An Phoblacht, March 2017

Future Taoiseach’s policies being hidden by tittle-tattle

POLITICAL GOSSIP DISTRACTION

PAT FINUCANE ANNIVERSARY LECTURE I WANT TO KNOW WHY. I WANT TO KNOW HOW. I WANT TO KNOW WHO.

The legacy of

Charles J Haughey

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March / Márta 2017

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SINN FÉIN ELECTION SURGE UNIONIST MAJORITY GONE

2 March / Márta 2017

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Titanic shipwreck for unionism rocked by Sinn Féin surge

5 South Belfast candidate Mairtín Ó Muilleoir tops the poll and is elected on the first count

5 Mary Lou McDonald greets a victorious Michelle O'Neill at the count centre in Belfast

5 Sinn Féin's Alex Maskey is elected in West Belfast and congratulated by running mate and poll-topper Órlaithí Flynn

A TALE OF TWO ELECTIONS

WITH the political ground still reverberating with shockwaves and tremors as more and more debris from the once monolithic unionist citadel tumbles to earth in the aftermath of the North’s Assembly elections on 2 March, PEADAR WHELAN looks back on a year that has seen the electoral tide turn on the DUP and left nationalism in its strongest position ever in the gerrymandered Northern state.

LAST MAY, I stood in the Titanic Exhibition Centre on the sprawling industrial estate that encompasses the former Harland & Wolff shipyard site. It’s now home to the Titanic Visitor Centre and much else that represents the change from the old Belfast to a new Belfast of tourists and modern hi-tech digital industries.

As with any election count I have attended and reported on for An Phoblacht down the decades, all the party leaders turn up at some point.

The North Belfast election results are seen as a barometer of the public

‘If you feed a crocodile it will keep coming back for more’

DUP leader Arlene Foster

mood and all the major media outlets have makeshift studious at the Belfast count centre. From a publicity point of view, it’s the place to be.

The SDLP’s John Hume in previous years and that party’s subsequent leaders would swan in on a slipstream of benevolence.

David Trimble and his predecessors in the Ulster Unionist Party would busy in and try to put a brave face on one more shipwreck of a campaign, never seeming to get it that the unionist electorate had decided that ‘Big House unionism’ was a thing of the past.

UUP leaders Reg Empey, Tom Elliott

and Mike Nesbitt all represented a threat that never really amounted to more than a paper tiger challenge to the DUP, whether under Ian Paisley, Peter Robinson or Arlene Foster.

With his hasty resignation on election night before the full count was even near its end, it is clear that Nesbitt didn’t, in the long run, have the stomach for the fight.

Back in the old days, the shift in unionist voting patterns favoured Ian Paisley’s DUP and ‘The Big Man’ lumbered into the count centre, bruis- 5 PUP East Belfast candidate Dr John Kyle with party leader Billy Hutchinson ing for a fight with anybody he could bully.

His more stylish lieutenants, Peter Robinson with Iris at his shoulder alongside Nigel and Diane Dodds (with the more earthy Sammy Wilson), glowered from under the cloak of invincibility that Paisley gave them.

The media was intimidated, as were the DUP’s unionist rivals.

Ten months ago, the new leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Arlene Foster, had the world at her feet.

She presented herself as the ‘Prime Minister of Northern Ireland’ rather than First Minister in a joint office shared with Martin McGuinness. As the results came in then, one after the other, it was clear the DUP and Foster were 5 Nelson 'Doom and Gloom' McCausland phones home? going to be top dogs by a long shot. Emma Little-Pengelly, Paula Bradley had time to pat him on the back and Arlene took the DUP gains as her and Joanne Bunting, all with grins as wish him luck for the next time. personal triumph. As she strode around wide as Royal Avenue, padded along In her arrogance in the days after the count centre, her entourage in tow, behind. her party’s 38-seat tally she began it was in the manner of a conquering The only discordant note for the DUP wearing a jewel-studded crown on empress – all that was missing was in Belfast was the failure of ex-UDA man her lapel, clearly implying that she was the laurel-leaf crowns.

Frank McCoubrey to capture the last now ‘Queen of Northern Ireland’, not T h e D o d d s fa m i l y, Ne l s o n seat in West Belfast. He was edged out just holding the title of First Minister.

McCausland, William Humphrey, by the SDLP’s Alex Attwood but Arlene Her crown came to represent the

#AE17

arrogance of Foster as a unionist leader who would brook no nonsense, particularly from Sinn Féin.

When the Executive was set up it was clear from the unrestrained actions and comments of her ministers that gains made by Sinn Féin for nationalists around issues such as the Irish language would be rolled back.

Her attitude, and that of her Communities Minister Paul Givan, who cut funding from the Irish-language Líofa programme (although he was subsequently forced by pressure to restore the £50,000 fund), came to represent one of the most important themes of an election in the past few weeks that has wrecked her political career.

The debacle over the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme was the

‘See you later, alligator’

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams

straw that broke the camel’s back. It led to Martin McGuinness resigning as deputy First Minister. Foster was defiant. Intransigent. And insulting.

The DUP leader and First Minister airily waved aside Sinn Féin calls for equality and respect as well as integrity in government.

“If you feed a crocodile it will keep coming back for more,” she said.

It was a jibe that would come back to bite her.

The crocodile became a motif of the election as young republicans donned crocodile costumes and appeared at rallies and DUP offices, capturing the mood amongst nationalists whose patience had long been wearing thin at repeated DUP slights and habitual arrogance.

At the Sinn Féin election launch, Michelle O’Neill diplomatically refused to rise to the taunts of the DUP and she told reporters she was “not interested in the negativity”. Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, however, couldn’t resist

March / Márta 2017

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5 Sweet victory in North Belfast as Carál Ní Chuilín hears she is elected along with Gerry Kelly in the centre of things

5 Can't have an election win without a smile from a crocodile

mischievously quipping to the media as the platform party left the stage: “See you later, alligator.” There was huge laughter all round.

At the election count, from early on Friday morning 3 March, with the boxes opened and the first tallies being taken, it was already shaping up to be a bad day for the DUP and a good one for Sinn Féin.

The barometer for this writer was DUP diehard Nelson McCausland.

Early signs indicated that his North Belfast seat was under threat and his eyes flashed neon signs of anger and despair but most of all dejection and rejection.

What was worse for him was that photographers there knew the DUP bruiser was on the ropes so they tried

The barometer for this writer was DUP diehard Nelson McCausland to capture his moment of misery on camera. No matter where he turned to avoid the clickers, he turned into one more. In the end, when his result was confirmed, he stormed out of the centre, refusing to stay for the official announcement and make his valedictory speech.

As the dust from the collapse of Nelson’s column settled, we discovered that nationalists had taken three seats in North Belfast to the unionists’ two. One more bastion of unionist dominance had been breached.

SDLP stalwart Alex Attwood was another to lose his seat,in West Belfast.

Sinn Féin returning four out of four candidates for the five seats in the constituency leaves SDLP representation at just two Belfast City councillors. The writing is clearly on the wall.

Worryingly for the SDLP and leader Colum Eastwood, Sinn Féin outpolled the party in its strongholds of Foyle and South Down.

Over in Omagh Leisure Centre, where the count for her Fermanagh & South Tyrone constituency was taking place, there was an imperious silence from Arlene Foster.

Unlike last year, there was no strutting into the count centre to boast.'

3

Instead, she sped in and locked herself away in a sideroom, hidden behind drawn blinds, locked doors, and two burly security guards. Foster kept the media at bay.

And hide she might.

Despite topping the poll herself, Foster wasn’t elected on the first count and, disastrously, her running mate, the pompous Baron Maurice Morrow, lost out.

Back in South Belfast, where the DUP also lost a seat, the talk of intra-party rivalry and dirty tricks is rife amongst erstwhile loyalist colleagues.

The daughter of Ulster Resistance paramilitary gun-runner Noel Little, Emma Little-Pengelly, lost her seat and is accusing party rival Christopher Stalford of poaching votes from her territory.

Similar stories emerged from North Belfast where Nelson McCausland was said to have encroached into areas 5 Stormont Sinn Féin media chief Seán Maguidhir and Communications Director Ciarán Quinn managing the message

5 Pundits Patricia McBride and Danny Morrison exchange insights into the political upheaval

5 With the loss of Alex Attwood's seat in West Belfast, the SDLP presence in a constituency they once dominated is down to two 5 Cartoonist's impression of Arlene Foster Belfast City councillors

The Assembly 2017 election result has massive psychological as well as political ramifications for unionism designated for Paula Bradley although this foray failed.

Ten seats down from last year, DUP survivors, speaking through those staunchly unionist dailies, the News Letter and the Belfast Telegraph, are questioning Arlene Foster’s ability to hold the party together. The future for ‘Queen Arlene’ is uncertain as we go to press.

That unionism has lost its overall majority in the North since the inception of the Orange State has massive psychological as well as political ramifications for unionism.

What republicans would like to hear from the unionist leadership post-election and on the cusp of Brexit is that they are willing to deal with the issues and nationalists with respect and equality rather than immerse themselves in some post-truth rejection of the political reality we are now in.

4 March / Márta 2017

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anphoblacht Editorial

WHAT'S INSIDE 8

Uafáis Earnáil an Fháilteachais 10

Making An Garda Síochána free from partisan control and serving the public 13

Tá sé in am dúinn athrú 14

Legacy families meet human rights chiefs at European Parliament 18

Laurence McKeown – A man of arts shaped by the conflict 24

TV’s Toffs and Thieves 26 & 27

A grim future for folklore 31

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Sharing power, equality and integrity HISTORY has been made in the Assembly election.

Unionism has been shaken to it core by an election result that has rocked the foundations of its former citadel of Stormont, once a byword for sectarian domination, discrimination and oppression.

It should be remembered that it was Unionist Party rule from Stormont that ignited the Civil Rights movement in 1968/1969. It was the brutal suppression of unarmed protesters by the Royal Ulster Constabulary and its B-Specials reservists – on the orders of unionist ministers at Stormont – that provoked community resistance and ‘no-go areas’, the occupation of nationalist areas by the British Army and the conflict that followed.

This election has been described by the mainstream media as a watershed. There is no denying that it marks a turning point.

Unionism has lost its Stormont majority for the first time in history – in almost 100 years – since the imposition of the Orange State by the British Government and the Unionist Party on a sectarian headcount in 1921.

Reactionary unionism is also reeling from the fact that Sinn Féin ended the election with just one seat fewer that the once-mighty DUP. The republican party also came within 1,200 votes of outpolling Arlene Foster’s candidates.

There is, undoubtedly, a natural celebration by republicans and nationalists of this dramatic breakthrough. It was an achievement won through spirited hard work by candidates, campaign teams and supporters in the past weeks and

day and daily by activists and rank-and-file members on the ground between elections.

But while Sinn Féin will celebrate, it has no desire to be triumphalist. Its desire is to make politics work.

The over-riding concern of republicans is to restore power-sharing in the spirit and practices of the Good Friday Agreement and to rebuild public confidence in institutions that they feel alienated from or antagonistic towards.

Arlene Foster could have avoided this damaging election to the DUP if she had adopted a common sense approach by standing aside without prejudice for the duration of a transparent and unimpeachable investigation into the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal.

Sinn Féin is not dictating who can be leader of the DUP. It is, however, exercising its right to withhold its participation in government with a First Minister over whom there still hangs the cloud of RHI until it is cleared by an unimpeachable investigation.

Political unionism must live up to the responsibility to share power on the basis of equality, to demonstrate respect and to act with integrity in government.

The British and Irish governments must live up to their responsibilities in agreements and honour commitments made during negotiations.

The people have spoken. Political parties and the British and Irish governments have to listen.

And they have to act.

Tuam babies SINN FÉIN has called for a a full Garda investigation into the mass grave discovered at the Tuam Mother & Baby Home run by the Catholic Church in County Galway.

Deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald TD has also called for the terms of reference of the Murphy Commission to be extended and for a state apology to every woman and child confined to Mother & Baby Homes and equivalent institutions.

Tuam is just one of a vast network of institutions which systematically violated the rights of women and their children.

All of them must be investigated.

The Murphy Commission must be empowered to carry out a complete investigation.

The Taoiseach should also issue an apology to the women, children and families who have been devastated by the cruelty of these institutions and who were so badly failed by the state.

Contact

Layout and production: Mark Dawson production@anphoblacht.com

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

AN PHOBLACHT is published monthly by Sinn Féin. The views in An Phoblacht are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sinn Féin. We welcome articles, opinions and photographs from new contributors but 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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March / Márta 2017

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‘This is not Groundhog Day’

BY JOHN HEDGES THE RETURN to Stormont by newlyelected MLAs on Monday 6 March showed Sinn Féin getting straight back down to negotiations with the other political parties and the British and Irish governments, determined to get effective and accountable institutions up and running.

“This is not Groundhog Day,” declared Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill from the outset.

“There has been a shift in the political landscape,” she said, referring to the fact that the unionist majority is gone, down to a combined total of 40 seats in the new 90-seat Assembly as against 39 held by Sinn Féin and the SDLP. This electoral shockwave has ended 5 Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams, Mary Lou McDonald, Órlaithí Flynn and Michelle O'Neill are mobbed by the media almost a century of near-unchallenged governments and tell how we see it joined on the first day back at Government is determined to repeat unionist dominance at Stormont.

Stormont by Sinn Féin TDs and the mistakes of the past”. and what it'll take to fix it.

Now, Michelle O’Neill said: The Sinn Féin leader said: “We will confront the two govern- senators from the Oireachtas in “There has to be real change.”

“The British Government has consisMichelle highlighted the gains made ments who have shamefully under- Dublin, reflecting the all-Ireland tently refused to implement the agreeby Sinn Féin after the party called for mined and failed in their duty to protect, growth of republicanism.

“The unionist majority in the Assem- ments, sought to impose Brexit against the fresh election when DUP leader nurture and develop the Good Friday Agreement. bly has been ended,” said Sinn Féin the will of the people and the best “What is required is genuine President Gerry Adams TD. interests of the economy, and sought power-sharing and partnership with He also said that if recent state- a special deal to ensure that no British republicans, based on equality and ments by British Secretary of State soldier or their agents can be held to respect and mutual respect for our James Brokenshire and Prime Minister account for their actions during the Irish national identity.”

Theresa May are to be taken at face conflict.”

Sinn Féin’s 28 new MLAs were value “it would seem that the British He reminded the Conservative Party

‘There has been a shift in the political landscape. There has to be real change’

#AE17

premier and her appointee, James Brokenshire: “Remember, the British Conservatives got only 2,379 votes in last week’s election.”

Gerry Adams insisted that the approach of James Brokenshire and his British Government at Westminster is part of the problem.

“Without a fundamental change in the approach of the British Government, there can be no progress,” he said.

“I am concerned that the Irish Government is turning a blind eye to the belligerent approach of the British Government.

“This is totally unacceptable.

“The Irish Government is a co-equal guarantor of the Good Friday and other agreements.

“The Taoiseach needs to fulfill this duty.

“Sinn Féin has demonstrated our patience and generosity.

“We want the institutions up and running on the basis of equality and

‘Sinn Féin want the institutions up and running on the basis of equality and respect’ GERRY ADAMS

MICHELLE O’NEILL and First Minister Arlene Foster rejected attempts to clear a path for a transparent investigation of the Renewable Heat Incentive financial scandal, one that has tainted her and DUP colleagues.

The Sinn Féin leader in the North said: “We have been given a very strong mandate to enter negotiations and we must now make a difference.

“The people have had their say and the message is very clear. They don’t want minorities or majorities – they want equality. They want agreements implemented. They want progressive change.

“Political unionism must now live up to its responsibility to share power on the basis of equality, to demonstrate respect and to act with integrity in government.

“From today we will start meeting with the other parties and the two

5

‘Without a fundamental change in the approach of the British Government, there can be no progress’ GERRY ADAMS

respect, and for the outstanding agreements to be implemented in full.

“This is not the sole responsibility of Sinn Féin or the parties in the Assembly.

