An Phoblacht June 2013

ap032-001.qxd

29/05/2013

10:25

Page 2

Border community says YES

UNITED IRELAND POLL

anphoblacht

Sraith Nua Iml 36 Uimhir 6

June/Meitheamh 2013

PRICE €2/£2

DON BAKER

‘THE GREATEST HARMONICA PLAYER IN THE WORLD’ BONO

BRITISH GOVERNMENT GOES BACK ON AGREEMENTS Peace dividend and ‘On the Run’ promises

by British Government reneged on by Westminster

SHATTER MUST GO

I’M A REBEL I support Sinn Féin

Justice Minister fails more than penalty points

\

BODENSTOWN SUNDAY ANNUAL WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION 23 JUNE, SALLINS

ap002-003.qxd

29/05/2013

09:59

Page 1

2 June / Meitheamh 2013

anphoblacht

www.anphoblacht.com

IN PICTURES

photos@anphoblacht.com

WHAT’S INSIDE 5 An ‘Lucht Oibre Nua’?

9 ‘Mind Our Men’ Campaign against suicide 10 Eoin Ó Broin

The real cost of tax dodging 11, 12 & 13 Wolfe Tone Commemoration Sunday 23 June 2013 14 Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – Winning the airwaves 15 Opinion

INMO Deputy General Secretary Dave Hughes – Game, set and match to the banks 18 Danger: Property speculators at work 19 Ronnie Fay, Co-director of the Pavee Point Traveller & Roma Centre ‘Travelling with Austerity’ 20 Justice Inspectorate indicts PSNI restructuring 21 Leas na mBanc taobh thiar den Ghéarchéim Tithiochta 22 & 23 UVF mediator Chris Hudson and Graham Spencer, author on loyalism – ‘Uncomfortable Conversations’ have begun 24 Bangladesh and the human cost of Ireland’s cheap clothes – ‘Clean Clothes’ campaign talks to ‘An Phoblacht’ 26 Thérèse Ruane

Gaeilge láidir agus beo i Maigh Eo 27

5 Members of Sinn Féin Republican Youth take part in a protest in Cork calling for an end to political repression in the Basque Country as part of a worldwide day of action

5 Paul Maskey MP and Gloria Cuartas: Members of the Colombian Peace March met with Sinn Féin politicians in Belfast during their visit to the city organised by the Britishbased Justice for Colombia group

5 Property tax protesters stage a picket outside Meath County Council offices

5 ‘An Phoblacht’ columnist and Sinn Féin Councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha with James Connolly Heron, great grandson of James Connolly, at the hugely successful first annual James Connolly Summer School in Dublin, organised by Mícheál

Review

The Two Brendans Soldiers of South Armagh 30 Sport

Tough guys in luminous lycra 31 The media circus behind Fianna Fáil’s resurrection

5 Activists from the Jim McGinn Sinn Féin Cumann, Strabane, help clean up the children’s play facility and adjoining areas at the bottom of the Ballycolman Estate

5 Sinn Féin MLA and Junior Minister Jennifer McCann signs the pledge to show her support to the ‘IF’ campaign, which calls for people to act together to tackle the causes of world hunger

ap002-003.qxd

29/05/2013

10:09

Page 2

www.anphoblacht.com

June / Meitheamh 2013 3

BELFAST Friday 7 June Europa Hotel, Belfast

A CITY OF EQUALS ON AN ISLAND OF EQUALS Sinn Féin conference to engage with unionists and non-republicans around the causes, nature and consequences of the conflict

Dialogue for an Equal Future

BY DECLAN KEARNEY SINN FÉIN NATIONAL CHAIRPERSON IN RECENT MONTHS, the Sinn Féin leadership has said unambiguously our party is committed to guaranteeing parity of esteem for both British and Irish identities.

Equality and parity of esteem are cornerstones of the political co-existence established by the Good Friday Agreement and later Agreements.

However, we as a society still have to agree how these principles should translate as instruments to affirm the rights and enhance the lives of unionist and republican

citizens. Such consensus will only be achieved through the ‘Uncomfortable Conversations’ and compromises about which republicans, unionists, and the British and Irish governments still need to engage with each other.

That’s the essential dialogue to move politics forward and into a new phase of our Peace Process.

Today’s republicans are committed to achieving a vision of ‘An Ireland of Equals’ through the power of persuasion.

Not far from the Europa Hotel in Belfast city centre in 1791, radical Presbyterian thinkers and activists formulated the founding ideas of Irish republicanism.

Their vision was to achieve the unity of Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter in pursuit of a national republic.

That idea is timeless.

The challenges of removing sectarianism and ending segregation in the North remain.

Irish society has never been more culturally and ethnically diverse or complex.

Today the republican vision of the future has never been more relevant.

On 7 June, in the Europa Hotel, Belfast republicans will host an important conference to engage with and listen to the aspirations and apprehensions of the city’s unionist and Protestant community.

It’s a gesture by Sinn Féin towards embracing our responsibility for listening unconditionally to both our neighbours and an initia-

‘BRIGHT BRAND NEW DAY’ is an ambitious initiative comprising a series of monthly conversations addressing divisive issues at different venues on both sides of the River Foyle. The series features noteworthy national and international speakers and specialist panels throughout 2013.

Martin Luther King III – the eldest son of the Nobel Peace Prize winner – was the keynote speaker at a public citywide event on Sunday 19 May. The brainchild of local Presbyterian minister David Latimer, the event at Guildhall Square included hundreds of schoolchildren joining with Derry-born singer-songwriter Phil Coulter singing his new anthem for the city Bright, Brand New Day.

tive to foster engagement and dialogue on what divides us . . . but also what might yet unite our community.

Sinn Féin supports an inclusive discourse on reconciliation.

There is reason to be optimistic.

Seeds of hope for reconciliation are taking root.

Inspirational initiatives are being taken.

In Derry city recently, thousands joined in acknowledgement of the past and looked towards a ‘Bright Brand New Day’ (see below) as part of the City of Culture programme.

Other quiet processes are being developed by

courageous church, political, business, academic and community leaders.

Reconciliation and multiculturalism are the basis of an agreed Ireland.

It’s the alternative to sectarianism, segregation and racism in modern Ireland; the vision which is at the heart of the conference agenda, “Belfast: A City of Equals on an island of Equals.”

Get along, listen, be influenced, and make your own voice heard.

• For more information contact Andrea Nash at Sinn Féin Communications: communications@sinnfein.ie

ap004-005.qxd

29/05/2013

10:06

Page 1

4 June / Meitheamh 2013

www.anphoblacht.com

anphoblacht Eagarfhocal

anphoblacht Editorial CONTACT

Broken promises

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

THE British Government has broken its word.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg have taken their eye off the ball regarding the Peace Process and are undermining the work of the Executive.

• Westminster has reneged on the Peace Dividend; • Westminster has cut the Block Grant; • Westminster has refused to devolve powers on Corporation Tax; • Westminster has proposed significant welfare cuts; • Westminster has broken its word on the status of people who would have come under the Good Friday Agreement releases of political prisoners.

Given the experience of Ireland, are we surprised? Maybe we shouldn’t be but, although the Tories may not like it, their predecessors in Tony Blair’s Labour Government gave cast-iron pledges – witnessed by the Irish and United States governments at St Andrews in 2006 – on these issues.

What will international audiences make of the ease with which this British Government can so blithely dismiss agreements made – and accepted and internationally affirmed – in good faith.

In recent weeks, the situation has been compounded with the British authorities charging Donegal republican John Downey

HAVE YOU SUBSCRIBED TO AN PHOBLACHT ONLINE?

5 Nick Clegg and David Cameron need to reverse their disastrous course

and Belfast man Michael Burns – both supporters of the Peace Process – in a clear breach of commitments the British Government gave at Weston Park and in subsequent negotiations.

Westminster is showing utter contempt for its responsibilities and commitments to the people of the North of Ireland and the island of Ireland under the Good Friday and St Andrews Agreements.

It is an arrogance that harks back to the Britain of Margaret Thatcher. It feeds the narrative of minuscule, unrepresentative groups with no popular support and whose raison d’etre is opposition to the Peace Process.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg need to reverse their disastrous course. They need to meaningfully re-engage with republicans by honouring the British Government’s commitments to the Irish Peace Process.

SUBSCRIBE ONLINE to get your An Phoblacht delivered direct to your mobile device or computer for just €10 per 12 issues and access to An Phoblacht’s historic archives You also get IRIS the republican magazine FREE

www.anphoblacht.com 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 please contact the Editor first.

AN PHOBLACHT www.anphoblacht.com Kevin Barry House 44 Parnell Square, Dublin 1, Ireland Telephone: (+353 1) 872 6 100 Email: editor@anphoblacht.com Layout: production@anphoblacht.com – Mark Dawson

Justice Minister should pay the penalty for his mismanagement ALAN SHATTER is not fit to be Justice Minister for more than the penalty points farce that he has unnecessarily and embarrassingly embroiled himself in.

Fine Gael TD Shatter’s cack-handedness in ‘outing’ Mick Wallace TD diverts attention from a raft of issues on his watch that the much-vaunted ‘reforming minister’ seems unable to manage competently.

These include: • The huge damage to morale in An Garda Síochána caused by the closure of almost 140 Garda stations, the 10% cut in Garda personnel and the loss of hundreds of Garda vehicles; • His failure to outline the Government’s response to the serious concerns of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission as outlined in its report upon completion of an investigation in the public interest; • His decision to ask senior

BY PÁDRAIG Mac LOCHLAINN TD Sinn Féin Dáil Justice Spokesperson

gardaí rather than the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission to investigate the allegations by two Garda whistle-blowers about alleged Garda malpractice in relation to the application of the Fixed Charge Notice (penalty points) system; • His decision to publicly criticise rather than commend the two Garda whistleblowers who had courageously brought these matters into the public domain after their attempts

internally in An Garda Síochána to raise the abuse of the penalty points system went unheeded; • His abuse of privileged information received in his capacity as Justice Minister for political advantage.

It is also clear that there is a quid pro quo and unhealthy relationship between the Justice Minister and Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan.

The Government must provide for an independent police authority in this state (as called for by the Garda

Representative Association) that is free from political interference while being fully accountable to the Oireachtas and Joint Policing Committees and that fully co-operates with the Garda Inspectorate and the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission.

These factors were included in an amendment by the Sinn Féin TDs to Fianna Fáil’s motion of ‘no confidence’ in Minister Shatter being debated the day An Phoblacht went to press.

The Government majority in Fine Gael and Labour have rallied around Alan Shatter and he will survive in Cabinet until the public pressure becomes unbearable for Fine Gael and Labour.

The Justice Minister does not command the confidence of either the Garda or the public.

His management skills are on a par with his literary prowess as a novelist.

The ‘absent-minded’ Alan Shatter should stand down or be replaced. He should pay the penalty for his failures.

5 Justice Minister Alan Shatter with Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan

ap004-005.qxd

29/05/2013

10:06

Page 2

www.anphoblacht.com

June / Meitheamh 2013 5

Le Trevor Ó Clochartaigh An tAire Kelly ag iarraidh ar an bpobal caoi a chuir ar a gcuid bóithre féin

An ‘Lucht Oibre Nua’?

TÁ SCÉIM nua fógartha ag an Aire Stáit sa Roinn Iompar, Alan Kelly, maidir le bóithre tuaithe den tríú grád a dteastaíonn uasghrádú uathu - sin go gcuirfidh seisean roinnt airgead ar fáil, má dhéanann daoine obair dheonach ar na bóthre céanna, nó go n-íocann siad féin as cuid den obair. Is dóigh gurb é seo an leagan Éíreannach den ‘Lucht Oibre Nua’ - nó ‘New Labour’ - ach gur saothar gnáth shaoránaigh na tire atá i gceist, seachas athrú ar leagan amach a pháirtí féin.

Is masla eile é seo ón Rialtas do mhuintir na tuaithe, atá faoi bhrú mór cheana féin ag an ngéarchéim eacnamaíochta, ag an imirce agus ag ciorruithe i mbunseirbhísí. Tá daoine ar labhair mé leo faoi seo ag rá go n-íocann muid cáin VRT nuair a cheannaíonn muid ár gcaranna, cáin bóthar uair sa bhliain orthu, cáin ar an mbreosla a chuireann muid isteach iontu, tollaí nuair a úsáideann muid na mótarbhealaigh, an cáín teaghlaigh agus an táillí tíos le haghaidh seirbhísí Rialtais áitiúil mar dhea agus anois táthar ag iarraidh orainn breis a íoc, nó obair dheonach a dhéanamh le bóithre atá i ndroch chaoi a dheisiú.

Cá bhfuil an tairgead ar fad atá muid ag íoc ag dul a fhiafraíonn siad?

Tháinig seo chun solais go luath i ndiaidh ag cruinniu poibli i Ros a’Mhíl I gConamara le déanaí, a eagraíodh de bharr timpiste thragóideach inar maraíodh déagóir a bhí ag siúl an bhóthair, Leah Ní Fhinneadha.

Níl aon chosán coisithe ar an bpíosa bóthair a raibh sí ag siúl air. Níl aon soilse ann agus maítear nach bhfuil na sceacha atá ar leataobh bóthair ann dhá bhearradh mar is cóir ag an gComhairle Chontae. Is é seo an triú timpiste dá leithéad le roinnt blianta san áit inar maraíodh Alan Kelly coisí a bhí ag siúl an bhóthair agus tá daoine áitiúla ar buille mar gheall ar easpa gníomh ón gComhairle Chontae chun an stráice áirithe bóthair seo a dhéanamh níos sábháilte.

Tugadh íde na muc is na madraí don

Teachta Dála Seán Kyne, do na Comhairleoirí Chontae reatha a bhí i láthair agus go deimhin don I a r - A i r e Gaeltachta, Éamon Ó Cuív, mar gheall nár fheidhmigh siad mar gur chóir dóibh chun infheistíocht cuí a chur ar fáil do chosán coisithe ann.

D’fhiafraigh cara óg amháin le Leah Ní Fhinneadha do na polaiteoirí ar fad a bhí i láthair cé mhéad duine a chaithfidh a bheith maraithe sula ndéanfar rud éigin faoi?

Fágadh na polaiteoiri ina dtost.

Cead ceathracha míle euro an costas measta don obair seo atá i gceist i Ros a’Mhíl agus táthar ag moladh go dtiocfar i dtreo na cistí LEADER le n-íoc as nó, anois i dtreo an chiste nua seo atá dhá mholadh ag Alan Kelly.

Ach, is bóthar an chontúirteach polaitiúil í seo le taisteal. Táthar ag iarraidh ar na pobail áitiúla leath, nó níos mó, de chostas na

n-oibreacha a chlúdach - le h-airgead tirim, nó saothar in asice, nó tré áiseanna agus innealra a chuir ar fáil. Is léir go mbeidh buntáiste anseo do phobail rachmasacha seachas iad siúd atá ar an ngannchuid.

