An Phoblacht, Issue 3 - 2019 edition

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ISSUE NUMBER 3 – 2019 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 3

1969

Remembering ‘Our vision is Kevin greater’ MCKenna Mary Lou McDonald

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50 years on

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ANOTHER EUROPE IS POSSIBLE |TREO EILE DON EORAIP FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN UNITED LEFT/NORDIC GREEN LEFT (GUE/NGL)

GUE/NGL 10 key demands for new EU top-job holders Sinn Féin’s EU team is back at work post election headed by MEPs Matt Carthy and Martina Anderson, while the GUE/NGL group of which they are members has signposted 10 demands for the new presidents of the EU Commission and Parliament.

Matt Carthy, MEP for the Midlands/North-West, has been highlighting the need for unity across the political spectrum on the Brexit issue. Carthy said: “There is no such thing as a good Brexit from an Irish point of view. The backstop is the least worst option in terms of protecting our economy and the political and social progress that we have seen since the Good Friday Agreement.”

Six-County MEP Martina Anderson has made the case that any EU financial package aimed to lessen the negative impact of Brexit must be delivered on an all-Ireland basis. Anderson said: “Now is the time for the EU to show how committed it is to protecting Ireland both north and south in the event of Brexit.

“There are reports that a multi-billion euro aid package is being prepared to mitigate the damage that Brexit will do to the Irish economy. It is vital that this funding protects the all-island economy.

Grúpa Cónasctha den Chlé Aontaithe Eorpach • den Chlé Ghlas Nordach

GRÚPA PARLAIMINTEACH EORPACH

www.guengl.eu “It is increasingly clear that Brexit will damage the economy north and south. The only way to protect the Irish economy is to protect all regions on the island and that means a continuation of EU funding for the north after Brexit.”

The GUE/NGL group have laid down clear policy markers for the coming parliament. In a statement the group said the EU “should work for our planet and for the many – not the few. It is time to end failing neoliberal policies and follow an ambitious roadmap in order to confront the climate emergency and tackle the rise of socio-economic inequalities within the EU”.

The 10 GUE/NGL priorities that the new presidents of the European Commission and the European Parliament should commit to during their mandates are:

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Take action to effectively tackle the climate emergency and restore biodiversity

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End neoliberal austerity policies that increase inequalities and help boost far-right forces in Europe

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Fight against social dumping in Europe

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Put an end to tax dodging, tax evasion, money laundering and corruption

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Take control of market decisions

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Re-orientate EU trade policy

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Adopt a humane migration and asylum policy that guarantees human rights

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Defend peace

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Fight for democracy and human rights

1 0 Take effective action to defend women´s rights and achieve gender equality

anphoblacht

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ISSUE NUMBER 3 – 2019 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 3

Mary Lou McDonald

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

CONTRIBUTORS

Caoilfhionn NÍ Dhonnabháin Clement Shevlin Richard McAuley Jim Gibney Laura Friel Roy Greenslade

Mícheál Mac Donncha Brian Carty Sinéad Ní Bhroin

Séamas Ó Donnghaile

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NOW IS THE TIME FOR REPUBLICAN POLITICS

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SEE PAGE

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald writes on what we can learn from the May and June elections and how Sinn Féin will be a stronger party.

Only Sinn Féin can deliver unity and a new republic

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An electoral baptism

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Mayo councillor Gerry Murray considers the local and national challenges for the party.

First time councillor Grace McManus tells of the heady first weeks of being elected to Wicklow County Council.

Transition to the green economy must be just

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Johnson must end DUP veto

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Language is an arena of struggle

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The case for the four-day week

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Workers have a right to their tips

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Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley outlines the key work the party has done on building the Green economy.

As Boris Johnson becomes British Prime Minister An Phoblacht lays out the key issues raised by Sinn Féin in the Stormont talks process and the looming Brexit impasse Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is interviewed by Luke Callinan.

Caoilfhionn Ní Dhonnabháin makes the case for a four-day week.

Siptu Organiser Clement Shevlin outlines the work of the One Movement and the Employee Tips Bill introduced by Sinn Féin senator Paul Gavan.

Kevin McKenna remembered

An Phoblacht carries an exclusive obituary for republican leader Kevin McKenna, along with a funeral report and the full graveside oration delivered by Gerry Adams.

The end of the Orange state

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Belfast Pogroms and the Battle of the Bogside An Phoblacht has a collection of pieces from first-hand accounts to the political analysis of key aspects of this critical time period.

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Northern State could not be reformed

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The point of no return

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The British Media and 1969

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A view from the South

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Challenges for the EU parliament

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Postcards from a New Republic

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Leithcheal ar Ghaelscoileanna ó thuaidh

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Jim Gibney on how 1969 was a popular uprising

Laura Friel gives the first-hand accounts of 1969 from Rita Canavan, Nellie McAuley and Ann McLarnon.

Professor Roy Greenslade finds a very different British media in 1969 reporting on the emerging conflict.

Mícheál Mac Donncha on the sympathetic public reaction to the northern crisis and the failures of the 26-Couny political establishment.

With the Brexit crisis ongoing the Irish Government cannot be depended on to defend Irish national rights writes Brian Carty.

A second civil war in the USA and refugees fleeing to Europe.

Sinéad Ní Bhroin speculates on a possible future.

Scríobhann Séamas Ó Donnghaile faoi na dúshláin atá roimh bhunscoileanna Gaeilge sa tuaisceart in éagmais Acht Gaeilge.

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A turning point

Richard McAuley writes on how his world changed forever in August 1969

We must empower communities to use their vote for real change and a break from the politics that has ruled this state since its inception

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Mary Lou McDonald Gerry Murray Grace McManus Brian Stanley Mark Mullan Luke Callinan

UIMHIR EISIÚNA 3 - 2019 - ISSUE NUMBER 3

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Remembering ‘Our vision is Kevin greater’ MCKenna

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50 years on

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EDITORIAL

anphoblacht EAGARTHÓIREACHT

Long road travelled, long road ahead

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n the aftermath of the EU and local elections across Ireland it is necessary and right to take stock and analyse the Sinn Féin performance. However, in this month of August 2019, there is a need to look also at the road republican

activists have travelled over a much longer arc of history.

Fifty years ago, nationalist Belfast was under siege. Free Derry had sprung from

ROBBIE SMYTH editor@anphoblacht.com

the combined resistance of a community finding its voice and power, and across the Six Counties the growing nationalist opposition to the Stormont one-party unionist state had reached a critical impasse. In the Iris magazine marking the 40th anniversary of the Battle of the Bogside and the Belfast pogroms we headlined this ‘The Point of No Return’.

I don’t know if nationalists and republicans caught up in the maelstrom of that

Fifty years ago, nationalist Belfast was under siege. Free Derry had sprung from the combined resistance of a community finding its voice and power, and across the Six Counties the growing nationalist opposition to the Stormont one party unionist state had reached a critical impasse

time realised the death blow they had struck against a bigoted and anti-democratic establishment. But today we can see how 1969, and specifically the three days from August 12th to 15th, was a defining chapter in the failure and collapse of the unionist regime.

In this edition of An Phoblacht, we revisit August 1969 publishing first-hand accounts of that tumultuous time. We also have new contributions from Jim Gibney and Richard McAuley who look back from a personal and political perspective on the events of August 1969.

From the standpoint of the recent elections Mary Lou MacDonald writes exclusively for An Phoblacht. She makes the case that, “We must learn from this election” and within Sinn Féin “a process of change is underway, a process of renewing and refreshing our approach and structures. We will come out of this time as stronger party.”

McDonald makes the point in her piece that, “Society is also in the process of change” and that republican activists need to build this into their strategies and day-to-day political work. To give that perspective we have in this edition the views of two 26-County councillors. From Mayo we have Gerry Murray returned again to the county council and on the east coast Grace McManus who is entering her first weeks as a Sinn Féin councillor.

In subsequent issues and in An Phoblacht online we are going to build on this and bring the voices of Sinn Féin’s elected representatives across Ireland to readers.

Republican activism, our campaigning, our politics and our struggle have come a long way since 1969. We have a long road in front of us still, but we are ready for the challenges. 

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o ca litic n a s, ctio n

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Where now for Sinn Féin?

w p n u b is t h a bli c i e l lic an tim e for Repub Repu solu tions and for

BY MARY LOU McDONALD After a decade of election growth, the Local and European results in the south were disappointing. I want to pay tribute to all the candidates and activists who put in the long hours and the hard yards. Due to your work Sinn Féin is the third largest party in the 26 Counties, the second largest party across the island and the largest party organised on an allIreland basis. This is some achievement in just a few short decades.

We must learn from this election. The process of change is underway, a process of renewing and refreshing our approach and structures. We will come out of this time as stronger a party.

Society is also in the process of change.

The people have spoken, we all need to listen and learn.

Politics is in a state of flux with the threat of Brexit, the chaos in Westminster undermining the ability to re-establish the Assembly in the north, a changing economic climate as we reach full employment in the 26 counties, and an increased concern for climate change. We need to reflect on this changed political context.

At the same time the 26-County State has the highest levels of inequality and a rising cost of living. Landlords and insurance industries are gouging ordinary working people with impunity. We have a government that refuses to invest adequately in healthcare with an unacceptable level of waiting lists and trolley waits.

We have a generation in low-paid work and losing all hope of owning or ever having a permanent home.

There is also a growing debate and support for Irish Unity, shown most recently in the May RED C election exit

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poll where 77% of respondents said they would vote in support of Irish unity in a referendum. Sinn Féin is the only political party that will drive the Irish Unity project.

Our opponents attack us for being, they say, opposed to everything and in favour of nothing. But it is clear that Fianna

“It is clear that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens will continue with more of the same …….. The faces may change but the politics will not” Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens will continue with more of the same. We already see in councils across the state where they are striking deals and trading council positions. The faces may change but the politics will not.

Now is the time for Republican politics, for Republican solutions and for Republican action. We need to articulate

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• FACING THE CHALLENGE: Sinn Féin can and will make the difference. Voters will judge us on our words and deeds

“Sinn Féin must demonstrate by our words and deeds that we are different. Our vision is greater, our solutions will work and that we can make the difference” solutions, to offer hope and deliver at a local, state and national level. We also need to change as a party and to build alliances with other progressive left forces to deliver for communities.

Families are struggling and communities believe that politics and politicians are all the same. If you look at Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that is a reasonable assumption. Sinn Féin must demonstrate by our words and deeds that we are different. Our vision is greater, our solutions will work and that we can make the difference.

We must empower communities to use their vote for real change and a break from the politics that has ruled this state since its inception.

Now is the time to look to the future, to plan and act to win back lost ground and seats.

The solutions are found within our party, our experience and in listening to the community. To getting back to what we do best, working in communities, in the councils and in the Dáil to demonstrate that Republican vision in action.

It will be about campaigning with communities, delivering for communities and building alliances with other progressive and left groups.

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• HOUSING: Homes can and must be built. Tenants and home owners must be protected from landlords and private investors

• HEALTH: A public health care system, free at the point of delivery can be developed

ISSUE NUMBER 3 – 2019 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 3  anphoblacht

YES

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• CLIMATE CHANGE: It’s workers who are expected to pay to clean up the mess

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• IRISH UNITY: Sinn Féin is the driving force in the unity project

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Fáil and Fine Gael have stood over partition for almost one hundred years and would do so for another one hundred if allowed.

These are the reasons why Sinn Féin politics is needed and relevant. The challenge we face is to demonstrate once again that Sinn Féin can and will make the difference. Voters will judge us on our words and deeds.

We know that the support is there and we must reconnect with that vote.

This will also mean changing how we operate as a party. This election demonstrates that we failed to consolidate the gains we made since 2014. That cannot be allowed to happen again.

We need to invest in the party at all levels and to empower and support local leaderships and activists to meet the challenge of delivering our vision in communities and councils.

So some commentators might ask, where to now for Sinn Féin? The answer is, forward.

We regroup, reorganise and we get back to the work of building a united Ireland and a republic for every citizen. 

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The inequality that is at the core of problems can and must be tackled. Homes can and must be built. Tenants and home owners must be protected from landlords and private investors. A public health care system, free at the point of delivery can be developed. Fair pay for a fair day’s work is not a slogan but a solution.

Tackling climate change is the challenge of a generation.

We all need to change our behaviours and reduce consumption and pollution. However the burden cannot be disproportionately placed on the shoulder of hard-pressed workers with no alternative options. Climate change cannot and must not be divorced from social justice. Government policy refuses to end oil and gas exploration while private companies and polluters reap huge profits. It is workers who are expected to pay to clean up the mess.

The structural destruction of our environment and climate must be tackled. It requires structural change and a republican green agenda.

Sinn Féin is the driving force in the unity project. Fianna

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ONLY SINN FÉIN CAN DELIVER

IRISH UNITY AND A

NEW REPUBLIC It is impossible to pinpoint any one reason why Sinn Féin had poor European and local elections. With hindsight, we need to admit that we didn’t consolidate the 2014 election bounce, and the intake of newly elected councillors.

The hard work of our MEPs was not effectively communicated back to their constituents, there is no easy solution to this problem. As Karl Marx observed, “Those who control the material forces of production also control the intellectual forces of production.”

Matt Cathy’s success in exposing the fact that the Irish Government were vehemently opposing critical infrastructure in rural Ireland, failed to get any traction in the mainstream media. This was in circumstances where 50% matching funding was on the table in Brussels.

In terms of confidence and supply FF were happy to sit on their hands while the government they propped up literally refused to meet the people of rural Ireland half-way. Meanwhile the EU had re-classified the entire North West as ‘a region in transition’, meaning we were regressing back to our old Objective One Status of the 1980s. A big news story by any standards and a damning indictment on successive governments, but this was completely ignored by our national broadcaster. No news is good news.

Despite all of the above, it is still no excuse for our failure not to have made at least modest political gains in what were relatively advantageous circumstances.

Strong and solid local government representation is the bedrock of any political movement, it should not be taken for granted. Winning seats and subsequently consolidating them is no easy task, and for Sinn Féin councillors it entails hard work and high-profile activism between elections.

As local reps we sometimes become 6

BY GERRY MURRAY

preoccupied with the 15% of our constituents who make representations and interact with their local councillors, we tend to forget about the large segment of voters who never have occasion to do so.

In that context our activism needs to focus on both the local and national, the latter should not be the exclusive remit of our Oirechtas members. To that end increased local activism via leaflets, newsletters, newspapers, local radio and public meetings is imperative.

Strong and solid local government representation is the bedrock of any political movement, it should not be taken for granted

We need to emphasise the scale of inequality and poverty in Irish society and the Sinn Féin proposals on creating a just society.

It is not an equal or fair Ireland where there is a crisis in healthcare with six figure numbers on waiting lists, and hundreds on hospital trolleys every week. It is not a just republic when nearly a fifth of the population is in enforced deprivation, where homelessness has reached over 10,000 people and thousands more families struggle to pay a mortgage or the rent very month.

Locally and nationally we need to be better at getting our message across and counteracting the multiple false narratives that our opponents spin, I know, easier said than done, given the composition of the mainstream media. Which also begs the question as to why some of our national spokespersons don’t engage more often with our relatively benign local radio stations.

Communication and language are vital components in all political discourse, to that end we need to be more creative and imaginative in terms of our arguments and how we frame policy into the future.

As activists we need to engage in the debate surrounding the emergence of ‘the democratic economy’, and other pilot models of economic development, not to mention incentivising the emergence of co-operatives and ensuring their sustainability by a various legislative and fiscal mechanisms.

In the Basque county over 40,000 people are employed in co-ops. This is a model of economic development particularly suited to rural Ireland and surly deserving of some of the favourable measures that are afforded to FDI We all need to be a lot more proactive in highlighting the

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• We need to emphasise the scale of inequality and poverty in Irish society

Locally and nationally we need to be better at getting our message across and counteracting the multiple false narratives that our opponents spin

‘Those who control the material forces of production also control the intellectual forces of production’ – Karl Marx

scourge of neo liberalism and taking on its custodians. There is no point in just narrowly focusing on its symptoms, it is a global issue that is every bit as important as climate change and deserving of the same attention. But it also contextualises so many of our economic and social policies, as well as offering us an opportunity to politicise the ever-increasing numbers of people who are adversely impacted by it.

