BLIAIN ÚR FAOI MHAISE DAOIBH

Walking on the Big Pool in the Bogmeadows
December 28th 09

BLIAIN ÚR FAOI MHAISE DAOIBH.

The water in the big pool at the Bog Meadows was frozen. So was Your Man.

So was I. We watched seagulls kiting down over the MI. They dipped over
the big pool and wheeled around gliding down to the water. Or the ice. It
was Saint Stephen's Day.

‘Yeeehaa’ Your Man chortled. ‘Luk at that’.

Instead of gracefully alighting into the pool the gulls skidded along the
icy surface, slipping and sliding into each other.

‘Slip sliding away, slip sliding away’ Your Man hummed.

‘I wonder what they think of the ice?’

‘They thinks its cold’ I replied, ‘and slippy’.

‘I know that’ he said as we made our way away from the waters edge and up
towards Saint Galls.

‘But they wud nivver have any experience of ice. Wud they?’

‘Unless they came from the Arctic’ I offered.

‘That’s a quare distance’ he mused.

‘Swallows go to South Africa’. I continued.

‘So does big Mick and wee Seamie’.

‘On a plane’ I parried, ‘Swallows fly on their own steam’.

‘Did you ever hear of the Yellow Bittern? he asked.



We stopped at the playing field to watch the Saint Galls crowd playing
what seemed to be a friendly game. Portly elders, athletic young men and
buxom young women chased each other and the ball around the pitch.

‘Good craic’ I observed. ‘Must be a friendly game’.

‘No such thing’ Your Man replied.

‘The Yellow Bittern’ I continued.

‘Or An Bonnán Buí. The Yellow Bittern was translated from the Irish by
Thomas MacDonagh, the 1916 leader’ I told him. ‘Cathal Buí Mac Giolla
Ghunna wrote it.

‘You are a bit of a know all’ he said peevishly. ‘a know all who knows …
all. I bet you cudn’t recite it!’

We went into Saint Galls.

‘A happy centenary year’ Your Man told the doorman. ‘Hope youse get to
Croker on Saint Paddys Day. Give us all a day out’.

‘The Bittern is a bogland bird.’ He continued over his pint ‘the poet
found it frozen in ice. The seagulls reminded me of that.’

‘First today’.

He raised his pint.

‘Sláinte.’

‘Its actually a poem about the drink’ I advised him
‘The wee bird died trapped in the ice. It died of the thirst.’

‘Are you sure?’

I cleared my throat.

‘My darling told me to drink no more
Or my life would be o’er in a little short while;
I told her ‘tis drink gives me health and strength
And will lengthen my road by many a mile.
You see how the bird with the long smooth
Neck
Could get his death from the thirst at last
Come, son of my soul, and drain your cup,
You’ll get no sup when your life has past.’

‘Bully for you’ Your Man smiled at me. ‘You can take a man out of Saint
Finian's but you can’t take Saint Finian's out of a man.’

‘Only thing is the Christian Brothers never told us it was about the
drink. Or if they did we didn’t know what they meant.’

‘We know now’ he chuckled. ‘I hope the sea gulls are alright’

‘What do you think about the media?’ He continued.

‘Some of them’s alright’ I said. ‘And some of them are useless’.

‘I suppose it’s like builders, or plumbers or brickies. Or politicans. Some
of them is lazy or stupid or cudn’t care less. It only takes a few bad ones
to get all the good ones a bad name.’

‘Mind you’ he concluded ‘ I know loads of brickies and plumbers and
teachers and nurses. Good friends all. But I don’t know any media’.

‘I’ll tell you about the ones with their own wee agenda some other time,’
I smiled. They usually write for the Sunday World, the Sunday Times,
papers of that ilk. I stopped buying the Sunday papers about ten years
ago. A waste of a Sunday morning. Pages of half truths, opinions, bias,
lies. Better buying a decent novel’.

‘Sorry for your troubles’ Your Man said.

