An Phoblacht, February 2015

anphoblacht Sraith Nua Iml 38 Uimhir 2

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February / Feabhra 2015

'Today is a new beginning. A victory by SYRIZA will be followed

by Podemos in Spain and Sinn Féin in Ireland'

Greece votes for hope

Sinn Féin leader urges

ALEXIS ALEXIS TSIPRAS TSIPRAS

TALKS ON

LEFT COALITION Michael Noonan & Margaret Thatcher

BANNING AN PHOBLACHT

GALWAY BAY

needs a fish farm like a salmon needs a bike

2 February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

Irish Government acted like it was a junior partner to British Government in negotiation

Success of political process more important than any selfish electoral agenda

GERRY ADAMS TD PRESIDENT OF SINN FÉIN

way if a British Government is not giving clear and unambiguous leadership and implementing commitments.

The British Government’s refusal to back the Haass proposals to deal with the vexed issues of identity, parading and the legacy of past had succeeded only in emboldening unionist hostility to the power-sharing institutions.

By the time the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister arrived in Belfast on 11 December, there was no great optimism that progress could be achieved. Their departure 24 hours later led many to believe that the negotiations were over and that the political institutions were at real risk of collapsing.

This intervention amounted to little more than a charade.

It was not a serious endeavour.

The presentation of a deeply-flawed joint paper by the Irish and British governments on a ‘take

The British Tory austerity policy was actively endorsed by Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan

SINN FÉIN’S OBJECTIVES throughout the recent negotiations that led to the Stormont it or leave it’ basis and the approach of both the House Agreement were very clear: Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister during To agree a comprehensive deal to protect the most vulnerable in society; To safeguard the rights and entitlements of citizens; To deliver on outstanding agreements; To grow the economy; To enhance the working of the institutions.

It wasn’t an easy negotiation.

The ability of the five Executive parties to defend frontline public services (including health and education), to defend the poor, people with disabilities, the elderly and disadvantaged, and to create jobs was being significantly undermined by British Tory demands for welfare cuts as well as by the £1.5billion cut to the block grant since 2011.

This austerity policy is similar to Dublin’s and was actively endorsed by Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan.

Sinn Féin were steadfast in our opposition to this agenda.

The British Government’s failure to honour its commitments made in the Good Friday and other agreements – such as an inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane – was another important factor in why the political process was in such a mess.

There is little incentive for political unionism to move forward in a consistent and progressive

those talks was amateurish and ham-fisted. It effectively sought to nationalise austerity with Irish Government support for the British Tory efforts to hurt the most vulnerable citizens in the North.

The Irish Government’s preparedness to sign up for a joint government paper that failed to mention Acht na Gaeilge and talked only of “language strategies” was equally disgraceful.

It also acquiesced to the British Government’s use of ‘national security’ to deny information to victims and to the British demand to end the right of families of victims to an inquest in the coroners’ courts.

5 Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan and British Prime Minister David Cameron

Nor was there any guarantee in the paper tabled by the two governments that the Dublin and Monaghan bombings would be considered under their proposed new “civil inquisitorial” process under the new Historical Investigations Unit.

So, on 12 December, David Cameron returned to London and the Taoiseach to Dublin leaving the process in a worse state than when they came.

Despite the negative approach of the two governments, the Sinn Féin leadership remained determined to find solutions. A consensus was reached – at the initiative of Martin McGuinness and under the leadership of Martin and Peter Robinson – among the Executive parties to push for a real and meaningful negotiation.

Six days later, and following lengthy discussions (many of them into the wee hours of the morning, and at least one all-night session) an agreement was achieved.

The total value of the British Government’s revised financial proposals amount to almost £2billion – double what was originally offered.

This includes £650million of new and additional funding, including up to

Crucially, there will be no reductions in welfare payments under the control of the Executive.

The new welfare protections are unique to the North and are in sharp contrast to the austerity-driven welfare system being rolled out in Britain or Dublin

February / Feabhra 2015

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3

5 The Sinn Féin negotiating team brief the media

5 The Governments' paper contained no mention of an inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings

5 The British Government's position only emboldened unionist hostility to power-sharing institutions

£500million over 10 years of new capital to support shared and integrated education.

Crucially, there will be no reductions in welfare payments under the control of the Executive.

The total value of the British Government’s revised financial proposals amount to almost £2billion – double what was originally offered in the ‘take it or leave it’ ultimatum by David Cameron The new welfare protections are unique to the North and are in sharp contrast to the austerity-driven welfare system being rolled out in Britain or the austerity-driven focus of the government in Dublin.

Anti-poverty measures will be retained in the North.

On the wider political issues, significant progress was achieved.

These include: The effort to close off access to inquests to the families of victims of the conflict was defeated.

The two governments will endorse the respect for and recognition of the Irish language consistent with the Council of Europe Charter on Regional or Minority Languages.

Work will commence on considering whether the devolution of additional fiscal powers needed to grow the economy can be progressed.

A detailed proposal on a ‘Commission on

5 The British Government has failed to uphold commitments such as an inquiry into Pat Finucane's murder

Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition’ was agreed, including its make-up and remit.

Legislation on parades will be prepared with proper regard for fundamental rights protected by the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Stormont House Agreement – like all previous agreements – is only as good as the determination on the part of the participants to implement it.

I urge the Irish Government to accept that the success and stability of the peace and political process in the North and the all-island institutions are bigger and more important than any short-sighted, selfish electoral political agenda.

The Peace Process is the most important

The Stormont House Agreement – like all previous agreements – is only as good as the determination on the part of the participants to implement it

political project on this island at this time. It needs to be nurtured and protected and enhanced.

Notwithstanding the other political priorities of the moment, it must remain at the top of the Irish Government’s agenda.

I welcome other financial commitments, including €25million annually for the A5 project as well

Anti-poverty measures will be retained in the North as some additional funding for reconciliation and for EU Peace and Interreg programmes.

These and the renewed commitment by the Irish Government to the Narrow Water and the Ulster Canal projects are important developments. Action is now needed.

As we approach the centenary of the 1916 Rising and later of the Tan War, there is an historic opportunity to resolve the real ‘national question’, to end the partition of this island, to end sectarianism, and to create a new republic.

These should be the goals of all progressive political forces on this island.

4 February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

anphoblacht Editorial

WHAT'S INSIDE 5

An bhfuil leithcheal inscne forleathan sna coláistí?

6 & 7

Sinn Féin Ard Fheis 2015

Historic first for Derry City

13

Housing crisis in the North

14

Emigrant votes lobby accuses Dublin of backtracking

15

anphoblacht Eagarfhocal

anphoblacht

A vote for hope

THE ELECTION LANDSLIDE achieved by SYRIZA in Greece represents a vote for hope over fear.

This result opens up the real prospect of democratic change not just for the people of Greece but for citizens right across the EU. Sinn Féin has backed SYRIZA’s call for a European debt conference which is so clearly in Ireland’s interests.

Gerry Adams has called on the Taoiseach to support this demand but the leader of the Fine Gael/Labour Government has rejected this.

Again and again, the Irish Government has shown no desire

or ability to negotiate in the best interests of the Irish people.

This had resulted in widespread hardship, the destruction of public services and a third of children in the 26-County state living in poverty.

The Government has no mandate for the policies it is imposing. It is time for citizens here to decide on a new way forward.

If Enda Kenny and his government are not going to stand up for Irish citizens then Fine Gael and Labour should remove themselves from office and allow the people to elect a new government that will.

The Taoiseach should call an election now.

Charlie Hebdo

The mainstream's new-found love for press freedom

18

Gan Réiteach ar Scannal na Simfiseatóime Fós

19

Ex-prisoners still marginalised, says QUB study

26 & 27

Online revolution

All the news that's fit to tweet

28

Book Reviews

IRA leaders Emmet Dalton and Frank Aiken

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

5 The huge support for Alexis Tsipras's SYRIZA coalition was a victory of hope over fear

Can Ireland emulate Greece?

IN THIS AN PHOBLACHT, National Chairperson Declan Kearney repeats Sinn Féin’s call to other progressive organisations, community networks and trade union activists not to let our differences prevent us coming together to discuss ideas and strategies to ensure the future election of a Left coalition in the South.

The mass of people in our society who want change – who need change – cannot afford the luxury of living in a dreamland of a far-distant future that will propel the Left into power in an electoral wipe-out of the conservative parties or some bloodless October Revolution.

They live in the real world.

The martyred socialist Chilean President Salvador Allende once said of the political environment: “We haven’t chosen the terrain. We haven’t generated it.

We have the government, but we don’t have power.”

Revolutions – even peaceful ones – involve a wide breadth of people, personalities and political perspectives. If we didn’t have different beliefs then we wouldn’t be in so many different parties – or none.

Compromise doesn’t mean compromising your principles.

Contact

Layout and production: Mark Dawson production@anphoblacht.com

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

Activists can still hold on to their principles but they should not let conviction descend into a political puritanism that sabotages unity or progress.

We all want our children go to schools clean and well-fed; all the elderly to receive a pension and be taken care of in the best hospitals; for any young person to be able to go to college; that nobody has their heat turned off in the winter because they can’t pay their bill; that no bank is allowed to leave a family in the street without alternative housing; that everyone has work with fair wages and conditions; that the newspapers, TV and radio are not dominated by the multimillionaires and the mouthpieces for the elites; that our country is not in the grip of speculators, foreign or domestic.

So why can’t we co-operate on what unites us rather than what divides us?

If we aspire to emulate the people of Greece, it is time to get down to some serious talking and unity of purpose to explore how we in Ireland can make some real change.

This is a good time to start.

See ‘Building an Alternative’ pages 10 & 11

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

February / Feabhra 2015

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Le Trevor Ó Clochartaigh Cás Sheehy Skeffington taréis ceisteanna cothromaíochta níos foleithne a ardú

An bhfuil leithcheal inscne forleathan sna coláistí?

BHÍ RIALÚ an-spéisiúil ag an mBinse Comhionannas le déanaí maidir le cás a thóg Micheline Sheehy Skeffington in aghaidh Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh, gur déanadh leithcheal inscne uirthi. Agus, tá misneach faighte anois ag riar-mhaith mná eile sa gcoláiste céanna ag rá go bhfuil leatrom den chineál céanna déanta orthu féin agus iad ag lorg cothrom na féinne anois freisin.

Chas mé féin agus ár gcomhleacaí, an Feisire Eorpach Matt Carthy, le h-ionadaithe ó Craobh Acadúil SIPTU san Ollscoil le déanaí leis an gceist seo a phlé agus mar thoradh ar sin tá muid anois ag lorg cruinniú ar bhonn phráinne le hUachtarán Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh, Jim Browne, leis an imní atá ann maidir le cearta cothromaíochta san ollscoil a phlé.

Chuir na h-ionadaithe ceardchumainn ar chas muid leo ó Rannóg Acadúil SIPTU san Ollscoil cás cuimsitheach ós ár gcomhair, go bhfuil ceisteanna le freagairt ag údaráis na hollscoile i dtaca leis an

Is cinnte nach ar na mná amháin a bhíonn tionchar ag iompar den chineal seo ach ar gach duine atá fostaithe in eagraíocht rud ar a dtugann siadsan ‘deireadh a chuir le chuile ghné de leithcheal struchtúrtha san institiúid’ agus an gá atá ann le saineolaí neamhspleách a thabhairt isteach chun seo a scrúdú.

Tá na rialaithe le déanaí ag an mBinse Cothromaíochta i gcásanna Sheehy Skeffinton agus cás eile atá tógtha ag Mary Demspsey agus a bhfuil achomharc déanta ag an ollscoil ina aghaidh, tar éis fócas nua a chuir ar an gcomthéacs níos ginearálta san ollscoil. Baineann na ceisteanna atá dhá ardú ní amháin leis an bhfoireann acadúil ach le daoine i ranna eile, beag beann ar inscne agus stádas fostaíochta.

Baineann na buncheisteanna le líon na mban a fhaigheann ardú ceime chuig rólanna sinsearacha san ollscoil. Léirítear sa bhfianaise a tugadh don Bhinse Cothromaíochta go raibh claonadh fireann ar na boird agallaimh, nár leanadh proiséas cuí arduithe céime agus gur tugadh arduithe céime d’fhir nach raibh chomh cáilithe le mná a chuaigh i mbun an phroiséas céanna agallamh.

Braitheann na h-ionadaithe ceardchumainn ar chas muidne leo go bhfuil cleachtas na h-éagcothromaiochta forleathan agus nach mbaineann sé le Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh amháin. Deir siad go bhfuil cultúr faitíos tagtha chun cinn agus go bhfuil drogall dá bharr ar dhaoine labhairt amach ar eagla go gcaithfeadh bainisteoirí, nó na h-údaráis ar an gcaoi chéanna leo féin.

Tá SIPTU ag iarraidh go gcuirfí moltaí an Bhinse Cothromaíochta i bhfeidhm ina iomláine, go dtabharfaí saineolaí neamhspleách seachtrach isteach le scrúdú a dhéanamh ar gach gné d’obair na hollscoile, go mbeadh deis ag fostaithe fianaise a chur ar fail don duine sin, go n-aontófaí le SIPTU an té atá le roghnú don obair agus go dtógfar céimeanna le dul i ngleic leis an bhfadhb ag leibhéal náisiúnta.

Tá sé íorónach go bhfuil cáil acadúil idirnáisiúnta ar an ollscoil seo maidir lena cuid oibre go h-idirnáisiúnta i réimse na gcearta daonna agus go bhfuil ceisteanna tromchúiseacha dhá n-ardú anois maidir lena cleachtais inmheánach oibre féin i dtaca le cearta bunúsacha.

Tá muid ag lorg cruinniú ar bhonn práinne le hUachtarán

Micheline Sheehy Skeffington

na hOllscoile, Jim Browne, le gur féidir linn an imní atá léirithe linn a chur in iúl agus cur ina luí air chomh tábhachtach is atá sé go dtógfaí moltaí praiticiúla agus stuama na gceardchumainn ar bord.

Tá tuairimaíocht ann go bhfuil cleachtais den chineál seo ar bun in institiúid triú leibhéal ar fud na tíre agus tá gach seans go dtiocfaidh casanna eile chun cinn anois ó mhná eile a bhraitheann go bhfuil éagóir déanta orthu sin. Is cinnte nach ar na mná amháin a bhíonn tionchar ag iompar den chineál seo ach ar gach duine atá fostaithe in eagraíocht. Má bhraitheann fostaithe go bhfuil leatrom dhá dhéanamh ar chomhleacaithe leo ar chúis amháín ná ar chúis eile is beag iontaobh gur féidir leo a bheith acu as an mbainistíocht agus údaráis na h-institiúid chéanna.

Dar leis an mBinse Cothromaiochta ní leor ‘cosúlacht na cothromaíochta’ a bheith ar an bpróiséas earcaíochta ar pháipéar ach go raibh an leagan amach a bhí ann go maith faoi bhun an deá-chleachtas a mbeifí ag súil leis agus nach bhfuil sé sin ceart.

Is cinnte go gcloisfear i bhfad nios mó ar an ábhar seo sna míonna atá romhainn.

6 February / Feabhra 2015

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Republicans from across Ireland gather on 6 & 7 March for the 2015 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis

5 Derry today is totally unrecognisable from what it was during the conflict

Historic first Ard Fheis for Derry City MARCH will be the first time the Ard Fheis has ever been held in Derry City. It is expected to attract more than 2,000 delegates and guests over the weekend.

Ard Fheis Organising Committee Co-ordinator Gearóid Ó hEára says excitement is building in the city ahead of the Ard Fheis.

“The Ard Fheis is one of the highlights of the year for republicans and locally people are certainly looking forward to it.

“The fact that it will be the first time the Ard Fheis has ever been held in Derry adds to the excitement for local republicans who are determined to ensure it will be one to remember,” he tells An Phoblacht.

The Sinn Féin candidate in May’s Westminster election says that preparations are well underway for the Ard Fheis.

“Over the last number of weeks we have been busy making the final preparations ahead of the Ard Fheis in March.

“Much detailed planning has gone into staging this event which will attract upwards of 2,000 delegates and family members to the city,” he says. Ó hEára says Derry’s history makes it an ideal venue for the Ard Fheis.

“Derry has played a key role in the republican

struggle over many years and is home to several key leadership figures within the party so it is fitting that this Ard Fheis should be held in Derry, “The city is also known internationally for its central place in the struggle for civil rights in the North and its continued support for civil rights campaigns around the world.

“So it is entirely appropriate that the Ard Fheis, which sets our policies around our key themes

‘Derry City is known internationally for its central place in the struggle for civil rights in the North and its continued support for civil rights campaigns around the world’

5 Gearóid Ó hEára in front of a portrait of Martin McGuinness at the Millennium Forum

of equality and rights for all, is held in Derry,” he explains.

