Gerry Adams's Blog, page 63

a life time stuck in silence

 Earlier this year I met four year old Billy Cairns from Dundalk. Like all children of his age he is friendly and smart. And he is hugely courageous. Billy is also profoundly deaf.

I mention Billy because his was the first Cochlear Implant case I raised in the Dáil and on Thursday we raised his case again and others during the party’s private members business. This is an opportunity we get once each three weeks to raise an issue of importance, have the Dáil debate it and if necessary vote on it.
Occasionally some PMB’s are so clear cut that all of the parties support them. But on Thursday, and to its shame the Fine Gael and Labour government opposed the Sinn Féin motion which called on the government to provide the money necessary to provide bilateral cochlear implants for children who are deaf.
The mothers and fathers of the children are an amazing group. They are committed, dedicated, imaginative, unstinting, and tireless in their determination to get the very best for their children. They will travel anywhere, meet anyone, and present a compelling account of their experience and of their hopes and demands for their children. Their Happy New Ear group is a first class example of an effective lobby group and its web site is clever and informative. I logged on again the night before the debate and listened to Emili Sandé sing her evocative ‘Read all about it’ in which there is the line, ‘You’ve spent a life time stuck in silence,’and watched as children and parents tell their story. It is a clever, inventive, and moving video which packs an emotional wallop.
All of us in the Dáil, and from all parties and none, who have met the children and their parents have been moved and motivated by their courage and example.  For me this is an issue of fundamental rights and I said so during the debate but sometimes the least said the more effective the message. Jonathan O Brien our TD from Cork got to his feet praised the parents and children and then asked for everyone to remain silent in the Dáil chamber for several minutes so that we could all get a sense of what the children suffer.
The mothers who were sitting in the public gallery were visibly moved by his gesture. Sadly the same cannot be said of the government parties.  
Medical science has provided a means by which many of deaf children can hear. It means providing a device called a cochlear implant - a surgically implanted electronic device - that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf. The operation is difficult and especially so for children who may have to undergo several procedures requiring a general anaesthetic.
The Department of Health’s policy for the last 17 years has dictated that a patient should only receive one cochlear implant. That means that the children who go through this operation have hearing in only one ear. This is despite the fact that International best practice dictates that children receive bilateral implants, that is implants in both ears. It is a fact that children who only hear through one ear face serious hurdles as they grow. There are better Educational outcomes if a child can hear with both ears.
It allows them to determine where sounds are coming from, vital in a noisy environment like a classroom, or the playground, or in the street or the shopping centre or indeed the Dáil chamber. Similarly their confidence and sense of security is reinforced if they can hear their mother or father call them. Fundamentally it gives these children the ability to communicate with others - to make friends with other children.

Young Billy went through an operation last April to replace his faulty implant. Before that operation I raised his case in Leaders Questions. I sent word to the Taoiseach in advance so that he wouldn’t be bounced on this important issue. He was sympathetic and promised to raise the cochlear implant issue with the Minister for Health James Reilly. I also suggested that when Billy was getting his faulty implant fixed that the second implant could be fitted. Again the Taoiseach was sympathetic. I also spoke to the Taoiseach privately and in detail on at least two occasions. I also spoke to Dr. Reilly.
I then wrote to the two of them and briefed them fully on the general issue of these profoundly deaf children’s needs and right to have bilateral implants. I followed this up with both Ministers but despite the sympathy and positive responses Billy went on to have his operation but no second implant.
The operation would have cost €18,000. This would have been taxpayers money well spent but it was refused by the government. I cannot help but compare their stinginess in Billy’s case with their generosity with public monies when it comes to giving a digout to their cronies in the banking and financial elites.
When Bill had his operation he could say only one word. NO. Billy now has 16 words and has discovered the magic of music. But the fault in the implant and the lack of a second means that he was unable to begin school in September and it will now be next September before he begins. He will also need a Special Needs Assistant and ongoing speech and language therapy.
Had Billy had a second cochlear implant his development would by now have been more advanced. When Billy’s implant failed he was plunged back into a world of silence. Imagine the trauma for any child of being forced back into silence for 6 weeks.
Noting recommendations made by the National Audiology Review Group is not the same as implementing those recommendations.
The government parties voted through an amendment to our motion which was in effect a fudge. The Minister praised the families. But there was no indication that the business plan from Beaumont hospital on the provision of bilateral cochlear implants will be resourced.The government’s motion contained no action plan and no commitment to introduce the bilateral cochlear implant programme. Nor is there a commitment to include this programme in the 2014 HSE estimates process.
The reality is that the children and their parents are in a race against time to ensure that the children have the operation before they are too old for it to be effective. Unless these implants are connected in the early years of a child’s life that by the age of seven or eight the operation will be ineffective as the nerves will have died off.
After that children born and raised in silence may never speak; something which will adversely impact on the rest of their lives. 

These young citizens have already faced a great deal of adversity in their short lives. They deserve the same rights and opportunities as every other child and every other citizen in this state. They have the right to hear; the right to be heard and to have a voice.
 
 