“There is a responsibility on the two governments to come to the table with a plan to honour all agreements.

“If progress is to be made we need to hear from the governments that they will oversee the full implementation all agreements.

“To date, they have failed to do this.”

As Sinn Féin conducted its round of meetings, Gerry Adams told RTÉ during an interview ahead of meeting British Secretary of State James Brokenshire: “Today is about meeting as many parties and people who want to meet with us.”

“Myself and Michelle O'Neill are going to meet the British Secretary of State now.

“We are actually keeping him waiting.

But that’s no harm given how long the British have kept us waiting.”

6 March / Márta 2017

OLIVER

McMULLAN EAST ANTRIM

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MAIRÉAD

O’DONNELL EAST BELFAST

CAOIMHE

ARCHIBALD EAST DERRY

CATHAL

Ó hOISÍN EAST DERRY

JEMMA

DOLAN

FERMANAGH/SOUTH TYRONE

MICHELLE

GILDERNEW

FERMANAGH/SOUTH TYRONE

SEÁN

LYNCH

FERMANAGH/SOUTH TYRONE

ELISHA

McCALLION FOYLE

A series of critical victories was achieved in Assembly 2017 election

PHILIP

McGUIGAN NORTH ANTRIM

CARÁL

NÍ CHUILÍN NORTH BELFAST

THIS IS HISTORY

their lives on the line. The successes of today would not be possible without the sacrifices and efforts of Sinn Féin activists throughout the decades of struggle.

Sinn Féin grew through the 1990s, before, during, and after the 1994 IRA cessation and the resulting Peace Process. One MP became two, then five, bypassing the SDLP as the largest nationalist party in the North, and eclipsing both the SDLP and the Ulster Unionists to be consistently the second-largest party in the North. Now in 2017 the gap between the DUP and Sinn Fein has been narrowed to just over 1,000 votes.

BY ROBBIE SMYTH THE RECORD PERFORMANCE of Sinn Féin in the 2017 Assembly vote marks 36 years of growth since the 1981 Ard Fheis decision to contest elections.

DECLAN

KEARNEY SOUTH ANTRIM

MÁIRTÍN

Ó MUILLEOIR SOUTH BELFAST

A series of critical victories was achieved in this election.

It was not just the 28 seats returned out of 90 (just one behind the DUP), or the record 27.9% vote share, or the 224,245 votes (only 1,168 behind the DUP).

Sinn Fein is, in 2017, the only party in the Six Counties and across Ireland with a consistently rising vote share.

These results – won by the candidates whose pictures frame this article – are the product of nearly four decades of growth, achieved against a series of challenges, organisational and political, and with a mostly hostile mainstream media and political establishment that has always wanted the party to fail and worked to achieve that.

‘SMASH SINN FEIN’

5 Sheena Campbell and John Davey

THE YEARS OF GROWTH

DERMOT

KENNEDY STRANGFORD

ALEX

MASKEY WEST BELFAST

DECLAN

McALEER WEST TYRONE

JOHN

O'DOWD UPPER BANN

FRA

McCANN WEST BELFAST

BARRY

McELDUFF WEST TYRONE

In the immediate aftermath of the 1981 H-Blocks Hunger Strikes, the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis of October 1981 voted to run candidates in future elections.

The 1982 Assembly elections promoted by then Northern Secretary James Prior was the first Six-County election contested by Sinn Féin. The party won 10.1% of the vote and five seats. It also marked the first electoral victories of Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams.

The following year, Gerry Adams was elected MP for West Belfast, with Danny Morrison narrowly missing out on a second seat in Mid Ulster.

In subsequent EU, local and Westminster elections, Sinn Féin stood candidates, winning seats in council chambers across the North of Ireland. There were ups and downs as the party embraced the challenges of electoral politics, such as unionist supporters in 1992 voting for the SDLP in West Belfast to deny a seat to Sinn Féin.

The 2017 election showed more of these trends as Ulster Unionist Party transfers helped the SDLP win seats in many constituencies.

One of the critical impacts on how Sinn Féin organises plans and contests elections was made in this first decade by Sheena Campbell. Called “The Torrent Strategy”, it was driven by Sheena, a party activist assassinated by the unionist Ulster Volunteer Force in 1992.

Sheena’s murder was sadly just one of a number of the party’s members and representatives assassinated in this time period, including Councillors John Davey (1989), Eddie Fullerton (1991) and Bernard O’Hagan (1991). This was the stark, hard end of the party’s electoral interventions – members who stood for election put

#AE17

5 Eddie Fullerton

The swings in support between the DUP and Ulster Unionist Party have culminated in an erosion of votes for both parties.

In the 1982 Assembly elections, the Ulster Unionists were the largest party with 29.2% of the vote, followed by the DUP on 23% and the SDLP on 18.8%.

In the 1998 Assembly elections created by the ratification of the Good Friday Agreement, the difference between the Ulster Unionists and DUP had narrowed. The Ulster Unionists had won 21.25% of the vote compared to the DUP’s 18.14%. In subsequent elections, the DUP vote surpassed that of their main rivals.

This evolved out of a background of pacts and alliances between the two parties.

In 1985, the DUP famously had a "Smash Sinn Féin" election slogan, complete with sledgehammers, on the top table at press conferences.

In the 1997 Westminster election, the DUP and Ulster Unionists agreed not to contest some constituencies to stop nationalists getting elected, such as in North Belfast where the Sinn Féin vote had grown in step-changes from 19% in 1996 to 29.4% in 2017, electing two out of the five MLAs. There has been a significant decline in the Ulster Unionist vote over recent elections, and the DUP has not been able to return to the 33%-plus vote share achieved by party founder Ian Paisley Snr in polls such as the 1984 EU election.

Now, in 2017, unionist parties are no longer the largest designation in the new Assembly.

This is a significant departure and a test of the democratic credentials of these parties. Can they co-operate fully in the day-to-day running of the power-sharing Executive as well as the Assembly structures and committees?

THE 26 COUNTIES

5 Bernard O’Hagan

It is not just in the North of Ireland that traditional establishment party support has stagnated.

The same process has developed in Leinster House elections south of the Border, with an albeit at times slow but still significant growth

by Sinn Féin in this arena.

Up until the election of Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín

March / Márta 2017

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RAYMOND

McCARTNEY FOYLE

PETER

DORAN LAGAN VALLEY

LINDA

DILLON MID ULSTER

IAN

MILNE MID ULSTER

MICHELLE

O'NEILL MID ULSTER

CATHAL

BOYLAN NEWRY/ARMAGH

MEGAN

FEARON NEWRY/ARMAGH

GERRY

KELLY

NORTH BELFAST

SINÉAD

ENNIS

5 The victory for Bobby Sands MP demonstrated the importance of elections for the struggle

Ó Caoláin in 1997, no party other than the Tweedle Dee/Tweedle Dum triumvirate of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour had managed a decade of consecutive electoral representation. Sinn Féin have shattered that record and are vying to be the second-largest party in the Dáil.

Fianna Fáil’s years of hitting a 40% vote share have passed and Fine Gael have never consistently managed to break 30% in recent elections while Labour struggled to form a Dáil grouping in 2016.

Sinn Fein have grown from 2.5% in 1997 to 13.8% in 2016, and now the 20% support mark is in sight.

THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY Finally, little election media coverage has been given to the Conservative and Unionist Party’s performance in the 2017 Assembly elections, which is a little odd given that the Conservative

5 Theresa May and James Brokenshire

5 Gerry Adams is elected MP for West Belfast

and Unionist Party is the Government in London and appoints the Secretary of State, James Brokenshire, who has the media misnomer of being somehow independent.

The Tories contested 13 of the 18 constituencies, garnering a total 2,379 votes from a ‘high’ in North Down of 641 votes to 27 (yes, twentyseven) in West Tyrone.

Theresa May’s and James Brokenshire’s party lost every single deposit.

When the negotiations start to create a new Assembly Executive, we can’t forget that the Conservative and Unionist Party wielding power from Westminster has no electoral mandate in Ireland.

The voters have told them so.

How many lost election deposits does it take before they get the message?

Thirteen maybe?

SOUTH DOWN

NUALA

CONOR

MURPHY NEWRY/ARMAGH

KIERAN

MAXWELL NORTH DOWN

CHRIS

HAZZARD SOUTH DOWN

ÓRLAITHÍ

TOMAN

FLYNN

PAT

MICHAELA

WEST BELFAST

WEST TYRONE

UPPER BANN

SHEEHAN

7

WEST BELFAST

BOYLE

SINN FÉIN’S VOTE IN NUMBERS

224,245 27.9% Sinn Féin’s votes

3.9% 5 1982 Assembly elections: First Six-County election contested by Sinn Féin

5 DUP leader Ian Paisley wanted to ‘Smash Sinn Féin’ – but later shared power

Increase on 2016

Share 1st preferences

28

Seats won

8 March / Márta 2017

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Ciapadh forleathan i mBialanna & Óstáin léirithe i dtaighde eisiach

5 An Seanadóir Trevor Ó Clochartaigh le h-oibrithe fháilteachais ag Teach Laighean

Uafáis Earnáil an Fháilteachais tor Hospitality Sec Workers’ Rights

TÁ SÁRÚ CEARTA oibrithe ag tarlú go forleathan in earnáil fháilteachais na Gaillimhe de réir taighde nua eisiach atá déanta ag Sinn Féin. Tá leibhéalacha do-ghlactha mí-úsáid o bhéal agus fisiciúil, ciapadh agus ionsaithe gnéís ag tarlú in óstáin agus bialanna i nGaillimh agus caithfear gníomhú chun athrú iomlán cultúr i chur i bhfeidhm iontu.

Thosaigh an feachtais atá ar bun againn le cúpla mí maidir le mí-úsáid oibrithe in earnáil an fháilteachais thar cupán caife tráthnona amháin, nuair a thug bean óg, misniúil as Tiobraid Árainn, Eva Mitchell, léargas dom ar an mhí-úsáid a bhí feicthe aici sna gnónna clúiteacha a raibh sí taréis oibriú iontu i nGaillimh.

D’inis sí scéalta faoi rudaí a bhí feicthe go rialta aici féin, ina measc ionsaithe fisiciúla, mí-úsáid ó bhéal, sárú dlí fostaíochta, leatrom ar dhaoine leochaileacha agus go leor eile. Ní raibh sí sásta gan seasamh a thógáil níos mó agus thosaigh muid feachtas chun an scéal a cheartú.

Tharraing muid aird sna meáin ar na cleachtais seo agus rinne eagrais ionadaíocha lucht an fháilteachais beag is fiú dóibh. Thuig muid ansin go mbeadh orainn dul i mbun taighde chun fíricí nach bhféadfaí a bhréagnú, a bhailliú.

D’fhreagair os cionn cheithre chéad oibrí óstán agus bialainne an suirbhé ar-líne a raibh ceisteanna curtha inti maidir leis na bunchearta oibre gur chóir do dhuine a bheith ag súil leo.

Ceisteanna maidir le conraí, coinníollacha oibre, socruithe scíthe agus saoire, íocaíochtaí agus mar sin de.

Tá réimse ceisteanna ann freisin maidir leis an mhi-úsáid atá ag tarlú ar bhealai éagsúla agus is cúis mhór imní na freagraí atá faighte againn.

Deir beagnach 80% d’oibrithe go dtugtar íde béil dóibh san ionad oibre, 44% acu go leanúnach. Tá suas le 15% dóibh a d’fhulaing ionsaithe fisiciúla freisin.

the As a worker in tor hospitality sec d to itle you are ent ts, a number of righ these include:

Joining a Union

A contract of employment

Le Trevor Ó Clochartaigh Deir 35% do na daoine gur déanadh ciapadh nó ionsaithe gnéis orthu san ionad oibre, rud atá scannallach amach is amach. Sin duine as gach triúr.

Suas le 70% d’oibrithe a d’fhulaing ganníocaíocht agus 60% a deir gur coinníodh siar aiscí nó ‘tips’ uathu. Triúr as gach ceathrar a thug le fios go n-ú

briseadh aon uair a chloig déag idir seársí oibre, mar ba cheart dóibh. Deir beirt as gach triúr nach bhfaigheann siad cúig noiméad déag féin mar bhriseadh i rith leath-lae oibre agus 40% den dream a d’fhreagair a deir nach bhfaigheann siad an cheithre seachtaine saoire bliaintiúil atá ag dul dóibh.

Den chuid is mó, dúradh gurb iad na daoine

Daoine faiteach, faoi bhrú, gan chumhacht agus earnáil ard-bhrabaigh, gan náire, gan taise ag sú gach ar féidir leis amach as a chuid fostaithe sáidtear socraithe clár ama mar bhealach le smacht a choinneáil orthu. Éireannaigh den chuid is mó a d’fhreagair an cheistneoir agus iad ag obair i gcineálacha éagsúla oibre, ón gcócaireacht go freastal agus glanadh. Ní bhfuair beagnach leath acu socraithe scríofa oibre agus níl ach 5% acu a bhfuil ballraíocht ceardchumainn acu.

Níl ach duine as gach triúr a fhaigheann

Tá Tacaíocht ar fáil!

SIPTU (Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union) www.siptu.ie (01) 8586389 servicesdivision@siptu.ie

sinsearacha sna h-ionaid atá i mbun an mhi-úsáid.

Ach, is beag duine a bhac leis an mhí-úsáid a thuairisciú. Deir siad gur faitíos roimh céard a tharlódh agus mar gur bhraith siad nach ndéanfadh sé aon difir na cúiseanna is mó leis sin.

Pictiúr iontach duairc a léiríonn an taighde seo ar a bhfuil ag tarlú ins na bialanna agus óstáin a bhfuil muid ag tabhairt ár gcuid tacaíochta dóibh.

Léiríonn na tuairiscí pearsanta a cuireadh ar fáil

MRCI (Migrant Rights Centre Ireland) www.mrci.ie (01) 889 7570 info@mrci.ie

A pay slip which ss details your gro tax wage and any ion deduct s

Four working ual weeks paid ann leave per year Nine public r– holidays a yea or the equivalent e tim or in pay ak A 15 minute bre four and when working more a half hours or

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Seas Suas Duit

Féin!

freisin, an taobh daonna den scéal seo. Daoine faiteach, faoi bhrú, gan chumhacht agus earnáil ard-bhrabaigh, gan náire, gan taise ag sú gach ar féidir leis amach as a chuid fostaithe.

Tá tacaíocht dhá fháil ag an bhfeachtas ó na ceardchumainn, Aontas na Macléinn, ó eagrais d’oibrithe inimirceacha, an Gréasán um Ionaid Éignithe agus cuid mhór eile.

Tá crógacht Eva Mitchell agus anois comhleacaí léi Kaela Nic Cormaic, ag tabhairt glór phoiblí do na mílte oibrithe eile nach bhfuil sé de mhisneach acu féin labhairt amach, fós.

Tá sé i gceist againn anois díriú ar fheachtasaíocht dhearfach chun oibrithe a chur ar an eolas faoina gcearta oibre agus chun tacú le h-óstáin agus bialanna a chaitheann go maith lena gcuid oibrithe agus vótáíl lenár gcosa. Ní neart le cur le chéile, agus má eiríonn linn i nGaillimh leanfaidh muid den bhfeachtas ar fud na tíre.

WRC (Workplace Relations Commission) www.workplacerelations.ie

CEARTA OIBRITHE

(059) 917 8800

Rape Crisis Network www.rapecrisishelp.ie

1800 778888

www.anphoblacht.com

March / Márta 2017

9

Future Taoiseach’s policies being hidden by tittle-tattle

Distraction tactics by political gossip

BY MARK MOLONEY SCANNING the front pages of the daily newspapers or listening to the morning talk-shows, your ‘average’ listener may be surprised to learn about some serious issues going on around them and their nearest and dearest.

For example, that, in January, one child became homeless in Dublin every five hours; one in eight people are now on a hospital waiting list; and even An Garda Síochána are facing extremely serious allegations of corruption and cover-up by the police and their political masters.

Despite all this, the mainstream media has become obsessed with gossip and rumour over the leadership of Fine Gael.

