Gerry Adams's Blog, page 2
July 17, 2025
Best International Documentary | Defend the GPO and Save Moore St. | A Week in the Life and Death of GAZA
Best International Documentary
I spent the weekend in Galway and Mayo. The weather wasamazing. The countryside with its miles of stone walls separating plots of landand the lush colours of green and rocky inclines was a joy to travel through.
I was in Galway on Saturday to attend the Galway FilmFestival/Fleadh where Trisha Ziff’s film – A Ballymurphy Man - was receivingits world premiere. The cinema in the old Town Hall where the Festival iscentred was packed to capacity for the screening. The audience was hugelyattentive and very welcoming when Trisha and I went on the stage at the end ofthe screening to talk about the making of the documentary.
The next day I was in Mayo when Trisha text me to say that‘A Ballymurphy Man’ had taken the Festival award for Best InternationalDocumentary. So well done Trisha and her team who worked hard over five years,with very limited funding to produce this film.
In Mayo I met Martin Neary, who has bequeathed his 40-acrehomestead to the local community. Martin, who is in his 80s, has spent yearsplanting native indigenous trees so that a woodland now stands where there wasonce a farm and bog land. His book – Madogue Memories – tells in his own wordsMartin’s love of land, his community and culture, his county and our countryand his republican and socialist ideals. It was an honour to meet such aninspiring leader and a great privilege to plant an oak tree - a Crann naSaoirse - in the Martin Neary Woodland Park.
Defend the GPO and Save Moore St.
There is widespread anger at the decision by the Irishgovernment to convert the historic GPO in Dublin into shops and offices. LastSaturday hundreds gathered in O’Connell St. to protest at the government’splans for the GPO and for the Moore St. Battlefield site. Their demand is forthe protection of the cultural and revolutionary heritage of this part ofDublin.
Every nation that fought for its freedom from colonial rule- often from the British - has hallowed ground, the place where patriots made astand against injustice and occupation. For the people of Ireland, the GPO isone such place. It is the place where the revolutionary generation of theearly 1900s declared for a Republic and where the Pearse read the Proclamationof that republic.
Instead of imposing an ill-thought out plan that will ruinthe iconic nature of this site the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael government should holda public conversation to agree an imaginative and visionary plan which willreflect the importance of the GPO and Moore St. Properly managed this area canplay a vital part in the regeneration and revitalisation of Dublin City Centre.
Uachtarán Shinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald described Fianna Fáiland Fine Gael’s plan as ‘shameful.’
She told the Government: “The regeneration of Dublin must bedriven by the things that really matter to us. Our history. Our heritage.Pride in those gallant patriots who came before us. This historic area must beredeveloped as a Cultural and Historical Quarter and in line with theMasterplan by the Moore Street Preservation Trust.”
Earlier last week a newly formed Moore St. Oireachtas Groupmade up of elected representatives from North Inner City Dublin, including fromSinn Féin, Fianna Fáil, the Social Democrats and the Labour Party, visitedthe Moore St. 1916 terrace. This is where the revolutionary leaders of 1916 mettogether for the last time before their executions.
The cross-party group recognises the responsibility ofelected representatives to safeguard and preserve, and to act as guardians ofthe National Monument at 14-17 Moore Street, and the streets and lanewaysaround it. The group’s aims are in keeping with the recommendationsof the Ministerial Advisory Group and the findings of the DublinInner City Task Force Report.
The visit was facilitated by the Office of Public Works, andit gave representatives an opportunity to inspect the historic terrace. Afterward Mary Lou McDonald TD said she was “pleased to be joined by myconstituency colleagues. We will work together on this issue. I am concerned atthe state of the buildings and there is an urgent need for remedial work to becarried out.”
A Week in the Life and Death of GAZA
I first met Mustafa Barghouti in the west Bank in 2014. TheGeneral Secretary of the Palestine National Initiative is a physician, anactivist, and is head of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society. He is also amember of the PLO and of the Palestinian Legislative Council. He advocates theuse of non-violence and civil disobedience.
In a few weeks’ time, I hope to have the opportunity tointerview Mustafa for a special podcast on the situation in Gaza and the WestBank.
Each day Mustafa sends out a WhatsApp update on news fromthe region. The following is an edited daily diary for the week beginningSunday 6 July to Sunday 13 July.
Sunday 6 July
The Israeli bombardment on Gaza killed 80 Palestinians,including many children, and injured 304 others in the past 24 hours. Among thevictims were 8 civilians who were targeted while trying to receive humanitarianaid. Since October 7, 2023, the total number of casualties has risen to 57,418killed and 136,261 injured.
Monday 7 July
According to Israeli tv channel 12: The Israeli primeminister Netanyahu is proceeding with his plan to evict the whole populationof Gaza Strip from their districts and to concentrate them in anarrow concentration camp between Moraj and Philadelphi/ Rafah corridors tofacilitate their ethnic cleansing.
The Israeli bombardment on Gaza killed 105 Palestinians and injured356 others in the past 24 hours. Among the victims were 7 civilians who weretargeted while trying to receive humanitarian aid.
Tuesday 8 July
The Israeli bombardment on Gaza killed 52Palestinian civilians and injured 262 others. Among the victims were 8civilians who were targeted while trying to receive humanitarian aid.
Wednesday 9 July
The Israeli army destroyed 5 Palestinian houses in Shuqbavillage in Ramallah in the West bank. In Gaza the Israeli bombardmentkilled 105 Palestinian civilians, including many children. Among the victimswere 7 civilians who were targeted while trying to receive humanitarian aid.
Thursday 10 July
A horrible Israeli massacre of Palestinian children andwomen in Deir Albalah in Gaza who were bombarded today while theywere trying to receive baby supplements. 16 civilians were killed including 10children. According to sources in the Palestinian village Rumaneh in Jenin theIsraeli soldiers shot Ahmad Umor injuring him and then ran their car over hisbody killing him. The Jadallah family in khan Younes mourns 5 of its membersincluding 4 children who were killed today by the Israeli bombardment.
Friday 11 July
Israeli terrorist settlers conducted several attacks withlive ammunition and stones on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. Theyinjured 10 Palestinians in Sinjel town in Ramallah and burned several cars.They also killed by beating and shooting two Palestinians in Sinjel.
Saturday 12 July
The Israeli army committed huge massacres today inGaza. It conducted 250 air strikes on the civilian population killing 120civilian Palestinians and injuring hundreds. According to the UNICEFrepresentative Israel kills 27 Palestinian children every day.
Update: The number of Palestinian civilians killed today byIsrael in Gaza is up to 145.
Sunday 13 July
The Israeli army bombarded this morning a group of civilianPalestinians in Nussairat while they were trying to get drinkingwater killing 10 including 6 children and injuring 20 others. TheIsraeli army bombarded during the last period 122 sources of water in Gazakilling 700 innocent Palestinians seeking water. The Israeli air strikeson Gaza killed the Surgical consultant at the Baptist Hospital Dr. AhmadQandil. More than 1588 medical doctors, nurses and other healthprofessionals were killed in Gaza by the Israeli bombardment since October 7th3023.
It is worth noting that since Israel ended the ceasefire inMarch twice as many Palestinians have been killed in the five months since thenthan in 30 years of conflict in the North.
Finally, according to the UN Human Rights Office 800Palestinians have been killed since the end of May attempting to receive aid atpoints controlled by the Israeli/US backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund. Havingstripped UNWRA and others of this responsibility Israel is now using aid as afurther weapon in its genocidal slaughter of the Palestinian people of Gaza.
July 7, 2025
No Economic Block on Irish Unity | World Premier in Galway of ‘A Ballymurphy Man’ | The Future of the GPO
No Economic Block on Irish Unity
In recent years there have been encouraging signs of growingsupport for Irish unity in successive electoral results, demographic changes,contributions from civic society, in opinion polling and in public commentary.Unsurprisingly, any debate on unity quickly focuses on practical issues likethe economic viability of a united Ireland as well as on the future of a healthand care system, governance structures, education, the environment and othermatters.
Sinn Féin’s Commission on the Future of Ireland recentlyheld a successful conference examining the issue of health in a new Ireland andthe party produced a widely welcomed health and care document looking to afuture all-island model. It is available at https://sinnfein.ie/the-case-for-an-irish-national-health-and-care-service/
And now we have the report by Professor John Doyle of DublinCity Univeristy – ‘The Projected Public Finances of the Early Years of aUnited Ireland, and the Northern Ireland Subvention.’ The report is the productof joint research by Dublin City University and Ulster University’s EconomicPolicy Centre. It succeeds in cutting through much of the jargonassociated with economics to present a cogent explanation of the economicbenefits of a united Ireland.
