Gerry Adams's Blog

A President for All | Real sanctions needed now | Using your Loaf!

A President for All

All three candidates in the Presidential election have made commitments in support of Irish Unity. Clear evidence of the growing importance of Irish Unity to the electorate.

Last Saturday Catherine Connolly was invited to address a Sinn Fein conference in Dublin. There was a palpable buzz of anticipation in Dublin City University as over 500 party activists gathered to discuss ‘Building For Unity.’  It was an opportunity to judge her style, hear at first hand her vision for the future of our island, and to assess her ability to challenge the establishment parties and their candidates.

Connolly has been an outspoken critic of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and an advocate for workers, communities, and equality. She supports the need for the Irish government to plan for the future unity referendums. A call Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and their candidates refuse to make.

An Taoiseach Micheál Martin has made clear and repeated it last weekend, that there will not be a unity referendum on his watch. Mr. Martin is on the wrong side of history and I can’t help but wonder what the many republican or nationalist Fianna Fáil members think of his negativity. Maybe someday some of them will break ranks and go beyond the bland rhetoric that is no substitute for reasoned, tolerant, sensible planning for unit8y in keeping with the GFA, the Fianna Fáil constitution and the Irish constitution.

Introducing Catherine Connolly last Saturday Uachtarán Shinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald described her as someone who “believes in Ireland, believes in the people of Ireland, believes that we can realise a better future together. She is a rooted working-class woman. A proud Gael and Gaeilgeoir. A woman with a lifetime of standing up to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. She will be a President who understands the immense opportunity of Irish Unity, who speaks with hope and confidence that we can achieve a United Ireland. 

A President who defends our military neutrality and Ireland’s place in the world as a champion of human rights, peace, diplomacy, and freedom. A President who will stand with us in upholding the cause of Gaza and Palestine.”

In her remarks Catherine Connolly asserted her belief that Irish Unity is a “foregone conclusion” and that preparations are needed to demonstrate that the new Ireland can be a place that will embrace diversity and equality. She pledged that as President she will “give voice to the firm will of the Irish people in Article 3 of the Constitution in every way I can to promote that objective”. Connolly also said that people must take courage in their hands if we are to shape a new Republic that can provide housing and health services for everyone.

The constant and enthusiastic applause Catherine Connolly received and the standing ovation and sustained chants of support she received, are all evidence that republicans are wholeheartedly behind her.

There are now just three weeks left in the campaign. The opportunity exists to elect a President who will act for and speak on behalf of all of the people of the island of Ireland. Who believes in Irish Unity. A President who believes in an Ireland where there is no homelessness, where the rights of citizens are protected and valued and where gender, or race or class or skin colour or creed are not obstacles to every citizen living a full and happy life. Northeners are denied a vote in this election. That is unacceptable. But all of us should find some way to be part of the campaign.

Do that by contacting her at www.catherineconnollyforpresident.ie/ or take your own personal initiative and contact friends or family in the South to vote Connolly for President.   

 

Real sanctions needed now

Last Friday I spoke on my podcast to Chris Andrews a Sinn Fein Senator who is on the Global Sumud Flotilla in the Mediterranean Sea which, as a I write this, is trying to bring much needed humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people of Gaza. The flotilla, which has already been bombed by Israeli drones, sails under the constant threat of Israeli assault. The 50 boats involved left the coast of Crete on Sunday. Another flotilla of ten vessels also left Sicily on Sunday. When I spoke to Chris we discussed the danger and challenges facing the flotilla. He urged the Irish government and Tánaiste Simon Harris to do more in support of the flotilla's mission and the Palestinian people.

Last week at the United Nations most state representatives refused to sit while Israeli PM Netanyahu ranted against those who opposed his genocidal policies.  Every day Israeli forces are continuing to assault the people of Gaza City and scores of Palestinians are being killed, and others, mostly children, are dying from forced starvation.

One result of this is that more and more states are formally recognising the state of Palestine but the reality is that meaningful sanctions against Israel are also urgently needed to stop the destruction of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli genocide and the systematic theft of Palestinian land in the west Bank.

The Irish government and the international community must do more and quickly. Real decisions with a real impact on Israel are needed, including a ban on goods and services from the Occupied Territories, the total suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and the ending of arms supplies.

The zoom with Chris Andrews can be watched at:

https://youtu.be/7fewPPJJnn444

 

Using your Loaf!

This week I want to highlight the virtues of the humble Belfast Bap and the man who created it. During the week I breakfasted on boiled eggs served on a sliced  bap plastered with butter and sprinkled with black pepper. An bhlasta. Really scrumptious. Try it. You won’t be disappointed. 

This particular bap came ready sliced. I prefer to slice my bap myself so that the slices are thick and well able to carry the butter and the boiled  egg. This is real finger food.  The ready sliced baps can be a wee bit thin. Still tasty but a bit messy. So slice your own. 

The Bap was invented by Armagh man Bernard Hughes. Bernard or Barney Hughes had set up his own bakery in Belfast. It came into its own during An Gorta Mór, the Great Hunger, particularly between  1845 and 1848 when he produced Bread at Affordable Prices or BAP.  Ulster Sots advocates also claim the word Bap comes from that origin.

In any case Barney Hughes baps became part of the staple diet of many people including those who crowded into Belfast from rural places to escape starvation. 

To keep the Bap at a reasonable price Barney mixed flour with ground peas and beans. Undoubtedly this increased the nutritional benefits of the Bap. It also added to its flatulent velocity. This element lives on almost two centuries later in the street song Barney Hughes Bread.

“Barney Hughes’ bread

It sticks to your belly like lead

Not a bit of wonder 

You fart like thunder

Barney Hughes Bread.”

It is also immortalised in the childrens’ song My Aunt Jane.

“My Aunt Jane 

She called me in

She gave me tea 

Out of her wee tin

Half a Bap

With sugar on the top.

And three wee lumps 

Out of her wee shop.”

Barney Hughes was a very successful businessman. He was inventive and innovative. He was also a champion for citizens‘ rights and a firm opponent of sectarianism. He became the first Catholic elected to Belfast Corporation and he also used his wealth to advance  many causes.

For example, he donated the land on which Saint Peter’s Cathedral is built and he contributed to the building of Saint Mary’s Hall which used to be in Bank  Street, as well as a statue to Dr Henry Cooke - the Black Man- in Wellington Place. They enjoyed a cordial relationship although Barney abhored Cooke’s politics. 

He also spoke out against the Fenians and seemed to have a passive attitude to the Home Rule movement although many of his friends were strong Home Rulers and supporters of the Fenian prisoners. 

Jack Magee, a former Marketing Manager for Bernard Hughes Ltd captured the life and times of Barney Hughes in his fine book ‘Barney ‘which was published in 2001.  While he is best remembered for his baps Barney’s strong and courageous commitment to social justice and anti-sectarianism should be more widely known and celebrated. 

He died in 1878. By that time Barney Hughes was the biggest bread producer in Ireland. So when you munch your Bap give a thought to Barney and his contribution to our well being. 

By the way if you ever wonder why Belfast men with the surname Hughes or Kennedy - another Belfast bakery -get nicknamed Bap use your loaf. That’s down to Barney Hughes as well.

Barney: Bernard Hughes of Belfast 1808-1878. By Jack Magee.Published by the Ulster Historical Foundation. 

Catherine Connolly – A President for all of Ireland | Cearta –Marching for Rights | Go raibh maith agat Bruce Morrison

 Catherine Connolly – A President for all of Ireland

In less than five weeks’ time the next Uachtarán na hÉireann will be elected by the people of the 26 counties. Election day is 24 October. That the people of the North and of the diaspora will be denied a vote is a disgraceful consequence of the efforts over recent years by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael (FFFG) to prevent the extension of the presidential franchise. Both parties are frightened by the prospect of people, who have never voted for either party, voting in Presidential elections.  They want to retain the status quo not change it. This partitionist approach also influences the resistance of Micheál Martin and others to the growing potential for a referendum vote in favour of Irish Unity.

Last weekend’s decision by the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle to endorse Catherine Connolly’s campaign is, to quote Mary Lou, a ‘game changer.’ Sinn Féin has many capable, articulate leaders who would have been great candidates. But the party chose to join with others as part of a left alternative. This was a courageous decision which gives those who can vote in the election a clear choice between the conservative politics of FFFG or a progressive and positive alternative.

