An Phoblacht, September 2014

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TREVOR HOGAN

DAWN PURVIS

THE RIGHT TIME

JACK O'CONNOR (SIPTU)

JIMMY KELLY (UNITE)

Lining out for Gaza

anphoblacht

Sraith Nua Iml 37 Uimhir 9

September / Méan Fómhair 2014

SINN FÉIN LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN AND PETITION

PRICE €2/£2

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2 September / Méan Fómhair 2014

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IN PICTURES

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WHAT’S INSIDE 5 Caithfear deireadh a chur leis an gCóireáil Dhíreach 6&7 Unionists surrender to the Tory war on the welfare state – Francie Molloy MP

5 Clondalkin and Lucan Sinn Féin activists hold a solidarity vigil for the people of Gaza in Lucan, Dublin

9 Irish teen on hunger strike in Egyptian prison 10 Secret files on British Army’s notorious UDR regiment revealed in new book 13 Géarchéim Tithíocht ag Dul in Olcas sa gCaoi go bhfuil Praghsanna ag Dul i Méad 5 Sinn Féin Republican Youth members from Derry rally for Gaza in Portglenone

14 Martin Ferris TD asks: ‘Who is standing up for farmers?’

15 Women in politics: Barriers to women block progress – National Women’s Council of Ireland

20 & 21 Ireland and World War 1: Escalation, opposition and commemoration 24 Russian sanctions herald push to new world order

5 Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams take a ‘selfie’ with band competition winners O’Neill/Allsopp RFB from the New Lodge in north Belfast – see page 11

5 Derry Sinn Féin takes part in the Foyle Pride parade

5 March for Marriage: Thousands join the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community in an LGBT Noise march to campaign for equal marriage rights in Ireland

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September / Méan Fómhair 2014 3

DAVID CAMERON AND UNIONIST PARTIES REINFORCING POLITICAL LOGJAMS, GERRY ADAMS WARNS

‘The political process is in trouble’ THE lack of evidence of any intention by the British Government or the unionist leaderships to engage in real negotiations commencing in September presents the political process with “its greatest challenge since the Good Friday Agreement negotiations in 1998”, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD has warned.

David Cameron’s Tory-led government at Westminster – like the Major government in the 1990s, he said – “has been explicitly partisan in championing a unionist agenda”.

Cameron’s government has also failed to make progress on matters agreed in the Good Friday Agreement, at Weston Park, St Andrew’s and Hillsborough which have not been implemented, the Sinn Féin leader reiterated.

These include the Bill of Rights, the all-Ireland Charter of Rights, Acht na Gaeilge, the North/South

Political process faces greatest challenge since Good Friday Agreement talks Consultative Forum, the Civic Forum and the inquiry into the killing of Pat Finucane.

“These are not matters for negotiation,” Gerry Adams insisted.

“They are agreements made and are the responsibility of the British and Irish governments to implement.”

The effect of all of this and of the British Government’s handling of the political situation has been to reinforce political logjams, the Sinn Féin leader said.

“The political process is in trouble.”

He accused DUP leader and First Minister Peter Robinson of minimising the promise and potential of the Good Friday Agreement.

“The DUP has repeatedly demonstrated an unwillingness to participate positively in any of the institutions. Instead it has adopted a tactical approach aimed at serving the political agenda of a fundamentalist rump in their party rather than the needs of the whole community.

“The leaderships of unionism have moved increasingly to the Right; more concerned with election rivalry than the common good.

“The DUP is undermining the institutions,” he said.

“The anti-Good Friday Agreement axis within unionism, the prounionist stance of British Secretary

First Minister Peter Robinson of State Theresa Villiers, the refusal of Downing Street to honour its own obligations, and its efforts to impose cuts in the welfare system are combining to create the most serious threat to the political institutions in the North in recent years.”

The Sinn Féin leader recalled that Martin McGuinness has noted: “We are in government with unionists because we want to be; they are in government with us because they have to be.”

Gerry Adams said that the Toryled government in London wants to impose changes to the welfare benefits system mirroring similar changes that have been introduced in England, Scotland and Wales, “changes that have resulted in disastrous consequences for the disabled, the unemployed and those in low-paid jobs”, Gerry Adams said.

“These should be opposed by a united Executive. These changes are not about reform. They are about cuts and they are part of a Thatcherite agenda designed to dismantle the welfare state. And Sinn Féin will oppose them.”

The entire political situation presents “a very significant challenge to everyone who wants to see progress and to all those who support the Good Friday and other agreements”, Gerry Adams added.

He said this includes leaders of civic society, the community sector, the trade union movement and the business sector as well as political parties.

The Sinn Féin leader said that too many in the pro-Agreement axis, “with some notable exceptions”, have been passive. This includes the Irish Government, he said.

The Sinn Féin leader said: “The British Secretary of State is contemplating conceding to another of the recent unionist demands by setting up some form of inquiry into the Parades Commission decision on the Ardoyne march — a

British Prime Minister David Cameron

Secretary of State Theresa Villiers move that would dangerously damage the integrity of the Parades Commission, undermine the residents and further undermine the Haass proposals.

“Regardless of political allegiance, everyone who values a future based

‘If the unionist leaderships refuse to engage positively in new negotiations then the Irish and British governments, as co-equal guarantors of the Agreement, must ensure that outstanding issues are implemented’ GERRY ADAMS upon equality must become a champion for progress in their own community, in the workplace, in the voluntary and community sector, across the trade union movement, in the churches and the media.

“If the unionist leaderships refuse to engage positively in new negotiations then the Irish and British governments, as co-equal guarantors of the Agreement, must ensure that outstanding issues are implemented.”

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4 September / Méan Fómhair 2014

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anphoblacht Eagarfhocal

anphoblacht Editorial

When leadership matters ALBERT REYNOLDS, Taoiseach from February 1992 to November 1994, passed away after a long illness on 21 August, just ten days before the 20th anniversary of what has been hailed by the mainstream media as his greatest political achievement – his role in the Peace Process leading to the IRA’s complete cessation of military operations on 31 August 1994.

Albert Reynolds, like so many leaders, had his faults – but he was a leader.

As Gerry Adams said of him: “Albert acted on the North when it mattered.”

Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and other Sinn Féin figures have shown leadership “when it mattered”.

Sadly, that quality seems to be in short supply from those unionist politicians who describe themselves as leaders.

They have surrendered the leadership of unionism to unrepresentative fringe elements with little or no mandate.

Unlike the Apprentice Boys in Derry, they have failed to engage in meaningful dialogue with their

nationalist neighbours to try and find a solution to the contentious issue of loyal order parades through or past nationalist areas.

Instead, they walked away from the Haass process on the issues of the legacy of the past, flags and parading.

They walked away from all-party talks, demanding that the Orange Order are allowed to walk along one disputed section of its north Belfast parade.

They then passed the buck to the stunningly unimpressive Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers, with their call for an “investigative commission” (not the Parades Commission!) to try to “unlock the deadlock”.

Unionist leaders could unlock their deadlock by taking the simple step of talking to nationalists.

First Minister and DUP leader Peter Robinson led a unionist delegation including representatives from the Orange Order and the UVF-linked Progressive Unionist Party, the UDA-linked Ulster Political Research Group and UKIP to meet the Secretary of State at Stormont on 22 July. The DUP

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Sinn Féin deputy leader and Civil Rights veteran in five cities tour – 30 August to 7 September

Mary Lou McDonald and Francie Molloy in Australia TWO leading Sinn Féin representatives will be on a speaking tour across Australia from 30 August to 7 September, visiting Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane.

Mary Lou McDonald is the deputy leader of Sinn Féin and TD for Dublin Central. Francie Molloy is MP for Mid-Ulster and became active in politics through the Civil Rights Movement in the North in 1968.

The Sinn Féin representatives will be promoting the ‘Uniting Ireland’ campaign among Australian political representatives, trade unionists and community leaders.

The campaign is a sign-on statement calling on the British and Irish governments to hold referenda on Irish reunification, North and South, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. Already, dozens of Australian MPs, trade unionists and

BY EMMA CLANCY CAIRDE SINN FÉIN, AUSTRALIA

community leaders have added their names to the Irish Unity motion.

Mary Lou and Francie will provide briefings to Australian MPs in parliaments in Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth on the current challenges facing the Irish Peace Process.

The Sinn Féin representatives will also be continuing to promote awareness among Irish workers on temporary visas in Australia of their rights in the workplace and promoting trade union membership among the Irish community.

The tour aims to engage not only with the thousands of young Irish people who have been forced to emigrate as a result of austerity policies, but also to build connections with progressive parties and unions fighting against austerity in Australia.

Tickets and full details online at www.cairdesinnfein.com

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leader said the unionist proposal was “not a onesided approach”. Leadership was needed from nationalists and republicans, he said.

That, Mr Robinson, has not been wanting.

Nationalists and republicans have repeatedly held the door open for unionists to engage in worthwhile talks to try and resolve contentious parades and the issues of the past and flags.

And while the ‘combined unionist and loyalist leaders’ can form a united front to demand meetings with British ministers over parades, they don’t show the same political will in confronting British ministers over the Tory-led welfare cuts which have pushed people in England, Scotland and Wales further into poverty, homelessness, and even starvation and suicide.

Imposed by millionaire MPs from Westminster, these so-called “reforms” will cut a swathe through people’s benefit entitlements in all communities in the Six Counties – unionist as well as nationalist.

But where is the unionist leadership in all of this?

The Sinn Féin leadership is already there.

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September / Méan Fómhair 2014 5

Le Trevor

Ó Clochartaigh

Téarmai tagartha don choiste athbhreithnithe ró-chúng

Caithfear deireadh a chur leis an gCóireáil Dhíreach TÁ GRÚPA athbhreithnithe fógartha ag an Aire Dlí & Comhionannas le féachaint ar an gcóras atá againn le h-óstaiocht a dhéanamh ar dhaoine a thagann anseo ag lorg tearmann, ar a dtugtar Cóireáil Dhíreach nó Direct Provision. Ach, ní theann an athbhreithniú teoranta atá luaite aici go dtí croi na faidhbe – sin go bhfuil an bunchóras fabhtach, mídhaonna agus ag cruthú níos mó deacrachtaí ná mar atá sé ag leigheas.

Tugadh an córas seo isteach mar réiteach Éireannach ar fhadhb Éireannach thart ar chúig bhliana déag ó shoin. Níl aon bhunús reachtúil ann do na h-ionaid seo atá dhá rith den chuid is mó ag comhlachtaí príobhaideacha ar son brabaigh. Níl i gceist iontu dar leis an Roinn féin ach áiteanna le lóistín agus bia a chuir ar fáil do dhaoine a dhéanann iarratas ar thearmann anseo.

Ní raibh siad ach in ainm is fanacht iontu ach sé mhí ach, mar atá fhios againn go rí-mhaith, tá daoine sa chóras seo suas le deich mbliana agus ós a chionn agus iad curtha i gcomparaid le príosúin oscailte ag lucht a gcáinte.

Samhlaigh dá mbeadh ortsa suas le deich mbliana a chaitheamh ag conaí in aon seomra le chuile dhuine i do chlann Sop in ait na scuiabe atá san athbhreithniú dar liom, mar níl an tAire chun féachaint ar na buncheisteanna a bhaineann le cearta chun oibre & oideachais atá ag na daoine atá sa chóras. Bhi mé ag labhairt le déanai le cuid de na daoine seo. Cailín amháin a ghnothaigh ós cionn cúig chéad pointe ardteiste cheithre bliana ó shoin, nach bhfuil i dteideal leanúint dá cuid staidéar de bharr éigcinnteacht faoina stádas.

Bean eile a bhfuil oideachas triú leibhéal aici, atá ag iarraidh cáilíochtaí Éireannacha a bhaint amach le go mbeidh sí oiriúnach don fórsa oibre anseo má fhaigheann si toradh dearfach ar a hiarratas – ach níl cead aici sin a dhéanamh.

Deir an tAire nach bhfuil sí chun drannadh leis an gceart chun oibre, atá le fáil de réir treoir Eorpach sna ballstaít eile ar fad seachas Éire agus ceann amháin eile, ag lucht iarrtha tearmann.

Deir sí gur de bharr an ghéarcheim fostaíochta atá seo amhlaidh. Is ráiteas soiniciúil amach is amach é seo a chruthaíonn deighilt níos mó idir

5 Agóid taobh amuigh de Theach Laighean le déanaí ag daoine atá ag iarraidh athrú ar an gCóras Cóireáil Dhíreach in Éireann saoránaithe na tire seo agus na teifigh a thagann anseo ag lorg cabhrach uainn. Céard a dearfadh sise dá ndéarfaí an rud céanna le saoránaithe Éireannacha a théann thar lear ar thóir oibre? Ní mó ná sásta a bheadh si cinnte. Ní gheallann an cearta chun oibre jab daon duine, ach tugann sé deis do lucht iarrtha tearmann iarratas a

dhéanamh ar phost ar an gnáthbhealach – agus níl na h-uimhreacha sa chóras chomh mór sin leis an gcóras a chur as riocht ar an mbealach atá sí ag maíomh.

Ach, an rud is tábhachtaí is dócha ná an dochar a dhéanann an chóras atá cruthaithe anseo do shláinte fisiciúil agus intinne na

5 An Teachta Dála Sandra McLellan i gcuideachta an Seanadóir Trevor Ó Clochartaigh ag taispeántas le Doras Luimní faoin gCóireáil Dhíreach

ndaoine a chónaionn inti. Samhlaigh dá mbeadh ortsa suas le deich mbliana a chaitheamh ag conaí in aon seomra le chuile dhuine i do chlann. Nó, más duine singil thú, go mbeadh ort maireachtáil in aon seomra ar feadh an achar sin le triúr, nó ceathrar stráinséar eile. Céard a dhéanfadh tusa muna mbeadh áit spraoi ag do chuid gasúir sa teach? Muna mbeadh cead agat iad a ligint amach gan tusa a bheith in eindí leo 24/7?

Cén cruth a bheadh ar do phósadh muna mbeadh cead soláthar a dhéanamh, cócaireacht duit féin, oideachas a chuir ar fail dod chlann, ná a gcuid cáirde a thabhairt timpeall ar chuairt fiú?

Tá réiteach le fáil ar na deacrachtaí seo, ach toil pholaitiúil a bheith ann chuige. Tá tíortha ar nós an Phortaingéil a bhfuil córais i bhfad níos éifeachtaí agus níos eacnamúla acu, a dfhéadfadh muid foghlaim uathu.

Tá gné thuaidh-theas leis an scéal seo chomh maith agus in ainneoin go ndeirtear nach bhfuil an córas ó thuaidh foirfe, glactar leis go bhfuil sé níos fearr ná sna fiche sé chontae. Tá obair na gcapall ar bun ag dreamanna ar nós Comhairle Teifeach na hÉireann ar an gceist seo.

Tá siadsan ag iarraidh polaiteoirí agus páirtithe leasmhara a thabhairt le chéile ar bhonn uile Éireann le dul i ngleic leis na dúshláin a bhaineann le córas. Cothrom, éifeachtach tearmainn a bheith againn, a chuireann dínit agus cearta idirnáisiúnta daoine i lár an phróiséis. Sin mar is ceart dó a bheith.

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‘A never-ending catalogue of heartbreaking stories of people losing benefits and facing destitution, homelessness and even starvation’

Unionists surrender to Tory war on the welfare state

BY FRANCIE MOLLOY MP

A Cabinet of millionaires from a privileged upbringing are attempting to take away what little those with the very least in our society have

BEFORE Westminster’s summer recess, I was in London to speak to MPs and lobby groups about the impact of the Welfare Reform Act across Britain. Given that the Tory and Liberal Democrats Government and the unionist parties are adamant that this legislation will be applied in the North of Ireland, it’s important to look at the facts of just how these so-called ‘reforms’ are affecting people in Britain.

