“we state in confidence to you, that we do not allow ourselves to be restricted in the methods of raising resources… legal and illegal means have been employed by us” Letter from the Workers’ Party to the East German communist party in 1989
Today, they’re respectable. Two senior members of a coalition government, An Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Eamon Gilmore (57) and Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte (63).
But back in 1989, both were TDs for the Workers’ Party on whose murky past, more light is today shed in the Irish Times which has obtained a letter written by the party to the notorious East German Socialist Unity Party of Germany (known by its German acronym SED). The SED was “notorious” because it oversaw a draconian and ultimately failed governance of a divided German people and it supported like-minded political parties across the globe.
In the letter written in 1989 to the SED by the Workers’ Party general secretary, Sean Garland, the Irish Times reports that it was confirmed by the Workers’ Party that “illegal means have been employed” by that party in raising funds. The Irish Times itself elaborates that this was a confirmation of what was already widely known – “its military wing, the Official IRA, was involved in bank robberies and racketeering” writes the newspaper.
In 1989 both Messrs Gilmore and Rabbitte were leading lights in the Workers’ Party – being two of the seven party TDs elected in that year’s General Election. Eamon Gilmore had been a Workers’ Party councilor on the Dublin County Council since 1985 and in 1989 was elected TD for Dun Laoghaire where he has been re-elected ever since. Likewise, Pat Rabbitte had been a Workers’ Party councilor on the Dublin County Council since 1985 and in 1989 became the TD for Dublin South West.
There is no evidence adduced today of either’s direct involvement in the “illegal means employed” by the party and it is an unashamedly loaded question to ask “how involved in racketeering and bank robbery were Messrs Gilmore and Rabbitte?” In 1992, the two were to the forefront of the split from the Workers’ Party to create the short-lived Democratic Left which subsequently merged into the Labour Party in 1999.
But when have they ever been called to account for their Alma Mater’s murky past? Given all the present-day respectability, maybe it would be considered gauche to ask at the next EU presidency news conference…
NAMA Wine Lake 
That seems to be the wrong link to the Irish Times item.
@Miriam, thanks, the short online IT article doesn’t appear to be online any more but the longer article which now has a facsimile of the letter is still there, and I have changed the link so that it points at the long article.
After all the revelations about Haughey, Ahern, FF in general, and the various tribunals, it would not surprise me in the slightest to hear that present members of the government had engaged in criminal behaviour at one time.
I imagine you’d get four or five lifetime’s worth of sentences if you extended crime and punishment to the back benches.
With this post, this blog has reached a new low. (Indeed, every week seems to have an effort to evoke that remark).The original Irish Times article was an appalling “2+2=1 million” exercise, which is why one can’t see it any more. Despite its withdrawal by the paper, the nonsense remains here.
I say again: the editor of this blog should be fired.
@FO’R, The article has not been removed from the Irish Times. Also, the smell still remains around the “stickies” for those with memories.
The most admirable thing about the US and indeed the UK system of government is that nobody used violence to get elected. They remain true democracies, where the ballot box is the only route to power. For that reason alone it was a privilege to watch the inauguration in the States this week.
I have personal memories of the ‘Stickies” from the late 70s, when we were on a site that required the removal of a lot of rock. We extracted it by using gelignite. At 5 am in the morning I had a visit from two members of the Official IRA, AKA the Workers Party, to “suggest” that I divert some of the aforementioned explosives to them. I declined and after a few not so subtle threats, they departed. On the basis that the forces of darkness and evil fear light, I reported the incident to the Special Branch, and other than 4 or 5 menacing phone calls, heard no more about it.
Some of us have less than fond memories of the associates of people who now make up our present government.
1. No, the article from which the worst quotes were taken was removed and rewritten as the one to which the link now points, and which is unobjectionable.
2. There is no basis whatsoever that I can see or have seen for the smearing of the politicians named.
3. The relationship between the Official IRA and the Workers Party was never like that between the Provos and Sinn Féin. If you (w_s_t_t) have been around since the ’70s, there is no excuse save amnesia for suggesting otherwise.
4. Naturally, I will of course revise my opinion regarding the possible involvement in support for armed struggle by those named if evidence is produced. However, I do recall that, way back when any trail would have been less cold, the Indo & Éamon Dunphy, failed to find any worthwhile such evidence, despite a very significant financial incentive to do so.
5. I have no objection to the relevant and occasionally useful material trotted out here several times per week – sometimes per day – boosting the party whose parliamentary representation includes *actual* former “terrorists” in senior positions, but I am surely not the only person who finds it ironic that the past associations of its parliamentarians are rarely (ever ?) mentioned on this website. (No, I do NOT want them to be; I just object to the gratuitous tabloidery of this post, and especially of its title).
@ FO”R, Is this how history is re-written? Those around in the 70s – me included – lived through it and remember it very well. Neither Amnesia, nor Alzheimer’s has set in yet.
From Wikipedia:
“The Official IRA was associated with Official Sinn Féin, later renamed Sinn Féin the Workers Party and then The Workers’ Party,”
Also, if you need some help remembering , a good start might be:
a b Hanley, Brian & Millar, Scott (2009). The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers’ Party. Dublin: Penguin Ireland
@w_S_T_T
Sorry, is there a new point in that comment ? Or one that contradicts something that I have said ?
Did Rabbitte or Gilmore ever support “armed struggle” ? Were they the two who visited you at 5 a.m. ?
By the way, the “Official IRA” was never (except lazily and inaccurately) “a.k.a.” The Workers Party.
@FO’R, Was the PIRA the milItary wing of Sinn Fein? Eventually the two became reported in the media as one – “SinnFein/IRA”.
The Official IRA was the military wing of the Workers Party. The dogs in the street knew that.
I do believe that at one time, when they were young revolutionaries supporting the Stalinist policies of the Soviet Union that both Mr Gilmore and Mr Rabbitte did tacitly “turn a blind eye” to the activities of their armed wing. But that is my opinion, I cannot prove it.
No, Pat and Eamonn did not join me for breakfast :-)