IRA Part 1 of 7 · 61-7606 sect 1-5 · p.180
Back to search
·
About this set
·
Irish Republican Army Part 1 of 7 61-7606 Sect 1-5.pdf
·
All files
61-7606 is the FBI’s old main file on the Irish Republican Army. 61 is the classification (treason / internal security in that era). 7606 is the case number. When the paper got too thick they bound it into sections. Joshua Smith’s 2015 release is seven PDFs covering sections 1–32, from 1939 into the early 1990s. A serial is one document inside a section (a letter, teletype, or clipping). The file list follows those PDFs, not the serial numbers.
The 2015 drop includes a second PDF with an embedded text layer for some parts (_text). Same pages as the scan; that copy is omitted from the file list. Word-level OCR differs and search may still hit both.
Transcript
20
21
If he had been planning a National Policy since 1921, is it not strange
that he did not say so,and indicate what it was,when the Rathmines' motion
present a Government cup to somebody once in a blue moon to afford an
came before the Ard-Fheis in 1925. Why did he let a sub-committee of men,
whocertainly knewIreland andher needsas well as he did,work formonths
onerous duties to'discharge,and actually enjoying an income of thousands
on a National Policy,while he studiously ignored itpreferring to devote his
had he gone and explained all this, how would he and it have been received ?
time to interviewing influential members of the organisation individually
Had the author of thre Constitution added that-when he was safely
and there trying outhis personal policyof entering Leinster House as a
returned to power and had ensured an increase of 331 per cent.in the
minority? And what Have himsell and his Ministry since done to co-
salaries of docile Deputies,with something much handsomer for the Ministers,
ordinate water,rail and roadway services except to let them drift since the
and fat pensions for the pawns---it was his intention that the Constitution
practical confiscation of the shareholders'property.What forre-afforestation,
should become the mother of twin babies, to be named Treason Bill and,let
reclamation, drainage, or the distribution of neglected land into economic
us say. Execution Bill, what would have been its fate, and his ? For such
holdings?What for the fisheries-our
"mine under water "-about which
they know as much as a Dublin plumber would about a Desmond seine-boat ;
political sharp practice;and,only that I do not desire to detain you unduly,
what actually for thereal slum problem in Dublin?What has An Taoiseach
1 could show that neither the Constitutions nor the Treason Bilis sponsored
by successive Free State Governments ever had, either within Leinster
his promise to bring the people some relief from grinding taxation when he
House or outside it, more than a modicum of the public approval that would
said in his address inaugurating Fianna Fail :
warrant their enactment.Only 50 per cent.of the members of the Senate
votedon theDeathPenaltyclauseof the OffencesAgainst theStateBill;
is one of their burdens. For what purpose is that large army kept ?Is it to defend the country
of these,only 17 as against i3voted in its favour and,of the 17,many voted,
not according to their convictions or their judgment, but in favour of the
Government.Manifestly,legislation so carried has neither public approval
bereplaced atoncebyaVolunteerforce,whichisreallytheonlytypeofforce thatcanbopetodefend
nor moral sanction, and'every conscientious Christian will see something
usagainst an outside power? Another of the people's burdens is the cost ofan imrnense police
more than poetic justice in the recent ignominious breakdown of this instru-
ment of tyranny masquerading under a Christian mantle.The repetition,
anarmedImperial guard.Doyou thinksuch a forcewouldbe necessary ifwehad again thepopular
these days,of England's old pretence that Irish juries cannot betrusted
if:
Considernextthelavishadministration andal those secretariestosecretaries to secretaries thatwe
to give verdicts in accordance with the evidence-that is,of course, the
policy atanycost?"
This brings me to the reference to External Association.I
Regarding
The Fianna Fail policy ever since--which is a blind adoption of the
that,let me say at once that no member of Dail Eireann, Government of the
policy he thus condemned, where it is not an aggravation of itis the
Republic of 1921, had ever heard of Document No. 2 or its External
all-sufficient answer to these petulant questions, which it has become all but
Association until the crisis in the debate at University. Buildings, Dublin ;
treason for Republicans to repeator fornewspapers toreport.Even atthat
and the idea would never have emanated from men like Cathal Brugha
riskletme askfinallywhathe has done to redeem thepromise he made in
orbe entertainedby them,exceptina desperate efforttogetout of themorass
regard to emigration--with the example before him that the Republican
in which successive visits to London had landed us.It had been stated
Government prohibited emigration in 1920?
previously from the same source that Cathal Brugha said there was nothing
Thebestofour peopletheyoung men ofvigour and enterprise,thefoundationon which
thewholefuture shouldbebuilt--arebeingtakenfromus daily.We arebeingbledby anermigration
Cathal Brugha who,at the debate on thatinstrument,challengedits advocates
be stopped."
to accompany him to the North and there dealwithPartition andthe
Who, one may ask, has since done anything to stop emigration except
theverybodythatprohibited it in1920.