A Mean budget

Tomorrow – Tuesday - the Fine Gael and Labour government will publish its third budget. They were elected to undo the damage of Fianna Fáil but have chosen instead to implement Fianna Fáil policies. This will be the seventh austerity budget by those three parties which collectively will have stripped €30 billion out of the economy.
In the days leading to the budget the Simon Community released the latest details of homelessness which is spiralling to new levels. As well as an increase in the numbers of homeless it reports that government cuts to the budgets of homeless services and charities are causing huge difficulties.
The Central Statistics Office in its most recent survey on Income and Living Conditions recorded that the numbers in the ‘at risk poverty rate’ had increased from 14.7 per cent in 2010 to 16 percent in 2011.
Another report in recent days revealed that 1800 patients, including some with life threatening conditions, are waiting on cardiac treatment for up to six months. Staff cuts and funding cuts have left all of the 36 hospitals surveyed by the Irish Association of Cardiac Rehabilitation and the Irish Heart Foundation without the cardiac rehab expertise they need.
These are just two of countless examples of how austerity policies driven by Fine Gael and Labour are hurting citizens.
The government’s austerity policies are driving up poverty and disadvantage. Emigration and unemployment are at record levels especially among our young people; public services, particularly health, are in crisis and there are more cuts to be imposed this year; the economy is flat lined and the family home tax is being imposed on citizens. Every day families contact my office and the offices of every other TD about bad decisions taken in respect of their medical cards – decisions that are driving families over the edge into poverty and leaving many without the essential health care they need.The determination of Fine Gael and Labour to stick to austerity is causing huge difficulties for families and small and medium businesses across this state. There have been:Cutbacks in special needs educationCuts to Carer’s Allowance and Carer’s Benefit and to the home help services.Cuts to those reliant on social welfare - cuts to the Household Benefits Package which provides a range of assistance for pensioners, carers and people with disabilities. Cuts to homelessness services of 10%.Attacks on low and middle income earners– family stealth taxes, household charges, water charges, the USC and cost of living increases.While at the same time there have been increases in salaries for Government appointees – including clear breaches of the cap imposed on salaries to be paid to government special advisors.
Austerity is working for the wealthy but it isn’t working for low and middle income families. Some 415,000 people are on the live register while 300,000 have emigrated in the last four years.
There are 49,000 people waiting for hospital treatments.
One in ten children are living in consistent poverty with 47% of households living on less than €100 a month after bills.
There are 90,000 households languishing on social housing lists while 180,000 households are in mortgage distress.
There are alternative policies. There are decisions that can be taken by this government which can ease the burden on low and middle income families and on those who are disadvantaged.
Labour knows this. In opposition it argued against many of the policies it is now implementing in government. In the 2011 general election Labour warned what a Fine Gael government would do. In its Tesco-like ad ‘Every Little Hurts’ Labour claimed that a vote for Fine Gael would see child benefit cut; car tax increase; VAT increase and water charges introduced.
Labour claimed a vote for it was a vote to stop these.
After the election Labour u-turned and broke all of these election pledges. Labour cut Child benefit. Labour has backed water charges. Labour supported VAT increases and car tax increases.
When asked on RTE about Labour’s broken election promise to protect child benefit, Pat Rabitte said: “Isn’t that what you tend to do during an election?”
Tuesday’s budget will see the imposition of more cuts.
The damage being done to the economy by these decisions will be significant. But the damage done to society will be greater still and this government seems unconcerned about the social consequences of its decisions.
Fianna Fáil's disastrous time in office, and its surrender of economic sovereignty has left the state in a criticial financial position. Sinn Féin understands that the books must be balanced but it is the decisions that are taken to achieve this that are vital.
Last week Sinn Féin produced our alternative fully costed budget. It reduces the tax burden on ordinary families, protects public services and invests in jobs.
There are over 30 measures tax and savings measures in our document to make a deficit adjustment of €2.45 billion and pay for our €750 million worth of proposed new spending and tax back. These include:48% tax on income over €100,000: Raises€365 millionRe-introduce Non-Principal private Residence charge at€400: Raises €151 millionRestore Capital GainsTax to 40%: Raises €98 millionIncrease Capital AcquisitionsTax to 40% and lower thresholds: Raises €108 million 1% Wealth Tax on net wealth over €1 millionNew employers’ rate of PRSI of 15.75% on portion of salary over €100,000: Raises€119.1 millionStandardise pension tax reliefs: Raises €343 millionAllow for carry-over (€583mn): adjustments
(€607mn) and partial year (€405mn)Deliver further savings on branded medicines and alter prescribing practices: Saves €258millionPartial introduction of full cost private care in public hospitals: Saves €120millionPhased withdrawal of private school annual state subsidy: Saves €36.3millionOireachtas Pay and Allowances, including Taoiseach and Ministers reduced by 50% of everything over €75,000, and TDs and Senators reduced to €75,000 and €60,000 saves €3.7million.Part of our budget also calls for free GP care for under five’s. Last week when launching the document I said that we were happy for the government to plagiarise any or all of it. At the weekend there were media reports that it is planning to introduce free GP care for the under 5s. We wait to see whether this is true and if they plan to adopt other parts of our budget.
In the Dáil chamber this week Sinn Féin’s Finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty TD and other colleagues will expose the meanness of this government and the hypocrisy of Labour and we will stand up for the rights of citizens – especially those who are least able to defend themselves.

The Witch-hunt

Dundalk Presser
 This blog was in Louth today launching Sinn Fein's alternative budget submission. It was first to Drogheda and then on to Dundalk. Afterward I issued a statement arising from questions I was asked by the journalists about the recent court case.

Speaking in Dundalk today in answer to questions about the Liam Adams case, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD said:

