Posted by Jim on September 25, 2015
Ulster TV ( U.TV).Thursday, September 24, 2015
New Statesman magazine asked if he supported reunification in a question and answer session.
Mr Corbyn replied: “It’s an aspiration that I have always gone along with.”
However his comments have been branded “unhelpful” to the Northern Ireland peace process by DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson.
He has asked the party to clarify its position on the principle of consent.
Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, a united Ireland can only be brought about with the majority consent of people in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Mr Donaldson said: “Nothing Jeremy Corbyn says about Northern Ireland is going to be helpful or is designed to be helpful.
“What we now need is for the Labour Party to clarify its position on the principle of consent and Jeremy Corbyn needs to make clear whether he stands by the agreements made by Tony Blair which put the issue of consent at the heart of the constitutional arrangement in Northern Ireland.”
Jeremy Corbyn is a long-time supporter of the unification of Ireland.
In 1984, he met with Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams in London – a decade before the first IRA ceasefire – and a year later opposed the Anglo-Irish Agreement, saying it strengthened rather than weakened the border.
His shadow chancellor, John McDonnell apologised last week for previously saying that IRA members should be honoured for bringing the British to the negotiating table.
The Ulster Unionist Party, which has requested a meeting with Mr Corbyn, said it had been assured that Labour was committed to the consent principles when officials met shadow Northern Ireland secretary Vernon Coaker earlier in the week.
Tom Elliott MP said: “He was very clear that Labour is committed to the consent principle as set out in the Belfast Agreement.
“Indeed he has also been unambiguous in the House of Commons that this is the position. What we have here is a party leader who is out of step with his own party’s position.”
Sinn Féin welcomed the Labour leader’s comments.
A spokesman said: “Jeremy Corbyn has been a long time friend of Ireland and of the peace process.”
The SDLP said Mr Corbyn reflected their views.
Foyle MP Mark Durkan said: “Jeremy Corbyn is stating a view held by many in the Labour Party in regards to a united Ireland and one that reflects an aspiration of the SDLP.
“It has always been a key tenant in our party constitution and one that is based upon the principle of consent.”
Posted by Jim on
A delegation representing families of the Ballymurphy Massacre in 1971 will today meet with the Good Friday Agreement Committee in Dublin to discuss outstanding legacy issues affecting their quest for truth and justice for their loved ones. The families will tell the committee that delays and obstruction to the inquest process are unacceptable and impeding their right to truth and justice.
John Teggart, whose father Daniel Teggart was among those murdered by paratroopers and will lead the delegation to Dublin, said, “In 2011 the Attorney General, John Larkin QC, directed fresh inquests into the deaths of our loved ones after consideration of overwhelming new evidence submitted by our legal representative, including witness statements and new forensic evidence. Four years later we have yet to have these inquests heard. This delay has been caused by the wilful failure of the MoD and the PSNI to comply with their obligations to assist the inquest.”
Mr Teggart added, “The MoD have informed the Coroner that they cannot trace many of the soldiers involved in Ballymurphy. The PSNI also informed the Coroner as recent as the 31st July 2015 that the one member of staff assigned to our case had been reassigned to another case. Only after the threat of legal action was someone reallocated to our case. The delay has also been compounded by the under resourcing of the coronial system in the north of Ireland by the British Government and the Department of Justice.”
The families also had a message to the Northern parties, currently engaged in talks, “The Stormont House Agreement committed the Northern Executive to bring forward proposals to improve the inquest system. We call on this commitment to be fulfilled as a matter of urgency.”
Posted by Jim on September 24, 2015
from The Road to Rebellion by Mike McCormack
Tom Clarke, anticipating a war between England and Germany, returned to Ireland to organize another rebellion. John Devoy recommended him to the Supreme Council of the IRB which had grown inactive. The BBC website on the IRB notes: the key figure in purging its aging leadership was Thomas Clarke, a veteran republican. He succeeded in bringing a new purpose and vitality to the organization, so that it was able to exploit opportunities for insurrection when they arose. With his wife, Kathleen, they assisted in directing the pride inspired by the Gaelic Revival into a focused sense of militant nationalism. Clarke left his Manorville, Long Island, NY home in December 1907 and opened a tobacco shop at 55 Amiens Street in Dublin. As a parolee, he had to take a silent role in nationalist affairs or face re-arrest under the Offenses Against the Realm Act so he silently re-organized the IRB through men like Bulmer Hobson and Sean MacDiarmada.
