An Phoblacht, May 2015

KATHLEEN FUNCHION

WE CAN WIN PHIL HOGAN'S SEAT

'UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS'

GLENN BRADLEY

I joined the British Army to fight the IRA

Mícheál Martin's hysterical attacks on Sinn Féin

anphoblacht Sraith Nua Iml 38 Uimhir 5

May / Bealtaine 2015

Price €2 / £2

Westminster Election

Carlow/Kilkenny by- Election Marriage Equality referendum

equality Not austerity

2 May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

MAY DAY

‘Platform for Renewal’ – exciting initiative THE SPECIAL ‘May Day Conference’ on Friday 1 May and Saturday 2 May convened by the five trade unions affiliated to the Right2Water campaign to discuss a set of core principles which will underpin a ‘Platform for Renewal’ in advance of the next general election is being supported by Sinn Féin.

Sinn Féin’s representative on the Right2Water campaign, Councillor Daithí Doolan said: “This is an exciting initiative. Sinn Féin have been working with unions to help build a broad, inclusive Left platform

‘Workers’ living standards continue to be squeezed by policies which favour the interests of business over the interests of people’ that would promote anti-austerity policies and a fair recovery. We want to work with unions, parties and our communities to lay the foundation for an anti-austerity government. The May 5 Sinn Féin’s representative on the Right2Water campaign, Councillor Daithí Doolan, addresses the huge Right2Water rally in December Day conference could well be the first be invited to input into this Platform be squeezed by policies which favour that they will not be forced to pay for “Right2Water has mobilised hundreds step to making that happen.” the interests of business over the inter- the recovery. of thousands of people right across this The unions involved (the CPSU, for Renewal.

They say Right2Water has been one ests of people.

“In the interests of our members, and state. Sinn Féin has played a central role the Communication Workers’ Union, of the greatest popular mobilisations “Since the start of the crisis, the of our society as a whole, the five unions since the start and we hope that this Mandate, OPATSI and Unite) say that trade unions, individuals, political parties Ireland has witnessed – a grassroots numbers living in deprivation have are calling on like-minded citizens to upsurge will help prevent a governbuild this Platform for Renewal in a ment led by Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael. and Independents, NGOs, academics, movement which in reality has been doubled “The people have paid for a crisis not spirit of unity and solidarity.”

The next general election must break representatives of the not-for-profit about so much more than water charges.

Daithí Doolan added: “Workers’ living standards continue to of their making. We are determined the axis of reaction.” sector and community activists will all

Living wage policy launched by Sinn Féin

BY MARK MOLONEY “TALK IS CHEAP, and that’s all we’ve gotten from this Government in terms of workers’ rights,” says Senator David Cullinane speaking to reporters at the launch of Sinn Féin’s For Decent Work and a Living Wage document in Dublin.

“Any promises of substance that were made in the Programme for Government in relation to workers’ rights have not been delivered. They have built their recovery on low pay and precarious work.”

The proposals outlined in the Sinn Féin document include an immediate increase of the minimum wage by €1 per hour and an incremental move to a living wage of €11.45 per hour, introduction of collective bargaining and robust anti-victimisation legislation, a ban on zero-hours contracts, an increase in tax for those earning in excess of €100,000 as well as increasing supports for workers such as childcare.

Mary Lou McDonald TD said specific

steps need to be taken in relation to women workers: “There is still a gender pay gap in this state of just under 14% despite equal pay legislation dating back to the 1970s.

Certainly if you looked to the ranks of the Dunnes Stores workers striking recently you couldn’t but be struck

‘I don’t see how anyone can oppose a living wage’

SENATOR DAVID CULLINANE

by the fact that very large numbers of them are women. Women workers are struggling to making ends meet.

Up to 50% of women earn an average income of €20,000 or less.”

Noting that while Irish politicians frequently call for the regularisation of undocumented Irish in the USA, there is a need for a programme of

5 Senator David Cullinane, Dublin Fingal representative Louise O'Reilly and Mary Lou McDonald TD

regularisation for long-term undocumented migrants in Ireland, Mary Lou said: “We look pretty hypocritical having a one-sided argument on this issue.

If we are serious about protecting workers’ rights then you have to do it across the board.

“There is somewhere in the region of 24,000 undocumented people working in this state. One of the largest criticisms you hear at grassroots level is people frustrated that some immigrants will

work for a lower rate of pay. Some of these people are being exploited to the point of slave labour. They are very vulnerable and no Government serious about dealing with pay and insecure employment can lose sight of this.”

Responding to claims by IBEC that an increase in the minimum wage would damage jobs, David Cullinane said: “Nobody should have any concerns about workers having a living wage.

How can we stand over a situation where we have workers who don’t

have the ability to meet basic needs?

That is not fair or sustainable.

“I am saying to IBEC: It isn’t just about increasing wages. If people have access to decent public services such as universal childcare and healthcare that would lessen the need for wage increases. These moves can only happen by having fair, just and progressive taxation and reinvesting into core services. We want to end exploitation in the workplace. I don’t see how anybody could oppose that.”

May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

3

Narrow marriage equality vote at Assembly A MARRIAGE EQUALITY proposal tabled

by Sinn Féin at the Stormont Assembly on 27 April was defeated 47-49 due to almost total unionist opposition. The measure also faced a blocking move through a Petition of Concern by the Democratic Unionist Party.

It’s the fourth time the Assembly has voted down the equality move by Sinn Féin.

All 37 Sinn Féin and SDLP members present voted for the motion while four unionists and six Assembly members designated as “Other” also voted in favour.

All DUP members and all but one of the Ulster Unionist Party MLAs present voted against the motion, including First Minister and DUP leader Peter Robinson and Ulster Unionist Party leader Mike Nesbitt.

The only Ulster Unionist Party member to support the motion was South Antrim Westminster candidate Danny Kinahan. Independent

There was a notable five absences from the SDLP for the equality vote, including Alban Maginness (North Belfast) Unionist Claire Sugden (East Derry) and Basil McCrea and John McCallister voted in favour.

Three Alliance MLAs abstained.

There was a notable five absences from the SDLP for the equality vote, including Alban Maginness (North Belfast).

The DUP’s Peter Weir (who had opposed the motion as “an attack on the symbolism of marriage and the institution of marriage”) mocked the SDLP and Alliance benches.

“For some of those parties who position themselves as the champions of same-sex marriage, today’s debate simply highlighted their own internal difficulties,” the DUP critic said.

“There is always a question as to whether we should be concerned for the well-being of several SDLP MLAs who just happen to go missing when such a debate is taking place.

5 Cathal Boylan MLA, Megan Fearon MLA, Sinn Féin Mayor of South Dublin Fintan Warfield and Mickey Brady MLA supporting marriage equality at Stormont

“Similarly, despite the supposed fulsome support of the Alliance Party, three of the MLAs today could not bring themselves to vote in support.

“For all their talk about equality, in both the SDLP and Alliance, it seems that all members are not equal when it comes to same-sex marriage.”

It may be a point pondered by the SDLP’s sister party in the 26 Counties, the Labour Party, which has been canvassing for the SDLP but wholeheartedly engaged in the marriage equality campaign, unlike their SDLP ‘comrades’.

“However, it’s important progressive politicians Newry & Armagh Sinn Féin MLA Megan Fearon send a clear message of support for the LGBT said that it is disappointing that the DUP tabled community by voting in large numbers for a Petition of Concern to block “this important marriage equality. motion”, but added: “Sinn Féin is committed to the promotion of

IN PICTURES

5 Young Wolfe Tones playing at the Dublin Sinn Féin Easter Rising Commemoration – see pages 26 & 27

‘Sinn Féin is committed to the promotion of equality and challenging homophobia, racism, sectarianism and all forms of discrimination’

equality and challenging homophobia, racism, sectarianism and all forms of discrimination.”

The vote occurred on the day that the resignation was announced of DUP Health Minister Jim Wells after controversial remarks by him at an election hustings linking same-sex relationships with increased abuse or neglect of children. Jim Wells had received the backing of DUP leader and First Minister Peter Robinson but deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness (Sinn Féin) had said his position as Health Minister was clearly no longer tenable. When news emerged of another incident, when Jim Wells canvassed a DUP-supporting lesbian couple that led to a report to police, he announced his resignation (effective from 10 May) so that he can devote more time to his wife who is seriously ill.

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 MEPs from GUE/NGL EU Parliament group with Martina Anderson MEP and Gerry Kelly MLA at the former Girdwood Barracks site in Belfast during a fact-finding mission on the Peace Process – see page 25

4 May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

anphoblacht Editorial

WHAT'S INSIDE 8

O’Devaney Gardens

A decade of broken promises

10 & 11

Arder Carson, first Mayor of new Belfast ‘super council’

13

anphoblacht Eagarfhocal

anphoblacht

Making the change WHATEVER the outcomes of the elections Sinn Féin is contesting, they are but steps on the path to achieving power not for the sake of power but for the sake of achieving change.

That is why Sinn Féin is renowned as an effective campaigning organisation building on the ground – an activist party striving to make a change.

The Westminster elections are amongst the most important in recent years.

Whichever party or parties make up the next British Government, all are committed to an intensification of austerity.

The Tories have stated their intention to cut £12billion more out of welfare and Labour have also threatened more austerity.

The next British government will seek to impose further cuts to the block grant.

The unionist parties have conservative policies and support the Tories.

Contact The media and the 1916 ‘problem’: A dangerous message to future generation

15

Veterans for Peace IRA and British Army former combatants meet in London

21

Scannal na gcomharthaí bhóthair

22 & 23

A taste of Ireland

Boxty and champ make a comeback

31

Palestine Marathon

Derryman runs for freedom

SUBSCRIBE ONLINE To get your An Phoblacht delivered direct to your mobile device or computer for just €10 per 12 issues and access to the historic The Irish Volunteer newspaper posted online weekly and An Phoblacht’s/IRIS the republican magazine archives

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

Gerry Adams has appealed to working-class unionists to reflect on the fact that the unionist parties do not represent their economic interests.

Sinn Féin is the only party in the North to have taken a clear stand against austerity, is determined to oppose future cuts and has a proven record of building the economy and targeting investment to frontline services and protecting the most vulnerable. Martin McGuinness has achieved more in tough negotiations with British governments than the MPs from the North sitting in Westminster.

In the South, the polls show a continuing appetite for Sinn Féin’s politics of change. In the Carlow/Kilkenny by-election, Kathleen Funchion is the only real challenger to the Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

The challenge is to achieve change, to make the change, to make it Sinn Féin.

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

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

www.anphoblacht.com

Brigadier Frank Kitson faces writs over role in North THE FAMILY of Patrick Heenan, murdered by British state agents within the unionist Ulster Defence Association on 1 February 1973 in east Belfast, have travelled to London with Relatives for Justice and solicitors KRW Law to issue legal proceedings against the Ministry of Defence and retired British Army Commander-in-Chief Frank Kitson.

Kitson, who at the time of Heenan’s murder was a brigadier posted to the North, is specifically named in the

5 Retired British Army Commanderin-Chief Frank Kitson

London legal move on Military Intelligence role in ‘dirty war’ writ, the first of this kind whereby senior military figures have been included in relation to murders in Ireland.

Patrick Heenan (47) was killed when the minibus he was travelling in was targeted by the UDA. Patrick was a foreman joiner overseeing part of the construction of a Catholic school in east Belfast.

On the morning of the attack, the minibus had stopped to allow what appeared to be a partially-sighted man to cross the road. This was a ploy to stop the minibus at which

point it was attacked and a British Army-issue hand grenade thrown into the main body of the bus containing the workmen. Patrick immediately threw himself on top of the grenade, taking the full force and shielding the other passengers.

Another man, who subsequently died, lost a leg and several others were seriously injured.

At the end of May 1973, a British soldier, Albert ‘Ginger’ Baker,

handed himself into Warminster Police Station, confessing to Patrick’s murder and three other murders. Baker was part of a UDA gang modelled on Brigadier Kitson’s manual, Gangs & Counter Gangs.

Baker was jailed and subsequently spoke at length to Fr Denis Faul and Fr Raymond Murray of the Association for Legal Justice and also to the Labour Party’s Ken Livingstone, revealing his collusive activities and

links to British Military Intelligence.

Kevin Winters of KRW Law said: “It is well-established that Frank Kitson was the British Army officer in the North commanding 39 Brigade whose doctrine of counter-insurgency warfare was key during British Army operations during this period.

His command and influence were such as to make him liable for the actions of Baker and others in the murder of Patrick Heenan.

“These are civil proceedings for damages but their core value is to obtain truth and accountability for our clients as to the role of the British Army and Frank Kitson in the counter-insurgency operation in the North of Ireland during the early part of the conflict.”

May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

5

Le Trevor Ó Clochartaigh Éileamh don Ambasádóir córas tarscaoileadh víosa a thabhairt isteach

Dóchas do na hImircigh Éireannacha sna Stáit Aontaithe TÁ DÓCHAS nua ann go mb’fhéidir go bhféadfadh faoiseamh a bheith ann d’imircigh Éireannacha atá sna Stáit Aontaithe gan a gcuid páipéír mar is ceart acu. Tá éileamh dhá dhéanamh ag an mBrúghrúpa Éireannach um Athchóiríú Inimirce (the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform) go mbainfí úsáid as córas tarscaoileadh, no ‘waiver’, a d’árdódh an cosc ar thaisteal trí agus deich mbliana atá ar inimiricigh I Meiriceá nach bhfuil cáipéisí cuí acu.

Tá sé léirithe ag ILIR go bhfuil a leithéad de chóras i bhfeidhm cheana féin i dtíortha eile, faoi scáth na hAmbasáidí éagsúla de chuid na Stáit Aontaithe, ar fud an domhain. Tá Ciarán Staunton, Uachtarán ILIR, ag impí ar an Ambasadóir in Éirinn, Kevin O’Malley cothrom na féinne a thabhairt d’inimircigh Éireannacha agus scéim dá leithéad a chur ar bun anseo chomh maith.

Tá Sinn Féin ag tacú leis an éileamh seo agus ta sé ardaithe ag Gerry Adams leis an Ambasadóir O’Malley chomh maith, ag súil le faoiseamh a thabhairt dóibh siúd atá i gcruachás thall.

Meastar go bhfuil tuairim is caoga míle Éireannach ag cónaí i Meiriceá ar bhealach neamhrialaithe. Tá cuid mhór acu seo ann le blianta fada agus gan deis acu filleadh abhaile le cuairt a thabhairt ar chlann, ná cairde, ar shochraid, ar cheiliúradh nó ar aon chúis eile acu. Tá cuid mhór acu ag obair, ag íoc cánacha, pósta agus clann orthu. Ach, maireann siad i gcónaí faoi scáth an eagla go dtiocfaidh an cnag ar an doras agus go n-ordófar dóibh imeacht as an tir.

Tá iarrachtai ar bun ag an Uachtarán Obama, leis an gceart a thabhairt dó, chun scéim faoisimh a thabhairt isteach d’inimircigh atá ag cónai i Meiriceá ós cionn trí bliana, a bhfuil páiste acu atá mar shaoránach ann, nó ansin go dleathach go buan. Ach, tá dúshlán cúirte dhá thabhairt don Rialú Uachtaránachta seo atá beartaithe. Meastar freisin, nach leigheas é seo ar chruachás na

n-inimircigh Éireannacha ar fad, ach go mba chuidiú é do chuid mhaith díobh da dtabharfaí isteach é.

Ach, idir an dá linn d’fhéadfadh Ambasadóir na Stáit Aontaithe in Éirinn, scéim tarscaoileadh a thabhairt isteach a thabharfadh deis taisteal d’inimircigh Éireannacha. Tá an scéim seo i bhfeidhm cheana féin i gcuid mhaith tíortha eile agus luann an ILIR Meicsiceó ach go h-áirithe. mar shampla de sin. I 2011, tugadh cead do 58,000 de mhuintir na tíre sin a d’fhan thar an trí nó deich mbliain a bhí ceadaithe dóibh, cead chun fanacht sna Stáit.

Meastar go dtabharfadh an scéim seo seans do suas le 25% do na mílte inimirceach ón tír seo, chun caighdeánú a dhéanamh ar an stádas atá acu, dá dtabharfadh an Ambasadóir an seans sin dóibh.

