Gerry Adams's Blog, page 50

Free Arnaldo Otegi – Bring them home

   
 Thursday saw the launch of the Free Arnaldo Otegi and Bring Basque Political Prisoners Home campaign in Ireland.
The event took place in Leinster House and was jointly sponsored by myself; Maureen O’Sullivan TD; Finian McGrath TD and involved speakers including Robert Ballagh, Artist and social justice campaigner; Urko Airtza, Basque Senator and human rights lawyer; Pablo Vicente, and Fermin Muguruza, famous Basque musician.
On my own behalf and on behalf of Sinn Féin, I extended solidarity greetings from the event to Arnaldo. I also warmly welcomed today's initiative and pledged Sinn Féin's full support.
Sinn Féin and the Basque people have a long history of solidarity in struggle. I and other Sinn Féin leaders have been active in travelling to the Basque country in support of efforts to achieve a peace process and agreement.
Regrettably the dialogue for peace has been largely one-sided. The people of the Basque country, represented by a range of political parties and civic organisations, have been involved in recent years in a substantial dialogue around building a peace process. Their objective has been to bring an end to violence while creating the conditions for democratic and peaceful political change, including independence.
They took as their model the Irish peace process and the South African model. The strategy that has emerged, based largely on language and principles agreed here, commits Basque activists to using ‘exclusively political and democratic means’ to advance their political objectives. It seeks to advance political change ‘in a complete absence of violence and without interference’ and ‘conducted in accordance with the Mitchell Principles.’ And its political goal is to achieve a ‘stable and lasting peace in the Basque country’.
The key to making any progress is dialogue. The Spanish government needs to talk. Thus far it has refused. This runs entirely counter to Nelson Mandela’s oft quoted mantra that to make peace we have to make friends with our enemy. That cannot be done in the absence of a dialogue. It cannot be done in the absence of respect for the rights of citizens to vote for elected representatives of their choice.
In this context the continued imprisonment of Arnaldo Otegi (Secretary General of SORTU) makes no sense and is deeply unhelpful. In the course of recent years I have met Arnaldo here and in the Basque country. I support his efforts and  those of the Basque independence parties to construct a peaceful and democratic resolution to the conflict in the Basque Country.
Arnaldo is a courageous and visionary leader who has taken real risks for peace and despite speaking many years in prison on spurious charges he has never faltered from promoting the path of peace.


The policy of dispersal of Basque prisoners from prisons close to their families is not helpful to the peace process. It mirrors the policy of ‘ghosting’ that was regularly used against Irish republican prisoners held in Britain. Families would make the difficult journey to the north of England for a visit with a loved one only to be told that they were moved the previous day to a prison in London. This policy, which has no security dimension to it, was simply about hurting the families and demoralizing the prisoners. So too with Basque prisoners.
It is also a truism of every peace process I know of that the release of prisoners was an indispensable part of building confidence. Invariably the prisoners themselves played a crucial role in assisting the peace.
The refusal of the Spanish government to engage in dialogue, the continued imprisonment of Arnaldo Otegi and its punitive regime against Basque prisoners, are evidence of a government reluctant to embrace the potential for peace.
The Spanish Prime Minister has an opportunity to take a step change in advance of elections in December by releasing Arnaldo Otegi, and ending its reprehensible dispersal policy and allow Basque political prisoners to go home to the Basque Country.   

A new opportunity for progress

The agreement reached at Stormont on Tuesday is far from perfect. But it is the best that was possible at this time. It is the culmination of over three months of intense and difficult negotiations that arose following a series of crisis in the political process.
Last year’s Stormont House Agreement was a genuine effort to secure a deal that would protect the most vulnerable in society, to safeguard the rights and entitlements of citizens, to grow the economy and to enhance the working of the institutions.
But resistance to change, which is particularly strong within elements of unreconstructed unionism and the British security system, and the ideological commitment of the British Tory party to austerity saw the agreement come under immediate pressure.
The contrived political crisis by the Ulster Unionist Party following the murders of Jock Davison and Kevin McGuigan in Belfast led to the virtual collapse of the institutions.
Martin McGuinness and others in our negotiating team have worked hard to find solutions to all of the core issues. Our focus was on defending public services, while dealing with outstanding issues. These include the Bill of Rights and Achta na Gaeilge, contentious parades and identity. Securing the full implementation of the legacy proposals from last year’s Stormont House Agreement was also critical.
On Tuesday, following progress in the talks, a new agreement was achieved. Not all issues were resolved but this is an important development which seeks to stabalise the political institutions, tackle some of the outstanding matters, and allow for progress. Sinn Féin has successfully negotiated a package of measures, including in excess of half a billion in new money; and additional flexibilities to invest in public services and the economy. We have also negotiated a fund of £585 million over four years to support the vulnerable and working families.
A panel headed by the renowned advocate Dr. Eileen Evason is to report on how best to use the £500 million fund to meet the needs of the most vulnerable. These measures will mitigate some aspects of Britain’s austerity policies but will not cover in their entirety the cuts being imposed by the Tories on working families, claimants and the block grant. The British approach is unfair, fundamentally undemocratic and economically counter-productive. Sinn Féin will continue to oppose this policy.
The agreement reached also seeks to deal with the issue of criminality and the continued existence of armed and active groups.
Of particular concern is the British government’s refusal to honor last year’s Stormont House Agreement on full disclosure to meet the needs of victims arising out of the conflict. Several weeks ago the British government introduced legislation, in direct contravention of the Stormont House Agreement, which seeks to prevent the victims of British state terrorism from getting the truth.
Using the pretext of ‘national security’ a British secretary of state can close down an investigation and push aside the genuine needs of victims. These proposals are unacceptable. As a result no agreement has been possible on dealing with the legacy of the past.
The British objective has been to prevent full disclosure to the families of victims of the conflict. The British government and its security and military apparatus continue to cover up the action of their agents, informers, army, police and political establishment by using a ‘national security’ veto. This is unacceptable.
What conceivable ‘national security’ concerns can exist for events, many of which occurred 30 and 40 years ago? What ‘national security’ interests are now served over 40 years later by a British government refusing to unlock the files to the Dublin Monaghan bombings or the actions of the Force Reconnaissance Unit or the role of Brian Nelson and others?
 Will the efforts of the hooded men to get to the truth of who in the British cabinet sanctioned their torture come up against the excuse of national security?
Will the Ballymurphy families or those who believe the British agent Stakeknife played a part in the murder of their loved ones, or the hundreds of other victims and their families of British counter-insurgency strategies find their efforts thwarted by the overriding demands of British ‘national security’?
Will the truth about the apartheid south African arms shipment, involving MI5, which saw the capacity of the UVF and UDA and Ulster Resistance to kill Catholics in the late 1980s and 90s significantly increase, be hidden from the families of the two hundred people who were killed as a consequence?
The refusal of Theresa Villiers to implement the agreement she made last year is about covering up the extent to which the British state created and organised and provided information to unionist paramilitary gangs in the killing of citizens.
It is not acceptable to those victims who survived gun and bomb attacks or the families of those who died. Nor is it compatible with the Stormont House Agreement.
Finally, the Irish government has not asserted its role as co-equal guarantor of the Good Friday and other agreements. It has played the part of junior partner and has acquiesced to British demands, especially around the issue of legacy. Their role should have been to hold the British government to account. They failed to do this.
We should not be surprised by this. In economic terms, Fine Gael and the Irish Labour Party have consistently made common cause with the British Conservative Party in their relentless pursuit of austerity.
In the time ahead Sinn Féin will continue to stand up for the rights of the vulnerable, working families, our economy and our public services.
We believe the new agreement offers the best hope for a new start – a new opportunity to build a better future.
It is also an opportunity for Republicans to show that the union with Britain is not in the interests of citizens in the north. The price of the union is that a London government, unelected by citizens here, is imposing policies that will attack the vulnerable, the elderly and the young, while denying the Executive the resources to invest effectively in our economy. That doesn’t make sense. Uniting Ireland and building an all-island economy, rooted in equality makes perfect sense.

