Posted by Jim on April 29, 2017
An official statement by the European Union that it will accept a future
united Ireland into the EU has been cautiously welcomed by republicans
as bringing international diplomatic recognition for impending Irish
unification.
A special EU summit on Brexit is taking place this weekend in which the
European Council will agree guidelines for Brexit negotiations. The
first draft of these guidelines was strongly criticised for its
inclusion of a tract of ambiguous and aspirational language in regard to
Ireland, without referring to specific protections or a special status
for the north of Ireland, while Spain was handed a simple veto over any
development in relation to the British colony of Gibraltar.
However, there were international headlines for reports this week to
confirm that European leaders have no objection to a future Irish
reunification bringing the Six Counties back into the EU. In the event
of reunification, the North will be treated the same manner in which
East Germany became part of the EU in 1990 when it united with West
Germany.
The British government has also said it has no objection to the idea,
which has never actually proven controversial. However, it is being
lauded as a signature diplomatic achievement of the 26 Taoiseach Enda
Kenny as he prepares to step down from his post next month, and the
statement is being referred to in the Irish media as the ‘Kenny text’.
The statement may also lead the way for a similar EU stance on Scotland,
a more controversial proposition as it would boost other independence
movements across Europe, such as Catalonia and the Basque Country.
Strikingly absent from these early reports, however, is any indication
of progress in clearing the way for special status for the Six Counties,
a move seen as key to preventing militarised and embattled border
checkpoints from returning to the Irish countryside.
Special status would give the North access to the single market and
customs union, with freedom of movement of goods, people and services.
But so far, Dublin officials have only confirmed the draft conclusions
will make reference to the “specific needs” Ireland faces in the
aftermath of Brexit.
Dublin’s Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe
promised references will be made to the movement of people, the Border,
the peace process and the 1998 Good Friday peace Agreement. There is
also an effort underway to ensure continued EU funding for various
schemes and projects which have helped to sustain the Six County economy
in recent decades.
However, the 26 County administration has refused to release the details
of its negotiating priorities. Instead, media briefings have sought to
generate a general sense of diplomatic achievement for Enda Kenny as as
a ‘soft landing’ for the departing Taoiseach.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams warned the 26 County government was engaged
in a spin campaign rather than a proper effort to negotiate the terms of
Britain’s departure from the EU.
Mr Adams welcomed what he said appeared to be the government’s attempts
to achieve amendments to the EU guidelines, although he warned “it might
be too little, too late”.
“The Taoiseach has failed to set out the Government priorities in a
consolidated paper, as he promised in March. He has also failed to
publish what amendments, if any, he will seek to the negotiations
guidelines.
“Instead, there has been a deluge of spin about what the government is
doing. What it should be doing is seeking a political declaration from
the European Council in its negotiation guidelines in relation to
securing designated special status for the North within the EU.”
He added: “After Britain leaves the Union, we believe that no agreement
between the EU and the British government should apply to the north of
Ireland without agreement of both governments as co-guarantors of the
Good Friday Agreement – an international treaty.”
Despite efforts by Fine Gael to promote Kenny’s ‘legacy’ as he prepares
to step down as Taoiseach, Mr Adams said the Taoiseach’s input to the
negotiations had fallen “far short of what is both required and
expected”.
“The Taoiseach has a seat at the table. He will be in the room when
decisions are taken. He has a responsibility to argue strongly for
designated special status for the North within in the European Union.”
Posted by Jim on April 26, 2017
Dylan Thomas, 1914 – 1953
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Posted by Jim on
Coalition could topple Nigel Dodds’ North Belfast seat
by Andrew Madden
25 April, 2017 01:00
Topics DUP
Electoral Pact
General Election
Nigel Dodds
north Belfast
SDLP
Coalition could topple Nigel Dodds’ North Belfast seat
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said he wants to cooperate all other pro-remain parties to maximise the anti-Brexit vote. Mal McCann.
THE perennial unionist seat in north Belfast could be in jeopardy for the first time in June’s general election, as nationalist and remain forces consider an electoral pact.
Neither the SDLP nor Sinn Féin have ruled out forming a coalition in an attempt to return an anti-Brexit MP in the constituency – one where nationalists were less than 200 votes shy of unionists in last month’s assembly election.
On March 2, SDLP and Sinn Féin’s candidates garnered a combined total of 17,635 first preference votes compared to the DUP, UUP and PUP’s 17,780.