Given the Bill was passed in 2012, this debate is not an academic question. There is now a plethora of hard evidence of the effects of the changes right across the British state. In fact, there is so much evidence of how negative it has been, and it is so damning, that it is hard to know where to start. What is crystal clear is that it would be absolutely criminal for any political party to knowingly inflict these measures on people in the North of Ireland.

We have the responsibility to make sure that they are stopped and to work with those in Britain who want to also see their reversal there.

The evidence against these particular welfare cuts comes from across the board – from politicians, groups, charities, think-tanks, academic institutions and NGOs. Much of it makes for alarming reading.

They target the most vulnerable in society, including those with disabilities, children and lone parents. They hit working-poor and middle-income families. It is indeed particularly grotesque that a Cabinet of millionaires and people who have had every benefit of a privileged upbringing are attempting to take away what little those with the very least in our society have.

We know that a whole host of benefits are proposed to be scrapped to be combined as one ‘Universal Credit’. The chaos this has brought in Britain has already prompted the British Labour Party to say they would review this if they come into office. Of course, reviewing is not enough but it is an indication of the mess that these changes have brought about.

In reality, this Bill is not about making things more efficient. It is all about cutting necessary state spending, disguised as a ‘reform’ to

undermine the welfare state. Here in the North of Ireland, it will damage the economy.

A report was compiled last year by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University for the North’s Council for Voluntary Action on the impact of the welfare cuts programme if applied to the North. It revealed that £750mil-

This Bill is not about making things more efficient. It is all about cutting necessary state spending, disguised as a ‘reform’ to undermine the welfare state lion a year would be taken out of the economy – some £650 for every adult of working age. So this not only hits living standards, it makes no economic sense at all, reducing spending capacity.

The report also found that the financial loss per adult of working age would be substantially larger than in any other part of the British state.

The North has proportionately higher unemployment than Britain and cuts to disability benefits in particular would hit us hard, given we have the highest rates of incapacity and Disability Living Allowance claimants.

Inclusion London, the umbrella body for the city’s disabled and deaf people’s groups, reported that the abolition of the severe disability premium benefit is costing disabled adults £58 per week. For those on limited incomes, this is huge. Disabled children will get fewer benefits. For example, the change of child tax credit to ‘disability additions’ means a drop from £57 to £28 – this has affected over 100,000 disabled children.

And the ESA so-called “Work Capability Assessment” has hit hundreds of thousands of people with a devastating effect. Disabled couples get £120 less if both are out of work; £33 is lost by lone parents with a disabled child on a low rate of care. Childcare costs are

5 Labour MP Dennis Skinner

cut to 70% from 95%. These are just a few examples of how the cuts would apply.

Women will also pay a disproportionate price.

For instance, the Universal Credit will be paid to couples and, as the Women’s Budget Group reported: “Women tend to be the ‘shock absorbers’ of poverty’ . . . there is no guarantee

The Guardian leaked Government papers which admitted that at least 100,000 children are being pushed in to poverty by the benefits cap alone that money is distributed fairly in households.”

The Chartered Institute of Housing reports that some 400,000 low-income families in Britain are worse off under Universal Credit and those on under £247 a week will see a fall in real incomes. Lone parents across the board will lose out. Evidence from groups such as Child Poverty Action and trade unions such as Unison all point to the evidence of detrimental consequences of cumulative cuts. The most vulnerable are particularly hit. The Royal College of Psychiatrists has raised strong concerns over the impact of changes on those with mental health and learning disabilities.

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September / Méan Fómhair 2014 7

5 British Prime Minister David Cameron, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osbourne and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith The punitive nature of the proposals and the kinds of benefits targeted reveal the ideological nature of these plans – to transfer wealth to the richest, away from ordinary people and the very poorest, and to dismantle the welfare state. For example, families with children are hit very hard. This will be even more severe for us in the North, as we have the highest percentage of families with children compared to Britain.

The North’s Council for Voluntary Action says that £750million a year would be taken out of the economy if the welfare cuts programme was applied here Child Benefit and a host of other specific entitlements are to be scrapped. For example, the Child Trust Fund (which gives incentives for poorer families to save for their children’s future) will be abolished. The Health in Pregnancy grant (which advises pregnant women on nutrition and other matters) will be gone. And, of course, Child Benefit rates have been frozen. The extra £545 grant for lowincome and middle-income families’ first year of having their baby is also scrapped.

The Emergency Social Fund (which finds funding in instances of extreme hardship or other circumstances) will also go. The North of Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People was among those to raise the alarm over this, arguing that its abolition in the North “could result in cases of severe hardship and make it more difficult for those fleeing intimidation or living with domestic violence to find an escape route”. Are unionists really saying that we should go along with this, in a civilised society?

Even former Liberal Democrats leader Lord Paddy Ashdown said of the benefit cap: “I am President of UNICEF and I think the effect on children across the country of a cap in its present form will be completely unacceptable.”

Many Liberal Democrats are very uncomfortable about the role their party is playing in this.

Many mainstream newspaper reports (in the Guardian, Independent, Mirror and even the Daily Mail) have reported the personal plight of families and their desperation. There has been the rise of food banks and, most seriously, suicide levels.

The Guardian leaked Government papers which admitted that at least 100,000 children are being pushed into poverty by the benefits cap alone. Cutting Housing Benefit to £100 a week has meant that, after rent and other utilities, a typical family with four children are having to live on as little as 62pence per person per day. Coupled with the other punitive attacks (such as ‘sanctioning’ and cuts or axing of Jobseeker’s Allowance), the cumulative effect is devastating.

There is a never-ending catalogue of heartbreaking stories of people losing benefits and facing destitution, homelessness and even starvation due to the notorious testing of ATOS, the company which assesses whether the sick and disabled are fit for work according to Government rules.

Labour MP Dennis Skinner was moved to tears when he shamed David Cameron during a recent Prime Minister’s Questions, relating the story of his constituent who was forced to live in poverty while suffering from cancer and who died still waiting to have his case resolved. The Macmillan Cancer charity reports that cancer patients are waiting six months or more with no disability benefits.

Such stories are as common as they are shocking.

And the appalling rise in deaths and in suicides has been widely documented by journalists and campaign groups such as War on Welfare and the disability campaign group

Disabled People Against Cuts.

The British Government bears responsibility for those lost lives, yet, far from learning and reversing this, they want to also impose it on us.

For Sinn Fein, there is no question about not fighting these barbaric cuts which have no place in a 21st century society. Indeed, it is to their shame that the unionist parties and First Minister Peter Robinson are not applying as

The Macmillan Cancer charity reports that cancer patients are waiting six months or more with no disability benefits. Such stories are as common as they are shocking much zeal in fighting these proposals as they are in attacking Sinn Fein.

It is ordinary communities – including those unionist communities the DUP, UUP and others who claim to and were elected to represent – who will suffer if these cuts are brought in. But unionist leaders prefer to pass the buck and in failing to stand up to the Toryled coalition’s blackmailing tactics, they are proposing to pass on the pain of these cuts to thousands of ordinary people and families.

We have made it clear to politicians and government in Westminster – we will not be party to this and we will fight it tooth and nail.

Moreover, there are many thousands of campaigners, like-minded people and groups such as the People’s Assembly Against Austerity who are also fighting the British Government over this. We intend to work with them in our efforts against austerity and in halting these welfare cuts.

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‘Tory welfare cuts in North would be disastrous’

“They can appeal the decision but they lose their benefits during the appeal process.

“Sadly, some people have taken their own lives while they are waiting for the process to be completed.”

The Labour veteran also says that increasing numbers of people are losing their homes and being driven onto the streets.

“I regularly go to homeless shelters and they are overwhelmed. Ten years ago, there was a reduction in homelessness and people could move to hostels relatively quickly. Now there is a backlog as local authorities struggle to find affordable housing in the private sector.

“People are desperate to get a roof over there heads every night,” he adds.

BRITISH LABOUR MP Jeremy Corbyn says that imposing Tory welfare cuts in the North would lead to increased levels of poverty and inequality.

The Labour MP for Islington North in London opposed the introduction of the cuts in Britain and said the Tory-led government’s policy has driven millions deeper into poverty.

Speaking to An Phoblacht, the left-wing stalwart said the Tory cuts agenda is already having a devastating impact on his own constituency.

“I represent an inner-city constituency with higher levels of child poverty than other parts

‘Claimants are often told they are fit for work even when they have physical or sometimes mental difficulties’ of Britain or the North of Ireland – as well as extremely wealthy people.

“Now, as a result of the cuts agenda, when I walk around my constituency I will encounter someone asking for money within three or four minutes of leaving my house.

“People are literally begging in the streets as a result of losing their homes,” he said.

The Labour MP said the Tory-led cuts are leading to “social cleansing” in some areas.

“The cap on total welfare benefits at £500 a week may seem like a great deal to some people but for those in private rented accommodation, either employed or unemployed, are now facing rents of £300 to £400 per week for a flat.

“If they have several children they will be

British Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn

5 Thousands rally in London against Tory cuts left with £100 a week for everything else – “This whole policy of Iain Duncan Smith is including Council Tax if they are working. being brought about by people who neither “This is unaffordable and increasingly the know nor care about what it means to rely on local authority is then forced to move them the welfare state.” out of the area into cheaper He says people have taken their accommodation. This is effecown lives as a result of the Tory tively social cleansing. That is cuts agenda. happening all over London,” he “Local officials, if they deem that said. someone is not making enough of Jeremy Corbyn says that peoan effort to find a job, can sanction ple on benefits are being crimithem, depriving them of benefits. nalised by the welfare cuts policy.

2,000 people in my borough in one “The narrative by the year have been sanctioned in this Government that everyone who way. accesses benefits, even though “Similarly, changes to disability they are an absolute right guarbenefits are also creating a real anteed by the welfare state, are problem. ‘Return to work’ intermade to feel like criminals. views are cruel and often humiliatJeremy Corbyn MP “The welfare state was created ing. to protect people from falling into destitution.

“Claimants are often told they are fit for But levels of destitution are growing daily. It is work even when they have physical or someheartbreaking. times mental difficulties.

THE consequences of the Tory agenda are a real loss of income for real people.

Welfare reform is an anti-poor and anti-workingclass policy. It is an attack on the welfare state.

These welfare cuts are described by the British Government and their cheer-leaders in the DUP as welfare reform but it is really about saving money at the expense of the poor.

It is a Thatcherite agenda designed to punish the most disadvantaged in society.

Sinn Féin is totally opposed to this.

In an attempt to coerce us, the British Government threatens to reduce funding to other public services. It is my view that the Executive and Government departments are better able to absorb these cuts. This will mean difficult decisions for ministers but in a budget of over £10billion per year, all ministers should be able to make internal savings of less than 2% to protect the poorest in our society.

We do have a choice in this.

We in Sinn Féin have made our choice.

We will reject this attack on the poor, the disabled and the most vulnerable in our society and we will stand with communities being targeted by the Tories.

Martin McGuinness MLA

British MP says he cannot understand how any party in North could support bringing in Tory welfare cuts The introduction of Tory welfare cuts to the North would be disastrous, he says, adding he cannot understand how any party could support it.

“There is already too much poverty and inequality in Ireland without making it worse by introducing welfare cuts.

“If Ireland goes down this route, levels of inequality will only get worse.

“And the suggestion of fining people for standing up for communities and defending the poor is ludicrous. It is ridiculous to fine people for carrying out a just social policy.

“I take heart, however, knowing that Sinn Féin is opposing the cuts. Sinn Féin don’t give up and I wish them well in the campaign.”

GET INVOLVED

Tory Cuts

TEXT SINN FÉIN AND YOUR NAME TO 60060

WELFARE REFORM IS ABOUT SANCTIONS AND CUTS, INCLUDING: Cuts to the amount paid per household Reduced Child Benefit 50% of the disabled will be denied money they are entitled to Sanctions for lone parents even when there is no affordable childcare The Bedroom Tax A discredited assessment process that has taken benefits from the terminally ill The creation of a society dependent on food banks

This system is NOT working in Britain – tens of thousands of working families, the disabled and single parents are being forced into poverty, hardship and dependence.

The Assembly and the Executive MUST defend the vulnerable, the disabled and the disadvantaged .

www.sinnfein.ie/stoptorycuts

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September / Méan Fómhair 2014 9

Irish teen Ibrahim Halawa on hunger strike in Egyptian prison

Ibrahim Halawa

BY MARK MOLONEY OVER A YEAR has passed since 18year-old Irish citizen Ibrahim Halawa was arrested in Egypt alongside his sisters Somaia, Fatima and Omaima for taking part in a protest in support of democratically-elected president Mohammed Morsi after he was ousted in a coup by the Egyptian Army.

When the protest turned violent, the Halawa siblings took refuge in the al-Fateh Mosque. They were arrested when security forces stormed the mosque and shot dead a number of those inside. Ibrahim was wounded in the hand during the raid. Denied medical treatment, his family confirms his hand is now deformed due to the lack of medical care and severe scarring.

While the three sisters were released last November, Ibrahim remains in prison, facing charges which include membership of a terrorist organisation, murder and torching a police station. No book of evidence has been handed over to substantiate any of the charges against him.

In recent months, hundreds of prisoners in Egypt have been sentenced to death in mass trials that have caused outrage among human rights organisations across the globe.

Speaking to An Phoblacht in Dublin, Somaia reveals that her brother was beaten in prison after his mass trial with 480 other demonstrators collapsed when the judge walked out, saying he could not preside over such a trial.

“He was sent into the room without his clothes and his hands behind is back,” Somaia tells me.

“He was beaten with a metal chain, not just the normal sticks. When Irish Embassy staff went to meet with him they could actually see the marks on his back.”

As An Phoblacht goes to print, Ibrahim has been on hunger strike for eight days: “Our family are not happy with the hunger strike, especially my

5 Ibrahim’s sister Somaia says her brother was beaten with metal chains

5 Sinn Féin’s Lynn Boylan MEP and Rathfarnham Councillor Sarah Holland welcome the involvement of human rights organisation 'Reprieve' in Ibrahim’s case father. He says he does not want Ibrahim to be on hunger strike. I think when Ibrahim hears that he will end it because he respects his father and at the end of the day it is not a safe thing to do.”

Somaia says that while new Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan has been more involved than Eamon Gilmore and spoke with the family shortly after his appointment, the farcical nature of

5 A ‘Free Ibrahim Halawa’ protest outside the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin

the current trial and the fact the Leaving Certificate student has been beaten twice in recent weeks should be enough for the Irish Government to call for his immediate release.

“I appreciate the work they’re doing but we need to ask for his release. Amnesty International has declared him a prisoner of conscience and that he was not involved in any violence.

“I do have hope that the Irish Government are not going to leave my brother like this.”

She says she believes Ibrahim is trying to put on a strong face for the family when they meet him but that spending over a year in prison is a huge ordeal for such a young person.

“He hasn’t lost hope but he has no idea if he will be released because of the corrupt system in Egypt.”

Sinn Féin Foreign Affairs spokesperson Seán Crowe TD says heavy sentences recently handed

More than a year later, no evidence has been shown to substantiate murder or terrorism charges against Ibrahim out to Al Jazeera journalists show that the politically-charged atmosphere in Egypt makes it almost impossible for defendants to receive a fair trial.

