An Phoblacht - Issue 1 - 2021

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'The Politics of a New Ireland has come of age' MARY LOU McDONALD TALKS HOUSING, HEALTH, IRISH UNITY, JOBS AND LEADING THE OPPOSITION

DEIRDRE HARGEY’S HOUSING PLAN

GERRY KELLY ON TOM BARRY

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ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

anphoblacht

www.anphoblacht.com

anphoblacht

€5.00 / £4.00

'The Politics of a New Ireland has come of age' MARY LOU McDONALD TALKS HOUSING, HEALTH, IRISH UNITY, JOBS AND LEADING THE OPPOSITION

DEIRDRE HARGEY’S HOUSING PLAN

GERRY KELLY ON TOM BARRY

AN PHOBLACHT Editor: Robbie Smyth An Phoblacht is published 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 PRODUCTION: MARK DAWSON

RUAIRÍ DOYLE MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA

NEXT ISSUE anphoblacht SPECIAL EDITION

40th ANNIVERSARY OF THE

1981 HUNGER STRIKES

March 1st marked the 40th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strikes commencement.

We will be marking this with rolling coverage online at anphoblacht.com and the next issue of the magazine will be a special 40 year commemorative edition. In this issue, we have a remarkable new poster by artist Danny Devenney on our back cover.

• You can find information on the schedule of anniversary events at: https://www. anphoblacht.com/files/2021/40th_Anniversary_Programme.pdf

contents clár

UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1 - 2021 - ISSUE NUMBER 1 CONTRIBUTORS

Deirdre Hargey 3 Mary Lou McDonald 6 Angus MacLeod 13 Cónall Ó Corra 16 Lynn Boylan 18 Seán Fearon 22 Mairéad Farrell 25 Chris MacManus 27 Seán MacBrádaigh 31 Matt Carthy 35 Peadar Whelan 38 Gerry Kelly 41 Sinéad Ní Bhroin 44 Roy Greenslade 45 Mícheál Mac Donncha 49 Emma McArdle 52 Joe Dwyer 54 Fintan Warfield 58 Danny Devenney Back cover artwork

We have an exclusive interview with Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald in this edition of An Phoblacht. She gives a clear assessment of the coming challenge for the party and the potential not just to enter government, but also to drive the campaign for a United Ireland.

There is an eclectic range of articles from a unique London reflection on Terence MacSwiney to Lynn Boylan on climate justice, Mícheál Mac Donncha on the battle to save Moore Street, Fintan Warfield on stolen treasures, Chris McManus from Brussels and our Post Cards from the New Republic.

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‘An Ireland where kids don’t know what it is to be homeless, hungry or unemployed’. Sinn Féin TD Mairead Farrell’s republican vision.

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With Scottish Parliament elections looming, SNP activist and former National Secretary Angus McLeod takes us into heart of the independence debate in Scotland today.

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Roy Greenslade writes on the legal action taken

by Eddie Fullerton’s widow to hold British Government officials and its police force to account for colluding in his murder.

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EDITORIAL

anphoblacht EAGARFHOCAL

THERE IS NO GOING BACK

ROBBIE SMYTH editor@anphoblacht.com

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s we were putting together this edition of An Phoblacht, an overarching theme emerged. A common refrain was evident in a series of declarations from writers that in this critical and unprecedented time – ‘there is no going back!’

In terms of the political lessons from Covid-19, the outcome of the 2020 Leinster House

election, the debate on marking a centenary of Partition, climate change and green politics, there must be fundamental positive change. The political and economic basis of establishment politics must be confronted. And Sinn Féin will lead that challenge.

Senator Lynn Boylan’s article on climate justice brings this into focus when she argues that tackling climate change must have justice and equality at its heart. She emphasises how Sinn Féin must “step up to the plate on climate action”, otherwise “it will be the

The political and economic basis of establishment politics must be confronted.

And Sinn Féin will lead that challenge

communities and families that we represent that will be left to shoulder the cost”. Echoing this, Seán Fearon makes the case for clear thinking on Green issues and he emphasises how this sits naturally within the wider republican thinking.

One year on from the 2020 election, Seán MacBrádaigh revisits the reasons for Sinn Féin’s victory and how the party’s “genuinely alternative form of politics to that of government by insiders for insiders - the corrupt old boys’ network”, marks a critical moment in political life in Ireland.

Matt Carthy addresses the issue of the so called ‘history wars’. He argues that these are more to do with party politics in 2020, rather than issues of 100 years ago. There’s that Sinn Féin challenge to establishment politics again, and the vain attempt by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to “delegitimise Sinn Féin, its mandate, and, by extension, the votes of hundreds of thousands of Irish citizens”.

There is also a thread through the articles by Chris MacManus reporting on the work of Sinn Féin in the European parliament, and most critically in Deirdre Hargey’s piece on the Housing Executive’s plans for an unprecedented social housing programme. It is that Sinn Fein is active on the ground, delivering for voters.

We are in what Mary Lou McDonald describes in her interview as a decade of opportunity, a decade of centenaries. And in what she describes as a ‘really hard year’ in so many ways, and despairs of “the timidity of the men who currently run government”, it reaffirms the need to make this turning point solid.

There can be no going back.

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ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

Sinn Féin’s DEIRDRE HARGEY writes on her housing plan that will be most radical and ambitious for 50 years in the Six-Counties

FIXING A BROKEN HOUSING their heads at all and are forced to sleep on the streets or in emergency accommodation. It is simply unacceptable that in 2021 there are people, including families with children, sleeping in tents on the streets of cities and towns across Ireland.

That is not good enough and we shouldn’t accept it. Not only can we do better than this, we have to. We cannot let another generation remain locked out of owning their own home We need to fix a broken housing system and bring about change that makes a real difference in people’s lives.

Everyone should be able to feel safe in the knowledge that they have a secure and stable home.

The right to a safe and stable home is one of the most basic and fundamental rights in any society. Sadly, too many people cannot access this basic right across Ireland. Tens of thousands of people have been locked out of home ownership by high rents and higher house prices.

As a result, owning their own home is beyond many workers and their families. That should not be the case. A growing number of young people are living at home, unable to save up enough money for a deposit on their own home.

Young married couples are forced to live with their parents, often leading to overcrowding. This can also put great strain on relationships. Others move from place to place, staying with friends or in and out of short-term rented accommodation, unable to put down any roots.

And, most worryingly, too many people have no roof over anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1 - 2021 - ISSUE NUMBER 1

When workers have to spend all their hard-earned wages to cover their rent with little left over, they become trapped in a cycle of poverty That is why as a Sinn Féin Minister in government, I am bringing forward the biggest shake up in public housing for 50 years. The Housing Executive will have the power to borrow money to restart its building programme, increasing the public housing stock.

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• We need to see housing policies that give everyone access to safe and secure home across the island

Housing Executive tenants will continue to play the lowest rents in public housing on these islands. This will mean more people will have a safe and modern home to live in. It is vital houses are affordable and not beyond the reach of working people.

When workers have to spend all their hardearned wages to cover their rent with little left over, they become trapped in a cycle of poverty.

My housing policy will also see public housing going to those who need it most.

In the North, housing policy in some areas is still beset by problems of sectarianism. That is unacceptable. Public housing should be based solely on need.

The last major shake-up of housing was in the early 1970s and saw the creation of the Housing Executive, came about to end sectarian housing allocation.

Fifty years on, we should not be dealing with the same issue, but, in areas like North Belfast, the problem remains. This will come to an end through my housing policy and public housing will be solely on the basis of need.

The housing policies I brought forward are the most radical and ambitious for 50 years in the North.

And it is also my commitment to bring forward legislation to improve safety, security, and quality of homes for people living 4

in the private rental sector and enhancing councils’ role in registration and enforcement in that sector.

We need to see an equally radical approach in the South to tackle the growing housing crisis. With rents spiralling out of control in Dublin and other cities and the cost of private housing well beyond the reach of many workers, together with increasing homelessness, there is an urgent need for action.

Prior to the last election, Fianna Fáil promised to end the housing crisis by building 10,000 affordable homes a year in government.

As my colleague Eoin Ó Broin has discovered, only 530 affordable homes will be delivered this year.

And with only 700 guaranteed for 2022 and 1,500 for 2023, this falls pitifully short of that is required. In fact, it is a drop in the ocean.

However, this is not about statistics.

This is about the family packed into the spare room of their parents’ house; this is about the people sleeping on friends’ sofas, those working all the hours they can simply to pay exorbitant rents for a box room in Dublin.

And tragically, it is about the people in tents on the streets, those sleeping in doorways, and those whose children will spend yet another birthday in so-called temporary emergency accommodation.

• Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

It is also about the many young people who have left this island to go elsewhere in search of work and a better life.

Many of these would like to return to Ireland and to their families, but see no prospect of owning their own home and no option but to move back in with their parents. These young people need hope to be able to plan for a better future.

They need to know their hard work will get them somewhere and that they will not be trapped in an endless

When workers have to spend all their hard-earned wages to cover their rent with little left over, they become trapped in a cycle of poverty cycle of working to pay rent, never having the certainty of knowing the roof over their head is their own.

Sinn Féin in government is transforming housing in the North, creating a level playing field so that workers and families can get a break. We now need to see the same approach across the island so that everyone has access to safe and secure home. ♦ Deirdre Hargey is a Sinn Féin Assembly member for South Belfast and the Minister for Communities in the Executive

NO PROFIT ON PANDEMICS A GLOBAL PANDEMIC REQUIRES A GLOBAL SOLUTION

Everyone must have access to safe and effective treatments and vaccines Please sign the European Citizens’ Initiative Petition at:

www.noprofitonpandemic.eu and encourage everybody and anybody to do likewise

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WRITING THE NEXT CHAPTERS IN IRELAND’S HISTORY It has been a busy 12 months for Sinn Féin since the 2020 Leinster House elections.

They are the second largest partner in a five party executive coalition in the North, while, in Leinster House, the party is leading the opposition.

So, with Mary Lou McDonald having key roles as party president, the first Sinn Féin opposition leader in Leinster House and the first woman in that role, An Phoblacht thought now was the time to sit down and get her views on this year of change and crisis.

In a free flowing discussion, Mary Lou talked to An Phoblacht editor Robbie Smyth about Sinn Féin’s determination in the next year to challenge the coalition establishment in Dublin. She highlighted key issues like Irish unity, housing in all its aspects, the health service, and building a just economy, while unwrapping her personal take on what it means to be an Irish republican in the 21st century.

THE POLITICS OF CHANGE The February 2020 election and “the huge victory for Sinn Fein marked a turning point” said Mary Lou, adding that, “the election marked an absolute highpoint in terms of the politics of change, not just for the South, but for the island as a whole”.

Focusing on the atmosphere during the election campaign in 2020, McDonald said there was “a sense that 100 years on” after “generations of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil”, that “there was a real sense in the last election that at last there is a viable alternative, that Sinn Féin can be in government, can lead a government, and people were prepared to back us on that basis, and give us that chance. That was huge”.

“I think that sense of political change has continued through 2020 and into this year” said McDonald, who believes that this “is an extraordinary and significant thing in itself”.

“The year has been really, really hard for people. People have lost their jobs. Businesses have their backs to the wall. People have been sick. People have lost their lives. Families have been bereaved. People have been left very, very isolated. Our frailties as human beings have been exposed”.

“It has been a tough year, a really, really hard year. So in the context of that huge human social and economic challenge, the

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fact that people are still up for the big change is remarkable. It has been an extraordinary year in so many ways”.

TURN TOWARDS SINN FÉIN Staying on the experience of the 2020 election campaign, An Phoblacht asked Mary Lou was she conscious of the turn towards Sinn Féin in the campaign?

“Absolutely, you couldn’t miss it. This is the great thing about Ireland and Irish people. If you go out and talk to people and ask people how things are, people will tell you. I think it’s probably the nature, the personality and the character of our party and our style of politics, there’s no standing on ceremony”.

“Everywhere we went, people told us ‘we want change’. We now believe you can lead this change”.

“Every moment has it its time. I believe the politics of reunification, of a new Ireland has now come of age. I think we are ready collectively as a society, nationally North and South, we

ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

There was a real sense in the last election that, at last, there is a viable alternative, that Sinn Féin can be in government, can lead a government, and people were prepared to back us on that basis

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• Micheál Martin or Leo Varadkar

The year has been really, really hard for people.

People have lost their jobs. Businesses have their backs to the wall. People have been sick.

People have lost their lives. Families have been bereaved

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are ready to take those steps forward. It would be shameful for us to miss the huge and obvious opportunities that are in front of us at this time”.

“We are writing the next chapters in Ireland’s history. I say that not to be grandiose. I am saying it because I believe it to be true”.

Turning to the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and Green coalition, Mary Lou was clear on their failures: “When I hear the timidity of the men who currently run government saying ‘’not now or ‘we can’t do this’, I just despair because if political progress is driven by anything, it is driven by a sense of purpose, and planning and prospects and understanding how ambitious we can be”.

“So, when Micheál Martin or Leo Varadkar turn their head away from the change that’s happening and say no not now, that’s the most defeatists and destructive kind of politics that you could ever encounter. I want people to be energised, enthusiastic and optimistic about all of the things we can collectively achieve”.

“I really believe we are in our moment to make that a reality.

It’s a big challenge, but it’s a huge opportunity. You read some of the mainstream commentators, and they talk about the prospects of reunification, or a referendum on unity. They invariably couch it in a language that is negative certainly, in some cases almost menacing, spectacularly missing the point that this is a moment of huge opportunity”.

Turning to the issue of health, Mary Lou frequently couched

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this in our interview as an all-Ireland issue. She said, “People look to our health systems North and South and say this isn’t good enough”. Voters understand as “that we need a national health service, we need a properly functioning public health service, and the way to achieve that is on an all-Ireland basis, and that you can only achieve that by working together, and by planning for it”.

“And any sensible person would say on the back of this Covid-19 emergency that the sensible pragmatic responsible thing to do is to start planning that collectively”.

LEADING THE OPPOSITION Mary Lou is the leader of the opposition in the Dáil. She is also the first woman to hold this post, so An Phoblacht asked about the significance of this.

“Yes, I think that is significant. The significance of it is properly best understood by reflecting that it took almost a century for that to happen. For women in public life, we have reflected on this, for me it seems endlessly, as a society that we want more women, that we want more diversity. I am a firm believer that you can’t be what you can’t see”.

“It is significant when women in leadership come to the fore”, and “being the first republican and the first woman to lead the opposition is doubly significant”. McDonald hopes “it sends out a real message to everybody that there are no places we cannot go anymore. There is no ambition we cannot fulfil. There is room in political life and leadership for everybody”.

Turning to the party team, Mary Lou said, “The new Sinn Féin representatives coming through are an incredibly diverse mix of people. We have urban and rural, from all sorts of backgrounds, men and women. We have made great progress on our gender balance, very talented young men and women coming through.

It is very heartening”.

“I am really proud to play my part in the leadership of that journey, to change political life, to change not just who is elected but to change society’s view of politics, political leadership, and government and what is the right relationship between a government and those that are citizens”.

So, what is it like leading the opposition day to day in the Dáil?

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• Michelle O’Neill

Firstly, Mary Lou said that, “Establishment politics in Ireland is still very, very male. Don’t miss that for a second. That’s still very true. And don’t miss either that those leading government don’t like to be questioned or held to account. They certainly like it even less when it is yours truly here doing it”.

“Is that their response to me as a woman, or as a Sinn Féin woman? I suspect it is a response to the potent mix of those two elements. I remember when I was first elected to the Dáil, going in on my first day as a TD, and just realising how much of a minority we were as women. Progress has been made since then, but it is still a very male environment”.

“I am very determined. It’s not just me the whole team, the whole party is determined that we play our part in redressing that, so we have huge talent elected in the party North and South, in the Assembly, in the Executive, in the Dáil, the Seanad, and very, very talented women.”

THE EXECUTIVE AND ASSEMBLY The restoration of the Executive and the Assembly was the result of “very long, very testing negotiations” said Mary Lou. She added that “These institutions are part and parcel of the jigsaw of governance on the island”. They are “very important platforms” because “we know that decisions taken that effect any of us who live on this island have to be taken on this island as close as is possible to the people that we represent”.

“The experience of being in a five party executive. That’s a very testing scenario for our team led by Michelle O’Neill. That’s a test for your political stamina, your political patience, your political skill, because you are in an administration with varied

• Deirdre Hargey

• Conor Murphy

• Carál Ní Chuilín

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When I hear the timidity of the men who currently run government saying ‘not now’ or ‘we can’t do this’, I just despair

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and, in the case of unionism, polar opposite political philosophical ideological views from yourself. So, that is a very challenging place to be”.

“And secondly, you are in an administration that doesn’t enjoy the full range of powers that you have for example in a sovereign government, such as in Dublin”.

“So, that’s a doubly challenging thing. I think on balance things have been challenging but our team have done very, very well. I am mindful for examples of dealing with the Covid-19 crisis that we had to make a very strong stand against the Unionist impulse to look to Boris Johnson. God help us, with his herd immunity notions, laissez faire approach, which would have been utterly disastrous not just for the North, but for the whole island.

That meant there had to be some very direct conversations, some privately, but also some very direct stances taken publicly”.

“It has been challenging, but I look to the work of Conor in the Finance Department and the kind of choices he has stood over. For example, unlike in Dublin, not giving big pay hikes, or bonuses to the upper echelons of the civil service, but instead ensuring that workers on the front line get a small bonus, ensuring that students get a small bonus, ensuring that student nurse get a bonus. I am very proud of those choices. I think they are the right political choices.