Paris Attacks condemned - Adams

Today the Dáil heard expressions of sympathy on the attacks in Paris last Friday which saw 129 killed.To understand those events it is necessary to set them in their context. Below is the text of my remarks in the Dáil in which I condemn “in the strongest possible terms the deplorable, murderous attacks perpetrated in Paris last Friday" ... extend my sincerest sympathies and solidarity to the French Ambassador, to the victims, their families and to the people of Paris and of France with which Ireland has deep, historic and cultural ties”... urge citizens to make a "stand against fundamentalism, bigotry, sectarianism and racism" and set it in the wider context of western militarism and imperialism and the failure to support the rights of the people of Palestine." Expressions of Sympathy - 17th November 2015 On behalf of Sinn Féin I want to condemn in the strongest possible terms the deplorable, murderous attacks perpetrated in Paris last Friday.Thar ceann Shinn Féin ba mhaith liom cáineadh láidir a dhéanamh ar na hionsaithe uafásacha a tharla Dé hAoine i bPáras.Seasann muid leis na daoine a maríodh agus a gortaíodh agus lena muintir.I wish to extend my sincerest sympathies and solidarity to the French Ambassador, to the victims, their families and to the people of Paris and of France with which Ireland has deep, historic and cultural ties.France and Ireland enjoy extremely good relations, not least through our shared revolutionary history and republican values of liberty, equality and fraternity.And people on this island have, like those all over the world, watched with deep shock and horror as the events in Paris unfolded.The victims of these dreadful attacks were innocent people, many of them young people, enjoying a Friday night out with friends and family. They come from at least fifteen countries. They posed no threat to anyone but were targeted without cause, without justification or without mercy.Families were cruelly robbed of their loved ones - sons, daughters, spouses, parents and siblings.We have seen, through widespread and heartening messages and demonstrations of solidarity, that Ireland and the world stands united with the people of Paris and of France at this awful time.All of us also need to stand against fundamentalism, bigotry, sectarianism and racism.Agus muid ag amharc ar imeachtaí oíche Aoine, smaoinigh muid siar ar na hionsaithe gránna i bPáras i mí Eanáir.The deaths of journalists, cartoonists and satirists - as well as civilians - in Paris on January 7th provoked justifiable outrage.So far this year 47 journalists have been killed around the world. Tragically, the violence that we witnessed in Paris on Friday has also been mirrored in countless other barbaric acts.Last Thursday twin explosions in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, killed 43 people and wounded more than 200 others. Last month bomb attacks in Yemen killed 35 people.In the years of civil war in Syria over a quarter of a million men, women and children, mostly civilians have been killed.In October twin blasts in Ankara claimed the lives of over 100 civilians.A bomb was responsible for destroying the Metrojet that crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on October 31st.All 224 people on board were killed. 51.2 million people have been forcibly displaced worldwide. Approximately 3,500 people have died at sea since January making the desperate crossing to Europe in the coffin ships.These victims too were ordinary, innocent civilians. Sin iad na deartháireacha agus deirfiúracha s’againne.Like the citizens of Paris who played no part in these events, the people of the Middle East are entitled to live in peace and to pursue happiness and prosperity.And while we think of the victims in Paris, Beirut, Yemen and Syria let us also remember the thousands, mainly civilians, including hundreds of children who were killed in brutal assaults in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.In the summer of last year 2,000 people, mainly civilians, including 500 children, and 13 journalists died during the Israeli assault on Gaza.Like the Israeli citizens who also died at that time, they bleed like the rest of us, they grieve like the rest of us and they are equally deserving of our sympathy, compassion and solidarity.Those behind the attacks in Paris and those who are daily perpetrating horrendous violence and injustice against civilian populations in Syria and Iraq are the enemies of all lovers of freedom and justice.This is not a conflict between East and West, or between Islam and Christianity but between fundamentalism and freedom.Whatever our religion, the colour of our skin or our nationality there can be no excuse for these attacks. Wherever injustice or oppression or hatred exists, it must be confronted and challenged.Wherever anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or sectarianism or racism exists it must be vigorously opposed.So too, must poverty, injustice, inequality, discrimination, and imperialism.ISIS and other fundamentalist groups thrive on the chaos and destruction wrought on Iraq, Syria, Libya and elsewhere in the Middle East as a direct result of western military and political interference.This reality cannot be ignored. The world has become a more violent, less secure place since September 11 2001.The horrendous attack on the World Trade Centre in New York resulted in a misguided war with Western forces first bombing and then occupying Afghanistan.This had major long-term implications for neighbouring countries and, indeed the rest of the world.The Afghan war played straight into the hands those seeking to promote Western militarism all over the world.Under the leadership of George W. Bush and Tony Blair, war in Afghanistan developed into a general global conflict and to war with Iraq. As one war leads to another, Iraq developed into a war in Libya and north Africa and the death toll has grown ever since. The so-called ‘war on terror’ has extended to Africa with the bombing of Libya and Mali and the growth of Boko Haram in Nigeria as well as the continued problems in Somalia.The US and Coalition forces have carried out 8,125 bomb attacks in Iraq and Syria in the last 12 months. We have also witnessed conflict in the Ukraine and growing tensions between Russia and the West. There has to be a much deeper understanding, both of the causes of wars and their consequences for everybody. Alongside the dead and injured in Paris those suffering the most from the actions of ISIS are the citizens of the Middle East.Serious questions need to be asked about the funding and arming of groups such as ISIS.Unfortunately the west has an inconsistent and duplicitous track record in its dealings with Islamic fundamentalist groups in the Middle East.It is clear that arms from Western powers have ended up in the hands of these groups.London’s Independent newspaper in 2013 claimed that the British government made £12 billion from arms sales around the world mainly in the Middle East and Africa. Western duplicity and cynicism towards the Middle East must end if there is to be a peaceful, democratic future for the citizens of that region.And the running sore that is the treatment of the Palestinian people must be faced up to once and for all if there is to be peace in that part of the world.The horrific attacks in Paris must not become an excuse for attacks on Islam or on the rights of Muslim people; or to target or turn away from our responsibility toward the hundreds of thousands of refugees arriving in Europe, many of whom are fleeing the same fundamentalist forces who carried out the Paris attacks.The actions of ISIS, the attacks in Paris and the alarming rise of far right parties must act as a catalyst for European governments and the European Union and Commission to counteract this sentiment.Federica Mogherini, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs has said all of the attackers from Friday’s massacre in Paris so far have been identified as European Union nationals.So, the European Union must do more to combat alienation and to promote integration, equality and respect for diversity. It is our responsibility to stand united in defiance of murder, threats and intimidation. And to stand with the people of France and of Paris.It is also our responsibility as political representatives and political leaders to go beyond mere rhetoric.I welcome the Taoiseach’s assertion today that in formulating the international response we must seek to tackle the root causes. That means Ireland needs to pursue a foreign policy based on peace making and human values. NATO has expanded globally and there are efforts through the Lisbon Treaty to link in the EU. Irish neutrality continues to be weakened.This has included decisions to join NATO lead Partnership for Peace (PfP), and the utilisation of Shannon Airport to transport troops to join the illegal invasion of Iraq.

