Posted by Jim on September 23, 2017
A sudden and violent attempt to suppress the Catalan independence
movement by the Madrid government has shocked those struggling for
self-determination across the world.
Describing the independence referendum in Catalonia as a “democratic
imperative”, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams TD said that the people
there must be allowed to decide their own future.
He was speaking after Spanish national police stormed ministries and
buildings in Barcelona belonging to Catalonia’s regional government to
put a stop to the referendum.
The Guardia Civil, which acts with the authority of Madrid’s interior
ministry, searched for “evidence” regarding the vote.
In the early hours of the morning armed officers arrived at various
Catalan ministries, including the economy department, foreign affairs
department, and social affairs department. More than a dozen Catalan
officials were arrested, including the chief aide to Catalonia’s deputy
prime minister.
Mayors of Catalan towns who back the referendum were also interrogated
and threatened with arrest, while documentation relating to the poll was
seized.
Pro-independence crowds formed outside the regional ministries in
support of the provincial government and in protest against the raids
and searches.
For some, their brought back painful memories the Spanish Civil war in
the 1930s, when republicans and socialists, supported by the Catalan
government, died fighting against the fascist dictatorship of General
Franco.
“It is unacceptable for there to be political prisoners in a European
democracy. The [governing party] Partido Popular leads us to an
authoritarian regression that cannot be tolerated,” a spokesperson for
Podemos said on social media.
Carles Puigdemont, the president of the Catalonian government, said the
Madrid authorities had “de facto suspended” home rule in Catalonia.
Thousands of additional Guardia Civil have now been sent to the area
ahead of the referendum. The growing police presence and aggressive
crackdowns are fuelling mounting protests among the Catalan population,
with thousands taking to the streets of Barcelona, and dock workers
refusing to provide services to the police arriving on ferries.
The secession referendum is scheduled for October 1, and top regional
officials insist the vote will go on as scheduled.
There is strong support in Ireland for Catalan independence.
“The future of Catalonia should be decided by the Catalan people,” Mr
Adams said.
“Those who truly cherish the principles of democracy, have nothing to
fear from Catalonia having an independence referendum. In fact, given
that significant numbers of Catalans have repeatedly expressed their
desire to vote on their political future, the referendum should be
embraced as a democratic imperative.
“The Spanish Government has a moral responsibility to respect the
legislation passed by the Government of Catalonia. Mariano Rajoy’s
administration should engage in meaningful discussions with Catalan
representatives to ensure that the vote goes ahead, and without
coercion.
“To prevent the referendum from taking place would be an affront to
democratic ideals. Let the people of Catalonia have their say.”
Scottish Cabinet secretary for external affairs Fiona Hyslop said “that
all peoples have the right to self-determination and to choose the form
of government best suited to their needs, a principle which is
enshrined in the UN Charter.”
She said that the governments in London and Edinburgh had been able “to
come together to agree a process to allow the people to decide”.
“It is essential that democracy and civil rights are respected in all
countries,” she added.
Posted by Jim on September 21, 2017
The film ‘Bobby Sands: 66 Days’ is due to make its television premiere on Sunday evening on BBC Two Northern Ireland.
John Monaghan. Irish News. Belfast. Wednesday, September 20, 2017
The documentary on Bobby Sands was written and directed by Brendan J Byrne
A DOCUMENTARY about Bobby Sands – which faced criticism from Unionists after it emerged that public money had been used to make it – will make its television premiere on BBC NI at the weekend.
The film, ‘Bobby Sands: 66 Days’, charts the IRA hunger striker’s life and imprisonment and is based on extracts from his prison diaries.
Written and directed by Ardoyne-born Brendan J Byrne, the extracts are read by west Belfast actor Martin McCann and the film combines archive news footage, custom animation and dramatic reconstruction.
The 27-year-old IRA prisoner died after spending 66 days on hunger strike in the Maze prison in May 1981.
Released in cinemas last summer, it will be shown for the first time on television on BBC 2 NI at 9pm on Sunday.
The film proved hugely popular amongst cinema-goers across Ireland when released last year, recording the Republic’s highest opening weekend returns for an Irish-made documentary, taking in more than €50,000.
In The North it came fifth in the box office chart on its debut weekend, finishing ahead of the combined audience total for both Star Trek and Ghostbusters.
Unionists reacted with anger to the news that the film had received tens of thousands in public funding from the BBC and Northern Ireland Screen.
Northern Ireland Screen revealed they gave £76,000 to the project, while the BBC did not disclose how much it contributed.
Former Fermanagh and South Tyrone MP, the Ulster Unionist Tom Elliott, last year said that the decision to award public money for the film was “disgraceful”.
Posted by Jim on
Claire Simpson. Irish News. Belfast. Wednesday, September 20, 2017
SINN Féin has accused the British government of “duplicity” amid a row over funding for Police Ombudsman probes into Troubles-era cases.
Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire has warned that some inquiries may take up to two decades to complete due to pressure on resources.
He told the BBC’s Spotlight programme he has written to 130 families this year, telling them he does not know when investigations into their loved ones’ deaths will be finished.
Sinn Féin North Belfast MLA Gerry Kelly said the ombudsman’s comments showed that legacy bodies agreed in 2014 as part of the Stormont House Agreement must be established and properly funded.
