No matter whether they are brainy or dumb they put their foot in it.
“GREAT IRISH SPEECHES” by Richard Aldous includes one made by
John A Costello in Dail Eireann in February1934 and other speeches by Fine
Gael stalwarts in later years which support the point I am making.
Costello was a brilliant lawyer, and, as I understand it, a very decent
man. He was opposing a Fianna Fail Government motion to ban the
wearing of paramilitary uniforms, and he prophesied, that “as the
Blackshirts had in Italy and the Hitler (sic) Shirts had in Germany,
so assuredly would the Blueshirts in the IRISH FREE STATE”
An even more frightening speech is quoted in GREAT IRISH SPEECHES.
It echoes or rivals that of Hitler in the Reichstag (in June 1934) justifying
the murder of Ernst Rohm (his most devoted follower) on the Night of
the Long Knives.
It was made at the Fine Gael Ardfheis in 1972 by the then Taoiseach Liam
Cosgrave and is accessible on U Tube.
It is remembered as the Mongrel Foxes speech threatening what Liam would
do to fellow members of his party, including Garret Fitzgerald!
Liam Cosgrave’s administration was perhaps the most lawless ever in the 26 Counties,rivalled, maybe by Jack Lynch’s attempt to have colleagues and honest serving Army Officers imprisoned for actions taken in pursuance of policies agreed in Cabinet.
Liam Cosgrave was perhaps not as brilliant as John A. Costello. But he
was not a fool.
For Light relief consider Enda Kenny’s address at Beal na Blath to
commerorate Michael Collins.
Collins is fittingly honoured by most Irish people, whatever their attitudes
to the 1922 Split.
According to Kenny, Lenin took a sabbatical in the middle of his struggle
to govern the Soviet Union, to slip, undetected, into Ireland for a tutorial
on how to manage a revolution.
I can just imagine Lenin’s report to the Politburo in Moscow-
“Collins, Man of Cork, says Ireland can Float A Loan.”
and a retort –
“I, Stalin, Man of Steel, will Build Socialism in One Country.”
Garret and his Pedigree follow soon.
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