The former Mayor of Derry also said he is looking forward to playing a key role at the Ard Fheis.

“Ard Fheiseanna are always great events and

February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

5 Organisers at a planning meeting to prepare for the Ard Fheis

7

5 Derry hosted a hugely successful Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in 2013

5 Maeve McLaughlin MLA attends the Save our Care Homes protest at Stormont

5 Derry's Martin McGuinness MLA speaks at the 2014 Ard Fheis in Wexford

provide a great opportunity to meet comrades from across the island.

“Alongside the cut and thrust of debates, which always energises me, there is also the chance to catch up with people you haven’t seen for a while and also to learn what is happening in other areas.

“No matter what role you play at an Ard Fheis, whether as a delegate, a speaker or a guest, it is always an inspiring event.

“I have travelled to Ard Fheiseanna all over the country for many years so it is great to have it right on our doorstep this year.

“Listening to the keynote speeches always provides a great sense of where we are at nationally and the televised sections allow us to extend our message to a wider audience.

“This year I am particularly looking forward to playing my part at the Ard Fheis in my home city as the Sinn Féin candidate at the Westminster election.

“Bringing the Sinn Féin leadership team, including our own Martin McGuinness, to Derry will energise local republicans as we move into the next stage of our campaign ahead of the poll,” he says.

He says the decision to hold the Ard Fheis in

Derry is recognition of the growth of Sinn Féin in the city.

“It will showcase the strength of Sinn Féin in Derry and across the wider north-west.

“The party has been growing steadily year-onyear in Derry, to the point where we are now the largest party on the new Derry and Strabane ‘Super Council’.

‘In the past, Derry was almost a byword for the institutionalised discrimination of the Six Counties. It was the citadel for one-party unionist rule’ “As a city, Derry has been totally transformed in recent years and Sinn Féin have been to the fore in that transformation.

“We have been driving the regeneration of the city, not just in terms of infrastructure but also politically.

“In the past, Derry was almost a byword for the institutionalised discrimination of the Six Counties.

5 Derry's own Martina Anderson MEP with Gearóid Ó hEára in the European Parliament

5 Mitchel McLaughlin, Gearóid O hEára and Raymond McCartney at the selection convention

Despite the city’s large nationalist majority, it was the citadel for one-party unionist rule.

“TV footage of the RUC’s attack on the first civil rights march in Derry on 5 October 1968 shone an international spotlight on the political situation in the North of Ireland for the first time and set in train a series of events that would ultimately lead to the downfall of the Orange state.

“Derry today is totally unrecognisable from what it was then. It is a confident, vibrant city moving forward in a spirit of optimism.

“That change did not come about on its own. It was driven by Sinn Féin’s commitment to equality and promoting opportunities for all.

“Martin McGuinness, as deputy First Minister, has led the regeneration of Derry, delivering on key projects such as the transformation of the former British military site at Ebrington to a open, welcoming community space which is now known around the world.

“Our Foyle MLAs, Maeve McLaughlin and Raymond McCartney, have also played a major role in the regeneration of Derry, championing the expansion of the university at Magee,” he said.

The Ard Fheis will bring a financial boost to the city.

“Hosting the Ard Fheis will bring a substantial

financial contribution to the local hospitality and service sector,” Gearóid says.

“Media and tourism commentators have estimated that last year’s Ard Fheis in Wexford injected in excess of €1million into the local economy.

“As well as delegates and their visitors there will be a number of high-profile international guests and media in attendance.

‘Derry today is a confident, vibrant city moving forward in a spirit of optimism’ “All of these people will have to stay somewhere and eat and that will be a welcome boost to the local hospitality sector.

“Derry has established a reputation internationally as a great place to host major conferences and over the last few years has staged a number of large international events. I have no doubt that next month’s Ard Fheis will rank among the best.

“It is great to see another all-Ireland event coming to the city, following on from the successful Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in 2013.”

8 February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

Fine Gael and Irish Labour Party leaders – as the Irish Government – signed off on the Stormont House Agreement with the British Government and the five main Executive parties

Protecting most vulnerable from ravages of Tory cuts

BY MICHAEL McMONAGLE THE Stormont House Agreement strived to ensure that the most vulnerable members of our society were protected from the ravages of British Government welfare cuts pursued by the Tories.

That was the main priority for Sinn Féin throughout the negotiations which led to the Agreement.

The negotiations process was long and protracted and only crystalised into serious talks when it became clear the political institutions were in danger of collapse.

The impasse was the result of economic and political difficulties.

Year on year, the British Government attacks on the block grant seriously impacted on the Executive’s ability

Sinn Féin went into the negotiations to secure a comprehensive agreement to protect the needs of the most vulnerable in our society and to address the political difficulties faced by the Executive to deliver core frontline services. This – coupled with the Tory-led British Government’s extreme austerity policies designed to hollow out the welfare state – created a dire economic situation for the Executive.

Politically, the failure of the British and Irish governments to live up to their responsibilities as co-guarantors of the Good Friday and subsequent Agreements – and their failure to address issues such as the past, parades and flags – was in danger of making the institutions unworkable.

Sinn Féin went into the negotiations to secure a comprehensive agreement to protect the needs of the most vulnerable in our society and to address the political difficulties faced by the Executive.

The resulting Agreement, achieved after intensive negotiations between the Executive parties delivered a significant financial package worth £2billion which safeguarded welfare payments under the control of the Executive from Tory Party cuts.

Key proposals from the Tories (including the Bedroom Tax, cuts to disability benefits and other cuts) will be offset by payments from the Supplementary Benefits Fund for the next six years,

5 The contribution of the Irish Government to the Stormont House Agreement was criticised as 'reckless, disgraceful and partisan' by Sinn Féin

ensuring that all welfare payments under the control of the Executive will be maintained and no one will be worse off as a result of the extreme austerity policies of the Westminster Government.

The financial package included £500million for education and £140million for dealing with the past.

It also allowed for the creation of a £700million fund over four years for the restructuring of the public service.

Despite misleading media reports and misinformation on the restructuring of the public service, there will be no compulsory redundancies. Claims that 20,000 public sector jobs will be lost as part of the process are also

inaccurate. No figure has been set for the voluntary redundancies.

Executive Education Minister John O’Dowd said: “Sinn Féin worked tirelessly throughout the negotiations to achieve welfare protections for the most vulnerable in our society and to protect frontline public services in health, education and

5 The failure of the Governments to live up to outstanding agreements was in danger of making the institutions unworkable

welfare from a Tory-driven onslaught.

“As a result of Sinn Féin’s resolute defence of public services, there will be no compulsory redundancies in the public sector.

“The Agreement provides for a scheme which enables those who

The protections secured in the Agreement are unique to the North and were only achieved after the other Executive parties agreed with Sinn Féin on the need to challenge the British Treasury with a united voice wish to retire or leave the public services to do so. The take-up of this scheme must, of course, be balanced by the need to maintain core public services.”

The protections secured in the Agreement are unique to the North and were only achieved after the other Executive parties agreed with Sinn Féin on the need to challenge the British Treasury with a united voice.

Sinn Féin Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill said the financial package shows

February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

9

5 Michelle O’Neill – parties working together was key to securing protections

5 Sinn Féin says protecting the most vulnerable in society was its key priority in negotiations

what can be achieved when the Executive parties work together.

“The Executive has now brought forward proposals agreed by the five parties in the Stormont House talks which will protect the most vulnerable against Tory welfare cuts.

“We have agreed to provide a package over six years of almost £565million to mitigate against the potential loss of benefits to individuals and families.

“We have retained a series of anti-poverty measures and set up a Supplementary Benefits Fund to provide protection specifically to families with

5 Education Minister John O'Dowd – the protection of frontline services was vital

Sinn Féin successfully ensured the retention of coroners’ courts inquests into conflict-related deaths. This was a key demand of victims groups and allows families to continue their

Claims that 20,000 public sector jobs will be cut are inaccurate.

No figure has been set and any redundancies will be voluntary children, people with disabilities, and the long-term sick.

“There are safeguards for people moving from Disability Living Allowance, for lone parents, and people have been protected from the impact of the Bedroom Tax. “These protections and others are unique to the North and in sharp contrast to the cuts-driven welfare system in Britain.

“This is a good example of the institutions making a practical difference to those citizens most in need.”

Progress was also made in addressing the issues of the past, parading and flags.

While the Agreement on these issues was not as comprehensive as Sinn Féin

5 Sinn Féin stood against the Tory welfare cuts wanted, significant progress was made the legacy of the conflict should be and efforts to fully resolve these issues addressed. It was made clear to the at a community, political and govern- British and Irish governments from the outset that the needs of victims mental level will continue.

One of the key issues for Sinn Féin must be paramount in any approach in the negotiations process was how to the past.

Key proposals from the Tories (including the Bedroom Tax, cuts to disability benefits and other cuts) will be offset by payments from the Supplementary Benefits Fund for the next six years, ensuring that all welfare payments under the control of the Executive will be maintained campaign for access to truth and justice for their loved ones.

The Agreement also created the conditions for the establishment of new bodies to address the legacy of the past.

These include a Historic Investigations

Unit (HIU), an Independent Commission for Information Recovery (ICIR) and an Implementation and Reconciliation Group (IRG).

Additional services for victims and survivors will be established.

On the issue of parades, Sinn Féin ensured that the Parades Commission will remain in place to deal with contentious parade until such times that an an agreement is reached in the Assembly to deal with parading.

While significant progress was made in the Stormont House Agreement, particularly around ensuring that communities are protected from Tory welfare cuts, a number of issues remain to be addressed.

Several commitments from the Good Friday and subsequent Agreements are still to be fulfilled.

No agreement was reached on an Irish Language Act, an inquiry into the assassination of solicitor Pat Finucane by unionists and agents of the British state, a Bill of Rights, and North/South developments.

Sinn Féin will continue to make progress on these issues in negotiations between the Executive parties and both the British and Irish governments to ensure they live up to their responsibilities to implement the commitments made over the last 15 years.

10 February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

Dr HELENA SHEEHAN

Chair of the Left Forum Emeritus Professor at Dublin City University

To break this paralysis we need to go beyond issues, policies, budgets, candidates and constituencies.

We need to name the system that enables an ever more drastic redistribution of wealth from below to above, culminating in 1% owning more wealth than the 99% of us combined in the next year.

We need to identify the class interests masking themselves as national interests. It is not a few bad apples. Our problems will not be solved by changing faces or peripheral reforms.

The Left has an analysis and a vision. Capitalism is the problem. Socialism is the solution. This is far more than a simple slogan. It is the wisdom of a formidable intellectual tradition and political movement.

We have learned a lot from experiments in socialism of the past but we need to chart a new path, one that we walk here and now, not a dream of a revolutionary rupture Under capitalism, the wealth, which stems from natural resources and human labour, is diverted to the profit and parasitic consumption of the few at the expense of the health, education and welfare of the many. Under socialism, production and distribution are organised along drastically different lines: from each according to ability, to each according to need.

It has never been easier, whether in university classrooms or everyday conversations, to convince people of the desirability of this. The problem is believing it to be possible. Fredric Jameson has observed that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.

We need to break the grip of the belief that there is no alternative to capitalism and to articulate a vision of socialism. Crucially, we need to project a strategy for getting from here to there.

We need to win consent to a counter-narrative: a protracted and complex transition from capitalism to socialism. We need to fashion a force that will challenge for power, that will make the long march through all the institutions of society:

5 We need to break the grip of the belief that there is no alternative to capitalism and to articulate a vision of socialism

schools, universities, media, trade unions, local councils, national and international parliaments, production, distribution and exchange.

We have learned a lot from experiments in socialism of the past but we need to chart a new path, one that we walk here and now, not a dream of a revolutionary rupture.

Since the start of the crisis, we have seen increasing awareness and critique, followed by an explosion of protest, peaking in 2011 with people occupying public squares in over a thousand cities on six continents, with the 99% standing up to the 1%. This mobilisation failed to find a sustainable form but the problems giving rise to it have not disappeared. Indeed, they have intensified.

Ireland has been part of this. It’s not true that Irish people don’t protest. The Right2Water campaign

has been the biggest mobilisation of Ireland in crisis, combining the forces of the political Left, the trade unions and local communities. It is not just about water. It is about the whole system of exercising power and distributing wealth.

The last elections and recent polls indicate a huge shift, primarily to the Left, in Irish politics.

Through these years, we have been watching Greece. Although the same forces were in play, the crisis took a far more severe form there and the resistance mobilised higher numbers and took more militant and creative forms. However, despite all the assemblies, protests, general strikes and solidarity networks, the cuts in wages, pensions and public services continued to bring impoverishment, desperation, suicide, social decline. It became evident that the only thing

PHOTO: HELENA SHEEHAN

IN IRELAND, during these years of crisis, we have witnessed unprecedented anger and alienation, a rising tide of protest, but paralysis in projecting and procuring an alternative.

PHOTO: HELENA SHEEHAN

Building an alternative involves imagining an alternative

5The crisis in Greece took a far more severe form there and the resistance was larger and more militant

that would break the logjam and set the society on a new trajectory would be the election of a Left government.

In Syriza they fashioned a force capable of bringing this to fruition. Syriza is a synthesis of old Left and new forces. It is engaged in a titanic struggle.

It is not only a matter of winning the election but facing down the formidable forces ranged against them, nationally and internationally, as they move to reverse the cuts, to redistribute wealth and to engage in radical social transformation.

The Right2Water campaign, the biggest mobilisation of Ireland in crisis, is not just about water. It is about the whole system of exercising power and distributing wealth Syriza stands as a challenge to us. We too need to fashion a force that could form a Left government, one that can challenge for political power in the electoral arena but rooted in larger social movements.

Specifically, I believe that we need a new Left party gathering the forces stemming from the socialist tradition, both existing parties and unaffiliated activists. I would like to see this party converging with forces stemming from the republican tradition in an alliance with Sinn Féin that might eventually form the basis of a Left government.

February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

Sinn Féin National Chairperson calls for formal discussions on Irish Left alternative

11

DECLAN KEARNEY Sinn Féin National Chairperson

The tipping point to secure political power for change THERE HAS BEEN unprecedented upheaval in Irish politics in recent years. Water charges especially have become a catalyst for popular discontent against the Fine Gael/Labour Party coalition. In the North, the convergent political impasse and economic challenges threatened the political institutions and a potentially massive crisis because the British and Irish governments took the Peace Process for granted.

It would be premature to say the ongoing flux represents a permanent political realignment but the status quo nationally has shifted, creating the potential for more change.

Those on the progressive and republican Left need to make that change irreversible by altering the current balance of forces to create a new political realignment. That will only come about through popular support for a credible political alternative that can effectively challenge the conservative power blocs and their policies.

During the Stormont talks, a British and Irish Government alliance tried to push welfare cuts and increased austerity in through the back door.

The imperative of having real political power to advance republican objectives should be the basis of Sinn Féin going into government in the South, not simply entering coalition for its own sake Fine Gael’s and Labour’s support for the Tories can only be understood as an attempt to nationalise the policies they have driven in the South and for cynical electoral reasons against Sinn Féin.

Both governments and the economic elites they represent are in counter-attack mode. Their motivation is to reverse the political strength of Sinn Féin North and South. Both they and external capital/banking interests have identified the party’s growth as a strategic block to their hegemony. The prospect of Sinn Féin as champions of equality in government North and South is a nightmare scenario for them.

The wider context is an ideological war that has engulfed Irish society and which stretches across Western Europe and the Americas. It is no coincidence that SYRIZA had such success in the Greek general election, that Podemos has

plans for health, welfare, education, industrial development and infrastructure so as to stimulate economic growth from which all citizens benefit.

The imperative of having real political power to advance republican objectives should be the basis of Sinn Féin going into government in the South, not simply entering coalition for its own sake. But a new critical mass for change will be essential to create those conditions. That presupposes not only continuing political realignment but also increased unity within progressive, Left, national and democratic opinion which shifts the political centre of gravity towards a tipping point and brings them about.

Political engagement needs to take place among all those genuinely committed to democratic control of the economy, social justice and an agreed, united Ireland. Progressive political, social and commu5 Water charges have become a catalyst for popular discontent against Fine Gael and Labour

become the largest party in Spain, or that the Scottish National Party is on the rise. Or indeed that UKIP has emerged as a British Conservative stalking horse, the French National Front is energised, and Obama’s attempts to restructure the US economy, introduce new taxation measures and defend his health insurance legislation face increased opposition from the US Republican Party right wing.

