An Phoblacht, September 2017

DOWNFALL How did Kevin Myers go on so long?

HUNGER STRIKE COMMEMORATION

BANTRY BAY

'Now is the time to deliver Irish unity' – Gerry Kelly

Charting a way for a haven

anphoblacht Sraith Nua Iml 40 Uimhir 9

Price €2 / £2

September / Meán Fómhair 2017

RUC death squad member says:

'MI5 boys and all the Intelligence people – they were all visiting Glenanne’

5 COLLUSION: Dublin (above) and Monaghan were bombed in 1974 by the Glenanne Gang, made up of RUC police officers, British Army soldiers and the loyalist paramilitary UVF, killing 34

1917 • THOMAS ASHE REMEMBERED • 2017

GPO to Glasnevin cemetery

SATURDAY 2pm 23rd SEPTEMBER

PAUSING FOR A MINUTE’S SILENCE AT MATER HOSPITAL & MOUNTJOY PRISON

2 September / Meán Fómhair 2017

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‘Nobody talks about the MI5 boys and all the Intelligence people – they were all visiting Glenanne’

Whitehall knew all about notorious UVF/RUC/UDR death squad, ex-member says

BY JOHN HEDGES BRITISH GOVERNMENT officials, Military Intelligence and MI5 all knew about the notorious Glenanne Gang unionist death squad that committed over 100 murders in Mid Ulster in the 1970s, one of its key members has said.

“Nobody talks about the MI5 boys and all the Intelligence people,” said former Royal Ulster Constabulary Sergeant John Weir, who was also a member of the illegal Ulster Volunteer Force.

“They were all visiting Glenanne.

Nobody talks about that.”

5 Sinn Féin MLA Linda Dillon

DUBLIN/MONAGHAN BOMBINGS The Glenanne Gang was an Ulster Volunteer Force death squad that included serving police officers in the RUC and the British Army’s Ulster Defence Regiment.

They are believed to have been responsible for 120 murders in the mid-1970s, including the Dublin/ Monaghan bombings and the Miami Showband Massacre.

The gang took their name from their base at a farm owned by former RUC police officer James Mitchell in Glenanne, south Armagh.

Weir and another RUC colleague, William ‘Billy’ McCaughey, were convicted of taking part in the murder of father-of-seven William Strathearn (39) at his home in Ahoghill, County Antrim, in April 1977.

Weir, born in County Monaghan, was also a member of the RUC’s elite Special Patrol Group.

Convicted in 1980, Weir was released from prison in 1993. Now aged 66, he is living in South Africa, where he spoke to Irish News reporter Connla Young.

5 Connla Young's interview (28 August) with John Weir, a serving police officer while in a UVF death squad with UDR soldiers

5 MI5: Behind the scenes at Glennane

He added: “Both sides have suffered but it’s just one side – the unionist side, the loyalist side – that is a bit reluctant to come out and make a big fuss about it because they feel they are closer to the security set-up at the time.”

‘DOWNING STREET KNEW’ The former RUC sergeant is adamant that senior officials in Downing Street and Whitehall were aware of the Glenanne Gang’s activities through senior officers in British Army Intelligence and MI5.

“Some of those men, they were connected to Parliament.

“Nobody wants a truth commission and that’s why the truth always stops at a few dirty apples as they call them, no matter what the investigation is about,” he said.

“They never come out and tell the truth – and the truth is MI5 and RUC Special Branch ran the civil war for X number of years.

“Surely everybody nowadays can see that.”

UVF/UDA TIES TO STATE FORCES

5 RUC Chief Superintendent Harry Breen knew about collusion, says Weir

The former police officer said that loyalist paramilitaries shared close ties with the RUC and the locally-recruited Ulster Defence Regiment, the largest regiment in the British Army.

“You had, on the loyalist side, the UDA and UVF. They were either in the UDR or their brothers were in the RUC or UDR, so they were all very, very closely knit, so it was understandable they were all working together,” he said.

Weir said that a former head of Special Branch, Assistant Chief Constable Brian Fitzsimmons, who was based in Newry at the time, was also aware of the activities of the Glenanne Gang.

Fitzsimmons was killed with 28 other senior security officials when the military Chinook he was travelling in crashed at the Mull of Kintyre in June 1994.

The former sergeant said that high-ranking RUC officers knew of his involvement with the Glenanne Gang. He repeated previous claims that senior officers, including Chief Superintendent Harry Breen, were aware of the collusion. Breen was shot dead along with colleague Superintendent Bob Buchanan in an IRA ambush outside the village of Jonesborough, County Armagh, as they made their way back from a meeting with gardaí in Dundalk in 1989.

Weir said that while he was serving in Newtownhamilton in County Armagh he was approached by “people” who suggested targets to him.

“To be quite honest, I thought I was untouchable.”

ONUS ON PSNI Connla Young’s interview with Weir places a greater onus on the PSNI for a thorough investigation into collusion between the British state and the loyalist Glenanne Gang, Sinn Féin MLA Linda Dillon said.

The party’s Victims and Survivors spokesperson said that it comes just weeks after Justice Treacy found the PSNI had failed to conduct a thorough investigation of “wholesale British state collusion with this death squad” (see Page 7).

“The British state has continually sought to deny and delay the truth about the role of its armed forces in running murder gangs during the conflict,” Linda Dillon said.

“This continuous refusal to take responsibility for its actions is unacceptable and adds to the pain and suffering of the victims.”

September / Meán Fómhair 2017

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3

British Labour Party shifts stance on Brexit

TICK, TOCK – TIME FOR TORIES TO GET REAL

5 Chris Hazzard MP, Sinn Féin’s Westminster Brexit spokesperson: 'We'll be meeting Labour in London'

BY JOHN HEDGES THE reported ‘dramatic policy shift’ by the British Labour Party aiming to continue Britain’s membership of the EU Single Market and the Customs Union while still leaving the political union after Brexit has been described by Sinn Féin’s David Cullinane TD as “a sensible move”.

Chris Hazzard, Sinn Féin’s Westminster Brexit spokesperson, said: “We will be in contact with the British Labour Party on their proposals and I will be meeting with them and other parties at Westminster in the coming weeks.”

The MP for South Down added, however, that remaining in the Customs Union and Single Market will only deal with some of the negative impacts of Brexit.

What is required to give effect to the ‘Remain’ vote of the people of the Six Counties is for the North to be granted ‘Designated Special Status Within the EU’, Chris Hazzard repeated.

Sinn Féin Dáil Brexit spokesperson David Cullinane TD told An Phoblacht: “It’s time for British Prime Minister Theresa May and the Tories to get real about the Brexit negotiations. They need to put solutions and substance on the table as time is moving on.

Tick, tock.”

The Waterford deputy said the difficulties are compounded by the fact that the EU is not simply negotiating with a British Government.

“They are negotiating with two wings of the Tory Party. And therein lies the problem.”

Speculation about the modified British Labour Party position came after an article by Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Brexit Secretary, Keir Starmer MP, in the Guardian newspaper.

“We need a transitional Brexit deal that provides maximum certainty and stability,” Keir Starmer said. “Labour will deliver it. If we are to deliver a deal that protects jobs and the economy, we must be clear about the hard choices that need to be made.

“Labour has repeatedly emphasised that, in order to avoid a cliff edge for our economy, there will need to be a time-limited transitional period between our exit from the EU and the new lasting relationship we build with our European partners.

This is a view shared widely by businesses and trade unions, who recognise the huge damage that an abrupt separation from the EU would cause to our economy.”

Criticising the “constructive ambiguity” of

THE CASE FOR

THE NORTH TO ACHIEVE

DESIGNATED SPECIAL STATUS WITHIN THE CASE FOR EU THE THE NORTH TO ACHIEVE

DESIGNATED SPECIAL STATUS WITHIN THE EU THE CASE FOR THE NORTH TO ACHIEVE SPECIAL DESIGNATED STATUS

THE CASE FOR THE NORTH TO ACHIEVE SPECIAL DESIGNATED

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22/11/2016 15:18

STATUS WITHIN THE EU.indd 1

THE CASE FOR THE NORTH TO ACHIEVE SPECIAL DESIGNATED STATUS

THE CASE FOR THE NORTH TO ACHIEVE SPECIAL DESIGNATED

WITHIN THE EU

STATUS WITHIN THE EU.indd 1

WITHIN THE EU

5 Sinn Féin Dáil Brexit spokesperson David Cullinane TD: 'Tories need to put solutions on the table'

and movement of people between Ireland and Britain. At the same time, they are pulling out of the Single Market, the Customs Union and the European Court of Justice.

“If the British Government are serious about safeguarding the Good Friday Agreement and maintaining progress, they must make clear how this will be achieved and clarify their future membership of the Customs Union.

“It is acknowledged that Brexit is without precedent and there is agreement that the Good Friday Agreement must be protected. The solution must be to provide for the North to have ‘Special Status Within the EU’.”

1

22/11/2016 15:18

Theresa May’s Tories that has caused so much confusion and concern, Keir Starmer said that the Labour Party is offering “a credible solution” to one of the most important issues facing Britain’s exit from the EU. He explained: “Labour would seek a transitional deal that maintains the same basic terms that we currently enjoy with the EU. That means we would seek to remain in a Customs Union with the EU and within the Single Market during this period. It means we would abide by the common rules of both.”

He said that by remaining inside the Customs Union and the Single Market in a transitional phase, goods and services could continue to flow between the EU and Britain and the North of Ireland “without tariffs, customs checks or additional red tape”.

The British Labour Party’s new position was also welcomed by the 26-County Labour Party and Fianna Fáil.

‘PUT BRITISH RHETORIC TO THE TEST’ David Cullinane said that the Irish Government

GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT

5 British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and the EU must “put British Government rhetoric to the test” after it released a series of “contradictory” position papers on Brexit.

“These claim to want to retain the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts and maintain free trade

The British Government has failed to give a long-term commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights, access to the EU Court of Human rights or how North/South co-operation would work in their vision of Brexit, David Cullinane said.

“All of these are central to the Good Friday Agreement and our economies and jobs, North and South.”

Recognition of these “inconsistencies” is reflected in the changing position of the British Labour Party, the Sinn Féin Dáil Brexit spokesperson said, adding: “The EU and the Irish Government must now put the British Government rhetoric to the test.”

4 September / Meán Fómhair 2017

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anphoblacht Editorial

WHAT'S INSIDE 6

Tacking the costs of education 7

Judge puts PSNI under pressure over Glenanne Gang investigation 9

Sinn Féin Summer School

Friday 8th September 6.30pm - 9.30pm Saturday 9th September 10.30 am - 7pm

Scoil Shamhraidh Shinn Féin

Michelle O’Neill MLA

will be the opening speaker.

The Mills Inn, Baile Bhuirne, Cork.

SPEAKERS

Journalist and filmmaker

Paul Mason

will speak about his book ‘Postcapitalism – A Guide to our Future’.

Author

Angela Nagle

will speak about her book ‘Kill All Normies – Online Culture wars from 4Chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right’.

anphoblacht Eagarfhocal

anphoblacht

member of the Icelandic Other speakers include founding MP, artist Jim Fitzpatrick, actor Pirate Party Birgitta Jonsdottir social historian Emma Dabiri John Connors, broadcaster and and journalist Vincent Browne.

Vincent Browne and Paul Mason to speak at Sinn Féin Summer School 10

What would Thomas Davis think now?

12

Conspóid Cúram Leanaí I gConamara 13

The Protestant tradition and the fight for the Republic 18

Struggles and politics of Travellers in neoliberal Ireland 31

John Joe McGirl – The Man from Ballinamore SUBSCRIBE ONLINE To get your An Phoblacht delivered direct to your mobile device or computer for just €10 per 12 issues and access to the historic The Irish Volunteer newspaperand An Phoblacht’s/IRIS the republican magazine archives

Irish Government must up its game in Brexit talks THE Irish Government needs to up its game to ensure a positive outcome for the island of Ireland in the Brexit talks between Britain and the EU. The talks in Brussels are entering a critical phase.

The EU’s chief negotiator on Brexit has told the British Government to “start negotiating seriously” about leaving the EU in March 2019.

The agenda for these talks includes the implications of Brexit for the Good Friday Agreement, the future arrangements for the Border, the rights of EU citizens in Britain and of British citizens in the EU, and the ‘divorce bill’ that the British have to pay on leaving the EU. In recent weeks, the British Government has published a range of contradictory papers dealing with some of these matters. The papers have been widely criticised as lacking in both depth and detail.

The British claim that they want to retain the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts, and maintain free trade and movement of people between Ireland and Britain, is at odds with the decision to pull out of the Single Market, the Customs Union, and the European Court of Justice.

The claim by the British that an invisible Border is possible on the island of Ireland has been described by some EU officials as “magical thinking”. Britain’s call for “flexible solutions” as it pursues a goal of avoiding Border posts “leaves EU officials rolling their eyes”, it has been said.

Contact

Layout and production: Mark Dawson production@anphoblacht.com

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

The proposed so-called technical fixes by the British to eliminate checks on goods have been dismissed as insufficient. Their repeated use of the phrase “flexible and imaginative solutions” without providing clear proposals to achieve any of these is not helping to resolve a difficult situation of their making.

Let us be clear: The British Government’s rejection of the European Court of Justice and London’s failure to give a long-term commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights constitute a direct attack on the Good Friday Agreement.

Crucially, the EU has promised to publish a position paper on Ireland in early September.

The Irish Government must engage forcefully with the EU to ensure that this paper reflects the best interests of both economies on the island, and in particular the Border region.

The apparent intention of the British Labour Party to seek continued British membership of the Single Market and the Customs Union during any transitional arrangement is an important development. Greater encouragement must be given to the debate within Britain about its future relationship with the EU. That said, Sinn Féin remains convinced that the best outcome for the two economies on the island of Ireland is for the North to be given ‘Designated Special Status Within the EU’.

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

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

www.anphoblacht.com

September / Meán Fómhair 2017

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Eoin Ó Broin TD

5

Like much of Government housing policy, Fine Gael’s schemes have failed to deliver affordable housing and in some cases have made things worse

If the private sector can’t meet the housing needs of average-income earners, who can?

CLAIRE AND EOGHAN are in their early 30s. Both have permanent positions in their respective public and private sector jobs. They are thinking of starting a family and buying their own home.

With a combined income of €60k they have mortgage approval for €210k. Their problem is that saving for a deposit while paying €1,400 a month in rent has been tough. Eoghan wonders whether they should move in with his parents until they have the €30k saved.

Cillian and Janice are in their mid-40s and both work in low-paid jobs. Making ends meet with two young children has been hard, so they do a lot of overtime while Mary’s mother minds the kids.

They used to be on the local council waiting list but when John recently got a promotion in work they were €1,000 a year over the €45k social housing eligibility threshold. They can no longer get the Housing Assistance Payment, and paying their full rent means that they are now worse off at the end of the month.

Seán and Máire have both separated from their previous relationships, leaving their family homes to their ex-partners and teenage children. Their combined income is just over €65k.

Their worry is what will happen when they retire.

In their late 50s, no bank will give them a mortgage.

They have modest occupational pensions and some savings but know it won’t cover the cost of market rent. While they may be eligible for social housing on retirement, the waiting list is 10 years.

These stories are not fiction. They are actual cases from my constituency clinic in Dublin Mid West.

They are just three of the thousands of families caught in the Governments housing affordability trap.

With a gross household income of between €45k and €65k they are not eligible for social housing support, struggle to afford the cost of renting and are locked out of the purchase market.

The mantra from Housing Ministers Simon Coveney and Eoghan Murphy is that private sector supply is the answer to these families’ needs. But private supply is slow and increased supply does not guarantee affordability.

This is why Fine Gael launched four separate schemes to nudge developers to deliver affordable housing.

Unfortunately, like much of Government housing

policy, these schemes have failed to deliver affordable housing and in some cases have made things worse.

In 2014, Labour Party Minister Alan Kelly announced the Planning Rebate Scheme. Developers could recoup the cost of levies to the council if they delivered units below a set price. Despite the generous public subsidy, only 1,283 units have been delivered.

Both Kelly and his successor, Simon Coveney, promised to deliver affordable rental housing. At the core of Government’s failure to break the affordability trap is a refusal to accept a simple fact – the private sector cannot or will not build and sell houses at a price affordable to those on middle incomes.

To provide rental or purchase homes for households with gross earnings of between €45k and €75k means sale prices of between €170k and €280k.

The construction industry has repeatedly told the Oireachtas Housing Committee that the most competitive price they can provide in Dublin today is €300k. This claim was backed up by a 2016 Institute of Chartered

5 Looking at housing in the private market is all that many average-income families can afford to do

Surveyors study of eight developments in Dublin which had an average price of €330k.