"For me this always been a family matter.
"It was quite rightly brought to the RUC and Social Services in 1987.
"So accusations of cover-up are patently cynical and untrue.
"As well as the allegations raised by Áine my family have also had to cope with the revelation that our father was an abuser.
"All of this has been hugely testing and challenging for me and for my clann. Only those who have had to go through this can appreciate the trauma it has caused.
"I am a public figure and subject to scrutiny and that is fair enough – but the despicable manner in which this issue is being dealt with by the DUP and others, and by some cynical elements of the media has become trial by media and a witch-hunt.
"It also does not take account of the impact this is having on my family who have been affected by all of this.
"For my part I have committed no offence.
"The matters you raise have all been dealt with by me in previous interviews and during the trial in which I appeared as a witness for the prosecution and answered all of the questions put to me.
"Liam has been found guilty and Áine has been vindicated.
"You will know that the PPS has asked the Attorney General in the north to review the decision by the PSNI and separately by the PPS that I have no case to answer.
"You will know that, under pressure from the DUP, the PSNI has begun an investigation into the evidence I gave during the court case.
"You will also know that, following a complaint by three senior DUP figures: Edwin Poots, Jonathan Craig and Paul Givan, the Police Ombudsman has now initiated an investigation into how the PSNI handled the Liam Adams case and according to media reports it is looking specifically at my evidence.
"That means that four law agencies in the north are now investigating or reviewing aspects of this case, mostly in respect of my evidence.
"This is unprecedented. I have learned of all of these developments in the media.
"My rights, if I have any, are unclear.
"I think in the interests of fairness that those sections of the media and those politicians who have been involved in a quite despicable campaign in recent days should allow these agencies to complete their work.
"The Police and Social Services had full information and detail of Áine’s allegations from 1987.
"I never had that detail.
"When Áine raised her abuse by her father with me again years later, she was an adult capable and entitled to make her own decisions on how she wanted to proceed.
"It was not my place to take decisions for her or to take any actions, other than what she wanted at that time, which was for Liam to acknowledge that he had sexually abused her; that she had told the truth and to apologise.
"I worked to facilitate an engagement between them with the aim of getting him to do this.
"When Liam failed to do this Áine went to the PSNI.
"I co-operated fully with the PSNI.
"I made statements in support of Áine.
"I co-operated fully with the Public Prosecution Service and with the prosecution lawyers.
"I gave evidence in court against my brother and in support of Áine.
"I reject unconditionally the charge that I committed any offence. I did my best and continue to do my best to deal with this issue.
"My extended family have all been affected by this case. I am not asking for the media to give me some special dispensation. But my family should be given the space and privacy to heal the hurt.
"I also want to thank all those people who sent messages of support and solidarity, including Oireachtas members from other parties, as well as constituents in Louth and others."

Out and about in Drogheda

Deasún Breatnach – An Appreciation

‘All we Irish speakers seek is equality’ Deasún Breatnach was an extraordinary man.His wife Luci (Lucila Hellman de Menchaca) was equally special and together they had six talented and gifted children; Diarmuid, Osgur, Caoilte, Oisín, Cormac and Lucilita.Deasún lived his life to the full and that is reflected in the 11 books he wrote and in his significant and valuable library of hundreds of books, on history and literature, on culture and the Irish language, heritage and folklore that the family presented to Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta, NUI Galway last Saturday evening.The Acadamh is charged with promoting higher education through the medium of Irish and works in the Irish communications sector, with a particular reference on journalism.Deasún would have applauded their decision.Instead of gathering dust in boxes they will now find renewed life on the shelves of Galway University and play their part in influencing and shaping future generations of journalists and writers.Deasún was many things – a poet, a novelist, a writer, a political activist, a socialist republican, a Gaelgéoir and a journalist. He was a father and grandfather and musician.He was also passionate about the co-operative movement and an active member of Conradh na Gaeilge. His devotion to the Irish language which he learned in the 1950’s, is legendary.Deasún wrote music and children’s stories; was an editor and linguist who published in Irish, English and Spanish.At differing times in his life he worked for most of the main newspapers in this state and when he eventually retired he was a sub-editor for the Irish independent.He used many pen names including Mac Lir, Dara Mac Dara and Rex Mac Gall section 31.Deasún was a member of Sinn Féin and on two occasions was editor of the Sinn Féin paper An Phoblacht.On the first occasion he stepped up to the plate in 1973-74 when Éamon Mac Thomáis was imprisoned under the Offences against the State Act.It was a dangerous and difficult time to be a republican activist and especially a very public activist editing An Phoblacht.Almost all found themselves arrested, dragged off to an interrogation centre, abused and briefly before the Special Criminal Court, before being sent off to Mountjoy or Portlaoise prison.Deasún’s son Osgur was an infamous victim of this process and of the heavy gang.Deasún became editor of An Phoblacht again in 1977 for two years.
In that year the entire editorial staff and the SDLP printer of the Belfast based Republican News were arrested and imprisoned before the charges were dismissed. Official censorship in the south through Section 31 and unofficial censorship in the north meant that republicans had to work hard to promote and defend our political analysis.There was no social media. No you tube or twitter or facebook or internet.Local news bulletins printed in their tens of thousands on gestatner machines and distributed free door to door were widely used. But the main vehicles of republican publicity were Republican News based in Belfast and An Phoblacht based in Dublin.Deasún was one among many very brave men and women who wrote, designed, laid out and distributed these papers.He had a sharp intellect, boundless energy and commitment, and was a prolific writer.He worked long hours to earn a living and raise his family.At the same time he gave freely of his time and experience and writing skills to produce An Phoblacht.In his time Deasún wrote for the Irish Press, the Irish Times and th
Deasún agus Luci 
Deasún Breatnach – LéirthuiscintDuine faoi leith a bhíi nDeasún Breatnach. Bhí a bheanchéile Lucy (Lucile Hellman de Menchaca) mar a gcéanna agus rugadh seisear clainne dóibh a raibh buanna agus tallann faoi leith acu; Diarmuid, Osgur, Caoilte, Oisín, Cormac agus Lucilita.Chaith Deasún saol iomlán agus tá sé sin léirithe sa 12 leabhar a scríobh sé agus sa leabharlann shuntasach agus luachmhar a bhí aige, ina raibh na céadta leabhar staire agus litríochta, cultúir agus teanga, leabhair atá an teaghlach á mbronnadh ar Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta, Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh.Tá sé de dhualgas ar an Acadamh ardoideachas a chur chun cinn trí mheán na Gaeilge agus trí shaothair in earnáil na cumarsáide Gaeilge, agus le béim faoi leith ar an iriseoireacht.Bheadh Deasún sásta lena gcinneadh.In áit ligean dóibh dusta a charnadh i mboscaí cuirfear beocht úr iontu ar sheilfeanna Ollscoil na Gaillimhe agus beidh tionchar acu ar ghlúnta iriseoirí agus scríbhneoirí atá le teacht.Duine ilghnéitheach a bhí i nDeasún – file, úrscéalaí, scríbhneoir, gníomhaí polaitiúil, sóisialaí, poblachtanach, Gaeilgeoir agus iriseoir.Athair, dadó agus ceoltóir ab ea é.Bhí sé paiseanta faoin Ghaeilge.  Chum sé ceol agus scéalta do pháistí; bhí sé ina eagarthóir agus ina theangeolaí a d’fhoilsigh ábhar as Gaeilge, Béarla agus Spáinnis. I rith tréimhsí áirithe ina shaol d’oibrigh sé do bhunús na bpríomhnuachtán sa stát seo agus nuair a chuaigh sé ar scoir sa deireadh bhí sé mar fho-eagarthóir ar an Irish Independent. Is iomaí ainm cleite a d’úsáid sé, Mac Lir, Dara Mac Dara agus Rex Mac Gall ina measc. Bhí Deasún fosta dhá uair mar eagarthóir ar nuachtán Shinn Féin, An Phoblacht. Ghlac sé leis an chúram seo den chéad uair sa bhliain 1973 nuair a cuireadh Éamon Mac Thomáis i bpríosún de réir An Achta um Chiontaí in aghaidh an Stáit,Am contúirteach agus deacair a bhí ann le bheith i do ghníomhaí poblachtanach agus go háirithemar ghníomhaí an-phoiblí ina eagarthóir ar An Phoblacht.Gabhabh beagnach gach duine, glacadh chuig ionad ceistiúcháin iad, tugadh drochíde daoibh agus i ndiaidh seal gairidin roimh An Chúirt Choiriúil Speisialta, cuireadh go Príosún Mhuinseo nó Phort Laoise iad. D’fhulaing mac Dheasúin, Osgur, faoin phroiséas seo agus faoin lámh láidir. Bhí Deasún ina eagarthóir arís ar An Phoblacht sa bhliain 1977 ar feadh dhá bhliain. Sa bhliain sin gabhadh foireann iomlán eagarthóireachta agus clódóir de chuid an SDLP ón nuachtán lonnaithe i mBéal Feirste, Republican News. Cuireadh i bpríosún iad sular caitheadh na cúisimh amach.Níorbh ann do na meáin sóisialta. Níorbh ann do You Tube, Twitter ná Facebook. Baineadh úsáid go forleathan as feasacháin nuachta a ndearnadh na mílte cóip dóibh agus a scaipeadh saor in aisce ó dhoras go doras. Ba iad an Republican News, a bhí lonnaithe i mBéal Feirste, agus An Phoblacht, a bhí lonnaithe i mBaile Átha Cliath, an dá phríomhbhealach poiblíochta a bhí ag Poblachtanaigh.Bhí Deasún i measc na ndaoine cróga sin a scríobh, a dhear, a leag amach agus a dháil na nuachtáin seo. Bhí intleacht ghéar aige, fuinneamh agus tiomantas ollmhór, agus scríbhneoir torthúil a bhí ann. D’oibir sé uaireanta fada chun beatha a thabhairt i dtír agus chun a chlann a thógáil.Ag an am céanna, thug sé a chuid ama agus taithí go saor chomh maith lena scileanna scríbhneoireachta chun An Phoblacht a chur amach. Ar feadh tamaill, scríobh Deasún don Irish Press agus don Irish Independent. Chomh maith leis sin, scríobh sé don Farmers Journal, An Timire, na hirisí Bell agus Comhar agus Feasta agus do Scéál Éireann, Inniu agus Lá. Scríobh sé litreacha go minic do na nuachtáin sin.Ba mhinic é ag scríobh faoi na ceisteanna a raibh tionchar acu ar an teanga.Mar shampla, i Samhain 2004, d’fhoilsigh The Irish Times litir uaidh inar cháin sé an dóigh nár cuireadh teiripe cainte ar fáil do pháistí i gCo. Chiarraí. Scríobh sé:‘Seo sampla eile d’éagothroime maidir le Gaeilgeoirí agus an locht go soiléir ar institiúidí na hÉireann.’Chuir sé an-bhéim ar an éagthroime riamh.An bhliain chéanna cháin sé go mór roinnt polaiteoirí a dúirt go raibh Acht na dTeangacha Oifigiúla ina ‘chur amú ollmhór airgid’.