In Ireland, the current political flux may only be comparable to the ideological divisions underpinning the counter-revolution of 1921-23. Stark ideological differences now exist over how Irish society should organise itself. There is a growing polarisation between the interests of citizens’ rights and community and those of international banks and capital.

The strategic challenge for Sinn Féin is to keep

5 In Europe parties like SYRIZA in Greece, Podemos in Spain and the SNP in Scotland are on the rise

moving forward in this context and national perspective is key to that. It must be the primary determinant of the party’s strategy and politics.

Without it, electoral growth and future government in the South, or indeed the political institutions in the North, risk being limited to ends in themselves instead of the means with which to achieve ‘An Ireland of Equals’.

As a party of government in the North, Sinn Féin now has to ensure implementation of the Stormont House Agreement whilst advancing equality, opposing austerity, and prioritising strategic investment in public services, job creation and growth. Power-sharing must be entrenched, civic society’s role in the democratic process increased, and authentic reconciliation developed.

In the South, the party’s priority is to prepare for government with long-term, sustainable investment

This is the time for serious political discussion among progressive Irish political, community and trade union activists on ideas and strategies to ensure the future election of a Left coalition in the South nity movements should collectively discuss the development of an agenda which mobilises the greater mass of Irish society in support of equality, protecting the most vulnerable, distributing wealth and resources according to citizens’ needs, and guaranteeing their rights.

As new international political forces move towards governmental power, formal political discussion should commence in Ireland on how to forge consensus between Sinn Féin, progressive independents, the trade union movement, grassroots communities, and the non-sectarian Left. That process should concentrate on building durable, strategic, cross-sectoral, cross-community and political alliances North and South.

This is the time for serious political discussion among progressive Irish political, community and trade union activists on the ideas and strategies which will ensure the future election of a Left coalition in the South dedicated to establishing a new national Republic.

It is the only way forward.

12 February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

SHOW YOUR SOLIDARITY WITH THOSE WHO HAVE FOUGHT FOR IRISH FREEDOM Areas are asked to take out advertisements in the Le Chéile brochure to show their appreciation for this year’s honourees

MATT KANE

PHIL POWELL

COIREALL Mac CURTÁIN

MICHAEL FLEMING

Cúige Laighean

Cúige Uladh

Cúige Mumhan

Cúige Chonnacht

Show your support for your honouree. This year’s brochure will include €10/£10 personalised ads. The deadline for receiving ads is 4pm Friday 21st February.

BROCHURE ADVERTISEMENT PRICES ARE

» FULL PAGE – €200/£180

» QUARTER PAGE – €50/£45

» HALF PAGE – €100/£90

» GOLD PAGE – €500/£500

» PERSONALISED ADS – €10/£10 Tickets are available from your local area organiser or Brian and Sinéad (details below) Wording, photograph/logo and payment for advertisements should be sent to:

briandowling@sinnfein.ie Sinn Féin Finance Dept. 44 Parnell Square, Dublin 1. Tel: 01 87 26 100 Brian Dowling (26 Counties) 00 353 87 230 1882 | Sinéad Walsh (Six Counties) 028 90 34737

Whip system helps ensure electoral accountability SINN FÉIN Chief Whip Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD has come out powerfully in favour of the party whip system.

He was speaking in the Dáil against an Amendment on the 34th Constitution which proposed the elimination of the whip system.

Deputy Ó Snodaigh said: “This legislation effectively proposes a constitutional bar on the whip system.

I’m sorry to say that the elimination of the whip system is not a remedy for what ails political life in this state.

It is not the source of the problem – the problem is broken political and electoral promises.”

Independent TDs have been promoting their individualism and idiosyncratic political platforms as a virtue, but Aengus Ó Snodaigh pointed out the weaknesses behind the mavericks’ claims: “Nowhere in the world has a group of Independents, each voting by their individual conscience, run a country or even be in a position to deliver fundamental reform.

“Political parties are groups of people who, by their own volition, have agreed to work together to promote a set of principles and policies. When a party candidate contests an election, they don’t have the luxury to be all things to everyone, as some Independent

candidates are. They contest an election on an agreed manifesto as well as the party’s adopted policies and its history and record.

“The electorate vote for them and put their faith in them as they see fit. The manifesto is their social contract with the electorate. They place their trust in

‘Nowhere in the world has a group of Independents, each voting by their individual conscience, run a country or even be in a position to deliver fundamental reform’

5 Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD says party candidates don't have the luxury of being all things to all people

them. The whip system helps ensure electoral accountability. Eliminating the whip system will not improve the political landscape.

“What is needed are cohesive, coherent policies together with the political integrity and political will to find a way to implement them. While the current Coalition Government may not be up for this, Sinn Féin is and are we are serious about governing for change.”

February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

13

5 The housing crisis in north Belfast is compounded by the geography of the area and the threat posed by living on an interface

British Government cuts to the block grant puts pressure on the Northern Executive and in the housing sector ordinary people pay the price, says Fra McCann MLA

Housing crisis in the North basis that social housing is allocated on, and transferring housing stock out of the public sector into private (landlord) ownership.

Sinn Féin and the Equality Commission’s challenges centre on the fact that the department, then under the control of the DUP’s Nelson McCausland had neither screened nor carried out an Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) on the policy.

McCausland and the DSD were subsequently accused of manipulating the waiting list figures for north Belfast to disguise the disproportionate number of people in nationalist areas in housing

BY PEADAR WHELAN AS the housing crisis in the North goes from bad to worse, An Phoblacht spoke to Sinn Féin’s Assembly spokesperson, Fra McCann MLA He warned that the British Government’s cuts strategy will “leave us with an unmitigated housing disaster”.

McCann is firmly of the view that the lack of “new builds” and the “flawed points system” used to allocate houses needs to be overhauled.

“The reality is that we are in a housing crisis here and with more than 20,000 people registered homeless, 3,500 people on waiting lists and so few houses being built, the situation can only get worse.”

Added to this is the fact that so many houses are being taken out of the social housing sector and into private ownership. “This only compounds the problem as private landlords demand higher rents which people can’t afford and so end up registering as homeless,” Fra McCann says.

McCann says that the private sector is unregulated, the rents are overpriced and that up to £300million goes into that sector in benefit payments.

As far back as 2008, Sinn Féin called for the registration of private landlords and a charter for the protection of tenants.

Sinn Féin maintains that the Department of Social Development (DSD), the Executive department ultimately responsible for housing, “has a lot to answer for”. He has accused the DSD of bias over the allocation of housing.

So convinced is the party that bias exists that, in

‘With more than 20,000 people registered homeless, 3,500 people on waiting lists and so few houses being built, the situation can only get worse’ Fra McCann MLA

June of last year, Assembly members Fra McCann, Alex Maskey and Mickey Brady asked the North’s Equality Commission to investigate the DSD. In May, a month prior to the Sinn Féin move, it emerged that the Equality Commission had launched its own investigation into the DSD’s Facing the Future: Housing Strategy for Northern Ireland 2012-2017 policy.

Facing the Future proposes a radical overhaul of public housing policy, including the dismantling of the Housing Executive, a re-examination of the

need compared to their unionist counterparts.

According to McCann, the demand for housing in nationalist areas “far outstrips that in unionist areas – more houses are available in unionist areas but the reality is that nationalists cannot move into them”.

He added: “We want a system where houses are allocated on the basis of objective need. We are happy to work with the new DSD Minister, Mervyn Storey, to bring about the necessary changes but he has to be willing to break with the past, especially in respect of equality requirements.”

ALISON’S STORY ‘ALISON’ called into Fra McCann’s Falls Road constituency office while An Phoblacht was there and said she didn’t mind us sitting in as she asked about getting rehoused.

“Most of the cases that we deal with here are housing related,” Fra tells me, “whether it’s people trying to move to improved accommodation, people trying to get their first house or simply those who need repairs done.”

‘Alison’ is a 29-year-old mother of two children living in privately-rented accommodation.

She explains that she pays £600 per month for a property which is not suitable for her children nor is “worth the rent”.

As both Alison and her partner work, they cannot got enough housing points for a house from any of the many housing associations that are now responsible for the building and allocation of the North’s housing.

The double whammy for the couple is that, because they are in a house, the number of points they are entitled to is minimal whereas people who are homeless will be entitled to more points.

Alison has been offered houses in areas that are miles from where she presently lives, in the mid-Falls, but these do not suit her as she works unsocial hours and at times depends on family for child-minding.

Were she to accept one of these offers she would be forced to take her children out of their present school and enroll them nearer to the new home or make a round trip through heavy traffic every schoolday.

Alison is caught in a housing trap. Fra McCann is working on her case.

14 February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

Sorcha Ní Mhealláin is originally from the north coast of County Derry. She’s currently teaching English in São Paulo in Brazil. She’s a member of the We’re Coming Back campaign, which advocates for voting rights for the Irish abroad

A VOICE IN A VOTE IRISH OVERSEAS FOR THE

BY SORCHA NÍ MHEALLÁIN

WE’RE COMING BACK ALMOST 200,000 young people have left Ireland in the last six years. That’s a statistic.

I am one of those people. I am more than a statistic. I am a citizen of Ireland.

I hope my exodus will only be a temporary one. Like the majority of my emigrant peers, I feel a deep-rooted connection to Ireland and I am proud of Ireland, of our history of emigration and our unique ability to remain true to our culture. I cherish the fact that while only 6.5million people live here, 70million people around the world call Ireland home. No matter where I go in the world, I can meet someone who’ll ask me “What’s the craic?” because they had a “lovely Irish friend in the 1970s” or there’s someone who can recommend me a “great wee Irish bar” in the area.

Despite all of this, this country wilfully remains amongst a minority of democracies that provide no representation for their citizens abroad.

Ireland wilfully remains amongst a minority of democracies that provide no representation for their citizens abroad There is little in the way of serious debate as to what the undemocratic exclusion of so many of our young people means for the Irish political dynamic. In an attempt to shed light on the issue, we wrote about about the anger of young emigrants excluded from one of most important political chapters for their generation to date – the 2015 referendum on marriage equality. Little over a week after we published that article, the Minister for the Diaspora, Jimmy Deenihan, publicly repudiated the idea that his new role involved seeking representation for the views of young emigrants on subjects like marriage equality or abortion. He prioritised extending a vote to the Irish abroad in the next Presidential election instead.

A few months down the line, however, and it appears that this Irish Government has no intention of implementing even such moderate reform for Irish citizens. Cabinet was scheduled to issue a decision regarding an external vote in Irish Presidential elections before Christmas but Christmas came and went without a word.

5 Irish emigrants around the globe take part in the 'Toast for a Vote' campaign

Instead, whilst meeting with us in Brussels, Taoiseach Enda Kenny went so far as to relegate the entire issue of emigrant voting rights as “a topic for the next general election and the next Government”.

The Irish mainstream media have shown little interest in this blatant backtracking of the bigger issues at stake. Where is the debate on a society engaged in the paradox of searching for a fairer political model whilst simultaneously debarring a huge proportion of its youth from participating in its construction?

A significant proportion of the Irish emigrants living abroad are there out of necessity, not out of choice. A significant proportion of these people were forced to leave Ireland due to poor

5 A significant proportion of Irish emigrants are there out of necessity

WE’RE COMING BACK is on

3 Sinn Féin Senators Kathryn Reilly and Trevor Ó Clochartaigh show their support for the 'Toast for a Vote' campaign from inside Leinster House

political and economic choices made by our government which resulted in the cutbacks and job losses we all know too well. The last thing these people need is a further ‘kick when they’re down’, a further exclusion, a further let-down by their own country.

Around the world, voting systems have been put in place to offer political representation to

Around the world, voting systems have been put in place to offer political representation to those overseas whilst continuing to ensure the relative autonomy of those still resident at home those overseas whilst continuing to ensure the relative autonomy of those still resident at home.

But the Irish Government continues to leave its young emigrants out in the cold.

If we continue to allow them to ignore the voices of thousands of young Irish people abroad, we are not only accepting but actively participating in the continuing stagnancy of our political system, as well as our future.

Furthermore, we risk losing a generation of enthusiastic, politically active Irish people to other societies and political systems in which they will not be voiceless but in which they will be valued.

Facebook and

Twitter

February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

After the

15

tragedy . . .

Translating the state’s new-found love of press freedom into reality

BY ROBBIE SMYTH SO NOW we can talk about freedom of speech. It is shocking that it took the brutal, terrifying murders of 17 people (including the 11 Charlie Hebdo workers) to headline press freedom in the international news cycle.

As a mammoth wave of support gathered for the murdered workers of Charlie Hebdo, one of the most striking aspects of the “Je suis Charlie” outpouring was the breadth of Establishment politicians and public figures giving support across the globe.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny signed a book of condolences at the French Embassy, 5 Denis O’Brien's Independent News & Media controls much of Ireland's print media attended a National Union of Journalists remembrance ceremony, and flew to established by Independent News Paris to walk on the ‘Unity march’, to be & Media, Communicorp and UTV in in the vanguard of the Establishment Irish media. political leaders ‘standing up’ for the Wouldn’t it be great to have indepenworld’s media and against censorship. dent, locally-owned, community-driven It was fascinating to read the Taoise- radio and TV media, not a cog in some ach’s declaration on “the values of larger group trying to sell more ads freedom, equality and fraternity” and and squeeze more profits from their “old enemies march here to defend the Government-granted licences?

Maybe the Minister for Communications should cease appointing the board of RTÉ.

What about an apology for decades of censorship happily carried out by Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour in various governments since the 1923 5 Fianna Fáil leader Mícheál Martin Censorship Act? None of these things will likely Media historian Lance Pettit puts the number of films banned from 1923 to happen. Better to have our peak-time 1963 at over 3,000 with 8,000 censored; TV viewing filled with ads and The 12,941 books were banned between Saturday Night Show on RTÉ or Exposé 1929 and 1967. This doesn’t include on TV3, our radio stations filled with jolly, mutual back-slapping banter on values of respect, freedom, dignity and the decades of political censorship. tolerance”. It made me wonder about how to put this new-found support for press freedom into tangible form.

We could have a referendum guaranteeing the right to free speech.

The Fine Gael/Labour Government could reform the 2009 Defamation Act. Litigation since the Act became law has shown that defences of “honest opinion” and “fair and reasonable publication on a matter of public interest” are near impossible to uphold.

Fianna Fáil leader Mícheál Martin could admit that then Justice Minister Dermot Ahern was wrong to include a blasphemy clause in the 2009 Act. The Irish Government could have a press freedom watershed facing up to the problems of allowing decades of media mergers – firstly, by blocking any more; secondly, by introducing a timetable for unravelling the fiefdoms

The Irish Government could produce a timetable for unravelling the media fiefdoms established

by Independent News & Media, Communicorp and UTV

5 Je suis Charlie: It was fascinating to read the Taoiseach’s declaration that ‘old enemies march here to defend the values of respect, freedom, dignity and tolerance’

the incestuous merry-go-round of ‘commentators’ (especially on Sundays), and lots and lots of music.

A very small section of Irish society actually gets to articulate a viewpoint in the mainstream media today. A free media would also be one that has routes of access to all Irish citizens and communities living here.

In Dublin, for one example, think of the diversity of ethnicities, socio-economic groups, accents and viewpoints you meet daily and compare this to the monochromatic, monotone news media we have in print, radio, TV and even online. Is this really then an equal and free Irish news media?

The Irish know what it is like to be singled out in caricature. With Punch magazine leading the way in the 19th century, followed by Thomas Nast’s Harper’s Weekly and other publications, the Irish were portrayed as wild beasts, monkey-like, or corpulent, drunken

In Rupert Murdoch’s world, where his company owns 150 newspapers, some cartoons need apologies and some don’t THIS ONE DID

leprechauns. In the 20th century, the lampooning of the Irish continued in the British Fleet Street press.

Some British newspapers took advantage of last decade’s economic collapse and returned to a familiar territory of buffoon Paddies and leprechauns begging. I’m not making an argument to ban these cartoons but the underlying racism of them should be recognised.

And again the Irish media stay silent.

Wouldn’t it be great to have independent, locally-owned, community-driven radio and TV media?

Finally, Rupert Murdoch’s tweet post-Charlie massacre rightly provoked much criticism when he said: “Maybe most Moslems peaceful, but until they recognise and destroy their growing jihadist cancer they must be held responsible.”

But in 2013, after The Sunday Times published a Gerald Scarfe cartoon portraying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a bricklayer building a wall with blood as cement and with arms legs and heads protruding from the bricks, Murdoch tweeted: “Gerald Scarfe has never reflected the opinions of The Sunday Times. Nevertheless, we owe major apology for grotesque, offensive cartoon.”

