The Guardian du lieu suivant : London, Greater London, England • 13

OBITUARIES 1 13 The Guardian Monday December 28 1998 Cathal Goulding The IRA's lost new direction schoolboy, having joined Fianna Eireann, the IRA's junior wing, in the working-class area he came from on the north side of Dublin. His boyhood friend, Brendan Behan, joined at around the same time. His grandfather had been an from the group which had famously assassinated the two most senior British officials in Ireland in 1892. His father had been an IRA soldier in the 1919-21 Irish war of independence and had taken the anti-treaty side in the subsequent split. His parents dressed themselves in the uniforms of the socialist James Connolly's Citizens' Army for their wedding.

Like many thousands of anti-treatyites in the new Irish Free State, the Gouldings found it difficult to make a living, and it came naturally to Cathal, self-employed as a house-painter, to associate his "inherited" republicanism with the idea of social revolt. The association was assumed, there being no felt need for a programmatic link. Another friend, Tomas MacGiolla, later president of Sinn Fein, has described Dublin republicans in the early 1950s watching trains arriving from the west, jam-packed with emigrants en-route for the Holyhead boat, and pressing on them leaflets which urged them to believe that the British presence in the North was the source of all their ills. In 1956 Goulding was arrested on an arms raid in England and jailed for six years. He was later to say that prison had protected him from the debilitation which afflicted many who had soldiered through the same years on the outside.

He still had the heart to take over as chief of staff on his release, and had acquired an understanding that there was no future for the movement if it did not connect with the that followed armed Royal Ulster Constabulary and loyalist attacks on Catholic working-class areas the northern state's response to the civil rights demands. Between 1970 and 1972 Goulding had no option but to tack back towards nationalism and to sanction military action against the British and the RUC, as his "Official" IRA tried to head off the development of the breakaway Provisionals. But it was not in the framework of his politics to admit that the perspectives of the New Departure which had led to the abandonment of "Brits Out" on the very eve of its re-acceptance as a rallying-call by the nationalist masses had been shown to be wrong. The Officials, still sporadically involved in violence despite a ceasefire called by Goulding in May 1972, set an unsteady course which was to carry them ideologically close to the unionist camp without enabling them to expand organisationally beyond bases in Catholic working-class areas. In his own mind Goulding never deserted the republicanism he had been part of, literally since he had been in short trousers.

Never, even momentarily, did he contemplate leaving the movement to express his political ideas through an alternative. All his efforts were bent towards shifting the movement itself over, sufficiently intact. After an extremely heated exchange with a group of Northerners in the 1970s (one of many) he departed saying, in effect, "You can argue anything you like, but remember outside this movement there is no Seen thus, the republican movement could contain the Stalinoid ideas of the New Departure just as well as the CATHAL GOULDING, who has died aged 75, was chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army at the end of the 1960s, during the outbreak of the present phase of the Troubles. He was therefore in a key position during a pivotal period in modern Irish history. The republican movement he led saw itself as the embodiment over generations of the aspiration for Irish unity and independence.

It was striving to get to grips with a tumultuous and rapidly-changing situation one which Goulding and his allies had never expected to arise. If the political project which he tried to carry through in that period ended in failure, it was not out of personal weakness or lack of will on his part, but because of the inadequacy of his republican ideas. Recalling his own career as an IRA activist in the days when "the struggle" was its own validation and its objective a shimmering abstraction, he once remarked that, "We didn't go out to free Ireland, we went out to fight to free He wanted to be done with that sort of careless, lethal romanticism, and to make a practical reality of revolution in Ireland. Goulding had become chief of staff at an IRA army convention in 1962. taking over from acting chief of staff Ruairi Bradaigh just months after the 1956-62 border campaign had ended with an order to dump arms, which was couched in the usual, grandiose terms of defiance but came across in the circumstances as a petulant whimper.

By his own account, Goulding got the job because nobody else wanted it, so shrunken and demoralised had the movement become. His personal credentials were impeccable. Goulding had been an "IRA man" since 1937, when he was an 11-year-old consciousness of the flesh-and-blood people in whose name it presumed to wage war. Goulding and the group around him some of them fellow ex-prisoners, others former members of the Communist Party launched the "New The new leaders did not lack for commitment, and speedily discarded the gaudy accoutrements of nationalist romance, but they never managed to break from the rigidity and elitism of the republican tradition. They rather substituted for it, unthinkingly in many instances, a different class of arrogance, clandestinity and subterfuge.