D’fhéadfadh Ambasadóir na Stáit Aontaithe in Éirinn, scéim tarscaoileadh a thabhairt isteach a thabharfadh deis taisteal d’inimircigh Éireannacha

IN PICTURES

5 The aftermath of an arson attack on an east Belfast nail salon owned by a Lithuanian woman is one of a number of recent attacks against immigrants trying to build a life in the Six Counties. Reports say that a gang of men forced up the shutters of Asta's Glam Factory in Castlereagh Street shortly before midnight on Monday 13 April and torched the premises

Tá an cheist ardaithe ag Gerry Adams agus an pháirtí leis an Ambasadóir agus tuigtear dúinn go bhfuil seisean ag déanamh iniúchadh ar an gceist I láthair na h-uaire. Go dtí seo, áfach is beag brú atá tagtha ó Rialtas na tíre seo ar an Ambasadóir faoin ábhar.

Is léir ón obair stocaireachta atá ar siul ag ILIR agus eagraíochtaí eile, go bhfuil tacaíocht sna h-aicmí polaitiúla éagsúla chun leasú dlithe inimirce a chuir i bhfeidhm i Meiriceá. Tá sé soiléir áfach go bhféadfadh seo a bheith tarraingthe amach mar phroiséis agus gur céim thábhachtach, eatramhach a bheadh sa scéim tarscaoileadh atá molta, chun normalú a dhéanamh ar shaol na scórtha mílte Éireannach a chónaíonn sna Stáit, gan trácht ar a gcairde is a gaolta anseo nach mbíonn ábalta caidreamh mar is ceart a bheith acu lena gcomradaithe ansiúd thall.

Beidh muidne i Sinn Féin ag leanúint leis an stocaireacht leis na h-údaráis ar an gceist seo agus ag iarraidh ar an rialtas anseo a gcuid féin a dhéanamh dar bpobal inimirceach i Meiriceá.

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 A mural by Irish artist Joe Caslin on the theme of same-sex love and marriage was installed on the side of the Mercantile building on Dublin's George's Street. City Council says the mural is a breach of planning regulations and must be removed, more than 40,000 people have signed a petiton calling for it to stay

6 May / Bealtaine 2015

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caoimhe

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Shiela

Mickey

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East Derry

STRANGFORD Strangford

NEWRY & ARMAGH Newry and Armagh

WEST TYRONE West Tyrone

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Pat

ArchibAld BAILIE Brady Doherty EAST DERRY

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Declan

Chris

FERMANAGH & SOUTH TYRONE

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Gerry

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Paul

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Jacqui

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Daithí

Hazzard Kearney Kelly Maskey McCartney McGeouGh McKay SOUTH DOWN South Down

SOUTH ANTRIM South Antrim

BELFAST NORTH Belfast North

BELFAST WEST Belfast West

NORTH DOWN North Down

LAGAN VALLEY Lagan Valley

NORTH ANTRIM North Antrim

Sinn Féin contesting all 18 Westminster constituencies – 'Equality, not austerity'

EVERY VOTE COUNTS

THE Westminster election campaign goes down to the wire with canvass teams knocking doors across all 18 of the North's constituencies right up until polling day on 7 May.

At the time of writing, eyes are starting to shift from Jim Wells, the DUP Health Minister whose post-dated resignation was announced on Monday 27 April and who fell on his biblical sword four days after being exposed expressing homophobic remarks at a hustings on Thursday 23 April and despite being backed by DUP leader and First Minister Peter Robinson.

Yet Wells's remarks and the focus they are bringing on the DUP's long history of homophobia and intolerance could well have a bearing on the outcome of the election in some constituencies.

The main focus for Sinn Féin is on the Fermanagh & South Tyrone nail-biter.

Michelle Gildernew held the seat in the 2010 contest by a single vote and if republicans need reminding of the old adage that 'every vote counts' then they need look no further.

Now, as then, Gildernew is facing a single unionist and Tory austerity candidate in the figure of former Ulster Defence Regiment soldier Tom Elliot, the beneficiary of the Ulster Unionist Party/DUP pact.

To give their unionist soul mates an extra boost, the Tory party, which is fighting in 16 of the 18 Northern constituencies, opted out of Fermanagh & South Tyrone and North Belfast, backing Elliot and DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds respectively.

The jury is still out on the uninspiring Elliot with questions being asked about his lacklustre previous leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party and whether he can convince DUP voters to back him.

Gerry Kelly is up against the pan-unionist front set up to 'Save Private Dodds'.

The UUP, TUV, PUP, UKIP and now the Tories are determined to keep Dodds in the seat he first won in 2001 – or rather they are determined to keep Kelly out.

The task for Kelly is twofold in that he needs to maximise the republican vote and attract the votes of SDLP supporters who see Dodds in the same light as Jim Wells and Edwin Poots: backwoodsmen whose bible-thumping bigotry is the cornerstone of their politics.

It will be interesting to see how the refusal

by Alban Maginnes, the SDLP runner in North Belfast, to vote on a Sinn Féin motion calling for marriage equality in the Assembly on Monday 27 April affects his vote, aligning himself to the DUP and its fundamentalism.

Speaking to An Phoblacht, Gerry Kelly said: “We can win this seat. There is a momentum building and the notion that a nationalist can claim this seat for the first time in 130 years is attracting interest.”

5 Candidates with a copy of an election poster from Bobby Sands's 1981 election victory

In South Belfast, some bookies have cut the odds on Sinn Féin's Máirtín Ó Muilleoir from 25/1 to 7/1 in a constituency that was once a unionist stronghold but is now represented by the lacklustre and unrepentant double-jobbing leader of the SDLP, Alasdair McDonnell, who defiantly declared he is holding on to his Assembly seat come what may.

In 2010, Sinn Féin's Alex Maskey withdrew from the race to give McDonnell a free run but this time round (and after the SDLP refused to join Sinn Féin in a progressive, pro-equality, anti-austerity

'There is a momentum building and the notion that a nationalist can claim the North Belfast seat for the first time in 130 years is attracting interest' Gerry Kelly MLA

THE SINN FÉIN CANDIDATES East Derry – Caoimhe Archibald Strangford – Shiela Bailie Newry & Armagh – Mickey Brady West Tyrone – Pat Doherty Fermanagh & South Tyrone – Michelle Gildernew South Down – Chris Hazzard South Antrim – Declan Kearney North Belfast – Gerry Kelly West Belfast – Paul Maskey

North Down – Treasa McCartney Lagan Valley – Jacqui McGeough North Antrim – Daithí McKay East Antrim – Oliver McMullan Mid Ulster – Francie Molloy East Belfast – Niall Ó Donnghaile Foyle – Gearóid Ó hEára South Belfast – Máirtín Ó Muilleoir Upper Bann – Catherine Seeley

5 South Belfast candidate Máirtín Ó Muilleoir addresses the media as other candidates listen and (right) Martin McGuinness with Michelle Gildernew and Pat Doherty

pact) Ó Muilleoir was selected to fight the seat. Ó Muilleoir's barnstorming year as Belfast Mayor appealed to people across the city and society and he's getting positive feedback on the doorsteps.

An Phoblacht has been told that SDLP voters are disillusioned by McDonnell while the negative fall-out from DUP rants has liberal unionists considering voting for the enlightened Ó Muilleoir rather than the UUP no-hoper Rodney McCune.

Another lively race is that of Upper Bann.

Sitting DUP MP David Simpson is playing on the fears of unionists, saying Catherine Seeley could win the seat if the UUP's Jo-Anne Dobson polls strongly. While the task ahead of Seeley is a big one, the reality is that Sinn Féin is the dominant nationalist force in the constituency and with the SDLP represented by Dolores Kelly struggling for political relevance the Sinn Féin councillor will be prominent.

The difficulty for the SDLP is that in constituencies such as Foyle and South Down with SDLP MPs (and others such as North Antrim, East Antrim and East Derry where Sinn Féin polled

May / Bealtaine 2015

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Francie

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Gearóid

Maírtin

McMullan MOLLOY Ó Donnghaile Ó hEára Ó Muillieoir EAST ANTRIM East Antrim

MID ULSTER Mid Ulster

BELFAST EAST

FOYLE

Belfast East

CARLOW/KILKENNY BY-ELECTION, 22 MAY

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Foyle

BELFAST SOUTH Belfast South

UPPER BANN

5 Sinn Féin candidates on the hustings in buoyant mood 5 Kathleen Funchion speaks to An Phoblacht

Kathleen Funchion challenges Establishment favourites 5 Gerry Adams signs the People's Pact –Sinn Féin is totally and absolutely opposed to austerity

5 Sinn Féin ad campaign gets underway in Belfast as the local Easter commemoration passes by

5 Sinn Féin reps and candidates join members of LGBT groups supporting marriage equality at Stormont

6,700 votes in 2010) it is clear that the predominant voice of nationalism is that of Sinn Féin.

Gearóid Ó hEára will do well in Foyle, as will Chris Hazzard in South Down.

Daithí McKay is building in North Antrim while Oliver McMullan in East Antrim is breaking new ground all the time.

Caoimhe Archibald is certain to build on Cathal Ó hOisín's East Derry total from 2010.

As for Paul Maskey (West Belfast), Francie Molloy (Mid-Ulster) and Mickey Brady in Newry & Armagh (replacing Conor Murphy), they are campaigning as intensely as anyone and taking nothing for granted.

Said Maskey: “Sinn Féin doesn't do complacency, Sinn Féin doesn't take the electorate for granted. We are fighting for every vote.”

KATHLEEN FUNCHION says that a Sinn Féin candidate taking former Fine Gael Environment Minister Phil Hogan's Dáil seat in the Carlow/Kilkenny by-election would send a clear message to Fine Gael/Labour – and Fianna Fáil – that people want change.

Phil Hogan's seat became vacant when he was made European Commissioner for Agriculture after driving through the water charges tax for Fine Gael and Labour first mooted by Fianna Fáil.

Bookmakers Paddy Power have Fianna Fáil as odds-on favourite to take the seat, with Fine Gael second and Sinn Féin the clear challenger to the Establishment candidates but the Kilkenny councillor says that a huge upset is on the cards if people get out and vote Sinn Féin.

She says that as a young woman, a young mother raising two young boys, and someone who works with SIPTU as a workers' rights advocate, the current crop of TDs for Carlow/ Kilkenny “don't represent me or people like me – people who wake up in the morning worrying about bills, paying rent or electricity, whether they can keep up the mortgage and a roof over our heads, cuts to the bus services and post offices”.

Kathleen tells An Phoblacht: “I want to show people that things can be different and that we can change things. We can have a fair recovery.

“I can take Phil Hogan's seat – and I won't be taking it just for Sinn Féin; I'll be taking

it for all those people who want the Fine Gael/Labour Government and the Fianna Fáil Government before them to sit up and listen.

People want change.”

She bristles at the thought that Fianna Fáil might take the seat from Fine Gael.

“The Fianna Fáil candidate was part of the Fianna Fáil Government from 2007 to 2011 and stood over water charges and austerity measures so there's no difference there

'I'll be taking Phil Hogan's seat for all those people who want Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour to sit up and listen' – there's still not much difference between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.”

Kathleen says that she can understand the disillusionment people feel with politics but she and her team are working hard to turn that apathy into action.

“I know where people are coming from when they say they're tired of all the shenanigans and the Golden Circles, etc, but we've got to convince people that staying silent only encourages the people in power pulling strokes. Voting Sinn Féin in huge numbers will make them sit up and take notice. Carlow/ Kilkenny can make news by causing an upset.”

8 May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

‘Homeless families need a permanent solution, not some half-baked proposal to refurbish some dwellings in an area that desperately needs full redevelopment’

5 O'Devaney Gardens residents were promised a full regeneration scheme, a decade later and they feel they have been completely abandoned

O’DEVANEY GARDENS

A decade of broken promises

5 Sinn Féin Dublin City Councillor Janice Boylan at O'Devaney Gardens

WORDS AND PHOTOS

BY MARK MOLONEY THE WELLINGTON MONUMENT in Dublin’s Phoenix Park looms over the rooftops of nearby houses and blocks of flats in O’Devaney Gardens.

O'Devaney was built in the 1950s as one of a number of social housing projects to rehome families during Dublin Corporation’s programme of slum and tenement clearances. It was named after Bishop Conor O’Devaney, a friend of Tyrone’s rebel chief, Hugh O’Neill, who was hanged at nearby Arbour Hill by the British in 1612 for treason, aged at least 80.

Like the former flats complexes in Ballymun, O’Devaney Gardens had an extremely close-knit community but had become a byword for bad planning and developed a reputation for anti-social behaviour.

Today, only four of the original thirteen blocks of flats remain standing – all the others have been demolished.

A handful of families remain in three of the blocks; the fourth is completely abandoned. The remaining residents have been forced to endure living next to these abandoned units for a decade while promise after promise to them on regeneration of the area has been broken.

Janice Boylan is a Sinn Féin councillor for the North Inner City ward who grew up in O’Devaney. In recent weeks she has been on TV and radio as the authentic voice of the residents who feel they have simply been abandoned by council management and Government. As we walk through the courtyard of one of the blocks, a couple of women in jovial mood shout over to say ‘Hi’ and ask her about some of her recent appearances in the media.

The sheer dereliction of the site is

plain to see. Most windows are boarded up, those which aren’t are smashed in, and the buildings have become a roosting space for flocks of pigeons. Broken glass is strewn across the courtyards.

Janice tells me that young people have taken to organising illegal all-night raves in the complexes. “It’s worse than living in the centre of Temple Bar,” she says pointing to a stairwell piled-high with empty beer cans and bottles.

In 2008, the developer, supposedly leading the regeneration as part of a public-private partnership, pulled out

Hundreds of ex-residents of O’Devaney are still hoping they’ll be able to rebuild their former community at sometime in the future and the regeneration was put on hold.

At the time, Gerry Adams described the move as “deplorable and disgraceful” while commending the resilience and patience of the residents and “their determination to rebuild a vibrant community in the heart of the city”.

In 2012, the regeneration board was told there was no money and to step down. People realised the plan was going nowhere.

Following the tragic death of homeless man Jonathan Corrie near the Dáil in December, a plan was put forward by Housing Minister Alan Kelly to review the demolition of hundreds of units around Dublin and the possibility of using them to house homeless people. A proposal put to Dublin City

Council was that 64 homeless families be placed in the abandoned units in O’Devaney Gardens.

Essentially, €4.7million would be spent to temporarily make the derelict sites liveable, before tearing them down further down the line. Dublin City councillors overwhelmingly rejected the idea. Janice Boylan says she is unhappy with how some sections of the media portrayed the decision.

“My concerns were that the usage of these flats was going to cause problems.

We spoke to the residents here and in nearby areas. It was obvious people want the full regeneration of O’Devaney Gardens to go ahead. Some people have tried to spin it that residents here are simply opposed to homeless families in the area – that is absolutely untrue. The reality is that these people recognise that homeless families should not be put into an area in such terrible conditions. Homeless families need a permanent solution, not some half-baked proposal to refurbish some dwellings in an area that desperately needs full redevelopment.

“We took the stand we did to protect vulnerable homeless families. The people here are scourged with anti-social behaviour and are unable to get any help from the council in the upkeep of their properties.”

She says hundreds of ex-residents of O’Devaney are still holding out hope that they will be able to rebuild their former community at sometime in the future.

“The community has been literally torn asunder. Some of it has established itself in Cabra and Finglas. People feel vulnerable and forgotten about. I still have people from far afield contacting me and saying, ‘Janice, if the regeneration is going ahead please make sure we are the first to get the offer to come back in’.”

5 Dublin City councillors do not believe O'Devaney Gardens is an appropriate place to house young and vulnerable homeless families

5 Nine of the original 13 housing blocks have been demolished

5 O'Devaney Gardens is plagued by anti-social behaviour with illegal raves being organised in the area

May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

9

SINN FÉIN URGES POSITIVE VOTES IN TWO REFERENDUM QUESTIONS

5 Sinn Féin Councillor Emma Murphy, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn TD, Mary Lou McDonald TD, Gerry Adams TD and Mayor of South Dublin Fintan Warfield at the launch of Sinn Féin's campaign for a 'Yes' vote

Vote

Yes

FOR EQUALITY

shown support for the ‘Yes’ campaign above 70%, a poor overall turnout could disproprtionately benefit the ‘No’ campaign.

“We are not taking anything for granted and SINN FÉIN is campaigning for a ‘Yes’ vote we will have canvass teams out on the doors in both referendums which will be put to across every constituency in the state,” said the people of the state on 22 May. Pádraig Mac Lochlainn.

