Posted by Jim on July 30, 2019
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Councillor Anne Mc Closkey discusses the availability of abortion services to the North.
Last week, of the ironically named “People” before Profit put a motion before Derry and Strabane Council which conflated the separate issues of marriage and decriminalising abortion. The motion was carried by seventeen votes to ten. There were many abstentions, presumably members either confused, or afraid of being called a choose-your-phobic, or denying the “choice” to end a human life. At the same council meeting, a motion was passed unanimously to prevent cruelty to animals.
Decriminalising abortion means the removal of all rights and protections in law from preborn humans.
Since then, in the parliament of Westminster, the decriminalisation of abortion has been imposed here in the north by politicians not one of whom was elected to represent us. Any six county MPs who were present voted against. Whatever your views on the question of abortion law, this is an assault on democracy. Little wonder we Irish, Britain’s first and last colony, don’t have much regard for the process.
Incredibly, erstwhile republicans lobbied in Westminster for such an outcome. New Sinn Féin’s leaders travelled, on three separate occasions, to ask that parliament legislate on this, despite claiming not to recognise the mother of parliament’s authority here.
The SDLP, anxious not to be out virtue-signalled went along too.
PBP, to be fair have at least been consistent on this. Their ideology is firmly based in their communist roots. The USSR was the first regime to offer abortion to the masses. PBP only put some people before some profit. The obscene returns of the multibillion-pound abortion industry, or the fact that many of the campaigns to decriminalise abortion are funded by the extreme right don’t seem to trouble them.
As an Irish Republican, I want self-determination for the people I represent. Many of us who witnessed the pain which the decades of struggle for national sovereignty caused our families and communities now wonder, watching these antics, what was it all about?
Despite the oft repeated mantra, abortion is not health care. Ireland, pre-January 2017 had one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world, and Irish obstetricians were world- leaders in their field. The assertion that our pro-life laws here in the north have saved 100,000 of our peoples’ lives since the introduction of the 1968 act in Britain has been upheld in court.
Irish doctors repeatedly testified that they never were prevented from acting in the best interests of a mother by the constitution. But those other medics, some with financial interests in the abortion industry, won the hearts and minds of a compliant and shameless media.
A heart transplant has been successfully undertaken in a pregnant woman. Cancer chemotherapy is now routine. With regard to mental health issues, robust evidence exists to show that pregnancy is protective against mental health problems such as depression and that suicide and self-harm rates fall sharply. Conversely a study in Finland study published recently showed a six times higher rate of completed suicide in women who aborted their babies as compared to those who gave birth. In none of the medical literature is abortion provision cited as a treatment for mental illness. But ideologues don’t do science.
Sepsis is, after haemorrhage the commonest cause of maternal mortality worldwide. The mis-management of sepsis took the life of Ms Hallapinavar, and enquiries into her tragic death recommended a new maternity strategy to prevent further such failures. Since the law change in the south two women have died in Irish Maternity Hospitals, with nary a word, never mind candlelit vigils, and tear-jerking newspaper editorials. The funding to implement the recommended strategy to improve maternal health was cut by Simon Harris, to fund abortion provision. Again, the media largely were silent.
And what about the babies, those other members of the human family who are present in every pregnancy? I worked in perinatal intensive care in the Belfast Maternity Hospital, a job with little sleep, but one full of magic moments. These wee ones were born many well below the 28 weeks gestation which this bill will withdraw protection from. They undoubtedly felt pain, they fought us and hated us for annoying them with blood tests and ventilator tubes and machines. Yet to dismember them and take them piecemeal from their mother’s womb, without even pain relief, is now a choice in law, and approved by our local council. This is barbarism.
As a GP, I’ve helped hundreds of women through pregnancies, most celebrating the new life within, but some of in despair as to how they might cope. Even in the most desperate of cases, I’ve never had a woman come back and say I wish I’d aborted that child. And I’ve had some, not all, but many who’ve induced abortion and have suffered and regretted that decision for all of their lives. One young woman, mother of a toddler, tells me that every time she looks at her son, she remembers that he is her second child.
