Monday, April 30, 2012
No place for censorship or silence
What if I told you that there is a state which has censored and silenced those in its ranks who have criticised its policies and that denies them the right to express their opinion without first submitting their views to a censor to ensure that it conforms to the opinion of the state!
You might think China or North Korea or Burma or any one of a number of other states which deny citizens their right to freedom of speech.
But you would be wrong. It’s the Vatican state in Rome.
In the last two years five prominent theologians and priests in Ireland and the Redemptorist Magazine ‘Reality’ have been officially silenced and censored by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in the Vatican. It is believed that there have been others.
The most recent example to come to light was that of Fr. Brian D’Arcy, a member of the Passionate Order, who was ‘censured’ for four articles he wrote. Fr. D’Arcy, who is based in the Passionate Monastery in Enniskillen, has been writing for the Sunday World for decades, as well as contributing to other publications and to the broadcast media. 14 months ago he was contacted by the head of his order and told that the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith were accusing him of being involved in scandals.
Fr. D’Arcy says this is a reference to his criticism of the way the Vatican handled the issue of child abuse in Ireland. He has refused to submit material to the CDF and has said he will continue to write on the issue of sexual abuse.
Fr. Sean Fagan is an 84 year old Marist theologian who was silenced. Fr. Owen O Sullivan is a Capuchin who was silenced because of an article in a Catholic journal ‘The Furrow’. In his article he argued for a more tolerant attitude to homosexuality. He too has to submit anything he writes to a censor.
Fr. Tony Flannery is a Redemptorist priest who helped establish the Association of Irish Priests. He has expressed his support for the ordination of women. And Fr. Gerry Moloney who is the editor of the Redemptorist magazine ‘Reality’ has been accused by the CDF of publishing articles which breach Catholic doctrine on issues such as women priests, celibacy and homosexuality. His articles too must pass the censor.
This blog is a Catholic. I am not a doctrinaire catholic but I do believe that my views in support of women in the priesthood and for a greater democratic process within the Church are shared by many Catholics.
Two years ago I visited Palestine and Israel for a programme on Jesus. It was an exploration of his teachings and his life. One fact was inescapable. He mixed with all of the ‘wrong’ sort of people, the prostitutes, the poor, the sick, and those who disagreed with the established religious leadership of his day.
When I think of Jesus I don’t see someone who would censor or silence but who would welcome dialogue and conversation and embrace all opinions.
My own experience of censorship also confirms for me the stupidity and futility of censorship. It doesn’t resolve issues or differences of opinion but makes finding agreement more difficult.
The desire by an individual or group or state to impose its views and beliefs and opinions on others is as old as human kind. The ancient world experienced this as well as the modern.
In our own time Irish republicans have been victim of censorship. For almost three decades the southern state applied Section 31. It was introduced in 1972 by a Labour Minister Conor Cruise O Brien and banned republicans from the broadcast media. Its effect was pernicious and an attack on the rights of citizens to hear the views and opinions of others.
The British, under Thatcher introduced their own version of this in 1988. Under the Broadcast Ban the voices of republicans were banned. This led to some broadcasters coming up with novel ways of circumventing it. Actor’s voices were used and on one occasion the late Mary Holland produced a Dispatches programme for Channel 4 which had Stephen Rea doing my voice and the programme makers lip-synced it perfectly. It made a nonsense of the ban and was so effective that the British government instructed the media not to lip-synch future interviews.
So frequently Sinn Féin television interviews took on the form of badly dubbed Italian spaghetti westerns!
However the political impact of censorship was far reaching and effective. The frequency with which republican spokespersons were interviewed declined sharply. The Ban ensured that to a large extent only the two government’s version of events was presented to the public. There were honourable exceptions within the media but they were few and far between.
In the view of this blog censorship extended the conflict and facilitated the demonising of one side by the other. It made the possibility of finding a resolution very difficult.
This was especially true when the talks between John Hume and I became public and there was a ferociously critical reaction from the governments and its media.
Censorship is the enemy of truth. It reinforces the conditions for division and conflict. It is an obstacle to dialogue which is essential for understanding and agreement and reconciliation.
When methods of communication were limited and the power and influence of the Church was at its height, censoring and silencing those who disagreed with it might have worked but not today. If it persists in this approach this blog believes that the silencing of priests will ultimately be counter-productive.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Vote NO on May 31st
This blog has written much in recent time about the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union or for short the Austerity Treaty.
As most readers will know there is to be a referendum in the south of Ireland on May 31st. The vote will determine whether this state does or does not sign up for a Treaty which in this blogs view is a bad deal for citizens, for the state and for Europe.
The public debate has well and truly begun. Yesterday Sinn Féin launched our analysis of the Treaty and I addressed the Oireachtas sub-committee on the Treaty. The Taoiseach is before the same committee this morning giving the government view.
Across Europe also there is growing opposition to the Treaty. I’m told for the first time ever the European Trade Unions Confederation has come out against a European Treaty.
The Dutch government has collapsed because of a disagreement over austerity policies.
And the Socialist candidate for the French Presidency, François Hollande, is quoted in the media this morning saying: “There will be a renegotiation ...Will the treaty be changed? I hope so. Or another treaty arranged? That is up for negotiation. But the treaty, as is, will not be ratified.”
In recent days some of the largest trade unions have come out calling for a NO Vote. At the weekend the Mandate Union came out against the Treaty. On Monday the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union rejected the Treaty. And the Unite union is also calling for a NO vote. SIPTU has demanded a €10 billion jobs package or it will vote NO. So to all intents and purposes SIPTU is saying NO.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions met on Thursday and found it could not achieve agreement on a position on the Treaty. ICTU’s General Secretary said there was no one in the trade union movement in agreement with the treaty. The Treaty was “completely inimical to our interests and our particular analysis on what is wrong in Europe at the moment”.
The government’s spin which connects a Yes Vote for the Treaty with further access to the European Stability Mechanism, in the event that a further bailout was needed, is what is causing concern for some in the trade union leadership.
But as I explained to the Dáil’s Oireachtas Sub-Committee on the Treaty on Thursday afternoon, this is a government bluff which doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
The Government parties and Fianna Fáil are claiming that if we don’t sign up to the Austerity Treaty we will not get access to emergency funding from the ESM.
This is utter nonsense. The simple fact is that this is not a done deal. For the European Stability Mechanism to come into effect it has to go into the EU Treaties (Article 136) and all 27 member states, including the Irish state have to ratify this. The Dáil will only debate this issue after the referendum.
This decision about access to the ESM therefore is in the hands of Fine Gael and Labour.
The government has the power to ensure that there is no block on access to the ESM. Are Enda Kenny and Éamon Gilmore seriously suggesting that they would if the referendum was lost then sign up to an EU Treaties provision that would jeopardise access to emergency funding, if the state needs it?
So, the Yes side’s claims on this issue are as bogus as were the claims during the Lisbon Treaty campaign that passing that Treaty would create jobs.
Since Lisbon 170,000 jobs have been lost.
As part of the battle for hearts and minds over the Treaty Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil have asked Sinn Féin how would we pay for running the state in the event that their bailout scheme fails?
This is the same government which boasts that the bailout will not fail and that we won’t need further emergency funding!
The real question is how are the government going to pay for anything. Currently the government is committed to further cuts to public services of €8 billion over the next three years. The Austerity Treaty will add a further €6 billion in cuts and taxes. Where is this money to come from??
Sinn Fein has argued consistently that there are alternatives to the Government’s austerity policies and bank bailouts.
The Sinn Féin approach is based on fair taxes, investing in jobs, debt restructuring and growing the all-Ireland economy.
Sinn Féin would :
• not pay the promissary note.
• support those on low and middle incomes
• introduce a third tax rate and a wealth tax,
• bring in savings by for example, capping public sector salaries at €100,000.
• And critically we would invest in jobs and growth.
• And Sinn Féin would not sign up to a Treaty that would drive the country deeper into recession.
Sinn Féin has also called for:
• Increasing the lending capacity of the European Investment Bank to stimulate activity in the real economy.
• Cleansing the European Banking system of toxic debts.