Catherine Connolly and the left alliance, that now support her, offers optimism for a new and better future. The Irish Nation and diaspora need a Peoples’ President – a President who can bring hope; who can lift spirits and reach out to and embrace all the people of this island. A President who believes in the core republican values of equality and fairness. A President who believes in unity.

The Sinn Féin party across the island of Ireland will now actively and energetically take up the challenge of electing Catherine as the next resident of Áras an Uachtaráin. Party members from the North will travel South to add their activism to one of the most important elections in recent years. We do so as an Irish Republicans committed to our objective of ending partition and the union with Britain and of creating a new Ireland, based on equality, for all the people of our island.

This election signals  the coming together of all of the opposition parties within the Oireachtas in a concerted effort to break the mould of southern politics and build a practical alternative to the failed conservative politics of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the two parties that have governed since partition.

Catherine Connolly was elected to the Dáil in 2015. In the following five years, as TD for Louth, I had the opportunity to watch Catherine first hand as she spoke in Dáil debates. She is a gifted speaker, coherent and skilful, an eloquent Gaeilgeoir and a resolute and compassionate advocate for progressive causes. And for the rights of citizens. She will be an excellent Uachtarán na hÉireann and a worthy replacement for Michael D. Higgins who, along with Sabina, has for 14 years ably represented the Irish nation.

The priority for Sinn Féin in this campaign is to keep Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil out of the Áras. In addition, the building of a successful united left coalition will also provide an opportunity to demonstrate to voters that there is a real, sustainable alternative to the politics of FFFG.

An alternative which is determined to build a better life for working families and communities and is worthy of their trust and vote in the next general election.

In addition, since Martin McGuinness was a candidate in 2011, this is the best opportunity to advance the conversation about a new Ireland. The momentum around Unity is growing day by day. The direction of travel is clearly heading for the unity referendum provided for by the Good Friday Agreement. So, we have the real possibility of ensuring that Catherine Connolly is the next President of Ireland when that referendum takes place. 

At a time when the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael government, propped up by Michael Lowry’s group, is for ending Irish neutrality we need a President who will champion it. At a time when the genocide in Gaza and the assault on the Palestinian people in the west Bank and East Jerusalem is increasing we need a President who will speak out against that genocide and who stands foursquare with the Palestinian people and their right to sovereignty. At a time when FFFG are pursuing policies that are making it impossible for young people to buy or rent their own home, and the state is failing to build much needed housing, we need a President who will not shy away from speaking up for ordinary people.

As Mary Lou said, when announcing the decision to back Catherine Connolly, Republicans believe this is an opportunity to elect an Uachtarán “who will be a voice for citizens with disabilities, the marginalised, and those too often ignored by those in power. An Uachtarán with a record of standing for fairness, compassion and economic justice.”

We are a defining moment in our journey toward Unity. The presidential election of 24 October offers all of us a unique opportunity to change the script – to take the island of Ireland in a more positive, equality driven direction. We have five weeks to make it happen. Can we do it? Absolutely. But we need your support.

So play your part. Join the campaign. Work to elect Catherine Connolly. 

Cearta –Marching for Rights

Under the banner of CEARTA – meaning RIGHTS - tens of thousands took to the streets of Dublin on Saturday to demand equality for the Irish language. In scenes reminiscent of An Dream Dearg in Belfast three years ago, Irish speakers and activists from across the island, wearing their distinctive red with a white circle, marched from Parnell Square to the gates of Leinster House.

The protest was an exuberant and joyful celebration of our language and culture and of the demand that the Irish government implement policy changes that will protect and enhance the lives of Irish speakers and of the Gaeltacht communities. There was live music from Ispíní na hÉireann, Niamh Ní Dhubhgháin and Breandán Ó Beaglaoich and others. Niamh Ní Dhubhgháin performed a song about the needs of young people, especially those living in Gaeltacht areas who are finding it impossible to buy or rent or build a home.

The threat to the language and the failure of successive governments to invest properly in supporting ár teanga and culture was the main message of the day.

Gaeltacht communities face huge challenges because too many of our young people are being forced to leave. The impact of bad policy on communities is substantial. Without homes, there can be no communities and without Gaeltacht communities, the language will not survive. This is not just a housing crisis – it is a crisis for the future of the Gaeltacht.

Looking down a packed Molesworth St, facing the entrance to Leinster House, Ciarán Mac Giolla Bhéin, President of Conradh na Gaeilge, warned that the vision of the language contained in Bunreacht na hÉireann and in the Good Friday Agreement has never been realised. There needs to be a greater investment in education and in the provision of resources. He pointed out that the value of funding received by Foras na Gaeilge, the cross-border language institute, has almost halved in the last 20 years and that only 0.1% of State expenditure was going to the Irish language and the Gaeltacht.

The demands of the protestors are entirely legitimate. They are also sensible and practical. Irish language activists are determined to achieve their reasonable demands and there is a responsibility on all of us, whether we speak Irish or not, to support their efforts.

 

Go raibh maith agat Bruce Morrison

In two weeks’ time there will be a celebration in New York to mark 30 years of the Morrison Visa Programme. The event will remember the introduction of the visa legislation that provided an estimated 45,000 Irish people with a legal pathway into the USA in the early 1990s.

The Morrison Visa was the brainchild of former US Congressman Bruce Morrison who introduced a program that allocated visas to nationals who up to that point were underrepresented in US Immigration. Bruce however, is also known for his hard work in support of the peace process. He was part of a group of Irish American business, trade union and political leaders – the Connolly House Group – who played a pivotal role in creating the conditions for the 1994 IRA cessation. Bruce and his colleagues continued to be active for years afterward and Bruce remains so today.

So, well done Bruce. Maith thú agus comghairdeas a chara. The celebration will take place on 1 October in the Rainbow Room in New York. For more information visit www.morrisonlegacy.com.

 

Defending the Assembly and Executive | Cearta Anios.

 Defending the Assembly and Executive

If we were to listen to and accept at face value those in the media who criticise the Assembly and the Executive as ineffective, and who question their value or use, we would mothball both institutions and sack the MLAs.

Yes, there is justifiable frustration at the failure of the institutions to address concerns on health and education and delivery on Casement Park, Saving Lough Neagh, building the A5, delivering for Gaeilgeoirí, tackling poverty and hate crimes and legacy issues alongside problems in our public services. But that is not the fault of the institutions. It lies with the political parties and others who are blocking progress.

Yes, there are problems but it is wrong to tar all our politicians with the one brush and it would also be wrong to hand over responsibility for these issues to unelected civil servants and to the British government. That would be irresponsible and stupid.

Does anyone really want another British Secretary of State running this place? There have been 25 British Secretaries of State, mostly mediocre and forgettable, including some who contributed enormously to the conflict.

We also need to appreciate that the London government is adding to the difficulties faced by an Executive which doesn’t have the financial resources to tackle some of the issues of greatest concern. All of this is an argument for the end of Westminster rule. Wecneed to say that loudly and often. London has never ruled us in our best interests. We who call this place home are the only ones entitled or fit to do that. That includes our unionist neighbours and their representatives. 

The reality is that the Northern statelet was not and is not a normal society.  Partition was a unionist and British imposed response to the demand by the people of this island to independence and sovereignty. The unionist regime at Stormont immediately and successfully deepened political and sectarian discrimination and the inequalities that were part and parcel of colonisation. The Northern state was a place where non-unionists were to have no say in its running and where the institutions of the state were closed to us. 

After 78 years of ‘Northern Ireland’ the Good Friday Agreement began a process of fundamentally changing that system. It is a process. The Agreement was and is a unique arrangement to facilitate conflicting political visions. Republicans decided to enter Stormont – a place that represented all that was wrong with the Orange State – because we believed that a space was needed in which we and unionism could moderate our differences. Other venues were considered but we believed that unionists would be comfortable within the Stormont setting. And we opted for that. 

However, did anyone seriously think that generations and centuries of colonisation and prejudice could be overturned quickly? That the deep rooted antipathy to all things progressive or rights based, never mind nationalist or republican, would disappear overnight or even in the short term?  Only the most naive or stupid among us would have thought the British State would acknowledge its wrong doing and embrace equality and democracy?  No dear readers. It was always going to be a battle a day- a process that demanded and demands perseverance, doggedness, generosity, resolve and strategic focus. Especially strategic focus.

Yes, we need delivery now on many issues but we also need always to see beyond the shortcomings of the present system and always be trying to win support for a more democratic system to deliver an inclusive future. And we should never let any subversion of the current arrangements rob us of our rights. And we should have faith in the good sense of many nominal unionists who are disenchanted with the Union and with some unionist leaders. 