The plight of homeless citizens or those waiting a disproportionate amount of time for necessary surgeries can wait, it seems, because the media establishment want to focus on whether

Personalities are now more important than actual policies in mainstream media reportage Tweedle Dum or Tweedle Dee will take over 5 Spot the political difference: Coveney, Kenny and Varadkar – all part of the Fine Gael leadership The Irish Independent thought it appropriate from Enda Kenny as leader of Fine Gael and be into a complete joke as he effectively managed to live tweet the entire event from a remote to run a almost an entire two-page spread focusappointed Taoiseach by that party. ing on the private lives of Fine Gael leadership Even with their declining readership, newspa- location, clearly thanks to a source within.

Personalities are now more important than contenders Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney. pers still maintain the key role in influencing the In the piece, entitled “Image Matters: Why a daily news agenda on radio and television. Bright actual policies. and early, our radio programmes give us the “morning headlines” from the main tabloids and broadsheets – picking out the key articles they think you and I should have on our radar. With the exception of an occasional inclusion of TheJournal.ie or Buzzfeed.com, it’s usually an all-deadtree affair.

And, unfortunately for those of a non-vacuous disposition, a Fine Gael leadership contest is a very alluring subject for flagging mainstream newspapers to gush about.

The typical investigative reporting or time-consuming research required for hard-hitting pieces can be bypassed. All that’s needed is a Fine Gael backbencher who is happy to spill their guts to reporters while quaffing cappuccinos in the Leinster House coffee dock in the vain hope of some fresh airtime, a few column inches or having their back scratched or ego massaged in return.

New technology makes it even easier for hacks and politicians alike.

An Irish Times journalist turned the supposed tight confidentiality surrounding one Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting 5 Private lives of the Fine Gael contenders are considered fair game for the Fourth Estate

spouse in the picture is seen as important for world political leaders”, the Indo noted how both men attended a Fine Gael colleague’s wedding in Dublin.

“But what really stood out,” in the eyes of the Indo, “was the fact that Simon Coveney was pictured with his attractive wife Ruth, his arm protectively draped around her. A happy, glamorous, glowing couple. And Leo was pictured on his own.”

The base subtext about ‘family man’ Coveney versus the openly gay Varadkar was clear.

Rather than producing this type of low-quality, tawdry journalism, the Indo’s time would

Eoin Ó Murchú told TV3’s Tonight with Vincent Browne the only difference he could see between contenders for Taoiseach was their position on the Irish language be better spent examining Fine Gael’s record in Government (which is underwhelming to say the least and the responsibility of Coveney and Varadkar as well as the man they want to replace). They could examine whether either of these contenders for Taoiseach and erstwhile loyal lieutenants have any plans to do anything differently. Or is it just more of the same but with someone else in charge?

It was a point raised by Sinn Féin Finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty TD who told reporters at Leinster House that the saturation coverage of internal Fine Gael wranglings needs to stop.

“We cannot allow a six-week distraction on who will lead Fine Gael. They need to get their house in order. They need to do it very, very quickly and they need to be focused on the issues that matter,” the Donegal deputy said.

An Phoblacht columnist Eoin Ó Murchú took similar issue with the ability of the media to boot scandals into touch. Speaking on TV3’s Tonight with Vincent Browne, he raised the pertinent issue of policy difference between the two Fine Gael contenders – noting that the only difference he could see was in terms of their position on the Irish language.

“The actual issues of the housing crisis, the health crisis, Brexit crisis, the Northern crisis – none of that seems to be occupying the attention of either politicians or journalists compared to adding up the numbers of who says which one of these two people they want, when no one can find any actual difference of policy between them,” Ó Murchú said with a degree of exasperation.

“There may be [differences] but none of that has been discussed by the media and none of that has been advanced by themselves.”

The Fine Gael leadership contest won’t really hot up until after St Patrick’s Day. Let’s hope journalists worth their salt will run the rule over the policies, ambitions and visions of the two contenders for Taoiseach and give the citizens of Ireland a real picture of what they stand for rather than who they’re going out with.

10 March / Márta 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

Making An Garda Síochána

free from partisan control and serving the public POLICING in the 26 Counties has been plagued by scandal or crisis after crisis over many years due to to a failure of political leadership as well as operational command.

The most recent outworking of this is the organised victimisation of Garda whistleblowers, including Sergeant Maurice McCabe, among others, by fellow officers, commanders and sections of the media indebted to certain Garda chiefs for access and stories.

Ahead of launching an updated Sinn Féin proposal for the reform of policing at the Dáil, Justice spokesperson Jonathan O’Brien said: “Despite promises from Fine Gael and Labour that there would be a sea change in policing following a series of whistleblower controversies, the public were faced with a chronic failure by the Government to address the matter.

“Everyone is entitled to policing that serves the people. Adequate safeguards must be introduced in order to prevent a repeat of past injustice, and to prevent ongoing and future injustice. Civilian oversight of policing and justice must be democratic, fully inclusive and robust.

“Everyone is entitled to policing that serves the people by enhancing community safety.

“Sinn Féin wants to achieve effective civic policing by police services that are accountable, free from partisan political control, representative of the community they serve, routinely unarmed, imbued with a human rights ethos, and trained and held to the highest professional standards.”

These are some of the main proposals set out in Sinn Féin’s vision for policing in Ireland.

READY FOR REFORM – KEY PRINCIPLES The key principles that must inform change to An Garda Síochána include:• Freedom from partisan control or influence; • Operational independence; • Policing with the community to develop maximum confidence in the policing service and to maximise co-operation between citizens and An Garda Síochána; • Effective oversight with adequate safeguards and consequences for wrongdoing.

Sinn Féin wants effective civic policing by police services that are accountable, free from partisan political control, representative of the community they serve, routinely unarmed, imbued with a human rights ethos, and trained and held to the highest professional standards Sinn Féin believes that governance and accountability are at the core of what needs to be improved within An Garda Síochána.

Sinn Féin wants to achieve effective civic policing by police services that are accountable, free from partisan political control, representative of the community they serve, routinely unarmed, imbued with a human rights ethos, and trained and held to the highest professional standards.

“Policing in Ireland must conform to the highest standards of human rights, accountability, impartiality, transparency, and effectiveness,” Sinn Féin spokesperson Jonathan O’Brien says. “Notwithstanding the good work carried out by rank and file members of An Garda Síochána on a daily basis, the public will only have confidence in policing structures where there is sufficient civilian oversight, adequate safeguards, and cultural change. When the Policing Authority was established, we stated that it should be completely independent in its operation.”

Sinn Féin also proposes that the Crime and Security Branch of An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces Directorate of Military Intelligence (G2) come under the scrutiny of the appropriate Oireachtas Committee with the necessary safeguards in place and based on international standards.

Sinn Féin proposed the introduction of a new independent Garda Authority in 2014. Following this, the Policing Authority was established with the Garda Síochána (Policing Authority and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2015, however many important provisions in this legislation have still to appear.

An independent Policing Authority is an integral part of reform of policing

5 Whistleblower: Garda Sgt Maurice McCabe

Specifically, the sections that would allow the Policing Authority to recommend to the Government the removal of the Garda Commissioner, Deputy Garda Commissioners, Assistant Garda Commissioners and members of other ranks have not yet been brought in.

When the legislation was being introduced, Sinn Féin raised a number of issues concerning the independence of the Policing Authority which were rejected by the Justice Minister. An

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March / Márta 2017

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ARD FHEIS N FÉIN SINTHE OPERA HOUSE, WEXFORD ARY FRIDAY 7th & SATURDAY 8th FEBRU

independent Policing Authority is an integral part of reform of policing. Sinn Féin has concerns that even when the Act is fully commenced, the Authority will still be constrained in their powers to appoint and remove senior officers of An Garda Síochána. There are a number of areas in which the Policing Authority cannot act without the consent of the Minister which limits the independence of the Authority and undermines its purpose.

“To this end,” Sinn Féin says, “we have made a number of proposals to enhance the powers of the Policing Authority to make it fit for purpose.

We believe that the practice of the Scottish Policing Authority and the Policing Authority in the North should be examined with a view to improving the Policing Authority.”

Sinn Féin proposals for the enhancing of functions and responsibilities include that the Authority should:• Have responsibility for determining the priorities of An Garda Síochána and should work in conjunction

JUSTICE MINISTER’S CREDIBILITY IN BITS

5 Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald

SEE INSIDE PAGE 27

with the Garda Commissioner in the preparation of annual policing plans; • Consult with local communities and obtain their views and experience of policing and JPCs; • Be empowered to conduct its functions without needing the consent of the Justice Minister; • Hold the Garda Commissioner to account and the Commissioner should keep the Authority fully briefed on relevant matters; • Have full independent capacity regarding the appointments of the Garda Commissioner, the Deputy Commissioner and the Assistant Garda Commissioner following open competition by the Public Appointments Service based on best practice in recruitment and have the independent power to remove these senior officers; • Be empowered to deal with complaints against and the discipline of senior officers (Garda Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner and Assistant Garda Commissioner); • Monitor and address human rights and equality compliance by An Garda Síochána at every level of its operations and ensure issues identified by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission are dealt with.

The Authority membership should be increased to 21, Sinn Féin says, be diverse in its membership and should include political representation

decided using the d’Hondt method. Independent members should be recruited through fair and open competition.

There should be a statutory requirement that the membership of the Authority be representative of society, Sinn Féin reaffirms.

The Authority should be supported in its work by a number of advisory groups (e.g. on equality, human rights and youth affairs).

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission needs to be fully empowered and independent in order to fulfill its oversight obligation The Authority should be empowered to conduct unannounced visits in Garda stations and inspect any documentation relevant to their investigation.

There is an urgent need for reform in how GSOC operates, Sinn Féin says, echoing points made by representatives from GSOC themselves in the Oireachtas Justice Committee that they

5 Jonathan O'Brien (left): Urgent need for reform how GSOC operates

5 Taoiseach Enda Kenny

believed that parts of the legislation governing its functions needed to be reviewed and overhauled.

The powers of GSOC need to be enhanced to ensure that the Garda Commissioner comes within the remit of GSOC. If the Police Authority does not have the role of investigating senior Garda members. GSOC’s powers to secure co-operation from gardaí must be clarified and bolsterered as serious blockages in GSOC investigations have been an issue.

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission needs to be fully empowered and independent in order to fulfill its oversight obligation.

Due to the potential for overlap in the roles of the Garda Inspectorate and GSOC, the previous Oireachtas Justice Committee recommended the abolition of the Garda Inspectorate and the merging of its functions with GSOC. The current Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Equality Report on Garda Oversight and Accountability recommended that consideration be given to the establishment of a Criminal Justice Inspectorate to oversee and supervise the administration of all aspects of the criminal justice system. It pointed to the Criminal Justice Inspectorate in the North as a possible model.

“Sinn Féin have called for this for a number of years,” Jonathan O’Brien says.

Ultimately, Sinn Féin would support the establishment of an All-Ireland Criminal Justice Inspectorate.

In the interim, Sinn Féin proposes the establishment of a Criminal Justice Inspectorate in the South that would replace the Garda Inspectorate and cover all state policing and justice-related agencies Sinn Féin would make the Criminal Justice Inspectorate responsible for inspecting the criminal justice organisations, including An Garda Síochána, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Probation Service, the Courts Service, and the Irish Youth Justice Service.

12 March / Márta 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

CONOR McCABE I GREW UP in Edenmore, on Dublin’s northside, and Charles J Haughey was our local TD but the only time I saw him in the flesh was the day he shook hands with the crowds on Springdale Road when the Dublin Marathon passed by in 1982.

I was struck at the time by his lack of height; much later by his venality.

For years, all I saw was the corruption for which Haughey was a glutton. Yet there always seemed to be something missing. The story of Haughey began and ended with Haughey, and as such it always felt incomplete.

In his A Failed Political Entity’: Charles Haughey and the Northern Ireland Question, 1945-1992 (Irish Academic Press, 2016), historian Stephen Kelly asserts the genius of the man and his positive contribution to Irish society. “The facts speak for themselves,” says Kelly, who cites “free travel for pensioners and tax exemptions for artists” as among Haughey’s crowning achievements.

Not to disparage tax-free royalties, but if this is the standard by which genius is bestowed then the current Dáil possesses more intellectual rigour than Italy during the Renaissance. If free travel makes Haughey the Napoleon of Irish politics,

If free travel makes Charlie Haughey the Napoleon of Irish politics, then surely the fixed roads of Kerry make Danny Healy-Rae our Lincoln? then surely the fixed roads of Kerry make Danny Healy-Rae our Lincoln?

This is a dilemma faced by any researcher into Haughey.

The grandiose claims made about the man seem out of kilter with his seemingly sole lasting political achievement, which was to become leader of Fianna Fáil and Taoiseach after having spent ten years in the wilderness. It was a feat

as did most I dismissed Haughey long ago, was little Irish people, concluding that he

re in a more than a spiv – just one mo politicians long, depressing line of bought

The legacy of

Charles J Haughey of some standing, no doubt, but hardly a service to the state.

I dismissed Haughey long ago, as did most Irish people, concluding that he was little more than a spiv – just one more in a long, depressing line of bought politicians.

It is only in recent years when I began to delve into the Irish middleman class – the compradors who make millions charging transnational capital for use of the Irish state as a tax haven – that a context for this Irish Napoleon began to reveal itself.

Today, Fianna Fáil is a party of lawyers and accountants. The economic interests of those two professions are intertwined today with the tax haven model and loose regulation that the former accountant Haughey himself utilised and encouraged during his time as Finance Minister.

In the 1960s, Haughey was a firm advocate of the establishment of an Irish money market that would recycle Irish bank deposits in the state via the purchasing of Central Bank debt rather than continuing the practice of Irish banks investing primarily in Britain and starving the Irish state of much-needed credit for public infrastructure.

He was also instrumental in facilitating foreign banks opening up in the Irish state, including the First National City Bank of New York, which opened its doors at 71 St Stephen’s Green in 1967 with the ribbon cut by Haughey. This brought Dublin into the euro-dollar market network, a quasi-legal

5 Haughey failed to live up to his image as a republican and a man of the people when it really counted

recycling of US dollars in Europe.

It was around this time that a group of Irish economists based in Trinity College (along with lawyers, accounts and bankers) in Dublin saw the way the world was going and decided that their future lay with the Irish state opening itself up to transnational finance. The Bretton Woods Agreement was breaking down and the Chicago School of Economics was quietly taking hold.

In the 1970s, a group of Irish Government officials wanted to set up an offshore banking centre in Dublin. The Central Bank rejected the idea, saying that “it smacked of a banana republic”. Yet, by 1987, it had become part of official Irish industrial policy under the direction of the recently-elected Taoiseach, one Charles J Haughey. The financial lawyers and accountants had finally won through; and it only took 20 years.

Haughey acted as the vanguard for one side in an intra-class battle – between competing interests and competing visions within the same class for control of the Irish state and its future direction.

We should reassess Haughey not in order to change or modify the conclusions we have come to with regard to the man himself but for the light his career shines on the class interests he served and protected throughout his long and ignominious career.

March / Márta 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

13

BÍONN LUCHT NA GAEILGE RÓ-BHEASACH

Tá sé in am dúinn athrú

AN CEART go mbíonn lucht na Gaeilge ag fanacht go foighdeach le fáil amach cé bhéas i gceannas orainn, nó an cóir duinn bheith chómh gníomhach sin i gcúrsaí polaitiochta nach bhféadfaí gan aird a thabhairt orainn?

Séard a chuir ag smaoineamh ar a leithéid mé ná alt spéisiúil a bhí ag Tuairisc i gcaitheamh na míosa seo caite faoi cheannaireacht Fhine Gael agus dearcadh na n-iarrthóirí i leith na Gaeilge.

Tuairiscíodh, agus is fíor é, nach bhfuil aon bhádh faoi leith léirithe ag duine ar bith díobh ach amháin Leo Varadkar! Tuairiscíodh freisin, cé go bhfuil Gaeilge líofa ag Enda Kenny is aithne mhaith aige ar an ngaeltacht, nach ndearna sé tada mórán le stádas na Gaeilge a chur chin cinn.

