Gerry Adams's Blog, page 75
May 16, 2012
A Tale of Two Worlds
This is a tale of two worlds. One rich and powerful. The other desperately poor, destitute and on the brink of the abyss.
The economic crisis in Europe and the impact of austerity policies in Greece, Spain, Italy and in the Irish state are dominating the news agenda at this time. The talk is of billions of euro. Greece owes hundreds of billions. Spanish banks owe billions. The Irish government has given over €20 billion to bad banks to pay off private banking debt. French banks hold billions of euro of Greek debt – and are watching anxiously the unfolding crisis in that state. And then there is the European Financial Stability Facility with its €200 plus billion and the European Stability Mechanism which has €700 billion. Billions and billions and more billions.
If it were not for the dire social consequences of the austerity policies the reader could be forgiven for thinking this is all about monopoly money.
A few hundred miles south of the European Union there is another world – a wretched world of poverty and hunger where 220,000 children regularly die each year from malnourishment and where one in five children will die before they reach the age of five and which now faces its greatest threat.
The Sahel region cuts a wide swathe across north Africa from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The 12 states that make up the area are already among the most impoverished countries in the world. Today they face an unparalleled humanitarian disaster.
Of the 187 states that make up the UN human development index Niger is ranked 186, Chad is 183, Burkina Faso 181 and Mali 175.
The Sahel has endured cyclical crises around food and water but usually it afflicts one or two states at any time. This year at least 8 states are affected and between 15 million and 23 million people are at grave risk, among them one million children and hundreds of thousands of pregnant women.
This crisis is not unexpected. In January the EU’s crisis response Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva visited Niger and Chad and warned that, ‘we are running out of time.’
Six months ago the UN World Food Programme was warning of a pending catastrophe. It identified the points of crisis, the states affected and the likely cost of dealing with this effectively. It estimated that it would need around $700 million.
This is a large amount of money but it pales into insignificance when set against the billions being spoken of in Europe or the billions more in the budgets of the rich states that make up what is called the developed or first world.
Thus far only about half the money needed by the UN has been received. The main aid agencies; World Vision, Action against Hunger, Save the Children and Oxfam and others like Concern, are urgently trying to raise money also. But they currently have only achieved 20% of their goal of $250 million.
The reports from the region are reminiscent of the accounts from the Ireland at the time of the Great Hunger when the dead lay at the side of roads their mouths green from eating grass.
One World Food Programme worker described what he has recently witnessed in the Sahel: ‘I’ve been to areas where some communities are reduced to eating wild plants, wild berries. Things that normally animals would eat. And they have no way of feeding themselves and their children. So you could say that technically in certain parts of the Sahel people are desperate and have nothing, literally nothing, left to eat but wild leaves.’
An aid worker with World Vision described the situation in Mauritania where many refugees from Mali have sought refuge. He said: ‘People are arriving with nothing. They’re living in camps which are just sheets on sticks with a few pots and pans. And there’s a fierce wind blowing across the desert. The heat is unbearable. And so there we’re able to see the extent of that suffering already playing out in those refugee camps.’
The reasons for this crisis are many. Climate change and drought are important factors. So too are issues like poverty, population growth, poor government and political infrastructure and governance systems, a lack of money, and the impact of several conflicts which have forced hundreds of thousands to be displaced.
It is generally accepted that a significant cause for the latter was the conflict in Libya which saw many foreign workers from the Sahel forced to return home. This has led to a loss of income into already very poor areas and increased instability.
A conflict in Mali has seen an estimated 160,000 people forced to flee their homes into neighbouring states whose resources are at breaking point. Another 200,000 Malians have fled their homes within the Mali state adding to its crisis.
All of this is contributing to an increasingly desperate situation.
In this tale of two worlds there is an onus on the richer world - despite its economic difficulties – to reach across the Mediterranean Sea and into the Sahel to provide the food and medicines and sustainable investment our neighbours need to live.
The EU, which is the biggest contributor of aid to the region needs to do more, both in direct funding and in pushing individual EU states and other countries to contribute. But there is a more fundamental issue that must be addressed – how to build indigenous sustainable economic and agricultural systems that can meet the challenges of nature and man without whole populations being put at risk of starvation and disease.
The economic crisis in Europe and the impact of austerity policies in Greece, Spain, Italy and in the Irish state are dominating the news agenda at this time. The talk is of billions of euro. Greece owes hundreds of billions. Spanish banks owe billions. The Irish government has given over €20 billion to bad banks to pay off private banking debt. French banks hold billions of euro of Greek debt – and are watching anxiously the unfolding crisis in that state. And then there is the European Financial Stability Facility with its €200 plus billion and the European Stability Mechanism which has €700 billion. Billions and billions and more billions.
If it were not for the dire social consequences of the austerity policies the reader could be forgiven for thinking this is all about monopoly money.
A few hundred miles south of the European Union there is another world – a wretched world of poverty and hunger where 220,000 children regularly die each year from malnourishment and where one in five children will die before they reach the age of five and which now faces its greatest threat.
The Sahel region cuts a wide swathe across north Africa from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The 12 states that make up the area are already among the most impoverished countries in the world. Today they face an unparalleled humanitarian disaster.
Of the 187 states that make up the UN human development index Niger is ranked 186, Chad is 183, Burkina Faso 181 and Mali 175.
The Sahel has endured cyclical crises around food and water but usually it afflicts one or two states at any time. This year at least 8 states are affected and between 15 million and 23 million people are at grave risk, among them one million children and hundreds of thousands of pregnant women.
This crisis is not unexpected. In January the EU’s crisis response Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva visited Niger and Chad and warned that, ‘we are running out of time.’
Six months ago the UN World Food Programme was warning of a pending catastrophe. It identified the points of crisis, the states affected and the likely cost of dealing with this effectively. It estimated that it would need around $700 million.
This is a large amount of money but it pales into insignificance when set against the billions being spoken of in Europe or the billions more in the budgets of the rich states that make up what is called the developed or first world.
Thus far only about half the money needed by the UN has been received. The main aid agencies; World Vision, Action against Hunger, Save the Children and Oxfam and others like Concern, are urgently trying to raise money also. But they currently have only achieved 20% of their goal of $250 million.
The reports from the region are reminiscent of the accounts from the Ireland at the time of the Great Hunger when the dead lay at the side of roads their mouths green from eating grass.
One World Food Programme worker described what he has recently witnessed in the Sahel: ‘I’ve been to areas where some communities are reduced to eating wild plants, wild berries. Things that normally animals would eat. And they have no way of feeding themselves and their children. So you could say that technically in certain parts of the Sahel people are desperate and have nothing, literally nothing, left to eat but wild leaves.’
An aid worker with World Vision described the situation in Mauritania where many refugees from Mali have sought refuge. He said: ‘People are arriving with nothing. They’re living in camps which are just sheets on sticks with a few pots and pans. And there’s a fierce wind blowing across the desert. The heat is unbearable. And so there we’re able to see the extent of that suffering already playing out in those refugee camps.’
The reasons for this crisis are many. Climate change and drought are important factors. So too are issues like poverty, population growth, poor government and political infrastructure and governance systems, a lack of money, and the impact of several conflicts which have forced hundreds of thousands to be displaced.
It is generally accepted that a significant cause for the latter was the conflict in Libya which saw many foreign workers from the Sahel forced to return home. This has led to a loss of income into already very poor areas and increased instability.
A conflict in Mali has seen an estimated 160,000 people forced to flee their homes into neighbouring states whose resources are at breaking point. Another 200,000 Malians have fled their homes within the Mali state adding to its crisis.
All of this is contributing to an increasingly desperate situation.
In this tale of two worlds there is an onus on the richer world - despite its economic difficulties – to reach across the Mediterranean Sea and into the Sahel to provide the food and medicines and sustainable investment our neighbours need to live.
The EU, which is the biggest contributor of aid to the region needs to do more, both in direct funding and in pushing individual EU states and other countries to contribute. But there is a more fundamental issue that must be addressed – how to build indigenous sustainable economic and agricultural systems that can meet the challenges of nature and man without whole populations being put at risk of starvation and disease.
May 9, 2012
Where now for Europe?
There have been a whole series of elections in European states in the last week. Voters in Britain, Italy, Greece, Germany and France have all gone to the polls. Most of the media focus has been on the electoral outcomes in France, with the election of a Socialist President Francois Hollande, and on Greece where the government parties saw their support sharply decline.
In effect the elections in France and Greece were referendums on the strategy of austerity which French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel championed and successfully imposed on the EU in the last two years – austerity lost!
