Gerry Adams's Blog, page 72

Breast Cancer Awareness month

For over two decades October has been designated Breast Cancer Awareness month around the world. The pink ribbon or the wearing of pink has become synonymous with the campaign to raise awareness of this dreadful disease. On Thursday morning Martina Anderson MEP, who was in Dublin for the visit of the European Parliament President Martin Schulz, and I joined other colleagues from the Oireachtas and activists from the Irish Cancer Society outside Leinster House.  We were there to add our voices to the efforts of the Irish Cancer Society and Action Breast Cancer, and Action Cancer in the north and many other fine organisations who are involved in raising awareness about breast cancer. I was there also to say thank you for their commitment and dedication.
This year the Irish Cancer Society has organised a new kind of pink initiative. It’s called ‘Get the Girls, www.getthegirls.ie– and its goal is to raise even more money than in previous years for breast cancer services and research.
 Over 4000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year across the island of Ireland. According to Breast Cancer Ireland‘it is the most common invasive cancer in Irish women.’ Around 40 of these or 1% will be men. In the south over 600 women die each year from breast cancer while the figure for the north is around 300.


However it is also true that while the incidence of breast cancer has not dropped the number of women dying as a result has. Early detection and treatment is the key to survival. That means raising awareness among women and men about breast cancer to persuade everyone to check their breasts and to seek help if they have a concern.
Last week Breast Cancer Ireland launched its free Breast Aware iphone app. This will ensure that women receive a discreet monthly reminder to their phone and a step by step guide as to how to perform a self breast exam. You can download the app by going to iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/breast...
If you have a concern visit your doctor or go onto the many websites where it’s possible to get information. For example: www.actioncancer.org, tel nos 02890803344; and www.cancer.ie, Freephone 1800200700. Talk to someone. Get the Irish Cancer Society’s exhaustive directory of cancer support services.
The Irish Cancer Society and Action Cancer run extensive breast screening services which have saved many lives. They have also raised significant amounts of money to improve the outcome for patients and for research. They deserve our full support. 
Finally, I cannot write about breast cancer without writing about my friend and comrade Siobhan O Hanlon. In October 2002 Siobhan was diagnosed with breast cancer. And for the next three and a half years she battled it every single day.
Siobhan was a very private person but in September of the following year, and as part of that October’s Breast Awareness month she planned and organised a conference on the issue at the Belfast Institute for Further and Higher Education on the Whiterock Road in west Belfast.
The conference was a way of bringing community activists and others together to talk about this issue and to raise awareness. It was also about drawing public attention to the mobile screening units that Siobhan had successfully lobbied Action Cancer to bring into west Belfast.
So focused was Siobhan on this issue that for once she set aside her natural reticence to speak publicly and addressed the audience about her experience.
She told of getting the news that she had cancer and of the approach taken by the hospitals; of having her breast removed, and of discovering that the cancer was aggressive.
It was one of the most moving contributions I have ever heard. I have no shame in saying that I cried at the end of it. It was typical Siobhan. Honest and frank. She described how when you have cancer there are a number of big days. And she talked of these.
She included the day when she lost her hair. At one point she said: ‘I was a mess. I had no hair, no eyebrows. No eye lashes, one breast. My nails were all broken. I was tired. I knew I had to get my act together. My hair had stated to grow but it was very slow. It was also terrible grey.’
She described how there are ‘three terrible days in relation to your hair.’ They are, she said: ‘1. when your hair starts coming out, 2. when you put a wig on for the first time, and 3. when you have to take it off again. That was an awful day. I remember going into the office and this guy was going across the top of the stairs. He said ‘Ah, Siobhan’. ‘Don't open your mouth’ I told him. ‘I have more hair than you’. And I did!’Siobhan died in April 2006. But her courage and determination and example is a constant reminder to me that whatever can be done to raise awareness about this awful disease must be done, and whatever help can be given to provide support services for cancer patients must be given.

Remembering An Gorta Mor

‘We perish houseless, naked, starved, with branded brow,

Dying, dying wearily, with a torture sure and slow –

Dying as a dog would die, by the wayside as we go.’

These are the words of the Irish poet Speranza – Lady Jane Wilde, the mother of Oscar – who was a regular contributor to the Young Irelanders publication The Nation and who recorded her testimony in verse in early Black 47 of the human cost and impact of An Gorta Mór – the Great Hunger.

Last week I was invited by John Lahey, the President of Quinnipiac University in Hamden Connecticut, to give a talk on the issue of the great hunger. I was at the university in 2003 and at that time under John’s stewardship they had already compiled a unique collection of art and research and resource materials on that period of Irish history.



John Lahey and I in front of Robert Ballagh's powerful piece

The collection has grown significantly since then and last week saw the official opening of Múseam an Ghorta Mór – Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum.

It is a measure of the determination of President Lahey and his colleagues to create the world’s leading educational and research resource and art collection on this subject.

It is also a hugely significant and invaluable new addition to the efforts of academics and historians and others to tell and understand the history of Ireland and in particular the tragedy of An Gorta Mór.

I was given a private tour of the Museum two days before its official opening. It contains art work and sculptures from the 19th and 20th and 21st centuries from some of Ireland foremost artists – Daniel McDonald, John Behan, Rowan Gillespie, Lillian Lucy Davidson, Robert Ballagh, Brian Maguire, Michael Farrell, Paul Henry, Margaret Allen and others.

The imagery and colours and stories they tell evoke a great sense of sadness at the grief and pain and trauma and loss so many suffered during the so-called famine years and subsequently.



'Burying the Child'

As you walk up the stairs to the first floor you are confronted by Lillian Lucy Davidson’s ‘Burying the Child’. Hopelessness and emptiness are etched on their faces. It is a striking emotive piece.

Another Connecticut connection reminds us of the horror of the hunger. Elihu Burritt described a soup kitchen which was surrounded by ‘famine spectres, half naked and standing or sitting in the mud … struggling forward with their rusty tin and iron vessels for soup, some of them upon all fours, like famished beasts’.