In alt gairid, scríobh Deasún forógra gníomhaíochta don Ghaeilge agus don chothromas. Scríobh sé: “Bímis soiléir air seo: Níl uainn mar Ghaeilgeoirí ach Cothrom na Féinne, agus deiseanna chuige sin, seasamh oifigiúil don chothromas, cothromas ar fad na tíre, i gcúrsaí clódóireachta, ar an raidió, ar an Teilifís, maidir le caiteachas poiblí, san Oireachtas, ar leibhéal údaráis áitiúil, le linn na dtoghchán, san eaglais agus go poiblí in áit ar bith a dtagann daoine le chéile le haghaidh gnó nó le haghaidh pléisiúir….Tá gach duine i dteideal, de réir cearta daonna, meas a fheiceáil ar an dínit s’acu féin, agus, ar an teanga s’acu féin, an Ghaeilge san áireamh.’ Ba léir ó na focail sin an grá a bhí ag Deasún don teanga, chomh maith leis na hidéil shóisialacha agus phoblachtanacha. Tá na rudaí a rinne sé chun tacaíocht a léiriú do na hidéil seo i mbéal an bhig is an mhóir. I 1966 nuair a bhí Rialtas na hÉireann ar shiúl ag ceiliúradh Chomóradh 50 Bliain Éirí Amach na Cásca, bhí Deasún ar dhuine den ghrúpa gníomhaíochta Gaeilge – Misneach- a thug dúshlán an Stáit maidir leis an dóigh ‘nár éirigh leis an stát aidhmeanna sínitheoirí an Fhorógra a bhaint amach.’Chuaigh siad ar stailc ocrais ar feadh seachtaine agus d’eagraigh siad picéad taobh amuigh d’Ard-Oifig an Phoist chun an feachtas a léiriú.Dúirt Micheál Mac Aonghusa, a bhí ina bhall de Misneach, nár chreid sé ‘ go raibh na daoine sin a fuair bás le linn Sheachtain na Cásca ag iarraidh go mbeadh ainmneacha s’acu in airde in áit a gcuid aidhmeanna a bheith bainte amach.’Fuair Deasún bás agus é 85 bliana d’aois ar an 3ú Dheireadh Fómhair 2007. Go tragóideach don chlann, tharla sé ar an lá chéanna nuair a bhí a máthair á cur acu. Ba ghníomhaí polaitiúil í Lucy Bhreatnach ar a bealach féin agus d’oibrigh sí le Amnesty International, le Gluaiseacht Frith-Apartheid na hÉireann agus leis an Chomhairle um Chearta an DuineDís faoi leith a bhí sa bheirt acu le chéile. Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghábháil le Diarmuid, Osgur, Caoilte, Oisín, Cormac agus Lucilita as an bhronntanas leabhar tábhachtach d’Ollscoil na Gaillimhe.