The defeat of Sarkozy and of other conservative parties and governments is evidence of a tide of change that is taking place in many European countries.
Since the economic crisis gripped Europe the conservative governments that dominate the EU have pursued austerity policies. In March they agreed to the introduction of an Austerity (Fiscal Compact) Treaty.
The result of this ideological adherence to austerity has been a deepening of the economic and banking crisis within Europe. State deficits have increased, public services have been slashed, unemployment has soared and poverty has increased.
Nowhere has this been more apparent than in the south of Ireland. Since 2008 there have been five austerity budgets and €24.6 billion worth of cuts. Government growth predictions for the economy have had to be reduced time and time again. In that same period the Irish state has seen its exchequer deficit – which austerity was supposed to cut - double from €12.7 billion in 2008 to €24.9 billion in 2011.
At the same time the social and human consequences of the austerity policies pursued by the government has been grave. Almost 15% or half a million citizens are out of work; emigration is again widespread; huge cuts have been inflicted on health and education and other public services; and new taxes have added to the distress of households.
Ordinary citizens understand, better than the governments of Europe and the spin doctors of austerity that you can’t cut your way out of a recession. Imposing deep cuts to public services; reducing wages and welfare payments, and imposing new taxes on low and middle income families in a recession just makes the recession worse.
Quite clearly austerity is not working. The election results across Europe are evidence that there is a ground swell of opinion among citizens now defiantly fighting back against austerity policies. They are voting out those politicians and parties pursuing austerity.
On May 31st citizens will have their opportunity to vote in a referendum. The choice before them is to either endorse austerity, by writing it into the constitution, or voting No and joining the growing European wide movement that is demanding an end to austerity, as well as investment in jobs and growth.
With the popular tide in Europe demanding jobs and in an effort not to be wrong footed by the growing opposition to austerity, Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil have rediscovered the importance of a jobs and growth strategy.
Monsieur Hollande is now flavour of the month for all three parties as they trip over each other rushing to declare their support for his position and some even claiming that they were saying all of this before he was!
Citizens will not be fooled by this. Or by the rhetoric. The truth is that prior to a succession of EU summits Sinn Féin urged the government to ensure that growth and jobs were at the heart of any subsequent agreement. It rejected this sensible approach.
On the contrary it chose to sign up to a Fiscal Compact Treaty that will lock this state into austerity policies for years to come and will see the government hand significant fiscal sovereignty over to bureaucrats in Europe.
Under the Troika deal the government and Fianna Fáil agreed to a bailout programme that commits this government to €8.6 billion of additional cuts for the next three years. Under the Austerity Treaty the work of reducing the structural deficit to 0.5% will mean more cuts of €6 billion. In addition the state has signed up to giving €11 billion to the European Stability Mechanism.
Where does the government plan to get this money? Thus far it has failed to say.
Of equal importance is the political direction the Austerity Treaty is taking. The head of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi spelt it out last week. Speaking in Barcelona Draghi set out his vision for Europe in the next ten years. He said: “We want to have a fiscal union. We have to accept the delegation of fiscal sovereignty from the national governemnts to some form of central authority.”
This means that the Irish government has chosen to go down a path which will lead to Europe deciding what our tax regime is; how much citizens will pay in taxes and how much is paid out on welfare to those in need.
Do Irish citizens want to be a province of a European super state where technocrats – who have taken a succession of bad decisions for Europe in recent years - take decisions for Irish citizens with no accountability?
So, where to now? Austerity is in retreat but conservative governments across Europe, and Enda Kenny, Eamon Gilmore and Micheál Martin, remain ideologically committed to austerity. The referendum on May 31st is an opportunity for Irish citizens to say enough and no more to austerity. Vote No for Jobs and investment in the economy.
In effect the elections in France and Greece were referendums on the strategy of austerity which French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel championed and successfully imposed on the EU in the last two years – austerity lost!
The defeat of Sarkozy and of other conservative parties and governments is evidence of a tide of change that is taking place in many European countries.
Since the economic crisis gripped Europe the conservative governments that dominate the EU have pursued austerity policies. In March they agreed to the introduction of an Austerity (Fiscal Compact) Treaty.
The result of this ideological adherence to austerity has been a deepening of the economic and banking crisis within Europe. State deficits have increased, public services have been slashed, unemployment has soared and poverty has increased.
Nowhere has this been more apparent than in the south of Ireland. Since 2008 there have been five austerity budgets and €24.6 billion worth of cuts. Government growth predictions for the economy have had to be reduced time and time again. In that same period the Irish state has seen its exchequer deficit – which austerity was supposed to cut - double from €12.7 billion in 2008 to €24.9 billion in 2011.
At the same time the social and human consequences of the austerity policies pursued by the government has been grave. Almost 15% or half a million citizens are out of work; emigration is again widespread; huge cuts have been inflicted on health and education and other public services; and new taxes have added to the distress of households.
Ordinary citizens understand, better than the governments of Europe and the spin doctors of austerity that you can’t cut your way out of a recession. Imposing deep cuts to public services; reducing wages and welfare payments, and imposing new taxes on low and middle income families in a recession just makes the recession worse.
Quite clearly austerity is not working. The election results across Europe are evidence that there is a ground swell of opinion among citizens now defiantly fighting back against austerity policies. They are voting out those politicians and parties pursuing austerity.
On May 31st citizens will have their opportunity to vote in a referendum. The choice before them is to either endorse austerity, by writing it into the constitution, or voting No and joining the growing European wide movement that is demanding an end to austerity, as well as investment in jobs and growth.
With the popular tide in Europe demanding jobs and in an effort not to be wrong footed by the growing opposition to austerity, Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil have rediscovered the importance of a jobs and growth strategy.
Monsieur Hollande is now flavour of the month for all three parties as they trip over each other rushing to declare their support for his position and some even claiming that they were saying all of this before he was!
Citizens will not be fooled by this. Or by the rhetoric. The truth is that prior to a succession of EU summits Sinn Féin urged the government to ensure that growth and jobs were at the heart of any subsequent agreement. It rejected this sensible approach.
On the contrary it chose to sign up to a Fiscal Compact Treaty that will lock this state into austerity policies for years to come and will see the government hand significant fiscal sovereignty over to bureaucrats in Europe.
Under the Troika deal the government and Fianna Fáil agreed to a bailout programme that commits this government to €8.6 billion of additional cuts for the next three years. Under the Austerity Treaty the work of reducing the structural deficit to 0.5% will mean more cuts of €6 billion. In addition the state has signed up to giving €11 billion to the European Stability Mechanism.
Where does the government plan to get this money? Thus far it has failed to say.
Of equal importance is the political direction the Austerity Treaty is taking. The head of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi spelt it out last week. Speaking in Barcelona Draghi set out his vision for Europe in the next ten years. He said: “We want to have a fiscal union. We have to accept the delegation of fiscal sovereignty from the national governemnts to some form of central authority.”
This means that the Irish government has chosen to go down a path which will lead to Europe deciding what our tax regime is; how much citizens will pay in taxes and how much is paid out on welfare to those in need.
Do Irish citizens want to be a province of a European super state where technocrats – who have taken a succession of bad decisions for Europe in recent years - take decisions for Irish citizens with no accountability?
So, where to now? Austerity is in retreat but conservative governments across Europe, and Enda Kenny, Eamon Gilmore and Micheál Martin, remain ideologically committed to austerity. The referendum on May 31st is an opportunity for Irish citizens to say enough and no more to austerity. Vote No for Jobs and investment in the economy.
May 7, 2012
Who owns our natural resources?
This blog left the Dáil late last Wednesday night and traveled to Castlebar in County Mayo. It was a beautiful evening and a peaceful drive – if a bit long. Mayo is a beautiful part of the country. I have been there many times over the years most recently in March for a public meeting on the crisis in Rural Ireland.
After that event I met with some community activists from Rossport in County Mayo who have been involved for many years in the campaign around Shell and the Corrib gas field.
They briefed myself and Martin Ferris about their ongoing concerns, including the behaviour of the Gardai and the actions of the private security firm, Integrated Risk Management Services (IRMS), that is used by Shell in the area.
I told them I would visit the area and last Thursday morning we arrived into Bangor and met local Sinn Féin activists and Corrib gas community activists.
I travelled around several of the Shell sites and visited the Shell-to-Sea camp. This blog witnessed for myself the unnecessary numbers of Gardaí being used to protect the Shell facilities – the Garda presence has cost €20 million thus far and at a time when other communities are being stripped of Garda stations on Garda numbers.