In Murdoch’s world, where his company owns 150 newspapers, some cartoons need apologies and some don’t.

It would be a poor use of press freedom to spend it insulting people’s religious beliefs. Is that what the Charlie Hebdo story is all about?

16 February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

‘Free speech’ under Fine Gael and Labour, 1984 – Enda Kenny’s right-hand man talked internment without trial and restricting free speech with Margaret Thatcher’s Government

Noonan wanted

An Phoblacht WHILE Michael Noonan was keen to keep his contempt for democracy out of public view, the same could not be said for Fine Gael Defence Minister Paddy Cooney.

The rabid anti-republican and boss of the disgraced Garda ‘Heavy Gang’ thugs when he was Justice Minister in the 1970s told reporters in December, “When I look at members of Sinn Féin, I cannot do so without loathing,” adding that Sinn Féin members “are not entitled to the normal courtesies of the community”.

BY MARK MOLONEY THE TRUMPETING by the Fine Gael/Labour Government of the right to freedom of speech in the wake of the massacre of Charlie Hebdo magazine staff stands in stark contrast with their own parties’ history of censorship and repression here in Ireland. Taoiseach Enda Kenny told reporters that the killings were an “attack on the basic values of freedom of speech and tolerance”. This was the message from all Government representatives but apparently Labour Party Dublin City Councillor and former Mayor Dermot Lacey didn’t get the message. Lacey’s democratic mask slipped when he took to Twitter to reveal that he wished the Section 31 broadcasting ban against Sinn Féin had never ended.

5 Current Finance Minister Michael Noonan, as Justice Minister, told the British Secretary of State that the leaking of some details of his co-operation with Thatcher's Government had been embarrassing for him

Affairs in Iveagh House on 10 January 1984, Michael Noonan even discussed the possibility of introducing internment without trial – or, as the documents terms, it “preventive detention” – in the South. The British Secretary of State told him the “[British] Government would wish to consider it very seriously for Northern Ireland if the Irish Government were to decide to introduce it in the Republic”. Noonan also told the British direct-ruler (an MP from East Anglia) that he “would welcome a discussion between officials on ways of restricting the effect of Sinn Féin’s activities” and outlined his displeasure with how the ability of many in the South to receive British TV and radio broadcasts was undermining state censorship. One proposal was whether the Irish Government could target An Phoblacht/Republican News, with Thatcher’s minister asking Fine Gael’s Noonan “whether some action could be taken against those who wrote for, or who published and distributed such papers” in the South. The Secretary of State “hoped further

With Enda Kenny jetting over to Paris to be seen with other world leaders (ignoring the fact that many of those he marched with represent countries with appalling track records of freedom of speech), the Fine Gael leader was trying to paint a picture of his party and Government as staunch defenders of media freedom. State papers released in Ireland and Britain just days earlier, however, show that nothing could be further from the truth.

Key figures in both Fine Gael and Labour – many still Government TDs and ministers, including

The Irish Times said the British Government in particular ‘appears to take exception to the existence of a fairly well-produced republican weekly newspaper’ in An Phoblacht

State papers from 1984 show that Fine Gael’s Michael Noonan was a cheerleader of censorship

Unlike his hypocritical colleagues who laud freedom of speech when it suits them, Cooney has no such pretense. He simply opposes it and to this day his campaign to crush free expression trundles on.

In 2013, aided and abetted by his son, Fine Gael Councillor Mark Cooney, he tried to censor history by demanding the removal of an art installation by Shane Cullen at the Luan Art Gallery in Athlone because it featured excerpts of letters from republican prisoners in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. The veteran Defence Minister (and former Minister for Education!) was even witnessed hitting the artwork with his crutch and demanding to see the manager to have it removed before storming from the gallery in a rage when he failed.

now Finance Minister Michael Noonan – have been eager to tighten press restrictions on their political opponents. The papers show that Michael Noonan was a cheerleader of censorship. In January 1984, he not only discussed the “success” of the state’s censorship regime (which banned not just Irish republicans but non-republicans critical of the British/unionist take on the history and conflict in the Six Counties) from TV and radio broadcasts, but he probed the possibility of introducing internment without trial, banning An Phoblacht and further restricting free speech in the 26 Counties. In 1984, Noonan was serving as Justice Minister in the then Fine Gael and Labour Party Government; the current Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, was appointed as a Fine Gael delegate to the New Ireland Forum. The Forum served as little more than a talking shop which aimed to bolster support for the SDLP (and marginalise Sinn Féin) in the aftermath of a surge of electoral success for republicans following the 1980/1981 Hunger Strikes.

Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister. At a one-to-one meeting with British Secretary of State James Prior at the Department of Foreign

5 An Phoblacht’s 12 January 1984 front page used the headline “Prior’s Puppet” to describe Justice Minister Michael Noonan

action” could be taken against the publication and Michael Noonan is said to have been “content for informal private discussions to be held on this”. The notes point out that “if one title was stopped, the same paper could appear under a new title”. The notes contained in the documents should make awkward reading for a Fine Gael party that insists it behaved impeccably during the conflict but now describes “the targeting of a media publication [as] a direct attack on democracy and freedom, values which we cherish”.

Banning and stopping An Phoblacht had become something of an obsession amongst the Irish and British Governments.

There were frequent raids on the paper’s offices, arrests of the paper’s editors and staff, and the confiscation of thousands of copies by state forces alongside gun attacks and threats against staff and sellers by unionist death squads.

The Irish Times said the British Government in particular “appears to take exception to the existence of a fairly well-produced republican

February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

17

‘For the first time ever, a Dublin Minister for Justice [Michael Noonan] met with a Northern direct ruler alone – to discuss one topic only: joint repression’ AN PHOBLACHT, 12 JANUARY 1984

5 Enda Kenny served on the New Ireland Forum

weekly newspaper”. The now Finance Minister and Enda Kenny’s right-hand man also discussed the idea of restricting freedom of speech for Irish republicans and their supporters by possible changes to incitement laws but despaired that “speeches were often made in coded language which were well understood by their listeners but which made it difficult to bring a successful prosecution”. The Irish Government’s draconian Offences Against the State Act “whereby the offence of membership of a proscribed organisation could be proved on the statement of a police officer” interested the British immensely. Noonan, however, was clearly concerned that his collusion with the British was raising eyebrows among the public, even the British Secretary of State noting he “had been most

Leaks to the media that Michael Noonan was discussing ‘security co-operation’ with Thatcher’s British Government ‘had been embarrassing for him’ concerned that news of the meeting had leaked to the press”. Media reports that he was discussing ‘”security co-operation” with Thatcher’s British Government “had been embarrassing for him”. It is for this reason that Noonan later asked Prior that a joint statement would release no details of any issues they had discussed. Two days after the meeting, An Phoblacht’s front page led with a photo of Prior and Noonan with the headline “Prior’s Puppet”. It said the secrecy surrounding the visit “cannot hope to hide an all-too-obvious fact of Dublin Government policy with regard to the North [that], for the first time ever, a Dublin Minister for Justice met with a Northern direct ruler alone – to discuss one topic only: joint repression”. Noonan and the Government, An Phoblacht said, had “totally and absolutely surrendered itself to be a willing, abject tool of British military and political strategy in Ireland”. Joint repression was certainly a theme discussed, with the British and Irish officials complaining of the “problem” of Sinn Féin elected representatives.

The increasing number of Sinn Féin councillors was worrying both governments so Dublin, seemingly at the behest of the British, began a “shun Sinn Féin” policy.

Prior assured Noonan that “no minister would

5 Labour Environment Minister Liam Kavanagh refused to meet with elected Sinn Féin councillors

agree to see any member of Sinn Féin or write to them” and that no minister would visit a local council “if they knew a Sinn Féin elected member was to be present”.

Noonan confided in Prior that the “major problem” for the Irish Government was “preventing access to ministers when Sinn Féin members could be part of a delegation”. More notes, this time prepared for NI Civil Service Second Permanent Secretary Ewart Bell, describe the rise of Sinn Féin as “very unwelcome” and reveals that “the rise in the Sinn Féin vote is partly the result of community politics” as well as “the failure of the SDLP to devise credible policies”. It noted that much of the nationalist community is “attracted to the support of whatever party seemed most likely to deliver results”. Thatcher’s allies in Fine Gael and the Irish Labour Party had also been taken aback

by Sinn Féin’s high work rate on the ground: “The SDLP are weaker than Sinn Féin in their capacity to ‘deliver’ on local government issues,” a report to the Taoiseach’s Office said. Another outlined in stark terms just why working-class communities were rallying behind the party: “A contact in the Housing Executive had told [Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiach] that in the Belfast area they were receiving approximately 140 enquiries a week from Sinn Féin to four from the SDLP.” It also noted that Sinn Féin members would probably increase their support as they are “extremely hard constituency workers”. It was the Irish Labour Party, though, who most revelled in the new policy of excluding elected representatives they disagreed with.

In February 1984, Labour Party Environment

5 Labour's Ruairí Quinn boycotted Sinn Féin

5 Thatcher introduced state censorship in 1988

Minister Liam Kavanagh emerged as a pettyminded begrudger when he refused to meet a delegation of councillors from Donegal because it included Sinn Féin Councillor Eddie Fullerton, a man with near-universal respect for his integrity and tireless work in the county.

The delegation was not there to discuss the conflict or censorship, or even domestic politics.

They were simply looking for the financing for

Chairperson of Gorey Town Commission. The pathetic policy saw non-political events overshadowed with the annual St Patrick’s Day Parade in Longford abandoned because Defence Forces reservists and bands were refused permission to take part in the parade by Defence Minister Paddy Cooney unhappy that Sinn Féin councillors would be on the viewing stand. The parade had been relying on the band to provide music for the day and the move outraged the town’s Chamber of Commerce as well as a bewildered public. This policy of censorship, repression and attacks on republicans continued under successive Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil governments until trade union and Sinn Féin activist Larry O’Toole struck a fatal blow to the Broadcasting Ban in the early 1990s which led to it not being renewed in 1994.

British and Irish Government officials complained of the ‘problem’ of Sinn Féin elected representatives an upgraded sewerage system for Buncrana.

The Labour minister skulked in his office and wouldn’t come out until Eddie Fullerton had left the grounds of Leinster House. Sinn Féin described the Environment Minister’s attitude to the councillor (murdered in his Buncrana home by a British-backed unionist death squad in May 1991) as “an insult to a respected elected representative and all those who voted for him”.

Labour’s Liam Kavanagh continued with his belligerent attitude by refusing to meet delegations from Longford and Galway County Councils. Labour colleagues followed suit with Ruairí Quinn (another recent member of the current Government as Education Minister from 2011 to July 2014) refusing to meet the Sinn Féin

5 Sinn Féin Councillor Eddie Fullerton sells copies of An Phoblacht in Donegal, the popular politician was murdered in his Buncrana home by unionists in 1991

18 February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

Gan Réiteach ar Scannal na Simfiseatóime Fós 5 Teachtaí Dála Shinn Féin Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin agus Gerry Adams in éanacht le íospartaigh simfiseatóime i dTeach Laighean

MEASTAR gur cuireadh suas le 1,500 ban in Éirinn faoin scian don obráid bharbartha seo i nganfhios dóibh idir na 1940dí agus na 1980dí. Cineál obráide atá sa simfiseatóime a úsáideadh ar dtús do mhná a raibh deacracht acu páistí a bhreith. Rinneadh iarracht an bac seo a scaoileadh agus an páiste ag teacht ar an saol tríd an peilbheas a leathnú trí mháinliacht. Bhí tacaíocht ann don obráid i measc roinnt Caitliceach toisc gur creideadh an tráth sin gur éascaigh sé breith tuilleadh leanbh. Bhí ról ag an tuairimíocht reilgiúnda seo i gcur chun tosaigh na simfiseatóime in Éirinn. Dóibh siúd a chuaigh faoin obráid gan chead seo bíonn pianta géara, deacrachtaí siúil anuas ar fhadhbanna le neamhchoinneálacht ag roinnt acu fós. Ó bhlianta luatha an 2000 tháinig íospartaigh chun tosaigh agus é mar aidhm acu brústocaireacht a dhéanamh ar son féin. Idir an dá linn táthar tar éis bheith siar is aniar le fiosrúcháin éagsúla agus cásanna cúirte ach is é an trua ná nár thángthas ar aon réiteach shásúil do na mná in ainneoin gur tarraingíodh aird idirnáisiúnta agus cáineadh ar lucht ceannais ag tráthanna éagsúla.

Tá dua ar leith caite ag an Teachta Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, urlabhraí chúrsaí sláinte is chúrsaí páistí Shinn Féin, leis an gcás seo agus is é a bhí ina thionólaí ar ghrúpa traspháirtí ar son na mban seo agus a chur réiteach maidir le reacht na dtréimhsí chun cinn tríd an Dáil. Luaigh sé ag deireadh 2014 go raibh sé cinnte go mbeadh mná ann a ghlacfadh leis an scéim ach go raibh díomá air don líon mór ban eile a mbeadh scéim mar é maslach dóibh, an bealach a raibh sí le rith agus an trí leibhéal de chúiteamh €50,000, €100,000 agus

EOIN P. Ó MURCHÚ €150,000 ar throid fhada in aghaidh na n-údarás agus le fadhbanna troma sláinte.

Má ghlactar le cúiteamh faoin scéim níl cead leanúint le cásanna cúirte ach tá de chead ag mná éirí as an scéim ag aon phointe agus dul i muinín na gcúirteanna.

Ar an bhfaraor géar áfach ní fheilfidh an scéim seo do chách. Táthar ann atá anonn go maith san aois nó róthinn agus nach mbeidh deis acu leas a bhaint as.

Dreamanna eile ní raibh teacht róshaoráideach ar na cuntais leighis a bhain leis na hobráidí nó dream eile

Dóibh siúd ar imríodh mí-úsáid mar seo orthu tá sé dlite dóibh go ndéanfadh an stát leithscéal iomlán a ghabháil leo anuas ar chúiteamh

fós níl eolas ceart nó iomlán acu gur tharla sé dóibh fiú amháin.

Braitheann roinnt ban gur aitheantas atá ann gur caitheadh go fíordhona leo agus cuireadh fáilte roimh roinnt de na sonraí. Cháin Cathaoirleach Survivors of Symphyiotomy Marie O’Connor an tslí a raibh tréimhse ama ghearr iarratais ag an scéim agus dúirt go gcuirfeadh sé bac ar dhaoine cinneadh tomhaiste a ghlacadh le cabhair ó chomhairle neamhspleách.

An chomhairle a tugadh ná tabhairt faoin scéim agus leanúint le cásanna dlí fós féin. D’ardaigh an Teachta Ó Caoláin an cheist chéanna mar nach raibh ach 20 lá oibre sonraithe mar thréimhse iarratais.

Chuir breis agus 550 ban isteach ar an scéim, líon a raibh an rialtas sásta leis, ach beidh le feiceáil fós an mbeidh na mná seo sásta le torthaí na scéime agus an nglacfaidh siad leis an gcúiteamh uaidh. Dúirt an Teachta Ó Caoláin gur faoi na mná féin a bhí sé dul leis nó fanacht uaidh ach go mbeadh a thacaíocht agus tacaíocht Shinn Féin acu pé bealach a roghnóidís.

Dóibh siúd ar imríodh mí-úsáid mar seo orthu tá sé dlite dóibh go ndéanfadh an stát leithscéal iomlán a ghabháil leo anuas ar chúiteamh. Is mithid do phobal an leighis, leis, an cheist seo a aithint mar áit ar theip ar a mbealaí rialaithe srian a chur le dochtúirí bradacha. Cén fáth go raibh tionchar an reiligiúin le feiscint ar obráidí?

Caithfidh an rialtas agus an tsochaí bealach a fhorbairt a ligfidh do dhaoine a imríodh drochíde d’aon saghas orthu tuiscint a fháil ar ar tharla dóibh, leithscéal as an míchúram agus cúiteamh san áit ar gá. Aon chur chuige eile teipeann air caitheamh mar is ceart le pobal ár bPoblachta.

February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

19

Irish above politics?

MÁS FÍOR DONA pobalbhreitheanna, tá dream mor vótóirí – 30% nó mar sin – nach bhfuil sásta le haon cheanna dena mor-phairtithe polaitíochta ná, go fóill ar aon chuma sásta a muinín a chur sa rogha polaitiúil a mholann Sinn Féin.