‘It goes with the territory’ I said.

‘Do you know any poems about buying your round’ he asked. ‘I feel like An
Bonnán Buí.’

‘Here’s a happy New Year to you.’ He told me.

‘And you too. And the seagulls.’

‘And the media’ he retorted.

‘Bliain úr faoi mhaise daoibh’.



Out for a stroll

Beannacht

December 21st 09

Beannacht

Over the weekend I had a notion that this blog would be a good place to cogitate over family and life and its burdens and all that goes with that. I thought I might deal with some of the events in the life of my clan and in my own life. Events which are now in the media. But on reflection it’s too near Christmas for all that. Maybe some other time. But not now.

For now I want to thank all those people who have been so good to me and my family. Búiochas to the professionals who have been so kind to us. And to friends and comrades who have phoned and texted and sent solidarity greetings. And emails. And others who don’t have my contact details but who sent words of support through third parties. Or cards.

Thanks also to others who approached me on the street like the woman who came to me after Mass to say her family were in the same situation. By the time I got home that day four people told me the same thing. And that was before I did the interview with RTE.

People are good.

And thanks also to my wonderful family for their grace and forbearance.

I offer John O Donoghue’s Beannacht up to you all. To family, friends, detractors, naysayers and supporters alike. It is in a wonderful book Anam Chara, which I meditate on from time to time but it came by email to me on Saturday from a very good sister from Clare. It is very appropriate for the mood I’m in. Seo daoibh:

Beannacht – Blessing

On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.

And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The grey window
And the ghost of loss
Gets in to you,
May a flock of colours,
Indigo, red, green,
And azure blue
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
In the currach of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak to mind your life.

Nollaigh Shona Daoibh Uiligh.

The Skibbereen Eagle flies again!

December 18th 09

The Skibbereen Eagle flies again!

Will they, won’t they – agree a deal in Copenhagen on climate change? Like the Skibbereen Eagle this Blog watches these matters.

The Heads and representatives of almost 200 states have been locked in discussions for over a week trying to reach agreement on tackling a problem that has global and life and death implications for billions of citizens.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees the last twenty years has witnessed a doubling of natural disasters. That means there has been an increase in floods, tsunamis, cyclones, and earthquakes. They have also been more destructive. Consequently, last year around 36 million people were displaced by these events.

While all of this is grievous for those affected, changes in climate has also meant changes in weather patterns leading to serious droughts, and the extension of deserts across the world. The loss of glaciers in the high Himalayas threatens water provision in China and south east Asia for 1.3 billion people.

The United Nations has said that if current emission rates are not lowered significantly that nine out of ten farmers in Africa will be unable to grow food.

And all of this is significantly worsened by the growth in population and industrialisation and urbanisation and the increased demand for greater energy which places a greater demand on scare water resources.

Regular readers don’t need this Blog to tell you that the impact of all of this is clearly enormous. Most particularly because those countries worse affected by the changes wrought by climate change are those least able financially, or organisationally, or technically to tackle the problems that it is giving rise to.

The poor always bear the brunt of all disasters but no country will escape the implications of climate change. If nothing is done it is estimated that up to one billion people will be forced to move in the next 40 years. This will have significant political and economic and violent consequences for the world.

So, Copenhagen sees the world at a crossroads. Regrettably, the last week of talks in the Danish capital have seen little in the way of progress. In recent days the leaders of the industrialised world have begin to arrive as public opinion becomes increasingly vocal about the need for governments to do more.

Whatever the outcome of today’s deliberations this Blog won’t judge it on the spin from Copenhagen. Let me suggest that readers of this piece judge it on a number of important criteria.

These include:

Will any Treaty be binding on those who sign up to it? Past discussions on this issue have produced agreements which were not binding and were not implemented. This cannot be a repeat of those failures.

Will it set achievable goals that will demand a reduction of 40% of greenhouse gases by 2020 and 80% by 2050?

