An Phoblacht, August-September 2018

anphoblacht August 2018 Lúnasa

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WHAT NEXT FOR RIGHTS AND EQUALITY? Sinn Féin Vice President Michelle O’Neill writes for An Phoblacht

48 YEARS OF GAZA IS AN ACTIVISM OPEN AIR PRISON We remember Joe Reilly

Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson on Palestine

REMEMBERING THE 1981 HUNGER STRIKES

Raymond McCartney reflects on the past and future challenges

A poem for

Joe Reilly

By Lucillita Breathach.

An Joey a bhíonn gealgáireach tuisceaneach le fios feasa a mhuintir ó dúichí an Óriallaigh Breffni Cábhán agus an Mhídhe Abhainn na Bóinne cois Sláine fothracha caisleáin Teamhair na Ríogh Aoise an naoi Sliabh na Caillighe Crainneog nua Loch na Cruaighe Joey a thug foscadh is tearmann dom is a nochtaigh na háiteacha seo in éindí liom.

JOE REILLY

Lucillita wrote about Joey when he was still alive and which she read to him on one of the ocassions they met in the solstice centre before his passing.

Ag siúlóid ar an bportach sinne i measc Lus taghla, magairlín meidhreach, an magairlín gaelach, meidhreachán na mban sí ceannbhán ag cromtha a gcloigeann i puth gaoithe.

A mháthar ag suí le h-ais an raon ina dtigín’ san súgán cos amháin níos lú ná an ceann eile bacach. í chomh balbh le luch an dorais.

Ráth Cairn Gaeltacht na Mídhe, é chomh gaelach leo Ba shin céarbh as do Joey.

ALWAYS LOOKING ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE – PAGE 10 A COMMITTED, DEDICATED AND UNREPENTANT REVOLUTIONARY – PAGE 13

anphoblacht anphoblacht August 2018 Lúnasa

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AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA

WHAT NEXT FOR RIGHTS AND EQUALITY? Sinn Féin Vice President Michelle O’Neill writes for An Phoblacht

48 YEARS OF GAZA IS AN ACTIVISM OPEN AIR PRISON We remember Joe Reilly

Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson on Palestine

REMEMBERING THE 1981 HUNGER STRIKES

Raymond McCartney reflects on the past and future challenges

AN PHOBLACHT Editor: Robbie Smyth An Phoblacht is published

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

The DUP cannot prevent the emergence of a new equal Ireland Sinn Féin Vice President Michelle O’Neill writes for An Phoblacht on the impact of the 8th Amendment referendum on the North, the Stormont collapse and Brexit

Political Corruption in Ireland

Frank Connolly remembers the events that led to the establishment of the Flood/Mahon and Morris Tribunals

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Joe Reilly remembered

Gerry Adams and Caoimhe Ni Shluain remember Sinn Féin councillor, activist and former POW Joe Reilly

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Sinn Féin in the EU parliament

Highlighting the negative implications of Brexit for the Irish economy has been just of the priorities of the Sinn Féin MEPs

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Bethany children remembered

Mark Moloney reports on the ongoing campaign of Bethany Home Survivors to get full redress from the Irish Government

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‘Gaza is an open air prison’

Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson reports on the deteriorating plight of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank

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The banned West Bank visit

CONTRIBUTORS

Lucillita Breathach Frank Connolly

Gerry Adams TD Caoimhe Ní Shluain

Mark Moloney

Martina Anderson Mícheál Mac Donncha

Muireann Meehan Speed

Eoin Ó Broin TD Duroyan Fertl

Sinéad NÍ Bhroin Jake Jackson

Raymond McCartney

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SEE PAGE

Former Ardmhéara Bhaile Átha Claith Mícheál Mac Donncha tells An Phoblacht about his visit to Palestine that the Israeli government tried to stop

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A republic of equals

Muireann Meehan Speed writes that 100 years after universal suffrage Ireland is at a gender equality crossroads

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Tackling the housing crisis

Sinn Féin TD Eoin O’Broin makes the case for a news social housing strategy

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New Spanish Government

Duroyan Fertl profiles the new Minority government’s emerging policies on Catalonian independence

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Postcards from a New Republic Sinead Ni Bhroin looks at a world where Facebook has been nationalised

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Paddy Agnew

Paddy Agnew honoured at Leinster House 37 years after being elected

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De Profundis - As an duibheagán Need a bit of blurb on what Jake is talking about

Theresa May’s visit to Ireland last month, when she provocatively reiterated her intention to scrap her commitments to the EU and Ireland, was further evidence of the toxic impact that her party’s pact with the DUP is having on the political process and the lives of ordinary citizens. This cannot continue Sinn Féin Vice President Michelle O’Neill

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Rededicating ourselves to future challenges

Foyle MLA and former hunger striker Raymond McCartney offers a compelling context to inspire a new generation of republican activists

anphoblacht AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA

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EDITORIAL

anphoblacht EAGARTHÓIREACHT

A LIVING STRUGGLE

T

here are three themes running though the second edition An Phoblacht magazine. They are the continuity of struggle across generations, the international dimension of radical republican politics and the political, social

and economic crossroads the island of Ireland stands at today.

ROBBIE SMYTH

editor@anphoblacht.com

Gerry Adams and Caoimhe Ni Shluain remember Joe Reilly and his 48 years of political activism. There is also a poignant poem by Lucillita Bhreathnach. Paddy Agnew finally made it to Leinster House 37 years after being elected. At the event held to mark Agnew’s visit Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald said: “Many of those involved in Sinn Féin today were not born at that time but they and we are part of a struggle which is about achieving Irish unity. I believe we have the exceptional privilege of living through an unprecedented opportunity to end partition”.

Raymond McCartney who offers a unique insight into the motivations for political activism and the challenges we face today

This is echoed in the article by former political prisoner and hunger striker Raymond McCartney who offers a unique insight into the motivations for political activism and the challenges we face today. Another former political prisoner, Jake MacSiacais, offers an insight too into the changing political environment between the 1970s and today.

Martina Anderson, Michael MacDonnacha and Duroyan Fertl provide an international dimension looking at the situation in Palestine and Catalonia.

Then there is the challenges facing Ireland today. Sinn Féin Vice President Michelle O’Neill sets out the impact of DUP and British Government failures to implement the Good Friday Agreement in Ireland.

Muireann Meehan Speed considers the gender equality issues across the island.

Eoin O’Broin asks why the Fine Gael coalition government cannot accept that a social housing strategy must be the centrepiece of any solution to Ireland’s housing crisis.

Mark Moloney highlights the Bethany children, still waiting for truth, justice and redress from the Irish Government.

Frank Connolly, the investigative journalist whose reporting was a significant factors in the establishment of the Flood/Mahon tribunal offers revisits the tribunal and the political corruption uncovered by it.

Finally Sinead Ni Bhroin considers a future Ireland where Facebook is socially owned. Here’s hoping!

Last words go to Raymond McCartney who in a powerful article reminds us of the challenges to come. He writes: “So now as we take time to remember and reflect, it is also a time to rededicate ourselves to the many challenges that lie before. The walking continues, new paths to be created”.

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AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA anphoblacht

The DUP have rejected the will of the people

'The Irish Government must assert itself in the national interest and in defence of all citizens on the island'

The result of the historic Repeal the 8th referendum in June is further evidence that Ireland is changing for the better and a new more compassionate country is emerging where all citizens - North and South - must be treated equally.

As with the Marriage Equality referendum in 2015, the people in the 26 Counties voted overwhelmingly to embrace a more progressive future, a future based on the equality, dignity and rights of all citizens.

But in the North, it’s a very different story.

Here the DUP remain determined to carve out a much bleaker future.

Within days of the referendum result, DUP MLA Jim Wells announced that his party, if it had the opportunity, would use the Petition of Concern to block any change to abortion laws in the North.

This echoes the approach they have consistently taken to marriage equality when the DUP repeatedly deployed the Petition of Concern to block it in defiance anphoblacht AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA

BY MICHELLE O’NEILL of an Assembly and popular majority.

Again, this is nothing new. The majority in the North support rights and statutory provision for the Irish language but the DUP have set their face against it.

The majority support the right of victims to truth yet the DUP leader prevented the Lord Chief Justice from carrying out legacy inquests – a move later branded as ‘unlawful’ by Belfast High Court.

And of course the DUP has always rejected the will of the people when it comes to the Good Friday Agreement - an accord they have never accepted despite its endorsement by the overwhelming people of Ireland, North and South.

So what next for rights and equality in the North? What next for the concept of democracy?

Clearly, it is unacceptable and unsustainable for the people of the North to be denied the same rights, the same choices and the same democratic entitlements which are available everywhere else on these islands.

If political institutions were restored on that basis, they simply could not survive.

They could not hope to enjoy any degree of popular support and would be unable to confront the myriad of challenges we face as a society, from Brexit to Tory cuts on our public services.

It is shameful that the DUP, supported by their Tory partners, continue to deny these rights in opposition to the popular will.

Theresa May’s visit to Ireland last month, when she provocatively reiterated her intention to scrap her commitments to the EU and Ireland, was further evidence of the toxic impact that her party’s pact with the DUP is having on the political process and the lives of ordinary citizens.

This cannot continue. The British Irish 3

Intergovernmental Conference finally met last month and will meet again in the Autumn.

The Intergovernmental Conference is an opportunity to unlock the political crisis and pave the way for a restoration of the power-sharing institutions. If it is to be successful, the British Government must leave its reliance on the DUP at the door.

The toxic pact between the Tories and the DUP has poisoned our political process for too long. It has been central to the failure to restore the institutions to date.

Against the odds, the parties had reached a draft agreement back in February that would have seen the Assembly and Executive restored within days.

But when it came to the crunch, the DUP could not or would not deliver. They refused to honour the agreement and instead collapsed the political negotiations.

They were able to do this because they knew they would face no challenge from the London Government.

And that is the fault-line in the current process that must be repaired if the conference is to be successful.

The British Government are supposed to be rigorously independent coguarantors of the Good Friday Agreement.

Had they been fulfilling that role, then they would have confronted the DUP’s refusal to embrace that agreement long before now.

Instead they placate, they pander and they provide cover for the fact that the DUP still refuse to share power on the basis of equal treatment for all citizens. The DUP feel so little pressure from London that they are adamant, bullish even, that they will not move on the issues of rights and equality

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Theresa May which are at the heart of the crisis.

However, discriminatory positions on marriage equality, language rights, coroners inquests and women’s health are simply unacceptable for any administration that wishes to describe itself as democratic and egalitarian.

In addition to these rights issues, there are a number of other areas that must be addressed as a matter of urgency, including Boundary Commission changes; Policing Board appointments; Cross-Border bodies; the All-Ireland Single Electricity Market, the impact of austerity cuts on our public services like health and education and, of course, Brexit.

Resolving these issues at the Intergovernmental conference and within the framework of the Good Friday Agreement would present a clear pathway back to reestablishing the institutions.

But that will require confronting the DUP’s anti-rights, anti-democratic and anti-equality agenda. We will know soon if Theresa May’s administration is finally prepared to do that.

And while London is the chief influencer on the DUP, there is also a major responsibility for the Irish Government.

They too are co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement.

They too would not tolerate the denial of rights that citizens in the North have had to endure.

They too are victims of the Tory-DUP pact because we have seen in recent days how Theresa May – in order to placate the DUP and their allies in the Hard Brexit camp - was prepared to jettison the socalled ‘cast-iron’ guarantees she gave Leo Varadkar last year.

The Taoiseach should not allow himself to be taken in again.

When the Conference meets next week, the Irish Government must assert itself in the national interest and in defence of all citizens on the island.

They must insist that previous agreements are honoured. They must insist that all citizens are treated fairly and equally.

And they must finally address the cancer at the heart of this process and demand that the rights of citizens and the agreements that underpin our entire peace process are prioritised above self-serving party pacts.  MICHELLE O’NEILL is Sinn Féin Vice President, the leader of Sinn Féin in the Northern Assembly and MLA for Mid Ulster.

AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA anphoblacht

Gilmartin

Reynolds

Flynn

Ahern

Burke

Mara

Why haven’t we learned the lessons of corruption?

Lowry

anphoblacht AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA

Dunlop

Frank Connolly’s investigative journalism, published in the Sunday Business Post and a TV3 documentary led to two separate tribunals of inquiry being formed. His revelations led to a range of ministerial resignations including that of former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Here for An Phoblacht Connolly reflects on the events that led to the formation of the Flood and Morris Tribunals.

O'Callaghan

lawlor

Redmond

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Ireland’s shameful ‘’Golden Circle of corruption and privilege The first public Dáil inquiry began in 1925. The issue was food prices. Since then there have been 34 tribunals including the ongoing Charleton Tribunal based on the disclosures of Garda whistle-blower Maurice McCabe. These tribunals have dealt with issues such as the Kerry Babies scandal, the Whiddy Oil disaster, Illegal money lending and Hepatitis C infections.

In most cases, the tribunals have attempted to grapple with and investigate the failure of the Irish state and its agencies to behave lawfully and in the interests of the Irish people. Four of the tribunals have dealt with the issue of Garda malpractice. Other than the current Charleton Tribunal there was the Kerry Babies, the Barr and Morris Tribunals.

However, beginning in 1991 there were a series of tribunals that focussed on the behaviour of Irish politicians and their links with Ireland’s business community. Beginning with the Beef Tribunal in 1991 these were the first steps in the uncovering of a so-called ‘Golden Circle’ of privilege and power in Irish society.

Below we give a rundown of the most recent and serious of these tribunals.

Not included in these lists are the range of other reports and studies into other failings of Irish political society. The Ferns Report on clerical sexual abuse in the Diocese of Ferns, the Ryan Report on child abuse at religiously run institutions, or the Murphy report into sexual abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese are not included in the 34 tribunals.

