Blazes Boylan

In the last issue we reported on the 26-year-old Irish American woman from Long Island, Annie McCarrick, who had mysteriously disappeared from her Dublin home on March 26.

Although her parents, John and Nancy, spent weeks in Ireland looking for clues, they were unable to find any trace of their daughter despite an enormous countrywide manhunt.

Subsequent reports indicate that the private detective hired by the McCarricks was being stonewalled by the Irish police, and also that the police failed to follow up on reports of a possible sighting on June 20, when Annie’s mother was once more in Ireland, and only 20 miles from where her daughter was supposedly spotted.

The McCarricks have started a letter-writing campaign to various Irish and American politicians looking for help in pursuing the case, and on July 24 over 1,000 friends of the family gathered at a rally near their home in Blue Point, New York, to coordinate the campaign. John McCarrick spoke for half an hour on a live radio show in Ireland, and the switchboard was flooded with calls from the public after the broadcast. The McCarricks intend to follow up on each phone call.

Following the broadcast of a television documentary in Ireland claiming that members of the British Army were responsible for making some of the bombs used in the murderous spree in Dublin and Monaghan in 1974, killing 33 people and injuring hundreds, the outlawed Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) has admitted that it masterminded the attacks.

The Yorkshire television production, First Tuesday, claimed that after the bombings the Irish police had a list of suspects and other information pertinent to the investigation which they never pursued. The list was allegedly passed on to the RUC in the North, who never questioned any of the Loyalists under suspicion.

Merlyn Rees, the Northern Ireland Secretary in 1974, said in the program that there had been an SAS unit which had been “out of control” at the time. Irish politicians and relatives of the bomb victims called for an investigation into the lack of investigation, as it were.

Then the UVF jumped into the fray, claiming that they had acted alone in carrying out the attacks, the biggest single act of violence in Ireland or England since the fighting began.

The loyalist paramilitary group sent a typed, unsigned statement to Ulster Television, contradicting many allegations made in the program, First Tuesday. The statement rejected the allegations of collusion with the British Security forces, which it said were “mischievously constructed” in the program, and warned that the program was “tempting fate to a dangerous degree” by implying that the UVF was incapable of such an act on its own.

The statement said the UVF was “stating clearly and without reservation that the entire operation was, from its inception to its successful conclusion, planned and carried out by our volunteers aided by no outside bodies.”

Given the backdrop of what was taking place in Northern Ireland when the UVF was bombing Republican targets at will, either the researchers decided to take poetic license to the limit or the truth was being twisted by knaves to make a trap for the fools.

The British government has been asked to begin a special inquiry into the claims. No one was ever prosecuted for the bombings.

Ireland will receive almost 8 billion euros in European structural funds in the coming years, following intense negotiations by the Irish government, as it wrestled with the Europeans in Brussels. 

Albert Reynolds had promised last December that the money forthcoming would remain at the level Ireland had previously received, 13.5 percent of European funds, but the officials holding the purse strings in Brussels were reluctant to disburse the full amount.

Ireland used its veto to block the allocation of other funds, and they all went back to the drawing board. 

Since the amount to be received was revealed, the Ministers have been feverishly trying to obtain large sums for their own departments, with the result that the bulk of the money, almost a third, will go to fund job creation and industrial training and development. 

Under the seven year National Development Plan, the infrastructure was another big winner, with tunnels to be built in Dublin and Cork to ease traffic problems. The DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) will also have a new lightrail system. Lots of money will be spent on promoting tourism, and Aer Lingus, the national airline, will benefit from a cash injection. 

British Prime Minister John Major has come through a contentious political storm in London, thanks mainly to nine Ulster Unionist MPs. The British government vote on the Maastricht Treaty, designed to bring the European nations closer together, looked set to be defeated by opposition members in the Cabinet.

John Major, grasping at straws, cut a secret deal with the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in return for their votes, leading to a series of denials, condemnation, and a vote of confidence in the Prime Minister in Parliament. Mainly because the nine Unionist MPs cast their votes with Major, he managed to defeat the opposition’s amendment and survive the vote of confidence, although ratification of the treaty was subsequently defeated.

