Episoder
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The local and the national
I have been doing a wee bit of canvassing in the General Election in the South. The response has been positive. There are clearly some who see election campaigns, including this one, as opportunities to write Sinn FĂ©inâs obituary. Sorry to disappoint. Like all parties fighting elections there will be moments of gain and moments of pain. That is in the nature of electoral politics especially in volatile times. However, if your political ideology and the leaderships connection with the base is strong then all challenges can be overcome. Thatâs one of Sinn FĂ©inâs strengths.
Mind Your Language.Throughout Israelâs genocidal war on the Palestinians countless social media posts by Israeli politicians, officials and its occupying forces have highlighted the racism that underpins Zionism and that is being used to dehumanise the Palestinian people.
LĂĄ breithe RichardRichard is seventy-two. He reached that lofty age on Sunday. If he lasts for a few more months he will have lived longer than any of his ancestors in his branch of the historic clann of McAuley. Thatâs quite an achievement. Congratulations
RG. I hope you live forever.
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Time for a Change of Government.
The southern general election was called last Friday. In just over two weeksâ time 174 TeachtaĂ DĂĄla (TDs) will be elected to the DĂĄil â an increase of 14 over the number elected in the 2020 general election.On Sunday I was in Dublin for the Save Moore Street rally but afterwards I was in Caledon Road and St. Maryâs Road in East Wall with a Sinn FĂ©in canvas team urging voters to give their number 1 vote to Mary Lou McDonald and their number 2 vote to Janice Boylan. The response was very good.
Judicial Review lodged in defence of Moore StreetThe battle to save the 1916 Moore Street Battlefield site has entered a new and critical phase with the decision by the Moore Street Preservation Trust to seek leave for a judicial review of the decision by An Bord PleanĂĄla to allow the developerâs plan to proceed. Almost two decades after the campaign to protect this important historic part of the Easter 1916 revolutionary story the campaign has reached a decisive moment.
New Mural in support of PalestiniansAt the weekend a new mural was unveiled in Andersonstown in west Belfast highlighting the shared experience of struggle and solidarity between the peoples of Ireland and Palestine. Well done to Marty Lyons and Michael Doherty and the organisers.
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Manglende episoder?
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Prison Poems by Bobby SandsIn a recent interview Christy Moore remarked that the death of Bobby Sands robbed us of a great writing talent. Christy was praising the quality of the work Bobby created in the harsh conditions he endured. He was making the point that you can only imagine what Bobby might have gone on to produce in different circumstances where his creative imagination could have been nurtured and not repressed. But of course this was not to be. Bobby led the second hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh and he was the first of the ten men who fasted to death in that awful summer of 1981.
Rally to Defend Moore St this weekendThe campaign to protect the 1916 Moore St Battlefield site from demolition is moving up a gear. As regular readers will know An Bord PleanĂĄla - the planning authority in the South â gave the go ahead recently for the Hammerson development plan which will see much of this historic site reduced to rubble.
Irish government fails PalestiniansMore massacres. More children dead and maimed. More civilians killed by the Israeli government in a series of deadly assaults in Gaza and Lebanon. Health workers, journalists, and children continue to be the preferred targets for a right wing Israeli government that is being armed, funded and empowered by its western allies.
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Cage Eleven. This coming weekend OâBrien Press are republishing my book â Cage 11 - about my experience of life in Long Kesh between August 1975 and February 1977. Available from most good bookshops including from www.sinnfeinbookshop.com and An Fhuiseog 55 Falls Road www.thelarkstore.ie No Parking remember Father Des Wilson many moons ago lamenting the narrowness of streets in Turf Lodge and Ballymurphy. âThe City Planners donât think the working class should have motor carsâ he said one day as we tried to manoeuvre our way by tightly packed vehicles in Ballymurphy Drive.
