Gerry Adams's Blog, page 85
May 21, 2011
Building a better future
The peace process has created the space in which the possibility of a different kind of relationship between the people of this island, and between Ireland and Britain has been made possible.
That relationship is still evolving. Nationalists and unionists in the north are engaged in a unique power sharing and partnership mode of governance – and all-Ireland political structures are established and beginning to work well.
But our country and our people are still divided. The British still claim jurisdiction over the north, even though this is now in a conditional way, and there remain many legacy and justice issues that are unresolved.
For all these reasons Sinn Féin set out our concerns about the visit of the English Queen at this time.
Nonetheless, mindful that the people of this island are on a journey out of conflict, and that unionists have a close affinity with the British Monarchy, Irish republicans have sought to be constructive in how we responded to this event.
I have also expressed my hope that some good will come from it.
The political reality in Britain of course is that the legal and constitutional powers of the Queen rest with the British Prime Minister of the day. It is David Cameron who personally exercises all of the Crown Prerogatives and does so without recourse to the British Parliament.
This includes approving Queen Elizabeth's speeches.
Many people who I have spoken to, particularly people from the North, are disappointed that she did not apologise for Britain's role in Irish affairs in her remarks on Wednesday. This disappointment is understandable given the huge hype around the visit, the difficulties surrounding it and the expectations raised by it.
For my part I believe that the expression by the Queen of England of sincere sympathy for those who have suffered as a result of the conflict is genuine, and I welcome that. Many victims and victims' families will expect her Government to now act on that as quickly as possible and to deal with legacy issues, particularly those involving British state forces and collusion in a forthright manner.
As we have said many times, Sinn Féin wants to see a real, new and profoundly better relationship between the peoples of Ireland and Britain, one built on equality and respect.
There were a number of important symbolic gestures during this visit. The laying of a wreath in the Garden of Remembrance at the memorial to the men and women who died for Irish freedom was one of these, not least because many of the heroes remembered there were executed by British crown forces. The laying of the wreath was a recognition that they fought in a just cause.
The Irish Government and the other political parties in this state know that their sacrifices were not for a partitioned Ireland or a 26 County Republic, though they rarely admit it.
Interestingly during the recent General election the Fine Gael party did say that, "In any Republic the people are supposed to be supreme. Judged by that standard Ireland today is a Republic in name only". They need to act on this and all the parties here need to act on the imperative of the Proclamation of the Republic.
For her part President Mary McAleese and her husband Martin have shown an ability to reach out to others. That has been a mark of her office.
I welcome the President's acknowledgement that 'inevitably where there are colonisers and the colonised, the past is a repository of sources of bitter division. The harsh facts cannot be altered nor grief erased.
I also agree with her assertion 'that with time and generosity, interpretations and perspectives can soften and open up space for new accommodations'.
This will not happen of its own accord.
It will require ongoing work and a committed focus in the time ahead, particularly by the Irish Government.
Building healthy, friendly 'normalised' relations with our nearest neighbour is in everyone's interest. The peace process creates a democratic, inclusive way to do this.
All of us have come some way – the process has delivered. This week's events are evidence of that but there is still a journey to be completed.
As the President remarked 'this may still be a work in progress' as well as 'a work of progress, of partnership and friendship' … 'an important sign – among a growing number of signs' of the fresh start envisaged in the Good Friday Agreement.
The challenge is to ensure that this is built upon and that reconciliation gestures, though important in themselves, do not become substitutes for real political action and positive change.
In practice that means there is an outstanding need for the Irish and British governments to honour their obligations and guarantee full implementation of all the terms of both the Good Friday and St Andrews Agreements.
The Irish Government and the British Government have spoken a lot in recent days about new beginnings and that is welcome. However, the British Government has thus far steadfastly refused to release files on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, and on other attacks which have involved their agents in this state.
Mr Cameron needs to act on this issue on the terms outlined by the families of victims of these attacks.
So the Royal visit will be judged by the actions that spring from it, particularly how Mr Cameron responds to the very modest and legitimate demand that we work together to find ways of dealing with the past.
This is an opportune time for Irish Government to plan for the future in partnership with our unionist friends for a new Ireland, for genuine national reconciliation and healing across this island and for Irish Unity. This means having a real, inclusive national conversation about the future of our island including the need to bring all of our traditions together and building a better future for all the people of this island. This, along with building the peace, is the work of practical patriotism. It is work for us all to be getting on with.
Sinn Féin is working with our unionist partners in the North and every day we are seeking to explore possibilities for the future based upon equality, respect and tolerance. Like all democrats we seek an end to partition and the reunification of our people and our island.
So this week's visit by the Queen of England to this part of Ireland has to be seen as part of a journey.
It is a page in a book – not the end of that book.
We need to continue that journey and to write the next chapter of that book.
Note to Readers
Sinn Féin will be holding two conferences in June on the theme of 'Uniting Ireland'.
The conferences are titled: Towards a New Republic – I dtreo an Poblacht Nua.
They first will be held in Dublin on Saturday June 18th in the Rotunda Pillar Room Complex, Parnell Square, Dublin 1 beginning at 10am.
The second conference will be on Saturday June 25th in Cork City Council Concert Hall beginning at 7.30pm.
Details are available at www.unitingireland.ie
That relationship is still evolving. Nationalists and unionists in the north are engaged in a unique power sharing and partnership mode of governance – and all-Ireland political structures are established and beginning to work well.
But our country and our people are still divided. The British still claim jurisdiction over the north, even though this is now in a conditional way, and there remain many legacy and justice issues that are unresolved.
For all these reasons Sinn Féin set out our concerns about the visit of the English Queen at this time.
Nonetheless, mindful that the people of this island are on a journey out of conflict, and that unionists have a close affinity with the British Monarchy, Irish republicans have sought to be constructive in how we responded to this event.
I have also expressed my hope that some good will come from it.
The political reality in Britain of course is that the legal and constitutional powers of the Queen rest with the British Prime Minister of the day. It is David Cameron who personally exercises all of the Crown Prerogatives and does so without recourse to the British Parliament.
This includes approving Queen Elizabeth's speeches.
Many people who I have spoken to, particularly people from the North, are disappointed that she did not apologise for Britain's role in Irish affairs in her remarks on Wednesday. This disappointment is understandable given the huge hype around the visit, the difficulties surrounding it and the expectations raised by it.
For my part I believe that the expression by the Queen of England of sincere sympathy for those who have suffered as a result of the conflict is genuine, and I welcome that. Many victims and victims' families will expect her Government to now act on that as quickly as possible and to deal with legacy issues, particularly those involving British state forces and collusion in a forthright manner.
As we have said many times, Sinn Féin wants to see a real, new and profoundly better relationship between the peoples of Ireland and Britain, one built on equality and respect.
There were a number of important symbolic gestures during this visit. The laying of a wreath in the Garden of Remembrance at the memorial to the men and women who died for Irish freedom was one of these, not least because many of the heroes remembered there were executed by British crown forces. The laying of the wreath was a recognition that they fought in a just cause.
The Irish Government and the other political parties in this state know that their sacrifices were not for a partitioned Ireland or a 26 County Republic, though they rarely admit it.
Interestingly during the recent General election the Fine Gael party did say that, "In any Republic the people are supposed to be supreme. Judged by that standard Ireland today is a Republic in name only". They need to act on this and all the parties here need to act on the imperative of the Proclamation of the Republic.
For her part President Mary McAleese and her husband Martin have shown an ability to reach out to others. That has been a mark of her office.
I welcome the President's acknowledgement that 'inevitably where there are colonisers and the colonised, the past is a repository of sources of bitter division. The harsh facts cannot be altered nor grief erased.
I also agree with her assertion 'that with time and generosity, interpretations and perspectives can soften and open up space for new accommodations'.
This will not happen of its own accord.
It will require ongoing work and a committed focus in the time ahead, particularly by the Irish Government.
Building healthy, friendly 'normalised' relations with our nearest neighbour is in everyone's interest. The peace process creates a democratic, inclusive way to do this.
All of us have come some way – the process has delivered. This week's events are evidence of that but there is still a journey to be completed.
As the President remarked 'this may still be a work in progress' as well as 'a work of progress, of partnership and friendship' … 'an important sign – among a growing number of signs' of the fresh start envisaged in the Good Friday Agreement.
The challenge is to ensure that this is built upon and that reconciliation gestures, though important in themselves, do not become substitutes for real political action and positive change.
In practice that means there is an outstanding need for the Irish and British governments to honour their obligations and guarantee full implementation of all the terms of both the Good Friday and St Andrews Agreements.
The Irish Government and the British Government have spoken a lot in recent days about new beginnings and that is welcome. However, the British Government has thus far steadfastly refused to release files on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, and on other attacks which have involved their agents in this state.
Mr Cameron needs to act on this issue on the terms outlined by the families of victims of these attacks.
So the Royal visit will be judged by the actions that spring from it, particularly how Mr Cameron responds to the very modest and legitimate demand that we work together to find ways of dealing with the past.