The report is the first peer reviewed study to calculate thecost of Irish Unity over the first ten years. It takes account of thesubvention as well as the expected economic benefits that would occur.Professor Doyle contends that when “pensions; national debt; defence spendingand central UK ‘non-identifiable expenditure’” costs are calculated they“suggest that the starting fiscal deficit for ‘Northern Ireland’ within aunited Ireland would be £1.5 billion per annum.”
The report concludes that: “The cost of a united Ireland hasbeen exaggerated partly because what is called the UK subvention has beenmisunderstood and misinterpreted. At the same time the potential for economicgrowth in an all-island economy, where Northern Ireland is once again insidethe European Union, has not received sufficient attention.”
The report also argues that by boosting public expenditureby one billion euro a year investment in health, education, infrastructure andwelfare the cost for a full one year would be €3 billion. This would declineyear on year as the economy grows. It will disappear within a decade. Theresult for people living in the North would be more jobs, better wages and moreefficient public services.
This is a detailed, well researched, peer reviewed reportwhich deserves more than An Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s sneering and scandalousrejection of it as ‘nonsense.’ The reality is that there is no economicobstacle to forging ahead with Irish Unity. The message for the Irishgovernment is clear – begin planning now – planning for the unity referendumand planning for unity.
In the short term this means the Taoiseach ending his blockon the establishment of a Citizen’s Assembly or Assemblies to plan for thefuture.
World Premier in Galway of ‘A Ballymurphy Man’
This weekend I will be in Galway for the 37th annualinternational Galway Film Fleadh/Festival. The Fleadh runs for a week everyJuly. This year it’s between 8 July and 13 July. It was established in1989 as a place for Irish filmmakers to exhibit their work to their peers.
This year it will host World, International and IrishPremieres in the Town Hall Theatre and Pálás Cinema. It will feature 31 World Premieres, 11International/European Premieres and 46 Irish Premieres from 44 countries,featuring 96 feature films in total. An impressive total. Among the worldPremiers will be Trisha Ziff’s – A Ballymurphy Man. This film – a work inprogress version of which was shown in Féile an Phobail last year – provides anaccount of my 60 years of activism as a republican, the influences in my lifeand our efforts to build the peace process.
At just over two hours long and with lots of archive footageit also tells the story through my experience and insights of the republicanstruggle.
The film will be shown at 4pm on Saturday 12 July and therewill be a post screening discussion with myself and Trisha Ziff. The film iscurrently being screened in central and south America, and in San Franciscoseveral weeks ago, and will have festival screenings in Australia. It can alsobe seen on 7 August in the Kennedy Centre Omni Plex cinema during the westBelfast Féile an Phobail,on the 13 August during the Derry Féile and later inthe year in Dublin.
The trailer for the film can be viewed here: https://www.galwayfilmfleadh.com/project/gerry-adams-a-ballymurphy-man
The Future of the GPO
Micheál Martin’s ten-year plan for the GPO site in Dublin isshameful. His effort to sell the plan as a flagship project for Dublin CityCentre, that will protect the historic and cultural significance of the GPO,was described by the Irish Times as “vague and ill-defined.” Mary Lou McDonaldand others have been much more vocal and direct in their condemnation of thegovernment’s plans. Martin’s proposal, for example, that the upper floors ofthe GPO will be turned into office space, makes no sense when much of theavailable office space in central Dublin is currently unused and vacant.
The reality is that the GPO holds a special place in thenation’s soul. It may have been a Post Office for all of its two hundred yearsbut it is more than just another of those Dublin buildings that reflect thecapitals colonial past. It is acknowledged by generations of Irish people asthe birthplace of the Republic, as envisaged in the Proclamation. For over onehundred years it has symbolised the hopes, aspirations and vision of thathistoric document and of the courage of the men and women who risked everythingin April 1916.
Last week the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael coalition voted down aSinn Féin motion intended to protect this iconic building and the 1916 MooreSt. Battlefield site with which it is inextricably linked. The motionrecognised the:
· “sacrifice ofthe men and women of 1916, who fought and died in the General Post Office(GPO), Moore Street, across Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland, so Ireland may befree;
· “the status ofthe GPO as a national monument, the headquarters of the 1916 Easter Rising, andthe place where the Irish Republic was proclaimed on Easter Monday, 24th April,1916, and defended in arms in the following days;”
It also called on the government to ensure that “any plan involving the GPOmust include the entire 1916 battlefield site, of which it forms a part, andthat therefore, Ministerial consent must not be given to the current plan bythe private developer Hammerson…”
The motion was defeated by the government parties. Despitethis there remains solid opposition to the government’s plans and strongsupport for saving the GPO and the Moore St. Battlefield site.
The Moore St. Preservation Trust has produced an alternativeplan for the Moore St. Battlefield site that can be the basis on which the GPO,the Battlefield site and the North Inner City can be redeveloped andrevitalised. The area has been neglected by successive governments for years.With imagination and energy, we can respect and protect our history as well asimprove the local environment, while creating jobs and housing for citizens.
It’s not rocket science. It just needs the application ofcommon sense and a desire to honour the sacrifice of past generations whofought for our freedom.
Join the campaign to “Save the GPO”. Sign the petition whichcalls for the development of a 1916 Cultural Quarter in the area around theGPO, O’Connell Street and Moore Street and the implementation of the MooreStreet Preservation Trust plan.
We must fight to save the GPO together.
Sign the petition here: outreach.sinnfein.ie/save-the-gpo
June 30, 2025
Defend the GPO | Kneecap Abú | Féile an Phobail – A festival extravaganza
Defend the GPO
The Dublin GPO and the streets and laneways around it areforever linked with the Easter Rising of 1916. This is a Battlefield site ofmajor historic and international significance which successive Irishgovernments have failed to develop properly. Successive promises of investmentand planning in Moore St have come to nothing. Succesive governments havereduced the National Monument to four houses leaving the rest of the historicarea to be destroyed by a London based developer.
In keeping with this shameful approach the Irish governmentlast week published a 10-year plan which will see the General Post Office (GPO)become a mixed-use development. The spin from Government is that the GPO willbecome a flagship project, including retail and office components with aDesignated Activity Company being established. The reality, as we have seenwith the Moore St. plan, is that time and time again governments haveturned their face against the preservation of our revolutionary past in favourof shopping centres and commercial developments. Private developers are givencarte blanche to maximise profit at the expense of our cultural and historicalheritage.
Uachtarán Shinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald TD described it wellwhen she said the government’s proposal as “another shameful betrayal ofIreland’s proud revolutionary history.”
At the weekend Mary Lou and Pearse Doherty TD launcheda public petition to “Save the GPO”. The petition calls for the development ofa 1916 Cultural Quarter in the area around the GPO, O’Connell Street and MooreStreet and the implementation of the Moore Street Preservation Trustplan. Mary Lou said: “It is incredible that they want to turn one of themost iconic sites of Ireland’s struggle for freedom into shops and officespace. This is the building outside which Pádraig Pearse in Easter 1916 readthe Proclamatio of the Irish Republic. These streets in this area are thephysical environs of one of the seminal chapters in Ireland’s long fight forindependence.”
In the course of my travels I have visited many places ofhistoric importance to the people of South Africa, of the USA, of France andelsewhere. Can youimagine the demolition of Robben island prison where Nelson Mandela and thepolitical prisoners resisted the apartheid regime? Or Independence Hall inPhiladelphia where the Declaration of Independence and the United StatesConstitution were debated and adopted. Or the Tower of London? Of course not.Other states and other people take pride in their history.
Theimportance of the site of the last battle of the 1916 Rising was underlinedby the High Court in Dublin in 2016 which described Moore Street asunique. The Court described Moore Street as “the place to which the menand women of the GPO fled, where battle was done and surrender was negotiated,and a site where workers, civilian and combatant, lived and died in what was,to a large extent, a workers’ rising.”
In any other city in the world we would see visionary,ambitious plans to develop the site, preserving our history with a nationalmuseum, arts and culture, education, tourism and homes to make it a living,breathing area.
So, join the battle to Save the GPO and Moore St. Sign up tothe petition and support the campaign of the Moore St. Preservation Trust for amodern historical quarter – shaped around the GPO, Moore Street Battlefieldsite and O’Connell Street. The link is: https://outreach.sinnfein.ie/save-the-gpo/
Kneecap Abú
Well done to Kneecap and those other performers atGlastonbury who stood up to the British political and media establishment andcourageously spoke out against the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip and thewest Bank. Well done also to the tens of thousands who applauded and cheered asMo chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí, demanded ceasefires, an end to themass murder of Palestinian people and stood up to the censorship of the BritishBroadcasting Corporation.
