An Phoblacht, January 2016

LAURA CRAWFORD

Unionist MLA

John McCallister Unionism and republicanism both have a responsibility to demonstrate a spirit of generosity

Born into conflict and struggle

THE LAST FISHERMAN OF CARRICK-A-REDE

anphoblacht Sraith Nua Iml 39 Uimhir 1

January / Eanáir 2016

1916

2016

Price €2 / £2

Time to stand up

2 January / Eanáir 2016

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Better4Health policy document launched in Dublin

Níos Fearr le Sinn Féin

A Sinn Féin Policy Document December 2015

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€3.3billion investment, including: RECRUIT

» » » » »

2,500 additional nurses 621 extra midwives 239 obstetricians/ gynaecologists 250 speech & language therapists 100 occupational therapists

» » » »

150 psychologists 10 extra staff to Nursing & Midwifery Board of Ireland 202 extra ambulance staff 800 more consultants

AN END TO » »

€100 charge for Emergency Departments €75 per day in-patient charge

»

Incremental abolishment of prescription charges

»

Moves towards universal dental care

INCREASE » »

Access to Medical Cards Incremental extension to free GP care

FUND » » » » »

€15million more for ambulance services €35million more for mental health budget 10% increase for home help and homecare packages 20% increase for respite care provision 3,800 extra nursing home beds

» » » »

€12million extra for National Drugs Strategy €700,000 to increase number of addiction counsellors €238million increased funding for acute hospitals Increase in hospital beds to 4.6 per 1,000 population

PROMOTE HEALTHY LIFESTYLES » »

Introduce a sugary drinks tax Restrict unhealthy food advertising on TV before 7pm

» »

Enhanced role for public health nurses Regulate sale of e-cigarettes

PATIENTS' RIGHTS »

Establish an independent Patient Advocacy Agency Full details see: www.sinnfein.ie/better4health

5 Gerry Adams TD, Miriam Murphy, Councillor Martin Kenny, Pearse Doherty TD and Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD at the launch

Sinn Féin’s pathway to universal healthcare

BY MARK MOLONEY

SINN FÉIN launched its highly-detailed, realistic and fully-costed health policy in December – the 84-page Better4Health document proposes a radical overhaul of the Irish health system and the creation of a worldclass, free-at-the-point-of-delivery, universal healthcare system funded by progressive taxation.

The policy document is the culmination of months of research and engagement with healthcare professionals, trade unions, patients’ groups and other stakeholders, explained Sinn Féin Head of Social Policy Miriam Murphy.

Health spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin says that the party’s plan is achievable but that it requires political will

5Reporters at the RIA building in Dublin for the Better4Health launch

existing €8.6billion of ‘fiscal space’ which the Department of Finance has.

Finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty explained to An Phoblacht that a 2% to 3% increase for demographic pressures was factored into this.

“Others will promise tax reductions for high-earners; our priorities are healthcare, housing and childcare and all of this is very doable in the space that is available,” he said.

Despite a packed press conference at the Royal Irish Academy on Dawson Street attended by reporters from all the major newspapers and broadcast channels, the Sinn Féin plan received scant coverage in comparison to Fianna Fáil’s lightweight proposals which it launched in April.

Outside of mainstream media the Better4Health document reached an online audience of almost 300,000 people .

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin says that the party’s plan is achievable but that it requires political will.

“We have set out a pathway to universal healthcare. This is a carefully-researched and costed plan and one I believe will have the support of all

Policy document is the culmination One of the main pillarsList of the planof is Contents/ CLár ábhar of an end to the two-tier health system. months of research Sinn Féin Health spokesperson and engagement Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD described the ongoing crisis situation in hospitals with healthcare as shameful and criticised successive governments for allowing the private professionals, trade healthcare industry to piggyback on the (i) Executive Summary unions, patients’ public system in its search for profits.

“It is a system where those who can groups and other afford it, buy their way to the front Achoimre Fheidhmeach stakeholders of the queue time after(ii) time while those dependent on the public system languish in pain and wait, and wait. This is not only shameful, it is immoral,” he told reporters.

The policy proposals (outlined left and available in full online at sinnfein. ie) will be funded from the already

(iii)

Introduction

Part 1 – Equality

who believe in equality and are truly republican,” he said.

“We want a system of public healthcare access that will be there for all.

And that is a mighty legacy for anyone in political life to leave.”

1.1 Introduction 1.2 Overcoming barriers to care 1.2.1 Medical card reform 1.2.2 Free GP care 1.2.3 Greater role for community pharmacies 1.2.4 The unequal burden of drug costs and other charges 1.3 Towards universal dental healthcare 1.4 Rural Ireland’s ambulance services 1.5 Ending two-tier access to hospital care 1.6 Paediatric services 1.7 Championing patients’ rights and safety 1.8 Promoting the health of the nation

January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

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New Year message for 2016 from Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD

1916 centenary year should be about national renewal, hope and political progress THE YEAR AHEAD marks the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rising. This should be a time for national renewal, hope and political progress across Ireland.

Labour Government whose tenure has been marked by destructive austerity policies that have deepened social inequality.

Sinn Féin is committed to delivering a fair recovery by working towards a progressive republican government.

In the North, we will continue to stand up for working families, vulnerable citizens and the development of the economy and public services.

The recent Fresh Start Agreement allows the political process and institutions to proceed on a new and stable basis.

Sinn Féin is committed to resolving the issues of the past, supporting victims of the conflict and promoting reconciliation and healing.

The 1916 Proclamation is a clear statement of intent for an all-Ireland Republic built on foundations of civil and religious liberty, social justice and equality for all citizens. It remains the guiding template for modern republicanism.

The promise of the Proclamation has yet to be realised. Ireland remains partitioned and a real republic built on equality for all citizens remains to be constructed.

The centenary year is a unique opportunity to begin the work of positively transforming Irish

The 1916 Proclamation is a clear statement of intent for an allIreland Republic built on foundations of civil and religious liberty, social justice and equality for all citizens. It remains the guiding template for modern republicanism.

5 The people of Ireland can make important steps towards a genuine republic

politics and society to reflect the revolutionary vision of Easter Week.

2016 is also an election year, North and South.

Sinn Féin will stand candidates on a progressive republican and anti-austerity platform across this island.

In the South, citizens will have an important opportunity to get rid of this bad Fine Gael/

5 The centenary year is a unique opportunity to begin the work of positively transforming Irish society

2016 is a unique opportunity to begin the work of positively transforming Irish politics and society to reflect the revolutionary vision of Easter Week We will continue to campaign for the return of more political powers and economic levers from London to the island of Ireland.

But the greatest safeguard against Tory misrule in the North is the peaceful ending of partition and the building of an agreed, united Ireland – a real republic.

In this important year, working together, the people of Ireland can make important steps towards a genuine republic and a citizen-centred, rights-based society.

It's time to stand up.

I wish you all a happy and peaceful New Year.

Bliain úr faoi mhaise daoibh go léir.

4 January / Eanáir 2016

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anphoblacht Editorial

WHAT'S INSIDE 6&7

The murder of Seamus Ludlow – 40 years of collusion and cover-up

anphoblacht Eagarfhocal

anphoblacht

Make history in 2016

2016 will be a memorable year in Irish history. It marks the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising – “the Sinn Féin Rebellion” – when Irish people across the world pay tribute to the men and women who took a stand for freedom against the might of a British Empire that dominated the globe.

The torch reignited in 1916 kept alive the flame of freedom in the Tan War in the 1920s and subsequent decades, lighting a beacon not just in Ireland but amongst many other oppressed peoples internationally.

Those who took part in the Rising gave their lives or liberty to deliver the republic enshrined in the Proclamation – a republic built on the principles of equality and sovereignty, of human rights and civil liberties, and of unity and nationhood.

The Proclamation of 1916 was a document decades ahead of its time in terms of its objectives of achieving equality and justice for all in a democratic republic when the world was in thrall to empires and monarchs. The Proclamation remains a worthy touchstone for a nation.

The democratic and egalitarian principles contained in

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Contact

United Ireland is good for you – Economist Michael Burke

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

10 & 11

HOUSING

Layout and production: Mark Dawson production@anphoblacht.com

the Proclamation are as urgently required in the Ireland of 2016 as they were 100 years ago.

Austerity, inequality, enforced emigration and partition are anathema to the ideals of the Proclamation.

The 1916 Proclamation remains the mission statement of Irish republicanism. It is a freedom charter for this whole island and all the people who live here.

It is a declaration of social and economic intent for a rights-based society in which the people are sovereign.

This generation has the opportunity and ability to deliver such a republic without the sacrifice of previous generations. There is a peaceful and democratic way to achieve this. But it will require leadership, determination and putting the needs of the nation above individual political position.

And it requires those who believe in the Proclamation of 1916 and who respect the sacrifice made by those who fought for it to strive for it, to mobilise, to campaign, to vote Sinn Féin and to join Sinn Féin as the strongest vehicle for change.

Make history in 2016.

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

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MAJOR MANSION HOUSE RALLY TO KICKSTART A MOMENTOUS YEAR

BY MARK MOLONEY Sinn Féin’s radical vision to tackle the crisis 21

Raic san AE faoi Gás na Rúise 24 & 25

BREXIT

SINN FÉIN will begin its year of commemorative events to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising with a major rally in the Mansion House in Dublin on 7 January. It was in the Mansion House in 1918 that the first democratically-elected Irish parliament, Dáil Éireann, met and pledged its allegiance to the Republic proclaimed in Easter 1916.

Sinn Féin has told An Phoblacht that the event is the first of a momentous year which marks the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising and will also include a general election in which Sinn Féin want to emerge as the largest party as well as Assembly elections in the North.

MUSIC AND DRAMA

Britain leaving the EU would have serious repercussions for Ireland 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

Elected representatives from all of Ireland’s 32 counties will be in attendance at the event which will include music and drama as Gerry Adams, who will give a keynote speech at the event, said: “We are asking you to be there.

5 Artists work on murals at the entrance of the Ambassador Theatre

We are asking you not only to remember but also to recommit yourself to completing the unfinished business of the men and women of 1916 and subsequent generations by completing the

only monument fitting to them – the Irish Republic.”

The rally will take place on Thursday 7 January, 7:30pm, at The Round Room in the Mansion House, Dawson Street, Dublin 2.

BELFAST 1916 CENTENARY EVENTS Visit the Facebook page of

Béal Feirste – Belfast 2016

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"REVOLUTION 1916 – The Original and Authentic Exhibition" opens to the public on 27 February 2016 in the Ambassador Theatre in the shadow of the Parnell Monument on Dublin’s O’Connell Street and here is a preview of what visitors will enjoy.

x W E I V E R P E IV S U CL EX

THE LOCATION for the ‘Revolution 1916’ exhibition is very symbolic with Sinn Féin founded there in 1905 and where the Irish Volunteers signed up at a mass meeting in 1913. During 1916, outside the Rotunda, the garrisons of the GPO and the Four Courts 5 A 1916 Luger Pistol set with a stock and snail drum barrel were kept out overnight and British soldiers paraded the captured Irish Republic flag in front of it.

The Ambassador is now flying the flags of the organisations involved in 1916, the Proclamation is displayed, and the seven signatories look out over O’Connell Street, attracting huge attention from passersby even before the exhibition has even opened.

Upon entering the building the visitor will be greeted by staff dressed in period uniforms and the lobby will have two gigantic 1916 murals designed by master mural artist Danny Devenny from Belfast.

Moving upstairs, a series of large charcoal drawings take you visually through some of the ancient history of Ireland which was a big influence for 1916 and on to the audio-visual seating area.

‘Revolution 1916’ will tell the story of the period 1913-1923 through the eyes and experiences of a young girl of the time, Dubliner Molly O’Reilly.

In 1916, Molly raised the Irish flag on Liberty Hall a week before the Rising and during it acted as a messenger between City Hall and the GPO garrison of James Connolly.

“Highlighting the activity of this period through a female perspective is the opposite of the 50th anniversary when it was all about ‘the men of 1916’ and symbolically sees Molly in 1913 helping out in the soup kitchens and, 10 years later, on hunger strike in Kilmainham Jail,” said Bartle D’Arcy, Sinn Féin 1916 Co-ordinator and ‘Revolution 1916’ exhibition organiser.

On display in the exhibition will be a specially-commissioned life-size statue of Molly O’Reilly raising the Irish flag, her 1916 and Tan War medals, and her arrest warrant signed by Free State Army General Richard Mulcahy.

The Irish Volunteers Commemorative Organisation’s entire collection of over 500 artefacts is on loan to the exhibition with an original 1916 Proclamation and a wide variety of period weaponry from the C96 Mauser machine pistol as favoured

by Pearse to naval Luger pistols given to Volunteers visiting Germany and to confiscated British Army Lee Enfield rifles.

The stand-out artefacts include three Howth Mausers, single-shot IG.71 models from 1916,

5 Sculptor Stuart Dunne works in studio on a statue of Molly O'Reilly for the exhibition

January / Eanáir 2016

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including a black one – there was only one black one among the 1,500 imported and it was said to have been given to the veteran Fenian Thomas Clarke.

Moving downstairs, the visitor will pass through a series of sets replicating some of the main areas of activity during the Rising, including the GPO, Rebel Radio at Reiss’s, the lanes of Moore Street leading to Number16, Kilmainham Jail 1916 landing, and finally the poignant stonebreakers’ yard, where the leaders of the Easter Rising were executed by British Army firing squads.

The exhibition explores the aftermath of the Rising, the 1918 general election, First Dáil Éireann 1919, the Tan War, and the “Counter-Revolution” leading to the formation of the Free State and partition of Ireland. Artefacts from these periods will be on display and a unique feature will be a visual access into the tunnels underneath the Ambassa-

With Dublin expecting in excess of four million visitors for the centenary year, “Revolution 1916 – The Original and Authentic Exhibition” will be a mustsee, must-do experience dor where the IRA’s famous counter-intelligence assassination team, ‘The Squad’, operated in and out to Vaughan’s Hotel. Both Michael Collins’s revolver and 1916 Crossley Touring Car that was at Béal na mBláth will be on display.

2016 is also the 35th anniversary of the 1981 H-Blocks Hunger Strikes and the stage area of the exhibition will look at the history of hunger striking from 1916 veteran Thomas Ashe up to 1981. The artist Robert Ballagh has been commissioned to produce new iconic images of both the 1981 Ten Martyrs and Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg, which will be on public display for the first time.

Leaving the exhibition brings you out to a replica of Thomas Clarke’s Tobacconist Shop, which is the exhibition merchandise area and at 12 noon each day, a uniformed Pádraig Pearse will read aloud the 1916 Proclamation outside the Ambassador.

With Dublin expecting in excess of four million visitors for the centenary year, ‘Revolution 1916 – The Original and Authentic Exhibition’ will prove to be a must-see, must-do experience.

Tickets are available now online at

www.revolution1916.ie and Ticketmaster.

3 (Clockwise) Set designer Edward Cosgrave and exhibition organiser Bartle D'Arcy explore the tunnels underneath the Ambassador which will form part of the exhibits. Assembling artefacts for Revolution 1916 from the IVCO Collection.

Mauser C96 (aka 'Peter the Painter') as used by Michael Malone at the Battle of Mount Street Bridge. Na Fianna Éireann collection from IVCO and Cabra Historical Society at the flag-raising ceremony at the Ambassador

6 January / Eanáir 2016

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40 years of collusion, conspiracy and cover-up

The murder of Seamus Ludlow

BY MARK MOLONEY ON SATURDAY 2 MAY 1976, 47-year-old forestry worker Seamus Ludlow had finished for the day at a timber yard in Ravensdale, County Louth, and went out to enjoy a drink and a few games of darts and rings with friends in Dundalk.

Described by locals as “a very kind man”, the bachelor was known for his fund-raising work on behalf of various charities.

Leaving the Lisdoo Arms pub at about 11:30pm, Seamus decided to hitch a lift on the Newry Road back towards his home in Thistle Cross, Mountpleasant, where he lived with his sister’s family and elderly mother. Sometime around midnight, a car stopped to give Seamus a lift.

He was never seen alive again.

His body was found by tourists the following afternoon, dumped in a ditch 100 yards from his home. He had been shot three times at close range. He had also been stabbed several times.

Gardaí began to focus their investigation on the IRA as being suspected of the killing.

On Monday 3 May, however, the IRA’s South Armagh Brigade issued a statement in which it said that “no unit or member of the IRA was involved in this foul killing”, adding that it believed the British Army’s SAS or one of its unionist proxies had been behind the murder.

The Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando, directed by and including serving British soldiers, had

Seamus Ludlow’s body was found dumped in a ditch 100 yards from his home. He had been shot three times at close range – he had also been stabbed several times been active in the Border area and had been implicated in a spate of killings, including that of John Francis Green in County Monaghan a year previously, the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, and the Miami Showband Massacre.

