An Phoblacht, April 2015

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April / Aibreán 2015

CATHERINE SEELEY

Upper Bann Westminster candidate

Pádraig Pearse

Thomas MacDonagh

Thomas Clarke

1916

PROCLAMATION

Éamonn Ceannt

Michael Mallin

DANNY MORRISON

Seán Heuston

Joseph Plunkett

Con Colbert

Willie Pearse

Thomas Kent

Edward 'Ned' Daly

Our Freedom Charter

John MacBride

Honour Ireland’s patriot dead – Wear an Easter Lily Caith Lile na Cásca – Tabhair ómós do laochra na hÉireann

Long Kesh and Walter Macken

EAMONN McCANN

James Connolly

Seán Mac Diarmada

Michael O'Hanrahan

Cat among the pigeons

Roger Casement

Shouting in the service of the system

2 April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

UNIONIST ELECTION PACT AIMED AT PREVENTING EQUALITY AND IMPOSING A TORY AUSTERITY AGENDA GERRY ADAMS

SDLP stands idly by as DUP/UUP axis threatens progressive politics SDLP LEADER Alasdair McDonnell has made “a monumental strategic blunder” by refusing point-blank Martin McGuinness’s invitation to discuss the Westminster election pact by the Democratic Unionist Party and the Ulster Unionist Party, Gerry Adams has said.

The pact covers four constituencies: East Belfast, North Belfast, Fermanagh & South Tyrone, and Newry & Armagh. (See Peadar Whelan’s analysis on opposite page.)

Gerry Adams was speaking at the election launch in County Tyrone on 22 March for Michelle Gildernew when the Sinn Féin leader said: “The recently-announced unionist electoral pact for the Westminster election is a negative alliance.

“It is aimed at preventing equality of citizenship, frustrating political progress and imposing a Tory austerity agenda.

“Unfortunately, the SDLP leadership has actively facilitated this by refusing to talk to Sinn Féin about how to counter the threat to pro-Agreement, progressive politics.

“It is a monumental strategic blunder by Alasdair McDonnell to spurn engagement with Martin McGuinness on this crucial issue.

“His elevation of petty self-interest above the wider needs of society and the future of the political process is a failure of political leadership.

“For Sinn Féin’s part, we are focused on continuing the process of political and social

5 Michelle's son, Emmet Tagart

5 Martina Anderson MEP, Michelle Gildernew MP, Gerry Adams TD and Carál Ní Chuilín MLA with a copy of the 1981 Bobby Sands election poster for the Fermanagh & South Tyrone constituency

SDLP leadership has actively facilitated DUP/ UUP axis by refusing to talk to Sinn Féin about how to counter the threat to proAgreement politics change, not just in the North but throughout this island.

“Talks have intensified this week in an effort to secure the implementation of what was agreed at the Stormont House Agreement and key to this for us is to achieve the protections agreed for the most vulnerable in society.”

Michelle Gildernew said at the launch of her Westminster election campaign at the Ryandale in the Moy, that she has held the iconic Fermanagh & South Tyrone seat won by Bobby Sands in 1981 since 2001. She said said is “still extremely humbled and proud to be following in the footsteps of Bobby Sands and Owen Carron – two of the greatest revolutionaries the Republican Movement has ever had”.

Having held off the challenge of a ‘unionist unity’ candidate in 2010 by a margin of just four votes on polling day and subsequently reduced after a court battle ruling out three votes to one single vote.

“In no other constituency does the ‘every vote counts’ motto carry such relevance,” Michelle Gildernew emphasised “Eyes from right across the world, not just the North, will be on this constituency in the next eight weeks.

5 Playwright and ex-prisoner Laurence McKeown chats to Foyle candidate Gearóid Ó hEára

5 Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD and Monaghan Councillor Seán Conlon with Michelle Gildernew MP

“One with an MP that will not make the rich richer and the poor poorer. And one with an MP that will swear allegiance to the people of Fermanagh & South Tyrone, not to any foreign government but to work for the sovereign right of the people of Ireland to determine their own destiny.”

She had a message for her opponent, former Ulster Defence Regiment soldier Tom Elliott, ex-leader of the Ulster Unionist Party: “Tom Elliott would like to turn this election into a sectarian headcount but I have news for Tom – Sinn Féin doesn’t do sectarianism, I don’t

‘Eyes from right across the world will be on Fermanagh & South Tyrone ‘

5 Martina Anderson MEP, Michelle Gildernew MP, Gerry Adams TD and Carál Ní Chuilín MLA listen as Bik McFarlane sings 'Song for Marcella' in tribute to his friend and comrade Bobby Sands

“We need to send them a clear, unambiguous message that Fermanagh & South Tyrone is staying Sinn Féin.”

She urged republicans and other supporters of progressive politics to rally round the election campaign to have Michelle Gildernew returned as MP on 7 May:

“You have already given up your Sunday to come here today.

“So I am asking each and every one of you to play your part in the third election campaign to keep the Fermanagh & South Tyrone MP seat a republican one; one with an MP that fights against austerity,

do sectarianism, and I will continue to represent everyone, regardless of creed, colour or sexual orientation.

“Tom can make open pacts with his fellow unionists and silent pacts with those parties whose leadership can’t even remember if they have selected a candidate yet for Fermanagh & South Tyrone,” Michelle said to laughs, “but it will not stop the forward growth of Sinn Féin.

“Sinn Féin’s three senators, four MEPs, five MPs, 14 TDs, 29 MLAs, 264 councillors, over ten thousand members and half a million votes across this island make us the largest party in Ireland. Let us in Fermanagh & Tyrone make that even bigger.”

April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

3

'BIG HOUSE' UNIONIST PARTIES FORM ELECTION PACT TO STOP SINN FÉIN

Every vote will count

BY PEADAR WHELAN THE NEWS that the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) have reached a deal to run a single candidate in four of the North’s Westminster constituencies for the 7 May general election has left commentators and political opponents bemused.

Seen as a unity pact, observers see the electoral pact as a good deal for the DUP but most are puzzled as to what the UUP will gain.

The SDLP again ruled out a nationalist pact with Sinn Féin – describing any such deal as “entrenching sectarianism” rather than fighting conservative unionism. It seems the SDLP is effectively endorsing the DUP/UUP deal as three of the four constituencies have two Sinn Féin MPs and a strong contender in Gerry Kelly for North Belfast.

The four electoral contests in question are East Belfast, North Belfast, Fermanagh & South Tyrone with Michelle 5 Martina Anderson MEP, Michelle Gildernew MP and Gerry Adams TD Gildernew as MP and Newry & Armagh, Kennedy, the lone UUP minister in the where Mickey Brady is looking to replace 5 Gerry Kelly MLA is the only real challenger to DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds Executive, will not make any inroads Conor Murphy as MP. into an 18,000-plus Sinn Féin vote.

Elliott is a past County Grand Master “the scum of Sinn Féin”.

Clearly the East Belfast election where In Fermanagh & South Tyrone, of the Orange Order in Fermanagh, He also said he wouldn’t attend a gay the DUP (humiliated after leader Peter Assistant Secretary to the Grand Lodge pride parade or watch a GAA match. of Ireland and an 18-year veteran with Reacting to the news of the pact, the Ulster Defence Regiment/Royal Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew (who Irish Regiment. won by a margin of four votes) stressed It will come as no surprise to observ- that neither she nor Sinn Féin takes ers that Elliott’s record in the constitu- voters for granted. ency will galvanise nationalists.

She promised that the party will In 2011, after his election to the fight for every vote and would fight Assembly and while leader of the the election on the party’s record in former Ulster Unionist Party Director UUP, he referred to the Irish Tricolour opposing welfare cuts, fighting fracking of Communications Alex Kane reckons as the flag of a “foreign country” and and delivering for farmers and those that Tom Elliott’s chances, even with the went on to describe involved in the tourist industry.

DUP out of the race, are “50/50 at best”. republicans as “Also,” she said, “the people of this Robinson lost the seat to Alliance’s Naomi Long in 2010 in the wake of revelations about his wife’s affair with a younger lover) is a must-win election for the main unionist party.

As well as being a political humilia- 5 Mickey Brady's 106-year-old mother, tion for Robinson and the DUP it was Sally, at the official launch of his election also a blow to their machismo and campaign that sees him on the road to retain the Newry & Armagh Westminster DUP arrogance. seat for Sinn Féin It was a point illustrated when Robinson retorted to Long’s reaction that supporters are likely to back Kelly against East Belfast was “no longer a fair fight”. Dodds, who has given minimal repreRobinson growled back: “Dry your sentation to his nationalist constituents. tears away – you’re going out.”

On housing, Dodds has denied the constituency have not been afraid of But it seems the DUP is not overly chronic shortage of houses for nationmaking the hard choices and have confident of regaining the seat under alists, instead backing former housing elected republican prisoners since the its own banner and wanted a clear run minister Nelson McCausland’s attempts 1950s. from the UUP. to manipulate the waiting lists.

“Their support for Bobby Sands In North Belfast, Sinn Féin is running As the demography of North Belfast during the 1981 Hunger Strike when a strong campaign with one of the changes, the insecurity of the DUP they elected him as their MP is party’s chief political strategists, Gerry increases. something that makes me very proud Kelly, confident that he can unseat DUP At its high point the unionist majorand honoured; I know that piece of deputy leader Nigel Dodds this time out. ity in the constituency was around history is a motivating factor for the Over the last three Westminster 15,000 when the UUP’s Cecil Walker nationalist electorate. contests, Sinn Féin has eclipsed the triumphed in 1992.

“So if Tom Elliott is the unionist unity SDLP and is now just over 2,200 votes Dodds won the seat for the DUP in candidate that’s fair enough Sinn Féin behind the DUP. 2001 with a 6,000 majority that has is up for the fight and never has it been The SDLP is on the electoral margins shrunk ever since. more true that every single vote will in this constituency. In 2010, it polled Even unionist commentators believe 4,500 votes and some of its own that, even with a clear run, Danny 5 Unionist commentator Alex Kane says it's "50/50" in Fermanagh & South Tyrone count.”

The SDLP again ruled out a pact with Sinn Féin – describing any such deal as ‘entrenching sectarianism’ rather than fighting conservative unionism

In North Belfast, Sinn Féin has eclipsed the SDLP and is now just over 2,200 votes behind the DUP

While he was Ulster Unionist Party leader, UDR veteran Tom Elliott described republicans as ‘the scum of Sinn Féin’ and the Tricolour as ‘the flag of a foreign country’

4 April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

anphoblacht Editorial

WHAT'S INSIDE 6 & 7

Dynamic Derry Ard Fheis rattles Southern Establishment Sinn Féin ready for Government – North and South

9

Banking Inquiry

Peering under the rock that hides the Golden Circle

14

Reclaim the vision of 1916 – Robert Ballagh

20

anphoblacht Eagarfhocal

anphoblacht

Easter 1916 and the Irish Republic THE EASTER RISING is one of the great watershed moments in Irish history. It transformed politics and the public mood.

As republicans gather at commemorations across the island of Ireland and overseas, we honour the memory, the dedication and the sacrifice of all those who have given their lives to the cause of freedom and the ideals of 1916.

We rededicate ourselves to those ideals and an Irish Republic worthy of the name.

The 1916 Proclamation is a declaration of social and economic intent for a rights-based society in which the people are sovereign.

It is a freedom charter for this whole island and all the people who live here.

Today, we need the spirit and the vision; the selflessness and generosity of those who struck for freedom almost 100 years ago. Our goal, like theirs, is to build a new future and a new Republic.

Contact

Layout and production: Mark Dawson production@anphoblacht.com

NEWS newsdesk@anphoblacht.com NOTICES notices@anphoblacht.com PHOTOS photos@anphoblacht.com

We want a new future in which citizens are sovereign and equal; in a society which is tolerant and inclusive of race, colour, class, creed, gender, sexual orientation or disability – an Ireland built on positive change, equality and partnership.

Our vision for a new Republic is one where wealth is invested creatively and fairly, and where our children are not burdened by poverty, where our schools are properly resourced, and where no one lies on a hospital trolley or has no home or a job.

The measure of any society is how it treats those most in need and its most vulnerable.

It is about cherishing all the children of this nation equally.

Easter and next year’s centenary celebration of the Easter Rising is an appropriate time to build and rededicate ourselves to the achievement of the Republic declared in 1916.

AN PHOBLACHT is published monthly by Sinn Féin. The views in An Phoblacht are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sinn Féin. We welcome articles, opinions and photographs from new contributors but contact the Editor first.

An Phoblacht, Kevin Barry House, 44 Parnell Square, Dublin 1, Ireland Telephone: (+353 1) 872 6 100. Email: editor@anphoblacht.com

www.anphoblacht.com

Julia Grenan – Woman of 1916

Needs of abuse victims should be above party politics

21

Liadh ag ceann na feadhna

22 & 23

West Life

Robert Allen follows the ghost of Pádraig Pearse into the heart of Connemara

30

Between the Posts

Blowing the whistle on Hillsborough

SUBSCRIBE ONLINE To get your An Phoblacht delivered direct to your mobile device or computer for just €10 per 12 issues and access to the historic The Irish Volunteer newspaper posted online weekly and An Phoblacht’s/IRIS the republican magazine archives

CRIMES of sexual abuse against anyone – children or adults, women or men – are appalling crimes that should be dealt with by the appropriate authorities. Victims should be provided with all the necessary supports by expert agencies; allegations should be handled by the police and rigorously investigated.

This is too serious an issue to be used by Sinn Féin’s opponents for

There is a clear mandatory responsibility for anyone with any information regarding abuse to come forward to the relevant authorities, North or South scoring points in the Dáil or the Assembly, in the print or broadcast media, or online.

Addressing the needs of victims of abuse should be above party politics and grandstanding by ambitious politicians bandying about allegations.

Comments by Enda Kenny in the United States during the St Patrick’s Day celebrations were reprehensible politicking that sullied the position

5 Enda Kenny's comments in the US sullied the position of An Taoiseach

would be anchored in the NorthSouth Ministerial Council.

5 Martin McGuinness – initiative

of An Taoiseach. Enda Kenny called on Gerry Adams to go to the Garda with any information he had on sexual abuse, knowing full well that the Sinn Féin leader had already done this.

The Taoiseach’s government has failed to put together an all-island sex offenders register.

His Fine Gael/Labour Government is cutting funding and resources to Rape Crisis Centres and victim advocacy groups.

In November, Martin McGuinness, the deputy First Minister of the North’s Executive, proposed a victim-centred approach to deal with the issue of abuse, one which

Underpinning the initiative are three key elements: » Supporting victims of abuse in all communities; » Ensuring greater access to counselling and other supports for victims; » Facilitating victims and survivors in accessing the justice system and making official complaints.

Martin McGuinness first wrote to the Taoiseach with the proposal in November. The Fine Gael/Labour Government have professed that this is a matter of urgency, necessitating emergency debates in the Dáil and ministers and TDs rushing to the media to demonstrate their concern.

Martin McGuinness’s letter lay unanswered on the Taoiseach’s desk.

Despite the deputy First Minister’s initiative being publicised by the

media, the days and weeks went by with no reply.

Martin McGuinness considered it a matter of importance and urgency.

He wrote again in the following weeks. Still no reply. Martin McGuinness wrote yet again.

Three letters and four months later, An Taoiseach eventually wrote back. A first meeting is being arranged. In those 16 wasted weeks, important groundwork could have been done and and an all-island system established.

Sinn Féin’s priority is to support victims of abuse, whether that abuse is historical or contemporary.

There is a clear mandatory responsibility for anyone with any information regarding abuse to come forward to the relevant authorities, North or South.

The only way for victims to get justice is through the criminal justice system and other statutory agencies.

Victims need to be supported and perpetrators need to be brought before the courts.

Sinn Féin is unequivocal in that.

April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

5

Le Trevor Ó Clochartaigh Ní mhór do OÉG aghaidh a thabhairt ar cheisteanna cothromaíochta in athuair

Níl saoi gan locht

fiú Uachtarán Ollscoil na hÉireann Gaillimh TÁ AN DEARCADH coitianta ann gur eagraíochtaí iad na hollscoileananna atá lán de shaineolaithe ó thaobh chuile chineál ábhar acadúil de, daoine a thuigeann cearta agus cothrom na féinne agus meas acu dá réir ar na cearta sin – ach, léiríonn an méid atá ag tarlú in Ollscoil Éireann, Gaillimh (OÉG) le tamall anuas a mhalairt d’íomhá don ollscoil áirithe sin.

D’fhreastal mé féin ar OÉG agus ardmheas agam ar fhormhór na ndaoine atá ag obair inti i chuile réimse d’obair na h-eagraiochta. Ach, tá rudaí thrína chéile ann faoi láthair.

Tharraing cás cothromaíochta Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, a léirigh go raibh leatrom dhá dhéanamh ar an mbean mhisniúil seo ó thaobh cúrsaí arduithe céime di, aird forleathan.

Bhí Údarás na hOllscoile ar a míle dícheall ag iarraidh tabhairt le fios gur cás eisceachtúil atá ann agus nár léirigh sé deacrachtaí níos forleithne.

Tá cásanna eile tagtha chun cinn anois áfach, a thugann léargas bhreise ar na deacrachtai cultúrtha a mheasann cuid mhaith atá san eagraíocht ó thaobh roghnú daoine le arduithe céime, rólanna sinsearacha, deiseanna taighde agus eile.

Ar cheann de na nithe is mó a tharraing cainte bhi ceistneoir sláinte a bhí dhá chur ar fáil do dhaoine a raibh tairiscintí poist dhá fháil acu. Téann an cheistneoir isteach i gceisteanna an-phearsanta ar nós, cé chomh trom is a bhíonn fuil mhíosúil na mban, deacrachtaí a bhíonn acu lena gcíochshláinte agus mar sin de.

Chas Matt Carthy, an Comhairleoir Anna Marley agus mé féin le baill den cheardchumann SIPTU faoi na deacrachtaí atá acu le cleachtais

bainistíochta na hOllscoile. Rinne muid roinnt mhaith iarrachtai bualadh le hUachtarán & Údarás na hOllscoile agus cuireadh ó dhoras muid. Dúradh linn go raibh siad chun Tascfhorsa a bhunú le scrúdú a dhéanamh ar na ceisteanna seo.

Ní mheasann SIPTU, ná ceardchumann na dteagascóirí ollscoile (IFUT), ná go deimhin Aontas na Macléinn in Éirinn go bhfuil an saineolas ceart, an neamhspleáchas, ná muinín na n-oibrithe thré chéile ag an tasfhórsa seo.

Chuir mé ceist ar an Aire Oideachais faoi seo

freisin, ag fiafrú an raibh sí sásta leis an gcur chuige atá ag Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh maidir leis na ceisteanna cothromaíochta seo, in ainneoinn nach bhfuil ionadaí ar bith ag na ceardchumainn ná ag na h-oibrithe air agus deir sí go bhfuil. Tá sin fíor aisteach ó Aire a bhfuil dlúthbhaint ag a páirtí le gluaiseacht na gceardchumainn, más fíor.

Go deimhin tá sí tar éis an-olc a chuir ar na gnáth bhaill ceardchumainn in OÉG leis an meid a deir sí.

Tá na h-oibrithe ag lorg fiosrúchán, trédhearcach, neamhspleách ar na ceisteanna atá siad ag ardú

An bhfuil sé sách maith nach mbeadh Uachtarán na hOllscoile sásta bualadh le h-ionadaithe tofa ar cheisteanna dáiríre atá arduithe ag baill den phobal leo?

IN PICTURES

5 Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson with Noam Chomsky at the Emancipation and Equality Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina

agus sílim nach bhfuil sin as bealach. Cén muinín a d’fhéadfadh a bheith acu ar institiúd stát eile a bheith ag déanamh imscrúdú orthu féin ar cheisteanna chomh tromchúiseach leis seo?

De réir Acht na hOllscoile 1997, tá sé de chumhacht ag an Aire fiosrúchán neamhspleách, gan réamhfhógra a ghairm ar chás tromchúiseach.

D’fhiafraigh mé di breathnú ar an rogha seo.

Sílim, chomh maith, gur cheart do Choimisiún na hÉireann um Chearta an Duine & Comhionannas a mbarúil a thabhairt ar an gceistneoir réamhfhostaíochta atá úsáidte.

