How do you map Declan Ganley’s political DNA?

The double helix of DNA defines our characteristics, and links us back to a common ancestor. For all its faults there is much that is honourable in the Irish political DNA. Ireland was the only one of the new republics founded after 1919 that was still a democracy in 1939. The DNA of all the major Irish political parties can be found in the GPO in 1916 and a commitment to an egalitarian and democratic form of organisation of society.

One would be at a loss to map Ganley in this process, but it is not impossible.

What are Ganley’s characteristics?

Swaggering arrogance

An ever so ‘umble beginning

Non descript Thames valley accent

Contempt for the politics of the mere paddies – they are all a cartel evidently

Great Wealth

We can map this to a phenomenon in Irish modern history.

It is the auxiliary division of the Royal Irish Constabulary, who arrived in Ireland from late 1920 onwards to put manners on the mere Irish. The egregious behaviour has often obscured an analysis of who these people were.

They were ex British army officers who had been through the First War, and in most cases had risen from the ranks ( ever so ‘umble beginnings)

They were paid five pounds a day all found – an unheard of sum ( Great wealth)

Some would have served beyond 1918 into the Russian intervention ( one had helped to found the Lithuanian army) The murky east European links remain interesting !

So the Ganley type has a long if not an honourable pedigree in Irish political culture

Libertas UK candidate served in British Army in Northern Ireland during Troubles and ran for James Goldsmith in 2 general elections in the UK

Declan Ganley has done it again recruiting a former British Army officer in the Blues and Royals Carlo de Chair to run for Libertas. Carlos also served in northern Ireland during the troubles in a regiment repeatedly targeted by the IRA. However de Clair is also a lifelong euroscetptic who ran in two general elections for James Goldsmith. In 1994 he polled 12,409 votes standing as an Independent Anti European Superstate candidate in Essex North and Suffolk South.
In 1997 he ran as a candidate for Goldsmaith's Referendum party polling 2,740 in Suffolk South E.
Not only that he is a member of the super elite British aristocratic set.
Among those who attended his fathers funeral were

Lady Julia de Chair (widow), Lieutenant Commander Rodney de Chair (son), Mr and Mrs Rory de Chair (son and daughter-in-law), Mr Carlo de Chair (son), Sir Toby Clarke (son-in-law), Mr Tobias de Chair, Miss Freya de Chair, Laurence Clarke, Theodora Clarke, Augusta Clarke (grandchildren), Mrs Elaine Barrington-Hudson (sister), Mrs Graham de Chair (sister-in-law), Mrs Jeremy de Burgh-Daly, Mr Colin de Chair, Mrs Edward Farmer, Mrs Carmen Kaufler and other members of the family.

Diana Duchess of Newcastle, the Marquess of Northampton, Penelope Marchioness of Zetland, the Earl and Countess of Kinnoul, Earl and Countess Bathurst, the Dowager Viscountess Masserine and Ferrard, Viscount Davidson, CH, and Viscountess Davidson, Lord Michael Pratt, Lady Hindlip, Lord Burnham, Lady Thorneycroft, Lady Northbourne, Lord and Lady Foley.

Lord Kenilworth, Lady Plunket, Lord Abinger, Lady Kingsdown, Lady Newall, Lord Pender, Lady Mary Mansel Lewis, the Hon Gerard Noel, the Hon Mrs Van der Woude, the Hon Sir Clive Bossom, the Hon Nicholas Assheton (also representing the Pitt Club), the Hon Mrs Vivian Baring, the Hon Julia Stonor, the Hon Philip Havers, QC, the Hon Mrs John Leigh-Pemberton.

So Ganley has again shown his love for all things military and British officers who associate with members of the most elitest grouping in Western Europe the British aristocracy.

There has also been much speculation among those ion the know that ganlkey has had acess to a multi million £ slush fund left by Goldsmith to help smash EU democracies.


"
(http://libertas-eastern.blogspot.com/2009/05/carlo-de-chair.html).

Evening Standard (London)

June 13, 1994

Polling card

SECTION: Pg. 8

LENGTH: 267 words

SIR JAMES Goldsmith, today celebrating his election to Strasbourg after the spectacular success of L'Autre Europe, should not despair of extending his credo to Britain.

One of his kindred spirits, Carlo de Chair, son of the former Tory MP and author Somerset de Chair, polled 12,409 votes standing as an Independent Anti European Superstate candidate in Essex North and Suffolk South - the highest vote recorded anywhere in Britain by an independent.

'Sir James wrote to me wishing me well. We obviously have similar views,' says Carlo, from St Osyth's Priory, Essex, one of his family's seats.

