FDNY BRAVEST FOOTBALL TO PLAY NYPD FINEST FOR CHAMPIONSHIP The FDNY Bravest Football Club will be playing the NYPD Finest Football Club for the 2019 NPSFL Championship. This game will be a rematch of this year’s Fun City Bowl where the Bravest defeated the Finest by a score of 27-21. The Championship Game is being played tonight, June 21, with kickoff scheduled for 6:00 PM at Mitchel Athletic Complex, 1 Charles Lindbergh Boulevard, Uniondale, NY 11553. Admission is $10 with children under 12 free. Come out and cheer on the Bravest as they try to make history by becoming the first of these teams to beat the other twice in a single season! MEMORIAL MASS On Friday, July 5, 2019, at 1100 hours, a Memorial Mass will be held honoring the memory of Lieutenant Gordon M. Ambelas, L-119, who made the supreme sacrifice on July 5, 2014. The Mass will take place in the quarters of E-211/L-119, located at 26 Hooper Street, Brooklyn, NY. All off-duty members and their families are invited to attend. Members are requested to attend in dress uniform. PLAQUE DEDICATION On Tuesday, July 9, 2019, at 1100 hours, a Plaque Dedication will be held honoring the memory of Captain John T. Vigiano Sr., L-176, who died on July 7, 2018. The dedication will take place in the quarters of E-233 & L-176, 25 Rockaway Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. All off-duty members and their families are invited to attend. Members are requested to attend in dress uniform. FRIENDS OF FIREFIGHTERS JUNE 26 FIREHOUSE KITCHEN TALK CANCELLED Please note that the Firehouse Kitchen Talk at Friends of Firefighters has been cancelled for Wednesday, June 26. WORLD POLICE AND FIRE GAMES ATHLETIC PACKAGES A reminder that all orders for the 2019 World Police and Fire Games Athletic Packages must be placed by July 1, 2019. For participating athletes with proof of registration, packages will cost $125. For non-participants, the cost is $250. Payment must be received via check or Venmo before your order is placed. To place your order, contact Antoinette Fatone at afatone@ufanyc.org or 212-545-6974. JOHNNY MAC FOUNDATION MEMORIAL GOLF CLASSIC The Johnny Mac Foundation will be hosting the 9th Annual Golf Outing on Thursday, July 18, 2019, at the Timber Point Golf Course in Great River, Long Island. The outing is in memory of FF John McNamara, E-234, who died of 9/11 related cancer in August 2009. If interested in participating as a golfer, email golf@johnnymacfoundation.org.
Brexit is making some unionists re-evaluate their allegiance to the UK – and consider support for a united Ireland, says Philip Gilliland, a commercial lawyer and former president of the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce. “We’ve been given a gift which is called Brexit, because it’s allowed those of us who are from a Protestant background to be able to talk about the heresy of the united Ireland in a way that is not heresy,” says Philip in the latest Forward Together podcast.
He continues: “In other words it’s allowed us to talk about the possibility of constitutional change in a way that doesn’t seem to be disloyal to our tribe, because clearly for many of us, Brexit is nuts.” Correcting himself and moderating his speech, he adds: “That sounds very disrespectful to people. I think I should really retract it. People are entitled to their view if they think it’s the right thing to do. That’s brilliant. Fill your boots. That’s grand. But it clearly has changed the dynamic between how we deal with our neighbours in the south and how we deal with our neighbours in Britain.
“It’s shone a light on the fact that the Brits don’t really know or care very much about Northern Ireland. We knew that anyway. It has shone a light on that fact for those of us whose businesses are totally integrated into the Republic’s economy – which mine is. It is a threat to jobs and our own livelihoods. And so we’re going to vote with our economic future [in mind]. It’s allowed a lot of us to question why we were unionist in the first place.
“In the past many of us who were unionist thought we were more a bit more socially liberal and there was a fear of theocracy. Today that’s totally changed. We are now the theocrats. I’m not. I actually want a socially liberal world. The idea of the socially conservative moral stuff coming out of unionism is utterly abhorrent to me. And frankly, ironically, rather un-British too. We’ve got all sorts of reasons now to talk about the constitutional issue in a way that weren’t open to us….. If it’s not under the aegis of Sinn Fein, I don’t really care. I’m happy with it.”
Leadership void
Philip, like most of the interviewees in the Forward Together podcasts, is strongly critical of political leadership in Northern Ireland today. “We don’t have what you might call a traditional political class,” he says. “The people who might otherwise be involved in leadership in society feel they do not want to put their head above the parapet. We have to accept that there was a fear, a legacy of political violence, for a very long time. There is fear on the part of people who are afraid to say what they really feel. Fear in what is unfortunately still a tribal society, fear of breaking ranks and being accused of being disloyal to your own – which sounds very medieval. But I think that’s the way that most people still think.
“So we have to encourage people to say whatever they think, to feel empowered to say what they feel about progress in society. And I can’t think of any evidence recently of bully boy tactics on the part of paramilitaries in either tribe stopping people saying what they feel…. So we have to encourage people to stand up and say what they feel. There is a truism here, which is that bad things happen when good people do nothing. And it’s too easy in Northern Ireland for good people to do nothing.”
