Posted by Jim on October 8, 2016
The oration delivered by Francie Mackey, chairman of the Irish
Republican Prisoners Welfare Association, at the Hunger Strike
commemoration in Duleek organised by the Duleek Hunger Strike Monument
Committee on Saturday, 17th September.
As Irish republicans we know we are right. But we must equally know and
accept that we are not winning this struggle. To sacrifice your life
with the implicit trust that your comrades will fully utilise that
sacrifice to attain the ultimate objective can only be reciprocated by
the fullest efforts to do exactly that.
The Hunger Strike brought to a climax the role that the imprisonment of
PoW’s has on the overall Republican Struggle. The repressive confinement
forged a bond that became unbreakable despite the massive efforts of the
British establishment to do so.
One could argue that the Hunger Strike was the most defining republican
battle since the Civil War. For just like the Anglo Irish Treaty in 1921
the policy of criminalisation was a strategic British effort to
fundamentally undermine the sovereign legitimate basis of the republican
struggle itself.
The Five Demands were essentially a metaphor for Irish Independence.
This is what the ten republican and republican socialist volunteers died
for. There exists today on this island republican PoW’s in
incarceration. They exist because the British government, in connivance
with Irish allies, continues to violate our national sovereignty.
But the same unity of purpose that existed in 1981 does not exist today.
We need to address this. There can only be one national army and those
taken prisoner for its activities are national prisoners. The practice
of republican POW’s being somehow relegated to the status of a given
prison landing is a farce.
To claim that republican PoW’s are aligned to a given political or
welfare group reduces the national army to the status of a militia. To
have a policy of discrimination for the welfare of PoW’s families based
on what landing their relative or spouse reside on is an obscenity.
This entire approach represents a deeply flawed understanding of what
republicanism is all about and what the Hunger Strikes endeavoured to
achieve.
To claim to be a republican, to claim to honour the memory of the Hunger
Strikers carries with it an onerous responsibility. The Hunger Strikers
did not die for glory, let alone hollow homage. No matter where we stand
in their name we must give an account of ourselves in the most honest
terms. As of now this account is exceptionally weak and disunited.
Republican history is replete with examples of when republicans came
together in common cause to maximise the political effects of their
combined efforts. This being the Centenary Year of the 1916 Easter
Rebellion that event naturally comes to mind. But the Hunger Strike of
1981 is no less an example.
In an almost tragic irony, with the perceived differences we conjure
between ourselves, it was the British establishment who always viewed us
as one. And in doing so they treated us in kind. For the British,
Volunteers of the Republican Movement and the Republican Socialist
Movement were united in criminal intent against British interests in
Ireland.
And to extend this irony it was the unity of purpose between the
Republican Movement and Republican Socialist Movement which defeated
their policy of criminalisation within their prison system. This took
great effort and sacrifice. But it took unity of purpose first. Failing
to recognise this is a criminal dereliction in itself.
We cannot write the history of the Hunger Strike by looking back. Ours
is not an academic struggle. Events like the Hunger Strike and the 1916
Rising were the chapters of their time. We are now the authors of this
struggle in the here and now.
To begin this task there are certain realities we must face. Firstly, we
must adopt a concept of winning this struggle. We are not here to uphold
a tradition or praise glorious defeats. It is not our place to stand on
the coattails of previous generations and claim some form of apostolic
lineage to them. We are not here to bequeath our failures to the next
generation.
Secondly, although the core principle for which we struggle remains our
constant, the political environment in which we struggle for it, is
constantly changing. That means that republicans must adapt. Our message
must adapt. Our language must adapt and our strategies must adapt.
We have to abandon the fallacy of believing that simply being right is
enough. We need to stop deluding ourselves that by calling ourselves
something different it somehow makes us different, let alone relevant.
We must recognise that because the British presence in our country is
even more entrenched, all that has gone before has failed.
Thirdly, and crucially, we must take collective responsibility for the
circumstances in which Irish republicanism finds itself. And in so doing
we must recognise that a collective approach to addressing this is the
only viable way forward. Blaming others is not a solution.
