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SPECIAL 40 PAGE ELECTIONS
anphoblacht
Sraith Nua Iml 37 Uimhir 6
June / Meitheamh 2014
PRICE €2/£2
LARGEST PARTY IN IRELAND
‘SEISMIC SHIFT’ GERRY ADAMS
‘‘ Stunning results see all-Ireland team of 4 MEPs, surge of councillors, by-election breakthroughs
Wolfe Tone Commemoration Bodenstown, Sunday 15 June Assemble Sallins at 2.15pm Speaker: Gerry Adams
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IN PICTURES
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WHAT’S INSIDE 6&7 Dublin and Monaghan bombs: Victims and relatives to sue British Government 8 No place like home – or no home for North Belfast Catholics 10 & 11 UVF behind racist rampages in Belfast 12 & 13 Garda scandals and Sinn Féin’s case for police reform 14 ‘Put yourselves in the shoes of others’ – Rev Steve Stockman and Fr Martin J Magill in the Uncomfortable Conversations series
5 Youth Affairs spokesperson Senator Kathryn Reilly and young Sinn Féin activists launch the party’s ‘Youth Matters: Not for Export’ document
15 to 26 12-page Election Special – Sinn Féin’s best election results since 1918
27 Time for unions to review their links with Labour 29 Palestinian political prisoners’ campaign comes to Ireland 30 & 31 Cyprus’s Ambassador on his island nation’s struggle to end partition
5 Belfast Mayor Máirtín Ó Muilleoir pinks up for the Giro D’Italia in Botanic Gardens
32 Protestant education and disadvantage in the North – Prof Peter Shirlow 34 & 35 The Last Environmentalist: Robert Allen takes on the climate change deniers 36 Book reviews: Republican doctors and Cork warriors 38 & 39 Sports: Giro D’Italia ‘50 Shades of Pink’; the GAA: From Croker to Old Trafford
5 A demonstration at Belfast City Hall calls for the release of 230 schoolgirls kidnapped from their school in north-eastern Nigeria by a militant Islamist group
5 Staff occupy the Paris Bakery on Moore Street in Dublin. More than 20 workers at the former bakery and restaurant say they have not been paid since the 6 April and are owed more than €55,000 in wages
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June / Meitheamh 2014 3
anphoblacht Eagarfhocal
anphoblacht Editorial
5 Lynn Boylan and a host of newly-elected Sinn Féin councillors arrive at the RDS count centre in Dublin to hear the first round of European results. Pictured are Ballymun Councillor Noeleen Reilly, Dessie Ellis TD, Lynn Boylan (now MEP), Mary Lou McDonald TD, Crumlin-Kimmage Councillor Críona Ní Dhálaigh, North Inner City Councillor Janice Boylan, Rathfarnham Councillor Sarah Holland and Political Programme Manager Olive Sloan
Sinn Féin’s most historic elections since 1918 SINN FÉIN has rocked the vote across the island. Almost half a million EU voters have made Sinn Féin the biggest party on the island of Ireland. The May 2014 EU and local government elections and Dáil by-elections have produced the most sensational results for Sinn Féin since the 1918 elections. Now that republicans have won the support and confidence of the people, how Sinn Féin elected representatives use that power is critical to securing the republican goal of a united Ireland based on social justice and equality. Voters have endorsed Sinn Féin’s message that there is a fairer way. The island-wide election results are also an endorsement of Sinn Féin’s message of the need to
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reinvigorate the Peace Process and for an agreed, united Ireland. By any yardstick, these have been remarkable results and anyone who stood or worked or voted in these elections for Sinn Féin should be proud of and share in this success. Now the campaigns and the counts are over, the work begins again. The Establishment parties and their cheerleaders and propagandists in the mainstream media, angered by their own failure to derail the republican project, are already trying to belittle this stunning achievement and the voters’ democratic choice. The answer to the mainstream media’s carping is for Sinn Féin representatives at all levels to
HAVE YOU SUBSCRIBED TO AN PHOBLACHT ONLINE? 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
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demonstrate that when we say we want a new, radical form of politics we show it by delivery on the ground. We must deliver it not just through being voices against austerity and cuts but also by being courageous and innovative in devising practical initiatives (in co-operation with other parties) to improve the lives of the communities weserve, including those who did not vote Sinn Féin this time out. Communities across the 32 counties of Ireland have put their faith in Sinn Féin. We must repay that trust by putting republican politics into practice on our journey to achieving an Ireland of Equals.
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 Kevin Barry House 44 Parnell Square, Dublin 1, Ireland Telephone: (+353 1) 872 6 100 Email: editor@anphoblacht.com
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IN PICTURES
Le Trevor
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Ó Clochartaigh
Tá na toghcháin thart, anois a thosaíonn an obair i ndáiríre
tábhacht na polaitíochta don phobal
BUAITEOIRÍ AGUS CAILLTEOIRÍ
BHÍ IDIR gáire agus caoineadh le cloisteáil ar fud na tíre, agus ar fud na hEorpa is dócha le déanaí agus na vótaí dhá gcomhaireamh ó na toghcháin áitiúla, fo-thoghcháin agus toghcháin na hEorpa. Cuma cén toradh a bhíonn ar na ballóidí éagsúla, aithníonn an chuid is mó den phobal an mhisneach a thógann sé d’aon duine iad féin a chur os comhair an phobail i dtoghchán ar bith. Is iontach an tuiscint a fhaigheann tú nuair a chuireann tú d’ainm chun cinn go ndéanfaidh saoránaithe na tíre breithiúnas ort. Tá mé cinnte go bhfuil sé tugtha faoi deara ag iomaitheoirí nua ó na páirtithe ar fad, an t-athrú dearcadh a bhíonn ag daoine ort mar gheall ar an seasamh polaitiúil, poiblí a thógann tú. Tá roinnt gnéithe suimiúil de seo dar liom. I dtosach báire, braitheann dearcadh do chomhleacaithe go mór ar an mbratach a bhíonn crochta agat agus an dílseacht páirtí a bhíonn i gceist leis sin. Go tobann, is féidir le do cháirde, gaolta, comhleacaithe oibre agus eile breathnú ort ar bhealach faoi leith má sheasann tú le páirtí, nó mar iarrthóir neamhspleách. Is aisteach an beithioch í an pholaitíocht agus ceann de na rudaí atá foghlamtha agam nár chóir duit buille faoi thuairim a thabhairt faoi pholaitíocht daoine. Uaireanta bíonn súil go leanfaidh duine polaitíocht a muintire, nó ag brath ar an aicme, nó slí bheatha atá acu, go mbeidh luí acu le fealsúnacht pholaitiúil áirithe. Ach go minic, bíonn an réamhbhreithiúnas sin iomlán mícheart. Uaireanta b’fhéidir go samhlófá go bhfuil duine tuaithe, atá ag dul amach sna blianta beagán coimeadach, ach d’fhéadfá a bheith iomlán mícheart. Ar an gcaoi chéanna d’fhéadfadh duine óg, uirbeach a bheith iontach coimeadach ina gcuid smaointeoireacht pholaitiúil. Tá rud éicint iontach, áfach, faoi dul amach agus stocaireacht imeasc do phobal féin ag lorg vótaí le ionadaíocht a dhéanamh orthu. Ar bhealach, sílim gur chóir go mbeadh sé éigeantach do gach duine, ag pointe éigin dá saol, dul amach ag canbhasáil ina bpobail féin – cuma cén dílseacht páirtí atá acu. Ba chóir go bhfeicfidís an chaoi a mhaireann a gcuid comharsana, saibhir agus daibhir, sean agus óg, sláintiúil agus easláintiúil. Is oideachas iontach é dul suas agus anuas bóithríní beaga i gceantair tuaithe ag bualadh le
do chomhshaoránaithe. Nó, tríd h-eastáit tithíochta sna bailte beaga agus móra ar fud na tíre, a bhfuil meascán de theaghlaigh iontu atá ag streachailt, nó ag ag déanamh go maith, ag brath ar an staid inar fhág an Tíogar Cheilteach iad. Dá mbeadh ar ógánaithe na tíre dul amach agus stocaireacht a dhéanamh fad is atá siad ar scoil mar shampla, b’fhéidir go gcuirfidís níos mó suim sa chóras polaitiúil. Is oideachas iontach a bheadh ann dóibh bualadh leis na daoine a chónaíonn thimpeall orthu agus atá uaigneach nó in ísle brí, nó na tuismitheoirí atá ag iarraidh cóipeáil le páistí míchumasacha, nó teaghlaigh óga nach bhfuil ábalta a gcuid billí a íoc ag deire na miosa. Dár ndóigh ní daoine óga amhain a bhainfeadh tairbhe as an taithí seo, ach níl aon dabht orm le linn an
Sílim gur chóir go mbeadh sé éigcinnteacht do gach duine, ag pointe éigin dá saol dul amach ag canbhasáil ina bpobail féin toghchán is déanaí go raibh céatadán an-ard don aos-óg nach raibh cláraithe le haghaidh vótáil fiú, nach raibh suim ar bith acu sa mhéid a bhí ar bun agus nach bhfuil spéis dá laghad acu sa chóras polaitíochta. Dushlán mór do Shinn Féin is ea polaitiú a dhéanamh ar dhaoine sna pobail as a dtagann muid, idir óg agus aosta. Caithfidh muid seo a dhéanamh tríd ionadaíocht chumasach a dhéanamh ar a son. Caithfidh muid a bheith sásta seasamh leo in am an ghátar, cruacheisteanna a chuir nuair is gá ceiliúradh a dhéanamh leo ag na hamanna maithe. Bíonn fás aon oíche ann i saol na polaitíochta, ach ní minic a mhaireann ionadaithe poiblí i saol na polaitíochta muna gcuireann siad an t-am, an dua agus an fhuinneamh isteach maidir leis an toghlach dár díobh iad. Sin an dúshlán atá roimh chuile dhuine a toghadh le déanaí. Tá mé cinnte go mbeidh chuile ionadaí tofa atá ag Sinn Féin ar a míle dícheall ag obair ar son fís an pháirtí agus ar son an phobal dár díobh iad agus tá mé ag súil go mór tacú leo agus comhoibriú leo san obair sin.
5 Matt Carthy canvasses on Inis Mór with Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh
5 Two children enjoy their time at the a James Connolly commemoration in Belfast
5 Children in Dublin hold up a giant key which symbolises the locked out state of Palestine to commemorate Nakba Day (Day of the Catastrophe) which took place in May 1948, when 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes and lands to create the state of Israel
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June / Meitheamh 2014 5
ESTABLISHMENT HACKS REELING FROM SINN FÉIN SUCCESS
Indo’s anti-republican type BY MARK MOLONEY WE CAN ONLY IMAGINE the scene at the Irish Independent’s headquarters on Saturday 24 May as news broke of a seismic shift in the political landscape in the 26 Counties. It was evident that the anti-republican, privately-owned newspaper’s vicious and hysterical campaign aimed at destroying if not seriously damaging Sinn Féin’s electoral chances had crashed and burned the moment the first boxes were opened in count centres across Ireland and hundreds of thousands of ballots marked ‘Sinn Féin Number 1’ came tumbling out onto the tally desks. Two days before polling day I sat among other journalists at the Cliff Townhouse in Dublin for Sinn Féin’s last press conference. As Gerry Adams took questions, an insipid hand was raised from the front corner of the room. Other reporters huffed and rolled their eyes to the sky as a quivering voice asked Gerry Adams whether he found it acceptable that a former IRA Volunteer involved in the assassination of Lord Mountbatten was canvassing on behalf of Matt Carthy. “Who are you with?” asked Gerry Adams. “The Irish Independent,”came the faltering reply. “Surprise, surprise,” smiled Mary Lou McDonald. Noting that both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had elected members who had served in the IRA during the Tan War, Adams told the novice: “Just because you have a past doesn’t mean you can’t have a future,” adding to laughter
5 The Irish Independent and its Sunday edition have led a vicious anti-republican media campaign for over 30 years from more seasoned reporters: “And that goes for Irish Independent journalists.” It was a pitiable display where a junior reporter had been sent out under orders from his editor-in-chief to get yet another cheap soundbite with which to attack his paper’s Sinn Féin nemesis. Perhaps it’s the declining influence of major newspapers in Ireland or the growth in the use of online media by political parties (something which Sinn Féin is leading the field in) but what is clear is that the Irish Independent is becoming increasingly irrelevant to many ordinary Irish people deciding who to cast their vote for on election day. Just as in 1916 when the Irish Independent reacted with fury at the audacity of the Irish people to dare hit out at the established order by calling for the execution of the leaders of
IN PICTURES
5 Sinn Féin hold their final pre-election press conference in the Cliff Townhouse in Dublin
the Easter Rising, the 2014 election saw the Sunday Independent lash out at the ‘workingclass strongholds’ of Sinn Féin for daring to vote for a party that challenges the cosy consensus of the Golden Circles and elites of Irish society. In a fit of hysterical whingeing that would have been embarrassing to even the most ardent of its Blueshirt fans, the distressed Sindo lashed out at its friends in Government, decrying their failure to tackle the rise of Sinn Féin: “So far, all parties have left the heavy lifting on exposing Sinn Féin to the INM group.” The self-pitying moaning continued from the paper: “But we cannot continue to roll a rock up a hill alone while being subjected to the sneers of a Coalition which confines itself to cheap
‘All parties have left the heavy lifting on exposing Sinn Féin to the INM group’ – the self-pitying moan of the Irish Independent
jibes at Sinn Féin instead of subjecting it to sustained close scrutiny as we have done for the past 30 years.” And finally, junking any pretence at being impartial, the Sindo told us: “In that regard, RTÉ needs a reality check.” This is the same RTÉ which, just hours earlier, had asked Gerry Adams, following his party’s best election since 1918, whether he would consider his position as party leader. Sinn Féin’s Chris Andrews, who topped the poll in Pembroke South Dock in Dublin, tweeted that RTÉ’s line of questioning was the equivalent of asking Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti whether he would resign as manager just days after winning the Champions League. The laughable post-election analysis continued in the PTSD-afflicted Sindo. One headline informed us: “Sinn Féin’s romp has failed to materialise.” Disregarding any facts (such as Sinn Féin quadrupling its seats in the EU, receiving more votes than any other party in the North, and more than doubling its seat total in the 26 Counties), the paper went into overdrive in an attempt to portray the republican success as a failure. Facts went out the window as the Sindo claimed “Sinn Féin has not had an MEP since deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald” was elected in 2004. Martina Anderson and Bairbre de Brún, who have represented Sinn Féin in the EU Parliament for the past ten years, would no doubt be incredibly surprised to learn that. As more and more people embrace Sinn Féin as a real political alternative, the Irish Independent’s vain attempt to stem the rising electoral tide serves only to further alienate itself from the vast majority of people who want fair and balanced reporting.
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5 Palestinian Ambassador to Ireland Dr Hikmat Ajjuri visits Belfast
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34 people killed and almost 300 injured when no-warning UVF car-bombs exploded in Dublin and Monaghan town on 17 May 1974
Families to sue Ministry of Defence, PSNI, NIO and Secretary of State BY JOHN HEDGES SURVIVORS and relatives of those killed and injured in the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings have launched civil actions in the Belfast High Court against the British Ministry of Defence, the PSNI, the NIO and the Secretary of State for the Northern Ireland as a last resort over Britain’s refusal to comprehensively co-operate in the investigation even 40 years later. The lead cases are being taken by Derek Byrne, who was critically injured in one of the bomb attacks in Dublin, and Paddy Askin, whose father (also called Paddy) was killed in the explosion in Monaghan. The pair are acting as lead plaintiffs on behalf of up to 25 people. Thirty-four people were killed and almost 300 injured when three no-warning car-bombs
A meeting to progress the discussion on a mutually acceptable assessor examining documents was cancelled by the British side last November and no new meeting has been offered since then exploded during the rush-hour in Dublin and a fourth in Monaghan town on 17 May 1974. The unionist Ulster Volunteer Force eventually claimed responsibility for the well-co-ordinated attacks that were carried out with the assistance of British state forces. It was the greatest loss of life in a single day of the conflict, even bigger than Omagh. No one has been convicted of the attacks. At a joint press conference by the Dublin/Monaghan bombings families’ campaign group Justice for the Forgotten and the Pat Finucane Centre in Dublin three days before the 40th anniversary of the attacks, Margaret Urwin (Chair, Justice for the Forgotten) announced the dramatic move against the British Government and the PSNI. The panel at the press conference included Alan Brecknell of the Pat Finucane Centre and solicitor Kevin Winters as well as Derek Byrne and Paddy Askin.
