An Phoblacht August 2014

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Garda Whistleblower

John Douglas

Anna Lo

WE TALK TO

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WE STAND WITH

GAZA

STAD AN SLAD

NATIONAL

HUNGER STRIKE

COMMEMORATION

DERRYLIN FERMANAGH 2:30pm Sunday 3rd August

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IN PICTURES

WHAT’S INSIDE

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SUPPORT FOR THE PEOPLE OF PALESTINE DERRY

5 ‘Is Sinn Féin ready for Government?’ asks Eoin Ó Broin 5 Oifigeach Náisiúnta Gaeilge nua 7 Gemma O’Doherty and P. J. Gallagher at Sinn Féin Summer School

5 Alliance MLA Anna Lo with Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson – both women became targets for sectarian abuse by loyalists during the Twelfth

GLASGOW 12 ‘Monty Python and Small Steps’ Methodist Minister David Campton, Uncomfortable Conversations 13 Mental health services – Dáil supports Sinn Féin move 14 Garth Brooks fiasco exposes lack of local democracy 15 British PM David Cameron meets Sinn Féin . . . 4 years later 18 & 19 ‘After the elections – what now?’

Eugene McCartan (Communist Party) and John Douglas (ICTU)

SHORT STRAND

NAAS 5 H-Blocks Hunger Striker Joe McDonnell’s daughter Bernadette and grandchildren Naoise, Joseph and Caolan take part in a remembrance picket in Belfast

STORMONT

5 Sinn Féin’s Michael Colreary TD and Councillor Darren O'Rourke launch the Green Paper on Energy

BELFAST

20 & 21 Ireland and the First World War – Remembering the Past 24 Fearg ar lucht na Gaeilge faoi athchóiriú an rialtais 26 & 27 Globalisation on the Highway of Life 28 The Republican Austerity Guide to Holiday Reading 30 & 31 Sports: Leadership, divers and dying swans

5 Mairéad Farrell Republican Youth Committee members protest against continuing racist incidents after white supremacist Ku Klux Klan flags were erected in east Belfast

5 Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness MLA visits St Colm’s High School in Twinbrook to present the Bobby Sands Gaeltacht Scholarships

DUBLIN

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‘DEMOGRAPHICS AND POLITICAL POWER HAVE SHIFTED OVER PAST 45 YEARS’

PARADES Orange Order has to adapt to change

5 The pan-unionist front (which includes the Orange Order, DUP, UUP, TUV, the west Belfast UDA and the UVF-linked Progressive Unionist Party) threatened a ‘graduated response’ unless an Orange parade could return via nationalist Ardoyne THE DISENGAGEMENT from the talks process by political unionism came as no great surprise to either their political opponents or the local media.

They had led a focused campaign over the past two months at pressurising the NIO, the Parades Commission and the PSNI in their efforts to elicit a determination that would facilitate a return ‘victory’ parade through Ardoyne on the Twelfth.

A pan-unionist front (incorporating the DUP, Ulster Unionists, Jim Allister’s Traditional Unionist Voice, the PUP, the west Belfast UDA and the Orange Order) was patched together as the vehicle to deliver threats to “collapse the institutions” with a “graduated response” and a “long-term reaction”.

All of this was in response to a Parades Commission determination which rerouted a very small section of a rather long return parade away from a nationalist area – an area that has suffered disproportionately from the ravages of unionist murder gangs during the conflict; an area that remains deeply scarred by the loyalist blockade of the local Holy Cross Primary School for 16 weeks in 2001.

This is but one of well over 3,000 parades by the loyal orders and loyalist band associations that will take place this year. A mere handful is contested.

It is difficult to identify a rationale for such a dogmatic and absolutist response and it’s all the more difficult to understand given the DUP’s posi-

tion on parades in the Hillsborough talks in 2009/10. Within the agreement they recognised the need for a rightsbased approach to parades and protests and the actuality of competing rights.

No rights engaged were absolute.

They also recognised the right for everyone to be free from sectarian harassment.

Such a rights-based approach raised expectations of a practical breakthrough for toxic issues that continue to undermine our political process. However, the DUP allowed the Orange Order to veto the agreement and the process collapsed.

Once again, the negative voices within the Orange Order, the PUP and the west Belfast UDA are pulling the strings of political unionism while ensuring that the political process is hostage to the fate of a narrow, sectarian parading agenda. Ultimatums have been agreed and delivered as they attempt to bully and intimidate the key state agencies into reversing the Twelfth return determination.

‘COMMISSION OF INQUIRY’ Their latest contribution to the debate is a demand for a “Commission of Inquiry” into events surrounding the Ardoyne Twelfth July return parade. Yet, depending upon which unionist/loyalist spokesperson you lis-

BY SEÁN MURRAY SINN FÉIN TALKS NEGOTIATOR ten to, its difficult to discern exactly what this demand entails. They range from a narrow focus on the Ardoyne parade to a wider inquiry into the operation of the Parades Commission, which they seek to undermine.

The 1998 Public Processions (NI) Act, the enabling legislation for the establishment of the current Parades Commission, has also come under criticism from political unionism.

Apparently, the code of conduct and the set criteria which commissioners in their deliberations must have regard

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to are biased against the Protestant/unionist culture of parading while giving an inbuilt preference to protesters!

Their preference is clearly on deregulation, a yearning for a return to the halcyon days for the Orange Order, when they could parade where and when they liked. This feeds into the mindset which views the right to peaceful assembly as being absolute and unqualified, at the pinnacle of a hierarchy of rights.

Since the 1998 Act, the British Government has pandered to unionist pressure and established two key reviews of their parading architecture.

The first was published in September 2002 by Sir George Quigley but was then rejected by the British Government.

The Strategic Review of Parading was established by the NIO in 2007, with former Liberal Democrats leader Paddy Ashdown as Chair. Its interim report outlined a proposal for the establishment of a Parades Commission Mark 2, adopting a rights-based approach with a strong code of conduct.

Last December, the Haass/O’Sullivan proposals on parading, while advocating the transfer of responsibility to the local administration, outlined a model broadly based on the current Parades Commission architecture.

So there is absolutely no requirement on the NIO to return to the well-

worn path of parading reviews or inquiries once again.

MOVING FORWARD Sinn Féin indicated in their recent meeting with Secretary of State Theresa Villiers that they are prepared to investigate the concept of a route map outlined in this year’s Ardoyne Twelfth return parade determination which calls for a wider engagement on issues which impact upon parading.

A key requirement would entail that any ‘forum’ established would adopt a very tight terms of reference. This would ensure that it could not stray into the remits of other key political or engagement processes. In essence, it cannot become a vehicle to undermine the Parades Commission or genuine attempts to resolve the toxic issue of contested parades/protests.

We await the outcome of deliberations by the hierarchy of the Orange Order. What they clearly need to factor into their discussions is how demographics, political power and allegiances have shifted over the past 45 years.

Hopefully, current political reality will prevail. Supremacy is being replaced with equality, discrimination by mutual respect and parity of esteem. The state machine is no longer the preserve of the Orange Order or an instrument to service its agenda.

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anphoblacht Eagarfhocal

anphoblacht Editorial

End the onslaught on Gaza THE ONSLAUGHT on Gaza by Israel is being relentlessly and vindictively pursued by one of the most powerful war machines in the world. Israel is daily pounding a tiny strip of land smaller than County Dublin that has no army, air force or navy with which to defend itself and which was being blockaded economically even before this current air blitz and invasion.

This must end.

This is not ‘an eye for an eye’.

More than 1,110 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombings, artillery barrages and ground assaults by tanks, commandos and elite infantry units.

Three civilians in Israel have been killed by rocket or mortar fire from Hamas*.

Eleven hundred against three – this is not ‘an eye for an eye’.

And it is now accepted that the abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank in June was not

in fact carried out by or on the orders of Hamas – the pretext for the Israeli state’s collective punishment of the people of Gaza.

Sinn Féin has urged the Irish Government “to go beyond the politics of empty rhetoric” and expel the Israeli Ambassador to set an example for the rest of the EU. On 29 July, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD spoke by telephone from the Dáil to Saeb Erekat in Ramallah.

Saeb is the Chief Negotiator of the Palestinian Unity Government.

“He told me that there is no oil, no water, and no electricity in Gaza. Saeb described to me this current Israeli assault as seeking the total destruction of Gaza.”

Gerry Adams said that, a week after writing to An Taoiseach requesting the recall of the Dáil to discuss the Gaza crisis, he had still not received the courtesy of a reply.

This was even though the Taoiseach’s advisers had been busy telling the media that he will not agree to the Dáil

discussing Gaza during his Government’s summer holidays.

Sinn Féin wants the Dáil to debate Ireland’s response to Gaza, including the Irish Government’s refusal to support a United Nations Human Rights Council motion calling for the setting up of an International Commission of Investigation into events in that war-torn region.

The recall of the Seanad makes any excuse for not recalling the Dáil redundant.

“Given our own history as a people, our experience of conflict and our peace process,” Gerry Adams said, “we can and should play a constructive role in seeking to find a resolution to conflict in the Middle East.

“I appeal to the Taoiseach to request the Ceann Comhairle to immediately recall the Dáil.” * Fifty-two members of the Israeli invasion force have been killed by Palestinian resistance fighters.

Opposing austerity, North and South SINN FÉIN is using its electoral mandate and political influence to oppose austerity throughout Ireland.

It is the only party in government in Europe actively fighting welfare cuts.

In the Dáil, the Assembly, in Europe, at Westminster and at local councils throughout the country, our antiausterity message of opposing cuts is clear.

In the North, despite the efforts of the DUP (who seem content to act as cheerleaders for the millionaires in the Tory Cabinet) Sinn Féin is standing firm in its opposition to welfare cuts.

Nowhere in the Programme for Government adopted by the Executive parties does it approve the erosion of welfare rights.

The proposed cuts would have a devastating impact on the community but, as always, it would be the most vulnerable in our society who are most at risk.

Older people, the unemployed, people with disabilities and those living in isolated rural areas would bear the brunt of these drastic cuts.

Working-class unionists have been left leaderless by the lack of vision and regard for the working poor and jobless from the big parties that dominate political unionism.

In contrast, Sinn Féin is providing leadership and standing up for all citizens.

MPs, MLAs and councillors recently joined striking public sector workers on picket lines to back their campaign against cuts to frontline services.

Sinn Féin’s stance in support of the welfare state and rejection of welfare cuts has prevented the spread of poverty levels witnessed elsewhere where growing numbers of people are dependent on food banks.

In Dublin, TDs and councillors took to the streets in

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solidarity with the Greyhound workers.

Every day in the Dáil, Sinn Féin TDs are challenging the failed policies of austerity promoted by a discredited government which continually prioritises the needs of an elite few.

Reactionary parties North and South who champion these cuts need to explain to those who elect them why they are so keen to punish the most vulnerable. Where in their manifestos did they tell their voters they wanted to cut living standards?

They should join with Sinn Féin and growing numbers of others fighting against austerity and cuts.

Sinn Féin’s position on austerity and cuts is consistent throughout Ireland and in Europe.

More and more people across Ireland are discovering the terrible impact of austerity and looking to Sinn Féin for the alternative.

Sinn Féin minister’s CAP deal delivers for all farmers SINN FÉIN Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill has secured a deal on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) worth £623million to rural communities.

The deal ensures a fairer distribution of European money to farmers and includes an £80million pledge for rural development.

The multi-million-pound investment means farmers in disadvantaged areas, such as hill farmers, will get a more equitable deal.

After months of negotiations, Minister O’Neill brokered an agreement that ensures a fairer distribution of European funding to local farmers.

“This has been a very contentious issue and Sinn Féin has shown we can deliver for all farmers.

“This is an investment of £623million, making it the biggest-ever investment in a rural development programme.

“It will be spent right across rural

‘This has been a very contentious issue and Sinn Féin has shown we can deliver for all farmers’ communities to support development projects like community centres to help isolated rural

communities get together,” the Agriculture Minister said.

The Mid-Ulster MLA said the deal brokered on CAP has been welcomed by a wide range of farming organisations, including the Ulster Farmers’ Union.

“This is a time of significant change for farming and rural communities and they asked me for clarity and that is what has been delivered.

“This is a reasonable, fair and balanced approach which is great news for rural communities,” she said.

Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson and Sinn Féin Agriculture spokesperson and East Antrim MLA Oliver McMullan also welcomed the deal.

5 Agriculture Minister Michelle O'Neill MLA addresses farm leaders and communities in Ballinasloe, County Galway, on how the problems in the beef sector can be tackled

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IN PICTURES

August / Lúnasa 2014 5

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Ready for Government?

ANOTHER

VIEW

5 ‘A Fair Deal for Farmers’ – Public meeting for beef and nomadic herd farmers in Ballinasloe, with Matt Carthy MEP, Martina Anderson MEP, Martin Ferris TD, Michelle O'Neill MLA, Councillor Gerry Murray and Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh

5 Construction unions launch protests at school building sites and other projects across the South as part of the ‘Campaign for Decent Work in the Construction Industry’. The unions say a race to the bottom on these and other public contracts continues

EOIN Ó BROIN THERE IS A LOT OF TALK of Sinn Féin in government these days. Gerry is telling us to get ready.

Micheál and Enda are saying no way. The Indo is in panic mode. Things seem to be getting serious.

There is no doubt that Sinn Féin wants to be in government in the South. But big questions remain, one of which is: ‘Are we ready?’

The straight answer is no, we are nowhere near ready to participate in government in Leinster House. But there is enough time to get ready, if we use that time wisely.

So what must we do?

The first thing is to learn from the mistakes of the past so as not to repeat them.

The experience of our Left republican predecessors in Ireland must be fully understood.

Why did Clan na Poblachta’s challenge to Fianna Fáil hegemony collapse after such a bright start. Was the implosion of the Workers’ Party and the dissolution of Democratic Left inevitable?

We must also take seriously the failure of Labour to have a meaningful long-term impact on Government policy or to permanently break beyond its half-party subordinate role in Southern politics.

International experience must also be understood.

Why have European democratic socialist parties suffered (electorally and organisationally) from their participation in Government in France, Italy and Sweden?

Progressive forces have squabbled about the best route to a more equal society – reform or revolution?

5 Sinn Féin leadership from across Ireland join local councillors and supporters in Kilmore Quay, County Wexford, following the Bannow and Rathangan Show. (Below) John, Shauna, Martin, Ollie and Cathy Kearns with Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald TD following the ‘Standing Up for Rural Ireland’ public meeting in Murrintown Community Centre

What explains the return of the Right to government in Norway after the Left coalitions successful two terms in office?

If we want to enter Government to achieve real political, social and economic transformation then we need to debate and understand these failures in order to develop strategies that allow us to achieve our goals in ways that our Irish and international predecessors did not.

Then there is the question of what kind of social, economic and political transformation are we talking about.

Sinn Féin policy is strong on end points – we know where we want to get to. But we have yet to map out, in concrete policy terms, how we would get there.

How do you get from a dysfunctional and wasteful two-tier, partitioned health system to an all-Ireland, free-at-the-point-of-delivery, one-tier system? If we can’t answer these kinds of questions then we won’t be able to deliver the change we promise.

There is an urgent need for the party to map out the detail of our vision for Ireland and the route by which we plan to get there – step by step, policy decision by policy decision, across the key areas of political, social and economic life.

But policy detail is not enough. We also need to start

building the coalitions for change required to overcome the already existing power alliances of the status quo.

Sinn Féin cannot deliver the kind of transformation we are seeking alone. We need to be part of a myriad of movements for change – some local, some national, some short-term and tactical, some long-term and strategic.

These alliances must be social and political, institutional and popular. They must involve people and organisations and combined must constitute a mass movement for a better Ireland.

For over a century, progressive forces across the globe squabbled about which was the best route to a more equal society – reform or revolution?

Today this debate is redundant. There are elements of both philosophies and strategies that are necessary if we are to fundamentally change our society.

Our goal is the radical transformation of the political, social and economic fabric of Ireland. This can only be achieved by securing a critical mass of reforms within the institutions supported by a strong and diverse popular movement for change outside the institutions.