Cén tionchar a bheidh aige seo ar na hoibrithe sna Comhairlí Áitiúla a bhíonn ag déanamh na h-oibre seo de ghnáth? Is cinnte nach gcuideoidh sé le buanacht a gcuid

Tá muid ag íoc lucht na mbannaí agus na mbancanna briste ar dtús agus tá na cánacha a luann sí ag déanamh suas an difríocht sa chóras Rialtais Áitiúil

fostaíochta. Céard fgaoi sláinte agus sabháilteacht? Samhlaigh dá mbéimís ag iarraidh ar bhanaltraí, dochtúirí, múinteoirí, Gardaí, nó Dia idir sin agus an anachain státsheirbhísigh leath dá gcuid oibre a dhéanamh in aisce, nó ar bhaill den phobail oibriu ina n-áit go deonach? Bheadh cogadh tionsclaioch ann agus sin mar ba chóir. Agus tá an scéim seo ag teacht ó Aire

Leah Ní Fhinneadha atá i bpáirtí a thugann ‘An Lucht Oibre’ orthu féin!

Agus céard faoin gceist a chuir bean darb ainm Peigí, ar na polaiteoirí i Ros a’Mhíl - cá bhfuil an t-airgead ar fad a íocann sí i gcáin bóthar ag dul, muna bhfuiltear dhá n-úsáid leis na bóithre áitiúla a dheisiú? Bhuel, tá muid ag íoc lucht na mbannaí agus na mbancanna briste ar dtús agus tá na cánacha a luann sí ag déanamh suas an difríocht sa chóras Rialtais Áitiúil.

Oidhreacht an Tíogair Cheiltigh, tá faitíos orm.

ap006-007.qxd

29/05/2013

10:11

Page 1

6 June / Meitheamh 2013

www.anphoblacht.com

MARY LOU McDONALD TELLS PACKED UNITED IRELAND DEBATE IN SOUTH ARMAGH . . .

‘We don’t want a 32-County Free State’

BY PEADAR WHELAN THE Crossmaglen Rangers club was buzzing when upwards of 200 people packed the debate on a United Ireland chaired by Eamonn Mallie and addressed by unionists as well as republicans ahead of the people’s Border poll.

The debate (organised by ‘United Ireland – You Decide: A People’s Referendum’) was lively, interesting and had plenty of contributors from the audience.

And to his credit, Mallie (a native of South Armagh) kept a tight rein on the panellists – Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald, unionist commentator Roy Garland, economist Conor Patterson and Fine Gael Senator Jim D’Arcy – and ensured there was as much audience participation as possible.

And while it shouldn’t be a great surprise that the overwhelming view of the audience was in favour of a united Ireland, the discussion did, as local MP

5 Upwards of 200 people attended the debate at the Crossmaglen Rangers Hall

5 Economist Conor Patterson and Fine Gael Senator Jim D’Arcy “as partition has been divisive. And it is instrumental in slowing down and retarding social and economic development right across the country.

“It makes no sense to have two of everything: two health systems and two education systems, for example.”

Economist Conor Patterson made the interesting observation that the real opposition to a united Ireland lies in Banbridge, Hillsborough and Carrickfergus. These areas of unionist affluence

Eamonn Mallie, Mary Lou McDonald, unionist commentator Roy Garland, economist Conor Patterson and Fine Gael Senator Jim D’Arcy on what a united Ireland could bring Conor Murphy said “throw up a variety of views”.

For his part, Roy Garland, unfortunately the only unionist representative on the panel given that other unionist elected politicians spurned the chance to make their case against reunification, stated that unionists couldn’t be convinced of a united Ireland.

Garland believes that the best way to make progress is to “make Northern Ireland work”.

He said that people will see an Irish dimension and, on that basis, cross-Border (all-Ireland) relations will improve.

Garland spoke of his alienation when he first travelled to the 26 Counties and he cited the Irish language and Catholic statues as examples of his alienation. It was as if he was focusing on this notion of ‘a Catholic country for a Catholic people’ and this would be the model for a united Ireland.

It was a view countered very strongly by a number of speakers from the audience and Mary Lou McDonald TD, who stated emphatically that the republican project isn’t about assimilation.

“Who,” she asked, “would support the notion of a state dedicated to one form of religious dogma?

“We want the Republic,” the Sinn Féin TD insisted,

While the overwhelming view was in favour of a united Ireland, the discussion did throw up a variety of views

5 Unionist commentator Roy Garland and journalist Eamonn Mallie

A PEOPLE’S REFERENDUM is an initiative to begin the debate about Irish unity at a grassroots level and to raise awareness of the provision for a Border Poll in the Good Friday Agreement.

Under the Good Friday Agreement, the British Secretary of State has the power to make an order to direct the holding of a poll on Irish reunification.

populated by “high-paid public officials who live off the British state are in the real dependent relationship with Britain”, he said.

This unionist middle class, “the real vested interests are the ones with the most to lose in any changed circumstance – they dominate the unionist parties and unionist politics and promulgate the unionist position in the media”.

Fine Gael Senator Jim D’Arcy asserted there is “support for a united Ireland in principle” and also said that he is in favour of a unitary state while also disparaging the idea that assimilating the North into the 26 Counties was an option.

He added he would support moves to allow Northern voters to take part in elections for the President of Ireland.

ap006-007.qxd

29/05/2013

10:12

Page 2

www.anphoblacht.com

June / Meitheamh 2013 7

92% vote for reunification in first-ever ‘People’s Referendum’

BORDER BUSTERS 5 More than one thousand people went out to cast their votes in the first-ever People’s Referendum

POLL BACKS UNITED IRELAND

BY PEADAR WHELAN THE GREAT EFFORT by the people of South Armagh and North Louth in organising the first-ever ‘People’s Referendum on Irish Unity’ paid off on Saturday 25 May when over a thousand people went out to cast their votes.

The result saw 92% agreeing that partition should be removed and the country reunited.

When An Phoblacht’s Peadar Whelan arrived in Crossmaglen on Saturday afternoon, The Square of the small South Armagh town was busy with the efforts of the campaign committee as they came and went, advising people and encouraging others to use their votes.

In the end, their efforts were rewarded with a resounding vote in favour of unity.

Although dismissed by unionists and ignored by most of the mainstream media (even though many polling companies base their surveys on a thousand people), The People’s Referendum was welcomed by many as a sounding board for those who believe that a united Ireland is the best option for all the people of the country.

Certainly the 42% of voters of the Crossmaglen electoral ward and their counterparts in Creggan Upper on the Louth side of the Border expressed their view that an end to partition is the best way forward for freedom, peace and – particularly in this time of austerity – economic development.

5 Out campaigning for a Yes vote

‘Even if the result was largely predictable, the fact that people are debating the issue and not everyone agrees that unity is the best option shows there is a high degree of political maturity about’ Local MP Conor Murphy

5 Arriving at one of the polling stations

5 Conor Murphy MP chats with members of the People’s Referendum campaign group

The election itself was run to the highest of standards with Michael Halpenny, a former legal officer with the country’s largest trade union, SIPTU, in place as Presiding Officer.

He and his team ensured the poll was conducted to the same level of scrutiny as any official election and applied rigorous standards during the count as it took place in the Crossmaglen Community Centre.

Also on hand as an international observer was Catalan MP Alfred Bosch, a spokesperson for the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), and himself the driving force behind a similar people’s poll in Catalonia.

The Catalan people are planning their own referendum for freedom, to be held in 2014 although the Spanish Government is resisting the move.

Speaking to An Phoblacht, the Catalan MP was critical of those who described the Border poll as a ‘mock election’, saying: “It is the voice of the people and they are expressing their democratic desire for social justice and freedom.”

An Phoblacht also spoke to voters as they left the polling station.

5 Counting of the votes gets underway at the Crossmaglen count centre Many of them expressed the view that partition and Britain’s control of the North was a block on Irish nationhood and that the Southern state does not represent all the people of the country despite all the major Dáil parties claiming to be in favour of a united Ireland.

As well as focusing on that political view, though, people also told us that the reality of life for people living in Border communities was complicated by the artificial division that severed two thirds of Ulster from the rest of Ireland.

Every aspect of their lives – economic, cultural and social – is affected by the Border.

The fact that there is “two of everything”, as one voter put it, “is ridiculous. Two health services, two education systems, two economies. It’s a farce.”

As the polls closed and people began to converge on the community centre to get the result it was clear that the general mood among those who organised the initiative was that their efforts were not in vain.

Conor Murphy, the Sinn Féin MP for the area, repeated his view, aired at a public meeting in the town a couple of weeks ago: “Even if the result was largely predictable, the fact that people are debating the issue and not everyone agrees that unity is the best option

shows there is a high degree of political maturity about.

“That people were confident enough to vote ‘No’ adds to the integrity of the poll and the campaign.

‘It is the voice of the people and they are expressing their democratic desire for social justice and freedom’ Catalan MP Alfred Bosch, international observer Emma McArdle, spokesperson for the People’s Referendum, welcomed the outcome of the poll: “It will give momentum to the wider discussion around the issue of a Border poll.

“This has been a hugely successful initiative.

We engaged with thousands of people during the campaign. We have allowed the people of our community to have their say. We hope that other areas will follow our example and organise their own poll.”

5 People’s Referendum spokesperson Emma McArdle looks on as Presiding Officer Michael Halpenny and Deputy Presiding Officer Tom O’Driscoll announce the results of the first-ever People’s Referendum

ap008-009.qxd

29/05/2013

10:14

Page 1

8 June / Meitheamh 2013

www.anphoblacht.com

Tories and Lib Dems renege on Peace Dividend, cut grant and attack welfare

North’s economy under attack from Westminster A NUMBER OF WEEKS AGO, myself and Peter Robinson met with the British Prime Minister David Cameron in Downing Street. It was one of only a handful of meetings that have taken place since the Tory/Liberal Democrats coalition came into power.

5 Sinn Féin activists take to the streets in opposition to welfare and budget cuts imposed from Westminster

Throughout their time in government they have not been as engaged as they should have been in the Peace Process and have undermined the work of the Executive: • They have reneged on the Peace Dividend; • They cut the Block Grant; • They have refused to devolve powers on Corporation Tax; • And now they are proposing to implement significant welfare cuts.

At the centre of all of this is a failure to understand what is required in a society moving out of conflict.

What is urgently needed is an investment package to stimulate the economy.

That is why all of the parties ensured a key outcome from the negotiations at St Andrews which led to the establishment of the current Executive and Assembly was a commitment from the then

I find the targeting of the most vulnerable and hard working low-income families by these welfare cuts as unacceptable. I have told the British Prime Minister this very directly British Government for a significant Peace Dividend. This was a negotiation presided over by the British and Irish governments and in conjunction with the US through their Special Envoy.

This was a recognition that society in the North is emerging from conflict and had suffered from decades of under investment during Direct Rule, particularly in our infrastructure.

One of the first actions of the current British Government was to renege on this commitment.

By this action it removed from the Executive the ability to deliver a capital investment programme in key infrastructural projects which would have had the dual effect of providing much-needed employment in the construction industry and bringing our roads, hospitals and schools up to the necessary standard.

The next action of the British Government was to cut the Block Grant.

Within the fiscal constraints of the Executive collectively we managed to raise some additional revenue and tried to offset the worst effects of the cut to the Block Grant.

But this approach was clearly stretching our finances to the limit.

We have recently met the British Secretary of State Theresa Villiers to discuss an economic package for the Executive. It was not a good meeting and in many ways mirrored our previous discussions with David Cameron.

This cannot continue. The Executive simply

The Executive simply cannot sustain attack after attack from the British Government undermining its ability to work effectively and deliver for the community

BY MARTIN McGUINNESS JOINT FIRST MINISTER

Now, to compound this difficult situation, the British Government are seeking to impose welfare cuts under the guise of reform.

This will, in effect, remove millions of pounds from the economy in the North.

I find the targeting of the most vulnerable and hard working low-income families by these cuts as unacceptable. I have told the British Prime Minister this very directly.

Having invested so much in this process and in these institutions I am frustrated that the British Government are undermining our work to this extent.

People rightly expect the Executive to try and deliver, however it seems the British Government are intent on trying to get us to operate with our hands tied behind our backs.

cannot sustain attack after attack from the British Government undermining its ability to work effectively and deliver for the community.

It is my view that the Executive cannot sustain these three attacks on our finances.

Put simply, the British Government need to think again. They need to return to the commitments they have made. They need to recognise the unique situation the Executive is in and the political reality that we will not countenance the continuation of this agenda or acquiesce to it.

The British Government need to re-engage with the parties in the Executive. They need to come to the table with a sensible economic package which will allow progress to be made.

We do not want or expect blank cheques. But what we do demand is that ability to be allowed to deliver on the basis which was previously agreed.

A key outcome from the negotiations at St Andrews which led to the establishment of the current Executive and Assembly was a commitment from the then British Government for a significant Peace Dividend – the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats have reneged on this

ap008-009.qxd

29/05/2013

10:17

Page 2

www.anphoblacht.com

June / Meitheamh 2013 9

MIND OUR MEN ANTI-SUICIDE CAMPAIGN

EVERY WEEK

10 PEOPLE DIE BY SUICIDE

8 OF THEM ARE MEN WATCH OUT FOR

BY MARK MOLONEY

SIGNS THAT SOMEBODY MAY BE IN DISTRESS:

“BY THIS DAY NEXT WEEK, 10 people in Ireland will have died by suicide, and 8 of them will be men,” Joan Freeman of Pieta House tells An Phoblacht. It is this shocking statistic that brought the suicide and selfharm crisis centre to launch the ‘Mind Our Men’ campaign.

Pieta House has called on people to educate themselves on the signs and symptoms of suicide. The Mind Our Men campaign aims to give people the skills and training needed to reach out to men in their lives during times of crisis.

Joan says that while there has been a huge increase in suicide awareness in recent years, it is still not enough.

“There are hundreds of organisations doing great work but it’s family and friends who are on the frontline and who need to educate themselves on the warning signs to look out for,” she says. “Research shows that more suicides are prevented by family and friends than by any organisation or institution. This is why we’re targeting the women and men of Ireland and empowering them to tackle the problem of suicide – spot the signs and save a life.”

Men are far less likely to get help for themselves and often believe that they can ‘fix’ the situation or that their feelings will pass. Joan says that in the vast majority of cases men are

STATISTICS

• Isolating himself • Turning off his mobile phone and/or quitting social media • Decreased performance at work or school 5 Joan Freeman of Pieta House referred to the organisation by their partner or mother. Pieta House says its research shows that the two traumatic life events that would most likely lead men to taking their lives are: the loss of a major relationship, through break-up or bereavement; or problems with employment, either redundancy, unemployment, retirement or job uncertainty. The fact that most suicides are prevented by family, friends and colleagues explains why knowing how to react is so important. If a person has noticed multiple signs that a person is suicidal they should:ASK: Tell him that you have noticed he is feeling down. Ask him the question: “Are you suicidal?”

PERSUADE: Persuade him to allow you to get help. Do not leave it up to him.

8 out of 10 men aged 18-34

REFER: Refer him to an organisation like Pieta House or his GP if no service is available.

Two thirds of men who have died by suicide

People are also reminded that if somebody expresses suicidal thoughts they should be taken seriously and it should never be assumed that a person is attention seeking.