The first referendum relates to the eligibility Sinn Féin’s Mayor of South Dublin, Fintan age for candidates in presidential elections while Warfield, says a ‘Yes’ vote would send a strong the second deals with the right of same-sex and reassuring message to young people coming couples to civil marriages. to terms with their sexuality that it is A ‘Yes’ vote in the Marriage Equality “Okay to be gay.” He pointed out: Referendum is about ensuring that “This referendum gives ‘An overwhelming our gay and lesbian citizens have Irish people a genuine say the same right to marry the in shaping the society we show of support for person they love as everyone want to live in and that marriage equality would else, said Sinn Féin’s referenwe want our young ensure that every young dum campaign co-ordinator, people to grow up in.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn TD, the person who wants to come An overwhelming show party’s Justice and Equality of support for marriage out can do so knowing that equality spokesperson. would ensure legislative equality Launching the campaign in that every young person Dublin on Tuesday 14 April, the who wants to come out is there’ Donegal TD said: can do so knowing that South Dublin Mayor Fintan Warfield “For Sinn Féin, as a republican party, legislative equality is there.” equality is at the core of what we repreMary Lou McDonald TD said the sent. We are committed to building a real republic referendum is about a recognition of equalwhere social and economic equality are among ity and respect for people’s identity. the main measurements of our nation’s success.”

“It is an affirmation that we want people There were also warnings about complacency to be free, equal and happy – and have setting in. While opinion polls have consistently the right to pursue happiness,” she said.

BY MARK MOLONEY

The Dublin Central TD said that while some advance, however civil partnership falls short of people need to be convinced or reassured on full constitutional equality. Only civil marriage the issue, those whose opposition to same-sex equality can achieve this.” marriage is rooted in bigotry need to be directly challenged.

Presidential candidates should “It is the right thing, and the republican thing, be judged on merit, not age to vote ‘Yes’,” she said.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams TD said: Sinn Féin is also supporting the referendum “Many of us will have a member of our family on the ‘Age of Eligibility for Election to the Office or extended family who is gay. All of us, whatever of President’ which, if passed, would see the age we are or wherever we live or work, minimum age of candidates eligible knows someone who is gay. They to stand for election as President want what we want – the right from 35 to 21.

There were to live their lives as full and Sinn Féin’s Kathryn Reilly, warnings about contributing citizens and to who was elected as a complacency setting share in the love of a family senator aged 22, said of their own.” the referendum would in. Opinion polls have He asked people to speak consistently shown support for serve to empower young with their families, friends people and increase the the ‘Yes’ campaign above 70% awareness and particiand work colleagues and ask them to vote ‘Yes’. but a poor overall turnout pation of young people T h e ‘ Ye s E q u a l i t y ’ in politics: could disproprtionately campaign, the independent “Why should I, or any benefit the ‘No’ broad-based campaign for civil other young person in marriage equality, said: campaign Ireland, be discriminated “Mothers and fathers want all of against by ageist policies? We their children to grow up in a country would not discriminate against people where they can have the same aspirations in because of skin colour, religion, or sex so why life. The parents of gay and lesbian children should we accept discrimination against people want the same. Nobody wants second best for because of their age? We should judge each their child. Civil partnership was a significant candidate on their merit and not on their age.”

10 May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

New Mayor of the Belfast ‘super council’, Sinn Féin’s Arder Carson, talks to PEADAR WHELAN UNIQUE demographic and deprivation features of the Colin area include: » The majority of the Colin area features in the top 6% most deprived areas in the Six Counties; » The area has a large youth population, with 29% under 16 and nearly 50% under 25; » In 2011, 65% of the 476 births in the area were to single parents; » 32% of those aged 16 and over have no educational qualifications; » Unemployment is more than twice the Six Counties average; » From March 2010 to July 2011; there were 21 deaths by suicide in the Colin area.

“THE PEOPLE OF THE COLIN area are coming home,” recently-appointed Mayor of the new Belfast ‘super’ council, Arder Carson, tells me in Tar Anall, the republican ex-prisoners’ organisation based in Belfast’s iconic Conway Mill.

‘The Mill’ is a building that has, over the years, come to represent the nationalist community’s perseverance and ability to turn adversity into triumph.

The new Belfast ‘super’ council got up and running on 1 April and includes the Colin area, made up of Twinbrook, Poleglass and Lagmore.

The people of these areas believe they have left behind them the worst of the unionist discrimination practised by the DUP and UUP who dominated Lisburn Council. They are hopeful of a better future.

For Arder Carson and the people of the Colin area, being part of the new Belfast council represents an opportunity to see investment in the area’s infrastructure as well as the hope that the Colin Town Centre Project whose proposals for a “co-ordinated and integrated regeneration plan focused on delivering social change, to revitalise the area and to encourage much needed investment” can be fulfilled.

The town of Lisburn, which attained city status in March 2002, is at the heart of the unionist-dominated Lagan Valley Westminster constituency.

Not only is Lisburn and Lagan Valley a predominantly unionist area, it is also a ‘garrison town’ through its long association with the British Army.

Thiepval Barracks was and is the British Army’s main base in the Six Counties as well as housing the British military’s headquarters.

In 2011, Lisburn councillors voted to bestow

the Freedom of the City on the British Army’s Royal Irish Regiment (RIR), whose forerunner, the Ulster Defence regiment (UDR), was notoriously sectarian with many of its members being convicted of involvement in unionist paramilitary activity.

On attaining city status, Lisburn marketed it self as “Lisburn: A City for Everyone”, yet the nationalist population of the Colin area were never included in this aspiration.

As the late 1960s and the pogroms of 1969 in particular rumbled into the early 1970s, the Twinbrook estate on the outskirts of Belfast saw an influx of nationalists who were burned out of their Lower Falls homes. Families such as Bobby Sands’s were intimidated out of predominantly loyalist areas like Rathcoole on the northern outskirts of Belfast.

What was initially meant to be a model “mixed” housing project became a nationalist estate.

Coupled to this was the demand for adequate housing for nationalists in west Belfast that had long been denied them by the unionist-controlled Stormont government to be addressed by the newly-established Housing Executive.

For those allocated the new housing there was the dichotomy of being geographically on the edge of west Belfast, their natural hinterland, yet politically and administratively under the control of the unionist-dominated Lisburn Council.

As housing demand in west Belfast increased and the new Poleglass housing project was mooted (with building to begin in 1973) unionists political parties, with the backing of unionist paramilitary organisations (mainly the UDA,

Lisburn is a inantly predom a and a t are unionis wn’ through n to ‘garriso association its long e British with th y Arm

‘THE PEOPLE OF THE COLIN ARE COMING HOME’ People ey’ve hope th em the ind th left beh the unionist f worst o tion practised ina discrim DUP and UUP by the minated who do ouncil C Lisburn

5 Arder Carson with Councillor Fra McCann supporting hospital staff in 2011

5 Arder Carson was first co-opted to Lisburn Council in 2008

May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

11

5 Belfast super council's Mayor Arder Carson with his family

5 The first mayor of the new Belfast super council, Sinn Féin's Arder Carson, with his mother Alice, who is 90 years of age

which has traditionally been strong in the Lisburn area) objected.

When construction eventually got underway in 1979 and the first houses allocated in 1980, the scheme had been scaled back from a proposed 4,000 homes to just 1,563 as a result of the unionist objections.

The unionist-dominated council underpinned their hostility to the development of Poleglass by threatening to withhold services, such as refusing to empty the bins, of the new tenants.

The discrimination practised by the unionist council towards the nationalist electorate of the Colin area has been unremitting over this period.

With the rise of Sinn Féin and the party’s increasing representation on Lisburn, the Democratic Unionist Party and the Ulster Unionist Party have both become more stringent in their hostility to Sinn Féin in particular and nationalist councillors in general.

One spin-off was policies that can easily be described as collective community punishment being implemented.

In 2003, at the council’s AGM, the unionists voted to exclude all non-unionists (and they included the Alliance Party in this!) from the positions of chair and vice-chair on all council committees while awarding these positions to themselves.

So while many other councils across the North operated the d’Hondt system, allocating positions based on a party’s electoral strength, Lisburn’s unionist councillors remained in the electoral dark ages.

Fair employment statistics also show that Catholics are significantly under-represented in the workplace at Lisburn Council.

Age is no barrier to unionist bigotry.

According to Sinn Féin in its dossier, Lisburn Council: A History of Discrimination (published in 2004), “The refusal to provide leisure and play amenities in Catholic areas of the council has been a feature” of the unionist strategy of depriving nationalists. The areas of Twinbrook, Poleglass and Lagmore accounted for more than 33% of the young population of Lisburn yet only one of the city’s play parks was located in these areas.

In 2004, Sinn Féin published another dossier, Living in Fear: A Loyalist Campaign of Murder, Violence and Intimidation. Sub-titled “Sectarianism within Lagan Valley”, it accused the UDA of being primarily responsible for a campaign of sectarian violence directed against nationalists.

Using the Good Friday Agreement as its starting point, the preamble says: “The Catholic and nationalist people of Lagan Valley have been on the receiving end of a highly-organised and sustained campaign of sectarian intimidation which has accelerated in intensity since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998.”

The year prior to the report’s compilation, November 2003, 21-year-old Catholic James McMahon was beaten to death by a unionist gang wielding baseball bats.

Sinn Féin accused unionist politicians of a “deafening silence” before adding: “Their silence can very easily be interpreted as, at best, ‘disinterest’ and, at worst, ‘approval’ by those on the receiving end of this violence.”

The dossier indicted the area’s MP, Jeffrey Donaldson, saying: “The MP has been a vociferous opponent of

list Nationa oods urh neighbo for more ted accoun f the young %o than 33 on of Lisburn i populat only one of yet had y’s play the cit s park

5 Junior Minister Jennifer McCann, West Belfast MP Paul Maskey, Councillor Charlene O'Hara, Councillor Stephen Magennis, Education Minister John O'Dowd, Arts & Culture Minister Carál Ní Chuilín, and Belfast Mayor Arder Carson supporting the development of the Colin Town Centre project

the Good Friday Agreement yet has little to say or do when it comes to challenging loyalists attacking Catholics in Lagan Valley.”

At the forefront of challenging this loyalist thuggery was then Sinn Féin MLA Paul Butler.

Butler became a hate figure for the loyalists who targeted his home on numerous occasions, including gun and bomb attacks which put Butler and his family in mortal danger.

Since Sinn Féin had councillors first elected to Lisburn Council in 1985 they have lived with the threat of attack from loyalists and sustained harassment from the RUC and British Army.

Damien Gibney and Pat Rice, elected to the council in 1985, who sustained serious injuries during an assault by unionists as they attended a council meeting in November 1986 near the first anniversary of the signing of the Hillsborough Accord, accused the RUC of “turning a blind eye”.

Among the best-known and a tireless worker for the people of the area was Michael Ferguson, who died in September 2006, aged 53.

First elected as a councillor in 1999, Ferguson was later elected to the Assembly, where he advocated the rights, needs and interests of his community.

Sinn Féin has always promoted women activists in the Colin area, with Sue Ramsey and Jennifer McCann (Jennifer presently a junior minister in the Stormont Executive) among the better-known.

And that mantle of people’s champion sits well on the shoulders of Arder Carson.

A butcher by trade, Carson turned his energy to activism as a development worker in Poleglass, where his commitment to the community earned him the reputation “a man for the people”.

In 2008, he was co-opted onto Lisburn Council before transferring down to his native Andersonstown and moving into Belfast prior to the establishment of the ‘super council’.

“The council has big plans for Colin,” says Carson.

“We in Sinn Féin are determined to redress the neglect suffered by the communities here as a result of unionist bigotry.”

If the Colin area (with a population of 25,000) has been characterised, on the one hand, by the neglect it has faced from the unionist regime in Lisburn, then on the other is a vibrant community sector driven by activists such as former Sinn Féin Councillor Annie Armstrong, the present manager of the Colin Neighbourhood Partnership (CNP).

Their signature project, The Colin Town Centre Project, is geared towards the regeneration of the area around the Dairy Farm Shopping Centre on the Stewartstown Road.

In the proposal for the New Town Centre for Colin, published in April 2013, CNP calls for a “co-ordinated and integrated regeneration plan focused on delivering social change to revitalise the Stewartstown Road and to encourage much-needed investment.

“The Colin Town Centre would create a heart, a focal point for health, retail, leisure, cultural and educational services and facilities for the benefit of all.”

Arder Carson says: “In face of the hardships the Colin community has faced, there is a strong, committed and motivated community sector that has achieved much.

“There is much more to do but the leaders are there to do it.”

Being the part of st lfa new Be sents repre council rtunity to an oppo stment e see inv rea’s in the a ture uc infrastr

12 May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

TTIP international trade deal raises concerns over food safety, workers’ rights and agriculture

BAD DEAL FOR IRELAND

BY MARK MOLONEY IN BRUSSELS

A DELEGATION consisting of farmers, environmentalists and trade unionists was hosted in Brussels by Sinn Féin Midlands North West MEP Matt Carthy in April to discuss their concerns around the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Parntership (TTIP) agreement currently being negotiated between the European Commission and the USA. The 40 delegates first met with La Via Campesina, a movement of small farmers who outlined their concerns over the deal. Noa Estevez of Izqueirda Plural from Spain pointed out that the United States farms are on average 13 times bigger than European ones: “These big farms are completely mechanised with one farmer and a lot of low-paid workers, so their production costs are much cheaper in comparison to European family farms. It makes it impossible for us to compete in terms of price.”

A particularly interesting aspect of the series of events was that both farmers and environmental activists, often at odds on many issues, were united in their scepticism of what the deal could mean for agriculture. Farmers, including Irish Farmers’ Association representatives, say they are worried about the possibility of low-quality and low-price

5 Protesters show their opposition to TTIP at Rond-Point Schuman in Brussels, near the European Parliament

Chevron have written to US trade representatives, saying they need ISDS to protect their profits in Europe American beef flooding supermarket shelves in Europe, while environmentalists argued that the increased competition and demands to keep production costs low could force producers to lower their standards in terms of environmental safety and regulations.

Speaking to An Phoblacht, Henry O’Donnell of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association, said: “The farmers we represent in the West are already facing very challenging economic issues.

The TTIP agreement can make the suckler cow industry very vulnerable. We’re very concerned that the European Commission seem to be intent on pushing on with an agreement that appears to have no benefits to Irish farmers, only threats to their existence.”

Geert Decock, Director of EU Affairs for Food and Water Europe, outlined the possible dangers TTIP poses in the areas of controversial practices such as hydraulic fracturing, particularly noting the use of the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism which allows private companies take governments to an extra-governmental court if they do anything which they claim interferes with their profits. He says companies such as Chevron have even written to the US trade representatives, saying they need ISDS to protect their profits in Europe.

But environmental and agricultural concerns are not the only issues. Others are worried that the deal could precipitate a race to the bottom for workers. David Gibney, of Mandate trade union, told An Phoblacht: “We have key concerns on behalf of all workers.

Trade agreements liberalise markets and TTIP will do that to the labour market.”

He said European workers who have entitlements

5 Henry O'Donnell of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers' Association

5 La Via Campesina members Andrea Ferrante from Italy and Hanny Van Geel from the Netherlands with Matt Carthy MEP in Brussels

5 Delegates listen to contributions on the issue of the ISDS mechanism

such as minimum wage and 20 days’ annual leave per year will see themselves pitted against US workers who have no such guarantees.

“One of the key concerns I have is that we will end up competing with American workers and this could see moves to lower workers’ right standards in Europe.” He noted that the inclusion of an ISDS mechanism could allow private

companies to sue the Irish Government if it raises the minimum wage – a similar lawsuit by Veolia in Egypt resulted in a reversal of a minimum wage rise. “I think that represents a serious threat to workers’ rights,” he said.

Delegates had the chance to question Commission representatives, including Agriculture and Rural Affairs official John Clarke and Jean Charles

Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) Allows private companies take governments to an extra-governmental court if they do anything which they claim interferes with their profits

Van Eeckhaute of the Policy Co-ordination and Inter-Institutional Relations unit.

During the discussion, John Clarke was keen to emphasise that no lowering of food safety standards would happen in the EU. “If the US wish to export meat and poultry to the EU then they will have to meet our health and safety laws. It will be so expensive for them to do that, that they won’t export,” he said.

Offaly Sinn Féin’s Carol Nolan was unimpressed.

She noted the recent food scandal which saw horsemeat passed off as beef across the EU. “Despite such safety standards and traceability

ISDS could allow private companies to sue the Irish Government if it raises the minimum wage – a lawsuit

by Veolia in Egypt resulted in the reversal of a minimum wage rise existing in Europe, we had this scandal. How can the EU possibly guarantee traceability and high standards on food being imported from another continent?”

Fergal Anderson, a young organic farmer and member of Organic Growers of Ireland, told An Phoblacht: “All we are hearing is more of the same stuff.