“Equally with Deirdre Hargey in Community, and Carál Ní Chuilín who was there for a short while, the kind of support that has been afforded to communities is admirable. The plans to

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• What transpired on the Ormeau Road recently was disgraceful, outrageous behaviour of the PSNI

turn around public housing in the North. The most ambitious housing plan formed in 50 years. Those are measurable elements of progress for all of us.”

“I am saying all of that not to discount the difficulties that are there. In recent days, we have seen some of the evidence of the old problems that are still with us”.

Examples of these challenges included “Brexit, and Article 16 and the Unionist reaction to that, which was, to put it mildly, over the top, or what transpired on the Ormeau Road recently, with family members respectfully remembering their loved

Don’t miss either that those leading government don’t like to be questioned or held to account. They certainly like it even less when it is yours truly here doing it

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ones, remembering their dead, and the disgraceful, outrageous behaviour of the PSNI. Let me just note those two. I could note other examples that say in some respects elements of the past are still with us”.

“Our job, on one hand is to build a sense of social solidarity and social connectedness, right across society, right across the island, including people of the Unionist persuasion. But, on the other hand, also while doing that be sure that we don’t allow the ghosts of the past to come and haunt the present, and to derail the very necessary change that we need to deliver. That is the challenging proposition for us. But, I think we have managed things well”.

UNITED IRELAND REFERENDUM When asked about the prospects for a unity referendum, Mary Lou pointed to the last Ard Fheis in Derry, where “I set out what I called a decade of opportunity. Make no mistake that is what we are living through now”.

“I believe that we will have that referendum and that we can win that referendum, and win it well. Certainly within this de-

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cade. I note that former Taoisigh of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are now saying that they too believe the referendum will happen, can happen, and should happen within that time frame”.

“Perhaps more significantly, you are hearing from within Unionism itself, increasingly voices recognising the reality of the constitutional question” said McDonald, who believes that. “We are stepping our way through the initial stages of all of this. It is going to be a big challenge for everyone”.

Pointing to role that the British Government has to play, Mary Lou said, “Boris Johnson and his government, like Teresa May before him have not as of yet, despite numerous questions, and numerous requests, haven’t set out what in their view represents the threshold for the holding of a referendum”.

Mary Lou believes that this must be set and the British Government “also need to respect the fact that as a matter of international law we have agreement on the mechanism on which Partition would end and reunification occur. They need to be part of a constructive conversation and planning around all of that”.

The biggest responsibility according to Mary Lou falls upon the government in Dublin, to “actually put shape on the unity process”. She believes that one way of doing this would be “a citizens’ assembly or forum” “We are absolutely clear that we now need a process to be established. We need that space for the planning and the multiple conversations that need to happen so that, when we go to the referendum, we have work done, and we have shared sense of what the new Ireland, the emerging Ireland will look like and as importantly the process by which we are going to get there”.

SINN FÉIN’S CURRENT PRIORITIES Apart from the “the journey to constitutional change” which “is very much front and centre now”, Mary Lou highlighted the issues of housing in all its aspects, the pension age, the need for quality jobs and good working conditions. On housing: “It is actually mind blowing, that despite an election we all agreed was about change, despite the fact that the issue about housing, the rental market, affordability was front and centre.

Here we are, a year on. We have a Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and Green Government that is still reaching for the same failed policies. And the affordability approach introduced by the Fianna Fáil Minister in this government was literally written by developers”.

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• Boris Johnson and the British Government need to set out the threshold for the holding of a referendum and the government in Dublin has to actually put shape on the Unity process

“I am not saying that as a catch cry, that is literally the case. I am very concerned about that. We all know at first hand the level of suffering and stress of people who are living in their mother’s box room, in many cases with children and the stress involved because of a lack of access to affordable suitable accommodation”.

“We are also very determined on the issue of working people, decent wages and fair and secure terms and conditions of em-

ployment” said McDonald, pointing to how “the Covid-19 crisis exposed in a fairly dramatic way, the extent to which lower paid workers suffered disproportionately”.

“I think the extent of the gig economy has also been exposed and we need to get to grips with that. We need to understand that in building and rebuilding the economy, you don’t do that

We need to understand that in building and rebuilding the economy, you don’t do that on the back of poverty wages and insecure jobs

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on the back of poverty wages and insecure jobs. You do that on the basis of quality employment, high levels of productivity, correct standards of employment protections and decent pay”.

Mary Lou also highlighted the issue of the pension age which “still looms large”. She believes that we have now a “classic Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael thing, wherein they are trying to convince people they have moved their position, when in fact they haven’t”.

Focusing on the all-Ireland aspects of these strategies, Mary Lou emphasised that, “These are national issues that Sinn Féin will be pursuing”.

“We are certainly a party that is about social equality, social progress about building a really robust, resilient economy, that has foreign direct investment for sure, and a multinational sec• The Covid-19 crisis exposed the extent to which lower paid workers suffered disproportionately

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tor for sure as part of the economy, but we really need to focus correctly on small and medium sized enterprise, and micro enterprise, and really develop and feed that enterprising spirit of small enterprises, because they remain the backbone of the Irish economy”.

“It is certainly going to make for a very interesting year. Our job is at the earliest opportunity to deliver a change in government. I am deeply frustrated watching the chaos, the incompetence and at the moment the astonishing arrogance of this government, as they make the same mistakes again”.

“I find that frustrating. We are very determined that all of our campaigning and all of our work now is about getting ready, being prepared for government”.

Focusing on other Coalition failures, Mary Lou said that, “One of the things I have noticed in the course of the last year with the current government is how poor they are at communicating or informing or having any sense of sharing of ideas, with so many sectors”.

“You saw it with the hospitality sector, with the teachers, the special needs assistants, and that to me is the wrong way to do business. The right way to do business is to keep those channels of communication and contact and to be prepared to collaborate”. McDonald believes that, “There are answers to each of these dilemmas and there is experience and expertise right

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across Irish society, in communities up and down the country”.

What’s needed is the “common sense and cop on to actually go and ask and when you ask to actually hear and listen to the responses”.

Considering the scale of the Sinn Féin agenda, Mary Lou stressed that, “None of this is beyond us. I think it is important that we say that. Nobody should feel despondent, much less defeated, by any of these things. We are able, well able, to get to grips with all of these matters”.

So, what does it mean to be a republican in the 21st century?

“I believe it means for me and for us a commitment unambiguously to the concept of freedom and its delivery. I mean freedom in all of its dimensions. Obviously for us as a country to realise self-determination, for us as a country to realise our immense potential to deliver for each other, to care for each other, to support each other”.

It also means, “freedom from poverty” and “an economic and a social system that connects people and doesn’t divide them, that supports people and doesn’t abandon them”.

“For me, the Irish republican vision is on the one hand traditionally based in the core values of fraternity, equality, freedom, decency, citizenship and, at the same time, it is at the cutting edge of the politics of diversity and inclusion.” ♦

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THE SETTLED WILL OF THE

SCOTTISH PEOPLE

With parliamentary elections due in May, former SNP National Secretary ANGUS MacLEOD gives a view of all things Scottish from independence to Brexit and a future on “Boris Island”

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t was a mantra of the slogan-heavy 1999-2007 era that the “Settled Will of the Scottish People” was devolution and that this had now been fulfilled. The phrase had first been uttered by the Labour leader John Smith in a prophetic conference speech in 1994. Then, in 1999, Scotland reached its promised land. Regardless of the choices of the voters of England, Scottish voters could have their say on the majority of issues they were permitted to be interested in; healthcare, education, and the emptying of the bins.

We were even afforded a toy spanner from the economic toolbox; the ability to shift income tax by 3p in each direction. The fact this had to be done uniformly across all tax brackets meant it was never used. We were told by the First Minister Jack McConnell that we could be the “Best Small Country in the World” in one of those consultant-crafted slogans that said more about those promoting it than the country it was describing.

However, just as Labour told us “We have abolished boom and bust” whilst flogging the family pensions, the Settled Will of the Scottish People has never been a matter to be determined by politicians. And, unfortunately for Labour and their Unionist brethren, the “settled will” appears to have changed.

Since June 2020, there has been clear daylight in the polls in favour of independence; for the six months prior to that, they were more or less in the margin of error. Now, the “settled will” is invariably accompanied by a question mark in the Scottish commentariat.

Now is the first time since polling began that there has been a sustained majority for independence over a period of months.

Over 20 consecutive polls have shown support for independence, most conducted by the larger polling companies such as YouGov, Panelbase, Ipsos Mori, and Comres. anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1 - 2021 - ISSUE NUMBER 1

Does Scottish Unionism have the capacity or creativity to respond to this crisis? Time will tell, but the portents so far are not positive.

In reality, Scottish Unionism is staggering from one shambles to another. Like bringing a coked-up city trader to a family funeral, Scottish Unionists cannot escape the fact that their Westminster leaders are clueless and politically tone-deaf when it comes to Scotland.

The uncomfortable truth for Scottish Unionists is that a Westminster Tory can spend their entire career not caring about anything north of the City’s square mile and live quite comfortably.

A Glasgow Tory councillor recently resigned upon the startling revelation that his nominal colleagues in Westminster had absolutely no interest in supporting his local gym businesses. This naivety encapsulates the problems facing the Unionists here and elsewhere. For all they consider themselves to be British patriots, the heart of the British state seldom considers them at all.

Given that an appeal to good governance is out the window, the Tories have doubled-down on a Unionist base level of support.

Whilst this allowed them to leapfrog Labour in 2016, it presents a problem if they are ever to challenge to be the largest party. There are unionist ex-Labour voters who will never vote Tory, who can still recite the litany of communities decimated by Thatcherite industrial policy; Gartcosh, Ravenscraig, Monktonhall, Linwood, Methil, and on it goes. The Tories will not penetrate the distain that these people have for them and all they stand for. Even on a bad day for Labour, of which there are many, the Tories will unlikely hit 27.5% of the vote, or half the Unionist vote of 2014 come May’s Holyrood election.

The Tories have therefore followed the GOP and Trump playbook of using identity politics to motivate their base,

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• Boris Johnson

• The reality of Brexit is hitting industries hard

launching bizarre attacks on politicians, such as Ruth Davidson bringing up Jeremy Corbyn’s views on the IRA in the 1980s shortly before the 2017 general election.

When Glasgow City Council listened to local residents and refused to hand over their land for a fanzone for one particular football club, the Conservative group stirred this up to such a degree that the SNP administration required police protection.

We have two MSPs, originally from Berkshire and Inverness, who frequently tweet about their love for this same Glasgow “Queen’s 11”. And whilst this may motivate those who think tattoos of 17th

Now is the first time since polling began that there has been a sustained majority for independence over a period of months. Over 20 consecutive polls have shown support for independence Century kings make up for a lack of personality and self-esteem, the vast majority of Scots are yet to show any interest in marching to those particular tunes.

In short, the Tories will continue to have a well-motivated, but minority support of ultra-Unionist bigots mixed in with the traditional landlord class and self-loathing aspirationals that make up the rest of their support. They will be overjoyed to hit 30% of the vote.

Labour in Scotland continues to stagger about talking about winning back “their votes” last seen in 2010. They have defenestrated their Scottish Leader four months before an election.

Until they learn to launch such successful attacks on their political 14

opponents rather than their own leadership, they are not going to provide a vision for how Scotland can handle the various crises we will face in a post-Covid world.

It was reported that Labour’s voter segmentation included religion, as the Labour Party had historically been strongest amongst working-class immigrants of Irish descent. The fact Keir Starmer is now wrapping himself in the Union Jack for his Scottish broadcasts suggests either the results of that research have been disregarded, or that the support for Scottish Independence and the SNP is so high in these communities that Labour have decided to abandon them once again, in order to scrap it out with the Conservatives for the Scottish Unionist votes.

Either way, the path is clear at a parliamentary level for the SNP. Given the constitutional make up of our parliament was designed to prevent the SNP having a majority, it remains to be seen whether they hit 65 MSPs. Unionists will use anything less to say that the SNP does not have a mandate for an independence referendum, even with the Greens taking the pro-independence parliamentarian count to well over 50% of the chamber.

That is similar to the arithmetic at the moment; 61 SNP, 5 Green, and 3 pro-Independence independents. However, the most recent polls continue to suggest an outright majority of SNP MSPs if an election was held tomorrow. The SNP have committed to another independence referendum in short order, should they win May’s election.

Party politics aside, why the shift on the constitutional question?

After all, the 55% No & 45% Yes was a clear pro-Union victory in 2014, but the debate allowed Independence to be normalised as a vision of what Scotland could be. There were certainly some who voted No who experienced buyer’s regret, having been convinced for economic reasons to vote against independence.

Others voted out of a feeling of international solidarity, which for them had always meant an Old Labour red rose socialism mediated via London. Liberal Unionists also saw themselves as doing their bit to prevent barriers going up in Europe, despite the pro-EU and pro-Schengen independence movement making clear that open borders would remain in an Independent Scotland.

ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

• POLLING – there has been a sustained majority for independence over a period of months

• John Smith

• Ruth Davidson

• Jeremy Corbyn

• Keir Starmer

All of these old certainties crumbled when Scotland voted to Remain in the EU and England did not. Now, the buccaneer capitalism of Thatcherism on steroids that the independence movement warned about is fast becoming a reality.

Scottish Unionists dismissed as scare-mongering warnings about a future PM Johnston and Scotland being removed from the EU. Now, they have the difficult task of convincing those self-same voters that the optimum future lies as part of Boris Island. The increasing isolation of the UK state is being noticed by voters. US Democrats well remember Johnson’s love-ins with Trump and the EU continues to present a united front on Brexit issues, at least from these shores, making the UK ever more of an outlier in the international community and voters are noticing this.

The buccaneer capitalism of Thatcherism on steroids that the independence movement warned about is fast becoming a reality The reality of Brexit is also hitting industries hard. On the East Coast, Peterhead was the largest whitefish market in Europe. With estimates of a third of the fleet tied up, other Scottish vessels are crossing the North Sea to land their catch in Denmark, avoiding Brexit paperwork. On the West Coast, the live shellfish sector is facing annihilation as the regulations for export to Europe are such that many producers cannot profitably sell live oysters, cockles and mussels to the main markets of France, Spain, and Portugal.

It’s not just Brexit that has impacted opinions on the constitution. The pandemic response has shown the difficulties of making policy in a devolved parliament when the overarching legislature is corrupt and incompetent.

When the Prime Minister parroted the ‘Herd Immunity’ line on anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1 - 2021 - ISSUE NUMBER 1

a television sofa, as though explaining the government’s approach to the pandemic was best done between the newspaper review and reruns of Saturday Kitchen, it was just another indicator that the party which has historically been entirely indifferent to the struggles of the many, continues to be so.

Following the most recent pro-Independence poll, Boris decided to visit Scotland during a national lockdown. He attended a Covid-19 test processing lab that had sent staff home the day before with confirmed Covid-19 cases. It was later confirmed that Number 10 was aware of the outbreak, but went ahead with the visit regardless. Just another example for Scottish voters of a government entirely out of touch with reality.

The Coronavirus response could be chronicled by these photo-ops emerging from Westminster. Boris shaking hands with medical staff shortly before contracting coronavirus; a maskless Rishi Sunak pretending to serve dishes at Nando’s whilst launching Eat Out to Help Out; and now a Prime Minister taking his entourage to the site of a coronavirus outbreak. All of these images shine a light on a UK Government that has failed throughout the pandemic to listen to its scientific advisors.

And whilst devolution allows some leeway on health issues in particular, the overarching powers on issues such as economic support, border security, and international travel remain at Whitehall.

Therefore, the fundamental question that voters are responding to appears to be: if our constitutional settlement does not allow us to protect the safety of our communities, then is that settlement fit for purpose? With over 100,000 dead, Johnston will face a political reckoning for his mishandling of the pandemic. And Johnston will be lucky if it is not just him, but his party and the Union they profess to represent remain unscathed from the judgement of the Scottish people at May’s election and subsequent referendum. ♦ Angus MacLeod is an SNP activist in Glasgow. He has a Ph.D. in Celtic from the University of Glasgow and was National Secretary of the SNP from 2016-20

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l i a i r t l i u f h b Cá na Gaeilge in Éirinn ? e h t i a t n o a Ath LE CÓNALL Ó CORRA Tá an comhrá fá athaontú na hÉireann idir camánaibh anois ar bhealach nach raibh roimhe. Tá na buntáistí geilleagrach a chothódh Éire aontaithe mar chuid lárnach den chomhrá sin, cuid ríthábhachtach den chomhrá gan amhras.

Tá an comhrá fá chosaint a thabhairt d’fhéiniúlachtaí ar siúl chomh maith, an fhéiniúlacht Bhriotanach i dtosach. Leoga, níl trácht ann fán fhéiniúlacht Ghaelach a chosaint san Éirinn nua seo. Tá sé léirithe le tréimhse bhlianta anois nach bhfuil daoine dall ar an Ghaeilge agus an tábhacht a ghabhann léi.

Tréimhse chorraitheach atá amach romhainn, tréimhse na cinniúna mar a ndúirt ár dtaoiseach Mary Lou le gairid. Leoga, sa chaint ar fad atá cluinte agam, is beag caint fán seod is luachmhara. Níl tuairisc feicthe agam ag aon ollamh faoi ná caint dá laghad sna meáin faoi. Is sin, cá mbeidh an Ghaeilge in Éirinn Aontaithe. D’fhéadfá an cheist a chur ar bhealach eile, cá mbeidh Éire Aontaithe gan an Ghaeilge?