• Debt-restructuring agreements involving debt-write-downs for heavily indebted states
• Ending the obligation on the state to pay the Anglo Irish Promissory Note and un-guaranteed senior bondholders in Anglo and other banks.
Sinn Féin has also set out in budget submission after budget submission exactly how we would close the deficit and fund the state and put public finances back on a sustainable footing. This includes paying the wages of nurses, teachers and Gardaí and providing decent frontline services.
For all of these reasons and because there is an alternative this Austerity Treaty must be opposed. Vote No on May 31st.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
The Failure of Labour
An Ipsos MRBI opinion poll in the Irish Times last Friday morning captured the media headlines with claims that support for both Fine Gael and Labour has dropped. Fine Gael is down by three points to 33%, and Labour by six points to 19%. Fianna Fáil is down 1% to 14%.
According to the poll Sinn Féin is up 6% to 21%. Interestingly the poll was taken at the start of this week immediately after the Labour Party annual conference.
Usually parties get a positive bounce after such events.
This blog has a jaundiced view of such polls. I’m not going to get over excited by an opinion poll claim that we are the second largest party in the state and the real opposition to the government in the Dáil – the government is after all implementing Fianna Fáil policy.
I know we are the real opposition. That is obvious each day in the Dáil chamber. As for the rest, opinion polls are at best a snapshot of public attitudes at a given moment in time. Not too much should be read into their conclusions in respect of individual parties. Although for political anoraks they are the stuff of life.
Whatever about the fortunes of the parties this blog believes that the real story in Friday’s poll is the clear rejection by the public of the government’s failing austerity policies. This reflects what Sinn Féin is hearing on the ground. Citizens are hurting and this government needs to listen.
The significant and painful cuts to public services, and the range of stealth taxes, including septic tank charges, the household charge, water charges which this government has decided to implement, are causing great hardship.
The dreadful social consequences of austerity are to be found in the numbers of citizens unemployed; the thousands of our young people who are emigrating; in every household struggling to pay rent and mortgages and household bills; on every main street where businesses are shutting down; and in every hospital and school where reduced resources are hurting the sick and the young. More than 100,000 households are currently in mortgage distress with 91 more joining that number each day.
This is unacceptable. The government is making the wrong political choices, including decisions to implement Fianna Fáil policy and its support for the Austerity Treaty.
Fine Gael is doing this because it is a conservative right wing party – though I am sure even some members of that party have reservations about the issues involved in this Treaty.
But Labour leaders know the truth. Not that long ago Labour MEPs voted against measures in the European Parliament that are now part of the Austerity Treaty. One described austerity as a ‘recipe for the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.’ While another, Proinsias De Rossa, said these measures ‘will kill growth, destroy jobs and derail recovery.’
The failure of Labour to stand up for working people and its willingness to ally itself to an Irish Thatcherite strategy is why it has seen its position in the polls eroded. Labour TDs and Seanadoirí should vote with their conscience and in solidarity with working people against this Treaty.
Will they?? This blog doubts it.
In this the centenary of its foundation by Connolly and others, and mindful of next year’s centenary of the Dublin Lockout and that great ideological battle between left and right, Labour today should be standing with the working people and against austerity and against the William Martin Murphy-like conservatism of the 21st century.
According to the poll Sinn Féin is up 6% to 21%. Interestingly the poll was taken at the start of this week immediately after the Labour Party annual conference.
Usually parties get a positive bounce after such events.
This blog has a jaundiced view of such polls. I’m not going to get over excited by an opinion poll claim that we are the second largest party in the state and the real opposition to the government in the Dáil – the government is after all implementing Fianna Fáil policy.
I know we are the real opposition. That is obvious each day in the Dáil chamber. As for the rest, opinion polls are at best a snapshot of public attitudes at a given moment in time. Not too much should be read into their conclusions in respect of individual parties. Although for political anoraks they are the stuff of life.
Whatever about the fortunes of the parties this blog believes that the real story in Friday’s poll is the clear rejection by the public of the government’s failing austerity policies. This reflects what Sinn Féin is hearing on the ground. Citizens are hurting and this government needs to listen.
The significant and painful cuts to public services, and the range of stealth taxes, including septic tank charges, the household charge, water charges which this government has decided to implement, are causing great hardship.
The dreadful social consequences of austerity are to be found in the numbers of citizens unemployed; the thousands of our young people who are emigrating; in every household struggling to pay rent and mortgages and household bills; on every main street where businesses are shutting down; and in every hospital and school where reduced resources are hurting the sick and the young. More than 100,000 households are currently in mortgage distress with 91 more joining that number each day.
This is unacceptable. The government is making the wrong political choices, including decisions to implement Fianna Fáil policy and its support for the Austerity Treaty.
Fine Gael is doing this because it is a conservative right wing party – though I am sure even some members of that party have reservations about the issues involved in this Treaty.
But Labour leaders know the truth. Not that long ago Labour MEPs voted against measures in the European Parliament that are now part of the Austerity Treaty. One described austerity as a ‘recipe for the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.’ While another, Proinsias De Rossa, said these measures ‘will kill growth, destroy jobs and derail recovery.’
The failure of Labour to stand up for working people and its willingness to ally itself to an Irish Thatcherite strategy is why it has seen its position in the polls eroded. Labour TDs and Seanadoirí should vote with their conscience and in solidarity with working people against this Treaty.
Will they?? This blog doubts it.
In this the centenary of its foundation by Connolly and others, and mindful of next year’s centenary of the Dublin Lockout and that great ideological battle between left and right, Labour today should be standing with the working people and against austerity and against the William Martin Murphy-like conservatism of the 21st century.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Laws enacted by the Oireachtas shall be checked first with the Bundesbank
A friend in the USA emailed me a spoof of the Irish Constitution which appears to originate in the Irish Left Review. It purports to show what the Irish constitution will look like if the Austerity Treaty wins the referendum vote on May 31st.
It reads:
“The Ice Moon has contacts in the highest places and has been able to obtain a secret government memo with a full mockup of the new constitution as amended by the Fiscal Compact Referendum. The following are the relevant new articles:
Article 1
The Irish nation hereby abrogates its inalienable, indefeasible, and sovereign right to choose its own form of Government, to determine its relations with other nations, and to develop its life, political, economic and cultural, in accordance with its own genius and traditions and confers these rights on another crowd altogether.
Article 5
Ireland is a dependancy of the International Monetary Fund with a lot of really nice pubs.
Article 6
All powers of government, legislative, executive and judicial, derive, under the IMF, from the EU, whose right it is to designate the rulers of the State and, in final appeal, to decide all questions of national policy, according to the requirements of the ruling class at present constituted as multinational corporations.
Article 10
All natural resources, including the air and all forms of potential energy, within the jurisdiction of the Parliament and Government established by this Constitution and all royalties and franchises within that jurisdiction belong to the highest bidder.
Article 11
All revenues of the State from whatever source arising shall, without exception, form one fund, and shall be appropriated for the purposes of maintaining holders of bonds in Irish banks in the comfort to which they have become accustomed.
Article 28
The Government shall be responsible for nothing. The previous government shall be responsible for everything.
Article 29
Ireland affirms its devotion to the corporate ideal, capitalism, profit, co-operation with the USA, and denies any sense of solidarity with other nations especially Greece.
Article 34
Justice shall be administered in courts established by law by judges appointed in the manner provided by this Constitution, with extreme severity against the poor, the dissident and the weak, but shall not apply to the rich and powerful especially corrupt politicians, the bankers who bankrupted the country or the people who protected them.
Article 50
Laws enacted by the Oireachtas shall be checked first with the Bundesbank’
It may be a parody but there is much truth in its conclusions about the likely impact on Irish sovereignty, freedom, democracy and poverty if the Austerity Treaty is passed.
It reads:
“The Ice Moon has contacts in the highest places and has been able to obtain a secret government memo with a full mockup of the new constitution as amended by the Fiscal Compact Referendum. The following are the relevant new articles:
Article 1
The Irish nation hereby abrogates its inalienable, indefeasible, and sovereign right to choose its own form of Government, to determine its relations with other nations, and to develop its life, political, economic and cultural, in accordance with its own genius and traditions and confers these rights on another crowd altogether.
Article 5
Ireland is a dependancy of the International Monetary Fund with a lot of really nice pubs.