The British political and media establishment, in particularthe BBC, like to promote an image to the world of being progressive,anti-racist, truthful and democratic. The experience of Ireland and of manystates that were once British colonies, is the opposite. British rule hasalways been bad for Ireland. Perfidious Albion’s intrusion into our affairs hasbeen a part of our historical and cultural narrative for almost 900 years.
Censorship and racism and the demonisation of those whoconfront British strategic interests have been a constant from the ape likecaricatures of the Irish in the 19th century to the control ofthe media as part of the state’s counter-insurgency strategies during therecent years of conflict.
So too with the hypocrisy of the Starmersgovernment. He provides material and economic, military and political supportto Netanyahu’s fascist government. And he has the audacity to pick again onKneeCap and others after the success if their Glastonbury guy at theweekend.
Formal and informal political censorship often creates aclimate of fear in which many good people turn away from the truth.Fortunately, there are always those who will dare to speak out. People likethe late Mary Holland who interviewed me in April 1990 when the voices ofSinn Féin activists were banned. Mary so perfectly lip-synched my words usingOscar winning actor Stephen Rea that the British demanded that lip-synchingitself be banned. Or Helen from Wales, a vegan chef and yoga teacher, whoon Saturday live streamed Kneecap’s set on Tik Tok while the BBC banned them.Or those who use their social media platforms to expose the lies, inhumanityand excesses of states, even at the risk of their own lives.
Censorship is the enemy of truth. It reinforces theconditions for division and conflict. It is an obstacle to dialogue. Dialogueis essential for understanding and agreement and reconciliation.
Féile an Phobail – A festival extravaganza
This week I was given a copy of the minutes of a meetingheld on the 22nd June 1902 in the Catholic Boys Hall on theFalls Road to establish a league for junior hurlers. The venue was the CatholicBoys Hall. So far I have three locations for this hall. One is off DunleweyStreet not far from the Sinn Féin office and the Bobby Sands mural. The otheris in Cavendish Square and the last one is up one of the Rock Streets. My guessis that all these venues were used at different times. The Clubs involved inthe 1902 meeting were Michael Dwyer; Geraldines; Éire Óg; Sarsfield; Brian Boru;Oissin; Fianna Éireann; and Red Branch. Bulmer Hobson was electedChairman of the League. Hobson was a well-known republican figure. Two yearsafter this meeting he was sworn into the Irish Republican Brotherhood and alongwith CountessConstance Markievicz, he founded Na Fianna Éireann in Belfast in 1909.
The minute records that following his election Bulmer Hobsongave a “neat little speech bringing before their minds the necessity offorming such a league and that it will bind them closer together and be a meansof spreading the game and doing a little towards the revival of this old Irishsport.”
One hundred and twenty-three years Hobson’s vision of arevival “of this old Irish sport” means that An Chumann Lúthchleas Gael (CLG)in Belfast will play a prominent role during this year’s Féile an Phobail. Itspresence permeates the programme for 2025 which was launched last week. Onceagain Féile has surpassed itself with over 600 events at over 50 venues. Thesewill cover everything from the visual arts, culture, discussions anddebates, exhibitions, tours, films, ceol and sports.
On Monday 28 July Naomh Eoin CLG will host an eventorganised by Gaels le Chéile. Jane Adams, one of its founding members willprovide an update on the work of the campaign. It will be followed by aconversation with sports journalist Brendan Crossan and Tyrone football legendPeter Canavan.
On Thursday 31 July in the Ulster Museum the influentialrole of the GAA will be evoked through objects: medals passed down fromgeneration to generation. Siobhan Doyle who wrote A History of the GAA in 100Objects will be on hand to talk about the exhibition.
On 2 August there will be the annual Joe Cahill Gaelic U12.
On the same day at Corrigan Park there will be twofriendship matches between Ireland and Scotland using composite Shinty &Hurling/Camogie rules.
In his book Lost Gaels, Peadar Thompson provides acomprehensive account of the lives of ninety-two of the estimated 150women, men and children who had connections to the GAA and who were killedduring the years of conflict. His talk will be on 4 August in St. Mary’sUniversity College.
On Saturday the 9 August at 9am the famous Féile an PhobailPoc Fada will take place n the Divis and Black Mountain. I retired recently asthe undefeated Féile Póc Fada champion beating Brian McFaul in theprocess.
Also on that same day a half pace social hurlingfestival will take place on Rossa and Sarsfield’s pitches with 16 teams fromall over Ireland playing in a blitz. And the Naomh Gall Siobhan O’Hanlon Gaelicfor Mothers and Others blitz will also take place in De La Salle Park,Milltown. The blitz is named in honour of our friend and founding member ofFéile – Siobhán O’Hanlon.
Those who gathered in June 1902 would be pleased.
Check the Féile clár. If you haven’t got a hard copy thenyou can access it at https://feilebelfast.com
June 26, 2025
Ceasefires Now | Mol an Óige | Family Album
Ceasefires Now
Should we have been surprised by the decision of the USPresident Donald Trump to attack Iran? No. Shocked maybe but not surprised. Theweapons of mass destruction spin, that was used to justify the invasion of Iraqtwo decades ago, was already in wide usage by some western governments andsections of the media before B 2’s dropped so-called ‘bunker buster’ bombs onIran. And we all remember what a disaster the Iraq war was for the people ofthat nation and for world politics. An estimated million Iraqi citizens died.
The attack on Iran was an act of aggression against a statethat had not attacked the USA. It was in clear breach of international law andit almost certainly broke US domestic and constitutional law. Moreover, twonuclear powers – Israel and the USA – have attacked a nation that does not havenuclear weapons. And applauding in the wings are Britain, France and Germanyand others who are colluding in the genocide of the Palestinian people.
Presidents Trump and Netanyahu have embarked on a course ofmilitary belligerence that has significantly raised the likelihood of a widerconflict and potentially worse. In the meantime, the slaughter of Palestinianscontinues. Now moved down the headlines by other imperial actions. This is thetime when nothing else seems to matter to stick by our principles. Let’s keepdemanding an end to this war. Let’s keep demanding freedom for Palestine andpeace for everyone.
Mol an Óige
The boys and girls of Rang A Seacht graduated from Bunscoilan tSléibhe Dhuibh last Friday. I was there in my capacity as a Daideo to oneof the scholars. Our oldest lad’s oldest lad. It was a wonderfulevent. The Assembly Hall was filled with parents and grandparents,brothers and sisters, teachers and classroom assistants. Pilib said a few wordsas a céad míle fáilte.
He reminded us all that we are Gaels. Part of Gaelic societyin Belfast. Part of the Irish language community here and across Ireland.Living our lives through Irish. Bringing our language with us wherever we go.
This was a big day for him and Niamh Nic Ionnrachtaigh andthe other teachers. A big day for the school. This was the last day in SléibheDhuibh for Rang A Seacht. Seven years of schooling through the medium of Irish.The line of gangly boys and girls was escorted into the Assembly Hall by thisyear’s Naíscoil pupils. The great wheel of school life slowly turning.
I remember well the oldest lad’s oldest lad’s first day. Theday he started. He was following his three sisters. Now he is a big boy. Moving on. Then he was a new boy. Now the new boys and girls are seeinghim off with the rest of the older ones. They did so with a song. A cheekydefiant Slán, Slán, Slán song.
Pilib was as pleased as Punch.
Ann Kavanagh speaking on behalf of the parents criedthe whole way through her remarks. Tears of pride and gratitude. Then each ofour young group of pupils were presented with their Rang a Seacht 2025 geansaíbefore going over to Niamh who then spoke directly to each of them as theystood beside her. She was amazing. She retraced their individual schooljourney. Reminded each of them of how their involvement in hurling or camogieor football or handball or music or drama or art took them out of themselves.How their confidence grew. How they cared for their classmates. How they becameleaders. How all the pupils of Rang A Seacht grew individually andcollectively during their seven years together. All through the medium ofIrish.
And then Rang A Seacht gave us two songs before exiting tothunderous applause.
The future is bright. These young citizens are a credit tothe visionaries from Ballymurphy who founded their school in an old chaletbehind Whiterock Leisure Centre. They are a credit to their families and ourcommunity. And their teachers and their school. They are a credit to Ireland.But most of all they are a credit to themselves. Well done. And mílebuíochas daoibhse.