Is í an tseoid is luachmhara atá againn ar chupla chúis. Tugann sí léargas dúinn ar an tír mar a bhí agus beireann sí bealach chun tosaigh dúinn le rudaí a cheartú. Tagraíonn sinne uilig fán athmhuintearas agus an dá phobal agus an pobal nua a thabhairt le chéile sa Bhéarla.

Fairíor, sa Ghaeilge, níl againn ach ‘pobal’ amháin, is sinne uilig le chéile gan deighilt eadrainn. Tugann sí spléachadh dúinn ar shochaí agus modh maireachtála ársa ach na rudaí is dlúithe dúinn uilig istigh inti. Cuireann sé a shamhail ar radharc agus ghleanntán na tíre, tá sí ionainn.

D’fhéadfaimis feidhm a bhaint di le hathmhuintearas a chothú sa tír seo. Tá an obair seo ar siúl ag Poblachtánaithe le fada, ach tá scuaid misniúil fá Oirthear Bhéal Feirste le gairid tosaithe ar an aistear sin acu. Dream nach shílfeá a bheadh na ‘fadúdas’ nó na ‘cad é mar atá tú’s’ ar siúl acu riamh. Gléas atá inti an pobal ó thuaidh a thabhairt le chéile cinnte, ach níos tábhachtaí arís, an pobal thuaidh agus theas a thabhairt le chéile.

Tá togra pobail ar siúl ag an dream seo in Oirthear Bhéal Feirste. Sa bhliain 2021, chuir siad Cumann Lúth Chleas Gael ar 16

ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

• An Grúpa Turas ó Oirthear Bhéal Feirste i mBaile Átha Cliath leis an Ardmhéara Mícheál Mac Donncha i 2018

an fhód, leoga ní hea an chéad Chlub CLG fá Oirthear Bhéal Feirste é. Tá an Ghaeilge agus an cultúr á thabhairt daoine le chéile anseo. Tchítear don phobal i gcéin go dtí sinne uilig dul chuig an aon tobar amháin agus féiniúlacht choitinn againn. Tá sí ann d’achan duine ar an oileán seo.

Má roinneann muid an t-oileán seo, roinnfidh muid an teanga inti.

Thuig Poblachtaigh ariamh gurb í an uirlis is fearr le díchoilíniú a dhéanamh ar ár gcuid intinní. Ná déanaimis dearmad nach de thaisme nach bhfuil sí i mbéal an aois óig, cé gur sean an tagairt, is ábhartha é le cur chuige rialtas na Breataine i leith an chultúir Ghaelaigh a thabhairt chun cuimhne. Is éard a leanas na ráiteas a thángthas air ag léamh domh le gairid fán Chóras Oideachais in Éirinn ó bhunú na scoileanna náisiúnta in 1831 a fhad le 1981, duine de na coimisinéirí ar na scoileanna náisiúnta in 1904 ag litir dó le Dubhghlas De hÍde: “I will use all my influence, as in the past, to ensure that Irish as a spoken language shall die out as quickly as possible.” Thuig na Briotánaigh riamh anall gurb é scriosadh na teangaidh agus scriosadh meon na ndaoine, rud a chleacht siad níos faide i gcéin san India agus áiteacha nach é.

Níor chuala cuid daoine iomrá fán phróiseas córasach a tharla an Ghaeilge a ruaigeadh de chaint agus sochaí na ndaoine, tá géarghá an comhrá • Dubhghlas De hÍde anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1 - 2021 - ISSUE NUMBER 1

seo a bheith mar chuid den dioscúrsa fá Éirinn Aontaithe.

Is práinneach ná riamh go dtugann muid aird agus fuinneamh ceart ar na ceantracha Gaeltachta Thuaidh agus Theas beag beann ar an neamart agus aineolas ar léirigh Fine Gael agus Fianna Fáil ar an Ghaeilge agus na ceantracha seo le céad bliain anuas. Is tábhachtach a chuimhneamh i gcónaí nach ceist teanga amháin atá ann, ceist shóisialta atá ann chomh maith. Is ríthábhachtach ná riamh neamart a dhéanamh d’ionsaithe an DUP agus grúpaí nach iad fán Ghaeilge agus fá lucht labhartha na teanga. Léiríodh muid ár bhfreagra trí Ghaeilge

Má roinneann muid an t-oileán seo, roinnfidh muid an teanga inti bhreá a theacht uainn. Ní thabharfaidh muid athbheochan na teanga i gcrích mura gcuireann muid léi a fhoghlaim.

Beireann an dioscúrsa nua seo fá Éirinn Aontaithe deis amháin eile dúinn an athghabháil féiniúlachta agus cultúrtha a chur i lár an chomhrá. Is cinnte go mbeidh cur chuige náisiúnta i leith earnáil na Gaelscolaíochta mar uirlis na hathbheochana agus na ceantracha Gaeltachta chun socair na teanga. Tá léirithe ag na páirtithe eile Thuaidh agus Theas an neamart agus uaireanta naimhdeas atá acu don teanga, tá rialtas náisiúnta a dhíobháil le straitéis agus fís cheart a leagan amach d’athbheochan na Gaeilge.

Ní hionann naimhdeas agus cur i gcoinne poiblí i gcónaí, is leor neamart uaireanta. Mar sin féin, nuair a phléann muid anois ceist Éireann Aontaithe agus an togra againn tosaithe léi a bhaint amach, déanaimis an Ghaeilge a lárnú sa chomhrá. Déanaimis í a fhoghlaim. Mar a dúirt Ó Cadháin tráth: “Is í an Ghaeilge athghabháil na hÉireann, agus is í athghabháil na hÉireann slánú na Gaeilge” ♦ Cónall Ó Corra – Oifigeach Náisiúnta Gaeilge Shinn Féin 17

will lead the

climate action transition

BY LYNN BOYLAN Senator Lynn Boylan is the Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Climate Justice

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ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

2020 was an exceptional year, but, putting aside Sinn Féin’s election results, the rest of the year’s exceptionalism was less than positive.

The year started with wildfires raging in Australia and closed with four million acres of Californian forest burned. This was twice the amount of land burned than in California’s previous worst wildfire.

2020 broke the record for the warmest year ever. In August, a scorching 54.4C temperature was recorded in Death Valley, potentially making it the hottest temperature ever recorded.

Last year also saw more storms and hurricanes than ever before. For only the second time in history, meteorologists ran out of letters in the alphabet to name them.

That’s all before we even begin to talk about Covid-19. The pandemic that has tragically taken in excess of two million lives and continues to rip through communities across the world.

All of these extreme weather events, forest fires, flooding and the pandemic are not simply unfortunate coincidences; they are the consequences of accelerating climate change and biodiversity collapse.

Scientists have been warning us for years that, unless we start to tackle climate change and the 6th great extinction event, our future will be one of climate catastrophe.

Ireland must play its part in addressing climate change. It is simply not good enough to shrug our shoulders and say ‘sure we are only a small country, what difference can it make?’

While proudly anticolonial, Ireland has still benefitted from its position in the global north and from extractivism. Extractivism is the extraction of natural resources such as minerals and metals, particularly from countries in the global south, and is deeply embedded in the capitalism system. Its legacy is the accumulation

of wealth, power, and emissions in the global north.

Ireland has contributed to the legacy emissions that have caused climate change and should be an active participant in the transition to a decarbonised future.

Sinn Féin needs to lead that transition.

For too long, climate action in Ireland has followed the same modus operandi. Focus all of the responsibility on the individual while industry and corporations are given a free pass.

It is no accident that ordinary working families are expected to carry the cost of the transition through higher energy bills. While at the same time, the Government is actively encouraging data centres to set up in

For too long, climate action in Ireland has followed the same modus operandi. Focus all of the responsibility on the individual, while industry and corporations are given a free pass Ireland, despite the fact that their insatiable demand for electricity will make reaching climate targets much harder.

Penneys shoppers are pilloried, while the high consumption lifestyles of the rich and famous are lauded.

Unless Sinn Féin step up to the plate on climate action, it will be the communities and families that we represent that will be left to

• Penneys shoppers are pilloried, while the high consumption lifestyles of the rich and famous are lauded anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1 - 2021 - ISSUE NUMBER 1

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• Minister Eamon Ryan’s Climate Bill made zero reference to a Just Transition

shoulder the cost. It will be the most vulnerable in society that will suffer the worst impacts of a changing climate.

Renters and low income families will continue to live in energy poverty, while those who can afford to retrofit will see their bills reduce. Households in flood prone areas will continue to be left without insurance and adequate flood protection. The small family farm will struggle with changing weather patterns and collapsed ecosystems.

2021 will see a number of Government initiatives introduced to tackle climate change. Sinn Féin as the lead opposition must ensure that those initiatives are social justice-proofed.

The much anticipated Climate Bill is first on the agenda. Ireland has long been a laggard when it comes to climate legislation but, in 2021, it will finally introduce a carbon budget procedure. Carbon budgets are effective tools to reduce emissions and have been introduced in many countries with Britain being the first in 2008.

They set legally binding targets on each Government Department for how much they must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by.

A carbon budget does not set out how the reduction is to be made, its job is to set out the how much. This is a key point. When Minister Eamon Ryan first introduced his Climate Bill in October, not only was the language weaker than that of his predecessor, Richard Bruton, but it made zero reference to a Just Transition.

Those of us old enough to remember the last time the Greens were in Government might not be surprised that protecting workers’ rights and communities in a decarbonised future was way down their list of priorities.

Through Sinn Féin amendments, the Oireachtas Climate Action Committee has called on Minister Ryan to include a Just Transition in his redrafted Bill. We have called for those who sit on the Climate Action Advisory Council to have expertise in climate justice and labour relations.

We cannot go back to the days of mainstream economists setting the agenda on climate measures.

A microgeneration Bill will also be introduced by Minister Ryan this year. Microgeneration allows households, farmers, schools, and community groups to sell excess energy from solar panels and turbines back into the grid.

Sinn Féin’s Brian Stanley campaigned for years on this and even drafted microgeneration legislation. John O’Dowd MLA is also in the process of introducing a microgeneration Bill in the North.

Microgeneration has the potential to spread the benefits of the energy transition throughout society. However, the outcome is not automatically guaranteed.

The draft proposal on the table from Eamon Ryan appears to exclude buildings that have not been retrofitted. This has the potential to exacerbate energy poverty. Those who are wealthy

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and can afford to retrofit will see their net electricity consumption costs decrease while those in energy poverty will be unable to avail of the benefits.

Sinn Féin will make a submission to the public consultation on Ryan’s microgeneration proposal to ensure that there are no unnecessary barriers in accessing the scheme.

Energy poverty is widespread in Ireland. Before Christmas, I conducted a survey of households across the country and the findings were stark.

The human cost of energy poverty was laid bare.

Those who took part talked of feelings of shame and embarrassment of being unable to heat their homes.

Others talked of collecting sticks along

LIVING IN ENERGY POVERTY

N BOYLAN SENATOR LYN Justice Spokesperson Sinn Féin Climate

ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

• We must show that climate action can deliver a better more equal society

country laneways to burn. One parent told us how their family slept in one room when the weather got really cold.

Energy Poverty has far reaching consequences. It affects your mental health and wellbeing. A recent study by the ESRI found that it has long-term impacts on a child’s health and development. Children in cold, damp homes are more likely to develop respiratory conditions like asthma. This can affect their school attendance and ability to achieve their full potential later in life.

Energy poverty is not a priority for this Government. They currently • We need to development of renewable energy and to reform the regressive Public Service Obligation levy

have no energy poverty strategy and the previous one lapsed in 2019.

The Department of Public Expenditure has also criticised the lack of data on energy poverty. The Department’s report found that there is no verifiable way to measure the effectiveness of retrofit policies in addressing energy poverty in Ireland.

In the coming weeks, Sinn Féin is bringing forward proposals to reduce the cost of energy. Our proposals will look at how to reform the regressive Public Service Obligation levy. This levy subsidises the development of renewable energy but is currently levied at a flat rate on households regardless of income.

It will also look at mechanisms used in other jurisdictions to cap the tariffs charged by utility companies. Utility companies often have punitive tariffs for those households who, for one reason or another, are not in a position to switch provider.

Climate action does not have to be punitive. It is possible to transition to a decarbonised future and improve living standards.

We must show that climate action can deliver a better more equal society. A Just Transition means warm homes, decent working conditions, and a better work life balance All that is needed is the political will. Every year, Sinn Féin sets out its alternative budget. In it, we show how there are always fairer choices that can be made.

We now need to do the same with climate action. We must show that climate action can deliver a better more equal society.

A Just Transition means warm homes, decent working conditions, and a better work life balance. It means shorter work commutes, accessible public transport, and cleaner air. A Just Transition is about a shift away from a consumer driven, resource intensive economy to one that puts a value on care instead and develops a caring economy.

So, let’s make 2021 the year that truly exceptional climate action begins. ♦

anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1 - 2021 - ISSUE NUMBER 1

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Seán Fearon challenges republicans to consider incorporating a green agenda into their political activism ‘When we think of economic performance as Irish republicans, we must prioritise social and economic equality, redistribution, physical and mental wellbeing, the quality of employment, the impact on our democracy, the health of our communities, and the sanctity of the natural world’.

Republicanism and ecology politics

BY SEÁN FEARON Irish republicanism, as the primary vehicle of radical social and economic progress on this island, is perhaps an outlier among mainstream left-wing movements in continental Europe, Britain, and the United States. Environmentalism and an embrace of green politics is, at best, tangential to our programme of change on this island.

Misconceptions may lie in the widely held view that the politics of ecology - the balance between the ecosystem of humanity, our economic activity, and all other ecosystems on earth - are some sort of middle-class hobbyhorse. It is perhaps for this reason that the climate emergency is on the coattails of our economic programme; a sort of appendix to the social justice arguments that have made Irish republicans relevant in exploited communities, now as ever.

However, the anti-colonial, anti-imperialist and often socialist forms in which Irish republicanism has found expression since the 1790s are bonded to the politics of

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ecology. The British imperial project in Ireland, and its colonial practices of land confiscation and exploitation of Irish workers which have animated republicans throughout our history, are the same practices which have brought us to the brink of ecological collapse. They are bound together by the logic and pseudo-religious obsession with economic growth.

Like the people of East Asia, the continent of Africa, and Latin America, generations of working people in Ireland were exploited and brutalised at the altar of imperialist growth, but among post-colonial societies, the Irish state stands out as uniquely growth-obsessed.

We have swallowed whole the myth that rising national output and a bejewelled arrangement for multinational corporations is one and the same with economic development and a modern, humane and ecologically sustainable society.

Of course, Ireland is not alone in this.

There is a blinkered obsession among policy makers, political parties from right to left, and, above all, the economics profession with growth as the sole measure and object of economic performance. It dominates today’s globalised capitalist economy.

Everything else is secondary, namely the well-being of society, the health of our communities, and the disfigured state of the natural world.

‘Growthism’ is an idea entirely at odds with indigenous concepts of progress and wellbeing, in Ireland as in other colonised regions. In our aim to unravel the malicious legacy of colonialism here, and the layered economic inequality it left in its wake, republicans should share common cause with those rejecting endless economic expansion to bring the world economy back into line with our planetary boundaries.

In short, we need a ‘greening’ of Irish republicanism and a vision of a new model of a post-growth economy in Ireland.

ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

• Oliver Cromwell

• Generations of working people in Ireland, like the people of East Asia, the continent of Africa, and Latin America, were exploited and brutalised at the altar of imperialist growth

Imperialism & economic growth The pages of An Phoblacht will be very familiar with interesting and much more detailed accounts of the history of Britain’s colonial subjugation of Ireland than I am able to muster.

However, it should be known that the arrival of Oliver Cromwell to Ireland in the mid-17th century marked not just the violent confiscation of vast swathes of land, but the plantation of new theories about the purpose of economic activity – growth.

By Cromwell’s side was a man called William Petty, credited in some quarters as the progenitor of developed ideas of political economy and economic growth. In order to make a success of the plantation and colonisation of Ireland, Petty argued, the Irish people would need to be Anglicised, made more productive, their population expanded, and driven to economic growth.

It is no coincidence that, as Petty scribbled his racialised theories of progress,

the foundations of modern capitalism were being laid in Britain through the ‘enclosure’ movement. This involved the first privatisation of common lands which fundamentally altered the relationship between rural peasantry and their ruling class. Instead of living on and working the land for subsistence, they now lived on privately-owned land which required them to pay rent. They would also need a wage to pay this rent and buy the food they once gathered from the land. A rural class of wage-labourers was born.

In the simplest possible terms, economic growth is the practice of economic activity producing more value in its outputs than it consumes as inputs. We constantly think of outputs, goods and services which create rents, profits, and dividends for their owners.

We rarely think of the inputs, namely people and their labour, raw materials harvested from the earth, and energy.

Growth is the product of the competitive and expansionary engine of capitalism and, as the British Empire moved beyond Ireland,

anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1 - 2021 - ISSUE NUMBER 1

• William Petty

it and its imperial competitors scoured the corners of the earth for slaves, fossil fuels, and valuable goods to trade. The size of the world economy expanded rapidly.

The same impulse for ever greater and faster economic expansion underpinned the industrial revolution and would create rates of economic growth we are familiar with today. Due to compound function of growth, any economy that grows by three percent a year, every year, doubles in size every twentyfive years or so.

The implications of this for the natural world and our climate are now terrifyingly clear. As a result of this model of growth, we are in the midst of the sixth great extinction event in world history and runaway global heating now threatens human civilisation as we know it.

Ireland’s post-colonial economy Despite this, growth is now the order of the day, and, for most, it is synonymous with

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• The economics of growth, of boom and bust, have failed

sound economic management, regardless of what is growing or how much of that growth is creamed off by a privileged few. However, for post-colonial societies around the world, a very specific model of growth exists.