This is an opportune time for Irish Government to plan for the future in partnership with our unionist friends for a new Ireland, for genuine national reconciliation and healing across this island and for Irish Unity. This means having a real, inclusive national conversation about the future of our island including the need to bring all of our traditions together and building a better future for all the people of this island. This, along with building the peace, is the work of practical patriotism. It is work for us all to be getting on with.
Sinn Féin is working with our unionist partners in the North and every day we are seeking to explore possibilities for the future based upon equality, respect and tolerance. Like all democrats we seek an end to partition and the reunification of our people and our island.
So this week's visit by the Queen of England to this part of Ireland has to be seen as part of a journey.
It is a page in a book – not the end of that book.
We need to continue that journey and to write the next chapter of that book.
Note to Readers
Sinn Féin will be holding two conferences in June on the theme of 'Uniting Ireland'.
The conferences are titled: Towards a New Republic – I dtreo an Poblacht Nua.
They first will be held in Dublin on Saturday June 18th in the Rotunda Pillar Room Complex, Parnell Square, Dublin 1 beginning at 10am.
The second conference will be on Saturday June 25th in Cork City Council Concert Hall beginning at 7.30pm.
Details are available at www.unitingireland.ie
May 16, 2011
It is for the people of Ireland to determine our future
The unparalleled security arrangements that have been put in place in Dublin to accommodate the visit of the Queen of England, forced the organisers of the An Gorta Mór Commemorative Famine Walk on Sunday, to change their arrangements.
Originally the walk was to commence at the Garden of Remembrance. However that's now closed off as part of the massive security precautions that have put in place around the city.
Sundays 'Famine Walk' started from the bottom of O'Connell Street and finished at the Famine Memorial on the Quays.
An Gorta Mór (the Great Hunger) had a profound impact on Irish society. While its cause was the failure of the potato crop it was the political decisions taken by the British colonial authorities which exacerbated the human misery.
As food left Ireland for export and thousands were thrown off their land by a landlord class eager to evict families, the human and economic impact was significant. In the five years between 1845 and 1850, approximately 1.5 million Irish men, women and children died of starvation or related diseases. In the following decades millions more fled Ireland.
An Gorta Mór, like Britain's colonial occupation, shaped Irish society in the 19th and 20th and now the 21st century. It is long past the time that the relationship between our two islands and peoples was placed on an equal footing.
The visit by the Queen of England has brought a renewed focus to this unequal relationship.
This blog wants to see a real and profoundly new and better relationship between the peoples of Ireland and Britain — one built on equality and mutual respect. Sinn Féin has been to the forefront in working to bring this about and we will continue to do so. Sinn Féin is for a new relationship.
As I wrote in a previous publication I have nothing against the Queen of England being the Queen of England. That is a matter for the people of England. But it is not the way I want Irish society to be organised.
I am a republican. I believe that the people are sovereign and not subjects. I am against monarchies.
I am also Irish. And while I am conscious of the sense of affinity which unionists have with the English monarch, I am offended at having to live in a partitioned Ireland with the Queen of England ruling over a part of us.
I believe the visit of the English Queen is troubling for many Irish citizens, particularly victims of British rule and those with legacy issues in this state and in the North.
It is for precisely this reason that we in Sinn Féin oppose this visit and believe that it is premature and insensitive. This is why the party is holding alternative events in Dublin and across the state during the visit.
I am for a new relationship between the people of Ireland and between the people of Ireland and Britain based on equality and mutual respect.
I hope this visit will hasten that day but much will depend on what the British monarch says. As an Irish citizen who was detained without charge or trial a number of times on a British prison ship, in a prison camp and a H Block, as well as a more conventional prison, at 'Her Majesty's Pleasure', I hope so.
So too will many of the families of victims in the conflict, including victims of British terrorism and collusion. This includes families of those killed in the Dublin Monaghan bombs whose anniversary takes place on the first day of the visit.
British interference in Irish affairs has come at a huge cost to the Irish people.
It has been marked by invasion, occupation, subjugation, famine and cycles of Irish resistance and British repression.
The impact of this, including partition and its consequences, are still being felt to this day.
Irish republicans too have caused much hurt to people in Britain. I regret this.
The full normalisation of relationships between Ireland and Britain is important.
This will require the ending of partition and the emergence of a New Ireland.
The Peace Process, which Sinn Féin has contributed significantly to, has transformed the political landscape in Ireland and resulted in a peaceful political dispensation based on an historic accord between Irish nationalism and unionism.
The Good Friday Agreement is the foundation upon which new relationships between unionists and nationalists and between Ireland and Britain can be forged. It has fundamentally altered the political landscape, levelled the political playing field, removing the despicable Government of Ireland Act and opening up a peaceful, democratic route to a united Ireland.
And because nationalists and unionists are governing the north decisions affecting the lives of people there are being increasingly made in Ireland and not in Britain.
Republicans want to continue and to accelerate this process.
The united Ireland that republicans seek to build encompasses all the people of this island, including unionists. It will be a pluralist, egalitarian society in which citizens rights are protected and in which everyone will be treated equally. Sinn Féin wants a New Republic. That of course is a matter for the people of this island to decide.
But no matter how we shape our society, the new Ireland must embrace our islands diversity in its fullest sense. This includes English and Scottish influences, the sense of Britishness felt by many unionists, as well as indigenous and traditional Irish culture and the cultures of people who have come to Ireland in recent times.
Ireland and England are not strangers to each other. We should build on what we have in common while at the same time respecting each other's sovereignty and independence.
Maybe the events of this week will assist that process. This blog hopes so.
Originally the walk was to commence at the Garden of Remembrance. However that's now closed off as part of the massive security precautions that have put in place around the city.
Sundays 'Famine Walk' started from the bottom of O'Connell Street and finished at the Famine Memorial on the Quays.
An Gorta Mór (the Great Hunger) had a profound impact on Irish society. While its cause was the failure of the potato crop it was the political decisions taken by the British colonial authorities which exacerbated the human misery.
As food left Ireland for export and thousands were thrown off their land by a landlord class eager to evict families, the human and economic impact was significant. In the five years between 1845 and 1850, approximately 1.5 million Irish men, women and children died of starvation or related diseases. In the following decades millions more fled Ireland.
An Gorta Mór, like Britain's colonial occupation, shaped Irish society in the 19th and 20th and now the 21st century. It is long past the time that the relationship between our two islands and peoples was placed on an equal footing.
The visit by the Queen of England has brought a renewed focus to this unequal relationship.
This blog wants to see a real and profoundly new and better relationship between the peoples of Ireland and Britain — one built on equality and mutual respect. Sinn Féin has been to the forefront in working to bring this about and we will continue to do so. Sinn Féin is for a new relationship.
As I wrote in a previous publication I have nothing against the Queen of England being the Queen of England. That is a matter for the people of England. But it is not the way I want Irish society to be organised.
I am a republican. I believe that the people are sovereign and not subjects. I am against monarchies.
I am also Irish. And while I am conscious of the sense of affinity which unionists have with the English monarch, I am offended at having to live in a partitioned Ireland with the Queen of England ruling over a part of us.
I believe the visit of the English Queen is troubling for many Irish citizens, particularly victims of British rule and those with legacy issues in this state and in the North.
It is for precisely this reason that we in Sinn Féin oppose this visit and believe that it is premature and insensitive. This is why the party is holding alternative events in Dublin and across the state during the visit.
I am for a new relationship between the people of Ireland and between the people of Ireland and Britain based on equality and mutual respect.
I hope this visit will hasten that day but much will depend on what the British monarch says. As an Irish citizen who was detained without charge or trial a number of times on a British prison ship, in a prison camp and a H Block, as well as a more conventional prison, at 'Her Majesty's Pleasure', I hope so.
So too will many of the families of victims in the conflict, including victims of British terrorism and collusion. This includes families of those killed in the Dublin Monaghan bombs whose anniversary takes place on the first day of the visit.
British interference in Irish affairs has come at a huge cost to the Irish people.
It has been marked by invasion, occupation, subjugation, famine and cycles of Irish resistance and British repression.
The impact of this, including partition and its consequences, are still being felt to this day.
Irish republicans too have caused much hurt to people in Britain. I regret this.
The full normalisation of relationships between Ireland and Britain is important.
This will require the ending of partition and the emergence of a New Ireland.
The Peace Process, which Sinn Féin has contributed significantly to, has transformed the political landscape in Ireland and resulted in a peaceful political dispensation based on an historic accord between Irish nationalism and unionism.
The Good Friday Agreement is the foundation upon which new relationships between unionists and nationalists and between Ireland and Britain can be forged. It has fundamentally altered the political landscape, levelled the political playing field, removing the despicable Government of Ireland Act and opening up a peaceful, democratic route to a united Ireland.
And because nationalists and unionists are governing the north decisions affecting the lives of people there are being increasingly made in Ireland and not in Britain.
Republicans want to continue and to accelerate this process.
The united Ireland that republicans seek to build encompasses all the people of this island, including unionists. It will be a pluralist, egalitarian society in which citizens rights are protected and in which everyone will be treated equally. Sinn Féin wants a New Republic. That of course is a matter for the people of this island to decide.
But no matter how we shape our society, the new Ireland must embrace our islands diversity in its fullest sense. This includes English and Scottish influences, the sense of Britishness felt by many unionists, as well as indigenous and traditional Irish culture and the cultures of people who have come to Ireland in recent times.