Family Album
When Frankie Quinn was sixteen his father gave him a camera and sent him along to the newly formed Camera Club in the McAirtCommunity Centre. The club was focussed on recording life locally in the ShortStrand/Ballymacarrett district which was being redeveloped.
It was 1982. Large parts of the area had already beendemolished when Frankie set to work. All of us who are interested in our localhistory have benefitted from this initiative by his father and from Frankie’swork. Over the decades he has produced photographic treasures for us tocontemplate and remember how things once were particularly in working classBelfast communities two generations ago.
Frankie has won many awards and produced fine exhibitions ofhis work along with a number of publications. Family Album is the latest ofthese. It is about his home place. The tiny nationalist district of ShortStrand and Ballymacarrett in East Belfast.
In 1997 Frankie sent a selection of his images to his friendGilles Peres in New York with a request for him to write a few words. They formthe Foreword of this book. Gilles is also an award winning internationalphotographer. He too has contributed to the photographic history of the decadesof conflict here. His Foreword is worth quoting. He praises Frankie’sphotographic skills and writes warmly of the people of The Strand.
He remembers the fancy dress party in the LESA social clubas “the best party in Europe.” He describes the people as having a “serioustendency to accept with an open heart anyone who is not trying to harm them. Awarm love comes from the knowledge of this womb which is the Short Strand.”
Well said Gilles. Well done Frankie. That’s what your photosin Family Album capture. The womb which is your home place and the people whomake it what it is.
Family Album is available from info@belfastarchiveproject.com;An Culturlann, 216 Bóthar na bhFál, BT12 6AH; ; An Fhuisseog, 55 Bóthar nabhFál, BT12 4PD; and Wards shop The Short Strand.
June 19, 2025
Stand-Up to Racism | Defending Neutrality | Pat Finucane - End the Delay
Stand-Up to Racism
In 1972 Catholic families – who had endured three years ofsustained sectarian attacks on their homes – fled Annalee St in North Belfast.Last month - fifty-three years later - Catholic homes in Annalee St.were again the target of sectarian attack and families were forced to flee. Inthe last fortnight we have also witnessed the firebombing of homes inBallymena, the Larne Leisure Centre and racist attacks in other parts ofthe North.
The images of homes in flames in Ballymena reminded me ofsimilar scenes I first witnessed in Belfast in August 1969. The film footage ofthat period is of streets ablaze, frightened families hurriedly stackingfurniture on lorries or carrying their most precious possessions on theirbacks. Then it was the racism and sectarianism of the apartheid unionist stateattacking nationalist and republican families, killing residents, destroyinghundreds of homes and forcing thousands to become refugees in our own city.
Regrettably, the same sectarian and racist fundamentalismthat motivated those attacks still exists today among some in our society whocampaign against housing for Catholics, hang effigies of political leaders onbonfires and use violent rhetoric to promote hate crime against immigrantsand those they define as ‘others’. That is those who are of adifferent religion or colour, or sexual orientation.
Racism and sectarianism manifest themselves in differentways. Sometimes it is official discrimination through public policy or thepresentation of offensive stereotypes against those being targeted, includingminority ethnic groups, like travellers and non-nationals,like migrant workers,refugees and asylum seekers. Hate crime also manifests itself in racial abuse,threatening behaviour, incitement to hatred, attacks on family homes and onbusinesses.
Hate crime cannot be tolerated. It must beopposed without hesitation. As a society we have to take a determinedstand against racism, hate crime and sectarianism. Some people sufferingas a result of government policies are open to manipulation by right wingelements. They themselves may not be ideologically racist or right wing but bynow all of us must know how dangerous it is to acquiesce to those who are.We must take a stand against the policies which create inequality. That meansfacing down the governments in London or Dublin. Or others in the Assembly inBelfast. We must face down the racists.
That requires community solidarity. People of good willstanding together and embracing those who are being attacked. It also needs thepolice and the courts responding quickly and resolutely to hate crime. Thatmeans arresting those responsible and bringing them speedily before the courts.
Diversity is a strength not a weakness.Republicans reject bias and discrimination and racism. We reject bigotryand cultural supremacy. If the decades of one party rule and of conflictin the North have taught anything it must be that there can be no second classcitizens in our society.
The island of Ireland is no longer just a place of Catholic,Protestant and Dissenter; of traveller and settled people. Ireland is now hometo people from every region of the world. We have become a place to whichpeople immigrate. This new cultural diversification has the potential to enrichthe cultural life of our nation and to become part of the economic engine forgrowth.
In front of Belfast City Hall there is a statue to agreat Belfast woman – Mary Ann McCracken. She and others stopped slave shipsfrom doing business in Belfast in the 18th and 19th centuries.They said NO to inequality and YES to equality and enlightenment. That is thereal Belfast and we need to live by those principles today.
Defending Neutrality
The Israeli rogue state has set the world on a dangerouscourse. Its deadly assault on Iran, allied to its violent actions in Lebanonand Syria and its genocidal war on the Palestinian people, has cast a hugeshadow over the Middle East. As its military forces continue to kill scores ofPalestinians daily in Gaza and its war planes attack Iran the Israeli militaryimposed a complete siege on the west Bank. Over a thousand military checkpointswhich provide Israel with absolute control over the occupied west Bank, werecompletely closed imposing a siege on the Palestinian towns, villages andisolated farms of that region.
As the world focusses on the exchanges between Israel andIran the Zionists’ genocidal and ethnic cleansing strategy against thePalestinian people is escalating. Those western states that have refused tochallenge Israel’s murder of tens of thousands of Palestinians or stand-byinternational law, are now defending Israel’s attack on Iran using the sameunacceptable excuse that Israel has the right to defend itself.
It is in this heightened political and humanitarian crisis,with the real likelihood of an intensifying war in the Middle East, that theIrish government want to end Ireland’s long standing policy of neutrality. TheFF/FG government want Irish men and women to be placed under the control ofthose same international governments that are currently aiding Israel and/ordefending its actions. This is not acceptable.
Under the government’s proposed new legislation - theGeneral Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 – the Triple Lock will beremoved. Under existing law Irish troops cannot be sent overseas without theagreement of the Dáil, the government and the United Nations. The governmentwants to remove the UN requirement.
At the weekend several thousand people took to the streetsof Dublin to oppose the scrapping of the Triple Lock. As Mary Lou McDonaldsaid: “No way. Not on your life. We will fight this tooth and nail.”
If the Irish government is convinced that it has the supportof the Irish people to make this fundamental change then they should put it tothe people in a referendum. Let the people have their say.
I am confident that the majority of the people of Irelandvalue neutrality. It reflects our history and our own struggle againstcolonisation and oppression, and for freedom. Neutrality has ensured that theIrish state is widely respected as a defender and proponent of peace, humanrights, and international justice. Paraphrasing James Connolly Uachtarán ShinnFéin Mary Lou told the crowd on Saturday: “In Ireland, we don’t bow tokings, we don’t bow to Kaisers, and we certainly won’t bow to a dangerousmilitarisation agenda driven by power, greed and war.”
Pat Finucane - End the Delay
It has been ten months since the BritishSecretary of State Hilary Benn first announced that he was settingup an independent inquiry into the killing of Pat Finucane under the 2005Inquiries Act. Last week he appointed Sir Gary Hickinbottom as the Chairof the Inquiry. Hickinbottom has been given responsibility for investigatingone of the most high profile examples of state collusion between loyalist deathsquads and British state agents and agencies during the decades of conflict.
As well as Hickinbottom, former Police Ombudsman NualaO’Loan and international human rights lawyer Francesca Del Mese have beenappointed as assessors to the inquiry. Their role is to advise the Chair butthey will not be involved in any final report.
It has been a long difficult road for Geraldine Finucane andher family to secure this Inquiry. Twenty-four years ago the British and Irishgovernments agreed at Weston Park to establish public inquiries into anumber of troubles-related cases. Canadian Judge Peter Cory recommendedinquiries into the deaths of: Rosemary Nelson, Robert Hamill, Billy Wright, andPatrick Finucane and also into the deaths of RUC officers Bob Buchanan andHarry Breen.
All of these inquiries took place except that of PatFinucane. In the years since successive British governments have used a varietyof legal devices to avoid holding a public Inquiry, including the establishmentin 2011 of a review of what had happened – led by Sir Desmond de Silva QC. Heconcluded that he was “in no doubt that agents of the State wereinvolved in carrying out serious violations of human rights up to and includingmurder.”
But still the British government prevaricated. The Finucanefamily was forced to take their case to the British Supreme Court which foundthat all the previous investigations had been insufficient. In 2022 the HighCourt in Belfast quashed a decision by the then British Secretary of State thathe would not hold an inquiry pending the outcome of continuing investigations.