Also not included are the other Commissions of Investigation into issues such as the 1974 Dublin Monaghan bombings, the Irish banking crisis, or the Mothers and Baby Homes Commission. Taken together these inquiries are a powerful indictment of the failings of official Ireland in the decades since independence.

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THE SEEDY TRUTH OF CORRUPTION IN

BY FRANK CONNOLLY It was around this time in summer 20 years ago when I first made contact with the late Tom Gilmartin. I got his number through the former Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, who was aware that the property developer, based in Luton, had serious complaints about the manner in which he had been treated by politicians and others when he tried to do business in Ireland some ten years previously.

When I put down the phone after the initial 50-minute conversation, I turned to the then editor of the Sunday Business Post, Damien Kiberd, and said that “if half of what this man claims is true we are in for a rough ride”. In journalistic terms, what Gilmartin alleged was rocket fuel which could potentially embroil some of the most senior political and business figures in the country including Reynolds himself, the then Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, the EU Commissioner, Padraig Flynn, cabinet members and senior public servants in corruption allegations.

By the summer of 1998 the tribunal into planning and payments, chaired by retired High Court Judge Feargus Flood, had yet to open formal public hearings and its legal team was busy gathering evidence to support the unproven claims that had led to its establishment in late 1997. It was prompted after we published the story of an alleged payment of at least £40,000 in cash to then Fianna Fáil government minister, Ray Burke, during a general election campaign in June 1989.

The story emerged from a disgruntled former company executive, Jim Gogarty, who told me he was present in Burke’s house when two businessmen each handed the politician a bag of cash containing £40 grand. The payment was in order to buy Burke’s assistance in getting re-zoning for a large tract of land in the politician’s Dublin North constituency which the businessmen hoped to develop for housing.

“Will we get a receipt for this?“ Gogarty asked as they travelled to Burke’s home in Swords to close the deal.

“Will we fuck,” one donor famously replied.

For many months we were unable, for legal reasons, to name any of the personalities involved in this unravelling story although since late 1995, when I met Gogarty for the first time at his home in Sutton in north Dublin, we had been publishing the claim that a senior serving politician had accepted a massive bribe in 1989.

As the general election approached in June 1997, with Bertie Ahern expected to lead Fianna Fáil into government for the first time, the party leadership and its handlers became increasingly nervous as to when and how the Sunday Business Post would identify the politician involved.

In an off the record briefing just days before polling, the FF media bully in chief, P J Mara told me he knew we were talking about Ray Burke but that anything he got in 1989 was a contribution to his election campaign and we would be sued into bankruptcy if we suggested anything else in the newspaper.

On the day of the election I met Ahern celebrating his

Tom Gilmartin leaving the Mahon Tribunal after giving evidence anticipated victory in his local pub near Marino and he asked me what the story was all about. I told him about the cash handover to Burke eight years earlier and that we had strong evidence to back it up.

“I won’t have a fucking Michael Lowry in my cabinet,” he told me in reference to the controversy surrounding the former Fine Gael communications minister and the recent award of the second mobile phone licence to Denis O’Brien. I said all the information he needed was in Gogarty’s house in Sutton, a ten minute drive up the road.

Less than a month later, after Ahern claimed that he “had climbed every tree in north Dublin” to establish the truth of these allegations, now being reported across the media, Burke was appointed as Minister for Foreign

AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA anphoblacht

THE IRISH POLITICAL ELITE

FEATURE

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BEEF TRIBUNAL: 1991 TO 1994

Justice Fergus Flood arriving at the Planning Tribunal

'Will we get a receipt for this?' Gogarty asked as they travelled to Burke's home in Swords to close the deal.

'Will we fuck' one donor famously replied

James Gogarty leaving Dublin Castle on the first day of his cross examination

anphoblacht AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA

The Tribunal of Inquiry into the Beef Processing Industry came into being to hold together a Fianna Fáil Progressive Democrat coalition government formed in 1989. Its revelations led to the collapse of that government in late 1992, with a resulting general election.

Running for 226 days it exposed systematic malpractices within the Irish beef industry. Including tax evasion, abuse of EU and Irish government funding schemes, a failure of industry regulation and a series of allegations made in the Dáil of specific political influence by those within the industry.

The inquiry was started after World in Action an ITV current affairs programme broadcast an investigation into the Irish beef sector.

FLOOD/MAHON TRIBUNAL: 1997 TO 2012 Estimates of the costs of the Flood/Mahon tribunal are as high as €250 million.

The Flood Tribunal began as a result of the claims of a whistle blower James Gogarty alleging payments to Fianna Fáil minister Ray Burke and others in return for favourable planning decisions. The tribunal grew over the years, with Justice Flood retiring and replaced by Justice Mahon. In all there were 900 days of testimony and questioning.

Fianna Fáil politicians Ray Burke and Liam Lawlor and former Dublin City Manager George Redmond all served prison sentences as a result of the tribunal’s investigations.

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THE SEEDY TRUTH OF CORRUPTION IN McCRACKEN TRIBUNAL: 1997 The McCracken Tribunal began in February 1997. Its purpose was to investigate payments by then Dunnes Stores Managing Director, Ben Dunne, to former Taoiseach Charles Haughey and Fine Gael Communications Minister Michael Lowry.

McCracken found that Lowry had received payments of hundreds of thousands of euro from Dunne and had attempted to evade tax diverting the monies through off shore accounts or using them as payments for the rebuilding of his family home.

He recommended that all politicians should be able to demonstrate tax compliance and that failure to disclose all political donations should be made a criminal offence.

MORIARTY TRIBUNAL: 1997 TO 2011 Better known originally as the ‘Payments to Politicians Tribunal’, this inquiry began over revelations that former Fianna Fáil Taoiseach Charlie Haughey and Fine Gael minister Michael Lowry had been in receipt of secret payments and had been evading tax on undisclosed income. It broadened into a much larger inquiry involving many more politicians and most controversially began to focus on the awarding of Ireland’s second mobile phone licence in 1996.

The licence was won by a consortium led by controversial business man Denis O’Brien.

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Frank Dunlop arriving at Mahon Tribunal

Bertie Ahern about to announce his resignation

Affairs. Less than six months later he resigned from office and the tribunal was announced by Ahern into corruption allegations in the planning system in Dublin.

I was not flavour of the month with the government and as the Gilmartin story gained legs into the Autumn of 1998, more sensational allegations emerged about payments made to other FF figures and about the tribunal’s investigation into them. The political temperature and pressure on the coalition government, which included the Progressive Democrats, increased.

In January 1999, Flynn made a dramatic and illfated appearance on the Late Late Show during which he made disparaging remarks about Gilmartin and complained about how difficult it was to run three homes – in Brussels, Dublin and Castlebar. Gilmartin released the copy of the cheque he made out for £50,000 in 1989, which was intended for the party. He handed it to Flynn who was Environment Minister and who made sure that it ended up circuitously in his personal bank account.

Liam Lawlor, the influential west Dublin Fianna Fáil TD and head of the Oireachtas Ethics committee, no less, had taken buckets of money from the company with which Gilmartin worked but had failed to declare it to the Revenue authorities. By the time the tribunal was finished its inquiries it unearthed over 100 offshore accounts held

by Lawlor and stuffed with monies given to him by an array of businessmen and developers in Dublin.

Former FF press officer and PR man, Frank Dunlop had received some £1.8 million to assist with the plans of Gilmartin’s former business partner and Cork developer,

Liam Lawlor arriving at the Mahon Tribunal

By the time the tribunal was finished its inquiries it unearthed over 100 offshore accounts held by Lawlor and stuffed with monies given to him by an array of businessmen and developers in Dublin

Owen O’Callaghan, to build the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre at Quarryvale in west Dublin. Dunlop used some of the money to pay bribes to almost one third of the members of Dublin County Council.

The former Dublin assistant city and county manager, George Redmond, had been a key figure in blocking

AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA anphoblacht

THE IRISH POLITICAL ELITE

FEATURE

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ANSBACHER REPORT: 1999 TO 2002 Costing €3.2 million, The Ansbacher Report published in 2002 revealed the existence of a secret bank with 190 account holders.

The bank was run by Des Traynor, who had been former Taoiseach’s Charlie Haughey’s financial adviser. There were no prosecutions, but over €18 million in taxes were subsequently recovered by the Revenue Commissioners.

Michael Lowry arriving at the Moriarty Tribunal

Gilmartin’s plans and his nefarious role was exposed when he fell into the arms of the Criminal Assets Bureau as he arrived in Dublin Airport from the Isle of Man with over £300,000 in cash and cheques stuffed in his suitcase in February 1999.

Gilmartin claimed that he was hit by an unidentified man for a £5 million payment (to be lodged offshore) in Leinster House in February 1990 just after he emerged from a meeting with Charles Haughey and almost his entire cabinet.

Finally, Ahern bit the political dust when the tribunal uncovered monies he had stashed in various bank accounts when he was finance minister in the late 1990s including a cash lodgement for $45,000. His explanations of dig outs and winnings on the horses did not wash and he resigned in 2008 after his fabrications stretched the credibility of the tribunal and the public beyond breaking point. Along the way, there were serious legal and other threats made to the Post to desist from following the money trail that led to Ahern’s political demise.

In the intervening years, I discovered a litany of wrongdoing in the Garda Division in Donegal, courtesy of courageous people like the McBreartys of Raphoe, the Divers of Ardara, Sheena McMahon of Buncrana and Frank Shortt of Redcastle.

From 1999 to 2001, we ran details of the extraordinary behaviour of police officers in the Business Post and TV3, for which I made a series of documentaries on these Donegal corruption stories. The Garda chiefs in Dublin managed their best to keep a lid on the

anphoblacht AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA

unfolding scandals with the assistance of willing security correspondents in the other mainstream media. They reckoned that no-one would believe that members of the force would plant explosive type materials in a shed, close to where the Orangemen were due to march in Rossnowlagh, or at a television MMDS mast where protests were being held near Ardara, or illicit drugs in Shortts pub on Inishowen. Shortt spent three years in jail after he was framed by two members of the gardaí.

But it was all true and by 2002 another tribunal was established to investigate allegations of wrongdoing in the Donegal Garda division chaired by Judge Freddie Morris. Its lead counsel was a lawyer called Peter Charleton.

As we look back 20 years on, it is safe to say that if the lessons of endemic corporate, political, and garda corruption had been heeded back then we would not be where we are today.  FRANK CONNOLLY is an investigative journalist who has recently authored two bestselling books, Tom Gilmartin - the Man who brought down a Taoiseach (Gill & Macmillan 2014) and NAMA-land (Gill Books 2017). He is Head of Communications with SIPTU.

DO YOU HAVE GET IN TOUCH A COMMENT? editor@anphoblacht.com

MORRIS TRIBUNAL: 2002 TO 2008 The Morris Tribunal was established on the basis of a series of allegations made against the Garda Síochána in Donegal. It was the work of investigative journalist Frank Connolly that was the catalyst for the establishment of the inquiry.

The Tribunal found that Garda officers had fabricated finds of explosives to further their careers, and that there had been “gross negligence" on the part of senior Gardaí in Donegal.

The Gardaí were also found

by Morris to be negligent in their investigations into the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron in October 1996. The final report of the tribunal found that Gardaí in Donegal had waged a campaign of harassment against the McBrearty family.

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BY GERRY ADAMS

L

ast February I was a guest speaker at Meath Sinn Féin’s annual fundraising dinner. Joe Reilly was the guest of honour. He had just been told that he had terminal cancer. Joe’s advice when I asked him for some guidance on how I should approach my remarks that evening was typical Joe. He said: “Don’t go over the top.

Keep it light – keep it simple.

Don’t be breaking down in tears.

And don’t have anyone else breaking down in tears.”

And then he texted me and added: “All you can say is that I did my best over 48 years. Maybe that’s a theme for ye.”

And Joe was – as ever – spot on. Over his 48 years of involvement in struggle – his years in the IRA – his years in prison – and his years as a councillor and Sinn Féin activist – he did his best every single day.

That would have been very obvious to anyone who listened to his excellent interview on LMFM last January 11. It’s still there so any of you who haven’t heard should log on – it’s 40 minutes well spent. It’s a funny mix of homespun humour, local history, accounts of life in jail and republican politics covering almost half a century.

Joe was a proud native of Navan and its surrounds.

In his interview he tells of growing up; of the yellow clay and the Common’s Road just outside the town, and of his love for his parents, Joe and Chris, and for his brothers and sisters Sean, Marion, Clare, Gerry and Imelda.

Like so many of her generation in the 1950s his mother performed a miracle every day making ends meet as his father worked hard to bring home a wage barely sufficient to live on. These were strong women who somehow managed to put food on the table and clothes on our backs.

Joe started school at the Mercy Convent and then went on to Scoil Mhuire for boys. It was a time when teachers made use of the cane and the strap and could effectively beat up children. Joe says that it was then that he first got a real sense of injustice.

Joe and I are also from that ‘60s generation that grew up listening to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and watching world events unfold on the little box in the corner of the room.

There was no history of republicanism in his family but the 50th anniversary of the Rising in 1966 got him interested. The events that shaped Joe’s view of the world and of his politics – the civil rights struggle in the USA; the anti-Vietnam War movement; the Civil Rights movement in the North, and the Unionist regime’s violent response to it; the Battle of the Bogside; the Falls Curfew and much more – also helped to shape much of my politics.

Joe joined the IRA in 1970. For five years he went about his business as a Volunteer until in April 1975

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when he was captured by the Garda during a raid on a factory producing armaments.

Joe was charged with possession of explosives. In July the following year he and several others attempted to escape from the Special Criminal Court in Green Street. They all got out but only one managed to get away. Joe and the others were caught in surrounding streets.

That’s something else Joe and I have in common.

We both share the distinction of being failed escapees.