Political economists argue that, for much of its history, the Irish state might be usefully viewed as a rich developing nation, and not a poorer developed nation. In other words, we are Newly Industrialised Country (NIC), akin to our post-colonial counterparts in east Asia and Latin America, for three reasons.

Firstly, we did not industrialise in the 19th century, instead a socially-engineered famine devastated our economic capacity.

Secondly, post-Partition Ireland was left unable to partake in the post-war 20th century class compromises that produced universal public services, stable

• Peadar Kirby

indigenous export-led development and an unprecedented rise in living standards achieved across the rest of Europe and the United States. Instead, to paraphrase Peadar Kirby, gombeen governments ‘rode the agricultural donkey as Europe galloped ahead on the industrial stallion’.

Thirdly, when Fianna Fáil embraced globalisation and a new Irish neoliberalism with its 1958 Programme, it sowed the seeds of the ‘dual economy’ seen in post-colonial societies across the world – a booming multinational sector dependent on foreign investment and another entirely separate, much less profitable ‘real’ economy rooted in our towns and villages.

Moreover, these two economies have diverged further and further at each major economic event in our recent history – the Celtic Tiger, the 2008 crash, and now the ‘COVID crash’.

The profitability of, typically American, multinationals involved in the trade of hightech services in Ireland is well-documented.

Meanwhile, outside of these FDI enclaves in the urban hubs of the Irish state, market income inequality is the highest in Europe and the worst in the OECD, half a million homes don’t have access to elemental utilities such as broadband and poverty is pervasive.

Embracing post-growth Irish republicanism The point here is that economic growth as the sole objective of economic success is not only breaking down the fragile limits of our planetary system, but the post-colonial nature of the Irish growth model is glaringly unequal, leading to regional imbalances

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and underdevelopment, and has created an almost neo-colonial dependence on foreign investment to fund basic public services.

And while growth as a primary objective may have been defensible when countless Irish people lived in abject deprivation, we are now an advanced society with more than enough resources to satisfy the needs of every citizen plentifully.

Katherine Trebeck writes that in advanced societies like ours, with loneliness, mental ill-health and deep dissatisfaction in work spreading like wildfire, the fruits of past growth are now rotting before any of us can enjoy them.

This is because growth, and the ever greater strain demanded of us to satisfy it, is simply not a measure of development in and of itself. Improving metrics of global income like GDP or GNI were never designed to objectives of progress in and of themselves.

Since 1980, a staggering 48% of growth in global income has gone to the richest 5% in rents, interest on loans, profits, and dividends through the assets they have accumulated.

Workers don’t, and increasingly won’t, see the benefits of growth.

We need new humane and modern objectives for development which break from our colonial and post-colonial relationships with ‘growth at all costs’. Growth should be superfluous, an accident, and, for a time, it was necessary. However, for the sake of planetary stability and a fairer society on this island, it can no longer be the primary objective of economic policy. ♦ Seán Fearon is a PhD candidate at Queen’s University Belfast researching post-growth political economy and a green response to COVID-19

ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

ALL OF US HAVE A ROLE IN THE WORK FOR A

NEW IRELAND

BY MAIRÉAD FARRELL In her book ‘The Deficit Myth’, economist Stephanie Kelton reminds us that, while public debate today is dominated by discussion of the state’s fiscal deficit, there are other deficits that we have in society which receive comparably little attention; the good jobs deficit, the healthcare deficit, the infrastructure deficit, and the climate deficit.

These are the deficits that really matter, but remain marginal to the concerns of very many policy-makers.

It is obvious that the economic and social potential of Ireland has been stunted by the two partitioned states on this island. The mandate that Sinn Féin received at the 2020 Leinster House election was undeniably rooted in an instinctive desire for a different way forward.

It was a departure from a neoliberal economic framework that has given us a deeply harmful housing crisis, a health system that does

We now begin to track possibly our most challenging course yet as we move toward the final stages of bringing about a United Ireland and the socialist republic that has been envisioned by our heroes over hundreds of years

• Sinn Féin’s mandate was undeniably rooted in an instinctive desire for a different way forward

not serve the needs of its people, increasing levels of precarious and under-employment, and a privatisation model that targets our public services.

Sinn Féin is now in the strongest position since before both Partition and the Civil War to articulate and bring about a new, progressive political culture in Ireland. There will be many challenges to this and we should certainly not underestimate the infinite capacity of those sections of the establishment committed to retaining and reclaiming a system that secures their privileges, power, and wealth.

Unlike any other political movement in Ireland however, Republicans have been up against these conservative and

regressive elements all along. We now begin to track possibly our most challenging course yet as we move toward the final stages of bringing about a United Ireland and the socialist republic that has been envisioned by our heroes over hundreds of years, from Wolfe Tone and Henry Joy McCracken to James Connolly, Liam Mellows and, in later decades, Bobby Sands and Máire Drumm.

We now have a huge opportunity to campaign for and achieve Irish Unity. This needs to be our focus and should be threaded through everything we do. As left Republican activists, we know that the successful passing of a referendum on Irish Unity, North and South, is just the first step in achieving national liberation and independence in Ireland, but it is an enormously important first step.

Unity creates the potential for a rethinking and reimagining the

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• Unity creates potential for the state to house its people, and give equal access to employment, education and healthcare

societal structures that mould our lives. I regularly say that a state which cannot house its people, look after its sick or protect its elderly is fundamentally flawed. I want an Ireland where kids grow up not knowing what it is to be homeless, to be hungry, to be locked out of employment or to be denied equal access to education and healthcare.

I was recently listening to a dentist on the radio talking about a measure brought in by Fine Gael and Labour in government eight years ago, which remains in place today, limiting medical card holders to a maximum of two tooth fillings per year. The dentist said he is regularly compelled to advise people that they require multiple fillings, but that the card only covers two. In these scenarios, the patients just have to hope that decay does not erode the other teeth to the point that they are no longer restorable by the following

I want an Ireland where kids grow up not knowing what it is to be homeless, to be hungry, to be locked out of employment or to be denied equal access to education and healthcare. calendar year. How can a state that claims to be a Republic treat its citizens in this way?

This is just one of many anecdotes that I, and others, could reference to show how much public policy in this state is geared more toward particular models of ‘fiscal responsibility’ than to looking after our people properly.

Of course, it is important to state that this is the logical outworking of the inhumane, ideologically driven policy approach that our decision-making polity cling to so rigidly. All of us have a role in the work to change this. Sinn Féin activist Gerry Adams put it well at the funeral of Martin McGuinness, “If we want freedom, we must go out and take it. Mobilise, organise and unite for our rights”.

The sentiment of that statement reminded me of another great person who spent some time in Ireland, former slave Frederick Douglass. He also captured the need for determined collective action in the struggle for political and economic liberation when he said “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

I am confident that we can be part of a generation that will bring 26

about and live in a United Ireland. When that day does come, we will continue on our journey to realising an Irish Republic that is a progressive, humane and egalitarian, but I will remember all of those who committed their whole lives to this project and won’t get to see the fruits of that labour.

I will think of Tone, the Fenians, the leaders of 1916, the Loughnane brothers, the Hunger Strikers, Sheena Campbell, Martin McGuinness, my good friend Bobby Storey, and many more. More than anything, I will think of all those ordinary and extraordinary men and women who suffered, who died, who made a stand and who existed in spite of British imperialism and a reactionary Free State.

I am honoured to have been selected and supported by other Republicans as a public representative for Sinn Féin, but I am under no Illusion as to the critical importance of collective decision-making and action to achieve the ideals of the Republic.

I often think of the words penned by Liam Mellows from the US a couple of years after the 1916 Rising, during which he was a commander in my own county of Galway, when he said: “There are men and women in Ireland today, compared with whom I am as nothing, simple, honest, knowing nothing of the maze of politics or the ways of the great world, yet, they cherished in their hearts great ideals and noble aspirations... Dreamers, fanatics, intransigents, fools, yes, but unconquerable and sublime.” ♦

Mairéad Farrell is the Sinn Féin TD for Galway West/South Mayo and the party’s spokesperson on Public Expenditure and Reform ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

As the reality of Brexit imposes a range of changes to the economic and political relationships between Ireland, Britain and the EU, along with the ongoing disputes and negotiations over the Irish Protocol Article 16 in the EU, Sinn Féin MEP CHRIS MacMANUS outlines the critical role the EU and its institutions will play in the steps leading to an Irish Unity referendum.

BREXIT,, EUROPE AND

IRISH UNITY British and Irish governments have done a good job over the years in convincing people that the ‘Irish issue’ was resolved. Since the Good Friday Agreement, the diplomatic services of both countries have put about the idea that there was no need for the international community to bother itself with any ongoing problems about Partition or the denial of democratic rights of people living in that part of Ireland governed by Britain.

Honestly, neither government has ever fully committed to implementing the Agreement. They pay only lip service to the North-South and East-West provisions and virtually ignoring the rights-based provisions and the recommendations of the Human Rights Commission.

Rather than making the Agreement a living, breathing process, they bypassed parties in the North to do things between London and Dublin where convenient. The Single Electricity Market was a case in point.

Rather than embedding it in the NorthSouth institutions as a new ‘agreed area of cooperation’, as provided for in the GFA, they made a bilateral London-Dublin agreement.

They hoped that the parties in the North would be content with an Assembly limited in its powers and ignored the rest of the GFA and subsequent agreements. The British

The EU were fully supportive of the GFA without understanding the political dynamic.

They largely saw it as a point in time, a good news story with a powersharing Executive.

They didn’t see a living, breathing peace and political process

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government have to be dragged kicking and screaming to fulfil their commitments.

The failings of the British government and the unwillingness of political Unionism to genuinely work on the basis of equality meant that the ‘Irish issue’ re-emerged from time to time, but governments and media around the world usually only paid attention when the Executive ceased to function, swallowing the view that the British and Irish governments were honest brokers, doing their best to talk sense into the ‘difficult’ parties who shared power.

The EU were fully supportive of the GFA without understanding the political dynamic.

They largely saw it as a point in time, a good news story with a power-sharing Executive.

They didn’t see a living, breathing peace and political process.

That the pro-Brexit elements of the British establishment couldn’t foresee the problems caused by Brexit was heavily aided by successive Dublin governments, who had been compliant in allowing Unionism and British governments to hollow out the Agreement.

Indeed, the first priority of the Dublin government was to have as close an agreement as possible with Britain and safeguard the Common Travel Area, showing 27

Grúpa Cónasctha den Chlé Aontaithe Eorpach • den Chlé Ghlas Nordach

GRÚPA PARLAIMINTEACH EORPACH

www.guengl.eu TREO EILE DON EORAIP ANOTHER EUROPE IS POSSIBLE

FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN UNITED LEFT/NORDIC GREEN LEFT (GUE/NGL)

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zero understanding of the Good Friday Agreement or the difficulties caused by Brexit.

Even before the referendum, Sinn Féin had already identified the democratic challenge presented by Brexit; a change of constitutional status without consent and the damage done by placing an external border of the EU on the island of Ireland. Brexit had the potential to undermine the Good Friday Agreement, a critical reason why the DUP supported it so much.

Post referendum, it was left to Sinn Féin to do the heavy lifting in the EU. Its MEP team, led by Martina Anderson - and backed up by solid legal advice - explained the Good Friday Agreement to hundreds of MEPs and officials.

It was Sinn Féin, with the full support of The Left in the European Parliament (GUE/ NGL), that ensured the border in Ireland would become a central issue for the EU. The European Parliament (EP) was the first to say that the Good Friday Agreement should be upheld “in all its parts” (including a unity referendum) and the first to identify that the North needed to remain in the Single Market and Customs Union.

The EP asserted that the Withdrawal Agreement needed to safeguard the “agreed areas of cooperation”, with the assumption that other areas of cooperation would develop, and to ensure the centrality of the rights provisions, including the right of people born in the North to be Irish, British or both. And the EP also explicitly recognised that it was for the people of Ireland, North and South, to decide upon their own constitutional future.

In the immediate aftermath, only Sinn Féin had a sufficient understanding of the GFA and EU Treaties, which led to the proposal for “special status” for the North. As the Article 50 Task Force, led by Michel Barnier, got into their stride, they also began to understand that the EU commitment to the GFA would be a serious challenge in the negotiations, something the Dublin government initially neglected to mention. And it appears that it was largely due to questioning from the Article 50 Task Force, and prompting from Sinn Féin, that the Dublin government dug out their old copies of the GFA and started to read them.

The reality slowly dawned that the North was not just a ‘region’ of Britain with a background of conflict. As MEPs from across Europe with different political backgrounds realised that protecting the GFA obviously meant some sort of membership of the Single Market and Customs Union - and much more - a regular question was “Why doesn’t Ireland just reunite?”.

If Brexit changed the way that EU member states saw Britain, their government’s conduct led to serious doubts as to whether they could be trusted on anything. A disregard for the Peace Process in Ireland led many to seriously

• Martina Anderson explained the Good Friday Agreement to hundreds of MEPs and officials

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question whether Britain could be trusted to ensure Ireland’s best interests.

Many EU member states have their own history of colonialism, having witnessed invasion, occupation, and suppression of national minorities.

Many European borders have either caused conflict or were created through conflict. These member states work together on many important decisions faced by the EU. Therefore, they often turn a blind eye to issues of nationality and nationhood that have not yet been resolved. They shouldn’t, but they do.

However, outside the EU things are different. The British government can expect a more critical eye cast over its behaviour. It can expect a more robust engagement from the EU and a swifter criticism of its human rights violations. Above all, it can expect that any abuse of the Good Friday Agreement will be rigorously scrutinised than had been pre-Brexit.

The EU won’t suddenly take up the flag of the Republic, but Brexit has put Irish Unity firmly on their radar. If it wasn’t for Brexit, would President Macron have said in August 2019 that “Irish 29

• DUP Leader, Arlene Foster

• French President Emmanuel Macron,

reunification would solve the problems, but it is not up to France.”

The Irish Protocol was a significant EU effort. In the interests of the Peace Process, it strived to find a way to make Brexit and the Good Friday Agreement compatible. It has stretched EU Treaties and has accepted a certain risk to the integrity of its single market.

The DUP will attempt to persuade the British government to abandon the Irish Protocol, or try to vote it down in the Assembly in four years’ time. However, this will only ensure a more forceful re-echo of “why doesn’t Ireland just unite?” That could be a reasonable timescale for the holding of a referendum.

For all that Irish Unity is a neater solution to Brexit than the Irish Protocol, the EU will not act within a vacuum. The attitude of the Dublin government, Six-County election results, alongside other visible manifestations of the support for Irish Unity, will all be factors. Above all, the EU understands that an exercise of self-determination is an issue for the people of Ireland - North and South.

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• Michel Barnier

The EU won’t suddenly take up the flag of the Republic, but Brexit has put Irish unity firmly on their radar

It would likely put political and diplomatic pressure on any London government not to obstruct that exercise in self-determination.

The EU prides itself on planning. It was better prepared for Brexit than Britain. It will have contingency plans for a range of eventualities. It would be unwise for us to think that no planning has taken place on the eventuality of Irish unity and the reintegration of the six counties back into the EU. Be sure, the conversation is taking place in Brussels in a way it has never done before.

As a referendum nears, the EU’s next steps will be a more open and democratic discussion on preparing for Irish reunification. A Special Committee of the European Parliament? A Working Party of the Council of Ministers? A Commission Task Force? Whatever the details, the coming years require increased planning and preparation for the eventual re-integration of the Six-Counties in a newly United Ireland within the EU. ♦ Chris MacManus is the Sinn Féin MEP for the Midlands North West constituency

ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

DEMAND FOR CHANGE SET TO GROW

O

Just over a year after the 2020 Leinster House election, SEÁN MacBRÁDAIGH catalogues the key events, highlighting the implications of Sinn Féin’s ground-breaking vote and growing support.

ver a year since the most historic Irish general election in a generation, its reverberations are still being felt. Every election since the foundation of the Irish state has resulted in governments led

by Fianna Fail or Fine Gael. For almost 100 years, since the Partition of Ireland, nothing like the 2020 election has ever happened.

With Sinn Féin winning a plurality of votes, the election finally marked the end of the old, two-party system in the 26 Counties. Not only that, but Sinn Féin topped the poll in constituency after constituency across the state.

While overall support for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil has been on a downward trajectory over several general elections, their combined vote share of 43% in 2020 was the lowest ever.

The scale of the change that had occurred was evident when Mary Lou McDonald became the first person not from Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil, and the first woman, to get

anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1 - 2021 - ISSUE NUMBER 1

the biggest support in a Dáil vote for Taoiseach on 20th February. Dáil seat allocations put Sinn Féin, Fine Gael, and Fianna Fáil on 37, 35, and 38 seats respectively.

Sinn Féin won the same number of seats as Fianna Fáil, but the latter were awarded the extra seat due to the automatic re-election of the outgoing Fianna Fáil Ceann Comhairle.

It’s worth recalling that the election was preceded by an increasingly dire performance by a Fine Gael Government supported by Fianna Fáil.

The election itself was precipitated when Health Minister Simon Harris faced a Dáil motion of no-confidence as the health system verged on collapse with health workers forced to abandon intolerable working conditions and elderly patients left to suffer for days on hospital trolleys.

An arrogant administration was seen increasingly to be in hoc to property developers and vulture funds, as hard working families faced unaffordable housing, spiralling rents, and an attack on pension rights.

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• Mary Lou McDonald became the first person not from Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil, and the first woman, to get the biggest support in a Dáil vote for Taoiseach

A growing desire for change and a fairer, more equal society - encouraged by the landmark referendum victories of recent years in relation to marriage equality and the 8th Amendment - saw voters increasingly rejecting 26-County electoral orthodoxy.