Ar ndóigh nó dream aontaithe iad na neamhspleáigh seo. Ta cuid acu ar an eite chlé, ar nós Catherine Murphy is John Halligan, cuid eile ar an eite dheis ach atá eiginnte faoi dhéine, ar nós Shane Ross is Stephen Donnelly, cuid acu ag labhairt thar ceann mhiuntir na tuaithe ar nós Michael Fitzmaurice is Mattie McGrath, agus cuid acu ina n-iarsmaí dena sean-pháirtithe, ar nós Lucinda Creighton is Michael Healy Rae. Ach ag breathnú ar an slua aimhréidheach seo bhuail smaoineamh amháin mé: cá bhfuil na Gaeilgeóirí? Cá bhfuil na neamhspleáigh a chuirfeadh cearta lucht labhartha na Gaeilge, sa nGaeltacht agus taobh amuigh, sa gcéad áit?

Níl siad ann. Agus níl siad ann mar ní bheidh faillí an rialtais i leith na Gaeilge ina ábhar conspóide sa gcéad olltoghchán, mar is fearr le lucht na Gaeilge fanacht ar an imeall ag clamhsán linn féin, ag ligint do Julian de Spáinn an beagán stocaireacht a dhéantar a dhéanamh leis féin.

Níl aon aimhreas ach go bhfuil Sinn Féin míle uair níos fearr ná páirtí aitheanta ar bith eile i dtaobh na Gaeilge. Sea, tá cainteóirí líofa i ngach aon pháirtí, Enda Kenny i bhFine Gael, Mícheal Martin i bhFianna Fáil, Éamon Gilmore sa Lucht Oibre, ach is ag Sinn Féin amháin atá Oifigeach Gaeilge agus ag Sinn Féin amháin atá clár oibre a aithníonn cearta Gaeilge mar rudaí riachtanacha.

Ach ní leór sin. Mar níl aon bhrú ar Shinn Féin

EOIN Ó MURCHÚ

ó dhream eagraithe le cinntiú go ndéanfaí bearta meath na teanga sa nGaeltacht ag dul in de réir a mbriathar. Tá a leithéid ann maidir leis olcas i gcónaí. Siar insna seachtóidí tháinig na feachtaisí faoi uisce, sláinte, déine, is eile; dream óg de mhuintir Chonamara le chéile ach níl aon bhrú ar an bpáirtí mar gheall le feachtas Chearta Sibhialta na ar an nGaeilge is níl aon bhrú ar pháirtí Gaeltachta a chur chun cinn, ag ar bith eile ach an oiread. lorg i measc rudaí eile údarás Bhí an t-am ann nuair a thug lucht na da cguid fein ag muintir na Gaeilge a vótaí do Fhianna Fáil toisc nach Gaeltachta a fherabhsódh deiseraibh na páirtithe eile gafa leis an scéal anna eacnamaíochta mhintir na beag nó mór. Agus le crú a chur ar an Gaeltachta ina mbailte dúchais tairne, níor thug Fianna Fáil aon aird ar féin. an scéal mar ní raibh sé riachtanach dóibh.

Is fiú a thabhairt faoi ndear gur Mhol Mairtín Ó Cadhain, mrr fhreagra bhain an rialtas reatha air sin, go gcuirfí an Ghaeilge “Above seo daonlathas ón Politics”: sé sin, go gcuirfeadh údarás ag cur stop le lucht na Gaeilge eagar orthu toghadh na n-ionafein le cinntiú go mbeadh a daithe ag muintir na gcuid eilithe ar bhárr an liosta Gaeltachta fein ar an ag na páirtithe ar fad. leithscéal suarach go Feicimid inniu go bhfuil sábháilfí airgead.

Mairtín Ó Cadhain

Insna seachtóidí freisin cuireadh stop le iarracht an Roinn Oideachais Scoil Dhún Chaoin a dhúnadh, ach mar a dúirt Breandan Feirtéar sa gclár telefíse le deireannas cé gur buadh an cath sin cailleadh an cogadh mar tá meath an daonra i gCorca Dhuibhne ann gan stop.

Arís ar TG4 chuir Seán Ó Cualáin ceist faoi Chearta Sibhialta na Gaeltachta, ag fiafraí an bhfuil an t-aos óg inniu sásta an troid chéanna a dhéanamh is a dhein a n-aithreacha is a máithreacha.

Agus tá sé le déanamh mar gan féin-mhuiinín is go deimhin féin-riail ag muintir na Gaeltachta is ar éigean a bhéas Gaeltacht ann sa todhchaí, agus in éagmais na Gaeltacht is beag seans go mairfeadh ár dteanga dúchasach.

Ach fós tá lucht na Gaeilge ina dtost.

Deirtear ar thaobh amháin go gcaithfidh ceist na Gaeltacht a chur chun cinn mar chuid de cheist na tuaithe. Tá a lán den cheart san argóint seo, ach is treise an Ghaeltacht go bhfuil lucht labhartha na Gaeilge taobh amuigh ag tacú leo.

An féidir linn an Ghaeltacht agus Gluaiseacht na Gaeilge a chur ag obair le chéile, as lámha a cheile, sa gcaoi go mbeidh na páirtithe go leir faoi iachall éisteacht linn.

An féidir linn daoine a thoghadh ar cheist na Gaeilge?

Sea, an gcuirfeadh muid Irish Above Politics, nó an bhfanfimid ciúin ar an gclaí?

Is Dr Varadkar in charge of a health service in freefall?

BY SARAH HOLLAND THE controversy about record numbers of patients on trolleys is nothing new.

Scandals involving dirty, understaffed hospitals and overworked frontline staff are old news here.

I spoke to a lady from Allenton recently who spent 16 hours in an overnight wait at Beaumont Hospital before being discharged.

She reported dirty waiting rooms, broken toilets, frantic nurses and only one doctor on duty. She told me that one nurse locked herself in the loo crying, just to get a break. She had been rushed to hospital suffering with a suspected brain haemorrhage, having

5 Health Minister Leo Varadkar finds himself facing yet another healthcare crisis

gone temporarily blind at her home, and did not even have a trolley to lie on – she was parked in a chair and left there overnight.

A patient with diabetes asked for a cup of tea and was directed to a broken vending machine.

Another lady, in agonising pain with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, asked me to plead with Tallaght Hospital on her behalf for an earlier appointment. She

had an appointment in June 2014 for an injection to ease her pain, which gives about two months’ relief. Her next appointment was March 2015.

I called the Patients’ Advocacy Service, who made a submission to the consultant. He passed the buck at once to the Operations Director of the hospital, saying that it was a staffing and resource issue and therefore not his concern.

Meanwhile, this lady has to live with debilitating pain until March.

There is an ever-widening gulf between the rich and the ordinary here in Ireland. It is nowhere as apparent as within the health service, where the majority of patients report Third World conditions, massive waiting lists going on for years, sensitive information going missing.

Funding to the Health Service

Executive has been cut successively year on year since a high in 2009 of €15,520million to €13,041million in 2014. Frontline services are suffering badly. The number of bed days used has dropped year on year, the average length of hospital stays has dropped, and surgical day cases have increased by 74% from 2004-2013* Would this suggest that patients are being placed on a conveyor belt?

Could they still have the standard of care expected with less recovery time?

Health Minister Leo Varadkar turned down an invitation to spend 12 hours with nurses from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda back in July when patient numbers on trolleys had doubled to 632. He brushed off a warning from nurses who said: “It’s not rocket science: We need more beds and more staff.”

Their warnings have not been heeded and Varadkar finds himself facing yet another healthcare crisis. The same nurses are now facing deregistration if they don’t pay increased fees. Will the Health Minister listen now? Will he take ownership of a health service in freefall?

• HSE key trends report 2014 health. gov.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/ JD605-DHC_Key-Trends_2015_WEB.pdf

20 February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

Mick increased the paper size from 12 to 16 pages. He wrote his own satirical and irreverent column ‘Burke’s at the Back’, eagerly awaited by readers every week, challenging the hypocrisy of the political establishment in London, Belfast and Dublin.

BY MÍCHEÁL MAC DONNCHA

Mick Timothy – Revolutionary editor THIRTY YEARS AGO, Irish republicans were shocked at the untimely and early death of the editor of An Phoblacht/ Republican News, Mick Timothy, at the age of 37.

A dynamic editor, he helped to transform the republican newspaper and also played an important role in the development of Sinn Féin. Mick Timothy was born into an Irish family in Manchester in 1948. His grandparents were born in Ireland and the family had connections in several Irish counties. They were proud of their Irish identity, a pride communicated to Mick and reflected in his political commitment.

Educated at St Bede’s College, Manchester, Mick proved to be a brilliant student and went on to take an Economics degree at Manchester University.

He joined the Republican Movement in Manchester in the early 1970s. He was active in Sinn Féin in Manchester, speaking at public meetings, lectures and debates.

One anecdote that Mick himself told concerned the Manchester Martyrs

Commemoration in the 1970s. He was drilling the republican colour party in a public park. The group, responding to commands in Irish and marching up and down military-style, prompted a passerby to call the police. A patrol arrived to investigate. “What's going on?” asked a copper. Mick responded, in his heavy Manchester accent, that they were a band. “Where’s your instruments?” countered the puzzled policeman, to which Mick replied: “We’re a marching band – we're practising marching first.”

With the war and British repression intensifying in the Six Counties, and an IRA bombing campaign under way, it was an extremely difficult atmosphere for Irish republican activists in England, especially, those like Mick Timothy who had a public profile.

In January 1975, he left Manchester to escape imminent arrest. He came to Dublin where, the following August, he married Alice Sillery, whose republican family had hosted Mick on his arrival in Dublin.

Mick began his association with An Phoblacht in December 1975 in administration and accounting. He became Manager when An Phoblacht and the Belfast paper Republican News amalgamated in 1979. Mick moved to the editorial side in 1980.

In 1981, during the epic H-Block Hunger Strike, sales of the paper increased greatly at a time when political censorship created a renewed demand for news and views from a republican point of view. The paper’s staff responded with a greatly improved publication, making huge demands on those, including Mick, working long hours in the days before computerisation, when articles were often handwritten, then typeset with text and photos laid out by hand before page screens were driven to the printer.

When Danny Morrison stepped down as Editor in 1982, Mick Timothy took over, continuing and expanding the improvements in the paper. It was lively, topical and more professionally

presented than ever before. Mick increased the paper size from 12 to 16 pages. He wrote his own satirical and irreverent column ‘Burke’s at the Back’, eagerly awaited by readers every week, challenging the hypocrisy of the political establishment in London, Belfast and Dublin.

Mick Timothy was co-opted to the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle in 1983 and made a significant contribution. This was in addition to his work on the paper and his law studies at the King’s Inns, as well as raising a young family with his wife, Alice. He died suddenly on 26 January 1985.

Speaking at his graveside in Palmerstown Cemetery, County Dublin, on 30 January, Danny Morrison said: “His parting is a serious blow to our organisation in the 26 Counties since he was a key figure in the research and planning committees of Sinn Féin.

In the paper, he developed a style of revolutionary journalism which AP/RN is going to be hard put to but which it has to maintain.”

LEITRIM’S REPUBLICAN STORY – A TALE WORTH TELLING

By Cormac Ó Suilleabhain LEITRIM is one of those places in republican history that some can contend to be ‘pound for pound’ the most republican county on this island. Some may disagree but the evidence would suggest otherwise, according to historian and former Irish Press Editor Tim Pat Coogan, who launched Leitrim’s Republican Story in Carrick-on-Shannon.

Leitrim’s Republican Story is a massive publication that chronicles the unwavering contribution of a Border county that has played a pivotal role in republican affairs down through the centuries.

In the aftermath of the Armada in 1588, the local O’Rourke chieftain offered safe sanctuary to Spaniards who had been shipwrecked off the coasts. A few years later, following the Battle of Kinsale (1601), Letirim again offered safe sanctuary, this time to O’Sullivan Beare following his march from Glengarriff.

In the aftermath of the Battle of the Diamond, Armagh (1795), Leitrim was once more the refuge for fleeing Catholics and many of Northern descent would settle there permanently.

When French forces came to Ireland in 1798 for the United Irishmen’s rebellion they too passed through Leitrim and picked up many combatants en-route

before the ill-fated Battle of Ballinamuck.

The county was also one of the worst affected by the Famine and, in terms of the Land League, it was also prominent.

All of this served as an important prelude to the role the county played in the last century: Sinn Féin’s first national election was in North Leitrim in 1908.

Kiltyclogher native Seán MacDiarmada ‘master-minded’ the 1916 Easter 5 Republicans after their release from Mountjoy and Arbour Hill jails in March 1932; Seán O'Farrell is third from right in centre row led the county’s involvement in repub- the 1950s and the more recent campaign first in the Six Counties) which gives Rising. a comprehensive account of repubPlayed its part in the Tan War and lican affairs throughout the 1930s to from 1969 onwards.

The book represents the first publi- licanism, its origins and its history. It Civil War, including the loss of six IRA the 1980s.

Was a key location for the military cation emanating from the 26 Counties is currently available in the Sinn Féin Volunteers at Selton Hill in March 1921.

Aughnasheelin native John Joe McGirl efforts during the Border Campaign of (Tyrone’s Struggle by Gerard Magee was bookshop online or at Parnell Square.

February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

21

Seventeen years after Good Friday Agreement . . .

Ex-prisoners still marginalised, says QUB study

BY PEADAR WHELAN AT A TIME when funding for groups supporting political ex-prisoners is under threat, a major new study into the experiences of republican POWs has found that they still face discrimination because of their convictions.

Released on Friday 23 January, A Survey of Conflict-Related Prisoners' Experiences reports that many former prisoners have been refused employment because of their imprisonment and others suffer psychologically, emotionally and physically as a result of their experiences of the conflict and their imprisonment.

Carried out by Queen’s University’s Professor Pete Shirlow and Ciarán Hughes, the findings maintain it is “prescient and crucial” to protect and develop the capacity of ex-prisoner support groups.

Significantly, the study also states that the “issues that affect former prisoners are NOT (author’s emphasis) merely personal issues they influence family life, community development and the speed at which progress occurs”.

Speaking at the launch in the NI Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA) building in Duncairn Gardens, north Belfast, Paul O’Neill of ex-POW group Tar Isteach which commissioned the report told An Phoblacht: “The ex-prisoner issue is off the radar, it has

5 The report on the experiences of conflict-related prisoners was launched on 23 January

been pushed to the margins and this doesn’t send out a good message to the communities we come from.

“People are seeing ex-prisoners being treated badly and demonised – and to a large extent blamed for the conflict, by the unionists in particular. If conflict resolution is to mean anything

Many former prisoners have been refused employment and others suffer psychologically, emotionally and physically as a result of their experiences of the conflict and their imprisonment then the issues of imprisonment must be dealt with.”

Geoff Loane, of the Belfast office of the International Committee of the Red Cross, also spoke and outlined the work of the ICRC, in particular the committee’s engagement with armed groups throughout the world, as it attempts to safeguards the rights of people in conflict zones.

He also spoke of the group’s work in the North during the conflict when delegations visited the prisons and spoke with POWs about the situation in the prisons.

5 Professor Pete Shirlow

5 Geoff Loane of the ICRC

5 Gerry Kelly MLA and other ex-POWs listen to the contributions

Ballymurphy Massacre torture case for the Court of Appeal

A MAN TORTURED during the Ballymurphy Massacre and who was subsequently convicted of riotous behaviour is to have his conviction referred back to the courts by the Criminal Case Review Commission (CCRC).

Terry Laverty, and his brother John, were caught up in an attack on their local area by the British Army’s Parachute Regiment in what has become known as the Ballymurphy Massacre, 9 to 11 August 1971.

The incident claimed 11 lives, including Terry’s brother John. Many others 5 Terry Laverty with Ballymurphy Massacre family members Pat Quinn, Irene Connolly and Lily Quinn were injured.

He was then charged with riotous challenged and the truth is officially told Terry Laverty was detained, stripped, about what really happened over those beaten, and made to run barefoot over behaviour and brought directly to three days in August 1971. I believe that broken glass and through a gauntlet court in a forced state of undress and the soldier who made reference to of British Army soldiers who beat him. with glass still in his bloodied feet, killing ‘one Irish bastard’ was the same One soldier told Terry he’d ‘already unaware that his brother John had soldier who killed my brother John. killed one Irish bastard and that another been murdered only yards from where “My parents went to their grave wouldn’t matter’. This same soldier put he was assaulted. without the truth being officially In a statement, released through his gun to Terry’s head and pulled the acknowledged and told. They had to trigger (unknown to Terry, the safety Relatives for Justice and solicitors KRW Law, Terry Laverty said: live with the loss of their son John, catch was on).

“My brother John was murdered. I and the official lies..”

Terry was taken to Girdwood Barracks Relatives for Justice Deputy Director and held for 56 hours were he was owe it to my family and my brother’s memory to ensure that the lies are Andrée Murphy said: further tortured.