On the day he should have been released from prison for his possession of explosives he was then sentenced to ten years in prison for attempting to escape. In all Joe spent ten years in Portlaoise Prison. It was a very difficult jail. There were heavy beatings and hunger strikes. In the years Joe was there — between 1975 and ’85 — he had no physical contact whatsoever with his family on visits. A wire mesh separated prisoners from their visitors.

Under Joe’s leadership Sinn Féin has grown from a party which got 88 votes and had 29 punts in its coffers to a party that now has eight councillors and a local TD

They were very hard times under the Fine Gael/ Labour coalition. It was the time of the Garda Heavy Gang, serious repression and a real attempt by that government to break the republican struggle. But republicans were not broken and Joe was certainly not broken.

In the prison Joe established his routine. A day at a time and everything geared to improve his quality of life. So, he learned Irish from another fine republican Cyril MacCurtain from Limerick who also spent some time in the Cages of Long Kesh where he taught Irish to Bobby Sands and others. Joe went on to teach Irish in Portlaoise.

He kept himself busy writing, reading, editing the prison paper, and keeping fit. Joe started each day with a list of what he was to do that day, and each day he completed that list. He continued that practice when he got out of prison and even during his seven months of illness.

Every morning he got up out of bed knowing the three or four things he wanted to do that day. He kept that up until a few days before he died.

Joe was very close to his family. The years in prison

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Always looking on the bright side of life

JOE REILLY

48 years of involvement in struggle – in the IRA – in prison – as a councillor and Sinn Féin activist

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everything under the sun – except politics. He was one of the great stalwarts of Sinn Féin and of the struggle for peace and justice, and a United Ireland.

Joe was passionate about his politics, and compassionate in how he tried to help those who are the victims of injustice and discrimination.

He is a republican hero. The activists’ activist.

Joe didn’t look for praise – or a pat on the back. Joe’s real reward was in getting things done. In getting on with helping people. In promoting his republican politics. He believed in giving everything 100%. For Joe there was never a time when he looked back. It was always about the future. Joe had many achievements in his life. He was a practical patriot. He was especially proud of the Solstice Arts Centre, Crann, and Daoine Óga.

So, Joe I have tried not to go over the top with these remarks although I find it very hard to write about you in the past tense. I have kept it light – and simple – as you asked. I cannot say there have been no tears.

And I think all of us who knew you well will proudly

must have been especially hard because of the physical separation. Imagine not being able to give a hug or hold a child or shake a hand of your nearest and dearest for ten years.

Humour was a big part of Joe’s approach to living life to the full. He looked for it in every situation. Even in the challenges he faced when he was ill. He told the story of being released on compassionate parole to visit his father who was dying from cancer. As he was due to return to the prison his father, Joe, asked to speak to him alone.

Our Joe was worried that he was going to be asked to promise his father not to get re-involved in the struggle on his release. What would he say – could he make a promise he couldn’t keep – could he upset his father? But no in keeping with so many other mothers and fathers who have quietly supported their children in struggle and through the prison experience his father wanted to know all about the escape.

How was it planned? How did they get the explosives?

What went wrong, and of course, whose fault was it he didn’t get away?

In 1994 Joe successfully stood for election to Navan Town Council. Since then he fought seven elections to Navan Town Council and Meath County Council winning them all. Under Joe’s leadership Sinn Féin has grown from a party which got 88 votes and had 29 punts in its coffers to a party that now has eight councillors and a local TD. Joe has also been Ard Rúnaí (general secretary) of Sinn Féin, Cisteoir (national treasurer), a community activist, part of our negotiating team during the talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement, a town mayor, our National Child Protection Officer and most importantly an eternal optimist.

Joe brought the same focus to his battle with cancer, the same determination that he brought to everything he did.

I knew Joe for over 30 years. He loved walking and along with Lucilita Breathnach we walked many miles together enjoying each other’s company and talking about

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Joe was passionate about his politics, and compassionate in how he tried to help those who are the victims of injustice and discrimination. He is a republican hero. The activists’ activist

attest to the fact that throughout your 48 years as a republican activist you have done more than your best.

Thank you Joe for your friendship, your comradeship and your activism. You are missed by many people. Your brothers and sisters. Your comrades in Meath, throughout Ireland and internationally. Dawn in 44. Friends who you minded and who minded you.

Our last walk was on the Hill of Tara. Me and Joe and Richard, Jim – loyal to the end - and Lucilita. Old friends and comrades. Content in each other’s company in a holy place. We had a song. ‘Cath Chéim an Fhia’ from Luci.

Then we formed a ring for a group hug. It was a memorable day. Thank you for that Joe. And thank you for organising the most cheerful funeral I was ever at. It was bittersweet. But you made us smile. We miss you. But you sent us all away from your graveside with a twinkle in our eyes. You helped us look on the bright side of life. 

GERRY ADAMS is a writer, the Sinn Féin TD for Louth and a former President of Sinn Féin.

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A committed, dedicated and unrepentant revolutionar y

BY CAOIMHE NÍ SHLUAIN When you're a child you take things for granted, the people you meet, the stories you hear, the memories you are making. Now as someone slightly older, I hold onto those memories, those stories and the people more than ever. Joe Reilly was one of those people, full of stories and a lifetime of memories.

Joe loved nothing more than to recount the days of his time in Portlaoise Gaol, from tales of Jimmy Nolan being a night owl and keeping him awake, to the dark wit and lifelong friendship with Mickey Fox, a friendship and a wit that endured till the very end with tragically both being diagnosed with terminal cancer. ‘The Race to the Grave’ was humorously and frequently spoken between both men.

Joe’s tenacity and determination is what we in Meath Sinn Féin will be forever grateful for. He was our leader, our visionary, our backbone A firm favourite for all that would hear it was the ‘Great Escape’, with a glint in his eye and a grin on his face he would recall the gripping tale of May 1986 when he and Eileen Shiels were on route to Belfast for the Hunger Strike Commemoration. According to Joe it had little to do with his driving skills rather that the car appeared to have ulterior motives. Somehow Eileen and himself managed to survive unharmed only to discover that they had crashed into the

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plaque for Vol Philip Clarke who was killed in action in 1916.

Joe was a Sinn Féin activist even as a child. His first political act was upon finding a pile of Sinn Féin leaflets on the ground he proceeded to hang them off the branches of a nearby bush. He continued that activism until the very end. He played a vital role for us in Meath during the Repeal referendum, recognising the importance not only for women but Ireland as a society. During his last week he cast his vote on the Friday and went through tallies on the Saturday. An activist to his very core.

I have always claimed that there were two very different versions of Joe Reilly. The first being Cllr Reilly, the man who expected others to be as honest and hardworking as he was, who was never afraid to do the right thing regardless of popularity, who thanked you for your work but ensured you were always looking to the next project, the next tasks.

Joe’s tenacity and determination is what we in Meath Sinn Féin will be forever grateful for. He was our leader, our visionary, our backbone. On his release from Portlaoise on May 11th 1985 he set a task, a task that we would grow our movement, popularise republicanism, and mobilise the youth of the county. When Joey first stood in the General Election of 1987, Meath Sinn Féin had £29 in our Comhairle Ceanntair and he received 1012 votes. It is this determination, positive outlook and relentless work ethic that has seen our party go from strength to strength. As we sat in the count centre in May 2014, Meath Sinn Féin had increased its representation from one county councillor to eight, he quietly whispered ‘It doesn’t get much better than this kid’, sentiments that went straight out the window the following week, when Joe as ever had a plan to increase our vote even further.

Then of course there was Joey, the friend, the comrade, the supporter. That is much more difficult to condense. The

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Gerry Adams and Joe Reilly at Leinster Cuige AGM, February 2005

person who always offered a helping hand and a listening ear. Who never judged or exclaimed to have the answers to the problems of the world. The support was always subtle, selfless and constant, his door ways always opened. Joey was brave, brave when it wasn't easy to be brave, brave when everyone around him was crumbling. ‘Always look forward, never look back’ were words he echoed every day throughout his illness, he did just that, he fought, he looked forward, he lived.

Time – a simple yet vital component of everyday life.

Time, this was something that Joe would always give. To his constituents, his friends, his family and to his comrades. A

listening ear and words of wisdom was always guaranteed when talking to Joey, “You’ve identified the problem, now tell me the solution” was a phrase he loved to spin. Joey dedicated his life to empowering others.

Joey left us on June 1st, a committed, dedicated and unrepentant revolutionary. Sinn Féin has lost an exemplary republican, Meath Sinn Féin has lost a leader and I have lost my hero. 

CAOIMHE NÍ SHLUAIN is a Sinn Féin member in Meath, and family friend of the late Joe Reilly.

Joe Reilly, Caoimhe Ni Shluain and Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald 14

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Singing the national anthem at the Sinn Féin centenary celebration in Dublin's Mansion House

ANOTHER EUROPE IS POSSIBLE |TREO EILE DON EORAIP FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN UNITED LEFT/NORDIC GREEN LEFT (GUE/NGL)

• Sinn Féin MEPs Martina Anderson, Matt Carthy, Lynn Boylan and Liadh Ní Riada sit with the GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament

GUE/NGL in the European Parliament The Sinn Féin delegation in the European Parliament is led by Martina Anderson together with Matt Carthy, Liadh Ní Riada and Lynn Boylan. Sinn Féin MEPs sit with the GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament. It is made up of 52 MEPs from across Europe.

Through this membership of GUE/NGL, Sinn Féin is represented on the European Parliament's Brexit Steering Group which meets regularly with the EU's Brexit negotiation team led by Michelle Barnier.

The president of GUE/NGL, Gabi Zimmer, is a close ally of Sinn Féin and represents the group on the Brexit Steering Group. Sinn Féin has been able to use this position to ensure that the issues of Ireland and the border have been placed right at the heart of the Brexit negotiations.

As Sinn Féin's Brexit co-ordinator, Martina Anderson leads Sinn Féin's campaign against Brexit and for special status in the Parliament.

Anderson has highlighted the devastating impact Brexit will have on the Good Friday Agreement. 20 year's on from the signing of the historic accord earlier this year, Sinn Féin and GUE/NGL hosted an exhibition in the European Parliament to mark the anniversary and to explain to MEPs the damage the Tory Brexit agenda would do to the Agreement.

MEPs from GUE/NGL, as well as MEPs from other groupings, have visited the border region to see how it would be effected by the imposition of a hard border.

Matt Carthy has been a vocal opponent of the EU Mercosur deal which, he has argued, would have a hugely negative impact on Irish farming, potentially paving the way for the anphoblacht AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA

Standing up for Ireland on Brexit, agriculture, fishing rights and EU militarisation Grúpa Cónasctha den Chlé Aontaithe Eorpach • den Chlé Ghlas Nordach

GRÚPA PARLAIMINTEACH EORPACH

www.guengl.eu import of beef from South American countries, chiefly Brazil, with a questionable food safety record.

He is also the lead Rapporteur for a key Brexit file on trade in the European Parliament's Agriculture and Rural Development Committee.

McCarthy is also active in challenging the abuses of power by big businesses, opposing tax evasion and avoidance on a special European Parliament Committee.

Much of Liadh Ní Riada's work in Europe deals with fighting for the rights of the Irish fishing fleet and the environment.

The recent announcement of plans by the EU to open a new maritime route between Ireland and mainland Europe post-Brexit were welcomed by Ní Riada as an improvement in connectivity and would also provide significant employment.

Liadh has also been an advocate of environmental improvements, calling on the EU to put in place urgent policies to tackle the growing environmental crisis in our oceans, particularly the huge volumes of plastics in our waters.

As a member of the EU Fisheries Committee,

Liadh has challenged the EU to improve its environmental protections. She has also said the polluters should foot the bill to help clean up the oceans. N Riada said that, “To treat this as anything other than an emergency is to condemn future generations to dying oceans and a corrupted environment.

Later this year, the EU Fisheries Committee will visit Ireland to see the issues effecting the Irish fishing industry at first hand. The visit came about at the request of Liadh and will involve members of the committee meeting with local fishermen, local authorities, researchers, coastal communities, cooperatives, SMEs and other stakeholders in Cork.

Dublin MEP Lynn Boylan has repeatedly challenged and opposed attempts to increase the militarisation of the EU, criticising increased spending on arms, claiming it will lead to more conflict not increased security.

“Money is being taken away from farmers and the EU’s poorest regions, yet the Commission has no problem in boosting military expenditure. The EU Commission is prioritising the arms industry over the social and economic well being of ordinary people," she said.

The Sinn Féin delegation in the European Parliament regularly hosts delegations from Ireland north and south to both Brussels and Strasbourg to give a range of groups the opportunity to highlight their concerns and campaigns with EU lawmakers.

These visits, hosted by GUE/NGL, often involve meetings with other GUE/NGL MEPs from across Europe as well as other MEPs, and plays a key role in the overall work of the party across Ireland.

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A 'death sentence' on truth and justice SURVIVORS OF PROTESTANT MOTHER AND BABY HOMES CONTINUE TO SEEK TRUTH, JUSTICE AND REDRESS

BY MARK MOLONEY

I

t's a scorching hot day in Dublin as a group of citizens crowd around the entrance of the small chapel in Mount Jerome Cemetery on Dublin's southside. They have gathered here to unveil an additional memorial to those who died in Mother and Baby Homes and were buried in unmarked graves within the cemetery grounds.

After a brief service, the crowd follows a lone piper down a tree-lined avenue to a new polished granite stone. Some white doves are released “to symbolise the souls of the innocent freed from the injustice of this world”.

This is not, however, an event to mark another in the long litany of horrors inflicted on women and children by the Catholic church. Those buried in this hitherto unmarked grave perished in the care of the Bethany Home, a Protestant institution for unmarried mothers and their children which operated until 1972 in Dublin's Rathgar. The home itself was run by prominent clergy and laypeople from various Protestant churches. The latest monument adds 70 children and one mother to the 222 names previously identified and marked back in 2014.