There was also a large number of uniformed private security guards employed by Shell at all the sites and along parts of the road. These men were all dressed alike in dark blue uniforms, with yellow bibs and hard hats. On a cold, overcast morning they were all wearing dark glasses. Although we were on the public road they made a point of coming out from behind their gate to stand and stare. Their behavior was reminiscent of the RUC of old. The atmosphere was tense and intimidatory and for local people who have to put up with this everyday it is clearly intrusive and unwelcome.
At one point we were passed by a convoy of Shell lorries. A Garda Van preceded the convoy which then had a second Garda van at the head of the convoy proper. There was then an IRMS van behind that; then the lorries and then a follow up IRMS car and Garda car. I was told that this is typical and is used even when Shell is disposing of septic tank waste.
After touring the sites I met with some of the community activists, including some who were imprisoned, to discuss the situation. It is clear there are two broad dimensions to this issue. One is the Shell operation. And the other is the very invasive security operation that accompanies it.
We discussed the legal avenues available for challenging both. The Bay where the Shell operation is advancing is an NHA (National Heritage Area) and is also designated by the European Union as an SAC (Special Area of Conservation).
In addition last November the European Commission renewed its threat to impose substantial fines on the Irish government if turf-cutting takes place on protected bogs this year. EU environment commissioner Janez Potocnik told MEPs that he may seek a legal injunction if it is found that EU environment law is being defied.
The Commissioner was speaking as environmentalists told the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament that the EU’s habitats directive has been consistently broken.
At the same time Shell is digging a huge tunnel through bogland to facilitate gas pipes coming ashore from the gas fields. It appears to this blog that Shell could well be driving a coach and horses through EU law. It is also likely that Shell may be in breach of a Parks and Wildlife recommendation.
There is work to be done in respect of all of this.
There is also the outstanding issue of the contracts under which Shell is carrying out this work and the absence of benefit coming to the state from the exploitation of this very valuable natural resource. The government needs to learn from the Norwegian approach to the exploitation of natural resources.
It also should also take urgent action to cut the excessive policing bill, lessen tension in the area by reducing the numbers of Gardai involved in protecting Shell, and by curbing the intrusive tactics of the private security firm.
Decades of mismanagement and dishonest decisions by government has resulted in a handover of our natural resources to multi-national companies with little benefit to the Irish people.
It was a corrupt Fianna Fáil Minister, Ray Burke, who introduced new licensing terms in 1987, abolished royalties and state participation in the exploration of our oil and gas reserves.
Companies were given 100% tax write offs for exploration and development costs. This was reinforced 5 years later when the then Finance Minister Bertie Ahern reduced corporation tax on oil profits to 25% and new licensing terms, beneficial to the multi-nationals, were also introduced.
But the exploitation of the Corrib Gas field also illustrates the failure of government to have a sensible partnership agreement with the exploration company. Corrib will bring little or no benefit either to the local community or to the Irish people. In addition, the gas will be sold to An Bord Gáis at the market rate.
This government, on behalf of citizens, should now move to acquire a majority state shareholding in our oil and gas. The government should also introduce an effective taxation and royalty regime that ensures that this state has the financial resources to get rid of the state debt, and regain our economic sovereignty by ending the involvement of the EU and IMF and ECB in our affairs.
A sensible exploitation strategy would also provide the funding necessary to create jobs and build a first class public service infrastructure fit for purpose for the 21st century.
The island of Ireland is rich in natural resources. The natural resources include natural gas, petroleum, peat, copper, lead, dolomite, barite, limestone, gypsum, silver and some zinc. Industries based on these and other natural resources include fishing, farming, forestry and mining.
The Democratic Programme of the First Dáil Eireann declared that ‘the nation’s sovereignty extends not only to all men and women of the nation, but to all its material possessions, the Nation’s soil and all its resources, all the wealth and all the wealth-producing processes within the Nation’ and that ‘all right to private property must be subordinated to the public right and welfare’.
Contrary to this successive Irish Governments have sold off our natural resources. Far from ensuring that those resources have been used to the benefit of the Irish people Irish governments have squandered them in a most shameful manner. This has to change.
April 30, 2012
No place for censorship or silence
What if I told you that there is a state which has censored and silenced those in its ranks who have criticised its policies and that denies them the right to express their opinion without first submitting their views to a censor to ensure that it conforms to the opinion of the state!
You might think China or North Korea or Burma or any one of a number of other states which deny citizens their right to freedom of speech.
But you would be wrong. It’s the Vatican state in Rome.
In the last two years five prominent theologians and priests in Ireland and the Redemptorist Magazine ‘Reality’ have been officially silenced and censored by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in the Vatican. It is believed that there have been others.
The most recent example to come to light was that of Fr. Brian D’Arcy, a member of the Passionate Order, who was ‘censured’ for four articles he wrote. Fr. D’Arcy, who is based in the Passionate Monastery in Enniskillen, has been writing for the Sunday World for decades, as well as contributing to other publications and to the broadcast media. 14 months ago he was contacted by the head of his order and told that the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith were accusing him of being involved in scandals.
Fr. D’Arcy says this is a reference to his criticism of the way the Vatican handled the issue of child abuse in Ireland. He has refused to submit material to the CDF and has said he will continue to write on the issue of sexual abuse.
Fr. Sean Fagan is an 84 year old Marist theologian who was silenced. Fr. Owen O Sullivan is a Capuchin who was silenced because of an article in a Catholic journal ‘The Furrow’. In his article he argued for a more tolerant attitude to homosexuality. He too has to submit anything he writes to a censor.
Fr. Tony Flannery is a Redemptorist priest who helped establish the Association of Irish Priests. He has expressed his support for the ordination of women. And Fr. Gerry Moloney who is the editor of the Redemptorist magazine ‘Reality’ has been accused by the CDF of publishing articles which breach Catholic doctrine on issues such as women priests, celibacy and homosexuality. His articles too must pass the censor.
This blog is a Catholic. I am not a doctrinaire catholic but I do believe that my views in support of women in the priesthood and for a greater democratic process within the Church are shared by many Catholics.
Two years ago I visited Palestine and Israel for a programme on Jesus. It was an exploration of his teachings and his life. One fact was inescapable. He mixed with all of the ‘wrong’ sort of people, the prostitutes, the poor, the sick, and those who disagreed with the established religious leadership of his day.
When I think of Jesus I don’t see someone who would censor or silence but who would welcome dialogue and conversation and embrace all opinions.
My own experience of censorship also confirms for me the stupidity and futility of censorship. It doesn’t resolve issues or differences of opinion but makes finding agreement more difficult.
The desire by an individual or group or state to impose its views and beliefs and opinions on others is as old as human kind. The ancient world experienced this as well as the modern.
In our own time Irish republicans have been victim of censorship. For almost three decades the southern state applied Section 31. It was introduced in 1972 by a Labour Minister Conor Cruise O Brien and banned republicans from the broadcast media. Its effect was pernicious and an attack on the rights of citizens to hear the views and opinions of others.
The British, under Thatcher introduced their own version of this in 1988. Under the Broadcast Ban the voices of republicans were banned. This led to some broadcasters coming up with novel ways of circumventing it. Actor’s voices were used and on one occasion the late Mary Holland produced a Dispatches programme for Channel 4 which had Stephen Rea doing my voice and the programme makers lip-synced it perfectly. It made a nonsense of the ban and was so effective that the British government instructed the media not to lip-synch future interviews.
So frequently Sinn Féin television interviews took on the form of badly dubbed Italian spaghetti westerns!
However the political impact of censorship was far reaching and effective. The frequency with which republican spokespersons were interviewed declined sharply. The Ban ensured that to a large extent only the two government’s version of events was presented to the public. There were honourable exceptions within the media but they were few and far between.
In the view of this blog censorship extended the conflict and facilitated the demonising of one side by the other. It made the possibility of finding a resolution very difficult.
This was especially true when the talks between John Hume and I became public and there was a ferociously critical reaction from the governments and its media.
Censorship is the enemy of truth. It reinforces the conditions for division and conflict. It is an obstacle to dialogue which is essential for understanding and agreement and reconciliation.
When methods of communication were limited and the power and influence of the Church was at its height, censoring and silencing those who disagreed with it might have worked but not today. If it persists in this approach this blog believes that the silencing of priests will ultimately be counter-productive.
April 26, 2012
Vote NO on May 31st
This blog has written much in recent time about the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union or for short the Austerity Treaty.