They are going to make a bad situation worse and are moving further away from the direction we’d like to see them go which is the right of people to define their own food and agriculture systems, to have sustainable locally-based production, healthy food for people and more farmers as opposed to less.”

Matt Carthy MEP says there is no way that TTIP can be supported as it currently stands. He described the inclusion of the ISDS mechanism as a “threat to democracy”. He says the Irish Government needs to give a firm commitment that they will not sign any trade deal which places the rights of private investors and corporations ahead of those of Irish people and communities.

May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

A dangerous message to future generations

13

BY ROBBIE SMYTH

WHO FEARS TO SPEAK of 1916? Apparin the shaping of modern Ireland”. ently nobody. There is a lengthening For Mícheál Martin, 1916 looms tragilist of views from former and current cally. Behind Sinn Fein in three out of Taoisigh, to the not happening ones the last four opinion polls (and likely like Mícheál Martin, and not forgetting to be the first Fianna Fail leader not to be Taoiseach) Martin lashed out on 19 Ireland’s ‘social and political commenApril at Sinn Féin at his party’s annual tators’, who fill radio talk shows and Arbour Hill Commemoration.

Official Ireland’s newspapers with their pithy observations. They have been Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams lining up to offer comment on ‘the robustly dismissed Martin’s accusa1916 problem’. tion that Sinn Féin is “falsifying recent Irish history”. Adams said that Martin’s The 1916 problem? Yes, forget trying to decipher Ireland’s multilateral debt “hysterical rant” was driven by “despercommitments or the intricacies of how ation” at “the growth of Sinn Fein and the stagnation of his own party”.

Irish Water can turn even a simple mailshot into a gigantic fiasco. These The Labour Party’s silence on 1916 trifles are nothing compared to how the is telling.

Irish people, and by extension the Irish Labour has ignored the role its Government, will mark, honour, rememfounder James Connolly had in the ber and – yes – possibly commemorate Easter Rising, even taking the words the 1916 Rising. ‘socialist and republican’ out of the The problem is those damned repubparty’s constitution, the rose replacing licans have apparently been celebratthe Starry Plough as a logo. ing 1916 for decades. Yep, in dozens of Joan Burton attended this year’s events across the island they have been 1916 Commemoration and spoke at the doing it brazenly and openly for years. 5 In 1976, the Government banned Sinn Féin's 1916 Commemoration ceremony at Dublin's GPO – it went ahead anyway Government’s 2016 launch last Novem1916 commemorations have been Presidency in 2011. Then, in 2016, he Bruton had previously called in the ber. It was too predictable that Freedom going on without the imprimatur of would lead a series of festivals, marches, Irish Times for a commemoration of of Information requests revealed that the Irish Times, or the nod from the even concerts or a film festival maybe the 1914 Home Rule Act. Interestingly, a photograph of IRA Volunteers was sages of our era who perennially grace with Bill Clinton or Barack Obama in in neither article did he allude to the deleted from the programme, as was important talk show broadreference to an event marking tow. The possibilities probably decision by the government casts from the RTÉ studios the execution of the 1916 seemed endless. in which he was a parliamenin Montrose or the growing leaders.

Then the crash came along tary secretary from 1973 to Denis O’Brien media empire Walking through the streets with the ignominy of Fianna 1977 to discontinue Easter based in Marconi House. of Dublin this Easter Monday, Fáil being blamed for it all, Rising commemorations, 1916 has been celebrated along with thousands of and Fine Gael and Labour moving in 1976 to ban a Sinn without even the forensic others who had turned up being propelled into the pole Fein 1916 commemoration analysis and rigorous ideologto see the RTÉ ‘Road to the position for the 1916 centenceremony at the GPO. ical examination we expect Rising’ event, it was clear that nial hot seat. There is already Bruton did attend an 80th from the Sunday Indepenthere is incredible interest division in the ranks of Fine anniversary event at Dublin’s dent’s supreme court of intelin 1916.

Gael with former leader and Garden of Remembrance in lectual correctness.

For now there is a Sinn Féin once Taoiseach John Bruton 1996 but it was Ahern who It was Bertie Ahern who Centenary Programme of John Bruton first to vent. had the ‘hand of history’ Bertie Ahern Joan Burton saw the opportunity for Events, a Coalition GovernWriting in the Sunday moment ten years later ment one, and a Reclaim the Vision of himself mostly and reinstated the ‘official’ Independent last December, and began to prepare for his hopedJohn Bruton has not alluded to Easter Rising ceremony in 2006 with Bruton says he has a fear that 1916 group. Hopefully, other groups will for big day in 2016. the decision by the government an eye to the potential of a centennial “high-profile commemoraEnda Kenny has put distance also create their own 1916 remembrance extravaganza. tions to centenaries of acts of in which he was a parliamentary between himself and Bruton’s views, events because, unlike the Establishment No doubt, back in 2006, Ahern could violence” might send “a mistaken saying last October that he agreed parties and the mainstream media, Sinn secretary to discontinue Easter taste his third consecutive election and dangerous message to future with W. T. Cosgrave’s assertion that Féin believes the ideals and aspirations Rising commemorations victory, the long swansong to retire- generations”. it was “the central and defining act of the Proclamation and Easter Week ment and a coronation election for the belong to everyone.

The problem for the Establishment is that those damned republicans have apparently been celebrating 1916 for decades

14 May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

Against the reactionary core of the European project

BY EOIN Ó MURCHÚ AS the dominant figures in the European Union harden their stance against Greek democracy – with a Greek exit from the Euro looking increasingly inevitable and with questions even being posed about continued Greek membership of the EU itself – the reactionary core at the heart of the European project is being laid bare.

As Sinn Féin, along with other Left and republican parties, said back in 1972 during Ireland’s referendum on EEC membership, the EU is a rich man’s club; and subsequent treaties such as Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon have entrenched the power of the dominant countries like Germany.

These treaties have also made any form of socialism ‘unconstitutional’ because state development of the economy is specifically outlawed.

Treaties such as Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon have entrenched the power of the dominant countries like Germany This reality means that the alternative vision of Europe, that of a social Europe, is hamstrung by the terms of the treaties. No wonder Sinn Féin opposed them.

The fact is that the EU is not a neutral arbitrator seeking to uphold the rights of the weak against the powerful but an instrument of the powerful’s might.

The Greek crisis has exposed this quite clearly, with the EU refusing to redress the injustice done to Greece by the terms of the various bailouts, instead demanding strict adherence to austerity so that international investors can be repaid no matter what cost is caused to the Greek people.

Whatever illusions some in SYRIZA might have had about EU goodwill helping to bring about a fair solution to Greece’s crisis have now been

5 Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams TD with now-Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of SYRIZA at Leinster House last year

shattered by the determination to drive Greece out of the euro rather than reshape it to protect the rights of workers.

Forcing Greece out of the euro will, of course, have negative consequences for the currency because it tells investors that euro membership is conditional on compliance with German rules and German diktats.

This is not because the euro was a positive development. Far from it. From the very beginning its setting of interest and exchange rates was done in accordance with the needs primarily of Germany’s economy, and Ireland’s needs were totally ignored.

So, as the housing bubble which ended in such catastrophe took hold, we needed higher interest rates to curb the prices that speculators were demanding. Instead, interest rates were kept artificially low and the prices went out of control leaving thousands now facing eviction

because they cannot service these inflated debts.

And the policies of the EU and the Eurozone have since forced the Irish people to carry a burden far out of proportion to the our economic size, so that Europe’s banking system (and the profits of German banks in particular) would be protected at all costs.

The pusillanimity of successive Irish governments reflects the abandonment of the aim of economic self-sufficiency by the Irish middle class. It no longer believes in the possibility of true independence, and the Establishment here sees its role as that of junior partners to foreign capital.

In other words, their vision (if such a word can be used in their regard) is that of being local managers of foreign firms, and as consultants in law, accountancy and similar professional services.

The one remnant of the inheritance of the fight against British imperialism is an inchoate

IN PICTURES

5 Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty with Maria Ferry of the National Executive of Comhairle na nÓg ahead of their 'Let's Go Mental 2015' national launch this summer. The campaign sees events taking place across Ireland for teenagers to promote positive mental health through various activities such as music, sport and arts – see page 21

reaching out for More Brussels and Less Britain.

This is fine in itself, but pales into a paltry gesture when set beside Connolly’s ringing declaration “We Serve Neither King Nor Kaiser” that was hung over Liberty Hall before the Rising.

Connolly’s stance is one that would recognise the big capitalist powers of Europe as our natural enemies. We don’t need to choose which set of imperialists to support; instead, we can and should assert our national sovereignty, together with those who want a different type of Europe, working to undo the reactionary character of the existing European Union.

In practical terms this means giving full support to the demands of the Greek Government for a fair deal with Europe, and backing up especially the Left Platform in SYRIZA which would prefer a fair deal with Europe but is willing to break with them completely rather than impose austerity on their own people.

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 Dublin Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan listens as Rosemary Masimga reads the Proclamation at the Dublin Mid-West Easter Commemoration – see pages 26 & 27

5 Iconic Bobby Sands mural re-designed – The world-renowned piece of political art on Sinn Féin's Belfast headquarters at Sevastopol Street includes the images of Belfast hunger strikers Joe McDonnell and Kieran Doherty, who both died in the epic 1981 fast. Added to the mural is the image of IRA Volunteer Seán McCaughey, who died in Portlaoise Prison in 1946 having endured a tortuous hunger and thirst strike

May / Bealtaine 2015

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15

Lee Lavis, Séanna Walsh, Kieran Devlin and Pat Magee at the Veterans For Peace conference

SÉANNA WALSH is a former Officer Commanding the IRA prisoners in Long Kesh and was the man chosen by the IRA leadership to read its 2005 video statement announcing the end of the military campaign.

PAT MAGEE was jailed for ‘The Brighton Bomb’, which almost wiped out the British Cabinet and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1984. With Jo Berry, whose father Sir Anthony Berry had been killed,

along with four others, in the IRA’s attack on the Grand Hotel, Pat leads ‘Building Bridges for Peace’ “a non-profit organisation promoting peace and conflict resolution throughout the world”.

IRA and British Army former combatants meet in London

Binding the wounds of war

BY SÉANNA WALSH IT’S MY BIRTHDAY TODAY but instead of going out celebrating I’m returning from a very interesting Q&A session I attended along with a former comrade, Pat Magee. It was at a conference organised by a group called ‘Veterans For Peace’. We were invited to London to address this group of British former soldiers and engage with them about our lives during the course of the conflict in Ireland, about our motivations in taking up arms against the Orange state, and Britain’s interference in Ireland but also, crucially, about our hopes and efforts today to help bind the wounds of war and create an Irish national democracy.

People would be fairly familiar with the work of republicans, particularly the initiative headed-up

by Sinn Féin’s Chair, Declan Kearney, ‘Uncomfortable Conversations’ (which, coincidentally in this issue, feature a British Army former combatant who is a member of Veterans for Peace, Glenn Bradley). There is a whole range of engagements taking place across the country involving former

enemies and protagonists sitting down around tables, attempting to rebuild relationships and to try to rebuild and reawaken links long lost or buried during the long war.

At the heart of all this, I have to admit to having selfish interests in the work that I do. I am determined that the life of conflict and prisons that my generation experienced will not be the life

Particularly when those doing the talking are people who were actually involved ‘at the sharp end’ it’s clear there is no alternative to engagement if we are serious about creating a new society that future generations experience. It will not be the life our children have.

The experience of engaging former enemies can be quite challenging and indeed heated.

Some comrades and former enemies simply can not take that step. Yet particularly when those

doing the talking are people who were actually involved ‘at the sharp end’ it’s clear there is no alternative to engagement if we are serious about creating a new society.

The stories related on Saturday recalled on the one hand young men drawn into a conflict with our community on the basis of the opportunity (a lie?) to improve their life chances with a steady job, the offer of a trade and foreign travel, and on the other hand young men taking a decision to oppose with arms the daily oppression witnessed and experienced on the streets of their own cities, towns and villages.

There were, of course, challenging questions for republicans about the alternatives to armed resistance, the immense lack of trust, sometimes hatred, that a section of unionism has for all things Irish and of course why did it have to take so long? The most important thing though is that another stream of dialogue has opened up with republicans and British former soldiers acknowledging each other’s humanity and hopes for a better future.

The next step has to be here in Belfast when these former oppressors speak to the communities they used to hate/fear/patrol.

Watch this space.

5 Séanna was a prison comrade of Bobby Sands

16 May / Bealtaine 2015

BY MARK MOLONEY RECENT hysterical attacks by Fianna Fáil leader Mícheál Martin on Sinn Féin reveal a deep desperation within his party’s senior ranks as it fails to attract voters, stagnates in opinion polls, and Martin eyes the vultures circling his rudderless leadership.

Listening to recent media commentary and speeches from Fianna Fáil TDs, you could be forgiven for thinking that you'd hit a time-warp and landed back in the mid-1980s, well before a Fianna Fáil-led Government – which included then Education Minister Mícheál Martin – was party to the Good Friday Agreement which ended almost 40 years of armed conflict in the North.

Recently Fianna Fáil have even resurrected the use of the term "Sinn Féin/IRA" – something long ago abandoned even by the DUP and only still used by the most fervent unionist hardliners.

Mícheál Martin's speech at his party's low-key 1916 Commemoration in Arbour Hill, in which he stated that Sinn Féin is "not fit for democratic government", exposes the profund arrogance of a party which seems to believe it has the right to preach at the people and tell them who they may or may not vote for. This attitude is in keeping with the indifference and contempt which Fianna Fáil has for the electorate.

At the end of the day, it will be the Irish people who choose their Government, not Fianna Fáil.

www.anphoblacht.com

Mícheál Martin’s hysterical attacks on Sinn Féin

us ‘Those of ough thr who lived onflict do tc the recen ctures from le not need artin about Mícheál MWe did not conflict. . The war r go to wa to us’ came If anybody has proven themselves completely unfit for Government – with a track record of more than a decade of incompetence and blundering – then it is the current crop of Fianna Fáil TDs. Most of them (including Bertie Ahern's loyal lieutenant Mícheál Martin) held ministerial positions when Fianna Fáil crashed the Irish economy, drove it off a bridge, and then handed over the keys to a cohort of foreign unelected capitalists in the form of the Troika.

What is even more galling is the blatant partitonist mentality Martin's hysterical attacks expose. Fianna Fáil was happy to laud itself as vital to the Peace Process and the establishment of the power-sharing Executive in the North. Now it appears they are keen to ignore that there was ever a Good Friday Agreement. When it suits them, Sinn Féin sharing power in the North is a good thing – but God forbid those Shinners should get anywhere near the reins of power in the South.

Unlike Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin has a mandate in both parts of Ireland. If Fianna Fáil truly believe their own rhetoric that they are a republican party then why do they not stand for election in the North? Why did they abandon the nationalist people to an undemocratic, sectarian state? Why do they still refuse to put themselves

k c u d e m a l s ' Fianna Fáil o t s e l g g u r t s r leade t n a v e l e r f l e s make him

5 Mícheál Mar

ll

tin at Arbour Hi

before those communities on whose behalf they have appointed themselves spokespersons in the South?

As is always the case with parties in the South, Fianna Fáil almost only ever engage or deal with the North when it is politically expedient for them to do so. The exploitation of the suffering of a society emerging from decades of repression and 40 years of conflict has become par for the course for Mícheál Martin. Unfortunately for him, it doesn't seem to be paying dividends.

Voters see through the faux outrage and crocodile tears for the shameful electioneering it is.

Gerry Adams TD – who had family members

itation The explo ring of a ffe of the su erging from m society e f repression o decades rs of conflict a and 40 ye come par has be rse for u o c e h t for artin Mícheál M killed, was himself interned and survived an attempted assassination by a unionist death squad in which he was shot a number of times – told Fianna Fáil: "Those of us who lived through the recent conflict are the ones who have worked to ensure that conflict is ended for good and that we never go back there. That is why Sinn Féin was pivotal to the Peace Process. Those of us who come from communities that were ravaged by conflict, those whose neighbours were killed, those who buried our friends and family members, who carry injuries to this day, those who endured the prisons, do not need lectures from Mícheál Martin about conflict.

"We did not go to war. The war came to us."

But in the words of Mícheál Martin, there "was no war" in the North, just a "campaign of murder" by the Irish Republican Army. Of course, at the same time Martin and his party are happy to glorify the deeds of the IRA during the Tan War. Like all wars, the

Most of op nt cr e r r u c e h t il TDs á F a n n a i of F cheál í M g n i d (inclu tions i s o p d l e Martin) h ianna Fáil when F he Irish t crashed my econo Tan War saw the deaths of civilians and horrific acts by all sides. There is no such thing as a 'good' or 'clean' war.

