Posted by Jim on February 14, 2018
The current phase of political talks in Belfast has ended after unionist
hardliners in the DUP rejected measures to increase recognition for the
Irish language in the north of Ireland.
The latest crash in the political process came despite fresh enthusiasm
earlier this week with the arrival into Belfast of the British Prime
Minister Theresa May and the 26 County Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. The talks
participants and the two governments had again sought to inject momentum
into the efforts to restore power-sharing in the north of Ireland, which
have now collapsed six times in the last thirteen months.
DUP leader Arlene Foster, whose party holds the balance of power at
Westminster, today said there is “no prospect” of an agreement to
restore power-sharing and admitted there are still “serious and
significant differences” between her party and Sinn Fein. She called on
her Tory colleagues to reassert full direct control over the north of
Ireland.
The latest phase of the process began over three weeks ago and had been
reported to be moving steadily towards a deal across a range of issues.
However, Ms Foster has now described the negotiations as “unsuccessful”.
She said the DUP and Sinn Fein had been unable to reach agreement on a
long-delayed promised Irish Language Act, which would have enshrined the
rights of Irish langage speakers in law.
The 2006 St Andrews Agreements included an Irish Language Act to give
legal status to Irish, which should have paved the way for greater use
of Irish on street signs and in public bodies. However, that legislation
was frustrated when the DUP repeatedly blocked it at the Stormont
Assembly in Belfast.
The current crisis began in January 2017 with the resignation of Sinn
Fein’s late Deputy First Minster at Stormont, Martin McGuinness. He quit
in response to still unresolved allegations of corruption against Ms
Foster and her party. The integrity of the political institutions set up
under the peace process were then called into question, as well as the
DUP’s commitment to the implementation of equality and civil rights
measures, including an Irish Language Act.
There had been high hopes in certain circles that a deal to include an
Irish Language Act could be reached this week. Monday saw a familiar
high-profile effort to recreate the ‘hothouse atmosphere’ and ‘media
circus’ beloved by the two governments and main television networks.
Speaking in Belfast, Theresa May urged the North’s political leaders to
make “one final push”. With public pressure building for a resolution,
Sinn Fein MP Conor Murphy urged the “DUP need to make up their mind up
about whether they are up for a deal or not”.
However, Arlene Foster yesterday condemned the involvement of the
British Prime Minister as a “distraction” and this evening, the DUP’s
powerful ‘backwoodsmen’ were again claiming credit for vetoing a measure
they fear could increase the visibility of the Irish language in their
areas.
Ms Foster said: “Despite our best efforts, serious and significant gaps
remain between ourselves and Sinn Fein especially on the issue of the
Irish language.
“I have made it consistently clear that unionists will not countenance a
stand-alone or free standing Irish Language Act. Sinn Fein’s insistence
on a stand-alone Irish Language Act means that we have reached an
impasse.”
She called for all powers of government in the north of Ireland to be
returned to London.
“It is now incumbent upon Her Majesty’s Government to set a budget and
start making policy decisions about our schools, hospitals and
infrastructure,” she said. “Important decisions impacting on everyone in
Northern Ireland have been sitting in limbo for too long.”
In a brief statement to the media, the British Direct Ruler in Ireland,
Karen Bradley, claimed “a basis for accommodation still exists”.
In a tweet, the 26 County Foreign Minister said he was “very
disappointed” by the DUP statement. “NI needs a Govt,” he said. “As
co-guarantors of Good Friday Agreement, the UK and Irish governments
have an obligation to uphold and protect the letter and spirit of that
Agreement. We will need to reflect in the coming days on how best to do
that.”
In a statement this evening, Sinn Fein’s new Deputy Leader, Michelle
O’Neill, said:
“Sinn Fein over the past 13 months worked to restore the institutions on
the basis of respect, integrity and equality for all sections of
society.
“When this latest round of talks was announced in January, I said a
short, sharp and focused negotiation was required to resolve the
outstanding issues of rights and equality available everywhere else in
the islands.
“Sinn Fein engaged, we worked in good faith, we stretched ourselves. We
had reached an accommodation with the leadership of the DUP. The DUP
failed to close the deal. They have now collapsed this process.
“These issues are not going away. Sinn Fein are now in contact with both
governments and we will set out our considered position tomorrow. The
DUP should reflect on their position.”