More and more people saw Sinn Féin as offering a better way forward for an Ireland in obvious need of change. The party captured the mood and the political calibre of its spokespersons drove the message home.

Mary Lou McDonald, Pearse Doherty, Eoin Ó Broin, Louise O’Reilly, Matt Carthy, and David Cullinane outshone their Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil opponents and connected with voters.

On housing, healthcare, the cost of living, workers’ rights, and social supports, the party had the policies and representatives to defeat the arguments of its opponents again and again.

It offered a genuinely alternative form of politics to that of government by insiders for insiders - the corrupt old boys’ network that has dominated and undermined Irish politics for generations.

Sinn Féin went to the electorate with a clear message - it understood the challenges they were facing in their daily lives - problems such as the housing crisis, the costs of childcare,

people facing dole queues at 65 and rip-off insurance costs issues that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil ignored.

What’s more, Sinn Féin put forward clear, workable solutions. It offered for the first time, a government not for the bankers or property developers, or for the multinational corporations, or the insiders and cosseted vested interests, but a government for the people.

The message was that while there may have been an economic recovery, it hadn’t benefited ordinary people but that it should and it could. It was a message which resonated.

It wasn’t just the establishment parties who were out of touch and unprepared for the 2020 election result.

M

uch of the media, right from the start, sought to frame the election as a two-horse race between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and RTÉ initially excluded Mary Lou McDonald from the main TV debate.

The election had seen an organic #VoteLeftTransferLeft campaign on social media which captured the imagination of many voters and Sinn Féin transfers ensured the return of left-wing TDs from other, smaller parties. Establishment reaction to the election result was one of shock and anger.

Sinn Féin sought to form a left-led government which

• Sinn Féin outshone their Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil opponents and connected with voters

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openly that it intended to allow the third junior to bridge the €16,000 pay gap, the Government said nothing and tried to sneak the changes through in an amendment to a separate piece of legislation.

O

• Agriculture Minister Barry Cowen and successor Dara Calleary were embroiled in the ‘Golfgate’ scandal and forced to resign

would best represent the verdict delivered by voters but, in the circumstances, this proved not to be possible.

The party was also consistently clear on its willingness to enter discussions with all parties, but this was spurned

by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil who were only interested in carving up political power between themselves to keep Sinn Féin out and maintain the status quo.

The election marked the latest high point for Sinn Féin in the South which has steadily increased its seats, going from four TDs in 2007, to 14 in 2011, to 23 in 2016, but 2020 was a truly remarkable development.

While Sinn Féin’s performance was historic, the full potential was not realised, partly because the party only ran 42 candidates, and ultimately because the political establishment circled the wagons to keep Sinn Féin out of government.

Despite all this, the clearly expressed desire for political change has steadily grown since the election as the harsh reality of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in power together has hit home.

The coalition has stumbled from one scandal to another as the traditional arrogance and entitlement of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael was exposed from the getgo and has continued since.

Within his first week as Taoiseach, Micheál Martin faced a scandal that eventually forced him to sack his Agriculture Minister Barry Cowen. The following month saw Cowen’s successor Dara Calleary embroiled in the ‘Golfgate’ scandal and eventually forced to resign.

In July, it emerged that with three ‘super junior ministers’ in Government, legislation only allowed for two of them to get paid at a higher rate. Rather than state anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1 - 2021 - ISSUE NUMBER 1

n stark contrast to this, it also emerged in July that social welfare recipients were being stopped at the airport by social welfare officers and Gardai seeking their PPS numbers. Those in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployed Payment of €350 per week were having their payments docked if they travelled outside the state.

In October, it emerged that Tánaiste Leo Varadkar leaked a confidential, unpublished copy of a GP contract agreed by the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO). A copy was given to a friend who was then the president of a rival doctors union the National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP). A familiar pattern has again been established of favours and preferential treatment to a circle of ‘insiders’.

With Varadkar facing no sanction whatsoever from Taoiseach Mícheál Martin and having failed to give any credible account for his actions, Sinn Féin tabled a motion of no confidence in the Tánaiste.

The ‘golden circle’ was further exposed by revelations of a ‘revolving door’ through which former Ministers take up senior positions in the corporate and banking sectors, raising the prospect of serious conflicts of interest.

From the beginning, the Government’s handling of the Covid-19 Pandemic has been marked by confusion, mixed messages, and poor decisions. In July, there was much confusion over the Government’s ‘green list’ of countries and territories, passengers from which would not have to undergo quarantine in Ireland.

There has been no serious attempt to coordinate Ireland’s Covid-19 response on an all-island basis, with the government abandoning any effort to realise the country’s geographical advantage as an island.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, it was clear that meat processing was a sector with workers at higher risk of contracting the virus due to the nature of their work.

However, despite the Oireachtas Covid-19 Committee making a range of substantial recommendations to protect the health and safety of such workers, the government has failed to fully implement them.

Mícheál Martin’s government also decided not to introduce mandatory post-arrival testing and hotel quarantine for all non-essential arrivals, flying in the face

• This administration was seen to be in hoc to property developers and vulture funds, as families faced housing, rents & health crises and an attack on pension rights

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• The Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael/Green government have been flying in the face of the Covid-19 advice from NPHET on quarantine for all non-essential arrivals

of the advice from NPHET, the Chief Medical Officer, and indeed going against widespread public opinion on the matter

M

eanwhile, Sinn Féin’s performance as a solution-oriented opposition is helping to build support further among even wider sections of the population. Successive opinion polls since the election demonstrate that Sinn Féin support is now widespread across all demographic groups. Irish society has undergone profound change in recent years and the political system is merely playing catch-up.

The journey towards a United Ireland took another important step forward with the 2020 election. Sinn Féin kept the issue front and centre in its election campaign, strongly urging the need for any incoming Irish Government to prioritise preparation for unity.

Given Sinn Féin’s position as the main political opposition, along with opinion poll evidence that a growing majority in the 26 Counties supports a move towards Irish Unity, means that the Irish political system must engage with the issue more seriously and more actively than it has ever done.

The Ipsos/MRBI exit poll at the General Election showed that 57% of voters in the 26 Counties believe there should be referendums North and South on Irish Unity within the next five years.

This will only increase in the time ahead - the youngest age group polled showed the most support for a border poll, with 75% of those between 18 and 24 saying yes; 60% of those between 25 and 34 in favour; 62% between 35 and 49

agreeing; and 54% of those aged 50 to 64 also saying yes. Only those over 65 years of age registered less than 50% support for the proposal.

Since the election, the establishment parties supported by certain predictable voices in the media, have sought to stem the rise of Sinn Féin by seeking to cast up historical events from the conflict in the North. This strategy has already demonstrably failed, based as it is on an erroneous, deeply patronising, and elitist view of Sinn Féin voters.

Failing to recognise the political, societal and cultural developments in Irish society over recent years, the conservative establishment has adopted a facile understanding of Sinn Féin’s support base as young, naive and ill-informed about the party and wider Irish history.

However, what is now very clear is that support for Sinn Féin transcends most demographics of age and that it is currently the most popular party for the majority of voters ranging in age from 18 to 64.

The reality is that many voters not only understand clearly Sinn Féin’s pivotal role in the Peace Process, but appreciate the party’s efforts and analysis of the conflict and the manner in which it contributed to its resolution.

Government attacks on Sinn Féin have become a substitute for debate on policy, highlighting the condition of denial in which the leaderships of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael now find themselves.

The alternative - to face the truth that Sinn Féin has a bigger democratic mandate than either of them - is too uncomfortable to face.

Meanwhile, the political, economic and societal weaknesses exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic have deepened the desire for change - rents were frozen, evictions were stopped, private hospitals were opened further to public patients, new income supports were provided.

Much, much more needs to be done, and the advances made in all these areas should not be reversed when the pandemic is defeated.

As Sinn Féin consistently said - all these things were always possible. It should not have taken a pandemic to prove this. People now know that it is political will which is key.

The same people and parties who denied the possibility of greater government intervention in the economy are also those who have been the greatest naysayers on the need for proactive preparation for a United Ireland.

As usual, the people are ahead of the political establishment. Having seen that real change is within reach, they are emboldened. While the old establishment may band together to delay change, they cannot stop it.

Seán MacBrádaigh is a Sinn Féin political activist

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y r o t s i h h Iris o t s g n o l e b

BY MATT CARTHY The issue of remembrance has, over recent months, become the subject of political controversy. As a result, some have gone so far as to call for an end to the marking of events in Ireland’s struggle for independence in this, the decade of centenaries.

In my view, the recent ‘history wars’ have less to do with the actual events of 100 years ago than with party politics in 2021. The reality is that the old political establishment of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are finding it difficult to adapt to the new political realities resulting from the 2020 General Election.

As a consequence, both have sought to use polemical history in a vain attempt to delegitimise Sinn Féin, its mandate and, by extension, the votes of hundreds of thousands of Irish citizens.

Sinn Féin’s prioritisation of the need for preparation for a United Ireland has challenged the establishment. This is a motivating factor in the establishment’s approach to historical events. The leaderships of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil know that with every

advance of genuine, all-Ireland republican politics, the failure of their parties in this regard over 90 years is further exposed.

Recent months have witnessed Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil seeking to claim the legacy of the revolutionary period in a narrow, party political way in an effort to gain political advantage in 2020.

This is wrong. Irish history belongs to the people of Ireland, not to any one political party. I believe that most people see this for what it is and do not appreciate politicians seeking to hijack the Decade of Centenaries in this way.

Much of the recent attacks against Sinn Féin around issues of history also betray a deep-seated Partitionism which seeks to deny the lived reality of Irish citizens who were left behind in 1921.

Those who were abandoned to a sectarian, one-party state in the North by Partition are also part of our national story. It is a simple fact of history that, just as people 100 years ago rose up against the injustices of British rule in Ireland, so too did many

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• Gerry Adams, Albert

Reynolds, John Hume

and Martin Mc

ful ld be attained by peace

litical aspirations cou

course where po Guinness set out a new

people in the North rise up against the injustice of British rule 50 years later.

The reiteration of that fact has nothing to do with celebrating or glamourising armed conflict, either in 1920 or in 1970.

There is a deep flaw in the myth propagated by Mícheál Martin and Leo Varadkar of a ‘good IRA’ and a ‘bad IRA’. Conflict in various generations had both real causes and consequences.

I do not believe that anyone should seek to glorify the consequences of the conflict in the North. Acts of war should not be romanticised no matter what generation they occurred in.

The political violence of our past - whether it was 50 or 100

Sinn Féin’s prioritisation of the need for preparation for a United Ireland has challenged the establishment years ago - caused deep human suffering on all sides and it was committed by all sides.

Loss of human life is a terrible thing and should never be celebrated. This does not mean however that we can or should forget the past.

People will form their own conclusions about the IRA’s history and its historic and more recent campaigns, but the fact now is that the armed conflict is long over. The conflict in the North was ended through years of painstaking work in the Peace Process in which my 36

tarian, one-party state re abandoned to a sec • Irish citizens who we ional story on are part of our nat in the North by Partiti

party played a central and pivotal part.

The causes of conflict were addressed in the negotiations leading to the Good Friday Agreement, in which Sinn Féin played a key role.

I am too young to remember most of the conflict, although I have engaged extensively with many victims and their families over several years. My vivid memories of my Border youth are of British Army aggression at checkpoints and in communities. It frustrated me, it angered me. As far as I was concerned, this was a foreign military occupation force operating with impunity and hostility in my country.

I absolutely understand why many felt that the violence of British ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

and democratic means

military forces could only be met with violent resistance. Thankfully, my journey into adulthood occurred at a time when political leaders, notably Gerry Adams, John Hume Martin McGuinness, and Albert Reynolds, were setting out a new course by which political aspirations could be attained by peaceful and democratic means.

What is clear from the events of recent weeks is that some, including members of the present government, have not grasped the lessons of the Peace Process. The new political dispensation which the Peace Process delivered was an acceptance of differing narratives of the past, including the Irish republican narrative.

The Decade of Centenaries are important in recognising and learning from this country’s independence struggle.

Commemorative events should continue in a respectful and dignified way.

Much of the recent attacks against Sinn Féin around issues of history also betray a deep-seated Partitionism which seeks to deny the lived reality of Irish citizens We should always remember and commemorate historical events with respect and sensitivity - mindful always of the feelings of others who may have a different view of the past.

Above all, politicians, and others with political agendas, should refrain from exploiting previous periods of conflict to win contemporary electoral points. Such pettiness does a disservice to the lessons of the past and our ambitions for the future. ♦ Matt Carthy is a Sinn Féin TD and party spokesperson on Agriculture anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1 - 2021 - ISSUE NUMBER 1

37

Iniúchadh ar Choireanna Cogaidh Iosrael ag Cúirt Coiriúil Idirnáisiúnta LE PEADAR WHELAN Tugadh le fios go ndéanfar coireanna cogaidh Iosrael i gcríocha na Palaistíne faoi fhorghabháil a iniúchadh ag an Chúirt Coiriúil Idirnáisiúnta don chéad uair.

Baineadh an constaic deiridh roimh iniúchadh na Cúirte nuair a fógraíodh an 5 Feabhra gur ghlac CCI le hiarratas an Phríomh-Ionchúisitheora Fatou Bensouda imeachtaí dlí a thionscamh i gcoinne Iosrael maidir leis an Bhruach Thiar agus an Stráice Gaza.

I mí na Nollag 2019 chinntigh Príomh-Ionchúisitheoir Bensouda gur leor torthaí tosaigh na cúirte a rinneadh tar éis scrúdú cúig bliana chun fiosrúchán a bhunú ar choireanna cogaidh a rinne Iosrael sna críocha faoi fhorghabháil agus go raibh dlínse ag an chúirt sa chás.

Chuir Ambasadóir na Palaistíne fáilte roimh fhógra CII agus dúirt sí leis An Phoblacht go gcuireann Stát na Palaistíne fáilte roimh an chinneadh maidir le dlínse ó CII: “Leis an chinneadh

Bua don chóir is don daonnacht, don fhírinne, don chóir is don tsoairse seo féadann fiosrúcháin maidir le coireanna cogaidh de chuid Iosrael tosú anoois”.

“Ní cinneadh polaitiúl é cinneadh an CCI agus tá meas ag an Phailistín ar an seasamh neamhspleách atá acu. Táimid diongbháilte ar chomhoibriú a bhainfidh amach ceart agus cóir don mhuintir ‘s againne. Cuirfear le cultúr na síochána domhanda trí dheireadh a chur leis an chultúr sin go bhfuil daoine áirithe saor ó phionós. rud a neartóidh meas ar an dlí

38

• Benjamin Netanyahu

idirnáisiúnta. Tarlóidh seo uilig i gcomhpháirt lenár dtiomantas do chomhréiteach bunaithe ar an dá Stát a bhaint amach trí mhodhanna síochánta amháin.

“Ní bheadh deireadh go deo leis an diansmacht agus an lámh láidir a imrítear ar chearta na bPailistíneach agus an sarú ar an dlí idirnáisíunta gan an grinnscrúdú seo”.

Mhol Príomh Aire Údarás na Palaistíne an cinneadh ag rá gur “bua a bhí ann don fhírinne, don chóir agus don tsaoirse agus don fhuil a doirteadh go nuige seo” dar leis an foras nuachta oifigiúil Wafa.

Chuir Hamas fáilte roimh an chinneadh fosta ag rá “gur cóir aon chinneadh a chuireann le cearta mhuintir na Palaistíne a neartú agus a gcuid saoirse a chosaint”.

Fanann muintir na Pailistíne ar an lá a dtiocfaidh deireadh leis an fhorghabháil agus a gcuirfear an dlí ar na ceannairí uirthi as a gcuid coireanna. Baintear úsáid as achan bealach chun deireadh a chur le sceoin Síonach agus coireanna i gcoinne mhuintir na Palaistíne.

Ar an lámh eile cháin Benjamin Nentanyahu Príomh Aire Iosrael an cinneadh ag tabhairt faoin Chúirt agus ag cur frith-Ghiúdachas ina leith agus thug le fios go gcuirfear ina choinne.

“Nuair a dhéanann CII fiosrúcháin maidir le coireanna cogaidh gan bhunús, frith-Ghiúdachas amach is amach é” a dúirt Netanyahu, agus é ar buile ar fhíseán Béarla eisithe ag a oifig.

Chuir CII tús lena chuid fiosrúchán i 2015 sna ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

seachtainí tar éis d’Uachtarán na Palaistíne Mahmoud Abbas a lámh a chur leis an reacht maidir le CII a aithint. Grinnscrúdú ceart ar Údarás na Pailistíne agus Hamas agus ar Iosrael araon ba thoradh leis an reacht sin.

Cé gur ar ionsaí Iosrael ar Gaza i 2014 nuair a maraíodh os cionn 2000 Pailistíneach le 50 lá is mó is cúis leis, is dócha go ndéanfaidh an chúirt gníomhartha Iosrael ar an Bhruach Thiar agus Iorúsalem Thoir a fhiosrú.

Is dóichí fós go bhfiosrófar marú os cionn 2000 Palaistíneach, 40 leanbh ina measc, ag léirsiú taobh le teorainn Gaza i rith na tréimhse a dtugann na Pailistínigh Mórshiúil Fillte air. Rud a thosaigh i 2018 théadh léirsitheoirí Palaistíneacha ar mhórshiúil gach Aoine chuig an chloí slándála ar theorainn Gaza/Iosrael ag éileamh a gceart ar a bhfód dúchais a goideadh uathu i 1948 agus atá faoi sheilbh ó shin i leith. Ba mhinic a rinneadh ionsaí orthu le pilléir gás deora agus uirlisí eile a mharaigh agus a ghortaigh go leor léirseoirí nach raibh armtha.