Many of us often wondered as to what narratives and strategies would be deployed against the party in the post-Adams era, in

our naivety, some of us expected a forensic examination of our economic policies, followed by protracted critique via the usual suspects that would deliver a ‘Sinn Féin will wreck the economy’ verdict.

Instead what we got was a relentless litany of half-truths and gossip, every incident, resignation, and row was exaggerated out of all proportion. As we say in Mayo, if a pound of bacon was stolen in Castlebar it would be a pig by the time it arrived in Dublin.

The recent elections were indeed a set back and there are lessons to be learned.

But our successes and failures need to be viewed in the context of what we are actually up against. Sometimes I think our enemies have more faith in us than we have in ourselves. They are convinced that we say what we mean and we mean what we say. Thus their relentless determination to impede our growth and derail our project.

They certainly believe that we are capable of delivering Irish Unity and a New Republic.

On that particular point I happen to agree with them.  Gerry Murray is a Sinn Féin councillor on Mayo County Council

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I’m grateful every day that I represent this party

’’

GRACE McMANUS has worked as an advisor with the Sinn Féin Seanad team for over two years, and was elected in the Bray East area in the last local elections.

Here she gives an insight into the working life of a new Sinn Féin councillor.

BY GRACE McMANUS It is very hard to hit the ground running. Being elected is not like any other story I’ve been a part of. I’ve learnt so much already. I thought these learnings from a newbie like me might be interesting for other elected reps and our activists. So here’s what it has been like to be in my shoes the last few months.

As everyone was, I was exhausted after the count, probably the most tired I’ve ever been. However, the first Council meeting AGM, and arguably the most important of the five years, happens less than two weeks after the election. During this first meeting, chairpersons are

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selected, and key positions are allocated. You’ve barely caught up on emails and sleep and you’re thrown in the political deep end.

I wonder how much more useful it would be to have council AGMs in September when everyone has their bearings?

It does sometimes feel overwhelming trying to juggle the demands of our time and the expectations of our electorate, and while that is certainly our challenge to manage it is not an easy one.

I am very fortunate to work in Leinster House because

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I can ask for advice from more experienced elected reps.

They have told me that it’s okay to feel overwhelmed, that you do find your feet, and that each time you learn how to deal with a scenario you are building your capacity to deal with the next.

Uncomfortable conversations are going to happen and how you deal with them is important. I don’t come from a ‘Sinn Féin family’. I hear this a lot, but actually what does

“I tell them ‘yes I am in Sinn Féin’, and proudly I tell them why I belong with this party’s foundation of social justice and equality.” this even mean? So the amount of “Why Sinn Féin?!” and “Ah, are you a REAL Shinner?” questions that I get, and, as you can imagine, soundbites and propaganda is amazing. These started well before my election of course, but they have intensified since May. I found what works best is to meet the other person where they’re standing, with a smile. I tell them “yes I am in Sinn Féin”, and proudly I tell them why I belong with this party’s foundation of social justice and equality. I tell

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them about my compassionate friends and colleagues who inspire me every day.

I also have red lines. I challenge harmful and untrue comments. What I’ve found is when the balance is struck, generally people realise we are ordinary people, just like them, trying to make a difference.

There’s a fine line between advocacy and agency.’Reps’ (representations on behalf of constituents) are the bread and butter of local politics. They teach us about the issues on the ground and the internal workings of the council.

However, I have found myself wondering should I be empowering constituents to have the agency to follow up on their own issues? Maybe by directing them to the right council department or showing them how to build their case? Or, should I be advocating on their behalf?

There is a question too, about what we forego when we take away the face-to-face of council and constituents.

Maybe this explains why there is often an unrealistic expectation from the electorate of what we, elected reps, not in majority parties on council or indeed in government, can currently get done.

Simultaneously, while it feels stressful to try and figure the most appropriate course of action, it can also feel hurtful when people misinterpret what you are trying to do for them. It is also tough when it feels that they don’t understand your intentions are genuine. I don’t blame them; people are suffering.

I try to find a balance by telling the story of how I’m making reps to the constituent (I’m going to contact the X

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department and argue Y for you). Sometimes, I might even put in a line about Sinn Féin policy. I haven’t quite managed to find the comfort zone for: “So, would you consider getting involved in Sinn Féin?” yet, but it’s my next challenge, and an important one too!

I’ve also had to privately challenge some constituents who wrongly asserted I had done nothing for them. I did it in a way that acknowledged their suffering, and I held space for us to continue to work together. It was important to do for myself. We are here to serve the public, but we must protect ourselves in that process.

I really feel the loss of some of our councillors. We imagined that we would return a larger SF team to Wicklow County Council. I must start with how it felt to see some of my colleagues not get their seats. It was genuinely upsetting. There were six of us in the race in Wicklow and it really felt like we were all in it together. I feel the loss at meetings when I can’t see them where they deserve to be.

It is also tough now because there is more work for fewer shoulders. While the whole team is still together and working to represent our county, there are only two of us who can take on council-specific work - sitting on committees, delivering scrutiny on policies in meetings etc.

The loss is felt too in terms of experience. While I am so lucky that our previous sitting councillors are available and

“I have found myself wondering should I be empowering constituents to have the agency to follow up on their own issues?” accessible for chats about navigating local representation, I know that we miss that experience in meetings. We are taking the time to heal together as a team and drafting our strategy together to come back fighting.

The reaction to my election has been overwhelming and I still haven’t gotten my head around it. Walking down the town and being in the local shops is a totally different experience now! Being congratulated, supported and even recognised since May has been such a privilege and very strange.

Our campaign was run on the idea of change, and it has been really humbling and inspiring to see people I know, but also those I don’t, connect to that message on an authentic and genuine level. It feels like a validation of our mandate which was something different, rooted in compassion, and that validation is such a motivator.

I was also featured in our local paper as the first openly gay councillor on Wicklow County Council. It was emotional seeing people connect to that, especially younger people. It is my hope that they can now see someone who looks like them, has similar life experiences to them, on their council.

I could probably write another ten points about what I’ve learned so far - from the power of the wise elders who guided me to this position, to how to best serve vulnerable people, but we’d be here all day! I’m also quite sure that in six months to a year I’ll have a completely different perspective.

For now, I’m grateful every day that I represent this party and its values and I’m constantly learning how to improve the way to do that. 

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Building the green economy, reskilling and upskilling workers, investing in biogas and biomass energy and retrofitting homes across Ireland are just some of the proposals Sinn Féin has made to deliver action on tackling climate change. This comes after two radical climate change bills have been introduced by the party on solar panels and micro generation. As Sinn Féin’s David Cullinane takes on the Climate Change portfolio, BRIAN STANLEY TD outlines the critical work done so far on this issue.

A JUST TRANSITION TO A

GREEN EC Climate Action should not be viewed as a burden. It should be viewed as an opportunity to create a more sustainable, greener economy for everyone. To do that, however, we have no option but to radically transform our society and our economy.

Sinn Féin is fully committed to climate action. We are dedicated to action that is both ambitious and based upon fairness and justice. That means that all climate action must be built within a framework of a ‘Just Transition’.

No worker, family or community can be left behind in our transition towards a sustainable, green economy.

Climate action presents us with a fantastic opportunity to invest in towns and villages across Ireland which have been neglected for a very long time. We need a genuine

We cannot allow climate action to turn into some sort of green austerity where carbon taxes are increased and workers lose their jobs without being re-skilled into green alternatives transformation to revitalise rural communities and to regenerate our local economies.

We cannot allow climate action to turn into some sort of green austerity where carbon taxes are increased and workers lose their jobs without being re-skilled into green energy alternatives such as wind, solar or biofuel.

Take Bord na Móna for example. Only a few weeks ago, we heard the news that 200 Bord na Móna workers have been made redundant since January 2019, with a further 240 workers set to lose their jobs by the end of the year.

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How are we going to transition away from our reliance upon carbon towards a green economy if we can’t bring ordinary working people with us? It doesn’t have to be this way.

What we need is a major capital stimulus package into Biofuel plants such as Biogas and Biomass. We need to invest in both offshore and onshore wind. If we invest in those two renewable energy sources we can reach 80% renewable energy by 2030 and provide up to 40,000 net jobs across Ireland in green energy.

Take Biogas for example – a renewable, indigenous energy source that can reduce our emissions and make up 20% of our energy mix. Ireland currently only has 1 biogas plant. Germany has over 6,000 plants, while England has 600. This is despite the fact that Ireland has huge potential in this sector due to our agricultural waste which can be used to generate energy.

To take advantage of energy sources such as Biogas, we will need to divest from brown energy and that does mean that those jobs in peat production at Bord na Móna will be gone. It is therefore essential for those workers, their families and their local communities that we transition those jobs into alternative employment. That is why Sinn Féin is proposing that Bord na Móna become the heart of Ireland’s green economy supported by a Just Transition Fund.

This Just Transition Fund will be tasked with preparing households, workers, communities and businesses for a green transition.

That means the state, through Bord na Móna, pro-actively going into communities and talking to families about how the state can support households with insulation and retrofitting plans.

The cost of a deep retrofit ranges from €30,000 to €75,000 or more. This cannot be left to the mercy of the private market; families cannot be left with a green mortgage.

It means talking to workers about what new areas of green employment they can move into. Take motor mechanics for example; they will need to be transitioned and re-skilled for

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electric vehicles. We also need to begin a major upskilling of workers for a state-wide retrofitting scheme. The morning I began working for Bord na Móna there were 95 others starting with me – it’s that sort of large-scale thinking that we need.

It means going in and talking to communities as a group – not as individual entities in a market. Communities should not be left on their own to manage the impacts of the green transition.

Sinn Féin has set an ambitious target of achieving 80% of our energy through renewables by 2030. That figure is completely achievable but it will only be met through being ambitious and developing innovative ideas to support that change.

For example, in 2017 I introduced Sinn Féin’s

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Microgeneration Bill which would enable families, schools, businesses, GAA clubs and other property owning groups to generate their own electricity through solar panels and to sell back to the grid any excess electricity they did not use. The potential for developing such a scheme is huge.

Take a community school for example; the electricity which the solar panels generate throughout the summer when the school isn’t even open could be enough to power the local town. Farmers and GAA clubs could generate electricity and make revenue by selling it back to the local town. The lack of progress being made by the Department regarding this piece of of legislation has been deeply frustrating.

Last month, we followed up our Microgen Bill with a

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supportive Solar Panel Bill which removes much of the unnecessary red tape around solar panels and would make it much easier for schools and clubs to install a solar panel system.

Sinn Féin is also calling on the government to investigate the policy idea of the state wholesale buying electric vehicles and leasing them out to the public through the ESB at a low cost. How many ordinary workers can currently afford to buy an electric vehicle? Yet, the government is saying it will put in place one million charging points by 2030.

We need to look at corporations paying a higher carbon tax.

Or a higher corporation tax ring-fenced for climate action. The state needs to start taking responsibility for climate action and corporations need to be held to account.

It is Sinn Féin’s ambition that we want to be net-zero carbon by 2050. With Fine Gael in government we have no hope of achieving that. The current government has already given up on our 2030 climate emissions targets and has stated that we will spend €7b by 2030 to buy our way out of our emission fines.

To put that into context, that is more than the cost of three National Children’s Hospitals. It is also dead money that will not be invested in climate action.

People refer back to decades in which there were major changes or upheavals. There was such a thing as the swinging

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60’s. The 1970s were supposed to be socialist, although, unfortunately, they were not. If we are to tackle climate action there will have to be a big transition made in the 2020s.

This is an issue of fairness. It is also an issue of justice. That is what we must get right. We must ensure that those who are

It is Sinn Féin’s ambition that we want to be net-zero carbon by 2050. With Fine Gael in government we have no hope of achieving that the least to blame for the climate crisis are not the ones who will end up paying the highest financial cost. The transition to a low carbon economy cannot be left to the whims of the private market. It must be led by a public vision and supported by public investment. 

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The dinner will take place on

Saturday 16th November 2019 at 9:15pm in the City Hotel, Queen’s Quay, Derry (Immediately after the end of Sinn Féin Ard Fheis)

2019

THE ANNUAL EVENT BY THE THE REPUBLICAN FAMILY TO HONOUR AN INDIVIDUAL'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STRUGGLE FOR IRISH FREEDOM

HONOURING

MITCHEL McLAUGHLIN (DERRY) Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald TD will present the annual Martin McGuinness Le Chéile award Tickets: £45/€50, which includes a four-course dinner, live band/DJ and bar till late anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 3 - 2019 - ISSUE NUMBER 3

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We will not stand for Ireland being collateral damage to

Johnson’s Brexit

BY MARK MULLAN The takeover of the Tory government by hard right Brexiteers led by Boris Johnson has deepened both the Brexit impasse and the difficulties in restoring the Executive and Assembly in the Six Counties. The new regime was only a few days in office when there was talk of full direct rule being imposed in the event of a no-deal Brexit, a development that would fundamentally undermine the Good Friday Agreement.

It is the Irish people who will bear the brunt of Johnson’s disastrous Brexit agenda if it is implemented.

That is the message which the Sinn Féin leadership delivered to Julian Smith, the new British Secretary of State for the North, when they met him at the end of July. They told Julian Smith that Brexit is not acceptable to the vast majority of people in the North. They voted to Remain and their wishes should be respected not trampled over.

There is no good Brexit for these islands but the ‘no-deal’ crash that Johnson seems to be pursuing will be a catastrophic and unforgivable act of political vandalism There is no good Brexit for these islands but the ‘nodeal’ crash that Johnson seems to be pursuing will be a catastrophic and unforgivable act of political vandalism that future generations will pay a heavy price for. Sinn Féin also made it clear that the political talks in Belfast have so far failed to face up to the core issues at the heart of the political impasse in the North.

These issues are essentially about the rights and equality agenda at the heart of the Good Friday Agreement. Despite overwhelming public and political support for equal rights for women, Irish speakers, victims of the conflict and the LGBT community, the DUP continues to veto the implementation of these rights.

As a consequence, the people of the North are still without a power-sharing government two and half years since Martin McGuinness resigned in order to bring a halt to the DUP’s discrimination and alleged corruption. The British Government has been complicit in this democratic deficit through its repeated failure 16

to implement agreements or to confront a denial of rights to citizens here that it would never tolerate in its own country. Shamefully and selfishly, it has acquiesced to the DUP’s discrimination as the price to be paid for the Confidence and Supply deal with that party.

In so doing, the rigorous impartiality demanded by the Good Friday Agreement has been abandoned and the responsibility to ensure the equality of treatment for all citizens has been set ISSUE NUMBER 3 – 2019 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 3  anphoblacht

• Hard right Brexiteer and new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and (below and left) new British Secretary of State for the North, Julian Smith hears nationalist voices in Derry

The Good Friday Agreement states that the British Secretary of State shall direct the holding of a poll on Irish Unity “at any time it appears likely to him that a majority of those voting would express a wish that Northern Ireland should cease to be part of the United Kingdom and form part of a united Ireland”.

The question now arises as to what are the criteria for assessing if there would be a ‘likely majority’? Political and demographic changes have clearly had a massive impact over recent years, particularly in the wake of Brexit, and these trends are only set to continue. In that context, the people of Ireland are entitled to clear, transparent criteria

aside. Successive British administrations have refused to honour agreements or to resolve the issues of the past while imposing savage austerity cuts and Brexit against the wishes and best interests of the people.

So if Johnson is to have any kind of positive impact on the negotiations, a new Prime Minister will have to be accompanied by a new approach. That means ending the DUP’s veto on rights and honouring the British Government’s responsibilities to implement the Good Friday Agreement. It is long past time that the British Government began taking its obligations to citizens and to the peace and political process in Ireland seriously.

Will such a positive approach be forthcoming? It seems highly unlikely but that does not mean that Johnson and Co should not be faced squarely with their responsibilities, especially by the Irish government. Equally, the British government must be reminded of its obligations under the Good Friday Agreement regarding a poll on Irish Unity. anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 3 - 2019 - ISSUE NUMBER 3

It is long past time that the British Government began taking its obligations to citizens and to the peace and political process in Ireland seriously for the triggering of a poll to decide their own constitutional future, a parallel poll being held, of course in the 26 Counties also.