Despite plans for the creation of a Common European Army, Irish citizens deeply value our neutrality and oppose any Irish role in the growing militarisation of Europe.

The government must reflect this view and move to defend and promote Irish neutrality.No matter how difficult it is there is an urgent need to find a durable settlement to the conflict in Syria.We have a duty to understand and confront the causes of violence and division.Our thoughts today are with the people of Paris and with all victims of conflict across the globe. We can only imaghine the pain and hurt they feel. We can only imagine the panic, the shock, the grief of Parisians and of the people of France.We are confident that their strength, their courage, their humanity will see them through. We stand in solidarity with them.Sna laethanta amach romhainn caithfimid a chinntiú nach gcuireann freagra an phobail domhanda leis an chrautan agus an phian atá ann faoi láthair.We know from our own troubled history that there are no purely military solutions. Diplomacy, negotiations and political resolution of conflict is key.As a lasting tribute to the victims in Paris – and to all victims of global conflict  – world leaders must redouble efforts to resolve conflict and to build peace. We and our government have a positive role to play in that.”

Grilled filet mignon for mains

Some of the Irish media got carried away last week with the success of the annual Friends of Sinn Féin dinners in New York and Toronto. The $500 a plate event in the Sheraton Hotel on 7th avenue got the most attention. There were glossy pics of tables laid out for guests and the menu attracted lots of interest. The Journal.ie reported how “As guests arrived for the cocktail hour in the Metropolitan West Ballroom, traditional Irish musicians played songs including The Town that I Loved so Well, Grace and Whiskey in the Jar… As we revealed last night , guests dined on a meal of Mediterranean salad to start, with grilled filet mignon for mains and pastries and cookies for dessert.”
It was all a little bizarre. Far from filet mignot we were reared.  And to this mix was added the mock outrage of Joan Burton, the Labour Leader and Enda Kenny our Taoiseach, bemoaning the fact that Mary lou and I were going to miss the debate on the social welfare Bill in the Dáil. We were actually only missing a bit of it. Their concern was touching. But as I assured our New York and Toronto guests both Mary lou and I would be back in the Dáil holding this government to account for its bad policies.
That struck a chord with some of our exiles in the room who are among the half a million who now live on that side of the Atlantic because government policies forced them to search for jobs overseas.
Sinn Féin has long ago understood the importance of the Irish diaspora and its ability to use its political influence to assist the peace process. This was especially true in the United States. Our success there, as elsewhere, is very much down to the fact that we engage in an on-going dialogue with the diaspora. Sinn Féin representatives travel to Australia, and Britain, to the USA and Canada and other places where there are strong Irish communities. We update the diaspora on whatever is happening in the peace process and answer any questions they may have.
Other parties, including Fianna Fáil, and Fine Gael and the SDLP have tried to do this, as well as to fundraise. But none have been successful. Perhaps that’s part of the issue – begrudgery and jealousy in equal measure.
Sinn Féin is not the first Irish republican organisation to understand this. In his book ‘America and the 1916 Rising’ Dr. Ruan O’Donnell, senior lecturer in history at the University of Limerick, details the political and financial connections between the Irish Republican Brotherhood – the 1916 Rising – and Irish America.
Did you know that five of the seven signatories of the Proclamation had engaged in political activity in the USA in the decade before 1916? I didn’t. I knew of Tom Clarke and James Connolly but not the others. Ruan also makes the connection between those who fled Ireland during and after An Gorta Mór – the great hunger and the Fenians, Clann na Gael and the planning for revolution and rebellion in Ireland. Read his book and you are left in no doubt that the Rising was funded in large part by Irish America. By the children of the Great Hunger. For this reason and for the political support it offered the Proclamation talks of “and supported by her exiled children in America.”
America and the 1916 Rising  is a commendable book which was published by Friends of Sinn Féin in the United States and given to every guest at the two dinners I spoke at.  It is part of the celebrations leading to next year’s centenary for the Rising and the Proclamation.
For their part those I met wanted to know what the current crisis in the political processes is really all about and what are the prospects of finding solutions?
I reminded them of the prescient words of George Mitchell who chaired the Good Friday Agreement negotiations. On the day the Agreement was achieved George said to Martin McGuinness  and me that that was the easy bit – the hard bit would be getting it implemented. And how right he was. I have lost count of the number of times negotiations have collapsed or the institutions have been suspended or a crisis was threatening to bring it all to an end.
The canker at the heart of these difficulties is the resistance to change and to equality from those in the British system who believed they could win the war, and from those in unreconstructed unionism who resent power sharing and equality.
This is the context of the current crisis. For our part Sinn Féin is involved in the negotiations to find solutions and to move the process forward.
The next six months will also be among the most challenging we have faced in many years and potentially the most rewarding. Sometime in the spring the Taoiseach will call a general election. In May there will be an Assembly election in the north.
Both of these elections present real opportunities for political growth and for advancing Sinn Féin’s objectives of unity and independence. That’s what our political opponents in Britain and Ireland are afraid of.
They fear a strong Irish republican party focussed on uniting Ireland, and committed to achieving real change, and advancing citizens’ rights instead of the two tier Ireland with its elites, privileges and inequalities.
We hope to do well in the General Election and in the Assembly election. We are seeking a mandate to be in Government. On both sides of the border. Our opponents fear this also. Especially our opponents in the media.
They know a strong Sinn Féin party, organised across Ireland and with mass support, and in government in Belfast and Dublin is the best vehicle to deliver Irish unity and the end of Partition and the Union. They also know that we represent a viable alternative to the right-wing conservatism and austerity of the establishment parties.
So, negative campaigning by our political opponents or elements of the media will not deter us. It only stiffens our resolve and that of those who think we are doing a good job.
 