As most readers will know there is to be a referendum in the south of Ireland on May 31st. The vote will determine whether this state does or does not sign up for a Treaty which in this blogs view is a bad deal for citizens, for the state and for Europe.
The public debate has well and truly begun. Yesterday Sinn Féin launched our analysis of the Treaty and I addressed the Oireachtas sub-committee on the Treaty. The Taoiseach is before the same committee this morning giving the government view.
Across Europe also there is growing opposition to the Treaty. I’m told for the first time ever the European Trade Unions Confederation has come out against a European Treaty.
The Dutch government has collapsed because of a disagreement over austerity policies.
And the Socialist candidate for the French Presidency, François Hollande, is quoted in the media this morning saying: “There will be a renegotiation ...Will the treaty be changed? I hope so. Or another treaty arranged? That is up for negotiation. But the treaty, as is, will not be ratified.”
In recent days some of the largest trade unions have come out calling for a NO Vote. At the weekend the Mandate Union came out against the Treaty. On Monday the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union rejected the Treaty. And the Unite union is also calling for a NO vote. SIPTU has demanded a €10 billion jobs package or it will vote NO. So to all intents and purposes SIPTU is saying NO.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions met on Thursday and found it could not achieve agreement on a position on the Treaty. ICTU’s General Secretary said there was no one in the trade union movement in agreement with the treaty. The Treaty was “completely inimical to our interests and our particular analysis on what is wrong in Europe at the moment”.
The government’s spin which connects a Yes Vote for the Treaty with further access to the European Stability Mechanism, in the event that a further bailout was needed, is what is causing concern for some in the trade union leadership.
But as I explained to the Dáil’s Oireachtas Sub-Committee on the Treaty on Thursday afternoon, this is a government bluff which doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
The Government parties and Fianna Fáil are claiming that if we don’t sign up to the Austerity Treaty we will not get access to emergency funding from the ESM.
This is utter nonsense. The simple fact is that this is not a done deal. For the European Stability Mechanism to come into effect it has to go into the EU Treaties (Article 136) and all 27 member states, including the Irish state have to ratify this. The Dáil will only debate this issue after the referendum.
This decision about access to the ESM therefore is in the hands of Fine Gael and Labour.
The government has the power to ensure that there is no block on access to the ESM. Are Enda Kenny and Éamon Gilmore seriously suggesting that they would if the referendum was lost then sign up to an EU Treaties provision that would jeopardise access to emergency funding, if the state needs it?
So, the Yes side’s claims on this issue are as bogus as were the claims during the Lisbon Treaty campaign that passing that Treaty would create jobs.
Since Lisbon 170,000 jobs have been lost.
As part of the battle for hearts and minds over the Treaty Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil have asked Sinn Féin how would we pay for running the state in the event that their bailout scheme fails?
This is the same government which boasts that the bailout will not fail and that we won’t need further emergency funding!
The real question is how are the government going to pay for anything. Currently the government is committed to further cuts to public services of €8 billion over the next three years. The Austerity Treaty will add a further €6 billion in cuts and taxes. Where is this money to come from??
Sinn Fein has argued consistently that there are alternatives to the Government’s austerity policies and bank bailouts.
The Sinn Féin approach is based on fair taxes, investing in jobs, debt restructuring and growing the all-Ireland economy.
Sinn Féin would :
• not pay the promissary note.
• support those on low and middle incomes
• introduce a third tax rate and a wealth tax,
• bring in savings by for example, capping public sector salaries at €100,000.
• And critically we would invest in jobs and growth.
• And Sinn Féin would not sign up to a Treaty that would drive the country deeper into recession.
Sinn Féin has also called for:
• Increasing the lending capacity of the European Investment Bank to stimulate activity in the real economy.
• Cleansing the European Banking system of toxic debts.
• Debt-restructuring agreements involving debt-write-downs for heavily indebted states
• Ending the obligation on the state to pay the Anglo Irish Promissory Note and un-guaranteed senior bondholders in Anglo and other banks.
Sinn Féin has also set out in budget submission after budget submission exactly how we would close the deficit and fund the state and put public finances back on a sustainable footing. This includes paying the wages of nurses, teachers and Gardaí and providing decent frontline services.
For all of these reasons and because there is an alternative this Austerity Treaty must be opposed. Vote No on May 31st.
April 24, 2012
The Failure of Labour
An Ipsos MRBI opinion poll in the Irish Times last Friday morning captured the media headlines with claims that support for both Fine Gael and Labour has dropped. Fine Gael is down by three points to 33%, and Labour by six points to 19%. Fianna Fáil is down 1% to 14%.
According to the poll Sinn Féin is up 6% to 21%. Interestingly the poll was taken at the start of this week immediately after the Labour Party annual conference.
Usually parties get a positive bounce after such events.
This blog has a jaundiced view of such polls. I’m not going to get over excited by an opinion poll claim that we are the second largest party in the state and the real opposition to the government in the Dáil – the government is after all implementing Fianna Fáil policy.
I know we are the real opposition. That is obvious each day in the Dáil chamber. As for the rest, opinion polls are at best a snapshot of public attitudes at a given moment in time. Not too much should be read into their conclusions in respect of individual parties. Although for political anoraks they are the stuff of life.
Whatever about the fortunes of the parties this blog believes that the real story in Friday’s poll is the clear rejection by the public of the government’s failing austerity policies. This reflects what Sinn Féin is hearing on the ground. Citizens are hurting and this government needs to listen.
The significant and painful cuts to public services, and the range of stealth taxes, including septic tank charges, the household charge, water charges which this government has decided to implement, are causing great hardship.
The dreadful social consequences of austerity are to be found in the numbers of citizens unemployed; the thousands of our young people who are emigrating; in every household struggling to pay rent and mortgages and household bills; on every main street where businesses are shutting down; and in every hospital and school where reduced resources are hurting the sick and the young. More than 100,000 households are currently in mortgage distress with 91 more joining that number each day.
This is unacceptable. The government is making the wrong political choices, including decisions to implement Fianna Fáil policy and its support for the Austerity Treaty.
Fine Gael is doing this because it is a conservative right wing party – though I am sure even some members of that party have reservations about the issues involved in this Treaty.
But Labour leaders know the truth. Not that long ago Labour MEPs voted against measures in the European Parliament that are now part of the Austerity Treaty. One described austerity as a ‘recipe for the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.’ While another, Proinsias De Rossa, said these measures ‘will kill growth, destroy jobs and derail recovery.’
The failure of Labour to stand up for working people and its willingness to ally itself to an Irish Thatcherite strategy is why it has seen its position in the polls eroded. Labour TDs and Seanadoirí should vote with their conscience and in solidarity with working people against this Treaty.
Will they?? This blog doubts it.
In this the centenary of its foundation by Connolly and others, and mindful of next year’s centenary of the Dublin Lockout and that great ideological battle between left and right, Labour today should be standing with the working people and against austerity and against the William Martin Murphy-like conservatism of the 21st century.
According to the poll Sinn Féin is up 6% to 21%. Interestingly the poll was taken at the start of this week immediately after the Labour Party annual conference.
Usually parties get a positive bounce after such events.
This blog has a jaundiced view of such polls. I’m not going to get over excited by an opinion poll claim that we are the second largest party in the state and the real opposition to the government in the Dáil – the government is after all implementing Fianna Fáil policy.
I know we are the real opposition. That is obvious each day in the Dáil chamber. As for the rest, opinion polls are at best a snapshot of public attitudes at a given moment in time. Not too much should be read into their conclusions in respect of individual parties. Although for political anoraks they are the stuff of life.
Whatever about the fortunes of the parties this blog believes that the real story in Friday’s poll is the clear rejection by the public of the government’s failing austerity policies. This reflects what Sinn Féin is hearing on the ground. Citizens are hurting and this government needs to listen.
The significant and painful cuts to public services, and the range of stealth taxes, including septic tank charges, the household charge, water charges which this government has decided to implement, are causing great hardship.
The dreadful social consequences of austerity are to be found in the numbers of citizens unemployed; the thousands of our young people who are emigrating; in every household struggling to pay rent and mortgages and household bills; on every main street where businesses are shutting down; and in every hospital and school where reduced resources are hurting the sick and the young. More than 100,000 households are currently in mortgage distress with 91 more joining that number each day.
This is unacceptable. The government is making the wrong political choices, including decisions to implement Fianna Fáil policy and its support for the Austerity Treaty.
Fine Gael is doing this because it is a conservative right wing party – though I am sure even some members of that party have reservations about the issues involved in this Treaty.