Sanctions Now In April 2009 as part of a Sinn FĂ©in delegation I entered the Gaza Strip. The blockade of the area by Israel was two years old at that point. The UNWRA staff, school teachers, doctors, university students, elected representatives and workers we met were dignified and courageous, quiet but resolute. They were the survivors of an Israeli siege and a military incursion in 2008/09 that had left many dead and key facilities devastated. From the minute we passed through the Erez Crossing into Gaza under the gaze of Israeli watchtowers and the huge security wall that surrounds the enclave my overwhelming sense was of entering into a huge open air prison. Today I am horrified at what continues to unfold each day in that place. The Gaza City I saw 15 years ago is gone. -
ON Saturday night I was privileged to attend the oĂche mhĂłr GhlĂłr na MĂłna in Belfastâs City Hall. The event was to celebrate twenty years of this amazing Irish language initiative made up mostly of and aimed at young people in the Upper Springfield area. It was a great night. Packed out with young GaeilgeoirĂ. But there was also a good clatter of veteran campaigners. The pioneers who gave us the Shaws Road Gaeltacht, An ChultĂșrlann, LĂĄ, RaidiĂł FĂĄilte, An MeĂĄnscoil (now ColĂĄiste Feirste), an CheathrĂș Ghaeltachta and many other wonderful cultural and communal creations, including a thriving Irish medium education sector.Protest and book launch
Moore St
THE threat by English developer Hammerson to demolish much of the 1916 Moore Street Battlefield site in Dublin was given the green light by An Bord PleanĂĄla several weeks ago. The Moore Street Preservation Trust, which is led by the relatives of the signatories to the 1916 Proclamation, is currently discussing the legal options available to it to challenge this decision.Roy remained unbowed and unbroken
Roy Walsh
ROY Walsh was born on November 1, 1948. He died on October 16 after a long illness, which he faced with the same grit and humour that he had faced life. -
Ethel Kennedy
It was with sadness I heard last week of the death of Ethel Kennedy, the wife of assassinated US Senator Robert Kennedy. She was aged 96. Ethel Kennedy was with her husband in Los Angeles in 1968 when he was shot and killed. She was left to rear 11 children. It was a huge blow to her and to the family. Ethelâs response was to found the Robert F. Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights, along with her brother-in-law Sen. Teddy Kennedy. The Centre advocates for gun control and human rights. She was also active in the Special Olympics, and in her eighties she took part in 2016 in a demonstration in support of higher pay for farmworkers in Florida.
Irish Americaâs role in Irish Unity
Last week Friends of Sinn FĂ©in in the USA organised the first of a planned series of public discussions on Irish Unity and the role of Irish America and the USA in achieving that objective. The American events â and those in Canada that will come later â are mirrored on the Peopleâs Assemblies organised by Sinn FĂ©inâs Commission on the Future of Ireland. They are intended to engage with the diaspora and others in North America and to help inform the work of the Commission and of Sinn FĂ©in. -
Leoâs unity words are welcome
Irish Unity is the big idea that will positively transform society on this island. Its popularity is growing and the economic, political, and social arguments in support of it are advancing each day. The recent interventions by former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar are an example of this. In June at the Irelandâs Future event in Belfast he said that the goal of a united Ireland had to be more than a âpolitical aspiration.â It needed to become a âpolitical objective.â
Seeds For The Future.
This is the season for tree planting. That is for planting bare root trees. Any month with an âRâ in it is the general rule for tree planters, though there is always a debate on whether planting should happen before or after the risk of frost. As an ad hoc tree planter who struggles to get free time I think September or October are fairly safe even in these muddled climate changing times. I try to plant native broad leaf species though some like the Beech or Horse Chestnut are here for so long that they are probably naturalised by now.
It didnât begin a year ago
At the weekend millions of people across the world took to the streets in solidarity with the people of Palestine and those of Lebanon. The decision by the governments of the USA, Germany, Britain and the EU to back Israel has unleashed a vicious war on the Middle East. Monday marked one year since the 7 October attack by Hamas. The nature of that attack was and remains unacceptable. But the viciousness and brutality of the Israeli response has been unparalleled in modern times. -
WIN.