Spies and Spooks: The same old story

As long as Britain has been involved in Ireland it has bought or cajoled or intimidated some people into acting as their eyes and ears, their spies and spooks, and advocates. Some of these do so because it suits their own politics and prejudices. But the end result is that citizens die and freedom is denied.
These strategies are not unique to Ireland or indeed to the British. They are as old as wars. However, in the most recent period of conflict their use became an indispensible part of Britain’s counter insurgency strategy in Ireland. As I have recorded in these columns before the foremost counter-insurgency stratgist was the British Army’s Frank Kitson. When he arrived in Belfast in 1970 he set about restructuring the RUC and British Army approach based on his experiences in post second world war  British colonial wars.
The British Army brought with it the techniques of torture; of counter-gangs; of propaganda, and of media and political manipulation. The key objective for Kitson, and for others in the British intelligence and security services, was to reshape the government, the law, the judiciary and the media to defeat Irish republicanism. It didn’t matter how this was done or what the consequences were.
Kitson who served in many of Britain’s counter-insurgency campaigns wrote: ‘The fundamental concept is the working of the triumvirate, civil, military and police, as a joint and integrated organisation from the highest to the lowest level of policy making, planning and administration.’
For example Kitson rationalised the use of death squads and the corruption of justice: ‘Everything done by a government and its agents in combating insurgency must be legitimate. But this does not mean that the government must work within exactly the same set of laws during an emergency as existed beforehand. The law should be used as just another weapon in the government’s arsenal, in which case it becomes little more than a propaganda cover for the disposal of unwanted members of the public.’
Of course, he wasn’t the first to apply these arguments. The stories of spooks and spies, of agents and informers working for the British state during the centuries of Ireland’s long struggle for freedom are legion. An informer called Owen O’Connally gave information to the British during the 1641 rebellion that led to the arrest and executions of two of the leaders, Lord Maguire and Colonel McMahon. Money was his reward.
The 1798 rebellion by the United Irish movement was bedevilled with informers. Many are named in the history of that period. Men like Leonard McNally and Samuel Turner and Thomas Reynolds were informers. In his ‘History of the Irish Rebellion of 1798’ WH Maxwell writes: ‘The prisons were crowded with persons denounced by those infamous informers, Armstrong and Reynolds, Dutton and Newell, with a list of subordinate villains acting under the direction of police agents, themselves steeped deeper in iniquity than the perjured wretches they suborned … Numbers, innocent in most cases, through the instrumentality of those bad men, were brought hourly to the scaffold.’
In later years agents and informers remained an integral part of Britain’s colonial class in Ireland in their efforts to subvert the Young Irelanders; the Fenians; the Land League and Charles Stewart Parnell.
It was the evidence of Pierce Nagle, who met Chief Inspector Mallon each week in Dublin Castle that led to the arrest of the Fenian leaders O’Donovan Rossa, John O’Leary and others. It was also at this time that the Special Branch was established. Mayo man Michael Davitt, leader of the Land League, recorded some of the actions of the spies and spooks at work against the tens of thousands seeking land reform. In his book, ‘The Informer’s’ by Andrew Boyd writes: ‘Davitt accused the British government of employing terrorists to lure young Irishmen in political crime and them have them arrested, imprisoned and even hanged’.
The Tan War saw the use of agents and informers increase enormously as the British sought to defeat the IRA. For its part the IRA dealt with such spies ruthlessly. Michael Collins execution of 14 British agents on the morning of Sunday November 21st is one of the best remembered actions of that period. But there were hundreds of others killed as informers. One occasion two IRA volunteers brought one man out onto a river and drowned him rather than shoot him.
In the most recent decades of conflict the application by MI5 and the RUC Special Branch and British Military intelligence of evolving and increasingly complex technologies to listen, record, monitor, track and trap their enemy became an essential element in all of this. Recent court cases show that this is still going on.
Forty years ago these same organisations were involved in the establishment of armed loyalist paramilitary groups which they then supplied with information and weapons to kill Irish citizens and foment sectarian strife.
The recent publication by the British Secretary of State Theresa Villiers of the MI5 report into allegations of paramilitarism but specially the IRA, is an example of how the use by Britain of agent provocateurs, and of spies and spooks continues. The political exploitation of this report to attack Sinn Féin, especially by some elements of the Dublin based media, is also evidence of the deep desire on the part of some to use any excuse to criticise republicans. They are unconcerned about the bone fides of the authors.
So, the fact that MI5 has been involved in the murder of countless hundreds of Irish citizens, including those murdered by the Dublin-Monaghan bombs, and has no credibility as an independent source, is deemed irrelevant.
One contemporary example of this emerged within days of the publication of the panel report. The Public Prosecution Service in Belfast revealed that it was initiating a major investigation into the role of an MI5 agent – named Stakeknife – and his alleged involvement in the murders of between 24 and 40 people. Critically this investigation will also examine the roles of all of those in the RUC Special Branch and MI5 who were involved in running Stakeknife.
But Stakeknife was not alone. MI5 and other British security agencies ran hundreds of agents. Whether it was people like Mark Haddock, a loyalist serial killer in north Belfast, or those who murdered human rights lawyer Pat Finucane, MI5, British Military Intelligence and the RUC colluded in the murder of citizens.
Today there are still some in those organisations who believe that the peace process was wrong. That it was possible to defeat the IRA. And who resent deeply the growth and popularity of Sinn Féin.
In my view the report from Theresa Villiers was and is primarily aimed at undermining the political institutions and the Good Friday Agreement. It is regrettable but not surprising that elements of the Irish political establishment and sections of the Irish media are willing to exploit this specious report to attack Sinn Féin.