Mr. Major has denied dealing under the table with the Ulster politicians to sway them — but all nine went against the anti-Maastricht party line and gave Major the votes he needed to bring his majority from 18 to 36 and avoid a hung Parliament on the treaty issue.

“Nothing was asked for, nothing was offered, and nothing was given,” said Mr. Majjor, to attendant jeers from the Labour and Liberal benches in the House of Commons.

Although sources indicated that James Molyneaux, the UUP leader, had nothing in writing, it is believed that the Unionists were promised a House of Commons select committee on the North, which would be along the “integrationist” lines sought by Molyneaux.

The Irish government was slow to react, and seemed bewildered by the affair. Finally, Tanaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) and Foreign Affairs Minister Dick Spring acknowledged that he believed a deal had been made, and indicated that this deal would see the indefinite postponement of the Northern talks, which were scheduled to resume in the Fall. Prime Minister Albert Reynolds then stated that he would not accept the British government making any such deals with an Irish political party. The affair has led to suggestions that now might be the time to bring a U.S. special envoy into play.

Former Unionist MP Enoch Powell had carlier told Unionists to hold out for “a very good deal” before committing their votes.

Powell said there was no point in “picking up a minor reward for a major service.”

Inducements apparently included a Northern Select Committee, a greater role for Northern MPs in security matters and wider power for the North’s district councils.

During the confidence debate, the SDLP’s (Social Democratic and Labor Party) John Hume tried to address Major, and when the Prime Minister refused to listen, SDLP leader Seamus Mallon declared that history would show that “down through the years sordid deals have cost the life of people in Northern Ireland. Does the Prime Minister not have a duty to tell the house what deal he did with the Ulster Unionists?”

The Northern Unionists will probably see changes in the British policy in Northern Ireland.

“We expect the Prime Minister to govern us properly. Therefore we want a Select Committee (of the House of Commons) in the very near future,” said the Rev. Martin Smyth. This move would not be popular with the SDLP.

John Major, meanwhile, was at the center of another uproar, sparked when he apparently referred to three of his Cabinet colleagues as “bastards” in remarks made between radio talks. In interviews with the BBC he called for those politicians who did not agree with government policy to resign.

There were immediate calls for an inquiry into how private remarks could be recorded and leaked to the media so quickly, but the BBC parried this, saying the interviews were monitored in media centers around the world, including the U.S.

Carlow and Kilkenny will join the ranks of counties hosting famous festivals during the summer, with the introduction this year of The National Environmental Week and Festival from September 11-19. 

The Festival is the brainchild of Norman McMillan, a physicist teaching at Carlow Regional Technical College. McMillan is a world expert and author of two books on another Irish scientist, John Tyndall (1820-1893), who was born on the border of Carlow and Kilkenny and was responsible for pioneering the first research into measuring atmospheric pollution, water pollution, and studies of floating matter in the air. The latter led to Tyndall’s founding the science of bacteriology with Louis Pasteur. 

Tyndall discovered the greenhouse effect, was the first to study the ozone layer and invented instruments which were used as the first respirators. 

The week-long event includes public environmental, social and cultural events, with exhibitions of arts, crafts, history, photography, and science.

Tyndall was also an excellent mountaineer, and his most famous climbs were re-enacted by the Tyndall Mountain Club, who climbed the Weisshorn and Matterhorn in July.

Columbia University has agreed to a video link-up to show a series of lectures and seminars from the event, and the Festival will be covered by journalists from around the globe. The event coincides with Tyndall’s centenary, and next year, Norman McMillan has plans to make it an international event.

Whale-watching off the Irish coast may soon become a reality. As part of the Mayo Marine Mammal Project, Irish waters will be monitored for three months to see if whales still follow their traditional route along the western sea-board.

Should the Project find evidence that whales do swim there, there are realistic plans to develop a whale-watching enterprise. There are also hopes for an oceanarium on the site of former whaling stations near Belmullet, County Mayo.

“Creating a place where people would learn about the sea would give it a unique appeal,” says researcher Shay Fennelly, who is keen to promote enterprise in a region so stricken by emigration. “And if the whales are there, that would certainly make it an international attraction.”