Since the Agreement was achieved in April 1998 elements of unionism have battled against it every single day. For some it’s about diluting the Agreement and erecting obstacles to much needed public service reform or common sense cross border economic ties. For others it’s about placing a dead hand on the institutions and any progressive policies that could deliver equality and potential beneficial improvements, even if they are in the interests of their own electorate. Their preference  is for the Northern state to remain locked into a failed relationship with Britain, which itself is facing its own constitutional and political crisis.

This intransigent view of the world has been reinforced by the shift in voting patterns resulting in the unionist parties now being in the minority within the Assembly and in Westminster, and Michelle O’Neill emerging as First Minister last year.

It also needs to be acknowledged that the DUP, Ulster Unionist Party and Traditional Unionist Party are deeply conservative. That is evident in their attitude to policy proposals affecting the rights of women or housing provision, migrants and the Israeli States genocide on the people of Palestine.

Nationalists see the Agreement and the institutions – however challenging and difficult this may be - as an opportunity to reverse or to stop the injustices of partition by the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement while democratically and peacefully arguing for Irish Unity as the obvious solution to generations of misrule. We are for a new Ireland and we need to keep working toward that objective, while making life better for the people of the North and the island, as we do so. Some unionists say they want to make the North a better place for everyone. But rhetoric alone will not do this. They need to deliver. They need to make politics work. And they need to face down the naysayers in their own ranks if it comes to that. Otherwise they are going nowhere.

It is mostly a result of this unionist opposition to change that has undermined the Assembly and created significant challenges for the Executive. Until this term both have been up and down repeatedly. And there have been notable failures – some of which I mentioned earlier. But scrapping the institutions will not overcome these challenges.

The Assembly and Executive and the connecting all-island institutions, are important for building on the opportunities for progress created by the peace process. Of course the Irish government is central to this. Unfortunately, our current Taoiseach has no real interest in leading this imperative or in fulfilling his obligations. Notwithstanding this, Irish unity and the desirability. of a new Ireland are now a central part of political debate. Without doubt there will be a referendum on the future. There will be an opportunity to set aside the failures of the past, and the present. The people will decide. Some unionists fear that democratic Rubicon. So do elements of the Irish establishment. 

The institutions of the Good Friday Agreement are a vital part of managing this process of change, including persuading the Irish government to begin planning for unity through the creation of Citizens’ Assemblies.

So, we have to remain focussed on the future. Be patient and resolved and positive in our determination to build friendships across the sectarian divide. And make the institutions work to the best of our ability while always at the same time creating the new Ireland. 

 

Cearta Anios. 

In May 2022, 20,000 activists took to the streets of Béal Feirste to demand Irish language rights. This An Dream Dearg mass mobilisation of both young and old was highly symbolic, positive, cheerful and confident. Four days after this protest, the British government took the first step to introduce Irish-language legislation, paving the way for historic social change in the Northern state. This legislation provided for the repeal of the centuries old  penal-law ban on the use of Irish in the courts. It also provided the mechanisms to create the office of an Irish-language Commissioner, who will oversee the delivery of language rights in the six counties.

These achievements point to the importance of grassroots democratic movements as part of the fight for a better Ireland.  Mechanisms and structures to bring about change have many parts and roles for many people and a range of tactical and strategic requirements but most important of all these is a movement of empowered activists.  The popularity of the Irish language and its resurgence is proof of just how much can be achieved when the people reclaim our language and our power. This is particularly important given the efforts by some unionists to dilute and delay the modest changes which are now ongoing. And the failure of succesive Irish governments to deal with these issues in their own state or in the North. 

This Saturday will provide an opportunity to spread this message. Activists from Dún Chaoin to Dún Pádraig will take to the streets of Dublin to challenge the Dublin government. Organising under the watchword of ‘Cearta’ or ‘Rights’, Irish-speaking or English-speaking activists – will mobilise to high light the absence of Irish language rights, ranging from the housing crisis in Gaeltacht areas, to the crisis in education, and the historic underfunding of an Ghaeilge in general.

Despite the collective goodwill towards our indigenous language successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments have neglected it. They spend only 0.1% of total state expenditure on schemes related to the Department of an Ghaeltacht. Indeed, the neoliberal policies of the political establishment in the South are decimating our Gaeltacht regions. They are actively undermining the rights of   Irish-speaking locals. This mindset will be challenged next Saturday, when thousands of activists will demand transformative change for our language and full rights for Irish speakers. 

Bígí linn. Play your part. The recent history of the language movement shows how ordinary men and women, and young people especially, can change the political realities around us. The future remains ours to fight for.  “Tá an saol ar bhos ár gcamán againnse” – ‘life is on the boss of our hurleys’. Its’ time to face the puck out.

Gather for ‘CEARTA’ on Saturday 20thSeptember at 1:30pm on Parnell Square, Dublin. 

 

Gaza – The Gates of Hell | The Voice of Hind Rajab | Van The Man

 Gaza – The Gates of Hell

Last Saturday millions across the world, including here in Belfast, participated in one of the biggest ever solidarity events as part of a Global Day of Action in support of the Palestinian people. At the same time dozens of boats, and hundreds of human rights activists, are taking part in the largest civilian freedom flotilla. Among them are three senior Sinn Féin representatives; Lynn Boylan MEP, Seanadoir David Andrews and Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh TD. They are all on their way to the Gaza Strip in a courageous effort to break Israel’s illegal blockade. Their aim is to deliver much needed food and medicine to the people of that besieged territory.

Next month will mark two years since the commencement of the Israeli genocide assault against the Palestinian people, following the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023. The statistics of death and destruction are horrendous. To date almost 65,000 Palestinians have been confirmed as killed with many thousands more buried under the rubble of Gaza.  Almost 20,000 children have been murdered and tens of thousands have suffered serious injuries, many of them life changing.

UNICEF has described the situation in Gaza City as catastrophic with starvation now an integral part of Israel’s genocidal war against civilians. Eight Palestinian children die every day from starvation. The Israeli forces kill 28 children every day. Over 350 children are daily being admitted to the limited U.N. facilities still operating within the Gaza Strip, suffering from acute malnutrition. Many will not survive and those who do will suffer from health problems for the rest of their lives because of this experience.

According to UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell: “Famine is now a grim reality for children… As we have repeatedly warned, the signs were unmistakable: children with wasted bodies, too weak to cry or eat; babies dying from hunger and preventable disease; parents arriving at clinics with nothing left to feed their children.”

All of this is happening as Israel’s western allies, the USA, European Union and the British government continue to back Netanyahu’s genocidal strategy. In the last three weeks the Israeli occupation forces have intensified their bombing of civilian targets in Gaza City killing over a thousand people. Boasting of the attacks the Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said that “the bolt has now been removed from the gates of hell in Gaza.”

In addition, around 60,000 Israeli Army reservists have been called up to reinforce the Israeli Army’s military resources to implement Netanyahu’s invasion plan. In the last week an estimated one million people have been told by Israel to leave their tents and the homes they have created amidst the rubble as Israel’s full scale invasion is imminent. It is claimed by some of the regional media, based on intelligence information from Egypt, that Netanyahu is determined to raise the Israeli flag over an occupied Gaza City to mark the second anniversary of Israel’s holocaust against the Palestinians.

As part of the growing instability in the region the Egyptian government has sent 40,000 troops to Gaza’s border with Egypt in expectation that Israel is planning to force Palestinian refugees out of the Gaza Strip into the Sinai desert and Egypt.

This latest escalation in Israel’s genocide follows the publication of a report by the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) - a 500-member body of academics, historians, lawyers and human rights specialists. This respected group of scholars voted overwhelmingly in support of a new resolution that accuses Israel of pursuing policies and actions that meet the legal definition of genocide under the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Almost 90% of those members who participated in the ballot backed the resolution. It states that the actions of Israel constitute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. It states: “These crimes include deliberate attacks on civilians, including children, starvation, deprivation of humanitarian aid, water, fuel, and other essentials, sexual and reproductive violence, and forced displacement of the population.”

The report also notes that Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant are subject to international arrest warrants for crimes, including, the starvation of civilians and intentional attacks on civilian populations. The International Court of Justice has also accused Israel of committing genocide.