A collective approach means a democratic approach. That requires us
sitting down as equals and mapping a way forward. In such a process
making our core message relevant to our people is key. For too long
republicans have looked upon the Irish people as mere spectators to the
struggle for independence. To struggle for the Irish people we must
struggle with them. An Irish Republic is not a monument to the dead but
a home of peace and justice for the living.
When we go into our communities our message must first and foremost make
sense. Communities which are suffering from discrimination, drug abuse
and debt exploitation are not in tune with the narrative of a green or
socialist utopia. In their lives they need solutions. The task for
republicans is to make our solutions at community level integral to our
national struggle.
This is the debate that republicanism must engage with itself. Our
identity should be sourced in the radicalism of our message and not in a
set of insipid initials. Through genuine comradeship and professionalism
we must create a radical policy platform that propels the core
republican message into modernity.
As Bobby Sands said, everybody has their part to play and this is no
less true for this necessary project. This policy platform cannot and
will not be developed by some backroom committee. The democratisation of
the Republican Movement is essential to its future progress.
Republicanism is not a spectator sport. It needs everyone to play its
part and to do so in unison with our fellow republicans, socialists and
social activists. The simple dynamic of allowing the better argument to
democratically prevail will serve us well. We have nothing to be afraid
of open and honest debate. We won’t have all the answers nor do we need
to.
This process has begun. The door is open. You are invited to step
through.
Beir Bua
Posted by Jim on
A large crowd turned out in tribute to the H-Block Martyrs of 1981 when
the 1916 Societies held their annual National Hungerstrike Commemoration
on Sunday last, October 2nd, in Galbally, County Tyrone.
Thousands travelled from across Ireland travelled to the republican
heartland, where a march and commemoration to the graveside of Volunteer
Martin Hurson was held for the ten men who laid down their lives on the
1981 hungerstrike, for their fellow prisoners, their ‘Five Demands’ and
ultimately for Irish freedom.
Local republican Noel McKeown chaired proceedings, which opened with a
song in memory of the hungerstrikers and a reading of the 1916
Proclamation in Irish.
Wreaths in memory of the hungerstrikers were then laid on the grave of
Martin Hurson, with Joe McNulty from Dungannon, who shared a cell with
Martin during the Blanket Protest, laying a wreath on behalf of ‘Friends
and Comrades’.
Tommy McKearney, a former Blanketman who himself endured the horrors of
H-Block and spent 55 days on hungerstrike in 1980, gave the main
oration, speaking of a need for republicans to challenge modern
imperialism, which continues to blight Irish society not only in the
north but across all of Ireland’s 32 counties.
Describing the Stormont Assembly as ‘a symptom of British imperialism’,
with the ‘shoneen parliament’ in the south ‘which trades on Ireland’s
sovereignty for its own narrow purposes’, he appealed for republicans to
‘take inspiration from the hungerstrikers and their legacy, which
continues to show for all the nobility of our cause – a cause we must
see through to the end’.
He told those gathered to “rally the forces” against British
imperialism.
Branding Stormont a “venial, futile, powerless institution”, he also hit
out at the Dublin parliament, which he said was “devoid of character”
and “trading on the sovereignty of its people”. In an attack on Sinn
Fein he told the men, women and children gathered that republicanism is
a cause “that stands above and beyond the selfish pursuit of self
aggrandisement”, adding that a “genuine republican” would “give what
they have without concern for personal safety, personal advancement or
personal career”.
“We are challenged to find the unity of purpose and bring together the
currents, forces and streams of people,” he added.
“We must rally the forces and rally the people that will break the
chains that bind us. We can do it and we will do it. We have the ability
and let there be no doubt this can be done.
“And where there is doubt let us draw inspiration from those not only
buried in this graveyard but the living who stand among and beside us
here today – you the republican people of Ireland, who have stood
fearlessly in the face of opposition and remain determined to accomplish
the Irish Republic for which so many gave of their lives, among them
Martin Hurson and his comrades who died on the hungerstrike.”