As part of the campaign, ‘Mind Your Buddy’ is being rolled out in organisations and workplaces

KNOW SOMEONE WHO HAS DIED BY SUICIDE EXPRESSED SUICIDAL THOUGHTS TO FAMILY OR FRIENDS EVERY YEAR, IN EVERY COUNTRY in the world except China,

MORE MEN DIE BY SUICIDE THAN WOMEN

• Angry or tearful emotional outbursts PHOTO: Pieta House Centre for the Prevention of Suicide & Self-Harm

across the country. This suicide prevention programme aims to train specific people within organisations and workplaces in the areas of support and referral. At the moment it is being

The two traumatic life events that would most likely lead men to taking their lives are the loss of a major relationship through break-up or bereavement or problems with employment

implemented in male-dominated organisations such as the Defence Forces, An Garda Síochána, the Scouts and the GAA. “It’s frightening to think that there are women and men across Ireland today whose loved ones may be contemplating suicide without their knowledge,” says Joan. “It could be your father, your son, your partner, your brother, your friend; this is why it’s so vital that we all take a proactive approach in learning the signs to look out for.”

• Increase in alcohol or drug use • Behavioural changes such as loss of appetite or inability to sleep • Becoming lethargic and emotionally withdrawn • Becoming coninuously distracted or accident prone • Use of language such as “I have no future” or “What’s the point of anything?”

If someone you know is displaying one or two of these signs – don’t worry.

Chances are they’re fine. If they’re displaying multiple signs, then you might need to take action

MIND OUR MEN: To pledge your support for the campaign and join the growing community of people across Ireland minding their men, log on to www.mindourmen.ie

Youth suicide rates in Ireland are the

FIFTH HIGHEST IN THE EU Every week, 10 people die by suicide in Ireland

8 OF THEM ARE MEN

PIETA HOUSE: Provides a professional, face-toface, free-of-charge therapeutic service for people in the acute stages of distress, for more information on Pieta House, visit www.pieta.ie or call 01 601 0000.

ap010-011.qxd

29/05/2013

10:20

Page 1

Another View 10 June / Meitheamh 2013

www.anphoblacht.com

EOIN Ó BROIN Apple told the US Senate investigation that they negotiated a bargain basement tax deal with the Irish Government

The real cost of tax dodging WHAT HAVE Bermuda, Ireland and the Cayman Islands got in common?

According to a high-profile US Senate investigation, we are all tax havens.

Google was very recently in hot water at the Westminster Public Accounts Committee.

Irate MPs accused the internet giant of “devious” use of Irish tax law to slash its tax bill.

in income over four years. Tax was paid on only a tiny proportion of this.

Apple told the Senate investigation that they negotiated a bargain basement tax deal with the Irish Government. The result was that, from 2009 to 2012, they paid an average 2% tax. In 2011, it was as low as 0.5%.

Successive Irish governments have made much of the benefits of our low corporate tax rate. They have argued that it brings jobs and tax revenue.

It is governments who make the tax laws so it is governments who should take the blame

Apple Operations International, based in Ireland, reported a net income of $30billion from 2009 to 2012. Amazingly, Apple did not pay a single cent of tax on this

This may be so. But there is a world of difference between having a ‘competitive’ corporate tax regime and colluding with corporate tax avoidance on such a massive scale.

While Apple employ 4,000 people in the state, only 250 of these work in the two subsidiaries under investigation by the US Senate. The tax revenue raised is almost non-existent. The negative impact at home and abroad, however, is enormous.

Hundreds of millions of euro in tax revenue is being lost. This is money that could be used to get people off the dole and back into work.

It could be used to plug the hole in our crumbling education or health systems.

Instead, Government collusion with corporate tax dodgers risks undermining the state’s international reputation.

Christian Aid estimates that corporate tax avoidance costs the world’s poorest countries $160billion every year Now US senators are getting hot under the collar with Apple for using Ireland as part of a global tax dodge.

According to the Senate investigation, Apple Operations International, based in Ireland, reported a net income of $30billion from 2009 to 2012. Amazingly, Apple did not pay a single cent of tax on this.

A second subsidiary based in the state, Apple Sales International, received $74billion

The lives of 350,000 children under the age of 5 could be saved if corporate tax avoidance were abolished

Worse still, it is hurting the world’s poorest countries.

According to Christian Aid, corporate tax avoidance costs the world’s poorest countries $160billion every year. The charity estimates that the lives of 350,000 children under the age of 5 could be saved if such practices were abolished.

As a favoured destination for the legal laundering of corporate profits, Ireland is complicit is this global scam.

According to University of Limerick tax economist Sheila Killian, in her 2011 report for the Debt and Development Coalition, it is akin to “driving the getaway car”.

Corporate tax dodging is wrong. But at the end of the day it is not Google or Apple we should blame. They are simply doing what they are designed to do – maximising their profits.

It is governments who make the tax laws so it is governments who should take the blame.

Politicians in Britain and the US should stop whingeing and start legislating.

Closer to home, Fine Gael and Labour should pull their heads out of the sand and admit that what they are doing is damaging our economy, our society and our international standing.

ap010-011.qxd

29/05/2013

10:23

Page 2

www.anphoblacht.com

June / Meitheamh 2013 11

FIRST-EVER WEEKEND

F AMI L Y

Festival TO MARK 250th ANNIVERSARY OF WOLFE TONE’S BIRTH

French Army re-enactments of Wolfe Tone era, pipe and flute bands, music and entertainment A WEEKEND of festival activities to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Theobald Wolfe Tone, the founder of Irish republicanism, is being organised by Kildare Sinn Féin over Saturday and Sunday, June 22 and 23.

The local organisers are hoping that republicans will turn out in large numbers to make this inaugural event a success and become a regular feature to be built on in future years.

SATURDAY

The Festival opens in the Osprey Hotel in Naas with a Summer BBQ Party (7pm till late)

to celebrate Wolfe Tone’s 250th birthday. Live music by Fenian Folk, DJs and special guests will add to the party atmosphere filled with the aromas of flame-grilled meats, jacket potatoes and fresh salads. Information, event guide, accommodation listings and tickets for the Summer BBQ Party, priced at just €15 and including food, are on sale now through our website www.wolfetonefestival.com

SUNDAY

The annual Sinn Féin commemoration march to Bodenstown Graveyard will take place, assembling in Sallins village at 2:15pm The finest pipe bands in Ireland will lead the

march to Bodenstown Graveyard, where Pearse Doherty TD will make the keynote address.

To mark the 250th anniversary, a number of new concepts have been added to this year’s event.

In Sallins village, a live music stage, carnival stalls and all the fun of the fair will be created to help celebrate the occasion.

In association with Flanagan’s Mill and the Lock 13 Bar and Restaurant in Sallins, live music and complimentary food will be served after the event at 6pm.

Historical re-enactment group the French 70e Demi-Brigade d’Infanterie de

Ligne (70th Line Infantry) will take the field in period uniforms and costumes to honour the French connection of Wolfe Tone’s life.

They will camp out in Sallins and add flavour and colour to the festival, with displays that will help rekindle the glory days of Wolfe Tone.

Festival spokesperson Dan Kirwan says: “We hope that republicans from across the 32 counties of Ireland will come along with their family, friends and international visitors in helping to establish a festival in honour and memory of a great Irishman and the founder of Irish republicanism.”

WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION SUNDAY 23RD JUNE SPEAKER:

Pearse Doherty TD ASSEMBLE:

Sallins 2.15pm CHAIR:

Paula Breathnach

ap012-013.qxd

29/05/2013

10:32

Page 1

www.anphoblacht.com JUNE 20th 2013 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Theobald Wolfe Tone, the founder of Irish republicanism. Every year, republicans gather at his last resting place in Bodenstown, County Kildare, on the Sunday nearest his birthday. MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA profiles Tone and his enduring influence throughout republican history up to today.

12 June / Meitheamh 2013

Wolfe Tone in his own words I made speedily what was to me a great discovery, though I might have found it in Swift and Molyneaux, that the influence of England was the radical vice of our Government and consequently that Ireland would never be either free, prosperous or happy until she was independent, and that independence was unattainable while the connection with England lasted.

Autobiography

•••••••• But now, what are the victories of Britain to us? Hers is the quarrel, hers the glory, and to us nothing but the certainty of danger and death; the action is over, the name of Ireland is never heard; for England, not for our country, we fight and die . . . We plant the laurel and water it with our best blood and Britain reposes under the shade.

The Spanish War, 1790

•••••••• To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils and to assert the independence of my country these were my objects. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissension and to substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter – these were my means.

Autobiography

•••••••• We have no national government – we are ruled by Englishmen, and the servants of Englishmen whose object is the interest of another country, whose instrument is corruption, and whose strength is the weakness of Ireland; and these men have the whole of the power and patronage of the country as means to seduce and subdue the honesty and spirit of her representatives in the legislature.

Declaration of the Society of United Irishmen, 1791

THEOBALD WOLFE TONE, FOUNDER OF IRISH REPUBLICANISM

A life for Ireland THEOBALD WOLFE TONE was born on 20 June 1763 in Stafford Street (now Wolfe Tone Street), in Dublin, where a plaque today marks the site of the house. He was born into a family from County Kildare who were Church of Ireland.

Tone’s background and religion placed him well for a privileged career in an Ireland where the system of English rule was based on blatant sectarian discrimination.

Catholics and Presbyterians were penalised under the law and only propertied males who were members of the Church of Ireland enjoyed full rights of property, freedom of religion and access to jobs under the crown. But Tone was a free thinker and by the time he qualified as a lawyer in 1789 he was already embracing radical politics.

Convinced that English rule in Ireland was tyranny, he was deeply influenced by the democratic ideas of the French Revolution. His first pamphlet in 1790 argued for Irish neutrality and non-involvement in England’s wars.

He became Secretary of the Catholic Committee which was lobbying for civil rights

emembering R

5 A plaque marks Wolfe Tone's birthplace on Wolfe Tone Street in Dublin and his pamphlet, An Argument on Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland, had a major impact.

In 1791, Tone was the joint founder of the Society of United Irishmen in Dublin and Belfast.

the

Enduring influence 100 years ago, in 1913, the Irish Republican Brotherhood chose PH Pearse to deliver the oration at Tone’s grave in Bodenstown. It marked Pearse’s emergence as a republican leader.

The commemoration was chaired by veteran Fenian Tom Clarke. Less than three years later, Pearse and Clarke would be executed on the same day for their part in the Easter Rising.

Pearse said at Tone’s grave: “Thinker and doer, dreamer of the immortal dream and doer of the immortal deed – we owe to this dead man more than we can ever repay him by making pilgrimage to his grave or by rearing to him the stateliest monument in the streets of his city. To his teaching we owe it that there is such a thing as Irish nationalism.”

1913:

Past

In 1963, the bicentenary of Tone’s birth was marked by the establishment of the Wolfe Tone Societies, one of the elements out of which emerged the

Civil Rights Movement. In a publication called Wolfe Tone Today, Protestant republican and journalist Jack Bennett wrote:

5 Statue of Wolfe Tone, The Square, Bantry, west Cork

“The solution to all Ireland’s exceptional political and economic problems, the solution to mass unemployment and emigration, the solution to sectarianism in the North, all this requires the raising again of Tone’s grand concept, a brotherhood of Irishmen to claim our country.

There can be no other objective for any movement which aims at uniting the people – no purpose other than to obtain the unity and independence of our country under one sovereign government.”

In 1983, Gerry Adams, newly-elected Sinn Féin MP for West Belfast, delivered the Bodenstown oration. He said: “Wolfe Tone, if he were alive today, would be vilified – as he was in his time – as an upstart, a subversive and a 1798 equivalent of a gunman. He would even, if he were alive today, be banned from RTÉ.

But he would also, and this is his message to us, be formulating poli-

1983:

PH Pearse

1963:

Initially, the society sought a reformed Irish Parliament but after Tone drew up the society’s first resolutions he wrote to his friend and comrade Thomas Russell: “I have not said one word that

Souvenir paper to mark the bi-centenary in 1963 cies, strategies and revolutionary tactics to combat the national, social and economic evils which beset our people.”

2013:

During the talks which led to the

ap012-013.qxd

29/05/2013

10:32

Page 2

www.anphoblacht.com

June / Meitheamh 2013 13

Wolfe Tone in his own words

5 An inscribed flagstone near Wolfe Tone’s grave in Bodenstown

5 By the time he was a qualified lawyer, Tone was already embracing radical politics

5 An artist’s impression of the death of Theobald Wolfe Tone

looks like a wish for separation, though I give it to you and your friends as my most decided opinion that such an event would be a regeneration to this country.”

As repression tightened and as England’s war with revolutionary France intensified, the United Irishmen became more radical and demanded full Irish independence.

Forced into exile in America in 1795, Tone successfully lobbied the French Republic to send a military force to help liberate Ireland and he sailed with the fleet himself in 1796. Storms scattered the ships and they had to turn back at Bantry Bay. Tone persisted and sailed again with a small French force in 1798.

Captured off the coast of Donegal, Tone was taken in chains to Dublin, tried before a British Army courtmartial and sentenced to death. He died in custody in the Provost Prison, Arbour Hill, on 19 November 1798. The British authorities claimed it was suicide but many believe he was murdered by his jailers to prevent his release, which had been ordered by a Dublin court after John

Autobiography, describing visit to Belfast prior to his exile in America in 1795

•••••••• Our independence must be had at all hazards. If the men of property will not support us, they must fall; we can support ourselves by the aid of that most numerous and respectable class of the community, the men of no property.

Journals, March 1796

Thomas Russell Philpot Curran successfully challenged his detention.

Wolfe Tone was buried in the family plot in Bodenstown Churchyard, County Kildare, a place of political pilgrimage for Irish republicans ever since.

Journals, December 1798, describing the scattering of the French ships at Bantry Bay

An Address to the People of Ireland, 1796

GERRY ADAMS speaking at Bodenstown in 1983 the Peace Process and the political process have seen republicans and unionists working together in the political institutions established under an Agreement on the basis

•••••••• Well, England has not had such an escape since the Spanish Armada and that expedition, like ours, was defeated by the weather; the elements fight against us and courage is here or no avail.

•••••••• To say all in one word, Ireland shall be independent. We shall be a nation, not a province, citizens not slaves.

‘If Wolfe Tone were alive today, he would be banned from RTÉ. But he would also, and this is his message to us, be formulating policies, strategies and revolutionary tactics to combat the national, social and economic evils which beset our people’

Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Féin submitted discussion papers that cited Tone’s principles of Irish independence and unity among the people of Ireland. Fifteen years on,

I remember, particularly, two days that we passed on the Cave Hill. On the first, Russell, Neilson, Simms, McCracken, and one or two more of us, on the summit of McArt’s Fort, took a solemn obligation – which I think I may say I have, on my part, endeavored to fulfill – never to desist in our efforts until we had subverted the authority of England over our country and asserted our independence.

of equality and parity of esteem.

Sinn Féin today is determined to move forward to complete the work of Tone and the United Irishmen and women – ending

sectarianism, creating a common citizenship respectful of all strands of the nation and building a new Republic, a united, independent Ireland.

•••••••• From my earliest youth I have regarded the connection between Great Britain and Ireland as the curse of the Irish nation, and felt convinced that, whilst it lasted, this country could never be free nor happy. My mind has been confirmed in this opinion by the experience of every succeeding year, and the conclusions which I have drawn from every fact before my eyes. In consequence, I was determined to employ all the powers which my individual efforts could move, in order to separate the two countries.

Speech to the Court-Martial, Dublin, 10 November 1798

ap014-015.qxd

29/05/2013

10:34

Page 1

14 June / Meitheamh 2013

www.anphoblacht.com

Political parties’ social media efforts analysed in new expert report

Hands off the licence fee!

