Crime Lords by Paul Williams

This book names the names, and describes the deeds, of Irish gangsterdom. From ‘The General’ to ‘The Viper’, and from ‘Cotton Eye’ to the INLA, the gruesome beatings and agonizing deaths are set out in lurid detail.

A Garda report to Europol has recently said that there are 17 major organized crime gangs operating here. These gangs operate like businesses, seeking to protect and expand their markets, to collect their debts and to reinvest their profits. Many of the gang managers live in The Netherlands or in Spain, but their writ still runs on the streets of Dublin.

Amsterdam, it is claimed by this book, is the hub of organized crime in Western Europe. The Dutch police receive more requests for assistance in international criminal investigations than any other police force in the world. It is hardly coincidental that The Netherlands also has one of the most liberal drug consumption regimes in Europe.

Organised crime is a Europe-wide phenomenon, and it uses modern global communications to the full. It is surprising that the present Minister for Justice does not want to see the European Union given the right to take majority decisions on anti-crime measures, and that he wants all decisions taken by unanimity among all 25 E.U. countries.

Paul Williams’ book illustrates how the power of the gangs is used capriciously and for purposes that go beyond their ‘core business’. One eighteen year old, Paul Dempsey, was targetted because he had the nerve to got out with the younger sister of one of the “Westies”. Even minor road accidents involving gang members can escalate into bloody vendettas.

Witnesses withdrawing statements, and thereby aborting prosecutions, is not something new. The willingness of jurors to sit in cases involving major crime figures shows a strong and courageous public spirit. Jury trials can only be dispensed with, and gangland cases sent to the non-Jury Special Criminal Court, if the ‘ordinary courts are inadequate for the administration of criminal justice’. But this cannot be done, just because witnesses are willing to renege on their evidence.

Paul Williams’ book shows that the potential for intimidation of witnesses is enormous. And if witnesses can be intimidated, so too can jurors. Even Gardai and Prison Officres have been intimidated in their homes, so jurors must be vulnerable too.

Williams’ book tells a series of stories. It does not advocate any new policies or take on wider issues. It does not analyse the underlying causes of criminal behaviour – the disturbed families or the childhood abuse. Nor does it make comparisons between Ireland and other countries. 

The amount of gratuitous torture associated with Irish gangland killings deserves thought. The victims are going to die anyway. One would have thought that death alone would be a sufficient deterrent to whatever the killers want to discourage. But that does not seem to be enough for modern Irish gangs. Prolonged suffering prior to death is apparently needed too.

It is a pity that Paul Williams, a qualified criminologist as well as a courageous journalist, did not take the time to add a reflective chapter on wider questions like these. 

International Trade: Policy and Practice by MacDonnell and MacEvoy.

My reactions on reading this book were twofold. I was struck first of all, by the importance of international trade in the economic development of the human race, and secondly by the complexity of the mechanisms which underpin that development. One might not go all the way with the authors who argue that the Columbian adventure, which started with the quest for a new route to the spice producing lands to the East, was purely trade driven or that the industrial revolution in England was solely attributable to a trade embargo on imported cotton fabrics. Nevertheless there is no gainsaying the importance of trade in man’s history and its effect on a small economy like Ireland’s. Neither must we overlook the motive force of much of this trade, foreign direct investment.

The complexity arises from the fact that exporting involves moving from one jurisdiction – the domestic market - where the rules are familiar, to the relatively uncharted waters of export markets with their multiplicity of languages, business cultures, jurisprudence, religion, economic, social and political systems. This is where this book is at its most useful, taking the reader through the complex issues involved, setting out a modus operandi in order to minimise risks and comply with the requirements of the chosen market.

One of the most important issues for the exporter is currency value. Fluctuations in the exchange rate have three times the impact of a change in any of the major cost components – labour, raw materials, profits and overheads. It may come as a surprise to the reader to learn that, three years after the introduction of the euro, some sixty per cent of Ireland’s exports are priced and delivered in currencies other than the euro. When one considers that the $US has depreciated by 35% against the euro in less than two years, the importance of exchange risk management becomes obvious. The book helpfully outlines internal and external hedging mechanisms, which can be used.

I was also struck by some interesting statements contained in the chapter on the importance of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). The Coca Cola brand was valued at US $68.9 billion in 2001, Microsoft at $65.1 billion and IBM $52.7 billion. While copyright issues may appear to be primarily matters of the modern age, with the USA complaining to China about software infringements, the authors quote a famous Irish case involving the unauthorised copying of St. Fintan’s bible by St. Colmcille. This gave rise to the High King’s judgement enshrining the dictum, “ to every cow its calf, to every book its copy”. Trade secrets or undisclosed information can now be protected as part of every company’s intellectual property. Apart from being a company asset, IPR can be a source of income by selling on or licensing its use to others. It was reported that Eli Lilly paid Sepracor $90 million for the rights to an improved version of Prozac; perhaps not unreasonable when measured against Prozac annual sales of over $3 billion.