Posted by Jim on
An Orange Order parade which was forced through the Ardoyne area of
north Belfast last weekend has reopened the north’s biggest parading
dispute.
A senior Orangeman has hailed what he said was the “resolution” of the
Ardoyne parade standoff. He said it could offer fresh hope for a similar
deal over the Portadown parade, for years the cause of intense riots and
linked to a number of sectarian murders of Catholics.
Last Saturday morning, one of the north’s most contentious parades took
place amid a huge policing operation as the PSNI forced the
anti-Catholic Orange Order through a nationalist and republican
community in north Belfast.
Orangemen hailed the march as a victory for their three-year
intimidatory protest at nearby Twaddell Avenue, where there had been
frequent disturbances and occasional violence. The illegal three-year
camp had been maintain on government property by the paramilitary UVF,
but has now been removed.
Orangemen now believe a precedent has been set for a ‘return’ parade
along the nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown, 18 years after the
Parades Commission decided to ban it.
“It was great to see our brethren in north Belfast finally getting back
home at the weekend,” said Darryl Hewitt, Portadown District Grand
Master. “We are of course still looking to finish our return parade from
1998, but it will take a lot of goodwill on both sides before that can
happen. However, we have seen it happen at Ardoyne, so who knows.”
In a statement, the nationalist Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition said
they would reject any attempt by Sinn Fein to broker a similar agreement
in Portadown, and said renewed parade protests at Drumcree would be
insensitive.
“Since 1998, and particularly from the start of this millennium, the
rerouting of contentious marches away from the Garvaghy Road by the
Parades Commission has meant that our community – and the wider
community – has enjoyed successive peaceful summers,” they said in a
statement.
“Demanding to complete the 1998 parade is not only completely absurd, it
is also highly insensitive and demonstrates a continued refusal by the
Orange Order to assume any responsibility for the violent events
associated with Drumcree in the 1990’s.”
In nationalist north Belfast, while Orangemen celebrated, there was
anger that loyalist intimidation at the protest camp had been rewarded.
Although there was some relief that the loyalist camp was being taken
down, there was strong criticism for Sinn Fein’s support for an
agreement which saw them no longer oppose sectarian parades through
Ardoyne.
As he made his way once the parade had passed, local priest Fr Gary
Donegan was loudly condemned by members of the Greater Ardoyne Residents
Collective (GARC).
Fr Donegan, who controversially replaced the more activist local priest
Fr Aidan Troy in 2008 and had prominently supported the Orange parade,
was greeted by residents with chants of “shame” and angry
recriminations.
In an unrelated incident at the same location, a local journalist also
became embroiled in a verbal dispute with a local man. The exchanges
were caught on video and condemned in the mainstream media as an example
of the “thuggery” of the GARC, which it described as a “dissident”
organisation.
SDLP Assembly member Nichola Mallon described the scenes as “vile and
frightening”, while Sinn Fein’s Gerry Mr Kelly said it was a “disgrace”
that GARC members had barracked Fr Donegan, “the same man was up every
night for the last two-and-a-half years in the area trying to make sure
that no more of our young people would get caught up and enter the
criminal justice system.”
Kelly praised the local Crumlin and Ardoyne Residents Association for
their support for for the Orange Order march, and said it heralded a new
era for Ardoyne. “Now we have the potential to move forward. I want this
to open up many more good relationships,” he said.
There was inevitable triumphalism for the Orange Order. “It was a very
good weekend not just for the Orange institution, but the community in
Belfast,” said Rev Mervyn Gibson said the Assistant Grand Master. He
credited the loyalist protest with the breakthrough. “I think if you
hadn’t had the protest camp you wouldn’t have got the agreement, because
it would have been forgot about,” he said.
Posted by Jim on
British Prime Minister Theresa May has drawn comparisons to Margaret
Thatcher after she outright rejected Irish and Scottish concerns over
Brexit and moved to quash the right of Irish and other EU citizens to
live and work in Britain and the north of Ireland.
Signalling an unbending line in negotiations with the European Union,
she said the Brexit referendum in favour of leaving the EU was a
rejection, not just of the EU, but of the entire social and economic
order.
