Posted by Jim on February 2, 2019
The new all-Ireland political party being led by Peadar Tóibín this week
revealed its new name as Aontú, the Irish for unity or consent. In this
statement written for the centenary of the First Dáil in 1919, Mr Tóibín
set out his republican vision for the party.
On 21st January 1919, the elected representatives of the Irish people
met to enact the democratic will of the Irish people. This simple act of
democracy was the culmination of centuries of struggle and sacrifice. In
every generation for hundreds of years democracy was prevented by the
British state by violence or the threat of violence. Indeed the new All
Ireland democratic assembly would soon become outlawed and suppressed by
the most powerful empire ever known.
The purpose of the first Dáil was to bring to fruition the legacy of the
1916 Rising, the United Irishmen and the Young Irelanders, and make a
reality of the Irish people’s inalienable right to national freedom. The
first Dáil was secured by a colossal victory in the 1918 General
Election. 73 out of 105 seats were won by Irish republicans. The Irish
people mandated the ratification of the Irish Republic, All Ireland
independence and a functioning, self-governing nation.
100 years on its easy to underestimate the magnitude of their
achievement. This was one of the weakest generations that Ireland had
ever seen. They came not long after the famine where 1.5 million Irish
people lost their lives and 1.5 million people were forced to emigrate.
They learned a hard lesson that if decisions were made in London for any
part of Ireland that those decisions would never me made on our behalf.
They would never be made for our best interests and indeed they would at
times lead to the destruction of our people.
The Union Jack flew over every town in Ireland. It had flown in some
iteration in these towns for more than 500 years. It stood for the
largest empire the world had ever seen. Yet these men and women, the
weakest generation for hundreds of years, risked life and limb to
challenge that empire to seek our freedom and self-determination.
And for a significant part of our country their actions led to
self-determination. However it’s hard to believe that 100 years later,
our economy, our lives, our ability to progress as a nation is still
determined by the whims and egos of the Tory Party in London.
The Tory Party know nothing of our country and they care even less. A
couple of years ago the people of the north democratically decided to
remain in the EU. Yet that determination has been pegged in the bin by
the Tories. We were told that consent is at the heart of the Good Friday
Agreement and the peace on our island. Yet 100 years after the first
Dáil, that consent, that self determination still means nothing to the
Tories in London.
This year is the 100th anniversary of the first military action by the IRA
at Soloheadbeg, Tipperary where the Volunteers ambushed Royal Irish
Constabulary (RIC) officers who were escorting a consignment of
gelignite explosive. The two RIC officers lost their lives in that
action. All loss of life is a human tragedy and the families of those
who lost their lives on both sides of the Tan War/War of Independence
have a right to remember their loved ones in their own way.
However its important to be clear, there is no equivalence between the
British Military in 1919 who imposed oppression and suppressed democracy
through violence or the threat of violence and those Irish Volunteers
who struggled and risked everything for Irish freedom and
self-determination.
This type of equivocation has become the narrative of the new Fianna
Fáil and Fine Gael leadership. Indeed Lisa Chambers stated this weekend
that Fianna Fáil are “not celebrating” the momentous actions of 100
years ago, that “we need to be fair to all sides”. It always amazes me
that that those who want to be Ministers in Ireland seek to downgrade
those who fought for their right to be Ministers in an Irish Government.
It’s a struggle to think of other countries where the dominant political
view among the political elites is that their country’s freedom and the
necessary sacrifice that was made to achieve it was an ambiguous thing.
In which other country is equal respect given to the actions of those
who fought for freedom and the colonisers and the foreign occupation
forces. In which other country is this view considered a politically
beneficial position to hold.
There are three political traditions living in Ireland north and south.
One seeks to achieve full Irish Independence and one seeks to maintain
the union of the north with Britain. We need to reach out to and engage
with people of a Unionist tradition. I believe in this 100%. We need to
engage respectfully and set out our stall highlighting out full Irish
Independence will benefit their needs and objectives.
Brexit has radically accelerated this process. Many people of the
traditional unionist community in the north are reappraising their
loyalty to London given the Tories clear disdain for their democratic
wishes. The economic cliff that is Brexit has also awoken amongst many
from the traditionally unionist community the needs for
self-determination.
Brexit and the cost of the border has also awoken many in the south of
Ireland to the cost of the border. Many in the south recognize the
serious risk that exists leaving our ability to trade, do business,
travel and farm on the island of Ireland to be significantly influenced
by Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
Reaching out to other people does not mean denying who you are yourself
or denying your past. Real reconciliation happens when people are true
to themselves and their own identity and agree to make space for each
other’s identity.
