Posted by Jim on September 6, 2013
Today, September 2, 2013, is the 63rd birthday of Martin Corey.
Today is also the date the Parole Commissioners were to commence
Martin’s annual Parole hearing. We received communication on Friday,
the 30th of August, informing us that this open hearing to review
Martin’s ongoing detention would not commence on this date, with no
alternative date being suggested or discussed with us.
Martin is entitled by law to an annual Parole hearing, and yet he has
not received one in over two years.
A variety of reasons have been given for the delay, including blaming
Martin himself for his “legal challenges” against his detention under
Article 5 (4) (the right to have a court decide the lawfulness of his
detention under the European convention of Human Rights).
Recent violations of Human Rights in the Middle East have received
worldwide condemnation, including by the British government who stated
that they ‘will continue to play an active and forthright role in
international institutions that promote and protect human rights.’ They
also emphasised the UK’s own commitment to strengthen human rights, both
domestically and internationally.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2012 that it was
unacceptable to deny an annual parole hearing to anyone held in custody.
This ruling ollowed a case of a man who waited 14 months for a parole
hearing. Martin Corey has now waited 25 months.
The Secretary of State in a recent communication stated, ‘an individual
who served a life sentence can be returned to prison if they pose a
risk to the public or commits further offences.’ Since Martin’s arrest
in April 2010, he has never been charged with a crime, questioned by
police regarding a crime, or given any explanation as to the risk he
poses to the public.
Martin served 19 years in prison prior to his release in 1992. He has
now served the equivalent of a seven year sentence since his arrest in
2010.
Martin has not committed any crime. He poses no risk to the public and I
am calling for his immediate release today.
I spoke with Martin this morning and he wishes to express his gratitude
to those who sent messages and cards and also for their continued
support in highlighting the ongoing injustice perpetrated upon him by
the British government.
Posted by Jim on
MARTIN GALVIN
ATTORNEY AT LAW
903F SHERIDAN AVENUE
BRONX, NEW YORK, 10451
718-665-1800
EDITOR IRISH NEWS
113-117 Donegal Street
Belfast, Northern Ireland BTI 2GE September 1, 2013,
LONG KESH U-TURN
A chara
As we await the end of Robinson’s holidays and the coming of Richard Haass’ magic wand to disappear all flags and parades troubles, one question remains paramount.
Will Robinson keep any deal, if he can disavow his commitments to Republicans with impunity?
Robinson’s Florida poolside u-turn on the Peace Centre deal played well within his party and with other unionists who think any promise of concessions to nationalists should be broken or “unpicked”. His declaration of intent to withdraw from the Long Kesh centre was unambiguous. Robinson proclaimed that all promises to Republicans are hostage to our subsequent good, meaning docile, behavior.
When Republicans dared to march against new forms of Internment on Internment Day or to honor the memory of Republican patriots, Robinson declares that Republicans breached his unwritten code of conduct and nullified any deal. The Croppies failed to lie down and will get no Long Kesh centre, even one built by DUP ally Terence Brannigan.
Robinson’s bullying will only be a “mistake” if Republicans stand up to him and make it so. Thus far he has not been forced to shorten his holiday much less reverse his u-turn. If Robinson can bully Republicans into more concessions, it will hardly be a mistake for unionists.
Robinson is copying the example of his British mentors. The British discarded their WestonPark promises by jailing Gerry McGeough and arresting John Downey, safe conduct letter in hand. They waited as Sinn Fein sat still for it at Stormont instead of walking out and showing the party would not swallow broken promises. The British think they hobbled their former foes with Stormont titles and dreams of becoming junior coalition partners north and south. Why should Robinson not take advantage?
My own view is no secret. The Hunger Strikers were patriots whose names, legacy and victory over Thatcher’s attempt to criminalize their struggle against British rule will never be forgotten, no matter what happens to the spot where they died.
Thatcher could not bully or break the Hunger Strikers in Long Kesh. Will those elected to represent Republicans today allow the likes of Peter Robinson to use Long Kesh to bully them?
Slan, MARTIN GALVIN
Posted by Jim on September 2, 2013
In the week that we lost our greatest scribe Séamus Heaney, Belfast came together as one family to mourn his passing and celebrate his life with an uplifting night of poetry, music, and craic at the Lyric Theatre.