Article 6
All powers of government, legislative, executive and judicial, derive, under the IMF, from the EU, whose right it is to designate the rulers of the State and, in final appeal, to decide all questions of national policy, according to the requirements of the ruling class at present constituted as multinational corporations.
Article 10
All natural resources, including the air and all forms of potential energy, within the jurisdiction of the Parliament and Government established by this Constitution and all royalties and franchises within that jurisdiction belong to the highest bidder.
Article 11
All revenues of the State from whatever source arising shall, without exception, form one fund, and shall be appropriated for the purposes of maintaining holders of bonds in Irish banks in the comfort to which they have become accustomed.
Article 28
The Government shall be responsible for nothing. The previous government shall be responsible for everything.
Article 29
Ireland affirms its devotion to the corporate ideal, capitalism, profit, co-operation with the USA, and denies any sense of solidarity with other nations especially Greece.
Article 34
Justice shall be administered in courts established by law by judges appointed in the manner provided by this Constitution, with extreme severity against the poor, the dissident and the weak, but shall not apply to the rich and powerful especially corrupt politicians, the bankers who bankrupted the country or the people who protected them.
Article 50
Laws enacted by the Oireachtas shall be checked first with the Bundesbank’
It may be a parody but there is much truth in its conclusions about the likely impact on Irish sovereignty, freedom, democracy and poverty if the Austerity Treaty is passed.
Friday, April 20, 2012
A Complex and difficult issue
In a vote in the Dáil on Thursday a Private Members Bill: Medical Treatment (Termination of Pregnancy in Case of Risk to Life of Pregnant Woman) was defeated. The vote came at the end of two days of debate and significant lobbying by all of the many interested groups connected to this issue.
The background to this debate is that in 1992 a 14 year old girl became pregnant as a result of rape and was suicidal. The government refused to allow the girl and her parents to travel abroad for an abortion. The case – known as the X-case - went to court and the Supreme Court ruled that ‘a termination of pregnancy is lawful if it can be shown that there is a real and substantial risk to the lift, as distinct from the health, of the mother.’
A subsequent decision in 2010 by the European Court of Human Rights also made it clear that there is an onus on the State to legislate under the terms of the 1937 Constitution and the decision in the X-Case.
The Socialist Party TD Clare Daly told the Dáil that she was putting forward this Bill because of a failure by successive governments to legislate on this issue.
It is a fact that there are strongly and sincerely held views on all sides in the Dáil, including within Sinn Féin, and across Irish society on this issue. The Irish people know that this is not a black and white issue but a difficult and complex decision faced by women in very serious circumstances.
The people spoke in referendum and firmly placed the responsibility upon their Oireachtas representatives to deal with the issue by means of legislation.
In our contribution to the debate Sinn Féin TDs made clear our opposition to abortion and our belief that all possible means of education and support services should be put in place. However in the case of rape, incest or sexual abuse, or where a woman’s life and mental health is at risk or in grave danger Sinn Féin accepts that the final decision rests with the woman.
Sinn Féin analysed the Bill. A number of serious concerns were raised about aspects of it, concerns which were also raised by the government in the course of the Dáil debate. These are issues which need to be discussed properly in a considered manner and with maximum cross party consensus to produce legislation.
Sinn Féin believes that the Bill should have gone to committee stage where it could have been discussed further and been amended.
The government has given an assurance that their Expert Group will deal expeditiously with the very complex issues involved and it is their intention to bring forward its own legislation without delay. This is welcome.
It is time for legislation to be finally put in law to protect the rights of women as decided by the Supreme Court in 1992. This should be done in a reasoned, tolerant and considered manner and with maximum cross party consensus.
In my contribution to the Dáil debate on Wednesday evening I said:
“I want to thank an Teachta Clare Daly for bringing forward this Private Members' Bill.
It deals with an extremely difficult issue for all concerned, particularly women faced with the kind of situation that this Bill is trying to deal with.
There are strongly and sincerely held views from all sides in this Dáil, including within Sinn Féin, and across society on this issue.
For my part, I personally am not in favour of abortion.
That is my strongly held view.
I am also strongly opposed to any attempt to criminalise or to be judgmental of women who have had abortions.
No woman wants to be in that position, but it is a reality faced by Irish women.
Irish women are citizens.
I, like all other Teachtaí Dála, am here to serve citizens.
I am here as a legislator, so I have to set aside my personal position and face up to my responsibilities.
I have to deal with the dreadful reality, highlighted by pregnant women confronted with life threatening illnesses, who have had to cope with this awful dilemma.
As a legislator I have to deal with the untenable situation for the medical profession, which has been tasked with making medical judgments without legal protection for medical practitioners.
We have to ask ourselves as elected representatives and legislators if we really want to leave Irish women or the medical profession in the awful predicament caused by the current absence of legislation.
Can any of us even begin to understand or imagine how unfair and unjust this is for a woman or a young girl?
The background to this debate, the X case, provides some painful insights.
It is also an indictment of the way this State treats women and children. Sinn Féin is not in favour of abortion.
We believe that all possible means of education and support services should be put in place.
However, in the case of rape, incest or sexual abuse, or where a woman's life and mental health is at risk or in grave danger, Sinn Féin accepts that the final decision rests with the woman.
Sinn Féin has analysed this Bill and a number of serious concerns have been raised about aspects of it.
These include the issue of consent, which needs to be discussed in some detail.
I note the Minister's remarks about this. I have just returned to the Chamber from Deputy Doherty's father's funeral in Donegal, so I have not had the chance to study the Minister's remarks.
I note that he has also raised issues in respect of this, as has our group.
The Government has stated its intention to bring forward its own legislation, but successive Governments have failed to deal with this issue for 20 years.
In 2010, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that this State violates the rights of pregnant women by refusing to allow them to receive a lawful abortion in the event that a pregnancy could threaten their lives.
The decision by the European Court of Human Rights has made it clear that there is an onus on the State now to legislate under the terms of the 1937 Constitution and the decision in the X case.
What is for certain is that it is time for legislation to be finally put in law to protect the rights of women as decided by the Supreme Court in 1992.
This should be done in a reasoned, tolerant, considered matter, and with the maximum cross-party consensus.
In this spirit Sinn Féin believes that the Bill should be allowed to proceed to Committee Stage where, as I said, it would need to be amended to deal with the concerns raised in our party.
I take on board what the Minister said and will consider it overnight.
It is important that we approach this issue in its broadest social context.
The Government needs to examine whether its policies are pushing more and more women into positions of vulnerability.
Poor health services and inadequate preventative health programmes will increase the likelihood that women will not know of critical health problems - including cancer - in advance of pregnancy.
Tackling violence against women and upholding the right of every woman and young girl to be free from violence, and safe in their communities and in their own homes, must be a priority.
The Government has yet to even sign the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.
We need to ensure that the State is properly caring for vulnerable young people, including those in care, but it has failed miserably in this regard.
On all of these issues this Dáil needs to stand up for and do what is right for Irish women.
The background to this debate is that in 1992 a 14 year old girl became pregnant as a result of rape and was suicidal. The government refused to allow the girl and her parents to travel abroad for an abortion. The case – known as the X-case - went to court and the Supreme Court ruled that ‘a termination of pregnancy is lawful if it can be shown that there is a real and substantial risk to the lift, as distinct from the health, of the mother.’
A subsequent decision in 2010 by the European Court of Human Rights also made it clear that there is an onus on the State to legislate under the terms of the 1937 Constitution and the decision in the X-Case.
The Socialist Party TD Clare Daly told the Dáil that she was putting forward this Bill because of a failure by successive governments to legislate on this issue.
It is a fact that there are strongly and sincerely held views on all sides in the Dáil, including within Sinn Féin, and across Irish society on this issue. The Irish people know that this is not a black and white issue but a difficult and complex decision faced by women in very serious circumstances.
The people spoke in referendum and firmly placed the responsibility upon their Oireachtas representatives to deal with the issue by means of legislation.
In our contribution to the debate Sinn Féin TDs made clear our opposition to abortion and our belief that all possible means of education and support services should be put in place. However in the case of rape, incest or sexual abuse, or where a woman’s life and mental health is at risk or in grave danger Sinn Féin accepts that the final decision rests with the woman.