In a hard-right speech to her party’s conference in Birmingham last
weekend, she came out strongly in favour of the Brexit vote, which she
said was a vote not just to change Britain’s relationship with the EU,
but “a change in the way our country works – and the people for whom it
works – forever.”
In June, England and Wales voted in the referendum to quit the EU, while
the Six Counties of Ireland under British rule, and Scotland, voted to
remain.
May this week set a deadline of the end of March for triggering Article
50, to irreversibly begin the British exit from the EU. She also
declared that there would be no possibility for any of the “four
nations” — with the Six Counties implicitly identified as one ‘nation’
of the four — to prevent it.
“There is no opt-out from Brexit. And I will never allow divisive
nationalists to undermine the precious union between the four nations of
our United Kingdom,” she declared, without irony.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said she was “fanning the flames of
xenophobia and hatred in our communities and trying to blame foreigners”
for her party’s own failures. Scotland’s Nicola Sturgeon said May’s
speech and the policies she laid out were “the most disgraceful display
of reactionary rightwing politics in living memory”.
Opposition parties also said the Conservatives had shown themselves to
be racist and narrow-minded by calling for companies to make public the
names of non-British workers they employ, including Irish workers. And
for the first time ever, there are now questions over the immigration
status of Irish citizens living and working in the north of Ireland.
But Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP MP for Lagan Valley, welcomed the “clear
timetable” for Britain’s exit from the union.
“I do think we need to get on with it now,” he said. “Further
uncertainty and a further period where people don’t know what’s going to
happen, where there isn’t a negotiating process that people can focus
on, doesn’t help anyone. I think it’s good that we’ve got now a clear
timescale to move this forward.”
Ireland’s leading expert on Brexit warned Britain’s new hardline stance
on exiting the EU could bring a remilitarisation of the border between
the Six and 26 Counties.
“My worst fears have been realised. It is somewhat staggering what they
are doing in the UK,” said Edgar Morgenroth, a research professor and an
adviser to the Dublin government on Brexit.
“This hard Brexit line by London potentially imperils the Common Travel
Area. The British can decide to allow Irish people to travel to the UK.
They can do what they want. But we can’t reciprocate under the EU
rules.”
Any decisions on new policy with Britain will be taken collectively by
Ireland with the other remaining EU countries, he noted. He said he
believed a “soft border” is likely now out of reach because it is
incompatible with May’s plans.
“There is a lot of deviousness happening in their public statements from
the British side, saying that we want to maintain a soft border and then
doing the opposite. It is not consistent. They are trying to portray the
situation in a different way than it really is,” he said.
The Dublin government has announced that it is setting up a civic
dialogue to be held in Dublin, on November 2nd. It will involve
political parties, business groups and non-governmental organisations
from both parts of the Ireland, although the DUP has said it will
boycott it.
This week, the High Court in Belfast heard evidence that Brexit will
have a “catastrophic” impact on the peace process in the north of
Ireland. Lawyers for the father of a loyalist paramilitary murder victim
warned Brexit would cause constitutional upheaval and demands for a
united Ireland.
Referring to the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, Ronan Lavery QC
said: “A change so profound as withdrawing Northern Ireland from the
European Union requires the consent of the people of Northern Ireland.”
Sinn Fein is one of the parties to the legal challenge. It is also
organising protests at Brexit in border areas, from Derry to North
Louth, as part of the ‘Border Communities against Brexit’ umbrella
group.
Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein’s deputy first minister for the Six
Counties, said Britain was facing a “head-on collision” with the EU over
Brexit, and suggested the north of Ireland was likely to be “collateral
damage”. He predicted that the London government’s demands in
negotiations with Europe would not be met, making it less likely that
Brussels will let the open border remain.
“We have all been concerned for some time at the direction the
government is going to take,” he said. “It is very disturbing.”
Posted by Jim on
Victimsâ rights campaigner Raymond McCord, who is challenging
the constitutional authority of the British government to take
Northern Ireland out of the European Union.
