Left Archive: Dawn Magazine, Dawn Group, Issue 100, 1984 February 22, 2010
Posted by irishonlineleftarchive in Dawn Group, Irish Left Online Document Archive.trackback
Thanks to ‘anonymous’ for sending the following. As anonymous notes…”Dawn magazine (An Irish magazine on nonviolent action civil liberties and movements for change) was associated with the Dawn Group and was published on a monthly basis from 1974 to 1985. The Dawn Group later become part of INNATE This issue deals with “Ireland’s Eco-Death and ‘Oscar for Dr. Reagan?’ concerning the visit of Ronald Reagan to Ireland. There’s an history of the Dawn Group, which notes that it sprouted as an idea at the Benburb conference of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and Pax Christi. It’s an eclectic mix of articles.”
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
[…] * Dawn Group: Dawn Magazine, Mai 1984 […]
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Anyone remember the protests against Ronald Reagan mentioned
here? I remember reading Christie Moore’s songbook
where he wrote two (unrecorded) anti-Ronnie songs, “Hey Ronnie
Reagan” and “Cowboy Reagan£.
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There’s a version of Hey Ronnie Regan on the Christy Moore Box Set. There’s a better (IMHO) bootleg version of the song floating around from a concert he did in England a year or so after the visit as well.
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Hey Ronnie Reagan I’m black and I’m pagan
I’m gay and I’m left and I’m free
I’m a non-fundamenatalist environmentalist
What will you do about me
If you are referring to the marches against Reagan when he came to visit, I was on them. Got a bus to Galway and found my voice with Ronnie Ronnie Ronnie Out Out Out and Ó Riagáin Ó Riagáin Ó Riagáin Amach Amach Amach. Walked in Dublin too and then adjourned to a bar off Georges St to see De Rossa MacGiolla and Gregory stand up one after another, speak briefly in protest and then walk out of the Dáil before the cowboy addressed it. I stood up and cheered and the barman was most offended and nearly asked me to leave.
Fond memories too of marching later to the Bridewell to demand the release of the Phoenix Park peace camp women who had been effectively interned over the weekend. “One two three four, Open up the prison door. Five six seven eight, Let the women through the gate. One two three, Set the women free. Everybody shout, let the women out.” I remember a couple of Special Branch men went onto the roof of the Bridewell to look down on the crowd. They were spotted by one wag who shouted JUMP to much amusement all round.
An acquaintance got a bit carried away with the possibilities at one stage and began shouting FREE ALL PRISONERS. To which another pal replied sotto voce, “Yeah Free All Prisoners, except the junkie bastard that broke into my flat and stole my video.”
End of reminiscence.
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I’ve similar memories to Joe’s. The ‘Ring Around the Castle’ demo was significant insofar as it didn’t take the usual Parnell Square-Dáil route and was, to my mind anyway, incredibly loud. I latched on to a group of attractive Columbian nuns but my chat up lines got me nowhere…
We were certainly heard within the walls (not that that served any purpose) but I remember being told by a Board of Works archaeologist that several besuited CIA operatives spent the day and the night before down in the Poddle behind the Castle and deep within the sewer system underneath, who emerged when all the shouting was over covered in shit. Now that was a result.
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Speaking of CIA, I also remember something which I thought puzzling at the time. As we were marching down by Beresford Place (in our thousands), a car pulled up and a few cleancut American young men inside began to loudly abuse the crowd. “You don’t know what you are on about. You’re a bunch of assholes” and so on. It seemed to me that they were asking for a hiding but a sensible marcher among us advised everyone to ignore them. My belief now is that they were CIA, hoping to get attacked, so the media could run “violent mob attacks innocent Americans” stories.
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There’s a “Dawn Ruth Nelson” mentioned on page 4. I wonder
is this the same woman?
http://www.cascadiapublishinghouse.com/mw/mw.htm
In addition to the IFOR link, “Dawn” was also linked to
“War Resisters Internation”- a distinguished peace organisation which
counted Mohandas Gandhi, Fenner Brockway and
Richard B. Gregg (who influenced Martin Luther King
and Aldous Huxley) as members.
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Dawn Ruth Nelson and her husband Paul were members of the Mennonite christian pacifist church from USA who came to live in Dublin in the 1970s. Mennonites wished to witness for peace and became involved in promoting research and dialogue among Catholic and Protestant groups in the city. Dawn Ruth (her first name not linked to the magazine title) helped to produce the monthly issues and sometimes wrote articles and short news reports. Her grown-up daughter Sarah studied at QUB in Belfast many years later. In the 1990s Dawn and Paul returned to USA and she eventually became a pastor in the American church. The Mennonites emerged in eastern Germany and Bohemia in the late 16th century during the complicated course of the German reformation. They have a peace ethos similar to Quakers, Anabaptists and Amish folk. They have a university in the USA called Goschen College. A professor led small groups of students to Ireland a few times to study contemporary Irish literature and meet people in the republic and Northern Ireland in order to deepen their understanding of the conflict. The Mennonite church as such doesn’t function in Ireland today although there may be a few members around.
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This is one of those strange coincidences life throws out every so often, but I’ve just digitised this morning an interview with Mick Garde of the Mennonite church which was based in Ballybough – 4 Clonmore Villas to be precise.The recording was made in March 1990 and is part of the Inner City Folklore Project archive in the Labour History museum. I’m just in the door and read this comment and thought, well, maybe God does work in mysterious ways. 🙂
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Joe wrote:
An acquaintance got a bit carried away with the possibilities at one stage and began shouting FREE ALL PRISONERS. To which another pal replied sotto voce, “Yeah Free All Prisoners, except the junkie bastard that broke into my flat and stole my video.”
Are there any of us who weren’t victims of the junkie burglars back in those days? Lost my vinyl album collection among other things…
Maybe that’s why I don’t remember so many details of the anti-Reagan demo — upset at being burgled (again). But I was there!
And I remember being inspired by, among other things, Dawn magazine. It was always a great read. Every month for eleven years.
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Rob Fairmichael of INNATE has a letter in today’s IT criticising the
IT’s coverage of Irishmen in the UK Army :
http://www.irishtimes.com/letters/index.html#1224276086896
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