Today, a small number of survivors continue to campaign for a state apology and redress. One of those is Derek Leinster, the main organiser of this commemorative event.

He was born in the Bethany Home in 1941. By the time he was three he was suffering with diphtheria, whooping cough and bronchial pneumonia – these illnesses a clear testament

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to the inhumane treatment of children in the institutions.

One word which pops up again and again in the recently unearthed burial records is 'marasmus', or in layman's terms simple malnutrition.

Part of the state's reasoning for its failure in compensating the victims of Bethany is that the government maintained it was not responsible for the Bethany Home. This was proved to be untrue as it had been subject to inspections under the Registration of Maternity Homes Act 1934.

For many here in Mount Jerome, there is a feeling that because these were Protestant homes, there is a disinterest and ignorance from the media and the public in general.

It is something acknowledged by Mary Lou McDonald TD who, speaking at the graveside, tells those gathered that she accepts there is a “sense that the state has looked the other way, that you have been left behind because you were of the 'wrong' faith”.

“Fair play, Mary” interjects one elderly lady, leaning on her crutch.

“Every citizen, no matter what their creed, no matter what their belief system or none, all of us are equal in the eyes of the law and the eyes of the state. These women and children are as worthy of attention and recognition as all others,” she says.

Dr Niall Meehan who has carried out in-depth research and written extensively on the Bethany Home, says a major issue for those born in Bethany and other similar institutions is that they cannot access their own records: “Another very important reason for ignorance is that those who hold the records of former residents of Protestant institutions deliberately withhold information. It is denied in an often cruel and disingenuous manner,” he says, citing a number of examples where former residents who were incarcerated in such institutions were told that the only record AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA anphoblacht

(clockwise from above) The new monument in Mount Jerome includes a memorial to Edith Galbraith – a mother who died in child birth; Mount Jerome Cemetery; Bethany infants unmarked graves, 2010; Doves are released during the ceremony to 'symbolise the souls of the innocent freed from the injustice of this world'; Mary Lou McDonald TD speaks at the unveiling of the new monument which was organised by victims campaigner Derek Leinster (left) of their many years spent there are single lines in a register when they entered: “That is simply impossible,” he says. “Either records were wilfully destroyed or they exist and are being withheld. Someone or some people know what happened, they should have the courage to come forward with the truth without delay.”

He says all records need to be handed over to the State and that the Department of Children take responsibility for disseminating this information. He also hits out at the government for ignoring an interim report by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission which recommends the government look again at its decision not to offer redress for Bethany Home survivors.

Sinn Féin Children and Youth Affairs Spokesperson Denise Mitchell TD agrees, saying the failure is 'beyond explanation': “You can see here today that the number of survivors from Bethany Home is very small,” she says, gesturing to a group of women laying flowers on the new granite slab. “Perhaps less than ten in total. They feel that the government is intentionally dragging-out the process. The government says it is up to the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes to identify the facts and then they will look at the issues of redress. But those 71 new names were not identified by the commission, but by the hard work of the survivors and their supporters. They have established beyond doubt the facts of what went on in Bethany, and to continue to deny them redress is beyond explanation. The facts are carved on that monument over there,” she says.

With the final report of the Commission due in 2019, many fear that it will simply be an exercise in repeating what people already know.

Meanwhile, as the number of survivors of these Protestant institutions dwindle, there is a very real fear that if they receive an apology and redress, that there will be nobody left to hear it.

“For our elderly survivor community, the government has pronounced a death sentence on truth and justice for many of us,” says Derek Leinster.  MARK MOLONEY is Political Advisor on Children and Youth Affairs to Sinn Féin TD Denise Mitchell.

DO YOU HAVE GET IN TOUCH A COMMENT? editor@anphoblacht.com anphoblacht AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA

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“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”

ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU

BY MARTINA ANDERSON This year marks 70 years since Nakba, meaning catastrophe, where over 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and from their land. It marks the loss, dispossession and historic injustice suffered by the Palestinian people, a loss from which they are still struggling to recover. This Israeli settler colonialism has yet a longer history, one which we as the Irish people can relate to, whereby Britain assisted efforts to promote the partition of Palestine and British and Israeli colonial power began to assist in efforts to create an Israeli state on Palestinian land.

Entire villages were destroyed, before being rebuilt and renamed, and the systematic campaign of destruction and cultural obliteration saw their books, music, films and drama, arts and social organisations disappearing with the communities of which they were a part.

To this day, we see the military occupation, the confiscation and theft of property, the blatant disregard for humanity in the actions of Israeli forces and the imposition of an apartheid system in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The story of Nakba - is one of an on-going struggle for survival.

This blatant discrimination and occupation, means that today, one in three refugees world-wide is Palestinian. More than 4.3 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants displaced in 1948 are registered with the UN for humanitarian assistance.

PALESTINE TODAY

Today, nearly one third of registered

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GAZA IS AN OPEN AIR PRISON Palestinian refugees live in 58 recognised refugee camps, with a colossal population in cramped, substandard conditions.

In 2014, Israel conducted a bloody 50day military attack on the Gaza strip which resulted in 2,145 deaths, 581 of whom were children. I went to Palestine with fellow Sinn Féin MEPs Matt Carthy and Lynn Boylan, alongside 10 other GUE-NGL MEPs. We left it all the more determined to keep up the fight for a free Palestine, to tell the world what was happening there and to change not just EU policy towards Israel, but the narrative. We all have a duty to play our part in this regard.

Since then I have been to Palestine on a number of occasions.

This year, the first day of the six-week peaceful protest began on Good Friday, as tens of thousands planned to camp near the Israeli frontier surrounding the Gaza Strip on two sides. Yet this was marked by illegal, incomprehensible and inexcusable suppression, as Israel open fired on protestors, shooting 773 people with live ammunition. Fifteen of the wounded died, and most were between just 17 and 35 years of age. Such brutal force has been used against the Palestinian people with impunity for over 70 years.

Expelling people from their homes and preventing their return is a war-crime, which continues to be committed to this day. Marking the anniversary of Nakba, the Palestinian people demonstrate their strength in the struggle against ongoing colonial settler oppression, systematic discrimination and policies of erasure and theft. Because when injustice becomes law, resistance becomes a duty.

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“We know too well that our freedom is incomplete, without the freedom of the Palestinians”

NELSON MANDEL A

We need to tackle the Achilles’ heel of the occupation – and challenge head on any corporate assets, interests or activities profiting from illegal occupation The ever increasing desolation, deprivation and degradation of Gaza and Palestine, while simultaneously expanding illegal Israeli settlements, has effectively turned the region into an open air prison!

SUPPORT THE BOYCOTT

We all have a role to play in driving support for the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement. This has the widespread support of human rights organisations, NGOs, and trade unions, who stand firmly against apartheid and discrimination, and stand solidly for the end of the occupation and the right of return for the Palestinian people.

We need to tackle the Achilles’ heel of the occupation — and challenge head on any corporate assets, interests or activities profiting from illegal occupation.

The international community considers the establishment of Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories illegal under international law. The Fourth Geneva Convention (1949) prohibits countries from moving populations into territories occupied in a war. We must double our efforts, in the interest of human rights, justice and dueprocess, to achieve the implementation of the 4th Geneva Convention and international law for Palestinians. Our Sinn Féin MEPs have also consistently pushed for the suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement, given that Article 2 provides for the agreement to be invoked when there are clear breaches of human rights.

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine (RToP), found the EU guilty of ‘unlawful assistance

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to Israel,' due to dealing with settlement goods, due to permitting Israel to participate in research programmes, due to the number of EU companies like G4S who are heavily complicit in the illegal occupation and due to the failure of the EU to take action.

The USA is complicit in these violations of international law, having provided material and financial support to Israel, having obstructed numerous UN Security Council resolutions censuring Israel for its actions, and this year having substantially cut funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA).

Donald Trump has dangerously defied overwhelming opposition, recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, while moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. Jerusalem is the political, spiritual and geographical heart of Palestine.

The Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination continues to be violated

by Israel as it proceeds to further expand its illegal colonisation within Occupied Palestine; it is long past the time that other countries stop treating Israel as a state above the law. The Irish Government should immediately expel the Israeli Ambassador and officially recognise the state of Palestine without further delay.

Thousands of people have lost their lives, and millions have had their basic human rights consistently denied. We cannot, and we must not wait another year before something is done.  MARTINA ANDERSON is a Sinn Féin MEP representing the Six Counties and is a member of the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with Palestine.

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That ‘banned’ visit to Palestine

INSIDE STORY

As Ardmhéara Bhaile Átha Cliath Mícheál Mac Donncha made an official visit to Palestine which the Israeli state tried and failed to stop. Here he describes that visit.

‘Israel plays blame game over typo that let Dublin Lord Mayor barred over BDS to enter’, so ran the headline in Haaretz, the Israeli daily newspaper on Friday 13 April 2018. It was indeed an unlucky day for the Israeli government as their plans to block me from entering Palestine backfired.

O

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Israel's notorious apartheid wall

n 21 February 2018 I was invited by the Ambassador of Palestine in Dublin, Ahmed Abdelrazek, on behalf of Dr Mahmoud al Habbash, the Supreme Judge of Palestine, to speak at the Ninth International Bayt Al Maqdis (Jerusalem) Conference in Ramallah on 11 & 12 April. I travelled to Ramallah via Frankfurt and Tel Aviv on 10 April.

The day before my visit the April monthly meeting of Dublin City Council had called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador in protest at the killings of protesters in Gaza by the Israeli military. This was one of two motions adopted by the council. They had also one endorsed the campaign of Boycott/Divestment/ Sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli state due to its treatment of the Palestinians. It appears that it was in response to these motions that the Israeli Ministry for Strategic Affairs hastily decided to prevent my entry to Palestine. However, when I landed at Tel Aviv Airport I was permitted through passport control without incident.

On the evening of 10 April, as I prepared for the conference the next day in my hotel in Ramallah, I received word from my office in Dublin that the Israeli government’s Interior Minister Arye Dery and Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan had stated that I had been stopped from entering Israel because of my support for BDS. I immediately made it known that I was in fact in Ramallah and knew nothing of a ban which had not been communicated to me in any way. I have still not received any such communication.

The Interior Ministry claimed that I was allowed through because my name was spelt incorrectly in the request it had been given by the Strategic Affairs Ministry to block me.

However, the latter ministry claimed the name was spelt correctly. The Interior Minister ordered an investigation. There was speculation that the error was the inclusion of the title Ardmhéara

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Meeting Palestinian trade union leaders with Frank Connolly (right) of SIPTU

as part of my name, though this has not been confirmed.

I attended the conference on 11th and 12th April. The conference was especially significant in the context of the decision of the US Administration to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel. There were delegates from Palestine and from many other countries (including EU member states) and they

Dublin City Council had called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador in protest at the killings of protesters in Gaza by the Israeli military were public representatives, religious leaders of various denominations and faiths, trade unionists and other civil society representatives.

Almost 50 people, one third of the delegates, were prevented from entering Palestine by the Israeli government. This included a delegation from India, only two of whom were allowed entry, apparently because one of them was a

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former government minister in India.

On the morning of 11 April I spoke in the conference session on the importance of Jerusalem. Later that day I met the Mayor of Ramallah, Mosa Hadid, at his mayoral office.

In the company of Frank Connolly of SIPTU, who was visiting Palestine as a trade union representative, I met Shaher Saad, General Secretary of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions.

That evening the conference delegates were addressed by Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority.

On 12 April, as well as attending the conference I met with the Palestinian Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Adnan Al Hussaini.

We were facilitated to meet Dr Nabil A Shaath, foreign policy advisor to President Abbas, and a long-time Palestinian diplomat. And we met with Palestinian civil society campaigners for BDS. We left Palestine on 13 April. At Tel Aviv Airport Immigration I was presented with a form stating that I had been informed that should I wish to re-enter Israel I would have to seek permission. I signed this form and was permitted to leave after a delay of about 15 minutes. I was not asked to give, nor did I give, any commitment not to return to Palestine, contrary to the spin put out by the Israeli government.

Our visit coincided with the ongoing killings of protesters in Gaza by the Israeli military.

Even within Israeli society itself there was much opposition to this, summed up in a headline in the Israeli daily ‘Haaretz’ which said: ‘Don’t believe a word Israel says about Gaza.’ There was also much anger at the false Israeli claim that a photographer killed in Gaza by the Israeli

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Even within Israeli society itself there was much opposition to this, summed up in a headline in the Israeli daily ‘Haaretz’ which said: ‘Don’t believe a word Israel says about Gaza’

Dr Nabil Shaath, foreign policy advisory to the Palestinian presidency, with Mícheál Mac Donncha

At the tomb of Yasser Arafat in Ramallah

military on the Friday before our visit had not been a journalist but a Hamas activist. The International Federation of Journalists accused Israel of engaging in a cover-up of the murder.

Throughout the visit I learned of the ongoing plight of the Palestinian people, in a society which is, in effect, an open prison. We learned from the trade unionists of the apartheidstyle pass system for the many thousands of Palestinians who work in Israeli areas and are under curfew to leave those areas when their work is done. The West Bank, supposedly under Palestinian authority, is split into zones under various degrees of Israeli control, while everywhere illegal settlements continue to be built. We witnessed the wall which separates Israeli from Palestinian areas and which severely disrupts working, family and social life for ordinary Palestinians.

There is clearly no intention on the part of the current Israeli government to engage in any meaningful peace process. As Dr. Nabil Shaath explained to us, what is needed now is an internationally led peace process, headed by

credible governments. It is also important that full recognition is given to the State of Palestine by all the EU member states, including Ireland.

I believe what we witnessed during our visit vindicates the support for justice for Palestine and a real and lasting peace settlement between Palestine and Israel as repeatedly advocated by the elected members of Dublin City Council.