5 Alan Brecknell from the Pat Finucane Centre, Derek Byrne who survived the Dublin bombing, Margaret Urwin of Justice for the Forgotten and Paddy Askin who lost his father in the Monaghan bombing are pictured at a press conference in Buswells Hotel Derek and Paddy both spoke to An Phoblacht. Derek Byrne was critically wounded in the Parnell Street bomb in Dublin but was diagnosed only five years ago with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder despite constantly waking at night, screaming, He criticised the Irish Government’s withdrawal of funding for families’ support services and added: “We know that anyone convicted would get two years under the Good Friday Agreement but we want the truth, who was behind it, who they were working for. Paddy Askin told An Phoblacht that he sees the civil action as “a last resort” aimed at getting people to admit their role “from the grunts who did it to the suits at the top”. “Every other avenue has been closed to us. I feel very let down by the authorities and that the British Government can just refuse to co-operate. “I would ask the British Prime Minister to help us bring some closure to this. If David Cameron could apologise for Bloody Sunday after 40 years, can he not help the families from the Dublin and Monaghan bombings after 40 years?” Unveiling the new move, Margaret pointed out that when the late Justice Henry Barron published his 2003 Independent Commission of Inquiry report into the bombings on behalf of the Irish Government, he deplored the failure of the British authorities to make original documents available to his inquiry. He also criticised their refusal to supply other information on
“national security” grounds, saying they limited the scope of his report. Two motions were unanimously passed by the Dáil in 2008 and 2011 urging the British Government to make the undisclosed documents available to an independent, international judicial figure for assessment. Westminster ignored the unanimous call from the Irish Parliament. More recently, Justice for the Forgotten proposed to the current British Ambassador,
Dominick Chilcott, that the documents could be assessed in Britain and even in situ so that no question of national security need arise. Margaret Urwin revealed that Justice for the Forgotten had proposed “a highly-respected individual, who was believed would be acceptable to both sides” was suggested as an assessor. “However, an arranged meeting to progress the discussion was cancelled by the British side last November and no new meeting has been offered since then.” The Pat Finucane Centre, Alan Brecknell said, together with Justice for the Forgotten, have had “long discussions” with the North’s Historical Enquiries Team to secure “an over-arching report” that would have encompassed cases of collusion between British forces (including British Military Intelligence, the Ulster Defence Regiment and the Royal Ulster Constabulary) and unionist paramilitaries. This would have included the infamous ‘Glenanne Gang’ made up of serving and former police officers and soldiers from the UDR as well as unionist sectarian death squads. Over 120 killings (a third of whom were killed south of the Border) were to be re-examined. The purpose of the report was to “tie in all the links, whether they be security force or ballistic links”, including attacks south of the Border. “Unfortunately, this report never came to pass.” Referencing the recently-published and acclaimed book Lethal Allies: Britain’s Dirty War
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June / Meitheamh 2014 7
5 The Pat Finucane Centre and Justice for the Forgotten had discussions with the HET about securing an overarching report into collusion between British forces and unionist paramilitaries, but this report never came to pass in Ireland, by former BBC correspondent Ann Cadwallader (now in its sixth print run after more than 14,500 sales), Alan Brecknell said that the Pat Finucane Centre over the past 12 years has been investigating a series of killings “inextricably linked to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings – to the perpetrators, the actual people involved”. He said a number of whistleblowers “from within the British security forces” have come forward over the years, including former British
Paddy Askin, whose father was killed in Monaghan, sees the civil action as ‘a last resort’ aimed at getting people ‘from the grunts who did it to the suits at the top’ to admit their role Army officers Colin Wallace and Fred Holroyd but former RUC Sergeant John Weir was probably the most important one in 1999. Weir detailed how he and other RUC members colluded with loyalist death squads. Weir also claimed that a number of UDR members had been recruited by British special forces for covert operations. John Weir, a serving RUC officer of ten years’ standing at the time, was convicted in 1980 of the murder of William Strathearn, a Catholic pharmacist shot dead in Ahoghill, County Antrim. The killing was claimed by the UVF. According to Weir, an informer working for the RUC had revealed to him that British undercover soldier Robert Nairac was a frequent visitor to his home. Weir claims that Nairac had named those responsible for a series of loyalist attacks at the
time, including the names of members of the UDR who were ‘helping’ British army special forces. Weir’s allegations were confirmed by relatives of two UDR soldiers later killed by the IRA. Alan Brecknell recalled: “John Weir said in an affidavit that himself and a number of other RUC and UDR personnel were involved with loyalist paramilitaries in a series of attacks north of the Border but also in a series of cross-Border attacks, including the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.” Solicitor Kevin Winters said the survivors and families of victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings have been “fighting a tortuous battle for 40 years to try and get dome degree of truth recovery and justice”. They have received “piecemeal” responses from the various authorities, particularly the British Government. “The Irish Government and the Garda have not covered themselves in glory in terms of accountability and accessibility to information” to allow the families to achieve closure, he added. He explained that the civil action aims to raise where the killers “emanated from” and “the authorities’ role, in the context of the investigation into the atrocity and what role they did have, directly or indirectly, in terms of prior knowledge, access to intelligence and, ultimately the failed and inept murder investigation”. The Police Ombudsman in the North has also been presented with a detailed case history and invited to “investigate allegations of collusion, insofar as the police are concerned, in the atrocity” and in the subsequent investigation. “The Police Ombudsman in the autumn of last year agreed to commence a formal investigation into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings,” the solicitor said. “That was a huge and significant breakthrough for the families’ campaign.” It gave the families added impetus to pursue the civil litigation. The experienced legal adviser said the families
‘There has been obfuscation of the highest order in relation to the role of the political and military and policing authorities by the British Government in relation to this case’ SOLICITOR KEVIN WINTERS
fully expect “a difficult battle” and obstacles from the authorities, who, he said, have all along “operated a Russian retreat process and there’s no reason they’re likely to depart from that process in the context of this action”. “There is a failure to front up and address the fact that there is serious evidence and allegations of collusion that permeate the security forces’ activities and, on a wider front, the political activities in terms of knowledge and understanding of what went on both beforehand in terms of prior knowledge and what took place thereafter,” Kevin Winters said. “There has been obfuscation of the highest order in relation to the role of the political and military and policing authorities by the British Government in relation to this case. “This action is designed to unpick and probe and pressurise the authorities through conventional civil litigation to get access to information that should have been made available to the families many, many years ago.” Kevin Winters urged the defendants – the PSNI, Ministry of Defence, NIO and Secretary of State – to respond positively to the families’ quest for closure. Sinn Féin deputy leader and Dublin Central TD Mary Lou McDonald and Cavan/Monaghan TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin both attended the families’ press conference. Mary Lou McDonald said: “It is a poor day when families have to go down this route because of the failure of the Irish Government to uphold the rights of citizens and hold the British Government to account.” Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said in a press release issued later from Government Buildings: “I renew the call on the British Government, our partner in the Peace Process and the joint guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement and its related agreements, to allow access on an agreed basis by an independent international judicial figure to the original documents in their possession relating to the bombings.”
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NO PLACE LIKE HOME – OR NO HOME FOR NORTH BELFAST CATHOLICS BY PEADAR WHELAN LAUNCHING a scathing attack on Executive Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland over housing allocation in north Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Carál Ní Chuilín accused the senior DUP man of “gerrymandering”. During a heated debate in the Stormont Assembly on Tuesday 13 May, Ní Chuilín told McCausland he was manipulating figures to disguise the chronic housing need for Catholic families in areas like the New Lodge. On the same day, online newspaper The Detail broke the news that both McCausland and North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds, along with other DUP figures, had been involved in “intense lobbying” of the Housing Executive in which “allegations of gerrymandering were made”. Dodds accused Housing Executive officials of “driving people out of Belfast”. The Detail obtained the information through a Freedom of Information request and discovered that the DUP held 12 unpublicised meetings, facilitated by McCausland, with Housing Executive officials. Accompanying Dodds and McCausland was the DUP’s Stephen Brimstone. The Social Development Minister’s controversial special political adviser was at the cen-
So the Frederick Street site is a car park and more than 1,300 Catholic families remain on an ever-growing housing waiting list tre of a BBC Spotlight investigation into DUP ‘irregularities’ with building firm Red Sky and accusations that Brimstone pressured a DUP councillor to put party interests first in a Housing Executive vote on the Red Sky contract. McCausland and the Department for Social Development (DSD) have been under fire over their refusal to acknowledge (never mind tackle) the problems in north Belfast where 1,327 Catholic families compared to 506 Protestant families are on the waiting list. Observers believe the DUP attitude is based on the electoral challenge posed by Sinn Féin in north Belfast. Commentator Jude Collins wrote tongue in cheek on his blog: “There’s no connection between religious background and voting patterns in north Belfast. Never has been, never will be. And the DUP’s keen interest in presenting north Belfast housing needs as ‘roughly the same’ rather than near to three times as great for Catholics as for Protestants has nothing – repeat, nothing – to do with their concerns over the narrowing lead at the polls of Nigel Dodds over Gerry Kelly.” Adding to the DUP and McCausland’s woes is the ‘Equality Can’t Wait’ campaign, supported by the Participation and Practice of Rights group.
5 There are 1,327 Catholic families and 506 Protestant families on the housing waiting list in north Belfast
5 North Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Carál Ní Chuilín
5 Nigel Dodds and Minister for Social Development, Nelson McCausland 5 UN Special Rapporteur Raquel Rodnik
5 There is a chronic housing shortage in areas such as the New Lodge
The housing pressure group looked at how changes to the way religious background is monitored to make it appear that inequality has been reduced. “But the reality is that inequality is persistent and the gap between Protestants and Catholics has been narrowed largely because of people whose religious background is recorded as ‘Unknown’.” The Housing Executive reported 46% of people in housing distress as Catholic whereas figures from Participation and Practice of Rights put the figure as high as 74%. Significantly, figures for housing waiting lists are traditionally measured by local council district boundaries, whereas the DUP has unilaterally argued to use the north Belfast Westminster and Assembly constituency boundary, which includes predominantly unionist areas such as Rathcoole and Newtownabbey. McCausland has used this distorted measurement in Stormont Assembly debates to rebuff accusations of discrimination. That this series of meetings went unpublicised (and with the further disclosure that the board of the Housing Executive was not informed of the meetings, because they were “considered operational matters”) raises the suspicion that the DUP politicians were attempting to interfere in the “operational independence” of that body. The Housing Executive was set up to deal with the politically sensitive issue of housing
Observers believe the DUP attitude is based on the electoral challenge posed by Sinn Féin in north Belfast allocation in the wake of the Civil Rights campaign in the late 1960s. An example of McCausland’s keen interest in housing matters in north Belfast can be seen by his blocking of a social housing development in Frederick Street, near the nationalist New Lodge area. The Housing Executive put forward proposals for houses to be built but an official in the Department of Social Development contacted the Executive on McCausland’s behalf, stating that the land was earmarked for a car park in the Department of Social Development/Belfast Regeneration Organisation Masterplan. He ‘requested’ the Executive “delete” the proposal. So the Frederick Street site is a car park and more than 1,300 Catholic families remain on an ever-growing housing waiting list. A Sinn Féin complaint with the Equality Commission over the failure of McCausland to tackle the housing problems in north Belfast raises the concerns of UN Special Rapporteur Raquel Rodnik, who cited the need for more social housing and highlighted the plight of Catholic families. Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey, Fra McCann and Mickey Brady asked the Equality Commission what actions they have undertaken to progress international obligations within the Department of Social Development.
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IN MARCH, councillors in the Fingal County Council area rejected the idea of offering Dublin’s 840,000-strong electorate a vote in a plebiscite at the same time as the local and European elections in May on whether they should have a directlyelected mayor even though the three other Dublin local authorities all overwhlemingly supported the plebiscite.
Fingal voted 16 against with six in favour and two abstentions. On Dublin City Council, 50 of its 52 councillors voted Yes with none against. The 26 members of South Dublin County Council voted in favour of allowing the plebiscite by 19 to 3. In Dún Laoghaire Rathdown, 23 of the 28 councillors voted in favour (none opposed it).
The campaign for a directly-elected Mayor of Ireland’s capital city
‘LET DUBLIN VOTE’ THE ‘Let Dublin Vote’ campaign has been set up by a group of young (and not so young) Dubliners frustrated at the process established by Environment Minister Phil Hogan to allow for the direct election of a Mayor for the greater Dublin area.
The capital is the national gateway and the driver of the Irish economy, generating 40% of national Gross Value Added product despite accounting for only 28% of the state’s population
Hogan set the bar so high that he effectively denied rather than facilitated allowing people living in the four Dublin local authorities a chance to decide on the future of local democracy. The administration of the metropolitan area is tied up in so many Gordian knots it needs a democratically-elected Mayor with a strong popular mandate to cut through all the red tape. At the moment we have all-powerful ‘Managers’ whose main priority is preserving their own bailiwicks rather than making Dublin a better place to live. Why does Dublin need to be liberated from the dead hand of bureaucracy? Because the capital is too important for its future to be let drift. It contributes: • 55.6% of all VAT in 2008, followed by Cork at 8.8% and Kildare 3.4% • 62.4% of all Corporation Tax, yielding €3.2billion out of a total tax of €5.1billion in 2008. • 50.6% of state PAYE in 2008, producing an estimated Exchequer revenue of €5billion for the Irish Government. • 38.8% of non-PAYE income tax, followed by Cork at 11%, Galway 4.5%, Kildare 4%, Limerick 3.9%, Meath 3.5%, Wicklow 3.4% and Tipperary 3.0%. • 41% of all Capital Gains Tax intakes. In short, a successful Ireland needs a successful Dublin. The capital is the national gateway and the driver of the Irish economy, generating 40% of national Gross Value Added product despite accounting for only 28% of the state’s population. Over half a million jobs are located in Dublin, or one in three in the state. Dublin is home to three of the top five fee-paying visitor attractions in Ireland and all of the top eight free attractions. It is home to the national stadiums for Gaelic, rugby and soccer, the scenes of unforgettable sporting memories for fans across the island. Croke Park is visited by people from all counties all summer long. The National Theatre at the Abbey and a range of other venues of importance to the whole country such as the O2, RDS and the National Concert Hall are all in Dublin. Dublin attracted almost four million visitors in 2011,
generating over €1billion for the Irish economy. The capital is the site of many of Ireland’s most important historical moments and monuments. The Dublin Lockout of 1913 and the 1916 Rising took place on the streets of the Irish capital. The central venues of Liberty Hall and the GPO are key markers in Dublin City Centre. Kilmainham Jail, Glasnevin Cemetery, Christchurch Cathedral and the Garden of Remembrance are among the plethora of other historic landmarks of national importance located in Dublin. The history of Ireland is intertwined with the history of Dublin What is missing is the ambition to strive for coherence and accountability in the management of the city if all parts of this island are to prosper economically, socially and culturally – and if we are to fully respect the historical development of Ireland and nurture its future growth. Allowing the people of Dublin to vote for a directlyelected executive mayor is seen by Let Dublin Vote as a vital step in securing and enhancing the future of us all. We plan to do this by: Mobilising signatories to our petition at www.letdublinvote.ie, which we intend presenting to Phil Hogan later in 2014, bringing our case for a plebiscite to elected representatives at local, national and European level, and mobilising support across business, trade union, arts/culture/heritage and civil society organisations.
BY PÁDRAIG YEATES
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We are appealing to An Phoblacht readers to support the ‘Let Dublin Vote’ campaign by signing the petition and we very much appreciate the fact that Sinn Féin’s Dublin Member of the European Parliament, Lynn Boylan has committed to do so. Please ask your friends and colleagues at work to do so and in any organisations you happen to be a member of. Dubliners deserve to have their city run by someone who is answerable to them.
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Racist attacks in 2014 include . . . 5th — Windows of three homes smashed in east Belfast 15th/16th — Three homes, one belonging to a Polish family, targeted in east Belfast 28th — Four cars belonging to Polish and Slovakian families torched in the loyalist White City area of north Belfast
www.anphoblacht.com
PSNI record 40% rise in racist attacks in past year with vast majority happening in Belfast
JAN
17th — Campaign of abuse directed against Alliance MLA Anna Lo after her call for removal of loyalist flags from route of Giro d’Italia
UVF behind racist rampages
FEB
5th — Graffiti saying “Locals Only” appears on vacant properties in the loyalist Donegall Pass, south Belfast 6th — Man threatens to burn down a fastfood takeaway in Newcastle, County Down, and directs ‘racist abuse’ towards staff 7th — Nine people escape injury after two pipe-bombs explode outside the homes of two Romanian families in Derry’s Waterside area 8th — Loyalist flag protesters shout racial abuse at Anna Lo as she addresses International Women’s Day rally in Belfast
MAR
16th — Petrol-bombers target the home of a Polish family in Rathcoole, north Belfast 13th — Polish family abandon their Mount Vernon home after a series of attacks on their home and car 21st — A 15-strong gang carrying golf clubs assault a 19-year-old woman and two men from Poland in east Belfast 24th — African man is stabbed and racially abused by two men in Tate’s Avenue, south Belfast 30th — Romanian man is struck in the face by faeces as he cycles along the loyalist Newtownards Road
APR
3rd/4th — Homes of three Polish families have their windows smashed. Within 24 hours, after the windows have been boarded up, ‘Locals Only’ and ‘Get Out’ had been daubed on the properties 6th — Windows in the home of a Polish woman and her son are smashed in east Belfast
MAY
THE UPSURGE in racist attacks on people from ethnic minority groups, their homes and property throughout the North, but centred mostly in Belfast, has re-focused peoples minds on previous periods of intense racial violence and raises questions about the rationale for these ‘hate crimes’. But this is not a new phenomenon. In the summer months of June/July 2003, seven African families were intimidated out of their homes in the Village area of south Belfast, targeted by loyalists in a campaign that started with name calling, graffiti and the tyres on their 2006 cars being slashed. Before long it was bullets being left on doorsteps until, finally, pipe bombs were exploded at their homes. THE historical conditions that created the unionist/loyalist supremacist outlook are the ideology of the British Empire and its colonial and imperialist domination of so much of the world. And while this ideology gave the Northern unionist state its political and sectarian character (much of which remains in place even today) I believe that to understand racism in the North one needs to understand unionist/loyalist ideology and how it is intertwined with British colonialist thinking. In an essay on unionism and Empire between 1880 and 1920, Alvin Jackson talks of an “ideological onslaught [that] unionist people were bombarded at every stage of their lives and in every sphere of their activity with the image of Empire”. This bombardment peaks at times of “national crisis”, adds Jackson, so it is fair to
With racist attacks occurring on an almost daily basis at this time, Belfast was dubbed by the mainstream media as ‘The Race Hate Capital of Europe’. Six years later, in June/July 2009, in one of the most notorious instances of racial intolerance, over 100 Roma people were forced out of their homes, also in south Belfast, after a sustained campaign of attacks on the properties by loyalist thugs. The Roma subsequently returned to Romania. PEADAR WHELAN challenges the view that the racism that captures the headlines on a cyclical basis has replaced ‘the old sectarianism of the past’, arguing instead that racism has its roots in a supremacist unionist/loyalist ideology.
say that with present-day unionism in disarray it is no surprise that we are witnessing an increase in loyalist violence or that members of ethnic minority groups are the targets. To promote the idea that ‘racism’ has become the ‘new sectarianism’, coupled with the use of the term ‘hate crime’ to describe these attacks, disguises the reality that the vast majority of these incidents involve unionist paramilitaries. The Ulster Volunteer Force is behind the latest campaign of attacks and it is clear the loyalist organisation is co-ordinating attacks in the greater Belfast area with the intention of driving ‘non-locals’ out.
Anna Lo When the Alliance Party’s south Belfast MLA Anna Lo became the target of an intense and
sustained bout of racist abuse earlier this year, commentators and politicians across the North seemed stunned by its ferocity. British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (leader of Alliance’s sister party, the Liberal Democrats) rowed in behind the Hong Kongborn Lo when he tweeted “every elected representative should be able to express their views without being subject to racist abuse”. Anna Lo was the target of abuse when, on Monday 17 February, she had the temerity to propose a motion in the Stormont Assembly calling for the removal of paramilitary flags, emblems and murals on the route of the Giro d’Italia, a sports event to be televised worldwide. Needless to say, the people most offended by the proposal were loyalists. And it also goes without saying that their response was to threaten violence and intimidation. Anna Lo was also shouted down by ‘Union
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5 Patrick Yu of the National Council for Ethnic Minorities
5 Racist and sectarian graffiti on the Shore Road
5 Target – Alliance MLA Anna Lo
flag protesters’ when she attempted to address an International Women’s Day rally at City Hall on 8 March. In reality, none of this should be a surprise as the Alliance MLA has been targeted by loyalist racists before. In 2007, Lo and the Chinese community in general were racially abused on loyalist Internet sites and her home was targeted at least twice in 2012. What is surprising about the media and political reaction to the vitriol directed at Anna Lo is that anyone would be surprised. Racist attacks and abuse directed at people from Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Far East (including India, Pakistan, China, Vietnam and the Philippines) have been on the rise for years.
they were targeted for both sectarian AND racist reasons.