Tá sé thar am ag baill Údarás na hOllscoile chomh maith labhairt amach faoin méid atá ag tarlú agus míniú cén chaoi gur féidir leo cosaint a dhéanamh ar iompar na bainistíochta sa scéal seo ar fad. An bhfuil sé sách maith nach mbeadh Uachtarán na hOllscoile sásta bualadh le ionadaithe tofa ar cheisteanna dáiríre atá arduithe ag baill den phobal leo?

Is cosúil go bhfuil deacrachtaí níos leithne ag an ollscoil ó thaobh cearta fostaíocht di chomh maith agus aighneas tionsclaíoch i gColáiste Naomh Aingeal i Sligeach mar gheall ar mhíshásamh leis na coinníollacha nua oibre atá OÉG ag tairiscint dóibh.

Agus, ní in Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh amháin atá na deacrachtaí follasach. Thug Príomhfheidhmeannach an tÚdarás um Ardoideachais le fios dom i gComhchoiste Oireachtais gur ceist í an comhionannas fostaíochta an bhfuil siad féin ag déanamh dianscrúdú uirthi, mar go bhfuil an chosúlacht air go bhfuil sé forleathan in institiúid éagsúla ag an triiú leibhéal in Éireann.

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 Dublin Sinn Féin launches its Programme of Easter commemorative events at the GPO

6 April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

2015 SINN FÉIN ARD FHEIS, MARCH 6th & 7th, DERRY

Sinn Féin ready for Government – North and South

Republicans in confident mood as elections loom

BY MARK MOLONEY THERE WAS TWO DAYS of passionate and, at times, heated debate at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in the Millennium Forum in Derry in March as party activists and representatives considered and voted on more than 200 motions. Topics as varied as the Peace Process, the Irish language, international affairs and party development were thrashed out at the party’s annual Ard Fheis, held in the Maiden City for the first time.

One of the highlights of the conference was the decision to overwhelm-

One of the highlights of the conference was the decision to overwhelmingly rule out entering Government in the South as a junior party to either Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil ingly rule out entering Government in the South as a junior partner to either Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil.

An Phoblacht columnist and Councillor Eoin Ó Broin articulated the beliefs held by many when he said: “For the first time in generations, we have the opportunity to break the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael stranglehold on Southern politics. Decades of corruption, incompetence and greed can be brought to an end.

“The two-tier economy and society perpetuated by Mícheál Martin, Enda Kenny and Joan Burton can be transformed. We can start to build an Ireland of equals; a united Ireland; a better, fairer Ireland. But this can only happen if Sinn Féin makes a clear and unambiguous statement that we will not – under any circumstances – support a government led by Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael.”

Welcoming the decmocratic will of the party, Pearse Doherty TD told the packed auditorium: “Sinn Féin will lead a government of fundamental change. We have no interest in propping up failed parties for the benfit of ministerial positions.

That is what the Labour Party is for.

Sinn Féin will not enter a Fianna Fáil

5 Gerry Adams after he delivered the Presidential Address

or Fine Gael-led government.”

Another debate which attracted a 5 Delegates vote on issues flurry of media interest focused on the party’s stance on abortion in the case of babies diagnosed with fatal foetal abnormalities. Sinn Féin had abstained from a vote on this issue in the Dáil in February as the party did not have a definitive stance on the matter.

The Health and Education section of the Ard Fheis had to be extended to allow the huge number of delegates who had queued to speak to have their say. Eventually, delegates voted in favour of allowing terminations in the exceptional circumstances of fatal foetal abnormalities.

Welcoming the decision, Sinn Féin Health spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó 5 Gerry Adams and SYRIZA's Euclid Caoláin TD said: Tsakalotos “The motion recognises the gravity

5 Hundreds of activists listen to delegates debate motions in the Millennium Forum

and complexity of fatal foetal abnormality, which requires great compassion. It also highlights the difficulties women face who are forced to travel abroad to access services because the law prevents women with fatal foetal pregnancies to access legal abortion in Ireland, both North and South. It also acknowledges that women in these circumstances who wish to continue with their pregnancy should be supported, with all efforts made to ensure appropriate care.”

There was much discussion over the Ard Fheis’s rejection of a proposal that, if passed, would have halted Sinn Féin MLAs ability to vote to lower the Coporation Tax rate in the North.

During a robust exchange, delegates supported a plan in favour of all-Ireland tax harmonisation, arguing that the

current 20% rate in the North puts the Six Counties economy at a competitive disadvantage in attracting employers when the rest of the island has a rate of 12.5%. Sinn Féin does, however, want to see a closing of loopholes which exist, particularly in the South, where some companies pay an effective Corporation Tax rate of 3%.

As well as the debates, various fringe meetings took place, including one with leaders of the unionist Londonderry Bands Forum. The Bands Forum has been key to ensuring that the marching season in Derry has remained largely peaceful and without incident thanks to respectful engagement between local residents, bands and the loyal orders.

International speakers received an especially warm welcome from the delegates with standing ovations for Palestinian Ambassador to Ireland Ahemd Abdelrazek, African National Congress (ANC) National Executive member Sue Van Der Merwe; Greece’s SYRIZA Government Deputy Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos; and Head of International Affairs for Basque pro-independence party Sortu, Gorka Elejabarrieta.

Rounding up the event, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams warned of an upcoming all-out attack from the Government parties and their cronies in the Establsihment media: “They will be even more strident in the run-in to the election – so brace yourselves,” he told party activists.

“They know the people want change.

Sinn Féin wants a mandate for government. I believe we can win that mandate. I am confident that when it comes to making a choice, the people will make the change.”

• A news report on Gerry Adams’s speech is carried on the An Phoblacht website. The full speech can be read on the Sinn Féin website.

April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

7

2015 SINN FÉIN ARD FHEIS, MARCH 6th & 7th, DERRY

Labour Party and Independent Newspapers spit bile as cosy consensus threatened

Derry show of strength rattles Southern Establishment

BY MARK MOLONEY WITH MORE than 2,000 people packed into the Millennium Forum in Derry, the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis was the biggest political show of strength in recent years. From inside Derry’s walls, a very clear message was sent to the Southern Establishment – that Sinn Féin wants to lead in government, North and South.

Embittered Labour Party dead-enders and pay-cap-busting special advisers – feeling the pain as their party disintegrates and their TDs are chased from former strongholds or smuggled in and out under police protection – saw red as the party was consistently called out on its abandonment of those it claims to represent.

The incredibly ambitious Labour Minister Aodhán Ó Riordáin TD is trying 5 Cork East TD Sandra McLellan with Westminster candidate Mickey Brady MLA and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness to be Labour’s rottweiller, spewing a particularly vicious stream of Twitter abuse for someone with special responsibility for “Equality, New Communities and Culture”. Joan Burton’s devoted puppy might be licking up to his mistress now but he’s eyeing up her job post-election (providing he can cling to his own seat, that is).

Joan Burton publicly and directly challenged Mary Lou McDonald to a public debate on the economy from the comfort of her party’s half-empty National (26-County – for the self-styled ‘party of James Connolly’, the nation stops at the Border) Conference in Killarney. But then Labour image handlers rejected approaches by TV3 and RTÉ to host the eagerly-awaited fiery debate.

Joan turned tail and, during the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis, her spin doctors told the media that it wasn’t happening after all.

Mary Lou told the Ard Fheis in Derry to huge cheers: “Well, Joan, you know 5 Palestinian Ambassador Ahmad Abdelrazek and his Deputy Head of Mission, 5 President of the Irish Congress where to find me.”

Jilan Abdalmajid (left), meet folk singer Frances Black and Irene Sherry (right) of the of Trade Unions, Mandate General The increasingly deranged and bizarre Bridge of Hope project in north Belfast during the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Derry Secretary John Douglas, speaks claptrap lining INM’s pages in the Irish Independent, Sunday Independent and Herald has even seen the Garda Commissioner’s office come out to refute a series of anti-republican articles in the creative writing genre by the ever-imaginative ‘Security Correspondent’ Jim Cusack, and repeated by Indo editor Fionnan Sheahan (former Fine Gaeler and now husband to Fianna Fáil’s aspirant leader, Senator Averil Power, though this is almost never mentioned in the mainstream media quick to quiz others’ political leanings).

While some Indo journalists are keen to emphasise they “aren’t that bad” in their coverage of Sinn Féin, a few hours after the Ard Fheis the Sindo’s editorial compared ordinary Sinn Féin activists to “Hitler’s soldiers” and Scientologists.

The Sindo front page was a perfect 5 Belfast Councillor Charlene O'Hara at the 'Time for Truth' Ballymurphy Massacre stall

example of how the Golden Circles, the media and the Establishment parties work together for their own mutual benefit to the detriment of ordinary citizens.

The Sindo carried a pathetic, fawning interview with the Celtic Tiger cubs of failed developer and Vico Road squatter Brian O’Donnell, whingeing that they didn’t realise their family were billionaires – or the extent of debt their parents had built up to make themselves billionaires.

Apparently the €30million mansion on Killiney hill with sea views, a swimming pool and flash cars is not “lavish”. Would the Sindo have as much sympathy for a couple from Ballymun who ran-up €71million in gambling debts and then demanded that taxpayers pick-up the tab? Not bloody likely.

Juxtaposed to this, also on the front page, was a call from embittered former leader of the well-defunct Progressive Democrats and internment-without-trial aficianado, Desmond O’Malley.

The PDs’ lost leader called for the pay

The Mail on Sunday, when not posing in front of Free Derry Wall, was snarking that Sinn Féin delegates wore ‘cheap suits’ of Sinn Féin TDs (who only take the average industrial wage) to be docked over Dáil comments about former TDs holding secret Ansbacher accounts in Switzerland. This paragon of fiscal rectitude is himslef on a gross pension (and that’s gross in every sense of the word) of €106,000 a year stumped up by the taxpayer for the past 13 years and which he will be trousering for the rest of his life.

Mail on Sunday reporters, when not posing in front of Free Derry Wall or snarking that Sinn Féin delegates wore “cheap suits”, insisted that “Sinn Féin will do violence to our economy” and hit out at plans for an extra seven cent tax on every euro earned over €100,000.

The Irish Times editorial could lead to a defamation case, while the more fair and factual coverage was left to the The Sunday Times.

The theme running through most of the coverage and commentary, however, is that the cosy consensus that exists at the top of Irish society must be protected. The bankers, the Golden Circles, the main parties and the mainstream media are comfortable, and that’s the way they want it to stay.

But reality is beginning to dawn – the times they are a’changing.

8 April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

Sinn Féin Bill on

VOTING RIGHTS FOR EMIGRANTS AND 16+ PASSES

BY MARK MOLONEY

A SINN FÉIN BILL which will see a referendum on the extension of voting rights in Presidential elections to the Irish Diaspora and Irish citizens in the North – as well as the lowering of the voting age to 16 – passed first stage in the Dáil in March.

While Government deputies did not oppose the Bill, concerns have been raised that the Bill will now sit in limbo after Fine Gael and Labour deputies confirmed it would not be dealt with in the current Government’s term.

Moving the Bill, Sinn Féin’s Michael Colreavy TD said the silencing of Irish voices from north of the Border and those of young people was not acceptable: “Some people will say that this is the thin end of the wedge and I would unashamedly say, ‘Yes, it is the thin end of a wedge.’ I and my party would

‘There is no credible reason for delay in putting the question of emigrant voting rights to the people’ Sorcha Ní Mhealláin We’re Coming Back

‘My party would argue that all Irish people should be represented in this Parliament and in Áras an Uachtaráin’ Michael Colreavy TD argue that all Irish people should be represented in this Parliament and in Áras an Uachtaráin, and representation in Áras an Uachtaráin is an important step on that journey.”

During the debate it was highlighted how more than 100 other states have extended voting rights, of some form, to their diaspora. Cork East Deputy Sandra McLellan TD said: “It is simply not good enough for the Taoiseach to say now that the issue of presidential voting rights is for the next Government to address.”

Sinn Féin’s Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD accused Fine Gael and Labour of being “afraid of giving a voice to those citizens who were effectively exiled”.

5 Taoiseach Enda Kenny, President Michael D. Higgins and Diaspora Minister Jimmy Deenihan all voted in favour of emigrant voting rights in 1991

The Sinn Féin Bill received widespread support from Irish emigrant groups as well as backing from Fianna Fáil, Independent deputies and smaller parties.

Though not opposing the Bill, some within Government ranks were clearly unhappy with the proposal.

Labour’s Eamonn Maloney TD said: “I do not think there is a yearning or a burning ambition to have a say in the election of a President in a country in which they do not live.”

This is something which is disputed by emigrant groups, including the We’re Coming Back campaign, who say high rates of emigrants over the past six years have put the issue firlmly back on the table: “We believe that all Irish citizens living abroad deserve the right to vote and to be included in the democratic dialogue.”

Both Seán Crowe and Mary Lou McDonald hit out at the Government’s use of the Diaspora as a cash-cow to drive business and tourism while ignoring their calls for voting righs.

“It is not a one-way street,” said Seán Crowe.

He also criticised arguments being used to deny 16-year-olds a vote. Some TDs claimed that there is no interest amongst young people in politics and that young people do not know anything about such issues.

“The same argument previously used against extending voting rights to women is now being put forward in respect of 16-year-olds, who in many cases are probably more clued-in than many of us older people,” he said.

Speaking to An Phoblacht after the Bill passed first stage, Sorcha Ní Mhealláin of the emigrant rights We’re Coming Back campaign welcomed its passing. Reacting to fears the Bill may now be left in limbo, she said: “We firmly believe that there is no credible reason for delay in putting the question of

emigrant voting rights to the people and working towards listening to the voice of our Irish people overseas.”

Sorcha also highlighted the failure of succesive governments to deal with this issue: “In March 1991, our current Taoiseach, President and Minister for Diaspora Affairs all voted in favour of emigrant voting rights but, 14 years on, they have continued to fail, to ignore and to exclude our citizens abroad.”

The Thirty-Fourth Amendment of the Constitution (Presidential Voting) Bill 2014 has now been referred to the Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government which will debate changes and amendments.

‘16-year-olds in many cases are probably more clued-in than many of us older people’ Seán Crowe TD

April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

9

World expert in banking and finance tells Dáil inquiry the story behind the Irish banks crisis is one of power

Peering under the rock that hides the Golden Circle

BY CAROL QUINLAN ED KANE is not a name that is known to most people. His appearance at the bank inquiry was a low-key affair, lacking the media bells and whistles of a Patrick Honohan or a David McWilliams. Yet, for the two hours he gave evidence, Professor Kane, a world expert in banking and finance, explained the way a crisis unfolds.

He did so by making a very clear and simple point. He said that a crisis is defined by the resulting political and economic struggle over who pays for the losses. And that struggle is related to political and economic power. Those who have it avoid the losses; and those who don’t, carry the debt.

Sinn Féin Deputy Pearse Doherty questioned Professor Kane about this in relation to the Irish bank crisis.

“My superficial understanding of Ireland is that many foreign creditors were paid off with Irish taxpayers’ money,” said Professor Kane, “and it is astonishing to me how good politics, the way a republic or a democracy is supposed to work, would ever lead to that solution.”

Earlier, Professor Kane had said that a bank that is too big to fail is in reality

He said that a crisis is defined by the resulting political and economic struggle over who pays for the losses a bank that is too well-connected to fail. When asked as to how that comes about, he said that it develops from “the campaign contributions that [bankers] are able to make either directly or indirectly through encouraging their staffs and basically schmoozing people and building relationships”.

None of this is of any surprise to the Irish people, of course, yet it is rare to hear it from someone such as Professor Ed Kane.

Here we are used to experts telling us that the crisis was really our fault for taking out mortgages. When the crisis came, what else could we expect but to carry the consequences?

The problem with this line of argument is that the facts do not add up.

We know from the Nyberg Report into the Irish bank crisis that 50% of the Irish loan book of Anglo Irish Bank was in the hands of around 20 individuals.

Deputy Doherty put these facts to another banking expert, Bill Black, in January. Mr Black replied that he had “never seen a concentration that high at any financial institution of any size

5 The Taoiseach said it was 'extraordinary' that just 22 men were responsible for bank debts of €25.5billion

‘Many foreign creditors were paid off with Irish taxpayers’ money’ 5 Pearse Doherty TD

anywhere in the world at any time in history. It is absolutely – no questions and no ifs, ands or buts – utterly unsafe and unsound.”

This point was raised by Gerry Adams during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil on 28 January, where he put it to the Taoiseach that these 20 or so borrowers represented “a small elite in a golden circle.” The Taoiseach, as is his wont, ,

PROFESSOR ED KANE WORLD EXPERT IN BANKING AND FINANCE

ignored the question and accused Mr Adams of “economic ballyhoo”.

The facts presented by Adams in the Dáil were repeated in his Presidential address to the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Derry in March.

“Bankers and their political cronies are the Golden Circle,” he said. “It is corrupt bankers and corrupt politicians who should be in jail, and not water charge protesters.”

Just over one week later, the Sunday

5 Gerry Adams tells the audience that corrupt bankers and corrupt politicians should be in jail, not water charges protesters

Business Post plastered its front page with an ‘exclusive’ story that in 2008 there were just 22 men with bank debts of €25.5billion. The Taoiseach was asked to comment. He said that “it seems like an extraordinary amount of money to an extraordinary small number of individuals”. There is no record of him accusing the Sunday Business Post of economic ballyhoo.

The story behind the Irish bank crisis is one of power. It is about the nature of political and economic influence in the South – those who wield it and those who don’t. During the crisis that power had to reveal itself in order to protect itself. Since then, it has slithered back under the rock where it usually hides.

The terms of reference of the bank inquiry state that it must look into the relationships between state authorities, political parties, elected representatives, supervisory authorities, banking institutions and the property sector, and it is the intention of Sinn Féin to work to ensure that this happens.

It is within these relationships that power operates, and out of them came the bank guarantee.

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10 April / Aibreán 2015

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www.anphoblacht.com

tions 2

CATHERINE ‘CAT’ SEELEY is flying the Sinn Féin flag in the Upper Bann constituency in the Westminster elections on 7 May. She is under no illusion that the task she faces is a massive one.

“To win the seat,” she points out to An Phoblacht, “Sinn Féin will need to overturn a huge unionist majority in a constituency that has consistently returned Ulster Unionist Party politicians of the calibre of David Trimble and, before him, Harold McCusker.”

The Upper Bann constituency was formed in 1983 and its first MP, McCusker, won at a canter, polling 24,888, which gave him a majority of 17,081.

“Sinn Féin’s Brendan Curran attracted 4,110 votes,” Cat says, smiling at the enormity of the challenge.

The constituency centres on north Armagh and includes Lurgan, Portadown and Craigavon.

After Harold McCusker’s death from cancer in 1990, David Trimble was the Ulster Unionist Party candidate and he retained the seat for the UUP. In 2005, however, Trimble, by then the leader of the UUP, lost the seat to the Democratic Unionist Party candidate, David Simpson.

That 2005 Westminster election saw Ian Paisley’s party eclipse the Ulster Unionists, who ended up with no Westminster representation at all.

Trimble has all but disappeared off the political map, the UUP is on a life-support system and the DUP is in the driving seat of unionism.

With Upper Bann being seen through the prism of the unionist politics that dominates the constituency, it should be

Upper Bann

no surprise that the sea-change taking place in nationalist politics would go unnoticed. Well, almost unnoticed.

Catherine Seeley says: “In 1983, the SDLP candidate in the constituency was James McDonald. His 7,807 total was almost twice that of Sinn Féin’s.

“In the 2010 contest, though, John O’Dowd (now Sinn Féin Minister for Education in the Executive) polled 10,237, almost double that of SDLP deputy leader Dolores Kelly.

“Clearly the swing from the SDLP to Sinn Féin is an indication that more and more nationalists see the republican party as the only party that can seriously challenge unionist hegemony, not just in Upper Bann but right across the North.”

It is against this backdrop that CATHERINE SEELEY spoke to An Phoblacht’s PEADAR WHELAN.

Deputy Mayor of Craigavon Catherine Seeley in Upper Bann election contest takes inspiration from Sheena Campbell

Cat among the pigeons THE 27-year-old from Lurgan, who graduated from Queen’s University Belfast with a degree in Politics and History before she qualified as a teacher, comes from a strong republican background.

up the job she loved at the state-run secondary where she taught Learning for Life and Work.

The Protestant Coalition, closely associated with Armagh serial publicity-seeker Willie Frazer, was the driving force behind the flag protests which brought loyalist mobs onto the streets of the North, resulting in many instances of serious rioting and street disturbances.