There is an interesting chapter on trade policy, which reviews international efforts in recent times to liberalise trade and to provide a set of rules within the multilateral framework of the World Trade Organisation. The authors point out that there are always threats to free trade from national or regional interests. The disruptive element behind the Seattle debacle may not have been the dispossessed of the Southern hemisphere but rather US trade union interests who saw increasing free trade as a threat to their members’ interests. President Bush’s imposition of a 30% tariff on steel imports is clear evidence of this threat. In fact US trade policy must be causing sleepless nights to those who champion the liberal trade agenda, if we consider the recent US quotas imposed on textile products from China as well as the likelihood of protectionist retaliation by Europe, Japan and China, all coming on top of the breakdown of the Cancun talks.

It is worth digressing to note that these restrictions on imports are also causing serious damage to the US economy as evidenced by numerous complaints from America’s industrial steel users and consumers of imported textiles. It is sometimes forgotten that the classical economists viewed international trade as a means of importing products, which could be made more competitively elsewhere. The purpose of exports is to pay for these imports. The entire process allows a more efficient allocation of resources.

Of course the USA is running a current account deficit of over $500 billion, which may be influencing its foreign trade agenda. This is financed by East Asian bondholders who provide the capital inflow to keep American interest rates low, and whose exporters are supplying the USA with cheap imports. Asian exporters are in effect lending the Americans the money to pay for these imports. The USA lectures China meanwhile on its undervalued currency while Europe’s exporters are being squeezed out by the rising euro.

It may be considered that Ireland’s position within the European Union provides a welcome shelter against any disruptions, which would result from a trade war. We should not take too much comfort because, apart from any indirect impact, the share of our merchandise trade with countries outside the European Union had grown from 26% in 1973 to 40% of a much larger total by 2001.

International trade can flourish only in times of peace. Although we think of globalisation as a twentieth century phenomenon, the first phase commenced in the year 1870, when the Prussians finally emerged as victors within Europe, putting an end to centuries of war. The ensuing half-century of peace saw world trade double as a percentage of world production, huge British investment in infrastructure in the New World and a massive movement of economic migrants from Europe to America, North and South, Australia and New Zealand. This came to an end with the outbreak of World War I.

It was not until the end of World War II that new institutions with an economic remit played a role in the second wave of globalisation and the world recovered the impetus lost through wars and economic depression. Peter Sutherland’s Tacitus lecture, which is included as an appendix, quotes Cordell Hunt, later to become the US Secretary of State, advising Woodrow Wilson, “If goods do not pass frontiers, armies will”.

The significant feature of the third phase, which dates from the 1980s, has been the rise of the multinational corporation and the entry of suppliers in the developing world into the international supply chain. Manufactures and services, rather than the traditional minerals and raw materials, now dominate developing country exports.

Given the background of the authors, their advocacy of free trade is unsurprising. While recognising that the world is still far from perfect, they cite a recent World Bank report, which concludes that poor countries with some 3 billion people have broken into the global market for goods and services. The new globalisers have experienced large-scale poverty reduction in the 1990s. “The number of people who were poor declined by 120 million” Ireland provides an outstanding example of the benefits of internationalisation of trade and investment. As investment tends to move to lower cost environments, however, we must endeavour to get costs under control and encourage our industry to move up the value chain. Otherwise the benefits are in danger of being lost.

Peter Sutherland, under whose direction the World Trade Organisation became a reality, has written the foreword to this important and useful book.

2016, A New Proclamation for a New Generation

This book attempts to come up with a redraft, for 2016, of the 1916 Proclamation, which was read outside the GPO, at the beginning of the Easter rebellion.  As such, it attempts to sum up for the present time, as the  authors of the original document  purported to do for their time , what the  Irish people believe about themselves and  what they aspire to achieve by collective independent action.

 Gerard O Neill is well qualified to answer the first of these two questions. He is a leading market researcher, who makes his living using sophisticated techniques to find what  the Irish  people believe and want, or at least what they are prepared to  tell a researcher they believe and want.

Many things have changed since   1916. Before the rebellion in 1915, Padraig  Pearse wrote that

 “War is not more terrible that the evils it will end...war is a terrible thing but it is not an evil thing. It is the things that make war necessary that are evil”.

