Churchill and the mysterious Irishman

[Superdedupity]

From a great website, Come Here to Me!

https://comeheretome.com/2016/07/01/the-very-mysterious-brendan-bracken/#more-30601

I shall die young and be forgotten. The Little Museum of Dublin, July 2016.

This weekend a new exhibition opens at the Little Museum of Dublin, Churchill & The Irishman. It shines a light on a man who managed to live both on the main stage and in the shadows during his lifetime, being both a public figure and a deeply mysterious one.

Brendan Bracken (1901-1958) was a British Conservative Government Minister, an influential journalist and the man responsible for giving us The Financial Times newspaper among many other things. Denying and suppressing all evidence of his Irish roots, he burst onto the British public stage, but quickly became one of Winston Churchills most trusted allies. Randolph Churchill, son of the Prime Minister, would joke of Bracken as the fantasist whose fantasies had come true.

Brendan Bracken was born in Tipperary in 1901, the son of Joseph Kevin Bracken, who was a founding member of the Gaelic Athletic Association and a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood to boot.An article on the excellent Hogan Stand notes that J.K Bracken wasnt merely a spectator to the early endeavors of the GAA, but a very active participant He was one of five persons proposed by GAA founder Michael Cusack to fill the vice-presidential positions at the third meeting of the GAA, and personally seconded the nomination of the Fenian radical John OLeary to patron of the new body. Brendans father was closely aligned with these two important nationalist organisations, though the passing of his father in 1904 removed any such influence from his youth.

His mother, widowed in 1904, took the young family to Dublin, and Brendan attended the OConnell School on North Richmond Street. Named in honour of Daniel OConnell, the school would later become synonymous with the 1916 Rising, with over 130 students and graduates in the ranks of the rebel forces. Among others Seán Heuston, Seán T. OKelly and the great republican adventurer Ernie OMalley were educated there. If the Christian Brothers teachers made a profound nationalist impression on their students, there was no risk of such with Bracken. Charles Lysaght, author of a masterful biography of Bracken, notes that:

He mitched from school and organised a gang that vandalised neighbours gardens. He once threw another boy into the Royal Canal. When packed off to Mungret, a Jesuit boarding school in Limerick, he absconded.

Departing Ireland in 1916, he had nothing beyond the £14 his mother provided him with to try and settle in Australia. Lysaght writes thatfor three years the adolescent Brendan led a peripatetic existence there, moving between Catholic religious communities, doing some teaching and reading incessantly to educate himself.

The OConnell School on Dublins North Richmond Street. Graduates include the executed 1916 leaders Seán Heuston and Eamonn Ceannt. Though he didnt graduate,Bracken was educated here for a period.

He briefly talked his way into one of Sydneys most exclusive Catholic schools, claiming that he had been educated in Clongowes in Ireland. Unfortunately for him, a priest who had just come out from Clongowes exposed him as a liar, and the traveling circus of his life continued. Having led a rather nomadic existence in Australia, working in odd jobs for brief periods, he would arrive on the doorstep of Sedbergh School in Cumbria, England, claiming to be a 15 year old in 1920, and that his parents had been orphaned in an Australian bushfire.

Acceptance into a high profile, private English school however was the foot on the ladder, a ladder he was, for once at least, content to stay on. The reputation of his school allowed him to advance in the upper-echelons of British society, becoming a magazine and newspaper editor in London, and retaining his Australian backstory.

The secret Tipp man was editing the Illustrated Review in London, and also commissioning articles from people like Winston Churchill, with whom he would form an incredible friendship and bond. His magazine was politically conservative in outlook, and became adored by Tories, never suspecting that the new found face at their dinner tables was the son of an IRB man, an organisation that had been bombing the very city he had made home a few decades earlier. Politicians and journalists moved in the same circles of course, one needs the other to survive. The Conservatives really took to Bracken, to such an extent that he was asked to stand for Parliament in 1929, for North Paddington.

They stood him for a marginal enough seat, which he won by over 500 votes, but on the campaign trail his political opponents began to publicly ask just who this man was, and how he had landed into British politics. The idea that he was a Polish Jew was spread by opponents to undermine him. He never really had a consistent story for his own background, but in every made up version of the past there was only one consistency no reference to little old Ireland. In Parliament, he became fiercely right-wing, resisting any move towards granting Indian self-government for example. He remained a figure in Westminster for many years, but really shone in the World War Two years, when Churchills deep faith in him saw him take the role of Minister of Information.

