An Phoblacht, July 2016

anphoblacht Sraith Nua Iml 39 Uimhir 7 UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS

KYLE PAISLEY AND PAT MAGEE

RENT CERTAINTY Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael block move to protect tenants

DANNY MORRISON An AK47 doesn't make you a freedom fighter

July / Iúil 2016

BREXIT CRISIS

Time to

Price €2 / £2

End Partition

2 July / Iúil 2016

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Widespread concerns about how Westminster referendum vote to leave EU will affect people

Community and business leaders fearful of fall-out from Brexit

BY MICHAEL McMONAGLE

THE IMPACT of the Westminster EU referendum which saw Britain (or rather England and Wales) vote to leave the European Union provoked intense reaction across the world and in particular here in Ireland where its consequences will be far reaching.

Irish, British and world political leaders, trade unionists, business and farming representatives all offered opinions with the majority voicing concerns about the impact of the vote.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny, who had campaigned for a remain vote, spoke to outgoing British Prime Minister David Cameron by phone immediately after the result and discussed how the results would affect the North of Ireland.

“The implications of this vote for 5 Nicola Sturgeon hinted at a second referendum on Scottish independence “Now it is the responsibility of those Northern Ireland and for relations and more democratic nation,” she said.

Scottish First Minster and Scottish who pushed for this referendum and between North and South on this island will require careful consideration. These National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon who made extraordinary pledges to will be a particular priority for the Irish said it was “democratically unaccept- improve the lives of the working-class Government,” the Taoiseach said in a able” that Scotland should be pulled people who voted their way, to deliver out of the EU despite voting to remain. on those promises,” he added. statement.

The President of the Ulster Farmers’ “We will approach these issues in Union, Barclay Bell, urged farmers to the same spirit of partnership that has remain calm and await the outcome underpinned the Peace Process and of upcoming negotiations. has transformed relationships on this “From the outset, our position was island since the Belfast Agreement.” that we would not tell our members Tory leader David Cameron – who how they should vote. We don’t want led and lost the “Remain” campaign – farmers to panic. announced his resignation just hours “CAP support is guaranteed to 2019. after the result was declared but added We will immediately enter into discusthat he would remain in position until sions on future support arrangements, a replacement leader can be found funded by the UK Treasury, and also on

by October.

“The UK-wide vote to leave the EU the continuation of trade with Europe,” “I will do everything I can as Prime Minister to steady the ship over the is one that I deeply regret. It remains he said.

EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil coming weeks and months but I do my passionate belief that it is better not think it would be right for me to for all parts of the UK to be members Hogan said he regretted the decision and called for negotiations to begin try to be the captain that steers our of the European Union.

“As things stand, Scotland faces the immediately. country to its next destination,” he said.

The British Secretary of State prospect of being taken out of the for the north, Theresa Villiers, who EU against our will. I regard that as had campaigned for a “Leave” vote, democratically unacceptable,” she said.

She also announced that she would welcomed the result and rejected out of hand calls from Sinn Féin for a refer- begin planning for a second indepenendum to be held on Irish reunification dence referendum in Scotland.

Closer to home, the consequences of as provided for under the Good Friday the vote sparked debate among many Agreement.

The North's First Minister and DUP sectors as uncertainty about exactly leader Arlene Foster, leader of the what will happen increased.

Peter Bunting, Assistant General only significant party in the North to campaign for “Leave”, also welcomed Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said the result raised many the result.

“The democratic decision of the questions.

PETER BUNTING, “The only thing we can be sure of people of the United Kingdom marks IRISH CONGRESS OF a new and fresh beginning for our now is uncertainty, and that usually TRADE UNIONS country and I believe offers us the means economic volatility and shocks,” opportunity to build a new, hopeful, he said.

Business leaders also expressed concern about the impact Brexit will have on trade, particularly in Border

‘Theonly onlything thingwe ‘The we can be can be sure of now sure of now is uncertainty, and is uncertainty, that usually means and that usually economic volatility means economic and shocks’and – volatility shocks’

5 David Cameron and Enda Kenny discussed how Brexit will affect the North

5 Brexit is expected to significantly impact on Border trade

“I regret but respect the decision of the British people to leave the European Union. I echo the call of European Commission President Juncker for a swift and decisive negotiation, pursuant to Article 50, in the interests of both sides. It’s essential that we set in

train the essential steps to bring clarity and stability to the 27 member bloc as quickly as possible,” he said.

Business leaders also expressed concern about the impact Brexit will have on trade, particularly in Border areas.

Gavin Kileen, President of the Derry Chamber of Commerce, said the uncertainty in markets created by the vote must be addressed.

“We are very sad that the vote is to leave the European Union. While we fear that the result will be economic damage, we call on our political leaders to establish arrangements that limit this damage.

“We call on the UK Government, the Irish Government and the EU to work together to find common sense ways forward.”

The Stormont Assembly and the Dáil have been holding meetings inside and outside government to discuss the crisis caused by Brexit.

July / Iúil 2016

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GERRY ADAMS TD PRESIDENT OF SINN FÉIN

3

Brexit puts at risk the human rights legislation that underpins much of the Good Friday Agreement, the crossBorder bodies and the all-Ireland structures

BREXIT To have one part of the island inside the EU and the other outside makes no sense

Putting the island of Ireland first DIVISIONS over the European Union within his British Conservative Party led Prime Minister David Cameron to make the mistake of calling a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. The debate, especially in recent weeks, was marred by racism and hatred and fear. Immigration became the dominant theme for the “Leave” side.

Putting to one side the unacceptable aspects of the Brexit debate, the outcome is a vindication of Sinn Féin’s long-standing criticism of the democratic deficit at the heart of the EU, the two-tier nature of its structures, and the social and economic inequalities inherent in the political ethos of the bigger states.

Sinn Féin has a consistent position of opposition to these unacceptable and undemocratic aspects of the European Union. We have also consistently argued for a more robust and less-compliant policy from successive Irish governments.

In 1972, Sinn Féin and other progressives campaigned against membership of the EEC. Over the decades, we have modified our position to one of critical engagement. This position was formally adopted at our Ard Fheis in 1999.

Reform of the EU has been necessary for decades now. The outcome of the Brexit

referendum should encourage such a process and it should be undertaken with urgency. I have no confidence that the elites will apply themselves to this task. I doubt if the Irish Government has any real commitment to this objective.

Those of us who want a social European Union – and there is an EU-wide demand for such a

The people of the North have the right to have their voice heard and their vote respected fair dispensation based on equality – must find ways of uniting behind this demand.

5 Gerry Adams TD speaking in the Dáil on Brexit

On this island, notwithstanding partition, we should also accept the vote in the North. People voted to remain within the EU. That should be upheld.

Some will say we are bound by a so-called ‘United Kingdom vote’. Sinn Féin says we are not. We need to put the island of Ireland first. We stand by the vote of the people of the North. All

of us need an island-wide vision.

The fact that the Border will now become an international border between an EU member state and a non-member state creates particular concerns for the people of the island.

There is now a huge responsibility on the Irish Government to think nationally, in the real sense of that word – that means 32 counties.

5 Brexit puts at risk much of the human rights legislation underpinning the Good Friday Agreement

The government, as a co-equal guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, also has a responsibility to defend the agreement and its political institutions.

The British decision also puts at risk the human rights legislation that underpins much of the Good Friday Agreement, the cross-Border bodies and the all-Ireland structures. That must be resisted.

Sinn Féin believes that that can best be achieved by the maximum co-operation between the Executive and the government in Dublin upholding the vote of the electorate in the North.

The British Government has forfeited the claim to represent the North at an EU level. Its policy has been rejected by the people.

The Irish Government must work to promote the interests of the whole island and the North in particular in future talks at an EU level, and to support the rights of ministers in the North to deal directly with the EU institutions.

In the time ahead this should include a referendum on the Border.

The Democratic Unionist Party must also respect the “Remain” vote. The majority of citizens in the North, including many unionists, rejected its exit policy. The DUP should accept this.

The people of the North have the right to have their voice heard and their vote respected.

The response of the Irish Government has been to reject Sinn Féin’s call for a referendum on Irish unity. The response of Fianna Fáil has (not surprisingly) been to echo the Government’s attack on Sinn Féin. The vote in the North is what will determine Sinn Féin’s approach. It should also determine the Irish Government’s approach.

To have one part of the island inside the EU and the other outside makes no sense. Sinn Féin believes that the people of this island are best placed to run our own affairs in our own interests.

The task of everyone, therefore, must be to agree policies and strategies that can minimise any problems that will arise as a consequence of Brexit and to use this crisis to create a new Ireland and a new EU.

4 July / Iúil 2016

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anphoblacht Editorial

WHAT'S INSIDE 10 & 11

Wolfe Tone Commemoration – Bodenstown 2016 13

anphoblacht Eagarfhocal

anphoblacht

It’s time for a Brexit from Ireland

THE CRISIS inflicted on the people of Ireland – all Ireland – by the EU referendum and Brexit is the result of the Conservative Party’s schisms and its ‘English civil war’ at Westminster.

Sinn Féin campaigned for a “Remain” vote but that should not be misread as an endorsement of the current EU. For decades, Irish republicans have fought for the reform and restructuring of the EU; the decentralising of power; the promotion of national democracy and economic and social justice; and the creation of a 32-county political and economic identity within the EU. The unaccountable nature of much of the EU bureaucracy, and a decision-making process that is often distant from citizens, is part of the reason for the Brexit vote.

The remorseless imposition of austerity on Greece and others, including Ireland, has also led to anger and frustration at the EU institutions.

The EU status quo cannot continue. The European institutions have had a serious wake-up call and they must take on board the growing disillusionment among voters.

Brexit is bad for Ireland, bad for our people, and bad of our economy.

The people of the North of Ireland and Scotland are not unaware of the EU’s shortcomings but they voted to remain in the EU. And they (like Scotland) are now being dragged out of the EU because England has more votes and England voted to leave.

For the “Leave” champions – the Tory Right, UKIP and the

Contact

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Democratic Unionist Party – English votes trump Irish and Scottish votes.

English votes have overturned the democratic will of the North.

Brexit is the price of the Union.

We now face one part of Ireland being in the EU and the other no longer in the EU. It does not make social or economic sense. It will cause untold problems and hardship for everyone on this island, the South as well as the North, and future generations.

The DUP must respect the “Remain” vote, which included many voters from the unionist community.

There is an onus on the British Government to respect the vote of the people of the North.

There is an even greater onus on the Irish Government to respect this vote and to defend and promote this as part of an all-island view of the future Brexit threatens to undermine the Good Friday Agreement.

As equal co-guarantor, the Irish Government must robustly defend the Good Friday Agreement, its political institutions, and cross-Border bodies, ensuring that the equality and human rights elements of the Good Friday Agreement are protected.

We must grasp the opportunity to redesign the constitutional and political future of the island of Ireland and of Europe.

It’s time for a Brexit from Ireland.

It’s time for a referendum on Irish reunification.

It's time for an all-Ireland approach to the EU.

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

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

www.anphoblacht.com

Ex-prisoner’s court victory over sacking

THE Belfast High Court has ruled that a Stormont department unlawfully stopped an ex-prisoner working as a groundskeeper with a conservation charity even though he had held the job for 18 years.

The judge also ruled that Peter Robinson, as the Finance Minster when Martin Neeson lost his job with the Conservation Volunteers, broke the ministerial code by not consulting his Executive colleagues and in fact “made a decision he had no power to make” when he “disapplied” the guidance for employing political former prisoners accepted by the North’s Civil Service.

This guidance states that “any conviction for a conflict-related offence that pre-dates the Good Friday Agreement should not be taken into account unless it is materially relevant to the employment being sought”.

Coiste na nIarchimí, the ex-prisoners’ association, said it was a “historic” ruling.

Coiste Director Michael Culbert said: “This man was thrown out of 5 Martin Neeson (centre) with his wife Margaret and sister-in-law Katie Kearney accompanied by Coiste Director employment on the basis of a Michael Culbert and Sinn Féin's Jennifer McCann MLA conviction he was given 38 years against political former prison- dealing with a sizeable proportion to political former prisoners who ago, when he was 16 years of age. ers. With 25,000 people from the of the population being affected.” may have encountered discrim“This is an historic ruling as it broad nationalist and republican As Coiste has been dealing ination because of their imprischallenges the guidelines that are in community having been in jail on with a number of similar cases, onment to contact Coiste or any place and are used to discriminate conflict-related offences we are Michael Culbert went on to appeal ex-POW office.

July / Iúil 2016

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5

Le Trevor Ó Clochartaigh Caithfear athbhreithniú a dhéanamh ar srianta comhshaoil

DUINE v DÚLRA

TÁ CÁS ardchúirte taréis cnámh spáirne na srianta comhshaoil a thabhairt chun cinn i gConamara arís.

Ach, is ceist náisiúnta é seo nach bhfuil éalú uaidh agus tá géarghá le h-athbhreithniú air na rialacháin timpeallachta le gur féidir leis na daoine agus an dúlra maireachtáil go suaimhneach i gcomhair a chéile, mar a rinneadh leis na mílte bliain.

De bharr rialacha nua Eorpacha a bhaineann le caomhnú timpeallachta is gá do mhuintir na tuaithe cead pleanála a fháil anois má tá siad ag iarraidh oibreacha bunúsacha a dhéanamh ar a gcuid tailte. Bhí feirmeoir caorach amháin i gceantar iargúlta i gConamara ag iarraidh fál a chur le taobh an bhóthair leis na caorigh a stopadh ag dul amach air.

Bhí dualgas air cead pleanála a lorg de bharr gur ceantar caomhnaithe atá i gceist. Fuair sé an cead sin ó Chomhairle Chontae na Gaillimhe, ach rinne lucht timpeallachta athchomharc chuig an Bord Pleanála agus diúltaíodh an cead an fál a chrochadh.

Ní nach ionadh, tá bunadh na h-áite ar buille leis seo. Tá Eagraíocht na bhFeirmeoirí Sléibhe agus Ceantair Natura i mbun fiosruchán leis an Aontas Eorpach féachaint le treoir a fháil maidir leis an gcinneadh seo.

Ceann de na ráitis is coitianta a chloisfeá uathu ná, ‘murach an aire a thug muintir Chonamara don talamh riamh nach mbeadh tada fágtha ann le caomhnú’ agus anois go bhfuil rialacha tugtha isteach ag an Eoraip le stop a chur le feirmeoirí na bun rudaí a rinne siad i gcónaí, ar nós draenáil, sceacha a bhaint, claíocha a thógáil agus mar sin de.

IN PICTURES

taobh seo tíre. Tá cead pleanála faighte dón stráíce bóthair seo, ach go mbeidh socraithe casta innealltóireachta, eolaíochta agus caomhnaithe le n-aontú idir an NPWS agus Comhairle Chontae na Gaillimhe le cinntiú nach ndéanfar aon dochar don diúlicín le linn na h-oibre.

Ar an dara cuid den bhóthar atá le forbairt idir an Teach Dóite agus an Clochán tá cead pleanála diúltaithe ar fad, mar gheall ar cheisteanna a bhaineann leis na ceantair chaomhnaithe chaon taobh den bhóthar. Beidh sé seo níos

Caithfear na pobail tuaithe a choinneáil inmharthanach chomh maith, nó beidh muid féin áirithe mar ‘chine faoi chosaint’ sa Bhruiséil, gan mórán moille freisin Go deimhin, maidir le cás an fheirmeoir thuasluaite, tá contúirt mhór tráchta anois ann mar go mbíonn cuid mhaith turasóirí ag taisteal an bhóthar áirithe atá i gceist agus níl aon bhealach aige leis na caoirigh a stopadh a dhul roimh na feithiclí. Sách dona sa lá, ach contúirt dhearg san oíche gan dabht.

Tá raic anois arís ann freisin mar go bhfuil stop curtha le forbairt bhóthair an N59 idir an Chlochán agus Uachtar Ard, de bharr ceisteanna comhshaoil chomh maith. Bhí cruinniú le déanaí ag baill Oireachtais Ghaillimh Thiar

leis an Aire Stáit Seán Kyne agus oifigigh ón Roinn Forbartha Réigiúnagh, Tuaithe , Ealaín & Gaeltachta maraon le h-ionadaithe ón tSeirbhís Páirceanna Náisiúnta agus Fiadhúlra ag iarraidh na deacrachtaí a bhaineann leis seo a shárú.

Tá cás faoi leith ag cruthú deacrachtaí i lár báire sa bpíosa bóthar seo atá le forbairt idir an Teach Dóite agus Uachtar Ard, mar go bhfuil láthair ann ina bhfuil an Diúlicín Péarlach lonnaithe. Is sliogéisc cosanta é seo, atá go mór i mbaol agus an chuid is mó den méid atá fágtha díbh san Eoraip le fáil in aibhneacha an

deacra le réiteach, ach deir na géaga éagsula den státchóras go gcinnteoidh siad go dtiocfar ar shocrú.

