Heroism and vision of 1916 honoured
ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS 2016
ELECTION BATTLE OVER, THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES
Sinn Fﾃｩin Ard Fheis 2016
We stand by the Republic
anphoblacht Sraith Nua Iml 39 Uimhir 5
May / Bealtaine 2016
Price 竄ｬ2 / ﾂ｣2
FINE GAEL BACK IN POWER COURTESY OF FIANNA Fﾃ！L
2 May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS 2016 SINN FÉIN RETURNS WITH 28 ASSEMBLY SEATS
Election battle over, the struggle continues BY MICHAEL McMONAGLE AFTER MONTHS of campaigning, canvassing and door knocking the votes were finally counted in the North’s Assembly elections from 5 May with 28 Sinn Féin MLAs elected to Stormont. Counting began across the North on Friday 6 May and continued late into the night, with many candidates being elected in the small hours before counters returned at the weekend. There was an intense media focus on a number of counts, particularly in Foyle with Martin McGuinness contesting the election in his home city for the first time more than three decades after representing Mid Ulster since the late 1990s. Reporters had billed the contest as a head-tohead contest between Martin McGuinness and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood. The got their headlines early on as Martin McGuinness topped the poll ahead of Eastwood. Martin had to wait late into the night though before he was formally elected alongside party colleague Raymond McCartney. The SDLP leader did not have much to celebrate, losing a seat in his own backyard in Derry as well as losing deputy leader Fearghal McKinney in South Belfast and former party deputy leader Dolores Kelly in Upper Bann, By contrast, veteran Socialist Workers’ Party guru Eamonn McCann at long last had cause for celebration after being elected for the first time following almost 50 years of trying under various flags before winning this time out under the banner of People Before Profit. His colleague Gerry Carroll’s election in West Belfast was seized upon by much of the mainstream media and opponents of Sinn Féin with Irish News columnist Brian Feeney almost alone in adding some perspective: “The fact is that [Gerry Carroll] had to top the poll to survive but Sinn Féin, with another marvellous display of superb vote management, got almost 20,000 votes carefully divided to maximise their seat number.” The count for the Belfast constituencies was held in the Titanic Exhibition Centre, providing a life line for for the media pack as they tortured metaphors about plain sailing, candidates sinking in the polls, and career-stopping icebergs to wile away the long hours of the count. A huge media scrum surrounded Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams when he arrived at the count to support his party’s candidates, with some almost being knocked over in the process. Some of those same reporters will no doubt soon return to peddling bogus stories of the Sinn Féin leader being an electoral liability. It still remains to be seen if the irony of this will be lost on the media pack. East Belfast candidate and newly-elected Seanadóir Niall Ó Donnghaile took to Twitter to say he couldn’t quite get used to the feeling of being in a count centre being congratulated on his election success. One of the most remarkable aspects of the election was the strong electoral performance by young female Sinn Féin candidates. In Upper Bann, Catherine Seeley was elected to join John O’Dowd and, in East Derry, Caoimhe Archibald was elected to the Assembly for the first time. Megan Fearon was also elected with a great
5 John O'Dowd gets another election boost from jubilant campaigners celebrating his win with Catherine Seeley, making it two for Sinn Féin in Upper Bann
5 East Derry's Caoimhe Archibald pictured with her parents and running mate Cathal Ó hOisín
5 Sinn Féin's Foyle team of Raymond McCartney, Martin McGuinness and Maeve McLaughlin
5 in the thick of it – Sinn Féin's Declan Kearney at the South Antrim count
performance in Newry and Armagh. And in West Tyrone, Grace McDermott polled extremely well, building on Sinn Féin’s vote in the area and establishing herself as a formidable figure in the area for the years ahead. While the news from Fermanagh & South Tyrone caused disappointment as it spread to other count centres, it was quickly followed by the good news that Oliver McMullan had held off a strong challenge in East Antrim and was elected for a second term. The electoral battle in Upper Bann proved to be an epic contest of the election, with the count lasting more than 21 hours before the final result was declared. This had been a target seat for Sinn Féin with an effort having been made to elect two MLAs in the constituency for the first time. Catherine Seeley polled 6,164 first preference votes, almost 1,000 more than running mate and outgoing Education Minister John O’Dowd. Republicans across Ireland endured nervous hours on Saturday afternoon as the battle for the final seat went down to the wire. Twitter feeds were refreshed faster than ever before by those eager for news of the count and #UpperBann was trending across Ireland. John O’Dowd could be seen pacing around Banbridge leisure centre as election agents, reporters and just about every republican in Ireland pored over the latest figures for each stage of the count, studying the transfers and counting each and every vote until the eleventh and final stage of the count when both Catherine and John were elected. While most counts were long, drawn out affairs with only occasional burst of activity when the results of each stage were announced, those waiting for the final declaration in Omagh were treated to an impromptu magic show by newly-returned West Tyrone MLA Barry McElduff. When all the ballot papers were counted, the results declared and the seemingly endless round of media interviews were finished and all of the candidates, successful and otherwise, had left, thankful that there isn’t another election scheduled in the North for three years, count centre staff could be seen putting up posters – reminding everyone that they will be back soon enough next month for the results of the European Union referendum.
» See Robbie Smyth’s election analysis – Pages 6 & 7
5 Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams in conversation with veteran journalist David McKittrick at the Belfast count 5 All-Ireland party – Dublin comrades canvass for Sinn Féin in Belfast
May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
3
Sinn Féin launches Rent Certainty Bill in Dáil Seven Shinners for the Seanad ELECTION SUCCESS continued for Sinn Féin with the party more than doubling its number of senators in the Oireachtas in April from three to seven to complement the increased team of TDs of 23 (up from 14) after the Dáil election in February. The seven are: Pádraig Mac Lochlainn from Donegal (Industrial & Commercial Panel); Rose ConwayWalsh from Mayo and Trevor Ó Clochartaigh from Galway (Agriculture Panel); Fintan Warfield from Dublin 5 Newly appointed Housing Minister Simon Coveney needs to take immediate steps to tackle soaring rents
A HOUSING EMERGENCY should be declared by the Fine Gael/Independent Government backed by Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin Dáil Housing & Homeless Committee member Eoin Ó Broin TD said after figures published on 10 May showed that rents have soared across the 26 Counties to an eight-year high of more than €1,000 a month. The availability of properties is also the lowest on record, heightening fears that more families will be plunged into homelessness unless the new Government takes swift and effective long-term action. Dublin rents rose by an annual average of nearly 9% but Cork City
Rents have soared across the 26 Counties to an eight-year high saw an increase of 16%, Meath 14.8%, Louth 14.2%, Galway City 12.7%, Cavan 12.5%, Limerick City 12.4%, Longford 12.2%, Westmeath 11.3%, Kildare 11.2%, Laois 10.8%. Many other areas saw rises
as well, letting and property agents Daft.ie said . The average increase across the state is 9.3%. Calling on new Housing Minister Simon Coveney and the Government to declare a housing emergency and implement a number of immediate measures to tackle soaring rents across the state, Deputy Ó Broin said: “The Government’s Draft Programme for Government did not reference any form of rent certainty or rent controls
5 Sinn Féin Dáil Housing & Homeless Committee member Eoin Ó Broin
Many of the Sinn Féin candidates topped the poll or were elected on the first count (Culture & Education Panel); Niall Ó Donnghaile from Belfast (Administrative Panel); and Máire Devine from Dublin and Paul Gavan from Limerick (Labour Panel). Many of them topped the poll or were elected on the first count. Sinn Féin nominated US-based Ciarán Staunton as an Independent candidate for the Industrial & Commercial Panel as a “voice for the Diaspora”. The Mayoman, who has lived in the United States since the 1980s, was co-founder of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform
5 Frances Black
in the USA whose goal is resolving the status of the estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish in the country. Although he didn’t get elected, the Irish Times said he polled “a highly respectable” vote and stayed in the race until the 31st count. Singer Frances Black, founder of addiction charity RISE foundation, was elected as an Independent to the Industrial & Commercial Panel), benefiting from transfers from Sinn Féin’s Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, who comfortably topped the poll. Frances said she was “absolutely over the moon” at her election and she wants to be a “voice for the vulnerable, for those impacted by addiction, mental health, homelessness and disability”.
as being viable tools to provide some security for tenants. “Minister Coveney must revisit this omission and introduce real rent certainty. “Rent increases and decreases must be linked to the Consumer Price Index and housing assistance payment rates must be adjusted in line with current market rents.” • To compel the Government to act and seeking the support of other Opposition deputies, Eoin Ó Broin launched Sinn Féin’s Rent Certainty Bill 2016 at the Dáil on 10 May. The purpose of the Bill is to amend the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 to link any increase or decrease in the rent arising from a rent review to the Consumer Price Index as calculated by the Central Statistics Office. Such an amendment will assist in stabilising the private rental market by provide greater certainty of rent for both the landlord and tenant. “This will prevent market volatility and provide greater protection to landlords from dramatic falls in rents and to tenants by preventing dramatic increases in rents,” the Bill says.
5 Dozens of Irish-language activists – including students, politicians, solicitors, teachers and community workers – protest outside the BBC on Ormeau Avenue, Belfast, accusing the station of censorsing Irish language issues during election debates
4 May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
WHAT'S INSIDE 8
Is the Government really minding mental health? 12
anphoblacht Eagarfhocal
anphoblacht
anphoblacht Editorial The challenges still facing us FIANNA FÁIL (and some Independents) have facilitated Fine Gael’s return to power in Dublin. The Assembly elections have concluded. The work of building a Republic continues. There are significant challenges facing us – politically, socially and economically, as well as an unremittingly hostile mainstream media. The return of 28 MLAs from the May Assembly elections is a solid performance to complement our all-Ireland increased strength of 23 TDs, seven senators and four MEPs plus more than 250 councillors across the 32 Counties. The loss of a seat in West Belfast is disappointing but it has to be viewed against the remarkable achievement of the widely-acclaimed feat of winning five out of six seats in the constituency in the first place. Other results and near-misses have to be seen alongside new gains with new faces and rising stars knocking on the doors of the Assembly and the Oireachtas. But the elections are over and new administrations have been or are being formed. Republicans have to constantly challenge ourselves, in power or in Opposition. The Tory attacks on public services continues and the government in Dublin born out of a political carve-up between
the main conservative parties is promising more of the same unequal, unfair and failing policies. Sinn Féin stands in opposition to the Tories in London and in opposition to the Tories in Dublin. The island of Ireland will also feel the effects of Westminster’s ‘Brexit’ referendum on whether the Tories of England take themselves and working-class communities, and the people of Scotland, Wales and the Six Counties with them out of the EU. This centenary year has been a marvellous celebration of the ideals and aspirations of the men and women of the 1916 Rising. The popularisation of the centenary is something that republicans can justifiably take a lot of credit for in their inclusive events, parades, pageants, talks and exhibitions. The 1916 centenary continues to present this generation of republicans with opportunities to bring about new politics. It is a time most suited to keeping alive the prospect of a new Republic by building Sinn Féin – not just in the corridors of power but also in our communities, where people’s frustrations can be channelled into ambitions, actions and campaigns to change the society we want our families to live in.
35th anniversary of 1981 H-Blocks Hunger Strike
Frame-up victim Nicky Kelly says it’s long past time to scrap the Special Criminal Court 18
2016 marks the centenary of the 1916 Rising but it also marks the 35th anniversary of the 1981 H-Blocks Hunger Strike in which ten republican prisoners died in Long Kesh. The prisoners took their inspiration from 1916 and the men and women who had gone before them and since, standing by a 32-county Republic. The H-Blocks of Long Kesh were a crucible of the national struggle in the 1970s and 1980s. This epic battle between almost defencelEss prisoners and the brutal might of the British Government left an indelible mark on those of us who lived through that period. The story of that struggle was captured in the pages of An Phoblacht/ Republican News at the time and later in the book Ten Men Dead: The Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike, written by David Beresford, who passed away on 22 April of this year.
Contact
Freed Basque independence leader Arnaldo Otegi talks to An Phoblacht
Layout and production: Mark Dawson production@anphoblacht.com
NEWS editor@anphoblacht.com NOTICES notices@anphoblacht.com PHOTOS photos@anphoblacht.com
The selfless sacrifice of the republican protesting prisoners in Long Kesh and Armagh inspired countless thousands across the globe then and in years to come, right up to the present day. The deaths of the ten republicans on hunger strike between May and August 1981 have often been described as an historic watershed just as profound as Easter Week 1916 and the execution of the Rising leaders. 1981 was all that, and more. Everyone who lived through this period and who cared was politically active or was inspired by the hunger strikers’ sacrifice and has been forever influenced by the heroism of the H-Block prisoners and, in the words of Bobby Sands, “the undauntable thought, my friend, that thought that says I’m right”.
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
28
An féidir le Labour an cheacht a fhoghlaim? 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
5 Sinn Féin sent condolences to the family of Sally Brady who passed away aged 107. Sally is the mother of Sinn Féin MP for Newry & Armagh, Mickey Brady. "A charming and intelligent lady, she lived a long and full life. My thoughts and prayers are with her family," Martin McGuinness said.
May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
5
Le Trevor Ó Clochartaigh Farraigí cháit i ndán don Rialtas mionlaigh sa teach uachtarach
Seachtar Seanadóir BÍONN CAINT mhór ina gcuid fógraí teilifíse ag an gcomhlacht Carlsberg ar an saol mar a shamhlóidís siúd é, ach b’shin an mothú a bhí agam féin le déanaí agus an chomhaireamh ar bun do thoghchán an tSeanaid. Seachtar iarrthóir againn agus seachtar tofa ar an gcéad agus dara comhaireamh i ngach cás. Ach, anois a thosóidh an obair agus an fhoireann nua ag dul i mbun oibre sa ‘Teach Uachtarach’. Le cúig bhliain anuas bhí móramh ollmhór ag an rialtas agus bhí Fine Gael agus an Lucht Oibre ábalta reachtaíocht a bhrú thríd an Seanad gan mórán aird a thabhairt ar aon duine eile, ach tá an scéal sin athruithe. Tá cuid mhaith cainte déanta maidir leis an comhdhéanamh rialtais ón olltoghchán maidir le vótaí Dála, ach céard faoin tSeanad? Agus mé i mbun pinn tá aon duine dhéag le n-ainmniú ag an Taoiseach mar Sheanadóirí. Glacaim leis go mbeidh bunriachtanas ann go gcaithfidh siad sin tacú le rialtas mionlaigh Fine Gaelach, fiú má thoilíonn Enda Kenny cúpla suíochán a thairiscint do na neamhspleáigh agus páirtithe eile. Fágann sin an naoi Seanadóir is dhá fhichead a toghadh tríd córas na bpainéal agus na h-ollscoileanna. Orthu sin tá móramh ag Fianna Fáil le ceathrar déag, Fine Gael le triúr déag, seachtar againne, cúigear ag an Lucht Oibre, cúigear neamhspleáigh ó na painéil ollscoile (deir Alice Mary Higgins nach ball de Pháirtí an Lucht Oibre í agus go bhfanfaidh si neamhspleách, ach b’fhéidir gur seift atá ansin chun fuath an phobail don Lucht Oibre a sheachaint!), ceathrar neamhspleáigh eile agus duine amháin ag na Glasaigh.