In a graveyard he found a tiny shed that ‘served as a grave where the dying could bury themselves … [where] living men, women and children went down to die; to pillow upon the rotten straw, the grace clothes vacated by preceding victims and festering with their fever. Here they lay as closely to each other as if crowded side by side on the bottom of one grave.’



Black 47

A large canvas - ‘Black 47’ by Michael Farrell – imagines Charles Trevelyan, the assistant secretary to the British treasury and the man responsible for the British government’s relief policy, on trial for his actions. Trevelyan described the tens of thousands dying as a ‘mechanism for reducing surplus population’ and ‘the direct stroke of an all-wise Providence’.

Trevelyan’s cruelty is immortalised the ‘The Fields of Athenry’:

By a lonely prison wall,

I heard a young girl calling

Michael, they are taking you away,

For you stole Trevelyan’s corn,

So the young might see the morn,

Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay.

In a glass case on the first floor of the museum there are books recording the events of 1845-51 – including reports from the British Parliament and from the Mansion House Committee established by Daniel O Connell and others to record the impact across the island. Among these are letters to the Cork Examiner which had been established only four years before the blight struck.

In a letter to the editor written by Jeremiah O Callaghan from Bantry Abbey wrote:

Sir, on entering the graveyard this day, my attention was arrested by two paupers who were engaged in digging a pit for the purpose of burying their fellow paupers; they were employed in an old ditch. I asked why they were so circumscribed; the answer was ‘that green one you see on the other side the property of Lord Berehaven. His stewards have given us positive directions not to encroach on his property, and we have no alternative but this old ditch; here is where we bury our paupers’.

I measured the proud – it was exactly 40 feet square and contained according to their calculation 900 bodies. They then invited me to come and see a grave close by. I could scarcely endure the scene. The fragments of a corpse were exposed, in a manner revolting to humanity; the impression of a dog’s teeth was visible. The old clothes were all that remained to show where the corpse was laid’. June 1847



The Victim

The first piece bought by John Lahey and which he carried from Ireland 14 years ago is a bronze entitled ‘The Victim’. It’s by Rowan Gillespie and is intended to represent each of the millions who died or fled.

The museum and the research material in the university are an invaluable resource for anyone wishing to understand that period of Irish history, the phenomenal growth and influence of the diaspora, and the shaping of modern Ireland.
The Quinnipiac collection provides the political and social context of this human calamity, of the decisions taken by the British government and of the catastrophic consequences for the Irish people.
I believe you cannot understand anything of Irish history, whether in the 1840s or in more recent decades, unless you set it in the context of the English invasion, colonisation and partition of Ireland – and no single event illustrates this fact more than An Gorta Mór.



A Coffin Ship


    With Niall O Dowd and John Lahey

Following in the footsteps of Connolly

I am in New York this week for the annual Clinton Global Initiative event. It is the 8th year of the CGI and in that time it has raised billions of dollars for underdeveloped and struggling nations around the world, as well as investing in projects in more developed countries aimed at creating jobs, improving the environment and promoting education and health

This week the CGI is bringing together more than 1,000 people from the world of politics and business and community. It includes current and former heads of state as well as NGOs, business and community leaders. Its focus this year is on designing solutions to empower girls and women to be full participants in the global economy, to spur development, and improve global health and technology.

The idea behind the CGI is simplicity itself. To provide a location where business leaders, politicians, non-governmental organisations, activists and representatives of charitable foundations, can come together, talk about issues affecting people around the world and then make partnerships and commitments to take actions than can alleviate poverty or provide health care or education or water or sanitation and much more.

But as well as attending the Clinton conference on Monday night I was the guest speaker at a celebration of Irish America’s contribution to the Trade Union Movement organized by the Irish Echo.

It was an excellent event honouring the dedication and commitment of 50 Irish American trade unionists. Speaker after speaker referred with pride to their Irish heritage and all deferred to the activism and example of James Connolly.

The Irish in America, as well as elsewhere around the world - in Canada, in Britain and Australia - have played a significant role in building the trade union movement. The importance of and the role of trade unions in defending the rights of working people cannot be overstated.

This is especially true at this time when in the midst of a world-wide economic recession there are those arguing for strategies and policies that are about cutting wages and sacking and undermining workers’ rights and protections.

These conservative and right wing elements see the recession as an opportunity to increase profits irrespective of the social and human cost. The trade union movement has to be in the frontline battling that strategy.

It is important to remember that it is only a matter of a few generations ago that workers’ had no rights whatsoever. They were hired and fired at the whim of unscrupulous employers. The children of workers had no childhood and little hope of a future. They too worked from a young age.

In the Belfast of the 19th and early 20th centuries the linen mill-workers lived under the shadow of the mills where they worked. Female and child labour predominated. Children, mostly girls, worked the same hours as adults. But the children were called half-timers. They worked three days one week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and went to school on Tuesday and Thursday. The following week it was the reverse and they did this until they were 14.

They lived in appalling conditions. The greater number of these workers died before the age of forty-five. Children generally were badly developed and small.

The great American writer Jack London’s description of a child worker was equally applicable in the USA or in Belfast at that time; ‘He did not walk like a man. He did not look like a man. He was a travesty of the human.

It was a twisted and stunted and nameless piece of life that shambled like a sickly ape, arms loose-hanging, stoop shouldered, narrow-chested, grotesque and terrible.’

One answer to this misery and exploitation was the establishment of workers federations, craft unions and trade unions. Workers combining together to use their collective strength in common cause to achieve better conditions, decent wages and a better future for them and their families.

Trade unions were frequently outlawed, their right to strike suppressed and many have been killed and imprisoned and victimized. Sometimes unions have won a battle for recognition or better wages and conditions and sometimes they have lost. But they have never given up!

One such dark period in trade union history will be marked next year in Ireland when we commemorate the 100 anniversary of the Dublin Lock-out. That experience exemplifies much of what workers and trade unions here also faced at that time.

Every day Trade unionists confront and combat inequality. Every day anti-union laws are advocated. Every day trade unionists strategise and plan and campaign to ensure their members have decent health care and insurance; safe working conditions; decent wages and security from exploitation.