TWITTER

AND YOUTUBE

‘Sinn Féin wins hands down’

BY EOIN Ó MURCHÚ THERE has been a growing campaign by private business interests to get a share of public funding from the TV and radio licence fee to boost the profits of their commercial broadcast companies.

Their argument is that because the state broadcaster, RTÉ, is funded both from the licence fee and from advertising there is not a level playing field in terms of competition for advertising, thus giving RTÉ an unfair advantage over its competitors.

Although republicans will have no love for RTÉ (given its past and recent attitude to them), it would be a big mistake to allow that distaste to push anyone behind the private greed merchants.

The point of the licence fee is that the state makes sure that the Irish people have their own broadcasting services. We may not like what we get but democratically we can fight to get the services improved and made professional.

For public service broadcasting is broadcasting owned by the public, the nature and terms of which we can decide by public debate.

It’s fair enough to let private interests fill in niche sections of the broadcasting market, and no one can deny that Vincent Browne’s current affairs programme on TV3 is streets ahead of RTÉ’s Prime Time in terms of fairness, professionalism and the general quality of being worth watching. But private interests ultimately are interested in making profits and they should not be

FACEBOOK,

BY MARK MOLONEY

5 No one can deny that Vincent Browne’s current affairs programme on TV3 is streets ahead of RTÉ’s ‘Prime Time’

subsidised by the state purse in doing so.

RTÉ should be made accountable for its lack of professional fairness and impartiality through political pressure and debate, not through pouring public money into private pockets.

Although republicans will have no love for RTÉ, it would be a big mistake to allow that distaste to push anyone behind the private greed merchants

A NEW REPORT by SocialMedia.ie into the use of social media and online content by the four main parties in the 26 Counties shows Sinn Féin easily leading the pack.

The Dublin-based media and social marketing group said their study aimed to analyse the data and communication styles of the four main parties on Facebook and Twitter to spot trends, patterns and styles used by the main parties.

SocialMedia.ie co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Barry O’Sullivan describes Sinn Féin as the “clear winners, consistently posting engaging content” such as video clips and images and said “other parties could learn from this”.

The report also noted that content from the Government parties is viewed as misleading by a high number of users. Sinn Féin and other opposition parties are viewed more positively as users “feel like they are being told the truth”.

On Twitter it is a similar story,

with the report stating that “Sinn Féin wins hands down” with its consistent use of the platform to keep followers updated.

Michael Nolan of Sinn Féin’s multimedia department told An Phoblacht (whose web content was also highlighted in the analysis) that the report is encouraging. He says

‘There is huge potential out there for republicans to get our message out to tens of thousands of people on our own terms’ that for a party that was subjected to draconian state censorship laws in previous years and is constantly misrepresented by the mainstream Establishment media today “the internet offers us the opportunity to level the playing field”.

Facebook followers

Michael added that he believes the party has held its top position because Sinn Féin offers a lot more than other parties in terms of content.

“We try to be as creative as possible in how we present our message – through videos, photos, infographics – and that resonates with pople.

We also have a different story to tell compared to the Establishment parties and that plays a part in it.”

Michael says there is still massive room for further development.

“We are only scratching the surface in terms of using the internet and social networks to mobilise people for action. Over the next number of months we will have an exciting number of new developments in terms of our online presence. Part of that will include a complete rebuilding of our main website.

“There is huge potential out there for republicans to get our message out to tens of thousands of people on our own terms and in our own words and images with an immediacy and directness that can change the way people think and act.”

YouTube video views

Sinn Féin 14,980

Sinn Féin 1,357,645

Labour

Labour

Fine Gael

7,804 7,206 Fianna Fáil 4,664

535,171

Fine Gael 285,602 Fianna Fáil 111,158

ap014-015.qxd

29/05/2013

10:36

Page 2

www.anphoblacht.com

June / Meitheamh 2013 15

Opinion

BY DAVE HUGHES Deputy General Secretary Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation

Game, set and match to the banks WELL, Frankfurt’s way is Labour’s way!

Leo Varadkar’s ‘not a cent more’ to Anglo Irish Bank became Ř34billion and all bond holders have been paid with our Taoiseach proudly announcing after his election that Ireland would pay every red cent of its debt. But nothing shows the extent to which banks are running Ireland and Europe more than the recently-published ‘Insolvency Guidelines and Rules’ which were launched in April.

The Irish banks were recapitalised and their bad loans were taken from them into the hands of NAMA, which is paid for by workers and other taxpayers. They received further recapitalisation funds in respect of anticipated mortgage defaults of up to 30% of mortgage holders and there is no significant evidence that they have accepted a writedown of any mortgages as a result.

Instead, the Irish banks (and their highlypaid executives) have skilfully managed to shift the burden of their debt onto the state and the general public. They have avoided the impact of austerity which has largely fallen on those who are dependent on welfare and public servants. However, their biggest coup of all was the hardball they played with Government which now allows them dictate the level of penury imposed on a generation whom they, the politicians and the developers, convinced to incur debt on the basis of ‘you must get onto the property ladder’.

It was Government, fully aided and abetted

by Opposition politicians of the day, who allowed land prices escalate beyond anything that could be considered reasonable and allowed the price of houses rise to the point where the cost of production bore no resemblance to the sale value. The current government have now created a ‘PIP’ (Personal Insolvency Provider) whom, they say, will advocate on behalf of the debtor (mortgage

5 Trade unions on the march in Dublin calling for a fair deal on bank debt holder) against the big bad banks. The reality of this is that they have created a middle man who will charge the debtor for any assistance provided and who, in the way of these things, will ultimately become practitioners or businesses that have a more familiar relationship with the banks than any individual client whom they deal with. Criminals facing the court are entitled to free legal aid but unfortunate mortgage holders, the victims of an overheated economy for which they hold no responsibility, will have to pay for their representation in the insolvency process.

Resolution The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation two years ago successfully promoted a resolution to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions which would have sought a fairer resolution for the generation of mortgage holders whose principal private residence was overvalued to

the extent that they are now in negative equity.

The motion sought, among other things, that the capital amount would be written down to the current value of the principal private residence, very similar to the scheme which has operated successfully in Iceland.

The Icelandic Government were prepared to force their banks to burden their share of their reckless lending. Although passed at the ICTU conference and adopted as policy of the ICTU, it never featured in any pre-Budget submission or economic analysis presented by the ICTU. But that is another matter which is not untypical of the tyranny of consensus which imposed silence on even the largest civic society organisation in Ireland.

But alas we have become used to the idea that the first casualty nowadays of politics is the truth. You can almost be guaranteed that if a Government minister or spokesperson says something is fair it will be inherently unfair.

Such was the case with the proposals promoted under the Croke Park Extension which,

“

It was Government, fully aided and abetted by Opposition politicians of the day, who allowed land prices escalate beyond anything that could be considered reasonable and allowed the price of houses rise to the point where the cost of production bore no resemblance to the sale value

when reviewed independently by an equality expert, were deemed to be discriminatory and inequitable. Likewise, the sight of two Government ministers promoting the notion of tax concessions at the same time as Minister Howlin was trying to take Ř3,000 out of the pocket of the vast majority of nurses and midwives is yet another example that nothing has changed in spite of the huge promise that we would never return to auction politics.

Huge disappointments The insolvency debacle and the mortgage problem which is still the biggest problem facing citizens in Ireland, along with the sustained attack on public service workers, are huge disappointments to anybody who voted for new politics when they voted in this government.

Regrettably, this government, to an even greater extent than its predecessors, have debased politics and have further alienated working people and those who contribute most in our society. The recent massive rejection of the Croke Park Extension proposals was the first opportunity that any significant body of Irish people outside of the Irish election got the opportunity to say ‘No’. The resounding ‘No’ by approximately 70% of the entire public service should not be ignored. If it is, then the time has surely come for a full confrontation with politicians who ignore the people and believe that they know better.

• Opinion pieces and columnists’ views do not necessarily reflect those of Sinn Féin or Sinn Féin policy.

ap016-017.qxd

29/05/2013

10:40

Page 1

16 June / Meitheamh 2013

1969

www.anphoblacht.com

‘The greatest harmonica player in the world’ BONO

5

Don, aged 19, playing guitar in a Dublin pub

1993

THIS IS

Don Baker Time to come off the fence

5 Pete Postlethwaite, Don and Daniel Day-Lewis in the Oscar-nominated film, ‘In the Name of the Father’, about the framing of the Guildford Four

2002

5 Don plays at the Sinn Féin gig against the EU Austerity Treaty in the Rotunda in May 2012

5 Don with Joe Duffy and Brendan O’Carroll performing on RTÉ’s Christmas Eve edition of ‘Liveline’

2008

5 At the launch of 'Ronnie Drew, The Last Session: A Fond Farewell' with Jim McCann and Finbar Furey

BORN into a Dublin Corporation house working-class Whitheall in 1950, Don’s father was a waiter in the Gresham Hotel and regularly played snooker at the Cosmo Club in O’Connell Street. He was known for his habit of falling asleep under the snooker tables from a combination of drink and tiredness. He would often go straight to work from the snooker hall.

As a child, Don stole from neighbours’ gardens – from vegetables and rhubarb and rabbits – to literally put food on the table.

He didn’t thieve because it was easy; it was out of necessity. He was, he says, “driven by an intense survival instinct – a desire to see us through somehow or other”. In between robbing, he sold jam jars and helped the grocery man on his Saturday deliveries. He got out of bed at 3am on cold, wintry mornings to do the same on a milk round. “I did anything to bring in the badly-needed shillings.”

The family were evicted from their Whitheall home for rent arrears and dispatched to a flat in Corporation Buildings in Foley Street, near Connolly Rail Station. It was a tough neighbourhood. His teenage years were a catalogue of violence and crime.

“I couldn’t rationalise it then, back in the 1960s,” he tells An Phoblacht, “but I was going to either starve or become a juvenile delinquent. So I chose to be a juvenile delinquent.”

At the age of 13, he was sentenced to two years in the now notorious ‘reform home’ at Daingean, in County Offaly, run by the Oblate Fathers.

He left Daingean – scarred physically and emotionaly – at the age of 15.

After six years in Corporation Street, the Bakers – then two parents and five kids – moved to a three-roomed flat in Common Street, close to Sheriff Street.

Daingean was supplemented by jail time in the juvenile prisons at St Patrick’s Institution

DON BAKER is a remarkable man. Not just in terms of his musical talent (Bono called him “the greatest harmonica player in the world”) but in his fight to emerge from an early life in Dublin’s inner city dominatd by TB, an alcoholic father, juvenile crime and a brutal incarceration in an industrial school run by the Catholic Church.

Don Baker is a survivor.

He spoke to JOHN HEDGES as he releases a new number on iTunes – ‘Woe to the Holy Vow’. (adjoining Mountjoy Prison) and Shanganagh Castle in South County Dublin.

In later years, coming home from a gig in a Dublin pub where all he got for his night’s efforts were his drinks, he met two pals and joined the Defence Forces the next day “on a whim” but

5 Protesters outside the Mater Hospital call for the release of Seán Mac Stíofáin during his hunger strike in 1972

ap016-017.qxd

29/05/2013

10:41

Page 2

www.anphoblacht.com

5

June / Meitheamh 2013 17

Don Baker speaks to ‘An Phoblacht’ in the Sinn Féin Bookshop & Café on Parnell Square and (right) out and about in Dublin’s Moore Street

with an eye to getting into the Army School of Music. Completing his nine months’ training, he enthusiastically made his request only to be told, at the age of 23 or 24, that he was too old – he should have done it at 17.

Growing disillusionment with the army through the thwarting of his musical ambitions and the death of his father came to a head wth the arrest of IRA Chief of Staff Seán Mac Stíofáin in November 1972. Mac Stíofáin immediately went on a hunger and thirst strike and was taken from the Curragh Camp Prison to the Mater Hospital in Dublin. Protests took place outside the Mater for him to be freed. Don Baker’s fellow soldiers were assigned to guard the republican leader against rising public anger. The Bloody Sunday massacre had been carried out by the British Army’s Parachute Regiment in Derry in January of that year. Don Baker felt the tension.

“Some of my neighbours and friends were among the demonstrators,” he recalls in his biography, The Winner in Me. “The prospect of Private Don Baker in full riot gear, shield and baton having to club his unarmed and defenceless mates was one which did not appeal to me in the slightest. I took the only reasonable course of action I thought was open to me: I disappeared over the wall of the barracks and went AWOL – Absent Without Leave.”

Three-star Private Don Baker was arrested and returned to military custody. He then secured a medical discharge even though he was as fit as a fiddle.

THE MUSIC As a child with TB he spent a lot of time in the James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown.

“When I was six, then around nine, and again about eleven. When I was in there the second time, when I was nine, there was a guy in there who had TB of the spine and he was on his back all day long. He couldn’t watch TV; all he could do was read a book or play harmonica and that got me hooked. My mother brought one up to me and I started playing.

“I took up the guitar in Shanganagh Castle

when I was 17 and I’ve been playing music ever since.”

But what got an inner city tearaway immersed in the blues, a genre with its origins in AfricanAmerican slaves toiling away in the cotton fields of the Deep South?

“Blues are spiritual. It’s nothing to do with the colour of your skin, You don’t have to be black to sing the blues,” he says, rattling off a string of famous white blues artists, including Janis Joplin and Eric Clapton. “And it’s not about where you live. The blues are about feelings.”

The first song he ever wrote was an antimotorway protest song perhaps surprisngly commissioned by RTÉ’s The Late Late Show in 1979 – and it was a Number 1 hit. It was called Dublin’s Inner City and recorded by The Jolly Beggarmen, “It was kind of in cahoots with Tony Gregory because I was living in the inner city at the time.

The Government wanted to plough a motorway through the inner city and basically evict people living there. That’s how the song-writing began.

I didn’t think I could write songs before that. I’ve been writing ever since.”

His new album is called My Songs, My Friends.

It’s 20 tracks written by Don Baker sung by other artists, including Brian Kennedy, Eleanor McEvoy, Liam Ó Maonlaí, Damien Dempsey, The High Kings, Paddy Casey, Sinéad O’Connor and Finbar Furey.

As An Phoblacht is about to go to print, Don rings us to let us know his new song about the Catholic Church, Woe to the Holy Vow, featuring Sinéad O’Connor and Damien Dempsey, has just been released on iTunes. It’s clearly aimed at the Catholic Church but, Don shows no bitterness and he doesn’t want to offend anyone: “I’m not into revenge; I’m very much into forgivess.

“I need to and I choose to forgive the Catholic Church for all the things done by them or in their name. I’m not looking to blame them; I’m looking to place responsibility.”

‘I’M A REBEL’ Don did a set at the Sinn Féin rally in May of

next person and I can tell you this much – I know what’s right, what’s true as opposed to false, and what’s good as opposed to bad.”

“When I see Mary Lou McDonald on the TV, or Gerry Adams or Pearse Doherty or Martin McGuinness, I’m saying to myself: “Do I believe these people? Yes, I do.

“Do I think these people are honest? Yes, I do.

“Do I trust these people? Yes, I do.”

Don Baker’s new song

WOE TO THE HOLY VOW featuring Sinéad O’Connor and Damien Dempsey, is available on iTunes last year at Sinn Féin’s final rally in Dublin’s Rotunda calling for a ‘No’ vote against the EU Austerity Treaty.

He told the audience after a barnstorming set that it was “time to come off the fence”.

Why now?