Caithfear athbhreithniú a dhéanamh ar na ceantair chaomhnaithe seo agus na srianta a bhaineann leo ar fad áfach. Tá 90% de Chonamara faoina scáth, rud a fhágann gur deacair forbairt ar bith a dhéanamh gan teacht salach ar na rialacháin. Tá milleán go leor ar na Rialtais éagsúla a leag amach cá mbeadh na ceantair seo, gan plé mar is ceart ar na h-impleacht

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 A plaque honouring Belfast republican socialist Winifred Carney – a veteran of the 1916 Easter Rising – is unveiled on her former home in Whitewell. Pictured are young republicans with Caral Ní Chuilín MLA, Belfast Deputy Mayor Mary Ellen Campbell, Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald TD and Dessie Cassidy, Winifred Carney's grand nephew

5 Colm Radford, Peadar Tóibín TD, Proinsias Ó Rathaille (relative of The O'Rahilly) and Pat Manning at a Save Moore Street protest at Leinster House calling for the National Monument on Moore Street to be preserved as a battlefield site

6 July / Iúil 2016

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Sinn Féin chairs three important parliamentary bodies at Leinster House

Ó Caoláin heads Oireachtas Committee on Justice & Equality

BY JOHN HEDGES SINN FÉIN TDs will chair three important Oireachtas committees in the new Leinster House parliamentary term, including long-standing Cavan/Monaghan TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin taking up the role of head of the Committee on Justice & Equality.

Newly-elected Carlow/Kilkenny TD Kathleen Funchion will lead the Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín will steer the Committee on Regional Development, Rural Affairs, Arts & the Gaeltacht.

Oireachtas Committees play an important role in the legislative process through pre-legislative scrutiny, dealing with amendments to Bills and discussing departmental budgets, as well as conducting public hearings. A strong chairperson is vital to their function.

Sinn Féin Chief Whip Aengus Ó Snodaigh said Sinn Féin has chosen three important Oireachtas committees to Chair under the D’Hondt allocation.

He said the Sinn Féin chairs will endeavour to facilitate “the open and accountable scrutiny of ministerial and departmental work” in the coming Dáil term.

“They will also work toward expanding the development of all-Ireland co-operation and decision making with their counterparts in the Assembly,” the Dublin deputy said.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, who last month completed 19 years service as a Dáil deputy and 31 years as a public elected representative, is Sinn Féin’s longest-serving elected member in the 26 Counties.

Widely respected across the chamber and with considerable experience gained over his years in Leinster House (including five years as the sole Sinn Fein TD, nine years as his party’s Dáil Leader and 14 years as Sinn Féin spokesperson on Health) Deputy Ó Caoláin told An Phoblacht he is embarking on “a new challenge” in his life of political activism and service.

He is looking forward to his new role and to

working with elected colleagues from all parties and Independents on the Justice & Equality Committee.

“It is of course an onerous undertaking,” the Cavan/Monaghan TD told An Phoblacht in his office at Leinster House.

“The Justice area is regarded as a heavy lift.

The need for a well-resourced, suitably-staffed policing service across our cities, towns and

Sinn Féin chairs will work toward expanding the development of all-Ireland cooperation with their counterparts in the Assembly

5 Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin is Sinn Féin's longest-serving elected member in the Dáil

5 Sinn Féin TDs Kathleen Funchion and Peadar Tóibín will also chair important Oireachtas committees

5 Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin says recognition of Traveller ethnicity will be an important issue

rural Ireland is well-documented and must be delivered on. With that comes accountability and that must apply to the Minister for Justice, the Garda Commissioner and all other relevant post holders.

“The Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Equality has a crucial role to play in that regard.

“The Equality responsibility of the Committee is one that I will also be pursuing with enthusiasm.

“The needs and rights of people with disabilities, including recognition of Irish Sign Language, will be high on my priorities. So too will formal recognition of the ethnicity of Ireland’s Traveller community.”

He said the equality agenda of the committee must address the issues of the marginalised and forgotten.

“Irish society must stretch itself to the maximum if we are to create a true society of equals. I hope over my term as Chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee to not just help move some of these issues forward but to actually deliver on what is needed.”

July / Iúil 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

7

Enda Kenny and Mícheál Martin block move to protect tenants

Fine Gael landlord TDs weigh into row on rent certainty

BY MARK MOLONEY A BID TO PROTECT TENANTS by Sinn Féin, linking rent rises or decreases to the Consumer Price Index, was defeated in the Dáil in June by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

Sinn Féin’s Rent Certainty Bill would have limited the ability of landlords to jack up rental prices – a problem which is forcing many low-income families into homelessness across the state. It would have saved some families up to €1,000 per year. Fianna Fáil weighed in behind Fine Gael to oppose the Bill despite rent certainty being a cornerstone of Fianna Fáil’s general election manifesto.

Moving the motion, Sinn Féin Housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin was quick to point out that, just three days previously, Fianna Fáil’s Seán Fleming TD appeared on The Week in Politics expressing the need for linking rent increases to inflation “straightaway”.

Eoin Ó Broin told the Dáil: “Fianna Fáil’s refusal to support this Bill is genuinely hard to understand and deeply disappointing. I suspect

‘I suspect Fine Gael remains opposed to rent certainty. Fianna Fail, as part of its agreement with the Government, is helping it avoid any embarrassment’ Eoin Ó Broin TD

what is happening here is that Fine Gael remains opposed to rent certainty.

Fianna Fail, as part of its agreement with the Government, is helping it avoid any embarrassment. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are asking us to wait.”

Sinn Féin Dublin South West TD Seán Crowe was amazed at how some TDs seemed happy to ignore the plight of homeless people: “One only has to walk out the gates of Leinster House to see people sleeping in doorways, trying to stay warm and dry.

“Our Bill will help to achieve rent certainty, allowing renters to plan and bring greater stability to their lives and those of their families. Why would anybody oppose this Bill?”

It was Fianna Fáil Meath West TD Shane Cassells (who seems intent

Fine Gael's John Paul Phelan

to want to make a name for himself as one of the most right-wing of the new crop of TDs) who weighed in to attack the plan. He complained that “no one seems to stand up for this whole new group of people in the squeezed middle”. Hitting out at those on the Left delivering “emotive and grandiose” speeches calling for more social housing, he said: “I often wonder who they think will build the homes that will sort out this problem. Do they think it will be magic fairies or little people with pixie dust?”

Unsurprisingly, he was quick to claim it’s Fianna Fáil’s good pals in the private construction industry who will solve the crisis.

Fine Gael Housing Minister Simon Coveney (a landlord himself) accused Sinn Féin’s David Cullinane of “wanting to pick a fight” after he hit out at the Government for its negative and sinister interpretation of the Bill.

The Waterford TD explained that Sinn Féin’s Bill took into consideration landlords, many of whom have chosen to sell houses rather than rent them out:

www.sinnfein.ie

Sinn Féin Housing Spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin TD

Fine Gael’s John Paul Phelan (who as well as being a TD is also a landlord) said he is ideologically opposed to rent controls of any kind

Fianna Fáil's Shane Cassells

Fianna Fáil's Seán Fleming

“Moving away from rent prices being set by the market would also be good for landlords because it does not suit them to see a spike or rise in rents or, as they have seen in the past, rents drop to unsustainable levels. It suits everybody to have much fairer and sustainable rent prices in the state.”

Another who hit out at the Sinn Féin Bill was Fine Gael’s John Paul Phelan, who as well as being a TD is also a landlord. He said he is ideologically opposed to rent controls of any kind.

Sinn Féin Dublin Bay North TD Denise Mitchell noted how rents have risen 10.2% in her constituency compared with last year yet there is no protection for tenants: “With the rise in property prices and the shortage of social housing, people are left with only one option, which is to rent. They are being placed at the whim of the market and private landlords. If rents rise suddenly and substantially, where are people to turn?

This has forced many of our people into homelessness.”

Rounding up the debate, Sinn Féin

Denise Mitchell TD

David Cullinane TD

Seán Crowe TD

Housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said he could not comprehend Fianna Fáil’s opposition to the move: “I am most confused by the fact that, on Sunday, a senior spokesperson for Fianna Fáil called for rent certainty, linking rent reviews to the Consumer Price Index, to be introduced urgently, yet today we have heard Fianna Fáil deputies say it is a very bad thing.”

He said while his party’s proposal was a modest measure, much more substantive and radical action is required to tackle the housing crisis.

Despite garnering support from the Labour Party, Social Democrats, People Before Profit, the Anti-Austerity Alliance, Green Party and Independent TDs, the Sinn Féin Bill was defeated by 87 votes to 43.

8 July / Iúil 2016

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5 Michelle O'Neill with John O'Doherty from the Rainbow Project announcing the lifting of the lifetime ban on men who have sex with men becoming blood donors

5 Sinn Féin Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleor MLA

Sinn Féin MLAs and ministers get stuck in at Stormont

BY MICHAEL McMONAGLE WITH the Assembly elections now just a distant memory and the Executive ministers in place, Sinn Féin MLAs and ministers have been getting stuck in, doing what they were elected to do.

One of the most important first acts of the new Assembly term came when Sinn Féin Health Minister Michelle O’Neill lifted the lifetime ban on gay men becoming blood donors.

Demonstrating Sinn Féin’s commitment to equality, Minister O’Neill took the initiative to allow men who have sex with men to have the opportunity to donate blood and the move received the backing of the rest of the Executive.

In doing so, she signalled a change from previous Democratic Unionist Party Health Ministers who appeared to place partisan, party concerns ahead of scientific and medical evidence and continued to uphold the unfair and discriminatory lifetime ban.

It is hoped that similar moves will be made in Leinster House in the near future to lift the ban, with new Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile, from Belfast, making the call to the Irish Government Sinn Féin Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleor also moved the equality agenda forward when he instructed his officials to begin drafting a Bill to legislate for marriage equality in the North.

The Finance Minister said he wanted to see marriage equality legislation in place in the North as soon as possible to bring the Six Counties in line with the rest of the island following last year’s historic referendum.

He also made history when he delivered the June monitoring round on the earliest date it has ever been announced, distributing more than £175million in additional funding to departments.

Health got an extra £72million, Education got £30million, Department of Infrastructure received £28million, and £20million was invested in Skills.

The early announcement of the monitoring round allocation showed what can be achieved through the Fresh Start approach to government in the new mandate.

Despite the efficiency and generosity of the Finance Minister, it seems some unionist MLAs still have trouble pronouncing the South Belfast MLA’s name – whether accidentally or intentionally.

Assembly members may get used to hearing more Irish spoken in the chamber with South Down MLA Caitríona Ruane as Principal Deputy Speaker.

European matters loomed large in the business of the Assembly with both the EU referendum and the Euro 2016 finals causing a stir inside and outside of the chamber.

5 First Minister Arlene Foster and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness pictured with First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon at the recent British-Irish Council summit in Glasgow

The much-vaunted Ulster Unionist Party and SDLP Opposition is something of a damp squib

5 Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD on the Brexit campaign trail at Stormont with Declan Kearney MLA, Martina Anderson MEP, Martin McGuinness and Junior Minister Megan Fearon MLA

Both polarised opinion among the parties, with differing views on our place in Europe and which team to support in France.

Ever the statesman, Martin McGuinness showed he represents everyone by traveling to France to cheer on both Martin O’Neill’s and Michael O’Neill’s teams.

On the EU referendum issue, however, Martin McGuinness campaigned vigorously in support of a “Remain” vote, both at Stormont and in London, where he was the keynote speaker at an event at Westminster to discus the impact a “Brexit” withdrawal would have on the Irish community.

Voters were also left in no doubt about Sinn Féin’s stance on the referendum with party President Gerry Adams speaking at press conference in Stormont’s Great Hall calling for a remain vote alongside fellow party leadership figures Martin McGuinness, Martina Anderson, Declan Kearney and Megan Fearon.

On the sporting front, it was clear who was supporting who as the Assembly benches emptied ahead of kick-off times and MLAs made their way to TV screens or to France to check out the action.

The much-vaunted Opposition pledged by the Ulster Unionist Party and SDLP have proved themselves to be something of a damp squib so far, making little or no impact since walking away from the political responsibility of government.

Opposition spokespersons have failed to make any significant impact in any of the Assembly debates to date, confirming what many had predicted – that they have manoeuvred themselves into political obscurity.

One Opposition member, however, did come to the attention of the rest of the chamber, not for his political acumen but rather his strange attempt in his first speech to imitate W. B. Yeats.

Amid the round of maiden speeches from new

MLAs, Assembly members got a bit of light relief with the frankly bizarre offering from the SDLP’s Justin McNulty.

In a puzzling speech to the Assembly, the Opposition backbencher said:

The EU referendum and the Euro 2016 finals caused a stir inside and outside Stormont “Sometimes I dream deeply at night convinced that I hear the Cailleach Beara’s keen. Then, I awaken in relief, contented that I have not been transformed into an old, withered man.”

Perhaps it isn’t the fabled Cailleach Beara but the vultures hovering over the political future of his party.

July / Iúil 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

UN report increases pressure for referendum on 8th Amendment

9

WHY THE 34% INCREASE IN PREMIUMS THIS YEAR?

BY MARK MOLONEY THERE is increasing pressure for a referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment to the Constitution after a United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) report has found that Ireland’s strict abortion laws subjected a woman whose pregnancy was not viable due to a fatal foetal abnormality – but who could not terminate her pregnancy in Ireland – to discrimination and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

The UNHRC found that the legal situation in Ireland which forced a woman to choose between carrying her wanted pregnancy to term, knowing the baby would not survive, or travelling abroad for a termination caused “intense suffering”.

The 8th Amendment was added to the Constitution in 1983 after a referendum. It enshrines the equal right to life of the mother and the unborn child. In recent years it has come under increasing criticism as – coupled with the recent Protection of Life d u r i n g

Dáil to tackle extortionate motor insurance costs

BY MARK MOLONEY

Pregnancy Bill – it leads to an unclear situation where medical issues such as inevitable miscarriage must be allowed to progress to a life-threatening level before it becomes legal to terminate a pregnancy.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has proposed a new “Citizens’ Assembly” to look at the issue again.

Sinn Féin Dáil Health spokesperson Louise O’Reilly TD said: “Enda Kenny proclaims that he has ‘listened to the women of Ireland’. It is a case of selective hearing.

Polls have shown that Irish citizens are significantly in favour of repealing the 8th.

Not only that but the ‘inhumanity’ of our laws have received international criticism.

What more does he need to hear?”

5 Sinn Féin Dáil Health spokesperson Louise O’Reilly TD

Louise O’Reilly said a referendum on the issue needs to be called now: “What use is delaying the conversation until the end of the year?”

United Nations Human Rights Committee criticises Ireland over ‘cruel’ treatment of women with fatal foetal abnormalities Speaking to An Phoblacht at the turning of the sod at a new primary care centre in Summerhill, Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald TD said: “This is a long-running saga and women are at the receiving end of very bad politics. I think the judgement is absolutely crystal clear: the position of the state is now untenable. It’s now absolutely clear that the 8th Amendment has to be repealed, and for that to happen we need a referendum.”

She accused the Government of engaging in stalling tactics: “It is simply unacceptable that Government and politicians dodge their re s p o n s i b i l i t y w h i l e women suffer,” she told An Phoblacht.

THERE are moves underway in the Dáil to tackle the sky-rocketing cost of motor insurance premiums after it emerged that some customers have seen their insurance premiums increase by up to 400%.

The dramatic rise in motor insurance has particularly affected young people, citizens in rural areas and those with older vehicles. The narrative from the motor industry has been that increasing compensation claims, legal costs and other factors such as fraud have led to the hike in costs.

Sinn Féin Finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty doesn’t buy that. He says there is another factor at play: the

Sinn Féin added significant amendments to the motion calling for the new Finance Committee to take on a thorough examination of the reasons behind the huge hikes companies’ own investment strategies which are faring worse than expected at a time of low-interest rates.

“The bogeyman tactic of blaming only fraudsters or the courts or the legal profession should end,” says Pearse.

He also questions how drivers who have never had a claim could see their insurance premiums rise by 100%.

“It is simply not credible based on the evidence we have that the massive increases are down solely to the factors outlined by the industry,” he says.

Pearse Doherty TD

A Fianna Fáil motion which called for the establishment of a motor insurance database, enhanced disclosure on policy renewal notifications as well as moves to ensure greater consistency in court awards and tackle exaggerated claims was passed by the Dáil.

Sinn Féin added significant amendments to the motion calling for the new Finance Committee to take on a thorough examination of the reasons behind the huge hikes as one of its first tasks.

It also calls for a review of the Central Bank’s role as regulator over the industry.

Pearse Doherty says he is “delighted” that his amendment was passed unanimously, which means it must be implemented in full by Government: “The Dáil has now spoken clearly and the Government must listen and act to fulfill the motion.

“This motion must be more than a piece of paper, it should be a strong road map agreed by the Dáil to tackle high premiums for consumers starting immediately.”

10 July / Iúil 2016

BODENSTOWN

2016

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‘My vision of health care will not be bound by any border’ Health Minister Michelle O’Neill, Assembly member for Mid Ulster

TORRENTIAL RAIN and dark clouds overshadowed the 2016 Wolfe Tone Commemoration in County Kildare on Sunday 19 June but stout-hearted though thoroughly-soaked republicans braved the deluge to parade from Sallins village to Bodenstown Graveyard to rededicate themselves to “The Father of Irish Republicanism”.

Proceedings at the Wolfe Tone Monument were chaired by one of Sinn Féin’s newly-elected TDs, Carol Nolan, Dáil deputy for Offaly and the party’s spokesperson on Education & Skills.

The main address was given by Michelle O’Neill, the new Health Minister in the North’s Executive at Stormont, at the start of a week of the referendum on EU membership in the Six Counties and Britain.