Multi-nationals, and those who advocate globalisation, are in the business of making a profit over workers rights and entitlements.

A few years ago I addressed the Transport Workers Union local 100 surrounded by banners proclaiming the contribution of Connolly to Trade Unionism in the United States and Canada.

Connolly spent 7 years of his life here in the United States where he helped found and organise the Independent Workers of the World and campaigned tirelessly for workers rights.

Connolly understood the connection between Irish freedom from Britain and the rights and freedoms and future prosperity of workers. His great slogan, ‘The cause of Labor is the cause of Ireland; the cause of Ireland is the cause of labor’ is as relevant today as it was when he first penned it.

Today in many places there are laws defining and protecting workers rights. But there is still a battle to be won in many parts of the world to introduce legislative protections for workers.

Everywhere workers rights have to be constantly defended. That is the primary role of the trade union movement. But it is also a duty for everyone who cherishes citizens rights. Workers rights and citizens rights – human rights – are indispensible.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

For much of the media the summer is the political silly season. It’s a time when they fill column inches and news reports with fluff and nonsense.
For the people of north Belfast the summer was far from silly. This year’s orange marching season and the blatantly sectarian actions of some orange bands as they passed St. Patrick’s Church in Donegal Street; the behaviour of the orange order at Ardoyne; the UVF fuelled attacks on the PSNI around Carlisle Circus; and the defence of all this by leading unionist politicians, was a reminder of the undercurrent of sectarianism which remains a major problem in the north.
South of the border the disastrous health policies of the Irish government, and their impact on health provision and hospital services, has seen growing public dissatisfaction with that government. This was brought into sharp focus when the HSE announced cuts of €130 million in August. There was immediate and vocal public outrage at its proposal to cut the personal assistant allowance for disabled people. Seven people with disabilities and several carers picketed Government Buildings, staying overnight in protest at the threatened cuts.
The Health Minister was forced into a u-turn. However, Minister Reilly said that while the government would try to maintain existing services he could not guarantee that the upcoming budget would not include cuts around disability.
This and Minister Brian Hayes remarks at the weekend that some wealthy pensioners should pay more has heightened fears around the budget. Government Ministers indulged in the scare tactics this time last year.
At the same time as Ministers are openly talking about December’s budget the Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Labour leader Eamon Gilmore have been refusing to answer questions on it or to speculate about the content of the budget other than to say that it will be ‘savage’.
This will be this government’s second budget and it will see the imposition of almost another three and a half billion euros in cuts and taxes. It is effectively planning to take a kango hammer to the public services.
The madness of this approach is evident in the fact that AIB, which is owned by the state, will hand over €1 billion to unguaranteed bondholders on October 1st. This is almost one third of what will be cut in December’s budget!!
While Sinn Féin agrees that the state has to cut its debt and deficit we believe its approach to achieving this is wrong and deeply flawed and isn’t working. It is making the wrong choices and taking the wrong decisions.
Sinn Féin’s approach in the north, where we are in a mandatory coalition government with unionist parties that are deeply conservative, or in the Dáil where we are the lead opposition party, is about defending working people from the worst excesses of Tory government policies and opposing the punitive policies of Fine Gael and Labour.
Our policies are framed by our core republican values. These are about freedom and Irish unity, and equality and citizens’ rights, including the right to a home, to a job, to a decent standard of health care, to a clean environment and social solidarity. Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
On Monday we held a planning day in Dublin with our 17 strong Oireachtas team and Leinster House support team. The all-day session took place in Clasac, the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann resource centre in Clontarf which is a very fine building. Our purpose was to discuss our strategy for the new term of the Dáil which began on Tuesday. We were joined by Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and key support staff from the north.
The reality is that we have two states on this island which since partition have evolved different systems. It is important therefore that we have a joined up approach. This is particularly pertinent as London still exercises fiscal control in the north. This is deeply frustrating as it limits the Executive’s ability to challenge the imposition of some measures which are still in the provenance of the British.As a result of work ongoing at this time Sinn Féin will shortly be launching a major jobs strategy for the 26 counties which we believe can create more than 150,000 jobs while retaining thousands of current jobs. This can be paid for from a €13 billion additional investment in job creation and economic growth over the next four years. How can this be paid for at a time of recession?

It would be funded from €5.8billion in discretionary funding in the National Pension Reserve Fund, €1.534billion from the European Investment Bank, €3 billion incentivised investment from the private pension sector and we would not cut the €2.6 billion which the government cut from it’s capital budget spend.

Following months of intensive conversation with rural communities across the island, involving Martin Ferris TD, Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh, Senator Kathryn Reilly and myself, Sinn Féin will also be publishing a new document setting out proposals for the regeneration of rural Ireland with a particular focus on the west. 
And in November, in advance of the Fine Gael/Labour budget Sinn Féin will present a fully costed, alternative  – one which is fair, takes account of the hardship that people are facing and which will boost recovery.For example the government is going to bring in a property tax which will add an additional burden on households on top of previous stealth taxes like the Universal Social Charge, the Household Charge, septic tank charges, increased costs for parents with children at school, increased VAT and much more. The government claims this property tax would raise around €500 million.Sinn Féin is opposed to the property tax. We believe that those who can afford to pay more should pay more. We have consistently called for the introduction of a third rate of tax for those earning over €100,000. This would raise around €410milion. We have also argued for the establishment of a wealth tax on assets above €1million, excluding working farmland which on last years figures would raise about 800million.  These measures would be far more equitable.So, there is a lot of work ahead. Sinn Féin is developing policies north and south and with an all-Ireland perspective, to meet the challenges of the here and now while planning for the future. Monday’s discussion was very useful and informative. Making progress; defending working families; opposing harsh government policies, whether from London or Dublin and advancing our objectives of unity and independence, will not happen by chance or because its right – it requires strategizing and planning and that’s what Sinn Féin is all about.
 

We need a National Strategy to challenge Suicide

Did you know that it is estimated that every day almost 3000 people across the world take their own lives – that’s an estimated one million people every year? But the crisis goes beyond that. The World Health Organisation says that ‘for every person who completes a suicide, 20 or more may attempt to end their lives.’