“By sitting on the fence I wasn’t doing anybody any good and I thought that, as an artist and a songwriter, some people might listen to me. I’m not trying to push my views on anyone; I’m just saying this is who I am, this is what I believe, this is who I support, this is Don Baker.

“I think Sinn Féin people are truthful and are honest. Not only that, they support the worker.

They support the guy like me and where I come from. That is why I support Sinn Féin.

“I’m a rebel that wants to be associated with courageous people who will stand up and be counted.

“I’ve read Gerry Adams’s books and I’ve met the man and, I won’t deny it, I was impressed. I don’t know any other politician that takes four bullets in the chest and gets out of bed and goes back to work.”

Don is forthright in declaring that he does not endorse violence and did not support the armed struggle of the IRA. He can see why people took up arms even though he didn’t agree.

Today, it’s a different kind of struggle.

“I think we desperately need change in this country. I’m an ordinary Joe Soap when it comes to politics but I’m as intelligent as the

DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Don’s first-hand experience of being in prison came in handy when he landed the part of jailed IRA Volunteer ‘Joe McAndrew’ in the Oscarnominated 1993 biopic, In the Name of the Father, about the framing of the Guildford Four for IRA bombings of English pubs used by British soldiers. Daniel Day-Lewis played Gerard Conlon. (Director Jim Sheridan and Daniel DayLewis used to meet Don at his gigs.)

Film critic Barry Norman noted his performance as impressive. And Don still finds it hard to accept he is an actor despite savouring the glitz and the glamour of the star-studded Oscars with Daniel Day-Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite and Emma Thompson.

“The ‘kid from the slum’ gets to walk the red carpet in Hollywood – seen on worldwide TV with hundreds of camera flashes going off and helicopters flying overhead – after working with the greatest actor in the world. Come on! It was incredible.”

He pulls me back to another special moment.

“For some people a prized possession is a work or art – a sculpture or a painting – for me, it’s a belt. I wrote a song about being incarcerated, Been Alone Too Long, about being released from prison. Some of the prisoners in Long Kesh latched on to it, copied it and shared it, reaching the loyalist prisoners somehow, and it helped to create a bit of a bond with them.”

When the Peace Process opened up, the exprisoners invited Don to the Red Cow Hotel in Dublin where they presented him with a belt in appreciation of that song and his music.

“It’s inscribed Don ‘Blues’ Baker – From Long Kesh and that’s my prized possession.”

ap018-019.qxd

29/05/2013

10:43

Page 1

18 June / Meitheamh 2013

www.anphoblacht.com

The PSNI in numbers

Justice Inspectorate indicts PSNI restructuring

The PSNI replaced the RUC in

2001 PSNI officers

6,979 PSNI part-time officers

540 Civilian staff

2,366 Former officers on contract

Up to

1,000

BY PEADAR WHELAN THE PSNI stands accused of “incoherent and in many cases indefensible decision-making” from the latest report by the Criminal Justice Inspectorate watchdog, Sinn Féin Policing spokesperson Gerry Kelly MLA says.

The Sinn Féin Justice spokesperson says that the surreptitious rehiring into PSNI civilian posts of former members of the RUC (5,000 of whom took substantial ‘Patten’ redundancy packages to leave the police) is a major stumbling block to developing a new policing service that is democratic and accountable.

CJI describes itself as “an independent statutory inspectorate with responsibility for inspecting all aspects of the criminal justice sys-

The surreptitious rehiring into PSNI civilian posts of former members of the RUC is a major stumbling block to developing a new policing service that is democratic and accountable tem” in the North of Ireland apart from the judiciary. It also inspects a number of other agencies and organisations that link into the criminal justice system.

On 9 May, the CJI published Finding the Balance: Matching Human Resources with Priorities in the PSNI. Rehiring and the revelation in the report that the PSNI spends more than a third of its budget on what is called “national security duties” (i.e. dictated by Westminster) that are unaccountable to the Assembly undermine progress on policing in the North, Gerry Kelly says.

With a civilian complement of less than 25%, the PSNI has a lower standard than forces in England and

5 Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly for hiring former serving members as agency staff. It said: “Before 2011, there was no corporate policy or procedure governing the engagement of agency staff and decisions were taken at local discretion. As a result, the number of temporary posts increased from just

5The PSNI spends more than a third of its budget on what it calls ‘national security duties’ Wales (around 33%), and many of those on PSNI civilian contracts are ex-RUC. This is a concern of Sinn Féin echoed by the CJI report.

In December 2011, Gerry Kelly met the North’s Audit office and handed over information uncovered by the Policing Board that exposed the PSNI policy of rehiring retired police officers.

At the same time, Sinn Féin met the CJI and raised the matter with them. It was then agreed that the Audit Office and CJI would carry out investigations but would share information.

In its findings (released in October last year), the Audit Office was scathing about the PSNI’s governance of the contract arrangements

5 5,000 RUC officers took redundancy deals under the policing reforms of Patten (above)

The Audit Office was scathing about the PSNI’s governance of the contract arrangements for hiring former serving members as agency staff over 100 in 2002 to over 800 by 2007 when, in our opinion, their use appeared out of control.

“Many posts were not subject to adequate job evaluation. An internal review in one department identified that more than half the staff were being paid at a higher grade than the post warranted.

“PSNI did not always have sufficient management information to understand the extent and costs of using temporary staff.”

The Public Accounts Committee subsequently opened its own inquiry which is due for publication in the coming weeks.

ap018-019.qxd

29/05/2013

10:43

Page 2

www.anphoblacht.com

June / Meitheamh 2013 19

Government cuts on Travellers are neither fair or equitable

Travelling with Austerity grammes for Travellers and programmes and funding lines of importance to Travellers. Our research documents the following cuts to Traveller services since 2008:

Traveller Interagency activities Traveller education Traveller accommodation Equality National Traveller organisations FAS Special Initiative for Travellers Health

BY RONNIE FAY CO-DIRECTOR PAVEE POINT TRAVELLER AND ROMA CENTRE PAVEE POINT recently launched a report, ‘Travelling with Austerity’, which documents the cuts to Travellers, Traveller projects and services since 2008. The report was commissioned because we had concerns about the impact of austerity on Travellers and on Traveller community development projects.

Anecdotally, we had a sense of huge cuts and their cumulative negative impacts on work with Travellers but we needed concrete evidence to see if our perceptions were accurate.

We commissioned the independent social researcher, Brian Harvey, to undertake this work on our behalf as we felt it would give more credibility to the research findings.

Over the past 30 years, a variety of independent local and regional Traveller initiatives and national Traveller organisations have used community work approaches and methods in our work for justice, equality and human rights with Travellers. It is this work, and the painstaking collective progress it has been possible to make through it, which is now threatened by austerity measures which have led to a dramatic disinvestment by the state in the Traveller community since 2008 documented in this research report.

These cuts, combined with a vicious and increasingly institutional backlash (apparent in recent comments by politicians and judges), are having significant and negative impacts for Travellers.

Against that backdrop this report sets out to examine the value of community development work with Travellers and record again the achievements of Traveller organisations.

The report also documents the cuts to the anti-racism, equality and human rights agencies which would previously have been available to support Travellers and Traveller organisations in working to attain their human rights.

The closing down of the National Consultative Committee on Racism

5 Sisters Joanna, Geraldine and Lizzy O'Reily from Tipperary Town join a protest by Traveller groups outside Leinster House asking political leaders to take action against racism towards Travellers and Interculturalism (NCCRI) and the ending of the National Action Plan Against Racism in 2008 has meant that Travellers are no longer automatically included in antiracism and intercultural initiatives, which leaves them even further marginalised.

After experiencing five years of austerity policies, one would expect that we in the community sector could no longer be shocked by any new information on cuts. However, we were both disappointed and shocked at the research findings and their implications.

The cuts (which are documented using the Government’s own figures) need to be seen in the context of overall Government cuts in gross expenditure on current services, which decreased by 4.3%. However, this is in marked contrast to the scale of the cuts experienced by pro-

- 100% - 86.6% - 85% - 76.3% - 63.6% - 50% - 5%

The report also highlights significant underspends by Government departments in the reduced budgets that are allocated. Given the level of need within the Traveller community, and Government commitments to ‘fairness’, it is hard to justify such cuts.

One can think of no other section of the community which has suffered such a high level of withdrawal of funding and human resources, compounded by the failure of the state to spend even the limited resources that it has made available.’

Pavee Point has concerns with the Government plan for local government reform, ‘Putting People First’, and the attendant alignment policy whereby it is intended that the community sector, including the Traveller sector, will be subsumed into local authorities. Travellers and Traveller organisations do not have confidence in local authorities to defend Travellers’ interests given their track records and failure to deliver Traveller accommodation programmes, as illustrated in our research. We are fearful that ‘Putting People First’ will actually mean ‘Putting Settled People First’ and this cannot be allowed to happen.

WE CALL ON THE GOVERNMENT TO:-

1 2

To protect, preserve and extend the gains made by community development with Travellers.

Reverse these cuts and to strengthen implementation mechanisms to result in better outcomes for Travellers from policies and services and to do this in partnership with Traveller organisations.

3

5 Co-Director of Pavee Point Martin Collins, journalist and broadcaster Matt Cooper, researcher and report author Brian Harvey and Siobhán McLaughlin of the Donegal Travellers Project at the launch of the Pavee Point report ‘Travelling with Austerity - Impacts of Cuts on Travellers, PHOTO BY DEREK SPEIRS Traveller Projects and Services’

Live up to their commitments in their Programme for Government to protect the vulnerable and ensuring fairness in society.

Full copy of report available at www.paveepoint.ie

ap020-021.qxd

29/05/2013

10:45

Page 1

20 June / Meitheamh 2013

www.anphoblacht.com

Fine Gael/Labour Government to open another door for property speculators

Something reeks about REITs Is this the road to further privatisation of social housing and putting tenants at the mercy of market forces?

There is a danger that banks who desire a quick disposal of houses in mortgage arrears will package up homes as a Real Estate Investment Trust and sell it off to investors and speculators out to make a quick buck. This could be a road chosen by bailed=out banks reluctant to evict citizens from homes but keen to clean up their balance sheets.

Market forces are not an effective tool if your goal is to provide every citizen with affordable and decent housing.

The fact that these REITs will apply to residential housing confirms that that in the eyes of government and finance, homes are to be

BY EOLAN RYNG THE DECISION by the Fine Gael/Labour Government to legislate in Ireland for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs – corporations that own and manage a portfolio of properties and mortgages) has been welcomed and cheered from various quarters.

“A REIT should be a dividend machine,” says Alan Carter, property analyst with Investec in London.

Pádraic Whelan, Head of Real Estate & Infrastructure at Deloitte, says: “It has been an open secret that dozens of potential investors are sitting on the sidelines waiting to pounce on Irish property assets.

These proposed measures on REITs will bring Ireland into line with international standards. It will make it easier for those investors who wish

‘A REIT should be a dividend machine’

‘Dozens of potential investors are sitting on the sidelines waiting to pounce on Irish property assets’ to buy into a portfolio of properties to do so and should help stimulate a recovery in the commercial property market.” KPMG claims that this “will provide a stimulus” to the property market, while boasting that they will not be subject to Corporation Tax. Irishreits.ie, a group which has been lobbying for this legislation for several years, has claimed that REITs will “attract international investors, promote a rational and professionally managed Irish property industry, enhance investor protection, provide an exit mechanism for the banks and NAMA and provide a liquid high yield investment opportunity for Irish retail investors”.

Irishreits.ie is made up of groups which could potentially profit from future REITs. Worryingly, the Government briefing document released with Budget 2013 contains the same claims as the lobby group, almost word for word.

This should be a cause of concern for people who are concerned about the power of financial

lobby groups. The fact that this legislation is being brought forward with little or no public discourse and an extremely low level of knowledge is also troubling.

The Government claims that REITs will “provide greater security for tenants by encouraging institutional investors [i.e. REIT companies] focused on long-term holding of rental properties”. Evidence in other countries points to the contrary. The residents of Lincoln Place Apartment Complex in Venice, California, would more than likely disagree with the Government’s claims. AT 9am on 6 December 2005, 52 apartments were evicted at the demand of AIMCO, a large REIT that wanted to demolish the existing housing and replace it with higher yielding property.

In France, renters have been forced out of attractive areas of Marseilles and Paris as a result of fluctuating rents.

In both examples, the REITs, operating under obligation to shareholders to maximise returns, have caused what has become known as ‘rental refugees’ and, in some cases, inflicted homelessness.

The Government also states that REITs will have the “potential in the longer term to improve the residential investment property sector, through greater stability and professionalism in private and social rented housing”.

The reference to social housing is disturbing, especially at a time when local authorities have been starved of resources and deprived of funding.

REITs could be eyeing up a potential cash cow and recent reports have shown that large amounts of social housing privatised in Britain during the Thatcher era are now in the hands of rich private landlords who have raised rents significantly.

seen as financial products and not as a basic human right which all governments should strive to publicly provide for those who cannot privately afford.

It is no wonder that elements of the Social Democratic Party in Germany are strongly resisting legislation to introduce REITs there, citing tax evasion loopholes as one concern.

They believe REITs could result in losses of trillions and create the destruction of the German social housing structures. They have appealed for “a broad debate about the consequences of REITs, not just among experts in financial markets but also with tenant associations, apartment developers and with communities and all those that are not interested in creating an even more attractive menu for international financial capital”.

It is something we should be demanding here in Ireland as well.

ap020-021.qxd

29/05/2013

10:46

Page 2

www.anphoblacht.com

June / Meitheamh 2013 21

EOIN Ó MURCHÚ

Leas na mBanc taobh thiar den Ghéarchéim Tithiochta LUAITEAR deacrachtaí sa margadh tithíochta go minic mar shampla den chaoi a bhfuil an ghéarcheim eacnamaíochta ag cur rudaí as a riocht.

Tá luach tithe titithe go mór ó uasphointe an mhargaidh i 2007 (os cionn 60% in áiteachaí) , is toisc an oiread sin daoine ann a chaill a gcuid jobannaí ní féidir leó na morgáistí móra a bhaineann le tithe is árasáin a ceannaíodh sa tréimhse sin a aisíoc anois; agus dá gcuirfi iachall orthu an teach a dhíol tá cothromas diúltach ann a chiallaíonn go mbeadh fiacha móra fós ann fiú dá gcaillfí an teach.

Se sin, leanann na fiacha fiú má chailltear an teach.

Ní mar sin ámh atá cúrsaí sna Stáit Aontaithe, príomh-thír an rachmais. Ansin má thugann an banc morgáiste dhuit ar theach is mura bhfuil tú in ann an morgaiste a aisíoc is féidir leis an mbanc seilbh a ghabháil ar an teach ach tá deire ansin leis na fiacha – fiú mura bhfaigheann siad iomlán na hiasachta ar ais.

Céim thábhachtach dúinne in Éirinn dlí den tsort sin a thabhairt isteach. Bheadh an priacal – agus an ghuais – dhá roinnt idir an mbanc agus an duine, is bheadh cúis mhór ag na bainc a bheith níos cúramaí faoina gcuid iasachtaí.

Ní athróidh an t-athrú dli seo an scéal i dtaobh na morgaistí atá ann cheana féin, ach tabharfaidh se cosaint sa todhchaí don ghnáth-dhuine.

Ach níl aon chaint ag an rialtas faoina leithéid de athru a dhéanamh.