Fosta déanann Bensouda amach go bhfuil bunús ann go ndearna údaráis Iosrael coireanna cogaidh trí shaoránaigh Iosraelacha a bhogadh isteach chuig na Bhruach Thiar le cur fúthu i lonnrachtaí. Dar leis na Cheathrú Coinbhinsiún Ginéava tá sé neamhdhleathach do chumhacht forghabhála cuid dá phobal féin a aistriú chuig na críocha atá á bhforghabháil aige.

Ciallaíonn seo go gcoisceann an dlí idirnáisiúnta daonna lonnaíochtaí a bhunú, mar is ionann seo agus aistriú pobail chuig críocha faoi fhorghabháil.

anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1 - 2021 - ISSUE NUMBER 1

39

Tá rialú seo na Cúirte ina bhuille mór do Rialtas Iosrael nach gcreideann go bhfuil dlínse ag an chúirt ar an Bhruach Thiar faoi Fhorghabháil nó in Gaza. Ó mhí Eanáir 2015, tráth ar fhógair CII don chéad uair go ndéanfar coireanna cogaidh a bhaineann le hIosrael a fhiosrú, tá feachtas bolscaireachta agus taidhleoireachta ar bun ag Rialtas Iosrael ag cur in a leith gur cuid de bhaicle frith-Iosraelach é agus go dtugann sé cead a gcinn do sceimhlitheoirí. Ó rinneadh an rialú i mí na Nollag 2019, áfach, tháinig borradh faoi fhrith-ionsaí Iosrael.

• Wahba Abdalmajid Sa bhliain 2020 chuir Rialtas Trump smachtbhannaí ar oifigigh de chuid CII, lena n-áirítear ceadúnas iontrála Bensouda a chealú, mar fhreagra ar iar-

Is dóichí fós go bhfiosrófar marú os cionn 200 Palaistíneach, 40 leanbh ina measc, ag léirsiú taobh le teorainn Gaza i rith na tréimhse a dtugann na Pailistínigh Mórshiúil Fillte air rachtaí na Cúirte saighdiúirí Meirceánacha a ionchúisiú as a gcuid gníomhartha san Afganastáin.

Ní aithníonn SAM dlínse na Cúirte ach oiread. Ag an am dúirt an Stát Rúnaí a bhí, Mike Pompeo, gur díoltas ab ea na smachtbhannaí ar fhiosrúcháin maidir le SAM, Iosrael agus a gcuid comhghuailleachtaí.

Idir an dá linn i Meirceá thug oifigeach de chuid na Roinne

40

• Mohammed Shtayyeh, Príomh-Aire Phalaistíneach

Stáit nach dóigh leo gur Stát dlisteanach na Palaistínigh agus dá réir seo nach bhfuil siad i dteideal ballraíocht a bhaint amach mar stát no páirt a ghlacadh mar stát in eagraíochtaí, comhlachtaí nó comhdhálacha idirnáisiúnta, lena n-áirítear Ábhar imní dúinn iarrachtaí CII a dlínse a fheidhmiú ar phearsanra de chuid Iosrael, a dúirt sé.

Mar gheall gur daoine seachas tíortha a ionchúisítear, seans go gciallaíonn an rialú go mbeidh Netanyahu agus ceannairí míleata sinsireacha freagrach as gníomhartha Arm Iosrael in Gaza agus sa Bhruach Thiar.

“Is maith an cinneadh é mar ciallaíonn sé nach ngéillfidh CII don imeaglú maidir le líomhaintí i leith tíortha atá faoi chosaint ag córad an Domhain Thiar” dar le Richard Falk, ollamh mór le rá leis an dlí idirnáisiúnta, agus é ag trácht ar Iosrael.

Ag leanúint leis dúirt Falk: “Níl amhras ar bith orm leis an oiread sin faisnéise agus finneithe incrediúnaithe go dtiocfaidh díotálacha, ciontuithe agus barántais ghabhála”.

Dar le fiosrúcháin tosaigh CII tá Netanyahu mar aon le hoifigigh, polaiteoirí agus ceannairí míleata Arm Iosrael ciontach a deir sé.

Aistrithe ag Séamus Mac Floinn

ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

TOM BARRY

GERRY KELLY REMEMBERS

DAYS IN

1972

Somebody sent me a grainy photo recently with the Irish Republican legend, Tom Barry, in it. Standing tall and erect in his seventies, he is surrounded by a group of young, mostly teenage, Irish Republican activists from Belfast.

The year was 1972 and the photo was taken in Cork at a Republican monument. It commemorated Volunteers, most of whom Tom Barry had fought alongside, who had died in the cause of Irish freedom.

The photo brought back memories of that most difficult and most active period of the conflict.

1972 is accepted as the worst year of the three decades of conflict in terms of casualties and fatalities across all sides. Internment without trial was introduced by the British in August 1971. The first arrest operation, which imprisoned hundreds of Nationalists, netted very few republican volunteers, who had been warned to stay out of their homes.

However, by the start of 1972, the arrests were having a bigger impact on IRA ranks. In Belfast in particular, the numbers of volunteers being interned meant that the average age of those continuing the struggle outside jail was under 20 years.

There were British troops on the streets, all day and

In Belfast in particular, the numbers of volunteers being interned meant that the average age of those continuing the struggle outside jail was under 20 years

anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1 - 2021 - ISSUE NUMBER 1

night. Shootings and gun battles were a daily occurrence in the war of attrition. I had been ‘on the run’, after escaping from Mountjoy Jail in Dublin in January, but, with internment, basically all activists were on the run.

BY GERRY KELLY It was in these circumstances that small numbers of activists Gerry Kelly is a Sinn Féin MLA were given £15 spending money, for North Belfast and the party’s and offered a weeklong break Assembly Spokesperson on Policing from the intense atmosphere of war-torn Belfast. I accepted immediately and travelled with two other friends, John and Davey, from the Ballymurphy area. We stopped off at Rathfarnham on the outskirts of Dublin to visit John’s family, who had left Belfast to get some respite from ‘The Troubles’.

The Fuscos were a large family of 13 children and were living in a not very big caravan in an otherwise empty field.

John’s younger brother, Angelo, showed us where the boys were sleeping, which was a makeshift hut about 4ft high.

We were greeted with hugs and handshakes by John’s parents. There was a huge pot of Bolognese cooking on a campfire and we were fed along with the rest of the clan.

I was shocked by their living conditions and handed Mrs Fusco a few pounds when leaving. She refused to take it, but I insisted that we wanted her to have it. John found out about this later and told me his Mammy was really grateful, but the problem wasn’t the lack of money but of a house to live in.

41

We travelled on to our pick-up point and met with others from Belfast. Fra McCann and Spotty from the Lower Falls were there, but I didn’t know them at the time. I did know Gregory Fox from the Iveagh area as we had been ‘paper-boys’ together years earlier and some of the other faces were familiar.

We three from the Murph stayed with a young farming couple, Phil and Tim, who treated us like kings. The food was great and Tim kindly, though perhaps foolhardy, took us out to hunt hares at night. Catching our dinner in the headlights was the easy part, actually hitting any of the unfortunates was a fiasco. We had fish for supper!

We were a few miles outside Middleton and were dropped in one evening for a walkabout so we made straight for a pub. After a few jars, we walked about the town and heard, what we thought was rebel music. In we went for the craic, only to find a dance floor full of couples waltzing to the music!

We were brought to Cork City for the day and met the other lads. We were asked did we want to meet Tom Barry. I had read his book ‘Guerrilla Days in Ireland’, and so jumped at the chance.

We were brought to a three-storey house on a main road and invited to wait in a large parlour, furnished in old-style dark furniture. We were accompanied by three or four men in their early thirties. After about 15 minutes, the door opened and a young man announced; ‘Let me introduce Commander Tom Barry’. At this point, the other three men jumped to ramrod attention as Tom Barry entered.

The Belfast contingent had been lounging about in chairs or on the arms of chairs. There was no etiquette in our minds, but the quick movement of the others prodded us into standing positions, though in a much less disciplined fashion.

Tom entered with a nod and a smile and went around the room shaking hands and welcoming all of us individually. Not taking his fame or status as a renowned guerrilla strategist and soldier for granted, he introduced himself quietly. Tom welcomed us as freedom fighters who were carrying on the struggle for an independent and United Ireland and joked that it was a younger

Tom welcomed us as freedom fighters who were carrying on the struggle for an independent and united Ireland

man’s war and he might be slightly too old to be a combatant.

He asked questions; where we were from, what moved us to join the fight, what was our strategy and tactics in urban struggle, and how we thought we were doing against the huge British military force ranged against us.

We tried our best to answer his questions, though we did not see ourselves as leaders in strategy or tactics.

However, he drew answers out of us quietly and with respect, despite our ages. He could not have been much older than us when he had led the Republican men and

• Arrests in 1972 were having a big impact on IRA ranks particularly in Belfast

42

ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

Tom Barry, Fra McCann, Angelo and John Fusco 1972 Belfast gun battles, internment The book ‘Guerrilla Days in Ireland’:

• The grainy photo with Tom Barry (standing) in his seventies, surrounded by Irish Republican activists from Belfast, in Cork at the Kilmichael Ambush Monument, 1972

• Tom Barry with Dáithí Ó Conaill pictured in the early 70s

women of Cork against a British Army hardened by battle in WW1. He dealt with his audience as equals and won respect even from those who knew little of his exploits.

Only when we had finished did he start talking of his own experiences of guerrilla warfare. He spoke with a quiet authority and without bravado or obvious ego.

He was there to learn as well as to teach, without being anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1 - 2021 - ISSUE NUMBER 1

obvious. He answered all our questions with honesty and treated all questions as sensible, despite some of them being naïve or silly. He discussed tactics without being overtly critical, but left some of us thinking about points that he had raised.

I felt privileged to have met him and felt stronger in my resolve to continue my activism. I picked up the same feelings from the conversations afterwards with others who were there. It was not that our meeting was a military or political lecture; it was more a friendly and encouraging conversation between two generations of people fighting for the same just cause.

We met again that night, at Tom’s invitation, for a drink in the side snug of a local bar. Belfastians being - well from Belfast - the slagging and craic was mighty, and Tom seemed to enjoy the session. He also bought a round or two of various beverages, which enamoured him to us even more.

Days later, we were back in the middle of it all with our batteries well charged after our Cork R and R. AS A POSTSCRIPT: The grainy photo mentioned earlier was sent to me on the basis that I was identified in it and I tweeted it out. While it was the same period in which I met Tom, a comrade of the time, Frank, set me straight that the person identified as me was actually called ‘Phil’. Frank assures me that Phil was much better looking than yours truly then, and more annoying, has weathered much better also! ♦ 43

is New Republic’ series The ‘Postcards from the eur signer, artist, entrepren a hat tip to British de Morris’s News from and Socialist William shed icles from 1890 publi Nowhere series of art the newspaper of the in the Commonweal, set in a distant future Socialist League and t, and romantic, utopia where Morris’s socialis has been secured.

ists are Willa Ní Our story’s protagon by Byrne accompanied Chuairteoir and Lucy d mes, Afric, Banba, an their four children Ja uity joy and endure the eq Alroy who together en ure’s New Republic. and exigency of the fut family, visit To check in with the

POSTCARDS FROM A

BY SINÉAD NÍ BHROIN

NEW REPUBLIC

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“He lies there all day dying of shame.

“These were the last weeks of Mark’s life. In a hospital. Alone. In the 1980s.

Mark was quiet, kind and he had Aids.

Like too many of our gay friends Mark hadn’t been well and then, he just disappeared. Eventually we found him in St James’s Hospital. Mark barely recognised us. A wonderful young nurse took my hand before I went into his room for the first time and said with big loose tears in her eyes, ‘he lies there all day dying of shame’.

“For a second or two I couldn’t breathe, and we just held each other’s hand. It was like we had been swallowed up by the state and society’s vast cruelty and were drowning in the hopelessness of it all. We had just three days with Mark, but we made sure he wasn’t alone for a single second. We kissed him, we held him and reminded him of the million and one reasons why we loved him, and then we buried him.”

Lucy looks up from the draft copy and exclaims with her hand on her heart, ‘oh my God Willa, that is just so raw. Where did you find it?’ Willa is the Editor of Dublin’s oldest magazine ‘The Voice’. This month’s edition includes a big feature on the history of HIV and Aids in Ireland. PrEP+ has been available through the Irish National Health System for decades now, and as a result there hasn’t been a single case of HIV for a long time.

Willa tells Lucy that her Deputy Editor Gina unearthed some incredible material from the ‘Irish Queer Archive’. Lucy looks at her quizzically, and says, ‘I’ve never heard of that archive?’ Willa nods her head expressively. ‘That’s the thing, neither had I’.

‘It’s like we’ve erased the stigma and trauma of the past. This magnificent archive has been housed in the National Library since 2008 and has a practically complete set of all LGBTQI+ titles published on the island 44

since 1974, and I only found out about it last month. Me, a gay woman, an activist and an editor of the capital city’s oldest frickin magazine!

‘I was in the National Library to get some background on the first coronavirus pandemic. You remember we said we’d do a feature on it ahead of the new 5-year vaccine roll out. I’d written the data reference down wrong and ended up pulling up the archive.

‘I called Gina straight away and we spent the next three days going through the archive’. Lucy nudges Willa with her elbow and teases, ‘So that’s where you disappeared to last month when you were down in Dublin.

Why didn’t you tell me about all this sooner?’

Willa moves her chair closer to Lucy. They’re in the study up in the attic getting a bit of peace and quiet while Lucy’s Mum Eileen gives the kids their dinner. Willa pulls out the next few layout drafts and says, ‘To be honest, I don’t know hun. Me and Gina were just so overwhelmed with what we had uncovered.

We take our rights for granted now that they’ve been in place for so long. Which on the one hand means the battle has been won and that’s

great, but on the other we’ve let the history of our struggle slip away’.

It’s moments like this that Lucy cannot imagine breathing a single breath without Willa by her side.

Willa gives herself a little shake and says, ‘So after that Gina and I decided that we needed to do the feature. The archive contains a magnificent oral history. Stories of isolation, stigma, such fear but also of community, protest, change and so much colour. There are also some great reminders of the community’s solidarity with others despite all the horrors they faced themselves throughout the 1980s.

There’s even a booklet from 1982 that has articles, transcripts of songs and photographs taken during a picket of Armagh gaol. How amazing is that!’

Lucy gets up to give Willa a kiss. By the sounds of things downstairs the kids are driving their poor Nana Eileen mad. ‘I better give Mam a hand’. As Lucy heads downstairs she hears Donna Summer’s ‘Last Dance’ start to drift gently out of the study. She smiles.

Perfect. ♦

ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

FULLERTON FAMILY’S 30 YEAR CAMPAIGN FOR JUSTICE

BY ROY GREENSLADE Justice, to paraphrase William Butler Yeats, comes dropping slow.

And especially slow for republicans. All too often, it does not come at all. That, sadly, has been the reality for the family of Eddie Fullerton, a Sinn Féin councillor in Donegal shot dead by a UDA gang 30 years ago.

Now, his family are marking the anniversary of his death by going on the offensive. Eddie’s 81-year-old widow has instigated a legal action against the British state to hold its officials and its police force to account for colluding in his murder.

It was in May 1991 when Eddie was gunned down inside his home. He was, by all accounts, a special man.

Born on a small farm in Buncrana in March 1935, he was the eldest of 20 children born to John and Mary Fullerton. He was unable to continue his schooling beyond the aged 12, despite winning plaudits from his teachers, because his father needed him to work on the farm.

Aged 18, he went to Scotland to find work, eventually moving south to Birmingham. There, he fell in love with Diana Peach, started a construction business anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1 - 2021 - ISSUE NUMBER 1

(employing many men from Donegal), raised a family of six, and became intensely interested in Irish politics.

By the time he returned to Buncrana in 1975, he was a committed republican. Four years later, Eddie became the first Sinn Féin member in the modern era to be elected to Donegal County Council, where he topped the poll. Two of his comrades, the party’s former Vice President, Pat Doherty, and Liam McElhinney, both described him as “a larger-than-life character.”

They spoke of his hard work on behalf of the people of Donegal and the efforts he made to promote the party. According to Gerry Adams, he was renowned for being the largest seller of An Phoblacht by touring Inishowen every weekend, visiting scores of pubs and standing outside masses in Buncrana, Clonmany, and Carndonagh. “He was a pioneer, a driving force,” said Doherty. “He was outspoken, dedicated, and a relentless campaigner with a talent for organisation.”

There is an enduring memorial to his most successful campaign over the course of 12 years; the construction of a dam in order to create a reservoir above Buncrana. Completed six years after his death, it is now known officially as the Eddie Fullerton Dam and immortalised in a poem by Martin McGuinness.

Eddie became the first Sinn Féin member in the modern era to be elected to Donegal County Council, where he topped the poll

45

• Liam McElhinney pictured in 1988 outside Green Street, Special ‘Criminal’ Court

• COLLUSION: The scene outside the Fullerton house after the UDA killing of the Sinn Féin Councillor

Eddie was imbued with a socialist spirit. “He stood up for the underdog,” says McElhinney. “He was tenacious, wanting people to have their due rights. He took up people’s concerns and pursued them with vigour. It didn’t matter whether they supported the party or not. If he felt they needed help, he got stuck in on their behalf.”