So, the Inquiry has now been announced. The Chair andassessors have been named. But we still do not know when or where the inquirywill take place. This foot dragging is not acceptable. It is now vitalthat the inquiry begins its work quickly. The time for delay is over. And lestwe forget the family of Sean Brown continue to be denied their right to anenquiry by the same Government which now appears reluctantly and belatedly tobe giving the Finucane family what they had to campaign decades for.
June 15, 2025
Jim Fitzpatrick signed Limited Print of Elizabeth O’Farrell. | Health and Care in a New Ireland | An Act of International Piracy
JimFitzpatrick signed Limited Print of Elizabeth O’Farrell.
Regularreaders of this column will know that I wholeheartedly support the efforts ofthe Moore St. Preservation Trust to preserve the 1916 Moore St. Battlefieldsite in Dublin that is under threat from the developers wrecking ball. Thisweek the Trust - a not for profit organisation led by Relatives ofthe Signatories of the 1916 Proclamation – will launch a new limited editionsigned print of Elizabeth O’Farrell by the renowned Irish artist JimFitzpatrick. One hundred prints will be available from Thursday evening at €150as part of the fundraising efforts of the Trust to raise much needed funds insupport of its alternative plan for a cultural and historical quarter in theMoore Street battlefield site. Link
Elizabeth O’Farrell, a member of the Cumann na mBan, was oneof three women who were present in the GPO throughout Easter week 1916 and whowere evacuated to Number 16 Moore St. as the GPO was in flames. She, herlife-long partner Julia Grennan, and Winifred Carney were in the roomin Number 16 when the decision to surrender was taken by Seán MacDiarmada,Pádraig Pearse, Joseph Plunkett, James Connolly and Tom Clarke.
At 12.45pm on Saturday 29 April O’Farrell was tasked by theleaders with the hazardous responsibility of going to the British lines.Carrying a white handkerchief tied to a pole and wearing a red cross armbandElizabeth O’Farrell courageously walked down Moore Street to the Britishbarricade. She was brought from there to Tom Clarke’s shop in Parnell Streetwhere the British General Lowe told her that he would only accept anunconditional surrender.
A short time later Pádraig Pearse, accompanied by O’Farrell,and wearing his military overcoat and hat, met General Lowe. In the originalphotograph taken of that meeting only Nurse O’Farrell’s feet can be seen and inmany of the reproductions later they were airbrushed out. O’Farrell deliveredthe surrender note to the outposts which were still fighting.
She and her partner Julia Grennan remained life-longrepublicans. Elizabeth died in 1957 and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.Her tombstone carries a verse:
When duty called on the field of battle,
She went, under orders, the foe to meet,
Bearing sadly, unfearingly, proudly,
The flag of surrender but not defeat.
Jim Fitzpatrick has produced a remarkable portrait of thisremarkable and indomitable woman. Support the Moore St. Preservation Trust andbuy this historic portrait and unique work of art by one of Ireland’s foremostartists. If you want to buy a print you can connect to the link on Thursdayevening: The print is 40cm x 56cm. Is signed by the artist, numbered andon high quality paper.
Siopa| Shop – Moore Street Preservation Trust
Health andCare in a New Ireland
Last month theEuropean Movement in Ireland –Amárach Research – reported that a majority ofpeople in both parts of the island were in favour of a united Ireland withinthe EU. The figures were 67% in favour in the North and 62% in favour in theSouth.
Last week theLife and Times Survey, which is conducted by Queens University, reported thatthe gap between those who support the union with Britain and those who favourIrish Unity, has halved in the last year. In 2021 the gap was 23 points. In2023 that had halved to 12 points. This year it has halved again to 5 points.
In all of thepolls a key issue of public concern that emerges again and again is thequestion of health provision. People want to know what an all-island healthservice will look like. Sinn Féin favours an Irish National Health and CareService – centrally funded, universal, free at the point of delivery and basedon clinical need.
Currently healthcare provision across the island is in crisis and the health needs of citizensare not being met. A united Ireland provides an opportunity for thetransformation of the health and social care services. In addition to greatercross border healthcare planning and delivery, and increased collaboration onjoint projects, citizens would be much better served by a healthcare systemthat is planned, managed and delivered based on the needs of the nationalpopulation.
An Irish National Health and Care Service is a common senseand achievable proposition. There are already many areas of cooperationacross the two health systems. These need to be supported by the fullintegration of health provision across the island of Ireland and a nationalhealth strategy.
As part of thediscussion on this very important issue last Friday over 100 healthprofessionals met in St Comgall’s - Ionad Eileen Howell for a conferenceon Health and Care in the New Ireland. The event was organised by Sinn Féin’sCommission on the Future of Ireland. The conference was opened by the party’sHealth spokesperson in the Oireachtas David Cullinane TD and the main addresswas delivered by Pat Cullen MP. Philip McGuigan MLA the Sinn Féin spokespersonin the North was also in attendance.
The independentpanel was chaired by Tom Murray, President of the Irish Pharmacy Union andincluded Majella Beattie of Care Champions Ireland: Dr. Eddie Rooney, formerChief Executive of the Public Health Agency and Sara Boyce, of the New Scriptfor Mental Health Campaign.
The panelistsspoke of their experience in health and care provision and the gaps thatcurrently exist. The importance of investing in mental health provision, newinfrastructure, disability care, and improved provision for our elderlycitizens were all discussed by the panel and audience. The panelists spoke ofthe health challenges in the promotion and prioritisation of health care, theirconcerns at the diagnostic waiting times, particularly in respect of cancer,and the underfunding of counselling services.
The vital roleplayed by the voluntary and community sector, and charities, in improvingcapacity North and South was praised.
Pat Cullen MPtold the conference: “Successive Irish and British Governments have notprioritised our public health services. They have failed to plan servicesaccording to need, to train and retain enough health and social careprofessionals, or to modernise health and care provision for the 21st century.The gap between public and private health care is growing in the South’stwo-tier health service, despite the all-party commitment to Sláintecare.Little progress has been made towards realising that vision.”
Waiting timeshave also grown unacceptably long in the North, where the crisis is exacerbatedby the financial control of Westminster and the impact of partition on ourability to make decisions that maximise the all-island potential.
The reality isthat all island cooperation and planning makes sense. On an island ofunder seven million people – less than the population of most of the world’sgreat cities – it makes no sense having two separate health services. A unitedIreland provides an opportunity for the transformation of the health and socialcare services.
An Act ofInternational Piracy
In an act ofinternational piracy Israeli forces hijacked the humanitarian aid vessel theMadleen in international waters as it was making its way to the Gaza Strip withmuch needed humanitarian aid for the beleaguered community. The Madleen is partof the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition and it had a crew of 12including environmental activist activist Greta Thunberg and RimaHassan MEP. The Israel action is part of its strategy to control the publicnarrative around events in the Palestinian occupied territories, particularlyGaza, where millions face starvation.
In the Gaza Strip and the west Bank the daily slaughter ofinnocents by the Israeli regime’s murder squads continues unimpeded. So toodoes the deliberate targeting of the health service which has been all butobliterated by Israel’s genocidal military campaign. The objective is clearlyto remove sll Palestinians from Gaza.
Finally, I want to commend the thousands who participated inand/or supported the 25 mile March for Gaza last Saturday from Lurgan to Omeathin Co. Louth. The length of the march represented the length of the Gaza Strip.
The refusal of most western governments and the EuropeanUnion to take effective measures against the Israeli state for these war crimesmakes them complicit. We must keep up the pressure for a permanent ceasefire,humanitarian aid and freedom for the Palestinian people.
June 1, 2025
Mothers Against Genocide | ‘If I Must Die’ | Give the vote to 16-year-old citizens.
Mothers Against Genocide
This column makes no apologies for writing so much about the genocide in Palestine and the urgent need for ceasefires and a peace process. At least 14,000 babies face imminent death from starvation. Over 60,000 Palestinian children, women, men have been killed, including more than 4,000 since Israel ended its ceasefire in March. One especially harrowing example of Israel’s murder machine at work was the deliberate targeting last Friday of the family home of Hamdi and Walaa al-Najjar, two doctors who work at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. As Hamdi was at work nine of her ten children were killed. Her husband and a 10th child was left critically ill.