So if the private sector can’t meet the housing needs of average-income earners, who can?

In a Parliamentary Question reply on 20 June, new Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy confirmed the average all-in cost of building council houses in 2016/17 was €191k. That’s almost €140k cheaper than the private sector. Clearly this is where the affordable housing solution is to be found.

Eoghan Murphy must accept that the private sector will not provide houses for those on average incomes.

He must broaden the definition of public housing to include affordable rental and affordable purchase.

Thousands of affordable rental houses could be 6 Housing Minister Eoghan delivered by amending the Repair and Leasing Scheme.

Murphy: Will he make a real Exchanging up-front rent payments for security of tenure stand in the housing crisis? and rent certainty to private rental tenants would be an attractive option to many vacant homeowners.

Eoghan Murphy could be the Government Minister who finally got to grips with the affordable housing crisis And thousands of affordable purchase homes could be provided by allowing councils to develop mixed tenure estates on public land. Alongside traditional social housing would be affordable buyers and cost renters providing sustainable communities and a more viable revenue base for councils.

Eoghan Murphy could be the Government Minister who finally got to grips with the affordable housing crisis.

But only if he realises that his role is not to incentivise the private market but to deliver public housing for all those excluded from that market.

6 September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

TACKLING the COSTS of EDUCATION

Tackling the Costs of Education Ag dul i gcoinne hais an chostas d’Oideac

BY JOHN HEDGES THE COST OF EDUCATION at all levels in the 26 Counties is placing an even heavier burden on already-struggling families and making it harder to afford school and college, according to a Sinn Féin proposals in Tackling the Costs of Education, published in August.

Sinn Féin Dáil Education spokesperson Kathleen Funchion TD said that successive governments have failed families who “are at the end of their tether each year in battling excessive back-toschool costs”.

For families on low or average incomes, she said, these costs are a real burden: “Sinn Féin believes that, with investment and political will, we can remove the prohibitive cost barriers to education and ensure that all children, irrespective of their background, can access education on an equal footing.”

The annual Irish League of Credit Unions survey reported in July this year that one in four parents will have to deny their children some basic school items this year as they continue to struggle to fund the back-to-school spend.

The average return-to-school spend continues to increase and has now reached €1,209 per child – up from €1,185 last year (a 2% rise) and more than a quarter say the costs will negatively impact on paying household bills.

Almost three quarters of parents continue to see the back-to-school spend as a financial burden, despite a 2% drop in the numbers getting into debt for the new school year.

SCHOOL UNIFORMS ÉIDE SCOILE Research by Barnardos shows that the average spend on school uniforms per student ranges from €170 in primary school to €255 in secondary school.

SINN FÉIN PROPOSALS INCLUDE:» Schools be legally obliged to consult with parents in determining school uniform policy or dress code policy; » The principle of ensuring school uniforms are affordable should be established on a statutory footing similar to the School Admissions Code in England; » Statutory obligation to provide generic school uniforms where it is clear that there is sufficient demand from parents.

SCHOOLBOOKS LEABHAIR SCOILE According to children’s charity Barnardos, the average cost of schoolbooks per child ranges from €70 for a primary school pupil to €275 for a secondary school pupil.

5 Jamie Sloan, Brianna Quinn and Josh Hazel join TDs Imelda Munster and Kathleen Funchion to launch Sinn Féin's proposals to help cut back-to-school costs

Figures from the Department of Education and Skills show that while 95% of primary schools operate a schoolbook rental scheme, only 65% of secondary schools operate such a scheme.

The extensive use of workbooks has been a key concern of parents as these often cannot be purchased secondhand and represent extremely poor value for money.

The Joint Oireachtas Report on Tackling School Costs recommended that the use of workbooks should be discontinued in all schools.

SINN FÉIN PROPOSALS INCLUDE:» The Department of Education and Skills should review the arrangements with educational publishers, particularly in relation to the operation of the Voluntary Code of Practice and the promise to provide textbooks at a discount to schools. A new MANDATORY code of practice should be established if necessary; » Instructions should be issued to schools on the use of workbooks and changing textbooks with a view to reducing these practices where possible to create savings for parents; » Funding for Schoolbook Schemes should be increased over the next five years to a budget of €60million by 2022 to provide free schoolbooks

to all children in line with the recommendation of the Joint Oireachtas Report.

VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS DRÉACHT DHEONACH Sinn Féin wants to end so-called ‘voluntary’ contributions. Until the level of funding to schools is restored to an acceptable level to allow that to happen, Sinn Féin’s Education (Regulation of Voluntary Contributions Bill) 2017 seeks to give the Minister for Education and Skills power to strictly regulate the area of voluntary contributions.

A ‘voluntary’ contribution can range between €80 and €150 per child.

In some cases, the children of parents who resist making contributions are denied access to facilities such as lockers until the money is paid.

SINN FÉIN PROPOSALS INCLUDE:» Government regulates the practice of seeking voluntary contributions and ensures that no child is treated unfavourably because their parent did not make a voluntary contribution; » Capitation funding to schools be increased by €35million over the next five years to restore the rates to pre-recession levels; » Additional funding of €20million be made

available to schools for the purposes of additional classroom resources such as photocopying, art supplies and other equipment.

SCHOOL MEALS AND SCHOOL TRANSPORT BÉILE SCOILE AGUS TAISTIL SCOILE The emphasis of the school meals programme has been on the operation of breakfast clubs with funding extended in recent years to school lunch programmes.

SINN FÉIN PROPOSALS INCLUDE:» Doubling the funding to the school meals programme over the next five years to increase access to the scheme; » Prioritise the provision of lunches and breakfasts to all DEIS pupils and allocate the full funding required to provide this for the full school term; » A full review of the operation of the value for money recommendations of the school transport scheme from a child rights perspective; » Increase funding to the school transport scheme by €30million over the next five years with a view to making the service more flexible and affordable for parents.

September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

7

Police chiefs accused of frustrating probe into collusion between loyalist UVF, RUC and British Army

Judge puts PSNI under pressure over Glenanne Gang investigation

Glenanne Gang members may have been involved in the 1974 killing of Independent Nationalist Councillor Patsy Kelly, whose body was weighted down and dumped in Lough Eyes, County Fermanagh, by his killers.

The revelation came during a meeting held between the North’s Police Ombudsman, Dr Michael Maguire, and members of Patsy Kelly’s family. They were accompanied by solicitor Patrick Fahy and Sinn Féin MP Barry McElduff.

Father of five Patsy Kelly, an Independent member of Omagh District Council, was killed in July 1974 as he returned from work at the Corner Bar in Trillick, County Tyrone.

His killing was claimed by loyalists but local people reported seeing an Ulster Defence Regiment military

BY PEADAR WHELAN A HIGH COURT JUDGE in Belfast has accused senior PSNI chiefs of “unlawfully” frustrating an effective inquiry into state collusion with an Ulster Volunteer Force death squad that included serving members of the British Army’s Ulster Defence Regiment and the PSNI’s predecessor, the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

The Glenanne Gang is accused of involvement in as many as 120 sectarian killings in east Tyrone, Armagh and north Louth.

Based on the south Armagh farm of former RUC police officer James Mitchell, the loyalist killer gang was also responsible for the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings (in which 33 people were killed) and the Miami Showband Massacre.

The families of people killed by the Glenanne Gang in court on Friday 28 July to hear Mr Justice Treacy’s

‘Mr Justice Treacy has concluded that the RUC and the largest regiment in the British Army at the time, the UDR, have a case to answer against credible charges of mass murder’ Pat Finucane Centre after the High Court verdict

ruling are now demanding that a major independent inquiry be set up to get to the truth of allegations of collusion between the gang and the British state.

Justice Treacy, sitting in Belfast’s High Court, was ruling on the case brought

by Edward Barnard whose 13-year-old brother, Patrick, was killed in a bomb attack on the Hillcrest Bar in Dungannon at the height of the death squad’s campaign in 1976.

Edward Barnard was challenging the then PSNI Chief Constable, Matt Baggott, over his force’s decision to shelve an investigation by the Historical Enquiries Team into the gang’s activities even though the report was 80% completed. The victim’s brother wants the PSNI to be compelled to complete the full investigation and publish the findings.

According to the ruling, the package

5 Glenanne Gang's victims ranged from across the Six Counties to Dublin and Monaghan and included the Miami Showband

of measures for ensuring the independence of the Historical Enquiries Team that had been agreed in 2009 began to be dismantled in 2010 when all cases with “potential evidential opportunities” were transferred to the PSNI. When the PSNI established the Legacy Investigations Branch in 2014 to replace the Historical Enquiries Team, it continued the HET’s work but with “reduced scope and lack of independence”.

According to Justice Treacy, the families “were denied in their legitimate expectation that the Historical Enquiries Team would publish an overarching thematic report” on the Glenanne Gang’s activities.

“The Chief Constable, in halting that process, has turned his back on a potentially rich source of evidential opportunities,” the High Court judge said.

“The decision frustrates any possibility of an effective investigation which

would fulfil the Article 2 [European Convention on Human Rights] duty and any possibility that the Article 2 duty would be fulfilled.”

Human rights NGO Pat Finucane Centre said after the judgment: “Mr Justice Treacy has concluded that the RUC and the largest regiment in the British Army at the time, the UDR, have a case to answer against credible charges of mass murder.”

Meanwhile, it has emerged that

5 Many members of the RUC and the British Army's Ulster Defence Regiment worked hand in glove with the UVF death squad

The Glenanne Gang is accused of involvement in as many as 120 sectarian killings in east Tyrone, Armagh and north Louth as well as the Miami Showband Massacre and the Dublin/Monaghan bombings patrol in the area on the night he was murdered and his body ‘disappeared’.

In 2003, the Historical Enquiries Team took on the case. Despite being told that the ‘cold case’ investigation was all but complete, the family never received the final report.

On Tuesday 8 August, the family met with Police Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire and they were told that there were “common features” in personnel in those involved and some of those connected to the Glenanne Gang.

Patsy Kelly’s son (also called Patsy) said he would like clarity to see if his father’s case should now be part of the wider Glenanne investigation.

“We were very interested in the comment regarding the ‘common features’ with Glenanne,” he said after the meeting. “This is not something we’ve heard before.”

“If true, it would confirm our belief that it was Ulster Defence Regiment members involved and we would also be asking that our father’s case be included in the thematic investigation.”

8 September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

The bittersweet fall of Kevin Myers

BY MARK MOLONEY THE FALL of pompous loudmouth and serial anti-republican whinger Kevin Myers over his attack on British TV and radio stars undeniably brought a feeling of schadenfreude among many, including ersthwile colleagues.

His article in the Ireland edition of the Sunday Times on the BBC gender pay gap entitled ‘Sorry, ladies – ­ Equal pay has to be earned’ prompted immediate outrage from what Mr Myers would usually refer to as ‘right-thinking people’.

With blatant misogyny throughout, Myers went on to note that two of the BBC’s highest-paid women presenters

As with other odious ‘plainspeaking, fearless’ columnists in the Establishment media, the aim of Myers and his ilk is not to stimulate substantive debate but to raise the blood pressure of readers by picking on vulnerable groups (Vanessa Feltz and Claudia Winkleman) happen to be Jewish. “Good for them.

Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price,” he wrote, reprising the old stereotype by equating Jews with money.

As with other odious ‘plain-speaking, fearless’ columnists in the Establishment media, the aim of Myers and his ilk is not to stimulate substantive debate but to raise the blood pressure of readers by picking on vulnerable groups.

This time, though, Myers made a gross miscalculation.

Instead of targeting people who

cannot hit back, he singled out by name two presenters who command the affection of millions of listeners and viewers as household names.

Myers was goosed.

What was more telling, however, was the reaction from British readers when some of Myers’s previous journalistic outpourings began seeping onto social media platforms from the depths of the Irish Independent and Irish Times archives .

How had a man who had penned such articles as “Africa gives absolutely nothing to anyone – apart from AIDS, that is” and others where he asks how many young women “consciously embark upon a career of mothering bastards because it seems a good way of getting money and accommodation from the state” been permitted to continue to write for any publication, including the self-important Irish Times and Irish Independent?

He was allowed to continue scribbling away at the Irish Independent long after writing a piece about Nazi Germany which included the line: “There was no Holocaust . . . and six million Jews were not murdered by the

Third Reich. These two statements of mine are irrefutable truths.”

The Indo suddenly discovered a conscience and pulled the Holocaust article from its website, belatedly stating that it “does not comply with our editorial ethos”. It only took them eight years to make that call.

The answer as to why he has continued to be tolerated in the mainstream print and broadcast media is very simple. Myers, like many of his fellow travellers, has remained a pillar of the Irish journalistic landscape because his views coincide with the Establishment commentariat when it comes to a very key area – electoral politics.

In the wake of the Sunday Times scandal, US newspaper publisher and commentator Niall O’Dowd correctly described Myers as “viciously anti-Sinn Féin”.

The Irish Independent and its multitude of vassal newspapers have maintained their staunchly anti-republican line throughout their history – even going so far as to rail against the Peace Process.

The level of vitriol ebbs and flows as the electoral cycle changes and it

5 Myers went too far attacking BBC stars but Irish media saw little wrong till then

reaches near-hysteria at election time.

And it’s then that individuals such as Kevin Myers prove their worth.

The opinions of this cohort of elites suddenly find a new gravitas when an election is near. Their views dictate the parameters of talk shows, their quotes are put to politicians in interviews and, despite not being grounded in reality,

5 Kevin Myers: 'There was no Holocaust . . . and six million Jews were not murdered by the Third Reich'

help shape the narrative of an election.

Throw in a disgruntled former Sinn Féin activist, a political rival hiding their party colours under a columnist’s hat, or even a so-called dissident republican-turned-commentator (a bitter man

How had such a man been permitted to continue to write for any publication, including the self-important Irish Times and Irish Independent? with a blog), and you’ve got a battery of voices to talk down the biggest serious challenge the political Establishment is faced with.

And that’s the real story here.

Much of the commentariat and their repugnant views are not just tolerated by the media but encouraged and promoted because they also happen to hate Sinn Féin. Unfortunately for them, their views are no longer confined to the deadwood of the Irish Independent’s comment section.

Facing more scrutiny than ever, this previously protected species will have to exercise more caution about who they aim their vitriol at.

September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

9

Mason and ul Pa list na ur jo st ivi ct -a ed rn -tu Vincent Browne, TV economist SummerSchool SF @ at up elin in jo e gl Na na Alt-Right expert An

l, o o h c S r e m m u S in é Sinn F 8/9 September

VINCENT BROWNE, award-winning former BBC Newsnight and Channel 4 Economics Editor Paul Mason, Che Guevara artist Jim Fitzpatrick and actor John Connors (Love/ Hate, Cardboard Gangsters) are amongst the headline names at this year’s Sinn Féin Summer School over the weekend 8/9 September.

As the shockwaves from the Charlottesville violence by neo-Nazis shake the political foundations under Donald Trump, Angela Nagle, author of the newly-published Kill All Normies: The Online Culture Wars from Tumblr and 4chan to the Alt-Right and Trump, will be amongst the speakers in Baile Bhúirne, County Cork.

‘After Brexit and Trump, is this the end of globalisation?’ will be debated by a panel that includes Icelandic Pirate Party Member of Parliament Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Nasos Iloupolous of SYRIZA, Dr Cara Augustonborg (Chairperson of Friends of the Earth Europe) and Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy.

Paul Mason Journalist, film-maker and Guardian columnist Paul Mason will speak about the Corbyn surge in Britain and his book Postcapitalism – A Guide to Our Future, a best-seller now translated into 16 languages.

Paul has covered Greece, the Gaza war and the Scottish referendum as a TV reporter and in 2015 he produced the documentary series about the first six months of SYRIZA in Greece, #ThisIsACoup.

He won the Wincott Prize for Business Journalism in 2003, named Workworld Broadcaster of the Year in 2004, and was given the Diageo African Business Reporting Award in 2007. His report on the social movements behind Bolivian president Evo Morales was cited when Newsnight was awarded the Orwell Prize in the same year.

John Connors

Sinn Féin Summer Schooln Féin

Friday 8th September 6.30pm - 9.30pm Saturday 9th September 10.30 am - 7pm

Scoil Shamhraidh Shin

Michelle O’Neill MLA

will be the opening speaker.

The Mills Inn, Baile Bhuirne, Cork.

SPEAKERS

Journalist and filmmaker

Paul Mason

will speak about his book ‘Postcapitalism – A Guide to our Future’.

Author

Angela Nagle

will speak about her book ‘Kill All Normies – Online Culture wars from 4Chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right’.