But Labour leaders know the truth. Not that long ago Labour MEPs voted against measures in the European Parliament that are now part of the Austerity Treaty. One described austerity as a ‘recipe for the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.’ While another, Proinsias De Rossa, said these measures ‘will kill growth, destroy jobs and derail recovery.’
The failure of Labour to stand up for working people and its willingness to ally itself to an Irish Thatcherite strategy is why it has seen its position in the polls eroded. Labour TDs and Seanadoirí should vote with their conscience and in solidarity with working people against this Treaty.
Will they?? This blog doubts it.
In this the centenary of its foundation by Connolly and others, and mindful of next year’s centenary of the Dublin Lockout and that great ideological battle between left and right, Labour today should be standing with the working people and against austerity and against the William Martin Murphy-like conservatism of the 21st century.
April 22, 2012
Laws enacted by the Oireachtas shall be checked first with the Bundesbank
A friend in the USA emailed me a spoof of the Irish Constitution which appears to originate in the Irish Left Review. It purports to show what the Irish constitution will look like if the Austerity Treaty wins the referendum vote on May 31st.
It reads:
“The Ice Moon has contacts in the highest places and has been able to obtain a secret government memo with a full mockup of the new constitution as amended by the Fiscal Compact Referendum. The following are the relevant new articles:
Article 1
The Irish nation hereby abrogates its inalienable, indefeasible, and sovereign right to choose its own form of Government, to determine its relations with other nations, and to develop its life, political, economic and cultural, in accordance with its own genius and traditions and confers these rights on another crowd altogether.
Article 5
Ireland is a dependancy of the International Monetary Fund with a lot of really nice pubs.
Article 6
All powers of government, legislative, executive and judicial, derive, under the IMF, from the EU, whose right it is to designate the rulers of the State and, in final appeal, to decide all questions of national policy, according to the requirements of the ruling class at present constituted as multinational corporations.
Article 10
All natural resources, including the air and all forms of potential energy, within the jurisdiction of the Parliament and Government established by this Constitution and all royalties and franchises within that jurisdiction belong to the highest bidder.
Article 11
All revenues of the State from whatever source arising shall, without exception, form one fund, and shall be appropriated for the purposes of maintaining holders of bonds in Irish banks in the comfort to which they have become accustomed.
Article 28
The Government shall be responsible for nothing. The previous government shall be responsible for everything.
Article 29
Ireland affirms its devotion to the corporate ideal, capitalism, profit, co-operation with the USA, and denies any sense of solidarity with other nations especially Greece.
Article 34
Justice shall be administered in courts established by law by judges appointed in the manner provided by this Constitution, with extreme severity against the poor, the dissident and the weak, but shall not apply to the rich and powerful especially corrupt politicians, the bankers who bankrupted the country or the people who protected them.
Article 50
Laws enacted by the Oireachtas shall be checked first with the Bundesbank’
It may be a parody but there is much truth in its conclusions about the likely impact on Irish sovereignty, freedom, democracy and poverty if the Austerity Treaty is passed.
It reads:
“The Ice Moon has contacts in the highest places and has been able to obtain a secret government memo with a full mockup of the new constitution as amended by the Fiscal Compact Referendum. The following are the relevant new articles:
Article 1
The Irish nation hereby abrogates its inalienable, indefeasible, and sovereign right to choose its own form of Government, to determine its relations with other nations, and to develop its life, political, economic and cultural, in accordance with its own genius and traditions and confers these rights on another crowd altogether.
Article 5
Ireland is a dependancy of the International Monetary Fund with a lot of really nice pubs.
Article 6
All powers of government, legislative, executive and judicial, derive, under the IMF, from the EU, whose right it is to designate the rulers of the State and, in final appeal, to decide all questions of national policy, according to the requirements of the ruling class at present constituted as multinational corporations.
Article 10
All natural resources, including the air and all forms of potential energy, within the jurisdiction of the Parliament and Government established by this Constitution and all royalties and franchises within that jurisdiction belong to the highest bidder.
Article 11
All revenues of the State from whatever source arising shall, without exception, form one fund, and shall be appropriated for the purposes of maintaining holders of bonds in Irish banks in the comfort to which they have become accustomed.
Article 28
The Government shall be responsible for nothing. The previous government shall be responsible for everything.
Article 29
Ireland affirms its devotion to the corporate ideal, capitalism, profit, co-operation with the USA, and denies any sense of solidarity with other nations especially Greece.
Article 34
Justice shall be administered in courts established by law by judges appointed in the manner provided by this Constitution, with extreme severity against the poor, the dissident and the weak, but shall not apply to the rich and powerful especially corrupt politicians, the bankers who bankrupted the country or the people who protected them.
Article 50
Laws enacted by the Oireachtas shall be checked first with the Bundesbank’
It may be a parody but there is much truth in its conclusions about the likely impact on Irish sovereignty, freedom, democracy and poverty if the Austerity Treaty is passed.
April 20, 2012
A Complex and difficult issue
In a vote in the Dáil on Thursday a Private Members Bill: Medical Treatment (Termination of Pregnancy in Case of Risk to Life of Pregnant Woman) was defeated. The vote came at the end of two days of debate and significant lobbying by all of the many interested groups connected to this issue.
The background to this debate is that in 1992 a 14 year old girl became pregnant as a result of rape and was suicidal. The government refused to allow the girl and her parents to travel abroad for an abortion. The case – known as the X-case - went to court and the Supreme Court ruled that ‘a termination of pregnancy is lawful if it can be shown that there is a real and substantial risk to the lift, as distinct from the health, of the mother.’
A subsequent decision in 2010 by the European Court of Human Rights also made it clear that there is an onus on the State to legislate under the terms of the 1937 Constitution and the decision in the X-Case.
The Socialist Party TD Clare Daly told the Dáil that she was putting forward this Bill because of a failure by successive governments to legislate on this issue.
It is a fact that there are strongly and sincerely held views on all sides in the Dáil, including within Sinn Féin, and across Irish society on this issue. The Irish people know that this is not a black and white issue but a difficult and complex decision faced by women in very serious circumstances.
The people spoke in referendum and firmly placed the responsibility upon their Oireachtas representatives to deal with the issue by means of legislation.
In our contribution to the debate Sinn Féin TDs made clear our opposition to abortion and our belief that all possible means of education and support services should be put in place. However in the case of rape, incest or sexual abuse, or where a woman’s life and mental health is at risk or in grave danger Sinn Féin accepts that the final decision rests with the woman.
Sinn Féin analysed the Bill. A number of serious concerns were raised about aspects of it, concerns which were also raised by the government in the course of the Dáil debate. These are issues which need to be discussed properly in a considered manner and with maximum cross party consensus to produce legislation.
Sinn Féin believes that the Bill should have gone to committee stage where it could have been discussed further and been amended.
The government has given an assurance that their Expert Group will deal expeditiously with the very complex issues involved and it is their intention to bring forward its own legislation without delay. This is welcome.
It is time for legislation to be finally put in law to protect the rights of women as decided by the Supreme Court in 1992. This should be done in a reasoned, tolerant and considered manner and with maximum cross party consensus.
In my contribution to the Dáil debate on Wednesday evening I said:
“I want to thank an Teachta Clare Daly for bringing forward this Private Members' Bill.
It deals with an extremely difficult issue for all concerned, particularly women faced with the kind of situation that this Bill is trying to deal with.
There are strongly and sincerely held views from all sides in this Dáil, including within Sinn Féin, and across society on this issue.
For my part, I personally am not in favour of abortion.
That is my strongly held view.
I am also strongly opposed to any attempt to criminalise or to be judgmental of women who have had abortions.
No woman wants to be in that position, but it is a reality faced by Irish women.
Irish women are citizens.
I, like all other Teachtaí Dála, am here to serve citizens.
I am here as a legislator, so I have to set aside my personal position and face up to my responsibilities.
I have to deal with the dreadful reality, highlighted by pregnant women confronted with life threatening illnesses, who have had to cope with this awful dilemma.
As a legislator I have to deal with the untenable situation for the medical profession, which has been tasked with making medical judgments without legal protection for medical practitioners.
We have to ask ourselves as elected representatives and legislators if we really want to leave Irish women or the medical profession in the awful predicament caused by the current absence of legislation.
Can any of us even begin to understand or imagine how unfair and unjust this is for a woman or a young girl?
The background to this debate, the X case, provides some painful insights.
It is also an indictment of the way this State treats women and children. Sinn Féin is not in favour of abortion.