One post aimed at Catherine Seeley read: “Get these pro-republican supporters and perverted RC teachers out of every Protestant school in Northern Ireland.”

Shortly after she left her post, Seeley addressed the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Wexford. She thanked her students for their support: “I want to take this opportunity to publicly send a message of gratitude to those pupils who have courageously offered me their full support.

Her uncle, John Francis Green, was shot dead on 10 January 1975 in County Monaghan.

His assassination is believed to have been carried out by members of the infamous Glenanne Gang, a unionist death sqaud which included serving and former members of the British Army/ Ulster Defence Regiment and the RUC police working hand in glove with unionist paramilitaries, particularly the Ulster Volunteer Force.

Among those who worked with it were Military Intelligence and SAS operatives, including Captain Robert Nairac, based in Portadown’s Mahon Road barracks.

Sinn Féin is the only nationalist party with a realistic chance of seriously challenging for the seat Catherine Seeley’s other uncle, Leo, was imprisoned for 16 years in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh and spent four years on the Blanket Protest. He was one of seven prisoners to embark on hunger strike in 1980 and went 53 days without food.

Talking about her experience of frontline politics to date, Seeley explains that after she was co-opted on to Craigavon Borough council to replace sitting Councillor Johnny McGibbon (who stood down in January 2014), she found herself in the eye of the proverbial storm.

Catherine was teaching in the Belfast Boys’ Model Secondary School in north Belfast at the time.

She was targeted in an online, sectarian hate campaign primarily through a Facebook site run by the Protestant Coalition that led to death threats.

Within two weeks (and despite the courageous public support of her students, their families and trade unions) she had little option but to give

The Protestant Coalition waged a sectarian hate campaign to drive the young Catholic teacher out of her job at a Protestant boys’ school – her students praised her

5 Upper Bann candidate Catherine Seeley with Education Minister John O'Dowd

“They are a testimony to the values that should permeate not just education but every aspect of society. They inspire hope and confidence in me for the future.”

Later in 2014, Catherine Seeley was elected as Deputy Mayor of Craigavon with the votes of the Ulster Unionist Party, an election that raised the hackles of the DUP (Mayor Colin McCusker, son of the late Harold, was elected with the support of both Sinn Féin and the SDLP).

“This is a sign that even Craigavon Council is changing,” Catherine says with hope. “Since it was established in 1973, there have only been two nationalist mayors as both unionist parties have dominated the positions.

April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

11

5 Catherine Seeley left her teaching job shortly after an online hate campaign against her by unionists

5 Mary Lou McDonald TD, Councillor Catherine Seeley and Francie Molloy MP

5 Catherine Seeley: The DUP's David Simpson is alarmed at the challenge posed by Sinn Féin

“This came to a head in 2012 when, despite Sinn Féin being the second-largest party on the council, unionists refused to use the d’Hondt mechanism when electing the mayor and deputy mayor, thus excluding the party from the posts.

“There is an interesting dynamic on Craigavon Council now and across the constituency as the Ulster Unionist Party seems more open to co-operating with Sinn Féin.”

Seeley is also quick to point out that her Ulster Unionist Party rival in May’s election, Jo-Anne Dobson, “is very hard-working and takes a genuine interest in issues that are brought to her”.

She adds: “It is also interesting to see the DUP’s David Simpson doing a good bit of canvassing this time

The DUP said it would be a travesty if Sinn Féin took ‘a unionist seat’ round. I think he took voters for granted but sees a threat to his seat so he’s out and about more.

It’ll be interesting to see where it goes.

“When Martin McGuinness proposed an electoral pact with the SDLP and mentioned Upper Bann as one of the constituencies that could see Sinn Féin unseat a unionist it caused Simpson no small amount of concern.

“He blogged that it would be a travesty if Sinn Féin took the seat, writing that it was ‘a unionist seat’.

“David Simpson needs to know that it’s the people’s seat and the days of unionists seeing Upper Bann as a safe seat are over”, asserted the 5 Sheena Campbell, John O'Dowd and Brendan Curran Sinn Féin candidate.

“With more and more people throughout the constituency accepting that Sinn Féin is the only nationalist party with a realistic chance of seriously challenging for the seat, then we can make serious inroads.

“The SDLP even accept that and their candidate, Dolores Kelly, is waging a negative campaign against me in particular and Sinn Féin in general.

It seems she is more focused on retaining her Assembly seat than anything else. Hers are the politics of desperation” said Seeley with a grin.

A bubbly, smiling Catherine speaks enthusiastically of the inspiration she takes from one of

‘The days of unionists seeing Upper Bann as a safe seat are over’ the constituency’s more celebrated activists, the late Sheena Campbell.

Sheena made her mark in Sinn Féin when she masterminded the electoral strategy that saw Francie Molloy elected to the Torrent Ward of Dungannon District Council in November 1990.

In organising the campaign, Sheena restructured Sinn Féin’s entire approach towards elections and election canvassing. In October 1992, Sheena, a 29-year-old law student at Queen’s University, was shot dead by a unionist death squad as she sat in the York Hotel, Belfast.

“I am so inspired by her commitment and activism and in fighting this election,” Catherine says, "I hope to honour her memory with a result that sees Sinn Féin stronger and more effective in our work.”

12 April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

Another

The interests of Trotsky’s permanent revolution and the Southern Establishment’s defence of its political and economic interests coincide in their mutual opposition to Sinn Féin

Shouting in the service of the system EAMONN McCANN’S Irish Times articles are an odd thing. His casual disregard for the facts is matched only by his willingness to join the Establishment chorus against Sinn Féin.

Writing in the Irish Times on 12 March, Eamonn made a number of claims which are just plain wrong. » He claimed that Sinn Féin had pulled out of the Stormont House Agreement – NOT TRUE. » He claimed that trade union pressure forced such a move – NOT TRUE. » He claimed (albeit under cover of quotes from the DUP and the Green Party) that Sinn Féin’s stance on welfare cuts was inexplicable and reckless – NOT TRUE on either count. » And he implied that Sinn Féin was only ‘now’ opposing welfare cuts – yet again, NOT TRUE. He also misrepresented ICTU President John Douglas’s address to the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis (although, to be fair, he probably didn’t even bother to read the speech).

Such flagrant disregard for the facts, particularly when the subject is Sinn Féin, is commonplace in the right-wing media.

But for a left-wing activist to trade in such sloppy journalism is surprising . . . or is it?

Unfortunately, Eamonn suffers from that Trotskyite pathology of always having to attack your more moderate rival on the Left, irrespective of whether the facts support your case.

Exposing ‘reformism’ and highlighting ‘class betrayal’ is the strategic imperative for revolutionary socialists such as Eamonn.

The reason is very simple. According to his

analysis, Sinn Féin is not a potential ally on the Left but the main obstacle to the growth of the Socialist Workers’ Party and its electoral alliance, People Before Profit.

As long as working-class voters in Derry and Dublin support ‘reformist’ parties such as Sinn Féin then the revolutionary left will remain marginal and the prospects of the overthrow of the capitalist state will remain slim, is how the thinking goes.

So, at every opportunity, ‘real’ socialists must focus their critical attention on the ‘reformist’

Eamonn McCann suffers from that Trotskyite pathology of always having to attack your more moderate rival on the Left, irrespective of whether the facts support your case Left so as to detach the working classes from their ‘misguided’ support for ‘reformist’ parties.

Commentary on all political events must be squeezed into this narrative. If that requires bending and breaking the facts to suit the preordained script, then so be it – it’s all in the service of ‘the revolution’.

So what are the facts surrounding the latest crisis in Stormont?

Sinn Féin supports the Stormont House Agreement and we want it implemented in full.

As part of our long-standing opposition to Tory welfare cuts, we ensured that there would be real protections for those dependent on social welfare.

The DUP, as they so often do, are trying to renege on that deal.

EOIN Ó BROIN

Sinn Féin’s last-minute opposition to the Welfare Bill was to ensure that they keep to the commitments to protect existing and future claimants.

The trade union mobilisation on 13 March was in opposition to two aspects of the Stormont House Agreement – the voluntary redundancy scheme and the possibility of a reduction of the rate of Corporation Tax. Eamonn is right when he says that thousands of public sector jobs will go under this scheme.

But what he conveniently fails to mention is that that the British Government in Westminster has unilaterally cut the block grant to the Assembly by £1.5billion and has imposed additional financial fines on the Assembly because

of our refusal to implement welfare cuts.

The origin of austerity in the North is not the Assembly but the British Government in Westminster. They are taking the decision to cut spending.

The Executive is then left to pick up the pieces.

Eamonn also fails to mention that if the Executive parties had not reached an agreement at Stormont House the Assembly would have collapsed, direct rule from Westminster would have returned, and the scale and depth of Tory cuts would have been even worse.

Sinn Féin has consistently opposed the Tory cuts agenda being imposed by Westminster. We have also outlined a better way to manage our affairs.

Full transfer of fiscal powers to the Assembly and lifting the restrictions on borrowing from bodies such as the European Investment Bank would provide the Assembly with the tools to chart a more progressive policy path.

In the meantime, Sinn Féin are trying to mitigate, as best we can, the worst impacts of the Tory cuts agenda.

You would have thought that a left-wing activist such as Eamonn would know all of this and at least offer tactical support to Sinn Féin’s efforts while remaining critical of the Stormont House Agreement.

But then he wouldn’t be able to cry class betrayal and his paymasters in The Irish Times wouldn’t have another anti-Sinn Féin voice to publish in their newspaper.

So the interests of Trotsky’s permanent revolution and the Southern Establishment’s defence of its political and economic privilege coincide in their mutual opposition to Sinn Féin.

Enter stage left Eamon McCann, shouting in the service of the system. How ironic.

IN PICTURES

5 Tens of thousands march through Dublin City in opposition to water charges on 21 March

5 Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan speaks at the huge Right2Water rally on Dublin's O'Connel Street

April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

13

The trouble with the euro

BY EOIN Ó MURCHÚ AS RELATIONS between Greece, under its new anti-austerity government, and the major powers of the Eurozone (particularly Germany) continue to deteriorate, the future of the troubled currency looks increasingly shaky.

The problem is that the currency was flawed – probably fatally flawed – from the start because it was a political project rather than an economic one, with the participating states being forced into a straitjacket of fiscal policy laid down by Germany.

Ireland’s membership of the euro played a major part in creating the housing bubble and the financial and economic crisis that produced.

It did this because, at a time when our economy needed higher interest rates in order to dampen house prices, German policy dictated that there would be lower rates.

And when we needed lower rates, Germany needed higher ones. The fact is that our economy never got in sync with Germany for the simple reason that Britain and the US remain much more significant trading partners for us than continental Europe.

It would, of course, be politically desirable to shift that balance, but that would require the co-operation of Germany and France. However, as the 1992 devaluation of the punt showed, Germany let us sink rather than give us support, in marked contrast to its attitude to Denmark.

The current euro crises show again that Germany has no interest in giving us help and that those who believe that EU goodwill can bring about a change of attitude in terms of economic policy are sorely deluded.

The point is that the euro is part of the European project of creating a supra-state in Europe. It was implicit from the foundation of the European Economic Community (EEC) and was formally endorsed in the Maastricht Treaty (1992) which established Economic and Monetary Union.

Sinn Féin, like other parties and organisations upholding national sovereignty, campaigned vigorously against Maastricht. Events since have proven the party completely right on this issue.

Maastricht established the idea of the euro currency, which finally came into effect in 1999 as a virtual currency and 2002 as one for actual use.

Adopting the euro was a sign that the dominant political forces in Ireland were accepting an end

to national economic sovereignty.

As mentioned earlier, since our economy was not in fact in sync with that of those who dominated the euro, the impact was disastrous for us.

The euro is now in a highly volatile and dangerous state. Over the past year it has lost 25% of its value against the US dollar. While multinational exports to the US and Britain have expanded, our trade with the Eurozone continues to stagnate.

This is the reality of the much-trumpeted economic recovery the Government is boasting about: the US and British economies are in real recovery and we have benefitted a bit from that but the Eurozone continues to drag us down as austerity ravages the economies of Europe.

Germany and its northern European allies hope that the southern states (Portugal, Italy, Greece

5 Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis

For Germany and its allies, a SYRIZA success would set a dangerous example to Ireland, Spain and Portugal

and Spain) can be isolated, thus avoiding contagious catastrophe for themselves.

That is why it is so vital for them to make sure that SYRIZA in Greece does not achieve the desired result – for a SYRIZA success would set a dangerous example to Ireland, Spain and Portugal, countries whose governments shamefully are the most adamant in demanding no concessions to the Greeks.

But SYRIZA itself has problems to confront.

While tactically it is right to call on the European Union to live up to its rhetoric of common help, it would be a dangerous illusion to believe that the EU is anything other than the enemy here.

For the EU is a Rich Man’s Club (as Sinn Féin has said many times) and operates in the interest of open-market economies, by definition against the interests of smaller economies like those of Ireland or Greece.

And while disillusion with national institutions in both Ireland and Greece made an external currency like the euro superficially attractive, it is in fact a millstone around our necks unless it – and the EU – can be radically reconstructed.

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 Government claims that opposition to water charges is waning do not hold water

5 Protesters are determined to see water charges done away with

14 April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS

Reclaim the vision of 1916

ROBERT BALLAGH IN 1990, frustrated by official Ireland’s obvious lack of interest in marking the 75th anniversary of the Easter Rising, a group of concerned citizens came together to launch ‘Reclaim the Spirit of Easter 1916’, which had the objective of commemorating and celebrating that seminal historical event. For strong personal reasons, I decided to join this initiative.

Over many years I found myself dismayed by an intellectual atmosphere that had developed in the country which appeared to be driven by a kind of self-loathing.

Certainly, as a reaction to the conflict in the North, many Southern politicians and ‘thinkers’ constructed a whole new way of seeing Ireland and the Irish. Everything that could be interpereted as nationalistic was deemed suspect.

No more rebel songs or ballads on the radio or television; Irish speakers and GAA supporters were frequently portrayed in a negative light; and anyone who subscribed to a ‘non-revised’ version of Irish history was instantly labelled ‘a Provo fellow-traveller’.

The Stalinist thought-police were everywhere and as soon as the 75th anniversary committee began

Today’s official ambivalence to 1916 seems even more exagerrated than in 1991.

And of course the reason is obvious

5 The vision of the leaders of 1916 is outlined in the Proclamation of the Republic

comfort to the IRA no longer obtained, the Estab- 5 Robert Ballagh lays flowers at 16 Moore Street, Dublin City, the last headquarters of the leaders of the lishment would now become willing to seriously 1916 Easter Rising engage with one of the most important events in Irish history. I couldn’t have been more mistaken. recently in the GPO. Unbelievably, they produced a South, are forced to bear the consequences of Today ’s official ambivalence to 1916 promotional video featuring the Queen of England, political, social, economic and cultural failure.

The immoral imposition on the Irish people of seems even more exagerrated than in Ian Paisley, Bono, Bob Geldof and Brian O’Driscoll 1991. And of course the reason is obvious. but no mention whatsoever of the actual men a debt recklessly run up by others has resulted in savage attacks on working and living conditions It is a measure of their failure to build an Ireland and women of 1916!

It was such pathetic attitudes that provoked and given rise to feelings of anger and frustration. remotely equal to the Ireland of the visionarThe anniversary of 1916 presents us with a ies of 1916 that our political leaders have had several reluctant but nonetheless concerned unique opportunity to re-examine the ideals and to descend to a deliberate clouding of the real aspirations that inspired the Rising and to apply nature of the Rising. these guiding principles to today’s challenges.

The men and women of 1916 were not merely The citizens’ initiative ‘Reclaim the Vision rebels but people of vision. What they desired was of 1916’ intends to organise several national not simply a government in Dublin, a green flag events, the main one being a national parade over Dublin Castle and a harp on the coinage. of celebration on Sunday 24 April 2016. This These men and women were calling for a cultural will be a rousing and unfettered celebration revolution, for a transformation of both public of the Rising executed in a colourful, dramatic and personal reality. and musical manner.

You will find the outline of that transformation The Reclaim the Vision of 1916 intitiative invites in the Proclamation of the Republic, a remarkall Irish people – at home or in exile – who share able document which called for a sovereign, our belief that the people should be sovereign independent Irish democracy that would have the to join the struggle to make the vision of 1916 a commond good and the welfare of all its citizens reality in the lives of all citizens. as its guiding principles.

This inspiring vision is why the current incompetent leaders of this failed state are ambivalent citizens to launch a new initiative, ‘Reclaim the about 1916. This is why so many of them fear Vision of 1916’, to ensure that the centenary of A Citizens’ Initiative for 2016, c/o 27 to speak of Easter week. Certainly the present the Rising will be commemorated and celebrated Pearse Street, Dublin 2. For more in an appropriate fashion.

The vision of 1916 has Government had little to say about the vision of information email reclaim@eircom.net 1916 when it launched its lacklustre programme never been achieved and the people, North and

It is a measure of their failure to build an Ireland remotely equal to the Ireland of the visionaries of 1916 that our political leaders have had to descend to a deliberate clouding of the real nature of the Easter Rising

its work in earnest it was voiciferously attacked by many Establishment figures. For example, Desmond O’Malley, a Government minister, clearly stated his view that “Mister Ballagh’s committee serves the interests of the Provisional IRA.” I have to admit that it was a revealing experience to witness the serried ranks of the Southern Establishment squirm in the face of Irish history.

Yet in spite of all the attempts at furstrating our endevours I am proud to say that the Reclaim the Spirit initiative succeeded admirably in its main objective, and that was to ensure that the 75th anniversary of the Easter Rising was celebrated in an appropriate manner. Since that time, almost 25 years ago, many changes have occurred in Ireland, perhaps the most significant being the Peace Process and the subsequent cessation of violence.

Foolishly (and perhaps naively) I had some expectation that since the oft-repeated objection of celebrating 1916 was the risk of giving aid and 5 Desmond O'Malley vociferously attacked 'Reclaim the Spirit of 1916'

» Reclaim the Vision of 1916

5 Vision and substance are missing from the Fine Gael/Labour programme

www.anphoblacht.com

April / Aibreán 2015

15

International Declaration to Free Arnaldo Otegi and Bring All Basque Political Prisoners Home

‘Free Otegi – Free them all’

Signatories include Desmond Tutu, former Presidents of Uruguay and Honduras, President Mandela’s Parliamentary Counsellor, Mairead Maguire, Harold Good and Gerry Adams who spent almost 30 years in prison alongside Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela before going on to launch the Release Mandela Campaign and becoming President Mandela’s Parliamentary Counsellor in democratic South Africa.

Launched in the European Parliament on 24 March by the Basque Friendship 5 Basque independence leader Arnaldo Otegi with Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD Group in the European Parliament, the declaration calls for: 1. Release of Basque leader Arnaldo Otegi; 2. Ending of Spanish Government dispersal policy used against Basque prisoners; 3. Release of seriously-ill prisoners; 4. Ending of incarceration of people belonging to political organisations and ongoing legal processes against them.

‘‘

Campaigners say: Five years ago, the Basque independence movement began an unprecedented and far-reaching debate. That debate concluded with an unequivocal commitment to an exclusively peaceful and democratic pursuit of self-determination for the Basque Country.

The movement renounced the use of violence and committed to the goal of ending the long and violent conflict by means of dialogue.

In October of 2011, ETA responded to a call from the Aiete International Peace Conference by declaring a definitive end to its 50 years of armed activity 5 A host of worldwide peace process activists have signed the International Declaration and opening a process of dialogue.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu called Arnaldo Otegi, ex-spokesperson of Batasuna and now Secretary General of the political party Sortu, “the leader of the peace process”. Otegi was the prime mover pressing the independence movement to embrace argument and the power of word as the only means to resolve all conflict.

Unfortunately, the Spanish Government responded to Otegi’s efforts by arresting him in October 2009. He was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for membership of the political party, Batasuna, which had been banned by the Spanish Government.

Since then, despite the end of ETA’s armed activity (including their demonstrated commitment to disarmament, dialogue and reconciliation, including recognition of the suffering of all victims) there is still an absence of any positive response from the Spanish state.

Arnaldo Otegi, whose case has been raised with the European Court of Human Rights, is being held in a Spanish prison far away from his family and friends. The same occurs with some

We call for the immediate release of Arnaldo Otegi, a man who took risks for peace and democracy and who tirelessly persuaded many others to believe in the power of word alone as the means of resolving this conflict 500 other Basque prisoners related to this conflict.

