Posted by Jim on January 27, 2018
Concerns have been expressed at the accelerating rate at which
undocumented Irish people living in the United States are being deported
back to Ireland.
Nineteen-year-old Dylan O’Riordan, originally from County Galway, has
already been detained for four months in punitive conditions by US
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In the Suffolk County House of
Corrections in Boston, the teenager is required to wear a bright yellow
jail jumpsuit at all times.
He moved to the US when he was 12 years old along with his parents, who
are both legal US Permanent Residents. He now faces deportation on the
basis he has overstayed his visa.
“I was aware how with Trump immigration was going to get a lot harder,
but I didn’t pay as much mind to it as I should have, which was my first
mistake,” he said.
Dylan is confined with 150 men in a section of the county jail
contracted to ICE. “There’s a lot of people from El Salvador, a lot of
Guatemalans, couple of Haitian people, and I’m the only Irish in the
whole facility,” he said.
O’Riordan’s lawyer points out that his client was brought here when he
was a child, but ICE won’t budge.
“Their position has been, well, he waived whatever rights he had when he
came,” said Tony Marino. “Twelve-year-olds don’t waive rights! I’ve
never seen anything like it. I can’t wrap my head around it.”
A prominent local Irish immigrant, John Cunningham, went on camera with
an Irish TV crew last year talking about his fear of living illegally in
Boston. Weeks later, ICE arrested him and sent him back to Ireland.
Kieran O’Sullivan, of the Irish Pastoral Centre in Boston, said that the
number of Irish being sent home from the US has surged, with a total of
34 Irish immigrants being deported in 2017.
Mr O’Sullivan explained there had been a number of high profile
‘detentions’ involving Irish people in the Boston area over the last 12
months.
He said it was “disturbing” that detainees spend lengthy periods in jail
while paperwork regarding their expulsion is processed.
“This causes considerable upset to the families of those detained
whether in the US or back home in Ireland,” he said. “This notion that’s
out there – that they’re a threat to the country – is nonsense.”
Emigration from Ireland has been officially encouraged by successive
Irish governments, and it is a process that continues. The late former
Tanaiste Brian Lenihan asked people to leave, telling them “we can’t all
live on a small island”. This week Taoiseach Leo Varadkar urged young
people without wealthy parents to emigrate to save up for a mortgage.
It is estimated that as many as 50,000 unauthorised Irish are living in
the shadows in America. Fine Gael TD John Deasy TD has been appointed to
be special envoy to the U.S. Congress to work out a solution to the
problem.
Fionnuala Quinlan, the Irish consul general in Boston, says with the
island’s small population there’s hardly a family in Ireland that
doesn’t know of someone living illegally in the U.S.
“That’s really why the government places such a strong emphasis on it,”
she says. “We know the impact that living an undocumented life has on
people not being able to go home for funerals or celebrations, the fear
and isolation that can result from that.”
Posted by Jim on
A British MP has warned that new recruits could be deterred from joining
the British Army because of the possibility of prosecution for war
crimes.
Ruth Smeeth made the claim when she spoke in favour of an amnesty for
British soldiers who were responsible for killing civilians in Ireland.
The MP for Stoke said: “Our brave service personnel were acting under
orders; we asked them to do many things for us; we need to have their
backs.”
The concept of an amnesty has gained support among Westminster
backbenchers, who have depicted prosecutions of former British soldiers
are a “witch-hunt”.
An amnesty bill, if passed, would effectively close off investigations
into how British forces carried out state killings and colluded in
state-sanctioned attacks through unionist death squads.
Among those present for the debate were relatives of 10 people killed by
soldiers in the Ballymurphy massacre.
John Teggart, who lost his father, said the discussion had been “one
sided”.
“You can’t debate an issue when they are all singing off the same hymn
sheet,” he said. “I am not happy; the voice of victims was left sitting
in the public gallery.”
Sinn Fein’s Chris Hazzard accompanied the victims’ families to London.
He said: “There must be no immunity for people who have killed Irish
citizens. A fundamental democratic principle is equality under the law,
and this proposal runs entirely contrary to that.”
Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly was also adamant that an amnesty for British
soldiers cannot be part of any resolution on dealing with the legacy of
the conflict.
“Everyone needs to be equal under the law, and there can be no immunity
for people who have killed Irish citizens,” he said.
“That is a basic principle and the DUP were adamant during negotiations
that there should be no amnesties, despite the fact that two of their
MPs have decided to support the statute of limitations.
“The way forward on legacy is not through self-serving and selective
amnesties. It is in the implementation of the mechanisms of the Stormont
House Agreement.
“In that agreement, all parties endorsed legacy mechanisms which should
have been operational long before now.
“The reason they aren’t is because they have been blocked by the British
government which is still refusing to honour its commitments under the
Stormont House Agreement and to abide by their international obligations
to victims.”
In a statement, Amnesty International called for the government to
reject any moves to legislate for a statute of limitations.
Grainne Teggart, the charity’s campaigns manager, said: “All victims of
human rights violations and abuses from Northern Ireland’s conflict have
a right to an independent investigation, with the possibility of
prosecutions to follow where the evidence leads.