Mothers Against Genocide have stood up against this savagery and for the rights of the Palestinian people. Sue Pentel and Martine McCullough are active in this campaign. Sue has been a political activist all her life. My earliest memory of her is as a member of Women against Imperialism over 40 years ago. Sue is a Gaeilgeoir who has worked for decades promoting the education of our young people through the medium of Irish. She is also a committed advocate for the rights of the people of Palestine and last weekend she and her friend Martine were arrested by the PSNI and charged with ‘criminal damage’ to an ATM at Barclays Bank in Castle Place in Belfast City Centre. The so-called criminal damage was the placing of a sticker on the machine as a reminder of Barclays role in selling Israeli war bonds.
The ATM was not damaged by their non-violent protest. But five PSNI officers were dispatched to arrest Sue and Martine and the Public Prosecution Service is now tasked by the PSNI with determining if they will be prosecuted.
This speedy response by the PSNI drew sharp criticism with many pointing to the proliferation of loyalist paramilitary flags and no action by the PSNI.
Meanwhile, in London ‘Mo Chara’ - Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – of Kneecap was charged with a ‘terrorism’ offence for allegedly displaying a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London last November. He will be in court in June. There have been calls by British politicians to have Kneecap banned and for their concerts to be scrapped. Kneecap have described this as a blatant attempt to shut them down and to distract from the complicity of the British government in the slaughter of Palestinian civilians. At a packed concert last Saturday night in front of 20,000 Kneecap were defiant as they led the audience in the demand to “Free Palestine.”
And as the policing system here and in London makes a fool of itself Wednesday marked 600 days of the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Israel has waged an unceasing war against medical facilities and staff in the Gaza Strip for 600 days. The Zionists are armed by the White House and London and other big Western powers
Throughout this time Britain, France, Germany, the USA and others have defended Israel’s actions. They are excused and justified on the spurious grounds of self-defence. What threat did 16,000 dead Palestinian children present or the thousands more currently dying from starvation?
There is a huge onus on the Irish government to go beyond public criticism of the Israeli regime by taking effective steps to speedily pass the Occupied Territories Bill and to work with other governments to impose sanctions on Israel. This must include supporting Sinn Féin’s legislation to stop the Irish Central Bank from enabling the sale of Israeli war bonds and ensuring that no aircraft land at Shannon airport carrying war materials for Israel.
Of course, it’s not just down to the government. We can all play our part as individuals, as business people, as shopkeepers and as restaurateurs. ‘Don’t Buy Apartheid’ is a campaign aimed at persuading people to boycott produce and products made in Israel on stolen Palestinian land. This includes oranges, avocados, dates, Coca-Cola and its many brands. Sue and Martine, and many others have shown the power of activism. We must never give up. Free Palestine.
‘If I Must Die’
There will be a public event this Saturday – 31 May - about the ongoing genocide. The venue is St Comgalls/Ionad Eileen Howell and it starts at 7.30pm. Chairing the meeting, which is sponsored by the Bobby Sands Trust, will be Dr Brendan Ciaran Browne, Associate Professor of Conflict Resolution. The main speaker will be Yousef M. Aljamal
On the International Wall in Belfast there is a poem by Refaat Alareer, ‘If I Must Die’ which he wrote for his daughter, Shaymaa, who would grow up to be an accomplished illustrator. It is very poignant because the Israelis went on to kill Refaat, along with his sister, brother and four of nephews and nieces, eighteen months ago.
In 2014 after the murder of his brother, Hamada, Refaat wrote: ‘My brother will be martyr number 26 in my extended family; five of them killed last week and had their bodies dug out of the rubble during Sunday’s twelve-hour “humanitarian ceasefire”.’
Refaat taught in the English Department of the Islamic University of Gaza. All seventeen universities and colleges in Gaza have since been destroyed: an educated people is one of the worst fears of the Zionists.
Among Refaat’s students was Yousef M. Aljamal who became a close friend and comrade. Yousef was one of the editors of A Shared Struggle which told the stories of surviving Palestinian and Irish republican hunger strikers, published by An Fhuiseog bookshop (and is, unfortunately, currently out of print).
You can listen to Yousef in St Comgalls/Ionad Eileen Howell next Saturday at 7.30.
This is the poem on the International Wall, the poem that Refaat wrote for his daughter, Shymaa fourteen years ago. Last year, the Israelis murdered Shaymaa, her husband and her three-month old baby.
If I Must Die
If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself—
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale
Give the vote to 16-year-old citizens.
The debate on reducing the voting age to 16 is gathering momentum. Twice in the last decade the Assembly – minus the DUP - has endorsed the call for the vote to be reduced in the North from 18 to 16. Several years ago Sinn Féin introduced a Bill in the Oireachtas to allow for this in southern elections and last week An Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that he had an “open mind” on such a proposition and would give it “serious consideration.”
16 year olds already have the vote in Scotland and Wales and in many central and south American states. The British Labour government made a commitment during the last election to introduce appropriate legislation for the vote at 16 but there is no timeframe for this.
Every day governments take decisions that impact on the lives of 16-year-old citizens while denying them a say in those decisions. At 16 a citizen can start work and pay tax and national insurance but is denied a say in how these are spent. We need to encourage the greatest participation in the democratic process.
May 25, 2025
Verbal Disorder | The Floodgates of Horror | The Catastrophe – Nakba
Verbal Disorder
When I was younger I used to have a stammer. I don’t know what age I was. Somewhere between seven and ten perhaps. A youngster! I grew out of my speech impediment, and I have very little recollection of my stammering phase but I was reminded of it when I was on the phone to a friend in Ard Oifig in Dublin last week. . For no apparent reason she told me that she sometimes has a stammer when she is on the phone.
“It isn’t obvious” I told her.
And it wasn’t.
“Its a nervous thing” she went on “it also happens the odd time when I’m at a meeting and it’s coming to my time to speak. I sometimes get anxious and my stutter starts. Just as I begin to make my contribution.”
I told her about my childhood stammer.
“ You will grow out off it,” I said reassuredly. “I knew a guy in jail and he had an awful stoppage but he could sing like Tony Bennett. No sign of any impediment when he was leading us in a singsong. And then there was Daithí O. He had a wild stutter but only in English. When he was speaking in Irish his diction was perfect.”
“That’s funny” she said.
“Big Bob used his very pronounced stammer to his advantage,” I told her. “He made people laugh, especially when he was getting to a serious point and his stutter sent him off on a tangent. He obviously knew what words or letters triggered his stoppage and he had a wee bridging word - it might have been ‘sort of’ or ‘f…ing sort of’ - to get him back to his main message again, much to everyones amusement. The letter S was a challenge to him.”
“Vowels can do that as well,” she said. “You know A, E, I ,O and U? They can trip you up”.
“I remember Bob trying to talk to another friend of ours who had adesperate stammer. It was hilarious. They were talking for half an hour but they barely got past the first few sentences. Eventually they gave up talking and just wrote notes to each other. Otherwise they would still be trying to get to the point.”
“Thats mad” she said. “The worst thing ever is when somebody else tries to complete the word the stutterer is trying to say. Some people - and I know they are trying to help - do that and invariably it is the wrong word and that frustrates the stutterer even more, especially when the heplful one speaks very slowly and suggests a second or even a third or fourth word. That makes things worse.”
“I know what you mean” I said “ thanks for the yarn. It was nice nice to talk, talk, talk to you”.
“Me, me, me too too” she said.
“This could be a long good good good bye” I replied.
“Just say say say Slán” she laughed.
“ Slán” I said.
The Floodgates of Horror
Uachtarán na hÉireann, Michael D Higgins does not mince his words when it comes to Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people. Last weekend he addressed the annual commemoration of Ireland’s An Gorta Mór – The Great Hunger - of the 1840s. The commemoration is a reminder of our colonial experience and of a potato plight which became a genocide because of the policies of the British government. Over a million died and millions more fled.
Michael D has addressed the National Famine Commemoration several times in recent years but with a Presidential election later this year this will be his last as Uachtarán na hÉireann. He said: “No other event in our history can be likened to the Great Famine, either for its immediate, tragic impact, or its legacy of involuntary emigration, cultural loss, increased decline of the Irish language, and demoralisation.”
But his strongest words of criticism were reserved for those states that are using hunger as a weapon of war and in particular for Israel and its imposition of “a forced starvation in Gaza” which we are witness to “daily on our television screens.” Uachtarán na hÉireann referenced the recent comments by United Nations Secretary General António Guterres who warned that, “As aid dries up, the floodgates of horror have re-opened. […] Gaza is a killing field – and civilians are in an endless death loop.”
In Spain the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez accused Israel of being a “genocidal state.” Speaking in the Spanish Parliament Prime Minister Sanchez asserted that “we do not do business with a genocidal state. We do not.”