By the General Election of December 1910, Liberals and Conservatives in the House of Commons were evenly matched, but Redmond’s Irish Parliamentary Party held the balance of power. They supported Asquith’s Liberals in return for another Home Rule Bill and the Parliament Act, which curtailed the veto power of the House of Lords. The Parliament Act stated that if a bill passed Commons twice, Lords could no longer veto it, they could only delay it for two years. The Parliament Act passed in August 1911 and in 1912 the third Home Rule Bill became the second to pass Commons. It would become law in 1914! Starting on 28 September, 1912 nearly 500,000 unionists signed a Solemn League and Covenant pledging to defy Home Rule by all means possible. The Covenant was authored and organized by Unionist MPs Edward Carson and James Craig. By January 1913, 232 Unionist Clubs across Ulster coalesced into the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) sworn to fight Home Rule.
In October 1913, Hobson and Michael ‘The’ O’Rahilly convinced Gaelic League Secretary and UCD Professor, Eoin MacNeill, to write an article in the influential League journal, An Claidheamh Soluis (Sword of Light), encouraging the formation of an Irish Volunteer Force to defend the implementation of Home Rule, just as the Unionists had done to oppose it. On 1 November, The O’Rahilly took over as editor of the paper and in the very next issue, MacNeill’s article The North Began and an article by Pearse entitled The Coming Revolution appeared. In his article Pearse stated: To every generation its deed. The deed of the generation that has now reached middle life was the Gaelic League – the beginning of the Irish Revolution. Let our generation not shirk its deed, which is to accomplish that revolution.
Clarke’s IRB had already begun drilling IRB men with the Dublin GAA led by Harry Boland. With MacNeill agreeing to take part, The O’Rahilly and Hobson arranged a meeting at Wynn’s Hotel in Abbey Street, Dublin, on 11 November, 1913 to discuss a formal organization with members of the Irish Parliamentary Party, the United Irish League, the AOH, the GAA, the Foresters, the IRB and others. At the same time, James Connolly was establishing his Irish Citizen Army in the aftermath of the lock out. They had similar aims, but no connection with the planned Irish Volunteers.
The Irish Volunteer organization was launched on 25 November 1913 to safeguard the implementation of Home Rule as a legislated right of Irishmen. Their first public meeting and enrolment rally was held at the Rotunda in Dublin. Five thousand enlistment blanks were distributed by IRB men each wearing a small silken bow, the center of which was white, with one side green and the other orange – colors introduced by Young Ireland and which the Fenians had adopted as a national banner. The hall was filled to its 4,000 person capacity, with another 3,000 on the grounds outside. Speakers included MacNeill, Pearse and young Michael Davitt, son of the Land League founder. The O’Rahilly was made Treasurer and Director of Arms and began to organize the arming of the Volunteers. In February they launched a 16-page weekly newspaper entitled The Irish Volunteer as membership began to grow across the country.
In March, 1914, Officers at the main British Barracks in the Curragh, Co. Kildare pledged to resign rather than fight the Ulster Volunteers and enforce Home Rule. The government did nothing about the mutiny, prompting thousands more recruits to join the Irish Volunteers. On 2 April 1914, Agnes O’Farrelly and a group of ladies founded Cumann na mBan (Council of Women) as a Ladies Auxiliary to the Volunteers to advance the cause of Irish liberty and assist in arming and equipping Irish men for the defense of Ireland. Ireland was becoming a tinder box and open conflict between the two Volunteer groups seemed imminent. On the night of April 24, the UVF smuggled 25,000 rifles and 3 million rounds of ammunition into Larne in Co. Antrim and to Bangor and Donaghadee in Co. Down. They had amplified the UVF’s fire-power while backing up their challenge against Home Rule. In July, Erskine Childers with his wife Molly and Mary Spring Rice smuggled 1,000 German rifles into Howth Harbor and distributed them to waiting Irish Volunteers. Another small arms shipment was smuggled into Kilcoole a week later by Sir Thomas Myles. Compared to the UVF, only a small number of the Volunteers were armed, even though they also had a variety of personal weapons and Lee Enfields which had been stolen from military and police barracks around the country. There were even pikes, daggers, bayonets and some bombs made from lengths of pipe, milk tins and jam jars. Though certainly insufficient to take on the British Army, the over-confidant Irish Volunteers felt ready.
Posted by Jim on
Brian Feeney.Irish News(Belfast). Wednesday, September 23, 2015
There are two aspects of the current impasse to notice. First, in contrast to pre-1998 crises this is a political problem rather than a security problem.
Time was when a crisis blew up and Unionists danced up and down, extra troops were flown in and there was what the NIO called ‘a security clampdown’. This current problem will be solved by the parties talking whether the Unionists like it or not.
Secondly and more important is the way the British government has handled the impasse. It’s very instructive. They did not give in to unionist amateur dramatics, ultimatums, hissy fits or walk outs.
Robinson likes nothing better than strutting into the hall in Stormont in front of the staircase and using it like a stage as he tries to make a drama out of a crisis. He has a special solemn voice for such occasions when for too long he has been able to get his own way. This time he and his bête noire, the political apprentice Nesbitt, got nothing, zilch, nada, unless you count a salutary lesson in political power.