This yearâs Sinn FĂ©in Ard Fheis last weekend was full of enthusiasm and passion with great speeches covering every issue imaginable and the delegates voting through policy motions that will help shape Sinn FĂ©in politics in the time ahead. The speeches, particularly from Michelle OâNeill and other national leaders demonstrated the strength and relevance of the party across our island.
South Africa Supports Irish Unity.
Irish Republicans have had a long and enduring relationship with the African National Congress. In 1995 I travelled to South Africa to meet its senior team of negotiators who successfully achieved an end to apartheid and the election of Nelson Mandela as President. In the midst of the negotiations around the Good Friday Agreement some of those senior figures travelled to Ireland to hold public meetings and go into the prisons to talk about their experience of negotiations. That relationship has remained strong over the years thanks in part to the hard work of Declan Kearney, Sinn Fein Party Chairperson
.Irish government must take a stand against Israel
Last week most of the governments of the world turned their back on Israel as Benjamin Netanyahu took to the rostrum at the 79th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York. Netanyahu claimed that âno army has done what Israel is doing to minimise civilian casualtiesâ and as he described the United Nations as an âanti-semitic swampâ and an âanti-Israel Flat Earth Society,â scores of UN delegates got up and walked out. Regrettably, the Irish government representatives stayed. -
Moore St. Demolition Gets Green Light
The battle to save the iconic 1916 Moore Street Battlefield site has been ongoing for over 20 years. During that time there have been a series of plans by developers, appeals against those plans, court cases, protests and sit-ins. Last week, in an appalling decision An Bord PleanĂĄla (ABP) â the Planning Authority in the Irish State â ruled on the remaining appeals and published its recommendations on the future development of the site.
MĂĄire Ferguson
Every week seems to bring the death of the last of that generation who kept freedoms flame lit in the twilight decades of the republican struggle from the 1950s on. Emmett O Connell from the South Bronx was one of these. Tå sé ar slà an fhirrne anios. So was Måire Ferguson. -
Casement Must Be Built Now.
British government policy toward Ireland has long been dictated by Britainâs strategic self-interests. From the conquest of Ireland nine centuries ago to partition the needs of the people of Ireland have played no meaningful part in the decision making processes of a British state that focusses primarily on the interests of England and the English economy. Consequently, Labour and Tory governments have each ensured that funding from Westminster has never been adequate to deal with the many social and economic demands of society here. The North â denied our right to our own fiscal powers - is a partitioned backwater that has consistently been at the bottom of Londonâs agenda.
Sean Brown
The refusal of the British to hold a public Inquiry into the killing of Sean Brown is also particularly reprehensible. At the inquest it was revealed that 25 people, including state agents, had been linked to Mr Brown's murder and that surveillance on a key suspect â Mark Fulton - was suspended the night before the murder and reinstated the following day.
Prepare for Unity
This column makes no apology for believing the people of the island of Ireland have the right to self-determination. But there is now a growing body of public opinion beyond Irish republicans who believe that the current constitutional arrangements are not working. On the contrary it is self-evident â as evidenced by the recent decisions - that the union with Britain works to our disadvantage. We therefore need to honestly, respectfully, and publicly encourage a conversation that looks beyond the current deeply flawed constitutional arrangements and examine the enormous potential that Irish Unity offers. -
The Far Right and Social Media
There has been a significant increase in recent times in far right racist, islamophobic and hate attacks on social media. The purpose of these has been to promote a climate of fear through a range of conspiracy theories from climate change, to migration and asylum seekers, to direct interference in elections. Sinn FĂ©in and Friends of Sinn FĂ©in (FoSF) in the USA have become a particular target for these social media accounts. The most consistent themes are that âIreland is fullâ, âSinn FĂ©in are traitorsâ, âSinn FĂ©in favours immigrants over the Irishâ, and a wide variety of islamophobic and racist comments.