There is already international interest in the Project – in fact Ireland has a very positive record on the protection of whales. Three years ago Irish seas were declared a whale and dolphin sanctuary. In effect, this bans all fishing for whales, dolphins and porpoises within the 200-mile state fisheries coastal zone.

As the first — and only — E.C. country to take such an initiative, the Irish sanctuary declaration was warmly received by conservationists. The only question is whether Irish naval authorities have the capacity to enforce the ban.

Last year France proposed to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) that Antarctica be declared a whale sanctuary. Ireland voted in favor of this at the IWC meeting in Tokyo last May.

Norway, which wants to join the E.C., wants to resume whaling but if the Norwegians don’t change their policy, this could be their biggest barrier to E.C. membership.

Conservationists are also concerned at a new campaign in Japan where consumers are being encouraged to buy or demand whale meat. An extensive PR campaign is underway on behalf of a consortium of fishing interests, named The Association Grateful for the Bounty of the Sea.

Whaling nations had it far easier in the past. When the IWC formed officially in 1949 it was less interested in conservation than in distributing the whaling quota among its members. For years, it set high quotas that effectively brought about the demise of various species.

The fate of the blue whale provides a map for extinction —in 1946, some 9,000 blues were culled in the Antarctic; that figure slumped to 20 in 1965 whereupon the species was belatedly signposted for protection.

Other whale species faced the same irrevocable losses.

Not until the 1970’s did the IWC turn its attention to conservation, assisted by formal U.N. backing for a ten-year moratorium on commercial whaling.

In 1982 the IWC voted 25 to seven in favor of the ban. The ban was introduced four years later but the moratorium is only partially effective. Japan, Norway, Soviet Union and Peru oppose it and the IWC does not have the power to enforce its own rules.

The other weakness is that whaling nations are permitted to “kill, take or treat whales for purposes of scientific research.” In theory, this research is done to build up data on whales. The IWC does not support the practice, particularly because whales killed for “research” have been sold openly on the market. To many observers, scientific research kills are, in effect, no different to commercial kills.

As an island off the Atlantic, Ireland has its own place in whaling history. A Donegal fisherman, Thomas Nesbitt of Killybegs, has the notoriety of inventing the exploding harpoon as far back as 1761. But there have only been two whaling stations in Ireland, both off the Mayo coast. The story of these stations is well documented in Irish Whales and Whaling by scholar James Fairley who reveals that their creation in County Mayo had more to do with developments abroad than with events at home.

Heavy culling of whales in Norwegian waters led to such a demise of the species that Norway set a ten-year ban on whaling in 1904. Its whaling industry then set its sights elsewhere, picking Ireland’s Atlantic coast as a way to overcome the ban.

A Norwegian whaling company chose Donegal as a base and promising a boon to the local economy, they prepared to set up the Arranmore Whaling Company. However local resistance, particularly from Donegal fishermen, scuttled the plan and with the assistance of the Congested Districts Board, the Arranmore company shifted instead to County Mayo.

The first station, at Iniskea, operated from 1908 to 1913.

The second, at nearby Blacksod Bay, closed during the war but reopened in 1920 before it too closed down in 1922. Many of the workers were Norwegian immigrants but about 30-40 local men were also employed to cut up and process the whales.

In the first six years some 700 great whales were killed there. But as stocks worldwide became scarce and the demand for whale products fell sharply, the Mayo stations became uneconomical. The Blacksod Bay plant moved operations to the Azores. The island is now deserted and little remains of the original structures.

Shay Fennelly, who is also researching the history of the island, feels that the original Iniskea site would be the ideal place for an oceanarium. To some extent the success of the Project will depend on whether whales are spotted during the summer survey. “We do get sightings quite close to shore, mostly from fishing boats. Of course a lot of them are dolphins,” says Simon Berrow of the 500-member Irish Whale and Dolphin Group.

Considering the popularity Fungi the dolphin has brought to Dingle, a whale or two off Iniskea could move mountains.

—Frank Shouldice

 

 

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the September October 1993 issue of Irish America. ♦