Moreover, the statistics almost certainly disguise the true extent of the crisis. Prof Kevin Malone of the School of Medicine and Medical Science UCD and St. Vincent’s University Hospital gave evidence on suicide to the Dáil Joint Committee on Health and Children two years ago and reported that a study he carried out into suicide in 23 countries concluded that suicide levels are significantly higher than the official statistics suggest.

Monday was World Suicide Prevention Day. It is part of a week long international campaign to increase awareness of this issue. And it is a hugely difficult time for those families enduring the loss of a loved one.

This will be the 10th year of this concerted global effort to encourage greater research and education into suicide.

In west Belfast and Louth bereaved families and suicide awareness and prevention groups will this week be involved in a range of actions to highlight the problem of suicide in our society and the tragic impact it has on families.

In Louth SOSAD (Save our Sons and Daughters) and the M.A.D Youth Theatre Group are holding a series of events focusing on suicide. In Belfast groups like the west Belfast Suicide Awareness and Support Group and PIPS (Public Initiative for the Prevention of Suicide and Self-harm) and many others will also be doing their bit to increase public consciousness and understanding of the scale of the problem and of the support and help that exists for those who are at risk.

The human cost of suicide on families and communities in Louth and Belfast and across our society is devastating. The reality is that all sections and all generations are affected, from the very young to the very old, and for those living in rural and urban areas.

Two months ago figures from the Central Statistics Office in Dublin revealed that the number of suicides registered in the 26 counties last year was 525, an increase of 7 per cent on 2010.

It is also widely accepted that the increase in the numbers of suicides, attempted suicides and cases of self harming is directly linked to the economic depression and the stresses this is imposing on individuals and their families.

A pilot study by the National Suicide Research Foundation, published several months ago, looked at 190 deaths in Cork and revealed that almost a third of the suicide victims there worked in the construction and related businesses – the sector most affected by the economic crisis.

In the north it is a fact that those living in disadvantaged areas are three times more likely to take their lives and unemployment has an impact there too.

According to the Department of Health in Belfast over 600 people died from suicide in the two years 2010 and 2011. In 2009 West and North Belfast recorded the highest numbers of suicide in the north with 22 in the west of the City and 20 in the north.

The Public Health Agency (PHA) has recorded an increase of 64% in suicides in the first decade of the new century. 76% of all suicides in the north in 2002 were male. Six years later in 2008 this figure had increased to 77%.

Self harming is also a huge issue. Thousands are admitted to hospitals every year as a result of self-harm which in many cases go unreported. In 2008 11,700 people presented themselves at Accident and Emergency Units in the south as a result of self-harming.

While suicide and self-harming are now better understood than before, and it is accepted that suicide victims and survivors should be treated with compassion and care, the fact remains that only a small proportion of the budget is devoted to mental health.

Mental Health remains the Cinderella of the health services. This needs to be rectified.

Suicide kills more people than road accidents but tackling it does not receive the same priority.

This is an example of the failure of the health system to properly manage and resource this vitally important issue.

One way of tackling suicide and self-harm, particularly at a time of recession, would be to provide for greater co-operation between the health services north and south.

The creation of a national – all-Ireland – Suicide Prevention Agency that brings together all of those bodies and strategies involved in this issue, and has effective and dedicated funding and resourcing, would also make a major contribution to reducing the numbers who die each year.

I would like to have met Rachel Corrie

 The Rachel Corrie just before it sailed from Dundalk in April 2010
The holiday is over! It was great while it lasted. The weather was generally good and allowed for long walks across hills and mountain tops, and up country roads and along beautiful, pristine sandy beaches. It was a time to recharge the batteries and prepare for the work ahead. And there was time to write. Observant readers will have noted in the last blog my admission that, ‘I’m trying to write a book of short stories. Or at least I’m trying to start thinking about it.’
In fact I did a bit of both. I thought about it and I wrote several short stories. So, all I need now is to find time in the midst of what will be a hugely busy period ahead, to think and write a few more.

But that is going to be difficult given the parades issue in the north; the growing crisis in the health service in the south, and the necessary focus on preparing Sinn Féin’s alternative budget proposal. And much more.

I consciously avoid reading newspapers or listening to the news while on holidays. But some stories endure.

One such was the ruling recently by an Israeli judge that the Israeli state was not responsible for the death in March 2003 of Rachel Corrie. It was according to Haifa district court Judge Oded Gershon a “regrettable accident”.

He claimed that Rachel “chose to put herself in danger. She could have easily distanced herself from the danger like any reasonable person would.”

Another example of the victim being blamed.

Not surprisingly the judgement was welcomed by the Israeli government which called it a “vindication”.

However, Hanan Ashrawi, of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, spoke for Palestinians and many others when she said that the evidence had revealed “overwhelming proof that Rachel was deliberately murdered”. She added: “Palestinians as a whole will continue to love Rachel and cherish her memory.”

This blog never met Rachel Corrie. I would have liked to. She was a 23 year old American human rights activist. She was killed on land between the Rafah refugee camp and the border with Egypt on March 16th 2003 by an Israeli soldier driving a bulldozer which was being used to destroy the home of a Palestinian pharmacist. Colleagues of Rachel described how the Israeli soldier deliberately ran her over.

One witness recalled: “As the bulldozer reached the place where Rachel was standing, she began as many of us did on the day to climb the pile of earth. She reached the top and at this point she must have been clearly visible to the driver, especially as she was still wearing the high visibility jacket ["orange fluorescent... with reflective strips"]. She turned and faced in my direction and began to come back down the pile. The bulldozer continued to move forward at [5-6 mph]. As her feet hit the ground I saw a panicked expression on her face... The pile of earth engulfed her and she was hidden from my view.”

The Israeli Government and the Israeli Defense Forces rejected the eye witness accounts and claimed that Rachel Corrie’s death was an accident.

The accounts of her courage and commitment describe a young woman dedicated to the protection of human rights and willing to take risks – huge risks – in pursuit of peace and justice and in defense of the rights of the Palestinian people.

