As you know the British Government is progressing legislation in Westminster that will end the rights of families bereaved in the conflict to an inquest, judicial investigation, and access to the courts. They will grant immunity in exchange for an untested statement.
These proposals are opposed by all victims, all Irish and British political parties, the Irish Government, US Congress, the EU, and the UN.
The proposals are designed solely to stem the stream of revelations on the role of Britain in the murder and cover-up of citizens. The cost will be to truth, justice, reconciliation, and our peace agreements.
At present the legislation is in the House of Lords before passing to the House of Commons. This week the House of Lords voted to remove the immunity clauses from the Bill. Did the British Government see sense and listen to the Lords? No, they committed to adding the immunity clauses back when the legislation returns to the House of Commons.
This is a government that listens to no one not even their own House of Lords. But that was not the end of the actions this week.
(NOTE: Tell your U.S. Senators & Representatives that they need to hold the British Government to account: return to working jointly with the Irish government, honor the Stormont Agreement of 2014, scrap Legacy legislation, & end unilateral action in the areas of legacy, truth, & justice. https://ujoin.co/campaigns/2405/actions/public?action_id=2646)
In August 1971 the British Government authorized the introduction of Internment. This gave the government the power to indefinitely detain someone in prison without a trial. Yes your read that right, you could be arrested and jailed without any trial. It was a power used in a decade from partition through to 1975. It was used to imprison my grandfather in the late 1930s and early 1940s. It was used against two of my uncles in the 1970s.
The same powers were used to imprison Gerry Adams in 1972. Records show that the British did not even follow their own “legal” procedures when interning Gerry and others. A court has recently found that his detention was illegal. This in turn overturned a conviction for attempting to escape while interned in jail.
Not only was internment morally repugnant and unjust, it was also illegally operated in many cases.
You would think that a British Government would hang its head in shame at Internment without trial. That they would move to redress this denial of the basic right to liberty and years lost to illegal detention.
But no, Lord Caine from the British Government has stated that they will introduce a further amendment to their legislation to stop Gerry Adams and others from seeking compensation for unlawful detention during internment.
The British government is standing over an unjust and illegally operated scheme that was imprisoned without trial over two thousand people.
Denied justice in 1971. Denied justice again in 2023. The British solution to a British problem: cover up and change the law.
Is mise,
Ciarán
Ciarán Quinn is the Sinn Féin Representative to North America. Each week he writes a letter from Ireland with news and analysis. It is featured in the weekly Friends of Sinn Féin USA Newsletter. Be sure you are subscribed to stay up to date.
Members of the Orange Order at Drumcree bridge in July 2006
Connla Young
29 June, 2023 16:28
Drumcree 1997
The Orange Order has been banned from marching along the mainly Catholic Garvaghy Road this weekend.
Members wanted to parade through the nationalist district of Portadown to mark 25th anniversary since they were last allowed to make their way from Drumcree Church.
The dispute began in 1995 when nationalists blocked the return route of an Orange Order parade.
After a three-day stand-off, the parade finally went ahead after nationalists agreed to end their protest.
A year later the parade was banned but after violent clashes between the RUC, Orangemen and their supporters, the decision was reversed, resulting in nationalist protesters being forcibly removed from the Garvaghy Road.
At the height of the stand-off, Catholic taxi driver Michael McGoldrick (31) was shot dead by the UVF outside Lurgan.
In 1997 the Orange Order was again allowed to march along the Garvaghy Road after the area was flooded by police in the early hours of Drumcree Sunday.
Drumcree 1997
Priests were forced to celebrate Mass in front of British army lines after local people were blocked from attending their local church.
The dispute around the parade, which was eventually banned in 1998, was also linked to a deadly sectarian arson attack carried out by the UVF in the early hours of July 12 1998.
Catholic schoolboys Richard (10), Mark (9) and Jason Quinn (8) died after their home was petrol bombed in Ballymoney, Co Antrim.
While some Orangemen continued their ill-fated protest, others left Drumcree and have not returned.
While most nationalists consider the dispute to be at an end, and many young people have no memory of an Orange parade in their area, some Orangemen continue to insist they be allowed through the Garvaghy district.
