Posted by Jim on June 19, 2018
Sinn Fein’s internal difficulties have worsened following a combative
display by the party leadership at a weekend conference saw the party
adopt a hardline pro-abortion stance, including a ban on dissent on the
issue by its elected representatives.
Over the past 48 hours, a number of party members have publicly
resigned from the party, the most high profile of whom to date is
Offaly TD Carol Nolan. Ms Nolan said this afternoon that she feels she
“no longer has a place” in a party which she said “doesn’t recognise or
show genuine respect for the pro-life views of members”.
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald described Ms Nolan’s decision to
resign as “disappointing but not surprising.”
At the weekend’s annual Ard Fheis [conference], the party leadership
headed by Ms McDonald and deputy Michelle O’Neill pivoted the party to
a more fiscally conservative and socially liberal agenda. The party has
made clear it hopes the change will make it easier to enter into a
Dublin government, most likely in coalition with Fine Gael.
The conference comes weeks after a bruising referendum campaign in the
26 Counties saw a constitutional ban on abortion lifted by a margin of
2-1. Legislation to introduce abortion on request in the first three
months of pregnancy is being prepared by the Fine Gael-led minority
government, and still faces a tricky passage through the Dublin
parliament.
Sinn Fein’s recent transition to a pro-choice stance has been deeply
polarising. Although it has been at pains to point to large numbers of
new members, including many young women, hundreds of older and more
traditionally-minded members stayed away from the party conference this
year, while others engaged in a protest outside the venue.
Inside, the party leadership drove home the message that dissent could
not be tolerated. There was no surprise, therefore, when Ms Nolan, one
of the party’s most well known pro-life campaigners, confirmed her
resignation his afternoon. She had been suspended from the party
earlier this summer following a disagreement over the 8th amendment
referendum.
Ms Nolan, who won a breakthrough Sinn Fein seat in the Offaly-North
Tipperary constituency in 2016, said she was disappointed that the
party’s delegates voted against the motion to allow members to have a
conscience vote on the issue of abortion.
“I want to thank all of the 24 cumainn who put forward motions on the
need for a conscience vote on the abortion issue,” she said.
“I feel that it is unethical to force TDs who are strongly opposed to
abortion to vote against their conscience. Every TD in Leinster House
is directly responsible for the laws that they enact, if a TD votes for
abortion they are responsible for all abortions that happen in this
state.
“I do not want to have any hand, act or part in bringing about the end
to the life of an unborn child, the most vulnerable in our society.”
Speaking in response, Ms McDonald said she had regretted the
resignation.
“Sinn Fein made every effort to give its members space and latitude to
articulate a position contrary to the party’s position in the recent
referendum campaign on Repeal of the 8th Amendment,” she said.
“The people have spoken on this issue. The Sinn Fein Ard Fheis has
democratically agreed the party’s position to support the forthcoming
leglislation.”
Posted by Jim on
19 Jun 2018 01:00 AM PDT
In a letter published in the Irish News earlier this month Martin Galvin challenges the British state’s Northern Secretary.
In her Forward to the Consultation Paper, British colonial secretary Karen Bradley wrote legacy mechanisms “must seek to meet the needs of victims” and “must be fully consistent with the rule of law”. She then saluted British crown forces, pledging to “reject any attempts to rewrite the history of the past” or “displace responsibility from the people who perpetrated acts of terrorism.” What happens when such lofty aspirations collide?
The Ballymurphy Massacre illustrates the point. These victims and survivors need truth. They believe British troopers ‘protected’ Ballymurphy by murdering 11 residents, including a Catholic priest and mother of eight. The British then “displaced responsibility”, blaming the victims. Requests for inquest funding met with hurtful dismissals. References to “innocent victims”, implied that Ballymurphy Massacre victims were not among the “innocent.”
These families fought a heartbreaking legal battle to get truth. They believe an inquest with eyewitness testimony under the rule of law can deliver it. What does Bradley do if these victims are right?
Bradley says her Tory regime will reject any attempt to rewrite history. If the evidence proves that the 11 killings were murders, how can she reject rewriting history with truth? Does Bradley simply ignore inconvenient facts, like Theresa May seemed to ignore Ivor Bell, Gerry McGeough and Seamus Kearney, asserting only British forces get investigated for the past? How would Bradley escape shifting blame from exonerated “innocent victims” back onto British troops for murder and smearing the dead?
What about collusion? The law holds those who pay for, direct, procure weapons, identify targets, cover-up ,or otherwise conspire in murders, are jointly criminally responsible for these murders. What if new legacy mechanisms confirm that Glenanne Gang and other murders claimed by loyalists should be counted jointly as British state collusion murders?
How does Bradley “displace responsibility” from British crown forces for their role in such acts of terrorism or reject recording the truth? Can Britain bury such crimes in a national security pit?
Bradley also wants legacy proposals to “reflect a broad political consensus and be balanced, fair, equitable and crucially, proportionate”.
“Political consensus” has been the pretext for a DUP clamp on funding needed to give nationalists their chance for justice. Because crown forces only admit to ten percent of “Troubles” killings, “balanced and proportionate” have become code words for a quota on investigations of British crown killings which ignores collusion and state cover-ups.