“As it is increasingly clear that Ibrahim will never receive a fair trial in Egypt, I am calling on the Minister for Foreign Affairs to officially demand that Ibrahim is immediately released and allowed to return to his family in Ireland.”

Sinn Féin Dublin MEP Lynn Boylan has been leading a campaign for Ibrahim’s release in the European Parliament and has received significant support from MEPs across the Parliament. She has also raised his case with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton.

“It is a sign of the serious breach of rights Ibrahim has been subjected to that MEPs right across the political spectrum were willing to add their voice to the campaign to see him released,” Lynn Boylan says.

“The mass trials Ibrahim could be subjected to where neither he nor his defence lawyers are able to attend are unlawful and incredibly worrying.”

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The Hidden History of the UDR: The Secret Files Revealed

British Army generals knew about collusion

BY DALE MOORE THE Ulster Defence Regiment – the largest regiment in the British Army during the conflict – definitely was “in collusion with unionist paramilitaries”.

And the British Army officially admits that.

Republicans have been saying the same thing throughout the history of the UDR but a new publication by the Pat Finucane Centre proves it and that the British Army, commanders in the field and in Whitehall, and British politicians at the very top in Westminster knew it from the very beginning.

The Hidden History of the UDR: The Secret Files Revealed is a collection of state papers that have been uncovered and put together by the human rights research centre.

Hidden History is not intended to be a definitive history of the UDR but what it does reveal is essential reading for anyone attempting to understand the counter-insurgency strategy or the British Establishment’s attitude to its war in Ireland.

The UDR was founded in 1970 as a part-time ‘native’ regiment raised in the best traditions of British colonialism from one side of the community to replace the notorious B-Specials and support the RUC but it soon grew into the largest full-time regiment in the British Army. It had 11 battalions consisting of 9,200 soldiers at its peak.

It wasn’t long before members of the UDA and UVF were joining in large numbers and state papers reveal that British Army Headquarters staff were more interested in dealing with any

media fall-out if this became known rather than stopping the illegitimate actions of members of the regiment who also had membership of or ties with unionist death squads.

What is more revealing is that they did nothing whatsoever to stop known members of the UVF, and UDA/UFF from becoming members.

It’s clear from several papers that on ‘dual membership’, Brigadier Denis Ormerod, the UDR Commanding

Officer, operated a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy – in case it affected morale!

Hidden History goes on to highlight how UDR armouries were raided and that the majority of battalion areas ‘lost’ weapons within months of beginning.

In 18 months from October 1970, 222 weapons went missing, something blithely brushed off by UDR Colonel Dalzell-Payne as “nothing more of a continuation of the sporadic thefts that have been occurring”.

It is clear that the British Government was well aware of the activities of members of the UDR and their role in various unionist death squad attacks

5 The British Army estimates at least 15% of the UDR were also members of loyalist gangs In the following 18 months, two armouries (one in Lurgan and the other in Portadown) were raided even while being guarded by the UDR. One of the most startling revelations in the booklet is that although the British Army was under pressure to fulfill its military commitments to NATO because of the gap caused by the large number of troops deployed to the North, the full-time regiment of the UDR was formed due to a request from the loyalist paramilitaries during the Ulster Workers’ Council strike.

While the booklet only deals with one major atrocity, the Miami Showband Massacre, it is clear that the British Government was well aware of the activities of members of the UDR and their role in various unionist death squad attacks.

When the role of the UDR was mooted to cover intelligence gathering, the British Army made it clear this was not to include investigation into the dual membership of the regiment and unionist paramilitaries. This was seen in a memo that stated quite clearly: “There is no intention of recruiting or encouraging members to inform on subversive elements within the UDR although, as you know, subversion within the UDR is a cause for concern...

“Both the Commander of the UDR and General Officer Commanding British Army would be strongly averse to task members of the UDR in this way.”

Some of the most notorious and

prolific unionist paramilitary killers who were also exposed as state agents served as soldiers within the ranks of the UDR, yet it was never mentioned on any of their regular court appearances.

The booklet finishes with extracts from the Da Silva report into the murder of Pat Finucane that showed that the collusion with unionist paramilitaries continued and was refined right up until the end of the conflict with weapons and intelligence from the UDR being used in many murders.

This booklet dispels the myth espoused by unionist and British politicians that the UDR was serving all the people and that it was only ‘the odd bad apple’ that brought its good name into disrepute.

The British Army estimates that at least 15% of the UDR had dual membership of loyalist paramilitaries and the vast majority was sympathetic to the unionist cause.

The Pat Finucane Centre has again excelled itself by putting together a publication that shows collusion was a deadly reality and rather than a word invented by republicans in the 1980s it was actually used by the British Establishment (military and political) themselves to describe relationships within the UDR. • The notorious UDR was operational from 1970 to 1992, when it was amalgamated with the Royal Irish Rangers to form the Royal Irish Regiment.

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September / Méan Fómhair 2014 11

REMEMBERING THE

HUNGER STRIKE AND GAZA MARTYRS

BY PEADAR WHELAN ALONG the main street of the County Fermanagh village of Derrylin on Sunday 3 August, the thousands marching to remember the 1981 Hunger Strike with a myriad of flags and banners (and many Palestinian flags) was a sign of the exuberance of republicans in Ireland today.

In the run-up to this year’s National Hunger Strike Rally, republicans across the country looked in anger and frustration at the slaughter of largely defenceless Palestinian men, women and children by a bloodthirsty Israeli war machine hell-bent on the destruction of Gaza.

So, in a demonstration of solidarity with the people of Gaza and Palestine, the Hunger Strike Rally organisers invited the Palestinian Ambassador to Ireland, Ahmad Abdelrazek, as a special guest speaker.

People were encouraged to bring Palestinian flags and they did so, in large numbers.

The flute bands who played added the red, black, white and green of Palestine to their colour parties. Some had special T-shirts printed for the day.

Despite the horror of the genocide that was at its most intense around the weekend of 3 August, the Palestinian representative spoke of his pride in

5 Marchers carry an 80-foot-long Palestinian flag in solidarity with the people of Gaza

The Palestinian Ambassador told how, as a Palestinian refugee living in Lebanon, he and his people were inspired by the courage and sacrifice of the H-Block struggle of 1981

meeting members of the families of Long Kesh Hunger Strikers present at the march.

He also recalled how, as a Palestinian refugee living in Lebanon, he and his people were inspired by the courage and sacrifice of the H-Block struggle of 1981.

This was in the year before the ruthless Israeli Defence Minster Ariel Sharon oversaw the invasion of Lebanon with the massacres of both Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, concluding with the butchery of the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps on the outskirts of Beirut.

The message of support and comradeship shown to Gaza on the day of the National Hunger Strike Rally will have reverberated back throughout the country as republians from Derry to Kerry, Belfast to Cork, Gorey in Wexford to Carrick-on Suir in Tipperary, from Cabra, Kilbarrack and other areas across Dublin in the east to Galway in the west and Donegal in the north carried it with them.

And this is important as the Irish mainstream media, in the style of the Section 31 censorship that is supposed to have been ended, largely ignored the event.

For republicans remembering our Hunger Strikers from the H-Blocks along with Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg and going back to Tony D’Arcy from Galway or Terence MacSwiney is also about our rejection of British and often Free State governments’ attempts over decades to criminalise the struggle for Irish freedom.

In the build-up to the 1981 Hunger Strike British

5 Palestine Ambassador Ahmad Abdelrazek with Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew MP and Martin McGuinness MLA

5 Marchers in Cumann na mBan uniform commemorate the centenary of the founding of the women’s organisation

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (that friend of Zionism and Chilean dictator General Pinochet and supporter of South African Apartheid) said the Hunger Strike was “the IRA’s last card”.

A pity she wasn’t around to see the thousands of people on 3 August in the Fermanagh & South Tyrone constituency where Bobby Sands was elected as MP by 30,000 votes. She would have heard the laughter of hundreds of children and witnessed the tattered remnants of her defeated criminalisation policy.

But republicans should be aware that the unionist leadership is trying to breathe life into the moribund criminalisation strategy.

We witnessed this in the weeks prior to the Derrylin parade from leading unionist politicians, in particular Arlene Foster and Tom Elliot.

DUP Minister Foster claimed the parade was to “glorify terrorism and I find that incredibly hurtful, offensive and I am sure that those people who have lost loved ones in the Derrylin area feel the same way”.

Former Ulster Unionist Party leader Tom Elliot (who in May 2011 referred to Sinn Féin as “scum”) said: “We must remember that those who were on hunger strike were in prison; they were in prison because they were terrorists and criminals who had broken the law.”

The pattern is clearly developing that any commemoration or event organised by republicans is being targeted by unionists using the language of criminalisation as they attempt to deflect attention from their lack of political leadership on the one hand and their paranoia over the increasing electoral success of hardline unionists such as Jim Allister’s Traditional Unionist Voice.

Fermanagh & South Tyrone Sinn Féin MP Michelle Gildernew gave the keynote address. She said republicans acknowledged the ongoing pain of those “saddened, offended or angered” by the event but added “that was never our intention”.

She said DUP leader Peter Robinson and other unionist leaders had “sought to sectarianise” the occasion and then criticised how the DUP and UUP had recently mishandled all-party talks at Stormont.

“As unionism has created an axis to oppose the Good Friday Agreement,” Michelle Gildernew said, “those who support it, including the British and Irish governments, need to build a proAgreement axis.”

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UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS

Now is the right time I once heard David Ervine say to a member of Sinn Féin: ‘You’re going nowhere without me and I am going nowhere without you’

BY DAWN PURVIS

SUCCEEDED DAVID ERVINE AS LEADER OF THE PROGRESSIVE UNIONIST PARTY AND MLA 2007-2011 HAVE YOU ever needed to have a difficult conversation with someone and would rather not face it?

The feeling in the pit of your stomach telling you to run a mile in the opposite direction rather than face what you think might happen?

Do you ever get that feeling of dread? Does it sometimes go away if you occupy your mind for a while? Or you take on something that will distract you?

Do you find it comes creeping back again at a quiet time? Or when you had thought and hoped, perhaps foolishly, that it had gone for good?

It could have been when you were growing up and you had to confess to or own up to something you did; it could have been when you had to discuss something wrong in or ending a relationship; or when you had to sit your child down to tell them some bad news.

Did you bottle it and run away? Did someone else do it for you? Did you face it in the end?

We all react in different ways and I suppose much of that is a product of our life experience.

If you have a tendency to face things and (maybe after some time) acknowledge that you need to confront the situation and have the difficult conversation, the process usually involves a lot of nerves, maybe some emotion but – above all – honesty.

Being honest with yourself and honest with the other is where the difficulty comes in having those ‘uncomfortable conversations’.

Particularly when you know that the truth

will be painful. It will certainly be painful for the person receiving it but could equally be painful for the person giving it. This is then where the fibbing comes in. It is easier to tell a wee white lie to spare someone’s feelings.

You can justify a white lie so as not to cause someone extra pain and hurt than that they are already dealing with. You can tell yourself you did the right thing in holding back for ‘now is not the right time’/‘they are going through a tough time at the minute’/‘it would tip them over the edge’/‘they have enough on their plate to deal with’ (delete as appropriate).

The problem with telling a fib or holding off on the whole truth is that you will always come back to it sooner or later and when you do there is a whole host of other complications to deal with as well that make the conversations more and more difficult than they were to begin with.

Dealing with the legacy of our past is very

much like having firstly to acknowledge and then to have those uncomfortable conversations.

There are those of us who would rather not face it, whether that is because people find it too painful or because they view it as not relevant to them or their lives, or because they are just fed up listening to it.

Some of these individuals leave the country en masse come parades season. Then there are those of us who expect someone else to deal with it, particularly those who seem most interested in it. Initially this was the police and criminal justice system. More recently, the expectation was with those most impacted by the conflict, the victims and survivors. Often it is expected that the former combatants will give us something. More recently, what will the politicians come up with to solve all of our difficulties?

Then there are those of us who face it.

We are having those uncomfortable conversations that involve listening to others who have a different experience from us; listening to stories that seem alien to our own but in many ways mirror our own pain and loss; finding different ways to listen and acknowledge that hurt and exploring opportunities for what we can do together to ensure it never happens again.

Sadly, those involved in listening, those involved in difficult conversations are the smallest of the three examples when really they should be the majority.

Now is the right time.

I once heard David Ervine say to a member of Sinn Féin: “You’re going nowhere without me and I am going nowhere without you. The sooner we face that reality the more we can concentrate on building a better future for everyone in this society.”

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September / Méan Fómhair 2014 13

Former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds RIP

EOIN Ó MURCHÚ

Géarchéim Tithíocht ag Dul in Olcas sa gCaoi go bhfuil Praghsanna ag Dul i Méad CÉ go n-amhdaíonn fiú an tESRI go bhfuil ar a laghad seasca míle tithe nua ag teastáil i limistéar Bhaile Átha Cliath amháin faoin mbliain 2021, is cé go bhfuil os cionn 90,000 teaghlaigh ar liostaí le haghaidh tithiocht shóisialta, tá saineólaithe is polaiteóirí an rialtais ag maíomhm anois go bhfuil an ghéarcheim tithíochta ag teacht chun deiridh toisc go bhfuil praghasanna ag dul i mead sa bpríomh-chathair.

Léiriú eile é seo de neamhshuim an rialtais i dtaobh riachtanaisí an phobail i gcomparáid le brabús an mhargaidh.

Mar déanann an rialtas botún mór simpli amháin: don chuid is mó den daonra is áit chónaithe é teach nó árasán, sé sin bunriachtanas an duine; ach don rialtas, don ESRI is eile, is infheistíocht atá i gceist.

Sin é an fáth go gcuireann siad fáilte roimh ardaithe phraghas tithe, nuair a ghoillfeas na praghsanna arda seo arís orthu siúd atáa ag iarraidh teacht a cheannach le cónaí ann (mo bhéim).

Go deimhin tá sé oibrithe amach ag an Ollamh le Cúrsaí airgeadais i gColaiste na Tríonóide, Brian Lucey, gur chóir go mbeadh mean-phraghas tí bunaithe ar shean-rúibric ioncaim an phobail: sé sin trí huair ioncaim amháin maraon le leath an dara ioncaim le morgáiste 80% a fháil.

Sé sin 3.5 x €47,500 = €166,250 (80%), nó €207,560 don mheán-phraghas. De réir mar a théann praghsanna os cionn na meáfhigiúirí sin téann muid i dtreó bholgáin agus tubaist eacnamaíochta.

Ba chóir mar sin go mbeadh sé mar pholasaí ag rialtas praghsanna titthe a choinneail íseal, ach freastalann an rialtas seo ar lucht an airgid is lucht na mbanc is cuma a tharlaíonn don ghnáth-dhuine.

Ar ndóigh tá fadb faoi leith acu siúd a bhfuil cothromas diúltach orthu, ach is cóir don rialtas teacht i gcabhair ar dhaoine sa riocht seo tré fiacha a chur ar ceal. Ach ina ionad sin, chuir rialtas seo an Lucht Opibre

5 Gerry Adams, Albert Reynolds and John Hume speak to the press at Government Buildings in Dublin, 1994

One of the architects of the Peace Process FR BRIAN D’ARCY, chief celebrant at the state funeral of Albert Reynolds, has said that the British and Irish governments must act with political leaders to overcome the intransigence that is blocking progress in the North. He also warned about the volatility of the situaton.

“We can never take peace for granted — it is a continuing process,” he said on RTÉ Radio the day after the former Taoiseach was laid to rest.

