Can the process of canonisation of the eponymous martyr already be in train with the praise heaped upon him by the distinguished historian Ruth Dudley Edwards*? Which puts me in mind of the proverb -“aithnionn ciarog ciarog eile” ? For Myers himself went over the top with praise of the late Auberon Waugh whom he regarded as the greatest of British columnists.Both Waugh and Myers dipped their pens in the well of British Secret Service calumny and detraction. Waugh, in his Private Eye column,suggesting that the dyed in the wool Yorkshireman, Harold Wilson, was really a Soviet agent. Myers, in a characteristic diatribe, repeated allegations against the Liverpool-born James Larkin Jones (aka Jack Jones) concerning his service in defence of democracy in the International Brigade against the British assisted mutineer* Franco. Jack Jones answered Myers in a letter in THE IRISH TIMES and demolished his piece. In the same diatribe Myers attacked the Irish members of the International Brigade whose conduct reflected honour on Ireland and humanity, including Michael O’Riordan and Frank Ryan.Attempts are still made to tar Ryan with Fascism by those who associate themselves with Myers. *British agent Hugh Pollard flew Franco from the Canary Islands where he had been posted to keep him out of mischief, to Spanish Morocco from which he launched his onslaught on Spanish democracy. He became MI6 man in the Madrid Embassy when Franco got to Madrid. Pollard had form in Ireland during the ‘Tan War as a particularly dishonest propagandist, a time, incidentally ,when Dublin Castle statements were published in THE IRISH TIMES as its own reporting.
Pollard, Myers and Dudley-Edwards birds of a feather – or even ciarogai?
A memoir “From Missippi to Madrid” by a black American who served with the International Brigade (and who later co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) attested to the character and high reputation of Frank Ryan.
Big fan of his – though don’t agree with him on much. My favourite journalistic writer – a big loss.