So, well done to all of those who continue to confront and challenge Israel’s war crimes. The problem is that the most powerful states in the west support the Israeli government’s war. Until this obscenity is challenged the carnage will continue. All of us who value peace and justice must never stop raising our voices in support of peace in the Middle East and freedom for the people of Palestine.

 

The Voice of Hind Rajab

Movies can uplift and depress, frighten and inspire, and occasionally make us laugh. The Irish experience, through films like Hunger, which tells the story of Bobby Sands; In the Name of the Father which recounts the miscarriage of Justice experienced by the Guildford Four; of Michael Collins; Bloody Sunday and others is evidence of this. These movies focussed on important political or historical events while successfully and emotionally impacting on audiences.

Last week ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ received the longest ever standing ovation at the Venice film festival and won the Silver Lion prize. It is a drama based on true events – the killing by Israel of a five-year-old Palestinian child, Hind Rajab, in Gaza in January 2024.

Hind was in a car with her Aunt and Uncle and four cousins trying to flee Israeli forces. Their car was struck by a shell and the adults and three children were killed. An Israeli tank fired consistently into the trapped vehicle. The fourth cousin was later killed. Hind was alone, surrounded by the bodies of her relatives. She spent hours on a mobile phone with the Palestine Red Crescent Society. She was terrified. She pleaded for help. “Come take me. You will come and take me? … I’m so scared, please come. Please call someone to come and take me.” Desperately the Red Crescent sought clearance from the Israeli Army to send an ambulance. They never got it.

Eventually her body and those of her family were found in their bullet riddled car. The Ambulance was found parked nearby. The two medics who had courageously tried to reach her had been murdered.

The French-Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania asked the Red Crescent for the audio of the call. The voice heard in the film is Hind Rajab’s own voice. The director told the Venice audience that Hind Rajab’s story was not just about her but was the voice of “an entire people enduring genocide.”

The story of Hind Rajab goes to the heart of Israel’s genocide. Well done to those who have produced this important movie.

 

Van The Man

A very happy 80th birthday to Van Morrison. This column is a big fan of Van the Mans music. It is great that he is still so creative. His   latest offering Remembering Now is a gem. It is reflective and musically very very positive and uplifting. Not bad for a man who started in the sixties . Still going strong. 

Remember Them? Remember, Here Comes The Night? Gloria? Baby Please Dont Go? Moondance? Like Mr Morrison they all stand up well over half a century later.  Ralph McTell of the BBC’s Radio Ulster, a man who knows good music, did a special run of his regular programme dedicated to Van Morrisons top 80 songs as chosen by radio listeners. It is still availible on Radio Ulsters App. Well worth a listen to. 

All the old favourites are here.  I wont name them. There are too many. But Brown Eyed Girl, Cleaning Windows (I also cleaned windows in the late Sixties. For about three weeks.) Madame George, Into The Mystic, Cyprus Avenue, Raglan Road, Carrickfergus and so on and so on. From jazz, skiffle, R&B, Folk, Blues and Rock and Roll. Music to uplift and take us out off ourselves. So thank you Mr Morrison. 

 

Say No To Farage. | Padraic Fiacc – A Belfast Poet

 Say No To Farage. 

Probably more than any other politician in Britain Nigel Farage was responsible for winning the vote on Brexit in 2016. He exploited racism and anti-migrant sentiment winning new converts over to an English centred- jingoistic view of the world. The dangers of Farage’s xenophobic beliefs are evident daily across the British news media. Every day attacks increase on refugees and migrants.

Farage has also exploited the divisions within the British Conservative Party. Theresa May and Boris Johnson said they were for completely cutting Britain from all its legal and legislative connections and treaty obligations with Europe. One of these is the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The ECHR was incorporated into the law of the North as an integral part of the Good Friday Agreement. It was written into the Agreement as a way of protecting equality and human rights and preventing any return to the discriminatory and sectarian policies implemented under the Stormont Regime.

Farage has now made the withdrawal of Britain from the ECHR a major plank of his political programme for the next British general election. As the right in Britain become ever more strident Farage has set his sights, very publicly, on renegotiating the Good Friday Agreement and clearing the way to extricate Britain from the ECHR.

Not surprisingly Sammy Wilson of the DUP has welcomed the Farage commitments. The Good Friday Agreement remains anathema to many within the DUP, who seek to delay and dilute the implementation of its provisions.

This week a right-wing think tank in London – Policy Exchange – has claimed that Britain can quit the ECHR without impacting the Agreement. This same group was credited by former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for helping his government to draft anti-protest legislation. Its opponents accuse it of advocating and assisting the targeting by the state of the right to free speech and the right to free assembly. 

Farage and his Reform Party have become a potent force in British politics. In June IPSOS published a poll showing that Reform UK was on a 34% vote share - nine points ahead of the Labour Party. The Conservatives’ were on 15%.  Last week The i Paper published a poll claiming that Reform UK were now 15 points ahead of Labour.

There are significant dangers in this situation for the people of Ireland. We have already witnessed many examples of Starmer’s ineptitude in government and his willingness to move ever rightward in his efforts to see off the challenge of Farage and the far right. His determination to defend the status quo is also evident in its approach to legacy issues – for example his refusal to agree an inquiry into the murder of Sean Brown – and his determination to re-write the law to prevent 400 former internees, illegally detained in the 1970s, from receiving their just compensation.

The Good Friday Agreement is an international treaty to which the Irish government is a co-signatory and co-guarantor. It was endorsed in referendums by the people of the island of Ireland. No British government has the right to rewrite it. Can we trust Keir Starmer to defend the Good Friday Agreement? Absolutely NOT.  He has already instructed his Ministers to issue new ‘guidance’ to judges on how they should interpret parts of the ECHR. Not a good sign.

There is an onerous responsibility therefore on the Irish government to make clear to the Starmer government its implacable opposition to any attempt to renegotiate the Agreement. An Taoiseach Micheál Martin needs to stand over all aspects of the Good Friday Agreement, including those still outstanding like a Bill of Rights for the North.

This current threat to the Good Friday Agreement brings home the importance of the Irish Government pushing for, and winning, the unity referendum provided for by the Agreement. Political stability and the future prosperity of our island nation cannot be left to the whims of the little Englander tendencies that brought us Brexit. Our future rests with the people of this island not with Nigel Farage, Keir Starmer or the rest.

 

Padraic Fiacc – A Belfast Poet

Padraic Fiacc (born Patrick Joseph O’Connor) died six years ago at the age of 94. Several weeks ago a Blue Plaque was unveiled on the wall of the Falls Road Library, close to his birthplace, in memory of this redoubtable Belfast poet.

His writing is not as well-known as other poets but his poems stand out for their stark language and brutal rawness, especially when he writes about the conflict. 

Michael and Brid McKernon, brother and sister, have been campaigning for almost twenty-five years to have Padraic Fiacc, formally recognised and accepted as an outstanding poet of his time. They believe the recent unveiling of the Ulster History Circle Blue Plaque, is a significant step in that direction.

Michael first met Padraic Fiacc in 2003, when he was in Haypark Care Home. A friend of Michaels  asked him to paint a portrait of the poet. During the sitting they spoke about Padraic’s poetry, and he asked Michael to read some of his poems to him. Michael was very impressed and believed Padraic’s poetry should be brought to a wider audience at home and abroad.

He described Padraic as a writer of depth, great perception and humanity – a life steeped in literature from a young age, a reader of music and a piano player. He brought these skills to his poems when writing about his many themes including the conflict here or in Palestine and the impact of colonisation on oppressed peoples.

He was deeply affected by the loyalist killing of a young poet, Gerard McLaughlin, just 20 years old. Padraic’s powerful poem, ‘Requin - The Ditch of Dawn’ is a tribute to the young poet.

Padraic was a contemporary of and often in the company of leading poets like Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, John Hewitt, Gerard Dawe, Michael McClafferty, Derek Mahon, Paul Muldoon and Brendan Hamill from West Belfast.

Two renowned literary figures mentored Padraic Fiacc in his lifetime – Padraic Colum in 1940s New York and Michael McClafferty in Belfast in the 1960s. With others he was recognised as an ‘up-and-coming’ poet in a book, ‘New Irish Poets’ published in New York in 1948.

In 1956 he was awarded the AE George Russell Award for his work-in-progress, ‘WOE TO THE BOY’. This collection is testament to Padraic’s extraordinary knowledge of birds and the natural world. Speaking at his funeral in 2019 the Belfast poet Gerald Dawe said of this aspect of Padraic’s work: “Padraic Fiacc’s poems are full of birds – storm-birds, surely, but also birds of all kinds – jackdaws, wrens, robins, and blackbirds. Fiacc was a birdman: ‘I recall yourself and the birds’, he writes in ‘North Man’ recounting a walk one evening along the Lagan with the writer Michael McLaverty ‘and the birds in tune with the sky gone down’.”