In June’s referendum vote, the constituents of north Belfast voted to remain within the EU by a narrow margin of just 284 ballots, while Northern Ireland as a whole voted to remain in the EU by 56 to 44 per cent.
Furthermore, the Green Party has stated that they are open to the idea of an anti-Brexit alliance with the other pro-Remain parties, which, going by last month’s result could mean several hundred extra votes for any such coalition in North Belfast.
Since 2001, the MP for the area has been the DUP’s deputy leader Nigel Dodds, a staunch Brexiteer.
North Belfast has never failed to a return unionist candidate since the seat was was created and the 2015 election saw Mr Dodds top the poll with just over 19,000 votes thanks to a unionist pact.
Second place belonged Sinn Féin stalwart Gerry Kelly with 13,770 ballots, followed by the SDLP’s Alban Maginness with 3,338.
When asked whether the SDLP would join forces with Sinn Féin, a spokesperson said the party’s leader Colum Eastwood had “opened the debate” on forming an anti-Brexit alliance.
“This would be a new initiative aimed at setting traditional differences aside with a view to maximising the pro-Europe vote,” he said.
“Fifty-six per cent of people here voted to remain, we should not return more pro-Brexit MPs. Discussions have not yet reached constituency level detail.”
Likewise, a Sinn Féin spokesperson said the party is eager to maximise the anti-Brexit, anti-austerity, and pro-rights vote, however no firm decisions had been made as of yet.
“Michelle O’Neill invited the other party leaders to meetings today to discuss that,” the spokesperson said.
“These are preliminary discussions and we are exploring the possibilities of achieving a progressive alliance in this election. Those talks will continue over the course of the week.”
Speaking after the meetings, Mr Kelly said: “We met with the other parties today to discuss ways to maximise the anti-Brexit, anti-austerity, pro-rights vote”.
“These are preliminary discussions and we are exploring the possibilities of achieving a progressive alliance in this election and those talks will continue,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Green Party also began talks with other pro-remain parties yesterday and they are expected to conclude meetings today, after which they are to outline their position.
Posted by Jim on
Irish Central Staff
April 18, 2017 05:35 AM
How much do you know about the flag that represents the Republic of Ireland?
The Irish flag (Bratach na hÉireann) – also known as the Irish tricolor – was flown publicly for the first time during the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848, on March 7, in Waterford City, at the Wolfe Tone Confederate Club. It was flown by Thomas Francis Meagher, then a leader of the Young Irelander movement, who would go down in history as Brigadier General Thomas Francis Meagher of the Union Army during the American Civil War.
While here in the US Meagher is best remembered for his role as a General in the Union Army and Governor of what is now Montana, his impact on Irish history and patriotic pride was also immense.
When Meagher hung the tricolor in Waterford, it boldly flew for eight days and nights until it was taken down by the British.
Meagher and his fellow Young Irelanders had been inspired by the 1848 revolutions across Europe. In April of 1848, a contingent of them traveled to France to congratulate the rebels there on overthrowing King Louis Philippe I. There, Meagher was presented with an Irish tricolor woven out of French silk.
Upon returning to Ireland, he, in turn, presented it to the Irish people, explaining the symbolism of the flag’s three colors. “The white in the center signifies a lasting truce between the orange and the green,” he said, “and I trust that beneath its folds the hands of the Irish Protestant and the Irish Catholic may be clasped, in generous and heroic brotherhood.”
The green represents Irish nationalism; the orange, Ireland’s Protestant minority, and the Orange Order; the white, lasting peace between the two.
For his role in the 1848 rebellion, Meagher was tried for treason and sentenced to death, but this sentence was commuted to banishment to Van Diemen’s Land in Australia. He would later escape to a new life in the United States.
While the tricolor had gained traction as a symbol for Ireland until the Easter Rising of 1916 the primary flag of Ireland was green with a harp in the center (the harp remains as Ireland’s national symbol; Ireland is the only country in the world that has a musical instrument as such). That flag was used as early as 1642, by Owen Roe O’Neill, an Irish soldier, and leader of the O’Neill dynasty.
During the Rising, both flags were flown above the GPO, the headquarters of the rebels, and the tricolor became more widely accepted.
After the Rising, it was adopted by the IRA during the Irish War of Independence (1919 – 1921), was a symbol of the Irish Free State from 1922 – 1937, and then, when the Irish constitution came into law later that year, it was confirmed as the official flag of Ireland by Article 7, which reads: “The national flag of Ireland is the tricolor of green, white and orange.”