A few days before her death Rachel gave an interview to the Middle East Broadcasting Network, in which she said: "I feel like I'm witnessing the systematic destruction of a people's ability to survive ... Sometimes I sit down to dinner with people and I realize there is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill the people I'm having dinner with.”

The huge esteem in which Rachel is held was reflected here in Ireland by the decision to rename the MV Linda, an 1800 tonne ship, which was purchased in March 2010 by the Free Gaza Movement, the MV Rachel Corrie. The renaming ceremony took place on Wednesday morning May 12th 2010. Later that evening the MV Rachel Corrie slipped out of Dundalk Harbour and set sail for the Mediterranean.

It was the beginning of a historic journey to the middle east where those on board planned to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip and deliver hundreds of tons of much needed construction, school and medical supplies.

This blog reported on those events at that time and of the efforts of an international flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza strip.

On May 30th Israeli naval commandos attacked the flotilla and nine human rights activists were killed. The Rachel Corrie was several days behind because of mechanical difficulties but on June 5th Israeli forces stormed the ship while it was still in international waters and detained is crew and passengers. They were eventually expelled from Israel.

But the work of justice and human rights for the Palestinian people and especially those trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip, is more important than ever.

A United Nations report published last week – ‘Gaza in 2020 – A liveable place?’ reveals the extent to which the crisis in that region is deepening and the enormous health, water and humanitarian challenges now facing the 1.6 million people who live there.



A hospital damaged during the Israeli assault on Gaza in 2008

According to the UN ‘the people of Gaza remain worse off than they were in the 1990s’.

By 2020 the daily lives of Gazans will be worse than they are now. It concludes: ‘There will be virtually no reliable access to sources of safe drinking water, standards of healthcare and education will have continued to decline and the vision of affordable and reliable electricity for all will have become a distant memory for most. The already high number of poor, marginalised and food-insecure people depending on assistance will not have changed and in all likelihood will have increased.’

By every conceivable measurement Gazans will be worse off. Unemployment which last year stood at 29% has increased. The unemployment rate for women in 2012 was 47% and 58% for people between the ages of 20 and 24.

The Gaza strip is running out of water; it needs 250 additional schools now and another 190 in the next eight years. It also needs 71,000 housing units.

The UN report concludes that ‘one of the main reasons for the economy’s inability to recover to pre-2000 levels has been and is the blockade of the Gaza strip.’

The Israeli siege and the oppressive actions of its forces against Palestinians was what motivated and outraged Rachel Corrie.

Our goal must be to support the efforts of all of those seeking to bring an end to this injustice.



The American International School destroyed by Israeli forces during Israel's Operation 'Cast Lead' in December 2008 and January 2009.

The United Report recorded that during the Israeli assault on Gaza: "6,268 homes were destroyed or severely damaged; 186 greenhouses (growing vegetables for sale) were destroyed; 931 impact craters in roads and fields were counted;  universities faced US$ 25 million in damages; 35,750 cattle, sheep and goats, and more than one million chicken and other birds were killed; and 17% of the cultivated area was destroyed. ‘Cast Lead’ caused a total of US$ 181 million in direct and US$ 88 million in longer-term costs for Gaza’s agriculture; generated about 600,000 tonnes of rubble and US$ 44 million in environmental costs; and water and sanitation infrastructure suffered almost US$ 6 million in damages." 

Freedom!