Sinn Féin analysed the Bill. A number of serious concerns were raised about aspects of it, concerns which were also raised by the government in the course of the Dáil debate. These are issues which need to be discussed properly in a considered manner and with maximum cross party consensus to produce legislation.
Sinn Féin believes that the Bill should have gone to committee stage where it could have been discussed further and been amended.
The government has given an assurance that their Expert Group will deal expeditiously with the very complex issues involved and it is their intention to bring forward its own legislation without delay. This is welcome.
It is time for legislation to be finally put in law to protect the rights of women as decided by the Supreme Court in 1992. This should be done in a reasoned, tolerant and considered manner and with maximum cross party consensus.
In my contribution to the Dáil debate on Wednesday evening I said:
“I want to thank an Teachta Clare Daly for bringing forward this Private Members' Bill.
It deals with an extremely difficult issue for all concerned, particularly women faced with the kind of situation that this Bill is trying to deal with.
There are strongly and sincerely held views from all sides in this Dáil, including within Sinn Féin, and across society on this issue.
For my part, I personally am not in favour of abortion.
That is my strongly held view.
I am also strongly opposed to any attempt to criminalise or to be judgmental of women who have had abortions.
No woman wants to be in that position, but it is a reality faced by Irish women.
Irish women are citizens.
I, like all other Teachtaí Dála, am here to serve citizens.
I am here as a legislator, so I have to set aside my personal position and face up to my responsibilities.
I have to deal with the dreadful reality, highlighted by pregnant women confronted with life threatening illnesses, who have had to cope with this awful dilemma.
As a legislator I have to deal with the untenable situation for the medical profession, which has been tasked with making medical judgments without legal protection for medical practitioners.
We have to ask ourselves as elected representatives and legislators if we really want to leave Irish women or the medical profession in the awful predicament caused by the current absence of legislation.
Can any of us even begin to understand or imagine how unfair and unjust this is for a woman or a young girl?
The background to this debate, the X case, provides some painful insights.
It is also an indictment of the way this State treats women and children. Sinn Féin is not in favour of abortion.
We believe that all possible means of education and support services should be put in place.
However, in the case of rape, incest or sexual abuse, or where a woman's life and mental health is at risk or in grave danger, Sinn Féin accepts that the final decision rests with the woman.
Sinn Féin has analysed this Bill and a number of serious concerns have been raised about aspects of it.
These include the issue of consent, which needs to be discussed in some detail.
I note the Minister's remarks about this. I have just returned to the Chamber from Deputy Doherty's father's funeral in Donegal, so I have not had the chance to study the Minister's remarks.
I note that he has also raised issues in respect of this, as has our group.
The Government has stated its intention to bring forward its own legislation, but successive Governments have failed to deal with this issue for 20 years.
In 2010, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that this State violates the rights of pregnant women by refusing to allow them to receive a lawful abortion in the event that a pregnancy could threaten their lives.
The decision by the European Court of Human Rights has made it clear that there is an onus on the State now to legislate under the terms of the 1937 Constitution and the decision in the X case.
What is for certain is that it is time for legislation to be finally put in law to protect the rights of women as decided by the Supreme Court in 1992.
This should be done in a reasoned, tolerant, considered matter, and with the maximum cross-party consensus.
In this spirit Sinn Féin believes that the Bill should be allowed to proceed to Committee Stage where, as I said, it would need to be amended to deal with the concerns raised in our party.
I take on board what the Minister said and will consider it overnight.
It is important that we approach this issue in its broadest social context.
The Government needs to examine whether its policies are pushing more and more women into positions of vulnerability.
Poor health services and inadequate preventative health programmes will increase the likelihood that women will not know of critical health problems - including cancer - in advance of pregnancy.
Tackling violence against women and upholding the right of every woman and young girl to be free from violence, and safe in their communities and in their own homes, must be a priority.
The Government has yet to even sign the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.
We need to ensure that the State is properly caring for vulnerable young people, including those in care, but it has failed miserably in this regard.
On all of these issues this Dáil needs to stand up for and do what is right for Irish women.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
LIFE AND DEATH.
I went to a lot of funerals over the Easter break. On Easter Saturday the life of Annie Stone, a stalwart from Ballymurphy and a hero of mine was to be celebrated at a service in Saint John’s Church on the Falls Road.
I was at a funeral on Good Friday, as well. Seamus Wilkinson a neighbour of ours and a decent man passed away in his ninety fifth year. I liked Seamus. He was a non pretentious man with a very wide welcoming smile, who loved gardening.
Of course there was more to him than that but by the time I met Seamus and his wife Theresa they were in their sixties. These were difficult times in Belfast and I was home even less often than in these more peaceful times. We would bring Seamus and Theresa the occasional pot of soup or some scone bread and apple cake. He was always very generous with biscuits and sweets for the girls. He and I would discuss his colourful- all- year- round garden, dogs, the weather or the fortunes or misfortunes of Antrim's senior teams.
So I was sad at Seamus' funeral. But there was a sense of completeness - of a full span - about it.
Annie Stone or Ma Stone's service was, as befitted her life, a cheerful affair. Born in South Armagh and married in Belfast Ma Stone was one of the earliest residents in Ballymurphy. She and her late husband reared a family of nine. It was the best of times and the worst of times. One of Ma Stone's sons Liam spoke at her service.
He did his mother proud. I am glad I was there as he reminded us of how his ma helped found the Ballymurphy Tenants Association. He described her as social as well as socialist. She stood up for her community and her gender. Full of craic, and ready for a singsong or a laugh, or to fight for a good cause Ma Stone's big touchstones were heritage, sense of place, fairness and identity.
'Seize life with both hands' she told her brood ' enjoy it! No matter how tough or hard it is make the most of it'.
Liam also told us not to take for granted that the young ones today understand what the women of Ballymurphy went through during the decades of grinding poverty and military occupation.
'Tell them,' he encouraged us ' tell their stories with pride'.
Outside before Annie journeyed up the Falls Road for the last time her family gathered around her tricolour draped coffin, unfurled the Armagh flag and uplifted us all with a rousing chorus of the Boys of the County Armagh.
"And where are the girls that can court them like the girls from the County Armagh?"
I left Annie that day as I left her on many other days when I bumped into her in the Murph. With a smile. Teary eyed because she has gone. But smiling nonetheless.
Easter Monday was a different affair. Young Rory, the fine and happy son of our friends Ciaran and Orlaith Staunton who I last saw in the White House with his father and before that on the streets of Drogheda during last year’s General Election. Ruairi, all twelve years of him, was back home from New York to be buried on Easter Monday with his Nana in the rich clay of County Louth.
So Monday's funeral was fraught and sad beyond measure, replete with hurt, bewilderment and grief and communal love and solidarity for Orlaith and Ciaran and Ruairi's sister Kathleen. The Taoiseach was there. So was Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.
Rory fell in his school playground in the States. He cut his arm. Toxic poisoning set in soon afterwards and his poor wee body went into toxic shock. So this little boy born in New York to emigrant parents and reared between there and Mayo and Louth; this little boy, full of potential and possibility, this wee boy is gone. His family are desolate, beside themselves with the loss of their beloved son.
There is no rhyme or reason to it. Only hurt and anger and sadness.
And now this blog is heading through Meath on the way home from the funeral of Barney McKenna, a founder member of the legendary Dubliners was laid to rest in the town of Trim. Barney of the tenor banjo and the nimble music filled fingers. His funeral reflected his life and the way he had lived it. With good music and funny stories.
There was a wonderful mass of musicians assembled beside the altar. During the Offertory Procession they played the Fiddlers Green. The Congregration joined in. It was mighty.
'Fiddlers' Green is the place
I've heard tell
Where old fishermen go when they don't go to hell.
Where there's pubs and there's clubs
And there's ladies there too
And the cold coast of Greenland is far far away'.
It was like a holy fleadh. And at the end and as Barney was carried up the aisle the musicians broke into a lively set of jigs and reels. And the rest of us clapped along.
So to Barney's clann and the clanns of all these good people this blog sends love and solidarity. Go ndeanfaidh Dia trocaire oraibh
Four funerals in three days. More than I am used to attending since the war ended.