Republicanism is a pluralist political objective. Pluralism is not about
forced convergence or uniformity. The Irish Republic should not be about
deleting difference and diversity. It should be about allowing that
diversity to flourish without fear or favour. The Republicanism of 1798,
of 1916 and 1918 is about the unity of differences, the unity of
Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter.
A central objective of our new All Ireland Movement is the peaceful
unity of the Irish people, the peaceful unity of the Green and the
Orange.
I said that there are three political traditions in Ireland. The third
is that of the political establishment. Many parties in the south will
talk the talk about the objectives and the ideals of the First Dáil.
They will sidle up for the photos and make very serious speeches.
But FF and FG will not do anything ever to dilute their power. In many
ways they rely on the border for their own political power. If the
border were to be removed today they would change from parties of power
and government to small regional parties. They will do their best to
prevent this.
Let us proudly celebrate the heroic efforts of those who founded and
built our national democratic first Dáil and remember that true
commemoration is the completion of its objectives.
Posted by Jim on
Four Derry men wrongly accused of killing a British soldier have
accepted an out-of-court settlement from the PSNI after four decades of
fighting for the truth about police brutality, threats and a shocking
conspiracy to pursue a miscarriage of justice.
The men, known as the ‘Derry Four’, were accused of an attack which
killed British Army Lieutenant Steven Kirby in February 1979. Gerry
Kelly, Gerry McGowan, Michael Toner and Stephen Crumlish were all aged
17 at the time.
They fled across the border when it became clear they were going to be
convicted despite protesting their innocence. In 1998, all charges
against the men were dropped and they were able to return north.
PSNI Assistant Chief Constable George Clarke said this week that police
“acknowledge there were significant shortcomings in the treatment of the
men involved in this case and we recognise the distress that this has
caused them”.
The four teenagers, all from Circular Road in Creggan, have spent four
decades maintaining their innocence.
At the time of the arrests, the four were detained at Strand Road PSNI
(then RUC) barracks for three day, and were denied access to lawyers,
legal advice and their families. They were subjected to intense physical
and verbal abuse by the RUC men who interrogated them. As a result of
the treatment they received at the hands of the police they signed false
confessions.
As the trial of the four young men approached great efforts were made in
Derry to halt the false prosecutions. But two days into the proceedings
the four received advice that because of the nature of Diplock Courts
with judges sitting without juries, their defence was pointless. Next
day, the men left Derry and headed across the border and to a life in
exile.
A long and arduous campaign for justice unearthed evidence of tampered
statements, police brutality, and contining police threats against the
families, as well as an overwhelming amount of exculpatory evidence. But
it was only in December, 1998 that the Director of Public Prosecutions
confirmed in writing there would be no prosecution, on any charge,
against any of the four.
In 1999, the acquittal was followed by an other directive that there
would be no prosecution in relation to the four men leaving Ireland
during their 1980 trial.
“The 1998 acquittals simply confirmed publicly that and without doubt
the innocence of my clients. What they did not have however was the
truth about how this miscarriage of justice had occurred or had been
allowed to occur. They have now spent another 20 years searching for
that truth,” said their lawyer Patricia Coyle.
At an announcement in Derry on Tuesday Paul O’Connor from the Pat
Finucane Centre said justice delayed was justice denied, and that
members of the RUC had escaped sanction or prosecution for their
actions.
“It beggars belief that it was in 2003 that we had our first meeting
with the Police Ombusdman here in Derry where we lodged a complaint
about the actions of the RUC during the arrest of these four
individuals,” he said. “It’s 2019. We still don’t have a final report.”
Gerry McGowan had been offered professional terms with Leicester City FC
when he was falsely accused. It not only ended his dreams of being a
professional footballer saw him embark on a 40 year campaign to clear
his name and those of his friends.
On Tuesday in his home place of Creggan, a place he and his co-accused
had been forced to flee, an at times emotional Mr McGowan read out a
statement on behalf of the ‘Derry 4’.
The statement said: “On behalf of the Derry Four we would like to thank
our solicitor Patricia Coyle and those at Harte, Coyle Collins who have
been with us since 1998 and helped secured our acquittal 20 years ago.
“We would like to thank Paul O’Connor and Sara Duddy from the Pat
Finucane Centre, and all their colleagues over the years who have
supported us.