They are deliberately dispersed, often in solitary confinement, and all are in prisons long distances from the Basque Country – a reality that brings an added punishment to their families, doomed to travel long distances to visit their loved ones.

We therefore call for the immediate release of Arnaldo Otegi, a man who took risks for peace and democracy and who tirelessly persuaded many others to believe in the power of word alone as the means of resolving this conflict.

His release and the end of the dispersal policy, prior to an agreed early release process, are necessary steps to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region.

For humanity; for justice; because we believe in a solution without winners and losers; because we believe in peace.

Because of all this, we ask for the freedom of Arnaldo Otegi and to bring Basque Political prisoners home to the Basque Country.

‘‘

GERRY ADAMS, Desmond Tutu, Harold Good, Mairead Maguire, Ken Livingstone, Leila Khaled and Tariq Ali are among a host of worldwide peace process activists who have signed the ‘International Declaration to Free Arnaldo Otegi and Bring All Basque Political Prisoners Home’.

Other prominent signatories include former President of Uruguay, Pepe Mujica (imprisoned for 13 years) and former President of Honduras Manuel Zelaya, ousted in the 2009 military coup that was denounced by the United Nations. Also signing is South Africa anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada,

1st Battalion

VOLUNTEER

January 7th, 1972

VOLUNTEER

February 23rd, 1981

James McCann

February 4th, 1973

Rosemary Bleakley

Tony Henderson

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Tony Campbell

VOLUNTEER

Patrick McCabe

Vivien Fitzsimmons

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Brian Smyth

VOLUNTEER

April 4th, 1971 VOLUNTEER

Terence McDermott

Danny O’Neill

Albert Kavanagh March 4th, 1972

James Burns

August 4th, 1985

October 2nd, 1971

Gerard Crossan

Brian Dempsey

VOLUNTEER

Tony Lewis

VOLUNTEER

Finbarr McKenna

VOLUNTEER

Proinsias Mac Airt

Martin Forsythe

October 24th, 1971 VOLUNTEER

Tony Jordan

June 28th, 1972 VOLUNTEER

John Finucane June 28th, 1972 VOLUNTEER

Francis Hall

August 30th, 1973 VOLUNTEER

Daniel Burke

April 9th , 1974 VOLUNTEER

Gerard Fennell

March 9th, 1972

March 9th, 1972

Seán Johnston March 9th, 1972 VOLUNTEER

Tom McCann

March 9th, 1972 VOLUNTEER

Patrick Campbell March 25th, 1972 VOLUNTEER

Seán McKee

May 18th, 1973

VOLUNTEER

Frederick Leonard

January 8th, 1992

VOLUNTEER

Martin McDonagh

VOLUNTEER

Thomas Carlin

January 13th, 1976

June 27th, 1970

VOLUNTEER

Joseph Coyle

VOLUNTEER

Michael Kane VOLUNTEER VOLUNTEER

May 15th, 1971

Frank Fitzsimmons October 16th, 1976

December 8th, 1971

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

June 21st, 1978

Gerald McDade

August 10th, 1976

October 10th, 1972

December 21st, 1971

VOLUNTEER

Joseph McKinney

VOLUNTEER

Joseph Cunningham

VOLUNTEER

June 9th, 1983

VOLUNTEER

November 13th, 1972

VOLUNTEER

February 21st, 1972

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Dan Turley

Tom McGill

Stan Carberry

Francis Liggett

February 28th, 1986

January 18th, 1973

VOLUNTEER

Edward O’Rawe

Jim McKernan

September 14th, 1986 VOLUNTEER

Margaret McArdle June 7th, 1987 VOLUNTEER

Kevin McCracken March 14th, 1988 VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

April 12th, 1973 VOLUNTEER

Joseph McKenna May 16th, 1973 VOLUNTEER

Patrick Mulvenna August 31st, 1973 VOLUNTEER

James Bryson

Caoimhín Mac Brádaigh

September 22nd, 1973

VOLUNTEER

August 3rd, 1974

VOLUNTEER

January 21st, 1975

VOLUNTEER

January 21st, 1975

March 16th, 1988

Patricia Black

November 15th, 1991

Frankie Ryan

November 15th, 1991

Pearse Jordan

November 25th, 1992 VOLUNTEER

John O’Rawe

April 4th, 1994 VOLUNTEER

Jimmy Roe

August 12th, 1996 2nd Battalion VOLUNTEER

Liam McParland

VOLUNTEER

Martin Skillen VOLUNTEER

John Kelly VOLUNTEER

John Stone VOLUNTEER

Paul Fox

December 1st, 1975 VOLUNTEER

Seán Bailey

February 13th, 1976

VOLUNTEER

February 10th, 1972

Gerard Bell

Gerard Steele

February 21st, 1972 VOLUNTEER

Robert Dorrian

February 21st, 1972 VOLUNTEER

Joseph Magee

February 21st, 1972 VOLUNTEER

Samuel Hughes April 7th, 1972 VOLUNTEER

Charles McCrystal April 7th, 1972

VOLUNTEER

Jackie Mailey VOLUNTEER

Denis Brown June 21st, 1978 VOLUNTEER

Jim Mulvenna June 21st, 1978 VOLUNTEER

Laurence Montgomery

January 5th, 1979 VOLUNTEER

Frankie Donnelly January 5th, 1979 VOLUNTEER

Martin McKenna

October 23rd, 1979 VOLUNTEER

Laurence Marley April 2nd, 1987 VOLUNTEER

Brendan Davison July 25th, 1988 VOLUNTEER

Thomas Begley

April 7th, 1972

CLARE

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Edward McDonnell

Hugh Hehir

May 28th, 1972

May 6th, 1988

VOLUNTEER

CORK

Jackie McIlhone May 28th, 1972 VOLUNTEER

Joseph Fitzsimmons May 28th, 1972 VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Louis Scullion

VOLUNTEER

James Reid

Paul Marlowe

Jackie McMahon

October 23rd, 1993

John McErlean

Martin Engelen

James McGrillen

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

February 15th, 1976

April 17th, 1977

May 28th, 1972 VOLUNTEER

July 14th, 1972

August 18th, 1971 VOLUNTEER

August 19th, 1971 VOLUNTEER

Colm Keenan

March 14th, 1972

Eugene McGillan March 14th, 1972 VOLUNTEER

John Starrs

May 13th, 1972

July 31st, 1972 VOLUNTEER

CUMANN NA mBAN Belfast

VOLUNTEER

Dorothy Maguire October 23rd, 1971

September17th, 1972 VOLUNTEER

John Brady

November 28th, 1972 VOLUNTEER

James Carr

November 28th, 1972 VOLUNTEER

James McDaid

December 29th, 1972 VOLUNTEER

Joe Walker

December 3rd, 1973

VOLUNTEER

Danny McMullan

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

August 25th, 1982

Antoine Mac Giolla Bhrighde

VOLUNTEER

Francis Bradley

Richard Quigley April 21st, 1984 VOLUNTEER

Ciarán Fleming

December 2nd, 1984 VOLUNTEER

Danny Doherty

December 6th, 1984

VOLUNTEER

December 6th, 1984

June 24th, 1974

David Russell June 24th, 1974 VOLUNTEER

Michael Meenan

October 30th, 1974 VOLUNTEER

John McDaid VOLUNTEER

Ethel Lynch VOLUNTEER

Jim Gallagher May 17th, 1976 VOLUNTEER

Brian Coyle

June 30th, 1976

February 7th, 1982

December 24th, 1982

Phil O’Donnell

VOLUNTEER

Gerard Craig

VOLUNTEER

Eamonn Bradley

VOLUNTEER

Willie Fleming VOLUNTEER

Charles English August 6th, 1985 VOLUNTEER

Tony Gough

December 2nd, 1984 VOLUNTEER

Feb 18th, 1986 VOLUNTEER

James Kelly

March 25th, 1993 VOLUNTEER

Peter McElcar July 17th, 1976 VOLUNTEER

Raymond McLaughlin September 9th, 1985 VOLUNTEER

Damien Brolly Dec 30th, 1991

February 22nd, 1986

DUBLIN

VOLUNTEER

Philip McFadden

Patrick Cannon

May 31st, 1986

VOLUNTEER

July 17th, 1976

VOLUNTEER

Colm Daltun

January 15th, 1983

VOLUNTEER

January 26th, 1985

Patrick O’Hagan August 9th, 1986

Gerard Logue

March 22nd, 1987

VOLUNTEER VOLUNTEER

Mick Timothy VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Christy Harford

VOLUNTEER

Martin Doherty

Paddy Deery

October 16th, 1976

VOLUNTEER

Tommy Tolan

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Joseph Downey

October 27th, 1970

Billy Carson

April 25th, 1979

VOLUNTEER

July 21st, 1972

VOLUNTEER

August 11th, 1972

October 2nd, 1978

COUNTY DERRY

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Séamus Cassidy

VOLUNTEER

Anne Marie Petticrew September 1st, 1973

VOLUNTEER

November 24th, 1978

VOLUNTEER

December 18th, 1971

(PARKHURST PRISON)

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Bridie Dolan

VOLUNTEER

George McBrearty May 28th, 1981

VOLUNTEER

December 18th, 1971

James McDade

November 14th, 1974

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Brian Fox

August 9th, 1970

Peter Blake

Tom McGoldrick

October 27th, 1970 VOLUNTEER

Charles Hughes March 8th, 1971 VOLUNTEER

Séamus Simpson August 11th, 1971

July 27th, 1977

Kevin Delaney

January 17th, 1980 VOLUNTEER

Terence O’Neill July 1st, 1980 VOLUNTEER

Liam Hannaway

February 2nd, 1981

VOLUNTEER

July 15th, 1972

July 28th, 1972

James Sloan

February 3rd, 1973 VOLUNTEER

Tony Campbell

February 4th, 1973

VOLUNTEER

Maura Meehan

October 23rd, 1971

Anne Parker

February 9th, 1975

Laura Crawford

December 1st, 1975

VOLUNTEER

Denis Heaney June 10th, 1978 VOLUNTEER

Pat Harkin

Patrick Duffy

Charles Maguire May 28th, 1981

October 28th, 1987

Eddie McSheffrey October 28th, 1987

Martin Lee

John Bateson

James Sheridan

December 18th, 1971

HONOU IRELAND PATRIO DEAD

DONEGAL

November 6th, 1969

Jimmy Steele

Laoch

Michael Quigley

December 7th, 1974

June 25th, 1973

ta

Séamus Bradley

VOLUNTEER

Dermot Crowley

Th e y die d

VOLUNTEER

December 7th, 1974

Tony Ahern

os

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

May 10th, 1973

F

Li

October 10th, 1972

VOLUNTEER

January 18th, 1978

July 6th, 1976

VOLUNTEER

Tony Nolan

VOLUNTEER

James O’Hagan

Trevor McKibbin

oll o R n a lic

s n o s r a s á b d a i s r i a u

June 27th, 1970

VOLUNTEER

October 16th, 1976

VOLUNTEER

August 9th, 1971

VOLUNTEER

Eamonn Lafferty

Patrick McAdorey

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Joseph Surgenor

Daniel McAreavey

October 10th, 1972

VOLUNTEER

3rd Battalion

Seán McDermott

April 23rd, 1977

July 8th, 1972

June 27 th, 1970

VOLUNTEER

Brendan O’Callaghan

VOLUNTEER

Julie Dougan

October 31st, 1975

Harry Burns

February 3rd, 1999

Billy Reid

John Donaghy

July 21st, 1973 Portadown

DERRY BRIGADE

VOLUNTEER

Danny Lennon

VOLUNTEER

Pauline Kane

Thomas McCool

VOLUNTEER

Patrick Maguire

February 10th, 1973 Newcastle

VOLUNTEER

September 29th, 1972

Thomas Kane

VOLUNTEER

Séamus McCusker

February 6th, 1971

October 6th, 1972

January 13th, 1976 Downpatrick

May 7th, 1974

November 15th, 1974

April 5th, 1976

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Michael Clarke Jimmy Quigley

VOLUNTEER

May 2nd, 1987

James Saunders

VOLUNTEER

John Rooney

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

August 11th, 1972

VOLUNTEER

April 17th, 1973

September 4th, 1970

November 8th, 1974

March 27th, 1973

June 25th, 1986

Robert McCrudden August 3rd, 1972

VOLUNTEER

1969 Re pu b

BELFAST BRIGADE

May 5th , 1992 VOLUNTEER

May 21st, 1994

ENGLAND VOLUNTEER

Michael Gaughan June 3rd, 1974 VOLUNTEER VOLUNTEER

December 21st, 1974

WEAR AN EASTE LILY

LIMERICK VOLUNTEER

oll of Hon ou r

Patrick Sheehy

January 2nd, 1991

LONG KESH

aochra n

ONOUR ELAND'S ATRIOT DEAD

WEAR AN ASTER LILY

April 4th, 1989

June 4th, 1978

Seán Bateson

lac

Edward O’Brien

February 18th , 1996 VOLUNTEER

Diarmuid O’Neill

September 23rd , 1996

FIANNA ÉIREANN FIAN

Kevin McAuley

Gerald McAuley

November 6th, 1975

FIAN

James O’Neill

August 15th, 1969

Michael Sloan

January 11th, 1972 FIAN

Eamon McCormick January 16th, 1972 FIAN

Gerry Donaghy

January 30th, 1972 FIAN

David McAuley

February 19th, 1972 FIAN

Seán O’Riordan March 23rd, 1972 FIAN

Michael Magee May 13th, 1972

FIAN

February 12th, 1976 FIAN

Paul McWilliams August 9th, 1977 FIAN

John Dempsey July 8th, 1981

GHQ STAFF VOLUNTEER

Jack McCabe

December 27th, 1971 VOLUNTEER

Thomas O’Donnell May 17th, 1973 VOLUNTEER

Mairéad Farrell

FIAN

March 6th, 1988

FIAN

March 6th, 1988

FIAN

March 6th, 1988

Joseph Campbell June 11th, 1972

John Dougal July 9th, 1972

Tobias Molloy July 16th, 1972 FIAN

Joseph McComiskey September 20th, 1972

VOLUNTEER

Dan McCann VOLUNTEER

Seán Savage

Declan Martin VOLUNTEER

Peter Rodden VOLUNTEER

Gerard Casey

Michael Crossey

November 22nd, 1971 VOLUNTEER

Charles Agnew

December 17th, 1971 VOLUNTEER

John Francis Green January 10th, 1975 VOLUNTEER

Terry Brady

December 10th, 1975

VOLUNTEER

November 11th, 1982

VOLUNTEER

November 11th, 1982

Joe McDonnell July 8th, 1981

Martin Hurson July 13th, 1981 VOLUNTEER

Kevin Lynch (INLA) August 1st, 1981 VOLUNTEER

Kieran Doherty August 2nd, 1981 VOLUNTEER

Thomas McElwee August 8th, 1981 VOLUNTEER

Mickey Devine (INLA) August 20th, 1981

MONAGHAN VOLUNTEER

Seán McKenna June 5th, 1975

VOLUNTEER

David Kennedy VOLUNTEER

Seán Burns VOLUNTEER

Gervase McKerr VOLUNTEER

Eugene Toman

November 11th, 1982 VOLUNTEER

Seán McIlvenna

PORTLAOISE VOLUNTEER

Tom Smith

March 17th, 1975 VOLUNTEER

Brendan Seery

February 19th, 1992

SLIGO VOLUNTEER

Kevin Coen

NEWRY

VOLUNTEER

Joseph MacManus

VOLUNTEER

February 5th, 1992

VOLUNTEER

Michael McVerry

August 9th, 1972

Patrick Hughes

August 22nd, 1972 VOLUNTEER

SOUTH ARMAGH VOLUNTEER

November 15th, 1973 VOLUNTEER

Seán Boyle

Oliver Rowntree

February 1st, 1975

VOLUNTEER

Francis Jordan

August 22nd, 1972

Noel Madden

August 22nd, 1972 VOLUNTEER

Brendan Quinn

LAOIS

December 24th, 1973

VOLUNTEER

June 4th, 1975 VOLUNTEER

Seán Campbell

December 6th, 1975 VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

December 6th, 1975 VOLUNTEER

Edward Grant

James Lochrie

March 15th, 1974

Fergal Caraher

Eugene Martin

VOLUNTEER

May 13th, 1974

June 3rd, 1991

VOLUNTEER

Eugene Martin

Seán McKearney

VOLUNTEER

Lawrence McNally

VOLUNTEER

Pete Ryan

August 8th, 1996

VOLUNTEER

April 26th, 1975

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Danny McCauley

VOLUNTEER

Seán O’Farrell

December 30th, 1990

April 8th, 1996

Malachy Watters Keith Rogers

March 12th, 2003

SOUTH FERMANAGH

May 13th, 1974

Neil Lafferty Paul Duffy

February 26th, 1978

December 4th, 1983

February 16th, 1992

SOUTH DOWN

VOLUNTEER

William Price

Patrick Vincent

April 26th, 1986 VOLUNTEER

Peter McNulty

January 26th, 1972 VOLUNTEER

James Carlin

August 26th, 1972 VOLUNTEER

Martin Curran

August 26th, 1972 VOLUNTEER

Leo O’Hanlon

February 10th, 1973 VOLUNTEER

Francis Rice

May 18th, 1973 VOLUNTEER

Alphonsus Cunningham July 21st, 1973

Colm McGirr

February 16th, 1992

Peter Clancy

Charlie Breslin

February 16th, 1992

VOLUNTEER

Jim Murphy

David Devine

April 24th, 1974

VOLUNTEER

February 18th, 1976

Michael Devine

February 23rd, 1985 VOLUNTEER

Declan Arthurs

July 3rd, 1972 VOLUNTEER

Hugh Heron

October 16th , 1972 VOLUNTEER

John Patrick Mullan October 16th, 1972 VOLUNTEER

Eugene Devlin

December 27th, 1972

Noel Jenkinson

Séamus Donnelly May 8th, 1987 VOLUNTEER

Tony Gormley May 8th, 1987 VOLUNTEER

Maire Drumm

October 28th, 1976

Seán Ó Conaill (PARKHURST PRISON)

Paddy Kelly

VOLUNTEER

October 25th, 1982

VOLUNTEER

November 8th, 1982

May 8th, 1987

Jim Lynagh

May 8th, 1987 VOLUNTEER

Pádraig McKearney

Peter Corrigan Jeff McKenna Paddy Brady

November 16th, 1984

John Davey

May 8th, 1987

February 14th, 1989

Gerard O’Callaghan

VOLUNTEER

October 26th, 1990

VOLUNTEER

March 7th, 1990

May 8th, 1987

Séamus Woods

Tommy Casey Sam Marshall

July 7th, 1988

Eddie Fullerton

VOLUNTEER

Pádraig O Seanacháin

Brian Mullin

August 30th, 1988

VOLUNTEER

August 30th, 1988

June 25th, 1973

(LEICESTER PRISON)