Ireland and England are not strangers to each other. We should build on what we have in common while at the same time respecting each other's sovereignty and independence.
Maybe the events of this week will assist that process. This blog hopes so.
May 11, 2011
Election results mean further gains
The Assembly and Local Council election campaign was generally reported by the media as 'low key'.
Some commentators even got a bit carried away with themselves almost suggesting that the lower than usual turnout somehow devalued the democratic mandate of those who have just been elected!
But the Assembly and local government counts and the results they produced, turned out to have some of the excitement which the campaign itself lacked.
The outburst by the UUP leader Tom Elliot in Omagh count centre on Saturday caught the headlines. Tom was having a bad day. From a confident pose just a few weeks ago in which he was predicting gains for his party the results emerging from count centres across the north were of the UUP losing votes and seats.
It wasn't meltdown. But his election last year as party leader had been met with jubilation by party activists. After David Trimble and Reg Empey's leadership terms a lot of the UUP faithful had put their hope and trust in this former UDR soldier to reverse the failing fortunes of the party.
From a traditional Ulster Unionist perspective he has all the right credentials. He is a Past County Grand Master of the Orange Order within Fermanagh and Assistant Secretary to the Grand Lodge of Ireland. He is also a member of the Royal Black Preceptory. And he spent 18 years of his life in the Ulster Defence Regiment – which was eventually disbanded by the British because of its record of sectarianism and involvement in collusion with unionist death squads – and in the Royal Irish Regiment.
And yet here he was falling at the first electoral hurdle of his leadership. Worse the DUP Shinners were doing well. Oliver McMullan's win for Sinn Féin in East Antrim meant that the UUP were left with 16 seats.
The sight of the Irish national flag- the Tricolour - in the Omagh count centre clearly annoyed Tom Elliot. His description of it as the flag of a 'foreign nation' drew some derision from the Sinn Féin election workers and candidates, but it was his retort describing them as 'the scum of Sinn Féin' which earned Elliot widespread criticism.
Tom should withdraw the remark and put it behind him, and get on with rebuilding his party. That would be the sensible thing to do - thus far he doesn't appear to be inclined to do this.
The results from the Local Government election have continued this downward drift for the UUP.
The SDLP have also had their set backs. Two Assembly seats down, several more under serious threat and a significant drop in the vote. And this trend has continued in the local council results where they ended up down 14 seats
For Sinn Féin the Assembly and Local government elections in the north are our third in three months. In the South we fought a general election and emerged with a significantly enhanced Dail team of 14 TDs. In the Seanad election last month three republican Seanadoiri were elected.
And now the Assembly and local government elections have seen us make further gains. We have consolidated Sinn Féin's vote across the north and there is clear space for continued growth. The party took 29 seats in the Assembly – up one – with an increased share of the vote and 138 seats in local councils – up 12 seats.
All these seats are important. But the wins in Fermanagh South Tyrone are particularly sweet. On the 30th anniversary of Bobby Sands death Sinn Féin took all three nationalist seats in the constituency he had represented briefly as an MP. I am sure many republicans remembering the hunger strike period took some satisfaction from this result. This blog certainly does.
All in all it was a good election for Sinn Féin. There are now 29 republicaan MLAs, 14 TDs, 3 Senators, in addition to our MPs and an MEP and hundreds of councillors across this island.
This week Sinn Féin is going back into the Assembly and into local councils in the north with a renewed and a larger mandate than ever before.
I want to thank all of our Assembly candidates and those who contested the local government elections. I want to also thank their families, and our election workers who made this success possible.
The only purpose for Sinn Féin in standing in any election is to win support for our republican objectives which include improving the quality of life of citizens, building peace and prosperity, creating jobs and defending public services and achieving Irish reunification.
There are massive challenges ahead north and south – in the economy; in confronting the EU/IMF bailout; in minimising the damage of the Tory cuts package; in plans to attack those on welfare - we will be about protecting our public services and those most vulnerable in this society.
But the first job of work to be done in the Assembly is to agree which party takes what department and who the Ministers will be. That process is already in train.
Some commentators even got a bit carried away with themselves almost suggesting that the lower than usual turnout somehow devalued the democratic mandate of those who have just been elected!
But the Assembly and local government counts and the results they produced, turned out to have some of the excitement which the campaign itself lacked.
The outburst by the UUP leader Tom Elliot in Omagh count centre on Saturday caught the headlines. Tom was having a bad day. From a confident pose just a few weeks ago in which he was predicting gains for his party the results emerging from count centres across the north were of the UUP losing votes and seats.
It wasn't meltdown. But his election last year as party leader had been met with jubilation by party activists. After David Trimble and Reg Empey's leadership terms a lot of the UUP faithful had put their hope and trust in this former UDR soldier to reverse the failing fortunes of the party.
From a traditional Ulster Unionist perspective he has all the right credentials. He is a Past County Grand Master of the Orange Order within Fermanagh and Assistant Secretary to the Grand Lodge of Ireland. He is also a member of the Royal Black Preceptory. And he spent 18 years of his life in the Ulster Defence Regiment – which was eventually disbanded by the British because of its record of sectarianism and involvement in collusion with unionist death squads – and in the Royal Irish Regiment.
And yet here he was falling at the first electoral hurdle of his leadership. Worse the DUP Shinners were doing well. Oliver McMullan's win for Sinn Féin in East Antrim meant that the UUP were left with 16 seats.
The sight of the Irish national flag- the Tricolour - in the Omagh count centre clearly annoyed Tom Elliot. His description of it as the flag of a 'foreign nation' drew some derision from the Sinn Féin election workers and candidates, but it was his retort describing them as 'the scum of Sinn Féin' which earned Elliot widespread criticism.
Tom should withdraw the remark and put it behind him, and get on with rebuilding his party. That would be the sensible thing to do - thus far he doesn't appear to be inclined to do this.
The results from the Local Government election have continued this downward drift for the UUP.
The SDLP have also had their set backs. Two Assembly seats down, several more under serious threat and a significant drop in the vote. And this trend has continued in the local council results where they ended up down 14 seats
For Sinn Féin the Assembly and Local government elections in the north are our third in three months. In the South we fought a general election and emerged with a significantly enhanced Dail team of 14 TDs. In the Seanad election last month three republican Seanadoiri were elected.
And now the Assembly and local government elections have seen us make further gains. We have consolidated Sinn Féin's vote across the north and there is clear space for continued growth. The party took 29 seats in the Assembly – up one – with an increased share of the vote and 138 seats in local councils – up 12 seats.
All these seats are important. But the wins in Fermanagh South Tyrone are particularly sweet. On the 30th anniversary of Bobby Sands death Sinn Féin took all three nationalist seats in the constituency he had represented briefly as an MP. I am sure many republicans remembering the hunger strike period took some satisfaction from this result. This blog certainly does.
All in all it was a good election for Sinn Féin. There are now 29 republicaan MLAs, 14 TDs, 3 Senators, in addition to our MPs and an MEP and hundreds of councillors across this island.
This week Sinn Féin is going back into the Assembly and into local councils in the north with a renewed and a larger mandate than ever before.
I want to thank all of our Assembly candidates and those who contested the local government elections. I want to also thank their families, and our election workers who made this success possible.
The only purpose for Sinn Féin in standing in any election is to win support for our republican objectives which include improving the quality of life of citizens, building peace and prosperity, creating jobs and defending public services and achieving Irish reunification.
There are massive challenges ahead north and south – in the economy; in confronting the EU/IMF bailout; in minimising the damage of the Tory cuts package; in plans to attack those on welfare - we will be about protecting our public services and those most vulnerable in this society.
But the first job of work to be done in the Assembly is to agree which party takes what department and who the Ministers will be. That process is already in train.
May 8, 2011
Remembering Bobby
The Hunger Strike Memorial in Glasnevin
Saturday morning this blog spent a short time at the west Belfast count in the Kings Hall in south Belfast. As anyone watching the media coverage of the Assembly count will know the process of validating and counting and transferring preferences was unbelievably slow.
One BBC journalist I was speaking to joked that Scotland would have independence before the count was completed in the north. I will return to the issue of the elections in my next blog.
From Belfast it was down to Tallanstown in County Louth. It's a small, beautiful, sleepy village which has a monument to Vere Foster who founded the Irish National Teachers Organisation and in the nineteenth century promoted the provision of education, helped establish schools and provided funds for thousands to flee Ireland as a result of the great hunger. Foster's family were from the locality.
Tallanstown has won the 2010 Tidy Towns competition and President Mary McAleese was there to congratulate residents and join in the celebrations. There were hundreds of local people in attendance as the President praised the efforts of all of those who had worked very hard over many years to achieve this award. Well done indeed.
From there we drove to Dublin where Mary Lou McDonald was opening her new constituency office at 139 North Strand for Dublin Central. She told me that the building was in a very bad state of disrepair but that the local organisation had rallied round and spent the last 6 weeks plastering, fixing ceilings, rewiring and painting the office. It looks well now. Comhghairdeas.