That should be the case in any democratic context but it becomes an imperative in the face of the kind of No-Deal Brexit crash that Johnson says he is willing to accept by October 31st. That is why Sinn Féin is seeking from the British government clear criteria for the triggering of the Irish Unity poll.

In his own words, the new British Prime Minister insists he will ‘do or die’ over Brexit. That’s a matter for Boris Johnson but he has no right to drag the people of Ireland over the cliff with him. All the more reason, therefore, to accelerate to drive to fully implement the Good Friday Agreement and step up preparations for an Irish Unity poll.  Mark Mullan is a Derry Sinn Féin activist 17

“My position is simple: If you know all the languages of the world and you don’t know your mother tongue or the language of your culture, that is enslavement. But if you know your mother tongue and add all the other languages to it, that is empowerment.”

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

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Any language is an arena of struggle Late last year Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o spoke at the LÍON, Limerick and Languages: Revival, resurgence and new beginnings conference in Mary Immaculate College, an event organized as part of Bliain na Gaeilge.

Luke Callinan of An Phoblacht spoke to Ngũgĩ about the importance of language and culture in the context of a struggle for national liberation and self-determination.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is a Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, USA. Originally from Kenya, Ngũgĩ has been a recipient of numerous literary prizes, and his name has been mentioned as a leading contender for the Nobel Literature Prize.

Throughout Ngũgĩ’s youth and adolescence Kenya was a British settler colony and this lived experience of a colonial regime and of the 1952-’62 Mau Mau Uprising, had a profound impact on him, becoming a central theme in much of his writings. He was committed to communicating with ordinary Kenyans in the languages of their daily lives and unequivocally championed their cause in his literary works, which were sharply critical of the inequalities and injustices in Kenyan society.

In 1977 a play Ngũgĩ wrote entitled Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want), was performed in an open air theatre with actors from the workers and peasants of the village. He was subsequently imprisoned without trial at the end of 1977 and while in prison he wrote the novel Caitani Mutharabaini (1981), translated into English as Devil on the Cross (1982), on prison toilet paper.

It was at this point that Ngũgĩ made the decision to abandon English as his primary language of creative writing and instead committed himself to writing in Gikuyu, his mother tongue.

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An Phoblacht: How important is linguistic independence to a national liberation struggle?

Ngũgĩ: I have tried to explore this question in my books, particularly Decolonizing the Mind; and Something Torn and New. I have described language as the memory bank of a people’s experiences of history of which they are also makers. I have also described language as the natural computer, a natural hard drive.

When you lose that hard drive you lose all the memories and knowledge and information and thoughts carried by that language, in this the language of one’s birth, one’s culture,

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one’s people. That’s why systems of conquest, colonisation and domination, go for the linguistic jugular.

So national liberation must, of necessity, involve at the very least a recovery of a people’s linguistic base. My position is simple: If you know all the languages of the world and you don’t know your mother tongue or the language of your culture, that is enslavement.

But if you know your mother tongue and add all the other languages to it, that is empowerment.

An Phoblacht: On the question of Africa and cultural colonisation you have said that “the most important area of domination was the mental universe of the colonised, the control, through culture, of how people perceived themselves and their relationship to the world”. How do you define cultural colonisation and how can a post-colonial nation reverse the effects of such a traumatic collective experience?

Ngũgĩ: The economic and political control of a people can never be complete without cultural control. In some of my books, I have compared culture to a flower. Culture is to a people what a flower is to a plant. The flower is beautiful, beautiful colours, which also express the identity of the plant. But what is important about a flower is not just the colour but also the fact that it carries the seeds of the tomorrow of that plant. Our languages carry not only memories but also the seeds of our future.

An Phoblacht: You described in your book Decolonising the Mind “Afro-European literature” as “literature written by Africans in European languages in the era of imperialism”. How important is pre-colonial native language literature in this context?

Ngũgĩ: I would now call it, Europhonic African Literature, part of the global Phonic literature. This is the literature written by intellectuals of one language, culture and history but in the language of another culture and history. I would place literature written by Irish

“The colony of the mind is always harder to fight. But we should never give up the fight.”

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

intellectuals in English, in that category, of phonic literature. This is not to diminish the quality and genius of that literature, but it is to distinguish it from literature written by Africans in African languages.

We should not let Phonic literature usurp the identity of African languages, a phenomenon I describe as Literary Identity Theft (LID).

An Phoblacht: You link the creation of national native African literatures with the anti-imperialist struggle – “writing in our languages per se ... will not itself bring about the renaissance in African cultures if that literature does not carry the content of our people’s anti-imperialist struggles to liberate their productive forces from foreign control”. Is an author’s conscious acceptance of this responsibility essential in the creation of a truly post-colonial national literature?

Ngugi: No, but a language, any language, is an arena of struggle.

So within any language, there will then be struggle of ideas and visions.

An Phoblacht: In this era of social media, live-streaming and increasing online media platforms, what role do you see for theatre,

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and other forms of literature, as an expression of working-class experience?

Ngũgĩ: Theatre should still play a big role in the self-consciousness of a people. But theatre will also utilise any new technologies, including social media and live streaming.

An Phoblacht: While a national language in post-colonial nations is often seen as an important symbol of independence, policies that facilitate its revival are often met with apathy, confusion and opposition. Why do you think that this is the case and how can it be challenged?

Ngũgĩ: The colony of the mind is always harder to fight. But we should never give up the fight. And we should not be isolationists.

As I said above, with the language of one’s culture as the base, one can and should add more languages to it. Monolingualism is the carbon monoxide of cultures. But Multilingualism is the oxygen of cultures. Our languages should be part of that oxygen.

An Phoblacht: Why in your view are neoliberal post-colonial states so reluctant to deal with issues of economic inequality arising from a legacy of impoverished native-speaking rural communities? Can this be successfully redressed?

Ngũgĩ: We have accepted relationships of hierarchy as normal.

My language is higher than your language; my culture higher than yours. We have accepted the colonial and imperial fallacy that for one language to be, others must cease to be. We see the same thinking and practice in the area of economy and politics. For a billionaire to be, there must be a billion poor. We have to continually reject a world of palaces for a few built on prisons for the many; splendor for a few built on the squalor of the many. A network of equal give and take must replace that of hierarchy. The struggle continues.  Read more about the life and works of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o at: ngugiwathiongo.com.

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Time to get behind the a r o f n g i a p m ca k e e w y a d r u o f

BY CAOILFHIONN NÍ DHONNABHÁIN Melbourne’s eight-hour day monument stands opposite the Trades Hall – reputedly the oldest trade union building in the world. I found myself there tracing the footsteps of my granduncle Gus, a trade union activist in the city from the 1930s to 1960s. The monument honours the world’s first successful battle to secure an eight-hour working day in 1856. Its design symbolises the demand, first associated with textile manufacturer and social reformer Robert Owen, for “Eight hours labour. Eight hours recreation. Eight hours rest.”

We have to understand how we came to the eighthour day and the five-day week to understand that it is a very arbitrary place to stop. For workers, for progressives this was never meant to be the end point. We have not progressed – in fact in many instances we have regressed as workers are expected to work longer hours and give ever greater commitment to their jobs. Employee rights including job security achieved over the course of the 20th century have been eroded as workers have lost out while corporations have been emboldened and empowered.

Our understanding of work has changed over the centuries. Our semi-religious devotion to work and the idea of fulfilment through work is very much a modern phenomenon. It has been a boon for employers and exploiters.

Work changed with the industrial revolution. That change was sharp and brutal. With industrialisation came the birth of trade unions fighting back against the

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rabid excesses of unfettered capitalist exploitation that came with it. Child labour was restricted and eventually banned.

The working day which, in some cases, stretched from the break of day until night-time over a 16-hour day was eventually shortened under pressure from the unionled ‘shor- time movement’. First came the demand for a 12-hour day, then for a ten-hour day. Later came the demand for an eight-hour day and a five-day week.

The eight-hour day came into force across many industrial nations between the late 19th and early 20th century, a victory for organized labour and progressive politics. Many, including John Maynard Keynes, thought that the future would bring further reductions in the working week. But there it stopped. Arbitrarily with the five-day week and the eight-hour day.

The world has changed. Our working lives have changed. Society has changed. But we have remained frozen in a time when securing the eight-hour day and the five-day week were enormous victories for the exhausted and overworked working classes. Workers and society have not got the benefit of increased productivity or of automation. The evolution of how we work has stalled and it is now time to take up the demand for a progressive evolution towards a shorter working week.

There are many compelling reasons to get behind the campaign for a four-day week. Democracy, equality, society and the planet would all benefit from the four-day week.

• John Maynard Keynes

The British-based economic think tank The New Economics Foundation (NEF) and many other progressive bodies have made the case for a shorter working week. They have argued that a reduction in the working week would help address a range of

• Shorter working hours without a loss in pay offers a way to tackle symptoms of overwork, with more time to recuperate

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• The working day, in some cases, stretched from the break of day until night-time over a 16 hour day

urgent, interlinked problems including overwork, unemployment, overconsumption, carbon emissions, inequality and the lack of time which people have for caring, for community and for ensuring their own wellbeing.

According to the NEF “Winning shorter working hours without a loss in pay offers a way to tackle symptoms of overwork, providing people with more time to recuperate,

We have regressed as workers are expected to work longer hours and give ever greater commitment to their jobs participate in the democratic process and fulfil caring responsibilities.”

In Ireland, the Fórsa trade union is among those currently pressing for a debate on a four-day workweek pointing to the potential benefits for society, gender and age equality, the economy and the environment.

Families are under increasing pressure, juggling childcare and other responsibilities, with fathers and mothers now largely both in the workplace. A four-day week would make it possible for paid and unpaid work to be distributed more equally between women and men.

It would give people more time to contribute to their

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community and to society, things which we should value.

Research has shown that a reduction to a four-day workweek would result in significantly slower growth of energy demand, making a significant contribution towards reaching climate targets. An analysis of time use and consumption in Swedish households suggested that decreasing working time by 1% could reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by about 0.7% and 0.8% respectively.

The four-day workweek has to be part of the consideration of how we move away from an economy driven by growth and consumption.

It is time to get behind the campaign for a four-day workweek and take back more time from work and from the corporations, and give to it to family, to the community and to the common good.  Caoilfhionn Ní Dhonnabháin is a Sinn Féin activist.

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Tipping closer to fairness Sinn Féin Senator Paul Gavan’s Protection of Employee Tips Bill has won majority support in the Seanad and Dáil, despite the attempts of Fine Gael to undermine the legislation, which now heads back to committee stage. SIPTU Organiser CLEMENT SHEVLIN, outlines the origins of the bill and the work of the One Galway movement campaigning for hospitality workers’ rights.

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It was November 2018 when the ONE Galway movement decided to weigh-in on the controversial tipping scandal and take to the streets to lend their support to hospitality workers.

Shortly after their establishment in 2017, ONE Galway began working closely with the Galway Hospitality Group, a grassroots group of activists and academics working to highlight the immense levels of exploitation and precariousness in the sector. It was to their research with hospitality workers that Senator Paul Gavan referenced when drafting his Bill, National Minimum Wage (Protection of Employee Tips) Bill 2017.

Contrary to the government’s spin, the premise of the Tips Bill is to give hospitality workers a right to their tips and to require restaurants to display their tipping policy clearly for customers to see.

The ONE Galway movement’s campaign, to highlight the malpractice and misadministration of tips then focussed around this Bill. The movement, comprising of trade unions, student unions, academics, and community groups, embraced the opportunity to work with a broad grouping of progressive politicians who wish to eradicate injustices for workers and ensure they and their families have access to decent work and living standards.

In December the ONE Galway group of activists began engaging with the public in Galway to highlight the levels of exploitation in the sector. The campaign asked diners to simply check with waiting staff when eating out, and ask “Where do your tips go?”

A pretty simple ask but which received a significantly positive response both from the public and from the media. While people were appalled that tips were taken by employers, one third of workers indicate they receive none of their tips, they were particularly glad that the trade union movement was taking action on this issue. The campaign, targeting Christmas party diners, also caught the attention of the media and featured heavily on news programmes on RTE and TG4.

With the level of interest and goodwill generated towards the campaign, Senator Paul Gavan and Sinn Féin agreed to put the Bill into the Seanad in February 2019.

ONE Galway now focussed their on-street campaign around Valentine’s Day and began lobbying Senators and local politicians to ensure the Bill successfully passed through the various stages.

During this period ONE Galway made several attempts to meet with Employment Affairs Minister Regina Doherty, but to no avail as it was clear she was only interested in working with the employers, meeting with them several times. Doherty fully endorsed the

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campaign by the Restaurant Association which circulated a sticker to members for display which “guaranteed” transparency in tipping without any evidence or criteria attached.

The Minister also instructed Fine Gael Senators to vote against the bill as it “may lead to unintended consequences”, preferring to establish a “collective agreement” with employers to the exclusion of workers and their representatives.

At this time Minister Doherty also suggested the government was preparing their own legislation which would amend the Payment of Wages Act. However, this new legislation would not address the principal issue which gives workers ownership of their tips, but will instead only outlaw the top-up of contracted wage rates with tips, which is just one form of malpractice in this area.

The premise of the Tips Bill is to give hospitality workers a right to their tips and require restaurants to display their tipping policy clearly for customers to see The government approach is clearly in line with the demands from the Restaurant Association of Ireland (RAI) who wish to retain access to tips which they estimate make up approximately 10% of their revenue, a claim made on air by the CEO of the RAI Adrian Cummins.

On February 20th, the Bill passed through Committee stage and following a mammoth lobbying task in the intervening period, including a video vox-pop on the Bill filmed in the minister’s own constituency, it successfully passed through the Seanad winning cross-party support on June 12th.

The ONE Galway lobby machine now went into overdrive, as the Bill was rushed to the Dáil and scheduled for debate a mere five days later on Tuesday June 18th. Using every available resource, contact and network available across the trade union movement we found that the same cross-party support existed in the Dáil chamber.

On the evening of June 18th, a group of activists from across the country which included trade unionists, hospitality workers, student

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• Trade Union, Community and Student Union Supporters Celebrate Sinn Féin’s Protection of Employee Tips Bill passing all stages in the Seanad

union activists and community organisers gathered in the Dáil chamber to listen to Deputies debate and outline the precarious and exploitative nature of work in the hospitality sector. It was heartening to know that, with the exception of Fine Gael and Deputy Mattie McGrath opposing the Bill, the majority of those representing us in the Dáil retain some concern for, and wish to strengthen the rights of low-paid workers.

Many Deputies who spoke in favour of the Bill expressed a view that it will not, as continuously suggested by the Government, change in any way the current tax treatment of tips. They also spoke about how it will be a positive action by the Oireachtas to improve conditions for such low-paid workers. With the Government being so vehemently opposed to this Bill they then chose to attach a “money message” to it, which if agreed, will effectively delay its progress indefinitely.

However, as expected the Bill successfully passed this stage of the Dáil on Thursday 20th June, 75 to 41 votes, a result welcomed by thousands of struggling hospitality workers.

But it is not over yet, the Bill which is due to move to Committee stage, may now be subject to a money message which will require

The ONE movement is all about a collective fight on precarious work, precarious work leads into precarious lives which is having a devastating effect on society and we have to challenge that together. another round of engagement, lobbying and discussion with politicians, across the political divide.

Fiona Dunne, National Coordinator for the ONE Movement said “the alliances formed through this campaign proves that if those who hold the same principled position of fairness and equality really want to fight for the rights and interests of ordinary workers and their families, they must work together, casting aside political or other differences, and instead focussing on the issue at hand in order to achieve much more for the most vulnerable in our society.

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HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY ENJOY YOUR MEAL But please ask... Where does your tip go?

ONE Galway and ONE Cork will continue to campaign and lobby on this issue until the law has changed and hospitality workers access the money originally intended for their pockets. The ONE Galway has learned a lot over the last year on the power of collective lobbying and the effectiveness of having a national network.

At each stage so far, Senators and TDs would have received emails, letters and phone calls from Trade Councils, District Councils, third level students, second level students and workers from the sector.