Both Doherty and McElhinney were with him the night he was murdered. After Eddie had spent the earlier part of the evening at the opening of a sewerage plant in Buncrana by the then Environment Minister, Pádraig Flynn, he joined Pat and Liam at an election meeting in Letterkenny.

It was late by the time it ended and Eddie dropped Liam at his home before driving to Buncrana where Diana was waiting up. She made him tea and sandwiches, and it was after 1am before they went to bed.

About an hour later, they were woken by a loud bang – the front door had been sledge-hammered open – and heard shouting. Eddie quickly slipped on his trousers and went to investigate. He was confronted on the landing by two armed men. Rising from her bed, Diana heard a volley of shots, and then two more. As the killers fled, she found his body slumped across the floor, blood streaming from his head. She knew immediately that her 56-year-old husband was dead.

The massive turn-out at his funeral spoke volumes about his popularity and the grief of the community he served. but the meticulously planned assassination of Eddie – which was claimed by the UFF, a cover name employed by the UDA – also spoke volumes about the nature of the UDA’s activities. It was blindingly obvious that the attack could not have happened without British and Irish security force assistance.

The questions thrown up by the attack all pointed to collusion.

How did they know where Eddie, who had received a loyalist death threat the year before, lived? Who provided them with the intelligence? What gave the gang the confidence to carry out an attack so far from the Border? How could they be sure of making their escape?

What role was played by the Garda Síochána?

At the time, policing on the Border was well established with superintendents on each side meeting regularly to review intelligence.

It was heavily fortified. No car could cross to and from the Six Coun46

• Martin McGuinness, Pat Doherty, Lucilita Breathnach, Martin Ferris and Rita O'Hare at the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation In 1994

ties without going through a checkpoint staffed by either the British Army or RUC officers. Yet, there is clear evidence that the killers were able to pass into Donegal from Derry and back again undeterred.

Once they reached Buncrana, their first act was to take a local family hostage. They must have had local knowledge to be directed to that house, from which they took the family’s car and a sledge hammer.

As for their escape, a witness approached the RUC the day after the murder to say he had seen three men wearing army fatigue-style clothing on the beach at Culmore Point. It was 2.30am, about half an hour after the shooting. He saw a Ford Sierra arrive, pick up the men and drive towards the Culmore checkpoint just two miles away. As a TV cameraman who regularly covered the Troubles, he recognised it as an unmarked RUC car. Significantly, the gang’s burnedout getaway car was found beside the beach the following day.

The witness covered the aftermath of the attack on Eddie and, on returning home, he told some RUC men what he had seen. Later, he was visited by a plainclothes officer who insisted he must speak to an RUC superintendent waiting in a car outside. When he got it in, he found there was a Garda Síochána superintendent inside as well.

Both men were concerned to know whether he could identify the men he saw. He noted that the officers were tense until he said he couldn’t do so. Then, they relaxed. No notes were taken during this most unorthodox of interviews. The witness was told he would be

For 30 years, our family has suffered blatant injustice. The police authorities and their agents on both sides of the border have consistently demonstrated a gross dereliction of duty and an abuse of power

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• The funeral of Eddie Fullerton

• Fullerton Family - Albert (son), Dinah (wife), Amanda (daughter) and Eddie Jnr (son) outside Leinster House, carrying a 1984 photo of Eddie leaving Leinster House after a Labour Minister objected to his presence on a council delegation from Donegal

contacted, but heard nothing. He was never contacted by either RUC or Gardaí to make a statement.

His sensational evidence finally came to light in 2003 after he was approached by one of Eddie’s sons, Albert. To date, that witness, in spite of attempts by both police forces to discredit him, has provided some nine formal statements to a range of investigators, all of which have been consistent. The Police Ombudsman in the North regarded him to be “a significant witness who had witnessed an indictable and triable offence”. The ombudsman also identified an RUC officer who remembered the witness coming forward on the day of the murder to inform senior RUC officers what he had seen the previous night.

Two other key pieces of evidence emerged much sooner after Eddie’s murder. A month later, a British TV current affairs programme, ‘World In Action’, revealed that an RUC file containing Eddie’s photograph and his details had been found in the possession of the UDA in Derry. In the same file were the details of another Sinn Féin councillor, John Davey, who had been shot dead in February 1989. Then, in April 1993, the weapon used to murder Eddie was recovered following the killing of four men at Castlerock, north Derry, the month before.

By normal standards, these revelations should have been more than enough to warrant an official inquiry. In its absence, Eddie’s family, led 48

• Sinn Féin councillor, John Davey, was shot dead in February 1989

by Albert, formed the Eddie Fullerton Justice Committee in 2004 in order to unveil the truth about the assassination, collusion and cover-up.

(Tragically, Albert was killed in a road accident in 2006).

Meanwhile, against the background of links between Eddie’s killing and that of other victims of loyalist attacks in the 1988-94 period, the Police Ombudsman in the North has conducted an investigation, known as Operation Greenwich. Its findings are expected to be released later this year.

Whatever the outcome, the family are determined to pursue legal action against the British state, on the grounds that it is ultimately responsible for Eddie’s murder, whether by commission or neglect.

Eddie’s daughter, Amanda, said: “For 30 years, our family has suffered blatant injustice. The police authorities and their agents on both sides of the Border have consistently demonstrated a gross dereliction of duty and an abuse of power, as is evidenced by the flawed investigation that followed my father’s murder.

“Those government officials who chose to turn a blind eye to this glaring injustice are also to blame. My father was not just a beloved family man, he was also loved by the community he represented. We all deserve to know the truth about the conspiracy to have this ‘beautiful man of the people’ assassinated.” ♦ Roy Greenslade is Emeritus Professor of Journalism at City University London ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

developers’ folly or 1916 Cultural Quarter?

 Developer's folly - the brick arch proposed by Hammerson which would cut the historic 1916 terrace in two  The historic terrace as it should be, in the plan by 1916 relatives and campaigners

BY MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA ““What’s happening with Moore Street?” is a question often asked and not surprisingly as years pass and this historic area of Dublin City Centre continues to decline, seemingly stuck fast in a planning and political stalemate.

Many hoped that the centenary of the 1916 Rising might see the area rise phoenix-like from the ashes of neglect and decay, but it was not to be. In fact, it was pointed out in 2016 that this 1916 battlefield site perfectly summed up how the ideals of the men and women of Easter Week had been betrayed by corporate interests in league with conservative politicians. Leading Moore Street campaigner James Connolly Heron, great grandson of James Connolly, put it best when he said that the 1916 generation had sacrificed their lives for their country while those who crashed the economy and imposed austerity had sacrificed their country for their lifestyles.

• Number 10 Moore Street where the GPO garrison broke through the gable wall to enter the terrace 10-25

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It is down to campaigners like James Connolly Heron and many others that the entire Moore Street 1916 battlefield site was not demolished and replaced with a Celtic Tiger high rise ‘shopping mall’ monstrosity.

Such was the plan of property development company Chartered Land before it went bust in the economic collapse and ended up in NAMA. With the site in the hands of this state body, there was a perfect opportunity for a new start. Instead, in a deal that once again epitomised how corporate greed was assisted by the state, NAMA facilitated the sale of the site to multinational British-based property development company Hammerson, in a deal known as Project Jewel. The main element of this deal was the sale of Dundrum Shopping Centre, with the ‘addon’ of the ‘Dublin Central’ site that includes Moore Street.

Hammerson itself is in financial difficulty, 49

 What remains of the 'white house', seen here riddled with bullets in 1916, would be replaced by Hammerson's glass box  The Moore Street Preservation Trust (1916 relatives and campaigners) plan would restore the original lane that joined to Henry Street and respect the ‘white house’ given that its business is shopping centres and there was a decline in on-site (as against on-line) retail sales setting in well before the Covid-19 pandemic. So, there is a strong and well-founded suspicion that Hammerson’s plan for the area is designed to increase the monetary value of the site by acquiring fresh planning permission before ‘flipping’ it, that is, selling it on at a profit to another property company.

The site has been the victim of classic property speculation where developers make profits without actually developing anything but creating planning paralysis and urban decay, even on sites as historic and unique as this.

Appeals have been made to successive Government Ministers to intervene, but their activity has been minimal. The most significant intervention was when the public outcry over the demolition threat led to the Ministerial designation of Numbers 14-17 Moore Street as a protected national monument. This is the heart of the site, as it was in Number 16 that the leaders of the Rising, having evacuated the GPO, held their final meeting around the bed of the wounded James Connolly.

However, the entire terrace, Numbers 10 to 25, was occupied by the former GPO garrison and, under the latest Hammerson plan, even this terrace will not be left intact. A bizarre high brick arch would cut it in two, to facilitate a walk-through from O’Connell Street. And the wider battlefield site would be radically changed with its original layout and historic fabric removed. The ‘lanes of history’, as they have been described, would be gone.

There is an alternative, a real plan for the preservation of the unique historic fabric and heritage of the site and its rejuvenation, forming a 1916 cultural quarter. Such a plan would also revive and enhance the long street-trading and small shop trading tradition of Moore Street, familiar to generations of Dubliners and visitors.

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• Map reproduced from ‘Cath Shráid Uí Mhordha/The Battle of Moore Street’ by Ray Bateson published by 'Kilmainham Tales'

Moore Street campaigners and 1916 relatives have got together in the Moore Street Preservation Trust and commissioned a plan for how the area could and should be sen-

sitively developed as a place where history can be cherished and where people can live, trade, and enjoy leisure and cultural activities at the heart of the city centre.

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The terrace and the lanes of history would be preserved and developed so that, in a revived quarter of the city, the story of the 1916 Rising can be told in a place that is neither frozen in time nor unrecognizable from the past, but vibrant with city life and on a human scale, respecting its unique heritage.

The argument will be made that Hammerson own most of the site, so what can be done? In fact, the Hammerson plan cannot proceed without ministerial consent because of the National Monument status.

Other parts of the site are publicly owned, including Numbers 24 and 25 Moore Street which is a Dublin City Council cleansing depot, and the consent of City Councillors is required if they are to be sold.

The big question is does Hammerson really intend to proceed if they acquire new planning permission? Have they the finances to do so? Or is this yet another phase of speculation while the area is allowed to decline further?

Central Government, Dublin City Council, the National Museum, the traders who work on the street and the Irish people, these are the real stakeholders in this potentially revived historic quarter of our capital, not the shareholders of a multinational property company.

The Battle of Moore Street was fought over a couple of days in 1916. The modern Battle of Moore Street has been fought over many years and it is far from finished. ♦ Mícheál Mac Donncha is a Sinn Féin Councillor for Dublin City

• At Spraoi ar an Sráid, the Moore Street Festival, organised in 2018 by Ardmhéara Mícheál Mac Donncha with (centre) Dublin Central Sinn Féin Councillor Janice Boylan

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The road to the New Ireland

BY EMMA McARDLE The connection between the appalling treatment of women and children in the 26 Counties over the past century by the Church and the State and the sectarianism of the Six-County State, bloodily birthed 100 years ago, may seem tenuous or contrived.

However, they are intimately linked - the Mother and Baby Homes, institutional abuse, industrial schools, and the cervical check cover up in the 26 Counties and the apartheid statelet in the North both prospered grotesquely as the result of the conservative, patriarchal hierarchies imposed after the failure of the 1916 revolution and the subsequent Partition of Ireland.

The story of the past 100 years is inglorious for both jurisdictions. The supremacism of the ruling elite of a century ago can be traced through to the governing enablers of oppression in the present day.

Today, the antipathy towards the working class can be seen in the Dublin government’s decision not to pay student nurses; not to reform housing, instead prioritising developers and multinationals; hollowing out communities with cuts to essential supports and frontline services; and the creation and support of a private healthcare industry, denying access to health to those who cannot pay.

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• Charlie Flanagan

Anyone working in a TD’s constituency office could tell of a thousand more affronts to citizens. It is far from a level playing field and the deck is stacked against many before they are even born.

The Dublin government is literally ashamed of the independence struggle.

What proud nation would purport to commemorate the army of its oppressor, as former Fine Gael Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan did in 2020? What self-respecting country would dream of bulldozing the last remaining physical links to the leaders of 1916, but the home of The O’Rahilly is gone and, if the government has its way, Moore Street will go too. This must be resisted.

The North has gone through something of a metamorphosis. The hegemony of political Unionism is gone, but the Statelet remains, as does the elitist mindset of some with a superiority complex, like the Unionist councillors of Causeway Coast and Glens who recently staged the zoom-era equivalent of a ‘walk out’ when they turned their cameras off during a Conradh na Gaeilge presentation.

Petty though this behaviour undoubtedly is, it has serious consequences; it displays the type of intolerance that is still evident in the North, despite the existence of the power sharing government and the endorsement of the Good Friday Agreement almost 23 years ago.

Brexit has highlighted the practical outworking of the North’s status as a British jurisdiction; particularly for citizens in the 26 Counties who, unsurprisingly given the lack of political leadership, have long considered the injustices of the North as none of their business. Brexit demonstrates that one part of this country being under British rule is negative for the entire island economy.

Above all else, Brexit has laid bare the real consequences that being British subjects has for citizens of the North. The sheer unfairness of the fact that the north, which voted to remain, is now out of the EU is not lost on even the most politically disinterested.

Even though the North has undergone reform since 1998, and some excellent measures have been taken, truly meaningful change is still a work in progress.

Our goal of making the North the best that it can be in the current political circumstances does not affect our resolve to full Irish independence from British rule.

Even the health service – the one positive that people associate with the British connection – has been stripped out by the Tory government. Research published by the ESRI in January found that healthcare outcomes from the NHS in the North and the HSE were of a comparable standard and that the performance of the NHS in the North lies well below that of England, Scotland, and Wales.

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a colossal

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• Institutional abuse and cover ups are the result of the conservative and patriarchal hierarchies

impact, not only on people’s lives and livelihoods, but also on their intrinsic values. The effects of the pandemic and the necessary, but long and lonely, restrictions have led to a reassessment of the type of society we want to live in.

The reunification of Ireland is the necessary first step to building a better nation.

We cannot build an Ireland of Equals with one hand tied behind our back, without political autonomy and self-governance for the North.

The realisation of the New Ireland in which people have access to housing, healthcare, social protection, education, which is supportive of business and the rural economy and which engages positively on the world stage, is not possible until we can establish a national democracy.

So, in this phase of our struggle, we need to invest all of our energies and orientate the entire political strength which our party com-

mands towards building a mass movement for the Referendum on Irish Unity.

We need to welcome people from diverse backgrounds who are also making the call for the referendum. At times, these will be our political opponents, that does not matter, this debate is about the future of our nation. It does not belong to ourselves alone.

Crucially, we need to listen to the growing number of people in the North who are disillusioned with traditional Unionist political parties and who are open to engaging on the constitutional arrangement on the island.

Certainly, in terms of the economy and on social issues political Unionism remains unprogressive and, on many issues, the Unionist parties lag way behind those they claim to represent.

On the issue of identity, republicans need to remain true to our egalitarian codes.

On the 100th anniversary of Partition, we need to state firmly - No one in the Unionist or

post-Unionist community in the north today bears responsibility for the actions of some in 1921.

And for those in the North who wish to celebrate the creation of Northern Ireland, we should be respectful of their right to cultural expression.

Irish Unity is not a threat to identity and can never dilute or diminish identity or kinship. The new and agreed Ireland will be the sum of all of its parts.

As we face the prospect of finally emerging from the pandemic restrictions of the past year, now is the time to focus activity at all levels of the party on the Uniting Ireland campaign.

Now is the time to secure and win the referendum on Irish Unity and plan for the New Ireland which has equality and diversity at its core.

That is both the challenge and the prize for all who support democracy in Ireland. ♦ Emma McArdle is Policy and Campaigns Manager on Sinn Féin’s Uniting Ireland Project

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BENEATH A REBEL FLAG IN THE HEART OF THE EMPIRE On 25 October 2020, one hundred years after his death, a small gathering of London-based Irish republicans assembled outside Brixton Prison to remember, the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney.

The gathering was compliant with the latest Covid-19 guidelines. Masks were worn.

Social distance was kept. Temperatures were recorded and contact details collected. A piper played, a wreath was laid, and a few words were said. It was simple, dignified, and concluded within a half-hour.

In any event, it was always going to be the case that MacSwiney would be remembered - in one form or another – on that day in London. The city where his life came to an early end. The city that was home to many an exiled fellow Irish citizen down through the decades following his death.

Among those in attendance was Terry Brugha, Terence MacSwiney’s grandson, who was accompanied by his two sons Rossa and Cathal, as well as Nigel Blakelock, the grandson of Terence’s wife Muriel MacSwiney from her second partner, and Ty Galvin, the great-nephew of the cork republican Tadhg Barry.

As the well-known 'Irish Post' journalist, Frank Dolan, wrote in 1986: “The reason why MacSwiney’s name and memory is of special significance in London is that he is the only major figure in modern Irish history to have died in London.”

Outside of Cork, the London-Irish are the probably the most notable community to have adopted the legacy of MacSwiney. A communal memory of his death - and famous funeral procession through the streets of London - has long been held onto dearly.

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Terence MacSwiney, the London-Irish, and the Politics of Commemoration

BY JOE DWYER

It is arguable that MacSwiney’s story, and in particular its end, resonates with the exile experience. Dying as he did, far removed the land he loved, in a foreign land is a familiar motif of the diaspora tale. The ballad ‘Shall My Soul Pass Through Old Ireland’, written in MacSwiney’s memory, encapsulates the final wish of many of the ‘forgotten Irish’ who ended their time in any number of other English cities.

In the days that followed his death on hunger strike, MacSwiney’s close friend and colleague, Professor Daniel Corkery, wrote to Mary MacSwiney, reflecting: “What you say of his longing to be in Ireland only shows how much greater his sacrifice was than the average mind would or could conceive.”