The UVF
Recent historical context In October 2011, the Belfast Irish News daily carried the headline: “Dozens of loyalist attacks – but no one brought to court.” The paper accused the ‘breakaway’ “SouthEast Antrim Real UFF’ of being behind a fouryear campaign of attacks on the homes of Catholics as well as foreign nationals in the Antrim area. Upwards of 28 incidents were attributed to the gang. Worryingly, these included pipe-bomb and gun attacks following a pattern of numerous attacks on nationalist families carried out as part of a sectarian UDA campaign. Figures released in August that year indicated that the number of people driven out of their homes due to racism had more than doubled in the previous four years. That a high percentage of these attacks were directed at Polish nationals raises the belief that these are seen by perpetrators as ‘two for one’ incidents, given that most Poles are Catholic. In a harrowing assault on her Derry home in January 2012, a Filipino woman described how two men broke into her home in the Waterside and smashed it up. Fearing for her life, the woman was prepared to jump from an upstairs window to escape before the assailants made off. As she and her husband are Catholic they believe
5 A youth gives a nazi salute on the Lisburn Road as Roma families flee their homes in 2009
As racist violence, particularly those attacks in east Belfast, continued throughout 2013, Patrick Yu of the Council for Ethnic Minorities pointed the finger of blame at the unionist Ulster Volunteer Force. More significantly, though, he was scathing of “local politicians”. “They just condemn these attacks but nothing is done about them. They are not looking at the root of the problem.” He added: “Every time political stalemate happens, there is an increase in racist attacks.” Fast-forward to 4 April 2014 when PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Will Kerr told the Policing Board the UVF was orchestrating racist attacks in east and south Belfast. With 2014 seeing a 30% increase in racist attacks in areas politically dominated by the DUP, one would expect that party and its leader to confront the racists. Instead, as with the violence directed at residents of the Short Strand and the Alliance Party over the Union flag issue, Peter Robinson has said nothing, prompting Sinn Féin joint First Minister Martin McGuinness to accuse him of “political cowardice”.
“Racism of Empire”
5 The Republican Plot in Milltown cemetery daubed with neo-nazi Combat 18 graffiti in 2009
While the Northern state is still defined largely by sectarianism, the increase in racist violence exposes what the Unionist News Letter daily termed the “Racism of Empire”. Ironically, the paper used this term in an editorial espousing the value of the British Commonwealth and encouraged Dublin to join other ex-colonies in the ‘Commonwealth family’. Paradoxically, unionists see themselves as British, not colonised Irish, and part of the ‘Great British’ imperialist project that ‘civilised’ (conquered and pillaged) peoples across the globe. It is this supremacist ideology that underpins and permeates the thinking that fuels the ugly, violent and vicious racism that we see today in the North of Ireland.
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AFTER A STRING OF GARDA SCANDALS AND THE JUSTICE MINISTER IS FORCED TO RESIGN, SINN FÉIN PUBLISHES PROPOSALS
A case for genuine police reform BY MARK MOLONEY THE RESIGNATION of Justice Minister Alan Shatter after two years of scandal within his Department is welcome but unless there is fundamental and radical reform within the Department of Justice this is the political equivalent of replacing the captain on the Titanic after it hit the iceberg and had already started sinking. It was 4 April 2012 when Garda Sergeant Maurice McCabe went public with his claims that vast amounts of penalty points were being cancelled behind the scenes by gardaí. In many cases it was alleged this was done as a ‘favour’ for friends. Since then, Minister Alan Shatter had been under severe pressure. Throughout this period he was steadfast in his defence of An Garda Síochána and dismissive, condescending and even insulting to anyone who criticised or questioned the police force. In May 2013, then Justice Minister Shatter went so far as to use an
An Taoiseach Enda Kenny expressed his ‘full confidence’ in the Garda Commissioner just two weeks before he unceremoniously retired appearance on RTÉ TV’s Prime Time to reveal that gardaí had used discretion not to give Independent TD Michael Wallace penalty points after he was stopped for using his phone while driving. The move was a clear attempt to publicly discredit the TD who had been one of the most vocal in shining the spotlight on malpractice within the force. (The Data Protection Commissioner would eventually report that the Justice Minister had broken the law by revealing this private information about the TD.) Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan also showed his contempt for the state’s elected officials when he came before the Public Accounts Committee in January of this year. The Commissioner described the actions of the Garda whistleblowers in exposing widespread malpractice within the force as “disgusting” and was visibly annoyed and irritated at the idea of being quizzed by elected members of parliament. Despite his remarks causing widespread outrage, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny expressed his “full confidence” in Callinan just two weeks before the Commissioner unceremoniously retired. One of the most telling issues of the ‘ShatterGate’ scandal was how, for two years, Eamon Gilmore’s Labour Party stuck to their guns in their rabid defence of the Minister for Justice. Just over a month before Alan Shatter resigned ahead of the publica-
5 The Commissioner was dismissive, condescending and even insulting to anyone who criticised or questioned the police force tion of the Guerin Report (which examined allegations that An Garda Síochána under his stewardship failed to properly deal with several cases involving abduction, assault and murder), Fine Gael and Labour Party TDs rallied to his defence and defeated an Opposition ‘no confidence’ motion on the floor of the Dáil supported by Sinn Féin. The alternative motion proposed and passed by the Government parties “commended the Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Deputy Alan Shatter, on the extensive and ongoing programme of modernisation and reform being led by him across all of his areas of ministerial responsibility”! During the debate, Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald TD demolished the revisionist stance of the Government parties, who continued to downplay the seriousness of some of the comments and actions of Shatter.
5 Fomer Justice Minister Alan Shatter and Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan
“The minister took a deliberate decision to abuse and attack the Garda whistleblowers,” she said. “He misled the Dáil. He allowed false statements to stand on the record of the House. He did not correct the record until it became politically expedient for him to do so. The minister sought to minimise the concerns that were expressed about the possible surveillance of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission.” The Sinn Féin deputy leader also hit out at Shatter’s pathetic attempts to portray possible surveillance of the Garda Ombudsman Commission as some sort of comedy of errors. With the aid of the ever-compliant Irish Independent and Gardaphile hack Paul Williams, the under-fire Justice Minister claimed some of the surveillance of GSOC offices may have simply been interference from a wifi signal in a nearby coffee shop. This claim was dismissed as “wholly inac-
curate” by a security and privacy company that carried out a sweep of the GSOC offices. “Rather than reforming,” Mary Lou McDonald said in response to claims that he was a progressive reformer, “he was dead-set on protecting the status quo he now claims to be set to overturn. “He did this deliberately. It is clear from his record that he is not a reforming minister when it comes to the Garda Síochána.” Sinn Féin Justice spokesperson Pádraig Mac Lochlainn TD says Minister Shatter’s resignation is only the start of what needs to be done to address the crisis in public confidence in the administration of justice in Ireland. “We need to see the implementation of a new independent policing authority accountable to an independent policing board, the Oireachtas and to local Joint Policing Committees. And the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission need to be given more powers to effectively carry out their important work.”
For two years, the Labour Party stuck to their guns in their rabid defence of the Minister for Justice On 20 May, Sinn Féin launched its A New Beginning to Policing – Proposals for Reform document. It includes support for a new independent Garda Authority, expanded powers and reforms of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, the establishment of a new Criminal Justice Inspectorate and formal North/South co-operation. The party also submitted these proposals to the Government’s consultation process on the establishment of an Independent Policing Authority. Speaking to An Phoblacht at the launch of the document, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn said: “We were promised a new beginning in the Garda Síochána following the shocking revelations that emerged from the Morris Tribunal [which, among other findings, found gardaí had framed innocent citizens for murder]. Unfortunately, the recent scandals have shown that the reforms that flowed from that didn’t go far enough. “As recently as February in the Dáil, when challenged by myself, the then Justice Minister Alan Shatter robustly rejected a proposal for an independent policing authority. So we welcome the Government’s conversion to support that. It is vital that we have an independent policing authority.” Pádraig Mac Lochlainn said advisory groups are also needed, noting allegations of racial profiling and some criticism of the Garda from workingclass areas, Traveller communities and young people. Pádraig also hits out at the failure of
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5 Enda Kenny expressed full confidence in Shatter and Callinan shortly before they resigned
5 An Garda Síochána failed to discipline the senior garda officer who oversaw the widely criticised Rossport policing operation
5 Personal information was used in an attempt to discredit Mick Wallace TD into investigations into atrocities by British agents such as the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, the murder of Sinn Féin Councillor Eddie Fullerton and the thwarted bomb attack on the Widow Scallan’s pub in Dublin in which Martin Doherty was shot dead while saving scores of lives. “It is just not acceptable,” Pádraig Mac Lochlainn says. “You cannot have
‘Partition has undermined the delivery of policing and justice in Ireland. A practical example is that we do not have an all-Ireland register of sex offenders’
5 Gerry Kelly, Gerry Adams, Lynn Boylan and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn launch Sinn Féin’s proposals for policing reform An Garda Síochána to fully co-operate with GSOC investigations and he called for the right of the Garda Ombudsman to enter and search police stations, as well as the right of the Ombudsman to arrest individuals who are not gardaí but who are engaged in crime for which a garda is being investigated. Pádraig says Sinn Féin also proposes that the Ombudsman should be able to attend disciplinary hearings against gardaí accused of serious
wrongdoing. He noted the failure of An Garda Síochána to act on GSOC recommendations for disciplinary action to be taken against a senior garda tasked with overseeing the policing operation in Rossport against Shell to Sea protesters. In one incident, at least 20 protesters were seriously injured in an attack by baton-wielding members of the force. “There were very serious concerns expressed by GSOC but no disciplinary action was taken and no expla-
nation given,” says the Donegal TD. “That has to stop.” Pádraig says there is also a serious need for a dedicated all-Ireland body that looks at the area of justice and policing, and he makes proposals for the synchronisation of work. “Partition has undermined the delivery of policing and justice in Ireland,” he says. “A practical example is that we do not have an all-Ireland register of sex offenders. There’s a real concern that you might have it in one
state but it’s undermined by the ability of an offender to move throughout the island – so we need joined-up thinking there. “Other examples would be penalty points on both sides of the Border. Nobody guilty of road safety offences should be able to get away with it because of which jurisdiction they’re in.” Pádraig also notes the failure of An Garda Síochána to co-operate with the Police Ombudsman in the North
one policing and justice system undermining the other on this island. It has to stop.” Gerry Adams told An Phoblacht he believes there is a need for the Irish Government to seriously take on board Sinn Féin’s proposals and deal with other parties in a constructive manner: “The fact is this Government does not have the energy, strategic capability or any real commitment to the type of reform that is required across a whole range of sectors of this state. We have to remember that Fine Gael was in power during some of the events Pádraig has outlined. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be moved to bring about reform; of course they can. They’ve now given a commitment and we intend to hold them to that.”
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UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS Rev Steve Stockman and Fr Martin J Magill write in our series ‘Uncomfortable Conversations’
Put yourselves in the shoes of others
4 Martin McGuinness speaks at the ‘City Of Equals’ conference
WE WERE BOTH brought up during ‘The Troubles’. We heard day after day about the suffering of our fellow human beings, both Irish and British. Since we decided to follow Jesus of Nazareth we’ve been encouraged and inspired to be peacemakers. We see no other option. Jesus said that peacemakers were blessed. On other occasions he said the uncomfortable “Love your enemies”, which was no ‘nice sentimental thing’. This was a call to revolution and a radical way of living, requiring courage and transcendent help which we call grace. The Gospel of Christ is a call to uncomfortable and costly living for a better world. As followers of Jesus, we had to apply his words to every area of our lives. We have both engaged with Sinn Féin. We were both present when Declan Kearney, along with John Kyle from the Progressive Unionist Party, were at the Clonard/Fitzroy Fellowship. We attended the conference ‘A City Of Equals in an Island of Equals’ and we have enjoyed the times spent with Máirtín Ó Muilleoir in his amazing year as Belfast City Mayor and his efforts to be a peacemaker. Sinn Féin have declared they are serious about building the peace; we acknowledge the difficult conversations and decisions which Sinn Féin has taken and which have contributed to a new Northern Ireland/Ireland. When someone seeks to peace build across communities they become in a way ‘an apologist’ for each community which involves profound listening and risk taking. As two people who want to make peace, we seek words and, more importantly, tangible proof that will
help us to convince our communities to rethink their caricature and stereotypes. We always dread those words and actions that have our communities telling us, ‘We told you so.’ In our communities and other communities we often hear how Sinn Féin politicians are very articulate and well-thought-through. We also hear a strong party line or effective soundbite but wonder about the substance behind it. We want to be talked to and not talked at. We want to be listened to and not given well-rehearsed and thought through answers. We want to struggle with you and anyone else who wants to be peacemakers. We don’t want to hear that you invited a Catholic priest and a Presbyterian minister to write in An Phoblacht. We want to know you read the article and paid attention to it. We want substance of soul. One well-thought-through party line is how ‘there was no other way in 1969’ than the violent campaign. We’ve heard regrets that people suffered but never a real questioning of whether it was wrong. The united front of the party line on this answer becomes tire-
An American student, when asked what he learned from studying Northern Ireland’s peace process, said: “When you use violence the healing is so much messier and takes so much longer.”
Rev Steve Stockman is Minister of Fitzroy Presbyterian Church, Belfast,
and Fr Martin J Magill is parish priest of Sacred Heart Parish, Belfast. They are also the cofounders of the Four Corners Festival.
some and we as Christians, particularly with an example like Martin Luther King Jr in the same decade, would suggest that there was indeed another way. An American student, when asked what he learned from studying Northern Ireland’s peace process, said: “When you use violence the healing is so much messier and takes so much longer.” At the ‘City Of Equals’ conference, Martin McGuinness suggested that Sinn Féin is moving faster than your unionist counterparts in the journey of reconciliation. It is very difficult for people who naturally desire truth and justice for the deaths of their loved ones to struggle to trust or share the future with those who received amnesty. This is exactly what that American student was saying. We as clergy will continue to preach how the grace and forgiveness of Jesus comes into play here but this is a long process and it might take a generation of gentle sensitivity before we pick up momentum. Sinn Féin needs to show patience, humility and understanding. We dare to ask that when Sinn Féin sits down to think through their policies and actions that they do not only consider what the response of their own supporters will be but that they also put themselves in the shoes of the peacemakers and the other communities and ask how will this contribute to a shared future and how this will promote an equal city on an equal island. The naming of a park after an IRA Volunteer might find support in the former but will certainly not help in the building of a shared future with the latter. If ‘A City of Equals on an Island of Equals’ is to have impact behind a clever title then it is these uncomfortable questions that will need to be asked if Sinn Féin is to prove the seriousness of generosity and reconciliation.
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anphoblacht 4 Belfast’s Collin ward elects five Sinn Féin councillors out of five: Stephen Magennis, Matt Garrett, David Bell, Charlene O’Hara and Bill Groves with his son Liam
4 Counting under way at Nemo Centre in Cork
We asked people in the elections to ‘Make the Change’. Many, many people have. Now we are asking people to ‘Be the Change’ – to join Sinn Féin. GERRY ADAMS
4 Sinn Féin’s Liadh Ní Riada with husband Nicky and daughters Cáit, Ailsa and Neans at Nemo Rangers count centre shortly after her election as MEP for the South constituency
LIADH NÍ RIADA
LYNN BOYLAN
MATT CARTHY
ELECTED
ELECTED
ELECTED
125,309 19.06%
South
83,264 23.62%
Dublin
114,727 17.75%
Midlands North West
MARTINA ANDERSON ELECTED
159,813 25.52%
Six Counties
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Local and European elections in numbers
483,113 151,316 345 262 76 39 32 32% 29.2% 21.2%
votes for Sinn Féin in the EU election votes more than in the 2009 EU election
10
councils where Sinn Féin is the largest party in terms of % share of the vote
9 8
seats gained in Cork County Council
7 6
seats gained in Meath Council
5 4 3 2 1
seats gained in Kildare Council
Sinn Féin local candidates
local election candidates elected
CORRECT AT TIME OF PRINT
women councillors
CORRECT AT TIME OF PRINT
councils with Sinn Féin councillors counties with Sinn Féin MEPs
women candidates
19
councillors in Belfast City Council
councillors in Dublin City Council
16 14.2% 13.2% 11.5%
rise in Sinn Féin vote in Offaly Council
women candidates elected
of the vote in the EU election 5 ‘The Lord Mayor’ of Ballymacarret Niall Ó Donnghaile is elected
increase in Sinn Féin vote in Cork City Council rise in Sinn Féin vote in Carlow Council
councils where Sinn Féin is largest party in terms of seats
seats more than the SDLP in Derry & Strabane Council
MEPs
seats gained in Westmeath Council many happy Shinners to count!
THE LARGEST PARTY IN IRELAND
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THE FANTASTIC 4 BY JOHN HEDGES WHEN Matt Carthy was elected as the MEP for Midlands North West late on Tuesday 27 May, he completed an all-Ireland team of four MEPs, joining Martina Anderson (Six Counties), Liadh Ní Riadh (Ireland South) and Lynn Boylan (Dublin) as Sinn Féin representatives in the European Parliament. Gerry Adams noted sagely on Twitter as Matt’s count neared the end: “Just thinking: when Matt gets elected, he will be the first-ever Sinn Féin male MEP. Quite an achievement.” Gerry tweeted later: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” It was a giant leap for Sinn Féin. Lynn Boylan was the first MEP to be elected for Sinn Féin, topping the poll in the three-seat Dublin constituency with 83,264 first-preferences (23.62%). Lynn was up against established high-profile figures such as Fine Gael Junior Minister Brian Hayes and Nessa Childers MEP (both of whom were elected behind the Sinn Féin standard bearer). Sitting Labour MEP Emer Costello and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan both failed to be elected. Socialist Party MEP Paul Murphy lost the seat that Joe Higgins had won before Higgins became a TD, and Fianna Fáil candidate Mary Fitzpatrick also failed to take a seat. The second Sinn Féin candidate to take a European Parliament seat was
5 Sinn Féin’s Lynn Boylan, Liadh Ní Riada, Martina Anderson and Matt Carthy with Gerry Adams launch their EU campaigns Liadh Ní Riada in the four-seat Ireland South, scooping 125,309 (19.06%) and taking the second seat behind the perennial poll-topper Brian Crowley of Fianna Fáil. They were followed in by Fine Gael’s Seán Kelly and Deirdre Clune. Liadh’s election sparked one of the most memorable moments from the election counts when the famous traditional group, Cór Cúil Aodha, founded in Baile Bhuirne by her father and world-famous composer Sean Ó Riada, gave a rousing rendition of one of his favourite songs, ‘Mo Ghile Mear’. Martina Anderson’s election in the Six Counties was delayed by the counting of ballots not taking place until four days after voting because of the process and not able to start on a Sunday.
‘This message from the electorate is that people want change and people are increasingly seeing Sinn Féin as the party that is going to deliver that change’
The outgoing Sinn Féin MEP nevertheless topped the poll with 159,813 first-preferences (25.52%) with the incumbent Diane Dodds of the Democratic Unionist Party and the Ulster Unionist Party’s Jim Nicholson being re-elected behind her. Matt Carthy (114,727 first-preferences, 17.75%) had to wait until late on Tuesday night and the seventh count to be assured of the third of four seats in Midlands North West, quite easily taking the seat after getting almost 8,000 transfers in the distribution of Fianna Fáiler Thomas Byrne’s vote and despite RTÉ early exit polls that suggested he would be struggling to win a seat. Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan TD took the top spot and Fine Gael’s two-candidate strategy saw outgoing MEP
Mairead McGuinness pushed over the line on the fifth count by fellow Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins. (The fourth seat was still being contested between Independent MEP Marian Harkin and Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher MEP as An Phoblacht went to print.) A tired but delighted Matt told RTÉ that his election is a victory for all those who have supported the republican struggle down the decades, the hundreds of thousands of Sinn Féin activists and members right across the constituency and also a vote against the austerity agenda pursued by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael/Labour governments. And coming after the resignation of Eamon Gilmore as leader of the Labour Party, Matt added: “I think the people have sent the Government a very strong message. This isn’t about personalities, it’s not about leaders of parties – it’s about policies that are crippling our communities. “This message from the electorate is that people want change and people are increasingly seeing Sinn Féin as the party that is going to deliver that change. “I want to thank the membership of Sinn Féin for entrusting me to be the public face of the party for this campaign, to say that I hope that I don’t let them down, and I hope that Sinn Féin doesn’t let those people who entrusted us with their vote down. I don’t believe we will.”