Jim Fitzpatrick Artist Jim Fitzpatrick is renowned for his cover designs for the Thin Lizzy albums, his images of the seven signatories and his elaborately-detailed work inspired by the Irish Celtic tradition but is best known for his iconic and internationally-famous portrait of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara.

In 2011, Jim announced his intention to copyright his Che Guevara graphic, which he initially released copyright-free for intended use among revolutionary groups in Europe and elsewhere. He has blamed “crass commercial” exploitation of the image for his decision and he plans to hand over the copyright and all rights, in perpetuity, to Che Guevara’s family in Cuba.

Vincent Browne

Angela Nagle Author Angela Nagle has written for the The New Yorker, The Baffler, The Irish Times and many other publications. Since completing her PhD on anti-feminist online subcultures, she is recognised as an expert on the right-wing, white nationalist ‘Alt-Right’ that has hit world headlines after the Charlottesville ‘Unite the Right’ rally and its reverberations.

Her book, Kill All Normies – The Online Culture Wars from 4Chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right, has been described as “a timely exploration of the Alt-Right as a cultural and political force – a reactionary political movement whose adherents include white nationalists like Richard Spencer and more influential people like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, both of whom serve as key advisers for President Trump”.

John Connors, whose highly acclaimed film Cardboard Gangsters is currently showing in Irish cinemas, is widely recognised for playing Patrick Ward in the acclaimed RTÉ TV crime drama Love/Hate.

As a Traveller, John is no stranger to discrimination and has since presented and produced groundbreaking TV documentaries on Travellers, race and identity. He will join Sinn Féin’s John Finucane and broadcaster and social historian Emma Dabiri (presenter of Is Love Racist? on Channel 4 and The Sweet Makers on BBC) to discuss if we can build an inclusive Irish identify that embraces those from all backgrounds and communities.

ng member of the Icelandic Other speakers include foundi MP, artist Jim Fitzpatrick, actor Pirate Party Birgitta Jonsdottir social historian Emma Dabiri John Connors, broadcaster and and journalist Vincent Browne.

Vincent Browne may have bowed out from his TV3 politics chat show but he’ll be taking the stage again to bring the curtain down on this year’s Sinn Féin Summer School to debate Eoin Ó Broin TD on the question of whether Sinn Féin is the party that is going to radically transform Ireland.

The place The opening address at the Sinn Féin Summer School will be given by Sinn Féin’s leader in the North, Michelle O’Neill MLA. Other Sinn Féin speakers include Liadh Ní Riada MEP as well as John Finucane, Matt Carthy MEP and Eoin Ó Broin TD. The 2017 Sinn Féin Summer School takes places at the Mills Inn, Baile Bhúirne, County Cork, on the Friday and Saturday, 8/9 September.

There is an entrance fee of €10.

Doors open at 6pm on Friday and Saturday’s debates kick off at 10:30am.

For further information or queries on accommodation, contact Tom Hanlon at 087 763 9911.

Follow on Twitter @SFSummerSchool

10 September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

A RADICAL VOICE ON SO MANY SUBJECTS AND – MOST IMPORTANTLY – HIS CONCEPT OF THE SPIRIT OF A NATION

What would

Thomas Davis think now?

Daniel O’Connell, who supported British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel’s introduction of separate schools and universities for Catholics and Protestants.

ON HISTORY

BY ROBBIE SMYTH I’M CERTAIN that Thomas Davis would have been on Twitter. And I reckon that the 19th century political activist, writer, Young Irelander and co-founder of The Nation newspaper would have had a Facebook page and followers on Instagram and Snapchat too.

The anniversaries of Davis’s birth and death in 1845 fall in September and October, as does the publication of the first edition of The Nation in 1842. Maybe it is time to look closer at the Davis of the 1840s and wonder what he would make of Ireland today.

He wrote expansively but his works are sadly out of print. An Internet search will find some complete PDFs of his collected writings: one in the 20th century by T. W. Rolleston (another great but now almost-forgotten writer) and a previous edition completed in the months after his death by Charles Gavan Duffy.

The 19th century Davis had none of today’s confessional journalism. There is no commentary on his journey from being the son of surgeon attached to a British Army regiment to a radical

anti-imperialist who was writing a biography of Wolfe Tone in his last months before his death from scarlet fever.

Davis is a radical voice on art, poetry, the Irish language, history, education, the economy, archaeology, the politics of the day and – most importantly – his concept of the spirit of a nation.

The Ireland that Davis wrote about is of a people – all the people, no matter their religion, wealth or status. Davis could see Ireland slipping and diluting its essence of nationality into a subservient role as a region, little more than a county of Britain. In an essay titled ‘The Library of Ireland’, Davis articulates his fear that Ireland “promised to become a farm for Lancashire”.

Davis wanted us to wake up, to embrace our heritage, our language, and rebuild ourselves as a self-governing people.

ON EDUCATION Davis wrote extensively about education. “The first business of life is the improvement of one’s own heart and mind,” he said.

In terms of the British-designed school system emerging at the time, Davis wrote: “These schools are very good so far as they go . . . but they are not national, they do not use the Irish language, nor teach anything particularly Irish.”

He wanted parents to “procure books on the history, men, language, music and manners of Ireland for their children”.

In Influences of Education he writes: “Educate that you may be free.”

Knowledge was a key step in Ireland becoming a nation, he maintained.

He believed that education should be entirely secular and in holding to this he fell out with

Davis felt that Irish history was being forgotten; a key essence of Ireland was being lost.

He used ballads and poems as one means to rectify this as well as using The Nation newspaper to print chronologies of historical events and people. The reasoning for this approach was that the new school system of the time promoted rote learning. Davis adapted The Nation’s content to take advantage of a reader ready to learn things off by heart.

Today we still sing A Nation Once Again, and other writers of the time, including the poet Clarence Mangan, were given a platform for their work that didn’t exist elsewhere in Ireland at the time.

“Something has to be done to rescue Ireland from the reproach that she was a wailing and ignorant slave,” are the opening words of Davis’s essay on The History of Ireland.

“We must know our history,” writes Davis, because “We want to win Ireland and keep it.”

We don’t want to give it away to “a bribing, a bullying, or a flattering minister”.

“A mockery of Irish independence is not what we want” writes Davis, which makes one wonder what he would think of our involvement in the EU, the rerunning of the Nice and Lisbon Treaty referendums, and what he would make of trade deals such as TTIP and CETA being negotiated in secret.

I think in this decade of centenaries Davis would have been thrilled at the mass interest in remembering and marking our revolutionary past.

He would have had some searching questions as to the decades of censorship preceding this and the revisionist historians whose work was hyped and promoted by institutional Ireland.

Davis himself fell victim to this historical censorship in 1945. Seán Cronin’s definitive book (and again out of print), Irish Nationalism: A History of Its Roots and Ideology, points out that the centenary commemorations booklet printed ignored all the writings of Davis on education because of his support for secular schools and universities.

James Fintan Lalor

ON IRELAND’S ARCHAEOLOGY Davis attacked plans to build a road through Newgrange, now recognised as one of the oldest

Pádraig Pearse

a hundred generations, and the stranger who is within our gates

MÍCHEÁL Mac D

Thomas Davis – 200th anniversary of his b THOMAS September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

THOMAS DAVIS was one of the most significant Irish nationalists of the 19th century. His writings helped to shape Irish nationalism itself and they exercised a key influence on the cultural and political revival of the early 20th century.

Born in Mallow, County Cork, in 1814, Davis’s family background was Church of Ireland Protestant and his father was a surgeon in the British Army. When Davis was four years old, his father died and the family moved to Baggot Street, Dublin.

5 'A mockery of Irish independence is not what we want,' said Thomas Davis It was there that he (Someone please send this article to Jeffrey human-made structures on the island but then lived the remaining Donaldson and Arlene Foster.) just an overgrown mound.

23 Davis years of histhese life.“Irish antiquities” as “a described AN ECONOMIC VISION thing to be proud of” which must be “guarded Educated in Morgan’s Davis addressed topics such as unfair taxes, as an illustration of her early creed and arts”.

The School, Davis said later he Newgrange road plan is described by Davis as inequality, exploitation, the negative impact of the “learned to know, and a “brutal outrage” and, if carried out, we would emerging factory system and British imperialism. knowing, to my counThe shadow of the coming famine years is “bitterly repentlove the desecration”.

Davis exhorts readers to visit museums, evident when he writes: trymen”.

He his also spent “Irish artisans, without work, must live on ancient time historical sites and learn about much with relatives in our past. the refuse of the soil, and Irish peasants must Tipperary, a county inspired his eat lumpers or starve. Part of the exports go to SPIRIT OF Athat NATION “We must keep our own souls and try, by teaching and example, to lift up the souls of all our family and neighbours to that pitch of industry, courage, information and wisdom necessary to enable an enslaved, dark, and starving people to become free, rich, and rational.”

Davis was not known as a great orator. He captured people’s attention in his writing.

Amongst his readers were James Fintan Lalor and Pádraig Pearse.

What Davis articulated was the idea of a spirit of a nation, that being Irish is something expressed in thought, language, art, music and a communal care for each other. Davis promoted the idea of national academies for preserving music, art, literature, and paintings of living and songs and informed his political dead artists.

Davis wanted an Ireland that knew its language. views.

“A people without is only Davis began as aalanguage supporter of half thea nation,” he wrote, adding: British Liberal Party butandinlearn Trinity “To lose your native tongue that of College, where he studied arts an alien is the worst badge of conquest; itand is the chainhis on the soul.” law, Irish nationalism developed. was certainly prescient when wrote He Davis entered Trinity in 1831 on thehesame that any attempt to introduce Irish “either through day as a young Presbyterian from the national schools or the courts of law to the Newry, John alsofail”. to eastern side of Mitchel, the island who wouldwas certainly Instead, Davis believed:influential Irish become a hugely “The Irish language should be cherished, nationalist. taught, and esteemed, and that it can be preserved In 1840, Davis gave an address to and gradually extended.”

Davis’s family background was Church of Ireland Protestant and his father was a surgeon in the British Army

the Trinity College Historical Society ORANGE ANDthe GREEN in which he urged privileged, The sectarian nature of Irishof politics often English-oriented students whatiswas addressed by Davis. then the only university in Ireland to In The Orange and the Green he was inspired study the history andthat literature by an Evening Mail article supportedof an Ireland.

His point was summed up in all-Ireland repeal movement. said “Gentlemen, he hoped “as the his Davis phrase youOrangemen have a become more enlightened they will more and country.” While this fell on many deaf more value the love of their countrymen, be ears it was heard by some whoconscious would prouder of their country, and more go play leading roles the thaton theirto ambition, interest, and evenin security are identical withmovement. nationality”.

Young Ireland The Evening Mail had written: In 1841, Davis joined the Repeal “The repeal banner might then be orange Association ledfrom by the Daniel and green, flying Giant’sO’Connell, Causeway to campaigning for Repeal the Union the Cove of Cork and proudlyof look down from the walls of Derry a new-born nation.” with Britain andupon legislative independence for Ireland. While he recognised

11

10

DAVIS QUOTES

In the spring of 1842, Davis, Dillon world, and sanctified by wisdom, and Duffy agreed to establish a week- virtue and prudence.” ly paper to champion the nationalist John Mitchel later (in The Last “The first business of life is theDavis cause. They made their decision after Conquest of Ireland) credited a walk in the Phoenix Park, described with winning much Protestant improvement of one’s own supby Duffy: “Sitting under a noble elm in port forand the cause: heart mind.” the park, facing Kilmainham, (MEANS “Whatever was done, throughout AND AIDS TO SELF EDUCATION) we debated the project, and the whole movement, to win “A people without agreed on the general plan.”

Protestant support, wasa language the work of The first issue of The Nation Davis.

Hishalfgenius, his perfect is only a nation.” newspaper appeared on 15 unselfishness, his LANGUAGE) accomplishments, (OUR NATIONAL October 1842. Twelve his cordial manner, his high and “Educate character, that you may be dash free.”and thousand copies were chivalrous and the (INFLUENCES OF EDUCATION) sold on the first day. impetus of his writings, soon brought Sales increased in the around him a gifted circle of young “As well of youallmight leaveand the none, months ahead as the Irishmen religions fairies to plough your land paper became the main who afterwards received the or nickthe ‘Young idle winds to sow it as sit organ of the Repeal name Ireland’.” movement and its rousWhile Davis and Young Ireland supdown and wait for freedom.” context of being bribed by the British state. Davis ing prose and verse ported O’Connell they were inde(THE RIGHT ROAD) writes that “[we] will not sacrifice to pursue the stirred nationalist feelpendent of him.

They were suspicious chance of being allowed a third or a half even “The people of the country of the offices, profligacy, and oppression of the ing throughout Ireland. of his relationship with the British British Empire”. Davis set out the nonpolitical parties,They histill focus on are its wealth. its sectarian basis of the Westminster and his overblown rhetosoil, raise its produce, ply its 'THE NATION' The TODAY Nation in its AND DAVIS trade. They serve, sustain, The strength of Davis is in the persistence of “Prospectus”: support, supply, save it.” his political“A activism and vision.which may nationality (THE IRISH PEOPLE) He, Charles Gavan Duffy and John Blake embrace Protestant, Catholic and Dillon were journalists. Sitting under a tree in Dissenter and Cromwellian Thomastools Davis Park–inMilesian 1842, they came up with the buy rags and farming which once went Phoenix “The factory system seems of starting The of Nation. for clothes and all other goods to Irish opera- idea – the Irishman a hundred generaeverywhere a poison to To puts its success in context, The Freeman’s tives, and theas restthe goesleader to raise of money pay tions, and the stranger who is within O’Connell the toIrish virtue and happiness.” was selling 1,293 papers daily and The absentee rents and imperial taxes.” our gates.

Not a nationality which people, Davis sought a deeper form of Journal (HOME MANUFACTURES) Addressing the growing industrialisation of Freeman's Weekly had a circulation of 6,650. The would prelude civilprinted war 12,000 but which ric. When O’Connell proposed the national revival, economedition of The Nation copies the economy, Daviscultural believes and that “the factory first would establish internal union convening ofpeople a ‘Council 300’ to act ic as well as everywhere political. Two other like- and sold out within the day. At its height,and the “Are system seems a poison to virtue the Irish so of forgetful had 250,000 weekly readers. and happiness”. external independence; a nationality of as the a kind of Irish parliament, along the minded journalists were John Blake paper common cause which I wonder how many Twitter followers Thomas Davis is repeatedly clear about the need for which would be recognised by the lines followed later by Sinn Féin, the Dillon and Charles Gavan Duffy. an independent, free Ireland, especially in the Davis would have today. binds them to the Indian and Young Irelanders enthusiastically supthe American as to give their ported the call but were bitterly disapflexible valour, backed pointed genius, when their O’Connell and their holding down.

Thispassions was evento more the case in down the subject races?”

1843 when ‘The Liberator’ caved in (IRELAND AND ENGLAND) and cancelled what was to be the largest of his ‘monster meetings’ at “ItClontarf is not aafter gambling fortune, made the British Government at imperial banned it. play, Ireland wants.”

IDEALS) Through (IRISH all this period Davis wrote prolifically for The Nation. He urged “To her peasants into snugof Irish theget development of all aspects homesteads with well-tilled life and a spirit of self-reliancefields which, and placid hearths;Sinn to develop again, prefigured Féin. Unlike O’Connell, whoofurged the Irish people the ingenuity her artists, and to drop the Irish language, Davis the docile industry of her artisans; championed it: own instruction to make for her “To impose another a literature wherein ourlanguage climate, on such a people is to send their history history, and passions shall adrift among the accidents of translabreathe; and to gain conscious tion – ’tis to tear their identity from all strength integrity, anda the places . . . and A people without language high post of holy freedom.

These of its own is only half a nation. A are Ireland’s wants.” nation should guard its language (IRISH IDEALS) – ’tis a surer more than its territories barrier, and more important frontier, “Ourfortress oppressors have belied than or river . . . To lose your us totongue, excuseand their native to tyranny, learn that of an andisthe often alien, the Irish worsttoo badge of conquest – it is the chain on the soul.” and dissembled for shelter Davis was for acutely aware of the ecobragged consolation.”

5 Thomas Davis, Charles Gavan Duffy and John Blake Dillon discuss founding 'The Nation' newspaper

Thomas Davis, Charles Gavan Duffy and John Blake Dillon discuss founding 'The Nation' nomic ruin resulted from the under a tree in the Phoenix Park, Dublin (IRISHthat LITERATURE) conquest of Ireland by England and newspaper under a tree in the Phoenix Park, Dublin

em R

A people without a language of its own is only half a nation

the

P

the mass renting la the Scan ship of la farms an landlordi “Those cease to and apply to the wo antry. Wh serfs the Free the p All else is Davis most cat lordism Hunger months Septemb birthday. writings Nation O and Ton Churchy deserve t • Thom October month.