Ni hamhain sin, ach níl na bainc féin ag feidhmiú mar is ceart don eacnamaíocht fiu faoina dlithe mar atá. Tá siad ag iarraidh a gcuid fiacha a laghdú, is níl airgead ar fáil uatha mar chreidmheas le haghaidh gnólachtaí nó le haghaidh tithe a cheannach – rud a chuireann le titim luach tithe.

Go bunúsach tá an coras mífhéidhmiúil mar tá muid gafa i gciorcal oilc: fadb amháin ag cur le fadb eile, agus an fhadb eile ag cur leis an gcéad fhadb.

Mar shampla, tá eastáit tithíochta ann ar fud na tíre nach féidir na tithe ann a dhíol nó a dtóigeáil a chur i gcrích. Is tá sé beartaithe ag an rialtas – agus aire stáit de chuid Pháirtí an Lucht Oibre á fhógairt – na mílte tithe a leagan.

Ag an am céanna tá na mílte as cuimse – níos mó ná riamh – ar liostaí feithimh le haghaidh tithíocht shóisialta óna húdaráis áitiúla. Seo muid: ar thaobh amháin tá soláthar tithe ann, agus ar thaobh eile tá éileamh ar tithe; ach ní féidir leis an gcoras rachmasach an dá thaobh a chur le chéile. Sin is brí le coras mífhéidhmiúil.

Agus mar a léirigh fógairt an rialtais maidir le tithe is eastáit a leagan, níl aon leigheas ag

an rialtas dó seo ach na mílte a fhágáil gan tithe, gan dochas, gan cearta.

Mar is ceart don uile dhuine áit oiriunach a bheith aige nó aici le maireachtáil ann.

Go bunúsach tá an coras mífhéidhmiúil mar tá muid gafa i gciorcal oilc: fadb amháin ag cur le fadb eile, agus an fhadb eile ag cur leis an gcéad fhadb

Ach tá olc eile sa scéal seo.

Cuid lárnach den ghéarchéim eacnamaíochta é an cothromas diúltach sa rannóg tithíochta.

Cheannaigh an t-uafás daoine tithe nuair a bhí an margadh faoi lan-tseól, is anois níl an luach ag na tithe sin go bhfeadfaí na fiacha a ghlanadh dá ndíolfaí iad. Mar adúirt me thuas ar a laghad i Meiriocá fágtar na fiacha toabh thiar dhíot.

Cuid mhaith daoine, go deimhin, chaill siad a gcuid jobannaí nó scaradh an caidreamh pearsanta a bhíodh acu nuair a ceannaíodh an teach, agus anois níl na hacmhainní acu na morgáistí a íoc; ach dá ndíolfaí an teach, nó dá gcuirfí iachall orthu é a dhíol, bheadh fiacha móra fós ann.

Faoi dheire thiar d’fhoilsigh an rialtas scéim dócmhainneachta. Tá an scéim seo in ainm’s seans a thabhairt do dhaoine faoi dheacrachtaí mhorgáiste éaló as na fiacha agus i gcásanna a gcuid tithe a choinneáil ar téarmaí níos so-aisíoctha.

Tá sé léirithe ag Piaras Ó Dochartaigh, urlabhrai airgeadais Shinn Féin, go bhfágann scéim seo an rialtais an focal deiridh ag na bainc, is go bhfágann is go bhfágfaidh sé na mílte so-mhillte agus i mbaol.

Cén fáth go bhfuil an sceim chómh teoranta is chómh lag sin?

Níl aon fhreagra ach go bhfuil an rialtas ag cur leas na mbainc chun tosaigh – arís mar atá déanta acu go minic cheana – roimh leas an ghnathdhuine. Agus cosnaítear an easpa daonnachta seo ar ar argóint faoi guais mhóralta: sé sin go gcaithfidh daoine cailliúntaí a shéasamh faoi a a ghlacfaidis le buntáistí as aon infheistíochta a dhéanann siad.

Agus mura féidir leis an gcoras rachmasach freastal ar fhíor-riachtanais an ghnáthdhuine, nach bhfuil sé in am coras sóisialach a chur i bhféidhm mar ata á mholadh ag Sinn Féin is eile?

ap022-023.qxd

29/05/2013

10:50

Page 1

22 June / Meitheamh 2013

www.anphoblacht.com

‘Uncomfortable Conversations’ HAVE BEGUN GRAHAM SPENCER

is Reader in Politics, Conflict and the Media at the University of Portsmouth and has written widely on loyalism

5 Graham Spencer, Reverend Chris Hudson, Jim McAuley and former UDA prisoner Jackie McDonald at ‘The Future of Loyalism’ conference in April

BY GRAHAM SPENCER & CHRIS HUDSON

CHRIS HUDSON

is a Unitarian minister at All-Souls in Belfast and has acted as a mediator between the UVF and the Dublin Government since 1993

THE Progressive Unionist Party’s new document Transforming the Legacy (released on 22 April) is the first constructive response from unionism on the question of reconciliation. It is a response to Sinn Féin’s request for others to engage with the tortuous problems of how to deal with the past. Although constructed as a call to the loyalist base, it significantly touches one fundamental aspect of the reconciliation debate and any subsequent process: INCLUSIVITY. Interestingly, the PUP document stresses reconciliation as a social rather than political process and does so because inclusivity, if it is genuine, must extend beyond the political.

Politics is important to shape the climate for reconciliation and give official recognition to the structures and mechanisms that any reconciliation process will need. But the importance of inclusivity is that it offers the potential (if credible and with commendable conviction) to move outside of the restrictive boundaries and managed divisions that tie people to the past.

To envisage a future that is different and

better it is clear that there must be a release from the divisive imaginations which have prevailed. The irony of all this, of course, is that insecurity feeds instability and in a zerosum political society the pressure of gains means that progress is invariably measured by the scale of loss inflicted on others. In a ‘nor-

mal’ society such tensions are held within a frame of consensus politics, but in Northern Ireland such consensus is notably absent.

Political progress for many depends on political regress for others; hardly a basis of reconciliation.

The starting point is surely the call for an honest and open debate about what kind of future the respective communities in Northern Ireland want and to consider how compatible or incompatible those perceptions of the future are. This would enable all to see to what extent each community constructs the idea of a future and where convergent and divergent interests are. All talk is about the past and none about the future. What kind of future might be imagined? Is it one where dominance or control comes to mind, or is it one where the desire for dominance and control are seen as a hindrance to that future?

Such questions reflect a need for what Sinn Féin’s Declan Kearney has called ‘Uncomfortable Conversations’. Those conversations also call for serious re-evaluation of what motivated and happened during conflict and looking beyond easy and immediate blame. This will be hard for those who inflicted pain and

Interestingly, the PUP document stresses reconciliation as a social rather than political process and does so because inclusivity, if it is genuine, must extend beyond the political

ap022-023.qxd

29/05/2013

10:50

Page 2

www.anphoblacht.com

June / Meitheamh 2013 23

5 Conal McDevitt SDLP MLA, Paul Clissold of the UDA-linked Ulster Political Research Group, former IRA prisoner Seán ‘Spike’ Murray, journalist Eamonn Mallie, writer and former Director of Publicity for Sinn Féin Danny Morrison, Jeffrey Donaldson DUP MP and Mike Nesbitt UUP MLA at the John McMichael Memorial Debate in Lisburn, October 2012. McMichael, a loyalist paramilitary leader, was killed by the IRA in a bomb attack in December 1987 trauma in a reconciliation process will require very careful and sensitive handling. Each community views truth differently: one preferring to see truth in terms of individual responsibility, the other viewing it through the lens of social circumstances and context. This,

5 Flag protesters: What comes to mind for each community when they think of inclusivity? who absorbed it. One’s life can be formed by suffering and to move away from this fact must surely be the hardest journey of all. If reconciliation is anything it is the journey away from pain, but we must also be vigilant to the possibility that truth can make things

worse as well as better; that when some hear what really happened in the death of their loved one they may feel compelled to seek justice or retribution in ways they would not have considered before.

The managing of truth, victims, justice and

much to expect common interest and indeed, common value. If the core over-arching theme and concept of inclusivity can provide a foundation for the generation of common interest and value (and both republicans and loyalists are using the term inclusivity), it will provide a basis by which to proceed because it will have created the possibility of shared space in the debate.

For now, inclusivity must be necessarily ambiguous (just as the concept of ‘all’ is). It must have latitude that exceeds the conventions of political thinking. And this is where the PUP document has merit, because in conceiving reconciliation in terms of the social it marks a break from the traditions of the Protestant worldview where it is the individual that matters most.

In moving to the social, the PUP are actually emphasising a context which is of more appeal to Catholics than Protestants and this is ground-breaking.

There will, of course, be much talk that resonates with the loyalist base but make no mistake – uncomfortable but necessary conversations have now begun and tentative but meaningful shifts are underway.

The starting point is surely the call for an honest and open debate about what kind of future the respective communities in Northern Ireland want and to consider how compatible or incompatible those perceptions of the future are

it seems, is a good starting point in relation to the reconciliation debate and, in particular, to inclusivity.

What comes to mind for each community when they think of inclusivity?

Initially, it would perhaps be too much to expect common ground here but not too

GRAHAM SPENCER’S BOOKS INCLUDE... » The State of Loyalism in Northern Ireland » Protestant Identity and Peace in Northern Ireland » Ulster Loyalism After the Good Friday Agreement: History, Identity and Change » Forgiving and Remembering in Northern Ireland: Approaches to Conflict Resolution

ap024-025.qxd

29/05/2013

10:51

Page 1

24 June / Meitheamh 2013

SOME OF THE CUT-PRICE CLOTHES CASUALTIES

www.anphoblacht.com

AFTER THE BANGLADESH GARMENT FACTORY DISASTSER, WHAT CAN IRISH SHOPPERS DO?

HUMAN COST OF OUR CHEAP CLOTHES

PAKISTAN

Karachi factory fire 11 September 2012

264 DEAD PAKISTAN

Lahore factory fire 11 September 2012

25 DEAD BANGLADESH

Dhaka factory fire 24 November 2012

112 DEAD BANGLADESH

Rana Plaza collapse 24 April 2013

1,126 DEAD BANGLADESH

Dhaka factory fire 9 May 2013

8 DEAD CAMBODIA

Phnom Penh collapse 16 May 2013

3 DEAD

THE HORRIFIC COLLAPSE of a garment factory in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka – which left more than eleven hundred people dead and over 2,500 injured – has focused the eyes of the world on health and safety in the garment industry in South-East Asia.

An Phoblacht’s MARK MOLONEY spoke to KATE NOLAN of the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) in Ireland about the plight of garment workers in the region and how the Rana Plaza disaster has put the spotlight on big brands exploiting cheap labour in Bangladesh.

“WORKERS IN BANGLADESH are earning less than Ř30 a month,” Kate Nolan tells An Phoblacht. “That’s only about a third of what they actually need to live in dignity.”

Most of those workers are producing thousands of items of clothing per day for retailers ranging from high street brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, H&M and Zara to Primark/Penneys.

The garment industry is worth $19billion a year to the Bangladesh economy with 60% of clothes going to Europe. An estimated four million people, mainly women, work in the sector.

Since 2010, the Irish state has imported Ř277million worth of garments from Bangladesh.

The industry has became so important to Bangladesh’s rapidly growing economy that the Government insulated employers by union busting.

In 2006, new labour laws allowed the state to demand information on trade union activists and people who are members of labour rights organisations. “It effectively disallowed labour unions for garment workers,” says Kate. Human Rights Watch has described the situation for trade unions there as “pervasively hostile”.

Just how dangerous it is to be seen engaging in workers’ rights campaigns in the country was highlighted on 4 April last year when the body of Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers’ Union leader Aminul Islam was found by the roadside in Ghatail. He had been abducted, tortured and left to bleed to death.

5 Johura, aged 20, holds a picture of her missing husband Motiur Rahman, who was working in the Rana Plaza building The Bangladesh Government has recently eased restrictions on trade unions and labour laws. Kate says this isn’t out of goodwill but because the European Union has threatened to end the preferential trade agreement with the state unless conditions improve.

“The Government don’t want a raise in wages.

They don’t want to jeopardise the industry at all because it is so mobile that it can just get up and go if operating there gets a little bit too expensive. But the Government’s job is to look after their citizens, not the garment industry.”

In Pakistan, there are over 150 unions for garment and textile workers but only 10% of them are actually operational. “They’ve these dummy unions being set up which are run by officials and people

FOR MORE INFORMATION SEE:

www.cleanclothescampaignireland.org

who are not labour activists. They set up these unions to divide workers and ensure they can’t disrupt their operations,” Kate says.

The massive scale of the Rana Plaza disaster has made international news “but we’ve been watching Bangladesh for a very long time and we had been saying that this kind of thing was just waiting to happen”, Kate tells An Phoblacht, adding: “A lot of manufacturers and retailers waited until they realised that the press wasn’t going to go away before they decided to act. Before this it was almost impossible to get suppliers to acknowledge that they had a responsibility for health and safety in the factories.”

Since the disaster, 31 major retailers have pledged to look into their operations across 1,000 factories in Bangladesh. The pledge commits them to safeguarding the lives of up to 10,000 workers. “They said they’ll do this, now our job is to make sure they keep their word,” says Kate.

What can consumers do?

“Educate themselves about what is going on in the industry and don’t stand for retailers trying to make you complicit in their own negligence. They should be operating to better standards.

“I’d encourage people to get involved in the Clean Clothes Campaign and help put pressure on retailers to ensure better working conditions for workers.”

ap024-025.qxd

29/05/2013

10:52

Page 2

Youth unemployment a threat to our future

www.anphoblacht.com

June / Meitheamh 2013 25

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

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

Another Europe is possible I am organising an event in

ONE of the most worrying consequences of the economic downturn across the EU but particularly in Ireland is the sharp rise in youth unemployment levels North and South, hitting all-time highs.

While no one can argue that the economic mismanagement by governments will affect us for generations, I believe that one of the most serious threats to rebuilding our economy is the lack of a strategy to tackle the high levels of youth unemployment.

To this end, I am organising an event in Cavan on Friday 7 June entitled ‘Guarantee Our Future’. It is intended to bring together young people and their representative organisations to speak of their experiences and their visions of the type of future they wish to contribute to. Along with the relevant agencies, including government departments and the European Commission, we intend to look at what has been proposed to date and how effective it has been.

Representatives from the National Youth Council of Ireland, NI Youth Forum, European Youth Forum and the President of the National Union of Students/Union of Students in Ireland will be addressing the event. We will also have speakers from the European Parliament and from the Young Left campaign group from Sweden.

While I welcome any attempt by the European Commission to put the issue of youth unemployment on the agenda, it looks as though recent EU statements about youth unemployment have been a distraction to divert attention from inaction on the issue, particularly inaction by governments.

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) puts the overall EU cost of not integrating young people into the labour market at ¤150billion annually . Yet rather than encourage investing in young people, the EU prefers to coerce governments into wasting billions bailing out failed and failing banks while the people

The necessary resilience exists in the youth sector and we don’t have to worry about its resolve to build a better and equal society

through draconian austerity measures carry the resultant burden.

There is strong evidence that EU member states with proper Youth Guarantee systems in place have far lower youth unemployment rates than those that don’t. The Irish Government and the Northern Assembly must act to introduce a genuine youth employment scheme or further training to young people similar to those in Austria and Finland.