5 Waiting for results of the first count in the Six Counties constituency
5 Sinn Féin’s Lynn Boylan arrives to the RDS count centre with Dessie Ellis TD and Mary Lou McDonald TD
5 Martin Ferris TD and Ken O’Connell at the Nemo Rangers count centre
5 Matt Carthy with his campaign manager Caoilfhionn Ní Dhonnabháin and Director of Elections Pearse Doherty TD at the Castlebar count centre
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Largest party in Six Counties BY MICHAEL McMONAGLE SINN FÉIN is now the largest party in the Six Counties following the May local government elections. More people voted for Sinn Féin across the North than any other party, with 151,135 voters giving Sinn Féin candidates their first preference. The party secured 24.7% of the vote, the largest share of the votes among all parties. 105 seats were secured for the 11 new ‘super councils’ created as part of the Review of Public Administration, the largest transformation of local government in the North for 40 years. Voters across the Six Counties went to the polls on Thursday 22 May and the long process of counting the votes began the following morning and continued until the early hours of Sunday morning before the full results were known. At count centres across the North, tally figures were examined, quotas set and transfers debated as candidates, and party activists gathered with pundits and the press to await the results. One thing that was clear, however, is the large numbers of people in every part of the North – from the Bogside to Belfast, Antrim to Armagh – supporting Sinn Féin. In some areas (such as the Collin district in Belfast, where five Sinn Féin candidates were elected), Sinn Féin strategists gave other parties a master class in the intricacies of vote management. The boundary changes brought on by the Review of Public Administration created new opportunities but also new challenges. In some areas it provided an opportunity to pick up an additional seat or increase the party’s share of the vote, while in others it presented difficulties
5Sinn Féin’s Derry and Strabane team take control of the council from the SDLP for the first time for sitting councillors whose traditional area had changed. In Derry, Sinn Féin picked up an extra seat in the newly-created Ballyarnett ward, bringing the total to
ten seats in the city, overtaking the SDLP to become the largest party for the first time. In Belfast’s Titanic area, boundary changes meant former Mayor Niall Ó
Donnghaille faced an uphill battle to retain his seat but, thanks to hard work and a reputation for representing all of the people of the city, he secured the support of practically all the national-
5 A group of Sinn Féin activists scaled the highest summit in County Armagh to show their support for Newry and Armagh candidates
5 Gerry Adams arrives at the count centre in Belfast City Hall
ist voters of the new area to return to the benches of Belfast City Council. Alongside those who were elected to sit on the new councils, candidates who did not get a seat helped to increase the party’s share of the vote, making Sinn Féin the largest party in the Six Counties in percentage terms. Candidates of the calibre of Nuala Toman in Castlereagh, Mary Kate Quinn in Glenavy and Michael McCrossan in Derry and many others showed that Sinn Féin will continue to grow across the Six Counties in future elections. Despite the long wait for declarations, activists at count centres were buoyed by reports on social media of Sinn Féin successes in other areas across the North and news on polling from comrades across the 26 Counties. By contrast, the SDLP faced mounting pressure at count centres with the meltdown in traditionally strong areas such as Derry. Tensions came to a head in Derry when a senior party figure, a brother of former party leader John Hume, was ejected from the count centre by police after he was involved in an altercation with an SDLP candidate. As the count progressed and more and more councillors were elected, some went off to celebrate, take down posters or take a brief but well-earned break while the thoughts of party strategists were already turning to the next step in Sinn Féin’s advance, the Westminster election which is just 11 months away – when we’ll do it all over again.
5 The obligatory ‘selfie’: Niall Ó Donnghaile’s mother Ann Donnelly, Michelle Gildernew, Carál Ní Chuilin, Sinead Moore and Jennifer McCann
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A hard-fought-for win BY RUAIRÍ VALLELY SINN FÉIN DEPUTY NATIONAL DIRECTOR OF ELECTIONS
FOUR MEPs, 260+ councillors, almost half a million votes, and becoming the largest political party in first preference vote terms in Ireland for the first time in almost 100 years. Even when it’s written down it’s still hard to take it in. Since we began planning for this election over two years ago, our objective was very clear: to take two European Parliament seats and to double our council representation in the 26 Counties while maintaining our lead role as a party of government in the Six Counties. It’s safe to say that we as a party achieved that and then some.
The breakthrough From the first boxes being opened it became clear that, right across Ireland, political records were going to tumble and a new electoral reality was dawning. Across the 26 Counties the old two-and-a-half party system was washed away, along with the Labour Party, while a resounding vote of confidence was given to the leadership of Sinn Féin and to the continuation of the Peace Process in the North. The begrudgers, the rejectionists and those who left their principles on the doorstep of Leinster House got their answer. Martina Anderson in the Six Counties, Lynn Boylan in Dublin, Liadh Ní Riadh in Ireland South and Matt Carthy in Midlands North West and their teams delivered votes on a scale that sent shock waves right to the heart of government. The Irish people showed us that, no matter what Pat Rabbitte may think, the things that you do and say at election time do matter. Forgetting that cost Eamon Gilmore the leadership of the Labour Party and his position as Tánaiste. Though much has been written (much of it by people cloistered in the ivory tower of a Dublin 4 media mindset) about this election they fail to truly appreciate the political earthquake that we are at the epicentre of. From Cork to Rathlin Island and from Inisowen to Wexford, Sinn Féin has political representation at either council, Leinster House, Assembly, Westminster or European level. There is now not one blade of grass on our island that we do not cover. The scope and scale of this breakthrough is unprecedented at any time since before partition, by any political movement. The election spectaculars have almost been too numerous to mention – becoming the largest party in Derry City Council for the first time; becoming the largest party in Dublin City Council; the largest party in Belfast; winning seats in every LEA
5 A victorious Daithí Doolan in his Ballyfermot/Drimnagh constituency for Dublin City Council celebrates with family and supporters
5 Gerry Adams carries the Sinn Féin message at Government Buildings and endorsed by huge numbers of voters – ‘Make The Change’ missed out in taking a first Sinn Féin seat in that area.
Making the Change
in Fingal, South Dublin, Meath, Louth, Cavan, Westmeath, Kildare, Carlow, Wicklow, Wexford, Limerick, Cork county, Cork City, Tipperary, Waterford, Galway City, Offaly, Leitrim and Donegal. And many of them with young, energetic, capable and confident first-time candidates.
Its’s all about #teamSF While it’s always easier to focus on those who did take seats it’s appropriate to mention some of those who put their names forward and didn’t quite make it this time, such as J.J. Quigley in Louth, Dáire Hughes in South Armagh, Mark Gibbons in South Down, Leanne Peacock in Ballymoney, Sharon Bailey in Portlaoise, and Tierna Cunningham in Belfast, amongst others. Our commiserations are with you, comrades, and you will be back. Further credit must go to those candidates who flew the Sinn Féin flag in hostile and uncomfortable territory. Nuala Toman, Mary Kate Quinn and Jacqui McGeough all put up strong performances in the unionist-dominated Lisburn & Castlereagh Council area. Standing as the first Sinn Féin candidate in the North Down & Ards Council area, Sheila Baillie pulled out a creditable vote while Dominic Mac Conraí in Rathgar/Rathmines LEA narrowly
Hidden beneath all of the numbers and statistics are some standout stories. In what must rank as the must stunning of Sinn Féin performances on the island, Lisa Marie Sheehy romped home on the first count in the Cappaghmore/Killmallock LEA in East Limerick. Also in Limerick, Malachy McCreesh brother of Hunger Striker Volunteer Raymond McCreesh came into the race late in the day and pulled off a stunning victory in Limerick City West to help secure a Sinn Féin seat in every LEA in the county for the first time, alongside Maurice Quinlivan, Ciara McMahon, Seamus Brown and Séighin Ó Ceallaigh. In Kildare, five new councillors were elected, one to each of the LEAs, in a county that Sinn Féin polled only 1% of the council vote in 2009. In Meath, Councillor Joe Reilly will be joined by a team of seven new councillors, while Sarah Holland will be the first republican to represent Rathfarnham in South Dublin since the 1930s.
5 Roscommon Sinn Féin candidate Seamus O'Brien (left) and his crew on the Shannon
5 Sandra McLellan TD and Jonathan O’Brien TD at the Nemo count centre in Cork
What’s next? It’s been some election for Sinn Féin but this position has been hardfought for and hard won. Our political opponents and enemies will not be resting. In this new electoral reality the next challenge is never far away. We must readjust rapidly. In less than 350 days the Westminster elections will take place. Who knows what will happen between now and then? The Irish people have placed their trust in us, we cannot let them down and we cannot let ourselves down. This is our time.
5 Gerry Adams with Sarah Holland, first Sinn Féin councillor in Rathfarnham since the 1930s
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5 Sinn Féin are well placed to take a seat in both Dublin West and Longford/Westmeath at the next General Election
5 Paul Donnelly topped the poll on first-preference votes in the Dublin West by-election
5 In Longford/Westmeath there was a surge in support for Sinn Féin’s Paul Hogan
BY-ELECTIONS – THE SINN FÉIN CHALLENGE
Near-upset in Dublin West and surge in Longford/Westmeath BY MARK MOLONEY SINN FÉIN’S Paul Donnelly came within a hair’s breadth of causing major upset for Establishment ‘political experts’ in the Dublin West by-election, doubling the Sinn Féin vote and topping the poll on firstpreference votes. The by-election came about after Labour TD Patrick Nulty resigned following reports he had sent inappropriate text messages to a young female constituent. From the day the by-election was announced, RTÉ and major news organisations had written off Paul Donnelly. When the by-election candidates were interviewed on RTÉ News it was only the Socialist Party, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour contenders who got a look in; Paul was excluded. Yet in the constituency the word was the Paul Donnelly was doing very strongly. Radio stations and journalists who went out canvassing with him were keen to point out how he was “by far the best on the
doorsteps” and the enthusiastic support he was getting. Speaking on the eve of polling day, Gerry Adams told An Phoblacht that Paul Donnelly could take the seat even though the Socialist Party’s Ruth Coppinger was the bookies’ favourite with the Fianna Fáil candidate tipped as the challenger:
The Sinn Féin vote more than doubled, Paul Donnelly topping the poll on first-preferences “Some people might think this is an impossibility but there is a seat to be won here. We want to see change and the people of Dublin West want to see change.” When the vote came through in the Citywest count centre, it was Paul Donnelly who had topped the first-preferences with 21%, followed
closely by Ruth Coppinger. Unfortunately, transfers did not go Paul’s way and Coppinger eventually took the seat. The by-election was an unmitigated disaster for Labour in an area previously considered a bastion for the party. Labour’s Lorraine Mulligan came seventh out of ten candidates. The party’s share of the vote plummeted from 24.3% in 2011 to a mere 5.2% Gerry Adams told reporters at the count that the huge increase in Sinn Féin’s vote will hopefully see the party take a seat there at the next general election: “What Paul Donnelly has done, and we can’t take any of this for granted, is put his name on the seat next time round. Sinn Féin are here and we’re here to stay.”
LONGFORD/ WESTMEATH The Longford/Westmeath by-election, caused by the death in March of Fine Gael TD Nicky McFadden from
motor neurone disease, also saw Sinn Féin more than double its share of first-preference votes. The sister of the late TD, Gabrielle, easily topped the poll for Fine Gael followed by Fianna Fáil’s Aengus O’Rourke, son of former Fianna Fáil minister Mary O’Rourke. In third place was Sinn Féin’s Paul Hogan with an impressive 15.4% of first-preference votes. In a similar fashion to Dublin West, Labour performed abysmally. Initially there had been speculation as to whether they would even bother to field a candidate, such was the backlash against their sell-out in this part of the state. In 2011, the party topped the poll in the constituency with nearly 20% of the vote yet their vote collapsed to less than 7% this time round with their candidate coming in seventh of nine candidates and behind a number of relatively unknown Independent candidates. Paul Hogan, speaking at the count centre, told reporters who noted his creditable performance: “Sinn Féin has gained considerably here. People want change and we are
the party to bring that change. I have been working for 10 years in this constituency and will continue to do that. Sinn Féin will consider who it will put forward in the next general election and I hope that I will be in a position
Longford/Westmeath saw Sinn Féin more than double its firstpreferences with Paul Hogan taking third place in challenge to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to represent the people of Longford/Westmeath then.” What is clear in both Dublin West and Longford/Westmeath is that at the next general election Sinn Féin will be a serious contender to the Establishment parties.
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Behind the scenes, An Phoblacht talks to Sinn Féin National Director of Elections Brian Tumilty
Election results comparable to 1918
BY MICHAEL McMONAGLE THE ELECTION SUCCESS of Sinn Féin in May’s elections across the 32 Counties is “hugely important” for republicans, Sinn Féin National Director of Elections Brian Tumilty told An Phoblacht. Speaking after record gains by Sinn Féin throughout Ireland, the Director of Elections said it was down to the hard work and commitment of activists across the country. “The results of these elections are comparable to 1918 when Sinn Féin attracted the support of more than 480,000 people right across the island. That makes these elections hugely important for republicans,” he said. “This has been a very successful election campaign for Sinn Féin in that we are going to have four seats in the European Parliament. “We approach everything we do on a national basis, looking across the 32 counties of Ireland. “As National Director of Elections I always make the point that the most important people in any election are the voters. “Ahead of this election I adopted a strategy which I termed the ‘ditch by ditch’ approach. We attempted to get candidates standing in every DEA and LEA across the 32 Counties and we almost succeeded in that with only one DEA in the 26 Counties where we did not stand a candidate. “Overall, it provided an opportunity for people right across the island to vote for Sinn Féin for the first time since 1918. “We had a fantastic field of candidates, almost a third of who were female. A huge percentage of our candidates were under 30 years of age. People like me who have been about for a long time were hugely impressed by the injection of energy from the younger candidates and activists. They brought energy and enthusiasm to the campaign and also brought increased use of social media. “It was heartbreaking for some of those candidates who did not get
5 Sinn Féin’s Mícheál Mac Donncha and Larry O'Toole are elected on the first count for the Beaumont-Donaghmede ward in Dublin City Council. They were followed shortly on the second count by Denise Mitchell to see the party take three of the nine seats in the ward elected, particularly those who lost out by a handful of votes, but they did tremendous work to increase the capacity of the party and they deserve a lot of thanks for agreeing to go forward,” he said. The Sinn Féin success did not come without difficulties, as Brian explained. “Part of the difficulty that we found a year ago was the process of identifying candidates across the area in the middle of major boundary changes in the 26 Counties and that disrupted our plans across four constituencies. Those were then redrawn to three and we had to adjust to that.
Sinn Féin’s Director of Elections said the campaign for both the European and local government elections was based on Martin McGuinness’s campaign for President of Ireland in 2011
“The Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle took a very brave decision even before the outcome of the Boundary Commission’s report was published to authorise the Elections Department to identify three likely candidates. “That was a big risk but it was one that paid off for us and the ‘best guess’ analysis was correct. “We knew the candidates would be relatively low-profile and would not be household names like Mary Lou McDonald or Martin McGuinness and we needed time to build the campaigns around the candidates. “Last July, more than a thousand
5 Martin McGuinness snaps a ‘selfie’ photo in front of a screen at the count centre showing the results for the North EU constituency
people attended a selection convention in Sligo to select Matt Carthy and that included 800 voting delegates. We had similar numbers in Tipperary in September to select Liadh Ní Riada and in Dublin (also in September) to select Lynn Boylan. “In the North, Martina Anderson MEP was selected in March and we had huge confidence in her ability. “The selection of candidates and the conventions was a big part of our selection strategy. They were selected by ordinary members of Sinn Féin, not chosen centrally,” he pointed out. Brian said the campaign succeeded because it involved activists at grassroots level right across the country. “Another major decision taken by strategists was to delegate the running of the campaigns to the constituencies. The individual campaigns were run by the local areas and that personalised the appeal of our excellent candidates. We had very capable campaign managers who ran great campaigns in the local areas and resources were decentralised to each campaign. “The hard work was done in the areas; we merely co-ordinated the campaigns,” he said. The Newry republican also said the campaign for both the European and local government elections was based on Martin McGuinness’s campaign for President of Ireland in 2011. “This campaign for the local government and European elections started in the immediate aftermath of the Presidential campaign. “Martin’s campaign broke through the glass ceiling for Sinn Féin, winning 14% of the votes. Since then we have never fallen below that in any opinion poll. It was a huge watershed for us in Sinn Féin. “It was also about integrating the two campaigns. There was no point in local candidates going out to canvass if they were not also canvassing for the European candidates and we saw a very integrated campaign. “It was a hard-fought and hardwon campaign and I want to thank all of the activists right across the country who helped deliver the success.”
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Gerry Adams talks to An Phoblacht about the election results and what now for Sinn Féin
A seismic shift This has been a remarkable performance by Sinn Féin. How much of a breakthrough do you think these elections are? This has been seismic – a political earthquake for the Establishment. The people have spoken. The credit for this huge breakthrough goes to all those citizens who voted for Sinn Féin, our candidates and their families behind them, to everyone who worked for the party at all levels, including our Elections Department who did a great job. And I want to pay tribute to those candidates who may have lost out – they’ll be back The scale of the breakthrough across the island can be seen from Derry, where we’re now the largest party, through Mid Ulster and Belfast to Dublin, Meath, along the east coast and down to Cork City, Kerry, Limerick, Galway, Conamara and right around the island. The big challenge for republicans is how we use the mandate we have been given to implement alternatives to London and Dublin government policy, to advance our work on the Peace Process, and to continue building a citizen-centred, rights-based society. We have been working towards a realignment of Irish politics. If you look at the North, it used to be a one-party state – that’s no longer the case. Society is in transition there; the old Orange state is gone. There are clearly a lot of challenges to the Peace Process and opposition from various quarters but Sinn Féin has been given a substantial mandate. Those who are against the Peace Process have been given a derisory vote In the South, since partition, two main conservative parties – Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael – occasionally with a Labour Party appendage, have dominated politics. That has changed as well. Sinn Féin is now, in a very clear way, the people’s choice as a genuine republican party and we will see the ramifications of that in the other parties. If the Government is now forced to lift the burden or to ease its austerity measures to the benefit of citizens then that’s a good thing and that will be as important a consequence of the elections as anything else. Let’s be clear: this is a deep-rooted, seismic shift. It is not, as the Taoiseach claimed, a mid-term scolding of the Government parties by a frustrated electorate. People had a choice; many of them chose Sinn Féin and it’s now up to us to use that mandate wisely. A huge amount of people are dependent on us. We are only their
are any women in positions in the party, on the basis of merit. The real challenge is to ensure that women comrades are given the opportunity to stand in winnable seats. Women are in a majority on this island and the record shows that with women such as Mary Lou McDonald in the Dáil and Jennifer McCann in the Assembly, for example, among many others, Sinn Féin is serious on this issue.
messengers so we need to behave as the people’s messengers and focus on implementing the manifesto we have just been given a mandate for. Austerity is not a European Union invention but it needs to be opposed. MEPs from other Irish parties, North and South, have become the EU’s men and women in Ireland; our MEPs will be Ireland’s representatives in Europe. What is your response to claims that the number of women in the forefront of the Sinn Féin campaign is cosmetic? You’d expect that sort of tawdriness from some of the media but it belies the very consistent work we’ve done in the party on the gender issue. Three of our ministers in the North are women, three of our MEPs are women, and they’re all there, as
Do you think the Dublin-based or Belfast-based media have missed the significance of it being an all-Ireland surge for Sinn Féin? I was slagging off RTÉ in the course of the campaign because I couldn’t get a real sense from RTÉ what was happening in the North but we heard about the elections in Britain. RTÉ and BBC are public service providers and citizens are entitled to information, particularly during an election campaign. On a day like today when we see Liadh Ní Riada in Cork being elected to the European Parliament and Martina Anderson, another Irishwoman, being elected with her as an MEP to join Lynn Boylan last night and later Matt Carthy, this cannot be ignored. How do you see the results in the Six Counties? The best way to have approached these elections would have been to
5 The media cannot ignore Sinn Féin’s surge in support across the island of Ireland have the parties in government together in the Executive signing up the Haas/O’Sullivan proposals and presenting them to the electorate. I have no doubt that the vast majority of voters would have supported that position. The unionist parties didn’t do that and they sent Richard Haass and Meghan O’Sullivan home. But you can’t separate the British
Government position from the unionist leaders’ position – the British Government has also not signed up to the Haass/O’Sullivan proposals. One of the good things that has come out of my arrest in April is that the British and Irish governments were pretending that there weren’t any difficulties in the Peace Process. They acknowledge now that there are and that work needs to be done. When the election counts are finished and as An Phoblacht is going to press, our representative in the United States, Rita O’Hare, and I are flying out to Washington for a short visit to brief US politicians and the Obama administration on what needs to be done. What needs to be done in the very immediate short-term is that the party leaders need to come together to find ways of agreeing the implementation of the Haass/O’Sullivan proposals and the Irish Government needs to be fulfilling its responsibilities as co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement to deal efficiently and effectively with the British Government to get it to shift its position from negativity to fulfilment of its obligations. And Martin McGuinness will be endeavouring in the next week to get the other party leaders to meet with him to chart a course before the ‘marching season’ starts properly over the next few weeks. You’re looking for more from the Fine Gael/Labour Government than a Cabinet reshuffle.