To decriminalise abortion leaves the unborn child, the place where we all began, without any
protection whatsoever. If these people have their way, every home, where children should be safe, can now become a back-street abortion facility, where lives are ended without medical supervision and help. Our hospitals, places of care and healing, will become places where the innocent and defenceless will be sucked thorough tubes, or taken piecemeal from the safety of our mother’s wombs. Those who don’t expire as expected will be left to die alone, and thrown out with the soiled bandages. No dignified burial, no memories, just denial of their human dignity because they were somebody’s “choice” rather than human infants, albeit small and undeveloped ones. Nott planned, privileged or perfect.
A few years ago, in Derry, some women, closely allied to PBP were offering illegal, prescription-only medication and credit facilities to vulnerable women, without license, insurance or medical cover, in the name of women’s “rights”. The media gave them extensive coverage. Last week outside the guildhall in Derry others, with whom PBP members freely associated, were distributing leaflets telling women who had problems with abortion pills and were seeking medical care to lie to their doctors.
These are the people who should be criminalised.
We know that if abortion is decriminalised in the north it will be largely Sinn Féin’s doing. As they did with the euphemistically named “welfare reform”, they get those bad Brits to do their dirty work, and then cry foul. Even when they had what passes for political power here, they delivered nothing of real worth for Derry-the medical school, (not the promised 9,000 new student places, but a start) an education system worthy of the name, infrastructure, jobs, justice for abuse survivors, and redress for decades of systemic neglect. Instead they give us culture wars that have little or no relevance to real people. We canvassed 7000 households in Ballyarnett, and none of SF’s red lines were mentioned on the doors. I speak Irish, and had useful conversations with some local wanes.
If the assembly is not reconvened by 21st October all protections for unborn babies up to 28 weeks gestation will be removed. O brave new Ireland.
I’ve spoken before about the role of men in story of human reproduction. I don’t blame them for choosing not to get involved in the abortion debate, such is the vitriol and abuse to which they will be exposed. Conversely, for the traffickers, the violent thugs and abusers, decriminalisation is a dream come true. It will do away with nasty doctors and social workers asking inconvenient questions.
Wee recap of some Key Stage 3 biology.
The mother’s womb, or uterus is a hollow muscular organ with an opening to the outside, which has no other physiological or practical function except as a place where human babies grow and develop till they are mature enough to survive on their own. Those who chant “get your rosaries off my ovaries” should know that the ovaries produce eggs only, which simply die if they are not fertilised. It’s called a period, and happens monthly to most healthy women.
However, if fertilised, the egg and sperm each contribute 50% of the genetic material which makes a new and individual human person. The baby is genetically distinct, a new and unique person who never existed before and who never will again.
The narrative which writes males out of the human story is pernicious nonsense. Fathers matter, and are 50% of who we are. I’m the spit and image of my father, and he was my guide and inspiration. I think about him every day.
The alarming rate of suicide and self-harming behaviour in young males may be related to this exclusion of them as co-creators of their children, and their relegation to essentially being sperm donors.
I am a Pro-life feminist of the left. We in Aontú, the republican party I represent are pro-life for all of life. There has to date been little class-based analysis of the complex issue of the right to life of children versus the advancement of women. What a sterile and narrow vision of progress is it, when women’s rights and welfare are pitted against the lives of her children. When women are forced to relinquish their maternity and deny their biology to progress their careers and sometimes to even survive in today’s world.
It is a fact that abortion disproportionately affects the poor, ethnic minorities, and those who have additional needs. Many women have their choice and bodily autonomy limited by government policies and systemic injustice which seem less important to political parties than their own promotion. Their exclusive preoccupation with the culture wars at the expense of making meaningful change for the majority is a cause of bewilderment to many.
Organisations such as Amnesty, which were once were progressive voices for the oppressed are now the paid puppets of the most right-wing and anti-people forces on the planet. Money movers, venture capitalists, currency speculators, who have impoverished tens of thousands across the planet now impose their world view, because money talks.
Planned Parenthood and Marie Stopes International are for-profit global businesses making
billions here and in the developing world. Globally, they have little interest in the things which hav been repeatedly proven to make a real difference to women’s health, things such as such as education, maternal nutrition, clean birthing rooms, antibiotic provision, the treatment of sepsis, or blood transfusion facilities and so on. They don’t divert their obscene profits to build roads and infrastructure which would mean women in obstructed labour don’t have to be transported in a wheelbarrow over dirt tracks to access care.