DeJa Vous
âAs soon as the kids go back to school the sun comes outâ your man mused.
âItâs always the same,â he continued, âRain during the holidays and they are cooped up inside playing their devices and all the rest of it. Then school starts again and the sun is splitting the trees and the poor children canât get out to enjoy it. Stuck in the classroom looking out at the sun.â -
Champion Palestinian Self-determination
In less than five weeks the genocidal war by the Israel government against the Palestinian people will enter his second year. Having ruthlessly and cruelly waged war against the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip for 11 months Israelâs war machine has now shifted to a full blown pogrom against the Palestinian people in the occupied territory of the west Bank. Violence from the Israeli military, and from settlers eager to steal Palestinian land and water, had already seen over 600 Palestinians killed in the west Bank since last October. Six hostages died also executed, it appears, in Gaza hours before Israeli forces reached them. All this must be brought to an end. That means dialogue.
Two Good Women Gone
The recent deaths of Nell McCafferty and Edna OâBrien sparked a period of deserved and fulsome praise across the media for these two outstanding Irish women. I am sure this was a consolation for their families and friends and I extend my condolences and sympathy to them all. -
The 94 Cessation
The IRA cessation is 30 years old this Saturday. That Wednesday morning on 31 August 1994 two journalists â Barney Rowan from the BBC and Eamon Mallie from Downtown Radio â arrived at The Patio Restaurant in the Kennedy Centre. Itâs where 26 West is now. They met a woman republican activist who took from her pocket a small scrap of paper â a comm â on which was written the IRA statement announcing a âcomplete cessation of all military operationsâ. While there had been significant speculation over the previous months of the possibility of a ceasefire the enormity of what was being read to them - very slowly because Mallie doesnât have shorthand - was not lost on both.
Another Look Back at FĂ©ile 24
Last weekâs column reviewed aspects of West Belfasts FĂ©ile An Phobail - FĂ©ile24. In particular, the Debates and Discussions elements. It also foolishly committed me to looking back at other aspects of this yearâs events. I say foolishly with good reason. The FĂ©ile has so many dimensions it is impossible to do justice to them all. Six Hundred and thirty six events in 11 days. Events for families, youth, communities, women. Including Art, Tours and Walks, Theatre, Classes, Irish Language gigs, Comedy, Food and Drink, Sport, Health and International Affairs. Literary events, the Environment. There were also Trad sessions and loads of music. So mindful of the multifarious get togethers that are omitted in this piece I am going to conclude my FĂ©ile retrospective by dealing only with music in the park.
Opinions, Interviews Life Stories by James Woods
Seamus Woods is a gifted writer. This is his second book His first one, Hard Times. Good Times And The Celtic Tiger was published in 2011. I enjoyed it immensely. James brings his own unique style and insights to his writing. He is a natural story teller. He is also a long time dedicated writer of letters to the papers. Particularly on political affairs of the day. Thatâs how he started. In London. In 1987. Those were turbulent days in Anglo Irish history. -
FĂ©ile 24
I thought I would reflect on some aspects of FĂ©ile 24 in this weekâs column. In particular the debates and discussions. First of all Iâm sure all FĂ©ile enthusiasts agree that this was an outstanding FĂ©ile. The debates and discussions in particular were of a very high standard and variety and audiences and speakers had a very special treat this year at their Saint Mary's mecca on the Falls Road.
