The Irish People, Vol. 1, No. 2

This edition of the Irish People has the headline ‘Takeover by secret negotiations.’ This refers to the takeover by General Motors of two Irish motor assembly and distribution concerns. This is heralded as an exclusive by the Irish People. Another piece on the same page discusses the then recent letter for former Secretary of the Department of Justice, Peter Berry, to the press ‘concerning controversial matters during his last years in office’ with particular reference to the Arms Trial. The piece notes this might have an impact on the forthcoming Presidential campaign and Fianna Fáil candidate (and later President) Erskine Childers and asks why a public inquiry cannot be organised.

The focus of this edition is quite clearly on matters pertaining to the Republic, with an editorial on a speech by entrepreneur Nicholas Leonard to the Irish Management Institute conference which notes that:

His speech to the Irish Management Institute conference in Killarney must prove an eye-opener to trade unionists and social workers throughout Ireland.

To quote Mr. Leonard’s words “unless they happened to be drink and tobacco addicts” old age pensioners are doing all right, thank you. So old age pensioners are expected to give up drink and tobacco as well as meat, cheese, bread and butter to fit into the economic vision of Ireland envisaged by the rich five per cent club of which Mr. Leonard is a member.

How well would Mr. Leonard’s social habits fit into the £5.65 aIIowed to pensioners over eighty years, or into the £5.15 weekly allowance given to the over seventies? In these two categories alone there are a total of 110,000 persons trying to exist in a situation where the price of essentials creep higher with every visit to the shop.

But there is much to welcome in Mr. Leonard’s speech apart from the eyeopening and audacious rationalisation of ever-increasing prices. His definition of inflation, for instance: “Inflation is caused by our choice, as a society, of the kind of social and economic structure that we wish to live within. This is not, or has not been to date, a conscious choice. It is the compound of many private and public decisions”. This we agree with entirely.

Another piece by Cormac Dunne entitled Viewpoint argues:

The civil rights movement in the Six counties, apart from its major achievements In that area, has been responsible for a remarkable psychological change among the people in the 28 Counties. The movement has demonstrated, in no uncertain fashion, that it is posslble for Irish men and women to cast aside religious and class distinctions, to unite in peaceful protest, and to achieve victories in the long struggle for civil rights. In short the people of the North have got up off their knees and given an example to their fellowcountrymen In the 28 Counties.

Des O’Hagan reports from Belfast on the Falls. Strikingly there is next to no mention of Official Sinn Féin in the text of the publication.

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