October 9th, 1976

October 1st, 1977

VOLUNTEER

Patrick Carty

July 16th, 1976

May 8th, 1987

August 30th, 1988

June 25th, 1973

June 5th, 1976

Derek Highstead

VOLUNTEER

Seán Loughran

Colm Mulgrew

VOLUNTEER

Kevin Kilpatrick May 13th, 1973

Paul Best

May 8th, 1987

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

SINN FÉIN

February 23rd, 1985

Eugene Kelly

Denis Quinn

VOLUNTEER

February 23rd, 1985

VOLUNTEER

TYRONE

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Paul Magorrian

April 10th, 1991

VOLUNTEER

July 13th, 1984

VOLUNTEER

Gerard Harte VOLUNTEER

Martin Harte VOLUNTEER

James Joseph Connolly

May 24th, 1991

August 12th, 1991

Tommy Donaghy August 16th, 1991

Bernard O’Hagan

September 16th, 1991

Pat McBride

February 4th, 1992

Paddy Loughran

VOLUNTEER

August 11th, 1973

February 6th, 1989

VOLUNTEER

August 11th, 1973

VOLUNTEER

November 29th, 1989

Sheena Campbell

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Malachy Carey

Gerard McGlynn Séamus Harvey

Daniel McAnallen August 16th, 1973

Liam Ryan

Dessie Grew

October 9th, 1990 VOLUNTEER

August 16th, 1973

Martin McCaughey

FIAN

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Séamus Harvey

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

January 16th, 1977

June 4th, 1991

Kevin Barry O’Donnell

Patrick Quinn

Michael Hughes

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

April 15th, 1976

October 18th, 1974

June 3rd, 1991

Séamus McElwain

December 15th, 1972

VOLUNTEER

Patrick Kelly

VOLUNTEER

February 16th, 1992

August 27th, 1974

June 11th, 1997

June 3rd, 1991

Brian Campbell

Patrick McKeown

Seán Hughes

VOLUNTEER

December 4th, 1983

VOLUNTEER

December 4th, 1972

VOLUNTEER

Tony Doris

VOLUNTEER

Louis Leonard

Michael Motley

Peter Cleary

VOLUNTEER

March 15th, 1974

FIAN

June 12th, 1993

VOLUNTEER

March 3rd, 1991

VOLUNTEER

Bernard Fox

December 4th, 1972

VOLUNTEER

John Quinn

February 29th, 1988

Colum Marks

December 17th, 1984

VOLUNTEER

Jim McGinn

March 3rd, 1991

VOLUNTEER

March 1st, 1983

January 20th, 1975

Colm Murtagh

Brendan Moley

August 14th, 1974

Peadar Mohan

February 1st, 1981

February 29th, 1988

Eddie Dynes

VOLUNTEER

December 24th, 1973

September 12th , 1989

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Séamus Twomey

Henry Hogan

December 5th, 1975

May 21st, 1981

FIAN

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Raymond McCreesh

August 29th, 1975

Charles McCann

VOLUNTEER

May 12th, 1981

James Templeton

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Francis Hughes

FIAN

Phelim Grant

NORTH ARMAGH

VOLUNTEER

March 23rd, 1975

VOLUNTEER

June 7th, 1990

May 5th, 1981

FIAN

Dwayne O’Donnell

VOLUNTEER

Henry Heaney

Bobby Sands

Robert Allsopp

VOLUNTEER

December 7th, 1987

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Kevin Murray

VOLUNTEER

James Moyne

January 13th, 1975

H-BLOCK MARTYRS

Michael Marley

VOLUNTEER

February 21st, 1984

December 13th, 1994

November 24th, 1973

Malcolm Nugent

VOLUNTEER

November 6th, 1974

Pól Kinsella

(WAKEFIELD PRISON)

Patrick McDonald

August 8th, 1984

February 21st, 1984

Hugh Coney

ob

Francis Stagg

Brendan Burns

Brendan Watters

VOLUNTEER

May 21st, 1981

February 12th, 1976

March 3rd, 1991

VOLUNTEER

February 5th, 1972

July 2nd, 1974

FIAN

December 15th, 1973

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Patrick Teer

Patsy O’Hara (INLA)

VOLUNTEER

June 9th, 1979

VOLUNTEER

April 1st, 1980

February 5th, 1972

May 3rd, 1974

aP

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

Teddy Campbell

hta

om

r ee d

f h s d ie d f o r I ri

Peadar McElvanna

NORTH ANTRIM

Francis Dodds

15 20

e s r i o a s son

VOLUNTEER

VOLUNTEER

September 9th, 1973

n n a e r i na hÉ

Robert Carr

Desmond Morgan

November 26th, 1973

October 9th, 1990

Noel Wilkinson March 3rd, 1991

February 4th, 1992

Danny Cassidy April 2nd, 1992

October 16th, 1992 Dec 12th, 1992

Peter Gallagher March 24th, 1993

Alan Lundy

May 1st , 1993

Pat McGeown

October 1st, 1996

COMPILED ??TH MARCH 2015

anphoblacht

• Vol. Jim O’Hanlon, Belfast • Vol. Terry Toolan, Belfast • Vol. Jackie Mooney, Belfast • Vol. Michael Neil, Belfast • Vol. John Joe Martin, Leitrim • Vol. Colm Mulvihill, Leitrim • Cathy McGartland, Belfast (Cumann na gCailíní) • Vol. Gerry McKiernan, South Armagh • Vol. Paddy Mulligan, Lisnaskea • Vol. Jimmy Connolly, Fermanagh • Vol. Stevie Scullion, Belfast • Vol. Jackie McCartan, Belfast • Vol. James E McKenna, Roslea • Vol. Charlie McGlade, Dublin • Vol. Joe Buckley, Dublin • Vol. John Joe McGirl, Leitrim • Vol. Bridie O’Neill, Belfast • Vol. Liam McDonagh, Belfast • Vol. Tim McGarry, Donegal • Vol. Liam Mullholland, Belfast • Vol. Francie McGirl, Leitrim • Vol. Packie Duffy, Monaghan • Vol. Tim Daly, Monaghan • Vol. Damien McFadden, Donegal • Vol. Mick Sheehan, Dublin • Vol. Bob Smith, Dublin • Vol. Paddy McManus, Belfast • Vol. Rita McGlynn, Dublin • Vol. Mick Murray, Dublin

• Vol. Terry Clarke, Belfast • Vol. Seán Rehill, Leitrim • Vol. Gary Toner, South Armagh • Vol. Patrick Rooney, Roslea • Vol. Tom Cahill, Belfast • Vol. JB O’Hagan, Lurgan • Vol. Jimmy Drumm, Belfast • Vol. Barney McFadden, Derry • Vol. Paddy O’Hagan, Tyrone • Vol. Johnny Copeland, Belfast • Vol. Danny O’Hagan, Belfast • Vol. Barney McKenna, Belfast • Vol. Seán Campbell, Tyrone • Vol. Anne McCoy, Toome • Fian Neil McCrory, Belfast • Vol. Eddie Brophy, Belfast • Vol. Seán O’Neill, Belfast • Vol. Kathleen Thompson, Belfast • Vol. Kathleen Carmichael, Belfast • Vol. Con McHugh, Belfast • Vol. Paddy Mullan, Derry • Vol. Jim Friel, Derry • Vol. Harry McCartney, Armagh • Vol. Joe Cahill, Belfast • Vol. Marie Wright, Belfast • Vol. Hugh Duffy, Derry • Vol. Liam Casey, South Derry • Vol. Raymond Wilkinson, Belfast • Alfie Hannaway, Belfast • Tony Curry, Belfast

• Mary Hughes, Belfast, Sinn Féin • Joe Ennis, Cavan, Sinn Féin • Jackie Callaghan, Belfast, Sinn Féin

Roll of Remembrance An Phoblacht, April / Aibreán 2015

• John Huddleston, Belfast, Sinn Féin • Pat O’Hare, Belfast, Sinn Féin • Margaret McKenna, South Derry, Sinn Féin

• Gerry Loughran, Monaghan, Sinn Féin • Harry Crawford, Belfast • Mary McGreevy, Belfast • Geraldine McMahon, Belfast • Paddy Shanahan, Dublin • Gerry Campbell, Belfast • Gonne Carmichael, Belfast • David Thompson, Belfast, Sinn Féin • Joe McGilloway, Derry, Sinn Féin • Matt Devlin, Tyrone, Sinn Féin • Brendan Dorris, Tyrone, Sinn Féin • Vol. Daithí Forde, Wexford • Vol. Kevin Fallon, Leitrim • Philip McDonald, Monaghan • Vol. Francie Caraher, South Armagh • Vol. Kevin Caherty, South Armagh • Brian Campbell, Newry • Vol. Siobhán O’Hanlon, Belfast • Vol. Eileen Hickey, Belfast • Vol. Billy Reid, Belfast • Vol. Robert Murphy, Belfast • Vol. Gerald Fearon, South Armagh • Vol. Liam Farrelly, South Armagh • Vol. Jackie McGrane, Dundalk • Vol. Eamonn McCann, Lurgan • Vol. Eugene McMahon, Fermanagh • Vol. Cathal Quinn, Tyrone • Patsy McMahon, Tyrone, Sinn Féin • Barney McAleer, Tyrone, Sinn Féin • Michael Ferguson, Belfast, Sinn Féin

• Mary McGuigan, Ardoyne • Sally Kearney, Turf Lodge • Geordie Shannon, Turf Lodge • Vol. Martin Meehan, Belfast • Vol. Owen McCaughey, Tyrone • Vol. Mickey McAnespie, Tyrone • Benny Connolly, Dublin • Brian O’Gorman, Dublin • Jim Hyland, Laois • Vol. Brian Keenan, Belfast • Vol. Eugene Cosgrove, Fermanagh • Vol. Joan Foster, Fermanagh • Vol. Pat Lynch, South Armagh • Marie Moore, Belfast, Sinn Féin • PJ Branley, Donegal, Sinn Féin • Dessie McNulty, Donegal, Sinn Féin • Éamon MacThomáis, Dublin • Robert Sloan, Dublin • Ivan Barr, Strabane, Sinn Féin • Charlie McHugh, Castlederg, Sinn Féin • Eddie Keenan, Belfast • Michael Mulrine, Donegal • Seamus Flynn, Belfast, Sinn Féin • Vol. Marshall Mooney, Belfast • Frank Kelly, Dublin • Eugene O’Neill, Donegal • Vol. Peter Hamilton, Belfast • Vol. Patrick Markey, Belfast • Vol. Robert McMahon, Belfast • Vol. Declan McCloskey, Belfast

Caith Lile na Cásca – Tabhair ómós do laochra na hÉireann | Honour Ireland’s patriot dead – Wear an Easter Lily Téigh chun do chumhneachán Cásca áitiúl | Attend your local Easter commemoration

Poblacht na hÉireann Rialtas Sealadach Phoblacht na hÉireann do mhuintir na hÉireann The Provisional Government of the Irish Republic to the people of Ireland A FHEARA AGUS A MHNÁ NA hÉIREANN : In ainm Dé agus in ainm na nglún a chuaigh romhainn agus óna bhfuair sí seanoideas na náisiúntachta, tá Éire, trínne, ag gairm a clainne faoina bratach agus ag bualadh buille ar son a saoirse.

Tar éis di a fir a eagrú agus a oiliúint ina heagraíocht rúnda réabhlóideach, Bráithreachas Phoblacht na hÉireann, agus ina heagraíochtaí míleata poiblí, Óglaigh na hÉireann agus Arm Cathartha na hÉireann, agus tar éis di a riailbhéas a thabhairt go foighneach chun foirfeachta agus feitheamh go buanseasmhach leis an bhfaill chun gnímh, tá sí ag glacadh na faille sin anois, agus, le cabhair óna clainn ar deoraíocht i Meiriceá agus ó chomh-ghuaillithe calma san Eoraip, ach, thar gach ní, le muinín as a neart dílis féin, tá sí ag bualadh buille i ndóchas iomlán go mbéarfaidh sí bua.

Dearbhaímid gur ceart ceannasach dochlóite ceart mhuintir na hÉireann chun seilbh na hÉireann, agus chun dála na hÉireann a stiúradh gan chosc gan cheataí. Níor cuireadh an ceart sin ar ceal leis an bhforghabháil a rinne pobal eachtrannach agus a rialtas air le cian d’aimsir ná ní féidir go brách a chur ar ceal ach trí dhíothú mhuintir na hÉireann. Níl aon ghlúin dá dtáinig nár dhearbhaigh pobal na hÉireann a gceart chun saoirse agus ceannas a náisiúin; sé huaire le trí chéad bliain anuas dhearbhaíodar faoi airm é.

Ag seasamh dúinn ar an gceart bunaidh sin agus á dhearbhú arís faoi airm os comhair an tsaoil, fógraímid leis seo Poblacht na hÉireann ina Stát Ceannasach Neamhspleách agus cuirimid ár n-anam féin agus anam ár gcomrádaithe comhraic i ngeall lena saoirse agus lena leas, agus lena móradh i measc na náisiún.

Dlíonn Poblacht na hÉireann, agus éilíonn sí leis seo, géillsine ó mhuintir uile na hÉireann, idir fhir agus mhná. Ráthaíonn an phoblacht saoirse creidimh agus saoirse shibhialta, comhchearta agus comhdheiseanna, dá saoránaigh uile, agus dearbhaíonn sí gurb é a rún séan agus sonas a lorg don náisiún uile agus do gach roinn di, le comhchúram do chlainn uile an náisiúin, agus le neamhairt ar an easaontas a cothaíodh d’aontoisc eatarthu ag rialtas eachtrannach agus lér deighleadh mionlucht ón tromlach san am atá imithe.

Go dtí go dtabharfaidh feidhm ár n-arm an t-ionú dúinn Buan-Rialtas Náisiúnta a bhunú ó theachtaí do phobal uile na hÉireann arna dtoghadh le vótaí a cuid fear agus ban, déanfaidh an Rialtas Sealadach, a bhunaítear leis seo, cúrsaí sibhialta agus míleata na Poblachta a riaradh thar ceann an phobail.

Cuirimid cúis Phoblacht na hÉireann faoi choimirce Dhia Mór na nUile-chumhacht agus impímid A bheannacht ar ár n-airm; iarraimid gan aon duine a bheas ag fónamh sa chúis sin do tharraingt easonóra uirthi le mílaochas, le mídhaonnacht ná le slad. San uair oirbheartach seo is é dualgas náisiún na hÉireann a chruthú, lena misneach agus lena dea-iompar agus le toil a clainne á dtoirbhirt féin ar son na maitheasa poiblí, go dtuilleann sí an réim ró-uasal is dán di.

IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom.

Having organised and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary organisation, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and through her open military organisations, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, having patiently perfected her discipline, having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes that moment, and supported by her exiled children in America and by gallant allies in Europe, but relying in the first on her own strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory.

We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades in arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations.

The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman.

The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all of the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien Government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past.

Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment of a permanent National Government, representative of the whole people of Ireland and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women, the Provisional Government, hereby constituted, will administer the civil and military affairs of the Republic in trust for the people.

We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of the Most High God, Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline, and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called.

Arna shíniú thar ceann an Rialtais Shealadaigh, | Signed on behalf of the Provisional Government,

THOMAS J. CLARKE

SEAN Mac DIARMADA THOMAS MacDONAGH

P. H. PEARSE EAMONN CEANNT

JAMES CONNOLLY JOSEPH PLUNKETT

April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

19

Former political prisoners

STILL CRIMINALISED even after Good Friday Agreement

BY PEADAR WHELAN CONTRARY to the requirements of the Good Friday Agreement, people imprisoned for conflict-related offences are still being criminalised, according to a report commissioned by ex-prisoners’ organisation Tar Isteach.

Queen’s University Belfast Professor Pete Shirlow and researcher Ciarán Hughes carried out a Survey of Conflict-Related Prisoners’ Experiences.

The findings are contained in their report An Unaddressed Legacy (January 2015) which says that the exclusion of ex-prisoners from the debate around issues of “victims and the past” is effectively excluding them from “normal social activities”.

The research was carried out among republican former prisoners in north Belfast in 2014.

It included a survey of 51 prisoners, men and women, who spent an average of seven years in jail with one in eight of those surveyed serving at least 16 years.

This continued “criminalisation”, states the report’s findings, “is contrary to the Good Friday Agreement and the costs of those exclusions are labour market exclusion, penury and reliance upon benefits”. This consequently undermines the ex-prisoners’ “good health and creates a financial burden on the state”.

The research also found that respondents who are unemployed are more than twice as likely as those who work to take anti-depressants or medication for anxiety or sleeping difficulties, say the authors.

This is compounded by the fact that, for those with conflict-related convictions, there is no equality of treatment within fair employment legislation.

Section 2(4) of the Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 states: “Any reference to a person’s opinion does not include an opinion which consists of or includes approval or acceptance of the use of violence for political ends connected with the affairs of Northern Ireland.”

This section has been used to exclude former prisoners jailed for conflict-related offences from employment.

According to Michael Culbert, Chair of Coiste na nIarchimí, the national republican ex-prisoners’ umbrella organisation: “This legislation means that employers are legally entitled to discriminate against ex-prisoners who, to a large extent, are from deprived and marginalised communities in the first place.”

The report emphasised that issues affecting former prisoners are “not merely personal issues as they influence family life, community development and the speed at which transitional progress occurs”.

It recognises the centrality of the prisoners’ issue to the nationalist community in particular, which saw up to 25,000 people go through prison during the conflict with a total time served estimated at 100,000 years.

Contrary to what many people might believe – that the situation for former prisoners has been resolved or is less relevant in the process of building the peace – the report finds that “the social, welfare and health needs of such persons are largely unaddressed, which means that welfare dependency is worsening”.

5 Political former prisoners are still facing discrimination in employment

It is in this context that the threat to the future of groups dealing with issues affecting the lives of former prisoners must be seen.

Cuts to the funding of these groups will basically “leave significant sections of those within the most deprived communities in the North without sites in which to gain representation of issues, advice and valuable counselling and emotional support”, the report argues, adding: “Protecting and developing the capacity of ex-prisoners’ groups is crucial to sustaining forms of post-conflict development and service delivery to a constituency containing many who are vulnerable, susceptible to ill-health and exposed to ongoing exclusion.”

Examples of this “ongoing exclusion” includes difficulties acquiring home and car insurance,

Coiste na nIarchimí Chairperson Michael Culbert

Tar Isteach Chairperson Paul O’Neill

The QUB report recognises the centrality of the prisoners’ issue to the nationalist community in particular, which saw up to 25,000 people go through prison during the conflict with a total time served estimated at 100,000 years restrictions on international travel, and “difficulty in accessing certain roles in society due to increasing security checks”.

The crucial role as a service provider to the ex-prisoner community by groups such as Tar Isteach is underscored by the sheer number of queries and contacts (upwards of 4,000 a year) that they deal with.

Speaking at the report launch, Tar Isteach Chair Paul O’Neill, said that were Tar Isteach and the other ex-prisoner groups to lose their funding “the communities that they serve would suffer, including an estimated 10% of people from the Protestant, unionist and loyalist community who come through our doors”.

It is ironic then, that 17 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, former prisoners see themselves, according to one respondent,

5 Up to 25,000 went to prison during the conflict

as “second-class citizens . . . demonised day and daily in the press” and scapegoated by unionist politicians with the support of the SDLP. “Ultimately,” according to report authors Shirlow and Hughes, “peace-building in Ireland rings hollow if any section continues to experience emotional, physical and exclusion problems and issues. That is all the more important if we conclude that many of those issues are worsening.”

20 April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

BY MÍCHEÁL MAC DONNCHA

JULIA GRENAN WOMAN OF 1916

IT HAS BEEN estimated that some 75 women who were members of Cumann na mBan and the Irish Citizen Army served in the GPO garrison during Easter Week 1916. When most were evacuated after the building caught fire, only three remained – Elizabeth O’Farrell, Winifred Carney and, perhaps the least well known of the three, Julia Grenan.

Julia (also known as Sheila) Grenan was a Dublin woman. She went to school in the Mercy Convent, Townsend Street. It was there she met Elizabeth O’Farrell, who was to be a lifelong friend and fellow republican. The two young women joined Inghinidhe na hÉireann, the nationalist society for women founded by Maud Gonne. Its paper, Bean na hÉireann, was influential,

being the only openly separatist journal then in existence.

When Cumann na mBan was founded in April 1914 both Julia and Elizabeth joined and the course of their lives was changed.

When the Rising began, women were at first turned away from some of the garrisons They were members of the Inghinidhe na hÉireann branch of Cumann na mBan and were among its most active. After Eoin Mac Neill’s countermanding order on Easter Sunday, the Provisional Government sent women

5 Julia Grenan served in the GPO garrison during Easter Week

5 Women of the Irish Citizen Army, Cumann na mBan and Clan na Gael in late 1916 at Ely House, including Julia Grenan (circled, seated) and Elizabeth O’Farrell (circled, standing right)

couriers throughout the country to inform the Volunteer organisation that the Rising would go ahead on Easter Monday. Julia Grenan was sent to Dundalk with this task.

When the Rising began, women were at first turned away from some of the garrisons, including the GPO, before they were allowed to participate. Julia Grenan and Elizabeth O’Farrell were attached to the Irish Citizen Army at the request of James Connolly. Julia

served as a dispatch carrier, taking messages to and from the GPO, at great risk, throughout the week.