Abolish the Seanad

 Vote YES - Abolish the Seanad The story goes that an Irish politician arrived in New York and unexpectedly had to stay overnight. The hotel clerk said, ‘sorry we’re full up’ until, that is, the politician dropped the fact that he was a Senator in the Irish Parliament. He was then asked to wait while the clerk rushed off and within a matter of moments Senator X had his room.
Why? Because Americans know that their Senators have real power and influence and the clerk assumed Irish Senators are the same. Not so. But this wasn’t the first Irish Senator to find that arranging a meeting, getting a hotel room or a taxi or booking a restaurant in the USA is always made easier when the title ‘Senator’ is affixed to the name. The perception is greater than the reality.
And now the future of the Seanad (Senate) hangs in the balance. On October 4th a referendum will determine whether the Seanad stays as is or is abolished.
Sinn Féin would have preferred voters to have the additional choice of opting for root and branch reform and we proposed that the government hand the issue over to the constitutional convention for discussion and recommendation. But the government rejected this and has only allowed foe a YES or NO response to abolition.
In these circumstances Sinn Féin is calling for YES vote to abolish the Seanad.
The Seanad is an anachronistic, elitist and undemocratic institution which seeks to emulate the role of the equally elitist British House of Lords. It is not elected by the people but by only one per cent of the electorate. It has 60 members. Six are elected by the graduates of some universities; 43 are elected from five panels of nominees, which supposedly represent key elements of society, such as agriculture and education, public administration, the trade unions and business; and 11 are nominated by the Taoiseach.
Today’s Seanad was created by the 1937 Constitution and in the decades since , with a few honourable exceptions, it has become synonymous with cronyism and corruption, particularly by the Fianna Fáil party. That party used the system of political nominees to reward close political allies. The Seanad was also used as a safety net for those who failed to get elected to the Dáil.
At no point has the Seanad acted as a real check on the actions of the government. Since Fine Gael and Labour came to power two and a half years ago the Seanad has supported the government on every occasion, including the introduction of the Property Tax, cuts to the money provided to carers and the disabled, and a succession of austerity policies that have forced up unemployment and forced out over 300,000 citizens to Australia and Canada and the USA.
In addition the Seanad has no power to put questions to Ministers; nor can it prevent government legislation from becoming law and almost all amendments proposed and adopted by the Seanad in recent years was with the government’s agreement.
No democrat can in my view support a body as flawed, powerless, undemocratic and discriminatory as this.
However, thus far the political and public debate around the referendum hasn’t really sparked. The refusal of the Taoiseach to debate the issue on television has excited some interest. The Fianna Fáil party which had called for abolition in its last election manifesto has flip-flopped on the issue and is now campaigning for its retention and reform.
Its leader Micheál Martin claims that reform is possible. He has even gone so far as to suggest that a reformed Seanad would allow for northern representation and for the diaspora to be represented in the Dáil.
Few take this Damascus-like conversion too seriously. The Fianna Fáil leadership is desperate to rebuild the party after its disastrous showing in 2011. Martin believes that this tactical political position will provide him with a political platform to oppose the government and secure much needed media attention.
This is the same Micheál Martin who as part of the last government refused to hold a by-election in Donegal South for purely party political interests and with no consideration for the voters of that area who were left under represented.
This is the same Micheál Martin who supported Bertie Ahern throughout his time as Taoiseach and saw nothing wrong with using the Seanad to reward political cronies. This included using secure car parking and access to the Dáil members bar for close associates, including the general secretary of the party.
This is the same Micheál Martin who was part of a government which agreed to allow northern MPs to speak in the Dáil without voting rights as part of the peace process negotiations and then reneged on that.
In his fourteen years in the Fianna Fáil government neither Mr. Martin nor his government made any effort to reform the Seanad. So can their latter day conversion to reform be believed? I don’t think so.
But Fianna Fáil are not alone in how they abused the Seanad. Despite numerous claims over the decades by all of the establishment parties that they would reform the Seanad none ever did. On 12 successive occasions reports were produced proposing reform. None was ever implemented. In 1979 the people voted in a referendum to broaden the franchise to all graduates of institutes of higher education. It gathers dust on a shelf somewhere.
The fact is that no government has ever been prepared to allow the second chamber to scrutinise in a meaningful and effective manner its legislative programme.
There can be no place in a democratic system for an elected institution to which only a tiny minority have the right to vote. All citizens must be treated equally. It is also clearly unjust that citizens right to vote is determined by their level of education.
So, on October 4th the electorate will have their say in referendum. I am asking that they vote to abolish the Seanad. Of course that doesn’t mean that what remains is fine. On the contrary the political system needs significant reform but that’s for another blog.
 