“The ombudsman has warned that the current system isn’t fit for purpose and strongly criticized the failure to adequately investigate, among others, the activities of the Glenanne Gang which was responsible for more than 100 murders, mostly of nationalist civilians, in Armagh and Tyrone, as well as being involved in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings,” he said.
“Unfortunately, this is just the latest example of the ongoing efforts to cover up the British state’s involvement in the conflict here and particularly their deep-seated collusion with loyalist death squads,” he said.
“That is why the British government is still blocking the implementation of the legacy bodies agreed at Stormont House and refusing to fund outstanding conflict-related inquests despite repeated requests from the lord chief justice.”
Posted by Jim on September 20, 2017
Optimism is beyond northern Unionists and has been for perhaps centuries
“Some used to balk at equating Catholics with Nationalists, Protestants with Unionists. What about the Catholics who vote Unionist, they niggled, Protestants who don’t think of themselves as Unionist?
What we now have is what wishful thinkers lament as ‘increased polarization’ and the rest of us recognize as the truth of ages.”
Fionnuala O’ Connor. Irish News. Belfast. Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Curious, but not all that surprising.
Since Catholics/nationalists are turned off Stormont and feel cheated by the Tory-DUP deal, Protestants/Unionists should surely be in cheerful mood, moderately optimistic?
But optimism is beyond northern Protestant Unionists and has been for perhaps centuries. This community may be past cheering up.
Perhaps this is the point to get rid of a quibble, though these days only sticklers raise it.
Some used to balk at equating Catholics with Nationalists, Protestants with Unionists. What about the Catholics who vote Unionist, they niggled, Protestants who don’t think of themselves as Unionist?
What we now have is what wishful thinkers lament as ‘increased polarization’ and the rest of us recognize as the truth of ages.
Stickle how you like; mavericks fail to make an impact, too few for this place’s good. Most Unionists are Protestant, most Nationalists[are[ Catholic.
And here we are, well into a changed demographic situation that one section refuses to acknowledge.
Catholic schoolchildren outnumber Protestant children, the bigger number of the most elderly is Protestant. Only one outcome ahead, but Protestant unionists cannot say it outside their own homes, church halls, Orange lodges, perhaps pubs and clubs, anywhere ‘the others’ might hear.
The growing Catholic share of the population is to be talked down, ignored.
The evaporating majority is felt as brutal fact, but denied. That denial underlies and perhaps excuses, certainly accounts for much in Unionist politics, lack of leadership and state of mind.
The Assembly election was a big frightener. The Westminster turn-up for the books was not a famous victory. Instead of voicing satisfaction at the DUP’s king-making, Unionists fret, primarily that Theresa May is a broken reed.
Criticism of the DUP’s ‘bung’ —as the London media mocked it with creationist and homophobic quotes for light relief —produced Protestant ‘hurt’ and ‘dismay’.
Under the headline “PM didn’t deserve vicious abuse… and we in NI shouldn’t be sneered at either” the Belfast Telegraph’s religious correspondent and former Queen’s University public affairs officer Alf McCreary wrote that he had never been a DUP supporter. ‘But I believe they – and the rest of us – have been sneered at dreadfully by London commentators who depict us as country bumpkins and political crackpots.’
Some who imagine their mindset is not predictable much less tribal were as hurt as the others, the openly-Unionist wounded.
Far from enjoying a moment in the sun, anxious Protestants saw May’s vulnerability and returned morosely to their Stormont dilemma.
Unionists appeared to like being back on the hill more than Nationalists, Republicans. But its lure seemed to gradually fade as Irish became the big sticking point. Now the Orange Order and Jim Allister are in full cry; defensiveness and bad temper rule.
There is half-spoken admission that Unionists have come badly out of this shared Stormont, from the start seen as a reward for terrorists, a non-British arrangement, now also an incubator of social liberalism. Direct rule is becoming a preferred option. Mightn’t it hook “the province “ back into the consciousness of “the mainland?”
A middle-class Unionist , reluctantly but solidly on board for the early peace process, marveled that Catholics made so much of Arlene’s crocodiles.
RHI and previous scandals had passed him by. ‘A nationalist song-and-dance’, he said angrily.
Another thought the Assembly’s possible inbuilt corruption on top of the Executive’s stalemate had diminished an efficient Foster, made her look unimpressive.
The fault, in other words, is not in Unionism but in the structure. In which the Unionist majority is no longer safe.
The overall verdict is that we are off to hell – or a united Ireland – in a handcart.
As if the unspeakable demographics aren’t scary enough Brexit is looming, its outcome unreadable. The conclusion is near-despair. Which republicans, it seems many believe, have engineered — or rather which has been designed, plotted and choreographed by the all-knowing, terrifying Gerry Adams.
Today’s mood is more like whistling past the graveyard. “It’s classic profound unionist insecurity, all shark-infested waters,” says a long-time Unionist specialist. “Theresa probably won’t last, Brexit — and Corbyn -—are out there, while Adams, the biggest shark of all, is cruising ever closer to the shore, with his Border poll, Irish unity etc. And nobody really knows what the next census will bring.
How Adams personifies the nightmares is what strikes another chronicler. ‘When he goes, what on earth will they do?’ Well, who knows. Not Unionists. But they won’t relax
Posted by Jim on September 19, 2017
- September 19th
Continue reading »