Will the Treaty provide a financial package to assist those developing nations meet their obligations while encouraging continued growth in their economies? It is believed that the developing nations will need up to €120 billion a year to put their industry and economies on a sustainable path and to adapt to the impact of climate change.

And if agreement is reached and a fund established, how will it be administered? A leaked draft treaty prepared by Demark and the USA and others, called for the UN to be sidelined and for this fund to be administered by the World Bank – an outcome many developing countries would understandably resent and reject.

So, it has been a fraught week of intense negotiations and no progress at Copenhagen. Today it comes to an end. The outcome that is desperately needed is one which will deliver real and effective measures to tackle greenhouse gases and help the poor and impoverished.

The fact is that the science of climate warming and of the dangers it presents for human kind is not in doubt. What is in doubt is the political will to tackle it. This Blog watches with intense interest and not a little trepidation.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TAOISEACH

December 14th 09

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TAOISEACH.

In ‘A Christmas Carol’ Mr. Scrooge provides a Christmas bonus to Bob Crachit, Tiny Tim and their family; increases Bob’s take home pay, and sets about improving his working conditions. It’s a heart warming story of compassion overcoming greed.

In the Irish government version of ‘A Christmas Carol’ the Christmas bonus for the disadvantaged is axed; the take home pay of workers is cut; and there is no compassion for poorer communities. It is the workers who are being forced to bear the burden of an economic crisis made significantly worse for citizens by an incompetent government.

There were alternative measures that could have been taken. This Blog set out some of them in recent weeks. They include the need for those who can afford to pay more to do so. They require substantial investment to be directed into job creation and the public services. These are common sense measures, properly costed and affordable, that could begin to turn the economy around. They have been ignored.

Last Wednesday’s budget was a wasted opportunity. Unless you are a banker or developer or wealthy business person. Your Christmas will be very festive indeed. Our Finance Minister, Mr.Lenihan has protected you. This government has robbed the poor to give to the rich. It is selfishly stuck in its narrow ideology. This means taking from workers and the disadvantaged, while protecting its own interests and those within the golden circles.

There is nothing from Fine Gael to suggest that they would be any better than the current incumbents.

This blog has travelled widely throughout this island. There is another Ireland out there. Many communities are held together by volunteer workers in the community or voluntary sector. By carers. By people who give of their time not only for their families but for other families. For young people. For the elders. For people with disabilities. For the disadvantaged. For those who have no one.

Others work for the environment. For decent accessible health services. Or schools. Against poverty. For affordable housing.

These people work in our sporting organisations. In the trade union movement. In credit unions. In the Irish language movement. In campaign groups. In local residents or tenants assocations. They are active in rural and urban areas. In fishing communities as well as among our farmers. In inner city slums as well as remote townlands. Many of them do not see themselves as political. They are alienated from politics. They see politics as corrupt. Many believe that politicians are about feathering their own nests or working in party political interests.

But they also know that they are better than the Ireland we live in today.

Many citizens know this. The problem is they see no way of shaping that new Ireland. They are angry at the Government. Some are angry beyond words. This Blog suspects this is because they voted for the government parties. So they feel betrayed. Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.

When this blog writes about building alternatives that doesn’t mean counting up the figures between what passes for the left in Leinster House. That may come in time. Indeed it must come in time. But for now it means working, even informally, to bring about the widest consensus of all those good decent citizens who work every day, north and south, to build a better Ireland. That means working for change here and now, based on citizens rights. In the south it means resisting this government. And getting rid of it. And in the process building a real alternative.


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This Blog and the family of Harry Holland met recently with the British Attorney General about Harry, a small shop keeper who was brutally murdered. As regular readers will know Harry was a family man, much loved in his west Belfast community. His killers were sentenced earlier this year. One of those sentenced was Patrick Crossan who received a derisory four year sentence. This was one of the matters the family raised with the Attorney General and the representatives of the Public Prosecution Service. Just before this meeting Crossan was arrested again by the PSNI in respect of car theft.