We believe that all possible means of education and support services should be put in place.
However, in the case of rape, incest or sexual abuse, or where a woman's life and mental health is at risk or in grave danger, Sinn Féin accepts that the final decision rests with the woman.
Sinn Féin has analysed this Bill and a number of serious concerns have been raised about aspects of it.
These include the issue of consent, which needs to be discussed in some detail.
I note the Minister's remarks about this. I have just returned to the Chamber from Deputy Doherty's father's funeral in Donegal, so I have not had the chance to study the Minister's remarks.
I note that he has also raised issues in respect of this, as has our group.
The Government has stated its intention to bring forward its own legislation, but successive Governments have failed to deal with this issue for 20 years.
In 2010, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that this State violates the rights of pregnant women by refusing to allow them to receive a lawful abortion in the event that a pregnancy could threaten their lives.
The decision by the European Court of Human Rights has made it clear that there is an onus on the State now to legislate under the terms of the 1937 Constitution and the decision in the X case.
What is for certain is that it is time for legislation to be finally put in law to protect the rights of women as decided by the Supreme Court in 1992.
This should be done in a reasoned, tolerant, considered matter, and with the maximum cross-party consensus.
In this spirit Sinn Féin believes that the Bill should be allowed to proceed to Committee Stage where, as I said, it would need to be amended to deal with the concerns raised in our party.
I take on board what the Minister said and will consider it overnight.
It is important that we approach this issue in its broadest social context.
The Government needs to examine whether its policies are pushing more and more women into positions of vulnerability.
Poor health services and inadequate preventative health programmes will increase the likelihood that women will not know of critical health problems - including cancer - in advance of pregnancy.
Tackling violence against women and upholding the right of every woman and young girl to be free from violence, and safe in their communities and in their own homes, must be a priority.
The Government has yet to even sign the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.
We need to ensure that the State is properly caring for vulnerable young people, including those in care, but it has failed miserably in this regard.
On all of these issues this Dáil needs to stand up for and do what is right for Irish women.
The background to this debate is that in 1992 a 14 year old girl became pregnant as a result of rape and was suicidal. The government refused to allow the girl and her parents to travel abroad for an abortion. The case – known as the X-case - went to court and the Supreme Court ruled that ‘a termination of pregnancy is lawful if it can be shown that there is a real and substantial risk to the lift, as distinct from the health, of the mother.’
A subsequent decision in 2010 by the European Court of Human Rights also made it clear that there is an onus on the State to legislate under the terms of the 1937 Constitution and the decision in the X-Case.
The Socialist Party TD Clare Daly told the Dáil that she was putting forward this Bill because of a failure by successive governments to legislate on this issue.
It is a fact that there are strongly and sincerely held views on all sides in the Dáil, including within Sinn Féin, and across Irish society on this issue. The Irish people know that this is not a black and white issue but a difficult and complex decision faced by women in very serious circumstances.
The people spoke in referendum and firmly placed the responsibility upon their Oireachtas representatives to deal with the issue by means of legislation.
In our contribution to the debate Sinn Féin TDs made clear our opposition to abortion and our belief that all possible means of education and support services should be put in place. However in the case of rape, incest or sexual abuse, or where a woman’s life and mental health is at risk or in grave danger Sinn Féin accepts that the final decision rests with the woman.
Sinn Féin analysed the Bill. A number of serious concerns were raised about aspects of it, concerns which were also raised by the government in the course of the Dáil debate. These are issues which need to be discussed properly in a considered manner and with maximum cross party consensus to produce legislation.
Sinn Féin believes that the Bill should have gone to committee stage where it could have been discussed further and been amended.
The government has given an assurance that their Expert Group will deal expeditiously with the very complex issues involved and it is their intention to bring forward its own legislation without delay. This is welcome.
It is time for legislation to be finally put in law to protect the rights of women as decided by the Supreme Court in 1992. This should be done in a reasoned, tolerant and considered manner and with maximum cross party consensus.
In my contribution to the Dáil debate on Wednesday evening I said:
“I want to thank an Teachta Clare Daly for bringing forward this Private Members' Bill.
It deals with an extremely difficult issue for all concerned, particularly women faced with the kind of situation that this Bill is trying to deal with.
There are strongly and sincerely held views from all sides in this Dáil, including within Sinn Féin, and across society on this issue.
For my part, I personally am not in favour of abortion.
That is my strongly held view.
I am also strongly opposed to any attempt to criminalise or to be judgmental of women who have had abortions.
No woman wants to be in that position, but it is a reality faced by Irish women.
Irish women are citizens.
I, like all other Teachtaí Dála, am here to serve citizens.
I am here as a legislator, so I have to set aside my personal position and face up to my responsibilities.
I have to deal with the dreadful reality, highlighted by pregnant women confronted with life threatening illnesses, who have had to cope with this awful dilemma.
As a legislator I have to deal with the untenable situation for the medical profession, which has been tasked with making medical judgments without legal protection for medical practitioners.
We have to ask ourselves as elected representatives and legislators if we really want to leave Irish women or the medical profession in the awful predicament caused by the current absence of legislation.
Can any of us even begin to understand or imagine how unfair and unjust this is for a woman or a young girl?
The background to this debate, the X case, provides some painful insights.
It is also an indictment of the way this State treats women and children. Sinn Féin is not in favour of abortion.
We believe that all possible means of education and support services should be put in place.
However, in the case of rape, incest or sexual abuse, or where a woman's life and mental health is at risk or in grave danger, Sinn Féin accepts that the final decision rests with the woman.
Sinn Féin has analysed this Bill and a number of serious concerns have been raised about aspects of it.
These include the issue of consent, which needs to be discussed in some detail.
I note the Minister's remarks about this. I have just returned to the Chamber from Deputy Doherty's father's funeral in Donegal, so I have not had the chance to study the Minister's remarks.
I note that he has also raised issues in respect of this, as has our group.
The Government has stated its intention to bring forward its own legislation, but successive Governments have failed to deal with this issue for 20 years.
In 2010, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that this State violates the rights of pregnant women by refusing to allow them to receive a lawful abortion in the event that a pregnancy could threaten their lives.
The decision by the European Court of Human Rights has made it clear that there is an onus on the State now to legislate under the terms of the 1937 Constitution and the decision in the X case.
What is for certain is that it is time for legislation to be finally put in law to protect the rights of women as decided by the Supreme Court in 1992.
This should be done in a reasoned, tolerant, considered matter, and with the maximum cross-party consensus.
In this spirit Sinn Féin believes that the Bill should be allowed to proceed to Committee Stage where, as I said, it would need to be amended to deal with the concerns raised in our party.
I take on board what the Minister said and will consider it overnight.
It is important that we approach this issue in its broadest social context.
The Government needs to examine whether its policies are pushing more and more women into positions of vulnerability.
Poor health services and inadequate preventative health programmes will increase the likelihood that women will not know of critical health problems - including cancer - in advance of pregnancy.
Tackling violence against women and upholding the right of every woman and young girl to be free from violence, and safe in their communities and in their own homes, must be a priority.
The Government has yet to even sign the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.
We need to ensure that the State is properly caring for vulnerable young people, including those in care, but it has failed miserably in this regard.
On all of these issues this Dáil needs to stand up for and do what is right for Irish women.
April 15, 2012
LIFE AND DEATH.
I went to a lot of funerals over the Easter break. On Easter Saturday the life of Annie Stone, a stalwart from Ballymurphy and a hero of mine was to be celebrated at a service in Saint John’s Church on the Falls Road.
I was at a funeral on Good Friday, as well. Seamus Wilkinson a neighbour of ours and a decent man passed away in his ninety fifth year. I liked Seamus. He was a non pretentious man with a very wide welcoming smile, who loved gardening.
Of course there was more to him than that but by the time I met Seamus and his wife Theresa they were in their sixties. These were difficult times in Belfast and I was home even less often than in these more peaceful times. We would bring Seamus and Theresa the occasional pot of soup or some scone bread and apple cake. He was always very generous with biscuits and sweets for the girls. He and I would discuss his colourful- all- year- round garden, dogs, the weather or the fortunes or misfortunes of Antrim's senior teams.
So I was sad at Seamus' funeral. But there was a sense of completeness - of a full span - about it.
Annie Stone or Ma Stone's service was, as befitted her life, a cheerful affair. Born in South Armagh and married in Belfast Ma Stone was one of the earliest residents in Ballymurphy. She and her late husband reared a family of nine. It was the best of times and the worst of times. One of Ma Stone's sons Liam spoke at her service.