IN PICTURES
5 Mayor of Montréal Denis Coderre and Sinn Féin Ard Mhéara of Dublin Críona Ní Dhálaigh in Dublin's Mansion House after signing a Friendship and Cooperation Acknowledgement between the two cities
Má bhíonn Fine Gael ag iarraidh a bheith i gceannas an tSeanaid caithfidh siad ar a laghad tríocha vóta a bheith acu, nó caithfidh Fianna Fáil staonadh. Níl sé soiléir an bhfuil comhréiteach idir páirtithe na cogadh cathrach ar an gceist seo, mar atá sa Dáil. Ach. má tá féin, d’fhágfadh sin Fine Gael faoi chomaoin Fhianna Fáil ar cheisteanna go leor a thiocfaidh chun cinn. Tá cumadh dhifriúil ar na neamhspleáigh an babhta seo chomh maith. Ábhar dóchais is ea
Agus an Lucht Oibre caite sna fataí lofa, seans go mbeidh níos mó fonn orthu siúd a bheith ag caitheamh clocha trasna an urlár sa Seanad, seachas a bheith ag fual amach ón taobh istigh de na binsí rialtais, mar a bhí. toghadh an t-amhránaí agus gníomhaí ar cheisteanna andúileachas, Frances Black – agus John Dolan atá i mbun Cónaidhm na n-Eagras Míchumais in Éirinn. Deacair samhlú go mbeadh mórán luí acu sin le polasaithe Fhine Gael. Polaitíocht den eite chlé atá ag Lynn Ruane chomh maith, a toghadh ar phainéal Choláiste na Tríonóide. Agus an Lucht Oibre caite sna fataí lofa, seans go mbeidh níos mó fonn orthu siúd a bheith ag caitheamh clocha trasna an urlár sa Seanad, seachas a bheith ag fual amach ón taobh istigh de na binsí rialtais, mar a bhí. Cibé cén casadh a bheidh ar cheist na
8 April / Aibreán 2016 8 April / Aibreán 2016
www.anphoblacht.com www.anphoblacht.com
Sinn Féin backs Independent nominee as a voice for the Diaspora Sinn Féin backs Independent nominee as a voice for the Diaspora
Pádraig Mac Lochlainn
Niall Ó Donnghaile
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh
Rose Conway-Walsh
Fintan Warfield
Máire Devine
Paul Gavan
Pádraig Mac Lochlainn
Niall Ó Donnghaile
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh
Rose Conway-Walsh
Fintan Warfield
Máire Devine
Paul Gavan
SEVEN SEVEN STAND STAND FOR FOR SEANAD SEANAD BY MARK MOLONEY BY MARK MOLONEY
SINN FÉIN has announced that it is standing sevenFÉIN candidates in the Seanad SINN has announced that it iselections standing as the candidates party aims in tothe increase current seven Seanaditselections three the 60-seat Upper as theseats partyinaims to increase itsHouse. current The seats party’sin seven will stand across three the candidates 60-seat Upper House.
theThe fiveparty’s vocational panels, from which 43 senators seven candidates will stand across are five elected. The rest of the Seanad elected by the vocational panels, from whichis43 senators two university which have six are elected. Theconstituencies, rest of the Seanad is elected by seats,university while 11 constituencies, seats are reserved for Senators two which have six nominated Taoiseach. seats, whileby 11 the seats are reserved for Senators Sinn Féin’sby nominees include former Donegal nominated the Taoiseach. TDSinn andFéin’s Justice spokesperson Pádraig Mac nominees include former Donegal Lochlainn, who narrowly missed out on retainTD and Justice spokesperson Pádraig Mac 5 Rose Conway-Walsh at the launch of 'A New Deal for the West' plan ing his seatwho in the Dáil following Lochlainn, narrowly missedmajor out onconstitretain- 5 Rose Conway-Walsh at the launch of 'A New Deal for the West' plan uency willfollowing stand formajor the Industrial ing his changes. seat in theHe Dáil constitand Commercial Panel. The Buncrana candiuency changes. He will stand for the Industrial date Commercial previously served the Buncrana Donegal spokesand Panel.asThe candiperson for the Irish National Organisation for date previously served as the Donegal spokesperson for the Irish National Organisation for
5 Pádraig Mac Lochlainn speaking on Sinn Féin's LGBT policy 5 Pádraig Mac Lochlainn speaking on Sinn Féin's LGBT policy
The Seanad will be a The Seanad willforward be a platform to put ceannaireachta sa tSeanad, is cinnte go mbeidh Is cúlra ceardchumannachais atá ag Paul platform to policies, put forward Sinn Féin’s Sinn Féin’s policies,Shinn including protecting our Féín mar an phríomh seachtar chróga Gavan as Luimneach agus beidh an tsaineolas including protecting our most vulnerable citizens, fhreasúra. Agus ildánach, cumasach an fhoire- sin iontach úsáideach ar an stáitse náisiúnta, most vulnerable citizens, introducing a fairis tax introducing a fair tax – a bhuíochas sin don system investing ann atáand tofa againn áít a bhfuiltear ag súil le cuid mhaith aighneas 5 Niall Ó Donnghaile welcomes Uachtarán na hÉireann Michael D. Higgins to 5 Fintan Warfield performs at the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the system and investing in high-quality public Belfast his first engagement in Ireland's second city Michael D. Higgins to Irish Volunteers in performs the Rotunda 5 Niallon Ó an Donnghaile welcomesa Uachtarán na hÉireann 5 Fintan Warfield at theamach 100th anniversary of the foundation of the tacaíocht iontach ó bhaill tofa pháirtí chaith thionsclaíoch sna míonna romhainn. Tá in high-quality Belfast on his first engagement in Ireland's second city Irish Volunteers in the Rotunda services with a public priority election in what is considered a traditional Association, and SIPTU trade union organiser Fine Gael stronghold and home county Paul Gavan from Limerick. vótá ar árwith sonacrises agusinan dream a bhí i mbun an election taithí na ismblianta fadaofag Máire Devine chúrsaí services priority in what considered a traditional Association, and SIPTU trade ar union organiser of solving the the outgoing Taoiseach. Speaking at Leinster House, Sinn Féin Party Fine Gael stronghold and home county of Paul Gavan from Limerick. of solving the in our health andcrises housing Former MayorTaoiseach. of South Dublin and well-known Whip Aengus Snoódaigh he isFéin delighted straitéis buacach toghchánaíochta. sláinte agus meabharshláinte ach gosaidh-áirithe, the outgoing Speaking atÓLeinster House, Sinn Party traditional musician Fintan Warfield will stand Whip with such high-calibre candidates: our health and housing Former Mayor of South Dublin and well-known Aengus Ó Snoódaigh said he is delighted services “We will use the Seanad as a platform to put for Sinn Féin on the Culture and Education traditional musician Fintan Warfield will stand with such high-calibre candidates: agus níl aon dabht go mbeidh an cloch sin go Fintan Warfield an chéad duine a toghadh agus services Panel. In Féin 2014,on Fintan, aged just 22,Education became forward Sinn Féin’s including protecting the Unemployed and served on the board of “We will use the policies, Seanad as a platform to put for Sinn the Culture and InterTrade Ireland. Unemployed and served on the board táthe meas nach beag air ofde bharr a chumas mar Former Mayor of Belfast Niall Ó Donnghaile, InterTrade Ireland. who hails from nationalist enclave of Former Mayorthe of small Belfast Niall Ó Donnghaile, chomhairleoir áitiúil agus an ról gníomhach a Shorthails Strand in the eastsmall Belfast, will stand for the who from nationalist enclave of party on the Administrative Panel. Ó Donnghaile Short Strand in east Belfast, will stand for the ar son cothromaíochta. ghlacann sé sna feachtais became the Administrative youngest-everPanel. Mayor Belfast in party on the Ó of Donnghaile 2011 at the of 25.toghadh A fluent Irish speaker, became the age youngest-ever Mayor of Belfast in 5 Conway-Walsh Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh ardú and Pearse Tabharfaidh Rose Niall is as aAspokesperson for the Doherty TD at the 2015 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis 2011 atwell-known the age of 25. fluent Irish speaker, 5 Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh and Pearse tiny Short Strand community, an area for Niall is well-known as a spokesperson the Doherty meanma don pháirtí iwhich Maigh Eo agus is buntáiste TD at the 2015 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis has been targeted inanco-ordinated tiny Shortfrequently Strand community, area which SINN FÉIN HAS also nominated US-based byfrequently unionist gangs. has been targeted in co-ordinated éattacks an tusicint atá aici ar ghnóthaí pobail, tuaithe Ciarán Staunton an Independent FÉIN HAS alsoas nominated US-based The party is standing two candidates for the SINN attacks by unionist gangs. candidate for the Industrial and CommerAgriculture Panel. Joining The party is standing twoincumbent candidatesConnefor the Ciarán Staunton as an Independent agus talmhaíochta. cial Panel.for Sinn says the candidate theFéin Industrial andMayoman, Commermara–basedPanel. Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh Agriculture Joining incumbent ConnewhoPanel. has lived in the States cial Sinn Féin saysUnited the Mayoman, (party Gaeltacht, Rural mara–based Senator on Trevor Ó Clochartaigh Táspokesperson ríméad artheisdhaoine Pádraig MacinwillLochlainn since has the 1980s, be aUnited “voice for the a who lived the States Affairs and the Diaspora) Mayo Councillor (party spokesperson on the Gaeltacht, Rural Diaspora”. He is a co-founder of since the 1980s, will be a “voicethe forIrish the Rose Conway-Walsh. An Irish representative Affairs and the Diaspora) is Mayo Councillor fheiceáil ar aisAnofiIrish dTeach Laighean. Fear cumasach, Lobby for He Immigration Reform inIrish the Diaspora”. is a co-founder of the to theConway-Walsh. EU Committee therepresentative Regions and Rose USA whose goal is resolving the status with years’ experience in leading to theover EU 20 Committee of the Regions and Lobby for Immigration Reform in the of thewhose estimated 50,000 undocumented gan fuacht ná faitíos air tabhairt faoi cheisteanna USA goal is resolving the status community projects in Mayo, Rose put in with over 20 years’ experience in leading Irish in the country. an extremelyprojects strong showing the general community in Mayo,inRose put in of the estimated 50,000 undocumented beaga agus móra. Irish in the country. an extremely strong showing in the general
mór ar a paidrín aici. forward Sinn Féin’s policies, including protecting Sinn Féin will also Beidh iar-ArdmhéaraSinn Bhéal Niall Ó FéinFeirste, will alsoSeanad campaign for real campaign for real Seanad reform,ag including the Donnghaile, fíor chumasach léiriú dearcadh reform, including the introduction of universal phobal na sé chontae gan amhras, agus neart introduction universal voting rights of for future rights for future le rá aige ar ábhair eile voting chomh maith. Seanad elections Seanad elections Tá mé féin ag súil anour taithí a fuair mé le cúig most vulnerable citizens, introducing a fair tax system and investing in high-quality our most vulnerable citizens, introducingpublic a fair bhliana a roinnt leo araon agus leanúint leis an services with priority ofinsolving the crises in tax system anda investing high-quality public our health anda housing services.” services with priority of solving the crises in obair ar son an pháirtí, pé dualgas a leagfar orm. He said Sinn Féin will also campaign for real our health and housing services.” reform, including the introduction of He said Sinn Féin will also campaign for real Coinnigí suil ghéarSeanad ar an amach universal votingtSeanad rights for future elections. Seanad reform, including the Seanad introduction of “Our candidates are SinnSeanad Féin activists in universal voting rights forallfuture elections. anseo. Beidh an tseachtar cróga ag obair go their own communities, they are highly capable “Our candidates are all Sinn Féin activists in and they make greatthey senators,” he capable said. their own will communities, are highly láidir ar bhur son! and they will make great senators,” he said.
the youngest a local authority in Panel. In 2014, Mayor Fintan, of aged just 22, became Ireland. He is also the chairperson of the Civic the youngest Mayor of a local authority in Theatre in Tallaght. Ireland. He is also the chairperson of the Civic The party will also stand two candidates on Theatre in Tallaght. theThe Labour Panel. Dublin-based Máire party will also stand twoCouncillor candidates on Devine, who has Dublin-based over a decade of experience the Labour Panel. Councillor Máire as a branch secretary Psychiatric Nurses’ Devine, who has overfora the decade of experience as a branch secretary for the Psychiatric Nurses’
photos@anphoblacht.com
5 Italian journalist and author Silvia Calamati (right) with Rosie McCorley and former POW Jim McGivern at "Five Years of Resistance, 1976 -1981: From Protest 5 Sinn Féin's newly-elected TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire and Senator Máire Devine protest over cuts to mental health funding outside Leinster House and Hunger Strikes to Funerals" at the Felons' Club, Belfast – see page 10
6 May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS 2016 THE SEATS AND NUMBERS
We’re on the one road BY ROBBIE SMYTH 166,785 votes, 39 candidates, 28 Assembly members elected, 10 women MLAs– it was another landmark election for Sinn Féin coming weeks after the Leinster House general election. In this year of remembering 1916 it was more poignant that as Six-County voters went to the polls on 5 May it was the 35th anniversary of the death of Bobby Sands hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. How far we have come since then, when Bobby was elected an MP for Fermanagh & South Tyrone on 9 April 1981. A popular Twitter meme in recent days has characterised a critical element of what has been achieved since 1981 with variations on: “4 MEPs, 4 MPs, 7 Senators, 23 TDs, 5 Gerry Adams' arrival causes a media scrum at the Belfast count centre 28 MLAs, 264 Councillors, 10,000 Chairperson Declan Kearney was the Jennifer McCann on the sixth. Rosie members, 500,000 voters. We’re on Sinn Féin candidate this time around. McCorley was eliminated on the third the one road!” He was second on the first count, with count. It seems apt as we summarise the 13.2% of the vote, and was elected on Sinn Féin performance in each of the the sixth count. EAST DERRY 18 Assembly constituencies that we Sinn Féin ran two candidates in remember one of Bobby’s quotes from EAST BELFAST East Derry as the party vote rose his prison diary. He wrote on 17 March Niall Ó Donnghaile – Sinn Féin slightly to 21.8%. A breakthrough in 1981: councillor, former Mayor of Belfast, this constituency was made in 2003 “If they aren’t able to destroy the and now Oireachtas senator – was the when Francie Brolly won the seat desire for freedom, they won’t break party candidate in East Belfast. Niall’s which has been held since. Cathal you. They won’t break me because the 2.5% of first-preferences was slightly Ó hOisín won the seat in 2011 and desire for freedom, and the freedom up on the 2015 Westminster election this time had Caoimhe Archibald as of the Irish people, is in my heart. The for Sinn Féin in this constituency. a running mate. On the first count day will dawn when all the people of the two were third and fourth, just Ireland will have the desire for freedom NORTH BELFAST 500 votes between them. to show.” Sinn Féin held their two Assembly As the counts progressed, the differseats in this constituency. Sinn Féin ence between the two Sinn Féin candiEAST ANTRIM policing spokesperson and Deputy dates remained. On the ninth count, Oliver McMullan was elected on the Chief Whip for the party at the Assem- Caoimhe was elected to the last seat twelfth and final count in East Antrim, bly, Gerry Kelly, topped the poll and with Cathal unable to reduce a 640-vote tenaciously holding the seat won here was elected on the first count. gap between himself and the SDLP’s in 2011. Finding friendly transfers is diffiCarál Ní Chuilín, the outgoing Sinn Gerry Mullan. cult in a constituency where the DUP Féin Minister for Culture, Arts and A second Sinn Féin seat must be a dominates and where unionist votes Leisure, was elected on the eleventh target in 2021. for the DUP, UUP, Traditional Unionist and last count along with the five other Voice and now UKIP account for just Assembly members in this constituency. NORTH DOWN over 65% of the vote. McMullan did it Therese McCartney was the Sinn Féin though with 8.1% of first-preferences SOUTH BELFAST candidate here, polling 1% of first-prefa repeat of his 2011 performance and Sinn Féin’s charismatic MLA Máirtín erences, she was eliminated on the more than double the SDLP vote. Ó Muilleoir topped the poll in South fourth count. Belfast with 14.2% of first-preferences, NORTH ANTRIM up from 12.5% in 2011. Máirtín had SOUTH DOWN A small decline in vote share didn’t been co-opted into this seat in 2014, Sinn Féin ran three candidates in this stop Daithí McKay holding this seat and has held it for the party. For the constituency, winning 31.1% of the vote, on the tenth count for Sinn Féin. The record, his first election for Sinn Féin while the SDLP vote declined 4.3% to party won its first seat here in the 2003 was in 1985! 31.4%. In 2011, Sinn Féin and the SDLP Assembly elections and has held it both won two seats with the DUP and in the three subsequent Assembly WEST BELFAST UUP winning a seat apiece. elections. McKay, still only 31, must While Sinn Féin faced new compeCaitríona Ruane and Chris Hazzard now count as an election veteran. tition across the 18 constituencies, the retained their seats while Michael Daithí won 12.9% of first preferences. news media focus was particularly on Gray-Sloan was eliminated on the the contests in West Belfast and Foyle. fifth count. SOUTH ANTRIM The party vote in West Belfast has Mitchel McLaughlin won a seat in decreased but Sinn Féin retained FERMANAGH & South Antrim for Sinn Féin in 2007, four of the five Assembly seats they SOUTH TYRONE moving then from Foyle. The former had won in the constituency previAfter the loss of Sinn Féin’s seat in Sinn Féin National Chairperson and ously in widely-acclaimed vote the 2015 Westminster elections by just Assembly Speaker stepped down this management strategies with 54.5% 530 votes, Sinn Féin ran an ambitious time, having announced in Novem- of first-preferences. four candidates in Fermanagh & South ber that he would not be running for Alex Maskey was elected on the Tyrone, winning 40% of first-preferre-election. second count, Pat Sheehan on the ences. The aim was to try and hold Current Sinn Féin National fourth, Fra McCann on the fifth, and the three seats won here in 2011.