This week he was released on bail. This decision has outraged the people of west Belfast who resent serial offenders being treated leniently by the judicial authorities. It is further evidence, if such were needed, why it is important that policing and justice powers, including the right to make legislation on these issues, is transferred to locally elected politicians.

Comhghairdeas agus Lá Breithe Shona do Mac Bride Principles

December 11th 09

Comhghairdeas agus Lá Breithe Shona do Mac Bride Principles

The MacBride Principles--consisting of nine fair employment, affirmative action principles--are a corporate code of conduct for U.S. Companies doing business in the north of Ireland.

The Principles are named after Nobel Laureate Seán Mac Bride, a founding member of Amnesty International and former Chief of Staff of the IRA who launched them in 1984.

Their focus was on tackling the generational structured discrimination in the north and they were based loosely on the Sullivan Principles which were aimed at the Apartheid South African government.

In the USA the MacBride campaign was well fought by Irish America. The Mac Bride Principles were adopted in many States and Cities as law. Eventually in October 1998 the House and Senate passed the MacBride Principles -- as part of the Omnibus Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 1999 -- and President Clinton signed them into law.

It was a long hard battle which was resisted at every turn by the British government. Lest we forget they were assisted in this by the Irish government and a range of political parties and others from the north, including the SDLP.
This week in New York, a 25th anniversary celebration of MacBride takes place.

So, Comhghairdeas agus Lá Breithe Shona to the MacBride Principles and to all of those in Irish America who succeeded in winning this important battle.

This Blog once travelled to Norway, Sweden and Denmark to promote the MacBride Principles, and to highlight internationally the political and socio-economic realities of life in the six counties.

A friend of mine collects secret, confidential and restricted British government papers (legally, of course… using the Freedom of Information Act. You can imagine this Blog’s interest when he discovered the British colonial office’s internal papers about that trip.

On April 13, 1987, the then British Secretary of State Tom King saw an article about the trip in the Irish News. That same day, King instructed his civil servants in the NIO (Northern Ireland Office) to find out about it including the identity of the people whom this Blog met; what work was being undertaken “to counteract” this Blog’s lobbying; and – most importantly – asking for a commentary on “the statistical claims” this Blog was making during the course of the visit.

The most significant response to King from his advisors was a begrudging acknowledgement that the statistics being used “are not far off the mark:

(a) It is true that of the 10 Belfast wards with the highest unemployment 9 are predominantly Catholic.
(b) The total unemployed is around 126,000 (Adams only slightly exaggerated). There is no exact figure on the number of unemployed Catholics. Our estimate is about 70,000.
(c) We estimate (again no precise figures) that the overall Protestant unemployment rate is 17% and Catholic 36% - not much different from Adams.
(d) It is true that Catholics are over-represented in semi-skilled and unskilled occupations.
(e) Although Catholics are under-represented in some professions, they do well in others.

5. Since what Adams has said is not too inaccurate, we doubt there is any mileage in challenging it.”

That was twenty-two years ago, and a lot has changed since then.

For example, the MacBride Principles campaign to which Sinn Féin – alone of all the main political parties in Ireland – gave wholehearted support, has been increasingly successful in keeping the issue of socio-economic inequalities and patterns of discrimination in the six counties on the public agenda, particularly in the USA.

MacBride was also the forerunner to the equality elements of the Good Friday Agreement – tougher anti-discrimination laws, and new ground-breaking pro-equality statutory duties.

But despite those advances MacBride was essentially about the need for change and many of our communities – mainly nationalist, but also some unionist working class areas - still await this change.