The Orange Order had wanted to bring 1,500 members and a similar number of supporters onto the road this year to mark the 25th anniversary of the original ban.
In a determination issued on Thursday, the Parades Commission put the brakes on any prospect of the parade taking place along the route.
In representations to the commission, the order said the “route was categorically not negotiable”.
In its representations, the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition described the impact of the past on the local community and “the trauma that remains”.
It added that any initiative to facilitate a march on the road would bring to the fore “issues, anxieties and fears which the residents consider should remain in the past and which could have wider ramifications”.
Residents also signalled their willingness to accept “an alternative, less contentious route along Corcrain/Dungannon Road”.
Garvaghy Road residents spokesman Brendan Mac Cionnaith
Speaking to The Irish News, spokesman Breandán MacCionnaith said a number of concerns were raised including the proposed attendance of an additional two flute bands.
Concerns over access to Mass at a nearby Catholic church around the time of the planned parade have also been raised.
He added that young people from the area have “never had any experience of a parade along the Garvaghy Road” or nearby Obin Street, which was a parading flashpoint in the 1980s.
“By and large the parade out to Drumcree is largely ignored,” he said.
“But obviously given that the Orange Order themselves are beefing this up into 25 years, and with the backing of the grand lodge, we will just have to wait and see what happens on Sunday week.”
“There’s nobody in our community making any noises or talking about marking 25 years of no marches.”
Loyalist Jamie Bryson
Meanwhile, prominent loyalist Jamie Bryson has criticised the Parades Commission decision to ban the parade and described the dispute as “unfinished business” on Twitter.
“Drumcree is unfinished business, and the issue should be forced by the loyal orders.”
The following was read by Francis Mackey, national chairman of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, at this year’s commemoration to mark the 102nd anniversary of the Sinnott’s Cross ambush.
For what died the sons of Róisín? And on the centenary year of his death we must also ask for what died General Liam Lynch, Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army? This salient question is not before the Irish people. And the more the advocacy of a Border Poll is trumpeted the more this question is once again relegated from the national narrative.
We have reached a point where explanations must be given to commemorate our patriot dead and obfuscation and dithering are employed when asked if they shall continue to do so if political positions are attained.
And this same doublespeak permeates the heart of the dialogue surrounding a Border Poll. The question arises of whether a simple majority is sufficient to carry the vote or perhaps, for the sake of some puerile reconciliation, a larger majority would be required.
The so-called New Ireland is forever drifting into a Commonwealth arrangement far removed from the sovereign Republic which Irish republicanism has striven and sacrificed to establish.
In the clamour and political self-serving rush to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement it is imperative that Irish republicans make our people aware that that agreement has made possible the 100th anniversary of partition.
There is absolutely nothing to celebrate about partition, be it for one day or one hundred years. From its inception it betrayed everything the Irish revolutionary tradition stood for and achieved. As a so-called stepping-stone to freedom it has only ever stepped backwards each time a treaty was agreed to sustain it.
Those Volunteers who engaged the Crown Forces at Sinnott’s Cross did so with the clear intention of being part of a broader and successful struggle to restore the national sovereignty of the Irish people.
In tandem with armed struggle those republicans brought both governance and law to the Irish people. They invoked history as a means to create their own history thus earning the right of inheritance of the republican mantle.
“We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible.”
This is the bedrock of Irish republicanism. It is the only basis upon which a truly inclusive republic can be built for our people. Those who signed the Easter Proclamation transcended party politics. They were nation builders and completely selfless when it came to serving our people.
It is always difficult to struggle against the tide of populism. The onslaught of political and historical revisionism can be extremely disillusioning. But it is only from these graves, and these patriotic monuments that our faith in the republican struggle can be reinvigorated.
The Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement says the UK’s Legacy bill “risks traumatizing” victims and their families again.
The Committee said in a statement today, June 26, that the Bill would end inquests, Police Ombudsman investigations, civil cases, and police investigations into crimes committed as part of the Troubles.
In doing so, the Legacy Bill would remove vital avenues to the truth for the countless families in Northern Ireland who are grappling with the painful legacy of the Troubles.
Speaking on behalf of the Committee, Deputy O’Dowd said: “Since the Bill was first announced, the Committee has met with many victims and their families.