In 1981 he was invited to join ‘Aosdana’ the academy of Irish artists and in the same year he received the ‘Poetry Ireland Award’.

Shortly after Michael and Padraic met they collaborated on a book of his poetry, ‘SEA – 60 Years of Poetry’. This was Padraic’s first illustrated collection. The title, selected by Pádriac, owes its origins to the Greek philosopher, Xenophon, whom Pádriac admired.

To mark the centenary of his birth in 2024 Michael and Brid published two books, ‘Tear the Dead Day Back Alive’ and ‘Turas Filíochta’ and organised a series of public events about Padraic’s work. They were assisted in this by Padraic’s associates and friends. Michael has acknowledged in particular the support of Jim Gibney and Tom Hartley. 

Just days before his death in January 2019 Uachtarán na hÉireann, Michael D Higgins visited with Padraic in Belfast. Commenting after Padraic’s death President Higgins wrote: “Having experienced tragedy and loss, Padraic Fiacc was never afraid to reflect dark, deeply emotive and disturbing elements in his verse. He courageously raised crucial questions about the relationship between violence, poetry and language.”

Following the blue plaque unveiling on the Falls Library Michael Mc Kernon believes now is the time for the poet to be on the school curriculum and for universities in Ireland to posthumously recognise the greatness of Padraic Fiacc, the poet born in Elizabeth Street on the Falls Road.

 

 

Our 1916

 Our 1916

The eight months of the 1981 hunger strike campaign changed the political landscape in Ireland. It was as Síle Darragh, former O.C. of the republican women prisoners in Armagh Women’s Prison, said recently, “our 1916.” It began on 1st March 1981. When it ended on 3rd October ten hungerstrikers were dead. Bobby Sands had been the first to die on May 5th. He was followed over the following four summer months up to August by Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh, Patsy O Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Thomas McElwee, and Micky Devine.

On Sunday last people came in their thousands, from all parts of the island of Ireland, and from overseas, to participate in the annual August march and to honour and commemorate the ten who died forty-four years ago in the H blocks and others who starved to death decades before this including Frank Stagg and Michael Gaughan who died in the 1970s in prison in England. 

The stories of the ten hunger strikers and of their comrades in the H-Blocks and Armagh Women’s Prison, who spent five years on the protest for political status, are many. The brutal physical and mental abuse the women and men endured in defence of the struggle for freedom and in rejection of the label ‘criminal,’ has been articulated in a series of books, poems and articles. These include Ten Men Dead by David Beresford; Seachtain an an Bhlaincéad by Ruairí Ó Dónaill; The Crunch has come by Eoghan MacCormaic, written while he was in the H-Blocks and using the pen name Frankie O ‘Brien; Nor Meekly Serve my Time by some of the POWs; John Lennon is Dead by Síle Darragh; Time Shadows by Laurence McKeown; 6000 Days by Jim (Jaz) McCann: ; Pluid: Scéal na mBlocanna H, 1976-81 by Eoghan MacCormaic; Playing My Part by Gerry Kelly; and the many poems and articles written by Bobby Sands. And there are others including by this writer.

Speaking at the Republican Plot in Milltown Cemetery where Bobby Sands, Joe McDonnell and Ciaran Doherty are buried, Uachtarán Mary Lou McDonald caught the legacy and memory of that time when she described the hungerstrikers as: “Ten brave Irish men who laid down their lives on hunger strike for the freedom of their country. Starved and persecuted they lay in the H-Blocks and with every sinew of their being, they refused to be criminalised, refused to be broken, refused to be defeated.” 

She said: “For them, we will do the work, we will walk the extra yards, we will write our nation’s next chapter – Ireland, united and free… Joined by heroic women in Armagh Gaol, they hungered not only for political status, but for the Ireland envisaged by the proclamation – for the Republic… The legacy of the hunger strikers calls to us today.  To stay true to vision and the dream for which they gave everything. To never despair. Never lose hope. Never give up.”

Perhaps one of the most emotional moments of the day was as the huge march made its way along the Falls Road toward Milltown. A huge banner of Bik McFarlane was unfurled as the march rounded the bend on the Falls Road, just above Beechmount. The blanket men and women who were leading the commemoration stopped and for a minute lifted their clenched fists in silent salute to the friend and comrade who had led them through that terrible year.

In his contribution to Guthanna ’81, published last Saturday, Bik, who died earlier this year, wrote about that experience. His account provides an insight, into the pain and trauma, that went into the planning and preparing for the hunger strike and which included the reality of men dying.

Bik wrote:

Bobby, as OC, was to lead that hunger strike.

We developed a strategy that one man would go first, followed two weeks later by a second, followed a week or so later by two more.

So Bobby was to be followed by Francis Hughes, to be followed a week later by Patsy O’Hara and Raymond McCreesh, and it was staggered that way.

A lot of people thought, you know, looking back, people have asked us, have asked me and different people, that you were very clinical, hard-nosed in terms of your attitude to this. I would say, yes, but we also developed a replacement strategy in order to send a very, very clear signal to the Brits that if anybody died on hunger strike they would be replaced with another hunger striker, letting everybody know that we weren’t for lying down. Also, that the individual had the responsibility to terminate, or not, his hunger strike. So the total responsibility fell on the shoulders of the individual who was on hunger strike, which is harsh, which is hard, but unfortunately it was the nature of the circumstances.

That’s where we found ourselves.

Bobby had come back from a visit and at the time, if I’m not mistaken, I think Danny Morrison had had been on the visit—if it wasn’t prior to Danny being excluded from the prison. He’d come back from the visit, just given a bit of news on how things were going and in the midst of it, you know, he was talking and he says, ‘Oh yeah, and I told him [Danny] that you would be taking over.’

I said, ‘Taking over what?’

He says, ‘I told him to tell the lads outside that you’d be taking over as OC.’

I said, ‘I’m not—I’m not taking over as OC. I’m the PRO [press officer]. I’m the guy who organises the letter-writing campaigns. I’m the guy who writes the letters, does the PR, or gets guys to contact people.’

‘No, no, no, no. I’m not having it any other way. I’ve just told him that that’s the way it’s going to be.’

‘Well, I’m not doing that.’

He says, ‘Well you have to do it.’

‘I am not even up there on the list of the pecking order in terms of, you know, the “pay scale” because there’s an OC, a Vice OC. There’s an Adjutant. There’s an Education Officer . . . You have everything. I’m stuck down at the bottom of that list. There are other people more senior than me. For example, Séanna Walsh is the Vice OC. He’s been in the cages with you. He’s been out, he’s back in, and he knows the politics of this protest upside down and the inside out—possibly better than anybody else. And he’s next in line.’

And then Bobby said to me: ‘There’s only one thing you’re missing there.’

‘I’m not missing anything.’

‘Oh, you are. He’s my best mate.’

‘What has that got to do with anything?’

‘Well, quite frankly, if this hunger strike goes the distance and we reach a crisis period and the Brits just decide, they may decide at some stage to introduce negotiations. If I end up in a crisis period and this comes to negotiations and the package that they put on the table is not acceptable,’ he says, ‘Séanna will not let me die.’

‘So what you’re saying is that I would let you die?’

‘Yeah, that’s right.’

‘Well, thanks very much for that vote of confidence in my capabilities and my sensitives.’

‘No, no, no. I know the craic with you and that’s the way it has to be. So you need to do it.’

And there was no answer after that because, I mean, I just felt that the vote of confidence that he had in me, his faith and what I’d be able to do was far more than what I felt that I was able to do. So, very, very reluctantly then, at the end of that, I’m saying to myself, ‘Here’s a man putting himself on the line, putting his life on the line, to all intents and purposes, he knows the minute he steps onto this that he’s not coming out the other end of it, and he has the confidence in me to help him along that road. And if push comes to shove that I need to be able to say to the Brits, “That’s not what he asked for. That’s not what the hunger strikers want, so there’s no deal.”’

It takes courage to go on a hunger strike. It takes courage to plan how you will die and to ensure that others will follow. And it takes courage to be the leader who is expected to stick with the plan, no matter the consequences.

The hungerstrikers were extraordinary human beings. All these years later I remain in awe of their selflessness and their bravery. Tiocfaidh ár lá.