Terry Laverty was detained, stripped, beaten, and made to run barefoot over broken glass and through a gauntlet of British Army soldiers who beat him

John Laverty

“This is an important step forward in addressing an egregious violation that by any standard constitutes a war crime.

“There will be many others who were also subjected to such torture and hopefully the courage of Terry will give them hope to come forward.”

22 February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

Galway Bay needs a fish farm like

a salmon needs a bike ROBERT ALLEN IT IS POSSIBLE to look at the west of Ireland and not see what the dispossessed feel in their bones, in the lightness of their heart, in the dark night of their soul.

If – when you visit the Beara Peninsula, the Burren of Clare, the Aran islands, Connemara’s rugged coastline, the sweep of Sligo, or the rolling highlands of Donegal – you see nothing more than a turbulent Atlantic, a rain-shrouded mountain range, sparse rocky bogland, a barren land punctuated by patches of vegetation, the occasional tree and shrub, a dwelling dotted here and there and capricious weather patterns, take heart.

You have arrived.

Hundreds of thousands of people like you travel each year to witness the timeless natural beauty and the sensual magic that resides in the mountains, valleys, woodlands, rivers and lakes of the landscape; and in the waves, islands, faraway shores and bluegreen horizons of the seascape.

In winter, this is life itself, with all its rage and humility. In summer, this is moonlight on the bay, all calmness and serenity. And when the moon invites the ghosts of the land to cast their shadows, you should not feel intimidated.

Those around you, whose genes still carry the dreams and hopes of the ancient tribes, instead take solace from these ghosts for they spark souls and fire spirits. They are the reason for going on.

These places hold timeless memories, embedded deeply in the dreamscape. Memories that hold pain as well as joy. Lives shaped by a smile, a look, a word, a melody, a hug, a kiss. Hearts warmed, minds stimulated, friendships formed.

This is why we all travel.

In December, the Cliffs of Moher received its one millionth visitor of the year.

“Nothing I read or saw on TV prepared me for it,” says Carl Stelzer, an American journalist from land-locked St Louis, who visited the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher by chance several years ago.

“There is a stark beauty to the west of Ireland that I have never seen anywhere else in the world. That starkness draws people, it is the reason they are travelling thousands of miles.

And nobody wants to stare out at an industrial fish farm in the bay.

“Once the word gets out, people are going to be much less inclined to want to visit. They want to go to where the mountains meet the sea, where it is unspoiled, unparalleled in the world, where history and people are part of the landscape. That’s what captures the imagination.

If it was just an uninhabited landscape it wouldn’t be the same. Once it’s fucked up . . .’

Liam O’Brien, who runs three of the seven ferries that service the Aran islands during the tourist season from March to October, agrees with the argument that a negative meme about Galway Bay could be detrimental. “The more I think about it, the more I think the perception issue is a plausible scenario.”

Every year the O’Brien Line and rival company Doolin 2 Aran Ferries, run by the Garrihy brothers, carry around 200,000 people across the bay. The majority are day-trippers, who turn up at the quay and are tempted by a cruise under the Cliffs of Moher or a run to Inis Oírr, the Aran island nearest the Clare coast.

Inis Oírr is totally tourist-dependent. While overseas visitors avail of the amenities, take in the scenery and then return to Doolin, Irish visitors stay longer.

“Inis Oírr is an extremely popular family destination,” says O'Brien. “The facilities the island has are ideal. The kids can be down the playground or the beach, running around and safe. They are

'There is a stark beauty to the west of Ireland that I have never seen anywhere else in the world, that draws people from thousands of miles. And nobody wants to stare out at an industrial fish farm in the bay' not going to be hit by a car because there is no traffic as such. The pubs are big, and they allow the kids to be there in the evening. Families want to relax, have a few drinks. If the perception is out there that this wonderful beach is polluted they are going to go somewhere else.”

5 Liam O'Brien operates ferries to the Aran Islands and around Galway Bay

Tom Doherty, a 55-year-old part-time fisher out of Doolin and the local coastguard out of the interpretative centre at the Cliffs of Moher, knows how important tourism is to north Clare.

The centre employs 26 people all year round, adding seasonal jobs when the cars, minivans and tour buses arrive in convoys. From the Cliffs of Moher back along the coast, from Doolin to Kinvara, virtually everyone has a business or a job that relies on tourists. Doherty agrees that the visual impact of a fish farm in the bay could deter the tourists. “People can be very fickle,” he says. “We see it here.”

“The fish farm is a contradiction,” he adds solemnly. “The waters of Galway Bay are beautifully clean and clear, lovely and blue. You go to the islands in summer, it’s like the Mediterranean – a different world altogether. The water is warm enough to swim in. People go crazy when they see how clean the water is. There is nothing to pollute it.”

Until now.

A giant fish farm will pollute the bay – Doherty has no doubts about that.

“I can see the tides carrying the pollution from the farm back into the bay,” he says. “And this pollution will wipe out all the native fish – lobster, crab, crayfish, mackerel, pollock, white fish, everything.”

Michael O’Connell, an inshore fisher and a B&B owner in Doolin, worries for the future.

For 30 years he has run a small boat along the Clare coast, fishing for crab and lobster from St

February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

Rossaveal Way Point

GALWAY BAY

23

and townlands on the Clare and Galway shores of the bay are quietly pragmatic. They do not believe that their livelihoods will be put at risk.

“The disadvantages of this fish farm far outweigh the advantages,” says Liam O’Brien confidently.

“A few companies will make a lot of money out of it but there are no knock-on effects to the islands or here.”

Niall Gibbons, Chief Executive of Tourism Ireland, says there is a determination to ensure that tourism growth continues, to deliver almost €4billion in overseas tourism revenue to the Irish economy by welcoming 7.7million visitors in 2015. One in four of those visitors will travel to Galway Bay. If the minister does give the go-ahead for BIM to invite Marine Harvest, the Norwegian

PROPOSED FISH FARM

Patrick’s Day until Christmas Day, gill-netting for white fish in the springtime.

He has a constant supply of high-quality lobsters, which he keeps in store-pots until Garrihy’s Seafood in Doolin are ready to buy them. “Our lobsters are prized on the continent because lobsters from Galway Bay are among the cleanest in the world.”

When the fishing board announced their plan for the fish farm, he was invited along with the other inshore fishers of the bay to the offices of Bord Iascaigh Mhara in Galway.

“They told us how great this fish farm is going to be for the area,” he says in a mocking tone.

“Then the papers said there were going to be 300

'The waters of Galway Bay are beautifully clean and clear, lovely and blue. You go to the islands in summer, it’s like the Mediterranean.

People go crazy when they see how clean the water is.

There is nothing to pollute it' jobs for Galway, 300 jobs for Inis Oírr, 300 jobs for Clare. There is no fish farm in this country that is going to give those jobs. All this fish farm is going to bring is contamination.”

And, he adds, of “that unsightly view”: “You will be able to drive out by Black Head and Finore and see the Connemara coast and the Aran islands, the fish farm will be a big eyesore.

People are not going to come here to look at that.”

Like Doherty and other inshore fishers, O’Connell believes the fish farm will end the fishing industry in the bay.

“I find the behaviour of BIM and the Marine Institute very strange. When I started here, started to put out a pot and got lobsters, any size of lobster would do. Now they are put back if they are small. They are graded. Even the shrimp and the crab are put back, and it has never been so good. We have followed the code of practice and now they want to kill the whole lot.

“What BIM have done to us is unfair. They

POTENTIAL JOB LOSSES

think we are fools of fishermen. They told us they were going to put money into lobsters. It was all bullshit, the whole lot of it – lies and bullshit!”

Anglers insist that migrating wild salmon travelling through the bay from the Corrib will be affected by the fish farm.

Damien O’Brien, an angler from Cork, says all salmon migrating along the west coast are at risk.

“Any pressure from sea lice could wipe out salmon native to England, Wales, France and Spain in a very short few years.”

The anglers also fear an absolute end. Billy Smyth, an angler with the Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages group, is adamant about this.

“This and other proposed mega salmon farms will have devastating effects on our wild salmon and sea trout stocks,

resulting in the loss of hundreds if not thousands of jobs in the tourist angling industry.”

Despite the aggressive opposition from the angling and fishing communities, the communities in the villages

5 Michael O'Connell fishes for crabs and lobsters in Galway Bay

» Angling and fishing suppliers » B&B workers » Restaurant workers » Bar workers

aquaculture corporate, into the bay, many fear the worst – none more than Michael O’Connell.

“All those fellows in BIM and the Marine Institute don’t care,” he says, perhaps a little unfairly with his sincerely-held but broad brush of criti-

'What BIM have done to us is unfair. They told us they were going to put money into lobsters. It was all bullshit, the whole lot of it – lies and bullshit!' cism. “They are just there for a while. They will get their pension and go home. They don’t care about the long-term damage. They will all be gone and we will be left with a fine big fish farm stuck out there in the bay.”

The American journalist has a salient viewpoint.

“There’s only one west of Ireland; there’s no competition,” he says. “The west coast of Ireland is unique. You can put salmon farms anywhere you want in the world; you can’t replace the unspoiled beauty of the west of Ireland.”

The feeling in Clare and Galway is mutual.

Galway Bay needs a fish farm like a salmon needs a bike.

» Boat builders and mechanics » Bus drivers » Ferry workers » Hotel workers

» » » »

Inshore fishers Net makers Offshore fishers Shellfish pot makers

24 February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

www.guengl.eu Spain’s detention of Basque lawyers is undemocratic

Pic: Olivier Hansen/GUE/NGL

GUE/NGL strongly condemns the Guardia Civil’s detention of 16 Basque citizens. Twelve of the detainees are lawyers who work defending Basque prisoners, three of whom are currently part of the defence team for the 35 members of the ‘Abertzale’ Left being tried in Spanish courts because of their political work.

“These lawyers were arrested two days after 80,000 people demonstrated against the existing prison policy which means prisoners are kept far from the Basque Country,” said Basque GUE/NGL MEP Josu Juaristi, addressing a European Parliament debate on the matter.

“These people have clearly been arrested because of their political Josu Juaristi MEP defence work of prisoners. It’s an attack against the peace process.

“It’s unacceptable for a member state to violate fundamental rights such as the right to defence with this sort of impunity.

“Spain is moving further and further away from the definition of a state based on the rule of law – it is proving to be undemocratic.”

GUE/NGL MEPs strongly urge the Spanish Government to move forward to consolidate the ongoing peace process in the Basque Country and to resolve the conflict in a peaceful and democratic way, in line with the appeals of the international community and the European Parliament, which encourage all the parties involved in the conflict to advance in that direction.

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

European Parliament gears up for key discussions on TTIP Commission can’t sidestep around ISDS concerns IN DEBATES in Brussels, GUE/NGL has reiterated its demand that Parliament’s stance on TTIP reflects citizens’ concerns over the aims and contents of the negotiations.

As the crucial May plenary vote on TTIP approaches, MEPs on Parliament’s International Trade Committee were discussing an input paper to the EP’s eventual position on the controversial EU/US deal.

MEP Helmut Scholz, shadow rapporteur for the group on TTIP, said: “As MEPs we must act in the interests of those we represent. The TTIP agreement has to be ratified by the European Parliament before it can enter into force. We must categorically reject the idea that public goods, commons, and citizens’ democratic rights become subject to commercial interests.

“The public needs clarification on the regulatory co-operation being targeted as the current positions directly undermine the democratic rights of legislators to decide on future economic, social and commercial development – on both sides of the Atlantic.”

ISDS concerns 97% of citizens who responded to the

Commission’s consultation process on an investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism said they were against handing corporations the power to take action against sovereign governments. Yet the Commission seems intent on ignoring these concerns by simply including it anyway, with some slight modifications, with a revised proposal on ISDS to come from Commissioner Malmström in the spring.

Scholz reacted: “We heard Jean-Luc Demarty, Director-General for Trade at the European Commission,

tell us that most citizens only opposed ISDS in the consultation because they don’t understand it. This is hugely insulting to citizens, not to mention simply not true. We don’t want a revised proposal, we want it thrown out.

“But it is not just TTIP. We want ISDS out of all trade agreements, such as CETA and the Singapore/EU agreement. If there is ISDS in CETA, American companies would be able to use their affiliates in Canada to sue European states. I strongly deplore that during the debate the Latvian Presidency refused to reopen negotiations on CETA to get rid of ISDS.”

GUE/NGL MEPs deplore migrant ‘ghost ships’ in Mediterranean Humanitarian corridors, legal channels and safe access urged for refugees and asylum seekers

“IT IS HORRENDOUS when traffickers in the Mediterranean abandon a ship with 450 refugees on the high seas, from whom they have previously extorted up to 6,000 euro,” said Cornelia Ernst, GUE/NGL Co-ordinator on Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee, during a European Parliament debate on recent events in the Mediterranean.

“And it is even more disgraceful to use an old cattle transport freighter with hundreds of refugees in cattle pens as a new business idea,” she continued.

MEP Ernst said: “EU asylum policies and FRONTEX [borders security agency] encourage profit-hungry human smuggling and bear ultimate responsibility for the current situation. And the more member states believe that they do not have to change their repressive border protection policies, the worse methods of smuggling are going to get.

What we need is a change of tack for asylum.

We urgently need legal channels and safe access to Europe.”

Barbara Spinelli said: “In a European Union in which, in the name of security, ministers of the interior are obsessed with collecting air passenger data, it is amazing that they can let the phenomenon of ghost ships – 13 in three months – with hundreds of people on board continue.

“It is outrageous that some Mediterranean countries, in collusion with the traffickers, pretend not to see the ships and refuse assistance when an SOS is made.”

Marie-Christine Vergiat said: “Once again we are talking about a tragedy of migrants in the Mediterranean. And the death toll has never been so high – 4,000 people or more, mainly Syrians and Eritreans.

“Their nationality shows that they are potential asylum seekers that are not being given protection

by EU member states. Never before have migrants taken so many risks; never have smugglers taken so few. So where is the solution? Surely it is not in closing borders, in referring problems to third countries and scaremongering.”

Speaking about her recent visit to the Spanish enclave of Melilla, Marina Albiol Guzman said she was “angry and pained” to see and listen to stories of women and children from Nigeria who were victims of human trafficking and sexual

exploitation and had paid to get to Europe. She also spoke about refugees she met from Syria, Afghanistan, Mali and other war-torn countries.

“So many displaced people fleeing wars that have been exacerbated by the West,” she said.

“We need humanitarian corridors, legal routes into Europe, otherwise these mafias trafficking in human beings will continue their work. If we don’t change our policies we will be complicit with them.”

February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

25

Another Europe is possible Treo eile don Eoraip Liadh Ní Riada

Martina Anderson MEP

Matt Carthy

5 Anti-NATO activists protest in Wales in September

Stop the warmongering and give peace a chance IN a European Parliament debate in January on the EU’s common foreign and security policy, GUE/NGL MEPs called for an end to increasing militarism and interventionism.

“Rather than providing solutions to conflicts, the EU actually contributes to many wars,” said Sabine Lösing, GUE/ NGL Co-ordinator on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

“The increasing use of arms and militarisation means that NATO and the US will ensure that war becomes a normal state of affairs again.”

She added: “The road to peace must begin with a genuine effort to fight poverty. We should try to feed the world. We should no longer use development money for military aid.

If we continue to fail to correct warmongering in the world it will be impossible to stop people fleeing poverty and suffering to try to reach Europe.”

Pablo Iglesias told the EU’s foreign

policy chief, Federica Mogherini, during the debate: “Given the circumstances we’re in, and given the fanaticism and the attacks in Paris, we shouldn’t be talking about a clash between West and East. You said

‘Those who armed the extremists and nurtured the Islamic State find themselves fighting on ruins . . . EU foreign policy is not dictated by logic but by self-interest, militarism and interventionism’ we are a superpower – it would be desirable for Europe to become a superpower of peace.”

Speaking about the conclusions of the

EU council on Common Foreign Security Policy (CFSP), Javier Couso said: “We cannot get into this debate without looking at the whys and wherefores of the recent tragic events in Paris,” said Takis Hadjigeorgiou. “Europe finds itself staring into the abyss, which has its roots in the West’s policies in Iraq, Syria and Libya.”

He continued: “Those who have bred this monster now want to exterminate it. Those who armed the extremists and nurtured the Islamic State, find themselves fighting on ruins. This does not mean that there is any justification or explanation for the cowardly murder of the Charlie Hebdo journalists. EU foreign policy is not dictated by logic but by self-interest, militarism and interventionism.”