That’s why the statistics from 1987 beg attention. Of course there has been significant progress for some sectors of society, but the current statistics – which closely mirror those highlighted by this Blog back in 1987 – still tell the tale of a society based on deep structural inequalities:

• nineteen of the top twenty most deprived Council wards are in West Belfast, North Belfast and Derry;
• over 100,000 people remain unemployed or economically inactive – the majority of them Catholic but some Protestant, and almost all working-class; and,
• the religious unemployment differential is once again rising in the economic downturn in 2009, with Catholic unemployment increasing faster.

Had the legal and policy tools that were won in the Good Friday Agreement been implemented positively then more progress would have been made since then. The problem is that there continues to be significant institutionalised resistance to change in the six counties.

The NIO’s 1987 documents show that fighting structural inequalities was never a priority for the British government or the Irish government. Their focus was on ‘counteracting’ any credibility that republicans might gain from highlighting the facts.

Equality is good for all of us. It is also a battle a day.

The adoption of equality measures and their effective implementation will remove the pretext or basis for sectarianism and division, and advance the goal of justice.

That is why the MacBride Principles are still important.

Branching Out

December 7th 09

Branching Out.

‘Everybody should plant a tree they will never sit under,’ said your man.

He was in one of his moods. It was Saturday morning. We had dashed from
Wicklow to be at Stormont for 10.30 on Saturday morning. The Stormont estate is huge but due to the developing relationship between this Blog and the Minister with responsibility for tree planting on the demesne, another little bit of land was being conceded to subversive native trees.

Go raibh maith agat Sammy Wilson.

First we take Manhattan.

Then we take Berlin.

The tree planting project had started as an effort by this Blog and the Ulster Camogie Board to plant Ash trees for hurling sticks, then it moved into a partnership with The Peoples Forest who have a great mission to reforest Ireland and from there into an effort with others to get into the Guinness Book of Records by planting one million trees in one hour simultaneously in different places.

So camogs, footballers, hurlers, rugby hulks, the indefatigable Maeve Kyle and a fine string of young athletes from Ballymena, a broth of boxers led by Brian Magee, a soccer fanatic or two, alongside a fleet of lady hockey players, girls from Bloomfield and a motley crew of young and less young tree planters assembled at the far back of Parliament Buildings.



That’s when your man came off with his ‘everybody should plant a tree that they will never sit under’ remark. He was trying to impress the hockey ladies. This Blog joined a team made up of Naomh Eoin stalwarts. They were all females. A granny, a mammy and their daughters or grand daughters. While your man swanned about flirting with the other ladies we went to reconnoitre the terrain.

The granny obviously had military experience.

‘We need diggers, planters and heelers’ she declared, ‘and tree carriers’.

‘You are a digger’ she told me ‘you dig. We will come behind you. Some of us will plant, some will heel in the baby trees, the rest will carry the trees up to us. Ok’ she barked.

‘Yes mam’ we replied.

And so it came to be. When the whistle blew we all fell to with a will. I dug like a demon. Your man had signed up to verify the proceedings.

‘Don’t forget your shovel’ he jibbed at me.

Our granny saw him off. She was a real motivator. Half way through she encouraged us to sing. So we sang. Like galley slaves. Christmas chorals in Irish. The hour passed like a flash. Edwin Poots the Minister for the Environment joined us. Well he didn’t actually join our team but he did join the effort.

In the end we planted three thousand and seven Ash and Oak trees. All in one hour. Your man tried to suck up to Edwin. In vain. Edwin is no dope. He knows the sort your man is.

‘This was a collective act of treeson’ your man told him.

We all give a big cheer. Your man invited Edwin and the hockey ladies back home for a fry and I invited the Naomh Eoin ladies back here in thirty years time to sit under our trees.

The granny gave your man a hug. Some women will do anything for a fry. And that was that. A fine mornings work.

And Stormont was looking a wee bit greener as we left.

The Yellow Bittern

The sad news this weekend is of Liam Clancy’s death. This Blog was reared on the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. When the brothers went their way Liam went on to build both a solo career of his own and a brilliant partnership with Tommy Makem. His death brings an end to an era of Irish music.

We thank him for his massive contribution.

