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National - Event Notice
Thursday January 01 1970

Aubane Historical Society Book Launches, Saturday 19 April

category national | history and heritage | event notice author Saturday April 12, 2008 21:37author by Aubane Historical Society Report this post to the editors

Cavalier and Roundhead:

Sir Charles Wogan: The Rescue of Princess Clementina - an adventure of the Irish Brigades (1719).
Introduced by Cathy Winch
Saturday 19 April 7.30 p.m., Teachers' Club, 36 Parnell Square, Dublin

Elizabeth Bowen: "Notes from Éire" - Espionage Reports to Winston Churchill, 1940-42.
Introduced by Brendan Clifford
Saturday 19 April 8.30 p.m., Teachers' Club, 36 Parnell Square, Dublin

Sir Charles Wogan: The Rescue of Princess Clementina - an adventure of the Irish Brigades (1719).

Charles Wogan (1685?-1754) was a member of an important Catholic family in Rathcoffey near Dublin, who spent most of his life in exile in France and Spain. A deeply sympathetic character, twice in his life he had occasion to defeat measures taken by George the First, King of England. First he led an escape from Newgate gaol where he was awaiting trial for treason for his part in the rising of 1715; three years later he arranged the escape of a princess arrested on the orders of King George.

The princess was Clementina Sobieski, the grand-daughter of the Polish king who won the battle of Vienna against the Turks in 1683. She was engaged to be married to James Francis Edward, son of James II, the Stuart King who was driven from the British throne in 1688 and replaced by William of Orange, later followed by the Hanoverians. The latter had everything to gain by the extinction of the Stuart line and tried to prevent James from marrying, by the simple expedient of placing his fiancée under house arrest at Innsbruck as she was on her way to join him.

He did not count on Wogan who, with the help of three of his relations, officers in the Irish brigade of Dillon based in France, scooped the princess from her prison; and they galloped over the Alps in their carriage in winter to safety. Clementina and James were married soon after and their first child was to be Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Writing to Jonathan Swift in 1732, Wogan comments on history written to adorn a country with glorious tales, and on the need for an Irish history that would fulfill that purpose. His writing of the Clementina story was a step in that direction. Letters which Chevalier Wogan exchanged with Swift are reproduced in an annex to the book. Wogan's story appears here both in the original French and in translation, together with an introduction by Cathy Winch.

Elizabeth Bowen: "Notes from Éire" - Espionage Reports to Winston Churchill, 1940-42.

The story of this books starts in 1993, when extracts from Elizabeth Bowen's works were included in A North Cork Anthology, with the qualification that, though her family had property connections in the area, she could not be regarded as a North Cork, or even an Irish, writer. This caused outrage in the Dublin media and some vicious attacks on Jack Lane and Brendan Clifford, the compilers of the Anthology. There was even doubt cast on the fact that Ms Bowen spied against Ireland in the Second World War.

The upshot of that controversy was that the Aubane Historical Society traced several of Ms Bowen's secret reports, which are published here in full for the first time. For those whose would see Ms Bowen's spying as needing no defence, on the supposition that the Allied war on Germany was absolutely justified, and that Neutrals had no case, this book provides an extensive survey of international affairs in the decades before the War, ncluding De Valera's role in the League of Nations. There are also sections on Irish and European Fascism.

The book is rounded out by reproducing the polemic about Bowen, which took place between the Aubane HistoricalSociety and luminaries of the Irish Times and the Sunday
Business Post. The controversy about how to describe Ms Bowen goes to the heart of what Ireland and Irish culture is, and this book is as good a starting place as any for those who seek the middle path between the Scylla of bigoted nationalism and the Charybdis of West British globalism.

The second edition provides a further review of aspects of World War 2—the British betrayal of Poland, the American provocation of Japan, the British insistence on delaying the Second Front, and the Nuremberg Trials—in response to an indictment of Irish neutrality by Professor B. Girvin and Dr. G. Roberts.