Posted by Jim on
February 14th
| SSG CHRIS ENGELDRUM FDNY VFW POST 12033 The SSG Chris Engeldrum FDNY VFW Post 12033 would like to extend an invitation to all FDNY members to attend the funeral of Army Private 1st Class Emmanuel Mensah. Private 1st Class Emmanuel Mensah died on December 28th, 2017, after rescuing 4 people during the 4th Alarm at Bronx Box 3303 2263 Prospect Ave. The US Army posthumously awarded him The Medal of Valor for his actions on that day. The funeral will be held at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, 627 East 187th Street, Bronx, NY 10458 on Saturday, February 17th, 2018, at 10:00 am. |
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Posted by Jim on February 13, 2018
“Further Taliban-like disrespect and contempt for the ancient and venerable Irish language. Whence such hatred and ignorance? How can such a venemous attitude build up the Beloved Community in Northern Ireland?”—Fr. Sean McManus
David Young Press Association. Irish News. Belfast. Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Ukip’s former leader in Northern Ireland has said he would break the law to pull down an Irish language sign if one was erected on his street.
David McNarry, a one-time senior member of the Ulster Unionist Party, compared his potential unlawful activity to the suffragette movement.
The former Assembly member was commenting on the prospect of an Irish Language Act featuring in any deal between Sinn Féin and the DUP to restore powersharing.
Mr McNarry said, if such legislation resulted in Irish language signs being placed on the Co Down street where he lives, he would haul it down.
He told BBC Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show that erecting gaelic signs in unionist areas would be “offensive and disrespectful” to his culture.
“What I am actually advocating is unionism taking a stand now, saying that ‘look, enough is enough’,” he said.
“We don’t need Irish language signs at the bottom of my road. I know the name of my road, I know where I am going when I go up it.”
He added: “I would take the sign down. It wouldn’t be lawful and I think that is the notice that has to go out because there will be resentment to this and there will be people who will feel as I do, don’t want to break laws, never been in trouble in their lives before but actually want to take a stand.”
Mr McNarry said such signage would be about changing the culture of Northern Ireland from a “British dimension to a covert Irish dimension”.
The main sticking point preventing the restoration of devolved government in Northern Ireland is the Irish language.
Sinn Féin wants a standalone piece of legislation to protect speakers, an Irish language act, but the DUP has long insisted it would only countenance new laws if they also incorporate other cultures, such as Ulster Scots.
There was speculation over the weekend that three pieces of legislation, an Irish language act, an Ulster Scots act and a broader culture act, could be a means to satisfy both sides.
Northern Ireland has been without a functioning government since January 2017 and several rounds of talks to resolve the crisis have failed.
However, speculation has been growing that a deal between Sinn Féin and the DUP is imminent.
The DUP/Sinn Féin-led coalition imploded last January amid a row over a botched green energy scheme.
That rift subsequently widened to take in long-running disputes over culture, social issues and legacy.
British Prime Minister Theresa May and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar travelled to Stormont on Monday to encourage the region’s parties to finally end the impasse.
Theresa May urged them to make “one final push” to strike a deal to salvage powersharing.
Posted by Jim on
“In 2014 Gregory Campbell boasted to the DUP party conference to wild applause: ‘We’ll say it slowly so you understand Caitriona (Ruane) and Gerry – we will never agree to your Irish Language Act. Do you understand? The paper your wish list is written on, well, we’ll just regard it as toilet paper’.”
Suzanne Breen. Belfast Telegraph. Tuesday, February 13 2018
A DUP insider has expressed concerns that the deal under consideration at Stormont offers Sinn Fein more than it does their party.
The source blamed the failure to finalize an agreement yesterday on continuing differences over the Irish Language Act.
“There is more in the deal currently proposed that benefits Sinn Fein than the DUP,” they said. “There also isn’t enough there to protect the institutions from being collapsed again by Sinn Fein.”
The source said it was wrong tois no power struggle between Westminster and Stormont. But individuals in both groups have raised key issues,” they said.
DUP and Sinn Fein leaders both insisted yesterday that good progress had been made in the talks to restore power-sharing.
Arlene Foster and Mary Lou McDonald were speaking as the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach travelled to Stormont to encourage the parties to finalize an agreement.
Theresa May called for “one final push” to secure a deal and Leo Varadkar said he was “very hopeful” of an agreement being brokered this week.
Mrs Foster said: “There isn’t a deal yet but there is very good progress and we will keep at it and continue to work on that progress.”
She described the tone of the discussions as “very good” and said the DUP would “continue to have conversations with Sinn Fein around the outstanding matters”.
Mrs Foster said: “It is about finding”frustrated at the pace of progress, we all are as well”.
Ms McDonald said: “We believe that we are close to an agreement which, certainly, we can put to our grassroots and to the community as a whole.” She acknowledged “we are not exactly there just yet” but maintained “there is nothing insurmountable if there is the political will”.
There were no bilateral talks between the two big parties yesterday and the DUP spent much of the day in internal meetings. “Clearly we need to meet, clearly we need to resolve the outstanding issues,” Ms McDonald added.