The ideology underpinning the New Departure was standard-issue Stalinism. The fact that this was not spelled out in public, or even to the rank and file of the movement itself, didn't trouble Goulding. It wasn't that he was personally dishonest although close friends say he could take a mischievous delight in his own devi-ousness; it was more that the Stalinist way of going about things did not strike a disciplined member of the republican movement, with its secret army calling the shots for political front-people, as particularly outrageous. Goulding co-wrote documents put to an army convention in 1965 which defined the IRA's objective as "a democratic socialist republic" and directed members into grassroots political action, such as fish-ins and housing action campaigns in the South and the generation of a civil rights movement in the North. He was present at the closed meeting in Maghera, Co Derry, in 1966, at which the key decision was made to set up the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.

However, the strategy was damaged beyond repair at the end of the 1960s by the great whoosh of nationalist rage Grave words Goulding gives the oration at the funeral of his fellow republican Joe McCann in Belfast in April 1972 with poisonous passion and Cathal Goulding himself was experienced in such things there are many who had no time at all for his politics who will nevertheless concede that he was a most impressive man to encounter directly, and who will recall him with a sad warmth for the way things might have been in different, more rational days. Eamonn McCann Cathal Goulding, Irish republican, born 1922; died December 26, 1998 towards the end by the bleakness which surrounded him politically, he might well have been warmed by memories of a chaotically rich personal life. Strangely enough for a man who seemed not just to evince but to embody his politics, "he never brought his political ideas according to one member of a warm and loving family, which extended in a number of directions. Strangely too, in a country where political feuds can be literally murderous, and personal exchanges conducted stave off irrelevance, while gradually adepting to bourgeois realities in the South. In 1992 Goulding and most of those from the New Departure who were still around stood firm by what they continued to identify as "the movement now designated the Workers' Party when a parliamentary filo-faction took the road to coalition with the button-down blueshirts of new-model Fine Gael.

Like republicanism itself, Goulding was both impossible to vanquish and incapable of victory. If he was embittered black and blue green beige table on the 1957 tournament in Jersey that Davis was not among the four entrants. Pulman won the title but promoters took so dim a view of snooker's commercial potential that the championship went into abeyance for seven years. After its revival on a challenge basis, Pulman made five successful title defences, but when it was restored to a knockout format in 1969 he was ring rusty in comparison with new, match-hard talents from the amateur ranks like John Spencer, Ray Reardon and Alex Higgins, whose snooker brain, he said recently, "was the quickest I ever saw." So dark had been snooker's years of depression that only a handful survived by slogging round the club and holi day camp exhibition circuit. "You need a map from the AA to play on this," Pulman would exclaim of one poor table after another.

One club was so riled by his remarks that it filed an official complaint, stating "There couldn't have been anything wrong with the table because all our players beat him." Having driven through atrocious winter weather he arrived at one village institute, carrying his cue case and wearing a tuxedo, to be met with the question: "Are you the snooker player?" No, he wasn't, he replied, selecting a popular four-letter word, he was the chimney sweep. Of one cheap hotel he remarked: "If you aren't in by midnight the bedbugs come looking for you." This sort of routine Mark Graham nationalist notions of traditional republicanism. The mould of the movement had not been dented, much less discarded, but merely filled with a different dogmatism. Only in that defining early period of the Troubles was Goulding at the very centre of events. But the same sense of certainty, and the same indomitable persistency, sustained him through the years afterwards, through further twists and turns and policy flip-flops, as the Officials fought murderous feuds in the North in futile manoeuvres to worked as a television commentator, a role to which he brought a melifluous voice and a life-long articulacy.

He did produce one memorable quip during a tournament sponsored by Yamaha Organs at which one of the sponsor's products was the prize for the highest break. As someone was clearing the last few colours, Pulman's co-commentator, Dennis Taylor, remarked that it was possible for him to equal the highest break. "That may be so Dennis," replied Pulman, "but what can you do with half an organ?" Clive Everton Herbert John Pulman, snooker player, born December 1 2, 1923; died December 25, 1998 ogy to photograph them. Such causes also found a platform in a newspaper column he wrote under the pseudonym Nong Nguak (hornbill), where he could voice his deep disillusion with the performance of the government's royal forest department in protecting Thailand's conservation areas as well as the "depradations of rapacious nouveau riche urban-ites, bureaucrats and politicians." His vehemence was a less often seen complement to the wry, irreverent wit and languid charm that earned Mark affection and respect among many Thais. Graham is survived by his son Jamie, 24, and daughter Fiona, 26.

Nick dimming Bruce Mark Graham, conservationist, born March died December 12, 1998 'Flip' Wilson Humour It is a sad comment on the pioneering career of the black American comedian Flip Wilson, who has died aged 64 of complications following a liver tumour operation, that in the last third of his life his name only ever appeared in trivia quiz questions. This decline into obscurity stemmed in part from his own decision, quite literally, to spend more time with his family. But it also reflected America's continuing ambiguity towards black citizens who manage to haul themselves into prominence. There were few indications in Clerow Wilson's early life that he might pierce his nation's racial barriers to star in one of its top-rated televi sion shows. Nothing is known of his parents except that, at the height of the Depression, they were among the poorest of Jersey City's poor, that they could not cope with their baby, and that, as a result, he was farmed out to a series of foster homes.