Protecting Moore Street and Dublin’s Battlefield site

In six months the centenary celebration of the 1916 Rising will take place. Central to that act of remembrance will be the GPO. It was there that much of the fierce fighting that followed the Rising took place.  A short distance away is Moore Street where the last meeting of the Provisional Government and of the key leaders took place.
With the GPO in flames the republican garrison made its way under fire to the corner of Moore Street. Tunnelling from house to house they eventually stopped in number 16. There the final moments of the Rising were played out as the leaders, including Pádraig Mac Piarais, Joseph Plunkett, Tom Clarke and Seán Mac Diarmada and the wounded James Connolly decided their next steps.
It was from there that Pádraig Mac Piarais and Elizabeth O’Farrell walked to the Moore Street barricade where the document of surrender was signed.
Moore Street holds a special place in the history of Ireland. The streets and laneways around it are part of the battlefield site where Irishmen and women took on the might of the British Empire in pursuit of Irish freedom.
It also is part of the ‘laneways of history’ that include Tom Clarke’s shop on Parnell Street; to the GPO; to Henry Street where the Proclamation was signed; to Moore Lane and Moore Street where the GPO Garrison retreated; to the spot where ‘The O'Rahilly’ died; to the Rotunda where the garrison was held by the British; and where the volunteers were founded three years earlier; these are all places intimately connected to the Rising and to the men and women who participated in it.
These modest buildings and back lanes provide a tangible link with the great ideas that were given expression in the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.
For years now the families of the executed leaders and many others have campaigned for the Moore Street buildings to be preserved as a national monument and the area developed as a revolutionary quarter. In reality the dilapidated and neglected condition of the buildings is a metaphor for the state we are in. One hundred years after the Rising successive governments have ignored this historically significant battlefield site in much the same way as they have ignored the ideals and principles of the Proclamation.
Most of the terrace and that part of O Connell Street adjoining to it where owned by developer Joe O Reilly of Chartered lands. It was his intention to develop a huge shopping mall fronting on to O Connell Street and taking up most of Moore Street. However, this property is now owned by the National Asset Management Agency - NAMA – in other words by the taxpayers – and is part of what is called the Project Jewel loan portfolio.
Last year the government announced that it would - through NAMA - invest five million euro in refurbishing and restoring the section of Moore Street which has been designated as a national monument, that is, Nos. 14 to 17 Moore Street. The remainder of Moore Street is to be demolished to make way for the Mall and Hotel development.
At the end of September it was revealed that Hammerson and Allianz are to purchase the Project Jewel loan portfolio from NAMA. This decision has caused considerable anger and a real concern that commercial interests will be allowed to override the national and historical significance of a site which the National Museum of Ireland described as the ‘most important historic site in modern Irish history.’
I recently met the families of the 1916 leaders. They are deeply concerned by the failure of the government to defend the battlefield site.
They have asked the Public Accounts Committee in the Dáil to seek answers to a series of questions, including what are the terms and conditions of the transfer of ownership of the National Monument at 14-17 Moore Street to the state; what buildings will be demolished in the Project Jewel/Chartered Land loan portfolio; did NAMA have the site assessed, surveyed and valued for including it in the Project Jewel Loan Portfolio auction; where is the five million euro set aside for the restoration of the derelict National Monument and why are the buildings being allowed to deteriorate further?
These are all important questions deserving the fullest response but the campaign to save Moore Street must go beyond questions by the Public Accounts Committee.
Specifically the role of the government in defending Moore Street needs to be seriously questioned. Last week NAMA unexpectedly withdrew the Westport House estate from another of NAMA’s loan portfolios – in this case it is the Project arrow portfolio of loans. NAMA had just announced that U.S. investment fund Cerberus – which is at the centre of the controversy over the sale of the Project Eagle portfolio of loans in the north - as the preferred bidder for that project.
The decision to withdraw Westport House from the Project Arrow portfolio came about after the government intervened over the sale of this major tourist attraction in the Taoiseach’s constituency of Mayo. The Minister of State for Tourism, and Westport TD Michael Ring, has already confirmed that he arranged a meeting between Mayo County Council and NAMA.
Westport House is a stunning tourist destination which attracts tens of thousands of tourists to Mayo each year. Securing its future is an important political and economic initiative.
The same arguments also apply to the Battlefield site around Moore Street where the economic benefits to Dublin would be greater; the number of jobs created would be higher, and the national historical significance of the site is greater.
But thus far the government has not adopted the same approach it has in respect of Westport House. Last week Sinn Féin TD Aengus O Snodaigh raised this issue in the Dáil and urged the Minister for Finance to intervene in the sale of this property. He has the authority to do so and he and his predecessor have used that authority on at least 15 separate occasions since 2009. However the response from Labour Minister Alex White was dismissive and at this time it seems likely that the government will opt for destroying the ‘laneways of history’ around Moore Street.
In the battle over the future of Moore Street we see the culture of naked consumerism as exemplified by the desire to build another mall in a city of malls challenge the valour and self-sacrifice and national pride of 1916.
Moore Street and its environs are the heart and soul of the 1916 Rising. But if consumerism and the rush to profit have their way the buildings and lanes around Moore Street will be effectively obliterated. Historically, culturally, politically, and emotionally there can be few other places on this island that are of greater significance.
 
 

Paddy McGeady: "I would love to see Treasure Island again" he told me.

Paddy with Hillary and Bill Clinton
For the last two weeks in August Paddy McGeady and I spent a few minutes together every night. We stood at his back door listening to the birdsong, discussing the weather and celebrating the day. Paddy was a happy man. A bachelor, Gaeilgeoir, a quiet republican and a good neighbour. He was a gentleman, a scholar and a fine judge of Irish whiskey.

He took sick in September, was rushed to hospital, operated on and was very seriously ill. When I visited him, Paddy was in Intensive Care and on a Life Support Unit. But he started slowly to improve. I took succour from this. Father Reid had been in the same position but he recovered to the point that he was able get on with his life. Not as independently as before but alive all the same. For a few more years.

It looked like Paddy was on the same pathway. Then wham!

He suddenly got worse. I was on the way out of the Dáil when Eamonn phoned me with the bad news. Hours later he phoned again. Paddy was gone. Ar slí an fhirinne. Eamonn was with him when he died. That was not surprising. Eamonn and Eilis had visited him every day in Letterkenny hospital. They and their six children saw Paddy nearly every day for years and years. Their home is at the bottom of Paddy's  lane. On his daily walk to the village Paddy would exchange greetings with them. The same with Margaret further down the road. Or her brother Paddy and Seamus.

Since he retired Paddy's routine was as regular as clockwork. A day for the shop. A day for the post office. A yarn with Tom.  A few hours in the hotel for a deoch and a read at the newspaper. Then the walk home. For years he used to go on my bike. He was in his seventies before he gave up the cycling.

He kept his little home spick  and span. He was a planter of trees. Mostly conifers. Unfortunately. And once he planted bamboo. It went on to almost devour one side of his property. But he was very fussy about a wee hedge which he cultivated along the side of the gable. It was as straight as a die.

And he was a bit of an artist.  The little wall which flanked his lane way was decorated with little faces which Paddy shaped with great skill years  and years ago. All the little people in my life love Paddy's wee faces. The gable of the stone shed facing his back door is dominated by a huge bear. He got a slab of slate from me and erected it like a standing stone after cutting designs in it based on a photo of a stone carving  in Borneo.

 There is something pagan about it all. The bear. The faces. The standing stone.
But Paddy was a quiet unassuming Catholic. He lifted the collection in the chapel a few times a year when it was his turn to do so. He was very shy and never looked forward to that.

