Posted by Jim on July 10, 2016
“A plague on both your houses”
CAPITOL HILL. Sunday, July 10, 2016—— A prominent Irish-American leader has declared that the only moral and democratic position for anyone to take on the battle between King Billy of Orange and King James II is to wish both had lost.
In Ireland, mostly in The North, “The Twelfth,” (12 th. of July) commemorates the victory of the Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland in 1690.
Fr. Sean Mc Manus — President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus— said : “ I wish both sides had lost! The Catholic Irish owed King James II no allegiance, and the Protestant Irish should not have been supporting treason against their King, whose daughter was married to King Billy, for goodness sake. Not only that, but the Pope of that time ( whom the Protestants hated) was supporting King Billy. It was a squalid terrorist affair played out on the soil of poor Ireland, which lead to centuries of brutal anti-Catholic oppression, ethnic cleansing and genocide… And to compound the injury, the British powers that be named this period the “ Glorious Revolution.”
Fr. Mc Manus explained: “If people want to find appropriate language to say something about 1690, they should go back about one hundred years earlier to when Romeo and Juliet was written and borrow The Bard’s immortal words, “A plague on both your houses”— on both King James II and King Billy, scoundrels both. Now, there’s an Englishman, whom both Protestants and Catholics can celebrate— Shakespeare. Forget the other two terrorists, stick with a great Englishman.”
Fr. Mc Manus concluded: “Full disclosure: even though I am a native of Fermanagh —one of the Six Counties in Northern Ireland— and even though I know the history and culture well, I’ve never quite understood the mania for marching/parading in Northern Ireland. And, above all, it is impossible to understand the Orange Order’s pathology of insisting to march in poor Catholic areas where they are not wanted. How can rational people understand that without seeing it as a desire to assert Protestant dominance and supremacy? One thing is sure: if Catholic nationalists and republicans insisted on marching through all-Protestant areas, the Irish National Caucus would be the very first to oppose it.”
Fr. Sean Mc Manus
Posted by Jim on July 9, 2016
Sinn Fein has called on the Taoiseach to press ahead with a plan to
convene a national, all-Ireland forum on dealing with the fallout of the
British vote to leave the EU.
Despite being dismissed by DUP leader Arlene Foster, Sinn Fein leader
Gerry Adams said that three opposition leaders in the Dublin parliament
have expressed their support for a national Forum.
“There is clearly a consensus that maximum cooperation and coordination
is needed across the island of Ireland to meet the many challenges
arising from the Brexit vote,” he said.
He described the British referendum result as probably the “most serious
political and economic crisis to face this island in many years” which
was bad for the island of Ireland, North and South.
He said the idea of a national forum had been proposed by him to the
Taoiseach.
“In his response today the Taoiseach accepted that it was ‘a good idea’
and an ‘idea with merit’,” he said. “In this context the DUP rejection
of it must not be allowed to stand in the way of its establishment.”
Foster pointedly told a joint press conference following a meeting of
the North-South Ministerial Council (NSMC) on Monday that she had no
interest in the forum.
“With respect to the forum that seemed to gather steam over the weekend,
it wasn’t discussed with me over the weekend, or indeed before, and it
wasn’t discussed at the NSMC today,” she said.
The unionist hardliner said there were already “more than enough” bodies
and mechanisms through which the two administrations could co-operate.
“I don’t think there’s any mechanisms needed because we can lift the
phone to each other,” she said.
VILLIERS SAYS NO
The British Direct Ruler in the north of Ireland was also hostile to the
idea. Theresa Villiers said her government saw “no case” for the forum
and no need to add to the current structures.
Mr Adams was still positive about the idea, despite the rebuffs. “The
‘remain’ vote, like the referendum on the Good Friday Agreement in 1998,
uniquely brought together unionists, nationalists, republicans and
others in common cause,” he said.
“I also believe that there will be enormous goodwill for a Forum that
seeks to defend the North’s vote to remain and to protect the peace
process, the Good Friday Agreement, its institutions and the two
economies on this island.”
He said that Villiers should “butt out”.
“The Brexit vote – which Theresa Villiers campaigned for – presents
significant challenges for the people of the island of Ireland. Having
contributed to the current crisis Theresa Villiers has no right to
dictate to the Irish government and the rest of us how we should
respond.
“Ms Villiers lost the Brexit vote in the North. She should butt out. A
National Forum is the right approach for all the people of Ireland –
North and South, if we are to minimise the likely damage that Brexit
will bring with it.”