In his funeral eulogy on 25 August, Fr D’Arcy said that Albert Reynolds had the courage to risk everything for peace because “he knew nothing worth having was reached from an island of safety”.

Fr D’Arcy spoke of his longstanding friendship with Albert Reynolds from 1966 when he wrote for music promoter Reynolds’s music magazine under a pen name.

“Some say his interest in the North came as a shock and suddenly appeared when he became Taoiseach. Well I beg to differ. As a promoter in show business and showbands, he was in constant contact with the North on both sides. In showbands there was no religious difference.”

In the early 1990s, “mysterious letters” would be left for Albert Reynolds at the monastery in County Fermanagh where Fr D’Arcy lives and replies equally mysteriously collected.

Significantly, Fr D’Arcy also noted to mourners containing many Establishment figures, the contribution of others to the Peace Process which Albert Reynolds was committed to.

“We owe an enormous debt of gratitude as a country, North and South, to Albert Reynolds, of course, but to others too: to John Major, John Hume, Gerry Adams, Alec Reid, and all the others who were so unfairly criticised at the time for trying to bring peace.”

Sinn Féin figures who attended the funeral of

5 Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness arrive at Albert Reynolds’s funeral Albert Reynolds in Dublin included Gerry Adams TD, joint First Minister Martin McGuinness MLA, Pat Doherty MP, Rita O’Hare and Lucilita Bhreatnach.

Martin McGuinness said: “Albert Reynolds played a critically important role in building the embryonic Peace Process in Ireland.

“His decision to open up direct dialogue with Sinn Féin was a crucially important development which led ultimately to all-party negotiations and agreement.

“His courage in initiating political dialogue as an alternative to conflict is a model that should be followed across the world.”

Cavan/Monaghan TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, who met Albert Reynolds a number of times in the early days of the Peace Process, described the former Taoiseach as “one of the architects of the Irish Peace Process”.

And Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams summed it up when he said: “Albert acted on the North when it mattered.”

‘Peace is a continuing process’

fiacha na mbanc ar ceal is d’fhág siad gnáth-dhaoine faoi ualach na bhfiach.

Ar ndóigh, mar bhárr ar an ndonas níl na húdaráisí aitiúla ag tóigeail tithe iad fein a thuilleadh, cinneadh de chuid Pháirtí an Lucht Oibre a fhágann na daoine ar na liostaí le haghaidh tithíocht shóisialta i lámha na mbanc, lucht airgid is lucht maoine.

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MARTIN FERRIS

TD

Farmers are calling for fairness, nothing more – for the level playing field the Agriculture Minister is so often saying he wants for everyone

WHO IS STANDING UP FOR FARMERS? SOMETIMES it is said that Irish agriculture is over regulated, that people cannot farm as they used to.

It is only regulated for some people because the latest crisis in beef prices makes me think that the beef processors can do what they like – that they are not subject to regulation at all.

Recently, beef farmers suffered such a drop in income that they were in deep trouble. It is no wonder that they lost confidence in Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney, who publicly washed his hands of the crisis and said that it was ‘the market’ and he could do nothing about it.

There are those who might say that the market dictated that Irish banks should go bust but that wasn’t allowed to happen, as we all know to our cost.

The beef barons and the retail multiples all across this island are calling the shots and the beef farmer is unprotected in the middle of them.

Isn’t a Minister for Agriculture supposed to be developing, encouraging and protecting agriculture, the backbone of the economy?

Isn’t that his job – not looking after the interests of the beef barons and the supermarket chains, allowing them to control how people earn their living, allowing them to price fix, manipulate the market and do whatever they like.

It is his job to ensure the survival and growth of Irish agriculture and the men and women who work at it every day and the thousands of us who depend on it.

It is not the job of the minister to support the rich people who control the industry. He should be introducing legislation to regulate and scrutinise the beef industry.

The power to do that in the North has not been devolved from Westminster but it is in the power of Simon Coveney to do it in the South.

Farmers are calling for fairness, nothing more. Farmers are calling for transparency and the level playing field that the Agriculture Minister is so often saying he wants for everyone.

How can it be a level playing field if a farmer cannot even estimate what return they will get for their labour and investment while the factories know exactly what will happen, because they control it all?

The response of the minister to the latest crisis was to set up a talking shop where the representatives of the industry could come in and talk to each other.

In the Dáil, I called for the beef barons (the individuals, not their spin doctors or their public relations consultants) to be called into the Oireachtas Committee to answer for their conduct.

It is widely believed that the beef factories have access

4 Martin Ferris speaks at a Sinn Féin public meeting in Ballinasloe for farmers and cattle herders with representatives of the ICSA, ICMSA, UFA, ICOS and the IFA

4 Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney

to the AIMS1 database and farm financial data while farmers are not given access to figures collected by the Department of Agriculture on the number of cattle slaughtered every week or the level of inter-trading among meat factories.

Unless the factory managers are clairvoyant, how do they know when finished cattle are coming on stream?

We can see that the representatives from the beef factories that turn up to the roundtable circus are always vague and evasive in their answers.

Will the so-called ‘new transparency’ promised include the figures for the number of cattle slaughtered and the inter-trading between factories?

We hear that same old excuse that this is “commercially sensitive” information and that the beef factories won’t allow it to be published. Well, the Agriculture Minister would want to take

a stand on behalf of farmers and not allow the factories to call all the shots.

We need a beef regulator to oversee how this industry is operating because, above all, it is not fair.

The recent decision by these processors to implement an additional penalty on cattle sourced from the 26 Counties but processed in the North has further rocked farmers’ confidence in the industry as well as impacting severely on the generations-old all-island trade of cattle.

Sinn Féin has engaged extensively with farmers, the marts and other key stakeholders in recent months, culminating with July’s meeting in Ballinasloe and we are greatly concerned about the devastating effect that this penalty is having on the entire industry. It is well past time that Minister Coveney followed the lead of Sinn Féin Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill in the North who has robustly challenged the introduction of such discriminatory measures.

There should be transparency and equal opportunity to producers, the farmers who produce the cattle. This is not a question of market forces; it is a question of unfair advantage to the factories when they have the figures and the farmers do not.

5 Martin Ferris TD, Martina Anderson MEP, Councillor Johnny Mythen, Michelle O'Neill MLA and Martin McGuinness MP at the National Ploughing Championships

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September / Méan Fómhair 2014 15

Why we need a total transformation of decision-making structures in Ireland

BARRIERS TO WOMEN BLOCK PROGRESS

LOUISE GLENNON

is the Women in Politics and Decision-Making Officer at the National Women’s Council of Ireland

BY LOUISE GLENNON NATIONAL WOMEN’S COUNCIL OF IRELAND IRELAND has one of the best-educated female populations in Europe: 57.9% of Irish women aged 30 to 34 have a thirdlevel education, compared to 44% of Irish men of the same age. Now take a look at the key decision-making positions in Ireland and ask yourself why, in 2014, the majority of them are still held by men.

The Mid Term Review of the National Women’s Strategy ‘Towards Gender Parity in Decision-Making in Ireland’ confirmed that one of the biggest barriers to women’s advancement in key decision making positions was the belief that we have already achieved gender equality and that, if someone is good enough, they’ll get to the top. Evidently, this is not the case for many women, who are held back by traditional gender roles.

There are many examples of women being held back by traditional gender roles and stereotypes.

A CSO report, published only in August, states that 98.2% of those looking after home or family are women. This is the result of a number of issues, including the gender pay gap, which currently stands at 16%, and the lack of affordable

5 The majority of key decision-making positions are held by men childcare in Ireland, both of which are huge barriers to women’s advancement and perpetuate the traditional roles that women and men tend to play in homes across Ireland.

This report corroborates what the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) has been saying for a number of years: women are under-represented across major areas in Irish life, including the Civil Service, the diplomatic corps, the judiciary, and state and corporate boards.

We need real and immediate solutions to overcome the very substantive barriers and obstacles women face.

Last March, the NWCI published A Parliament

of All Talents: Building A Women-Friendly Oireachtas, which received widespread, crossparty support. The conclusions reached were stark. The long sitting hours of the Oireachtas, combined with the clientele-style nature of local politics which requires TDs to be available to voters ‘day and night’, can make politics incompatible with personal and family life.

This was echoed in the Mid-Term Review, which recommended the provision of maternity leave for at least 18 weeks, during which a guaranteed vote-pairing arrangement with opposing parties would be provided and a review of the sitting times of the Dáil and Seanad.

August’s CSO report corroborates what the NWCI has been saying for years: women are under-represented across major areas in Irish life, including the judiciary, and state and corporate boards

5 The time for a women-friendly, family-friendly parliament has long passed

Mary Lou McDonald, in her contribution to ‘A Parliament of All Talents’, wrote about her shock at finding that there was no provision for maternity leave when she was an MEP, and of a another politician telling her “politicians don’t take maternity leave”. The time for a womenfriendly, family-friendly parliament has long passed. We need immediate action.

With regards to women on boards, NWCI supports the finding that a talent bank of women suitable for consideration for appointment to state boards be developed and maintained, and considers the target of 40% for the representation of women on state boards to be a crucial. We particularly welcome the recognition and commitment to address the obvious gender imbalance on finance and public expenditure boards, and the requirement of each Government department to report on progress every six months. These reports will be critical to accountability and to real progress.

Women have been vastly under-represented in Irish politics throughout the history of the state. At 16%, there are more women in the Dáil now than ever before. Numerous reports produced by numerous governments have shown that women at the decision-making table are good for business and good for society. It is crucial that women can view politics as a viable option where they can have a meaningful impact.

Women deserve and need to be at the table where decisions that affect all our lives are made. That women have not been properly integrated into the Irish parliament has had a negative effect on the rest of society, with women excluded from vital economic and social discussions, and disillusioned with the political process.

We live in a representative democracy yet, as it stands, our parliament lacks virtually any diversity. The Oireachtas must introduce policies that have the principle of equality at their core so that it can be truly representative of all citizens.

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Lining out for Gaza

BY JOHN HEDGES TREVOR HOGAN stands out in more ways than one. Being an Ireland rugby international, he’s big. And he isn’t afraid to stick his neck out – especially when it comes to the Israeli Occupation and the onslaught on Gaza.

The 34-year-old has played for Munster (56 games between 2002-2006) and Leinster (53 matches from 2006-2011) and won three caps playing for Ireland before a knee injury forced him to retire in 2011.

Holding an honours degree in Journalism from Dublin City University, he’s just completed a degree in History and English at University College Dublin and will start training in September to become a secondary school teacher. He still coaches rugby teams in his home town of Nenagh in Tipperary and Dublin.

Trevor joined the the “Freedom Flotilla” trying to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza in June 2011. His retirment made it possible by giving him the time, unburdened by Irish Rugby Football Union or club demands. He laughs: “There was always the threat by Israel that they’d arrest you and lock you up so that wouldn’t have been ideal for a professional player and a club schedule.”

It may be argued that Gaza is a humanitarian issue but Trevor is adamant that it is also political.

“I think politics is linked in with every aspect of our lives. I’m not someone who thinks that politics and sport don’t mix. They do. Politics reflects society. There’s no avoiding it.”

Shared history

Growing up, he says his brothers were always talking about Irish history.

“It was our history as victims of imperialism that initially drew me to Palestine. There were so many parallels with our past in terms of occupation and oppression.”

He’s keen not to over-exaggerate the similarities between Ireland and Palestine into making the mistake of “trying to impose our own solutions from the Peace Process here and expect that to work there”. There are possibly some ideas or lessons to be drawn from Ireland’s Peace Process, he tells An Phoblacht, but adds: “At the moment, it’s impossible to have any peace process or any peace while the Occupation, the siege, the apartheid and all the injustices are going on.

“In the Six Counties, I’m not saying we’ve got the end solution but we have some sort of a solution there. I don’t think there could be any hope of a proper peace for Palestine while Israel is continuing its actions.”

Ireland’s history as a small nation that doesn’t have the belligerent baggage of other EU members gives us a different profile which could be better used, the Ireland international says.

He boils with anger at the Irish

TREVOR HOGAN

www.anphoblacht.com

IRELAND RUGBY INTERNATIONAL TALKS TO AN PHOBLACHT ABOUT STANDING UP FOR PALESTINE

Government’s decision to abstain on July’s vote at the UN Human Rights Council seeking a commission of inquiry into Israel’s ‘Operation Protective Edge’ and possible war crimes.

He accuses the Irish Government of hiding behind the “nonsensical” argument that the EU has to speak with one voice.

“What sort of excuse is that? When you have any principles or courage, you have to be able to stand up for what you believe in. The people of Ireland – and I’m sure the people of Europe – would want that. It is so infuriating.

Is [Foreign Affairs Minister] Charlie Flanagan saying that we need to speak with one voice continuing to facilitate Israel’s war crimes?”

Gaza Action Ireland

Trevor has been a mainstay of the protests at the Israeli Embassy in Dublin organised by Gaza Action Ireland, one of several active campaign groups here.

“Gaza Action Ireland came about after the Freedom Flotilla experience with the Irish ‘Ship to Gaza’ in 2011. We realised the flotilla option wasn’t going to be viable very soon afterwards because of the logistics involved in terms of finding a port to leave from that wouldn’t give in to diplomatic pressure from Israel or even see sabotage, needing a crew with seafaring experience, the time commitment needed by those others taking part, and the sheer cost.”

The Irish ship, the MV Saoirse, cost over 180,000 euro and involved a huge fund-raising drive across Ireland.

“You couldn’t keep asking people to put their money into a ship that the Israeli military could just land on, smash up and hijack to be kept locked up in an Israeli port.”

Then there’s also the very real fear that hung over the flotillas after nine Turkish citizens were shot dead by Israeli commandos in May 2010 when they stormed the Mavi Marmara aid ship sponsored by Turkey’s Humanitarian Relief Foundation.

A year later, when the Irish ship was 26 miles from the shore and still in international waters, all their radios went dead and they were surrounded by five large Israeli warships and some 20 small assault vessels.

Twenty or more SAS-style heavily-armed commandos in balaclavas swarmed over the aid ship.

They were “hugely aggressive”, Trevor recalls, “one big guy” in particular unsuccessfully trying to intimidate the burly rugby player. While they were mistreated, two factors weighed heavily against another massacre, Trevor believes – the presence of prominent political figures and being white, Western Europeans.

The then Socialist Party MEP Paul Murphy and former Fianna Fáil TD Chris Andrews (now a Sinn Féin councillor) being on the Irish ship undoubtedly registered with the Israelis.

“We saw the commandos had a sheet of paper with all our names and details on it, so they knew who we all were,” Trevor says.

“They probably could have still pulled the trigger, given an excuse. They’re a walking PR

5 Trevor at an Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign protest outside the Israeli Embassy in Dublin

5 Trevor and Chris Andrews were arrested by Israeli commandos and held for a week in prison

5 Trevor takes part in a media event to announce the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza in 2011

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disaster, the Israeli military and navy, but they’re not that stupid they would shoot Westerners, including Irish politicians, an MEP and a US citizen after the backlash of the previous year.”

Disrespect and disdain

He says the disrespect and disdain the Israelis had for the aid workers was clear from when they were arrested at gunpoint to when they were taken into port in handcuffs.

“At the dockside, there was a big crowd of people cheering the fact that we’d been arrested.

“There was a real sense of intimidation throughout the week we spent in jail. We were manhandled and strip-searched, including the women, put through intensive questioning and disorientation tactics, and our belongings were stolen (we still haven’t got them back). It was just a taste of what Palestinian people go through.”