And then it was on to Parnell Square. Dublin Sinn Fein had organised a march from the Garden of Remembrance to the Hunger Strike monument in Glasnevin Cemetery to mark the 30th anniversary of the death on May 5th of Bobby Sands.
It was a balmy day which occasionally threatened rain. There was a good turn out of Dubs and the hundreds who took part were in fine form as the news of the election results from the north were texted to mobile phones from count centres there.
Glasnevin is a remarkable place. The hunger strike memorial is dedicated to all of those who died on hunger strike in prison beginning with Thomas Ashe in 1917. Ashe's grave lies just a few feet away. At the time of his arrest in September 1917 Ashe was President of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and had been Officer Commanding Dublin's Second Battalion during the 1916 Easter Rising.
Like Bobby Sands and his comrades Thomas Ashe, Austen Stack and others rejected British efforts to criminalise them and embarked on a hunger strike on September 20 in Mountjoy prison. Five days later Ashe died after being brutally force fed.
The death of Thomas Ashe and the subsequent funeral procession became a rallying call to the Republic. His body lay in state in Dublin's City Hall before a funeral procession of over 30,000 marched here, to Glasnevin Cemetery, on 30 September 1917.
94 years later Irish republicans were again gathered about his grave to commemorate and celebrate the lives of another generation of republican activists who died on hunger strike.
All around the small platform from which the ceremony was conducted, lie the graves of other Irish iconic historic figures. Men and women who fought and died in pursuit of Irish freedom.
Among them is O'Donovan Rossa at whose graveside on 1 August 1915 Pádraig Pearse gave perhaps his most famous speech which ended with: "They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but, the fools, the fools, the fools! — They have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace."
Mary Lou chaired the proceedings. Nicola King from Mayo, by way of Dublin, laid a wreath at the hunger strike memorial; Colm Ó Mordha laid a wreath at Thomas Ashe's grave; Noeleen Reilly read the Roll of Honour; Mary Mullen sang 'The Year '81', written by Mícheál Mac Donncha; and Desi Ellis gave a very fine rendition of Bobby's The Rhythm of Time.
In my remarks I reminded everyone present of those others, who with Bobby, had died on hunger strike in 1981 and earlier in this phase of struggle:
Francie Hughes, Raymond McCreesh, Patsy O Hara, Joe McDonnell, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Tom McElwee and Michael Devine, and also of Frank Stagg and Michael Gaughan, who died on hunger strike in English prisons.
It was a poignant day. A day full of memories for those of us who knew Bobby and the other hunger strikers. And when the news came through that Sinn Féin had won three of the six seats in Fermanagh South Tyrone on Bobby's anniversary I found that an especially emotional moment.
May 6, 2011
Palestinian Agreement a major achievement
In the week which witnessed the killing of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan and continued conflict in Syria and Libya, the agreement between the Palestinian groups has not received the attention it deserves.
After decades of conflict in the Middle East and countless abortive efforts to put in place a real peace process, there is understandable cynicism about the potential for any initiative to significantly change the political dynamic in that region.
However, the emergence of major movements for democratic change in the Arab states, and especially in Egypt, is doing just that.
This is the new context in which an agreement to reconcile the opposing positions of the Palestinian factions has just been achieved.
The unity accord between Hamas and Fatah goes beyond those two organisations. For the first time all 13 Palestinian factions have signed up to an agreed process behind an agreed strategy to achieve Palestinian statehood.
This is an important development. Too often in the past internal divisions among the Palestinians have been exploited by Israel and others to thwart Palestinian efforts to advance their political objectives. Now for the first time all of the Palestinian groups have come together and agreed a way forward.
This includes creating an interim government to run the west Bank and Gaza and Presidential and Parliamentary elections within the next year.
The Palestinian agreement also plans to ask the United Nations in September to recognise a Palestinian state in the west Bank and Gaza.
Significantly the agreement to end the four year rift between Hamas and Fatah came after lengthy negotiations and against a background of street demonstrations by Palestinians calling for political unity. It is also important to note that the deal was brokered in Cairo by the new administration there.
For the last 30 years the Egyptian regime, first under Sadat and then Mubarak, has worked closely with Israel. It is widely accepted that Mubarak was always less than supportive of efforts to achieve an end to the divisions between Fatah and Hamas and the other Palestinian groups.
However, the overthrow of Mubarak now means that there is in Egypt an administration which has openly criticised the previous policy of co-operating with Israel and is less hostile of Hamas.
In addition other Arab states, have already indicated their support for Palestinian reconciliation.
The Palestinian agreement therefore creates a unique opportunity for a real negotiation involving Palestinian and Israeli representatives to achieve a viable peace settlement.
It will not be without its difficulties and all sides must be prepared to take major risks if progress is to be achieved.
The initial response of the Israeli government has been disappointing. Instead of thinking long term and strategically it has knee jerked and is responding tactically. The Israeli government has condemned the Palestinian Agreement, frozen €60 million in tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority, and wants the EU to freeze €288 million in aid which it provides to the Palestinians annually.
At a time when Arab and Palestinian demonstrations are for democracy, accountable government, and progress, the Israel government wants to punish the Palestinian people who are already among the most impoverished in the Arab world!
This approach by the Netanyahu government reflects a position that is mired in the past and seeks to prevent real progress.
The Israeli government needs to come to terms with the fact that the political dynamic in the wider Middle East and Arab world is changing. The agreement between Fatah and Hamas reflects this.
I have visited the West Bank, Israel and the Gaza strip on two occasions in recent years. During those visit I met with senior representatives of the Palestinian Authority and of Hamas. I have also spoken to Israeli representatives. Sinn Féin representatives have regularly visited the region.
I do not underestimate the challenges which the Palestinian Agreement presents for all sides.
Nor do I underestimate the difficulties in seeking to reach a political settlement. The issues that have to be resolved are considerable; a viable Palestinian state; Israeli occupation of Palestinian land; an end to the siege of Gaza; the settlements; water rights; refugees; prisoners; the Separation wall and Jerusalem.
Dialogue, involving substantive and inclusive negotiations, including Hamas, is the key to making progress. Dialogue and negotiations between equals is essential.
I believe that agreement is possible. Most citizens living in Israel, and the West Bank and Gaza already know its broad outline.
Thus far making real progress toward it has been frustrated by divisions among Palestinians and a lack of positive leadership from within Israel.
The Palestinian Agreement opens up the possibility that the log jam might now be broken. Achieving this will require courageous political leadership, and a willingness to make compromises on all sides.
After decades of conflict in the Middle East and countless abortive efforts to put in place a real peace process, there is understandable cynicism about the potential for any initiative to significantly change the political dynamic in that region.
However, the emergence of major movements for democratic change in the Arab states, and especially in Egypt, is doing just that.
This is the new context in which an agreement to reconcile the opposing positions of the Palestinian factions has just been achieved.
The unity accord between Hamas and Fatah goes beyond those two organisations. For the first time all 13 Palestinian factions have signed up to an agreed process behind an agreed strategy to achieve Palestinian statehood.
This is an important development. Too often in the past internal divisions among the Palestinians have been exploited by Israel and others to thwart Palestinian efforts to advance their political objectives. Now for the first time all of the Palestinian groups have come together and agreed a way forward.
This includes creating an interim government to run the west Bank and Gaza and Presidential and Parliamentary elections within the next year.
The Palestinian agreement also plans to ask the United Nations in September to recognise a Palestinian state in the west Bank and Gaza.
Significantly the agreement to end the four year rift between Hamas and Fatah came after lengthy negotiations and against a background of street demonstrations by Palestinians calling for political unity. It is also important to note that the deal was brokered in Cairo by the new administration there.
For the last 30 years the Egyptian regime, first under Sadat and then Mubarak, has worked closely with Israel. It is widely accepted that Mubarak was always less than supportive of efforts to achieve an end to the divisions between Fatah and Hamas and the other Palestinian groups.
However, the overthrow of Mubarak now means that there is in Egypt an administration which has openly criticised the previous policy of co-operating with Israel and is less hostile of Hamas.
In addition other Arab states, have already indicated their support for Palestinian reconciliation.
The Palestinian agreement therefore creates a unique opportunity for a real negotiation involving Palestinian and Israeli representatives to achieve a viable peace settlement.
It will not be without its difficulties and all sides must be prepared to take major risks if progress is to be achieved.
The initial response of the Israeli government has been disappointing. Instead of thinking long term and strategically it has knee jerked and is responding tactically. The Israeli government has condemned the Palestinian Agreement, frozen €60 million in tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority, and wants the EU to freeze €288 million in aid which it provides to the Palestinians annually.
At a time when Arab and Palestinian demonstrations are for democracy, accountable government, and progress, the Israel government wants to punish the Palestinian people who are already among the most impoverished in the Arab world!
This approach by the Netanyahu government reflects a position that is mired in the past and seeks to prevent real progress.
The Israeli government needs to come to terms with the fact that the political dynamic in the wider Middle East and Arab world is changing. The agreement between Fatah and Hamas reflects this.
I have visited the West Bank, Israel and the Gaza strip on two occasions in recent years. During those visit I met with senior representatives of the Palestinian Authority and of Hamas. I have also spoken to Israeli representatives. Sinn Féin representatives have regularly visited the region.