 

Hope should never Die’ – Bobby Sands | An Clogán

 Hope should never Die’ – Bobby Sands

Today, Wednesday 20th August marks the anniversary of the death on hunger strike in 1981 of Mickey Devine. Mickey was the last of the ten men to die and several weeks later the hunger strike end on 3 October. It was also the day the by-election was held in Fermanagh South Tyrone caused by the death in May of Bobby Sands. Owen Carron successfully held the seat as the ‘Anti-H-Block/Proxy Political Prisoner’ candidate.

This Sunday the annual National Hunger Strike March and Rally will take place in Belfast. Republicans and others remember with pride and sorrow those who died on hunger strike in 1981, as well as Michael Gaughan 1974 and Frank Stagg 1976, and others of earlier generations. The men of the H-Blocks and the women of Armagh Women’s Prison hold a special place in republican hearts and minds. We also remember all of those who died during that summer of 1981.

On Saturday 23rd, a new book, edited by Danny Morrison, entitled Guthanna ‘81 will be published. Guthanna means Voices and the book very appropriately contains the voices of some of us who were active during the blanket protest, the hunger strike campaign or in the prisons at the time. Brendan McFarlane, who replaced Bobby Sands as OC and died several months ago, wrote a piece about ‘My Comrades’; Joe Doherty writes about ‘The 1981 Escape’; Fr. Joe McVeigh writes about ‘The Role of the Catholic Church’; Laurence McKeown and Pat Sheehan who survived the hunger strike reflect on ‘The End; and there are many more, including mé féin and Uachtarán Shinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald.

Bobby wrote:

All things must come to pass as one

So hope should never die.

There is no height or bloody might

That a freeman can’t defy.

There is no source or foreign force

can break one man who knows,

that his free will no thing can kill,

And from that freedom grows.

 

His words encapsulate the depth of conviction and strength that was evident in the H-Blocks and in Armagh Women’s Prison during the five years of prison protest and the hunger strikes of 1980 and ‘81.

They also capture at this time the indomitable spirit of the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The 1981 hunger strike was a political watershed in Irish politics. It changed the shape of Irish politics forever – a change that is still evolving. It was built on the selflessness and courage of the men and women political prisoners who refused to bend the knee and accept the Thatcher government’s propaganda description of them and of their struggle as ‘criminal.’

For years, day after day the comms would arrive from within the Blocks and Armagh to Taobh Amuigh telling us of the latest beatings, of the brutality of the wing shifts, of the forced washing with deck scrubbers, of the mirror searchers and ill-treatment. Bobby wrote regularly on scraps of paper, with bits of pens hidden inside his own body, of the appalling conditions on the wings and the cruelty of the prison regime.

Later when the hunger strike began on 1 March 1981 the comms carried the weight of the hunger strikers. Young men, who were already painfully thin and who were now defying the British government with the only weapon left to them – their lives.

The momentous election of Bobby Sands in Fermanagh South Tyrone in April was a huge boost to the campaign. I was travelling through the Cooley Mountains in Louth when the result was announced on the radio news. I had left Fermanagh that morning, after weeks of intense campaigning, convinced Bobby was going to win. I pounded the roof of the car as a response. Later I watched the result being announced on the television news. Danny Morrison was at the count. His very loud and enthusiastic yell - a screech almost- nearly drowned out the words of the election returning officer Alastair Patterson as he announced: “Sands, Bobby. Anti H-Block/Armagh Political Prisoner, 30,492,”.

The result gave the lie to the claims by the British and Irish governments that the prisoners were part of a criminal mafia-style conspiracy and not political prisoners who belonged to the centuries old struggle for Irish freedom and independence. Bobby got more votes than Thatcher. Several months later in June 1981 the criminalisation policy suffered another body blow with the election to the Dáil of Kieran Doherty in Cavan Monaghan and the election of Paddy Agnew in Louth. As well as the election of Kieran and Paddy, Joe McDonnell came close to taking a seat in Sligo and Mairead Farrell and others won credible votes.

Fianna Fáil and Charlie Haughey, who had thought they were on their way to another election victory, and who had treated the hunger strikers and their families so appallingly, were punished by the electorate. No party has been able to form a majority single government in the Oireachtas since then.

The prisoners’ election successes also accelerated the debate within Sinn Féin on electoralism.

Today Sinn Féin is the largest party on the island of Ireland. Mary Lou McDonald is the leader of the opposition in Leinster House and Michelle O’Neill is First Minister. All of these advances, and more, owe a huge debt to the steadfastness and bravery of those we will commemorate this weekend.

So, come along to the Falls Road on Sunday. The march will commence at 2.15pm in Dunville Park where the very first march in support of political status ended in August 1976. In that march Bobby Sands was in the Colour Party. On that occasion it was Leas Uachtarán Máire Drumm who addressed the crowd. Next Sunday it will be Uachtarán Shinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald who will be the main speaker when the march concludes at Milltown Cemetery where Bobby Sands, Kieran Doherty and Joe McDonnell are buried. 

 

An Clogán

Among the many excellent events at this year’s Féile an Phobail was the launch of a new journal called An Clogán (The Little Bell). It is an independent, politically unaligned magazine that takes its name, and I suspect its design as an A5 booklet, from The Bell. This was a left oriented magazine edited and published in the 1940’s and 50’s by Peadar O’Donnell, Roisin Walsh and Sean Ó Faoláin.

An Clogán, which is edited by Oisín Gilmore and Oisín Vince Coulter is an ambitious magazine containing 27 contributions from a wide range of writers, including Claire Mitchell, Robbie McVeigh, Phillip Pettit, Martina Anderson, Margaret Ward, and an interview with me.

The theme of this first edition - The Republic - explores how republicanism is rooted in the radical idea of self-rule. Claire Mitchell and Martina Anderson, who both spoke at the launch, share their transformative visions on what a new and inclusive united Ireland should look light. A New Republic worthy of its name.

The magazine pins its colours to the mast in quoting on its inside front cover the words of Fintan Lalor and Bobby Sands.

“Without agreement as to our objects we can not agree on the course we should follow … The principle I state, and mean to stand upon is this, that the entire ownership of Ireland, moral and material, up to the sun and down to the centre, is vested of right in the people of Ireland; that they, and none but they are the land-owners and law makers of this island.

Fintan Lalor, The Rights of Ireland 1848

I shall not settle until I achieve the liberation of my country, until Ireland becomes a sovereign, independent socialist republic.

Bobby Sands, The Birth of a Republican, 1978.

The publishers are still in the process of arranging wider distribution but copies are currently available in An Cultúrlann, McAdaimh, O Fiaich, 216 Bothar na bhFál, Belfast.

 

The photo is of Bobby Sands and Máire Drumm taking part in the first march in support of political status in August 1976

Up for the Match | Gaza – An Gorta Mór – The Starvation | Orangism in the New Ireland

 Up for the Match 

Off on Sunday morning to Croke Park. Dark skies. Lots of grey clouds. Our journey was delayed by Féile An Phobail’s 5km and 10km run. Diverted and distracted we eventually got out of West Belfast and on the road to Dublin. Enroute the dark skies lightened. The grey clouds gave way to blue heavens and gentle sunshine. We were off to watch Antrim’s Lady Footballers in our own All Ireland against Louth. As we crossed the Border KneeCap kept our spirits high. Their ceol blasted out and the car rocked as we hip hopped to the Capital. A morning after the night before follow-on from Saturday evening’s Falls Park Country frolicks.

The match in Croker started off positively with Antrim taking an early lead but Louth soon asserted themselves and Antrim was chasing the game from then until the last ten minutes. Some of the players may have been overwhelmed by the big occasion.  If so who could blame them? To play in Croke is mighty and Antrim supporters were out in strength. Everyone, including us, as proud as could be.  Family members, club mates. The number of Northern Gaels was swelled by Tyrone supporters who later went on to win their championship against Laois. Dublin went on to best Meath in the Seniors. A great day of Gaelic football.

In our game Antrim battled valiantly but in the middle section of the match Louth were in charge. But only just. Minutes towards the end it looked like we might claw back Louth’s lead after a flurry of Antrim points. A win looked doable. A goal was needed. But a goal was denied us just before the hooter sounded. Louth survived to emerge All Ireland Junior Champions once again.