A former officer in the Blues and Royals, Carlo campaigned under the unequivocal slogan, 'Let us stop grovelling to Brussels' and is emphatic about his credentials for doing so. 'I used to be called 'wog' during my school days at Milton Abbey because of my name and because I look like one,' he adds, 'but I am, in fact, entirely British.'

Libertas in Northern Ireland headed by Retired British Army Lt. Colonel

According to Wikipedia, Libertas in Northern Ireland is headed by a recently retired British Army Lt. Colonel Robin Matthews. Northern Ireland has seen a recent return to dissident Republican violence and it appears that Libertas have decided to defy both Sinn Fein, their partners in the NO to Lisbon campaign, who are against any staioning of British soliders in the six counties, and the dissident republican groups who have recently killed two British service men and a policeman in gun attacks there. Libertas in Northern Ireland are run by the same team as that of Great Britain.

Libertas NI (abbr. unknown: LNI?) is the name of the Libertas Party Limited affiliate that intends to field candidates in Northern Ireland. It shares offices and some personnel with the Great Britain affiliate but has a different treasurer.

[edit] Personnel

Person	Position
Robin Matthews	Leader[9]
Andrew Jamieson	Nominating Officer[9]
James Millard	Treasurer[9]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertas_United_Kingdom

Matthews was spin doctor for the British war effort in Helmand Province until the middle of 2008. He also attended Ganley's eurpsceptic dinner at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin with his wife Frances. The dinner was held to honour the Kremlin's man in the Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus.

Watford Boy makes good Ganley launches Libertas in UK videos

Watford boy Declan Ganley launches attack on British democracy with former British Army spin doctor in the lead position. Whereas Labour were critised for being elected on the back of spin. Libertas take spin one step further and run spin doctor employee as a candidate.

Libertas to pin hopes on a pro-Catholic agenda and hire's former British Army spin doctor to run Brussels bureau

Caroline Simons (left):Prospective Libertas candidate for Dublin and former

spokesperson /current legal advisor to the ProLife Campaign and former

Green Party MEP Patricia McKenna listening to Taoiseach Brian Cowen making

a keynote speech at before the National Forum of Europe, Dublin Castle 22 May 2008

Libertas have recruited a former British Army communications officer as chef de cabinet of its Libertas EU. Lt Col Robin Matthews, spokesman former spokesman for British forces in Helmand, Afganistan is now running the Libertas hub in Brussels. Declan ganley's penchant for hiring ex military has thus extended from his Rivada networks which is staffed by several former US military personal but has now extended to an EU warrior on terror.



An aide for Libertas has also confirmed that it cannot run the same policies in different countries. the Catholic hard line anti abortion platform ids deemed to be a goer in Poland and the West of Ireland but the spokesman said that this policy will not work in the Czech Republic or Sweden. The implication is that Libertas will tailor policies to fit different territories. Therefore we will have no idea what the party stand for or intend to do if they get a mandate.

This is sinister political opportunism. What are we to believe the parties actual views are if they can be this cavalier in their approach to policy.



Ireland Sunday Business Post echoes this blog in noting that"Ganley has insistently denied being a Eurosceptic or in any way anti-European, but he has allied himself to elements in some European countries that are not just Eurosceptics, but Euro haters."



We can only conclude that Libertas cannot be believed. They will tailor policies to suit a particular voter poll regardless of their own beliefs. They make public statements diametricly opposite to their actual stance.

Libertas to pin hopes on a pro-Catholic agenda

Sunday, February 15, 2009 By Pat Leahy

Libertas, the anti-Lisbon Treaty group founded by Declan Ganley, is to launch its Irish campaign for the European Parliament eletions later this month and will bring candidates from all over Europe together in Rome at the end of March.



The organisation will unveil its Irish candidates, expected to include Ganley himself in the North West (Connacht-Ulster) constituency, in the coming weeks, his spokesman said last week. A conference in Rome on March 25 will mark the beginning of a pan-European campaign.



The Brussels organisation is being largely run by the former Danish MEP Jens-Peter Bonde, a long-time critic of further European integration. The group has also hired Robin Matthews, a former British army communications officer,and is advertising for interns on its website. A spokesman said that staff numbers would exceed 100 shortly.



Solicitor Caroline Simons, who campaigned against the Lisbon treaty with Libertas, is expected to be the newgroup’s candidate in Dublin. Libertas has promised a high profile personality in Leinster, and may yet stand a candidate in Munster.



The group’s spokesman acknowledged that sitting MEP Kathy Sinnott ‘‘agrees with us on 99 per cent of the issues’’. Ganley has not officially confirmed that he will run in the North West constituency, but his aides have acknowledged that it would be an enormous climb down for him to back out at this stage. ‘‘He can’t not run. But he’s an all-or-nothing guy,” said one.



