Posted by Jim on March 2, 2019
More than 150 trade unionists have signed a declaration calling on the
labour movement to advocate for a united Ireland and a new all-Ireland
constitution with workers’ rights at the heart of it.
Despite the two causes once being almost synonymous, the trade union
movement in Ireland has in recent decades stayed on the sidelines of the
struggle for Irish liberation and reunification.
But that could be in the past. A declaration signed on Monday said it
was “critically important that the interests of workers and working
families are put at the heart of a new Ireland, which should be a united
Ireland”.
“This must be a new Ireland that puts workers’ rights, economic rights,
gender rights, as well as universal human rights front and centre in a
new all-Ireland constitution,” the document added.
The new movement called ‘Trade Unionists for a New and United Ireland’
or TUNUI, includes a number of union general secretaries from across the
island, and Liz Deasy and Karen Gearon, veterans of the Dunnes Stores
anti-apartheid strike in 1984.
The signatories call on trade unionists across Ireland “to begin
engaging in the debate for Irish unity”.
“Profound social and constitutional changes have taken place across this
island in recent years and the debate about future arrangements has
already started,” they said.
“As trade unionists working on both sides of the border, we believe it
is critically important that the interests of workers and working
families are put at the heart of this debate. If there is to be a united
Ireland, it must be a new Ireland that puts workers’ rights, economic
rights, gender rights, as well as Universal Human rights front and
centre in a new all-Ireland constitution,” the declaration states.
Spokesman and trade union official Ruairí Creaney said: “The debate on
the future of Ireland north and south has been escalating significantly
against the backdrop of Brexit and the rise of populist right-wing, and
borderline fascist, movements in the United States and in a number of EU
member states. It is now time to get it out in the open, and to ensure
that the voice of trade unionism is to the forefront.”
Mr Creaney said the new initiative had secured the support of trade
unionists from across the island with many differing political views.
“We are all united in recognising that the partition of Ireland has been
disastrous for workers’ rights and progressive politics in this
country,” he said.
He said the aim of the new movement was “to put forward a new vision of
what a fairer and more socially just Ireland would look like in the
event of reunification”.
“We want to see a new Ireland – a united Ireland – with a new
constitution that promotes workers’ rights, economic equality and social
justice.”
A conference entitled Uniting Workers – Uniting Ireland will be held at
the Communications Workers’ Union headquarters in Dublin on Saturday,
April 27th, with speakers from across the trade union movement and other
organisations. The theme will be “uniting workers north and south within
a vision of Irish unity, and what this means for workers’ rights”.
Sinn Féin National Chairperson Declan Kearney welcomed the initiative.
Commenting after attending the Belfast launch of the initiative in the
Linenhall Library, the Sinn Féin spokesperson on Workers Rights said:
“An opportunity is now opening up to reshape Ireland and Irish society
for this and future generations.
“The Labour movement in Ireland should be central to that process by
asserting workers, citizens and democratic rights. The Irish Congress of
Trade Unions should bring the full weight of its resources and influence
to this debate.”
“The Labour movement will only successfully put its mark on the Irish
unity debate by asserting the primacy of economic democracy, and a
rights-based society in a new Ireland.
“That will require Irish trade unionists to take strategic positions on
supporting calls for an Irish unity referendum, and then to campaign
positively for constitutional change.
“The Irish Labour movement should immediately set about introducing a
progressive Labour agenda to the Irish unity debate, and to the
unfolding discourse on future constitutional and political change.
Labour should not wait.”
Posted by Jim on
A priest called the British Army to plead for help to protect Catholics
in Ballymurphy from attacks from their Protestant neighbours, just half
an hour before he was shot dead, the inquest into the Ballymurphy
Massacre has heard.
A number of witnesses have been recalling the events of August 9 1971,
when Fr Hugh Mullan was shot “while performing his spiritual duties as a
priest”. He was going to the aid of a parishioner lying injured by
gunfire in open ground when he was shot.
It emerged that shortly before his death, Fr Mullan had called a British
Army unit to ask for help as parishioners fled their Springfield Park
homes amid violence from the neighbouring loyalist Springmartin estate.
Terence Curran, who lived in a house on the interface with his wife and
eight-week-old son, told the inquest how they were driven from their
home by a crowd “throwing stones from Springmartin to Springfield Park”.
“A brick narrowly avoided hitting my wife (and) I decided to get my wife
and infant out as a crowd had gathered,” he said.
The family sheltered in a friend’s home from where someone took him to
Fr Mullan’s house at around 9pm to see whether he had been able to get
help from the authorities.
“(A man) said the priest was trying to get something organised for us to
get some protection,” Mr Curran said.
“When he [Fr Mullan] came off the phone he was in a state of shock. He
said `We’re going to get no help. There’s no help. We’re on our own’.”
Within an hour, the curate had been shot on nearby waste ground which he
had entered waving a white cloth in an attempt to deliver the Last Rites
to another man Bobby Clarke, who would survive his gunshot wound.
Mr Clarke, now aged 85, told the inquest that he holds himself
responsible for the death of the priest and a second young man who went
to his aid. He was hit by a bullet in the back near Springfield Park as
he tried to move a number of children out of the area.
He had taken a baby from the area and was returning across the field to
take more children away when he was hit in the back by a bullet.
He said he saw two British soldiers on the roof of flats on the
Springmartin Road “tracking” him with their rifles as he crossed the
field first with the child and then as he returned.
But Mr Clarke said he believes he was shot by soldiers who were at
ground level on Springfield Park, and that they were members of the
Parachute Regiment.
Father Mullan crawled over the field to tend to him, waving a white
cloth. After judging Mr Clarke was not seriously injured, he turned to
leave and at this point was fatally shot, the inquest heard.
Another man, Frank Quinn, was then shot dead as he attempted to reach Fr
Mullan. Mr Clarke told the inquest he has had 47 years of “living this”
and holds himself responsible for the deaths of the two men.
“Two people lost their lives coming to help me while I was trying to
help those who could not help themselves,” he told the inquest.
Posted by Jim on
The Supreme Court in London has unanimously backed the appeal by the
family of Pat Finucane against the refusal of the British government to
carry out a proper inquiry into his 1989 murder by state agents.
The family has won a binding declaration that a previous review had not
been an effective investigation into his death. However, the court said
it would not order the British government to hold a public inquiry,
leaving the campaign facing the possibility of further delay.
The ruling has entirely vindicated the long justice campaign by the
Finucane family and their rejection of the 2012 de Silva review.
However, the judgement was wilfully misinterpreted and spun in the
mainstream media as a setback for the family.
Giving a statement outside the Supreme Court, Mr Finucane’s widow,
Geraldine, said: “This is a historic moment. I stand before you today
outside the United Kingdom Supreme Court with one simple message: we
won.”
She added: “The British government now knows that it cannot conceal the
truth any longer. They have now been told this by the highest court in
the land.
“It is time for the murder of Pat Finucane to be properly and publicly
investigated in a public inquiry. Nothing less will suffice.”
Mr Finucane was killed in February 1989 by loyalists in an attack which
Britain admitted seven years ago involved collusion by the state. The
39-year-old was shot 14 times while enjoying Sunday lunch at home with
his family.
The cynical and brutal assassination came to symbolise Britain’s ‘dirty
war’ against the nationalist population of the Six Counties. Successive
London governments have repeatedly reneged on promises, including an
international agreement signed in 2001, to hold a public inquiry into
the killing.
in 2011, former British Prime Minister David Cameron offered up the de
Silva review. Based chiefly on an examination of intelligence documents,
the former UN prosecutor Desmond de Silva found “shocking” levels of
state collusion involving the British Army, police and MI5 — but ruled
out an “overarching state conspiracy”; and found no serving officers to
be culpable.
In a withering response, the Finucane family condemned the review as a
“sham”, a “whitewash” and “a confidence trick dressed up as independent
scrutiny and given invisible clothes of reliability”.
The Supreme Court in London has now backed that view, finding that there
had been a violation of the family’s human right to a proper
investigation. The court also found that while Mrs Finucane had indeed
been given “an unequivocal undertaking to hold a public inquiry into Mr
Finucane’s death”, the British government’s efforts to avoid one had
been a “political judgment”.
The court noted that the European Convention on Human Rights had yet to
be respected. Justice Kerr said: “It is for the state to decide… what
form of investigation, if indeed any is now feasible, is required in
order to meet that requirement.”
The British government must now comply with the ECHR requirements for an
effective investigation. Peter Madden, a Belfast lawyer and former
partner of Patrick Finucane, said “it’s back to the British government
to decide what they are going to do”.
Speaking on radio, Mr Finucane’s son John said the judgment was a “great
result” for the family. which had blown the de Silva review “out of the
water”.
“It was very emotional for all of us. It is an enormous relief for my
mother, it has given all of us a boost.”
The British government has “run out of road” he said, and will “finally
have to do the right thing”.