Too many promises of legacy justice have been broken. Victims must get more than broken promises and stonewalling. It may be their last chance.
Martin Galvin is a US Attorney-At-Law.
Posted by Jim on
Tuesday, 19 Jun 2018 14:14
Carol Nolan (R) voted in the Dáil against holding the referendum on the Eighth Amendment
By Martina Fitzgerald
Political Correspondent
Offaly TD Carol Nolan has told RTÉ News that she has handed in her letter of resignation to Sinn Féin.
Ms Nolan had been suspended from the party for three months for voting in the Dáil against holding the referendum on the Eighth Amendment.
Her suspension expires at the end of this month but she has decided to hand in her resignation.
At the weekend, Sinn Féin delegates voted to allow the Ard Comhairle to agree its position on legislation for abortion.
Posted by Jim on
Dermot McEvoy
@IrishCentral
Donald Trump Public Domain
I am distressed at the heat President Trump is taking because of his benign policy of separating children from their mothers at our sacred borders. After all, he is only trying to protect us from these future rapists and MS-13 members.
I was so distressed that the soothing words of four moral patriots—Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, Chief-of-Staff John Kelly, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and photogenic Senior Advisor to the President, Stephen Miller—have not assuaged me.
Read more: Irish Foreign Minister slams Trump on separating children from parents
Thus, in this time of crisis, I turned to Jonathan Swift, the late Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. I figured the good Dean would have some kind words to back up President Trump’s policies.
As most know, Dean Swift was a big supporter of MEGA (“Make England Great Again”) way back in 1729 when he wrote “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick.”
I know the President doesn’t like to read a lot of words, so from now on I will only refer to Swift’s treatise as A Modest Proposal.
Read more: From Daniel O’Connell to Jonathan Swift, Ireland’s history in photos goes online
Jonathan Swift
Like America burdened with illegal aliens, England was burdened with Ireland and the feckless Irish people, a group intellectually inferior, morally bankrupt, and perpetually lazy. Apparently, the only thing they were good at was populating the wretched island.
The analogy is apt because there is absolutely no difference between the shiftless illegal Hispanics of today and the Irish of yesterday. Thus, Swift’s words ring true as if written yesterday.
As we look to the states of Texas and New Jersey, where many of these children are housed, we must take into account the expense these irresponsible mothers and their children are burdening the American taxpayer with. These children are housed in chain-linked enclosures. Do you know what chain-link fence is going for today?
Also, under law, the tykes must be fed, clothed, although the law wisely mandates that there should be no free hugs. Of course, this does not take into account the cost of crayons, coloring books and Legos.
Also, do you know how many Pampers a day the average tot goes through. Montezuma’s Revenge has settled in the U.S.! So, to offset these costs to the American taxpayer, I suggest we heed the words of the great Jonathan Swift and make the babies earn their own way. Their free ride is over!
Let Dean Swift, in his own words, examine and remedy the problem at our borders:
Swift Nails the Problem:
“These mothers instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in stroling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country, to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.
I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional grievance; and therefore whoever could find out a fair, cheap and easy method of making these children sound and useful members of the common-wealth, would deserve so well of the publick, as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation.”
Read More: Take a tour through Ireland’s literary landscape
Children Should Contribute:
“As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many years, upon this important subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of our projectors, I have always found them grossly mistaken in their computation.
It is true, a child just dropt from its dam, may be supported by her milk, for a solar year, with little other nourishment: at most not above the value of two shillings, which the mother may certainly get, or the value in scraps, by her lawful occupation of begging; and it is exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them in such a manner, as, instead of being a charge upon their parents, or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding, and partly to the cloathing of many thousands.”
A Modest Proposal
Pro-Life to the Maximum:
“There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas! too frequent among us, sacrificing the poor innocent babes, I doubt, more to avoid the expense than the shame, which would move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast.”
Bon Appétit:
“I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust.”
Let the Market Decide:
“That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in sale to the persons of quality and fortune, through the kingdom, always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump, and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt, will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.”
Let Them Eat Delicious Human Veal:
“I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.
Infant’s flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March, and a little before and after; for we are told by a grave author, an eminent French physician, that fish being a prolifick dyet, there are more children born in Roman Catholick countries about nine months after Lent, the markets will be more glutted than usual, because the number of Popish infants, is at least three to one in this kingdom, and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage, by lessening the number of Papists among us.”
Waste Not, Want Not:
“Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flea the carcass; the skin of which, artificially dressed, will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen.”
A Win-Win Situation:
“For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen the number of Papists, with whom we are yearly over-run, being the principal breeders of the nation, as well as our most dangerous enemies, and who stay at home on purpose with a design to deliver the kingdom to the Pretender, hoping to take their advantage by the absence of so many good Protestants, who have chosen rather to leave their country, than stay at home and pay tithes against their conscience to an episcopal curate.
Read More: A modest proposal to eat all illegal aliens
“Secondly, The poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own, which by law may be made liable to a distress, and help to pay their landlord’s rent, their corn and cattle being already seized, and money a thing unknown.