There was much respect for the position taken the Council, by the Irish government and by Irish people generally in support of Palestine.

The significance of Jerusalem Jerusalem is a place of huge cultural and religious significance for people all over the world, including in Ireland. Three major world religions - Islam, Judaism and Christianity - hold the city of Jerusalem sacred. I believe the attempt by any one state or religion to exclusively control Jerusalem is wrong. That is why the formal recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by the US administration was wrong. It was a backward step for peace and a negotiated settlement.

A hundred years ago the people of both Ireland and Palestine were victims of imperialism as their right to self-determination was denied. In both countries so-called solutions were imposed which condemned their peoples to a century of division, oppression and strife.

The suffering of the Palestinian people under occupation, exile, mass imprisonment, killings such as the most recent in Gaza, and a catalogue of human rights abuses, has horrified people all over the world. However, the international community, and particularly EU governments, have failed to hold Israeli governments to account for their abuses of human rights. It is time that this policy of standing idly by in the face of horror came to an end.  MÍCHEÁL MAC DONNCHA is a Sinn Féin Councillor, and was Dublin’s Lord Mayor from July 2017 to June 2018.

DO YOU HAVE GET IN TOUCH A COMMENT? editor@anphoblacht.com

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FORGING A

REPUBLIC OF EQUALS THROUGH

FEMINIST STRUGGLE the 100 years after women gained nds right to vote, it seems Ireland sta at a gender equality crossroad

BY MUIREANN MEEHAN SPEED As a postcolonial society, the Irish Free State established social control in large part by subjugating the rights of women. Their treatment was defined by oppression, abuse and violence, of incarceration, objectification and dehumanisation. Misogyny was institutionalised by controlling women’s sexuality, reproductive autonomy, and independent existence in civil society. This state-driven assault on women’s rights emerged as the defining characteristic of gender relations in southern Ireland. Patriarchal power over women’s bodies was deployed as a symbol of a ‘respectable’, ‘pure’ and ‘Catholic’ Irish identity.

Women’s sexuality was viewed as an expression of Ireland’s moral compass.

Barbaric practices were normalised in conjunction with this socially constructed notion of ‘Ireland.’ For over a century, patriarchal and misogynistic laws, institutions and practices functioned and flourished as political tools. They established a social order unable to see over half the population as equal. One hundred years after women’s suffrage, the Constitution defines women’s position as ‘in the home'.

[Robbie is this accurate still?] This codification of patriarchal values, informed by a conservative Catholic doctrine, implicitly restricts women’s full participation in public life. While such views and practices were not unique to Ireland, or to Irish Roman Catholics, Catholic values were the dominant form through which patriarchy and misogyny were justified and practiced down south.

This repressive ideology facilitated the drawing of false

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equivalences between reproductive bodies and women’s sexual freedom (or lack thereof ). It standardised inhumanity in the attempt to manufacture ‘good Catholic girls’.

From imprisonment in Mother and Baby homes and the butchering of women through symphysiotomies, to the legal preponderance of the right to life of the unborn in the 8th amendment, and therefore to the legal torture of a sizeable proportion of the Irish population; the last 100 years have witnessed attempts by the Irish state to deny Irish women freedom over their own bodies, and therefore, their future. This was, in the South, an expression of the ‘carnival of reaction’ that Connolly predicted would be the legacy of partition.

BETRAYAL OF 1916 The patriarchal impulse of the newly formed Irish Free State represented a betrayal of the principles of the 1916 Proclamation, which envisaged a republic of equals. In 1937 the guarantee of equal citizenship was transformed into a gender based construction.

Irish women were defined and delimited in terms of their role as wives and mothers. However, the constitutional codification of women’s subjugation has galvanised the fight for gender equality, reproductive justice and sexual freedom, particularly when their most perverse and tragic consequences were laid bare, as in the 1992 ‘X case’ or with the death of Savita Halappanavar in 2012.

Irish feminists helped to create and then fought to transform the Irish state. The formidable republican socialist and feminist, Hannah Sheehy Skeffington, resigned from Fianna Fáil in 1933 over legal restrictions on women’s right to work. With other republican women, she opposed further restrictions on women’s rights in the 1937 Constitution. Its advocates alleged that greater educational opportunities and economic freedom for women jeopardised the moral fabric of Irish society. It was therefore necessary to formally codify women’s ‘natural’ role in the ‘home’, through the performance of their exclusive (primary) ‘social function’ as wife and mother. Through confinement within the domestic realm, women’s unpaid and dependent labour was alleged to provide the state with essential support ‘without which the common good cannot be achieved’.

Skeffington argued that these ideas were based on a “fascist model, in which women would be relegated to permanent inferiority”.

Women’s erasure from public life arrived on the back of consistent attempts to further relegate their status, and to diminish their capacity to exercise individual agency.

The Irish State was not unique in equating women with domesticity. Following the First World War, Britain, France and Germany sought to limit the number of women working outside the home.

However the Irish Free State’s institutionalisation of patriarchal principles was particularly repressive

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The formidable republican socialist and feminist, Hannah Sheehy Skeffington, resigned from Fianna Fáil in 1933 over legal restrictions on women’s right to work

because it incorporated a Catholic ideology into legislation and solidified gender inequality: by effectively expelling women from juries in 1927, denying a right of divorce before making it unconstitutional in 1937, and in banning contraception in 1935. This created a broader culture of state-sponsored misogyny, which prospered through the combination of the constitutionally mandated relegation of women to the ‘home’ and the promotion of religious ideology. Although many of the legal restrictions that were put in place have gradually been dismantled, much of this culture remains.

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Importantly however, Irish women have not been passive recipients of the innumerable harms that have historically been inflicted upon us. The story of Irish women, like that of the Irish people generally, is also one of resilience and resistance, and of finding the courage to fight against seemingly insurmountable odds.

IRELAND AT A CROSSROADS 100 years after women gained the right to vote, it seems Ireland stands at a crossroads. Following decades of activism, the gender inequality and injustice at the heart of Irish political culture has been exposed. In recent years, a number of events have coalesced to expose the dark underbelly of Ireland’s treatment of women, producing a seismic shift in attitudes towards the institutional disregard for women’s autonomy.

The crises have hit hard and fast, with each bleeding relentlessly into the next.

In 2014 the remains of 796 children and babies were discovered in a septic tank in the Mother and Baby Home in Tuam. Thousands of women suffered “systematic assault” through unnecessary symphysiostomies, and many more were subject to “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” through a denial of the right to choose. We have a legal system which seems more concerned with preserving male entitlement than with establishing a woman’s consent. This state-sanctioned culture of sexual violence is part and parcel of a society preoccupied with ‘explaining’ and ‘understanding’ the actions of domestic abusers – with normalising violence

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against women – than with hearing the names and stories of those that have been terrorised. When we do learn their names – as with Clodagh Hawe - it is usually too late.

We have seen time and time again how little Ireland values women’s lives. Women have been presented with an inexorable culture of violent misogyny. Prolonged exposure to these many injustices has pushed the country to a breaking point where the status quo is no longer sustainable. A profound sense of injustice amongst many Irish women has produced new waves of political activism; almost unprecedented in its capacity to cross generational, socioeconomic, and geographic divides. While the practical and symbolic importance of the successful campaign to repeal the 8th amendment cannot be understated, it is reflective of a broader social movement taking place.

This movement, if channelled correctly, has the potential to profoundly and progressively transform Irish society across the island.

I STAND WITH HER New waves of cross-border solidarity have been forged in the battle to dismantle the patriarchal structures that comprise the foundations upon which ‘Mother Ireland’ is built. Irish women have been united in their rallying cries of ‘I stand with her,' in the latest round of Ireland’s mistreatment of women through the Cervical Check scandal, in their demands for justice for the survivors of Magdalene Laundries, in the fight for

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Thousands of people came out in Dublin to rally in sympathy with the young woman in the rape case in Belfast

access to basic healthcare across the entire island.

During the recent Belfast rape trial, the distinction between Ireland’s two legal jurisdictions came into sharp focus. Despite the artificially constructed divide between North and South, the trial captivated every corner of the island for eight weeks, with protests all over the country, from Belfast to Derry, to Cork, Limerick, Galway and Dublin.

They rallied against a system that refuses to value a woman’s bodily autonomy, her humanity and her dignity, a system which regularly extends the benefit of the doubt to men, while regularly condemning women as ‘sluts’ and ‘whores.’ Ultimately, women stood up in anger against a system which causes the majority of rape cases to go unreported. Ultimately, it was about a society that readily excuses violent misogyny, and demands that women accept it as a defining feature of their existence.

As such, in the wake of the MeToo movement, 2018 has also become the year when Irish women have taken to the streets in their thousands across the Island, donated to rape crisis centres, made signs, and shouted at the top of their lungs, ‘enough is enough.’

Similarly, the slogan ‘the North is Next’ encapsulates a desire amongst women to ensure that rights are extended across the island, regardless of jurisdiction.

Southern and northern women are participating in each other’s campaigns at an organic level. As far as they are concerned there is just one campaign in two parts. In the North the problem of Catholic reaction is conjoined with that of Protestant fundamentalism. These forces are relying on the British government to preserve the North as a democratic backwater. The two wings of Irish conservatism, normally so keen to preserve their distance, are uniting in the attempt to deny women the right to control their own fertility. The edifice and essence of partition, the attempt to divide and rule, is crumbling in the wake of a unity of purpose among mainly young women activists.

Women North and South are no longer prepared to ignore the long-running propensity of the state to deploy

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violence against women as a tool of political and social control. As Audre Lorde said, no longer are we willing to accept the things we cannot change, we will change the things we cannot accept.

The unity of the demand for abortion rights across Ireland is an illustration of how progress can be made island wide. Winning the demand in the North could lead to a breakdown in partitionist mindsets. This could force the green and orange Tories North and South, whose goal it is to keep Irish people divided, to retreat.

Ultimately, it has the potential to bring us one step closer to the republic of equals originally envisaged in 1916.

However, this is only part of the journey towards a better Ireland. The struggle for gender equality must incorporate an analysis of the multiple oppressions that intersect and compound the lived experience too he most marginalised and excluded in Ireland today. In order to move away from a logic of neoliberal governmentality, in which access to human rights is defined by one’s socio-economic position and / or entry into the exclusive club of citizenship, and in which capital is prioritised above all else, Irish feminists must view race, class, sexuality and gender in concert.

To quote Audre Lorde again - there are no single-issue struggles as we do not lead single issue lives. Therefore, any monolithic and reductionist understandings of oppression will only function to stunt real progress. To ignore the multiple exclusions present in neoliberal political ideologies that dominate our current government and its institutions, or to fail to foreground them in the struggle for a better Ireland, is to contribute to continued exclusion, inequality and oppression.  MUIREANN MEEHAN SPEED is a Sinn Féin member and postgraduate research student.

DO YOU HAVE GET IN TOUCH A COMMENT? editor@anphoblacht.com

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Fine Gael & Fianna Fáil’s housing crisis is getting worse

PUBLIC HOUSING IS THE ANSWER

Our housing system is broken. Since Fine Gael took office in 2011, the number of people living in emergency accommodation has increased by a shocking 319%. Even more startling is the increase in child homelessness, up an astonishing 496%.

According to the latest figures from the Department of Housing there were 9,846 people including 3,826 children in emergency accommodation in May of this year.

These figures do not include the one hundred or so adults and children in Dublin City centre hostels that receive no state funding; the 110 rough sleepers counted last Spring; the 520 adults and children with their leave to remain but trapped in Direct Provision effectively using it as emergency accommodation; the 875 adults and children re-categorised by the Department despite being in temporary accommodation; or the 3,785 women and children who in any given year pass through Tulsa funded domestic violence refuge and step down accommodation.

The fact that the government can not provide an accurate number of homeless persons speaks volumes. However what is truly shocking is that so many people are without a home.

Behind every statistic is a real person or family. A mother with children living for months on end in cramped and inappropriate emergency accommodation.

A pensioner unsure of where they will sleep tonight. A working family with a Notice to Quit unable to source alternative rental accommodation. A single person struggling with mental health or addiction issues trapped in an endless cycle of rough sleeping and hostel accommodation.

GOVERNMENT POLICY IS FAILING

The government’s response to this escalating crisis was Rebuilding Ireland, launched with great fanfare in July 2016.

It promised to reduce homelessness, increase investment in social and affordable homes, help the private sector boot supply, strengthen the private rental sector and get vacant homes back into use.

Two years on and the crisis continues to get worse. Homelessness continues to rise; social housing delivery is glacial; zero

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BY EOIN Ó BROIN TD ADDRESSING HOMELESSNESS When Rebuilding Ireland was published in JULY 2016

6,525 people including 2,348 children living in Emergency Accommodation IN MAY 2018

9,846 people including 3,826 children

now living in Emergency Accommodation

in 50% increase homelessness 63% increase in 63% child homelessness increase in pensioner homelessness 54% 54% ACCELERATE SOCIAL HOUSING

Rebuilding Ireland tworkingSOCIAL is noREAL 10,000

In 2016 the cross party special Dáil Committee on Housing and Homelessness recommended

HOUSING UNITS at a minimum were REQUIRED EVERY YEAR Delivery of new social homes is glacial

NEW SOCIAL IN 2016 TOTAL HOUSING 4,922 NEW SOCIAL IN 2017 TOTAL HOUSING 6,268

11,190 social homes delivered over two years, housing only 12% of the housing waiting list BUILD MORE HOMES

Rebuilding Rebuilding Ireland commits to Irelandover deliver is not working

25,000

units per year According to recently released CSO data

only 9,915 new dwellings were built in 2016 14,500 new dwellings were built in 2017 and only 3,500 new dwellings were completed so far in 2018 Rebuilding Ireland is not orking

affordable rental or purchase homes have been delivered; private sector output is anaemic; and the government hasn’t event published their vacant homes strategy.