5 Lynn Boylan with her parents Ken and Rita wait to hear the results of the first count at the RDS count centre in Dublin
The people have effectively given the Government notice to quit. Enda
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5 Members of Sinn Féin Republican Youth and Councillor Niall Ó Donnghaille call into veteran republican Johnny Doc for some encouragement while out delivering leaflets in Belfast
5 Sinn Féin’s Martina Anderson celebrates her election to the European Parliament, topping the poll in the North constituency
5 Artist Kevin Sharkey with Sinn Féin’s new Mulhuddart Councillor Edmond Lukusa
5 Liadh Ní Riada and Gerry Adams launch Sinn Féin’s European election campaign Kenny described the election of his party as ‘a democratic revolution’; well this no less a democratic revolution. The people have spoken very, very clearly. We are looking for a general election as soon as possible and that would be the appropriate thing for Fine Gael and Labour to do. While the Government may try to hang in as long as they can, governments can get tripped up and Sinn Féin needs to be match fit and ready. We should be on a continuous election footing. We were facing into elections in the short-term. North and South, anyway but there is now an opportunity to make more seismic shifts. You’ve been quoted as ruling out coalition with Fine Gael. Does that mean coalition with Fianna Fáil is open? I was asked directly by a journalist would I envisage coalition with Fine
Gael and I said I think that would be a very unlikely alliance. That was a specific question and people shouldn’t take that out of context. It will be a special Sinn Féin Ard Fheis that will decide on any issue of coalition should it arise. If we were unable to elect a majority Sinn Féin government and our project was to be advanced by being in government with other parties or Independents, the basis for deciding that would be policies. EAMON GILMORE resigned as leader of the Labour Party after his party’s poor showing and losses to Sinn Féin an hour after An Phoblacht interviewed Gerry Adams. In a statement, Gerry Adams said: “This is obviously a difficult day for Eamon Gilmore and his family. “However, this is not about personalities, it’s about policies.
5 Midlands North West MEP Matt Carthy with Martin McGuinness and Matt Snr We’d need a mandate from the people in the first instance and then we’d need a Programme for Government that would meet Sinn Féin’s programme. As Pearse Doherty said: “We’re hungry for change but we’re not hungry for government. We need the terms right. We’re not going to leave our principles at the door just to go into government. It’s obvious that’s what Labour did.” The only point or benefit in any of
the bodies Sinn Féin is elected to – the Oireachtas, the European Parliament, the councils, the Assembly – is to utilise them to advance the republican project and to improve the conditions of citizens. There is a process of political alignment underway and Sinn Féin is an engine for change helping make that happen. The outworkings of these elections will influence the way people look at the parties, the way they dis“Quite clearly the voters have rejected the policies of this government. “They have rejected the brutal agenda of relentless austerity, taking medical cards from sick children, water taxes and cuts to the most vulnerable. “What is required is a change of political direction and a change of government.”
cuss and debate the issues. The popular parlance of politics will now include terms like ‘citizens’, issues like ‘rights’, the privileges of the elites and how society serves its people, especially in a state that calls itself a republic. What now for Sinn Féin? Implementation of our mandate. Meeting right across this island, ensuring that these new areas of struggle are convergent with our policy and that we have the structures in place so that we continue to build. The most important thing that all of us can do is to debate, to discuss, to argue out all the political issues because the more informed people are the better a society we will have. Finally, we asked people in the elections to ‘Make the Change’. Many, many people have. Now we are asking people to ‘Be the Change’ – to join Sinn Féin.
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Social media – Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
5 Sinn Féin out on the canvass trail on Ardoyne Avenue, Belfast
Sinn Féin and An Phoblacht – Number 1 online BY MICHAEL NOLAN Head of Sinn Féin Social Media
5 Sinn Féin’s Liadh Ní Riada discusses coastal erosion at Ballyheigue in Kerry
ON Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, Sinn Féin continued to out-perform every other party across the island of Ireland by multiples from March. At the height of the election counts, “Sinn Féin” and “An Phoblacht” were trending in Ireland. On YouTube alone, the Sinn Féin/An Phoblacht channel had more than twice as many views as all the other parties put together, clocking up more than 2.29million views. In the final weeks of the campaign alone, those viewing figures grew by over quarter of a million. A similar surge was witnessed on Facebook. In the final four weeks of
On YouTube, the Sinn Féin/An Phoblacht channel had more than twice as many views as all the other parties put together, clocking up more than 2.29million views 5 Mary Lou McDonald joins Lynn Boylan as she casts her vote in Clondalkin
5 Sinn Féin launch its billboard campaign in Derry
the campaign, those who ‘liked’ the party averaged roughly 2,500 each week. This compared to a Fine Gael increase on Facebook in the final week of less than 200 and Fianna Fáil just over 100. In March, Sinn Féin celebrated passing the 20,000 Facebook ‘likes’ milestone; on the day of the election, that figure rose to 36,000. What had taken a couple of years to build had almost doubled overnight. On Twitter, the number of followers also grew substantially but not with quite the same level of enthusiasm shown on the other two platforms. It also needs to be recognised that people following you on Twitter are not necessarily supporters of your position. We have been known to attract the odd troll or two. Added to all this were over 4,000 people who signed up to become
online activists for the party during the election campaign. These were people who gave a specific undertaking to campaign for the party through social media during the election. But it’s the people behind the fans, followers and subscribers that give social media platforms their real power in elections. It’s the friends or fans who will undertake to campaign online on your behalf and sell your message to others that are worth far more than any leaflet through a letterbox or a poster on a pole. And it is all quantifiable. Tonnes of data is generated through each interaction, giving us quick and useful insights in to what might or might not be working during the course of a campaign. You quickly see what sort of message resonates with people. During the course of the campaign we undertook an initiative using a social media tool called Thunderclap. People sign up to relay a message on your behalf at the same time on the same day, hundreds of tweets and posts being generated about your cause to a potential audience of tens of thousands of their friends. The Labour Party in Britain tried it last November and it was deemed a great success when they got 868 people to sign up to the initiative; Sinn Féin’s message “I’m Voting Sinn Féin” was signed up to by almost 1,100 people – giving us an audience reach of almost 600,000 individuals. We were able to see how successful it was almost instantly when the hashtag #ImVotingSinnFein was trending throughout Ireland for sev-
eral hours on the day the message was launched. A Thunderclap as Gaeilge in the Six Counties was also a great success. Online campaigning and communicating with the public is also a great leveller. No longer are we at the editorial whim of some malcontent in Independent News & Media with an anti-republican agenda to distort the facts or misrepresent us. Now we are in a significant position to get our uncensored message through Sinn Féin’s and An Phoblacht’s social media and websites directly to people and to challenge head-on the spin and nonsense published elsewhere. Sinn Féin’s website in the later stages of the campaign was registering almost 10,000 unique visits a day
A Thunderclap by the Labour Party in Britain was deemed a great success when they got 868 people to sign up; “I’m Voting Sinn Féin” got almost 1,100 people behind it – huge increases on normal daily figures. That almost 50% of these people were accessing Sinn Féin’s website on mobile devices illustrates how rapidly things are changing. Analysis of the traffic over the same period of time in the run-in to the 2009 elections show that only 5% were accessing the site on mobile devices. It was these figures that played a significant role in our decision late last year to completely revamp the Sinn Féin site so that it was fully mobile compatible. This is where increasing numbers of people are accessing their daily newsfeeds. Sinn Féin will continue to concentrate its efforts in making sure that it remains in Number 1 position in terms of Irish political parties using the web and social media to advance our cause and policies.
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Big post-election questions for political unionism BY DECLAN KEARNEY THE European and local election campaigns in the North took place against the previous 22 months of impasse in the political process and instability on the ground. The agenda for political unionism has been set throughout by Orange and unionist extremists, and that has resulted in both the Democratic Unionist Party and the Ulster Unionist Party failing to unambiguously support power-sharing and partnership government. A sectarian race to the bottom between unionist politicians and unionist paramilitaries defined the lead-up to these elections. That’s reflected in the electoral deals made between some of them and the electoral turf competition among others in Belfast. The European and council election results within unionism are a product of all these factors – and the over-riding absence of positive unionist political leadership. Instead of standing up against the rejectionist, right-wing of unionism – and those who sought to exploit flags and parades disputes to inflame sectarian tensions for electoral and political reasons – both the DUP and the Ulster Unionists became complicit. In the process, the Ulster Unionists attempted to outflank the DUP by trying to be even more intransigent, as evidenced most recently by withdrawing from the party leaders’ talks. Ironically, its own European electoral project was still run very close by Jim Allister’s Traditional Unionist Voice. Meanwhile, the DUP haemorrhaged support and lost seats to both the Progressive Unionist Party and the TUV in Belfast, and particularly to the TUV in Counties Antrim and Derry. The combined European and council interventions of the TUV, PUP and UKIP restricted the DUP’s overall share of the vote to 23.09% and 20.09% in the council and European contests respectively. The implosion of Basil McCrea’s NI21 48 hours before polling day means there is no way of measuring the extent to which it might have energised and appealed to a dormant popular unionist vote which was not sufficiently attracted to the Alliance Party. Significantly these elections show that Alliance held its own despite the concerted intimidation of its party organisation and supporters in Belfast, and Counties Antrim and Down. That very resilience has now
revealed the existence of private talks about unionist unity pacts to take back Westminster seats such as East Belfast presently held by Alliance.
If political unionism (and especially the DUP) is prepared to move forward, progress can and will be made The PUP had two council seats beforehand, now it has four, three of them in Belfast, and two of these at the expense of the DUP. This party’s future prospects depend on whether it will concentrate upon developing a constructive form of
unionist class politics or remains locked into a negative strategy based on sectarian agitation. One strategic question arising is if these election results for unionism will add to the political impasse or might they become a catalyst for immediate discussions on actual implementation of the Haass compromise proposals and making partnership government work. That will depend on whether the DUP, in particular, embraces its electoral mandate with confidence as the main unionist party and adopts a progressive direction, ignoring the extremist influences of the TUV and also some within its own party. That would be the right position to take. Likewise, Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt has to decide if he will use his party’s electoral mandate to give positive leadership or not. The onset of new local councils should represent an opportunity for real power-sharing in local government. That’s power-sharing which is free from the sectarian hostility contaminating Northern politics and directly preventing the political institutions from delivering the change our citizens deserve. The DUP and Ulster Unionists should commit to power-sharing now. Moreover, given the electorate’s punishment for those parties which have supported austerity measures elsewhere on the island, there is a
5 Peter Robinson: The focus is on the DUP leadership
5 PUP leader Billy Hutchinson passing Sinn Féin’s Conor Keenan and Carál Ní Chuilin compelling case now for all parties in the North to unite in full opposition to the British Conservative welfare cuts agenda. These challenges and others will both test and demand leadership of and from all parties. If political unionism (and especially the DUP) is
prepared to move forward, progress can and will be made. The opportunity will exist to do so in the coming period but only if the potential for street instability during this summer’s marching season and Conservative/unionist horse trading in advance of the next Westminster elections are not used to block progress. Unionism faces new questions and will have decisions to make
There is a compelling case for all parties in the North to unite in full opposition to the British Conservative welfare cuts agenda
5 The extremist Jim Allister’s anti-peace process Traditional Unionist Voice should be left in the margins
when the dust settles on the Northern election results. Whilst republicans can take confidence from our all-Ireland electoral advances, in the North, Sinn Féin must continue to be conciliatory, generous and to stretch ourselves in the interests of developing reconciliation among all traditions. There is only one future for everyone. Realising its potential will require acceptance that the status quo is not an option and an agreed, positive political strategy between all parties and the Irish and British governments is inevitable.
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Media reaction BY ROBBIE SMYTH THE HEADLINES said “Sinn Féin surge ahead”; “Sinn Féin reign”; “Shinners sweep the capital”; “The arrival of Sinn Féin as a genuine heavyweight”; “Huge swing to Sinn Féin”. We could go on with the superlatives used in news headlines over the first three days of vote counting in the EU and local elections but . . . we would be missing an important point. These elections were actually a failure for Sinn Féin and it was the Sunday Independent who called it! “Sinn Féin surges – but falls short”
These elections were actually a failure for Sinn Féin, according to the Sunday Independent was one of the front-page subheads in the Sunday Independent. Also on Page One, Brendan O’Connor wrote that “Sinn Féin is a fantasy political party” while, inside, John Drennan declared that the electorate had decided to “tamp down the Sinn Féin revival”. Philip Ryan believed “Sinn Féin’s romp has failed to materialise”. The Sunday Independent’s reason-
ing behind the Sinn Féin ‘failure’ is that the party did not reach the support level in that paper’s Millward Brown poll. No chance the poll might have been wrong? But there’s more. “Sinn Féin preys on rising tide of fear” was the title of the Jody Corcoran article on the editorial page. Accompanying Corcoran’s piece was an Eddie Hobbs article on “Sinn Féin’s competence to move from Opposition to Government”. His conclusion was “it may take a dose of Sinn Féin in power to cure us of that party permanently”. Cormac Lucey in the Sunday Times also attacked Sinn Féin. His article is profiled on the Business Section’s front page with the headline “Sinnomics — Economic Lunacy of country’s fastest-growing political party”. Lucey claimed Sinn Féin’s economic policies are “a study in evasiveness and wrong-headedness”. Did you know the Independent
News and Media Group, which the Sunday Independent is part of, has “been left the heavy lifting on exposing Sinn Féin”? I did like the bit that read “the major parties are in danger of being swept aside by Sinn Féin’s seizure of the moral high ground”. (The view is great up here, by the way.) The online presence of the main news media outlets was a fascinating circus at the weekend. Seeing An Phoblacht’s logo on the Irish Independent’s blog feed (they were retweeting an An Phoblacht update) did prove that the world is changing, even at the paper once owned by William Martin Murphy of Lockout and 1916 executions infamy. RTÉ and Newstalk led the way over the weekend. They were an addictive mix as we followed the minute-byminute rout, showing the Internet’s power as a breaking news medium. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny’s tussle with Newstalk’s John Keogh, and Kenny’s accusations about Newstalk, require repeated listening. On Sunday, Clare Labour TD Michael McNamara’s call for Eamon Gilmore’s resignation set another news agenda. On Monday 26 May, The Irish Times editorial begrudgingly declared, “Little wonder Sinn Féin has been able so successfully to embed itself as the third party,” though it went on to point out the difficulties to come, a theme enthusiastically taken up by Stephen Collins. The demise of Labour is the key
5 Gerry Adams speaks to the media at the count centre in Dublin losses”. Gilmore resigned at 4pm on Monday afternoon. Final words go to the Sunday Independent front page. It had a
Seeing An Phoblacht’s logo on the Irish Independent’s blog feed did prove that the world is changing focus for the Irish Examiner, mutating into “Labour pain as Sinn Féin reign” in the Irish Daily Star. The Mail, Mirror, Independent and Herald all took this angle, as did The Irish Times headlining with “Labour TDs voice alarm over
strapline reading “The revolt of the coping classes” and the headline: “Coalition feels the fury of the people at the ballot box”. If only they really believed a revolution was afoot.
5 Sinn Féin’s team in Derry greet 99-year-old Ita Crossan who made sure to cast her vote in the Creggan ward
5 Sinn Féin’s Ray McHugh and Críona Ní Dhálaigh, both elected for the Crumlin-Kimmage ward in Dublin City Council, with with Dublin Central TD Mary Lou McDonald at the RDS Count Centre
5 A five-star result in County Wexford for Sinn Féin with Oisin O’Connell (New Ross), Mick Roche (Wexford), Johnny Mythen (Enniscorthy), Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Gorey) and Anthony Kelly (Wexford) all elected
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BY EOIN Ó MURCHÚ CONSTERNATION, bewilderment and anger has been evident among members of SIPTU – and the general public – when a banner endorsing Labour in the European and local elections was hung from Liberty Hall in the centre of Dublin. SIPTU President Jack O’Connor has been outspoken in his criticisms of the austerity policies being pushed by the Labour Party in Government, and working-class people across the country couldn’t understand how O’Connor and SIPTU could endorse the policies they have been criticising so vigorously. Saying one thing but doing another lies at the heart of the disillusionment with politics that is so widespread. It seems that, despite the evidence, many in the trade union movement are clinging to the illusion that they have some sort of link with Labour and that Labour has a link with them. This, of course, dates back to the foundation of the Labour Party at a trade union congress in Clonmel in 1912. James Connolly was one of those who argued that the unions should develop their own political party so that the political aims of the organised workers could be realised. It is a very long time indeed since the Labour Party regarded itself as an extension of
June / Meitheamh 2014 27
TRADE UNIONS RECONSIDER THEIR LINKS TO LABOUR PARTY TIME FOR TO
Labour is totally subservient to the EU’s big banker strategy, dismissive of the interests of the working class
Labour under Gilmore, Rabbitte and Quinn has joined the enemies of organised labour the trade union movement. Today, while the Labour Party tries to downgrade (and even ditch) its union connections, accepting only their money and their endorsements, the question needs to be put whether it is not time now for the unions to sever that link and look elsewhere to further their political aims. Parties like Labour will pay no attention to trade union arguments on economic and social policy if they can be assured that when the chips are down the money and the endorsements will continue to flow. It would be wrong, of course, for the unions to have no political programme, but with Labour so consistently opposing union policies, blind adherence to that party is shackling the unions to their enemies — for, yes, Labour under Gilmore, Rabbitte and Quinn has joined the enemies of organised labour. While taking the name of James Connolly in vain (Labour doesn’t in practice adhere to a single aspect of Connolly’s Marxist and republican outlook), Labour is totally subservient to the EU’s big banker strategy, dismissive of the need to place the interests of the working class in the first place. The union movement does, however, need a political outlet. It’s not a question of just
jumping from one political association to another but rather the unions should pick and choose the political programmes they will support as circumstances dictate. This means setting up political committees within each union that can recommend backing parties and candidates to the extent that
their policies conform to those of the union. If this were organised democratically (that is through open transparent debate on options and alternatives) it could help to generate a wider participation of workers in developing political programmes and policies. And what of the genuine socialists and
working-class activists in the Labour Party? Such is the degradation of that party today that it is hard to argue that any such elements exist – but they do. For Labour to be won back to play any progressive role for working-class people, it needs to be comprehensively defeated in its current political expression. Only when Labour has paid the price at a general election for its betrayal of the working class (and its betrayal of the trade unions and their members) can there be any hope of rebuilding a Labour Party that can take its place alongside those other parties, like Sinn Féin, which are actually fighting for workers’ rights. All the signs are that Labour will pay that price but that strengthens the need for workers to find another political expression. Labour’s defeat will take place at the ballot box but the trade union movement now needs to reassess its connection to the party that has betrayed them. And disaffiliating from Labour is the right step to take to strengthen the unions’ political role and expression. Of course, just disaffiliating and replacing it by no other political structures would marginalise the organised working class even more, so disaffiliation must be pursued in the context of rebuilding an active trade union connection to politics. If the offensive banner hung from Liberty Hall during May’s election campaign brings that debate to the fore, then perhaps it wasn’t a bad thing in all.
