Posted by Jim on June 7, 2013
by Niall O’Dowd
The inaugural Irish Sports 50 awards presented by Irish Voice newspaper were held on Thursday night in Manhattan at the beautiful surrounds of the American Irish Historical Society on Fifth Avenue and were an outstanding success.
They came from California, Dallas and Ireland. Sports and business figures from all the major U.S sports were present to hear keynote speaker Tim Brosnan, Executive Vice President of Major League Baseball, describe the Irish journey to success in sports as an example for every immigrant community.
Brosnan pointed out that our forefathers came with nothing and that sport was one of the first arenas in America where Irish were welcome.
At a time when “No Irish Need Apply” signs were still being hung out the Irish were making it in baseball and other sports he pointed out.
Other ethnic groups would follow the same path and African Americans would eventually break the barrier too.
Sports were one of the first places that Irish were accepted he said. It was an invaluable lesson for other groups who faced discrimination too.
Now, Brosnan pointed out, sports is open to all “If you have the skill you can play it doesn’t matter where you came from.”
It is true. The first thing the child of immigrants will do,whether Irish or these days Hispanic, is grab a bat or a ball and try to compete on the only truly level playing field around — sports.
We take it for granted these days that sports is the great melting pot of American society but as the Jackie Robinson biopic this Spring showed clearly it was a hell of a battle to get there.
Deputy Consul of Ireland Peter Ryan talked about the healing power of sport when it came to the fallout from Hurricane Sandy in the Rockaways.
Some of Ireland’s top athletes, members of the Gaelic Players Association came on their own time to America and rebuilt the sports gymnasium at Breezy Point that had been ruined by the storm. 1,500 members of the Irish community had lent their skills all over the different Rockaway neighborhoods.
GPA Chairman Dessie Farrell talked about the extraordinary response to their gesture including coverage on NBC Nightly News and many other organizations stepping forward to help. This weekend the GPA will conduct a Gaelic sports 7 a side tournament in Breezy Point to aid local charities.
I spoke about being present at the greatest Irish American sports event I have seen, the Notre Dame game against Navy in Dublin last year when 25,000 Irish fans made the haj across the Atlantic to their ancestral home.
The goodwill engendered between Ireland and America on that trip alone speaks volumes for the power of sport.
The first-ever Irish American Sports 50 was put together by Irish Voice editor Debbie McGoldrick and business manager John Dillon. Judging by the success it won’t be the last!
Posted by admin on June 1, 2013
Unabated police harassment of republican activists last week has increased the controversy over the PSNI’s abuse of ‘stop and search’
legislation.
Earlier this month, a court ruled that the use of detentions against a former IRA hunger striker, Bernard Fox, and Derry man Marvin Canning, a brother-in-law of Martin McGuinness, was unlawful.
The ruling forced the Westminster parliament to rush a new ‘code of practice’ into law. However, the PSNI’s recent actions appear to be in flagrant violation of the new regulations.
Lawyers for Mr Canning revealed he was stopped again just hours after the hearing, as he made his way to a wake.
A prominent county Derry republican, Declan McGlinchey, and his two children, aged seven and nine, were the victims of one such incident as he drove them home from school in Bellaghy this week.
All three were taken from the car as the vehicle was ‘searched’.
“I asked them what the reasonable grounds were for stopping me,” he said.
“They said they didn’t have to answer me.
“I had to get the two children out of the vehicle for them to search it and my seven-year-old son was crying.
“He hasn’t been back at school since.”
Mr McGlinchey’s lawyer Paul Pierce said: “We have now written to the chief constable asking him to confirm the details of these stop and search detentions and how the police have formed a ‘reasonable suspicion’ about someone bringing their children from school or going to a wake.”
Also this week, another prominent republican, Colin Duffy, was arrested and interrogated before being released without charge. A serial miscarriage of justice victim and an infamous target of police harassment, the Lurgan man was interned in Maghaberry for two years in a malicious PSNI prosecution before being released last year.