 The author does not say so, but I do not believe many Irish people today would agree with Pearse’s view of war, knowing as we now do many things about war that he may not have known in 1915. As far as Pearse’s belief that  war can  be used to end evil is concerned, it has  to be noted that the Irish  people did not then,  and do not even now, believe that  Ireland  could, or should, have  taken part in the  war against Hitler, notwithstanding the  obvious evil of his regime.

Ireland is immensely more prosperous than it was in 1916.

Irish incomes then were at about the Western European average.  Now, notwithstanding the recession, they are above the European average.

 9 out of 10 Irish people said in 2009 that they were satisfied with their lives, as against 8 out of 10 in the rest of the EU.

 Even allowing for inflation, Irish income per head is 24 times what it was in 1966. An amazing statistic, which put our present financial troubles into proportion.

O Neill questions whether Irish people will continue to be as obsessed, as they have been, with owning their own home.  There is 85% home ownership here as against 65% in the EU as a whole. He says, reasonably, that if a thing is scarce people will want to own one, rather than rent it. Homes will not be scarce in the Ireland of 2016, so people will increasingly tend to rent rather than buy.

The book also deals with the role of religion in Ireland. The original Proclamation said that the rebels were  acting “in the name of God and  of the  dead generations”.  He concludes that Ireland remains more religious than most countries and that  what is happening today is not so much a secularisation  as a” declericalisation” of the country.

He argues, rightly in my view, that many of the characteristics that make Ireland attractive, like tolerance and interest in other people, are derived from our Christian heritage, a heritage that teaches us to see other people as unique individuals rather than just as members of classes, races, nations or other such categories.  It would have been interesting if the author had explored whether a Christian inspired value system  can  survive a decline in  religious practice.

Gerard O Neill grew up in Northern Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s among a nationalist community that, in his words,  saw the creation of Northern Ireland as “ unwarranted  compromise; a short term solution that  was unsustainable in the long  term”.

  He says the ratification of the Good Friday Agreement in both parts of Ireland has brought that argument to an end. Or has it?

 He himself speculates in this book about what might happen in the, to my mind unlikely, event that  the 2011 census in Northern Ireland shows there is a Catholic majority  in the population . Under the relevant legislation, the Northern Ireland Secretary may direct the holding of a poll to decide if a majority there want it to cease to be a part of the United Kingdom. There would also have to a poll in the Republic.

 One can imagine pressure developing in some quarters to hold a poll, if a census were to show a Catholic majority. Indeed if the UK Government failed to hold a poll it would open to the accusation of betraying the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement compromise.

 Having raised this scenario, Gerard O Neill then goes on to say that, in terms of practical planning, it is getting no thought at all in Dublin, Belfast, or London.   He fails to say whether he thinks this is wise or not.  One would expect, having raised an issue like this, that he would have teased it out a lot more.

Northern Ireland is still very heavily dependent on the British Exchequer and on public sector jobs. Meanwhile  the Republic has  moved , suddenly,  from being  a  country  with a  low  debt, to one  whose debt is heading  rapidly toward 100% of its GDP,  and which will have  to reduce the size of its  own  public sector. Britain has financial problems too and probably would not be able to help with transitional payments if a majority in Northern Ireland decided they wanted to leave the UK.

These realities are not explored at all in this book, which is surprising given that the author himself brought up the possibility of a poll for a United Ireland.  Nor does he explore likely reactions on this side of the border, if the financial situation remains as financially difficult as it is now.  It may not arise after the 2011 census, but it could happen after another census

In a sense, this is what is frustrating about this book. The author is well read, stimulating and original. He raises a lot of neglected questions, but then fails to follow them all to a full conclusion.

Book Review for the Irish Examiner.

Title;    2016,   A New Proclamation for a New Generation

Author;    Gerard O Neill

Publisher;    Mercier Press

The Reluctant Taoiseach; A biography of John A Costello

John A Costello was the pioneer of Inter Party or coalition Government in Ireland.   His modest and endearing personality was crucial in making his two Governments work. His first Government consisted of five parties, and relied for support on a number of independent TDs as well.  His second consisted of only two parties, but it relied for support on a third party and also on numerous independents.

  Although a combative advocate in public, he had a remarkable lack of partisanship in his personal relations. He was considerate toward colleagues, some of whom were difficult people.

He had taken no part in the War of Independence, and was thus relatively unaffected by the Civil War split. This enabled him to work with people like Sean McBride, who came from the anti Treaty side.

 As a lawyer during the 1930s, he had represented trade union interests, and as a TD he had defended the pension and other rights of civil servants transferred from the British service into that of the Free State. Both activities involved close cooperation with the man who was later to become his Tanaiste , Bill Norton.  Their mutual respect held two Governments together.