In audio first aired in the TV3 documentary In the Name of the Republic in 2013, Fianna Fáil founder Martin Corry (who served more than 40 years as one of the party's TDs) was

May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

17

5 Mícheál Martin was at the right-hand of Bertie Ahern and others during the disastrous Fianna Fáil regime which served to benefit the elites

heard chuckling as he recalled his time as "chief executioner" for the Cork 1st Brigade of the IRA. The Fianna Fáil TD is believed to have executed as many as 27 people accussed of being British agents, informants and spies and had them buried in unmarked graves in bogs near Knockraha. Many of the bodies have never been recovered. Corry even reportedly laughed about how the local gravediggers objected to the number of people they were being asked to bury. One wonders what Mícheál Martin

mismanagement of public finances caused the crash, forced tens of thousands to emigrate, forced thousands into mortgage distress and caused unemployment levels to skyrocket. Not once during this period of gross incompetence did Mícheál Martin raise his voice in opposition to what was going on. Instead, he was an active participant in a calamitous regime which served only to benefit the elites at the top of

il Fianna Fá late rticu cannot a uld do o how it w ntly from ffere things di strous Fine the disa Labour Gael and ent Governm

anna Unlike Fi Féin Fáil, Sinn date n has a ma arts in both p d of Irelan makes of this Fianna Fáil stalwart's actions?

How can Martin with one breath describe the founders of his party such as Corry as "heroes which any nation would be proud of" while at the same time denigrating the memories of brave republicans such as Bobby Sands and Maireád Farrell?

The attacks by Fianna Fáil need to be seen for what they are – a distraction tactic.

Fianna Fáil lacks any real policies and under Martin it is in the doldrums. It cannot articulate how it would do things differently from the disastrous Fine Gael and Labour Government.

It cannot escape the fact that its

5 An UpStart poster depicting Fianna Fáil leader Mícheál Martin during the 2011 election

Irish society and was happy to sacrifice ordinary people when things went wrong.

The days when Fianna Fáil ruled the roost are over. Now they are becoming increasingly politically irrelevant.

As Gerry Adams said in his response to Mícheál Martin: "For decades Fianna Fáil posed as 'the republican party' while wielding power in the interests of visitors to the Galway Tent as opposed to those of ordinary hardworking citizens.

"But there now exists a genuine and growing Irish republican party focused on uniting Ireland, and bringing about a real republic on this island."

5 A mock execution by the Cork IRA in 1922; (centre) Fianna Fáil founder and TD of 40 years Martin Corry is believed to have executed 27 people; (right) Corry pictured with Éamon de Valera

18 May / Bealtaine 2015

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An Phoblacht series of articles hailed as important initiative for dialogue

‘Uncomfortable Conversations’ collection launched in Linen Hall Library

BY JOHN HEDGES A SMALL SELECTION of the contributions in the ‘Uncomfortable Conversations’ series carried in An Phoblacht since March 2012 to foster dialogue across communities was launched in booklet form in April by Sinn Féin in Belfast’s Linen Hall Library, an institution with a proud history of radical thought, ideas and voices.

The second Librarian, Thomas Russell, was a leading United Irishmen activist who was arrested on the Library premises in 1796 and later executed.

The book was launched to a packed audience of key figures from the churches, academia, the media and wider society as well as senior republican figures and voices from the unionist community.

Uncomfortable Conversations: An initiative for Dialogue towards Recon-

‘Uncomfortable Conversations: An initiative for dialogue towards reconciliation’ carries the legend from Nelson Mandela: ‘Courageous people do not fear forgiving for the sake of peace’ ciliation carries the legend from Nelson Mandela: “Courageous people do not fear forgiving for the sake of peace.”

An Phoblacht’s importance as a platform for views beyond republicanism was emphasised by Declan Kearney, the public face most associated with this party initiative, who said that reconciliation and healing represent our only future.

“It is a vision which can be inspired with important deeds and gestures.

Comfort zones have to be abandoned.

“Examples of leadership are demonstrated when individuals or sides take hugely important risks to build new relationships.

“Yet single moments or events, no matter how symbolic, are also not enough in themselves.”

They are important signposts for our overall direction of travel and must be built upon as part of a strategy, he said.

“Goodwill needs to be harnessed and then actively mobilised to ensure the reconciliation vision is not simply a theoretical ambition and is instead anchored in an unstoppable, forward momentum.”

Dr Heather Morris, the first woman President of the Methodist Church, whose address to a Sinn Féin Republican Youth Congress is included in the book, said: “One of the reasons I welcome this

5 Martin McGuinness with Harold Good, former President of the Methodist Church

5 Part of the crowd at the 'Uncomfortable Conversations' book launch at the Linen Hall Library in Belfast

book is that it is not a theoretical piece on the need for uncomfortable conversations, or even solely a call for participation in those conversations – it is a record of those conversations. The contributions are part of a real process.”

She added: “My plea, my personal hope, is that this book isn’t an end point, the full stop on a project, but that it sparks more conversations. Martin Magill and Steve Stockman and indeed Mitchel McLaughlin in his response stress the need to move beyond soundbites.

The commitment to the building of relationships which this book evidences must continue and push into deeper more uncomfortable conversations and into action.

“There are more conversations to be had and I want to encourage all to engage in those conversations.”

Sinn Féin Chief Negotiator and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness MLA spoke of the ‘Uncomfortable Conversations’ he has been involved in, including republicans and the IRA as well as with former RUC officers, the British Government and Queen Elizabeth – and the British monarch’s ‘Uncomfortable Conversation’ with him, as a former leader of the Irish Republican Army.

Both he and Queen Elizabeth could have come up with any number of reasons as to why they shouldn’t meet and face those ‘Uncomfortable Conversations’, Martin McGuinness said – but they didn’t.

“Regrettably, the past cannot be changed or undone,” Martin McGuinness. “Nor can the suffering, the hurt or the violence of the conflict be disowned

by republicans or any other party to the conflict.

“The challenge for all of us engaged in the Peace Process and the political process in Ireland – and indeed for the British Government also – is to ensure that there can never be a repeat of what went before.

“Reaching out the hand of friendship, taking initiatives and working together

5 Declan Kearney in conversation with Fr Martin Magill

‘My personal hope is that this book isn’t an end point, the full stop on a project, but that it sparks more conversations’

President of the Methodist Church

Dr Heather Morris

5 Sinn Féin National Chairperson Declan Kearney explains that the 'Uncomfortable Conversations' opened the way for the next phase of the Peace Process

in a spirit of generosity doesn’t mean surrendering any allegiances.

“It is not always easy but it is the right thing to do. For our part, republicans are prepared to enter into dialogue and have the ‘Uncomfortable Conversations’ 5 President of the Methodist Church Dr with others but those conversations Heather Morris also present challenges to republicans.

“Reconciliation needs to become the next phase of the Peace Process. That is the future. We may never agree on our past but the future belongs to all of us.

“Dialogue, building trust, making political compromises are the seeds to achieving this new beginning.”

• The full range of Uncomfortable Conversations features (and many others) can be accessed immediately with an online subscription to An Phoblacht for just €10. The booklet should be in shops shortly.

5 Mitchel McLaughlin listens intently

May / Bealtaine 2015

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19

UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS

PEACE The Optimum Risk rehearsal for something else, most people examine their mindset, their words and their actions in a positive, evolving way.

Breaking a cycle from inherited systems or beliefs or ideologies can be terrifying but, like ships, people are not designed to sit in safe harbours.

The mind of a human is always best energised when it is making a positive difference to the self, to other people or to the environment we live in.

As a businessman I know that luck seldom plays a part in success. Focus, patience and

We must choose to accept the risk involved to support reconciliation and the delivery of the lasting, peaceful, democratic society that so many of our population strive for

GLENN BRADLEY I WASN’T born a Methodist, a unionist or a citizen of the United Kingdom or of Ireland.

I was born here on the island of Ireland, a human; pure and free from inherited identity labels or symbolism; devoid from political aspirations; unaware of social-economicpolitical conditions; and yet some on this island view or label me as ‘sectarian Orange scum’ or ‘a Hun’.

I wasn’t planted here.

I wasn’t a player in the time of imperial Britain.

I didn’t seek the Government of Ireland Act that partitioned this island (nor did my ancestors as patriotic Irish loyalists).

I wasn’t a lobbyist or lawmaker in any sectarian agenda (North or South) that chose to wallow in marching or religious rights before human rights or equality.

When the recent civil uprising of 1969 began, the onslaught of violent Irish republicanism helped create some of my earliest experiences. When the no-warning pub bombings of the Woodvale

A no-warning Irish republican pub bombing saw a piece of shrapnel skirt my right eye, where a scar remains today Arms (Cornetts) and the Mountainview exploded, the shockwaves lifted the roofs of all the houses in our street and blew in our windows, showering and injuring some of us with flying glass.

The memory is impregnated in my brain like a weeping scar. I can still taste the fear of those terrible tragedies which killed only innocents.

During 1973, another no-warning Irish republican pub bombing (again on Cornetts) saw a piece of shrapnel skirt my right eye, injuring me, and where to this day a scar remains.

They say violence creates violence.

Growing up in the Woodvale, I became motivated by a sense of rage at violent Irish republicanism along with a growing awareness of social-political injustice. As a young man, I enlisted into the British Army. My aim was simple: I wanted to get the best training possible and

y rm A h s ti ri B e th to in d te I enlis to get the best training possible and come back to take the fight to the IRA come back to my homeland, taking the fight to the IRA. It was naïve, simple and primitive but many 16-year-olds from all sections of our diverse society were thinking similarly. Many teenagers were choosing to ‘hit back’. From 1969 to 1997, lots became ‘soldiers’ for their varied notions of nationhood.

That was then and this is now.

Time and experience change many things, including people’s mindsets on inherited identities, symbolism, myths and propaganda.

Age permits a human to reflect and evaluate their own truth: their place in time and space.

As we realise that life is not a dress

practice are what deliver results. Great achievement only ever comes from great sacrifice and so looking to our dreams and vision for here we must choose to accept the risk involved to support reconciliation and the delivery of the lasting, peaceful, democratic society that so many of our population strive for.

That risk involves meeting, listening and learning from people whose rearing would be different to our own; whose political ideology would be different to our own; whose religion would be different to our own; and whose aspirations would be different to our own.

That risk involves facing people who may have completed violent acts in the past but who are, this day, evolving to be peace architects as they strive to remove the gun from politics on this small island.

Importantly, real respect is flexible to change. Beautiful visions can be created from such real respect and trust.

In closing, I’m asking that all of us be open to others, listening, placing ourselves in one another’s shoes. Renouncing violence and in a spirit of generosity or forgiveness, let us all believe that good things are possible – now.

GLENN BRADLEY (b.1967, west Belfast) is an international businessman and a member of the Board of Interaction, an organic inter-community project on the West Belfast Peaceline dedicated to peace and reconciliation through processes of engagement (www.peacewall.org) Glenn is a former soldier in the British Army who saw operational service in various theatres, including the North of Ireland. He is a former officer of the Ulster Unionist Party and participated in the Good Friday negotiations. He is a member of Veterans for Peace UK (www.veteransforpeace.org.uk ).

20 May / Bealtaine 2015

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‘The Workers’ Republic’ of James Connolly

JAMES CONNOLLY was a self-taught literary man as well as a man of action in trade unionism and revolutionary politics.

Reared in dire poverty, he saw education as vital for progress. He was a voracious reader from an early age and he became a prolific writer. In 1915 and 1916, his writings in his paper, The Workers’ Republic, had a crucial influence on the forces that made the Easter Rising possible.

The first Workers’ Republic newspaper lasted from 1898 to 1903 and was published by Connolly and his comrades in the Irish Socialist Republican Party. In its pages, Connolly set out his consistent, lifelong theme that the working class should be to the fore in the struggle for Irish independence and that Irish national freedom was essential in order to achieve socialism as well.

In the United States between 1908 and 1910, Connolly edited and wrote for The Harp, a socialist paper aimed at the exiled Irish community. As an organiser for the Industrial Workers of the World, Connolly stressed the primacy of trade union struggle.

The Irish Worker was started by Jim Larkin in 1911 and Connolly was one of its main writers. He edited it when Larkin was imprisoned during the 1913 Lockout and it contained some of Connolly’s most stirring and militant pieces at that time.

With Larkin in the USA in 1914, Connolly took over as editor of the paper and acting General Secretary of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union.

Following the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the British Government introduced the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA). This severely curtailed civil rights and was designed to curb opposition to the war. From the beginning, Connolly denounced the war and Ireland’s forced participation in it.

He slammed the recruiting efforts of the British Government and its allies, John Redmond and Edward Carson. Before long, the British authorities at Dublin Castle took action.

In December 1914, the British Government suppressed The Irish Worker, Irish Freedom (newspaper of the Irish Republican Brotherhood), and Arthur Griffith’s Sinn Féin. Connolly beat the censor by producing a special edition on 19 December with the banned article ‘Courts-Martial and Revolution’, which contained his famous declaration: “If you strike at, imprison or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you and, mayhap, raise a force that will destroy you. We defy you! Do your worst!”

Connolly secured a printer in Scotland and produced a short-lived paper The Worker but repeated police seizures finished it off in February 2015.

BY MÍCHEÁL MAC DONNCHA

In the long run, the freedom of a nation is measured by the freedom of its lowest class; every upward step of that class to the possibility of possessing higher things raises the standard of the nation in the scale of civilisation; every time that class is beaten back into the mire, the whole moral tone of the nation suffers.

James Connolly’s editorial, ‘The Workers’ Republic’, 29 May 1915 FOR

JUST €10

Determined not to be silenced, Connolly now sought a printing press which could be installed in Liberty Hall.

He found a dilapidated machine for sale in nearby Abbey Street. A member of the ITGWU objected to the press being brought into Liberty Hall as it might be used for “illegal printing” and bring the notice of the police on the building.

Connolly explained to the committee that it was “only a little one” and could save money by printing union material. He secured the agreement of the committee and the press was installed.

The rickety printing press had to be propped up on bricks in the basement of Liberty Hall. It took time to assemble the necessary type and other equipment but when it was up and running it could print 1,600 copies per hour.

Connolly was now ready to publish his new paper and The Workers Republic appeared on 29 May 1915.

The first editorial was entitled ‘Our Policy’ and stressed that it was a paper for the working class and the labour movement. In relation to the war, it said “the Defence of the Realm Act is very far-reaching and we are not yet in a position to prevent its enforcement”.

DORA was increasingly being used to arrest and deport republicans, Volunteer organisers and other opponents of the war and the British connection.

Just two weeks before the The Workers’ Republic appeared, Seán Mac Diarmada was arrested in Tuam and imprisoned in Mountjoy.

Ironically, while DORA suppressed free speech and allowed the British to deport and imprison people, the law in relation to possessing arms was lax by today’s terms. Thus, for much of its existence, the printing press in Liberty Hall was guarded by armed members of the Irish Citizen Army who deterred action by the police.

By this means Connolly was able to defy DORA and “prevent its enforcement”.

The Workers’ Republic carried Connolly’s political articles, trade union and socialist news as well as pieces on guerrilla warfare and street fighting, authored first

by Connolly and then by Citizen Army officer Michael Mallin. Through 1915 and into 1916 Connolly urged joint military action with the Irish Volunteers, culminating in his co-option in January 1916 onto the Military Council that planned and carried out the Easter Rising.

The old printing press in Liberty Hall, on which The Workers Republic had been printed, performed its last duty when it printed the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.

• The Workers’ Republic, edited by James Connolly, was first published in May 1915, 100 years ago this month.

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May / Bealtaine 2015

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Scannal na gcomharthaí bhóthair ÁBHAR GÁIRE dúinn a labhraíonn Gaeilge go rialta go raibh an oireadh sin íonaidh ar Vincent Browne nuair a chraol sé clár as Gaillimh mar chuid dá shraith díospóireachtaí pobail.

Ba léir go raibh an t-iriséóir clúiteach ag iarraidh duine éicínt ar shráideanna na Gaillimhe a labhródh go nimhneach in aghaidh na Gaeilge, ach deoraí dá leithéid ní raibh ann.

Agus nuair a d’iarr sé ar an slua a bhí bailithe isteach le haghaidh na díospóireachta an n-ardódh duine ar bith a lámh in aghaidh na Gaeilge, arís ní raibh ann.

‘Nois tá’s agam go bhfuil an-chuid naimhde don Gaeilge sa tír – an chuid is mó díobh is cosúil insna ceantracha meánaicmeacha is méithe i mBaile Átha Cliath, agus insan stáitsheirbhís; ach ceapaim go raibh fírinne áirithe san eachtra seo: tá móramh mhuintir na hÉireann báúil don Ghaeilge.

