Diarmaid Ferriter - Ambiguous Republic: Ireland in the 1970s

AMBIGUOUS REPUBLIC

ALSO BY DIARMAID FERRITER

The Transformation of Ireland 19002000
Judging Dev: A reassessment of the life and legacy of amon de Valera
Occasions of Sin: Sex and Society in Modern Ireland

IRELAND IN THE 1970s

DIARMAID FERRITER

First published in Great Britain in 2012 by
Profile Books Ltd
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Copyright Diarmaid Ferriter, 2012

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ISBN 978 1 84668 468 5
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For Catrona Crowe

The research and writing of this book would not have been possible without the generous assistance of family, friends, UCD colleagues and those working in a variety of libraries and archives. I am indebted to my colleagues in the School of History and Archives at UCD and the two Heads of School there in recent years, Edward James and John McCafferty, for their collegiality and generosity in facilitating me in completing another research-intensive project. To all those working in the UCD archives, the UCD James Joyce and Richview libraries, the National Archives of Ireland and the National Library of Ireland I extend my deep and sincere gratitude for all their generous assistance. Thanks also to those who have helped, with friendship, advice, information, assistance and stimulation in recent years: Hugh Brady, Kate Breslin, Carla, Melanie, Tom and Anna Briggs, Aisling Caden, Peter and Olivia Casey, Stephen Cullinane, Fergus DArcy, Mairn de Burca, Mark Duncan, Adrienne Egan, Liza Finnegan, Roy Foster, Carmel, Ronan, Karen and Rachel Furlong, Tom Garvin, Grinne Gavigan, Brian Hanley, David Heron, Lucy Hogan, Anthony Hyland, Gareth Ivory, Anne Marie Kearney, Sen Kearns, Jimmy Kelly, Philip King, Cormac Kinsella, Michael Laffan, Georgina Laragy, Margaret Mac Curtain, Peter Mooney, Paul Murphy, William Murphy, Joe Nugent, Nuala OConnor, Fiona Poole, Greg Prendergast, Antoinette Prout, Mary Raftery, Yetti Redmond, Declan dEstelle Roe, Paul Rouse, James Ryan, Rob Savage, Jean Smith, Gerry Stembridge, Richard Stokes, Tony and Catherine Sweeney, Colm Tibn, Caroline Walsh, Martin Walsh and David Whelan. Peter Carson, Andrew Franklin, Penny Daniel and Ruth Killick at Profile Books have been generous, patient and supportive, and Trevor Horwood copy-edited with precision, flair and insight. Particular best wishes on his retirement to Peter Carson, and thanks for the wisdom and help over the past twelve years. My parents, Nollaig and Vera, siblings, Cian, Trona, Muireann, and in-laws, soulmate Kevin Maher, Tom, Anne, Lucy, Rose and Catherine Maher, Lar Joyce and Deirdre Mulligan, once again deserve my deepest generosity for all they give; I am truly grateful. I could fill much space with superlatives to sing the praises of Sheila Maher. I have done so before; this time, a simple but profound thank you from the heart, for everything you have done and endured to help me finish this book. As with the others, it belongs to you too. You are beyond marvellous. Our cherished daughters, Enya, Rona and Saorla, majestic madams, continue to remind us of what is important; it is a pleasure and a privilege to watch them grow, enthral and torment. As in the past, my thanks to Deirdre McMahon, who was, again, a generous, insightful and engaged reader of the first draft, as was Catrona Crowe, to whom this book is dedicated, for years of valued friendship, humanity, history and archive talk, insight, irreverence and humour.

1970

January

6 Tribunal of inquiry into RT Seven Days television programme about moneylending

10 Anti-apartheid demonstrations in Dublin as Irelands rugby team plays host to South Africa

11 Split develops between the Official and Provisional wings of Sinn Fin after a disagreement at the partys annual meeting in Dublin over taking seats in Dublin and Belfast parliaments

18 Dr Thekla Beere appointed to chair the Commission on the Status of Women

February

24 Health Act provides for the establishment of eight regional health boards and a hospitals authority

March

12 Private Members Bill from the Labour Party calls for voting age to be lowered to eighteen from twenty-one

21 Irelands entry, All Kinds of Everything, sung by Dana, wins the Eurovision Song Contest in Amsterdam

April

3 Garda Richard Fallon murdered during a bank robbery in Dublin

21 A White Paper Membership of the European Communities: Implications for Ireland, is published

30 Bank workers strike in pursuit of higher wages; the Industrial Development Authority becomes an autonomous state-sponsored body

May

4 Minister for Justice Michel Mrin resigns from office due to ill health

6 Charles Haughey, Minister for Finance, and Neil Blaney, Minister for Agriculture, are asked to resign by the Taoiseach Jack Lynch; Kevin Boland, Minister for Local Government, resigns in sympathy

22 Employer-Labour Conference established

27 Captain James Kelly, a former army intelligence officer, arrested to face charges of conspiracy to import arms to Ireland

28 Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney arrested and charged with conspiracy to import arms

June

1 Announcement of a new Department of Public Service

4 Fianna Fil withdraws the whip from Kevin Boland

7 Demolition workers begin to strip the roofs of four Georgian houses in Hume Street, Dublin city, after protestors are removed; Owen Sheehy Skeffington, independent senator and liberal, dies aged sixty-one

10 Taoiseach Jack Lynch opens the Electricity Supply Boards generating station at Tarbert, County Kerry

22 Kevin Boland resigns from Fianna Fil

25 The Catholic Hierarchys ban on Catholic attendance at Trinity College, Dublin is lifted

26 Unity MP Bernadette Devlin imprisoned in Armagh

28 Extra British troops flown to Belfast after five people shot dead by the IRA in Northern Ireland

30 Negotiations for Irelands membership of EEC open in Brussels

July

2 Neil Blaney discharged after district justice at his trial rules there is insufficient evidence to justify the conspiracy charge against him

August

21 Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) formed in Belfast

September

22 The Arms Trial opens in Dublins Four Courts; the jury is discharged seven days later following allegations of bias