Trevor says that the experience of Waterford fishermen Pat Fitzgerald and John Hearne (both also Sinn Féin councillors) and Billy Smyth, along with Sinn Féin activists John Mallon and Phil McCullough from Belfast, helped the Irish crew in coping with the bewildering aggression by the armed military and police that most of them had never witnessed before.

Trevor did make it to Gaza in 2013, overland via Egypt.

Clearly still moved by memories of that week living in Gaza, he recalls:

September / Méan Fómhair 2014 17

“That was really eye-opening, inspirational and rewarding, seeing how resilient and determined they are. Despite the odds and power against them, they are trying to keep their dignity and live their lives. That week was life-changing.

“When you see people you know, who you’ve met, suffering, it does hit you that little bit more. You recognise the names of the places and the faces of the people.

“Even the boys playing on the beach, the Bakr kids [all aged between 7 and 11, killed in an Israeli Navy barrage in July], are relatives of a fishermen’s representative we met in Gaza. It makes it more real.”

No room for equivocation

He recalls one lighter moment in jail in Israel: “The lads joked to Chris Andrews that it was about time that someone in Fianna Fáil was locked up.”

Trevor says it was then a contrast with Fianna Fáil at the time “and fair play to him”.

Today he pays tribute to Fianna Fáil figures such as Senator Averil Power who have lined out alongside Sinn Féin and other Left parties in standing up for Gaza.

“Sinn Féin’s stand in the Dáil was great,” Trevor says, referring to Gerry Adams’s call for TDs adjourning for the summer recess to rise for a minute’s silence in solidarity with the people of Gaza.

“You don’t want to pigeonhole Palestine as being the preserve of anyone. It should be something every party should be able to get

behind, whatever our domestic politics or differences,” he stresses.

“It’s really disheartening to see the apathetic stance of the Irish Government. They should come off the fence and stand up for the people of Palestine – stand up on the side of justice. There’s no room for equivocation or neutrality in this.”

He despairs of the Irish Government but isn’t giving up on changing their attitude. He insists the Israeli Ambassador should be expelled “to send out a very strong, clear message” to Tel Aviv.

The response of the public across Ireland has been “really positive”, Trevor says, from shoppers to businesses and bars.

“The way forward is the boycott, as the brave Dunnes Stores Strikers showed in the anti-apartheid boycott in the 1980s. That can be done again now.

He praises the example of the County Clare village of Kinvara where businesses and consumers have initiated a boycott of Israeli goods, similarly the Exchequer Bar in Dublin’s Temple Bar tourist district and staff at Smyth’s Toys in Dublin, who announced a boycott before management reversed the move.

“Hopefully Tesco, Dunnes Stores and the big chains can follow the public mood.”

“It shows that people are prepared to go that extra bit that the Government won’t, not just against Israeli goods from illegal settlements but all Israeli products. People like that are taking a more courageous stand than Fine Gael and Labour combined. That’s definitely where the hope is – in the people of Ireland.”

5 Trevor met a relative of the Bakr boys when he visited Gaza Seaport last year

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The next election will not be a plebiscite on austerity but rather a search for solutions. If the Left is to seriously contest to win, it must offer a sustainable economic and social strategy

www.anphoblacht.com

JACK O’CONNOR SIPTU General President

THE EXCITING POSSIBILITY OF A LEFT GOVERNMENT of democratic accountability and defending OVER the last two elections, upwards of 40% of communities. However, they in turn should the electorate, twice as many as previously, accept that the attainment of a left of centre opted for ‘Left’ platforms. This raises the exciting government would offer the prospect of much possibility of a Left of centre government. greater progress towards a prosperous, egalitarHowever, the scale of the challenge should ian society. not be underestimated.

Realistically, a Government of the Left would Even on the basis of the most recent polls, the not unilaterally “burn the bondholders” or repuparties of the Centre-Right would still easily diate the Fiscal Treaty either, given the danger command an absolute majority of seats in the that such a route could become a one-way tickOireachtas. Moreover, if the turnout in the next et to the Stone Age. However, they could shift general election replicates that of 2011, there will the tax/cuts burden by €1billion to €1.5billion be 14 votes cast for every 10 in the locals. All the incrementally, from those least able to those polls show the “don’t knows” running in the most able to shoulder it, in the manner outlined order of 30%. These are the people who will tip by the Nevin Institute. This would allow for the the balance. abolition of both the Property Tax and the Water The next election will not be a plebiscite on Charges, which undoubtedly would be popular austerity but rather a search for solutions. If the but hardly progressive.

Left is to seriously contest to win, it must offer a Deployment of these new resources on buildsustainable economic and social strategy, in the ing a decent health service, universally available context of globalisation, also taking account of to all, free at the point of use, ending the housthe debt reduction rule of the Fiscal Treaty. ing crisis, improving education and public proviThe vitriolically superficial character of our sion otherwise, or making gradual progress on public exchanges should end at once. Labour all three simultaneously would be far better. people should acknowledge that, despite legitiThat would actually constitute a real egalitarmate criticisms, the current leadership of Sinn ian agenda.

Féin has returned its party to the Left republican Of course, some steps could be taken to rebalcourse which reflects the outlook of the ance the Property Tax further, thus rendering it Democratic Programme of 1919, the 1916 fairer, and to introduce a system of water credits Proclamation and the egalitarian values which to ensure that everyone had an adequate free extend back through the Fenians and Wolfe Tone supply to meet their basic household needs. to the French Revolution.

The real challenge for the Left, though, is on Moreover, we should also acknowledge the the generation of wealth as distinct from the dissuccess of that approach in the Peace Process tribution of it. which now offers the realistic possibility of the We must counter the inevitable reunification of Ireland cuts, public asset divestment and through consent.

THE VITRIOLICALLY SUPERFICIAL CHARACTER OF OUR PUBLIC EXCHANGES tax competition approach of the Sinn Féin and people on Centre Right with a ‘New the non-sectarian Left Economic Policy’, conshould acknowledge that, far SHOULD END AT ONCE. LABOUR PEOPLE SHOULD ACKNOWLEDGE THAT, DESPITE structed around public from selling out and notwithenterprise, strategic standing equally legitimate criticisms, investment and skills Labour in Government has prevented LEGITIMATE CRITICISMS, THE CURRENT LEADERSHIP OF SINN FÉIN HAS development. public spending cuts which would have This in turn should be extended to between a further €1.5bilRETURNED ITS PARTY TO THE LEFT REPUBLICAN COURSE WHICH REFLECTS complemented by a lion to €2billion. This would have entailed slashing the sophisticated elecbasic rates of social weltoral alliance that is THE OUTLOOK OF THE DEMOCRATIC PROGRAMME OF 1919 AND THE 1916 PROCLAMATION fare and outsourcing of not simply about public provision on an Labour and others industrial scale, resulting in the on the Left serving as transfer fodder for Sinn ‘Greyhoundisation’ of thousands of jobs.

Féin but which is designed to maximise seat gain They should also acknowledge Labour’s role to offer the electorate the prospect of a cohein improving collective bargaining rights and sive, stable alternative Government. defending the legal infrastructure which protects At the end of the day, the real battle between the pay and terms of employment of more than Right and Left is as it always was — low tax, pri200,000 lower-paid workers as well as preventvate affluence and public squalor on the one ing the wholesale divestiture of public assets at hand versus social solidarity, through sustainbargain basement prices. able public provision, underpinned by fair taxaAll of us should also recognise the critically tion, high productivity and a prosperous important role of ‘Left Independents’ in pursuit economy on the other.

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September / Méan Fómhair 2014 19

The Right and employers still dominate the narrative, from taxation to banking policy to economic growth. This challenges all who share progressive values to coalesce and offer a political alternative to the two conservative parties

JIMMY KELLY

Regional Secretary, Unite the Union

BEYOND THE POLITICS OF ANTI-AUSTERITY FOLLOWING the recent elections, progressives have still not grabbed the opportunity to drive a new agenda. The Right and employers still dominate the narrative, from taxation to banking policy to economic growth. This challenges all who share progressive values to coalesce and offer a political alternative to the two conservative parties.

But providing a clear economic and social alternative means moving beyond the politics of anti-austerity. This will require honest debate and a radical vision. Challenging the orthodoxy is never easy; it will be even more difficult when the dominant commentary would have us believe that the economy is not only recovering but actually roaring back.

That this refrain was rejected by hundreds of thousands in the last election will be of little benefit if we can’t, together, advance an alternative vision.

We need to identify several policies to promote long-term, sustainable growth capable of creating full employment with livPROVIDING A CLEAR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ALTERNATIVE MEANS ing wages. Most importantly, the driving force behind economic prosperity is the level of investment in the MOVING BEYOND THE POLITICS OF ANTI-AUSTERITY. THIS WILL economy — public and infrastructural investment, business investment and investment in people’s skill, education and REQUIRE HONEST DEBATE AND A RADICAL VISION access to the labour market. In all these, 5 Jimmy Kelly protests against the Property Tax Ireland performs poorly. This is not just a workers with children (who require a higher result of the recession but something that was education (especially early education) is the wage or public services) or those workers apparent before and covered over by the one of the best ways to promote future stuck in precarious work, unable to find fullproperty bubble. growth. We need a rational, efficient and free time, stable employment.

Despite the propaganda, Ireland would public education system at all levels. And we We need strategies to strengthen labour in have to double its level of investment just to need policies that help families as they the workplace: an increased minimum wage, reach the European average. attempt to balance work and home life — in a more robust Joint Labour Committee sysThe deficits are everywhere — from the particular, a strong public sector childcare tem, real collective bargaining rights, and the massive social housing waiting lists, to a network at affordable fees. right of part-time workers to extra hours in the creaking water and waste system, to an Investing in children, families and people’s workplace as per an EU Directive that succesunderdeveloped telecommunications and skills and lifeopportunities is not a cost — it is sive governments have failed to implement. energy infrastructure. the recipe for growth.

We also need a strong social wage if we In particular, the social housing crisis — We must also accept that our indigenous want good public services, income supports with 90,000 on the waiting lists and growing sector is currently incapable of delivering full and pensions.

— needs to be urgently addressed. Permanent employment. We would have to double our Irish living standards are well below the EUstable housing is a fundamental social right. manufacturing employment in indigenous 15 average while deprivation — which affects To increase social housing would not only companies just to reach the average of other more than one million people (of whom a vindicate this right, it would drive employsmall open European economies. Throwing quarter are actually in work) — is growing. A ment in the badly-hit construction sector. around money and subsidies will not address strong social wage would mean substantially We also need to address the historically low this problem (that’s what we have been doing increasing employers’ PRSI (social insurance) level of business investment in Ireland. We for decades). We need new planning mecha- payments. We cannot tolerate a situation have the perverse situation where we have nisms and the full participation of all stake- where workers have to pay for their own servone of the highest levels of corporate profit, holders — that is, workers — to create a ices out of wages which are below those of an ultra-low corporate tax rate but one of the dynamic native business sector. other countries. lowest levels of corporate investment. With A successful economy will be wage-led.

Such a new social compact can only be our corporate model coming under increasUnite was involved with other groups in the driven forward by a coalition of progressives ing international scrutiny, we need a new Living Wage Technical Group which calculat- based on shared values, a common analysis approach to building a sustainable market ed the Living Wage to be €11.45. We estimate and a determination to ensure that – when economy and export sector. that over 300,000 workers earn below this the recovery does happen – it is a recovery for We need a revolution in education and famhourly level. And this doesn’t count those people. ily support policies. Increasing investment in 5 Unite the Union at the ESB strike last Christmas

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MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA b SEPTEMBER 1914 a

Home Rule ‘on the statute book’ – a promissory note payable only after death ROGER CASEMENT

5 The Irish Citizen Army at Liberty Hall with the banner placed by James Connolly in the autumn of 1914

emembering R

ESCALATING WAR AND PREPARING REVOLUTION

THE OUTBREAK of the First World War had a profound effect on Ireland. Republicans and advanced nationalists prepared to make “England’s difficulty Ireland’s opportunity”. The Home Rule party began recruiting for the British Army, and the Irish Volunteers split. To give a sense of the pace of events we present them in chronological order.

4 to 13 September

Fierce fighting in northern France sees the halting of the German offensive and the failure of their plan to quickly take Paris. This will lead to stalemate on the Western Front and a war bogged down in trenches with millions of soldiers facing mechanised slaughter. The British war machine requires ever greater numbers of men to fight – including Irishmen.

9 September

The Supreme Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, including future 1916 Rising leaders, meet at 25 Parnell Square (Conradh na Gaeilge) with key figures in republican, nationalist and labour movements to agree in principle to use the war to strike a blow for Irish freedom. Those present include Pádraig Pearse, James Connolly,

Seán Mac Diarmada, William O’Brien (ITGWU) and Arthur Griffith.

18 September

In the House of Commons in London, it is announced that the Third Home Rule Bill, to be known as the Government of Ireland Act 1914, has received the “royal assent” – i.e. was signed by King George V, making it law. But the king also signs a Suspensory Act, suspending Home Rule until after the war. And, crucially, the British Government remains committed to the partition of Ireland with a further amending bill promised to provide for the “exclusion of Ulster”, the number of excluded counties yet to be decided.

The Liberal leader in the House of Lords says the placing of Home Rule “on the statute book” would “induce Irishmen to rush to enlist for the war”.

Writing from New York, Roger Casement says: “Instead then of terming this promissory note (payable only after death) a ‘better Government of Ireland Bill’, would it not be truer to describe it as a ‘Bill for the better enlistment of Irishmen in the British Army’?”

19 September

In the Irish Worker newspaper,

Past

James Connolly describes the placing of Home Rule “on the statute book” as “a carefully-staged pantomime to fool nationalist Ireland”. He writes that “ruling by fooling is a great British art – with great Irish fools to practice on”.

And Connolly predicts that Redmond’s party will now “strain every nerve in an endeavour to recruit for England’s army, to send forth more thousands of Irish men and boys to manure with their corpses the soil of a foreign country . . . murdering men who never harboured an evil thought of Irishmen or women”.

the

20 September

Exactly as Connolly predicted, John Redmond, in a speech at Woodenbridge, County Wicklow, urges Irishmen to join the British Army to fight in the war, which he describes as “in defence of the highest interests of religion and morality and right”. He says they should go “wherever the firing line extends”.

24 September

The Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers responds to Redmond’s speech by rejecting him and the 25 nominees that he imposed on the Committee earlier in 1914.

The Commmittee says Redmond

has no right to commit the Volunteers to the war and they “repudiate the claim of any man to offer up the blood and lives of the sons of Irishmen and Irishwomen to the services of the British Empire while no national government which could speak and act for the people of Ireland is allowed to exist”.

Equally significantly, the Provisional Committee rejects Redmond’s acceptance of partition, pointing out that since he allowed himself to be coerced by the British into accepting it in the first place as temporary he could equally be forced to accept it as permanent.

25 September

British Prime Minister Asquith and John Redmond speak at a British Army recruiting meeting in Dublin’s Mansion House. The building is occupied by the British Army prior to the meeting and surrounding streets are heavily guarded. This thwarts a planned Irish Citizen Army and Irish Volunteer occupation of the building.

Instead, a protest is organised on nearby St Stephen’s Green that night, led by armed Citizen Army volunteers, attended by many thousands and addressed by Connolly, Jim Larkin and Constance Markievicz.