Ach ina ainneóin sin is beag aitheantais a

21

fhaigheann lucht labhartha na Gaeilge ón stát.

Bíonn an Roinn Oideachais chómh naimhdeach sin gur baistíodh Roinn an Éadóchais air, agus tá cás na gcomharthaí poiblí ina scannal amach is amach ó thaobh na Gaeilge dhe.

Sea, nuair a bhí Leo Varadkar ina Aire Iompair bhí sé ar tí comharhaí nua a thabhairt isteach a chuirfeadh an Ghaeilge ar chómhchéim leis an mBéarla.

Ach aistríodh Leo go dtí an Roinn Slainte is d’fhógair a chomharba sa Roinn Iompair, Pascal Donohoe nach rachfaí ar aghaidh leis an bplean gan athmhachtnamh. Níor cualathas tada faoi ó shoin.

Leo Varadkar

Agus an leithscéal suarach dó seo? Is cosuil go gcuirfeadfh se isteach ar thurasóirí an Ghaeilge a bheith ar chómhcheim. Ait mar sin fhéin nach gcuireann sé isteach ar thurasoirí sa mBeilg go mbíonn comharthai i gceantar na Bruiséile dá-theangach – leagan Fraincise is leagan Ísiltírise ar chómhchéim.

EOIN Ó MURCHÚ Ar ndóigh, níl ann ach bíogóideacht fhrithGhaelach. Ach, agus muid ag dul i dtreó toghcháin, céard a dhéanfaidh lucht labhartha na Gaeilge faoi seo? An bhfanfaimid ciúin béasach, nó an bhféachfaimid chuige go mbeidh an Ghailge ina ábhar toghcháin?

Dúinne, lucht labhartha na Gaeilge an cinneadh sin a dhéanamh!

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD in Leinster House with the youth mental health campaign

Comhairle na nÓg ‘Let’s Go Mental’ initiative introduced in Leinster House

Youth positive mental health programme in June YOUTH representatives from all 31 Comhairlí na nÓg structures from across the state were in Leinster House in April for the introduction of their ‘Let’s Go Mental’ initiative to Dáil deputies and senators.

The visit, proposed by Cavan/ Monaghan Dáil Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Sinn Féin), who also co-chaired the event, was part of the Oireachtas All-Party Group on Mental Health’s programme of work for 2015.

Deputy Ó Caoláin was joined in

co-chairing the first of two presentations by Deputy Maureen O’Sullivan (Independent).

The second session was co-chaired

by Deputy Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) and Deputy Robert Troy (Fianna Fáil).

Among the topics addressed by Comhairle na nÓg in recent years are mental health services for young people, facilities for young people, how young people are treated by the adult world, and homophobic bullying.

The visit was proposed by Cavan/ Monaghan Dáil Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, Sinn Féin Health spokesperson

Among the young representatives were Conor McCabe of Mountnugent, County Cavan, and Lily Cheung of Glaslough, County Monaghan, both of whom are members of the Comhairle na nÓg National Executive.

Senators Kathryn Reilly and Diarmuid Wilson were among the Oireachtas members present, as were Leila Shaddadi from the office of Deputy Joe O’Reilly and Nuala Brady from the office of Deputy Brendan Smith.

The statewide launch of ‘Let’s Go Mental’ will take place in June in Dublin.

There will be regional events at a number of locations, each designed to promote positive mental health through music, sport, the arts and other fun activities.

While the focus of the initiative and of the various events scheduled is on young people, everyone, irrespective of age, is welcome to come along and to join in.

22 May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

ROBERT ALLEN MICHAEL 'MITEY MAC' McNally, toggle-haired and thin-boned, stares out at the ocean, remembering. “We were never educated to stay here and love the place and the produce.”

Once a fisherman, he knows what is beyond the Skelligs – vast emptiness where the sea and the sky cannot agree where to meet. From his small farm at the western edge of the Beara peninsula, the salt-sea air chaps his lips.

Today is a typical Beara day. The sun is high in a watery blue sky. The sea throws its salty spray onto the sparse land. Rain is in the air and, sure enough, it sweeps down from the mountain.

The sky darkens. Within half an hour, a dirty grey blanket alters the illumination of the land. The light fades almost to twilight.

It is time to make lunch.

Pan-fried fresh mackerel and whole boiled potatoes – the old favourite.

Mackerel are capricious. Fishers have always known this. From Dinish to Cape Clear and around to Garinish, mackerel have defined the lives of coastal communities for countless centuries.

Stephen Crane, an American writer who visited Cape Clear in the last years of the 19th century, described the life: “The mackerel, beautiful as fire-etched salvers, were passed to a long table. Each woman could clean a fish with two motions of the knife. Then the washers, men who stood over the troughs filled with running water from the brook, soused the fish.

“The fish were carried to a group of girls with knives, who made the cuts that enabled each fish to flatten out in the manner known of the breakfast table.

“After the girls came the men and boys, who rubbed each fish thoroughly with great handfuls of coarse salt, whiter than snow, which shone in the daylight, diamond-like.

“Last came the packers, drilled in the art of getting neither too few nor too many mackerel into a barrel, sprinkling constantly prodigal layers of brilliant salt.”

In the early 1930s, the mackerel disappeared completely. When they returned, the knowledge that had been passed down led the fishers to the fish.

“The old fishermen always knew the best geographical points to go to to get the mackerel," says Mitey. “If they weren't there you'd see the fowls in the water and you'd chase over towards them.”

The fishers used fixed nets anchored to stalls on the seabed at specific points up to 30 feet deep.

When the mackerel moved they ran straight into these nets, the force of the fish lifting the nets out of the water.

“It was a great sight in the morning at dawn when the fish would start to move,” says Mitey.

“We caught the fish with netting with a threeinch mesh – which ensured all the small mackerel

Boxt is back (AND OTHER TRADITIONAL FOOD REVIVALS)

went through it so we caught only the prime fish, the big, fine, fat mackerel.”

An increasing demand for mackerel was soon met by people who wanted to make big money.

Unlike the Garinish fishers, whose livelihoods depended on the mackerel, entrepreneurs launched large factory ships and sent them in search of the mackerel in the open sea. “Two of

From Dinish to Cape Clear and around to Garinish, mackerel have defined the lives of coastal communities for countless centuries these super trawlers would catch in one night what would keep a community as large as this whole parish going for the year,” says Mitey.

The market for mackerel collapsed in the early 1980s. Now the mackerel are back again and

the fishers are using old methods to sustain the stocks. On Dinish island, they fast-freeze whole mackerel and sell them where they can.

Paul Farrelly of Killeshandra was 19 when he got laid off from the building sites. It was the boat for England or boxty for Ireland. He decided to stay and now, three decades later, he has a thriving business making and selling boxty to shops in Cavan, Leitrim and Longford, and via Musgraves of Cork to various Centra and SuperValu outlets around the country.

He says it was one of those little accidents of life. Accident or not, to make a success of an artisan food business in the early 1980s required more than providence.

His mother, Nan, who ran a home bakery, provided the expertise and skill, and away they went, grating and squeezing floury Kerrs Pinks to make a boiled boxty rooted in the tradition of west Cavan life.

Boxty has been a traditional food in the north-western counties for a very long time.

There is an association with Halloween and the late crop of the year. Its similarity with the Swiss pan-fried grated potatoes and with the potato dumplings of the Baltic countries may

5 Theodora FitzGibbon's 'A Taste of Ireland' (published in 1968) is now a collector's item

be coincidental, or not.

Farrelly is glad boxty now has a profile. In 1983, boxty was an enigma. It was known in west Cavan, Leitrim, Longford, parts of Mayo and in north Roscommon but not in east Cavan or Monaghan or the rest of the country. When he tried to sell their boxty, one woman queried him: “Why would I want to buy your boxty, when I make my own?”

But Farrelly and Nan persevered, buying custom-made equipment from a factory in Broughshane in County Antrim, Very gradually, Drummully Boxty was established.

By refining the traditional method and by using good Rooster potatoes from County Meath, Farrelly and his mother created a business that now employs three people, keeping them all at

They rubbed each fish thoroughly with great handfuls of coarse salt, whiter than snow home, away from the ignominy of migration, rooted in their place. Just like the song.

Joe McGee is a successful artisan butcher, a member of the Craft Butchers of Ireland. He cures his own bacon and makes weekly 300 kilos of sausages, selling them to eager customers from a unit in the Letterkenny Shopping Centre, a traditional food oasis in a country bereft of its own traditional produce.

McGettigan's bakery, back along the mall, make some of the best barm brack, tea and whiskey cake anywhere in Europe.

The Tesco across from Joe's is the place to go for that delicious mackerel from Dinish, and for natural buttermilk from Mayo, cheeses from the hills and valleys of Cork and Tipperary and large bottles of Irish whiskey.

There is that much-vaunted PGI (product of geographical indication), the EU symbol of quality for traditional food. Each product should fulfill a specific criteria, simply described as place, people and produce.

May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

23

5 Healthy breakfast – Eggs are poached, potato cakes are baked and rashers are grilled

5 Joe packages and sells champ – creamed potato with scallions

Historical evidence is crucial but it is the geographical criteria that determines whether a symbol is issued.

The EU's traditional food project of two decades ago was serviced by academics who hid their results from the public domain, not least the Irish project by Teagasc (the Agriculture and Food Development Authority) and hardly seen since.

Unlike countries like Switzerland, where the results were put on an accessible online database, Ireland has only legends and myths about its

When he got laid off from the building sites, it was the boat for England or boxty for Ireland traditional food, and the ancestral line into the past has been cut by the modern trend for street fast food and supermarket junk food.

Irish food history is divided between the big house and the small cottage, between the city and the townland, and between those with and those without! Very few of our traditional recipes were written down. Those who did the writing came from the big house and wrote their own food history.

The Allens of Ballymaloe made an effort to collect traditional recipes from their east Cork neighbours but Theodora FitzGibbon's A Taste of Ireland, published in 1968, remains the only

Breakfast became the most important meal of the day and epitomised traditional food, continuing to this day. Depending on the region, breakfast included a combination from bacon rashers, black and white puddings, fried eggs, pork and steak sausages, potatoes in their various guises, wheaten and white soda bread, scones with butter, jams and preserves, milky tea or coffee with hot milk.

Fast breakfast was fadge – bacon, eggs and potato cakes.

The concept of plated meat, vegetables and potatoes, probably started in Dublin. It was certainly a tradition in city restaurants, now the preserve of the food pub. Ham or bacon, cabbage and mashed potatoes remain a favou5 The old fishermen always knew the best points to go to to get the mackerel

genuine traditional recipe book, and it is also a collector's item.

Early Irish food was based on grains – barley, oats, spelt – on forest forage, on game meat, on inshore, lake and river fish, on eggs, on honey and on wild berries and fruit.

Oats, in particular, were used in numerous ways: in soups and stews, in confections like honeycomb, and as the essential ingredient in griddle bread. They were fermented to provide a leaven for bread.

Cockle, crab, eel, haddock, herring, langoustine (Dublin bay prawn), lobster, mackerel, pike, salmon, trout and winkle provided protein for coastal, lake and river communities. Sea vegetables such as carrageen and dulse were used variously.

Meat from birds (duck and goose), small animals (hares and rabbits) and large animals (boar/pig and

deer) was common, and defined traditional dishes.

The potato had a profound effect on rural food.

Usually cooked whole in their skins, a method that retained minerals and vitamins, the potato was used as a thickener for soups (early chowders, for example), as a bulking agent in stews and as a companion for countless dishes – boxty, champ, colcannon, fadge, farls and pratie among them.

Mutton, a high table dish, became an essential food in the late 18th century. The consequence was Irish stew, made initially with mutton neck bones, potatoes, onions and salt, then much latter with other root vegetables and herbs.

Breadmaking went through countless adaptations in the early 19th century as new ingredients (bicarbonate of soda, dried fruit, molasses, soft wheat, spices and sugar) led to the beginnings of many of our baked products.

Ireland sits last on the traditional food table of Europe rite. Nowadays the carvery is popular, usually roast stuffed pork, carrots, gravy and mash. In the food pubs sirloin steak, crispy onion and chips are now thought of as traditional.

Yet, despite this rich culinary history, Ireland sits last on the traditional food table of Europe.

The mackerel fishers of Cork, the boxty makers and cheese producers of Cavan and the bacon curers and brack bakers of Donegal are few and far between.

A bit like the land and the sea, where the mackerel used to be.

24 May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

www.guengl.eu Juncker plan remains fundamentally flawed, says Liadh Ní Riada KEY COMMITTEE VOTES on Juncker’s plan for a European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) were taken in April and unfortunately it remains fundamentally flawed despite the modest improvements secured by the European Parliament, says Liadh Ní Riada.

The Juncker Plan has to come with a massive health warning. While I welcome and indeed have been calling for investment as opposed to austerity, the EFSI does little to boost public investment.

There is a level of liquidity in the financial markets which could easily be redirected toward funding a genuine public investment programme with would produce a far better return for society.

This could be led by the EIB with backing from the ECB as well as by member state governments, if they were to scrap the straightjacket that is the fiscal compact.

Instead, the EFSI creates a profit-guarantee scheme for private institutional investors at the cost of taxpayers.

We have European citizens living under incredibly dramatic economic and financial conditions, large employers are relocating to Asia, and there is no investment. Working conditions are worsening, unemployment is increasing , our young people have no expectations of a future, poverty has reached alarming levels, the welfare system is crumbling, and the gap between rich and poor continues to widen.

We are looking for a New Deal for the people of the European Union.

This means providing an additional €500billion for investment annually over ten years to kick-start the economy and bring an end to the economic and social crisis.

We need smart investment to revive the economy, to enable a social sustainable green economy. Investment in research, infrastructure, education, SMEs, social enterprises, and co-operatives is needed to propel us out of this crisis.

What we need is a true public investment plan for Europe. One which invests in the people and not one that is essentially creating another financial bubble. The ordinary taxpayer should not be paying for private profiteers. * Liadh Ní Riada MEP is the GUE/NGL shadow rapporteur on the budget elements of the EFSI.

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

Lynn Boylan report on Right2Water due in summer LYNN BOYLAN is at the helm of a number of flagship initiatives in Europe, including the Citizens’ Initiative on the Right2Water. Lynn is the lead author on an in-depth report on Right2Water which is due to be published this summer and includes an analysis and a comparison of water services and the consequences of privatisation in countries across the European Union.

Informing the content of her report was the Right2Water delegation Lynn led to Brussels in February.

The delegation consisted of a number of Right2Water unions, including the CWU, CPSU, OPATSI, Unite and Mandate. The delegation proved to be very informative as the Irish delegation heard from a number of their European counterparts on the risks of privatisation of services and how many cities are moving towards the remunicipalisation of water services.

Lynn has also taken a pivotal role in the Right2Water campaign at home. She has spoken at a number of national rallies and manned stalls across the city on Saturday mornings.

Another focus of Lynn’s work in Europe is the environment and food safety.

As GUE/NGL group lead negotiator on the issue she successfully lobbied her fellow MEPS

Lynn Boylan MEP

to pass a resolution calling on the EU Commission to propose legislation on mandatory country of origin labelling for meat in processed food.

Lynn also raised the issue of genetically modified crops (GMs) and the potential threat of the flawed and watered-down legislation introduced.

During the committee stage, Lynn put forward a number amendments that challenged the Council proposal of creating a system that would

Action in Brussels on migration and asylum

Liadh Ní Riada MEP

Funded by the European United Left/ Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL)

require member states to ask permission from biotech companies not to include their territories in the companies’ GMO authorisation requests.

Other important issues raised by Lynn in Parliament include the ongoing detention of Ibrahim Halawa, the only EU citizen still imprisoned after protests in Cairo nearly two years ago. She recently discussed the matter with a representative from Frederica Mogherini’s office, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs. She will continue to lobby both the EU Parliament and the Irish Government to secure Ibrahim’s release.

Lynn Boylan also raised the problem of youth unemployment by participating in a debate on Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) funding.

She has characterised the EU attempt to address these devastating levels of youth unemployment across Europe as being “marred by a lack of ambition, a lack of funds and a lack of understanding”.

In May, Lynn is hosting a youth entrepreneur event in the home of the failed youth guarantee, Ballymun. This workshop event will aim to equip young people from across Dublin with some of the skills required to get their business ideas off the ground and will be delivered by Madi Sharma, a successful social entrepreneur.