 He was also independently minded. He had a flag pole in his front garden. He would fly the tri colour there on special occasions. He had a thoughtful world view.  A few years ago at the height of the Israeli assault on Gaza Paddy got a large piece of canvass and painted his own Palestinian flag on it. Hardly anyone knew but that wasn't the point. He flew his homemade Palestinian flag on his flag pole in the highlands of west Donegal in  solidarity with the people of Palestine.  He was equally against the war in Iraq.

Paddy and I travelled to meet Bill and Hillary Clinton one day in Belfast. Paddy thanked them for their work on the Irish peace process. He quietly asked them to do the same thing in the Middle East. He was extremely courteous. That never left him.

When a young man Paddy left Donegal and travelled to Glasgow and then to Luton where he worked in the Vauxhall plant. He spent a wee while in Germany also, camping and motor cycling. Then he came back home again. He kept himself busy doing odd jobs and working with his father on the farm before getting a job in McFadden’s Hotel. He also got involved with a local dramatic society. His Irish was beautiful. So was his handwriting. He used old Irish script and grammar.

One time he and I were talking about films.

"I would love to see Treasure Island again" he told me.

"When I was a wee lad they used to show a film every month or so down in the Parochial Hall. All of us really loved Treasure Island. But it was in English so nobody could follow the dialogue. I always meant to watch it again.'

But he never did.

He was a simple man.  And cheerful. His life was uncomplicated. But he was well  read and knowledgeable too. There are men and women like Paddy all around Ireland. In little homes at the top of long lanes. Living their lives in relative serenity. Doing harm to no one and enriching the lives of those they meet along the way. For years he minded his mother. He told me he rarely used the front door once her coffin exited that way some years ago.

I will miss Paddy. So will Colette. So will his sister Máire. Our solidarity to her and to the wider McGeady clann and his neighbours and friends. An tAthair Gallagher spoke very well at Paddy's funeral Mass. Then we all walked up the steep path to the sloping graveyard on the hill above Gorta A  Choirche.  We buried Paddy in the clean dry soil there.

He would have been pleased at the number of people who turned up and at the nice things that were said at his funeral. He would have been embarrassed at the tears we shed.

When it was all over I returned alone to the house. As I passed her home Mairéad who knows Paddy from childhood came out into her street to talk to me and to commiserate with me about Paddy's demise, in her  lovely singsong Irish. Then  I walked on slowly up the lane past the little faces and turned the gable corner along his neat little hedge. I was caught by surprise by the sight of the tri colour flying at half mast from Paddy's flag post. Eamonn must have hoisted it. Quite rightly.

 I sat on the window sill. Bloody Foreland used to be visible from here  before the conifers got too tall. Paddy could tell how long it would take the rain to travel from there to Cashel. He was seldom wrong.

I sat there in the bright  Autumnal sunshine on my own and thought of all the craic and comhra and companionship Paddy and I enjoyed le cheile.  Then the breeze sighed gently and the flag fluttered and my heart loosened again.

That’s when I cried a little for the passing of this good and gentle man. Sitting on my own on his window sill looking out towards Bloody Foreland.

  Slán Paddy.

Con Colbert: The only fitting memorial is a United Ireland

   

Last Saturday I travelled down to Limerick for a quick walkabout with Maurice Quinlivan and his team of Councillors and activists. It was a lovely day. Everyone was in great form and the response from those we met was positive and supportive.
And then it was on to Athea in west Limerick for the unveiling of a memorial to Con Colbert, one of the 1916 leaders executed by the British. There was an excellent turnout of local people. I want to thank the west Limerick Monument Committee and the committee of the local community centre for all of their efforts. And to the Colbert family, the colour party, Grainne and Ronan for their music and to all of those who made it happen - go raibh maith agaibh go leir.
 
A chairde,

I am very honoured to be here for the unveiling of this monument to Con Colbert and all those who have died in the cause of Irish freedom.

Tá mé an-sásta a bheith libh anseo inniu chun an leacht seo a nochtadh in ómós do Con Colbert agus do na daoine sin ar fad a fuair bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann.

I want to thank the organisers for the invitation and to extend a very special welcome to those of Con Colbert's relatives who are here with us and to Con's great-niece Aida Colbert-Lennon for the unveiling.

Con Colbert was born in Moanlena, Castlemahon in 1888. He had twelve brothers and sisters and was the fourth youngest child in the family who moved to Galeview, Templeathea when Con was three.

Con’s father, Michael was a farmer. His mother, Hanora, died when his youngest sister, Brigid, was born in 1892. He attended the national school in Athea.

Con's family were republican and his father had taken part in the Fenian Rising of 1867.He left Athea at the age of 16 and went to live with his sister Catherine in Ranelagh, Dublin.Con continued his education at the Christian Brothers school in Dublin's North Richmond Street and was later employed as a clerk in the offices of Kennedy's Bakery.

Con's time outside of his day job work was entirely dedicated to the Irish republican cause. Nuair nach raibh Con ag obair bhí sé tiomanta go hiomlán don chúis Poblachtánach Éireannach.When Constance Markievicz founded Fianna Éireann in Dublin in August 1909 Con Colbert was among the first to join. He quickly won widespread respect and rose to a position of leadership.

He was a founder member of the Irish Volunteers in November 1913 and was on the National Executive the following year. He opposed John Redmond’s Irish Parliamentary Party attempt to take over the organisation. On request from Pádraig Pearse, Con instructed the boys of Scoil Éanna in drill but refused to accept payment.

Admired and trusted by the leaders of the forthcoming Rising, Con was posted as Pearse’s bodyguard in the days immediately before Easter 1916. His rank was Captain, F Company, Fourth Battalion of the Dublin Brigade, based in Inchicore.

 
On Easter Monday 1916, with fewer than 20 men, Con Colbert occupied Watkin’s Brewery. They moved to Jameson’s Distillery, Marrowbone Lane on Tuesday and for the rest of the week were engaged in a fierce fire-fight with British troops. They remained in place until Sunday when they were ordered to surrender by Thomas MacDonagh. It was said that Con was visibly distraught at having to lay down arms.

Con Colbert and Seán Heuston were court-martialled in Richmond Barracks and executed in Kilmainham Jail on 8th May 1916.
 

The IRA and Sinn Féin gained widespread popular support in Limerick following the repressions and executions of 1916. County Limerick went on to play a key role in the Tan War with many decisive engagements between British forces and the IRA. In every generation since that time, Limerick republicans have played their part in the struggle for a united, independent Ireland.

It is very, very important that Irish citizens remember and honour women and men like Con Colbert and I want to commend the local Committee for leading the way here in County Limerick with this monument. The 1916 Rising in which Con played such a valiant role was a proud and momentous event in the history of the Irish nation. Ócáid bhródúil chinniúnach a bhí in Éirí Amach Naoi Déag is a Sé Déag agus ghlac Con ról lárnach ann

Next year marks the hugely important 100th anniversary of the Rising.
This is a time for promoting the republican ideals of democracy and equality. It is a time for focussing on delivering a genuine republic for the people of this island. The democratic and egalitarian principles contained of the 1916  Proclamation are as urgently required in the Ireland of 2015, as they were 99 years ago.
 