For some of us the finish may be upon the battlefields of an Ireland in arms for a real republican liberty JAMES CONNOLLY

The Royal Irish Constabulary try to prevent a march through the city but their cordon is broken at Grafton Street. At College Green the parade halts for the singing of A Nation Once Again, led by Seán Connolly, who will be one of the first republicans to die in the Easter Rising, a short distance away at City Hall. Again, James Connolly predicts correctly when he writes a few days after the Mansion House meeting: “For some of us the finish may be on the scaffold, for some in the prison cell, for others more fortunate upon the battlefields of an Ireland in arms for a real republican liberty.” (Irish Worker, 3 October 1914)

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September / Méan Fómhair 2014 21

FIRST WORLD WAR 1914-18, EASTER RISING 1916 AND CENTENARIES

TO

THE

RIGHT REMEMBER

RECENTLY I have been considering what motivated an estimated 210,000 Irishmen to enlist in the British Army during the First World War. It is a question that has exercised minds in Ireland for many years, perhaps more so recently in the context of the upcoming centenary commemorations.

This conundrum is all the more fascinating when we reflect on the fact that the formation, prior to the outbreak of war in Europe, of the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Irish Volunteers (with consequent gunrunning operations) indicated that we were on the brink of civil war on the question of Home Rule for Ireland.

There is no doubt that in many Irish families there was a long tradition of service in the British Army and that would provide a credible but incomplete explanation. Others may have seen it as a way out of poverty and a means of providing for their families.

But then we have members of the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Irish Volunteers who enlisted for mutually exclusive ideals even though they ended up fighting and dying alongside each other in their thousands on the battlefields at Somme, Messines and Ypres.

It is a fact that members of the UVF joined for patriotic reasons, including to fight for the preservation of the British Empire. It is also an accepted fact that many of the Irish Volunteers also enlisted for patriotic motives, believing that they were fighting in defence of small nations (i.e. the defeat of empires!). Irish Volunteers also believed that the British Government would deliver on the promise of Home Rule for Ireland.

That is why the main focus of discussion and disagreement has always been on those who enlisted out of political motivations and why there is much confusion to the present day on whether or how the sacrifice of those who died in the First World War should be recognised.

As a direct consequence of what has been described as ‘nationalist amnesia’, many annual commemorations to remember the fallen of the First World War have been virtually ignored by nationalists

BY MITCHEL McLAUGHLIN MLA for generations. Undoubtedly, the Easter Rising and the brutal British response, including the executions of the republican leaders, contributed to a remarkable and generally hostile change in Irish public opinion.

It is perhaps understandable in the aftermath of the tumultuous events of 1914 to 1922 in Ireland that a silence would descend on discussion about the First World War, but can anyone justify that stance today?

After all, even if no precise statistics are available, historians agree that at least 30,000 and perhaps as many as 50,000 Irishmen died.

Is it not time for an ‘uncomfortable conversation’ on First World War commemorations in Ireland and why they are hugely important for so many? Would it not be helpful to know more about the subsequent experience of those who survived the murderous horror of ‘The Great War’? How many friendships forged in the crucible of war and which crossed the political divisions in Ireland flourished in subsequent years?

Or indeed, how many former soldiers enlisted in the newly-formed RUC or Special Constabularies after partition? Or how many other returned soldiers joined

6 Irishmen fight in the trenches of World War 1 (left) and the GPO during the Easter Rising (right)

the IRA to resist continued British rule in Ireland? What divisions opened up then that continue to this day?

Did the comradeship and solidarity of the battlefield founder on the issue of partition in Ireland?

There can be no justifiable reason to deny the courage or the suffering and sacrifice of the men who fought in the First World War. But it is not just those who died fighting for Britain that will be remembered, particularly as we approach the centenary commemorations. Nationalist Ireland will also remember, commemorate and celebrate the lives and sacrifice of those who chose to fight for Irish independence and freedom.

We will see remembrance and commemorative events by the established traditions on the island which will present republicanism and unionism with challenges and opportunities. These ceremonies will challenge the commitment of political leaders to the principles of equality and parity of esteem for all political traditions. It will also present them with an opportunity to demonstrate respect for the right to remember.

Therefore let all of us – republicans/nationalists and unionists/loyalists – approach the centenaries of these events in a spirit of respect for difference and initiate dialogue to agree an inclusive and mutual approach to the centenary commemorations.

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Derry Ard Fheis next year not first major republican rally in Maiden City

RESURGENT REPUBLICANISM

BY MICHAEL McMONAGLE TWO THOUSAND republicans will gather in Derry next March for the annual Sinn Féin Ard Fheis. It may be the first time Derry has hosted the Ard Fheis but it is certainly not the first time the city has hosted such a large gathering of republicans.

Following the recent election success of Sinn Féin throughout Ireland, comparisons have been made with the landslide elections of 1918 but the comparisons do not end there.

In that historic year, Derry hosted a series of mass Sinn Féin meetings, culminating in a ‘monster meeting’ in St Columb’s Hall attended by more than 2,500 people.

The former parish hall in the city centre is located next to the Millennium Forum theatre which will host next year’s Ard Fheis.

While modern health and safety standards will not allow such a large crowd for the 2015 Ard Fheis, it will

5 Hugh C. O’Doherty

5 Bishop of Derry Dr McHugh

5 The electorate of Derry jumped from 6,000 to 16,000 ahead of the election

The conscription crisis in 1918 led to a surge in support for Sinn Féin in Derry

undoubtedly be the largest mobilisation of republicans in Derry for many years.

The series of mass meetings began in 1917 during a period of heightened political activity across Ireland.

In the aftermath of the Easter Rising and the executions of its leaders, separatist feeling was increasing throughout the country but Derry appeared to be isolated from the rest of the island.

In July 1917, an RIC County Inspector, in a report to a British Government Under-Secretary, stated that Sinn Féin was “not making any headway in Derry city” and that the only evidence of any republican activity was a number of flags on display in other parts of the county.

That situation was to change rapidly over the course of the next year with the formation of the PH Pearse Sinn Féin Cumann, which had its headquarters in rooms on Richmond Street, close to where the Millennium Forum now stands.

As the First World War dragged on, Britain was becoming increasingly short of recruits and was preparing to introduce conscription in Ireland, a plan that was highly unpopular among nationalists and even among some unionists.

The issue led many nationalists who had previously been supporters of Home Rule to support Sinn Féin.

It resulted in the first of the major meetings in St Columb’s Hall in 1918 when the newly-formed AntiPartitionist Irish Nation League, led by Bishop of Derry Charles McHugh, held an anti-conscription rally.

The meeting was addressed by Hugh C. O’Doherty, who later became the first nationalist mayor of Derry.

The conscription crisis led to a surge in support for Sinn Féin in Derry and, on 2 September 1918, the party held its first public meeting in St Columb’s Hall attended by more than 2,000 people.

Chief of Staff of the Irish Volunteers and co-founder of the Gaelic League, Professor Eoin MacNeill, addressed the meeting alongside Laurence Ginnell,

5 Professor Eoin MacNeill

Independent Nationalist MP for Westmeath North.

An RIC Inspector who made a report on the meeting dismissed the large crowd, claiming it was “mostly from reasons of curiosity” despite the fact that many of those present completed applications to join Sinn Féin.

Two months later, shortly after the end of the First World War, Sinn Féin in Derry selected Eoin MacNeill as its candidate in the forthcoming election.

Following a meeting between Cardinal Michael Logue and Sinn Féin leaders, Bishop of Derry Dr McHugh backed Professor MacNeil’s candidacy, writing a letter of support to the Derry Journal and making a donation to his election expenses.

The next week the largest political demonstration ever held in Derry took place in St Columb’s Hall when more than 2,500 people attended a meeting in support of Professor MacNeill.

Councillor Hugh C. O’Doherty also addressed the meeting and praised the role of women in the struggle for Irish freedom.

His speech came just weeks after the passing of the

The extension of the franchise to women was particularly important in Derry, given the large numbers of women who had come to the city to work in the shirt factories

Representation of the People Act, which extended the franchise to women.

This was particularly important in Derry, given the large numbers of women who had come to the city to work in the shirt factories. The legislation meant that numbers of the electorate in Derry jumped from 6,000 to 16,000 just ahead of the election.

The results of the election showed that the huge attendance at the meetings was based on more than curiosity when Eoin MacNeill was elected as the Sinn Féin representative for Derry.

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September / Méan Fómhair 2014 23

From Gaza to Scotland and Ireland and the BAI

media THE MY TH OF BAL ANCE

HADAR GOLDIN was killed on 1 August. He was an Israeli soldier, reported as “kidnapped” across the world’s news media in Rafah, Gaza.

In the hours afterwards, amid claims that Hamas had broken a tentative ceasefire with Israel, 107 Palestinians were killed in Israeli rocket and shelling attacks. I know few of the names of these 107.

I do know Hadar was recently engaged, that US President Barrack Obama demanded his release, that the London Times of 2 August put the story on the front page because

which is suspect. Online social media is amplifying this.

The news you consume this week will be profoundly negative, focusing on personal stories and events that emphasise disorder and discord rather than provide a more rounded analysis of the factors in the actual event.

On 18 September, Scotland votes on independence from Britain. It is a complex issue but voters’ personal deliberations have been in the context of a media prioritising the profoundly negative or silly aspects

of a reported connection of Goldin to England. From obituary reports carried across the world, I know personal details of Hadar’s life before his tragic end.

What we don’t know is if Hadar was killed by gunfire, a Hamas ‘suicide bomber’, or was one of countless victims of the Israeli military’s ‘Hannibal Doctrine’, which sanctions saturation shelling of places where captured soldiers are suspected of being held, regardless of the humanitarian costs to anyone, soldiers or civilians; men, women or children.

How the deaths and bombings were reported speaks to the limitations and flaws in news media today.

The news is too often personalised in dramatic stories, the truth of

of the Scottish independence debate.

Already this year so-called ‘news’ on the referendum has told us that Scotland will “lose BBC” if it goes independent (February 2014). The same month there was a muchpublicised threat from the Standard Life financial services group that it might “quit an independent Scotland”. The firm has been in

BY ROBBIE SMYTH

Scotland for 189 years and employs 5,000 people.

In April, Standard & Poor’s claimed that the Scottish banking system “risks Iceland-style meltdown”. You remember Standard & Poor’s? Like many other credit rating agencies and ‘experts’, they didn’t see the financial crash coming but were unseemingly quick to downgrade Irish Government debt and now

their pronouncements get media coverage way beyond their record of credibility.

“Don’t hate me because I want to vote No,” was a Sunday Times headline in June, claiming that: “Nationalists trolls are trying to stifle debate over the true cost of Scottish Independence.” The previous day’s London Times had a similar article headlined “Scottish artists ‘afraid to admit they voting No’.”

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s £1million donation to the ‘No’ campaign was headlined by the Sunday

Tony Abbott, hailed by the Daily Mail’s Melanie Phillips as “an Oxfordeducated devotee of the late Lady Thatcher, a true conservative”.

The Mail also extrapolated comments by the Pope on Yugoslavia, Catalonia and Scotland that “All division worries me” into a blazing headline “Now the Pope backs Scottish No vote” when he also said: “There will be cases that are just, but the secession of a nation without a history of enforced unity must be taken very carefully and analysed case by case.”

In Ireland we face up to six refer-

Times as “J. K. Rowling and the Death Eaters” with a strapline telling us: “Celebrities are lining up to slug it out over Scottish independence.”

Earlier that week the Guardian had helpfully given a whole page to the “Celebrity Yes or No debate”.

There has also been considerable coverage of Barack Obama’s support for a No vote and last month’s intervention by Australian Prime Minister

endums next year, including votes on reducing the voting age, the age barrier for standing as a presidential candidate, and same-sex marriage.

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland last month adjudicated that RTÉ’s Derek Mooney had breached its code on objectivity and impartiality by making statements supporting same-sex marriage and having guests who supported same-sex marriage without including someone who opposed it.

The problems with media balance do not begin with light entertainment radio. There is an absence of balance in all of our news media to its core and the BAI complaint procedures become laughable in that context.

What hope then for our coming referendum coverage?

The news you consume this week will be profoundly negative, focusing on personal stories and events that emphasise disorder and discord rather than provide a more rounded analysis of the factors in the actual event

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Russian sanctions herald push to a new world order

BY EOIN Ó MURCHÚ RUSSIA’S retaliatory sanctions against the West because of its sanctions imposed on Russia as a result of the Ukrainian crisis seem to have taken Western policy makers by surprise – not only because of their immediate impact but, more importantly, because of the longterm significance of the move.

Russia is a huge country that is immensely rich in natural resources, as shown by its crucial position as a supplier of gas and energy to Europe. Its domestic market is one of the fastest-growing in the world and co-operation between Russia and Europe would be of obvious benefit to both.

But such a scenario would weaken Europe’s dependence on the United States, which is why the US was to the forefront in promoting a confrontational attitude to Russia over Ukraine.

Europe, while willing to talk tough, has been reluctant to take any real action, especially Germany.

It is worth noting that the retaliatory sanctions announced by Russia will barely affect Germany but will hit the rest of Europe hard.

Irish politicians have tried to play down the impact of the move, pointing to the relatively low level of Irish trade with Russia. But we have only just begun to move into that market and, in any case, the banning of other European produce (for example, cheese from the Netherlands) will lead to countries dumping their now-surplus produce on markets that we currently hold.

In addition, stock markets throughout the world have shown the worry that Russia’s move has engendered, and this is a major factor in the economic contraction in Germany and stagnation elsewhere.

Europe’s ‘recovery’ (much heralded by our own gang of wasters) is now very much in doubt.

The major factor underlying all

these trends is that the old world order can no longer be taken for granted.

Clearly, when the West first imposed its sanctions, Russia began to line up alternative markets and alternative trade treaties, giving a surge to existing trends for the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India,

trade as the BRICS (who together are larger economically than the US and Europe) break free of US control.

Haplessly, European policy makers talk about finding alternatives to Russian energy but where are such alternatives to be found and on what terms? For the US is not willing to sell cut-price energy to Europe as it wrestles with its own massive deficit problems.

The fact is that while the US remains the dominant global power, it has noticeably begun the process of going into decline. Will Europe join it on that downward slope?

The problem for the US is that it is buying more from abroad than it can sell, and it has been financing the whole shebang by using the petrodollars that OPEC was constrained to use to fund its living standards. In other words, oilproducing countries deposit their earnings in US banks who use these funds for domestic requirements.

Economists like the Zambian analyst, Dambisa Moyo, in her famous book How the West Was Lost, have

5 Putin has shown that sanctions against such a powerful state are a two-edged sword

Will Europe continue to imitate Britain as a US poodle, with Ireland cringeing around like a toy Chihuahua?

China, South Africa) to operate independently of the US-dollar-based system.

Already Brazil has announced a new beef deal with Russia, Argentina a general agricultural deal, and China is swooping in to sell industrial machinery and retail goods.

Pointedly, the US dollar is no longer to be the currency for this

5 Russia moved swiftly to line up alternative markets and alternative trade treaties shown how this process has been developing for some years. Russia has now been forced to make a decisive leap away from Europe towards the East.

The implications for Ireland are quite disconcerting. Firstly, there is the immediate economic impact of

5 Economic analyst Dambisa Moyo shows how power is shifting away from the US towards the BRICS countries

Russia’s potential disengagement from Europe and the loss of potential development opportunities.

Secondly, there is the big question mark that has been placed over European recovery.

Thirdly, there is the question of the global market itself.

Will Europe continue to imitate Britain as a US poodle, with Ireland cringeing around like a toy Chihuahua? Or will Germany continue its potential rapprochement with Russia?

And the second option there will increase the focal shift to Eastern Europe away from the original Western nexus that has been evident ever since the reunification of Germany.

Russia’s President Putin may well abandon the anti-fascist and antiNATO communities in eastern and southern Ukraine; then again, he may go in to defend them.

