Long march from national relived

MUCH of Proinsias De Rossa's late teenage years were spent marching, according to his evidence on the second day of his libel action against the Sunday Independent.

As a 16 year old IRA recruit in 1957, he marched in the funeral cortege of his dead comrade, Sean South. He was on a route march in the Wicklow Mountains when he was first arrested, later that year. He was on another march when he was arrested a second time, in 1960.

And it was around about that time, according to his evidence, that he set out on what was to be his personal long march.

This was the one that took him from militant nationalism to democratic socialism, a journey signposted all the way by changes in his parties' names: first Sinn Fein, then Official Sinn Fein, Sinn Fein the Workers Party, the Workers Party, New Agenda and, finally, Democratic Left.

But all of this came after an early life which was dominated by the twin dreams of uniting Ireland and securing a job with the ESB.

In the event his efforts in the first cause helped defeat his chances of the second. As an exprisoner, he found it hard to get work of any kind and his formal education had been curtailed.

On the plus side, he had read James Connolly while inside and the writings struck a chord. He didn't mention Gorky, but he evoked the Russian writer's autobiography when he described his time in the Curragh internment camp as "my university days".

The author of the Sunday Independent article, Eamon Dunphy, made only a brief appearance in court. He was gone before Mr De Rossa mentioned him, but wherever he was his ears must have warmed up. Describing his shock on reading the Sunday Independent article, Mr De Rossa could not resist a sideswipe: "I don't know Eamon Dunphy at all. I used to read his stuff on football until I got sick of that."

On the subject of decency, to which the article suggested he had a "recent conversion", he said: "I'm not a saint. I don't think I'm any better than anyone in this courtroom. But I believe I'm at least as decent as Eamon Dunphy."

He was particularly annoyed that, after the aborted first hearing, the journalist had written "that he didn't expect to see me back here". He was back, he said and he would keep coming back as long as was necessary.

Two of his current political colleagues, Pat Rabbitte and Eamonn Gilmore, turned out to support their leader yesterday and heard him describe the early electoral successes of the Workers' Party. He recalled that Joe Sherlock, Paddy Gallagher and himself won seats in the February 1982 election, but that of the trio only he retained his seat in the second election of that year.

This may have sent a disturbing message to the public gallery, because it was noticeable that neither of his colleagues was in court when the case resumed at 2 p.m. Perhaps they had pressing constituency business to attend to, or perhaps they had guessed that the case would be adjourned.

The second day was, like the first, only a half day. Where legal argument truncated the opening session, another disagreement forced an adjournment yesterday before the cross examination could begin.

Mr Justice Moriarty apologised to everybody for the slow movement of the wheels of justice, but said it could not be helped. March is what Mr De Rossa did as a teenager and, by the looks of things, March is what we'll be well into when this case is over.