After the evacuation of the GPO, Julia was with the garrison as it entered Moore Street and surrendered with them on Easter Saturday. Her friend, Elizabeth O’Farrell, carried the surrender note from Pearse to the British Army. Julia was one of the prisoners held overnight on the green in front of the Rotunda Hospital and was then

5 Bodenstown 23 June 1963: Joe Clarke, veteran of the Battle of Mount Street 1916; Mrs Russell, Cumann na mBan 1916 and a Republican Justice during the Tan War and imprisoned in 1922; Julia Grenan, member of GPO garrison 1916; May Daly, sister of Charlie Daly executed by Free State Forces in Drumboe in 1923; and Mrs O’Hanlon, mother of Fearghal Ó hAnnluain, killed in action with Sean Sabhat in Brookeborough in 1957

Kevin Myers stuck in the trenches BOOK REVIEW Ireland’s Great War

by Kevin Myers.

Published by Lilliput Press, €20 JOHN BRUTON thinks the 1916 Rising should never have happened and that John Redmond should be revered.

If Redmond had acted differently in 1914, this might very well have been the outcome. He could have stuck to his original call for the Irish Volunteers to remain in Ireland in defence of their country. But Redmond had long since sold his political soul to British imperialism and so he became a recruiting sergeant, leading thousands of Irishmen to their deaths

in the senseless slaughter that was the First World War. It is certainly the case that, after the war, nationalist Ireland had little time for public remembrance of those who died. Kevin Myers goes further and talks of “utter amnesia” and the “eradication of any knowledge of Irish involvement”.

But he makes no attempt to explain why this was the case, apart from his usual casting of nationalists and republicans as the villains of the piece. However, in the course of this book, perhaps unwittingly, he provides the answers.

As the slaughter escalated,recruiting in Ireland declined. Disillusionment with Redmond and hostility to the war increased. Even before the 1916 Rising and the executions there had been a

transferred to Kilmainham Jail. From her cell she heard the volleys of shots as the leaders were executed.

Julia Grenan continued as an active republican in the following years. Like many republican women she was highly critical of de Valera’s 1937 Constitution.

She and Elizabeth O’Farrell shared a home in Dublin until the latter’s death in 1957. Julia died in 1972 and she and Elizabeth O’Farrell are buried side by side in Glasnevin Cemetery.

significant fall-off in recruitment to the British Army. The Rising was followed by two years of repression, mass imprisonment, increased censorship and, finally, the threat of conscription. When the people elected the First Dáil Éireann their democratic will was spurned by the British Government.

This rare passage from Myers regarding nationalists in the north-east has wider application across Ireland also: “For a Northern Ireland state was most emphatically not what the nationalist volunteers [in the British Army] had fought for. A huge sense of injustice and betrayal amongst the nationalist community seems to have devoured all memory of its war losses.”

Not mentioned by Myers is the fact

that thousands of nationalists who had fought in the British Army formed their own organisation in 1919 and protested in Dublin against repression, calling the army in which they had served the “army of occupation”.

This is a perspective that Myers does not present.

It is worth remembering that Ireland is not alone among colonised nations in having seen large numbers of its people fight and die in imperialist armies. The great Indian National Congress leader Jawaharlal Nehru wrote: “I remember the bitter remark of an Egyptian: ‘You have not only lost your own freedom but you help the British to enslave others.’”

April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

IN PICTURES

21

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 Sinn Féin representatives including Paul Maskey, Gerry Adams and Rosie McCorley with Culture Minister Carál Ní Chuilín at the Cultúrlann in Belfast calling for the implementation of Acht na Gaeilge 5 Acht na Gaeilge Anois Day of Action across the North

Liadh ag ceann na feadhna TÁ feachtas láidir ar siúl ag an bhfeisire Eorpach Liadh Ní Riada le ceart lucht labhartha na Gaeilge san Aontas Eorpach a chinntiú. Ábhar náire don rialtas go bhfágtar ag Sinn Féin é an feachtas seo a dhéanamh.

Tá an Ghaeilge ina teanga Chonradh ó chuamar isteach sa gCómhphobal eorpach i 1973, ach ce go raibh lucht idirbheartaíochta thar ceann na hEorpa sásta aitheantas atbhairt don Ghaeilge an t-am sin mar theanga oifigiúil den Chomhphobal dúirt rialtas na linne – rialtas Jack Lynch, agus rialtas Fhine Gael/Labour ina dhiaidh – nár theastaigh uatha an stádas sin a bheith ag an teanga.

Deich mblian ó shoin thosaigh feachtas eile ag lucht labhartha na Gaeilge le stád oifigiúil a bhaint amach don teanga, mar a bhí ag mionteangacha eile ar nós na Maltaíse.

Ar ndóigh bíonn feachtaisí ar siúl i dtaobh teangacha eile ar ndóigh, eadhon an Chatalóinís agus an Bhascais. Is líonmhaire a lucht labhartha ar ndóigh, ach tá stát na Spáinne meáite ar gan aitheantas a cheadú dona teangacha seo.

Is ní thugann an Laitbh nó an Eastóin aon aitheantas don Rúisís ina stáit féin, cé go bhfuil na milliúin ina gcónaí ann nach bhfuil ach Rúisís acu.

I gcás na Gaeilge, ámh, de réir Bhunreacht an stáit, is í an Ghaeilge príomhtheanga an stáit í.

Agus rinneadh feachtas láidir ó 2002 is ar aghaidh i dtaobh stádas na Gaeilge san AE.

EOIN Ó MURCHÚ

5 Liadh Ní Riada MEP

Faoi bhrú ón bhfeachtas seo ghéill an rialtas agus tuig an tAontas Eorpach stádas don Ghaeilge mar theanga oifigiúil – a chiallaíonn go gcaithfidh caipeisí a aistriú go Gaeilge agus go bhfuil cead

ag feisirí is airí Gaeilge a labhairt ag institiúidí an Aontais.

Ach – sea ach – chinn an rialtas nach gcuirfí an t-aitheantas seo i bhféidhm go dtí 2016 agus go

Jamaican beats and Irish soul MUSIC REVIEW Another Fine Mess The Bionic Rats’ third album, is out on digital download DUBLIN’S favourite ska and reggae stalwarts are back with their third album, Another Fine Mess. An eclectic mix of political and social songs and insanely catchy ska tunes, this is a top-drawer offering from a band who deserve to be on more people’s radar.

The ubiquitous mixture of Irish wit and phraseology, frontman Derek Clabby’s Dublin accent and Jamaican rhythms gives the Rats a truly unique sound.

This unlikely Irish slant on Jamaican music is something Clabby references

in the opening track Red, Gold and Green with the lines: “I’m not Jamaican; Dublin born and bred, I don’t wanna be a natty dread; I’m not a Rastaman and I have no God; I am what I am, I am”.

Stand-out tracks include Keyboard Warriors, which launches a scathing

‘An eclectic mix of political and social songs and insanely catchy ska tunes’ attack on those who criticise and sneer at activists and protesters from the safety of their computer screens, or as the Rats put it: “Calling for a revolution while you occupy your living room.”

Bored to Tears and No Bottles, No Milk are infectiously catchy summer ska with a smattering of Irish wit that will have you humming them all the day.

On a more serious side, Distant Drums focuses on the ramping-up of aggressive rhetoric between nations in recent years, noting that “world leaders are flexing their muscles”.

Another Fine Mess is the Rats’ strongest offering yet. It’s available for digital download from thebionicrats.bandcamp. com and it’ll be five euro well spent.

You can also catch them live every week in Dublin in The Turk’s Head on a Friday night and The Foggy Dew each Sunday night.

BY MARK MOLONEY

bhféadfaí an treimhse gan aitheantas a mheadú a thuilleadh.

Mar a tharelaíonn d’fhéadfadh 180 postanna breise a chinntiu do aistritheóirí da mbeadh an t-aitheantas seo ann.

Ach, nuair a labhair an feisire Liadh Ní Riada i bParlaimint na hEorpa ina teanga dúchais féin, cuireadh isteach uirthi, á rá léí nach raibh cead aici an Ghaeilge a úsáid.

Cainteóir dhúchais Ghaeilge is ea Liadh ar ndóigh, a d’fhoghlaim Béarla ar scoil. Ach ní ar an bparlaimint ata an locht ach ar rialtas na hÉireann a dhiultaíonn lán cheart don Ghaeilge a chinntiú.

Tá Liadh ag diúltú aon teanga ach Gaeilge a labhairt, ag iarraidh brú a chur ar an bparlaimint agus naire a chur ar an rialtas se’aghainne.

Ach sí an cheist ata le cur na céard ta lucht na Gaeilge ag deanamh faoi seo. An bhfanaimid ciúin ar nós cuma linn, nó an ndéanfadh muid raic faoi?

Déanfaimis raic.

22 April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

The West is facing historical challenges again and the time has come, as The Saw Doctors once sang, to sing a powerful song. In the first of a series on 'West Life', ROBERT ALLEN follows the ghost of Pádraig Pearse into the heart of Connemara, where the laments are rising

Coming or just run without

WEST LIFE 5 The wild Atlantic on a spring day

LETTERFRACK is wrestling with its ghosts.

Twenty-five years ago, Leo Hallissey, the National School headmaster of this Connemara crossroads, feared for its future. “We’re pushing people out of the coastal areas,” he raged. “And pretending we are not. We are pushing people into urban areas. If there isn’t a dramatic intervention we like other coastal communities are going to be locked up.

“We’ll have a little bit of recreation and we’ll be left with a group of people who can afford to live here and another group of people who will be caretakers. The rest will be gone.”

Atomised by debilitating poverty, perpetual disillusionment and youthful departures, the heart was being ripped out of the region. Hallissey shouted stop, just as Charlestown journalist John Healy had shouted stop a whole generation earlier.

Both added a caveat: “Money is no longer wealth; real wealth is people”.

Healy’s book Death of An Irish Town was republished in 1988 as No One Shouted Stop to remind everyone that his wise words still held resonance.

“We don’t get mad anymore,” he proclaimed.

“In an age when television sledge-hammers its cultural values home, one is supposed to obey the smart-set cocktailed rules of double-talk and double-think, to talk with a left-handed tongue, and wrap an honest protest in the unctuous language of a doubtful compliment.”

The problem, according to Healy, arose in the social consequences of rapid technological change. Rural people, instead of becoming masters of the technology, had become slaves without a voice. “We must educate our people to demand, and we must educate our rulers to accept, that we must now embark on a national campaign for rural renewal.”

There is craic, there is empowerment Life in Connemara or anywhere along the western seaboard of Ireland is not easily explained. There is culture, there is craic, there is empowerment.

The Wild Atlantic Way is characterised by the seasonal flow that brings tourists, blow-ins and

5 Ten FORUM workers face an uncertain 5 A large crowd gave their support to FORUM future if funding is not restored

non-natives into the area to admire its rugged beauty, to celebrate a culture that takes them away from their lives in the fast lanes of the materialist world. At the peak of this flow there is paid work in the B&Bs, hostels, hotels, pubs, restaurants, shops and tourist businesses.

Sadly, there is also the continuing erosion of community.

But in Letterfrack back in 1989 the heart was still beating, albeit quietly.

North-west Connemara was seen as one of the most depressed areas in Europe and the establishment of a rural project that went under the name of FORUM Connemara gave the community hope.

When it started in March 1990 it was one of 27 action projects in a European Union poverty programme that aimed to foster economic and social integration among disadvantaged communities. Funding came initially from the EU poverty programme, then from various EU and state initiatives.

FORUM was seen as an attempt to alleviate the problems of disempowerment by providing services for carers and families, the elderly and unemployed, and farmers, people with disabilities and youth.

Almost 100 groups were established with the assistance of FORUM across the social spectrum.

Yvonne Keane and Brendan O’Malley are among a

would change to the Clifden train, disembarking at Maam Cross for a pony and trap to his cottage in Ros Muc, in south-west Connemara.

At the end of the 19th century it was easier to get to Ros Muc by public transport than it is now. Maam Cross was a busy junction, often teeming with activity. Farmers came to buy and sell, and those who wanted to rest their heads could do so in comfort in the station hotel and other hostelries.

But the railway closed in the 1930s, and Peacocke’s pub and shop became the hub of activity until the 1970s, when a hotel was added and attracted teenagers at weekends from as far away as Clare and Mayo. Then the ghosts returned and everyone swapped their memories.

Now Peacocke’s is back, and once again Maam Cross is the centre of attention.

Old themes heard again

5 Brid and Eoin Burke of Clonbur

core group in the FORUM office in the Connemara West complex administering these services and numerous social inclusion programmes. For some time now, the hand of fate has rested heavily on their shoulders. And now they are very worried.

Pádraig Pearse took the train Connemara is much larger than it seems from the outside.

In the years before 1916, Pádraig Pearse travelled from Dublin to the beating heart of Connemara by train. He would board a train at Broadstone station and, on reaching ‘The City of the Tribes’,

It is the end of a remarkable blue-sky day – a portent perhaps. Peacocke’s is filling up. Liam is pulling pints, Ciarán is helping and Shelley is making sure that everyone is getting what they want.

Bríd and Eoin Burke, who acquired the hotel, pub and shop when they bought the mart in July 2014, are interested in the history of Maam Cross. And why wouldn’t they be? This has been a crossing in central Connemara for countless centuries. It is where everyone comes to meet, especially on an evening like this, with FORUM’s future at stake.

As the crowd gathers from the four corners of Connemara, signatures are collected. The room is quickly occupied. For late-comers it is standing room only. When the talking starts, there are 700 people listening.

Hearing the debate, Liam comments that of the 42 who were with him in the last year of school in Carna, only five remain, “and four of them are on the dole”.

The old themes are being discussed. For some it is déjà vu. They heard them before at the conferences on “rural development policy and the future for rural Ireland” and on “developing the west together” in the early 1990s. That was

April / Aibreán 2015

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5 The Wild Atlantic Way is attracting tourists to the extreme shores of the West

5 Peacocke's in Maam Cross was reopened in 2014

when the whole country seemed to be showing sympathy for the west.

And, once again, there is a cry of “stop”.

Here we are, back to the future.

The American linguist Noam Chomsky placed these issues in a global context when he discussed the rules of neo-liberalism and state intervention.

“For those who are unwilling to accept these rules, traditional tasks remain: to challenge and unmask illegitimate authority, and to work with others to undermine it and to extend the scope of freedom and justice.”

The paranoia of politicians Tony Varley has taught political science and sociology at the National University of Ireland in Galway for a very long time. He is nearing retirement, a compulsory event, and as he looks back he sees a theme in the history of community empowerment.

Politicians fear the disparate community movement, even the tendency based on inclusive/integrationist assumptions, as a potentially alternative, non-party power base in Irish society.

Yet this fear tells us more about the paranoia of politicians because the disparity is paradigmatic itself, particularly in the west of Ireland, because empowerment groups represent communities on their last legs.

And like battle-weary combatants – bloodied, bruised and broken – many of these communities have nothing left to offer. Shouting stop does not appear to work.

Varley’s observations are highly relevant because he has identified through a purely pragmatic analysis the major problem these particular social movements face in modern Ireland.

Organising communities to represent their own interests has been an historical tradition of relative failure. From Muintir na Tíre (‘People of the Land’) to Clann na Talmhan (‘Family of the Land’), Save the West, and Developing the West, rural renewal has been a constant theme since the 1930s, and each time an “overly interventionist state” has destroyed the continuity of the initiatives.

Varley is not alone in concluding that the progressive decline of the west will inevitably persist as long as the centralising policies of the state continue to operate.

Former bureaucrat Tom Barrington rallied, for more than three decades, against the centralised system of government which, he said, left the people of Ireland “politically disempowered, economically impoverished, a laggard nation morally deprived”.

He realised that the weakness lay within the people themselves by allowing “a system of government heavily biased towards bureaucracy” instead of one “based on the democratic spirit of the people” galvanised by vigorous local empowerment.

23

Forging their own destinies

5 Pádraig Pearse travelled by train into the heartland of Connemara

5 Visitors will get a glimpse of the old ways when the cottage is reopened for 2016

For FORUM, the desire to avoid conflict and to establish a partnership relationship with the state may ultimately fail to bear the fruit they deserve for their efforts.

Brendan O’Malley remains optimistic but others, with a more cynical stance, have realised (perhaps too late) that the real problem remains partnership itself, because the bureaucrats in national and regional government do not want community empowerment. “They have disenfranchised us,” says O'Malley in a sharp tone that might denote irony.

Community development, says Varley, has been possible only on the basis of close and formalised co-operation between voluntary groups and various arms of the state. The argument that community development should be built around small enterprise has never been accepted, and the whole idea of establishing a society based on small-scale artisans and producers is “almost utopian”.

Yet this is exactly what was demanded in the 1930s, 1960s and 1990s.

The need to build strong vibrant communities capable of overseeing their own local development was constantly stressed. Proposals for a strategy for rural development, based on agri-tourism, cultural tourism, food tourism, model and organic farming, open education and training centres, were drawn and redrawn down the years and each time the demands were diluted.

Father James McDyer, one of the architects of the 1960s Save the West campaign, insisted that people had to unite, form community co-operatives and embark on job creation. This, he said, would be the only way they could forge their own destinies.

“We were expecting to celebrate 25 years of FORUM,” says Hallissey gloomily, sitting in the kitchen of his home at the edge of time, the wild Atlantic splashing against the shore. “We weren’t expecting this.”

That’s west life. Ghosts among the living!

24 April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

www.guengl.eu

Funded by the European United Left/ Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Aontas Clé na hEorpa/Na Glasaigh Chlé Nordacha Crúpa Paliminta – Parlaimimt na h Eorpa

GUE/NGL condemns Israel’s continued refusal to grant MEPs entry to Gaza GUE/NGL MEPs Martina Anderson and Neoklis Sylikiotis, who are taking part in a cross-political delegation of MEPs to Palestine, were held for questioning for over two hours in Tel Aviv Airport on 17 March before being told that they would not be able to visit Gaza – with no justification given to explain the refusal.

The official delegation, which was set to visit Gaza the following day, aimed to assess the extent of destruction after the 2014 war and identify areas in dire need of public services.

Irish MEP Martina Anderson, the chair of the Delegation, commented: “It is unacceptable that an official EU delegation to Palestine has been denied entry to inspect the humanitarian situation and the destruction

Lola Sánchez Caldentey MEP

Medicines research must serve public heath priorities, not big-pharma profits GUE/NGL MEP Lola Sánchez Caldentey has spoken in a European Parliament debate on the Ebola crisis and the flaws in the global biomedical research model.

The Spanish MEP said: “Ebola clearly illustrates how patents and licences prevent people from getting access to medicines. Ebola essentially got out of control because it was not profitable to research and develop medicines to treat it.

‘Ebola was not profitable to research and develop medicines to treat it – those with the money can get the medicine and those without are effectively left for dead’ “The current biomedical research model enriches a minority and is detrimental to global health – the logic of this model is that those with the money can get the medicine and those without are effectively left for dead.

“Patents mean that we don’t develop the necessary medication for Ebola. Research into new medicine is not oriented by public health needs, but rather by profit and the interests of big-pharma. We need to research things that are beneficial to all society. The EU should show leadership in promoting new forms of biomedical research.”

She concluded: “We are talking about lives here – whose side is the Commission on?”

‘What is Israel so keen to hide from the world?’ in Gaza given that the EU is the largest donor of finance to Palestinians.

“Despite stating clearly that the remit of this delegation was to identify areas in dire need of vital public services such as schools, health centres and food distribution centres – with a purely social, economic and humanitarian focus – we continue to be blocked.”

In September 2014, a previous delegation of 13 GUE/NGL MEPs was denied entry to Gaza.

Cypriot MEP Neoklis Sylikiotis said: “These are blatant attempts to deter us from our mission but we will take this opportunity to visit East Jerusalem which has been experiencing a lot of tension over the last year particularly over illegal settlements, house demolitions and access to the Al Aqsa compound. We will also

5 Martina Anderson MEP meets Dr Nabil Shaat, Commissioner of International Relations for Fatah

5 Martina Anderson MEP and Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat

meet UNRWA representatives. We will continue our fight to free Gaza and end Israel’s illegal apartheid.”

Martina Anderson concluded: “It is unacceptable that an official EU delegation to Palestine is refused entry to inspect the humanitarian situation and the destruction in Gaza given that the EU is largest donor of finance to Palestinians. This has to stop.

“Refusing MEPs entry to Gaza has become a worrying trend. What is Israel so keen to hide from the world?”

The other MEPs on the delegation were Margrete Auken (Greens/EFA, Denmark) and Edouard Martin (S&D, France).

Energy Union must put people before energy companies IN TERMS of access to energy supplies, the security of supply with citizens’ needs and interests of people should be put before those of multinational corporations, GUE/NGL President Gabi Zimmer said ahead of EU leaders meeting to discuss plans for an Energy Union.