THIS BLOG IS ON HOLIDAYS. JUST SO THAT YOU KNOW. AND AS LONG TIME READERS OF THIS SPACE WILL KNOW, DURING THE AUGUST BREAK THIS BLOG DOES NOT WATCH OR LISTEN TO NEWS PROGRAMMES OR READ NEWSPAPERS. APART FROM A REGULAR TIE IN WITH THE OFFICE FOR EMERGENCIES I REFUSE TO DISCUSS POLITICAL MATTERS OR INDEED CURRENT AFFAIRS WITH ANYONE. EVEN YOUR MAN. HE IS ON HOLIDAYS AS WELL. BY THE WAY HE DIFFERENTIATES BETWEEN BREAKS AND HOLIDAYS AND BY THE WAY AGAIN HE IS NOT WITH ME ON HOLIDAYS. OR ON A BREAK EITHER FOR THAT MATTER. IT IS VERY LIBERATING. HIS ABSENCE. I JEST. THE ABSENCE OF NEWS. OR AT LEAST ABSENCE OF THE COMPULSION TO WATCH OR LISTEN OR READ THE DAILY DOSES OF WHAT PASSES FOR NEWS THESES DAYS. INCIDENTLY WHEN I SAY I DONT GET NEWSPAPERS THERE IS AN EXCEPTION TO THAT. I GET THE ANDYTOWN NEWS IF IT IS AVAILABLE AND ON A SATURDAY I GET THE IRISH TIMES. FOR THE SPORTS, THE REVIEW SECTION, BOOKS, THE MAGAZINE AND ALL THE REST OF IT. AND I TRY TO SET ASIDE A GOOD SPACE ON A SATURDAY AND DEPENDING ON THE TIME OF DAY, FOR A COFFEE OR A GLASS OF VINO OR A PINT OF PLAIN AND I ENDULGE MYSELF. IT MAKES MY DAY. THE MAIN THING IS THE SPACE. AND THE TIME. TO READ EVERY THING WHICH IS OF INTEREST TO ME.   THAT MUST HAVE BEEN THE WAY IT WAS BEFORE THE HYPER HOURLY CYLE OF REGURITATED SOUND BITES AND TABLOID SUPERFICIALITY.   IN THE OLDEN DAYS PEOPLE HAD TO WAIT FOR THEIR INFORMATION ABOUT WHAT WAS GOING ON IN THEIR WORLD AND THEN THEY WOULD TAKE TIME TO DIGEST IT AND CONSIDER IT UNTIL THEY GOT THE NEXT BIT OF SCEAL FROM WHOEVER HAPPENED TO BE PASSING BY.   NOWADAYS WE ARE BOMBARDED WITH NEWS AND WHILE THE WAYS OF THE INTERNET AND SOCIAL NETWORKING ARE HUGELY SIGNIFICENT AS A MEANS OF DEMOCRATISING ACCESS TO NEWS AND EMPOWERING CITIZENS THROUGHOUT THE GLOBE, IT IS STILL WILDLY REFRESHING FOR ME TO BE OUTSIDE ALL THAT EVEN FOR A FEW WEEKS.   I WAS NOW GOING TO SPECULATE ON ALL THE THINGS WHICH MAY BE HAPPENING OUT THERE IN A ‘SO FOR ALL I KNOW’ WAY. FOR EXAMPLE FOR ALL I KNOW ENDA KENNY MAY HAVE WON BACK ECONOMIC SOVEREIGNTY EVEN IN HIS OWN IMAGINATION BUT EVEN THE THOUGHT OF ENGAGING IN SUCH MEANDERINGS IS TOO MUCH FOR ME. IT HURTS MY IMAGINATION. SO I WILL PASS.   WHAT DO I DO INSTEAD? I LISTEN TO MUSIC A LOT. A VERY BIG LOT INDEED. I SIT IN THE GARDEN. THATS WHERE I AM NOW. SNOWIE IS KEEPING GUARD. SO IS OUR RESIDENT ROBIN. HE HOPS CHEERFULLY ABOUT THE PLACE. I SLEEP. LIKE A LOG. I COOK. A LOT. AND EAT LIKE AN ATHLETE. I EXERCISE A LITTLE. THAT WILL COME LATER WHEN I HAVE EXHAUSTED MYSELF DOING NOTHING.   OH ....AND I READ. BOOKS. I’M IN THE MIDDLE OF THREE AT THE MINUTE.   THREE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT TOMES. JOE O CONNOR – WHO I ADMIRE GREATLY – AND HIS ‘GHOST LIGHT’.   A BOOK ABOUT FATHER TOMMY MAHER AND HIS PART IN THE RENAISSANCE OF KILKENNY HURLING CALLED THE GODFATHER OF MODERN HURLING BY ENDA MCEVOY.   AND IVOR BROWNES TREMENDOUS ‘MUSIC AND MADNESS’ WHICH IS A REVEALING,HONEST AND COMPELLING STORY ABOUT HIMSELF AND THE RECENT HISTORY OF MENTAL HEALTH PROVISION AND MORE SIGNIFICENTLY THE AUTHORS ONGOING PERSONAL AND PSYCHIATRIC SEARCH FOR AN UNDERSTANDING OF ‘THE HUMAN CONDITION’.   SO THERE YOU ARE.   I HAVE A LIST OF OTHER TITLES TO CATCH UP ON INCLUDING A BOOK ABOUT CHRISTY RING BY VAL DORGAN AND DONAL ÓG’S ‘COME WHAT MAY’ AND J.M COETZEE’S ‘DISGRACE’. AND A VIRTUAL LIBRARY OF POETRY AND THRILLERS TO BE ABSORBED. SO THERE IS A LOT TO DO.   AND FOR PURELY MEDICINAL PURPOSES I MAY EVEN TAKE A SMALL SUP. OR TWO.   A BIRD NEVER FLEW ON ONE WING.   AND THERE IS THE PROSPECT OF THE GALWAY-KILKENNY HURLING FINAL.   AND DONEGAL OUT AGAINST CORK THIS SUNDAY IN THE FOOTBALL. AND IM TRYING TO WRITE A BOOK OF SHORT STORIES. OR AT LEAST IM TRYING TO START THINKING ABOUT IT.   SO ALL IN ALL A BUSY TIME. THE THING IS IT IS MY OWN BUSY-NESS. DOING THE THINGS I WANT TO DO. OF COURSE I WON’T GET DOING MOST OF THEM. BUT WHO CARES? AT LEAST I HAVE THE FREEDOM TO DO WHAT I WANT. AND THATS REAL FREEDOM.   EVEN IF IT IS ONLY FOR A WEE WHILE.    

Tiocfaidh ár lá

Dungiven National Hunger Strike Rally
There is a presumption often made by republicans that when we hold commemorations or someone of my generation mentions in passing some past event that others who are listening connect immediately.Mention August 1969 and they remember or can picture in their heads the pogroms of that month in Belfast or the Battle of the Bogside in Derry. Mention internment 1971 and the mental image unwinds of barricaded streets, the sound of gun battles and exploding bombs, and the sights and sounds of hundreds of young men fighting, sometimes hand to hand with British squaddies on the streets.

Talk of collusion and reference the MRF – the Military Reaction Force – and we assume that our audience understands the use by the British of paid agents and counter gangs to kill citizens and stoke the fires of sectarian conflict.But the fact is that many of the faces looking up at me in public conferences and speaking engagements across this island were not alive when many of these remarkable events took place. The first IRA cessation took place 18 years ago this month. Many were only babies or small children or not even born when the H-Block protest took place or when 10 men died on hunger strike.

While a big part of our endeavour and strategizing has to be about looking forward it is also true that we need to understand our past. You will understand nothing about our history if you don’t examine it in its context.This is especially true of the hunger strike. Why would 10 men refuse food and die? Why would others participate in the hunger strike or stand ready to join it? Why would countless tens of thousands across this island and around the world find inspiration in the courage and valour of the men and women political prisoners?

In the here and now it seems inconceivable. But viewed in the context of the time and of the experience of the prisoners and it becomes clear. If you want to know that context then pick up anything written by Bobby Sands. He lived and breathed and suffered in the H Blocks. His smuggled comms- letters; poems; articles; creative pieces; and stories - written on scraps of torn bible pages or cigarette papers using the infill of a biro, and all wrapped in cling film and hidden in his naked body, tell you more about the brutal reality of life for political prisoners and the nature of the northern state than anything else I can think of.These are not the invented musings or a plot device of a clever writer. They are the daily experiences of hundreds of men and women over five terrible years.