Saturday 19 April 7.30 p.m., and 8.30 p.m. Teachers' Club, 36 Parnell Square, Dublin

PDF Document Cavalier 0.02 Mb


PDF Document Roundhead 0.2 Mb
author by Frank Sabotkapublication date Sun Apr 13, 2008 20:11author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Professor B. Girvin is of course a former comrade of Mr. Clifford in the British and Irish Communist Organisation, when Clifford and Lane were contemptuous of the Irish nationalism, including the wartime neutrality that they now defend. Long memories these BICO chaps....

author by unpublication date Mon Apr 14, 2008 00:47author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Girvin - now a neo-con - has condemed irish neutrality during WW2

author by League of Nationspublication date Mon Apr 14, 2008 06:21author address author phone Report this post to the editors

So Girvin is still in BICO? The others have moved on?

author by Bunk Morelandpublication date Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:11author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Girvin not in BICO no more....Clifford and Lane scamming Irish republicans through Aubane.

author by Spinning Quicklypublication date Mon Apr 14, 2008 18:02author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I wouldn' t be surprised if the B&ICO crowd go full circle and go back to the position they had forty years ago!!!

author by Starkadderpublication date Tue Apr 15, 2008 00:05author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Why are they still promoting the Elizabeth Bowen book? Every academic
who reviewed it (including Eibhar Walsh, Neil Corcoran and Maud Ellman)
ripped it to shreds for its factual inaccuracies (ignoring Bowen's
defense of Irish Neutrality in WW2),hysterical Anglophobia and shoddy production. Will
these be fixed in the second edition?

On another note, I found this interesting comment while reading The Constitutional History of
Eire/Ireland” by Angela Clifford (Brendan's missus):

“In those days [the 1950s] the “Irish Times” kept up a
liberal criticism of the Catholic State. Since the appointment of
Douglas Gageby as editor it has been motivated chiefly by
a detestation of Ulster Unionism, and has been anxious to explain
away the Catholic State in order not to be saying the same thing
as the Unionists.”

Pg. 184.

So when Gageby was alive, B&ICO/Aubane regarded him as a traitor for
not supporting the Ulster Unionists.

author by Jimmy Johnstonepublication date Tue Apr 15, 2008 07:41author address author phone Report this post to the editors

See also
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/87144
where they are having another launch - a history of the Irish Times in Liberty Hall, Friday night.
I intend to put my money where my mouth is, attend BOTH launches, and make these OBVIOUS points! Charlatans!

author by Iron Manpublication date Tue Apr 15, 2008 08:57author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Will Clifford and Lane be at both Friday & Saturday? Let's go along and challenge them, once and for all. Enough of this hole-in-the-corner stuff!

author by Yellow Grundelpublication date Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:13author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I think Eoghan Harris is behind all this myself. Did anyone ever notice that they all come from Cork?? I'll be there Friday & Saturday!

author by Starkadderpublication date Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:55author address author phone Report this post to the editors


Some months ago I read the pamphlet “Differentiate between
sham & genuine Marxism-Leninism”, by the Communist Party of
Ireland (Marxist-Leninist). This is a scathing attack on
the B&ICO, and it is of interest because it reprints part of an autobiographical
essat by Brendan Clifford. In this Clifford states he was once part of the
Communist Party of Great Britain.He left them in October 1963 and joined Michael McCreey’s
Committee to Defeat Revisionism for Communist Unity:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_Defeat_Revisi...Unity

After the CDRCU went into decline, he joined the
Irish Communist Group, whose other members included Liam
Daltun and Eamonn McCann. Later, as is well known, the ICG
split into the Irish Workers' Group and the Irish Communist Organisation. The pamphlet also says the ICO walked out of the "Necessity for Change" conference organised by the
Maoist Hardial Bains, which the CPI (ML) attended. the
1960s.

On another subject,
Jack Lane was a member of the Cork Vietnamese Freedom Association
along with Jim Blake (later in the ITGWU)* and his near-namesake,
Jim Lane ( Cork Workers' Club, Irish Republican Socialist Party and
father of Fintan Lane) in the 1960s.

*See,for instance, the Irish Times, Oct. 1967.

author by Browserpublication date Tue Apr 15, 2008 12:07author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Iron Man:

"Will Clifford and Lane be at both Friday & Saturday? Let's go along and challenge them, once and for all. Enough of this hole-in-the-corner stuff!"

Yes, it would be interesting to attend and ask Clifford and Lane some questions
about why they moved from one position (Unionism) to another (Nationalism).