HOW SHOULD THEY PRIORITISE THIS WORK?

» The Department of Employment and Learning in the North and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and

Employment in Dublin should carry out a skills audit of all those under the age of 25 who are currently unemployed and to have it completed within three months;

» There should also be sufficient staff at job centres tasked with career guidance;

» Funding for new training programmes and initiatives to get people back to work, should be prioritised with a particular focus on areas of high youth unemployment and disadvantage.

Specific steps ought to be taken to support early school leavers, those without further education qualifications, and those, including some graduates, whose skills do not match the needs of a changing economy. This can be achieved either through the public sector or by incentivising private sector employers to provide employment.

The youth are our future and it is they who will be tasked to build a society in which everyone is treated with respect and equality.

Young people have a role to play in all aspects of society. Their voices need to be heard in equal capacity as all other members of society.

What Sinn Féin want for our youth and future generations is a new peaceful Ireland, sovereign, independent and free built on the basis of equality for all regardless of religion, ethnicity, racial or gender orientation.

I believe that the youth of Ireland are capable of doing their business differently and with better effect than those who have brought us to the brink of economic despair. They can recognise the change that is taking place in society and adapt to the new realities. I believe that the necessary resilience exists in the youth sector and we don’t have to worry about its resolve to build a better and equal society.

Cavan Crystal Hotel on Friday 7 June – ‘Guarantee Our Future’ – to bring together young people and their organisations to speak of their experiences and their visions of the future

Martina Anderson MEP is a member of the GUE/NGL Group in the European Parliament

ap026-027.qxd

29/05/2013

10:57

Page 1

26 June / Meitheamh 2013

www.anphoblacht.com

ARD FHEIS 2013

Gaeilge láidir agus beo i Maigh Eo ARD FHEIS den chéad scoth a bhí ag Sinn Féin i gCaisleán an Bharraigh i mbliana - an ceann is mó agus is fearr riamh i dtuairim go leor, leor daoine. Bhí neart polaitíochta, díospóireachta, stair, polásaíthe dhá phlé (gan trácht ar an gcraic) ann agus is iomaí cúis agus saincheist tráthúil a bhí faoi chaibidil le linn an dá lá.

Chuir sé ionadh ar a lán daoine an méid daoine óga, idir mhná agus fir a ghlac páirt ann, a d’ardaigh a nguth go muiníneach i mBéarla agus i nGaeilge, ar ardán na hArd Fheise agus a gcuid tuairimí agus a gcuid réitigh polaitiúla agus fadhbanna na linne seo dhá chur in iúl go soiléir, bríomhar ós comhair an lucht éisteachta agus baill Shinn Féin.

Rinne muid ár seacht ndicheall go mbeadh an Ghaeilge le cloisteáil agus le feiceáil le linn an dá lá agus go mbeadh áit lárnach aici ag an Ard Fheis. D’éirigh linn, i mo Is Contae Gaeltachta é Maigh Eo le pobal bríomhar labhartha Gaeilge. Is ceantair labhartha Gaeilge iad Gaeltachta Iorrais, Acla agus Thuar Mhic Éadaigh agus tugadh le fios ins an daonáireamh is

deireanaí (2011) gurb í Caisleán an Bharraigh an 4ú baile is mó, taobh amuigh den Ghaeltacht, ina núsáidtear Gaeilge go rialta. Gan dabht, tá Gaeilge láidir agus beo i Maigh Eo agus bhí sí láidir agus beo ag Ard Fheis Shinn Féin 2013 i Maigh Eo! Don chéad uair riamh, reachtáladh Comórtas Diospóireachta do Mhic Léinn mar chuid den Ard Fheis. Ócáid Ghaeilge den scoth a bhí ann agus an-rath go deo air. Gan dabht ócáid bhliantúil a bheidh ann as seo amach!

Comhgháirdeachas do gach duine a ghlac páirt ann. B’as gach cúinne den oileáin iad: Thír Chonaill, Corcaigh, Béal Feirste, Ciarraí, Gaillimh, an Lú ... agus bhí sé iontach na canúintí, blas na nGaeltachtaí éagsúla agus saibhreas na teanga a chloisteáil le linn na díospóireachta. Comórtas Uile-Eireann i gceart a bhí ann!

Bhí an díospóireacht dúshlánach, fadréimseach, bríomhar, le cúiseanna agus ceisteanna ábhartha a bhaineann le polaitíocht agus saol an aosa óig ar fud an oileáin á phlé.

Bhí caighdeán ard leagtha amach ón tús agus léirigh na cainteoirí an-

LE THÉRÈSE RUANE tuiscint agus eolas ar na hábhair; d’éirigh leo an dubh a chur ina gheal orainn lena n-argóintí. Chuir sé ionadh ar na moltóirí agus an lucht éisteachta, (an Seanadóir Trevor Ó Clochartaigh agus Caitríona Ruane, MLA ina measc), na cúiseanna, na téamaí leathan, saincheisteanna na linne seo a cuireadh faoinár bhráid, téamai

IN PICTURES

cosúil le fadhb na dí-fhostaíochta, féiniúlacht, an teanga, siombalachas na nGael, athchóiriú ar an gCórás polaitíochta, an t-Aontas Eorpach, an imirce, féinmharú, meabhair shláinte na nÓg, ár nOidhreacht, ár gcultúr, bás Maggie Thatcher.

Bhí an láithreoir agus iriseoir aitheanta, Paidí Ó Lionáird mar fhear an tí agus rinne sé sár-jab. Bhí an díospóireacht stiúrtha go healaíonta agus go slachtmhar aige agus táimid fíor bhuíoch dó.

Míle buíochas don beirt mholtóir: Eoghan Mac Cormaic ó Ghlór na nGael agus Foras na Gaeilge; agus Piaras Ó Raghallaigh, iriseoir agus craoltóir a bhunaigh Mayo TV, an chéad stáisiún teilifise ar-line. Bhí jab iontach deacair acu. Bhí caighdeán an-ard ann agus é an deacair dóibh duine a phiocadh thar an duien eile. Is mór an trua é ach caithfidh go bhfuil caillteoirí agus buaiteoirí i comórtas i gconaí.

Faoi dheireadh, fógraíodh na buaiteoirí agus bhronn Eoghan Mac Cormaic, mar Leas-Cathaoirleach Fhoras na Gaeilge, na duaiseanna orthu. Sa chéad áit, bhí Christina Nic Dhonnacha ón gCeathrú Rua, a

fuair €500 (urraithe ag Foras na Gaeilge) agus dearbhán de luach €200 (urraithe ag Gael Linn). Sa dara áit, ba í an t-iomaitheoir ba ghaire di ná, Aoife Ní Shúilleabháin as Corca Dhuibhne a fuair dearbhán de luach €200 ó Ghael Linn. Sa triú áit, bhí Eimear Nic an tSaoir ó Chontae Lú a bhuaigh hoodie agus ‘goodies’ eile ó Ghael Linn. Gan dabht bhí na duaiseanna ar fheabhas ar fad agus míle buíochas do na h-urraithóirí flaithiúla, Foras Na Gaeilge, Gael Linn agus Conradh na Gaeilge as ucht an tacaíocht.

Gan dabht, is féidir le Liadh Ní Riada (Oifigeach Gaeilge Shinn Féín) a bheith an sásta leis an gcéad chomórtas díospóireachta ag an Ard Fheis agus a bheith dearfa go rachfaidh sé ó neart go neart san blianta beaga amach romhainn.

Mar fhocal scoir, bhí áit lárnach ag an nGaeilge ag an Ard Fheis i mbliana; bhí an teanga beo i Maigh Eo agus í le cloisteáil agus níos feiceálaí ná mar a bhí sí riamh roimhe, go mór, mór i measc na ndaoine óga.

Is tuar dóchais do thodhchaí na Gaeilge i Sinn Féin é. Beatha teanga í a labhairt!

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 Protesters from the Spectacle of Defiance and Hope group at the Dublin Council of Trade Unions May Day march

5 The 32nd anniversary of the death on hunger strike of Bellaghy man Francis Hughes is marked in Belfast. Republicans stage a white-line picket on the Falls Road/Whiterock Road junction where they are greeted by motorists sounding their horns. The death of the other hunger strikers were and are being marked culminating in the National Hunger Strike Commemoration in Broad Street, Monaghan Town, at 2.30pm on Sunday 4 August. It will be the first time that the National Hunger Strike Commemoration will be held in the 26 Counties

5 The UNITE delegation to the Oireachtas briefing on the ECJ judgement on former Waterford Crystal workers: Walter

Cullen (UNITE), Michael Dooley (former employee), Tom Hogan (former employee), Senator David Cullinane, Jimmy Kelly (UNITE), Mona Costelloe (workers’ lawyer) and John O’Connell (Trident consultant and pensions expert)

ap026-027.qxd

29/05/2013

10:58

Page 2

www.anphoblacht.com

June / Meitheamh 2013 27

BOOK

The Two Brendans: Soldiers of South Armagh Legends in Their Time – 25 Years On Price: €9.99 Reviewed by Mark Moloney THIS lavishly illustrated, full-colour publication marks the 25th anniversary of the deaths of IRA Volunteers Brendan Burns and Brendan Moley on active service.

Produced by South Armagh Sinn Féin, Legends in Their Time looks at the lives of ‘The Two Brendans’ as well as the most recent phase of the conflict in the south Armagh area, including previously unpublished photos.

As well as giving the reader an insight into the lives of the two Volunteers, some of their lesserknown exploits during the conflict are told in fascinating detail. We hear how Brendan Burns and his comrades, using evasion and some impressive driving skills, managed to give the slip to a pursuing British Army helicopter along the Border. And how, with the help of a sympathetic Dublin taxi driv-

er, a remarkable ability to scale high garden fences and a friendly local TV installer, he managed to evade a very determined Garda Special Branch squad.

Brendan Moley also displayed an uncanny ability to avoid detection, whether tip-toeing past a British sentry or just ‘hiding in plain sight’. The book recalls: “When the Brits burst into the

house, Brendan was sitting at the table reading the paper. He had long hair at the time and the Brits must have thought he was a woman. They left with all the men under arrest and Brendan remained at the table with his newspaper.”

The reader also learns about the long history of resistance in the south Armagh area. From fighting against the Anglo-Norman invasion in the 12th century, resistance to the Ulster Plantations and the more modern battles with the British during the Tan War, it is not surprising that the area remains staunchly republican and completely opposed to foreign interference in Ireland.

Legends in Their Time provides the reader with an in-depth analysis of the IRA in south Armagh, making it clear why a posting to Crossmaglen or Forkhill bases was something that struck fear into the most hardened of British soldiers. The book includes fantastic photos throughout along with news clippings and ‘War News’ reports from An Phoblacht.

Legends in Their Time is a fitting tribute to the memory of Brendan Burns and Brendan Moley and comes highly recommended.

5 British troops and RUC surround the massive funeral of Volunteer Brendan Burns

5 Thousands of mourners attend the funeral of Volunteer Brendan Moley

The 1913 Lockout was the most momentous workers' struggle in Irish history.

Out of dire poverty in Dublin slums came the risen people who fought against terrible odds for months, seemed defeated but went on to rise again for workers' rights and Irish freedom.

LOCKOUT 1913 – AUSTERITY 2013

tells the story of those brave men and women and their relevance for today, a century on

PRICE

€7.99

(PLUS POSTAG AND PACKAGIN E G)

'Inspired by the legacy of the past and applying the fighting spirit of Jim Larkin and the progressive teachings of James Connolly to our own time, we can say, in the words of the Civil Rights anthem – We shall overcome.'

Gerry Adams TD, President of Sinn Féin Available from SINN FÉIN BOOKSHOP 58 Parnell Square, Dublin 1.

+353 1 814 8542

sales@sinnfeinbookshop.com

Published by Sinn Féin Centenaries Commemoration Committee, Coiste Comóradh Céad Bliain

www.sinnfeinbookshop.com Produced bt Republican Publications

ap028-029.qxd

29/05/2013

11:02

Page 1

28 June / Meitheamh 2013

www.anphoblacht.com

5 Hundreds of republicans attend the annual Volunteer Martin ‘Doco’ Doherty commemoration in Dublin on 25 May. 'Doco' died stopping a loyalist gang who attempted to bomb the Widow Scallan's pub in Dublin. A video from the commemoration is available on www.anphoblacht.com

5 A commemoration to remember Commandant Neil ‘Plunkett’ O’Boyle (Donegal) – who was executed by Free State forces 90 years ago in May 1923 – is held in west Wicklow

5 Brian Campfield, General Secretary of NIPSA, was the main speaker when republicans and socialists from across Belfast took part in a ceremony to remember James Connolly on the anniversary of his execution

anphoblacht PRINT EDITION

SUBSCRIPTION RATE FOR 12 ISSUES ONLY £20/€25 ELECTRONIC EDITION

SUBSCRIPTION RATE FOR YEAR ONLY £8/€10 go to www.anphoblacht.com/publications Tel: + 353 1 8733611 Email: sales@anphoblacht.com Name: ...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Address:

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Tel/Email: .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Indicate currency: €

£

I enclose cheque, postal order, etc for: .....................

PAY BY CREDIT CARD: Name on Card: ____________________ Card Number: _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _

Expiry Date: Month _ _ Year _ _

_ _ _ _

_ _ _ _

MAKE PAYABLE TO: PARNELL PUBLICATIONS AND SEND TO: AN PHOBLACHT, 44 PARNELL SQUARE, DUBLIN 1, IRELAND.

5 Harry Duggan, Hugh Hehir’s widow Ann, and Barry McElduff MLA at the 25th anniversary commemoration

ap028-029.qxd

29/05/2013

11:01

Page 2

www.anphoblacht.com

June / Meitheamh 2013 29

I nDíl Chuimhne 3 June 1974: Volunteer Michael GAUGHAN (Parkhurst Prison), England.

3 June 1991: Volunteer Tony DORIS, Volunteer Lawrence McNALLY, Volunteer Pete RYAN, Tyrone Brigade.

4 June 1975: Volunteer Francis JORDAN, South Armagh Brigade.

4 June 1978: Volunteer Henry HEANEY, Long Kesh.

4 June 1991: Volunteer Danny McCAULEY, Tyrone Brigade.

5 June 1975: Volunteer Seán McKENNA, Monaghan Brigade.

5 June 1976: Colm MULGREW, Sinn Féin.

7 June 1987: Volunteer Margaret McARDLE, Belfast Brigade, 1st Battalion.

7 June 1990: Volunteer Sean BATESON, Long Kesh.

9 June 1979: Volunteer Peadar McELVANNA, South Armagh Brigade.

All notices and obituaries should be sent to notices@anphoblacht.com by Friday 14 JUNE 2013

Pádraig Mac Piarais 9 June 1983: Volunteer Dan TURLEY, Belfast Brigade, 1st Battalion.

10 June 1978: Volunteer Denis HEANEY, Derry Brigade.

11 June 1972: Fian Joseph CAMPBELL, Fianna Éireann.

11 June 1997: Volunteer Patrick KELLY, Laois.

12 June 1993: Volunteer Michael MOTLEY, Laois.

21 June 1978: Volunteer Denis BROWN, Volunteer Jackie MAILEY, Volunteer Jim MULVENNA, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

24 June 1974: Volunteers Gerard CRAIG, Volunteer David RUSSELL, Derry Brigade.

25 June 1973: Volunteers Patrick CARTY, Volunteer Seán LOUGHRAN,

Comhbhrón

Tyrone Brigade; Volunteer Dermot CROWLEY, Cork Brigade.