Sinn Féin are trying to do something that all of our predecessors, in Ireland and internationally, have failed to achieve to date.

Our success will depend on many things, including on how well we prepare for government.

What cannot be doubted is the seriousness of our intent. Maybe that’s why the political establishment is starting to panic.

Beidh

Trevor Ó Clochartaigh ar ais an mhi seo chugainn

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Oifigeach Náisiúnta Gaeilge nua MAR IS eol daoibh toghadh Liadh Ní Riada ina ar 00 44 9034 7350 agus ar rphost FPE le linn na dtoghchán Eorpacha ar na mal- micheal.odomhnaill@sinnfein.ie laibh. Mar gheall ar sin tá sí éirithe as a post •••••••• mar Oifigeach Náisiúnta Gaeilge agus guímid gach rath uirthi agus ar na hiarrthóirí eile a Liadh Ní Riada was elected MEP in the recent European Elections. As a consequence, d’éirigh leo sa dá thoghchán, ina gcuid she has vacated her post as oibre as seo amach mar Oifigeach Náisiúnta Gaeilge. ghníomhaithe tofa.

The important work begun by Ar scor ar bith caithfidh an Liadh as the first full-time lanobair thábhachtach sin guage officer in any political tosaithe ag Liadh, mar an party in Ireland has to continue. chéad Oifigeach Gaeilge lánAccordingly, Mícheál Ó aimseartha ceaptha ag páirtí Domhnaill has been appointed polaitiúil ar bith in Éirinn, to that role and has taken up the leanstan ar aghaidh. position as of 1 July.

Mar gheall ar sin tá Mícheál Ó He will now begin a process of Domhnaill ceaptha san fheidhm sin agus thosaigh sé sa phost ar Liadh Ní Riada MEP engagement and consultation with activists with a responsibility an 1 Iúil. Cuirfidh sé tús anois le próiseas rannpháirtíochta agus comhair- for Irish-language affairs and other party liúcháin le gníomhaithe freagrach as an Gaeilgeoirí to identify objectives and develop a Ghaeilge agus le Gaeilgeoirí eile an pháirtí programme of work.

Mícheál can be contacted by phone at 00 44 chun cuspóirí a shainaithint agus clár oibre a 9034 7350 and by email at micheal.odomhleagan amach.

D’fhéadfadh sibh dul i dteagmháil le Mícheál naill@sinnfein.ie

Mícheál Ó Domhnaill

IN PICTURES

5 Galway Councillor Mairéad Farrell at a Psychiatric Nurses’ Association protest over inadequate staffing

RUGADH agus tógadh Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, An tOifigeach Náisiúnta Gaeilge nuacheaptha ar an pháirtí, i mBaile Átha Cliath. D’fhoghlaim sé a chuid Gaeilge ag scoileanna na mBráithre Críostaí agus ansin rinne sé an pholaitíocht agus teangacha ag UCD. Lean sé ar aghaidh go dtí Ollscoil na Ríona i mBéal Feirtse áit ar bhain sé amach iarchéim sa Ghaeilge. Rinne sé bliain sa Phleanáil Teanga in Ollscoil na Gaillimhe ar na mallaibh.

Chaith Mícheál tréimhse aon bhliain déag i bPáras na Fraince agus bhí sé gníomhach i Solidarité Irlande thall. Ar theacht ar ais dó go hÉirinn chuir sé faoi i mBéal Feirste agus is ann a tháinig sé isteach sa pháirtí, thart ar seacht mbliana déag ó shin.

Fuair Mícheál post Gaeilge le Glór na nGael ar Bhóthar na bhFál agus theagasc sé Béarla in Ollscoil na Ríona ina dhiaidh sin. I 2004 cuireadh é chun na Bruiséile nuair a fuair sé post mar Chomhairleoir Polaitíochta in oifig Mary Lou McDonald nuair a toghadh í mar Fheisire Eorpach le Sinn Féin.

Is ball de choiste Chomhaltas Uladh agus coiste An tUltach é Mícheál, agus tá leabhar dátheangach curtha amach aige in éineacht le Rossa Ó Snodaigh, Our Fada.

Is é an chloch is mó ar a phaidrín ina ról nua, ná gaelú an pháirtí agus cearta na Gaeilge a chur chun cinn taobh amuigh de, trí reachtaíocht chuí ó thuaidh agus ó dheas.

Is maith le Mícheál ceol traidisiúnta agus an léamh. Thaisteal sé cuid mhaith agus chaith sé tréimhse ag teagasc in Ollscoil Shenzhen na Síne.

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5 Sinn Féin MEPs join a Palestine solidarity protest outside the European Parliament

5 Hundreds of people take part in a Palestine solidarity protest on the Peace Bridge in Derry

5 Hundreds join with locked-out Greyhound Waste workers in a protest march from Liberty Hall to Dublin City Hall

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SINN FÉIN SUMMER SCHOOL 2014

‘Speaking Out and Standing Up’ HUNDREDS of people descended on the pictueresque village of Baile Bhuirne in the Muskerry Gaeltacht of west Cork over the weekend of 27 June for the fifth annual Sinn Féin Summer School, an event that has grown in stature year-on-year to become a staple of the Irish political calendar.

Newly-elected Sinn Féin MEP Liadh Ní Riada welcomed the Summer School to her local area and introduced the theme for the weekend, ‘Speaking Out and Standing Up.’ The opening secton (chaired by Councillor Stephen Cunningham) dealt with the ongoing search for truth in relation to British state collusion in Ireland.

Former BBC journalist Anne Cadwallader, now a researcher with the Pat Finucane Centre, is author of the best-selling Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland. She delivered a gripping and emotional talk on the socalled ‘Glenanne Gang’, a terrorist group made of serving and former members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and British Army Ulster Defence Regiment with members of the illegal Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Freedom Fighters, which operated with impunity in Armagh. Using the British Army’s own internal documents and records, Anne outlined in intricate detail how the British state armed, trained and directed these unionist killer gangs.

Margaret Urwin of Justice for the Forgotten explained how the families of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings by the UVF and British agents in 1974 are taking a civil court case against the British Government and the PSNI over the long-standing refusal to release all their files on the attacks. “The families feel they have no other option,” she said.

On the ‘Standing up for the Public Interest’ panel (chaired by Councillor Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire) Garda

BY MARK MOLONEY whistleblower John Wilson spoke out about his experiences of 30 years within An Garda Síochána and the criticism and ostracisation he faced from within the force as he and Sergeant Maurice McCabe exposed the penalty points scandal. (Read his interview in this issue.)

Investigative journalists Gemma O’Doherty and Frank Connolly spoke in-depth about their work and how they were demonised by the political

The Sinn Féin Summer School has grown in stature year-on-year to become a staple of the Irish political calendar Establishment for the stands they took on real issues in the public interest.

The ‘Women in Politics – Towards Equal Representation’ debate drew a big crowd as Mary Lou McDonald TD, Anna Lo MLA, Daily Star Political Correspondent Catherine O’Halloran, Brigid Quilligan of the Irish Traveller Movement, and Michelle O’DonnellKeating from Women for Election discussed the issue of the under-representation of women in public life and politics. (See Anna Lo’s interview in this issue.)

During a discussion on the outrageous recent disclosures on mother and baby homes in the state (chaired

by Sandra McLellan TD), survivor Joan McDermott gave a harrowing descrip-

tion of the ordeal she faced as a young pregnant woman incarcerated in the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in the 1960s.

She also told an audience, which was both horrified and enthralled, of her tenacious campaign to get access to her own records and be reunited with the son who was taken from her so many years ago.

Feminist activist and artist Maureen Considine also spoke of her work in solidarity with those who had suffered in mother and baby homes.

The arts section (chaired by Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh) closed the event and included beautiful renditions of traditional Irish songs by local Seán Nós singer Nell Ní Chróinín.

Visual artist Shane Cullen who withstood attempts by Fine Gael figures to remove his artwork from a gallery in Athlone based on the “comms” written by the 1981 Hunger Strikers spoke of the power of art and its use in speaking truth to power.

Before Pearse Doherty wrapped up proceedings with a special appearance by Cór Cúil Aodha (whose stirring rendition of the song Mo Ghile Mear went viral on YouTube) was a particular highlight, the final speaker was comedian PJ Gallagher (aka ‘Jake Stevens’).

PJ had told An Phoblacht last month he “hadn’t a clue” what he was going to speak about but had the audience in stitches as he spoke of his work and life.

Explaining how he got into doing stand-up comedy, PJ told the audience the greatest gift he had was his “lack of ability to do anything practical”. Giving some great insights into how he comes up with new material, he says it mostly comes from situations he finds himself in or overheard conversations on the streets of Dublin.

“I don’t know if I consider myself an artist . . . If you’re from the Revenue, I’m an artist!”

5 Feminist activist Maureen Considine, Mother and Baby Home survivor Joan McDermott and Cork East Sinn Féin TD Sandra McLellan

5 Anna Lo MLA, Michelle O'Connell-Keating, Mary Lou McDonald TD, Catherine O'Halloran and Brigid Quilligan take part in the ‘Women in Politics’ debate

5 Journalist Anne Cadwallader signs a copy of her book ‘Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland’ at the Mills Inn in Baile Bhuirne

5 Investigative journalist and author Frank Connolly

5 Gemma O’Doherty lost her position as a journalist at the Irish Independent after she doorstepped Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan over 5 Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh, comedian PJ Gallagher and artist Shane Cullen enjoy a laugh during the arts section the penalty points scandal

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GARDA WHISTLEBLOWER JOHN WILSON IS QUESTIONED BY AN PHOBLACHT

‘In the eyes of the law

some people are more equal than others’

few angry exchanges with that man at a protest once,” the former garda grins.

John’s parents moved from Cavan to Birmingham in England to find work before moving back to Cavan, where he was born. He describes his family as “a good Fianna Fáil family.”

He applied to join the Garda, aged 18, and was “delighted and very proud” to join the force in December 1982. After graduating from the Garda training college in Templemore, County

BY MARK MOLONEY FLICKING through the pages of the June edition of An Phoblacht, retired Garda John Wilson laughs: “Having a copy of this was enough to get you a fair bit of unwanted attention from the Garda.”

We’re at the Mills Inn in Baile Bhuirne, west Cork. He’s here to address the Sinn Féin Summer School in the panel discussion ‘Standing up for the Public Interest’. He’s to speak alongside investigative journalists Gemma O’Doherty and Frank Connolly. (Gemma lost her job at the Irish Independent for ‘doorstepping’ Garda Commisioner Martin Callinan to ask him about the Garda penalty points scandal.)

The exposure by Garda John Wilson and fellow whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe of corrupt practices within An Garda Síochána directly led to the resignations of Justice Minister Alan Shatter. When he first brought the issues to public attention, John Wilson and Sergeant McCabe were demonised by the Establishment and ridiculed by then Justice Minister Alan Shatter. Garda Commissoner Callinan (who soon after took a surprise early retirement) told an Oireachtas investigating committee he thought the whistleblower’s testimony of widespread malpractice in his police force was “disgusting”.

John tells of being sent out from Pearse Street station to police a Sinn Féin protest against the 1984 visit by US President Ronald Reagan, who was funding right-wing Contra terrorists trying to overthrow the popular left-wing government of Nicaragua.

He says gardaí were told to harass and annoy Sinn Féin protesters. Skipping through An Phoblacht again, he recognises our regular columnist and now Dublin City Councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha – “I remember having a

He has no doubt some of his phone calls were being monitored. They used codenames for journalists and Sinn Féin TDs Mary Lou McDonald and Pearse Doherty

When Garda John Wilson opened his front door there was a dead rat tied to it. It was a clear warning to him to stop exposing police corruption Tipperary, his first station was in Pearse Street in Dublin.

“I was a big fan of US cop shows so being in the big city I felt like I was in Heaven. I realised very soon though that everybody wasn’t equal.

That went against how I was brought up. In the eyes of the law, some people were more equal than others.”

He says his first experience of being asked to “fix something” was shortly after he started in Pearse Street.

“I was on the beat around Grafton Street and got a message to return to the station, where I was told a very important man was going to phone and I was to sit there and wait.”

Shortly afterwards the phone rang and a person he describes as “a very prominent politician” was on the other end of the line.

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5 Garda whistleblower John Wilson speaks at the Sinn Féin Summer School in Baile Bhuirne “We exchanged a few pleasantries and he asked me to do him a favour. I had prosecuted a friend of his for a minor motoring offence. He says to me, ‘I want you to look after it.’ And I ended up striking out the case in court because that is what was expected of me. The other two geniuses in the office knew all about the request that was going to be made. I was rocked out of all the ideals I had about justice and equality. I realised I was living in the real world.”

He served in other Dublin stations before being based in Cavan/Monaghan in 2001. John says he first met fellow whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe in Clones in 2002.

“He ran a tight ship. In Dublin you operated on a wing and a prayer because you were so busy, but he insisted on the highest standards.”

John says that before he arrived in Clones his own name had been destroyed by a campaign against him because he had fought against protocol by refusing to shave his beard off. Gardaí in Clones were told he was a troublemaker, no good, and to keep an eye on him.

It was in Clones that he began to carry out inquiries into the use of the Garda PULSE computer system. PULSE (Police Using Leading Systems Effectively) stores personal information on people who receive fines, motoring offences and so on.

“You knew straight away there was a problem.

“There were incidents where people had been caught speeding repeatedly, some up to eight times, but the penalty points were scrapped.

“Many names were very familiar – gardaí, judges, solicitors and politicians. These vast number of terminations were corrupt.

“On an annual basis, around 10,000 tickets were being ‘fixed’. These terminations were never meant to be discovered. In the majority of cases the comments box on why they were

dropped was left blank. There was about 200 officers involved in this and a small number were serial fixers.”

He points out that Sergeant Maurice McCabe got a speeding ticket several years ago and paid it.

“That was highly unusual,” says John. “I’d say you could count on one hand the number of gardaí who paid such fines. There are individuals driving the roads of this country with clean

Judges, solicitors, gardaí and politicians had all been caught speeding repeatedly, some up to eight times, but the penalty points were scrapped records, people who should be off the road.”

After numerous attempts to have the corrupt practices addressed internally, he passed the information on to TD Clare Daly, as he was legally entitled to do.

He says “all hell broke loose” in Garda HQ after Clare Daly raised the issue in the Dáil and appeared on RTÉ TV’s PrimeTime programme.

Superiors and colleagues knew who they were very soon “because they could see we’d checked the terminations on the system”.

In December 2012, he says he was confronted by a detective in Cavan Garda station while using the PULSE system.

“I was asked what I was doing. I told him I was carrying out inquiries into the corrupt terminations of lawfully-issued fixed charge penalty points. He demanded I tell him who in the

Oireachtas I was talking to and I refused.”

Two days later, the Garda Commissioner issued what was effetively a gagging order, warning John and Sergeant McCabe about using the PULSE system. He wasn’t given a copy of the order; it was only communicated to him verbally. It essentially prohibited him from using the PULSE system or passing on information to members of Parliament.

He says that when the word ‘corruption’ was used in the media about the penalty points scandal, Garda HQ went “absolutely bananas”.

Ironically, it was John and Maurice McCabe who were treated like suspected criminals instead of the gardaí who were cancelling penalty points.

“I was even stopped and subjected to a humiliating search by the side of the road by a garda sergeant.”

Two weeks later, he was in bed at home when his dog started barking and scratching at his door. “I thought one of the cats had taken his bed,” he laughs. The dog started scratching and whimpering at the door.

“When I opened the front door there was a dead rat tied to it.” It was a clear warning to him to stop exposing the corruption within the ranks of the police service.

He says that he has no doubt that at least some phone calls between himself and Maurice McCabe were being monitored and even in their day-to-day conversations they used codenames for journalists including Gemma O’Doherty (‘The Diamond’) and Sinn Féin TDs Mary Lou McDonald (‘The Country Singer’) and Pearse Doherty.

He describes the campaign against him by those within senior ranks of An Garda Síochána as a witch-hunt: “They were going to arrest us last summer. I know they were; they had an investigation team already formed.