Michelle – who has already made an impact in the first weeks of her tenure by overturning the ban on gay men donating blood – made

5 The march leaves Sallins

5 Republicans brave the deluge in Kildare

‘I will act to safeguard and transform the health and social care system, a health care system that is delivered on the basis of need and not on the ability to pay, a public health care system that operates to the highest standards, that is accessible and resourced’ the health service the focus of her speech and unequivocally declared: “While I am the Health Minister in the Executive, my vision of health care will not be bound by any border.

“I want to see a truly national health care system – a system of free universal health care,” she said.

“It is nonsense this is available in Newry but not in Dundalk. The South is a wealthy, developed state. It can afford universal health care.

“I will act to safeguard and transform the health and social care system, a health care system that is delivered on the basis of need and not on the ability to pay, a public health care system that operates to the highest standards, that is accessible and resourced.

“We need a system which prioritises tackling health inequalities, that prioritises mental health.”

It is a privilege to stand with you The Assembly member for Mid Ulster said it was a privilege to stand with comrades at the graveside of the founder of modern Irish republicanism, Theobold Wolfe Tone.

“We come to commemorate his life as a revolutionary, to recommit ourselves to his vision of an independent and equal Ireland, and to set out

how this generation of republicans can play its part in realising that vision.”

She said that Wolfe Tone crystalised the longstanding tradition of resistance to British rule into the progressive political principles of Irish republicanism that Sinn Féin remains committed to today.

“Inspired by the revolutions in America and France, the United Irishmen established an alliance of Catholics, Protestants, and Dissenters, in opposition to sectarianism and British rule, and in favour of human rights, equality, liberty, democracy, and solidarity.

“Those principles have underpinned every phase of our struggle from the United Irish movement, to the 1916 Rising, to the Hunger Strikers, and to Sinn Féin today.

“As in all points in our history, women played a central role in the 1798 rebellion, despite the title of the United Irishmen. Key figures included Mary Anne McCracken, a champion of social justice; and Betsy Gray, killed in battle in Ballynahinch, alongside her father and fiancé.

“The defeat of the rebellion led to a reassertion of sectarian division among our people, ultimately resulting in the sectarian division of

‘Reuniting the nation and the country remains the goal of republicans today as we continue to grapple with the realities of partition and conservatism’

5 Bands from across Ireland keep marchers' spirits high despite the torrential rain

our country in 1921. Reuniting the nation and the country remains the goal of republicans today as we continue to grapple with the realities of partition and conservatism.”

In the 26 Counties, there has been 90 years of governments that barely paid lip service to the 1916 Proclamation, culminating in the recent attempt to play down the 1916 centenary and erase the leaders of the Rising from history, the minister born in Clonoe, County Tyrone, said.

“Sinn Féin did not allow that to happen. The people did not allow that to happen. Together we forced the state to properly commemorate their ideals and their sacrifice.

“That is a sign of republicanism’s growing strength in the 26 Counties. The people here voted for a significant increase in the number of Sinn Féin TDs and senators. We thank everyone for their vote.”

She added that the people also voted to get rid of the Fine Gael/Labour Government, to get rid of Enda Kenny, yet Fianna Fáil put Fine Gael back into government.

“Fianna Fáil’s behaviour since has been shameful – railing against Government policy then voting with Fine Gael or in Fine Gael’s interests.

July / Iúil 2016

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5 Main speaker Minister Michelle O'Neill MLA

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5 The leaders of 1916 are also remembered in the Easter Rising's centenary year

“They re-elected Enda Kenny, voted against the scrapping of water charges, voted against legislation to deal with the rent crisis (despite supporting it in the Dail’s Housing Committee) and hatched a plan with Fine Gael to have ‘jobs for the boys’ in the Seanad.

“The so-called ‘new politics’ is difficult to distinguish from the old politics of co-option and corruption.

“This is because there is little difference between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. They are both rightwing parties that have no intention of delivering a Republic of Equals – the Republic that Sinn Féin continues to work towards.

5 Marchers arrive at Bodenstown Churchyard In the North, the Mid Ulster MLA reminded commentators, partition relegated nationalists to second-class citizens.

“The Civil Rights Movement’s attempts at peaceful reform was met with resistance to change, attacks on marchers, the organising of loyal paramilitary groupings, and the mobilisation of the state’s security forces against defenceless nationalist communities.”

Since then, however, Sinn Féin has transformed the North, she said.

“In 1998, 200 years after the United Irish rebel-

“That is wrong. That is nothing to do with republicanism and equality and all to do with enriching the few at the cost of the many.”

Speaking on Sunday ahead of the following Thursday’s EU referendum, the Sinn Féin minister agreed that the EU does need to be radically reformed.

“Sinn Féin has consistently argued for a social Europe that prioritises people’s needs over the interests of powerful corporations,” she said.

“But we live in a global world and if we are to influence change it is important to engage in international institutions, not to isolate ourselves from them.

“A Brexit would not be a victory for progressive forces. It would be a victory for the most inward-looking, narrow-minded, xenophobic wing of the British Conservative Party.

“It would damage Ireland’s economy and reinforce the Border.

“So Sinn Féin are advocating a vote to remain,” she said, adding to loud applause: “The Brexit we need is a British exit from Ireland!”

She concluded by saying that republicanism has come through enormous challenges since

‘Fianna Fáil put Fine Gael back into government’

‘Fianna Fáil’s behaviour has been shameful – railing against Government policy then voting with Fine Gael or in Fine Gael’s interests’

lion, we created a new Assembly which shares power between ‘Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter’.

“Stormont has acted as a bulwark against British austerity. We have used its power to provide the most generous system of welfare on these islands, to keep student fees affordable, and to protect free health care.

“While the importance of resisting austerity 5 Sinn Féin’s newly-elected TD for Offaly, Carol should not be underplayed, our aspirations are Nolan, chairs the commemoration 5 Young republicans honour Wolfe Tone much greater and Sinn Féin’s new ministerial team is ready to deliver change. Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir is negotiating the transfer of Corporation Tax and will be seeking other powers from Westminster. Minister Chris Hazzard will be investing in the infrastructure needed to bring opportunity and prosperity to the North-West.”

And she reiterated that she is honoured to be Sinn Féin’s Minister for Health.

Declaring that her and Sinn Féin’s vision of health care will not be bound by any border, she said that she wants to see a truly national health care system: “A system of free universal health care.”

“It is nonsense that this is available in Newry but not in Dundalk.

The South is a wealthy developed state. It can afford universal health care. However, both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael continue to support a two-tier health care system, where those who 5 Flags are lowered at the graveside of Theobald Wolfe Tone can pay receive treatment quicker.

Wolfe Tone set us the historic task of uniting the people of Ireland and breaking the connection with England.

“Standing here today I feel energised, I feel excited, I feel proud. I feel that the future is in my hands, in yours, and in the people of Ireland’s hands.

“Our story is still being written.

“We can and we must be the generation to build a republic worthy of Tone.

“We have made much progress but we have further to travel. It will take hard work, generosity and patience.

“Republicans have demonstrated these qualities time and time again throughout the decades – they are qualities that characterised Mary Anne McCracken, Constance Markievicz, and Mairéad Farrell. They are characteristics that continue to be shown by the strong republican women of today such as Mary Lou McDonald and Megan Fearon.

“If we stay true to those qualities, and if we stand by the principles of ‘Equality, Liberty and Fraternity’, then we can break the link with Britain and unify our people and our nation.

“We can build a republic worthy of its name.”

12 July / Iúil 2016

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New Dáil Transport Minister wanted Sinn Féin and An Phoblacht banned

SHANE ROSS

'Independent' cog fits neatly in Fine Gael machine

BY MARK MOLONEY AS the LUAS light rail dispute rumbled on in Dublin City's transport network, new Dáil Transport Minister Shane Ross's unwillingness to weigh in and help find a solution indicated he would be perpetuating Fine Gael's hands-off approach to industrial disputes.

Ross, a former stockbroker, regularly used his position as Business Editor at the Sunday Independent to criticise Ireland's transport system, particularly during the years of the Celtic Tiger, but as Transport Minister bowed out of doing anything to hasten an agreement between workers and company Transdev.

Representing the prosperous Dublin Rathdown constituency, Ross was first elected to the Seanad as an Independent representing UCD in 1981. He was re-elected eight times since, making him the longest-serving senator in Seanad history. He also served as a Fine Gael councillor in Bray from 1991 to 1997 and stood unsuccessfully for the Fine Gael party at a 1992 general

Shane Ross said the 'presumption of the innocence of the Birmingham Six has been taken for granted for too long' election in Wicklow before reverting to being an Independent.

Throughout his political career, Ross has been one of the most conservative politicians in the Dáil. He reserved much of his venom for republicans.

In an interview with the Evening Herald in August 1983, the then senator said he would leave Ireland the minute Margaret Thatcher or any other British Prime Minister announced the withdrawal of Britain from the North.

He went on to say: “Pearse and Connolly had no mandate to take up arms . . . They were the original terrorists. The Provos of today are the true inheritors of 1916.”

Ross's dislike of Sinn Féin wasn't helped when he was humiliated in the 1984 European elections. The sitting

senator contested the Dublin constituency and finished tenth of 12 candidates with a paltry 2.9% of the vote.

Compounding his frustration was the fact that the Sinn Féin candidate – who was banned from TV and radio and censored in the press – finished over 6,000 votes ahead of him.

Ross decried those campaigning for the release of some Irish people imprisoned in Britain, saying the “presumption of the innocence of the Birmingham Six had been taken for granted for too long” and Irish people should “cease their persistent criticisms of the workings of British courts whenever Irishmen

could take joint action against them by closing their advice centres. We could extend Section 31 [the broadcasting ban] to all sections of the media. We could simply blot them out of the political consciousness.”

Some letter-writers to the Irish Press were shocked by Ross's comments, saying his “lecture to us to cease our concern for Irish citizens subjected to charges in British courts is pathetic.

In effect, he says, don't object to or confront past, present or potential injustice.”

Responding to talks initiatives by Gerry Adams and SDLP leader John Hume in September 1993 that eventually led to the Peace Process and the Good Friday Agreement, Ross said: “I should prefer to see him [Gerry Adams] interned without trial.”

In the 1990s, Ross was a regular at pickets outside Sinn Féin offices alongside arch-reactionary Conor Cruise O'Brien, Pat Rabbitte and Michael Nugent. The group that organised the

5 Suit you, Sir – Shane Ross with his new master Enda Kenny and (left) Ross picketing Sinn Féin head office at Parnell Square in 1991

are on trial”.

He added that, too often Irish people from positions of “ignorance and emotion” complain about the Birmingham Six, Guildford Four, the Maguire Seven and the Winchester Three: “I would like to put on record that I do not believe for one moment that all these people – leaving out the Winchester Three for the moment – are automatically innocent. It seems that all you have to be is an Irish person in Britain charged with a terrorist crime for politicians on all sides here to throw up their hands and call 'foul'. This is completely wrong.”

The Birmingham Six, Maguire Seven, Guildford Four and Winchester Three were all exonerated after being wrongly imprisoned for years.

Tentative moves towards the Peace Process didn't deter Ross from spewing his anti-republican vitriol. In August 1993 he continued: “Sinn Féin should be proscribed in exactly the same way as the IRA. Membership should carry the same penalties.

“Sinn Féin offices in Parnell Square and throughout Ireland should be closed. An Phoblacht should be banned.

“No statements from either group or its leaders should be allowed to be carried by any national or local newspapers. No public meetings would be permitted under the Sinn Féin banner.

The organisation and all its activities would simply cease to exist.”

He added: “We could lock up the leaders of Sinn Féin. In a rare display of Irish unity, we

'We could extend Section 31 [the broadcasting ban] to all sections of the media' protests, Families Against Intimidation and Terror, focused almost exclusively on republican violence. It was heavily criticised after it emerged that it was actually funded by the British Government.

In the run-up to this year's general election, Ross was scathing in his criticism of his former comrades in Fine Gael – but was quick to put clear blue water between himself, Sinn Féin and others on the Left.

Now, after almost 20 years as a populist right-wing voice, Shane Ross is once more back to being a cog that fits neatly in the Fine Gael machine.

July / Iúil 2016

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March / Márta 2016

9

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Teanga Ár Linne SlíÁrBeatha Linne

Sa ceathrú cuid dár sraith ‘Ról an Stáit agus Ról an Phobail’, scríobhann An Comhairleoir Mairéad Farrell, ar comhairleoir de chuid Shinn Féin i nGaillimh í, faoin taithí atá faighte aici in earnáil an rialtais áitiúil.

5 Cormac O'Hagan agus gníomhaithe óga as an Lorgain le Martin McGuinness

Seomra Ranga is ea an Chomhairle? nó an troid chéanna le fáil i measc Gael óg ár linne. Nó b’fhéidir nach bhfuil sé le feiceáil fós.

Ach ní mór dom a rá, cha dtearn mé mo chinneadh an Ghaeilge a roghnú mar shlí beatha ar mhaithe leis an sean-dearcadh sin – is é sin

LE CORMAC O’HAGAN

Is gníomhaí óg 19 bliain d’aois Cormac O’Hagan. Is as an Lorgain i gContae Ard Mhacha é agus tá sé ag déanamh staidéir ar an Ghaeilge in Ollscoil Uladh i nDoire. Is mac garpháiste é de chuid J. B. O’Hagan ar cheannaire cáiliúil poblachtach é ó bhí na 1940í ann.

Tá sé thar am teanga an 21ú aois a dhéanamh den Ghaeilge. Is linne an fhreagracht sin a dhéanamh.

IS FURASTA a bheith gruama duairc maidir le todhchaí ár dteanga álainn ársa Gaelach. Ar feadh na mblianta anuas, tá sé de dhualgas ort, más Gaeilgeoir thú, bheith i mbun troda agus i mbun gnímh chun an Ghaeilge a chosaint ó ionsaithe gan stad.

Leis an gComhairleoir

Mairéad Farrell

Ionsaithe a rinne an strainséir nach dtuigeann a cás, sa chéad dul síos agus ansin, go scannalach Ó TOGHADH i mí Bealtaine 2014 mé, tá ar fad, ionsaithe a rinne an té in Éirinn a ligfeadh tuiscint i bhfad níos fearr faighte agam ar air gur ag obair ar son na Gaeilge atá sé. an ról atá againn mar ionadaithe pobail Ritheann dán de chuid an Phiarsaigh liom: “Mór agus muid ag plé le hinstitiúidí an stáit. mo náir: Mo chlann féin a dhíol a máthair.”(Mise Tuigim anois na bacanna a chuirtear os Éire). ár gcomhair agus muid ag plé leis an stát.

Ach sin uilig ráite níor cheart dúinn ligint don Is comhartha thar a bheith dearfach é go éadóchas greim a fháil orainn. bhfuil ionadaíocht againn ar bheagnach chuile Is Gaeilgeoir óg mise, tógadh leis an Ghaeilge chomhairle sa dá chontae is tríocha, ciallaíonn mé, a bheag a mhór ar againn chomhchéim an sé go bhfuilnó deis cainte lenár leis gcuid Bhéarla.

Go dtí gur bhain mé an mheánscoil polaitíochta a chur os comhair an phobail. amach, mé modúinn chuidcabhrú oideachais go gceanthiomlán Tugannfuair sé seans lenár trí mheán na Gaeilge – chuile ábhar, fiú an Béarla! racha féin agus muid ag troid i gcoinne pholaD’fhreastail mé ar shruth na Gaeilge i gCathair saithe míchothroma an rialtais.

Ach caithfear a Ard Mhacha agusgo go gcruthaíonn fóill lean mé leis an Ghaeilge adhmháil freisin sé deacrachtaí san Ollscoil tá mé i gcomhairlí mbun staidéir uirthi ar leith.

Ach agus go háirithe áitiúla ar faoi nós láthair.

Chomhairle Cathrach na Gaillimhe, áit a Riamh anall, spreag húdaráis daoine i dtreo bhfuil muid ar fad inár na gcomhairleoirí nua-thofa. thuig mé nár go ceadaíodh dtí gur toghadh mé an naNíor Gaeilge dá bhrí í a chleachtadh. chumhacht na feidhmeannaigh i gcomórIs iomaí uairatá guraggníomh réabhlóideach a bhí sa tas leis na comhairleoirí iad féin. Go deimhin, is teanga a labhairt, dar leat. minic go gcuireann chomhairle ranga Ó thuaidh agus óandheas, bhí arseomra Ghaeilgeoirí i gcuimhne dom, na mar dhaltaí troid go fíochmhar arcomhairleoirí mhaithe le cearta teanga scoile agus na feidhmeannaigh ina múinteoirí a bhaint amach. Ábhar díoma, b’fheidir, nach bhfuil an spreagadh

5 Cormac ag an Lá Dearg

ag inseacht dúinn céard is féidir agus céard nach féidir a dhéanamh. Ó am go chéile is cósúil go bhfeileann sé seo do pháirtithe áirithe mar go ligeann sé dóibh an mhilleán a chur ar na feidhmeannaigh seachas ar pholasaithe an stáit nó a gcuid polasaithe féin.

Ach tá dualgas faoi leith orainn mar phoblachtánaigh an córas sin a athrú ó bhonn agus ionadaíocht cheart a dhéanamh ar son mhuintir na tíre agus an phobail uilig as a dtagann muid.

Is fusa a rá ná a dhéanamh, áfach, go mór mór gur ‘Gaeil sinn’ agus go bhfuil freagracht orainn agus muid á bhrú ó chuile thaobh sa chomhairle. bheith bródúil as ár dtír agus ár gcultúr.