12 September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

Impleachtaí do phleanáil teanga sa Ghaeltacht tré chéile

Conspóid Cúram Leanaí i gConamara Le Trevor Ó Clochartaigh TÁ CUID mhaith cainte tarraingthe le cúpla seachtain anuas maidir le ionad cúram leanaí i gConamara a dtugtar an Ionad Tacaíochta Teaghlaigh, nó An Crann Taca air. Ionad lán Ghaeilge atá anseo, a chuireann seirbhísí éagsúla luathoideachais agus cúram leanaí ar fáil i gceantar Chois Fharraige. Ach, tá míshásamh imeasc roinnt mhaith tuismitheoirí agus daoine sa bpobal maidir leis an gcaoi a bhfuil siad ag dul i mbun a gcuid oibre.

Baineann cuid na deacrachtaí le stair fhada san ionad ó thaobh athruithe foirne, deacrachtaí bainistíochta agus maoiniú an ionaid. Baineann roinnt eile le h-easpa cumarsáide rialta maidir le gach a bhfuil ag tarlú ann.

Níl sé éasca ionad cúram leanaí a rith. Tá tú ag brath go mór ar choistí deonacha, foireann dhílis ar dhrochphá agus toil na dtuismitheoirí.

Tá sé iontach deacair oibrithe a earcú san earnáil mar nach bhfuiltear ach ag íoc beagán le cois an íosphá náisiúnta leo agus ar an taobh eile tá na dualgais ag méadú agus táthar ag súil le cáilíochtaí níos airde an t-am ar fad.

Tá an scéal níos casta arís nuair is seirbhís trí mheán na Gaeilge atáthar ag cur ar fáil, mar go bhfuil tú ag lorg duine le Gaeilge líofa sa bhreis ar an méid eile ar fad. Ní bhíonn sé éasca teacht ar na daoine seo. Níos deacra arís amuigh faoin dtuath agus feiceann muid oibrithe ag fágáil na h-earnála agus iad ag glacadh le postanna mar chúntóirí riachtanais speisialta is a macasamhail,

IN PICTURES

mar go bhfuil pá níos fearr le fáil ar uaireanta níos lú agus strus níos lú ag baint leis deir siad.

Tá casadh eile ar scéal nó dhó eile ar scéal An Chrann Taca áfach. Tógadh an t-áras seo ar fad leis an bpríomhchuspóir ó thaobh na Gaeilge a chur chun cinn. Is ar an mbunús sin a fuair siad

an maoiniú ar fad. Bhí conspóid ann cúpla bliain ó shin nuair, in ainneoin riar mhaith airgead a chur ar fáil don tógáil, nár éirigh le Feidhmeannacht na Seirbhíse Sláinte lonnú ann de bharr nach raibh bainistíocht an Ionaid sásta ó thaobh polasaí teanga di.

Bhí deacrachtaí airgeadais ag an ionad anuas tríd na blianta chomh maith. B’éigean socrú a dhéanamh ar feadh roinnt blianta go gcuirfeadh Comharchumann Shailearna teo., eagraíocht forbartha pobail áitiúil, seirbhís bainistíochta ar fáil don ionad. Anois, táthar ag cur socrú nua eile bainistíochta i bhfeidhm agus baint ag comhlacht tithíocht pobail Tearmann Éanna leo. Níl sé iontach soiléir cén ceangal dlíthiúil atá idir na h-eagrais éagsúla seo, ná cá luíonn an bhróg ó thaobh freagracht sláinte & sábháilteachta agus cosaint leanaí di.

Tá cuid mhaith cainte tarraingthe chomh maith ag an gcur chuige ó thaobh sruthlú páistí sa naíonra bunaithe ar chumas a dteanga labhartha. Tá dream amháin go láidir ar a shon agus tuismitheoirí eile den tuairim go ndéanfaidh sé dochar ó thaobh sóisialú na bpáistí di. Is deacair feiceáil cén réiteach a bheidh ar an scéal a shásóidh gach duine.

An bun rud a theastaíonn chun teacht ar chomhthuiscint, ná díospóireacht agus plé macánta. Cinnte, caithfear gach deis a thabhairt an Ghaeilge a shealbhú imeasc an dream a labhraíonn sa mbaile í agus cur ina luí ar thuismitheoirí an méid Gaeilge atá acu a úsáid leis na páistí. Ar an taobh eile sa gcás is go bhfuil lánúin, atá ag iarraidh go mbeadh Gaeilge ag a gclann ach nach bhfuil Gaeilge ag duine nó fiú an bheirt acu, caithfear tacaíochtaí praiticiúla a chuir ar fáil dóibh le gur féidir sin a dhéanamh. Ní leor pacáistí eolais agus físeáin agus ‘ar aghaidh libh’.

Má tá múnla na nIonaid Tacaíochta Teaghlaigh chun feidhmiú i gceart, caithfear freastal ar na leibhéil éagsúla Gaeilge sa bpobal ar a bhfuil siad ag freastal. Caithfear sin a dhéanamh taobh istigh de na rialacháin éagsúla a bhaineann le cúram leanaí & oideachais chomh maith. Caithfidh an pobal a bheith taobh thiar den pholasaí, rud a chiallaíonn go gcaithfear é a phlé, a mhíniú agus a aontú leis an bpobal thrí chéile.

Má airíonn daoine go bhfuiltear ag brú tuairim ‘mhionlaigh’ in aghaidh a dtola ar chuid mhaith eile, gan amhras beidh aighneas ann. Is léiriú é sin domsa go bhfuil tear ag teip ó thaobh na pleanála teanga sa gcás sin, mar cruthófar deighilt sa bpobail agus naimhdeas don teanga, rud nach bhfuil aon duine ag iarraidh.

Plé aibí mhacánta an réiteach agus is féidir sin a dhéanamh, dar liom.

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 Téann pobal na Gaeilge go Caisleán Cromghlinne chun an cás ar son an Achta Gaeilge a dhéanamh arís eile | An Dream Dearg descend upon Hillsborough Castle to highlight community call for Irish Language Act

September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

13

THDE PROTESTANT TRADITION AN C LI B U P E R E TH R FO T H G FI THE

BY EOIN Ó MURCHÚ FOR most Northern nationalists, talk of Protestant culture evokes images of coat-trailing Orange marches set on provoking and belittling local nationalist communities in pursuit of the old certainties of Protestant supremacy and discrimination against Catholics.

But, as Gerry Adams, the Sinn Féin President, pointed out in a recent speech, the Protestant contribution to Irish nationalism and modern Irish identity is much more than that. Indeed, It has been critical in defining Irish republicanism itself.

It was the French Revolution of 1789 that gave the inspiration for an Irish version of that rejection of feudalism and landlord power advocated by the United Irishmen.

Protestants, mainly Presbyterians, were the intellectual powerhouse of this incipient Irish republicanism, though

The Protestant contribution to Irish nationalism and modern Irish identity has been critical in defining Irish republicanism itself Catholic emancipation and equality were recognised from the start as essential components of the new order that republicans wanted to create.

The French Revolution had proclaimed the equal rights of all citizens (though with some considerable tardiness in respect of women). It was also less than respectful of linguistic and national differences within the French state but was adamant in its

5 Shankill Road men march at Bodenstown in 1934 to honour Wolfe Tone

5 Protestant Irish-language activist Linda Ervine with Sinn Féin's Carál Ní Chuilín

rejection of supremacy for aristocrats or special sections of the state.

Theobald Wolfe Tone expressed this idea in Irish terms, which became the hallmark of Irish republicanism. He stated that it was Ireland’s status as a colony ruled by England that was the cause of all the inequalities and injustices of Irish society.

His aim, therefore, he declared, was “to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils, and to assert the independence of my country”.

And the way he proposed to achieve that aim was to “substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the denominations of Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter”.

It is a sad irony that the vast major5 Tone: 'Father of Irish Republicanism' ity of Northern Protestants today – the descendants of the republican rebels for Catholic ascendancy) it is vital for of 1798 – have been persuaded that the establishment of a real Irish Repubthe “connection with England” is the lic that the Protestant community be guarantee of the dignity and rights of won over to take its proper place in the ranks of Irish democracy. the Protestant community.

This Irish Republic is not and cannot While there can be no room for Protestant supremacy in an Irish Repub- be a mere extension of the 26-county lic (any more than there could be room state over the whole island – a state

which since its inception by Act of British Parliament in 1921 has been totally subservient to and collaborative with imperialism – firstly of Britain itself and latterly of the European Union.

No, the Irish Republic we should strive for is one of equality and parity of esteem for all, one which uses the resources, intellectual and material, of the state, for the common good of all, and one which takes pride in our inherited culture, language and commitment to international peace.

It will be built by Catholic and Protestant together, rejecting exploitation and austerity.

And it will be built by respect for the assertion of individual independence which Protestantism brought to Ireland, as well as a deep pride in our history of struggle and the richness of our culture.

Today, as the political forces of unionism for the most part dig themselves in against an Acht Teangan, which would recognise the rights of Irish speakers and the special significance of the language for our nation, it is worth remembering that Gaelic is as

5 The Apprentice Boys shut the city gates during the Siege of Derry

much part of the Protestant heritage as it is of the Catholic.

Large numbers of the Protestant settlers who came to the North came from Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland, such as Galloway. Indeed, the Presbyterian Church maintained for many years a requirement that its ministers be able to preach in Irish as well as in England (a recognition that Irish was widely spoken by its members), and

It is vital for the establishment of a real Irish Republic that the Protestant community be won over to take its proper place in the ranks of Irish democracy much work for the preservation of the language which was carried out by ministers like the Neilson father and son.

By contrast, during this period, while larger proportions of Catholics spoke Irish, institutionally the Catholic Church regarded Irish as a complicating factor in its main aim of using Ireland as base for the re-Catholicising of England.

There is certainly nothing intrinsically non-Protestant, let alone anti-Protestant, about the language and the campaign for recognition of language rights.

And let us note that the Apprentice Boys, the working class of their time, slammed the gates shut against a feudal monarch. Is that something that should be acknowledged not just by Protestants but by all Irish democrats?

14 September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

BY PEADAR WHELAN CENTURIES AGO, people believed that the Earth was the centre of the Universe, that the Sun rose and set around our world because it was ‘set in place by God’.

Galileo, the Italian scientist and philosopher, took a different view – that the Sun was the centre of our Universe and it was around this planet that the Earth rotated. (His views led to his interrogation by the Roman Inquisition of 1615 and his subsequent house arrest.)

It was while reading various opinions on the new film about former SDLP leader John Hume and subsequent commentary on the work that the story of Galileo came to mind.

In terms of Irish politics and history, particularly since the 1960s, the Irish, British, mainland European and US political establishments saw Hume in pre-Renaissance terms.

They believed John Hume to be the centre of the Universe, the ‘Earth’ that everything political in the North revolved around.

And as those who branded Galileo a heretic because his scientific findings were contrary to biblical teachings, so too Hume’s pronouncements were treated as if they were sacred texts set in stone.

THE JOHN HUME MOVIE The tone for the commentary on this year’s documentary film, In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America, is set by Donald Clarke writing in the Irish Times.

“Maurice Fitzpatrick’s documentary lines up luminaries eager to restore the SDLP leader to his rightful place in Irish history,” declares Donald Clarke.

The Irish Times then cites the “inestimable” Eamonn McCann (coincidentally a fellow Irish Times columnist) bemoaning that, in his esteemed opinion, “the Bogside has become a tourist attraction”.

The Socialist Workers’ Party/People Before Profit guru said: “I listened in to one of these guys giving schoolchildren from southern Ireland an account of a history of the Bogside in which John Hume didn’t figure until the Hume-Adams Talks.

“That’s the level of distortion of history which supporters of the IRA are involved with. They have to. They can’t kill the truth,” the Trotskyist ‘revolutionary’ opined.

Likewise, SDLP leadership hopeful and South Belfast MLA Claire Hanna clams that the film corrects “quite a lot of revisionism . . . Particularly in Sinn Féin, who are now pitching themselves as peacemakers”.

The film on John Hume’s political life comes at an interesting juncture in Irish politics, particularly after the results of the last two Northern elections which has left Hume’s once imperious SDLP’s electoral survival hanging by a thread.

THE

SDLP LOST IN SPACE

It is ironic that the unionist and British state ideological onslaught against Sinn Féin and republicanism centering on accusations that the party is “re-writing history” should now find its way into the lexicon of Sinn Féin’s political rivals within the nationalist community.

And for all his left-wing rhetoric and appeals to the unionist working class, Eamonn McCann knows that the Socialist Workers’ Party’s electoral wing, People Before Profit, gets the vast majority of its votes from within the broad nationalist community.

So while Fitzpatrick’s film has set out to put Hume’s personality and political presence back to the centre of the political universe, the reaction of the SWP’s McCann and the SDLP’s Hanna in particular tells us that there is a serious battle for the hearts and minds of the nationalist, republican and politically progressive community.

For the SDLP, however, that battle is a battle for survival.

Their attacks on Sinn Féin (including their alliances with the Ulster Unionist Party under Mike Nesbitt which saw them withdraw from the North’s Executive and go into ‘opposition’ and which many seem to gloss over) are indicative of a party thrashing around in the dark rather than moving through a calculated, thought-out strategy to address electoral reversals.

THE TURN TO SINN FÉIN The SDLP is past its sell-by date. The fact that Northern nationalist voters turned to Sinn Féin in June’s Westminster election and delivered an emphatic ‘No’ to the SDLP is proof of that.

The party lost its three seats which were all held by former leaders: Mark Durkan, Margaret Ritchie and Alasdair McDonnell.

Chris Hazzard took South Down for Sinn Féin, defeating Margaret Richie in a constituency whose electorate was emblematic of an SDLP that was middle-class Catholic and soft unionist despite its ‘nationalist’ label.

Elisha McCallion’s surge in Derry that removed Mark Durkan, however, was as emphatic a statement about history and Sinn Féin passing the SDLP by as any.

The SDLP made representation in Westminster and Sinn Féin’s republican abstentionist principle central to their manifesto and media appearances. Their argument, articulated by Irish News columnist and former SDLP spin doctor Tom Kelly OBE, was that “confronting” British ministers “across the floor of the House” was effective.

Kelly also argued that, by their non-attendance at Westminster, Sinn Féin MPs were conceding the ground on Brexit to the DUP. Clearly these arguments didn’t impress the nationalist electorate.

DYNAMIC CHANGED 5 John Hume – He stood down and the SDLP was on the way down

In the past year since the Assembly election in May 2016 and the Brexit referendum in June,

September / Meán Fómhair 2017

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5 The SDLP was used by the British and Irish Establishments as a bulwark against republicanism

the political dynamic in the North has changed – and changed dramatically.

Sinn Féin had a disappointing 2016 Assembly election, dropping a seat and seeing its percentage of the vote slip by almost 3%, especially as expectations were high with a buzz around the centenary celebrations of the 1916 Easter Rising.

And despite the Brexit vote to leave the EU, the fact that a majority in the North voted to remain has opened up opportunities for republicans to push for a Border poll.

This call was widely rejected by unionists and in particular the DUP. Under Arlene Foster, many in the DUP seem to have openly reverted to the old traditions of the ruling unionist class who effectively would rather not “have a Catholic about the place”.

Bolstered by her 38-seat tally in the Assembly election, Foster’s ministers rolled back Sinn Féin initiatives on the Irish language. In a consistent abuse of the Petition of Concern, they have repeatedly blocked the introduction of marriage equality legislation. (Ironically, the Petition of Concern is a device included in the Assembly procedures designed to protect minorities.)

Then the DUP found themselves embroiled in the Renewable Heat Initiative (RHI) scandal.

The late Martin McGuinness felt he had no choice but to resign and the Assembly collapsed.

Arlene Foster (whose wearing of a substantial diamond crown brooch in her public and TV appearances seemed to say ‘I am Queen of the North’) was not as assured as she had been.

She blundered through the snap “Crocodile” Assembly election in March this year. The result left her on the ropes, only to recover her ground in Tory Prime Minister Theresa May’s misjudged June Westminster election.

And with the DUP propping up a weakened Tory Government, Foster is once more cock-ahoop, with her regal demeanour and self-aggrandisement telling its own story.

She sees her position now as one wherein ‘the Union’ is secure.

But is it?

