Inside File Hear no evil?

By Ray O’Hanlon

Opinion is divided on Capitol Hill as to whether there should be hearings before the House International Relations Committee on the matter of the three Irish republicans being detained in Colombia for allegedly aiding the FARC terroristas.

Sen. Chris Dodd has come out against the idea, which is being most notably promulgated by Reps. Bill Delahunt and Ben Gilman.

Various Irish-American activists are also opposed to the idea. Fr. Sean McManus of the Irish National Caucus has written to all 48 members of the House IRC stating that Irish Americans “are deeply concerned by, and suspicious of” the “peculiar proposal” for the committee to hold hearings on the three Irishmen.

“If such hearings were important for the national security of the U.S. we would, of course, support them. Hearings, however, would not produce one iota of information that is not already known to the CIA and other intelligence/security agencies,” McManus argued.

The problem with that argument is that it implies that only the likes of the CIA ever need to know anything about national security, while Joe citizen can live on blissfully in his ignorance. Public hearings are intrinsically a good idea, and certainly have been very good ideas in Irish-American eyes when the subject has been, say, the dubious deeds of the RUC.

McManus further argues that hearings on the Colombia business would likely embarrass Sinn FTin and thus harm the peace process. But, presumably, Sinn FTin would be allowed an opportunity to present its side of the story at a hearing.

This no-hearing stance could be a tough sell, even for a battle-hardened campaigner like McManus. But he has a trick up his sleeve. The letter also contains a clear warning to committee members. It states that “your response will also form a key component of the Irish-American Score Card which is being prepared [by the Caucus] for this Election Year.” Fr. McManus deserves the crozier for that one.

Five-alarm book

Terry Golway, who produces books at a rate some people have dinners, is in the library again. This time, the New York Observer scribe is working on a history of the Fire Department of New York for Basic Books.

It should be pointed out that Golway was working on this project pre-9/11. The subject has long been of interest to him because firefighting has been the family business for years. Golway can point to his father, godfather, father-in-law and a couple of uncles who have worn the uniform of the city’s bravest.

Clearly, 9/11 will be covered in this book — which has the working title of “That Others Might Live” — but it will also reach back into the storied history of firefighting in New York City, from the 17th Century on up through the 19th, when the FDNY became Irish, and finally up to the present day.

Names of the Times

Reports are seeping through the walls on 43rd Street indicating big changes at the New York Times, both in terms of editorial style and content. Well, change is a constant in the newspaper business, as “IF” well knows. Perhaps, then, given all this change, the style mandarins at the auld gray biddy will see fit to start using the dateline of “Derry” instead of “Londonderry,” as was recently the case in a piece about Bloody Sunday.

From time to time, the Times, as well as other newspapers, have played to the sensitivities of both communities in the city by the Foyle and have used both names for the town in the body of the story. That’s fine. But a few years ago the Derry City Council voted to use the name “Derry” all on its lonesome.

The City Council, as far as “IF” can tell, did not seize office by force of arms. The same can’t be said about the government of Burma, a military dictatorship that changed the name of the country to Myanmar a few years back.

The Times uses Myanmar in its reports as opposed to Burma. So why no similar gesture towards wee democratic Derry?

Well, it’s probably to do with the fact that the official maps are drawn up in London — the city without the Derry attached. But that should not be an impediment.

A few years ago, the Times made a big fuss and actually announced that it was changing the spelling of a certain eastern European country (Romania) in its coverage of that nation to simply reflect more current and common usage. It didn’t have to. The Romanians were not laying siege to the newsroom. But what was evident was that the Times was bowing to the fact that place name spellings do change over time and that such change should be noted by papers of record such as the New Amster..oops York Times.

Look, but don’t touch

It was thoughtful of the Irish government to put together a website giving details of the upcoming abortion referendum in the wee republic. For the record, the address is www.refcom.ie.

Unfortunately, the site amounts to something of a tease for those exiles who still feel that they would like a say in this issue, or indeed any other presented to voters in the 26 counties.

The lack of voting rights in any shape or form for Irish emigrants will continue through this referendum, as it will through the upcoming general election, this despite what Fianna F_il stated in its 1997 “People Before Politics” election manifesto: “Fianna F_il are committed to working out the necessary arrangements to give emigrants the right to vote in D_il, Presidential and European Parliament elections, and in referendums. This can be done without amending the Constitution. Initially, those who have lived abroad for up to 10 years will be eligible. Our target is to have a voting system for emigrants in place by the year 2000.”

Ah, Jayzus, another target missed. Guess there’s no such thing as a smart promise in politics.

They said