Scaití is éasca glacadh leis an status quo seachas Ní mhothaím dlúthpháirtíocht le stair na hÉire- cur in aghaidh an easa. Is féidir a bheith cinnte ann agus le hoidhreacht chultúrtha na nGael sin 5 Cormac ag tabhairt óráide ag Comóradh Éirí Amach na Cásca i bPort an Dúnáin go nadúrtha; cé gur poblachtanach mé. Bíodh is gur Gael mé, ní mhothaím gur náisiúnach Sin ráite, leoga, is breá liom cultúr na hÉireann, cultúrtha ná polaitiúil mé. idir spórt agus cheol, idir theanga agus stair. Cha mhothaím páirteach i bpobal a bhí ag síneadh siar ar feadh na n-aoisí, mothaím gur ball de phobal beo bríomhar mé, pobal atá i gcroílár na tíre seo agus atá ag fás agus ag dul i bhfeidhm ar thodchaí na sochaí seo – sa lá atá inniu ann.

Riamh bhí Gaeilgeoirí ar imeall na tíre, go litriúil agus go fáthchiallach.

Go pearsanta, nuair a chluinim duine ag cur an cheist úd sin ar Ghaeilgeoir óg “cad chuige a bhfuil an Ghaeilge tábhachtach duit?” – “Bhuel, is Gael mise agus isan cuid de m’oidhreacht agus gur tréine a bheidh ghaoth seo ag séideadh mo chultúr í” nó “Tá an Ghaeilge i gcroílár de inár gcoinne agus muid ag dul i neart ó thaobh m’fhéiniúlacht”; cuireann sin uilig náire orm. thacaíocht an phobail chomh maith céanna.

Freagra gan mhachnamh ann.

Sa gcomhthéacs seo, tá sé atá ríthábhachtach go Nochtaíonn freagramar sin phoblachtánaigh dearcadh seanfhaimbíonn straitéisanagainn le seantaréitithe dúinn mar phobal. bheith do na dúshláin a bheas romhainn.

Ciallaíonn sé sin go gcaithfear ár n-ionadaithe Mura bhfásann muid aníos mar phobal agus poiblí bheith fréamhaithe san eagraíocht agusi mura anglacann muid an spás ceart s’againn go gcothaíonn áitiúil gcroílár na tíre, muid agus iceannaireacht ngach gné de láidir shochaí na ahÉireann, chinntíonn go bhfuil ról lárnach agna baill an mairfidh an Ghaeilge ar imeall sochaí pháirtí, ar nó chomhchéim lenár go deo… tamall eile ar aongcuid nós. ionadaithe tofa, sna cinnithe a dhéanann in aon Tá sé thar am teanga an 21ú aoismuid a dhéanamh institiúd stáit. Is linne an fhreagracht sin a den Ghaeilge.

Scaití is éasca glacadh leis an status quo seachas cur in aghaidh an easa . . . Ach tá dualgas faoi leith orainn mar phoblachtánaigh

dhéanamh.

14 July / Iúil 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

Housing Minister’s gimmicks won’t alleviate crisis but will help builders and speculators

Simon Coveney twists and turns to avoid housing emergency commitment

Behind the soothing words, it is clear that the minister’s plans are entirely to the benefit of the private house building sector

BY EOIN Ó MURCHÚ THE Fine Gael Minister for Housing, Simon Coveney, is at his wits’ end trying to steer the housing crisis into yet another profit-making scheme for developers.

His latest idea is that the state will make a big financial contribution to the infrastructural costs of private housing development, supposedly to help more houses to be built so that the crisis can be eased.

This, he claims, will enable two years or so to be knocked off the timescale for house building and allow 15,000 to 20,000 new “houses or apartments” to come on stream.

Behind the soothing words, however, it is clear that the minister’s plans are entirely to the benefit of the private

The Government minister’s ‘hope’ is that most of the homes or apartments from the private sector would be in the ‘affordable’ range – between €250,000 and €300,000 in Dublin house building sector, and that he has no plans for the state itself (through the local authorities) to undertake the building of the homes we need.

And the minister’s response when this point was put to him was to “hope” that most of these homes or apartments would be in the “affordable” range – that is between €250,000 and €300,000 in Dublin.

These ministerial gimmicks will do nothing to alleviate the housing crisis, affecting thousands on local authority housing lists, people who have

5 The Oireachtas Housing Committee has called for 10,000 new publicly-owned homes to be built each year

been made homeless and those whose incomes or uncertainty of employment rule them out of getting mortgages anyway.

It will only help the builders and the speculators who “buy to let” – greed merchants who buy a property in order to rent it out and make a profit out of someone else’s need for a roof over their head.

It must be stressed that this is a different issue from people who can’t meet their repayments and whose homes are in negative equity, and for whom renting their home (while they go back to their parents or whatever) is the only way out. People in this category are victims too.

It is doubly disgusting then that Sinn Féin proposals to take a first step for rent certainty – for keeping rents under control and to end the unfettered ability of landlords to squeeze the maximum profit out of the situation – were voted down in the Dáil by Fine Gael with the active votes of Independent TDs Finian McGrath and John Halligan, and with the acquiescence of Fianna Fáil.

With the Government directing its housing effort to the benefit of builders and landlords, those in actual need of social housing are just being thrown to the wolves.

The St Vincent de Paul voluntary charitable organisation noted this, indeed, when it came out to restate

5 Independent TDs John Halligan and Finian McGrath voted against rent certainty

that only a concerted programme of social housing building by the local authorities could address the issue.

Of course, even the Housing Minister’s claim of speeding up the provision of 20,000 private houses over three years is woefully inadequate. And the Oireachtas Committee on Housing and Homelessness has thrown down the gauntlet to the minister with the demand that 10,000 publicly-owned housing units must be built each year for the next three years at a cost of €1.8billion a year.

This represents a doubling of the output suggested in the Government’s Social Housing Strategy 2020, which set a target of 35,000 units over six years, and which was widely criticised for its over-reliance on the private sector.

It will be interesting to see what the minister has to say about this report but on previous form we can expect only empty platitudes. The test will be whether or not he provides the money needed for the combination of construction, acquisition and refurbishment proposed in the report, and the new funding mechanisms proposed.

The report acknowledges that this will require increased Exchequer funding, along with borrowing, the mobilisation of funding from sources such as the Housing Finance Agency, the Irish League of Credit Unions and so on.

But no matter which way the minister twists and turns, the stark fact cannot be glossed over that the only way to tackle what is acknowledged on all sides as a desperate housing crisis is to declare a ‘national housing emergency’, and to fund a massive programme of social housing construction.

Anything else is only posturing.

Certainly, the Oireachtas committee proposals are an important first step and the fact that they got cross-party support in the committee is a very positive sign.

But the committee has now talked – it’s up to the minister to walk the walk.

July / Iúil 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

15

Sue O’Halloran talks to Geoff Bell in London about his new book

HESITANT COMRADES The Irish Revolution and the British Labour Movement

GEOFFREY BELL is a Belfast-born but London-based writer and socialist political activist. As a young student in Derry he participated in the early Civil Rights Movement from 1968 to 1972.

His first book, The Protestants of Ulster, was published in 1976 and was reprinted six times. He was to write two other books and two documentary film scripts for Channel Four about “The Troubles”, past and present.

His latest book, Hesitant Comrades – The Irish Revolution and the British Labour Movement, has just been published by Pluto Press.

5 1984 – Geoffrey Bell in Belfast at the launch of his book 'The British in Ireland – A Suitable Case for a Withdrawal' with Liz Curtis author of 'Ireland: The Propaganda War'

Why did you want to write Hesitant Comrades?

I wanted to add a new – and I hope original – perspective on Ireland’s British problem. The book looks at how the British Left, trade unions, the Irish in Britain and parts of the suffragette movement reacted to events in Ireland from 1916 to 1921 – whether they were part of the British problem or sought to be part of a democratic solution to it.

roots of their problem was their “fatal obsession with the responsibility of Empire”, and I think that was correct..

The more left-wing did not believe that the Irish revolution was socialist enough, although, as I show, they were told off by the leaders of the Russian Revolution for adopting such attitudes.

For the Bolsheviks, what was important is that the Irish revolution was anti-imperialist.

Others had little understanding of the Ulster situation and the fact the Belfast Protestant working class was violently opposed to even

And your conclusion?

It is a mixed story – a story of heroes and villains and of many in between.

It’s one of the few who grasped what 1916 was all about and the many who condemned it but

There was a significant contribution of solidarity from what today we would call the women’s movement also of the many who were very critical of their own government for its conduct during the war that followed from 1919 to 1921 but again the comparatively few in Britain who, as an alternative, actively campaigned for unconditional Irish self-determination.

Who were the most supportive?

Generally speaking, the further to the Left an individual or organisation was, the more supportive they were of the Irish revolution. But there were other factors.

There was a significant contribution of solidarity from what today we could call the women’s movement, and indeed if there is one individual who stands out from all others it is Sylvia Pankhurst.

There was also an enormous contribution from the Irish in Britain, in the form of the Irish Self-Determination League. It is perhaps surprising that the story of both the ISDL’s and Sylvia’s contributions have not been told before in any

depth, so I am very pleased that the book gave me the opportunity to correct these omissions.

Are there any other revelations?

I give a good deal of space to telling the story of how one British-based trade union, the Carpenters’ Union, took a brave stand against the expulsions of Catholics from the Belfast shipyards in 1920 but the leadership of the trade union movement in Britain stood by and refused to condemn these expulsion or come to the aid of its victims.

This is one of the most disgraceful episodes in British trade union history but it is almost equally disgraceful that no historian of the British working-class movement has told this story before.

You seem generally critical of the British Left’s policies and practice in these years. Why do you think they did fail?

As far as the Labour Party was concerned, the Irish Transport & General Workers’ Union said the

Most on the Left had no idea as to the nature of Sinn Féin Home Rule confused them. Of course, James Connolly had on many occasions explained why this was the case and why partition would be a disaster but his writings. although widely available in Britain, were largely ignored.

And most on the Left had no idea as to the nature of Sinn Féin, who were described as everything from “long haired” to “a national conspiracy to obtain Irish labour slaves for Irish capitalists”.

And the lessons for today?

I, like many others, have recently rejoined the Labour Party. So I suppose hope springs eternal.

In Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell we now have a leadership who have a progressive history on Ireland. But we should also open our ears to the lesson of the history I recount in the book. There is still a lot of work to be done if that history is to be lived down.

5 Suffragette and anti-fascist Sylvia Pankhurst was one of the few in the British labour movement who grasped the importance of 1916

SUE O’HALLORAN is a member of the London Easter 1916 Centenary Committee

Geoff Bell will speak at Le Feile on 11 August on “The British Left and Northern Ireland, 1916-21”

16 July / Iúil 2016

Loughinisland World Cup massacre report by police watchdog poses challenges to Westminster and Whitehall

www.anphoblacht.com

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Collusion in the DNA of the RUC and British Army

BY PEADAR WHELAN THE RELEASE of the second report by the North’s Police Ombudsman into the 1994 killings of six nationalist men in the Heights Bar, Loughinisland, County Down, as they watched a soccer World Cup match between Ireland and Italy has forced many aspects of collusion into the public arena.

For the British Establishment and its unionist allies, the Loughinisland Massacre report by Dr Michael Maguire released on Thursday 9 June has presented them with a great deal of uncomfortable evidence about collusion between the crown forces, especially the RUC, and loyalist death squads in this and other attacks. They are reacting with predictable outrage.

In his discredited 2011 report, former Ombudsman Al Hutchinson had previously said there was insufficient evidence of collusion with regards to police inquiries into the getaway car; no evidence of collusion in the destruction of the car; and no evidence that police could have prevented the attack at the Heights Bar. (see An Phoblacht, 14 July 2011).

The unionist argument, articulated by North Antrim MLA and Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister, is that such investigations by the Police Ombudsman or other agencies amounts to “rewriting the terrorist narrative”.

Allister, beating his well-worn drum, also asks where is the report on “SF-IRA collusion”.

The unionist and British narrative, of course, is to exonerate the actions of Britain’s military, police and intelligence forces during the conflict and justify their actions.

Chief among those calling for a “rebalancing” of the “sweeping meaning of collusion” is Ben Lowry, Deputy Editor of the North’s unionist daily, the News Letter.

Writing on Saturday 11 June, Lowry attempts to discredit the Ombudsman’s report, especially over his use of Justice Smithwick’s definition of collusion (a definition, incidentally, accepted by the PSNI).

Dr Maguire, citing the Smithwick definition, says: “Many of the individual issues I have identified in this report, including the protection of informants through wilful acts and the passive turning a blind eye; fundamental failures in the initial police investigation and the destruction of police records, are in themselves evidence of collusion as defined

by Justice Smithwick

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ADRIAN ROGAN BARNEY GREEN DAN McCREANOR EA

5 The British narative has attempted to ignore widespread state collusion with loyalist gangs

5 British Secretary of State Theresa Villiers

5 Brigadier Gordon Kerr

“When viewed collectively, I have no hesitation in saying collusion was a significant feature of the Loughinisland murders.”

What Lowry is attempting to do, however, is to isolate the Police Ombudsman’s conclusions from the wider question of collusion and its

Effectively he is playing British Tory Secretary of State Theresa Villiers’s hand for her and echoing her speech of February this year when she claimed that people are pursuing “a pernicious counter-narrative of the past”.

Villiers in her speech would go on to say that

Brian Nelson, UDA Intelligence Officer and a member of the British Army’s covert Force Research Unit, played the key role in procuring from apartheid South Africa weapons used at Loughinisland place in the British politico/military strategy to defeat republicanism.

Lowry argues that the British were soft on republicans. He writes: “Republican leaders know they would have been killed long ago if the state was anything like as ruthless as they [republicans] pretend.”

there were some who proposed a “version of the Troubles that seeks to displace responsibility from the people who perpetrated acts of terrorism and places the state at the heart of nearly every atrocity and murder that took place”.

She went on to say, in a remark that would come back to haunt her:

“It wasn’t the RUC or the [British] Army who pulled the trigger at Loughinisland.”

Coincidentally, the News Letter has mustered a number of commentators (generally viewed as liberal unionists, such as Alex Kane, former rugby star Trevor Ringland and Reverend Brian Kennaway) to echo Lowry’s analysis that “if there was collusion it was not institutional but between some members of the RUC and others”.

In other words we are, ad nauseam, being asked to believe that it was only some odd ‘bad apples’ here and there involved in collusion.

If, in the case of Loughinisland, as Dr Maguire suggests, we go back to the importation in 1987 of the weapons used in the Heights Bar attack, the evidence already in the public domain contradicts this.

We know (and have known for almost 30 years) that Ulster Defence Association Intelligence Officer Brian Nelson, a member of the British Army’s covert Force Research Unit, played the key role in procuring the Czechmade VZ58 assault rifle (a version of the AK-47) from Armscor in South Africa. Nelson’s military handlers – high-ranking officers in British Army Intelligence – were, at all times, up to speed with the progress of the arms transfer.

The RUC had “reliable intelligence” from “informants” involved in the importation and distribution of these arms, which were stored in the Glenanne farm in south Armagh of James Mitchell before distribution to the loyalist killer gangs, including the UDA, the UVF and Ulster Resistance.

And while some of the UDA’s share of weapons were seized by the RUC at Mahon Road, Portadown, the rest was spirited away after a tip-off to the death squads, the tip-off believed to be from a senior RUC officer.

While the Police Ombudsman maintains that some of the imported guns were used in up to 70 killings, Mark Thompson of Relatives for Justice says that research carried out by his organisation has calculated that 229 people were shot dead by loyalists using the weapons. This includes as many as 18 people in the Mid-Ulster area, among them Rose Ann Mallon, whose home was under SAS surveillance on the night she was shot dead in May 1994.

It is also worth reminding ourselves that former RUC police officer James Mitchell, in whose farm the arms were initially stored, was a prominent member of the notorious Glenanne Gang, which was made up of loyalist hit men working hand in hand with serving and former RUC members, UDR soldiers and British Military Intelligence operatives such as Captain Robert Nairac.

July / Iúil 2016

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R EAMON BYRNE MALCOLM JENKINSON PATSY O’HARE

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POLICE OMBUDSMAN’S REPORT MAIN FINDINGS • The importation of the weapons used in the attack • The role of agents directly involved in and in the planning of the killings

5 The scene at the Heights Bar in Loughinisland after unionist gunmen burst in and shot dead six customers watching Ireland play Italy in the World Cup

Anne Cadwallader, a case worker for the Pat Finucane Centre, attributes 120 killings to the Glenanne killers, including the 1974 Dublin/ Monaghan bombings.

In 2007, then Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan revealed in her ground-breaking “Ballast Report” into the UVF’s Mount Vernon unit in north Belfast that an informer nicknamed “The Mechanic” was responsible for providing the getaway cars used by the Loughinisland killers.

The Mechanic was a close associate of Mark Haddock, himself a Special Branch agent whose Mount Vernon gang and its involvement in as many as 17 killings was the subject of Ballast.

The Mechanic – later identified as Terry Fairfield – maintains he passed on all the details of who was involved in the attack to his RUC Special Branch handler.

It has also emerged that Fairfield and the assault rifle used in the Loughinisland killings were linked to the 1993 killing of west Belfast painter Joseph Reynolds.

A Browning 9mm pistol recovered by the RUC alongside the assault rifle used in the Loughinisland killings was used to kill Martin Lavery in north Belfast in December 1992.