Arís, tá cuid mhaith den fhírinne sa gcaint seo.

Nuair a bhíosa féin ag obair mar iriseóir i dTeach Laighean bhí Kenny i gcónaí ar fáil i nGaeilge is níor labhair sé riamh aon teanga eile liom. Ón aithne phearsanta atá agam air dhéarfainn cinnte gur mór leis an teanga.

Chuir sé a chuid páistí féin ag gaelscoil, agus bhí iníon amháin leis, ar a laghad, a bhí an-ghníomhach in agóidí Gaeilge nuair a bhi sí san ollscoil. Ach má bhí sé díograiseach go maith é féin go pearsanta, ní dhearna sé aon scéal mór polaitiúil as an teanga.

Agus, mar a thuairiscigh Tuairisc, is nuair a bhí seisean ina Thaoiseach, sea, d’éirigh an Coimisinéar Teangan, Sean Ó Cuirreáin as, de bhárr faillí leanúnach an stáit maidir leis an nGaeilge.

Agus, ar ndóigh, ní déarnadh iarracht ar bith agus é ina Thaoiseach brú a chur ar rialtas na Breataine maidir le hAcht Teangan don Tuaisceart cé gur aontaíodh i gCill Rímhinn go mbeadh a leithéid ann.

Cén ceacht atá le foghlaim as seo?

Má tá cearta nó polasaí dearfach ar bith i leith na Gaeilge ag teastáil ó lucht na Gaeilge caithfidh muid eagar a chur orainn féin chun brú polaitiúil a chruthú sa gcaoi nach mbeidh duine ar bith – bíodh sé nó sí fábharach go pearsanta don teangain nó a mhalairt – neamhaird a dhéanamh den éileamh sin.

Sa Tuaisceart ar ndóigh bhí namhadas glan dhá léiriú don teanga ó tháinig an chríchdheighilt isteach. Ó dheas, ní raibh an námhadas céanna ann – go hoifigiúil ar aon chuma – cé gur léir anois nach bhfuil spéis mhadra ag bunaíocht an stáit sa teanga, nó i rud ar bith eile a bhaineann le féiniúlacht na hÉireann.

EOIN Ó MURCHÚ Agus mar a dúirt Máirtín Ó Cadhain, “ag deire thiar is marfaí neamhshuim ná namhadas ar bith.”

Ach ó bunaíodh an Saorstát, bhi leisce ar Ghluaiseacht na Gaeilge (má bhí gluaiseacht ann) dul i ngleic leis an stát. Bhí daoine sásta dá dtabharfaí aoibh lách dúinn, fiú dá mba aoibh mharánta ag deire thiar í.

Sea, níl aon eagraíocht, aon fhorsa, a chuireann brú ar an saol polaitiuil maidir leis an nGaeilge.

Sa toghchán deireannach, bhí lucht stocaireacht gach abhar le clos go neamhspleách, ach amhain an Ghaeilge.

Bhí muide ar an imeall, ar an taobh-líne ag fanacht go dtiocfadh ár slanaitheóir chun tarrthála orainn.

Anois ó thuaidh, sa toghchán is déanaí, bhí ceist na Gaeilge go mór mar ábhar. Mar adúirt Caral Ní Chuilín, bhí Sinn Féin tiomanta d’Acht Ghaeilge a chinntiú.

Nuair a chaitheann an DUP anuas ar an nGaeilge tá siad ag caitheamh anuas freisin ar chuid d’oidhreacht na bProtastúnach sa Tuaisceart

5 An Dream Dearg – Niall Ó Donnghaile agus Luna

Ach arís ní rud pearsanta é, ní rud a thiocfas mar gheall ar dhíogras duine, ach ceart a chinnteófar má sheasann muid ar an bpointe nach sásóidh tada muid ach na cearta Gaeilge sin a bheith ann: taitneóidh sé sin leis an DUP nó nach dtaitneóidh.

Cloisim uaireannta daoine ag rá nach cóir go mbeadh an Ghaeilge ceangailte leis an bpolaitíocht. A mhalairt ar fad atá fíor. Is rud polaitiuil é cearta a iarradh is a bhaint amach.

Ach tá sé fíor nach cóir go mbainfeadh an Ghaeilge le dearcadh polaitiúil amhain ar bith. Sea, is cuid de oidhreacht na bProtastúnach í an Ghaeilge chómh maith is atá d’aon chuid eile.

Is nuair a chaitheann an DUP anuas ar an teanga, tá siad ag caithemah anuas ar chuid de oidhreacht na bProtastúnach, oidheacht na hEaglaise Presibitéirigh mar shampla a rialaigh i lár an 19ú céad go mbeidh cumas sa nGaeilge riachtanach da gcuid ministéirí ionas go mbeadh siad in ann labhairt lena bpobal ar fad.

Tá sé in am dúinn, Caitlicigh, Protastúnaigh is eile, gan a bheith béasach a thuilleadh faoinar dteanga.

Tá cearta, tá urraim, tá ómós ag teastáil uainn, agus gheobhaidh muid iad.

14 March / Márta 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

5 The delegation from Ireland with (front row, third from left) Claude Moraes, Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

RELATIVES’ DELEGATION MEETS SENIOR FIGURES AT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND COMMISSION

Council of Europe’s human rights chief considering return to Belfast

BY JOHN HEDGES THE Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks, has said he is seriously considering a personal request by relatives of victims of British state forces to make a return visit to Belfast in the coming weeks to see how the British Government has failed to meet its legacy commitments under the Stormont House Agreement and international human rights legislation.

The Human Rights Commissioner travelled to Belfast in 2014, when he said that the British Government was breaching the European Convention of Human Rights by not conducting effective, independent and reasonably prompt investigations into killings by state forces.

“Article Two, the right to life, is one of the core rights,” he told the BBC. “It involves not only the state’s responsibility to protect people from unlawful death but also the responsibility to investigate effectively the circumstances of the death and punish those responsible. It is an absolute obligation.

“I think far too long a period has passed before people have received justice and information about the fate of their loved ones and about the fate of these cases.”

On Monday 13 February, the delegation flew from Belfast to Strasbourg for a series of meetings with senior EU and European human rights officials to present evidence on Westminster's backsliding on commitments.

The schedule was organised and co-ordinated by Martina Anderson MEP. The delegation from Ireland included Seamus Finucane, brother of Pat Finucane; Marie Louise ‘Minty’ Thompson, whose mother was killed by the British Army in Derry; Alan Brecknell of the Pat Finucane Centre; Michael Ritchie of Relatives for Justice; Kaniah Cusack who was representing Kathleen Funchion TD, Chair of the Oireachtas Good Friday Committee; and Eibhlin Glenholmes and Seán Murray, members of Sinn Féin’s Legacy Group.

On arrival in Strasbourg, the delegation went straight into two key meetings, the first with the Office of the Execution of Judgments, which supervises the measures taken by member states to give effect to the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.

Seán Murray explained that the British Government is to bring forward yet another “implementation plan” for this June on outstanding legacy issues.

“As a member of Sinn Féin’s negotiating team, I outlined our attempts over the past year – involving 16 meetings with officials – to engage the British Government in a serious negotiation on key outstanding issues around onward disclosure, legal representation

in ‘closed courts’, legal aid for families and the adequate resourcing of legacy investigations and inquests.

“Despite our best efforts, no meaningful response from the British Government was forthcoming, especially around the key issue of disclosure of information to families.

“While we outlined a number of key underpinning principles to effectively deal with any alleged British Government concerns in our options papers tabled at the Fresh Start talks, to date we have still not received any response from the British Government on this issue.”

The importance of timely and comprehensive submissions to outside bodies by key NGOs was highlighted

by Genevieve Mayer, Head of Office of the Execution of Judgments. They could outline the key areas that the British Government had failed to deliver on and this would assist their office in testing the veracity of any ‘implementation plan’, she said.

She also outlined Article 14 for the delegation with its provision for taking infringement procedures against any state refusing to implement key measures.

“We intend to fully explore the potential for this option with our legal team

5 Martina Anderson MEP with Nils Nils Muižnieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, and Marie Louise 'Minty' Thompson, whose mother Kathleen was shot dead by the British Army in 1972

and the key campaign groups,” Seán Murray said later.

Next was a meeting with Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks where he gave a positive hearing to their request for a return to the North of Ireland after relatives and campaign groups spoke of the impact of his previous visit and subsequent comments.

They requested a return visit to assess the lack of progress on the implementation of the Stormont House Agreement mechanisms in a human rights compliant manner.

Other issues highlighted included the lack of adequate funding for inquests, the Police Ombudsman’s legacy investigations and the use of torture by state

Human Rights Commissioner said the British Government was breaching the European Convention of Human Rights by not conducting effective, independent and reasonably prompt investigations into killings by state forces

forces during the conflict.

The delegation attended a meeting of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left group (GUE/NGL) European Parliament Group, the group that Sinn Féin is a member of.

Seamus Finucane and Marie Louise Thompson were invited to address around 150 MEPs on legacy issues.

Afterwards, a number of MEPs outlined the requirement for a wider platform for the presentation on the legacy issue attended by a larger delegation from Ireland.

Before their departure the following day, the delegation held a meeting with Claude Moraes, a British Labour Party MEP who chairs the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE).

The visit emphasised the value of having a Sinn Féin voice in the European Parliament to speak up for people’s rights in Ireland and to combat the propaganda of the powerful British political interests operating in mainland Europe. There are fears about how Brexit might affect this in the future.

March / Márta 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

15

Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan keynote speaker at Pat Finucane Memorial Lecture in Belfast

Irish Government still wants full public inquiry

BY JOHN HEDGES “THE FIRM VIEW of the Irish Government remains that a satisfactory outcome to this case will best be achieved through a full public inquiry,” Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan told last month’s Pat Finucane Memorial Lecture.

He was speaking a week after the Court of Appeal in Belfast rejected the appeal of Pat Finucane’s widow, Geraldine, against former Prime Minister David Cameron’s reneging on a British Government promise by Tony Blair at Weston Park in 2000 to hold a full inquiry into the lawyer’s murder at his north Belfast home on 12 February 1989.

The probe would include investigating collusion between the Royal Ulster Constabulary and state agents in the loyalist UDA death squad. The scale of collaboration between illegal unionist gangs and serving police and

‘I want to underline the importance of honouring commitments made – in this case by the British Government at Weston Park’

5 The British Government is preventing information being made available and has halted the implementation of the Stormont House Agreement legacy mechanisms

5 Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan

military officers was described in 2012 by then British Prime Minister David Cameron himself as “shocking” after publication of the investigation he had commissioned from Sir Desmond de Silva.

The de Silva review found that RUC police officers had proposed that the civil rights lawyer be killed, had passed information to his killers, failed to stop the attack and then obstructed the murder investigation.

At this year’s Pat Finucane Memorial Lecture organised by campaign group Relatives for Justice with Pat Finucane’s family at the Europa Hotel on 23 February, Irish Government Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan again raised Tony Blair’s pledge to Pat Finucane’s 5 Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly family and the Irish Government: “I want to underline that this is not about making a special case of one victim but rather about the importance of honouring commitments made – in this case by the British Government at Weston Park – almost 16 years ago,” the senior Irish Government minister said.

He added: “I remain convinced that the institutional framework in the Stormont House Agreement now offers the best way of bringing whatever healing is possible to those bereaved and afflicted by the Troubles.”

Minister Flanagan said that the Irish Government, “While working closely with the British Government and the political parties here on finding a way forward on the Stormont House

institutions, we have consistently underlined that the responsibility for implementation of these judgements through an effective investigation rests with the sovereign government” – the British Government.

“In this regard, I remain acutely concerned about the failure to properly resource legacy inquests and would again urge the British Government to implement the proposals of the Lord Chief Justice. This would fulfill the outstanding Article 2 obligations in response in respect of these 56 outstanding cases and provide much-needed trust and confidence in our collective capacity to address legacy issues.”

Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly, meanwhile, has said that the British Government’s “stonewalling” on the Pat Finucane inquiry reflects a wider policy which refuses to deal with the past.

“Their intent is to prevent any independent investigation or scrutiny of British policies and actions over a 30-year period of the conflict,” the north Belfast MLA said.

The British Government’s denial of financial resources to the Lord Chief Justice for legacy inquests is a further example of this blocking policy, he pointed out.

Their construction of a “bogus” national security veto shows that Westminster and the unionist parties are not serious about dealing with the past nor engaging meaningfully with the needs of victims, he maintained.

He criticised the British refusal to make information available that will show that they had clear policy in the conflict that involved state-sanctioned torture in interrogation centres, collusion with unionist paramilitaries and a shoot-to-kill policy by the British Army, the SAS and RUC. “This British Government aims to prevent relevant information being made available and has halted the implementation of the Stormont House Agreement legacy mechanisms. Despite 16 meetings with British officials, and the production of a Sinn Féin legacy options paper, we have yet to receive a response to our proposals."

The campaign by elements of the British Conservative Party and unionist parties to introduce legislation to give immunity to former and serving British service person-

‘I remain acutely concerned about the [British Government’s] failure to properly resource legacy inquests’ nel “supports British Government policies of protecting those in the political and military leaderships who designed, developed and implemented British policies during the conflict,” he said.

This is unacceptable to families bereaved

by British state forces, he insisted.

“Sinn Féin acknowledges the loss and injury of all victims and survivors during the conflict.

For us, engaging with all of the related issues is a matter of rights and equality.

“Our approach to legacy negotiations will always be guided by our commitment to universal rights. The grief and trauma suffered by all families during the conflict are the same. There can be no hierarchy of victims.

All victims must be treated on the basis of equality. There can be no hierarchy of loss.”

Gerry Kelly added: “Engaging with legacy will also present challenges to republicans. Sinn Féin will use our influence to ensure republicans co-operate with the Stormont House Agreement legacy mechanisms.

“We are not introducing caveats or hiding behind a national security veto. We are not blocking progress.”

16 March / Márta 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

‘It is hard to express in forceful enough terms the appropriate response to the murder, the collusion associated with it, the failure to prevent the murder and the obstruction of some of the investigations into it’ MR JUSTICE STEPHENS IN THE BELFAST HIGH COURT, 26 JUNE 2015

UNFINISHED BUSINESS THE PAT FINUCANE ANNIVERSARY LECTURE 2017

GERALDINE FINUCANE, the wife of Pat Finucane, the solicitor who was murdered by loyalists in their north Belfast home on Sunday 12 February 1989, spoke at the Pat Finucane Memorial Lecture in Belfast’s Europa Hotel on 23 February, where Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan was the keynote speaker (see report on previous page).

Here is what Geraldine said.

THERE

E US, ARE SO MANY PEOPLE WHO, LIK

BEHIND PAT’S MURDER. H UT TR E TH T OU D FIN TO NT WA R THEM. IT IS UNFINISHED BUSINESS FO R US.

IT IS UNFINISHED BUSINESS FO

I WOULD LIKE TO SAY that the passing of the years has made Pat’s death easier to bear but this would not be true. In fact, the more time that passes, the more difficult it is to bear his loss. This is partly because of how much we miss him as a person but it is also because of what we now know about the circumstances surrounding his murder.

We know, beyond any doubt, that Pat was murdered with the active assistance and participation of the former police force, the RUC, the British Army and the British state.

There was a time when we did not know as much as we do now and the claim that Britain was involved produced scepticism in many quarters.

Politicians in government and officials in state positions at home and abroad disbelieved our suspicions entirely. Some even poured scorn on our allegations of state collusion and said the ideas were fanciful.

In a response to a 1993 report by a US human rights organisation, the Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights, which raised serious questions about collusion even then, a Deputy Chief Constable of the RUC responded to their work in a letter which said: “There is a repetition of unsubstantiated allegations as if these constituted evidence of security forces or official misconduct . . . It is a pity that . . . the end result should be so flawed.”