In Belfast, dozens of eirigi supporters who had gathered on the Falls Road to show solidarity for another interned republican, Stephen Murney, were targeted for an aggressive ‘stop and search’ operation Saturday of last week.
As some activists left to attend a republican commemoration in the North Belfast area, a PSNI vehicle followed the activists’ vehicle before forcing it to stop and pull over.
The vehicle’s contents were emptied onto the roadside and the occupants were subjected to body searches and questions about their movements and destination.
Activists were spread-eagled by the PSNI as they were searched under both ‘section 21’ and ‘section 24’ of the ‘Justice and Security Act’.
“It was clear that the intended stop and search was nothing more than an attempt to harass and delay those present,” eirigi said.
“That fact became quite obvious as the PSNI searched only the boot of the car but nowhere else. They didn’t open a single car door or even look inside – all of which indicates a complete lack of genuine concern regarding the vehicle and its occupants.”
Significantly, the harassment ended abruptly when a passing legal professional took an interest in events.
Also this week, the PSNI blamed ‘dissident’ republicans for two ‘improvised grenades’ which were thrown toward a passing patrol in the loyalist Ballysillan area of Belfast on Monday. Both devices exploded, but there were no injuries.
Posted by Jim on May 30, 2013
The Prison Crisis Group has welcomed the release of Marian Price and thanked everyone who backed her campaign.
“This is great news,” said spokesperson Betty Doherty yesterday. “It should have happened two years ago.
“The PCG has been in the forefront of the campaign throughout Marian’s internment. Many others have also been involved. We do not believe that Marian would be free had it not been for the campaign.
“We acknowledge the role of the political parties which came on board, and of the trades union movement. But most of all, we thank the thousands of ordinary people who signed our petitions, distributed our pamphlets and leaflets and turned out at the pickets we held on every occasion Marian was before the courts.
“We know we have more work to do, fighting for Martin Corry and in solidarity with interned prisoners across the water. We will be putting particular emphasis on the case of John Downey.
“But we can take time off today to celebrate.
“Everybody should learn the most important lesson to come out of all this – that grass-roots campaigning can make all the difference.”
In a message dated 30/05/2013 15:50:16 GMT Daylight Time, sanboyer@gmail.com writes:
Just got the word from Jerry McGlinchey that Marian is being released today. He says she will probably need to stay in the hospital, at least for a little while.
Thank you all for everything you did.
Now we need to step up the pressure for Martin Corey.
Posted by Jim on May 25, 2013
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has accused the British government of breaching commitments given during peace talks over a decade ago following the arrest of leading Donegal Sinn Fein member John Downey.
The 61-year-old was brought before Westminster Magistrates Court to face charges over a 1982 IRA attack in London’s Hyde Park in which four soldiers were killed. Today [Friday], he appeared at the Old Bailey by video link from Belmarsh prison and was ordered to be remanded in custody. No bail application was sought.
Mr Downey, who lives in Carrigart, Donegal has been a leading member of Sinn Fein in the county. In 2009, he read the Easter statement on behalf of the party leadership at the party’s annual Drumboe martyrs commemoration.
Mr Adams said an agreement forged with the British government at the Weston Park talks about ‘on the runs’ — republicans still pursued over in regard to outstanding prosecutions — had been breached.
He said the arrest of John Downey “is a matter of grave concern and a clear breach of commitments given by the British government at Weston Park and in subsequent negotiations”.
The 2001 talks near Birmingham were intended to secure the implementation of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. The Weston Park deal helped to secure the final disarming of the Provisional IRA. It also saw a British commitment to hold a public inquiry on the state assassination of lawyer Pat Finucane, which was equally reneged upon.
Commenting on the development, Sinn Féin Assembly member Gerry Kelly described Mr Downey as “a long time supporter of the peace process”.
“The decision to arrest and charge him in relation to IRA activities in the early 1980s is vindictive, unnecessary and unhelpful. It will cause anger within the Republican community.”