The difficulty for the British and their unionist allies is that collusion goes to the heart of their military, intelligence and political campaign in Ireland.

The strategies they employed and the methods they used in conjunction with their operational control over loyalist gun gangs exposes their willingness to kill citizens to assert their political control in Ireland.

Collusion is in their DNA. Therefore the unionist response to the

5 Victims of loyalist death squads: Rose Ann Mallon, Joseph Reynolds and Martin Lavery

Ombudsman’s findings is to dissect and undermine its credibility and present a tale where collusion is where individual “rogue” officers let the majority down, that “random” attacks such as that in Loughinisland happened because “loyalist intelligence was bad”.

Writing on the Relatives for Justice website, Mark Thompson asserts that Loughinisland was deliberately chosen as a target because it is the ancestral home of the leading Irish-American businessman Bill Flynn, appointed by Bill Clinton as a Special Emissary, who was using his influence in the US to develop the Peace Process.

On the night of the shootings, Flynn accompanied Taoiseach Albert Reynolds to the Giants Stadium in New York to watch the same Ireland v Italy soccer match as those gathered in the Heights Bar. More crucially, Flynn and Reynolds were to discuss the possibility of a loyalist ceasefire. Seemingly, Flynn had already met secretly with loyalist leaders to encourage them “towards peace”.

Mark Thompson maintains that the County Down pub was deliberately targeted in an attempt to weaken US influence and to send a message to Flynn and his allies.

What is most problematic for the British/ unionist alliance is the fact that the families of those killed as a result of this collusion are now fighting back.

The Loughinisland families and the McGurk’s Bar bombing families in the North – and the relatives of the Dublin/Monaghan bombings in the South – are examples of that fight, and the more information they uncover the more the politico/military strategy behind these hundreds of state killings will be exposed.

• The active participation of members of the state forces in the killings • Collusion between the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Ulster Volunteer Force, resulting in suspects being tipped off by police that they were to arrested • Failure to follow up information on the attack

• Catastrophic failures in the investigation of suspects • The destruction of evidence such as the car used by the killers to escape • Significant undermining of the murder investigation

18 July / Iúil 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS

Home truths I respect, and even honour, the integrity of those who fought, killed and died, from wherever – I profoundly abhor the warmongering and imperialism that occasioned the slaughter

PAT MAGEE

Republican former political prisoner convicted of the Grand Hotel bombing in Brighton, 1984

OLD RIVAL VERITIES of Orange and Green, of the struggle against colonialism and that between empires, have been subject to fresh scrutiny in the run-up to and during this Decade of Centenaries – of the Easter Rising, of the Somme, of partition.

A wealth of research, from the political, cultural and academic spheres has come to enlighten – and to challenge – our narratives. Voices from the past are clearer. This reappraisal is welcome and necessary if we are to better understand ourselves and each other.

For me, as I am sure for many, the focus is personal, for there is much in our own family accounts to audit and many gaps to appreciate.

In that frame of mind, in May I visited the grave of my great uncle, Patrick Magee, in the British War Cemetery at Saint Pol-sur-Ternoise, France. I am named after him.

Patrick died on active service, a private in the Royal Irish Fusiliers, on 13 December 1916. He was 19. The location and date suggest that he fought at Ginchy with the 16th Irish Division.

Standing by his grave marker, poignant in its simple uniformity to the many thousands of others lined to the horizon in similar cemeteries throughout Flanders, a boom of thunder in the distance brought to mind how the massed artillery bombardments on the Western Front could be heard in England. Something of the truly horrific scale of the carnage, from and on all sides, chilled this impressively tended, peaceful setting.

I could not help reflecting, ‘Why?’ Why was Patrick buried here, so far from the backstreets of Belfast? The 1911 Census attests that, at the age of 13, he was a millworker living at home in Plevna Street. Had poverty drawn him to enlist, as thousands did; or had he answered the duped and duping politicians’ calls to arms to defend small nations in exchange for Britain to implement Home Rule, deferred to the end of the war?

I respect, and even honour, the integrity of those who fought, killed and died, from wherever. I profoundly abhor the warmongering and imperialism that occasioned the slaughter.

Patrick’s younger brother, Joss, my grandfather, enlisted the following year in the Royal Irish Rifles and also served in France. Was his decision to fight more visceral?

Driven to revenge his older brother? But perhaps his intention predated news of Patrick’s death. I can only imagine, for none of this was ever spoken of during those regrettably few times we met during my childhood. Without answers, I feel haunted by the speculation.

After the Armistice, awaiting demobilisation, Joss obtained a reference from his commanding officer, who wrote that he was “a man in whom any employer will confidently place his trust”. Rather than act on this solid endorsement, Joss instead chose transfer to the Connaught Rangers and in 1920 took some role in that regiment’s mutiny in India in protest at Black and Tan atrocities back home. His role was entrenched as family history . . . or rather mythology, for I grew up thinking

menace to the peace while at large”. These written testimonies are discordant: approval at 18, a “worst character” at 21. To my thinking, he was honourable in both contexts but was being judged through the harsh prism of imperialism.

My grandfather remained tight-lipped about his republican involvement, common to that generation, as he was about his days in khaki. I am piecing together a jigsaw that extends from the fields of France to the Argenta; from partition to the H- Blocks of Long Kesh.

This is a legacy.

While an internee, Joss married my grandmother, Susan, heavily pregnant, whose own brother, Charles Steenson, had died in Flanders in 1915. Joss’s internment record reveals in bureaucratic dispassion how a launch took him from the prison hulk to Larne Workhouse, part of the onshore internment fabric where, I imagine, a basic ceremony took place. Hours later, another launch returned him to his prison bunk. A son was stillborn a month later. He would have been christened Patrick.

A few years later, my father was born. Joss named his surviving son John. ‘Patrick’ skipped a generation to me.

I accept that there is validity on all sides; that people with whom we fundamentally disagree may act in good faith and intent. Certainties seem to darken and distort our crying need to reconcile.

Those in positions of power, whose narratives are buoyed on that power as much as perspective, surely bear the greater responsibility? But the power imbalance underlying our differing worldviews should never bar us from contact and dialogue. We need openness, mutual respect, consideration, honesty, equality.

5 Pat's great uncle Patrick died on active service with the Royal Irish Fusiliers on 13 December 1916 and is buried in the British War Cemetery at Saint Pol-surTernoise, France

he had personally scaled the garrison flagpole to hoist the Tricolour.

Whatever part he played, he was briefly detained and dishonourably discharged with forfeiture of his service medals. On return to Ireland, Joss volunteered in the anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army and was subsequently interned on the Argenta prison ship, moored in Belfast Lough.

His internment order is revealing. In counterpoint to his CO’s praise, he is therein “considered by the local police to be one of the worst characters in the city and a

Research for the Decade of Centenaries has come to enlighten – and to challenge – our narratives

5 Horrific carnage awaited the men on the Western Front

PAT MAGEE is a republican former political prisoner convicted of the Grand Hotel bombing in Brighton in 1984 which almost killed Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the entire British Cabinet.

He is the author of Gangsters or Guerrillas? Representations of Irish Republicans in Troubles Fiction which is based on his doctoral thesis. Pat is committed to sharing his personal experiences to assist 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.

July / Iúil 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

19

UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS

Reconciliation: As I See It

REVEREND KYLE PAISLEY

Eldest son of the late Dr Ian Paisley

Lig dúinn chúis le chéile (Iseaia 1:18)

I LOVE the word reconciliation – it is a good word. It is misunderstood by the ill-informed. It is misrepresented by those who count negativity a virtue. It is considered a dangerous compromise by men who believe that honour lies in justice without any admixture of mercy. Still, reconciliation is a good thing – a great thing!

We must be clear about it, and realistic. The forging of an honourable and lasting peace is by no means easy.

The hurt and mistrust that lingers on from decades of bloody strife and division, coupled with the gall of governmental failure, make coming to terms a hard thing indeed. But this makes reconciliation even more desirable. It is a treasure worth the effort seeking, a pearl of great price, to borrow St Matthew’s expression.

Vision, initiative, reasoned argument, sensitivity and goodwill are essential ingredients in building a peace which all concerned parties will covet earnestly. Perseverance is vital too. “Initiative needs finishiative,” as someone has put it. This can lift the spirit of doubt that has, at times, dogged the political atmosphere in Northern Ireland. It can generate hope in a fresh start and dispel the disappointment generated by false starts.

Of course, none of this is possible apart from engagement. There cannot be a meeting of minds while we stand at a distance from one another. But though the conversation may be uncomfortable, it needn’t be negative. It need not be about one offending party attempting to justify itself above other offending parties.

It should be about dialogue rather than diatribe.

Contrary to the thinking of some detractors, true peace-building is not a prostitution of political ideals, cultural identity or faith. It is not about abandoning goals and principles, nor about playing the part of an Iscariot.

It is perfectly possible to have deep convictions, to voice those convictions unashamedly, and at the same time to accommodate others of a much different persuasion. For those who hesitate, anxious about being pulled into a process which will rob them of their cherished identity, it is useful to remember that unity does not equate with uniformity.

Accommodation does not extinguish distinctives, either in principle or practice. For example, the deputy First Minister’s attendance at a Remembrance Day event

True peace-building is not a prostitution of political ideals, cultural identity or faith

5 Martin McGuinness attends Remembrance Day events at the Somme and Flanders; (left) Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley formed an unlikely working friendship

There cannot be a meeting of minds while we stand at a distance from one another is work still to be done, not just from the top down but from the grassroots up, in addressing differences and building on common interests. Getting it done is the best answer to the self-styled prophetic shock minority who are purposed on dissension.

in Stormont doesn’t make him any less a republican.

The First Minister’s willingness to “set a tone of respect, a tone of tolerance, a tone of respecting difference” and “hearing different perspectives” doesn’t make her any less a unionist.

Bible history has moulded my view on reconciliation. One story stands out from the Old Testament: Abraham’s meeting of minds with the Canaanite king Abimelech, without compromising the exclusivity of his belief in the one true God. There was truth, justice, mutual respect, a righting of violent wrongs and a proper acknowledgement when things had been set straight. (Check out Genesis 21.)

It is encouraging to look back and see how far things have come in the province since the late 1990s. There

KYLE PAISLEY is the eldest son of former First Minister and DUP leader Dr Ian Paisley.

He studied at the Whitefield College of the Bible, the theological training school of the Free Presbyterian Church. Ordained in 1991, he has been the Minister of Oulton Broad Free Presbyterian Church, Suffolk, for the last 25 years.

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

20 July / Iúil 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

AFTERMATH OF THE EASTER RISING

TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF

ROGER CASEMENT I am proud to be a rebel and shall cling to my ‘rebellion’ with the last drop of my blood.

FOLLOWING the executions of James Connolly and Seán Mac Diarmada on 12 May 1916 in Dublin, the attention of the Irish people shifted to England, where Roger Casement was being held in the Tower of London, for centuries the traditional place of detention – and often torture and execution – for alleged traitors to the English crown.

Casement was brought before Bow Street Magistrates Court on 15 May. He had landed at Banna Strand in Kerry on Good Friday 21 April. The Irish Volunteers’ rendezvous with the German arms ship The Aud had not happened and she was intercepted by the British, then scuttled by her captain off Cork.

Casement had been dropped at Banna Strand from a small craft after disembarking from the German submarine U19. There were no Volunteers to meet him and he was arrested and taken to Tralee and then on to Dublin. In Arbour Hill Prison he was treated roughly and strip-searched before being brought to London.

5 Casement's trial garnered a huge amount of media attention This was a prize capture for the Attorney General of England. Smith was British government. Casement was a high-flying Tory MP who had been to well-known internationally. He had the fore in using the Home Rule crisis been in Germany recruiting for his to threaten violence against the Liberal proposed Irish Brigade, to be made government, stirring up unionist sectariup of Irishmen who had been serving anism. He appeared on horseback at one in the British Army and captured as of Edward Carson’s rallies and earned the prisoners of war. This venture was not nickname ‘The Galloper’. Smith went on a success but it deepened the hatred to become Lord Chancellor. of the British Establishment for the man Casement’s speech from the dock they regarded as a turncoat. ranks with Robert Emmet’s as one of the Eleven years earlier, in 1905, Casement supreme expressions of Irish freedom had received his first honour from the by a prisoner in the face of execution.

British monarch for his humanitarFound guilty by the jury on 29 June 1916, ian work in Africa. With the crusading Casement rose to make a speech that he journalist E. D. Morel, he exposed the had prepared carefully. He challenged horrendous, genocidal regime of King the right of the crown to try him under Leopold of Belgium in the Congo where a mediaeval treason law and said the millions of people were worked to death, jury were not his peers as they were not mutilated, tortured and murdered as Irishmen. Bearing in mind that Smith rubber was harvested from the rain forests. In 1910 he exposed similar atroc- 5 Victims of King Leopold's brutal and his fellow Tories were now in the regime in the Congo War Cabinet with the Liberals (having, in ities in the Putamayo region in South America and received a knighthood the he appealed to Ulster Protestants to Opposition, threatened civil war a couple following year. join with their compatriots in support of years previously) Casement said: “While one English party was responWhile Casement worked for the of Irish unity and self-government and British Foreign Office he became an against partition. He travelled to the USA sible for preaching a doctrine of hatred ever more convinced Irish nationalist and campaigned against recruitment designed to bring about civil war in and opponent of Empire. He joined to the British Army on the outbreak of Ireland, the other, and that the party in power, took no active steps to restrain a Sinn Féin and Conradh na Gaeilge and the First World War. was a founder member of the Irish Casement’s trial opened at the Old propaganda that found its advocates in Volunteers in 1913, helping to draw Bailey in London on 26 June 1916. It the Army, the Navy, and Privy Council – the Houses of Parliament and in the up their manifesto. With his County lasted only four days.

Antrim Protestant family background, The prosecutor was F. E. Smith, the state church.”

BY MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA

Remembering the Past

5 Robert Monteith with Roger Casement and Daniel Bailey on a German U-boat on their way to Ireland, April 1916

He slammed the hypocrisy of war propaganda and recruiting: “We are told that if Irishmen go by the thousand to die, not for Ireland but for Flanders, for Belgium, for a patch of sand on the deserts of Mesopotamia, or a rocky trench on the heights of Gallipoli, they are winning self-government for Ireland. But if they dare to lay down their lives on their native soil, if they dare to dream even that freedom can be won only at home by men resolved to fight for it there, then they are traitors to their country, and their dream and their deaths are phases of a dishonourable fantasy.”

Casement concluded with defiance: “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. If there be no right of rebellion

against the state of things that no savage tribe would endure without resistance, then I am sure that it is better for men to fight and die without right than to live in such a state of right as this.

“Where all your rights have become only an accumulated wrong, where men must beg with bated breath for leave to subsist in their own land, to think their own thoughts, to sing their own songs, to gather the fruits of their own labours and, even while they beg, to see things inexorably withdrawn from them, then surely it is a braver, a saner and truer thing to be a rebel, in act and in deed, against such circumstances as these than to tamely accept it as the natural lot of men.”

• Roger Casement was hanged in Pentonville Prison, London, on 3 August 1916.

5 Edward Carson and F. E. Smith inspect members of the Ulster Volunteers

July / Iúil 2016

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Céard is brí le Scéim Bhunioncaimmar a pléadh san Eilbhéis?

BHÍ REIFREANN san Eilbhéis le deireannas, agus séard a bhí faoi chaibidil acu ná moladh go n-íocfaí bun-ioncaim do gach duine atá ina chónaí go dlisteanach sa stát, gan choinníol ar bith.

Dhiúltaigh na vótóirí glacadh leis an moladh, ach tá tús mar sin fhéin curtha le machtnamh faoin bplean ar fud na hEorpa.

Ar ndóigh tháinig cumainn fhostóirí amach ag scréachaíl faoi daoine a bheith ag fáil airgid agus tada le déanamh acu. Sin mar atá ar ndóigh maidir leo siúd a mhaireann ar infheistíochtaí, ach ní chuireann sé sin isteach ar an dream saibhir.

Céard tá i gceist mar sin leis an mBunioncaim seo?

Faoi láthair tugtar tacaíocht airgid do dhaoine má ta siad dífhostaithe is ag org oibre, nó má tá éagumas orthu is nach feidir leó obair, nó má ta siad ró-shean, nó eile.

I ngach aon chás bíonn coinníollacha le líonadh sula bhfaightear aon íocaíocht.

Agus, ar ndoigh, go minim titeann daoine sna poill idir na coinníollacha.

Mar shampla, ma dhéanann duine dífhostaithe iarracht gnó a thosú ach má theipeann air th’éis

July 2015

anphoblacht reunion

Living Wage 2015

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It on 4 www.livingwage.ie It also also contains contains more more information information on the the data data ar bith. Cabhraíonn sé sin le tuarastail a choinneáil used for for our our calculations, calculations, the the international international and and used www.livingwage.ie historical context for the Living Wage and links íseal agus brabúis a mheadú. historical context for the Living Wage and links to elsewhere in to other other Living Living Wage Wage campaigns Is fiú díospóireacht a bheith ann faoi.campaigns elsewhere in the world. world. the www.livingwage.ie www.livingwage.ie

IN PICTURES

21

4 4

5 BOYS AND GIRLS OF THE OLD BRIGADE: An Phoblacht staff, past and present, were at Dublin’s Mansion House at the end of May for a reunion hosted by Ard-Mhéara Baile Átha Cliath Críona Ní Dhalaigh – who used to work for An Phoblacht/Republican News

4

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on layout and design back in the day. Not everyone could make it or could be contacted in time but many memories were shared, including of cherished comrades who have passed on, and it is hoped another reunion might be possible some time in the future.