“We thank our families who have endured this painful injustice with us
over the past forty years. They have stood by us throughout, and we
remember our loved ones who are not here today.
“We have endured a number of dark days over the past forty years. It has
taken it toll on our health and our families, but we are now looking
forward.
“This compensation will not undo the years of hurt and pain inflicted on
us and our families, however it allows us to look to the future and we
feel some sense of closure that the State is finally acknowledging their
wrongdoing.
“Finally we would like to thank the people of Derry who have stood by us
over the past forty years, and never doubted our innocence.”
Posted by Jim on
US Congressmen could once again be called on to act in support of peace
in Ireland after the British government openly reneged on a deal to
prevent a hard border after Brexit.
Led by Theresa May, the Tories and the DUP have voted in favour of a
parliamentary amendment to abandon the previously agreed ‘backstop’.
The amendment declares that Westminster would approve a deal with the
EU if the backstop, which protects Ireland from a remilitarised border
across the island, is replaced with unspecified “alternative
arrangements”.
May’s decision to back the game-changing new policy set down by senior
Tory Graham Brady is the clearest sign yet that the British government
has betrayed the 1998 peace deal which ended the armed struggle of the
Provisional IRA.
After a year of crossing their fingers, a hopelessly naive Dublin
government has finally accepted that Theresa May has welshed on the
backstop, which was originally agreed in December 2017.
“It’s an extraordinary situation that when a Prime Minister and a
government negotiates a deal and then goes back and during the
ratification process votes against their own deal, which is what
happened yesterday — and now wants to go back to their negotiating
partner and change everything,” said Foreign Minister Simon Coveney.
With Taoiseach Leo Varadkar left issuing warnings of a return of
British soldiers to the border, Irish nationalism is once again looking
across the Atlantic for support.
But there are signs that Irish-America is wakening to the significance
of Brexit. A resolution opposing the re-imposition of a hard border
through Ireland has now been introduced in the US Congress. Congressman
Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania introduced the resolution on Tuesday.
“One of the great foreign policy achievements of the twentieth century
was the Good Friday Agreement (GFA),” he said. “Brokered by US Special
Envoy George Mitchell, and agreed to by the UK, Republic of Ireland,
and leading parties in Northern Ireland, it eliminated the hard border
that then existed between Northern Ireland the rest of Ireland. Now
Brexit threatens this.
“A hard border would eliminate the free flow of people between Northern
Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which has proved fundamental to
promoting peace and unity. We must not go backwards.”
And as Westminster voted against the backstop, Boyle tweeted: “After
agreeing to the Irish backstop, Theresa May’s government has now
reneged on it. Why would anyone negotiate with her now?”
Richard Neal, the Massachusetts Congressman who was centrally involved
in the Good Friday Agreement and is the co-chairman of the Friends of
Ireland caucus on Capitol Hill, has recently been appointed as head of
the powerful Ways and Means committee. This committee will play a key
role in overseeing any future trade agreement between Britain and the
United States after Britain leaves the European Union.
Britain already faces being shut out of making new trade deals with the
EU after it falls out of the union in March. The promise of a bilateral
trade agreement between Britain and the United States is a central
plank of Britain’s post-Brexit economic policy, given that British
exports to the United States are worth about 100 billion pounds to the
British economy.
At Davos last week, Mr Varadkar was reported as saying privately that
the Irish-American lobby in Congress would never allow a trade deal
with the US to go through if Britain insists on reimposing its hard
border.
Speaking publicly, he warned the British government that it would “be
very difficult for the UK to conclude any trade deals with the question
of the Irish Border unresolved.”
Posted by Jim on January 31, 2019
Fellow Firefighters,
Friends of Firefighters has been in existence for over 17 years providing free, independent, and confidential mental health counseling and wellness services for active and retired FDNY firefighters and their families. We depend heavily on our Fall Gala for the following year of operation and our 2018 Gala did not meet our goal, partially due to a blizzard. We are working diligently to fill the gap and are asking for support.
One way you can help sustain our operations is to donate 50¢ per paycheck through ESS, which is $26 annually. While that might be barely noticeable to you, for us it would determine whether or not we can be here for you in the years to come. There are 11,000 active Officers and Members; multiply that $26 from even half the population and you then see how your contribution will have an impact on FoF. That money will provide 2,025 counseling sessions, Firehouse Kitchen Talk and On the Arm Breakfast expenses, as well as operating costs to keep our headquarters and satellite offices open and running year round.