There is a premonition of personal tragedy running through Bobby’s writings: that his H Block cell will, literally, become a tomb. His admiration for his comrades and his feelings for supporters and for oppressed people outside of the prison emerge in the words which he expertly uses as a weapon against a regime which is trying vainly to break and dehumanise him. The recent national hunger strike march in Dungiven brought all of that back for those who were in the prisons or part of the H Block/Armagh campaign. For those who weren’t there I thought it would be appropriate as we celebrate the lives of the hungers strikers and their comrades and their contribution to the struggle for freedom that we should reflect on what made them heroes.

In this short extract from his breath taking ‘One Day in my Life’ Bobby describes one 24 hour period in the H Blocks. The brutality, viciousness, inhumanity and sadism of the blocks and of the prison regime jump off the page as does the sense of courage and fearlessness and commitment that marks the men and women political prisoners of the H Blocks and Armagh.
One Day in My Life:“I mumbled a “Hail Mary” to myself and a hurried “Act of Contrition” as I heard the approaching jingle of keys. Several gloved hands gripped and tightened around my arms and feet, raising my body off the ground and swinging me backwards in the one movement. The full weight of my body recoiled forwarded again, smashing me head against the corrugated iron covering around the gate. The sky seemed to fall upon me as they dropped me to the ground. …

Every part of me stung unmercifully as the heavily disinfected water attacked my naked, raw flesh. I made an immediate and brave attempt to rise out of the freezing, stinging water but the screws held me down while one of them began to scrub my already tattered back with a heavy scrubbing brush. I shrivelled with the pain and struggled for release but the more I fought the more they strengthened their iron grip …They continued to scrub every part of my tortured body, pouring buckets of ice-cold water and soapy liquid over me. I vaguely remember being lifted out of the cold water – the sadistic screw had grabbed my testicles and scrubbed my private parts. That was the last thing I remembered. I collapsed…

 It was cold, so very, very cold. I rolled on to my side and placed my little treasured piece of tobacco under the mattress and felt the dampness clinging to my feet.That’s another day nearer to victory. I thought feeling very hungry.

I was a skeleton compared to what I used to be but it didn’t matter. Nothing really mattered except remaining unbroken. I rolled over once against, the cold biting at me. They have nothing in their entire imperial arsenal to break the spirit of one single Republican political prisoner-of-war who refuses to be broken. I thought, and that eas very true. They can not or never will break our spirit. I rolled over again freezing and the snow came in thew window on top of my blankets.“Tiocfaidh ár lá,” I said to myself. “Tiocfaidh ar lá.”

Nearly a quarter of a century of Féile

Derek Mooney does a really interesting radio show on RTE in the afternoons. It’s a mix of music, conversation and wildlife. If you are interested at all in our wildlife and fauna, in our seas and landscape you will be enthralled and entertained.

In the course of a recent conversation with Derek west Belfast singer, songwriter and very fine author Brian Kennedy mentioned that I had given him a hurl. Brian had been one of several authors reading from their books at the very popular ‘Scribes at the Rock’. This event, which is part of Féile an Phobail is held each year during the festival in the Rock Bar on the Falls Road. In the course of a conversation Brian told me that he had never owned a hurl.

As anyone who knows me will testify I love the game. It’s the best sport in the world. Consequently I always carry a couple of hurleys and sliothars in the boot of the car for those odd moments when I am able to find a bit of space to practice my hurling skills – I once won the west Belfast Féile’s Poc Fada – but that’s another story.

Anyway I got one from the boot of the car and gave it to Brian who – he told Derek – keeps it under his bed. Derek also wanted a hurl and I duly sent one to him – hence my appearance on his radio programme and the opportunity to talk about Féile an Phobail.

The Féile is the largest community festival on these islands – and the best in the world!!!

The official programme of events and activities began last Thursday and Sunday saw thousands take to the Falls Road in a carnival celebration of Féile which this year has as its theme ‘Giants of the North’ with Cú Chulainn just one of the figures from Irish mythology to be taking part.

For ten days west Belfast will resound to the sound of ceol and comedy and craic. There will be theatre, exhibitions, sport, and debate and discussions in venues across west Belfast. Last Friday evening there was a brilliant Mary Black concert in Clonard Monastery and the Wolfe Tones will be in the Féile Marquee in the Falls Park on Wednesday.

I would like to give a special mention to the emotional and powerful ‘Ballymurphy – the Aftermath’ which will run in Conway Mill from the 5th to the 12th of August. It tells the tragic story of the three days in the Ballymurphy area in August 1971 during which 11 local residents were shot dead by the British Parachute Regiment and of the trauma of their families and community. If you haven’t seen it then go this week.

The Féile is a unique opportunity to showcase the talent and genius of the people of this part of the city. It is after more than two decades a vital part of the social fabric of Belfast with something for everyone.

And it was during my conversation with Derek Mooney that it really hit me for the first time that next year Féile will be a quarter of a century old! That is an amazing fact. And it is down to the hard work and determination of so many very good people who from its beginnings in 1988 and steered the Féile through good times and bad. Comhgairdeas to everyone involved.

For those of you too young to remember the Féile was born in 1988 against the backdrop of tragedy and conflict in the north but particularly in west Belfast.

In March of that year Mairead Farrell, Dan McCann and Sean Savage were killed by the British in Gibraltar. The three, who were IRA Volunteers, were well known locally and widely respected.

There was a great sense of shock and distress at events in Gibraltar. This was evident in the huge funeral the three received when their remains were eventually arrived home.

This sense of shock was compounded by the death of IRA Volunteer Kevin McCracken who was shot dead by British soldiers in Turf Lodge on the night Mairead, Dan and Sean came back to Belfast.

But worse was to come. At the graveside in Milltown Cemetery the funeral was attacked by Michael Stone, a member of the paramilitary Ulster Defence Association who was working in collusion with the RUC Special Branch. Using grenades and handguns he killed three mourners and wounded scores more.

Stone was chased by a section of the crowd onto the M1 motorway where he tried to stop cars while firing at his pursuers. As he threatened the young people who were closing in around him he was hit on the head with a wheelbrace. It was at this point that the RUC arrived on the scene. Stone was dragged away and driven off in an RUC vehicle.

The three who died were Thomas McErlean aged 20, John Murray aged 26 and Caoimhin MacBradaigh aged 30, an IRA Volunteer.