22 July / Iúil 2016

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‘I WOULD APPEAL TO THOSE SMALL GROUPS ENGAGED IN ARMED ACTIONS TO CONSIDER JUST HOW WRONG AND POINTLESS YOUR CAMPAIGN IS’

DANNY MORRISON gave the main oration in west Belfast on Saturday 11 June for his late friend and comrade Seándo Moore as part of a number of commemorations for Beechmount IRA Volunteers to be held throughout the centenary of the 1916 Rising. At Seándo’s funeral on 15 June 2010, Danny described his fellow activist as part of “a real people’s army with support on every street”.

Because you have an AK47, it doesn’t make you a freedom fighter

IT BEING the 35th anniversary of the Hunger Strike and it being the centenary of the 1916 Rising, I have been speaking around the country in different places. And at these meetings and at the small exhibitions associated with them, people will talk about the great Seándo Moore, his humour, his dedication. At some of the exhibitions, a letter or photograph or artefact would be missing or would be mislaid or arrive late and people would say: “That wouldn’t have happened if Seándo had been in charge.”

And that in itself is a small tribute to the work that he undertook when armed struggle had run its course, when armed struggle had ended, and other work and other forms of struggle and strategies were adopted, and difficult decisions made in the same pursuit of freedom and independence and an end to British rule in Ireland that he actively fought for.

The brilliant exhibition Revolution 1916 has been organised by Irish republicans and is running at the Ambassador Theatre in Dublin.

It features the largest private collection of 1916 artefacts, with over 500 items on display.

I was there two weeks ago with a friend from the USA, a 70-year-old supporter, Johnny Norby from Seattle. Near the end of the 1916 exhibition there are panels dedicated to a modern event – our ‘1916’ – the 1981 Hunger Strike which the Establishment in the South would rather we forgot (just as they have forgotten to challenge the British for their role in the slaughter of civilians in Dublin and Monaghan).

Johnny and I went over to a glass case and there was Seándo’s famous smuggled crystal set radio from the Blanket Protest, the one christened “Maggie Taggart” after the Radio Ulster journalist.

On it the prisoners secretly heard the news of Bobby’s victory in the Fermanagh/South Tyrone by-election and on it they heard the sad news of Bobby’s death in the early hours of Tuesday 5 May 1981, and the news of nine more comrades between then and 20 August that year.

So I was explaining the history of the radio to my friend and I noticed an old woman on my left, an elderly woman, who had obviously been listening to us. She stepped forward and asked

5 Danny Morrison with Seándo Moore’s wife Patricia, John Connolly and Fra McCann MLA

me quietly did I know the men. I proceeded to tell her that Joe McDonnell’s future mother-inlaw, Mrs Healy, who lived in Number 22, across the street from us in Corby Way, Andersonstown, was there at my delivery in Number 17.

I told her how long I had known Bobby, about our writing to each other over many years, my publishing his writings and being one of his spokespersons during the Hunger Strike.

Then I came across a photograph or memorial

The background to our resistance was the pogroms of 1969, the gassing of entire streets in the Falls, internment and the torture of prisoners, the massacre of civil rights marchers, the killing of women and children by plastic bullets As a teenager I had been interned with Joe and that I was with him in the prison hospital two days before he died. I told her that Kieran Doherty was a year below me in school and that his brother Michael was in my class.

card of Martin Hurson and told her that it had been my role to visit his family and that when I drove up the lane of their farm in Cappagh, Martin’s father John was cutting the hedge. As I stepped out of the car he said to me: “I know why

you’re here.” I was there to tell him that, on 29 May, Martin would be joining the Hunger Strike.

And as I told Johnny and this complete stranger this story, I burst into a flood of tears and could not speak. I burst into tears in the middle of the Ambassador Theatre. And then I pulled myself together and apologised. I asked the woman where she was from and she said Dublin. And then she said: “We didn’t know. We didn’t know.”

It is easy to be cynical and dismissive but censorship of the truth of what was happening to nationalists in the North was of major self-interest to the Southern Establishment – else they might have had to address the state they left us in and do something about it.

In looking at Martin Hurson’s photograph in that display I was also reminded of the tremendous human cost of conflict, of war, on ordinary people as well as the protagonists. It reminded me, if I needed reminding, of how awful war is – the suffering and pain and personal loss to my community but also to those who lost their lives or limbs (soldiers, policemen and civilians) at the hands of republicans.

In a struggle as long as ours, and a movement as big as ours, it is obvious that differences of opinions would emerge over strategy and decisions taken down the years or over personality differences. It is loyalty to the cause and to each other and to unity of purpose which gives us our undoubted strength – and Seándo Moore was one of the most loyal republicans I know.

I was in the H-Blocks when the ceasefire was called and I supported its call. But within hours I was angered and prepared for the IRA to go back to war because of the triumphalist response of British Prime Minister John Major and that of the unionists. They don’t want peace, I thought.

But I was being emotional, not strategic. Then I heard the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, James Molyneaux, in a slip of the tongue say that the IRA ceasefire represented the greatest threat to the Union in 60 years.

A ceasefire – in which the IRA would ultimately withdraw from the scene – would show that the problem was not the IRA but the sectarianism behind the Six-County state and British support of that state by hook and by crook and by spook.

Post-1994 there were many challenges,

July / Iúil 2016

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5 The political situation at the height of the conflict was completely different to today changes and compromises, some of which I Ask former RUC men if they think nothing had no problem with and others which presented has changed? Many of them felt a sense of myself and other republicans with difficulties. betrayal at the Patten reforms, a betrayal of their But again, unity is strength and there is strength comrades who had lost their lives in the conflict. in numbers and it has been the loyalty of the Ask the flag protesters if they think nothing has republican base, and the loyalty of the bulk of changed. Ask those for who marching through former republican activists and ex-prisoners Catholic Garvaghy Road is a distant memory. which has seen us through to this day where Ask those camped in Twaddell. Ask those Border Sinn Féin has become the largest party in Ireland. communities who no longer have to negotiSome former comrades, small in number, had ate interminable checkpoints. difficulties with these changes. Others decided The unionist parties had to be dragged that they could resume an armed struggle. screaming into power-sharing but over time I have no problem with those groups who are they realised that nothing will work without opposed to the political process, who criticise consent between unionist and republican.

People forget how awful the conflict was.

Sinn Féin or who stand against Sinn Féin in the North, be they new organisations or comprised of When the British Army would seal off entire former mainstream republicans who feel disen- streets for house-to-house searches, would chanted, disillusioned or disappointed. arrest young people at will, take them into the I would, of course, prefer they were with barracks, or throw them out on the Shankill Road us. But their appearance should be seen as a from the back of an armoured car. potentially positive development, as healthy Back then the conflict was widespread, for politics and will help sharpen perspectives, there was anger, there was support for priorities and direction. armed republicanism.

I do have a problem with those small groups The background to our who oppose not just the political process but, resistance was the more importantly, the peace process and who pogroms of 1969, continue armed activity without strategy, debate the gassing of direction or articulation, as if armed struggle is a principle and not a tactic.

5 The Establishment in the South would rather the 1981 Hunger Strike was forgotten about

Seándo Moore was one of the most loyal republicans I have ever come across. He was a loyal son of Ballymurphy and his adopted, beloved Beechmount. He was a loyal husband to Patricia, a loyal father and grandfather. He was a true Irish republican and a freedom fighter in the truest sense of the word They say nothing has changed and that is a lie; that is not true.

This state is not the state I was born into and grew up in. It has radically changed – but of course it has not changed radically enough.

23

entire streets in the Falls, internment and the torture of prisoners, the massacre of civil rights marchers, the killing of women and children by plastic bullets.

Our comrades were killed. Men like Albert Kavanagh, Jimmy Quigley, Paddy Maguire, Stan Carberry, Paul Fox and Seán Bailey – to mention those of just my generation. Dozens of others from this area went to prison.

And so I would appeal to those small groups engaged in armed actions to consider just how wrong and pointless your campaign is.

There is no way will you ever be able to replicate the tempo or magnitude of the IRA’s armed struggle or be in a position to negotiate.

Because you have an AK47, it doesn’t make you a freedom fighter. That status can only be conferred by the people you claim to represent, whether they consider themselves oppressed and disenfranchised, whether they consider themselves alienated to the point of opening their doors to you, marching for you, financing you, defending and arguing for you. If you think this is the case then you are delusional as well as being a danger to yourselves but, more importantly, to others.

Any of us could have found a reason to bow out of supporting the struggle. And that’s why I come to praise the loyalty of people like Seándo Moore who could adapt to and overcome any circumstance: be it being assaulted and beaten in Springfield Road Barracks or Castlereagh; be it in the Cages where we had political status and he kept up our morale through raids and beatings; or in the H-Blocks where he fought the system every day and every night through his Blanket Protest; to his all-Ireland work after the ceasefire when, despite being gravely ill with cancer, he remained loyal, especially to the Hunger Strikers and Blanket Men of the H-Blocks and the Armagh women.

Seándo Moore was one of the most loyal republicans I have ever come across. He was a loyal son of Ballymurphy and his adopted, beloved Beechmount. He was a loyal husband to Patricia, a loyal father and grandfather. He was a true Irish republican and a freedom fighter in the truest sense of the word.

Our friend, our old friend and comrade, Seándo.

24 July / Iúil 2016

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Another Europe is possible Treo eile don Eoraip

Funded by the European United Left/ Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Aontas Clé na hEorpa/Na Glasaigh Chlé Nordacha Crúpa Paliminta – Parlaimimt na h Eorpa

Lynn Boylan MEP to host European ‘Human Right to Water Conference’

IN SEPTEMBER 2015, “The Boylan Report on Right2Water”, authored by Dublin MEP Lynn Boylan, was passed in the European Parliament.

Describing it as a victory for civil society and for Right2Water campaigners not only in Ireland but across Europe, Lynn ensured that this would not be the end of the campaign against Irish Water and the charges inflicted upon the Irish people.

Key amendments within the report called on the European Commission; to produce legislative proposals which would enshrine the human right to water in EU legislation, to not promote the privatisation of water services, and to ensure that water affordability issues are assessed.

Continuing the campaign against water charges, Lynn Boylan submitted numerous requests for clarification to the European Commission around the topic, receiving numerous non-answers and a dodging of the truth by bureaucrats.

A reply to a priority written question received on the 31 May was no different, being deliberately vague yet RTÉ utterly misrepresented the

Commission’s position to spin the story to suit the Establishment agenda.

Continuing on the campaign against water charges and insisting that the right to water is a human right, Lynn Boylan MEP will be hosting a major water conference in Brussels on Tuesday 28 July.

RTÉ utterly misrepresented the Commission’s position to suit the Establishment agenda Entitled the “Human Right to Water Conference”, it is a joint initiative between the GUE/ NGL group in the European Parliament and Sinn Féin. Speakers are coming from across Europe, including Jan Willem Goudriaan, (General Secretary, European Public Services Union), Jaime Morell, (board member of Aqua Publica Europea) and Samir Bensaid, (Directeur Général International Institute of Water & Sanitation).

Speaking ahead of the conference the Dublin MEP said: “The European Citizens’ Initiative report last September managed to attract nearly two million signatures and demanded a recognition of the human right to water and an end to liberalisation of water services, demonstrating the clear importance citizens from right across Europe attach to water issues.

“Unfortunately, however, the European Commission has chosen to ignore the concerns of the grassroots water movement and has been utterly silent since the report was passed last September.

“It is essential that water and social movements from across Europe continue to put the pressure on the EU to enshrine the human right to water in legislation, keep water and sanitation services out of trade deals and to stop pushing a privatisation agenda.

“I am confident that this conference will result in concrete steps to continue the campaign, which we will not back down on until water is recognised as a human right and enablers of water charges, such as Irish Water, are scrapped.”

Liadh Ní Riada heads hearing to create public banking system in Ireland LIADH NÍ RIADA MEP recently held a hearing initiating a public hearing on the role of national promotional banks for the benefit of our SMEs. This was held in the Budget Committee in the European Parliament with the aim of creating and facilitating an Irish public banking system.

A co-ordinator on the Budget Committee, Liadh Ní Riada said: “We only currently have two-and-a-half pillar banks in Ireland which are, of course, commercial banks.”

She said that the credit unions are being hamstrung and limited in their capacity for lending

Credit unions are being hamstrung and limited in their capacity for lending to SMEs to SMEs. A public banking pillar in Ireland would aid economic growth and stability and ensure a more balanced and sustainable economic development, she argued.

“It would allow for greater access to finance for the SME and community enterprise sectors.

Any entrepreneur will tell you that accessing credit or securing finance for business development is difficult in the current climate. An inability to access credit especially for SME's outside of the great Dublin area, is holding back economic growth and job creation particularly in rural Ireland.

“The great thing about a public banking system is that it ensures that capital created in a given region would be used there to aid local economic development instead of being syphoned out of the local economy for investment elsewhere.

“We need to incorporate a system where we have a joined-up approach to finance. We need to bring about a cohesive approach with a public banking system that will incorporate the credit unions, post offices and promotional banks, particularly when it comes to accessing finance from the EU through the Junker Investment Plan.

“The Junker Investment Plan or the European Fund for Strategic Investments, as it is also called, seeks to provide finance as a kick-start for economic growth within the EU. A forum of this joined-up collective approach would be extremely beneficial and practical in terms of accessing other EU funding financial instruments which are aimed at SMEs and generating employment.

“In my role as an MEP and as a co-ordinator on the Budget Committee, I will continue to seek a public banking system, together with the public banking forum of Ireland and other Sinn Féin representatives at local, national and European level. We will work towards achieving a real change in how we support our SMEs, co-operatives and the social economy.”

July / Iúil 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

Martina Anderson Matt Carthy Liadh Ní Riada Lynn Boylan are MEPs and members of the GUE/NGL Group in the European Parliament

25

www.guengl.eu

Martina Anderson report on ‘Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products’ passes in European Parliament A REPORT authored by Martina Anderson MEP relating to the EU signing of the World Heath’s Organisation protocol on the Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products has passed in the European Parliament.

Speaking after the vote passed in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Martina said: “I am delighted that my report has passed through the European Parliament. I worked with numerous NGOs and organisations whilst drafting this report and their contribution has ensured that this is a step in the right direction in the fight against smuggled and illicit tobacco products.

“The World Health Organisation (WHO) Protocol is the first internationally-drafted treaty aimed at combating and eliminating

European Union now under pressure to ratify and enforce World Health Organisation Protocol the illicit trade in tobacco products and today the European Parliament threw its support behind it.

“Illicit trade in tobacco products is defined in the WHO Protocol as any practice or conduct related to producing, shipping, receiving, being in possession of, distributing, selling or buying tobacco products and that is prohibited by law.

“The stated objective of the Protocol is the elimination of all forms of illicit trade in tobacco products.”

A member of the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, Martina Anderson continued: “Tobacco products, both illicit and legal, cause unfathomable harm to the health and well-being of citizens. Smoking has recently been identified as the single greatest cause of preventable illness and premature death in the north of Ireland.

“The illicit trade in tobacco products is a scourge that affects all of Europe and Ireland is no exception. It costs the North of Ireland £450million each year.”

Internal company documents reveal that smuggling became an integral part of tobacco companies’ business strategies, she said.

According to Customs, Imperial Brand, the world’s fourth-largest international cigarette company, accounted for 55% of the 17billion

cigarettes smuggled into Britain and the North every year.

“Once enforced, this protocol will also see countries take control of vital tracking and tracing operations. This will make it more difficult for tobacco products to make their way into the hands of smugglers or to be sold illegally.

“This protocol will also see considerable power removed from the powerful tobacco industry. For years, since the signing of the controversial PMI Agreements in 2004, the tobacco industry has been in control of this essential tracking and tracing. They were responsible for regulating themselves.

“This, after several members of the tobacco industry has been found complicit in this illicit trade, was madness. When enforced, this protocol will see nations working together to track and trace goods, not the self-interested tobacco industry.

“The passing of this report means that the European Union is now under pressure to ratify and enforce the World Health Organisation Protocol on the elimination of the illicit trade in tobacco products.

“When ratified, this protocol will see countries collaborate in the fight against the illegal trade in tobacco products.”

Matt Carthy MEP tackles tax avoidance MATT CARTHY MEP has submitted detailed questions to the European Central Bank, requesting that it investigate tax avoidance by banks who are acting as ‘vulture funds’ in the Irish state.

A member of the European Committee on Economic and Budgetary Affairs, Matt Carthy said: “We know that Irish banks are increasingly selling off distressed mortgages to vulture funds at reduced prices, who pursue repossessions of homes even more aggressively, fuelling the housing and homelessness crisis.

“For example, Ulster Bank announced the sale of 900 family homes with distressed mortgages as part of a €2.5billion property loan portfolio to vulture funds.

“Vulture funds are predatory hedge funds that buy bonds of debt crises countries at rock-bottom prices on the secondary market.

They refuse to participate in debt restructurings. They then sue the indebted nation for full payment, aiming to get a much better deal than the ‘collaborative’ creditors who agree to write off a share of their claims in order to get a debtor back on its feet.

“What makes the situation even more appalling is the fact that many of these vulture funds

are paying little to no tax to the Irish state and are clearly engaging in widespread tax avoidance.”