On 26 June 2015, Mr Justice Stephens delivered his ruling on our application for judicial review in Belfast High Court. In the opening paragraphs of his judgment, he said the following: “[Geraldine Finucane] was convinced from the beginning that servants or agents of the state were involved in the murder of her husband.

The Government has accepted that there was state involvement and has apologised for it.

their continued support for a public inquiry.

Most of all, I believe I am right because of the unwavering support my family and I have had from the people of Belfast and beyond for the last 28 years.

I see many people here tonight who have stood with us for all of those three decades, helping us out, urging us on. I meet them often, at events such as this or just when I am out and about my daily business. I am constantly approached by people who wish me and my family well. They tell me we are doing great work.

Some people even tell me that they have known tragedy in their lives but were unable to follow through on it, for various reasons. But they gain comfort and some degree of closure by knowing that someone is holding the British state accountable for their actions.

But everyone ends by telling me the same thing: “Keep going. It’s important.”

This is why we do what we do. This is why we keep going.

It isn’t easy. Many times, over the years, we have felt like we have no more left to give. Like

Pat was murdered with the active assistance and participation of the RUC, the British Army and the British state 5 Geraldine Finucane

“It is hard to express in forceful enough terms the appropriate response to the murder, the collusion associated with it, the failure to prevent the murder and the obstruction of some of the investigations into it.

“Individually and collectively they were abominations which amounted to the most conspicuously bad, glaring and flagrant breach of the obligation of the state to protect the life of its citizen and to ensure the rule of law. There is and can be no attempt at justification.”

Sadly, Mr Justice Stephens concluded that the decision of the British Government was not unlawful and so he was unable to order an inquiry.

We appealed this decision and, on Tuesday, the Court of Appeal delivered its judgment on our case for a public inquiry. Sadly, we were, once again, unsuccessful but there may yet be grounds for a further appeal.

Where, then, does the case for a public inquiry

into the murder of Pat Finucane rest?

The courts have concluded that they cannot order an inquiry. The British Government has determined it will not hold one.

Perhaps all that can be done has been done already?

Perhaps the murder of Pat Finucane is simply ‘old news’?

I do not think that the controversy surrounding the murder of Pat Finucane has been properly resolved.

I believe I am right in this, not just because of a broken promise by the British Government but because of the unanswered questions that arise from Pat’s murder and the fact that no one within the British Establishment has ever been made accountable for it.

I believe I am right because the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs is here tonight and has spoken, on behalf of the Irish Government, of

we are fighting an unbeatable enemy. Like the obstacles before us are insurmountable.

It is at times like those that my family and I take strength from two things.

One is the path that lies behind us, which helps put the obstacles ahead in perspective.

Because of what we have uncovered, the High Court in Belfast now declares, as a fact, that Pat’s murder was an “abomination” and that it amounted to “the most conspicuously bad, glaring and flagrant breach of the obligation of the state to protect the life of its citizen”.

Of course, this is not the first time there has been official recognition of the true nature of Pat’s murder. Others have said similar things over the years.

But I believe that the statement of Mr Justice Stephens in the High Court in Belfast is significant. It is where Pat himself worked, where he plied his trade, where he represented his own people. And it is perhaps the recognition that would have brought him the most satisfaction

17

March / Márta 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

SUNDAY 14TH AUGUST

NATIONAL HUNGER-STRIKE COMMEMOR ASSEMBLE 2pm ST PAUL’S

ATION

SCHOOL ON THE CAMLOUGH

CAMLOUGH SOUTH ARMAGH

anphoblacht Sraith Nua Iml 34 Uimhir

Main speaker: Gerry

5

New book by ANC Intelligence

Adams TD

ROAD

June / Meitheamh 2011

PRICE €2/£2

Chief

RONNIE KASRILS

HUNGER STRIKER LAURENCE McKEOWN

VODAFONE CUTS 130 IRISH JOBS

THE CHALLENGES OF FACING THE PAST

‘THE UNLIKELY SECRET AGENT’

John Le Carré: “This is a wonderful book about a courageous and extraordinary woman”

The unacceptable face of globalisation

DEALING LEGACY CONFLICT WITH THE

OF

GERRY ADAMS CALL S FOR INDEPENDENT INTERNATIONAL TRUTH COMMISSION

€1.10/90p

Sraith Nua Iml 32 Uimhir

43 Déardaoin/Thursday

29 October/Deireadh

(£1 England, Scotland

and Wales)

Fómhair 2009

5 RTÉ's Miriam O'Callaghan with Geraldine after a radio interview to mark Pat's anniversary

COLLUSION – SEARCH FOR TRUTH CONTINUES

es Relatives take cas to US Congress SEE PAGES 10 & 11

SION RECOVERY ND VITAL FOR RECES INVESTING IN IRELA

Coalition’s €4 billion cuts

– PAGE 3

will undermine economy

ion Action of Act y of Day U Da ICT ICTU er mber vemb Nove 6 No y 6 day Fri Frida

Sraith Nua Iml 30 Uimhir

26 Déardaoin/Thursday

28 June/Meitheamh 2007 €1.10/90p

2007 Bodenstown commemo

“We have entered a new phase of our struggle” — Adams

• Belfast human rights solicitor Pat Finucane, was murdered at his who home in Belfast, February 1989

ration —

pages 10 & 11

WELCOME AS FINAL BRITISH TROOPS LEAVE SOUTH ARMAGH SEE PAGE 2

(£1 England, Scotland

and Wales)

Dáil: Morgan ordered out House in speaking rights rowof Leinster

—

page 2

Sinn Féin protests the gagging of its TDs

BRITAIN PROTECTS FINUCANE KILLERS

SEE PAGES 2 & 3

5 Pat Finucane's family with Mark Thompson of Relatives for Justice (left) and long-time campaigner Fr Raymond Murray (centre) at this year's anniversary vigil

because convincing people in your own backyard is often more difficult than anywhere else.

However, we did not have to convince everyone that we were right.

This is the second thing that keeps us going: the people who believed us, right from the start, who knew there was something rotten in the British state, and who have supported us for so many years – Pat’s friends; Pat’s community; Pat’s own people.

I want to know why.

I want to know how.

I want to know who.

5 Pat Finucane (right) leaves court with former H-Blocks Hunger Striker the late Pat McGeown, who had been acquitted of charges relating to the 1988 killing of two undercover British Army soldiers who drove into a republican funeral in Belfast after a previous loyalist fatal attack on the Gibraltar Martyrs funerals

We have been encouraged and supported and helped by so many people when the going got tough. And the reason we keep going and can keep going is because of all that help and support and because there are so many people who want us to.

There are so many people who, like us, want to find out the truth behind Pat’s murder.

It is unfinished business for them. It is unfinished business for us.

I want to know why. I want to know how. I want to know who.

I want to ask my own questions and I want to hear the answers for myself. I want to read

the documents and understand the frameworks. Most of all, I want to be able to show them to the entire world so that everyone can know and learn what can be done by governments in the name of the people if we are not vigilant.

Most of all, I want to share that accomplishment with you, Pat’s own people, so that, together, we can turn unfinished business into finished business.

I owe you all a great deal for your support over the years. I would very much like to share the final achievement with you also.

Thank you very much.

18 March / Márta 2017

A man of

www.anphoblacht.com

arts shaped by the

conflict

IN AN PHOBLACHT last month, exprisoner Laurence McKeown wrote about how he uses the arts to engage in the ‘difficult conversations’ around how we deal with the past.

An Phoblacht talked to Laurence about his journey from the IRA and armed struggle to the 1981 Hunger Strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh and becoming a playwright.

When and why did you start to write?

My earliest writings began during the Blanket Protest in the H-Blocks when we wrote out ‘comms’ (smuggled letters) calling for support, especially during the time when Bobby Sands and others were standing for elections.

After the Hunger Strike I studied Social Sciences with the Open University so I was writing essays and constructing academic and political arguments. I was also heavily involved with developing the republican prisoners’ own education programme, which entailed a lot of writing. So all of it was very political.

Then, around 1987, we started poetry workshops and this led to an absolute explosion of creative writings.

We discovered all sorts of secret poets! We printed the poems in simple booklets called, Scairt Amach and distributed them around the Blocks. That led on to the founding of An Glór Gafa/The Captive Voice, a magazine produced in its entirety by the prisoners and published on the outside.

I was in charge of political education at the time and my close friend and comrade, the late Brian Campbell, became the first editor of the magazine. I had a short story in the first issue, ‘Very Important Person’, about Francie Hughes, who died on hunger strike. It was around the same time we started to compile what became Nor Meekly Serve My Time, a book of accounts from prisoners who had endured the Blanket Protest and Hunger Strikes.

And, following release, you and Brian continued to collaborate on projects.

Yes, in 1993 we started to write the screenplay for the feature film H3, which was released in 2001.

That same year, Pam Brighton of Dubbeljoint Theatre asked us to write a play for the 20th anniversary of the hunger strike and we wrote The Laughter of Our Children.

Brian, who was later to become editor of An Phoblacht/ Republican News, tragically died in 2005 just as we were about to commence another play and I have continued since then.

Tell us about your current play, 'Green & Blue'.

Green & Blue is based on an oral archive currently being compiled by Diversity Challenges called 'Voices from the Vault'.

They conducted interviews with former members of An Garda Síochána and the RUC and the play is based on those interviews. It centres on two fictional characters, Garda O’Halloran and RUC Constable David McCabe, and set on the Border. The play explores what their lives looked like on a daily basis, how they originally joined their respective organisations, and their fears and hopes.

The title is taken from the colour of the uniforms worn by the two organisations but the play explores how we all can become simply a ‘uniform’ or a ‘label’.

For some I may be seen as the ‘former republican prisoner’, or ‘Hunger Striker’, or ‘Provie’, just as we in turn apply these labels to others – often those who we are not on great terms with.

As a republican, was it difficult for you to write the character of the RUC man?

No, not at all.

I’ve had numerous engagements with former RUC men

Theatre and drama allow the audience to broaden their outlook, walk in the shoes of someone else for that hour or so as far back as 2003 when Brian and I wrote the play A Cold House about how a former RUC man and former republican prisoner accidentally meet but then discover their respective backgrounds which leads to a heated confrontation.

To write the play we met with several former RUC men as we wanted to ensure that the dialogue

5 2011: Laurence McKeown back in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh on the 30th anniversary of the Hunger Strikes

4 POW: Laurence McKeown acts to 'escape' from a H-Blocks exercise yard

6 Laurence McKeown chats to Derry Sinn Féin's Gearóid Ó hEára

we wrote was accurate and authentic. The outlook Brian and I had was that the character of the RUC man in the play had to be a real person and hold opinions from that perspective, opinions we then had to reflect in the dialogue of the character.

So when it came to writing Green & Blue I was fairly familiar with the type of stories that former RUC men would tell. I was less familiar with the life experiences of a Garda at the Border.

I think (and this is where I have to sound immodest!) that if you are a good writer or playwright then you have to fully get into the character and be truthful to their lived experience, opinions, beliefs, attitudes.

There has to be integrity.

I’ve read of so many trash novels or films, some that claim to be real-life accounts, where IRA Volunteers are portrayed in a totally stereotypical manner, nothing at all like what I know Volunteers to be like. So if I am going to challenge and criticise that sort of writing then I have to not go down that road myself.

It doesn’t mean that I end up changing my views on

March / Márta 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

19

5 Laurence McKeown and Brian Campbell at the book launch of 'Nor Meekly Serve My Time'

community activists, Sinn Féin elected representatives, the Arts Council, and others.

Each performance is followed by a Q&A and the issues raised and questions asked vary dramatically, depending upon the venue being performed in.

At the premiere of Green & Blue, for instance, a member of the audience asked me in the Q&A why was the character of the RUC man “all militarised whereas the Garda wasn’t; why didn’t the Guard have a rifle?” When we explained to her that the Garda was an unarmed force she was almost speechless. She had never heard that and obviously had never been across the Border to the South. So it is a learning experience for many.

5 H-Blocks feature film 'H3', released in 2001

the organisation that person belongs to, be it the RUC or An Garda, but it does mean that I humanise the person, that I see the person behind the uniform.

Where did the play tour?

The play had its world premiere as part of the Belfast International Arts Festival last October. It opened at the Girdwood Cultural Hub in north Belfast, the site of a former major British Army barracks, and then went on a brief tour, one of the venues being Newforge, the private club of the PSNI. Before the play had even premiered, the Belfast Telegraph newspaper claimed there was outrage that a

I’ve read of so many trash novels or films where IRA Volunteers are portrayed in a totally stereotypical manner – there has to be integrity in drama play written by a former republican prisoner was going to be performed at Newforge.

DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson was quoted as saying how shocking and insensitive this was. None of them at the time knew what the content of the play was! It was simply that it was written by me.

The reviews following the premiere, however, were excellent across a broad range of critics so it sort of stole the thunder from Jeffrey. Nonetheless, those at Newforge who had requested the play be performed there still came under pressure from various quarters – particularly former RUC personnel – to cancel the performance. To their credit, they didn’t and, on the night, the Chief Constable himself was in the front row of the audience.

GREEN & BLUE is

produced by Kabosh Theatre (www.kabosh. net). Artistic Director Paula McFetridge; actors Vincent Higgins and James Doran.

The play has been on tour twice since then, along the Border counties and was part of the recent Blackwater Valley Fit-up Theatre Festival in Cork.

What sort of audiences have you been getting?

Incredible audiences both in terms of numbers and diversity.

We have now played North and South and along the Border, nationalist/republican areas as well as unionist areas.

We had a sold-out performance in Tí Chulainn, Mullaghbawn, South Armagh, for instance, where members of the audience would certainly not have a positive view of the RUC and at least one member of the audience had her brother, an IRA Volunteer, killed by the British Army.

We also played at the premises of the Irish Secretariat in Belfast to a specially-invited audience comprising members of the Policing Board, former RUC and Garda,

Do you think the arts is playing an important role in raising issues like those contained in 'Green & Blue'?

I think the arts are the only place where such issues are being raised in any consistent manner.

We have come a long way from the days when Bobby Sands wrote: “The men of arts have lost their hearts.”

I think in the last decade we have seen the arts take on a host of issues, and not just in terms of dealing with the legacy of the past conflict but very important social issues such as suicide, which is now at epic proportions throughout the island but especially in the North. The most startling statistic is that more people have taken their lives in the North since the Good Friday Agreement than were killed throughout the conflict. That’s truly shocking.

Before Green & Blue had even premiered, the Belfast Telegraph newspaper claimed there was outrage and criticism from the DUP’s Jeffrey Donaldson I think that theatre in particular plays a very important role as people can watch a play and be an anonymous member of the audience but can engage with and have empathy for a character on stage who they would never meet in reality on the outside, would maybe not wish to meet, or would never have the opportunity to meet.

This allows the audience to broaden their outlook, walk in the shoes of someone else for that hour or so.

Where next for the play and what are you currently working on?

Green & Blue will tour again late spring and then will be in Dresden, Germany, for a festival there. My previous play, Those You Pass on the Street, will also be performed there and hopefully H3, the feature film Brian Campbell and I wrote based on the Hunger Strike, will also be screened as part of the festival.

5 Pam Brighton of Dubbeljoint Theatre and actor Kevin Elliott in 'The Laughter of Our Children', written with Brian Campbell

LAURENCE McKEOWN is a former political prisoner (1976-1992). During that time he took part in the protests for the return of political status and spent 70 days on hunger strike in 1981 in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. Upon his release Laurence completed a doctoral study at Queen’s University and is now an author, filmmaker and playwright.

20 March / Márta 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

DR SHANE KENNA (Seaghan Mac Cionnaith), one of Ireland’s brightest young historians, died on 27 February after a brave battle with serious illness.

He died just a few days before the 150th anniversary of the Fenian Rising of 1867.

Shane specialised in the history of Fenianism and in his memory we

5 Dr Shane Kenna with Mark Moloney in 2013

carry here an edited version of an interview with him by An Phoblacht’s MARK MOLONEY in 2013 on how the Fenians brought a new form of warfare to the streets of 1880s Britain and his book War in the Shadows: The Irish-American Fenians who Bombed Victorian Britain.