Gabi Zimmer said: “I get the impression that the Council and Commission have not really addressed the

‘Fracking is the issue that connects TTIP and the Energy Union’ basic issues behind the Energy Union: access to energy supplies and the fact that people should be centre-stage. Security of supply and stability should not be addressed from the point of view of corporations but from that of human beings.

“While the Council says it wants the EU to be both number one when it comes to renewables

GUE/NGL President Gabi Zimmer MEP

and less import-dependent, what it puts forward does not go in this direction. We are not moving towards change.”

Speaking about the link between Energy Union and the ongoing negotiations for an

EU-US trade deal (TTIP), MEP Zimmer added: “Fracking is the issue that connects TTIP and the Energy Union. Fracking is one of the topics that will serve as a basis for discussions and that is why you want to accelerate TTIP. As far as we are concerned, fracking is not appropriate and will lead to even more climate change.

We want something different.”

GUE/NGL Vice-President Neoklis Sylikiotis reiterated that energy is a basic common good and that it should not be something that allows multinationals to make soaring profits.

“The Energy Union package must address energy poverty first and foremost. It should allow equal access to all and establish an energy infrastructure that will support the people. We need to look at energy agreements between the EU and third countries. We need to adopt specific measures so that certain member states can solve their energy supply problems. We need an Energy Union that will be supported by an end to austerity policies.”

April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

25

Another Europe is possible Treo eile don Eoraip Liadh Ní Riada

Matt Carthy

Europe must fight all forms of racism and extremism

Martina Anderson

GUE/NGL MEPs have strongly condemned all acts and forms of racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and xenophobia. They also called for perpetrators to be punished and for all forms of stigmatism to be eradicated from our societies.

Speaking in a European Parliament debate on 11 March, Greek MEP Kostas Chrysogonos warned: “Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and extremism are particular forms of a racist

‘Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and extremism are particular forms of a racist mentality and in the worst cases perpetrators shed all vestiges of humanity in their hate’ mentality and in the worst cases perpetrators shed all vestiges of humanity in their hate. We must condemn these phenomena in the same way as we condemned the Holocaust after the Second World War. Public condemnation and public punishment of racism is absolutely necessary so that it can be eradicated from Europe.”

French MEP Marie-Christine Vergiat said: “Over the past few years a climate

5 Greek MEP Kostas Chrysogonos, French MEP Marie-Christine Vergiat, German MEP Cornelia Ernst, Spanish MEP Marina Albiol Guzmán and French MEP Younous Omarjee

of hatred has been rising in the EU and there have been some stop-gap solutions on the political level. But we have to combat racism together. Anti-Semistism and Islamophobia feed into each other.

Muslims have been stigmatised after 9/11 and anyone with the wrong colour skin is discriminated against whether they are believers or not. We participate in this stigmatisation. We need more awareness, the separation of religion and politics and the possibility for people to express themselves religiously as if they were expressing an opinion.”

Evoking racist and anti-semitic events in Dresden over the past year, German MEP Cornelia Ernst said:

“It’s not religion, it’s the fact that people are stigmatised, they are alienated and humiliated. They can’t express their individuality. That’s what happened in Auschwitz – the lesson from Auschwitz should be that the alienation of people is anti-human.

We’ve got to get rid of racism. We’ve got to take social cohesion seriously within the European Union.”

Spanish MEP Marina Albiol Guzmán condemned the fact that Islamophobic and xenophobic discussions have been held in this Parliament.

“On 15 January, a French Front National MEP made declarations here talking about the Islamisation of France and linking Islam with terrorism. This is hate discourse and

feeds intolerance and violence. GUE/NGL asked President Schultz to penalise this but nothing was done. Not penalising this type of xenophobic activity is giving wings to hatred and intolerance.”

French MEP Younous Omarjee expressed his concern that European societies are getting closer to rupture.

“The demonic threat that is breaking up our societies and the plague that is closing in on our democracies is something we have to defy. The only way we can do that is to act together, to build on the bases of our values and fight tooth and nail against all forms of racism, religious fanaticism and fascism. It also means we have to make culture prevail over ignorance.”

Lynn Boylan

are MEPs and members of the GUE/NGL Group in the European Parliament

26 April / Aibreán 2015 AN PHOBLACHT recently published a feature by Robert Allen about the writer Walter Macken, who died in 1967 at the age of 51. Macken has been described by the Connaught Tribune as “Galway’s neglected genius of literature,” and the centenary of his birth takes place this May. Danny Morrison remembers in his teens discovering with excitement Macken’s trilogy – Seek The Fair Land (1959), The Silent People (1962) and The Scorching Wind (1964) – a literature which presented and dealt empathetically with earlier periods in the struggle for Irish freedom: namely, Cromwell’s invasion of Ireland; the Famine of the 1840s; and the Easter Rising and subsequent Tan War and Civil War.

www.anphoblacht.com

DANNY MORRISON WA LT E R M A C K E N

Loyal provincialist “IT’S A STRANGE THING,” says a character in The Bogman, “that nothing is more boring than eternal fertility.”

That sentiment, and a dislike for everything east of Galway City, are common themes running through four reissued novels of Walter Macken, all of which are set in the bleak and rugged landscapes of Connemara, its interiors and shorelines.

When people hear the word ‘Connemara’, according to Stephen O’Riordan’s dying mother in Quench The Moon, “they immediately think of wild animals and pagans.”

But, she argues, being uncorrupted by civilisation means “the Connemara people are still living. Everything they do is dramatic. When they love, they love unashamedly and tempestuously and in a healthy manner. When they fight, they fight with ferocity . . . Their whole life is a fight against something.”

But if Stephen wants to become a writer, she tells him, then he must leave, he must see the world.

(In real life, Macken believed that a writer should not leave his own country, much like the Russian poet Nikolay Gumilyov who wrote: “A great poet always shares the fate of his nation, regardless of what political programme he supports.”)

Donn Donnshléibhe, on the other hand, is drawn back to the Mountain 16 years after having walked out on his pregnant wife in 1939, hours after marrying. He has roamed the world, and fought in wars.

Donn, a powerful personality, belatedly realises that he belongs to this society and is the moving force behind bringing the people electricity, mains water, farming equipment, entertainment, and confronting the church

Macken told his wife, Peggy, that his objective was to write the history of his people from the point of view of the ordinary man. “Before I die I want to do the history of our own people from the viewpoint of the little man, not all the bigshots and the people who have done 100 things or anything like that.”

The publication of the trilogy was preceded by Macken’s earlier novels, Rain On The Wind and Bogman, and succeeded by his later works, Quench The Moon and Brown Lord Of The Mountain. Fifteen years ago, when those four books were reissued by Brandon, Danny Morrison re-read the novels and wrote this assessment of Walter Macken’s writing which he has enlarged upon for this An Phoblacht feature.

In the early 1970s, there wasn’t a Long Kesh hut without Walter Macken’s books – 'The Scorching Wind' probably being the most popular

along the way. However, he becomes disillusioned and blames the entire community when his developmentally disabled daughter, a beautiful, simple girl, is raped by a thankless youth whom he befriended and discouraged from emigrating by giving him a loan for a tractor.

He becomes a slave of his own determination to exact revenge and darkens the skies over the Mountain. But, ultimately, it is the people who intervene and stop him from killing the culprit – and, although grateful, Donn feels that he must leave once more.

Macken (1915-1967) often appears restless with this characters, as if he cannot decide whether his creations can survive happily in Connemara.

Certainly, the more sophisticated, like Cahal Kinsella, the eponymous bogman, has to flee the mob with his maimed girlfriend, Marie Brodel, having satirised their narrow parochial ways in his songs as a release from his claustrophobic, loveless, arranged marriage to a woman twice his age.

And Stephen O’Riordan, writer manqué, comes back to Killaduff to collect his bride only to discover that she had been drowned by her brother whom he then murders, before being knifed himself and left for dead by two other vengeful brothers.

Macken, however, is no Zola and these novels are no Irish equivalents of Earth or Germinal. The violence is sanitised; sex is implied.

The later work, Brown Lord of the Mountain (which with The Bogman is the most accomplished) was published in 1967, just before Macken’s death at the age of 51. It is consummately drawn, free of the quaintness and

April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

27

Seán Ó Faoláin has observed that ‘there was hardly an Irish writer who was not on the side of the movement for political independence’ but . . .

maudlinism of Quench the Moon (banned in 1948 because it describes a pregnancy outside of marriage!), which is also marred by the ‘begorraism’ of an occasional, extremely irritating, narrative voice which slips in and out of the vernacular like Darby O’Gill on poitín.

Macken was a loyal provincialist and probably his critical reputation suffered for it.

As an author, he would never be mentioned with the same reverence as Peadar O’Donnell (Donegal) or Patrick Kavanagh (Monaghan), his contemporaries who were readily admitted to the literary Pale, though he was a credited dramatist. He wrote several plays in Irish and was, for a time, a prominent actor in the Abbey Theatre (and also played a leading role in the film, The Quare Fellow). His novels were received well in America but he is survived more by his historical trilogy, comprising Seek the Fair Land, The Silent People and The Scorching Wind, than by his other novels and plays.

The trilogy, despite the last volume’s portentous ending in tragic fratricide, is commonly taken as eulogising the cause of Irish nationalism. Certainly, it was tacitly appropriated, post-1969, into the republican canon as a populist text reflecting continuity of struggle against the traditional outside enemy. I remember buying several copies of each and passing them around my friends who devoured them, such were we in the North starved of anything literary that spoke to our political stirrings. In the early 1970s, there wasn’t a Long Kesh hut without those books – The Scorching Wind probably being the most popular.

Seán Ó Faoláin has observed that “there was hardly an Irish writer who was not on the side of the movement for political independence” but that “immediately it was achieved, they became critical of the nation”. A variation, I suppose, on Adorno’s “quintessential intellectual, hating all systems, on our side or theirs, with equal distaste”.

I can understand the temptation though I’ve never been entirely convinced that it isn’t a contrived stance, this utter ‘independence’. To be critical for the sake of being critical. Artists are often notoriously pompous asses. How they suffer!

Many of Macken’s characters belong to isolated communities which are alienated from the centre. Veterans of

Many of Macken’s characters belong to isolated communities which are alienated from the centre

the war for independence complain about being sold out socially and economically, but also that ‘the common man’ is a victim of the Establishment. Their children still have to emigrate. A medical student who comes to the city notes that louts, ignoramuses and oppressors lead the country. All politicians are swindlers and thieves.

But up here the guards’ writ does not run. Macken doesn’t seem able to make up his mind about the “primitive ways of protection” (summary justice) which, although demotic, is open to the abuse of being yet another ‘system’. And his characters agonise over the loss of the old ways, the old values.

Eventually, he comes down on the side of restraint; on the side of progress and modernisation. That things are changing and can change for the better: slate replacing thatch; artificial fertiliser in place of seaweed. “Someday what I’m going to do concerns Connemara,” pledges Stephen, promising to merge art and life.

Macken is also a romantic and inevitably comes down on the side of love.

Mico the fisherman, in Rain on the Wind, decides not to kill himself, not to sink his boat and deprive his family of a livelihood, and turns to the shore to find beckoning him the girl he thought didn’t love him, along with his

friends and family. But Cahal Kinsella embraces exile because it means a fresh start for him and Máire.

Donn Donnshleibhe can see no solution for himself but exile, only to discover his forgiving wife, whom he thought had rejected him, is pregnant and has the solution in her suggestion that they live at the bottom of the Mountain for a change. He then realises that he came back to Ireland, to Connacht, for love: “It is the only thing left to believe in, the tie between two people.”

Macken’s storytelling is old-fashioned to our modern ear, but that is a minor complaint. Perhaps the thatch is gone for good, but when we read a Keane or the McCabes we find that out there in the sticks is the same bitchiness and ugliness and milk of human kindness that land and the wilds universally evoke in human nature.

DANNY MORRISON

is a former Editor of An Phoblacht. He is the author of several novels, many centred on the most recent conflict in the North of Ireland. His acclaimed West Belfast has just been updated and reissued to mark 25 years since it was first published.

28 April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

1916 Easter Commemorations 2015 Please check www.anphoblacht.com or www.sinnfein.ie for updates or changes ARMAGH LOUTH Attend your SATURDAY 4 APRIL We declare the right of the people SATURDAY 4 APRIL 10.30am Maghery, local Easter 12.00 Quay Street, Dundalk, of Ireland to the ownership of 12noon Portadown, Speaker: Catherine Seeley 2.00pm Knockbridge, commemoration 4.00pm Killean, red SUNDAY 5 APRIL Ireland and to the unfette Wreath-Laying Ceremony

Wreath-Laying Ceremony Wreath-Laying Ceremony

Wreath-Laying Ceremony Dromintee, Wreath-Laying Ceremony

5.00pm SUNDAY 5 APRIL 9.45am Crossmaglen, Speaker: Mickey Brady 10.00am Keady, Wreath-Laying Ceremony 10.30am Camlough, Speaker: Carál Ní Chuilín 10.45 am Tullysaran, Wreath-Laying Ceremony 11.30 am Derrymacash, Speaker: Catherine Seeley 2.00pm Ballymacnab, Speaker: Seán Hughes 2.30pm Lurgan, Speaker: Catherine Seeley 4.30pm Cullyhanna, Speaker: Megan Fearon MONDAY 6 APRIL 11.00am Blackwatertown, Wreath-Laying Ceremony 2.00pm Armagh City, Speaker: Mickey Brady

BELFAST

FRIDAY 3 APRIL 1.00pm Ormeau Road, Fian Jim Templeton Memorial, Wreath-Laying Ceremony SATURDAY 4 APRIL 2.30pm Whitewell, Wreath-Laying Ceremony 5.00pm Short Strand, An Tine Beo 5.30pm South Link Memorial Gardens, Andersonstown, Speaker: Paul Maskey 5.30pm Colin, Twinbrook Memorial, Speaker: Arder Carson SUNDAY 5 APRIL 10.30am Memorial Garden, Market Area, Speaker: Máirtín Ó Muilleoir 11.00am Carrick Hill, Wreath-Laying Ceremony 12.15pm Clonard Martyrs Memorial Garden, Wreath-Laying Ceremony

• Main Commemoration: 1.00pm Beechmount Avenue, Speaker: Gerry Kelly MONDAY 6 APRIL 12noon Newington, Wreath-Laying Ceremony 1.00pm New Lodge, Speaker: Gerry Kelly TUESDAY 7 APRIL 1.00pm Ardoyne, Speaker: Gerry Kelly 3.00pm New Barnsley, Speaker: Paul Maskey

CAVAN

SUNDAY 5 APRIL 2.30pm Kilnaleck, Speaker: Kathryn Reilly

CARLOW/KILKENNY

SATURDAY 4 APRIL 12noon Mooncoin, Wreath-Laying Ceremony 2.30pm Tullow, Speaker: Martin McGuinness

CLARE

SUNDAY 5 APRIL 2.00pm Drumcliff, Ennis, Speaker: Dessie Ellis

CORK

SATURDAY 4 APRIL 7.30pm Bantry, Speaker: Rachel McCarthy SUNDAY 5 APRIL 11.00am Macroom, Wreath-Laying Ceremony 11.00am Youghal, Speaker: Jonathan O’Brien 11.00am Clonakilty, Speaker: Rachel McCarthy 12.30pm Bandon, Speaker: Liadh Ní Riada 2.30pm Cork City, Speaker: Liadh Ní Riada

DERRY & ANTRIM

SATURDAY 4 APRIL

Wreath-Laying Ceremonies

4pm Glenariff; 5pm Glenravel; 5.45pm Cargin, 6.30pm Moneyglass; 7.15pm Park Village SUNDAY 5 APRIL 12noon Dungiven, Speaker: Dermot Nicholl 1.00pm Kilrea, Speaker: Caoimhe Archibald 2.00pm Westland Street, Derry City, Speaker: Gearóid Ó hEára 2.30pm The Loup, Speaker: Francie Molloy

Wreath-Laying Ceremonies

10am Rasharkin; 10.30am Maghera; 10.45am Coolcalm; 10.45am Newbridge; 11.40am Lavey; 11.45am Bellaghy; 11.45am Dunloy; 12.30pm Loughgiel; 1.00pm Shantallow, Racecourse Road; 1.00pm Waterside, Rose Court; 1.30pm Creggan, Central Drive; 1.30pm Bogside, Lecky Road; 1.30pm Brandywell.

MONDAY 6 APRIL 2.30pm Swatragh, Speaker: Raymond McCartney

DONEGAL

SUNDAY 5 APRIL 9.00am Drumkeen, Wreath-Laying Ceremony 10.00am Donegal Town, Clar, Wreath-Laying Ceremony

control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible

12 noon St Peter’s Church, Drogheda, Speaker: Imelda Munster 2.30pm Market Square, Dundalk, Speaker: Imelda Munster

MAYO

SUNDAY 5 APRIL 10.00am Achill Island, Wreath-Laying Ceremony 3.00pm Ballina, Speaker: Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

MEATH

Téigh chun do chumhneachán Cásca áitiúl

Honour Ireland’s patriot dead – Wear an Easter Lily

The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty,

SATURDAY 4 APRIL Main Commemoration: 4.00pm Oldcastle, Speaker: Darren O’Rourke SUNDAY 5 APRIL 12.00 Ardbraccen, Speaker: Joe Reilly 12.00 Ballinlough, Speaker: Johnny Guirke 12.00 Drumree, Speaker: Maria O’Kane 12.00 Longwood, Speaker: Caroline Lynch 12.00 Navan, Speaker: Sineád Burke 12.00 Slane, Speaker: Eimear Ferguson 2.00pm Ashbourne, Speaker: Darren O’Rourke

MONAGHAN

equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and

Caith Lile na Cásca – Tabhair ómós do laochra na hÉireann

prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all of the children of the nation equally

SATURDAY 4 APRIL 7.30pm Inniskeen, Wreath-Laying Ceremony SUNDAY 5 APRIL 3.30pm Monaghan Town, Speaker: Michelle Gildernew MONDAY 6 APRIL 12.00am Scotshouse, Speaker: Rosie McCorley 2.00pm Clones, Speaker: Rosie McCorley

OFFALY

SATURDAY 4 APRIL 2.00pm Kinnity, Wreath-Laying Ceremony SUNDAY 5 APRIL 2.00pm Clara, Speaker: Carol Nolan

ROSCOMMON

SUNDAY 5 APRIL 2.00pm Ballintubber, Speaker: Matt Carthy

SLIGO 10.30am Glencolmcille, Speaker: Noel Jordan 11.00am Letterkenny, Speaker: Gerry McMonagle 12noon Drumoghill, Speaker: Gerry McMonagle 12 noon Castlefinn, Speaker: Gary Doherty 12.45pm Buncrana, Speaker: Jack Murray 12 noon Gweedore, Speaker: John Sheamais Ó Fearraigh • Main Commemoration: 3.00pm Drumboe, Speaker: Martina Anderson MONDAY 6 APRIL 12.30pm Carrigart, Speaker: Mick Quinn 3.00pm Pettigo, Speaker: Martin Kenny 3.00pm Fanad, Speaker: Mick Quinn

DOWN

SATURDAY 4 APRIL 7.00 pm Downpatrick, Chris Hazzard SUNDAY 5 APRIL 12.15 pm Patrick Street, Newry City, Speaker: Mickey Brady 3.15pm Down Road Car Park, Newcastle, WreathLaying Ceremony

4.00pm Lower Square, Castlewellan, Speaker: Chris Hazzard

DUBLIN

FRIDAY 3 APRIL 1.00 Arbour Hill, Speaker: Mary Lou McDonald SATURDAY 4 APRIL 11.00am Ballyfermot, Speaker: Daithí Doolan 12.30pm South East Inner City, Speaker: Máire Devine 3.00pm Crumlin, Speaker: Ray McHugh SUNDAY 5 APRIL 11.00am Glasnevin Cemetery, Speaker: Paul Donnelly • Main Commemoration: 2.30pm Garden of Remembrance, Speaker: Mary Lou McDonald MONDAY 6 APRIL 12.00noon Clondalkin, Speaker: Eoin Ó Broin 3.00pm Deans Grange, Dún Laoghaire

FERMANAGH

SUNDAY 5 APRIL 2.00pm Donagh, Speaker: Gerry Adams

GALWAY

SATURDAY 4 APRIL 3.00pm Eyre Square, Galway City, Speaker: Caoimhghín ÓCaoláin 6.00pm Oranmore, Wreath-Laying Ceremony SUNDAY 5 APRIL 2.00pm Ballinasloe, Speaker: Micheal Colreavey 1.00pm Ros Muc, Speaker: Trevor Ó Clochartaigh MONDAY 6 APRIL 2.30pm Ard Béar Cemetery, Clifden, Wreath-Laying Ceremony

3.00pm Clifden, Conamara, Speaker: Trevor Ó Clochartaigh 5.00pm Tullycross, Speaker: Trevor Ó Clochartaigh

KERRY

SUNDAY 5 APRIL • Main Commemoration: 12.30pm Tralee, Speaker: Martin Ferris

KILDARE

SATURDAY 4 APRIL 2.00 pm Newbridge, Speaker: Réada Cronin

LAOIS

SUNDAY 5 APRIL 3.00pm, Speaker: Brian Stanley

SUNDAY 5 APRIL 3.00pm Sligo Town, Speaker: Martin Kenny

TIPPERARY

SUNDAY 5 APRIL 2.30pm Fethard, Speaker: Sandra McLellan 3.00pm Nenagh

TYRONE

SATURDAY 4 APRIL 1.00pm Ardboe, Wreath-Laying Ceremony 3.00pm Coalisland, Speaker: Francie Molloy SUNDAY 5 APRIL 7.00pm Carrickmore, Speaker: Pat Doherty For other Tyrone commemorations see: www.tyronecommemorations.com

WATERFORD

SATURDAY 4 APRIL 3.00pm Waterford City SUNDAY 5 APRIL 12 noon Portlaw, Speaker: Aengus Ó Snodaigh 2.30pm Waterford County, Speaker: Aengus Ó Snodaigh

WESTMEATH

MONDAY 6 APRIL 3.00pm Tyrrellspass, Speaker: Paul Hogan

WEXFORD

SATURDAY 4 APRIL 3.00pm Athea Village, Speaker: Liza Sheehy SUNDAY 5 APRIL 11.45 Limerick City, Speaker: Maurice Quinlivan

THURSDAY 2 APRIL 7.30pm New Ross SATURDAY 4 APRIL 12.30pm Riverchapel, Wreath-Laying Ceremony 6.00pm Ballymore, Wreath-Laying Ceremony SUNDAY 5 APRIL 2.30pm Wexford Town, Speaker: Johnny Mythen MONDAY 6 APRIL 11.00am Murrintown, Speaker: Johnny Mythen 2.30pm Enniscorthy, Speaker: Barry McElduff

LONGFORD

WICKLOW

LEITRIM

SUNDAY 5 APRIL 3.00pm Bornacoola, Speaker: Pearse Doherty

LIMERICK

SUNDAY 5 APRIL 2.00pm Legan, Speaker: Paul Hogan

MONDAY 6 APRIL 12 noon Bray, Speaker: Seán Lynch

April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

I nDíl Chuimhne 1 April 1980: Volunteer Robert CARR, Newry Brigade.