In certain key constituencies, District Councils demanded an emergency meeting with their local TD to ensure they would support the Bill. The ONE movement is all about a collective fight on precarious work, precarious work leads into precarious lives which is having a devastating effect on society and we have to challenge that together. When hard working genuine politicians like Sinn Féin Senator Paul Gavan take on a cause for the ordinary worker, it’s imperative that we roll right in behind them with all the resources and networks we have and this we will continue to build on.  • For more information on the One Movement go to: www.onemovement.work or catch up with all them on Facebook under ONEGalway. You can email them at: contact@onemovement.work Clement Shevlin, is a SIPTU Organiser based in Galway, ISSUE NUMBER 3 – 2019 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 3  anphoblacht

Kevin MCKenna leader, freedom fighter, patriot Kevin McKenna was a quiet and unassuming man to meet. He was also a man who displayed huge strength of character, determination, personal courage, leadership and political wisdom at times of great challenge in our country’s history.

Born into a farming family in Co Tyrone on 20th July 1944, Kevin McKenna grew up in the Brantry at a time when nationalists in the North of Ireland were treated as secondclass citizens and the Orange state faced little effective challenge. As a young man,

• Kevin loved country life • Kevin with former Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD

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• Kevin with his wife Marcella

like many others he emigrated and worked in construction and oil in Canada.

Although a republican before he left Ireland, it was while in Canada in the late 1960s, that he heard of events at home including the attacks on civil rights marches by the RUC and B-Specials. As the situation deteriorated, Kevin felt that he could not stay away while his friends and neighbours in Tyrone were harassed, attacked and brutalised. He was compelled to return

• Kevin’s reads the IRA statement at the Carrickmore Easter Commemoration, 1975

Kevin McKenna stood up and was counted, involving himself in the reinvigorated IRA, which chose to fight back against the blatant injustices of the state and to assert the demand for an end to Partition, British rule and for a United Ireland home to join the resistance that was being built. Back home in Tyrone, Kevin witnessed events such as the introduction of internment without trial and the Bloody Sunday massacre by the British Army in Derry. As war engulfed the North, Kevin McKenna’s life was changed irrevocably.

Despite all the risks, and like many others of his generation, Kevin McKenna stood up and was counted, involving himself in the reinvigorated IRA, which chose to fight back against the blatant injustices of the state and to assert the demand for an end to Partition, British rule and for a United Ireland.

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• Kevin and Marcella on their wedding day

• Helping shoulder the coffin of his friend and comrade Martin McGuinness

Eventually, as the RUC and British Army became aware of Kevin McKenna’s role in the freedom struggle, he was hounded and harassed on a daily basis, forcing him to move permanently to Co Monaghan in 1972. Despite the goodwill of many of the ordinary people, the state authorities in the South pursued and imprisoned many of those involved in republican activism and Kevin was twice imprisoned in Portlaoise. During one of these terms in jail he spent 48 days on hunger strike. Others on the hunger strike included Colm Daltún and Pat Ward. Shortly after release from his first term of imprisonment Kevin married Marcella McAleer in 1975.

Kevin continued his involvement in the republican struggle and subsequent years saw him take on major leadership roles in the IRA.

• Picture on a British ‘arrest on sight’ list • Taking some precious time to relax with Marcella in the midst of the war

He was an effective, dedicated and fearless freedom fighter and an intelligent and disciplined IRA leader who knew when to fight and when to pursue peace He was instrumental in developing the IRA’s tactics and strategy to bring the war directly to the British forces of occupation. He was an effective, dedicated and fearless freedom fighter and an intelligent and disciplined IRA leader who knew when to fight and when to pursue peace.

Kevin was centrally involved in republican decision-making for many years and at crucial periods. He was instrumental, with others, in laying the foundations of the peace process.

A serious revolutionary, Kevin McKenna took an interest in political events and developments well beyond Ireland’s shores and sympathised particularly with those struggling for freedom and justice around the world. He strongly supported the struggle of the Palestinian people.

A proud son of Tyrone who also loved his adopted home in Monaghan, Kevin McKenna became known, admired and respected by many republicans across the length and breadth of Ireland

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• Gerry Adams, Kevin and Marcella

during his long years of service to the struggle.

A father and grandfather, Kevin was also very much a family man who loved his children and grandchildren and took great interest in their lives. He followed Gaelic football, supporting his native Tyrone and the local Eire Óg club in Smithborough.

Fond of country life, he was also interested in boats, building his very own, which he enjoyed with his family along the Shannon and Erne waterways. Kevin and his family also liked to spend time together in Co Donegal during the summer.

Kevin’s funeral in Smithborough in June was both a demonstration of solidarity with his grieving family and a coming together of the republican family itself, to pay respects to a republican leader whose life was one of commitment and dedication to Irish unity and freedom.

An Phoblacht extends sympathy to Kevin’s wife Marcella, his daughter Gráinne, his sons Ciarán and Pádraig and Kevin’s grandchildren.

I measc laochra na nGael go raibh sé. 

• Kevin and Marcella with their grandson enjoying the boat Kevin built

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Republican Ireland lays a leader to rest The summer sun shone brightly on the many hundreds of mourners from across the island of Ireland and abroad, who converged on the small town of Smithborough in rural Co Monaghan on Thursday, 27th June. They had come to lay to rest an Irish patriot, a fearless freedom fighter and a former leader in the Irish Republican Army - Kevin McKenna.

A large and impressive republican Guard of Honour of men and women from North, South, East and West, lined the route as the cortège, with the coffin draped in the Tricolour and bearing the symbolic beret and gloves of an IRA Volunteer, made its way from the family home to St Mary’s Church, Magherarney where the funeral Mass was officiated by Kevin’s friend Fr Joseph McVeigh.

Chief among the mourners were Kevin’s wife Marcella, his daughter Gráinne, his sons Ciarán and Pádraig and their spouses and Kevin’s grandchildren. Also present were his son-in-law Eamonn, daughters in law Joanne and Maura, his sisters Ita, Kathleen 31

Fr McVeigh told the congregation that Kevin’s life has been one totally committed to justice and lasting peace in this our native land

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and Bernadette, his brother Martin, brothers in law, sisters in law, nieces and nephews.

Kevin’s extended family and friends were joined by many prominent republicans including Sinn Féin TDs, MPs, MLAs, MEPs and councillors.

Fr McVeigh told the congregation that Kevin’s life has been one “totally committed to justice and lasting peace in this our native land” and was “a reminder of the centuries old struggle in this country. His life was a life of sacrifice for the greater good. He gave it everything.”

The priest said: “Kevin will be remembered as a man of integrity who dedicated his life to the cause of Ireland and the people of Ireland – and to the poor and oppressed everywhere.

“Kevin was an astute political analyst and made a huge contribution to the peace process in this country. Maybe someday his contribution will be recognised and acknowledged when the history of this time is fully written.”

Officiating at the graveside ceremony, Sinn

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Féin Cavan/Monaghan TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said: “Fellow Republicans, mo chairde dhíl, “We have gathered here today to say a fond farewell to a faithful friend and respected leader. The passing of Kevin McKenna takes from our midst a man of commitment and of conviction. A dedicated soldier, he not only embraced the new challenges of dedicated political activism, he, with others, led the transition.

“The struggle has not ended. The struggle continues day by day, as relentlessly pursued as it ever was. Only the means of its pursuit has changed.

“Kevin, a quiet, thoughtful man never shirked his responsibilities. From the dangers of times past to the more mundane activities of building the strength of our party, he was there, ever willing. There was no challenge too great nor any task too small.

“Kevin stood shoulder to shoulder with all of us, whatever our role in this struggle.

We should today, in this cemetery, recommit to stand shoulder to shoulder, together in his memory, as we march on to the achievement of the Ireland that he and countless thousands of our number have struggled through their lifetimes to secure.

“On behalf of the Republican Movement throughout the length and breadth of Ireland and overseas and with special reference to the Republican family of these counties of Monaghan and Tyrone, Armagh and Fermanagh, I extend our heartfelt sympathy to Marcella, to Gráinne, to Ciarán and to Pádraig and to their spouses Eamonn, Joanne and Máire and to the grandchildren Ríona, Fionn, Brogan, Tadhg, Cúlann, Cormac, Fiachra and Naoise, to Kevin’s brother Martin and his sisters Ita, Kathleen and Bernie and to all the bereaved members of the McKenna and McAleer families.

“I measc Laochra na hÉireann go raibh a anam dílis.” 

“Kevin, a quiet, thoughtful man never shirked his responsibilities.

From the dangers of times past to the more mundane activities of building the strength of our party, he was there, ever willing. There was no challenge too great nor any task too small” – Sinn Féin Cavan/Monaghan TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin

•Wreaths were laid by Brendan McKenna on behalf of the Republican Movement, by Owen Smyth on behalf of Clan na nGael in the United States and by Bernie McElwain on behalf of Fáilte Cluain Eois, the local Republican ex-Prisoner Association. Several other wreaths were also placed on the grave.

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Gerry Adams oration for

Kevin McKenna We carry here the graveside oration at the funeral of Kevin McKenna delivered by Louth TD and former Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams.

Tá muid anseo inniu lenár gcara, Kevin McKenna, fear chéile Marcella a chur faoi thalamh agus chun ceiliúradh a dhéanamh ar a shaol. Ar dtús ba mhaith liom mo chomhbhrón a dhabháil le Marcella agus Ciarán, Pádraig agus Gráinne agus na gar pháistí. Tá fhios agam go bhfuil bhur gcroíthe briste. Tá ár gcroíthe briste fosta.

Fear iontach Kevin. Fear láidir. Fear chéile, athar, sean-athar nó Daideó, deartháir, ár gcomrádaí, ár gcara, ár gceannaire.

For all of us who had the honour to know Kevin McKenna today is a day on which we can remember with affection and

“Among the rolling hills of Tyrone, in the narrow laneways, villages and roads of that historic county, Kevin and his comrades relentlessly and defiantly fought the British Army” pride a man of enormous commitment and personal courage.

Kevin was a quiet, thoughtful republican. A committed comrade who dedicated years of his life to the cause of Irish freedom and to the Irish people. Kevin loved Ireland — he loved the people of Ireland. It was in his DNA. He was also a loving and attentive son and brother, a devoted husband, father and grandfather. So, on my own behalf and that of Colette, and on behalf of Republicans everywhere, I want to extend our heartfelt condolences to Marcella, to Ciarán and Joanne, to Pádraic and Máire, to Gráinne and Eamonn, and to all the grandchildren Ríona, Fionn, Cormac, Fiachra, Naoise, Brogan, Tádhg and Cúlann.

Condolences also to Kevin’s brother Martin, his late brother Eamonn and his sisters Kathleen, Ita and Bernie and his late sister Eileen. You are all in our prayers and our thoughts. I want to thank the nurses and doctors and all those who looked after Kevin in Cavan Hospital.

My chomhbhrón also, to Kevin’s comrades and to the former prisoners who did time with him. I want to welcome

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• Gerry Adams TD addressing the mourners at Magherarny

Uachtarán and Leas Uachtarán Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill and Bernie McGuinness the bean chéile of Martin McGuinness.

Today is a very sad day in your lives and in the lives of the McKenna and McAleer families and of Kevin’s friends and comrades here in County Monaghan in Tyrone and across Ireland.

It is especially difficult for Marcella who has lost her soulmate, her partner, her spouse, the father of her children and her anam cara. There is a sense of loss which will never fade even though time may teach us how to cope.

But all of us also have a great sense of pride in the patriot we bury here today. Kevin first became involved in the republican struggle in 1970. He had just returned home from the Yukon Territory in north-west Canada, near Alaska. It’s almost six times the size of Ireland but has less than half the population of County Monaghan. It’s a beautiful place full of wild mountainous ranges, with long glacier-fed alpine lakes, and it gets cold. Once in 1968 while Kevin was there the temperature dropped to minus 60 degrees. The memories of his time in the Yukon stayed with him all his life.

He was especially fond of the poetry of Robert Service. Kevin

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loved Dangerous Dan McGrew and The Cremation of Sam McGee. He loved the wildness of north west Canada and his encounters with the native people there. But his heart was in the hills of County Tyrone. He was also very fond of the poems of WF Marshall, the Bard of Tyrone.

I’m livin in Drumlister An I’m getting very oul I have to wear an Indian bag To save me from the coul.

The deil a man in this townlan Wos claner raired nor me, But I’m livin in Drumlister In clabber to the knee.

Me Da lived up in Carmin, An kep a sarvint boy.

His second wife was very sharp, He birried her with joy.

Now she wos thin, her name was Flynn She come from Cullentra, An if me shirts a clatty shirt The man to blames me Da. Kevin had heard of the Troubles at home - the campaign of the Civil Rights movement for reform, the marches in Coalisland and Dungannon, the Caledon squat by the Gildernews and the violent response of the unionist regime at Stormont and of the British government.

So, Kevin came back from the bitter cold of the Yukon to the hot house that was County Tyrone in early 1970 to join the ranks of the Irish Republican Army.

Among the rolling hills of Tyrone, in the narrow laneways, villages and roads of that historic county, Kevin and his comrades relentlessly and defiantly fought the British Army.

The British Army didn’t stand a chance of defeating the spirit — centuries old — of an indomitable people with character and

a culture, a history and a sense of freedom as old as Ireland.

I was there often during hard times, usually with Martin McGuinness.

We were always made welcome by the republican people – even in the wake of huge disasters in their own lives – and too often at the funerals of brave sons and daughters of that historic county, and here in Monaghan also.

Usually we had to run the gauntlet of British Army, UDR or RUC aggression. There are still big challenges today but the

“Kevin was a decent man doing his best in very difficult times. War is a terrible calamity. The republican people of the north never went to war. The war came to us.” obscenity of concrete military fortifications is removed. The helicopter gunships, the SAS units, the huge military patrols are no more.

Even as we gather here today the so-called ‘United Kingdom’ is disuniting. Yes, we still have quarrels to settle with our unionist neighbours, and Yes, partition remains.

But Republican Ireland remains also. Resolute, unbowed, undefeated and looking to the future. Why is this so? It’s because those, like Kevin McKenna and Marcella, who took a stand against British militarism, loved freedom more than anything else.

Kevin was a decent man doing his best in very difficult

• Gerry Adams comforts Marcella at the funeral

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have none of that. He had no time for ego trippers, or vanity projects. He had no time for loose talkers, Walter Mitties or spoofs. He was the real deal. An honest, decent republican who saw off Thatcher and her ilk and brought the British government to the negotiating table.

He also supported the building of Sinn Féin. Caoimhghín has testified to his support here in Monaghan. He also was very progressive in his social attitudes, on the role and rights of women and the need for social justice. He was a committed internationalist.

Probably none of his neighbours in Smithborough knew anything of this. Except Hensy maybe. Kevin was a modest man. He came to County Monaghan in 1972. In 1973 Kevin met Marcella at the Ulster Football final in Clones. Tyrone won. So

“This August marks 25 years from the first IRA cessation.

It was an initiative created by republicans which opened up the potential of the peace process. Kevin had the courage to make the big decisions with others during the conflict.”

• Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD addresses mourners

times. War is a terrible calamity. The republican people of the north never went to war. The war came to us. I am mindful of all those who have been hurt. And there has been hurt on all sides. But the war is over and the future is being written now.

As we help to write that future we will not let the past be written in a way which demonises patriots like Kevin McKenna any more than we would the generations before him.

I think the men and women of 1916 were right.

I also think the hunger strikers of 1981 were right.

I think Kevin McKenna was right.

I think the IRA was right. Not in everything it did. But it was right to fight when faced with the armed aggression of British rule. It was also right to make peace.

Kevin McKenna’s leadership in that challenging period of change was essential. Kevin McKenna was a republican soldier who had the politics to know when to fight and the vision to know when to talk.

This August marks 25 years from the first IRA cessation. It was an initiative created by republicans which opened up the potential of the peace process. Kevin had the courage to make the big decisions with others during the conflict. He was also one of those who had the courage to make the big and difficult decisions during the efforts to make peace. It is in the nature of these things that the part played by republicans like Kevin during the long years of war will never be known.

The tales will never be told. Others may boast. Kevin would

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did Kevin. In 1974 he was arrested in this state and charged with IRA membership. He was sentenced to Portlaoise prison where, along with others, he embarked on a hunger strike.

After 39 days he was taken from the prison to the Curragh Military Hospital.

Kevin took the prison authorities to court for continuing to hold him beyond his normal release date and he was freed in February 1975 without returning to Portlaoise. Marcella and Kevin were married in Monaghan in November 1975.