THE HUNGER-STRIKE MacSwiney was arrested on 12 August 1920 in Cork City Hall. At the time of his arrest, he was a member of Dáil Éireann, Commandant of Cork No. 1 Brigade IRA, Lord Mayor of Cork, and President of the local branches of the Gaelic League and Sinn Féin.

The Lord Mayor immediately commenced a hunger-strike in solidarity with eleven hunger-striking republican prisoners in Cork Gaol.

On 16 August, MacSwiney was tried for possession of seditious documents by a court-martial and sentenced to two years imprisonment. He immediately was taken by boat from Cork to Pembroke, Wales and, from there, was transferred to Brixton Prison.

Besides his high-profile status as both a Lord Mayor and an abstentionist MP, MacSwiney’s presence in London was a key driver for the worldwide attention that his case received. It was not long before his prison protest became

something of an international cause célèbre.

Daily press conferences on MacSwiney’s condition were held in the Sinn Féin London Office at No. 3 Adam Street. Art O’Brien, the Envoy of the Irish Republic to London, was fluent in both French and Spanish and was thus able to keep international journalists fully abreast on the progress of MacSwiney’s strike. Much to the annoyance of the British Foreign Office.

The principal pro-Irish independence organisation in Britain at the time, the Irish Self-Determination League (ISDL), organised daily prayer vigils outside Brixton Prison for the Lord Mayor’s release. The attendance steadily grew as the strike continued.

On 25 August, the 13th day of the hunger-strike, MacSwiney’s health rapidly declined and a rumour spread that he was very near death. A ‘Labour Rally’ was quickly organised, outside the Prison, by George Lansbury, editor of the pro-labour newspaper the Daily Herald. From a small-platform down a side street, speakers publicly lambasted the British Government’s treatment of MacSwiney to reported cries of ‘Up Sinn Féin’ and ‘Up the Rebels’ from the crowd. The demonstration soon turned into a riot as a squadron of mounted police riders were dispatched to prevent the crowd turning the rally into a formal procession, especially with their many pro-Sinn Féin banners in tow.

With police batons drawn, it was not long before stones and loose bricks travelled through the air. Neighbouring windows were shattered and garden railings torn out of the ground.

In the melee, one police officer was knocked down by a blow to the skull, while another was reportedly “unhorsed”. Once reinforcements arrived on the scene, the crowd was soon divid-

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• The body of Terence MacSwiney in Brixton Prison. The death of Terence MacSwiney made headlines across the world

ed into small groups and ushered into nearby side-streets. Despite the injuries and damage, no arrests followed.

Gatherings, rallies, and protests in support of the imprisoned Corkman continued throughout September and October. On 10 October, day 59 of his strike, a widely-attended ‘Hands-off Ireland!’ protest was held in Trafalgar Square.

The following day, a man entered St Paul’s Cathedral and struck William Holman Hunt’s painting ‘The Light of the World’ which hung within. When the police later questioned the vandal, he asserted that he had felt compelled to attack the painting in support of MacSwiney as it portrayed salvation coming to rescue a sinful world. The plight of MacSwiney showed that such salvation was not always as forthcoming as it needed to be.

As the days passed, the anger and outpouring of emotion for the Lord Mayor across London was palpable. By the third week of October, MacSwiney’s condition deteriorated severely.

By now, there were rumours that the authorities were about to force-feed him or that he had come off his strike early or that the British were planning to quickly dispose of his body if he succumbed. Only the daily bulletins of the ISDL provided an accurate account of what was taking place behind the walls of Brixton Prison.

As the week progressed, MacSwiney went in and out of a deep sleep. There were, however, some brief intervals of lucidity. On 21 October, Terence awoke and asked his sister Annie, who was at his bedside, where he was and why he was there. She answered that he was in Brixton Prison and that he was there “for the Republic.” His face lit up on hearing the news and he replied: “So it is established?” She answered,

“Yes.” Following a pause, he turned and said: “Oh, we did grand marching in the night.”

In the early hours of 25 October 1920, having fallen into a comatose state, Terence MacSwiney died after 74 days on hunger-strike.

The Daily Herald recorded, “He has won immortality. His name will remain an inspiration to all that come after him.” The same article branded the British Government “liars” and “brutes” and predicted that “the children’s children will remember them with horror”.

The Irish republican, Seán McGrath, later remarked that MacSwiney’s death was the first time he had seen Michael Collins “really upset” and that Collins had immediately “talked then about shooting in England.” It was no coincidence that the hunger-strike protest had resulted in the Prime Minister, Lloyd George, being issued with a personal bodyguard for the first time. As he confided to his wife, “[the] police are convinced that if he dies the Irish will try to kill me.”

THE ‘FUNERAL’

• Art O’Brien

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Art O’Brien and the leadership of the ISDL were fully aware of the significant impact that a carefully managed and choreographed funeral procession could have. The sight of a republican funeral in the belly of the beast itself – London – offered additional prospect and potential for international propaganda.

When MacSwiney’s body was eventually released, on the evening of 27 October, it was taken to St George’s Cathedral in Southwark.

For four hours, until the cathedral doors closed at eleven, hundreds of mourners filed past the Lord Mayor’s open casket.

When the doors re-opened, at seven the next morning, the throng continued to pass by.

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• Huge crowds attended the funeral procession through London

In total, an estimated 30,000 people saw the Lord Mayor lying-in-state in London. A guard of honour around his coffin was maintained throughout the day and night, maned by relays of Irish Volunteers from Cork, Dublin, and London Battalions.

At around ten o’clock, the Requiem Mass commenced. Admittance was ticket only and the police outside had to link arms to hold back the immense crowd. In attendance were dignitaries from Dáil Éireann, Cork Corporation, Dublin Corporation, the British Trades Union Congress, the British Labour Party, and representatives of nearly every Irish association and organisation across Britain. The Mayors of Fulham, Battersea, Camberwell, Southwark, and Stepney were also present. The Mayor of Stepney was none other than future British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, who was dressed in his British Army Major uniform. As the Irish republican and international statesman Seán MacBride later lamented, “I’m only sorry that the impression didn’t alter his politics when it came to dealing with Ireland later on.”

The size and stature of the Requiem Mass in St George’s was so impressive that newspapers could only draw a comparison to the funeral of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, eight years prior in 1912.

Following the Mass, the funeral cavalcade set off for Euston Station. Once underway, the procession stretched for more than a mile. ‘The Daily Herald’ described the scene accordingly: The vast throng of marchers, Irish residents in England, first women of Cumann na mBan, of all classes, but one spirit… Af56

ter them were members, hundreds after hundreds, of the Irish Self-Determination League. Each of the 27 London branches had their banner… Thousands of ordinary men and women, most of them very poor…

And the English crowd that poured out of the sordid streets of South London were quiet too. Sight-seeing perhaps, but not in a sight-seeing mood, moved by death, moved by heroism, and moved by the spectacle of those many marches. And nowhere a sneer or a laugh; for these were the Commons of England and not the House of Commons.

Once the procession reached Blackfriars Bridge, spectators were packed five rows deep on either side. Many had been waiting for an hour just to see the march pass by. Policemen stewarding the crowds along the route wore black gloves as a sign of respect and some were even reported to have formally saluted the cortège as it passed.

Foreign correspondents would later report amazement that the flag and uniform of a revolutionary army at war with Britain openly paraded through the city centre of London. As Gladys Ní Eidhin of the London branch of the Gaelic League later wrote, “it was strange to feel that we were following our dead through the enemy city.” One London paper later summarised the spectacle as “a funeral under a Rebel flag in the heart of the Empire.”

THE LEGACY The memory of MacSwiney would become an enduring rallying cry for republicans in London. On 23 October 1921, as an Anglo-Irish

Treaty was being negotiated down the road in Downing Street, 20,000 rallied in Trafalgar Square to recall how, as Art O’Brien articulated, “in the history of the world there was no human sacrifice equal to that made by him for his country.”

On the second anniversary in 1922, having taken the anti-Treaty side of the split, O’Brien organised a commemoration in the Essex Hall attended by around 1,000 people. Mary MacSwiney later wrote to express her thanks for O’Brien’s efforts and for standing by the Republic. She noted the irony that, while Terence was being remembered and honoured in the city that murdered him, his name was not even mentioned in Cork, due to the ongoing Civil War. The anniversary of Terence MacSwiney remained an annual mainstay in the republican calendar for the Irish in London over subsequent decades.

Its significance was perhaps most keenly felt in 1970 on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary. For the first time since the 1920s, Brixton Prison was once again home to a comparatively high number of Irishmen held for ‘political offences’. Their numbers within were such that an anniversary mass was observed inside the Prison on 25 October 1970 in his honour. As Ruán O’Donnell notes, “the political and secular traditions of republicanism transcended denominational affiliations on such occasions.”

Four years later, MacSwiney’s memory was again invoked when London once again witnessed a funeral procession for an IRA hunger striker.

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• Professor Terry S Brugha - grandson of Terence MacSwiney, speaking outside Brixton Prison in October 2020

On 2 June 1974, the Mayo-born IRA Volunteer, Michael Gaughan, who had lived in England since 1966, died in Parkhurst Prison after 64 days of a hunger-strike protesting for political status. The Gaughan family would later maintain that Michael’s lung had been punctured during the force-feeding process and that this was the ultimate cause of his death.

Almost immediately, the National Graves Association sent across the very tricolour that had shrouded Terence MacSwiney’s coffin, fifty-four years previously, to be placed over the coffin of Gaughan. The same flag was also later used to cover the coffin of Volunteer James McDade, who died in a premature explosion in Coventry on 14 November 1974.

Gaughan’s funeral procession may not have reached the same scale as MacSwiney’s, but it is was nonetheless a similar show of strength and a propaganda coup for republicans in London. An estimated number of 3,000 accompanied the coffin on its two hour journey from Cricklewood to Kilburn and finally into the Sacred Heart Church on the Quex Road. The procession was watched by the many thousands who lined the Kilburn High Road. As the 'Times' later reported, Michael Gaughan’s funeral procession through Kilburn amounted to “an impressive display of IRA sympathy.”

As the conflict in the North waged on, and as the IRA’s bombing campaign was increasingly brought to Britain itself, large overtly republican rallies and gatherings became harder to sustain and organise. From 1972 onwards, any and all ‘Irish demonstrations’ were banned from taking

place in Trafalgar Square. The ban that was only lifted in 2001, when the Wolfe Tone Society held a commemoration to remember 30 years since the 1981 H-Block Hunger-strike.

THE PRESENT While it was small in number, and unavoidably so due to current health guidance, the gathering on 25 October 2020 outside Brixton Prison stood in this noble tradition of London-Irish republicanism. It was probably the first such occasion where people were actively discouraged from turning out and asked to stay at home. It was certainly not the largescale commemoration that many London-based activists had envisioned when planning first began.

However, despite the obstacles and challenges, Terence MacSwiney was remembered fittingly and appropriately – and in a safe manner – outside Brixton Prison on the centenary of his death.

MacSwiney is perhaps best remembered for his observation that: “It is not those who can inflict the most but those who can endure the most who will conquer.” It is certainly the case that the present Covid-19 pandemic can be considered a time of particular endurance.

However, if republicans hold true to MacSwiney’s teachings and example, this challenging period can be endured and we can even look forward, in confidence, to a time that it will be conquered. ♦

• Michael Gaughan’s funeral in London

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Joe Dwyer is the Sinn Féin Political Organiser for Britain 57

STOLEN GOODS will always be

STOLEN GOODS M

BY FINTAN WARFIELD

oai are the monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island. Weighing four tonnes, one of these monumental statues has stood inside the door of the British Museum for 150 years.

The Elgin Marbles and the Benin Bronzes are other wellknown artefacts that share a common thread; local people want them returned and campaigners are calling for their repatriation.

The National Museum of Ireland, the Hunt Museum in Limerick, and, possibly, the Ulster Museum all hold material looted during the destruction of Benin City, Nigeria (then the Kingdom of Benin) by British forces in 1897, according to Dan Hicks, Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at the University of Oxford.

Museums across France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany – the former imperial capitals – are packed with collections, objects, and artefacts that have imperialist and colonial origins.

These ethnographic collections consist of items of human activity; including, but not limited to, art and sculpture, weapons, clothing, jewellery, tools, and decorations.

The National Museum of Ireland is home to around 11,000 objects and artefacts that form part of a nonEuropean ethnographic collection acquired between 1760 and 1914. This collection contains concrete examples of people’s culture from the Pacific, Asia, Africa, and the Americas and has been described by Dr William Hart of Ulster University as one of the finest of its kind in the world.

The National Museum of Ireland currently holds its non-European ethnographic collection in storage at Collins Barracks, Dublin, while ethnographic material from Ireland is displayed at the National Museum’s Folk and

Country Life site in Turlough Park, County Mayo.

Why does the National Museum of Ireland hold objects from around the world?

The National Museum of Ireland holds items that it would never collect today. This is because its collection is built on the collections of other institutions. The Museum of Science and Art, Dublin was established by an Act of Parliament in 1877. This Act transferred the collections and buildings of the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) into state ownership. Trinity College Dublin and the Royal Irish Academy later transferred much of their collections to the Museum of Science and Art in 1890 and 1894 respectively. After Partition, the Museum of Science and Art, Dublin was renamed and became the National Museum of Ireland.

Rachel Hand, writing in the extremely informative ‘Exhibit Ireland: Ethnographic Collections in Ireland’, explains that “the majority of these collections were acquired during the heyday of the British Empire, between 1860 and 1914.”

Hand continues, “the varied background to the acquisition of this material by individuals, travellers and servicemen meant that its collection was rarely systematic” and this “is the case in most museums with historic collections”.

“Collected by military men and their families, colonial officials and explorers, the ethnographic material of these early museums, including the Royal Dublin Society and Trinity College Dublin, is typical of the common interest in artificial curiosities among the educated upper classes – weapons, tools, and clothing of peoples in far-flung exotic lands.”

O

• The Benin Bronzes 58

ther objects in the non-European ethnographic collection held by the National Museum of Ireland include a great deal of material from southern Africa, reflecting the British colonial presence there, and includes objects from the Zulu Wars.

There are also objects from the Maori Wars. Some of the material also came from surveys of the Pacific by the HMS Herald in the 1850s, which were originally acquired by the Royal Dublin Society. The National Museum of Ireland website also documents a Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) whaling hat, “probably brought back from Captain Cook’s third voyage”.

While some items in the collection are self-described as loot or taken during battles as trophies of war, not all of the artefacts were taken by force and many would have been souvenirs from people’s travels. In a colonial ISSUE NUMBER 1 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1  anphoblacht

• The statues carved by the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island, one has stood inside the door of the British Museum for 150 years; (below) Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) Whaling Hat

context, however, exactly how equal these exchanges and transactions would have been is questionable.

The repatriation of cultural objects is an enduring conversation in the museum sector and one which finds voice in wider society too. Recently, the Black Lives Matter movement and anti-racist protests have shone a light on the issue by placing a demand on museums around the world to return plundered goods to their places of origin.

In Paris last June, a Congolese artist, Mwazulu Diyabanza seized a Bari funeral pole from Musée du Quai Branly–Jacques Chirac.

He and other fellow activists have been fined and, on occasion, imprisoned for various protests in European museums.

Campaigners around the world have long been concerned about what they describe as delay tactics or pretend transparency from the big European museums who profit from artefacts that were taken from the global south.

I

n Ireland, recent minutes from a National Museum of Ireland board meeting show that they are developing a vision and an implementation plan that “examines, understands, engages and disseminates the provenance of the Museum’s collection and its colonial legacy.”

I spoke in the Seanad recently about the need for Government to develop a policy that would aid the work of any institution that holds objects with imperialist origins and to provide the necessary funding to support the digitisation and display of such objects in order to begin anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1 - 2021 - ISSUE NUMBER 1

a broader national conversation about the repatriation of identifiably stolen objects.

During my Seanad debate with Green Party Minister Malcolm Noonan, I also noted that the British Library holds the largest collection of manuscripts containing Irish language material outside of Ireland. With over 200 items, this collection contains manuscripts dating from the 12th - 19th Centuries covering areas such as medicine, religion, law, grammar, history, and poetry and prose literature.

Many Irish manuscripts of vital importance are housed in British Libraries and Universities. They have been looked after well and they have also been digitised. However, many of these manuscripts ended up in British institutions due to landowners bequeathing them. The Book of Lismore was taken in a raid on Kilbrittain Castle in the 17th Century and was recently donated to the Boole Library at UCC by the Earl of Devon.

A key question is whether the optimum cultural value is derived from such manuscripts sitting in British libraries rather than in centres of learning here in Ireland, in close proximity to the key places referenced in the texts themselves.

The Government in Dublin need to develop a policy on the repatriation of cultural objects, including the return of certain objects to Ireland. This policy would aim to aid the restitution work of any institution that holds objects with imperialist or colonial origins. The necessary funding should also be made available to allow this work to take place in a timely manner.

Heritage artefacts from the Pacific, Asia, Africa, and the Americas that sit in storage in Ireland should be fully catalogued and placed on public display so as to enable a greater public awareness and conversation. Following this, objects that were identifiably taken without consent should be returned, provided it is safe to do so.

Against a backdrop of racial justice activism and a spotlight on the scourge of racism in our world, now is the time to address the colonial legacy of our museum collections.

Repatriation is a complex issue, but I approach it certain of one thing; stolen goods will always be stolen goods.

Repatriation is an issue that is not going to go away. ♦ Fintan Warfield is a Sinn Féin Senator 59

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