 
 

Thank you Seamus Heaney

Thank you Seamus Heaney
On Tuesday evening the Dáil set aside its normal business to remember Seamus Heaney. The deep sense of loss and of affection for Seamus was evident in all of the contributions.
In the days after his death I wrote of my own sorrow at his passing and yesterday, speaking in the Dáil, I again expressed the great sadness that engulfed millions when we learned of his passing.
This is some of what I said:

Seoid náisiúnta ab ea Séamus. Táimid fíor-bhuíoch do Marie agus a teaghlach mar thug siad Seamus duinn. He was extremely modest, approachable and humble, and had a great sense of humour. He had a profound and humane understanding of us as a people because he was of us as a people, with all our faultlines, flaws, strengths and weaknesses. Until his death, he was the world's leading living poet in the English language…
In Long Kesh, where I was a prisoner for a time, I remember one 12 July sitting with a couple of other prisoners in a cage. We could hear the Orange drums outside on Blaris Road. To our surprise, one of our comrades started to recite, from memory, the poem OrangeDrums, Tyrone, 1966:
The lambeg balloons at his belly, weighs

Him back on his haunches, lodging thunder

Grossly there between his chin and his knees.

He is raised up by what he buckles under.

Each arm extended by a seasoned rod,

He parades behind it. And though the drummers

Are granted passage through the nodding crowd

It is the drums preside, like giant tumours.

To every cocked ear, expert in its greed,

His battered signature subscribes ‘No Pope’.

The pigskin’s scourged until his knuckles bleed.

The air is pounding like a stethoscope.
I do not think any of us could make reference to Seamus Heaney without referencing the Cure at Troy. It is so true. It reads:
Human beings suffer,

They torture one another,

They get hurt and get hard.

No poem or play or song

Can fully right a wrong

Inflicted and endured. 

The innocent in gaols

Beat on their bars together.

A hunger-striker’s father

Stands in the graveyard dumb.

The police widow in veils

Faints at the funeral home. 

History says, don’t hope

On this side of the grave.

But then, once in a lifetime

The longed-for tidal wave

Of justice can rise up,

And hope and history rhyme. 

So hope for a great sea-change

On the far side of revenge.

Believe that further shore

Is reachable from here.

Believe in miracle

And cures and healing wells.
In these days of turbulence and change in the North, we should be ever mindful that a further shore is reachable from here and we should reach for it.

Thank you Marie, Catherine Ann, Christopher and Michael. Go raibh míle maith agaibh. Thank you, Seamus Heaney.

Symphysiotomy report makes grim reading

Until I stood for the Dáil in County Louth I had never heard of symphysiotomy. Several women victims of this barbaric practice came to see me to explain what had been done to them and to outline their long campaign for justice. For those of you who don’t know what it is or entails; symphysiotomy is a surgical procedure used in the arrest of descent during the second stage of labour in order to increase the diameter of a woman’s pelvis and allow for a vaginal birth. Initiated in France in the 18th century, this procedure involves severing the cartilage that connects the symphysis pubis with a scalpel under local anaesthesia, followed by unhinging of the pelvic bones to the extent needed for delivery
I was outraged by their personal stories of pain and abuse and moved by their courage and resilience. In the years since then the campaign has increased pressure on the government to address this issue in a way that is satisfactory to the remaining women survivors. As part of Sinn Féin’s efforts we have raised this issue in the Dáil and in the media but we also saw the value in raising this issue internationally.

As part of this I introduced some victims of symphysiotomy to Professor Irene Anne Jillson PhD. Irene has an international reputation in global health generally and in women’s health. She and four graduate nursing students voluntarily undertook a study of symphysiotomy, even paying their own travel and other expenses. Today has seen the publication of their report by the prestigious School of Nursing and Health Studies at Georgetown University. Symphysiotomy in Ireland: A Qualitative Study’ makes grim reading. It is a detailed expose of the cruel and inhuman use of Symphysiotomy on women in Ireland.
The focus of the study was to explore ‘the factors that contributed to the use of Symphysiotomy’ in Ireland from 1944 to 1984 and to examine the impact it had on the women victims. Unusually the study also spoke to the husbands of women who had suffered Symphysiotomy and heard from them for the first time of the trauma of this practice on their wives and families. The report also reveals that the procedure was often carried out without a women’s ‘understanding or consent. Most of the 1500 or more Irish women on whom symphysiotomies had been performed and who were alive in 1999, learned for the first time in that year, that the procedure had been performed on them, as a result of a newspaper article based on a doctoral thesis.’
Professor Jillson and two colleagues carried out exhaustive interviews with participants who in the main are between 60-80 years of age and live in Louth. The report records their experience and in their own words details their lack of consent to symphysiotomy and the lack of information available to them. Professor Jillson notes that ‘most women in the study reported that they had either never heard of the procedure or didn’t know what the procedure was at the time of their delivery … Doctors rarely gave an explanation of what they were doing before or during the procedure.’
And even after the procedure many women didn’t know what had been done to them. The report pulls no punches in describing the pain that the women experienced. It reports that: ‘The physical distress following the symphysiotomy procedure was significant for nearly every woman interviewed. Women consistently reported chronic pain, fatigue, urinary tract infections, incontinence, difficulty walking, limited mobility, and pain during sexual intercourse. Many are confined to wheelchairs and/or have to walk with the assistance of a cane or walker. With regard to incontinence, one woman described continued problems with incontinence, which is both embarrassing and inconvenient. In describing her lack of bowel control, one woman shared, “I had no muscular control…It felt like a herd of elephants had walked all over me body.”
Pain pervaded the daily lives of many of the participants, altering the amount they could work and the amount of energy they had to carry out activities of daily living. Back pain was a persistent problem that limited the mobility of many of the women, and continues to do so.’