Welcoming news that that Palestine will be joining the International Criminal Court on 1 April, Martina Anderson said: “This political, peaceful and legitimate

Martina Anderson Sabine Lösing MEP

course of action by the Palestinian Authority grants jurisdiction to the ICC over any crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Occupied Territories and applies to all parties in the conflict.”

She continued: “Member states need to be clear that Palestine’s joining of the ICC is a legitimate step and is in no way an attempt to aggravate an already tense situation and therefore no one should try to stir up the flame of confrontation.”

Boko Haram’s barbarism in northern Nigeria

Matt Carthy MEP

GUE/NGL MEP Matt Carthy has expressed the GUE/NGL’s strong condemnation of Boko Haram’s recent massacre which saw over 2,000 people horrifically murdered over the course of several days in northern Nigeria.

Speaking in a European Parliament debate on the violence, he said: “Our thoughts are first and foremost with those who are bereaved and who were

caught up in this almost unimaginable violence. The Nigerian Government and state security forces were simply unfit to intervene.

“It must be noted that the Nigerian state is not exempt from responsibility for the recent escalations of violence through a series of deplorable human rights abuses.

At least 950 suspected members of Boko Haram died as a result of overcrowding,

starvation, brutality, and extrajudicial executions while in state custody in Nigeria in the first half of 2013 alone.”

The Irish MEP added: “We now all have a moral responsibility to show the same outrage and invest the same resources in addressing the causes and consequences of these atrocities as we would if they were happening anywhere else in the world."

Lynn Boylan

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

26 February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

All the news that’s fit to tweet

ROBBIE SMY TH

CLICKBAIT, content marketing, social media news distribution and the remote possibility of a political news revolution – An Phoblacht looks into the dynamic online news world which is growing at such a pace that the traditional media have to jump on board the Facebook, Tweet and app express train.

The good old bad days Time was when the news media in Ireland, Britain and many other developed economies had developed an elite cartel of limited competition and comment. The daily papers set an agenda often reported in morning radio news bulletins and current affairs programmes. TV news producers would pick up on this and the evening news would effectively tell us, in the words of legendary US news anchorman Walter Cronkite, “That’s the way it is.”

RTÉ’s Radio 1 flagship station still has a “What it says in the papers” slot twice a morning after the 7am and 8am news bulletins. Funnily enough, there’s no ‘What it says on the Internet’ and I can’t see one anytime soon. The broadcast media commentariat is still largely made up of newsprint gatekeepers, fellow broadcasters, retired Establishment politicians, or media/political backroom types now operating as lobbyists.

The New York Times used to carry a strap proclaiming that within its pages you would find “All the news that’s fit to print” and this establishment news media was and still is at times a powerful gate keeper in determining what is and isn’t reported to the wider public.

Then came the Internet, social media apps, the tablet and the smart phone and a news media revolution. Our old school print, radio and TV outlets have a range of new competitors in a news media world without borders or the establishment consensus that dictates in telling Ireland what is or isn’t news.

News grazers not paying The idea that news arrives every morning like fresh baked bread has been shredded by the Internet. In the 19th century, urban societies developed a habit of daily structured news made possible by mass printing of papers and rapid rail distribution networks. In the years after World War Two this conditioning had built into starting the day with breakfast, radio news and a paper, we finish it with a nightly TV news.

This audience is dying. Newspaper sales are steadily falling. Even in Dublin where 65,000 copies of the Metro Herald were given out free every morning to commuters – until the paper went under in December - there is still a declining habit of print news consumption.

According to Audit Bureau of Circulation data published by the National Newspapers of Ireland there were daily sales of 632,985 papers in January to June 2009. The figure for January to June 2014 was 501,937.

In radio the news-driven Morning Ireland is the largest radio show, and RTÉ Radio 1 has at 27% the largest audience share in Dublin according to the Joint National Listenership Research data. Newstalk has a significant

15% share, but in the city there is a greater audience for the music driven channels of FM104 (18%), Q102, (9%) Spin, (13%), 98 FM (10%), summed up by Spin FM’s ‘five word weather’ and a news reader introduced as ‘Rory with the story’!

It is not that there is less interest in news. For the key 18 to 35-year-olds demographic, the news generation of the future, there is more news consumption. They are ‘news grazers’ and get news snacks throughout the day, a lot of them. It is this phenomenon that is disrupting the established news cycle.

This consumption is diverse and jumps from the DailyMail.co.uk to Guardian Sport, BBC and RTÉ News, the Journal.ie, the Irish Times and Irish Independent. There is little brand loyalty here and, yes, there are a lot of cute cats, Kardashians and a daily tsunami of sports updates.

Two key points here: » Firstly the news comes through smartphones, tablets, laptops and even desktop PCs for some; » Secondly, in most cases the news is free consumers are not paying for their grazing.

According to ComScore, an Internet and digital analytics measuring company the most popular Irish online site in 2013 was Distilled Media. They are the publishers of the Journal.ie, DAFT, the Daily Edge, The Score and Boards.ie. Their combined websites had over 1.34 million unique visitors a month. Next came RTÉ.ie with

5 Facebook has replaced Google as a driving force for online news

1.24 million uniques. Independent.ie recorded 919,000 uniques, The Irish Times was at 794,000 and Done Deal, the buy and sell online site has 785,000.

From a news and information perspective the top five were Independent News and Media, BBC, Mail Online, About.com and the Irish Times.

The new news map 6 Newspaper sales are steadily falling

What is striking about the online news media consumption in Ireland is the next tier in popular sites.

ComScore data from November 2013 showed the Guardian with 422,000 Irish visitors every month, followed by the Telegraph on 326,000 unique visitors. The Daily Mirror are there on 233,000 followed by the New York Times on 209,000.

The Internet is altering our news media consumption significantly. In May 2014 daily circulation of the Guardian and Telegraph in the 26 Counties was 2,752 and 2,708 copies respectively. The Internet has opened the papers to a vastly greater audience, more than a hundred times greater than their print reach.

The news Internet map is a very different place from the traditional media marketplace. For a start everyone is competing and TV networks have had to upgrade their written content while the newspapers online have invested significantly in video and podcasts. All of the successful online news media groups have a cross-media offering of words, sound and vision.

Google is no longer the driving force for online news; Facebook has supplanted it.

The annual Pew Research State of the News Media report for 2014 found: “Half of Facebook and Twitter users get news on those sites as do 62% of Reddit users.”

It added: “Overall, three in ten adults get at least some news while on Facebook.”

February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

There is as yet no similar study in Ireland but it is not a great leap in reasoning to assume that similar conditions will be found in Ireland. YouTube and Twitter were the next-largest audiences for news sources.

In the case of Facebook, 78% of news consumers stumbled across the news story they consumed, and 50% had picked up on a news source someone else had shared with them.

Entertainment was the biggest news item with 73% of users accessing this type of stories; 65% of users were accessing content that was geographically local to them; 57% were accessing sports stories; National government and politics was at 55%, just ahead of crime at 51%.

A new generation of news creators Yes, the big ‘old media’ are on Facebook but they have a lot of competitors and in some cases new voices and new views are reaching audiences not possible 20 years ago.

First up are the early entrants into online media news.

Buzzfeed, Mashable and Gawker. Buzzfeed claims an audience of over 150million users and describes itself as a “social news and entertainment company”. What do they do is drive topical content to sell adverts.

Mashable claims 40million unique visitors monthly and labels the site as a “leading source for news, information & resources for the Connected Generation”. Its content is less entertainment-driven than Buzzfeed.

Gawker is a gossip website and a remarkably successful one. Started in 2005, the Huffington Post is another long-term survivor. It was the first Internet-based news group to win a Pulitzer prize and in a recognition of the audience power and advertising revenue the site can generate the Post was sold to the AOL multinational mass media corporation for $315million in 2011.

Will the revolution be online?

If new business profit focused start-ups can break the old media control of news, what about political views

5 In Scotland, only the Sunday Herald newspaper supported a 'Yes' vote in the independence referendum

6 New competitors to the 'old media'

and opinions. Scotland’s independence referendum offers a stunning case study of what is possible. With the BBC, STV and all of the printed newspapers except for the Sunday Herald supporting a No vote Independence groups took to the Internet and have built up six figure audiences for their news.

Bella Caledonia, Newsnet Scotland and Wings Over Scotland are all examples of this new wave of political news sites. Wings Over Scotland has used its audience to crowd fund books and opinion polls allowing it the depth of coverage found in the old media giants.

It remains to be seen post referendum whether these sites continue to thrive.

These are just a snapshot of the online news media.

We are just skimming the surface. There is a lot more jewels to be found. Among these is Russell Brand’s Trews website. Truth in the News, the theme song was done by the Rubber Bandits.

Anarchic, detailed and very funny Brand offers a revolutionary view of the our world today. Check out his recent analysis on the Irish Water saga. Brand has a new book out on revolution which has been widely derided in reviews: “his revolution reads like soft-soap therapy” – Guardian; “How typical of England to produce a revolutionary who offers no route map towards a revolution” – Independent. You get the idea.

Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century provoked a similar response with the great and good of mainstream media queuing up to review and subtly undermine his book. Google the terms “Thomas Piketty Wrong” and see what I mean.

But in this brave new Internet news world, the media establishment is still there. They haven’t gone away you know . . .

27

GOVERNMENT ROUTED BY REPUBLICANS IN SOCIAL MEDIA WAR

BY MARK MOLONEY WHILE the mainstream media’s hostility to Sinn Féin continues unabated, the Establishment parties are finding themselves significantly outpaced by the republican party when it comes to building support online.

In a detailed study of the use of the web by Irish political parties, the Irish Daily Mirror notes that “Sinn Féin is the dominant party on social media by a country mile”.

With a dedicated online following of users who engage and share content, the party comes in ahead of traditional media heavyweights like RTÉ News and The Irish Sun on platforms such as Facebook.

Overall, Sinn Féin’s following on Twitter and Facebook exceeds that of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael

‘Sinn Féin is the dominant party on social media by a country mile’ and Labour COMBINED with over 95,000 users and with hundreds of thousands seeing content from the party every week.

Years of official state censorship and ostracisation by traditional mainstream media has meant that Sinn Féin has always had to be imaginative and proactive in getting the republican message across to the public.

The party was quick to embrace the web and social media (in 1997, An Phoblacht was the first Irish newspaper to have a fully online edition) as it allows the party to get its message direct to people without distortion by traditional media heavyweights who attack and demonise the party at every turn in the interests of their owners or the status quo.

“It’s not somebody else’s interpretation of our position and that’s what’s important,” a Sinn Féin spokesperson said.

www.anphoblacht.com www.sinnfein.ie

28 February / Feabhra 2015

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BOOK REVIEWS BY MICHAEL MANNION

A dedicated Free State soldier SEÁN BOYNE was a journalist with The Irish Press. He was also Political Correspondent with the Sunday World.

One imagines that the latter position would have left him with a considerable amount of free time in which to research this book.

A reasonable degree of research is evident but it is the relentlessly uncritical tone of adulation in this biography that is such an irritant. Emmet Dalton is, without doubt, a most interesting character but the flaws he exhibited in his lifetime are either exonerated or airbrushed out of existence.

Born in Boston in the United States to fairly prosperous Irish-American parents, the family moved to Ireland when Emmet was an infant. His family was staunchly nationalist but in the Redmondite tradition, which explains the young Emmet’s decision to seek a commission in the British Army in late 1915.

His first active role as a lieutenant appears to have been guarding strategic British positions in Wexford, and rounding up 'Sinn Fein sympathisers' for internment in the wake of the Easter Rising.

Transferred to the Western Front, he won a Military Cross during the prolonged Battle of the Somme and which was awarded in person by King George V at Buckingham Palace. Never, at any time, does Emmet Dalton appear to express any misgivings about his time in the British Army. Whilst his brother, Charlie, was Page 1

my – in whose ranks women men as full members – was 916 Easter Rising and the nst the might of the British the republican side during 1923.

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C. Poole, and Privates Lacy and Fox stand guard on Liberty Hall

R. M. FOX

DOING MY BIT FOR IRELAND

THE HISTORY

MARGARET SKINNIDER

OF THE

A Glaswegian Cumann na mBan and Irish Citizen Army Volunteer, gives a first-hand account of her active role prior to and after the 1916 Rising, including her inside story from the republican garrison in the College of Surgeons on St Stephen’s Green.

Margaret, who was the only female Volunteer wounded during the Rising, played a very active role for years after in the struggle for Irish freedom.

IRISH CITIZEN ARMY

Margaret Skinnider’s grave, Republican Plot, Glasnevin, Dublin

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LOCKOUT 1913

The 1913 Lockout was the most momentous workers' struggle in Irish history. Out of dire poverty in Dublin slums came the risen people who fought against terrible odds for months, seemed defeated but went on to riseTHE again for workers' rights BIRTHPLACE OF and Irish freedom. This book tells the story of those brave men and women and their relevance for today, a century on.

T H E ROT U N D A

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Óglaigh na hÉireann

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g to form the Irish Volunteers was switched to the small concert otunda complex, then to the large concert hall, which could t, with interest growing, the Rotunda Rink, a temporary he Rotunda Gardens capable of holding 4,000, was booked.

At the meeting, the stewards, all Irish Republican Brotherhood en and members of the Fianna Éireann republican scouts, got ,000 enrolment forms signed. In addition to the 4,000 people nside the hall, a crowd of about 3,000 was unable to gain admission. Traffic on Parnell Square was blocked by the crowd.

Two overflow meetings were held, one in the large concert room and the other in the gardens.”

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A, located at the top of et and within sight of lways had a special e of people in Ireland’s s the location of one of maternity hospitals in as being the first ital in the world. be lesser known is the Ireland’s historic tional independence and freedom from British colonial rule.

Snodaigh, a noted republican historian as well as being a Member of Parliament) in Dublin for Sinn Féin, looks at the e Rotunda in Irish history, including being the birthplace of eers, a rebel military force from which was to emerge the n Army.

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becoming immersed in IRA activities, Emmet appeared content to bask as a returned war hero. It wasn’t until he was lifted in a raid on his parents' home in lieu of his absent brother that he appears to have adopted a more critical attitude

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Margaret Skinnider’s original text with photographs to complement her narrative and a R.M. comprehensive introduction by historian FOX Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD

towards the British Army and the political status quo.

Emmet Dalton’s entry into the IRA was facilitated by Charlie’s activism, enabling him to overcome distrust of his British Army background and immediately assume the role of Assistant Director of Training in IRA GHQ Staff and rise to become Director within months.

Dalton appears to have become

Awarded the Military Cross in person by King George V from the Battle of the Somme, Dalton became IRA Director of Training, went to London with Michael Collins in the Treaty delegation, and commanded the British field guns that shelled the Four Courts

DOING MY BIT FOR IRELAND | MARGARET SKINNIDER

account by R. M. Fox brings 913 of the Irish Citizen Army, t grew under the leadership der Jim Larkin and the s Connolly, a force that history in the years before volution. that the Irish Citizen Army an inspiration to workers in

R. M. Fox’s original text with photographs to complement his narrative

THE HISTORY OF THE IRISH CITIZEN ARMY

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Emmet Dalton: Somme Soldier, Irish General, Film Pioneer

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something of a favourite with Michael Collins who inducted him into the Irish Republican Brotherhood and brought him to London as part of the Treaty delegation. Throughout his life, Dalton remained a staunch defender of the Treaty. Unlike many others who accepted it grudgingly, Dalton always denied that it had been signed under duress, insisting that it was a negotiating victory for the Irish side.

Dalton was a key figure in the Free State military leadership. It was he who obtained and commanded the British field guns that shelled the Four Courts.

He was instrumental in recruiting large

5 Emmet Dalton (front right) at the funeral of Michael Collins

numbers of ex-British Army servicemen into the new Free State Army. He was with Michael Collins at Béal na Bláth.

He organised amphibious attacks and used aircraft against republicans. His star was definitely in the ascendancy when he suddenly resigned. No reason was given then but the author says that, in later years, Dalton claimed that it was in protest at the execution of prisoners.

This would be plausible if only Dalton had not called for executions without trial and had been placed on a death list

A Frank Aiken analysis THIS is one of two major works on Frank Aiken to be published recently.

The reason why books such as this are now appearing is explained in Matthew Lewis’s introduction to his work. He reflects that historians thought it unwise to consider republican politics and violence in the Six Counties during the Tan War in case it legitimised or glorified physical force republicanism (as if partition, pogroms and repression by the sectarian, anti-democratic Orange State wasn't enough).

A quick glance at histories of this period show them to be almost exclusively concerned with Munster and Dublin. Only now are historians analysing republican activity in the North, both political and military, in an objective fashion.