I do not underestimate the challenges which the Palestinian Agreement presents for all sides.
Nor do I underestimate the difficulties in seeking to reach a political settlement. The issues that have to be resolved are considerable; a viable Palestinian state; Israeli occupation of Palestinian land; an end to the siege of Gaza; the settlements; water rights; refugees; prisoners; the Separation wall and Jerusalem.
Dialogue, involving substantive and inclusive negotiations, including Hamas, is the key to making progress. Dialogue and negotiations between equals is essential.
I believe that agreement is possible. Most citizens living in Israel, and the West Bank and Gaza already know its broad outline.
Thus far making real progress toward it has been frustrated by divisions among Palestinians and a lack of positive leadership from within Israel.
The Palestinian Agreement opens up the possibility that the log jam might now be broken. Achieving this will require courageous political leadership, and a willingness to make compromises on all sides.
May 3, 2011
Every Vote Matters
A cartoon by the late Brian 'Cormac' Moore urging people to Vote for Bobby Sands
The weather has been tremendous. Bright, warm sunshine. Blue skies. The countryside a riot of vivid colours. Good weather makes all the difference when you are on the campaign trail. It puts everyone in great form. Canvassers and canvassed alike.
Thursday, May 5th, is Bobby Sands 30th anniversary and polling day. The co-incidence of the Assembly poll, the local government election, the AV referendum, and Bobby's anniversary is not lost on republican activists.
The Fermanagh South Tyrone by-election in April 1981, when Bobby famously won that seat, has been acknowledged as one of those pivotal moments in recent Irish history.
In the last few days this blog has been in north Antrim, and north and West Belfast campaigning with local candidates. And on Monday I was in Belcoo, and Derrylin, and other parts of Fermanagh South Tyrone. As we drove through the towns and villages of that famous constituency I was constantly reminded of the election campaign of 81.
Apart from filling election envelopes as a teenager in 1964, the Bobby Sands election was my first real election campaign. And like many others I was learning as I went along. But we were all buoyed up by the spirit of defiance and the heroism of the hunger strikers.
That was a remarkable time. And it set the scene for much that was to follow. 30 years later the legacy of the hunger strike and the sacrifice of the hunger strikers, and of three decades of successful political activism and growth, is evident in the political strength of Sinn Féin.
Today, tomorrow and on Thursday, and after months of hard work on the campaign trail, republicans across the north's constituencies will be putting in one final hard push to ensure that we consolidate our vote and build for the future.
There will be some who will argue that voting is a waste of time or who will just not bother to vote. They are wrong.
Voting is your opportunity to make a difference – to be part of bringing in real and better change.
Vote Bobby Sands
Elites have always sought to deny citizens the right to determine their own destiny. There was a time when most people didn't have the vote. When monarchies and aristocracies decided how people lived and died. Sometimes the excuse was that someone was too poor; or too uneducated; or a woman; or of a different colour. But the goal was always the same. Restrict access to political power and influence so that a minority can benefit.
The leaders of 1916 understood the importance of promoting and defending the rights of citizens. The Proclamation addresses itself to Irish men and Irish women and promotes universal suffrage at a time women didn't have the vote.
The Unionist regime following partition understood this. For that reason property qualifications were part of local electoral law and tens of thousands of citizens, mainly Catholic, were denied the right to a vote. Along with the gerrymandering of electoral boundaries this ensured unionist majorities on Councils in towns where nationalists were in the majority. That's why the demand for one person one vote was so threatening to unionism and why it was violently opposed by the state and its paramilitary forces.
Denying the vote was part of the strategy of those, particularly in the deep south of the USA, who wanted to hold on to power and who rejected the civil rights demands of the 1960s. It was also central to the apartheid regime in South Africa. And in Arab states today citizens are dying in pursuit of the right to vote and to democratic structures of government.
Voting is a human right it is also a responsibility.
In recent years Sinn Féin has succeeded in bringing about fundamental change in the north. In local government and in the Assembly, in the Executive and through our MPs and MEP Sinn Féin has succeeded in delivering real improvements in peoples' daily lives through the policies our activists implement and the decisions they take. Elections and electoral success have made a difference.
In the recent Dáil and Seanad elections also Sinn Féin made important gains.
But there is much more to be done. Not least in terms of achieving a United Ireland. And to do this and to continue to deliver for citizens Sinn Féin needs more votes to build even greater political strength.
95 years ago today the executions of the 1916 leaders commenced. The first to die were Padraig Pearse, Tom Clarke and Thomas MacDonagh.
Their goal, like ours today was and is to build a new Ireland; a shared Ireland; an Ireland in which the rights of citizens are paramount.
The 1916 Proclamation, they wrote and died for, is a powerful expression of the shape of that new Ireland.
"The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally".
This Thursday every citizen with a vote can contribute to bringing that day a significant step closer by voting for Sinn Féin candidates for local Councils and for the Assembly.
April 29, 2011
The Flame of Freedom
Last Sunday this blog spoke at two Easter commemorations in Louth and East Meath. They were the first in that constituency since I became its Teachta Dála.
It was a beautiful spring day. A nice day to remember our patriot dead.
All across this island, and beyond, there are monuments and plaques, on roadsides, in cemeteries and in town centres, in rural lanes and housing estates, in memory of those who over many centuries have lost their lives in pursuit of Irish freedom and independence.
Many thousands of people contribute to their upkeep and to organising events like Easter so that the sacrifice of this and previous generations is properly honoured .
So, I want to commend all of those who organise events and who contribute to the upkeep of these graves and monuments. It is right and proper that we remember and celebrate the lives of our patriot dead.
This year Irish republicans mark 95 years since the Easter Rising. It is also the 30th anniversary of the 1981 Hunger Strike.
Each event was a seminal moment in the struggle for Irish freedom, and each changed the course of Irish history for the better.
Easter 1916 witnessed an alliance of Irish republican organisations and others, including the diaspora in the USA, come together to declare a Republic.
Much of this occurred in Dublin but republicans also took up arms elsewhere in the country, including Louth.
After the Rising sixteen leaders were executed. The British hoped that the executions would extinguish the flame of freedom. They were wrong. At his court martial Pádraig Mac Piarais got it exactly right:
'Believe that we, too, love freedom and desire it. To us it is more desirable than anything in the world. If you strike us down now, we shall rise again to renew the fight. You cannot conquer Ireland. You cannot extinguish the Irish passion for freedom.'
The vast majority of Irish people understand this. So too do many in the diaspora. It is a part of who we are.
Regrettably, it is equally true that the republic which was proclaimed in 1916 has been set aside by those in the political establishment, and the limited freedom won after the rising has been squandered.
Imagine what the leaders of 1916 would think of the state of the health service, and especially of our elderly patients who are stuck on hospital trolleys for days or of the half a million people unemployed across this island?
What would they say about the way working people are being treated, while big bankers are paid millions?
We can imagine their response to the sell-off of our natural resources. Or to the EU/IMF bailout!
We can say with certainty that the men and women of 1916 would not be part of the golden circle of greedy financiers and developers and corrupt politicians who have practically bankrupted the southern state.
In the north, Sinn Fein is fighting hard to secure fiscal powers from London, while in the south the government and its predecessor have given away our economic sovereignty.
In their time the leaders of the Rising warned against partition and its divisive and debilitating potential. Connolly predicted it would cause a carnival of reaction. He was right.
Partition is uneconomic. It holds back Ireland's potential for economic growth. People in County Louth and in other border counties know this.
This blog believes that the commemoration of the Rising and the run into the centenary anniversary needs to become a rallying point for Irish citizens to stand up for our rights. For that reason I have already raised this issue in the Dáil with the Taoiseach.
Irish unity makes political and economic sense. And the template for the new Ireland we seek is powerfully expressed in the Proclamation.
"The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and pros perity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally".
It is about Irish self-determination and democracy.
There is a logic to greater and closer co-operation between north and south.
So, in the time ahead there is an onus on Irish republicans to use our collective imagination and our political strength to eraze the border. To make it irrelevant. And let us not leave it to the next generation to achieve this – let us do it in our time.
Next Thursday, May 5th, is the anniversary of Bobby Sands death. It is also the day the people of the north will go to the polls in the Assembly and local government elections. Sinn Féin's aim is to consolidate our support in that part of our country and to continue to build across the island.
The story of 1916, like the story of the hunger strike of 1981 is the story of courage and heroism and an example of the heights to which the human spirit can rise in pursuit of freedom.
It was a beautiful spring day. A nice day to remember our patriot dead.
All across this island, and beyond, there are monuments and plaques, on roadsides, in cemeteries and in town centres, in rural lanes and housing estates, in memory of those who over many centuries have lost their lives in pursuit of Irish freedom and independence.
Many thousands of people contribute to their upkeep and to organising events like Easter so that the sacrifice of this and previous generations is properly honoured .
So, I want to commend all of those who organise events and who contribute to the upkeep of these graves and monuments. It is right and proper that we remember and celebrate the lives of our patriot dead.
This year Irish republicans mark 95 years since the Easter Rising. It is also the 30th anniversary of the 1981 Hunger Strike.
Each event was a seminal moment in the struggle for Irish freedom, and each changed the course of Irish history for the better.