They offer abortion and contraception as liberty, and self-righteously carry the white man’s burden into this new millennium. Thankfully however, women in the developing world are now speaking out to reject this new imperialism.
Of course, worldwide, the most lethal of the fatal foetal abnormalities is to be female. There are 400m of us at a conservative estimate missing across the globe. Having Two X chromosomes merits a death sentence, and this is legal, totally, if abortion is decriminalised.
The parties who promulgate this culture of death should hang their heads in shame.
Have we no better vision to offer women, or society?
However, the tide is turning, as people across the planet wake up and realise that the future can be better. This is the human rights issue of our generation. All lives matter, not just the planned, he privileged and the perfect.
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| Clr. Anne Mc Closkey. MB. Aontú, Derry and Strabane District Council. |
Posted by Jim on July 29, 2019
FIREHOUSE KITCHEN TALK: EMERGING THREATS AND OPPORTUNITIES: COOPERATION WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AND FDNY
Join Friends of Firefighters (199 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231) on Wednesday, July 31, from 6:00-9:00 PM for a firefighter-prepared dinner followed by a presentation from Battalion Chief Sean Newman and Retired Colonel Patrick J. Mahaney, U.S. Army Special Forces on post-9/11 cooperation between the Department of Defense and the FDNY. This event is free for active and retired FDNY members. No RSVP necessary.
STREET RENAMING CEREMONY
On, Saturday, August 3, 2019, at 1030 hours, a Street Renaming Ceremony will be held honoring the memory of Lieutenant Christopher Raguso, Engine 302. The ceremony will be held at Commack Fire Department, 6309 Jericho Turnpike, Commack, NY 11725. All off-duty members and their families are invited to attend. Members are requested to attend in dress uniform.
SARATOGA FIRST RESPONDER APPRECIATION DAY
The Saratoga Race Course will host First Responder Appreciation Day on Wednesday, August 7, 2019. Gates open at 11:00 AM, First Post is 1:00 PM. Admission is free with firefighter ID. There will be a performance by the FDNY Emerald Society Pipes and Drums following the 6th Race. A reception will follow the races at The Parting Glass, 40 Lake Ave, Saratoga Springs. Visit https://www.saratoga.com/event/celebrate-first-responders-appreciation-day-149952/ for more info.
FIRST RESPONDER DAY AT CITI FIELD
Citi Field will host First Responder’s Day on Sunday, August 11. Those who order with a group purchase will have early entrance to watch the FDNY vs. NYPD softball game happening on Citi Field from 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM, along with entry to the Bullpen Plaza, where complimentary soda, beer, hot dogs, and popcorn will be served from 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM. The Mets will take on the Nationals at 1:00 PM. Ticket options range from $30 – $60/per person. Additionally, it is also Family Day at Citi Field, with a promotional National Baseball Card Day giveaway and Mr. Met Dash for all children. Please email Max at mjohnson@nymets.com for tickets and questions.
Posted by Jim on
Church of Ireland (Anglican) Bishop of Clogher,
Right Rev John McDowell
Dear Prime Minister,
Now that the campaigning has ended and the governing must begin I wanted to write to you about the matter of the Border on the island of Ireland, which is close to where I live. Indeed, the Diocese of Clogher, which I serve, includes all of County Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland and County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that my Diocese transcends the Border.
No doubt many others representing many people and interests will have communicated with you on this subject before. So I would first reassure you that I am writing as someone who has always recognized the almost impossible difficulties and stresses placed on those who have a vocation to public life, particularly politicians.
I cannot claim to represent a huge electorate or to have any specialist knowledge. But sometimes an individual should say things which might otherwise go unheard in the cacophony of other, better–known voices; the alternative would be to simply wither in the silence of exhaustion.
As Bishop of Clogher, I have a vocation to care for people on both sides of the Border and a responsibility to pray for both British and Irish Heads of State and their peoples, day by day. Although that is principally a spiritual job of work, it would be hypocritical of me to pray for something without actively working to achieve it. Besides, spiritual wellbeing needs a material basis on which to live.
So, although our priorities and the methods we use to achieve them may be different, I think it is fair to say that our goals overlap; nowhere more so than in the current difficulties surrounding Brexit and the Border, which (very worryingly) give every impression of escalating towards a crisis. For those of us old enough to have lived through longest civil conflict in post–War Europe, the very word “escalation” is resonant with overtones of lived horror and real tragedy. As such, it is reassuring that those in power on both sides have repeated their desire to find answers to the Brexit/Border conundrum problems that protect what has been achieved here since 1998.