The Midlands North West MEP has asked the European Central Bank to investigate the extent of tax avoidance in the Irish state by vulture funds and to investigate the relationship between the major vulture funds operating in

Irish banks increasingly selling off distressed mortgages to vulture funds the Irish state and the European banks under its supervision.

He said: “Belgium passed a law to cap how much these vulture funds can recoup from government debt and, following their lead, the Irish Government needs to pass a similar law which would send a strong signal to unscrupulous investment funds which speculate in a shameful manner on the back of people in difficulty and would be in the interests of the Irish people.”

26 July / Iúil 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

DONEGAL & THE WILD ATLANTIC WAY

ROBERT ALLEN OU WON'T FIND “Galway Bay Lobster” on a restaurant menu anytime soon anywhere near you, especially if you live in Ireland. No. These geographic-specific crustaceans are immediately processed and shipped to France, where they are sold as a unique delicacy and served in expensive restaurants.

Irish authorities do not seem to care about this.

You won't find “Blackwater Salmon” on a restaurant menu either. These wild fish disappear into the night and, like the salmon of legend, are a mystery to the authorities.

And you won't find “Mulroy Bay Scallops” on a restaurant menu in north Donegal, much to the chagrin of chefs who delighted in their freshness. The authorities, apparently, shut down the local operation.

In Bantry town there are two restaurants where the chefs celebrate their ability to cook fresh fish, locally caught and named. “O’Connor’s Hand-Dived Bantry Bay Scallops” are especially favoured by diners at Pat Kiely’s restaurant in Wolfe Tone Square.

Across the street, in the Fish Kitchen, former marine biologist Diarmaid Murphy knows exactly where to look to find the best mussels, prawns and scallops in the bay, and this is reflected in his menu.

Up the road in Cork City, and up the coast in Lisdoonvarna, Pat O’Connell and Birgitta Hedin-Curtin respectively do a brisk trade in Irish smoked salmon.

In Dingle, diners gasp at the freshness of the smoked mackerel pâté made by the French chefs in the Out of the Blue restaurant.

Peppered smoked mackerel is a salad ingredient at the Lobster Pot pub-restaurant.

Along the Atlantic seaboard the increased sale of sea vegetables such as carrageen, dulse and kombu has delighted those who promote their health benefits.

And all over the country, bistros, cafés, gastropubs, pubs and restaurants offer seafood chowder as starters and main courses.

HERE is a conflicted attitude toward fishing, fish and fish products in modern Ireland. It is neither one thing nor another, something that affects everyone from bureaucrats to chefs, from fishers to consumers. Some people love fish, other people hate fish. The regulations confuse fishers who accuse Brussels

THE

POACHER YOU ARE, THE PLAYER YOU GET

rather than Dublin, then wonder why EU legislation is applied in Ireland and not in other countries, where fishing appears higher on the economic and political agenda.

Why is it, they ask, that a small boat can land fish in Kerry and not in Donegal? It is not just scallops that are safe in one bay and not in another. Eels also get different treatment.

Eels on Erne, Lee and Shannon are managed by the ESB (yes, the Electricity Supply Board).

On the surface this seems an arrangement that should protect the eels and maintain their stocks. Instead, the ESB has been accused of mismanagement. Allied to this is a ban on eel fishing, put in place by Dublin to protect eel stocks. No such ban exists for the eel fishers in Lough Neagh.

Sinn Féin MEP Liadh Ní Riada feels this is unfair and that the ESB must take responsibility for the conservation of the eels.

“A crude fishing ban will not revive eel stocks,” Liadh says. “What is needed is a proactive approach that doesn’t punish eel fishermen for a problem that is not of their making.

“The ESB must ensure effective management of their hydroelectric operations to prevent further damage to eel stocks and must invest in restocking operations similar to the programme in place in Lough Neagh, where millions of elvers are released into the lough each year.”

This inconsistency is prevalent throughout the fishing industry, whether it is related to freshwater or seawater fishing. It seems there is one arrangement for one fisher, a different arrangement for another fisher; one rule for one place and a different rule for another place; and different approaches in Belfast and Dublin. Salmon fishing is banned in the Six Counties but not in the 26 Counties. Eel fishing is banned in the 26 Counties but not in the Six Counties.

Surprisingly, conservationists, fishers and politicians all agree that something is wrong. “There is no joined-up thinking,” says freshwater angler Damien O’Brien, a committed conservationist.

There is a conflicted attitude toward fishing, fish and fish products in modern Ireland

“The losers in all this are the people who should be benefiting from our fishing culture.”

O’Brien insists the problem is political and should be resolved in Belfast, Dublin and Brussels.

But he doesn’t hold his breath. Unlike many anglers who eat the salmon and trout they catch, O'Brien releases his catch back into the river.

Catch and release has become a metaphor for the angling community’s attitude to fish conservation. Trap and catch is the attitude of the poachers who flout the regulations and benefit from the scarcity of wild salmon in the rivers and on the market.

This all plays into the hands of those who smoke farmed salmon for the tourists who cannot tell the difference between farmed and wild fish.

N DONEGAL there is a strong feeling that the local economy should be boosted by all things fish.

Surprisingly, conservationists, fishers and politicians all agree that something is wrong

“It would,” retired trawlerman Dinny Byrnes said in 2008 when many feared the end for the Irish fishing industry, “if the fish landed here stayed here, and there was less corruption and more enterprise.”

In Burtonport they are doing that with sea vegetables; in Dungloe they are doing that with mackerel; in Greencastle they are doing that with prawns; and in Killybegs they are doing that with albacore tuna.

You can see this if you go into the SuperValu store in Dungloe. Since last year, SuperValu has been promoting local produce, among them sea vegetables packaged by Quality Sea Veg in Burtonport, tinned mackerel from Irish Atlantic on the other side of Dungloe, and albacore tuna in olive oil from Shines in Killybegs.

Comparatively, the tuna and mackerel are more expensive than the brands from across the road in Aldi and Lidl.

“People here,” says the woman behind the deli

July / Iúil 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

27

5 Liadh Ní Riada MEP has warned that a crude fishing ban will not revive eel stocks

5 Albacore tuna landed in Killybegs is a boost to the local economy

5 The future of food in Ireland is of the small-scale cottage variety

counter, “think the Irish Atlantic mackerel tastes better; the price doesn't come into it.”

Aldi and Lidl do not sell any of these Irish fish products.

Salmon fishing is banned in the Six Counties but not in the 26 Counties

HRIS SMITH is a chef at Teac Jacks in west Donegal.

Before he moved west he was chef around the north of the county with a reputation for cooking fish. He once served Mulroy Bay mussels and scallops, and laments their loss.

“I am trying to get local fish. I want to put on the menu where that fish is from. Pallas Foods are getting me people who can supply me that. I reckon that by the end of July I will have ten or twelve fish on the menu sourced from specific places.”

Because Teac Jacks have a fixed €10.50 for their specials he is at the mercy of price.

“I used to get razor clams, tuna, scallops, all fresh and as wild as you get. It is very difficult now. I have to take what I can get.

“The quality fish is going out of the country and this is a problem: how much fish is there around here?” he asks, answering his own question: “We are not even getting five per cent of it.”

Despite his concerns, Teac Jacks now has a reputation for its fish specials with customers ringing up to find out what is being served on a particular day. People now have a fish palate, he says.

“The problem is the owners of the businesses.

They want to make money; they are not interested in standards. It is all about serving 300 people, counting the money, but 100 people went home unhappy, and I don’t want that. If the food is good you will make money.

“Chefs used to ruin fish, now they are more educated, they have values now. The cooking is done professionally, with heart and soul, and

In Donegal there is a strong feeling that the local economy should be boosted by all things fish

diners are patient, they know they are getting quality and value for money.”

Smith believes the future for food in Ireland is of the small-scale cottage variety, the sort that starts small and grows big through the quality and value of the products. Such enterprise has never been encouraged, and never will be with current policy – an assessment that is now common among those who understand what is happening in the food industry. We read about it in the business media and always it is about other people and other places in other countries.

Therefore the issue for many is why there are not more marine products with protected geographic indicator (PGI) status and why there are not more value-added products made with fish and sea vegetables in Ireland.

This is not about people, place and produce – the practical solution to sustainable food security, it is about poachers, politicians and players – the pragmatic result for those who only see a quick buck, who cannot see the bigger picture.

GEOGRAPHIC-SPECIFIC AND VALUE-ADDED MARINE PRODUCTS Atlantic Carrageen – Picked and

marketed from several locations along the west and north-west, carrageeen should be identified with the Atlantic.

Carrageen Jelly would be the valueadded product.

Atlantic Dulse – Same as carrageen, though more associated with Donegal.

that goes back a long way. Pan-fried mackerel served with potatoes or in a bread bun are value-added products.

The fillets could be vacuum-packed to seal in the fish’s natural oils.

Galway Chowder – Local sea

typical French pâté with locally smoked mackerel, and there is no reason why this could not be established as a PGI. The French can’t complain because the mackerel comes out of Irish waters and will be smoked with Irish wood.

vegetables, local mussels (Killary) and inshore fish as value-added product.

Cork Chowder – Haddock, hake and potato in a carrageen stock.

Killary Mussels – Vacuum-packed Galway Bay Lobsters – All lobsters Atlantic Mackerel – Historically

associated with coastal communities from Cork to Donegal. The product today is frozen mackerel. Another is salted mackerel fillets, a tradition

Dingle Smoked Mackerel Pâté

– The French chefs at the Out of the Blue all-fish restaurant in Dingle make a

Donegal Chowder – Carrageen,

mackerel and potato. All local produce.

caught in the bay are exported to France, a tradition that goes back centuries. Regarded as among the best in Europe, this crustacean should be given a PGI. Lobster tails in a stout batter as scampi might be the valueadded product.

with herbs in rape seed oil for the value-added product. Also Bantry mussels.

Shannon Eels – Presently, Irish

eels are exported to the Netherlands to be smoked. There is no reason why they could not be smoked in Ireland and then exported as a value-added product.

BOOK REVIEWS BY MICHAEL MANNION

SINN FÉIN BOOKSHOP 58 Parnell Square, Dublin 1. Tel: (00 353 1) 814 8542

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Doing My Bit For Ireland

By Margaret Skinnider MARGARET, the only female Volunteer wounded during the Easter week, tells the account of her active role prior to and after the 1916 Rising, including the inside story from the republican garrison in the College of Surgeons on St Stephen’s Green.

Lockout 1913 – Austerity 2013 CHARTING events through those dreadful months in 1913 – you will be transported back in time in the pages of this book. Collated and edited by Dublin historian Mícheál Mac Donncha with articles by TDs Gerry Adams and Mary Lou McDonald, amongst others.

Challenging and cherry-picking volumes Signatories

By Various Authors UCD Press

THIS IS AN UNUSUAL little volume consisting of eight ten-minute monologues – one for each of the executed signatories of the 1916 Proclamation, and Nurse Elizabeth O’Farrell (presumably included to address gender imbalance).

Each monologue is written by a different author selected from the great and the good of Ireland's literati. The monologues are scripts, complete with stage directions, of works originally created to be performed in Kilmainham Gaol by candlelight. Not at all precious then.

The monologues themselves vary wildly. Some are truly excellent, giving vivid interpretations of the individual subjects and succeeding in imbuing

Authors read like a Who’s Who of contemporary Irish novelists and playwrights the iconic figures with a real living humanity. Others are not so successful.

And the section on James Connolly is just weird.

Whilst undoubtedly a fine piece of prose, the monologue concerns an adult’s recollection of an attempted child abduction in Birmingham some time after 1970. The children’s babysitter foils the attempted abduction and sings John Lennon’s Working Class Hero “for James Connolly”. And that’s it. Sorry, call me a philistine but WTF? This is not to criticise it as a piece of writing (it is finely crafted, taut and highly evocative); it’s just that I can’t for the life of me see why it has been included in an anthology on the signatories of the Proclamation. I’m sure that there is some profound point being made

but the connection is too subtle for my limited faculties.

The authors included in the collection read like a Who’s Who of contemporary Irish novelists and playwrights: Joseph O’Connor, Emma Donoghue, Thomas Kilroy, Hugo Hamilton, Frank McGuinness, Rachel Fehily, Éilís Ni Dhuibhne, and Marina Carr. The work

Unhappy the Land – The Most Oppressed People Ever, the Irish?

The History of the Irish Citizen Army

By R. M. Fox THIS VITAL historical account brings to life the rise from 1913 of the The Irish Citizen Army – in whose ranks women fought alongside the men as full members – was to the fore in the 1916 Easter Rising and the subsequent war against the might of the British Empire before taking the republican side during the Civil War of 1922-1923.

Rotunda cover Spread.qxd

15/10/2013

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Page 1

T H E ROT U N D A BIRTHPLACE OF THE

Óglaigh na hÉireann

THE ROTUNDA, located at the top of O’Connell Street and within sight of the GPO, has always had a special place in the life of people in Ireland’s capital city. It is the location of one of the three main maternity hospitals in Dublin as well as being the first maternity hospital in the world.

What may be lesser known is the place it has in Ireland’s historic struggle for national independence and freedom from British colonial rule.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh, a noted republican historian as well as being a Teachta Dála (Member of Parliament) in Dublin for Sinn Féin, looks at the centrality of the Rotunda in Irish history, including being the birthplace of the Irish Volunteers, a rebel military force from which was to emerge the Irish Republican Army.

“The meeting to form the Irish Volunteers was switched to the small concert hall in the Rotunda complex, then to the large concert hall, which could hold 500; but, with interest growing, the Rotunda Rink, a temporary building in the Rotunda Gardens capable of holding 4,000, was booked.

“At the meeting, the stewards, all Irish Republican Brotherhood men and members of the Fianna Éireann republican scouts, got 3,000 enrolment forms signed. In addition to the 4,000 people inside the hall, a crowd of about 3,000 was unable to gain admission. Traffic on Parnell Square was blocked by the crowd.

Two overflow meetings were held, one in the large concert room and the other in the gardens.”

Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD

THREE SHOUTS ON A HILL Éamonn Mac Thomáis

PRODUCED BY REPUBLICAN PUBLICATIONS

www.sinnfeinbookshop.com

T H E ROT U N D A BIRTHPLACE OF THE

IRISH VOLUNTEERS Óglaigh na hÉireann

BY AENGUS Ó SNODAIGH TD

Sinn Féin Centenaries Commemoration Committee | Coiste Comóradh Céad Bliain

By Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD THE ROTUNDA,within sight of the GPO, and being the birthplace of the Irish Volunteers, a rebel military force from which was to emerge the Irish Republican Army. Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD, looks at the centrality of the Rotunda in Irish history.

THE ROTUNDA: Birthplace of the Irish Volunteers

IRISH VOLUNTEERS

The Rotunda: Birthplace of the Irish Volunteers – Óglaigh na hÉireann

Sinn Féin Centenaries Commemoration Committee | Coiste Comóradh Céad Bliain

Three Shouts on a Hill By Éamonn Mac Thomáis A short collection of essays by Éamonn Mac Thomáis, a fervent republican in the Connolly tradition. In this series written for An Phoblacht/Republican News in an era of state censorship, Three Shouts on a Hill is a window into Ireland’s history at a turbulent and tragic time.

memoration Committee | Coiste Comóradh Céad Bliain. duced by An Phoblacht. www.anphoblacht.com 27/10/2015 13:20

PROFESSOR LIAM KENNEDY is a lecturer in Economic History in Queens and Ulster Universities. Tipperary-born but Six Counties based (“our own Wee Country”, as he calls it ), he is one of the leading voices in articulating the revisionist view of Irish history. The fact that this book has been repeatedly and shamelessly plugged by Ruth Dudley Edwards in her Irish Times column really says all you need to know about the orientation of this particular volume.

The book is a collection of essays designed to substantiate the hypothesis that Ireland (and nationalist Ireland in particular) has assumed the mantle of victimhood and that things weren’t so bad really. This is achieved in several ways, one being classic “whataboutery” – things may have been bad here but what about Russia, American blacks, the 100 Years War, etc, etc.

Apparently bad things happening elsewhere negate the bad things happening here.

Professor Kennedy also has an unfortunate tendency to conflate Catholicism

was commissioned by University College Dublin and all of the collaborating authors are past graduates of that institution. It should probably be remembered that Thomas MacDonagh was a lecturer in English at UCD. In summation, an unusual work, challenging in places, but overall a highly-rewarding read.

break the connection with England, the never failing source of all our political evils, that was my aim.”

Perhaps the most egregious omission is from the section dealing with the Famine, which argues that in the absence of motive it is wrong to use the term “genocide”.

An economic and social historian of Professor Kennedy’s stature is obviously aware of the almost universal acceptance at the time of Malthusian

By Liam Kennedy Irish Academic Press

Éamonn Mac Thomáis

nued his association with the republican family ase and played a role in the campaign in support of nger Strikers in Long Kesh in 1980 and 1981. a Hill is a series Éamonn had written for An an News in an era of state censorship, combining his ge of Irish and republican history with commentary events almost a decade before the advent of the b and when wordsmiths such as Éamonn earned hrough dedication, painstaking research in countless s, and sheer hard work.