This book does not purport to be a comprehensive biography. It is a detailed, forensic analysis of the Tan War and Civil War periods. Its origins in Matthew Lewis’s doctoral thesis are apparent in its profoundly academic tone and meticulous research. It is without judgements, either moral or political, or its own pre-packaged agenda.

Matthew Lewis offers a definitive

Frank Aiken's War: The Irish Revolution 1916-23

By Matthew Lewis University College Dublin Press Price: €28

by Ernie O’Malley for abuse and murder of prisoners.

There are major unanswered and unexplored questions here.

The book dwells on Dalton’s commercial ventures (private detective, film pioneer, horse racing enthusiast and golf fanatic) but it is all curiously unsatisfying. One gains a superficial view of Dalton but never his real motivation.

Perhaps the seeming superficiality of this book is merely a reflection of the character of its subject.

analysis of the infamous killings at Altnaveigh. He states that the killings were both reprisal and deterrent but that their motive was in no way sectarian.

“The victims of Altnaveigh . . . were not targeted as Protestants but as (real or perceived) members of the dominant unionist community.” The problem, of course, being that because all the victims were Protestant, the shootings were portrayed as an attack on

Matthew Lewis offers a definitive analysis of the infamous killings at Altnaveigh – reprisal and deterrent the Protestant community rather than on unionists. Thus the killings could be branded as sectarian in the Protestant consciousness rather than a politically-motivated act.

This is an interesting little book, absolutely stuffed with facts and offering new insights into a long-neglected aspect of this pivotal period of Irish history.

February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

I nDíl Chuimhne 1 February 1975: Volunteer Seán BOYLE, South Armagh Brigade.

1 February 1981: Volunteer Peadar MOHAN, Monaghan Brigade.

2 February 1981: Volunteer Liam HANNAWAY, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

3 February 1973: Volunteer James SLOAN, Volunteer James McCANN, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

3 February 1999: Volunteer Harry BURNS, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

4 February 1973: Volunteer Tony CAMPBELL, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

4 February 1992: Paddy LOUGHRAN, Pat McBRIDE, Sinn Féin.

5 February 1992: Volunteer Joseph MacMANUS, Sligo Brigade.

5 February 1972: Volunteer Phelim GRANT, Volunteer Charles McCANN, North Antrim Brigade.

6 February 1971: Volunteer James SAUNDERS, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

6 February 1989: Volunteer James Joseph CONNOLLY, Tyrone Brigade.

7 February 1982: Volunteer Danny McMULLAN, County Derry Brigade.

9 February 1975: Volunteer Bridie

29

All notices and obituaries should be sent to notices@anphoblacht.com by Friday 13 February 2015 DOLAN, Cumann na mBan, Belfast.

10 February 1972: Volunteer Joseph CUNNINGHAM, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

10 February 1973: Volunteer Leo O’HANLON, South Down Command, Volunteer Vivien FITZSIMMONS, Cumann na mBan, Downpatrick.

12 February 1976: Fian James O’NEILL, Fianna Éireann.

12 February 1976: Volunteer Francis STAGG, (Wakefield Prison), England.

13 February 1976: Volunteer Seán BAILEY, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

14 February 1989: John DAVEY, Sinn Féin.

15 February 1976: Volunteer James McGRILLEN, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

16 February 1992: Volunteer Peter CLANCY, Volunteer Kevin Barry O’DONNELL, Volunteer Seán O’FARRELL, Volunteer Patrick VINCENT, Tyrone Brigade.

18 February 1976: Paul BEST, Sinn Féin.

18 February 1986: Volunteer Francis BRADLEY, South Derry.

18 February 1996: Volunteer Edward

Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations Pádraig Pearse O’BRIEN, Wexford Brigade.

19 February 1972: Fian David McAULEY, Fianna Éireann.

19 February 1992: Volunteer Brendan SEERY, Portlaoise.

21 February 1972: Volunteer Gerard BELL, Volunteer Robert DORRIAN, Volunteer Joseph MAGEE, Volunteer Gerard STEELE, Belfast Brigade, 3rd Battalion.

21 February 1984: Volunteer Henry HOGAN, Volunteer Declan MARTIN, North Antrim Brigade.

22 February 1986: Volunteer Tony GOUGH, Derry Brigade.

23 February 1981: Volunteer James BURNS, Belfast Brigade, 2nd Battalion.

23 February 1985: Volunteer Charlie BRESLIN, Volunteer David DEVINE, Volunteer Michael DEVINE, Tyrone

» Notices All notices should be sent to: notices@anphoblacht.com at least 14 days in advance of publication date. There is no charge for I nDíl Chuimhne, Comhbhrón etc.

IN PICTURES

5 Despite atrocious weather conditions, a large crowd gathered at the Republican Monument on the Lecky Road in Derry City to mark to 40th anniversary of Óglach James Moyne

Brigade.

26 February 1978: Volunteer Paul DUFFY, Tyrone Brigade.

28 February 1986: Volunteer Tom McGILL, Belfast Brigade, 1st Battalion.

29 February 1988: Volunteer Brendan BURNS, Volunteer Brendan MOLEY, South Armagh Brigade.

Always remembered by the Republican Movement.

CONNOLLY, James Joseph. Volunteer ‘Josie’ Connolly, West Tyrone Brigade, Óglaigh na hÉireann, died 6 February 1989 from injuries received on active service “Life springs from death, and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations.”

Remembered with pride by friends and comrades in the Harvey, McGlynn, Connolly, McHugh Sinn Féin Cumann, Castlederg.

MacMANUS, Joseph. In proud and loving memory of Volunteer Joseph MacManus, who was killed in action in County Fermanagh on 5 February 1992. Always remembered by his comrades in the Republican Movement, Sligo.

MacMANUS, Joseph. In proud

and loving memory of our dear son Volunteer Joseph MacManus, who died in action on 5 February 1992.

“Grieve not for him. Speak not a word of sorrow although his eyes saw not his country’s glory. The service of his day shall make our morrow. His name shall be a watchword in its story.” We love and miss you, Joe. From Mum and Dad. MacMANUS, Joseph. In proud and loving memory of my brother and comrade Volunteer Joseph MacManus, who died in action on 5 February 1992.

“True republicanism is the sovereignty of the people. There are natural and imprescriptible rights which an entire nation has no right to violate.” – Lafayette. Always remembered with pride by Chris.

MacMANUS, Joe. In proud and loving memory of Volunteer Joe MacManus, killed on active service on 5 February 1992. From Iris and Jim. MacMANUS, Joe. In proud and loving memory of Volunteer Joe MacManus, killed on active service in County Fermanagh on 5 February 1992.

Always remembered by your friend and comrade Noel, Corinna and family.

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

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

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5 Sinn Féin's Sandra McLellan TD delivers the main oration at the 94th anniversary commemoration of the Pickardstown Ambush in Tramore, County Waterford, to remember IRA Volunteers Michael McGrath and Thomas O’Brien

5 Hundreds gather in west Belfast to mark the 40th anniversary of Volunteers John 'Bap' Kelly and John Stone. Joe McKee, a friend and comrade of the dead Volunteers, spoke of his admiration for the men who died when a bomb they were transporting exploded prematurely

30 February / Feabhra 2015

www.anphoblacht.com

BETWEEN THE POSTS

BY CIARÁN KEARNEY

WELFARE WITHOUT THE FANFARE DO YOU remember them good auld days? Everyone played for the team of their parish. Ballads were sung about their sporting exploits. Little children with red, curly hair, bare feet and hurls in their hands would dance along the sidelines. And every Sunday night after the match, players from both sides would gather in the local for a few pints and a bit of banter with the referee.

Reading recent commentary and punditry about playing Gaelic games, you might be forgiven for thinking a golden age of sport has gone forever from our midst. Disappearing like snow off a ditch. If this is true, it would indeed be a regressive step.

Finding poetry more persuasive than punditry, I decided to consult Patrick Kavanagh. A fellow Gael and sportsman shared a short story by Kavanagh with me in which the poet said: “No man can adequately describe Irish life who ignores the Gaelic Athletics Association, which is true in a way . . .”

Based on this quote, perhaps the pundits and poets are at one. But you have to read Kavanagh as it’s written.

The short story from which this quote comes is called: Gut yer man.

Of his reminiscences in sport, the poet wrote: “We never finished a game towards the end we were a-batin. We always found an excuse to rise a row and get the field invaded.”

The world of sport portrayed by Kavanagh and many other gifted writers

IN PICTURES

is not the Utopian yesteryear some would have us believe. Contrasting social analysis is one thing; derogatory caricatures of modern-day players as ‘indentured slaves’ or ‘battery hens’ is quite another. Poetic licence is the preserve of poets like Kavanagh. A more important question might be: what purpose or value does punditry or commentary add to sport?

Look in the eyes of a player who turns up for training. Listen to them tell you about being chastised at home on the basis of a newspaper account of his or her performance. Already this year I’ve

the adverse effect on his family of a media tirade against his performance.

Learning to cope with the media is something players could do without.

Nowadays, they have no choice. Nor do their families. But the outcome of this uneven power relationship is not premised on their welfare.

As the National League begins, a hugely lucrative media merry-goround is in gear. To it, the players and managers are fair game.

As the National League begins, a hugely lucrative media merry-go-round is in gear. To it, the players and managers are fair game heard players question why a headline or a rating in a newspaper is so unjust.

Another player trying out for his county in the early part of 2015 was hounded and vilified on social media.

What consideration was given to the welfare and well-being of players when comments about them were published?

None of this is new. One senior Tyrone footballer talked publicly about

In contrast, civicminded people within the GAA are working hard to develop an effective response to the needs of communities and individual players.

For instance, at provincial level in

Ulster, a programme of mentoring has begun where former players help guide young athletes on life-skills and time management. The Gaelic Players’ Association also sees itself supporting players’ welfare. A new Association for Women has just been formed.

Yet the relationship between these groups and the GAA is still unclear. Sorting this out would be a good sign of progress.

And it is not just the welfare of county players which

Patrick Kavanagh

counts. Club players have rights.

This year some players will sustain injury. They will miss work, lose income or perhaps a livelihood. Current sporting insurance won’t cover the gap in lost earnings. That’s something the GAA (and GPA/WGPA) could sort out.

As society around us has evolved, sport has had to adapt. Some of those changes have been for the good but a high price has still been paid. The tragedy of Cormac McAnallen’s death awoke the sporting world in Ireland to cardiac screening. Now, most of our GAA clubs have defibrillators and avail of screening programmes. Similarly, the death of 14-year-old Benjamin Robson in rugby led to new understanding about concussion. It is small consolation to his family that ‘Second Impact Syndrome’ is now better understood. Again, applying science to sport, devices have been designed to measure impact from head blows through a small motion detector at the back of the skull. For my own part, I believe my contribution through design and patent of a hurling helmet helped momentum towards compulsory safety headgear.

Away from the spotlight, advocacy for change has continued. Science has helped to improve our national games but it isn’t the reason to participate.

It’s hard to say what Patrick Kavanagh would make of it all. But I’d not be surprised if he bluntly advised: ‘Skip punditry; try poetry instead.’

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5 Pat Sheehan MLA and Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane at a protest in Belfast calling for an end to the dispersal of Basque political prisoners – the protest was to coincide with a huge rally in Bilbao in support of prisoners

5 North Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly enjoying Cliftonville's 3-2 victory over Ballymena United in the League Cup Final

February / Feabhra 2015

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31

The importance of Irish to the national struggle

BY EOIN Ó MURCHÚ THE Fine Gael/Labour Government’s programme of austerity and Labour’s total capitulation to the interests of bankers and EU policy makers has brought home to more and more working people that a decent society can only be built with a decent economic system – one that puts the interests of the mass of the people first, above the bankers and investors.

But the working people of Ireland are not mere puppets of the economy, existing to make the system work efficiently and without conflict.

Indeed, politics is all about conflict between different visions of the economy, about the different interests of those who control productive wealth and those who survive by selling their labour power.

It is also about restoring the Irish people as a sovereign people, and it is this which makes the case for national reunification – of the country

and of the people – so central to real change for us today.

And equally central is our attitude to the Irish language.

Undoing the conquest does mean putting an end to the championing of private rights to productive wealth over the common good, but it also means restoring our language to an active place in the centre of our national life The English conquest crushed the language and, in the national rebirth that gave rise to the Tan War and the struggle for a Republic, the need to undo that conquest was a paramount issue.

It’s not that Irish belongs only to those who

5 Students protest against Fine Gael's policy to make Irish an optional subject for the Leaving Certificate Undoing the conquest does mean putting want a separate independent state but there is no point to an independent state unless it is an Irish an end to the championing of private rights to one, and not merely a regional variant of Britain. productive wealth over the common good, but So, yes, as Linda Ervine argues, you can be it also means restoring our language to an active both affirmative in your attitude to the ances- place in the centre of our national life.

To do this requires more than a polite cúpla tral language of this country and advocate a connection with England if you believe that is focal.

It requires real commitment, to insist upon necessary to safeguard your rights as a specific Irish-language rights, in the Gaeltacht and minority community in Ireland.

Republicans don’t believe that connection throughout the state, and to insist upon the is necessary but republicans do recognise the Irish character of the Southern state as part of reality of current Northern Protestant alienation the programme of ending the exploitation of the many by the few. from the national struggle.

Now, as we gear up for an election, is the time But, on the other side, the national struggle is about undoing the conquest or it is about to outline what exactly republicans propose to do about the language question. nothing at all.

She shoots, she scores, the media ‘phwoars’

contemporaries, were pushed to one side. This underlines the discomfort in the portrayal of women in the media, especially young women, as more than just objects for our appraisal.

The result of this constant focus on appearance means that the true achievements of women such as Stephanie are sidelined. This often obscures a more compelling narrative, such as in Stephanie’s case, that of a girl who at one stage was not allowed to play

BY AOIFE DARMODY IT WAS ‘INTERESTING’ that Stephanie Roche’s second place in FIFA’s Puskás Award for 2014 Goal of the Year against competition such as Robin van Persie and James Rodriguez (an amazing achievement in itself) was celebrated in the same way on the front pages of most papers.

The enduring image selected to represent her phenomenal success at the awards at the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala in Zurich was that of a poised, beautiful woman being ‘checked out’ by Christiano Ronaldo.

And what harm? Fair play to Stephanie, a proven footballer of great talent, ‘a woman in a man’s game’. Stephanie scored the best goal but did not win.

So the story the mainstream media carried was that of Stephanie’s consolatory triumph – the approval of world famous footballers for her appearance.

But is this really a winning story? Or does it just serve to reinforce the trope that a woman’s value is tied to her looks?

It is telling that other (technically superior) images of Stephanie on the night, such as that of her and Ronaldo beaming at each other as

The enduring image selected to represent Stephanie Roche’s phenomenal success was that of a poised, beautiful woman being ‘checked out’ by Christiano Ronaldo

5 The media seemed more concerned with Stephanie Roche's appearance than with her sporting achievements

soccer with the boys but who had the passion and determination to follow her ambition.

The media focus after the awards was typified by questions such as ‘How did you feel when they looked at your legs?’ It was patronising beyond belief.

Young people are incredibly vulnerable as to what norms society expects them to uphold. These messages are not subtle and they are so terribly pervasive.

Stephanie Roche is a brilliant role model but if media emphasis is on her winning looks and relegating her sporting achievement, then her ability to empower young girls to follow their goals (particularly in male-dominated areas of society) is sadly diminished, a disservice to all, and not least to ‘The Beautiful Game’ itself.

anphoblacht NEXT ISSUE OUT – Thursday 25 February 2015

32

IN PICTURES

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5 Teachers with the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) and the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) on a one-day strike at Loretto College on the Green in Dublin to protest over aspects of plans for Junior Cycle reform

5 Sinn Féin's Dessie Ellis TD, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD, Sandra McLellan TD and Councillor Noeleen Reilly join nurses and hospital workers outside Leinster House to protest against the hospital overcrowding crisis and call on Health Minister Leo Varadkar to take action

5 Martin McGuinness discusses investment and political missions with the Congressional Friends of Ireland Caucus at Capitol Hill in Washington DC

5 Sinn Féin activists gather in County Tyrone for the AGM of the Six-County Cúige

5 Comhaltas Ceoltoirí Éireann receives the European Citizens' Prize award at a special ceremony in Cashel with the Sinn Féin MEPs who nominated Comhaltas – Martina Anderson, Liadh Ní Riada , Lynn Boylan and Matt Carthy

5 Sinn Féin anti-water charges protests and actions in Walkinstown, Dublin; Edenderry, Offaly; and in Ballymun, Dublin