What your Government chooses to do to that end will be inevitably one of historical magnitude.
Government’s role is to use the very substantial resources of the State to sift evidence, consider policy options and plan a way forward. In so doing it should take into account the needs of society as a whole, i.e. to seek the common good. In light of this, the worst thing a Government can be is irresponsible or careless. No Government should commit a country to a course of action in which the consequences were so opaque as to be incalculable. It would, therefore, be both logically and morally correct for a Prime Minister to give deep pause before allowing a no–deal Brexit.
But I principally wanted to write to you about the Border.
The Border and the problems which it poses for any form of Brexit are not only technical or technological issues. Nor are they simply issues to do with trade or security matters. Expressed in the starkest terms, the Border is the background against which all political and much cultural life in Northern Ireland (and in a more limited way in the Republic of Ireland) is worked out. Some people like the Border and others do not, but positively or negatively, consciously or unconsciously, it is pivotal to how politicians and people here assess almost all policy alternatives.
For this reason alone, any big change which has an impact on the Border is unavoidably complicated and inevitably charged with emotional and symbolic significance.
After a period of relative obscurity, it now appears that everybody is fascinated by the Border. It is interesting, for a while, to be at the center of the world’s attention. But on the whole, I think many of us would rather have been left alone.
For a political border, it is very beautiful in places. That is largely because of the hundreds of small farms looked after by hundreds of sturdy farmers along its length. There isn’t much money in it for most of
I think it was the great English public figure and man of Letters Thomas Babbington Macauley who said of Ireland that “the molten lava of the past flows hot and dangerous under the thin crust of the present”.
The ground on which people build and grow in the Border region feels particularly fragile today. It is almost possible to feel the heat of the past burning the soles of our feet. So, please, in your consideration of the future of this place: tread carefully. And with deep and genuine concern I would ask you to be very conscious of the legacy your Government will leave.
The Rt Revd John McDowell is Bishop of Clogher. The open letter was first published online by the Daily Telegraph on Friday, 26 July. END.
Posted by Jim on July 28, 2019
By AM Thursday, July 25, 2019 Share Tweet Share Share EmailEamonn McCann on why he believes Sinn Fein is spoofing again.
REBEL ⬌ THE NEW SOCIALIST WEBSITE
Sinn Féin are telling porkies again—this time over flags. The party voted against a proposal from PBP to remove ‘Soldier F’ banners, arguing instead for a catch all action against ‘all banners’, which PBP did not support. Now the Sinn Féin spin machine claims that it was PBP who opposed the removal of offensive parachute regiment banners. As Eamonn McCann explains, this is not the first time the party has used controversy over a specific incident to enact wider powers of control for the Northern state.
Belfast City Council took an awkward turn on July 1st when discussing the flying of flags supporting Soldier F, the paratrooper facing two counts of murder and two of attempted murder arising from the Bloody Sunday massacre in Derry.
The ‘Soldier F’ flags and banners had widely been condemned. The July 1st council motion was a direct result.
But instead of simply demanding the removal of Soldier F flags and banners, or broadening the motion to take in sectarian symbols or threatening messages generally, Sinn Féin took the lead in proposing a wide-ranging ban on all banners which didn’t have the approval of Stormont’s Department for Infrastructure—legal owner of street fixings such as lampposts.
Posted by Jim on
by Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams
Micheál Martin should take positive leadership role in Irish unity process
In the same week that Boris Johnson achieved his long held ambition to
be British PM, Fianna Fáil Leader Micheál Martin said he “can’t comprehend”
why there is no Executive and Assembly in the North.
I don’t believe this. Micheál Martin understands
exactly why the institutions collapsed. He knows why they have not been
restored. But he doesn’t let this get in the way of his totally self serving
narrative.
Micheál Martin has long been obsessed with the
perceived threat to Fianna Fáil posed by Sinn Féin. He rarely misses an
opportunity, in or outside the Dáil, to attack the party. Facts are irrelevant.
The crisis in the North is shamefully exploited time and time again.