5 The SDLP lost its three seats which were all held by former leaders: Mark Durkan, Margaret Ritchie and Alasdair McDonnell 5 John Hume with Gerry Adams – Members of Hume’s own SDLP worked to frustrate the Peace Process

to the conflict lay simply in ‘reconciliation’ rather than ending partition and a new political dispensation based on equality has been trotted out by Claire Hanna and the editors at the Irish Times.

Derry journalist, commentator and political ex-prisoner Eamonn MacDermott wrote about the John Hume movie for the Jude Collins blog.

He said: “Perhaps the biggest failing is actually touched upon in the article about the documentary when Fitzpatrick claims that Hume nailed his colours to the mast and defined the problem as being about reconciliation. Hume hammered this point home for years with what journalists unkindly

described as ‘his single transferrable speech’. But seeing the solution lying in reconciliation is a bit like a doctor treating the symptoms of a disease but refusing to tackle the causes.”

The reality is that the civil rights campaign of the 1960s came about because of the discrimination practised by the Unionist Party perpetually in power at Stormont since partition – and allowed by governments in Westminster.

The IRA’s armed struggle was an inevitable consequence of the violent response of, first, the unionist regime and then the British Government's political and military attempt to put those nationalists and republicans who stood up to

APPETITE FOR A BORDER POLL The appetite for a Border poll, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, seems to be going hand in hand with voters supporting Sinn Féin’s stance in the talks to re-establish the Assembly and agreeing that, as Martin McGuinness said, there cannot be a return to the Stormont status quo.

The shallow SDLP thinking that the solution

5 Sinn Féin's increased team of seven MPs at Westminster, where the SDLP now has none

them back in their place.

The SDLP never got that. They constantly misdiagnosed the problem and put the blame on republicans.

That Hume was hailed as the Irish politician of his era had more to do with the objective political needs of the British and Irish establishments who used the SDLP as a bulwark against radical republicanism.

And it is worth remembering that when Hume met with Gerry Adams in the late 1980s, senior members of his own party, exposing their pro-unionist slips, disagreed with him as they were happy to go along with the ‘isolate Sinn Féin’ strategy of successive British governments.

Eamonn MacDermott spells out that it is the British Government’s continuing interference in Ireland that perpetuates the division and political conflict created by partition and the gerrymandered state based on repression and division.

“The need for reconciliation in the North stems from the unequal positions of the two communities, and that inequality in favour of unionism is created and bolstered by the British presence.

“As long as there is a British presence then unionists (and this has been borne out by events even to this day) see no need to treat their nationalist neighbours as equals.

“To get real reconciliation needs more than fine speeches – it needs the removal of whatever it is that creates that inequality, in other words the British presence.”

The point is that Sinn Féin or republicans are not rewriting or revising history. It is just that with a united Ireland becoming more of a possibility as the old myths are being stripped away, the SDLP have no hiding place – and they know it.

16 September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

National Hunger Strike Commemoration 2017, Sunday 13 August, Ballina, County Mayo

Now is the time to deliver Irish unity GERRY KELLY MLA, former Hunger Striker and political prisoner in England and Ireland, paid tribute at the National Hunger Strike Commemoration to all the republican activists and their families who have given so much to the struggle for a reunited Ireland and an Irish Republic based on the principles of the 1916 Rising.

“Today, as a result of the efforts of these republicans there is a peaceful and democratic path to a united Ireland. The 1981 Hunger Strike led to a widening of the structures of struggle for a united Ireland, which facilitated the strengthening of republicanism to a point where we are stronger now than we have ever been in our history.”

5 Mylie O’Brien (middle, in brown jacket), father of Volunteer Ed O’Brien, with Sheena Campbell’s parents, Jean and Patsy Fegan, and friends before the National Hunger Strike rally in Ballina

He called on the leaders of the SDLP, Fine Gael MAYO’S HEROES and Fianna Fáil to put aside narrow party politiGerry Kelly opened his remarks by saying that cal interests and stand with Sinn Féin to plan for he was very honoured to speak at the National and deliver Irish unity.

Hunger Strike Commemoration, especially in Gerry Kelly said: County Mayo, home to Seán McNeela, Michael “Irish unity is now firmly on the political agenda. Gaughan and Frank Stagg, all three hunger strik“Sinn Féin wants an Ireland that is defined by ers and patriots who are buried in the nearby hope, prosperity and opportunity for all citizens historic Leigue Cemetery. irrespective of their age, gender, religious persua“It is in itself a great testimony to what County sion, cultural identity, political affiliation, ethnic Mayo has sacrificed in the fight for Irish freedom origin, or sexual orientation. across the generations,” the North Belfast Assem“A new, agreed and united Ireland, upholding, bly member said. He continued: protecting and respecting the rights of all citizens.

“I would like to welcome the families of our 5 Some of the crowd behind members of the Hunger Strikers’ families That entails upholding the rights of citizens to fallen comrades who gave their lives for the “The Price sisters, Michael Gaughan, Frank Stagg, comrades and the struggle for freedom”. be British and unionist,” Gerry Kelly said. freedom and independence of our country. I “He and his fellow hunger strikers placed myself and others were on that hunger strike.

“I challenge the leaders of the SDLP, Fine Gael, am acutely aware that when I speak of loss and “Michael, like Thomas Ashe, died not of starvathe value of their lives in support of their just and Fianna Fáil to stop hiding behind the mantra grief that it is most deeply felt by those who demands to be treated as political prisoners. He tion but of force-feeding. He died on 3 June 1974. of 'now is not the time to discuss unity'. One knew and loved them personally. was the first Hunger Striker to die and became His friend, Frank Stagg, was given commitments hundred years on since 1916, as we face into “The 1981 Hunger Strike, in which 10 Irish the inspiration for political hunger strikers since. by the British administration. They reneged on Brexit, now is the time not only to discuss unity, republican political prisoners sacrificed their lives, “When the British Government decided 56 them, forcing Frank on to a number of hunger but to plan and deliver Irish unity. came at the end of years of harrowing prison years later to use force-feeding against political strikes which culminated in his death on 12 “So, Leo, Colm and Mícheál, this is the time put protest by the women and men in Armagh Jail prisoners in English jails it was Michael Gaughan’s February 1976. aside your narrow party political interests, the and the Long Kesh H-Blocks, supported by tens “While I and other comrades were on hunger death which brought an end to its use in Britain. time for national leadership, the time to stand of thousands of people protesting on the streets “By the time Michael Gaughan and Frank strike at the same time as Michael and Frank, I together to plan and deliver Irish unity. of Ireland and internationally.

Stagg went on hunger strike in 1974 there had never met either man as the prison authorities “That is the project that can define the coming “It is recognised as a hugely significant political been a large number of deaths of Irish republi- made sure to separate and isolate protesting political era. watershed in our struggle, by friend and foe alike.” can prisoners, after Tom Ashe, including Seán prisoners in English jails.”

“Sinn Féin is willing to stand with all those in The former Hunger Striker said it is important McNeela’s comrade, Tony D’Arcy from Galway. favour of unity.”

“The hunger strike in Crumlin Road Jail by to say that no Irish political prisoner who pitted The North Belfast MLA said the political instiUNDEFEATED, UNBROKEN themselves against the might of a British Govern- republican prisoners just two years before tutions in the North should be re-established.

Gerry Kelly said that when the 1981 Hunger ment in this way wanted to die. Nor were they Michael’s death had achieved political status for He said: naïve in such a 'David and Goliath' battle, he said. Irish republican prisoners in the North of Ireland. Strike began, Bobby Sands knew the odds were “We want the institutions of the Good Friday “The hunger strike which we embarked upon stacked against him but “as our late, great friend, He recalled that, a hundred years ago, Thomas Agreement reinstated but on the basis of equalAshe fasted against the British Government in jails in England after sentencing in 1973 was comrade and leader” Martin McGuinness said of ity, mutual respect and integrity. demand for him to wear prison clothing or do for transfer to jails in the North of Ireland to be the hunger strike: “The present talks, now stalled, are about imple“The 1981 Hunger Strike destroyed Britain’s penal work – “essentially to criminalise him, his treated the same as our comrades there. menting agreements already made. That is basic to a power-sharing Executive and Assembly.”

He said these include the right to an Irish Language Act, the right to have a loving relationship recognised in a Marriage Equality Act, the right of families to a coroner’s inquest into the killing of a loved one, the right to be free from sectarian harassment, the right to have a Bill of Rights.

“These are not unreasonable asks for people living in the North of Ireland and especially when they are rights everywhere else in Ireland and Britain.”

Gerry Kelly said that the sacrifice of the 1981 Hunger Strikers and the IRA Hunger Strikers Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg who died in English jails had helped make Irish republicanism stronger than ever.

“These heroic hunger strikers of our generation inspired not only fellow Irishmen and women but 5 Recreating on the streets of Ballina the famous bin-lid warnings of Belfast against incursions by the British Army and RUC freedom-loving people the world over.

September / Meán Fómhair 2017

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5 Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly, who was force-fed during 60 days on hunger strike in an English prison until his transfer to Long Kesh in 1975, gives the main address at the National Hunger Strike Commemoration Photo: John O'Grady Photography

single sphere of life – whether it was by being in the civil rights movement or fighting against discrimination in housing or unemployment, or fighting for and learning the Irish language or protecting our culture, or creating jobs or building communities or dealing with social problems.

“The activists we are remembering here today were proud republican Volunteers who took up arms against a massive military machine when there was no other option. But they were not war-mongers.

“These same activists had the courage and commitment to embark on the passive protest which is hunger strike. They risked their lives and sacrificed themselves for others.”

PATH TO A UNITED IRELAND

strategy to criminalise the IRA and the republican struggle.”

Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh, Patsy O’Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Tom McElwee and Mickey Devine were not defeated or broken, the former H-Blocks prisoner said.

“Neither was Frank Stagg or Michael Gaughan.

And neither will our struggle and our political strategy.

“They proudly take their place alongside Pearse, Connolly, Clarke and the rest of the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation – they were the history-makers of our generation. They are the people

who have set the moral compass for the rest of us to aspire to.”

If courage was the measure of success then Ireland would have had her freedom many generations before now, the former IRA activist said.

“Volunteers in the IRA knew that our opponents and enemies had to be faced up to in every

He said that today, as a result of the efforts of these republicans, there is a peaceful and democratic path to a united Ireland.

Laying down his challenge to the SDLP, Fine Gael, and Fianna Fáil to stop hiding behind the mantra of ‘now is not the time to discuss unity’, Gerry Kelly insisted: “100 years on since 1916, as we face into Brexit, now is the time not only to discuss unity but to plan and deliver Irish unity.

“There is no short cut to a united Ireland. We have to prepare for it and that’s exactly what we have been doing and continue to do – North and South, East and West.”

The Sinn Féin figure said that Irish politics is undergoing its biggest shake-up since partition.

“We are at the core of that change. This is about you, your family, your hopes and your ambitions.

“It’s about taking your country’s future into your own hands; your opportunity to decide on our future.

“It’s time as a nation to believe in ourselves. If not us, then who? If not now, then when?

“We are now in a phase of nation building. What Connolly called ‘the re-conquest of Ireland by the Irish people’. That requires building the political clout to bring about fundamental change.

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

18 September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

THE STRUGGLES AND POLITICS OF TRAVELLERS IN NEOLIBERAL IRELAND ON 1 MARCH 2017, Traveller ethnicity was officially recognised by the Irish Government. This decision lagged almost two decades behind both Britain and the Six Counties.

It came after many years of political indifference, with repeated calls by United Nations bodies and various European Union institutions snubbed by successive governments.

Members of the Dáil appeared to undergo an epiphany, suddenly discovering the well-documented and much publicised sufferings of generations of Irish Travellers by state-sponsored assimilation policies, socially-engineered marginalisation and systemic racism. Politicians made ceremonious, entirely non-committal speeches in what appeared to be a gesture to pacify the unruly Traveller movement whilst demonstrating their own progressive credentials.

A number of internal and external pressures led to the Government’s decision.

Firstly, and most significantly, it is indisputable that a lifetime of uncompromising campaigning by Traveller activists and allies drove the issue into public consciousness.

The moment of official recognition was, for many Travellers, one of catharsis, the culmination of years of work. For others, particularly those from a younger generation, the campaign had worked as a catalyst, prompting introspection and politicisation, thereby strengthening a developing political movement and giving new impetus to its key demands.

Secondly, international pressure on the Irish Government had been mounting, culminating in the threat of legal proceedings by the European Commission and a timely and critical intervention by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.

These two factors, in turn, drew on and influenced a changing social and political landscape in which exposure to European trends helped to facilitate a liberalisation of Irish attitudes and a positive move towards multiculturalism. In this context, the Government’s decision was necessary by international standards, in tune with popular opinion and, above all, politically expedient.

In the course of the Dáil discussion, Gerry Adams was alone in linking the local to the global and alluding to the impact of neoliberalism.

He noted “the rapid pace of new technologies, the use of plastic and other cheap goods [which have] brought about major changes in Travellers’ lifestyles”, namely the decline of nomadism.

BY AMY WARD An understanding of traditional Traveller collectivism, reciprocity and methods of trade serves to elucidate how far-reaching has been the impact of changes in the global economy and a fundamental restructuring of the labour market on the Traveller community.

Outsourcing and mass production in the Far East, made possible by exploitatively low labour costs, have diminished craft traditions and undermined the strength of organised Irish labour in general. Globalisation has intensified both the precariousness of work and the marginalisation of Travellers through mass production of cheap goods and increasing global competition, along with shifting trends in cultural tastes and aesthetics.

This process of neoliberal restructuring therefore poses a significant and discernable threat to traditional industries, not least to Traveller trades, which now survive on the peripheries of both global and local economies.

The effects of this are exacerbated by state policy (legislation has made the practice of traditional crafts and trades de facto illegal) and by the fact that such trades are fundamental to a nomadic lifestyle and Travellers’ commitment to subsistence way of living.

The political class will only help to improve outcomes for the Traveller community, therefore, insofar as it directly challenges structural discrimination in an Irish context as well as the essence of neoliberalism in a global context.

One can already identify considerable divergence between the platitudes of the political class and their willingness to bring about tangible changes.

One demonstrable example is the failure of local councils to draw down funds allocated for Traveller-specific accommodation.

5 Uncompromising campaigning by activists drove issue of rights onto agenda

International pressure on the Irish Government had been mounting, culminating in the threat of legal proceedings by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Herein lies the contradiction of (Irish) liberalism in human rights: there is an enormous difference between ‘having’ a right and the realisation of that right

It was noted that as of May 2017, €1.2million of funding reserved for Traveller accommodation was left unspent. Since then, Damien English TD has announced that €9million would be made available, but if there is no political will to deliver on the legislative framework that has been developed then a 64% increase in capital funding is little more than lip service.

Eoin Ó Broin TD has been vocal on this issue, calling for accountability and a fundamental “change in the Government’s approach towards how it allocates capital funding for the purposes of Traveller accommodation”.

Of course, he is right and the most effective way of ensuring such a change would be for Sinn Féin and all other Left parties to implement an internal policy change whereby all local councillors are obligated to apply for Traveller accommodation funding.

Sinn Féin and the wider republican movement have been consistent in their support of Traveller rights for decades. There are still those on the broad Left, however, who will gladly pay homage to Traveller music and culture in a public arena whilst at the same time refusing to countenance the establishment of halting sites in their local area. When politicians succumb to these parish pump concerns, taking the path of least resistance, they are failing to fulfill their role as state policy legislators and representatives of the entire community.

Now is the time for them to go beyond symbolic statements and grand gestures and address these wider political issues which have expedited and compounded Traveller marginalisation.

It is important to reiterate that, prior to official recognition, Travellers already had certain rights under the Constitution, although this fell far short of what was necessary to protect our human rights and was superseded by international directives. Indeed it is under such directives that the Traveller community would now hope to challenge the Irish courts.

Herein lies the contradiction of (Irish) liberalism in

September / Meán Fómhair 2017

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Ethnicity status should not be seen as the end of a struggle but the beginning of the next phase

5 Spirits aren’t dampened by the weather as Traveller ethnicity is officially recognised in the Dáil by Taoiseach Enda Kenny on 1 March 2017

human rights: there is an enormous difference between ‘having’ a right and the realisation of that right.

A core of international treaties asserting ‘the right to work’, for example, means nothing to the millions of unemployed, just as the ‘right to accommodation’ means little to the thousands of Irish homeless – Travellers included.

The ‘right’ to work does not refer to an existing entitlement but to a political claim and so, in this sense, the politics of rights are always in potential conflict with their legal status.

Human rights statements are abstract inasmuch as people do not have a ‘right to work’ but they should.