None of this will come as a surprise to readers. The housing crisis and its human impact are well know. So what is the solution?

What should a progressive government do differently to the failed current and past Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil-led administrations?

The short answer is public housing – public housing on public land, publicly funded on a scale not seen in the history of the state. But to understand the full meaning of this we need to change our definition of public housing.

We need to replace the narrow idea of social housing as housing for the very poor with a broader definition of public housing for a broader range of income groups. Public housing should be for those in full time work on modest incomes, those in precarious work on low incomes, those temporarily out of work and indeed those who may never work.

We also need to broaden the tenure mix provided within public housing to include traditional social rental for those unable to cover the full cost of their homes, new cost rental for those who don’t need subsidised housing but can not afford market rental and affordable purchase homes for those locked out of the market.

Given that Local Authorities can deliver good quality homes as a significantly lower cost than the private sector the most cost effective way to deliver affordable homes for a broad range of working and unemployed households in large scale council-led housing developments.

A NEW SOCIAL HOUSING STRATEGY

These should be mixed income and mixed tenure providing an appropriate amount of social rental, cost rental and affordable sale as required by the local community. The estates should be fully integrated with no distinction in housing type for differing tenures. They should have adequate amenities and social and economic infrastructure. And the communities who live there should be actively empowered to manage and make decisions affecting their area.

Social housing should be provided to those

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currently on the council waiting lists, though given that the income limits haven’t been reviewed for ten years, the thresholds will need to be raised. A recent report by Professor Michelle Norris and Dr Aideen Hayden on the future of council housing has made farreaching proposals on how to properly fund social housing into the future. The report’s recommendations are based on significant research and must be taken seriously.

Affordable rental and purchase housing should be provided to those above the income thresholds for social housing and below €58,000 for a single person and €75,000 for a couple. Both rents and house prices must be based on cost rather than market prices. This would mean affordable homes for sale between €170,000 and €260,000.

Tenants should never pay rent above 30% of their disposable income and should have rent certainty and tenancies of indefinite duration.

Crucially affordable homes should never be sold into the private market.They can be passed from one generation to the next and can be sold back into the affordable housing stock but could never be sold to or rented in the private market.

The broader income and tenure mix in such developments will ensure a greater level of economic viability. But the building of truly vibrant communities will require local authorities to play a greater role in supporting and resourcing real community participation anphoblacht AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA

IMPROVE THE RENTAL SECTOR Rebuilding Ireland states

 

We will introduce a new affordable rental scheme

€10m in annual funding will deliver at least 2,000 rental properties over a range of projects by 2018

 Zero affordable rental homes delivered  22% increase in rent since 2016  No affordable rental target for 2019  Students hit by rising rents above rent caps

UTILISE EXISTING STOCK

Rebuilding A number of schemes were announced to get vacant housing stock into use Ireland ot HOWEVER is n wor king

Only 70 homes delivered under

Buy and Renew in 2017 Only 9 homes delivered and tenanted via three local authorities under Repair and Lease in 2017

Only 382 homes acquired by Housing Agency out of 1,800 offered

STILL NO VACANT HOMES STRATEGY PUBLISHED Rebuilding Ireland is not orking

in the life and development of the neighbourhood. Councils must understand that housing is not just about bricks and mortar but about communities who must be empowered to actively participate in the decisions affecting their lives.

In order to tackle the housing crisis such housing developments, and the communities who will live in them, need to be developed on a scale commensurate to the level of social and affordable housing need. Real social housing – those on Local Authority waiting lists with households in receipt of the Housing Assistance Payment and the Rental Accommodation Scheme – currently stands at 140,000 households. We have no measures of the need for affordable rental or purchase but it will be in the tens of thousands.

To meet this need the state would have to at least double capital investment in social and affordable housing in 2019 and sustain that level of investment for at least a decade. Central and local government would have to set our new and ambitious plans for the development of sustainable and vibrant public housing developments. This would require vision and political will. Crucially it would require a government that puts the needs of low and modest income families above those of vulture funds and corporate developers.  EOIN Ó BROIN is a Sinn Féin TD for Dublin Mid West and is the party’s Dáil spokesperson on Housing.

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New Spanish government brings little joy for Catalans and Basques

BY DUROYAN FERTL

S

pain’s new minority Socialist Workers Party government has taken steps to defuse tensions in Catalonia and the Basque Country, but remains firmly opposed to allowing any form of national self-determination.

Coming to power on June 1, new Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called for “rebuilding trust” in Catalonia. Spanish direct rule in Catalonia under the contentious Article 155 – imposed

by Madrid to prevent the October 1 independence referendum last year – was lifted.

Sánchez’s cabinet also contains surprises, including new Defence Minister Margarita Robles. As Minister of the Interior and Justice in the 1990s, Robles pursued the GAL paramilitary death squads operated by the Spanish government in the Basque Country during the 1980s, killing dozens.

The Spanish government announced it would move Catalan political prisoners to jails in Catalonia, as well as a case-by-case transfer of Basque political prisoners to prisons closer to home, reversing the longstanding ‘dispersal’ policy of several hundred Basque prisoners in jails spread across the Spanish state.

Sánchez justified the latter move with reference to the declaration by Basque pro-independence armed organisation ETA that it was ending its 59-year existence, but in both cases Spain was merely finally complying with recognised legal standards – including its own. The French government began carrying out similar moves with Basque prisoners last year.

A closer look at Sánchez’s cabinet is more revealing. His Foreign Minister is Josep Borrell, a Catalan-born former President of the European Parliament. Speaking at a rally of the rightwing unionist ‘Catalan Civil Society’ organisation last December, the fiercely anti-independence Borrell called for Catalonia to be “disinfected” of pro-independence sentiment. Borrell’s immediate task will be to recover the political ground lost by Spain across Europe due to its terrible mishandling of the Catalan referendum.

S

ánchez’s other main ‘hawk’ is Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska. A former judge responsible for jailing Basque independence leader Arnaldo Otegi not once but twice, Grande-Marlaska presided over six cases criticised by the European Court of Human Rights for failing to investigate torture claims against Basque detainees.

New government spokesperson Isabel Celaá immediately and “absolutely” ruled out any discussion of Catalan self-determination, while Meritxell Batet, the minister in charge of relations with Catalonia, argued the Catalan national question was

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Queue to vote – Catalonia referendum day

Protests at Police headquaters in Barcelona at events of the referendum day

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Robbie you may need to update the line on the Puidgemont extradition case near the end of the article

“too complicated” to be solved by vote. For his part, Sánchez insisted the Catalans “must forget what happened during the October 1 independence referendum” if they want reconciliation.

Sánchez met with Catalan President Torra on July 9, but refused his request for an agreed self-determination referendum — a proposal supported by over three quarters of Catalans.

Instead, Sánchez proposed greater autonomy within Spain, through a referendum to amend the Spanish constitution. Considering the toxic anti-Catalanism generated across the Spanish state by the Rajoy government, the media and the right wing opposition party Ciudadanos, the chances of such a vote passing are minimal.

O

Barcelona. Day after referendum, protests due to previous day events

Tens of thousands take to streets of Catalonia on day of general strike held a banned independence referendum Photos: FOKU AGENCY

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pposition to self-determination does not only come from the government, however. Many parts of the Spanish state — within the courts, the police, and the army - never fully broke with the authoritarianism of Francoism. The world was exposed to this dark side of Spain through widespread police violence during the October 1 referendum.

One of the most visible faces of this institutional animosity is Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena. Llarena is responsible for the extradition cases against former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, and the other independence leaders still in exile.

It was Llarena, too, who imprisoned nine Catalan leaders on questionable charges of “rebellion” (a charge requiring armed insurrection).

In July, Llarena decided to suspend several MPs - including Puidgdemont - from their positions, a move criticised not only by pro-independence forces as a "direct attack" on democracy, but by the Catalan Ombudsman as well.

As a result, the independence debate in Catalonia is swinging once again away from seeking a negotiated settlement and towards a more confrontational approach, involving mass strikes, civil disobedience or unilateral independence.

Catalan president Torra warned that without an agreed self-determination referendum, Catalonia will continue towards the unilateral implementation of the Catalan Republic, and has not ruled out seeking new elections later this year to reinforce the popular mandate for self-determination.

The decision by a German court on July 12 to extradite Puigdemont to Spain on charges of “misuse of public money” may provide a lightning rod to the pro-independence organisations such as Omnium Cultural, and the grassroots Committees to Defend the Republic (CDRs), who have previously called for a general strike to implement the Catalan republic.

The self-determination debate in Catalonia is also provoking Spanish fears of a ‘second front’ in the Basque Country.

Basque independence party Sortu has set a target of 2026 for a sovereign Basque republic, and the mass, peaceful nature of the Catalan struggle has provided an inspiration to their northern neighbours. On June 10, 175,000 people formed a 200km human chain across the Basque country, demanding a "right to decide".

Nonetheless, the Spanish government remains more concerned with Spain’s constitutional integrity than with ensuring democratic rights. The Catalans and Basques therefore face the unwelcome choice of influencing Spanish and international opinion and force an unwilling Spanish government to the table, or pursuing a unilateral path with neither guarantee of success nor a clear strategy.

Along both paths, however, popular mobilisation at home and solidarity abroad, in defence of the democratic right to choose, will play a pivotal role.  DUROYAN FERTL is a Sinn Féin political adviser in the European Parliament.

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e New The ‘Postcards from th t tip to British Republic’ series is a ha eneur and designer, artist, entrepr ’s News from Socialist William Morris les from 1890 Nowhere series of artic monweal, the published in the Com list League newspaper of the Socia ture where and set in a distant fu romantic, Morris’s socialist, and red. Our story’s utopia has been secu Ní Chuairteoir protagonists are Willa panied by their and Lucy Byrne accom ric, Banba and four children James, Af joy and endure Alroy who together en cy of the future’s the equity and exigen New Republic.

It’s all gonna kick off now Willa mutters to herself as she picks up the paper from the kitchen table. Banba looks up at Willa sheepishly thinking exactly the same thing.

You’ve just turned 12 years of age love; you should be climbing trees not writing articles trashing your poor Ma online. What were you thinking?

Willa has known her wife Lucy all her life. Their parents lived within a stone’s throw of one another and had everything in common.

Lucy, determined and pretty as a picture, has always had a strong view of how the world should be. As her Nana Byrne used to say, when it comes to young Banba the apple didn’t fall from the tree. I’d bet a month’s veg that she ends up following Lucy into politics Willa thinks to herself, and not for the first time.

James lands in with a bunch of carrots still in his hand. How could you he roars?

There I am working away in the Big Feed and that cow Mrs Duffy waltzes over only delighted to tell me how my little sister has dissed her own mother for all to see. I cannot believe you wrote that post aligning yourself to the Freedom party’s call for Facebook to be privatised. You know your access to Facebook is limited for good reason.

Your brother is right love. There’s a reason why the Freedom party is now a small fringe group. We’ve told you a thousand times what it was like back then. Day in day out living with the insidious manipulation of social media by authoritarian politicians and party’s propped up by corrupt multinationals. Fear took over Banba, and for years we thought it would win out.

Homeless families were rounded up and detained in massive emergency accommodation centres on the outskirts of cities and towns, all under the pretence that they were trying to game the system. Climate change denial became a statement of truth.

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POSTCARDS FROM A

BY SINÉAD NÍ BHROIN

NEW REPUBLIC

All our hard won social rights were slowly withdrawn. Fascism manipulated social media and still Facebook refused to properly regulate content.

Willa looks up at the clock. Her eldest daughter Afric will be home now any minute with the youngest fella in tow. Banba gets up from her chair and with her hands on her hips begins a prepared soliloquy on her right to free speech. Oh my God yells James. You are literally clueless, and you are pretty selfish as well. Everyone has a roof over their head now but all you care about is accessing videos that aren’t appropriate for a kid anyway.

OK James, that’s enough. Lucy is standing in the doorway of the kitchen and gives her first born a sharp look. Banba turns around ready for battle, but takes one look at Lucy and slumps back down in her chair.

So Missy, what’s this I hear about you running for the Freedom party Lucy asks with a grin. I’m sorry Ma, I know I shouldn’t have written it. I just wish you’d hear me out once in a while. Lucy sits down next to Banba and gently squeezes her arm.

We’ve had this out time and time again kiddo. Facebook was and is a vital strand of public infrastructure that connects people across the globe. It took years to negotiate the global Treaty to safeguard that interconnectivity. I’m really proud of that and the role a generation of activists played in securing a better future for all of us. Equality is the norm now, but we can’t ever take it for granted.

If I’m honest love your opinions sometimes scare me. I’m worried that because your generation didn’t live through the Great Struggle you will take the freedoms and rights you enjoy for granted.

Of course you have a right to access that connection with the world but as a legislator I have a responsibility to regulate it.

So how about we make a deal? From now on we bring our points of difference to the kitchen table. We’ll trash them out all night if we have to, but we always leave the table united. How does that sound? Banba gives Lucy a hug and Willa looks on relieved.

James is still raging but he’ll get over it, eventually.  AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA anphoblacht

“WE ARE PART OF A LIVING STRUGGLE” Elected in June 1981, Paddy Agnew is finally welcomed to Leinster House

“It is 37 years later and Paddy has finally come across the threshold of Leinster House.” This was the greeting of Sinn Féin president Mary Lou MacDonald TD to former H-Block POW Paddy Agnew.

Mary Lou presented Agnew with the formal framed statement from the Returning Officer of his election to the Dáil and to his wife Catherine a framed copy of the An Phoblacht which announced Paddy and Kieran Doherty’s election as TDs. Agnew was elected as a Teachta Dála for Louth in June 1981 when he topped the poll in the middle of the Hunger Strikes that saw 10 men die. Paddy held the seat until the following February when a snap general election was called following the collapse of a Fine Gael/Labour coalition government, which in an echo from events this decade, pushed austerity measures too far, with plans for new taxes on children’s clothes and shoes.