Well done to all the Antrim Lady Footballers. You had a great championship campaign. There were lots of tears and loads of disappointment down on the pitch as family and friends comforted our warriors. Stick with it sisters. Your day will come. There were only two points in it. Well done to the management squad and everyone else involved. And well done the players.

Aontroim Abú.  

 

Gaza – An Gorta Mór – The Starvation

The scenes of desperation as starving people in Gaza try to get basins or pots filled with soup, are shocking images. It is a famine we are told. Last week the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a United Nations panel which had long warned of the threat of famine, concluded that it was now a reality.

The use of the word ‘famine’ and the images of starving children are a reminder for many in Ireland of what life must have been like during An Gorta Mór in the 1840s. But it is important to note that in a famine there is no food. In Ireland there was plenty of food. During those years the quaysides of ports along our coast were lined each day with abundant produce - all bound for export. It was a starvation.

The hunger in Gaza is an Israeli made starvation. Aid agencies and the UN have more than enough food and medical aid ready to enter Gaza. Israel prevents this. It is not a famine – it is a starvation.

At the weekend I discussed this issue and others relating to Israel’s genocide with Professor Avi Shlaim an Israeli historian who lectures at Oxford University. Professor Shlaim was in Belfast where he spoke to a packed hall in St. Mary’s University College as part of Féile an Phobail.

Professor Shlaim is one of the foremost historians writing on Zionism and Israel and he has just published a new collection of essays, ‘Genocide in Gaza – Israel’s long war on Palestine.’ It is an authoritative, powerful critique of Israel’s genocidal strategy in Gaza.

This soft spoken historian, who will be 80 in October, gave me his assessment of the strategies behind the murderous policies of the Netanyahu government and of their intent to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip. The priority for the rest of us, he believes at this time, is to stop the genocide and provide food and water for the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Professor Shlaim describes the BBC coverage of events in Gaza as “unbalanced news coverage which consistently privileges the dishonest Israeli narrative and fails to do justice to the Palestinian narrative. In some cases, BBC News is difficult to distinguish from the propaganda of the victors.” A critique not out of place with our own experience.

‘Genocide in Gaza – Israel’s long war on Palestine’ is available at www.irishpages.org/ and at An Fhuiseog, 55 Falls Road, BT12 4PD

 

Orangism in the New Ireland

The northern statelet was built for unionism. It was constructed and then managed in a way to ensure that nationalists would never have a say in running the place.

We are less than three years off the 30th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Most citizens, and many within the broad unionist section of our people, have grown accustomed to the stability and peace it has brought but there are others who still hanker after the old days of supremacy. The DUP shares the office of the First Minister with Sinn Féin but their strategy is focused on the next Assembly election in two years’ time and their aim is to remove Michelle O’Neill as First Minister. That is why there is a battle a day over Irish language rights. That is why there has been no start on building the new Casement. That is why there is negative nonsense over bi-lingual signage in public places.

Additionally, a lot of political unionism’s strategies and tactics are aimed at minimising the potential for positive change that the Agreement makes possible. It’s about dilution and delay.

I believe that a successful unity referendum to end partition will help liberate those unionists who are captives of this history. There will still be some who for generations to come will reject the place that they live in. And that's not unusual. That's happened in other countries in the world.

But we have to make the new Ireland a place that accommodates unionists and republicans, loyalists and nationalists and those who are none of these. The Good Friday Agreement is an agreement to a journey without agreement on the destination. That is for the people to decide.

So our job is to engage with unionists. To listen to them honestly and to try to persuade them that the new Ireland will be better for all of the people who live here.

If in the New Ireland people want to have bonfires, that's okay. But it will be done in a way that is lawful and safe and not threatening to others. There will clearly be orange parades but these will not be triumphalistic marches. The sectarian elements have to be confronted and made unlawful. And this is the challenge for Orangism. They have to confront their own sectarian elements. Sectarianism has to be exorcised. That is the challenge for all of us.

There is clearly within loyalism, within Orangism, a love of marching bands, of fifes and drums and bagpipes and all of that. That’s fine.

I’m partial to good band music, to bagpipes and the like. I know quite a few orange songs, including The Sash. The Twelfth could be one of our national days. Ignored if need be but tolerated by those who dislike it and enjoyed by those who celebrate it. Orange after all is one of our national colours. But Orangism, like all the rest of us has to face up to its own failings.

The journey to the new Ireland is well advanced. But we have much work ahead. The more of us who engage in this work the sooner we will achieve it.

 

Planning for the Future | A Global Alliance for Palestine |Our Martin

 Planning for the Future

It was Charles Stewart Parnell who said: “No man has the right to say to his country. Thus far shalt thou go and no further.” This was in the 19th century. He also declared; “Let no one set a boundary to the march of a nation.”

Parnell was clearly setting out the right of the people of Ireland to self-determination. Interestingly he chose Cork to make this declaration.  That was the 21st January 1885. One of the current Cork TDs and the current Taoiseach Micheál Martin has a contrary view. Our right to self-determination is contained in the Good Friday Agreement so that right has been won. We now need to exercise it. There is an irony that An Taoiseach has set his face against this and that he refuses to plan for the certain day when the Good Friday Agreement referendums will be held.

Micheál Martin is out of step with nationalist opinion in the North as expressed by the SDLP and Sinn Féin. He is in contravention of Fianna Fáil’s policy and the policy of all other political parties in the South and with the Irish constitution, as well as the Good Friday Agreement. He is also at odds with many in the South who are for Irish Unity and see the merits of preparing for it.

Earlier this year, the Amárach Research poll for the European Movement Ireland, found that a majority of people in both parts of Ireland – 67% in the North and 62% in the South – now support a United Ireland within the EU. And we already know that with reunification the entire island of Ireland would automatically re-enter the European Union.

At the beginning of July a report published by Professor John Doyle, on behalf of the Ulster University and Dublin City University, confirmed that there are no economic barriers to Irish Unity.

Micheál Martin has no right to tell us not to talk about unity or plan for it. The Taoiseach should establish a Citizens’ Assembly or Assemblies on Irish Unity and to begin in earnest the detailed and painstaking planning that needs to happen to realise reunification. Constitutional change is the biggest challenge facing the people of Ireland at this time. That means we have to plan. It’s common sense.

 

A Global Alliance for Palestine

Saturday witnessed the launch of a new and unique international initiative in support of the Palestinian people and aimed at challenging Israel and its genocidal policies in Gaza. Over 70 solidarity organizations from 25 countries attended, including Sinn Féin Chief Whip Pádraig Mac Lochlainn TD. The ‘Global Alliance for Palestine’ is based on a clear principle: "Solidarity with Palestine must be organized, unified, and effective."

Its focus is on creating a global network to coordinate Palestinian solidarity movements, while building a broad-based alliance that unites civil society, unions, student groups, cultural figures, and political actors across continents in defence of Palestinian self-determination. It will seek to achieve this by building an international organisation capable of confronting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, refuting misleading media narratives, and defending the right to solidarity.

Regrettably I was unable to attend but I contributed by video. I will also be a member of the advisory board of the initiative, alongside Jeremy Corbyn, Mustafa Barghouti, Yanis Varoufakis, South African activist Ronnie Kasrils and other international political leaders. 

This initiative comes at a critical point in the Israeli genocidal war in Gaza. The spectre of starvation, imposed as a deliberate policy by Israel, haunts the devastated landscape of the Gaza Strip. Hundreds, mostly children, their emaciated bodies clinging to crying mothers, have died from a starvation policy ruthlessly pursued by the Israeli state and supported by the USA and other governments. Tens of thousands more are slowly dying from lack of food and water. Day after day the reports from Gaza paint a horrendous picture of communities destroyed by bombings and robbed of basic medical provisions. And food. And water.

Palestinians face constant bombardment and death every day and night. A report in Middle East Eye this week described how hunger/ starvation is “no longer merely a sensation of deprivation; it manifests in the sight of people collapsing in the streets from sheer exhaustion. Children, women, the elderly - no one is spared. We have witnessed, with our own eyes, bodies slumping on the pavement and lives lost outside the ruins of bakeries or at aid distribution points that never deliver.”

Today, Zionism is attempting the total annihilation of the Palestinian people. UNICEF has accredited Gaza as “a graveyard for children”.

While Israel commits violation after violation, without any consequence, the international community watches from afar. The hypocrisy, double standards and complicity of the West has been laid bare. Its actions have left the future of international law at a tipping point.