5 Sinn Féin's Síle Darragh, Hughie McCoomb, Deirdre Hargey and Tom Hartley
5 Ian Milne, Michelle O’Neill and Linda Dillon were all elected on the first count in Mid Ulster
5 Successful candidate for South Antrim, Sinn Féin National Chairperson Declan Kearney, with his predecessor Mitchel McLaughlin
5 Sinn Féin press officer Seán Mag Uidhir debates a point with poll-topping South Belfast candidate Máirtín Ó Muilleoir
May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
7
5 Sinn Féin's West Belfast candidates Fra McCann, Rosie McCorley, Pat Sheehan, Paul Maskey MP, Jennifer McCann and Alex Maskey outside the Titanic Centre
‘4 MEPs, 4 MPs, 7 Senators, 23 TDs, 28 MLAs, 264 Councillors, 10,000 members, 500,000 voters. We’re on the one road!’ 5 Megan Fearon, Cathal Boylan and Conor Murphy made it three seats for Sinn Féin in Newry & Armagh
5 Upper Bann Sinn Féin activists celebrate the election of John O'Dowd and Catherine Seeley to the Assembly
Unfortunately, Sinn Féin only took two seats this time even though the party vote share was unchanged from 2011. Michelle Gildernew secured 14% of the first-preferences and was elected on the fourth count. Seán Lynch, elected on the seventh count, won 10.1% of first-preferences. Phil Flanagan, who was elected to the Assembly in 2011, won 7.3% of the vote and was eliminated on the fourth count. His transfers put Seán Lynch and John Feely, the remaining Sinn Féin 5 North Belfast's Gerry Kelly is congratulated by Mary Ellen Campbell – the next candidates, closer to a quota. UnforDeputy Mayor of Belfast – and former councillor Tierna Cunningham tunately, Feely was narrowly beaten by the SDLP for the last seat who passed him on the final count through 1,283 Ulster Unionist Party transfers following the election of Alastair Patterson and Rosemary Barton.
5 Sinn Féin's Barry McElduff, Declan McAleer and Michaela Boyle took three seats for Sinn Féin in West Tyrone while Grace McDermott (second from left) narrowly missed out on making it four
in the 2015 Westminster elections and for the Lisburn & Castlereagh council area in 2014. This time Jackie polled 2.7% of the vote and was eliminated on the fourth count.
MID ULSTER Sinn Féin ran three MLAs here, aiming to keep the three seats won in 2011, and every election since 1998. The party polled 46.7% of the first-preferences. Good vote management brought in the Sinn Féin candidates in three of the first four positions. Ian Milne topped the poll with 17.3% of the vote. Michelle O’Neill came third on the first count with 15.1% of the vote followed closely by running mate Linda Dillon on 14.3%. They were all elected on the first count.
FOYLE
NEWRY & ARMAGH
Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness returned to Foyle for his first election in this constituency since 1996 and topped the poll. Not too shabby for a 20-year gap! Sinn Féin’s Raymond McCartney retained his seat on the sixth count with the transfers of Maeve McLaughlin, the third Sinn Féin candidate, electing him and McGuinness.
Another positive vote management operation for Sinn Féin, where the party have held three Assembly seats since the 2003 election, with just under 41% of the vote. Sinn Féin’s candidates were placed second, third and fourth after the first count, with Meagon Fearon and Cathal Boylan elected on the first count. Group leader of the Sinn Féin team in the Assembly, Conor Murphy, was elected on the ninth and final count, beating the SDLP by 740 votes for the last seat.
LAGAN VALLEY Jackie McGeough was the Sinn Féin candidate in Lagan Valley. She also ran
UPPER BANN Sinn Féin narrowly missed out on winning a second seat in Upper Bann in 2011. This time the party did it with 24.9% of the vote. Councillor Catherine Seeley and Assembly Education Minster John O’Dowd split their vote expertly, coming in third and fourth on the first count. Seeley was on 13.5% of first-preferences, O’Dowd had 11.4%. Both were elected on the eleventh count with O’Dowd 168 votes ahead of the SDLP for the last seat despite early BBC speculation at the count centre that John could well lose out.
STRANGFORD Dermot Kennedy, who has run here from 2003 to 2007 for Sinn Féin, got 2% of the vote and was eliminated on the second count.
WEST TYRONE Sinn Féin tried a four-candidate strategy here, electing three, with 42% of the vote down from the one-off high of 50.1% in 2011. Barry McElduff and Michaela Boyle were second and third after the first count with 11.8% and 11.5% of the first-preferences respectively. Grace McDermott and Declan McAleer were seventh and eighth with 9.6% and 9.2% of first-preferences. It came down to the eleventh count where the three Sinn Féin MLAs were elected, Grace McDermott missing out.
8 May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
Is the Government really minding mental health? BY AOIFE DARMODY THE DECISION by the outgoing Fine Gael/ Labour Government to reallocate €12million in funding initially designated for mental health caused much furore in recent weeks. The cutting by over a third of €35million “ringfenced” for mental health developments in Budget 2016 resulted in protests by the Union of Students in Ireland as well as generating media and public anger. It was difficult for many to understand why, with high suicide rates and huge numbers of people suffering from mental health problems, the Government could see fit to divert these funds. Unfortunately, there is form in this regard. The past number of budgets have seen an underspending of many millions on mental health
Government ministers are at pains to portray how much they care about mental health
Taoiseach Enda Kenny resurrected his Twitter account to drive a campaign on mental health called #littlethings. This resulted in condescending if well-meaning advice being doled out (sample: “No better way to clear your head than an old spin on the bike #littlethings”), as though someone in the depths of their despair would read a homey tweet from Enda and feel the burden of their pain magically dissolve. And it was not through an intricate mix of winks, finger pistols, thumbs up and high fives that Enda Kenny divined this initiative. It was part of a HSE awareness campaign that received a lot of media attention at the time – a launch, website, and downloadable posters with captions such as “Add friends to your tea” or “Do things with others, there’s strength in numbers.” This follows many other similarly-styled awareness initiatives, and while they have a part to play, it’s hard to shake the feeling that they are a relatively cheap and photo-friendly way for the Government to claim some action on mental health issues. Whatever about governance by press release, this is health service by inspirational quote. A Vision for Change, the existing mental health policy was published to wide acclaim ten years ago. However noble its aspirations were, there has been a failure to put many of its proposals in place. This is primarily due to insufficient funding as well as a huge reduction in mental health staff due to recruitment embargoes and employment moratoriums (staff numbers have actually reduced by 1,200 posts since 2008
5 Political decisions by Fine Gael show they are not committed to investment in mental health
Ireland was lacking in a national strategy for the prevention of suicide and self-harm. The following year, Connecting For Life: A National Strategy for the Prevention of Suicide, was launched with its own ritzy hashtag and circle of smiling people in rainbow colours but lacks a detailed implementation plan. There is much focus on terms such as “enhancing supports”, “increasing partnerships” and, of course, “awareness campaigns” but practically nothing on the resourcing of the project. The health service is creaking from years of under-investment. With the HSE budget deficit 5 Taoiseach Enda Kenny resurrected his Twitter account to drive a campaign on mental health likely to be €500million this year, one would called #littlethings
The health service is creaking from years of under-investment
whereas the policy envisaged an increase of that very amount). The policy has also fundamentally lacked oversight. An Independent Monitoring Group established to oversee the report’s implementation saw their recommendations largely ignored. They were then quietly disbanded in 2012. Two years ago, the European Children’s Health Alliance found that, despite high suicide rates,
as resources are used elsewhere in the Health Service Executive. Not only is underspending of budgets routine, our mental health spend is only roughly 6% of the total health budget, as compared to 13% in Britain. The consequences of the lack of investment impact on every level with potentially devastating results. Public patients are waiting for up to a year to see a psychiatrist or psychologist – needless to say, for someone who is suicidal, this could be a fatal delay. Despite their brutal showing on the ground, Government ministers are at pains to portray how much they care about mental health. 5 The Union of Students in Ireland protests against cuts to mental health funding in April
question whether it was wise or even morally sound that €750million was spent in cuts to income tax in Budget 2016, the majority of that benefitting higher earners. The “ringfencing” of services is unlikely to serve as any protection when it exists in a system that is starved of funding. Fine Gael Health Minister Leo Varadkar put the reassignment of the controversial €12million reallocation from mental health down to an inability to recruit staff. Staff shortages in mental health, however, have been a reality for many years with no effective measures put in place to tackle the deficit. Healthcare professionals have pointed to overcrowding, poor conditions, poor training and insufficient pay as deterrents from working in Ireland. Political decisions that Enda Kenny has presided over show that, while he likes to talk about mental health, he is not ideologically disposed to committing the large-scale investment that’s needed for improving our services. A Vision for Change was supposed to be completed in full this year. Regrettably, the outgoing government brought mostly vision and little change.
5 It is hard to shake the feeling that the HSE's awareness campaign was a photo-friendly way for the Government to claim some action on mental health issues
May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
Work to live or live to work? ROBBIE SMYTH looks at the widening pay inequalities and the struggle for a living wage in the South’s economy
LOW WAGES HIGH PRICES
NEARLY TWO MILLION PEOPLE are working this week in the 26 Counties, some earning as little as €6.41 an hour. There are a small few earning millions such as the three directors of Cement Road Holdings who in 2015 shared a €14million wage and bonus package. Inequality in Ireland is audacious in the scale of its disparities. Many of the two million workers face rising costs for daily living, from rent to food and healthcare. Working in this unequal Ireland is challenging. Employees have more qualifications and skills than any other generation of Irish workers yet they face decreasing job security from international competition. Almost one in four (23.3%) of Irish workers are low-paid, according to the 2015 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Employment Outlook; only five OECD states had a higher percentage. Irish workers also cope with living in the EU’s fifth most expensive country. Health, housing, transport are all more expensive than before the recession with the price hikes in these areas
Irish workers cope with living in the EU’s fifth most expensive country far outstripping families’ disposable income. Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures show 1,983,000 people at work. Another 315,600 people were signing on the Live Register in receipt of social welfare payments, with 65,477 working either casually or on short hours and so entitled to a welfare payment. Average hourly earnings were €21.94 at the end of 2015, slightly less than 2014. The CSO annual survey on Income and Living Conditions cites average annual disposable income at €21,440. Significant numbers of people have less income than this with the CSO showing that 16.3% of people have less than €10,786 annually to live on. The survey also shows that the top 20% of earners have consistently taken 40% of the total income before, during and after the recession. Meanwhile, disposable income has been cut by a stream of tax and price hikes. Already this year VHI health insurance premiums were set to increase 3% from the beginning of May following a 2% increase last November and a 3% increase in January 2014, a 23% increase in January 2009, 8% in 2010, 15% to 45% in 2011, 6% to 12.5% in 2012 and 6% in 2013. Yes, it really has been that much!
LOW WAGES AND HIGH COSTS IN IRELAND 1,983,000
Number of people at work in 26 Counties.
315,600
Number of people signing on (March 2016)
€21.94 Average hourly earnings in 2015
€21,440 5 Irish shoppers spend on average €104 a week with prices continuing to rise
In 2012, the CSO published a new section in their Quarterly National Household Survey on how households were impacted by the recession. It found that 40% of households had problems paying bills and debts; 82% of households had reduced their spending. Unfortunately, the CSO hasn’t repeated this survey since. In February, property website Daft. ie reported three years of successive rent increases. The annual increase for the 26 Counties in 2015 was 9%, with the average rent being €979. In Dublin, rent has increased 43% from the recession low of 2010; average rent ranges from €1,197 in north Dublin to €1,625 in South County Dublin. On top of these increases was the issue of supply with Daft reporting that “there were fewer than 1,400 properties
available to rent – in a city of over half a million households”. Other bills families have to meet are an average €800 annually for the costs of children attending ‘free’ primary schools and €1,300 annually for secondlevel students, according to Irish League of Credit Unions research. If you are lucky enough to afford a car, the AA estimated in 2015 that the average running cost was €10,594. Fuel costs were down but this was eaten up by insurance price hikes of up to 25%, with the same again expected in 2016. According to consumer research firm Kantar, Irish shoppers spend an average of €104 a week, with prices rising already this year. In January 2016, the minimum wage increased 50 cent to €9.15 an hour. To get this rate you have to be over 18 and
5'Free' primary schools bills average about €800 per year
9
working two years. Under-18s get €6.41, 70% of the minimum hourly wage. Over 18 and in your first year of work you get €7.32, 80% of the ‘minimum rate’, rising to €8.24 in your second year of work. Trainees also start at the €6.41 an hour rate. €11.50 was the hourly wage set in 2015 by the Living Wage campaign as a rate “which makes possible a minimum acceptable standard of
The CSO shows that the top 20% of earners have consistently taken 40% of the total income before, during and after the recession living”. The campaign group consists of SIPTU, Unite, TASC, the Vincentian Partnership, Social Justice Ireland and the Nevin Economic Research Institute. Sinn Féin’s 2015 document For Decent Work and a Living Wage outlines more detail on other social and economic supports that should be used to help our low-paid workers. Employers’ group IBEC thought the 50c minimum wage increase was a “mistake” and that “with heightened global economic uncertainty” it would be “a massive mistake to undermine our competitiveness through unwarranted pay rises”. It makes you wonder what percentage of its members were in the 82% of people the CSO found had cutback on spending during the recession, or the 40% who trouble paying bills on time? I didn’t think there were any either.