Suaimhneas síoraí dá anam dílis.

Fenian historian Shane Kenna RIP Three Shouts on a Hill

DR SHANE KENNA holds a masters and doctorate in Irish History from Trinity College Dublin. He has also worked in some of Ireland’s most historically important buildings, including Kilmainham Jail museums and archive, Dublin Castle and Castletown House.

From 1881 to 1885, the Irish Republican Brotherhood – commonly referred to as ‘the Fenians’ – orchestrated a concerted bombing campaign against Britain. The campaign was designed to show there was still those in Ireland willing to fight for an Irish republic following the unsuccessful attempt at an uprising in 1867. A letter written in 1876 to the Irish World newspaper spoke of keeping the flame alive and calling for the establishment of a fund to support a revolutionary group to

‘The Invincibles are the most misunderstood organisation in Irish history’

JOE BRADY

M FAGAN

E O’BRIEN

TIM KELLY

J HANLON

JOE MULLET

M KAVANAGH (GERMAN)

D CURLEY

T DOYLE

for Ireland Lord Frederick Cavendish and Permanent Under-Secretary at the Irish Office Thomas Henry Burke were killed with surgical knives on their way to the residence of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at the Vice-Regal Lodge (now Áras an Uachtaráin).

A previously unknown group called the Irish National Invincibles claimed PAT DELANEY

L HANLON

J MULLET

T CAFFERY

J FITZHARRIS ‘SKIN THE GOAT’

E McCAFFERTY

Shane has contacted the Office of Public Works to have the bodies of the five Invincibles buried in Kilmainham Jail exhumed and reinterred in Glasnevin

responsibility. The incident is widely known as ‘The Phoenix Park Murders’.

“I would never go so far as to call them murders,” says Shane. “There was a political reason for it.”

P DOYLE head over to England and conduct a The day before the Phoenix Park MORONEY W JOE SMITH T MARTIN war of attrition against English cities. incident was ‘The Ballina Massacre’, The idea was that this campaign would when several young boys were shot niggle away and keep Britain distracted dead by the Royal Irish Constabulary for celebrating the release of nationwhile ‘heavier work’ was underway for a rebellion in Ireland. alist political leader Charles Stewart “The Invincibles are the most misunParnell from jail.

P CAREY JAMES CAREY TC derstood organisation in Irish history,” “That incident has been written out H ROWLES DAN DELANEY Shane tells me. “People say the Invinof history. That in itself was murder.” cibles were an offshoot of the Fenians The thinking among the Fenians was — they weren’t. Others say they were that one could respond to tyranny by 82 any means necessary. a dissident group — they weren’t.

“Does that justify what the InvinciThey were all Fenians. They were an forerunner to the strategy Michael Castle government can no longer assassination committee established Collins had in the 1920s: a guerrilla function.” bles did?’ Shanes asks. “I don’t know, 12:16 strategy that you make Dublin Castle Shane goes on to speak about their 05/10/2015 within the Fenians to make history: Three but I wouldn’t go so far as to call them Shouts on a Hill insert.indd 82 to assassinate obnoxious individuals completely unworkable as an institu- most famous attack, the Phoenix Park murderers.” from Britain’s Dublin Castle admin- tion by taking out their leading figures assassinations.

He points out that describing the On 6 May 1882, British Chief Secretary event as a tragedy would be more apt, istration. In many respects it was a until it comes to a point where the

as seven more people would lose their lives as a result. Five alleged members of the Invincibles would be hanged and buried in Kilmainham Jail. Their bodies are still somewhere in the grounds.

One of the group who informed on the others would be shot for his treason, while the man who shot him would also face the gallows.

As well as organising a recent conference on the group, Shane has contacted the Office of Public Works to look at the possibility of exhuming the bodies of the five Invincibles buried in Kilmainham Jail and reinterring them in Glasnevin. He has also spoken to the families of the men, who have agreed in principle to the idea.

“As part of this decade of commemorations I would like to see those men buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. Whether you like them or not, I think we can all agree that after 130 years they’ve done their time. Their sentence was that they were to remain in Kilmainham Jail as long as that building was a prison. It’s a tourist attraction now, so they really shouldn’t be in there anymore.”

March / Márta 2017

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Republicanism and Socialism in Ireland: From Wolfe Tone to James Connolly by Priscilla Metscher (Connolly Books, Dublin, 2016)

The Irish freedom struggle in its social context Republicanism and Socialism in Ireland: From Wolfe Tone to James Connolly was published last year to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising. Its author, Priscilla Metscher, hails from Belfast Protestant stock and has written and lectured extensively on the politics of James Connolly. She is based in Germany, where she lectured at Oldenburg University.

PRISCILLA METSCHER’S book looks at the history of radical ideas in the period between the emergence of republicanism at the end of the 18th century and the 1916 Rising.

It is therefore much more than simply a regurgitation of the events of this period.

It places each phase of the Irish freedom struggle in its social context, from the United Irishmen through the Young Ireland, Fenian and Land League movements of the 19th century to the socialist activities of James Connolly at the beginning of the 20th century.

For example, Part I examines the ideas of the United Irishmen and the Young Irelanders against the background of the social conditions of the period.

In fact, a corresponding section on the economic and social changes in Irish society precedes each major part of this work.

Part II focuses on Fenianism and the Land War as movements essentially of the lower classes in the second half of the 19th century.

Parts I and II deal mainly with a peasant society and thus with the political, radical, popular movements which are strongly connected with a rural society. Quite uniquely, Priscilla Metscher makes an in-depth analysis of the political thought of Michael Davitt, leader of the Land League.

The third and final section of this history is entitled 'James Connolly: Socialism and the

Priscilla Metscher’s book shows that Connolly’s socialism cannot be divorced from republicanism and its tradition National Question'. There is a detailed analysis of the period up to and including the Easter Rising. It shows that Connolly’s socialism cannot be divorced from republicanism and its tradition.

It is an integral part.

and very readable. There is also a treasure of footnotes that may well inspire further study.

Throughout the book there are a host of interesting facts. One that might be of particular relevance today is that Mary Anne McCracken

Priscilla Metscher

Metscher demonstrates that Connolly’s life and work are the culminating point in the history of republicanism and socialism in Ireland up to the present day. Or, as Connolly foresaw: “If you remove the English Army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of the socialist republic, your efforts will be in vain.”

While this history is the work of an Irish academic, it is nevertheless easily accessible

The work of an Irish academic, it is nevertheless easily accessible and very readable noted Thomas Russell’s opposition to the United Irishmen seeking French help for the 1798 Rising, arguing that “Ireland might as well be an English as a French colony”.

There is little doubt this book will become the standard work dealing with this revolutionary period of Irish history.

“If yo u rem ov e the En gli sh Ar my tom orr ow an d ho ist the gre en fla g ov er Du bli n Ca stl e.. .”

22 March / Márta 2017

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Another Europe is possible Treo eile don Eoraip

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

EU needs to change if people are to have any faith in it FURTHER EROSION of the national sovereignty of member states is not the answer to the fall-out from Brexit and the rise of extremism, Ireland South MEP Liadh Ní Riada said as she addressed the EU Parliament on the future of the European Union.

‘We need democratic and transparent accountability over the euro’ We are all aware that we live in a time of great flux and volatility, she said, but pushing more austerity on the Eurozone is not the answer.

“No, we need democratic and transparent accountability over the euro.

“We cannot move towards a more neo-liberal, centralised Europe at the expense of ordinary people who cannot even put food on the table or maintain a roof over their heads.

“This is very much the case in Ireland, despite whatever spin-doctored reports say about a ‘recovery’.”

She added: “The EU’s economic governance framework acts like a straitjacket. The Fiscal Compact is directly blocking countries like my own from investing in vital infrastructure. Only capital investment free from the conditions of austerity can help solve the urgent problems we have in health, housing and homelessness.

“For there to be any meaningful change, the EU needs to step up and prioritise public investment in infrastructure, building the real economy.

“Our people have had enough.”

Liadh Ní Riada brings fishermen to meet EU advisers A MEETING between Irish fishermen and the group that advises the European Commission on stock sustainability has been facilitated by Liadh Ní Riada.

The Ireland South MEP brought together representatives from the Irish South and West Fish Producers’ Organisation (ISWFPO) and the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) to discuss a range of issues.

She said the meeting had been constructive but raised a number of questions around landing obligations. The impact of seismic surveys on spawning stocks and larvae was also raised as evidence has suggested it is having a detrimental effect.

“The scientific and ecological impact of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing by ‘super-trawlers’ was also a major concern,

especially regarding over-catch and by-catch,” Liadh said.

“This influential group is now well aware that Irish fishermen often feel excluded from the

Landing obligations and impact of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing by ‘super-trawlers’ raised decision-making process whilst the wealthy fishing cartels, who have most to gain and lose from the advice ICES gives to the EU, are often involved in every aspect of the process.”

Liadh Ní Riada MEP

Euro Parliament rural committee invited to Ireland to assess Brexit impact MIDLANDS NORTH WEST Matt Carthy has asked the European Parliament’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee to organise an official mission to Ireland to examine the impact of Brexit on farming communities and the Irish agricultural sector.

Matt Carthy explained: “In Ireland, the agricultural sector operates on an all-island basis with animals often reared

‘In Ireland, the agricultural sector operates on an all-island basis’

Matt Carthy MEP

on one part of the island and slaughtered on the other. Similar operations are true for the dairy sector where farmers from one side of the Border bring their milk to creameries on the other.

“Studies have shown that if the EU’s current

tariff for imports of milk was re-established on the island of Ireland, trade North and South would almost definitely stop and co-operation of this kind would cease. This would devastate the dairy sector and farming communities who depend on this trade for their livelihood.”

The Border counties MEP added that the

effects of Brexit will make working across the Border increasingly difficult for farmers who may now be subject to customs controls (rules of origin checks, import licence requirements, documentation, physical border checks) as well as the costs of two different regulatory regimes.

March / Márta 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

Matt Carthy

Martina Anderson

Liadh Ní Riada

Lynn Boylan

23

www.guengl.eu

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

GUE/NGL MEPs meet EU Commissioner during crucial year for cohesion policy GUE/NGL MEPs on the European Parliament’s Committee on Regional Development (REGI) – including Martina Anderson MEP – have met with EU Commissioner Corina Crețu for “an informal exchange of views”.

“This is set to be a crucial year for the future of the cohesion policy with EU institutions likely to take up their early positions on several aspects of this policy,” a GUE/NGL spokesperson said.

The meeting at the end of January served as an opportunity for GUE/NGL MEPs on the committee – headed by Younous Omarjee (First

Lynn Boylan MEP

Access to Medicines Report ‘groundbreaking’, says Boylan

Martina Anderson raises the impact of Brexit on the North of Ireland in terms of European funding Vice-Chair of the committee), Martina Michels, Dimitrios Papadimoulis and Martina Anderson – to express the group’s views and concerns about the cohesion policy.

In addition, they relayed to Commissioner Crețu how strongly GUE/NGL believes it should be reinforced as a tool of European solidarity.

Martina Anderson raised the impact of Brexit on the North of Ireland in terms of European funding.

“At present, 10% of the GDP of the North comes from EU funding,” the Derry-based MEP said and pointed out that, as a result of the British Government’s Brexit agenda, the North stands to lose at least £3.5billion in funding.

“This funding has made a huge impact across

Martina Anderson MEP

communities in the North and its loss would be disastrous.

“The people of the North voted to remain in the EU. In doing so they wanted to retain EU funding, to reject any strengthening of the Border and, crucially, to continue to access EU funding.”

Repeating her call for Designated Special Status for the North within the EU, she urged the Irish Government to act in the best interests of all Irish citizens and work to achieve that.

Irish MEP slams cost of cancer treatment drugs SPEAKING at an event held in Derry by the Pink Ladies to mark World Cancer Day on 4 February, MEP Martina Anderson said she has raised concerns with Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager about the lack of EU attention on big pharmacological global

Martina Anderson has raised concerns with Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager co-operations “which are robbing member states’ health budgets”.

She said: “It is alarming that the cost of cancer treatment

has increased more than 1,000% since I became an MEP. This clearly impacts on the treatment of patients and their survival rates.

“It's scandalous that millions of pounds are going into bulging bank accounts of shareholders while the lives of patients are put at risk because of the unacceptable increase cost of much-needed drugs.

“The EU member states need to stop these unscrupulous companies from preying on the fears of people who are ill.

“What needs to be challenged is the excessive profits made by companies refusing the sell the drug unless it’s at an excessive cost.

Large global corporations are charging extortionate prices for much-needed drugs which are produced relatively cheaply, the Irish MEP said.

“Just like I took on the big tobacco companies, you can be assured that I will also go after the pharmaceuticals.”

DUBLIN MEP Lynn Boylan has hailed the passing by the European Parliament of an EU Report on Access to Medicines on 2 March as “groundbreaking”. She says she hopes it will lead to cheaper medicines for people throughout Europe, in particular those who need life-saving medicines, as is the case with cystic fibrosis sufferers and the drug Orkambi.

“Article 35 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights on Health protection provides that ‘everyone has the right of access to preventive health care and the right to benefit from medical treatment under the conditions established by national laws and practices’,” Lynn said.

“It also provides that a high level of human health protection must be ensured in the definition and implementation of all EU policies and activities.

“This report calls for a control of medicines prices through mechanisms such as horizontal pricing, co-ordinating joint procurements between member states, and increasing

co-operation between the member states on price-setting procedures so as to keep medicine prices as low as possible for citizens.

“It also stresses that transparency in relation to the cost of development and clinical trials is crucial in order to set a fair price.

Hopes move will lead to cheaper medicines for people throughout Europe, including cystic fibrosis sufferers “Crucially, the report also highlights the difficulties of rare diseases and says that much more needs to be done to promote relevant research and to ensure that safe and affordable medicines are available for citizens who suffer from rare diseases.”

Scrapping of EU corruption report slated THE DECISION by EU Commission Vice-President Franz Timmerman to scrap a planned anti-corruption report on EU member states is “beyond comprehension”, Lynn Boylan has said.

The report was a promised follow-up to a similar anti-corruption report from 2014. It

Shock move as Romania and France gripped by financial scandals intended to take stock of how far things had moved forward in relation to combating corruption but has now been shelved.

“This report was due to be released last month but has now been scrapped altogether,” the Irish MEP said. “The actions of the EU Commission in this regard not only discredits how people view the EU but it undermines accountability and democracy, and undermines faith in the EU to do what is right and for the benefit of the people.”

The 2014 report said member states needed to strengthen controls, put in place more “dissuasive sanctions”, and improve transparency to combat corruption.

She said her shock at this move increased with the widespread protests in Romania after the Government decriminalised low-level corruption and the unfolding financial scandal in France enveloping Presidential contender Francois Fillon.”

24 March / Márta 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

TV’s Toffs and Thieves SO WHAT DID YOU WATCH on TV this week? A little sport? Some soaps? Maybe a little indulgent Netflix bingeing? In the Ireland of 2017, adults watch on average 3 hours 21 minutes of live television daily, according to TAM Ireland research.

When you add in watching on a smartphone, PC, laptop or tablet, the viewing time grows even higher.

What were the chances you were watching some ‘Toff TV’? Pretty high, I think.

‘Toff what?’ you ask, puzzledly. For many of us this is one of our guilty viewing pleasures, whether it is Downton Abbey or The Crown on Netflix. Even Game of Thrones counts!

Toff TV is programming about the wealthy, so-called ‘aristocratic’ elites. It is usually very white TV, dealing with the woes and traumas of the idle and scheming rich.

Staunch armchair republican philosophers like myself have been absorbed by some of these programmes. And, yes, I was appalled when the Irish

Staunch armchair republican philosophers like myself have been absorbed by some of these programmes republican rebel on Downton Abbey, Tom Branson, decides to spurn the Tan War (aka War of Independence) for a life of luxury as estate manager.