Advancing the case for Irish Unity
LĂĄ breithe shona do ChoimisiĂșn Shinn FĂ©in ar ThodhchaĂ na hĂireann - Happy birthday to Sinn FĂ©inâs Commission on the Future of Ireland. In the summer of 2022 Sinn FĂ©in established the Commission to advance Irish Unity through a grassroots consultation process nationally and internationally. The strap line for all of the events â Have Your Say â highlights the core aim of the Commission. It is about people having their say on the shape and composition of a new Ireland. Declan Kearney MLA is Chair of the Commission and Lynn Boylan MEP is the Vice Chair. -
Kneecap
Iâm a big fan of Kneecap. From the time they were called NĂ CEAPAINN â a clever use of the Irish phrase and a play on the English words Kneecapping. NĂ Ceapainn means âI donât reckonâ or âI donât think soâ. For example, in âAn ceapainn tĂș go bhfuil seo ceart?â â âDo you reckon this is right? NĂ ceapainn. âI donât reckonâ. Or âI donât think so.â Anyway it soon morphed into KNEECAP. As part of a clever and provocative name recognition ploy. Thatâs my recollection anyway of the origin of the name of this trio of Rappers and Iâm sticking by this wee bit of musical history.
Maureen Wilson â a formidable woman
Maureen Wilson was 93 when she died in July. She was one of those countless women and men who over seven decades was a stalwart supporter and activist of Irish republicanism. It was a part of her DNA. When she died Maureen was a member of the Andersonstown Martyrs Sinn FĂ©in Cumann.
Gaza â Donât Avert your eyes
As I write this weekâs column the merciless Israeli bombardment of the Palestinian people of Gaza continues unabated. A new order from the Israeli military this Monday morning instructs thousands of Palestinians in the city of Hamad in West Khan Younis to evacuate. They have no food and no water and nowhere to go that is safe. -
No to racists and fascists - No PasarĂĄn!
I was delighted to attend FĂ©ile An Phobailâs Carnival Parade last Saturday as it meandered its colourful, inclusive and vibrant way from the Dunville Park to An Sportlann on Bothar na bhFal. Underage representatives of local GAA clubs, other sporting organisations, community groups and numerous street artistes joined ethnic groups as they danced their way up the road. Led by a battalion of motor bikers and more sedate Lambretta scooterists, Palestinian flags were on display the length of the walk. It was brilliant, noisy, cheerful and uplifting.
Rita OâHare â friend and patriot
Rita OâHare is probably one of best known Irish Republican activists of the last six decades. She was a close friend and a comrade, as well as a wife and mother, grandmother and great grandmother and someone who worked tirelessly in pursuit of Irish freedom and self-determination.
More stories from the Grave
I have known Tom Hartley for almost 60 years. During that time he has been the consummate political activist as a leader of Sinn FĂ©in in Belfast and nationally. He is an archivist and a collector who has done more than anyone else to ensure that the Ulster Museum and Linen Hall Library have a range of artefacts and materials that tell the story of Irish republicanism. -
Moore Street â Rising to our Future
The campaign to save the 1916 Moore Street Battlefield site and those iconic buildings and streetscape that are forever linked to the most important historic event in modern Irish history has reached another potentially decisive moment.
In May, An Taoiseach Simon Harris announced the establishment of âa Taskforce to take a holistic view of the measures required to rejuvenate Dublin City Centre, north and southâ. The stated objective is to make Dublin City Centre âa more thriving, attractive, and safe cityscape; and a desirable location to live, work, do business and visit.â The Taskforce is expected to report this month (August).
International solidarity needed to end Israelâs genocidal warBy the end of this week more than 40,000 people, mostly children and women, will have been slaughtered by Israel in the Gaza Strip. The Strip has been reduced to rubble and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been left without shelter, food, clean water and sanitation. This is an Israeli made humanitarian disaster.
Day after day courageous journalists living under constant threat from Israeli snipers, drones and bombs continue to report Israelâs targeted bombing of refugees; the massacre of families living in tents; and of children starving because Israel is preventing food and medical aid from entering Gaza. In recent days Israeli soldiers deliberately destroyed a water treatment plant in the Tel Sultan neighbourhood of Rafah and an MRI machine at the Turkish hospital in Gaza. This is genocide.
FĂ©ile ArisIt is FĂ©ile An Phobail time again. Well done to Kevin Gamble and all the FĂ©ile team for once again bringing us a truly outstanding FĂ©ile programme. There was a time, now receding in memory for many people and never in the memory of countless more who werenât born in those troubled times, when August, and the anniversary of Internment, was marked by incursions of British troops and RUC into republican neighbourhoods and days of rioting and deaths and injuries.