Travellers do not have a ‘right’ to accommodation but they should and I believe this right will be realised only through political struggle, rather than law. It is in this rhetorical, political ambiguity that the ideological power of ‘Traveller rights’ lies.

Instrumental throughout the campaign were allies, politicians and activists and it is now time for those political allies to implement targeted policy measures, directly addressing the inequalities and discrimination faced by the community, in full and effective consultation with Travellers and ensuring mechanisms for accountability.

Now is the time for politicians and state policy legislators to go beyond symbolic statements and grand gestures and address these wider political issues which have expedited and compounded Traveller marginalisation

Whilst ethnicity recognition is important (and I would not wish to talk down the work of the movement), it is sickening to see politicians make reference to the Carrickmines tragedy in the Dáil while the survivors are forced to live in inhumane conditions beside a town dump.

When there are still 1,300 Traveller families – approximately 7,000 people – living in substandard and unsafe accommodation, when Travellers have become all but invisible in the narrative around the national housing crisis (even though it is Travellers existing without access to water, sewage facilities and electricity), it is nauseating to hear politicians praise the cultural contribution of Traveller musicians.

The Government’s response to these issues, much like the majority of the speeches given at the ethnicity address, amounted to the usual equivocation and deflection.

The National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy, as noncommittal and incomplete as it may be, is a step in the right direction and, if funded and fully implemented, could go some way to address some of the Government’s failings.

5 Recognition by Taoiseach Enda Kenny of Traveller rights is one thing – the Government making his fine words a reality is another

5 Gerry Adams and Eoin Ó Broin – Pressing Government

The launch of this strategy should not be used to deflect scrutiny of Ireland’s human rights violations, nor should ethnicity status be seen as the end of a struggle but the beginning of the next phase.

Strong Traveller activists and allies have brought us to this point. It is up to a new generation of Travellers to continue the work and the only way to achieve this, to have our rights realised, is through education.

Political education – a clear understanding of the broader context of our lives and the systems by which decisions are made – is vital.

The Traveller community is rich with organic intellectuals, those whose knowledge and expertise is a product of marginalisation and struggle and who are committed to rising with the community rather than above it.

Traveller marginalisation has to be seen in the context of global capitalism and globalisation, a social order that subordinates peoples and economies worldwide, reinforcing exclusion and the suppression of knowledge and culture. It is vital that we see the emergence of a united, self-determined, self-organising social movement operating within larger national and international movements which are contributing to a new counter-hegemonic logic.

If more Travellers engage with radical political initiatives, this would be our best hope for challenging the effects of neoliberalism in Ireland in ways that make the realisation of Travellers’ rights a viable project.

20 September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

The Smashing of the Van

BY MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA

Remembering the Past

THOMAS KELLY was a native of County Galway who emigrated to the United States, joined the Irish nationalist Emmet Monument Association, worked as a printer, and enlisted in the Union Army at the start of the American Civil War. He rose to the rank of colonel and after the war became involved in the Fenian movement.

The founders of Fenianism, James Stephens in Ireland and John O’Mahony in the United States, met increasing dissatisfaction with their leadership. In 1866, Stephens was replaced by Colonel Kelly as head of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He prepared plans for what turned out to be the ill-fated Rising of March 1867. He was one of the signatories of the Proclamation issued by the IRB which was a progressive precursor to the 1916 Proclamation.

Kelly evaded capture after the Rising and escaped to England. On 11 September 1867, the police in Manchester apprehended the acting Fenian leader, Colonel Thomas Kelly, and his associate, Captain Timothy Deasy of Cork.

One week later, on 18 September, Kelly and Deasy were being transported in a prison van from court back to jail, The two Fenians were handcuffed and locked in separate compartments

IN PICTURES

150th ANNIVERSARY inside the police van. There was also a contingent of 12 mounted policemen to escort them.

On the journey, as the van passed under a railway arch, a Fenian rescuer darted into the middle of the road, pointed a pistol at the driver and called on him to stop. At the same time, a party of about 30 Fenians leapt over a wall at the side of the road and surrounded the van and seized the horses, one of which they shot. The police, being unarmed, offered little resistance and were soon put to flight.

After a vain attempt to burst open the van with hatchets, sledgehammers and crowbars, the rescuers called upon Police Sergeant Brett, who was inside the van with the prisoners, to open the door. Sergeant Brett refused and thereupon one of the rescuers, a Dublin Fenian called Peter

Rice, placed his revolver at the keyhole of the van and fired. By pure chance at that moment, Sergeant Brett had put his eye to the keyhole to see what was going on outside; the bullet passed through his eye and killed him.

The door was opened when a female prisoner inside removed the keys from Brett’s belt and passed them through a ventilation slit to the men outside.

Colonel Kelly and Captain Deasy escaped to America to continue their fight for Ireland’s independence.

Within a month of the rescue of Kelly and Deasy, five men were placed on trial in the courthouse at Manchester for the murder of Sergeant Brett. All of them were convicted. Although none of the five had fired the shot that had killed Brett, four of them had taken an active part in the rescue that led to his death.

After the trial, amid much popular speculation over the justice of the sentences passed, authorities pardoned one of the prisoners and reprieved another. But, on 23 November 1867, the other three men – William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O’Brien – were executed at Salford jail.

This is based on an article by the late historian and An Phoblacht columnist Shane Mac Thomáis. In our November issue we will tell the story of the Manchester Martyrs on their 150th anniversary.

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 Mayo National Hunger Strike Commemoration event ‘Women in Struggle’ heard Armagh ex-POWs Mary Doyle and Síle Darragh with Councillor Thérèse Ruane at the Hunger Strike Exhibition 5 Glasgow: (Above and below) Cairde na hÉireann Hunger Strike Commemoration events

5 Mitchel McLaughlin at the opening of the Martin McGuinness Photo Exhibition in the Gasyard Centre, Derry, as part of the Gasyard Féile

September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

21

Comortas? Mó Thóin!

EOIN Ó MURCHÚ

SÉ ‘COMORTAS’ an focal reatha ag trachtairí eacnamaíochta, agus réiteach é dar leó ar gach fadb eacnamaíochta freisin.

Tá praghsanna tithíochta ag dul in airde an iomarca?

Deir siad go gcoinneóidh ‘comortas’ srian ar na praghsanna. Tá costas árachais – mótair agus tithe – ag dul as smacht? Cén réiteach eile ach tuilleadh chomortais.

Seo toradh na léachtanna ollscoile a chuala na tráchtairí go léir, toradh a bhaineann le teóiric airithe

faoin scéal.

Ar ndóigh, oireann an teóiric seo don dearcadh a thugann túsáit don mhargadh thar riachtanaisí daoine, amhail is dá mba rud ann féin é an margadh seachas tuiscint daoine ar an gcaoi go bhféidhmíonn cúrsaí díola is ceannaigh.

Agus ar ndóigh, cinnte, sé an bundearcadh aicmeach ag na léachtóirí atá taobh thiar den riail eacnamaíochta seo a leagann siad síos.

2017

Ach sa saol mór féin, ní cosúil go bhfuil an scéal chómh simplí.

Mar shampla, roinnt blianta ó shoin bhí argóintí móra ann faoi chostas árachais mhótair. Cuireadh lucht feasa le chéile agus – go bhfóire dia orainn – chinn siad go raibh tuilleadh chómhortais ag teastáil sa ngeilleagair.

Ghlac rialtas na linne leis an bpolasai sin is athraíodh dlithe is rialacha stáit le cabhru le comhlachtaí nua teacht isteach, an-chuid acu ón gcoigrích.

Agus an toradh fírinneadh? Támuid inniu ag plé na faidhbe céanna, de reir mar a théanns costas árachais as smacht arís. Tá an ionam airgid dha thabhairt amach ag na cúirteanna ar éilithe, is nach mór srian a chur leis sin. Agus, le bheith cinnte, tuilleadh chomortais arís.

Tá reiteach eile ann ar ndóigh, ach réiteach é nach gceadaítear: sé sin, go gcuirfeadh an stát srian ar an gcostas! Ní bheadh brabús ann, deir na tráchtairí, agus ní bhíonn plé ar bith eile faoina leithéid.

Ach ní saor-chinneadh é árachas mhótair a fháil. Tá iachall dlí ar dhaoine é a cheannach.

Ach tá sampla ann de thír nach mbíonn an fhadb sin ann, agus sin í an Astráil. San Astráil tá bun-árachas – árachas tríú pairtí, mar a thugann muide air – ag gach éinne a bhfuil ceadúnas tiomána aige nó aici; agus íoctar é tré táille ar bhreosla.

Fágtar árachas lánchuimsitheach faoi dhaoine go pearsanta, ach toisc go bhfuil ualach an bhunárachais ar an stát déantar monatóireacht ghéar ar chostas deisithe.

Sin comortas de chineál eile – comortas an stáit i gcoinne comhlachtai príobhaideacha.

Ach níl tuilleadh chomortais den chineál sin ag teastáil óna daoine i gceannas.

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Draw will take place on Saturday 28 October 2017 | Crannchur ar an Satharn 28 Deireadh Fómhair 2017

22 September / Meán Fómhair 2017

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Another Europe is possible Treo eile don Eoraip

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

‘Precious’ Irish Peace Process must be preserved in Brexit trade talks

5 Martina Anderson

‘We will protect Good Friday Agreement’ – EU Brexit negotiator

MEP Martina Anderson has welcomed a personal commitment from the EU’s chief negotiator on Brexit, Michel Barnier, that he will ensure the Good Friday Agreement is protected in the Brexit negotiations with the British Government.

The North of Ireland MEP said she had sent Michel Barnier a copy of Sinn Féin’s document ‘Special Status Within the EU – Essential principles concerning the Border in Ireland and the status of the North of Ireland’ to emphasise how important it is to protect the Good Friday Agreement during the Brexit negotiations.

“It is vitally important that the Good Friday Agreement is protected in all its parts in line with the joint resolution of the European Parliament,” Martina Anderson said.

She said that Michel Barnier has now responded and said he is “personally committed to make every effort to ensure that nothing in the withdrawal agreement undermines the Good Friday Agreement”.

The Irish MEP added: “That commitment is welcome and underscores the EU’s determination to protect the Good Friday Agreement.

“Securing ‘Designated Special Status for the North Within the EU’ would not only protect the Good Friday Agreement in all of its parts but it would also protect the rights of Irish citizens.”

GUE/NGL’s Helmut Scholz, group co-ordinator at the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA), has said that any push by the British Government on future trade relations with the EU must go hand-in-hand with the issue over the future of the British border in Ireland and that the Good Friday Agreement must be preserved in all its parts.

“Peace on the island of Ireland is too precious to be used as a bargaining chip during the Brexit negotiations,” the German MEP said.

“As had already been defined in the negotiation guidelines of the European Commission and under the conditions of the European Parliament, the Irish Peace Process must be protected during all rounds of the negotiations.”

He continued: “There must be no hardening of the Border and any move that does that would put the Peace Process at risk.

“We need the EU to stand by the Peace Process and to preserve the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts as voted on by the Parliament

5 ‘There must be no hardening of the Border’ – MEP Helmut Scholz

and the Council,” Helmut Scholz said.

The German MEP also described those who put trade interests ahead of the Peace Process as irresponsible.

“Those who try to jeopardise the positive developments on both sides of the Irish Border in order to gain the upper hand in the negotiations are acting irresponsibly.”

Ní Riada calls for action plan for improving living and working conditions

5 Liadh Ní Riada: 'European Trade Union Confederation called for rights to be broader and stronger'

MEP Liadh Ní Riada has said that the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR), due to be adopted later this year, cannot be a hollow document and must be followed by action.

The European Pillar of Social Rights is an attempt by the Commission to strengthen the social dimension of the EU and to create a single framework for improving living and working conditions.

“It’s a welcome attempt, although I believe it falls well short of what workers and their families need,” Liadh said.

“This view is shared by the European Trade Union Confederation, which has called for the rights contained in the document to be broader and stronger.

“In addition to the EPSR, the Commission needs to publish a clear action plan on how the proposals in the Pillar will be implemented.”

The Ireland South MEP said she hopes to see an action plan before the European Parliament and the social partners before autumn.

“If the Commission is serious about making a difference with this ambitious project, it needs to make sure that it achieves tangible progress on the application of the principles and rights laid down in the Pillar such as access to social protections for the self-employed and non-standard workers, work-life balance, income inequality, poverty and parental leave.

“These are real issues that affect real people and if the Commission is serious about addressing these matters, then it must set out how it intends to accomplish that.”

September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

Matt Carthy

Martina Anderson

Liadh Ní Riada

Lynn Boylan

23

www.guengl.eu

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

Fishing U-turn

A PRONOUNCEMENT by Westminster Environment Minister Michael Gove that EU fishing boats will be welcome in British waters because doesn’t have the capacity to catch and process its stocks alone has been welcomed by EU Fisheries Committee member Liadh Ní Riada.

It does, though, expose the British approach to Brexit as “erratic and directionless” after contradictory statements over several months, the Ireland South MEP said.

“Fisheries is one of the main concerns for Ireland post-Brexit. While I welcome Mr Gove’s comments on allowing EU vessels to use British waters post-Brexit, they are sure to cause as much confusion as relief,” she said.

“There has been no detail given; no word on which countries will be allowed where, much less what quotas they will be offered; and, as we have come to expect, absolutely nothing on how it will affect Irish fishing vessels North and South, so it is a very cautious welcome I give his comments.”

She said the fishing industry, “here more than anywhere”, needs certainty.

“It needs to know what is coming down the line so that it can prepare for it. It does not need weekly flip-flopping from the British Government on key issues.”

5 Matt Carthy – ‘Sellafield threat to all Europe’

Sellafield fears delivered to nuclear safety chief

5 British Minister Michael Gove’s government has made contradictory statements over fishing rights

EU in Tel Aviv pulls its video featuring ‘wipe out Gaza’ advocate THE EU Embassy in Tel Aviv has removed from its Facebook page an official EU video “to showcase co-operation between EU and Israel” after angry protests about the appearance of Avishai Ivri, a ‘comedian’ who has publicly advocated murder and genocide against Palestinians.

Dublin MEP Lynn Boylan had written to EU Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, Frederica Mogherini, demanding an explanation.

Ivri has previously called on Israel to kill 1,000 Arabs for every Israeli who dies in conflictrelated violence and has urged that Israel “wipe out Gaza”.

Announcing on Twitter that it had removed the video, the EU Embassy said: “We decided to stop promoting a video on EU-Israel co-operation. We want no doubts that anything we do promotes the values the EU stands for.”

MIDLANDS NORTH WEST MEP Matt Carthy has met Massimo Garribba, head of the European Commission Directorate-General for Energy (including nuclear safety), about the continuing dangers posed to Ireland and mainland Europe by the Sellafield Nuclear Plant in England.

“Sellafield is a threat to all of Europe,” Matt Carthy said.

He said that there has already been a long list of contamination incidents at Sellafield, which is “a grave threat to the health of citizens” not just in Britain itself but in Ireland and other European countries.

“I outlined my belief that Sellafield must be closed and there should be a halt to the construction of any further nuclear power plants near the Irish Sea.” A BBC Panorama investigation into Sellafield broadcast last September was prompted by a whistle-blower who had been a senior manager there. He said his biggest fear is a fire in one of the nuclear waste silos or one of the processing plants and that Sellafield often didn’t have enough staff on duty to meet minimum safety levels: “If there is a fire there it could generate a plume of radiological waste that will go across Western Europe,” he said.

Police spying on activist groups – European Parliament event DUBLIN MEP Lynn Boylan is hosting an event in the European Parliament highlighting police spying on activist groups in Europe.

The event (on Wednesday 6 September) features evidence from activists who have been directly targeted by undercover police operations as well as experts in the area of state surveillance..

The level of undercover activities targeting activist groups, sometimes in violation of EU human rights law, has come to light following revelations about ‘spy-cops’ initially made by activists who had been targeted by British undercover police officer Mark Kennedy. Kennedy is known

5 Lynn Boylan – Undercover police activity against campaign groups ‘worrying’

to have operated in at least a dozen countries across Europe.

Continuing revelations forced the then British Home Secretary Theresa May to announce the formation of an Undercover Policing Inquiry which has so far revealed that the British state had targeted over 1,000 activist groups. Many of the known groups and operations worked internationally.

Lynn Boylan said it is “very worrying” that European police forces have spent large amounts of public funds on targeting peaceful campaign groups.

24 September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

Torture techniques used in oil-rich Gulf monarchy have roots in Ireland

Bahrain ex-MP tells An Phoblacht of

BRITISH ALLY’S STATE REPRESSION On 26 May of this year, after her release, Ibtesam was summoned to the Muharraq Security Office and interrogated about the activities of Bahraini political activists. Both her husband and solicitor were denied access to her during her detention.