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Redmond’s Irish Party was becoming alarmed at the growth of the Volunteers and wanted to control them
Redmond tries to take over the Irish Volunteers THE GROWTH of the Irish Volunteers from their founding in November 1913 up to the summer of 1914 was phenomenal. Tens of thousands of men enrolled and the founding of Cumann na mBan in April 1914 brought thousands of women into the movement. The threat to Home Rule for Ireland posed by the Tory/unionist alliance was the principal factor driving the growth of the nationalist Volunteer movement. On 24 April 1914, the Ulster Volunteer Force landed a cargo of 35,000 rifles and two and a half million rounds of ammunition at Larne. Unionist leader Edward Carson reviewed the armed Belfast UVF on 6 June and urged them to “stick to your arms”. The Irish Volunteers became more militant in the wake of Larne gun-running and the Curragh Mutiny in March, when British Army officers at the Curragh Camp said they would refuse to obey orders to go to Ulster if Home Rule was passed. The front page of The Irish Volunteer declared on 6 June: “Come what will, the Volunteers must win Ireland’s freedom by peaceful methods if they may, by war if they
John Redmond must; and, having won it, the movement must keep on and on, an Irish army for Irish rights. We were slaves indeed not to realise before the Curragh debacle that he who looks to others to protect him will often be in need.” Behind the scenes, John Redmond’s Irish Party was becoming alarmed at the growth of the Volunteers and wanted to control them. On 10 June, Redmond issued a public ultimatum demanding that 25
The death of Michael Gaughan IN JUNE 1974, Ireland was in turmoil as the Troubles were in their fifth year. In the Six Counties, internment without trial was in force and the British Army was on the rampage throughout nationalist areas. British forces were colluding with loyalists openly and in secret and had bombed Dublin and Monaghan in May, killing 33 people. That same month, the Sunningdale Executive collapsed after the British Labour Government of Harold Wilson and Direct Ruler Merlyn Rees capitulated to the so-called strike staged by the Ulster Workers’ Council. Seldom had such scenes reminiscent of fascism been witnessed in Western Europe since the Second World War. Right-wing loyalist paramilitaries kept workers out of their workplaces and mounted patrols and checkpoints under the gaze of the RUC and British Army; loyalist death squads carried out sectarian killings at will. In Dublin, the Fine Gael/Labour Coalition government of Taoiseach
BY BY MÍCHEÁL MÍCHEÁL Mac Mac DONNCHA DONNCHA
Liam Cosgrave was obsessed with the idea that the 26-County state was under imminent threat from republicans. Of course, the real threat was from those who had bombed Dublin and Monaghan, but after the bombings the Coalition’s anti-republican crusade was stepped up. Of the hundreds of republicans imprisoned at this time, the most vulnerable were those in English jails. Among them was a young man from Ballina, County Mayo. Twenty-four-year-old Michael Gaughan had emigrated to London after he left school. In London, he joined the IRA. Convicted of possession of a weapon and conspiracy to rob a London bank, Gaughan was imprisoned in Wormwood Scrubs, Albany and Parkhurst prisons. On 31 March 1974, Michael joined other republican prisoners (including fellow Mayo man Frank Stagg) on hunger strike, demanding an end to solitary confinement, education instead of
prison work, and a date for transfer to a prison in Ireland. Since the days of the Suffragettes, British prison authorities had resorted to the brutal method of force-feeding in response to prison hunger strikes. Republican prisoner Thomas Ashe died in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin in 1917 as a result of force-feeding. Michael Gaughan was repeatedly force-fed during his 65-day fast. The procedure involved forcing a wooden clamp into the prisoner’s mouth through which a tube was passed. Liquid food was then poured through the tube, often entering the victim’s windpipe. Michael died as a result of such treatment. In accordance with his wishes, Michael’s body was brought home for burial in the Republican Plot in Leigue Cemetery, Ballina. Thousands turned out to pay their respects in London and Dublin and along the route to his final resting place in Mayo. The other hunger strikers ended their fast in the hope that Michael’s
of his nominees and supporters be added to the original Provisional Committee which founded the Volunteers. Tom Clarke and Seán Mac Diarmada were determined to oppose this and all Irish Republican Brotherhood members on the Committee were urged to vote against the proposal. But senior IRB member Bulmer Hobson acted behind their backs and facilitated the Redmond takeover. On 16 June 1914, the Provisional Committee voted to accept Redmond’s ultimatum. The minority group of mainly IRB members (including four of the leaders executed in 1916) protested but agreed to carry on in the Volunteers. One of them, Pádraig Pearse, explained in a 19 June letter to Joe McGarrity in the USA: “You will have seen that the Provisional Committee has had to swallow Redmond’s 25 nominees. I voted against surrender, and I think I
was right in so voting. But I do not regard the cause as lost — far from it. We all remain in the movement and shall be watchful to checkmate any attempt on Redmond’s part to prevent us from arming. This is the real danger. The future of the movement depends upon our remaining at our posts, to see to it that the Volunteers are a real army, not a stage army.” Redmond would go on later that year to split the Volunteers when he urged them to join the British Army. But in June 1914, at the annual Wolfe Tone commemoration in Bodenstown, the Irish Volunteers were joined by the Irish Citizen Army, and Tom Clarke chaired the event. The movement had been shaken by Redmond’s attempted takeover but already the forces that would make the 1916 Rising were coming together. John Redmond imposed his 25 nominees on the Irish Volunteers in June 1914, 100 years ago this month.
emembering R the
sacrifice would be sufficient to make the British Government see sense. But after appearing ready to concede on the issue of transfer, the British reneged. Frank Stagg embarked again on hunger strike at the end of 1975 and died on 12 February 1976 in Wakefield Prison. Appalled by the public demonstration of respect for an IRA Volunteer seen at Michael Gaughan’s funeral, the
Past
This article first appeared in An Phoblact, 3 June 2004
Coalition determined to crack down and when, in February 1976, Frank Stagg died on hunger strike in Wakefield Prison, his body was hijacked and buried under concrete by the Garda Special Branch. However, Frank Stagg’s wishes were also fulfilled and, later in 1976, the IRA reburied him beside Michael Gaughan in the Republican Plot. In a last message to his comrades, Michael Gaughan described his motivation: “I die proudly for my country and in the hope that my death will be sufficient to obtain the demands of my comrades. Let there be no bitterness on my behalf but a determination to achieve the new Ireland for which I gladly die. My loyalty and confidence is to the IRA and let those of you who are left carry on the work and finish the fight.” Michael Gaughan died on hunger strike in Parkhurst Prison, England, on 3 June 1974.
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International campaign to free Palestinian prisoners, including Marwan Barghouti MP, comes to Dublin
Political prisoners, not terrorists nish her husband by claiming he is a terrorist. “It amazes me and disheartens me that the likes of Marwan, who was elected by the Palestinian people, has been imprisoned because of his political views. We took this issue to the European Parliament but it was not addressed seriously. At one point there were
BY MARK MOLONEY THE Irish launch of the International Campaign for the Freedom of Marwan Barghouthi and all Palestinian Prisoners came to Ireland in May. The campaign, which was first launched in Nelson Mandela’s prison cell on Robben Island, hopes to build international pressure on Israel to release Marwan Barghouti, an elected member of the Palestinian Parliament who has been imprisoned since 2002, and the more than 5,000 other Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli prisons. Marwan is seen as a unifiying figure among Palestinians and it is for this reason that many believe the Israeli Government kidnapped and imprisoned him. A symbolic leader of the First
During his first jail term, Marwan led a hunger strike in solidarity with Bobby Sands and the H-Block Hunger Strikers in 1981 Intifada (Uprising) against Israeli occupation, he is a supporter of the two-state solution, noting that he seeks the “peaceful co-existence of the independent countries of Israel and Palestine based on full withdrawal of Israel from occupied territories”. Speaking to An Phoblacht at Buswell’s Hotel in Dublin, opposite the Dáil, his wife Fadwa said the issue of political prisoners is huge in Palestine and their release is key to any lasting agreement. “The issue of political prisoners is a campaign which unifies Palestinians off all political persuasions and scopes of political opinions,” she says. “Israel has always claimed our prisoners are terrorists and because of this many in the outside world are apprehensive to deal with it. We want to convey to the world that this is a political issue, not a ‘security’ one. “As long as there is occupation, there is always going to be freedom fighters and people imprisoned for standing up to that occupation.” Fadwa, a lawyer and elected member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, married Marwan in 1984.
There are currently 5,265 Palestinian political prisoners, of which 202 are children
5 Fadwa Barghouthi and Sinn Féin Foreign Affairs spokesperson Seán Crowe TD For the last 12 years she has raised their three children on her own. “Every Palestinian family has had somebody related to them imprisoned at some point,” she says. During his first term of imprisonment, Marwan led a hunger strike in
solidarity with Bobby Sands and the H-Block Hunger Strikers in 1981. In 2001, an attempted Israeli assassination against him left his bodyguard dead when a missile struck his car. He was later kidnapped by Israeli soldiers who used an ambu-
5 Fadwa is presented with a portrait of her husband by artist Jim Fitzpatrick
lance to approach the house where he was staying. Hundreds of charges were levelled at him, most of which were thrown out of court as spurious and lacking in any real evidence. He was later handed five life sentences for attempted murder based on his support for armed resistance carried out by Palestinian organisations. Over 805,000 Palestinians have spent time in Israeli prisons since 1967. There are currently 5,265 political prisoners, of which 202 are children. Speaking of her own husband, Fadwa says: “He is 54 years old and he has spent 20 years of his life in prison.” She accuses Israel of trying to tar-
50 elected members of the Palestinian Parliament imprisoned; 11 still are, so this shows you how much Israel disregards our democratic choices. “I plead for all politicians, here in Ireland and worldwide, to seek support and freedom for our imprisoned political leaders. With your help and support we will get our political prisoners free and we hope one day to be able to welcome you to a free Palestine.” Also speaking at the event in Dublin were Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire, Sinn Féin Foreign Affairs spokesperson Seán Crowe TD, SIPTU President Jack O’Connor, artist Robert Ballagh, then Labour MEP Emer Costello, Neeshan Balton of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation in South Africa, Palestinian Ambassador to Ireland Ahmad Abdelrazek, and President of the Palestinian Community in Ireland Dr Bassam Naser. Artist Jim Fitzpatrick presented Fadwa with a portrait of her imprisoned husband.
5 Bobby Ballagh alongside the ambassadors of Morocco, Qatar and Saudi Arabia
For more information or to get involved in the campaign: www.freemarwan.ie
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As Cyprus’s reunification talks recommence after 18 months of non-contact between the Cypriot and Turkish governments, MARK MOLONEY meets Cyprus’s Ambassador to Ireland, DR MICHALIS STAVRINOS
CYPRUS STRUGGLING TO END PARTITION UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION 541:
“Therefore, that the attempt to create a ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ is invalid and will contribute to a worsening of the situation in Cyprus” CYPRUS AND IRELAND share a similar contemporary history. In the 20th century, these two small island nations fought back against occupation by the British Empire. Both Ireland and Cyprus later found themselves partitioned, their north-eastern corners held by a much larger neighbour. After its anti-colonial war against the British spearheaded by the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA), Cyprus was invaded and partitioned by Turkey. In July 1974, the right-wing military junta then ruling Greece, with the collusion of a handful of Greek Cypriot collaborators on the island, carried out a coup to overthrow the democraticallyelected government of Cyprus. Even though in the five days before the Turkish invasion, on 20 July, not a single Turkish Cypriot (who made up around 18% of the population) was killed or even injured, Ankara used the coup as a pretext and invaded Cyprus, on the pretext of restoring constitutional order and protecting the Turkish Cypriots. After order was restored three days later, instead of withdrawing its forces, Turkey occupied more than a third of Cyprus’s territory and has continued to do so for the past
40 years, in spite of UN resolutions calling for their withdrawal. Michalis’s family left Cyprus for Athens during this period to get away from what he describes as “The Troubles”. He spent several years working as a lawyer and later a legal adviser to the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Returning to Cyprus in 1989, he served extensively in the diplomatic corps and was appointed Ambassador to Ireland in 2011.
STATUS QUO ‘UNACCEPTABLE’
The latest round of talks aimed at solving the partition of Cyprus began with a joint communique in February. In it, both sides describe the status quo as “unacceptable” and say the talks are aimed at “ensuring their common future in a united Cyprus within the European Union”. It added that the settlement will be based on “bi-communal, bi-zonal federation with political equality”, that all options are on the table and importantly that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”. The discovery of offshore oil and gas in the exclusive economic zone of Cyprus has sparked the interest of the US and the EU in finding a solution.
CYPRUS FACTS AND HISTORY POPULATION: 1.1million
800,000 (South/Cyprus Government),
300,000 (North/Turkish occupied)
77% Greek Cypriots 18% Turkish Cypriots 5% Other (Latins, Maronites, Armenians) TERRITORIAL CONTROL 60.8% Republic of Cyprus 36.2% Turkish occupied 3% British military bases
Despite so many failed starts, Michalis is optimistic about this round of talks. “There were endless efforts for the last 40 years or so,” he tells An Phoblacht at the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Dublin. “But unfortunately, due to Turkey’s intransigence, it is an ongoing problem. “Turkey insists on the right to unilateral intervention, the right to keep armed forces on the island and the right to legitimise the settlers. That is a huge problem. “Since 1974, Turkey has been bringing tens of thousands of settlers to the island. We have reached the point today where the settlers actually outnumber the Turkish Cypriots. The Turkish Cypriots as well as the Greek Cypriots are very unhappy about this situation,” he tells me. “Cyprus is very small to be a country, never mind to be divided into two. Turkey is huge, one of the biggest in Europe; they don’t need to expand into Cyprus.” In a similar vein to the situation in Israel, the settlers who have arrived are far more extreme in their political and religious views than the native population from both communities. In 2004, the ‘Annan Plan’, which aimed to reunify the island as a federation of two states
under the name “United Republic of Cyprus”, was rejected by the people at referendum: 76% of Greek Cypriots opposed the plan with 65% of Turkish Cypriots supporting it. For many outsiders, it is hard to understand why this happened. “Unfortunately, among the Turkish Cypritos the settlers were also given the right to vote (which was completely illegal and unacceptable) and this is why you got these percentages,” says Michalis. The failure of the plan to allow Greek Cypriots return to their homes which were taken from them by Turkish troops and settlers, and the legitimisation of the presence of illegal settlers and the Turkish military presence, meant Greek Cypriots could not support it. “When you are one of the smallest nations in Europe, facing the largest standing army on the continent — one of 500,000 soldiers — you have to make certain compromises, but not on human rights and basic principles,” says Michalis. Turkey unilaterally froze any contact with Cyprus in late 2012 while Cyprus held the presidency of the European Union. It continued to freeze talks until after the most recent Cypriot election. Turkey then demanded the
1571 Ottoman (Turkish) Empire conquers Kingdom of Cyprus 1821 486 Greek Cypriots are executed, accused of supporting
the rebellious Greeks during their War of Independence 1878 Secret deal sees Ottoman Empire gift Cyprus to the British Empire 1955 EOKA launches armed campaign to end British rule in Cyprus 1958 Turkish armed gangs launch attacks against Greek Cypriots to force partition 1964 Intercommunal violence sees deployment of UN peacekeeping force 1974 Greek Cypriot military officers attempt to launch a coup to unite Cyprus and Greece; Turkey uses attempted coup as pretext to invade and occupy northern Cyprus 1983 Turkish-occupied North of Cyprus declares independence; unrecognised by all nations but Turkey; UN condemns move 2004 Cyprus joins the European Union; Annan Plan is rejected in referendum
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Cyprus and the IRA
5 Cypriot Ambassador to Ireland Dr Michalis Stavrinos at the Embassy in Dublin quick resumption of talks, deadlines and said that if these talks fail then they should be the last ones. “Because of our experience dealing with the Turkish government in the past,” Michalis says, “we insisted on a joint communique, a framework with principles.”
FAMAGUSTA – TOURIST GHOST TOWN
On the east coast of Cyprus lies the city of Famagusta. In the 1960s, its Varosha region was one of the most popular tourist resorts on the planet. High-rise hotels and apartment complexes line its sandy beaches. In 1974, it was fenced off by the Turkish military following the invasion and its Greek Cypriot residents forced to flee. It now sits frozen in the exact state which it was left in 40 years ago. This ghost town, with its crumbling buildings and overgrown gardens, may prove key in building reconciliation, says Michalis. He argues that, in order not to influence the territorial issue of the current round of talks, the town could be returned to the Cyprus Government under the auspices of the United Nations. It needs full reconstruction and this could be a project on which the two communities could work together, creating employment and business opportunities. “In return,” he suggests, “we will allow the illegal regime to trade from there with the outside world. The port of Famagusta could operate under the rules of the EU. So it’s a win-win proposal.” Without a solution to the Cyprus problem, Turkey’s push for accession to the European Union should be doomed to failure, he says. “It is not acceptable to have a country applying to join the European Union and at the same time occupying part of a member state. “We hope Turkey will come to terms with
0 0
15
30 15
Kilometre 30 Miles
UN Green Zone Dhekelia Base Akrotiri Base
5 Map shows the partition of Cyprus as well as the two huge British bases on the island
5 There have been protests against the British bases
logic,” says Michalis. “Erdogan has the power, if he has the willingness, to achieve something on the Cyprus problem. If he does this, he will change the image of Turkey. It will be a country which could play a major role, a country without the burden of being an illegal occupier. We are reservedly optimistic and we hope that with the assistance of friendly countries, including Ireland, that we will finally achieve a solution.” As well as contending with Turkish occupation, a further 3% of Cyprus is under the control of the British military with ‘Sovereign Base Areas’ at Akrotiri and Dhekelia. In 2001, plans to extend Akrotiri base where strongly opposed by locals, resulting in rioting which left 40 British police officers injured and their police station destroyed in the clashes. “Following the anti-colonial struggle of EOKA and the independence of Cyprus in 1960, the imposed conditions on the people of Cyprus was the retention by Britain of two large military bases. The presence of these bases in anachronistic. You cannot be partners in the EU and keep military bases in other countries.” He says Cyprus is in a position to offer the use of its territory for purposes that it will decide is in the common interest — but never against the territory or independence of another nation. Finally, he has a message for the people of Ireland. “I particularly would like to thank the Irish Government, political parties and people for their firm support in finding a solution in Cyprus. You have been through a similar imposed division and your understanding and support is always there. “The participation of Irish soldiers in the peacekeeping force in Cyprus is something which is highly appreciated by the people and Government of Cyprus and we are looking forward with your assistance to find a peaceful, lasting solution.”