Either way, ‘the Russian Bear’ has shown that sanctions against such a powerful state are a two-edged sword and that Russia has nonEuropean options that leave it immune to serious reprisal.

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TTIP myths shattered by report

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September / Méan Fómhair 2014 25

A NEW STUDY commissioned by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) EU Parliament Group argues that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTP) between the EU and the USA comes with high social costs and limited actual economic gain.

The ‘Left Responses to the TTIP’ document reveals considerable risks associated with removing remaining trade tariffs and very few actual economic gains from TTIP in terms of GDP, jobs, and real wages.

GUE/NGL MEP Helmut Scholz says: “This report critically assesses predictions made by European Commission-supported

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

Another Europe is possible

‘Left Responses to the TTIP’ reveals considerable risks associated with removing remaining trade tariffs

reports about supposed positive impacts of TTIP on GDP, jobs, trade flows, and real wages. None of the studies take into account the social costs of TTIP.” Lead author Werner Raza says: “Not only do these estimates fall flat when we look at the methodology used (which is biased in our view), the predictions also don’t stand up when we see that 80% of these estimated economic benefits depend on the removal or harmonisation of regulations, administrative procedures, and standards – non-tariff measures (NTMs).

“Negotiating compromises on regulations and standards could see decades of gains in social and environmental protections rolled back, posing a serious threat to consumer

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

LIADH NÍ RIADA

LYNN BOYLAN

5 Matt Carthy MEP and Lynn Boylan MEP show their opposition to the TTIP at the EU Parliament health, public health, and environmental safety. If you eliminate regulations that serve public policy goals there is a social cost.”

The study also strongly criticises the proposal for an investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism as part of TTIP as it could lead to governments abstaining from enacting regulation that run counter to multinationals’ interests. Such a mechanism could also see governments having to pay compensation to multinationals with taxpayers’ money.

The authors describe how TTIP will reduce trade between EU countries by up to 30% as

EU countries’ exports won’t be able to compete with increased levels of cheap imports from the US. The GUE/NGL-funded study also finds that unemployment would rise as a result of job displacement due to TTIP: over the 10-year TTIP implementation period, between ¤ 5bil lion to ¤14billion of unemployment adjustment costs (lost revenue from tax and an increase in unemployment benefits) can be expected.

THE FULL REPORT CAN BE READ AT:

www.guengl.eu

MATT MARTINA CARTHY ANDERSON are MEPs and members of the GUE/NGL Group in the European Parliament

Israel’s terror campaign against Gaza PROTESTS AND BOYCOTTS CONTINUE ACROSS IRELAND

BY MARK MOLONEY PROTESTS in support of the Palestinian people and against Israel’s horrific onslaught and siege of Gaza have continued across cities, towns and villages in Ireland as peace talks in Cairo in late August collapsed.

In Galway, the village of Kinvara took a collective decision to boycott all Israeli products. John Griffin, one of those behind the initative, says the overwhelmingly positive response to the move from local people and businesses sends out a strong message of solidarity.

In Newry and Mourne, attempts were made by unionist parties to oust Sinn Féin Mayor Dáire Hughes over his support for the Palestinian people

Martina Anderson MEP

after he wrote to local businesses in a personal capacity asking them to consider taking part in the boycott of Israel.

The motion of no confidence failed with the 24-year-old mayor pledging “to continue to stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza and to call for a lasting and verifiable ceasefire and an end to violence in the Middle East”.

Each week throughout August, thousands of people marched in protests or held pickets and vigils across each of the 32 Counties.

The Israeli Embassy in Dublin was a particular focal point with demonstrators placing a symbolic siege on the building on several occasions.

Palestinian Ambassador to Ireland Ahmad Abdelrazek spoke at the Sinn Féin annual Hunger Strike Commemoration in Derrylin. He said

5Protesters march to the Israeli Embassy in Dublin lessons from the Peace Process in Ireland could provide a model for a resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

In the European Parliament, Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson will take up the position of Chair of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Martina says it is a major diplomatic opportunity to build on Irish solidarity with the victims of Israel’s siege of Gaza and to support the implementation of the two-state solution

“The root cause of this onslaught is the Israeli occupation. In eight years, Gaza has experienced four wars. It’s no coincidence that the attack on Gaza and the collective punishment of Palestinians in the West Bank began after Hamas and Fatah announced a unity government.”

Martina Anderson says she and other members of the committee hope to gain access to Gaza in early September to meet with officials, medical staff and others working for peace in the region.

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LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA

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EXILED BY CLAUDIUS to Corsica, where he wrote his tragedies, Lucius Annaeus Seneca was the most distinguished of the Spanish writers of the Roman imperial age.

Born in Corduba in Andalucia to a Roman equestrian family, Seneca was brought to Rome as a child and seemed destined for a political career. Instead, he became a stoic philosopher, producing wise words that carry moral echoes down the ages to us.

So it is a crying shame that all the young people who study the classics at college

Seneca understood that, of all human vices, the pursuit of wealth is the most destructive, for the fault is not in the wealth but in the mind itself never seem to learn the words of Seneca and ancient scholars like him nor apply that wisdom when they get into positions of power.

Seneca understood that, of all human

vices, the pursuit of wealth is the most destructive, for the fault is not in the wealth but in the mind itself.

“The man who needs wealth is afraid for it, and no man enjoys an asset that is a source of trouble. He is eager to add something to it, and while he is concentrating on the increase he has forgotten to use it.

“He makes up his accounts, treads the marketplace, and keeps turning over his calendar.

“Instead of a master, he has become an accountant.”

SPELT

THE MEASURE OF WEALTH

INCORRECT

FLORIAN SCHUI is among a number of modern economic thinkers who agrees with Seneca. Instead of hoarding wealth we should spend it, but spend it wisely.

The notion that individuals, states and societies benefit from limiting their consumption is almost as old as humanity, writes Schui, who argues like Seneca that accumulation and greed are historic dead ends.

Wealth in Ireland in recent decades has become dangerously imbalanced, and successive governments have been criticised for not doing more to create artisanal businesses that would spread that wealth more evenly.

Free-market corporate capitalism works when it provides jobs and stimulates economic activity. It doesn’t work when its sole function is based on selfish greed and unsustained growth, and needs to migrate when profits fall.

Stephen D. King blames the economics profession – a dismal science that has become a dismal failure. Rapid economic growth is not guaranteed, he writes, arguing that history has taught us that lesson.

History has also taught us that small generally succeeds and large generally fails (or is acquired or merged or liquidated) because quality usually keeps the customers happy and coming back for more.

There are as many commentators who believe we are greedy, suspicious and selfish as there are commentators who insist that we have lost none of the argumentativeness, gregariousness and selfless attributes we are famous for.

No one suggests we are idiotic and stupid, yet there is an increasing band of critics who believe that those who hold the state’s purse strings are dumb and getting dumber.

These critics say funds are awarded to those who fulfil a particular personal political function.

They also say that state funds are used to create monopolies.

They say the money-bureaucrats have an irritating habit of supporting entrepreneurial and

ROBERT ALLEN corporate activity that fails.

And they ask why the criteria for funding only fits into one business model – big growth and large export.

Above all, they ask why the various measurements of wealth are based on flawed policies

that appear to lurch from austerity for the poor to extravagance for the rich.

Artisan foods

One measure of wealth right now is artisan

food production and food tourism. It creates jobs, distributes the wealth from production and supply within local communities, and boosts the country’s image around the world.

Dermot Seberry, a chef, educator and food consultant who runs food tours, insists the state does back all kinds of food artisans and entrepreneurs.

It has supported almost every artisan business that exists with funding and opportunity, especially in the last five years. Only those who cannot develop a good business plan or who do not research the market find it difficult.

Many expect but few deliver.

His book, A Culinary Journey in the NorthEast* provides a snapshot of this kind of activity, with every type of foodstuff, including flour made from the ancient grain known as spelt.

And the story of spelt, the grain that saved Seneca’s Roman Empire, now has an Irish chapter.

Seneca would approve because it tells a moral story about society.

Boyne Valley

5 Spelt remained a staple of Europe until the 20th century

Andrew and Leonie Workman grow, mill and package spelt from their farm in Dunany, on the coast below the ancient land of Oriel above the Boyne Valley.

Among their products are spelt berries.

Here history is repeating itself.

Nearly one thousand years ago, Abbess Hildegard von Bingen of Rupertsberg wrote enthusiastically about spelt. It makes people cheerful with a friendly disposition. Those who eat it have healthy flesh and good blood.

Two thousand years earlier, river valley communities in the south of Ireland were cooking with spelt berries.

An ancient hardy grass thought to be native to both Persia 8,000 years ago and south-eastern Europe 4,000 years ago, spelt was cultivated throughout the continent from the Caucasus to Scandinavia.

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September / Méan Fómhair 2014 27

NOT SINCE Theodora Fitzgibbon compiled A Taste of Ireland in the 1960s has a food writer produced a book that can be described as a cultural event even before the first page is turned.

Chef, food photographer and writer Dermot Seberry doesn’t suffer fools in the food industry.

After several years working as a chef (in Ballinahinch Castle in Galway, Mount Juliet Hotel in Kilkenny, Cascades in Sun City, the Savoy and Smollenskys in London), he found himself training the chefs of the future.

As a head chef he had been unhappy with the standard of trainee chefs from the London colleges and when he approached them to ask what they were teaching he was asked to take some classes.

After a spell as a manager in WestminsterKingsway College of Catering in London, he was invited to lecture in the advanced culinary arts course at DIT, Cathal Brugha Street in Dublin, where he helped set up the artisan entrepreneurship course.

Meanwhile, back in his home county of Louth, the landscape had changed. Seberry was philosophical. The M1 put many pubs and restaurants out of business for sure but also put an end to rubbish ‘family run food’.

Restaurants were now using fresh, local produce cooked by knowledgeable and imaginative chefs who understood seasonality and knew that was the key to taste.

5 Andrew Workman grows, mills and packages spelt on his farm in Dunany

A CULINARY JOURNEY IN THE NORTH-EAST

5 Spelt berry can be used in salads and stews, to make risotto and soaked whole to be baked in bread Grown largely as a cereal by ancient civilisations, the Greeks and Romans expanded its use. Roman armies lived on spelt (along with barley), making an early version of polenta.

Spelt, with barley, einkorn and emmer wheat, remained a staple in Europe until the 20th century, when it fell out of favour for numerous reasons, not least the problems associated with harvesting, separating and milling it into flour.

The Workmans have got round these problems with modern machinery.

Now spelt is one of their biggest sellers and they have high hopes for the berries, which can be used in salads and stews, to make risotto and soaked whole to be baked in bread.

From Donegal to Dungarvan, spelt bread is now a daily favourite, the majority being made with imported spelt.

The next big little food!

Dominick Gryson, a Louth man who has experimented with ancient grains to find strong shafts for thatching, believes the Workmans have found a great artisan product.

Spelt does not give the same yield as modern wheats, which do not grow well here in our climate, he says. Spelt, on the other hand, is suited to the soil and the climate and can be

5 Chef, educator and food consultant Dermot Seberry sold as a high-value organic product.

Seberry, who champions the Workmans produce in his book, agrees. Their grain is hulled, which not every producer can do. They have hit upon a simple new product.

He is determined to promote spelt berries through his Food Educators business. They fit in with the ‘super food’ group and are a substitute for risotto rice and barley in the likes of

stews and black pudding, he says.

For me, it is personal. They are low-gluten and have high nutritional content, particularly for the over-30s, who have become hyper aware of inner health. Not a trending product but very much the next big little food!

Spelt contains beneficial minerals, unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins (B and E), and has six of the eight essential amino acids that stimulate the production of happiness hormones.

But it is the low GI (glycaemic index of carbohydrates) that makes spelt a primary health product. With 35 compared to 40 for wheat and 70 for rice, spelt releases glucose more slowly into the bloodstream, balancing out blood sugar levels.

Seneca grew up in a Rome that distributed welfare in the form of free grain, spelt among barley and emmer, an expedient consequence of the food riots, 60 years before he was born, in 59 BC. Spelt saved the early Roman Empire but it also sustained the tribes of barbarians who brought about the fall of Rome and allowed their descendants to supplant Roman power throughout Europe.

Something that powerful is worth promoting, especially now that modern wheat has lost its allure and ancient wisdom is finally being listened to.

This quiet revolution had started in the Scandinavian countries, where the artisans and chefs set the agenda and the menu, which always stated where ingredients were from.

Imaginative cooks, visionary chefs and innovative bakers gave preference to indigenous produce and products with their own distinctive flavours.

Ultimately this approach began to influence those who ran the catering colleges.

Peer pressure has forced some colleges to rethink their approach to training chefs. It is not good enough to accept that old classical French methods are standard teaching practice.

It’s simply nowhere near the norm today.

According to Seberry, many chefs are restricted to the methods and recipes of old and lack creativity of the mind. They don’t love food; they just do the job of cooking. They know what local produce is but don’t know how to use it.

In the north-east, the culinary mood has been set by the artisans and chefs, and the locals and tourists have not been slow sensing the wind of change.

When Seberry was approached by the county tourism board to represent food, the idea of a colour book featuring maps and photos, local producers and restaurants using indigenous produce to make traditional recipes grabbed the imagination.

This book proves that artisan food from the north-east is now established.

It is available throughout the north-east and online at www.northeastculinaryjourney.ie

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BOOK REVIEWS BY MICHAEL MANNION

Parnell press and Frank Aiken Mr Parnell’s Rottweiler: Censorship and the United Ireland Newspaper, 1881-1891

By Myles Dungan Irish Academic Press IT IS SOMETHING of a truism to state that behind every successful politician or political party stands a newspaper.

In the modern world it could be updated to encompass broadcast media or online dissemination via social media campaigns. In 1880, however, the newspaper ruled supreme. Literacy rates had soared in the previous 30 years from 45% to nearly 80%. The population had become somewhat radicalised post-Famine by the years of agrarian agitation and the Fenian and Land League campaigns.

Charles Stewart Parnell, on assuming the mantle of leadership of the Irish nationalists, realised that he did not have such a press behind him. Although there was a plethora of broadly nationalist publications in existence, they did not owe any allegiance to Parnell. In fact, the two

Charles Stewart Parnell leading publications – The Nation and The Freeman’s Journal – were owned by fellow Nationalist MPs and as such would be seen as supporting Parnell’s direct rivals in the internecine nationalist power struggles. Parnell decided to establish his own newspaper and so United Ireland was set up in 1881 to champion both Land League activities and the Parnell faction of parliamentary nationalism

Under the editorial stewardship of William Smith O’Brien, the United Ireland became, in his own words, “a weekly insurrection in print” and a “monster meeting which cannot be dispersed with buckshot”. The paper was hugely successful, achieving sales of 100,000 within four years.

The normal assumption is that each newspaper is read by five people but the introduction of public reading rooms throughout the country would have multiplied this figure by a considerable number.

United Ireland served as a continual goad to the British administration in Ireland. It was able to say things that Parnell could not and yet, due to his identification with the paper, it was almost as if he had said them. In fact, the paper’s radicalism was far more extreme than anything Parnell would have been comfortable with.

This is a remarkably wellresearched book by Dr Myles Dungan, probably best known for his RTÉ radio broadcasting and The History Show. It is superbly written, oozing erudition and incidental nuggets of throwaway knowledge on every page. What could well have been a rather boring reiteration of the United Ireland’s back catalogue is instead a fascinating and enjoyable read.