Sinn Fein MEP Martina Anderson said Villiers should follow the lead of
UKIP leader Nigel Farage and resign.
“The people of the north voted in favour of remaining in the EU and that
democratically expressed vote needs to be respected,” Anderson said.
“She has no legitimate claim to represent the best interests of the
people of the North on the EU and, as a result, her position has become
untenable.”
UNIONISTS ‘ON A VOYAGE’
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein appears to have inched away from its demand for an
immediate ‘border poll’ to be held within the Six Counties as a result
of the Brexit vote to take the North out of the EU.
Unionists and the British government have routinely rejected the idea of
a vote on reunification. But there have also been some within the two
nationalist parties at Stormont who argued that a low turnout by their
community, as has become the norm in recent Six County elections, could
backfire on them.
In an interview this week, Gerry Adams said he still thinks it was a
good idea to call for a border poll in the aftermath of the EU
referendum.
“There obviously is a challenge trying to get a majority in the north to
support us, but it’s a very legitimate demand and we will continue to
pursue it,” Mr Adams said.
He believes that for people in the North, the Brexit referendum was about
people’s identity, as well as economics.
“I’m not suggesting for a second that those who voted to remain from a
unionist perspective have become united Irelanders, they patently
haven’t. But they’re on a little voyage in the next two years, as these
negotiations go on,” he said.
Posted by Jim on July 7, 2016
Allison Morris. Irish News (Belfast). Thursday, July 7, 2016.
A week is said to be a long time in politics, but since the EU referendum results that old adage should be changed to an hour is a long time in British politics.
The Daily Telegraph cartoonist, Matt, a man surpassed in talent only by our very own Ian Knox, summed it up perfectly with a cartoon saying: “I’m studying politics. The course covers the period from 8am on Thursday to lunchtime on Friday”.
That cartoon is already out of date.
I went for a coffee on Monday and when I returned five minutes later Nigel Farage had stood down. Last Thursday I was watching Boris Johnson make his leadership pitch on Sky News and I dropped a pen, bent down to pick it up and by the time I looked up he’d already ruled himself out.
David Cameron didn’t even wait until the first shot was fired before he came out of Downing Street waving a white flag.
The amount of back stabbing, ladder climbing and dastardly, devious plotting at play over the last fortnight in both the Conservative Party and among members of the Parliamentary Labour Party in their clumsy coup against Jeremy Corbyn has been painful to watch.
Never have so many men appeared so spineless in so short a time.
But apart from the fact British politics seemed to attract gutless men, what have we really learned since Friday June 24?
Well, we know that the Leavers didn’t seem to have a plan beyond simply leaving. Their victory in sending the future of millions of people into a vortex of uncertainty seems to have taken them by complete surprise.
We don’t know what a post-Brexit UK will look like and although everyone has an opinion, no one really knows for sure. Closer to home and there are still no answers as to how the movement of goods and people across what will be the only land border between the ‘European Union and the UK’ will be controlled. For citizens of Northern Ireland, and more specifically those living in the Border regions, there are very real fears about what that will mean for agriculture and livelihoods in areas where some farms and family homes straddle both jurisdictions.
It also has repercussions for our own peace process and the Good Friday Agreement which is heavily reliant on and commits itself to complete incorporation into the European Convention on Human Rights. Plans to pull the UK out of the ECHR not only leaves massive holes in legislation that will take teams of lawyers years to plug, it also undermines the peace accord voted for in a referendum by the majority of the people on this island.
We now have one referendum which the majority of the people in Northern Ireland voted against undermining the principles of a referendum they voted in favour of.
And none of this is a surprise because those leading Brexiters, the people who pushed to bring us to this point of uncertainty, were vocally against the peace process.
What we do know for certain – and it’s the only certainty at this time – is that the Conservative Party is a nest of vipers who are loyal to no one, not even each other.
Michael Gove, one of the architects of Brexit, a man who politically stabbed his friend Boris Johnson in the back in the most public of ways, thought the peace process was a ‘capitulation’.
Civil servants and private negotiators are now to be tasked with trying to map out a way forward.
Politics has changed and not for the better. The brutal murder of MP Jo Cox has barely even been mentioned over this last fortnight. Racist incidents are on the increase and while the main men have gone running for the hills and well funded retirements, it seems that it will be a woman who will be left to lead a post Brexit Britain and clean up the mess made by a cacophony of men. Theresa May, a woman who wants to scrap the Human Rights Act, or Andrea Leadsom a former banker who hasn’t ruled out giving Farage a role in the EU exit negotiations. The future is far from bright.