Average disposable income
40% Share of total income earned by top 20% of workers
82% Percentage of households who cut spending in the recession
€979 Average monthly rent in 26 Counties at end 2015
€10,594
Average cost of running a car
€9.15 Minimum hourly wage 2016
€11.50 Minimum hourly wage proposed by Living Wage campaign
10 May / Bealtaine 2016
THE PERSONAL STORIES of former POWs were at the heart of a series of events organised over the May bank holiday weekend to mark the 35th anniversary of the 1981 H-Blocks Hunger Strike. There were extremely moving discussions as men and women who experienced the depredations of the H-Block and Armagh protests, including hunger strike, gave their testimony to packed audiences in Belfast. And on Sunday 1 May, thousands of republicans took to the streets of Derry to march in honour of the 10 men who died in the epic battle against the Thatcher regime in Westminster and with their sacrifice and commitment destroyed Britain’s attempt to crimi-
Jennifer McCann described how Bobby Sands had a lasting effect on her through his community activism and the strides he took to promote the Irish language nalise the Irish liberation struggle and the political prisoners. The series of Belfast panel discussions was kicked off on Thursday when former hunger strikers Raymond McCartney, Mary Doyle and Pat Sheehan spoke of their personal experiences and the thinking behind their decisions to become involved in struggle. The backdrop to Mary Doyle’s story was the the unionist attack on Conway’s Bar (later renamed the Boundary Bar), on Belfast’s Shore Road, in which her mother Marie was killed. For Raymond McCartney, growing up in Derry in the 1960s and witnessing at first-hand “The Battle of the Bogside” and Bloody Sunday influenced his decision to become involved in struggle. This in turn led him to the H-Blocks and hunger strike. Five Years of Resistance, 1976 -1981: From Protest and Hunger Strikes to Funerals – was staged in the Felons’
5 Fra McCann, Rosie McCorley (who chaired the discussion), Jennifer McCann and Pat Sheehan at the event in the Felons’ Club, Belfast
98
TRIKERS RS
BY PEADAR WHELAN
THE HUNGE ER
1
H-Blocks Impact of and Armagh, 1980/1981 – The epic on battle against criminalisation
REMEMB
www.anphoblacht.com
1 – 2 016
friend and mentor Bobby Sands was very much part of the narrative. Not only that but her own strength of character shone through. When Pat Sheehan outlined his thinking and the decisions he made that saw him endure an ordeal such as 58 days on hunger strike, the audience was spellbound. The insights he gave were truly fascinating, especially dealing with the news that his sister had just been diagnosed with leukaemia. Likewise when Bobby Storey described the anger people felt after the British Army and RUC attacked the funeral of Volunteer Joe McDonnell and how they, after the news of Volunteer Kieran Doherty’s death, resolved that Kieran’s funeral wouldn’t attacked. The hundreds of people who turned up with hurls and the mobilisation of “black taxi” drivers who blocked roads at strategic points to prevent crown forces mobile units from a quick attack were evidence of a community response to what they saw as the desecration of Joe’s funeral. On Sunday 1 May, Jennifer McCann delivered the 34th Bobby Sands
Club in Belfast on Friday 29 April. It turned out to be a night in which the audience was captivated by the personal stories of five republican former prisoners – Bobby Storey, Fra Pat Sheehan outlined McCann, Jennifer McCann, Pat Sheehan his thinking and the and Rosie McCorley – who chaired decisions he made the event. Not many people would know, for that saw him endure instance, that Fra was one of a number an ordeal such as 58 of republican prisoners ‘on the Blanket’ days on hunger strike in B Wing in Crumlin Road Jail where every day was a battle against isola– the audience was tion and a humiliating and degradspellbound ing regime. When Jennifer McCann recounted Memorial Lecture in the Andersonthe story of her arrest and eventual 5 Muralist Danny Devenny talks about his work and praising Bobby Sands as a stown Social Club in Belfast. imprisonment, the presence of her friend, a comrade and an inspiration McCann recounted her experience of living in the socially-deprived Twinbrook Estate, on the outskirts of Belfast, and due to it falling within the boundaries of the unionist-controlled Lisburn council faced the mostly appalling discrimination. She described how the recently-released Bobby Sands had a lasting effect on her through his community activism and in the strides he took to promote the Irish language: “He was a the heart of so many good things – a true revolutionary.” After Jennifer McCann finished speaking, Danny Morrison, in a surprise move took to the stage where he made a presentation to world-renowned muralist Danny Devenny. Praising “Danny D” for his commitment, creativity and integrity over many years painting murals that told the story of the republican struggle in its broadest political terms and in their highlighting the links with those involved in struggles throughout the 5 The Derry commemorative march makes its way through the Bogside world “from Cuba to Palestine”.
May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
11
5 Recent studies suggest the widespread planting of conifer forests in Europe is actually contributing to global warming
BY MARK MOLONEY THROUGHOUT the 2016 Dáil general election campaign there was widespread criticism over the lack of coverage and discussion of environmental issues despite climate change and global warming being one of the most important issues facing the world today. On the final televised Leaders’ Debate of on RTÉ television, only a few seconds were afforded to each party on the issue. All parties have embraced green politics to one degree or another. While the responses on TV were positive, there was criticism of the seeming very broad answers given. One pertinent point was, however, raised by Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams when he said we “need to grow native trees”. At just 11% of land area, this state has the lowest level of tree cover in the European Union. The state hopes to increase this to 18% by 2050 through afforestation actions by the forestry service Coillte. Currently, only about 1% of native Irish woodlands remain and the overwhelming majority of afforestation carried out by Coillte involves planting non-native conifer trees which are economically beneficial and used for producing timber. The forestry industry is now worth over €220million per year. The destruction of Ireland’s forests intensified in the early 1500s. Under successive British
CONIFER PLANTATIONS NOT THE ANSWER TO CLIMATE CHANGE
WE NEED TO
BRING BACK IRELAND’S NATIVE WOODLANDS
The destruction of Ireland’s forests intensified in the 1500s. Under successive British monarchs, Ireland’s forests were devastated with much of the wood used to help build up the British Empire’s navy which would eventually end in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 monarchs, Ireland’s forests were devastated with much of the wood used to help build up the British Empire’s navy which would eventually end in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. By the early 1600s the notorious British East India Company had moved 300 English settlers to Dundaniel in Cork, where it established a shipyard and iron ore works. There was another reason for this destruction – to deprive the native Irish resistance guerrillas, known as the Wood-Kernes, of cover for their constant ambushes and harrying attacks against crown forces. Throughout the 1600s, Ireland provided the wood needed for Britain’s insatiable appetite for timber. In 1630, Irish Oak from Shillelagh Woods in County Wicklow was selected to be used to construct the ornate roof of Westminster Hall. By 1800, Ireland’s sprawling woods and forests were all but gone – only remnants remained, dotted throughout the country in usually inaccessible and mountainous areas. The eradication of Ireland’s forests hugely
5 Ireland's native broadleaf forests have been superseded by conifer plantations
impacted the island’s wildlife. Native species like wolves, wild boars and the red squirrel became extinct (our modern red squirrels were only reintroduced in the 1800s) while native bird populations were decimated. Across Europe, broadleaf forests made up 70% of all forests in 1750. Today they make up only 43% with the rest being conifers. Pádraic Fogarty of the Irish Wildlife Trust says today’s reforestation campaign’s over-reliance on “non-native conifers is associated with water-pollution, loss of native wildlife and landscape impacts”. The overwhelming majority of indigenous trees in Ireland are broadleaf. Ireland has only three native conifer trees (Scots Pine, Juniper and Yew) yet today the bulk of Ireland’s forests consist of non-native conifers. A new study conducted by researchers at the Laboratory of Climatic Science and Environment (LCSE) at Gif-sur-Yvette in France found that, despite an increase of almost 10% of wooded area in Europe over the last 260 years, the continent’s forests have actually contributed to global warming. How? Because the shift from native broadleaves to more economically valuable conifers like spruce and pine means less water is evaporated into the atmosphere while the dark colour of these trees reduces the amount of sunlight reflected back into the atmosphere and instead traps it – increasing temperatures. The fact most of these forests are managed by forestry agencies such as Coillte, means that these trees are often removed for wood products and the area replanted – meaning carbon that was removed from the atmosphere and would
5 Irish oak was used for Westminster Hall's roof
have been stored in them is released from the leaf litter and dead wood in the soil’s carbon sinks. Summing up the findings of the report, the LCSE team said: “The key question now is whether it is possible to design a forest management strategy that cools the climate and, at the same time, sustains wood production and other ecosystem services.” In Ireland, the over-reliance on planting non-native conifers needs to be reassessed, and the return of Irish woodlands needs to take priority.
12 May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
Frame-up victim of non-jury court speaks out
Nicky It’s time to scrap Kelly Special Criminal Court BY MARK MOLONEY ON 31 MARCH 1976, armed men robbed the Cork to Dublin mail train at Sallins, getting away with approximately £200,000. A botched Garda investigation saw three members of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) charged with the robbery. They were innocent. The three, including Nicky Kelly, appeared before the non-jury Special Criminal Court. There was no book of evidence against them and the only evidence was confessions the men said they were forced to sign after being beaten by a notorious group of Special Branch detectives widely known as ‘The Heavy Gang’. The three were found guilty and sentenced to between 9 and 12 years. Nicky jumped bail and fled to America. When his co-accused were acquitted on appeal in 1980 after it was found the confessions were indeed signed under duress, Kelly returned to Ireland in the expectation that he too would be acquitted. Instead, he spent the next four years in Portlaoise Prison. He embarked on a hunger strike. Outside, dozens of political, community, human rights and legal organisations launched the ‘Free Nicky Kelly’ campaign. Christy Moore even released a single entitled Wicklow Boy about his plight – the campaigning civil liberties ballad was swiftly banned from RTÉ. Journalists Gene Kerrigan and Derek Dunne wrote a celebrated exposé of the case entitled Round Up the Usual Suspects, taken from a famous line in the Humphrey Bogart movie Casablanca. Released in 1984 on humanitarian grounds, Nicky was given a Presidential Pardon in 1992
5 The 'Free Nicky Kelly' campaign galvanised groups from across Irish society
career ended while media organisations faced legal threats, as did their advertisers. News that the Government is not scrapping the court – which has been condemned by the United Nations, Amnesty International and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties – but instead establishing a second one is “very worrying”, to Nicky. “It is creating the mechanics where community protests may also come under the SCC,” he says. “There will come a time in the future where the SCC will be a controlling factor for a lot more than republicans.” The SCC became a general election issue as feuds between Dublin criminal gangs led to a surge in shootings across the capital. “I think the SCC is vulnerable,” says Nicky, a former Labour Party councillor, Mayor of Arklow. and Dáil candidate. He notes that other European states do not require non-jury courts to tackle their gang problems. “A lot more people are talking about it and many are wondering what is the need for it, and why are they establishing a second one? We saw the crocodile tears about Joan Burton’s cavalcade being held up for a while by a protest – these are the type of cases that could end up in the SCC,” warns Nicky. He has no doubt that anybody who speaks out and calls for the scrapping of the SCC will be hounded and portrayed as attempting to undermine the state: “But in general, people are a bit more copped-on nowadays on many issues. It is
Nicky notes that other European states do not require non-jury courts to tackle their gang problems and £750,000 in compensation for his wrongful imprisonment. Last month, speaking at a debate on the issue of the Special Criminal Court as part of the Dublin Anarchist Book Fair, alongside Jim Monaghan, Nicky Kelly says there has never been a better time for a campaign to have the Special Criminal Court scrapped. Recalling how much of a farce it was, he said: “In my trial the judge slept for 66 days. The whole country was talking about ‘the sleeping judge’. They were amused about it. People were coming in for 10 minutes to have a look. They weren’t coming in worried about Nicky Kelly – they were coming in to look at the sleeping judge!” He says a Fine Gael representative who also criticised the ‘sleeping judge’ found his budding
5 Nicky Kelly on his release in 1984
not as impossible as it might seem to mount a campaign against the SCC and the timing has never been better. They need to be challenged on the need to retain it.” Mentioning Aengus Ó Snodaigh, who was in attendance, for his work on campaigning against the SCC, Nicky says it is time people put it up to other elected politicians: “In relation to mobilising people, it is near impossible to get the public at large out marching on an issue like the Special Criminal Court. What we need to do is to get those who have been
‘The SCC has this state in the category of a banana republic on the international stage’ elected – progressives, liberals, independents and so on – and ask them are they prepared to address the issue of the SCC which has this state in the category of a banana republic on the international stage.” He says it's time for progressives to set out their stall on the issue: “I’ve no problem with right-wing people justifying the Special Criminal Court because it’s for their own self-interest and protection. It’s the people who pretend they are liberal in some attitudes, they are the ones who have to be challenged on it.”
5 Nicky Kelly says it's time for politicians to be challenged on retaining the Special Criminal Court
May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
13
5 Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire TD
5 Pop-Up Plé ag an seastán Gaeilge
5Seán Ó Murchadh (Conradh na Gaeilge), Rosie Ní Laoghaire agus Carál Ní Chuilín
ní amháin Poblachtánach ach Gaelach ní amháin Gaelach ach Poblachtánach LE JOHNNY McGIBBON Dúirt Oifigeach Náisiúnta Gaeilge Johnny McGibbon le teachtaí na hArd Fheise go gcaithfear tabhairt faoinár ndúshlán féin – Sinn Féin a bhogadh céim ar chéim i dtreo an Ghaelaithe AGUS MUID ag comóradh Éirí Amach na Cásca agus na n-imeachtaí a thit amach i rith an chéid seo chuaigh thart, is fiú ár machnamh a dhéanamh ar an tionchar agus ar an ról lárnach a bhí ag an Ghaeilge taobh istigh de ghluaiseacht na poblachta. Gan staidéar domhain a dhéanamh anseo, is leor sampla chun an cás a chur i láthair: “Ach, a cháirde, ná bíodh brón orainn, ach bíodh misneach inar gcroidhthibh agus bíodh neart inar gcuisleannaibh, óir cuimhnighimís nach mbíonn aon bhás ann nach mbíonn aiséirghe ina dhiaidh, agus gurab as an uaigh so agus as na huaghannaibh atá inar dtimcheall éireochas saoirse Gheadheal.” – Pádraig Mac Piarais ag labhairt cois uaigh Uí Dhonnabháin Rosa. B’fhéidir nach bhfanfadh na focail chomh maith is a d’fhanfadh na focail cháiliúla Béarla leat, mar sin féin is i nGaeilge a dúradh sa chéad dul síos iad. Ceannródaithe ba ea iad ceannairí na hÉirí Amach, idir i saol na polaitíochta agus i saol an chultúir araon. An mbeadh Éirí Amach ann ach ab é go raibh an athbheochan cultúrtha faoi lán sheoil? Cib é ar bith, sa bhliain 2016, tá gluaiseacht na
poblachta go fóill ag dul i ngleic le cúrsaí Gaeilge agus ag cur na Gaeilge chun cinn laistigh dár struchtúir féin. Is díol bróid dom gur labhraíodh neart Gaeilge ar ardán na hArd Fheise agus thart faoin fhoirgneamh ollmhór – an tIonad Comhdhála i mBaile Átha Cliath. Ba mhór an pléisiúr fosta go raibh beocht, agus neart cainte, le fáil i seomra na seastán mar a raibh an seastán @SinnFeinGaeilge chomh maith le Conradh na Gaeilge agus lear mór Gaeilgeoirí eile. San Ionad Comdhála, glacadh le dhá rún i leith na Gaeilge agus faoi ghaelú an pháirtí
Ná déantar dearmad gurb é an bealach is mó tábhacht an bealach is simplí beatha teanga í a labhairt (Plé-Cháipéis agus an doiciméad ‘Gaelú Shinn Féin’) a thugann deis dúinn pleanáil ar bhonn straitéiseach agus ar bhonn fadtéarmach. Níl aon bhealach as ach go bhfuil dúshlán nach beag os ár gcomhair – ach is muidne is féidir a dhéanamh. Ná déantar dearmad gurb é an bealach is mó tábhacht an bealach is simplí – beatha teanga í a labhairt. I mbliain seo an chéid, tugaimis faoinár ndúshlán féin: Sinn Féin, ní hamháin Poblachtánach ach Gaelach; ní hamháin Gaelach ach Poblachtánach.