From 1941 to 45, Bracken served in that role. While he played the media well, having been an editor and journalist himself, he wasnt always popular with the Ministrys employees, including one named Eric Blair, better known to us today as George Orwell, the man who would write Animal Farm, Homage to Catalonia and, most famously of all, the wonderful 1984. Its been stated that Brackens ministry, and initials, were central inspiration for Big Brother and the Ministry of Truth in 1984, which was published in 1949.

The post war period brought about the total collapse of the Tories in Britain, and a leftward drift brought the Labour Party to power. Labour won a formidable victory, winning just under 50% of the vote with a majority of 159 seats, and Clement Attlees government went to work on a process of major nationalisation, taking control of major industries and utilities including the Bank of England, coal mining, the steel industry, electricity, gas, and inland transport. Bracken was totally opposed to all of this, condemning it as socialism, and becoming a vocal opponent of what he saw as the Retreat From Empire of the government.

He resigned his seat in the commons in 1952 and became Viscount Bracken of Christchurch in Hampshire, but never took his seat in the House of Lords, regarding it as a political graveyard. As a voice in the media he remained important, giving us The Financial Times as we know it after merging two publications, and becoming chairman of the Union Corporation mining house, with interests in South Africa, which he frequently visited. He also became a trustee to the British National Gallery, resisting any attempt to return to Hugh Lane paintings to Ireland. Hugh Lane, the art collector after whom the gallery in Dublin is named, died on board the Lusitania in 1915, and the question of whether his works would be displayed in London or Dublin was a never-ending row, in fact it wasnt until 1993 that it was decided 31 of the 39 paintings would stay in Ireland.

When Bracken died of cancer in 1958, he was cremated and his ashes were scattered in Kent. On his instructions his papers were burnt by his chauffeur, which is one of the reasons we know so very little about the man, he may well have taken many mysteries with him.

There was just too much around Bracken that didnt make sense, and which would later captivate the public, not least his relationship with Churchill and influence on Orwell. This new exhibition is a fine introduction to this man of mystery, and includes letters from Bracken himself along with other interesting source material. As ever, the exhibition is beautifully designed and will capture the imagination of visitors. It runs until 25 September.

Edited July 10, 2016 by Superdedupity

[Michael Luchóg]

What a bastard !

[Redeyezman]

I'm an arse. I know that. Mum knows that. Wife knows that......but at least I'm not the kind of arse to influence 1981 lol

[catfish]

on the new 5er there is a quote from churchill

"i have nothing to offer but blood,toil,tears and sweat"

hmmm you have nothing to offer but other peoples blood,toil,tears and sweat .

im not a fan of churchhill at all , i dont see why he is held in such high regard

Edited September 24, 2016 by catfish

[Sasquatch]

Anyone wanting to try a cracking conspiraloon read could do worse than " Double Standards: the Rudolf Hess cover up" by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince. Briefly, Hess arrived with detailed peace proposals to meet a faction in the government and establishment who wanted to get Britain out of the war and leave Germany and the Soviet Union to fight it out between themselves.

Churchill was utterly opposed to this and the two factions struggled, possibly extending to an assassination attempt on Churchill, until Hess was assassinated in a sabotaged plane crash which also killed the then Duke of Kent. It seems peace talks were about to start.

So not only was he a fervent anti-Bolshevik whowanted to use tanks to put down the General Strike but he engineered an outcome to the war which led to it going on three years longer than necessary, with millions more deaths plus the Holocaust (guarantees of the welfare of jewish people in Nazi occupied countries was a main element in the peace faction's demands.)

As you can tell I'm not a Chuchill fan, the monstrous personality cult that grew up around him was a propaganda ploy to cover all this up, history written by the winners and all that.

[catfish]

i think churchills dubious past , including art forging if you read what president franklin roosevel wrote about him

before ww2 because of his portfolio was in huge debt cos of the stock market crash .

his son had massive gambling debts ,as gambling was illegal he owed monies to very connected people .

churchill went to france to gamble away £40,000

he was about to lose chartwell then in 1940 just before he became PM a unknown person(s) gave him 1 million . why?

was it to make sure there was no peace ?

i could not find anything to link but a daily fail piece

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3231410/Winston-spendaholic-teetered-brink-bankruptcy-saved-secret-backhanders-new-book-Chuchill-s-finances-reveals-spent-40-000-year-casinos-54-000-booze.html

Edited September 24, 2016 by catfish

[Superdedupity]

Anyone wanting to try a cracking conspiraloon read could do worse than " Double Standards: the Rudolf Hess cover up" by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince. Briefly, Hess arrived with detailed peace proposals to meet a faction in the government and establishment who wanted to get Britain out of the war and leave Germany and the Soviet Union to fight it out between themselves.

