A MASS rally of the entire Irish Press workforce and their families and friends will take place through the centre of Dublin today in a demonstration of unified protest against the planned closure of the newspaper group.
Assembling outside the Municipal Art Gallery in Parnell Square at 1pm, the march organisers will hand in a letter to the Press Group headquarters nearby before setting off at 1.30.
The march will then proceed through O'Connell Street, D'Olier Street, and around Trinity College, before concluding with a rally in Molesworth Street, facing the Dail. It will be led by the colourful City Arts Samba Band and by representatives of all the unions in the Press.
Politicians from all the major political parties have been invited to address the rally and there will be speakers from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Dublin Printing Trades Group.
Participants in the march, other than the Press workers, have been requested by the organisers not to bring any banners or placards as the demonstration is intended to highlight the plight of the 600 and their families who now face the prospect of a bleak and uncertain future.
The Irish Press editor in chief, Eamon de Valera, has set next Wednesday, the 28th, as the date for liquidation, just over 60 years after his namesake and grandfather, the late President Eamon de Valera, launched the title and a dream of giving a voice to the ordinary people of Ireland.

"No obstacles to be put in way of Press relaunch"

No artificial obstacles can be put in the way of a relaunched and revitalised Irish Press group, the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Richard Bruton, commented after yesterday's Cabinet meeting.

Quick-fix solutions had to be avoided, he said, and any new arrangement for the Irish Press titles had to have a long-term future, the Minister said.

Short-term solutions to the crisis would inevitably fail and add to the pain and uncertainty to be endured by the 600 Irish Press workers.

Minister Bruton again resisted the demands from the Irish Press management to decide on the report of the Competition Authority which demanded the disinvestment by Independent Newspapers in the Press Group.

After briefing the Cabinet on the developing situation the Minister outlined the Government's priorities after the liquidation of the group.

Firstly, the highest amount of jobs had to be secured in a revitalised Irish Press where a long term business and employment future would be underpinned commercially and financially.

Secondly, the maximum number of newspaper titles had to be secured in the marketplace to ensure that one single media player would not dominate.

The competition laws, which have already been invoked as a result of the Independent's investment in the Press Group, would be upheld as an important instrument of economic policy.

Minister Bruton said the Cabinet would not be taking action on the Competition Authority's report in view of the Irish Press management's decision to liquidate.

"It is a very sad day for the 600 employees of the company. I emphasise again, that what we must quickly see is the relaunch of the Press titles to ensure a good livelihood for as many of these employees as possible. I am anxious that the opportunity for the relaunch of the titles speedily emerges after the liquidation," the Minister said.

"It is vital that no artificial obstacles be put in the way of the relaunch".

He said the decision by management to liquidate was regrettable but had come as a result of a series of commercial revearsals over a long period of time.

On the newspaper industry in general, Minister Bruton announced the establishment of a Commission on the Newspaper Industry. He is currently finalising the terms of reference of this commission and its composition.

By Donagh Diamond

Multi-national oil giant, Shell, yesterday dramatically abandoned all plans to sink the ageing Brent Spar rig at sea.
The decision was announced as the doomed platform reached the planned dump site 340- miles off the Donegal coast last night with four Greenpeace activists still aboard.
The chairman of Shell UK, Chris Faye, announced that the company had taken its decision after opposition to the plan from European governments, and they would now be applying to the British government for a licence to dispose of the Brent Spar on shore.
He said that the company still believed that deep water dumping would have been the most environmentally friendly option, and they would now have to examine new environmental protection and safety measures for disposal on land.
Earlier, the Minister for the Marine, Sean Barrett, had joined the chorus of criticism of Shell's original decision, saying that he believed it breached the OSPAR convention on dumping at sea.
Last night, jubilant Greenpeace activists were celebrating as they awaited the return of their four colleagues who had remained in occupation of the rig, despite being constantly bombarded by high pressure water jets.
The lives of the Greenpeace activists aboard were at risk, the environmental campaigning organisation told The XPress yesterday.
In a dramatic dawn operation yesterday, an Irish Greenpeace campaigner was dropped by helicopter on to the rig, with a Danish colleague.
Earlier, Irish fishing organisations had also condemned the plans to sink the rig, which has 100 tonnes of highly toxic waste and an estimated 5,500 tonnes of heavy sludge oil on board.
The toxic waste includes 30 tonnes of low grade radioactive waste and high levels of dangerous chemical compounds and heavy metals.
Yesterday, it was revealed that British government scientists who examined the options for disposing of the ageing rig reported that the rig "could not be dumped at sea" due to the possible effect on marine life.
A spokesman for Irish Shell said that there had been "very little effect on our business so far," adding that he didn't think "anything would really be achieved" by an organised boycott.
Shell would "much prefer" if its customers were not watching news footage of water jets being sprayed onto the rig, he said. When it was pointed out to him that this was being done in the name of the multinational, he said that there were trespassers aboard the rig, and it was they who were the cause of such scenes.