While being questioned she was blindfolded and made to stand for several hours as she was physically, mentally and sexually abused.

She was stripped, photographed and brutally beaten. The officers threatened to release the photos of her naked, to rape and kill her, and said they would imprison or kill her family members as well, she said.

Jawad told An Phoblacht that if there isn’t significant pressure from Bahrain’s main Western allies, the US and Britain, “Bahrain will continue to shock

BY OISÍN McCANN BAHRAIN has long been a state where the ruling Al-Khalifa monarchy has maintained a status quo of elitism, corruption and brutal oppression. A heightened crackdown on human rights defenders, journalists and activists has been felt throughout the grassroots of the Bahraini civil rights movement over the past year.

Torture, imprisonment, police brutality and having one’s citizenship removed have all become normal practices of the Bahraini ruling elite’s efforts to supress the ever-expanding Bahraini civil rights movement.

One person who has experienced such hardship but continues unbowed and unbroken in the cause of Bahraini freedom is Jawad Fairooz.

Jawad was elected as a Member of Parliament in Bahrain in 2006, which he used as a platform to highlight rampant abuse and torture faced by political activists.

As chairperson of the Public Utilities Committee, he challenged the monarchy-supporting

‘My house was raided, I was arrested, sexually assaulted and then put in solitary confinement’ Establishment on suspicious funding allocations made by state bodies and held them to account.

In 2011, during the Arab Spring uprisings, he was among 18 MPs from the Al-Wefaq political party to resign from parliament in protest of the inhumane treatment faced by the Shia people.

Jawad told An Phoblacht: “In 2012, while on a visit abroad, I found out through Bahrain’s state television channel that I and 30 others had been stripped of our Bahraini nationality. I remain stateless until today and live in exile.”

Three months after their resignation, he and another MP, Matar Ebrahim Matar, were detained by state forces as part of a crackdown

5 Former MP Jawad Fairooz was arrested – ‘I was sexually assaulted and put in solitary confinement’

on pro-democracy activists.

Speaking about his first-hand experience of torture and degrading treatment faced in prison after his arrest at the start of the Bahrain uprising in 2011, Jawad said: “My house was raided, I was arrested, sexually assaulted and then put in solitary confinement for numerous days with no communication.

“My Bahraini human rights colleagues have regularly been handed travel bans, particularly if they intend to travel to a human rights conference or event.

“My colleague, Ibtisam Alsaegh, the SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights (SALAMDHR) networking officer in Bahrain, has recently been arrested and tortured, with prominent

human rights defender Nabeel Rajab seeing her wheelchair-bound.”

Such treatment in Bahraini prisons is common practice.

The Dry Dock and Jau prisons have become notorious for their abusive attitudes towards political prisoners. Nabeel Rajab, President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights and prominent human rights defender, had been left in solitary confinement for long durations during his imprisonment. This tactic is used by Bahraini officials to break communication between political prisoners, their families and solicitors.

While she was in custody, Ibtisam Alsaegh was beaten, sexually harassed and said to have dropped over 11kg in weight.

5 The grim inside of Jau Prison, and outside Dry Dock Prison

‘While abroad, I found out through Bahraini TV that I had been stripped of my citizenship with 30 others’ us with one human rights atrocity after another”. If there is a united international effort, however, from Bahrain’s allies to the human rights arenas and a mainstream media whose only interest seems to be in the Formula One Grand Prix, Bahrain can be pushed in the right direction in terms of human rights improvements and democratic reforms.

As An Phoblacht has reported previously, the treatment suffered by Bahraini political prisoners has resonances for republicans.

Ian ‘The Butcher of Bahrain’ Henderson is one name that frequently comes up when discussing systematic Bahraini torture.

He was installed in 1966 as head of security in Bahrain then under British administration and dubbed by renowned Middle East commentator Robert Fisk as “the most feared of all secret policemen”. When Bahrain declared independence in 1971, Prime Minister Bin Salman kept him on to run the state’s secret police.

He is widely believed to have trained the Bahraini security forces in torture techniques similar to those used in the North of Ireland against nationalist detainees during the conflict.

While some argue that this remains speculation, the British Government refuses to release a 38-year-old document that human right groups worldwide believe would shed light on the allegations. The document should have been available under Britain’s 30-year rule but the only version that has been released thus far has been highly redacted and censored.

What is the British Government still keeping secret about their ‘Butcher of Bahrain’ – and why?

September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

25

BOOK REVIEWS

Struggle or Starve: Working-Class Unity in Belfast’s 1932 Outdoor Relief Riots “This is an important story to tell, part of our lost history.

It shows that the interests workers share far outweigh the artificial divisions of sectarianism.

It is brilliant that Seán Mitchell has brought these great events backs to life. It will be an inspiration to unite again in today’s struggles.”

KEN LOACH

By Seán Mitchell Haymarket Books £14.99

WHEN the spreadsheet of capitalism delivered the economic depression of the 1930s, thousands of Catholic and Protestant workers had little choice but to sign on for Outdoor Relief.

This meant working for a pittance on labour schemes, their families reduced to the breadline, but a small group of communists set about forming a union of those affected.

A strike of Outdoor Relief workers was organised. When a planned rally was met by a banning order under Stormont’s Special Powers Act, the resulting riots united the Falls Road and the Shankill in an almost week-long explosion of anger and defiance against the armed forces of the state.

Seán Mitchell, in crisp prose and with an eye for telling details, provides a gripping account of events in Belfast in October 1932.

It was a rebellion from below and it was a successful one. An offer by the authorities to double the rate of relief was put to the vote and accepted by a majority of the 2,000 striking workers.

The rekindling of sectarian divisions is the grim aftermath to the riots and Mitchell charts the course of events: the rise of the Ulster Protestant League to “safeguard the employment of Protestants” and the failure of the Republican Congress to maintain its support base amongst non-Catholics.

The author’s conclusion – that the “pale ghosts of sectarianism can retreat under the pressure of class unity, but they do not dissipate or disappear of their own accord” – cannot be denied but his well-researched book confirms how such a retreat did once take place.

Review by Seán Sheehan

Minority Reporter: Scotland’s Bad Attitude Towards Her Own Irish

BY BOB SMITH WALKER WE TOOK STICK for publishing Minority Reporter by Phil Mac Giolla Bháin. It wasn’t just that the author had previously written Downfall: How Rangers FC Self-Destructed, or that he supported Celtic. It was more than these things.

He’s Irish, even spelling his name in Irish, which some in the West of Scotland would consider ‘provocative’.

Being Irish was something they’d ‘tolerate’ but if you pushed them too far by not hiding at the back of bus, then you were asking for it – like Neil Lennon at Ibrox in recent weeks.

IN PICTURES

So fragile is that ‘tolerance’.

Apparently, Minority Reporter was a “divisive” book, as if highlighting division was a greater crime than creating and maintaining it. Some retorted that anti-Irish racism is a figment of a victim-esque imagination and, if anything like it existed, then it was bigoted rather than racist. How that helped their case is unclear.

Growing up in Glasgow in the 1970s, however, had shown me, a Scottish Protestant, that anti-Irish racism and bigotry were real.

I remember someone complaining about how Shawlands was “too Irish now”. When someone else said folk have to live somewhere, he replied, “Aye, Ireland. Where they belong!” Another

acquaintance who loved Italian food replied, when it was pointed out that Italians were Catholics, that “at least

Growing up in Glasgow in the 1970s had shown me, a Scottish Protestant, that anti-Irish racism and bigotry were real they aren’t Irish”. Such small examples were dotted throughout everyday life.

They were indicative of a common mind-set not considered controversial enough to even mask. Had

such comments been made about Blacks or Asians (or Eastern Europeans nowadays), they would properly be called racist. No debate.

There’s no doubt things have improved greatly since the 1970s.

However, even in 2017, some are singing gleefully about the Irish Famine and that the Irish should “go home”. While such racism exists in Scotland, books like Minority Reporter calling it out have every right to be written and published.

In fact, it’s vital they are.

• Minority Reporter: Scotland’s Bad Attitude Towards Her Own Irish, by Phil Mac Giolla Bháin, Frontline Noir Publishing, €13.99, available from usual outlets and on Kindle.

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 Rasharkin, County Antrim, 18 August: The annual loyalist band parade again faces calls for respect

5 Ibrahim Halawa's family joins Amnesty International, the Union of Students in Ireland and Unite Against Racism at the Egyptian Embassy in Dublin to mark the 4th anniversary of Ibrahim’s arrest in Cairo

26 September / Meán Fómhair 2017

As rural Ireland is gradually stripped of its natural resources,

www.anphoblacht.com

Always coming home

ROBERT ALLEN

discovers why a coastal management scheme that promised protection never got off the ground SEAFARER Alec O’Donovan always returned home, every other month for 25 years, and the fear that he would leave Bantry Bay forever dissipated.

He was lucky.

Many left and never came back; others left and came back to a place they did not know or understand.

Bantry changed overnight in May 1969 when Taoiseach Jack Lynch unveiled a statue of St Brendan and ushered Gulf Oil into the bay. Gulf also changed young O’Donovan's life.

Born into a farming family with six siblings and 50 acres on the foreshore at the top of the town, back from the road to Ballylickey and Beara, he realised farming was not for him when he finished school in 1964 and did a bit of cattle farming and a bit of salmon fishing.

The sea had got into his blood. That was the start and end of it.

“Whiddy Island terminal construction began in 1967 and I had been asking for a job for about four months,” Alec says. “I could easily have got a job on the island in construction but I knew I needed marine experience to eventually obtain long-term employment on the tugs when they would commence later.”

4 Alec O’Donovan and the kelp that RTÉ TV’s ‘EcoEye’ revealed was to be mechanically harvested

5 Near the harvest site close to Adrigole and Hungry Hill

Alec O’Donovan was employed by Marine Transport, the company that ferried construction workers to the island, in 1967. When the terminal was opened in 1969, he worked with the tug company until 1976.

The Suez Canal reopened in 1975 and the Whiddy Island terminal became redundant. A Waterford company started a container shipping line and Alec, with several of his tug worker friends, jumped ship. He was 31. For the next 21 years he worked for Bell Lines – who operated cargo and container ships between Ireland, Wales, the Netherlands and England – and came home every other month.

“It was one month at sea, one month at home,” he says. A union man who had fought for the

Photo: Deirdre Fitzgerald

extra shore time, he persevered and stayed with Bell Lines until 1997, when the company went bankrupt.

HAVEN In the 1960s, Bantry Bay became a haven. It was one of the few places left that had maintained its natural, raw beauty, unaffected by Ireland’s burgeoning industrialisation. To Evelyn Hardy it was Summer in Another World.

This idyll attracted blow-ins of Irish and non-Irish extraction. Collectively they were people who had either made their money and wanted to live in idyllic rural surroundings or they were hippies who had rejected consumerism and materialism and wanted to escape society.

Bantry’s demographic structure appealed to them.

But times were changing. Old customs were dying out. Others (like the Spanish “carrying off all the fish without let or hindrance”) remained the same. In one week in the 1950s, a Welsh boat caught hake worth £2,000 in the old currency.

It was a trawler. “We used to fish in row-boats,” complained one fisherman. “Now versatile trawlers are all the thing.”

It was mostly the newcomers who objected (perhaps naturally, given their reasons for being in Bantry) to Gulf’s plans, but they were a minority and held no positions of power in the town’s political infrastructure. Their objections were swamped by the middle-class business owners and the working class who stood to benefit

September / Meán Fómhair 2017

27

Photos: Deirdre Fitzgerald

www.anphoblacht.com

5 Fin whales visit Bantry Bay to feed

5 Resident Bantry Bay harbour seals

from the spin-off to the local economy from Gulf’s presence.

The arrival of Gulf Oil was an omen of things to come.

GULF IN THE COMMUNITY Bantry came to epitomise the corporate mantra of the pursuit of profit at all cost but it was one that benefitted the town with the creation of an affluent and assertive industrial proletariat.

The oil company might have saved the young O’Donovan’s life but its presence in Bantry became untenable at the end of the 1970s when one of its oil tankers exploded, plunged the area into uncertainty and changed everything – again.

Ironically, former Gulf workers took up a challenge from a marine biologist who claimed the bay was perfect for the cultivation of mussels and so a new industry emerged.

It was another false dawn, and the people around the bay began to wonder what was happening. They had been elevated into an Arcadian existence that was both modern and rustic, and promised salvation and now did not know what they were.

They weren’t the only ones. All along the west coast, people were wondering whether they had a future in an increasingly urban-centred world.

In 2001, O’Donovan came home for good, following a five-year spell with Arklow Lines, after being offered the Assistant Master job with the Harbour Commissioners. It was in this role that he encountered the “experimental” Bantry Bay Coastal Zone Charter, with an obligation to get involved.

This was an EU-sponsored pilot programme for an integrated consultation system that included aquaculture, conservation, development, fishing, shipping and tourism, which would embrace “innovative dispute resolution techniques” and achieve agreement through consensus.

He warmed to the dynamic that characterised the facilitation meetings and the clear actions that were agreed. Local people had a mechanism to resolve problems themselves without resort to councillors or TDs and this made him cheerful.

“The charter was adopted by Cork County Council as part of their development plan and they committed to follow the principles of the charter.”

Except it didn’t work out like that.

PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT A European Union initiative to implement “integrated coastal zone management” €846,089.86 was allocated for a three-year period from 1 September 1997 to 15 October 2000 (€351,624.42 paid by the EU under their LIFE programme). The project was co-ordinated by Cork County Council in partnership with UCC and Cork IT. When the EU money ran out, the council

5 A dolphin graces the waters

Photos: Deirdre Fitzgerald

“The meetings brought various individuals into a room where there was complete freedom to express opinions. They were quite lively and bitter at times but, overall, produced consensus.”

He became optimistic again this year when a Tralee company was granted a licence to mechanically harvest kelp from the bay. There was outrage.

“Why were we not told about this?” cried the people when the development was revealed in an EcoEye RTÉ TV broadcast. Suddenly, the charter was the talk of the town.

And there are particular points coming from those charter meetings.

“The public often see it as difficult to get involved in the planning process and feel excluded from a process that affects the local community. Generally, when the public are involved it takes up considerable time and effort and in many cases people feel that they cannot make a real difference to the result.”

There was no public consultation about the kelp because it was not required by EU law.

No one in the EU wants to discuss integrated coastal zone management anymore, and especially not to put a strategy of protection in a law-changing EU directive.

It was dropped, said an EU official, because it was “felt that the directive should not interfere with member states’ competence for town and country planning”. So instead of a “framework for maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management” we now have a “maritime spatial planning” directive without the public consultation element.

A disingenuous move, some would argue, given the purpose of EU directives.

QUESTIONS AND SEEDS

5 The tail of a humpback whale

allocated funds to extend the project into 2002 but the state said no to a funding request to take it further.

The coastal zone management scheme set up by the Department of the Marine in 1997 – to support sustainable development through new policies and plans that included public consultation – was dead in the water.

Charter facilitator Dr Harriet Emerson accuses Government agencies, including Marine, who she said “were reluctant to engage meaningfully” with a “flexible approach” to “achieve improvements”.

“The Government in Ireland,” she says, “seems to have little grasp that the goal of increased successful and positive public participation will not be achieved without a clear demonstration of genuine respect for public involvement.”

On the contrary, it was naive to expect

something that challenged bureaucratic authority and political hegemony to become law.

TALK OF THE TOWN Alec O’Donovan was crestfallen at first. Then he was optimistic.

“There is no charter,” he says. “Looking back on the termination of the charter, those of us involved were extremely disappointed. We saw the exercise in action and found the process as being very positive, clear and constructive.

“There had been a lot of conflict in the greater Bantry Bay area from the construction of the oil terminal and other projects between locals, who were happy to see jobs being created, to mostly retired foreigners, who were nervous of oil pollution and the changing of the local environment from countryside idyllic to commercialisation of the area.

This prompted questions. Why did Cork County Council allocate funds to a project that was politically sensitive and subject to negativity? And why should communities bother to engage in initiatives that waste their time?

Alec O’Donovan is not so cynical.

For him the consultation process of the Bantry Charter created a seed in the minds of the people.

“People don’t have time, that’s true; it does not mean they won’t take time. Who knows what will happen?”

Tom Barrington argued that it was the relative weakness of the people’s power that allowed a system of government heavily biased towards bureaucracy instead of one based on democracy galvanised by vigorous local government to have its way.

Epitomised by the attitude of Alec O’Donovan and his like, the people of Bantry proved they were not weak, and the officials of Cork County Council showed they were prepared for change.