According to legend Marcella kept Kevin waiting over an hour. In 1976 he was back in Portlaoise for a short time. He met Martin McGuinness in Portlaoise. He says he taught Martin to play chess. That was always an issue of goodhearted banter between them. They were more serious about their receding hairlines. Martin always slagged Kevin for keeping a wee wisp at the front. And so he did until a few short years ago.

When I got to know Kevin and Marcella they were living in a mobile home up behind Sheila O’Neill’s. They lived a very frugal existence, harassed regularly by the Special Branch.

Kevin fed their young family on rabbit – a big chest freezer was filled with bunny rabbits which he had lamped in his meanderings across the fields. Kevin loved the land – the sight of it, the smells, the feel of it. He loved the outdoors. Farming was in his blood. And fishing.

When they got the house in Smithborough the mobile home was transferred to Melmore Point above Mulroy Bay in Donegal where the McKenna’s spent many happy summers between there, the Singing Pub and Paddy and Mary Doc’s in Gort na Brad.

Their family, like most families, did and are doing their best

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•Following Gerry Adams’s oration, a lament was played on the pipes, followed by a rendition of The Rising of the Moon and finally the singing of Amhrán na bhFiann by Colm Gildernew.

to live lives rooted in decency, fairness and justice. Kevin and Marcella embody that spirit. In their love for each other. Their loyalty. Their love for family and community and Ireland.

“Thanks to your efforts Kevin, and the efforts of many others, there now is a growing debate about the future, about a new Ireland, and a referendum on Irish Unity. And thanks to your efforts there now is a pathway towards unity.”

In their humanity and compassion. Their children, Ciaran, Padraig and Gráinne are a credit to them.

I want to address my concluding remarks to their children to Kevin and Marcella’s grandchildren – to the future – Ríona, Fionn, Cormac, Fiachra, Naoise, the twins Brogan and Tádhg and Cúlann. You are Kevin’s legacy. Kevin was quite rightly proud of you all. Those of you who are old enough, like Riona

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and Fionn, will remember Kevin. But some of the younger ones may not remember him.

So tell them about him. Tell them about their Daideó. Let them know who he was.

What he and Granny Marcella did for you all in your own personal lives, in that lovely subversive relationship, that good grandparents enjoy with their grandchildren. All children need iconic figures who they can depend on. Kevin McKenna was very dependable. Tell them all of this and tell them before they were born that he fought for them and for their future. So that they will grow old in a free and united Ireland.

Tell them their Granda was in the ‘Ra. He was a rebel.

A freedom fighter. Tell them that he and Granny Marcella were fighters for freedom. Champions for rights. Activists for equality.

Thank you Marcella. Thank you Kevin for your friendship; for your comradeship; for your sacrifices. Thank you for your leadership, and for your vision for a new future.

When you came back from the Yukon to your native Tyrone almost 50 years ago the North was a very different place. There was no peaceful way to end the union and to build a new united Ireland.Thanks to your efforts Kevin, and the efforts of many others, there now is a growing debate about the future, about a new Ireland, and a referendum on Irish Unity. And thanks to your efforts there now is a pathway towards unity.

Our duty is to complete that journey.

So Slán Kevin. Slán a chara, slán go deo. Tír Eoghain agus Muineachán Abú.

Up the Republic. 

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OF THE ORANGE STATE In the tumultuous world of the late 1960s, Ireland became briefly the centre of international media attention. The resistance of nationalist communities to brutal systematic attacks on their communities demonstrated a new generation of risen people.

While the centre of the disturbances were in Belfast and Derry principally, there were incidences recorded across the Six Counties including Armagh, Coalisland, Crossmaglen, Dungannon, Dungiven, Newry and Strabane. The first deaths of the conflict which began in 1969 took place that July - Sammy Devenny and Francis McCloskey, both Catholics killed by the RUC. With hindsight, we now understand that the events of the three days from August 12th to 15th 1969 were the beginning of the end for the sectarian Orange State. The August 12th Apprentice Boys march in Derry led to the RUC entering the Bogside with riot police, water cannons and CS gas. The resulting Battle of the Bogside where the community held the RUC and B Special reinforcements at bay

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for two days, sparked resistance across the North and a deadly state response.

British troops were deployed on August 14th, and six people were killed on August 15th in riots across Belfast. More than 150 Catholic homes and over 275 business premises had been destroyed as Loyalist mobs rampaged through Belfast, burning and rioting, aided by the RUC and B Specials. The previous day John Gallagher, a Catholic man, was killed by the RUC in Armagh bring the three days death toll to seven.

An Phoblacht and its sister magazine IRIS have over the years marked the 1969 anniversary and we reprint here some unique first accounts of August 1969 from RITA CANAVAN, NELLIE McAULEY and ANN McLARNON. Alongside this we have new contributions from JIM GIBNEY and RICHARD McAULEY. ROY GREENSLADE provides an analysis of British print media coverage in that historic month while MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA examines the reaction South of the border.

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A turning point

BY RICHARD McAULEY Why is it that the older we get the drier and hotter were the summers of our youth as they replay in our memories. The summer of 1969 is like that. I was 16. Along with my brother Seany, who was 15, and a bunch of our friends, our social life centred around St Teresa’s Youth club on the Glen Road in Andersonstown.

We hung out there almost every night. Our interest was in girls and music, and girls, and occasionally table tennis, and girls. The music was great. We held a disco every Thursday evening. Tamla Motown was big. I still love ‘My Cherie Amour’ by Stevie Wonder. The Stones ‘Honky Tonk Women’, Presley’s ‘In the Ghetto’, ‘Break Away’ by the Beach Boys, and John Lennon’s anti-Vietnam War song ‘Give Peace a Chance’ and many more were all part of the acoustic for that summer.

In July, eight of us crowded into the Lavery family home in Corby Way to sit up all night and watch the Moon landing. The pictures of Armstrong stepping onto the moon were awful but we were all caught up in the exhilaration of his “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.

Three weeks later and reality came crashing into our lives. On the Thursday night, August 14th, our disco was crammed with bodies dancing to the latest hits. Someone banged on one of the doors of the

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Parochial Hall. One of my friends went to ask what the problem was.

When he returned he told us that there were men and women at the door looking the keys to the school. They said they had been forced to leave their homes down the road and needed somewhere to go for

Classrooms which we had occupied as children only a few years earlier were now home to terrified families, some with all of their meagre possessions in a few bags, others with bits of furniture that a van or lorry had managed to take away the night. My friend sent them to Fr Mc (McNamara) the local Parish priest. We went back to enjoying our disco.

The next day was the Feast of the Assumption – a holy day of obligation. We met up to go to mass. When we arrived at the Glen Road we saw cars, vans and some lorries outside the main doors of the Primary School. We walked over to see what was happening. The

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school was now occupied by men, women and children – families – who during the night had fled their homes in the Clonard and lower Falls area. Their streets had been attacked by loyalist mobs, supported by the B Specials (an almost exclusively unionist auxiliary police force) and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), backed by Shorland Armoured cars.

Classrooms which we had occupied as children only a few years earlier were now home to terrified families, some with all of their meagre possessions in a few bags, others with bits of furniture that a van or lorry had managed to take away. The shock and terror on their faces was plain.

I vaguely remembered that there had been tension over the summer months, and we had heard of trouble in Derry in recent days (the Battle of the Bogside). But for the most part none of us were that interested in the news.

We now learned that as we had enjoyed our disco the previous night hundreds of families in the lower Falls and Clonard, and in north Belfast, had been forced to leave their homes. Loyalist mobs had attacked Catholic families in Percy Street and Conway/Cupar Streets and the small network of streets between the Falls and the Shankill. Scores of houses and shops had been destroyed.

The RUC and B Specials had also opened fire. RUC Shorland Armoured cars fired indiscriminately into Divis Flats. Nine-year-old

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Patrick Rooney was killed in his bed. A British soldier Hugh McCabe, home on leave, was also shot and killed. Much of Conway Street was destroyed. Terrified families had fled carrying whatever they could on their backs wrapped in blankets or plastic bags.

Many refugees made their way to St Teresa’s Primary School.

Others went to Holy Child Primary School and La Salle Secondary

The RUC and B Specials had also opened fire. RUC Shorland Armoured cars fired indiscriminately into Divis Flats. Nine year old Patrick Rooney was killed in his bed School, both close by in Andersonstown. Hundreds more travelled to the 26 counties.

Those organising aid for the increasing numbers of refugees in St Teresa’s needed cars and volunteers to go down to the Clonard and lower Falls to help evacuate streets. It was believed more attacks would occur. I couldn’t drive but I had willing hands. I joined up with Joe Savage who had a mini and we went to Waterville Street at the

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All photographs of Belfast 1969 in ths article are by Gerry Collins from: Bombay Street - Taken from the Ashes - Red Barn Gallery. First published in IRIS - the republican magizine, August 2009

back of Clonard Monastery to take away belongings and children and elderly folks. An hour or so later, a few yards just around the corner in Bombay Street Fian 15-year-old Gerard McAuley was shot and killed by loyalists. Bombay Street was totally destroyed in a firestorm of petrol bombs.

In the days that followed, Joe and I travelled down into the Falls. We transferred food and clothing, and occasionally people, between the refugee centres. On these journeys I saw the extent of the destruction along the Falls Road. Burned out terraces of small houses, gutted shops, old Mills that had stood for a hundred years reduced to empty shells and terrified families living in schools. I also saw my first British soldiers.

It was an awful time. For those who were homeless, the families who were bereaved and the communities then living under siege.

But it was a time of enormous generosity and courage by those who provided food and shelter, who took destitute families into their homes, and who provided a measure of safety behind the barricades that now stretched the length of the Falls and cut across what had been mixed streets between the Shankill and the Falls.

Unionist leaders blamed republicans for what had occurred.

Unionist government ministers went so far as to accuse nationalist families of burning down their own homes. In the period between August 14th and August 18th eight people were shot dead and almost 2000 families turned into refugees.

Fifty years ago, August 1969 was for me and for many others a

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50 years ago, August 1969 was for me and for many others a turning point in our lives.

It was the first time I even thought about partition. The sectarian intransigence of the Unionist regime at Stormont, and the subsequent willingness of British governments to defend the status quo turning point in our lives. It was the first time I even thought about partition. The sectarian intransigence of the Unionist regime at Stormont, and the subsequent willingness of British governments to defend the status quo, made me think seriously about the nature of the northern state.

It still took a while for me to realise that the politics I was beginning to now grapple with in discussions and arguments with friends and family were republican. But I got there in the end.  Richard McAuley is a republican activist and former political prisoner.

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BY JIM GIBNEY

In the affairs of life there is always a ‘defining’ point where transformation begins; it can be a year, a moment, an event or a series of events but fundamental change is invariably the outcome.

In my case the year was 1970, June 27th to be exact. The location, Short Strand/Ballymacarrett; and to be even more accurate, time wise, between 9pm and 3am.

Local history records the experience as ‘The Battle of St Matthews’ and broader history records it as the rebirth of the modern IRA. Unionist paramilitaries with the connivance of the British Crown forces laid armed siege to the Short Strand from several points around the perimeter of the district. A six-hour gun battle raged with several people dying and being injured and many

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premises looted and burnt out by rampaging unionist mobs.

I was baby-sitting with a friend of mine and as events conspired, as a 16-year-old, I was an eye-witness to such epicmaking hours.

I was not an eye-witness to the ‘defining’ moment which was the beginning of the end for the northern state, which took place the previous year, 1969, some few miles away from the Short Strand on streets similar to the streets that I witnessed, albeit unknown to me, the rebirth of the modern IRA. The infamous burning and sacking of Bombay Street, in the mid-Falls and the less infamous but nonetheless deadly attack on the nationalist people of Ardoyne in north Belfast and Derry’s Battle of the Bogside sounded the death-knell for the Official Unionist Party, OUP, which ran the one-party unionist state.

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s nd ma de st de mo the to te sta ist ion un the of n tio “The violent reac ir the , ns ica bl pu re r fo ed rm nfi co t en em ov M of the Civil Rights ” ed rm fo re be t no uld co te sta n er rth no the t long-held belief, tha Within a few years the OUP had lost its vice-like grip on the state as it reeled from one crisis to another – a crisis engendered primarily by its military response to what essentially was a political crisis.

It took a longer time to end the actual existence of the oneparty unionist state but the 1969 pogrom and the Battle of the Bogside sowed the seeds of the state’s formal collapse – some thirty years later in 1998, when the Good Friday Agreement ushered in a new all-Ireland framework wherein a recast northern executive and assembly functioned as part of a new all-Ireland entity.

The burning of Bombay Street and the attack on Ardoyne by unionist mobs, with the approval of the state’s political masters, and the uprising in the Bogside, triggered a series of events designed to stabilise the state but in actual fact deepened the crisis.

The context for the popular uprising from 1968 onwards was the Civil Rights Movement of the mid to late 1960s which led a

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popular reform campaign focused on housing and voting rights.

The inability of the unionist government to positively reform the system of government fanned the opposition within the north’s population, especially the nationalist people, who were on the receiving end of a comprehensive system of discrimination which deprived them of political and economic power and reduced them to the margins of life, irrespective of their class background.

The violent reaction of the unionist state to the modest demands of the Civil Rights Movement confirmed for republicans, their long-held belief, that the northern state could not be reformed and that partition and Britain’s occupation of the north was the fundamental problem.

The popular uprising by the nationalist people of the north in 1969 emboldened republicans, in particular the IRA, to reorganise and prepare itself for a war to reunite the country and undo the 1921 Treaty which partitioned the island.

And while the IRA was busy at what it did best, arming, training

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and recruiting the nationalist people were also discovering a strength they never knew they had.

It was a strength that emerged from the streets of the north where students and ordinary people were involved in sit down protests in the middle of busy streets in Belfast city centre, or on civil rights marches like the one from Belfast to Derry, or in occupation of houses, or rioting on the streets.

From partition in 1921 until 1969 the unionist government had ruthlessly suppressed several IRA campaigns – which had limited impact on the stability of the unionist regime.

The big difference the unionist government faced was that from 1969 it was confronted with a popular uprising across the north, which involved all shades and classes of nationalist opinion with a broad range of demands from civil to national rights and all in between.

Its response was the traditional one of military coercion and repression to intimidate the protestors and scare them off the streets.

But it had underestimated the mood of the militancy and determination of the generation who joined in the civil rights marches – or related protest activities.

The nationalist community had discovered a strength and determination in numbers; they had witnessed their own power and they knew they had an influence which could bring about immediate and beneficial change.

They also knew that the unionist system was collapsing under the pressure of the street protests.

And they were determined not to yield until the fundamental change they sought was achieved.

Against this background the unionist government slowly but inexorably moved to the cliff edge and after the Bloody Sunday massacre it tipped over into the political abyss and the one-party sectarian unionist state was gone forever.  Jim Gibney is a Republican activist, former political prisoner and parliamentary adviser to Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile

t from tha s wa d ce fa nt me rn ve go ist ion un the e nc re ffe di g bi “The , rth no the ss ro ac ing ris up r la pu po a th wi d nte ro nf co 1969 it was ” on ini op t lis na tio na of s sse cla d an es ad sh all ed olv inv which

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THE POINT OF In August 1969 the Six Counties erupted in civil unrest and loyalist pogrom as the Orange state came apart at the seams. Nationalists were no longer prepared to endure discrimination and second-class citizenship, and the only answer the statelet had for the demands of its oppressed minority was violence and repression.

Two landmarks stand out in those few brief and turbulent days, which had tremendous consequences for the Orange State, for British rule in the Six Counties, and for republican resistance to both. Free Derry Corner and Bombay Street

became synonymous with that period. Free Derry Corner was the spot where nationalists, armed with petrol bombs, stones, and any other missiles that came to hand, took on and defended Free Derry from the RUC. In Belfast, days later, loyalist mobs took advantage of the IRA’s disorganisation and lack of weaponry to invade Catholic areas, driving people from their homes, burning, and looting. Of all the areas worst affected, Bombay Street, stood out in people’s memories and became the symbol of Belfast’s last pogrom.

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* The following series of interviews by An Phoblacht’s LAURA FRIEL (first published in 1999) tells of that critical period in Belfast’s troubled history, a moment which brought British soldiers onto the streets and set the scene for the long war ahead.