Last year when the deal agreed between Sinn Fein and the DUP collapsed,
because the DUP walked away, Martin was out of the traps almost immediately
with his irresponsible and inaccurate tweet: “The continued failure of
the two dominant political parties in the North to agree restoration of
government is bitterly disappointing… “
There was no failure by Sinn Féin. The deliberate attempt to present
Sinn Fein as unwilling to negotiate in good faith and of being one of the two
problem parties, has been a constant refrain of Martin’s since Fianna Fáil lost
power in 2011.
He knows it is untrue. He knows the obstacles to progress in the North
arise from British government stupidity and indifference to Ireland, allied to
failures by successive Irish governments, and to resistance from the DUP and
others within political unionism who oppose the Good Friday Agreement.
This week Mr. Martin was at it again. Speaking at the MacGill Summer
School he said that he “can’t comprehend” why there is no Executive and
Assembly. This from the same Fianna Fáil leader who in September 2015 called on
the two governments to suspend the institutions in the North!
He also repeated his claim that Sinn Féin conspired
to bring down the Executive in January 2017. Micheál Martin knows this is
untrue. Why on earth would Sinn Féin do that? He also knows that Mary Lou
McDonald and Michelle O Neill have made exhaustive efforts, alongside the Irish
Government and others, to establish the basis for the power sharing government
to be restored. As far as Sinn Féin is concerned this has to be is on the basis
of equality as set out by the Good Friday Agreement. That basis has yet to be
achieved.
So why should citizens in the North be expected to
tolerate the denial of human rights available to Irish citizens elsewhere on
the island of Ireland – or indeed by citizens living in Britain? Why should
they embrace a system of governance which denies these rights? Micheál Martin
clearly thinks they should.
He also knows that the Renewable Heat Initiative
scandal, which brought the crisis to a head and which was inextricably linked
to serious allegations of DUP corruption at a cost of hundreds of millions to
taxpayers- could not be ignored by any responsible partner in government. His
own long tenure in various Ministerial roles saw Fianna Fail ministers accused
of corruption. Mr Martin did nothing about this. He should now know how this
undermines public confidence. That is why Martin McGuinness took the action he
did. Martin McGuinness was right.
In addition, Micheál Martin’s claim that marriage
equality would already be on the statue books in the North, if the institutions
had not collapsed, ignores the record of Sinn Féin and others within the
Assembly who tried to get the necessary legislation passed. Marriage equality
was blocked five times in the Assembly by the DUP. Five times. On the last
occasion, despite a clear majority of MLAs in favour, the DUP used a petition
of concern to oppose it. There remain sufficient DUP and unionist MLAs to use
the petition of concern again, if they wish.
These are the facts.
Finally, Micheál Martin’s can also be judged by his
abject failure to produce the 12 point plan on Unity he announced two and a
half years ago. Not only has there been no progress on that front but a commitment
to organise Fianna Fáil in the North has not materialised.
When leading Fianna Fáil representatives Éamon Ó
Cuiv TD and Seanadóir Mark Daly attempted to launch the Fianna Fáil party in
Tyrone they were publicly censured by their leader. Ó Cuiv was sacked from the
party’s front bench and Mark Daly was sacked as deputy Seanad leader for Fianna Fáil and spokesperson for foreign
affairs.
Two years ago I wrote to the Fianna Fáil leader and
I met him to ask for his support in establishing an Oireachtas Committee to
prepare for Irish Unity. This is a modest common sense attempt to plan for the
future. If we want to persuade unionists or anyone else to vote Yes in a
referendum for Irish unity then we need to examine all the issues involved in a
thoughtful and inclusive way. An Oireachtas Committee could look at the
economic arguments, as well as the cultural and societal elements of such a
process to create an agreed Ireland.
Micheál Martin said no.
The Fianna Fáil leader’s negative campaigning against Sinn Fein is not
about the interests of citizens in the North. It is not about the national
interest. Like Boris Johnson it is about narrow self-interest. Its real
focus is the electoral contest between Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin in the South.
This approach does a disservice to citizens who live here and to the genuine
desire of many across this island for unity.
As the relationships on this island and between us
and Britain continue to change, as more people look to a future, which is more
democratic and hopeful than that envisaged for us by Boris Johnson, my hope is
that Mr. Martin will take a more positive leadership role. I urge to him to do
so.