Treaty ' and to entering the Empire-gave this vivid forecast of the
I must not detain you further with the rainbow-chasing used as the
manner of his own heroicdeath:
" Here," be said, " when we are in so strong a posltlon and England so weak, and with so
justification for the founding of Fianna Fail, or the empty promises which
many enemies as she has.nowmore than ever,--here we are asked to do suchathing as this.Wby,
have brought that Party to passing power and patronage, except to add that,
again and again,itsleader reveals in his tortuous way that so far as he was
lyingonthe ground，his enemieshowlingaroundhim,andtheirbayonets ready toplungeintohis
concerned,the prime object of the 1922 Pact,of the 1923 Cease Fire Order
body，thatman shouidsay，true to thetraditionshanded downtous,if theyshouldputittohim：
Now,wil you come into our Empire?he should say,and he would say:No,I wil not!That
as of Fianna Fail itself, was to enable him to lead his followers into the Free
is thespirit thathas lasted allthroughthe centuries,andyoupeople infavouroftheTreaty'know
State Parliament as a minority and, when all seemed safe, get control of it.
At the lecture in the Gresham Hotel some time ago, to which reference
diesoutinIreland.*
has been made already, Mr. de Valera renewed his‘laudation of the
There,is a complete answer'to the pretence repeated some time ago
in the Gresham Hotel thatthe Republican Government of 1921 decided,
again on‘External Association';extolled the wisdom of entering in 1923
as one man, that a form of association such as we have at prcsent would
the League of Nationswhich has proved itself by universal admission the
be tolerable'in other words, that cxternal association, or any other
association, with the British Commonwealth of Nations was yoluntarily
accepted by Cathal Brugha,whose dominating thought was whether the
one may presume,permissible to recall that, despite the most earnest and
English guns already trained on the Four Courts' garrison could be spiked
persistent appeals,only38.6per cent.ofthevotersof theFreeState supported
or taken as he and I and Eamonn de Valera parted at Republican head
the Constitution.Ifithadnotformedanelementin theballotpaper at the
quarters after. midnight, June 28th, 1922.
General Election, how many people would have troubled to vote for it ?
How can any red-blooded Irishman harbour the idea of association
1
Holy Land to convert.it into a permanent stepping-stone to Iraq andAfghan-
it embodied:that it provided for a President whose duties would be to play
istan, where her bombing planes are still more active, while she foments
recurrent racial discords between Moslem and Hindu in India as a counter-
move to the universal demand for self-government there,as shehas been
21
If he had been planning a National Policy since 1921, is it not strange
that he did not say so,and indicate what it was,when the Rathmines' motion
present a Government cup to somebody once in a blue moon to afford an
came before the Ard-Fheis in 1925. Why did he let a sub-committee of men,
whocertainly knewIreland andher needsas well as he did,work formonths
onerous duties to'discharge,and actually enjoying an income of thousands
on a National Policy,while he studiously ignored itpreferring to devote his
had he gone and explained all this, how would he and it have been received ?
time to interviewing influential members of the organisation individually
Had the author of thre Constitution added that-when he was safely
and there trying outhis personal policyof entering Leinster House as a
returned to power and had ensured an increase of 331 per cent.in the
minority? And what Have himsell and his Ministry since done to co-
salaries of docile Deputies,with something much handsomer for the Ministers,
ordinate water,rail and roadway services except to let them drift since the
and fat pensions for the pawns---it was his intention that the Constitution
practical confiscation of the shareholders'property.What forre-afforestation,
should become the mother of twin babies, to be named Treason Bill and,let
reclamation, drainage, or the distribution of neglected land into economic
us say. Execution Bill, what would have been its fate, and his ? For such
holdings?What for the fisheries-our
"mine under water "-about which
they know as much as a Dublin plumber would about a Desmond seine-boat ;
political sharp practice;and,only that I do not desire to detain you unduly,
what actually for thereal slum problem in Dublin?What has An Taoiseach
1 could show that neither the Constitutions nor the Treason Bilis sponsored
by successive Free State Governments ever had, either within Leinster
his promise to bring the people some relief from grinding taxation when he
House or outside it, more than a modicum of the public approval that would
said in his address inaugurating Fianna Fail :
warrant their enactment.Only 50 per cent.of the members of the Senate
votedon theDeathPenaltyclauseof the OffencesAgainst theStateBill;
is one of their burdens. For what purpose is that large army kept ?Is it to defend the country
of these,only 17 as against i3voted in its favour and,of the 17,many voted,
not according to their convictions or their judgment, but in favour of the
Government.Manifestly,legislation so carried has neither public approval
bereplaced atoncebyaVolunteerforce,whichisreallytheonlytypeofforce thatcanbopetodefend
nor moral sanction, and'every conscientious Christian will see something
usagainst an outside power? Another of the people's burdens is the cost ofan imrnense police
more than poetic justice in the recent ignominious breakdown of this instru-
ment of tyranny masquerading under a Christian mantle.The repetition,
anarmedImperial guard.Doyou thinksuch a forcewouldbe necessary ifwehad again thepopular
these days,of England's old pretence that Irish juries cannot betrusted
if:
Considernextthelavishadministration andal those secretariestosecretaries to secretaries thatwe
to give verdicts in accordance with the evidence-that is,of course, the
policy atanycost?"
This brings me to the reference to External Association.I
Regarding
The Fianna Fail policy ever since--which is a blind adoption of the
that,let me say at once that no member of Dail Eireann, Government of the
policy he thus condemned, where it is not an aggravation of itis the
Republic of 1921, had ever heard of Document No. 2 or its External
all-sufficient answer to these petulant questions, which it has become all but
Association until the crisis in the debate at University. Buildings, Dublin ;
treason for Republicans to repeator fornewspapers toreport.Even atthat
and the idea would never have emanated from men like Cathal Brugha
riskletme askfinallywhathe has done to redeem thepromise he made in
orbe entertainedby them,exceptina desperate efforttogetout of themorass
regard to emigration--with the example before him that the Republican
in which successive visits to London had landed us.It had been stated
Government prohibited emigration in 1920?
previously from the same source that Cathal Brugha said there was nothing
Thebestofour peopletheyoung men ofvigour and enterprise,thefoundationon which
thewholefuture shouldbebuilt--arebeingtakenfromus daily.We arebeingbledby anermigration
Cathal Brugha who,at the debate on thatinstrument,challengedits advocates
be stopped."
to accompany him to the North and there dealwithPartition andthe
Who, one may ask, has since done anything to stop emigration except
theverybodythatprohibited it in1920.
Treaty ' and to entering the Empire-gave this vivid forecast of the
I must not detain you further with the rainbow-chasing used as the
manner of his own heroicdeath:
" Here," be said, " when we are in so strong a posltlon and England so weak, and with so
justification for the founding of Fianna Fail, or the empty promises which
many enemies as she has.nowmore than ever,--here we are asked to do suchathing as this.Wby,
have brought that Party to passing power and patronage, except to add that,
again and again,itsleader reveals in his tortuous way that so far as he was
lyingonthe ground，his enemieshowlingaroundhim,andtheirbayonets ready toplungeintohis
concerned,the prime object of the 1922 Pact,of the 1923 Cease Fire Order
body，thatman shouidsay，true to thetraditionshanded downtous,if theyshouldputittohim：
Now,wil you come into our Empire?he should say,and he would say:No,I wil not!That
as of Fianna Fail itself, was to enable him to lead his followers into the Free
is thespirit thathas lasted allthroughthe centuries,andyoupeople infavouroftheTreaty'know
State Parliament as a minority and, when all seemed safe, get control of it.
At the lecture in the Gresham Hotel some time ago, to which reference
diesoutinIreland.*
has been made already, Mr. de Valera renewed his‘laudation of the
There,is a complete answer'to the pretence repeated some time ago
in the Gresham Hotel thatthe Republican Government of 1921 decided,
again on‘External Association';extolled the wisdom of entering in 1923
as one man, that a form of association such as we have at prcsent would
the League of Nationswhich has proved itself by universal admission the
be tolerable'in other words, that cxternal association, or any other
association, with the British Commonwealth of Nations was yoluntarily
accepted by Cathal Brugha,whose dominating thought was whether the
one may presume,permissible to recall that, despite the most earnest and
English guns already trained on the Four Courts' garrison could be spiked
persistent appeals,only38.6per cent.ofthevotersof theFreeState supported
or taken as he and I and Eamonn de Valera parted at Republican head
the Constitution.Ifithadnotformedanelementin theballotpaper at the
quarters after. midnight, June 28th, 1922.
General Election, how many people would have troubled to vote for it ?
How can any red-blooded Irishman harbour the idea of association
1
Holy Land to convert.it into a permanent stepping-stone to Iraq andAfghan-
it embodied:that it provided for a President whose duties would be to play
istan, where her bombing planes are still more active, while she foments
recurrent racial discords between Moslem and Hindu in India as a counter-
move to the universal demand for self-government there,as shehas been