Go ndeanfaidh Dia trocáire air.

Slán Francie

Francie Brolly is retiring from the Assembly. This is his last week as an MLA for East Derry.

Francie has been a stalwart republican for decades and a life long Irish language and GAA activist. He is also a well known and respected musician and singer/songwriter who with his wife Anne has recorded many albums and written many songs, including The H-Block Song.

I have known Francie for a long time. He will be missed in the Assembly and the corridors of Parliament Buildings where he was a strong advocate of the Irish language. I wish him well. I know that leaving the Assembly does not mean political retirement and that Francie will continue to contribute to the republican cause.

The lesson of history

December 4th 09

The lesson of history

There is understandably enormous curiosity among everyone this Blog meets about the current crisis in the political institutions and the sharp words that have been exchanged between the Shinners and the DUP.

At one level it’s about the tranfer of powers of policing and justice but at another deeper level it’s about the principles of equality, and justice and democratic change, underlying the Good Friday Agreement.

The reality is that the northern state was created to ensure a unionist majority and unionist domination. And the status of nationalists was institutionalised, in a way not seen in Ireland since the penal laws, into that of inferior and third class citizens. You know the record of discrimination and injustice and repression. This Blog intends to return to this theme next week.

So, after decades of one party unionist rule and British direct rule, the political institutions are about delivering equality and partnership into every facet of life in the North. The institutions are not there for the optics. They are there to deliver. If they aren’t doing that then what’s the point? Common sense stuff you might have thought.

But not for the DUP.

The reality is that it’s now 2009 – not 1969 – or 1920 or for that matter 1690. And we’re all living in an Ireland governed democratically by all-Ireland institutions, and by unalterable equality and powersharing mechanisms within the six counties.

In that context, the deliberate refusal of the DUP and the failure of the British government to fulfill their explicit commitments under the Good Friday Agreement and St Andrew’s Agreement – including devolution of policing and justice – has become totally unacceptable.

While Sinn Féin is accused of making threats over the future of the institutions, All thinking people know that this is a bogus accusation. Sinn Féin isn’t in the business of making threats and anyway these are not just Sinn Fein issues.

The reality in the six counties is that the greater the political inequality, the lesser the political stability. That’s the lesson of history.

And while nationalists and republicans have been prepared to continually bend themselves to help this peace process, a key political condition has always been the maintenance of a system of equality and partnership as the basis for peaceful and democratic evolution towards a united Ireland.

That’s the bit the DUP – and their ideological counterparts in the Northern Ireland Office – hate the most.

But the British and Irish governments need to realise that’s why things are in difficulties now. And they need to ensure that in keeping with the commitments made at St. Andrews, that the full devolution and implementation of Agreements needs to happen. At St. Andrews all of the parties agreed that signing up to that Agreement meant that the transfer of policing and justice powers would take place by May 2008. We are long past that agreed date.

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This Blog comes to you enroute to Wicklow which was one the foremost counties in the United Irish Rising of 1798. Michael Dwyer, who is credited with inventing guerilla warefare, fought long long past the Rising in the Wicklow mountains, The memory of Michael Dwyer is still strong there. Anne Devlin a key participant in the planning of Robert Emmet’s Rising of 1803 was a relative of Michael Dwyer. She was to endure torture and a life of poverty rather than betray her friends.

During that great revolutionary period between 1919 and 1923 Wicklow was represented by Erskine Childers a TD in the First Dail. He was executed in November 1922 by the Free State government.

Now the people of Wicklow, like others throughout the southern state, are under threat from their own government. Michael Dwyer must be spinning in his grave - at least that’s what your man says. Me? It’s all about fightback, standing up for our rights, putting the government in its place. That is out of government buildings.


Back to Belfast at first light we are planting one thousand ash trees in the Stormont estate. The intention is to do this in one hour. So if you like trees and you want to get into the Guinness Book of Records join us at 11 am on Saturday morning.