Last night was unusual. I don't generally watch t.v. – especially not outside baseball season. However, last night I stumbled on one program and purposely sat down for another.
The first program was about the bombing of Philippine Airlines Flight 434. I knew something about the bombing before last night – in particular the involvement of the mastermind behind the 1993 WTC bombing, Ramzi Yousef – but I didn't know the details about the bombing. I doubt there was anything overly revealing about the program, but the whole discussion of where Yousef put the bomb reminded me of the downing of TWA 800, which was brought down by an explosion in the fuel tank. I won't jump on the conspiracy bandwagon, but it is interesting how much that PAL 434 attempt sounded like what eventually did happen to TWA 800. {The conspiracy theories are all mentioned here.}
The second program was Cathal O'Shannon's Hidden History program Ireland's Nazis. I found it interesting, damning, and uncomfortable viewing. The program provided good background on the Nazis and collaborators who made it to Ireland after the war with the help of the government and the Church. I liked the way O'Shannon named those people whose behavior was particularly vile.
You couldn't help but be moved by the testimony of Joe Briscoe, who found out years later that a man who his father had considered a friend and sympathetic to his request to allow Jewish refugees into Ireland was, in fact, a virulent antisemite. Peter Berry was secretary of the Department of Justice at the time and he argued vehemently against letting any Jewish refugees into Ireland.
O'Shannon didn't pull any punches either, letting it be known that antisemitism was par for the course in post-war Ireland and that had the government made any move to allow in Jewish refugees it would have been opposed by the population. In fact, De Valera got the Red Cross to agree to refer to Jewish orphans from Vichy France as simply children so that there would be no uproar.
A long way from Ireland of the Welcomes, that's for sure.