I watched the Netflix mini-series The Crown, with the precise amount of republican sneering indignation that conveyed to my co-viewers in undisguised tones the empty vanity of the British royal family. I was often asked to shut up and told: “You don’t understand how difficult it was for poor Elizabeth.” Poor?!!!

In fairness, the series does show an endless amount of plotting and palace intrigue, highlighting the rotten, pointless institution that any monarchy is.

ROBBIE SMYTH 5 'Poor' Elizabeth from Netflix mini-series 'The Crown' and Irish republican rebel 'Tom Branson' in Downton Abbey took to a life of luxury

There is one episode where Elizabeth visits the North of Ireland and is entertained by an Orange loyalist band. This and other trips to Africa and Australia give vivid insight into the depth of colonial racism in 1950s Britain.

Game of Thrones is a Toff TV extravaganza. The poor, common citizens are there solely to be tortured, skewered, and hung (and usually all three). They don’t get much dialogue other than to say “No, my lord” or “Yes, my Lord”. I have wondered why Robb Stark didn’t eventually realise the futility of fighting for the Iron Throne and declare a People’s Republic of Winterfell. The people of Westeros would have flocked to his banner.

Increasingly absent from TV today is a working-class voice, an Everyman perspective of the world we live in.

When you compare the TV of the 1980s or 1990s with today we should ask where is this generation’s Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, which told the story of a group of British workers, redundant in Thatcher’s Britain, who go to Germany for work.

There were other great shows like Alan Bleasdale’s Boys from the Blackstuff (BBC1) and Phil Redmond’s early Brookside (C4), with Ricky Tomlinson as a staunch socialist and trade union

activist with storylines involving factory occupations and strikes. All have disappeared from our screens, replaced by parody dramas such as Shameless, crime and cop shows or comedies.

When the economically marginalised and the ordinary workers do appear on our screens it is as often as thieves

there is a huge housing problem and growing homelessness, one of the peak RTÉ TV Sunday night shows is Room to Improve – a programme about making your house bigger?

It is not that all these shows don’t have a place on TV today; the question is what are we missing?

Even Game of Thrones is a Toff TV extravaganza or singing for transitory fame and fortune in an endless series of cloned ‘reality’ TV game shows.

Is it just me that finds it strange that, in a state where

5 Should Robb Stark have declared a People’s Republic of Winterfell?

5 Ken Loach and scenes from 'I, Daniel Blake' and 'Cathy, Come Home' – reality spanning the decades

Love Hate was great TV but where is the TV drama about life on a zero hour contract, or living in Ireland’s high-rent, low-quality-of-life commuter belts?

There is some great workingclass themed programming still on TV today but it is the exception and often this work only gets onto TV as comedy such as Gavin & Stacey or the now-dated The Royle Family. Compare this to the inanity of Goggle Box (TV

Increasingly absent from TV today is a working-class voice, an Everyman perspective of the world we live in viewers viewing a TV programme showing other TV viewers viewing what the viewer has probably already been viewing).

Perhaps the best example of the contrast in TV over the past 50 years is to look at the work of Ken Loach.

His 2016 Palme D’Or winner I, Daniel Blake got a limited cinema release.

In the 1960s, Loach was a stalwart of TV drama, his seminal Cathy, Come Home, a BBC film about homelessness, stands out as a classic. There is no Ken Loach on TV now that I can see.

There are perhaps too many kings and queens and superheroes dominating our living rooms. We need fewer Lannisters and a lot more Loaches on TV today.

March / Márta 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

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5 Trinity College Dublin: Protesters prevent Israeli Ambassador Ze’ev Boker from whitewashing Zionist aggression against the Palestinian people

'The figures so far for 2017 tell us we are heading for another record year of demolitions'

Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes raised in Dáil by Sinn Féin TD THE THREATENED DEMOLITION of the entire Palestinian village of Khan al Ahmar

by Israel has been raised in the Dáil by Sinn Féin Foreign Affairs spokesperson Seán Crowe TD. The Dublin deputy called on Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan and the Irish Government to make urgent representations to the Israeli Government to reverse the demolition orders.

He welcomed the news he was given in the Dáil on Thursday that the Irish Ambassador to Palestine would visit Khan al Ahmar in the coming days.

Figures from the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination for Humanitarian affairs and the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel show that 1,089 structures were demolished or confiscated in 2016, leaving some 1,600 Palestinians displaced and affecting the livelihoods of a further 7,100 people.

“The figures so far for 2017 tell us we are heading for another record year of demolitions,” Seán Crowe told the Dáil.

He said that demolitions constitute a breach of the of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the destruction of personal property by an occupying power unless it is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations. It also prohibits all forcible transfers of civilian populations by an occupying power.

“The continued demolition of Palestinian homes and structures, as well as the continued building of illegal colonial settlements in occupied Palestine is a deliberate attack on the possibility of the two-state solution,” Seán Crowe said.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin Republican Youth activists were prominent among other protesters during the week who prevented Israeli Ambassador Ze’ev Boker from excusing Zionist aggression against the Palestinian people to a small group of students at Trinity College Dublin.

‘Final demand’ to British Government for Acht na Gaeilge SINN FÉIN’S Carál Ní Chuilín has challenged British Secretary of State James Brokenshire over his government’s failure to implement an Irish Language Act. Speaking after Sinn Féin protested at the NIO offices in Belfast and handed in “a letter of final demand” to the British Government, Carál Ní Chuilín said: “Today, Irish language activists from across the North gathered at Stormont to protest at the failure of the British Government to live up to its commitment to implement an Irish Language Act. “This was agreed in the St Andrews

Agreement in 2006 but, more than a decade later, the British Government still haven’t acted.

“Their failure to live up to this responsibility has given cover to the DUP, who have treated the Irish language and identity with disrespect and disdain.

“I have today written to James Brokenshire calling on him to fulfill his government’s obligation by implementing the agreement for an Irish Language Act. “It is long past the time the Irishlanguage community is treated with respect and equality.”

Eoin Rochford, Chairperson of Dublin Sinn Féin Republican Youth, said that Ze’ev Boker has previously denied the existence of a military blockade of Gaza “as well as whitewashing other war crimes committed by the Israeli rogue state”.

Eoin explained: “We found it to be unacceptable that this man would be given a platform in an Irish educational institution to spread his vile Zionist propaganda.

“While the question of whether or not to allow someone speak at an event continues to be an academic endeavour for some people, it isn’t one for the Palestinian people who continue to suffer under a brutal apartheid regime.”

He said the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions) campaign has the opportunity to play a major role in bringing an end to Israeli apartheid.

“It is the duty of every Irish person to stand shoulder to shoulder with the oppressed Palestinian people to bring the Zionist terror campaign to an end.”

26 March / Márta 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

A GRIM FUTURE FOR

FOLKLORE

embraces the folklore of Ireland in a manner that was and remains unique. The stories were

churning, care of the feet, local forge, locally made clothes, holy family, local patron saint,

traditions, strange animals . . .

“The children should remember that very

ROBERT ALLEN A LONG TIME AGO, the road from our house to the village dipped and twisted into a sleepy hollow encased by a clump of trees that rustled in a gentle wind and whistled to a soft rain.

On moonlit nights the hollow emitted a wispy effulgence that warmed the heart. This natural benevolence was contrasted by cold, hard nights when the wind sounded like a banshee and the rain fell like stones.

And on nights as black as coal, the hollow was a living nightmare – full of unimaginable danger, eerie sounds that chilled the heart, and shadowy movement as real as the elemental trees.

Eventually, the council erected an unnecessary street lamp at that corner and refused to say why.

The people of the village passed down

On nights as black as coal, the hollow was a living nightmare stories about this abrupt twist in the narrow road. Some were believable and might even have been based on fact. Some were fantastic and might have been folklore. No one seemed to know the difference between fact and fantasy. No one cared because the stories rooted the people in their place, and that was all that mattered.

Eighty years ago, at the behest of Séamus Ó Duilearga and Séan Ó Súilleabháin in the Irish Folklore Commission, 50,000 schoolchildren from 5,000 schools started to write down the stories about their home place. The task took almost two years and now those stories, originally written on almost three quarter of a million exercise book pages, are available online at www. duchas.ie.

The Bailiúchán na Scol (Schools’ Collection)

5 John Carey specialised in Celtic folklore

written by the children, who interpreted them from local knowledge, in conversations with grandparents, parents and neighbours.

The folklorists sent a booklet to all the teachers. “The collection of the oral traditions of the Irish people is of national importance,” they announced and set out what they wanted.

Stories about hidden treasure, funny tales, riddles, weather lore, local heroes, local happenings, severe weather, old schools, old crafts, marriage customs, penal times, place names, bird lore, local cures, handmade toys, lore of certain days, travelling folk, fairy forts, local poets, games, local roads, home district, holy wells, herbs, potato crop, proverbs, festival customs, care of farm animals,

5 Daniel Corkery was a folk story collector

The Bailiúchán na Scol embraces the folklore of Ireland in a manner that was and remains unique local fairs, landlord, food in olden times, hurling and football, old stories, old Irish tales, songs, local monuments, bread, buying and selling, old houses, giants and warriors, leipreacháns and mermaids, local ruins, religious stories, old graveyards, collections of prayers, emblems, objects of value, historical

little is known about the traditions of their district and they should record everything which throws a light on these traditions,” they stressed, and the stories came flooding in from all over the country.

A story about pigs: “Long ago in this island the people used to only fatten one set of pigs in the year – these then used be strong tough old pigs about 12 months. Each man would have two or three. There was no market of any good nearer than Cork. Castletown wasn't much those days, so they used have to bring their pigs all the way from Dursey to Cork.”

A story about work: “There was a strange farmer in a certain locality and he was looking for workmen. One morning he went out to see if there was anybody waiting for the

March / Márta 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

5 Covers of the Grimm Brothers' fairytales

5 Postcard for the Grimm Museum in Germany

position and there were two people waiting.

He asked the first man what could he do and he said he could do everything. Then he asked the second fellow what could he do and he said he could do nothing. So the farmer asked why and he said that the other fellow said he could do everything.”

And superstition: “The (people) would not take milk out of the house after sunset without putting salt in it. They used always pray when they saw the new moon. People would not leave a young child in the house without putting the tongs across the cradle.

GT

The Grimm Brothers Museum in Germany is a monument to an oral folk tradition and the dialects that were used to convey stories

5 Robert Allen by the Grimm Brothers' dictionary at the museum

This was done to prevent the fairies taking it away.”

Until the announcement in 2012 that the Bailiúchán na Scol would be digitalised and the words “Irish folklore” re-entered the vocabulary, our traditional oral culture was in a dark place, trapped under the promise of yet another Celtic revival and the instant snap-chat of social media, betrayed by those who saw it merely as a tourist trap.

While King Leonidas and his legendary 299 Spartans were introducing the world to Greek (and Persian) folklore via comic book and film,

hosts of Knockboy

BY EVELYN GALLEVAN

going to tell about HIS NIGHT that I ofam nights that come in Septem-

was one of these loveliest a gentle peace and serenity ber. The moon was full and e. were over the whole countrysid of the country for 40 t that wishing worn in this part So beautiful was the nigh feel its to linger on the way the more to escort my n upo sweetness I prevailed e. hom rn retu to ay halfw t when abou when I I came on easily, past the school a host”, had spent the day “myself against soft the in ed seem it le gent r and hou paused moonlight. At the little bridge I it “glide a while to see the waters under y”. awa s ines like happ ses When I came to the bridge that cros by led start was I n the stream here agai – s step foot hing roac app of the sound – many knip-knap! knip-knap! knip-knap ent, footsteps together and the next mom this? is t Wha Santa Maria! , are Five wom en, I cou nted them light the as ly approaching me, as plain and y fanc no was e Ther of the moon. differof were five The n. ptio dece no was the ent sizes. The one in the centre but the alike sed dres were tallest. They check wore They . rent diffe were urs colo s not dres of aprons and shawls – a style

27

years past. ly, and My heart beat a bit quicker sure passed I kept well in on the grass. They e no by. They spoke no word, and I spok the as pale as were s face r word. Thei ap of moonlight and, save for the tip-t dead. their feet, they were as silent as the t nor righ the to er neith ed They look to the left. not I went my way, scared enough. I did ?I Why . them after gaze to turn my head really don’t know. of When I came into the house I told ess host and host My . seen what I had explawere surprised, but ventured the g to goin y part a nation that it may be the in g erin gath such e a wake or som could they gh thou – od urho hbo neig rel with not fit in my description of appa . knew anything they that But inquiries the next day showed for ering gath there was no wake nor any ain. expl ot cann I er. furth miles around

Page from the Duchas website

and yet another Grimm Brothers folktale was finding its way onto the big screen, no one seemed to want to glamourise the deeds of Maeve, Ailill, Conor and Cú on screen (large or small), or tell stories about amazing herbalists, cunning animals, magical birds, the pisreóga (superstitions passed down), rites of passage, soothsayers, war and famine – all subjects of books and films elsewhere in the world.

Irish folklore had lost its allure. Despite the start made by Ó Duilearga, Ó Súilleabháin and the 50,000 storytellers, it gradually fell into the doldrums and became the preserve of foreign writers, whose interpretations have not always been faithful and more often than not have been inauthentic.

Dublin City University’s Gearoid Ó Cleircin believes the digitalisation of the national folklore collection will raise awareness of Irish folklore in Ireland.

“It seems to have inspired the younger generation organically. The Dúchas project has been contacted by educators from primary to third level who use the material as part of class. ‘Macha Media’ have brought a number of stories back to life with the help of some budding young actors and have made the videos available online (https://www.meoneile. ie/sraitheanna/insint-eile. It is also in use in the Threads project on scoilnet: https://www.scoilnet.ie/threads).”

There are two reasons why everyone knows the Grimm Brothers’ folktales – Hollywood (Disney in particular) and the simple fact that the original shreds of stories were embellished as part of a project to unify a collective consciousness.

The Grimm Brothers Museum in Kassel, in Germany, is a monument to the work these men started, ostensibly to unify the disparate German dialects. They introduced the world to Gothic stories yet that was always a byproduct of their core work – the collection of an oral folk tradition and the dialects that were used to convey those stories.

Not much different to Ó Duilearga’s project. Many of the stories are written as Gaeilge and hold clues to their origins.

It’s time to start telling each other stories again. And time to put them into the world.

28 March / Márta 2017

www.anphoblacht.com BOOK REVIEWS BY MICHAEL MANNION

Death of Dr Shane Kenna

IT is appropriate to mention, and mourn, the untimely death of Dr Shane Kenna, who has just lost a year-long struggle with cancer.

Shane was the perfect embodiment of the phrase “a

scholar and a gentleman” and his tragic death at such a young age is a loss not only to the world of historical research but to society in general. May he rest in peace.

Roots of the Rising leaders Seven Signatories: Tracing the Family Histories of the Men Who Signed the Proclamation

By Paul Gorry Irish Academic Press €7.99

JUST when you had thought that the 2016 centenary of the Easter Rising had exhausted all possible permutations of any hitherto unexplored aspects of the Rebellion, along comes another book with an unusual and innovative perspective.

The author, Paul Gorry, is a professional genealogist, and this book traces the genealogies and antecedents of the titular seven signatories of the Proclamation.

At first glance, this may appear to be rather dry stuff but, on closer reading, it’s a fascinating insight into some of the formative influences that shaped the lives of these men.

Perhaps the first thing to strike you is the sheer diversity of backgrounds of each of the signatories.

Some came from positions of extreme wealth and privilege whilst

others came from backgrounds of poverty and deprivation. Some came from firmly rural childhoods. Others were the product of strongly urban upbringing. One was born in Scotland and another in England. Several of them were descended from English, rather than Irish, families.

Whilst none of this is particularly new information, it does provide pause for thought to try and imagine such a committed and disparate group coming together today.

We have an image of social barriers being far more rigid and inflexible one hundred years ago but perhaps we haven’t progressed as far as we like to believe.

The other rather lazy stereotype that most of us cling to is that religion was rigidly demarcated in the late 19th century. There were Catholics and Protestants and families did not really cross that divide. In fact, out of this extremely small sample of seven people, two were the products of mixed marriages (or three if you discount

Pearse’s father’s conversion to Catholicism), and three had wives from Church of Ireland families.