Speaking in the Dail, the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described the ruling as
“very significant”, and said that his government’s position remains that
a public inquiry should be held.
“The position of the Irish Government is that the British government
should now honour its commitment to carry out a public inquiry in
accordance with the Inquiries Act, into the murder of Pat Finucane, the
solicitor and human rights activist,” Mr Varadkar said.
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said she “warmly welcomed” the
Taoiseach’s commitment to vigorously pursue the matter. “I hope the
British government on this occasion moves away from it’s position of
denial of the truth to the Finucane family,” she said.
Aontú leader Peadar Toibin said it was “beyond time” for the murder to
be comprehensively and independently investigated. He criticised the
efforts of the Dublin government to secure a public inquiry as
“minimal”.
British Prime minister Theresa May’s official spokesman said only the
British government would consider the court’s judgment before
determining what kind of investigation “if any” to order into the murder
of Pat Finucane.
“We recognise the suffering of Mrs Finucane caused by the appalling
murder of her husband. In 2012 the then prime minister apologised for
the collusion that took place, which should never have happened. In
relation to the supreme court we are considering that judgment,” the
spokesman said.
Posted by Jim on
The Belfast Agreement:
Twentieth Anniversary Issue
(Vol 10, No 2)
“I get down on my knees and do what must be do
And kiss Achilles’ hand, the killer of my son.”
Michael Longley, from “Ceasefire”
Our long-awaited historic issue will be released to the book trade in February. If you wish to receive it immediately, please subscribe now:
http://irishpages.org/subscribe/
Given the all-consuming Brexit crisis, the release of this issue, at this moment, seems perfect timing. Several contributors write powerfully about the interaction of The Belfast Agreement and Brexit. Further work has been sought in light of recent developments. The whole issue will be of high interest to all those in Ireland and Great Britain who are following this interlocking British constitutional crisis.
The issue consists of 42 notable literary writers, journalists and scholars commenting on the achievement of the Agreement itself as well as offering their views, feelings and experience of it over the past twenty years, including the present moment. The issue has been compiled through a mixture of invitation and public announcement, with most of the contributors from the North, or Northern-based. A certain number, however, are from outside Northern Ireland – the Republic and Great Britain – but these are writers whose work in the past has demonstrated a real interest in, and engagement with, the polity. Most of the writing is non-fiction, but a small amount of poetry, memoir and fiction directly relevant to the issue is included.
Most of the contributors are writers with a literary, journalistic or scholarly track-record, evinced by publication history and critical response. There are no politicians included, and only a number of journalists with book publication. A major consideration is careful balance: by genre of writer, gender, age, background, outlook, county and so forth. As such, given the range of the contributors, the whole issue constitutes a cultural and civic event of considerable contemporaneous relevance to the North, to the whole of Ireland, and to a Great Britain in the throes of Brexit.
Posted by Jim on
TO THE AMERICAN IRISH COMMUNITY AND THE IRISH DIASPORA WORLDWIDE
9am-10am: Dr. Miriam Nyhan hosts This Irish American Life from Glucksman Ireland House NYU on WNYE 91.5fm, irishradio.com and facebook/irishradio
10am-12.00pm: Adrian Flannelly Show on irishradio.comfacebook/irishradio
John Finucane, Finucane
Toner Law offices, Belfast, N. Ireland:
John is the son
of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane, 39, who was shot dead by loyalist
paramilitaries in front of his three children and wife Geraldine at their
home in north Belfast on February 12, 1989. In 2011, the UK Government
under then PM David Cameron finally admitted Finucane’s killers had acted
in collusion with British intelligence services, but no one has ever been
prosecuted. This week, 30 years since her husband’s murder, the
Supreme Court in London ruled that Mrs Finucane had indeed been given “an
unequivocal undertaking to hold a public inquiry into Mr Finucane’s
death”. The Investigation was “not effective”, thus paving the way for a
new inquiry.
Siobhan and Dan Dennehywill lead Peekskill’s
30th St. Patrick’s Day Parade as its Grand Marshals on Sunday March
9:
Siobhan, Director, Emerald
Isle Immigration Center has also been chosen as Aide-at-Large to Grand
Marshal Brian O’Dwyer for the NYC
St. Patrick’s Day parade on Saturday March 16th. Dan, a
frequent contributor to Adrian’s program, is Ancient
Order of Hibernians National Director & AOH National Immigration
Chair and Founding Chairperson of Hudson Valley Irish Center and Festival.
The
AOH, led by President Jim McKay and LAOH President Carol Sheyer, have
recently returned from a 9-day fact-finding mission to
Ireland.