From; martin

I am a member of the West london branch of comhaltas and have been following the thread for the last few weeks. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Clasac Affair the handling of this by Comhaltas HQ is nothing short of an alsolute disgrace.

Although I was not an active member of West london CCE during the 1979 expulsions I do know that to this day it has deeply affected the branch as it now stands. The branch was suspended in 1979 following a letter from the local committee refusing to participate in what they viewed as political activities, namely a celebration of Patrick Pearse in which branches were invited to make donations. Quite rightly the local committee felt that this ran counter to the non-political tenets of CCE. For this they awarded with suspension.

And why should this old history be of any importance today ?

Because the those responsible what what happened in 1979 are still in control of CCE HQ. More so, it still follows a certain political agenda and behaves in a manner which hold no truck with those with opposing views.

Just look at the Comhaltas website in which Labhras gets a unaminous vote of support at the 2th may Congresss in dublin. Its embarrassing to read. I have written to the CCE Provincial Chairman describing this motion as obsequous nonsence with echoes of a 1930s USSR motion of support for "Uncle Joe". I eagerly await his reply from him.