An Phoblacht, December 2016

anphoblacht Sraith Nua Iml 39 Uimhir 12

Price €2 / £2

December / Nollaig 2016

‘BREXIT CHANGES EVERYTHING’

FARC

LEADER Speaks to

An Phoblacht

TIME TO TALK UNITY

ARMAGH WOMEN HUNGER STRIKE ANNIVERSARY

MARCUS GARVEY & 1916

Inspiration to Malcolm X and Martin Luther King

2 December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

‘This document is not prescriptive on the shape of a united Ireland – its purpose is to encourage debate’

says Gerry Adams

NEW DISCUSSION DOCUMENT

‘TOWARDS A UNITED IRELAND’

BY JOHN HEDGES EDITOR

BREXIT has again demonstrated the undemocratic nature of partition.

Therefore the time IS right to talk about, to plan and to build for unity, a new Sinn Féin discussion document says.

And it argues that the British identity of many people in the North must be accommodated in any agreed, united Ireland.

This may involve constitutional and political safeguards, protections for the unique identity of Northern unionists

The British identity of many people in the North must be accommodated in any agreed, united Ireland and the British cultural identity of a significant number of people in the North, ‘Towards a United Ireland’ says.

The type of nation-building and island-wide reconciliation that Sinn Féin is working towards is not about grafting the North onto the current political, cultural and economic status quo of the South, it adds, but rather about “the creation of a new Ireland for all of us who share this island”.

It maintains that a united Ireland should be pluralist, inclusive and

relationship between our two islands based on equality and mutual respect.”

I DTREO ÉIRE AONTAITHE Towards a United Ireland

UNITY MAKES ECONOMIC SENSE

Plécháipéis de chuid Shinn Féin

A Sinn Féin discussion document

Plécháipéis de chuid Shinn Féin – I dTreo Éire Aontaithe

1

accommodating to all the people on this island “in all their diversity”.

It points out that unionists in Ireland remain isolated at the moment “on the margins” of the British political system, where they make up less than 2% of the population – in a united Ireland, unionists would make up 20% of the population and exercise real authority, power and influence.

All those who wish to see a united Ireland need to be open to considering “transitional arrangements” which could mean “continued devolution to Stormont within an all-Ireland structure, federal or confederal arrangements”, the Sinn Féin document says.

“An agreed, united Ireland will have a hugely beneficial effect for Anglo-Irish relations, initiating an entirely new

There is no economic justification for partition, the document argues.

Research has repeatedly demonstrated that a united Ireland makes economic sense.

There are no advantages for a small island nation of 6.4 million inhabitants on the edge of Europe in having two separate tax regimes, two separate legal systems, and two separate and competing economic development programmes.

Removing barriers to trade, created by partition, will lead to significant economic growth across the island.

Full economic integration will allow for fair and progressive taxation, regulation and trade and provide the tools for growth, employment and a better business climate across the island.

BUILDING A UNITED IRELAND The provision for a referendum on Irish reunification is enshrined in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, it notes.

The Agreement provides the ground rules for peaceful and democratic constitutional change through concurrent referendums North and South.

Securing a referendum on Irish unity would be “a momentous and historic opportunity for all the people of Ireland, allowing us to vote for the kind of government and society we wish to see”, it says.

5 Plans should be developed for an all-island National Health Service

Sinn Féin has called for a “Unity Poll” to be conducted in the next political term but the party insists it is seeking “an informed, reasoned and respectful dialogue on the issue”.

It adds: “This is the time to plan and to build the maximum support for unity. The leadership of those parties who support Irish unity, acting together, could provide the leadership to deliver it.

“It is imperative now that the Irish Government prepares a real plan for unity. A first step in the next term of the Oireachtas would be the development of an all-party group to bring forward a Green Paper for Unity.

“In addition, plans should be developed for an all-island National Health Service and for all-island public services through a ‘United Ireland Investment and Prosperity Plan’.”

INTRODUCTION In his introduction to the discussion document, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams says: “This document is not prescriptive on the shape of a united Ireland, nor is it a comprehensive evaluation of the benefits of unity.

“Its purpose is to encourage debate on this hugely important issue and to give some shape to the type of new Ireland that is possible – a new Ireland

in which the rights of all citizens are respected and which delivers prosperity, equality and inclusion.

“The division of Ireland has failed; it continues to blight our present.

“The Good Friday Agreement places the future constitutional position of Ireland in the hands of the people who share this island. There is an onus on us all to create the debate and plan for a new, agreed, united, equal and inclusive Ireland.

A united Ireland would be a new Ireland “Sinn Féin is ambitious – ambitious for our country and for our people.

“We should always have the highest hopes and understand that there is nothing we cannot do, nothing we cannot achieve, if we are determined to make it happen.

“We need every party, organisation and individual who aspires to see a united Ireland to be equally ambitious and equally determined to set out their positions and to bring the debate to the next level.

“We believe that a new, united Ireland is the best way forward. This discussion document aims to stimulate debate and to make the case for unity.”

December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

3

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir MLA MINISTER FOR FINANCE

A UNITED IRELAND MAKES ECONOMIC SENSE

PARTITION HAS BEEN an economic cul de sac for Ireland – North and South.

It’s not just something that happened more than 90 years ago that we read about in history books or hear sung about in ballads; it is still having a negative impact on the economies on the island of Ireland today.

It has held back economic progress right across the island. Of that there can be no doubt.

The North now lags behind the South on all growth indices: average wages south of the Border are €37,000 but just €25,500 in the North; economic growth rates in the South are estimated at 3.6% for 2017 but at just over 1% in the North.

Along the Border region in particular the impact of partition was and is still keenly felt.

From Dundalk to Derry, areas have been cut off from their natural economic hinterlands and now rank among the most disadvantaged areas on the island.

Partition has also created a cycle of boom-and-bust in Border communities. Currency fluctuations and other factors have resulted in limited short-term gain for one side of the Border or the other but, ultimately, both sides have lost out on real growth.

We must end this cycle of boom and bust and the best way to do that is to remove the root cause: partition.

While even the most trenchant opponent of Irish unity would be hard pressed to deny the cost of partition, some still cling to the myth that Ireland cannot afford unity.

The reality, however, is the opposite.

Ireland can no longer afford to be partitioned.

The North’s economic potential is held back by British Government policies that are not designed with the interests of the North at heart. A prime example of this is the British Government’s plan to drag the North out of the EU against the democratic wishes of the people.

A united Ireland with a single, all-Ireland economy

5 Pearse Doherty TD, Mary Lou McDonald TD and Megan Fearon MLA with Dr Kurt Hubner (second left), who authored a report on the economic benefits of Irish reunification

would not only end this duplication, it would also address the economic uncertainty created by partition.

That would create an environment where business can thrive and grow.

Trade, particularly in Border areas, would no longer be subject to the whims and fluctuations of currency.

Marketing the island as a business destination is also difficult with two economies and tax systems. A reunited Ireland would be easier to promote on the global stage and, as a result, would act as a lever to attract inward investment.

Of course, as Irish republicans we would be expected to extol the benefits of Irish unity. For others, particularly those who do not hold strong ideological views, it is the bottom line that is important.

As previously reported in An Phoblacht, a recently published and peer-reviewed study, ‘Modelling Irish Reunification’, by Professor Kurt Hubner from Vancouver University, found that, within a short number of years, the economy of a reunified Ireland would be better than the existing two economies by approximately €35billion.

This is the latest in a series of serious and respected economic reports that has shown that Irish unity makes economic sense.

There is no doubt that the reunification of Ireland would ultimately be of benefit to the entire island.

It is time we began a serious discussion and dialogue about what that would mean, what it would look like, and how to bring it about.

No one has anything to fear from such a debate. If handled with political maturity and sensibility then it will help shape and improve the economic future of the entire island.

It’s time to talk about unity.

Professor Kurt Hubner from Vancouver University found that, within a short number of years, the economy of a reunified Ireland would be better than the existing two economies by approximately €35billion

4 December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

anphoblacht Editorial

WHAT'S INSIDE 6&7

McGurk’s Bar bombing – Westminster seals files for 85 years after UVF attack 12

Storm over Lough Foyle – British minister’s ‘provocative’ claim 13

‘Towards an Agreed and Reconciled Future’ 14

Lansdowne Road is a lame duck 15

Ken Loach’s new film echoes all over Ireland 18 & 19

True confessions of an eco-warrior 26 & 27

Racism rearing its ugly head 30

All-Ireland’s ‘Gaelic Fields’ – Grassroots games captured on camera

SUBSCRIBE ONLINE To get your An Phoblacht delivered direct to your mobile device or computer for just €10 per 12 issues and access to the historic The Irish Volunteer newspaper posted online weekly and An Phoblacht’s/IRIS the republican magazine archives

anphoblacht Eagarfhocal

anphoblacht

New politics needed, North and South THE Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil partnership government with the cover of compliant Independents is the same old politics wrapped up in the emperor’s clothes of new politics.

In advance of the Budget these parties had an opportunity to chart a new course – to build a fair economy, to reduce the cost of living, to invest in public services, to deliver tax fairness and to invest in our future.

Instead of seizing that opportunity, they gave tax breaks to the wealthiest in society. There was no ‘new politics’. It was more of the same.

These parties agreed a joint Budget that failed to invest in housing, health, childcare, education and the Garda – services that are central to communities and citizens.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have acted together to block rent control, to stop the ending of water charges, and to prevent proper investigation of issues surrounding NAMA Their partnership has also failed on voting rights for the Diaspora and Irish citizens in the North, the Repeal of the Eighth Amendment, and the recognition of Traveller ethnicity. Yet they continue with the pretence of new politics Their response to Brexit has been to set aside the vote and rights of the people of the North and follow the lead of the English Tory Party.

Sinn Féin have demonstrated with their Alternative Dáil Budget what new politics must be. It must be about

Contact

Layout and production: Mark Dawson production@anphoblacht.com

NEWS editor@anphoblacht.com NOTICES notices@anphoblacht.com PHOTOS photos@anphoblacht.com

fairness, prosperity and investing in services. It is about giving workers and families a break.

Sinn Féin’s new discussion document, ‘Towards Irish Unity’. This is not a rhetorical position. A united Ireland would be a new Ireland – a new start to politics, ending the injustice of partition; building a prosperous united economy and a new approach to public services, including an all-Ireland National Health Service free at the point of need.

The document will also challenge republicans to think anew about Irish unity and what equality and inclusion means in practical terms to that section of the community who value the British identity.

While Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil deliver much of the same under the guise of new politics, Sinn Féin are in the process of building a new inclusive, equal and prosperous Ireland .

Brexit demonstrates that the relationship between Ireland and Britain is neither equal or just. Britain has yet to fully acknowledge its role in the conflict and come clean on their dirty war, including the bombings of Dublin and Monaghan.

We now have an opportunity to build a new relationship of equal partners, to resolve the issue of the past and reunite the country.

Irish unity is and must be on the table. Now is the time to talk about unity, to plan for unity, and to build for unity.

Fine Gael and their Fianna Fáil partners lack political vision and political will. Sinn Féin has that political vision. Sinn Féin has that political will.

AN PHOBLACHT is published monthly by Sinn Féin. The views in An Phoblacht are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sinn Féin. We welcome articles, opinions and photographs from new contributors but contact the Editor first.

An Phoblacht, Kevin Barry House, 44 Parnell Square, Dublin 1, Ireland Telephone: (+353 1) 872 6 100. Email: editor@anphoblacht.com

www.anphoblacht.com

December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

Reconciliation is an imperative – not an option

BY DECLAN KEARNEY

SINN FÉIN NATIONAL CHAIRPERSON RECONCILIATION AND HEALING in our society are an imperative for the Irish Peace Process. But their achievement continues to be both challenging and elusive. The required political and civic critical mass to bring them about still does not exist. We have to collectively work at building momentum to make them the new phase of the Peace Process.

So, if not now, then when?

And, if not by all of us, then by whom?

Very recently, I attended an event organised by the County Fermanagh Orange Order, in association with local Protestant churches, to discuss the1916 Easter Rising. I believe it was an important event genuinely aimed at developing greater understanding about our different traditions and identities and I commend the organisers for that.

I said from the floor that it is quite valid for us to agree to disagree but that willingness to engage with each other on the basis of equality must be paramount.

Engagement about our historic and current differences increases mutual understanding and that builds mutual respect.

Huge suffering has taken place in Ireland, North and South, and also in Britain.

The divisions in our society that exist are visceral. The pain from past actions experienced by our generation is real, not abstract or in another place.

I am sorry that hurt was caused to many families. That extends to the families of all combatants who acted on behalf of the British state.

All wars and political conflict create carnage and

death. No war should be glorified or romanticised. That applies to our most recent conflict in Ireland.

But all sides caused pain and all sides suffered.

Huge numbers of nationalist civilians, Sinn Féin members and IRA Volunteers were killed and the pain of their families is equal to the grief of any other family.

There were different sides to our conflict and there are multiple narratives.

There are issues about the past about which we will have to agree to disagree.

It is just as futile asking political unionists to repudiate the B-Specials, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British Army, as it is futile asking a republican like me to repudiate the Irish Republican Army.

I may disagree fundamentally with the British state and political unionist narratives, but I also recognise that for those of that tradition these are valid and legitimate.

There are no right victims and wrong victims; no innocent and guilty victims.

When we speak of the legacy of the past it is not

5

5 DUP and UUP leaders Foster and Nesbitt – will they show leadership in reconciliation?

All sides caused pain and all sides suffered. There were different sides to our conflict and there are multiple narratives abstract for many families. It is real and living.

So it is not acceptable to pass that legacy on to a new generation to sort out. The legacy of our past and absence of reconciliation has ensured that we remain a deeply divided society in the present.

The legacy of the past cannot be avoided if we are to move forward to a new phase of the Peace Process.

We all need to be prepared to deal with these issues by coming together privately and publicly to engage meaningfully, and not to score points.

Reconciliation will not be built upon resentment and recrimination.

The mechanisms agreed under the Stormont House Fresh Start Agreement are an essential vehicle for moving forward.

It is unacceptable and wrong that the potential of this framework is being held back by the British Government’s veto on maximum information disclosure and Westminster’s refusal to release the funds that would allow legacy investigations and inquests to proceed.

5 Martin McGuinness lays a wreath at the First World War monument in Flanders alongside Geert Bourgeois, Minister-President of Flanders

6 Ballymurphy Massacre families demand justice – the legacy of the past cannot be avoided

There is no point in ending the war for it to be carried on politically and psychologically – by refusing to engage, to reach out, and to lead.

Sinn Féin is absolutely committed to ensuring a process of reconciliation and healing is established.

Republicans have stretched and challenged ourselves to develop the Peace Process.

And we have done so in pursuit of reconciliation and healing – sometimes at a cost.

It is now time that others began to do the same.

There is no point in ending the war for it to be carried on politically and psychologically – by refusing to engage, to reach out, and to lead That should include active and unambiguous commitment from the leaderships of political unionism. There is a need for both a fresh start and new start by political unionism towards reconciliation.

Reconciliation is not a one-way street.

At this year’s Ard Fheis, Sinn Féin adopted our policy document on reconciliation and healing, Towards an Agreed and Reconciled Future. It is a substantive, public policy contribution to designing a roadmap towards making reconciliation the new phase of our Peace Process.

Sinn Féin is fully committed to that agenda. We cannot do this alone.

It is crucial that others also begin to embrace this challenge and responsibility.

We remain up for the challenges that lie ahead in this process.

Who will join us?

6 December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

45th anniversary of unionist attack on McGurk’s Bar that left 15 dead

WESTMINSTER SEALS VITAL FILES FOR 85 YEARS AFTER 1971 BOMBING

BY UVF

BY PEADAR WHELAN COINCIDING with the 45th anniversary of the McGurk’s Bar bomb attack by the Ulster Volunteer Force in 1971 that killed 15 nationalist civilians in north Belfast, Ciarán Mac Airt, researcher and author of The McGurk’s Bar Bombing: Collusion, Cover-Up and a Campaign for Truth, will face cross-examination at an Information Rights Tribunal in London as he seeks the release of vital British Army files.