IN the 1950s, IRA and Cypriot EOKA anti-colonial fighters were held together in Wormwood Scrubs Prison in England. Both sets of political prisoners worked closely with each other, planning escapes and protecting each other from attacks by English prisoners. In July 1958, EOKA activist Nicholas Ioannou, who was co-ordinating organising escape attempts for Irish and Cypriot prisoners, was killed in a motorcycle crash. The prisoners were convinced that he was assassinated as the documents he was carrying at the time disappeared and the lorry which killed him was driven by a warden from Wakefield Prison, almost 200kms away. His sister maintains that a Scotland Yard police officer told her they “didn’t mean to hurt him, just get the documents”. A succesful escape attempt would come several months later, in February 1959, when IRA prisoner Séamus Murphy escaped from Wakefield Prison and returned to Ireland. Four other would-be escapees (two Irish and two Cypriots) were captured by wardens during the attempt. The escape was funded by a Cypriot woman, Katina Pilina, who donated her entire wedding dowry to fund the operation. Séamus Murphy would meet Katina for the first time 50 years later at a book launch in the Pearse Centre in Dublin. 6 Irish and Cypriots who spent tine in English prisons in the 1950s meeting in Dublin, 2008. Vias Livadas, Renos Kyriakides, Séamus Murphy, Pat Farrelly, Manus Canning, Séamus Greally and Demetri Filiastides
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EDUCATIONAL DISADVANTAGE
A PERENNIAL PROBLEM? PROFESSOR
PETER SHIRLOW
Deputy Director at the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice, Queen’s University Belfast MUCH ATTENTION in recent years has focused on the poor academic performance of young people in the North of Ireland who come from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. In 2012, some 2,405 of the 3,675 young people on free schools meals left school without five or more GCSEs at grade A* to C or equivalent, including English and maths; 74.1% of the Protestant cohort compared to 61.5% of Catholics did not gain this commonly-used benchmark. Paul Nolan, in his recent peace monitoring report, has not only indicated this religious but also social class gap regarding this GCSE equivalent. He found among those not entitled to free school meals a 5% to 6% gap between Catholic girls (76.7%) and Protestant girls (71.8%) and Catholic boys (64.5%) and Protestant boys (58.6%). However, he observed a wider gap among those entitled to free school meals. Within that cohort, nearly two thirds of Catholic boys and 80% of Protestant boys did not gain the GCSE metric. In sum, a Catholic boy not on free school meals was twice as likely as his free school meal counterpart to gain these qualifications. When comparing the same among Protestants, the gap was three-fold. In the South, a similar class divide exists, as evidenced in the 2006/7 school leavers survey in which a child from a higher professional background compared to those from an unskilled background were over four times more likely to gain four-plus honours.
League tables are not the best way to judge ability but they are basically all that we have to compare performance. Evidently there are issues that affect both communities and Protestant poor performance in particular. Some of the gap in performance among the Protestant deprived has been linked to the impact of deindustrialisation and the loss of tra-
background, notably in inner city neighbourhoods. Poverty and social exclusion still affects outcomes and is related to issues of social fatalism, educational expectations, family support, embedded poverty, the impact of conflict upon emotional stability within the family, attendance and other stubborn and perennial problems. But we must bear in mind that religion shows a gap
There is a growing level of indifference to marginalised Protestant communities
Religion shows a gap but it is not as strong as that of social class regarding educational attainment (both North and South)
ditional labour markets; ‘Protestant’ grammar schools are more likely to accept entrants with lower grades than Catholic schools due to demographic difference and in so doing draw higher-performing cohorts away from secondary provision; the controlled state secondary sector, unlike other sectors, has no representative body to campaign directly on such issues. There is also a growing level of indifference to marginalised Protestant communities due to several decades of social mobility whilst some claim political abandonment. However, we must also consider the wider issues that affect socially-deprived young people, of whatever
Cumann Gaelach na hEaglaise – 100 bliain LE MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA
Ba mhór an onóir dom a bheith páirteach mar ionadaí an Ard Mhéara agus Comhairle Bhaile Átha Cliath ag ceiliúradh céad bliain ag Cumann Gaelach na hEaglaise, eagras Gaeilge Eaglais na hÉireann. Ar an 29 Aibreán a bhí an seirbhís speisialta in Eaglais
Naomh Áine i Sráid Dawson agus ag fáiltiú i Halla Molesworth ina dhiaidh sin. Bunaíodh an Cumann ar an lá sin i 1914 agus i measc siúd a thacaigh leis bhí Ruairi Mac Éasmainn (Roger Casement). Luaigh mé sin i mo chuid focail ar an ócáid, ag cur i gcuimhne don lucht éisteachta go ndúirt Mac Éasmainn gurb ionann an náisíun agus abhainn mór ina théann go leor sruthanna éagsúla.
5 Reports found Protestant students performed poorly
but it is not as strong as that of social class. That remains the central division with regard to educational attainment (both North and South). Media coverage has quite rightly pointed at the religious gap but has remained silent on more pronounced social divisions. The Peace Process has in educational and other terms reproduced a two-speed society of gainers and those awaiting meaningful change, that is a pronounced problem for deprived Protestant youth but it is not unique to them.
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Europe surge for Left alternative
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THE European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) European Parliament group, of which Sinn Féin is a member party, has significantly increased its representation in the EU Parliament. The left-wing group saw big gains in Ireland, Italy, Spain, Greece, Czech Republic and Finland and looks set to play a key role in a parliament where support for the two largest groups, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (of which the Irish Labour Party’s MEPs were members) and the European People’s Party (including Fine Gael), plummeted. GUE/NGL leader Gabi Zimmer says the increasing support for Left candidates shows that increasing numbers of citizens across the EU are seeking a real alternative to the failed politics of austerity. “Over the next five years our enlarged group will fight for jobs, equality, social solidarity, sustainable economic development and for a Europe of civil rights and peace,” she said.
June / Meitheamh 2014 33
“The main challenges for the Left are to end austerity and tackle the dangerous rise of the far Right.”
Hitting out at the current direction of the European Union, she added: “Recent policies of EU leaders have devastated our societies and brought our economies to the brink, especially the reaction to the current economic, financial, social and environmental crisis.”
Noting the recent rise in support for farRight and xenophobic or anti-immigrant groups in some European states, Gabi Zimmer said: “The main challenges for the Left are to end austerity and tackle the dangerous rise of the far Right.”
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
Martina Anderson MEP is a member of the GUE/NGL Group in the European Parliament
EOIN Ó MURCHÚ Sinn Féin le dúshlán a thabhairt do phoilaitíocht bhréagach na hEorpa TÁ OSNA faoisimh ann go forleathan go bhfuil todhcháin na hEorpa thart, is go bhfuil deire leis an gcaint ráiméiseach a d’fhulaing muid futhu le roinnt seachtainí. Ní hé nach raibh – is nach bhfuil – sé tábhachtach leas a bhaint as gach ardán le dúshlán a thabhairt do pholasaithe déine na hEorpa, agus dúshlán a thabhairt ach go háirithe do ghéilleadh na bpáirtithe móra in Éirinn do leasa bhancaeraí na hEorpa, ach níl aon tábhacht ag baint leis an blocanna móra i bParlaimint na hEorpa faoina mbíonn páirtithe na bunaíochta polaitiúil abhus ag caint. Sea, déantar cómhoibriú le páirtithe ar fad na hEorpa atá ag troid in aghaidh na déine – mar atá Sinn Féin – ach ag deire thiar níl sa
bparlaimint seo ach cur i gcéill: cur i gcéill gur fíor-pharlaimint í nuair a bhíonn an chumhacht ar fad ag an gCoimisiún neamhthofa is ag comhairle na n-airí. Ba bhotún é ámh ról na parlaiminte a threisiú, mar ag deire thiar níl ach guth fíorbheag againn sa bparlaimint i gcomparáid le ról aire rialtais ar féidir a chur faoi scrúdú sa mbaile. Ag éisteacht le RTÉ, ámh, cheapfá gur ag roghnú rialtais don Eoraip a bhí muid. Ní raibh ar ndóigh, ach ní iriseóir é Tony Connolly – comhfhreagraí RTÉ san Eoraip – ach bolscaire ar son an fhiontair Eorpaigh, Ní dhéanann sé aon iarracht súil oibiachtúil a chaitheamh ar chúrsaí na hEorpa ach ina ionad cur leis an dallmullóg a chuirtear ar dhaoine faoin scéal.
Tony Connelly Mar sin chuala muid ráiméis i ndiaidh ráiméise faoi polasaithe na mblocanna móra, nuair nach bhfuil aon difríocht idir na blocanna seo maidir le polasaithe. Polaitíocht bhréagach is fhrithbheartach atá i “bpolaitíocht” seo na hEorpa. Feiceann muid mar sin an chaoi go ndéannann RTÉ iarracht míniú bréagach a thabhairt
ar dhul chun cinn Shinn Féin. Ni feidir leó a aithint go bhfuil Sinn Féin ag cur dúshlán roimh an mbunaíocht, in Éirinn agus san Eoraip, is go bhfuil plé fírinneach ann anois faoi daonlathas agus cearta mhuintir na hÉireann. Plé nach bhfágann bunscéalta i lámha an chlé bhréagaigh nó na polaitíochta breagaigh.
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DAVID HEALY, a former Green Party councillor for Howth in Fingal County Council and erstwhile adviser to John Gormley (last seen cycling off into a green sunset), probably has the lowest carbon footprint in Ireland. David doesn’t drive. He doesn’t use airplanes. He doesn’t eat meat. And he doesn’t buy his food from supermarkets. In other words, he is not personally responsible for any greenhouse gases. Tony Lowes is a fellow environmentalist with a blunt axe to grind. Years ago they came together to form a group they named Friends of the Irish Environment. The motivation came from Lowes who could see how desperately the Irish environment needed friends. All it had, he insists, were enemies. Unfortunately, most of them are environmentalists. It’s easy to point the finger of blame at the bureaucrats and politicians, at the captains of industry and the wage-slave workers, at consumers and blissfully ignorant miscreants. By giving the impression they are saving the world, Ireland’s self-proclaimed environmentalists delude themselves and betray their cause. They hold endless meetings, like green knights at a revolving round table, organise new forums not unlike the old forums, and convene public conferences that preach to the converted. Talk, talk, talk. All they have shown is that they are powerless to do anything about the causes of climatic and environmental damage, and are unable to influence public opinion on the changes we need to make in our lifestyles that will affect our immediate environments. They are better at pretending, while getting on with their selfish lifestyles, which are just as damaging as ours. They hide it well. Now we have a decision to make. Do we join the last of the real environmentalists (people like Healy, Lowes and others, in their personal choices, in their public crusades) or do we accept the inevitable? Ireland is slowly being cast adrift – by the consequences of climate change, global warming, resource depletion and, ironically, by Europe. Very gradually, the continent is going green.
www.anphoblacht.com
Climate change, campaigners and deniers ROBERT ALLEN on what should be a hot topic for everyone
THE
The signs are that it won’t. They fear that continuing emissions of greenhouse gases will counter the effects of ozone recovery. In particular, they fear that the jet stream (the high, fast winds that determine regional weather patterns) will remain out of control. And that will mean no cessation of the rains and winds that continue to devastate this island. The Earth’s atmosphere is now hotter than at any time in human history, and the increase is showing no signs of slowing. Resource depletion has been an issue for so long it is now almost dismissed as a science fiction fantasy. If you are worried about climate change and global warming, don’t be, says Caroline Lewis, another Friends of the Irish Environment veteran. “Resource depletion will get us first. Take phosphates, for example. Essential to growth, there is only enough left for 60 or 70 years at the current rate of usage. “Until we close the phosphate cycle and stop releasing it as part of our sewage waste, for example (where it does untold damage to the environment) we will find we can’t produce enough food long before global warming does its damage.” Then there is the pollution of the air and the water. After the ignorant dismissal of the toxic issue by mainstream media, one fact remains: more people suffer with respiratory episodes and illnesses than ever before. Air pollution is still a major problem. It affects individuals and it contributes to climate change. “Because of the health aspects,” says Tony Lowes, “countries are now addressing sulphur emissions as an urgent priority. But the elimination of sulphur in the atmosphere will in turn increase the rise in surface temperature, a factor no one speaks of.” On 13 April, after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported in Berlin that greenhouse gas emissions had increased “more quickly between 2000 and 2010 than in each of the three previous decades”, the mainstream media picked a fight with its scientists. While Rome burns . . . Slowing deforestation and progressive afforestation have stopped emissions from land use. Trees draw carbon dioxide from the atmos-
LAST ENVIRONMENTALIST
It is doing this by beginning to carefully manage the planet’s resources, by moving away from the fuel-guzzling roads and skies onto sustainable integrated transport systems powered by non-polluting sources, by supporting local food production over environmentally harmful food imports, by encouraging the widespread growth of beneficial plant, shrub and tree species, by funding sustainable natural energy schemes, by educating the young in new ways to live. None of this is happening in Ireland. Our environmentalists remain elitist, our bureaucrats remain static, our media remains arrogant, our politicians remain ignorant, while the public remains apathetic and the environment . . . goes to hell and high water. For six and a half decades, the impact of greenhouse gases on the Earth’s atmosphere has played havoc with the weather. That great big hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica is shrinking but the scientists who study climate change are not getting excited about this discovery. What they are doing is worrying whether our weather will return to pre-ozone-hole conditions.
5 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Politicians who fail to take the warnings of climate scientists seriously are guilty of the worst kind of moral failure
phere, act as a soak for excessive precipitation, and play a part in sustaining micro-ecosystems. Sadly in Ireland, this and other environmental initiatives do not happen. Tree-planting is regarded as a communist conspiracy, organic farming is an elitist hippy activity, community gardening is something that only the disadvantaged of society are allowed to do, integrated transportation is non-existent in rural areas, recycling is under-funded, waste is mismanaged and natural energy creation is prohibitively expensive for individuals. Add to that the incredible abuse of resources in the home, in the workplace, and generally where there is human activity. But these initiatives only describe the small picture. The big picture contains scary events. Clive Hamilton, Professor of Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, Australia, describes them in his latest book, Earthmasters: The Dawn of the Age of Climate Engineering. One of them is geo-engineering, which will manipulate cloud cover, change the oceans’ chemical composition and blanket the planet with a layer of sunlight-reflecting particles. “It is into the yawning gap between the urgent
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Ireland is slowly being cast adrift – by the consequences of climate change, global warming, resource depletion and, ironically, by Europe
5 Clive Hamilton, Professor of Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, Australia
5 Air pollution is still a major problem, it affects individuals and it contributes to climate change
5 David Healy and Tony Lowes formed Friends of the Irish Environment response scientists say is needed and the timid measures governments are willing to take that geo-engineering has stepped,” says Hamilton. “Geo-engineering is not just a technological problem, nor even an ethical one as usually understood; it goes to the heart of what it means for one species to hold the future of a planet in its hands.” Hamilton’s fear is obvious – those with the power to do something will continue to remain sceptical. “All political leaders need to understand that we are facing a situation of the utmost seriousness,” he says. “A vast body of scientific evidence all points to human-induced climate change, putting us on a path to a disastrously transformed planet. “Every scientific academy in the world has endorsed this science. “It is frivolous and irresponsible for nonexperts to make a personal decision to reject or downplay this vast body of evidence. Which other body of established scientific facts do they, without any expertise, choose to reject – the theory of evolution, quantum physics, the link between smoking and cancer? “By rejecting climate science those leaders are trashing the greatest achievement of the European Enlightenment and politicians who fail to take the warnings of climate scientists seriously are guilty of the worst kind of moral failure.” The optimists remain hopeful because they believe governments will be forced to react to the economic consequences of climate change, global warming and resource depletion. Hardly reassuring. So far, the governments in Dublin and London are showing no signs of understanding that
5 The hole in the ozone layer over Antartica is shrinking, but scientists are not getting excited
Tree-planting is regarded as a communist conspiracy, organic farming is an elitist hippy activity, community gardening is something that only the disadvantaged of society are allowed to do
short-term quick-fixes are worthless, and that bolder measures and meaningful policies are needed. David Healy discovered that when he tried to work with the bureaucrats under Environment Minister John Gormley in the Custom House, where the department of the environment has excelled at the short-term fix. According to Hamilton: “We are now past the point at which dangerous climate change can be prevented, and prudence demands that we prepare for widespread change in the way our economies and societies work.” Tony Lowes, in the Beara peninsula, remains pragmatic. “Even afforestation is just a superficial shortterm fix, buying us a little more time but not altering the overall picture. There are many good reasons for afforestation but mitigating global warming is not one.” At a global level he argues there is no longer any consensus. “The problem is that the model for the international agreements is broken. We have no single super-power who can impose their will on dependent nations. These dependant nations have voices, and either singly or in alliances they can and have wrecked meaningful international proposals. “Ireland is more than a geographical distance from this kind of thinking, and yet we could play a powerful role in our own European context, which in turn could form part of the international complex of policy building blocks, which could lessen the catastrophe that is looming. “And make no mistake – it will be the poor and downtrodden of the world who will suffer first and suffer most. But no one will escape. “The public has no idea of how serious our situation is.” Back in 1974, LA singer-songwriter Jackson Browne sounded like the last environmentalist on the final song of his Late for the Sky album, and here we are again 40 years later singing the same refrain. Some of them were angry At the way the earth was abused By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power And they struggled to protect her from them Only to be confused By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour And when the sand was gone and the time arrived In the naked dawn only a few survived And in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge
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BOOK REVIEWS BY MICHAEL MANNION
Doctors and Warriors DOROTHY STOPFORD was born in Dublin in 1890 to an archetypal ascendancy family. Her paternal line contained many prominent Church of Ireland clerics; her grandfather was the Archdeacon of Meath; and his grandfather had been the Bishop of Meath. Dorothy’s maternal grandfather was a physician, and Master of the Rotunda Lying-In (Maternity) Hospital, who founded the first Gynaecological Unit in Ireland. Governesses were employed for Dorothy and her siblings but they
Dorothy Stopford Price: Rebel Doctor By Anne MacLellan Irish Academic Press
Governesses were brought over from England to ensure that the children did not develop an Irish accent had to be brought over from England to ensure that the children did not develop an Irish accent! Dorothy herself states that they “consorted only with Protestant children”. They believed, by definition, that Protestants were upper class and Catholics lower class. It was as a result of her privileged background that Dorothy met with her lifelong friend and mentor, Sir Matthew Nathan, who had been appointed Under-Secretary to Ireland in 1914. The two became very close (but strictly platonic)
friends. Dorothy would often visit him in Dublin and it was on one such visit in 1916 that she found herself residing in the Vice-Regal Lodge in Phoenix Park for the duration of Easter Week. She appears to have become radicalised following the executions of the leaders. Whilst studying medicine at Trinity College Dublin she was witness to the steady stream of “ruthless repression . . . searches,
raids and curfews”. As a consequence, she joined Cumann na mBan in 1918. On qualifying as a doctor in 1921, and unable to secure a position in Dublin, she took up a post in Kilbrittain in Cork where “even women” were welcome. Far from being a rural idyll, the area was at the heart of the struggle in Munster with Kilmichael, Crossbarry and Rosscarbery all occurring nearby. Dorothy became the official medical officer for the local IRA battalion throughout the Tan War. Although she adopted a strongly anti-Treaty stance (as did most West Cork Volunteers and Cumann na mBan) Dorothy met and married a Free State judge. Out of deference to his views, she appears to have sublimated her own political views and activities, and devoted herself to medical matters and that is where her main legacy lies. Dorothy Price, as she had now become, was instrumental in the eradication of TB in Ireland. It was her pioneering work and perseverance that led to the introduction of the BCG vaccine which effectively wiped out the disease as a major cause of death in the country. This biography feels as if it started out as a medical or epidemiological history that morphed into a fuller story of Dorothy’s life. This is a beautifully-written book with exhaustive research providing a wealth of detail that all serves to provide a fuller picture of the individual that was Dorothy Stopford Price.