How does this help you? As an FDNY firefighter, you (and your family) will have the assurance of ongoing free, confidential, and unlimited counseling and the knowledge that an organization created solely for the purpose of providing support to NYC firefighters will be here for you and your family should you need us.
Please consider donating your 50¢ per paycheck to Friends of Firefighters. It may not mean much to you now, but you can be assured we’ll be here when and if you need us.
ENROLLING/ ADDING a new NYC Gives Contribution in ESS Log in to NYCAPS Employee Self-Service (ESS) at www.nyc.gov/ess from work or home. Go to Payroll and Compensation > Deduction Information > NYC Gives. Click the NYC Gives link. Click the NYC Gives charities search link at the bottom of the EForms NYC Gives page to search and select Friends of Firefighters. Return to the EForms NYC Gives page. Click Enroll. Enter the 5-digit code for FoF (#12667) in the NYC Gives Organization Code field and tab to the next blank field. Enter the Amount to be Deducted per paycheck. Click Submit Changes. Enter Last 4 digits of your Soc Sec Number to authorize your enrollment. Click Certify/Confirm. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Sincerely,
Retired Firefighter Tony Catapano |
Posted by Jim on January 30, 2019
BUTCHER’S DOZEN:
A LESSON FOR THE OCTAVE OF WIDGERY
by Thomas Kinsella
I went with Anger at my heel
Through Bogside of the bitter zeal
– Jesus pity! – on a day
Of cold and drizzle and decay.
A month had passed. Yet there remained
A murder smell that stung and stained.
On flats and alleys-over all-
It hung; on battered roof and wall,
On wreck and rubbish scattered thick,
On sullen steps and pitted brick.
And when I came where thirteen died
It shrivelled up my heart. I sighed
And looked about that brutal place
Of rage and terror and disgrace.
Then my moistened lips grew dry.
I had heard an answering sigh!
There in a ghostly pool of blood
A crumpled phantom hugged the mud:
“Once there lived a hooligan.
A pig came up, and away he ran.
Here lies one in blood and bones,
Who lost his life for throwing stones.”
More voices rose. I turned and saw
Three corpses forming, red and raw,
From dirt and stone. Each upturned face
Stared unseeing from its place:
“Behind this barrier, blighters three,
We scrambled back and made to flee.
The guns cried Stop, and here lie we.”
Then from left and right they came,
More mangled corpses, bleeding, lame,
Holding their wounds. They chose their ground,
Ghost by ghost, without a sound,
And one stepped forward, soiled and white:
“A bomber I. I travelled light
– Four pounds of nails and gelignite
About my person, hid so well
They seemed to vanish where I fell.
When the bullet stopped my breath
A doctor sought the cause of death.
He upped my shirt, undid my fly,
Twice he moved my limbs awry,
And noticed nothing. By and by
A soldier, with his sharper eye,
Beheld the four elusive rockets
Stuffed in my coat and trouser pockets.
Yes, they must be strict with us,
Even in death so treacherous!”
He faded, and another said:
“We three met close when we were dead.
Into an armoured car they piled us
Where our mingled blood defiled us,
Certain, if not dead before,
To suffocate upon the floor.
Careful bullets in the back
Stopped our terrorist attack,
And so three dangerous lives are done
– Judged, condemned and shamed in one.”
That spectre faded in his turn.
A harsher stirred, and spoke in scorn:
“The shame is theirs, in word and deed,
Who prate of justice, practise greed,
And act in ignorant fury – then,
Officers and gentlemen,
Send to their Courts for the Most High
To tell us did we really die!
Does it need recourse to law
To tell ten thousand what they saw?
Law that lets them, caught red-handed,
Halt the game and leave it stranded,
Summon up a sworn inquiry
And dump their conscience in the diary.
During which hiatus, should
Their legal basis vanish, good,
The thing is rapidly arranged:
Where’s the law that can’t be changed?
The news is out. The troops were kind.
Impartial justice has to find
We’d be alive and well today
If we had let them have their way.
Yet England, even as you lie,
You give the facts that you deny.
Spread the lie with all your power
– All that’s left; it’s turning sour.
Friend and stranger, bride and brother,
Son and sister, father, mother,
All not blinded by your smoke,
Photographers who caught your stroke,
The priests that blessed our bodies, spoke
And wagged our blood in the world’s face.
The truth will out, to your disgrace.”