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RITA CANAVAN

“We thought the house had been looted, we never imagined the whole street had been burnt to the ground. There was nothing to salvage. All we had were the clothes we stood up in”

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• Rita Canavan pictured in 1999

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“We lost everything but our sense of humour,” says Rita Canavan.

In a photograph taken in August 1969, two small boys are standing outside the burnt out facade of what had been the Canavan family’s Bombay Street home. Short trousers, spindly legs and cropped hair, one child stands up straight for the camera, but his face seems pensive, anxious, unsure. His companion, hands on hips, strikes a more defiant pose.

Behind them, a row of modest terrace houses, fire gutted, roofless, without doors or windows, stand in silent testimony to the sectarian hatred in which they had been engulfed. It’s a simple snapshot but all the elements are there, fear and defiance, vulnerability and courage. For the last 30 years, the image of Bombay Street has haunted not only the memory of residents whose homes were destroyed but the Northern nationalist psyche. And not without reason. Between 1969 to 1973, it is estimated that 60,000 Catholics in the Six Counties were driven from their homes.

As newlyweds, James and Rita Canavan moved into Bombay Street in the early ‘50s.

Rita remembers the area as a “quiet community of decent hardworking people.” The largest factory, Mackies, despite being located in a predominantly Catholic area of West Belfast, drew its workforce almost exclusively from the Protestant community, the vast majority from the Shankill. Catholics were more likely to be employed in unskilled, low paid jobs, as store keepers in warehouses, in the mills and at the Royal Victoria Hospital.

Whenever there was trouble brewing, Catholic families lived in fear of Mackies’ afternoon shift finishing before the local men, forced to work outside the area, had returned home. When on Friday 15 August, 1969, hostile loyalist crowds began to gather for a second evening running, “there was an insufficient number of men to defend the area,” says Rita. “Some women wanted to put up barricades but we were persuaded that everything would be alright by a local priest who was in contact with members of the Protestant community.”

Outside a shoe shop on Cupar Street, members of the RUC and B Specials were standing with a crowd of loyalists. “We thought the RUC were there to stop the loyalists invading the area,” says Rita. “We were wrong, they gave us no protection at all.” As fears of a loyalist incursion increased, the decision was taken to evacuate Bombay Street and a number of vulnerable streets in the surrounding area.

“Crates of petrol bombs had been seen by one of my neighbours.”

Residents boarded up windows and barred their front doors. “Mrs McCarthy and I were the last two in the street to leave,” says Rita.

St Paul’s parish hall was overflowing with refugees. “There were people there from Ardoyne and other areas of Belfast where Catholics were being attacked,” says Rita. Despite the noise and smell of burning, the refugees at the parish hall did not anticipate the scale of the destruction which would greet them the following morning. “A priest told everyone to go home except those families from Bombay Street,” says Rita. “We thought the house had been looted, we never imagined the whole street had been burnt to the ground. There was nothing to salvage. All we had were the clothes we stood up in.”

With four young children and expecting a fifth, Rita and her family stayed with relatives until they were allocated a caravan in Beechmount. “It was like a refugee camp,” says Rita. “We stayed there throughout the winter of ‘69. It was so cold even the toothpaste froze in the tube.” But as well as the hardship, Rita remembers a sense of community and individual acts of kindness with affection and praise.

The young men who held loyalist gangs at bay while their families saved what they could, “they were heroes,” says Rita. The Travelling community who faced loyalist violence to collect the furniture of fleeing Catholic families in their lorries, “they were great,” says Rita. And the many thousands of people who contributed time and money to rebuild Bombay Street are also remembered. “I moved back into Bombay Street on 11 July 1970,” says Rita, “and I’ve lived here ever since.” 

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NELLIE McAULEY

• Portrait of Gerald McAuley

“I’d been out queuing for bread,” says Nellie, “and when I returned home there was a commotion at the house.

Someone said Gerald had been shot. Another neighbour said he’d only been hit with a stone.”

With an increasing sense of foreboding, Nellie began a desperate search for her son

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• Nellie McAuley with Tom Hartley, Easter 2009

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“He’s not coming home,” says Nellie McAuley. “They were the words that confirmed my worst fears.” A large black and white pen portrait of her son hangs in the living room of Nellie’s terrace street home. “It was drawn by one of the prisoners in Long Kesh,” says Nellie, “and given to Gerald’s uncle. It’s a good likeness.”

Gerald McAuley was 15-years-old when he was shot dead while defending the Clonard district from loyalist attack. The likeness shows all the optimism and confidence of youth.

The kind of face which should have been more at home on a GAA pitch challenging his peers, than facing a pitched battle against a rampaging Orange mob.

At 7am on Friday 15 August, Nellie was in Belfast city centre where she was working as a cleaner in one of the big stores. “I was working when I heard the news that a wee boy, Patrick Rooney, had been shot dead by the RUC in Divis Flats the night before,” says Nellie.

There were no buses for the return journey home. “A young woman was standing at the bus stop in the town,” says Nellie.

She was a Protestant, the girl told Nellie, and was too afraid to walk home through West Belfast. “I told her she’d be alright with me, and we linked arms and walked home together.”

Years later, the two women met again. “She remembered me and also knew that my son had been shot dead just hours after we first met,” says Nellie. She thanked Nellie for her kindness and said she had been sorry to hear Gerald had been killed. “It was ironic,” she said. “No, it was tragic,” said Nellie.

“I’d been out queuing for bread,” says Nellie, “and when I returned home there was a commotion at the house.

Someone said Gerald had been shot. Another neighbour said he’d only been hit with a stone.” With an increasing sense of foreboding, Nellie began a desperate search for her son.

“I heard some of the wounded had been taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital. I pleaded with a nurse to let me search the wards.” A neighbour waiting in Casualty for his injuries to be treated confirmed that Gerald had been shot but he wasn’t at the Royal.

Back at home, news reporters had visited the McAuleys, asking for a photograph of Gerald. “He must be dead,” Nellie told her daughter Frances. Finbar McKenna’s father took Nellie to the City Hospital. “A sister at the hospital said Gerald wasn’t there but there was a 19-year-old youth in the morgue at Musgrave Barracks,” says Nellie. “I knew it was Gerald; he was only 15 but he was big for his age.”

Returning home, the reaction of people manning a barricade at Kennedy Way added to Nellie McAuley’s fears. “They moved so quickly and quietly out of our way.” From across a road a priest called to Nellie. “Are you looking for your son?” said the priest, “He’s not coming home, go home now, he died for his faith.”

Later that night Gerald’s father travelled to Musgrave to identify his son’s body.

“I didn’t know Gerald was a member of the Fianna,” says Nellie. “He was often away from home cycling and camping but I never thought anything of it. I was told later that he had been helping evacuate families, loading their furniture onto the back of a lorry.”

The McAuley family’s ordeal did not end there.

Three weeks later a British army captain knocked on their front door. “He asked for my husband and told him he was wanted down the barracks to identity his son,” says Nellie. “My husband told him Gerald was dead and buried but he insisted. ‘Is it Jim?’ he asked.

At the barracks the RUC roared with laughter. It was their idea of a joke, a sort of initiation stunt for the British Army officer.” 

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ANN McLARNON

“My husband was murdered for being a good neighbour,” says Ann McLarnon. In the front parlour of the McLarnon family’s Ardoyne home, Ann recounts the night when as a young wife she was robbed of a gentle husband and her three small children lost a father they were too young to really know.

On the wall hangs a small snapshot of a happy couple on their wedding day, holding hands as they walk together down a terraced street. Above the television hangs a much larger framed newspaper cutting of Sammy McLarnon’s funeral cortege.

As Ann tells her story, her voice is trembling and there are tears in her eyes. If Sammy and his bride’s joy had been brief, the grief of his widow has been as long as the trailing line of grim-faced mourners carrying Sammy’s coffin along a winding road.

“We heard shooting earlier that night but I didn’t know what shooting was and when Sammy dismissed it as only blanks I was reassured,” says Ann. “Sammy wanted me and the kids to go and stay in his mother’s house but I refused.”

Ann and Sammy moved into Herbert Street shortly after they were married.

By August 1969 the young couple had a two-year-old son, Sammy, a baby daughter, Ann Marie and Ann was expecting their third child, Samantha.

Ann was only 20-years-old, her husband just 27.

At the top of the street, a crowd of loyalists had gathered together with some members of the RUC. “A house had been set on fire,” says Ann, “and Sammy went up to help put out the flames.” Shots were fired as a few local T S U residents tried to save the house.

G AU “Leave the fenian bastards to us,” an RUC officer had shouted to the loyalist mob.

A LÚNAS “When Sammy came back into the house we both stood by the front window watching two fellas standing directly across the road,” says Ann. “The RUC spoke to the two men and they were moved away.” Ann went out into the kitchen.

It was only a few moments later. “As I walked back into the front room, three shots rang out,” says Ann, “Sammy fell to the ground.” Ann remembers calling her husband’s name, screaming and running for help next door.

Sammy McLarnon’s body lay where he fell for over five hours while the RUC and B Specials refused to let an ambulance through to the house. In the end, the dead man was taken away in a black taxi. Ann and her children were taken to Sammy’s mother’s house in Andersonstown. “I was in a state of shock,” says Ann. “I couldn’t think. I didn’t want to believe Sammy was dead.”

Later on the night of the killing, the RUC opened fire again on the McLarnon family’s home. The walls of the house were riddled with gunfire.

It was over a month later before the RUC sent a forensic team to investigate the crime scene.

“There was only three shots fired when Sammy was killed,” says Ann. “I have no doubt that those shots were aimed. The RUC deliberately killed my husband and then covered it up. The house was riddled so that it seemed as if Sammy had been killed by a stray bullet, an accident.” 

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From the early days of the Civil Rights Movement to Bloody Sunday, events in Ireland dominated the British media. In subsequent years the British policy of ‘Normalisation’ and ‘Ulsterisation’ created active strategies to contain and censor reporting of the conflict in Ireland.

Professor ROY GREENSLADE turns towards one critical chapter in the conflict – British print media reporting of the early weeks of British troops deployed on the streets of Northern Ireland.

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August 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of Operation Banner, the deployment of British troops in the Six Counties.

According to the British government at the time, it was to be a “limited operation”. Instead, it proved to the starting point to a bloody conflict which lasted for 30 plus years as Britain sought, unsuccessfully, to suppress Republicans who resisted what amounted to martial law.

In the years of the troubles, the British government and its soldiery were trenchantly supported by Britain’s national newspapers. With rare exceptions, such as the Sunday Times’s reports in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday, crimes committed by the troops were ignored while their critics were marginalised or demonised.

A very different picture emerges from an analysis of the editorial content of the London-based British press during August 1969. At that early stage, after months in which civil rights marchers had suffered at the hands of police and street riots were a regular event, several papers not only showed genuine concern for the nationalist population of the north, but also dared to tell the truth.

Here’s Cyril Aynsley, the Daily Express’s northern-based correspondent: “For far too long the Unionist government at Stormont, which has ruled unchallenged since 1921, ignored accusations of gerrymandering, sectarianism, antiCatholicism and nepotism.”

“For far too long the Unionist government at Stormont, which has ruled unchallenged since 1921, ignored accusations of gerrymandering, sectarianism, antiCatholicism and nepotism.”

Cyril Aynsley, the Daily Express

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And here’s Peter Black, the Daily Mail’s TV critic, writing about “the root causes” of the conflict and identifying Britain as the villain in its treatment of Ireland: “The story is so awful that no Englishman with any sense of history can feel quite easy in Ireland. And the situation in the north right now is as mathematical as product of it as two plus three makes five.”

And here’s Cecil King, writing in The Times, the UK’s so-called “paper of record”. In raging against “the regime at Stormont” he called it “the ignoble creation of Carson, Craigavon, Brookborough and such men, determined to maintain Protestant supremacy in the North quite regardless of any other consideration.”

King, a Protestant raised in Dublin, wrote: “Orange politics have no counterpart in the United Kingdom. Such supremacy can only be maintained by discrimination against Catholics and the gerrymandering of constituency boundaries. These practices have for 50 years been acquiesced in by successive Westminster governments.”

The year before, King had been deposed as chairman of the company that published the Daily Mirror, then Britain’s largest-selling title laying claim to more than 15 million readers a day. On the eve of troops going in, that paper’s leading article said confidently: “The Catholics know that the British people are overwhelmingly on their side in their political aims.”

The Guardian, in calling for swifter action on social and political reforms, argued that Stormont’s prime minister, James Chichester-Clark, should understand that “the frightening cause of the riots is a total loss of conviction by a substantial section of the Catholic population that they will get a fair deal from Stormont.” The Sun (the pre-Murdoch publication) said: “Protestants must accept that overdue reforms must go ahead much more quickly than they would like.”

Noticeably, the Daily Telegraph did not join in this chorus of concern about the plight of people suffering from discrimination over housing, jobs and a lack of voting rights. Instead, it showed unwavering support for “the Ulster government”, which it feared would be undermined should London intervene by sending British soldiers to supplant the RUC and its auxiliary force, the B Specials.

No newspaper was eager for Harold Wilson’s Labour government to send British troops on to the streets of Belfast and Derry, viewing such an initiative as very much a last resort. In early August, The Times thought it “sensible… to leave the preservation of order in Northern Ireland to Northern Irishmen” on the grounds that “even a limited intervention would be a move that could have grave consequences both for Ulster and the rest of the United Kingdom.”

Despite the political chasm between the Tory-supporting Telegraph and the left-leaning Guardian, both argued forcefully against using the troops. “What is needed”, said the former, “is a decisive demonstration of the physical superiority of the forces of law and order and of the [Stormont] government’s determination to use that superiority both relentlessly and impartially.” The latter said calls to involve British troops “should be vigorously resisted.

It would inflame the situation further.”

But the Mail, in lamenting “horrifying scenes of riot and bloodshed, fire, destruction and mob fury”, remarked that responsibility for a solution rests “ultimately with Britain”, saying: “We cannot wash our hands of the difficulties in Ulster. We cannot pass by on the other side.”

On 14 August, after the deaths of five people and rioting in Derry following an inflammatory Apprentice Boys’ march,

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reviewer for The Sun noted: “What emerges first from the documentary evidence is that the RUC are not an impartial peace-keeping force, but a passionately Protestant body.”

As Unionist politicians sought to defend the Specials, the press narrative about them changed, with most papers approving of them being disarmed and disbanded after being put under the control of General Sir Ian Freeland, the British commander who headed the military forces.

Initially, the Telegraph had suggested that the troops should be “controlled by the Belfast government subject only to the ultimate Whitehall veto.” It was the only paper to float this fantasy. It was not alone, however, in wondering what the future would hold after nationalists had welcomed the arrival of the troops.

Newspapers highlighted Freeland’s belief that the honeymoon period would be short-lived. The Mail argued

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It was the first clear statement of what was to become an enduring media motif: the portrayal of the British army – and Britain itself – as the reluctant piggy in the middle between two warring Irish religious tribes

that “the cheers which greeted the arrival of British troops and the cups of tea and sandwiches which people brought out to them should deceive nobody. Ulster remains a powder keg that a single spark could ignite.” In its view, “every second that British troops remain there holding Catholics and Protestants apart is fraught with intense danger.”

This was hugely significant. It was the first clear statement of what was to become an enduring media motif: the portrayal of the British army – and Britain itself – as the reluctant piggy in the middle between two warring Irish religious tribes. In what would become a common theme, the Telegraph contended that the “disturbances” between Catholics and Protestants were “the product of naked sectarian hatred of the traditional Irish kind.” The Mail agreed: “At bottom is the bitterness between Protestant and Roman Catholic. Such rock-hewn bigotry is as hard to comprehend as the immovable hatred of Moslem and Hindu. It is so out of key with modern thought.”

Shorn of the historical context (as recorded in the articles

by Aynsley, Black and King quoted above), newspapers increasingly failed to address the reality that Britain’s creation of a statelet based on Protestant supremacy was the reason for sectarianism.

That theme was also evident in the newspapers’ united hostility to the call by Ireland’s prime minister, Jack Lynch, for UN intervention. He was “impudent” (Telegraph); ”mischievous and wrong-headed” (Guardian); “rash and provocative” (Mirror); “irrelevant and irresponsible” (Mail); “more provocative than constructive” (Sun). “Bluehelmeted Swedes or Indians would be wholly out of place in Derry,” said The Times without caring to explain why. Lynch, said the Express, “wants the entire constitutional position of Ulster reviewed”.