There's an urban legend I once heard, that David Trimble allegedly has a
full set of B&ICO and Workers Association books in his library. I don't
know if its true, but Dean Godson's biography of Trimble shows he was
an enthusiastic reader of B&ICO material.

author by Iron Manpublication date Tue Apr 15, 2008 14:52author address author phone Report this post to the editors

And while we're at it, let's have it out about when and why -
- FF did or did not commemorate the Rising,
- the Provisionals did or did not recognise the Leinster House regime,
- the Labour Party did or did not agree with Coalition,
- Fine Gael did or did not agree with Dominion status,
- (the list of unprincipled turncoats and sellouts is endless).

author by Browserpublication date Tue Apr 15, 2008 15:34author address author phone Report this post to the editors

"The controversy about how to describe Ms Bowen goes to the heart of what Ireland and Irish culture is, and this book is as good a starting place as any for those who seek the middle path between the Scylla of bigoted nationalism and the Charybdis of West British globalism."

Really? I thought Bowen was just a good Anglo-Irish novelist, and I don't
see how denying she had any Irish identity will help anything.Will
it help Peace in Northern Ireland, end poverty or lower crime?

That's interesting, Starkadder. I didn't know Clifford was active in
the British Far Left (Michael McCreery's group) before he joined the
Irish Communist Group.

author by Blackbirdpublication date Tue Apr 15, 2008 16:44author address author phone Report this post to the editors

It appears Bowen was an Anglo-Irish novelist and a British spy, and quite good at both callings.

author by Browserpublication date Tue Apr 15, 2008 16:47author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Elizabeth Bowen was a British spy who nevertheless defended Irish
neutrality in the "New Statesman".
Francis Stuart was a Nazi German Propagandist.
Samuel Beckett was a member of the French Resistance.

All great Irish writers.

author by Blackbirdpublication date Tue Apr 15, 2008 18:11author address author phone Report this post to the editors

And all worthy of detailed study, assessment and evaluation, - including Bowen, I presume.

author by Thin Manpublication date Wed Apr 16, 2008 00:24author address author phone Report this post to the editors

A list for starters Iron Man. Then there was that diplomat in the early 50s who promoted anti-partition for the Irish News agency, who in the 1970s promoted a theory similar to the BIC&O twee nations theory. Take a bow CCO'B! Aithnionn ciarog amhain ciarog eile! It's one big political bed orgy in recent Irish history.

author by Dunsany Le Fanupublication date Wed Apr 16, 2008 00:32author address author phone Report this post to the editors

What about William Trevor? Should he be excluded from the Irish literary canon also. He left Ireland at an early age and he was, like Bowen, from Cork? Whats the criterion being used for an 'Irish writer'?
Bernard Shaw? Lafcadio Hearn? James Hanley?

author by Ethnicity gurupublication date Wed Apr 16, 2008 06:41author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) was a hardboiled mystery writer ("Farewell my lovely" and other novels) whose mother Florence was from a Quaker family in Waterford. He was born in the USA, spent early years in Nebraska etc. then moved back with his divorced mother to the family roots in Waterford, where he lived some years before an uncle sent him to Dulwich College in London. Spent most of the rest of his life in the States.

He is considered an American quick-read writer. No reason Waterfordians shouldn't claim his Irish ancestry for local history purposes, but Chandler's themes weren't remotely Irish, so he can't be included in the Irish Canon.

Bowen, Trevor et al can be claimed for the Irish Canon because much of their writing is about or draws inspiration from Irish life. There can be mixed influences on writers. Oscar Wilde was undoubtedly Irish but drew his literary inspiration from English middle and upper class life and idiosyncracies. His themes are not Irish, but we include him in the Canon on account of his Dublin birth and upbringing. Joseph Conrad was Polish but spent his life abroad and wrote novels that have no bearing on polish life. What Canon does he belong to?

Conor Cruise O'Brien (woof, woof, snarl!) once described an Irish writer as somebody who is involved in the Irish situation and gets mauled by it. And he loved mauling his political and intellectual opponents, begorra. I suppose that eminence gris controller of the Irish Times is Irish too, though he doesn't seem to have written any literary masterpieces for the Irish Canon. Thank God he'll never be on the Leaving Cert syllabus.

author by Browserpublication date Sun Apr 20, 2008 13:35author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Did anybody turn up either at the Aubane or Irish Times book launches? There
was a small,slightly sniffy article in yesterday's IT about the launch Lenihan attended.

author by Browserpublication date Mon Oct 20, 2008 16:04author address author phone Report this post to the editors

There's a long review of the "Notes on Eire" book in the October issue of Books Ireland.

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