Austerity, inequality, enforced emigration and Partition are anathema to the ideals of the Proclamation. The Proclamation remains the mission statement of modern Irish republicanism. It is a freedom charter for this whole island and all the people who live here. It is a declaration of social and economic intent for a rights-based society in which the people are sovereign.



The great challenge of the Proclamation is to unite all the people of this island, regardless of background, in equality and mutual respect. Sinn Féin’s central political aim is to deliver the type of Ireland envisaged at Easter week. Is é sprioc lárnach Shinn Féin ná Éire a thógáil mar a cuireadh chun tosaigh i seachtain na Cásca.

Today's event is a reminder, as the Centenary events will be that the business of 1916 remains unfinished. Some people in high places do not like to be reminded of that. Our country is Partitioned. We do not yet have a 32-County Republic. The Proclamation has yet to be implemented. Equality has yet to be achieved.

But we are living in a time of great change, great hope, and great potential. Irish republicanism is growing, as never before, North and South. Despite what some of our political opponents have recently tried to claim, Sinn Féin has never tried to "claim ownership of 1916".

Instead we have sought to popularise the centenary and place the message of the 1916 Proclamation at the centre of commemorative events. Some in the political establishment don't want to talk about the republican and egalitarian message of the Proclamation. This reluctance has been reflected in their approach to marking the Centenary of the Rising. From the initial shambolic launch of its commemorative programme, the Government has been playing catch-up with popular opinion.

At every stage they have sought to sanitise and de-politicise the events of Easter Week. They have refused to agree to the request from Sinn Féin for a public holiday to mark this momentous event in our history. We must be one of the few countries in the world not to have a day which is a celebration of nationhood and the sacrifices of those who struggled for independence.

But the Centenary will be marked by Irish people next year through popular events at home and abroad and Sinn Féin will be part of that. We are committed to honouring the bravery and sacrifice not just of those who took part in the Rising but in every subsequent period of republican struggle.
 
Today, republican objectives can be pursued peacefully and democratically thanks to the struggle sacrifice of so many people over the decades. Sinn Féin is determined to see the full implementation of the Good Friday and subsequent agreements, and a referendum on Irish unity, which will allow the people to decide the future.


As you know, the peace and political process is facing difficulties at this time.
However, Sinn Féin approaches the latest round of talks with a determination to make progress. For this to happen, the British Government needs to accept its role as a participant in the conflict. British political and economic policy towards the North has to change. And both the British and Irish governments must take their responsibilities seriously. The Taoiseach needs to make the north a political priority and not an issue for political opportunism and party politicking.

The negative political pattern which has held back political progress must be broken. Political stability, power sharing, a workable budget and dealing with the legacy of the past are central resolving the current difficulties. But let us be clear - a united Ireland and a real republic is the only fitting monument to the sacrifice of Con Colbert and all those who died in 1916 and since then in the cause of freedom.

Republicans in 2015 are as determined to achieve those objectives as Con Colbert was 100 years ago. Tá muidinne, mar Phoblachtánaigh, inniu in Dá Mhíle is a Cúig Déag chomh tiomanta do na spriocanna sin is a bhí Con Colbert céad bliain ó shin. Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.​ 

A sea change in attitude toward Travellers is needed

Funerals can occasionally be surprisingly joyous events. A celebration of the life of someone who has lived it to the full, and made a unique contribution to family, community or society. But mostly they are sad. Last week was a particularly sad time for funerals. As readers will know the week before I had attended the funeral of my good friend Paddy McGeady in Donegal. But last week there were two distressing funerals for the ten victims of the Carrickmines fire at a temporary Travellers halting site. Five adults and five children. On Tuesday I was in Bray for the funerals of Tara Gilbert, her partner Willy Lynch, their daughters Jodie (9) and Kelsey (4) and Willy’s brother Jimmy.Two days later I was in Sandyford for the funerals of Sylvia and Thomas Connors and their children Jimmy (5), Christy (2) and Mary (5 months). Sylvia was the sister of Willy and Jimmy Lynch. Ten members of one family gone in a few brief minutes of horror. The haunting, beautiful laments of a lone Uilleann piper echoed over the church grounds and the nearby car park of a shopping centre as Mary Lou and I arrived.Sylvia, Willy and Jimmy’s brother John spoke at Thursday funeral. His voice frequently broke as he tried to hold back the raw emotion evident in his face. He described the last day they had all been together. “We had a lovely day. The kids were playing in my garden… “But the next morning came the call. I thought it was a hoax call. Then, in a moment, I realised all my family was gone. My brothers, my sister, my sister-in-law, my brother-in-law, my nephews and nieces. The whole lot gone in one go.”Mary Lou and I and local Sinn Féin Councillors and activists were there to extend our condolences and solidarity to the Lynch, Gilbert and Connors families and to the Traveller community.But it is time that Irish society went beyond mere sympathy and solidarity. The treatment of the Traveller community by the settled community over many centuries has not been good. The response of governments and the health and educational institutions of the state has not been good. In the north nationalists were treated as second class citizens for longer than the existence of the state. The Orange state, in which sectarianism and discrimination in housing and jobs and political representation was endemic made it an apartheid state. Almost two decades after the Good Friday Agreement we are still trying to reverse the social, economic and political legacy of the policies and attitudes which led to that. That is why equality and parity of esteem are so fundamental to the process.But Travellers have been treated as even less than that and the prejudice and discrimination they face has for many worsened over the years.The opposition to the erection of a temporary halting site for those bereaved by the Carrickmines fire is a case in point and deeply disappointing.The decision to provide the families with a site on a parking lot that is inadequate for their needs and which lacks basic amenities is an indictment of this and successive governments and their inaction in providing for the needs of the Traveller community.


Some people in the settled community blame Travellers for anti-social behaviour, crime and other misconduct. But even if some Travellers, like some in the settled community, behave badly that is no reason to demonise and exclude an entire community.


What must be acknowledged is that ignorance breeds fear. The only cure for that is education and engagement. It’s about people getting to know each other and learning to respect and tolerate one another.


Travellers are citizens. They have rights. Those rights are being denied to them.