Philip adds: “I do feel that some business organizations are a very good vehicle for leadership in civic society. They do allow people to emancipate themselves and say what they feel. Certainly, my experience of being a business leader is that the audience that we were speaking to, which is not just businesses who are our members in Derry, but actually all of society, want to be led. They want leadership.”
Integration – please
But Philip is equally animated about the need for social integration. He explains: “Pretty much everybody wants a shared society, except for the nationalist and unionist politicians who benefit from a segregated society…. 99% of people here get on actually really well – much better than they ever did. People on the ground are really getting on grand. Obviously it would be better if we shared our education.
“One of the keys to unlocking this is the fact that we have something like 60 or 70 thousand too many school places. And the annual budget per child is continuing to reduce. And that’s just clearly nuts. So every school can’t perform while we have 70,000 too many school places. Surely somebody needs to say, isn’t the problem that we’ve got 70,000 [empty] school places? …we have to work out what is the best way to rationalise schools. And when we rationalise schools guess what, we’re going to have to actually mix a few of them, because it’s the only way to do it.”
Dealing with the past
Despite being a lawyer, Philip does not believe that going through the courts is the best way to deal with the past. “I’m not a criminal lawyer,” he says, “but my sense of the administration of justice and the past is that it’s just so vast and so difficult a task to apply legal justice to events of over 20 years ago, that it’s just not practical…. And many of the witnesses are dead. Many of the witnesses who are still alive with the passage of time may not even know – their memories may be playing tricks, they may not even remember what they think they remember…. With a very heavy heart I can’t see us going back to the administration of justice in the technical sense, in the legal and juridical sense, to deal with the past.”
What is important, argues Philip, is to address the trauma and mental ill-health caused by past events. “All of us who are over the age of probably 45 have to a lesser or greater degree suffered some degree of trauma as a result of violence,” he suggests. “Obviously some people suffered vast trauma and others only very mild peripheral trauma. But we’re all a part of it. A majority of people over the age of 45 carry with them some degree of trauma about the past.
“So what is the right way to deal with that? And given the fact that the administration of justice in the technical sense is probably not going to deliver the answers, certainly not going to deliver a lot of the truth. What actually is required in my view is a policy of truth…. Jail is not the point, but what would be extremely good for the healing process is to know, why did you pull the trigger? What was it in you that said that was a good idea? And who were you just following orders [from]? Why did you follow orders? And the person who gave the orders, why did you give the order? Why do you think that was a good idea?
“I don’t know many people who openly say they were perpetrators, but I imagine the toll on their own mental health must be phenomenal. Very, very few people who got involved in paramilitary activity or violence perpetrated by the state were what you might call a sociopath. Ninety nine percent of people who got involved in that sort of thing for whatever reason believed they were doing the right thing. But a part of that was the dehumanization of the person who was going to be your victim and now that we’re actually talking to each other again it must be quite challenging for the perpetrator to find a humanized person associated with their victim. And when the perpetrator goes home and they say goodness me, I did that to his brother. I think there’s a tremendous toll on their own mental health. We are quite a damaged society, particularly for people over the age of 45. I am told that there are intra-family consequences for the next generation, which may or may not contribute, explain, one of the reasons why we have such a high suicide rate amongst young people. Is there some connection? I don’t know.”
Dr Ciara Kelly’s article in the Sunday Independent on 16th June: “Don’t let the old Diaspora shape our Ireland” starts from the premise that “our Ireland” is constructed entirely of Irish-born citizens resident in the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland.The Sindo’s article is certainly brimming with a sense of birthright, but only the birthright of a select few.That is not the Irish nation, though. Article 2 of the Irish Constitution states: “It is the entitlement and birthright of every person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, to be part of the Irish Nation. That is also the entitlement of all persons otherwise qualified in accordance with law to be citizens of Ireland. Furthermore, the Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage.”Dr Kelly asks: “…do we really want citizens who have either left these shores for their own reasons or have never actually lived here at all, a say in one of the pillars of our democracy?”Let me point you back to Article 2.It is not for Dr Kelly, or any journalist or politician to deem that my Irish identity is lesser than theirs. I am as Irish as Seamus Heaney. I am as Irish as President Mary McAleese. I am as Irish as Dr Ciara Kelly. My Irish identity is as innate and unchangeable a characteristic in me as my curly hair.The argument that there should be no representation without taxation is not logical. If only those who pay income tax to the Irish state are permitted a vote, then strike off full-time students, low-income pensioners, stay-at-home parents and those unable to work due to illness or disability from the electoral register.It is correct that those people may pay VAT or other taxes, but so do the 40,000 cross-border workers. So do the thousands of young emigrants who come home to visit their families each year. What is she suggesting? Is there going to be an office where you turn in your petrol receipts to prove you’ve paid excise duty or VAT in order that you may register to vote? That’s not a reasoned position.There is a jarring disconnect between the assertion that only those who pay taxes should be permitted to vote and non-tax resident individuals voting in or influencing elections and politics through the media organisations they own or control. It is only one generation ago that people on this island were barred from voting because of their economic status. If “the Ireland we live in is largely progressive and liberal” then in what way is it acceptable to create a hierarchy of citizen? Quite simply, it is not.Dr Kelly is also concerned that: “Even giving those north of the Border a vote is problematic. They vote along sectarian lines there, in a way we don’t here.”Her concern seems to be that she might end up with a British Unionist president if there was a split vote in a large field of candidates. Firstly, only Irish citizens can run for President. Secondly, if an Ulster Unionist were elected then that’s called democracy. That would truly be cherishing all of the children of the nation equally and would signal the progressive, liberal new Ireland of which I and many others want to be part.Wanting to curtail people’s ability to exercise their birthright because you don’t like for whom they might vote is called gerrymandering at best and Fascism at worst.There is nothing in the options paper produced by government last year which suggests that there would be any change in the process of electing a President.Any candidate for President must be nominated by 20 members of the Oireachtas or by four County Councils. This safeguard has prevented candidates with extreme or unpopular views from securing nominations in the past and it will in the future. To say otherwise is ill-informed scaremongering.Around 10% of young people in Ireland emigrated during the recession. They are part of our diaspora. They came #HomeToVote in two referendums that changed the fabric of the nation. For that alone, they deserve a say in who is Head of State.The Irish who prospered in their new homes in other countries supported Ireland in times of need. They were our champions in business and industry, they punched well above our weight as a small country in international relations and peace-building. They have invested in our nation’s past. They deserve a stake in its future.They are #AsIrishAs me, or, indeed, Dr Ciara Kelly.
Greetings AOH Kings County members,,, The AOH Kings County Board monthly meeting will be held on Monday June 24th at the Baile na nGael “Home of the Irish” 2750 Gerritsen Avenue & the “GAVEL” will come down at 7:00 PM (SHARP). We will be discussing the upcoming NYS AOH Convention, Division #12 Boat Ride, Great Irish Fair, Queens County Dinner Dance & Division #35 Dinner Dance. We will also have a guest speaker. Guest speaker ~ Mike Byrne has requested to speak at our meeting, Mike is running for NYS AOH Treasure. His request has been granted. Division President’s & Recording Secretary’s,,, please inform your division membership of this meeting date & time due to the Kings County Board does not have an email address for all of the Kings County membership. In Our Motto, Eddie Velinskie President Kings County Board 347-210-1249
The DUP have reiterated their opposition to any Troubles amnesty after outgoing PSNI Chief Constable Sir George Hamilton said he could “live with it”.
Sir George was speaking at a question and answer session in Belfast after receiving an honorary degree from the University of Ulster.
He said that while he could “live with an amnesty”, that he personally did not believe in it.
The BBC has reported that Sir George said “there cannot be different rules for different citizens”.
Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt has backed calls for military veterans of the Northern Ireland conflict to be covered by an amnesty from prosecution.
Sir George said that Northern Ireland needed to “untangle” itself from Troubles legacy issues.
The Chief Constable will retire from his position later this month to be replaced by former Chief Constable of Cheshire Police Simon Byrne.
“Personally I don’t believe in it (an amnesty), but I could live with it… that’s part of living in a post-conflict society,” he said.
DUP Policing Board member Mervyn Storey said his party would oppose the introduction of any amnesty “which would protect perpetrators of terrorist crimes”.
“An amnesty would be a corruption of justice similar to the OTR letters and early prisoner releases,” the North Antrim MLA said.
DUP MLA Mervyn Storey
“We have always fought to ensure that those who lost loved ones continue to have a right and route to justice. It is clear that the current structures are failing innocent victims. This needs to change. The fact remains that 90% of deaths were perpetrated by terrorists.”
Mr Storey said that while the DUP was supportive of veterans, any solution could not lead to a blanket amnesty.
“It is also vital that perceptions of witch-hunts against veterans who bravely defended the community in Northern Ireland are properly addressed,” he said.
“Soldiers and police served professionally in very challenging circumstances and there is justifiable frustration at a grassroots level at the disproportionate focus on the actions of the state.”
Meanwhile, UUP Justice spokesperson Doug Beattie called on the UK Government to publish the results of the legacy consultation process.
The legacy consultation outlined plans for a Historical Investigations Unit (HIU) which would investigate over 1,700 unsolved murders from the conflict.
Doug Beattie
The plans also include the setting up of an Independent Commission on Information Retrieval which would only look for information on deaths if asked to do so by families.
Mr Beattie said Secretary of State Karen Bradley asked the parties about releasing the response to the consultation in May.
The Upper Bann MLA said that many thought that discussing the legacy issue in the middle of Stormont talks could “destabilize the process”, though his party disagreed.
“The bottom line is that there is no ‘good time’ to deal with sensitive issues like legacy but we believe there is a duty on the NIO and the Secretary of State to release this consultation, and its factual contents, along with their proposed next step,” he said.
“This should be done before we have a new Prime Minister and before the almost certain departure of the current Secretary of State. That was our advice to Karen Bradley MP and we ask the other parties to join us in lobbying for the release of the findings of the consultation process.”