He did his mother proud. I am glad I was there as he reminded us of how his ma helped found the Ballymurphy Tenants Association. He described her as social as well as socialist. She stood up for her community and her gender. Full of craic, and ready for a singsong or a laugh, or to fight for a good cause Ma Stone's big touchstones were heritage, sense of place, fairness and identity.
'Seize life with both hands' she told her brood ' enjoy it! No matter how tough or hard it is make the most of it'.
Liam also told us not to take for granted that the young ones today understand what the women of Ballymurphy went through during the decades of grinding poverty and military occupation.
'Tell them,' he encouraged us ' tell their stories with pride'.
Outside before Annie journeyed up the Falls Road for the last time her family gathered around her tricolour draped coffin, unfurled the Armagh flag and uplifted us all with a rousing chorus of the Boys of the County Armagh.
"And where are the girls that can court them like the girls from the County Armagh?"
I left Annie that day as I left her on many other days when I bumped into her in the Murph. With a smile. Teary eyed because she has gone. But smiling nonetheless.
Easter Monday was a different affair. Young Rory, the fine and happy son of our friends Ciaran and Orlaith Staunton who I last saw in the White House with his father and before that on the streets of Drogheda during last year’s General Election. Ruairi, all twelve years of him, was back home from New York to be buried on Easter Monday with his Nana in the rich clay of County Louth.
So Monday's funeral was fraught and sad beyond measure, replete with hurt, bewilderment and grief and communal love and solidarity for Orlaith and Ciaran and Ruairi's sister Kathleen. The Taoiseach was there. So was Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.
Rory fell in his school playground in the States. He cut his arm. Toxic poisoning set in soon afterwards and his poor wee body went into toxic shock. So this little boy born in New York to emigrant parents and reared between there and Mayo and Louth; this little boy, full of potential and possibility, this wee boy is gone. His family are desolate, beside themselves with the loss of their beloved son.
There is no rhyme or reason to it. Only hurt and anger and sadness.
And now this blog is heading through Meath on the way home from the funeral of Barney McKenna, a founder member of the legendary Dubliners was laid to rest in the town of Trim. Barney of the tenor banjo and the nimble music filled fingers. His funeral reflected his life and the way he had lived it. With good music and funny stories.
There was a wonderful mass of musicians assembled beside the altar. During the Offertory Procession they played the Fiddlers Green. The Congregration joined in. It was mighty.
'Fiddlers' Green is the place
I've heard tell
Where old fishermen go when they don't go to hell.
Where there's pubs and there's clubs
And there's ladies there too
And the cold coast of Greenland is far far away'.
It was like a holy fleadh. And at the end and as Barney was carried up the aisle the musicians broke into a lively set of jigs and reels. And the rest of us clapped along.
So to Barney's clann and the clanns of all these good people this blog sends love and solidarity. Go ndeanfaidh Dia trocaire oraibh
Four funerals in three days. More than I am used to attending since the war ended.
And only it was the Easter break I probably might not have made it. Except to Rory's.
Three of these services were celebrations of life. Uplifting and fitting tributes.
But Rory’s was real bereavement.
And his was the saddest of all. And that's how it should be.
God help his poor parents and Kathleen.
What was it Ma Stone said?
'Seize life with both hands'.
I was at a funeral on Good Friday, as well. Seamus Wilkinson a neighbour of ours and a decent man passed away in his ninety fifth year. I liked Seamus. He was a non pretentious man with a very wide welcoming smile, who loved gardening.
Of course there was more to him than that but by the time I met Seamus and his wife Theresa they were in their sixties. These were difficult times in Belfast and I was home even less often than in these more peaceful times. We would bring Seamus and Theresa the occasional pot of soup or some scone bread and apple cake. He was always very generous with biscuits and sweets for the girls. He and I would discuss his colourful- all- year- round garden, dogs, the weather or the fortunes or misfortunes of Antrim's senior teams.
So I was sad at Seamus' funeral. But there was a sense of completeness - of a full span - about it.
Annie Stone or Ma Stone's service was, as befitted her life, a cheerful affair. Born in South Armagh and married in Belfast Ma Stone was one of the earliest residents in Ballymurphy. She and her late husband reared a family of nine. It was the best of times and the worst of times. One of Ma Stone's sons Liam spoke at her service.
He did his mother proud. I am glad I was there as he reminded us of how his ma helped found the Ballymurphy Tenants Association. He described her as social as well as socialist. She stood up for her community and her gender. Full of craic, and ready for a singsong or a laugh, or to fight for a good cause Ma Stone's big touchstones were heritage, sense of place, fairness and identity.
'Seize life with both hands' she told her brood ' enjoy it! No matter how tough or hard it is make the most of it'.
Liam also told us not to take for granted that the young ones today understand what the women of Ballymurphy went through during the decades of grinding poverty and military occupation.
'Tell them,' he encouraged us ' tell their stories with pride'.
Outside before Annie journeyed up the Falls Road for the last time her family gathered around her tricolour draped coffin, unfurled the Armagh flag and uplifted us all with a rousing chorus of the Boys of the County Armagh.
"And where are the girls that can court them like the girls from the County Armagh?"
I left Annie that day as I left her on many other days when I bumped into her in the Murph. With a smile. Teary eyed because she has gone. But smiling nonetheless.
Easter Monday was a different affair. Young Rory, the fine and happy son of our friends Ciaran and Orlaith Staunton who I last saw in the White House with his father and before that on the streets of Drogheda during last year’s General Election. Ruairi, all twelve years of him, was back home from New York to be buried on Easter Monday with his Nana in the rich clay of County Louth.
So Monday's funeral was fraught and sad beyond measure, replete with hurt, bewilderment and grief and communal love and solidarity for Orlaith and Ciaran and Ruairi's sister Kathleen. The Taoiseach was there. So was Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.
Rory fell in his school playground in the States. He cut his arm. Toxic poisoning set in soon afterwards and his poor wee body went into toxic shock. So this little boy born in New York to emigrant parents and reared between there and Mayo and Louth; this little boy, full of potential and possibility, this wee boy is gone. His family are desolate, beside themselves with the loss of their beloved son.
There is no rhyme or reason to it. Only hurt and anger and sadness.
And now this blog is heading through Meath on the way home from the funeral of Barney McKenna, a founder member of the legendary Dubliners was laid to rest in the town of Trim. Barney of the tenor banjo and the nimble music filled fingers. His funeral reflected his life and the way he had lived it. With good music and funny stories.
There was a wonderful mass of musicians assembled beside the altar. During the Offertory Procession they played the Fiddlers Green. The Congregration joined in. It was mighty.
'Fiddlers' Green is the place
I've heard tell
Where old fishermen go when they don't go to hell.
Where there's pubs and there's clubs
And there's ladies there too
And the cold coast of Greenland is far far away'.
It was like a holy fleadh. And at the end and as Barney was carried up the aisle the musicians broke into a lively set of jigs and reels. And the rest of us clapped along.
So to Barney's clann and the clanns of all these good people this blog sends love and solidarity. Go ndeanfaidh Dia trocaire oraibh
Four funerals in three days. More than I am used to attending since the war ended.
And only it was the Easter break I probably might not have made it. Except to Rory's.
Three of these services were celebrations of life. Uplifting and fitting tributes.
But Rory’s was real bereavement.
And his was the saddest of all. And that's how it should be.
God help his poor parents and Kathleen.
What was it Ma Stone said?
'Seize life with both hands'.
April 11, 2012
A schedule for uniting Ireland
I'm sure it was the last thing Enda Kenny expected to be asked in China but there it was. Having spoken about the role of 'Ireland in a changing world' a student in his audience asked about Irish unity and whether the Taoiseach has a
'time schedule, and what progress have you made, because China is facing the same issues.'
The student was then given a potted Kennyesque history of British colonialism and the last 700 years of Irish history culminating in the Good Friday Agreement.
It was just before Easter and Kenny was in China on a trade visit. China too has its sovereignty issues. There is the long standing stand-off between it and Taiwan, and there is the increasingly tragic dispute over Tibetan sovereignty.
The shocking image two weeks ago of Jamphel Yeshi, a 27 year old Tibetan exile in India, running burning through the streets of Delhi was carried across many media outlets around the world. Yeshi set himself on fire in protest at the visit of He Jintao the Chinese President, to India. He subsequently died. Although there is some confusion over the numbers involved it appears that around thirty Tibetan men and women have set themselves alight in the last year.