Frank Aiken: Nationalist and Internationalist Edited by Bryce Evans and Stephen Kelly Irish Academic Press FRANK AIKEN is a major figure in 20th century Irish politics. He was a South Armagh man who led the IRA’s Northern Command during the Tan War and went on to become Chief of Staff at the end of the Civil War; the man who gave the order to dump arms in 1923; the architect of Ireland’s policy of neutrality in the United Nations, and the first signatory of the NonProliferation of Nuclear Arms Treaty in Moscow in 1968.

A complex man with a complex history and yet no book had been written about him until now.

This work is a collection of essays by various experts in different aspects of Frank Aiken’s life and provides an insight into the multifaceted and often contradictory aspects of the man.

The book, as the sub-title suggests, is divided broadly into two main areas of his activities, nationalist and internationalist. The editors have each written an introduction to the area of their speciality. The introduction to the nationalist section reveals an interesting bias when a successful attack, at the height of the Tan War, on a military

5 Éamon de Valera with Frank Aiken train carrying a cavalry regiment is described as an “outrage” rather than an “ambush”. The essays themselves appear to be far more objective in their analysis.

Frank Aiken was a stalwart supporter and admirer of De Valera, and a bulwark of Fianna Fáil for over 40 years. During this period, he garnered many opponents from across the political spectrum as well as within his own party. One colleague, Gerald Boland, described him as “a condescending menace who wanted as usual to be the big noise but was really only a selfish showman”. The Fine Gael assessment of him was of being “inept, vain and stupid”. These statements belie the complex nature of the man by reducing him to one-dimensional caricatures.

He was undoubtedly a social conservative who denied that the Catholic Church had any undue influence within the Irish state. He was a staunch believer in state censorship on both moral and political grounds. Yet, at the same time, he was an economic radical who believed that “banks should not exist to amass profits but should . . . manage credit and issue money for the benefit of ordinary people”.

As well as spearheading Ireland’s stand on neutrality at the UN, he was a tireless champion on the right to independence of small nations in a post-colonial world. In particular, he was a committed advocate of Palestinian rights.

This is an interesting volume providing an informed analysis of this flawed and complicated character.

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September / Méan Fómhair 2014 29

I nDíl Chuimhne 1 September 1973: Volunteer Anne Marie PETTICREW, Cumann na mBan, Belfast.

4 September 1970: Volunteer Michael KANE, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

9 September 1973: Volunteer Francis DODDS, Long Kesh.

9 September 1985: Volunteer Raymond McLAUGHLIN, Donegal Brigade.

12 September 1989: Volunteer Seamus TWOMEY, GHQ Staff.

14 September 1986: Volunteer Jim McKERNAN, Belfast Brigade, 1st Battalion.

16 September 1991: Bernard O’HAGAN, Sinn Féin.

Comhbhrón O’MAHONY. Deepest sympathy is extended to Joe O’Mahony and all the O’Mahony family on the recent death of their father Joe Snr. From Mícheál Hennessy and the Ahern Crowley Sinn Féin Cumann, Cork.

All notices and obituaries should be sent to notices@anphoblacht.com by Friday 12 September 2014 17 September 1972: Volunteer Michael QUIGLEY, Derry Brigade.

20 September 1972: Fian Joseph McCOMISKEY, Fianna Éireann.

22 September 1973: Volunteer James BRYSON, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

23 September 1996: Volunteer Diarmuid O’NEILL, England.

29 September 1972: Volunteer Jimmy QUIGLEY, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

Always remembered by the Republican Movement McGLADE, Charlie. In proud memory of Volunteer Charlie McGlade, who

‘LIFE SPRINGS FROM DEATH AND FROM THE GRAVES OF PATRIOT MEN AND WOMEN SPRING LIVING NATIONS’ – PÁDRAIG PEARSE died on 17 September 1982. A lifetime of dedication and commitment to the cause of Irish freedom. Always remembered by the Vol Charlie McGlade Sinn Féin Cumann, Drimnagh, Dublin.

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

Contact: sales@anphoblacht.com for details.

John Joe McGirl remembered in Ballinamore, Leitrim

5 Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy delivers the main speech

5 John Joe McGirl

MORROW, Anthony. In proud and loving memory of our friend and comrade Anthony ‘Dodger’ Morrow, whose anniversary occurs at this time. Never forgotten by the Halpenny/Worthington/Watters Sinn Féin Cumann, Dundalk.

MORROW, Anthony. In proud and loving memory of our friend and comrade Anthony ‘Dodger’ Morrow, whose anniversary occurs at this time. Always in our thoughts. From the staff and Management Committee of Fáilte Abhaile, Dundalk.

O’HAGAN, Bernard. In proud and loving memory of our friend and comrade Councillor Bernard

O’Hagan, murdered by pro-British forces on 16 September 1991. A true republican. Always remembered by the McCusker/ McMullan/ O’Hagan Sinn Féin Cumann, Swatragh.

O’NEILL, Diarmuid. Murdered by the London Metropolitan Police on 23 September 1996. Always remembered by friends and comrades in the West London Republican Support Group, Hammersmith.

TREANOR, Tommy (London and Fintona, County Tyrone). Always remembered by friends and comrades in the West London Republican Support Group, Hammersmith.

Imeachtaí » VOLUNTEER CHARLIE McGLADE COMMEMORATION 4pm, Saturday 13 September. Assemble Dolphin Road Green, Drimnagh. Main speaker: Councillor Greg Kelly. Followed by function in the Marble Arch Pub immediately afterwards.

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BETWEEN THE POSTS

30 September / Méan Fómhair 2014

THE

www.anphoblacht.com

BY CIARÁN KEARNEY

ANTRIM’S DATE WITH DESTINY YOU KNOW a hurler by his hands.

Knobbly, gnarled knuckles.

Disfigured digits, sometimes swelling from arthritic joints. Icy extremities where the blood supply is waning. Usually, the grip once lashed to a camán remains vice-like long after the hurl is gone.

As I greet Jim Nelson, former manager of Antrim, there’s a lifetime of hurling in his firm and friendly handshake.

It’s 25 years now since he steered Antrim to the All-Ireland hurling final of 1989. The ’80s in Antrim were dark days, in more ways than one.

When Antrim played Cork in the 1986 All-Ireland semi-final, one Dublin paper jibed “Antrim come down for their annual farce”.

Undeterred by anti-Northern prejudices or the unequal odds, Jim Nelson took the helm in 1987. When Antrim played Kilkenny in Dundalk the following year, the Cats needed all nine lives to escape with a narrow win. That day meant all the more to me as the under-age Saffron team on which I played took the same field going on to win an all-Ireland title.

Jim Nelson recalled it with ease.

“The big one then was in ’89, whenever we played Offaly to stay up in Division One. It was a hammer and tongs thing for a while. I think it was the shortest team talk I ever gave to that side. I just told them: ‘You know what you’ve to do. Our backs are to the wall.’”

Antrim triumphed by a fine margin. Weeks later, the Saffrons again edged victory over Offaly, in playoffs to retain Division 1 status. As fate would have it, the two counties were also drawn in the All-Ireland semi-final.

“Everybody was saying to us that we’d no chance; that we were underdogs. I couldn’t figure that out.

I said we beat this team twice in the same year. How could we be underdogs?”

But this form against Offaly also evoked pressure.

“I knew we’d beaten them twice, why could we not beat them a third time? So I was under more pressure in that game than in any other game the whole time I was there.”

It was written in the manager’s face. As the late James McNaughton left the pre-match team meeting, he spoke to Jim Nelson on his way out.

“I hope I don’t feel as bad as you

5 Former Antrim senior hurling manager Jim Nelson look. You’re as white as a ghost,” said the former Antrim star.

Tactically, Antrim got it right. The game-plan centred on neutralising Offaly midfielder Joachim Kelly.

“To me that was an effective move in that their heartbeat wasn’t ticking. We never let him breathe at all.”

Well-supplied from long-range puck-outs, Antrim forwards Ciaran Barr, Donal Armstrong and Olcan ‘Cloot’ McFetridge besieged the Offaly goalmouth.

“Cloot scored another goal when he was nearly lying on the ground. He was falling.

It got goal of the year. Nobody else could have scored that goal, only Cloot because he used a small 34inch stick. He was unbelievable.”

At the end, Offaly gave victorious

Antrim a guard of honour as they departed Croke Park to face Tipperary. Nelson was left to prepare for Antrim’s first All-Ireland final since 1943.

“I couldn’t have gone to some-

SPORTSFILE

“We were let down very badly on that because we had figured that, two weeks before, we’d get a good game.”

In the All-Ireland final, Tipperary prevailed.

“At the end of the day we were beaten by a better team on the day. In the early parts of the final we had an opportunity to score a goal or two and we took points. I think it would have settled us a lot better if we had got a goal.”

The final Saffron strike-rate of 3-9 might have won previous titles in Nelson’s view. But Tipperary’s firepower proved too much. Fullforward Nicky English was spoilt with supply from his midfield, scoring 2-12 half of his team’s

Respect for Jim Nelson in coaching and hurling extends far beyond his native Antrim body else in Antrim and say: What did you do when you got to the AllIreland?”

Another setback occurred before the final. A challenge match arranged with another county was cancelled.

winning tally of 4-24.

“It wouldn’t have mattered who was on Nicky English that day –– the quality ball he was getting in, anyone could have played his position.”

Post-match jibes by English about Antrim have not been forgotten.

“Tipperary were a great team but they were in your face with it. They had this air of grandeur about themselves. That there was nobody who should be on the same field as them. For Antrim to be in there at the top table didn’t sit well with them. They didn’t respect Antrim.”

Respect for Jim Nelson in coaching and hurling extends far beyond his native Antrim. He is retired now. Whilst his old adversaries, Tipperary, compete for the Liam McCarthy Cup, Jim Nelson’s battle is against cancer. But his handshake remains as strong as ever.

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September / Méan Fómhair 2014 31

What is this blanket defence of which you speak?

DUBLIN made a mockery of the belief strongly held in some quarters that Monaghan would be able to smother them, restrict their ability to score goals . . . and perhaps even beat them.

As it turned out, it was Dublin who were by far the more parsimonious, conceding just five points from play while scoring 2-13 themselves.

The question now is whether Donegal, the alleged masters of the defensive system, could impose their will on the rampant Dubs in the second football semi-final (on 31 August).

Statistics do not suggest that they will be able to do that. So far, Dublin have scored 988 in this year’s championship and conceded 2-49. That is an average score of 28.65 points to 13.8.

Donegal have scored 5-54 and conceded less than Dublin, at 1-43, the concession of just a single goal being the most impressive statistic and one of potentially most significance for how the semi-final could pan out.

Donegal’s average has been 17.25 per game compared to 11.5 conceded, a more impressive defensive record than Dublin.

On the overall figures you would have to question whether Donegal would be either able to score enough to beat the Dubs or,

alternatively, restrict Dublin to around 13 or 14 points, which is a big ask.

Both teams have played Monaghan. Dublin’s 17-point victory compares to Donegal’s 6.

Another perhaps relevant comparison is the fact that, while Donegal beat Derry in Ulster

Dublin’s greatest strength is their ability turn over the opposing team and attack at speed by 1-11 to 0-11, Dublin demolished them in a similar manner to Monaghan in the league final: 3 -19 to 1-10.

Of course, statistics do not paint the whole story. Donegal have been playing well in bursts that are winning games for them and

then retreating back behind their defensive wall. Against Derry they won the game in the first ten minutes or so of the second half, when they played more direct ball into Murphy and McFadden. They had built up a reasonable lead but then inexplicably invited Derry on to them.

Derry are an extremely limited side and yet were within a goal of Donegal at the end. That would suggest that it would be the height of folly for Donegal to attempt similar against Dublin, even were they to fashion a 5-point or 6-point lead.

Comparisons with 2011 are not really relevant.

Donegal were a much better team when they won the All-Ireland the year after, and Dublin themselves were set up far more defensively in 2011. The half-time score of 0-3 to 0-2 told its own story. It also underlined something that is a feature of Donegal’s play: the ability to drop 14 players back behind their own 40 to constrict space and increase the level of physical contact but at the same time concede not that many frees.

That can be frustrating for opposition forwards who are forced into coughing up the ball, and even in conceding frees themselves when bottled by three or four defenders.

Matt Treacy Dublin are not a team you would want to be conceding too many kickable frees within distance as they have the place-kickers in Bernard Brogan, Diarmuid Connolly and Stephen Cluxton to punish any indiscipline.

Dublin’s greatest strength, however, is their ability turn over the opposing team and attack at speed. Against Monaghan, accurate kick passing, Dublin’s physical power, and quick hands made the blanket defence virtually redundant.

The question is will Donegal have the patience and power themselves to reduce Dublin’s fire-power, and will they themselves win sufficient possession and move it quickly enough to their inside forwards often enough to beat the Dubs on the scoreboard?

It promises to be an intriguing encounter and one which might not set up at all in the manner that people are assuming.

5 Sinn Féin Clondalkin Councillor Eoin Ó Broin presents St Anthony’s Football Club in Rathcoole with a new set of jerseys he has sponsored

VOLUNTEER

CHARLIE McGLADE COMMEMORATION SATURDAY 13th SEPTEMBER ASSEMBLE

4pm DOLPHIN ROAD GREEN, DRIMNAGH MAIN SPEAKER

COUNCILLOR GREG KELLY FUNCTION IN THE MARBLE ARCH PUB IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARDS

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anphoblacht NEXT ISSUE OUT – Thursday 25th September 2014 32

MILLIONAIRE OWNERS’ UNILATERAL PAY CUT

Support the locked-out Greyhound workers

BY MARK MOLONEY THE LOCKOUT of workers at Greyhound Recycling and Recovery in Dublin enters its fourth month in September with no resolution in sight.

Staff at the company, which is contracted to provide waste services for Dublin City Council after the service was privatised in January 2012, have been locked out of their jobs and replaced with strike-breakers since June when they refused to accept unilateral pay cuts of up to 35%.

Musicians Christy Moore, Don Baker and Eric Fleming have all come out in support of the workers while the TEEU, Mandate and the Supervalu store in Blackrock have all made generous donations to the SIPTU Greyhound Workers’ Support Fund to financially support the workers’ families during the lockout.

Towards the end of July, one of the workers on the picket was injured and left with a severe spinal injury from a vehicle leaving Greyhound’s Knockmitten depot. It was the third incident of a striking worker taking part in an official picket being hit by a vehicle being driven out of a company facility.

In some parts of Dublin City, Greyhound collection trucks driven by strike-breakers have been blocked by protesters and local residents.

Speaking at the picket of the Greyhound depot in Clondalkin on 25 August, Sinn Féin Dublin City Councillor Daithí Doolan said: “Since June, Greyhound has brought in untrained and inexperienced agency workers to break the strike. This is unacceptable.

“This has clear parallels with the 1913 Lockout and will be opposed today as it was back then.”

SIPTU Greyhound shop steward Jesse

Hughes says the workers have no option but to continue their peaceful picket.

“We want to return to work while talks progress on any possible changes to our agreed terms and conditions of employment.

However, the management of Greyhound Recycling and Recovery has repeatedly refused to allow us to carry out our duties collecting refuse from the residents of Dublin.

5 Greyhound workers maintain their picket at the Crag Avenue depot, Clondalkin

‘Greyhound has clear parallels with the 1913 Lockout and will be opposed today as it was back then’ COUNCILLOR DAITHÍ DOOLAN “My colleagues and I do not earn large amounts of money to carry out the essential task of collecting domestic refuse in Dublin.

Greyhound operatives earn between €9.50 and €11.45 per hour. Drivers earn €15.66 an hour. It is these wages that the company is seeking to cut by up to 35%.”

5 Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan joins workers on the picket line