“This is true, whatever the identity of the victim and whatever the
identity of the perpetrator. To remove this recourse would be a betrayal
of victims’ fundamental right to justice.”
Posted by Jim on
The sister of a man shot dead on Bloody Sunday has said the erection of
flags for the British Army’s Parachute Regiment outside Derry is “blind
sectarianism”.
The flags were put on lampposts in Newbuildings ahead of this weekend’s
Bloody Sunday commemorations.
Paratroopers were responsible for killing 14 people in Derry on January
30, 1972, and injuring many others during an anti-internment rally.
Kate Nash’s 19-year-old brother William died and her father Alex was
wounded on the day.
She said the flags were “designed to hurt people'”
“It is just blind sectarianism to taunt people. You wouldn’t do it. It
is hurtful. I am not paying any attention to it,” she said.
“It would disturb you. And I’m not going to let it disturb me. I have
more important things to do.
“I abhor sectarianism and I know that it is just done to hurt people,
and I’m just not even going to think about it.”
DUP MP Gregory Campbell denied the flags were sectarian, claiming they
were a reaction to bonfires and parades in the Bogside last summer.
“I don’t know about this occasion, but on previous occasions what has
happened is that a small number of individuals have put up Parachute
Regiment flags and they were in response to something that was done
either in the Bogside or around bonfires or around parades, such as the
12th of August,” he said.
BLOODY SUNDAY DISARRAY
Meanwhile, three republican groups have now pulled out of events to mark
the 46th anniversary of Bloody Sunday this weekend over what has been
described as an irrelevant and potentially hostile political agenda.
The decision by Republican Sinn Fein, the IRSP and Saoradh was prompted
after organisers produced a poster which listed a British mercenary
soldier who died in the conflict, William Best, alongside massacres
caused by the British forces of occupation.
IRSP spokesman Michael Kelly said that following “an emotive internal
debate, the Irish Republican Socialist Party have concluded that they
will not attend this year’s Bloody Sunday march, nor participate in any
events associated with the currently constituted Bloody Sunday
committee”.
He also expressed concern that some campaign groups have been denied
speaking rights in the past.
Republican Sinn Fein said in a statement that its concerns had not been
taken seriously by the Bloody Sunday Committee.
“After long and considered consultation with our membership we have
decided that it is impossible for us to attend this year’s Bloody Sunday
March, giving the anti-republican message expressed by the creation of
the official poster advertising the march, and which has been on display
this past week during events run by the Bloody Sunday Committee in Derry
City in relation to the march,” they said.
“It was important for us to give consideration to the opinions of the
republican community in Derry, who expressed similar concerns and
ultimately have taken the same decision.”
Saoradh spokesman Packy Carty confirmed the party will hold its own
wreath laying and anti-internment rally today [Saturday].
He said the original Bloody Sunday parade was organised to highlight
internment.
“Until such a time as the Bloody Sunday March returns to its roots, we,
as a movement, will mark the anniversary and continue to highlight
modern British internment and ongoing political repression,” he said.
Posted by Jim on January 26, 2018
January 26th
FRIENDS OF FIREFIGHTERS CALLING ALL RUNNERS
Are you interested in running a 5K in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park on April 29th to help raise money for Friends of Firefighters? If so, please email Marlo at info@friendsoffirefighters.org to learn more. They would be grateful for your support!
FIRE, SMOKE COALITION PRESENTATION AT FDNY FIRE ACADEMY
On Wednesday, January 31, 2018, at 1100 hours, the Fire, Smoke Coalition will make a presentation at the FDNY Fire Academy. The objectives of this presentation are to focus attention on and discuss related resources to address the deadly and life-long consequences of our exposure to fire and smoke. This presentation will review how to Prevent, Protect, Detect, and Diagnose exposures. This presentation will also discuss firefighter rehabilitation and medical monitoring using the Masimo RAD-57 handheld Pulse CO-Oximeter, as well as our routine exposures that are often overlooked and often underestimated. The content of this presentation is directly related to a Department initiative targeted to enhancing on-scene and post-fire operations rehabilitation and contamination reduction practices. All off-duty members are invited to attend. For additional information, email DC Joseph Jardin at Joseph.Jardin@fdny.nyc.gov.
Posted by Jim on
RADIO FREE EIREANN will broadcast this Saturday January 27th on WBAI Radio 99.5FM or WBAI.ORG at 12noon-1pm New York time or 5pm-6pm Irish time or anytime after the program on WBAI.ORG/ARCHIVES
Ballymurphy Massacre campaigner JOHN TEGGART,will describe his feelings as he and other campaigners sat in the British Parliament and heard Tories and DUP MPs praise a proposed new British law which could prevent any prosecutions of British troopers who murdered 11 people over a three day killing spree.
On the anniversary of his father’s death in a British prison,RFE will play a tape of Guildford Four member Gerry Conlon speaking about the incident in a live reading at Rocky Sullivan’s.
As we near the St. Patrick’s Day season,we will get hear from some of the artists who will be coming to New York to perform.
John McDonagh and Martin Galvin co-host