Breda O’Brien is full of shit
In letters released by the Department of Foreign Affairs last year, John Charles McQuaid is seen thanking minister Sean McBride.
The Archbishop’s gratitude is down to Ireland’s government contributing to, and facilitating, clandestine transfer of two million euro to the Vatican in an effort to influence the outcome of an Italian general election.
The funds were to support a group called Catholic Action. As the Mussolini regime came down, this group, along with NATO, CIA, etc, etc, were part of a decades long campaign to suppress communism and secure power for the Italian Christian Democrats.
In a coded telegram, Joe Walshe, Irish ambassador to the Holy See, informs secretary of the department, Frederick Boland, that
“If we could send a substantial sum of money for propaganda purposes out of the Secret Service, it could be kept a complete secret. Even a few thousands would be very gratefully received at the point where we appreciate gratitude most.”
According to the Chicago Tribune
Catholic Action is a lay arm of the Vatican entrusted with the diffusion and defence of the principles of the Roman Catholic faith.
And as reported in the Irish Press, were
above and outside party politics: intent only on the discussion and propaganda of Catholic principles.
Sounds very familiar, doesn’t it?
This is just one of the more interesting tales of the cash and power nexus between the Irish state, hierarchy and Rome.
A decade earlier, the Irish Times was forced to bring home their reporter from the Spanish Civil war on objection from Catholic colleges who had threatened to withdraw advertising from the paper. We can only speculate as to what aspect of General Franco’s fascist adventures Irish colleges deemed unfit for public consumption. In that same paper last year, Breda O’Brien expounded at length about the closure of one such institution. Lamenting a fatal depletion of state funding.
In today’s edition she comes out swinging. Suddenly, gone are the “genuine reservations” about family and tradition, instead we find attack and slander. Someone has been doing their homework and O’Brien lists everything from Gay & Lesbian Equality Network funding to how many hours they have appeared on television. For instance
In 2009, GLEN had 348 media appearances – 179 broadcasts and the rest ranged from national newspapers to the Law Society Gazette. Almost one per day.
What a statistic! And from six years ago. This is fine detective work from people who like to portray themselves as mere concerned citizens, with only the best interests of children at heart.
She concludes by asking if “American can money buy an Irish referendum?”.
A broad outline of Iona Institute funding is well known. A supposed charity can skirt grey areas where political donations are still tax exempt, director David Quinn is involved with a network of extraordinarily wealthy catholic business men, while some Iona Institute patrons themselves are making millions in the thoroughly Christian enterprise of for-profit healthcare. The list goes on and on.
David Quinn responded in a most jesuitical manner to The Phoenix recently
When asked if the well-heeled members of Legatus in Dublin contribute to Iona, Quinn said that no money has been given to Iona at Legatus meetings held in Dublin
And the magazine comments
The Michigan, US HQ of Legatus states that, “Legatus members have a special responsibility and opportunity to renew the temporal order and evangelise, given the nature of their positions and sphere of infl uence”. This evangelising approach is something that Casey emphasises in some of her articles and speeches and Quinn appears to be the principal such evangeliser in Ireland. It is disappointing, therefore, to learn that the same wealthy personalities are happy to see Iona strapped for cash, especially as it confronts the forces of darkness in conflicts such as the gay marriage referendum
Lolek Ltd / Iona Institute had a cash balance of €186,000 at end of 2007, €231,000 at end 2010, €278,000 in 2011 and €325,000 at end 2012.
Of course, there has also been a considerable donation from RTÉ since.
We can only imagine the money at referendum time. For a rough guide, the company behind the Prolife Campaign had a turnover approaching one million euro in the months between Savita Halappanavar’s death and passing of the PLDP Act in 2013. Crazy fucking money.
I have also uploaded an extract from Breda O’Brien on Marian Finucane last year. She became quite defensive when asked some very rudimentary questions about Iona’s basic operation. We are to believe the kind of cash above - offices in Merrion Square, public lectures, badly animated videos, etc, are bankrolled from the odd tenner from “grannies in Donegal”.
Readers will recall the whole gang appearing on EWTN in 2013 as the “tsunami of the culture of death” crashed against old Ireland’s shore.
In a specially commissioned infomercial for American audiences, Iona Institute director David Quinn is here below asking that viewers may “pledged their resources”.
I don’t think he meant prayers alone.
Caroline Simons of the Prolife Campaign subsequently denied knowing anything about it during Oireachtas hearings.
None of this really matters.
Following the money is really really crucial if you intend to learn of real interests. This is true. Faith is often used as cover to protect the privilege of private education, hospitals and so on but a much more important question is not funding but how these groups are enabled. How do they attain and wield influence. And to what end.
For now, referendums are very dirty business and we are dealing with people who wrote the book on underhanded campaigning. Expect every trick and threat as they try close the gap.
You will notice how everything uttered by the No side is calculated to strip legitimacy of a yes result. Just 22 years since decriminalisation, lest we forget, there is clear intent to portray organised religion, its unrivalled resources, highly motivated and connected operatives as the underdog. No opportunity is missed to deflect attention away from the issues and towards their perception of an unfair fight. They claim to be silenced or of bias when the truth is they are loudly and clearly heard but just not listened to. And they hate it.
Pointing to Chuck Feeney’s money is territorial. Forces of conservatism lashing out, green eyed, about encouragement into a realm of power still seen wholly as their own monopoly. People content to publicly drag others’ lives and relationships through a hedge just to feed their own sense of entitlement.
Breda O’Brien’s column today is just another example of how very powerful interests have adopted the posture of oppression and injustice while denying it to the very people they have stolen it from.