And only it was the Easter break I probably might not have made it. Except to Rory's.
Three of these services were celebrations of life. Uplifting and fitting tributes.
But Rory’s was real bereavement.
And his was the saddest of all. And that's how it should be.
God help his poor parents and Kathleen.
What was it Ma Stone said?
'Seize life with both hands'.
I was at a funeral on Good Friday, as well. Seamus Wilkinson a neighbour of ours and a decent man passed away in his ninety fifth year. I liked Seamus. He was a non pretentious man with a very wide welcoming smile, who loved gardening.
Of course there was more to him than that but by the time I met Seamus and his wife Theresa they were in their sixties. These were difficult times in Belfast and I was home even less often than in these more peaceful times. We would bring Seamus and Theresa the occasional pot of soup or some scone bread and apple cake. He was always very generous with biscuits and sweets for the girls. He and I would discuss his colourful- all- year- round garden, dogs, the weather or the fortunes or misfortunes of Antrim's senior teams.
So I was sad at Seamus' funeral. But there was a sense of completeness - of a full span - about it.
Annie Stone or Ma Stone's service was, as befitted her life, a cheerful affair. Born in South Armagh and married in Belfast Ma Stone was one of the earliest residents in Ballymurphy. She and her late husband reared a family of nine. It was the best of times and the worst of times. One of Ma Stone's sons Liam spoke at her service.
He did his mother proud. I am glad I was there as he reminded us of how his ma helped found the Ballymurphy Tenants Association. He described her as social as well as socialist. She stood up for her community and her gender. Full of craic, and ready for a singsong or a laugh, or to fight for a good cause Ma Stone's big touchstones were heritage, sense of place, fairness and identity.
'Seize life with both hands' she told her brood ' enjoy it! No matter how tough or hard it is make the most of it'.
Liam also told us not to take for granted that the young ones today understand what the women of Ballymurphy went through during the decades of grinding poverty and military occupation.
'Tell them,' he encouraged us ' tell their stories with pride'.
Outside before Annie journeyed up the Falls Road for the last time her family gathered around her tricolour draped coffin, unfurled the Armagh flag and uplifted us all with a rousing chorus of the Boys of the County Armagh.
"And where are the girls that can court them like the girls from the County Armagh?"
I left Annie that day as I left her on many other days when I bumped into her in the Murph. With a smile. Teary eyed because she has gone. But smiling nonetheless.
Easter Monday was a different affair. Young Rory, the fine and happy son of our friends Ciaran and Orlaith Staunton who I last saw in the White House with his father and before that on the streets of Drogheda during last year’s General Election. Ruairi, all twelve years of him, was back home from New York to be buried on Easter Monday with his Nana in the rich clay of County Louth.
So Monday's funeral was fraught and sad beyond measure, replete with hurt, bewilderment and grief and communal love and solidarity for Orlaith and Ciaran and Ruairi's sister Kathleen. The Taoiseach was there. So was Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.
Rory fell in his school playground in the States. He cut his arm. Toxic poisoning set in soon afterwards and his poor wee body went into toxic shock. So this little boy born in New York to emigrant parents and reared between there and Mayo and Louth; this little boy, full of potential and possibility, this wee boy is gone. His family are desolate, beside themselves with the loss of their beloved son.
There is no rhyme or reason to it. Only hurt and anger and sadness.
And now this blog is heading through Meath on the way home from the funeral of Barney McKenna, a founder member of the legendary Dubliners was laid to rest in the town of Trim. Barney of the tenor banjo and the nimble music filled fingers. His funeral reflected his life and the way he had lived it. With good music and funny stories.
There was a wonderful mass of musicians assembled beside the altar. During the Offertory Procession they played the Fiddlers Green. The Congregration joined in. It was mighty.
'Fiddlers' Green is the place
I've heard tell
Where old fishermen go when they don't go to hell.
Where there's pubs and there's clubs
And there's ladies there too
And the cold coast of Greenland is far far away'.
It was like a holy fleadh. And at the end and as Barney was carried up the aisle the musicians broke into a lively set of jigs and reels. And the rest of us clapped along.
So to Barney's clann and the clanns of all these good people this blog sends love and solidarity. Go ndeanfaidh Dia trocaire oraibh
Four funerals in three days. More than I am used to attending since the war ended.
And only it was the Easter break I probably might not have made it. Except to Rory's.
Three of these services were celebrations of life. Uplifting and fitting tributes.
But Rory’s was real bereavement.
And his was the saddest of all. And that's how it should be.
God help his poor parents and Kathleen.
What was it Ma Stone said?
'Seize life with both hands'.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
A schedule for uniting Ireland
I’m sure it was the last thing Enda Kenny expected to be asked in China but there it was. Having spoken about the role of ‘Ireland in a changing world’ a student in his audience asked about Irish unity and whether the Taoiseach has a ‘time schedule, and what progress have you made, because China is facing the same issues.’
The student was then given a potted Kennyesque history of British colonialism and the last 700 years of Irish history culminating in the Good Friday Agreement.
It was just before Easter and Kenny was in China on a trade visit. China too has its sovereignty issues. There is the long standing stand-off between it and Taiwan, and there is the increasingly tragic dispute over Tibetan sovereignty.
The shocking image two weeks ago of Jamphel Yeshi, a 27 year old Tibetan exile in India, running burning through the streets of Delhi was carried across many media outlets around the world. Yeshi set himself on fire in protest at the visit of He Jintao the Chinese President, to India. He subsequently died. Although there is some confusion over the numbers involved it appears that around thirty Tibetan men and women have set themselves alight in the last year.
This series of protests has its roots in the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the denial of the Tibetan people’s right to sovereignty.
Sovereignty also remains the key unresolved issue at the heart of the flawed relationship between the island of Ireland and our nearest neighbour.
In the Good Friday Agreement Sinn Féin very specifically sought and secured the scrapping of the Government of Ireland Act which had partitioned Ireland.
The Good Friday Agreement created a conditional claim of sovereignty by Britain in the north. The Agreement also created a level playing field on which there is equality between the competing claims of sovereignty and which allows for a democratic debate on this issue. The British government is committed to legislate for a United Ireland if a majority in the north want it.
So while no schedule or timetable exists for Ireland to be reunited the means by which it can be done has been agreed and a road map has been legislated for.
For Irish republicans and the majority of citizens on this island Irish sovereignty, in the context of Irish reunification, remains the single most important constitutional and political issue still remaining.
Standing in the way of its resolution are those, particularly within the political establishments north and south, who see partition as a done deal – a fixed and immovable arrangement.
Unionists tell us they oppose change because they believe that Irish unity would be to their political, social and economic disadvantage and because of their professed affinity to the notion of ‘Britishness’. But nothing ever remains the same. Some unionists are now comfortable describing themselves as Irish, a minority perhaps but increasingly many others identify themselves as northern Irish. And anyway in a new pluralist Ireland surely there has to be accommodation for those who feel British.
As the process of significant change continues there will be a growing awareness of the need for these identity issues to finally resolved. For example Sinn Féin’s recent series of high profile conferences on the theme of ‘Uniting Ireland – Towards a New Republic’ attracted considerable interest outside of traditional republican circles.
In Newry and Derry unionist speakers agreed to participate. They took the opportunity to set out their objections to uniting Ireland but they also entered into a constructive dialogue. A development unthinkable only a few short years ago.
For many people uniting Ireland makes economic and administrative sense. It is no accident that the border region is the most economically disadvantaged on the island. But the duplication of services which exists because of the two jurisdictions is also a financial burden that militates against an efficiency in public services and in the creation of job opportunities and economic growth.
The Taoiseach was in China selling Ireland, or at least that part which he represents, as an investment opportunity. The previous week he was in the USA. The northern Executive is similarly engaged, speaking to the same governments and often to the same political leaders. This competition between the two states is detrimental to both.
Already there is some good work being done between the all-Ireland bodies established under the Good Friday Agreement and which the two governments and individual Ministers have themselves concluded to be advantageous to those they represent.
However finally resolving the issue of sovereignty and putting in place a new agreed Ireland that can end division on the island Ireland needs a step change. It also needs a change of mindset.