Hill is a window into Ireland’s history at a turbulent

www.anphoblacht.com

CENTENARIES SERIES EXCLUSIVE TO

THREE SHOUTS ON A HILL

TS ON A HILL is a short collection of essays by the TV personality and acclaimed historian Éamonn Mac h republican whose involvement in the Republican ed four decades. n into a staunchly republican and, as he described ite family, A fervently republican in the Connolly n joined the Irish Republican Army as a young man republican throughout his life. was a political prisoner in Portlaoise in 1974 that ok, Me Jewel and Darlin’ Dublin, was published by

28 July / Iúil 2016

and national sentiment, citing “cultural envy” as one of the motivating forces behind the adoption of victimhood.

This is, unfortunately, just one example of the selective cherry-picking used to establish his hypothesis. No mention is made of the Protestant ethos of the United Irishmen, or of (Anglican) Wolfe Tone’s declaration: “To unite Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter under the common name of Irishmen in order

The fact that this book has been repeatedly plugged by Ruth Dudley Edwards really says all you need to know about this particular volume economic and population theory which was inseparable from the “laissez-faire” policies which he acknowledges. This in itself provides motive as it basically cites famine as a tool of economic and population control.

It is always refreshing to encounter contrary opinions but this book does nothing to establish any legitimacy for its viewpoint.

July / Iúil 2016

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

I nDíl Chuimhne 1 July 1980: Volunteer Terence O’NEILL, 2nd Battalion, Belfast Brigade 2 July 1974: Volunteer Patrick TEER, Long Kesh 3 July 1972: Volunteer Denis QUINN, Tyrone Brigade 6 July 1976: Volunteer Thomas KANE, 1st Battalion, Belfast Brigade 7 July 1990: Volunteer Seán BATESON, Long Kesh 7 July 1988: Volunteer Séamus WOODS, Tyrone Brigade 8 July 1970: Volunteer Tommy CARLIN, Derry Brigade 8 July 1972: Volunteer Julie DOUGAN, Cumann na mBan, Portadown 8 July 1981: Fian John DEMPSEY, Fianna Éireann 8 July 1981: Volunteer Joe McDONNELL, Long Kesh

Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations PÁDRAIG PEARSE 9 July 1972: Fian John DOUGAL, Fianna Éireann 13 July 1981: Volunteer Martin HURSON, Long Kesh 13 July 1984: Volunteer William PRICE, Tyrone Brigade 14 July 1972: Volunteer Louis SCULLION, 3rd Battalion, Belfast Brigade 15 July 1972: Volunteer James REID, 3rd Battalion, Belfast Brigade 16 July 1972: Fian Tobias MOLLOY, Fianna Éireann 17 July 1976: Volunteer Patrick CANNON, Dublin Brigade 17 July 1976: Volunteer Peter McELCAR, Donegal Brigade

21 July 1972: Volunteer Joseph DOWNEY, 3rd Battalion, Belfast Brigade 21 July 1973: Volunteer Alphonsus CUNNINGHAM, South Down Command 21 July 1973: Volunteer Pauline KANE, Cumann na mBan, Newcastle 25 July 1988: Volunteer Brendan DAVISON, 3rd Battalion, Belfast Brigade 27 July 1977: Volunteer Tommy TOLAN, 2nd Battalion, Belfast Brigade 28 July 1972: Volunteer Seamus CASSIDY, 3rd Battalion, Belfast Brigade

FÓGRAÍ BHÁIS

31 July 1972: Volunteer Seamus BRADLEY, Derry Brigade.

Always remembered by the Republican Movement.

McARDLE, John. In proud and loving memory of our friend and comrade John 'Mungo' McArdle, whose anniversary occurs at this time. Always remembered by the Halpenny, Worthington, Watters Sinn Féin Cumann, Dundalk.

McELCHAR, Peter. In loving memory of Volunteer Peter McElchar, Knock, Ballybofey, County Donegal, who died in action on 16 July 1976. From Catríona, Cathal, Aine, Pádraig, Diarmuid and Gerry McElwaine, Fanad. We also remember his comrade, Volunteer Patrick Cannon, Dublin. May they rest in peace.

IN PICTURES

29

Comhbhrón McLOUGHLIN. It was with deep sadness throughout the village of Howth that we heard of the passing of Snowie (Pearse) McLoughlin, a good republican and a fine musician and plumber. May he rest in peace.

From his friend Noel Harrington, Kinsale, County Cork.

» Notices All notices should be sent to: notices@anphoblacht.com at least 14 days in advance of publication date. There is no charge for I nDíl Chuimhne, Comhbhrón etc. » Imeachtaí There is a charge of €10 for inserts printed in our Imeachtaí/ Events column. You can also get a small or large box advert. Contact: sales@anphoblacht.com for details.

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John Owens Swanlinbar, Cavan NEWS of the death of John Owens was received with great sadness in the Cavan and Fermanagh Border area as well as further afield.

John was a lifelong republican and was involved in every phase of the republican struggle from the 1950s to the present day. He was a man who showed great leadership to his local community in supporting the most recent phase of the struggle to unite our country by peaceful means.

In recent times he was involved in producing a biography of his former comrade, Patrick McManus.

The esteem in which he was held was demonstrated in St Mary’s Church, Swanlinbar, where there was a huge crowd for his funeral which was attended by local Sinn Féin Councillor Barry Doherty.

The oration at John’s graveside was given by Martin Kenny TD, who spoke about John and also of Patrick McManus and Peter Albert McGovern, who are also laid to rest in the same graveyard.

Heartfelt sympathy and solidarity is extended to John’s family from the Murphy, McManus, Coen Sinn Féin Cumann as well as from all of his friends and comrades in the republican family.

5 Francie Molloy MP was the main speaker at the Frongoch Centenary Commemoration in Wales. A parade through the town of Bala to Frongoch Internment Camp was led by the Liverpool Irish Patriots Republican Flute Band. It was followed by performances by a Welsh-language children's choir who sang about the arrival of the internees, and music from Damien Dempsey, Ian Prowse and Willie Burns

John Drumm Teemore, Fermanagh, and Rush, Dublin IT was with deep and widespread shock and sadness that the news was received of the recent death of John Drumm at the age of 66 following a short period of illness.

John and his wife Veronica (nee Murray), both natives of Teemore, had made their home in Rush, County Dublin.

Despite many years away from his birthplace, John always retained a deep affection for Teemore, keeping in regular contact with home and, in accordance with his expressed wish, was returned there for burial following his Funeral Mass in Rush.

The huge turnout of mourners and sympathisers both in Rush and in Teemore demonstrated the high degree of esteem in which John had been held and the huge sense of loss felt by his passing.

As John’s remains were brought into St Mary’s in Teemore they passed through a guard of honour formed by members of the Mountain Road Pipe Band for which John had played before leaving for Dublin. The bonds and loyalty of the former bandmates had not been diminished over the years.

John is survived by his wife Veronica, daughters Bernadette and Carmel, granddaughter Kate, his mother Anna (who recently celebrated her 101st birthday) and brothers Michael, Patsy and Gerry.

Genuine sympathy is extended from Cumann

Murphy, McManus, Coen and all of John’s friends and comrades in the republican family to them as well as to the wider family circle, including the Brady family, after their grievous loss.

5 Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald TD speaks at a commemoration in South Armagh to remember Volunteers Michael McVerry and Peadar McElvanna

30 July / Iúil 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

A LITTLE BIT of Irish sporting history was made in summer 2016, although it wasn’t marked as such. Perhaps it stirred up too many contradictions.

For never before have both soccer teams, North and South, reached the finals of the same competition. That was the history made in soccer’s Euro 2016 Finals.

Both teams were managed by O’Neills – Martin and Michael. Both men were brought up in the Six Counties. For both, their love of sport was fostered and flourished amidst ferocious political conflict.

Both of them played Gaelic games in their youth before building prosperous careers in professional soccer.

I knew Michael O’Neill from my school days. He was a year ahead of me at St Louis High School in Ballymena. We enjoyed success together on both the school’s Gaelic football and soccer teams in those days. Our mid-winter training included scrambling up snow-covered slopes at the back of the school. Before sessions were over, the white surface would have become a slushy mudslide. More than one of our number would have been heaving up on the sidelines. But coached by Hugh Mussen from Down and Dominic Corrigan from Fermanagh, we grew together as a unit.

When we got onto the Gaelic pitch, Michael was a wing-half forward with explosive speed. He brought that athleticism, attitude and his own great football gifts into his career in soccer.

I don’t know Martin O’Neill but, by all accounts, he also enjoyed playing Gaelic football in his native County Derry. When the Six Counties team famously beat host country Spain in the 1982 World Cup Finals, Martin O’Neill captained that team. By the end of his international football career, he had 64

IN PICTURES

THE

Where only sport is sovereign

BETWEEN P STS Ciarán Kearney

5 Ireland team v Wales 1913–14. Back row: Hugh McAteer (trainer), Val Harris (Dublin), Fred McKee (Belfast), Davy Rollo (Belfast) and Patrick O'Connell (Westmeath). Front row: E. H. Seymour, Sam Young (Belfast), Billy Gillespie (Donegal), Alex Craig (Galway), Bill Lacey (Wexford), Louis Bookman (Lithuania emigrated to Dublin) and Bill McConnell (Dublin)

caps. Now he manages the other Irish soccer team on this island.

Seamlessly stepping from North to South as successfully as Martin O’Neill has, it looks as though soccer has transcended the contradictions of conflict thrown up for the rest of us. Or has it?

Like most aspects of life in Ireland, it wasn’t always this way.

Between 1882 and 1924, a single team represented the whole of Ireland.

It was organised by the Belfast-based Irish Football Association (IFA). With the advent of partition in 1921, a Dublinbased group split from the IFA and badged itself as the Football Association of the Irish Free State (FAIFS). By 1953, FIFA had decreed that both teams, North and South, could enter competitive

tournaments. By this time, the FAIFS had renamed itself the Football Association of Ireland (FAI).

Debate about having two teams on the one island have raged ever since.

Football legends as renowned as the late George Best, who played for

It looks as though soccer has transcended the contradictions of conflict thrown up for the rest of us.

Or has it?

the IFA (Northern) team are reported to have called for a single Irish team.

In recent years, that concept has been raised in public again.

Yet controversy between the IFA and the FAI also ensued in relation to team selection, especially with talented players from the North such as James McClean electing to play for the South.

The use of a ‘grandparent rule’ also allows for people of Irish ancestry who have grown up outside this island being chosen for the Irish team. The argument for this seems solid enough given the forced migration of so many from Ireland over decades. Yet it has inspired critics to ask how Irish is the soccer team from Ireland.

Bias and bigotry have long hounded soccer.

I remember walking along the dark, narrow streets at the back of Windsor Park in my youth. My late father had got football tickets to take me and my two younger brothers to watch the Six Counties soccer team which Martin O’Neill captained. The atmosphere was ugly and alienating. We never went back.

In later years, the perceptible sectarianism took the form of death threats against Neil Lennon. As a result, he ended his international career.

Scenes from Euro 2016 gave cause for greater hope. Irish fans, North and South, showed solidarity with one another.

Ideas for a single Irish team once again may still be disputed but there are other unanswered questions.

When the Irish rugby team takes the international stage, comprised of players from all four provinces, a different anthem is sung. It’s a gesture which some have publicly scorned.

Yet if “Uncomfortable Conversations” are ever to become “Uncomfortable Actions”, sporting symbols and songs to unify people may be required.

In rugby, cricket and hockey, people from North and South play together.

Separate soccer teams is a reminder of division. As the two O’Neills illustrate, people in sport have multiple identities. How to recognise those subtleties in a single Irish soccer team requires more imagination.

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 New Sinn Féin Infrastructure Minister Chris Hazzard MLA leads the way for hundreds of cycling commuters in Belfast taking part in the annual Bike to Work Day event

5 The Euros: Irish footballer James McClean and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness in Lille, France, ahead of Ireland's 1–0 victory over Italy

July / Iúil 2016

www.anphoblacht.com

Polasaí agus Gaelú Shinn Féin á bplé sna Sollain roimh an chomóradh i mBaile Uí Bhuadáin

31

GET READY FOR THE

BRIAN KEENAN CHALLENGE 9th ANNUAL

MOUNTAIN CHALLENGE & 5k FUN WALK COUNTY LOUTH SATURDAY 10 SEPTEMBER

Cruinniú na nGaeilgeoirí LEIS AN TUAIRISCEOIR BHÍ CÚRSAÍ Gaeilge agus Gaelú Shinn Féin á bplé sna Solláin i gContae Bí le Shinn Féin Chill Dara ar na mallaibh roimh an chomóradh i mBaile Uí Bhuadáin. Chuir www.sinnfein.ie Uachtarán Shinn Féin Gerry Adams TD fáilte roimh roinnt mhaith Gaeilgeoirí as ceantair éagsúla ar fud na tíre. Ag caint le An Phoblacht i ndiaidh an chruinnithe, dúirt Oifigeach Náisiúnta Gaeilge Johnny McGibbon: “Is maith an rud go raibh deis againn bualadh lena chéile chun cúrsaí Gaeilge a phlé. Gabhaim mo bhuíochas le hachan duine a bhí i láthair agus le gach duine a d’obair go díograiseach ar an dá cháipéis ar glacadh leo ag an Ard Fheis i mbliana – ‘Plécháipéis Gaeilge Shinn Féin’ agus ‘Gaelú Shinn Féin’.

“Tá dúshlán nach beag romhainn anois chun plean gnímh a chur i bhfeidhm agus iarraim ar dhuine ar bith ar fud na tíre ar mhaith leis nó léi cuidiú linn, dul i dteaghmáil liom ar gaeilge@sinnfein.ie.”

Policy and Gaelicisation were topics of the day in Sallins before the Bodenstown commemoration this year, as Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD welcomed Gaeilgeoirí from across the country to a Cruinniú na nGaeilgeoirí.

Speaking to An Phoblacht following Bí le Téacs: Seol an focal SINN FEIN ansin d’ainm agus seoladh chuig : 51444 (26 Chondae) 60060 (6 Chondae) Ar Líne: www.sinnfein.ie/join-sinn-fein Ríomhphost: admin@sinnfein.ie

Sinn Féin, 44 Cearnóg Pharnell, Baile Átha Cliath 1, Éire Fón: (353) 1872 6100 Sinn Féin, 53 Bóthar na bhFál, Béal Feirste, BT12 4PD, Éire Fón: 028 90 347350

Cover A3 spread.indd 1

Tír gan Teanga, Tir gan anam

Sinn Féin ar son na Gaeilge

Plécháipéis Ghaeilge Shinn Féin

30/05/2016 13:51

the meeting, National Irish Language Officer Johnny McGibbon said: “Today was an excellent opportunity for us to meet and discuss matters relating to the Irish language. I would like to thank everyone who attended the meeting and also all those who were involved in the work which composed the documents accepted at this year’s Ard Fheis – ‘The Irish Language Discussion Document’ and ‘The Gaelicisation of Sinn Féin’.

“There is a massive challenge before us in terms of Gaelicisation and I encourage anyone interested in working with us on these issues to contact me on gaeilge@sinnfein.ie.”

BRIAN KEENAN was a legend. He still is, and his selfless commitment to the Irish Republican Army and his comrades continues to inspire and enthuse everyone taking part in the Annual Brian Keenan Mountain Challenge, which takes place along the Border in County Louth this year on Saturday 10 September.

This year’s Challenge includes three elements, with the introduction of the first-ever “5km Fun Walk or Cycle” on Carlingford Greenway (adults and children welcome).

The tougher, fiercely-contested but no less friendly mainstays of the Brian Keenan Mountain Challenge are the two ‘walks’ over the Cooley Mountains.

WALK ONE – Flagstaff to Carlingford (12 miles). Registration from 11am. Walk starts at 12 noon.

WALK TWO – Long Woman’s Grave to Carlingford (7 miles). Registration from 12 noon. Walk starts at 1pm.

5km FUN WALK – New this year, 5 Kilometre Fun Walk or Cycle, 3pm Carlingford.

Registration at the Four Seasons Hotel, Carlingford.

Teams of 4 can compete for the Brian Keenan Memorial Shield which was won last year by ‘The Banta Warriors’ (Eoghan McCabe, Brendan McCabe, Seán Hughes and Órán Ó Caoláin).

It’s a great day followed by food, ceol agus craic in Ma Baker’s, Carlingford.

Get ready for another great event.

NEXT ISSUE OUT Thursday 28 July 2016

anphoblacht

32

IN PICTURES

Sraith Nua Iml 39 Uimhir 7 – July / Iúil 2016

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 Sinn Féin's Martina Anderson MEP, Chair of the European Parliament Delegation to Palestine, meets with President of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas during his visit to the European Parliament

5 Republicans gather at the Sinn Féin Bookshop on Parnell Square ahead of the annual Dublin Pride Parade 5 Sinn Féin Councillor Gerry Murray presents a Proclamation to Daniel J Noonan at the Grand Marshal's Banquet in Boston. Daniel was nominated as Grand Marshal for the 2016 Bunker Hill Parade

5 Dublin Mayor Críona Ní Dhálaigh signs a Book of Condolence at the Mansion House in memory of those killed and injured in a gun attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, USA

5 Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty TD and Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir MLA at an all-Ireland economics meeting in Leinster House

5 Gerry Adams TD out and about in Belfast during the Brexit referendum campaign

5 Mary Lou McDonald TD and Councillor Janice Boylan turning the 5 MacCurtain/MacSwiney RFB (Cork) and St Patrick's Youth Band (Cullyhanna) win the band competitions at Bodenstown – see pages 10 & 11 sod on new Primary Care Centre in Dublin's north inner city