“Despite us acting lawfully at all times, and going to members of the Oireachtas as we were legally entitled to do, it just shows you the level of arrogance of these individuals.

They believed they were untouchable and operate in whatever way they liked. That was the leadership of your policing service.”

How has he been treated by former colleagues?

He says it is a mixed bag. There are many who support himself and Maurice McCabe speaking out but others are angry that they

Garda chiefs believed they were untouchable.

‘That was the leadership of your policing service’ have broken the Garda’s own version of the Mafia code of silence, ‘omertą’.

Of Maurice McCabe, who is still a serving member of the force and who has received death threats, he says: “This is a man who doesn’t feel safe even going into his own Garda station. He fears that if he ever needs urgent assistance he will be left waiting. He’s under desperate pressure.”

So what needs to be done to reform the Garda?

“As a matter of urgency we need an Independent Garda Authority. Not in two years’ time – we need it now. The next Garda Commissioner must be from outside An Garda Síochána, a person who has no loyalty to the organisation; an individual who can go in there and reform the organisation from top to bottom. Otherwise we’ll end up having the same tune played by a different orchestra.”

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Israel tries to liquidate Gaza ghetto

www.anphoblacht.com

Irish people join worldwide outrage

BY MARK MOLONEY TENS OF THOUSANDS of people took to the streets across the 32 counties of Ireland throughout July to oppose the horrific Israeli onslaught against the people of Gaza.

Despite the huge and heartfelt support for the Palestinian people displayed by Irish citizens, the Irish Government refused calls from Sinn Féin and other organisations to expel the Israeli Ambassador and suspend the EU’s preferential trade agreement with the rogue state.

In what Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams TD described as “a shameful act of political cowardice”, the Irish Government disgracefully failed to support a UN resolution vote on investigating Israeli war crimes.

Instead, the Government chose to further surrender Ireland’s sovereignty and adhere to an EU diktat to abstain.

Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan (a member of the Oireachtas Friends of Israel and who previously accused media in Ireland of demonsising Israel and “dancing to the Palestinian drumbeat for decades”) defended the state’s spineless decision. He said ‘Ireland’ could not support the motion as it did not “recognise the right of Israel as a democratic state to defend itself”.

Prior to this, on the last day the Dáil sat before its summer recess, TDs stood in a moment of solidarity with the people of Gaza, Palestine and the Middle East.

Sinn Féin elected representatives also took part in demonstrations organised by a number of Palestinian solidarity groups including the Ireland-Palesine Solidarity Campaign, Sadaka and Gaza Action Ireland.

Dublin Sinn Féin’s 34 councillors from the four local authorities handed in an official letter to the Israeli Embassy calling on the state to cease its indiscriminate attacks on the Gaza Strip, to lift the blockade of Gaza and to comply with international obligations.

Asked on Newstalk Breakfast

5 A new mural on the International Wall in Belfast calls for the expulsion of Israeli diplomats from Ireland

ISRAEL LOSING SOCIAL MEDIA WAR

ISRAEL’S usually slick online media operation, which includes hundreds of students establishing “war rooms” in their universities to “sell the war” (often in return for paid scholarships from the Israeli Government) was routed by proPalestinian activists.

Thousands of videos, images and photographs from inside Gaza using the tag #GazaUnderAttack and #ISupportGaza flooded Twitter and showed the horrific reality of Israel’s blitz to the world. Victims of Israel’s aggression are bypassing the mainstream media filter meaning

5 Sinn Féin host a lunchtime protest outside Leinster House calling for an immediate end to Israel’s onslaught

for the first time many people are seeing the uncensored horror unfold on the ground.

Thousands of people shared videos and photos from An Phoblacht and Sinn Féin Ireland.

More than 1.3million saw the photo of Sinn Féin MEPs standing in support of Palestine in the EU Parliament in Strasbourg (right) while thousands more viewed a video of the Dáil’s TDs stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people at the request of Gerry Adams TD, something the Israeli national media picked up on.

whether he had any sense of shame about “what many people see as state-orchestrated terrorism in Gaza”, the Israeli Ambassador Boaz Modai responded: “I don’t feel even a bit of shame. I feel a lot of pride.” He went on to describe the Israeli Army as “the most moral army in the world” and, in a display of his state’s absolute contempt for international law, the Ambassador said the UN Human Rights Council should be renamed the “UN Terrorists’ Rights Council”.

Derry City Council also passsed a Sinn Féin motion condemning Israel’s actions.

Speaking at one protest outside Leinster House, Sinn Féin TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn said: “We know the history of the shameful and disgraceful abandonment of the people of Gaza for all these decades. 1.5million of them are imprisoned in the open-air jail of Gaza, surrounded by all sides.

“The people of Palestine have a right to nationhood, a right to dignity, and a right to freedom free from Israeli oppression.”

Hitting out at the attempt to portray the massacre as some sort of conflict of equals, he asked: “Is anybody seriously suggesting this is a fair fight? Of course we want to see the rocket attacks stop but let’s be sensisble – this is about an oppressed people, beaten down for decades.

“The resposibility is on the international commmunity to once and for all confront the rogue state of Israel.”

Speaking at a protest by Ógra Shinn Féin in Derry, Martina Anderson MEP described the actions of Israel as “appalling carnage” and called for a de-escalation of the conflict and an immediate ceasefire. She condemned Israel’s failure to engage in dialogue: “The Israeli Government must recognise the Palestinian unity government and engage in dialogue in order to find a way out of the current situation. It is clear from this latest series of attacks that Israel wishes to put a wedge between Fatah and Hamas.”

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ISRAELI ARMY COMBAT VETERAN – AND ZIONIST – SPEAKS OUT AGAINST THE OCCUPATION

Breaking the Silence

5 Israeli soldiers pose for photos while standing on the body of a dead Palestinian in Gaza; with a bound and blindfolded prisoner; and playing a guitar with a sticker reading ‘It’s either them or us; transfer the Arab enemy’

BY MARK MOLONEY YEHUDA SHAUL was born in Jerusalem in 1982. The son of an American-born father and Canadian-born mother who immigrated to Israel following the 1973 Arab-Israeli ‘Yom Kippur War’, at the age of 18 he was drafted into the Israeli Army for the mandatory three years’ national service. He served as a combat soldier and later a company sergeant right across the occupied West Bank.

Yehuda says that during his time in the West Bank he saw nothing wrong with following orders that required the bursting into family homes in the middle of the night, arresting people and running checkpoints on occupied territory. He says it’s in the West Bank that soldiers saw Palestinians not as human beings but as enemies or potential terrorists.

It was only towards the end of his tour that he began to think there was something wrong and immoral about what he and his fellow soldiers had done.

In 2004, after his service had ended, he

5 Yehuda Shaul speaks to An Phoblacht in Dublin

The former company sergeant in an Israeli Army combat unit says part of the problem is the media portrayal of the Occupation as some kind of conflict

and several other combat veterans founded ‘Breaking the Silence’ to educate the Israeli public on the realities of the Occupation and what is being done in their name.

Breaking the Silence says it “endeavours to stimulate public debate about the price paid for a reality in which young soldiers face a civilian population on a daily basis, and are engaged in the control of that population’s everyday life”.

Now the organisation consists of almost 1,000 ex-combatants who served from the beginning of the Second Intifada (Palestinian Uprising) until today; some are still serving personnel.

Yehuda is in Ireland to host a photo exhibition at the Gallery of Photography in Dublin’s Temple Bar with the support of Trócaire and Christian Aid. “We’re not pacifists,” stresses Yehuda. “We think our military should be an instrument of defence, not one of occupation.”

He describes in detail one of the first introductions new Israeli Army recruits get when they are deployed in the Occupied Territories.

“One of the things we do is mock arrests.

The first time a unit is deployed you don’t want the first arrest they carry out to be the real thing, so you choose the most peaceful and quiet Palestinian village in the area – open the aerial photo of the village, choose a random house and call Mossad, the Secret Service.”

He says that Mossad (“Institute for Intelligence and

Special Operations”) is contacted to ensure that the person living in the random house they have identified is completely innocent and by conducting an operation they are not interfering in an undercover investigation.

“Then you get the go-ahead. You surround the house, burst in, handcuff and blindfold the guy, and bundle him into a jeep. Then, after 20 minutes, you end the exercise, stop the jeep, release him and go back to your base.

“Why do we do this? There are two answers.

One is training, as it’s as close to reality as you can get. The second is just another way of making your presence felt. People in the vil-

‘We’re not pacifists. We think our military should be an instrument of defence, not one of occupation’ lage see you arrest the guy, they know he’s innocent but then they see you releasing him and they start to wonder is he a collaborator.

“The mission is to create the feeling of being chased within the entire Palestinian population the whole time. The lack of logic is the perfect logic.”

He says part of the problem is the media portrayal of the Occupation as some kind of conflict.

“It’s not, it’s an occupation. When we think of a conflict we think of two sides; we tend to forgot that it is us [Israel] who occupy them.”

Yehuda says he believes the only way that Israelis and Palestinians can live together is the withdrawal of Israeli settlers and occupation forces from the Occupied Territories in West Bank, Gaza and Golan Heights.

Wearing his yarmulke, the Jewish skull cap, he tells An Phoblacht: “I’m a Zionist myself. I believe Jews have a right to self-determination in the land of Israel. I just don’t believe for a second that the fulfilment of my rights means that the other side can’t have their own rights.

“The 1967 borders are the answer to the Occupation. Beyond that, we are occupiers.

“Any agreement that would see the surrender of the Palestinian people is not worth the paper it is signed on. The only way we will be able to live together is if both sides can walk out of the room with dignity.”

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UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS

Monty Python and small steps convinced many that things will never change, thus transforming the dynamic of public life and raising personal aspirations.

REVISED AND REVIVED CIVIC FORUM

Methodist minister and broadcaster

DAVID CAMPTON has served in Sandy Row, Springfield Road, Ballybeen and currently in south Belfast FOR most of the world, 1969 was the year of Neil Armstrong’s moon landing and “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”. For us in this part of the world, it marked the beginnings of our ‘Troubles’. But for another group of people it marked the launch of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

Forty-five years on from the beginnings of ‘The Troubles’ and 16 years on from the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, you would think that it was time for the political circus that is Stormont to have moved on. But repeatedly we see the same old sketches being wheeled out: Blame Game Whataboutery, Marching Season Stand-Offs, Competitive Community Victimhood, Looking Out for Us and Ours . . . But it’s no laughing matter.

Opinions are divided as to whether the Haass/O’Sullivan talks were ever capable of producing a comprehensive solution to the three toxic issues remitted to them but, ultimately, they didn’t deliver a package that was instantly acceptable to all.

Were the so-called “leaders’ talks” capable of taking things any further before the choreographed walk-out of the unionist parties as part of their “graduated response”? We may never know.

Have the Haass/O’Sullivan proposals finally, in John Cleese’s words, “rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible?” Are they ‘an ex-Agreement’?

NEW DYNAMIC

Perhaps something new needs to be introduced into the mix. Declan Kearney (writing in An Phoblacht last month) calls for “sustained positive leadership from within civic society on the need for grace, generosity, remorse and acknowledgement”, suggesting that “would introduce an entirely new dynamic”.

Actually, that’s not something new.

5 Have the Haass/O’Sullivan proposals ‘joined the choir invisible’?

Over 25 years ago now, Evangelical Contribution on Northern Ireland (ECONI), in its publication of For God and his Glory Alone, advocated the development of a thoroughgoing culture/spirituality of forgiveness, underpinned by grace, to help address the pain of the past and foster genuine reconciliation.

With the lack of agreement at the Haass/O’Sullivan talks it might have seemed that such hope was dashed, but further reflection led the Irish Inter-Church Meeting to identify a set of key characteristics of a shared society, where peace is nurtured and genuine reconciliation facilitated so that all can live free from violence and the threat of violence.

Truthfulness is encouraged, fostering trust and forming the basis for dealing with the pain of the past, engaging with present problems and forging a more hopeful future for all.

Diversity is celebrated and our interdependence recognised whilst sectarianism, racism and other prejudices that create a climate of fear and division are rejected, thus contributing to our cultural and economic vitality and indicating our openness to new ideas, perspectives and people.

Democracy is cherished and fully participative, the rule of law respected, and all communities are liberated from the oppressive grip of organised criminality and paramilitary activity.

Justice is treasured, not only in terms of perpetrators being prosecuted but also victims being cared for and social wrongs being set right so that all might enjoy personal dignity and equality of opportunity.

Rights are valued and mutually respected within a context where people also recognise their mutual responsibilities and relationships, meaning that in a spirit of generosity some may choose not to exercise their rights for the sake of the common good.

Hope and imagination are fostered, breaking a spirit of pessimism and apathy that has

5 The unionist protest camp at Twaddel

Declan Kearney also suggested: “Civic society must challenge politics, make demands of political leaders and set tests for all political parties to do better.”

Perhaps these seven characteristics of a shared society are part of that challenge. But, as he also said, whilst “words are important, so too are actions”.

So the question is: what can be done to make the above a reality rather than just highminded rhetoric?

How can they be used as benchmarks for the outcomes of future talks, including, we trust, resumed “leaders’ talks” around the past, parading and flags?

What impact might they have on addressing the Ardoyne/Twaddel stand-off and the wider issues of parading and commemorations?

How might they shape our commemorations of past events in such a way as to be inclusive of erstwhile enemies and model non-violent approaches to conflict in the future?

And how do they affect the engagement of state, republican and loyalist agents with potential truth recovery processes?

But they also have implications for the much-needed talks about welfare reforms/cuts (which are budgetary realities whether we like it or not), and the need for a complete shake-up of our education system, among other hot potatoes.

If those involved in the political sphere are genuinely up for challenges by wider civic society, then perhaps a revised and revived Civic Forum not dominated by political interest groups might be one arena for both prompting and gauging the progress of the Assembly and the new councils in delivering truly shared society.

There were those who suggested that the recent Monty Python farewell gig wasn’t actually very funny, just a colossal waste of money.

Geoff Martin in the Belfast Telegraph said that it wasn’t funny in the first place. Most Python aficionados beg to differ.

There are those who would also argue that the ongoing political circus here is simultaneously a colossal waste of money and a laughing stock. That, however, is unfair to political representatives from all parties who work hard to make this place a better society. But things cannot continue as they are. No individual or sector has all the answers. No single agreement or initiative will make the decisive difference. But, 45 years on from 1969, we all need to take “small steps” in a different direction which, when added together, may contribute to a “giant leap” for all people in this society.

• David Campton has been involved in a wide range of community and political engagement programmes, including 4 Corners, Churches’ Community Work Alliance, and Hope and History.

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Sinn Féin wins Dáil backing for better mental health services

BY MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA A SIGNIFICANT Sinn Féin motion on mental health services and suicide prevention has been agreed by the Dáil without a vote.

All parties and Independents supported the resolution which called for full implementation of the policy ‘A Vision for Change’ and for enhanced suicide prevention measures and mental health services, especially in terms of increased staff numbers.

Concluding the Dáil debate in July, the proposer of the motion, Sinn Féin Health spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD, acknowledged that then Health Minister James Reilly had agreed to withdraw a Government amendment tabled earlier. Deputy Ó Caoláin told the Dáil: “The basis of the cross-party consensus on mental health is support for ‘A Vision for Change’, its princi-

‘I have been in an accident and emergency department with a loved one, pleading for them to be admitted’

5 The Dáil supported the ‘Vision for Change’ document for enhanced suicide prevention measures and mental health services

Dessie Ellis TD

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD

the process is far too slow and every effort needs to be made to accelerate it.”

During the debate there were some striking contributions from deputies of different parties. One of the strongest was from Dublin North-West Sinn Féin TD Dessie Ellis, who spoke on suicide: “Recently, a young man from Finglas was discharged in a clearly unfit state having made a number of attempts on his life in the recent past. He was admitted in a very serious condition to the Mater Hospital and was placed on a ventilator for three days.

“When he had physically recovered he was discharged. His mother pleaded with the doctor and staff to have him admitted to the mental health services as he was a danger to himself. He was allowed to sign

out and was seen on CCTV leaving the hospital. He went missing for over a week and his body was found in the canal.