It means agreeing a political strategy to achieve what Connolly and Pearse, Clarke and Markievicz and Collins and others sought, when they stepped out on a bright Easter Monday morning 96 years ago and challenged the greatest Empire the world has ever seen.
The refusal of successive Irish governments to strategise and plan and actively campaign for an end to partition has been one of the greatest failures of the last 90 years. Partition created two conservative states on this island run by two conservative political elites.
Corruption in the north took the form of one party rule and structured discrimination and state violence. The Mahon Tribunal and other Tribunals into political and clerical abuse have revealed a different but equally perverse and cancerous corruption in this state.
It’s time to look beyond that experience. To begin afresh. To chart a new course and a new future for the people of this island. Uniting Ireland provides the opportunity to do that.
The government is to hold a constitutional convention. A brave initiative, but one which risks failing because its goals are too narrowly defined and it is too short termist in its vision.
There are significant differences of politics between the parties in the Dáil and especially between Sinn Féin and the government parties.
But it is not impossible for us to set these differences to one side and work in the common interest and in the common good for all the people of this island – for the real Ireland.
The Irish republicans of Sinn Féin are up for this challenge. We are willing to work with the Irish republicans in the other parties to advance this historic endeavour.
I am convinced it can be achieved. It needs political will and a vision of a new Ireland that appreciates that Ireland is the island and the people of the island.
The student was then given a potted Kennyesque history of British colonialism and the last 700 years of Irish history culminating in the Good Friday Agreement.
It was just before Easter and Kenny was in China on a trade visit. China too has its sovereignty issues. There is the long standing stand-off between it and Taiwan, and there is the increasingly tragic dispute over Tibetan sovereignty.
The shocking image two weeks ago of Jamphel Yeshi, a 27 year old Tibetan exile in India, running burning through the streets of Delhi was carried across many media outlets around the world. Yeshi set himself on fire in protest at the visit of He Jintao the Chinese President, to India. He subsequently died. Although there is some confusion over the numbers involved it appears that around thirty Tibetan men and women have set themselves alight in the last year.
This series of protests has its roots in the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the denial of the Tibetan people’s right to sovereignty.
Sovereignty also remains the key unresolved issue at the heart of the flawed relationship between the island of Ireland and our nearest neighbour.
In the Good Friday Agreement Sinn Féin very specifically sought and secured the scrapping of the Government of Ireland Act which had partitioned Ireland.
The Good Friday Agreement created a conditional claim of sovereignty by Britain in the north. The Agreement also created a level playing field on which there is equality between the competing claims of sovereignty and which allows for a democratic debate on this issue. The British government is committed to legislate for a United Ireland if a majority in the north want it.
So while no schedule or timetable exists for Ireland to be reunited the means by which it can be done has been agreed and a road map has been legislated for.
For Irish republicans and the majority of citizens on this island Irish sovereignty, in the context of Irish reunification, remains the single most important constitutional and political issue still remaining.
Standing in the way of its resolution are those, particularly within the political establishments north and south, who see partition as a done deal – a fixed and immovable arrangement.
Unionists tell us they oppose change because they believe that Irish unity would be to their political, social and economic disadvantage and because of their professed affinity to the notion of ‘Britishness’. But nothing ever remains the same. Some unionists are now comfortable describing themselves as Irish, a minority perhaps but increasingly many others identify themselves as northern Irish. And anyway in a new pluralist Ireland surely there has to be accommodation for those who feel British.
As the process of significant change continues there will be a growing awareness of the need for these identity issues to finally resolved. For example Sinn Féin’s recent series of high profile conferences on the theme of ‘Uniting Ireland – Towards a New Republic’ attracted considerable interest outside of traditional republican circles.
In Newry and Derry unionist speakers agreed to participate. They took the opportunity to set out their objections to uniting Ireland but they also entered into a constructive dialogue. A development unthinkable only a few short years ago.
For many people uniting Ireland makes economic and administrative sense. It is no accident that the border region is the most economically disadvantaged on the island. But the duplication of services which exists because of the two jurisdictions is also a financial burden that militates against an efficiency in public services and in the creation of job opportunities and economic growth.
The Taoiseach was in China selling Ireland, or at least that part which he represents, as an investment opportunity. The previous week he was in the USA. The northern Executive is similarly engaged, speaking to the same governments and often to the same political leaders. This competition between the two states is detrimental to both.
Already there is some good work being done between the all-Ireland bodies established under the Good Friday Agreement and which the two governments and individual Ministers have themselves concluded to be advantageous to those they represent.
However finally resolving the issue of sovereignty and putting in place a new agreed Ireland that can end division on the island Ireland needs a step change. It also needs a change of mindset.
It means agreeing a political strategy to achieve what Connolly and Pearse, Clarke and Markievicz and Collins and others sought, when they stepped out on a bright Easter Monday morning 96 years ago and challenged the greatest Empire the world has ever seen.
The refusal of successive Irish governments to strategise and plan and actively campaign for an end to partition has been one of the greatest failures of the last 90 years. Partition created two conservative states on this island run by two conservative political elites.
Corruption in the north took the form of one party rule and structured discrimination and state violence. The Mahon Tribunal and other Tribunals into political and clerical abuse have revealed a different but equally perverse and cancerous corruption in this state.
It’s time to look beyond that experience. To begin afresh. To chart a new course and a new future for the people of this island. Uniting Ireland provides the opportunity to do that.
The government is to hold a constitutional convention. A brave initiative, but one which risks failing because its goals are too narrowly defined and it is too short termist in its vision.
There are significant differences of politics between the parties in the Dáil and especially between Sinn Féin and the government parties.
But it is not impossible for us to set these differences to one side and work in the common interest and in the common good for all the people of this island – for the real Ireland.
The Irish republicans of Sinn Féin are up for this challenge. We are willing to work with the Irish republicans in the other parties to advance this historic endeavour.
I am convinced it can be achieved. It needs political will and a vision of a new Ireland that appreciates that Ireland is the island and the people of the island.
Monday, April 9, 2012
The Rebel County
The road from Belfast to Cork used to take forever. The distance is the same as it was 40 years ago but the motorways have transformed the journey. Bill drove Richard and this blog to Bandon in west Cork on Saturday evening in 5 hours - and that was with a break for something to eat. And all within the speed limit.
I once drove to Cork on another occasion. I was hungry when we started and along the way I reminded Paddy – who was driving - that it would be nice to stop for something to eat. But Paddy couldn’t quite make up his mind where we should stop and the journey was full of: ‘That looked like a good place’, as we drove passed another pub or cafe.
We were in Cork before he eventually stopped. I still think that was his plan from the outset.
Saturday night was a fine spring evening. The motorways were mostly clear. When I gently and with some trepidation raised the issue of food there was a quick huddle in the front of the car and within seconds we were off the M7 and stopped at The Gandon Inn.
It’s a fine old building which was designed by one James Gandon who was apparently one of the most influential architects of the 18th century and was responsible for designing, among other fine Dublin Buildings, the Customs House and Four Courts and the old Bank of Ireland.
We arrived in Bandon just after 10pm and went straight to bed. Easter Sunday morning saw the three of us up bright and early and after porridge we went for a walk along the Bandon River. DJ O Driscoll, a local Sinn Féin activist, joined us. He told us of the devastation caused to the town two years ago following a particularly heavy rain when the river overflowed its walls and much of the town centre was under 4-6 feet of water.
Republican plot in Bandon
The republican plot in Bandon is in the cemetery adjacent to St. Patrick’s Church. When this blog and Rachel McCarthy, the local Councillor, came out of mass there was already a good crowd waiting. We were led the 100 metres from the cemetery gate to the graveside by the Bandon and District pipe band.
The republican plot contains the remains of eight IRA Volunteers from the 3rd West Cork Brigade who died in Bandon and locally during the Tan War. It was a dangerous time as a small force of IRA activists, ably led by Tom Barry and solidly supported by the local community, took on the might of the British Empire. Cork and west Cork were in the front line of that struggle and many of the best known military engagements of that war took place in this area, including Kilmichael and Crossbarry.