It is time that the Irish government emulated the example of Uachtarán na hÉireann, Michael D Higgins and others in the international community who have had the courage to speak out against Israel. An Taoiseach Micheál Martin must urgently pass into law the Occupied Territories Bill and impose sanctions against Israel. Anything less is to be complicit in what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. He needs to make it clear that “we do not do business with a genocidal state. We do not.”
The Catastrophe – Nakba
Last week Palestinians across the world commemorated the Nakba – The Catastrophe. In 1948 almost a million Palestinians fled as refugees from their homes as the Israeli state was forcibly carved out of Palestine. For those who defend or are silent on Israel’s genocide in Gaza the Nakba is an uncomfortable reminder of when the gun was brought into Palestine. For that reason, it is often ignored.
The violence against the Palestinian people 77 years ago reflects current accounts of Israel’s brutal actions in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israeli prisons.
On 9 April 1948 Jacques de Reynes who was the head of the International Red Cross in Palestine arrived at Deir Yassin – a small Palestinian village a few miles from Jerusalem. As he entered the village he was confronted by members of the Irgun – a Jewish paramilitary organisation. He later recalled: “All of them were young, some even adolescents, men and women armed to the teeth: revolvers, machine guns, hand-grenades, and also cutlasses in their hands, most of them still blood stained.”
The Commander of the Irgun told de Reynes they were involved in a “clean up”. He went into a Palestinian home where; “I found some bodies cold. Here the ‘cleaning up’ had been done with machine guns, then hand grenades. It had been finished off with knives, anyone could see that. The same thing in the next room, but as I was about to leave, I heard something like a sigh. I looked everywhere, turned over all the bodies, and eventually found a little foot, still warm. It was a little girl of ten, mutilated by a hand grenade, but still alive … everywhere was the same horrible sight.”
According to a report to the United Nations by the British authorities in Palestine: “The deaths of some 250 Arabs, men, women and children, which occurred during this attack, took place in circumstances of great savagery. Woman and children were stripped, lined up, photographed, and then slaughtered by automatic firing and survivors have told of even more incredible bestialities. Those who were taken prisoner were treated with degrading brutality.”
The massacre in Deir Yassin, and in other Palestinian villages, was part of a carefully designed strategy to assist in the ethnic cleansing of large parts of Palestine. It was led by Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir who would later become Prime Ministers of Israel. The mass murder of Palestinian civilians in Deir Yassin and massacres in other Palestinian villages led to tens of thousands of refugees fleeing into neighbouring Arab states. It is estimated that three quarters of all Palestinians were expelled as the new Israeli state stole 78% of Palestine.
Several weeks later on 15 May the United Nations, under intense pressure from the United States, voted to recognise the state of Israel.
So, when someone claims that Israel has the right to defend itself against a civilian population remember the Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic) and tell them that there will be no peace built on the genocide, subjugation and denial of Palestinian national rights. Many in the international community then and today stand indicted for facilitating genocide. Silence is complicity.
May 18, 2025
Presidential Vote is constitutional requirement | Donnacha
Presidential Vote is constitutional requirement
In a historic vote in the Assembly last week its membersoverwhelmingly passed by 46 votes to 25 - a motion calling on the Irishgovernment to implement the recommendation of the 2013 ConstitutionalConvention on the Constitution to extend “the right to vote in elections forPresident of Ireland to all Irish citizens on the island of Ireland.” Thereality of course is that successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments havedeliberately refused to implement this recommendation despite having 12 years todo so.
The right of Irish citizens to vote in Presidentialelections has been a constant campaign issue for Sinn Féin and many otherssince the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Article 2 of Bunreacht na hÉireannstates: “It is the entitlement and birthright of every person born in theisland of Ireland … to be part of the Irish nation. That is also theentitlement of all persons otherwise qualified in accordance with law to becitizens of Ireland.”
Last week’s remarkable Assembly debate and vote is areflection of the changing political landscape in the North. Leas UachtaránMichelle O’Neill has written to An Taoiseach Micheál Martin urging him to “makethe extension of Irish Presidential voting rights to Irish citizens in theNorth a priority for his government”.
There is time to do so before the next election later thisyear.
We are only after a wonderful weekend of Gaelic games. Welldone to Donegal and to Louth. Armagh are the current All Ireland champions. NoAll Ireland Champion on that All Ireland winning team can vote for thePresident. I remember well recent all-Ireland senior footballchampionships between teams from theNorth. Most memorably Armagh and Tyrone. None of them could vote for the President who presented them with theSam Maguire trophy. In the case of President Mary McAleese she could not havevoted for herself if she had stayed in the North.
Its long past the time for a change and for the Governmentto act on its promise to hold a referendum.
Donnacha
I remember very well the time Anne Rynne told me Donnachahad multiple sclerosis. It must have been about thirty years ago. Orthereabouts. Donnacha was in his mid-twenties. Although she was scared Anne wasvery brave about this traumatic development in the life of her son. Donnachawas even braver. They are like that, this mother and son who have facedadversity for every minute since first they came into each other’s lives.
Donnacha is one of twin boys. Niall and he are the secondborn of Davoc and Anne’s family. There is Áine and Turlough. Davóg is theoldest. Donnacha’s story is incomplete without them. Especially his amazingparents. And they would be incomplete without Donnacha. He is the touchstone inthe lives of his family. And in the lives of many others including this column.He is a huge inspiration for me.
So who is Donnacha?
Donnacha Rynne was born six weeks prematurely. He hadcerebral palsy. Anne and Davoc were told he would never walk. Life for himcould not be the same as other boys. Not the same as his twin brother Niall. Noschool. No boyish experiences. And eventually… an institution.
Anne and Davoc decided this was not their way. Their sonwould be reared same as any other child. And he was. In the early days in Kildare, later on thewest coast of Clare. He went to school and later to work. For a time, he flew the nest and moved backto Kildare to live with his aunt. His mother taught him life skills in Galway.Then back to Clare.
That’s when I first met Donnacha. In the hostel at SpanishPoint.
Our Gearóid and I were camping our way around Ireland.Donnacha was working away at peeling and washing spuds, greeting guests andtelling yarns. He was great craic and we hit it off from the get go.
Before long he was in Belfast, up for the Féile. In thosedays Donnacha didn’t need the wheel chair or at least he didn’t bring it toBéal Feirste. He was out and about smoozing his way from gig to gig, lookingfor a girl and to his annoyance being chaperoned by Minnie Mo who shooed allpromising females away. He appeared on Féile Radio and promoted disabilityrights. He camped in our back room, ate us out of house and home, laughed a lotand charmed big Eamon and especially Colette with his take on life, love, lustand the importance of being.
By the time Gearoid and Roísín got married Donnacha waswheelchair bound. But that didn’t stop him bopping it up with the rest ofus. By now Donnacha was livingindependently in a house of his own in Miltown Malbay and he and I would gettogether occasionally for coffee as I wandered through the land. Increasinglydependent on carers for everyday necessities, yoga, music, and friendshipuplifted him.
Donnacha died last week. I had planned to visit him in July.Unfortunately, that will not be. I sat down to write a tribute to him but hisMammy -Anne Rynne- has given me permission to print the one she wrote so I willoffer that to you instead dear readers. Donnacha loved West Belfast. And WestClare.
He loved life. He lived in the nowness. Donnacha remains aninspiration.
DONNACHA
As your life ebbs away from us
I remember your wisdom
I remember your patience
I remember your acceptance
I remember your joy at every beat of your heart
Oh son of mine
My teacher
My little funny boy who “hated all the stupid questions” hewas asked by the people in white coats who made him cry
And who laughed when I said let's not bother going again tothe White Coats
My beautiful good looking young man
Who never in his life said why me
Who never ever complained
Who always had a smile and a thank you
Who taught us how to live good lives
He struggled in school
He stretched in his yoga
He battled with his DISABLED PEOPLE OF CLARE comrades for“nothing about us without us”
He went to Belfast to walk the line for Justice
He rolled a rock from the Burren to Dublin for Mullaghmore
He insisted on being his own man and fought with MaryJo forhis own home
He shared his home with the best team in Ireland
His Dream Team of Ali Aine Mary Fiona Chris Gerry
He was cared for by the mighty Dr Billy for many years andnow by Dr Dymphna and her colleagues in the Medical Centre and by Veronica andher colleagues in West Clare Pharmacy
He smoked two joints every day when he was able – rolled byhis Ma SHHHHHH!
He loved a pint of the black stuff when he was able for it
He rolled down the centre of Main Street in his wheelchairwith his beloved dog Quinte by his side, waving at all and sundry oblivious tothe fact that a line of cars was waiting for him to go where he wanted to go
He ended up in a ditch on the bog road with the wheelchairon top of him and frightened the life out of a walker passing by with hisshouts for HELP!