“This man died because of a failure in the system. He was in the hospital. It was clear he was a danger to himself and that his mental state had not improved following his treatment for his injuries. There were not sufficient staff to ensure that his case was dealt with properly and that he was admitted for treatment under the Mental Health Act 2001, as would seem to have been the necessary step.

“This is one case but it does seem that, in similar situations, doctors have been slow to act on admitting people involuntarily who are a threat to themselves.

“My family is not very different from many other families that have

had to deal with the challenges that arise when a loved one is plagued by mental health problems. I know the details of the cases I have mentioned all too well. I have been in an accident and emergency department with a loved one, pleading for them to be admitted. I have seen at first hand the obstacles that are placed in the way of those who seek

‘More resources must be made available and the recruitment embargo must be lifted if ‘A Vision for Change’ is to be implemented’

Dessie Ellis TD

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD

ples and its implementation. More resources must be made available and the recruitment embargo must be lifted if ‘A Vision for Change’ is to be implemented and if existing services in this and other areas of healthcare are to be maintained, let alone expanded.

“The Mental Health Commission in its 2013 Report has noted the Ministerial Commitment to the reinstatement in 2015 of the expected €15million is not forthcoming in 2014. Although the Health Minister did not restate it last night, I trust that commitment stands. We will certainly be holding the Government to that commitment.

“The recruitment achieved thus far is welcome but, as was clear from the Health Minister’s outline of the figures and timelines last night,

to have a family member cared for properly in life or death circumstances.

“I know what I have said about the struggles of these families to be true because I have lived with it for the past three years. Times were very dark at one stage but our family banded together. With the help of the work of the excellent staff of Connolly Hospital, we have come out of those times and there is hope again.

“The nurses and doctors succeeded in this case in spite of the obstacles and challenges they faced in their vocations. Their dedication was second to none but they had an uphill struggle due to the understaffing and inadequate resources with which they had to deal.”

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THE GARTH BROOKS FIASCO EXPOSES THE LACK OF DEMOCRATIC CONTROL IN LOCAL COUNCILS

Democracy demands an end to managerial diktat

BY EOIN Ó MURCHÚ WHATEVER your views of the Garth Brooks fiasco and the role of the Dublin City Council City Manager (or ‘Chief Executive’, as he is now styled), the underlying issue is the lack of democratic control by the people of Dublin over their own affairs.

For the decision to refuse a licence for the five concerts (with the consequent disappointment of 400,000 fans and economic loss for the city) was taken unilaterally by one man, Owen Keegan, without reference to the opinions of the councillors who are elected to represent the people.

Of course, this is not a problem confined to Dublin.

In every council, it is the Manager or Chief Executive who holds all power, with the councillors only able to nudge a bit here and tweak a bit there.

The Left alliance in South Dublin, pioneered by Sinn Féin, shows that a lot can be achieved

It is not only in relation to the Garth Brooks affair that the Dublin City Manager has been able to ignore the elected representatives despite the imbalance of power, but the last word always lies with the Manager.

This situation came about in the aftermath of the Civil War, when many councils (among them Dublin City Council and Cork City Council) refused to recognise the authority of the Free State Government and the orders of its Department of Local Government.

The Free State’s solution was to suspend councils that didn’t play ball and by the Local Government Act of 1923 confer the ultimate power on the Manager appointed by the central government.

This undemocratic system remains unchanged.

So it is not only in relation to the Garth Brooks affair that the Dublin City Manager has been able to ignore the elected representatives.

The Manager equally ignored

5 Garth Brooks at the launch of 'The Garth Brooks Comeback Special Event' in Croke Park back in January councillors’ concerns over the planned but now abandoned incinerator (with significant costs to the people of Dublin), and, perhaps most pertinently after the Garth Brooks episode, in relation to the

Greyhound refuse collection company.

Dublin City councillors voted AGAINST the privatisation of the refuse collection service but their vote counted for nothing as the

Manager had the power to ride roughshod over their views (and the views of the people who elected them) to impose Greyhound on the people of Dublin.

Greyhound is now trying to

5 Fans queue outside Ticketmaster outlets in January

5 Dublin City Manager Owen Keegan

5 Shops stocked up on Garth Brooks souvenirs

increase its profits by savagely cutting the wages of its workforce and the elected councillors are powerless to stop them.

Whether or not you think that the Garth Brooks concerts should have gone ahead, the point is that the decision should have been a democratic one by the people of Dublin through their elected representatives.

And those who welcome the decision should wonder what their attitude would be if Keegan had decided the other way?

If a councillor does something you don’t like you can withhold your vote the next election. But no one is ever allowed a vote on the appointment or maintenance in office of the Manager, who is answerable to no one.

Quite simply, this is not good enough. Too many decisions that affect people’s lives are taken behind closed doors; too often people are left powerless while decisions are taken.

In all the righteous talk about political reform, this then is one area that is crying out for reform: give

Give power back to the people and make the Managers and other officials the servants of the people rather than their masters power back to the people and make the managers and other officials the servants of the people rather than their masters.

One way of doing it, of course, is for direct elections of local governments mayors, but there are other ways. The point is to make the change. Certainly direct elections without power would be meaningless.

This call is not a demand for bowing down to rightwing politicians who put the interests of corporate greed in the first place, but it is a call to let people have the power of decision.

If then we elect people who take decisions we don’t like, we can only blame ourselves.

But this change is the first step towards real local democracy. So let’s put an end to this legacy of civil war politics.

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SERIES OF FIRSTS IN WESTMINSTER LAST MONTH

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER MEETS SINN FÉIN

5 Chair of All-Party Parliamentary Group for Irish in Britain Chris Ruane MP, Travellers 5 Diane Abbott MP, Seán Oliver, Caroline Murphy and Michelle Gildernew MP at the annual Sinn Féin Summer Reception Movement leader Yvonne McNamara and Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald TD

AFTER 4 YEARS

BY MICHELLE GILDERNEW MP THE British Prime Minister has finally had his first-ever meeting with a Sinn Féin leadership delegation led by Gerry Adams – after four years in government.

Although he had met Martin McGuinness in his capacity as joint First Minister, David Cameron had (astonishingly) never met our party’s political leadership since he came to power in May 2010.

Our delegation (which included Martin McGuinness, Mary Lou McDonald and myself) also met Labour leader Ed Miliband and his team.

The backdrop to the meetings was the mounting and untenable difficulties in the political process. While we welcomed the meeting, the disinclination of David Cameron to seriously engage with the Sinn Féin leadership until now epitomises the nature of his government’s approach to Ireland and to the Peace Process. The abject failure to drive the process forward – and, worse, the de facto facilitating of unionist intransigence – has threatened to seriously undermine the hardfought-for advances made over nearly two decades.

None of this can be lost on the British Labour leadership.

At our meeting with Ed Miliband, and through our discussions with many Labour MPs, there is no doubt that Labour sees itself as part of the pro Good Friday Agreement axis.

Labour celebrates its role in the Peace Process as one of its best achievements in office.

Moreover, the need for this role is not past.

Whatever the difficulties during some of that time, there is no doubt that those governments were, by and large, engaged in the process, and highly so at crucial moments. Unfortunately, the current Conservative Party/Liberal Democrat Government is not playing this role.

5 Sinn Féin leaders speak to the media at Westminster after meeting British Prime Minister David Cameron Failing to fully commit to the Haass/O’Sullivan compromise proposals, engaging in dishonest gesture politics over the OTR issue, pandering to unionist blocking of progressive change, and outstanding issues of the Good Friday Agreement such as the Bill of Rights and Irish Language Act, and now entertaining notions to unravel agreements on parades – these all add up to a negative shift in policy.

All of this is coupled with a continued insistence by the British Government in imposing austerity. We have been absolutely clear in our opposition to this and the so-called ‘welfare reform’ programme that has austerity at its

At our meeting with Labour leader Ed Miliband, and through our discussions with many Labour MPs, there is no doubt that Labour sees itself as part of the pro Good Friday Agreement axis

5 Ivan Lewis MP, Mary Lou McDonald TD, Ed Miliband MP, Gerry Adams TD and Michelle Gildernew MP

5 Pat Doherty MP addresses the audience core. It has already had disastrous consequences for ordinary people in Britain.

Instead of this we need the fiscal autonomy to determine our own economic responses and which suit our specific circumstances.

Devolution cannot simply be about implementing British Tory-led government policy.

On the positive side, all of our engagements in Britain reveal that most British politicians (and of course the overwhelming majority of the Irish diaspora community and beyond) support the Peace Process. Many are highly concerned at the extent to which the British Government’s approach is undermining it.

Our annual Sinn Féin Summer Reception in Westminster at the beginning of July saw a packed Portcullis House event with people from across the political, social and cultural spectrum, who clearly expressed that sentiment.

Many were also evidently heartened to hear Mary Lou McDonald’s message about the electoral advance of Sinn Féin and the growing support for our progressive alternative to austerity, and for a new Irish politics and republic.

Mary Lou reiterated our calls for the British Government – alongside the Irish Government – to step up to the plate and to begin to deliver its responsibilities to the Peace Process.

As we look beyond the summer, between now and the Westminster election in May 2014 we have to ensure that there is a growing pressure for a step-change on these issues. The many friends of Ireland in Britain, and indeed the vast majority of people, support the Peace Process. It is time for this pro-Agreement axis to assert itself and to be reflected in government policy.

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www.anphoblacht.com

Alliance MLA

ANNA LO talks to An Phoblacht

Putting your head

BY MARK MOLONEY ANNA LO is down in the beautiful Gaeltacht village of Baile Bhurine, County Cork, to take part in a Sinn Féin Summer School debate, ‘Women in Politics – Towards Equal Representation’. She argues strongly in favour of gender quotas to increase representation of women in politics. It’s the first time Anna has visited County Cork. “I previously did the Ring of Kerry,” she says, adding, “it was beautiful.”

Born in Hong Kong in 1950 while it was still a British colony, she became the first-ever ethnic minority candidate elected to Stormont. So how did she end up getting involved in politics?

“There was no politics in Hong Kong when I was growing up. It was total direct rule. But I was very much involved in student politics; I was a class representative, chair of the student union, that kind of thing. I wouldn’t say I was an agitator but I was quite prepared to put my head above the parapet to challenge the school structures on issues we thought needed to be changed.”

After she finished school she went to work as a secretary in London and while there she married Belfast journalist David Watson, whom she had originally met in Hong Kong. She moved to Belfast at the height of the conflict in 1974 and shortly after the unionist Ulster Workers’ Council strike. She describes the experience as a “culture shock” and says many of her friends in England thought she was “bonkers”. Her parents were also very concerned for her safety. In Belfast she

worked for the FarmWeek newspaper and later for the BBC’s Chinese service.

“I started noticing Chinese people in Belfast.

Being me, I would just go up and say ‘Hi’ and I realised that many of them had very little English and almost all worked in the catering trade. They were very isolated and had very little access to information or services. Most usually had to bring their children with them to see a doctor to interpret for them.”

It was then she decided to start a class teaching English for Chinese immigrants in 1978 on a

Born in Hong Kong, Anna moved to Belfast at the height of the conflict in 1974, shortly after the Ulster Workers’ Council strike voluntary basis. She also gained a university degree in social work. During this period she was heavily involved in campaigning to bring the Race Relations Act from England to the North of Ireland. She also became head of the Chinese Welfare Association, the main representative group for Chinese immigrants, and helped found the Council for Ethnic Minorities.

Despite all this work in grassroots political campaigning, it was many years before she became involved in electoral politics.

Her first foray into the electoral area came after she was approached by the Alliance Party’s Naomi Long to stand for the party in South

Belfast in the 2007 Assembly election. She had known Naomi from her membership on the Good Relations Panel in Belfast City Council, which Naomi chaired.

“I thought maybe it was about time I turned the table around and rather than asking politicians to do things for me I could get into a position where I could make changes. Another thing was I really wanted to test out the attitudes of people in Northern Ireland. There had never been a member of an ethnic minority politician.

I was keen to see would they accept someone who was very obviously from outside and who very clearly does not identify with one side or the other.

“I was really pleasantly surprised by the responses on the doorsteps, and then I got elected and I suppose that’s really history.”

In recent months, Anna has been the target of racist abuse from loyalists. During the EU election campaign (she was the Alliance candidate, polling 44,000 first-preference votes) she was particularly shaken by an incident in which a loyalist mob followed her from an east Belfast shopping centre hurling vile racist abuse. At the time she said: “If I hadn’t decided to act quickly and get out of there I don’t know what would have happened to me.”

She also revealed that her two sons had asked her to join them in England, where they live, out of concern for her safety.

After weeks of sectarian attacks against ethnic minorities in Belfast which the PSNI blame on the UVF, and the support of First Minister Peter Robinson for anti-Muslim remarks made by Pastor James McConnell (a man Anna previously described as “a lunatic”), she announced in an

emotional media interview that she was leaving politics for good.

“I’m planning not to seek re-election in 2016,” she tells An Phoblacht.

“I think maybe it’s about time I leave politics and do something different, allow younger people to come forward and bring their ideas. I would like to see more young people coming into politics, particularly as they don’t have the baggage of the past. We need to normalise politics, to bring real issues rather than all the time harping back to the bad old days.”

‘I thought maybe it was about time I turned the table around and rather than asking politicians to do things for me I could get into a position where I could make changes’ She says the recent controversies over the Union flag and Orange parades show we still have a long way to go. “I think many parties are still bogged down by the issues of the past.”

She’s passionate about the need for integrated education, shared spaces and shared housing.

“If we are to have a shared future we need to bring people together and create a comfortable, inclusive environment where young people grow up together, are educated together, share their lives together and where neighbours see neighbours as human beings rather than always

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trying to suss them out and see which side they are on. How can people feel at ease with each other if they live in segregated areas?”

She says that if there were areas anywhere else in the world designated specifically for people of a certain religion or ethnicity, there would be outcry, but in the North it is seen as normal.

Anna Lo also became the target for unionist anger when she identified herself as “anti-colonial” and described the partition of Ireland in 1921 as “artificial”. She went on to say that a united Ireland would be “better placed economically, socially and politically”.

She tells me she was “surprised” by some of the public reaction to her comments but says overwhelmingly the Alliance Party was “very, very supportive” of her.

at how she approached the division in Northern Ireland.”

Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi is another. “Putting your head above the parapet is not easy,” she says, noting her perseverance at being under house arrest for so many years.

“I admire a lot of strong women.”

So, with her planning to end her political career in 2016, what are her plans for the future?

“I plan to retire,” she smiles again.

“I’ve always had an ambition to write a book

‘There are people within the Alliance Party who hold an aspiration for a united Ireland on a very long-term basis’

Anna described anti-Muslim Pastor James McConnell as ‘a lunatic’ “I think it’s important for Alliance to show that, because we are a cross-community party, we have people from both sides and people from none. I wouldn’t call it a tipping point but I think it was a good opportunity to say there are people within the Alliance Party who hold an aspiration for a united Ireland on a very long-term basis,” she says.

“I come from Hong Kong, a former British colony, and of course I don’t like colonisation; and I think British governments in the past have a lot to answer for in colonising a lot of different countries, including Ireland.”

In 1999, she received an MBE (Member of the

5 Posters of Anna Lo were placed on an Eleventh Night loyalist bonfire in Carrickfergus (and many other bonfires) Order of the British Empire) award for her community work. I ask her whether there is a contradiction in describing herself as “anti-colonial” while accepting such a title.

“I accepted an MBE in 1999 and I asked my committee did they think it’s a good thing. To be honest I do not like these type of titles, I see them as causing division. It is certainly a good recognition of people who have done a lot of voluntary work but I was given this for doing a

job I loved and a job I was paid to do. So I asked the committee of their opinion whether they wanted me to accept it. And they thought it was a great thing and very much a recognition of the Chinese community.”

She smiles as she adds: “I felt honoured to take it but I was not particularly ‘Oh, I must take this!’”