Today, the tricolor is a symbol of Irish pride and remains an important reminder of the peace that has been achieved and the progress that has yet to be made.
Throughout 1916, which, in addition to marking the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising also marks 100 years since the tricolor emerged into the popular imagination, the Irish Defense Forces and the Thomas F. Meagher foundation are working to ensure that the history of the flag is better known.
In the lead up to the 1916 centenary, every school in Ireland received an Irish flag. In post-primary schools, the Thomas F. Meagher foundation presented the Irish flag. In primary schools, the flag was presented by a member of Ireland’s defense forces, who educated the students on the flag’s story, its meaning, and proper care.
Posted by Jim on April 23, 2017
Donal Cam O’Sullivan Beare, a giant of Irish history.
As an ally of Hugh O”Neill and therefore of the Cineal Eoghain this is the story a man who suffered greatly at hands of the Elizabethan war machine and who, faced with extermination, had no choice but march the remainder of his clan North through the length of Ireland in mid winter.If you are Cineal Eoghain and you meet an O”Sullivan from these parts of Cork, shake their hand and feed them well!
Donal Cam O’Sullivan Beare, Prince of Beare, 1st Count of Berehaven (Irish: Domhnall Cam Ó Súilleabháin Bhéara) (1561–1618) was the last independent ruler of the O’Sullivan Beara sept(from the Beara Peninsula in Cork), and thus the last O’Sullivan Beare, a Gaelic princely title, in the southwest of Ireland during the early seventeenth century, when the English crown was attempting to secure their rule over the whole island.
Donal’s father was killed in 1563, but he was considered too young to inherit and the clan leadership passed to the chief’s surviving brother Eoin, who was confirmed by English authorities in Dublin with the title Lord of Beare and Bantry. To consolidate his position, Eoin accepted the authority of Queen Elizabeth I of England and was knighted. In 1587 Donal asserted his own claim to leadership of the clan, petitioning Dublin to put aside Eoin’s appointment with a claim derived from English laws based on absolute male primogeniture. These laws did not recognise age as relevant to inheritance rights. Keen to extend English legal authority over Ireland, the Dublin commission accepted Donal’s claim. He now became The O’Sullivan Beare, head of the clan.
By 1600 Munster had been devastated by battle, and the Gaelic clans lost over half a million acres (4,000 km²) of land to settlers from England following the defeat of the Desmond Rebellions. As a result of this in the lead up to the Nine Years’ War O’Sullivan kept his distance from the rebel cause, but in time he joined a confederation of Gaelic chiefs led by Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone and Hugh Roe O’Donnell of Ulster. Conflict had broken out in 1594, and O’Neill secured support from Philip II of Spain. The Spanish sent a force under the command of Don Juan D’Aquilla in 1601. O’Sullivan wrote to the Spanish king in submission to his authority, but the letter was intercepted by the English. In early 1602 the allied Irish and Spanish forces met the English at the Battle of Kinsale and were utterly and unnecessarily defeated.
O’Sullivan resolved to continue the struggle by taking control of the castle of Dunboy. In June 1602 English forces attacked Dunboy and the castle fell after a vicious siege. The entire company of 143 defenders was killed in combat or executed. Donal himself was absent from the siege of Dunboy, having travelled to Ulster for a conference with Hugh O’Neill. His letter to Philip left him with little hope of a pardon from the English, and he continued the fight with guerilla tactics.Later, after the fall of Dunboy Castle, Donal Cam battled on, seizing at least six castles around West Cork.
He concealed 300 of the women, children and aged of his community in a stronghold on Dursey Island, but this position was attacked, and the defenders hanged. In what was later termed the Dursey Massacre, Philip O’Sullivan Beare (c.1590-1660; nephew of Donal Cam O’Sullivan Beare) wrote that the women and children of the Dursey stronghold were massacred by the English, who tied them back-to-back, threw them from the cliffs, and shot at them with muskets.
After the fall of Dursey and Dunboy, and by the winter of December 1602, Donal Cam and his followers had reached Glengarriff. They had stationed there for the winter, when Wilmot, leading the crown’s forces, attacked and seized Donal Cam’s 4,000 cattle and 2,000 sheep. With starvation and extermination now a real prospect O’Sullivan Beare, Lord of Beara and Bantry, gathered his remaining followers and set off northwards on a 500-kilometre march with 1,000 of his remaining people, starting on 31 December 1602. He hoped to meet Hugh O’Neill on the shores of Lough Neagh.
On the 31st, O’Sullivan began a march out of Glengarriff and with him he had 400 soldiers and 600 women, children, and servants. Their haste was so desperate that they had only one day’s provisions. On the second day of the journey the convoy was attacked from the rear as they crossed a ford near Liscarroll by a party of pro-English Barry’s from Buttevant. Four O’Sullivans were killed before the ambushers were driven off.
The convoy continued north over the Galtee mountains and through Tipperary. They suffered frequent attacks from their enemies but were successful in driving them off. During this part of the march, O’ Sullivan’s wife had to give her 2 year old son into the safe-keeping of a servant. This servant was able to escape and afterwards get the child safely to Spain.
On the ninth day of their trek the convoy, closely pursued by their enemies, crossed the Shannon near Portland in north Tipperary. They used the skins of a dozen horses to make curraghs and they carried the flesh for food. As they crossed the river they were attacked by Donough Mc Egan, the sheriff of Tipperary and the MacEgans of Redwood Castle, who tried to throw some of the women and children into the river. O’Sullivan killed the sheriff himself and the pursuers fled leaving many dead. They had to fight at Donohill in O’Dwyer’s country, where they raided the Earl of Ormonde’s foodstore.
Their journey now took them through O’Kelly lands and here they had to fight many skirmishes. They also raided the villages in the search for food.
At Aughrim the O’Sullivans were attacked by a large force of English. They managed to defeat them and killed their captain Henry Malby. After this as they advanced northwards and were barred entry at Glinsk Castle, County Galway, by the Burkes and they were harried by MacDavid Burke who did not want them on his lands.
Escaping from Burke the ever diminishing band came to the forest called Diamrach, or loneliness. Here the local people were friendly and supplied them with food. It must be remembered that this was the depth of winter and that by the time they reached the Curlew mountains the snow was falling heavily. Hunger and the cold, as well as their pursuers, were taking their toll on the diminishing band. They crossed the mountains on foot, those able to, had to carry the less able on their backs.
Fourteen days after he had led his convoy of 1,000 followers out of his own land, Daniell O’Sullivan reached the territory and protection of the O’Rourkes of Breffeny. Only 35 of them entered Leitrim Castle. Later a few more would drift in but the vast majority had fallen to their enemies, hunger and exposure.
On their arrival at The O’Rourke’s castle in Leitrim on 4 January 1603, after a fortnight’s hard marching and fighting, only 35 of the original 1,000 remained. O”Sullivan had fought a long rearguard action northwards through Ireland, through Munster, Connacht and Ulster, during which the much larger English force and their Irish allies fought him all the way. The march was marked by the suffering of the fleeing and starving O’Sullivans as they sought food from an already decimated Irish countryside in winter.
Most had died in battles or from exposure and hunger, and others had taken shelter or fled along the route. O’Sullivan Beare had marched over 500 kilometres, crossed the Shannon in the dark of a midwinter night (having taken just two days to make a boat of skin and hazel rods to carry 28 at a time the half-kilometre across the river), fought battles and constant skirmishes, and lost almost all of his people during the hardships of the journey.
In Leitrim, O’Sullivan Beare sought to join with other northern chiefs to fight the English, and organised a force to this end, but resistance ended when Hugh O’Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone signed the Treaty of Mellifont. O’Sullivan, like other members of the Gaelic nobility of Ireland who fled, sought exile, making his escape to Spain by ship.
(The Beara-Breifne Way long-distance walking trail follows closely the line of the historical march.]
When he left Ireland, Cornelius O’Driscoll and other Irish knights helped him and his clan. In Spain O’Sullivan Beare was welcomed by King Philip III. His princely status was reconfirmed, and he received a commission as an imperial general. His nephew, Philip O’Sullivan Beare, was important in this regard and his 1618 disquisition in Latin, A Briefe Relation of Ireland and the diversity of Irish in the same was influential.
In 1618, O’Sullivan Beare was murdered just as he was leaving Mass in the Plaza de Santo Domingo in Madrid. The murderer was John Bathe, a Dublin Englishman who had been disfigured in a duel by the prince’s nephew, on account of some arguments between Bathe and O’Sullivan; it is likely that the man was manipulated by the English Crown as an assassin and spy because of his old grievance.
The O’Sullivan Beare enjoyed a wide reputation, which helped to open doors for later soldiers from his line. About 165 years later, John Sullivan, regarded as a descendant of O’Sullivan Beare, served as a general in the American Revolution.