The Bandon and District Pipe Band
Cllr Rachel McCarthy and this blog in Bandon
After the commemoration we drove into Cork City to St. Finbarr’s cemetery where there is a large republican plot. There was an excellent crowd and they were in great form.
Even before the Tan War Cork had a justly earned reputation as the ‘rebel county’. It was already famous for its contribution to the Rising of 1798.
William Thompson was from Cork and his writings on social reform, his criticism of 19th century capitalism, and his promotion of the co-operative movement had a huge influence on many of the leading European socialist thinkers of that period.
James Connolly described him as ‘the first Irish socialist’ and as ‘an original thinker, a pioneer of Socialist thought’ and he dedicated a whole chapter of Labour in Irish History to him.
Cork Republican Plot
O Donovan Rossa the great Fenian leader was from Rosscarberry. He, like Tom Clarke and many others Fenian prisoners, suffered horrendously during his time in prison in England.
Pearse’s celebrated remarks over O Donovan Rossa’s grave in Glasnevin 96 years ago next Wednesday set the context for the Easter Rising the following year.
"They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but, the fools, the fools, the fools! — They have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace."
Tomas MacCurtain was Mayor of Cork when he was shot by the RIC in January 1920 and Terence MacSwiney who took his place as Mayor died on hunger strike in October of that year. His sister Mary MacSwiney was a founding member of the Cumann na mBan, a Sinn Féin activist, a TD for Cork and she spent three periods in prison. Two of these were during the Civil War when she opposed the treaty and was on hunger strike twice.
And then there is Tom Barry, one of the most formidable guerrilla leaders who ever took up arms against British rule. At the graveside in Bandon I met a republican who showed me several photographs of young west Belfast republicans who had travelled to west Cork in 1972. There they proudly stand at the Crossbarry monument with Tom Barry.
Among them were several faces I know very well, including Robert ‘Moke’ McMahon, an IRA Volunteer from this phase of the struggle who died last year. Moke never forgot his visit to west Cork or his meeting with the legendary Tom Barry.
Another republican of this generation was IRA volunteer and hunger striker, Bobby Sands, who was in the H Blocks when Tom Barry died in 1980.
In the midst of the horror of that place one Republican freedom fighter wrote a poem to mark the passing of another:
In dusky light, by mist, o’er hills they tread,
A column on the run,
The ghosts of fighters long since dead,
Yet n’er at rest, their guns still slung.
Now Barry leads them in the night,
Hardy souls of Cork Brigade,
To tramp the glens to morning light,
When their ghostly forms shall fade.
I have a particular fondness for Castlelyons man Tomás Ceannt who was one of those executed by the British after the 1916 Rising. In the aftermath of Easter week the British decided to arrest anyone regarded as a republican activist and a squad of RIC men were sent off to arrest Tomás and his three brothers.
There was a gun battle at the Ceannt home during which the brother’s mother helped load their guns. The Head RIC man was killed as was one of the brothers, Richard.
Tomás and his brother William were convicted of treason and sentenced to death. Tomás was shot by a firing squad in Cork on May 2nd 1916. His brother’s sentence was commuted. Tomás was the only person, apart from Roger Casement, to be executed by the British for actions outside of Dublin.
And not far from Bandon in Timoleague Graveyard lies IRA Volunteer Diarmaid O Neill, who was shot in London in 1996, the last Volunteer to die in this phase of the struggle.
Like every part of this island, west Cork and Cork City, are replete with stories of resistance and courage in the long struggle for Irish freedom. Easter is a special time when we remember with pride all of those men and women, who over many centuries, took up arms against colonialism and occupation.
It is a time when this blog finds the words of Bobby Sands especially appropriate.
There's an inner thing in every man,
Do you know this thing my friend?
It has withstood the blows of a million years,
And will do so to the end.
It was born when time did not exist,
And it grew up out of life,
It cut down evil's strangling vines,
Like a slashing searing knife.
It screamed aloud by Kerry lakes,
As it was knelt upon the ground,
And it died in great defiance,
As they coldly shot it down.
It is found in every light of hope,
It knows no bounds nor space
It has risen in red and black and white,
It is there in every race.
It lies in the hearts of heroes dead,
It screams in tyrants' eyes,
It has reached the peak of mountains high,
It comes searing 'cross the skies.
It lights the dark of this prison cell,
It thunders forth its might,
It is 'the undauntable thought', my friend,
The thought that says 'I'm right!'
I once drove to Cork on another occasion. I was hungry when we started and along the way I reminded Paddy – who was driving - that it would be nice to stop for something to eat. But Paddy couldn’t quite make up his mind where we should stop and the journey was full of: ‘That looked like a good place’, as we drove passed another pub or cafe.
We were in Cork before he eventually stopped. I still think that was his plan from the outset.
Saturday night was a fine spring evening. The motorways were mostly clear. When I gently and with some trepidation raised the issue of food there was a quick huddle in the front of the car and within seconds we were off the M7 and stopped at The Gandon Inn.
It’s a fine old building which was designed by one James Gandon who was apparently one of the most influential architects of the 18th century and was responsible for designing, among other fine Dublin Buildings, the Customs House and Four Courts and the old Bank of Ireland.
We arrived in Bandon just after 10pm and went straight to bed. Easter Sunday morning saw the three of us up bright and early and after porridge we went for a walk along the Bandon River. DJ O Driscoll, a local Sinn Féin activist, joined us. He told us of the devastation caused to the town two years ago following a particularly heavy rain when the river overflowed its walls and much of the town centre was under 4-6 feet of water.
Republican plot in Bandon
The republican plot in Bandon is in the cemetery adjacent to St. Patrick’s Church. When this blog and Rachel McCarthy, the local Councillor, came out of mass there was already a good crowd waiting. We were led the 100 metres from the cemetery gate to the graveside by the Bandon and District pipe band.
The republican plot contains the remains of eight IRA Volunteers from the 3rd West Cork Brigade who died in Bandon and locally during the Tan War. It was a dangerous time as a small force of IRA activists, ably led by Tom Barry and solidly supported by the local community, took on the might of the British Empire. Cork and west Cork were in the front line of that struggle and many of the best known military engagements of that war took place in this area, including Kilmichael and Crossbarry.
The Bandon and District Pipe Band
Cllr Rachel McCarthy and this blog in Bandon
After the commemoration we drove into Cork City to St. Finbarr’s cemetery where there is a large republican plot. There was an excellent crowd and they were in great form.
Even before the Tan War Cork had a justly earned reputation as the ‘rebel county’. It was already famous for its contribution to the Rising of 1798.
William Thompson was from Cork and his writings on social reform, his criticism of 19th century capitalism, and his promotion of the co-operative movement had a huge influence on many of the leading European socialist thinkers of that period.
James Connolly described him as ‘the first Irish socialist’ and as ‘an original thinker, a pioneer of Socialist thought’ and he dedicated a whole chapter of Labour in Irish History to him.
Cork Republican Plot
O Donovan Rossa the great Fenian leader was from Rosscarberry. He, like Tom Clarke and many others Fenian prisoners, suffered horrendously during his time in prison in England.
Pearse’s celebrated remarks over O Donovan Rossa’s grave in Glasnevin 96 years ago next Wednesday set the context for the Easter Rising the following year.
"They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but, the fools, the fools, the fools! — They have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace."
Tomas MacCurtain was Mayor of Cork when he was shot by the RIC in January 1920 and Terence MacSwiney who took his place as Mayor died on hunger strike in October of that year. His sister Mary MacSwiney was a founding member of the Cumann na mBan, a Sinn Féin activist, a TD for Cork and she spent three periods in prison. Two of these were during the Civil War when she opposed the treaty and was on hunger strike twice.
And then there is Tom Barry, one of the most formidable guerrilla leaders who ever took up arms against British rule. At the graveside in Bandon I met a republican who showed me several photographs of young west Belfast republicans who had travelled to west Cork in 1972. There they proudly stand at the Crossbarry monument with Tom Barry.
Among them were several faces I know very well, including Robert ‘Moke’ McMahon, an IRA Volunteer from this phase of the struggle who died last year. Moke never forgot his visit to west Cork or his meeting with the legendary Tom Barry.
Another republican of this generation was IRA volunteer and hunger striker, Bobby Sands, who was in the H Blocks when Tom Barry died in 1980.