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there was a change of mind by The Times. It would be “right to call in the army”, said the paper, adding: “The probability is that troops will be required in strength and for a longish period of time.” The Mirror reluctantly agreed: “Nobody wants the troops to go but if the violence continues what other course is possible?”

These views were informed by a growing belief that nationalists required protection because the RUC was not acting impartially. They were shared by every paper with the exception of the Telegraph, which was much more worried about the possible suspension of “the Northern Ireland constitution and the assumption of direct control from Westminster.” Evidently, “moderate Protestants” wouldn’t like it!

The Telegraph was also full of praise for the RUC “whose skill, courage and restraint in the recent troubles both in Belfast and in Londonderry cannot be too highly praised.” It also claimed that the B Specials, even if “partisan”, had a “by no mean dishonourable history.” Oddly, the Mirror ran a surprisingly soft piece about the Protestant part-timers who were braving the bullets while the Mail’s Belfast-based correspondent called them “a group of tough, dedicated men.”

By chance, 12 August marked the publication of a booklet by two academics, Bowes Egan and Vincent McCormack, about the vicious assault on civil rights marchers at Burntollet Bridge, Co Derry, in January 1969. Their central finding was that the ambush by loyalists had been planned by members of the Orange Order and B Specials, several of whom took part. The

“The story is so awful that no Englishman with any sense of history can feel quite easy in Ireland”m and nepotism.”

Peter Black the Daily Mail

smashing a rock behind a barricade in Derry during the three-day fight that later became known as the Battle of Bogside. That image would be republished many times in a process of media demonisation.

“Miss Devlin,” argued a Mail writer “is stirring up hatred” and “proves herself no better than a rabble rouser.” She was, said the Express, stirring up mob rage. She should show greater responsibility, said the Mirror. Towards the end of the month, after Devlin had slipped away from Derry to raise awareness in the United States about the civil rights struggle in Ireland, there was outrage at the success of her mission.

There were signs also of villains-in-the-making: republicans. The Mirror’s political editor, John Beavan, drew a line between the “high minded and noble” civil rights movement which appealed “to people of all faiths” and “Republican Catholics” who were seeking an end to

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by Chichester-Clark, without evidence, that “subversive Republican elements” were “to the fore in Belfast violence” and to the issuing SA RAIB LÚNA SIA of a nebulous statement by the Official IRA H AO N D UL that it was “committed to some form of action”.

It prompted the Telegraph to urge the retention of the B Specials “to fight the IRA” although a Times reporter, Julian Mounter, said he could not substantiate IRA involvement and, citing an anonymous source, was sceptical about whether it had the will or the capability to mount an operation. Mounter was among the posse of reporters and photographers despatched to the north of Ireland from newspaper offices in Manchester and London.

It meant that a host of young British journalists found themselves trying to understand a conflict they knew nothing about and, for what transpired to be only a few weeks, they simply reported what they saw. Later, they would become increasingly dependent on “the authorities”, meaning the army and the government, for their information.

At that stage, no newspaper, no leader writer, no journalist, could have foreseen that the hasty decision to send troops to Ireland would lead to one of the longest continuous deployments of soldiers in British military history. Nor did they realise the implications of those troops being used, first, to shore up Stormont rule and then to maintain British rule. How else can one explain the extraordinary naïvety of this confident statement in a Times editorial? “The troops can be relied on nowadays to show complete impartiality between Catholics and Protestants.”

As if that wasn’t quite naïve enough, The Times observed two days later: “Londonderry is a small town, easily controlled.” Easily controlled by completely impartial paratroopers shooting dead 14 unarmed residents in January 1972. 

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According to the Telegraph, there was also “widespread resentment” about the Irish government’s decision to set up military hospitals in Donegal, Cavan and Louth. “It encourages troublemakers to cross the border,” said the paper. If injured, they “will not have to stay in the Northern Irish government’s jurisdiction.”

Lynch was not the major press villain in August 1969.

That dubious honour belonged to Bernadette Devlin, the 22-year-old civil rights activist who had been elected to the Westminster parliament some five months earlier. On 15 August, several papers ran front page pictures of her

Roy Greenslade is an Honorary Visiting Professor at City, University of London.

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BY MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA The 50th anniversary of the crisis of August 1969 should not be seen solely in the context of the Six Counties. This was a crisis that shook all of Ireland and had reverberations among the Irish across the world. It roused public opinion to support Northern nationalists, it both divided and revived the Republican Movement and caused a rift that nearly toppled the Fianna Fáil government.

In theory all political parties in the 26 Counties were opposed to Partition. In practice all governments since 1922 had stopped short of confrontation with the British government on the issue.

The first Free State government, that of Cumann na nGaedhal,

The reaction in the 26 Counties to the Civil Rights movement was overwhelmingly sympathetic in 1925 had signed a humiliating agreement with the British that effectively cemented Partition. This was after the Boundary Commission, a key factor in persuading Michael Collins to sign the Treaty, was exposed as a sham. Far from ceding so much territory to the Free State as to make the Northern Ireland state unworkable, as Collins thought it would, the Commission actually proposed to cede Free State territory. Even the virulently antiRepublican ‘Irish Independent’ newspaper said that if such an outcome had been anticipated then Collins and Arthur Griffith would never have signed the Treaty.

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government for the first time in 1932. Dev maintained his antiPartition rhetoric throughout his career and received repeated electoral mandates on that basis. While his critics, both from a Republican and a pro-British point of view, can point out that the rhetoric was not matched by action, the fact remains that successive British governments continued to deny the expressed wish of the majority of the Irish people for a United Ireland.

It is often said that people in the 26 Counties knew little of the realities of the discrimination and second-class citizenship experienced by nationalists in the Orange State. There is some truth in that but that does not mean it was not a political issue.

That does not mean it was not raised in public discourse and in diplomatic contacts between the Irish and British governments and wider international opinion – it was. But once again, the action or lack of action of successive Irish governments belied the rhetoric.

Anti-Partition campaigns involving ‘respectable’ politicians in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s were among the influences that led young people to join the reorganised IRA of that period, focussed on a renewed effort to end Partition by an armed campaign along the Border and in the Six Counties. But the response of de Valera, in his last term as Taoiseach in 1957, was to impose internment without trial of Republicans, just as the Orange government in Stormont had done.

The end of the IRA’s Border campaign in 1962 led to disillusionment and a reassessment of Republican strategy that continued for several years. As part of that re-orientation Republicans were active in the Civil Rights Movement in the North, among people of many different political hues and none.

The momentum achieved by that movement did not come from the Republican involvement but from the reality of the Orange state itself, as experienced by nationalists for nearly 50 years. A ISSUE NUMBER 3 – 2019 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 3  anphoblacht

new generation was ready to challenge the state in an open way that their parents and grand-parents – often simply for reasons of pure survival – had not been able to do.

The reaction in the 26 Counties to the Civil Rights Movement was overwhelmingly sympathetic. When RTÉ cameras captured the attack by the RUC on the Civil Rights marchers in Derry on 5 October 1968, the violence of the Orange state was brought into homes in every corner of Ireland. The pattern was repeated in the escalating events of 1969, culminating in August in the Battle of the Bogside in Derry and the pogroms against nationalists in Belfast.

Jack Lynch actually named to the British ambassador several judges whom he alleged were overly sympathetic to the IRA The deployment of the British Army on the streets escalated the crisis to a new level.

Responding to public anger, Fianna Fáil Taoiseach Jack Lynch said that the government “could not stand by” and the military were mobilised with ‘field hospitals’ along the Border. Appeals were made openly by nationalists for weapons to defend their communities. Many weapons were sent North by Republicans and by other sympathetic citizens and such was the popular support for nationalists that little was done to impede them.

In fact, behind the scenes, the Lynch government had arranged for the importation of weapons to be transferred to defence committees in the Six Counties. A great deal has been written and anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 3 - 2019 - ISSUE NUMBER 3

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a lot more spoken about this ‘Arms Crisis’ but two facts are usually glossed over – the real crisis was that being experienced by the nationalists on the ground in the North and the arms plan was a government one, not the action of a rogue element as Lynch and his supporters tried to pretend. When the Fine Gael opposition was informed of what was happening by top Department of Justice official Peter Berry, there was a scramble to find scapegoats. These included Captain James Kelly who was put on trial.

In 2001 more evidence came to light exonerating Kelly and others. Speaking in a Dáil debate on the revelations, Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said: “Deputy [Dessie] O’Malley is not alone in what I regard as the totally false view that what was at issue in 1969 and 1970 was an alleged threat to democracy in this jurisdiction. In this fairy tale version of recent history, the late Jack Lynch saved the people from anarchy and civil war. This grossly partitionist view deliberately ignores the catastrophe experienced by the nationalist people of the Six Counties. People were killed by the B-Specials and the regular RUC in collusion with loyalist paramilitaries. They were forced from their homes, their streets were burned and we had one of the largest forced movements of the civilian population in Ireland, if not since Cromwell then certainly since the Famine.

This was the real threat, crisis and catastrophe in Ireland in 1970 and it was not in the leafy suburbs of Dublin 4.

“The problems in 1970 were not what the government did but what it failed to do. It failed to come to the defence of those under attack by the forces of the Orange state. It failed to confront the British government with its responsibilities. The nationalist people saw the prosecution of the defendants in the arms trial as confirmation that the political establishment in the State had abandoned them and was concerned only with its own partitionist political interests.”

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If Lynch was stepping back from the Northern crisis this was not the case with public opinion and with many in his own party. A recently published book ‘A Broad Church – the Provisional IRA in the Republic of Ireland 1969-1980’ by Gearóid Ó Faoleán (Merrion Press) dramatically illustrates the level of support for militant Republicanism in the 26 Counties in the period 1969-1972.

The author shows how the British government was incensed by the many acquittals or light sentences for people charged with arms offences and other charges related to the conflict. Examples include the acquittal of a Mayo farmer who had been found in possession of a Thompson gun, rifles and pistols, five County Antrim men in November 1971 fined €20 each for possession of arms, a Derry man found not guilty even though he accepted full responsibility for two hand grenades found in his possession. In

Public support was shown in many ways including public demonstrations, financial aid, practical support such as providing safe houses and arms dumps most cases these were jury trials and acquittals by juries or light sentences by judges were commonplace.

In an extraordinary indication of his position, Jack Lynch actually named to the British ambassador several judges whom he alleged were overly sympathetic to the IRA, claiming they were ‘bad’ or ‘weak’! This was revealed following the release of British State papers under the 30-year rule.

Public sympathy for Republicans, as manifested by jury verdicts, was the real reason why in May 1972 the aforementioned Dessie O’Malley, Fianna Fáil Minister for Justice, re-introduced the juryless Special Criminal Court to try political cases. O’Malley’s claim that the reason was intimidation of juries was not supported by evidence, even when O’Malley was challenged by the Opposition in the Dáil to produce it.

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Of course sympathy was not confined to court cases.

Public support was shown in many ways including public demonstrations, financial aid, practical support such as providing safe houses and arms dumps. This ensured that the Provisional IRA which emerged from the split in the Republican Movement in 1969/1970 grew rapidly and could rely on significant support in the 26 Counties. However, the split and the immediate need for defence in the Northern crisis meant that there was a lack of organised civil support, either in an effective Sinn Féin organisation contesting elections and campaigning, or in any significant broad political front. Despite being shaken by the crisis, the two conservative parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, remained totally dominant in the 26 Counties. Writing in ‘The Politics of Irish Freedom’, Gerry Adams says of this period: “The primary problem was lack of politics, a shortcoming which was to remain even after guns had become plentiful.”

The extent of support for Republicanism and its potential, is best demonstrated by the reaction against it by the political establishment in the 26 Counties.

When the British Army committed the Bloody Sunday massacre in January 1972, the Lynch government did little to prevent the burning of the British Embassy in Dublin, seeing it as releasing a pressure valve. But, as mentioned, the Special Criminal Court was soon re-established. RTÉ was whipped into line with Republicans being banned from the airwaves under Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act later in 1972. By the end of that year there were hundreds of Republicans held in Mountjoy Prison and in the Curragh.

A climate of fear was created in which it was alleged that Republicans wanted to ‘bring the war down here’. Playing on this fear, British agents carried out bombings in the 26 Counties, beginning with the Dublin bombs of December 1972 that were designed to spook the Dáil into supporting stronger repressive laws. And they succeeded. This culminated in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of May 1974, that took 34 lives.

It would be a long time before censorship and repression would be overcome in the 26 Counties and a new era opened up by the Peace Process.  Mícheál Mac Donncha is a Sinn Féin councillor on Dublin City Council anphoblacht  UIMHIR EISIÚNA 3 - 2019 - ISSUE NUMBER 3

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Challenging times ahead in European parliament The Dublin government cannot be relied upon to defend Irish interests in Europe Sinn Féin had a spectacular result in the European election in 2014, electing 4 MEPs – the first time any single party had ever been elected to represent every part of Ireland in the European Parliament. Five years on it’s useful to recall this fact – not by way of diverting from disappointment about the 2019 result, but in order to provide a bit of context.

Sinn Féin – with two MEPs – is still the second biggest party in Ireland. It polled 14.48% of the vote across 32 counties.

Certainly the loss of two excellent MEPs and a dramatic decrease in the percentage vote is deserving of detailed analysis.

However we also need to look at a broader picture. For example Sinn Féin successes in the European Parliament over the last number of year have not been sufficiently acknowledged.

Among other things the Sinn Féin team of MEPs and activists: - led the way on Brexit, eventually bringing the Dublin government and the EU to positions broadly defined by Sinn Féin.

- placed Irish unity on the agenda in the EU in a way it has never before been.

- gained firm commitments to postBrexit funding in the PEACE and INTERREG programmes.

- challenged the Dublin governments complicity in helping large multinationals avoid paying taxes.

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BY BRIAN CARTY

- ensured that Ireland used its ability to opt out of domestic metered water charges.

Sinn Féin MEPs also raised and campaigned on countless other issues which would otherwise have been ignored by the establishment parties.

The reduced numbers of Sinn Féin MEPs might come as a relief to Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, but that would underestimate the tenacity and resolve of the Sinn Féin team in Europe.

By way of additional context, the result for left-wing forces across the EU was poor.

Small advances in some countries were offset by greater losses in others. The group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) went from 52 seats in the European Parliament in 2014 down to 41 seats in 2019, with some parties dropping out of the Parliament completely.

As an aside, many people around the EU must be looking, somewhat superficially, at the 14 MEPs elected and concluding that Ireland looks ripe for social, economic and ecological transformation, with half its MEPs being in GUE/NGL (5) or the Greens (2).

So where does that leave Sinn Féin in the European Parliament?

The challenges are not reduced. On the contrary, Brexit will certainly increase Ireland’s difficulties in the time ahead – deal or no deal.

The appointment of a former defence

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minister to the post of Commission President looks set to speed up moves towards EU militarisation.

There are major debates coming up on the Common Agricultural Policy – at a time where Brexit presents major difficulties for Irish agriculture, which is only increased by the mass import of Brazilian beef through the Mercosur trade agreement.

The logic of the Green Parties around Europe in putting the emphasis on individual responsibility rather than on system change looks set to be embraced by the establishment – in the process doing nothing meaningful to respond to the very real climate emergency the world faces.

Vulture funds and bank bail outs take precedence over the real interests of ordinary people throughout the continent.

Blind eyes are being turned to human rights violations across the EU as farright policies become increasingly mainstreamed.

Across these, and the whole range of EU policies, the Dublin government cannot be relied upon to defend Irish interests. And

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they will be happy that Sinn Féin is in a less strong position in terms of holding them to account.

The outworking of Brexit will probably remove representation from the North of Ireland – leaving Sinn Féin as the only party in a position to genuinely represent the interests of people in the north in the EU. The Dublin government could ensure direct representation for the north by insisting on having observer MEPs. This would be a reasonable ask, as the north is on a trajectory to rejoin the EU following a border poll in the coming years. The difficulty is that it would require the Dublin government to have the will to do so.