He loved his home in Church Road, his neighbours andeveryone in Miltown Malbay
He loved D’UnBelieveables, Fr Ted, the Goons, the craic, theuncles.
He loved the postcards from Little John and GerryA as theytravelled the world and told him all about it
He was so delighted when Barry suggested – Don’s, you have abook in you - and after years of being recorded by TomP his book BEING DONNACHAwas published
"My contribution to the world Ma”
Oh Yes and much, much more sonshine
He showed us all and held us all together
This Mystical Man
This old man in the young boy who told us stories beyond hisyears
This young lad wanting to be an ordinary man
This man who wrote poetry and sang songs
This man who yearned for love and for sex
This man whose life is beyond our ken
This man who carries his life with grace with dignity withgratitude
The nephew to Catherine to Brigid and Eugene to Andrew A'nDJoan and Ramona
Christy and Val to Eilish and Peter to Andy and Sandra toTerry and to Barry
The cousin to Bríd Óg and all the cousins
The brother in law to Sophie, Maisie, Mary and Alan
The uncle to Amelia, Leane, Oscar, Alice and Robin
The brother to his twin Niall to Davóg and to Turlough
The brother to his darling sister Áine
The son to his crumbley old Mam and Dad - Anne and Davoc.
The man who is and always will be Donnacha.
Anne Rynne
May 11, 2025
Swinger | Israel’s reign of terror | Commission on the Future of Ireland
Swinger
I spent the last week in Dublin in the Four Courts as partof the outworking of my case against the BBC’s Spotlight programme nine yearsago. But more of that when it’s over which could take another fortnight.
On the morning that the case started our Gearóid phoned meto say that his father-in-law Paddy ‘Swinger’ McBride was dead. The news was agreat shock. I had spent a half hour or more a few days before chatting withPaddy in his home. He was just out after a spell in hospital, and although hewas ill his spirit was strong and he was full of craic and talk about thecurrent politics, his son Patrick’s Man of the Match performance for Antrimagainst Armagh, the need to build Casement and how a son of Tony Benn couldbehave the way Hillary Benn does.
“Principled politics skips a generation sometimes,” I said.
“Aye’” he remarked in a Ballymurphy sort of way. “A TypicalBrit”. That was Paddy. Or Swinger to all his old friends. A Murph manthrough and through.
Husband to Anne Austin. Father to Roísín, Ceara, Marie andPatrick. Daideo to Drithle, Luisne, Anna and Ruadan. I am their other Daideo.Connla, Elise and Culann are his other grandchildren. The seven of them arevery lucky to have him. So is our Gearóid. And me and Colette. And his brithersand sister. And our community.
Swinger was sound. He was hardworking, intelligent beyondhis quiet demeanour, funny, a lover of a good yarn. And as strong as an oxbefore illness tripped him up.
He was a committed republican. Gerry Kelly put it well inhis funeral oration.
“When I picture Paddy in my mind the first image hasalways been in the early 1970s. Himself and Frankie Cahill,who always seemed to be together and dressed in skinner jeans with thebottoms turned up, checked shirts, denim jackets and, of course,the classic DM boots. Ready to take on the world-or at least anarmed foot patrol of British soldiers with whatever wasavailable. Paddy witnessed the rise of the CivilRights Movement and the Orange State’s attempts to crush it with violence. Hewitnessed thousands of Catholics being driven from theirhomes.
He saw the thousands of British Troops sent here to crushour community.
During the first couple of daysof Interment in August 1971, 10 residents were shotdead by British soldiers in Ballymurphy, including Fr HughMullan as he was trying to help others. Then again, in July1972, British soldiers gunned down five innocent people inSpringhill, also including another priest- FrFitzpatrick and 3 children.
He also watched the BritishArmy on TV, in Derry, shooting down peacefulCivil-Rights marchers. Closer to home, loyalist deathsquads were on a killing rampage against innocent Catholics.”
Gerry went in to describe how Paddy joined Na Fianna Éireannand then the Army. He outlined his years of activism and time inprison. He went on to say that Swinger was very aware of the changingdynamics of struggle. He knew that military action on its own would not achievea United Ireland and that Republicans needed to be active in every aspect ofthe community life.
He knew that Republicans had to learn from the past but actin the context of the present and the future. Thankfully, Gerry said, our youngmen and women no longer feel that they have to risk their lives and liberty onactive service.
Irish Unity, of course will not just happen. We need to makeit happen.
Paddy did great things in his life, sometimes very difficultthings, brave things, but through it all, he was always a gentleman, in itstruest sense.
Gerry also stressed Paddy’s commitment to Anne and theirfamily. He was a good provider and he also coached their children through alltheir school tests. He was devoted to his family and probably never fullyrecovered from the death of his youngest daughter Marie. He and Anne produced afamily of teachers with a special emphasis on Irish language education. Swingerwent on to tutor the grandkids at exam times. He was much smarter thanme.
He will be sadly missed by many, many people, including hisco-workers in Upper Springfield Development Trust and his old comrades but mostof all by his wife and lifelong partner, Anne, their children and partners,Roisin and Gearóid, Ciara and Maxie, Patrick and Meabh and Marie’s partnerSean. And his beloved grandchildren Drithle, Luisne, Anna, Ruadan, Conla, Eliseand Culan.
The day after Swinger died I got news of another friend’sdeath. Donnacha Rynne down in Clare. But more of Donnacha aris. For now it’stime to say slán to Swinger. A decent Irish patriot and a great humanbeing.
Israel’s reign of terror
As this column goes to press the Israeli government iscalling up tens of thousands of army reservists for a full scale militaryinvasion, subjugation and occupation of the Gaza Strip. After almost 20 monthsof genocide against the Palestinian people the Israeli state is now embarkingon its final solution – the displacement of two million people and the massmurder of more Palestinians.
Last Saturday was World Press Freedom Day – but not in Gaza.In the year and a half of this current reign of terror by Israel at least 211journalists have been killed in the Gaza Strip while the international presscorps is denied access to report on events in that huge concentration camp.Britain and most western and European states are silent on this. They aresilent also on the deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war against twomillion people, many of them children, who live in Gaza. According to UNICEFover three hundred thousand children under the age of five are suffering severemalnutrition.
If ever press freedom was needed to call out the multiplebreaches of international humanitarian law by Israel and the new terror itplans for Palestinians it is now. Israel’s slaughter of innocents has to becalled out. Governments must exert the maximum pressure on the Netanyahu regimeto allow food, water, fuel and medicines into the territory.
In recent days the various aid agencies working in Gaza haverun out of supplies. they make their pleas for the world to intervene babiesand children with emaciated bodies lie on the few remaining hospital beds inGaza. Israeli war planes and drones fly overhead deliberately killing dozens ofhelpless people every day.
The Israeli threat to send tens of thousands of its soldiersinto Gaza cannot go unchallenged. It is long past time that European statestook action against Israel – in the form of sanctions; ending the supply ofweapons; and demanding that Israel allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
I agree fully with Tánaiste Simon Harris who said lastweek; “It is unconscionable that the current suffering is continuing…Ireland calls on Israel to immediately lift the blockade and allow forunimpeded access of humanitarian aid …” But is equally unconscionablethat the Irish government refuses to go beyond words. To describe the newthreat to conquer Gaza as ‘alarming’ is not enough. The Irishgovernment must urgently use its economic and political strength to challengeIsrael? If they fail to take meaningful action Israel will proceed with itsplans and thousands more Palestinians will die.
Commission on the Future of Ireland
As momentum in the demand for Irish Unity grows the work ofSinn Féin’s Commission on the Future of Ireland continues to expand.
In the last two months the Commission has held a Mid UlsterPeoples Assembly in the Seamus Heaney Homeplace in Bellaghy; a TionólPobail Bhaile Ghib in County Meath; a climate crisis conference - One Island,One Environment – in Dublin and an EU & Irish Unity- What next?- event inthe European Parliament in Brussels.
In addition, events were also held in Washington and NewYork in the United States and in Montreal in Canada.
Future events include ‘Rural Communities in a New Ireland’at the Balmoral Show in May and Health and Care in a New Ireland in early Junein St Comgall’s Belfast. There are also events in the USA at Nashville -28th May; Cincinnati - 29th May and Chicago on 31st May.
If you are interested in a united Ireland Save the Date andcome along. The more people who join in the conversation on Irish Unity thesooner we will secure the unity referendums and move into the future.
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