Jobs for the Irish Boys
By BRIAN INGLIS
Dublin MUCH can be learned about a country from the study of its scandals. They are not necessarily a source of embarrassment: few people in England would worry if malevolently disposed persons thought to impugn the national honour by distributing free copies of the Lynskey Tribunal Report. Where only the mildest of purges has to be administered, the patient can congratulate himself upon the soundness of his constitution. We in Ireland had just previously held a judicial investigation into the sale of a distillery to which the Stanley isffair was to have many similarities. Sydney Stanley himself, 'admittedly, was a comedian that we could not equal ; but our supporting cast beat yours hollow. There was the sinister, shadowy figure of Smith, alias Maximoe, who disappeared off the mailboat while he was being deported across the Irish Sea. • He has not been seen again—not, that is, officially ; few of us but have heard somebody say, " Didn't I see him only the other clay, with my own eyes, above in Tubbercurry? I known the man, I tell you ; don't be calling me a liar! ' Then there was -Miss Dunnico, alias Miss Del Monico, whose goings-on brought • to this otherwise Dick Bartonish episode a flavour of The ,Little Hut. It would have required an Alistair Cooke to distil 'the essence of this entertaining case, whose bouquet was as ,unmistakable as the tang of the firm's whiskey. .',.■ Suffice to say that little came out of the proceedings to tbmbarrass us. Another major scandal the previous year had - 'ended in the resignation of a Cabinet Minister: yet even this lease was consoling in that when the stone was publicly lifted by the investigating body, the creatures that crawled away turned -out to be very much less nauseating than rumour had led us to suspect. As usual, too, there were saving touches of comedy. The firm whose activities were under investigation had clearly been following the precedent of the British mine-owner who dis- -covered that Lord Shaftesbury's Act, which compelled him to take Government inspectors down the mine, did not compel him to bring them up. To judge from the evidence, the company was aware that legally it was compelled to keep accounts ; but it regarded as pedantry the suggestion that the accounts should 'be correct.
In the last few weeks we have been plagued with quite a rash 'of minor scandals. The battle of Baltinglass, which ended with a triumphant victory for public opinion over the State, was the case which attracted most attention ; there again, with Miss Cooke reinstated in her Post Office and the Minister suitably chastened, we can look back at the case with pride. Recently there have been two further cases, possibly of greater intrinsic importance, which have not attracted the same publicity, both of them revealing of the national character. One concerns a civil servant who was removed from his post after a dispute with his Minister. The balance of right was clearly on his side ; but he made the tactical mistake of entrusting his case to a former Minister, now in opposition. The result was a series of Parlia- mentary questions, which elicited little, apart from the surprising information that a Gretna Green marriage ceremony suffices to secure a marriage allowance for Irish civil servants. The former Minister's insinuations were sufficiently pointed to arouse Captain Cowan, whose spare time has been devoted to the organisation of a Fred Karno army to invade the North, and who is not normally noted for his banter, to ask the Speaker if it was in order to call the Deputy a sewer-rat. No, said the Speaker. " Thank you," said Captain Cowan, " the sewer-rats will be grateful for that ruling."
Discontent simmering over the second case may yet boil over into action and call attention to a problem that was stated in an article in the Spectator a few weeks ago: The writer was drawing attention to the " measureless frustration and irritation " caused among civil servants by any suspicion that promotion may be at the mercy of influence—that a post may be filled arbitrarily, without previous advertisement or subsequent ex- planation, by an outsider brought in, not on his merits, but through the possession of friends in high places. Just such a suspicion is rankling in the minds of C.I.E., the State transport company, employees at the moment. Perhaps it is not too parochial to serve as a cautionary tale. When the post of chief engineer of C.I.E. was filled recently, the man next in line for promotion, who had been acting-chief for two years, and who had won a very high reputation for himself both in the profession and in the company, was passed over in favour of Mr. Daniel Herlihy, a local government department official, and a former colleague of C.I.E.'s present manager. Journalists seeking in- formation from the department about Mr. Herlihy's qualificg- tions were informed that he had little experience of railway engineering. He was, though—the informant elicited after a pause—an acknowledged expert on sewage.
Nobody imagines that the motives of C.I.E.'s manager were anything but estimable. He believed, obviously, that, Mr. Herlihy would be the best man for the job. What he failed to realise was that, however good Mr. Herlihy might be, the effect on the company's morale would be catastrophic. The Irish are very inclined to make that mistake. We have a very strong family feeling. When Dr. Johnson described us as a fair people, because we never spoke well of one another, he must have been thinkine of those exiles, common enough—Shaw brings one on in the first act of John Bull's Other 7sland—in countries all over the world, who live on their wits with the help of a brogue that is often as spurious as they are, and who are naturally disinclined to encounter fellow-countrYmen. The Irish proper have a very strong family feeling. coupled with a remarkable facility for investing anybody with the qualifications required for any post to which we may be able to assist him. "Jobs for the boys " arc much more likely to be obtained by trading on our desire to do a good turn for a friend than on our cupidity.
Conceit plays a part, tog ; the man in the Maupassant story who was consequently pressing introductions to influential tieopk on to casual acquaintances might well have had Irish blood in him. To keep this national propensity within bounds is not easy. A system of checks add balances on all appointments might only serve to destroy what little flexibility remains in the State service. Perhaps we can do no more than to restate the principles that all posts should be advertised, at least within the department concerned ; and that if an outsider is brought in, some effort ought to be made to explain the reasons for the choice. Should these principles be ignored, as occasionally they undoubtedly will be, we can always fall back on public opinion. After Baltinglass our politicians should have learned that the power of public opinion cannot always be discounted.
Previous page