In Ireland, we have lived and died under colonialism and occupation. We too have been starved. Our Great hunger – an Gorta Mór – means that we will not stay silent when the same is inflicted upon others. For that reason, Sinn Féin is pressing the Irish Government to enact the Occupied Territories Bill, and separately for Ireland to join The Hague Group. 

It is time that more states across Europe also recognise the state of Palestine, and impose economic, political sanctions and arms embargos against Israel.

None of us should doubt the important role of coordinated international solidarity. That is why the creation of the ‘Global Alliance for Palestine’ is so crucial.

In the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, the global anti-apartheid campaign played a decisive role in ending that cruel regime. So, we must develop an organised, global movement to dismantle Israel’s systems of oppression, occupation and apartheid in Palestine. A global movement that challenges Israel’s manifest lies and denial of its actions against the Palestinians.

 

 

 

Our Martin

Last week, in the Guildhall in Derry, several hundred friends, comrades and family of Martin McGuinness came together for the launch of Jim McVeigh’s authoritative and compelling new book on Martin. Jim is a gifted writer.

‘Our Martin’ is a very personal, insightful account of Martin’s life in Derry and his love for his wife Bernie, and she for him, and for their children, Fionnuala, Emmet, Fiachra and Grainne.

Martin said: “What politicised me was the civil rights protest. It wasn’t anything I heard in the house, or even in my grandmother’s house in Donegal. There was no republicanism whatsoever in my background.”

Bernie sets the context for the book. She writes: “Over the years, I have read many things about Martin. Few of them bore any resemblance to the man that I knew, to my Martin, the family man, the loving husband who always tried to make it home to me no matter where he was or how late it might have been, the kind, patient, loving father and doting grandfather.  

I loved the life I had with Martin, even through the struggles that came with it. We faced those challenges together and I would not change a single thing. The journey we shared was filled with love, and from it came our four beautiful children and grandchildren.

When Martin made friends, he made friends for life. He loved the community, the Bogside that he came from, and that is where his heart lay, with us his family and the community that he had fought for all his adult life.”

In the Guildhall, myself, Martina Anderson and Mitchel McLaughlin talked about the Martin we knew. I had the honour of presenting a copy of Martin’s book to Francie Molloy.

I want to thank the Martin McGuinness Peace Foundation and Beyond the Pale for an outstanding publication. Any money raised from the sale of the book will go to the Foundation.

‘Our Martin’ by James McVeigh will be launched in Belfast at 1pm on 2 August in St. Mary’s University College Belfast, as part of Féile an Phobail. It is available from An Fhuiseog, 55 Falls Road and from www.beyondthepalebooks.com

 

2005 – Twenty Years On | A Welcome Electoral Change

 2005 – Twenty Years On

Next Monday one of the most historic and transformative events in the Irish Peace Process took place. Twenty years ago on the 28 July 2005 the IRA issued a statement which ended its decades long armed struggle. In its statement the IRA said: "The leadership of Óglaigh na hÉireann has formally ordered an end to the armed campaign. This will take effect from 4pm this afternoon.  All IRA units have been ordered to dump arms. All Volunteers have been instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means. Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever.”

The IRA leadership also said that it had authorised its representative to engage with the IICD (Independent International Commission on Decommissioning) to “complete the process to verifiably put its arms beyond use in a way which will further enhance public confidence.” This was confirmed two months later on the 26 September by the Commission.

The IRA initiative opened up opportunities for progress.

Peace processes are by their very nature challenging and difficult. They frequently fail. Many of the wars of the 1960s and 70’s were a response to the colonial occupation and exploitation of native peoples by colonial powers.  Africa saw many examples of these. Some conflicts went on into the 1980s and 90s. Algeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), Angola, Mozambique, and others, including in Asia the Vietnam War and in the Middle East the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. The South African peace process brought an end to apartheid and witnessed the election of Nelson Mandela as President of that country in 1994. In our own place our peace process brought an end to decades of conflict and heralded processes of change.

Today, in a world still bedevilled by wars, the Irish Peace Process is frequently held up internationally as an example of a peace process that is working.  The governments occasionally try to root it in the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985. But the truth is that it started in the 1970s when Republicans began to claim back the word ‘Peace.’

The moves made by the British government, endorsed by the Irish government, from 1970 until the mid-1990s all failed because they were primarily about defending the status quo, placating political unionism and defeating the IRA. None of the serial ‘talks about talks’, or Conventions or Assemblies, or round table talks that ten different British Secretaries of State commenced between 1972 and 1996 made any meaningful progress. Why? Because they were partitionist at their core and they excluded elected republican representatives. They were aimed at defeating republicans. And, of course, republicans could not be defeated. But that was not sufficient. Not being defeated was not enough. We had to develop strategies aimed at winning.

This led to a dynamic shift when republicans developed a peace strategy and began to take independent political initiatives that opened up new possibilities. The most important was the IRA cessation in 1994 which Seamus Heaney described at that time; ‘it created a space in which hope can grow.’ He was right.

The 1994 cessation, like the July 2005 announcement, involved no deal or trade-off with the British government. It was the outworking of our efforts to build a viable alternative to conflict. It was a unilateral political initiative taken solely by republicans and involving others here in Ireland and abroad.

Of course, everyone wants peace. But on what terms? For Netanyahu peace in the Middle East means the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip and the creation of a single unified Israeli state, including all of the Palestinian territories. But of course that would not be peace. All sensible people know that.

For unionists and the British government, peace in Ireland meant peace on their terms. But that also is not feasible.

Most thinking unionists know that the game is up. That there is no going back to the old Orange state. There is evidence that some are even now coming around to the view that being part of the union with Britain, outside of the European Union and on a divided island, is not in their best interests. There are, of course some who refuse to acknowledge the political, electoral and demographic changes that have and are taking place every day. They continue to fight a rear guard action against the referendums provided for in the Good Friday Agreement but their political strength is much diminished.

However, they are assisted by the British government. And sadly also by the Irish government. But the electoral strength of Sinn Féin today is testimony to our determination and the good sense of our strategic goals.

Republicans long ago understood the need to see negotiations as an area of struggle and that our responsibility, along with others is to persuade as many people as possible that Irish Unity is the best outcome for all the people of our island. That means us reaching out to our unionist neighbours, especially those prepared to consider how life might be for them, and us, after the Union and after partition.

So, twenty years after the IRA initiative of 2005 the challenge for us is to advocate for the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, and to create the conditions for the holding of the unity referendums. That means pressing for the establishment of Citizens’ Assemblies or Forums in which people can come together in confidence to talk about a new Ireland; what it will look like and what are the governance and other options available to us.

It also means that we need a Plan for Unity. The Irish government in particular carries the greater responsibility for this but Micheál Martin refuses to develop one. We also need local plans. Wherever you live on the island of Ireland or within the diaspora if you are a United Irelander you need a unity plan.  Unity is not a job of work just for elected representatives. It is for all of us.

We now have the opportunity, not available to previous generations, to win national freedom through peaceful and democratic means. As Bobby Sands said, “If they aren’t able to destroy the desire for freedom, they won’t break you. They won’t break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people, is in my heart. The day will dawn when all the people of Ireland will have the desire for freedom to show. It is then we’ll see the rising of the moon.”

That will take hard work by all of us, new phases of struggle, of activism and of active campaigning.

In 2004 the DUP walked away from a possible agreement and the peace process looked as if it was finished. Republicans stepped up to the mark and this Saturday at 2pm in the Balmoral Hotel a public meeting will be held to discuss the 2005 events and its implications, twenty years on, for a new Ireland.

 

 

A Welcome Electoral Change

The decision, announced last week by the British government, that it will be lowering the voting age to those aged 16 and 17, is a welcome move. There is already widespread support for a reduction in the voting age. Last September the Assembly backed a Sinn Féin motion calling for this change. In the South the policy has received widespread cross-party support from Sinn Féin, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, The Green Party, The Labour Party, Social Democrats, People Before Profit, and many Independents.

The London government is focussed on the 2029 Westminster election but the North will have local government and Assembly elections in 2027. The focus now must be on ensuring that the necessary legislative steps are taken to ensure that 16 and 17 year olds can vote in those elections.

Updating the electoral register and ensuring that this new tranche of young voters have suitable identification, will be a big job of work but with political will it can be done. It would also send entirely the wrong message to future voters if the 2027 deadline is missed.

Legislating for young people to have the right to vote is the right thing to do. All parties in the North, with the exception of the DUP, support changing the voting rules. Young people should have the right to vote on decisions that impact on their lives, including voting for a united Ireland.