Claims that Seamus’s murder was the result of collusion between the British military and unionist death squads was given more credence the day after his funeral when eight SAS special forces soldiers were arrested by gardaí and Defence Forces troops on Flagstaff Road, more than half a kilometre south of the Border.

Two men in plainclothes were in the first car (fitted with false number plates) and in the boot were two submachine guns, handguns – and a dagger. Two more cars, containing another six armed SAS troopers, were stopped a few hours later.

Other items found to be in their possession included a detailed map of the north Louth area with the homes of 30 local republicans marked in pencil.

The arrest of the SAS undercover soldiers caused an international incident and sparked outrage among nationalists and those living in the Border area. The SAS troopers were taken to Dundalk Garda station, where 200 people surrounded the station, chanting “Murderers” and “Killers”. The SAS soldiers were subsequently fined £100 each for taking weapons into the South without firearms certificates and released.

Initially, individual gardaí told reporters at a number of newspapers that the wounds on Seamus’s body were consistent with “the use of weapons issued to operational SAS units”. But, on 10 May, Gardaí issued a contradictory statement denying there was any link between the SAS and the killing of Seamus Ludlow, describing the claims as “totally without foundation”. They later said they believed it to be a case of mistaken identity.

In the days after the murder, Seamus’s brother-in-law

Kevin – who lived just across the Border in south Armagh with Seamus’s sister Kathleen – was abducted by British soldiers.

The British troops, who were not accompanied by the RUC, called to the Donegan home and made offensive statements to Kathleen. They claimed they were acting under orders from the Garda and the RUC (something which was later denied).

“The man in charge said to me and my husband: ‘Seamus Ludlow must be a very bad man. The IRA usually kneecap people but this time they killed him.’ I said: ‘It was not the IRA who killed him; you know who did it.’ My husband ordered them out the gate,” recalled Kathleen at the time.

Angry, Kevin cycled to the joint RUC/British Army base in Forkhill to demand an explanation. He was abducted

by British soldiers, placed in a helicopter and flown to Bessbrook British Army base and then driven to Newry where he was interrogated by a British Army intelligence officer for more than three hours. The British officer was particularly interested in how the Garda investigation was progressing. The RUC also told Kevin that they had not sent the soldiers to his home.

Four weeks after the beginning of the investigation, it halted completely. Members of the Ludlow family say individual gardaí seem to have been under instructions not to talk to them. Seamus’s brother Kevin says he was repeatedly told by senior Special Branch detectives that the IRA were behind the killing.

The inquest into Seamus’s killing was held on 19 August 1976. It found that Seamus had been killed by a bullet wound to the heart. He had been shot at close range and his body later dumped in the ditch where it was found.

Bizarrely, not one member of Seamus’s family was present at the inquest as the first they heard about it was a phone call made 45 minutes before it began.

Seamus’s elderly mother Annie was bedridden and died 18 months after her son’s murder. The family did not have the heart to tell her that he had been murdered and she died believing her son had been knocked down walking home from the pub..

5 Michael Donegan, nephew of Seamus Ludlow, speaks to reporters at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dundalk

Human Rights lawyer Kevin Winters, who is representing the family, told An Phoblacht following a meeting between the Ludlow family and Sinn Féin Louth TD Gerry Adams at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dundalk: “The family mean business in their quest for justice.”

Kevin Winters says the evidence shows a “clear connection between the killers and the British military” and says the family’s grief has been compounded by the authorities in the South “who haven’t facilitated or helped them in the way they ought to have”.

In October 1995, an investigative journalist met the family and provided them with new evidence which showed that unionists had been responsible for Seamus’s murder.

They describe the treatment of Seamus’s murder by the Irish authorities as “contemptuous”.

“We’ve been messed about for 40 years,” says Michael Donegan, Seamus’s nephew, “being lied to, being lied

Two SAS special forces soldiers in plainclothes were in the first car (fitted with false number plates) and in the boot were two submachine guns, handguns – and a dagger about by the gardaí here. We were forced into a process that led us nowhere.”

The family want to see recommendations from the Barron Report which called for the establishment of public tribunal of inquiry and that the Irish Government should bring the British Government before the European Court of Human Rights to force them to release files relating to collusion.

“The Barron Report has been shelved and we are no further on then we were 20 years ago,” says Michael.

“We want to get to the truth of what happened and we want to see people who made decisions exposed. There is no great demand among the authorities in Dublin to identify who issued the instructions for lies to be told,

January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

5 Seamus Ludlow was murdered by individuals with connections to the British Army

5 The family of Seamus Ludlow with their legal team from KRW Law and Sinn Féin TD Gerry Adams

for the cover-up, for the failure to bring my family to the first inquest in August 1976, or the abduction of my father by the British Army.”

The Barron Report also highlighted how gardaí had been told that four named loyalists were involved in the murder but this line of inquiry was never pursued.

“The family feels very hurt and very upset by this whole

them after they lied to us for 20 years.

“They’ve been doing nothing but trying to obstruct us.

And there’s been no relaxation in that attitude towards us.”

Kevin Winters says the family will now look at pursuing legal avenues, North and South: “We will have no hesitation in unpicking and examining the collusion allegations and we intend on bringing a civil case against the authorities in the North of Ireland.”

Kevin says the failure to implement the recommendations from the Barron Report was a lost opportunity: “We have a representation going to Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald querying why the various recommendations from the Barron Report were not implemented.

It was a big decision that could have helped give some element of closure to the families but they didn’t take it.”

Gerry Adams told An Phoblacht after meeting the family that representatives from all parties and none should work together to get to the bottom of such cases.

“This is not a party political matter. It is the responsibility of everyone in the Oireachtas to support the Ludlow family in the time ahead and we in Sinn Féin will do all we can to fulfil our responsibilities to raise it here, in the North and internationally.”

In the days after the murder, Seamus’s brother-in-law Kevin was abducted by British soldiers in south Armagh event. There is a failure of people to admit what went on,” says Michael.

He says successive Governments and the Garda have totally failed them.

“We would like to see an admission from this state saying: ‘Yes, we mishandled this case’ and to say they are sorry for it. We want to see the files opened, files they’ve never allowed us to see. They’ve been telling us to trust

Items found to be in the SAS men’s possession included a detailed map of the north Louth area with the homes of 30 local republicans marked in pencil

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Adams says what is needed is leadership from the Irish Government, who must stand up in the interests of its own citizens and be willing to pursue all legal and political avenues open to them.

“If this Government does the right thing then it is much easier to get the British Government to do the right thing,” the Louth TD says. “I’ve consistently made

Human rights lawyer Kevin Winters says the evidence shows a ‘clear connection between the killers and the British military’ the point that if Taoiseach Enda Kenny stands up in the national interest and that of an Irish citizen then the British Government will more easily be brought to do what is required. But if the Taoiseach isn’t saying it to the British Prime Minister, why would David Cameron listen to any of the rest of us?

“There’s a huge onus on the Taoiseach to stand up for citizens.”

8 January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

MICHAEL BURKE Economist and blogger for the Socialist Economic Bulletin

Professor Kurt Huebner’s that ‘Modeling Irish Unification’ implies the average person on the island would be nearly €6,000 a year better off from Irish unification

United Ireland is good for your wealth – Economists THERE IS a growing consensus among economists that a united Ireland would be good for growth, jobs and living standards. One of the most important recent contributions is from Professor Kurt Huebner of Vancouver University.

His academic paper is titled Modeling Irish Unification and was recently launched at the Harvard Club in New York. One of the most striking findings of the analysis is that there is a central projection that the total combined economy would in a short number of years be approximately €35billion a year, larger than the two separate economies of the Southern and Northern states.

This is a very striking finding but not surprising.

It implies that the average person on the island would be nearly €6,000 a year better off from the process of Irish unification. By itself, it makes the strong case that uniting Ireland economically is a growth and prosperity project.

This should come as no surprise to any student of economic theory or of economic history. ‘The Father of Modern Economics’, Adam Smith, writing in The Wealth of Nations identified the rising division of labour, the growth of the home market and the increasing participation in the international division of labour through trade as decisive factors in economic development and rising prosperity. Yet Ireland has never developed a ‘home market’ of the type that was created in European countries from the mid-17th century onwards, beginning with England itself. Instead, the entire economy’s status as a colony prevented that as colonies are almost exclusively obliged to trade with the metropolitan centre of the Empire.

The economic history of the 26 Counties also has features common to all former colonies.

Some type of independence is not a sufficient condition for growth and prosperity but it is a necessary condition. Very rapid growth can ensue as the economic history of countries (and former colonies) as diverse as China, India and Singapore all demonstrate.

This is the fundamental backdrop to Professor Huebner’s extremely detailed mathematical model.

His report runs to 70 pages and has been peer reviewed.

4 A united Ireland would be good for growth, jobs and living standards

He was very ably assisted in his work by Dr Renger van Nieuwkoop, from Model Works in Switzerland, who was in charge of the modelling exercise. Dr van Nieuwkoop has performed economic modelling for the Swiss Government (among others) and produced robust and innovative mathematical techniques to overcome the many shortcomings in official economic data in Ireland, especially that provided by Westminster.

Overall, Modeling Irish Unification adds to the growing body of work pointing to the very substantial net economic benefits of Irish unification.

No serious analysis or research exists that points to a contrary conclusion.

One scenario not addressed by Professor Huebner and colleagues is maintaining the status quo. But here too both theory and history are clear: the North of Ireland economy especially cannot thrive as a semi-detached carriage of the slow train that is the British economy, which has been in relative decline for over 100 years.

In reality, all the people of Ireland would be better off with unification.

pecially cannot The North of Ireland economy es e of thrive as a semi-detached carriag economy, which the slow train that is the British over 100 years has been in relative decline for

5 Professor Kurt Huebner

‘Modeling Irish Unification’ – prcg.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Modeling-Irish-Unification-Report.pdf

January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

Sa dara cuid dár sraith ‘ Ról an Stáit agus Ról an Phobail’, scríobhann fear gnó agus ceoil Breandán Ó hEaghra faoi thábhacht an dearfachas. Bhí

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Breandán páirteach i bpainéal plé a shocraigh Sinn Féin ar imeall na féile ag Oireachtas na Samhna chomh maith.

Déan Ceiliúradh ar an Ghaeltacht mar atá sí inniu

LE BREANDÁN Ó HEAGHRA TÁ CAINT le tamall anuas ar bhás na Gaeltachta - nó ar bhás na Gaeilge mar theanga pobail. Mar dhuine atá ina chónaí i nGaeltacht Chonamara, ag tógáil clainne le Gaeilge, agus ag fostú foireann Gaeltachta sa gcomhlacht margaíochta, MeasMedia, cuirim an-chuid suime sa gcaint seo, agus teastaíonn uaim na pointí seo leanas a dhéanamh:

Is ceist ‘pobail’ í seo freisin.

Nuair a deirtear linn go bhfuil an Ghaeilge ag fáil bháis mar theanga pobail, tá an claonadh ionainn díriú ar chúrsaí ‘teangan’ agus neamháird a thabhairt ar chúrsaí ‘pobail’. Ba mhaith liomsa go ndíreofaí áird arís ar an gcuid sin den ráiteas: céard is ‘pobal’ ann.

Tá maolú á dhéanamh ar phobal na Gaeltachta (agus go deimhin ar phobail tuaithe go ginearálta) le fada an lá. Is gnáth chuid den saol anois é go mbíonn ar dhaoine uair an chloig a chaitheamh i mbun taistil chun na hoibre lá i ndiaidh lae. Is beag duine atá in

ann post a fháil ina gceantar féin. Maireann daoine go neamhspléach, beag beann ar a chéile, agus an iomarca ualach oibre orthu chun inchur a bheith acu in obair an phobail.

Ba chóir go mbeadh ról faoi leith ag Údarás na Gaeltachta in athbheochan an ‘phobail’, dar liom. Bheadh fiúntas faoi leith i bpleain a chuirfeadh maoiniú ar fáil do gnólachtaí beaga a bheadh lonnaithe sa nGaeltacht ag muintir na Gaeltachta féin, ag fostú dhaoine áitiúla.

Céard faoi chomórtas bhliantúil chun an smaoineamh is fearr do ghnó digiteach Gaeltachta a reachtáil? Tá daoine sách cumasach san Údarás chun plean gníomhaíochta pobail a chur chun cinn ach an deis a thabhairt dóibh. Is féidir gnólachtaí beaga a chruthú in earnáil na seirbhíse arlíne – sampla amháin é gnólacht s’againne a fhostaíonn ceathrar faoi láthair agus muid ag súil le seachtar a fhostú faoin t-am seo an chéad bhliain eile – Gaeilgeoirí uilig, ach ag freastal ar an domhain mhór!

2. Tascfhórsa ón taobh istigh Ní réiteoidh rialtas na hÉireann fadhb na Gaeltachta. Ó bunaíodh an Stát, tá praiseach déanta de cheist na teanga agus ní fiú fanacht ar a mhalairt scéil sa lá atá inniu ann. Tiocfaidh roinnt maitheasa amach as na pleaineanna teanga atá á réiteach ag coistí pobail ar fud na Gaeltachta, ach teastaíonn gluaiseacht pobail aontaithe chun dul i bhfeidhm ar dhaoine.

Nuair a bheidh críoch leis na pleaineanna teanga seo ba bhreá an rud é go gcasfadh na cinnirí pobail Gaeltachta ar a chéile chun tascfhórsa aontaithe a chruthú agus forbairt na Gaeltachta a dhíriú ón taobh istigh.

3. Déan ceiliúradh ar Ghaeltacht an lae inniu Mholfainnse go ndíreodh an gluaiseacht nua áird ar rudaí mar atá siad faoi láthair. Níor chóir an cás a chur ar bhealach diúltach, mar atá déanta le tamall anuas ag tomhais an mheatha le scór bliana anuas agus ag túr bhás na Gaeltachta chun freagra rialtais a spreagadh.

Níor chúir ach oiread ráitis sheafóideacha dhearfacha

Níor chóir an cás a chur ar bhealach diúltach, mar atá déanta le tamall anuas – níl le déanamh ach áird a tharraingt ar phobal na Gaeltachta mar atá sí sa lá atá inniu ann – tá muid sách maith

a dhéanamh, ag túr go mbeidh 250k míle cainteoir laethúil ann taobh istight de scór bliana mar atá déanta sa Phleain 20 Bliain – ní chreidtear é seo. Níl le déanamh ach áird a tharraingt ar phobal na Gaeltachta mar atá sí sa lá atá inniu ann – tá muid sách maith.

Mar fhear a d’fhás aníos i gceann de na ceantair Ghaeltachta is láidre dá bhfuil ann, is féidir liom a rá go h-ionraic go raibh an Béarla á labhairt ariamh ar chlós na scoile. Ach má bhí, bhí an Ghaeilge á labhairt freisin, go flúirseach agus go tréan.

Go minic agus mise óg, chuala mé ráite é nach raibh ach scór bliana fágtha ag an teanga. B’fhéidir go raibh bunús eolaíoch leis an tomhais seo, nó b’fhéidir nach raibh, ach níor chothaigh sé aon mhisneach ionamsa ná i mo chuid comhleachaithe. Buíochas le Dia, bhí tuismitheoirí agam a spreag mórtas teanga agus mórtas cultúir. Níor thomhaiseadar siúd bás na teanga, agus mar sin thuig mise go raibh buntáiste faoi leith agam agus go raibh fiúntas faoi leith leis an teanga a bhí á labhairt agam. Tá sé in am an mórtas sin a thabhairt do pháistí na Gaeltachta ar fad agus ceiliúradh láidir a dhéanamh orthu siúd – ní mar ba chóir dóibh a bheith, ach mar atá siad faoi láthair na huaire.

10 January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

Sinn Féin legislation hoped to curb extent of the housing and homeless crisis

Housing Bill voted down by Fine Gael/Labour

on Wednesday with a fitting epitaph for the Government’s legacy in rent certainty. The only certainty that this Government has offered renters, he said, is that they will have higher rents before Christmas and that they will have even higher rents in two years’ time.

Government TDs slapped themselves on the back for coming to terms with the depths of the crisis by advocating building modular housing at 130% of the going market rate to buy a house!

They even congratulated themselves for doing

BY RUAIRÍ DOYLE IN NOVEMBER, Sinn Féin brought a Bill before the Dáil that hoped to curb the extent of the housing and homelessness crisis that has grown over the past five years to envelop practically every city and town. The crisis facing families, tenants, householders and the homeless is nothing but a result of government policy.

Successive governments have failed to invest in homes, handing housing over to private developers, bankers and landlords.

This government has been no different than those that preceded it. The Government benches, packed with landlords, vote down any threat to their rights to rack-rents. All the while, they bring forward more legislation to weaken public

5 Housing Minister Alan Kelly

so much to help people insulate their homes.