MEPs support Palestinian refugees and prisoners

May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

25

Another Europe is possible Treo eile don Eoraip Liadh Ní Riada

5 At Tar Anall republican ex-prisoners' organisation after meeting Declan Kearney

Matt Carthy

5 The delegation tours Stormont Buildings

5 GUE/NGL MEPs with Martina Anderson at Conway Mill in Belfast

GUE/NGL MEPs visit Belfast and Dublin MARTINA ANDERSON MEP welcomed a group of GUE/NGL MEPs to Belfast at the end of April as part of a two-day fact finding mission to Ireland to see the benefits of European membership at first-hand.

The Irish MEP met MEPs from SYRIZA, Podemos and representatives from the Basque Country following a visit to the European Parliament by Declan Kearney in January during which he met with MEPS from Podemos and SYRIZA to discuss the current status of the political process in the North.

During the two-day visit, the European United Left/Nordic Green Left group members visited Parliament Buildings

at Stormont with Martina Anderson and met with Junior Minister Jennifer McCann and other MLAs. She accompanied the MEPs to the site of the former Girdwood Barracks in north Belfast, a former British military installation which is now being redeveloped for the benefit of the local community.

They also met with representatives of the local community in the Duncairn Arts Centre to see how European funding is benefiting local areas.

Martina Anderson said: “This visit to Belfast and Dublin came about after the unprecedented and unanimously-supported motion by the European

Parliament in November urging support for the Irish Peace Process.

“This delegation is an indication of Europe’s commitment to see all outstanding agreements implemented and to demonstrates support for the political process,” she said.

The MEPs saw how European money is being spent in Belfast.

“They had the chance to see at first-hand how European funding, such as Peace III, has impacted on local communities here as well as discussing priorities for Peace 4 funding.

“They were struck by the impact European funding has had in north

Belfast in particular, transforming the former British military site at Girdwood into a new community resource,” she explained.

Martina Anderson added that the delegation was also impressed by the anti-austerity stance taken by local communities in the North.

“They engaged with a wide range of political opinion in Ireland and saw the determination of local communities to challenge the austerity agenda, whether it comes from Westminster, Dublin or Brussels.”

The GUE/NGL later travelled on for meetings at the Dáil in Dublin.

Matt Carthy moderates discussion on wealth taxation at key EU conference THE GUE/NGL group held a key economic conference, ‘From Tax Fraud to Tax Justice: Corporate Tax Dumping and Taxing Wealth’, on Tuesday 21 April.

This day-long conference examined tax evasion and avoidance as well as progressive alternatives for fair taxation. The conference was attended by Meath West TD Péadar Tóibín and was addressed by Dr Tom McDonnell of the Nevin Economic Research Institute.

One of the most lively and informative discussions on the day was the ‘Forum on Wealth Taxation’, chaired by Midlands North West MEP Matt Carthy. This forum heard contributions from Dr McDonnell and from members of the EH Bildu led Government of the Basque region, who have been operating a wealth tax since 2013.

Opening the forum, Matt Carthy outlined the importance of the discussion as a means of establishing the type of society that we want to live in.

During his presentation, Dr McDonnell said: “The fiscal contraction we’ve seen in Ireland since 2008 has been massive and primary public spending has now fallen to unprecedented low levels.

“In Ireland today, households in the 10th percentile own €1,200 in net wealth, while households in the 90th percentile own €506,000 in net wealth. That means the 90th percentile controls 422 times the wealth of the 10th percentile, and that is not even taking into account the superwealthy at the at the very top.

“Wealth inequality grows over time in

Matt Carthy MEP

the absence of progressive taxation. A tax of net wealth would raise revenue for the exchequer and would target those with the broadest shoulders.”

In his concluding remarks, Matt Carthy said: “It appears from the general discussions today that a tax on wealth can be both a practical and progressive means of taxation and a useful tool in establishing a fair society.

“I am particularly pleased to hear the proposal from Dr McDonnell of a tax on net wealth of households with a threshold of €1million and his assertion that a well designed tax on net wealth would overcome any potential obstacles. This echoes what progressive voices in Ireland have been calling for over the past number of years.”

Martina Anderson

Lynn Boylan

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

26 May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

1916 Easter Commemorations 2015

We are growing stronger by the day REPUBLICANS are moving Irish society closer to the principles contained in the 1916 Proclamation every day, Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly said at the Belfast Easter Commemoration held at the Republican Plot in Milltown Cemetery.

“Easter Week 1916 inspired generations of Irish republicans but also peoples throughout the world who rose up against the tyranny of colonial rule, imperialism and oppression,” the H-Blocks prison escapee said. “It is a fire still burning bright in the heart of every Irish republican today. That fight is carried on by Sinn Féin today in our fight for equality for all.

“Austerity isn’t working. Sinn Féin wants equality, not austerity.

“The British Tory party, with the support of some local parties, wants a mandate to continue with austerity.

“We are standing firm against policies which seek to cut our public services and force our citizens into further hardship.

“The Tories have already cut £1.5billion out of the public service budget and tried to impose additional cuts on the most vulnerable.

“Sinn Féin opposed these policies and protected families with children with disabilities, adults with severe disabilities, large families and the long-term sick.

“Sinn Féin ministers are fighting to protect frontline public services from the worst of Tory cuts and we will continue to do this. But the magnitude of these cuts is putting real pressure on public services, on school budgets and on community groups.

“It is clear that austerity is the cost of the Union and both have failed.

“We want change. We want the

Young Fianna and Cumann na gCailíní at the Ardoyne Easter parade

Piper Seán Kelly leads the Easter Commemoration in Clones, County Monaghan

Gerry Kelly MLA gives the main speech at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast

Members of the Boylan family gather at the grave of Captain Edward Boylan, who died on 25 July 1922 of wounds received while attempting to escape from Free State forces holding him prisoner in Cavan Military Barracks

IRA Volunteers who lost their lives in the Tan War are remembered in Bandon, County Cork

Wreaths are laid in memory of fallen Volunteers in New Lodge

Cllr Shane O'Brien at Dún Laoghaire's Easter Commemoration

Artist Mickey Doherty and Paul Maskey MP unveil Mickey's new mural in the hallway of the Andersonstown Social Club, west Belfast

May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

27

‘Austerity d ose policies imp ucated d by an Eton-ee are no English elit terests of in more in the e Shankill people of th they are Road than s of the for resident e’ Bogsid

Gerry Adams TD delivers the main oration at the Easter Rising commemoration in Roslea, County Fermanagh

budget in the North restored and we want the powers to create and sustain economic growth.

“This will be a battlefield in the time ahead.

“There will be many challenges for Sinn Féin and others who want maximum change, equality and fairness.

"Equality is a red line issue for Sinn Féin, so is the need to end austerity.”

He added: “Support for Sinn Féin is growing.

Support for the core republican principles of equality and sovereignty as enshrined in the 1916 Proclamation is also growing.

“We remain guided by the noble ideals of the 1916 leaders but we struggle in the context of 2015. We are now in a phase of nation building.

“Let us send out this political message – not only have we not gone away but we are getting stronger by the day.”

GERRY ADAMS And in Roslea, County Fermanagh, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said: “Ireland today needs another Rising – a peaceful rising to take control of the ideals of the Proclamation and to put them into practice.”

He explained further: “Partition has retarded and distorted

the political, social and economic life of this island. But politics in both parts of this island is now in flux.

“Many people now realise that it makes no sense to have two econo-

‘I appeal directly to s working-clasyalists d lo unionists an e the to examin social d economic an being price now e paid for th Union’ mies, two education systems, two health systems, two tax codes, two currencies on one small island.

“There is a growing recognition by the business community of the economic sense of an all-island economy with joined-up agriculture and health sectors.

“The people of this island, whether urban or rural, from whatever

background or tradition, share a common history and our futures are bound together.

“The message of the Proclamation, the symbolism of our national flag and the challenge for republicans today is to unite Orange and Green in equality and mutual respect.

“I appeal directly to working-class unionists and loyalists to examine the economic and social price now being paid for the Union.

“Austerity policies imposed by an Eton-educated English elite are no more in the interests of people of the Shankill Road than they are for residents of the Bogside.

“I believe next year’s centenary events should be a catalyst for a national conversation on these issues.

“Sinn Féin is committed to securing, in the time ahead, a referendum on Irish unity so that each and every one of us, working together, can build a new, dynamic country.

“Such a referendum should not be seen as threatening to any section of our community.

“All political objectives can now be pursued peacefully and democratically and in mutual respect.

“That is the great success of the Peace Process.”

A Member of a 'Flying Column' at the Andersonstown Easter Commemoration

Some of the participants and organisers of the Clonakilty Easter parade

Martina Anderson MEP was the main speaker at the Easter Rising Commemoration in Drumboe, County Donegal

The Dublin Easter Commemoration makes its way down O'Connell Street

28 May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com BOOK REVIEWS BY MICHAEL MANNION

Behind the Easter Week barricades Inside the GPO, 1916: A first-hand account

By Joe Good | O’Brien Press | Price: €11.99

THE first thing to say about this book is that everyone should own a copy. It is the definitive account of the Easter Rising, written by a participant who fought with the HQ staff in the GPO. It is packed from cover to cover with insights and observations that provide a more human analysis than is often given by other, more sterile, factual accounts.

The book is exceptionally well-written, especially when one considers that the author was already working in a factory at the age of 14, having long left school. Yet it is littered with quotations and allusions to everyone from Homer’s Iliad, to Shakespeare and the Pope. This makes it sound pretentious, with pseudo-intellectual insertions placed to show how clever the author is, but nothing could be further from the truth.

This is a heartfelt work, full of humanity and genuine warmth, as well as being an invaluable historical record.

The book confounds preconceived ideas from the outset.

The author was born in London, with only tenuous links to his perceived Irish heritage. And this was not an isolated case. Over 70 Volunteers were billeted at Joseph Plunkett’s property in Kimmage.

This garrison was drawn exclusively from the English- and Scottish-born sons of Irish emigrants. Another 20 or so were billeted in North King Street, and a further ten Cumann na mBan members distributed throughout the city. Pearse was so impressed with these Diaspora Volunteers that he appointed them as the HQ Company of the Volunteer Staff Command. It is interesting to reflect that the inside of the GPO would have been full of English accents, whilst a good 20% of the attacking British soldiers would

have been Irish-born. Certainly, 20% of the “British” fatalities were Irish troops.

The Kimmage Volunteers comprised 10% of all rebel fatalities, the highest of any group on the insurgent side.

Joe Good reflects on the response of these British-born (or American-born in De Valera’s case) and speculates on the reasons for their commitment.

The list of republican leaders born in Britain is extensive. Everyone knows that Connolly was born in Edinburgh, but how many realise that Tom Clarke was born on the Isle of Wight? There are many others: Maud Gonne, Surrey; Erskine Childers, Mayfair; Piaras Béaslai,

This is a heartfelt work, full of humanity and genuine warmth as well as being an invaluable historical record Liverpool; Liam Mellows, Lancashire . . . The list goes on, with some returning to Ireland in childhood, and others as adults.

There is one curious passage where Joe describes Michael Collins and Cathal Brugha as being “brilliant partners” and the “closest of friends”.

All other sources say that they loathed each other. Presumably, as a great admirer of each of them, he could not bear to recognise their mutual antipathy.

There are many books being produced for the centenary of 1916 – this one should be top of the list.

A turbulent priest The Belligerent Prelate: An alliance between Archbishop Daniel Mannix and Eamon de Valera

By Patrick Mannix | Cambridge Scholars Publishing | Price: €19.99

5 Joe Good (left) with Kimmage garrison comrades John 'Blimey' O'Connor and Ernie Noonan

UNLESS you are from Charleville, County Cork, or are an Australian, it is highly unlikely that you know anything much about Archbishop Daniel Mannix.

Most people, on the other hand, would probably be able to rattle off at least some of the main events in Eamon de Valera’s life. For many years, however, it was Mannix and not de Valera who was the major figure on both the national and international stages.

The two men grew up 18 years apart, in adjoining towns and villages separated only by a few fields. De Valera was raised in Bruree, and Mannix in Charleville. The formative influences on both men were the same. The land question was the burning political topic and both men were raised in families with patriarchal activity in the Land League.

Both men attended Charleville Christian Brothers School, and both men excelled academically. It is not that surprising, then, that in later life the two men would form an alliance based on common aims and a similar

world view, as well as a deep mutual respect.

Mannix’s first role of any major significance was as President of St Patrick’s College Maynooth. Whilst acknowledged as a wonderful administrator, he was also accused of being an Empire loyalist and a West Brit. He was fiercely

Mannix mobilised his huge Irish-Australian congregation to provide support for the Tan War and officiated at Cork Mayor Terence MacSwiney’s funeral attacked by Pádraig Pearse and and other leading nationalists. In short, he was becoming a liability to the Catholic Hierarchy, who did not wish to alienate that section of popular public

opinion allied to the Gaelic revival.

Their solution was simple: remove the problem by making Mannix Archbishop of Melbourne.

It was from this position that he emerged as a committed republican. He contrasted the fate of the executed 1916 leaders with the concessions granted to leaders of the Ulster Covenant. He mobilised his huge Irish-Australian congregation to provide support for the Tan War and officiated at Cork Mayor Terence MacSwiney’s funeral, preventing British manoeuvres to have his death condemned by the Vatican as a suicide.

He was arrested by the British Royal Navy and detained for several months in England. He strongly condemned the Treaty, and offered full support to the anti-Treaty forces in the Civil War, aligning himself strongly with de Valera’s stance. This relationship between two kindred spirits continued throughout both their careers and forms the core of this biography.

This is a phenomenally well-researched book providing a new insight into the relationship between two major figures of Irish and Australian history.

It is not an easy book to read but it is a truly fascinating one that provides essential source material to students of the period.

May / Bealtaine 2015

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I nDíl Chuimhne

29

All notices and obituaries should be sent to notices@anphoblacht.com by Friday 15 May 2015

1 May 1993 Alan LUNDY, Sinn Féin.

2 May 1987 Volunteer Finbarr McKENNA, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

3 May 1974: Volunteer Teddy CAMPBELL, Long Kesh.

5 May 1981: Volunteer Bobby SANDS, H-Block Martyrs.

5 May 1992: Volunteer Christy HARFORD, Dublin Brigade.

6 May 1988: Volunteer Hugh HEHIR, Clare Brigade.

7 May 1974: Volunteer Frederick LEONARD, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

8 May 1987: Volunteer Declan ARTHURS, Volunteer Séamus DONNELLY, Volunteer Tony GORMLEY, Volunteer Eugene KELLY, Volunteer Paddy KELLY, Volunteer Jim LYNAGH, Volunteer Pádraig McKEARNEY, Volunteer Gerard O’CALLAGHAN, Tyrone Brigade.

10 May 1973 Volunteer Tony AHERN, Cork Brigade.

12 May 1981: Volunteer Francis HUGHES, H-Block Martyrs.

13 May 1972: Fian Michael MAGEE, Fianna Éireann.

13 May 1972: Volunteer John STARRS, Derry Brigade.

13 May 1973: Volunteer Kevin KILPATRICK, Tyrone Brigade.

13 May 1974: Volunteer Eugene MARTIN; Volunteer Seán McKEARNEY, Tyrone Brigade.

15 May 1971: Volunteer Billy REID,

Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

16 May 1973: Volunteer Joseph McKENNA, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

17 May 1973: Volunteer Thomas O’DONNELL, GHQ Staff.

17 May 1976: Volunteer Jim GALLAGHER, Derry Brigade.

18 May 1973: Volunteer Seán McKEE, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

18 May 1973: Volunteer Francis RICE, South Down Brigade.

21 May 1981: Volunteer Patsy O’HARA (INLA), Volunteer Raymond McCREESH, H-Block Martyrs.

21 May 1994: Volunteer Martin DOHERTY, Dublin Brigade.

24 May 1991: Eddie FULLERTON, Sinn Féin.

28 May 1972: Volunteer Martin ENGELEN, Volunteer Joseph FITZSIMMONS, Volunteer Edward McDONNELL, Volunteer Jackie McILHONE, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

28 May 1981: Volunteer Charles MAGUIRE, Volunteer George McBREARTY, Derry Brigade.

31 May 1986: Volunteer Philip McFADDEN, Derry Brigade.

Always remembered by the Republican Movement.

CASEY, Gerard. In proud and loving memory of my father, Gerard Casey, murdered by British state forces on 4 April 1989. God Bless you, Dad,

Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations Pádraig Pearse you were one of the best. Always remembered and never forgotten by son Paul, Noeleen and grandchildren Orla, Erin and Odhran.