When asked what they now wanted most women said they wanted an explanation, transparency and an apology from those involved.
The experience of victims of symphysiotomy is expressed tellingly by one respondent who describes symphysiotomy as evil. She said: ‘One word: evil. Pure evil. It’s like a witch doctor participated in the abuse of women’s bodies. That’s what I feel.’ Another described it as ‘a curse one would not wish on my worst enemy.’
Recently the Minister for Health James Reilly refused to publish the second part of the report into symphysiotomy by Professor Oonagh Walsh. The Minister said he didn’t want to publish it until after the government has reached its decision on this issue.
This isn’t good enough. The victims, their families and supporters have a right to see all of the available information about the use of symphysiotomy and its effect on the women and their husbands and families.  
There are only around 200 survivors alive. They are all very elderly and carry deep physical and emotional scars from their experience. Some are quite frail. They simply cannot afford to wait months or longer for justice. Time is therefore of the essence.
The Ministers claim that it is ‘open to any woman not wishing to pursue mediation to bring a claim through the courts’ ignores the fact that many of the women cannot do this because of the Statue of Limitations.

In April the Government supported the Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Bill 2013, introduced by Caoimhghín O Caoláin TD, which seeks to accommodate access to the courts for all victims of symphysiotomy who would choose that course of action. However the government is preventing further progress on this.

The process of securing justice for these women victims is very important. The government is adding to the stress on victims and is ignoring the Dáil, by refusing to publish the Walsh report.
The victims of symphysiotomy must have the right to decide which course of action is best for them in their efforts to secure justice and compensation. To do that the government must publish the Walsh report; the terms of reference for the Judge and mediation process; a fixed and short timeframe for this process to take place and assist the passage of the Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Bill 2013.
The report by Professor Jillson is a welcome addition to the body of medical evidence and information now available.
 
 
 
 

Deeply Sad at death of David Frost – Gerry Adams

I have just heard of the death of David Frost. Very sad news. I was interviewed by David many times. He was always courteous, good humoured, well researched and keenly interested in Ireland and the peace process. There was always a depth to his interviews that is frequently missing in others. David’s style of interview was unique and effective.

He once explained to me that there are two types of interview. One in which the interviewer attacks like a blizzard, a storm, and the response of the guest is to button up, put on the big overcoat and go into protective mode.

The other is to come at the guest like a sunny day. This encourages the guest to take off their jacket and relax. In this way you get the more informed and interesting interview. Consequently he was the master of the great interview.

To his family and friends I want to extend my sincere sympathies and condolences. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam
   

Seamus Heaney - A national treasure is lost

 
 Seamus Heaney, Warren Thompson, Jimmy Ellis and mise at Sam Thompson's graveside Seamus Heaney is dead. When I heard the news this morning I was cleaning out a shed. Dirty and dusty and lost in that chore I got the news by text. I was deeply shocked. I stood for a while trying to take it in. I still can’t quite believe it. Although I have known Seamus personally for many years like millions of others I first knew him through his words – and what words. As a result I seem to have known him most of my life. And now he’s gone.
Seamus was a national treasure. He was of us with a profound and humane understanding of us as an island people with all our fault lines and flaws and strengths. He was extremely modest, approachable and humble. And until his death this morning the world’s greatest living poet in the English language.
His name is spoken of in awe alongside those of Yeats, Joyce and Friel, O Connor and Kavanagh, and O Brien, O Casey and Shaw and so many of our other great writers and poets.
He was a proud Tamlaghduff man from County Derry who loved his place and people. And he wrote about them often. In his first major collection – Digging – he wrote of his father digging for potatoes and his grandfather cutting the turf ...
By God, the old man could handle a spade.
Just like his old man.
My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner’s bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, than fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.’
He and Michael McLaverty both taught for a time in St. Thomas’s Secondary school on the Whiterock Road in west Belfast.

I first read Seamus Heaney in the early 1970’s. They were difficult and dangerous years. West Belfast, like other places was under British Army military occupation. Once while travelling on a bus down the Falls Road I was so busy reading his ‘Death of a Naturalist’, that he had published in 1966, that I failed to notice that the Brits had stopped the bus. It was the Parachute Regiment and they walked menacingly up and down asking passengers their names, addresses where they were going and checking this info with their Intelligence Officer and against cards of photos they carried with them of those they were hunting.

One Brit stared at me for a second and then questioned the passenger behind me. Everybody heaved a sigh of relief when they got off. From that point on Seamus Heaney became a sort of talisman for me.

In 2003 when I was writing ‘Hope and History’ which deals with the 80s and 90s and the birth and evolution of the peace process, I contacted Seamus and asked if he minded me quoting from his poem ‘The Cure at Troy’. It seemed to me then and today that ‘The Cure at Troy’ at once catches the despair of conflict and the hope of peace and justice. And ‘hope and history rhyme’. He generously agreed.



At Sam Thompson's rededication event

More recently in 2010 he returned to west Belfast for the rededication of a stone at the grave of playwright Sam Thompson and to speak about Michael McLaverty at a Féile an Phobail event in St. Mary’s University College on the Falls Road. Sam Thompson was a well known and influential writer. In 1959 the directors of the Group Theatre in Belfast refused to stage ‘Over the Bridge’ because of the way it highlighted sectarianism. The well known actor Jimmy Ellis left the group set up his own company and went ahead with the play in 1960.

Seamus and other contemporaries of Sam Thompson’s, including Sam’s son Warren and Jimmy Ellis gathered with the rest of us in the City Cemetery in the mizzley soft rain for a poignant little event. Although it is a story that will be told at another time the ceremony was hilarious and indeed ended up with Seamus giving the tribute to both Sam Thompson and Jimmy Ellis.

Afterwards Seamus and Marie Heaney went off with Danny Morrison to visit Saint Thomas’ School where Seamus and Michael McLaverty used to teach It was his first time there since 1961.By all accounts it was a very emotional visit for him. Incidentally in his poem ‘Whatever you say, say nothing’ he uses the line ‘is there a life before death’. That legend first appeared in neat white capitals on the wall of the city cemetery on the Whiterock Road. I saw it the first morning after it was painted.

