
Howard Marks obituary: 'Britain's most charming drug smuggler' - wallflower
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/11/howard-marks-obituary
======
rdl
Mr. Nice was a great book -- definitely recommend it.

~~~
franze
great book with great entrepreneur spirit

------
deepnet
He did his time. That he wrote a biography, toured as an orator and was
immortalised by Rhys Evans were self conscious acts. Working with terrorists
is unforgivable, the troubles were bad. Marks seemed genuine and tells it
well, he was after all a Welshman.

------
n0mad01
i once had the opportunity to sit right next to him, having a little bit
conversation.

there were like 15 other people in the room and he was the star, so not much
of a chance to talk about profound topics.

I remember him being a exceptionally quiet and polite person.

farewell

------
mootothemax
I really dislike the glorification of criminals in the British press.

Here you have an apparently charming man who knowingly caused a great deal of
violence and human misery with his trade.

His masterstroke[1] was having the audacity to blame the laws of the time for
the violence in his trade - and getting people to agree that, yes, he has no
responsibility for his actions, it's the laws that should be blamed!

And that's without even touching on his business associates; how you can call
yourself _Mr Nice_ while teaming up with the IRA and still look at yourself in
the mirror every morning is beyond me.

[1] In later life. Staying out of prison by claiming to be an MI6/SIS
informant was pretty clever, given that MI6 wouldn't even officially confirm
their own existence until well into the 90s, let alone publicly comment on
specific individuals and cases.

~~~
kagamine
Have you read any of Marks' books? I know they only tell his side of the
story, but the type is there on the page to be scrutinized. He was genuinely
approached by MI6 to offer/collect intel, he may have hammed it up in court
for his own benefit, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.

He also disliked the IRA connections, apparently, but smuggling via Ireland
was easier than via France/mainland Europe. In the politics of the time, and
perhaps from being Welsh, it was easier to excuse the IRA, I think a fair few
Welsh and Scottish subjects of HM Elizabeth II would have had sympathies with
the "cause", although not with the manner in which it was being fought for
(violence versus Scotland's wait of 30-40 more years for a referendum; some
Irishmen obviously wanted a resolution within their lifetime).

The Mr. Nice moniker comes from having bought a passport/identity from a real
person by that name (Nice as in the French town), which he then traveled under
and adopted. It was genuinely his name for a while.

MI6 was _known_ to exist even it not confirmed by the govt. Ever heard of
James Bond? Myth rooted in fact, every UK citizen who has read
Flemming/Greene/etc knew there was an MI6.

Whatever you think of Marks, he does have a folk hero side that appeals to the
British, someone who found his way into the establishment, but then rejected
the banality of that life and instead lived a life most of us haven't the gall
to even attempt. I think that is why he is appreciated by the British press.

~~~
k-mcgrady
>> "violence versus Scotland's wait of 30-40 more years for a referendum; some
Irishmen obviously wanted a resolution within their lifetime"

I don't think you can really draw a comparison between the two. The Troubles
didn't start simply because the Irish wanted to control their own affairs they
started due to the fact that Irish Catholics were being heavily discriminated
against.

~~~
kagamine
As a Scot who watched the 'troubles' on the news week after week, year after
year, I respectfully disagree. Many Scots I believe felt that the Irish had
the courage to do what we did not: to take the matter into our own hands.
Those same people also held the contrary view that violence was not the
answer, and that common sense would prevail. They can now feel venerated in
that they took the higher ground.

Recent events in Scotland however, display that the political situation/plight
is not different enough that you can merely dismiss it as you do, almost half
the population of Scotland want self-rule (for the record, I'm not among
them). The details may differ but the desire is equal.

~~~
anexprogrammer
The troubles were far more about the sectarianism than independence. There was
little evidence of sectarian overspill in Scotland outside of Glasgow. That
was down to Irish emigrants settling en-masse in Glasgow, and probably
explains Glasgow having an Orange order, the Rangers/Celtic divide and the
like.

Scots seeking independence is rather different from the Irish situation mainly
as the driver is not religion. For the record I agree with self-rule for
Scotland, but am a Sassenach who would wish to move to post-independence
Scotland. ;)

~~~
barking
Dundee utd in Dundee, Hibs in Edinburgh, even in England, Everton was
traditionally the catholic club in Liverpool and Man utd in Manchester. I'd
say Glasgow remained the most bitter one on account of its close links to
Ulster. If you read about Irish navvies working on the canals and the railways
in Britain it was in Scotland that they were the most disliked and where the
most violent incidents occured. Even today a lot of scots seem to be anti
irish. You see it to a lesser extent in Liverpool as well if you scratch the
surface of some people.

~~~
anexprogrammer
I'm not that strong on this aspect of history, but it has always seemed to be
an association rather than a sectarian divide. Even though it was well known
Everton was the catholic club, plenty of catholics supported Liverpool from
the beginning, for instance. Glasgow and surrounding areas seemed the
strongest exception.

You're right about sentiment in Liverpool though. That probably stems from the
port and strong association as the point of migration leading to a large Irish
community.