Time to ‘take our country back’ cried the Leavers in the run up to the referendum. They got their wish only what’s left of their country in two years time may not be worth having.
Posted by Jim on
Connla Young The Irish News
THREE former RUC officers who investigated the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane are to sue the PSNI chief constable over failures in the police investigation.
The Irish News has learned that former CID officers, including Trevor McIlwrath, Johnston Brown and retired Detective Superintendent Alan Simpson lodged legal papers with the High Court in Belfast late last year.
The dramatic move comes as the family of the murdered human rights solicitor continue their campaign for a public enquiry into the murder 27 years ago.
The 38-year-old lawyer was shot 14 times by two UDA gunmen at his north Belfast home, in February 1989.
His widow Geraldine was also injured during the attack.
The former officers claim they were unable to solve the case, one of the most controversial of the Troubles, because RUC Special Branch obstructed their investigation.
Several of the people centrally involved in the Finucane murder were Special Branch and British army agents.
In September 2004 UDA man Ken Barrett, who was a Special Branch informer, pleaded guilty to his murder.
Solicitors for the former detectives claim “the foregoing loss and damage was caused and/or contributed to by the wrongful acts/omissions, neglect and default of the defendant.”
They claim that the “acts and/or omissions constituted a conspiracy by the use of unlawful means, misfeasance in public office, breach of confidence, defamation, malicious falsehood, breach of statutory duty and or the negligence of the defendant, their servants and agents in relation to that investigation”.
The basis of their claim is that the alleged omissions were incompatible with several articles contained in the European Convention on Human Rights, including the right to life.
Alan Simpson, the retired senior officer who headed up the Finucane investigation, said he has been left with a “deep sense of betrayal” that has stayed with him for the past 27 years.
“I have all of these terrorist organisations, I have the IRA, the INLA, the UFF, the UVF, the Red Hand Commando all doing murders in north Belfast,” he said.
“I do not need Special Branch coming up and organising one (murder) and then standing in a room with me keeping quiet and all the time knowing the true facts and leading me astray.”
Of his decision to take legal action he said: “I want some sort of satisfaction, some remedy in court”.
Mr Simpson, who served in the RUC for 36 years, claimed senior Special Branch officers, who he dealt with on a regular basis, knowingly withheld information from him during his investigation.
He also claims that within days of the murder he received a visit from one senior RUC man who advised him not to get “too deeply involved in this one”.
Mr Simpson said that three days after the killing a senior Special Branch officer visited his incident room but told him nothing even though it has emerged the officer knew everything about the case.
“Knowing from de Silva now, he knew everything about that murder, who was involved, how it was carried out. He stood there with his funeral face and as I have often said he had more loyalty to the UFF murder gang than he had to me.”
Mr Simpson also maintains that Special Branch provided him with a list of suspects – including the name of one who was in jail at the time of the murder.
“They sent me a bum steer,” he said.
In recent years the Finucane family has campaigned for a full independent inquiry into the murder. They were bitterly disappointed when in 2011 Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron reneged on a British government promise to hold an inquiry.
Instead, Mr Cameron asked British QC Desmond de Silva to carry out a review of material relating to the case.
In 2012 his report confirmed that state agents were involved and that it should have been prevented.
He also concluded that there was no overarching state conspiracy.
The Finucane family later rejected the review findings, branding the process a “sham”.
Last year a High Court judge ruled that Mr Cameron acted lawfully in refusing to hold a public inquiry.
The family has since appealed this ruling.
A solicitor acting for the three men last night said they felt they had not other option but to take legal action.
“There isn’t a forum for this narrative to be dealt with and heard, these particular ex officers have felt they have little if any option but to go down this legal route through a civil action,” Kevin Winters said.
“There is no other option as matters stand and any attempt to articulate what they have been through has been met with indifference or worse arrest.
“This litigation represents a challenging alternative narrative on collusion. Up until now it has not been articulated enough through the courts.
“For the very first time this case changes that.”
Posted by Jim on July 6, 2016
Friday July 8 vs. Rangers at 6:45pm
Sunday July 17 vs. Kerry at 1:00pm
Saturday July 23 vs. Mayo at 6:30pm
Come out and support the 2015 Champions in there quest for 2 in a row. Brooklyn Strong!!