Easter 1916 witnessed an alliance of Irish republican organisations and others, including the diaspora in the USA, come together to declare a Republic.
Much of this occurred in Dublin but republicans also took up arms elsewhere in the country, including Louth.
After the Rising sixteen leaders were executed. The British hoped that the executions would extinguish the flame of freedom. They were wrong. At his court martial Pádraig Mac Piarais got it exactly right:
'Believe that we, too, love freedom and desire it. To us it is more desirable than anything in the world. If you strike us down now, we shall rise again to renew the fight. You cannot conquer Ireland. You cannot extinguish the Irish passion for freedom.'
The vast majority of Irish people understand this. So too do many in the diaspora. It is a part of who we are.
Regrettably, it is equally true that the republic which was proclaimed in 1916 has been set aside by those in the political establishment, and the limited freedom won after the rising has been squandered.
Imagine what the leaders of 1916 would think of the state of the health service, and especially of our elderly patients who are stuck on hospital trolleys for days or of the half a million people unemployed across this island?
What would they say about the way working people are being treated, while big bankers are paid millions?
We can imagine their response to the sell-off of our natural resources. Or to the EU/IMF bailout!
We can say with certainty that the men and women of 1916 would not be part of the golden circle of greedy financiers and developers and corrupt politicians who have practically bankrupted the southern state.
In the north, Sinn Fein is fighting hard to secure fiscal powers from London, while in the south the government and its predecessor have given away our economic sovereignty.
In their time the leaders of the Rising warned against partition and its divisive and debilitating potential. Connolly predicted it would cause a carnival of reaction. He was right.
Partition is uneconomic. It holds back Ireland's potential for economic growth. People in County Louth and in other border counties know this.
This blog believes that the commemoration of the Rising and the run into the centenary anniversary needs to become a rallying point for Irish citizens to stand up for our rights. For that reason I have already raised this issue in the Dáil with the Taoiseach.
Irish unity makes political and economic sense. And the template for the new Ireland we seek is powerfully expressed in the Proclamation.
"The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and pros perity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally".
It is about Irish self-determination and democracy.
There is a logic to greater and closer co-operation between north and south.
So, in the time ahead there is an onus on Irish republicans to use our collective imagination and our political strength to eraze the border. To make it irrelevant. And let us not leave it to the next generation to achieve this – let us do it in our time.
Next Thursday, May 5th, is the anniversary of Bobby Sands death. It is also the day the people of the north will go to the polls in the Assembly and local government elections. Sinn Féin's aim is to consolidate our support in that part of our country and to continue to build across the island.
The story of 1916, like the story of the hunger strike of 1981 is the story of courage and heroism and an example of the heights to which the human spirit can rise in pursuit of freedom.
April 23, 2011
A Health Scandal - Symphysiotomy
There are a series of scandals involving the health service which have a particular resonance in County Louth.
The allegations of sexual abuse surrounding Consultant Surgeon Michael Shine in Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda is one which the previous Ministers of Health have failed to deal with properly or humanely.
They have failed to provide the victims with the information and closure they deserve. This blog is hopeful that the new Minister James Reilly will see his way to holding an inquiry into the Shine allegations. It is also a matter of extreme urgency that he restores full funding to the Dignity for Patients Group which campaigns on behalf of victims.
However, another scandal deserving redress is that of women scarred by the medical practice of symphysiotomy.
Symphysiotomy is an 18th century operation performed on women in labour that unhinges the pelvis, splitting the pubic joint and its ligaments with a scalpel knife. Another version of this operation, called pubiotomy, severs the bone rather than the joint. This results in a compound fracture of the pelvis.
At least 1500 Symphysiotomies were carried out on women in the southern state between 1944 and 1984. This was at a time when the rest of the medical profession elsewhere was using caesarean sections.
Patients were rarely asked for their consent and most were never told of the nature of the surgery or its risks, or offered the safer alternative of a caesarean section.
The consequence for the victim of this procedure was often chronic pain, incontinence and a lifetime of medical intervention. One child in ten died.
Increasing age has meant that many of the women who were subjected to this barbarous practice have difficulty walking.
Survivors of Symphysiotomy is a group that has brought together almost 200 women, now mainly in their 60s and older, who have been the victims of this brutal surgery.
This blog has met with them and their accounts of how they were treated in hospital and what was done to them is horrific.
These women want truth. They have looked to a succession of Health Ministers to provide it through the establishment of a full public inquiry.
A promised review of the practice by the Fianna Fáil Health Minister Micheál Máirtín in 2003 was never established.
Health Minister Mary Harney refused to establish an inquiry. She did ask the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to prepare a report concerning the practice of Symphysiotomy in hospitals in the state.
However, this report was not progressed. And in a written reply to my colleague Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin last month the Minister Reilly avoided answering the question about establishing a public inquiry.
The Minister said that he understood that efforts are progressing to put in place alternative arrangements with the assistance of a University of Public Health.
But the Minister hasn't specified what 'alternative arrangements' means? And this is causing concern, especially to the victims.
The hundreds of women grievously hurt physically and emotionally by this practice have not received the help and support they have a right to expect.
In his capacity as opposition Health spokesperson Minister Reilly gave his full support to the victim's demand for a public inquiry at the Oireachtas Committee Hearing in 2009.
As the Minister of Health he now as the opportunity to accomplish what Micheál Máirtín failed to do and what he asked Minister Harney to do.
I understand that the Survivors of Symphysiotomy group has asked to meet with the Minister and have offered their full co-operation, in an open and dignified manner, for what would be a hugely difficult and emotional experience of telling their stories in public.
In an adjournment debate in the Dáil on Wednesday evening I asked the Minister to meet with the group as quickly as possible and to tell them that he will establish a full Public Inquiry into the practice of Symphysiotomies in Irish hospitals under the care of the state.
The allegations of sexual abuse surrounding Consultant Surgeon Michael Shine in Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda is one which the previous Ministers of Health have failed to deal with properly or humanely.
They have failed to provide the victims with the information and closure they deserve. This blog is hopeful that the new Minister James Reilly will see his way to holding an inquiry into the Shine allegations. It is also a matter of extreme urgency that he restores full funding to the Dignity for Patients Group which campaigns on behalf of victims.
However, another scandal deserving redress is that of women scarred by the medical practice of symphysiotomy.
Symphysiotomy is an 18th century operation performed on women in labour that unhinges the pelvis, splitting the pubic joint and its ligaments with a scalpel knife. Another version of this operation, called pubiotomy, severs the bone rather than the joint. This results in a compound fracture of the pelvis.
At least 1500 Symphysiotomies were carried out on women in the southern state between 1944 and 1984. This was at a time when the rest of the medical profession elsewhere was using caesarean sections.
Patients were rarely asked for their consent and most were never told of the nature of the surgery or its risks, or offered the safer alternative of a caesarean section.
The consequence for the victim of this procedure was often chronic pain, incontinence and a lifetime of medical intervention. One child in ten died.
Increasing age has meant that many of the women who were subjected to this barbarous practice have difficulty walking.
Survivors of Symphysiotomy is a group that has brought together almost 200 women, now mainly in their 60s and older, who have been the victims of this brutal surgery.
This blog has met with them and their accounts of how they were treated in hospital and what was done to them is horrific.
These women want truth. They have looked to a succession of Health Ministers to provide it through the establishment of a full public inquiry.
A promised review of the practice by the Fianna Fáil Health Minister Micheál Máirtín in 2003 was never established.
Health Minister Mary Harney refused to establish an inquiry. She did ask the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to prepare a report concerning the practice of Symphysiotomy in hospitals in the state.
However, this report was not progressed. And in a written reply to my colleague Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin last month the Minister Reilly avoided answering the question about establishing a public inquiry.
The Minister said that he understood that efforts are progressing to put in place alternative arrangements with the assistance of a University of Public Health.
But the Minister hasn't specified what 'alternative arrangements' means? And this is causing concern, especially to the victims.
The hundreds of women grievously hurt physically and emotionally by this practice have not received the help and support they have a right to expect.
In his capacity as opposition Health spokesperson Minister Reilly gave his full support to the victim's demand for a public inquiry at the Oireachtas Committee Hearing in 2009.
As the Minister of Health he now as the opportunity to accomplish what Micheál Máirtín failed to do and what he asked Minister Harney to do.
I understand that the Survivors of Symphysiotomy group has asked to meet with the Minister and have offered their full co-operation, in an open and dignified manner, for what would be a hugely difficult and emotional experience of telling their stories in public.
In an adjournment debate in the Dáil on Wednesday evening I asked the Minister to meet with the group as quickly as possible and to tell them that he will establish a full Public Inquiry into the practice of Symphysiotomies in Irish hospitals under the care of the state.
April 20, 2011
The Dublin Monaghan Bombs and the British
Yesterday this blog questioned the Taoiseach about his meeting on Monday with the British Prime Minister and asked him whether he had raised the Dublin Monaghan Bombings in which 34 Irish citizens were killed and hundreds more injured?
Specifically I asked the Taoiseach if he had raised directly with the British Prime Minister the Dáil request from July 2008 for the British government to hand over all files and other information in relation to the bomb attacks on May 17th 1974 and other atrocities inquired into by Justice Barron and for these files to be opened to independent, international scrutiny.