2 April 1987: Volunteer Laurence MARLEY, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

2 April 1992: Danny CASSIDY, Sinn Féin.

4 April 1971: Volunteer Tony HENDERSON, Belfast Brigade, 1st Battalion.

4 April 1989: Volunteer Gerard CASEY, North Antrim Brigade.

4 April 1994 Volunteer John O’RAWE, Belfast Brigade, 1st Battalion.

5 April 1976: Volunteer Seán McDERMOTT, Belfast Brigade, 1st Battalion.

7 April 1972: Volunteer Samuel HUGHES, Volunteer Charles McCRYSTAL, Volunteer John McERLEAN, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

8 April 1996: Volunteer Eugene MARTIN, South Armagh Brigade.

9 April 1974: Volunteer Daniel BURKE, Belfast Brigade, 1st Battalion.

29

All notices and obituaries should be sent to notices@anphoblacht.com by Friday 17 April 2015 10 April 1991: Volunteer Colum MARKS, South Down Command.

12 April 1973: Volunteer Edward O’RAWE, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

15 April 1976: Volunteer Peter CLEARY, South Armagh Brigade.

17 April 1973: Volunteer Brian SMYTH, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

17 April 1977: Volunteer Trevor McKIBBIN, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

21 April 1984: Volunteer Richard QUIGLEY, Derry Brigade.

23 April 1977: Volunteer Brendan O’CALLAGHAN, Belfast Brigade, 1st Battalion.

24 April 1974: Jim MURPHY, Sinn Féin.

25 April 1979: Volunteer Billy CARSON, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

26 April 1975 Volunteer Noel LAFFERTY, Tyrone Brigade.

26 April 1986 Volunteer Séamus McELWAIN, South Fermanagh Brigade.

Always remembered by the Republican Movement.

» Notices All notices should be sent to: notices@anphoblacht.com at least 14 days in

Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations Pádraig Pearse

HAMILTON, Peter ‘Skeet’. In memory of our dear friend and comrade Peter ‘Skeet’ Hamilton. Missed every day.

From the staff and management committee of Fáilte Abhaile, Dundalk.

HAMILTON, Peter ‘Skeet’. In memory of our dear friend and comrade Peter ‘Skeet’ Hamilton. Never forgotten by the Halpenny/Worthington/Watters Sinn Féin Cumann, Dundalk.

KELLY, Jimmy. In proud and loving memory of Volunteer Jimmy Kelly, South Derry Brigade, Óglaigh na hÉireann, murdered by pro-British death squads on 25 March 1993. For Ireland Jimmy lived and died, we will always remember you with love and

advance of publication date. There is no charge for I nDíl Chuimhne, Comhbhrón etc.

pride - from your father, sisters and brother.

KELLY, Jimmy. In proud and loving memory of Volunteer Jimmy Kelly, South Derry Brigade, Óglaigh na hÉireann, murdered by pro-British death squads. The Republic stands for truth and honour, for all that is noblest in our race. By truth and honour, principle and sacrifice alone will Ireland be free.

Always remembered by the McPeake family, Tullyherron, Maghera, County Derry.

KELLY, Patsy. In memory of our friend and comrade Patsy Kelly, whose anniversary occurs at this time.

Always remembered by the Halpenny/ Worthington/Watters Sinn Féin Cumann, Dundalk.

MURRAY, Mick. In deep and loving memory of Volunteer Mick Murray, who died 7 March 1999. Always remembered and never forgotten by Ciarán Murtagh.

MURRAY, Mick. In loving memory of Volunteer Mick Murray, whose 11th

» Imeachtaí There is a charge of €10 for inserts printed in our Imeachtaí/Events column. You

anniversary takes place on 7 March.

Your memory will always remain with us.

From the Murtagh Family.

MURRAY, Mick. In deep and loving memory of Volunteer Mick Murray who died 7 March 1999. Always remembered by Lar and Pat Malone.

SMITH, Tom. In loving memory of Volunteer Tom Smith. No matter how life changes, no matter what we do, a special place within our hearts, is always there for you. Though heaven and earth divide us, we will never be apart, for you are always in our thoughts, and forever in our hearts.

From Michael.

SMITH, Tom. In proud and loving memory of Volunteer Tom Smith.

Always remembered. Lily and Billy.

SMITH, Tom. In loving memory of Volunteer Tom Smith. Those we love don’t go away, they walk beside us every day, memories bring us closer, we are never far apart, you are always in our thoughts, and forever in our hearts.

Love from the Smith family.

can also get a small or large box advert. Contact: sales@anphoblacht.com for details.

FÓGRAÍ BHÁIS

Lily McSheffrey Derry City

Patsy McGarvey Castlederg REPUBLICANS throughout Ireland and further afield have been shocked and saddened at the death of Castlederg Sinn Féin activist Patsy McGarvey.

Patsy was a strong and deeply committed republican who chaired his local Sinn Féin cumann in Castlederg for several years and was a consistent An Phoblacht seller every month.

In 2010, Patsy was honored by West Tyrone Sinn Féin for his significant role in the republican struggle, enduring many sacrifices along the way, but always remaining resilient and steadfast. It was a testimony to Patsy’s dedication and commitment down through the years.

West Tyrone MP Pat Doherty said the deep personal loss felt by Patsy’s immediate family “is shared by so many people, such was the esteem in which Patsy was held not only in his beloved Castlederg but far beyond; not only amongst republicans but right across the political spectrum.

“Sinn Féin has lost an esteemed comrade and

friend and I will miss Patsy being involved in my upcoming election campaign.”

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD described Patsy as “a great patriot” and spoke of Patsy giving him one of his beloved black caps.

Patsy was described as a real “character” who knew people in every corner of Ireland and further afield.

In a final tribute at Patsy’s funeral which was attended by hundreds, local singer Frankie Devine gave a powerful and moving rendition of one of Patsy’s favorite songs Joe McDonnell.

The Harvey/McGlynn/Connolly/ McHugh Sinn Féin Cumann in Castlederg would like to express our deepest condolences to Patsy’s wife Patricia, sons Peter and Paul and daughter Lisa at this extremely difficult time.

Big Patsy will be a massive loss to Sinn Féin in Castlederg and we will miss him dearly. We would ask that your thoughts and prayers go to the McGarvey family at this time.

BY GRACE McDERMOTT

LILY was born into a family of eight in April 1936 and raised in Anne Street in the Brandywell area of Derry. She married Charlie in 1956 and they had five sons: Edward, Neil, Martin, Patrick and Seán Paul.

Times were tough for many families in this city and they had to go to England to get work but the McSheffreys came back to Ireland just as the conflict started to take hold.

Charlie spent two periods of internment in the 1970s and a period on remand in Crumlin Road Jail. Lily’s home became a target for constant raids and harassment from the RUC and British Army yet they never wavered in their support for the Republican Movement.

Lily was a stalwart in her support for the IRA and, on 28 November 1972, tragedy was to visit the McSheffrey home when two IRA Volunteers, John Brady and Jimmy Carr, were killed in an accidental explosion as they prepared to go out on an operation and one of Lily’s own children was also injured. Lily had to go on the run for a number of weeks after this incident and was looked after by friends and family, to whom

she always was grateful for their support.

Sadly, Lily and Charlie were to lose their eldest son during the course of the conflict when Edward and his comrade, Volunteer Paddy Deery, were killed in an accidental explosion in Creggan. Who could forget the scenes at the funeral as the RUC attacked the cortege and toppled Eddie’s coffin? (see below) In recent years, Lily suffered greatly with illness but Charlie and the children always made sure Lily got the best care possible. Sadly, Lily lost her final battle on 28 January when she passed away, surrounded by her family.

The crowds of people who travelled from near and far to the wake showed the high regard Lily was held in.

We all know only too well the contribution the women from this city have made to struggle for Irish unity .

Lily McSheffrey has now joined the ranks of all those brave women who have gone before us in the Republican Movement in Derry, and republicans everywhere extend their sincere condolences to Charlie, children and the extended family.

BY DALE MOORE

30 April / Aibreán 2015

BETWEEN THE POSTS

www.anphoblacht.com

BY CIARÁN KEARNEY

BLOWING THE WHISTLE ON HILLSBOROUGH HAS RESEARCH LOST its lustre? With Internet search engines like Google, anyone can do research; one key word generates a world of options.

A neophyte can enter an office with a folder full of freshly-printed pages like an intellectual giant, regaling a room with a mountain of mesmerising facts. But it was no Internet search which excised the truth about the Hillsborough Disaster. On that fateful day in April 1989, 96 people lost their lives. Now, 26 years later, what really happened is being uncovered through new inquests into the deaths and unrelenting research was a catalyst for this.

The researcher at the centre of this chain of events is Professor Phil Scraton, based at Queen’s University Belfast. Scraton has worked with families bereaved by the Hillsborough Disaster over many years. He had written to successive British Home Secretaries to request access to files relating to Hillsborough. Each British politician in turn had refused to grant him access until British Labour Minister Jack Straw eventually agreed, much to Scraton’s surprise.

Entering the bowels of the British House of Commons, Scraton encountered an archetypal librarian. She helpfully retrieved the files he was seeking and Scraton began to review the contents.

As his fingers turned the pages, his eyes fixed on a copy of a statement from a police officer on duty that day. Near the top of that page was a note which had been added as a postscript: it advised that the police officer concerned should revise his statement.

Scraton realised the magnitude of this discovery and what more lay within.

As quickly as he could, Scraton copied the papers and moved with haste to the exit of the House of Commons, the revelatory documents clutched tightly to his chest. At last, the curtain of concealment was finally being drawn back on the darkest day in sporting history on these islands.

The new evidence triggered a new independent inquiry panel and led to the reopening of inquests into the death of the 96 football fans crushed to death at Hillsborough.

Contemporaneous reportage on court evidence in the inquest

5 Hillsborough Disaster: The British Establishment rallied behind Duckensfield and the police

proceedings have been circulated on social media like never before.

As the 26th anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster approaches, families are now beginning to hear the whole truth which was withheld from them about the death of their loved ones.

Former police commander David Duckensfield was in overall control of the security operation when Liverpool fans arrived at the stadium for their team’s FA Cup tie with Nottingham Forest. When cross-examined during the reopened inquest, Duckensfield claimed that the onset of “post-traumatic stress disorder” had caused him to forget key information sought by families.

The former officer with South Yorkshire Police confirmed that, hours after the disaster and multiple deaths, 5 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher met the Hillsborough police chief he had met the then British Minister He also admitted that he was a enough to offer a public apology for for Sport. The next day he met British member of the Freemasons and was what occurred.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He promoted a year after the disaster Police radio logs taken six minutes claimed to be unable to recall anything to the position of Grand Worshipful after kick-off at Hillsborough showed said in either exchange.

Master. However, Duckensfield recalled requests were made for additional police

The researcher at the centre of this chain of events is Professor Phil Scraton, based at Queen’s University Belfast

officers and dogs but not for ambulances, paramedics or fire crews. After several days of evidence, Duckensfield finally admitted that his decision not to close the tunnel through which Liverpool fans entered to the terraces “directly caused” the deaths of the 96 sport fans in Hillsborough. All of this augments the public record corrected by the Hillsborough Inquiry panel report which exposed how innocent people were put in danger, blamed for their own deaths and their memories were denigrated by a British establishment which rallied behind Duckensfield and the police.

What happened that day in Hillsborough had many long-term implications.

It led to the requirement for all-seater stadiums for major sporting events. As a result, many clubs were obliged to move from their home ground and the grassroots community from which they have come. In turn, commercial involvement in sport has massively increased. ‘Corporate boxes’ are now all the rage.

But the greatest wrong of all was the corporate cover-up.

Nothing compares with the conduct of police, politicians and tabloid media who ganged up on those killed and their bereaved families. After being denied the right to truth and acknowledgement for 26 years, the families’ day has finally come.

April / Aibreán 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

31

In November 2014, Greencore (formerly Suicre Éireann) reported profits of €104.5million from a turnover of €1.6billion – imagine if the Irish Government hadn’t sold off the taxpayers’ shareholding

AER LINGUS SELL-OFF COULD BE ANOTHER EIRCOM FIASCO

BY ROBBIE SMYTH

DOES the looming sale of Aer Lingus give you a feeling that you have been here before Auctioning off our national assets is nothing new. Various Irish coalition governments run by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour have all in recent decades signed up to sell out.

As the vultures circle Aer Lingus, gently increasing the bids, ROBBIE SMYTH guides us through the wreckage of previous government fire sales but first asks: ‘Why do we own these companies?’

Two, the company grew in terms of fleet and tonnage transported. It was part of the consortium that started ferries from Rosslare to France, a business that is still profitable today.

In 1984, the then Fine Gael/Labour Government allowed the firm to go into liquidation. In 1992, the Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrats coalition approved the sale of the Government’s shares in B&I Ferries for €10.8million In the years since, the volume of trade has massively increased through Irish ports. The wages and working conditions of many of the workers on those ships has deteriorated though.

THE SEMI-STATE PRINCIPLE So why does (or did) the Irish Government own or hold shares in so many businesses? The simple answer is that no one else wanted to. As the state floundered in the years after partition, the Irish and international private sector were reluctant (unwilling even) to invest in the new state.

And so successive Irish governments made investments on our behalf in electricity supply, gas networks, forests, insurance, banking, developing our bogs, ports, airports, telecommunications, horse and dog racing, ship building, steel . . . It’s a long list and there are still 29 semi-state companies on the Government books according to www.gov.ie.

Sure enough, when the businesses got profitable or corporate sharks scented difficult trading conditions (the business equivalent of blood in the water), suddenly there was lots of hungry interest.

This is where Aer Lingus finds itself today. A third bid from IAG of €1.36billion has been made yet the value of the airline’s Heathrow landing slots alone has been independently put at €1.2billion based on the value of slots recently negotiated by the SAS airline.

IRISH LIFE Established in 1939, Irish Life is now part of Canadian financial group GreatWest Lifeco.

EIRCOM

5 Fine Gael and Labour have a history of selling-off national assets

For now, the net cost to you, the taxpayer, is still something north of €2billion!

GREENCORE

5 Sinn Féin TDs opposing Aer Lingus privatisation plans in 2006

In 1939, 18% of the company shares were held by the Irish Finance minister. In 1991, it was floated on the stock exchange. The state took nearly €602million at the time. Since then, the group went on a disastrous spate

of acquisitions and mergers, ending in the Irish Government taking over the Irish Life and Irish Permanent group in 2012 and pumping in €4billion. Irish Life was sold in 2013 to Great West for €1.3billion.

Also sold off in 1991 was Suicre Éireann, now called Greencore. The state got €210.65million from the stock market floatation. In November 2014, the company reported profits of €104.5million from a turnover of €1.6billion.

Imagine if the Irish Government had kept a shareholding like it has now in Aer Lingus. There would be a steady dividend stream and some real long-term payback to the Irish economy.

IRISH SHIPPING AND B&I FERRIES Started in 1941 to secure the passage of goods to the island during World War

Maybe like me, you have lost count of the owners and sales of Eircom since the €6.399billion flotation of the firm in 1999. Then Eircom had debts of €540million; by 2012, and five owners later, the firm had debts of €3.8billion.

According to the most recent State of the Internet Index, two-thirds of the 26 Counties has web speeds of 10Mbs, a rate the EU designates as sub-standard. The Irish Government is committed to spending €500million to improve broadband access. If we owned Eircom still, this might be a very different story.

OIL AND GAS RIGHTS It has taken an investment of €3.4billion to develop the Corrib gas field, off County Mayo, the scale of which we were led to believe the Irish Government could not afford. They are not even a shareholder in the business that will now pump the gas equivalent of 9,700 barrels of oil a day and would be able to meet 60% of Irish gas demand.

The irony that the Norwegian Government (through its Statoil company) owns more of Irish natural resources than the Irish Government should be lost on no one.

anphoblacht NEXT ISSUE OUT – Thursday 30th April 2015

32

IN PICTURES

photos@anphoblacht.com

5 Sinn Féin's Martin Ferris TD, Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD and Seán Crowe TD join members of the Toys for Gaza campaign to appeal for support to help cover the costs 5 At Sinn Féin's Belfast 1916 -2016 launch, 'Volunteers' and 'Cumann na mBan' members in period costume with Brendan 'Bik' of shipping thousands of Irish donations of toys and medical equipment to Gaza McFarlane and Bartle D'Arcy (Sinn Féin National 1916 Commemoration Co-ordinator). Background: David Ceannt (grand nephew of Eamonn Ceannt), Patrick Cooney of the Save Moore Street Campaign, and Desy Cassidy (grand nephew of Winifred Carney)

5 London St Patrick's Day Parade Grand Marshal Barry McGuigan with Sinn Féin West Tyrone MP Pat Doherty (right) and Mary Doherty 5 Belfast Sinn Féin activists gather at the Twinbrook Memorial Garden before setting off on a sponsored walk organised to coincide with the 34th anniversary of Bobby Sands's first day on hunger strike in 1981

5 Tina Dio of the Migrants Rights Centre speaks at International Women's Day event 'Make it Happen' which was organised by Dublin Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan

5 Dublin Deputy Mayor Larry O'Toole with Mexico's Batallón de San Patricio (St Patrick's Battalion) Band, who took part in the St Patrick's Day parade for the first time

5 Tens of thousands march in the Right2Water anti-water charges demonstration on Dublin's O'Connell Street on 21 5 Sinn Féin MLAs Pat Sheehan and Fra McCann with party strategist Jim Gibney at the Belfast trade union rally against Tory cuts March – See pages 12 and 13