His talk in the big hall in Saint Mary’s where he told us of the first time he saw his wife Marie were also emotional moments for this wonderful poet and thoroughly decent man. His tribute to McLaverty, because that is what it was, was peppered with humorous little insights and telling observations. We all sat enthralled. And then he read us some of his poetry. In many ways this visit was also a reconciliation. I think Marie understood that and she was delighted.

As well as being a wonderful human being Seamus was a literary figure of huge international stature, regarded by many as the greatest Irish poet since Yeats. In 1995 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Nobel citation described his poetry as ‘works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.’

Seamus was wise and modest and dazzled us constantly with his wordsmithery. His poetry uplifted and surprised us; challenged and brought comfort. He was in Derry during the Fleadh with Liam Óg O Flynn performing ‘The Poet and the Piper’. His verse ‘The Given Note’ involves two of my favourite pieces; Port na bPúcaí played by Liam and Seamus’s own ‘The Given Note’. I’m going to play the cd now.
Seamus knew his gift was a given but he worked at it. Magically weaving words, reliving memories, invoking imagination and emotion. Making us laugh and cry. And also making us think.
My thoughts at this time are with Seamus’ wife Marie and their children Christopher, Michael and Catherine Ann and his family.
But no celebration of his life would be complete without reference to ‘The Cure at Troy’ and his deep sense of hope for the future that underpins it.

Human beings suffer,
they torture one another,
they get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
can fully right a wrong
inflicted or endured.

The innocent in gaols
beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker's father
stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
faints at the funeral home.

History says, Don't hope
on this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
the longed for tidal wave
of justice can rise up,
and hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
on the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
and cures and healing wells. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam

‘I have a dream’ - Remembering Martin Luther King

Atlantain Georgiais where Martin Luther King was born and where he spent much of his life preaching. In March 2001 I had the good fortune of visiting Atlanta at the invitation of the Ancient Order of Hibernians and Friends of Sinn Féin. I was there to speak at several fundraisers.
It is a city inextricably linked to two of the great struggles in American history: the Civil War and the Civil Rights struggle. In 1864, after a four month siege by the Union armies the city surrendered and it was ordered to be burned to the ground by the union general William Tecumseh Sherman. Only its Churches and hospitals were spared.

In the 1950s and 60s it was at the heart of the Civil Rights struggle. No visit to Atlantais complete without walking through the Park and Preservation District. Martin Luther King’s home, where he was born in January 1929, is there. So too is the Ebenezer Baptist Church. It is an imposing brown brick building. Inside I had the opportunity to sit quietly and contemplate the efforts of all of those who marched and struggled for equality and civil rights.
This is where Martin Luther King Jr. preached his first sermon at the age of 17 and where he was co-pastor with his father for eight years. In 1957 an organisational meeting of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was held there and Martin Luther King Jr became its first President. It played a key role in the Civil Rights struggle. It is a building which resonates with the words and deeds of freedom.
A short distance away is the King Centre with its impressive Visitors Centre and the graveside of Martin Luther King Jr.
I tell you all of this because it’s part of my history. Like many of my generation I was hugely influenced by the civil rights movement in the United States. ‘We shall overcome’ was adopted as the slogan for the Irish Civil Rights Association after its formation in 1967 and the courage and heroism of Rosa Parks and others inspired us in our opposition to discrimination in housing and jobs and our demand for the right to vote.
Rosa Parks’ refusal in 1955 to sit at the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama; her arrest and the boycott of the bus company was a pivotal moment in that historic struggle. It was also evidence that one person can make a difference.
During one of my first visits to the United States I had the privilege and honour to meet Rosa Parks, a small diminutive woman of tremendous strength of character and determination.
50 years later their efforts have brought about enormous change in American society. This has been most obvious in the election of a black President but intolerance and racism and inequality in employment still exist.

Yesterday – Wednesday August 28th – President Obama spoke at the Lincoln Memorial in Washingtonwhere 50 years ago Martin Luther King gave his seminal ‘I have a dream speech’. A quarter of a million people took part in that 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom.

In his historic address that day the civil rights leader reminded his audience that 100 years earlier Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation which gave hope to millions of slaves. But ‘the life of the negro is still crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination’ . Martin Luther King spelt out his dream, his vision, his aisling for the future. A dream in which no one will be judged by the colour of their skin.

Last weekend tens of thousands of American citizens took to the streets of the US capital to celebrate that momentous event.

But as Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the assassinated civil rights leader pointed out; ‘This is not the time for nostalgic commemoration, nor is this the time for self-congratulatory celebration. The task is not done. The journey is not complete. We can and we must do more.’

And therein lies the great truth of all struggles for freedom and human and civil rights whether in the United States or Ireland or South Africa  – it is a constant battle for change, for improvement, for redefining our relationships with each other. And it’s about creating the conditions whereby people are empowered to make that change.

Speaking to the First Annual Institute on Non-Violence and Social Change in Montgomery in December 1956 King told his audience that freedom and justice and positive change are not inevitable. He warned that ‘history has proven that social systems have a great last-minute breathing power and the guardians of a status quo are always on hand with their oxygen tents to keep the old order alive.’

These words of warning apply as much today to the island of Ireland as they did 50 years ago. The peace process has brought about many changes. Ireland today is a country in transition. A lot of the old conservative influences have been weakened and progress has been made.

But it is equally clear that there is still huge resistance to change. We still have a lot of work to do to build the republic that is envisioned in the 1916 Proclamation – an Ireland free of division and injustice and fear; an Ireland in which the wealth of the nation is invested creatively and more fairly; an Ireland in which there is equality and justice and freedom.

As we continue our journey forward the words and deeds of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks and others will continue to inspire us.

In his 1956 speech King concluded his remarks by arguing that we all must have the courage to ‘stand up and protest against injustice wherever we find it.’

He said: ‘ There is nothing in all of the world greater than freedom. It is worth paying for; it is worth losing a job; it is worth going to jail for. I would rather be a free pauper than a rich slave. I would rather die in abject poverty with my convictions than live in inordinate riches with the lack of self respect.’