5 Johnny McGibbon agus Gerry Adams TD
14 May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
5 Martin McGuinness on stage outside the GPO
HeroismAvision D1916 honoured
5 Mary Lou McDonald holds a portrait of Molly O'Reilly on O'Connell Street
5 Actor Ed Cosgrave playing Pádraig Pearse reads the Proclamation to the huge crowd in front of the GPO
TENS OF THOUSANDS AT CITIZENS’ CEREMONIES FOR 1916 RISING BY MARK MOLONEY TENS of thousands of people took part in two events in Dublin to mark the 1916 Easter Rising on the precise date that the uprising began 100 years ago. Thousands took part in a Sinn Féin-organised Centenary Sunday event on O’Connell Street to commemorate the moment when Pádraig Pearse read the Proclamation on the steps of the GPO. Flanked by activists holding portraits of the 1916 leaders, and the Cabra Historical Society re-enactors in full Volunteer period uniform, Martin McGuinness spoke of how 100 years ago on this very spot “a small group of men and women took on the military might of the British Empire and struck a blow for freedom that would reverberate across the globe and down through the generations”. Describing their courage as “awe-inspiring”, the Derry republican said the 1916 leaders saw all around them the horrific effects of British imperialism. “They decided to act – not in their own self-interest but in the interests of the Irish people and of future generations,” he said. McGuinness, who in the early 1970s was on the streets of the Bogside as a young IRA Volunteer defending his neighbourhood and its people from the British occupation forces and the unionist paramilitary police, hit out at Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael for standing idly by as the nationalist people of the North were beaten off the streets, murdered on their doorsteps and forced from their homes. “The Southern Establishment parties abandoned Northern nationalists to a sordid sectarian state,” he said. “But the days of second-class citizenship are over and gone forever, not because of anything the political establishment in Dublin has done but because of the sacrifice, courage and determination of this generation of Irish republicans,” he said to huge applause. Martin McGuinness said republicans today have a responsibility to complete the work set in motion by the heroic men and women of 1916. “Today, in this place that still resonates with the
bravery and vision of the rebels, we are sending a clear message that the spirit of freedom embodied in the 1916 Proclamation is alive and well in cities, towns and villages across this island. In 2016, let us all join the Rising – Up the Rebels!” he shouted to cheers and applause from the thousands of republicans who lined the streets. Later in the day, tens of thousands of people gathered in Merrion Square to take part in the Reclaim the Vision of 1916 rally – the broadbased citizens’ initiative – and march to the GPO. Dozens of flute and pipe bands accompanied marchers representing organisations from across the political spectrum. Members of Ireland’s Traveller, Flemish, Basque, Palestinian and Romanian
‘A small group of men and women took on the military might of the British Empire’ 5 Banners with excerpts from the Proclamation on the march
communities took a central role in the commemorations, as did members of Ireland’s emigrant communities from around the globe. Outside the GPO, well-known musicians, actors and media personalities – including Panti Bliss, Stephen Rea, Fionnuala Flanagan, Adrian Dunbar, Donal Lunny, Damien Dempsey, Don Baker, Frances Black, Laoise Kelly and Sibéal Ní Chasaide – entertained the crowd. Highlights included a haunting performance of The Foggy Dew by singer Frances Black, who said it was a “privilege and and an honour” to be performing at the GPO 100 years on from the Easter Rising. Damien Dempsey delivered a rousing rendition of The Ballad of James Connolly. Speaking of his aunt, Jennie Shanahan, a member of the Irish Citizen Army who fought under the command of Seán Connolly and Dr Kathleen Lynn at Dublin City Hall, he said to acclamation that we need to “work towards James Connolly’s dream of a 32-county socialist republic”.
May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
5 Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
5 Connolly Association from England on the march
5 London trade unionists take part
5 A colour party leads the Louis Leonard Sinn Féin cumann from Fermanagh
5 Irish republicans from West Lothian
5 National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers on the march
5 'Wee Aoife' leads the Éire Nua RFB from west Belfast at the Reclaim the Vision of 1916 parade
5 Ireland's Flemish community remember 1916
5 A Sinn Féin activist from Achill Island, County Mayo, out to honour the heroes of 1916
5 London republicans mark the Easter Rising
5 Trade unions from England, Scotland and Wales took part
5 Shell2Sea activists on the streets to remember the Easter Rising
5 Tesco workers took the opportunity to mark 1916 and their struggle
5 Sinn Féin activists from Louth
5 Republicans from Crossmaglen march in Dublin
15
5 Martina Anderson MEP marches with members of the Palestinian community
5 The Reclaim the Vision of 1916 rally marches down Dublin's Pearse Street
16 May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
Sinn Féin Ard Fheis 2016
We stand by the Republic Erica Fleming, whose plight was highlighted on RTÉ television’s My Homeless Family documentary, delivered a blistering speech on the failure of the Fine Gael/Labour Government to deal with the crisis. “We are being treated as if we don’t matter, as if we are at fault for becoming homeless,” she said, her passion and anger resonating in every sentence. “To the outgoing government we are only a number. We are only a statistic. They forget that we are real people, with real lives and real feelings. They forget that our children are watching how the outgoing government is failing us.” To a standing ovation, Erica said she believed the heroes of 1916 would be appalled by the injustice in modern society one hundred years on. “I believe that they would stand beside us and demand action now. I believe that they would want us to stand up, to stand together – to stand side by side,” she said. More than 2,000 delegates and visitors packed into the auditorium for Gerry Adams’s Presidential Address, which was televised live on RTÉ. Commenting on the spectacle of the two conservative parties of Fianna
BY MARK MOLONEY SINN FÉIN fittingly chose Dublin for its 2016 Ard Fheis, which took place the day before the official centenary of the Easter Rising. Deputy leader and Dublin TD Mary Lou McDonald used the opportunity to welcome republicans from across Ireland to “the city that fought an empire”. It being such a momentous year, Irish unity and the fulfillment of the vision of the Proclamation were major themes of this year’s Clár. Mary Lou McDonald said it is up to every person present to work towards building Sinn Féin’s mandate: “In the spirit of the rebels of a century ago, we meet here in full confidence of victory,” she said. Matt Carthy MEP hit out at those who vilify promoters of Irish unity and said it is for republicans to convince people of the benefits of reunification: “Because if we don’t do it – then who will? And, if we don’t integrate the united Ireland project into all our work now, then when?” Party Chairperson Declan Kearney, who has been key to the Uncomfortable Conversations initiative, spoke on the need for reconciliation and addressing the legacy of pain from the conflict:
5 Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD delivers his televised Presidential Address
The fulfillment of the vision of the Proclamation were major themes of this year’s Ard Fheis
‘In the spirit of the rebels of a century ago, we meet here in full confidence of victory’ “There has been much suffering on all sides. We must begin to heal those hurts and divisions. The politics of hatred, recrimination and resentment will only serve to imprison our society in the past.” It was a theme also taken up by Martin McGuinness, who said republicans have a duty to reach out to the unionist community in a spirit of generosity. “I know that some people are uneasy at times about me reaching out to others but if we are to remain true to the spirit of the women and men of 1916 then we must continue this work,” he said. “Others don’t always reciprocate but that is not a good enough reason to stop doing it.” There was great excitement with news that Basque pro-independence leader Arnaldo Otegi, recently released from a six-year prison term, was to attend the annual gathering. After meeting with the Sinn Féin leadership, with members of the Basque community in Ireland he took part in a commemoration at Arbour Hill where 14 of the 16 executed leaders of the Rising are buried. He also delivered a rousing Ard Fheis speech on Saturday night. Other international delegates who addressed the meeting included the Cuban Ambassador to Ireland, Dr Hermes Herrera Hernández, who
5 Eoin Ó Broin TD with Basque leader Arnaldo Otegi
5 New TDs Denise Mitchell and Imelda Munster
5 A delegate poses for a photo with elected reps
5Rose Dugdale and Jim Monaghan with old friends and comrades
thanked Sinn Féin for its support for the Cuban struggle. President of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas sent a special video message to the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in which he described the Easter Rising as “courageous and legitimate” and
5 Visitors and delegates register at the CCD
praised the leadership of Gerry Adams for taking bold steps to achieve peace. For the first time the British Ambassador to Ireland, Dominick Chilcott, attended the Ard Fheis on Saturday night.
That evening saw the Ceiliúradh Céad Bliain – a musical, drama and cultural show to mark the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising. (You can watch it at www.youtube.com/sinnfeinireland.) During the event, homeless mother
Fáil and Fine Gael wanting to control Government and Opposition, he said that, unlike those parties, Sinn Féin wants to create an Ireland of equals: “Sinn Féin owe our allegiance to the people of this island. We love Ireland. We value this small island. So our resolve must be to end all divisions and to unite our people. Tá Sinn Féin an-soiléir faoi seo.” Hitting out at the revisionists such as former Fine Gael leader John Bruton who have condemned the Easter Rising while praising people like John Redmond and Edward Carson “who sent a generation of young Irishmen in the Irish Volunteers and Ulster Volunteers to fight Germans, Austrians and Turks, with whom they had no quarrel”, Adams said to huge applause: “1916 was right! Bhí an ceart ar fad ag na mná agus na fir a sheas an fód san Éiri Amach. It was Republic versus Empire. Republicanism versus Imperialism.” After quoting from Bobby Sands’s prison diary, the Louth TD ended his speech by saying: “The people of Ireland are no mean people. We have great resilience and great potential. We know whose side we’re on. We stand by and for the Republic.”
May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
17
5 Michelle Gildernew, Catherine Seeley, Gerry Adams, Mary Lou McDonald and Martin McGuinness at the end of the Ard Fheis
5 'Irish Volunteers' fall out to take a well-earned break
5 Sinn Féin National Chairperson 5 Raymond McCartney (Foyle) and Grace McDermott (West Tyrone) Declan Kearney
5 Sinn Féin MEPs Matt Carthy and Martina Anderson
5 More than 2,000 pack into the auditorium for the Presidential Address
5 Cabra Historical Society on parade
5 The view from the Convention Centre Dublin
5 1916 memorabilia for sale in the Exhibition Hall
5 Emmet Taggart speaks on housing as proud mother Michelle Gildernew looks on
5 Conor and Catherine Murphy enjoying 5 Cuban Ambassador Dr Hermes the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis Herrera Hernández 5 The Dublin City Chorus sing the lament 'Mo Ghile Mear'
5 Delegates queue to take part in a debate
5 Musician Mick Blake
5 Basque pro-independence 5 Gerry Adams meets the McGurk's Bar leader Arnaldo Otegi families
18 May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
Basque peace process leader Arnaldo Otegi talks to An Phoblacht
‘Our two nations will build free and united republics’
ARNALDO OTEGI – the acknowledged leader of the Basque peace process and released from a Spanish prison on 1 March after serving more than six years on political charges – spoke to AN PHOBLACHT EDITOR JOHN HEDGES at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Dublin. It is a great privilege for Irish republicans to have you at the Ard Fheis. How do you feel about being here in Ireland during this 1916 centenary year? Having just been released from jail, it is particularly emotional to be here in the centenary of the Easter Rising, an event of so much importance for the Irish people but also for all the nations of the world. I feel a bit overwhelmed and also very grateful to Sinn Féin for the invitation. The friendship between Basque independentists and Irish republicans goes back a long way. It is a privilege to be here with Sinn Féin. You and many Basque comrades went to Arbour Hill just before this interview to pay tribute to the leaders of the 1916 Rising, why was that important to you? Because I believe that what happened here 100 years ago was very significant; because I believe that the history of the planet is at the end of the day the history of those men and women who fight for freedom, justice and equality. Personally, it has been very emotional to visit the resting place of 14 of the leaders of the Rising, a place I haven’t visited before, a very special place. In my opinion, those that struggle for equality and freedom become not just leaders of their own nations but also leaders of the whole humankind. How do you feel since your release from prison? I feel good. I am still getting used to the new reality. When I was released from jail I said I was going to spend some time listening to what people had to say. I believe that that should be my role now, to listen to what people have to say. I also had the chance to take a short holiday. My health is good and I am ready to keep working on the task of achieving a lasting peace and freedom for our country. There are many other Basque political prisoners. In the past few months, members of the Irish Parliament and the Assembly at Stormont have publicly endorsed the “Free Otegi/Free Them All” campaign – do you hope this will continue here and in other countries? In my first public speech at a rally organised in my home town, I mentioned that the Free Otegi campaign should continue now as Free Them All. I am free now but we still have hundreds of prisoners in jail. It is very important that the international community makes this the demand for the freedom for the Basque prisoners. What needs to happen internationally to help the Basque peace process regain momentum? At the moment we have great difficulties in getting the Basque situation on the agenda of the
international community. Situations like Syria or the Middle East make ours look like a minor issue but still we can see that the solidarity is growing and so is the demand for a democratic solution. We have to keep putting pressure on the Spanish state, an EU state that refuses to engage in this historical opportunity to build a peaceful solution. Spain’s attitude is that of constant sabotage. Their political position is weak. They have no alternative for our people in the current situation and that’s why we want to build the Basque independent republic. An Phoblacht readers and Sinn Féin supporters have been active in the campaign for the prisoners and the Basque Country on social media – does that have an impact? Every bit of support we get is important. The Spanish state is trying to ignore the new situation in the Basque Country and is trying to isolate us, so everything that helps change that situation and puts the Spanish state in an uncomfortable situation helps us. I want to personally thank An Phoblacht and Sinn Féin for the solidarity with myself and all the Basque prisoners, and I ask the readers of An Phoblacht to keep on showing that solidarity and support.
Arnaldo Otegi lays a wreath at Arbour Hill to mark the 1916 Easter Rising
The Spanish Government has not been generous in the Basque peace process – are you hopeful of them changing their attitude? No. I think that the Spanish Government is unable to engage in any sort of democratic dialogue. The only thing I expect from them is further obstacles and further attacks. Still, that won’t change a bit our political strategy because we have total confidence in our strength, in the Basque people, in the international community and in the solidarity of other nations such as Ireland. And your feelings at this historic Ard Fheis for Ireland and the Basque Country? I am convinced that our two nations will build free and united republics, republics that will serve the interest of the vast majority of their citizens and not of those of the political and economical elites, in a general context of a better world, more fair and without political prisoners anywhere.