At 21 Wilson took up one of the few callings likely to offer a reasonable prospect of advancement, the United States Air Force. President Truman had imposed equality on the armed services a few years earlier and the Supreme Court had just embarked on its fundamental rulings against segregation which eventually cleared away the barriers of legal discrimination against black Americans. The young recruit soon became extremely popular with his comrades when he developed a comic routine for their off-duty entertainment. His irreverent attitudes earned him the nickname "Flip" and his success in the barrack room sparked a wider show-business ambition. He left the USAF after four years for a series of odd jobs while he polished up his act in small clubs.

Wilson's breakthrough came in 1965 when he was invited to appear on The Johnny Carson Show, then America's most influential television showcase. He was Birthdays Air Commodore Molly Allott, former director, WRAF, 80; Intikhab Alam, former Pakistan cricket manager, 57; Terry Butcher, footballer, 40; Donald Carr, cricket umpire, 72; Sandra Faber, American astronaut, 54; Max Hastings, editor, London Evening Standard, 53; Lord (Roy) Hattersley, writer and journalist, former deputy leader, the Labour Party, 66; Noel Johnson, actor, 82; Nigel John Pulman Nights John Pulman, who has died aged 75, was world champion in snooker's darkest days from 1957-1S68. Once, after an master of ceremonies had cried "He wasn't world champion for a lot of years for nothing," Pulman reposted feelingly: "Next to nothing." English amateur champion as an unknown from Exeter in 1946, he lived at the house, with billiard room attached, of his wealthy patron Bill Lampard, who launched him into a professional game which, in those immediate post-war years, was a coterie over which Joe Davis presided at the Leicester Square Hall, which had 220 seats. There were no fortunes to be made from the 20 per cent share of the gate to which Pulman soon became entitled as a leading player. Davis took 30 per cent and also owned one third of the business.

A share of the gate was more worth having for any world championship finalist since in those days the final was of never less than a week's duration and sometimes only the best of 145 frames spread over a fortnight at the cavernous Blackpool Tower Circus. Pulman lost the 1955 and 1956 finals to Davis but the advent of television was helping to kill snooker as a public entertainment just as the introduction of colour 20 years later was to transform its financial structure. So little money was on offer for the A Country Diary THORPE HAMLET, NORFOLK: I went out first thing and there it was in the gutter just outside the door. eyed me instantly and with its usual quick-silver reactions it was off, giving a machine-gun chatter as it flew. It was a magpie the first I have seen seen in our road, although their encroachment upon Norwich has been a steady process in the last few years.

And it is now official: we can embrace this advance as a positive development and discard the bird's old image as a devouring monster, responsible for the collapse in songbird populations that has become so widely publicised. A recent paper in the Proceedings Of The Royal Society Of London describes research into the impact of both magpies and spar-rowhawks on small birds. The authors examined figures concerning 23 songbird populations and looked to see if there was any correlation between these and magpie and sparrowhawk numbers. The paper concludes that there is leering catchphrase, "What you see is what you became the theme of a popular song in 1971 and, a decade later (by then reduced to WYSIWYG), it was used as a street-wise description of the Apple computer operating system. The success of this line, however, did Wilson a disser vice: he spent his show-business career avoiding the crude sexual innuendo of later performers.

The "safe" nature of his show, which went out at the family viewing hour of 8pm on Thursdays, sent its ratings soaring to second position among all America's television programmes and brought Wilson Emmy awards for both scripts and performance. More unusually, his deal with NBC allowed the show to be produced by his own company, reaping a far-higher share of the income. But, just as he had achieved this splendid example for other ambitious blacks, the whole thing went sour. In 1974 NBC pulled the plug, possibly because of changing public tastes. Wilson said later that he had found the pressures too great and had made a positive decision after his divorce to devote more of his life to his five children.

He subsequently refused to perform for more than 20 weeks a year, mainly at nightclubs, and, though there were a couple of attempts to revive his television career, they were unsuccessful. After that he simply disappeared from view, though some of his old shows have been running on America's cable channels. His private life became increasingly troubled by legal actions from former lovers demanding financial support and by an arrest on drug charges, which was later ruled illegal by a California court. He died after unsuccessful surgery for a liver tumour. Harold Jackson Clerow 'Flip' Wilson, comedian, born December 8, 1 933; died November 25, 1998 Death Notices MARRINER, Margorot Mary nee Power (Peg), suddenly alter a brio! illness on 22nd Docombor, 1998, aged B6 years Fond and beloved wile, mother and grardmolher.

Requiem Mass at Church ol Our Lady, Lis-son Grove NW8 on Thursday 31st December at 12.30pm lollowcd by cremation at Golders Green Crematorium, 2pm, No flowers by request Donations, It desired, to Imperial Cancer Research Fund, co R. Sherry Son Funeral Directors, 25 Bell Street NW1 5BY. lei 0171 723 0425. To place your announcement telophono 0171 713 4567 or lax 0171 713 4707 between 9am and 3pm Mon-Frl with long days to kill and many a beast of a table to be tamed did his game no good. Convivial to a fault, he habitually drank long and late, even after snooker's tournament scene revived.

Although his standard had deteriorated, he nevertheless reached the 1970 world final, losing to Joe Reardon. Three months abstinence and some solid practice, brought his game into good shape for the 1977 championship, the first to be staged at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield. He reached the semi-finals but from there his playing career went downhill. Finally, crossing the road in front of a bus, it caught and broke his trailing leg. He never played again but, divorced after a 25-year marriage and bankrupt, he Once retired from business, these interests launched him as an author.

His first book, National Parks Of Thailand led to Thailand's Vanishing Flora And Fauna, co-written with the highly-regarded ornithologist Philip Round and illustrated largely by Graham's photographs. It provided, in a popular format, a hard-hitting analysis of the dire state of Thailand's wildlife. Other books followed, notably a history of wood, which exposed the gaping hole being knocked in Thai culture by the devastation of its forests. Graham exploited extensive business contacts to raise funds for conservation projects, supporting research into forest regeneration by a unit of Northern Chiang Mai University. His enthusiasm for tigers led to a project in southern Thailand exploiting advanced infra-red technol Pulman from a life of playing snooker he moved on to discussing it on television Wilson top ratings an immediate hit and was soon making cameo appearances in other high-ranking variety shows like The Rowan and Martin Laugh-In.

After three increasingly successful years on this circuit a star billing in a television variety show persuaded NBC to offer him his own prime-time comedy series. Unlike his fellow comic, Bill Cosby, Wilson never tried to distract his audience from the colour of his skin. The sharply observed characters he created sprang straight from the black urban culture in which he had been raised. Though The Flip Wilson Show featured such important guests as Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, John Wayne, and Dean Martin, it remained essentially a one-man performance. Wilson peopled it with the sort of characters Tom Wolfe later used so successfully for his novels.

A real-life version of the flamboyant homilies of the Rev Leroy, high-powered pastor of the Church Of What's Happening Now, could be heard almost any Sunday in a thousand black neighbourhoods. Geraldine, Wilson's bewigged, mini-skirted and high-heeled sexual predator, could equally be found on almost any street corner among the clustered soul sisters of urban America. Her Kennedy, violinist, 42; Frances Morrell, former leader, Ilea, 61; Hildegarde Neff, actress, singer and writer, 73; Bridget Prentice, Labour MP, 46; Simon Raven, author, playwright, 71; Joan Ruddock, Labour MP, 55; Dame Maggie Smith, actress, 64; Richard Sudhalter, writer, jazz musician, 60; The Rt Rev Bill Westwood, broadcaster and former Bishop of Peterborough, 73. A voice for Thailand's wildlife no link. In some places songbirds increased alongside the two predators, while in others they declined despite the fact that sparrowhawks and magpies remained constant.

This may go some way to rehabilitate the sparrowhawk, but I doubt whether the evidence will alter one jot public attitudes towards its presumed partner in crime. The magot pie or chatternag is too deeply embedded in our cultural life as a symbol of bad or, at least, ambiguous luck for it ever to be embraced. It will remain one of only 13 birds that it is legal to kill as vermin. People will still see magpies in spring hauling defenceless songbird chicks from their nests and put two and two together and make five. Our hatred of the magpie is proof that birds are more than just the objects of scientific research.

They are creatures of our unreason, freighted with rich and strange mythologies. In some ways I hope they will long continue to be so. MARK COCKER THE conservationist and writer Mark Graham, who died in the southern Thailand plane crash two weeks ago aged 58, fought to preserve that country's forest, fauna and wildlife which had been savaged in its dash for economic development. Graham's soldier father made his life in Malaya. Mark, who was born in Singapore, escaped with his mother from the Japanese invasion and arrived in Britain in 1943.

Educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh, he joined the Seaforth Highlanders, who took him back to what what is now Malaysia during its confrontation with Indonesia. He then studied art at the British Institute in Florence, and worked in advertising before leaving for Thailand and marriage in 1968. He worked for a pharmaceutical company.while trekking in Thailand and Nepal..