Challenging times ahead

The point now for all Sinn Féin activists must be not just to interpret the election result but to change it five years hence.  Brian Carty is a special adviser on Brexit for GUE/NGL group in the EU parliament

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the New Republic’ The ‘Postcards from t, British designer, artis series is a hat tip to ’s cialist William Morris entrepreneur and So m series of articles fro News from Nowhere e Commonweal, the 1890 published in th t cialist League and se newspaper of the So ere Morris’s socialist, in a distant future wh r has been secured. Ou and romantic, utopia ir are Willa Ní Chuairteo story’s protagonists ur mpanied by their fo and Lucy Byrne acco o wh , Banba and Alroy children James, Afric d endure the equity an together enjoy and re’s New Republic. exigency of the futu mtheNewRepublic  fb.me/Postcardsfro

It’s been raining for 4 weeks straight. The eldest James has barely left the community garden. His running gag is that they’ll have to rename it the No Feed if the rain doesn’t let up soon. In truth the Big Feed team are managing things well. They’ve long adapted to the increased rainfall. Root rot for the crops and feed for the animals are the biggest challenges. Rain harvesting, acres of raised beds for crops and increasing the tunnels capacity have ensured a stable yield, but they could do without the power cuts.

“Ma!” James yells as he tramps in the back door. “I’m in the study, is everything ok?”

Willa shouts back as she heads downstairs to find James stood in the kitchen with a woman, who like her son, is soaked to the skin. She’s gently grasps the woman’s hand, introduces herself and quickly grabs a couple of good towels from the hot press. “Ma this is Carmen, she’s been helping us out at the Big Feed. Is it ok if she stays with us for a couple of days?” Willa turns to Carmen and says, “Why don’t I bring you upstairs to let you get dried off? The bathrooms just next door and there are nice clean clothes in the wardrobe.”

James is sitting at the kitchen table shovelling reheated bean stew into himself.

“So cad é an sceal kiddo” Willa asks him as she sits down, “are we harbouring a fugitive?” James rolls his eyes and says, “Don’t be daft Ma, Carmen is a refugee from the US. I told you about her yesterday.”

The numbers seeking asylum from the US had fallen off in the last few months and refugees were beginning to return thanks to the new Henry B. Wallace administration.

America’s second civil war has just ended.

The people desperately needed a unifying figure that they can get behind and it looks like Wallace may just be that man. Willa included a feature piece on Wallace, the civil war and the impact of the American refugee crisis on the world in last month’s edition

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NEW REPUBLIC

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America’s second civil war has just ended. The people desperately needed a unifying figure that they can get behind and it looks like Wallace may just be that man

of The Voice. Willa is Editor of Dublin’s oldest monthly magazine. Millions of black, Hispanic, Muslim and LBGTQI people had fled to countries across the globe.

“What stage is Carmen’s asylum application at” Willa asks James who shrugs and says, “I dunno Ma, it seemed rude to ask.” As if right on cue Carmen opens the kitchen door with Willa’s youngest on her back whose shouting, “giddy up cowboy, giddy up.” Willa grabs Alroy off the poor woman and pulls out a chair for her. James ever the gentleman is already ladling out a big bowl of stew for Carmen. Alroy is pulling faces and asking for a bun instead.

Carmen plonks Alroy on her knee and turns to Willa, “I’ve just arrived in Ireland so

my application should be processed within the next six months. I was a horticulturist back home, that’s why the Immigration Service set me up in the Big Feed. It’s a great fit. They’ll have my temporary apartment ready by the end of the week so I’ll just be here a couple of nights if that’s ok.” Willa reassures Carmen that she can stay as long as she needs and puts a mug of tea down for her. Alroy has asked Carmen what part of America she’s from.

“Charlottesville. My husband and I had a garden centre on the outskirts of the city when the night of the broken windows happened. It wasn’t just black and Hispanic stores that were hit, Muslim and Jewish families were targeted and the gay community. White mobs shouting blood and soil all night long. Armed white supremacists patrolled the streets day and night. We waited it out but in the end we lost everything; the store, the house and all our savings. My husband and I still had distant family in Oaxaca but at this stage the civil war was dug in and millions had fled to Mexico.

By the time we got there the borders had closed. José María joined the opposition but was gunned down during an anti-government rally. It took me nearly a year to get to Ireland. So here I am, without José. Everyone has been so kind to me. That gives me strength.”

Young Alroy hadn’t taken his eyes off Carmen and with great big tears in his eyes he hugs her tightly and whispers, “don’t be sad.” James got up from the table and put his hand on Carmen’s shoulder. “My other Ma has a great saying, ‘we are all our brothers’ keeper.’ So if you need anything our family will be here for you.” Willa sits quietly at the end of the table. She has never felt more proud of her two boys. Then Alroy hops onto his big brother, farts on his lap and runs off as James starts roaring at him. Normal business has been resumed. 

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Foghlaimeoirí Gaeilge faoi mhíbhuntáiste

Easpa Acht Gaeilge, Na Míbhuntáistí do Pháistí an Ghaeloideachais Sna Sé Chontae agus Rialtas a Chothaíonn An Bac – Dearcadh Príomhoide Gaelscoile LE SÉAMAS Ó DONNGHAILE

Tá a fhios ag gach Gaeilgeoir sa tír go ndearnadh cnámh spairne den Ghaeilge ó tháinig an Ghalltacht go hÉirinn agus gurbh i ndlithe Shasana faoi Reachtaíocht Chill Chainnigh (1366) a luaigh den chéad uair nár le sásamh na nGall beocht na Gaeilge.

Mar theanga a bhí againn roimh An Reifirméisean agus roimh An Chríostaíocht, cuireann cuid dá ndeirtear faoin Ghaeilge sna díospóireachtaí reatha a bhaineann lenár dteanga náisiúnta ár seacht sáith iontais orainn. Mar phríomhoide gaelscoile, feicim nach bhfuil deireadh go fóill leis an mhíshástacht nó leis an naimhdeas a d’fhulaing na Gaeil riamh anall.

Ní miste, mar sin, dearcadh oideachasóra bheith mar chuid den chomhrá atá uainn agus tagairt á dhéanamh d’Acht na Gaeilge ach go háirithe ar roinnt leibhéal – neamhthoil Chnoc an Anfa do thacú leis an acht agus na míbhuntáistí ar bhonn laethúil a bhíonn

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ann do mhúinteoirí agus do pháistí an tumoideachais sna Sé Chontae.

Tá sé cruthaithe ar fud an domhain gur mór an tairbhe (cúrsaí sláinte/fostaíochta san áireamh) a bhaineann leis an dátheangachas. Tá breis agus 6,500 páiste ar ghaelscoileanna sna Sé Chontae faoi láthair.

Is líonmhaire daltaí an tumoideachais lasmuigh de na ceantair Ghaeltachta oifigiúla ná daltaí ar scoileanna Gaeltachta ach ní hionann na cearta a bhíonn ann do gach saoránach acu seo. Is ábhar mór feirge agus náire é nach féidir linn na cearta céanna a sholáthar do pháistí an tumoideachais sna Sé Chontae agus is féidir sna 26 Contae. Baineann easpa acht Gaeilge le cearta daonna agus ní mór dúinn na cúrsaí seo a phlé sa chomhthéacs sin. Más fíor gurb ionann páistí an tumoideachais in Albain, sa Bhreatain Bheag agus in Éirinn, fiosraítear na fáthanna nach ionann cearta

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dóibh. Tá Acht Teanga sa chéad dá thír agus is suimiúil nach raibh baint nó páirt ag aon dream polaitíochta in Éirinn leis na comhairliúcháin, díospóireachtaí nó le cur in éadan féin nuair a bhí dhá thír sa Ríocht Aontaithe (mar a thugtar in áiteanna áirithe orainn) ag iarraidh achtanna. Is léir mar sin nach bhfuil aontachtóirí abhus in éadan achtanna teangacha Ceilteacha ach amháin nuair is acht Ghaeilge na hÉireann atá le plé.

Ar fud fad na hEorpa, glactar leis go mbeidh deiseanna ag páistí an tríú nó an ceathrú teanga a fhoghlaim – ní hé mar sin in Éirinn é. Tá córas ‘oideachais’ ar na hoileáin seo a éascaíonn an t-aonteangachas don aos óg. Cothaíonn an tumoideachas deiseanna iontacha ar leibhéil éagsúla don dalta agus don phobal. I dtíortha éagsúla san Eoraip tuigtear go bhfuil dhá cheart bhunúsacha de dhíth ar phobal teanga atá faoi bhagairt – a) an scolaíocht bheith ar fáil sa teanga dhúchais nó sa teanga is fearr leis an phobal sin agus b) go bhfuil sé de cheart ag an phobal teanga eolas/seirbhísí poiblí a iarraidh ar an stát. Tá sé de láncheart ag páistí an tumoideachais sna Sé Chontae bheith ag dúil le buntáistí thrí chuaille chaomhnú teanga (‘three pillars of language maintenance’) – an teaghlach agus an pobal, an córas oideachais agus an stát áitiúil. Cé gur mór an bród is cóir bheith ar phobal an tumoideachais in Éirinn as a bhfuil bainte amach againn, ní iontas ar bith againne sna Sé Chontae é go bhfuil muid ag plé le stát nach miste leis páistí bheith faoi mhíbhuntáiste. Ó thaobh na míbhuntáistí de, tá achair ar leith a bhfuil muid mar earnáil i ndeabhaidh leo le fada an lá.

Ar na samplaí is mó a léiríonn na deacrachtaí dúinn tá Sainriachtanais Oideachasúla (SRO). Tá fianaise againn go mbíonn an dátheanagachas ina chuidiú ar leith ag páistí a bhíonn ag streachailt ar scoileanna.

Ina dhiaidh sin, nuair a bhíonn riachtanas ar leith ar dhalta, ní i gcónaí a éiríonn leis an stát an measúnú is fíre nó is beaichte a sholáthar dó mar is ar thaithí

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na scolaíochta lán-Bhéarla a bhíonn sin bunaithe go minic. Fágtar mar sin, nach féidir measúnú foghlama a dhéanann siceolaithe oideachais a dhéanamh go dtí go mbíonn an dalta i Rang 4 – an chéad bhliain den Bhéarla ar scoileanna tumoideachais sna Sé Chontae. Tá an méid sin barrthábhachtach mar gan aon mheasúnú cuí déanta, ní féidir ‘ráiteas SRO’ a thabhairt do pháiste. Is é an ráiteas sin a sholáthraíonn cosaint sa dlí don leanbh. (Tá sé de dhualgas orm cur ina luí ar léitheoirí go ndéanann na siceolaithe oideachais obair den scoth ach go n-aithníonn siad féin go mbíonn srianta orthu de dheasca easpa uirlísí cuí measúnaithe, easpa taithí agus de dheasca a n-aineolais ar an fhoghlaim sa chóras tumoideachais.)

Dá mbeadh Acht Gaeilge ann, bheadh soláthar is leithne ann do pháistí SRO, soláthar seirbhísí SRO is fiúntaí, idir áiseanna agus sheirbhísí siceolaithe oideachais do scoileanna, cé go nglactar leis nach thar oíche a bheadh sé sin againn.

Is féidir lena chois sin bheith ag plé le deacrachtaí a chothaíonn teiripeoirí cainte dúinn (cé go bhfuil go leor acu ann atá an-tuisceanach ar fad agus cuid eile a bhfuil a bpáistí féin sa chóras againn) mar earnáil a bhfuil cosaint áirithe de dhíth uirthi. Síos tríd na blianta, ar naíscoil s’againn féin, tharla gur chuir teiripeoirí cainte comhairle ar thuismitheoirí gan a bpáistí a chur ar an ghaelscoil de dheasca snag nó tarraingt sa chaint a bheith ar leanbh.

Tuigtear dom nach raibh Gaeilge nó tuiscint don tumoideachas ag na teiripeoirí sna cásanna a raibh mé féin ag plé leo. Arís eile, bheadh cosaint ann don earnáil s’againn agus teacht againn ar sheirbhísí saor ar bhagairt agus ar easpa tuisceana dá mbeadh againn Acht Gaeilge.

Níl príomhoidí/múinteoirí an tumoideachais sna Sé Chontae dall ar na buanna a bhaineann le cosaint an stáit ar son na Gaeilge agus an dreama a bhfuil sí acu. Níl uainn ach na cearta céanna a sholáthraítear do pháistí an Ghalloideachais – sa deireadh thiar thall,

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is ceist chothromais atá ann. Buanaíonn easpa Acht Gaeilge míbhuntáistí don phobal Gaeloideachais agus is é is measa gur páistí beaga óga a bhíonn thíos leis agus an stát a mhaíonn gur féidir leo aire a thabhairt dóibh, níl sé a dhéanamh nó baol air ag an phointe seo. Bíonn sé deacair agam a chur i dtuiscint do pháistí (a chuireann an cheist) na fáthanna nach mbeidh daoine áirithe ar Chnoc an Anfa sásta tacú le hAcht na Gaeilge cé gur ábhar mór dóchais agam an tsuim a léirítear sa Ghaeilge ag coistí saineolaithe éagsúla agus lucht acadúlachta ar fud na hEorpa agus in áiteanna eile.

Maíonn Pádraig Ó Laighin agus é ag plé buntáistí, polasaithe, dlí agus cosaint oifigiúil don Ghaeilge ó dheas: ‘You can love a language to death if you do not simultaneously ensure its visibility, its usefulness as a resource in everyday life, and its role in the marketplace. This is why the effective functioning of the Official Languages Act and the achievement of official status for Irish in the European Union are highly significant: they will both contribute the viability of the language. More people will speak Irish as a consequence.’

Beidh ról lárnach ag páistí an tumoideachais sna Sé Chontae san obair uasal a bhaineann leis an Ghaeilge a chosaint agus a chaomhnú don chéad ghlúin eile – ná déantar amhras dó sin. Tá an t-am anois ann ag polaiteoirí Chnoc an Anfa uilig glacadh le fíric anbhunúsach: tháinig agus d’imigh cuid mhór feachtas Gaeilge síos tríd na blianta. Tháinig an Gaeloideachas fosta – ach d’fhan sé. Dúirt An Piarsach go mb’fhéidir nach n-éireodh leis féin nó lena chomrádaithe a gcuspóirí a bhaint amach lena linn féin. Gheall sé ag an am, muna n-éireodh leosan, go n-éireodh go geal leis na glúnta óga a thiocfadh ina dhiaidh. Is cinnte go dtiocfaidh an tuar faoin tairngireacht i gcás Acht Gaeilge don phobal agus don mhuintir is luachmhaire ar fad – ár ndaltaí. 

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• Pádraig Ó Laighin

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A REFERENDUM ON

PRESIDENTIAL VOTING RIGHTS IS COMING!

Encourage your family, friends, neighbours, colleagues and club-mates to get involved

Tweet and participate in the debate on social media with the hashtags #VoteForTheVote #APresident4All

Write to your local & national newspapers

Call your local radio stations

U ach

Most importantly of all, reach out, engage and talk to the voters in the South to ensure they understand the importance of winning this referendum

WHY NOT JOIN US ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

ar

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 www.sinnfein.ie/join

Talk to your friends and family in our Irish Diaspora around the world and encourage them to be positive influencers in this campaign too

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Lobby TD’s and Senators and encourage them to support this crucial campaign by emailing members@ oireachtas.ie

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WHAT YOU CAN DO

2019

NATIONAL DRAW SINN FÉIN CRANNCHUR NÁISIÚNTA TOTAL PRIZE FUND OF OVER | DUAIS-CHISTE THAR

€/£30,000

Building a united ireland

Draw will take place on Saturday 26 October 2019 | Crannchur Dé Sathairn 26 Deireadh Fómhair 2019

FIRST PRIZE | AN CHÉAD DUAIS

€/£15,000 Prizes are paid in the currency the ticket is purchased Íocfar duaiseanna san airgeadra ina gceannaítear ticéid

Sinn Féin National Finance Committee 2019 Private Members Draw Coiste Náisiúnta Airgeadais Shinn Féin 2019 Crannchur príobháideach na mball

nfein.ie

www.sin

For tickets contact: National Finance Committee, 44 Parnell Square, Dublin 1.  01 8726932.

Coiste Náisiúnta Airgeadais, 44 Cearnóg Parnell, BÁC 1.

TICKETS |

TÁILLE

€10 £10 OR