May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
At least
More than
7,600 750
of these are internees, held without charge or trial
Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails. BY MARK MOLONEY ON 24 APRIL, 12-year-old Palestinian girl Dima al-Wawi was released from an Israeli prison. Crying and comforted by her mother, she was welcomed back to her home village of Halhoul near Hebron by friends and family after two and a half months behind bars. Dima was arrested on her way to school by Israeli occupation forces for allegedly having a knife in her schoolbag. “I am happy to be out. Prison is bad,” the schoolgirl told the Associated Press. “I missed my classmates and my friends and family.” She was freed two months early after an appeal. Four days earlier Aouda Zbidat – a lawyer with Addameer, the Palestinian Prisoner Rights’ Association, was speaking in Dublin as part of a series of talks organised by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC). If Dima was an Israeli, she could not have been imprisoned, Aouda points out: “Under Israeli rule, children under 14 cannot be sent to prison. They may only be arrested for a short while. However, most of the West Bank is
‘I have never been able to be present during the interrogation of one of my clients who is a child, nor are parents allowed to be present’
AOUDA ZBIDAT under military rule where 12 years is considered the age of criminal liability. And under Israeli law (such as that in occupied Jerusalem), there is new legislation on the way which says that children between 12 to 14 can be sentenced to prison if their crime has ‘nationalistic motives’. And it’s fairly obvious this is aimed solely at Palestinian children.” The most recent statistics show that there are more than 7,600 Palestinian political prisoners
There are
420
child prisoners
68 women
19
6
elected members of the Palestinian Parliament are also locked up
ZIONIST REGIME RAMPS UP TARGETING OF WOMEN AND KIDS
Israel’s jailing of Palestinian children Dima al-Wawi
Twelve-year-old Palestinian girl was imprisoned for two and a half months after being convicted by an Israeli military court
“I am happy to be out. Prison is bad. I missed my classmates and my friends and family” held in Israeli jails. At least 750 of these are internees, held without charge or trial. There are 420 child prisoners and 68 women; 6 elected members of the Palestinian Parliament are also locked up. Aouda says Israel has ramped-up its detentions in recent months, particularly those of women and children. “On an annual basis, around 700 children are prosecuted in Israeli military courts. It is one of the few countries in the world that do this. However, Israeli soldiers frequently detain children much younger than that. Often children are arrested during night raids and excessive force is regularly used,” she says, referencing the Defence for Children International Palestine (DCI) recent report on the Israeli military’s abuses. Aouda says Israel systematically denies the right to the presence of counsel. “I have never been able to be present during the interrogation of one of my clients who is a child, nor are parents allowed to be present,” she says. Most children are not informed of their rights. They are often placed in solitary confinement and coerced into signing confessions. “These confessions are often relied on
exclusively to prosecute these children. Most of the time they are the only evidence yet they do secure convictions with them.” She points out that six teenagers at the
Detainees are also frequently deprived of sleep, shackled, and forced into stress positions similar to how the ‘Hooded Men’ in Ireland were treated by the British moment are held as internees without charge or trial. “This is a violation of the rights of the child under international law.” She says the inability of prisoners to challenge their detention legally is why so
many Palestinians are resorting to hunger strikes. She says in order to counter this, the Israeli district courts may now legally order the force-feeding of hunger striking prisoners. The forced administration of drugs on prisoners has also taken place. She outlines how detainees are also frequently deprived of sleep, shackled, forced into stress positions (similar to how the ‘Hooded Men’ in Ireland were treated by the British) which, in her opinion, constitute torture. “It also has a prolonged psychological effect.” The DCI report notes that children who have gone through arrest and imprisonment at the hands of occupation forces “struggle to reintegrate into their communities, often withdraw from their community, staying indoors for many hours a day and seldom leave their home or village”. Many suffer psychological trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, while their educational achievements are severely affected. Aouda believes the issue of political prisoners is vital to an eventual just and lasting peace in Palestine. “We demand the release of all political prisoners. We believe it is central to the end of the Occupation.”
20 May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
PROCLAIMING THE REPUBLIC
THE EXACT CENTENARY of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic was commemorated by Sinn Féin at the GPO on Sunday morning 24 April. The Proclamation was read from the platform several times that day but the first reading was in the Irish language by Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD, Cathaoirleach of Sinn Féin’s National Centenary Committee. Actor Ed Cosgrove
played Pádraig Pearse, reading the Proclamation in English, and Martin McGuinness spoke. A short pageant linking the flags of Ireland with the 1916 leaders was narrated by Dublin MEP Lynn Boylan and by Dublin City Councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha, our history columnist, who scripted it. We carry here an edited version. The flag of Connacht
FÁILTE, saoránaigh na Poblachta. Céad bliain ó shin díreach ar an láthair seo fógraíodh Poblacht na hÉireann. Welcome citizens of the Irish Republic of 1916 – the Republic of all 32 Counties. Exactly 100 years ago, the Irish Republic was proclaimed on this spot. This morning we remember the day. We reaffirm the pledge of the Proclamation. We honour the men and the women who defended the Republic.
Seán Mac Diarmada
The Green Flag of Ireland
Éamonn Ceannt From County Leitrim came Seán Mac Diarmada; from County Galway came Éamonn Ceannt. Fired with Fenianism, both men worked night and day for Irish freedom. They lived the words of Thomas Davis’s song The West’s Awake: But, hark! a voice like thunder spake, The West’s awake! the West’s awake! Sing, Oh! hurrah! let England quake, We’ll watch till death for Erin’s sake.
Molly O’Reilly On Sunday 16 April 1916, a young member of the Irish Women Workers’ Union, Molly O’Reilly, raised the green flag of Ireland over Liberty Hall. The ceremony was presided over by James Connolly, Commandant General of the Irish Citizen Army. Connolly said: “On that day the Irish Citizen Army hoisted and unfurled the green flag of Ireland, emblazoned with the harp without the crown, as the sacred emblem of Ireland’s unconquered soul.”
The flag of Leinster
The Tricolour
The flag of Fianna Éireann
The flag of Cumann na mBan
The flag of Ulster
Tom Clarke
Joseph Plunkett
The Tricolour of green, white and orange was brought from revolutionary France by Young Irelander Thomas Francis Meaghar. It recalls Wolfe Tone, uniting all denominations of Irishmen and Irishwomen, and it was the republican flag of the Fenians. The spirit of Tone and Young Ireland and Fenianism were embodied in the first signatory of the Proclamation, Thomas Clarke, who said in his last message: “I and my fellow signatories believe we have struck the first successful blow for freedom. The next blow, which we have no doubt Ireland will strike, will win through. In this belief we die happy.”
From an old Leinster family, a Dubliner, a poet and intellectual, a military strategist – Joseph Plunkett. His poem 1867, addressed to England, was both a tribute to the Fenians and a prophecy: In the days of our doom and our dread Ye were cruel and callous, Grim death with our fighters ye fed Through the jaws of the gallows; But a blasting and blight was the fee For which ye had bartered them, And we smite with the sword that from ye We had gained when ye martyred them!
Constance Markievicz
Margaret Skinnider
Roger Casement
The youth of republican Ireland was organised in Na Fianna Éireann, co-founded in 1909 by Constance Markievicz. Their flag was the sunburst with its hope of a new dawn for Irish freedom. Shortly before the Rising, Markievicz, patron and leader of Fianna Éireann, wrote: We are ready to fight for the Ireland we love Be the chances great or small; We are willing to die for the flag above Be the chances nothing at all.
Founded in 1914, Cumann na mBan organised the women of Ireland in the cause of freedom. Margaret Skinnider of Glasgow and Monaghan was one of the bravest. She wrote: “For a long time after the Rising, I dreamed every night about it. The dream was not as it actually took place, for the outcome was always successful. My awakening was a bitter disappointment, yet the memory of our failure is a greater memory than many of us ever dared to hope.”
Reared in the Glens of Antrim, Roger Casement loved Ulster and all of Ireland. From the Glens he went to the Congo and the Amazon and always he upheld the banner of human rights and human freedom. On trial for his life in London, his words rang out across the world: “Ireland is treated today among the nations of the world as if she were a convicted criminal . . . If it be treason to fight against such an unnatural fate as this, then I am proud to be a rebel, and shall cling to my ‘rebellion’ with the last drop of my blood.”
May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
21
5 Thousands take part in the event on O'Connell Street
5 Lynn Boylan MEP speaks to the huge crowd gathered outside the GPO on the 100th anniversary of the Rising
The flag of Munster
Thomas MacDonagh From County Tipperary, in the heart of Munster, Thomas MacDonagh was a teacher, a writer, a dramatist and poet. He worked in Scoil Éanna with Pádraig Pearse and commanded in Jacob’s 5 The banner of the Irish Republic flies outside the GPO Factory in Easter Week. The flag of the Irish Republic “I have been actuated by one motive only, the love of my country, the desire to make her a sovereign, independent state. I still hope and pray that my acts may have for consummation her lasting freedom and happiness.”
5 The Cabra Historical Society salute the martyrs of 1916
The Starry Plough
Pádraig Pearse
HUNGE R THE
19
81 – 2 01
Thomas Ashe: “They have branded me a criminal. Even if I do die, I die in a good cause.”
6
But Pearse said that Easter Week wiped out the shame of slavery: “We have lived to see an Irish Republic proclaimed. May we live to establish it firmly, and may our children and our children’s children enjoy the happiness and prosperity which freedom will bring.”
The Republic was defended in arms, 16 leaders were executed, the struggle was renewed and Connolly’s words were fulfilled: “We shall rise again.” Thomas Ashe had led the fight in Fingal. Múinteoir, cainteoir dúchais ó Chiarraí, Uachtarán Brathrachas na Poblachta i 1917. A teacher, native Irish speaker from Kerry, a piper and founder of the Black Raven Pipe Band, he was President of the Supreme Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. In 1917 he began a hunger strike against criminalisation and died from the effects of forced feeding in Mountjoy Jail. He was the first of the 22 Irish republicans to die on Hunger Strike and today, 35 years after the 1981 H-Blocks Hunger Strike, we remember them also.
5 Martin McGuinness takes a photo as a piper plays onstage
IKERS STR
The Starry Plough was the flag of James Connolly’s Irish Citizen Army. In Easter Week it flew over the Imperial Hotel (now Clery’s) where in the 1913 Lockout the police had attacked the people on Bloody Sunday. Connolly asked: “We are out for Ireland for the Irish. But who are the Irish? Not the rack-renting, slum-owning landlord; not the sweating, profit-grinding capitalist; not the sleek and oily lawyer; not the prostitute pressman – the hired liars of the enemy. Not these but the Irish working class, the only secure foundation on which a free nation can be reared.”
Thomas Ashe – The first of 22 hunger strike martyrs
REMEMBER
James Connolly
The banner of the Irish Republic was first flown here on this day a century ago. The President of the Provisional Government of the Republic was Pádraig Pearse. Ina dán ‘Mise Éire’ léirigh an Piarsach náire na hÉireann agus í faoi smacht ag an Bhreatain: Mise Éire – sine mé ná an Chailleach Béarra. Mór mo ghlóir - mé do rug Cú Chulainn cróga. Mór mo náire – mo chlann féin do dhíol a máthair. Mise Éire – uaigní mé ná an Chailleach Béarra.
Bobby Sands: “I may die but the Republic of 1916 will never die. Onward to that Republic and the liberation of our people.”
22 May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS
Thriving and striving to spread Uncomfortable Conversations
REV DR
NORMAN HAMILTON
Former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church Chair, Public Affairs Council of the Presbyterian Church
“NORTHERN IRELAND is like a child that is not thriving.” So said a well-respected community leader to me recently. He is surely right. So much seems to be in poor health, for so much remains seriously contested – identity, culture, territory, 5 The Uncomfortable history, education, to name just a few issues. Public Conversations initiative has discourse is often atrociously abusive, and even been ongoing since 2012 the democratic processes themselves shake from time to time, even though we all know they are unlikely to collapse. Uncomfortable Conversations is a welcome project, for clearly there is a need for such conversations to take place across a whole range of issues if good societal health is to be restored. What is not clear is whether there are, as yet, any agreed and desired outcomes for those conversations. The National Chair of Sinn Féin set out clearly the background thinking of the party to the initiative in March 2012: “It is an unequivocal and open invitation from the Sinn Féin leadership to engage with, and listen to, civic and political unionism, loyalism, trade union movement, academia, the faith community, the police and the British state. It is not only about having the Uncomfortable Conversations but creating a public momentum that asks the question how we collectively engage with the legacy of our past and build for the future.” This raises a number of other questions for me. Given that both republicans and unionists are sharing power together at Stormont, is it therefore agreed that to build for the future we need to make Northern Ireland work well as an entity distinct from the Republic of Ireland? Are we agreed that violence – from whatever source or with whatever alleged rationale – must be off and stay off the agenda permanently for the future of our people and our island? Are we agreed that effective citizenship can be nurtured and developed within the complex identities involved in being Irish and/or British and/or Northern Irish and/ or of belonging to one of the incoming communities? Are we agreed that we need to stop looking to others
to sort out our problems and apply ourselves to the need to build consensual and coherent public policy ourselves? Can we agree that to deal adequately with the toxic legacy of our past requires a lot more than what governments, agencies, institutions, the judiciary or politicians can deliver? Clearly they can and should play a hugely important role but on their own (and even together) they cannot plumb the depths of ongoing and profound pain, distress, grief, mistrust and anger. I would expect that the responses to each of these five questions would be an unequivocal ‘Yes’. If there is ambiguity or ambivalence about the responses, then the Uncomfortable Conversations are about managing the difficulties better rather than about dealing with them. Indeed, I would suggest that the lack of traction for the Uncomfortable Conversations project amongst many people outside the republican tradition lies partly in the widespread disillusionment with politics generally alongside a deep uncertainty about the answers to those questions. The renewing of the call from 1916 at Easter this year to break the connection between this country and the British Empire and to establish an Irish Republic signals to unionists that there may be little interest in making Northern Ireland work well. Of course, that is not necessarily the case but the ambivalence needs to be addressed. I write this piece not as a political or social commentator, for I am neither. I am an ordinary Presbyterian minister with some experience of living in a deeply divided part of Belfast. I am being careful not to express a political preference, for our church is an all-Ireland church, with every political loyalty included in its
I would suggest that the lack of traction for the Uncomfortable Conversations project amongst many people outside the republican tradition lies partly in the widespread disillusionment with politics generally
The core principle that I long to see underpinning our Uncomfortable Conversations is what will be for the common good, rather than what will benefit my group, my party, or myself membership. I want good conversations very deeply, for without it the current desert of public debate will only expand, even though there are oases of wisdom and grace dotted over the landscape. I am motivated day and daily by the call in the Old Testament for God’s people to seek the welfare of everyone around them, including those whom they saw as enemies and even oppressors. The core principle that I long to see underpinning our Uncomfortable Conversations is what will be for the common good, rather than what will benefit my group, my party, or myself. I see no need to contest every issue, or win every debate, or take every hill. But I do see the need for those who are uninterested or unable or take part in Uncomfortable Conversations to benefit from those conversations. So I end where I started. What can we do to make Northern Ireland thrive? In asking that question, I readily acknowledge that it cannot but lead us into a further series of very Uncomfortable Conversations indeed. EDITOR’S NOTE: Guest writers in the Uncomfortable Conversations series use their own terminology and do not always reflect the house style of An Phoblacht.
