carey and Moynihan are remembered as friends of Ireland. They weren't, and neither was the Irish Foreign Service.

Dan: I was in Ireland every summer in the late 70's early 80's as I am every summer. And I can tell you first hand that there was to me no mention of northern Ireland, or the plight of the Catholic/Nationalist people in the north.It was different in the border areas (where Iam from), as they were far more affected than further south. But it was there, in the media, and among most Irish people in general. Any expression of sympathy or disagreement with British policies in the north meant you were a provo supporter. And I can tell you that more then a few Irish people in the south thought that Donegal was in northern Ireland. The fact remains that the Irish government and Irish people for the most part ignored what was going on in the north. They did however facny themselves as experts regarding the Middle East and Central America.

Knee – I was, and am disagreeing with your views that ‘expressing sympathy for Northern Catholics’ were censored, and say you are conflating Northern Catholics with Northern republicans, also that southerners were ‘ignorant’ of northern issues. They knew only too well the methods used by PIRA. The SDLP had plenty of exposure, certainly around the time of the ‘New Ireland Forum’…partisan claims to the contrary are, in your words, just ‘assertions’…those are my recollection, which I already agreed was by nature selective, as is your own.

Dan: Censorship is wrong, period. No matter how distasteful, the subject might be. The Irish people were treated like children by the Irish government in the 1970's80's. And of course we had that great "Irish" statesman Conor Cruise; now there was a man with mammy issues!

"WHEREFORE, unless and until it becomes necessary to oppress its own “citizens” and/or occupied indigenous populations (at which time diverse pretenses shall be put forth on an ad hoc basis), the british terror state shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble.”

I wonder what's the first amendment of Dano's british constitution?

Sad, no Libraries, no books in England.

I knew that Oloingsigh was wrong--I will accuse him of selective memory--not falsehood, when he claimed that " "The SDLP had far more RTE airtime than any unionist party". And quite fortuitously, some hours after my last posting here I happened to be listening online to an RTE interview in Irish with the writer Alan Titley. And guess what! Titley in the course of the interview spoke of working in the (English language) News section of RTE during the 1980s. He described the repressive atmosphere, imposed by the government but eagerly implemented by what was known as the Workers Party, a right-wing former socialist group whose leaders now dominate the Irish Labor party. But here's the point: Titley described how one day at that time he met SDLP leader John Hume, who complained about about being frozen out of the Southern media. Hume asked Titley "Do they even know I exist down here?" You see, OLoingish, if you know Irish, rather than just posture under the Irish language version of your name, it opens up a whole new reality and view of the world!

Dano is in his own brit troll fantasy world, as usual. The draconian measures taken by the british terror state to repress the reporting of the atrocities committed against the indigenous community has long since been exposed (it went far beyond the actual legal restrictions which were in and of themselves remarkable - I guess they were formulated under that "unwritten constitution Dano always raves about).

spot on about Maloney Woundedknee. Even though he`s now a problem for the same brand of republicanism because he keeps writing the truth as it comes to him.

But not a shinner Bobby other wise you wouldn`t have said what you did.

2/ Ed Maloney wrote (it's available on line): "When I started my life as a journalist working for Dublin newspapers the conventional view was that if you wanted to write about the Birmingham Six or Guildford Four that was tantamount to saying you were a fellow traveler of the IRA. It was the same if you wanted to write about the IRA. The reasoning was very simple and went like this: You had to be a fellow traveler because how else could you write about such people unless you talked to them like they were human beings and not the mindless monsters they undoubtedly were. And if you did that, then you must secretly sympathize with them. It was media McCarthyism Irish-style."

1/ OLoinsigh: You say "Again, I disagree…most southerners were completely against the bombing campaign." Who are you disagreeing with? I never said anything about southerners supporting the bombing campaign. They obviously didn't; neither did I, or many other members of Irish Northern Aiod.. So it's quite ludicrous that you would set up a straw man to "disagree" with. Disagree with what I say, not with what you invent. As to your claim that the SDLP "had far more RTE airtime than any unionist party", that's just an assertion on your part, and I think it's wrong. In fact I seem to remember some SDLP guy complaining about the unchallenged access people like Paisley had to the Southern state broadcaster, though it would be too much bother to me to go research that. But your description of state censorship is quite mendacious. It did not affect solely members of the IRA, and indeed few could have objected to the government's right if it stopped there. But it affected any and all who expressed doubts about the government policies, extending to academics, artists (Robert Ballagh, Christy Moore) journalists and union members. Even Tim Pat Coogan, recently in the news because of the initial denial of his US visa application, and author of a number of books on Irish history, found himself on the government black list. Of course, the government was abetted in all of this by utterly spineless and incompetent Irish "journalists", and a corrupt leadership of the journalists' union. An exception to this was the respected Ed Maloney. As as I think I am out of space I will write cite him separately.