This series of protests has its roots in the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the denial of the Tibetan people's right to sovereignty.
Sovereignty also remains the key unresolved issue at the heart of the flawed relationship between the island of Ireland and our nearest neighbour.
In the Good Friday Agreement Sinn Féin very specifically sought and secured the scrapping of the Government of Ireland Act which had partitioned Ireland.
The Good Friday Agreement created a conditional claim of sovereignty by Britain in the north. The Agreement also created a level playing field on which there is equality between the competing claims of sovereignty and which allows for a democratic debate on this issue. The British government is committed to legislate for a United Ireland if a majority in the north want it.
So while no schedule or timetable exists for Ireland to be reunited the means by which it can be done has been agreed and a road map has been legislated for.
For Irish republicans and the majority of citizens on this island Irish sovereignty, in the context of Irish reunification, remains the single most important constitutional and political issue still remaining.
Standing in the way of its resolution are those, particularly within the political establishments north and south, who see partition as a done deal – a fixed and immovable arrangement.
Unionists tell us they oppose change because they believe that Irish unity would be to their political, social and economic disadvantage and because of their professed affinity to the notion of 'Britishness'. But nothing ever remains the same. Some unionists are now comfortable describing themselves as Irish, a minority perhaps but increasingly many others identify themselves as northern Irish. And anyway in a new pluralist Ireland surely there has to be accommodation for those who feel British.
As the process of significant change continues there will be a growing awareness of the need for these identity issues to finally resolved. For example Sinn Féin's recent series of high profile conferences on the theme of 'Uniting Ireland – Towards a New Republic' attracted considerable interest outside of traditional republican circles.
In Newry and Derry unionist speakers agreed to participate. They took the opportunity to set out their objections to uniting Ireland but they also entered into a constructive dialogue. A development unthinkable only a few short years ago.
For many people uniting Ireland makes economic and administrative sense. It is no accident that the border region is the most economically disadvantaged on the island. But the duplication of services which exists because of the two jurisdictions is also a financial burden that militates against an efficiency in public services and in the creation of job opportunities and economic growth.
The Taoiseach was in China selling Ireland, or at least that part which he represents, as an investment opportunity. The previous week he was in the USA. The northern Executive is similarly engaged, speaking to the same governments and often to the same political leaders. This competition between the two states is detrimental to both.
Already there is some good work being done between the all-Ireland bodies established under the Good Friday Agreement and which the two governments and individual Ministers have themselves concluded to be advantageous to those they represent.
However finally resolving the issue of sovereignty and putting in place a new agreed Ireland that can end division on the island Ireland needs a step change. It also needs a change of mindset.
It means agreeing a political strategy to achieve what Connolly and Pearse, Clarke and Markievicz and Collins and others sought, when they stepped out on a bright Easter Monday morning 96 years ago and challenged the greatest Empire the world has ever seen.
The refusal of successive Irish governments to strategise and plan and actively campaign for an end to partition has been one of the greatest failures of the last 90 years. Partition created two conservative states on this island run by two conservative political elites.
Corruption in the north took the form of one party rule and structured discrimination and state violence. The Mahon Tribunal and other Tribunals into political and clerical abuse have revealed a different but equally perverse and cancerous corruption in this state.
It's time to look beyond that experience. To begin afresh. To chart a new course and a new future for the people of this island. Uniting Ireland provides the opportunity to do that.
The government is to hold a constitutional convention. A brave initiative, but one which risks failing because its goals are too narrowly defined and it is too short termist in its vision.
There are significant differences of politics between the parties in the Dáil and especially between Sinn Féin and the government parties.
But it is not impossible for us to set these differences to one side and work in the common interest and in the common good for all the people of this island – for the real Ireland.
The Irish republicans of Sinn Féin are up for this challenge. We are willing to work with the Irish republicans in the other parties to advance this historic endeavour.
I am convinced it can be achieved. It needs political will and a vision of a new Ireland that appreciates that Ireland is the island and the people of the island.
The student was then given a potted Kennyesque history of British colonialism and the last 700 years of Irish history culminating in the Good Friday Agreement.
It was just before Easter and Kenny was in China on a trade visit. China too has its sovereignty issues. There is the long standing stand-off between it and Taiwan, and there is the increasingly tragic dispute over Tibetan sovereignty.
The shocking image two weeks ago of Jamphel Yeshi, a 27 year old Tibetan exile in India, running burning through the streets of Delhi was carried across many media outlets around the world. Yeshi set himself on fire in protest at the visit of He Jintao the Chinese President, to India. He subsequently died. Although there is some confusion over the numbers involved it appears that around thirty Tibetan men and women have set themselves alight in the last year.
This series of protests has its roots in the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the denial of the Tibetan people's right to sovereignty.
Sovereignty also remains the key unresolved issue at the heart of the flawed relationship between the island of Ireland and our nearest neighbour.
In the Good Friday Agreement Sinn Féin very specifically sought and secured the scrapping of the Government of Ireland Act which had partitioned Ireland.
The Good Friday Agreement created a conditional claim of sovereignty by Britain in the north. The Agreement also created a level playing field on which there is equality between the competing claims of sovereignty and which allows for a democratic debate on this issue. The British government is committed to legislate for a United Ireland if a majority in the north want it.
So while no schedule or timetable exists for Ireland to be reunited the means by which it can be done has been agreed and a road map has been legislated for.
For Irish republicans and the majority of citizens on this island Irish sovereignty, in the context of Irish reunification, remains the single most important constitutional and political issue still remaining.
Standing in the way of its resolution are those, particularly within the political establishments north and south, who see partition as a done deal – a fixed and immovable arrangement.
Unionists tell us they oppose change because they believe that Irish unity would be to their political, social and economic disadvantage and because of their professed affinity to the notion of 'Britishness'. But nothing ever remains the same. Some unionists are now comfortable describing themselves as Irish, a minority perhaps but increasingly many others identify themselves as northern Irish. And anyway in a new pluralist Ireland surely there has to be accommodation for those who feel British.
As the process of significant change continues there will be a growing awareness of the need for these identity issues to finally resolved. For example Sinn Féin's recent series of high profile conferences on the theme of 'Uniting Ireland – Towards a New Republic' attracted considerable interest outside of traditional republican circles.
In Newry and Derry unionist speakers agreed to participate. They took the opportunity to set out their objections to uniting Ireland but they also entered into a constructive dialogue. A development unthinkable only a few short years ago.
For many people uniting Ireland makes economic and administrative sense. It is no accident that the border region is the most economically disadvantaged on the island. But the duplication of services which exists because of the two jurisdictions is also a financial burden that militates against an efficiency in public services and in the creation of job opportunities and economic growth.
The Taoiseach was in China selling Ireland, or at least that part which he represents, as an investment opportunity. The previous week he was in the USA. The northern Executive is similarly engaged, speaking to the same governments and often to the same political leaders. This competition between the two states is detrimental to both.
Already there is some good work being done between the all-Ireland bodies established under the Good Friday Agreement and which the two governments and individual Ministers have themselves concluded to be advantageous to those they represent.
However finally resolving the issue of sovereignty and putting in place a new agreed Ireland that can end division on the island Ireland needs a step change. It also needs a change of mindset.
It means agreeing a political strategy to achieve what Connolly and Pearse, Clarke and Markievicz and Collins and others sought, when they stepped out on a bright Easter Monday morning 96 years ago and challenged the greatest Empire the world has ever seen.
The refusal of successive Irish governments to strategise and plan and actively campaign for an end to partition has been one of the greatest failures of the last 90 years. Partition created two conservative states on this island run by two conservative political elites.
Corruption in the north took the form of one party rule and structured discrimination and state violence. The Mahon Tribunal and other Tribunals into political and clerical abuse have revealed a different but equally perverse and cancerous corruption in this state.
It's time to look beyond that experience. To begin afresh. To chart a new course and a new future for the people of this island. Uniting Ireland provides the opportunity to do that.
The government is to hold a constitutional convention. A brave initiative, but one which risks failing because its goals are too narrowly defined and it is too short termist in its vision.
There are significant differences of politics between the parties in the Dáil and especially between Sinn Féin and the government parties.
But it is not impossible for us to set these differences to one side and work in the common interest and in the common good for all the people of this island – for the real Ireland.
The Irish republicans of Sinn Féin are up for this challenge. We are willing to work with the Irish republicans in the other parties to advance this historic endeavour.
I am convinced it can be achieved. It needs political will and a vision of a new Ireland that appreciates that Ireland is the island and the people of the island.
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