The alliance with Sinnott, the inclusion of Simons, and Ganley’s speech to a meeting of Catholic groups last weekend in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, in which he spoke of his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage and quoted approvingly from Pope Benedict XVI, signified a broadening of the Libertas identity from a single issue group campaigning against the Lisbon Treaty. Though she came to prominence as a disabilities campaigner, Sinnott has strong antiabortion views, while Simons is a former spokeswoman for the prolife campaign.



But evolving a distinctive policy identity in an organisation that has ambitions to stretch across Europe won’t be easy. ‘‘The speech that Declan gave last week,” said an aide about his remarks to the Catholic groups, ‘‘that might serve him well in the west of Ireland and Poland. But we can’t have candidates saying that sort of thing in the Czech Republic or Sweden.”



The evolution of a coherent Libertas identity before the European elections faces other challenges, too.



Ganley has insistently denied being a Eurosceptic or in any way anti-European, but he has allied himself to elements in some European countries that are not just Eurosceptics, but Euro haters. It’s difficult, for example, to characterizes the Czech president Vaclav Klaus - whom Ganley has met and feted - in any other way.



Whatever about opposition to the Lisbon Treaty, outright opposition to the European project - or an alliance with those who are so opposed - will be a tough sell in Ireland. By most measures - the referendum result aside - Ireland is one of the most pro-European countries in the union.



However, Ganley has chosen to run in that part of Ireland in which feelings towards the EU project are the least warm.



According to detailed research carried out by RedC for The Sunday Business Post after the Lisbon Treaty referendum (as part of a project with Trinity College), the Connacht -Ulster region was significantly less pro-Lisbon and less pro-European than the rest of the country.



For example, asked whether they agreed that Ireland should ‘‘do all it could to unite fully with the EU,” or if Ireland should ‘‘do all it can to protect its independence from the EU’’, voters in Connacht-Ulster came down 48-46 in favour of independence. Dublin, by contrast, favoured uniting with Europe by a margin of 60-36 per cent.



This finding is reflected across the research. Some 48 per cent in Connacht-Ulster see themselves as ‘‘Irish only’’; 44 per cent as ‘‘Irish and European’’. In Dublin, 54 per cent say they are ‘‘Irish and European’’.



Some 30 per cent of people in the West and North-West don’t expect Ireland to benefit from the EU in the future.



In the actual referendum, all the constituencies in Connacht-Ulster counties voted No. The highest number of No votes was in Mayo, which delivered 30,000 votes against Lisbon, with less than 19,000 in favour.



This sentiment has endured in the region. Last month’s poll showed that, while national opinion had swung once again behind the Lisbon Treaty, the margin was slimmest in Connacht-Ulster. While the Yes vote leads by 74-26 in Dublin, the margin in the West and North West was just 54-46.



On issues such as abortion there is also a distinct difference between Connacht-Ulster and the rest of the country. When questioned, 51 per cent of people in the region said abortion should never be allowed in Ireland. In Dublin, the number is just 36 per cent. Ganley’s recently advertised anti-abortion views will not hurt him in this constituency.



None the less, winning a seat will be a very tall order for Ganley. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael won more than half of the vote between them at the 2004 European elections in the constituency, while the most recent Red C monthly tracking poll showed the two parties attracting the support of 60 per cent of voters there.



So, one seat each for the two main parties is probably inevitable, meaning Ganley will need to target the seat of Independent MEP Marian Harkin. She is a strong local performer with a network of support throughout the constituency, and will be difficult to shift. Sinn Féin also enjoys strong support, and took 65,000 votes in 2004.



Ganley’s past criticism of the Common Agricultural Policy may not be palatable for many rural voters. He will face continuing questions about the funding of the organisation, questions he has been unable to answer with any degree of consistency since the organisation was founded.



Another difficulty for Ganley is that the political landscape has shifted so wildly since the first referendum. It is hard to predict what effect this will have on the European elections.



At one level, there is almost certain to be massive anti-government sentiment among voters. However, whether this translates into support for a candidate who favours a different relationship with the EU is another question entirely.



The most recent tracking poll for this newspaper a fortnight ago showed political support had swung in favour of the Lisbon Treaty, including among those who voted against it the last time.



If the worsening recession is pushing voters towards the perceived protection of the EU, then it will make it more difficult for Ganley.



Defeat in the European elections would undermine his opposition to Lisbon in any subsequent referendum. Last year’s referendum result was a stunning success for Ganley. But he is discovering that in politics, success just brings a whole new set of problems.



Call for Pope not to meet Ganely before EU Elections and Lisbon 2

see This and other posts re Robin Matthews here posted 10 march 2009





Matthews and his wife Frances attended the Ganley's eurosceptic dinner in honour of Vaclav klaus see here