“Thirdly, Whereas the maintainance of an hundred thousand children, from two years old, and upwards, cannot be computed at less than ten shillings a piece per annum, the nation’s stock will be thereby encreased fifty thousand pounds per annum, besides the profit of a new dish, introduced to the tables of all gentlemen of fortune in the kingdom, who have any refinement in taste. And the money will circulate among our selves, the goods being entirely of our own growth and manufacture.
“Fourthly, The constant breeders, besides the gain of eight shillings sterling per annum by the sale of their children, will be rid of the charge of maintaining them after the first year.
“Fifthly, This food would likewise bring great custom to taverns, where the vintners will certainly be so prudent as to procure the best receipts for dressing it to perfection; and consequently have their houses frequented by all the fine gentlemen, who justly value themselves upon their knowledge in good eating; and a skilful cook, who understands how to oblige his guests, will contrive to make it as expensive as they please.
“Sixthly, This would be a great inducement to marriage, which all wise nations have either encouraged by rewards, or enforced by laws and penalties. It would encrease the care and tenderness of mothers towards their children, when they were sure of a settlement for life to the poor babes, provided in some sort by the publick, to their annual profit instead of expense.
We should soon see an honest emulation among the married women, which of them could bring the fattest child to the market. Men would become as fond of their wives, during the time of their pregnancy, as they are now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf, or sow when they are ready to farrow; nor offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practice) for fear of a miscarriage.”
Children—Superior to Swine:
“Many other advantages might be enumerated. For instance, the addition of some thousand carcasses in our exportation of barrel’d beef: the propagation of swine’s flesh, and improvement in the art of making good bacon, so much wanted among us by the great destruction of pigs, too frequent at our tables; which are no way comparable in taste or magnificence to a well grown, fat yearly child, which roasted whole will make a considerable figure at a Lord Mayor’s feast, or any other publick entertainment.
But this, and many others, I omit, being studious of brevity. Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be constant customers for infants flesh, besides others who might have it at merry meetings, particularly at weddings and christenings, I compute that Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses; and the rest of the kingdom (where probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper) the remaining eighty thousand.”
Read More: Joe Kennedy protests Trump’s family separation policy
In Conclusion:
“I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it should be urged, that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom.”
Thank you, Dean Swift for your sage advice on what we should do with these children inundating our borders. As I’m sure President Trump will agree, your suggestions are moral and financially feasible.
Now, if only McDonalds would sign-on and offer a Big Mac Niños Pequeños, I’m sure the President will be onboard and swiftly offer these modest proposals to the Congress.
Posted by Jim on June 18, 2018
June 18th
VETERANS TICKET FOUNDATION
This organization, the Veterans Ticket Foundation, is a non-profit veteran-focused program that now includes First Responders (1st Tix). Check it out and use the link https://www.1sttix.org/ref/398229 to connect to the application page. Please share the link with every and any veteran, active duty service member and First Responder possible. Vet Tix provides free concerts, lectures, theater tickets and sporting event tickets to Veterans and First Responders.
MEMORIAL MASS
On Saturday, June 23, 2018 at 0930 hours, a Memorial Mass will be held honoring the memory of Firefighter Daniel F. Pujdak, L-146, who made the supreme sacrifice on June 21, 2007. The mass will take place at St. Cecilia’s Church, 84 Herbert Street, Brooklyn, NY. All off-duty members and their families are invited to attend. Members are requested to attend in dress uniform.
FDNY LGBTQ PRIDE CELEBRATION
The New York City Fire Department will be holding its 3rd Annual FDNY LGBTQ Pride Celebration on Thursday, June 28, 2018 at the Fire Museum located at 278 Spring Street from 6 to 9 pm. We invite all members to join us in dress uniform for an evening of pride filled with food, live performances, honored guests, and photo opportunities with the FDNY Mascot, Anniversary Fire Truck and Ambulance. To RSVP for this event, email GeorgiaBrooke.Guinan@fdny.nyc.gov or call FF Brooke Guinan at 718-999-2716 by Friday, June 22nd.
NEW YORK METS COMMUNITY BLOOD DRIVE
The New York Mets will host a community blood drive on Monday, July 2, 2018, from 11am to 6pm at Citi Field. All donors will receive a pair of Mets tickets to a 2018 home game. On Monday, June 11, 2018, the New York Blood Center declared a Blood Emergency. Blood donations are lagging this spring and typically drop during the summer months. Your donation will help save up to three lives. For questions concerning medical eligibility call (800) 688-0900. To make an appointment please contact (516) 478-5031.
MEMORIAL MASS
On Thursday, July 5, 2018 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.
SPLISH SPLASH WATER PARK DISCOUNT TICKETS AVAILABLE
Long Island’s Waterpark located at Exit 72 West, Long Island Expressway, Riverhead, NY (631) 727-3600, www.splishsplashlongisland.com. 18 water slides, wave pool, lazy river, kiddie area and more! General admission price is $35, under 48″ and senior admission price is $28. Children 3 and under are free. For further info, please contact reception at 212-683-4832. Tickets must be purchased at UFA offices. Any unused tickets that are purchased through the UFA can be refunded if tickets are returned by September 5th.