Travellers are among the most socially marginalised and disadvantaged groups in Irish society today.These citizens fare badly in all key indicators of disadvantage including employment, poverty, health, infant mortality, life expectancy, literacy, education and accommodation.Many Travellers are forced to endure intolerable, substandard living conditions with around a third living without access to basic facilities such as sanitation, water and electricity, leading to widespread health problems among Travellers.Unemployment is huge. Most estimates put it around 75% while to be a traveller means your life expectancy is significantly reduced by as much as 15 years. Cutbacks in education, health and other services have impacted severely on the Traveller community. The suicide rate is six times that of the settled community.At the root of all these problems are the unacceptable levels of prejudice, discrimination and social exclusion experienced by Travellers at institutional and other levels. Fundamentally, Travellers are not treated as full and equal citizens. There is an underlying racism at work which has created a form of apartheid. This is at odds with the generosity and inclusiveness evident by Irish society in the recent marriage equality campaign, or the solidarity demonstrated with refugees from the Middle East or the amazing amounts of money raised each year by charities for international relief programmes. The widespread expressions of sympathy following the fire that killed ten people, including five children at the temporary halting site on Glenamuck Road, provided hope that this situation could begin to be turned around.Unfortunately that hope has been dented by the reappearance of familiar negative attitudes and problems as attempts have been made re-house the families of the victims of this tragedy.What this has underlined is the need for an urgent, far-reaching and fundamental reappraisal of the way in which Travellers are treated in Irish society.In April 2014 the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality recommended that this State recognises the ethnicity of the Traveller community. The government needs to build on the solidarity which has been evident since the Carrickmines fire, by demonstrating political leadership and declaring that the State recognises Traveller ethnicity.Of course, such a development would not of itself solve the problems which confront the Traveller community but it would demonstrate leadership on this issue by the Government and set a clear and positive example.But much more needs to be done. I believe that we now need to establish a national forum, across the island of Ireland, involving Travellers and the settled community, including representatives of all political parties, of Government, local authorities, health and education sectors and representatives of media organisations to plan a way forward.Such a forum would discuss openly and in detail how discrimination against prejudice against Travellers can be confronted, including prejudicial attitudes facilitated by the actions of some politicians and media outlets. It would examine and make recommendations on how the wider community can be educated about Traveller culture.And importantly it would tackle those areas which have frequently resulted in conflict between Travellers and the settled community.Last week, when I put this to the Taoiseach in the Dáil he rejected it. His view is that the existing structures can meet this need. Patently from the statistics available they cannot not.


If we are to build an inclusive society in which equality is real and meaningful and not something that is occasionally given lip services then we need a sea change in attitudes and legislation. Travellers must be treated and regarded as full and equal citizens of Ireland. This will only happen with political leadership and must be led by Government. 

Unionists must provide certainty

Following the murders of Jock Davison and Kevin McGuigan; the political fallout from these events and amid threats by unionist leaders to crash the institutions, the British government appointed a panel to make a determination on the structure, role and purpose of proscribed organisations. Sinn Féin saw the panel as unnecessary.
It is thought that it will report within days. Whatever its conclusions Sinn Féin will not tolerate any undermining of the rights of citizens who vote for Sinn Féin.
The cynical exploitation by unionist political leaders, in particular Mike Nesbitt of the Ulster Unionist party, of the two Belfast murders has brought the political institutions in the north to the point of collapse. His antics and the reaction of the DUP, have eroded public confidence in the power sharing institutions. Mr. Nesbitt saw an opportunity to electioneer on this issue and has put nearly two decades of relative peace and political progress at risk in his desire to win more votes than the DUP.
His ability to do this is largely because no unionist political leader has ever positively embraced the Good Friday Agreement and championed its advantages for fear of being outflanked by the more extreme shades of unionism.
The behaviour of unionist leaders helps no one. On the contrary their damaging approach to resolving difficulties in the political process has created huge frustration among Sinn Féin activists, and the wider republican and nationalist community, who don’t believe that unionist leaders are serious about making politics work unless it is to their advantage.
In the weeks ahead there are major political challenges facing the current negotiations.
Firstly the British and Irish governments must honour their commitments. They have failed to do this thus far.
Secondly, the British government has to provide a viable, workable sustainable budget, which allows the Executive to deliver public services and proper protections for the most vulnerable in our society.
And lastly, the commitment to address legacy issues agreed in the Haass talks and in the Stormont House Agreement must be reflected in any final legislation produced by the British government. The current draft produced by the British government will not do – it is not acceptable.
Nationalists and republicans need persuaded that unionist leaders are genuinely committed to power sharing. The deliberately slow and damaging approach of unionist leaders to the Good Friday Agreement is no longer tolerable or acceptable.
After nearly 18 years of the Good Friday Agreement and eight years of a working Executive and Assembly, and all-island institutions, there are increasing numbers of citizens who seriously doubt the capacity of political unionism to ever share power in good faith. They are perplexed by the constantly negative and begrudging approach of the unionist parties.
Martin McGuinness summed it up well recently when he said; “Republicans share power with unionists because we want to. They share power with us because they have to.”
Unionist reluctance to work positively with nationalist and republicans; indeed the vitriol that often marks their public commentary has emerged in a number of recent examples. When she was appointed by Peter Robinson as temporary First Minister Arlene Foster set aside the commitments to promote equality contained in the Pledge of Office and the Code of Conduct. The DUP Minister said: “I have been placed there as a gatekeeper to make sure that Sinn Féin and the SDLP ministers don't take actions that will damage Northern Ireland and principally, let's be honest, that damage the unionist community."
 
And if there was any doubt as to her purpose: "If anybody knows me and indeed knows the Democratic Unionist Party they know that I'm not going to put at risk to the people of Northern Ireland the possibility that rogue Sinn Féin or renegade SDLP ministers are going to take decisions that will harm the community in Northern Ireland."
 
Last week Edwin Poots told viewers watching the BBC that he had to hold his nose when doing business with Sinn Féin.
 
All of this has its roots in our colonial history and the partition of the island.
The value of the union for the unionist landed aristocracy and business class – big house unionism – was that it guaranteed unionist domination of society. The unionist working class were persuaded that their ‘freedoms’, jobs, homes, superior social status all depended on the union. Job discrimination based on religion became a means of controlling the growing urban unionist working class.
So it was in the 19th century and the 20th century. As a result most skilled and semi-skilled jobs in all of the north’s businesses were held by unionists. Before partition but especially afterward discrimination in housing, the periodic use of pogroms and sectarian violence, and the withholding of any political power or influence from nationalists were regarded by unionism as necessary elements of maintaining their control.
The history books are full of quotes from unionist leaders boasting of the effectiveness of their domination of the north, its institutions and economy. The Orange state was in reality, and experience, a “Protestant state for a Protestant people”
Unionist leaders have never come to terms with any of this. None has ever apologised for or even acknowledged the role of political unionism in contributing to the conditions of conflict.
And so it is with the Good Friday Agreement. Unionist leaders see it as an aberration; as undemocratic – because it denies majority rule. It is unacceptable because it elevates equality and parity of esteem. And just as they object to the principle that there can be no hierarchy of victims so too would they deny citizens the right to vote for the party of their choice and to recognise the mandate that the exercise of that democratic choice provides.
Despite these difficulties Sinn Fein is not for walking away. We are not for giving up. Our responsibility is to insist that the Good Friday Agreement is implemented in full. And if unionist leaders cannot accept that then, though they probably have not considered this, their shenanigans are a huge argument in favour of ending partition.