CASEY, Gerard. In proud and loving memory of my dear husband, Volunteer Gerard Casey, murdered on 4 April 1989. Quietly today your memory is kept, no need for words, I will never forget, as thoughts go back as they often do, I treasure the memories I had with you. Always loved and remembered by Una. CASEY, Gerard. In proud and loving memory of my father, Volunteer Gerard Casey, who was murdered on 4 April 1989. If I could have one lifetime wish, one dream that could come true, I would ask with all my heart, for yesterday and you. Always loved by your daughter Geraldine, partner Gary and grandson Cillian.

CASEY, Gerard. In proud and loving memory of my father Volunteer Gerard Casey, murdered 4 April 1989. Silent memories keep you near, as time unfolds another year, like falling leaves

Comhbhrón BURKE (London and Cork). Deepest sympathy to the family, friends and comrades of a deeply motivated republican activist. From the Wolfe Tone Society (London), Justice For

Diarmuid O’Neill Campaign, Connolly Association (London), Saoirse (Prisoners’ Campaign Group), and West London Republican Support Group (Hammersmith)

BURKE. My deepest sympathy to Seán Burke and his family on the recent death of his father, Danny Burke. Mícheál Hennessy, Cork.

FÓGRAÍ BHÁIS

John Rafferty London and Monaghan JOHN RAFFERTY was buried on Wednesday 25 March in the townland of Tyavnet in County Monaghan, where he was born and reared 81 years previously.

On the previous night his body had been escorted to the local church by a guard of honour comprising local Sinn Féin members and councillors.

At the graveside were six republicans who had worked with John or stayed at his home in London during the conflict, a home that was always open to republicans on the run or passing through. Four of these men had spent long years as POWs in English jails.

The oration was given by ex-POW John McCluskey, who outlined John Rafferty’s work and dedication to the Republican Movement in London where he was a member of the Terence MacSwiney Sinn Féin Cumann in Hammersmith.

John’s wife, Margaret, made an elaborate banner which was the envy

of all fledgling cumainn in London at the time.

Marching in the guard of honour at IRA hunger striker Michael Gaughan’s funeral in June 1974, when over 3,000 mourners lined the streets of Kilburn, he came to particular attention of the Special Branch. When the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act was passed, he was the first republican arrested and deported without any explanation or contact with his family. His sister left money at Paddington Green Police Station to buy a suit otherwise he would have arrived in Ireland in working overalls.

Not able to return to London, John lost his business, his home and later his marriage to Margaret broke down.

Tragedy was to intervene in his life again when his 17-year-old son was killed in a motorcycle accident in County Kerry and John only found out by chance when he called to visit two weeks after the lad’s death. After that,

the years go by, but memories of you will never die. Always loved and remembered by your daughter Tara, grandchildren Gerard and Katie.

CASEY, Gerard. In proud and loving memory of my father, Volunteer Gerard Casey, murdered 4 April 1989. A silent tear keeps falling that others don’t see, a longing for my father who meant the world to me, a photograph to treasure is all I have to touch of a father I loved with all my heart and miss very much.

Always remembered by son Kevin, Linda and son Conor.

DOHERTY, Martin. In proud and loving memory of Volunteer Martin ‘Doco’ Doherty, Dublin Brigade, Óglaigh na hÉireann, who was murdered at the Widow Scallan’s on 21 May 1994 by a UVF death squad intent on massacre.

There is a place in our heart that is yours alone, a piece of our love only you can own, Deep in our hearts your memories are kept to love and cherish and never forget. Always and proudly remembered by Ben, Bernie, Robert and Ciarán.

DOHERTY, Martin. In proud and loving memory of Volunteer Martin ‘Doco’ Doherty, Dublin Brigade, Óglaigh na hÉireann, who was murdered by loyalists at the Widow Scallan’s pub on 21 May 1994. As near as a heartbeat, as close as a prayer, whenever we need you, you will always be there, you’re just a memory or part of the past, you’re ours to remember as long as life lasts.

Lovingly remembered by his brothers and sisters.

DOHERTY, Martin. In proud and loving memory of Volunteer Martin ‘Doco’ Doherty, Dublin Brigade, Óglaigh na hÉireann, who was killed by loyalists at the Widow Scallan’s pub on 21 May 1994. Think of him as living in the hearts of those he touched, for nothing loved is ever lost, grieve not for him, speak not of sorrow, although his eyes saw not his country’s glory, the service of his day shall make our tomorrow. From Ann and Caroline.

DOHERTY, Martin. In proud memory of Volunteer Martin ‘Doco’ Doherty, Dublin Brigade, Óglaigh na hÉireann, who died at the hands of a loyalist death squad on 21 May 1994. His selfless actions are an inspiration to all republicans.

Remembered with pride by the Clarke, Smith & Doherty Cumann.

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

KEENAN, Brian. In proud and loving memory of Volunteer Brian Keenan, who died on 21 May 2008. Always remembered by Ann O’Sullivan.

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

LONDON

Walking Tour

Irish Political, Historical And Social Walking Tour of Central London with Peter Middleton. Bank Holiday Monday 12 noon, 4 May. Meeting outside the Great Northern Hotel, King’s Cross Station, Pancras Road, London N1C 4TB.

Please bring comfortable walking shoes. The walking tour should last approximately three hours and will end up in Trafalgar Square area. This event is free though donations to the London Easter 1916 Centenary Committee at the end would be appreciated.

Benefit social

In aid of London Easter 1916 Centenary Committee. 9pm till late. Saturday 16 May, Mannion’s Prince Arthur, 158 Broad Lane, London N15 4QJ. The Spirit of Freedom Band and guest speakers.

Taille £7/£4 concessions. Contact: londoneaster1916cc@gmail.com Tel: 079 5691 9871.

DUBLIN

Film, Exhibition and Music

John gradually withdrew from family and friends and chose a solitary lifestyle but his sacrifices and commitment to the republican cause will always be remembered and he will be sorely missed by friends and comrades in the West London Republican Support Group, Hammersmith.

Film showing ‘Some Mother’s Son’. Also 1981 Hunger Strike Exhibition and music on the night to mark the 34th anniversary of death of Volunteer Bobby Sands.

Transport & Social Club (upstairs). Clogher Road, Crumlin. 8pm Tuesday, 5 May. Free entry. Everybody welcome.

30 May / Bealtaine 2015

BETWEEN THE POSTS THE BURDEN OF EXPECTATION

www.anphoblacht.com

BY CIARÁN KEARNEY

AS IRISH CHAMPION JOCKEY Tony McCoy dismounted from his ride at the British Grand National this year, he looked chastened and dejected. Having announced his retirement earlier this season, McCoy had raised the expectation that this year would be his year to win. At the end of the race, he looked a long way from home.

McCoy hails from the village of Moneyglass, in the heart of south-west Antrim. The drumlins above the top of the village provide a great vantage over Lough Beg and Lough Neagh. Nearby, the River Bann cradles the heritage of a community which stretches back to the Stone Age. When the Bann was dredged in my grandfather’s time, axe-heads and flints were uncovered in large quantities, bearing witness to the civilisation which once used the river and lough as their transit.

As a boy, I once saw their mode of transport at firsthand. One Saturday morning, my parents loaded my two younger brothers and myself into the family car and travelled to the area.

Upon arrival, my brothers and I found ourselves crouching in a huge hollowed tree, carved into a boat, unearthed in farmland in townland of Gortgill, beside Moneyglass. The hand-made wooden vessel would have been used a thousand years before. Silently, it 5 Culture, Arts and Leisure Minister Carál Ní Chuilín with jockey Tony McCoy and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness served as a reminder of our place in time, of the people and culture from at Aintree. He added that if he won desire to win the US Masters. Some eschew the favourite tag. Events prove whom we were most likely descended. the British Grand National he would sports commentators would have had otherwise. McIlroy nearly didn’t even Like the boat at Gortgill, Tony retire immediately, not at the end of you believe that McIlroy was the only make the cut. After four days of golf, McCoy’s last ride at the British Grand the season as first intended. These serious contender for the title. In public the US Masters winner, Jordan Speith, National had got stuck in the mud sudden changes of belief and objec- comments, McIlroy did nothing to had smashed every course record at Augusta. He led from start to finish. a few furlongs from the finish. The tive inevitably influenced his racing.

Turn for a moment to another His unorthodox putting style on the weary, forlorn expression on Tony green even confounded TV commenMcCoy’s face at the end of his last Grand sportsperson who found himself at sea tators. In the end, it was English golfer National race told another story. Already amidst the tides of public expectation.

Rory McIlroy ventured onto the Justin Rose who shadowed Speith branded by bookmakers as favourite, most closely, finishing in second place.

McCoy himself added to expectation by golf course at Augusta amid hyperRose quietly went about his work while saying the race was an opportunity to bole about his renewed rivalry with McIlroy struggled in the spotlight. Justin make amends to fans for past defeats Tiger Woods and McIlroy’s unfulfilled

You don’t get to decide when the tide comes in or goes out

IN PICTURES

5 St Paul's take on St Enda's in the opening game of the annual Joe Cahill under-12 football tournament at McCrory Park. (Right) Organisers Gerry McClory and Seán Magowan with players from the participating teams and Paul Maskey MP holding the Joe Cahill Memorial Trophy

Rose’s mindset is one skilfully shaped by sport psychology.

“If I ever felt myself getting out of what mattered for hitting a good golf shot my attitude was : ‘So What?’ . . . Let’s just run the process . . . I also accept that golf is a game where you’re gonna win some you’re gonna lose some. I knew that this didn’t have to be my time.”

Public expectations don’t predict performance. In fact, sometimes they can hinder it, as Dublin’s senior footballers learned in last summer’s All-Ireland Semi-Final against Donegal (which they were expected to win at a canter). Comments and expectations of supporters and detractors do impinge on performance. However, more important are the beliefs and responses of players. The biggest pressure comes from within.

The people who carved the boat at Gortgill couldn’t tell the future. They couldn’t know that one day it would be stranded inshore in a farmer’s field.

It’s the same in sport. You don’t get to decide when the tide comes in or goes out. All you can do is be as well prepared as possible and set out with a clear destination in mind, accepting that surprises happen.

As Tony McCoy retires, his wife publicly said that she would swap all his victories for the safe return of her husband: “He goes to work with an ambulance following behind him.”

That places sport in the proper context. Yet, no other son of southwest Antrim has exceeded all that was expected of him in the fashion and completeness of Tony McCoy. Defeats and disappointments are actually to be expected. Perfection is not what sporting performances are about. McCoy’s legacy is excellence. Like the hull of the boat in Gortgill, it will last long after the tide goes out.

photos@anphoblacht.com

May / Bealtaine 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

31

Sinn Féin adviser MARK MULLAN reports back on competing in the testing but rewarding Palestine Marathon

RUNNING FREEDOM FOR

IF EVER there was a race that lived up to the old sporting adage about taking part being the important bit, it’s the Palestine Marathon.

It’s a race like no other on the planet. All 3,000plus runners toeing the line on race day were doing so in solidarity with the Palestinian people and the rights they are denied as a result of the illegal Israeli occupation of their country.

The race route itself encapsulates the restrictions which are part of everyday life for Palestinians.

There simply isn’t a 26-mile loop available without having to cross Israeli checkpoints, so runners face four loops of the same stretch which takes them from the Church of the Nativity (considered the birthplace of Jesus Christ) down Bethlehem’s main avenue, alongside the Israeli ‘Apartheid Wall’ and through two refugee camps. It is an extremely challenging course but what better way to highlight the restrictions faced by Palestinians.

“Wherever you go in Palestine, you face a checkpoint and a crazy Israeli soldier preventing people from moving,” says General Jabril Rajub, Minister for Sport and Youth in Palestine. “This marathon sends a peaceful, non-violent message to the international community about Palestine’s suffering. And it shows Palestinians that they are not alone, that they have the support of the international community. I believe the impact of this event is huge.”

I was privileged to be part of a hardy group of Irish activists taking part this year along with

An Israeli checkpoint at the apartheid wall. The short 10km journey between Ramallah and Jerusalem takes hours as a result of this 'security' apparatus

Gazan athlete Nader al-Masri on his way to winning the 2015 Palestine Marathon At the 'Apartheid Wall'

by heavily-armed Israeli soldiers who made it clear they did not appreciate our presence.

The situation in Gaza is even worse. We couldn’t travel there because of the ongoing blockade but part of the reason we decided to make this trip was to raise funds for the ‘Irish in Gaza’ charity set up

by Mayo couple Derek and Jenny Graham, who are doing fantastic work in that stricken enclave.

Given the ongoing tragedy in Gaza, it is fitting that the Palestine Marathon was won by

Attending the Palestinian Land Day protest in Jerusalem

Ryan Moore and Mark

Mullan

my fellow Derrymen Liam McConway, Dean Power, Ryan Moore and honorary Derryman Dave Sheeran.

And while the 28C heat and seemingly endless hills (I’ll never whinge about the Derry Marathon again) mean it is probably the most challenging race I’ll ever run, it was also the most rewarding by some distance.

Hebron, in particular, is something that has to be seen to be believed. It shows the cold, brutal apartheid in all its ugliness and should stand as a mark of shame to the entire international community that this is able to happen on the fringes of 21st century Europe.

South Africans have said that the apartheid regime in Hebron is worse than anything endured in their country and it’s easy to see why. A Zionist settlement, surrounded by a ring of steel, was

erected in the centre of this historic Palestinian city, severing trade and family links which had endured since biblical times.

We meet a Palestinian family who, just days before, had caught a group of settlers trying to put poison in their rooftop water tank.

They reported this attempted murder to the Israeli police but weren’t expecting anything to come of it, bar more harassment and attempts to force them from their home, alive or dead.

We also met a trader trying to eke out a living from a family stall in the Old City, a stall which had belonged to his father and grandfather before him. He explains how he had lived in England during the 1980s and had been greatly inspired by “that great man Bobby Sands”. Now he spends his days trying to

make a living from his tiny stall in the bowels of the old city as rubbish, urine and excrement routinely rain down from the Israeli Army watchtowers overhead. But he is determined not to be broken. “They want to force us Mark Mullan at the Palestine Marathon finish line out,” he says. “But we will not go. This is my family’s home Gazan athlete Nader al-Masri, whose home was and has been for generations.” destroyed in last year’s Israeli onslaught. Masri, It is the most simple act one of four Palestinian athletes to compete in the of defiance – existence is 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, was competresistance. ing in the marathon for the first time as Israeli Throughout Hebron there authorities denied him permits to leave Gaza in are streets and areas where the last two years.

Arabs simply are not permitFor my part, I managed to finish in fourth ted to enter or they face arrest position which means I’ll probably have to have and possible indefinite incaranother tilt at a podium place next year. But at ceration under Israel’s dracoleast I have that luxury. nian laws.

“I can’t talk about my plans for the future, As foreigners, we were training and competitions,” says al-Masri after permitted to walk through the his triuimph. “I don’t know when they’ll let me settlement but our Palestinian go out again.” guide was not. It was an eerie and genuinely frightening experience as we were repeat- To support Irish in Gaza, log onto edly stopped and questioned irishingaza.wordpress.com

Given the ongoing tragedy in Gaza, it is fitting that the Palestine Marathon was won by Gazan athlete Nader al-Masri, whose home was destroyed in last year’s Israeli onslaught

anphoblacht NEXT ISSUE OUT – Thursday 28th May 2015

BODENSTOWN SUNDAY

WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION 21st June, assemble Sallins at 2.15pm

32

IN PICTURES

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 Cork Sinn Féin Councillor Donnchadh Ó Laoighaire and supporters canvass for a Yes vote in the upcoming marriage referendum – see page 9

5 Pádraig Pearse's eulogy to O'Donovan Rossa is recited at the main Belfast Easter Commemoration – see pages 26 & 27

5 The Strokestown to Dublin Famine Walk at the Jeanie Johnston Famine Ship during a dramatic re-enactment of the walk when 1,490 people from Strokestown in Roscommon walked 155kms to Dublin and were then transported to Liverpool where they boarded four “coffin ships” which took them on a nightmare journey to Quebec in Canada with 700 perishing and being buried at sea

5 Sinn Féin reps on the picket lines at St Stephen's Green, Dublin, with striking Dunnes Stores workers who will rally on Saturday 6 June

5 H-Blocks hunger striker Pat Sheehan MLA with mural artists Danny Devenney and Marty Lyons during a break from their work to repaint the iconic Bobby Sands mural on the wall of Sinn Féin's Belfast headquarters – see page 14

5 Sinn Féin Westminster election candidates with Martin McGuinness MLA and Mary Lou McDonald TD – see pages 6 & 7

5 'Migrant Lives Matter' – Protests at the Dáil over the EU failures to aid refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe