Northern Ireland has “had a political process at the cost of a peace process”, believes Clare Bailey MLA, the leader of the Green Party in Northern Ireland. She is highly critical of the limited progress since the Good Friday Agreement 21 years ago and the lack of real social integration. She was speaking in the latest Forward Together podcast.
Clare questions who has benefited since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. “Certainly within the working class and the most deprived areas in Northern Ireland and those communities – they certainly haven’t seen a pay-off,” she argues. Clare references the lack of government, squeezed budgets, welfare reform, “soaring levels of poverty” and “more people dying by suicide since the signing of the Good Friday agreement than were ever killed in the troubles. We have intergenerational trauma.”
She lists her frustrations with lack of progress. “We have more peace walls in Northern Ireland now than we did during the conflict. Our education system hasn’t moved on. Back in 1981, I was one of the first 28 pupils to attend Lagan [integrated] College when it first opened. There were protests at the door of the school. Our buses were smashed and we were identified by our uniforms…. But yet here we are almost 38 years later with only 65 of our schools both primary and post primary that are under the integrated banner…. Over the past 20 years I’ve seen little attempt at integration.”
Clare adds that it is wrong to believe that we should wait for politics and the economy to improve before civic society is strengthened. “We need to hear a civic voice,” she urges, adding that “citizens’ assemblies [are] an excellent model to start engaging with.”
She makes clear her frustration with elements of mainstream British and Northern Irish politics. “We have hardline Brexiteers who are pushing for a no deal Brexit and openly admitting that they’d never even read the Good Friday Agreement. And nationalist parties whose raison d’être has always been about a united Ireland, they’ve reached this point and [they are] still not willing to put their ideas on the table of what that is.”
This context, she suggests, is dangerous. “We are still a deeply traumatised society. It doesn’t take much to just scratch those open wounds. People are still living with fear and it’s getting worse because we’re not dealing with it.”
As far as Clare is concerned, the Assembly – when functioning – is itself an expression of sectarian division. “I have to designate myself as either a nationalist or a unionist. And if I don’t agree with either, or don’t identify as either, I’m automatically designated as ‘an other’. I designated myself as a feminist when I was first elected and the computer does not compute. So I am automatically an ‘other’. So therefore my ‘other’ vote in some Assembly debates is lesser than that of a nationalist or a unionist. And it’s in those types of situations I mean by saying sectarianism has been written into the heart of the institutions.”
For the future, the challenge of climate change is the most important issue. “If we want a united Ireland, we need to talk about transformation and we need to be in no doubt whatsoever that a new Ireland is coming. And she’s on her way and she’s called climate chaos. We’ve been given 12 years to the point of no return from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – when, if we do not radically change our lifestyles, our behaviours, then the damage that will be done will be irreparable. So we will be forced into renegotiating who we are on this island. How do we get along. What our relationships are. But more importantly, how we do business together. So I am in no doubt that a new Ireland is coming, but I don’t believe that it’s the one many people are thinking of.”
I’ll sing You a song of a terrible wrong When the flag it flew at half mast When a man he lay dead was riddled with led And he died on the streets of Belfast Oh, the Radio said was another shot dead And he died with a gun in his hand But they didn’t say why Billy Reid had to die For he died to free Ireland
It happend one day when the bold I.R.A. Went out to fight for their land With an old Thompson gun, put the troops on the run To return to their home was their plan Oh, the Radio said was another shot dead And he died with a gun in his hand But they didn’t say why Billy Reid had to die For he died to free Ireland
While retuning the guns Billy met British huns And when the fight was begun His poosition was dire and the gun wouldn’t fire And he died with that old Thompson gun Oh, the Radio said was another shot dead And he died with a gun in his hand But they didn’t say why Billy Reid had to die For he died to free Ireland
Although he lay dead he was kicked in the head By the heir they dragged him around But they still fear him yet the will never forget How brave Billy Reid stood his ground Oh, the Radio said was another shot dead And he died with a gun in his hand But they didn’t say why Billy Reid had to die For he died to free Ireland
If you think he was right come and join in the fight And help to free Belfast For the blood Billy shed although he lies dead In our hearts his memory will last Oh, the Radio said was another shot dead And he died with a gun in his hand But they didn’t say why Billy Reid had to die For he died to free Ireland Oh, the Radio said was another shot dead And he died with a gun in his hand But they didn’t say why Billy Reid had to die For he died to free Ireland
BROADCASTING LIVE EVERY SATURDAY 9AM-12NOON WWW.IRISHRADIO.COM 9am-10am: This Irish American Life from Glucksman Ireland House NYU hosted by Dr. Miriam Nyhan Grey airs on WNYE 91.5fm, irishradio.com facebook/irishradio: Miriam chats to writer Tom Phelan about his new memoir We Were Rich and We Didn’t Know It, and to poet Daniel Tobin about his award-winning collection of poetry, Blood Labors. 10am-12.00pm: Adrian Flannelly Show on irishradio.com facebook/irishradio Actress Fionnula Flanagan (Some Mother’s Son, Waking Ned Devine) is interviewed by Irish America editor-in-chief Patricia Harty to talk about her Tony-nominated performance on Broadway as Aunt Maggie Far Away in The Ferryman: a drama about a former IRA member’s attempts to outrun his past, is one of the hottest tickets on Broadway. It has earned critical raves and has 9 Tony Award Nominations including Best Play. News and Sports live from Ireland with Kevin O’Connor, sponsored by Tourism Ireland Community Organisations Listing Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum: www.ighm.org The Irish Repertory Theatre: www.irishrep.org Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) https://aoh.com/ Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians (LAOH) http://www.ladiesaoh.com/ Emerald Isle Immigration Center www.eiic.org Irish International Business Network: www.iibn.nyc New York Irish Center www.newyorkirishcenter.org American Irish Historical Society: www.aihs.org Irish Arts Center: www.irishartscenter.org Aisling Irish Center: www.aislingcenter.org NY Irish History Roundtable www.irishnyhistory.org To visit our archives please click here Reach us www.info@irishradio.com
ANNUAL TOMMY PHELAN SCHOLARSHIP FOR 2019
Friends of Firefighters is proud to announce the Annual Tommy Phelan Scholarship for 2019. Presented by The Phelan Family and Marine 9, together with Friends of Firefighters, a $500 scholarship will be awarded to the child of an FDNY Firefighter (active or retired) to be used specifically for SUNY Maritime College. The application can be obtained by emailing info@friendsoffirefighters.org. Applications must be submitted by August 1, 2019. The winner of the $500 scholarship will be announced mid-August. Visit www.friendsoffirefighters.org or contact Marlo Lagrimas at the above email for more information.
COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION
Applications for the NYS Honorary Fire Chiefs and NYS Professional Firefighters 2019 Ted Green Memorial College Scholarships are now available. Postmark deadline to submit application is May 24, 2019. Submit all information to: NYS Professional Firefighters Association, 174 Washington Ave., Albany, NY, 12210. The scholarship competition is open to high school seniors and recent high school graduates who will not have completed more than one year of college by September 2019. Applicant must not have graduated from high school before 2018 and must be a child of an active uniformed union member of the NYS Professional Firefighters Association. Members of the Executive Board or employees of the NYS Professional Firefighters Association or their children are not eligible. Scholarship winners will be announced at the 80th Annual Convention of the NYSPFFA in Saratoga Springs, NY, June 24-26, 2019. An award of $3000 is given to the student selected, and awards are made when the recipient has registered at an accredited undergraduate college as a full-time student or any school furthering education beyond high school. Applicants will be required to take the SAT or ACT test. Students must have taken this examination no later than January of 2019. A Scholarship Essay of approximately 400-500 words indicating why you should be the recipient of the award should be submitted with the application. For an application and/or additional information, visit the NYSPFFA website at http://www.nyspffa.org, or contact Lizzette Perez-Cruz, FDNY College Advisor, at 718-281-8465.
In addition to the midtown Manhattan event at O’Lunneys , Mark Thompson and Mark McGovern will also be in Albany at the Irish American Heritage Museum on Monday June 10th at the Irish American Heritage Museum
They got rave reviews at the Tyone launch in Dungannon last night. If you care about the north you will not want to miss them!!!! New book examines collusion and counterinsurgency in the north Mark McGovern pictured at the launch of his new book.
Connla Young 11 May, 2019 01:00
A new book on collusion and British counterinsurgency policy in the north has been launched in Belfast. ‘Counterinsurgency and Collusion in Northern Ireland’ explores suspected collusion between loyalists and the security forces during the Troubles. Author Mark McGovern, who is a professor of Sociology at Edge Hill University in England, spent several years researching the book and worked closely with campaign group Relatives for Justice. The academic, who is originally from Derry, carried out numerous interviews with relatives of people killed by loyalists in controversial circumstances. Those attending the launch included Operation Kenova chief Jon Boutcher, who is currently investigating the activities of the IRA agent known as Stakeknife. Geraldine Finucane, the widow of murdered lawyer Pat Finucane, and investigative journalist John Ware both spoke at the launch event, which was held at St Mary’s University College on Belfast’s Falls Road on Thursday. Pat Finucane was shot dead in front of his wife and children at his north Belfast home by a UDA hit squad, including British state agents, on February 12, 1989. The new book focuses on the activities of loyalist murder units in the Mid Ulster area, including east Tyrone and south Derry, in the late 80s and early 90s. Weapons believed to have been smuggled into the north with the help of British intelligence were used to kill dozens of Catholics and across the north between 1988 and 1994. The book also focuses on a “notable” rise in the number of republicans killed by the state forces in the late 1980s in what the author describes as ‘set piece’ and ‘shoot to kill’ operations. Mr McGovern also considers the number of Sinn Féin representatives targeted and says that of the 25 killed during the Troubles more than half, 14, died between 1989 to 1993. Speaking at the event Mr McGovern paid tribute to the relatives of those killed. “Families are not just there as receivers of the truth, as important as that’s going to be, families are very much active agents witnesses, providing testimony, providing insight because no has as much insight very often as they do,” he said. “They are also archivists.” RFJ director Mark Thompson said the book is an important addition. “It is important because it adds to the rich tapestry of the story of collusion,” he said. Counterinsurgency and Collusion in Northern Ireland is published by Pluto Press.