Several days later at the funeral of Caoimhin MacBradaigh two gunmen drove into the cortege on the Andersonstown Road at Casement Park. Mindful of the attack at Milltown days earlier the crowd surrounded the car. One of the gunmen fired a shot but the crowd challenged and seized the two. It was a confused and dangerous situation. Mourners thought the funeral was under attack by loyalists. However, it quickly emerged that the two gunmen apprehended by mourners and later killed by the IRA were undercover British Army officers Derek Wood and David Howes.

There was a crescendo of outrage from establishment spokespersons. Seamus Mallon, the Deputy leader of the SDLP, said that the people of West Belfast ‘have turned into savages’. Others said we were ‘animals’. Those unarmed mourners who defended the funeral were hunted down by the RUC and many were sent to prison.

This intense period of violence was a tragic, terrible cameo of the conflict. It was given added significance because most of those who died did so in very public circumstances and in the presence of thousands of other people. Some of them died in the glare of television cameras.

One response to this was the founding of Féile an Phobail. We decided to demonstrate to the world that the people of west Belfast are not savages but a generous, humourous, talented, gifted and inclusive community. The months lading to August 1988 were given over to planning, organising and then holding the first ever Féile an Phobail. It was a huge success and each year has seen it go from strength to strength. So, enjoy this years festival and remember that next year, as we mark 25 years, it will be bigger and better again!

Celebrating Bronagh Wilson

I heard the news of Bronagh Wilson’s death last Wednesday with great sadness.
In September 2009, at the age of 22, she was diagnosed with an inoperable grade 4 glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain tumour – a particularly aggressive and inoperable form of the disease.
Her family and friends launched a fund raising campaign to raise money for additional treatment beyond what she was receiving through the NHS.
I met Bronagh the following year and was asked to speak at an event for her in the Hilton Hotel in April 2010.
Last week Bronagh lost her battle against her illness but her family and friends are left with the memory of a heroic, gutsy young woman who never gave up and who fought her illness every day with fortitude and determination.
I want to extend my deepest condolences to her husband Conor, their two children Conor and Daniel, her parents Gerry and Loretta Wilson and her sister Kristina and brother Conor,along with all of her other family members and friends who worked hard to raise the money for Bronagh’s additional treatment and were a constant source of support.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam
Following the event in April 2010 I posted a blog about Bronagh.
In memory of a very brave young woman I republish it today.
April 19th 2010
Bronagh Wilson
I met Bronagh Wilson and her family last Saturday night (April 17th). She is an ordinary young woman from west Belfast with two small children. But she is also one of the bravest people I have had the honour to meet during my life. Her story is one of great love and compassion.
Bronagh was diagnosed with a brain tumour last year. Although she was already presenting with symptoms beforehand,and had sought medical attention,the cancerous tumour was only detected in medical check-ups during Bronagh’s 2ndpregnancy.
After her son Daniel was born,Bronagh was diagnosed and was then subject to surgery and post-operative treatment. Her medical condition is deemed as terminal.
The Bronagh Wilson Trust was set up in September 2009 with the objective of raising funds for private medical treatment when the NHS treatment ends. That treatment stopped a few weeks ago.
So the money raised during the funding campaign will be used to provide her with further private treatment.
On Saturday night the Trust held a packed gala dinner for the Bronagh Wilson Trust in the Hilton Hotel. Bronagh was there with her fiancée Conor, her mother Loretta, her father Gerry and her wide circle of family and friends and supporters.
It was at times an emotional event, particularly when she joined her father on the stage but it was also a moment of celebration of her courage and determination and of the astonishing and successful efforts of the Trust to raise money.
In the seven months since the Trust was established its small core of friends, supported by scores of others, and through the enormous generosity of the people of west Belfast and beyond have surpassed the £50k target that was set last October.
This blog was asked to speak at the event and I was pleased to agree. Recently, President McAleese had been in touch with me about a special dinner she was hosting next weekend in Áras an Uachtaráin. She asked me to nominate some west Belfast people to attend. I nominated Bronagh and her mummy Loretta.
But I only told Bronagh that in my remarks on Saturday night so it was a nice surprise for her and I’m sure President McAleese and her husband Martin will make them very welcome.
This blog knows how difficult it is to fundraise so I took the opportunity to commend all of those who have contributed in any way to what has been an astonishing fundraising effort by the Trust. It has been a truly remarkable achievement.
The dedication and commitment of everyone involved has been outstanding.
The work of the Bronagh Wilson Trust is yet another example of people power rising quickly to a very special challenge.
But Bronagh’s story has also helped raise public consciousness and understanding about Cancer. And this is very important as so many individuals and families struggle each day to deal with the reality of this terrible illness.
In one newspaper account of her experience of cancer and of her treatments Bronagh talked about the physical impact of these and in one interview she remarked that her hair falling out had been the worst thing.
It reminded me of my close friend,Siobhan O Hanlon.
Siobhan had breast cancer. It was very aggressive and she fought it every day.
As part of an effort to raise awareness around breast cancer we organised – no she organised – a conference in the old St. Thomas’s school on the Whiterock Road.
Siobhan spoke at it and she too talked about her experience of doctors and hospitals and chemo and radiotheraphy.
She held nothing back.
But Bronagh’s comment about hair sent me back to my copy of Siobhan’s remarks that day.
She told the conference: “I had no hair, no eyebrows, no eyelashes, one breast, my nails were all broken, I was tired.  But I knew I had to get my act together.  My hair had started growing but it was very slow.  It was also terribly grey. 
Three terrible days in relation to your hair are 1. when your hair starts coming out, 2. when you put a wig on for the first time and 3. when you have to take it off again.   That was an awful day. 
I remember going into the office and this guy was going across the top of the stairs. 
He said “Ah, Siobhan”. 
“Don’t open your mouth,” I told him.  “I have more hair than you”.  And I did!  “
That was Siobhan. Hugely courageous. And that is Bronagh too – courageous and indomitable and determined
Have a great night Bronagh on Friday evening in Áras an Uachtaráin. ‘