In the midst of the horror of that place one Republican freedom fighter wrote a poem to mark the passing of another:
In dusky light, by mist, o’er hills they tread,
A column on the run,
The ghosts of fighters long since dead,
Yet n’er at rest, their guns still slung.
Now Barry leads them in the night,
Hardy souls of Cork Brigade,
To tramp the glens to morning light,
When their ghostly forms shall fade.
I have a particular fondness for Castlelyons man Tomás Ceannt who was one of those executed by the British after the 1916 Rising. In the aftermath of Easter week the British decided to arrest anyone regarded as a republican activist and a squad of RIC men were sent off to arrest Tomás and his three brothers.
There was a gun battle at the Ceannt home during which the brother’s mother helped load their guns. The Head RIC man was killed as was one of the brothers, Richard.
Tomás and his brother William were convicted of treason and sentenced to death. Tomás was shot by a firing squad in Cork on May 2nd 1916. His brother’s sentence was commuted. Tomás was the only person, apart from Roger Casement, to be executed by the British for actions outside of Dublin.
And not far from Bandon in Timoleague Graveyard lies IRA Volunteer Diarmaid O Neill, who was shot in London in 1996, the last Volunteer to die in this phase of the struggle.
Like every part of this island, west Cork and Cork City, are replete with stories of resistance and courage in the long struggle for Irish freedom. Easter is a special time when we remember with pride all of those men and women, who over many centuries, took up arms against colonialism and occupation.
It is a time when this blog finds the words of Bobby Sands especially appropriate.
There's an inner thing in every man,
Do you know this thing my friend?
It has withstood the blows of a million years,
And will do so to the end.
It was born when time did not exist,
And it grew up out of life,
It cut down evil's strangling vines,
Like a slashing searing knife.
It screamed aloud by Kerry lakes,
As it was knelt upon the ground,
And it died in great defiance,
As they coldly shot it down.
It is found in every light of hope,
It knows no bounds nor space
It has risen in red and black and white,
It is there in every race.
It lies in the hearts of heroes dead,
It screams in tyrants' eyes,
It has reached the peak of mountains high,
It comes searing 'cross the skies.
It lights the dark of this prison cell,
It thunders forth its might,
It is 'the undauntable thought', my friend,
The thought that says 'I'm right!'
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
The Belfast of the Titanic
St. Aidan's Exhibition on Titanic
On April 15th it will be one hundred years since the Titanic slipped beneath the waves of the north Atlantic. The story of the Titanic has been told and retold for decades now. The unsinkable ship built in Belfast which sank on its maiden voyage in 1912 with the loss of 1514 lives.
Last weekend as I walked through Sainsbury’s supermarket on the Falls Road a special exhibition of cardboard and papier-mâché Titanic’s made by local school children from St. Aidan’s on the Whiterock Road were on show. They were all shapes and sizes. Some of them were three feet long. One had an iceberg and a sinking Titanic beside it.
The loss of the Titanic has been the storyline for movies – one of the most successful ever – simply entitled Titanic – is being re-released this week in 3D to mark the centenary of the tragedy and probably make another staggering profit for its makers.
This blog remembers the black and white ‘A night to remember’ movie made in 1958. Currently there is a drama series on one of the British television networks dealing with the sinking. And over the years the fate of the Titanic has featured in a host of other dramas from the 1960’s ‘Time Tunnel’ to a recent Christmas Dr. Who.
What is it that has so captivated the imagination and hearts of countless millions around the world?
Is it the irony of the unsinkable ship that sank; or the countless stories of loss and tragedy among its 1514 victims; or the heroism of the band that kept playing to the end?
The survival accounts of those who lived through that ordeal make compelling reading. Among them the 14 Irish emigrants, men and women, sailing to a new life in the USA from Addergoole, in County Mayo. Like millions of others they were fleeing poverty and the political turmoil of an Ireland still in the grip of British colonialism, in the hope of a better live in America.
The 14 were aged between 17 and 42. They joined the Titanic in what was then Queenstown now Cobh in county Cork. Four days later 11 were dead. The Western People described the impact on Addergoole; ‘when the first news of the appalling catastrophe reached their friends the whole community was plunged into unutterable grief.’
But it was also far from easy for the three survivors. The youngest, Annie McGowan had to spend months in hospital recovering from her experience. When she was discharged she had only a nightgown and a coat. A US newspaper recorded how Annie and her friend Annie Kate Kelly who was 20 were ‘given an old pair of shoes but they were forced to make the trip from New York to Chicago in their coats and night gowns. They had no dresses nor underwear.’
Their story is not exceptional.
The facts behind the Titanic are generally well known. It was one of three Olympic class ships built by Belfast shipbuilders Harland and Wolff for the White Star line. It was the biggest liner of its day and weighed in at a massive 46,000 tons. It was 882 feet and 9 inches long and at its widest it was 92 feet and 6 inches.
It ploughed into an iceberg just before midnight on April 14th and sank approximately two and a half hours later. 710 passengers survived although there was room for around 400 more on the lifeboats, many of which were launched only half full.
It is also widely known that class played its part in determining who lived and who died. 3% of first class passengers died. 54% of third class died. 5 out of 6 first class children died and all second class children survived. 52 out of 79 children in third class died.
But there is another part of the Titanic story which is rarely told and must not be ignored.
Belfast’s two shipyards, Harland and Wolff and Workman, Clarke and Co were notoriously sectarian employers. The numbers of Catholics employed by the firms was tiny and frequently in the course of the 19th century and early twentieth century catholic workers were expelled from the yards, frequently beaten and some were killed.
The story of the shipyards is the story of division, sectarianism and exploitation in Belfast.
In 1800 Belfast had a population of some 20,000 citizens. 60 years later it had increased tenfold and by the end of the century the population had reached 350,000.
The number of Catholics living in the city also increased from 4,000 in 1800 to around a third of the population in 1900.
Living and working conditions were appalling. Overcrowding in slum housing with no sanitation was the norm for working people. Hours were long and child labour was prevalent. Conditions for women in the Linen mills were notoriously difficult and dangerous.
However, a structured system of discrimination, encouraged by an alliance of the unionist political elite, the Orange Order and employers meant that all of the well paid, skilled work and trades were predominantly protestant, especially the shipbuilding and engineering
Dividing workers was to the advantage of the owners as it prevented the development of effective labour organisations arguing for better wages and conditions for workers. Playing on these sectarian divisions also ensured that political unionism was able to retain the loyalty of working class protestants with whom they otherwise had little in common.
It is no accident that the worst years of riots and violence in Belfast, including expulsions of Catholics from the shipyards and other engineering factories coincide with the introduction of the three Home Rule Bills for Ireland – 1886, 1893 and 1912 – and the government of Ireland Act in 1920. In July 1912 up to 8,000 catholic workers were expelled from the shipyards and other factories in the city and 8 years later the pattern was repeated with up to 10,000 men Catholic men expelled from the shipyards and four major engineering works and 1,000 women from the linen mills.
One British Labour leader summed it up well the same year Titanic was launched when he said: ‘In Belfast you get Labour conditions the like of which you get in no other town, no other city of equal commercial prosperity from John O’Groats to Land’s End or from the Atlantic to the North Sea. It is maintained by an exceedingly simple device ...Whenever there is an attempt to root out sweating in Belfast the Orange big drum is beaten ...’
In 1911 as the Titanic was being built the census recorded that there were 6809 shipbuilders in Belfast. Of these 518 or 7.6% were Catholic.
This is a part of the legacy of the British presence in Ireland and of the divisions it fostered. The roots of decades of conflict are to be found in that history and experience.
Today, as a result of the peace process, there is a unique power sharing system of government in the north of Ireland. As it seeks to build a better future for citizens and create employment it is investing in the regeneration of the old shipyards and in a new Titanic Belfast Exhibition Centre which is the biggest Titanic themed tourist attraction n in the world. It is hoped it will bring in hundreds of thousands of tourists and help create much needed employment.
But as we celebrate this potential for the future we must also remember the type of society which built the Titanic, commit to learning the lessons of that time and ensuring that those divisions and hardships are relegated to the history books.
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