Prison Poems by Bobby Sands | Rally to Defend Moore St this weekend | Irish Government fails Palestinians

 

Prison Poems by Bobby Sands

In a recent interview ChristyMoore remarked that the death of Bobby Sands robbed us of a great writingtalent. Christy was praising the quality of the work Bobby created inthe harsh conditions he endured. He was making the point that you canonly imagine what Bobby might have gone on to produce in differentcircumstances where his creative imagination could have been nurtured and notrepressed. But of course this was not to be. Bobby led the secondhunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh and he was the first of the tenmen who fasted to death in that awful summer of 1981. 

I remember years earlier Bobbypracticing his singing and guitar playing in Cage Eleven, where we were guestsof the British Government, before the H-Blocks were built. Christy Moore wasone of Bobby’s go-to performers as he honed his musical skills. He would bedelighted that Christy has done so much to perpetuate his poetry and songwriting alongside the sacrifice of the blanket men and theArmagh women. ‘McIlhatton’ and ‘Back Home inDerry’ are now part of the Irish singing tradition. 

Another man who has helped toperpetuate Bobby’s writing is Danny Morrison. Danny, a very diligent member ofThe Bobby Sands Trust, is editor of a new collection of Bobby’s poetry (whichfirst came out in October 1981). This reprint is a beautiful book,with wonderful illustrations and cover design by renowned artist TonyBell. 

Thereare twenty-four of Bobby’s poems. All of these poems were written inremarkable circumstances. Hundreds of mostly young protestingprisoners were cooped up naked for over five years – with only a blanket forcover-  in the Special Control Units of the newly built H-Blocks. Theywere denied washing and toilet facilities and the right to exerciseand to any form of intellectual or recreational rights, includingpens and paper. They were beaten regularly.  All of this was part of aBritish Government offensive to criminalise the republican struggle. Womenrepublican prisoners in Armagh Prison were also targeted as criminals. 

As Danny Morrison points out inhis Introduction to Prison Poems, “The real criminality throughoutIrish history is English/British interference in the affairs of anotherpeople.”

That essential truth is borneout in Bobby’s writings, which include short stories, songs, andhis statements and comms reproduced in David Beresford’sclassic, Ten Men Dead. One Day In My Life (Introductionby Sean MacBride) was first published by Mercier Press in 1982,which also published his Writings From Prison (Introduction bymyself, 1998 ed.). His Prison Diary sold 40,000 in 1981,alone. All of this writing was accomplished secretly in his cell andscribbled on cigarette papers secreted in his body and smuggled out to the SinnFéin POW Department in Belfast where Tom Hartley had the foresight to archive anyof the material which he received so that a large amount of this prisonliterature has been preserved. 

DannyMorrison’s ‘Introduction’ traces the history of the prison protestsas well as the span of Bobby’s poetry and it is a reflective and movingreminder of the genius of the man and his unbreakable spirit. 

Prison Poems is publishedby An Fhuiseog and is available from good bookshops and online @AnFhuiseogand www.sinnfeinbookshop.com

 

Rally to Defend Moore St thisweekend

The campaign to protectthe 1916 Moore St Battlefield site from demolition is moving up agear. As regular readers will know An Bord Pleanála  - the planningauthority in the South – gave the go ahead recently for the Hammersondevelopment plan which will see much of this historic site reduced to rubble.

Last week the Moore St.Preservation Trust published ‘The Battleof Moore Street' by Ray Bateson, a bi-lingual history of the final battle ofthe Easter Rising in the words of those who were there. Renowned Irishactress Fionnula Flanagan formally launched the book in Liberty Hall in Dublinsaying; “It’s a great honour to have been asked to be here today and to launchthis wonderful book."  It is available from https://msptshop.myshopify.com andfrom good bookshops and online including @AnFhuiseog and at www.sinnfeinbookshop.com

ThisSunday the Moore St. Preservation Trust is holding a rally in Moore St. toprotest against the decision by An Bord Pleanála. The rally will takeplace at 1pm and I would encourage all of those who believe that thisiconic 1916 historic site should be protected to join with us this Sunday.

TheMoore St. Preservation Trust has produced a short video introduced by historianLiz Gillis. It can be viewed at: https://www.facebook.com/MooreStreetTrust/videos/11233766693550977

So,join us this Sunday at 1pm in Moore St. to defend this historic sitefrom the wrecking ball.

 

Irishgovernment fails Palestinians

Moremassacres. More children dead and maimed. More civilians killed by the Israeligovernment in a series of deadly assaults in Gaza and Lebanon. Health workers,journalists, and children continue to be the preferred targets for a right wingIsraeli government that is being armed, funded and empowered by its westernallies.

Internationalcondemnation and accusations of breaching international law make no differenceto Netanyahu and his cronies. Only sanctions that are economically effectivehave any chance of shifting Israeli Government opinion. 

Lastweek at the United Nations, the U.N. special rapporteur on the occupiedPalestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, published a major report - “Genocideas Colonial Erasure. The report makes frightening reading. Ms Albanesedescribed Israel’s order on “14 October 2023 for 1.1 millionPalestinians to move south from northern Gaza in 24 hours as ‘one of thefastest mass displacements in history.

Inthe year since then at least 90 per cent of Palestinians in Gaza have nowbeen forcibly displaced amid calls from Israeli officials and others forPalestinians to leave and Israelis to ‘return to Gaza’ and rebuild …High-ranking Israeli officials, ministers and religious leaders continue toencourage erasure and dispossession of Palestinians, setting new thresholds foracceptable violence against civilians. The Nakba, which has been ongoing since1948, ha

Asa result of her courageous stand Albanese has been accused of beinganti-Semitic by the United States and Israel. 

Thisis the desperate context for the appalling decision by the Fine Gael/FiannaFáil and Green Party coalition in the Oireachtas to reject an offer by SinnFéin and other opposition parties to provide time this week to facilitate thepassing of the Occupied Territories Bill which the Government has stalled onfor five years. 

UachtaránShinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald wrote to the government last week. In her letterto Simon Harris she wrote: “The people of Gaza cannot wait one momentlonger. Israel must face the strongest of sanctions for the genocide that isunfolding. It is unconscionable to ask the people of Gaza to wait even onemoment longer. The genocide is continuing and Israel is being allowed to actwith impunity. A ceasefire will only happen if Israel faces consequences fortheir actions”.

Witha general election in the South likely to be called by the end of this weekthere was only a short window in the political calendar for the Bill to bepassed into law. An election campaign and then the negotiations needed to formthe next government means that the Occupied Territories Bill will not becomelaw until the new year. 

Thisis unacceptable. Irish government Ministers claim to oppose Israel militaryaggression, especially at a time when Irish peacekeepers are under threat fromIsraeli forces in Lebanon and genocide is occurring in the Gaza Strip butrefuse to take the decisive action needed to stand up to Israel. 

Whateverthe outcome of the general election a priority for the incoming Irishgovernment must be firm and resolute action against the Israeli statement.Nothing less will do.