Always remembered by the Republican Movement.

CLARKE, Terry. In proud and loving memory of Óglach Terry Clarke, who died on 13 June 2000. Always remembered by his wife Mary, daughter Marie, son Seamus and grandchildren Aoibhe and Turlough.

CLARKE, Terry. In memory of Volunteer Terry Clarke, who died on 13 June 2000. From the Terry Clarke Sinn Féin Cumann, Clondalkin, Dublin.

CROWLEY, Dermot. In loving memory of Volunteer Dermot Crowley, who died on active service alongside his comrades Volunteer Patrick Carty and

Volunteer Seán Loughran on 25 June 1973. Remembered always by Dermot Crowley/Paula Murphy Ógra Shinn Féin, West Tyrone.

DOHERTY, Martin. In proud and loving memory of Volunteer Martin Doherty, Óglaigh na hÉireann. From all his nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

DOHERTY, Martin. In proud and loving memory of brother Martin ‘Doco’ Doherty, who was murdered by a loyalist gang while defending a POW function in the Widow Scallan’s on 21 May 1994. From his brothers Pat and Michael and his nephew David. May he rest in peace.

Buíochas

TODD. Sincere condolences to Cllr Harry Todd on the death of his wife Margaret and also to Austin Hearty on the death of his father Michael. From the Halpenny/ Worthington/ Watters Sinn Féin Cumann, Dundalk.

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.

BROWN. The family of the late PJ Brown, who died suddenly in Sydney, Australia, would like to express sincere thanks to my sister Marie and all my family.

Also comrades and friends who

gave me so much help and support. Special thanks to Seanna and Joe from Coiste na n-Iarchimí in Belfast and Emma Clancy in Australia for working so hard to get me my visa. To

» Imeachtaí » Events 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.

Volunteer Hugh Hehir 25th Anniversary Commemoration, County Clare THE largest attendance in many years was in Clarecastle, County Clare, on 5 May to mark the 25th anniversary of the death on active service of Volunteer Hugh Hehir.

The Volunteer Ed O’Brien Republican Flute Band from Wexford led the procession to Hugh’s graveside, where Harry Duggan chaired the event. Harry thanked everyone who came, especially those who travelled from other counties, before giving a brief history of Hugh’s life and active service. The guest speaker was Barry McElduff MLA from Tyrone.

Barry said it was great to see Hugh’s wife and family at the commemoration and said to them: “We hold Hugh Hehir in the highest respect.”

Hugh had gone north to help out and that was, Barry said, “very, very much appreciated by the people in the North”. A former comrade of Hugh’s had told Barry that Hugh did more than anyone ever knew. “I am very proud to be associated with Volunteer Hugh Hehir.”

As an indication of that respect, Barry told the crowd that in late August the Sperrin Mountain Challenge, a

DOHERTY, Martin. In proud and loving memory of my brother Martin ‘Doco’ Doherty. From his brother Thomas and family.

DOHERTY, Martin. In proud and loving memory of Volunteer Martin ‘Doco’ Doherty. Always remembered by McCabe/Quigley Cumann, Ballymun DOHERTY, Martin. In proud and loving memory of Volunteer Martin ‘Doco’ Doherty, who lost his life to save so many others. His sacrifice will never be forgotten. From Noeleen and Dixie.

GRAY, Kevin. In proud and loving memory of our comrade Kevin Gray, who died 9 May 1999. From the Halpenny/Worthington/Watters Sinn Féin Cumann, Dundalk.

ROSSINI, Annemarie. In proud and loving memory of Annemarie Rossini, who died on 14 June 2012. Always remembered with love and pride by the members of the James Connolly 1st Republican Flute Band, Glasgow.

“LIFE SPRINGS FROM DEATH AND FROM THE GRAVES OF PATRIOT MEN AND WOMEN SPRING LIVING NATIONS.”

climb of nine peaks, will take place in Tyrone and one of the peaks will be named in honour of Hugh Hehir. There will be a large picture of him at the summit.

Turning to today, Barry pointed out the Sinn Féin is the only all-Ireland party; the others don’t even bother organising in the North.

“They say ‘national’ this and ‘national’ that when what they mean is the 26

Counties. We oppose partition. We see austerity being introduced by both the London and Dublin governments. We are fighting that and have issued Bills against austerity and in favour of investment to end emigration and poverty.”

It is wasteful to have two competing systems on the island, he said.

Barry told the crowd he was also impressed by the work being done by activists in Clare and their plans for the future. He said he wanted to restate our primary objective, which Hugh Hehir died to achieve: “Britain out of Ireland, an end to partition and the establishment of a government based on citizenship and equal rights.”

Sinn Féin is the only vehicle to achieve this, Barry said “When people ask me ‘Are you busy this weather?’ I like to say to them, ‘Yep, we’re trying to free Ireland – what are you at yourself?’

“Just as the people of 1916 were able to say proudly that they stood for the freedom of Ireland, we stand for the freedom of Ireland today.”

A wreath was laid on behalf of the Republican Movement by Hugh’s friend, Billy Austin.

Paula, Bobby, Rosie, Jim, Eddie, Gunther, Eamon and my friends in Connolly House and the whole republican family in west and north Belfast who were so generous to the family

and made it possible for me and my son to travel to Australia. Go raibh maith agaibh. You are forever in my prayers. Rosena Brown and family, Belfast.

Imeachtaí » ANNUAL WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION Bodenstown, Sunday 23rd June. Assemble 2.15pm, Sallins, County Kildare.

Main Speaker: Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty.

Chair: Paula Breathnach.

SMITH MONUMENTAL RESTORATION Additional Names, Cleaning and Restoration Work carried out in cemeteries in Leitrim, Cavan, Fermanagh and Longford ENQUIRIES TO JIM

086 859 6470

ap030-031.qxd

29/05/2013

11:04

Page 1

BETWEEN THE POSTS

30 June / Meitheamh 2013

THE

www.anphoblacht.com

BY CIARÁN KEARNEY

TOUGH GUYS IN LUMINOUS LYCRA

and Cav in world cycling, perhaps the potential for such schisms to occur could have been foreseen.

But, in fairness, the team objective was still to win the Tour de France and that’s what they did.

How they achieved it is even more interesting.

The manager of the Sky cycling team and mastermind of their strategy for success was Dave Brailsford.

At the same time he was performance director for the British Olympic cycling team, which has enjoyed a spoil of riches under his stewardship. Brailsford was convinced the

Tour de France could be won without doping and performanceenhancing drugs. His analysis is that in any top cycling race the advantage gained from drugs is about 15%. On that basis, Brailsford conceived a strategy to achieve ‘marginal gains’.

At its simplest, this involved finding methods to make small improvements in many ways.

Brailsford planned to neutralise the unfair advantage afforded to the many others who used drugs.

Changes made in the team plan included ensuring that the cyclists

would sleep on their own beds and pillows and that pre-race team reconnaissance and briefing on routes was better than anyone else’s. Deftly and forensically, Brailsford inculcated a culture of ‘marginal gains’.

This helped cancel out the cheaters’ 15% but didn’t replace a punishing pre-season training programme. Beaches and sunshine are how most of us would envisage southern Spain; cyclists know it for the mountains and hundreds of miles training in sweltering heat. It’s a far cry from the Kilburn area of

Elite athletes whose endeavours are helping to redeem the reputation of professional cycling so badly tarnished by Lance Armstrong

Produced for the 30th anniversary of the escape of IRA prisoners of war from Long Kesh

www.sinnfeinbookshop.com

AS

Great Escape Jersey

north-west London where Wiggins spent his childhood.

Wiggins’s father had been a cyclist but left the family when his son was only two years old. Together with a mother who encouraged his interest in sport, Wiggo’s grandfather filled the void. He openly admits his granda’s death in 2010 adversely affected his performance. His journey in life has had as many hills and valleys as his chosen sport. Yet, at the age of 12, he had ambition. Wiggo told his art teacher: “I’m going to be Olympic champion. I’m going to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour.”

Twenty years later, he achieved both in the same summer. By this time he had a family of his own, one whose sacrifices he readily admits.

Which is why he has a small ‘B’ tattooed on the back of each hand, reminding him of his two children, Ben and Bella.

Ireland has its own cycling tradition, with strong links to Cumann Luthchleas Gael. Recent world success is credit to Martyn Irvine, an amateur cyclist from the North of Ireland. However, Ireland is one of the few countries in Europe to boast successful cyclists like Stephen Roche, Seán Kelly and now Martyn Irvine without a velodrome for them to train in. Try telling that to the banksters who were prepared to back the ‘Bertie Bowl’!

Meanwhile, illness forced Wiggo’s withdrawl from the Giro d’Italia (a race that will come to Ireland in 2014). Whether he is in form to retain the Tour de France this year is unclear. Wiggo, Froomie and Cav may pedal together but all eyes will be on which one gets the yellow shirt.

AVAILABLE FROM:

Bre WORN Mc nda BY ES Far n ‘B CAP lan ik’ EE e

WITH NAMES LIKE ‘Froomie’, ‘Cav’ and ‘Wiggo’ you would be forgiven for thinking this is the cast on the latest trashy TV soap. They might sound like bunch of bad lads who spend their weekends on benders.

On the contrary, these three are elite athletes whose endeavours are helping to redeem the reputation of professional cycling so badly tarnished by Lance Armstrong. The trio compete together for the Sky cycling team. Froomie, Cav and Wiggo are also known as Chris Froome, Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins. Last year, it was this team and its talisman Wiggo that won the Tour de France. The manner in which they did it was even more impressive than the outcome.

Elite cycling depends on the whole team for the success of the individual. Whilst Bradley Wiggins won the coveted yellow jersey, he had no chance of winning it without his team, each of whom is hugely talented.

Mark Cavendish is the fastest sprint cyclist in the world. He is a high-performing professional cyclist in the prime of his career. Yet his role in the team was to carry water bottles from the back-up car through the pelaton to their main asset, Bradley Wiggins.

Like Cav, Froomie is a superb cyclist in his own right. Yet he was also asked to play the role of ‘domestique’ (servant) to Wiggo. At one stage of the famous French race last year, Froomie departed from the plan and launched an attack on the front. He won the stage but his solo run caused discord in the team.

Given the standing of both Froomie

Sinn Féin Bookshop 58 Parnell Square, Dublin 1 Sinn Féin Arts Centre 51 Falls Road, Belfast

From: 58 Parnell Square, Dublin 1 | www.sinnfeinbookshop.com | Stall at Bodenstown Festival

ap030-031.qxd

29/05/2013

11:05

Page 2

www.anphoblacht.com

June / Meitheamh 2013 31

The media circus behind Fianna Fáil’s resurrection

Back to black

BY

ROBBIE SMYTH

FIANNA FÁIL are back. The Irish mainstream news media have declared it.

Though their return owes more to a Rocky movie plot than reality, here’s a spoiler alert – Fianna Fáil never went away.

Fianna Fáil were lost in the wilderness, they died, but now are reborn and have risen again.

It wasn’t easy, folks. Fianna Fáil have had to fight and claw their way back to the top. (I am humming the Rocky anthem now.)

Fianna Fáil have looked over the abyss, were buried, dead in a toxic dump, but now they and party leader Mícheál Martin have been resurrected. Nope, not messing, Martin is now a Man of Iron, courtesy of John Drennan in the Irish Independent.

Last November, a Sunday Times Stephen O’Brien article declares the “Resurrection of Fianna Fáil” as their opinion poll rating registers at 22%. A 21% showing for Fianna Fáil in an October Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll garners the front-page headline: “Fianna Fáil bounces back as second-biggest party.”

“Fianna Fáil claw back support” is the Star headline for this poll. “Fianna Fáil on the rise” writes the Mirror, while the Sun declares: “New poll shows FF on mend.” The Examiner reports that Fianna Fáil’s “recovery is continuing”.

“Fianna Fáil bounces back in polls,” according to the Mail.

In 2013, the Fianna Fáil media bandwagon continues.

A page 2 Sun (9 February) article captures the slapstick mockery of this journalism.

Headlined “FF tops again” we are told: “Bungling Fianna Fáil is Ireland’s most popular political party again, a shock new poll reveals.”

“Fianna Fáil rise again” is the Star’s take. The Mirror has “Fianna Fáil is on the up” with an obligatory “bounced back” in the text. “Back from the brink” is part of the page one Irish Independent headline. The February Ipsos MRBI poll in the Times has Fianna Fáil on 26%, headlined as: “Fianna Fáil just ahead in latest poll.”

By March, the Sunday Independent has the front-page headline “FF romps into lead” (in February it was “FF pulls ahead”).

“50 Coalition TDs could fall as FF popularity soars” trumpets another Sindo headline.

“Soldiers of Destiny return from political wilderness” is the title of a Harry McGee Irish Times ‘analysis’ on 29 April. “Toxic party inches its way back from the political abyss” is the Sunday Business Post slant a day earlier.

John Drennan (writing in the Sunday Independent the same day) explains that, for Mícheál Martin, “Time in opposition has put iron in the soul.” The article is headlined: “No more Mr Nice Guy from FF leader as he forges own destiny.”

It wasn’t just the Fianna Fáil ard fheis that fuelled the ‘comeback’ hype. It has been driven by sloppy reporting of opinion polls, heightened by the arrival of regular Millward Brown polls in the Sunday Independent, and Behaviour & Attitudes polls in the Sunday Times along with the Red C polls in the Sunday Business Post, and the long-term relationship between The Irish Times and Ipsos MRBI. Fianna Fáil have been the beneficiaries of a type of political journalism common around

5 Mícheál Martin was Bertie Ahern’s right-hand man the western world. It is driven by horse-race reporting of opinion polls, the need to create a simplistic fictional plot of victors and vanquished. Driven by hype or denunciations, you

there was “no compatibility” between Fianna Fáil policies and Sinn Féin.

At the FF ard fheis weeks later, Martin proposed a Ř4billion capital programme funded

How many Sinn Féin policy positions have Fianna Fáil copied in their comeback? are either on the way up or on the way down.

There is no sensible space where you can evaluate what a party’s policies actually are.

For example, how many Sinn Féin policy positions have Fianna Fáil copied in their comeback? In February, Mícheál Martin said

from the National Pension Reserve Fund. That was so Sinn Féin 2009, Mícheál. The Fianna Fáil leader is opposed to the “fire sale” of state assets – Sinn Féin always have been but Fianna Fáil only when in opposition.

In the aftermath of the vote against Croke

5 John Drennan thinks Martin is a ‘Man of Iron’ Park 2, Fianna Fáil now wants a “fair and equitable deal on public sector pay”. Sinn Féin always did – and for all workers!

In the Meath by-election, Fianna Fáil asked for Sinn Féin transfers, showing that ‘Old Fianna Fáil’ is still there. Last words to Sinn Féin’s Sandra McLellan, in April she said, “let’s not be fooled by Fianna Fáil’s recently discovered bleeding heart. When in power they are as ruthless, as anti-worker, and as pro the status quo as Fine Gael.”

It is back to black for Fianna Fáil.

ap032-001.qxd

29/05/2013

10:24

Page 1

anphoblacht Get your TD to

BACK PEARSE DOHERTY’S DAIL BILL

AXE THE TAX PROPERTY

Scrap the unfair tax on family homes