“We have witnessed their anguish at the prospect of losing vital opportunities to find out the truth of what happened to their loved ones and hold perpetrators to account. This Bill risks traumatising these victims once more.
“The Bill flies in the face of the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement. It is considered unacceptable by every political party in Ireland and Northern Ireland.
“It has also been criticised by the overwhelming majority of victims’ representative organisations, by civil society, church leaders, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Council of Europe, as well as Westminster’s Joint Committee on Human Rights.
“The Committee emphasises that the Bill is a unilateral move away from the 2014 Stormont House Agreement in which parties in Northern Ireland, together with the British and Irish governments, decided on mechanisms to better assist these families, and to pursue justice. That agreement was endorsed again by both governments, in the 2015 Fresh Start and the 2020 New Decade, New Approach deals.
“The Committee has sought to communicate its grave concerns at this proposal throughout the legislative process. While we welcome engagement with the Committee by Lord Caine and others, we are disappointed that our concerns and those of victims have not been addressed.
“The Committee calls on the British Government to withdraw the Legacy Bill. If the Bill is enacted, the Committee will ask the Irish Government to consider interstate litigation in the European Court of Human Rights. This course of action would demonstrate tangible support and solidarity with victims’ campaigners by sparing them the costly and arduous task of bringing individual cases to challenge the Bill.
“This year we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. The Agreement was an extraordinary achievement of the UK and Irish Governments. The result of the Agreement – peace in Northern Ireland – was painstakingly achieved and must be protected. The work of reconciliation remains incomplete and could be undermined by the proposals in this Bill.
“The Committee calls on the UK Government to engage with the Irish Government in a spirit of partnership to find a way forward. The Governments must work together urgently to strengthen reconciliation in Northern Ireland and fulfill their shared obligations as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement.
The non-profit group Relatives for Justice said on Monday that it “warmly welcomes” the statement from the Committee:
On Monday, the UK House of Lords supported two amendments to the Bill – one calling for the removal of the Bill’s immunity provision, and another seeking to ensure a minimum standard for case reviews by the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR.)
Professor Emeritus Jim Mallory of Queen’s University has published a new paper suggesting that the Irish language can trace its origins to the arrival of the Beaker Bell culture in Ireland.
IrishCentral Staff
Jun 20, 2023
A DNA expert has suggested that the Irish language can trace its roots to the arrival of settlers from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe in Eastern Europe around 4,500 years ago.
Professor Emeritus Jim Mallory of Queen’s University, one of the foremost experts in genetics studies on the island of Ireland, has published a new paper suggesting that the Irish language can trace its origins to the arrival of the Beaker Bell culture in Ireland.
The Beaker Bell culture, which refers to the beaker-shaped drinking vessel, was dominant across Western Europe around 3,500 years ago and emanated from the northern shores of the Caspian and Black Seas.
Until recently, however, the lack of beaker-shaped objects uncovered in Ireland led archaeologists to believe that the culture made little impact in Ireland.
However, recent genetic breakthroughs have revealed that 84% of Irish males have a genetic marker associated with the Beaker Bell culture.
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Experts have since concluded that the lack of beaker-like objects in Ireland is a result of people who settled in Ireland forming their own distinct culture separate from the rest of Western Europe.
Mallory added that there was an “overwhelming predominance of cremation burial” in Ireland, meaning physical evidence of the Beaker Bell culture was likely burned.
He said there is indisputable evidence that the majority of Irish people are descended from the Beaker Bell culture, with implications for the origins of the Irish language.
Irish is commonly referred to as one of the Celtic languages derived from Indo-European, but the Celtic language and culture was first identified by the Greeks around 600BC, roughly 2,000 years after members of the Beaker Bell culture first settled in Ireland.
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According to the Irish News, Mallory believes there was no subsequent invasion or settlement of Ireland until the arrival of the Vikings in the 8th century AD.
“Many linguists will be forced to reconsider a model of Irish origins that they had presumed was linguistically implausible,” Mallory said.
Mallory added that the only other plausible explanation for the origin of the Irish language is that a more recent source of Irish developed in the Bronze Age or Iron Age.
“In short, it seems that the geneticists have gifted not only archaeologists but also linguists with the opportunity of living in ‘interesting times’,” he told the publication.