This came as cold comfort to the 1,500 children in Dublin who were faced with not having a house to call a home at Christmas.

The Sinn Féin PMB tasked itself “to more appropriately address the needs of people experiencing homelessness; to bring the task of homelessness prevention within the remit of the Housing Act 1988; and to provide for rent certainty in the private rental market”.

The Dáil voted down the Bill 58-32. There are 166 TDs.

Successive governments have failed to invest in homes, handing housing over to private developers, bankers and landlords provision of housing and encourage reliance of private tenancy. We cannot interfere with the market we are told, madness that way lies.

We were told similar ghost stories about the banks.

Profit has been put before the needs of citizens, resulting in a property bubble and collapse, rising rents, increased evictions and house repossessions, unaffordable house prices, lengthening housing waiting lists and dangerous building standards.

The approach of Fine Gael and Labour has failed, and our people are paying the cost.

Sinn Féin is on the side of those homeless and those languishing on housing waiting lists, families struggling to keep a roof over the heads in the face of unfair mortgages and rising rents.

Sinn Féin’s approach is that citizens have a right to a home.

When Housing Minister Alan Kelly graced the chamber with his presence midway through the

Sinn Féin’s approach is that citizens have a right to a home

5 Fine Gael TD Catherine Byrne

start of the two-day debate on Tuesday night, 2 November, he sneered across the chamber that Sinn Féin was “strong on rhetoric, but weak on action”. The minister conveniently omitted – eager to play the man not the ball as always – that the duty to enact legislation and serve the public good is the prerogative of Government, not the Opposition. Action, however, is not the strong suit of this Government.

Catherine Byrne TD, the working-class hero of Fine Gael, pondered why families do not do more for homeless relations. She also claimed that many of those who slept rough did so by choice.

Sinn Féin TD Dessie Ellis ended his contribution

5 Profit has been put before the needs of citizens

5 Sinn Féin Housing spokesperson Dessie Ellis TD

January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

» 100,000 new social and affordable homes by 2030 » 36,500 of these social and affordable homes by 2021 » Traveller Ethnicity Bill to ensure adequate accommodation for Traveller community

KEY COMMITMENTS » €2.2billion additional spending more than the Fine Gael/Labour Government’s capital commitments » Rent certainty by linking rents to Consumer Price Index

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» Abolish the Local Property Tax » Strengthen Planning & Development Act to ensure 20% of all new developments are social and affordable housing » Consider capping rent subsidies » Scrap Direct Provision for refugees

Sinn Féin’s Better4Housing proposals are ambitious but deliverable

Radical plan to tackle housing crisis

BY MARK MOLONEY SINN FÉIN has unveiled a radical plan

to tackle the ongoing housing and homeless crisis in the state. The Better4Housing policy looks to build 100,000 social and affordable housing units over the next 15 years along with tackling spiralling rents, stronger protection for tenants and moves towards rent certainty.

Speaking at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin, Mary Lou McDonald TD accused the Fine Gael and Labour Government of relegating themselves to the role of spectator.

“Children are growing up in B&Bs and hostels and people are sleeping on the streets,” she said. “The Government has given no effective action to deal with this.”

Describing the document as “ambitious and deliverable”, Mary Lou said one of the cornerstones of the party’s proposals is to deliver 100,000 social housing units by 2030, 36,500 of them within the next five years.

Clondalkin Councillor Eoin Ó Broin says at the core of the housing crisis is that the state does not have an adequate social housing stock. He noted that the 2005 study Housing in Ireland by the National Economic and Social Council predicted that by 5 Dessie Ellis TD, Mary Lou McDonald TD and Councillor Eoin Ó Broin at the launch in the Royal College of Physicians 38 2014 at any one time the state would planned 20,000 private houses to be first-time buyer units, particularly in need a minimum stock of 200,000 social housing. Eoin Ó Broin said the high demand urban areas.” social houses to meet demand; Sinn Féin plan is not just beneficial to currently the state has 139,000 units. those on housing waiting lists or in RENT CERTAINTY “We outline a costed plan for the first emergency accommodation but also Sinn Féin Housing spokesperson six years of the programme,” explained for tenants and young people who Dessie Ellis TD said Minister Alan Kelly’s Ó Broin. “These are council houses want to get on the property ladder. plan to limit rent increases to once delivered through local authorities with every two years simply won’t work.

“Not only would this alleviate the direct exchequer funding and funded huge housing waiting lists but it is In its plan, Sinn Féin proposes moves through general taxation.” towards rent certainty and strengthalso the single most effective way of Highlighting some key differences ending the homeless crisis. ening the rights of tenants. between Sinn Féin and the Fine Gael/ “We have said unless we have rent “This also assists people who want Labour plan, Eoin Ó Broin said: tied to the Consumer Price Index in to buy private homes or who want “In our plan these are council houses. to rent because most of the people some way then we are going to have a When Environment Minister Alan Kelly who would move into these council continuation of rent hikes,” the Dublin sing Better for hou hta proposed over a year ago 35,000 social homes are currently living in the private Níos Fearr le haghaidh Tithíoc TD said. “This move is a necessity housing units, he wasn’t actually talking sector. As they move in to local authorto keeping people in their homes.” about social housing units owned by ity housing that frees up housing in Noting the Government’s reticence to local authorities – a huge number the private rental sector and acts as a ‘interfere’ in the market on the issue would be private sector units leased downward pressure on rents for those of rent controls, Eoin Ó Broin pointed Better for housing Níos Fearr le haghaidh off landlords for periods of four to landlords who continue to rent out to out that the Government already interTithíochta ten years.” venes through the use of rent subsiyoung professionals. Or force some of The Sinn Féin plan also wants to those landlords to sell those properdies. He said rent certainty is sensible see a minimum of 4,000 of NAMA’s ties and help bring down the cost of for tenants and landlords as it creates A Sinn Féin Policy Document December 2015

1

1

A Sinn Féin Policy Document December 2015

a stable rental market.

“It’s notable that many Fine Gael TDs who oppose rent certainty are themselves landlords. Surely that’s a conflict of interest.”

Mary Lou McDonald added: “The rights of citizens to something as basic as a roof over their head has to override market considerations.

Capping rents is done in other countries and as far as I am aware the free market has not collapsed. For anybody to cite the sensitivities of the market in an emergency such as this should be ashamed of themselves for making such a lame argument.”

Summing up the proposals, Dessie Ellis said: “All of these measures in conjunction with major investment in the construction, acquisition and refurbishment of social and affordable housing will see a fairer, more stable housing system which meets the needs of everyone.”

12 January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

BANKING INQUIRY REPORT NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE

People deserve the full truth

GERRY ADAMS TD PRESIDENT OF SINN FÉIN

THE REPORT into the economic crash of 2008 by the Dáil’s Joint Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis is almost complete. It was set up almost two years ago. The final weeks have been a shambles.

being made from April 2008 onwards for some form of a Government guarantee by, among others, Seánie Fitzpatrick, Dermot Desmond and Charlie McCreevy.

We also learnt from the Attorney General that the banks did not come under a legal guarantee until 29 October 2008 – nearly one month to the day from when the announcement was made.

The guarantee decision directly resulted in €64billion of bad banking debts being placed on the shoulders of the Irish people. The incoming Fine Gael and Labour Government rejected the suggestion by Sinn Féin and others that unguaranteed bondholders should not be paid. They chose instead to impose this odious debt on citizens and their children and grandchildren for decades to come.

The failure to pursue effectively the option of burden-sharing put an immense cost on the Irish people in terms of the crisis resolution. This is despite the fact that the National Treasury Management Agency (which is responsible for selling government debt to the markets) informed the Fine Gael and Labour Government in early

The first draft produced by the investigation team was not fit for purpose.

There was a crisis as the Joint Committee tried to address the issues. However, by this stage they had run out of time.

Pearse Doherty confirmed that he would not be signing off on the report. “Our people deserve the full truth,” he said.

It is worth remembering that, on 2 July 2015, former Finance Minister and Taoiseach Brian Cowen appeared before the Banking Inquiry and said: “I accept full and complete responsibility for my role in and our response to that crisis.” This was a statement of incontestable fact.

From 1987 to 2011, Fianna Fáil occupied both the Office of the Taoiseach and the Finance ministry for all but two-and-a-half of those 24 years.

It was Fianna Fáil policy during this period to introduce substantial tax reliefs for property developers and

From 1987 to 2011, Fianna Fáil occupied both the Office of the Taoiseach and the Finance ministry for all but two-and-a-half of those 24 years It was Fianna Fáil policy during this period to introduce substantial tax reliefs for property developers and ‘light-touch’ regulation for banks and building societies, with devastating consequences ‘light-touch’ regulation for banks and building societies, with devastating consequences.

From 2000 to 2008, Irish bank lending quadrupled from €100billion to over €400billion, with a heavy concentration on the commercial real estate sector and a small number of developers. Some of these developers had personal relationships with Fianna Fáil during these years. The “Galway Tent” culture was endemic.

The public perception is that the crisis was caused by the housing boom. However, that was not the crucial factor, according to three bank economists who came before the Joint Committee. They all agreed that commercial property was the main reason why the banking system had to be bailed out.

The night of the Bank Guarantee is also a myth.

This was no spur-of-the-moment idea. There was a long lead-in period with the concept of a guarantee 5 Seánie Fitzpatrick, Dermot Desmond and Charlie first mooted in January 2008. Representations were McCreevy

5 Brian Cowen may have accepted responsibility for his actions but his actions weren’t personal ones – he was Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil

2011 that the financial markets not only expected but had priced in burden-sharing for senior unguaranteed debt. We know from the Banking Inquiry that Michael Noonan spent precisely half a day and two phone calls on negotiating a deal before conceding to then European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet’s line.

The failure of Fine Gael and Labour to negotiate with focus and direction on behalf of the Irish people is evident in every townland and village across the state. It is also felt abroad, in places where hundreds of thousands of our young people now reside having been forced to emigrate as a result of the policies of the Establishment parties.

Brian Cowen may have accepted responsibility for his actions but his actions weren’t personal ones. He was Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil, and his tenure saw a continuation of programmes that promoted the short-term interests of banks and developers over the long-term interests of the citizens of Ireland. That is, and remains, Fianna Fáil’s and the Green Party’s true legacy.

Similarly, the conscious and determined decision by Fine Gael and Labour to use their time in office to give succour to those with the most in our society while imposing the burden of banking debt on the shoulders of those with the least gives lie to the vision of 6 The incoming Fine Gael 1916 to which they, along with Fianna Fáil, so fervently and Labour Government pay lip service to. rejected the suggestion by The tight, cosy world of bankers, developers and Sinn Féin and others that politicians is there for all to see, and one that Sinn Féin unguaranteed bondholders will continue to challenge and seek to change. should not be paid

January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

The Left ignores the national question at its peril

IN PICTURES

How could an overtly right-wing party such as he National Front gain such support in traditional strongholds of socialist, communist and other workingclass voters? unemployment and social stagnation in large swathes of previously industrial France caused by an economic recession exacerbated by attempts to comply with EU rules.

Explicity, the party leader, Marine Le Pen, demanded a break with Brussels policy and a new industrial investment programme that would create much-needed jobs coupled with significantly improved welfare services (for French non-immigrants only, of course).

French workers have been left embittered and betrayed by the failure of the current ‘socialist’ government of François Hollande to alleviate their economic and social problems while the context imposed by the Lisbon Treaty after 2009 has severely limited the scope of action allowed to a French government in handling these.

When we try to analyse the reasons for the alienation of so many workingclass French voters, it is worth noting that France rejected by referendum the European Constitution of 2005 on

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 Éamonn Mac Thomáis's wife Rosaleen (centre) and members of the Mac Thomáis family at the launch of 'Three Shouts on a Hill' at Glasnevin Museum with Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD (left) and Councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha (right)

BY EOIN Ó MURCHÚ WHILE the failure of the far-right National Front in France to win any of the regional assemblies in that country in the second round of voting was greeted with widespread relief, there remain fundamental questions – not only for Europe but for the European Left as well.

How could an overtly right-wing party gain such support in traditional strongholds of socialist, communist and other working-class voters such as Nord-Pas de Calais? And how can we expect the Left (using that term in its broadest sense) to react?

The National Front made its appeal on two levels.

Firstly, it put forward the traditional xenophobic, anti-immigrant line of the French far-right, building on the shock of the ISIS attacks in Paris.

But, secondly, it drew attention to the

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5 President of France François Hollande

the basis that it would free us of sole dependence on Britain, give us higher prices for our agricultural produce, and access to Structural Funds to let us develop our infrastructure.

All of this has happened. But what the ruling circles always denied was that ‘The European Project’ essentially eliminated our national sovereignty and left us dependent on the ‘goodwill’ of the major economic interests behind Europe.

The austerity imposed as a result of the economic crisis shows us what that ‘goodwill’ is really worth when it comes to the crunch.

As in Ireland, French workers in France are being asked to carry the burden of the recession with increasing which the Lisbon Treaty was based.

There was, of course, no referendum allowed the second time around.

French workers, too, wanted to bring the opportunity to solve their problems back to France.

The Left, unfortunately, has been emasculated – tied up in the European Project and Jacques Delors’s vision of a “social Europe”. This hasn’t extinguished the democratic demand for national sovereignty but has largely given this ground to the Right. And that is the basis of the National Front’s electoral advance.

Originally, of course, the Left throughout Europe opposed a project that had at its core the defence of European global capitalism against both the socialist threat from the East and the American challenge from the West. Both the Labour Party in Ireland and the British Labour Party originally opposed involvement in what was the Common Market.

In Ireland, parties like Sinn Féin argued that there was little point in exchanging subservience to the British Empire for subservience to a new European Empire, and called for the defence of such national sovereignty as existed and its extension throughout all of Ireland.

It wasn’t that economic co-operation was bad, or that sharing market access would always be problematic. Indeed, Irish membership of the Common Market was argued for on

French workers have been left embittered and betrayed by the failure of the current ‘socialist’ government unemployment, declining wages and living standards, and the obliteration of the country’s traditional industrial base.

But the Left (with minor exceptions) has been unable to articulate a progressive defence of French national interests that would stop this decline. In France, as in Ireland, no solution is possible within the confines of EU rules that suit only big capital.

Under Hollande, the economic crisis has got worse for the working class while French involvement in foreign wars has escalated.

The French Right will undoubtedly try and outflank the National Front on the anti-immigration issue but the Left is paralysed, unable to put forward an economic regeneration programme of its own or a vision of a genuinely social future.

As Seán Murray, one time commandant of the Antrim Brigade of the Irish Republican Army and later General Secretary of the Communist Party, said: “You can ignore the national question; but the national question won’t ignore you.”

5 Caoimhín Mac Giolla Mhín and Gabi Basánez show their support for the release of imprisoned Basque leader Arnaldo Otegi and Basque political prisoners

5 Mary Lou Mc Donald TD and Sinn Féin activists protest outside the Mater Hospital in Dublin as part of a state-wide campaign of actions on the hospital and trolley crisis

14 January / Eanáir 2016

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CHRIS HAZZARD MLA

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Victims

Sinn Féin will not be found wanting in continuing to develop a process which will allow everyone to have the required level of disclosure on the past

CONFLICT LEGACY

Giving families the truth they deserve THERE IS NO DOUBT that legacy issues arising out of the conflict need to be addressed if we are to move forward as a society.

Sinn Féin in every negotiations process has been sincere in working to the best of our ability to find a way in which we can address these issues.

However, we are not prepared to enter a process that is either one-sided or where the maximum disclosure possible for families is blocked. That is why there was no agreement to legacy issues in the Fresh Start deal.

In December 2014, during the Stormont House Agreement, the British Government agreed that the Historical Investigations Unit (HIU) would have full access to information on the cases they were working upon. But when the draft legislation was brought forward it was found the British Secretary of State would have a veto in relation to onward disclosure to other agencies and for family reports. This would mean that the HIU would not be seen as independent as

three-person independent and international panel made up of one judge appointed by the British Government, one appointed by the Irish

The British Government agreed at Stormont House the Historical Investigations Unit would have full access to information but draft legislation gave the British Secretary of State a veto

During the recent Fresh Start negotiations, the British Government introduced the pretext of ‘national security’ as a way of blocking disclosure of relevant information to families

its director would not have any discretion when it comes to the release of documents.

This was unacceptable to many of the families and most of the campaigning groups; and as we have engaged extensively with both, it was something Sinn Féin could not sign up to.

During the recent negotiations, the British Government introduced the pretext of “national security” as a way of blocking disclosure of relevant information to the families. Sinn Féin opposed this but we brought forward an options paper that would allow the British Government to disclose relevant information to families.