Memoirs of an Old Warrior – Jamie Moynihan’s Fight for Irish Freedom, 1916-1923 Compiled and edited by Dónal Ó hÉalaithe Mercier Press THESE thoroughly engrossing recollections of a veteran of the Tan War and Civil War have much in common with Dan Breen’s My Fight for Irish Freedom and Tom Barry’s Guerrilla Days in Ireland insofar as they all recount events that were rooted in relatively small geograph-
Jamie Moynihan, as well as being an outstanding Volunteer, appears to have been an almost obsessive recorder of detail ic areas but with consequences of national – and possibly global – significance. Jamie Moynihan, as well as being an outstanding Volunteer, appears to have been an almost obsessive recorder of detail. This book is an edited compilation of the copious documents and extensive recorded interviews that he made prior to his death in in 1970. And a truly fascinating collection it is too. Everyone knows of Soloheadbeg
with Dan Breen and Seán Treacy, generally regarded as the opening shots of the Tan War, but how many people realise that the first armed attack on crown forces was actually carried out by Mid-Cork Volunteers under Jamie Moynihan six months previously? He is scathing of the Truce as being a major tactical error and points out that of the 650 Volunteers and 50 Cumann na mBan active in the Mid-Cork area, fewer than 3% supported the Treaty, the remaining 97% continuing to fight for a Republic. When one reads this book it is impossible not to be awed at the indomitable spirit of a collection of largely farm labourers and local tradesmen with no formal military training who took on the contemporary world’s most formidable military machine and fought it to a standstill, arguably precipitating the collapse of an empire.
5 Republican activists in west Belfast mark the 33rd anniversary of the death of HBlocks martyr Francis Hughes
5 Sinn Féin Dublin City Councillor Micheál Mac Donncha calls for the preservation of the historic site at the latest Arms Around Moore Street protest
5 A recently painted mural on the renowned International Wall in west Belfast highlights the double standards of the British government in hiding the facts of the 1971 Ballymurphy Massacre which saw British soldiers kill 11 civilians in a gun rampage
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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 Seán 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 26 June 2014 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, Tyrone Brigade; Volunteer Dermot CROWLEY, Cork Brigade. Always remembered by the Republican Movement.
“LIFE SPRINGS FROM DEATH AND FROM THE GRAVES OF PATRIOT MEN AND WOMEN SPRING LIVING NATIONS.” PÁDRAIG Mac PIARAIS
DOHERTY, Martin. In proud and loving memory of Volunteer Martin ‘Doco’ Doherty, Dublin Brigade, Óglaigh na hÉireann, murdered by a loyalist death squad on 21 May 1994 at the Widow Scallan’s. His selfless actions prevented many deaths. Proudly remembered by the Doherty family. DOHERTY, Martin. In proud and loving memory of our dear 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. May he rest in peace.
Comhbhrón FOLEY. Sincere sympathy is extended to Aran and the Foley family on the death of Aran’s father, James. From the staff of An Phoblacht. HARRINGTON. Deepest sympathy is extend-
ed to the family and friends of the late Dan Harrington of Passage West from the Tomás MacCurtain/Terence MacSwiney RFB, Corcaigh.
» Notices All notices should be sent to: notices@anphoblacht.com at least 14 days in advance of publication date. There is no charge for I nDíl Chuimhne, Comhbhrón etc.
Fógraí Bháis
Ray Vaughan Trim, Meath
From his brothers Pat and Michael and his nephew David; Thomas and family; Rose and family; Rita, Jimmy and family; Lily, Mick and family; Terri, Gerry and family; Marie, Noel and family; John, Rita and family. 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 Volunteer Martin ‘Doco’ Doherty. Always remembered by McCabe/Quigley Sinn Féin 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;
Noel Hickey and Noeleen; Anto and Frankie. DOHERTY, Martin. In proud memory of Volunteer Martin ‘Doco’ Doherty, Dublin Brigade, Óglaigh na hÉireann, murdered by loyalists on 21 May 1994. Always remembered and his sacrifice in defence of others will never be forgotten. From the Clarke, Smith, Doherty Sinn Féin Cumann, Finglas. GRAY, Kevin. In proud and loving memory of our friend and comrade Kevin Gray who died 9 May 1999. From Big Sammy and the Gerry 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.
» Imeachtaí There is a charge of €10 for inserts printed in our Imeachtaí/Events column. You can also get a small or large box advert. Contact: sales@anphoblacht.com for details.
Frank Parker Birmingham, England
5 Ray and Mary Vaughan with Sinn Féin Mayor Joe Reilly in 2010
THE death occurred on 5 April of Ray Vaughan of Trim, County Meath. Ray was a lifelong republican, a former prisoner and renowned chef. His coffin, draped with the Tricolour, was carried in relay by his family and former comrades to St Loman’s Cemetry in Trim where Sinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín gave the oration. Peadar described Ray as “a republican leader who used the resources he had at his disposal to give support to the struggle”. As a young boy, Ray remembered giving rest and sustenance to Volunteers at his family home. As he got older, he volunteered himself to the struggle and was one
of those key Volunteers who at times of great transition and flux had the ability to stay focused on the goal and with determination organise and grow the campaign An accomplished chef, Ray spent many of his younger years on the ocean liners travelling worldwide and at the same time making contact with and nurturing the republican network around the globe. Ray was imprisoned in Portlaoise in 1974 during which the escape of 19 Volunteers led to very harsh conditions for himself and comrades Martin McGuinness, Eamon Mac Thomáis, Martin Ferris and Nicky Kehoe. Ray was a keen sportsman, winning minor hurling county medals
in Meath and also playing for the county in 1950. He moved to Kerry and played for Dr Crokes and the Kerry county team. He was also a keen boxer, winning many tournaments in the Merchant Navy. When he returned home he was a founding member of Trim Boxing Club. Gerry Adams described Ray as “a great patriot and good sound republican”. Internationally-renowned chef Richard Corrigan also paid tribute: “Ray gave me my first job and as time passed it dawned on me I was watching the hand of a master at work and I decided I wanted to be as good.” Ray is survived by his wife Mary and sons Jimmy, Stephen and Seán.
FRANK PARKER, a longstanding member of the Troops Out Movement, an anti-imperialist, communist and trade unionist, has died at the age of 90. An honorary life member of Birmingham Trades Union Council for his long and consistent membership, he was a strong supporter of the Irish Peace Process. I think he knew the Good Friday Agreement off by heart! He was a regular visitor to Ireland on the Troops Out Movement dele-
gations to Ireland but also with his beloved wife Audrey (RIP) on touring holidays making long-lasting friendships on the way. Although illhealth reduced his activity this last year or so he always kept up to date with the political situation and still made his views strongly known. We will miss you, Frank.
MARY PEARSON Secretary, Troops Out Movement (still campaigning for British withdrawal from Ireland)
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38 June / Meitheamh 2014
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THE
FEW SPECTACLES of sporting pageantry have had such a colourful and palpable effect on public life in Ireland as the Giro d’Italia. The world’s second-largest cycling event was a stunning success from start to finish. And what a finish it was. Marcel Kittel, the 26-year-old GiantShimano rider from Germany stole the show as he pedalled past several other riders in the last 100m to cross the finishing line first in Dublin. After racing for 187km, through Armagh and down Ireland’s eastern seaboard, the third stage of Giro d’Italia was won by the width of a wheel. Exhilarated and exhausted after his spirited sprint, Kittel dismounted his cycle and collapsed on the road. Here we were witnessing the mental and physical strength required to compete in sport at the highest level. A devotion to his endeavour so absolute that Kittel had completely emptied his reserves to win the race. More importantly, this was his second win in a row. The German cyclist had won Stage 2 the previous day as it snaked around the beautiful north Antrim coastline before returning to the finish in Ireland’s second city. Unfortunately for Kittel, after his heroic double victory in Ireland, he had to withdraw from the Giro d’Italia at the following stage due to an illness. One of Ireland’s own hopes, Dan Martin, had to bow out beforehand. With the spring showers making the surface slippery, Martin’s bicycle went from under him as the wheel touched a metal manhole cover on the road back from Stormont. The path to power-sharing in the Six Counties is a
5 People line the streets to catch a glimpse of the Giro d’Italia as it arrives in Dublin hazardous one, as we all know! It wasn’t the only fall during the three-day event. Testifying to the risk involved in this endurance sport, several major pile-ups happened as the race continued. Cyclists know the hazards involved. That’s why the resilience and resolve of top cyclists is something special. Take cycling veteran 37-year-old Australian Cadel Evans, for example. He was ready for a rough ride in Ireland, commenting beforehand on the wind, rain and narrow roads: “Racing in Ireland is new to
IN PICTURES
5Martin McGuinness with Nicholas Roche as the Giro d’Italia visited Stormont
BY CIARÁN KEARNEY
most of us and we don’t know how hard it will be.” Undeterred by the unknown, Evans was wearing the race leader’s pink jersey by Stage 9 of the Giro d’Italia. Irish cyclists Nicholas Roche and Phillip Deignan also stayed on their bikes although both were well off the pace. What might the legacy of the Giro d’Italia be in Ireland? £4.2million of public money was spent on hosting the Giro d’Italia. One report estimated that this would generate £2.5million
from visitors to Ireland for the start of the Giro. A further £10million of publicity for tourism is estimated to accrue from the event. The nearest economic comparison is the forthcoming stage of the Tour de France which starts this summer in Yorkshire, England. A budget of £27million has been set aside for hosting that event although some say the actual cost will be closer to £30million. So the Giro appears to have been good value for money. But surely there is more to any great
sporting event than who makes the podium and who makes the profit? One of the positive effects of Giro d’Italia must be potential to improve attitudes towards physical activity in general and cycling in particular. Perhaps the best template for this is Holland. The population there is about three times the size of Ireland (16.73million). Yet it has been reported that there are about 13million bikes — that’s almost one per person. The Dutch Government spends between £10 and £20 per head of population on cycling. This compares with figures for the Six Counties where average annual cycling spend per head of population in the last five year has been a pitiful 58pence, according to NIGreenways. So if the Giro is to have more than a superficial effect on perceptions abroad of Ireland, infrastructural investment will be needed to support cyclists. The proposed new velodrome at Abbottstown, is a welcome start, but more mainstream support is needed. Census data from 2011 does indicate a resurgence in cycling in Ireland but it is still not as popular as it had been in the 1980s. Given the benefits of non-motorised transport, this is sad. After all, learning to cycle is something we can all vividly recall: your first bike; the thrill of taking off on your own for the first time. It’s a formative stage in the development of most children. So if we are truly to realise the legacy of the Giro, it’s really up to each of us to play our part. After all: “Life is like a ten-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.”
photos@anphoblacht.com
5 Protesters about workers' rights violations in Qatar in the lead up to the 2018 World Cup wear blood splattered jerseys
5 Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness at the opening of the redeveloped 5 Daithí Bell and Tierna Cunningham at the Belfast Marathon Ravenhill, home of Ulster Rugby
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From Croker to Old Trafford Endas in Dublin. But we’ll forgive them that. What of non-sporting people who made their mark in other spheres having been involved in the GAA? Joyce mentions hurling in A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man and in Ulysses but he never played the game. Indeed, it was not permitted at the time in the patrician Catholic schools he attended in Belvedere and Clongowes. Seán O’Casey hurled with O’Tooles but is remembered as club secretary rather than as a player. I have seen it somewhere that he played hurling with Frank Ryan of IRA, Spanish Civil War and An Phoblacht fame but that is highly unlikely given their age difference and that Ryan would almost certainly not have been a member of O’Tooles when he was in Dublin. Another Dub who played hurling was unionist Sir Edward Carson, first signatory of the Ulster Covenant. Trinity College had a hurling team
Matt Treacy AN AMERICAN RESEARCHER, working on a thesis about Patrick Kavanagh, landed up one day in Inniskeen in County Monaghan to interview locals who had known the great poet before he had become wellknown. One of those who he asked his opinion of described Kavanagh as a “horrid eejit”. That was because Kavanagh, who had been the Inniskeen senior football goalkeeper for some years, had apparently deserted his post during an important championship match to buy himself an ice cream. In his absence, the opposing team (possibly Inniskeen’s deadly rivals from Donaghmoyne) scored a goal. Some have claimed that this story is not true but Kavanagh would have enjoyed it, and my late uncle Ned (who knew Kavanagh, and played football for Monaghan when it was neither safe nor popular) swore that it was true. Mind you, he also claimed to have been kidnapped from a Brooklyn bar in 1955 to advise Rocky Marciano on how to lose weight before his last championship defence against Archie Moore. Anyway, that got me thinking about other famous people who once graced the playing fields of Banba. There are a plethora of sportspersons of other codes who have played hurling and football and camogie. In soccer, internationals Niall Qunn and Shane Long both played in All-Ireland minor hurling finals, for Dublin and Tipperary respectively. Current Ireland manager Martin O’Neill won an Ulster minor medal with Derry (and missed a penalty in the 1970 All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry, which probably cost Derry the match). Kevin Moran was snatched from the Dubs
Even golf has its close GAA connections 5 The Dubliners Ronnie Drew with poet and 1954 Kerry Minors AllIrelander Brendan Kennelly
before the GAA was established but decided later to turn themselves into a hockey club for some reason best known to themselves. Poet Brendan Kennelly was on the Kerry minor football team that lost the All-Ireland final to Dublin in 1954 and has written eloquently of the passions unleashed by the games. As did Sigerson Clifford in The Ghost Train, which took Kerry supporters to the 1926 drawn All Ireland final with Kildare: Then the soft grass and the sunshine and the marching of the bands With the green and gold flag fluttering over all, There’s Con Brosnan running swiftly and our Sheehy shooting low And Larry Stanley jumping sky-high for the ball.
Patrick Kavanagh deserted his post
5 Maureen O’Hara, camogie player and Hollywood legend
team of the late 1970s and transported to Old Trafford. He played for another 16 years at the highest level and said that he would never have been able to play for that long for Dublin! Sports other than soccer have had former GAA players perform at the highest levels. Boxer Matthew Macklin played minor hurling with Tipperary. Another well-known boxer was Gerry McElhinney of Derry, who won two Ulster football titles (1975 and 1976) only to run into
the Dubs and Kerry in the subsequent AllIreland semi-finals. He also won the Ulster middleweight and light-heavyweight boxing titles (not on the same day as the Ulster finals, apparently). Even golf has its close GAA connections. The fathers of Pádraig Harrington (Cork), Paul McGinley (Donegal) and Shane Lowry (Offaly) played inter-county football, and Harrington and McGinley togged out with Ballyboden St
Of stars of stage and screen, we have Hollywood legend Maureen O’Hara, born in Ranelagh, Dublin, in 1920 and who played camogie. My favourite O’Hara story is when she was interviewed by Miriam O’Callaghan on the occasion of her 90th birthday. O’Callaghan had played a clip from The Quiet Man in which O’Hara’s character, Mary Kate Danaher, had given forth a cúpla focail. “Oh, my god, Maureen! How was your Gaelic, like, so good?” To which Maureen replied something like: “I went to school in Dublin, dear.” Research, Miriam; research.
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anphoblacht NEXT ISSUE OUT – Thursday 26th June 2014 40
Judge awards families compensation over ‘unlawful delays’
British censured over inquest delays BY PEADAR WHELAN THE families of IRA Volunteers Pearse Jordan and Pete Ryan, shot dead in shoot-to-kill operations, were among six families compensated by a Belfast High Court judge for “unlawful delays” to the inquests into their deaths. Legal representatives for the six men challenged the coroner, the PSNI, Police Ombudsman’s office and British Ministry of Defence after multiple delays to the inquests. The six are: PETE RYAN, killed by the SAS in 1991; PEARSE JORDAN, killed by the RUC in 1992; FEARGHAL McCUSKER, killed by the Loyalist Volunteer Force in 1998; NEIL McCONVILLE, killed after a car chase, the first person shot dead by the PSNI in 2003; JAMES McMENAMIN, knocked down by the PSNI in 2005; STEPHEN COLWELL, shot by the PSNI in a stolen car in 2006. The families maintained that their human rights were breached by the failure to examine the circumstances surrounding the deaths as soon as possible. Awarding each of the families £7,500, Judge Stephens agreed that the inquests were unlawfully delayed saying: “It is obvious that if unlawful delays occur in
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an investigation into the death of a close relative this will cause feelings of frustration, distress and anxiety to the next of kin.” Pádraig Ó Muirigh, who represents five of the families, welcomed the judgement but added: “The state is still letting families down.” He said legal advisers will be studying the ruling to see what impact it will have on other delayed investigations. Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal in Belfast has quashed the conviction of Lurgan man Martin McCauley who was convicted in 1982 of possessing weapons uncovered after an RUC shoot-to-kill operation in which teenager Michael Tighe was killed. Karen Quinlivan QC, McCauley’s barrister, said that senior RUC officers lied to prosecutors and tried to manipulate the case. Tape recordings from MI5 bugs placed in the hayshed where McCauley and Tighe were shot and which could have supported McCauley’s defence at his trial had been destroyed. “The entire conspiracy was designed to ensure police were immune from prosecution,” said Quinlivan. While welcoming Martin McCauley’s acquittal Sinn Féin MLA John O’Dowd highlighted the fact that, 32 years on the from the death of Michael Tighe, no inquest has been held into his death or the deaths as a result of other shootings involving state forces in the area. “It’s time the families are allowed access to the truth about the deaths of their loved ones and full inquests are held.”