May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
23
UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS
JOHN Ó NÉILL
Main author of treasonfelony.com blog, Sinn Féin member in Wexford originally from north Belfast
IF YOU ARE from Belfast and, like me, moved across the Border in the late 1990s, this scenario might sound familiar. Towards the end of a night out, some stranger who has maybe overheard your accent (it was invariably a man) decides to explain to you what the conflict is/was about. It’s irrelevant that you are from Belfast, he tells you (and everyone else in earshot), you are all brainwashed, you don’t really know what is going on, you don’t know ‘the truth’, etc. You finally manage to get a word in edgeways and discover this authority on the conflict may not have actually ever set foot in the North. Nor is he aware that his own political views were formed under the strictly-maintained political censorship of Section 31 of the Bradcasting Act, which, judging by Pádraig O’Mara’s research on the 2016 general election (see medium.com) is still embedded practice in the Irish media.
5 Public discourse in the South still shies away from discussing the tolerances of Dublin governments to violence against communities in the North
Overheard voices
5 The Section 31 broadcasting ban created an aggressive group-think that decontextualises the conflict as random acts of violence
By now this Section 31 drunk resorts to listing a select handful of victims’ names or horrific incidents. The mere mention of them is meant to shut you up because his world view can’t comprehend that he might meaningfully engage and debate the issues he himself has just raised. Still, you attempt to reverse the intellectual attrition of decades of political censorship by putting events in the context of the conflict rather than the series of individual, apparently unlinked, tragedies that the Section 31 drunk prefers. In this he is neatly illustrating the success of the media policy that Liz Curtis (Ireland: The Propaganda War, 1984) summarises as deliberately removing any context and “making violence appear as random as a national disaster or accident.” Fortunately, Section 31 drunks would be maybe 1 in 10,000 people. Since I’ve never been particularly shy
Public discourse in the South is still captive to the same group-think as 1922 rather than open to an Uncomfortable Conversation about the tolerances of successive Dublin governments towards violence against communities in the North
about my politics or background, I’ve found that people with a genuine curiosity about the conflict will usually find some pretext to bring it up. And we need to recognise that a lot of people carry a real sense of hurt as they feel that the IRA took it upon itself to act in their name without their consent. At a human level, discussing the reality of a violent conflict should always make us uncomfortable anyway but we have to persist because what is the alternative to talking and debating? Truth is, we’ve seen the alternative. Take 13 February 1922. A man threw a bomb 30 metres into a group of girls skipping on Weaver Street, off York Road in Belfast. Four young girls were killed along with two women standing in nearby doorways. Fifteen other children were badly injured. Within three months, their families had been forced from their homes at gunpoint, never to return. Even the families that took over their homes in Weaver Street were eventually moved by the 1960s as the street was gradually incorporated into the grounds of a factory. In the decades in between there was no public conversation in Belfast or Dublin about the intense violence in Belfast in 1920-22 (almost 25% of all conflict fatalities in Ireland in 1920-22). The only
book that detailed their experience was pulped on the orders of the Catholic Hierarchy in Dublin on the day of its publication in 1922 (only 12 copies survived; one was used for a 1997 reprint). Weaver Street was to be obliterated both from the city and from history. Most of Belfast’s victims of 1920-22 got no opportunity to be seen or heard. Unionism and the political establishment in the south both learned how suppressing any meaningful reflection on violence could be to their political advantage. By 1994, when Section 31 lapsed, formal censorship in the South had become unnecessary as the predominant group-think aggressively decontextualises the conflict as randomised violence. And there is a bitter irony here for victims. Context doesn’t make loss or bereavement any easier but it provides fragile footholds and a framework by which they may find some way to come to terms with what they have experienced. Public discourse in the South is still captive to the same group-think as 1922 rather than open to an Uncomfortable Conversation about the attitudes and tolerances of successive Dublin governments towards violence against communities in the North. It should not surprise people, then, to find public contemporary debates on social and economic justice closed down in the same way. And those Section 31 drunks? Watch Leader’s Questions in the Dáil and you’ll see what I mean.
To see more go to – www.anphoblacht.com/uncomfortable-conversations
24 May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
Another Europe is possible Treo eile don Eoraip
Funded by the European United Left/ Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Aontas Clé na hEorpa/Na Glasaigh Chlé Nordacha Crúpa Paliminta – Parlaimimt na h Eorpa
Legacy – British Government policy of ‘deny, delay, death’ addressed in European Parliament which is core to its strategy to cover up its role in the conflict. This silence needs to be broken. These stories must be heard. Part of the motivation for organising this delegation was to give hope and encouragement to the hundreds of families seeking information, truth and justice. One of the participants in the delegation, Anne Cadwallader, investigative journalist and author
The British Government has invoked its so-called ‘national security’ clause which is core to its strategy to cover up its role in the conflict 5 Martina Anderson MEP and investigative journalist Anne Cadwallider (right) present a copy of 'Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland' to a representative of the Office of Human Rights Commissioner
Ballymurphy, the New Lodge, McGurk’s Bar Massacre, Kelly’s Bar, Bloody Sunday, and the deaths of Patrick Finucane and IRA Volunteer Pearse Jordan.
The British state was sponsoring the murders of those it had a legal duty to protect and these killings explain why the British Government has invoked its so-called ‘national security’ clause
of Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, and a representative of the Pat Finucane Centre raised how the British policy is one of “3Ds: Deny, Delay, Death” – deny any involvement as long as possible and delay releasing information in the hope that those seeking it will die. Niall Murphy, a partner in the legal practice of KRW Law, explained how the Lord Chief
Photos: GUENGL
THERE ARE MANY aspects to engaging with legacy issues from the conflict in the Six Counties. Central to the Sinn Féin approach has been to facilitate information disclosure, truth and justice for families. This is largely due to the failure of the British state to investigate deaths caused by them and their agents properly or effectively. Of itself this has created a necessary and strategic focus from families (and indeed in Sinn Féin) on unresolved deaths. Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson recently hosted a series of meetings in the European Parliament in Strasbourg between EU departments and a delegation of people from the North of Ireland seeking truth and justice from British collusion. The 12-strong delegation (with representatives from the Pat Finucane Centre, the Committee on the Administration of Justice and Relatives for Justice) had a series of meetings with the European Fundamental Rights Agency, Representatives of the Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner and the Office of the Execution of Judgement. In the immediate term, support must go to the families who have been bereaved to have a human rights compliant mechanism of resolution. This is particularly true in the killings in
5 GUE/NGL MEPs show their support for the Gdeim Izik political prisoners of Western Sahara
5 Gabi Zimmer, President of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL), addresses the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Dublin
May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
25
www.guengl.eu BY JEMMA DOLAN
Martina Anderson
5 The Irish human rights delegation outside the Council of Europe before meeting with Representatives of the Office of Human Rights Commissioner
Justice of the North of Ireland had requested money from the British Government before the Assembly elections to help resource his concept plan for the Coroners’ Courts to discharge the backlog in inquests to assist in providing a truth
This silence needs to be broken – these stories must be heard
The meetings conducted during the delegation had very positive and productive outcomes. Both the EU Fundamental Rights Agency and the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner were invited to Ireland, as a matter of urgency, to take part in a fact-finding mission to meet the families whose appeals for truth and accountability have been constantly insulted. The British Government fears the truth. More than that, the British state fears the dignity and dedication of families seeking truth. It has been the brave stand of families for truth that has exposed the lies, deceit and propaganda of the British state. Sinn Féin MEPs are committed to seeking truth, justice and remedy for the range of violations suffered and we are committed to the realisation of the human rights of all those who suffered
Photo: Olivier Hansen/GUENGL
recovery mechanism for the grieving families. The British Government, however, is refusing to honour its international and legally-binding obligations. This is the same British Government that spends billions of pounds each year on nuclear
bombs, the same British Government that spent £500million on depoliticising policing through the Patten Redundancy Scheme which was further complemented by the retire/rehire scandal, as well as a hearing loss compensation scheme which – when added to UDR/RUC Reserve and Prison Service compensations – totalled more than £1.2billion in payments to placate the ‘security constituency’. The British Government is refusing to comply with its obligations. Seamus Finucane, brother of murdered civil rights lawyer Pat Finucane, gave a very personal account of the effect the cover-up has on the lives on the families. He described the pain and anger his family have been put through, and the false dawns they experienced, but also their determination to reach truth and justice.
Liadh Ní Riada
Lynn Boylan
Matt Carthy 5 Freed Basque independence leader Arnaldo Otegi addresses a group meeting of MEPs at the European Parliament
are MEPs and members of the GUE/NGL Group in the European Parliament
26 May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
Briars, bullocks and bachelors their offices in Letterfrack, now worries that this might be the beginning of an ignominious end and fears that other funding from the state will also go to east Galway. He cites Leader funding as an example. “Forum received €5million to 6million; previously €700,000 came west out of €7million.” Such a future loss would change the way Forum has to operate. An entire generation has grown up with Forum working quietly in the background, delivering essential social inclusion services. “We manage the funding that comes into Forum, and we do this locally. Meals on wheels for example, they are delivered by a person on
Those who could see no future for their children in Connemara came together to establish a local action group in 1971
ROBERT ALLEN LOSS OF POPULATION from Europe’s peripheral regions was once considered a high priority for the expanding European Economic Community. It ranked higher than the concern about jobs, infrastructure, services and the loss of biodiversity. Academics wrote papers, bureaucrats decided policy, journalists offered solace, politicians expressed regret, and environmentalists cried wolf. All along the Atlantic fringe, from Portugal to Norway, the image was pitiful. Among the fringe, Ireland’s western seaboard was home to some of the most disadvantaged and distressed peoples of Europe and of all these areas northwest Connemara was declared the worst, with social exclusion a scar on the face of a society that did not wish to see itself in the mirror or glimpse a past it wanted to forget. So when those who could see no future for their children in Connemara came together to establish a local action group in 1971, there was a sense of empowerment and purpose. Instead of the usual apathy towards centralised obfuscation on rural development, a different dynamic was adopted that would harness local energy to stop the continuing decline. The eventual consequence was a company called Forum (North and West Connemara Rural Project Ltd), founded in 1989. It was a rare kind of local area partnership and it sought a strong role in the politics of community empowerment.
5 Forum co-ordinators fear state funding for west Galway will dry up
A quarter of a century later, Forum is in trouble and, in the prophetic words of Tony Varley and Chris Curtin, paying the price for entering into a partnership with the state that was always going to end in tears. The state, argued the two
Some people believe that the state, resplendent in Dublin, has no interest in the economic and social development of the West Galway sociologists, has always strived to turn “community interests into service providers largely on its own terms”. It did not seem that way ten years ago when Forum believed it was “well placed” in the heart of Connemara to deliver a European Regional Development Fund strategy that would prioritise
community-led local development embedded in local knowledge and resources. Six years ago, Forum began the co-ordination of the Local Community Development Programme, which was administered by Pobal, a company set up by the state in 1992 to “act as an intermediary for programmes funded by the Irish Government and the EU”. The LCDP ran until 31 March last year, and generally was thought to be a success, in alleviating poverty and social exclusion in disadvantaged areas. Connemara benefitted as Forum used its knowledge and expertise to fund numerous social schemes. The trouble began when Pobal announced the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) as the successor to the LCDP, and Galway County Council, who receive funds on behalf of local action groups, decided that Galway Rural Development, based in Athenry, would be the recipient of the SICAP funds, excluding Forum. Brendan O’Malley, a Forum co-ordinator at
the scheme in their own car. They are volunteers; the administration is done here in Letterfrack. “We operate two buses into Clifden to the day hospital for people between the ages of 50 and 80 with various disabilities, depression. The bus itself is paid for by Forum, the driver is on a scheme. It would not be possible to run that from the other side of Galway. Where would you leave the buses? “Our schemes run like clockwork, now why would you want to change that? The people know their neighbours and help out, bringing a bottle of gas, taking . . . “ O’Malley sighs in exasperation. “If you have funding within an area, a voice within the area, services in the area, people will use them, people will know what is happening, and they will say, ‘You might help me with this or that’.” O’Malley though is pragmatic. The people of Connemara, he says, must “put their own stories out” because there is no bright sunset on the horizon. “If you look at the country over the last five to seven years it has been run by bean counters, and they do not care. They don’t care if the bed situation in Galway gets worse. They can’t see beyond today, beyond the policies of today. Money is borrowed from tomorrow to pay for today’s policy. And the unfortunate thing is that when you get to the next day you don’t
May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
27
5 Tackling population loss in peripheral areas of Europe such as Connemara was previously of high priority for the European Union
have 100% of a budget, you have 75%, and you have to run the country on that. “And it is getting worse. “I work with people who are unemployed, with people who have a huge social disadvantage, who are afraid to work. It is much worse than it was in the 1970s because there were more people then. It is climate, it is isolation, it is work. Young people move away because they get fond of the easier things in life, not the finer things, like going to the cinema and not having to drive an hour and a half.” The EU likes local area partnerships or local area groups (LAGS). They expect a LAG to administer for between 10,000 and 150,000 people. Riccardo Crescenzi and Mara Giua, in a December 2014 report for a London School of Economics discussion series, are among a number of social scientists who argue that local area partnerships should be written directly into EU policy: “The top-down funding of the Common Agricultural Policy seems to be able to concen-
empowerment depend on radical populist-type collective actors becoming the driving force in local partnerships, pushing their agendas in a radical direction, using them to build their own capacities for democratic self-organisation and standing to benefit from a process that is at once well-resourced, enduring and
serious about striving for a measure of structural change.” The reality was something different. Varley and Curtin argued that Forum was never an instrument for the delivery of state policy and therefore vulnerable. “[Forum] were able to exploit the official
‘The country has been run by bean counters who don’t care if the bed shortage in Galway Hospital gets worse. They can’t see beyond today’
An entire generation has grown up with Forum working quietly in the background, delivering essential social inclusion services trate some benefits in the most deprived areas. Conversely, only the most dynamic rural areas are capable of leveraging on the bottom-up measures of the EU Rural Development Policy. This suggests that EU policy makers in all fields should constantly look for the best mix of bottom-up and top-down measures in order to tackle structural disadvantage.” Galway has a population of 175,000. The population of Connemara is 40,000. Leo Hallissey, a Forum board member and former head teacher in Letterfrack, is angry. “The decision to have one company delivering this social programme in a county as large and diverse as Galway defies logic.” All of this was forewarned. Varley and Curtin suggested in 2006 that a radical analysis by a state bureaucrat sympathetic to radical populism would reach the following conclusion: “The scenario they are drawn to is one in which the prospects for community
rationale for having area partnerships to combat social exclusion in the first place – the idea that a consensus was achievable about what was required to combat social exclusion (or stimulate local development), and that rapid advances were possible on the strength of adequate resourcing and local and state interests operating in tandem. It was quickly accepted by all concerned that without a vibrant set of community partners Forum would never have been able to make its mark.” This is now seen to be to Forum’s detriment. O’Malley is convinced that the decision by Galway County Council has been “politically engineered from the top down” but he is not convinced there is a convoluted agenda. “It’s about penny-pinching.” Others disagree. Some suggest that the demographic argument excludes the geographic argument. Certainly in
5 Many feel that the Government has little interest in the social and economic development of the West
the chambers of Galway County Council, Connemara’s nine councillors find that their individual voices carry less weight against the other 30. And some people believe, like Hallissey, that the state, resplendent in Dublin, has no interest in the economic and social development of the West. The future of Forum probably lies in the expected compromise between member states and the EU policy body, and a new direction that involve different types of partnerships that allow it to draw funds for specific projects or collaborate with private interests that put sustainable systems at the centre of everything. One thing is certain. For Connemara to have a future it must change its past. “We were at a farmers’ meeting one night in Clifden,” recalls O’Malley, “and a man stood up and said, ‘All we have left in Connemara are briars, bullocks and bachelors’ and that is a huge problem.” The problem for the EU is that entangled vines, castrated cattle and lonely men can be found throughout the Atlantic fringe.