These options included giving the Director of the Historical Investigations Unit the same discretionary powers as the Policing Ombudsman so that the British Secretary of State does not have a veto over them or their reports to families.

Another option would be the creation of a

Government and the third an international judicial figure agreed by both governments.

This panel would have the ability to make a judgement on appeals and either uphold or quash decisions made by the British Secretary of State.

5 The Ballymurphy Massacre families held a candlelight parade to remember the victims of the 1971 British Army shooting spree. Pictured is Janet Donnelly – whose father Joseph Murphy was one of those killed – placing a star with her father's photo on it on the Christmas tree in the local memorial garden

We have based our submissions around the release of information on three key principles: 1 The disclosure of information cannot be allowed to endanger anyone’s life or safety; 2 Disclosure of information cannot be used to damage the effectiveness of current methodologies for the prevention of damage to ‘national security’; 3 ‘National security’ cannot be used as 5 The British Government is doing everything in its a reason to withhold information in power to prevent the release of certain files relation to the death or serious injury

5Theresa Villiers and David Cameron

of someone arising out of the conflict or indeed serious human rights abuses and must be European Convention on Human Rights Article 2 compliant.

It is important that we work together so that victims and survivors can move forward and get the truth they deserve. Sinn Féin will not be found wanting in continuing to develop a process which will allow everyone to have the required level of disclosure on the past.

January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

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Gender principles

for dealing with the legacy of the past

ANDREÉ MURPHY RELATIVES FOR JUSTICE IN STORMONT in September, a collective of women launched a document on dealing with the past.

Entitled Gender Principles for Dealing with the Legacy of the Past, it suggests mechanisms to ensure that women and men can participate in any processes on an equal basis.

The international legal frameworks that say victims of conflict, and in particular women, should be equal participants in mechanisms designed to support them but, thus far, our processes to deal with the past have eluded them. We now have an opportunity to change that.

Negotiations on making the process human rights compliant have understandably focused on European Convention Article 2 rights. States, however, are also bound by the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and also UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on ‘Women, Peace and Security’.

Dealing with the past for victims is a process, not an event – it is long-term These principles suggest practical steps to make those standards real and relevant.

The Stormont House Agreement mechanisms are designed to address conflict-related deaths. Even within that seemingly narrow conflict focus there is necessity and scope for a gender lens. Lives were irrevocably changed and understanding impact is critical to understanding the true nature of the harm. If we only understand the killings as forensic details of how someone met their death and who was responsible then we miss the huge frame of experience. And so much of that frame relates to women’s experiences.

No one experiences dealing with the legal frameworks

of remedy as separate from supporting the needs that emerge from impact.

How can you be an equal participant if you cannot say the name of your father without crying? How can you be equal if you did not finish school so cannot confidently read the post mortem and other official documents? But with support, of course you can be.

No one else is more qualified or expert in any case than the bereaved relative. And no one should create barriers in the way of that relative exercising their right to equal participation, whether by commission or omission.

Process is a word we have associated with peace. We have accepted that a peace process can be challenging, can have stops and starts, and requires long-term commitment and infinite resources. Similarly, dealing with the past for victims – and again particularly for women – is a process, not an event. It is long-term. It changes and requires sustained attention and support.

Because women face multiple barriers to equal participation in any process, especially legal and political ones, these are relevant issues as we face into the implementation of the Stormont House Agreement.

Women affected by conflict-related violence rarely have positions of power. We need to ensure we create and resource structures that support the development of agency and empowerment.

There is a real risk that the Stormont House Agreement will compound the horrific experiences of previous failed investigations if we do not change the landscape

5 Women face multiple barriers to equal participation in a legacy process

for participation. But victims and survivors, despite this, have for the most part determined to give the Stormont House Agreement a fair wind. There is true realisation that this may well be the last chance for many ageing

There is a real risk that the Stormont House Agreement will compound the horrific experiences of previous failed investigations if we do not change the landscape for participation Gender Principles for Dealing with the Legacy of the Past

Legacy Gender Integration Group Belfast, September 2015

families. We cannot allow the process to fail them because it replicates previous poor process. We can do better.

And part of that means going back to the woman who cannot stop crying and pausing with her, listening to her, and taking it at her pace. This is challenging but it is the only way to secure equal participation.

• ‘Gender Principles for for Dealing with the Legacy of the Past’ can be read on the Relatives for Justice website.

16 January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

ies of The tim

Laura d r o f w a r C i

PAUL FOX were killed LAURA CRAWFORD AND December 1975. Danny on active service in Belfast on 1 r IRA prisoner and Editor of Morrison – the novelist, forme – was asked to speak at the An Phoblacht/Republican News Women’s commemoration for Laura at the y McCorley Garden of Remembrance, Rodd ber 2015.

Club, Glen Road, on 21 Novem as it We reproduce Danny’s tribute conflict depicts the background to the re thrust that these young republicans we and of so into and which cost their lives many others.

Ulster Unionist Party rule – discrimination, gerrymandering, sectarian pogroms, civil rights marchers beaten off the streets, British Army curfews and daily raids, thousands of nationalists interned, prisoners tortured

BY DANNY MORRISON

ALTHOUGH Laura and IRA Volunteer Paul Fox died on active service together on Monday 1 December 1975, the particular date for this commemoration was chosen by the family because yesterday, had she survived the war, the conflict, Laura would have been celebrating her 65th birthday.

We can only imagine the great contribution she would have made to life, her family, her community and her country.

Had Paul lived, he would have been 60. It is astonishing, it is unbelievable, to think about the passage of time that separate us from these loved ones, our flesh and blood.

And it is impossible for me to imagine Paul ‘Basil’ Fox other than the teenage terrier that he was – ducking down alleyways, evading British Army patrols, being the bane in the lives of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers and the Royal Green Jackets. The Brits raided Paul’s home on his 17th birthday, hoping to intern him, but he escaped that raid, one of 89 raids the Fox family experienced on their home. Imagine – 89 raids on your home by the British Army; young ones terrified; rooms wrecked.

The Green Jackets, on 13 November 1972, also tried to kill Paul. They opened fire on a car in which he was the passenger and they killed his comrade, IRA Volunteer Stan Carberry.

Paul and I were arrested together at a dance in Clonard Hall in November 1972 and we were interned in Cage Two of Long Kesh together. I have written and spoken about Paul and our comradeship many times, but I think this is the first time that I have publicly spoken about Laura, whom I first met in late 1975, about a month before her death, and spent some time in her company.

I want to describe what life was like for the nationalist community back then.

We are a first-class people but we were born

into a state whose government – to its detriment – treated us like second-class citizens.

As soon as the Ulster Unionists took power, they redrew the electoral boundaries so as to render our votes as useless. They abolished proportional representation.

They armed one section of the community with the Royal Ulster Constabulary and its reserves, the A-Specials, the B-Specials, the C-Specials,.

They introduced the Special Powers Act. They used internment every decade to shut us up.

They banned our culture.

They located most industries in unionist areas, which meant that the areas which suffered the highest unemployment and the lowest-paid were nationalist areas.

Despite being an artificial minority, nationalists made up the majority of those who emigrated to get away from the Orange State. Those who left remembered those who stayed. Those who left became the financial and material support of our resistance when the time came to resume the struggle for freedom.

Ned Crawford, a docker and trade union man from Ballymacarrett, and Bridget Brennan, from Balkan Street in the Falls, married in 1939, and went on to have eight girls and two boys whom they

I want to describe what life was like for the nationalist community back then

5 Laura had her whole life ahead of her but for the intervention of history in the form of a sectarian government determined to hold on to what it had and not give an inch

raised in a two-bedroom house in Frere Street, in the shadow of the mills, and in an area that had been attacked in the 1920s and the 1930s.

Using the example of the black civil rights movement, our people marched peacefully for peaceful change and reform. They were beaten into the ground. When they got back up on their feet, they were shot and their homes were burnt to the ground. When they armed themselves – because, clearly, no one else was going to protect them – their homes were raided, their streets curfewed and they were gassed from the air by hovering British Army helicopters. Their homes were wrecked by the British Army, against whom – before the curfew – not one shot was fired, not one gun directed.

These were the times Laura Crawford grew up in.

So Laura experienced August 1969 from the frontline as hundreds of homes were burned down and thousands were made refugees and had to flee south. Fatalities on the night of 14 August 1969 included 9-year-old Patrick Rooney shot dead in his bedroom by the RUC; and Trooper Hugh McCabe, a British soldier home on leave,

January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

17

5 Crowds gather for Laura Crawford's funeral at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast

who was killed by the RUC as he tried to defend the people of Divis Flats.

The Crawfords knew what it was like to be trapped in a curfew as the British Army raided the Falls, house-by-house, under the cover of CS gas and lethal gunfire, killing and wounding local people.

The Falls area was being redeveloped and new estates were being built in the west of the city. The family moved into Rosapenna Square in Lenadoon.

It was not long before Lenadoon was a battleground as the British Army raided homes on 9 August 1971 as internment was introduced. Then there followed, in January 1972, one of the most traumatic events up to that time in the experience of the nationalist community when British paratroopers shot dead 14 civil rights marchers in Derry. This had a profound effect on the community and many young people were to flock to the IRA, believing it was the only answer, the only response, to repression.

At some stage in 1973, Laura secretly joined Cumann na mBan Among those was Laura’s younger sister, Geraldine. Before long she was arrested, charged with possession of weapons and sentenced to eight years in jail, which to a 17-year-old teenager would have been a frightening prospect. Geraldine went to Armagh Jail, where earlier in the year Andersonstown woman Liz McKee had become the first woman interned since the 1940s.

This was the background to Laura secretly making the decision to join the Republican Movement through Cumann na mBan – thousands of nationalists interned, prisoners tortured, daily raids and harassment.

Her sister Brenda remembers Laura taking notes at the side of the stage in Dunville Park during an anti-internment rally being addressed by Máire Drumm. And later Laura went to Dublin and worked for a time on An Phoblacht in Parnell Square. At some stage in 1973, Laura secretly joined Cumann na mBan. Few knew about it although one day Laura’s mother, Briege, when vacuuming the bedrooms found a blonde wig and put two and two together.

Laura was ideal for certain operations. She had the demeanour of a professional young woman, drove her own car, and could confidently go places where most active service Volunteers back then

would have stood out like sore thumbs. She dressed with class, clothes bought in the best boutiques, her face made-up with the most expensive cosmetics.

Tragically, on the night of Monday 1 December 1975, a bomb they were transporting went off prematurely in a parked car in which Laura was the driver and Paul the passenger. That night there were a number of other IRA operations taking place across the city.

Brenda recalls when the news came on about two people being killed her mother saying, “Lord have mercy on their souls,” without realising that one of them was her own daughter.

The republican community in west Belfast was in mourning for these two brave comrades. Geraldine, who thought that the extent of Laura’s involvement was as a member of Sinn Féin, recalls the prison chaplain, Fr Raymond Murray, coming into Armagh Prison the following morning and breaking the news to her. She was given parole to attend the

5 Few knew Laura had joined Cumann na mBan

5 Patrick Rooney (9) was shot dead by the RUC

5 Nationalist children grew up as second-class citizens in a state that was at war with their community

We are not here to glorify armed struggle – we must speak about the story of the lives of our brothers and sisters and comrades funeral. Laura’s coffin was laid out on her bed. On either side was a guard of honour. And marching among the guard of honour as the coffin was taken to Milltown was Geraldine.

Outside Paul’s house, British soldiers stopped and jeered at the family. Just as his funeral was starting, the Brits tried to raid the wake but were prevented from doing so by dozens of women.

Can you imagine those scenes on top of the grief that family and friends were experiencing?

We are here tonight not to glorify or romanticise armed struggle and guerrilla war, because such actions involve tremendous sacrifice and struggle, heartache and pain. But nor do we baulk at the actions of our loved ones, our brothers and sisters and comrades who fought against overwhelming odds. They laid down their lives. We must speak about the story of their lives, the perils they undertook, so that we and our people and our children could be free.

18 January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS

5 The decade of centenaries includes the outbreak of the First World War and the 1916 Easter Rising

Respectful commemorations and exploring shared values JOHN McCALLISTER MLA Independent Unionist

WE are in a decade of centenaries – the Ulster Covenant of 1912, the outbreak of the First World War, the 1916 Easter Rising and Battle of the Somme, the first meeting of Dáil Éireann in 1919, the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the first meeting of the Parliament of Northern Ireland in 1921. There will, of course, be those who are only too eager to use the centenaries to trumpet old, divisive narratives of our past on these island. They will do so to sow new discord and new division in 21st century Ireland, seeking to undermine the peace and new relationships we enjoy on this island.

This poses significant challenges both for unionists and republicans. If, for example, unionists in Northern Ireland decide they will not be involved in any way in the commemoration of the Rising, or if Northern nationalists determine that they will not share in the commemoration of the foundation of Northern Ireland, we only give aid and succour to those who want to stir up the divisions of the past. We will be declaring that past divisions continue to shape today’s politics.

The truth is that each of these events whose centenaries fall in this decade have shaped all of us on this island, North and South, unionist and nationalist. Each of these events is part of a story we all share – the story of this island and these islands in the 20th century. As a British citizen, as someone who believes in Northern Ireland’s place in the contemporary United Kingdom, I would not describe myself as ‘celebrating’ the Easter Rising. That said, I think it is important that I commemorate it alongside nationalists, recognising the fact that it shaped both 20th century Irish history. Likewise, I would not ask Northern nationalists to ‘celebrate’ the

Government of Ireland Act or the first meeting of the Stormont Parliament.

We have a model of how we can commemorate without denying our own political convictions.

When Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, during her state visit to the Republic in 2011, paid her respects to those who had fallen in the service of the Republic, she exemplified respectful commemoration. Such respectuful commemoration should mark how all of us approach the historic centenaries that lie before us over the next few years. Those who want to perpetuate the old divisive myths need to be confronted with the strength and vision of the new relationships on this island, of unionist and nationalist together respectfully commemorating events which have shaped and defined us all.

Alongside respectful commemoration, there are two other aspects of the centenaries that should be acknowledged.

When it comes to the centenary of the creation of the state of Northern Ireland, those of us who are unionists need to find ways in which to recognise those for whom it was, to say the least, no cause for celebration. Space needs to be created, in other words, to acknowledge the Northern nationalist experience. The same challenge should also face republicanism regarding the commemoration of the centenary of the Rising and the first sitting of Dáil Éireann. For a not insignificant minority in the southern part of this island, these events led to a story no less bitter than that told by Northern nationalists.

Our centenaries need to be characterised by a generosity towards the minorities which emerged on both parts of the island as a result of these events.

The second aspect of the centenaries is quite different.

Our commemorations should also be an opportunity to explore and affirm shared values. Think, for example, of the Ulster Covenant’s commitment to “equal citizenship”, “civil and religious freedom” and “material well-being”. We also find these values in the Proclamation of the Republic: “The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens.” Think too of King George V’s words at

Those who want to perpetuate the old divisive myths need to be confronted with the strength and vision of the new relationships on this island, of unionist and nationalist together respectfully commemorating events which have shaped and defined us all

5 The Ulster Covenant and the 1916 Proclamation

the 1921 state opening of the Parliament of Northern Ireland: “I appeal to all Irishmen to pause, to stretch out the hand of forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and to forget, and to join in making for the land which they love a new era of peace, contentment, and goodwill.”

The years since 1998 have shown that peace and progress cannot be taken for granted, and that unionism and republicanism both have a responsibility to demonstrate a spirit of generosity if a greater, more authentic reconciliation is to be achieved. How both our traditions approach the centenaries of these years is crucial to achieving such reconciliation.

Editor’s Note: Guest writers in the Uncomfortable Conversations series use their own terminology and do not always reflect the house style of An Phoblacht.

To see more go to – www.anphoblacht.com/uncomfortable-conversations

www.anphoblacht.com

DECLAN KEARNEY

January / Eanáir 2016

Agreement on a ‘Fair Recovery’ agenda would be a game-changer

19

CUTS TO PUBLIC SERVICES, job losses, dismantling of the welfare state, and political disregard for the special circumstances of the North are the distinctive hallmarks of the present British Government’s agenda.

This Tory doctrine is also being reinforced with levels of political authoritarianism not witnessed since the Thatcher er; and, ominously, an increased role for the British military and security establishment has become central to setting state policy.

The most pernicious byproduct of the Tory austerity and authoritarian agenda is the Trade Union Bill currently before the Westminster parliament.

On 10 December, the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) hosted a high-profile demonstration of anti-austerity unity and support for workers’ rights at a public rally of 2,000 people in Glasgow involving Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis specifically focusing on the Trade Union Bill.

This important initiative typifies the type of crossparty solidarity required elsewhere to encourage popular opposition to the bad choices made by conservative and social democratic parties in Britain and Ireland which have inflicted greater hardship on ‘in work’ and ‘out of work’ families and citizens.

The previous week, the NI Committee-Irish Congress of Trades Unions (NIC-ICTU) set out its position on the Stormont House/‘Fresh Start’ Agreement.

It expressed the trade union movement’s support for the political institutions and the restoration of political stability in the North. It recognised that the British Government’s responsibility for the austerity crisis in the North contributed directly to the increased political instability in recent years and that the Irish Government has failed to live up to its responsibility as a co-guarantor for both the peace and political processes.

The trade unions also set out their concerns about economic and financial elements of the Agreement, including Corporation Tax and the Voluntary Exit Scheme.

The perspective of the trades union leadership in the North was also set out again in an Irish News interview on 16 December.

Importantly, the NIC-ICTU position paper outlined a number of constructive strategic proposals which can contribute to the restructuring of the regional economy and help limit the imposition of austerity by encouraging economic growth and a fair recovery.

Sinn Féin will be meeting with NIC-ICTU in early January to discuss its proposals. The party is committed to a sustained engagement with NIC-ICTU on these ideas and would encourage all political parties and other sectors of civic society to do likewise.

The political institutions need to be a bulwark against Tory austerity in the Six Counties.

It is essential that the local political parties, trade unions and other key civic stakeholders are united in continuing to make the case for the North’s ‘special circumstances’ emerging from conflict.

The election of a majority Conservative Party

5 Maximum cross-community and sectoral solidarity against austerity is crucial

government in Britain and the implications of that have changed everything for the North, so the regional economic and social policy paradigm must now also be changed.

That means effectively targeting patterns of inequality and the under-investment and economic underdevelopment west as well as east of the Bann.

The Six Counties Civil Service and its investment, job-creation and enterprise agencies have not produced the programmes required to deliver economic and social change which

industrial, investment and training policy and strategies for the North.

Consideration should be given to the formation of a properly constituted economic and social consultative body which ensures these key stakeholders have a real role in the future development of regional policy and strategy.

This would represent one way to ensure that the political institutions act as a brake on the Tories’ efforts to impose unchecked austerity.

Sinn Féin is already committed to working closely

A positive axis against austerity, spearheaded by the regional executives of Scotland, Wales and the North of Ireland – supported by the British Labour Party, the Trades Union Congress in Britain, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Right2Change, and other civic stakeholders – would be a game-changer all sections of the community can enjoy. The old system has failed in this respect because it was never designed to succeed. That’s why the process of economic policy and decision-making must be changed.

The local trade union movement – and the other civic stakeholders, including the business and employers’ organisations – should be closely involved in helping to shape future manufacturing,

with the trade unions and other sectors in the North and across the island to oppose austerity and build support for a fair recovery.

The success of that, however, will depend upon mobilising maximum political and social solidarity. Political sectarianism or opportunism from the negative Left and within some sections of social democracy makes no constructive contribution to securing that objective.

Right2Change has emphasised the importance of common ground and alliances in the 26 Counties. Maximum cross-community and sectoral solidarity against the austerity crisis in the North is also crucial.

The damage being done to the welfare state, public services, jobs and working conditions by the Tories transcends constitutional, community and civic differences.

A ‘Fair Recovery’ agenda should be common ground for civic society and progressive parties across Ireland and Britain. The regional executives of Scotland, Wales and the North of Ireland should now provide joint political leadership on the importance of maximum solidarity and co-ordinated opposition to austerity by the trade union congresses, churches, and regional businesses, employers and voluntary organisations.

The example set by the STUC in hosting its Glasgow meeting could be replicated with a similar initiative in Belfast.

A positive axis against austerity, spearheaded by the regional executives of Scotland, Wales and the North of Ireland – supported by the British Labour Party, the various TUCs in Britain, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Right2Change, and other civic stakeholders – would be a game-changer.

This would represent a powerful challenge to the negative status quo which is ascendant in Britain and Ireland.

It could be the catalyst for a new progressive roadmap.

5 The SNP's Nicola Sturgeon, British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis

20 January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

COUNTDOWN TO THE 1916 RISING

James Connolly joins the Military Council IN ST ENDA’S COLLEGE in Rathfarnham one January evening in 1916, Pádraig Pearse, in conversation with Desmond Ryan, described how he had persuaded James Connolly not to act alone with the Irish Citizen Army but to wait and join the insurrection planned by the Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

Pearse revealed that Connolly turned to him with tears in his eyes, grasped his hand warmly, and said: “I agree, but God grant, Pearse, that you are right!”

Pearse remarked to Ryan: “God grant that I was . . . perhaps, after all, Connolly was right.” And then Pearse said, with deep feeling: “Connolly is a great man . . . what a great man.”

This conversation came after a period of turmoil, both in Connolly’s own mind about how to proceed and in relations between him and the leaders of the Irish Volunteers. They had been co-operating from the beginning of the

Sometimes spuriously described as the ‘arrest’ or even ‘kidnapping’ of Connolly, these were in fact days of intense engagement between the thinkers and planners who made the 1916 Rising First World War in September 1914 in the Irish Neutrality League, in organising the funeral of O’Donovan Rossa in August 1915, and in opposing the threatened imposition of conscription by the British Army in late 1915.

Connolly, Eoin MacNeill and Pearse shared a platform at a packed anti-conscription meeting in the Mansion House in December 1915.

At the same time, Connolly was deeply suspicious of the Irish Volunteer leaders, especially MacNeill. He was not fully aware of the work of the IRB’s Military Council within the Volunteers without MacNeill’s knowledge, and their maturing plans for a Rising in 1916.

Connolly was deeply disappointed that socialists and trade unionists across Europe had failed to live up to their pre-war pledge to oppose imperialist war and to down tools rather than allow the working classes of the continent to become cannon fodder. Instead, most of those leaders urged workers to join the imperialist armies.

Now Connolly saw the militant

5 Pádraig Pearse

BY MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA

Remembering the Past

5 The IRB feared James Connolly's Irish Citizen Army would act alone

section of the Irish working class, led by the Irish Citizen Army, playing a central role in an insurrection against the British Empire as the only hope of progress. But he believed that such a blow could only be struck while the war lasted and he feared it might end without a rising in Ireland.

Week by week in his paper Connolly criticised the hesitancy of the Volunteer leaders and urged military action.

In ‘What is Our Programme’ Connolly alluded to the difference between the Volunteer moderates led by Eoin MacNeill and the militants led by Pearse.

He said it was their duty to “strengthen the hand of those leaders who are for action as against those who are playing into the hands of the enemy”.

Sunday 16 January began possibly the most crucial week in the preparation for the Rising.

On that day, the Supreme Council of the IRB met in Clontarf Town Hall.

It confirmed the decision it made at the start of the war in 1914 that there should be a rising during that conflict. It endorsed the Military Council’s position that they should rise at the earliest time possible and left all the details to them.

With plans for a Rising at Easter now being put in place, the Military Council – Pearse, Seán Mac Diarmada, Éamonn Ceannt, Tom Clarke and Joseph Plunkett – were concerned about Connolly. They feared that he would lead out the Citizen Army in isolation, throwing the IRB’s plans into chaos. And so on Wednesday afternoon, 19 January, Connolly left Liberty Hall and was not seen by his Citizen Army comrades until Saturday evening.

There was alarm among them, with Constance Markievicz urging military action, fearing Connolly had been

FOR

5 Constance Markievicz

5 Many trade union leaders urged workers to become imperialist cannon fodder

in and he took his place on the IRB’s Military Council.

When he returned to the home of Markievicz, where he was staying – his family was still living in Belfast – Connolly said: “I have been in Hell but I conquered my conquerors.” He said he had walked about 40 miles that day.

Joseph Plunkett told his sister that he

Pearse said, with deep feeling: ‘Connolly is a great man. What a great man’

5 Connolly, Eoin MacNeill and Pearse shared a platform at the Mansion House rally

arrested or killed. But Citizen Army Chief of Staff Michael Mallin calmed the situation.

In fact, Connolly was with Pearse, Mac Diarmada and Plunkett, who brought him to meet them to discuss in depth the forthcoming insurrection.

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They were persuading him to come on board with their plans. One account states that the meeting took place in a brickworks in Dolphin’s Barn to which Connolly was brought by car. Over three days and nights in secret talks he agreed to bring the Citizen Army

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had never talked so much or enjoyed anything so much or had ever been so tired as after the long debate with Connolly.

Sometimes spuriously described as the ‘arrest’ or even ‘kidnapping’ of Connolly, these were in fact days of intense engagement between the thinkers and planners who made the 1916 Rising. Connolly brought with him his political experience and self-taught military knowledge. He did not submerge his socialism in a nationalist rebellion but brought socialism to the table at which the Irish Republic was formed. In the weeks that followed he worked with Plunkett on the detailed plans of the Rising and with Pearse he helped to write the Proclamation.

• James Connolly met the Military Council in secret between 19 and 22 January 1916, 100 years ago this month.

January / Eanáir 2016

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21

Raic san AE faoi Gás na Rúise CÉ GO GCLOISEANN muid a lán baothchaint faoi phrionsabail chómhsheasaimh an Aontais Eorpaigh, níor dhearnadh aon phlé sna meáin Éireannacha faoin raic mhor idir an Iodáil agus an Ghearmáin mar gheall ar an Rúis, smachtbhannaí agus soláthar gáis. Ó fuair lucht an Iarthair greim ar rialtas na hÚcráíne, ag iarraidh an tír sin a dheighilt ar fad ón Rúis, tá na Rúisigh ag cur fuinnimh bhreise ina gcuid iarrachtaí le bealaí eile a aimsiú le gás a sholáthar don Eoraip gan dul tríd an Úcráín.

Ar thaobh amháin tá fadb na smachtbhannaí a cuireadh i bhféidhm i gcoinne na Rúise nuair a tháinig an tir sin i gcabhair ar na forsaí frith-fhaisteacha is báúla leis an Rúis. Ach ar an taobh eile, bhí an Úcráín ag goid gáis ón bpíplíne is ag diúltú íoc as (tá an Úcráín nach mor banc-bhriste anois).

B’é an chéad phlean, le tacaíocht láidir ón Ungáir na píplíne nua a thóigeáil faoin bhfarraige ón Rúis go dtí an Bhulgáir – an Sruth Theas mar a tugadh air. Thabharfadh an píplíne nua seo gás dona tíortha Bailteacha, don Ungair is don Ghearmáin mar aon leis an Iodail, gan aon chur isteach ón Úcráín nó ón bPolainn.

Ach chuir na Meiriceánaigh an-bhrú ar na

EOIN Ó MURCHÚ

Bulgairigh gan dul ar aghaidh leis an bplean, agus faoin mbrú sin rialaigh Coimisiún na hEorpa gur sháraigh an píplíne rialacha an Aontais maidir le comortas.

Chuir sé sin fearg, mar a tharla ar an Iodáil a bhí ag déanamh infheistíocht s abplean ar mhaithe le gás a chinntiu dóibh fein agus ar mhaithe le brabús a dhéanamh.

D’imigh an Sruth Theas.

Ansin chinn na Rúisigh ar píplíne eile a thóigeail ag dul tríd an Túirc, isteach sa nGreig agus suas go dtí an Eoraip. Ní bheadh an brabús céanna ann don Iodáil, ach bheidis i ndán cuid den ghás a fháil.

Ach nuair a scaoil na Túircigh eitleán de chuid na Rúise os cionn na Siria, bhí deire le

dea-chaidreamh idir an Rúis agus an Túirc, agus deire is cosúil leis an Sruth Túirce.

Ach ta plean eile fós ann, an Sruth Thuaidh, foain bhrraige díreach ón Ruis go dtí an Ghearmáin. Tá na Gearmáinigh ag déanamh infheistíocht mhor sa bplean seo, a fhágfadh gás na Rúis is saor ón Úcrain, ón bPolainn agus ó thir Bhailteach ar bith.

Anois tá na hIodáiligh ag gearán go raibh riail amháin ann maidir le smachtbhannaí is comortas don Iodáil, agus riail eile don Ghearmáin.

Ach tá soláthar gáis ró-thabhachtach don Ghearmáin, agus is cosúil nach bhfuil éinne ag éeisteacht le Matteo Renzi na hIodaile.

5 Basque ex-prisoner, now living in Belfast, Itzi Martinez getting Christmas cards ready to post

5Caoimhín Mac Giolla Mhín of the Belfast Basque Solidarity Committee and Clíodhna Ní Labhraí (MFRYC) posting her cards

5 Michael Culbert talks to An Phoblacht TV

Seasonal solidarity to Basque prisoners with calls for their release IN their annual Christmas show of solidarity with Basque political prisoners, members of the Belfast Basque Solidarity Committee posted Christmas and New Year cards to the prisoners and called on the Spanish state to start releasing prisoners.

Urging the government in Madrid to engage with the Basque peace process

by first moving the prisoners closer to their families, Caoimhín Mac Giolla Mhín, spokesperson for the group, said: “So far, the Spanish state has refused to engage with the Basque peace process or acknowledge the huge strides made by the Basque political organisations.

“However, a sign that they are willing to accept the process in a meaningful

BY PEADAR WHELAN way would be to reverse the policy of dispersal where prisoners are moved hundreds of miles from their families, causing enormous hardship, and move them closer to the Basque Country.

“After that, the nest logical step is

prisoner releases. Until then, we will continue to do what we can in Ireland to highlight the plight of these men and women and demand their release.

Sending these postcards is a small but important gesture as it shows that people in Ireland are thinking of them.”

Director of Coiste na nIarchimí republican ex-prisoners’ association Michael

Culbert told An Phoblacht: “We know as prisoners that receiving cards at Christmas from people was always a morale boost as it showed that people beyond these shores were thinking of us. So while it was a simple gesture on one level, on another level it was politicaly important as it showed that the British Government hadn’t isolated

22 January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

‘I’m in a legal and employment limbo’

Legal discrimination against former political prisoners must be ended

BY PEADAR WHELAN LEGAL DISCRIMINATION against former political prisoners must be ended, the Director of Coiste na nIarchimí, the republican ex-prisoners’ support group, has said.

Michael Culbert made his call after it emerged that west Belfast man Robert ‘Rab’ Henry was left in “legal and employment limbo” after he was told he was unsuitable for a maintenance job in the Great Northern Tower in Belfast city centre.

Rab, who was arrested in 1984 and sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment, applied for a job with Aramark, a private company contracted to carry out office maintenance in the building which houses the Child Maintenance Service (CMS).

Rab was given the job within hours of completing the interview. However, it wasn’t until he was actually in the post that he was informed he was required to complete an AccessNI check as the building and the CMS come under the Civil Service and the authority of the Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP).

At no time either during the

application or interview was Rab Henry aware that he would be required to undergo an AccessNI check, especially as the job was office maintenance and he had no contact with the public or direct involvement with the work of the CMS. In fact, when he sent off the AccessNI form he told his manager of his convictions and her view was that ‘it shouldn’t be a problem’. Yet it was a problem for the DFP who carried out a Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) check and told Aramark that because of the “violent” nature of his charges – he was convicted of “conspiracy to murder” and possession of explosives he was “unsuitable” to work in the CMS office.

Aramark offered the west Belfast man jobs in either Lisburn or Castlereagh but as he doesn’t drive it would be extremely difficult to take up these offers.

A spokesperson for DFP would only say that “departmental guidelines” were followed.

“I’m in a legal and employment limbo at the minute,” Rab told An Phoblacht.

“I was released from prison in 1990 and have not been in any kind of trouble since then. I find it grossly unreasonable

that I would lose this job over a conviction that occurred over a quarter of a century ago.”

He added: “It was a humiliating experience for me as the manager took my keys and led me out of the building.”

His solicitor, Niall Murphy of KRW Law, confirmed that his firm will be challenging the DFP guidelines “that are being used to deny employment to former political prisoners”.

Commenting on the case, Michael

Culbert, who accompanied Rab Henry to a meeting with Aramark said: “The Good Friday Agreement and the signatories to it, including the British Government, recognised the political nature of the convictions of those prisoners released under its terms.

“However, the wider issue for society is that those former political prisoners should be included as part of the legacy narrative of the conflict and have their records expunged.

‘I find it grossly unreasonable that I would lose this job over a conviction that occurred over a quarter of a century ago’

5 Republican former POW Robert 'Rab' Henry who is pursuing a legal case challenging the Guidelines for Employment with Director of Coiste na nIarchimí Michael Culbert

“This will open the way for former prisoners to enjoy the equal citizenship denied to them when they are refused employment, refused the right to adopt or foster children, refused insurance for their cars and homes as well as the right to travel.”

January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

War is over but equal citizenship denied to ex-prisoners

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The Good Friday Agreement accepted that the prisoner issue needed to be addressed and those in prison as a result of the conflict were subsequently released

BY PEADAR WHELAN “POLITICAL EX-PRISONERS face legal discrimination every day of their lives,” said Michael Culbert, Director of Coiste na nIarchimí, the republican ex-prisoners’ suport network. “The war is over yet for former political prisoners the legacy of their convictions is still being used against them.”

Michael was reacting to the latest case where a republican ex-prisoner lost his job in Belfast’s Great Northern Tower where the Child Maintenance Service is housed after the Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP) said he was unsuitable to carry out maintenance in the building.

Robert ‘Rab’ Henry, who completed a 12-year sentence in 1990, is challenging the DFP’s ‘Guidelines for Employment’ through the courts.

Michael Culbert, himself a former life sentence prisoner, also highlighted the recent cases where two former prisoners were refused entry to US airspace by American authorities on the basis of their convictions.

One of those is Pat Magee from Belfast. He was convicted of the 1984 ‘Brighton Bomb’ assassination bid on British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her Cabinet. Pat was not only released under the Good Friday Agreement but he has been a tireless promoter of the Peace Process and reconciliation, going as far as to establish the NGO Building Bridges for Peace with the daughter of Sir Anthony Berry, one of the people killed in the Brighton attack.

Pat was flying to Mexico in November to speak at a peace conference when he was told at Heathrow Airport that he couldn’t fly through US airspace.

The conference organisers arranged for him to fly to Bogota in Colombia via Madrid in Spain and then on to Mexico, where he was taken into custody by immigration officials.

He was subsequently deported to London by the same circuitous route through Bogota and Madrid. As Magee’s passport was not returned to him, he could only move through the airports under guard.

“Pat Magee’s case is full of ironies,” Michael Culbert laughed incredulously.

“Firstly, he was travelling to Mexico with Jo Berry, whose father was one of five people killed in the Brighton attack, and they have worked together through the Building Bridges for Peace organisation to promote peace and reconciliation in Ireland, Britain and internationally.

“Secondly, the fact that it was okay to deport Pat to Britain, where he was sentenced to eight life sentences for trying to assassinate the British Government, shows that the British accept he is not a threat.”

For Michael Culbert, however, the wider issues around the legacy of the political conflict and how political ex-prisoners are still marginalised are matters that need to be addressed.

“Former political prisoners are being retrospectively punished. The Good Friday Agreement accepted that the prisoner issue needed to be addressed and those in prison as a result of the conflict were subsequently released.

“Yet the release of the POWs didn’t, in reality, resolve the legacy issues surrounding

5 Pat Magee and Jo Berry were travelling to Mexico to speak at a peace conference in November when Pat was taken into custody and deported

5 RUC and British soldiers received pensions while former political prisoners face discrimination imprisonment. These examples demonstrate Broadening the discussion, the Coiste directhat legal discrimination is practised against tor said that the overall context for the debate former political prisoners and this effectively was that the British baulked at the idea of a means they are denied the same rights as settlement that saw the IRA as a guerrilla army other citizens. fighting a war of liberation.

“The British therefore ignored the accepted “Ex-POWs are not being treated as equal citizens,” said Culbert.

United Nations protocols around ‘Disarmament,

‘Legal discrimination is practised against former political prisoners and this effectively means they are denied the same rights as other citizens’

Demobilisation and Reintegration’ (DDR) as this would have given equal weight to the combatants and as such the British would, de facto, be acknowledging that they were fighting a colonial war here.

“So, given their attempts over the decades to criminalise the IRA and the republican struggle, it was unlikely they would accept a settlement based on DDR principles.

“By comparison, those members of the RUC, for example, who fought on the British side shared out a pot of £1.5billion (some receiving as much £500,000) when they retired under the Patten Plan, and British soldiers get pensions whereas former political prisoners are refused jobs, deported or blocked from travelling, denied home or car insurance, and prevented from adopting and fostering children.”

While there are many legacy issues to be resolved, the demand by former political prisoners to have their prison records expunged has both a practical and political objective.

Expunging the records of ex-prisoners convicted of politically-motivated offences will give them the equal citizenship they are denied; the political dimension has repercussions for how ex-political prisoners are seen in the British and unionist narrative of the conflict.

Michael Culbert concluded: “The unionists and British continue to criminalise republicans in general and former prisoners in particular and portray them as perpetrators responsible for the war and by extension the deaths of those killed.

“As republican activists we accept responsibility for our role in the conflict but we are not solely responsible.

“We have also played a significant role in building the peace so it is time that was acknowledged.”

24 January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

Another Europe is possible Treo eile don Eoraip “BREXIT” – the partial disengagement or even full withdrawal by the British state from the EU (and formal repeal or significant erosion of human rights protections) – has hugely negative implications for Ireland, North and South.

Issues including the Peace Process, human rights protections, agriculture, jobs, infrastructure and energy, cross-Border trade and travel will be directly affected by a BREXIT. A British exit would bolster partition, reinforcing the Border by an international frontier with possible passport checkpoints and customs controls, hindering free movement and disrupting the lives of nearly a million people living in the Border region.

A Brexit would mean no more Single Farm Payment or Rural Development Fund, no Structural Funds, and no PEACE Funding, with high human, social and economic costs. It is also unlikely that the British would replace the direct funding currently received directly from the EU. EU funding from 2007-13 was worth £2.4billion to the North.

Europe does need serious and radical democratic reform. Sinn Féin believes in strength-

A British exit would bolster partition, reinforcing the Border by an international frontier with possible passport checkpoints and customs controls, hindering free movement and disrupting the lives of nearly a million people living in the Border region ening the accountability and transparency of the European institutions but it is not in favour of a withdrawal from the European Union and completely oppose Brexit.

But what are the views of the other European member states?

Ever since British Prime Minister David Cameron announced in January 2013 that he would hold a referendum on a renegotiated British EU membership agreement, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made no secret of her desire to keep Britain within the EU. The German Government has a vested interest in keeping Britain in the EU, especially for economic reasons. Additionally, Germany also understands the symbolic value of Britain remaining in the EU. The acrimonious exit from the EU of such a significant member state would be a huge blow to the EU’s credibility. Berlin has already made perfectly clear that any changes to European treaties would be too risky.

A British

‘BREXIT’

huge implications for Ireland and rest of EU

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

Merkel’s government has set up a Berlinbased Brexit task force to troubleshoot the proposed reforms and she has reinforced her message of opposition to an exit with a call for Britain and Germany to remain “united and determined” in reforming the EU and promoting competitiveness.

Despite its strong interests to see Britain remain in the European Union, Germany will not cross every line to accommodate Cameron’s wishes. There are limits in substance and style to what Germany believes is acceptable.

Cameron and Merkel are firmly agreed that there should be no incentives for economic migrants, such as out-of-work benefits. But Merkel will not agree to quotas or special rules for Britain on this. The political message from Germany to Cameron is: ‘Pull out, and your country will find its position in the world reduced.’

Similarly, a British referendum on leaving Europe raises a number of reservations in France.

France would not want Britain to leave the EU despite its historical ambivalence toward Britain and their divergent views on Europe’s future. Britain remains a key partner and many

Scaling back the free movement of people is going to be a red line for the Polish Government if the rights of Poles residing in Britain were undermined in France see it as a valuable counterweight to Germany. France thinks that the union would be weakened by the loss of its second-largest economy, a global commercial power with significant diplomatic and military influence.

A new reform of the European treaties would be highly likely to fuel an intense public debate in France, perhaps even to be rejected if it were also put to a referendum. Former Cabinet ministers Laurent Wauquiez and Michel Rocard argue in favour of a Brexit (the latter considering that Britain is principally to blame for the paralysis in European decision-making); French President François Hollande is prepared to consider British demands for EU reform and could accept changes that simplify EU procedures and cut red tape.

Paris, however, is firmly set against any move to grant Britain opt-outs on issues such as the free movement of people, workers’ rights, environmental protection, or food safety rules.

French leaders speak of how they want to see London stay in the European Union – but not at the expense of giving away lots of concessions to help Cameron.

Poland shares the same views and with between 500,000 and 800,000 Polish immigrants now settled in Britain, the British discussion has a Polish dimension.

January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

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www.guengl.eu

BY JEMMA DOLAN IN BRUSSELS and work in Britain would have devastating social and economic consequences for Italy.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 150,000 Italians resided there in 2014; in 2015, 57,600 Italians registered for British National Insurance numbers, which was 37% more than in 2014.

Spain also has no sympathy with the idea of distorting “the four fundamental freedoms” (the free movement of goods; the free movement of services and freedom of establishment; the free movement of people, including free movement of workers; the free movement of capital) until they become unrecognisable, just to pacify David Cameron’s Tories.

Both being controlled by conservative governments, Spain and Britain share similar interests in enhancing the single market, cutting red tape for small businesses, and being supportive of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

While many Eurosceptic Britons are quick to criticise the bureaucracy of EU membership, few are actually aware as to the actual cost of a Brexit

5 British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel

One of the main slogans used by Prime Minister Cameron and the British anti-EU critics is the crusade against immigration in general and ‘social benefit scams by foreigners’. But with Poles now being the third biggest immigrant group in Britain, working hard and strengthening the British economy, Brexit advocates will find few allies on the Polish political scene.

Scaling back the free movement of people is going to be a red line for the Polish Government if the rights of Poles residing in Britain were undermined. It would easily become an issue in Polish domestic politics.

To Polish ears, the news that David Cameron intended to call a referendum on his country’s future membership of the European Union was like blasphemy. An active, outward-looking, and confident Britain firmly rooted inside the European Union is therefore clearly in Poland’s interest. Poland would be largely supportive of creating a good package of EU reforms that Cameron can sell at home as a success but, similar to France and Germany, it is not willing to give Cameron whatever he wants in order to keep Britain in.

In contrast, half of the parties represented in the Italian Parliament have run Eurosceptic campaigns. The Five Star Movement and Lega

Nord have campaigned on the need for a referendum on the euro.

At the same time, the potential cost of failing to find a compromise with the British does not pass unnoticed. Since 2014, Italian exports to Britain have grown 9.4%, reaching a value of €9billion. Business relations are optimal and dozens of Italian companies – from Finmeccanica to Eni, from Merloni to Calzedonia, from Pirelli to Ferrero – are well-established in Britain.

The British want clothing, food, sports cars, furniture and domestic appliances from the Italians, as well as collaboration in the fields of energy, the military and aerospace research.

In return, Italy imports cars, hi-tech, whisky, financial services and technology for renewable energy from them. If Britain leaves Europe, all of the rules that made this possible and mutually convenient would have to be revisited – and what happens then would depend on new rules and especially new tariffs.

Apart from trade relations, Britain’s net contribution to the EU is estimated to be around €13.5billion. In this respect, a Brexit would reduce the EU budget, making it likely Italy will need to pay more.

And, likewise with the Polish, the possible limitation for European migrants to move

negotiations. The Spanish Government, however, cannot cope with any proposals whose goals would be to limit the freedom of movement in the EU or would directly restrict social benefits to Spanish migrants.

With up to a million Britons living permanently in Spain, the main Spanish political parties agree that, in the current context, any intergovernmental negotiation among 28 member states would be like opening a Pandora’s Box which has taken so much effort to manage over the past decade.

In Madrid there will be a certain flexibility to negotiate the exceptions that may eventually accommodate Cameron but it is not simply going to accept Britain’s desire to force all of its partners to negotiate a treaty which requires parliamentary ratification or referendums across the member states.

While many Eurosceptic Britons are quick to criticise the bureaucracy of EU membership, few are actually aware as to the actual cost of a Brexit. Leaving the EU will have large-scale financial consequences for Britain in terms of its future economic development and partnerships with Europe, while the EU will suffer significant political repercussions and a long-term identity crisis.

So while there is no question that Ireland would be hardest-hit by a Brexit with a huge setback for political and economic progress and continued democratic transformation of the North, as well as a fall of three billion euro in exports for the 26 Counties, the adverse effects are widespread across Europe.

Martina Anderson

Matt Carthy

Lynn Boylan

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

26 January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

The ACKIE COLGAN

Last Fisherman of Carrick-a-Rede

of Ballintoy became the last fisherman of Carrick-a-Rede the day he took over from his uncle, Alex McNeill, in a boat that had seen better days. He was a young man in his mid-30s and fishing was in his blood.

It was a natural progression and it should have continued for another 1,000 years, from one generation to the next. Instead, in September 2002 the boat was winched up from the sea onto the shore of the rock-island for the last time. After 31 years it was over.

And for once the lament has become a reality.

Ackie Colgan is the last of his kind.

He turns 80 on 12 January. It has been a long road.

Suspended between ancient basalt, the rope-bridge across to Carrick-a-Rede was a practical solution to a pragmatic problem. The fishers of Ballintoy, the village below the headland, always knew the salmon returning to spawn in the Bush and Bann rivers ran past the rock-island.

They just couldn’t get at them until sometime around the 1750s, when Alexander Stewart, the last in a 200-year line of colonial Stewarts on the north Antrim coast, provided the means. It is not known whether the fishermen liked the idea.

The island was a dangerous place to fish from, in waters that were as treacherous as the times.

An iconic image within a generation of its appearances every spring and summer, hanging in the sky like an abrupt afterthought, the robe-bridge symbolised the romanticism

Alexander ‘Ackie’ Colgan quit the fishery after a lifetime of drift net fishing when the authorities in Belfast decided that the declining Atlantic salmon needed a break of the causeway coast, attracting artists who produced paintings and sketches that idealised the reality. Thomas Mann Bayne’s 1831 faithful sketch shows the rope-bridge, the extent of the rocky island, the fishermen’s white-washed cottage, and the fishermen out on the sea, their drift net cast behind their small boat.

Alexander ‘Ackie’ Colgan quit the fishery after a lifetime of drift net fishing when the authorities in Belfast decided that the declining Atlantic salmon needed a break. Salmon fishing at sea was banned.

Atlantic salmon stocks had gone into a dramatic decline the year after Ackie replaced his uncle Alex in the boat at Carrick-a-Rede. It was 1971. In the North of Ireland, the catch fell by one-third from 180,000 tonnes. By the the end of the

5 A ban on salmon fishing at sea ended 80-year-old Ackie Colgan of Ballintoy's lifetime of drift net fishing

1970s, the catch was approximately 100,000 tonnes. In the early 1980s, the catch peaked at 185,000 tonnes and then began to fall gradually to below 20,000 tonnes in the early 2000s. The number of north Atlantic salmon at sea in the 1970s was around nine million – Now there are less than three million.

But this story is not really about salmon; it is about the people who fished the salmon and the people who stole land, did deals with the English crown, acquired the best land (and fishing areas) and began to rewrite history because they could not and did not want to understand the indigenous culture.

Greg Toner, Professor of Irish and Celtic at Queen’s University in Belfast (writing in the Gaelic language studies magazine Ainm) believes it was the first fishermen to use the rope-bridge in the 1750s who named the small rock-island. “The bridge must be as old as the name and so the name supports the claim in the Ordnance Survey memoirs that the erection of a rope-bridge on the island goes back to the 18th century. It also suggests that the fishermen who erected and used the bridge at this time were Irish-speaking.”

Ackie is not convinced.

“I don’t believe there was a bridge there before 1750,” he says. “All the rocks around here were named centuries ago. The popular name for it here was ‘The Rock of the Road’ but a lot of people said that was not right at all.”

Another clue comes from a 1630 document which listed the salmon fisheries from the Lagan to the Foyle. “There was a meeting at Carrickfergus in 1630 to value the salmon fisheries and Carrick-a-Rede wasn’t mentioned,” says Ackie knowingly.

It is his assertion that Carrick-a-Rede was one of the last places to be fished. In the early 1600s, fishers at Portstewart, Portrush, Portballintrae, Dunseverick, Port Braden, Port Moon, Larrybane, Ballycastle, Tor Head, Cushendun, Cushendall

and Carnlough were granted licences to fish for salmon. “Larrybane was fished for a long time,” he says.

Archibald Stewart, a descendant of James Stewart from the isle of Bute in western Scotland, was granted the district of Ballintoy by Randal MacDonnell, who had been given the title of the first Earl of Antrim. The grant included Sheep Island and all the other little islands around Ballintoy. MacDonnell kept for himself the salmon fishery of Portnalarabane (now Larrybane bay).

That was in 1625. Ackie is adamant that the little island that became known as Carrick-aRede would have had an Irish name, but there is

A story about the people who fished the salmon and the people who stole land and did deals with the English crown The plantation of 1606, which robbed mosts of the original landowners of their property, left the area barren of native Irish-speakers

ROBERT ALLEN

nothing in the historical documents to indicate what it was. The tenants at that time were “Scotch”. The plantation of 1606, which robbed mosts of the original landowners of their property, left the area barren of native Irish-speakers. Ackie believes this is one explanation why the names of the islands and sea rocks are unknown today, because there was no one to pass them down to the next generation.

Following the rebellion of 1641 and the consequent years of conflict, the Stewarts used their power and wealth to increase the Ballintoy estate. A century later, in 1742, it contained 3,505 acres and yielded a modest rent but the Stewarts were in trouble. Alexander Stewart

January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

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5 The Mortons, pictured in 1962, sold Carrick-a-Rede salmon to John McCann & Sons in Manchester

It was the start of a romance. “I had been about Carrick-a-Rede, I helped out weekends, and I could have been at it from when I left school,” he says. “I am forever Ballintoy: my grandfather fished, my uncle fished; my mother, McCoy, was in one of the three fishermen’s cottages.

In those days there was cod and haddock as well as salmon.”

The National Trust in England bought the rock-island from Derek Fullerton around 1970. A contract was drawn up with the fishermen and the Fisheries Conservatory Board handed out a licence. Ackie knew his place in this arrangement.

“The fishermen did what they were told. You could not catch a salmon; you could have ended

5 Ackie on his boat off the coast of Carrick-a-Rede

inherited a debt-ridden estate and decided he needed to produce some wealth from the land – and the sea.

Among his first acts was to establish a salmon fishery beyond the rock that towered as high as the cliff edge, east of Ballintoy village. He

Following the rebellion of 1641 and the consequent years of conflict, the Stewarts used their power and wealth to increase the Ballintoy estate followed this by building a quay and opening a colliery, attracting grants from the Government. Then, inexplicably, in 1759 he sold the entire estate to a solicitor in Belfast, who in turn sold it for £20,000 to Alexander Fullerton, a doctor who had made his money in the West Indies and wanted to return to the Antrim coast.

The Ordnance Survey of the 1830s noted that the rope-bridge was established between the mainland and the rock-island “around 1750” but the name of the person who was responsible for this glorious act has been erased from the record. The fact that there was a name (probably an agent or foreman working on behalf of Alexander Stewart) is an indication that there is

a record. That name has never been revealed.

Ackie remains nonplussed about the name of the rock-island and is less enamoured about its fame.

John Morton, whose father worked the fishery and sold the salmon to John McCann & Sons in Manchester (shipping it from Larne) admits that the tourist numbers were increasing in the 1960s and 1970s. Like Ackie, he is bemused today by the tens of thousands who come to walk across the ‘new’ bridge.

5 Atlantic salmon

Ackie laughs. “When it rained the bridge was heavy and slippery, a devil to cross.”

That last day in October 2002 was celebrated in a series of memorable photos by a local photographer but Ackie remembers well his first day out at Carrick-a-Rede when he was seven years old and many days after when he was “11 or 12”.

5 The rope-bridge across to Carrick-a-Rede pictured circa 1890

In 1759, Alexander Stewart sold the entire estate to a solicitor in Belfast, who in turn sold it for £20,000 to Alexander Fullerton, a doctor who had made his money in the West Indies up in jail. My grandfather, he was a fisherman all my life, my mother’s grandfather – the salmon would have been jumping thick and they not have dared catch one; they would have been arrested. The landed gentry controlled it, they claimed the rights to fish.

“There were a lot of places you could get salmon a lot easier than Carrick-a-Rede but you could catch more salmon at Carrick-a-Rede. It was about exploitation. Carrick-a-Rede is a difficult place to fish, it was a difficult place to get into a boat and get out of a boat. Nowadays you would not be allowed to fish like that.”

The sale of Carrick-a-Rede angered some of the local people and the irony of the sale to the National Trust is not lost on the people of Ballintoy. They made the rope-bridge with their own hands, erecting it in the spring and dismantling it in the autumn, they made the fishery with their sweat and they created the story. And they probably gave the rock-island its iconic name.

And they have good cause to celebrate the life of a man who will always be known as “The Last Fisherman of Carrick-a-Rede”.

1916

28 January / Eanáir 2016

www.anphoblacht.com BOOK REVIEW

Behind the scenes at the Abbey Theatre, 1916 The Abbey Rebels of 1916: A Lost Revolution

By Dr Fearghal McGarry Gill & Macmillan

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REVIEW BY

SPECIAL CENTENARY SOUVENIR EDITION

MICHAEL MANNION

Féilire Chomóradh Céad Bliain Éirí Amach na Cásca

COMMEMORATION | CELEBRATION | COMMITMENT Having organised and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary organisation . . . she strikes in full confidence of victory. (Clockwise, from top right) Fianna Éireann Council.

Front row: Paddy Holahan, Michael Lonergan, Con Colbert. Back row: Garry Holahan, Pádraig Ryan; Volunteers bring arms back from the Asgard; Cumann na mBan were prominent at the ‘Bachelor’s Walk Massacre’ funerals; Irish Citizen Army parades at Croydon House.

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Mór mo ghlóir - mé do rug Cú Chulainn cróga.

Mór mo náire – mo chlann féin do dhíol a máthair.

Mise Éire – uaigní mé ná an Chailleach Béarra.

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Liam Mellows was born in 1895. During his short 27 years, he was an Irish Republican Brotherhood member, Fianna organiser and a republican Volunteer.

He led a small and ultimately unsuccessful rising in Galway in Easter 1916, took part in the Tan War and the Civil War, and was imprisoned in Britain, the United States and Ireland. Mellows was executed by the Free State Army in 1922.

Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army inside the GPO on the Tuesday of Easter Week 1916 (photograph taken by Joseph Cripps, who was a member of the First Aid Unit): Desmond O’Reilly, James Mooney, Paddy Byrne, Jack Doyle, Thomas McGrath, Hugh Thornton, Paddy Twamly and Tony Swan. (Left) This flag of the Irish Republic was hoisted on the roof of the GPO at Easter 1916.

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COMÓRADH | CÉILIÚRADH | DÚTHRACHT

19th-22nd James Connolly meets Military Council of Irish Republican Brotherhood, agreeing that Irish Citizen Army will join the Easter Rising

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Throughtout February 1916 Communications between the Military Council in Ireland, Clan na Gael in the USA and the German government confirm Easter as the date of the Rising and arrange military aid

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We are are ready to fight for the Ireland we love Be the chances great or small; We are willing to die for the flag above Be the chances nothing at all.

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REVOLUTION 1916 The Exhibition opens in Ambassador Theatre www.revolution1916.com

REPUBLICAN CALENDAR

Constance Markievicz

» Packed with facts about 1916 » Proclamation of Irish Republic (in Irish and English) Prisoners are marched away under escort. Round-up of prisoners from across Ireland. Constance Markievicz (facing front) is driven away from the court in a Red Cross van after the trial – she was sentenced to death, later commuted to life in prison.

Hundreds of Irish citizens arrested and deported after the Rising continue to be held in jails in England and Frongoch Internment Camp, Wales 26th-29th Trial of Roger Casement in London for high treason

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Ireland is treated today among the nations of the world as if she were a convicted criminal...

If it be treason to fight against such an unnatural fate as this, then I am proud to be a rebel, and shall cling to my ‘rebellion’ with the last drop of my blood.

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» Historical interest to young or old, at home or overseas » Over 100 pictures with detailed captions

8th Volunteer manoeuvres ordered for Easter Sunday as cover to deceive British 17th Military Council approves Proclamation of the Irish Republic and Provisional Government 21st Good Friday German arms ship Aud captured, Roger Casement arrested, Banna Strand 22nd Eoin Mac Neill issues countermanding order 23rd Easter Sunday Military Council postpones Rising for 24 hours 24th Easter Monday Noon – Rising begins, Irish Republic proclaimed

Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street) and Eden Quay, Dublin. In the centre is the O’Connell Monument. GPO viewed from the top of Nelson’s Pillar at the end of the Rising. General views of the ruins of Dublin. An artist’s impression of Roger Casement and Robert Monteith on Banna Strand, Kerry. The failure of the arms shipment had a devastating impact on the Rising. www.sinnfeinbookshop.com

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We have lived to see an Irish Republic proclaimed.

May we live to establish it firmly, and may our children and our children’s children enjoy the happiness and prosperity which freedom will bring.

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Pádraig Mac Piarais

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The Rising 2016, son et lumiere on GPO www.revolution1916.com

The Rising 2016, son et lumiere on GPO www.revolution1916.com

The Rising 2016, son et lumiere on GPO www.revolution1916.com

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CALENDAR REPUBLICAN CALENDAR

Roger Casement’s speech from the dock, London, 29 June

I may die but the Republic of 1916 will never die. Onward to that Republic and the liberation of our people.

REPUBLICAN CALENDAR

Bobby Sands

» Biographies of leading men and women of the Rising

» High-quality large A3 format

British soldiers “man the barricades during the Rising” (many of these photos were staged for the media after the insurrection was over). Searching the rubble at Bridge Street. The crumbled wreckage of the GPO. Moving through military barricades near the Four Courts in the days after the Easter Rising. Prisoners on the landings of Kilmainham Jail. A group of prisoners at Richmond Barracks. www.sinnfeinbookshop.com

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The Irish War News newspaper was printed during the Rising in the area controlled by the rebels from a commandeered printworks at Halston Street.

Ireland shall be free from the centre to the sea as soon as the people of Ireland believe in the necessity for Ireland’s Freedom and are prepared to make the necessary sacrifices to obtain it.

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The Battle of Mount Street Bridge – Up to 250 British soldiers were killed or wounded by a small band of Volunteers around Mount Street and the British advance was delayed.

Four Volunteers lost their lives in the battle, which raged over two days: Michael Malone, Dick Murphy, George Reynolds and Patrick Doyle

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The shell of the GPO. The building was principal position to be occupied and designated the headquarters of the Provisional Government. The clock stopped on the front of the GPO. Map showing the destruction to Dublin’s main street

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Eva Gore Booth, to her sister Constance Markievicz in an English prison

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The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities of all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally

Welcome Home – Crowds waiting at Westland Row railway station, Dublin, to meet the republican political prisoners after their release from internment.

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photos@anphoblacht.com

Throughout December 1916 Release of many interned political prisoners

www.sinnfeinbookshop.com

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IN PICTURES

REPUBLICAN CALENDAR

Constance Markievicz on her return to Dublin after her release from prison.

We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible ... we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations

film star, the brother of Barry Fitzgerald of The Quiet Man fame; Barney Murphy was a member of Na Fianna Éireann, who automatically joined the Irish Volunteers upon their formation; Peadar Kearney, Fenian, Gaelic Leaguer and author of the National Anthem, who broke with the Abbey to fight in the rebellion.

The lives and experiences of these seven are analysed in detail in three separate sections. Firstly, the period prior to 1916 which examines their backgrounds and the influences which contributed to their subsequent involvement in the Easter Rising; secondly, their activities during Easter 1916; and, finally, their activities after the Rising in a state which fell far short of the egalitarian ideals for which they had fought.

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The wind is our confederate, The night has left her doors ajar, We meet beyond earth’s barred gate, Where all the world’s wild rebels are.

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Taken in late 1916 in the garden of Ely O’Carroll, Peter’s Place, Dublin, women from Cumann na mBan, Irish Citizen Army and Clann na nGaedheal (Girl Scouts of Ireland) who took part in the Easter Rising. First row: Madeleine ffrench Mullen, Miss Foley, Dr Kathleen Lynn.

Second row: Rose McNamara, Kathleen Kenny, M. J. Walsh, Unknown, Mrs Lawless, Jenny Milner, Eileen Walsh, Louie Kennedy, May Byrne, Annie Cooney. Third row: M. Moore, K. Lane, Sarah Kealy, Gertie Colley Murphy, Mary O’Hanrahan, A. Wisely, B. Murtagh, Cilla Quigley, Julia Grennan, Stasia Twomey, B. Walsh. Fourth row: Nora Thornton, Rose Mullally, Sheila O’Hanlon, Moira Quigley, Margaret O’Flaherty, Josie McGowan, Eileen Cooney, Josie O’Keeffe. Fifth row: Lucy Smyth, Nora Foley, P. Morkan, D. Sullivan, M. Elliot, Mary O’Sullivan, Tilly Simpson, Mrs Cathleen Treston. Sixth (back) row: May Kelly, Brigid Brady, Jennie Shanahan, Kathleen Barrett, Rosie Hackett, Margaret Ryan, Brigid Davis, C. Caffery, Patricia Hoey. Left side of the group: Madge Fagan or A. Tobin, Aoife Taafe, Marcella Cosgrove, Unknown, Miss Foley. Right side of the group: May Kelly, Maire Ni Shiublaigh, Lily O’Brennan, Elizabeth O’Farrell, Nora O’Daly, Mary Murray.

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Michael Malone

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Dick Murphy

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REPUBLICAN CALENDAR

Seán Heuston

George Reynolds

1st PRINT RUN SOLD OUT AND G FAST 2nd RUN SELLIN www.anphoblacht.com

September 2016 Meán Fómhair Tuesday • Máirt

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THE TENSIONS between the radical, often socialist, nationalist and the intrinsically conservative ethos espoused by the Abbey Theatre’s ruling triumvirate of W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, and J. M. Synge take centrestage in a fascinating study during the truly dramatic events of the 1916 Rising and the prelude to revolution.

The focus of Abbey Rebels by Dr Fearghal McGarry, Reader in Irish History at Queen’s University Belfast, is on the lives of seven characters from widely differing backgrounds, all of whom participated in the Rising and are named on a commemorative plaque in the Abbey: Seán Connolly, the first rebel to be killed during Easter Week; Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh, the Abbey’s first leading lady, who left the Abbey due to conflicts over her radicalism; Helena Moloney, a radical socialist, republican, Citizen Army volunteer, feminist and trade unionist (she was one of the few women to fire a shot during the Rising); Ellen Bushell was one of the unsung heroes who undertook numerous essential tasks during the Rising and subsequently during the Tan War and Civil War; Arthur Shields was a Protestant socialist who became a Hollywood

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Without guide or direction, moving as if to clarify itself, nebulous, forming, reforming the strange rebirth took place. It was manifest in flags, badges, songs, speech, all seemingly superficial signs…Now was the lyrical stage, blood sang and pulsed, a strange love was born that was for some never to die till they lay stiff on the hillside or in quicklime near a barrack wall.

Ernie O’Malley

REPUBLICAN CALENDAR

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM ALL

The GPO today. The task begun here in 1916, to establish an Irish Republic embracing all 32 Counties of Ireland and all our people, and

‘CHERISHING ALL THE CHILDREN OF THE NATION EQUALLY’ remains to be completed.

We shall rise again.

James Connolly

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Our comrades have lit with their very lives an eternal beacon which will inspire this nation and crush oppression forever.

Republican prisoners in Long Kesh, at end of 1981 Hunger Strike

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The motivational forces that informed their radicalisation is especially interesting. Fearghal McGarry eschews the conventional narrative of a cultural Gaelic revival inspiring an impressionable and receptive generation to take up arms, and instead contends that the radicalisation was the result of many disparate but overlapping organisations and movements which provided the motivational impetus for Easter Week.

The Abbey Theatre was just one small segment of the giant Venn Diagram that revitalised nationalist sentiment. It was really a symptom of the resurgence and not its instigator. The perception of the Abbey as a crucible of revolution seems to owe more to Yeats’s self aggrandisement and over-inflated opinion of himself as a catalyst for rebellion than it does to any real inspirational contribution to nationalist sentiment.

The final section of the book examines how far short of the ideals of 1916, the subsequent state fell. Each of the seven was effectively betrayed by an administration that not only failed to live up to the aspirations of the Proclamation but in many areas consciously subverted it, hence the sub-title “A Lost Revolution”.

This is a fascinating book, drawing on many previously unpublished sources. It is lavishly produced and crammed with contemporary photographs. By concentrating on mostly unknown participants (the obvious exception being Peadar Kearney), Fearghal McGarry has presented a highly accessible work providing a fresh viewpoint on a much-analysed topic.

5 The Hugh McCooey Cumann, Scotshouse, fundraiser was held in Clones. PJ Moore presented €650 to Catherine McMahon and Deirdre McDonald of the Crocus Cancer Support Centre. (Below) Guest speaker, Dublin Councillor Noeleen Reilly, a native of Redhills, reaceived a gift of appreciation from Pat Smith

REPUBLICAN CALENDAR

+ POSTAGE AND PACKAGING

www.sinnfeinbookshop.com Sinn Féin Bookshop 58 Parnell Square, Dublin 1, D01 DV74.

Phone (00 353 1) 814 8542 | Email: sales@sinnfeinbookshop.com

5 Mary Lou McDonald TD presents a framed Proclamation to the family of IRA Volunteer Martin Savage on behalf of the Dublin 15 1916 Committee. The limited edition Proclamation prints are being sold to support the building of a local 1916 monument. (Below) At the commemoration for Martin Savage

January / Eanáir 2016

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I nDíl Chuimhne 2 January 1991: Volunteer Patrick SHEEHY, Limerick Brigade.

5 January 1979: Volunteer Frankie DONNELLY, Volunteer Laurence MONTGOMERY, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

7 January 1972: Volunteer Danny O’NEILL, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

8 January 1992: Volunteer Proinsias Mac AIRT, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

10 January 1975: Volunteer John Francis GREEN, North Armagh Brigade.

All notices and obituaries should be sent to notices@anphoblacht.com by Friday 15 January 2016

Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations PÁDRAIG PEARSE 11 January 1972: Fian Michael SLOAN, Fianna Éireann.

13 January 1975: Volunteer James MOYNE, Long Kesh.

13 January 1976: Volunteer Martin McDONAGH, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion; Volunteer Rosemary BLEAKLEY, Cumann na mBan, Belfast.

15 January 1983: Volunteer Colm DALTUN, Dublin Brigade.

Comhbhrón STEENSON. Ciarán and Linda Launders (Perth) extend deepest sympathy to the their friend Pádraig

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and the whole Steenson family on the death of Marion. I measc laochra na nGael go raibh sí. Slán, a chara.

16 January 1972: Fian Eamon McCORMICK, Fianna Éireann.

16 January 1977: Volunteer Seamus HARVEY, South Armagh Brigade.

17 January 1980: Volunteer Kevin DELANEY, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

18 January 1973: Volunteer Francis LIGGETT, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

18 January 1978: Volunteer Jackie

McMAHON, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

20 January 1975: Volunteer Kevin COEN, Sligo Brigade.

21 January 1975: Volunteer John KELLY, Volunteer John STONE, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

26 January 1972: Volunteer Peter McNULTY, South Down Command.

26 January 1985: Volunteer Mick TIMOTHY, Dublin Brigade.

» 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.

FÓGRAÍ BHÁIS

30 January 1972: Fian Gerry DONAGHY, Fianna Éireann.

Always remembered by the Republican Movement.

KENNA, Seán. In proud and loving memory of my dear husband Seán.

Missed every day. From all the Kenna family, Dundalk KENNA, Seán. In proud and loving memory of our friend and comrade Seán Kenna, whose anniversary occurs at this time. Always remembered by the Halpenny/Worthington/Watters Sinn Féin Cumann, Dundalk.

» Imeachtaí There is a charge of €10 for inserts printed in our Imeachtaí/Events column. You can also get a small or large box advert. Contact: sales@anphoblacht.com for details.

One Amazing Day

Mick Hall Laois MICK HALL, the Sinn Féin Organiser for Laois, Offaly and Kildare and a former political prisoner in Portlaoise passed away on Monday 23 November following a short illness.

Mick’s funeral took place in St John’s Church, Killenard, County Laois, that Thursday and he was buried in the adjoining cemetery.

Mick was republican in everything he did.

He spent four years in Portlaoise Prison, where he learnt Irish, “or tried to” as his comrade P. J. Bailey quipped.

Mick epitomised everything a republican should be – he fought injustice, he cared for others, he helped everyone he could, and everything he did was for the republican project. It was never for personal gain or glory.

On his release from Portlaoise, Mick immersed himself in Sinn Féin, building the party on the ground in Laois, Offaly and Kildare. He was involved in all the campaigns, including organising a group supporting the 1981 Hunger Strike and he was involved every election campaign.

In 2012, Mick became a full-time organiser for Laois, Offaly and Kildare and took to it like a duck to water In 2013, Mick was part of the organising committee that oversaw a memorial being unveiled at The Heath in Portlaoise to honour the deceased republicans from Laois Nothing was too much trouble for Mick, whether it was getting people to help at the Sinn Féin stand at the Ploughing Championships, do a leaflet drop or help in another county. I would just ask and he would reply: “Leave it with me, a chara.”

Many a time he would roll up in the van with a smile and a wink and out of the back would tumble half a dozen people, ready, willing and able.

Throughout all this and standing beside him was Lucy, and without her support and love he wouldn’t have been able to continue and do all the things he did.

“Lucy is fine – she understands what I’m

Duration: 50 mins Multi Region Play

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O’Donovan Rossa Funeral Re-enactment DVD IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR SALE FROM:

Sinn Féin Bookshop, 58 Parnell Square, Dublin 1, AND ONLINE AT

doing,” was the response when he was on the go from morning to night.

Mick kept his family life very private but when he spoke of “my girls”, Cathy and Michelle, you could see the pride and love in his face.

He will be a huge loss to Sinn Féin and his republican comrades down the years but even more so to Lucy, Cathy, Michelle, son-in-laws Lee and Dermot, grandchildren Tommy, Charlie, Robert and Leanna, sister Bridie, bothers and extended family and friends.

BY JANE MARTIN

www.sinnfeinbookshop.com Priced at €14.99 plus P&P with all proceeds going towards the commemoration programme

The 5 winners of the An Phoblacht December 2015 DVD competition are: Katie McDonnell County Mayo

Caomhán Mac Murchaidh County Leitrim

John McDonald County Monaghan

Michael Mullen County Donegal

Gerry McCartney Derry City

Thanks to everyone who took part

30 January / Eanáir 2016

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BETWEEN THE POSTS

BY CIARÁN KEARNEY

GOALS WIN MORE THAN GAMES

CONFORMITY is a powerful social force. Come January each year, we’re exhorted to make public promises of changes we intend to keep. Media, advertising and even friends or family may all play a part in the annual exhibition of empty gestures known as New Year’s resolutions. Invisibly, imperceptibly, each of us is expected to conform with this tradition. A tradition which apparently goes as far back as the Roman Empire Yet traditions aren’t always rational.

Conformity doesn’t make resolutions sustainable.

Last December, two-thirds of us planned a fresh start. The most popular New Year’s resolutions were losing weight, better diet, increased fitness and improved work-life balance. According to a YouGov survey last December, one third of those who make a resolution will have broken it by the end of January. Only one in ten people said that they never break their New Year’s resolution. By those maths, the traditional pledge to change has a 90% failure rate.

Around the country, many individual athletes and players, coaches and teams will be engaged in their own preview of 2016. In international sport, there will be the European Cup finals and the Olympics. Ireland, North and South, will be well represented at both

events. International rugby will provide a platform for Ireland to recover its form after falling short in the World Cup. Back home, club and county competitions in Gaelic games will be as hotly contested as ever. If we were to witness a 90% failure rate in forthcoming sporting competitions, would anyone celebrate? What would happen to sport if one third of players or athletes gave up their training programmes by the end of January?

Those involved in sport know resolutions in the traditional sense make no sense. They talk about goal-setting, a technique which is used in high-performance sporting environments. Goal-setting is also applied in other organisational contexts. In the sporting arena, goal-setting began to gain traction in the 1970s.

One of the most famous examples of the application of goal-setting in sport is the case of John Naber. After watching American swimmer Mark Spitz clean up with seven gold medals at the 1972 Olympics, John Naber began to dream of winning a gold medal himself one day. Of course, it helped that Naber himself was already an accomplished swimmer. But he realised that to fulfil his dream, he would have to improve his own personal best by four seconds.

“It’s a substantial chunk,” said Naber, “but because it’s a goal, now I can

IN PICTURES

5 Belfast Gaels show their support for the redevelopment of Casement Park GAA Stadium

decisively figure out how I can attack that. I have four years to do it in. I’m watching TV in 1972. I’ve got four years to train. So, it’s only one second a year.

That’s a substantial jump.”

Naber, however, broke it down into how much he would need to improve per month (about one tenth

Mark Spitz

John Naber

The moment you begin to monitor and match time with effort is the moment you begin to adapt basic goalsetting of a second).Then he worked out how much he would need to improve each day and each session. At the Montréal Olympics in 1976, John Naber won his gold medal in the 100m backstroke.

Naber is still widely cited in goal-setting research.

Goal-setting is now understood to be an essential part of behaviour change.

Various theories help to explain the psychology of this. Common to all of

these is the benefit that goal-setting has for motivation. This motivation, together with the capability and the opportunity, is what makes goal-setting an effective instrument for change and success. But it’s not without challenges also. Think about the willpower and stamina required to pursue a dream over four years, edging further towards it one exacting training session at a time. Imagine all the changes that can happen in your life and around you in four years. Yet that’s what people in sporting events such as the Olympics commit to do. All of which serves to underline the importance of setting the right goals. Added to this is the method by which improvement is monitored.

Recently, I read an article about the value of taking time on a Sunday to write a note or letter to myself about the week ahead. It’s a method of self-monitoring: self-reflection with a very practical slant. Looking ahead to what I must do and my plans in the next few days, and considering whether my attention and time matches what is most important in life. The moment you begin to monitor and match time with effort is the moment you begin to adapt basic goal-setting.

As one of the greatest sportspeople of all time, Muhammad Ali, once said: “What keeps me going is goals.” The trick is to find your own.

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5 Thousands march in Dublin as part of the Stop Climate Chaos protests which took place in cities and towns across the world to coincide with the UN Climate Summit in Paris

January / Eanáir 2016

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Le Trevor Ó Clochartaigh An méid gur mhaith linn a bheith bainte amach faoi dheireadh na bliana

Mianta na Bliana Úire do 2016 BHUEL, tá sé linn ar deireadh – 2016 – agus is fiú dúinn spleáchadh a thabhairt ar an ród seo romhainn agus na mianta gur mhaith linn a fhéiceáil curtha i gcrích faoi dheireadh na bliana. Is é sin, céard gur mhaith linn a bheith bainte amach faoin am a thagann an Nollaig seo chugainn, a dhéanfadh an saol níos fearr do chuile Éireannach. Ó mo thaobh sa di gan dabht ar bharr an liosta bheadh suíochán Dála do Shinn Féin i nGaillimh Thiar – Maigh Eo Theas. Ní ar mhaithe liom féin, ach le go mbeadh glór láidir ón Iarthar ar mhaithe leis na ceisteanna ar fad atá ag déanamh tinnis don phobal agus le go mbeadh muid ag cur le líonmhaireacht na bhfóirne s’againne i dTeach Laighean ag súil go mbeidh an oiread ionadaíocht againn chun go mbeidh ar ár gcumas a bheith i gceannas Rialtas ar chlé sna 26 chontae don chéad uair ó bunaíodh an stát.

Samhlaigh an difríocht a bheadh ann dá mbeadh Sinn Féin i mbun Rialtais le hAirí a thabharfadh tosaíocht do ghnáth cosmhuintir na hÉireann, go h-áirithe i Ranna ar nós Sláinte, Tithíocht agus Airgeadais ach go h-áirithe.

Beidh toghchán sna sé chontae freisin. Bheadh muid ag súil líon na suíochán atá againn ansin a choinneáil agus a mhéadú. Neartú agus treisiú seasamh Shinn Féin mar an phríomh-pháirtí frith-déine atá ag iaraidh cothrom na féinne a bhaint amach do chuile shaoránach. Bheadh muid ag súil ár vóta a mhéadú agus tacaíocht a fháil i gceantair nua agus ó dhaoine breise a aithníonn an cheannaireacht ceannródaíoch atá tugtha agus an dul chun cinn atá déanta againn ar cheisteanna thábhachtacha Oideachais, Talmhaíochta & Forbairt Tuaithe agus cúrsaí Cultúir.

Gan amhras , tá muid ag súil go mbeidh díospóireacht dáiríre náisiúnta againn maidir le h-íbirtí Laochra 1916. Go mbeidh fíormheas dhá léiriú do chrógacht phoblachtánaithe anuas tríd na glúnta a raibh fís,fealsúnacht agus fuinneamh acu chun poblacht uilíoch, iomlán a bhaint amach in Éire aontaithe. Bheadh dóchas agam go gcuirfidh glúin nua daoine óga suim sa chrógacht agus an mhisneach a thaispeáin an dream a chuaigh rompu agus go dtógfaidh siad suas an chúis, in ómós na laochra a tháinig romhainn.

Bheadh sé iontach dá mbeadh tírghrá treisithe neadaithe i gcreatlach dlúthpháirtíochta idirnáisiúnta, mórtas cine agus gníomhaíocht pobail agus polaitíochta as an nua ann mar thoradh air na comorthaí chun an fhís a fhíoradh a luaithe, seachas níos moille chomh maith.

Ar an leibhéal idirnáisiúnta, bheadh súil agam go mbeadh Uachtarán nua sna Stáit Aontaithe roimh deireadh na bliana atá sásta aghaidh a thabhairt go dearfach ar dhúshlán na síochána ar fud na cruinne.

Tá gá díriú ar thaidhleoireacht dhian chun géarchéimeanna trodaíochta a réiteach sa Mheán Oirthear, san Afraic, sna Balcáin agus in áiteanna eile nach iad. Ní mhór don

THE CENTENARY BOND

for 1916 Commemorations offer has been distributed throughout Ireland and is now available online through

www.revolution1916.ie and also by post with an order form. The bond is a historical reference to how funds to finance Irish Freedom were raised by the Fenians, Clann na Gael for 1916 and the first Dáil Éireann in 1919.

Aontas Eorpach a cion féin a dhéanamh ina leith seo chomh maith agus an neart atá aici a úsáid go gníomhach agus gan moilleadóireacht le siochán a chur chun cinn sna coimhlintí éagsúla.

Ar leibhéal níos logánta, ba bhreá liom dá mbeadh Ibrahim Halawa sa mbaile lena mhuintir. Ba bhreá liom dá mbeadh geallúintí ó na h-iarrthóirí toghchánaíochta sna Stáit Aontaithe maidir le h-inimircigh Éireannacha nach bhfuil stádas buan acu. Bheadh súil agam go mbeadh clár Rialtais aontaithe againn i dTeach Laighean a chuirfidh deire leis an gcóras Soláthar Díreach, a chuirfeadh plean gníomh dáiríre in áit do dhaoine gan dídean agus straitéis phráínne maidir leis an ngéarchéim tithíochta.

Gan dabht, bheadh súil agam go n-aontóidh an clár Rialtais céanna deire a chur leis an Muirear Teaghlaigh agus Táillí Uisce! Ba bhreá liom AIre Sinsearach ag bord an Rialtais leis an nGaeilge a chur chun cinn agsu gealluint chun Acht nua Teangacha Oifigiúil neartaithe a chur chun cinn.

Ba bhreá an rud dá mbeadh dul chun cinn déanta ó thaobh an clár Rialtais nua i Stormont maidir le Acht na dTeangacha ansiúd agus Bille Cearta do Shaoránaithe chomh maith.

Bhí fís ag laochra 1916. Ní folaír dúinne fís a bheith againn féin do na mianta atá romahinn don bhliain seo chomh maith. Cinnte, beidh siad siúd ann a bheidh ag rá nach bhfuil ann ach aisling. Ach, sin a dúradh i 1916 chomh maith, nach ea?

Samhlaigh an difríocht a bheadh ann dá mbeadh Sinn Féin i mbun Rialtais le hAirí a thabharfadh tosaíocht do ghnáth cosmhuintir na hÉireann

Purchase a Centenary Bond and enter a prize draw with fantastic prizes including 1st PRIZE

Trip to New York for 2 with $5,000 2nd PRIZE

Trip to Dublin for 1916 Anniversary for 2 with €2,000 PLUS MORE PRIZES OF 1916 INSPIRED ARTWORKS

Purchase a Centenary Bond today online for €100 and receive your framed personalised Bond with letter of authenticity and prize draw ticket. The Bond is sure to be displayed with pride and will become an item of interest in the future.

The Bond is issued by Ireland 1916 Commemorations Ltd a not for profit company to fund 2016 commemorations and is not redeemable. Support the Republic of 1916.

OPENING

27th February

Ambassador Theatre, Dublin

anphoblacht NEXT ISSUE OUT – Thursday 28 January 2016

32

IN PICTURES

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 Sinn Féin's Liadh Ní Riada MEP and West Cork Councillor Paul Hayes in the EU Parliment to explore potential avenues of EU funding to Ireland

5 A new mural commemorating the 1916 Rising is unveiled in Sligo

5 Sinn Féin Dublin Ard Mhéara Críona Ní Dhálaigh helps launch Ireland's first-ever fiveday national World AIDS Day campaign

5 Dublin South–West Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe officially opens Novas’ Bellevue Children’s Home and Haarlem Court apartment complex

5 The Ballymurphy Massacre families hold a candlelight parade to remember the victims of the 1971 British Army shooting rampage – see pages 14 and 15

5 Sinn Féin Mayor of South Dublin Sarah Holland and 5 Chair of Derry Ógra Shinn Féin Caolán McGinley, Darren McGilloway, Vice-Chair Daire Lamberton and Lynn Boylan MEP at the Better4Housing policy launch in Dublin – See page 10 and 11 Conor Rush at the launch of the Derry Centenary Stamp to commemorate the 1916 Rising