In the referendum campaign the republican movement tried to tell us how to run our campaign. More recently they even tried to tell us how to run Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. The first thing ACM should do,t hey said, was to sack me.
They are clearly upset by the report here concerning the murder of young Australians by the Irish Republican Army and the support the republican movement received from Gerry Adams in the 1999 referendum.
They have now sent me this charming email.
What a pity the republican movement did not check on some elementary facts before sending it.
…the email…
Flint,
When did Gerry Adams come to Australia in 1999 and when did he ask Australians to vote ‘Yes’ to the referendum.
No-one seems to be able to find any record of either event.
Are you quite mad, an habitual liar or just an idiot?
David Donovan
National Media Director & Queensland Convenor
Australian Republican Movement GPO Box 611, Canberra, ACT, 2601M:
0403 237 880 0403 237 880; F: (07) 5526 8217
..but there is no doubt, Adams was here…
Some elementary research would have revealed that the Irish Republican boss was here for eight days in February 1999.
He gave the Wallace Wurth lecture at the University of New South Wales. This was broadcast on the ABC.
He was separately interviewed on at least one other ABC programme.
He even visited Mr. Donovan’s state.
When the Lord Mayor of Brisbane gave him what was described in the media as a “champagne reception”, the father of Stephen Melrose understandably protested.
You see, Stephen Melrose was a young lawyer. He was one of the two Australians brutally murdered by the Irish Republican Army in the Netherlands. The other was Nick Spanos.
The previous Prime Minister Bob Hawke had contemptuously rejected the Irish Republican Army’s apology when they said their hit squad had mistakenly believed the two young Australians were British soldiers. They not only did not hand over the murderers who subsequently escaped justice through a legal technicality. They did not even name them.
The then Prime Minister John Howard correctly refused to meet Adams, as did Western Australian Premier, Richard Court.
…but the ARM did not reject his support….
[ To read what Gerry Adams said when he joined the ARM campaign, follow the "Read more" link below]
“I don’t have time for monarchists of any kind,” Adams told the mass circulation Sun Herald on 28 February 1999.
“For my entire life I have been in opposition to British interference in my affairs.”
(It is of course a mistake to think as it seems some republicans do that if something is not on the internet, it does not exist. There is no obligation on a newspapersto post items to the internet. Indeed, even today, the Sun Herald does not put everything in the paper on the net.)
To return to Adams, as I observed in a book used in the referendum campaign, The Cane Toad Republic:
"He then proceeded to lecture Australia on its responsibilities in East Timor. If Mr. Adams objects to what he sees as British interference in his country’s affairs, why does he think it appropriate to interfere in Australia’s?"
At the time ACM called on the ARM to disassociate its campaign from Adams and the Irish Republican Army. To their shame they did not.
The appalling fact is the republican movement did not reject support from such a foreign quarter, one with Australian blood on their hands.
We can only conclude from this email that the republican movement has no corporate memory, a complete inability to undertake the most elementary research and is willing to resort to campaigning through personal abuse instead of sound argument.