File photograph: Matt Kavanagh/The Irish Times
Gerry Moriarty. (Belfast). Thursday, October, 2016
Executing Brexit would be an âact of profound legal and constitutional as well as political significanceâ for Northern Ireland, Belfast High Court was told on Thursday.
In the final day of the three day judicial review, a lawyer challenged the argument made by lawyers for the British government and the Northern Executive that quitting the European Union would have no impact on the 1998 Belfast Agreement.
David Scoffield, QC, who is representing a group of politicians and human rights groups, said that the âNorth-South machineryâ of the agreement was âdesigned and required to implement EU policies and programsâ.
That would make âno senseâ if Northern Ireland was no longer a member of the EU, said Mr. Scoffield. In winding up his argument, Mr. Scoffield said that the triggering of Article 50 by the British government to begin taking the United Kingdom out of Europe would be an âact of profound legal and constitutional as well as political significance.â
Mr. Scoffield referred to how Tony McGleenan, QC, acting for the British government, had argued that after the EU referendum result, the âship had sailedâ in terms of Brexit. Mr. Scoffield said, however, the ship âhas not sailedâ until Article 50 was triggered.
He contended that it was for the Westminster parliament, rather than the British prime minister by ministerial prerogative power, to activate Article 50 as is scheduled to happen by the end of March next year. âArticle 50 once it is triggered, there is no way back as far as Northern Ireland is concerned,â he said.
Mr. Scoffield is representing a cross-political, cross-community group that includes the SDLP and Alliance leaders, Colum Eastwood and David Ford, former Sinn FeÌin Minister John OâDowd, Greens Assembly member Steven Agnew, former Progressive Unionist
Party leader Dawn Purvis, the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) and the Human Rights Consortium.
âMake position knownâ
Mr Scoffield also contended that the Northern Ireland Office and the Northern Secretary James Brokenshire <http://www.irishtimes.com/search/search-7.1213540?tag_person=James%20Brokenshire&article=true> must speak to the interests of Northern Ireland. âThe Northern Ireland Office must take a position on whether Brexit is good or bad for Northern Ireland and make its position known to the Westminster government,â said Mr Scofffield.
He added that Mr Brokenshireâs role âwas to speak for Northern Irelandâs interests and to do so he must be properly informedâ.
A number of legal challenges to the Brexit vote are also taking place in Britain. These could be relevant to the ultimate determination of High Court <http://www.irishtimes.com/search/search-7.1213540?tag_organisation=High%20Court&article=true> judge Mr Justice Maguire <http://www.irishtimes.com/search/search-7.1213540?tag_person=Mr%20Justice%20Maguire&article=true> who is hearing the case. He said the court was likely to reconvene at a later stage.
Good Friday Agreement
Victimsâ campaigner Raymond McCord, whose son Raymond junior was murdered by the Ulster Volunteer Force <http://www.irishtimes.com/search/search-7.1213540?tag_organisation=Ulster%20Volunteer%20Force&article=true> in 1997, is also a party to the judicial review.
His lawyer Ronan Lavery <http://www.irishtimes.com/search/search-7.1213540?tag_person=Ronan%20Lavery&article=true>, QC, argued that as a result of the Belfast Agreement, Northern Ireland has special constitutional status within the United Kingdom.
He said that when the British and Irish governments endorsed the Belfast Agreement of Good Friday 1998 they signed up to the people of Northern Ireland having a âvetoâ over any change to the constitutional position of Northern Ireland.
Taking Northern Ireland out of the EU without consent would breach that veto, he contended.
Outside the court on Thursday, Mr McCord said he was âdelightedâ with the way his case had proceeded and he believed his legal team had presented a strong constitutional case.
âI believe the court has the power to say that Brexit canât go ahead in Northern Ireland,â he said.
Mr McCord said that 56 per cent of people in Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU and that vote must be respected. He took his case on behalf of his son and on behalf of other victims, he said.
âI think justice is better served by being in the European Union. Europe has helped victims of this country and has helped people to come together as well,â he added. âI donât believe the British government would help victims the way Europe has.â