She lists Nelson Mandela as somebody who she looks up to. Mary McAleese is another who she describes as “a woman of vision, so sensitive

about my experiences of politics, of first arriving in Belfast – it was quite a culture shock to me going there in the 1970s – and also I have a very unusual family background.

“There are a lot of rumours about my grandfather’s and grandmother’s background, rumours that they were rebels. I’m not sure how you would describe my grandfather. He was a traditionalist and conservative but he inherited millions of pounds when he was 19 and he squandered all the money! Not a penny left for the grandchildren, unfortunately,” she says laughing loudly.

“A very interesting background and a lot of myths about the family including claims there was a curse on them. So I want to do more research on it and then put it to paper.”

above the parapet ‘I think British governments in the past have a lot to answer for in colonising a lot of different countries, including Ireland’

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We need to develop a coherent strategy for radical change, not limiting ourselves to an electoral strategy. This is a challenge facing not only Sinn Féin and other Left elected representatives but all of the Left

EUGENE McCARTAN GENERAL SECRETARY COMMUNIST PARTY OF IRELAND

Continuing our series of opinion pieces by progressive figures on ‘AFTER THE ELECTIONS — WHAT NOW?’

Anger is an emotion, not a political strategy THE ELECTION RESULTS have produced a changed and changing political landscape. There was a solid rejection of austerity by hundreds of thousands of working people throughout the country. The Labour Party has paid the heaviest price for its opportunism and its active support for antiworker policies.

There is certainly a need to deepen and to clarify our understanding of the economic crisis that we are experiencing. We need to learn the lesson of the past, that economic and social advances are transient and are retained only if active resistance is built to protect them.

There must be a rejection of the belief

AN ALTERNATIVE RADICAL GOVERNMENT NEEDS THE ACTIVE that there is a separation between political and economic demands. This has been a success of the establishment, reducing all discussion on economic policy to one of management style and business priorities, steering the debate away from any possible alternative economic and social structures of society.

They have succeeded so far in imposing ‘TINA’ (There Is No Alternative) on the current economic orthodoxy, an orthodoxy that is legislated for by the European Union and is embedded in the numerous treaties woven to construct a straitjacket and to prevent any possible alternative way forward. This has to be recognised by any potential alternative government.

The recent Left-led government in Cyprus thought they could change things from within the anti-democratic EU structure; they discovered, at a heavy cost to the Cypriot people, that these were illusions.

Imperialism does not have friends, only interests.

The debate on the European Union and the euro is not about ‘Euro-scepticism’; nor can we take a pragmatic, ą la carte approach. The very instruments required – the political and economic sovereignty to develop sustainable economic and social policies – have been surrendered by the Irish Establishment to the interests of the European Union and the powerful monopolies that it serves.

The anti-imperialist Left needs to approach political, economic and social struggles on an all-Ireland basis, striving to build unity among our people and renew-

ing the struggle for the reconquest of Ireland in the interests of working people.

Even in the limited form that now exists, democracy is under attack and will be further reduced if the free trade agreement now under negotiation between the EU and the United States is completed. Democracy itself has become an obstacle to the global monopolies.

We have to recognise that there is no single ‘national interest’. There are separate economic and political interests on the part of workers and working people on the one hand and those of the Irish capitalist class, landlords, rancher-farmers, transnational corporations, low-wage employers, and the European Union. We need to know which side we are on.

This also applies to the massive corporate debt that the Irish state socialised and imposed upon the people. We need a radical government to repudiate this while simultaneously protecting the people’s interests.

This would release large amounts of capital for productive social development.

An alternative radical government needs the active engagement and support of a mobilised, politicised people. We need to develop a coherent strategy for radical change, not limiting ourselves to an electoral strategy. This is a challenge facing not only Sinn Féin and other Left elected representatives but all of the Left.

The challenge now is whether the Left can harness the people’s anger for change.

Anger is an emotion, not a political strategy.

Occupying the space vacated by the Labour Party would not lead to a political advance. We need to build a more militant trade union movement, with its own clear demands and world view, a movement that has a class understanding and a class approach to politics. This is an essential vehicle for rallying the forces for change.

It is now an urgent task to build a Left anti-imperialist movement capable of presenting to the people an alternative way out of this moribund and crisis-ridden system – a movement that is not just for gathering up votes but for politicising and deepening the class-consciousness of the people, mobilising the people in defence of their own interests. It must bring the people beyond anger, armed with their own ideology and an understanding of their own class interests – a truly risen people.

ENGAGEMENT AND SUPPORT OF A MOBILISED, POLITICISED PEOPLE.

THE CHALLENGE NOW IS WHETHER THE LEFT CAN HARNESS THE

PEOPLE’S ANGER FOR CHANGE. ANGER IS AN EMOTION, NOT A POLITICAL STRATEGY

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We can no longer be content with curtailing the worst excesses of the two conservative parties — we have to provide a real alternative

JOHN DOUGLAS

PRESIDENT, IRISH CONGRESS OF TRADE UNIONS GENERAL SECRETARY, MANDATE

Continuing our series of opinion pieces by progressive figures on ‘AFTER THE ELECTIONS — WHAT NOW?’

Opportunities with challenges THE local and European elections have confirmed what many on the Left already know: the Irish electorate want real, progressive change.

People are crying out for leadership and for an alternative to the neo-liberal, conservative policies that have dominated Irish politics for decades.

We on the Left now have to decide whether we can deliver that vision in the coming years or miss out on that potential in order to preserve our own self-interests.

Let’s be clear: Ireland is a neo-liberal state and has been for a very long time. The past failures of the Left, including the trade union movement, have allowed a small group of right-wing elements to control the public debate and apply their own economic policies.

While the broad Left – including Marxists, social democrats, socialists and everything in-between – are arguing over who has the better vision and better policies for the Irish people, the conservative element simply pushes ahead and implements theirs.

The election results, however, have shown that voters aren’t fooled by the slogans and headlines like “70,000 jobs created” because they know the reality – they’re living it.

Many of these new jobs are precarious, part-time positions that are either lowpaid or else unpaid internships.

Most progressives would agree that all citizens should have guaranteed access to quality health care, education, a job with a living wage, and a roof over your head. Yet successive governments have turned Irish housing into an almost wholly for profit industry with almost no social housing provision. This has led to what has been described as a “tsunami of homelessness”

by Fr Peter McVerry.

Our health service has been so desperately underfunded by government that people are forced to purchase health insurance – providing they can afford to pay the exorbitant fees.

Increased registration fees are making it prohibitively difficult for young people from working-class communities to obtain an education and to reach their full potential.

Almost all of what we previously considered human rights have been slowly monetised and privatised.

Nothing is more indicative of this ideology than the impending introduction of water charges – which will impact on lowpaid workers, the unemployed and the vulnerable hardest at the exact same time the

Taoiseach and Minister for Finance publicly rejoice about reducing the tax burden on the top 20% to 30% of earners.

We talk about redistribution of wealth as if it’s something we’d like to achieve in the future. It’s already happening, only in the wrong direction.

This commitment to increasing inequality is engrained in the ideology of Ireland’s conservative political parties. It is our job to not only counter that ideology in words but to show an appetite to challenge it at a political level. We can no longer be content with curtailing the worst excesses of the two conservative parties – we have to provide a real alternative.

So what can we do now as progressives?

The local and European elections have shown us that the public is on our side. We have to occupy the political space that clearly exists within the electorate. We have to do so in an inclusive manner though.

We on the Left can disagree on any number of policy decisions and finer points of detail, but wouldn’t it be better to have those disagreements within a coalition of progressives built around key principles of social justice and equality?

The concept is quite simple. We should be able to work together with all who reject the neo-liberal, conservative ideology that the free market rules all.

The trade union movement has more than 700,000 workers on this island. When you factor in family and friends, we have a very substantial power base – one that is not served well by neo-liberal orthodoxy.

The trade union movement can serve as a power broker if there is a genuine desire to challenge the conservative hegemony and build a working alliance of progressive people and organisations.

We are less than two years from our next Dáil general election.

There is potential to build on the local and European electoral successes of the Left and deliver what could arguably be the first progressive Irish government, and just in time for the 1916 commemorations. Or we can sit back, wallow in self-interest and allow the conservatives to rebuild their castles and their powerbase.

We have two years to decide which road we are willing to take and whether we wish to fulfil at least some of the ideals of the men and women of 1916.

WE ON THE LEFT CAN DISAGREE ON ANY NUMBER OF POLICY

DECISIONS AND FINER POINTS OF DETAIL, BUT WOULDN’T IT BE BETTER TO HAVE THOSE DISAGREEMENTS WITHIN A

COALITION OF PROGRESSIVES BUILT AROUND KEY PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUALITY?

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AS we mark the centenary of the start of the First World War,

www.anphoblacht.com

MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA looks at how that imperialist conflagration commenced and Ireland’s role in it.

Ireland and the war of empires, 1914 AS THE LITTLE YACHTS Asgard and Kelpie sailed for Ireland with arms for the Irish Volunteers in mid-July 1914, a massive European political and diplomatic crisis was escalating. Before the end of that month it resulted in a war that engulfed Europe and much of the wider world, lasted over four years and took millions of lives.

The immediate cause of the crisis came on 28 June with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, in Sarajevo. Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the assassin was a Bosnian-Serb nationalist, a member of a group of conspirators secretly backed by the military forces of the independent state of

British foreign policy became concerned with cornering Germany and thus the British allied with previously deadly enemies, France and Russia Serbia. The movement for a ‘Greater Serbia’, including territories within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was seen by that empire as a real threat.

This regional confrontation in the Balkans was turned into a continental and global conflict by the competing interests of the great European empires – Austria-Hungary and Germany on one side; France, Britain and Russia on the other. All were ruled by privileged elites and in each empire the power of the military and of the capitalist owners of industry (including the arms industry) far outweighed any restraint that the people could exercise on their rulers.

Even in Britain, regarded by some as the oldest and most stable parliamentary democracy, foreign policy was not subject to real Cabinet, let alone parliamentary, control. British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey conducted this policy himself, sharing little information with the Cabinet as the crisis developed.

An indication of the power of the military and of Ireland’s place in British imperial policy has been highlighted by a recent, muchpraised study of the origins of the war (The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914, by Christopher

“

emembering R

5 British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey

5 British officers based at the Curragh took part in an anti-Home Rule mutiny in March 1914 Clark, Penguin 2013).

In a memorandum for the British Cabinet on 29 June 1914, the day after Sarajevo, the British Army’s Director of Military Operations, Henry Wilson, a staunch supporter of Ulster unionism and opponent of Home Rule, argued that the army would need to deploy the entire British Expeditionary Force to Ireland if it were to impose Home Rule and restore order. This would mean renouncing any military intervention in Europe for the foreseeable future. But a military intervention in Europe would mean the postponement of Home Rule – and that is precisely what happened. As Clark states: “This meant in turn that officers of unionist sympathies – which were extremely widespread in an officer corps dominated by Protestant AngloIrish families – were inclined to see in a British continental intervention one possible means of postponing or preventing altogether the introduction of Home Rule.

“Nowhere else in Europe, with the possible exception of Austria-Hungary, did domestic conditions exert such direct pressure on the political outlook of the most senior military commanders.”

The anti-Home Rule mutiny of British officers at the Curragh in March 1914 (which had the approval of Henry Wilson) showed where the British Army stood. This was underlined again on 26 July 1914 when the British Army shot dead three civilians on the streets of Dublin after the ‘Howth Gun-

the

Running’. Two days later, AustriaHungary declared war on Serbia and the Czar of Russia ordered the mobilisation of his massive army.

It was then that the system of alliances kicked in and the British Government was faced with the question of intervention – and Ireland would have to respond to the British decision. The British had grown increasingly wary of and hostile to the growing industrial and military power of Germany. The British jealously

Past

Officers of unionist sympathies were inclined to see in a British continental intervention one possible means of postponing or preventing altogether the introduction of Home Rule HISTORIAN CHRISTOPHER CLARK

guarded the supremacy over maritime commerce that the powerful Royal Navy gave them. British foreign policy became concerned with cornering Germany and thus the British had allied with their previously deadly enemies, France and Russia. The latter alliance in particular was controversial in Britain where much Liberal opinion deplored the tyrannical Czarist regime.

The war began nominally between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, with Russia joining on Serbia’s side. But the Russian mobilisation sparked fear in Germany that Russia and France would crush her between them. Thus German war plans, prepared years before, had envisaged a speedy invasion of France, knocking that country quickly out of the war before Germany turned east to go on the offensive against Russia.

Up to 3 August, when Germany declared war on France, the British Government had yet to intervene. The next day, Britain declared war on Germany.

The war party in the British Liberal Government and the military commanders had long prepared for this but there was still opposition to war among a section of the Liberal Cabinet as well as in Parliament and in the country generally. The German invasion of Luxembourg and violation of Belgian neutrality was skilfully used to crush anti-war sentiment. It was conveniently overlooked that Britain was now in a military alliance with Russian Czarism which suppressed many

5 Irish Party leader John Redmond on a British Army recruiting campaign poster

5 British Army Director of Military Operations Henry Wilson

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5 The bodies of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, who were assassinated in Serbia

CENTRAL POWERS ALLIED POWERS NEUTRAL

Britain. Home Rule, of course, allowed for no foreign policy role at all for an Irish government. And Redmond had already conceded to the British Government the principle of partitioning Ireland.

At the start of the July 1914 crisis, the main issue before the British Cabinet was not the danger of war in Europe but the partition plan.

Redmond had come under severe criticism from republicans for his partici-

It was conveniently overlooked that Britain herself, like France and Belgium, was an imperialist power denying the independence and selfdetermination of nations across the globe

5 Czar Nicholas II of Russia

5 Kaiser Wilhelm II, ruler of Imperial Germany nations, and that Britain herself, like France and Belgium, was an imperialist power denying the independence and self-determination of nations across the globe.

One of those nations was, of course, Ireland.

It was only among republicans and socialists in Ireland that there was a clear view of where the country should stand with regard to the war.

As far back as Wolfe Tone, republicans had realised that true independence for the Irish people included the right to decide their own foreign poli-

cy. This was reflected in the politics of the Irish Republican Brotherhood which, in 1914, was preoccupied with building up the newly-formed Irish Volunteers.

When war broke out, the IRB had just fought an internal battle for control of the Volunteers. Reluctantly, the IRB had to accept onto the Provisional Committee of the Volunteers the nominees of the Irish Party leader John Redmond. He and his allies had long accepted Home Rule (yet to be implemented, though passed in legislation) as a final settlement with

pation in what James Connolly called “dismembering Ireland”.

It was no surprise then that when war came the Redmondites within the Irish Volunteers took Britain’s side. The divisions between them and the republicans were reflected, albeit in a muted way, in the pages of the Irish Volunteer newspaper, in which both sides wrote.

The 8 August issue reported the outbreak of the war. Its sheer scale was understood right away with the front page declaring that “history has no record of such a widespread conflagration”. Its importance for Ireland was also understood. “Tone in his brightest dreams never imagined a more glorious opportunity for the land he loved than now opens for Ireland if her sons are only loyal enough and brave enough,” declared the paper. It speculated that British troops would be withdrawn and the Volunteers left to defend Ireland.

But in the House of Commons on 3 August, Redmond had pledged to

James Connolly

Pádraig Pearse defend Ireland – for Britain – using the Irish Volunteers. This is reflected in the paper’s commentary on 15 August with the claim that “Ireland’s interests and England’s interests in this conflict run together for a considerable distance”. There is a sharp contrast between the editorial line in the paper of 22 August and the issue of the previous week, reflecting deep divisions behind the scenes between the Redmondites and the Republicans.

“Conquest by England or France is as

damnable as by Germany or any other foreign power” declares the front page.

Redmond was at this time actually talking to the British about them arming the Volunteers to defend Ireland – as part of the British Army. Discontent among many Volunteers at the rumours of their being taken over as part of the British Army is reflected in a letter to the paper from W.K. McDonald and headed “Ireland not the Empire”.