He flushed and faded. Pale and grim,
A joking spectre followed him:
“Take a bunch of stunted shoots,
A tangle of transplanted roots,
Ropes and rifles, feathered nests,
Some dried colonial interests,
A hard unnatural union grown
In a bed of blood and bone,
Tongue of serpent, gut of hog
Spiced with spleen of underdog.
Stir in, with oaths of loyalty,
Sectarian supremacy,
And heat, to make a proper botch,
In a bouillon of bitter Scotch.
Last, the choice ingredient: you.
Now, to crown your Irish stew,
Boil it over, make a mess.
A most imperial success!”
He capered weakly, racked with pain,
His dead hair plastered in the rain;
The group was silent once again.
It seemed the moment to explain
That sympathetic politicians
Say our violent traditions,
Backward looks and bitterness
Keep us in this dire distress.
We must forget, and look ahead,
Nurse the living, not the dead.
My words died out. A phantom said:
“Here lies one who breathed his last
Firmly reminded of the past.
A trooper did it, on one knee,
In tones of brute authority.”
That harsher spirit, who before
Had flushed with anger, spoke once more:
“Simple lessons cut most deep.
This lesson in our hearts we keep:
Persuasion, protest, arguments,
The milder forms of violence,
Earn nothing but polite neglect.
England, the way to your respect
Is via murderous force, it seems;
You push us to your own extremes.
You condescend to hear us speak
Only when we slap your cheek.
And yet we lack the last technique:
We rap for order with a gun,
The issues simplify to one
– Then your Democracy insists
You mustn’t talk with terrorists!
White and yellow, black and blue,
Have learnt their history from you:
Divide and ruin, muddle through,
Not principled, but politic.
– In strength, perfidious; weak, a trick
To make good men a trifle sick.
We speak in wounds. Behold this mess.
My curse upon your politesse.”
Another ghost stood forth, and wet
Dead lips that had not spoken yet:
“My curse on the cunning and the bland,
On gentlemen who loot a land
They do not care to understand;
Who keep the natives on their paws
With ready lash and rotten laws;
Then if the beasts erupt in rage
Give them a slightly larger cage
And, in scorn and fear combined,
Turn them against their own kind.
The game runs out of room at last,
A people rises from its past,
The going gets unduly tough
And you have (surely … ?) had enough.
The time has come to yield your place
With condescending show of grace
– An Empire-builder handing on.
We reap the ruin when you’ve gone,
All your errors heaped behind you:
Promises that do not bind you,
Hopes in conflict, cramped commissions,
Faiths exploited, and traditions.”
Bloody sputum filled his throat.
He stopped and coughed to clear it out,
And finished, with his eyes a-glow:
“You came, you saw, you conquered … So.
You gorged – and it was time to go.
Good riddance. We’d forget – released –
But for the rubbish of your feast,
The slops and scraps that fell to earth
And sprang to arms in dragon birth.
Sashed and bowler-hatted, glum
Apprentices of fife and drum,
High and dry, abandoned guards
Of dismal streets and empty yards,
Drilled at the codeword ‘True Religion’
To strut and mutter like a pigeon
‘Not An Inch – Up The Queen’;
Who use their walls like a latrine
For scribbled magic-at their call,
Straight from the nearest music-hall,
Pope and Devil intertwine,
Two cardboard kings appear, and join
In one more battle by the Boyne!
Who could love them? God above…”
“Yet pity is akin to love,”
The thirteenth corpse beside him said,
Smiling in its bloody head,
“And though there’s reason for alarm
In dourness and a lack of charm
Their cursed plight calls out for patience.
They, even they, with other nations
Have a place, if we can find it.
Love our changeling! Guard and mind it.
Doomed from birth, a cursed heir,
Theirs is the hardest lot to bear,
Yet not impossible, I swear,
If England would but clear the air
And brood at home on her disgrace
– Everything to its own place.
Face their walls of dole and fear
And be of reasonable cheer.
Good men every day inherit
Father’s foulness with the spirit,
Purge the filth and do not stir it.
Let them out! At least let in
A breath or two of oxygen,
So they may settle down for good
And mix themselves in the common blood.
We are what we are, and that
Is mongrel pure. What nation’s not
Where any stranger hung his hat
And seized a lover where she sat?”
He ceased and faded. Zephyr blew
And all the others faded too.
I stood like a ghost. My fingers strayed
Along the fatal barricade.
The gentle rainfall drifting down
Over Colmcille’s town
Could not refresh, only distil
In silent grief from hill to hill.