This is quite a small book but the sheer level of detailed research it contains is mind blowing. I’m sure that

We have an image of social barriers being far more rigid and inflexible one hundred years ago but perhaps we haven’t progressed as far as we like to believe many readers have shelves groaning under the weight of 1916 commemorative publications but this little volume won’t take up much room but it would make an interesting addition to anyone’s library.

A book for men and women

Women Writing War: Ireland 1880-1922

Edited by Tina O’Toole, Gillian McIntosh and Muireann Ó Cinnéide UCD Press €30

THIS ANTHOLOGY analyses works by female writers on various aspects of conflict with an Irish dimension.

The topics covered include the Land League and Land Wars, the Boer War, Roger Casement’s female friends, World War One, Eva Gore-Booth, the Easter Rising, the Tan War and the Civil War. Since Homer wrote the first account of armed conflict in The Illiad and The Odyssey, writing has been almost universally undertaken by men, about men. The Irish situation has differed from most other conflicts with women taking an active primary role rather than being sidelined to being secondary or merely supporting participants.

From the Women’s Land League to Cumann na mBan, women have been at the forefront of the struggle but their voices have gone largely unheard. This book seeks to redress the balance.

A common problem with collections such as this is that each section is constrained to one chapter, so the reader is left with edited highlights

rather than a more expansive exploration of a particular work. As many of the sources are unpublished or out of print, one is left totally dependent upon the contributor’s opinion and analysis rather than making up one’s own mind. (This is not a criticism of this book in particular but of anthologies in general.)

Not too surprisingly, this book adopts a determinedly feminist viewpoint

Women have been at the forefront of the struggle but their voices have gone largely unheard which, considering the amount of macho posturing that has been produced over the years, is fair enough.

To title one chapter “Eva Gore-Booth’s Queer Art of War” seems unnecessarily sensationalist, however.

All in all, a very interesting book that will probably be read by more women 5 Eva Gore-Booth with her sister than men – sadly, as it is the men who Constance, later Constance Markievicz would probably derive most benefit.

March / Márta 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

All notices and obituaries should be sent to notices@anphoblacht.com

I nDíl Chuimhne 1 March 1983: Volunteer Eddie DYNES, North Armagh Brigade.

3 March 1991: Volunteer Malcolm NUGENT, Volunteer Dwayne O’DONNELL, Volunteer John QUINN, Volunteer Noel WILKINSON, Tyrone Brigade.

4 March 1972: Volunteer Albert KAVANAGH, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

6 March 1988: Volunteer Mairéad FARRELL; Volunteer Dan McCANN; Volunteer Seán SAVAGE, GHQ Staff.

7 March 1990: Sam MARSHALL, Sinn Féin.

8 March 1971: Volunteer Charles HUGHES, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

9 March 1972: Volunteer Gerard CROSSAN, Volunteer Tony LEWIS, Volunteer Seán JOHNSTON,

29

Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations PÁDRAIG PEARSE Volunteer Tom McCANN, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

12 March 2003: Volunteer Keith ROGERS, South Armagh Brigade.

14 March 1972: Volunteer Colm KEENAN; Volunteer Eugene McGILLAN, Derry Brigade.

14 March 1988: Volunteer Kevin McCRACKEN, Belfast Brigade, 1st Battalion.

15 March 1974: Volunteer Patrick McDONALD, Volunteer Kevin MURRAY, Tyrone Brigade.

16 March 1988: Volunteer Caoimhín Mac BRÁDAIGH, Belfast Brigade, 1st Battalion.

17 March 1975: Volunteer Tom SMITH, Portlaoise Prison.

22 March 1987: Volunteer Gerard

LOGUE, Derry Brigade.

23 March 1972: Fian Seán O’RIORDAN, Fianna Éireann.

23 March 1975: Fian Robert ALLSOPP, Fianna Éireann.

23 March 1993: Peter GALLAGHER, Sinn Féin.

25 March 1972: Volunteer Patrick

Comhbhrón McCOURT. Deepest sympathy to the family of Frank McCourt of Lisdrumgormley, Clontibret, Monaghan, a member of the Francis Green Sinn Féin Cumann, and thoughts particularly Frank’s son Brendan, who is well known in Kinsale.

CAMPBELL, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

25 March 1993: Volunteer James KELLY, Derry Brigade.

27 March 1973: Volunteer Patrick McCABE, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

Always remembered by the Republican Movement.

FARRELL, Mairéad. I gcuimhne ár From Noel Harrington and Donnacha De Barra Sinn Féin Cumann, Kinsale.

McGIVERN. The Halpenny, Worthington, Watters Sinn Fein Cumann in Dundalk deeply regrets the death of Bridie McGivern, mother of our friend and comrade Paddy. » Notices All notices should be sent to: notices@anphoblacht.com There is no charge for I nDíl Chuimhne, Comhbhrón, etc.

gcomrádaí Mairéad Farrell, proudly remembered by Galway City East Sinn Féin on her 29th anniversary 6 March 1988 and her 60th birthday. “Man’s dearest possession is life. It is given to him but once, and he must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past; so live that, dying, he might say: all my life, all my strength were given to the finest cause in all the world – the fight for the liberation of mankind” – Nikolai Ostrovsky.

Condolences to all the family.

TUITE. Deepest sympathy and condolences to the family and friends of Kathleen Tuite, who passed away recently. From the Halpenny, Worthington, Watters Sinn Féin Cumann in Dundalk. » Imeachtaí There is a charge of €10 for inserts printed in our Imeachtaí/Events column. You can also get a small or large box advert.

Contact: sales@anphoblacht.com for details.

5 Sinn Féin MEP Liadh Ní Riada at the Mourne Abbey monument with Councillors Catherine Carey, Mick Nugent and Melissa Mullane; along with TD Pat Buckley and members of Cork, Mallow and Tipperary Sinn Féin

Ireland South MEP addresses Mourne Abbey Ambush Commemoration in County Cork SINN FÉIN MEP Liadh Ní Riada has again called on people of all political persuasions and none – including unionists – to get involved in the discussion on the reunification of Ireland.

“I say now is the time to make your voice heard,” the Ireland South MEP said at the Mourne Abbey Ambush Commemoration just outside Mallow in County Cork on Sunday 12 February.

“To those hard-working activists in other parties, I say now is the time to stand up to your leadership and demand they play a meaningful role in the discussion that will shape a new Ireland.

“To our unionist brothers and sisters, I say your input is as essential as everyone else’s. Take part in the conversation, even from an opposing point of view.

“Share with us your hopes, concerns

and ideas and we will share with you our vision of a fair, free and progressive country that cherishes all the children of the nation equally.”

THE MOURNE ABBEY AMBUSH When Pearse proclaimed the Republic on the steps of the GPO in Dublin, the Mourne Abbey men were mobilised and ready to fight.

On the first anniversary of the Rising, they raised the Tricolour at the highest points they could find in the area, including from the top of Mourne Abbey Castle, which had been destroyed by Cromwell more than 200 years earlier.

The Royal Irish Constabulary removed the flag but Volunteers replaced it the

next day and barricaded the approach to the top of the castle. In the words of one Volunteer, Jerome Buckley, OC of the local company on the night of the Mourne Abbey ambush, “there it remained until blown to shreds by the winds”.

Support for the Volunteers was so strong in the area that, by 1919, the Mourne Abbey Company had gotten so big that the decision was taken to split it in two, with Burnfoot to the east and Analeentha to the west.

It was no surprise that when the order came through to attack a convoy of senior British Army officers heading to a conference at their headquarters in Cork that the Mourne Abbey men did not hesitate.

Unfortunately, an informer had betrayed the companies and, despite the

valiant efforts of local woman Siobhán Lankford, to warn the Volunteers, they found themselves surrounded.

Four Volunteers were killed in the ensuing battle: Patrick Flynn, Patrick Dorgan, Eamon Creedon and Michael Looney all gave their lives at this spot.

Eight more Volunteers were captured and once they had gotten them to their headquarters in Cork the British executed two more of them: Patrick Ronayne and Thomas Mulcahy.

The oldest of all those killed was 30, the youngest, just 18.

30 March / Márta 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

The challenge to achieve change THE Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI opinion poll published on 2 March shows that the two parties who have dominated the Southern state since partition are neck-and-neck in public approval ratings.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were on 29% and 28% respectively with their nearest challenger being Sinn Féin, up 4 points from December to 21%.

Of course, any opinion poll is a mere snapshot, but the trends are clear.

The Irish political landscape is changing.

The two-and-half party system which has so badly served people for so many decades is fragmenting.

The Establishment parties have tried to make a virtue out of necessity and have dressed up their marriage of convenience as ‘new politics’.

It has been said that Fine Gael are in Government but it is Fianna Fáil that is in power and there is a large degree of truth in that. Effectively, we have a Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil coalition.

In that sense, we are all at the mercy of the most cynical party in Irish politics.

Fianna Fáil will pull the plug and trigger an election when timing and circumstance are

SEÁN Mac BRÁDAIGH

by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, has made corruption of state institutions inevitable.

Counter-revolution and partition created not one but two conservative states that have been run in the interests of the elites.

What developed in the South was a narrowminded, mean-spirited state that was cruel to the poor, to women and to political radicals of any kind.

A claustrophobic, confessional atmosphere produced repression, censorship, repeated waves of emigration, economic stagnation and the overbearing influence of a conservative Catholic Church Hierarchy on politics and social development.

Many of the political, economic and social scandals witnessed in recent years are a product of this post-colonial condition.

Central to all of this has been the corrupt two-and-a-half party political system.

Some combination of Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil (often supported by the Labour Party or sometimes others) has been in government here since the foundation of the state.

But just as one-party Orange rule in the North is gone, the failed two-and-ahalf party system in this state is waning also.

The electoral rise of radical republicanism in the form of Sinn Féin has been central to this.

The policies of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are indistinguishable. There is no real difference between these parties on ideology or policy.

Both are champions of austerity, cuts to the

If all those who believe that a government without Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil is possible worked together towards that end, we could end Fianna Fáil/ Fine Gael rule opportune for Fianna Fáil. Not for the benefit of the country. Not for the benefi of the people.

Having survived the crisis created by Enda Kenny’s dissembling over the Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe scandal, the most recent major point of contention is water charges.

In this regard, Fianna Fáil is acting its cynical best, performing breath-taking political somersaults on the issue. It was actually Fianna Fáil who in 2010 negotiated with the Troika to introduce water charges in the first place.

The initial fault-line in the Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil arrangement, the Maurice McCabe affair, is another in a line of scandals in the history of the Garda and underlines the nature of the state moulded by the Tweedle Dee/Tweedle Dum dysfunctional political system.

We’ve had the notorious ‘Heavy Gang’, the Kerry Babies scandal, the Abbeylara affair and the revelations of the Morris Tribunal, to name but a few.

A conservative authoritarianism, presided over

5 The movement against water charges shows what is possible – if we can unite on the core objective

living standards of working people, the privatisation of public services, the protection of commercial vested interests, and kow-towing to the diktats of EU bureaucrats.

It has served those parties, and the privileged

5The 'Irish Times' poll of 2 March records Sinn Féin as the main mover

interests they represent, to construct an illusion of political choice. But there has never been any real choice.

At the moment, it suits Fianna Fáil to have a weak Fine Gael government in place but that can and will change. And that could be sooner rather than later.

It would represent major progress if both parties did the Irish people a favour, ended the sham and merged as one.

But, of course, they will not do that of their own accord. They have been forced into their current embrace by electoral circumstance.

If all those on the political Left and progressive Ireland – all those who want real change, all those who believe that a government without Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil is possible – worked together towards that end, we could end Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael rule.

If all those who have taken to the streets in recent years over a variety of issues, and all those who want to achieve a better, more equal Ireland, actually vote for it, work for it and co-operate with each other it is also achievable.

The challenge is there. So is the possibility.

March / Márta 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

31

Martin Ferris TD addresses commemoration of Fenian rising

150th anniversary of

‘BATTLE OF TALLAGHT’

BY MARK MOLONEY

HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE gathered in County Dublin on Sunday 5 March to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Tallaght, when Fenians attempting to reach their comrades gathered in the nearby Dublin Mountains engaged the Royal Irish Constabulary in the centre of Tallaght Village.

The skirmish saw Fenians Thomas Farrell and Stephen O’Donoghue killed.

Six other Fenians died in other engagements across Ireland that day.

The Fenian Rebellion petered out as the poorly-armed rebels lacked leader-

‘Those brave men who died here 150 years ago tried to break the chains of bondage with Britain and they fought for equality’ ship, most of whom had been arrested in advance due to informants within the revolutionary movement’s ranks.

The march this year from City West to Tallaght Village was led by the Dublin

5 Irish dancers entertain the crowd

5 Many Sinn Féin elected representatives and activists took part in the events

Republican Colour Party and accompanied by the Rising Phoenix Republican Flute Band and the Cabra Historical Society.

In Tallaght, there was entertainment by local Irish dancers with music by Gráinne Holland and Senator Fintan Warfield. Lynn Boylan MEP read the 1867 Proclamation.

Fenian historian Dr Shane Kenna RIP, who was buried just the day before, was scheduled to be a keynote speaker.

Martin Ferris TD said of those who died at Tallaght 150 years ago: “They were carrying on the noble tradition of the United Irishmen of 1798 and the Young Irelanders of the previous decade. It was from the suppression of the Young Irelanders that they were formed.

“Unfortunately, the rising of 1867 was doomed before it had started.

The curse of the informant, which has plagued so many Irish revolutionary bodies, was rife from top to bottom.”

Although the rebellion failed – it provided valuable lessons for future rebellions, the former IRA activist said, “especially the men and women of 1916 who ensured extreme secrecy in the knowledge that England’s difficulty was Ireland's opportunity”. He continued: “Those brave men who died here 150 years ago, they tried to break the chains of bondage with Britain. But, more than that, they fought for equality and we still fight for equality for all our people.”

Martin Ferris praised the work of republicans in recent elections and the dramatic Assembly election that had concluded with huge success for Sinn Féin just 24 hours earlier.

This had been achieved, he said,

5 Martin Ferris TD delivers a rebel-rousing speech on the legacy of 1867

“despite the vilification by the Free State parties who have tried to demonise us and criminalise our struggle”.

Martin Ferris sent best wishes to Martin McGuinness, describing him as “A man who led from the front. A man

‘We are going forward for justice, we are going forward for respect’

5 In the footsteps of the Fenians

of integrity, who stood up to unionism and stood up to the British Army on the streets of Derry. A man who has been an inspiration to all of us, along with his comrades, over the decades.”

He called on republicans to continue the work of the men and women of 1867 in pursuing an Irish Republic based on equal rights for all: “Let us leave here today in full knowledge that we will not take one step back.

We are going forward for equality, we are going forward for justice. We are going forward for respect and we will not accept anything but justice for all of our people!”

Contact phoblacht.com NEWS editor@an @anphoblacht.com NOTICES notices oblacht.com OS photos@anph

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IN PICTURES

Sraith Nua Iml 40 Uimhir 3 – March / Márta 2017

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 Assembly election: Belfast Sinn Féin candidates launch their 'RHI' anti-corruption billboard

5 Dublin Bay North Sinn Féin support Dublin Fire Brigade Emergency Medical Service at Kilbarrack

ANNUAL 'FLOWERS FOR MAGDALENES' AT GLASNEVIN

5 Mary Lou McDonald TD at the 6th annual 'Flowers for Magdalenes' event in Glasnevin, a ceremony of remembrance for the women of the Magdalene Laundries

5 Sinn Féin TDs Aengus Ó Snodaigh, Martin Ferris and Seán Crowe 5 Snap protest at DUP leader Arlene Foster's jibe about not feeding 5 Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD shows his support for the with members of the Rising Phoenix RFB at the 150th anniversary of UCD4Unity campaign by University College Dublin students ‘Battle of Tallaght’ – See page 31 crocodiles with an Irish Language Act