Paddy and Catherine Agnew were also welcomed by the Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl and by the Clerk of the Dáil Peter Finnegan. Earlier the Ceann Comhairle welcomed him to the Dáil chamber.

Speaking to fellow Sinn Féin representatives and guests, the Sinn Féin President said that, “Many of those involved in Sinn Féin today were not born at that time but they and we are part of a struggle which is about achieving Irish unity. I believe we have the exceptional privilege of living through an unprecedented opportunity to end partition. That is within our grasp.”

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Gerry Adams TD, who invited Paddy and Catherine Agnew’s to visit the Dáil, spoke of Paddy’s historic Louth win. Gerry Adams said: “Paddy was imprisoned on several occasions for his republican activities. He spent time in Portlaoise, Mountjoy, Crumlin Road prisons and in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. He was first imprisoned in 1973. In 1977, he was captured with Arthur Morgan and others on a boat in Carlingford Lough. He was sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment and like hundreds more at that

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Arthur Morgan election 2002 – “We were all over the moon. I had Arthur on my shoulders.”

It's good to see so many new people involved. It is not just a matter of ‘the usual suspects’. In my time we looked to 1916 for our motivation. Today young people look to 1981

time went on the blanket protest against the British government’s criminalisation policy. It was a cruel and brutal prison regime.

“It was decided to stand prisoner candidates from the H-Blocks and Armagh Women’s prison in the June 1981 general election. Kieran Doherty, who subsequently died on August 2nd after 73 days on hunger strike, and Paddy, were both elected to the Dáil on June 11th 1981.

“Other prisoner candidates including Joe McDonnell who died on hunger strike on July 6th and

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Maireád Farrell who was killed at Gibraltar, secured significant popular support and votes. As a result, Fianna Fáil, which was expected to win the election, lost to Fine Gael and Labour.

“Paddy Agnew was released from prison in 1986 and joined Sinn Féin in Dundalk. He has remained an active party member since then contributing to the election of Arthur Morgan and then in recent years to the election of both myself and Imelda Munster.”

An Phoblacht has in recent years twice interviewed Paddy Agnew. Speaking in 2005 about his election Paddy told Ella O’Dwyer that, “I couldn’t get over it.

I was in regular contact with outside and knew of the tremendous support we had.”

Paddy Agnew was released from prison in 1986.

“I took a few weeks off and then I joined the Gerard Halpenny Sinn Féin Cumann. Halpenny had done time in the ‘40s. There were great workers in the cumann, very strong and it’s improving ever since.” Asked how he felt in 2002 when Arthur Morgan won back the Louth seat he had won in 1981, Agnew said, “We were all over the moon. I had Arthur on my shoulders.”

Encouraged by trends in the movement now – especially regarding the number of young people getting involved, Paddy Agnew said: “It’s good to see so many new people involved. It is not just a matter of ‘the usual suspects’. In my time we looked to 1916 for our motivation. Today young people look to 1981. That’s how powerful the effect of the Hunger Strike was.”

Asked how, on reflection, he feels about the Hunger Strike 25 years on, he said, “What’s done is done and there’s great loyalty and comradeship in the movement.

Republicanism is something that’s in you – it’s like what Bobby Sands described as The Rhythm of Time.”  AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA anphoblacht

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De Profundis As an duibheagán

BY JAKE JACKSON Daichead bliain ó shin bhí Gluaiseacht na Poblachta ag teacht i dtaithí ar straitéis ‘An Chogaidh Fhada’. Bhí rialtas na Breataine faoi cheannasaíocht James Callaghan agus Roy Mason ag leanstean go fíochmhar le polasaí an choirpeachais agus ní raibh a fhios ag duine ar bith againn cad é an deireadh a bheadh air. Bhí an láthair streachailte is fíochmhara ar fad sna Blocanna H agus i gCarcair Ard Mhacha, áit a raibh cimí lomnocht ag troid in éadan Mason agus a leithéid a bhí ag maíomh go raibh siad ag brú Óglaigh na hÉireann mar a bheadh taos fiacla i bhfeadán iontu.

Ag tús 1978 bhí mé féin i mBloc H4. Bhí mé liom fein sa bhloc agus leanfadh seo ar aghaidh go gceann trí mhí go dtáinig Mark Hannigan ón Srath Bhán, Thír Eoghain ar an agóid. Bhí comhluadar agam arís.

Mhothóinn in amanna gur mhian liom Sailm 130 an De Profundis a scairteadh amach in ard mo chinn, ach ós rud é nar chreid mé i nDia ní bheadh aon fhiúntas ann ach is deacair an dúchas inár tógadh thú a thréigean.

Bhí an láthair streachailte is fíochmhara ar fad sna Blocanna H agus i gCarcair Ard Mhacha, áit a raibh cimí lomnocht ag troid in éadan Mason agus a leithéid a bhí ag maíomh go raibh siad ag brú Óglaigh na hÉireann mar a bheadh taos fiacla i bhfeadán iontu

Líon an sciathán go gasta ina dhiaidh sin agus sular tugadh mé go Bloc H6 ag deireadh 1979 bhí trí sciathán iomlán ann. Nuair a bhí mé liom féin sa bhloc thiocfadh na bardairí le stocaí thar a gcuid buataisí sa dóigh is nach gcluinfinn iad ag teacht. Ní labharfadh siad in am ar bith faoi éisteacht s’agam. Ach bíonn cluasa géara ar an chime agus bhí mé ábalta i rith ama iad a chluinstean ag teacht agus ag imeacht. Ní raibh a fhios agam cé chomh fada agus a bheinn liom féin. Bhí spás go fóill i mBloc H3 agus ní raibh aon ghá ag na bardairí daoine a chur isteach liom. Chinn mé go mairfinn sa bhomaite gan a bheith ag smaoineamh ar an todhchaí, mar luíonn mireacht agus trioblóid ar an bhealach sin. Mheabhraigh mé ar Tomás Ó Cléirigh, ó Dhún Geanainn, a rinne 15 bliain i bpríosúin i Sasana faoi ‘riail

36

an chiúnais’. Thainig Ó Cléirigh amach as an phríosún le spiorad s’aige chomh láidir agus a bhí sé ariamh. Bhí sé ar an duine a tugadh an ónóir dó chun Forógra na Cásca 1916 a shíniú roimh an seisear eile, Sean MacDiarmada, Tomás MacDonncha, Pádraig Mac Piarais, Eamonn Ceannt, Séamus Ó Chonghaile agus Seosamh Ó Pluincéid.

Bhí an Forógra de ghlanmheabhar agam agus b’éigin domh é a scríobh amach i nGaeilge gach Cáisc le go mbeadh sé léite amach i ngach sciathán Domhnach na Cásca. Bheadh an seachtar calma seo mar ionspioráid againn agus muid ag pleanáil an chéad stailc ocrais i 1980.

Le linn m’ama i bpríosún bhí sé de nós agam éirí go luath ar maidin, nós a bhí agam ó na laethanta a mhusclóinn agus Raidió Éireann á craoladh ag m’athair le linn dó a bheith ag ullmhú breacháin dúinn agus muid óg. Nós é a d’fhán liom agus atá go fóill agam. B’aoibhinn liom breathnú ar na préacháin agus iad ag déanamh a mbealach lena gcuid ruathair a dhéanamh ar ghoirt na bhfeirmeoirí. Bhí iontas orm fáil amach cé chomh eagraithe agus a bhí na préacháin. Bhí an-dúil agam breathnú ar an dóigh a thug siad cosaint do na hóganaigh agus iad ag eitilt leis an ealta. Thiocfadh na préacháin le breacadh an lae, iad ar dtús ina bpéirí. Eitleodh na péirí seo i líntí díreacha faoi phatrún greille. Beirt ag eitilt aneas, beirt anoir agus beirt aniar. Phillfeadh na cinn aduaidh agus ansin thiocfadh an ealta le chéile, na péirí ag eitilt píosa ar shiúil ón phríomhealta. Leis na sciatháin ag bogadh go mall agus cuid ag coinneáil na cinn óga istigh sa phríomhealta, bheinn faoi dhraíocht acu. Rinneadh an rud céanna ach é droim ar ais san iarnóin sula dtéadh an ghrian a luí.

Dhéanainn iad a leanstan go mbíodís as radharc agus ansin leanfainn i mo shamhlaíocht iad mé ag breathnú anuas ar na gortanna lán bia, áit a mbeadh srutháin ag lúbadh a mbealach fríd bruacha lán fraoich agus aitinn. Nuair a bhí mo shaith agam de seo léinn mo Bhíobla agus shiúilfinn idir 3 agus cúig míle, sé choschéim i dtreo an dorais, an méid céanna i dtreo an na fuinneoige. Ansin dhéanfainn scéal a aithris i m’intinn féin agus sula mbeadh a fhios agam bheadh an dinneár curtha ar an urlár taobh istigh den doras, na bardairí ag seasamh taobh thiar den choirpeach a bhí i mbun dualgais dinneára, iad chomh dubh leis na préacháin agus chomh ciúin le taibhsí.

Choinneoinn píosa beag bia gach lá le tabhairt do na glasóga, do na gealbhain, do na druideanna agus don chorr bhuíóg a bheadh i gcónaí thart ar an chlós taobh amuigh den fhuinneog.

Is cuimhin liom cur is cúiteamh mór faoi na héiníní a bhí ann idir Bobby Sands agus Ginty Lennon agus muid i mBloc H6.

“An bhfeiceann tú an bhuíóg ansin Ginty.”

“Gealóg atá ann.”

“Mo thóin amharc air is buíóg é, níl dabht ar bith ann.”

Chuaigh siad ar aghaidh mar seo ar feadh tamaill go dtí gur chuir Bobby deireadh leis an phlé a rá.

“Búíog atá ann agus sin é.”

“Cad é mar atá a fhios agat?”

“Bíonn siad i gcónaí congárach do na srutháin.”

“Ca bhfuil an sruthán anseo?”

“Ar an taobh eile den bhalla sin.”

“Cad é mar atá a fhios agat sin?”

“De thairbhe go mbíonn buíóg i gcónaí sa chlos.” Ó thaobh brúidéileachta bhí Bloc H4 ina ifreann, díreach mar a bhí Bloc H3. Ba le linn mo chuid ama i Bloc H4 gur chinn na bardairí ‘folcadán’ a thabhairt dúinn. Thosaigh sé go luath ar maidin agus lean sé ar feadh cupla uair a chloig. Fosclaíodh an chéad doras

AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA anphoblacht

agus tharraingeodh na bardairí an chéad chime amach le cuid mhaith greadaidh agus tormáin. Chuala muid uilig an screadach agus an ruaille buaille ag dul ar aghaidh tamall. Bhí mise ag bun an sciatháin, Séamy Bradley ó Dhoire Theas a bhí béal dorais liom ag an am, muid i gcillíní aonair. Nuair a thaáinig seal s’agam, tharraing na bardairí amach mé, mo lámha ina nglaic ag beirt acu. Bhí tabla i lár an sciatháin. Ritheadh mé i dtreo an tábla agus rinne siad mé a phlabadh in éadan an tábla. Sheas beirt bhardaire ar mo chosa.

Tháinig an tríú bardaire agus sháith sé méar isteach i mo chorp ‘le cuardach a dhéanamh’. Tógadh mo chosa agus caitheamh mé bun os cionn thar an tábla. Rug siad gréim orm nuair a landáil mé agus tharraing siad mé chuig cathaoir ag barr an dorchla a raibh an ‘Dochtúír’ ina shuí air le slat beag ina láimh aige. Thóg sé mo chuid gruaige leis an slat agus é a rá “Lice infested, clean and shave this specimen”.

Tharraing siad mé thart an choirneál, áit a raibh folcadán, doirteáil anphoblacht AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA

agus leithris. Caitheamh mé isteach i bhfolcadán fuar agus ansin spréigh siad amach ar an urlár mé i bhfoirm cros céasta, cos bardairí ar mo dhá lámh agus ar mo dhá chos. Ansin thosaigh ceathrar acu do mo sciúradh le scuabanna clois. Nuair a bhí sé seo thart tharraing siad mé chuig cathaoir plaisteach sheas beirt acu ar mo chosa agus choinnigh beirt eile greim daingeán ar mo lámha. Bhí duine eile acu ag bualadh san aghaidh mé a rá “your number is 289 scum. Say it.”

Choinnigh mé mo thost. I ndiaidh tamaill de seo tháinig bardaire eile le deimheas leictreach. Bhain siad mo ghruaig díom agus d’fhág siad mo chloigeann ina phráchás, líntí beaga gruaige fágtha anseo is ansiúd. Bhí orm ansin, cosúil leis na cimí eile romham agus i mo dhiaidh ‘rith an lámhainn’ a dhéanamh, líne bardairí i scuaine fada iad uilig ag iarraidh mé a bhualadh. Caitheamh mé sa deireadh isteach i gcillín sa sciathán eile, áit a raibh cime eile ann. Dean Crossan a bhí ann, fear ó cheantar Chluain Ard i mBéal Feirste.

Bhí na bardairí i ndiaidh nead beag gruaige a fhágáil ar bharr a chloigeann.

Nuair a bhí an duine deireannach curtha ina chillín ag na bardairí rinne muid cuntas a ghlacadh ar na príomh sonraí maidir le gortuithe. Breacadh sin síos le cur amach ar chuairt leis an scéal a insint don domhán. Ansin scairt duine de na cimí amach “chuig na doirse a ghasúirí”. Sheas muid gur cheol muid amach in ard ár gcinn agus d’aonghuth “A Nation Once Again’, nós a thosaigh Martin Hurson, a bhfaighfeadh bás ar an stailc ocrais ar an 13ú Iúil 1981 i ndiaidh 44 lá gan bhia. Rinneamar seo i gcónaí i ndiaidh aon mhór imeacht bruidéaileachta le cur in iúl do na bardairí nach raibh spiorad s’againn íslithe acu.