FĂ©ile An Phobail has replaced all that. It started following the killing in Gibraltar of three local people, IRA Volunteers Dan McCann, SeĂĄn Savage and Mairead Farrell at the behest of Margaret Thatcher in March 1988 and the deaths of others at their funerals. Our community was demonised in a tsunami of invective by the establishment media and our political opponents. FĂ©ile was a communal response to that.
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Significant boost for Unity Referendum
This summer the momentum behind the demand for constitutional change and for the Good Friday Agreement commitment to a unity referendum has dramatically increased. The very successful Irelandâs Future event in Belfast several weeks ago, the all-island economic conference by Sinn FĂ©inâs Commission on the Future of Ireland, the emergence of a small but resolute grouping of United Irelanders from within Northern Protestantism and the positive soundings from an increasingly vocal pro-uniting Ireland lobby in the 26 counties, including from some within the political establishment, means that hardly a day passes without the issue of Irish Unity being raised in the political discourse. -
Solidarity Works
Forty years ago this month, ten workers from the Henry Street branch of Dunnes Stores in Dublin's city centre went on strike to protest against the selling of produce from Apartheid South Africa. A year later, the group was joined by another worker, Brendan Barron, from the Crumlin store, bringing their number to eleven. The strike lasted for almost three years. I remember it well. I joined the picket line a few times and Sinn FĂ©in and An Phoblacht were firm supporters of the Dunnes Store strikers. Their courageous stand led to the Dublin government banning South African goods from Irish stores. The strike followed a decision by the Irish Distributive and Administrative Union IDATU, now the Mandate union, not to handle South African produce.
Release Leonard Peltier
Earlier this month 79 year old native American indigenous activist Leonard Peltier was denied parole. He wonât be eligible now for another parole hearing until June 2026. His legal team will appeal the decision.
Leonard has consistently denied that he was responsible for killing of two FBI agents in 1975. His family and supporters are now deeply concerned that after almost 50 years in prison that Leonard will die there as his health has severely deteriorated in recent years.
Lies and Hypocrisy
Lies, hypocrisy, double standards, starvation, and the mass murder of civilians have been essential tools in the Israeli governmentâs genocidal war against the Palestinian people. Some have also been a feature of the policies and propaganda employed by those governments allied to Israelâs war strategy.
Last week Russian missiles destroyed much of a children's hospital in Kyiv. A wave of other similar attacks took place against cities across the Ukraine. There was justifiable criticism of Russia which this column shares. Meanwhile the deliberate destruction of so-called âsafe zonesâ in Gaza by Israeli bombers continues using armaments supplied by western powers. Over a hundred and fifty Palestinians are known to have been killed. Many hundreds more have been left grievously injured trapped in a place that has almost no medical facilities or resources. -
AN OPEN LETTER TO KEIR STARMER
Keir a chara,
Congratulations on your election as British Prime Minister. I wish you well in the many challenges facing you and your government. The world is very divided at this time with many violent examples of injustice, poverty, hunger and violence. I hope you will use your office in a positive and progressive way. From the Middle East to get ceasefires and stop the genocide against the people of Palestine to Ukraine and other troubled places.
GOOD ELECTION
Well done to everyone who worked in last week's election, especially candidates and their families. The success of Sinn FĂ©in is due to the diligence and commitment of the candidates and all the activists who mobilised the republican voters and to the voters who showed great clarity and vision by voting Sinn FĂ©in.
TRUTH IS THE FIRST CASUALTY OF WAR
We are now into the tenth month of Israelâs genocide of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the extension of its brutal occupation of the west Bank. The human cost of this in lives lost is appalling. Almost 40,000 Palestinians have been killed. Of these 15,000 are children. The real number of deaths is higher given the numbers missing and of bodies buried beneath the rubble - Vis mere