The Taoiseach was evasive in his response. But the only conclusion to be drawn from what he said is that he didn't.
This failure to act in Irish national interests or in the interests of Irish citizens is characteristic of the submissive attitude of Irish governments to British governments over the years.
The colonization and occupation of Ireland over many centuries by Britain has left a bitter legacy. Part of this is an inability on the part of Irish governments to stand up for Irish interests when dealing with British governments.
The Taoiseach described the relationship between the two states as one based on mutual respect and trust.
How much respect has a British government for an Irish government and for Ireland when it hides the truth of its involvement in collusion and murder, and refuses to hand over vital information on this issue?
How much self-respect does an Irish government have if it refuses to challenge that British government?
The citizens who died in the Dublin Monaghan bombings were not the first to die as a result of collusion, nor the last.
Five years ago an Independent International Panel on Collusion into Sectarian Killings produced a detailed 109-page report. It followed a careful examination of 25 cases of unionist paramilitary violence between 1972 and 1977 in which 76 people were killed. The Panel found that in 24 cases involving 74 killings there was evidence of RUC and UDR collusion.
This included the Dublin Monaghan bombs and the bomb attack in December 1975 in which two Dundalk men Jack Rooney and Hugh Watters were killed.
The report revealed that the British Government knew of the collusion between the RUC, British army and unionist death squads as far back as the early 1970s.
Sometimes official state forces donned masks and carried out the killings themselves. At other times they simply passed the weaponry, know how and information onto surrogate unionist paramilitaries.
Launching the report in 2006 Douglas Cassel, a human rights professor from the American University of Notre Dame, said he had been shocked at the extent of state collusion in the killings the team had investigated.
The panel had found evidence of collusion with British state forces, primarily the RUC and UDR in 24 of the 25 cases they examined. In most cases the evidence was extremely strong. In some cases they concluded that there was "a prime facia case".
After the killings came the cover up. Cover up involved state forces covering up their own crimes and the crimes of others, hiding weaponry, failing to pursue investigations and refusing to prosecute despite overwhelming evidence.
In one case, Robin Jackson, a notorious unionist gunman, was identified by the widow of one of his victims but the charges against him were subsequently dropped by order of the DPP. Jackson was later exposed as a Special Branch agent.
The cases investigated included car bombings, grenade attacks and shootings including mass killings as in the Miami Showband attack.
In addition to the activities of the Glenanne Gang British agents, like Brian Nelson, helped procure weapons through Apartheid South African connections in 1988.
These weapons were secured for the use of three unionist paramilitary organisations the UDA, UVF and Ulster Resistance.
The first two have according to the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning have got rid of their weapons. Ulster Resistance has not.
The importation of these weapons with the help of British intelligence led to a dramatic increase in murders by unionist death squads.
In the six years before the arrival of the South African weapons from January 1982 to December 1987 unionist murder gangs killed 71 people. In the six years after the arrival of the arms shipment that number had risen to 229.
The unionist death squads were assisted in all of this by RUC Special Branch and British agencies like FRU and British Military Intelligence and the British Security Services.
Among those murdered were human rights lawyer Pat Finucane. Special Branch and British intelligence agents were involved in every part of his murder, including providing the information, the weapons, carrying out the murder and giving the order.
Over the decades of conflict thousands of files and photos of nationalists and republicans were passed over to unionist death squads, commonly from within the UDR and frequently proper investigations of sectarian murders were not carried out by the RUC.
In 2001 a Commission of Inquiry under Mr. Justice Henry Barron was established by the Irish Government in 2001. Four reports were published and a Sub-Committee of the cross-party Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights conducted an extensive examination of the reports.
The Sub-Committee concluded "that given that we are dealing with acts of international terrorism that were colluded in by the British security forces, the British Government cannot legitimately refuse to co-operate with investigations and attempts to get to the truth."
Despite this hard hitting conclusion and the mountain of evidence available no Irish government has pursued this issue vigorously.
Enda Kenny promised a different kind of government from Fianna Fáil but if his meeting in Downing Street is an example of how he does business it would appear to be the same old story.
Specifically I asked the Taoiseach if he had raised directly with the British Prime Minister the Dáil request from July 2008 for the British government to hand over all files and other information in relation to the bomb attacks on May 17th 1974 and other atrocities inquired into by Justice Barron and for these files to be opened to independent, international scrutiny.
The Taoiseach was evasive in his response. But the only conclusion to be drawn from what he said is that he didn't.
This failure to act in Irish national interests or in the interests of Irish citizens is characteristic of the submissive attitude of Irish governments to British governments over the years.
The colonization and occupation of Ireland over many centuries by Britain has left a bitter legacy. Part of this is an inability on the part of Irish governments to stand up for Irish interests when dealing with British governments.
The Taoiseach described the relationship between the two states as one based on mutual respect and trust.
How much respect has a British government for an Irish government and for Ireland when it hides the truth of its involvement in collusion and murder, and refuses to hand over vital information on this issue?
How much self-respect does an Irish government have if it refuses to challenge that British government?
The citizens who died in the Dublin Monaghan bombings were not the first to die as a result of collusion, nor the last.
Five years ago an Independent International Panel on Collusion into Sectarian Killings produced a detailed 109-page report. It followed a careful examination of 25 cases of unionist paramilitary violence between 1972 and 1977 in which 76 people were killed. The Panel found that in 24 cases involving 74 killings there was evidence of RUC and UDR collusion.
This included the Dublin Monaghan bombs and the bomb attack in December 1975 in which two Dundalk men Jack Rooney and Hugh Watters were killed.
The report revealed that the British Government knew of the collusion between the RUC, British army and unionist death squads as far back as the early 1970s.
Sometimes official state forces donned masks and carried out the killings themselves. At other times they simply passed the weaponry, know how and information onto surrogate unionist paramilitaries.
Launching the report in 2006 Douglas Cassel, a human rights professor from the American University of Notre Dame, said he had been shocked at the extent of state collusion in the killings the team had investigated.
The panel had found evidence of collusion with British state forces, primarily the RUC and UDR in 24 of the 25 cases they examined. In most cases the evidence was extremely strong. In some cases they concluded that there was "a prime facia case".
After the killings came the cover up. Cover up involved state forces covering up their own crimes and the crimes of others, hiding weaponry, failing to pursue investigations and refusing to prosecute despite overwhelming evidence.
In one case, Robin Jackson, a notorious unionist gunman, was identified by the widow of one of his victims but the charges against him were subsequently dropped by order of the DPP. Jackson was later exposed as a Special Branch agent.
The cases investigated included car bombings, grenade attacks and shootings including mass killings as in the Miami Showband attack.
In addition to the activities of the Glenanne Gang British agents, like Brian Nelson, helped procure weapons through Apartheid South African connections in 1988.
These weapons were secured for the use of three unionist paramilitary organisations the UDA, UVF and Ulster Resistance.
The first two have according to the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning have got rid of their weapons. Ulster Resistance has not.
The importation of these weapons with the help of British intelligence led to a dramatic increase in murders by unionist death squads.
In the six years before the arrival of the South African weapons from January 1982 to December 1987 unionist murder gangs killed 71 people. In the six years after the arrival of the arms shipment that number had risen to 229.
The unionist death squads were assisted in all of this by RUC Special Branch and British agencies like FRU and British Military Intelligence and the British Security Services.
Among those murdered were human rights lawyer Pat Finucane. Special Branch and British intelligence agents were involved in every part of his murder, including providing the information, the weapons, carrying out the murder and giving the order.
Over the decades of conflict thousands of files and photos of nationalists and republicans were passed over to unionist death squads, commonly from within the UDR and frequently proper investigations of sectarian murders were not carried out by the RUC.
In 2001 a Commission of Inquiry under Mr. Justice Henry Barron was established by the Irish Government in 2001. Four reports were published and a Sub-Committee of the cross-party Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights conducted an extensive examination of the reports.
The Sub-Committee concluded "that given that we are dealing with acts of international terrorism that were colluded in by the British security forces, the British Government cannot legitimately refuse to co-operate with investigations and attempts to get to the truth."
Despite this hard hitting conclusion and the mountain of evidence available no Irish government has pursued this issue vigorously.
Enda Kenny promised a different kind of government from Fianna Fáil but if his meeting in Downing Street is an example of how he does business it would appear to be the same old story.
April 16, 2011
The Spyring that wasn't!
On October 4th 2002 lines of armoured police vehicles came screaming up the drive to Parliament Buildings at Stormont. As the heavy doors clanged open scores of PSNI officers, some wearing riot gear, jumped out and rushed into the building. They were there to raid the Sinn Féin offices.
Because those in the Special Branch who were responsible for the operation had alerted the media the whole exercise was carried out in the full glare of publicity.
The spin to the press was that a republican spyring had been uncovered in Stormont! According to the PSNI itself the Stormont raid, with all of the attendant armoured vehicles and police officers, was to enable them to search "one desk and immediate surrounding area".
The room was the administrative office for the party and the desk belonged to Denis Donaldson, who was the administrative manager for the Sinn Féin team in Parliament Buildings. The PSNI took away documents and computer discs.