Ba le linn ama s’agam i mBloc H4 a cuireadh daoine ar sciathán s’againn ón UDA agus UVF agus iad ar agóid na pluide. B’iad na daoine is fáide acu a d’fhán ar an phluid ná Tommy ‘Isaac’ Andrews agus Sam McClean, ar bhaill den UDA iad. Rinne an beirt seo trí bhliain ar an agóid, cé nach raibh siad ariamh ar an agóid gan ní.

Rachfadh Tommy Andrews, Sam McClean, Sam Courtney, Norman

37

'Pull that blanket off the bastard I want him properly scalded.'

Baineadh an phluid uaim agus theannaigh mé mo chorp lomnocht. Caitheadh buicéad uisce thart orm a bhuail mé ón mhuineál síos go dtí an tóin.

M’anam le Dia lig me béic a mhusclódh na mairbh Earle agus Bobby Adams ón UDA mar aon le Jim ‘Tonto’ Watt ón UVF ar stailc ocrais nuair a bhí stailc ocrais na bPoblachtánach i 1980 ag tarraingt chun deiridh. Bhí Tommy agus Sam béal dorais liom ar feadh tamall i mBloc H4 agus fear ón UVF, Robert Campbell sa chillín ar an taobh eile. Níor fhán Robert Campbell i bhfád, rud a bhí coitianta go leor i measc cimí ón UDA agus UVF. Bhí fear eile ón UDA a d’fhán fada go leor fosta mar a bhí Billy ‘Twister’ McQuiston. Bhí duine eile ón UVF ar an phluid ar feadh tamaill mhaith fosta. Victor Hanna a bhí ann agus le linn dó bheith ar an phluid, mharaigh Arm na Breataine deartháir s’aige nuair a rinne siad luíochán ar thriúr Óglach, Jim Mullvenna, Dinny Brown agus Jake Mailey ag Oifig an Phoist i mBaile na Saileáin, Ní bhfuair Victor cead ó na húdaráis freastal ar thorramh a dhearthár William. Ag an chuid is mó sna laethanta luatha bhí uasmhéid de 40 cimí dílseacha ar an phluid.

D’fhág siad uilig i ndiaidh an chéad stailc ocrais faoi dhianordú

38

óna gcuid ceannairí ar an taobh amuigh. Bhí ardmheas agam ar na daoine a rinne seal fada ar an phluid, rinne siad cion fir agus beart de réir a mbriathar.

Ag pointe amháin bhí duine de Bhuistéirí na Sean Chille, Lenny Murphy, ar an phluid ach níor mhair seisean ach coicís. Shíl mé ariamh gur sícipeatach naircisíocht a bhí i Murphy nach raibh aon pholaitíocht aige seachas é fein agus nuair a chríochnaigh sé i ról an choirpigh a raibh sé de dhualgas air tae a thabhairt dúinn ní ólfainn é. Mharaigh ÓNH Murphy ar an 16ú Samhain 1982.

Maidir leis na cimí ón UDA a d’fhán ar an phluid ghlac siad páirt i ndíospóireachtaí linn agus phléigh mé féin rudaí go mion le cuid acu. Ni fheicfinn Tommy nó Sam go gceann 39 bliain.

Fuair mé scairt guthán i Mí an Mhárta 2018 ó Tommy a bhí ag obair le neacht mo chéile Chrissie. Chuir sé ceist orm an mbeadh suim agam caifé a ól leis, ar ndóigh bhí me breá sásta bualadh leis arís. Bhuail muid le chéile i gCultúrlann MacAdam Ó Fiaich ar an 21ú Márta.

Nuair a bhuail muid le chéile dúirt Tommy liom: “My God Jake it is great to see you. The last time I saw you was when steam was pouring into our cell through the hole in the wall and you were screaming at the top of your lungs.”

Thug sin mé ar ais go Bloc H4 agus an lá a chinn na bardairí go gcaithfeadh siad uisce fiuchta thart orainn. Thosaigh sé i ndiaidh am lóin nuair a tháinig na bardairí ar ais ó shos s’acu. Ba mhinic a thiocfadh siad ar ais agus braon maith ólta acu. Am contúirteach é seo i gcónaí dúinn nó tharlódh go leor ionsaithe ar chimí agus na bardairí ar ais ar an sciathán ag 2.00in.

Ar an lá seo chuala muid cuid mhaith tormáin ag barr an sciatháin agus bhí a fhios againn go raibh rud éigin ar bun acu.

Ansin fosclaíodh an chéad chillín a raibh Gerry Dowdall ann. Chuala muid na bardairí ag scairteadh air: “Stay still you bastard.” Ansin chuala muid steall uisce agus torann duine i bpian. Scairt Gerry amach: “in ainm Dé tá an t-uisce fiuchta.” Bhí muid uilig faoi eagla dochreidte. Lean na bardairí leo ó chillín go cillín. Bhí sé millteanach ar na daoine a bhí faoi ionsaí ach níos measa fós dóibh siúd a bhí ag fánacht ar sheal s’acu. Fosclaíodh doras s’agam go tobann agus bhí triúr bardaire ann. Bhí aithne agam orthu uilig agus bhí beirt acu ar na hainmhithe is measa i measc na droinge a bhí ar Bloc H4. Bhí an tríú duine ina Sasanach agus leis an fhírinne a rá ní raibh sé ar an duine ba mheasa. Scairt duine acu orm: “You’ll have to wait your

AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA anphoblacht

Martin Hurson

Sheas muid gur cheol muid amach in ard ár gcinn agus d’aonghuth 'A Nation Once Again’, nós a thosaigh Martin Hurson, a bhfaighfeadh bás ar an stailc ocrais ar an 13ú Iúil 1981 i ndiaidh 44 lá gan bhia.

Rinneamar seo i gcónaí i ndiaidh aon mhór imeacht bruidéaileachta le cur in iúl do na bardairí nach raibh spiorad s’againn íslithe acu

turn. You’re the bastard giving the orders in here and we’re keeping a special treat for you ‘til the end.” Stán mé air ach níor labhair mé focal leis.

Thosaigh mé ag ullmhú i m’intinn den uafás a bhí le teacht, mé ag éisteacht i rith ama leis an chéasadh agus leis an fhulaingt a bhí ag dul ar aghaidh. Go tobann thit tost ar an sciathán a bhí ní ba mheasa anphoblacht AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA

ná an torann ó ifreann a bhí ann roimhe.Tar éis cúig bomáite, cé gur mhothaigh sé mar an tsíoraíocht tháinig an bheirt bhardaire ar ais. Fosclaíodh mo dhoras agus dúirt duine acu liom go ciúin: “Our friend is up boiling some water so that it’s nice and hot and fresh. See you shortly scumbag.” Bhí mo chroí i mo bhéal, bhí mo chorp iomlán ar aon bhall creatha. Dúirt mé liom fein i m’intinn nach raibh mé chun béic a ligean nuair a tháinig am na cinniúna.

Tharraing mé an phluid thart orm chomh teann agus a dtiocfadh liom agus d’fhan mé leo. Fosclaíodh an doras arís, bhí mise i mo sheasamh i lár an chillín le mo dhroim leis an doras. Dúirt duine acu i nguth íseal a bhí lán fuatha agus nimhe: “Pull that blanket off the bastard I want him properly scalded.” Baineadh an phluid uaim agus theannaigh mé mo chorp lomnocht. Caitheadh buicéad uisce thart orm a bhuail mé ón mhuineál síos go dtí an tóin. M’anam le Dia lig me béic a mhusclódh na mairbh. Níor mhothaigh mé pian cosúil leis ariamh. Preabadh an doras agus ní thiocfadh liom bogadh ar feadh tamaill. Mhothaigh mé na spuaiceanna ag ardú ar mo mhuineál, ar chúl mo lámha uachtar agus ar mo dhroim. Bhí Sam McClean duine ón UDA ag labhairt faoin pholl sa bhalla ag iarraidh fáil amach an raibh mé i gceart. Ní oibreodh mo ghuth.

Tar eis tamaill shocraigh mé rud beag agus smaoinigh mé go raibh an tocht ar a laghad tirim, nó níor aimsigh an t-uisce é. Tá an intinn dothuigthe in amanna. Fosclaíodh an doras arís agus bhí mé réidh le caoineadh. Bhí an Sasanach ann leis féin. Chaith sé feadán uachtar antaiseipteach ‘Germaline’ ar an urlár. “You’d best put that on,” a dúirt sé. Ansin chuir sé trí thoitín, “Gallaghers Blues” i mo láimh a rá: “Have yourself a wee smoke. You deserve it after what you’ve been through.” Agus d’imigh sé. Ní raibh na focail agam cur síos i gceart a dhéanamh ar an mhéid a tharla agus leis an fhírinne a rá 40 bliain ina dhiaidh níl na focail agam go fóill.

Amach as na Blocanna sin agus amach as an íobairt a rinne na Stailceoirí Ocrais thainig dóchas úr agus i 2018 is féidir a rá nar éirigh le Callaghan agus Mason nó le duine ar bith eile a tháinig ina ndiaidh an streachailt a bhriseadh cé go bhfuil bealach fada le dul againn sula bhfeicfimid Éirí na Gealaí mar a dúirt Bobby Sands.

39

TIME TO REDEDICATE OURSELVES TO THE FUTURE CHALLENGES This year the national Hunger Strike commemoration will take place in Castlewellan, County Down.

Over the weekend culminating in the March on Sunday, republicans will come together in memory of the ten men who died in the prison hospital in Long Kesh, in 1981.

The weekend will allow us all to remember, to reflect and to examine the impact the H Block/Armagh prison struggle had on our lives, on our struggle.

There is no doubt that the 1981 hunger strike was a seminal period in our history. It shaped and defined our struggle for a generation. Its legacy both endures and continues to unfold.

Yet on March 1st 1976, guided as much by instinct as any strategic vision, republican prisoners vowed that they would resist all attempts to criminalise them and by extension the struggle for Irish freedom.

By the 3rd October 1981, the day the hunger strike ended, Britain’s policy of

BY RAYMOND McCARTNEY criminalisation was in tatters.

Long Kesh and Armagh women’s prison were synonymous with political imprisonment.

Looking back over the many years since 1981, one only has to look at the strength of Republicanism, to get a sense of the road we have travelled.

Sinn Féin today is the largest party in Ireland and our potential to deliver Irish unity is obvious.

That growth, that increased strength is not the result of any single factor.

Yet many of the people involved today in our struggle, cite the hunger strike as a defining period, or as a constant source of inspiration.

For a generation of young people it was their 1916, or as it was for my generation, their Bloody Sunday.

It is easy to understand why people are inspired by the hunger strikers, their sacrifice is the epitome of courage and selflessness.

The hunger strike demonstrated the power of the individual, acting within a collective movement to uphold the integrity of political struggle, and defeat all attempts to undermine that.

In 2006 I had the great honour and privilege to speak at the Hunger Strike monument in Victor Hugo Park in Havana.

On a billboard nearby, which was designed to inspire

The hunger strike demonstrated the power of the individual, acting within a collective movement to uphold the integrity of political struggle

40

AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA anphoblacht

Mary Nelis, Cathleen McCann and Teresa Deery protest at St Eugene’s Cathedral in 1976

Raymond McCartney took part in the 1980 Hunger Strike

Cubans in to activism, were the words, “Walkers, there is no path.

The path is made by walking.”

For me two images from that period captures the essence of the billboard and of the H Block/Armagh movement.

One, is the photograph of Mary Nelis, Cathleen McCann and Teresa Deery standing in the grounds of St Eugene’s Cathedral in Derry, clad only in blankets. Their message simple, asking if people cared, as they sought to break down the wall of silence that surrounded the prison protest.

Cardinal Tomas Ó Fiaich cited incidents such as this as the spark which took him on a journey, his own path, which led him to visit to the H Blocks and his subsequent observation that the conditions he found there, akin to the sewers of Calcutta.

Three women, a mother, a wife, a sister isolated and alone, their strength obvious. Its impact immeasurable as the wall of silence came tumbling down.

Contrast this to the image of the

The People’s MP – Bobby Sands funeral

Martin, Kevin, Kieran, Thomas, Michael had within themselves that provided them with the strength to endure hunger strike and lay down their lives in the manner they did.

These were ten Irish men, from different backgrounds, from different places and yet united by a desire to end partition, and create an Ireland based on the principles of the 1916 Proclamation.

For me, when Bobby wrote, he did so with history and perhaps that question, very much on his mind.

So we need not look any further than those final lines in his poem, the Rhythm of Time, “It lights the dark of this prison cell It thunders forth its might It is that undauntable thought my friend The thought that says I’m right.”

We are political prisoners. 

These were ten Irish men, from different backgrounds, from different places and yet united by a desire to end partition

anphoblacht AUGUST 2018 LÚNASA

cortege of Bobby Sands making its way from his home in Twinbrook to Milltown cemetery. Over 100,000 people, a dark mass of individuals coming together in collective strength to lay to rest, the People’s MP. The power of the individual, coming together as one.

Carving out the path.

So now as we take time to remember and reflect, it is also a time to rededicate ourselves to the many challenges that lie before. The walking continues, new paths to be created.

Throughout many years, we have often asked the question, what was it that Bobby, Frank, Raymond, Patsy, Joe,

RAYMOND McCARTNEY is a former political prisoner and hunger striker.

He is a Sinn Féin MLA representing the Foyle Constituency.

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After 37 years former TD Paddy Agnew welcomed to Leinster Hou

‘WE ARE PART OF A LIVING STRUGGLE’ SEE PAGE 33

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