Instead, it was the apathy of the state and the weakness of the EU that shut them down.

Meanwhile, Bantry has morphed from an agricultural place into a small industrial town.

And the bay is up for grabs – again.

28 September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com BOOK REVIEWS BY MICHAEL MANNION

Civil War capital reading The Civil War In Dublin: The Fight For The Irish Capital 1922 - 1924

By John Dorney Irish Academic Press €19.99 & €39.99

I THINK most books considering the Civil War in Dublin provide a detailed analysis up to the destruction of the Four Courts and then dismiss the city from the narrative as the military conflict erupted elsewhere, particularly in Munster. John Dorney’s excellent book seeks to remedy this shortfall.

Dorney analyses the military action and repression that continued within the capital and also how rivalries and power struggles within the Free State (and, to a lesser extent, republican) command structures affected events in the rest of the country.

The author points out that for at least half of the duration of the Civil 5 Dublin's famous Four Courts burn as republicans barricaded inside come under War there were actually three armies artillery fire from Free State forces during the Irish Civil War in July 1922 present in Dublin, rather than the two Despite its title, this very readable book is the part that factionalism and normally considered. personal rivalries and jealousies played and highly informative book should In addition to the republican forces in steering the direction the conflict be of interest to readers in all parts and the Free State Army there was a took. It describes at least four distinct of the country and not merely in factions with differing motivations Dublin. I highly recommend it both and constraints, from ‘Squad’ men to to those familiar with the period and former British Army officers, each had also to relative novices wishing to their own agenda. learn more.

UVF – Behind The Mask

third force, larger and better armed than the other two combined.

The British Army still had over 6,000 men and heavy artillery available and it was the possibility of their unilateral attack on the republican garrison that prompted the Free State bombardment.

To allow the British to attack republicans would undermine the Free State Government’s public position as being the victors and rightful inheritors of the Tan War. The book also demonstrates the influence of Dublin in other parts of the country by examining the likelihood that many of the worst massacres and murders that took place in Kerry were carried out by former members of Michael Collins’s ‘Squad’. This military unit had metamorphosed into a CID police unit referred to unofficially as “The Murder Gang” who had travelled to Munster specifically to eliminate republican resistance.

Another interesting aspect of the

TO BE FAIR, the warning signs were there from the beginning.

The back cover carries a publicity blurb from Irish Independent “Security Correspondent” Jim Cusack, a man so far removed from reality that he would be better suited as the newspaper’s correspondent in Narnia.

He comments as follows: “Aaron Edwards’s work is easily the best account of this little-known but possibly most successful terror group of the Northern Irish Troubles.”

“Little-known”?!!!

The ludicrous proposition from a so-called “Security Correspondent” of many years that the unionist Ulster Volunteer Force is “little known” let alone “the most successful group” defies any rational explanation.

The saying goes that one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but in this case . . .

The basic problem is that the author is far too close to his subject to exhibit a meaningful degree of objectivity.

Aaron Edwards grew up in a staunchly loyalist area of Rathcoole

The book also demonstrates the influence of Dublin in other parts of the country

Unionist mask slips

By Aaron Edwards Irish Academic Press €17.99

in north Belfast and senior UVF figures such as Billy Greer (the UVF commander in east Antrim) were close family friends. Edwards himself is a Senior Lecturer at the British Army’s Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst.

And another slight impediment to portraying full impartiality is the fact that he was asked to write it by one Billy Mitchell – none other than the UVF’s Director of Operations.

As a result of the personal connections, much of the book consists of self-serving accounts and spurious attempts at justification which are never really challenged.

The author credits the UVF with a legitimacy and organisational efficiency that is not borne out by even the most cursory of critical examinations. He seems to have allowed his personal regard for individuals to blind his critical faculties as to their actions and behaviour.

Whilst there are many interesting elements in the book, it’s a shame that the opportunity to present an informed critique has been missed. The book’s cover shows a mural of a UVF gunman on a gable wall but in reality it looks like another load of whitewash.

Available from: www.sinnfein.ie/martin-mcguinness-portrait or your local Sinn Féin outlet "We were incredibly moved when we saw Robert's painting of Martin. It was wonderful to receive such a lovely piece from such a renowned artist to honour Martin's life."

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tubes 3 inches in diameter x 20 inches long. Each print is rolled with specially treated protective paper and accompanied with a numbered certificate to confirm its authenticity.

September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

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.

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

Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations PÁDRAIG PEARSE Diarmuid O’NEILL, England.

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

Always remembered by the Republican Movement.

McGLADE, Charlie. Remembering Volunteer Charlie McGlade whose 35th anniversary occurs on 17 September. Fuair siad bás ar son saoirse na hÉireann. Always remembered by the Volunteer Charlie McGlade Sinn Féin Cumann, Drimnagh, Dublin.

MORROW, Anthony ‘Dodger’. In proud and loving memory of our friend and comrade ‘Dodger’ Morrow, whose anniversary occurs at this

time. Always remembered by the Halpenny, Worthington, Watters Sinn Féin Cumann, Dundalk.

O’HAGAN, Bernard. In proud and loving memory of Sinn Féin Councillor Bernard O’Hagan, murdered by pro-British forces on 16 September 1991. A dedicated and courageous republican. Always remembered by the McCusker, McMullan, O’Hagan Sinn Féin Cumann, Swatragh, County Derry.

‘H3’ screened in Italy for Hunger Strike Commemoration

BY LAURENCE McKEOWN THE HUNGER STRIKE film H3 was recently screened as part of the annual Assunta Festival in Vernante, a small town in north-west Italy, where I was invited to screen H3 (with Italian subtitles), make a presentation, and take part in a Q&A. This was the first time that the festival had invited anyone from another country and the first time to include a specifically political element (usually the festival comprises music, dance, and theatre).

The screening was in a marvellous venue and was packed to capacity on the night with many travelling from far outside the village to attend. The questions asked were very insightful and displayed both an interest in, and certain knowledge of, the subject.

At the end of the event, a man told me how he had spray painted anti-Thatcher graffiti on the walls of a nearby city during the Hunger Strike.

The following day, I got a message from the Chief of Police for the region, asking if I could call in at the station.

Not for questioning or arrest, as it turned out, but to thank me for visiting the village, for my presentation, for making the film, and to present me with a book about the first member of the Carabinieri who was killed in Vernante in 1915 by an escaped bandit from the neighbouring village of Limone.

The day after that, another police officer came over to me in the hotel as I finished my lunch, introduced

Annual Vol. Charlie McGlade Commemoration 35th ANNIVERSARY

5 Laurence McKeown with Assunta Festival friends and attracting the interest of the local police

himself and said how much he had enjoyed the film and talk and went on to say about how he lived in England in the 1970s during the conflict and how he had witnessed the racism against the Irish.

The French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre once wrote: “Life is an absurdity.” Indeed it is.

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

3.30pm Saturday 16 September 2017 Assemble: Dolphin Road Green

Dublin Colour Party, Rising Phoenix RFB and prominent speakers REFRESHMENTS SERVED AFTERWARDS

Vol. Charlie McGlade Memorial Cup - Tug-O-War 1:30pm Dolphin Road Green Teams of 6+ €20 Trophies and Medals for the winners Contact: Ian McBride 086 379 47 17

Proudly organised by Vol.Charlie McGlade Sinn Féin Cumann, Drimnagh

30 September / Meán Fómhair 2017

www.anphoblacht.com

That man Myers again and easy rides at RTÉ

SEÁN Mac BRÁDAIGH THE ONLY SURPRISE regarding the ignominious end to the Sunday Times career of Kevin Myers is that it took so long for him to be given the elbow by one of the so-called ‘quality’ titles that gave him a platform for his poison over many years. It’s a shame, however, that it took a decision in London rather than Dublin to finally put a halt to his privileged, public outpourings.

As noted elsewhere in this edition, Myers’s rant nominally about the BBC pay gap in The Sunday Times which saw him insult Jewish people and women in equal measure isn’t the first time he’s crossed the line. He has a long and appalling record of sexism, racism and class snobbery in his writings over many years.

The condescending Myers is well-known for his reactionary views on the Irish independence struggle and a particularly warped view of Irish history that has portrayed the country as unworthy of self-governance. In this regard he has

RTÉ regular panellist Jim Power went unchallenged by Marian Finucane when he claimed Barack Obama's administration had been ‘extreme Left’!

promoted well-worn fantasies of the racist stereotypes of the late and discredIrish. ited Canadian historian Dr He even regurgitated a concoction of the 1920s Peter Hart, a man British military propaganwhose writings dist Basil Clarke in The have propagated Irish Times which accused the myth of the former Lord Mayor of Cork Tan War IRA in Cork prosecutTerence MacSwiney of ing a sectarplotting the assassination ian campaign of the Bishop of Cork! against local While Myers was forced later to apologise for this Protestants. lie, Terence MacSwiney’s As well as Myers, panellists daughter had to personally pursue Myers into at the event in SkibberThe Irish Times building een included such in order to get him to anti-Sinn Féin obsessives listen to her. as Ruth Dudley Edwards In 1999, The Irish and Eoghan Harris (who Times was forced to pay has traversed the polita “substantial six-figure ical spectrum from the sum’’ to Derry’s Bloody Workers’ Party to Fine Gael, Sunday families in settlethe Ulster Unionist Party ment of a libel action and Fianna Fáil). over an article written While Myers’s newspaby Myers. per career may be over, his While his right-wing ideological fellow travellers 5 Myers: Why did downfall take so long? views on everything from in the Irish media haven’t Irish republicanism to the status of women, race, gone away, you know.

But if recent circulation figures are anything single mothers and their children, and equality, are anathema to those of the vast majority to go by, a declining number of people are of Irish people, they have been shared by an listening to them.

Independent News & Media recently issued influential minority in the Irish Establishment, ensuring Myers a privileged, protected position a profit warning amid falling circulation and within the Irish print media for many years. advertising revenue.

On the day that the Sunday Times scandal Licence payers are still trying to absorb recent broke, Myers was appearing in west Cork on revelations of the exorbitant sums of money paid a panel of history revisionists pushing the in salaries to individual broadcasters within RTÉ.

The Irish Times was forced to pay a ‘substantial six-figure sum’ to Derry’s Bloody Sunday families in settlement of a libel action over an article written by Kevin Myers

5 A piece by Myers in 1999 cost 'The Irish Times' a libel payout to Bloody Sunday families

5 RTÉ favourite Jim 'Soft Landing' Power

The excessive figures (up to €495k a year in one case!) must surely be reviewed as people begin to question where their licence fee is actually going when a staff nurse starts on about €25k, a garda starts on about €28k, and a secondary school teacher starts on about €34k.

Montrose managers who call for jacking the licence fee up to €175 a year first need to show us exactly where our money is going. A good place to start would to look at how the station covers events in the North.

Fine Gael Minister Charlie Flanagan recently claimed on RTÉ Radio that the delay in forming a functioning Assembly was to blame for vandals burning down a credit union in west Belfast!

Flanagan’s ridiculous claim wasn’t challenged once by his RTÉ interviewer.

Right-wing economist Jim ‘Soft Landing’ Power similarly got the soft touch treatment on the Marian Finucane Show (RTÉ Radio One) with his own bit of blame shifting.

Jim was not only allowed to get away with claiming that the Barack Obama administration in the US had been “extreme Left” (I kid you not) but that this explained the violent actions of white supremacists and neo-Nazis in places such as Charlottesville.

It’s not just landings that are soft in Jim’s head.

www.anphoblacht.com

JOHN JOE McGIRL

September / Meán Fómhair 2017

The man from Ballinamore

BY JOHN HEDGES THE AFFECTION and respect that John Joe McGirl is still held in – almost 30 years after his passing – was reflected by the large crowd in Ballinamore, County Leitrim, on Saturday 18 August to commemorate the man Martin McGuinness regarded as “an inspirational leader”.

Speaking at the 2013 dedication of the statue in The Square for John Joe, Martin McGuinness said: “John Joe epitomised everything that is good about our struggle.

“Be it his involvement in the IRA in the 1930s, to his leadership role in the Border Campaign, or his election to Leinster House, or his key part in reorganising republicanism in the early 1970s, or his decisive contribution in 1986, John Joe always led from the front.

“He was, and he remains for republicans – not just here in Leitrim or the Border but across our country – an inspirational leader . . . He continues to inspire.”

John Joe, Martin McGuinness said, “knew about struggle”.

“He knew about strategy.

“He knew what it meant to carry the burden and the responsibility leadership and he knew that at all time the struggle needed to move forward.

“He also knew about our past – but he was never a hostage to it.”

This year, the late Martin McGuinness would have undoubtedly been present again in Ballinamore but the McGuin-

‘Throughout his life and in his contribution to the republican struggle, John Joe McGirl carved out the path’ ness family link was maintained by the presence of son Fiachra McGuinness, daughter-in-law Leona and their children, Cara and Dualta.

The association was also reflected by Raymond McCartney – the H-Blocks hunger striker who is now a Sinn Féin Assembly member for Foyle – delivering the main address.

Acknowledging the family, friends and comrades of John Joe who were present, he added: “We send our best wishes to Bridie who cannot be with us - to his daughters, Áine, Cait and Nuala and to his sons Liam and Fergal.”

The Derry MLA said that Martin McGuinness would have seen John Joe as one of that group of republicans from the Fenian tradition who ensured that the flame of resistance was never, ever extinguished.

“In our office in Derry there is a portrait of John Joe, placed there by Martin.

So you can well understand how that respect manifests itself to this very day.”

5 The John Joe McGirl Commemoration forms up to parade through the town

John Joe was a political prisoner in the 1940s and again in 1957. And while he was in Mountjoy Jail he was elected as a TD for Sligo/Leitrim – topping the poll.

He was elected to serve as a councillor in 1960 and was serving the people as a councillor when he died in December 1988.

“He was a man from Ballinamore and he was man of Ballinamore,” Raymond said.

“When we trace the rise of the ever-increasing strength of Sinn Féin, one of the most seminal moments in the history of the republican struggle is the decision in 1986 to end the policy of abstentionism towards Leinster House.

“Today, over half a million people vote for this party, we have seven MPs, 23 TDs (including Martin Kenny for Sligo/Leitrim, a seat held previously by John Joe), 28 MLAs, four MEPs, seven seanadóirí, and over 300 councillors – representation in every county throughout the land.

“Let there be no doubt that that decision in 1986 is one of the turning points in our history and one which has shaped and defined it ever since.

“Martin McGuinness has often relayed how John Joe led the discussion and the debate to bring it about.

“No stone left unturned, no word left unspoken.

“That is leadership in action. When change is required, we step forward and make it happen.”

The former H-Blocks hunger striker recalled that in 2006 he had the privilege

‘Unbreakable Fenians – John Joe McGirl and his friend and comrade, Martin McGuinness’ to speak at the Hunger Strike Memorial in Havana.

“Close by was a billboard designed to inspire Cubans into activism and leadership and it read: ‘Walkers, there is no path; the path is made by walking.’

“Throughout his life and in his contribution to the republican struggle, John Joe McGirl carved out the path.

5 Martin McGuinness was an admirer of John Joe and frequent visitor to Leitrim “Activism and leadership coming together as one.”

The ending of partition and the realisation of a true Irish Republic is still to be achieved, Raymond McCartney said.

“That was the life’s work of those unbroken and unbreakable Fenians – of John Joe McGirl and his friend and comrade, Martin McGuinness.

“They most definitely walked the path and carved it out for us to follow and to advance and strengthen our struggle, our desire for freedom.

“Leanfaidh muid-ne ar aghaidh leis a obair, agus bigi cinnte, ansin mar a duirt Bobby Sands, tcifidh muid eiri na gealai.

“Let the ending of partition be the monument to our Fenian dead and 5 Martin McGuinness’s son Fiachra, Sligo/Leitrim TD Martin Kenny, Leitrim County then, as Bobby Sands said, ‘We will see Councillor Brendan Barry and Derry MLA Raymond McCartney the rising of the moon.’”

31

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IN PICTURES

Sraith Nua Iml 40 Uimhir 9 – September / Meán Fómhair 2017

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson with Fiachra and Emmet McGuinness at the exhibition of family and political photos of their late father, Martin McGuinness, at the Gasyard Féile in Derry PHOTO: JOHN O'GRADY PHOTOGRAPHY

5 Dublin v Tyrone: Ard-Mhéara ar Bhaile Átha Cliath Mícheál Mac Donncha and Tyrone MLA Michelle O'Neill at the All-Ireland Football Semi-Final

5 National Hunger Strike Commemoration in Ballina, County Mayo, with members of the Hunger Strikers' families, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD and Mayo Senator Rose Conway-Walsh