The television images and snapper's pics were flashed around the world. When the media disappeared the discs and documents were handed back.
There were also raids elsewhere, including on the Donaldson family home in west Belfast where the PSNI claimed it found sensitive documents.
The new English Chief Constable of the PSNI was not told of the raid before hand by the Special Branch who orchestrated it.
Within a short time the Special Branch and British intelligence had told sections of the media that: "The security operation which uncovered alleged republican intelligence gathering in government in Northern Ireland was triggered by a police source within the IRA".
Subsequently it was revealed that nothing of any incriminating or illegal nature was found in the Sinn Féin office. But then that wasn't the point. The Special Branch never expected to find anything there.
The raid at Stormont was to give the media and public the impressive visuals that were needed to enhance the claim of a spyring and to subvert the democratically elected power sharing government at that time.
It worked. David Trimble lost his nerve and pulled his Ministers out of the Executive. And within 10 days John Reid, the then British Secretary of State, suspended the political institutions.
On December 8th 2005, three years later, the case against Donaldson, who had been charged with possession of documents at his home, and several others collapsed. Two days later he was visited by the PSNI and warned that members of the media had information that he was an informer and that he should consider his life to be in danger.
The only source for such a story could have been Special Branch.
This warning was disputed by some, including sections of the media. However, the Donaldson family have since released an internal PM1 document which had been created on Saturday, 10 December 2005, by the Regional Assessment Unit (Castlereagh) of PSNI Special Branch.
The document confirms that the PSNI told Donaldson that 'members of the media believe that Denis Donaldson is an informer.'
The warning clearly unnerved Donaldson and led to him admitting to Sinn Féin officials that he was a British agent. He was suspended and then expelled from the party.
On the Thursday December 16th he received a telephone call from his former handler, 'Lenny', and following that he left Belfast. At a press conference in Dublin the next day Donaldson confirmed that:
• He had worked for British intelligence and the RUC/PSNI Special Branch since the 1980s, and that he was paid money.
• That his last two contacts with the Special Branch were two days before his arrest in October 02 and the previous evening.
• That he had not been involved in any republican spy ring at Stormont
• That this spy ring was a fiction created by the Special Branch.
Four months later on April 4th 2006 he was shot dead in Donegal in an attack subsequently claimed three years later, in April 2009 by the anti-peace faction describing itself the Real IRA.
Since then the Donaldson family has been involved in a legal battle to ensure that an inquest is held and that it is compliant with Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It has been a frustrating process which has taken a lot of determination on their part. Thus far, the southern state has refused them any support to have legal representation to make their case to the Coroner, in contrast to representation for Gardai.
The Inquest in Donegal has been adjourned 5 times at the request of the Gardai. Each time, the prospect of bringing criminal proceedings in the case has been held out by Gardai as a reason to prevent the start of the inquest. On May 5th , the inquest will be reconvened for the sixth time.
However, the arrests last week of two men in Donegal could mean that once again the Gardai may seek an adjournment.
The Donaldson family have also raised concerns about the role of British intelligence agencies and what information the PSNI Special Branch have in respect of the killing of their own agent. The family also have concerns around the Gardai investigation, and the failure to hold an inquest.
Sinn Féin shares the family's concerns.
This blog raised these matters on a number of occasions with the last Minister for Justice in Dublin without resolution.
For the Donaldson family this is about truth but they are also very conscious that this case raises broader concerns over accountability and cross-jurisdictional issues to do with policing and justice on the island of Ireland.
Last Thursday they issued a lengthy statement pointing to "serious discrepancies and anomalies in accounts relating to the circumstances leading up to Denis' murder".
And the family say that in order to be effective "thorough, independent and compliant with our family's rights under Article 2 of the ECHR, any investigation of Denis' murder must examine the identities, motivations, activities, links, communications and movements of 'Lenny' and their Special Branch associates. 'Lenny' is intimately informed about the events surrounding Denis' murder. 'Lenny' holds the answers to many questions."
Notwithstanding the five year delay in the holding of the inquest it is possible to draw some conclusions from this affair.
The decision by the Special Branch to arrest and implicate their own agent in 2002 in a nonexistent spyring was about collapsing the power sharing government to which senior members of the old RUC Special Branch were implacably opposed.
The decision to expose Donaldson as an agent in December 2005 was intended to have a destabilising impact also and his murder in April 06 was for the same purpose.
Because those in the Special Branch who were responsible for the operation had alerted the media the whole exercise was carried out in the full glare of publicity.
The spin to the press was that a republican spyring had been uncovered in Stormont! According to the PSNI itself the Stormont raid, with all of the attendant armoured vehicles and police officers, was to enable them to search "one desk and immediate surrounding area".
The room was the administrative office for the party and the desk belonged to Denis Donaldson, who was the administrative manager for the Sinn Féin team in Parliament Buildings. The PSNI took away documents and computer discs.
The television images and snapper's pics were flashed around the world. When the media disappeared the discs and documents were handed back.
There were also raids elsewhere, including on the Donaldson family home in west Belfast where the PSNI claimed it found sensitive documents.
The new English Chief Constable of the PSNI was not told of the raid before hand by the Special Branch who orchestrated it.
Within a short time the Special Branch and British intelligence had told sections of the media that: "The security operation which uncovered alleged republican intelligence gathering in government in Northern Ireland was triggered by a police source within the IRA".
Subsequently it was revealed that nothing of any incriminating or illegal nature was found in the Sinn Féin office. But then that wasn't the point. The Special Branch never expected to find anything there.
The raid at Stormont was to give the media and public the impressive visuals that were needed to enhance the claim of a spyring and to subvert the democratically elected power sharing government at that time.
It worked. David Trimble lost his nerve and pulled his Ministers out of the Executive. And within 10 days John Reid, the then British Secretary of State, suspended the political institutions.
On December 8th 2005, three years later, the case against Donaldson, who had been charged with possession of documents at his home, and several others collapsed. Two days later he was visited by the PSNI and warned that members of the media had information that he was an informer and that he should consider his life to be in danger.
The only source for such a story could have been Special Branch.
This warning was disputed by some, including sections of the media. However, the Donaldson family have since released an internal PM1 document which had been created on Saturday, 10 December 2005, by the Regional Assessment Unit (Castlereagh) of PSNI Special Branch.
The document confirms that the PSNI told Donaldson that 'members of the media believe that Denis Donaldson is an informer.'
The warning clearly unnerved Donaldson and led to him admitting to Sinn Féin officials that he was a British agent. He was suspended and then expelled from the party.
On the Thursday December 16th he received a telephone call from his former handler, 'Lenny', and following that he left Belfast. At a press conference in Dublin the next day Donaldson confirmed that:
• He had worked for British intelligence and the RUC/PSNI Special Branch since the 1980s, and that he was paid money.
• That his last two contacts with the Special Branch were two days before his arrest in October 02 and the previous evening.
• That he had not been involved in any republican spy ring at Stormont
• That this spy ring was a fiction created by the Special Branch.
Four months later on April 4th 2006 he was shot dead in Donegal in an attack subsequently claimed three years later, in April 2009 by the anti-peace faction describing itself the Real IRA.
Since then the Donaldson family has been involved in a legal battle to ensure that an inquest is held and that it is compliant with Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It has been a frustrating process which has taken a lot of determination on their part. Thus far, the southern state has refused them any support to have legal representation to make their case to the Coroner, in contrast to representation for Gardai.
The Inquest in Donegal has been adjourned 5 times at the request of the Gardai. Each time, the prospect of bringing criminal proceedings in the case has been held out by Gardai as a reason to prevent the start of the inquest. On May 5th , the inquest will be reconvened for the sixth time.
However, the arrests last week of two men in Donegal could mean that once again the Gardai may seek an adjournment.
The Donaldson family have also raised concerns about the role of British intelligence agencies and what information the PSNI Special Branch have in respect of the killing of their own agent. The family also have concerns around the Gardai investigation, and the failure to hold an inquest.
Sinn Féin shares the family's concerns.
This blog raised these matters on a number of occasions with the last Minister for Justice in Dublin without resolution.
For the Donaldson family this is about truth but they are also very conscious that this case raises broader concerns over accountability and cross-jurisdictional issues to do with policing and justice on the island of Ireland.
Last Thursday they issued a lengthy statement pointing to "serious discrepancies and anomalies in accounts relating to the circumstances leading up to Denis' murder".
And the family say that in order to be effective "thorough, independent and compliant with our family's rights under Article 2 of the ECHR, any investigation of Denis' murder must examine the identities, motivations, activities, links, communications and movements of 'Lenny' and their Special Branch associates. 'Lenny' is intimately informed about the events surrounding Denis' murder. 'Lenny' holds the answers to many questions."
Notwithstanding the five year delay in the holding of the inquest it is possible to draw some conclusions from this affair.
The decision by the Special Branch to arrest and implicate their own agent in 2002 in a nonexistent spyring was about collapsing the power sharing government to which senior members of the old RUC Special Branch were implacably opposed.
The decision to expose Donaldson as an agent in December 2005 was intended to have a destabilising impact also and his murder in April 06 was for the same purpose.
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