He said that following from the negotiated resolution of the OTRs issue, Mr Downey had received a letter from the British government in 2007 stating that he was not wanted by the PSNI or any other British police force.
“Despite travelling to England on many occasions now six years on he finds himself before the courts on these historic charges,” Mr Kelly said.
“This development represents bad faith and a departure from what was previously agreed by both governments.
“John Downey needs to be released and allowed to return home to his family.”
The controversial arrest followed the 15th anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, when Mr Adams again urged the 26 County government to press the British on “outstanding issues” of the peace deal.
Speaking in Belfast, the Louth representative accused the Tory-led coalition of defaulting on a number of past agreements, including commitments to legislate for a bill of rights and an Irish language bill for the North.
He called on the Dublin government, which he said was “a co-equal guarantor” of the Good Friday Agreement, to fulfil its obligations to intervene.
“I am calling on them now to bring forward a strategy to ensure the British government deliver on the commitments and support the work of the executive,” Mr Adams said.
Posted by admin on May 23, 2013
Senior British government officials permitted a campaign of state-backed killings by unionist paramilitaries and the RUC (now PSNI) police to be conducted at the height of the conflict, a senior security adviser for the British government has finally admitted.
The admission in advice to British Prime Minister David Cameron comes after the Downing Street continues to block a genuine inquiry into the 1989 murder of Pat Finucane, a US congressional committee was told on Wednesday.
The point-blank assassination of the Belfast lawyer, who was gunned down in front of his wife and children as he ate his Sunday dinner, remains one of the most controversial state killings in the North.
Last year, Cameron made an apology in the British parliament to the Finucane family, admitting “shocking” collusion in his murder between Loyalist paramilitaries and the RUC. However, he denied any political conspiracy existed, while refusing a public inquiry which could have exposed that claim as false.
However, a letter written in July 2011 by senior official Ciaran Martin admits that internal classified documents supported the Finucane family’s claims.
“[S]ome of the evidence available only internally could be read to suggest that within government at a high level this systematic problem with loyalist agents was known, but nothing was done about it,” said the letter.
“It’s also potentially the case that credible suspicions of agent involvement in Mr Finucane’s murder were made known at senior levels after it and that nothing was done; the agents remained in place. These two points essentially aren’t public.”
Mr Cameron was accused of perpetuating a “massive injustice” for his continued refusal to allow a public inquiry or to admit that the collusion was politically sanctioned.
In a hearing in Washington DC this week, Mr Cameron was accused of seeking to protect politicians and senior British government officials who had turned a blind eye to the murder.
Chris Smith, chair of the human rights sub-committee of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs castigated him for its refusal to allow a full inquiry.
“The British government has reserved one final, yet massive injustice,”
he said, “it continues to protect those responsible for the murder of Pat Finucane.”
Mr Finucane’s son, Michael, told the committee that he believed the collusion with unionist paramilitaries “was a deep-rooted, officially sanctioned policy of selecting targets based on their degree of opposition to the State.
“The more troublesome the individual, the more likely the State was to deploy its killers-by-proxy to erase the ‘problem’.”
The British government had first offered a public inquiry into his father’s killing in 2001 during peace talks but then consistently “welshed” on the commitment, Mr Finucane said.
In 2004, a review by Canadian Supreme Court Justice Peter Cory called for a public inquiry, but after repeated delays the British government agreed in 2011 only to a’review’ of the case papers.
“My family would not be permitted to see any of the documents nor would we be allowed to hear witnesses called to give evidence or ask them any questions,” said Mr Finucane, arguing that the review was totally inadequate and repeating calls for a full judicial inquiry.
The existence of the security letter first emerged last month at a Belfast High Court hearing challenging Downing Street’s decision not to allow a full inquiry.
The judge ordered the government to hand over minutes of the July 2011 cabinet meeting at which the decision was taken to deny a public inquiry, and correspondence between Downing Street officials and MI5. It is still unclear whether the documents will actually be made available to the Finucane family.