 The involvement of Labour in his first Government was not to be taken for granted. Labour had, after all, supported Fianna Fail in 1932, and because of a split in the trade union movement, there were two Labour parties in 1948.

John A Costello was a native of Phibsboro and the son of a civil servant in the Registry of Deeds, whose family came from Clare. He was educated in O Connells School, the same school as Sean Lemass and Sean T O Kelly attended. He attended UCD and, like James Joyce, he tried and failed to become   Auditor of the L and H.

When he qualified as a barrister in 1914, he had no family legal connections.  He made up for this with hard work and a talent for appealing to the feelings of juries. He was so successful that he was invited to become Attorney General in WT Cosgrave’s Government in 1926, at the age of 35.

He was first elected to the Dail in 1933, and remained a member until 1969. Except when he was Taoiseach, he combined Dail service with an active career as a barrister.  This led to criticism of his Dail attendance, but it enriched the quality his contributions to debates, especially on the 1937 Constitution. His legal reputation was such that de Valera offered him the post of Chief Justice at one time.

 This biography by David McCullagh, RTEs political correspondent, is an original contribution to the writing of modern Irish history. It is authoritative in its judgements and careful in its research. It is sympathetic even affectionate, towards its subject. The book is easy to follow and the author draws on his own intimate knowledge of current politics to place Costello in a context relevant to modern Ireland. It is also full of colourful detail about the politics of the time.

Costello’s economic record comes in for some criticism. The Irish economy fell behind during the 1950s. Growth   was less than in other European countries. Costello wanted to open Ireland to foreign investment as early as the late 1940s, but this was opposed at the time by the Labour party, Fianna Fail, the Department of Industry and Commerce and the Federation of Irish Industries. He  did not push the issue.

 It took the severe balance of payments crisis of 1955/6 for Costello to be able to win approval for a repeal  Of the Control of Manufacturers Act  which put on the restrictions on foreign investment , and  for  a zero or low corporation tax policy to promote exports.  This imaginative  tax policy, which provides the basis for Irish policy to attract overseas investment  up to this day, was put in place by Costello’s Minister for Finance, Gerry Sweetman  in 1956.  The restrictions on investment, though agreed in principle under Costello, were not removed until 1958 when he had lost office. 

Divisions on economic policy crossed party lines.   Both Costello and Lemass favoured Keynesian style stimulus of the economy through capital  spending funded by borrowing.  Both Ministers for Finance of the period, Fine Gael’s Gerry Sweetman and Fianna Fail’s Sean McEntee, believed  that balancing the budget and restraining consumption  was  the better  way to release  funds for investment. 

 Food subsidies, an untargeted and expensive form of Government spending, were favoured by  Costello and Norton,  but were opposed by Sweetman.  These differences on economic policy between Labour and Gerry Sweetman remained an obstacle to a renewed Fine Gael/Labour  Coalition as late as 1970.

 David McCullagh  clarifies John A Costello’s role in the Mother and Child  controversy is.  He was influenced much more by the views and interests of the medical profession than he was  by those of Archbishop McQuaid. His hands off management style, helpful most of the time in defusing inter party tensions, did not serve him at all well in this case. But it was not Noel Browne’s resignation over the Mother and Child question that brought Costello’s first Government down in  1951. It was the Minister for Agriculture, James Dillon’s refusal to grant dairy farmers a milk price increase!

 The book shows that John A Costello  did not at all foresee the effects of his  impromptu  answer to a question at a  press conference in Canada in 1949, when he said that   his Governments planned  to  declare Ireland  a Republic , and  consequently  to withdraw from the Commonwealth.

  In fact, Ireland had not been participating in the Commonwealth since 1936, and his Government had already   agreed informally to declare a Republic and   withdraw fully  from the Commonwealth.

  But the consequences had not been teased out through diplomatic channels with the British Government. They were taken by surprise. They reacted by passing the unnecessary Government of Ireland Act to reassure Unionists. This Act appeared to nationalist opinion at the time entrench partition, because of the mistaken nationalist assumption that it was really British laws, not  Unionist people, who were keeping partition in place.    

This is a great biography of a neglected but central figure in modern Irish history, and deserves to widely read.  His record, in making coalitions work in difficult economic times, has many valuable lessons for his party today.  

Book Review for the “Irish Times” by John Bruton.

The book is to be published on 15 October and publishers request that no review appear before that date.

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The Reluctant Taoiseach; A biography of John A Costello

By David McCullagh

Gill and Macmillan

27.99 euros/ 24.99 stg.