Big mistake confronting Cameron with threats to bring down the assembly if the British government didn’t suspend it to cover Robinson’s embarrassment at being upstaged by mighty mouse Nesbitt. Cameron rebuffed him and ignored his ultimatum.
Robinson then tried to reduce the institutions to such chaos that the British government would step in. Cameron was pictured watching cricket at Headingley in Yorkshire. The message from London was, get into talks.
No, not unless the existence of the IRA is first item on the agenda unionists said. Dear, dear trying to dictate again. Old habits die hard.
By the end of last week Robinson was begging for a fig leaf to allow him to enter talks. Eventually our proconsul[Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers], note, not Cameron, provided it in the form of her panel to assess ‘all paramilitary activity’ not only wildly overblown stuff about the IRA.
Journalists immediately asked what was the point of the assessment since the PSNI, NCA and MI5 must know already? Answer: to provide cover however meaningless for Unionists.
The Unionist stance is even more incredible because the panel of three won’t report until the middle of October when the talks are due to end and the Stormont budget runs out. So much for solving ‘the problem of the IRA’ before anything else. Unionists wanted a monitoring group to operate continuously but the Irish government vetoed that, Charlie Flanagan saying it was a ‘once-off’. They got nothing.
Ironically a fund, tiny as it might be, to help deal with paramilitary criminality will only affect the Unionist parties’ mates, the men they share platforms with, the ‘community leaders’. Surely after all this publicity the PSNI will at least have to make a gesture about the UVF and UDA whom they regularly accuse of gangsterism?
Developing a strategy to deal with loyalist gangsters is obviously out of the question. Can you remember the leader of the UVF in Belfast, a household name, ever being arrested? Any houses of UDA leaders – household names –ever searched? That would be going too far. After the report of the panel the Unionists asked for it’s going to be impossible even for the PSNI to ignore loyalist criminality.
So if the British government’s response to the Unionist manufactured crisis is instructive what have we learned?
First, Robinson carries no clout at Westminster despite his eight MPs. The Irish government, a potential ally in Cameron’s renegotiation of terms with the EU, is far too important to alienate over a piddling problem Unionists here invented.
Second, Robinson desperately doesn’t want an election. The British know that now for sure. It’s not just his ill health and the fact he won’t stand again for the assembly or that many of his MLAs are briefing selected journalists against him.
It’s the fear that if the UUP win a couple of seats from fundamentalist flat-earthers as Danny Kinahan did in May and the UUP convinces voters they dislike sharing power even more than the DUP, then Sinn Féin become the largest party at Stormont.
Thanks to the genius negotiating of the DUP at St Andrews, Martin McGuinness then becomes first minister. Then the assembly collapses because Unionists won’t accept him.
Posted by Jim on September 21, 2015
A relative of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams is already into his third
week on a prison hunger strike over conditions in Maghaberry, it has
emerged.
Belfast republican Liam Hannaway began refusing food at the
high-security jail more than two weeks ago on August 31.
News of the hunger strike was only released this week after prison
authorities failed to respond to his demands.
Mr Hannaway was interned by remand following a raid on a meeting held by
the breakaway political party, Continuity Sinn Fein, in Newry in 2014.
Those arrested are currently being held alongside criminals in Bann
House, but have demanded to be transferred to the jail’s Roe House,
where political prisoners are held.
Other demands include the provision of all required medication and
proper medical attention to republican prisoners.
Supporters pointed to the plight of Sean O’Neill, a 76-year-old
republican veteran who was interned alongside Mr Hannaway, who has
endured degrading and inhuman treatment at the hands of prison warders
as he sought treatment for cancer of the bowel.
Mr O’Neill was forced to endure over 80 degrading and humiliating
strip-searches and was at all times handcuffed to prison screws when
leaving and again returning to Maghaberry prison.
Tragically, he was recently informed his cancer in terminal. He has now
been denied humanitarian bail to be with his family at this time.
SECOND HUNGER STRIKE
In 2010, after a previous arrest, Mr Hannaway first mounted a six week
hunger strike when prison authorities refused to allow him to serve a
sentence alongside other political prisoners.
That hunger strike has left him in a weakened state, according to the
Irish Republican Prisoners’ Dependants Fund (IRPDF). Since then he has
suffered from a range of medical problems including high blood pressure,
sleep apnoea and post traumatic stress disorder.
Mr Hannaway has lost 21 pounds in weight since starting his latest fast
and has been vomiting as his body struggles without food.
“To date he has not been seen by a doctor and has only been checked by a
nurse while on hunger strike he should be seen weekly by a doctor,” the
IRPDF said.
“His vomiting has stopped and he is very shaky but is in good spirits.
“The decision to go on hunger strike is not one that has been made
lightly and he is determined to see it through to its awful conclusion
if his demands are not met.”