In a letter to Joe McGarrity in Philadelphia on 12 August, Pádraig Pearse wrote: “Publicly, the [Irish Volunteers] movement has been committed to loyal support of England; not officially so far but by implication. To everyone in Ireland that has any brains it seems either madness or treachery on Redmond’s part . . . The British Government will arm and train us if we come under the War Office and accept the Commander-in-Chief in Ireland as our generalissimo.”

Pearse correctly predicted that if Redmond directed them to submit to this the Irish Volunteers would split, as they did in September.

On 8 August, in the Irish Worker newspaper, James Connolly gave the clearest and strongest view of what Ireland’s attitude to the war should be: “Should a German army land in Ireland tomorrow we should be perfectly justified in joining it if by doing so we could rid this country once and for all from its connection with the brigand empire that drags us unwillingly into this war.

“Should the working class of Europe, rather than slaughter each other for the benefit of kings and financiers, proceed tomorrow to erect barricades all over Europe, to break up bridges and destroy the transport service that war might be abolished, we should be perfectly justified in following such a glorious example and contributing our aid to the final dethronement of the vulture classes that rule and rob the world . . .

“Starting thus, Ireland may yet set the torch to a European conflagration that will not burn out until the last throne and the last capitalist bond and debenture will be shrivelled on the funeral pyre of the last warlord.”

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After Sinn Féin’s election triumphs in May, one community and trade union campaigner urges activists to keep the party’s focus on being an agent for change

www.anphoblacht.com

OFFERING A REAL ALTERNATIVE FOR GOVERNMENT

with the prospect of entering government; however, in the longer term, it would be preferable to build a real alternative capable of realising the vision set out at Bodenstown.

This requires a more sophisticated approach which must also complement the electoral dynamic.

In effect this will involve the party members, the elected representatives and the leadership reaching out to, participating with and helping to shape and influence campaigns mounted by and involving civic society organisations, including trade unions, NGOs, community and voluntary sector entities and campaigning movements involved in working for rights around disability, equality, language, gender, minorities and the broad spectrum of campaigning issues.

In other words, to engage not as a passive Community and SIPTU trade union activist recipient of people’s issues or as a route to build the party as other political parties do, but through genuine participation bringing the IT’S NOT SURPRISING that much of the focus function and role of the party to the centre of by the Dublin mainstream media after the the diverse range of current struggles aimed recent election successes of Sinn Féin has 5 Sinn Féin needs to be bring the function and role of the party to the centre of current struggles at securing justice and realising rights. been on the prospects of the party being cenImplementing this approach involves a twotral to the formation of the next government. focus groups and social issue campaigns so as of government between political parties. In way process, entailing increased demands on The results certainly sent real shockwaves to construct a broad popular movement capa- this context Sinn Féin has much to offer. through the political establishment. ble of enforcing a fundamental shift in the way Given Sinn Féin’s experience and evolution party members to become active in relevant organisations and a willingAs a community and trade this country is governed and over the past three decades, ness on the part of the wide union activist, my concern is enhancing the prospect of it has very different perspec- It is necessary to Given Sinn Féin’s range of activists who comthat Sinn Féin maintains a tives on fundamental values real unity across the island. prise campaigning organisafocus on building the wider experience and As presently constituted, such as justice, equality, par- construct a broad tions and movements to participation and engage- evolution over the the Irish state is incapable of ticipation and rights. popular movement work with Sinn Féin as an ment necessary to create a change. This is evidenced by In a more immediate way capable of enforcing a integral part of achieving radically alternative political past three decades, it the continuing litany of it has been involved in an real change. reality that serves all of our has very different acute social issues covered alternative form of govern- fundamental shift in It is the effective integrapeople. ing in the North; it is dealing up and unresolved, and in perspectives on the way this country tion between political activiGerry Adams in his oration the way the severe econom- with legacy issues arising ties and popular movements at the Wolfe Tone fundamental values ic collapse was foisted on from conflict that can inform is governed and that will greatly enhance the Commemoration in June such as justice, the most vulnerable in soci- a wider policy and has an enhancing the capacity of Sinn Féin to offer declared: ety and the poorest people international reputation and a real alternative for govern“We are about creating a equality, participation were punished by the impo- connections unlike any prospect of real unity ment, not relying on deals New Republic, with new pol- and rights sition of austerity. other political party on this across the island with other parties but preitics and a new way of doing The governing elite — the island. things that puts fairness and equality at the wealthy, the professionals, the senior civil serIt is an outsider to the cosy political appara- senting a powerful and collective manifesto heart of how this country is governed.” vants and their political representatives — tus that has governed since the foundation of for change that can help to achieve the vision In the struggle to achieve this ambitious remain in power despite the destruction the state. This offers a positive agent for of a New Republic, a New Ireland. and worthwhile objective, electoral activity is wrought by them, their associates and their change.

DAVID CONNOLLY only one element. It is necessary to engage policies.

Undoubtedly, the attraction will be to conIS WRITING HERE with and mobilise a wide range of interests, A whole new political dispensation is centrate on consolidating the electoral victory including civil society organisations, single required that is much more than the revolving and preparing for the next general election IN A PERSONAL CAPACITY

BY DAVID CONNOLLY

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Conor Murphy in peace mission to Colombia FOR FIVE DECADES there has been a war in Colombia between government forces (including right-wing death squads) and left-wing guerrilla groups in one of the world’s longestrunning conflicts. In mid-July, Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy, Irish Congress of Trade Unions President John Douglas and ICTU Assistant General Secretary Peter Bunting travelled to the South American country and Cuba as part of an international delegation of politicians, trade unions, journalists and lawyers to help the country’s peace process.

The delegation was organised by the Justice for Colombia campaign group.

During the two-week-long mission, the Newry & Armagh MP and colleagues travelled to the Colombian capital, Bogota, and visited rural and coastal areas. They met trade unionists, human rights activists, victims of the conflict, prisoners and representatives of the Colombian Government.

Their first engagement was with Dr Carlos Lozano, spokesperson for the Patriotic March movement and editor of Voz newspaper.

Conor also met with human rights lawyers who told the delegation about the Colombian government’s attempts to cover up its role in the conflict.

“They told us of plans by President Santos to allow military courts to deal with all accusations of violence and abuse by state forces and to counter what he claims is a ‘legal war’ by human rights lawyers on behalf of victims. This is despite the fact that the state has enjoyed a 98.5% impunity for all killings.”

The Newry & Armagh MP said much of what the lawyers told the group resonated with the peace process in Ireland.

“In an interesting parallel with Ireland, the lawyers talked about attempts by the Colombian Government to downplay its role in the conflict and the creation of a hierarchy of victims ahead of any agreement around a proposed truth commission.

“One note of optimism was our meeting with a young woman, Yessika Hoyos, a human rights lawyer who established the group, Hijos y Hijas (Sons and Daughters) which brings together children of murdered trade unionists and civic society leaders.

5 Imprisoned: Trade unionist Huber Ballesteros and human rights activist David Rabelo

They met the Sons and Daughters group, which brings together children of murdered trade unionists and civic society leaders “This is clear evidence that the struggle for peace and justice remains strong in Colombia.”

Dealing with victims is a crucial issue in the Colombian peace process and Conor Murphy met a number of victims groups.

“We had the opportunity to hear the harrowing stories of some of the victims of Colombian state violence when we visited the ‘Mothers of Soacha’ group.

“In 2005, the Colombian military leader, General Montoya, issued a secret order to his forces offering financial and other bonuses for the killing of guerrillas which led to a huge upsurge in extrajudicial executions. Protests from human rights groups that the military were killing non-combatants and dressing their bodies in rebel FARC uniforms were dismissed as propaganda by the government despite the fact that the groups had identified almost 1,000 cases.

“In 2008, the army established a bogus employment scheme in the poor neighbourhood of Soacha, on the southern outskirts of Bogota, to tempt young men to leave the area. Twenty-three young men vanished from Soacha as part of this scheme and their bodies were subsequently found hundreds of miles

Human rights groups identified nearly 1,000 cases of the military killing non-combatants and dressing their bodies in rebel FARC uniforms

5 Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy MP with Liliany Obando, activist 5 The international delegation heard testimony from the community of murder, and academic, who was jailed in 2008 while working on human rights projects with agriculture workers mutilation, displacement and hardship

away, ‘killed in guerrilla fighting’, according to the army.

“One mother told us how she and her other son refused to accept this account of her son’s death and began to publicly challenge the army, leading to death threats to the family. Her surviving son was kidnapped by two policemen and thrown off a bridge, surviving with serious injuries, only to be subsequently executed by gunmen.

“Despite the ongoing death threats the mothers banded together and took on the state, prompting a United Nations investigation into what has now become known as the scandal of the ‘False Positives’.

“These women have begun to organise and educate themselves and are not daunted by taking on the might of the Colombian military and state.

“They want the world to know their story and we promised to tell it for them,” Conor Murphy said.

The Sinn Féin MP also travelled to the Putomayo region to meet prisoners in some of Colombia’s most notorious jails.

“I visited La Picota Prison, where Huber Ballesteros, a trade union leader, and David Rabelo Crespo, a human rights activist, are being held.

“After a three-hour wait, we finally got to meet the two men and hear of the dreadful conditions in Colombia’s jails, where overcrowding and nonexistent healthcare are the norm.

“Colombia has around 10,000 political prisoners, about 60% of them combatants and the rest from trade unions, human rights groups and political opponents of the government,” he explained.

Following the visit to Colombia, Conor Murphy and other members of the delegation travelled to Havana to meet with FARC negotiators currently in peace talks with the Colombian Government.

5 Conor Murphy and other members of the delegation deliver an end-of-visit statement at a press conference with national media in Bogota

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EOIN Ó MURCHÚ

Fearg ar lucht na Gaeilge faoi athchóiriú an rialtais Mar adúirt Gerry Adams, uachtarán Shinn TÁ FEARG láidir ar lucht labhartha na Gaeilge ar fud na tire go bhfuil an bheirt aire rialtais a Féin, íosgrádú na teangan atá i gceist. bhfuil cúram na Gaeilge orthu gan i ndán an Ar ndóigh ní hé seo an chéad uair da leithéid ag an rialtas seo. Ní raibh Gaeilge líofa teanga a labhairt.

Mar thoradh ar athc hóiriú an rialtais ag an mar shampla ag an iar aire Jimmy Deenihan, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, tá idir ach ar a laghad bhí Gaeilge ag an Aire Stáit ansin, eadhon Heather Humphreys, a ceapadh Dinny McGinley. mar aire sinsearach san Roinn Ní hé nach bhfuil daoine eile, Ealaíon, Oidhreachta is fiú i bpáirtí pairliminteach Fhine Gaeltacht, agus Joe McHugh, an Gael, a bhfuil Gaeilge acu. Tá t-aire stáit sa roinn chéanna, ag admháil nach féidir le ceachtar Gaeilge réasúnta ag Fergus O’Dowd, a bhíodh ina aire stáit acu Gaeilge a labhairt. roimhe; tá freisin ag Joe O’Reilly Agus is masla ar mhasla é gur as an gCabhán, dáilcheantar leór don Taoiseach go bhfuil Joe Heather Humphreys mar a tharMcHugh le freastal ar chúrsa laíonn, agus Seán Kyne.

Gaeilge i gcaitheamh an tsamhraidh!

Agus tá daoine eile ann a bhfuil roinnt mhaith Gaeilge Sí fírinne an scéil í ná nach Joe McHugh acu. mbeidh ceachtar acu i ndán Ach ba chuma leis an Taoiseach, fear na agallamh beo a dhéanamh le Raidió na Gaeltachta nó le TG4 ar ábhar ar bith a Gaeilge e féin, go mbeadh Gaeilge ag na hairí bhaineann leis an ngaeilge nó leis an seo, i gcomparaid le treithe eile nach eól dúinn iad. ngaeltacht i dteanga na Gaeltachta.

100th ANNIVERSARY OF THE HOWTH AND KILCOOLE ARMS LANDINGS

Sea is ceart go mbeadh fearg mhor ar lucht na Gaeilge faoi seo, ach céard a dhéanfar faoi?

Ní leór gearán a dhéanamh nach n-éistfidh an rialtas nó an Taoiseach leis, faoi mar nár heistíodh nuair a d-eirigh an Coimisinear Teangan, Seán Ó Cuirreain as i ngeall ar fhailí an rialtais i leith na Gaeilge.

Sea, an fhaid is a bhíonn lucht na Gaeilge

sásta a spéis sa teanga a chur ar leataoibh aimsir toghcháin is bhótaí a thabhairt do pháirtithe a dhéanann faillí den chineál seo, ní eistfear linn.

Agus ní bheidh na páirtithe nach bhfuil sa rialtas mórán níos fearr ach an oiread mura léiríonn lucht na Gaeilge nach bhfuil muid sásta glacadh go ciúin leis seo ó pháirtí ar bith.

ASGARD GUN-RUNNING CENTENARY

BY MARK MOLONEY

5 Re-enactors shoulder Mauser rifles beneath the lighthouse at Howth (More photos at www.anphoblacht.com)

HUNDREDS of people gathered in the north Dublin fishing village of Howth on Saturday 26 July to mark 100 years since the Asgard yacht, loaded with 900 rifles and 29,000 rounds of ammunition destined for the Irish Volunteers, landed on the East Pier in 1914.

Weather conditions, warm with some heavy rain showers, were similar to those described a century ago when members of Fianna Éireann and the Irish Volunteers greeted the Asgard and its skipper Erskine Childers beneath the lighthouse.

The commemoration emulated the march down the East Pier behind a piper and the Dublin Republican Colour Party, who wore Irish Volunteers uniform.

Members of the crowd who had travelled to Howth following demonstrations across the country in solidarity with Gaza carried Palestinian flags among the republican standards and banners.

5 Howth Sinn Féin Councillor Daire Ní Laoi chaired the event while Councillor Éoin Ó Broin gave the main speech

5 Councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha spoke in detail about the Howth Gun Running and the Bachelor's Walk Massacre

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Inês Zuber MEP

Malin Björk MEP

GUE/NGL fights for rights of working mothers

THE GUE/NGL European Union Parliamentary group has strongly defended women’s rights to maternity leave after the European Commission in July moved to withdraw the Maternity Leave Directive.

The aim of the draft directive (which has been stalled in the EU Council of Ministers for almost four years) is to strengthen women’s rights by ensuring 20 weeks of fully-paid maternity leave across the European Union, and to ensure women are protected on their return to work.

The impasse has been caused by a blocking minority of states made up of Ireland, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary, Sweden, Malta and Latvia, who argued it would create an undue burden on businesses.

The directive also includes provisons for paternity leave and special arrangements for working parents with disabled children.

Portuguese GUE/NGL MEP Inês Zuber told a plenary debate in Strasbourg: “We need to work harder to defend the rights of working mothers. That’s the only way we are going to combat the problem of ageing societies and low birth rates.

“As the dominant political forces are always talking about their social concerns, why don’t they explain to us why governments that belong to these same political forces don’t manage to increase women’s rights?”

GUE/NGL MEPs said there has been an

Ireland and Britain are leading opposition to the Maternity Leave Directive, including special arrangements for working parents with disabled children

increase in discrimination of women in the workplace because of pregnancy and the withdrawal of this directive flies in the face of the EU’s claims to stand for equality between men and women. The failure of the directive to include same-sex couples or other parenting models was also criticised by GUE/NGL. Sweidsh GUE/NGL MEP Malin Björk said: “Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker didn’t have a single word to say about equality. Inequality is growing between men and women. Women’s problems in the labour market are growing. Withdrawing maternity leave can’t be seen in any other way than patriarchal arrogance.”

August / Lúnasa 2014 25

This is funded by the European United Left/ Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL)

Aontas Clé na hEorpa/Na Glasaigh Chlé Nordacha Crúpa Paliminta – Parlaimimt na h Eorpa

Another Europe is possible

LIADH NÍ RIADA

LYNN BOYLAN

MATT MARTINA CARTHY ANDERSON are MEPs and members of the GUE/NGL Group in the European Parliament

5 Crowds gather near Howth lighthouse to hear speakers at the Asgard commemoration on Howth's East Pier

5 The 100th anniversary commemoration makes its way down the East Pier

5 A member of the Irish Volunteers Commemorative Organisation speaks to members of the public about historical artefacts at their exhibition in Howth Sea Angling Club

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GLOBALISATION ON THE HIGHWAY OF LIFE A middle-aged man dressed in shirt, tie and trousers is sleeping on a couch in a spartan office.

The sound of a train passing his window wakes him.

“I had a nightmare,” the man says, sitting up. “I dreamt that the bombers were coming.”

A woman is sitting on a park bench, talking to a man sitting beside her, holding the reins of a dog.

“A motorcycle is my dream,” she starts to sing, after telling him and the dog to get lost.

“I’d be so happy that I’d scream.

“Lovely thing with blazing speed, to leave this place is what I need.

“It takes a pile of dough, and a licence, you know.

“But I’m all out.

“And that I’m pretty pissed and mad about.”

A worker sitting in a truck in traffic explains the contents of a dream.

In the dream he tries and fails to pull off the old tablecloth trick, dragging an antique dinner-set crashing to the floor. The police are called, he is taken to court and told he is guilty of “gross negligence and destruction of property”.

Three judges offer sentence.

“Life sentence,” one says.

“Not enough,” says another.

“The electric chair,” says the third.

They and the jury agree. “The electric chair, going once, twice, three times.”

One of the judges bangs his gavel. “The electric chair!”

“That’s life,” the dream-worker tells his sobbing defence counsel.

Back in his truck the real-time worker comments: “The electric chair. What a terri-

OY ANDERSSON made his reputation with brilliant TV commercials. He employs fixed wide camera shots in his feature films. Static perspectives are often revealing, especially when all the action appears to happen within the immediate viewpoint.

To understand Andersson”s work the viewer must pay attention to the background as well and not just watch the action and listen to the dialogue in the foreground.

The same might be said about globalisation and its impact. Nearly everything that has been said and written about it also comes from a fixed perspective – from academics, activists, commentators, economists, journalists and politicians.

But every one of them misses the big picture. They even miss the detail. And they certainly do not see the irony.

That is largely because the majority of these people are not affected by globalisation. In fact, most benefit or are immune from it.

They do not see what is going on in the background.

How could they? It is not possible to live the lives of others, and why would you want to!

“We all need respect, attention and love,” says Andersson ruefully.

Globalisation has been gradually removing

ble invention. How could you come up with such a thing?”

In a restaurant, a businessman takes a call on his mobile. “We are sitting here celebrating, and the gods are congratulating us with thunderous applause,” he laughs to the sound of thunder.

“No money, no tournedos and no Bordeaux either,” he retorts in response to the caller, who appears to be the fixer in a deal. “That’s brilliant, Toby. You are a goddamn poet.”

Meanwhile, a man in the table behind removes a wallet from the businessman’s jacket pocket on the back of his chair, then pays for his own lunch with cash from the businessman’s wallet, and leaves.

“Quality is not for the common man. Never has been, never will be,” the businessman says ambivalently. “How did that philosopher put it? You can’t play nice in war and business.

Or something like that.”

Then he notices his wallet is missing.

The wallet thief goes to a tailor’s to be measured for a quality suit.

An ageing psychiatrist tells his assistant he is worn out. “People demand so much,” he says.

“That’s the conclusion I’ve drawn after all these years.

They demand to be happy at the same time as they are egocentric, selfish and ungenerous. Well I would like to say they are mostly mean.”

These are some of the opening sequences in Swedish film-maker Roy Andersson’s You, the Living.

A shot showing commuters disembark a tram in the morning gloom is a clue to this tragicomical content.

Its destination is Lethe!

ROBERT ALLEN these powerful emotions from our lives and selling them back to us as commodities we cannot afford.

GENERATION has grown up since Edward Abbey lambasted the hidden persuaders who changed our world a generation earlier, in the 1960s when television was a flickering monochrome screen.

By the time colour TV arrived, the men of Madison Avenue had constructed the rules of globalisation, and devised the methods that have made us buy into the American Dream.

In Ireland, in less than 45 years, local business activity has decreased by two-thirds while global business activity has increased by nine-tenths.

Global brands, chains and franchises dominate our main streets largely to the detriment of indigenous artisans and entrepreneurs, who are told to export and grow . . . or die.

Many local businesses struggle to survive because they are competing with global businesses who can undercut prices and control supply.

When the majority of the population cannot afford to pay higher prices it is local businesses that suffer and global businesses that benefit.

Modern Ireland became a well-oiled machine designed to promote globalisation in the late 1960s. It eventually produced a boom-bust cycle, as capitalism had a habit of doing throughout the 20th century. Now it is business as usual again. The dominant paradigm is globalisation at all costs!

THERE IS NOTHING inherently wrong with the idea of globalisation, especially if employment and opportunity are the consequences. But globalisation is not about providing well-paid jobs and generating local-global initiatives.

It is about elitism, selfishness and the insane pursuit of profits and wealth through the exploitation of labour, resources, trade and the universal market.

The people who control the means and methods of production and supply are egotisical by their nature. They want to live in big houses, eat in fancy restaurants, revel in their splendour and escape the humdrum of life several times a year at exotic locations.

Kerry Bolton, author of Babel Inc, argues that everyone has a desire to follow this yellow brick road to prosperity, blissfully unaware that only a lucky few get to dance with the global oligarchy.

And Bolton believes the “rank and file” of

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5 Globalisation is about elitism, selfishness and the insanse pursuit of profits through the exploitation of labour, resources, trade and the universal market activists – especially Left-oriented anti-globalisation campaigners – are “clueless” about the elements of globalisation.

HEN the American eco-anarchist Murray Bookchin first postulated his ideas about a new ecological society based on a process of collective, non-hierarchical autonomy, he did not imagine the idea would be so difficult for people to grasp.

5 Global brands, chains and franchises are dominating our main streets

He failed to notice that most people usually only respond to single-issue campaigns, when their livelihoods, health and safety, environment and way of life are threatened. Like many of his kind he assumed that altruism rather than careerism was the sole motive of the political activist and the ecological entrepreneur.

“The term anti-globalisation is a mistake, as most of us are pro-globalisation,” argues Tim Barton, editor of BlueGreenEarth, a socialecology magazine. “It is corporate neo-liberal globalism we seek to destroy.”

The problem, as Bookchin learned too late, lay in the old Left ideologies, negative globalism based on the top-down imposition of collectivism.

This permeated the anti-globalisation movement at the same time the lifestyle activists came to prominence. It was one thing to want to change the world without taking power, another to want to opt for alternative lifestyles and yet another to want to have choices and opportunities (and pursue practical dreams).

Show-and-tell has never been part of antiglobal activism and organising, much to Barton’s annoyance.

“The biggest threat to neo-liberal capitalism comes from opposition that is self-aware and that is able to see the importance of acting locally and thinking globally.

“The state’s greatest ire is reserved for those that achieve this. Ironically, the most media friendly and high-profile of these ‘anarchists’ are usually middle-class lifestyle activists, on sabbatical from their careers in the capitalist system.

Joseph Stiglitz

Kerry Bolton

Murray Bookchin

“The middle-class enclaves of apolitical NGOs, who are highly prominent actors in civil society, often marginalise and suffocate popular initiatives, as they often seek to competitively control and dominate debate and are prone to taking decisions determined by their funding requirements.

“The bottom line is that the populations of the democracies of the developed world do what they are told, are engaged in specialist careers that enhance profits, and collapse into deskilled, panic-stricken mobs when economies fail.”

RO-GLOBALISERS like Philippe Legrain (who believes elected governments are still in control), Alan Shipman (who believes big corporations are the true rebels against conservatism), and Joseph Stiglitz (who believes the opponents of globalisation are deluded), seem to be suggesting that the debate is over.

Almost five years ago, Belfast-born human rights academic David Kinley made a valiant argument about globalisation.

“The provision of economic aid, the expansion of global trade, and the establishment and development of commercially robust economics are, or can be, mechanisms for stimulating chain reactions that increase individual and aggregate wealth, alleviate poverty, promote opportunities and freedoms, and strengthen governance.”

Since he wrote these words in Civilising Globalisation: Human Rights and the Global Economy, the economies of many countries have been anything but robust.

Sadly, those who see the impact of globalisation on daily life are not prone to philosophy, and being outside society are unable, despite social media, to have their voices heard.

They argue that new approaches with different values must be made.

They dismiss the old radical ways – disapproval via political movements and dissent via social movements and trade unions (which always result in alliances that disempower and institutionalise) – because they have been shown to be redundant and useless.

They argue for human-scale initiatives suited to the modern world: decentralisation; ecological awareness; egalitarianism; ethical, moral and harmonious interactions; face-toface civic management; local systems of production and distribution; mutual aid; resistance to hierarchy and dominance; and sustainability.

The alternative, as Andersson seems to be saying in You, the Living, is the testosteronedrenched conflict of the past.

The psychiatrist in Andersson”s film says there is no point trying to make people happy.

“These days, I just prescribe pills; the stronger the better. That’s the way it is!”

Without asking people whether they really want a world of masters and slaves, the elites are saying: ‘Live with it, that’s the way it is.’

Goethe knew what he was doing when he stated the obvious.

“Be pleased then, you, the living “In your delightfully warmed bed “Before Lethe’s ice-cold wave “Will lick your escaping foot.”

At the end of You, the Living, the bombers soar overhead. The nightmare is frighteningly real, the dreams diabolically surreal.

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THE REPUBLICAN AUSTERITY GUIDE TO

HOLIDAY READING

BY

ROBBIE SMYTH

IS THIS THE YEAR to resist the temptation to splurge on new holiday reading purchases?

Bookshop displays are stacked high with the latest lightweight thrillers, romances and other holiday fodder.

Even on ‘staycations’ it’s hard to fight the impulse urge to buy a brand new book. But in this era of austerity isn’t it time to spend a few moments perusing your own bookshelves for the tomes bought in good faith but rarely got past a few minutes on the couch before the telly took your attention?

Then there are the books you read but can’t remember. There is no shame in reading them again. Haven’t you always wanted more spontaneous Connolly, Pearse or Tone quotes to spout at will?

Welcome then to the austerity guide to holiday reading.

Books are easily shared and if you have not read your Collected Connolly, Volumes 1 and 2, chances are your friends haven’t got past the preface of Bartlett’s Life of Wolfe Tone, so why not swap your follies?

One of my most shameful bookbuying expeditions happened in Dublin’s Connolly Books in Temple Bar, when I asked the guy on the till where did he think I could buy a copy of the collected writings of Thomas Davis. He said: “Why not borrow one?”

Did I mention that the assistant was veteran political activist Michael O’Riordan, author of the Connolly Column, his memoir of fighting with the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War?

I bought the Davis writings from an antiquarian bookshop for €40 and still haven’t read it all. And I have a hardback Connolly Column, which cost €100 (and, yes, I haven’t got past the preface).

I won’t be sharing these, though – they need to mock me from my bookshelves.

So in the summer of 2014, what is worth revisiting?

A good first stop would be George Orwell’s 1984. In the wake of the Snowden surveillance revelations and the seemingly all-enveloping social

media, this book is more relevant than ever.

Dave Eggers’s The Circle is a more tongue-in-cheek 21st century version of the pitfalls of the Google generation.

Good news is that this book is now heavily discounted in most shops. I recommend it as a present for those annoying people who think everyone should live in an iPhone, iPad, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagramed world.

Danny Morrison’s West Belfast is a good read and back in the day I did finish it. What about some of your extensive Gerry Adams collection? My

relationship with Gerry Adams’s books is a bit like how many people see Bob Dylan — they prefer the early stuff. With that in mind, dust off Cage 11 or The Politics of Irish Freedom.

Eamon McCann’s War and an Irish Town is still one of the definitive books of the civil rights campaign of the 1960s and the resulting spiral into conflict.

If you like the 19th century, how about George Bernard Shaw’s The Unsocial Socialist. It is easily the best of his five novels and he did win a Nobel Prize for Literature.

In this era of austerity isn’t it time to peruse your own bookshelves for the tomes you’ve already bought in good faith?

Bobby Sands’s One Day in My Life or Writings from Prison captures the spirit of freedom behind the motivation of republican struggle. Why not compare it with One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, or the recently-republished Jottings in Solitary, by Michael Davitt? (Now there’s an idea for a book club.)

There is, sadly, an academic industry in anaemic books on Irish nationalism, each more bland than the next and so Seán Cronin’s Irish Nationalism or Robert Kee’s The Green Flag are way better than any other offerings.

Cronin’s biography of Frank Ryan is another great book. Ernie O’Malley’s On Another Man’s Wound is the definitive account of the Tan War (first published in 1936), a work of literature and first-hand historical reporting.

Finally, if you are going to blow the budget, why not spend the precious euros on John Callow’s reproduction of Jame’s Connolly’s The ReConquest of Ireland. It has the original Connolly text, some great biographic detail on the times he lived and comes with extensive illustrations.

Also new but a bargain is Revolution in Dublin by Liz Gillis, and not too taxing for our smartphone wifi world.

Some people have confessed to me that they’ve yet to finish Eoin Ó Broin’s Sinn Féin and the Politics of Left Republicanism or Robert Fisk’s The Great War for Civilisation. Now is the time. Put away your Game of Thrones box set and open a book.

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July / Iúil 2014 29

I nDíl Chuimhne

All notices and obituaries should be sent to notices@anphoblacht.com by Friday 15 August 2014

1 August 1981: Volunteer Kevin LYNCH (INLA), Long Kesh 2 August 1981: Volunteer Kieran DOHERTY, Long Kesh 3 August 1972: Volunteer Robert McCRUDDEN, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion 3 August 1974: Volunteer Martin SKILLEN, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion 4 August 1985: Volunteer Tony CAMPBELL, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion 6 August 1985: Volunteer Charles ENGLISH, Derry Brigade 8 August 1981: Volunteer Thomas McELWEE, Long Kesh 8 August 1984: Volunteer Brendan WATTERS, Newry Brigade 8 August 1996: Volunteer Malachy WATTERS, South Armagh Brigade 9 August 1970: Volunteer Jimmy STEELE, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion 9 August 1971: Volunteer Patrick McADOREY, Belfast Brigade, 3rd

Battalion 9 August 1972: Volunteer Colm MURTAGH, Newry Brigade 9 August 1977: Fian Paul McWILLIAMS, Fianna Éireann 9 August 1986: Volunteer Patrick O’HAGAN, Derry Brigade 10 August 1976: Volunteer Danny LENNON, Belfast Brigade, 1st Battalion 11 August 1971: Volunteer Séamus SIMPSON, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion 11 August 1972: Volunteer Anne PARKER, Cumann na mBan, Belfast 11 August 1972: Volunteer Michael CLARKE, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion 11 August 1973: Volunteers Gerard McGLYNN and Seamus HARVEY, Tyrone Brigade 12 August 1991: Pádraig Ó SEANACHÁIN, Sinn Féin 12 August 1996: Volunteer Jimmy ROE, Belfast Brigade, 1st Battalion

‘LIFE SPRINGS FROM DEATH AND FROM THE GRAVES OF PATRIOT MEN AND WOMEN SPRING LIVING NATIONS’ – PÁDRAIG PEARSE 14 August 1974: Volunteer Paul MAGORRIAN, South Down Command 15 August 1969: Fian Gerald McAULEY, Fianna Éireann 16 August 1973: Volunteers Daniel McANALLEN and Patrick QUINN, Tyrone Brigade 16 August 1991: Tommy DONAGHY, Sinn Féin 18 August 1971: Volunteer Eamonn LAFFERTY, Derry Brigade 19 August 1971: Volunteer James O’HAGAN, Derry Brigade 20 August 1981 Volunteer Mickey

DEVINE (INLA), Long Kesh 22 August 1972: Volunteers Noel MADDEN, Oliver ROWNTREE and Patrick HUGHES, Newry Brigade 25 August 1982: Volunteer Eamonn BRADLEY, Derry Brigade 26 August 1972: Volunteers James CARLIN and Martin CURRAN, South Down Brigade 27 August 1974: Volunteer Patrick McKEOWN, Newry Brigade 29 August 1975: Fian James TEMPLETON, Fianna Éireann 30 August 1973: Volunteer Francis HALL, Belfast Brigade, 1st Battalion 30 August 1988: Volunteers Brian MULLIN, Gerard HARTE and Martin HARTE, Tyrone Brigade 31 August 1973: Volunteer Patrick MULVENNA, Belfast Brigade Always remembered by the Republican Movement GEENEY, Clem. In loving memory of my friend Clem Geeney, Annagassan,

Comhbhrón HEATON. Deepest sympathy is extended to the family and friends of ex-POW Graham Heaton from Warrenpoint, County Down, who passed away in Beaumont

who died on 1 July 1992. Always remembered by his friend Philip Ward, Belfast.

HARVEY, Seamus; McGLYNN, Gerard. In loving memory of Volunteers Seamus Harvey and Gerard McGlynn, Tyrone Brigade, killed on active service 11 August 1973. Remembered with pride always by the Harvey/McGlynn/Connolly Sinn Féin Cumann, Castlederg.

McELCHAR, Peter. In loving memory of Volunteer Peter McElchar, who lost his life on active service on 17 July 1976. May he rest in peace. We also remember his colleague, Volunteer Patrick Cannon. From Caitríona, Gerry McElwaine and family, Fanad. Ó SEANACHÁIN, Pádraig. In proud and loving memory of Pádraig Ó Seanacháin, Sinn Féin, murdered by a pro-British death squad on 12 August 1991. From friends and comrades in the Harvey, McGlynn, Connolly Sinn Féin Cumann, Castlederg.

Imeachtaí » Hospital, Dublin, on 4 July. From all his comrades and former POWs in South Down.

McARDLE. Sincere condolences on the recent death of John

» Notices All notices should be sent to: notices@anphoblacht.com at least 14 days in advance of publication date. There is no charge for I nDíl Chuimhne, Comhbhrón etc.

‘Mungo’ McArdle to the McArdle family and John’s partner Edel.

From the Gerry Halpenny, Worthington, Watters Sinn Féin Cumann, Dundalk.

» Imeachtaí There is a charge of €10 for inserts printed in our Imeachtaí/Events column.

You can also get a small or large box advert.

Contact: sales@anphoblacht.com for details.

Dan Harrington

VOLUNTEER CHARLIE McGLADE COMMEMORATION 4pm Saturday 13 September. Assemble Dolphin Road Green, Drimnagh. Main speaker: Councillor Greg Kelly. Followed by function in the Marble Arch Pub immediately afterwards.

IN PICTURES

photos@anphoblacht.com

Fógraí Bháis

Passage West County Cork

THE DEATH recently took place of Dan Harrington of Passage West, County Cork.

Dan Harrington was a lifetime republican, having joined the Republican Movement in his younger years.

In the early 1970s, when the nationalist people were being batoned on civil rights protests by the RUC and B-Specials police, burned out of their homes by the police and unionist mobs, interned and killed on the streets of the North of Ireland, Dan was one of a number of young men from County Cork who travelled north to help defend nationalist communities.

Two of Dan’s comrades, Volunteers Tony Ahern and Dermot Crowley from Cork City, were killed during this period. He was to lose many more friends and comrades from Fermanagh, Tyrone, Monaghan and South Armagh in the conflict.

Dan was later imprisoned in Portlaoise Prison for membership of the IRA. Like many other republicans living in the South during those years, he and his family were frequently harassed by the forces of the Free State.

To the time of his death, Dan remained true to the republican cause and was an active member of Sinn Féin in his local area. He passionately believed in justice and equality for all of Ireland’s citizens and always held the view that one of the greatest impediments to this goal was foreign dominance and oppression.

The large number of people who travelled from different parts of Ireland to Dan’s funeral is testimony of the respect he enjoyed from his fellow republicans from all parts of the island.

Dan is survived and fondly remembered by Déirdre, his daughter Sinéad, and sons Eoghan and Cormac.

DEIRDRE O’BYRNE

5 Councillor Sinéad Ennis reflects on the sacrifice of IRA Volunteers Pauline Kane and Alphonsus Cunningham at the Castlewellan Memorial, County Down. They died on active service 41 years ago

5 Flags are lowered at the graveside of Dublin IRA Volunteer Patrick Cannon at Balgriffin Cemetery.

Beside the grave stand his sister Margaret and brother-in-law Ciarán O'Moore, who was recently elected as Sinn Féin councillor for the Clontarf ward of Dublin City Council

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BETWEEN THE POSTS

30 August / Lúnasa 2014

THE

www.anphoblacht.com

BY CIARÁN KEARNEY

LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP LOUIS VAN GAAL is not to everyone’s liking. If you listen to some, he’s not really a man you would want to have to work with. Van Gaal is, however, taking over as manager of Manchester United Football Club.

His appointment book-ended a disastrous season for the Red Devils under David Moyes, who was ousted unceremoniously just before the summer.

Those who denigrate Van Gaal as a manager even before he begins his job have an even bigger problem. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide have seen his leadership during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

His native Netherlands starred in the competition, finishing third.

They were a small band of Orangemen everyone could cheer for this July.

One of the highlights was the penalty shoot-out which the Dutchmen won against Costa Rica.

Seconds before the final whistle of extra time, the Netherlands substituted the first-team goalkeeper with his understudy, Krool, in time for penalties. The impression was given that Krool was a penalty specialist.

Perhaps he was. Perhaps his role before the match was to study Costa Rica’s penalty takers who had also been on show in the previous match. Perhaps it was for his fitness and large physique, standing albatross-armed between the posts. Or for his showmanship, stepping up and goading penalty-takers before each shot.

Whatever the reasons, the decision made by team manager Van Gaal to substitute goalies was one of the biggest talking points of World Cup 2014. It was a risk. But it was a decision understood by the team, who embraced the move. In the end, Krool saved two penalties against Costa Rica and the Netherlands made it into the semifinals of the World Cup. There they met Argentina in a match which also went to a penalty shoot-out. But this time the tables were turned. The Argentinian goalkeeper saved two penalties and ditched the Dutch. Afterwards, Van Gaal’s decision to choose his central defender to take the first penalty against Argentina was subject to intense public scrutiny. It emerged that other Netherland players had refused to take the first penalty.

So which one is the real Louis Van

5 Louis Van Gaal’s decision to choose his central defender to take the first penalty against Argentina was subject to intense public scrutiny

Gaal? The man who made the switch in goals which swung the match against Costa Rica? Or the man who couldn’t get anyone but his central defender to take the first penalty against Argentina?

Take a look closer to home.

These were a small band of Orangemen everyone could cheer for this July

In April, a high-profile pundit in Gaelic games was lauding the leadership of Derry GAA manager Brian McIver. By the end of June, with Derry’s championship hopes brought to a shuddering halt, the same columnist was writing that

McIver doesn’t have what it takes to lead a Derry revival. Those who know Brian McIver would vehemently dispute this view. But what had changed in two months except the score-line in a couple of matches?

Leadership in sport is often mentioned, more often misunderstood.

It’s not a commodity exclusive to the sideline. Successful teams show strong leadership on and off the pitch. It’s a quality which effective managers foster and imbue.

One of the most successful coaches in the history of American basketball is Phil Jackson. In his book, Sacred Hoops, Jackson explains his own philosophy: “I try to cultivate everybody’s leadership abilities, to make the players and coaches feel they’ve all got a seat at the table. No leader can create a successful team alone, no matter how gifted he is. What I’ve learned as a coach, and parent, is that when people are not awed or overwhelmed by authority, true authority is attained.”

In the literature on leadership, Jackson’s approach resembles ‘value-based’ leadership, where the hearts and minds of a team are enlisted through inclusion and participation. In his own mind, Jackson’s leadership is more alchemist than autocrat.

Nicknamed the “Wizard of Westwood,” as head coach at UCLA he won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period – seven in a row – an unprecedented feat Another coach once said: “You really have to love your people to get the most out of them”. To some that might seem like over-sentimental slush. That’s until you realise that it was said by legendary ‘Coach’ John Wooden. He also viewed success as more important than winning. And he did both superbly well.

(As head coach at UCLA he won ten national championships in a 12-year period – seven in a row – an unprecedented feat.)

Which leadership philosophy Louis Van Gaal brings to sport remains to be seen. What is ‘too intense and unreasonable’ to some might be passionate and singleminded to others. Either way, Van Gaal is undoubtedly a person of character. Does he have what Manchester United need? We’ll soon know.

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August / Lúnasa 2014 31

DIVERS AND DYING SWANS

IN PICTURES

photos@anphoblacht.com

APROPOS the World Cup and the embarrassing rehearsal of the Dying Swan by Arjen Robben (among other aspirant Anna Pavlovas), I was reflecting on the days when lads did not need to feign near death experiences after a good puck in the mouth or a running kick up the backside.

Soccer is famous for its legendary hard men: ‘Chopper’ Harris, Tommy Smith, Norman ‘Bites Yer Legs’ Hunter, and not behind the door was our own John Giles. Giles once took umbrage when his chum Eamon Dunphy alluded to his past reputation that he was well known for being able to “look after himself”. The embarrassment of Giles and other old-timers at the antics of some of the overpaid brats who play top level soccer now is palpable.

Our own games have a long list of legendary ‘hard men’.

Among my Da’s heroes were the Tipp fullback line of the 1960s – Doyle, Carey, Maher – better known collectively as ‘Hell’s Kitchen’.

There are numerous anecdotes about them but my favourite is when they were playing Cork

Matt Treacy thing he saw was Matt leaning over him to ask him what had happened to him, and if he was okay, to which the reply was: “You hit me, Treacy!”

Anyway, the fabled skulduggery of the past is mostly gone but has arguably been replaced by a more pernicious culture of seeking to gain advantage by imitating the Robbens of the soccer world. There was much made of Seán Cavanagh’s dragging down of Conor McManus last year which both fuelled Joe Brolly’s attack on his manhood and set the template for how the black card is applied.

What Cavanagh did was clearly a foul and deserved a sanction but it is difficult to envisage

5 Culture, Arts and Leisure Minister Carál Ní Chuilín MLA organised a reception at the Assembly to recognise the outstanding achievements of Champion Jockey Tony ‘AP’ McCoy

Teams like Dublin, Kerry and Mayo – who prefer football to rugby league – are thriving

ARJEN ROBBEN one time. Cork had a newish team and Carey remarked to Doyle as their unfamiliar full-forwards ran towards them to take up their positions that they looked small. “Lower the blade Ciarán,” was Doyle’s sagely riposte.

My Uncle Phil once played football for Dublin against Greg Hughes, the Offaly full-back in the 1960s who was succeeded by the possibly even tougher Paddy ‘The Iron Man from Rhode’ McCormack. Phil got a thump in the back of the head as an introduction to proceedings and spent the rest of the match in a bit of a daze.

Nonetheless, and despite the fact that Offaly were well ahead, he kept plugging away.

Towards the end, a ball came towards himself and Hughes so Phil steeled himself for another tussle. Hughes tipped him on the shoulder and said: “You get that one son.”

My namesake, Matt had a longer career with the Dublin hurlers and was a more subtle assassin. Sneakier perhaps.

One time he took out an opposing player and expressed his astonishment and ignorance of what had happened to the ref who had been watching proceedings at the far end of the pitch at the time of the alleged incident. When your man started to regain consciousness the first

any player not doing the same if the consequences of not doing so was almost certain to be a goal and the loss of the game.

The black card is certainly effective in curbing the sort of pulling and dragging that had ruined many matches where one or other of the teams were more intent on stopping their opponents than trying to beat them by the mad idea of actually playing football.

The much lower free count since January testifies to that.

Teams like Dublin, Kerry and Mayo – who prefer football to rugby league – are thriving.

What the black card does not do is to punish diving and time-wasting. That will become more of an issue as the championship advances into the knock-out stages as heretofore the new rules have been applied in the comfort zone of the league and with the second chance for beaten teams in the championship.

As the stakes become higher and the battle more intense, expect to see referees being faced with bigger challenges by teams who set out with a negative mindset.

While it might be argued that diving and cheating is more prevalent in soccer, at least referees take action if they believe that a player has dived. It is not unusual to see players being carded for acting. I don’t ever recall seeing a Gaelic footballer being punished even though there are a long list of cases where opposing players were sent off because someone feigned injury.

So that will be something to keep an eye on as the summer advances and the autumn of high stakes knock-out games approach.

5 Mayor of Dublin Christy Burke and Sinn Féin Councillors Ray McHugh (third from left) and Daithí Doolan (right) at the Youth Against Drugs Soccer Tournament in Crumlin organised by Dublin South Central Sinn Féin

VOLUNTEER

CHARLIE McGLADE COMMEMORATION SATURDAY 13th SEPTEMBER ASSEMBLE

4pm DOLPHIN ROAD GREEN, DRIMNAGH MAIN SPEAKER

COUNCILLOR GREG KELLY FUNCTION IN THE MARBLE ARCH PUB IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARDS

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32

Release of Arnaldo Otegi, prisoner moves and talks urged Martin McGuinness and Britain’s chief negotiator in Irish Peace Process back from Basque Country

ETA shuts down its structures MARTIN McGUINNESS has told An Phoblacht that ETA’s announcement dismantling its logistical and operational structures “to achieve our legitimate political goals through a political and democratic struggle” should be grasped by Spain, France and the EU as a golden opportunity to consolidate the Basque peace process.

“This is of huge significance,” Martin McGuinness told An Phoblacht Editor John Hedges. “It is a courageous move by ETA and it deserves to be responded to in a positive way.”

The Sinn Féin joint First Minister in the North urged the Spanish Government to build on the ETA initiative and bolster the peace process by releasing SORTU Secretary General Arnaldo Otegi, moving Basque political prisoners closer to home pending further progress, and commencing “inclusive negotiations”, as happened in the Irish Peace Process.

The ETA statement came on Sunday 20 July, less than a week after two full days of “wall to wall meetings” with political parties in the Basque Country, key players in the region, “and by people supportive of ETA” by Martin McGuinness and Jonathan Powell, British former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Chief of Staff and chief negotiator in the Irish Peace Process.

ETA also says in its historic statement: “We have shown our willingness to agree other steps in a resolution dialogue.”

It calls for “consequences of the conflict” to be overcome, including “the homecoming of prisoners and refugees, including members of ETA nowadays underground; ETA’s agreed and ordered disarmament; demilitarisation of the Basque Country due to the shifting in the characteristics of the conflict and as a basis for democratic normality”.

ETA notes that the organisation’s first step had been “the verifiable sealing of weaponry

5 Arnaldo Otegi with Gerry Adams

5 ETA is putting arms beyond use

announced in March”, declaring “our absolute willingness to provide a coherent, feasible and complete solution to the issue of weapons”.

The ETA statement says there must be “a real democratic transition in the Basque Country” built on three pillars: “Overcoming all the consequences of the confrontation; guarantee of civil and political rights; [and] agreement to build a democratic base so that the implementation of any political project, including independence, is in the hands of the citizens’ voice and decision.”

ETA believes the organisations in the Abertzale Left and the popular movement are the most effective vehicles “to overcome the challenges faced by the liberation process in the current political phase”.

ETA urges its activists and supporters to put their “determination at the service of the new challenges for the liberation movement, to organise themselves in the Abertzale Left and commit themselves in different initiatives and struggles”.

Speaking to An Phoblacht back in Derry, Martin McGuinness said that his visit was the latest in a series by many Sinn Féin leaders over the years. “Effectively, this was a follow-up to Gerry Adams’s visit early this year.”

The ETA statement came just days after meetings with key players in the Basque Country

by Martin McGuinness and Jonathan Powell

Martin McGuinness He said the fact that the British Government’s chief negotiator in the Irish Peace Process has been involved in the talks with him should not be lost on a “less than enthusiastic” government in Madrid, and France and the EU. He said the way is now open for an international decommissioning body to be set up to deal with the whole issue of weapons and for moves on prisoners. “As we saw in Ireland, the prisoners played a major role in progressing the Irish Peace Process. A genuine peace process, with inclusive and meaningful dialogue, would benefit all the people affected by the conflict.”