The Prime Minister described her discussions with the parties as “full and frank” and was optimistic about progress. Mrs May said: “The DUP and Sinn Fein have been working hard to close the remaining gaps.”
Mr Varadkar said there was a “lot of work to do” but progress was going in the “right direction”. The Taoiseach and Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney held discussions with all the parties except the DUP. It is understood that the party felt that a meeting was inappropriate because the talks related to the internal affairs of Northern Ireland.
UUP leader Robin Swann hit out that the talks remained “an exclusive two-party process” and said a deal between the DUP and Sinn Fein still wasn’t over the line.
“We made clear to the Prime Ministerdiscussions but we remain excluded from the process.
“If the intention is to form a stable and effective Executive, then this talks process would need to move to the next stage very rapidly,” he said.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood claimed the Prime Minister and Taoiseach had been brought to sign-off on a deal but were “instead left embarrassed by the DUP and Sinn Fein”.
“The opportunity is still there to get this deal over the line but it will require a level of leadership and courage that has evaded these parties for far too long. Instead of allowing these parties to run the show, both Governments need to drive this process to a conclusion,” he said.
Alliance leader Naomi Long said any deal must be “futureproofed and sustainable”. She said reform of the petition of concern was essential “to prevent any future difficult decisions destabilizing a new Executive and Assembly”.
Mrs Long added: “It is vital not only we see an Executive restored, but it is stable and capable of addressing the major political, social and financial challenges which face us. Anything less will fail to restore public confidence in politics and the institutions.”
TUV leader Jim Allister said a “DUP climb-down” on the Irish language appeared increasingly likely. The DUP was switching from “curried yoghurt to humble pie”, he claimed.
“In 2014 Gregory Campbell boasted to the DUP party conference to wild applause: ‘We’ll say it slowly so you understand Caitriona (Ruane) and Gerry – we will never agree to your Irish Language Act. Do you understand? The paper your wish list is written on well, we’ll just regard it as toilet paper’.
“A question which the DUP now has to face is – is the Sinn Fein wish list still ‘toilet paper’ or is it now the Program for Government?” Mr. Allister asked
Posted by Jim on February 10, 2018
Sinister agenda of prison authorities
Republican prisoners have condemned the authorities in Maghaberry prison
over a new clampdown on educational and historical materials at the
jail.
The latest incident involves the memoir of former IRA diretor of
operations, ‘My Life in the IRA’ by Mick Ryan. The history book was
released earlier this month and presents a Volunteers’ account of the
IRA border campaign of the 1950s. However, the book was refused to
prisoner Connor Highes and then banned by the prison authorities,
ostensibly on account of the cover image which appears on the book.
A spokesperson for prisoner support group Cogus said Hughes had been
told it was due to the “outline of an old 50s rifle” on the cover.
Other items which have recently been banned include the DVD of the
historical documentary ’66 days’ on the 1981 hunger strike. It was
prohibited just days before it was broadcast on the BBC.
The Cogus spokesperson described the move as “sectarian” and “alludes to an agenda that is both anti-Irish and anti-nationalist.
They said: “This prohibition outlines a deeper agenda in which the prison
administration still harbours a closed mindset that refuses to
acknowledge any narrative but their own regarding the hunger strike of
1981, and furthermore shows the lengths that the administration wil go
to censor a different narrative”.
‘ANTI-BRITISH’
Meanwhile, a Cork County councillor has been branded “anti-British” by
unionists following his motion that the local authority oppose the
extradition of Irish prisoners to the North of Ireland due to the
practice of full-body strip searching at Maghaberry prison.
The former Sinn Fein councillor had a motion passed by Cork County
Council opposing the brutal practice last month. The motion has been criticised
in the North with Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister saying
it is “cloaked in a diatribe of anti-British rhetoric”. Democratic
Unionist Party MP Jeffrey Donaldson claimed the motion was an excuse for
“anti-British sentiment”.
A committee of the Dublin parliament and a number of human rights groups
have also raised concerns about the practice of strip-searching at
Maghaberry. Mr McCarthy said it is a violation of the European Human
Rights Convention.
He said his concerns are not about nationality, but human rights and
fears the situation will worsen once Britain exits the EU.
“This is not anti-British, it’s a human rights issue. My wife is
English. My mother is English and all one side of my family is British,”
he told the Cork Evening Echo.
“Yes, I’m an Irish republican. Yes, I’m a former Sinn Fein councillor
and a former prisoner myself but I’m also a politician and this issue is
purely about human rights. If it was any other group of prisoners that
were receiving the same kind of treatment as republican prisoners, I’d
be speaking out as well,” he added.
Mr McCarthy has called for staff at Maghaberry to use search technology
instead of subjecting prisoners to full body strip searches, which he
has described as cruel. “The technology is there,” he said.