Full marks to Stephen Douds of the Lyric who put the evening together in a heartbeat, exactly the type of generous and spontaneous response to grief which enriches us all. And with the Lyric team full-out with their plans to bring the stupendous Brendan at the Chelsea to New York next week, the city salutes them for making space for Séamus.
I had the great honour of reading the harrowing lament An Chéad Mháirt den Fhómhar during the evening of celebration for all that Séamus Heaney gifted Ireland and the world and while that poem about a father losing his son is, perhaps, angrier than the occasion merited it is also a tremendously moving poem by another people’s poet, Séamus Ó Dónaill of the Rosses — 200 years back.
We will pay our own homage to hope and history at City Hall on Monday when we open a book of condolence for Séamus Heaney, with the consent of all parties.
If you don’t make it to City Hall to sign the book of condolences, I do hope you’ll make it to our Belfast Diversity Day on Sunday 29 where we will raise a glass to all the different cultures, cuisines, colours, musics, and peoples of Belfast. Our festivities will take place the day after my installation dinner and will mark our thanks to the city for all it has given us with a special nod to the migrants to Belfast and the ethnic minorities who are building Belfast.
The day will end with a blessing by our eight wonderful chaplains. I’ve been invited to spend time with them all in the weeks ahead and this morning had the good fortune to spend some time meditating and listening to my Buddhist chaplain Ryushin Paul Haller at the Black Mountain Zen Centre. As regular readers will know, I don’t do enough listening and rarely pause. You can take it, therefore, that both were good for my soul.
Posted by Jim on August 30, 2013
Tributes to the Nobel prize winner Derry poet Seamus Heaney has
dominated the Irish media following the announcement of his death this
morning, Friday 30th August.
He died following a short illness and his death has come as a shock.
The son of a farmer from Bellaghy and the eldest of nine children, Mr
Heaney died following a short illness and his death has come as a shock.
He is being remembered as one of the greatest poets of the last hundred
years.
His publisher Faber and Faber issued a statement on behalf of the family
and went on to describe the poet as a world great and an inspiration for
the company.
“We cannot adequately express our profound sorrow at the loss of one of
the world’s greatest writers,” a spokeswoman for Faber and Faber said.
“His impact on literary culture is immeasurable.”
Fellow poet Michael Longley, a friend of Heaney, said he wrote some of
the world’s finest nature poems.
“I was very pleased that a few months ago I was able to tell him that
I’d been reading his early poems, the poems he wrote as a young man, and
that they struck me as miracles.
“And he joked, he says, ‘well they came from Bellaghy, they’d have to
have been miracles’.
“And he continued to produce miracles right the way through his life.”
The citation for the 1995 Nobel literature award praised Heaney “for
works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles
and the living past”.
Among the other awards he received, a year after his Nobel win he was
made a Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French ministry
of culture.
Educated at St Columb’s College, Derry and later at Queen’s University
Belfast, Heaney made his home in Dublin where he worked at Trinity
College Dublin.
His world renowned poetry first came to public attention in the
mid-1960s with his first major collection, ‘Death Of A Naturalist’,
published in 1966.
His experiences of the conflict were seen through the darkened mood of
his later work, such as the 1975 collection ‘North’.
His poems on the conflict stopped short of offering a a direct political
opinion. Instead, he addressed the violence in a wider historical
context and wrote elegies to friends and acquaintances who were killed.
But he declined to become British poet laureate for political reasons,
commenting “I’ve nothing against the Queen personally: I had lunch at
the Palace once upon a time”.
He published “Requiem for the Croppies” on the 50th anniversary of the
1916 Easter Rising, a poem that commemorates the Irish rebels of 1798.
He described the poem as “silence-breaking rather than rabble-rousing”.
His most commonly cited political statement came in 1982 when he
objected to being included in an anthology of British poetry. He wrote:
“Be advised my passport’s green. No glass of ours was ever raised to
toast the Queen.”
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams expressed sadness at the death. “I knew and
was very fond of Seamus. He was a wonderful man as well as a literary
figure of huge international stature.”
Irish President Michael D Higgins said Heaney’s contribution to the
“republics of letters, conscience, and humanity” was immense. “The
presence of Seamus was a warm one, full of humour, care and courtesy,”
he said.
“Generations of Irish people will have been familiar with Seamus’ poems.
Scholars all over the world will have gained from the depth of the
critical essays, and so many rights organisations will want to thank him
for all the solidarity he gave to the struggles within the republic of
conscience.”