Churchill was utterly opposed to this and the two factions struggled, possibly extending to an assassination attempt on Churchill, until Hess was assassinated in a sabotaged plane crash which also killed the then Duke of Kent. It seems peace talks were about to start.

So not only was he a fervent anti-Bolshevik whowanted to use tanks to put down the General Strike but he engineered an outcome to the war which led to it going on three years longer than necessary, with millions more deaths plus the Holocaust (guarantees of the welfare of jewish people in Nazi occupied countries was a main element in the peace faction's demands.)

As you can tell I'm not a Chuchill fan, the monstrous personality cult that grew up around him was a propaganda ploy to cover all this up, history written by the winners and all that.

Since I posted this I visited that exhibition, read so much more but feel stupid that I hadn't made the equation to modern personality cults of today.

But, I suppose it could be argued that all modern western politics is a form of that

[Bird]

Whilst we are on the subject, did you know that Churchill's most famous "we will fight them on the beaches, we will fight them on the landing grounds, we will never surrender" speech was actually read by an actor and not by Churchill himself?

It came to light (publicly) fairly recently and there is an interesting (bbc radio) documentary broadcast in the last few years about his speeches, which were arguably his greatest asset in leading the country.

[Boojum]

Whilst we are on the subject, did you know that Churchill's most famous "we will fight them on the beaches, we will fight them on the landing grounds, we will never surrender" speech was actually read by an actor and not by Churchill himself?

It came to light (publicly) fairly recently and there is an interesting (bbc radio) documentary broadcast in the last few years about his speeches, which were arguably his greatest asset in leading the country.

He 'borrowed' the oratorial style, repetition etc from a speech in 1918 by Georges Clemenceau. He did that quite a lot, he was renowned as a 'great orator', but he certainly wasn't an original one.

[Bird]

He 'borrowed' the oratorial style, repetition etc from a speech in 1918 by Georges Clemenceau. He did that quite a lot, he was renowned as a 'great orator', but he certainly wasn't an original one.

No doubt. Did you hear the docu booj, was very interesting? I have almost completely forgotten it unfortunately. E2. damn, no recording.

Edited September 25, 2016 by Bird

[Boojum]

Not seen it. Off topic but I guess at least he wrote his own speeches, even if he plagiarized a lot of them. The modern thing of politicians having speechwriters really pisses me off, how can you trust some cunt that doesn't even use their own fucking words ? No, I don't want to hear what your speechwriter thinks, I want to hear what YOU think, you're the one people voted for, not your fucking speechwriter. It's probably why so many politicians do so badly when they have to actually speak for themselves. In fact why don't you just fuck off and have your speechwriter stand in the next general election.

[Bird]

Not seen it. Off topic but I guess at least he wrote his own speeches, even if he plagiarized a lot of them. The modern thing of politicians having speechwriters really pisses me off, how can you trust some cunt that doesn't even use their own fucking words ? No, I don't want to hear what your speechwriter thinks, I want to hear what YOU think, you're the one people voted for, not your fucking speechwriter. It's probably why so many politicians do so badly when they have to actually speak for themselves. In fact why don't you just fuck off and have your speechwriter stand in the next general election.

Quite, and he probably has a team of policy wonks feeding him the current "party line" from focus groups or whatever the latest idea is rather that actually letting the electorate that voted them in actually have a say e2: sorry I digress, not very irish

Edited September 25, 2016 by Bird

[catfish]

so he is considered a war hero ?

where did he get shot ?

how many mechine gun nests did he take ?

how many bridges did he defend in overwhelming odds ?

how many peoples lives did he save ?

war hero my cunt .

is he really considered a war hero for saying some words (seems now he didnt even say them ).

what the fuck is going on ?

also he wrote some history books how do we know he was not paid to change history ?

Edited September 25, 2016 by catfish

[Mr blue]

Apparently one of the big factors in Churchill's 1945 general election defeat was the overseas forces vote. It would appear that all his "fight them on the beaches" type stuff went down much better with those at home than with those who actually did the fighting

[Superdedupity]

Not seen it. Off topic but I guess at least he wrote his own speeches, even if he plagiarized a lot of them. The modern thing of politicians having speechwriters really pisses me off, how can you trust some cunt that doesn't even use their own fucking words ? No, I don't want to hear what your speechwriter thinks, I want to hear what YOU think, you're the one people voted for, not your fucking speechwriter. It's probably why so many politicians do so badly when they have to actually speak for themselves. In fact why don't you just fuck off and have your speechwriter stand in the next general election.

Because politicians were always populist and the Internet and sound bite media age have made the ones who want to be elected even more populist and sound bite friendly.

Fuck meaningful decision or planning; as long as you sound tough / warm hearted / resolute etc about the issue of the day, it's all good.