By John Kelly

Great and generous as the Irish public has been, understanding and co-operative as our friends and colleagues in other trade unions still are, especially now that the terrible truth of the Irish Press threatened liquidation has become as clear as a church bell on a still winter morning, there have been some vicious thrusts that still deserve to be parried.
"Luddite trade unionism," that description used by a columnist who gained some notoriety as a socialist soccer pro, was possibly the unkindest cut of all.
As a gratitious unthinking insult, it begged a question. Can it be that there is such a thing as a Luddite management?
I open a filing cabinet and glance through just some of the NUJ Chapel files extending back to the sixties, at a time when national newspaper managements were intent on modernising the industry, trimming staff, improving notoriously low wage levels, kick starting the engine that was to drive us all into the era of "New Technology."
In the minutes of Chapel meetings summarising negotiations that led to the signing of the first major productivity agreement in the Irish Press in 1974 I see that, meeting after meeting, Chapel officer urged management to progress rapidly to "New Technology," which even then, was not known at all to the rest of the world.
I also see that management showed little real interest.
Why bother?
The group was riding the crest of a wave. The Sunday Press was still selling more than 350,000 copies. Its readership was one of the highest in the world. Its market density was exceeded only by Pravda in relative population terms.
The Evening Press was paramount in the market, still well ahead of the Evening Herald, and the Irish Press, the weakest of the trio, had not yet begun its slow torturous descent.
It was time to change. It was time to cement the gains, to utilise the capital that was being built up. It was time, above all, to improve the Irish Press. For years, successive agricultural specialist reporters had urged the introduction of a farming supplement.
More acute observers of Irish society realised that there was a dramatic educational explosion especially at third level. There was room for a regular educational supplement. Property was booming. It was time to invest profit in that sector as well.
They say you should never look back. But I do. Facile opinions cannot be allowed to replace facts. I flip through the yellowing Chapel documents accumulated over a period exceeding 15 years. I want to remember the fact, you see. I want to confirm that because there are too many like an unthinking sports columnist who are prepared to put a new spin on the truth.
And, sure enough, there they are, the extended minutes of lengthy meetings with the late J.C. Dempsey, then the company general manager and the later Major Vivion de Valera.
It was the "Luddite" NUJ Chapel which called for the meetings after a detailed submission culled from every staff member who wished to contribute had been prepared. The ideas were collated, refined, honed and sharpened. They were then discussed by management and Chapel representatives item by item.
Productivity was the buzz word in Irish business circles at this time. It entailed staff reductions, massive redeployment, intense reorganisation. Government grants were available. Generous redundancy settlements were possible. Irish industry underwent a massive spring clean.
The meetings between the Chapel officers and management were unusually courteous. They were not confrontational. Jack Dempsey was a progressive man. So, in his own occasionally eccentric fashion, was Major Vivion de Valera. Colm Traynor, then Assistant General Manager was, as always, prepared to be helpfully patient.
Management listened. The minutes prove that. But nothing, or practically nothing, was done.
The Irish Press began to list to an alarming degree. The Sunday Press, rejecting the necessity to expand and to meet the new needs of a challenging young Irish society, receded. The Evening Press lacked aggression.
The Chapel continued to prod. But Jack Dempsey was dead. Within a short time, Major Vivion de Valera was gone as well. A new management structure was cobbled together to fill the vacuum. A former Personnel Manager warned, during his retirement party, that there were no "gentlemen" remaining at the top.

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