An Open Letter to My Unionist Neighbours A Chairde, I want to respectfully reach out to my unionist neighbours at this time of ongoing change on our island and continuous turbulence and conflict in parts of our world. We should count our blessings. Imperfect though it might be we have peace and the ability to work out our difficulties peacefully. This ability to find solutions is frustrated by the British government refusing at this time to permit us to exercise our right to self-determination. So, London continues to interfere in our affairs. In my view, and history supports this view, London will never govern us in Irelands interest. It never has. And it never will. How could it? It serves different national interests. Sometimes these coincide with the attitudes of political unionism. But when they don’t political unionism and its attitudes are set to one side by London. This has happened again and again. Betrayal has been followed by betrayal after betrayal. London is only loy...
The SS Al Rawdah For the first time ever the families of many of the 207 Republican internees held on the Al Rawdah prison ship between 1940 and 1941 met in Belfast. 85 years after their loved ones were interned on the prison hulk the families came together for the launch of Tom Hartley’s insightful account of that period. At the beginning of his remarks Tom invited the relatives present to stand. There was spontaneous and sustained applause from the rest of the audience. It was an emotional moment, for the relatives and for those watching, in what was an evening of memory and recollection. Mary McConville whose Uncle ‘Rocky’ Burns was held on the Al Rawdah, introduced the event and Tom Hartley explained to the relatives and audience his motivation for writing the book and the forensic approach he took in collecting information. He also drew attention to the poignant fact that two days earlier was the 85 anniversary of the only prisoner to die on the Al Rawdah, John Gaffney, who ...