28 May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
An féidir le Labour an cheacht a fhoghlaim? IS COSÚIL go raibh cathú mór roimh a bhfuil fágtha de Pháirtí an Lucht Oibre sa Dáil dul ar ais sa rialtas le Fine Gael sular thuig Joan Burton is a comhleacaithe, Brendan Howlin is Alan Kelly, nach mbeadh na baill a d’fhan bainteach leis an bpáirtí in ann glacadh le seift chomh siniciúil sin. Sea, bheadh fearg as cuimse ar an bpobal a chuir an ruaig orthu san olltoghchán dá bhfeicfi ar ais sa rialtas th’éis an diúltú mór a thug an pobal dóibh. Ach léiriú é nach bhfuil tada foghlamtha ag an bpáirtí ón tubaist a thit orthu. Bhí sé de dhánacht ag Brendan Howlin fiú ról an pháirti sa rialtas déine a mholadh, agus é ag maíomh as an méad a rinne siad ar sn na “tíre”. N’fheadar cén tír a bhí i gceist aige? Tír na mbancaeraí is na n-uaisle saibhre, nó tír na n-oibrithe is na ndaoine faoi mhibhuntáisti eagsúla? Mar ní hionann an dá thír. Agus ní hionann
EOIN Ó MURCHÚ
leas lucht an airgid is leas na ndaoine nach bhfuil airgead acu. Dhein Páirtí an Lucht Oibre dearmad glan ar an bpointe simplí sin, is d’íoc siad praghas ard mar gheall air.
Ní he ámh nach bhfuil leithéidí Bhurton nó Howlin amháin nach bhfuil in ann admháil go raibh siad mícheart cabhrú le Fine Gael ualach na gearchéime a chur ar an lucht oibre. Nuair a labhair Seán Sherlock, mar shampla, amach
i gcoinne na hiarrachta dul ar ais sa rialtas, ní raibh le rá aige ach ról an pháirti sa rialtas a chosaint is a rá go raibh am ag teastáil chun iad féin a eagrú arís. Agus mar bharr ar an ndonas, tháinig Uachtarán SIPTU, Jack O’Connor, amach ag tabhairt le fios go dtacodh sé le Labour a bheith arais le Fine Gael! Dúirt se gur bunaiodh an páirtí ar mhaithe leis an lucht oibre a chosaint ó ionsaithe an rachmais. Ta se sin fior, ach NÍOR chosain Labour an lucht oibre. Mura féidir le Labour a bhfaillí a aithint níl todhchaí i ndán dóibh. Agus faoi láthair níl aon chomhartha ann gur féidir.
IN PICTURES RECLAIM THE VISION OF 1916 RALLY
5 Thousands take part in the Reclaim the Vision of 1916 event in Dublin
5 The Cloney Flute Band from County Antrim on the march
5 Cully Radford leads Cork's Mac Curtain/MacSwiney Republican Flute Band along Pearse Street
5 Ireland's Travelling community remember the 1916 Easter Rising
May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
I nDíl Chuimhne
29
All notices and obituaries should be sent to notices@anphoblacht.com by Friday 20 May 2016
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
Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations PÁDRAIG PEARSE 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. 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
» 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.
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 shot dead 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. Always remembered by 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 the McCabe/Quigley Sinn Féin Cumann, Ballymun. GRAY, Kevin. In proud and loving memory of our friend and comrade Kevin, whose anniversary occurs at this time. Never forgotten by the Halpenny, Worthington & Watters Sinn Féin Cumann, Dundalk. KEENAN, Brian. In proud and loving memory of Volunteer Brian Keenan, who died on 21 May 2008. “I may die, but the Republic of 1916 will never die. Onwards to the Republic and the liberation of our people” – Bobby Sands. Always remembered by Ann O’Sullivan.
» 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.
photos@anphoblacht.com Sinn Féin Ard Fheis 2016
IMEACHTAÍ | EVENTS DUBLIN
MONUMENT UNVEILING
1916 march and monument unveiling. 1pm Saturday 14 May, Mulhuddart Cemetery, parade to Mulhuddart Village with bands and the Cabra Historical Society. Main speaker Gerry Kelly.
DUBLIN
COMMEMORATION
Volunteer Martin ‘Doco’ Doherty Commemoration will be held on Saturday 21 May. Assemble at 2:30pm at the Dick McKee Memorial, Finglas Village, and parade to Glasnevin. Main speaker Dessie Ellis TD. Followed by function with Spirit of Freedom in the Bottom of the Hill, Finglas Village. Táille €5.
TIPPERARY 5 Gerry Adams with John Teggart and Briege Foyle of the Ballymurphy Massacre families
HUNGER STRIKE COMMEMORATION
Friday 27 May to Saturday morning 28 May – Hunger Strike Exhibition in the Main Guard, Clonmel.
HUNGE R THE
19
IKERS STR
Friday 27 May – Hunger Strike Lecture, Park Hotel, Clonmel (Limited spaces). Speakers: Séanna Walsh and Pat Sheehan. (Contact Terry 086 848 0916)
REMEMBER
5 Pearse Doherty spending some quiet moments at the Relatives for Jusitce 'Remembering Quilt' on display at the CCD
Saturday 28 May – Hunger Strike commemorative march through Clonmel. 3:30pm, Presentation Convent Bridge to the Manchester Martyrs Monument on the quay. Speakers Sinn Féin Vice-President Mary Lou McDonald TD and Malachy McCreesh whose brother Raymond McCreesh died on hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh.
6
81 – 2 01
Facebook – Hunger Strike Commemoration Clonmel May 2016
KILDARE
WOLFE TONE WEEKEND FESTIVAL
5 A scene from 'Echoes of 1916' performed by Smashing Times Theatre Company at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis
Including exhibitions, tradtional Irish music, stalls and food stands in Sallins, County Kildare on 18 and 19 June. The main Wolfe Tone Commemoration takes place on Sunday 19 June, assemble Sallins at 2.15pm.
30 May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
CATHY POWER
Fishing community had won on penalty points in the High Court – but then Fine Gael’s Fisheries Minister pulled a fast one
Still ‘guilty’ even if found not guilty MARTIN FERRIS and Sinn Féin have tabled a Dáil motion to stop a move by Fine Gael Fisheries Minister Simon Coveney to circumvent a High Court ruling striking down as unconstitutional provisions of a penalty points system for fishermen who are accused of engaging in illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing. Speaking in Leinster House after a briefing in April on the issue of penalty points, Martin Ferris, Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on Fisheries, said a new Statutory Instrument (Government executive order) “discriminates against fishermen who are trying to make a living”. The move by the Fisheries Minister in the wake of the March High Court ruling “shows
The laws enforce penalty points for fisheries offences even where the alleged offender is cleared by the courts contempt for the judgement of the High Court by introducing the same conditions again”, Martin Ferris said. 5 Trawlers can face sanctions even though the alleged offender has been cleared by the courts “Sinn Féin will be seeking the without recourse to the courts. Sinn Féin was followed by Independent Thomas relationship between the industry and the state. support of all Opposition TDs In the High Court, the O’Sul- Pringle and Fianna Fáil. Everyone makes the point that they are not to strike down this Statutory livan brothers in one case and The problem is that in the absence of a against regulation but the way the penalty Instrument. Eric Murphy in another (all of functioning Dáil then with no Government in points are being used has caused anger, hurt “While no Government or Fianna whom fish out of Castletown- place, there was no possibility of having the and economic crisis for many. If the newly-esFáil TDs attended the briefing today, bere, County Cork) took cases tablished adjudication process is too closely tied it was good to see Opposition against the system. to departments of the parties, groups and Independents The High Court in Dublin state, that situation there and in agreement on this made orders in March striking will continue. issue.” down the penalty points system Watch this Irish fishermen and women space. This is as unconstitutional when the were so offended by the way the not over and penalty points for the sector were 5 Fine Gael former Fisheries judge was told that since he had struck down the law in January Sinn Féin TDs being applied by the Sea Fisheries Minister Simon Coveney and senators Protection Agency that two cases were taken 2016, the minister on 1 March (when some of us were still at the election count) introduced a are ready to to the High Court. stand with the In both cases the verdicts came down in new Statutory Instrument covering the penalty points system motion taken by the Dáil, which must be done industry to end favour of the fishing community. The judgement found that the new system still within 21 sitting days. this situation The fishing industry had opposed the laws Donegal TD Pearse Doherty made that point once and for all. which enforce penalty points for fisheries offences cannot ignore established systems for indepenat the first opportunity in the chamber – do we even where the alleged offender is cleared by dent adjudication and access to the courts. Mr Justice Tony O’Connor said that the minis- have to resort to the courts again to get the the courts. It allows for sanctions against trawler owners ter, in exercising his power to give effect to EU motion discussed and voted upon in the Dáil? Meanwhile, Irish Fish Producers’ Organiirrespective of the legal outcome of a criminal regulations here, must also recognise that the system lacked the principles of justice. sation CEO Francis O’Donnell and solicitor prosecution. So then we had a new Statutory Instrument Dermot Conway briefed TDs in Leinster Since 2014, the penalty points system provided for the suspension of fishing licences and eventu- to replace the old one. Sinn Féin, as soon as the House on the issue. Francis said legislaally even for the removal of a licence altogether Dáil reconvened in early March, tabled a motion tion falls short of addressing the grievfor alleged infringements of regulations but to annul that Statutory Instrument (125 of 216). ances of fishermen and is damaging the 5 Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on Fisheries, Martin Ferris
In both High Court cases, the verdicts came down in favour of the fishing community
May / Bealtaine 2016
www.anphoblacht.com
31
Legal action by new Sinn Féin TD answers online hate campaign
EXPOSED
'Former nazi' masquerading as a journalist anti-gay views. The Institute of Journalists previously wrote to McGrath asking him to remove references claiming A ‘FORMER’ NAZI posing as a “journalist” membership of their organisation from is facing legal action over statements his website. he published about newly-elected In the run-up to the Marriage Equality Sinn Féin TD Kathleen Funchion on Referendum he caused outrage when his “Kilkenny Journal” website and a purported ‘news story’ appeared on social media accounts, An Phoblacht the site entitled “Paedophiles set to has learned. pose as gays to marry and adopt kids.” Michael J. McGrath, who has A barrage of criticism forced McGrath described himself in the past as “Chief to remove the article. Lieutenant” of the nazi Irish National McGrath’s main target in recent years Socialist Party (INSP) – which was regis- has been Sinn Féin, who he claims has tered to his former home in Dominic “become a Trotskyist outfit” and is an Street, Kilkenny – is well-known for “anti-national liberal elitist party”. McGrath has also thrown his weight behind new anti-immigration party Identity Ireland, whose attempt to launch an Irish version of Germany’s anti-immigrant Pegida street organisation crashed when the tiny racist group was met with hundreds of anti-racist protesters in Dublin earlier this year. McGrath has accused the media of being scared to report on immigration “for fear of being dubbed ‘racist’” and claims the National Union of Journalists has “at its core a wicked policy his extreme right-wing views and for the immigrants to outbreed the attempts to smear left-wing election natives so there won’t be any Irish or candidates using the veneer of credi- English left in a century or so”. bility afforded to him through his use Complaining about Sinn Féin, of the now-defunct Kilkenny Journal foreigners and the LGBT community newspaper’s name. isn’t McGrath’s only pastime though. He McGrath has masqueraded online also loves nothing more than engagas the publication, using its credibil- ing in feuds with druids! After all, he ity and name to spout his racist and claims to be the “Arch Druid of Tara and All Ireland”. Speaking to the Sunday Mirror in 2006, during the height of a feud between rival self-proclaimed druids, McGrath admitted he had called for the shooting dead of a rival but later said he regretted his comments: “Connor [a rival druid] is a vicious little English pagan and I do wish he was dead. But some of the language I used about gay people was excessive. It was just done in the heat of the moment.” He also admitted to describing Hitler as “a genius” for the “economic miracles” in Germany but said he had “gone mad” by ordering the Holocaust. Bizarrely, McGrath occasionally denies being the same Michael McGrath who stood for 5 Newly-elected Sinn Féin TD, Kathleen Funchion election to Kilkenny Corporation
BY MARK MOLONEY
Michael McGrath attempted to register the Irish National Socialist Party which was circulating leaflets calling for the jailing of gay people and the repatriation of "non-white doctors" 5 Michael McGrath's website supported the far-right Identity Ireland group in recent elections
Michael McGrath spews his hate messages online, masquerading as the now-defunct Kilkenny Journal newspaper
5 A letter distributed by the neo-nazi NSWIP denouncing a “Mike McGrath from Kilkenny” as a police spy
in 1985. According to the Sunday Times, McGrath "promoted the repatriation of all non-white doctors". He polled 42 votes. “There was another Michael McGrath who operated out of this same address
in Kilkenny, but he was a totally different person. I heard he died over ten years ago in England,” he once claimed. During the same period, McGrath’s INSP circulated a leaflet entitled “Smash AIDS blitzkrieg”, signed by a Michael
J. McGrath and listed at his former address. In it he called for gay people to be jailed. Senator David Norris read the entirety of the leaflet into the Seanad record, describing it as “clear and explicit incitement”. Shortly afterwards, McGrath fell foul of the rival neo-nazi National Socialist Irish Workers’ Party (NSWIP). A letter sent to members from the organisation’s headquarters in Dublin’s Eugene Street described a “Mr Mike McGrath from Kilkenny City” and another man from Warrenpoint as “police spies”. It urged members to “beware” of the NSP which “has nothing to do with NSIWP or NSPUK”. Even before the use of social media, McGrath had form in distributing scurrilous material about individuals. In 1996 he received a suspended sentence for distributing an obscene letter about a local garda. The Sinn Féin organisation in Kilkenny says it hopes this legal action against McGrath will put an end to his vicious online campaign.
5 Michael McGrath attempted to officially register his far-right National Socialist Party in 1990
NEXT ISSUE OUT Thursday 2 June 2016
anphoblacht
32
Sraith Nua Iml 39 Uimhir 5 – May / Bealtaine 2016
IN PICTURES
photos@anphoblacht.com
5 Republicans mark the 35th anniversary of the death of H-Block martyr 5 The Dublin South 1916 Centenary Committee's 'People's Parade' makes its way down the Grange Road towards Pádraig Pearse's Bobby Sands in Belfast (above) and Dublin (below) school at St Enda's in Rathfarnham, Dublin
5 Dawn vigils have been taking place outside of Kilmainham Jail to mark the 100th anniversary of the executions of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising
5 A cartoonist hard at work at the election count in the Titanic Centre, Belfast
5 Gerry Kelly takes time out of his election campaign to keep up with the news
5 The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association protest outside Leinster House and the EU Commission over the sell-out of the EU beef farming sector PHOTO: Lensmen in TTIP talks