Mac Airt, whose grandmother Kitty Irvine died in the UVF bombing on 4 December 1971, has just uncovered damning information proving that senior British Army officers based in the North were aware that the attack was carried out by loyalists yet persisted in a disinformation strategy blaming the IRA. The information uncovered by Mac Airt, who manages the research charity Paper Trail, came from a British Army “Headquarters Northern Ireland Log” for December 1971. It quotes a British Army Ammunition Technical Officer (ATO) who was at the scene of the bombing at the public house at the junction of North Queen Street and Great Georges Street in north Belfast.

The log states that the ATO was “convinced bomb was placed in entrance way on ground floor. The area is cratered and clearly was the seat of the explosion”.

The British Government is resolutely refusing to give the McGurk’s families or their legal team access to the rest of the file, which is to remain sealed until 2056 – 85 years after the bombing.

It is this decision that Ciarán Mac Airt is challenging. His case is going before the “first tier tribunal”, which hears information rights appeals, on 8 and 9 December, just days after the 45th anniversary of the massacre.

As more and more evidence emerges about the McGurk’s Bar bombing, it becomes ever more apparent that the British Government, senior unionist politicians and the British crown forces (including the British Army, Intelligence services and the RUC) were involved in strenuous efforts to cover up an attack by unionist paramilitaries that clearly had a major impact on the conflict at that time, given the huge loss of life.

5 Brian Faulkner, John Taylor, Al Hutchinson and George Hamilton Senior military and RUC personnel and to 8am on Sunday morning 5 December states high-ranking politicians were happy to perpet- that “just before the explosion a man entered uate the propaganda war lie that the IRA was the licensed premises and left down a suitcase, responsible as it suited their political and military presumably to be picked up by a known member objectives, which was to defeat the republican of the Provisional IRA. The bomb was intended struggle. for use on other premises. Before the ‘pick-up’ was made, the bomb exploded.”

This clearly constructed lie became the central plank of the subsequent political, military, media ANATOMY and psychological strategy waged by the British OF A COVER-UP state around the McGurk’s bombing for years to come.

Within hours of the bomb exploding, the RUC On Monday 6 December, according to a Home began to disseminate false information and laid Office note of a meeting between the North’s the foundations for a far wider conspiracy that premier and leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, involved military and political figures at the highest Brian Faulkner, and then British Home Secretary levels at Stormont and Westminster.

Reginald Maudling in London, Faulkner not only In one document uncovered by Paper Trail, repeated the RUC-concocted version of events the RUC duty officer’s report for the 24 hours up – saying the explosives were likely carried by

5 Families of the McGurk's victims have been campaigning for decades

the IRA “rather than Protestant extremists” – but went on to tell Maudling that he had “asked the RUC to find out whether anything was known about the associations of the people who were killed or injured”.

On Tuesday 7 December, the second most influential unionist politician in the Stormont Government, hardline Home Affairs Minster John Taylor, stated in Parliament that “the plain fact is that the evidence of the forensic experts supports the theory that the explosion took place within the confines of the walls of the building”.

Neither Faulkner nor Taylor gave any consideration to the views of the ATO recorded in the HQNI Log. Other security documents previously unearthed

by Mac Airt reveal another layer of disinformation in the state’s story, which implied that some of those killed were directly involved in the bomb plot.

According to one document, a British Army/ MI5 HQNI Intelligence summary (HQNI INTSUM) from 9 December, “forensic and EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) experts tend to indicate that the explosion was caused accidentally inside the public house by premature detonation, amongst a group which contained an identified IRA victim” – effectively linking some of the dead to the IRA and the explosion.

While this document notes that “this was inconclusive”, it also refers to a group calling itself “the League of Empire Loyalists” which claimed responsibility for the attack in telephone calls to the Irish News and Daily Express.

Yet the author’s comment that “this organisation ceased to exist in 1968” reflects the official line that sought to lay the blame at the door of the IRA. By this stage, the IRA had denied involvement in the bombing, as had the so-called “Official IRA”.

In a further escalation of the disinformation strategy, another “secret” document, a British Ministry of Defence “Current Situation Report” from 14 December, says that “five of the victims were killed by blast – indicating that the explosion must have been inside the bar, and raising the very strong presumption that it was caused by the accidental detonation of a bomb being carried by one of the customers – as has seemed likely all along”.

The document went on to insist: “In the view of [British Army] Headquarters Northern Ireland, it is important to put this point

December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

7

McGURK’S BAR BOMB VICTIMS

Philomena McGurk (46)

Francis Bradley (62)

Maria McGurk (14)

Philip Garry (73)

James Cromie (13)

Kathleen Irvine (53)

5 Robert McClenaghan's grandfather Philip Garry was sitting to the right of the doorway where the bomb was planted

James Smyth (58)

John Colton (49)

Thomas McLaughlin (55)

Thomas Kane (48)

on record in order to discourage speculation about who was responsible for the explosion.”

One of the most damning documents uncovered by the McGurk’s families is a note from the Joint Security Committee minutes from 16 December of a briefing by RUC Chief Constable Graham Shillington and his head of RUC Special Branch to Stormont Prime Minister Brian Faulkner, Home Affairs Minister John Taylor and General Harry Tuzo, head of the British Army in the North: “Circumstantial evidence indicates that this was a premature detonation and two of those killed were known IRA members, at least one of whom had been associated with bombing activities. Intelligence indicates that the bomb was destined for elsewhere.”

Later, in May 1972, British Home Secretary William Whitelaw was at pains to claim that some of those killed were responsible and “the facts do not support the theory that the bomb was planted

by Protestant extremists”. Whitelaw concluded his remarks by claiming: “The IRA is desperately trying to provoke a Protestant reaction.”

Edward Kane (29) LOW-INTENSITY OPERATIONS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE

David Milligan (53)

Robert Spotswood (38)

Sarah and Edward Keenan (58/69)

Drawing on the counter-insurgency strategies developed by Westminster to combat liberation struggles in parts of the British Empire such as Kenya, Malaya, Aden, Cyprus and Palestine, the British understood the conflict would develop into a war of liberation, with the IRA in the leading role.

To that end, the British deployed greater numbers of troops. More significantly, though, they posted Brigadier Frank Kitson – the British Army’s foremost colonial counter-insurgency theorist and operational commander – to the North where he was based at Palace Barracks, in Holywood, County Down.

In his book, Ciarán Mac Airt highlights “Information Policy” and how Kitson brought this to the heart of military operations. Kitson had Lieutenant Colonel ‘Johnny’ Johnston of the British Army’s Psychological Operations (Psy-Ops)

training division posted to the North to run the “Information Liaison Department”.

Elements of the syllabus that Johnston taught included propaganda and the use of mass media, intelligence and planning for psyops, modern advertising, and community relations.

It is in the context of this counter-insurgency programme that we get a fuller understanding of the strategy of disinformation used in the wake of the McGurk’s attack and of its objectives.

According to documents quoted by Mac Airt, “planned psychological activities, in peace and war [are] directed towards enemy, friendly and neutral audiences in order to create attitudes and behaviour favourable to the achievement of our political and military objectives”.

The document also declares: “British forces have used psy-ops as a military support weapon. In the Malayan operations, psy-ops were used to isolate the terrorists from the civilian population, create apathy, discord and defeatism within the terrorist organisation and eventually to conduct an effective surrender campaign.”

Essentially then, the bombing of McGurk’s Bar by the unionist UVF was exploited by the British and unionist governments to undermine the IRA and was used to try and isolate the IRA within the nationalist community.

It is a microcosm of how psy-ops, as a political and military tactic, set the tone for how information and media would be used in the war against the IRA, regardless of the cost to the families of those killed and injured.

Meanwhile, the families of those killed in the McGurk’s Bar bombing are demanding a new inquest into the deaths.

Speaking to An Phoblacht, Robert McClenaghan (whose grandfather, Philip Garry, was one of 15 civilians to die in the bombing) says: “With the information we have now uncovered, particularly through Ciarán Mac Airt’s research, we believe there are sufficient grounds for a new inquest to be opened.

“An inquest is the best way for the families to get a proper inquiry into the events of 4 December 1971.”

The campaigner described how “the state has continued with, and is continuing with, a cover-up of their role in the bombing and its aftermath”.

Robert cited the flawed 2010 report of Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson when, in his initial findings, he made mistakes in naming the dead and then cleared the RUC of failing to properly investigate the attack. So angry were relatives that Hutchinson withheld publication of his findings.

Hutchinson’s subsequent report, released in February 2011, caused added controversy when he accused the RUC of “investigative bias”. Then PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggot said further prosecutions were unlikely, saying: “It is my view that there appear to be no further investigative opportunities available.”

The families saw this as the ‘RUC old guard’ within the PSNI closing the door in their faces.

To add to the families’ frustration, a 2015 report by the now-defunct Historical Enquiries Team (HET) contradicted the Ombudsman’s assessment, saying that, in its view, there was no evidence of bias in the original RUC probe.

Angry at this state of affairs, the families are now challenging current PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton to reopen the investigation.

As An Phoblacht goes to print, the Chief Constable is standing firm in his view that “there are currently no further investigative steps to be taken”.

8 December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

Sinn Féin ministers in driving seat while SDLP take a back seat SINN FÉIN MINISTERS announced plans for major projects in the Assembly this month that will see huge transformations right across society.

Infrastructure Minister Chris Hazzard said he is committed to the delivery of one of the largest transport upgrades in Belfast, the York Street interchange project.

He also reiterated his commitment to the A5 and A6 road projects in the north-west.

Health Minister Michelle O’Neill announced to the Assembly plans for the biggest shake-up of the health service in eight decades.

Her plans will deliver a 21st century healthcare service and help improve all-Ireland health service. Her move was welcomed by healthcare workers and patients among others working in the health sector.

Martin McGuinness

struggle across the world, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood opted for a lazy, populist response to the result of the US Presidential election.

His political naivety and lack of judgement was plain to see when he said before and after the election that he would not visit a Trump White House (not that he’d be high up the invite list of any administration anyway).

The contradictions of the SDLP/ Ulster Unionist “official Opposition” and smaller parties in the Assembly continue with a total lack of direction or strategy coming from their benches.

In a debate calling for special designated status for the North within the EU after Brexit, People Before Profit MLAs Eamonn McCann and Gerry Carroll aligned themselves with the DUP, Jim Allister’s Traditional Unionist Voice, and the most right-

IN PICTURES

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 Eoin Ó Broin TD speaks at a cross-party event on public ownership of water with CWU General Secretary Steve Fitzpatrick, TD Joan Collins and Brendan Ogle

5 Éire Nua Flute Band leads the annual Volunteer Pearse Jordan Commemoration march on the Whiterock Road, Belfast

Infrastructure Minister Chris Hazzard is committed to delivery of one of the largest transport upgrades in Belfast Sinn Féin’s international work was front and centre at the Assembly in recent weeks with representatives meeting international visitors as well as ministers travelling overseas.

Colombian President and recent Nobel Peace Prize winner Juan Manuel Santos visited Stormont to meet with Martin McGuinness, Megan Fearon and other ministers to discuss the impact that the peace process here has had on helping to end the 52-year conflict in Colombia.

Martin McGuinness and Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir both went to the United States to meet investors and attract businesses to the North.

While Sinn Féin ministers and MLAs engage positively and constructively on the international stage to attract inward investment, share experience of the Peace Process and stand in solidarity with communities in

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir

Jennifer McCann

Health Minister Michelle O’Neill announced to the Assembly plans for biggest shakeup of the health service in eight decades wing Brexiteers of the British Tory Party by blocking the move.

They also failed to explain their stance and why they appear to be in agreement with the likes of Boris Johnson and Liam Fox on dragging the North out of the EU against the democratic wishes of the people. Leaving the EU would deny crucial funding to communities they represent in Derry and west Belfast but the pair made no mention of that.

The Assembly chamber will shortly say farewell to west Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Jennifer McCann, who is stepping down as an MLA to take up a new role as a party adviser to Health Minister Michelle O’Neill. Even though she will still be working in the building, her fiery involvement in Assembly debates will certainly be missed, including by SDLP and unionist opponents.

5 Wreath-laying to commemorate Tom O'Donovan, Commandant of the 7th Battalion, 3rd Tipperary Brigade, IRA, on the 96th anniversary of his death at the hands of British crown forces

5 Members of the Kenna family and the Halpenny, Worthington, Watters Sinn Féin Cumann (Dundalk) at the Seán & Eileen Kenna Memorial Cup football match in memory of the late former Sinn Féin councillor and ex-prisoner Seán and wife Eileen

December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

5 Demonstrators in Aleppo demand the overthrow of the Assad regime

BY EOIN Ó MURCHÚ NO ONE can doubt how terrifying it must be to be waiting underneath a rain of bombs falling on a besieged city. If you’re on the receiving end, there is no such thing as a nice bombing.

But have you ever wondered why our television screens are filled with images of the horrors of the Syrian town of Aleppo while their exact counterpart in the Iraqi town of Mosul is played down, if covered at all?

How is it a crime against humanity when the Russians bomb eastern Aleppo but an unavoidable necessity when the Americans bomb Mosul?

RTÉ has played its usual biased role, not in explaining what is going on but in repeating the propaganda of one side, with the Russians cast always as the demons.

But let’s look a little closer at these stories, without the blinkers of prejudice.

The original protests against the Assad regime in Syria were about making the government more accountable to the people, to end cronyism and corruption. They were part of a generalised call for a new order throughout the Arab world.

But the old imperialist powers in Europe and America were quick to try and take control of these protests in order to destroy the regimes that had been a problem for the old powers, especially in Syria and Libya.

Libya has been completely destroyed as a state. Once it had one of the finest health and education systems in Africa and held out a

5 Syrian Army forces on the move

TALE OF TWO CITIES

A

(and a tale of two parties) doesn’t exist. The forces fighting the Assad Government in Aleppo are those of Al Nusra, which even the US has listed as a terrorist organisation.

Al Nusra has been driven out of most of Aleppo but still holds a quarter of a million people in the

9

eastern sectors of the city. Anyone who tries to leave – and Assad and the Russians regularly open up protected safe passages out for civilians and fighters both – risks death if caught by the throat-slashers and public executioners.

Russia is fighting in Syria at the request of the

It’s America’s allies in Saudi Arabia and Qatar who have supplied ‘Islamic State’ with the money and weapons to carry on their war helping hand to other anti-imperialists. Now it is a killing field with ISIS (“Islamic State”) and Al Qaeda affiliates ravaging the country.

The US pretends that it is fighting ISIS, but it is America’s allies in Saudi Arabia and Qatar who have supplied ISIS with the money and weapons to carry on their war – all paid for and supplied ultimately by the USA itself.

In Syria, the so-called “moderate” opposition 5 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are key to the battle for Mosul, despite opposition from Turkey

legitimate government of that country. And over a million and a half people in western Aleppo have been freed from Al Nusra control. These people are subject to daily rocket attacks from the east but RTÉ never shows us these.

In Iraq, the US is attempting to dislodge ISIS/ Islamic State from Mosul. International agencies have suggested that up to half a million people

Part of the deal with Turkey is that Kurdish forces will not be deployed in Mosul even though the Peshmerga are the only reliable fighting force are in danger but RTÉ has no critical images of this on display that I’ve seen.

The irony is that part of the deal with Turkey is that Kurdish forces will not be deployed in the city of Mosul even though the Peshmerga are the only reliable fighting force.

Patrick Cockburn has reported that the Iraqi Army is doing badly in the street fighting in Mosul and that the Kurds will have to be brought in.

Turkey’s response has been to announce it will attack the Kurds on all fronts if this is allowed to happen.

But rather than explain what is happening, RTÉ prefers to regurgitate the US line.

And ever willing to help, Fianna Fáil leader Mícheál Martin has been willing to refrain from attacking Sinn Féin in his speeches to attack the Russians instead.

In perhaps the worst irony of all, Fianna Fáil has not been alone in this dual stance. It has been fully supported by Éamon McCann and the People Before Profit organisation.

It doesn’t matter that Putin is pursuing a policy of resisting US hegemony over the whole world, however murky his connections with oligarch elements in Russia may be.

We can all understand why Mícheál Martin and Fianna Fáil would assertively stand under the Stars and Stripes, but isn’t it a bit odd that the fearless “socialists” of the PBP should also stand shoulder to shoulder with imperialism on this question?

When you look at Éamon McCann’s history, perhaps it’s not that odd at all.

10 December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

A FLAMING INSPIRATION The Armagh women POWs’ hunger strike

BRODIE ALYCE NUGENT

1 December marks 36 years since the commencement of the hunger strike by three Armagh women republican prisoners for the restoration of political status

5 Republicans came onto the streets in 1980 to back the Armagh hunger strikers

Far from being a mere solidarity action in support of their male comrades, the Armagh women’s hunger strike was a unique event loaded with strategic and symbolic importance

TOO OFTEN, the anti-criminalisation protest campaign which took place in Armagh Gaol stands in the shadow of the H-Block protests and the actions of female republican prisoners are misrepresented as a mere extension of the actions of their male comrades. The Armagh women, though, undertook their protest campaign in their own right, exercising their own agency in order to assert their own identity as political prisoners.

Far from being a mere solidarity action in support of their male comrades, the Armagh women’s hunger strike was itself a unique event loaded with strategic and symbolic importance.

From the very beginning of the prison saga and the introduction of the criminalisation policy in 1976, republican POWs in the women’s prison at Armagh resisted British attempts to label them and their cause as “criminal”. Like their male comrades, they protested using the only weapons at their disposal – their own bodies.

Since all women prisoners in the North were permitted to wear their own clothing, the Armagh women did not engage in a Blanket Protest. They did, however, resist criminalisation from the start by means of a no-work and non-co-operation protest. The women refused to carry out prison work or to acknowledge the authority of the prison staff. They observed their own command structure, known as “A Company, IRA”, and maintained military discipline in the gaol.

On 7 February 1980, male prison warders were brought into Armagh from Long Kesh, ostensibly to help carry out a search of the women’s cells.

Their true mission was to brutalise and intimidate the women and several prisoners were injured in the violent clashes which took place that day.

When the ‘search’ was finally over, the women were locked in their cells and denied access to the bathrooms. After the women were released from their cells the following day, the bathrooms

remained locked. The women saw no choice but to embark upon a no-wash protest, spreading the contents of their overflowing chamber pots over their cell walls and refusing to bathe for more than a year.

The no-wash protest was naturally very difficult for the prisoners but their conviction was strong. As far as they were concerned, the filth of excrement, urine and menstrual blood was far less repulsive than the cruel label of “criminal”.

When planning began for the 1980 Hunger Strike, the prisoners in Armagh declared their resolve to take part. The republican leadership on the outside, however, tried to discourage the women from joining the fast. In fact, the leadership on the outside did not want a hunger strike to take place at all. Even once the leaders had agreed to support the men’s strike, they remained reluctant to allow the women to participate.

They even sent information into Armagh about the detrimental impacts of prolonged fasting on the human body.

The leadership worried that a fast in Armagh would divert attention away from the H-Blocks and over-extend the resources of the Republican Movement. They were also concerned that biological and psychological factors would make a women’s hunger strike more susceptible to defeat.

The women themselves were initially uncertain about whether they could sustain a hunger strike.

They were few in number (only 28 compared to hundreds in the H-Blocks), and the no-wash protest and poor conditions had already taken

5 The Armagh hunger strikers: Mairéad Farrell, Mairéad Nugent and Mary Doyle

5 Mairéad Farrell in her cell during the no-wash protest

their toll on the prisoners’ health.

These concerns were outweighed, however, by the women’s belief in the strategic value of a cross-prison strike which would overstretch the resources and will of the authorities.

The involvement of women in the strike would also clarify that the true issue at the heart of the protest was the criminalisation policy, and not merely the desire of prisoners to wear civilian clothing. The risk of female prisoners dying on the strike would also place additional moral pressure on the authorities and increase support in the community.

The women were determined to take part.

Ultimately, it was agreed that female prisoners in Armagh would commence a hunger strike approximately one month after the men in Long Kesh. This would allow their entry to coincide with the weakening condition of the men in order to place maximum pressure on the authorities.

The Armagh women’s decision was announced on 22 November, and An Phoblacht/Republican News was quick to clarify that this decision was “not a solidarity action with the seven H-Block hunger-strikers, nor a limited token gesture” but was being taken “in their own right to political status”.

It then fell to O/C Mairéad Farrell and Adjutant Síle Darragh to agree Armagh’s hunger strikers.

They spoke to each woman who had volunteered,

December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

11

5 Sinead Moore, Síle Darragh and Mairéad Farrell in Armagh Jail

5 Armagh comrades – (Back row) Esther Edwards and Lila O'Rawe. (Front row) Kate Strong, Marie Vallelly, Mary Doyle, Kate O'Rawe

ensuring that she understood the potential impact a hunger strike would have upon herself, her comrades and her family.

After careful deliberation by the two leaders, three women were chosen to embark on the fast: Mairéad Nugent (aged 21), Mary Doyle (aged 24), and Mairéad Farrell herself (aged 23). Additional volunteers were selected as ‘back-ups’ to take the place of one of the initial three in the event of her death.

The trio commenced their fast on 1 December 1980.

In their official statement, they declared: “We are prepared to fast to the death, if necessary, but our love for justice and our country will live forever.”

The three were immediately moved to share a double cell and were advised to drink eight pints of water per day, with salt. Mary Doyle remembers being “sick as a dog” on that first night. She also recalls the constant efforts of the prison warders to torment the hunger strikers, ensuring that their cell was never without food. Plates of steaming hot chips replaced the barely edible slop which the women were usually served.

their own fast until the news was confirmed by a republican source. A representative confirmed the news the following day and “The Armagh Three” declared an end to their hunger strike. It had lasted 19 days.

Like many of the republican women who fought in the Easter Rising one hundred years ago, the Armagh women were initially told by well-meaning leaders, ‘No, we don’t think it’s a

An Phoblacht/Republican News was quick to clarify that the women’s decision to go on hunger strike was being taken ‘in their own right to political status’

After violent cell searches by male prison officers in February 1980, the women were released from their cells to find the bathrooms still locked and had no choice but to embark on a no-wash protest Warders also delivered hate mail from the outside and shouted abuse at the hunger strikers.

Mairéad Farrell recalled one of them shouting: “Why don’t you hurry up and die, you bastards?”

In the face of such torment, the women drew comfort and strength from their comrades and the firm belief in the justice of their cause.

The authorities tried to downplay the severity of the situation in Armagh. British Secretary of State Humphrey Atkins declared on 12 December that the women’s condition was “not yet giving any cause for concern”. In fact, the rapidity with which the three women were losing weight was indeed concerning. By the day of Atkins’s statement, each of the women had lost approximately 15lbs, meaning that they had lost more weight in their first 11 days than the men had lost in their first 26 days (the men’s average weight loss being approximately 11½lbs on 21 November.)

The strikers’ comrades recall noticing a rapid deterioration in their friends’ condition.

5 An anti-strip search protest Síle Darragh described them as “emaciated” and “little more than bags of bones”. She recalls that the three grew incredibly pale and that “even their shoes seemed too big for their feet”.

Mairéad Farrell’s mother recalled seeing “a terrible change” in her daughter, whose face became so thin that she began to have difficulty speaking.

Although the women retained their strength and spirit, it was clear that the fast was taking its toll. Less than two weeks into the Armagh hunger strike, Síle was already preparing the

women who were in line to replace the strikers in the event of their deaths.

The 1980 Hunger Strike ended in the H-Blocks on 18 December amid confused and chaotic circumstances as Seán McKenna’s fast reached a critical stage.

In Armagh Gaol, the three women were listening to the nine o’clock news on their smuggled radio and heard that the hunger strike was over. Their initial reaction was one of elation but caution soon took over. The women decided to continue

good idea for you ladies to participate’. Like the women of the Rising, the Armagh prisoners refused to accept that response. They insisted upon their inclusion, upon being allowed an equal share in every aspect of the republican struggle.

The immense gains that women have made within the Republican Movement are largely thanks to women such as the Armagh POWs – women who would accept no less than equal opportunity and an equal voice: ‘We own this struggle. It is ours.’

To describe the Armagh women, I can think of no better words than those chosen for them

by Bobby Sands: “A flaming inspiration.”

For anyone wishing to learn more about the Armagh women, I strongly recommend Síle Darragh’s book John Lennon’s Dead, available from the Sinn Féin Bookshop.

Brodie Alyce Nugent is a PhD candidate at Flinders University in Australia currently in Belfast writing a doctoral thesis on the life and legacy of Volunteer Mairéad Farrell.

12 December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

BRITISH MINISTER’S CLAIM ON DONEGAL/DERRY ESTUARY ‘PROVOCATIVE

STORM OVER LOUGH FOYLE Cé labhrós i gCoinne na hEorpa mar atá?

BA BHUILLÍ troma do lucht an rachmais dhomhandaithe nuair a vótail muintir na Breataine ar son Bhreatimeachta agus, níos meas fós, nuair a d’éirigh le Trump i dtoghchán uachtaránachta na Stát Aontaithe.

Ach tá an chosúlacht ann go bhfuil tuilleadh droch-nuaíocht ar an mbealach. Creideann David McWilliams, in alt a scríobh sé don Irish Independent, go bhfuil seans maith go gcaillfeadh rialtas na hIodáile reifreann atá dhá reachtáil sa tír sin an mhí seo Baineann an reifreann go foirmealta le coras riaradh na hIodáile, ach baineann se i ndairíre – dar le McWilliams – le dúshlán a thabhairt do lucht an rachmais dhomhandaithe. Ó ghlac an Iodáil leis an Euro mar airgeadra, ta eacnamaocht na tire imithe tí diabhail, mar chaill siad an chumhacht rátai úis nó rátaí malartaithe a shocrú mar a d’oir do gheilleagar na tíre.

Bhí an fhadb chéanna againne ar ndóigh, ach tá fiche bliain stad in eacnamaíocht na hIodáile ó shoin.

Tír a bhíodh réasúnta saibhir atá in aimhréidh ar fad anois.

Agus creideann McWilliams dá gcaillfeadh an rialtas an reifreann go dtabharfadh sé sin borradh mór don Fhronta Naisiúnta sa bhFrainc. Agus tá sé fógartha ag Marine Le Pen go n-imeóidh an Fhrainc as an Euro an lá dar gcionn má bhuann sí.

Cheana féin sa Bhulgáir agus sa Mholdóiv tá uachtaráin nua-thofa ann atá fábharach don Rúis agus criticiúil (mura namhdach ar fad iad) don Aontas Eorpach. Agus sa nGearmain fiú is cosuil go dtoghfar Frank-Walter

EOIN Ó MURCHÚ Steinmeier mar uachtarán na tire – fear eile atá ag lorg dea-chaidreamh leis an Rúis.

Tá’s ag an saol go bhfuil an tAontas Eorpach i dtrioblóid sa todhchaí is go bhfuil athchóiriú iomlán ag teastáil má tá sé le maireachtáil ar chor ar bith, ach má tharlaíonn na feadarachtaí atá os ár gcómhair faoi láthair tiocfaidh titim laithreach.

Ní mhairfeadh an tEuro gan an Fhrainc. Is nuair a thosaíonn an próiseas ag roiseadh, beidh ceist do-sheachanta faoin gcómhoibriu is cóir a bheith ann in ionad an ioarracht le ollstát a chruthú den Aontas reatha.

I ndáiríre níl ach ceist amháin ann faoi seo: cé bhéas i gceannas ar an taisteal nua, an eite dheis nó an eite chlé? Má fhanann an eite chlé ciúin nó gan treoir is ag an eite dheis a bhéas an bua, le ciníochas, coimeádachas is eile.

Má tá an eite chlé ag iarraidh a leithéid a sheachaint caithfidh siad dul i gceannas ar an gcur i gcoinne san Aontas.

DONEGAL LOUGH FOYLE DERRY

BY CAOLÁN McGINLEY THE Irish Government is being pressed by Sinn Féin elected representatives, North and South, to challenge claims by British Secretary of State James Brokenshire that “the whole of Lough Foyle is within the UK”.

Ownership of the estuary between Derry and Donegal has been claimed

by Britain since its partition of Ireland in 1922.

Donegal Sinn Féin Senator Pádraig Mac Lochlainn described the British minister’s statement – in response to a Parliamentary Question at Westminster – as “arrogant and provocative”.

He called on the Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan to challenge the British Government on ownership of Lough Foyle.

The Donegal deputy said: “This is an arrogant and provocative pronouncement from James Brokenshire. Unfortunately, it is a repeat of previous pronouncements and, again and again, previous Irish governments have failed to sort it out.

“I am calling on the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charlie Flanagan, to immediately challenge this assertion on behalf of the Irish people.

“I am also calling on Minister Flanagan to clarify what is the status of the negotiations between the two governments on the ownership of the lough.”

Sinn Féin has repeatedly called for a resolution on ownership of the lough to be reached between the British and Irish governments to allow the lough to be used effectively for fisheries and for tourism.

A Loughs Agency report to a Stormont Assembly committee has warned the dispute could have major implications for safety and ecology.

Speaking from the Assembly’s

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

Agriculture, Environment & Rural Affairs Committee, Sinn Féin MLA Oliver McMullan said: “There are fears of unregulated fishing in the lough and the damage that could do to the environment, including the threats posed by invasive species.”

The Loughs Agency also warned that unregulated shellfish farming could impact on navigation “with potentially life-threatening consequences”, Oliver McMullan said, adding: “British Secretary of State James Brokenshire needs to engage with the Irish Government to resolve this dispute to ensure fishing in the lough is regulated and the environment protected.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs said: “Ireland has never accepted the UK’s claim.

“Uncertainty concerning the extent to which each side exercises jurisdiction within Lough Foyle has created practical difficulties for the conduct of a number of activities there.

“This has included difficulty in creating a system for licensing of aquaculture by the Loughs Agency

Oliver McMullan

in accordance with the intentions of the two governments under the 1999 agreement establishing North/ South implementation bodies.

“Following discussions in 2011 between the then Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and [the] British Foreign Secretary, both governments agreed to seek to address and resolve jurisdictional issues relating to both Lough Foyle and Carlingford Lough.”

The Irish Government said subsequent meetings have been “complex”.

December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

IN PICTURES

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 Sinn Féin Deputy Mayor of Belfast Mary Ellen Campbell speaks at the graveside of Máire Drumm on the 40th anniversary of the Sinn Féin Vice-President's assassination by a loyalist death squad

5 Sinn Féin TDs Mary Lou McDonald and Kathleen Funchion and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness join the Border Communities Against Brexit protest outside All-Island Civil Dialogue at Dublin's Royal Hospital Kilmainham

5 Sinn Féin TDs, senators and staff, family, friends and comrades at the unveiling of a painting dedicated to 1981 Hunger Striker Kieran Doherty TD in the Sinn Féin meeting room at the Dáil in Dublin

13

SINN FÉIN LAUNCHES MAJOR POLICY DOCUMENT ON RECONCILIATION DECLAN KEARNEY, Sinn Féin National Chairperson, has launched ‘Towards an Agreed and Reconciled Future’, a document that is an outworking of the ‘Uncomfortable Conversations’ initiative pioneered by Declan Kearney and An Phoblacht since 2012.

The event was taking place as An Phoblacht was going to press.

A series of articles in the paper and complementary engagements brought together a range of views, from a broad section of society - including many figures from the unionist community - on how to advance reconciliation and healing.

‘Towards an Agreed and Reconciled Future’ was endorsed at Sinn Féin’s Ard Fheis in Dublin this year and provides a republican analysis of how reconciliation can help build a new, united and agreed Ireland.

It also addresses the need to deal with the legacy of the past, ensuring the needs of victims of the conflict and their families are met, as well as ending division in the future.

Sinn Féin has consistently stood with relatives of victims of the conflict to challenge the British Government over its failure to live up to its responsibilities over the legacy of the past.

The launch was attended by a range of groups and individuals, including representatives of the “PUL” (Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist) community who have participated in the ‘Uncomfortable Conversations’ initiative in recent years.

Declan Kearney said: “Sinn Féin’s primary national aim is to achieve a united Ireland – that is an Ireland that is at peace with itself in which our people can unite together to forge a new collective shared future.

“Reconciliation and healing are central to bringing all of that about.

“This policy document, ‘Towards an Agreed and Reconciled Future’, is our contribution towards national societal discussion which we believe is necessary to bring about healing in our time and on our island.”

The policy document is intended to stimulate discussion on the issue of reconciliation and healing “in a sensible and mature manner”.

In recent years Sinn Féin has made huge strides towards reconciliation, including taking landmark initiatives such as meeting with the British royal family and attending ceremonies to remember the Irishmen who were killed in the First World War while serving with the British Army.

There have been criticisms, however, that unionism has not engaged as wholeheartedly in reconciliation and

'Sinn Féin’s primary national aim is to achieve a united Ireland – that is an Ireland that is at peace with itself in which our people can unite together to forge a new collective shared future' DECLAN KEARNEY

Sinn Féin has called for political unionism to engage seriously in the reconciliation process.

The Sinn Féin National Chairperson said that there is a need for unionists to show a public willingness to embrace reconciliation.

“Twelve months on from the Fresh Start Agreement, political stability has been restored and Sinn Féin has met all of its commitments.

“However, there is still no parity of esteem being demonstrated by sections of political unionism towards the Irish language.

“We have also seen no reciprocation of the reconciliation initiatives taken by republicans from significant sections of political unionism and that must change. Reconciliation is not a one-way street; it requires effort from everyone.”

He added: “We have a British Government that is mocking the families of victims by refusing to lift its veto on so-called ‘national security’ and by withholding funds for legacy inquests.

“These are fundamental equality and parity of esteem issues which must be addressed and that means that political unionism will have to step up to the plate and work with republicans to ensure we collectively build a better society.”

14 December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

FRAMEWORK FOR NEW PUBLIC SECTOR PAY AGREEMENT

‘Lansdowne Road is a lame duck’

“LANSDOWNE ROAD is a lame duck agreement,” Sinn Féin Public Expenditure spokesperson David Cullinane said when he unveiled the party’s Framework for New Public Sector Pay Agreement at Leinster House on 15 November.

Four key issues shape and inform Sinn Féin’s approach to public pay policy, the document says – pay justice, equality, restoration and recognition.

“There is now a clear necessity for a new public pay agreement that is built upon fairness and pay certainty for public servants,” David Cullinane said.

Launching the proposal with TDs Peadar Tóibín and Jonathan O’Brien, he emphasised that Sinn Féin is fully committed to fair pay and conditions.

“Without progressively addressing the primary grievances of public sector workers currently driving industrial unrest, any new agreement will be as fatally flawed as Lansdowne Road,” the Waterford deputy said

TWO KEY ELEMENTS ARE:

» Equal pay for equal work » A clear pathway to pay restoration The issue of pay equality for post-2011 entrants is a fundamental one facing the public sector, Sinn Féin affirms.

“The Government has no plan to address this issue outside of divisive sectoral agreements with certain unions already within the Lansdowne Road Agreement. There is no commitment from the Government to allow for equal pay for equal work across the public sector.

“Given the rise in industrial action to date, it is not tenable that this process will only begin in two years’ time, after the end of the Lansdowne Road Agreement in September 2018.

“Separate to this is the issue of pay restoration. Currently there is no roadmap in place for fair and timely restoration. The plan needs to be in place before Budget 2018 is announced in October 2017.”

FINANCIAL EMERGENCY MEASURES Most (but not all) of the pay cuts occurred under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (FEMPI) Acts 2009-2015.

Collectively, public sector workers have had over €12billion taken from their pay on top of working an additional 15 million hours a year.

Public sector workers have suffered on average a 15% cut in pay. On top of this, new entrants from 1 January 2011 start on a pay scale that is on average 10% lower than the rest of the workforce.

5 Jonathan O'Brien, David Cullinane, Imelda Munster and Peadar Tóibín explain Sinn Féin’s approach to public pay policy

The cuts in investment, recruitment and wages have meant that those who remain within the public sector are forced to compensate for reduced services with longer hours and fewer resources.

FEMPI will have been in place for almost ten years by the time the Lansdowne Road Agreement comes to an end. The next public sector agreement should negotiate the fair and timely unwinding of the legislation and its removal from the statute books.

TACKLING EQUALITY Any new pay agreement must set out a road-map for the unwinding of FEMPI legislation. It must tackle in a cogent and coherent way the inequal5Teachers agitate for equal pay for equal work ity created by FEMPI. It should be noted that, even under pay restoration, those on less than €30,000 would see little to no gains.

Sinn Féin would argue for actual pay rises for this cohort of workers.

A commitment to equal pay for equal work should begin in 2017 with the restoration of certain allowances for post-2011 nurses, doctors, teachers and gardaí.

PAY EQUALISATION FOR POST-2011 ENTRANTS Sinn Féin believes that the public sector needs to return to a single-tier pay system and that a new agreement should achieve equal pay for equal

work. This should be listed as a priority for the next Budget.

Sinn Féin is committed to shrinking the wage differential between the lowest and the highest earners in the public sector.

We are also committed to addressing the gender pay gap across the economy, including within public sector employment.

Sinn Féin is also committed to the introduction of a living wage as a key measure to stem the tide of low-paid work, and believes that, as the largest employer in the state, the Government must lead the way.

PAY INCREASES FOR LOW TO MIDDLE INCOME WORKERS The fall in pay rates was greater in the public sector than in the private sector. This is despite media rhetoric stating the contrary. It is legitimate to expect that low pay is tackled as conditions improve.

A simple scrapping of FEMPI will not tackle this issue. For example, such a blanket pay restoration would give a person on €25,000 a 0.2% increase in gross pay while those on €185,000 would receive a 28.65% increase.

“Those on low to middle incomes need a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.

The details of this should be developed as part of any new pay agreement.”

The full framework can be read at www.sinnfein.ie

December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

15

KEN LOACH’S NEW FILM ECHOES ALL OVER IRELAND

Y R C L ’L U O Y E RINGS SO TRU

When the Social Welfare Bill came up in the Dáil a week later, I heard Sinn Féin Deputy Martin Kenny reference Daniel Blake when he talked about the experience of some of his constituents in Leitrim in dealing with JobPath, a scheme run by a British company, Seetec, which is contracted by the Department of Social Protection.

Martin Kenny gave examples of real people in the clutches of JobPath.

One is a woman in her 60s who spent the previous decade caring for

BY CATHY POWER KEN LOACH is a master of social realism. Right from when he made Cathy Come Home in 1966, a stunning portrayal of homelessness and the reasons why people fall into it, he has managed to attract a broad audience to films which tackle profound political themes and social issues.

We come to I, Daniel Blake with the depressing thought that Ken Loach is not yet redundant as he brings us this exposé of the heartlessness of the British social welfare system and its real effect on people’s lives.

It is 50 years since Cathy Come Home. First aired on television, it was seen by 12 million people, a quarter of the British population at the time, but homelessness is worse than ever here in Ireland and in Britain.

Homelessness features in I, Daniel Blake too. It is about how Daniel, a 59-year-old carpenter who has suffered a heart attack and so cannot work, meets Katie and her two children, Dylan and Daisy, who have left a homeless people’s hostel in London and, with no other affordable accommodation being available in the capital, have moved to crap housing offered 300 miles away in Newcastle.

The film focuses on how the system treats and mistreats these two decent people who are trying their best and drives them to desperation with bureaucracy, heartlessness and officialdom.

Daniel and Katie meet in the social welfare office where both of them are treated with suspicion and contempt. Anyone who has ever stood at the hatch in a dole office here and had irrelevant questions barked at them by someone who is not prepared to listen to the reasonable explanation you want to give will find hard to forget the anger and upset that this film provokes.

I, Daniel Blake runs for 100 minutes and is riveting from the outset, when we hear Daniel answering irrelevant questions to a “healthcare professional” over the phone. This is his “Work Capability Assessment”, a box-ticking exercise which ignores his medical certificates that clearly

Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny references ‘Daniel Blake’ when he talked about the experience of some of his constituents in Leitrim in dealing with JobPath, a scheme run by a British company Seetec 5Ken Loach's powerful indictment of the social welfare system in Britain stars Dave Johns, Hayley Squires, Dylan McKiernan and Briana Shane.

state that he is unfit for work. It drives him into a nightmarish battle with the system to get some payment on which he can survive.

Working-class people will know the feeling and empathise. I saw it on the day it opened in the Irish Film

5 Groundbreaking director Ken Loach

Institute and was struck by the sound of sobbing as the credits rolled and by the subsequent round of applause from the audience.

It is a film which you cannot leave in the cinema. You think about it for days or weeks afterwards.

elderly parents and is in poor health herself. Having been refused disability payments, she is forced onto Jobseeker’s and is being harassed to attend training programmes on how to write CVs and how to conduct herself at interviews.

For the two-year duration of the JobPath programme she is barred from taking a place on any other more appropriate training scheme or Community Employment Scheme. She lives 30 miles from the Seetec office and does not drive. She has to get taxis to participate.

Another is a small farmer in his 50s, receiving Farm Assist, hoping to get onto a Community Employment Scheme which would suit part-time farming and provide a service to the local community. He is now barred from this possibility and is painfully aware of the futility of participating in a course to look for jobs which do not exist in rural Leitrim.

Go see this film to inspire you to fight the myth that there is a recovery, that the homeless disaster is an emergency and not a deliberate policy, that austerity was somehow good for us.

And don’t forget that Ken Loach has put all his films on YouTube so you can watch his extensive and brilliant portfolio for free if you are unfortunate enough to be out of work and have some time on your hands.

The film is a British-French production, directed by Loach and written by his usual scribe, Paul Laverty. It stars Dave Johns, Hayley Squires, Dylan McKiernan and Briana Shane. It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and loads of other awards – but let’s see will he get a BAFTA in Tory Britain.

16 December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

We’ll stop fighting with weapons but we will not stop fighting by legal means and with full guarantees – this is the agreement

FARC leader

Timochenko

speaks to An Phoblacht

Havana Final Agreement. This involves using the mechanisms responsible for verifying and monitoring compliance with the agreement that appear in the texts signed in Havana, including the participation of communities.

BY ORSOLA CASAGRANDE HAVANA, CUBA

THE Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARCEP) and the government of Juan Manuel Santos signed a new peace deal in Havana, Cuba, on Saturday 12 November in a bid to finally end over five decades of armed conflict in the country.

The agreement came six weeks after the original deal was rejected in a popular vote. The new agreement is not expected to be put to another popular vote but will be submitted to Congress.

“TIMOCHENKO” – Timoleón Jiménez – is the commander-in-chief of the FARC-EP (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - Ejército del Pueblo or Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces – People’s Army).

His real name is Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri. He was born in 1959 and joined the FARC in 1976 motivated, as he recalls, by the the environment he grew up in.

“We were a poor family in a poor village. Our parents had been deeply affected by violence.

“My mother was a widow. Her first husband had been murdered right at the doorstep. We, as children, were listening to all these stories of death and violence and they slowly shaped our conscience.

“My mother cultivated in me a love for reading. She taught me to read even before I went to primary school.”

We meet Timochenko in Havana, where negotiations between his organisation and the Colombian Government have been taking place for the past four years. He speaks in a calm and gentle tone, smiling from time to time, never lowering his eyes.

On what programmatic and organisational basis will the FARC-EP become an exclusively political organisation?

That precisely was one of the resolutions of the Tenth Guerrilla National Conference. The FARC are and have always been, since our foundation, a political party that had to take up arms to counter state violence. Now we have to adapt and reshape the party to the new conditions of legality and modernity.

This is not about changing our ideology or our political and organisational principles. As it was deliberated by the conference, that will be a matter for discussion and approval at the Constitutive Congress of the new party to be held no later than May 2017, provided that the agreements signed in Havana are implemented.

Following the signing of the Final Peace Agreement in Cartagena (Colombia), on 26 September came the cold shower of the plebiscite by President Juan Manuel Santos to ratify the concord on 2 October.

A majority of the low turnout of 37% said 'No' to the agreement. A mere few thousand votes allowed the No camp, led by former President Alvaro Uribe, to bring four years of hard work to the edge of being jettisoned.

Mass demonstrations all over Colombia and the determination of the FARC not to let this chance for peace pass brought the parties back to the negotiating table.

The second round of talks with the Government began in Havana on Saturday 5 November to revise the Final Peace Agreement in light of new encounters with civil society organisations, political parties, churches, etc.

Throughout all the difficulties, FARC reiterated its commitment to the peace process.

Q: Following the signing of the Peace Agreements and their popular ratification comes the difficult task of implementing them. What was decided at FARC’s Tenth Guerrilla National Conference in September?

A: The Tenth Guerrilla National Conference approved a fundamental task: work for the full implementation of the

The full implementation of the agreements will be accompanied and verified by the international community. How important is this aspect?

The international community has been getting involved in the peace process gradually but consistently. In the beginning it was the participation of Cuba and Norway, always alongside Venezuela. Then came Chile, and later signals of approval were coming from the European Union, the United States, the Union of South American Nations, Germany, Russia, the United Nations and its Security Council. That has tremendous value for us as we got to the negotiations table depicted in the worst possible way by much of the international community.

We have shown our ideological and political stand, our vocation for peace, our seriousness and responsibility when it comes to commitments.

All of this has put us on another level and has given the peace process an openly international relevance.

The dismantling of paramilitarism is undoubtedly essential to building a stable and lasting peace. To what extent can the international community exert influence in the achievement of this goal?

Paramilitarism is one of the ways in which the Colombian Government has countered political opposition in Colombia, though not the only one.

December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

17

5 Cuban President Raúl Castro (centre) stands with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (left) and leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Timoleón Jiménez

5 Timoleón Jiménez with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

5 Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos at Stormont Castle with Martin McGuinness and Megan Fearon

ensuring that rural communities take the agreements into their hands, and fully understand and appreciate them.

They have to reclaim these agreements. Simply to achieve this will involve great effort but, once unleashed – as a result of the strength of peasants, black and indigenous communities – we can expect a revival of popular activity for the improvement of its living conditions, plans for education, housing, health, roads and infrastructure, the development and implementation of plans for local and regional development.

There’s an open space there for social and political action, and of course, the communities and we ourselves would be open to all possibilities for international assistance.

There has been judicial persecution, police frame-ups 5 FARC guerrillas backing the Colombian peace and, of course, open violence by Government agents.

What happens is that thanks to the struggle of many process people in our country, as well as international concern, open violence by the state is becoming more difficult.

However, you can still see the brutal repression that bodies like the National Police and the Colombian Army often used against protest and popular mobilisation.

Our struggle is for the banning of all forms of violence used by the state against the Colombian people. We believe that with this agreement we have taken significant steps in that direction.

Paramilitarism has been given special attention in the Havana Agreement since its illegal nature makes it easier for the state to cover up its violent actions behind those gangs of murderers.

Several things have been agreed on this issue which, should they be implemented, would mean a real shift in terms of guarantees and rights for opposition parties and organisations. The international community plays an important role in this matter and we hope that their contribution remains effective.

Comprehensive rural reform seems to be the key for the Colombian countryside to return to its normal social life as well as its enormous productive potential.

How would you work to ensure the implementation of what was agreed on this point?

The Agreement on Comprehensive Rural Reform is a fait accompli. What is coming next is the need for the implementation and full compliance by the state. This requires

These negotiations have been long and difficult.

What would you say are the main achievements of this process?

The whole peace process is a unique experiment in internal armed conflict resolution processes.

I would underline the fact that the state has formally committed to eradicate all forms of violence against political opposition and to establish full guarantees for its political activity, as well as for the life and freedom of its leaders and activists.

The issues of victims, the establishment of truth and transitional justice has been particularly delicate, given the violence during the conflict and its long duration.

Undoubtedly those were highly sensitive issues, as confirmed by the time it took to reach an agreement on the subject – a year and a half of discussions that still only led to the signing of an agreement that the Colombian Government insisted on reviewing after it had signed it, thus endangering the seriousness of the process itself.

Fortunately, things finally came to fruition.

The victims participated in the process and I can say they were, at all times, at the centre of the discussions.

We also benefitted through the widespread recognition from victims’ organisations, different political parties, the Colombian people and all kinds of social and popular organisations, as well as recognition and applause from the international community, including institutions such as the International Criminal Court.

The work was hard, but it was worth it, no doubt.

The agreement contains unprecedented but valuable legal formulas made into law and that alone speaks of its importance.

The agreement we signed may not have made everyone happy, because there are extreme sections that would oppose anything, just for the sake of saying no.

The agreement speaks of “demobilisation” of the FARC-EP and political and social integration of former guerrillas. How will you ensure this can happen successfully and perhaps even become a model?

We always insist on the incorrectness of the term “demobilisation” in our case. The FARC-EP are not going to demobilise but will transform into an active political force which will remain cohesive and united in the struggle for its goals of taking power for the people.

Demobilising would mean disintegrating the organisation and we are far from thinking of doing that.

We’ll stop fighting with weapons but we will not stop fighting by legal means and with full guarantees.

This is the agreement.

We’ll reincorporate into civilian life according to our economic, social and political interests, leaving behind all forms of violence and illegality, and for this provisions have been written into the agreements.

I must say that the state took a hard position in this regard. It will not be easy. We understand the dimensions of the challenge we have assumed and we have never lost sight of the interests of our class enemies.

Of course, any selfless aid offered in good faith to help reach this goal would be well accepted.

Colombia has always been a country of people who love work, rich in natural resources but subject since its independence from Spain to an epidemic of violence that resulted in dozens of civil wars.

Of course, the origin of all these wars relates to the unequal distribution of wealth and the declared intention of the ruling classes to resolving political differences through the use of force and violence.

Recent generations of Colombians have not known a single day of peace. Now, after more than five decades of armed confrontation, we have managed to arrange a formula for a political solution that promises to create all the necessary conditions to permanently stop the use of weapons and violence in national and regional political life.

We definitely deserve a better destiny and we are determined to build it.

18 December / Nollaig 2016

TRUE

CONFESSIONS of an

www.anphoblacht.com

‘Murky’ and ‘Lurky’ are warming their hands by the fire . . . They are stoned

“THE WORLD is my idea,” said 19th century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.

“No truth is more certain, more independent of all others, and less in need of proof than this, that all that exists for knowledge, and therefore this world, is the only object in relation to subject, perception of a perceiver, in a word – idea.”

That world idea once became a quest and for a time it was so engrained in the collective consciousness that it was no longer the idea of one, it was the idea of many, like a meme.

That idea was “social ecology” but no one knew it by that name. Everyone else, however, knew that the followers of this weird idea were called “eco-warriors” and nothing could have been further from the reality than this glib misrepresentation.

The problem lay in the image, the one that was projected onto people who engaged in the planning, execution and awareness of non-violent

We are in a woodland – not an unusual occurrence during the 1990s when non-violent direct action was at its height across the world direct action (NVDA) – the one that the people themselves displayed to the world and the one that was perpetrated by those who were false.

We are in a woodland (not an unusual occurrence during the 1990s when non-violent direct action was at its height across the world). The incessant rain has finally stopped, leaving a glistening sheen on the sylvan canopy that glows under a joyous full moon – a moon so bright it casts dappled light on the forest floor.

5 Robert Allen (second left) and fellow activists relax on Brighton Beach

Woodsmoke swirls like foggy mist in the foreground. Three silhouettes hunch in a circle around a well-stocked fire, red embers reflected in their eyes. The whole scene is surreal, possibly ironic, almost pagan-like.

‘Murky’ and ‘Lurky’ are warming their hands by the fire. They are stoned, slumped over. ‘Jerky’, the third figure, is sleeping, snoring gently, occasionally rolling his head as he appears to awaken before falling back into dreamland. In his last moment of consciousness, Jerky sees a pair of tittering wood fairies cavorting near the edge of the tree-line. In a soothing child-like voice he beckons them to draw nearer. Murky and Lurky are ignoring him.

The bare wooden chairs they are sitting on sink into the mud that surrounds the fire. Steam is rising from a cauldron resting uneasily on a wire mesh held in place between an unsteady structure of breeze blocks. Time seems to expand and contract in the night hours, as Murky and Lurky stare at the fire, talking quietly to each other. They are partially sheltered by a large tarpaulin that has been stretched over an interwoven pattern of tree branches.

ROBERT ALLEN

Murky says, “Did ye get any seeds?”

Lurky, poking the fire with a long thin stick, mutters, “Yeah”.

“What are ye doing with them?”

“I’m going to plant them, what do you think I’m going to do with them? Tomorrow I’ll get some planks and make a small nursery.”

“If we’re here tomorrow, that is.”

Lurky, still poking the fire, becomes serious.

“You think they’ll come in the morning?”

“There’s every chance of it,” says Murky.

Lurky, pushing the stick into the mud, asks, “Where is everyone . . . if we’re in danger of being evicted?”

“Feckin’ stoned, the bastards, like they always are.”

Lurky gets up, walks to the back of the bender, where he locates a cup and a tea bag. He says loudly, “You're very hard on everyone.”

“I’m not hard, I’m realistic. What are we here for? Tell me that? We’re here to protect this place, to stop the bastards cutting down the trees, destroying everything. You . . .”

Lurky, sitting down, says, “Are we not doing that?”

December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

19

One of the most iconic actions of that era was the weeding of geneticallyengineered sugar beet in Carlow – an event that has remained shrouded in myth and mystery

“Are we feck. We’re creating another cosy little elite. Most of the people here are control freaks or trying to find ways of making money or trying to escape from themselves. They’re fucked up, most of them, especially that fecker from Lisburn. He’s a plant, I tell ye. He’s too good to be true. He’s only interested in himself. He gives himself away.”

Lurky opens a tap near the bottom of the cauldron, letting steaming water into his cup.

“You’re always going on about him. You think he’s being paid to be here?”

“I don’t know. I mean, feck it, this isn’t the place for politics. It’s meant to be a vigil, a presence.

We’re supposed to be guarding the place, not setting up a feckin’ commune full of politically correct, socially fucked-up hippies.”

The summer of 1995 was very hot, and not just because of the climate At that moment, a sleeping Jerky interjects, “Please don’t go away – I love you,” and begins snoring softly. Suddenly he awakes. “How’s it goin’?” He asks in a cheery voice.

Lurky, stretching his arms into the sky, says, “We're doomed.”

Such a scenario was not unusual in the years when woodland vigils, like the Village in the Sky outside Blackburn, sprouted like miraculous seeds and were cut down as young saplings just when it seemed they would grow into something wondrous. Historians now claim that the anti-road campaigns of the 1990s were a success. At the time they felt like defeat.

The Under-Sheriff of Lancashire claimed that had the Village in the Sky lasted one more week,

construction of the motorway would have been halted. It did not last because of the divisions among the hippy “eco-warriors” and the serious “activists” (not that anyone seriously considered these labels) and because of malnutrition and police violence.

In the 1990s, especially in England, the majority of people who concerned themselves with the ecological and social issues of the times were college kids espousing veganism and the ridiculous idea that the Earth should come First!

Most of them didn’t last.

The tactic of the Under-Sheriff, his bailiffs (Scouse bouncers from Blackpool) and the special police force that was sent up from the south was to arrest everyone who looked like a hippy and bail them “off site”. They were arraigned in Blackburn police station and when they were freed they turned right outside the police door and headed down to the bus and railway stations. We met these poor wretches with tea and chips and tried to persuade them to continue, to no avail.

By the middle of the decade it was obvious that not everyone with hippy sensibilities was cut out to be an NVDA activist. The hardcore, however, were different, and largely they were anonymous.

The summer of 1995 was very hot, and not just because of the climate.

“Actions” took place every day, sometimes more than once. The targets varied. Most were single actions rather than collective vigils. They were meticulously organised following a system that

had been developed by Manchester Earth First!

Usually one person planned an action, completed the necessary preparation and reconnaissance, and then quietly gathered a crew of experienced people. Occasionally, an action could be planned by a small group but this was always seen as dangerous because of the fear of infiltration. If you were asked to “go on an action” you had two options – yes or no, and only when you said yes were you told what the action entailed.

It was known that an elite ‘task force’ had been established by the police in Southampton, dedicated to gathering information on the hardcore activists. Most of their attention centred on the animal lovers because these

Usually one person planned an action, did the preparation and reconnaissance, and then quietly gathered a crew hunt saboteurs favoured violence of a kind that endangered lives. By the end of the decade this task force had the “real” names of some hardcore activists, but not all. Most activists used nicknames to protect their identities or were given pet names.

The best protection, ironically, were the cliques that emerged from the Manchester system. This system produced one of the most iconic actions of that era, the weeding of genetically-engineered

sugar beet in Carlow, an event that has remained shrouded in myth and mystery.

In reality a crew was recruited in London and only those who participated in the action knew each other’s identities. They hired a van, travelled to Wicklow, stayed in a prearranged location, made a reconnaissance to Carlow (gardaí providing the directions to the farm!), returned that night, weeded the field and then left for England.

This was a very clever action. Its success was built on experience, reputation and trust. There was a plan and it was carried out to perfection.

Sadly, it marked the beginning of the end for that generation of hardcore activists. What came later was a facsimile that quickly became distorted.

Several events presaged the end. One was the emergence of the People’s Global Action, its obsession with eco-anarchism, summit hopping and the vanity of its own actions, largely showcased in its independent media.

Another was the tragedy that was Genoa. Yet another was that wandering image, which saw its expression at the Glen of the Downs.

Organised by two Irish activists who kept low profiles throughout the campaign, the attempt to protect this unique Wicklow woodland degenerated into chaos.

The true image of the so-called eco-warrior was seen at another successful action during the mid-1990s, this time in Huddersfield in the north of England, where the environmental officers of the local authorities met for their annual shindig.

Two activists, dressed in everyday smart clothing, penetrated the defences of the organising committee, created the conditions to let a bus-load of activists enter the building, disable the electrics and dump “toxic” waste on the stage.

There were many actions like that – plainclothed and unassuming. And then there were some that were ill-timed and wrong. A group of activists inadvertently caused the closure of a McDonalds in downtown Swindon but upset the birthday plans of a 14-year-old girl. The tearful birthday girl confronted the leader, unable to understand what had happened. Sadly, the adult activist could not explain, instead deriding the girl for her discomfort.

Not everyone got the idea that changing the world without taking power (Dublin-born professor John Holloway’s much-lauded assumption) would not be a simple process. Most of those who claimed to want to change the world were too vain, and too gullible. And had never read Schopenhauer.

20 December / Nollaig 2016

Marcus Garvey

www.anphoblacht.com

an inspiration to

Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, inspired by

Sinn Féin and the 1916 Rising Former Ambassador to Jamaica, RAY BASSETT, on the Caribbean island’s national hero and his affinity with Ireland

He rapidly became its Assistant Secretary. Even at this early stage, there were echoes of Irish nationalism present: the club’s publication was entitled Our Own, an approximate translation of the Irish Sinn Féin.

Garvey spent the years 1912 to 1914 in London at the height of the Home Rule crises. At this time, the British Army suffered its largest-ever mutiny when the officer corps in Ireland simply refused to enforce the law by failing to move against the Ulster Volunteer Force and their illegal importation of arms, thereby signalling that any degree of autonomy for Ireland was clearly going to be resisted by entrenched interests.

After that period in London, Garvey returned to Jamaica full of new concepts and ideas picked up in the British capital. He was incensed by the unfair treatment of black people and saw parallels between discrimination against them and the Irish.

WHILE there had been insurrections before 1916 against the British and French empires in many of their territories, the events of Easter week 1916 in Dublin had much greater international significance as they occurred closest to the centre of the imperial power.

It was also at a time when there was a huge gathering of the world press nearby in London, covering the First World War. The New York Times carried the uprising as its main lead story every day for over two weeks. It was talked and written about right across much of the globe.

Garvey named all the buildings belonging to his six-millionstrong Universal Negro Improvement Association ‘Liberty Halls’, after James Connolly’s HQ in Dublin

For those who wished to resist colonialism throughout the world, Ireland had become the cause célèbre Nationalists in places such as India, Egypt and Africa strongly supported the Irish quest for independence. This was also true in the

Marcus Garvey wanted black people to emulate Easter 1916 Caribbean and particularly so with a young Jamaican activist, Marcus Garvey, who was to go on to become the country’s most influential historical figure. Political leaders such as Martin Luther King Jnr, Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad and leaders of the African Liberation movement, including former President Nkrumah of Ghana, all claimed to have been strongly influenced

by Garvey.

Marcus Garvey had an amazing career by any standard. He was Jamaica’s first ever designated national hero who today lies buried in the National Heroes Park in Kingston, the capital.

Here in Ireland – and indeed in Jamaica – there is little popular knowledge or appreciation of how this major Jamaican figure was so strongly influenced by Ireland, and especially by the Easter Rising.

5 Martin Luther King Jnr and Malcolm X said they were influenced by Marcus Garvey

As Irish Ambassador to Jamaica, I was first drawn to Garvey by his Irish surname and also when I learned that he had named one of the most prominent buildings in Kingston, Liberty Hall.

Despite the Irish surname, the Garveys acquired their family name from an Irish slave owner. The plantation Garveys were from Ireland. In 1922, Marcus Garvey said: “An Irish slave-master gave my forbear the name Garvey. He was not allowed to pass his African name to us.”

Despite this initial malevolent linkage to Ireland, Garvey remained, throughout his career, a true friend of the country.

Marcus Garvey grew up in a lower-middleclass background and developed a great love

of books from his uncle and ready access to his father’s large library. His family lived in the north of the island at St Ann’s Bay, where he first encountered the evil of racism. Jamaica was a very racist society at the time, with a small white minority holding a dominance of power and wealth.

Garvey moved to Kingston and soon became involved in trade unionism. In 1907, he was elected as Vice-President of the compositors’ branch of the Printers’ Union. He subsequently led his members in a protracted strike which, unfortunately, led to the collapse of the union.

Despite this setback, he quickly turned his attention to political activism and civil rights.

He joined the National Club of Jamaica, the first overtly nationalist organisation on the island.

Garvey had a magnetic personality and soon found himself in a leadership role. He established the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1914. Its aim was the advancement of the position of black people in Africa and in its diaspora. Its slogan was “Africa for the Africans, at home and abroad”, which was based on the Irish slogan of the time “The Irish race at home and abroad”. When he moved to America, he also established the UNIA there. It was a huge success and it soon had branches in over 30 US cities.

Garvey particularly liked the Sinn Féin policy of the local community relying on its own strength, decrying the old approach of looking to an outside benefactor, often an aristocrat, to carry forward the cause. He also identified with Irish nationalism’s strong connections with its diaspora, regarding himself as a member of the

December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

21

‘The time has come for the negro race to offer up its martyrs upon the altar of liberty even as the Irish has given a long list, from Robert Emmet to Roger Casement’ MARCUS GARVEY

Garvey’s connection with Ireland contributed to his expulsion from the United States

5 Marcus Garvey's links with Irish republican leaders drew the attention of the early FBI 5 Liberty Hall, Kingston, Jamaica

African diaspora. Throughout his life, he was a strong advocate of Pan Africanism.

It was the 1916 Rising which totally captivated Marcus, however.

To Marcus, the blood sacrifice to revive the national and patriotic spirits of a people colonised, denigrated and deprived of its cultural heritage had huge resonance. While he had been interested in and sympathetic to the Irish cause in the past, post-1916 it became one of the main determinants in the development of what was to become “Garveyism”.

Marcus Garvey wanted black people to emulate Easter 1916. He expounded on this topic on 27 July 1919: “The time has come for the negro race to offer up its martyrs upon the altar of liberty even as the Irish has given a long list, from Robert Emmet to Roger Casement.”

In 1919, he named the new HQ of the UNIA Movement in Harlem “Liberty Hall”, after the destroyed HQ of the Irish Transport & General Workers’ Union and the Irish Citizen Army in Dublin. In fact, he named all 30 buildings operated by the UNIA in the USA as Liberty Halls.

Garvey’s UNIA went from strength to strength and soon had over two million members. It spread internationally and was estimated to have reached, at its height, a membership of six million. It was the biggest black organisation in history.

Garvey never strayed far from Irish matters.

Just as the 1916 Rising had inspired him, Garvey also had great respect for Irish prisoners on hunger strike.

As Terence MacSwiney’s hunger strike went on and world media attention turned to it, Garvey sent a message to Father Dominic, MacSwiney’s confessor, asking him to pass on to the hunger striker the sympathy of 400 million negroes. He also sent a telegram to the British Prime Minister, asking him to intervene and save MacSwiney’s life.

Garvey also understood the powerful symbolism of a man sacrificing his life for a cause through

5 Terence MacSwiney

a hunger strike. When MacSwiney died after 74 days on hunger strike, Garvey said: “Hundreds of thousands of Irishmen have died as martyrs to the cause of Irish freedom . . . I believe that MacSwiney did more for the

Just as the 1916 Rising had inspired him, Garvey also had great respect for Irish prisoners on hunger strike freedom of Ireland today than probably anything they did for 500 years prior to his death.”

As the Tan War in Ireland grew intense, Garvey continued his efforts to support the Irish side.

After meeting an Irish-American delegation in New York, he sent one of his lieutenants,

Reverend Selkridge, to the New York docks, asking black longshoremen to join their Irish-American colleagues in boycotting British ships. This cemented Garvey’s relationship with Irish republican leaders. The forerunner of the FBI also had their eyes on Marcus Garvey.

Garvey developed a strong relationship with Éamon de Valera, the political leader on the Irish side. Garvey organised a joint meeting in 1920 where both men were due to speak. Garvey was advertised as “Provisional President of Africa” and de Valera as “Provisional President of Ireland”.

Unfortunately, the meeting was cancelled. When de Valera returned to Ireland and the Truce was announced, Garvey cabled Dev: “We, the representatives of 400,000,000 negroes of the world . . . send greetings and pray that you and your fellow countrymen will receive from the hands of the British your merited freedom.”

At the same time, Garvey sent a message to Britain’s King George V: “On principle, nothing would please the 400,000,000 negro peoples of the world more, except the freedom of Africa, than the granting of freedom to the four and a half million people of Ireland.”

Garvey’s relationship with Dev survived the former’s support for the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

Garvey viewed it as much less than what he would have liked but believed that it contained the potential to be developed further, the same argument as Michael Collins’s.

In 1932, Garvey said about Dev: “We have watched his career for several years both in Ireland and the USA where he carried on a relentless propaganda in the interests of Irish republicanism. We understand him and the spirit of the people he represents.”

Garvey’s connection with Ireland contributed to his expulsion from the United States.

His ability to mobilise huge numbers of the black population and his growing links with Irish republicans caused the US Government and its agents anxiety.

When Garvey established a new shipping

company, the Black Star line, a copy of the long-forgotten Green Star line founded by Irish-Americans, it ran into trouble and foundered.

The ambitious young J. Edgar Hoover purportedly used the bankruptcy to frame Garvey on trumped up charges of mail fraud and saw him deported to Jamaica. (The Jamaican Government is currently campaigning for a posthumous pardon. Should the Irish Government support that request?)

Garvey also created a flag for the UNIA in 1920 at the height of the Tan War. The colours are black, red and green. The green

He particularly liked the Sinn Féin policy of the local community relying on its own strength was to signify support of the Irish cause. The flag formed the basis of the national flags of several African and Caribbean countries. It is also carried by members of the “Black Lives Matter” movement at demonstrations in the USA but I doubt if many of the participants know about the Irish linkage.

The history of Irish/black relations on the east coast of the United States is often characterised by a lack of empathy on either side. It’s nice to look back at a time when Marcus Garvey was at the height of his powers and there was a strong personal relationship at leadership level.

Today there are parks, bridges and buildings named after Marcus Garvey in the USA, Canada, England and several African countries – but in the country which featured so strongly in his life, he has no monument or memorial. It is time we rectified that omission. The current redevelopment of SIPTU’s HQ at Liberty Hall offers an ideal opportunity to rectify that omission.

To those who would seek to belittle the importance of the 1916 Rising, the powerful effect it had on Jamaica alone should be ample enough evidence for second thoughts.

22 December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

Another Europe is possible Treo eile don Eoraip

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

Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz calls for immediate halt to tax havens

Joseph Stiglitz

NOBEL LAUREATE for Economics Joseph Stiglitz and the head of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT), José Antonio Campo, addressed the European Parliament’s Committee of Inquiry into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion (PANA) at the invitation of the GUE/ NGL Group on tax justice and international transparency.

Stiglitz has just co-authored a report with Swiss anti-corruption lawyer Professor Mark Pieth which originates from their resignation from Panama's own commission into the Panama Papers scandal - citing a lack of commitment from the government to undergo meaningful reforms and transparency after the revelations.

Renowned economist speaks to European Parliament’s tax and money laundering inquiry at invitation of GUE/NGL ICRICT, meanwhile, has also gone public with its own report on international tax competition.

GUE/NGL’s Fabio De Masi MEP, Vice-Chair of the PANA Committee, said in addressing Stiglitz during the hearing:

“Joe Stiglitz basically confirmed all the elements of a fairer tax system that we have long called for: starting with zero tolerance for secrecy through comprehensive and public registers for the beneficial owners of companies and trusts, as well as a fully-fledged country by country reporting.

“When battling money-laundering and tax crime, we need a strong focus on the enforcement of rules: from penalties such as licence withdrawal for banks and law firms to source taxes and restrictions on financial market access for jurisdictions that refuse to reform.

“Without tax justice, there is no end to this disastrous austerity regime in the EU. Without an end to austerity, there is no future for the EU.”

European Parliament adopts Ní Riada’s proposal for North in Budget 2017

MEPs can support farmers or trade deals like CETA but not both – Matt Carthy

Liadh Ní Riada MEP

Move commitment to upholding integrity of Good Friday Agreement

IRELAND SOUTH Liadh Ní Riada MEP has welcomed the European Parliament’s incorporation of her proposal for the need for measures to ensure the protection of the instruments of the Good Friday Agreement and the Peace Process, including support for regions such as the North and the Border areas.

She said the move “shows a welcome level of commitment to upholding the integrity of the Good Friday Agreement and I am happy to see that it is a key priority of the Parliament as demonstrated by the inclusion of the Article in the Resolution”.

She said that the Irish and British governments must now follow up in ensuring the North “gets the best out of a bad situation as a result of Brexit”, Westminster’s withdrawal from the European Union.

THE European Commission itself has proven that Irish MEPs can be on the side of farmers or support trade agreements such as the EU-Canada (CETA) deal, but they can no longer claim to do both, Midlands North West MEP Matt Carthy said after publication of a European Commission report into the Cumulative Effects of Trade Agreements.

Matt Carthy said: “Considering the findings of this report, it is not surprising that the European Commission chose to release its result only after the Wallonian Parliament was forced to accept the terms of the EU-Canada Trade Agreement (CETA).”

This report proves the “catastrophic projections” for the beef and sheep meat sectors that MEPs have consistently warned of, he said, with the success of other sectors such as pigmeat contingent only on the failure of the

European Parliament vote on CETA due to take place in December Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) parties to erode East-Asian markets.

“While the report does claim some positive effects for dairy processors, increases in production in that sector are estimated to lead to a higher availability of meat from European dairy herds, further causing a steep drop in meat prices by up to 16% “The results of this study are damning for the Irish agricultural sector and statements by the Commissioner that this study will provide ‘ammunition’ to the EU in its talks with Mercosur are delusional, to say the least.”

Matt Carthy MEP

"There is now an onus on Irish representatives at an EU level to heed the severe warnings that this report merely adds to.

"They have a choice to make in advance of the European Parliament vote on CETA, due to take place in December," Matt Carthy said.

"They can either support Irish farmers or they can support regressive trade deals such as CETA and TTIP, but they can't do both."

GUE/NGL unreservedly condemns arrests of HDP leaders and MPs in Turkey THE European United Left/Nordic Green Left Group (GUE/NGL) in the European Parliament has unreservedly condemned the arrests of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chairs and eight other HDP MPs in Turkey.

HDP co-chairs Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş, as well as eight other members of the Grand National Assembly, were arrested on 4 and 7 November.

These arrests are part of what GUE/NGL called “a months-long assault” on HDP politicians by President Erdoğan and the AKP government.

Since May 2016, 55 out of 59 HDP MPs have been stripped of their parliamentary immunity, and thousands of HDP executive members and affiliates are currently detained, including mayors and local councillors.

GUE/NGL has called on Commission President Juncker, Council President Tusk, Commission Vice-President Mogherini and the heads of states and governments of the European Union to: » Revoke the EU-Turkey statement, putting an end to this agreement;

» Freeze the accession negotiations until the rule of law has been restored; » Consider sanctions against the Turkish authorities.

Meanwhile, MEP Matt Carthy has written to Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan and to EU Foreign Affairs representative Frederica Mogherina on the political crackdown.

“The rationale provided for these mass political arrests is spurious and the development is entirely unacceptable,” he said.

December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

Matt Carthy

Martina Anderson

Liadh Ní Riada

Lynn Boylan

23

www.guengl.eu

are MEPs and members of the GUE/NGL Group in the European Parliament

Lynn Boylan MEP joins European Parliament Brexit Working Group

Lynn Boylan MEP

LYNN BOYLAN MEP has been appointed as a representative to the European Parliament Brexit Working Group for the Employment & Social Affairs Committee.

“It is a great honour to have been appointed by my parliamentary group, GUE/NGL, to serve as our representative on this European Parliament Working Group on Brexit, the British Government’s withdrawal from the EU. “It is especially important that Ireland has its voice heard here in the European Parliament, not only to educate our colleagues from across the EU on the precarious position that Ireland now finds itself in due to the Brexit vote but also to get across the necessity in making sure

5 A large crowd from various sectors attended the Louth event

Disability rights conference in Louth hears ‘Brexit will take us backwards’ MEP MARTINA ANDERSON hosted a major conference in County Louth to discuss the impact of Britain’s “Brexit” EU referendum on people with disabilities.

The ‘Unite For Rights’ conference brought together a range of experts from across Europe to examine disability rights.

Among those taking part in the conference were:Les Allamby, from the North’s Human Rights Commission; Monica Wilson, Disability Action; British Labour Party MEP Julie Ward; and An-Sofie Leenknecht, Human Rights Officer with the European Disability Forum.

Speaking at the conference, Martina Anderson said: “We face the challenges of austerity, the failure to ratify the United Nations Convention on the

Important that voice of all Ireland heard in British withdrawal from EU that Ireland does not suffer collateral damage in the fall-out of the negotiations.

“Every day 30,000 workers go between the North and South of Ireland for work. It is imperative that their concerns are raised in Brussels.

“It further provides the platform to make sure that my colleagues realise that the North of

Ireland voted to remain in the EU and that their wishes should be respected.”

She said it will also allow her the opportunity to outline what needs to change about the EU to address the issues which caused the Brexit vote, “such as who and why people have started to lose faith in the European project and what radical and progressive reform is needed to make sure the EU returns to its core principles of a social and caring Europe and a Europe of equals”.

• Lynn has also been appointed as a key negotiator on tightening up advertising and marketing to children, including ‘junk food’, on TV, radio and social media.

5 Kyla Hollywood, Campaigns Officer with Trailblazers (Muscular Dystrophy network of young disabled campaigners), at the conference with Matt Carthy MEP, Martina Anderson MEP and Mickey Brady MP

‘Unite for Rights’ brings together experts from across Europe Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the British Government’s plan to scrap the Human Rights Act, and we face Brexit.

“It is shameful and unacceptable that the Irish Government has not ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities “It has taken decades to build rights and protections, to put people at the centre of policies, whether at a European level or indeed here in Ireland.

“Brexit will take us backwards. We need to unite to protect those rights.”

5 MEPs Martina Anderson and Julie Ward, MLAs Catherine Seeley and Cathal Boylan, TD Gerry Adams and MP Mickey Brady are pictured with An-Sofie Leenknecht and other speakers

24 December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

Ar an chéad dul síos, foilsíodh an t-alt seo ar an bhlag ‘Ag Smaoineamh Os Ard’. Tá Ursula ina Feidhmeannach Anailíse agus Taighde ag Conradh na Gaeilge. Is as Ard Mhacha Theas í ó dhúchas. Sa phíosa seo, tugann sí súil ar ábhar mór i saol an scríbhneora Gaeilge: an féincheartú!

PARDON MY LANGUAGE

Ursula Ní Shabhaois I’VE ALWAYS been self-conscious about my Irish when writing. I’ve had quite a few conversations with people lately saying the same thing – that they are reluctant to use their Irish online (whether on Facebook, Twitter or in a blog post) because they’re not confident enough that their grammar is accurate or that the syntax is correct. I think it’s a problem that affects a lot of people, and I wonder how often it holds people back from using their Irish in the way that they want.

Before I started working with Irish every day I was always afraid that my Irish wasn’t good enough to send to other people or to use professionally. Those nerves don’t go away but, gradually, I realised that if I let that get in my way too much then I wouldn’t be using any Irish at all. On the other hand, if I did start using as much Irish as I had – and working on it as I went – things could only improve.

In the work that I do, I need to write in Irish all the time. Emails, reports, ‘to do’ lists, all of it is in Irish but that doesn’t mean for a minute that I’m not concerned about my Irish or how it comes across to those reading it.

Any time I start into a new topic at work it takes me a while to become comfortable with the new vocabulary and phrases which go with it. That’s only natural.

When I started working in Dublin it took (and takes) me a while to listen to and read other dialects of Irish without feeling that there’s a barrier there. Fortunately, I work with colleagues who are well-used to fielding my questions and make getting over those obstacles much easier. The more time spent around Irish speakers and the more advice sought from my lecturers all helped me become more confident in what I was doing.

I’ve had plenty of conversations with people lately talking about Irish and how they were always so cautious about using their Irish. Whether that’s speaking with people or in writing things online, people put so much thought into how their Irish is going to come across to others. It goes further than just being cautious about what you’re writing and it sometimes prevents people from using their Irish because they’re so worried about how or whether other people will notice their mistakes.

I was recently speaking to someone studying Irish

She gets nervous that people would correct her while she speaks to them, so she often switches to English to avoid the hassle. Who are these people who do things like that in a casual conversation?

at university. She told me about how she’d love to use more of her Irish but that she gets nervous that people would correct her while she speaks to them, so she often switches to English to avoid the hassle. All I could think was ‘Who are these people who do things like that in a casual conversation?’

Unless you’re in a classroom situation or as part of a job, people generally don’t do things like that. Unsolicited advice or corrections aren’t something that happen in everyday conversation in my experience. That’s not something people generally do.

I know that it’s important to keep learning. Grammar and structure are the foundations of the language and it’s very important to establish good habits while learning a language, but I still think it’s better that people use the Irish that they have instead of fretting over whether or not something is perfect before putting it out there.

Anyone reading my Irish-language posts will know

that my own Irish-language grammar leaves a lot to be desired, but it’s a work in progress. It’s getting better over time.

Sometimes I look back at things I’ve written months ago and instead of becoming embarrassed about the mistakes that I’ve made I can be pleased that I’ve learnt enough to be able to recognise where I went wrong so I’ll know for the next time.

At the end of the day, when you’re speaking to someone or writing something online and you’re not sure if you have everything 100% correct, the worst thing it can be is wrong. That’s not the end of the world.

Beatha teanga í a labhairt, the way to keep a language alive is to speak it and it’s so much better to use your Irish, flawed as it may be, rather than to hide it away because you’re afraid of what someone might think of it.

Labhair cibé Gaeilge atá agat – speak whatever Irish you have; the rest will fall into place.

December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

25

DIRECT PROVISION IN IRELAND

Life and death in limbo

BY BARRY KEARNEY A KOREAN WOMAN in her early 30s came to Ireland in February, seeking asylum for herself and her young child. They were given a small room to live in at the Kinsale Road Accommodation Centre in Cork.

It was here that the mother and child lived and slept together in a cramped, single room, surrounded by bags of rubbish and awoken at night by the noise or wailing cries of neighbours.

They shared communal showers with strangers and ate in a canteen at set times.

The mother was told that she was prohibited from working in Ireland and therefore could not provide for herself or her child. They had no right to child maintenance, social welfare or rent allowance. They were granted a weekly allowance of €30 between them – an amount of money which was to supposed to cover all their expenses, including food and toiletries.

She endured six torturous and isolated months of alienation until, it seems, she could take no more.

In August, gardaí were called to Kinsale Road.

The young Korean mother, You Jung Han, had taken her own life. Her body was found by her son. He was six years old.

This is Direct Provision in Ireland in 2016.

Direct Provision was initially established in 1999 as a TEMPORARY living solution to asylum seekers seeking residency. Many people, however, are forced to live in limbo for up to 11 years in conditions that have been domestically and internationally described as a severe violation of human rights.

Why is this happening? Why do consecutive governments continue to ignore dealing with Direct Provision?

Is its existence to deter other asylum seekers from coming to Ireland and to ensure existing asylum seekers do not establish links within Irish society?

In July of last year, the Fine Gael/Labour Government said as much.

Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald, in a written response to a Dáil Question, said that the state could alter the system but that it would cost almost twice the money, so therefore it wasn’t feasible! She also argued that by improving the system you could create a “major pull factor” for other asylum seekers. Frances Fitzgerald is also Minister for Justice and Equality.

Yes, the Minister for Justice and Equaliy

5 Asylum seekers, refugees, human rights supporters and members of the public protest at the Department of Justice in Dublin

5 Young mother You Jung Han driven to suicide

effectively tells the national parliament that when there is no cheaper alternative to giving people their human rights, you just decide not to.

The Irish Government is well aware of the substantial amount of critical evidence provided by a host of organisations in opposition to Direct Provision.

In May 2015, a Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions report found the system to be “not fit for purpose”. The committee cited the delay in processing applications as unacceptable. They found that of the 4,500 people in Direct Provision, over half had been living in ‘temporary’ accommodation for five years or longer.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (“independent authority set up to drive high-quality and safe care for people using our health and social care services in Ireland”) submitted their own findings to the committee. HIQA declared that Direct Provision is of “grave concern” to the mental health of those living in such conditions.

HIQA’s findings were supported by an in-depth study carried out by The Irish Times, which presented submissions from people who had previously lived in such conditions. Individuals claimed that they had entered Direct Provision as a “normal person” and left “abnormal” with issues of anxiety and depression and therefore found it incredibly difficult to integrate into society.

The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in June 2015 found Direct Provision to be a “severe violation of human rights”. It said that Ireland was not doing near enough to grant asylum seekers refugee status.

They found that Ireland was way below the average for granting refugees status. Between the years 2000 and 2014, Ireland’s average approval rate was 4.22% – the EU average was 6.78%.

Ireland rejected on average 37.7% of applicants, which meant that 43.9% of cases were not even dealt with per year.

Direct Provision has been in existence since 1999, during which time Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Labour, the Progressive Democrats and the Green Party have all sat at the Cabinet table and have

‘I won’t stand over a system of people living in limbo’

Labour Minister for Direct Provision Aodhán Ó Ríordán said the system was inhumane and made him ashamed to be Irish, but he did nothing to change it

chosen to do nothing meaningful to address the situation.

In 2014, then Minister for Equality Aodhán Ó Ríordáin TD visited a Direct Provision centre in Galway and was unequivocal in his criticism afterwards: “I am ashamed to be Irish. This system is not humane. I won’t stand over a system of people living in limbo.”

5 Mosney and Lissywollen Direct Provision centres. Over half of those seeking residency have been living in ‘temporary’ accommodation for five years or longer

In February’s general election, the Labour deputy lost his seat and his ministry. He’s moved on and found a new home in the Seanad but the asylum seekers in that centre are still there.

So what could the Irish Government do to improve the situation? Here’s three actions: Speed up the application process of granting refugee status, including fast-tracking all applications that are five years outstanding; Allow people in Direct Provision the right to work to integrate into society and earn a living to support themselves because €19 a week certainly does not do that; Give young people in Direct Provision the right to apply for third-level education grants to vaildate a republic cherishing all children equally, not just those born here.

26 December / Nollaig 2016 IN JUNE 2014 the Office of the First and deputy First Ministers (OFM/DFM), then occupied by Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, put the Executive’s new Racial Equality Strategy out for consultation.

The proposals were developed with minority ethnic representative groups and representatives of the wider community through the OFM/DFM’s Racial Equality Panel.

The public consultation exercise ended on 10 October 2014.

To monitor the success of the Racial Equality Strategy, the OFM/DFM, in conjunction with an expert advisory group, developed a draft set of racial equality indicators for consultation.

This consultation looked specifically at the racial equality indicators and ran concurrently with the main Racial Equality Strategy consultation.

The indicators take into account the shared aims and objectives of the forthcoming Racial Equality Strategy and measure progress under a set of four key strategic priorities: 1) The equality of service provision (including health, education, housing, employment, learning and sport); 2) Combating prejudice, racism and hate crime; 3) Participation, representation and belonging; 4) Respecting cultural diversity.

www.anphoblacht.com

SINN FÉIN CALLS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF RACIAL EQUALITY STRATEGY

REARING ITS UGLY HEAD FROM TOP TO BOTTOM

BY PEADAR WHELAN one coin. If people have always been sectarian it’s very easy for them to be racist.”

The DUP dismissed Lo’s comments as “puerile and unfounded” but one DUP-supporting blogger tweeted: “I think it might be time to go home, Anna.” Anna Lo has lived in Belfast longer than her antagonist has.

This casual attitude to racism was illustrated when DUP East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson was recorded by the BBC during a walkabout in Carrickfergus in March about EU membership ahead of the “Brexit” referendum on 23 June. A man Wilson spoke to volunteered: “I’d say get out of it. Between you and me get the ethnics out

RACISM was thrust back into the headlines when former Alliance Party MLA Anna Lo publicly branded the North’s largest party, Arlene Foster’s Democratic Unionist Party, as “the most racist party in Northern Ireland”.

Figures show that as many as three racist incidents per day are reported in the North.

The PSNI in August reveal the staggering number of race crimes – 1,133, occurred in the 12 months up to 12 June this year.

In an Assembly debate on 11 October, calling for the implementation of the Racial Equality Strategy and the Together: Building a United Community Strategy, Sinn Féin Fermanagh/ South Tyrone Assembly member Seán Lynch stated that, in the past four years, there’s been an 87% increase in race hate crime.

Lynch’s Private Member’s debate calling for the Executive to implement the Racial Equality

In a 2014 briefing, Ricky Irwin of the OFM/DFM said:

“The strategy also sets out how departments will work in partnership with others in pursuit of the strategic aims. We believe that the proposals in the document, which aim to promote racial equality and tackle racism, will help to raise awareness of the issues and responsibilities in this area. They will foster good relations and thus promote greater social cohesion and equality of opportunity for everyone here.”

In the past four years, there’s been an 87% increase in race hate crime Strategy comes after a two-year delay arising from the refusal of the then DUP leader, Peter Robinson, to sign off on the draft agreement despite Sinn Féin ministers in the Executive, led

by Martin McGuinness, having done so.

In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph on 24 October, Anna Lo (born in Hong Kong, of Cantonese-Chinese ethnicity, who retired from the Assembly prior to this year’s elections), said of the DUP: “Over the years, many of their councillors and MLAs have made negative comments about ethnic minorities. Plenty of times they haven’t condemned racist incidents in their areas.”

She added: “Sectarianism and racism are two sides of the

‘Sectarianism and racism are two sides of the one coin’ – Anna Lo 5 Martin McGuinness – leading

5 Anna Lo – criticism dismissed by DUP

too.” The DUP MP replied: “You are absolutely right, you know.” Wilson later claimed he was agreeing only with the first statement and not the latter about “ethnics” although he did not make this clear at the time.

It seemed to fit in with a trend in the DUP, even amongst senior figures speaking publicly.

Two years ago, then DUP leader and First Minister Peter Robinson felt he had to make a personal visit to Belfast’s Islamic Centre to apologise in person when he appeared to endorse fundamentalist Christian preacher Pastor James McConnell, who had denounced Islam as evil and satanic.

“It is a duty of any Christian preacher to denounce or demonise false doctrine. He's perfectly entitled to do that,” the DUP leader declared, adding: “I wouldn’t trust Muslims to give me spiritual advice, I wouldn’t trust Muslims who are following Sharia law to the letter and neither would he.

“However, as I have said in many of the normal daily activities of life, I would have no difficulty

December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

27

5 Racism needs to be tackled without prejudice and with respect for human rights

5 Protests over remarks made by former DUP leader and First Minister Peter Robinson

in trusting Muslims to go down to the shop for me, to give me the right change . . .”

Gregory Campbell, DUP MP for East Derry, made insulting comments about the Irish language and Irish speakers in his address to the party’s annual conference in 2015.

South Antrim DUP MLA Paul Girvan said to a colleague at a Stormont committee meeting last December that scrap metal dealers should be armed with guns to protect themselves from “gypsies”. (Girvan had previously said he had no problem with Irish Tricolours being burned on loyalist bonfires.)

DUP East Derry MLA Adrian McQuillan posted on Facebook a warning to people to make sure their homes were locked up after Travellers moved onto a site in Garvagh in April.

In September, former DUP Councillor Jenny Palmer (who has defected to the Ulster Unionists) was at the centre of a race controversy when she responded to a jibe on Facebook about housing refugees by saying: “I have two dogs, don’t need any more. Lol.” Mike Nesbitt’s new recruit later apologised and deleted the post, claiming that her “careless words . . . were intended as a joking remark regarding the busyness of my own home – that between myself, my husband, our dogs and my daughter, we would struggle to accommodate anyone else”.

Jenny Palmer’s ‘dog whistle racism’, the public propagation – not just tolerance – of coded or

casual racism by ‘respectable’ political figures who are supposed to be leaders in their communities, gives tacit approval to bigotry and to physical attacks on the streets against people of colour or different ethnic backgrounds.

In September, Belfast’s Islamic Centre was again the target of a paint-bomb attack.

A young Romanian mother was attacked with stones by young school students who filmed their taunting of her on their camera phones The following month, in Antrim town, a young Romanian mother was attacked with stones by young school students who filmed their taunting of her on their camera phones as they jeered: “You’re not a girl; you’re an immigrant. You shouldn’t be in this country. Do you have a visa to stay here? Do you have a passport? Come on and show me it.”

When she tells them she is from Romania,

they say they don’t like Romanians and expose their ignorance further by saying she’s a “suicide bomber”.

Also in October, on Donegall Avenue in Belfast, a man was assaulted and hit with a bottle and curtain pole while a woman was struck on the head with a paint pot in the same incident.

Westminster immigration chiefs have recently paid £2,000 compensation to a British passport holder ordered to produce ID at George Best Belfast City Airport because officials said she “looked foreign and not from here”. The woman is black. She has lived in Britain and the North of Ireland for 16 years. She was just driving someone to the airport.

“I wasn’t travelling, or passing through an immigration point, and I am a British citizen,” she said, repeating what she had told officers. “I was doing what many other people do without incident, dropping off my relative for her flight.”

And in an echo of how non-whites were treated in apartheid South Africa by being compelled to carry “pass books” to identify them to authorities, the woman added: “One of my children has asked me if we now have to carry our passports everywhere with us.”

While political figures from Sinn Féin and the SDLP have been proactive in opposing racism – including the rise in racism after the Brexit referendum result – voices of condemnation from the unionist parties (apart from

Alliance) have been absent, muffled or even tacitly approving.

The foreign national population in the North of Ireland have never felt more insecure about their vulnerability to xenophobic attitudes.

Sinn Féin’s Seán Lynch, during the Assembly debate, challenged the policing and judicial system to confront this racism head on, saying

A British passport holder was ordered to produce ID at George Best Belfast City Airport because she ‘looked foreign and not from here’ it is “a challenge that must be met without prejudice and with respect for human rights”.

It is also imperative that the prejudices inherent in the welfare system and other state agencies are tackled and confronted with the same vigour as people would challenge racist thugs attacking someone in the street. Racism must be rooted out at all levels of our society.

28 December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com BOOK REVIEWS BY MICHAEL MANNION

Contrary account of ‘The Countess’ Markievicz – A Most Outrageous Rebel

By Lindie Naughton Merrion Press €17.99 & €39.99

LINDIE NAUGHTON’S new biography of Constance Markievicz is an accessible and highly readable account of the life of one of the Republic’s great heroines.

Naughton is a journalist rather than an historian and that is reflected in the presentation of this book. There are none of the copious footnotes or detailed references in the body of the text that one would normally find in a more academic biography. This can be quite frustrating if one wishes to examine the sources for some of the author's more contentious assertions, such as Constance Markievicz’s plea for “order and peace” after the signing of the Treaty and her “conciliatory” words to the pro-Treaty faction, when all other evidence would suggest a contrary viewpoint.

There is a comprehensive 12-page bibliography, listing a vast selection of the principal books covering the relevant period, but as none of it is referenced to the text, it’s really just a big reading list.

Every author approaches their subject with a certain level of bias or partiality, no matter how much they

strive for objectivity. Lindie Naughton’s particular leanings would appear to be pro-Treaty and strongly feminist.

Whilst the latter is obviously a laudable viewpoint, one wonders if an historical biography is really the place for statements such as “The fight for women’s equality began with the arrival of convenient birth control” or the sloganising “It would be a long, hard battle, and it is far from over today”. There is a feeling that at times Constance Markievicz is merely a convenient vehicle for Naughton’s own personal agenda.

To be fair, this is more nit-picking than criticism, and the views (on feminism at least) would

undoubtedly strike a chord with “The Countess”. This does not profess to be some academic volume but rather an account of Constance Markievicz’s life, and as such the author should probably be granted a little more leeway.

The book charts the life of Constance Gore-Booth, starting with her idyllic childhood in Sligo and her adoption of women’s suffrage as her first political involvement. Her life is then chronicled until her premature death in 1927.

All the main points are covered: her marriage, her socialism, her nationalism, Easter Week, the Tan War, and the Civil War and its aftermath. There is nothing particularly new in this book, no ground-breaking research or revelations, but it is well-written and an immensely readable account for someone looking for a good read rather than a textbook.

A proper Charlie?

Charlie One: The True Story of an Irishman in the British Army and His Role in Covert Counter-Terrorism Operations in Northern Ireland Merrion Press €13.99

THIS is one of those ‘undercover soldier memoirs’ where the reader has to decide whether the whole thing is complete fantasy, an accurate account of the author’s actual experiences, or a mixture of both.

“Seán Hartnett” is a nom-de-plume.

He purports to be a Corkman and lifelong Sinn Féin supporter who joined the British Army (!) and then served for some years in the Six Counties as a member of the highly-secret “Joint Communications Unit - Northern Ireland” (JCU-NI).

This was the latest incarnation of Britain’s covert units to operate in the North and was a direct successor to previous surveillance/death squads such as the FRU (Force Research Unit), the MRF (Military Reaction Force) and the 14th Intelligence Company, all of whom had been deeply involved in assassinations. The author admits that he knew of this history through “many books I had read about collusion, death squads and covert operations in Northern Ireland”. He then states that, as a result, the JCU-NI “sounded interesting” and as there would be “no uniform, little rank to speak of . . . and additional pay, it all sounded good”.

The author details many covert operations designed for intelligence gathering, including the bugging of Martin and

5 Covert operations - bugging equipment found in Andrew McCartney's home

Willie McGuinness and Raymond and Andrew McCartney.

“Charlie One”, the book’s title, comes from the designation given by the British military to its prime target in a given operational area.

It should be borne in mind that these events occurred between 2001 and 2004, long after the Good Friday Agreement and therefore completely undermining the author’s stated claim of joining the British Army to “fight terrorism” and “save lives”. The vast majority of the operations detailed in the book are unlawful and, as hostilities had ceased years earlier, it is difficult to understand what the justification was for undertaking them. The author avoids this dilemma by not attempting any justification and merely writing in the format of “We’re the goodies, everyone else the baddies”. There is never an attempt at analysis of the legality, let alone the morality, of his actions.

He criticises the 1987 Loughgall ambush of eight IRA Volunteers, not on moral grounds (although he acknowledges that the Active Service Unit could have been intercepted and arrested) but as a tactical error because it increased sympathy and support for the IRA. The book covers many notable events, including the shooting of the two JCU-NI corporals in Belfast and the discovery of bugging devices in Raymond McCartney’s house in Derry.

Lesser-known incidents are also recalled, such as a planned “shoot to kill” ambush of so-called “Real IRA” activists and a drunken helicopter joy-ride crash.

It’s a well-written book full of interesting anecdotes and whilst elements don’t stand up to scrutiny, the fact that the British Ministry of Defence used all its powers to attempt to ban publication might make it worth looking at if you see it lying in your library but avoid buying it and adding to this character’s pension pot.

December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

I nDíl Chuimhne 1 December 1975: Volunteer Laura CRAWFORD, Cumann na mBan, Belfast; Volunteer Paul FOX, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

2 December 1984: Volunteer Antoine MacGIOLLA BHRIGHDE, County Derry Brigade; Volunteer Ciarán FLEMING, Derry Brigade.

3 December1973: Volunteer Joe WALKER, Derry Brigade.

4 December 1972: Fian Bernard FOX, Fian Seán HUGHES, Fianna Éireann.

4 December 1983: Volunteer Brian CAMPBELL, Volunteer Colm McGIRR, Tyrone Brigade.

5 December 1975: Volunteer Terry BRADY, North Armagh Brigade.

6 December 1975: Volunteer James LOCHRIE, Volunteer Seán CAMPBELL, South Armagh Brigade.

6 December 1984: Volunteer Danny DOHERTY, Volunteer Willie FLEMING, Derry Brigade.

7 December 1974 Volunteer Ethel

All notices and obituaries should be sent to notices@anphoblacht.com by Friday 16 December 2016

Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations PÁDRAIG PEARSE

LYNCH, Volunteer John McDAID, Derry Brigade.

7 December 1987: Volunteer Peter RODDEN, North Antrim Brigade.

8 December 1971: Volunteer Tony NOLAN, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

10 December 1975: Volunteer David KENNEDY, North Armagh Brigade.

15 December 1972: Volunteer Louis LEONARD, South Fermanagh Brigade.

15 December 1973: Volunteer Jim McGINN, Tyrone Brigade.

17 December 1971: Volunteer Charles AGNEW, North Armagh Brigade.

17 December 1984: Volunteer Seán McILVENNA, North Armagh Brigade.

18 December 1971: Volunteer James SHERIDAN, Volunteer John BATESON, Volunteer Martin LEE, County Derry Brigade.

21 December 1971: Volunteer Gerald McDADE, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

21 December 1974: Volunteer Brian FOX, England.

24 December 1973: Volunteer Brendan QUINN, Newry Brigade.

24 December 1973: Volunteer Edward GRANT, Newry Brigade.

24 December 1982: Volunteer Phil O’DONNELL, Derry Brigade.

FÓGRAÍ BHÁIS

27 December 1971: Volunteer Jack McCABE, GHQ Staff.

27 December 1972: Volunteer Eugene DEVLIN, Tyrone Brigade.

29 December 1972: Volunteer James McDAID, Derry Brigade.

30 December 1990: Volunteer Ferghal CARAHER, South Armagh Brigade.

30 December 1991: Volunteer Damien BROLLY, Donegal Brigade.

Always remembered by the Republican Movement.

CAMPBELL, Brian; McGIRR, Colm. In proud and loving memory of Óglaigh Brian Campbell and Colm McGirr, East Tyrone Brigade IRA, murdered by undercover SAS operatives in Coalisland, County Tyrone, 4 December 1983. Always remembered by Mulvoy, Campbell & McGirr Sinn Féin Cumann, Galway City East. “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children.”

IN PICTURES

29

Comhbhrón HOLDEN. Deepest sympathy and condolences to the family and friends of Michael Holden who passed away recently. From Gerry Mac Lochlainn, Derry City.

» 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. » 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.

photos@anphoblacht.com

John Burke Aughyoule, Derrylin, Fermanagh THE news of the recent death of John Burke, at the age of 72, was received with great sadness in the Fermanagh/Cavan border area as well as further afield.

John was a proud member of the Mountain Road Pipe Band from an early age and he honed his talent throughout his life. He held strong republican beliefs and was a familiar face to the republican family, often piping at commemorations and funerals of fellow republicans. Most recently, John piped at the annual Kevin Coen Commemoration in January of this year.

John’s funeral at St Ninnidh’s Church in Derrylin demonstrated the esteem in which he was held by his community, his friends and his neighbours.

Tributes were paid describing him as a simple man who led a quiet life and this is how he will be remembered, in his gracious and modest ways with a smile upon his face.

Gerry Mac, a fellow piper with the Mountain Road Pipe Band, accompanied John’s remains as they were brought into the chapel.

The funeral was a poignant occasion made more so by the evocative uileann piping of John’s nephew, Shane Burke, who also led the procession to the adjoining cemetery with laments played on bagpipes.

John’s coffin was draped in the national flag. Seán Lynch MLA and Councillor Barry Doherty, as well as a large number of the republican family, attended the funeral to pay their respects to John who was held in such high regard.

John was predeceased by his brothers Patrick and Tony (RIP) and leaves behind his brothers Brendan (USA) and Gabriel and his sisters Mary, Carmel, Rosaleen, Geraldine and Bernadette and a wide family circle.

The most sincere heartfelt sympathy is extended to the family on their sad loss by the local MacManus, Murphy & Coen Sinn Féin cumann as well as all of his friends in the wider republican community.

John will be sadly missed and surely we will pause to remember him wherever the pipes are played.

5 Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams speaks at the renaming of a street to 'Easter Rising Way' in the New York Borough of Queens, USA

5 The colour party leads the parade to the opening of the new Garden of Reflection in Ardoyne, north Belfast

5 Wreaths are laid at the commemoration for Volunteers Patricia Black and Frankie Ryan, who died on active service in England in 1991

30 December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

Sligo Senior Football League, Grange, County Sligo

PHOTOGRAPHER Paul Carroll has spent the last six years capturing the action of Gaelic club games in their unique and amazing surroundings in all 32 counties of Ireland for his book Gaelic Fields.

Football, hurling, camogie and ladies football games are photographed at all adult levels by the Cork-based Carroll.

Starting the work in 2010, he travelled over 50,000kms, focusing exclusively on club games.

Gaelic Fields features the beauty of games played on the fields of Aran and Inisturk Islands, and from south Kerry and the Glens of Antrim to the urban landscapes of Cork, Dublin and Belfast and scores of locations in between.

The publication of Gaelic Fields is being made possible by a Kickstarter online fundraising campaign Carroll ran in August and September.

In 28 days he raised over €14,000 in preorders via the crowd-funding platform.

Carroll believes it’s the first photography documentary to focus exclusively on grassroots Gaelic games and the locations they are played in. He decided to tackle the project after being inspired by Dutch photographer Hans Van Der Meer's work European Fields, which photographed grassroots soccer games throughout Europe over 10 years.

Carroll realised that Gaelic games had never been captured in this way in Ireland.

“We are often not mindful of what’s around us,” he says. “We Irish can take for granted the amazing locations and beauty in every county on the island.”

He set out to explore the different locations of Gaelic clubs and the identity they bring

Inishturk 7’s Tournament, Inishturk Island, County Mayo

Gaelicfields

@gaelicfields

Grassroots games captured on camera

All-Ireland’s ‘Gaelic Fields’

Divison 2 Antrim Hurling League, Belfast City, County Antrim

‘The GAA is a vibrant and important grassroots movement’ PAUL CARROLL

to communities. What he discovered will be common knowledge to people within small Gaelic games communities everywhere: “The club is a local support system which accommodates all social levels in both urban and rural areas. During the seven-year period it took to create Gaelic Fields, clubs have withstood a recession and the mass emigration of many of their young players. The GAA is a vibrant and important grassroots movement.”

The photographic journey was funded by his work in two social care settings in Cork City: one of these posts is working with 18- to 25-year-olds who are at risk of being homeless; the other is as organiser of Cork’s Homeless Street League.

In his free time Carroll travelled more than the circumference of the Earth within Ireland, capturing Gaelic games and their locations at their very heart.

Carroll was greeted well but with bemusement on some his journeys: “Ninety-nine times out of 100, people were very nice but you can’t blame someone for being quizzical about why a photographer had travelled from Cork to a ‘Junior A’ football game in Dring, County Longford, on a Thursday evening.”

On one of the trips he put down his camera for a team that was short a few players. He played one half of one game, scored a point and afterwards went to work a nightshift.

“For 30 minutes of a game I became part of my own project,” he says with added satisfaction.

The book should be in shops in early December or it can be preordered at www.gaelicfields. com/the-book

Laois Senior League Football, Portarlington, County Laois

December / Nollaig 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

31

Le Trevor Ó Clochartaigh Ionad nua do chuairteoirí oscailte ach easpa béime ar an réabhlóideachais

Fís an Phiarsaigh Fós le Fíorú i Ros Muc D’OSCAIL IONAD CUAIRTEOIRÍ ag Teach an Phiarsaigh i Ros Muc ar an 10ú Samhain, cothrom an lae ar rugadh Pádraig Mac Piarais.

Is é an Taoiseach Enda Kenny a rinne an oscailt oifigiúil, i gcuideachta an tAire Stáit Gaeltachta Sean Kyne agus an rud ba suntasaí ná a laghad tagairt a rinne ceachtar den bheirt ar ról an tírghráthóir seo leis an Eirí Amach ná gluaiseacht na Poblachta.

Go deimhin, tá beag is fiú déanta san ionad féin dó seo chomh maith, dar liom.

Bunaíodh Ionad Cuairteoirí Theach an Phiarsaigh i ndiaidh feachtas pobail atá ar bun le ós cionn scór bliana. Údarás na Gaeltachta a bhí i mbun an togra tógála, Oifig na nOibreacha Poiblí a bheidh i mbun bainistíochta agus fuair

Murach na fonnadóirí agus ceoltoirí bhreátha agus an beannú ionsparáideach a rinne an sagart paróiste is ar éigin a bheadh fhios agat ag an ócáíd oscailte go raibh baint ar bith ag an bPiarsach leis an Eirí Amach, ná go raibh Eirí Amach an ar chor ar bith! siad tacaíocht airgid chomh maith ó Roinn na Gaeltachta, Fáilte Éireann agus ó Chlár Cuimhneacháin 1916.

Ionad ildána atá ann le taispeántais idirghníomhacha, físeáin, cláracha eolais agus pictiúir ar ghnéithe éagsúla de shaol an Phiarsaigh, tírdhreach Chonamara, scríbhneoirí agus oidhreacht an cheantair. Tá siúlóid álainn dúlra ann as sin go dtí an teachín beag ceann tuí ar bhruach na locha ina mbíodh an Piarsach, a chlann agus pearsaí iomráiteacha stairiúla eile ag cur futhu ag tús an chéid seo caite.

Teachín beag athchóirithe atá ansin, a bhfuil

a aghaidh amach ar na lochanna draíochtacha agus ar shléibhte Chonamara. Bhain Pádraig Mac Piarais duine de cheannairí Éirí Amach na Cásca 1916 úsáid as mar theach samhraidh agus mar scoil samhraidh dá dhaltaí as Scoil Naomh Éanna i mBaile Átha Cliath idir 1909 agus 1915. Dódh an teachín le linn Cogadh na Saoirse, ach athchóiríodh an taobh istigh de, áit a bhfuil taispeántas d’iarsmaí anois ann.

Tá c u m a an-mhaith ar an ionad cuairteoirí féin leis an gceart a thabhairt agus tá moladh faoi leith tuillte ag foireann Údarás na Gaeltachta a bhí ag bainistiú an togra tógála. Caitheadh €4m ar thógail an ionaid agus chuaigh sé thríd roinnt leaganacha amach thar na blianta. Ach, luíonn an ionad críochnaithe isteach go maith leis an tírdhreach álainn ina bhfuil sé suite.

Duine ildánach a bhí sa bPiarsach gan amhras.

Tá cur síos ar an ról a bhí aige ó thaobh cur chun cinn na Gaeilge, an bhaint a bhí aige le gluaiseacht na h-athbheochana agus freisin mar oideachasóir agus bunú Scoil Éanna agus an fhealsúnacht forásach a bhí aige maidir le cúrsaí foghlamtha.

Bhí mé féin ag súil le i bhfad níos mó béime ar

an gcúlra reabhlóideach a bhí ag an bPiarsach, na h-ullmhúchán don Éirí Amach, na daoine éagsúla a thug cuairt ar an bPiarsach i Ros Muc fad is a bhí sé ansin agus mar sin de. Braithim gur chóir go mbeadh níos mó béime ar an bpleanáil mhíleata, an fhealsúnacht fuascailte agus na h-óráidí cumasacha a thug sé, ina measc an óráid a thug sé ag uaigh Uí Dhonnabháín

Rossa – a scríobhadh fad is a bhí sé i Ros Muc. Seans go bhfuil sé ann ins na taispeáintais dhigiteacha, ach níl sé suntasach agus tú ag siúl timpeall an ionaid. Go deimhin, ar an lá oscailte ni raibh coip d’Fhorógra na Poblachta le feiceáil san ionad, cé go dtugtar aitheantas don Phiarsach as an chuid is mó de a scríobh.

Le bheith fírinnneach, is le teann náire a cuireadh iachaill ar an Rialtas dul i mbun an togra seo ar an gcéad dul síos. Murach na fonnadóirí agus ceoltoirí bhreátha, Pól Ó Ceannabháin, Róisín Seoighe agus Johnny Óg Connolly agus an beannú ionsparáideach a rinne an sagart paróiste Gearóid Ó Gríofa, is ar éigin a bheadh fhios agat ag an ócáid oscailte go raibh baint ar bith ag an bPiarsach leis an Eirí Amach, ná go raibh Eirí Amach an ar chor ar bith!

Ach, ós rud e go bhfuil an ionad tógtha anois, ní foláir cinntiú go dtugtar an t-omós cuí don intleachtóir, oideachasóir, cróga, réabhlóideach poblachtánach seo.

Caithfear ionad bheo a dhéanamh di, ina mbeidh neart ócáidí spreagúla ar bun ag muintir na h-áite agus dreamanna eile.

Caithfear fís an Phiarsaigh a chomóradh agus a chraobhscaoileadh do na glúnta atá romhainn.

Agus thar aon ní eile caithfear an Phoblacht lenar dhóirt sé a chuid fola agus a rinne sé an íobairt is mó ar a shon, a fhíorú.

NEXT ISSUE OUT Thursday 29 December 2016

anphoblacht

32

Sraith Nua Iml 39 Uimhir 12 – December / Nollaig 2016

IN PICTURES

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 At the unveiling of a portrait of Winifred Carney at the Duncairn Arts Centre, Belfast, are artist and exPOW Tony Bell, Angela Lavin, Mary Ellen Campbell, Winifred's great-nephew Dessie Cassidy, and Joe Austin 5 Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald TD opens Carol Nolan TD's new constituency office in Edenderry, County Offaly

2 0 1AR7

5 The winner of the 2016 Sinn Féin National Draw, Georgina O'Donovan, is presented with the first prize of 5 Ard Eoin Kickhams' GAA mural at the club's new pitch in north Belfast €15,000, outside Cork City Hall

CA LEND

COMMEMORATION | CELEBRATION | COMMITMENT COMÓR ADH | CÉILIÚR ADH | DÚTHRA CHT

FÉILIR E

2017 CALENDAR €4.99

» IRA prisoners come home » First election victories ND GE A A T S » Death of Thomas Ashe + PO CKAGING PA » Keeping Connolly’s flag flying » 1867 Fenian Rising and the Manchester Martyrs » 1916 Centenary remembered

SINN FÉIN BOOKSHOP 58 Parnell Square, Dublin 1, Ireland.

Phone: (00 353 1) 8148542 Web: www.sinnfeinbookshop.com Email: sales@sinnfeinbookshop.com

BULK ORDERS AVAILABLE Contact: Tommy (00 353) 868110415